reyonthehill

I've finished The Fourth Bear, a truly interesting book. My wife picked it up and read a couple pages while waiting for me, and she continues to give me strange looks as a result. It is purely fantastical, which was welcome during this heated election season, but it was more of a children's book than not. Or I think it was. It was difficult to judge.

Moving on, I've decided to tackle the classic, James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans...

Image: Amazon.com

Note: This is not the exact cover I have, which I could not find; damn the Google.

Interesting point about Mr. Cooper, which I learned while reading the introduction, an introduction that proceeded to give away the entire plot so I had to stop reading it (Why do introductions do that? Not everyone has read the story.), was that his father settled Cooperstown, New York, home of the baseball hall of fame.

When I started the reading project, it was my goal to read all of the books I have in my house, although I have bought a few more along the way. Over the years, my wife and I had accumulated a bunch, but I had never actually read them, and now I'm trying to make use of them. They've mostly served as decoration.

I'm not sure if the Mohicans will survive, however (pun intended), since I have already found myself bored by the end of the first page, although it is difficult to switch gears and start a new book. I'm certainly going to give it a chance, and maybe it will last longer than John Fowles' trash.

This book was an assignment for a college course I had, and needless to say, I never read the book. Let me back up for a moment.

In college, I had a relatively strict curriculum at Syracuse, mostly engineering prerequisites the first two years, core engineering courses the third year, and elective engineering courses the fourth year. On top of that we needed six courses within the school of Arts & Sciences, what we called "throwaway classes." I was able to turn two of the six courses into one of my two minors, but the other four were random, and there was nothing I could do to make use of them. One of those was "English Textual Studies: U.S. Literary History through 1860," a course they currently do not offer. The course covered early American writers, including Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Apess, etc., and one of the books we read was -- you guessed it -- The Last of the Mohicans.

Considering that this course was one of my throwaway classes, I jogged through it, and ended up getting a 'B' or something. Life goes on. But now I am going to try and read the novel, although I admit early American writers using the British writing-style of the time does not excite me.

I'll see how I'm feeling after a chapter or two, and as always, I'll report back.

AFSCME has endorsed Hillary Clinton, but more importantly -- more pertinent to me, anyhow -- AFSCME shares office space on the same floor as me. I just caught a group of them marching out of their office with large signs on posts with slogans like "Children are our future." That is what I like about Hillary, she believes in our children; unlike Obama, who is fervently pro-teen.

I caught a glimpse into the AFSCME lair as well. They have good-sized cubicles, maybe 8 by 8, but they also have CRT monitors (really deep off-white ones). Their carpet was clean, a shade of blue, but AFSCME really needs to increase their dues, and get flat-screen monitors. Without them, their cause is lost. This is California.

- This is what life, er, politics, is all about. A new poll in California shows "Hillary Clinton with a very narrow three-percentage point lead over Barack Obama."

- After watching last night's GOP debate, you would think that the primary will be a referendum on Reagan's legacy. By the way, why don't the democrats have an FDR Library debate? Mr. Obama, would Franklin Delano Roosevelt endorse you for president?

- And what was with the creepy Air Force One backdrop? The republicans are so worried about the coming election, they are opting for subliminal messages.

- And speaking of Air Force One, to my surprise President Bush was in the Bay Area yesterday. It wasn't covered in the morning news, and I didn't learn of it until later in the day. Conservatives do not fret, "Bush kept intact his record of never visiting San Francisco during his presidency." But he did raise a cool $1.5 million.

This is what an action series is supposed to be. I think the Bourne series should rank at the top of any set of trilogies for action, because that is what they deliver, endless action. There are very few, if any, slow parts. However, the jumping through glass windows thing is starting to bug me a bit.

On another point, is the spy movie genre limitless? I mean, they can come up with anything, right, because it has to do with spies, so no one knows if it could be true or not.

(Returned 12/18/07.)

Rent with Netflix.

Real emails from real readers...

Edwards' people should flock to Obama over Clinton??? I'm glad he dropped out now instead of dragging it out.

I don't know (that's not saying much) who will really benefit from Edwards dropping out of the race -- what some would say -- prematurely. Most of Edwards' supporters were more rural, traditional democrats, which has been Hillary's strong suit, in general. However, the mantra of "change" resonates more with Obama's campaign.

I would give a slight advantage to Clinton, say, 60-40 overall, on gaining new votes from Edwards supporters. The rural, union and more hawkish democrats will join Clinton, and the more liberal and urban democrats will presumably make the trek over to Obama's corner.

Clinton will also have one less person to worry about in tomorrow night's debate, where for the most part, Obama was free to jab at Clinton without worrying about an attack from Edwards.

In true undecided fashion, I am going to delay blogging my choice for the democratic nominee until after the California debate Thursday evening. It only seems right, and even more so, it only seems fair. The debate will be head-to-head Obama and Clinton, so there should be enough time for each candidate to voice their opinions and plans on a variety of issues.

I also hope that there will not be the following two questions, but most likely, these two will be a part of the qualitative discussion...
(1) Ms. Clinton, do you feel your husband has had a negative effect on your campaign?
(2) Mr. Obama, it has been reported that you snubbed Ms. Clinton at this week's State of the Union address. Would you care to address that charge?

This was not just bad, it stunk of epic proportions. This film had no script. Disney executives had an idea a few years ago to make a movie based on one of their most popular rides. It was fun and a huge hit at the box office. That is where the trouble began. They simply ordered two more movies -- without the assistance of a plot -- to make as much profit as possible. The plan worked, but the sequels plain sucked.

(Returned 12/12/07.)

Rent with Netflix.

And this is why you should wait until the last moment before picking your candidate in a primary. Shame on you if you mailed in an absentee or early ballot.

Rudy Giuliani placed third last night in Florida and will drop out today, and will reportedly endorse John McCain. Simple and logical. Secretary of Homeland Security?

And the third wheel on the democratic side -- John Edwards -- will reportedly drop out this morning. I considered myself an Edwards fan at one point this election season, but clearly he is following the 22nd corollary in politics: When CNN's Candy Crowley says that you will definitely not drop out before Super Tuesday because you want to be a "kingmaker," you drop out the following day. It is as simple as that.

I think the Edwards decision has a lot to do with pride, as well as political maneuvering. He wasn't going to win the nomination, but he could play spoiler along the way, taking delegates here and there. But in the end, Edwards would have had a very tough decision to make: Clinton or Obama; the first woman president or the first black president. I think Edwards would like the VP spot on either ticket, and remaining in the race would hurt that possibility.

With six days until Super Tuesday, it is four on two.

The GOP field is now (in some logical order)... McCain, Romney, Huckabee and Paul
The Democratic field is now a choice between Clinton and Obama.

I am looking to field a research intern for the considerable future. The research will be primarily online, and will be used for posts published on this site as well as another blog of mine. The position is a function of availability, meaning whenever you find the time to research, you do. There will most likely not be any strict due dates.

The researcher's contributions will always be attributed, and I welcome opinions, suggestions, logic and humor.

The position will be unpaid, but I will offer lunch whenever we meet, as long as that lunch includes a burrito. If you are in school, and your college offers internship credit, I will sign whatever forms necessary to validate your work as meaningful for your future, and I'll be plenty convincing.

If you are interested, send an email to jeff@reyonthehill.com, and be sure to include the following: your name, your education background, how you voted in 2000 and 2004, and an answer to any two of the following three questions --
(1) Who was the first president of the United States?
(2) What is the maximum number of years a president can serve?
(3) Which do you prefer -- apples, oranges or grapes -- and why?

What I like most about my readers is the support I receive from them. I float a lot of opinions, many of them somewhat controversial, but through thick and thin, there are my faithful readers, behind me the entire way...

see your still undecided huh???? being a buffalo underdog guy.....i'm expecting your gonna see the light and vote Obama. If not, you're dead to me....kidding.

The good news is I plan on blogging from Hell. I hear they're very close to having free wi-fi, provided by Google.