Charlie Wilson’s War
I don’t normally get excited about movies still in production, which is probably why I had no idea this was being made. In my opinion, the book goes down as one of the most incredible, well told accounts of U.S. involvement in the former Soviet Unions war in Afghanistan. Try as I might to convince people to read it, I usually just get a funny look as if to say ‘what war?’.
Anyway, I hate Tom Hanks with a passion. Every movie he’s made since Joe Versus the Volcano has been an abysmal exercise in gratuitous time wasting. Hopefully he can redeem himself with this one; the story deserves nothing but the best.
From Publishers Weekly
Put the Tom Clancy clones back on the shelf; this covert-ops chronicle is practically impossible to put down. No thriller writer would dare invent Wilson, a six-feet-four-inch Texas congressman,liberal on social issues but rabidly anti-Communist, a boozer, engaged in serial affairs and wheeler-dealer of consummate skill. Only slightly less improbable is Gust Avrakotos, a blue-collar Greek immigrant who joined the CIA when it was an Ivy League preserve and fought his elitist colleagues almost as ruthlessly as he fought the Soviet Union in the Cold War’s waning years. In conjunction with President Zia of Pakistan in the 1980s, Wilson and Arvakotos circumvented most of the barriers to arming the Afghan mujahideen-distance, money, law and internal CIA politics, to name a few. Their coups included getting Israeli-modified Chinese weapons smuggled into Afghanistan, with the Pakistanis turning a blind eye,and the cultivation of a genius-level weapons designer and strategist named Michael Vickers, a key architect of the guerrilla campaign that left the Soviet army stymied. The ultimate weapon in Afghanistan was the portable Stinger anti-aircraft missile, which eliminated the Soviet’s Mi-24 helicopter gunships and began the train of events leading to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and its satellites. A triumph of ruthless ability over scruples, this story has dominated recent history in the form of blowback: many of the men armed by the CIA became the Taliban’s murderous enforcers and Osama bin Laden’s protectors. Yet superb writing from Crile, a 60 Minutes producer, will keep even the most vigorous critics of this Contra-like affair reading to the end.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The end of an era.
It’s been almost a week since Larry Abramoff abruptly closed the doors of his Tatnuck Bookseller and in that time I have yet to have a conversation within the 508 area code that has not begun with the same question.
‘So what do you think about the Bookseller?’
Honestly? I’m surprised they stayed open this long.
I spent a good percentage of my childhood in the original Tatnuck Sq location, my mother used to take me there weekly as I recall. At the time I don’t think I had any idea just how amazing the place was, it being just a stop that a stay at home mom made with her son. But it ended up being a errand that changed my life, I’m addicted to words because of that little store. I have a horrendous habit of reading every thing my eyes catch no matter where I am or what I’m doing; I’ve stopped writing this twice to read the Surgeon Generals warning on the bottle of cerveza mas fina next to me and were only a half dozen sentences in (never mind there not being a single piece of heavy machinery in sight). I don’t question for a second my life would be very different if not for the Tatnuck Bookseller and I thank them for that.
But my love affair with Worcesters favorite small business ended about seven years ago and unfortunately it started around the same time I started using Amazon heavily, although in the beginning one had nothing to do with the other. For awhile I lived in a three decker on May St, my apartment was just a short walk down the street from the Bookseller and you could find me there two or three nights a week having dinner with either my roommate or my girlfriend at the time. The move to their most current location, in the former Sleeper & Hartley building on Chandler St., included what started out as an excellent restaurant which for me became a great excuse to buy a few books and magazines, then hide with them so i could read without being bothered. The food was great, the service was great and I could read until my eyes bled. I remember having a conversation in the middle of a meal down there around that time predicting the stores downfall; there were all these subtle changes taking place which seemed to be slowly moving towards making the bookstore and restaurant as mainstream as possible. The local history books were moved off to the side while NYT’s bestsellers came to the front of the store, the restaurant was putting less care into what had been a great presentation and the menu seemed to stagnate. In the course of a few bites of an oversize hamburger I came up with my theory that they were attempting to market the business to a wider audience, one less open to a quirky little business and more used to the likes of Barnes & Noble and Borders. I made the point during this conversation that this change would start the downfall of our Bookseller. That by attracting a larger, less focused audience the company would alienate its more loyal customers and at the same time learn the harsh reality of the wider retail market; customers who don’t have a relationship with you, don’t care about you and will only follow the dollar.
I stopped going to the bookseller as often to eat not too long after, I had some great friends who worked at places like the Sole Proprietor where the lack of books was made up for by consistently good food, consistently perfect service and a plethora of middle aged women. That didn’t mean I was in any less need of words but Jeff Bezos found a way to get those to me in just a few days for less money than I was spending locally. Amazon has been a painful experience for me, only because I love them so, so much and that runs contrary to the way I feel about supporting local business. But Amazon also treats me like a local, small business is supposed to. When I log onto their site I’m presented with a list of books I’ve never heard of, but I’ll probably enjoy, just like a small business owner who pays attention to his customers would. It’s hard to argue with that kind of service at the prices they offer.
So in the end, the Tatnuck Bookseller and I shared our first thirty years together. I’m sorry if I never make it out to Westboro to see the new store Mr Abramoff, it’s hard for me to find a reason to head out that way. I also hope you realize the impact your business made on at least one nobody here in the Big Woo. It was an education in literature that Borders, Barnes and Noble and yes even Amazon could never provide. And now apparently, neither can you.
Asteroid named after Douglas Adams
The sci-fi writer who died back in 2001 of a heart attack was honored on Tuesday by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, here in Cambridge, MA, by having an asteroid named after him.
link (via slashdot)
As cool as that is, the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is still on schedule for a May 6th release .
link
In the end was the command line
Garrett Birkel has, with permission, updated Neal Stephenson’s 1999 essay “In the Beginning was the Command Line”. Stephenson always admitted that Command Line was out of date almost as soon as it was printed, but never actually got around to updating it himself. After reading just that in a Slashdot interview with Stephenson this past summer Birkel took the task upon himself.
In July 2004 I found myself sitting alone in the dark, on the enclosed deck of a ferry boat oozing between fog-shrouded islands of the Alaskan coast. The scenery was haunting, but after the first three hours, I decided to do occupy myself by finally reading Neal Stephenson’s essay about the command-line. Halfway through it I began crossing things out, and scribbling comments in the margin. The essay was five years old, and in dire need of a fresh perspective.
I always loved Command Line as a rant, the update is nice but there was something about the perspective of the original, dated or not, that meant something.
link via boingboing
and a link to an earlier Slashdot thread here
