Realm of the Wombat

The other day I was crossing University Ave. by UC Pizza and Pasta and this guy calls out of his truck at me, “Hey, do you know of a Bank of America around here?” I told him to make a left, and it would be about two blocks down on the left. In hindsight I should have told him that it was at the corner of Center and Shattuck, because Shattuck splits there in downtown Berkeley, so it might be confusing for someone who didn’t know where they were going. Hopefully it all worked out.

Wow, I’m quite the reader lately, eh? I found this one via the “People who bought this book also bought” feature on barnesandnoble.com. I think the premise is a good one. The protagonist starts receiving checks for $1000 every month at a low point in his life. This goes on for 7 years before the payer comes calling to press him into service. Some would say it’s formulaic, but I found it entertaining and an incredibly fast read. I think only the DaVinci Code was quicker, and most of that was read on a cross-country airplane ride. So if you’re looking for a fast, thriller type story, put this on your list.

Yes, I read the history of salt. Sodium chloride, primarily. I was expecting more. The author did a reasonably good job of relaying the importance of salt throughout the ages, economically, militarily, and in terms of food supply, but there were many deficiencies also. Why salt isn’t as important today isn’t well explained. I was also frustrated by the number and length of recipes employing salt. There were several sections that were quite interesting (e.g. evolution of ketchup, origin of McIlhenny tabasco), but these curiosities were too few. Perhaps the history of phosphorus will turn out to be better.

As promised, here’s the third version of my duct tape wallet. It’s a stylish black and is the slimmest to date. I’m much happier with the pocket situation, but they still need some work. Also on the downside was the time requirement. The first two wallets took about an hour each. This one was several hours start to finish, although there was a lot of trial and error in that time period. If I made the same wallet, I could probably get it under 2 hours.

Thanks to my negligence in catching my flight back to the Bay Area, I was able to finish JFK’s biography. I’m certainly not going to make a habit of 700 page books, but I think this one was worth the effort. The writing and subject matter were excellent. I guess I’ve always been one of the people who thought that JFK got too much credit for just being a Kennedy. After reading this book, I was partly justified. His pre-presidential political career was nothing noteworthy. As president, he was somewhere between mediocre and poor on domestic issues, i.e. civil rights. In terms of foreign affairs, it seems like he essentially maintained the status quo, except for some progress on nuclear non-proliferation. So if the question is, “How much did the country improve over the period of his presidency?” the answer is going to be mildly positive. However, that’s really not the best way to evaluate. It’s unlikely that anyone could have much in terms of civil rights with half of his own party against him So while he could have been more bold on the divisive issue, he opted for smaller steps, and focused on foreign policy, a uniting issue. There were missteps, but his balance of pragmatism and idealism was a true masterpiece in a very dangerous environment. I say that he maintained the status quo, but it was a tough status quo. We could very easily have blown up the planet, so on that score, Kennedy deserves substantial credit.

I don’t know what it is about me, but apparently people think I know where I’m going and/or know how to work a camera, because they are always asking me for directions or to take their picture. Yesterday I was stopped twice for directions. First, I was standing at the bus stop at Masonic and Solano, and a woman came up and asked me how to get to the post office. I told her to continue down Solano, and it was about three blocks down across the street. A pretty good description, I thought. Then at the west circle on Berkeley’s campus, a girl asked me how to get to the Student Union. I told her to follow the circle the other way, take the path through the woods on the left, and follow that to the right. I don’t know if she’d got there with those over-simplified directions, but she should have gotten in the area, and then could ask someone else. I’m all for simplicity.