I've just finished reading a book by Michael J. Sandel: Justice What’s the right thing to do. The entire book is well written, but here two passages about things I thought particularly of interest. The first deals with the tobacco giant Phillip Morris. The present governor of Washington asked me to be lead counsel in litigation against the tobacco industry when she was Attorney General. After a two and a half month jury trial there was a national settlement, but…
A book I thoroghouly enjoyed was Lawrence Grobel's book: Houstons The life and times of a Hollywood dynasty. There are many parts of this book worth telling about, but here are a few that I found particularly interesting. Mr. Grobel writes of John Houston's admiration of the heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey. Dempsey had come out of a small mining town to become a world famous fighter. Dempsey became the heavyweight champion in 1919 shen he knocked out Jess Willard in the third round after…
We left Santiago to go to the famous Argentine wine country, Mendoza. We took a commuter plane, about the size of a Horizon to Spokane, which was absolutely full, to Mendoza, Argentina. A bout a forty hour flight we flew over the beautiful Andes mountains to the very small Mendoza airport in the Argentina wine country. We got in the long line to clear immigration with only one man reviewing passports. I realized I had my passport in my carry…
I don’t read as many hard back books as I used to since I bought an Amazon Kindle. I got tired of packing a bunch of heavy books when I travel and I ended up giving them away on the road after reading them anyway. I am still, however, plugging away on my remaining library of books and have just finished Looking for Alaska by Peter Jenkins. Jenkins spent eighteen months with his wife and eight year old daughter living…
Here is a report of some books I’ve recently read. Zen and the Art of Anything Hal W. French has written Zen and the Art of Anything and, in it, he tells about his teacher Edwin Prince Booth, who told a story of his childhood. He had been on a picnic with his father and had wandered unto a train trestle when a train whistle sounded. It was too far for the father to get to him in time so …
I read an unusual book: The Meaning of Tingo and other extraordinary words from around the world by Adam Jacot de Boiod.It is a collection of unique words from languages all over the world. For example, “Tingo” in Pascuense language on Easter island means to take all of the things from the house of a friend by borrowing them one by one. Did you know that on the Canary Island La Gomera there is a language called Silbo Gomero that…
I’ve just finished a book written by Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax. I had admired Sandy for his good character and his amazing pitching skill. He became famous when he refused to pitch in the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. A private man, he refused to cooperate with the author of the book and referred to her as a “CPA” (a certified pain in the ass) In…
I just finished a couple of books. One, Pilot Error by Phaedra Hise is a book about a small plane crash in October of 1998 which killed the pilot. A lawyer, Ron Sinzheimer, was flying a Grumman Traveler from Albany, New York to Provincetown Cape Cod when it went down in the ocean as he approached the small airport in bad weather. The book describes the pilot and outlines the details of the flight in a way that keeps your…
I've just finished John F. Stacks book on James Reston Scotty which has some notable passages. Reston is quoted as referring to an editor as "charming, but with sharp elbows" and about another "his skin was a lot thinner than his skull." At a press conference with President Dwight Eisenhower he asked Ike about starting a "preventative war" against Russia. Ike said: "A preventive war, to my mind, is an impossibility today..How could you have one if one of the features…
I’m listening to a book on tape during my commute from our home in Gig Harbor to our office in Seattle. The actor Kirk Douglas has written nine books in his retirement and this one was written at age 90 years. The book Let’s Face It, is, like his other books, enjoyable. One story I enjoyed was about his close friend, the late Bert Lancaster. The two were together at a dinner honoring Douglas. Lancaster noted that Douglas wasn’t eating…
