Good reads – 10/26

The reading matter is piling up but I’ve made a dent in my TBR lists and found several good reads.

Politics: The New Yorker ran two excellent profiles, one on Joe Biden and one on his Republican counterpart with solid reporting on how each came to their respective ticket. Time took a look at why Obama is winning but also had the most compelling read of the week, in a year when race and politics are overtly intertwined – it’s the story of running water as a racial issue in a small Ohio town. Far more lighthearted is a look at what telephones the major candidates would be if they were phones. And Hitchens came in from the cold to endorse Obama and as usual, I envy the way he writes.

Life and Culture: A few weeks ago I read a powerful poem by blogger gentledove that has stayed with me. She’s quite a talent and the poem is called I Will Daughter You. At the Times of London I read about a startling archaelogical find – the spot where Caligula was murdered. Anti-union Walmart is still at it, in Canada again, where earlier the company closed an entire store rather than accept collective bargaining. Please try shopping at K-Mart instead. Please. And speaking of shopping, I’ve long wondered about the geeky aspects of the shopping channels, ie: who has the lowest return rate, who has the highest average purchase? I ran across the answers and believe me, I was surprised.

Fun Stuff: I used to work with a guy who, in typical Boomer fashion, considered his wife’s pregnancy to be the first in recorded history. The morning after the baby was born, he passed out chocolate cigars and handed around a picture of the baby taking its third or fourth breath. Ever. So we all oohed and aahed as you do, even though most kids in the first minute of life look like a raisinette and his was no exception. Then he reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a cassette tape and said, “I recorded the birth. Want to hear it?” No surprise that we all declined. All of that is a very long way of saying I hadn’t thought of him in ages until I saw this cartoon. Also fun online, a LEGO replica of Bible Spice, wink and all. If you’d like to be her for Halloween, ehow will explain how to make the costume. Without going to Saks. And what is probably my favorite video of this entire election cycle is Palin and the Chipmunks, which I posted on my Obama blog. The Ta-daa! at the end always makes me giggle.

Photo of the week: I love long-exposure photography that catches the movement of things that don’t seem to be moving. The Milky Way was photographed with a 30-second exposure and the result is amazing.

Tagged as: Good reads