Who Paid for WWII?

After completing William Manchester's masterly 2 volume treatment of Winston Churchill from 1874-1940, I wanted to read something on Churchill's war years. Accordingly I'm currently working through Sir Max Hastings' recent book Winston's War.

One point Hastings make is the vast difference between the experience of the Soviet Union and the United States and Great Britain through the war.

World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 Sept 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. After initially combining with Germany as an ally, the Soviet Union was thrust out of the Axis powers when Hitler turned on Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Hitler here sowed the seed of his own destruction by guaranteeing a tw- front war. Though the United States has been supplying Great Britain since the Lend-Lease Act was signed on 11 March 1941, she entered the war in earnest after the Japenese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Hastings points out that while millions of Russians and Germans were dying on the eastern front, Churchill and Roosevelt and the Allied Powers could cherry pick low-hanging fruit throughout various theaters of war and plan exactly the best time to start a second front in earnest in Europe when they had maximum material and men. The Soviet Union did not have this luxury; they were fighting for their own national survival against the invading Nazis.

As a consequence, the Soviet Union's losses through the war were dramatic. Here's the number of war military and civilian dead for some of the Allies through World War II

• The Soviet Union - 23,400,000
• The United Kingdom - 450,900
• The United States - 418,500

As Hastings puts it, it was the Soviet Union that did most of the actual dying for the Allies in WWII.

Robert Caro's The Power Broker

I am usually in the middle of reading either a history or a historical biography. The finest biography I've ever read has been Robert Caro's multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson called The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Caro's been writing it since the 70's and he's working on the last volume covering LBJ's presidency now. (I've earlier written about Caro's work here.)

Caro became interested in the topic of power and Lyndon when studying Robert Moses and writing The Power Broker.

I am very excited to learn tonight that an unabridged audio version has just been published, as that is how I find the time to do most of my reading!

http://amzn.to/kgPzpx

Diners, Drive-Ins& Dives

This AM Beth and I tried Broadway Diner, located just on the other side of the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel that crosses under the Patapsco River (which forms Baltimore's Inner Harbor) that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay.

Other than being a great 24 hour Baltimore Diner, on 25 April 2009, the Broadway Diner was featured as on Guy Fieri's show Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives. The show was called Diners You Sent Me To.

Beth and I enjoyed our meal, although you can tell from the Diner's Breakfast Menu that they're a little pricey. What made it a bit more pricey was the $4 in tolls we had to pay to travel through and then back through the tunnel. Though we arrived at 11:30 AM, the parking lot was almost completely full. We knew we were near Baltimore because the waitress called me "Honey" twice. Quintessential Baltimore, of course, would have called for the appellation "Hon." :) The food was very, very good. It was a late breakfast, so Beth actually ordered a Gyro, which came with a special sauce they make. Beth reported that the sandwich was out of this world. Her french fries which I stole were off-the-hook and I actually liked them better than my hash browns. Aesthetically, the place was very pleasing though while some of the booths featured mini-jukeboxes, some featured bar-type video game boxes that Beth and I found annoying. A unique feature of this particular Diner was a full bar. We enjoyed ourselves there and would definitely go back, though probably not often because of the prices.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

We've added Broadway Diner to our list:

• The Double T,
  
  
• The Paper Moon,
  
  
• Overlea Diner,
  
  
• Golden West Cafe,
  
  
• Two Sisters Grill,
  
  
• Pete's Diner,
  
  
• Frank's Diner,
  
  
• Honey Bee Diner,
  
  
• Forest Diner,
  
  
• Happy Day Diner, and now
  
  
• The Nautilus Diner and Restaurant.

Towards the Quintessential Baltimore Diner: The Nautilus Diner in Crofton, MD

Beth and I this AM tried The Nautilus Diner and Restaurant in Crofton, MD, about 22 miles from our house. It questionably qualifies as a Baltimore Diner - imo - but it had its high points.

The food was pretty good, though our potatoes had a fishy taste. The service was attentive and excellent. We also enjoyed the mini-jukeboxes at each table, a throwback to the 50's. We may give it another shot, though I definitely prefer our most recent discovery, the Honey Bee Diner in Glen Burnie.

About five years ago, Kenny Sheppard and I started visiting and episodically reviewing Baltimore Diners when he was a Ph.D student at Johns Hopkins. But after Kenny abandoned our somber quest to marry Candace and move back to Canada, Beth agreed to join me in my search. Baltimore Diners have their own culture that I find fascinating. Wait staff tend to be efficient but not effusive. In the better Diners, the food is excellent. They most definitely have a blue collar feel.

So far, Kenny, Beth, and I (occasionally joined by Candace) have visited:

• The Double T,
  
  
• The Paper Moon,
  
  
• Overlea Diner,
  
  
• Golden West Cafe,
  
  
• Two Sisters Grill,
  
  
• Pete's Diner,
  
  
• Frank's Diner,
  
  
• Honey Bee Diner,
  
  
• Forest Diner,
  
  
• Happy Day Diner, and now
  
  
• The Nautilus Diner and Restaurant.

The quest continues.

of headsets and earbuds

Last night I was taking our Rhodesian Ridgeback, Raider, out for a walk and he slipped out of his collar and got away from me. Raid does that a lot. Eventually I was able to lead him back to our van and he jumped in when I opened the door like he always does. That's the best way to capture him when he gets away 'cause he thinks we're taking him to see his friends at Worthington Dog Park. That was the good part and the happy ending of the incident.


The bad part was in that in all my running after him (and Raid's fast) I lost my Altec Lansing Backbeats that I use for my iPod Nano, a relatively inexpensive set of earbuds you can get from Best Buy for about $30.

I had been pretty happy with them, but not as happy as I've been with 2 sets of relatively inexpensive headphones that I found some years ago. If you're not one of that group who Thomas J Stanley calls "the glittering rich" and are like most of us and on a budget, in my opinion, the best 2 low-priced headphones with the best audio fidelity are:

• the Koss Portapro

- These headphones are not the easiest on the eye, but they sound fantastic and you can grab them for about $35 on Amazon. Lower frequencies with the PortaPro's are particularly robust.

• the Sennheiser PX-100

It now appears that they are going for about $55 on Amazon.com and further that Sennheiser has replaced this model with the PX-100-II which I haven't used. But the sound on the PX-100s is very clean and the appearance is less ostentatious than the PortaPro's. However, the PortaPro has a more satisfying base sound.



While these are my two favorite budget headphones, I don't wear them much out in public, greatly preferring to wear earbuds, which are more subtle in appearance.

I've never found any pair of relatively inexpensive earbuds that I was thrilled with. Mostly I have used Sony's ubiquitous MDR-EX36V and, as I mentioned, more recently I've been using the Altec Lansing Backbeats. Both have a pretty good sound - certainly better than the stock set that comes with the iPod - sufficient but not overwhelming bass and crisp highs without sounding tinny (though I have noticed audible variability in the MDRs).

So after losing my Backbeats last night, I needed a new pair of earbuds and off to Best Buy I went. I had my Blackberry with me so that I could check cnet reviews as I reviewed what earbuds my local Columbia, MD store had in stock.

I noticed a new set of earbuds I hadn't really noticed before: UE (Ultimate Ears) Super.Fi 4

These retail for $129, but Best Buy had them on a discontinued sale for $35! !

Cnet gave them a "Very Good" rating and the price was right!! Plus Best Buy has a generous return policy so I knew I could return them if I wished.

The cnet review talks about the fact that the fit's iffy, even though UE provides a number of differently sized ear tips. Apparently in response to these kinds of complaints, UE now also provides 2 foam ear tips that allows for an even more snug a fit for some folks. I find the foam tips work best for me. Cnet says that these earbuds may be an issue with smaller ears but I didn't experience that. After wearing them for over an hour while exercising, I was a little concerned about the weight of the earbuds and comfort, but I don't think it's going to be a big issue. Moreover, UE recommends that in exercising or other high-movement situations, that the user put the cord over the ear. I had never tried this before but it works well.

The sound of these earbuds is the best I've ever heard and the $35 price tag makes these earbuds a real bargain. I tested them by listening to Fourplay, White Stripes, and Gorillaz and the music was very clean. The bases were solid and the highs were very clear. I was very happy with the sound.

Recommended.

In Search of the Perfect Spy Novel

Tonight I finished Daniel Silva's The Mark of the Assassin.

I'm on a rare fiction reading kick, having recently completed Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and its sequel, World Without End. The Pillars of the Earth was particularly interesting because Follett's representation of the sincere faith of Prior Philip. What made that character even more interesting was Follett's own self-professed atheism.

Though Follett's two books are historical novels (and that also makes them unique in his corpus), reading these books prompted me to dive back into another genre of fiction that I thoroughly enjoyed when I was in my 20's: the spy thriller. And so, after finding an NPR piece on the best spy novels, I thought I would give Silva's sophomore effort a try.

I enjoyed Silva's second novel which was published in 1998 and, like his first book - The Unlikely Spy - was a New York Times Bestseller. Like Follett's Pillars and World Without End, it has too much gratuitous sex in my opinion, but it had an engaging plot and did an ok job at characterization. In terms of story, I did not find The Mark of the Assassin as interesting as almost any Robert Ludlum novel or Tom Clancy in his better Jack Ryan books. But it definitely kept my interest and I was intrigued that end turned out to be somewhat unpredictable and not all the loose ends were taken care of.

What I missed in Assassin was the moral/spiritual gravitas that was more evident in Pillars.

A number of years ago, I read an article in a journal dedicated to script writing that what made stories interesting was the degree to which they interacted with a strong moral center. That was what I missed in Silva's book.

And so tonight I continue my search for the perfect spy novel with Robert Littell's The Once and Future Spy, which was also mentioned in the NPR piece referenced above.

Avatar

I had the opportunity to see Avatar yesterday afternoon in Imax 3D. The movie it most reminded me of was The Wizard of Oz. I say that because James Cameron's Avatar is a category changer.

Just as 70 years ago, audiences were mesmorized by MGM's vivid technicolor, Cameron's first foray into 3D and the other new technologies that he spent $250 million to bring to the screen means that, from this point on, every new sci-fi/fantasy flick will be held to a higher standard.

As a result of its innovations and enormous attention to detail, the movie is a visual stunner. There were points in the movie where my jaw literally dropped. A multiplicity of new fauna and flora are introduced, with some of the latter being simply transfixing in their resplendent luminosity. The beauty alone makes the movie worth seeing.

But Cameron's first movie as director since 1997's Titanic isn't just an empty vehicle for special effects. Avatar offers a compelling plot and interesting characterization as well.

Pandora is a moon light years away from Earth, so far away that those traveling there must be put into cryogenic sleep. The natives of the planet are called the Na'vi. They are a very strong people, intensely connected to their planet spiritually, who stand feet taller than the humans with whom they share Pandora.

The humans on Pandora are with the Resources Development Administration (RDA). The organization primarily views the Na'vi as an impediment to their desire to extract as much Unobtainium (the naming of which is the silliest thing about the movie), which is worth $20 million per kilogram, as they possibly can from the satellite.

Enter Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). The ex-Marine is a paraplegic who's sent to Pandora to replace his deceased twin brother on a mission to either reach agreement with the Na'vi to cooperate with RDA or to find out enough inside information on them to facilitate their military defeat. He does that by having his mind transferred into an Avatar, which is described as a 'Human/Na'vi hybrid." He essentially is turned physically into a Na'vi.

As Jake learns more about the Na'vi people, he finds himself becoming more empathetic to their ways. This tension sets up the final conflict that concludes the movie.

Highly recommended.