The Nature of Things

'Tis the season, and here is a rather acerbic - but not inaccurate - comment on the commercial exploitation of that season. A Copywriter's Christmas by Margaret Fishback The Twenty-fifth is imminent And every known expedient Designed for making Christmas pay is getting swiftly under way. Observe the people swarming to And fro, somnambulating through The stores in search of ties and shirts And gloves to give until it hurts. They're eyeing gifts in Saks' and Hearn's And Macy's, not to mention Stern's, While earnest copywriters are Hitching their copy to the star Of Bethlehem quite shamelessly, For they are duty bound to see That Peace On Earth Good Will To Men Gets adequate results again.

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Red-bellied Woodpecker , a favorite visitor to backyard feeders. *~*~*~* Scott Pruitt, the man who will be nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency , is an ardent opponent of measures to control and reverse climate change, a proponent of freeing up mining and drilling for fossil fuels, and as Oklahoma's Attorney General, has sued to block federal measures to protect public health by reducing smog and curbing toxic emissions from power plants.  *~*~*~* The Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that it would not allow an easement for an oil pipeline across lands held sacred by the Standing Rock Sioux people of North Dakota. The pipeline project has not been killed, however. The Corps has merely agreed to conduct a full environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, to include an Environmental Impact Statement that considers alternate pipeline routes and offers room for public comm...

This book started out as maybe a two-star read if I were feeling generous, but as I kept turning the pages, it kept moving up the scale and, by the time I reached the denouement, I was finding it hard to put it down even for a minute or two. My first problem with the book was that its premise is just so unbelievable. It strays from the thriller concept straight into the fantastical world of science fiction.  But as I got further and further into the plot, that ceased to bother me. The characters were so interesting that they moved the story along and built suspense until it finally reached the breaking point. That unbelievable premise, briefly, is this: Cassie Maddox, one of the detectives on the Dublin Murder Squad that we met in Into the Woods , has now moved on to Domestic Violence after the debacle of the Woods case. Her beloved but now estranged partner, Rob Ryan, was moved into a desk job.  Even before she worked on the Murder Squad, Cassie had worked in the Undercover ...

Michael Chabon just gets better and better as a writer. While I can't claim to have read everything that he's written, each book of his that I have read has been better than the last. Moonglow is the best one yet and it's hard to see how he can improve with the next one. This book takes the form of a family memoir and it seems to have been at least loosely based on Chabon's own family, although he assures us that it is, in fact, entirely fictional. But the third person narrator of the book is named Mike Chabon and the stories that he tells us were told to him by his grandfather as he lay dying. In 1989, Mike traveled to his mother's house in Oakland to be with his terminally ill grandfather. Over ten days at the very end of his life, the grandfather told his grandson stories of his eventful life. This was a unique experience in a family known for its silences. Mike said that 90% of what he knew about his grandfather was learned in those ten days. The grandfather...

While searching for a poem to feature this week, I came across this one from 2006 by Marge Piercy and I was so struck by its imagery that I felt I had to share it with you. I loved the idea of the black silhouettes of migrating birds perching on wires and reciting liturgical prayers. And I can certainly relate to studying the granite pitted and pocked rockface of my life as it emerges from the veil of greenery "to be mapped, to be examined, to be judged. " For this season of holidays is also a time of reflection and repentance as we count our days and look forward - perhaps - to a fresh start in the new year. The late year by Marge Piercy I like Rosh Hashonah late, when the leaves are half burnt umber and scarlet, when sunset marks the horizon with slow fire and the black silhouettes of migrating birds perch on the wires davening. I like Rosh Hashonah late when all living are counting their days toward death or sleep or the putting by of what will sustain them - when the cold...