What hope for Obama?

My buddy, Jim, has a very hopeful post about Obama. Here's my reply (lightly edited):

i want to hope, Jim, but i am honestly afraid of being disappointed.

so, i'm trying to think, given this is politics and compromise, what is a reasonably cynical hope for an Obama presidency?

an intelligent, articulate president.

i think my biggest issue is re-engagement with the world at large, a change from the Bush Admin's unilateralism.

i want a message shaped by hope and not fear.

i don't want him to pull us out of Iraq immediately, which all professionals agree would be disastrous.

i don't want him to turn back globalization.

bonuses: being an advocate for the poor without damaging the economy, including improving health care access for all; more bi-partisan unity (i doubt this will happen. politics has become attack and riposte and Obama has certainly played that way with Clinton).

i hope you're right, Jim. i hope we're not naive. and i'll cast my vote for it. but i wouldn't (otherwise) bet on it.

What do you think?

Poison Rush Mothers

+ Walter went to see Rush and got his picture taken with Geddy and Alex. Awesome!

+ Major yard work friday night, including the poison ivy corner. Took all reasonable precautions: tried to stay away from it (Christine and her folks dealt with it directly as they are not as allergic), long pants, long shirt, Cortaid post-poison ivy wipes, and immediate shower. First blister appeared yesterday about three inches above my right wrist. Here's to hoping it's the only one...

+ Christine said yesterday was her best Mother's Day of the nine (including pregnancy). Mission accomplished.

I tell the twins their only job on Mother's Day and Christine's birthday is to make Momma happy. They did pretty well.

New profile pic

Way I've got it coded, I need to throw it up somewhere:

SC D&D video attack

+ The twins had their 3rd grade SC History Play Thursday night. Wil played Sequoyah and Bethy was Yellow Jesamine. We are very proud of both of their work. Bethy choreographed her little dance herself. Pix and video.

+ Wired has a nice, long article on Gary Gygax, the late founder of Dungeons and Dragons. Money quote:

Arneson believes the hysteria surrounding the game would end immediately if kids would just invite their parents to watch as they play. "They're going to be so bored," he says. "They will understand that anything this nerdy can't possibly lead to being possessed by the devil."

Exactly.

+ Check out this YouTube/last.fm mashup.

+ Evil? Cruel? Hackers' posts on epilepsy forum cause migraines, seizures

Dark Lady Iglesia

+ Top billing is definitely the new Dark Knight trailer.

Makes me regret even more that Heath Ledger (basically) killed himself.

And I see it comes out when I am in London. Christine and I are in negotiations about whether or not I will wait to see it until I get home ;-)

+ Despair, whom Macon and Walter work for and with, got written up in the NYT.

+ And Paul has a really interesting post on La Iglesia de San Juan de los Reyes. Toledo is so beautiful! Ay de mi!

That's it. I'm all caught up! Woo hoo!

A far, green country

Jaq posted this beautiful painting by Ted Nasmith:

(Click through for full size)

It makes me think of that wonderful passage from Return of the King:

"And it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise." (ROTK, Book 6, Chapter IX: The Grey Havens).

They repurposed it for the movies, but I liked their usage:

Pippin: I didn't think it would end this way.
Gandalf: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path... One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass... And then you see it.
Pippin: What? Gandalf?... See what?
Gandalf: White shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.
Pippin: [smiling] Well, that isn't so bad.
Gandalf: [softly] No... No it isn't.

And then I think of Annie Lenox's marvelous treatment of 'Into the West' at the end of the ROTK soundtrack.

Namárië.

Iron Man!

I liked the movie a lot. I especially liked the fx. They looked fairly 'natural'. The casting was good. Fun movie that I'm looking forward to seeing again (can't decide if that's going to be in the theater).

Note: if you go, stay until after the credits!

Checking the Wikipedia entry highlights what I don't like about comics: the series become like soap operas after awhile with all of the crazy twists and turns. The movies are almost better in this regard: they can pick and choose the best parts or the storyline.

The Forbes Fictional Fifteen has Tony Stark at #10 (and also features favorites Bruce Wayne (8) and Princess Peach (15)).

Furthermore, I also found a list of the the ten Smartest Superheroes from an old BusinessWeek. I often think about how superheroes compare to one another in intelligence. I think the three smartest in Marvel are Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, and Tony Stark. Can we pick a smartest one from those three? If so, why and how?

I have a lot less feel for who's the smartest DC hero. Bruce Wayne doesn't seem to play in the same league as the three Marvel guys (unless you want to start talking strategy or operations).

What do you think?

I guess this ended up as more of an Iron Man springboard than an Iron Man review. Suits me ;-)

Draft pop Hellboy penguin madness

+ The Vikings made a blockbuster trade with the Chiefs and gave DE Jared Allen a huge amount of money.

Might be great if it works out. But this is a big risk. I don't think you see the Patriots (the gold standard for personnel management in the NFL) making trades like this...

Don Banks calls it high risk, high reward.

Peter King and Paul Zimmerman both like the Vikings' draft when you include the Allen deal, though King, like me, thinks it's too risky.

+ Song, by Toad calls MGMT 'slightly camp electro-pop' and links them to the Scissor Sisters, which sounds about right to me.

(Do you like Scissor Sisters, Madhu?)

+ I liked the first Hellboy, I like the comics, and the trailer for the second one looks good, too.

+ Did you know there was prehistoric penguin 5'7" high and 200 pounds?

+ Found this out while doing some Guillermo del Toro/HP Lovecraft research. When I sent the relevant IMDB link to Dan tdaxp he wrote 'this is the greatest thing in the history of the world'.

Keeping my Daughter and Son at Work Day

I kept Elizabeth and Wil home today to 'shadow' me in my work. We have had fun talking about work.

Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work had some good activities I could use and print out.

I asked them what they learned about my job and they said: it's sometimes boring, I'm a telecommuter, I need times of quiet (when I'm editing or proofreading), that the weblog I edit for AvWeek [Ares] got over 2000 hits yesterday, it's sometimes interesting, I make a lot of money [compared to my old job and their own experiences of money], and I 'make the Internet' [what I often tell them].

I asked them if they would want to do my job when they grow up and they said 'no': too much typing, not-moving and quietness ;-)

As an exercise in doing what I do and in thinking about future work, I had them each write a post that we put up on twinlog this morning.

Then we went out for a 'business lunch' at Longhorn Steakhouse.

They are playing outside right now, having some recess time that Christine assured them you do not get when you have a job! :-)

We're in the final glidepath now for our day; they have some reading and math they need to do before 3pm.

I think Christine feared this was going to be one of those things I sort of schlepped through (like Ireland trip planning) and that all of us would be unhappy, but I actually had some good ideas and did some planning and fun was had by all.

Minor update

What have I been up to? Not much. Nothing extraordinary, just slacking in my online presence/pursuits. A few notes and links I've been saving:

+ The weight loss is going slow, probably because I'm still eating too much ;-(

+ But exercise is going well, consisting of calisthenics, dumbbell exercises and yoga. Glad to have some muscle tone and fitness back!

+ Paul, Carol and Mary Stokes visited Spain, almost exactly the same places I visited... 19 years ago:
If it´s Tuesday, then . . .
Saw the Alhambra
Back in Madrid. Whew!

+ Speaking of Spain, I wanted to watch some highlights of Pau Gasol. Not too exciting, honestly. Someone said he's got a small forward's game in a center's body. That sounds right to me. Constantly scores, but none of the normal flash like dunks or aerobatics.

How's that for a minor update?

A little bit more on Watchmen

Synopsis, with spoilers

I'm much less taken with Alan Moore at this time of my life than I was as a teenager. V for Vendetta seemed so awesome then. Parts of it still are. But Moore's anti-fascist-anarchism crusade leaves me cold at 36. Do we really have to be that vigilant about authoritarianism? Were Reagan/Thatcher really that close to it? Made to choose, I'd rather be mainstream than Moore.

I mean, in case you were wondering, this guy is on the extreme fringe (just scan the Wikipedia link above if you don't believe me).

All that to say, I'm excited about the movie and Zack Snyder's work, but it's not the comic movie event of the decade for me. Right now, I'm more excited about Iron Man.

Watch April Eight

Ok, my man Madhu is complaining that I haven't updated recently (not that he has), so I'll throw some links at you:

+ April Fools

• Gmail's Custom Time
• I really liked my boss' post: Defense Contractors Make Peace. Unfortunately, it's not true :-(

+ I watched pretty much every minute of the Elite Eight on Saturday and Sunday and the late game Friday night. Links to that effect:

• Marsh is a total spaz when it comes to UNC basketball. Similar article on appreciating Hansborough.
  
• Stephen Curry is staying in school. Man, were they ever close. Great run. It'll be hard to duplicate without his point guard next year, with Curry probably moving back to the one.
  
• Five things from Grant Wahl on the first day of the Elite Eight.
• Have you seen the Roy Williams Coke ad? I got to hear the story from him once in person. Here's a longer version from an old Sports Illustrated.

+ Ooh, man. I didn't know Zach (300) Snyder is doing Watchmen next. One year away and looking forward to it. But first, Iron Man.

All I got for now. Sorry, Madhu. Not much your going to be interested in :-)

This is only an(athema) test

+ Did you know anathema literally means 'something set apart', but the connotation came to be idols (v. Judaism or Christianity), so it took on the meaning of 'accursed'?

+ Ok, I don't get a ton of hits or comments around here, anyway, an that's totally my own fault for writing so occasionally.

That to say, I bet if I put up this Google Chat badge for you to respond directly to me when you do visit the page, I'd get even fewer comments.



What do you think? Comment OR chat! ;-)

(On preview: Oh, wait. I thought it gave you a chat BOX. Looks like it's just a link for Google Talk (chat) that you already have to be registered for. Would some of you non-Google chatters click on it for me and see what happens? This has become a test.)

Some links I've been saving up

(If be 'saving up' you read 'being a slacker and not posting' ;-)

+ The reason I've been slacking online so much. GSR and Jim both asked me where I've been and my slack has not been all (or even mostly) due to my gramma's death.

Two things that occurred to me Saturday morning (I don't know why):

+ It'd be nice to have a comprehensive list of irregular English plurals, especially those coming from Latin and Greek. A Google search isn't too bad. And this Wikipedia entry is a good place to start. Note the 'snob plurals'!

+ You know those political tests that put you on at least a two-dimensional grid (here's one)? It'd be nice to have a graph like that for think tanks. Nothing jumps out at me, but here's one list that kind of gives them some context.

If you knew them well enough you could place them or take the quiz for them and place them. But knowing that much about think tanks might also make you kind of a loser ;-)

+ NPR had REM on yesterday promoting their new album and has their recent concert at SXSW available to stream. The interview stuff was pretty fun to listen to. A couple of the songs on the new album are ok (I also listened to them on the Facebook app, iLike). Kudos to REM for making them available. But Michael's way too preachy in these lyrics v. Evangelicals and conservatives in general for my taste (and I'm prone to criticize both of those groups myself!) Some of the older material they played in the concert was ok, but just ok.

+ One literal rendering of the etymology of remunerate could be 're-gift' ;-)

In memory of Gertrude Meade

My gramma died March 10th.

Two forms of the same obituary:

Gertrude Meade, 93
Gertrude M. Meade

Gertrude M. “Gertie” Meade, 93, of Hills, Iowa died Monday, March 10, 2008, at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 12, 2008, at Grace Fellowship Church in Iowa City. Private burial services will be held at St. Peters Cemetery in Cosgrove. Visitation will be from 4 to 7pm Tuesday at Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service in Iowa City. Memorial donations can be made in Gertrude’s memory to Hills Atrium Village or Grace Fellowship Church.

Gertrude Mary Meade was born September 11, 1914, in St. Lawrence, South Dakota, the daughter of Oliver B. and Kathryn L. (McCabe) Humphrey. She attended school in St. Lawrence through the seventh grade, then moved to this area where she graduated from St. Mary’s High School in Iowa City. For many years she was a cook for a sorority and fraternity at the University of Iowa. She was a cook for a church youth camp and was a member of Grace Fellowship Church in Iowa City. She enjoyed dancing, traveling throughout the world, jigsaw puzzles, fellowship, board and card games along with quilting, cooking and baking many items including wedding cakes.

Her family includes her children, David Lee Meade (Carol) of Oldsmar, Florida, Patrick Burton Meade (Nancy) of Milo, Iowa, James Norbert Meade (Hanne) of Tiffin, Iowa, Paul Francis Meade (Susan) of Riverside, Iowa, Virginia Mary Conley (Lyman) of Indianola, Iowa, Kathleen Ann Jespersen (James) of Rock Valley, Iowa, Gayle Jean Robertson (Bill) of Moores Hill, Indiana, and Denise Irene Yoder (Michael) of Iowa City, Iowa; twenty-eight grandchildren; thirty-one great-grandchildren; three great-great grandchildren; and sister, Ruth Wines (Leonard) of Ruby Valley, Nevada.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Carolyn Lucille Meade; an infant son; seven brothers and two sisters.

Some pictures of Gramma and from the funeral

She had a stroke the previous week and lived, defining medical fact, with a DNR and no food or water for about 7 days! Cory and his wife and I left Davidson, NC the Saturday before she died and drove straight to the hospital. I had a chance to hold her hand, talk to her a little and read the Bible. She appeared to try to respond to me. And we sang 'Amazing Grace' in her hospice room (ostensibly as practice for the grandchildren, who sang it at her funeral).

(My dad got busted earlier in the day for having Jack and wine in the room. Great idea, Dad. But you shouldn't have pulled it out when the nurse was in the room! :-)

Note all of the cooking in Gramma's obituary. She was not, however, regarded as a good cook within the family ;-)

Another funny Gramma story: yes, her birthday was 9/11. She said: 'Why'd they have to go and do that on my birthday?!' ;-)

Gramma's death was not a very sad occurrence for me. She lived a long, full life.

It was good to be with my family during this time. It was especially good to see my cousins after many years. It's doubtful that so many of us will ever be together in the same place again. That does make me a little sad.

Gramma and I interacted a lot when I was in middle school and attended her church camps. When I went to college, we tried to have lunch when I was in town. We often went to Carlos O'Kelly's :-)

The number one reason I am not sad this Easter weekend: Gramma and I believe in the same God. Though our theology diverged more and more over the years (beginning for me in seventh grade!), I fully expect to see her at the Resurrection, whole and happier than she ever was in life. Further, we will be closer than ever, infinitely closer, with perfect love between us.

I'm looking forward to that day far more than I miss her!

Since choice makes us unhappy...

My buddy, Kurt send me this great TED talk by Barry Schwartz:

My notes:

no, but can people be happy without knowing they have access to all available choices?

so, if i seek fewer choices in, say, an mp3 player, i might be happier, but i might end up getting a lesser value. or i might regret it later when i come across a better one.

on the other hand, learning to make decisions more quickly and live happily wih the consequences is a much more sane way to live, from organizational and professional effectiveness to personal choices (eg, home improvement, clutter).

crazy juxtaposition with Malcolm Gladwell's TED talk about more choices in Pepsi, Prego, etc...

right: we have more choices, and can do better if we run the traps, but we feel worse.

btw, his cartoon presentation is a very effective use of PowerPoint.

'the secret to happiness is low expectations'

so is the key learning to be satisfied with lesser results? expecting less-than-perfection without being disillusioned?

i had an unconscious philosophy for many years: 'hope for the best, expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed.' and you know what? given the rest of my belief system and psychology, that didn't work very well for me.

clinical depression has exploded in the industrial world, partially as a result.

yes. i am constantly evaluating myself, including as i am re-caulking the tub and not feeling very good at it, and it gets to be awfully damn tiring.

yes: i am often disappointed and usually think i have only myself to blame.

or, i get angry at other people, or the system, but bottle it up, and that's another great prescription for depression.

but then he goes for the major socialist dogma at the end (wealth redistribution), and we know socialism is one of the best ways to kill economies. voluntary wealth redistribution (through giving to actual development) is great, but rare and difficult. there are so many choices! ;-)

but seriously: hand outs and mandated redistribution are historically proven to not work.

dang: he ends up with a very Lutheran perspective of freedom! cf The Bondage of the Will

'everybody needs a fish bowl.'

Wil Meade, Fencer

Wil had his first fencing tournament on Sunday. My goals for him were 1. to be a good sport and 2. to try his best. And he did. It was great.

Technically he lost all 10 matches he fenced in, but he was the second youngest kid there. And he said 'As long as you try your best, you can't lose'. Absolutely right, and his coach quoted him in his tournament wrap-up email.

All of that to say, Christine put up five pictures from the tournament. In retrospect, she should have gotten a shot of me pacing and shouting encouragement and a shot of my hooking Wil up to the electronic scoring system. But I didn't think of that 'til just now.

On the fencing technique side, Wil had some good attacks and ripostes, which I really enjoyed.

Genius at work

No, I didn't watch the Oscars. Are you kidding? I barely watch movies anymore, and nothing that doesn't come via Netflix.

But I stumbled across Jon Stewart's monologue, and it's hilarious.

I bet that's the smartest thing some of those 'celebrities' have heard in some time...

Modest Mouse

Cool things about this video, Modest Mouse playing Dashboard on Letterman:


1. Just watching Johnny Marr play.

2. Two drummers/percussionists

3. Watching Johnny Marr sing backup vocals.

What can I say? Johnny Marr is a rock and roll god.

If I can make it there...

Christine's got the NYC pix up. She did a really nice job, as always. Check them out!

(Unfortunately, we did not get a picture of the street outside our hotel after the Spice Girls concert, but hopefully you got the jist of that from my previous post ;-)

Politics as usual

My headline: Clinton Furious Over Losing

Adapted from: Clinton Furious Over Obama's Mailings

Grand Central audio post test

If you have a Blogger account and you're interested in GrandCentral, you can skip the queue and get an account immediately.

You won't believe this...

In NYC again on business. Brought Christine and the twins this time. Yesterday, we did Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Really nice weather. More on that later.

What I really wanted to tell you is my office is in 2 Penn Plaza, adjacent to Madison Square Garden. It was really loud on the street last night, and we kept wondering what was going on. Christine couldn't believe how loud it was. Lots of girls screaming. Finally, we looked it up...

The Spice Girls.

Finally quieted down after 1030. We are curious if the Foo Fighters' fans tonight will be as loud...

MGMT

If you know me, you know I don't usually fall for a band or a song right away.

But I heard a band today when I took Christine to Barnes and Noble for Valentine's Day that inspired me to walk over to the music section and find out who they were playing.

It was MGMT. Check them out on The Hype Machine. Anybody know more about them (you know, beyond Googling, which I've already done ;-)? Already listening?

I described them to Christine as a cross between Smashing Pumpkins and Fischerspooner.

Their most popular song right now seems to be Time to Pretend, but I'm pretty partial to Kids.

Crazy trip

Well, I did something crazy this weekend. I drove with Shane to Dan's wedding reception near Sioux Falls, SD. It was about 2700 miles for me, round trip. I left Thursday night after work to drive to Shane's place in Oak Ridge, TN. That was about 5 hours. Then we left before 5:30 am to head for Dan's.

I would have never had this idea on my own. That's a long way to drive in one weekend. But Shane suggested it, and I'm crazy enough to say yes.

To further add to the insanity, I hadn't ever met Shane or Dan in person before. This sounds like an article in Wired about someone who gets murdered, doesn't it? But I trusted them ;-)

Meeting Shane in person was great. We had plenty to talk about; no awkwardness at all.

Something else about Shane: he drives really fast. Further, he regaled me with stories of all the times that he has fought speeding tickets and won. I don't drive that fast, but I don't mind if he does.

Since the ancestral family farm was right along our path, we stopped for dinner Friday evening. Here's the picture my sister took:

They had just had a blizzard a couple days earlier (missed three days of school) and the interstate was littered with cars and trucks on the side of the road.

Shane's first post

For my part, I was glad to visit some real winter weather.

Something else about Shane: he doesn't really know much about how big Iowa is. We made really good time to the Iowa City area and he thought we'd make it to the Sioux Falls area in no time at all. Well, it took a little longer than that. But we made it to Dan's place right around midnight (Central).

Shane's second post

It was really cold in South Dakota, in case you weren't watching the weather report. 11 degrees F at noon on Saturday with a RealFeel of -10.

Shane's third post

The reception was at noon on Saturday. Met lots of great people, including Brendan of I Hate Linux fame. Took a number of pictures outside in the -10 RealFeel. The people trying to stay warm were not amused when we kept going outside to take pictures. Fei's stepmom popped up to go sit by the fire.
Yes, it is sad to be so short. But I was glad to be with Shane and Dan.

Shane's fourth post (wherein I supplied the snarky comment to Mark, who we had hoped could go with us, but, alas, he could not get free).

Dan's first post

Technically it was not -35 when we were apparently locked out in this picture:

Here's a picture that shows a little more of my current facial hair configuration: beard, no mustache:

Shane introduced me to Guitar Hero. And Dan's sister had it, too. This is a shot of her playing, generally destroying Shane.

I've got cashews and a glass of shiraz on the window sill. That's Brendan bottom right with a Pomegranate liquor.

Guitar Hero is seriously fun! And I thought I did pretty well for a noob.


Dan playing:

We went to bed about midnight, alarms set for 5:10. But Shane woke up at 4 and we lighted out. It was bitterly cold, -10 with wind chill in the -30 to -40 range.

Shane took a number of pictures of the snow blowing over the road. There's one in his last post.

Refilling the van with gas was the coldest part, all the way up until after lunch in East Peoria, IL.

I offered to drive, but Shane was trying to keep his average high, and I don't normally drive faster than 75. Including stops, Shane was able to keep his average above 71 mph!

We arrived in Oak Ridge Sunday night about 9 pm (Eastern). Unwound, had a little dinner, sat in the hot tub, played some Guitar Hero, went to bed.

I woke up around 10 am the yesterday and drove home to SC.

Great trip. Much fun was had by all.

Super Bowl aftermath

Okay, I can do this. It might not even take that long.

I was, obviously, severely disappointed by the Super Bowl. I mean, I joined the Patriots' bandwagon to pull for a winner, right?

A big thanks to Macon who chatted with me in Gmail throughout the game. I think I might have been more distraught had I not had him to 'talk' with.

Let's go back to my disastrous post: Final Super Bowl Prediction:

I couldn't have been more wrong about the Giants' pass rush. It was the deciding factor. They harried Brady the whole game. I don't know why the Giant's had so much more success with their pass rush than the last time they met. Did the (good) field conditions contribute? Maybe they'd just seen enough of the Pats and had a great game plan.

In Brady's defense, he did not throw interceptions as the game crumbled around him. He did miss some passes he would normally make. It certainly looked like he was rattled.

He drove the ball at the end of the game when he needed to.

In general, the Pats defense did pretty well. They needed one more stop than they got.

The Giants thought they had an edge in special teams. I did not notice a major one, aside from field position, which was often against the Pats. There were no returns for touchdowns, blocks, major fumbles - that kind of thing.

I definitely had the sense that Eli could have given it away. Towards the end there were a lot of near interceptions and a couple of dropped-ball fumbles the Giants recovered themselves. Any change in these could certainly have changed the game.

I certainly don't mean to take anything away from Eli. He did great. I kept picking against him and I was wrong. Good for him.

(Minor complaint: does this Super Bowl win justify the Manning family's machinations to keep Eli out of San Diego? I hate to thing that... )

Well, that's about all I've got for analysis. I didn't read much of the postgame reporting. Too painful.

For completeness, a few links for you:

+ Thanks to Brad for linking my prediction post, though it proved so, so wrong.

+ Benet was pulling against the Pats (and makes an impassioned plea for Ray Guy (punter) to be entered into the Pro Football Hall of Fame).

+ Dean Barnett (never read anything by him that lacked a strong opinion), Patriots fan, writes about what he calls Belichick Derangement Syndrome.

My book review for the latest DTI

This is going to be a little bit of overkill, but I think I'll use this post to point to all of the instances of my review, for future reference.

Here's the review as it appeared on Ares:

Book Review: Halsey's Typhoon

Posted by Sean Meade at 1/4/2008 6:14 PM

Here's my book review from the next issue of DTI:

Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue
By Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007
322 pp., $25.00

When Jack Ryan and Captain Marko Ramius first meet in The Hunt for Red October, they stumble into a discussion about Ryan's books. Ramius says, “You were wrong, Ryan. Halsey acted stupidly.”

This is the question that looms large in the background of the book Halsey's Typhoon: When confronted with a Pacific storm that would ultimately be named Typhoon Cobra, did Admiral William Halsey, Jr. act stupidly? When all was said and done, his fleet was ravaged: 150 mph winds blew planes off decks. 90 foot seas turned planes below decks into skittering bombs. Waves towered over destroyers, threatening to capsize them at every moment, or pour down their funnels. Three destroyers sank. Worst of all, almost 800 men died. The authors describe the aftermath as twice as bad as that of the Battle of Midway. Did Halsey act stupidly? Was he negligent, given what he knew?

Looking back, thinking about those fragile destroyers, it's hard to imagine what Halsey was thinking. Yes, he was committed to supporting MacArthur's return to the Philippines, specifically the invasion of Mindoro. And he had been so roundly criticized for leaving MacArthur exposed at the Battle of Leyte Gulf that we can sympathize with his hope that the weather would clear up, that he would be able to complete massive refueling operations and return to the fight. Further, though subjected to a Court of Inquiry, he was never officially sanctioned. Even his captains who barely survived excused him.

It's difficult, though, to let Halsey off the hook while reading scores of pages about men fighting for their lives in the hearts of dying 'tin cans' or on their sea-washed decks. Why didn't Halsey fold at the first sign of trouble? Why didn't he give up refueling as he unwittingly rescheduled rendezvous in the path of the storm? In the last half of the book, page after page recounts the deaths of sailors, killed in their ships, washed into the Pacific, succumbing to one of the many deadly effects of being lost in the ocean.

The hero of the book is Lt. Comdr. Henry Lee Plage, captain of the Destroyer Escort USS Tabberrer, who repeatedly leaves off obeying rendezvous orders to search for and rescue 55 sailors floating without hope.

Drury and Clavin write a gripping story of survival at sea during time of war when weather can become your worst enemy.

Official Halsey's Typhoon website

Here's the link to the review in DTI on Nxtbook.

And here's a copy of the pdf I got to proof. (This is the best looking one, obviously.)

I was wrong

More later.

Rats.

V-day prep

Macon schooled me to something new they've got going:


Make one of your own: iheart.despair.com

Final Super Bowl prediction

Ok, I've read and thought about this a lot. Peter King had the cover story in SI on the matchup between the Patriots offense and the Giants defense. Though it was not his intent, he convinced me that will not be the key matchup.

I think the result when those two sides face off will be about the same as the last time they met. If anything, the Patriots will have the advantage: they're getting some O-line and blocking types back and the Giants secondary was very beat up at the end of the season.

Brady will get his yards. The Giants will do what everyone else has done in the last I-don't-know-how-many-weeks: take away the long pass and make them be patient with short passes and runs, and the Patriots will take them (in general).

No, the key matchup will be the Giants offense against the Patriots defense. It was the key matchup last time. The Giants scored on their first possession with the key play being a 52 yard pass from Manning to Burress.

(Watch the NFL Network's highlights of the game. Click on the 'Play-By-Play' tab for specifics.)

The next Giants score came off of a returned kickoff for a touchdown.

With another touchdown off of more measured plays, that put the Giants up 21-16 at the half. Contain those two big plays and you're talking about, maybe, 7-16 (not to mention more time of possession by the Pats).

Finally, the Patriots allowed too many rushing yards in the Giant's first drive of the second half, and they scored.

After that, they settled down and didn't allow the Giants to score again until the game was out of reach.

There is no doubt in my mind that this will be the Patriots' game plan in the three phases:

1. The offensive approach will be the same as if has been back at least to the last time they played the Giants: Assume the Giants will double- and triple-cover Moss to prevent the big play. So the Pats will probably have to take the short passes and runs in the face of a great Giants pass rush that didn't get to Brady last time and won't this time. The Pats will look for the long ball to Randy. Playing in great weather on ideal turf (at least before the halftime show) will prompt them to watch for the long play, and even try it, but not force it. Paging Wes Welker ... We will also need a good game from Maroney, Faulk, and Watson, especially (the normal hot read/outlet receivers).

2. Defense: Focus on the running game, the Giants' strongest asset with two good, young, strong runners. Second, stop the big play to Burress.

3. Special teams: Do not allow a kickoff or punt return for a touchdown on pain of death! Belichick hates that stuff and prides himself on having good special teams. Of course, beyond that, they'll want to play error-free on special teams, with no long returns.

That game plan adds up to a Patriots' victory. I don't claim to be astute (or dumb) enough to predict a score. Even if the Giants score as well as they have been since the last Patriots' game, they will not be able to outscore the historic Pats' offense. And I'm sure Belichick will pull out all the stops to ensure the Giants don't score as much as they have been.

What do you think?

Burress guaranteed a victory and even predicted a score. I don't think this will have a huge effect as bulletin board material, being that this is the Super Bowl.

Macon suggested I live-blog the game, which I don't think I will. However, he and I are talking about doing some chatting during during the game. Feel free to join in the fun (in Gmail or Google Talk. And if you don't know how, email me, of course).