Edmund Morris on Obama’s Choices For Summer Reading
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 30th, 2011
Good morning!
While listening to NPR the other day, it seems that the republikkkan pundits are dissing Obama for his summer vacation reading choices. So what else is new? What won’t the republikkkans dis Obama for – they knock him for everything else he does, why not knock him for this?
Here’s an interview with Brook Gladstone from NPR’s “On The Media” talking with Edmund Morris (Comments from McCain and Huntsman are interjected)):
BROOKE GLADSTONE:
And that brings us neatly to our next story. Every summer the White House releases what the President will be reading on his vacation. Usually the lists are full of weighty tomes of political theory or history. President Bush’s 2006 summer reading list of 13 books included biographies of Abraham Lincoln, a history of polio, Camus’ The Stranger and Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Earlier this week the White House released President Obama’s summer reading. Of the five books cited, four were fiction. This has set off grumbling amongst some Republican pundits, saying that by reading fiction Obama looked like a political lightweight. Tevi Troy, writing in The National Review Online said that, quote, “The near absence of nonfiction sends the wrong message for any president because it sets him up for the charge that he is out of touch with reality.
Theodore Roosevelt is often invoked by Republicans as a paragon of firmly grounded pragmatic participation on the public stage.
JOHN McCAIN:
[APPLAUSE]
I know that many of you have noticed it’s not my style to simply phone it in.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:
John McCain said, “I believe our leaders belong in the arena.”
JOHN McCAIN:
I’m a Teddy Roosevelt Republican.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:
Jon Huntsman said, I’m a center right candidate:
JON HUNTSMAN:
I think I’ve got pragmatic and practical solutions. If you’ll step up and do what Teddy Roosevelt would have advocated, get in the arena, it says something about you.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:
But even while Teddy Roosevelt himself was in the arena, he was reading everything, from science to history to fiction to poetry. We called Edmund Morris, author of The Rise Of Theodore Roosevelt,Theodore Rex and Colonel Roosevelt, to ask him about the reading habits of the 26th President.
EDMUND MORRIS:
Well, when you talk about these rather pathetic little lists that presidents feel they have to announce every summer, there’s a list that TR was asked to compile by the president of Columbia University in 1903, and TR’s list extends for three closely printed pages [BROOKE LAUGHS] of collected letters.
He write that he’d read parts of Herodotus, all of Polybius, a little of Plutarch, Sophocles’ Seven Against Thebes, Euripides’ Hippolytus and Bacchae. Later on we’ve got Carlysle, we’ve got a whole raft of something like half a page of novels, including all of Walter Scott. He was reading, by the way, in German and Italian and French, as well as in English. He was omnivorous.
He read on average a book a day. That’s not an exaggeration; it’s documented. Sometimes he read three books a day.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:
But, obviously, if he’s spending his time reading Walter Scott, I mean, he must have been a very lightweight president. And, in fact, he can’t have been engaged in anything serious on the public stage.
EDMUND MORRIS:
Well, I can’t think of anything more irritating than the claim that to read fiction is to be lightweight. On the contrary, I think somebody who reads nothing but political books and books on contemporary affairs, which is the average diet of all these political drones who have been criticizing President Obama, I think they are lightweights.
A man who can read good poetry and good fiction is by nature a, a rounded man and a man with a rich mind.
*********
Readers: This is a good place to end the article. I agree with Morris. And how interesting McCain, and Huntsman applaud Teddy Roosevelt, yet he read everything; not just non-fiction, like Obama.
If you’re interested click here, to can read the rest of the interview, which mainly addresses TR, and his reading habits.
Blog me.
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michelle
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August 30th, 2011 at 9:51 am
THE NEXT GENERATION OF HEARING AIDS
Hearing aids have improved a great deal over the years, and yet they’re still far from perfect. Case in point: My elderly neighbors are very well off and have the best hearing aids available.
But at a party with lots of people, they’ll simply turn them off. The noise, they say, becomes overwhelming. I thought of my friends as I read about Ray Meddis, PhD, a British scientist at the University of Essex, who is using computer models to develop better hearing aids that people won’t turn off.
I phoned Dr. Meddis to ask why hearing aids are still so frustrating for people. The devices, he said, are currently prescribed after a test in which an audiologist checks a patient’s ability to hear various tones (frequencies) at different levels of loudness (amplitude).
Since most people with impaired hearing can identify some tones better than others, doctors simply target those that are giving the person the most difficulty when they write the hearing aid prescription.
But despite all that, it’s still hit or miss. “Many patients are happy with the extra loudness at certain frequencies,” said Dr. Meddis, a psychologist who specializes in hearing and speech.
But for others, a hearing aid simply makes many sounds too loud. Sometimes people find thathearing is improved when there’s a little background noise, such as when they’re relaxing around the dinner table with family members.
But when they’re in a crowded environment “hearing aids are not able to help with that confusion of sound,” Dr. Meddis said.
YOUR EAR ON A MICROCHIP
He and his colleagues have been working to solve just this sort of problem for more than 20 years. Finally, thanks to increased computer power, there have been significant breakthroughs.
“We’ve built computer models that reproduce what goes on inside the ear when you listen to sounds both for normal hearing and impaired hearing,” Dr. Meddis told me.
“The models help us to understand how people with normal hearing, for instance, can tune in to a single voice in a noisy, crowded room.
The researchers are writing software for hearing aids that can be very specifically customized for an individual’s specific hearing problems.
This new generation of hearing aids will contain software encoded on a personal microchip. The aim is to replicate the functions of normal hearing to compensate for those functions that no longer work.
This applies particularly to the regulation of sound levels that keep hearing in a comfortable range. Currently, oversized lab models of the hearing aids are being tested on patients in Dr. Meddis’s lab.
Since about 36 million American adults have hearing problems, I was especially interested in finding out when the new hearing aids would be on the market.
Dr. Meddis said the next step is to develop a microchip small enough to be put inside the hearing aids. Then working models will be tested by hearing-impaired people.
But because development costs are high, Dr. Meddis said it would probably be several years before the highly computerized hearing aids will be available for sale. The good news is that one hearing aid manufacturer, Swiss-based Phonak, is already working with the Meddis team.
Source(s):
Ray Meddis, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology and director of the Hearing Research Laboratory at the University of Essex in Colchester, Great Britain.
August 30th, 2011 at 9:59 am
From the mouths of kids.
“The autumn days are here.
You always expect them this time of year.”
August 30th, 2011 at 10:14 am
Not-so-happy meal
McDonald’s wants you to “see what we’re made of.” Brace yourself.
The pork in your Egg McMuffin or McRib comes from pigs, of course. What you may not know is that those pigs are birthed by female “breeding” pigs who lead miserable lives, to put it mildly.
They live in impossibly small enclosures called “gestation crates,” in which the pigs can barely move.
These dirty, restrictive enclosures frequently cause pigs to become covered in sores, open wounds, and infections.
It doesn’t have to be that way: Burger King and Wendy’s have completely phased out gestation crates from their pork supply. Now it’s up to McDonald’s to do the same.
McDonald’s has the power to push its pork suppliers to eliminate gestation crates and improve the lives of female breeding pigs.
McDonald’s has paid lip service to freeing pigs from gestation crates; in 2007, the company even said moving away from these unnecessary enclosures was “at the top of its agenda.
“ Five years later, pigs at Smithfield Foods, where McDonald’s buys its pork, are still in gestation grates.
McDonald’s is the biggest customer of Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world.
While Smithfield initially pledged to eliminate gestation crates entirely by 2017, the pork processing corporation went back on its promise in 2009.
Smithfield Foods initially blamed the poor economy for indefinitely sticking its pigs in cramped quarters.
Yet now Smithfield is posting record profits, meaning the company can recommit to phasing out gestation crates by 2017.
Meredith Slater started a petition on Change.org asking McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner to pressure Smithfield to renew its promise and completely phase out gestation crates by 2017.
Click here to sign Meredith’s petition to bring McDonald’s in line with the rest of the fast food industry:
Thanks for being a change-maker,
- Michael and the Change.org team
August 30th, 2011 at 10:22 am
242
No. 242 of 365
Tell a joke:
Q: How do you starve an Obama supporter?
A: Hide his food stamps under his work boots.
==========REBUTTAL======
Interesting that the republicans would put down food stamps as a subsidy for the poor or middle class but have no problem providing $billions of subsidies for multi-profitable corporations and $billions in tax relief for them and their CEOS.
For the republicans the joke is on the American people.
They and their contributors are the only ones laughing all the way to the bank.
Robert
August 30th, 2011 at 11:29 am
I hear you, Alycedale, I was surprised at how many people just automatically said, oh if they would never find out, sure, yes…you’re right though, they’d be the first to be indignant if it were done to them, though the premise is that they would never know. Hmm, but if you add alcohol and lips start flapping, they can and will find out and that’s how the cat got out of the bag for me…you have to love that effect : )
- Zen Lill
August 30th, 2011 at 3:57 pm
What is wrong with reading fiction? Shakespear is fiction. Many great books I had to read in school, including Charles Dickens, Hemmingway and George orwell’s 1984 are fiction (almost) and it was required reading.
So the President wants to read a novel, big deal.
HOWIE
August 30th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Zen Lill:
I would like to say “HI, How the heck are you doing?” I miss hearing from you.
I suppose that makes me a fan.
HOWIE
August 30th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Howie, thank you and I am also your fan, that could go without saying but I like expressing it : ) and I am fantastic, hope you are, too! – ZL
August 30th, 2011 at 7:20 pm
First of all, it is good that Obama reads. And when Obama reads a book it is right side up…
August 30th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
I love your way with words Main Dude. It must be wonderful being in your presence every day.
I know Michelle must get a lot of her wit and drive from your influence.
Vickie
August 30th, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Damnit, I sitting here wanting you desperately and I can’t have you.
August 30th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Viv, it was so nice to hear from you. I live in Chalan Pago. What village are you from and what brought you to the mainland?
Assuming of course that you are in the US and not elsewhere.
Hope to hear from you.
Hafa adai
Anna
August 30th, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Gosh, the way you slid upon the bed with your ass naked and offered in the most enticing position imaginable. If I live another hundred years, I will never be more thrilled.
Damn-it! I sitting here wanting you desperately and I can’t have you.
August 30th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Lea Says:
August 30th, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Hafa adai
Vote for the Miss Guam World People’s Choice Award
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August 31st, 2011 at 12:19 am
I live in Kyoto. I belong to a club that group people on the subway. It is a fab in Japan called Chikan.
I know it sounds bad but we only do it with member of the club. It’s just that the people who watch don’t know that.
Miyu
August 31st, 2011 at 12:43 am
THE GENIUS OF A Q-TIP
Is it possible in an era of such complex medical technology for anything new and effective to also be stone simple?
My answer is, of course — and this is something we should never lose sight of. Latest example: I’ve come across a fascinating new medical study describing a technique for preventing infections in certain surgical wounds using nothing but a cotton swab similar to the Q-tips brand that we all grew up with.
This approach is used solely for patients who have what surgeons call “dirty” wounds. Because of the type of operation — for example, bowel surgery, perforated appendix or surgery for trauma — a dirty wound is likely to be heavily contaminated with bacteria, putting patients at high risk for infections.
INFECTION RATES DROP, SO DOES PAIN
As a rule, efforts to prevent postsurgery infection in dirty wounds have included inserting under-the-skin drains… leaving the site open and cleaning it regularly… or applying topical antibiotics, but the success rate with these methods is disturbingly low.
Risk for infection can reach up to 50% in the US, depending on the amount of contamination — which translates to more than 500,000 such infections each year, representing 25% of all hospital-acquired infections and a major cause of patient death.
The new study included 76 patients who had undergone surgery for a perforated appendix. In half of the patients, doctors used iodine to clean the incision wounds, and in the other half, they gently probed the wounds with cotton swabs daily.
The results were impressive. While 19% of the iodine-only group developed wound infections, just 3% of the patients in the probed group did.
The probed group also had shorter hospitals stays, on average (five days versus seven)… less postoperative pain… and better cosmetic healing of the incisions.
A STUDY SPEAKS TO DOUBTERS
The author of this study was surgeon Shirin Towfigh, MD, attending surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
She told me that she learned this technique while a resident at another medical center and assumed that it was common knowledge. Much to her surprise, she later discovered that very few doctors knew anything about it.
Indeed she initially got a lot of resistance from her colleagues. “They were worried that the probing would be painful and thought it best to leave an incision alone to heal,” she told me.
This prompted her to do the clinical study and now, as she says, “the evidence speaks for itself.”
To be able to do cotton-swab probing, the incision must be closed loosely, with staples placed at least two centimeters apart, says Dr. Towfigh.
This provides enough room for doctors to insert the dry swabs deep into the incision between the staples. (Contrary to doctors’ fears, Dr. Towfigh says, patients experience only a minimum amount of pain from the technique.)
Daily probing starts the morning after surgery, takes two to four minutes, and continues until the wound closes completely, generally in three to five days.
Gentle insertion doesn’t open up the sealed portions of the wound, and the trick here is that bacterial fluid is removed from the site, allowing the body’s natural defenses to deal with the infection.
Some patients are ready to leave the hospital before their wounds have completely sealed — and believe it or not, they are given instructions on how to probe the incisions themselves so they can continue at home.
THE WORD SPREADS
Dr. Towfigh says that her study has engendered excitement among surgeons around the country and abroad and that they have been contacting her to learn more. (She also is preparing an instructional video of the technique.)
Doctors at Cedars-Sinai now are using the technique on appropriate patients throughout the hospital, and a team of colorectal surgeons there has started a similar study in their patient population.
The success of this simple method is a good reminder that an easy, low-tech approach is sometimes just exactly what is needed.
Source(s):
Shirin Towfigh, MD, attending surgeon and associate professor of surgery, division of general surgery, Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
August 31st, 2011 at 8:37 am
Vickie, those words are very kind. I can tell you that Michelle has enough of her own wit and drive then to take on some of mine, as well. I can only speak for myself, who has been in my presence my whole life, yes, it is wonderful! :-)
August 31st, 2011 at 8:40 am
Miyu,
Be careful that an innocent party witness to Chikan might defend the Chijo and begin an uncomfortable and unnecessary confrontation…