It's not just a clever quip!

Boy, does this ever make sense!

"Having a smoking area in a restaurant is like having a peeing area in a pool." - Thomas Pfeffer, American Heart Association

Gary Braver's "Flashback"

I picked up Flashback in the New Fiction section of the Burlington County Library and saw a ringing endorsement by Michael Connelly on the front cover. "Wow", I thought. "Why haven't I read any Gary Braver before?" Turning the book over, I saw more "advance acclaim" by Ridley Pearson, Robert B Parker, Joseph Finder, William Martin (who?), and Lewis Perdue (??)! Impressive.

The inside back cover added to my interest. Braver is the pen name of Gary Goshgarian professor at Northeastern! I'm an NU grad and my daughter-in-law is Armenian!! I was hooked.

The official synopsis says "On a trip back to Cape Cod on the 30TH anniversary of his mother’s drowning, Jack Koryan, a prep school teacher turned restaurant owner, is stung by a school of rare jellyfish whose toxins send him into a coma for several months. When he awakens, he finds that the jellyfish toxin has left him with extraordinary memory. But he is also haunted by dreams and flash-memories--some of pleasant childhood vignettes, others of dark violence that leave him quaking in horror."

A small private drug company has developed a cure for Alzheimer's Disease based on secretions from (guess what?) the very same jellyfish that stung Jack! But the question of side effects arises and we get a fairly interesting story of the greedy CEO and "his" doctors against the pretty, smart, idealistic heroine and her mentor as they try to find out whether there are side effects or not.

Actually, it's a pretty good read. Lots of scientific details, and just enough greedy businesspeople and doctors, and a twist or two that delays the unsurprising ending:
Goodness wins and Jack solves the mystery of his dreams.

Braver writes well but the characters are a little less "involving" than I would like. Give me Parker, Pearson and Harlen Coben.

B+

Christ almighty!

Heard an interview with Garry Wills, author of "What Jesus Meant" and, coincidentally, read a Newsweek book review, all on the same day!

Newsweek writes:

March 20, 2006 issue - Garry Wills's latest book, "What Jesus Meant," should affront most of his fellow Christians—right from the foreword, which argues that Christ was not one of them. The megachurch set won't care to hear that "Jesus did not come to replace the Temple with other buildings, whether huts or rich cathedrals." The Christian left, committed to good works, won't care to hear that Jesus "does not work miracles from humanitarian motives." The Christian right, cozy with secular power, won't care to hear that "if they want the state to be politically Christian, they are not following Jesus." Pope Benedict XVI really won't care to hear that he, "like his predecessors, is returning to the religion that Jesus renounced, with all its paraphernalia of priesthood." What parishioner of any denomination wants to hear that the Gospels are "a deep threat to the institutional church," since Jesus opposed "just about every form of religion we know"?

Wills claims that Jesus preached love, period. The Bible has nothing in it about abortion, homosexuality, birth control, etc. Just love. As in "love thy fellow man as thyself." No hatred. No hypocracy. As I remember the interview, Wills said that Jesus said something like, "Whatever you do to the lowliest of men, you do to me." Pretty startling stuff!

As I recall, at some point in the Old Testament, the Lord says, "Thou shall not spill thy seed upon the ground." That seems to address masterbation and birth control, and by extreme extension abortion, So I did a little research! Seem like God spoke this to Onan who attempted to avoid impregating his dead brother's widow. From www.catholic.com:

Among twentieth-century exegetes is has been fashionable to maintain that Genesis 38:9–10, condemns Onan’s coitus interruptus only insofar as it violated the so-called levirate marriage custom endorsed by the law of Moses at a time when polygamy was not forbidden. According to this ancient oriental practice, a man—whether he already was married or not—was expected to marry his deceased brother’s wife if she was childless at her husband’s death; the firstborn son of this union was regarded as a legal descendant of the dead man.

And I also came across a hilarious satire on the above entitled the Lost Book of Onan. Enjoy!

Pictures from our March trip to Beantown

It was a busy time! We had the usual pictures of her cuteness, but Friday was Erica's birthday and we had a cake. We also went to Sara's preschool and met her teachers and classmates. Leter we went to Lisa's apartment and met her roommate. And there are also pictures of Grandma and Grandpa and Daddy with Sara.

Just got back...

...from Boston where we visited my son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and my daughter and various friends and roommates of the aforementioned. We had a very nice time. They are great kids!!

We saw Sara's pre-school. What a nice set-up. If I had had something like that when I was a kid, I would probably have a PhD now. :-)

Traffic on I84 was not a picnic coming home (I was able to average 70 on the way up!). There were two non-construction-related tie-ups -- one was probably caused by a heavy merge from an adjoining road, but the other had no observed cause! There was one because of "construction". The quotes are there because there were signs up and cones that forced us into a single lane, but there were no workers and of course no construction. I think we'll try I95 next time. How bad could it be?

What was nice was that I didn't read CNN or watch TV news so there was nothing from Washington that could make me grind my teeth. But we have something here! My community liability insurance premiums went from $37,000 to $120,000 in one year because of the number of "slip and fall" lawsuits that were brought -- by residents, no less, against the homeowners association. That's from $87 per resident to around $280 per! And now, the widow of a resident who fell on his walkway and hit his head but refused to get treatment because he had to take his wife to the doctor is suing! Several hours later, he felt bad and went to the emergency room where he died from his injuries. Jeez! Where did they get a lawyer who would do that? There used to be a principle called something "what would a reasonable man do" in a given situation. But I think that disappeared when the number of law school graduates took a sharp rise.

Doesn't matter whether the lawsuit is won or lost -- the claim is what drives up the premiums!! And try and find another insurance company??? Oh, well. I'm not going to worry about it. Thank goodness we can afford another $200 a year if it comes to that, although I'm sure that many of the people who have moved out since we've been here did so because living here is much more expensive than they thought. Thank goodness Cathy is a Realtor(TM) and she knew exactly what to expect!

I'll get another Flickr slideshow going from the visit later in the week.

Did I mention that Cathy broke her toe a couple of weeks ago? Well, it is healing slowly. Riding in the car today - especially with the traffic delays - meant that she was off her feet for many hours and she said that it felt better today than it has for days. :-)