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Post by bb2 on Nov 28, 2021 20:24:05 GMT
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Post by richardsok on Dec 2, 2021 11:53:39 GMT
I continue my occasional dabbling in great literature when I can steel myself up for the effort. This time I tackled Edith Wharton's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE.
My verdict: In a word: pure, high class Chick Lit
OK, I get the ironies, the subtle hints and unspoken doubts and suspicions, the beautifully crafted prose. A+ all of it. But face it: Newland Archer is a twit. Consider: he's engaged to a true, willowy beauty; sweet, gentle, generous, dutiful, admired by all men and welcomed by all women in highest society. OK, so she lacks imagination and has settled perfectly into her life and her class without complaint or neurotic bitchiness.
So, of COURSE Newland takes her for granted and yearns for her cousin Ellen, the tragic, exotic wife fleeing from a depraved Polish Count.
And Wharton -- for all her insight and talent -- hasn't a clue about the role young, hot male lust played in wooing & marriage before The Pill.
AGE OF INNOCENCE is a fine novel. Maybe even a great novel. But Wharton takes her characters too seriously. Jane Austen treated the theme of high class wooing and marriage better, because she created her world with a twinkle of good-natured merriment.
And that final scene: ridiculous. After 30+ years apart, here's widower Newland finding himself in Paris and invited to dinner with his never-consummated lover (because she nobly refused to betray his wife, her cousin May.) OK, father and son arrive at the building, but Newland refuses to enter. He sends his son upstairs instead. Newland parks hisself on a conspicuous park bench right in front of the house, and STAYS there. Does the son return to fetch dad upstairs? Does Ellen sweep down to tenderly -- even poignantly greet Newland stuck on his bench? Nope and no.
Instead, after an hour or so outside (refusing to attend the dinner) he just gets up and shuffles off to Buffalo -- and we're supposed to swoon at the moment's delicacy.
Like I said: a twit.
-------------------------
Save time. See the movie. Winona Ryder's worth the watch.
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Post by Chahta on Dec 2, 2021 13:06:13 GMT
OK, so I will throw my $0.02 in about reading. I like plain old murder, suspense, mystery novels. My deviation from these novels is specific history written by Bill Oreilly. I have read all "Killing" books and have learned a lot historical on certain topics. I don't read for "learning" necessarily (I used to read my mechanical engineering society journal to fall asleep). It is escape and fun I am after. I only like to read hardbacks so I buy new ones at Costco and I buy used ones from the local hospital gift shop for $1, but only buy excellent condition books. I have books that are back from the 90s purchased this way that I never would have discovered. Stuart Woods only writes studly (no wussies allowed) books. Read a 1968 Michael Crichton book, A Case of Need, bought from the gift shop.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 2, 2021 19:52:42 GMT
I have a hard time wading through novels. The very detailed, descriptive scenes in which the entire room is laid out before me; the particular details of what someone is wearing. The weather outside. ORK.
If I want to know about a place in detail like that, I'll look at pictures. I like to catch up with stuff I allowed to "get past me" when I was younger. Politics, history. Or current social arguments. I find I'm leaning to the Right, more and more. Certainly not "Alt-Right." Still a Bernie fan. But I DID enjoy Ken Follett's espionage books. "Pillars Of The Earth" was just too huge to even lift. I refused to even go near it.
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Post by bb2 on Dec 2, 2021 21:01:53 GMT
A friend recommended Follet's Pillars to me because I read history of that time and love modern and medieval construction. All was in place but I also appreciate good writing and Follett whiffed on that. SOO predictable. Just terrible writing. Richard Ford is a fav of mine. Start with the The Sportswriter.
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Post by richardsok on Dec 2, 2021 22:48:09 GMT
OK, so I will throw my $0.02 in about reading. I like plain old murder, suspense, mystery novels. My deviation from these novels is specific history written by Bill Oreilly. I have read all "Killing" books and have learned a lot historical on certain topics. I don't read for "learning" necessarily (I used to read my mechanical engineering society journal to fall asleep). It is escape and fun I am after. I only like to read hardbacks so I buy new ones at Costco and I buy used ones from the local hospital gift shop for $1, but only buy excellent condition books. I have books that are back from the 90s purchased this way that I never would have discovered. Stuart Woods only writes studly (no wussies allowed) books. Read a 1968 Michael Crichton book, A Case of Need, bought from the gift shop. So it's blood you want? Suspense, you say? And you want to be gripped right from the first page? Two books are waiting for you, Chah; they're right up your alley and I bet they're at your local library and free. First, Eric Larsen's THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY. Hannibal Lector was a wuss. You ain't gonna get more grisly or terrifying than this. And it all really happened. The second is Tim O'Brien's THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, the greatest book ever to come out of Vietnam. Try the chapter "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong". Seems there's this base up in the central highlands. On one end are Special Forces; scary guys who go out AT NIGHT and pretty much keep to themselves. On the other end is a small medical unit, corpsmen who do emergency triage for wounded who are choppered in when hospitals are too far. Perimeter security is handled by an ARVN company. It's usually pretty quiet. The medics spend most of their time hanging around, playing cards and volleyball. One of them mentions one day, "This would be a great tour if only we had some women," which gives someone an idea ...... Lastly MAN EATERS OF TSAVO by J Patterson. True history of a pride of lions that terrorized villages in Kenya for months. Heckuva read.
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Post by johntaylor on Dec 5, 2021 22:31:07 GMT
Was mostly at LZ Tombstone, but O'Brien's book was good.
One of the best books about the war preceded it -- Fall's Street Without Joy.
Had Pentagon types read it before Vietnam, much could have been learned from the French debacle.
Another of his books, Hell in a Very Small Place, should also have been required reading.
Like so many others, Fall was killed on La Rue Sans Joie.
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Post by retiredat48 on Dec 6, 2021 4:05:44 GMT
IMO top doc guru re pandemic is former FDA commissioner Dr Scott Gottleib (also on Pfizer board)...I taped his almost daily input on CNBC Squawk Box segments. Great calls...much better than Fauci.
I got Gottleib's new book "Uncontrolled Spread"...(subscritped: why Covid19 crushed us and how we can defeat next pandemic).
But I have not found the time to read it!
R48
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 8, 2021 20:45:00 GMT
In case you want to re-visit them: FREE on YouTube, "with ads." (But my adblocker is doing its job.) A couple of Sean Connery films: "The Hunt For Red October" and "Medicine Man" with Lorraine Bracco, who played Henry's wife in "Goodfellas."
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Post by bb2 on Dec 8, 2021 21:21:42 GMT
Yes! Timothy O'Brien. And don't stop at "The things They Carried". "Going After Cacciato", also excellent. And more.
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Post by richardsok on Dec 14, 2021 23:02:24 GMT
I always liked Sandra Bullock and the roles she's played. Whether rom-com, (The PROPOSAL), undercover cops (MISS CONGENIALITY), sci-fi (GRAVITY), drama (PREMONITION, BLIND SIDE), the gal has made a LOT of flicks, and throughout her career, she's always had “that thing”. It's not sex-appeal per se, but more of a wholesome and good-natured one-of-the-boys thing – the sort of tom-boy frat-house sweetheart every guy liked, but didn't quite hit on. She was too good as a pal. Well she's out with a new flick on Netflix UNFORGIVABLE and it's a gem; a dark, gritty tragedy where she plays a down-at-the-heels ex-con, just released from a women's prison for a terrible crime and trying to put pieces of her life together.
As plot unfolds, you feel something is somehow “off” with her tough-but-vulnerable character. You think you understand her situation, but you don't – and when the 'twist' arrives, it's least expected, and changes everything like a slap in the face.
An honest story; masterfully developed plot and dialog. See it.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 14, 2021 23:28:14 GMT
"And now for something completely different." ---Monty Python. Jamie Cullum, the "Gran Torino" theme song guy. He finishes with that one. Just discovered a 2010 concert in Paris. Such talent and energy. This is just about exactly an hour. Everything from his own compositions, to Cole Porter to Jimi Hendrix. Wow. www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2Ja1anTJEc
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 20, 2021 4:28:27 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2021 8:02:31 GMT
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Post by richardsok on Dec 20, 2021 17:12:33 GMT
In case you want to re-visit them: FREE on YouTube, "with ads." (But my adblocker is doing its job.) A couple of Sean Connery films: "The Hunt For Red October" and "Medicine Man" with Lorraine Bracco, who played Henry's wife in "Goodfellas." Thanks. Have never seen Medicine Man and always liked Bracco; something quirky & fiery about her, but sexy as hell. Always loved that scene in Goodfellas when she fearlessly shows up by surprise to confront Henry on the street in front of his low-rent mob pals for standing her up on a date. Had an interesting life in France before Goodfellas. Didn't know she & Harvey Keitel were an item until an explosive and expensive breakup. She'd be a great ex-girlfriend, if she didn't shoot you first.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 20, 2021 19:41:23 GMT
In case you want to re-visit them: FREE on YouTube, "with ads." (But my adblocker is doing its job.) A couple of Sean Connery films: "The Hunt For Red October" and "Medicine Man" with Lorraine Bracco, who played Henry's wife in "Goodfellas." Thanks. Have never seen Medicine Man and always liked Bracco; something quirky & fiery about her, but sexy as hell. Always loved that scene in Goodfellas when she fearlessly shows up by surprise to confront Henry on the street in front of his low-rent mob pals for standing her up on a date. Had an interesting life in France before Goodfellas. Didn't know she & Harvey Keitel were an item until an explosive and expensive breakup. She'd be a great ex-girlfriend, if she didn't shoot you first.Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee. BTW, another that comes to mind, FREE on Youtube, is one of my two favorite romantic comedies: "Moonstruck." Complete with the music from my favorite opera: La Boheme. Cher, Nick Cage. Vincent Gaedenia, Olympia Dukakis. Danny Aiello. Edited to make correction: "Moonstruck" is no longer FREE. (Shit.)
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 20, 2021 20:08:36 GMT
" Cat On A Hot Tin Roof." Re-make, a Lawrence Olivier production, 1976. Olivier plays Big Daddy--- the Burl Ives character. Natalie Wood is in Eliz. Taylor's part. Robt. Wagner is in Paul Newman's part. Not impressed with him, here: he just looks overly glum. "Painted-on" distressed facial expression. (Putting aside all the unanswered questions about the death of Natalie Wood.) Maureen Stapleton plays Big Momma. And Natalie Wood? She was TO DIE FOR. "I'd eat miles of her s***, just to see where it came from." I think the earlier production was better. But hey! It's FREE to watch. YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcabzKAQ94&list=PLyMSG-Q0Oh8cr6AG1jbptCGW5P6n-_Szz&index=43
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Post by chang on Dec 20, 2021 21:42:34 GMT
" Cat On A Hot Tin Roof." Re-make, a Lawrence Olivier production, 1976. Olivier plays Big Daddy--- the Burl Ives character. Natalie Wood is in Eliz. Taylor's part. Robt. Wagner is in Paul Newman's part. Not impressed with him, here: he just looks overly glum. "Painted-on" distressed facial expression. (Putting aside all the unanswered questions about the death of Natalie Wood.) Maureen Stapleton plays Big Momma. And Natalie Wood? She was TO DIE FOR. "I'd eat miles of her s***, just to see where it came from." I think the earlier production was better. But hey! It's FREE to watch. YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcabzKAQ94&list=PLyMSG-Q0Oh8cr6AG1jbptCGW5P6n-_Szz&index=43Saw the play with Ned Beatty on Broadway many years ago ... very powerful.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2021 22:45:57 GMT
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Post by richardsok on Dec 20, 2021 23:18:56 GMT
Awfully good list, frank. Thank you, especially the thoughts on living through the older years via Cicero.
Tom Wolfe addressed a similar theme in his masterful A MAN IN FULL, dramatizing how should a man live his life, especially when everything is falling apart -- through his own fault? He draws his inspiration from Epictetus and the ancient Stoics. It's a massive read (over 700 pp) but one you hope never ends. At times, similar in theme to Michael Douglas in FALLING DOWN. One of the top twenty books I've ever read. Yes, in my life.
I'm up to my armpits in Niall Ferguson's WAR OF THE WORLD, but I'll give your HOW TO GROW OLD a look-see when I can.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 21, 2021 3:23:02 GMT
Hey, Frank. Thanks. That all looks like really good shit. Glad for your contributions here.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2021 5:38:30 GMT
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 21, 2021 6:23:15 GMT
Babette's Feast is brilliant. Downright INSPIRED. We watched it as part of a theology class on the sacraments. Another great one re: food, with a great twist at the end: Eat Drink Man Woman. (Ang Lee.) www.imdb.com/title/tt0111797/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2
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Post by johntaylor on Dec 21, 2021 22:40:08 GMT
Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
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Post by richardsok on Dec 21, 2021 23:59:55 GMT
Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Funny you should mention ASCENT OF MONEY, John. I borrowed the CD audio version from my local library and am right now working my way through it whenever I'm in the car.. Ferguson is a masterful historian. At home I'm reading his WAR OF THE WORLD, which I will review later. ASCENT OF MONEY is equally good. One item: I'd always understood that summer of 1914 was the sweetest season in living memory, but with a faintly ominous background of imminent war, giving the perfect summer days and evenings a vague but unreal air of uncertainty. In fact, nothing of the kind. It turns out the ruling classes were sure that the world had become so interconnected and inter-dependent that a long, large war was unthinkable if not impossible. The powers would be bankrupt in weeks, so the universal thinking went. Turns out the massive bond market anticipated nothing of the coming calamity. Hardly moved even when the Archduke was shot. Prices suddenly began collapsing only when Austria gave its final ultimatum. The British stock market was closed for weeks. Bonds of Germany/Austria/Turkey never recovered, of course. Surviving holders were wiped out.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Dec 23, 2021 19:59:13 GMT
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Post by Majick on Dec 24, 2021 16:41:01 GMT
Hi Guys, I just read the review of Professor L. Kotlikoff new 2022 book "Money Magic"... Btw, Title is Interesting! Thanks. Majick --------------------------- KOTLIKOFF: CONVENTIONAL INVESTMENT ADVICE IS ‘BAIT AND SWITCH’ DECEMBER 23, 202120 SHARE: “Conventional investment advisory is dangerous to your financial health. The whole exercise is bait and switch. These people are selling snake oil,” argues Laurence Kotlikoff, the Boston University economics professor who served on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors, in an interview with ThinkAdvisor. Kotlikoff blames firms that “force” financial planners to sell products, which, when coupled with giving advice, is “a major conflict of interest,” he holds. Nor does the professor spare criticism of the Federal Reserve, which is spouting “largely cheap talk” about inflation — “and the market, by and large, is drinking the Kool-Aid,” he maintains. As for the Fed’s said intent to sell back into the marketplace the assets it purchased, Kotlikoff asserts: “The Fed is very clever in disguising what they’re doing. It’s trying to keep [us from] understanding what it’s up to” about printing money and selling those assets. He continues: “I’m not totally sure what’s really associated with printing money to pay [our] government’s bills and how much is dedicated to portfolio transactions.” The bestselling author’s new book is “Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life” (Little Brown Spark, Jan. 4, 2022). It contains what the professor calls “tricks” and “shockers” to help investors to a rosier financial future and life. One of his many provocative secrets: “How to Make Divorce a Win-Win.” In contrast to conventional financial planning, Kotlikoff’s advice pivots on economics-based planning, which focuses on consumption smoothing. The professor, named by The Economist one of the world’s 25 most influential economists, is director of the Fiscal Analysis Center and has been a consultant to the International Monetary Fund. In the interview, the Social Security expert, co-author of the bestseller “Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security,” argues that the U.S. is “bankrupt on a fiscal basis” owing to its excessively high debt. He then outlines a proposal for getting the country’s “fiscal house in order.” The former consultant to Merrill Lynch and Fidelity Investments, among other firms, noted that conventional financial planning’s emphasis on the probability of retirees’ running out of money is “ridiculous.” “The magnitude of the downside,” he says, is what “people really care about.” Here are highlights of our Dec. 21 conversation: THINKADVISOR: In your new book, “Money Magic,” you say: “Conventional investment advisory is dangerous to your financial health. It recommends patently absurd financial behavior.” Please elaborate. LAURENCE KOTLIKOFF: Conventional advice is based on a Monte Carlo simulation that assumes four things that no intelligent person would do: No.1: Put savings before retirement on autopilot. No. 2: You’ll be able to set a target for how much you spend in retirement that’s exactly correct. If you can’t come up with a spending projection, you’re given this replacement rule that’s correct for nobody and generally far too high for most. No. 3: The methodology assumes you’ll keep spending exactly the same amount no matter what happens to your assets and to the demographics of your household. No. 4: The focus is on the probability of success; [that is,] not running out of money. But it isn’t focused on the impact of any of this on your actual living standard — the downside — and that’s what people really care about. No. 5: People never adjust their portfolio even if their stocks go down the tubes. All this is simulating crazy behavior. Why did it become conventional advice, then? The value of the whole exercise is just [for FAs] to convince people: “Hey, invest with me. You’re going to do better.” That’s a bait and switch. It’s baiting people by getting them to go along with a set of assumptions that are wacky and inappropriate and then saying, “If you do it my way — invest with me in my high-yield investments — yes, you’ll have a higher load, but it’s going to pay for itself.” That’s the switch — the product sell. These are people selling snake oil. What are the implications? The advice that Wall Street is conveying is not independent of their vested interest in selling product. They’re conflicted, and that’s a major problem. They shouldn’t be giving advice if they’re selling product; they shouldn’t sell product if they’re giving advice. Are you referring to financial advisors across the board? It’s not that I have a gripe with financial planners, per se. They, in general, are being forced to use tools in product sales from the company they’re associated with. They don’t have any choice. Where does FAs’ knowledge and savvy about investing enter the picture? They apply their common sense to what these tools [indicate] and give the best financial advice they can, given the crappy tools they’re taught to use. So my beef isn’t with them. It’s with TIAA and other major companies that are using this methodology. I’ve spoken to the TIAA board and president about the problems within that methodology and made it crystal-clear that it’s very dangerous for people — that it’s all connected with selling products.
There’s no response, except: “It’s working for us. Let’s keep at it.”
Moving on to the problem of rising inflation: What are your thoughts?
It’s partly the bottlenecks, the supply chain issues. But it’s also that there’s no tethering of information to any particular policy of the Fed.
It’s largely cheap talk: It’s good just till it isn’t good.
The Fed is telling people, “Hey, we’re going to be able to keep the inflation rate low through time.” And the market, by and large, is drinking the Kool-Aid. ------------------------ www.propertynews4u.com/kotlikoff-conventional-investment-advice-is-bait-and-switch/
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Post by shipwreckedandalone on Jan 3, 2022 21:01:53 GMT
Peyton and Eli on MNF ESPN2 tonight.
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Post by richardsok on Jan 7, 2022 19:38:03 GMT
Theodore Dalrymple is one of my favorite columnists & authors. Here, in one of my favorite websites, he comments on Germany's progress in shutting down its nuclear power plants while still burning filthy brown coal for 25% of its energy. www.takimag.com/article/learned-stupidity
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Jan 9, 2022 20:48:32 GMT
Anne Garrels. "Putin Country." 2017. She was an ABC on-camera reporter. More time with NPR. Lots of time in Russia. Has friends and an apartment there, in a medium-sized, formerly CLOSED city in the Urals regions, because of nuclear/military goings-on there. The book is straightforward, hard-hitting. Very readable, presented as discreet vignettes. The corruption is systemic. If you don't give-in and pay-up, we'll intimidate you and threaten your family. Or you might just end-up dead. It all begins with scumbag Putin. If you disagree with official policy, just don't ever EXPRESS it. (Which is what is happening these days in Hong Kong, too. Damn shame.) Everyone is caught in the web. The "government" is a criminal tong of frikkin' GANGSTERS. At all levels. www.npr.org/2016/03/16/470660134/putin-country-offers-a-glimpse-inside-real-russia
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