“The Sympathizer” – A Brilliant First Novel

09 Saturday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

Tags

"Academy Street". Mary Costello, "All the Light Between Us", "The Son", "The Sympathizer", Politics & Prose Bookstore, Pulitizer Prize for Fiction, Viet Thanh Nguyen

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Every so often, usually when I’m feeling particularly guilty about overly enriching Amazon by purchasing ‘Kindle’ books, I go to Washington’s independent bookstore, Politics and Prose, to buy a couple of hardback books.

Usually, I look for Mark, the head book buyer, I think, and ask him what are the two best books he’s read in the last couple of months. He rarely steers me wrong. (Because of suggestions he made, for example, I read All the Light Between Us and also The Son, shortly after each was published. The former recently won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the latter was one of the finalists for the Pulitzer in 2014.)

About 10 days ago I was in the store, saw Mark, and asked my usual question. He immediately went and got The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen and read me the opening page. Then he found a copy of Mary Costello’s Academy Street and said, “Also, here’s a little gem that hasn’t been reviewed yet, but I loved it.” (See my earlier post, Mary Costello – A New Voice.)

I read, actually consumed, The Sympathizer first and wanted to write about it, but I noticed the author was coming to Politics & Prose for an author talk and decided to wait until I saw and heard him in person. That happened Wednesday night.

Don’t Tell More Than One Person

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cafe, Coffehouse, Open City, Open City at The National Cathedral, The National Cathedral

I thought about keeping this place a secret, so it wouldn’t get too crowded.

But then a friend (SB) mentioned that maybe it needed more customers in order to stay viable

Thus, with some trepidation, I draw your attention to a gem in DC (good for those who live here and for those who visit too).

Two Mainstream Films

05 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

"Testament of Youth", "Woman in Gold", Alicia Vikander, Gustav Klimt, Helen Mir, James Kent, Maria Altman, Portrait of Adele Bauer, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Brittain, World ar II, World War I

Readers of MillersTime often say they don’t live in an area that has all these small films I frequently review/preview. Generally, there is enough written about the mainstream, popular movies so I see no need to add to that chatter.

Here are two films, one of which is in the larger theaters now, Woman in Gold, and one, Testament of Youth, that will be released by Sony Pictures in the US on June 5th and will, I hope, get wide distribution.

Both films have to do with fall out from war, WWI & WWII. Both films are based on true stories.

Mary Costello – A New Voice

03 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

"Academy Street", "Brooklyn", "Stoner", Colm Toibin, Irish fiction, John Williams, Mary Costello, MillersTime Favorite Reads, Politics & Prose Bookstore

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Rather than wait until the December posting of favorite reads, let me draw your attention to an author and a book I recently found delightful — Mary Costello’s Academy Street.

This first novel is quite short, 146 pages, but somehow this Irish writer has managed to pack a full life into the story of Tess, an Irish woman who comes to live and to stay in America after spending the first part of her life in Ireland.

Initially, Academy Street reminded me of a favorite read of a few years ago, Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn, also a story of an Irish immigrant (female) who comes to America.

But in the short time it took me to read Mary Costello’s lovely gem, I thought of another favorite, John Williams’ Stoner, also a portrait of a person’s whole life. Both Williams and Costello seem to ask the question of the value of their main character’s entire life.

Home Is Only Two Blocks Away

01 Friday May 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Almost, Anna Bakery, Chinatown, Chinese Food, Millerstime, Sam Wo, Sam Wo Bakery & Restaurant, San Francisco, Thommie Award. Thomas Wolfe, You Can Go Home Again, You Can't Go Home Again

Thomas Wolfe, it turns out, is not entirely correct.

Though, in this case,”Home” has moved two blocks (three minutes walking or 52 seconds by car).

Pix by Anita Rechler

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Sam Wo’s is coming back.

Maybe as soon as this summer.

An “Impossible Dream”?

27 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Family and Friends, The Outer Loop

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

"Man of La Mancha", "The Impossible Dream", FOTONNA, Hope & Reassurance, Tent of Nations North America, William Plitt

The Impossible Dream

by William Plitt

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A month ago, at end of weeks of a seemingly endless winter, I gambled and
bought three tickets to “Man of La Mancha”, a presentation by the Washington Shakespeare Company at the Sidney Harmon Theatre in the City. I was needing some “lift”, both in attitude and altitude, and hoped to that “lift” in light-hearted theatrical/musical entertainment- a distraction from our work too!

Films, Films, Films

21 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"A Brilliant Young Mind", "About Elly", "Clouds of Silas Maria", "Gemma Bovery", "GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem", "Seymour: An Introduction", "The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight", "The Farewell Party", "The Kugelmass Episode", "The Salt of the Earth", "While We Were Young", "Wild Tales", Films, Movies

Ten films for you to keep in mind. Six of these are in the theaters now.

Five of the ten get my highest ratings — four and a half or five stars.

A Brilliant Young Mind *****

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You’ll have to wait for the summer for this one — Samuel Goldwyn Films just purchased the US distribution rights — but mark it down. It’s a very good one.

A Brilliant Young Mind is Morgan Matthews’ drama about a 16 year old autistic math prodigy; it was inspired by Matthews’ own 2007 documentary, Beautiful Young Minds. That documentary followed the young British International Mathematical Olympiad team through their selection process, their training, and the actual contest itself in 2006.

Help Us Spread the Word

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Adolescents, Children, Families, Financial Aid, Grants, Helping Others, The Family Foundation, The Frost School

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For most of my ‘professional’ life I worked with children, adolescents, and families in various settings –- Peace Corps, John F. Kennedy High School, The Psychiatric Institute, and The Frost School –- and in a variety teaching, counseling, and administrative positions.

10 of These Predictions Will Come True

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

2015 Millerstime Baseball Contests, baseball, MLB. Predictions, Nationals, Playoffs, Prizes, Red Sox, Rookie of the Year, Wild Card, World Series, Yankees

I’m not sure if the contestants in this year’s 2015 MillersTime Baseball Contests are geniuses, fools, frustrated writers, or wannabe comedians (see #s 28, 32, and 43, for example).

You decide.

Judging by previous years in this contest, at least 10 of the predictions below — Question #2 in this year’s contest — will come true.

Which 10, of course, is the question.

If you predict how many actually come true, you will also receive a prize — a t-shirt proclaiming you a MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner. Send your guess (the number of predictions that will come true) to me at samesty84@gmail.com or put the number in the Comments section of this post. Multiply winners are possible, but you only get one guess/prediction.

A Gentle Gem

12 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

"Seymour: An Introdcution", Classical Music, Composer, Documentary, Ethan Hawke, Pianist, Seymour Bernstein, Teacher

Seymour: An Introduction *****

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I suspect most of us have never heard of Seymour Bernstein.

Although I enjoy classical music, I did not know his name nor his work, until last night.

Thanks to the actor Ethan Hawke, however, Bernstein may gain some recognition outside of a small circle of people in the music world. In his first work as a movie director — this a documentary – Hawke has given us a gem.

Never Leave Until It’s Over

11 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

baseball, Big Papi, Dear Eli, Evil Empire, Mark Teixeira, Never Over 'Til It's Over, Red Sox, Yankees

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Dear Eli,

It was fun going with you to the baseball game Thursday. And I’m glad we stayed until the very end of the game, even if your favorite team, the Nats, lost.

You always have to stay until the end of the game. No matter how bad or how good it might seem for your team.

Yesterday was a good example of why it’s so important to understand the game is never over until the final out.

Last night in Yankee Stadium, it was the bottom of the 9th inning, and my heroes the Sox were ahead 3-2. There were two outs. One more and they’d beat the Evil Empire (the Yankees).

Disaster struck.

Instead of the final out, the Yankees hit a home run to tie the game.

Extra innings.

Nothing much happened for the next seven innings, although Friday had turned into Saturday. Then, in the 16th inning, Big Papi, the great David Ortiz, hit a home run and put the Sox ahead 4-3.

Then, the Yankees got a home run in the bottom of the 16th when one of their players, Mark Teixeira, who was 34 years old when the game started and had turned 35 by the 16th inning, hit a home run.

Bummer. The game tied again, 4-4.

In the top 18th inning, again the Sox went ahead, 5-4.

And wouldn’t you know it, again the Yunkees tied it. Score now 5-5.

Then, in the 19th inning, after more than seven hours, the Sox went ahead 6-5.

This time, the bad guys didn’t tie it in the bottom of the inning, and the Sox won.

And that’s why you never, ever leave a game until the final out is made.

Never give up.

What the ‘Experts’ Say – 2015 MLB

09 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

2015 Millerstime Baseball Contests, baseball, MLB, Nats, Sox, World Series

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Well, the votes are all in, and, according to the MillersTime baseball prognosticators, here are the results of two of the six contests:

Contest #1. Favorite Team Record and how far they’ll go:

a. Sox – 89.5-72.5 – lose in ALCS

b. Nationals – 99-63 – win WS

c. Os – 92.5-69.5 – lose in ALCS

d. Dodgers – 92.5-69.5 – lose in WS

e. Yankees – 86-76 – no playoffs

f. Royals – 83-79 – no playoffs

Contest # 6: Who will play and who will win the WS:

Overwhelmingly Nats win WS over the Angels.

In my humble opinion, the Nats fans have bought the hype and don’t understand that while pitching is most important, you need some hitting and good defense. Nats may make the playoffs but will be a disappointment (and disappointed) again.

The other predictions above are pretty good, I think, tho the Sox fans may be disappointed too, as my heroes, if they do make it into the playoffs, are unlikely to get very far.

Hopefully, one of you readers will remind all of us of these predictions at the end of the season.

PS – Lots more predictions to come, including some ‘remarkable views’ of what might happen in MLB this year.

Join Me for a Nats’ Game

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2015 Millerstime Baseball Contests, baseball, Join me, Nationals, Opening Day, Take a Kid to a Game, tickets, Washington Nationals

Empty seat

Once again I have some tickets available for Nats’ games, some to join with me and some I cannot use.

Where Do You Stand on Pete Rose?

28 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Bart Giamatti, baseball, Hall of Fame, MLB, Permanent Ineligibility, Pete Rose, Rule 21(d), Thomas Boswell, Tyler Kepner

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Baseball’s Rule 21(d): “Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.

Pete Rose: Player 1963-86 and Manager 1984-89 broke this rule, betting on baseball games, including games he managed. After lying about his betting on baseball for 15 years, he signed a deal in 1989 with MLB Commissioner of Baseball Bart Giamatti that banished him from the sport forever.

Hall of Fame: A permanently ineligible player cannot be considered for the Hall of Fame. Had Rose not bet on baseball and not been banned, he would have easily been elected to the HOF. See His Accomplishments if you doubt that.

Rose has sought ‘parole’ in the past (5 times?), but neither Commissioners Fay Vincent nor Bud Selig ever considered rescinding the banishment. Now, 25 years later, there is a new Commissioner of Baseball, Rob Manifred, and it is likely he will have to decide if Rose should be reinstated. (Reinstatement would not mean automatic entrance into the HOF as Rose would still have to be voted into the HOF in the usual manner by the Baseball Writer’s Association of America.)

The Debate:

1. Rose has served his time and should be reinstated.

2. Rose broke a cardinal rule and should not be allowed back in baseball.

3. Rose should remain out of baseball but be voted in or out of HOF by the BBWAA just as any other rule breaker (PEDs, etc.).

Two articles that address these issues that are worth your time:

Tyler Kepner, NYT: Pete Rose’s Statistics: 4,256 Hits and a Big Error, where in Mike Schmidt says Rose has served his time and should return to baseball. Paul Molitor disagrees.

Thomas Boswell, WaPo: Consider Pete Rose for HOF, but don’t let him back in baseball, where in Boswell says ‘No Way’ Rose should be let back in, but he could/should be considered for the HOF.

My thinking on this ‘debate’ has changed, particularly after reading the Boswell article. I agree with his reasoning and conclusion that Rose should not be reinstated. Not so sure about the HOF issue, however.

Where do you stand? Please so state in the Comment section of this post.

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Reminder: If you haven’t submitted you picks for the 2015 MillersTime Baseball Contests, tempus fugit.

Return to My Lai, Seymour Hersh cont.

26 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

"Return to Mylai", Katie Orlinsky, Mylai massacre, Symour M. Hersch, The New Yorker, Vietnam War

Pham Thanh Cong, the director of the My Lai Museum, was eleven at the time of the massacre. His mother and four siblings died. “We forgive, but we do not forget,” he said. Credit Photograph by Katie Orlinsky – The New Yorker

Having recently returned from a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia and being continually disturbed, and sometimes mystified, about the US role and legacy in that part of the world, I was attracted to the current issue of the New Yorker and Seymour M. Hersh’s article Return to My Lai: The Scene of the Crime – A reporter’s journey to My Lai and the secrets of the past.

Hersh, as you may remember, particularly if you ‘came of age’ during the Vietnam War, broke the story about the My Lai massacre, which, in part, led to a reexamination of our role in that war and in that part of the world.

Now, 47 years later, Hersh returns to Vietnam and specifically to My Lai and discovers things he did not know when he uncovered and wrote about the My Lai massacre.

Check out: Return to My Lai

Also, in a companion ‘article’, there are photographs by New Yorker photojournalist Katie Orlinsky, who accompanied Hersh on this trip. Check out: The Memory of My Lai.