GIZMOS: The K20Z3 Life in the Strtosphere

The K20Z3__this engine lives between 6000rpm and 8200rpm. When it hits the 8200rpm rev limiter an up shift of the six speed manual brings it right back down into the power band at 6000rpm and off it goes again howling like an banshee. This engine loves to be thrashed, it's nonplussed when pushed to its red line and begs for more. This thing is actually happy at 8000rpm and so is the driver, the fun factor is high. It has little torque and major zing when kept above 6000rpm. Below 6000rpm it runs like an economy car engine__it has a major Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality. I know the delights of the low end grunt of a V8, I have driven many, but with this engine life is lived in the stratosphere. And did I mention the exhaust note_sounds like an F1 race car__seriously, try one. One draw back__life in the stratosphere can become tiring. Honda dropped this engine into the Civic Si, but it should also be used elsewhere__a K20Z3 in every driveway.

BOOKS: The Snow Leopard

In honor of the release of Apple's Snow Leopard__In the 1978 book, "The Snow Leopard, "the Snow Leopard," one of the world's most elusive and beautiful animals is celebrated in a loving Buddhist meditation by naturalist writer Peter Matthiessen. Written in exquisite prose and careful detail the book follows Matthissen's quest to the Dolpo region of the Himalaya Mountains to be one of the first humans since the 1950's to see the animal in the wild. Does he succeed? No plot spoilers here, but the journey along the way turns into an adventure of self discovery and exploration of the beauty of nature and life. Meant to be read slowly and savored this book is shot through with metaphor and mysticism. In the vain of Henry David Thoreau the book operates on many planes both spiritual and material and it is fascinating to see how an American intellectual of that time was fascinated with Buddhist thought. The book has dated views on anthropology and politics and is a litany of Matthissen's personal problems and how he used the quest to solve them. However the beautiful prose and the descriptions of the Himalaya mountains make it a worthwhile read.

BOOKS: The Wilderness Warrior

In the winter of 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt rushed into the White House cabinet room. He was obviously agitated and all eyes were on him. Everyone leaned forward waiting, bracing themselves for bad news. "Gentlemen do you know what happened this morning?" Everyone took a breath and waited. "Just now I saw a chestnut-sided warbler and this is only February." Roosevelt had just had one of his many bird epiphanies and everyone sighed with relief. He was an avid ornithologist. The cabinet should have known such scenes were common with Roosevelt a great lover of nature and the outdoors. Douglas Brinkley in his magnificent new biography, "The Wilderness Warrior Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America," chronicles this love of nature and Roosevelt's crusade to save the American Wilderness. In a series of executive orders Roosevelt saved such U.S. treasures as the Grand Canyon, the Devil's Tower, and the Petrified Forest. On a single day in 1908 he created forty- five national forests. Roosevelt saved entire species from extinction, the buffalo, the manatee, the antelope, egrets and the elk, yet he had another side, a blood lust to kill the big game that he championed. Myth says that he would not shot a baby bear__ the truth __ it was an adult bear that he ordered to knifed. Brinkley explains this behavior as his belief in triumphal Darwinism. This book is a colorful and detailed look (940 pages) at Roosevelt's naturalist achievements and adventure's__a must read for Roosevelt fans.

OBSERVATION: Vitolophila

A world of art exists that most don't know about. The world of Vitolas__Vitolas are an esoteric source of fine art, especially appreciated by the Cubans. Vitolas are the band around cigars that differentiates brands. Every ring is a work of art and painters put there best work into these bands. The subject matter is similar to that of stamps and may include politicians, patriots or important events, but many of the subjects chosen are broader and deeper, often containing a wish to last in time. Essentially vitolas are a form of beautiful lithography. The first printer of vitolas was Anton Bock a European immigrant to the United States. Originally the bands were meant to cover the fine thread that holds the filler, but developed instead into an art form. Vitophila is a lover of vitolas, a collector, a connoisseur and there are many especially in Cuba and Latin America. There is also a Cuban Vitophilic Association. However not much is written in English about vitolas, it's best to have a firm grasp of Spanish here and remember only a barbarian would burn the vitola when he smokes a cigar__ take it off and examine it carefully. Someone put a lot of work into it.

BOOKS: Stonewall in the Valley

The Shenandoah Valley is a unique American experience__the Virginia wilderness, a place where the geography has formed the character of its inhabitants, a peculiar American character. This is geography as a distilled essence of the American spirit__strong, independent. This spirit is in the land, the trees, the valley, the mountains. For 150 miles from the Potomac to the James River lies the Shenandoah flanked by the Blue Ridge on the east and the Alleghenies on the west. No one knows the origin of the name; there are some guesses: Maybe Native American for: "River Through the Spruces' or "Beautiful Daughter of the Stars". No one knows for sure. Young George Washington roamed here and formed his character that would form a nation. In 1862 Major General Thomas "Stonewall Jackson" used the Valley to thwart the wild plans of General George McClellan to invade Richmond by sea thus bringing a quick end to the civil war. It never happened, Jackson using the Shenandoah stopped his plans. Stonewall in the Valley: Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign Spring 1862." tells that story. This campaign has long fascinated civil war buffs as to how Jackson with a significantly out numbered force outwitted and defeated Union Army generals. Jackson through deception and a series of brilliant victories convinced Lincoln and the Union generals that he had a much larger force sitting in the Shenandoah that could threaten Washington D.C. Fifty-five thousand troops were held back to protect Washington. Troops much needed for the success of McClellan's invasion of Richmond. McClellan's plan collapsed. The union of course would eventually prevail of course, but Jackson's campaign remains a fascinating study in ingenuity and inventiveness. Robert Tanner gives a detailed account here taken from never before published sources. He covers both the battles and the character of the man who tried using the geography of the Valley to save the confederacy.

BOOKS: Stones of Venice

Venice has always attracted writers__Henry James, Byron, Mann, Proust, Balzac. It inspired lofty prose from Byron in particular, "I saw from out the wave her structures rise. As from the stroke of an enchanters wand. A thousand wings their cloudy wings expand around me...where Venice sate in state throned on her hundred isles." Most writers as well as painters, seduced by the city, swelled up into a romantic ardor of praise and adulation. But it was the particularly unromantic John Ruskin, the 19th century art critic, who wrote the most influential book about the city, "The Stones of Venice" a detailed three-volume work on Venetian art and architecture__ a sober critical appraisal of the cities Gothic and Byzantine styles. Though sober and critical words__ these are glorious words__fine writing written in a florid Victorian style. Ruskin was passionate about the city, and infused the work with a fine tuned passion and critical appreciation not touched upon by other authors. Most tourists to Venice in the 19th and early 20th centuries clutched this book as they traveled through the city's buildings and churches. It's a guidebook in a sense. Ruskin was also a social critic who believed that architecture could not be separated from morality, especially the Venetian Gothic, which he saw as the highest form of art. Other books of interest: "Death in Venice", by Thomas Mann, "Massimilla Doni," by Honore Balzac

MUSIC:Lark Ascending

In 1914 the guns of August shattered the tranquility of Europe. The peace crafted at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, by master diplomats, Talleyrand, Metternich and Castlereagh, had lasted nearly 100 years. So skillful were their accomplishments that several generations of Europeans had know only peace. War was unimaginable. The continent lay in a lazy restful serenity. Within three years 25 million would die, casualties to a harsh and brutal trench war. An entire generation of young men decimated__ those left disillusioned. Trying to evoke the essence of this prewar serenity and naivete composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, in 1920 wrote the doleful and tonally rich poem, "Lark Ascending,". Williams especially tried to portray with music the English countryside, its beauty and its tranquility on the eve of a terrible slaughter__ in no fewer than 22 years Europe would be at war again.

OBSERVATION:Heirlooms

It's ugly, but tastes good. Often shunned in the supermarket because of its homely looks the heirloom tomato is often the best tasting on the shelf. This ugly fruit with its bumps and bulges and sickly color stands as the last bastion of resistance against the attack of the hybrids. The hybrids so pretty, so red, so round and large__ all looks and no taste, a plastic tomato. The heirlooms are natural and have been around for hundreds of years__ they are grandpa's tomatoes and their seeds have been protected from the hybrids and passed down from generation to generation. Some belong to certain individuals or families, others have been commercially grown, and still others have been cross pollinated to create even uglier, but better tasting varieties. One is called: "Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Beater,"because in 1930 its creator "Charlie the Radiator Repairman" was able to pay off his mortgage by selling it to his neighbors. Thomas Jefferson grew Heirloom tomatoes in his garden at Monticello from 1809 to 1826. Heirlooms today are increasing in popularity as people discover they actually taste like a tomato especially in the winter. Hmm__looks aren't everything.

BOOKS: Alexandria Quartet

During the first half of the twentieth century Alexandria, Egypt was a glitteringly sophisticated and breathtaking place, the home to an exotic variety of people that drew their energy and life from the Mediterranean, but it also was a place that at times was suffocatingly evil. The city seemed to have a life of its own, seemed to be alive, seemed to have its own personality. In a dazzling series of novels, "The Alexandria Quartet," Lawrence Durrell brings the the reader into Alexandria in a tone poem of beautiful language, and intensity of description. Here the city is central and shapes the lives of the characters. Durrell describes it as, "a thousand dust-tormented streets. Flies and beggars own it today and those who enjoy an intermediate existence between either. Five races, five languages, a dozen creeds...Long sequences of tempera. Light filtered through the essence of lemons. An air full of brick-dust__sweet smelling brick dust and the odour of hot pavements slaked with water." Durrell is a marvelous wordsmith and looks intensely at life. This novel is an immersion in sensuous and enticing words . The Alexandria Durrell describes doesn't exist anymore, a World War and political changes have molded into something different forever, but Durrell here captures a brief moment in time when Alexandria was intoxicately beautiful.

BOOKS: Dandelion Wine

"Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with the spices of a million flowers."__ writes Ray Bradbury, in his introduction to "Dandelion Wine" capturing perfectly the essence of his book__So how do you put into words the excitement of being a boy? Ray Bradbury hits it spot on in his 1957 autobiographical novel, "Dandelion Wine." Bradbury's beautiful and evocative prose ties together a series of short stories that capture the wonderment of a boyhood. A summer of magic that can only be fired by a "boy's imagination" and thirst for adventure. In other words: it's fun to be a boy and most men can remember that__ boyhood that time of life when everyday things have a wondrous structure and life seems a boundless series of adventures and curiosities. Bradbury is skillful in recreating this and Dandelion Wine serves as the metaphor for putting all the joys of a boy's summer into a single bottle. He puts it this way: "Counting boxcars is a prime activity of boys. Their elders fret and fume and jeer at the train that holds them up, but boys happily count and cry the names of the cars as they pass from far places." This book is nothing less than a 12 year old boy discovering he is alive. In 1971, the Apollo 15 astronauts paid homage to this boyhood sense of wonderment that they experienced as boys and then relived when they walked on the moon, by naming a moon crater "Dandelion Crater."

MUSIC:Bach Mass in B minor

Bach's Mass in B Minor is considered the supreme achievement of Western music. In scope, majesty and intention it has no equal. Yet for many it remains an aloof piece, a work hard to penetrate and understand. A piece of music not fit for an age of syncopated beat and simplistic melody. But all the greatness and grandeur of the Mass is there to discover, especially in a newly re released 1996 recording by Belgian composer Phillipe Herreweghe. The Mass in B is an acquired taste, a great intellectual musical enterprise that takes effort to learn and follow. The reward__ listening to it actually develops the faculties of mind needed to grapple with the it. The more you listen the more it scrubs your soul until finally you realize that the music has moved you one notch up into a realm you never visited before. The Mass in B took Bach a lifetime to compose and assemble. It wasn't performed in its entirety until more than 100 years after his death. Herreweghe's recording is just right and beautifully paced yet not exaggerated, a performance probably very close to Bach's intentions. The best aspect of all is that Herrewehe's recording can be had on itunes or amazon for $7.99.

BOOKS: Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-1945

In WWII 103,000 Americans sacrificed their lives to defeat Japan. In 1944 and 1945 the Americans crept slowly across the Pacific in a series of costly battles that brought them ever closer to the Japanese mainland. But the Japanese simply would not surrender and invasion "Downfall" of the Japanese mainland was planned. Estimates were that there would be 1 million America casualties. In this book, Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-1945, British historian Max Hastings takes a look at whether Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to achieve a Japanese surrender. New evidence suggests that the Japanese may have surrendered if they were given assurances that the emperor and monarchy could remain. Hasting's concludes otherwise: "The myth that the Japanese were ready to surrender anyway has been so comprehensively discredited by modern research it's astonishing that some writers continue to give it credence." But much else can be draw from this book. It takes a unique perspective. Hastings is a writer that tells the story from the ground up, giving a soldiers view of the war and combining this with thoughts and plans of the generals. The result a much fuller picture of what the war in the Pacific was like. In 1945 my father waited on the island of New Guinea to be apart of that invasion. I am glad he wasn't.

SECRET REPORT: Spy vs.Spy

The cold war is over, but the battle between Spy vs. Spy, one of the bitterest rivalries in history, still rages in three newly republished books ,"Spy vs. Spy Danger! Intrigue! and Stupidity!, " "Spy vs. Spy Missions of Madness," and "Spy vs Spy Masters of Mayhem" . Who are these guys? The premise simplicity itself__two spies one white one black try to kill each other in increasingly ingenious ways, but to no avail both are too inept. This war has been raging for almost 49 years and is still going on monthly in MAD magazine. Now three books that have been long out of print have been republished and were chosen to show off the genius of the original writer and illustrator Antonio Prohias who died in 1998. Prohias was a prominent political cartoonist in Cuban during the 1950's and criticized the Cuban government relentlessly in his cartoons. Facing imminent arrest and death he fled to the US in 1960 and took a menial job in New York. Within a few months he sold the concept of Spy vs. Spy to MAD Magazine and the battle between spy vs. spy began. One thing though__the Spies never say a word.

BOOKS: Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism

Shocking!__ In 1900 British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans discovered an ancient lost paradise, a thriving culture where thin wasted men and beautifully dressed women lived in an enlightened society of equal status, a bronze age mercantile utopia of sorts. The Minoan culture Evans discovered on the island of Crete fired the European imagination with thoughts of a grandiose ancient pre-Greek civilization, however, Cathy Gere in her new book, "Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism," says not so __something was amiss. Gere claims the Minoan culture was largely the creation of Evan's imagination a projection of a man suffering form a mother goddess syndrome. Evans did discover a civilization and he did find the Minoan artifacts, but the artifacts were merely bits and pieces. The beautiful fresco of ladies dressed in colorful dresses, the impressive palace of Knossos and the thriving egalitarian culture were all "Evan's-inspired" reconstructions based on paltry evidence. Evans even hired a team of artists to paint and reconstruct the society the way he thought it existed. Gere says this all took place in a thriving milieu of antiquities forgers. Evans may not have even known he was purchasing forgeries. When the writer Evelyn Waugh visited the museum in Heraklion created by Evans in the 1920's he felt uneasy about Evan's reconstructions: "that their painters have tempered their zeal for accurate reconstruction with a somewhat inappropriate predilection for the covers of vogue." Again a modern perspective imposed on the past? Perhaps.

GIZMOS: Jaguar XKE Coolest Car__Ever

In the movie, "How To Steal a Million Dollars," Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, two art thieves, drive around Paris in a bright yellow Jaguar XKE__ a movie prop meant to represent the ultimate cool. The car had a huge impact on the culture of the time. The XKE , a stylish icon from the start, represented everything that was suave and sophisticated in the late 1960's and early 1970's._high rolling casinos, the French Riviera__perhaps a European chateau. It brought an aspect of the European jet set life down to the common man. Anyone could buy this "piece of sophistication," for a relatively cheap $5000. The XKE was a direct descendant of Jaguar's race track bred D Type altered for road use. Introduced in 1961 at the Geneva Auto Show, it literally stole the show. The public loved it, celebrities were seen driving it, Jack Paar even took delivery of his on the set of the Tonight Show. The cars exterior lines which caught everyone's eye were styled by the able stylist William Lyons. Even today the car is considered by many to be the most beautiful car ever produced. Now the XKE meets the modern__restored models can be found on ebay.

BOOKS: The Brothers Karamazov

"Everything there was to know about life was in "The Brother's Karamazov." Well__that's according to Eliot Rosewater, a character in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five. Is everything that you ever wanted to know about life in the Brother's Karamazov? Yes. Covered are good character, bad character, patricide, murder, hate, deceit, love, the search for God, the ultimate meaning of life and an examination of psychology and morality__an intellectual masterwork. A novel to get lost in; a place to enter into the world of the characters and their lives, where there is a struggle between good and evil, church and state. It is a fitting successor to Dostoevsky's other great novel, "Crime and Punishment." It's astounding how good are the Russian writers__Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov with his perfect short stories. These writers in the original language must be incomparable, however Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's recent English translation of the "Brothers Karamazov " gives a true grasp of the original that is lively and extremely readable. "Brothers Karamazov" is a large sprawling novel that deals with serious theological and philosophical themes as well as much of the human character and societal problems faced today.

OBSERVATION: The Curious Case of Riccardo Muti

He ruled La Scala like an autocrat. Franco Zeffiralli described him as "drunk on himself." In 2005 the staff of La Scla in Milan Italy refused to work with him and walked out. The general manager of LaScala said, "The people of La Scala have rejected absolute monarchy." What happened to Riccardo Muti, the former conductor of the Philadelphia orchestra from 1980-1992? It seems he went berserk and is now commonly known as the "Monster of Milan." With the Philadelphia orchestra he produced exquisite music__a wall of sound approach ignited by his fiery Italian temperament that simmered just below the surface. He was the brightest and most talented of his generation. When his feet were planted more firmly on the ground his interruptions of Aida and MacBeth were without equal__his EMI recordings par excellence. Then things went haywire his temperament exploded both to the detriment of his talent and his music. It is sad. The maestro is a caricature of a maestro. But wait__ Muti has landed another job as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the 2010-2011 season with a 5 year contract. As Betty Davis might say: "musicians fasten your seatbelts it's going to be a bumpy ride"

BOOKS: Washington: The Indispensable Man

When I was a child on Washington's Birthday my uncle would give me a cardboard hatchet with candy cherrys inside. Then I was told the story of how Washington chopped down a cherry tree and then fessed up to his crime because he was incapable of lying. In his great biography, Washington: The Indispensable Man, James Flexner attempts and succeeds at dispelling these and other simplest notions about Washington . The first line reads: "No American is more completely misunderstood than George Washington." Washington is believed to have been a rich, conservative, pro British, Virginia aristocrat. Flexner says nothing could be further from the truth_He actually was an uneducated backwoods man who rose to prominence along the Virginia frontier as an Indian fighter. Flexnor's book paints a Washington who rose to power not because of his education or political connections, but because of his inner strength and character. This book is a monument to the potential of one man and how he used that potential and shaped a nation. There was a reason men like Jefferson, Adams and Hamilton deferred to Washington. Flexnor sets out to explain why. He states:" In all history few men possessed with unassailable power have used that power so gently and self-effacingly for what best instincts told them was the welfare of their neighbors and all mankind." But Flexner says he also was a man who struggled with himself, a man who became great in spite of himself. This particular volume is a distillation of Flexner's massive 4 volume biography on Washington__ as such in this version it is probably the best biography written about Washington if not one of the best biographies ever written. This is biography as literature. It is clear, precise and accurate.

BOOKS: In Search of Lost Time

Shelby Foote, the late civil war historian said that after he would finish one of his writing projects he would always treat himself by rereading Marcel Proust's massive magnum opus,"In Search of Lost Time" or as was earlier known, "Remembrance of Things Past." Containing 6 volumes and almost 1,250,000 words, "In Search of Lost Time" was composed while Proust was confined to bed and shut up in a cork lined room. He didn't like noise. Beware, "In Search of Lost Time" is not a barn burner. The plot is slow and meandering __ Well, you might ask, why would I want to read it? Proust believed that a person, especially an artist could recover the past by using the power of his imagination, in essence he could regain time. By slowing down and noting the ordinary details of life a person could in effect savor life to a much higher degree than is normally possible, then in the future he could recover the vivid details, relive the events, and regain the lost time. "In Search of Lost Time" is a monument to this type of recollecting. It's filled with excoriating detail on 2000 characters doing ordinary things. There are no explosions here. This work shows how to slow down and observe life and the characters that walk through it. It's especially good for writers wanting to learn how to collect observational and psychological detail for their work. I suspect Shelby Foote learned how to observe details for use his own works by reading Proust.

Today there is somewhat of a Proust revival with the appearance of several books: "Marcel Proust, A Life" by William Carter, "Proust in Love", by Carter and "How Proust Can Change Your Life" by Alain de Bottom. The best biography is George Painter's 1957 "Proust a Biography" in 2 volumes. However, read "In Search of Lost Time" first.

GIZMOS... Am I Standing in A Hurricane!

Last year I saw a weather channel anchorman standing in a hurricane chained to a pole holding one of these things up as palm trees and cars flew by. As his hair was being ripped out and his eyelids folded back over he screamed, " Yep 110 mph. Right then I knew I had to have a Kestral 4500. This thing is a ticket to adventure. Look what you can do with it: It measures: wind speed, crosswind, headwind, tailwind, altitude, heat stress, humidity and air, water and snow temperature. Not only that it's indestructible and floats in case your pole gets ripped out of the ground and you wind up in the water. Plus it will log all your important data in case you don't survive__ "Ah there is his Kestral 4500 floating over there. Let's see what happened."

Recommendation: Isaac's Storm, A Man, A Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson.

TARDIS Library

According to an official BBC spokesmen:
"Inside the TARDIS there are an awful lot of rooms - libraries, gardens, swimming pools and even a cricket pavilion."
The WhoUniverse says, _" A TARDIS has at least two libraries. The larger library takes up dozens of rooms and each of these rooms has two shelves which are a couple of miles long and tall. A brass ladder or spiral staircase provides access to the upper levels. Most of the books are stored in tronic lattice data cubes that are kept in book shaped cases, but some of the books are capable of reading themselves out loud."
However, the Doctor's library is best described in the "Borgesian" terms as a "Library of Babel". A place containing all possible books in all possible combinations in all possible alphabets in all the possible languages in the universe. From this chaos comes meaning.
Well...the Doctor has pointed his sonic screwdriver at some these books and has some suggestions...
Doctor's Reading Suggestion: The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
The Library of Babel attempts to explain the "chaotic order"[sic] of the Universe. Borges fails, but takes the reader on a fantastic mathematical and metaphysical journey.
More intriguing __ the job of the hapless librarian. In the book: "The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel", by William Goldbloom Bloch, [caution: you need to know how to cipher to read this book] Bloch notes that walking 60 miles a day for a 100 years the librarian would only cover a distance in the library that light would cover in two minutes. If he picked up his pace to the speed of light it would take him 15 billion years to examine the books in his charge. Yips! The Collected Fictions Here

BOOKS: Cicero, De Officiis, and Orations

In 44BC Cicero, while running from the fury of a mad Antony, found time to write his last treatise__ a work giving his son, Cicero Minor, advice on how to live and behave. Cicero also known as Tully was widely read before the twentieth century and his works influenced Europe's greatest thinkers and philosophers. Known for his blistering speeches before the Roman Senate Cicero was brilliant and vain. He pursued philosophy in a Roman society that found little use for philosophers. The Romans were a practical people. Cicero, Roman to the core, applied his philosophical bent to the practical matters of life: politics, morals, and behavior. De Officiis, remains today a practical handbook and a look back at the classical wisdom that formed Western society.

Unfortunately Antony's assassins finally caught up with him and his hands which had written the Phillipics, fiery speeches against Antony, were cut off along with his head and put on display in the Roman Forum.

Reccomendations: read De Officiis along with the Orations (This one is translated by the venerable H. Grose Hodge). There is a great commentary on De Officiis, A Commentary on Cicero De Officiis This is a bit pricey, but the only English commentary written on De Officiis since the 19th century. Also a fairly recent biography exists(2003) Cicero Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt. I haven't read this one yet, but deserves a look.

If you study Cicero you can call yourself a "Ciceronian" Got a nice ring to it.

THE TARDIS HAS LANDED__PLACES TO SEE...

Japanese House and Garden, Fairmont Park, Philadelphia

A Japanese House with a pond smack in the middle of "the sprawl" as William Gibson would say. A refuge of quiet elegance. A place where a Japanese gentleman would live. Given to the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955 by the Japanese-American Society and then transfered to Philadelphia in 1958. Go see it or visit my other website for a tour...My Other Website Some side notes: Check out a couple of books: "Bushido, The Warrior's Code" by Inazo Nitobe, a classic of Victorian rhetoric that covers: Justice, Politeness, Veracity, Self Control and the Spirit of Daring__plus some other stuff that you can apply to your daly life in "the sprawl". Also, "The Book of Five Rings", by Miyamoto Musashi. Learn about: "crushing", "flustering" and "becoming new"

OBSERVATION...

Torchwood, Children of Earth...

Just finished watching the final episode. Going along liking this series and then __What da__ What kind of ending was that? The whole thing spiraled down into a pit of despair. The plot lines just didn't resolve correctly. It all leaves one feeling disconcerted and depressed. The show ended like a bloody train wreck. Some of the material covered was distressing to the extreme. Who is scarier here the aliens or the British politicians? Oddly enough the writing and acting was excellent, but I suspect the screen writers ran amok, thinking they needed to be extra clever. All they needed to do was call "the Doctor". He could have solved the whole matter with a dash of humor to boot. Kudos go to Peter Capaldi ( playing John Frobisher ) for an excellent performance, but in the end he shoots himself along with his wife and two young children. Gratuitous despair deluxe! Torchwood.