Be sure to tune in to WYSO Public Radio (91.3fm) Sunday morning at 10:00 for WYSO Weekend. The weekly newsmagazine program has been expanded to one hour on Sunday in honor of Earth Day.

During that hour WYSO will be airing my recent interview with Philipp Meyer. His debut novel American Rust is a complete knockout, a literary tour de force.

Vick Mickunas

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Did Dick Cheney create a pro-torture Facebook page?

By Vick Mickunas | Friday, April 24, 2009, 12:54 PM

The comedian Andy Borowitz alleges that he did. Of course, Borowitz makes his living by mocking the rich and the powerful. According to a piece he filed today on his site The Borowitz Report, the former Veep wants to bring like-minded people together.

To read it click here:

Note: if you find this whole idea to be offensive try to bear in mind that Andy Borowitz is a comedian and that this is his idea of humor. You might also factor in the notion that while Dick Cheney doesn’t seem to have many qualms about torturing certain individuals that there are many Americans who think that torture is not justifiable under any circumstance. I’m one of them.

Borowitz is the author of numerous books of humor including The Borowitz Report: The Big Book of Shockers …

(Photo from Wikipedia)

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How does one top The Da Vinci Code?

By Vick Mickunas | Friday, April 24, 2009, 10:51 AM

Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code was the top selling book from the past decade. It sold in the gazillions. That’s a lot of books.

Brown’s next book has been a long time in coming. Eagerly awaited. Much delayed. What’s the hurry? Brown doesn’t need the money. He could retire right now.

Even so, Brown has forged ahead and his new book The Lost Symbol will be published on September 15. There it is at number #1 on Amazon.com. It shot straight to the top of the best-sellers on Amazon the moment it was announced. Expect it to occupy that lofty perch all summer long and when the book actually comes out it will sell like ice cream in the desert, or at least that is what Brown’s publishers hope will happen.

Can Dan Brown capture lightning in a jar again? Can it happen twice? I see his chances as being slim to none. Even if he sells 10 million copies it won’t be enough. Amazing, but true. The bar is simply set too high to replicate that level of success. It won’t be a failure, mind you, but it isn’t the Second Coming, either.

I had a chance to interview Dan Brown on my radio show when The Da Vinci Code first came out. I turned it down. Who knew? I have been wrong before and I’m sure that I will be wrong again lots of times.

Note: the generic book cover explains that “this is not the final book jacket.” I wonder if I can get an interview with Dan Brown for this book? I suppose there’s a better chance of winning the lottery? I wonder if they remember that I turned down that interview before?

Good luck, Danny Boy!

Vick Mickunas

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That first morel mushroom…

By Vick Mickunas | Thursday, April 23, 2009, 01:30 PM

The past few days I have noticed mushroom hunters in the woods near my place. But it was too cold. Too wet. Today however is perfect.

I was just handed the first morel mushroom of the year. It is gorgeous. Large. I can’t wait to taste it. I’m certain that it is a morel but even so I’m going to double check in my handy mushroom guide.

I’m pulling out my copy of Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois & Surrounding States - A Field-to-Kitchen Guide (University of Illinois Press) by Joe McFarland and Gregory M. Mueller. There it is on page 9. It’s definitely a morel. (Illinois, Ohio…a morel is a morel!)

I think I better head out and see if I can find a few more…

Happy shrooming!

Vick Mickunas

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Remembering Michael Cox…

By Vick Mickunas | Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 09:30 PM

The New York Times obituary section is a daily must-read for me. Otherwise I might have missed the death notice of the novelist Michael Cox. A few years ago I reviewed his amazing debut novel The Meaning of Night (W.W. Norton). What an incredible book.

I was just starting to read the sequel, The Glass of Time when I learned that Michael had died. What an amazing life!

Here’s the obit from the New York Times:

Michael Cox, Editor and Author of ‘The Meaning of Night,’ Dies at 60

By MARGALIT FOX

Michael Cox, an authority on the Victorian ghost story who, five years ago, spurred by the threat of blindness, sat down and wrote the vast Gothic novel that had been haunting him for three decades, “The Meaning of Night,” a widely praised narrative of intrigue and murder, died on March 31 in Kettering, England. He was 60 and lived in the Northamptonshire region of England.

The cause was hemangiopericytoma, a rare vascular cancer, said his wife, Dizzy Cox.

Published in 2006, “The Meaning of Night” was sold at auction for an advance of £430,000 (about $800,000 at the time); the figure was widely reported to have been a record for a British first novel. Released in Britain by John Murray Publishers, the book was published in the United States by W.W. Norton & Company and has been translated into about two dozen languages.

“The Meaning of Night” is set in an 1850s London awash in fog, footfalls and fatality. Subtitled “A Confession,” it draws on, and looks winkingly back at, the conventions of Victorian novel-writing in all their purple profusion. Ostensibly a rediscovered manuscript (itself a Victorian narrative conceit), the book is thick with editorial footnotes, snippets of Latin and deliberately florid prose as it tells a story of murder, usurped inheritance, revenge and other unpleasantnesses.

A former singer-songwriter turned biographer and editor, Mr. Cox opened the novel with a striking — and much-quoted — first line: “After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.”

That crime was merely a dry run for the one that the narrator, Edward Glyver, truly wants to commit: the murder of Phoebus Rainsford Daunt, a mediocre poet. It is not the writing of bad poetry that warrants murder, however attractive an idea that might be. It is that Daunt, who has tormented Glyver since they were schoolboys together, is poised to cheat him out of Evenwood, the sprawling country estate to which Glyver believes he is rightful heir. Along the way there are dark cobblestone alleys, hidden documents, opium dens and a trollop with a heart of gold.

With its echoes of Wilkie Collins, “The Meaning of Night” was praised by reviewers for its propulsive plot and keen reconstruction of a vanished world. Some critics quailed, though, at the novel’s self-consciously extravagant prose and sheer physical mass: it is 703 pages.

Mr. Cox wrote a sequel, “The Glass of Time,” published in the United States by Norton last year.

Michael Andrew Cox was born on Oct. 25, 1948, in Finedon, Northamptonshire. As a child, he had a chronic ear infection, which confined him to bed with the Victorians for long periods. In a treatment widely used at the time, radium rods were inserted into his ears; Mr. Cox later came to believe that this was responsible for his cancer, his wife said.

Besides his wife, the former Desda Crockett, whom he married in 1973, Mr. Cox is survived by his parents, Eileen and Gordon Cox; a daughter, Emily Cox; two stepchildren, Miranda de Freitas and Barnaby Craike-Pickering; and three grandchildren.

As a teenager, Michael played guitar and keyboards with a local group and began writing songs. While he was an undergraduate at Cambridge, he was asked to write and perform music to accompany a friend’s silent film. A record producer was in the house the night that the film was screened and encouraged Mr. Cox to pursue a career as a rock musician.

After graduating in 1971 with a degree in English literature, Mr. Cox released two solo albums and several singles under the name Matthew Ellis; later, with his own band, he released an album and singles as Obie Clayton.

He left the music business in 1977, and worked as an editor for a British health-book publisher. He wrote a well-received biography of the English scholar and ghost-story writer M.R. James before joining Oxford University Press as an editor.

At Oxford, Mr. Cox edited many literary anthologies, among them “The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories” (1986) and “Victorian Ghost Stories” (1991), both in collaboration with R. A. Gilbert; “Victorian Tales of Mystery and Detection” (1992); and “The Oxford Book of Spy Stories” (1996).

Since his undergraduate days, Mr. Cox had been consumed with the idea of writing a Victorian novel of his own, but for decades it existed only as a sheaf of aborted first chapters.

“I’d read Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle and I knew they always started at the end of the puzzle and worked back,” he told The Times of London in 2006. “I wasn’t confident that I could do it, and I couldn’t do it for 30 years.”

Then, in the early 1990s, his cancer was diagnosed, and in the years that followed, Mr. Cox underwent operations to remove tumors from his nasal cavity, spine and brain. He took early retirement from Oxford in 2002, with a modest pension and few prospects.

In 2004 Mr. Cox began to lose his sight, partly as a result of a brain tumor. To prepare for surgery, he was given a powerful steroid to reduce the pressure of the tumor on the optic nerve. The drug gave him almost superhuman energy. He threw away his early chapters and in a sleepless frenzy began to write “The Meaning of Night.”

After the operation, which restored his sight temporarily, Mr. Cox returned to his manuscript. Before long it had become the subject of a fevered publishers’ auction. (An editor at John Murray placed the winning bid by telephone while fleeing down a fire escape during an office fire alarm, the British press reported at the time.)

In interviews since then Mr. Cox expressed amazement at the bidding war his manuscript engendered. “As an ex-publisher, I was realistic about its prospects,” he said in The Times of London interview. “I thought that if I got 10 grand out of this, I’d be laughing.”

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Green reads for Earth Day…

By Vick Mickunas | Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 11:41 AM

Yesterday I got into a conversation with a fellow I encounter on occasion in downtown Yellow Springs. He has always seemed like a decent, intelligent sort of chap. We chat about various and sundry subjects. I don’t even know his name.

So we were talking and somehow the subject wandered into the area of global warming. He insisted that the whole notion of global warming is some liberal fallacy, a canard if you will. In fact, he asserted that the world is actually cooling down and that we are on the brink of another Ice Age.

After I paused to be astonished I had a reasonable discussion with this gentleman. I never realized that he is a few cards short of a full deck. Oh well. Nice guy.

In honor of Earth Day I’m reading a few very different books on topics that all seem to be captivating despite the parasol of apathy scornfully brandished by those few indifferent sorts who would much rather be mowing their lawns.

It’s cold outside but tomorrow it is supposed to warm up. Should I bring my umbrella? Or my sunscreen?

Here’s my list:

The Vanishing Face of Gaia - A Final Warning (Basic Books) by James Lovelock. The creator of Gaia Theory provides a clear and precise scenario of how global warming is accelerating and how projections like those made by my casual acquaintance are absurdly inaccurate.

Tar Sands - Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent (Greystone Books) by Andrew Nikiforuk. The oil sands of Alberta, Canada are a major source of American oil providing almost 20% of our fuel. It is being processed in the Midwest where it is now causing significant air and water pollution. We are energy junkies employing a technology that is killing our forests. Did you know that?

Plan/bee- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hardest Working Creatures on the Planet (Perigee) by Susan Brackney. A few years ago I had to cut down a 200-year-old white oak tree in my yard. A hollow limb contained a thriving hive of honeybees. I spent the rest of the summer observing them and it brought back fond memories of my neighbor who kept beehives when I was a child.

We need the bees. On my recent vacation in Hawaii I was thrilled to see lots of honeybees flitting among the tropical blooms. My neighbor keeps bees. My other neighbor needs those bees to pollinate his orchards. They are endangered and we will be in big trouble if the bees vanish.

The Face on Your Plate - the Truth About Food (W.W. Norton) by Jeffery Moussaieff Masson. I enjoy a good slab of steak. Prime beef is one of the pleasures we take for granted, right? A few years ago I interviewed Jeffery Masson on my radio show on WYSO. He is an activist and he made me feel guilty for being a carnivore. He just did it again. Try reading this book. You’ll never look at a piece of meat again without feeling some pangs of guilt.

Happy Earth Day!

Vick Mickunas

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Another congressman bows before Rush Limbaugh.

By Vick Mickunas | Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 06:52 PM

Why are Republicans so intimidated by Rush Limbaugh? The latest apologist in a long line of GOP supplicants, Kansas Congressman Todd Tiahrt, has now genuflected before the throne of the Mighty Limbaugh.

According to an editorial in the Kansas City Star:

Rush Limbaugh wins again!

“Just last week, I wrote that Kansas Congressman Todd Tiahrt had been asked at a Kansas City Star Editorial Board meeting whether Limbaugh was the de facto leader of the Republican Party.

“No, no, he’s just an entertainer,” replied Tiahrt, who’s running for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Whoah. Those are fighting words for dittoheads and other supporters of Limbaugh.

The radio talk-show host already has gone after people who have refused to crown him king of the GOP — or, to be fairer, at least as a powerful spokesman for the ultra-conservative cause.”

The congressman from Kansas performed a quick act of contrition for his sin. His office issued the following statement:

“The congressman believes Rush is a great leader of the conservative movement in America — not a party leader responsible for election losses. Nothing the congressman said diminished the role Rush has played and continues to play in the conservative movement.”

To read the rest of the piece click HERE:

Rush Limbaugh is the author of books like See, I Told You So. He has always seemed like a big cuddly teddy bear with a cigar. So why does he inspire so much fear among his fellow conservatives? It’s not like somebody who sounds off about Rush is going to be waterboarded. We don’t torture people in America, right?

Vick Mickunas

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Remembering Mark Twain…

By Vick Mickunas | Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 10:59 AM

On this date in 1910 the author known as Mark Twain died. Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Twain wrote some wonderful books. His best known works, “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn” are considered to be classics of American literature. He wrote many other books as well, fiction and non-fiction, and he wandered the globe, experiencing exotic lands and cultures, and writing about his adventures.

Twain’s savage wit kept a generation of politicians on short leashes. Brash and sarcastic, Twain punctured pomposity with his brilliant prose. Our airwaves today are muckish with the incessant nattering of pundits and politicos. How I wish we had a wit like Mark Twain around to slice through these moldering mounds of media mayhem. It has been a long 99 years without our Twain…

Here’s a link to Twain’s original death notice from the New York Times - click HERE:

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Audiobooks of the year…

By Vick Mickunas | Monday, April 20, 2009, 11:24 PM

The Audio Publishers Association has announced their nominees for Audiobook of the Year in a press release. They are:

Brisingr

By Christopher Paolini

Read by Gerard Doyle

Published by Listening Library

“As the third book of the Inheritance trilogy, Brisingr already had a strong following but the audiobook was an integral part of the overall Inheritance experience. Clues about the next book in the series were even included in an audio-only interview with the author. Narrator Gerard Doyle’s masterful performance encompassed everything from people of all ages and genders to fantastic beasts with magical powers, demonstrating his own magical gifts in the process.

The Graveyard Book

By Neil Gaiman

Read by the author

Published by HarperAudio

Also a Finalist in the Thriller/Suspense and Children’s Titles for Ages 8-12 categories.

The Graveyard Book leaped into immortality with its Newbery Medal win, but the audiobook adds the author’s haunting performance, which strikes the perfect balance between a professional reader and the heart and soul of the author. Bela Fleck’s eerie and whimsical original musical composition for the audiobook sets the tone and punctuates the production. Gaiman’s unabashed enthusiasm for the audiobook format found expression throughout his book tour and on his website. Gaiman’s and HarperAudio’s efforts have clearly won new fans through these recorded readings and effective social media marketing.

A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father

By Augusten Burroughs

Read by the author

Published by Macmillan Audio

Augusten Burroughs’ audio bestseller, A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father, features a dramatic narration by the author and additional material specifically related to the audiobook production, including original songs from Patti Smith, Sea Wolf, Ingrid Michaelson and Tegan Quin, and a unique musical score. Additionally, Burroughs was particularly involved in both the production and promotion of the audiobook, endorsing the audiobook product as much as he did the hardcover.”

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Stephen Hawking hospitalized…

By Vick Mickunas | Monday, April 20, 2009, 05:18 PM

Scientist Stephen Hawking, the author of numerous books including “A Brief History of Time” was hospitalized today.

BBC News reports:

“Leading scientist Stephen Hawking’s condition has “improved” after being admitted to hospital with chest problems, Cambridge University says.

His employers said Professor Hawking was undergoing tests on Monday at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

A university spokesman said the 67-year-old, who has motor neurone disease, was now “comfortable”.

Prof Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time, has worked at Cambridge University for more than 30 years.

The world-famous physicist, who is wheelchair-bound and speaks with the aid of a voice synthesiser, had flown to the US at the end of February to California’s Institute of Technology where he is a visiting scholar.

But he had not been well for some weeks and called off an appearance at Arizona State University on 6 April because of his illness.

He was flown back to the UK on Saturday and was admitted to Addenbrooke’s on Monday after being seen by a doctor.”

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Remembering Columbine…

By Vick Mickunas | Monday, April 20, 2009, 01:59 PM

Do you remember Columbine? Ten years ago today the massacre at Columbine High School took place in the Denver suburb of Littleton. Two students went on a killing spree that day. The world has never been the same. Gun violence has proliferated ever since the dark genie escaped from the bottle that spring day at Columbine.

I remember when I first heard about it on National Public Radio. I was doing my radio show on WYSO when the news break came on the air. When I heard the word Columbine I flinched. My cousins grew up in Littleton and they were proud graduates of Columbine High School.

My aunt worked there. A few years before the killings she left Columbine and re-married. Her new husband was the former principal of Columbine High School. The horrors of that day hit way too close to home.

Dave Cullen was a journalist who covered the massacre. He has just published “Columbine”, a non-fiction account of the events that led up to that terrible day.

Last year Wally Lamb published “The Hour I First Believed”, a fictional account of the killings. I interviewed him about it. When I mentioned that some of my relatives had close ties to Columbine he reacted the same way that I did ten years ago when I heard about it on the news. He gasped. I flinched again.

Columbine. That name shall live in infamy forever.

Vick Mickunas

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Slavery wasn’t that long ago…

By Vick Mickunas | Sunday, April 19, 2009, 08:11 PM

“The Book of Night Women” by Marlon James, (Riverhead Books, 417 pages, $26.95)

A few weeks ago I was on board a plane jetting across the Pacific Ocean. I was snuggled into my seat with a book and my dreams of the relaxing vacation that lay ahead of me.

I was reading “The Book of Night Women” by Marlon James. It isn’t a book that leads to relaxation. It’s the fictional account of a slave revolt in Jamaica during the late 18th Century. James is a professor at Macalester College. He was born in Jamaica in 1970.

The story is being told by an unknown narrator who is speaking in the slave dialect of that era and place. This mysterious storyteller is relating the tale of a slave called Lilith. Our narrator seems to know Lilith quite well.

Toni Morrison’s most recent novel “A Mercy” depicted slavery in colonial Virginia during the early years of the American colonies. Slavery is a horror. But there are varying levels of cruelty. The slavery that James describes in the British colony at Jamaica makes Morrison’s account seem almost benign by comparison.

Lilith lives on a sugar cane plantation. She is a lovely young woman with dazzling green eyes. As the story begins she has been placed in a situation where she is not expected to do very much work. All around her unspeakable cruelty is the norm.

A slave who shows the slightest trace of insubordination risks instant death at the hands of her captors. There is a hierarchy among the slaves. At the top rung are the “Johnny-jumpers” who assist the overseers in controlling the slaves. Their cruelty is excessive, too.

Then there are the house slaves who possess some slight dignity and privilege when compared to the lowest and saddest ones, the field slaves, who labor and die in agony. Lilith soon joins the house slaves in the big mansion where she finds a mentor in the embittered Homer, a woman who cannot forgive the loss of her children.

Homer is the leader of the “night women” of the title. They meet regularly in a cave to plot a rebellion against the whites. The white characters in this book don’t come off very well. The domination of other human beings provides scanty opportunities for kindness.

Lilith falls in love with the Irish overseer. On occasion he even treats her like a human being. One must bear in mind that in those days the Irish were treated as their own inferior class of people by the English.

She thinks he might love her too: ” She know as soon as he start playing with her name, taking Lilith and Lovey and getting Lily and then going back to Lovey.”

The story builds upon layers of violence and hatred that ultimately explode when the slaves revolt. Lilith is caught in the middle. Her sympathies are with Homer’s rebellion but she loves the Irishman. James has written a stunning and difficult book. It will burn in this reviewer’s memory for many years to come.

Vick Mickunas

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Video sensation Susan Boyle…

By Vick Mickunas | Saturday, April 18, 2009, 01:03 PM

Everybody seems to be talking about Susan Boyle. I hadn’t seen the video so I decided that I had better find out what I was missing.

I was reminded of Nuala O’Faolain’s Are You Somebody?: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman when I saw it. Have you seen this viral YouTube video yet? What did you think?

26+ million views on YouTube in just a week. Amazing. If you have not seen it yet or you just want to watch it another time click HERE:

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An embarrassment of riches…

By Vick Mickunas | Friday, April 17, 2009, 09:52 AM

The New York Yankees played their home opener yesterday at the new 1.5 billion dollar Yankee Stadium. They planned to build this monstrosity long before the economic collapse that has roiled world markets from Wall Street to Riga. Even so, the Yankees went on a gluttonous spending spree last summer after everything had already gone south. The economy that is. The Yankees lavished over 300 million dollars in contracts for a few marquee talents that most other teams could not begin to afford. This shameless display of affluence flies in the face of ordinary Americans who cannot afford to rent even one single seat for a game at the new Yankee Stadium.

Yesterday the Yankees rolled out their big prize, the pitcher C.C. Sabathia, a guy who began his career with the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland was in town to face the Yankees and Sabathia pitched well enough to win the game. Then it all fell apart. The Indians shelled the woeful Yank bullpen for 9 runs in one inning and the Bronx Bumblers went down to a humiliating loss in their debut.

Which leads this observer to this conclusion: you can spend all the money you want but you still have to show up and play the game of baseball, and play it better than that. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner grew up in Cleveland. Before he ever bought the Yankees he tried to buy the Indians. The embarrassment of riches that transpired yesterday in the gaudy confines of the plush new ball yard must have been particularly galling to poor George who actually made a rare appearance at the game.

Which brings me to the book publishing biz…. That industry was once as flush as the music industry. I can remember some excessive entertainment provided by music industry bigwigs during the glory days before the music biz lost the ability to generate Yankee sized profits.

The book biz was also doing rather well until recently. A year ago I attended the Book Expo America conference at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Things had already gotten tight for some publishers. Cross country plane tickets from New York seemed to be in short supply.

That didn’t prevent at least one publisher, the Yankees of the book biz if you will, from putting on a display of excess that was downright outrageous. I know because I was there.

The hottest ticket last year at BEA was equivalent to that Yankee home opener yesterday. It was a private party at Larry King’s mansion in Beverly Hills. These days Larry is excited about CNN’s Twitter publicity battle with Ashton Kutcher to be the first entity to reach a million tweets. But a year ago Larry was generating some publicity buzz for his good pal Ted Turner, the billionaire founder of CNN and former owner of baseball’s Atlanta Braves.

The party at Larry’s was for a book rollout for Call Me Ted, Ted Turner’s memoir that was slated to come out last fall, a few months afterwards. As one entered King’s palatial estate there were stacks of memoirs piled upon tables. I opened a copy. All the pages were blank. That should have been my first clue.

It was an amazing party. An army of servants was just a few feet away from every guest, topping off our wine glasses and plying us with savory appetizers. Larry King got up and gave a speech by the swimming pool. The back drop was swaying palm trees and a huge poster of Ted. Larry told some really bad jokes and introduced his latest young family then the guest of honor.

A lovely time was had by all. I never spoke to Larry King but I did have a chat with Ted Turner. When he found out that I review books for the Dayton Daily News he got mildly excited (for a billionaire). He told me that he was born in Cincinnati and moved south when he was a boy. He asked me if I planned to review his book when it came out? I said, yes-Mr. Turner, I will!

And I would have. That was the problem. His publisher never sent me a copy of Call Me Ted. Can you believe it? I contacted the publisher after the book came out and requested that they send me a copy. I figured that they spent tens of thousands on that party and millions on Ted’s advance so they could cough up one lousy book, right? Wrong.

They never sent me the book. I never reviewed it. The publisher will probably never recoup that multi million dollar advance they paid Ted. All that expense, the big party, the full page ad in the New York Times, for what? They couldn’t be bothered to send this humble reviewer a copy of Call Me Ted.

It reminds me of the New York Yankees. You can spend all the money in the world but you still need to do the little things like getting the other team out and scoring some runs. That’s why they call it baseball.

They call it publishing because it is all about publishing books. I’m still waiting for my copy of Call Me Ted. Perhaps it will arrive before the New York Yankees win their next World Series? I think that one place will freeze over before either occurs…

Vick Mickunas

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Now the world is really flat…

By Vick Mickunas | Thursday, April 16, 2009, 01:21 PM

Tom Friedman the best-selling author of books like The World is Flat probably has a bit of a headache today. He is married to Anne Bucksbaum. She is an heiress to the General Growth fortune.

In case you aren’t familiar with General Growth, they own shopping malls all over the country and they just filed the largest real estate bankruptcy in American history:

“The big losers in the company’s decline include its founding Bucksbaum family. As of March 23, chairman John Bucksbaum and other family interests held more than 2.6 million shares, according to a regulatory filing.”

“Bucksbaum was replaced as chief executive in October. The company also replaced chief financial officer Bernard Freibaum, who had been struggling with debts of his own. Freibaum sold almost 3 million shares in October to repay margin calls — demands for repayment of borrowing — and he was left with $3.4 million of margin debt, the company reported in October.” (The Washington Post-April 16, 2009)

““General Growth’s filing also marks a humbling of the Bucksbaum family, which made a family grocery business in Marshalltown, Iowa, into a powerhouse of retail shopping in the Midwest. The family still holds about a 25 percent stake in the company, and John Bucksbaum, an avid cyclist, remains its chairman after having served as its chief executive.” (The New York Times-April 16, 2009)

I attended high school in Des Moines with several members of the Bucksbaum clan. They lived rather simply then. Their houses were not mansions. They went to public schools. Anne Bucksbaum is very smart and she is a truly nice person. I’m saddened to hear that the family finances have fallen so far.

Vick Mickunas

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Queer Theory pioneer was a Daytonian…

By Vick Mickunas | Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 07:13 PM

The New York Times ran the obituary today of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. She was a noted authority on an academic discipline known as Queer Studies. Sedgwick wrote some notable books during her career. The two amazing things that I learned from reading her obit are that Sedgwick wasn’t gay and that she was born in Dayton, Ohio. Who knew?

(And a completely unrelated observation)… On my recent vacation I took some long flights over the Pacific Ocean. My fellow passengers occupied themselves primarily by watching the movie, napping, or reading. I checked out the books that they were perusing. One guy was reading some Stephen King. Another was into some J.R.R. Tolkien. The woman across the aisle was engrossed in something called The Best Jokes I’ve Heard. I never heard her laugh even once over the course of several hours…

Vick Mickunas

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he vanished without a trace…

By Vick Mickunas | Tuesday, April 14, 2009, 11:20 AM

In 1888, Colonel 
Percy Harrison Fawcett was stationed with the British Royal Artillery in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). It was there where he heard legends about a hidden trove of treasure, rare jewels. He tried to locate it. That failed quest got him hooked on exploring.

Fawcett settled down for a bit. He married a woman he had met in Ceylon. Back in England they started a family, eventually having two sons and a daughter. But domestic life was never comfortable for Fawcett. The urge to explore strange lands became overwhelming.

David Grann, a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine, relates the bizarre tale of this once legendary explorer in “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.”

Fawcett went to the Amazon rain forest of South America. He was involved in the mapping of remote areas that were then virtually unknown to Europeans. His physical strength and endurance made it possible for him to move rapidly while avoiding the many hazards there. He fell in love with the place.

Nina, his long suffering wife, endured years of poverty and separation as Fawcett traipsed across the expanses of the Amazon. Grann enumerates the dangers Fawcett faced; hostile natives, giant snakes, swarms of biting insects, diseases, and sometimes even mutinous companions.

One hundred years ago marked the end of the final great explorations of the Amazon and the polar icecaps. Fawcett scorned those polar explorers. He considered them all to be weaklings. Grann describes an expedition in the Amazon when Fawcett was actually accompanied by a famous polar explorer. The poor fellow wasn’t moving fast enough for Fawcett’s taste so he abandoned him there.

He took a break to play the war hero during World War I, but by 1925 Fawcett had become convinced that he would find the site of the legendary El Dorado, the remains of a grand and ancient civilization that must be hidden somewhere in the jungle.

He called it “the lost city of Z.” His expedition was publicized in newspapers all over the world. He took along his son and his son’s best friend. As they progressed deeper into the unknown they sent out native messengers with progress reports.

They went into the jungle and soon vanished, never to be seen again. Were they taken prisoner by cannibals? What happened to them? Nobody knows. Grann retraced their journey. He went to South America. Much of the jungle in that region is now gone. He didn’t find any trace of the Fawcett expedition or of the lost city of “Z.”

He did discover a ripping good narrative of obsession. He keeps his readers on edge as poison arrows fill the air. Man-eating creatures lunge. Our intrepid explorers suffer from every sort of deprivation. Fawcett’s wife never gave up hope that her husband and son would return some day as heroes.

Grann’s book has been optioned to Hollywood. Brad Pitt will be producing the film and playing the role of our doomed explorer.

Vick Mickunas

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50 is the New Fifty…

By Vick Mickunas | Monday, April 13, 2009, 08:39 PM

Age is just a number, right? Youth is wasted on the young - or so it seems. When you look into the mirror who do you see?

You can see a lot of different people in the mirror depending on your point of view. I’m reading 50 is the New Fifty - 10 Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood (Viking) by Suzanne Braun Levine. (I know, you’re wondering; why is he reading that?)

Face it, the better understanding I can gain of women of a certain age the better~!

Braun offers what she describes as “10 life lessons.” Here’s an example; Lesson Seven: Age is not a Disease.

This book offers affirmation and some of us can certainly use more of that…

Vick Mickunas

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remembering a librarian…

By Vick Mickunas | Monday, April 13, 2009, 04:38 PM

I’m rather fond of librarians. This notice from the American Library Association caught my eye:

JUDITH KRUG, LIBRARIAN, TIRELESS ADVOCATE FOR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, DIES

CHICAGO -Judith Fingeret Krug, 69, the long-time director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, who fought censorship on behalf of the nation’s libraries, died April 11 after a lengthy illness.

Krug, who often said, “Censorship dies in the light of day,” was the director of OIF and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation for more than 40 years. She was admired and respected for her efforts to guarantee the rights of individuals to express ideas and read the ideas of others without governmental interference.

Through her unwavering support of writers, teachers, librarians and, above all, students, she has advised countless numbers of librarians and trustees in dealing with challenges to library material. She has been involved in multiple First Amendment cases that have gone all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In addition, she was the founder of ALA’s Banned Books Week, an annual week-long event that celebrates the freedom to choose and the freedom to express one’s opinion.

“For more than four decades Judith Krug inspired librarians and educated government officials and others about everyone’s inviolable right to read. Her leadership in defense of the First Amendment was always principled and unwavering. Judith’s courage, intelligence, humor and passion will be much missed - but her spirit will inspire us always, “said Jim Rettig, ALA president, and Keith Michael Fiels, ALA executive director.

Krug was the recipient of many awards, including the Joseph P. Lippincott Award, the Irita Van Doren Award, the Harry Kalven Freedom of Expression Award and, most recently, the William J. Brennan, Jr. award, from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. Krug also received an honorary doctorate, Doctor of Humane Letters, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2005. In July, the Freedom to Read Foundation planned to give her an award for her years of vision and leadership. In addition, she served as a senator and vice president of the Phi Beta Kappa society.

Earlier this year, she received the William J. Brennan Jr. Award for her “remarkable commitment to the marriage of open books and open minds.”

Krug was only the fifth person to receive the award since 1993. The award recognizes a person or group that demonstrates a commitment to the principles of free expression followed by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

“Often in the face of great personal criticism, Krug has never wavered in her defense of First Amendment freedoms, whether testifying before Congress, leading legal challenges to unconstitutional laws or intervening hundreds of times to support and advise librarians in their efforts to keep particular books,” according to the center.

Born Judith Fingeret in Pittsburgh in 1940, she began her library career as a reference librarian at Chicago’s John Crerar Library in 1962. Later, she was hired as a cataloguer at Northwestern University’s dental school library, working there from 1963-65. She joined the ALA as a research analyst from 1965-67 and assumed the post of OIF director in 1967, also taking over the duties of executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation.

Krug was a member of the ALA, as well as Phi Beta Kappa, serving as an associate on the Chicago area’s executive committee and as president from 1991-94. She was also a member of the American Bar Association’s committee on public understanding. In addition, she was on the board of directors of the Chicago chapter of the American Jewish Commission, on the council of Literary Magazines and Presses and the chair of the Media Coalition.

She is survived by her husband Herbert, her children Steven (Denise) of Northbrook and Michelle (David) Litchman of Glencoe and five grandchildren: Jessica, Sydney, Hannah, Rachel and Jason. She is also survived by her brothers, Jay (Ilene) Fingeret and Dr. Arnold (Denise) Fingeret of Pittsburgh, Pa., and her sister and brother-in-law, Shirley and Dr. Howard Katzman of Miami, Fla. She was preceded in death by her sister Susan (Steve) Pavsner of Bethesda Md.

Services for Judith Fingeret Krug will be held at Beth Emet Synagogue, 1224 Dempster St., Evanston Ill., at 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 14, followed by an internment service. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Freedom to Read Foundation, 50 East Huron, Chicago Illinois 60611, or www.ftrf.org.

Judith Krug was my kind of librarian.

I remember the first librarian I ever met. She used to be on the Bookmobile that would park at my church every Saturday morning. I never missed it. That librarian learned my tastes quickly. She would pull out the latest Civil War book out of the stacks when I would arrive. That began a life long love affair with librarians.

Charlene was my high school librarian. For book lovers in Des Moines the annual Planned Parenthood book sale was the event of the year. Librarians had special access the night before the sale officially began. Charlene would ask me to accompany her to the sale the night before. I would push her shopping cart for her. This was back in the days when you could find some incredible books for a mere pittance. Charlene would say: “now Victor if you see anything you really want please place it in the cart and we’ll purchase it for you.” I still have the books that Charlene bought for me…

Did I mention that I’m rather fond of librarians?

So many libraries…

So many librarians…

So many books…

So little time…

Vick Mickunas

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Amazon.com’s new “adult” reading policy

By Vick Mickunas | Sunday, April 12, 2009, 05:39 PM

Have you heard about Amazon.com’s new policy regarding certain adult reading material? Apparently, Amazon.com doesn’t have any problem selling certain books, but they have dropped the reader rankings on certain material, even some fairly famous works of literature. This has some people up in arms. Maybe Amazon just got hacked?

A spokesperson for Amazon stated the policy as such:

“In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.” But wait, now Amazon denies that they censored those rankings.

For the latest developments on this story click HERE:

Vick Mickunas

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Kids’ Letters to President Obama…

By Vick Mickunas | Saturday, April 11, 2009, 07:16 PM

I’m old enough to remember when Art Linkletter still had a TV show. He had a feature called Kids Say the Darndest Things. They would show kids just talking the way that kids sometimes do. It was the sweetest thing to hear what they had to say back in those days. Kids always have a lot to say. Are we listening?

I was just reminded about that program. I’m reading Kids’ Letters to President Obama (Ballantine Books).

It’s really sweet. Here’s an example:

Dear Mr. Obama,

You seem very nice. Can you help the country by making people be nice to people they do not like? Can you please, because I hate it when people yell at other people for no good reason. It just makes me feel sad.

Your friend,

Alec, age 9

Florissant, MO

We sure can learn a lot from kids. Maybe we should start listening to what they have to say?

Isn’t Art Linkletter still alive? I’ll bet he would like that…

Vick Mickunas

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talkin’ baseball on the radio this Sunday…

By Vick Mickunas | Friday, April 10, 2009, 11:03 AM

Be sure to tune in to WYSO Public Radio this Sunday morning at 10:30 to hear my conversation with Paul Dickson, the author of the Dickson Baseball Dictionary ( W.W. Norton).

This incredible volume just came out in a third edition. It contains every imaginable bit of baseball slang and verbiage and a lot of terms you have probably never heard. This book runs almost 1000 pages. I loved it!

You might recall that I reviewed it recently in the Dayton Daily News:

“I will readily admit that I am a baseball nut. Are you? If you are, then I have the perfect book for you: The Dickson Baseball Dictionary. The creation of Paul Dickson, the third edition of this fabulous volume will be published by WW Norton in March, just in time for baseball season.” —-Vick Mickunas, Dayton Daily News

Tune in this Sunday morning at 91.3fm to savor some classic baseball terms with Paul Dickson…

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lie about your age - the terrorists win

By Vick Mickunas | Thursday, April 9, 2009, 08:25 PM

Laughter seems to be at a distinct premium these days. Not enough humor lately. We could all use a good laugh.

I just found some humor. When You Lie About Your Age, the Terrorists Win: Reflections on Looking in the Mirror (Villard) by Carol Leifer is a funny book.

Carol is a comedian and she garnered some tasty book blurbs from funmeisters like Ellen Degeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Bill Maher.

Here’s an example of her humor:

On bumper stickers: ” For the love of God, man, would you finally take off the KERRY/EDWARDS ‘04 sticker? Talk about not moving on! No wonder you won’t make the right on red when it’s completely clear. (And if you tell me there’s a GORE/LIEBERMAN underneath that one, I might just have to take you apart.”

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Hew, Screw, and Glue…

By Vick Mickunas | Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 03:33 PM

We have a lot of stuff. Everywhere you look there’s more of it: stuff. Do you ever think about where all that stuff comes from? How it is made?

I just picked up a wonderful little book that is filled with amazing little factoids about how stuff is made. Hew, Screw, and Glue - How Stuff is Made (Abrams Image) by James Innes-Smith is a nifty trove of info.

Here are some random things that I learned from reading this book:

I knew that corn cobs once served the outhouse crowd as a form of toilet paper but I never knew that mussel shells once performed that function as well. Ouch!

Before there was a modern cosmetic industry a form of lipstick was made from crushed bugs. They used beetles and ants to make it. Eech!

Paper clips come in at least 30 different shapes.

During the 1700’s most people bathed only once a year.

Every year Americans consume 10 billion doughnuts.

Peanuts are a 4 billion dollar industry in the USA. Or, at least, they used to be before this recent peanut processing scare.

Vick Mickunas

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comparing Molokai to Yellow Springs…

By Vick Mickunas | Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 11:27 AM

I recently spent a week on the island of Molokai, on my first vacation in a number of years. Molokai is an island that is a part of Hawaii, our 50th state. Hawaii will celebrate 50 years of statehood this year. Some residents of Molokai are quite patriotic so they will be celebrating. It needs to be stated that life on Molokai is a celebration that never really stops. (Unless there’s a tsunami).

Upon my return to Yellow Springs I have found myself comparing these two communities. Molokai is a very small island with a comparable population. Here’s what I have been considering:

Molokai has a population of about 4000 people. So does Yellow Springs. Molokai has about 40 churches. Yellow Springs has about a half dozen.

Molokai has no traffic lights and a top speed limit of 45 mph. YS has lots of traffic lights and we even have speed traps on occasion. The police presence in Molokai is negligible. There doesn’t seem to be much crime there. In YS our weekly police report in the YS News is a popular feature. Last week there was a bust for an indoor marijuana growing operation here. Indubitably Molokai must be a super place to cultivate high test herbs but I didn’t detect any evidence of that being done. Call me innocent. The coffee they cultivate on Molokai was of great interest however. Yum! I’m drinking some now.

There are no car dealerships on Molokai. There used to be some in YS but that was a long time ago.

The housing market on Molokai was overheated a few years ago. It is undergoing a correction now. The housing market in YS was until recently overheated. Now there are lots of houses for sale here and few buyers. Both markets are still priced too high.

On a typical pleasant Saturday in YS there are probably 1000 tourists passing through the village. I would guess that Molokai doesn’t see that many tourists in a whole week.

Molokai has one hotel that I noticed. YS has a motel and some B&B’s. Molokai seems to be heading in the direction of creating sustainable growth without big developers driving that growth. The biggest development on the island, Molokai Ranch is in shutdown mode. The big hotel there closed. The resort there is decaying. Islanders are trying to take over the property through the process of eminent domain. Molokai is the windiest island. They want to turn Molokai Ranch into a big generator of wind powered electricity.

Developers were once drooling over YS. The economic downturn has curtailed some development plans but there is a battle right now in town between pro-development forces and low growth green space preservationists.

Molokai doesn’t have one single decent restaurant. I tried most of them. It’s a great place to buy fresh fish at one of the two grocery stores but you should just take it home and cook it there. YS has two excellent places to eat and one very good grocery store.

Food is expensive on Molokai. A gallon of milk will set you back big time. There are lots of cattle on the ranches of Molokai however and you can get tasty grass-fed beef steaks for cheap prices there. In YS we produce very little food, mostly fresh veggies during warm months. On Molokai we had fresh local mango, banana, papaya,etc.

Molokai has one bookstore. There are other places that include some used books in their inventories but books are treasured items there because it is a fabulous place to read. There’s very little to do there besides spending time on one of the magnificent beaches with a good book. YS has lots of bookstores and lots of books. There’s very little to do here besides eating and reading. No beaches though.

Right now on Molokai the trade winds are blowing. It’s partly cloudy and about 70 degrees. Another gorgeous day in paradise.

In YS it is snowing….

Vick Mickunas

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talkin’ baseball

By Vick Mickunas | Monday, April 6, 2009, 12:04 PM

I attended my fantasy baseball draft yesterday and my strategy seemed to work quite well. I got a lot of players that I really wanted to have on my team. I’ll be tuning in my radio this afternoon to begin 5 months of baseball agony and excitement. There’s nothing quite like it.

What’s your team? Is this the year that the Chicago Cubs finally break the curse? Will the Reds have a winning record for once? Will the Yankees fail once again in their quest to buy another pennant?

Here are some new baseball books to get you in the mood:

“Bob Feller’s Little Blue Book of Baseball Wisdom” by Bob Feller, (Triumph Books, 162 pages, $22.95). Legendary pitcher Bob Feller’s blazing fastballs elevated the Cleveland Indians to a World Series Championship in 1948. Now 90 years old, the one-time Iowa farm boy expresses the ideals that inspired him: family values, knowing the value of a dollar, self-confidence, leadership and teamwork, practicing the fundamentals, consistency, hard work, selflessness, and loyalty.

” ‘78 - The Boston Red Sox, A Historic Game, and a Divided City” by Bill Reynolds, (New American Library, 310 pages, $24.95). Two recent world championships have done much to ease the pain for long suffering Red Sox fans. During the 1978 season Boston had built a big lead by late summer only to see it all fall apart as their arch-rivals, the New York Yankees, caught up with them and forced a playoff game. Reynolds does a superb job of stitching this baseball story into the larger tapestry of racial unrest that had Boston seething 30 years ago.

“Forever Blue - The True Story of Walter O’Malley, Baseball’s Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles” by Michael D’Antonio, (Riverhead Books, 355 pages, $25.95). It has been fifty years since Walter O’Malley uprooted his Dodgers from Brooklyn and moved them to southern California. This biography reveals the many circumstances that led to that decision and how it forever changed baseball.

“As They See’ Em - A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires” by Bruce Weber, (Scribner, 340 pages, $26). Baseball umpires don’t get much respect. Their jobs are made more difficult by the torrent of verbal abuse that they endure. Bruce Weber is a journalist who became an umpire. He spent three years hanging out with umpires. This sympathetic book gives readers a rare glimpse behind the masks of the men and women who work so hard to try to get every call right.

“Odd Man Out - A Year on the Mound With a Minor League Misfit” by Matt McCarthy, (Viking, 294 pages, $25.95). When this book was published in February it generated some controversy. The author was accused by some of writing a bogus memoir. Matt McCarthy pitched for a year at the lowest level of baseball’s minor leagues. Apparently, it was a bizarre experience and some of the players he names in the book felt betrayed by the way that he chose to portray them. His story does have the ring of truth however.

“The Dickson Baseball Dictionary” by Paul Dickson, (Norton, 974 pages, $49.95). This third revised edition is one of the truly classic books on baseball. Baseball is a game of unusual slang with a unique language that changes constantly. Dickson traces many odd expressions and colorful terms as they have evolved over centuries. This magnificent volume will make the perfect gift for diehard fans.

Vick Mickunas

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sizzling Amish fiction…

By Vick Mickunas | Sunday, April 5, 2009, 08:49 AM

The Christian publishing sector is one of the few bright spots in publishing these days. One of the most prolific authors in Christian fiction is Beverly Lewis. During the past 15 years she has published more than 80 books.

Lewis grew up in the Pennsylvania Dutch country and she is best known for her books which depict the everyday lives of the Old Order Amish of Pennsylvania. She has just published “The Secret,” the first book in her “Seasons of Grace” series.

“The Secret” is the story of Grace Byler, a young Amish woman in Bird-in-Hand, Pa. Like many modern Amish, Grace is experiencing the world outside of her tight-knit community. She has a part-time job at Eli’s Natural Foods.

Grace isn’t married yet and she reflects that “being single was a concern for any young Amish woman. But I supposed it wasn’t the worst thing not to have a husband.” She lives with her family and she is becoming increasingly puzzled by her mother’s mysterious behavior.

Her mother appears to be troubled and while Grace is curious she is also somewhat reluctant to snoop into the reason because “yet as much as I longed to be privy to my mother’s secrets, something told me I might come to wish I never knew.”

The simplicity of the Amish lifestyle is lovingly depicted here. But that simplicity doesn’t make their lives any less complicated than those of us who might think that we live on the cutting edge of technology. Grace’s mother is deeply troubled by something. Her father wants to pretend that everything is as it should be.

Lewis does a marvelous job of capturing the merging of cultures that defines the Amish community in our midst. At one point a character observes that “the GPS indicated how many feet she had to travel before turning. She marveled at this cool technology while her car followed the horse and buggy.”

These books juxtapose this clash of cultures. The Amish venture into the modern world while still maintaining their stability and their deep religious convictions through simple lifestyles which preserve their beliefs despite the buzzing static of the high tech world around them.

Lewis, who now resides in Colorado, has a devoted fan base in this region. She is one of the most industrious authors around. Most authors do one or two book signings per day. On current book tour of Ohio and West Virginia, Lewis is conducting 32 book signings in a mere nine days. That is amazing.

Vick Mickunas

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I’m back-what did I miss?

By Vick Mickunas | Saturday, April 4, 2009, 01:21 PM

For the past week I have been relaxing on the beach with some good books. I was on the island of Molokai. It is a part of Hawaii but it is also a place that few tourists ever visit. I loved it!

Molokai is lightly inhabited and there are few amenities for tourists. Molokai does have the longest beach in Hawaii (3 miles long). On the day that I went there about 5 other people were on the beach.

There are about half a dozen really fine beaches. I went to every beach and indulged in my favorite pastime there; catching up on my reading.

No TV. No newspapers. No radio. No computers. No internet. Just books and good conversation. What a vacation! The sand and sea weren’t bad either.

So, what did I miss? What happened during the past week that I should know about??

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