All posts by David Todd

book reviews, Mark Twain

Book Review: Mark Twain’s “Letters From Earth”

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Twain’s miscellaneous writings published after his death: good to read but not worth keeping.

Some time ago I picked up a used copy of Letters From The Earth: Uncensored Writings By Mark Twain. Actually, I have another copy of this in the house which I saw while looking for something else on a bookshelf.

The book was pulled together posthumously by editors from writings Twain never published, things they found after he died. Like many authors, Twain started things, working toward some grand plan, then never finished them. Perhaps he realized the project didn’t make sense. Perhaps other things caught his interest. The editors found value in these writings and published it in 1938, more than twenty years after Twain’s death.

Thus, the book is a hodgepodge of materials, most of them dealing with religion and man, particularly relations between men and women. The Table of Contents is as follows.

  • Letters From The Earth
  • Papers of the Adam Family
  • Letter To The Earth
  • A Cat-Tale
  • Cooper’s Prose Style
  • Official Report to the I.I.A.S
  • The Gorky Incident
  • Simplified Spelling
  • Something About Repentance
  • From An English Notebook
  • From The Manuscript of “A Tramp Abroad”; the French and the Comanches
  • From an Unfinished Burlesque of Books on Etiquette
  • The Damned Human Race
  • The Great Dark

These vary in length from a few pages to fifty pages. Some I found interesting, if not illuminating. Some of his thoughts on women’s sexuality came from a different perspective and included things I’d never thought of. Some about sin and man’s relationship to God presented a skeptic’s or atheist’s viewpoint on Christianity. I don’t know if Twain was an atheist, but would conclude so just based on reading this book.

I found the article on James Fenimore Cooper’s writings overly critical. Cooper wrote a several decades before Twain began. Writing styles were different and had changed a lot in those years. This is the second piece I’ve read of Twain’s that pans Cooper. Not sure why Twain had it out for him.

I’m glad I read this as it tells me much more about Twain. I read almost all of it, skipping some of “The Great Dark” and most of the editor’s notes. I won’t be keeping it. Next time I leave The Dungeon for the Upper Realm, I’ll bring it with me and take it strait to the sale/donation pile. As a matter of fact, when I find that other copy of this somewhere on one of my many book shelves, it will go out as well. I’m not having a permanent Twain collection.

family, Genealogy, Health, reading

A Day Late, But Hopeful

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I won’t write much at the moment. I’m a day late with this post. While my wife is in the hospital and I’m unable to see her due to the corona virus outbreak, I’m keeping myself very busy so as not to go crazy. On Thursday, between the elliptical and the trails in our area I walked almost four miles. Yesterday I took a new trail near the house and walked three hard miles. That was after an hour and a half of yard work.

I was quite tired after that and didn’t accomplish much the rest of the day. I read and re-read portions of the genealogy book I’m writing, still not able to let it go and get back to my novel. I’m decluttering, but that means I have more clutter than ever. It will all come together when I finish deciding what to get rid of, but not yet. Actually, I can see some progress. Things are better organized if not eliminated.

Lynda is doing better. She had at least five or six complications from the surgery and general health issues and has slowly, with the help of an excellent medical team, worked through them. Right now the remaining problem is her stomach not draining. Some kind of blockage, perhaps in the small intestine, is preventing that. She’s had to have an n-g tube in for days now to drain her stomach otherwise she has extreme nausea from gastric fluids building up. Today they are supposed to do a test to see where the blockage is so they can do a treatment for it.

Keeping busy prevents me from going crazy with worry. I have prayed much, read much, worked much. I think it was Monday evening that, after an extensive time in prayer, I had a wave of peace come over me. I knew in that moment that Lynda wasn’t going to die in the hospital, that she would be coming home to me.

I must now get back to my work. I found on the table in my office a book I read but didn’t review on this blog. It’s a book I’m not going to keep, so I need to review it and take it to the donation/sale pile. Look for it on Monday.

family, Health, miscellaneous

I Never Expected This

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Dateline: 5 April 2020

Well, the title of this blog post is sure a true statement. I never expected something like this corona virus that would send the world reeling. I never would have expected a stock market meltdown such as we’ve had. And I never would have expected…

…my wife to be in the hospital. On Thursday she woke up to a painful abdomen. It wasn’t long before she realized it wasn’t just gas, that something was wrong. We monitored it, but the pain was tolerable so we went about our normal routine. That is, normal for being socially distant and close to sheltering in place.

Friday morning the pain remained. It had also hit her hard during the night. After a couple of hours we called her primary care physician and arranged a video appointment. That happened but with much trial and error. The doc decided she needed to come in for an office visit. They aren’t doing many of those due to the pandemic, but she said come in before 4. This was around 11:00 a.m. The lab called us back and said we should come in before 3 because they would leave early on a Friday with not a lot to do.

The doc decided she needed a cat scan, so they scheduled it for the Mercy urgent care facility closest to our house, at our request, because we figured we’d be going home afterward. The thing took almost four hours, at which time they said we needed to head straight to the hospital operating room. The problem was most likely a ruptured appendix. We did so, getting there at 6:00 p.m.

Of course, I couldn’t go into any of these places with her. I read in the car. We left so quickly in the morning that neither of us brought chargers and Lynda didn’t remember her new cell phone. Thinking there would be surgery that night (as we were told), I waited in the parking lot, thinking if something went wrong they would call me and let me see her. But Lynda called around 8:00 p.m. and said the surgery would be at 10 Saturday morning.

The surgeon then called me around 10 a.m. on Saturday. They took her early to surgery, got out the appendix laparoscopically, She would be in the hospital a few days due to antibiotics due to the rupture, all of which time I wouldn’t be able to see her because of the corona virus.

In video calls since then, I’ve learned that her heart went into a-fib, she’s quite nauseous, she has an air bubble in her stomach, and water on her lungs. During which time I can’t see her due to the pandemic.

So, today, Sunday, I kept myself busy. I studied for Life Group in case I had to teach (which I didn’t), I had quite a few phone calls and many messages about Lynda. I did some more genealogy research, and I accelerated a de-cluttering effort in the storeroom that I began about five days ago. I actually saw some progress on both research and decluttering today.

And, of course I prayed—much, even almost without ceasing. God has this under control, all of it. He has Lynda’s health, he had the world’s health, and he has my peace of mind.

The nurses told me today that Lynda isn’t in any danger. What she’s going through (except the a-fib) is normal after an operation. Her body just needs time to work through it.

So I will rest easy knowing the Great Physician has this. Amen.

Church History Novels, critique group, Documenting America, Genealogy, goals, Sharon Williams short stories, The Teachings, Writing

2020: March Accomplishment, April Goals

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Here’s what I had for my March goals and how I did relative to them.

  1. Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Did this. Once I did a “can’t write much today” post, and once I didn’t get my Friday post in till Saturday, but I got them done.
  2. Make significant progress on The Teachings, my novel-in-progress.  I need to make this measurable, so I’ll set 20,000 words to be added this month. That means, at the close of March 31st, I should be at 32, 122 or better. Failed miserably on this when my genealogy book and research took over practically all my waking hours. I ended the month with around 23,250 words. Not awful, but not what I hoped for.
  3. Make a final decision on what Bible study to work on this year. I decided this: it will be Entrusted To My Care: A Bible Study of 1 & 2 Timothy.
  4. Attend three writing group meetings this month, two for Scribblers & Scribes of Bella Vista and one for Village Lake Writers & Poets. Due to the corona virus outbreak, two of these three meetings were cancelled. The first one, on March 4, we did at the Rogers library. The 2nd Wednesday Noon group will meet as a Facebook livestream followed by a Zoom conference this month, and I’m the speaker.
  5. Spend a little time going through the genealogy book I started over two years ago. My goal is to make a judgment of how much work would be involved and whether I could publish it this year. I haven’t talked much about this on the blog. I’ll have to do a post or two on it. I accomplished this—big time. I’m working hot and heavy on the book, to the detriment of all other writing tasks, and it’s coming along well. Up to 88 pages and the end is not yet.
  6. Republish the two stories in the Sharon Williams Fonseca series I didn’t get done last month, to add my current list of published works (and correct any typos I might find). Did this! All five Sharon Williams Fonseca stories are re-published with most recent data on my published works, as well as a correcting a few typos in each.
  7. Continue reading for research in the next Documenting America book. This will include searching for available documents. I have a few already chosen, but more are needed. This month I may be searching for documents more than reading them. I don’t know if I can claim having done this or not. I found some new on-line sources and skimmed one and bookmarked the site. I guess I can claim it.

So, what about April? I’m somewhat uncertain due to this genealogy obsession that has to run its course before I can get back to other work. Thus I think my goals will be modest this month.

  1. Blog twice a week.
  2. Get as far as I can with the genealogy book.
  3. Spend at least some time in The Teachings. I should set a word goal. Let’s say 3,000 words is my goal for the month.
  4. Give my talk to the Village Lake Writers & Poets on April 8.
  5. Do some research into the next Documenting America book. Maybe it will just read the document I found. Maybe it will be to peruse the site that document came from and note other documents for use and at least skim them.

That’s all for April. It will be a busy month, just not in the things I had on my master 2020 list.

America, Health

Staying Quiet at Home

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When I was out and about on Thursday, I didn’t see any blooming redbuds. When I walked the neighborhood on Saturday and Sunday, there they were. It’s nice to greet them each spring.

As I write this we are in the midst of the growing corona virus pandemic. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, worldwide cases now exceed 700,000 and deaths are over 35,000. In the USA it’s 143,000+ cases and 2,500+ deaths. In my county in Arkansas we have 33 cases, up 5 since Saturday. Thankfully, no deaths to this point.

We are under many restrictions imposed by the government, and other restrictions self-imposed. Our church cancelled in-person services before our governor restricted gatherings. School has been closed two, or maybe it’s three, weeks now. We go out as little as possible. I’m cancelling a doctor appointment this week, and will not be able to go in the building when Lynda goes for a doctor appointment tomorrow.

In some ways this isn’t much different than normal retirement. We’re a little more isolated, but, since I’m only working a little as my former company needs me, I don’t get out much for that. Normal weekly trips were for church, groceries/meds, and doctor as needed. Now it’s mainly groceries.

Sometime late this week there’s supposed to be a pre-construction conference at Centerton that I’m supposed to chair. They are trying to figure out how to make it a digital conference. But, I also need to sign the approved construction drawings as city engineer. We’ll see if I have to go in to City Hall, speak with no one, just do the signing in the lobby.

For the last two weeks I taught our Life Group via a Zoom conference. It’s been a learning experience, as each week we were cut off before I’d finished. I think we have it down for next week, but we’ll see. It was good to see everyone and hear them, even if we couldn’t be together. On Saturday we had a family Zoom conference, which went well. Nice to see the grandkids, our son, our daughter, and my sister. This may become something regular.

These bloomed all December through January, dropping their flowers during February and March. Here they are blooming again.

Meanwhile, spring has arrived. I’ve upped my walking, now trying to get three miles a day, trying to lose the last 50 pounds I’d like to lose (the doctor says 30). Yesterday I did the three miles in almost perfect weather. The redbuds are blooming, and the dogwoods aren’t far behind. Forsythia are still yellow, and a few jonquils have blooms. Our Christmas cacti have a few late blooms to brighten my reading time in the sun room.

We will get through this. The corona virus hasn’t peaked yet, but the end may be in sight. I suspect we will have another month of social distancing, though even longer wouldn’t surprise me. We’ll see how it goes for us. My prayer is that we humans, in the USA and around the world, would be smart about this and do what we can to end it.

Genealogy, research, Writing

Interrupted by Research

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These bloomed all December through January, dropping their flowers during February and March. Here they are blooming again.

I’m sad to report that progress on my work-in-progress, The Teachings, has fallen behind. In fact, I’ve done nothing on it since Monday. Instead, I’ve filled those hours with something equally pleasurable: genealogy research.

One of my goals for 2020 was to get back to work on, and perhaps publish, the book on Stephen Cross and Elizabeth Cheney of Ispwich. Elizabeth is Lynda’s 8x-great aunt on her dad’s side. Her father, John Cheney of Newbury, will be the subject of a future book. I have lots on him, but want to get more on his children. Elizabeth is the youngest of his 12 children (10 lived to adulthood; 9 of those had children), so I decided to start with her. Three or four years ago I began the research and realized I had so much stuff that it would make a book by itself.

I started on that book, got it up to about 60 pages, and quit. I had done the easy part of the research by then, with some hard slogging to go. This week I worked on the hard slogging.

And I made significant progress. On the book part, I deleted duplicate and most extraneous material. I expanded the bibliography. I created a couple of side bars. I like the look of it.

The research I picked up is into Stephen and Elizabeth’s children, as well as Stephen’s siblings. Elizabeth’s siblings I have down, but Stephen’s are a puzzle. That’s where I found lots of disagreement among researchers, and information added that seems to have no basis in documents. I really want to get this right. Stephen’s siblings are tangential to the book, but, again, I want it right.

What do I have for my four days of effort? A better organized book. A more correct and complete book. A better understanding of Stephen’s and Elizabeth’s life. An expanded bibliography. And a ton more work to do.

But, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Each day I left my research for a little while and went to the sun room. There the Christmas cacti are blooming again. Well, at least some of them are. They and the many other plants in the room provide enjoyment for my reading.  At times I look up at the blooms, or at the other plants, and just enjoy them.

When will I get back on The Teachings? At this time I have no idea. Once I start genealogy research I just have to let it run its course till I the interest wanes. It might be another week, perhaps sooner. The fact that I’m working on the book at the same time makes me think this will last a while.

book reviews, History

Book Review: The Commanders

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An excellent read for anyone interested in the early historical accounts or the 1988-1991 era.

In our garage is a large bookshelf, scavenged years ago when the company was downsizing, that hold the books we trot out whenever we have a garage sale.  I finish a book, if it’s not a keeper, I bring it to the shelf and stuff it in somewhere.

As I did that recently, and looking for a new book to read, my eyes fell on The Commanders by Bob Woodward. I knew I’d never read it so pulled it from the shelf. It had belonged to my father-in-law, a book we brought back from his house after his death. The front page included a discussion of an illness he was going through, then in the book he had made much marginalia.

The book interested me because I understood it to be about Desert Storm, a time in history of special importance to me. I figured, knowing Woodward, it was an expose of everything our leaders did wrong. That turned out to false, however. It is more of a simple “here’s how our military operated in that point in time.”

Written mostly in 1989-90 and published in 1991, Woodward describes it as a mixture between journalism and history, a bit more history than newspaper accounts (because of the access he was given to principals) but not quite history with hindsight and full access to documents.

I found the book engaging and informative. The writing style is excellent.  Being ex-military, Woodward understands things such as chain of command, relationships between branches of the armed services, and how the military and civilian leadership of our defense establishment works. Being an investigative reporter he knows how to dig out the story.

And dig out the story he did. I won’t go into a lot of details, but Woodward gives us lots of information about Bush, Cheney, Powell, and others involved in using the military as part of our national security strategy. He seems to have had access to Colin Powell and possibly Dick Cheney. These two key figures feature prominently in the book.

Woodward doesn’t paint any one in a bad light in the book. He treats people fairly, explaining where they were, who they talked with, how they made decisions, how they dealt with the press during the run up to the Panama invasion in 1989 and the development of Desert Shield in 1990-91. It ends with the first few attacks the morning that Desert Storm hit an unbelieving Iraq on January 17, 1991.

This is a good book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the early historical accounts of the 1988-91 era. Is it a keeper? Alas, no. Not because of the quality, but because I have too many books and I don’t expect to ever read it again, nor do I expect my wife will want to read it or my future heirs will thank me for leaving it to them to deal with.

So, I will remove the page with the personal note, put that in my father-in-law’s papers, and put the book back in it’s slot on that bookshelf in the garage to await the next sale or donation. The next reader will just have to put up with his marginalia.

Church History Novels, Genealogy, Health, reading, research, The Teachings, Writing

A Wonderful Rainy Day

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That was yesterday, a rainy day. And it was wonderful.

My plans for the day were to go to Wal-Mart around 7:30 a.m. to get groceries and prescriptions at the pharmacy when it opened at 9. Alas, at 7:00 a.m. a hard rain was in progress, and radar said it would be thus for hours. So I put off Wal-Mart till another day and went to The Dungeon for my work.

That work consisted of: stock trading, writing in my work-in-progress, filing. I didn’t have much stock trading to do so I mainly watched the market. For The Teachings, I decided to take a step back from writing and check my timeline. It seemed that I had Adam and Augustus in leapfrogging scenes that didn’t make sense. I mostly finished that, though I might look at it again today. While I added only a few words, as I read earlier chapters in the book, I corrected typos and phrasing, which felt good.

As the rain continued, I came upstairs for more coffee and went to the sun room. I alternately watched the rain, the birds at the feeders, and read. My current read is an historical novel from the 1950s about Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd. I’m now 32 pages into this 460 page book and enjoying it.

As the afternoon went on the rain began to taper off. The Wal-Mart run looked promising. So Lynda and I hopped in the car and got there about 3:30 p.m. The parking lot looked normal for that time on a weekday. The store wasn’t particularly crowded. We were able to get almost everything we needed. The lines at the checkout weren’t long. The pharmacy was crowded but they had lots of workers, so I was in an out without delay. As we were ready to leave the store it was raining again. I went for the car and pulled up to the front, we loaded in our groceries, and off we went to top off the gas tank then home. Through all of this we were more or less able to maintain social distancing. A most enjoyable trip.

At home in the evening I did the usual. Heated leftovers. We had small helpings of a frozen dessert. As we watched news all evening, I pulled up a genealogy book to work on. This is a maybe-I-will-maybe-I-won’t work on it project. It’s on my to-do list for 2020, to look at in March. So I did that. I spent the evening editing and researching. My main research for this was done in 2015-2017, and the thing has sat idle since then. Lot’s more records and the research of others could be on line now. So I looked for sources, made some notes about what needs to be added to the book and about sources I need to read. Soon I’ll develop a work plan and decide what to do about this thing. Whether this book ever comes to be or not, genealogy is so enjoyable to me that the time spent was uplifting.

So here it is Friday. I’m in The Dungeon, into my workday. The clouds still obscure the sun but there’s no rain in the forecast. The market is up a little, though the gains don’t look sustainable. I’m registered for a webinar later today. The Teachings is open before me in Word, waiting to me add to it. The neighborhood streets are calling to me to come walk on them. The sun room beckons.

And, a curious, minor event asks me to watch. Three of the four Christmas cacti in the sun room have new buds on them. I noticed them about two weeks ago and have been watching them. One bud started blooming yesterday. This is an extra treat, one that I’ll watch again today, and enjoy.

Writing

Daydreaming

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Dateline 14 March 2020

Lately I’ve been making a concerted effort to reduce the number of magazines on hand. This is part of our effort at decluttering our house. We don’t have any paid magazine subscriptions—not that I wouldn’t like to have one or two—but a lot of freebies come in the mail. I hate to just trash them, for they often have good articles and information on them.

I sometimes pull something from the top of the stack and sometimes dig into it for something older. This week, having taken a few off the top and disposed of them, I reached blindly into the basket and pulled out from midway down an issue of the University of Rhode Island alumni magazine. From Fall 2018, this was the first issue of the magazine under its new name, University of Rhode Island Magazine. I always enjoy reading this and, in fact, read it more than skim it.

This issue had an interesting article titled “What a Day for a Daydream” by Ann Hood. Ann is a writer of a fair number of books. Four years behind me and previously unknown to me, she has obviously excelled at the writing game. I spent some time looking at her website, published works, and blog.

Her article set me to thinking about my own relationship with daydreaming. I do it a fair amount, though I think of it as brainstorming. I do it most at night after going to bed. For a long time I thought I daydreamed extensively. It was years before I realized that my daydreams transitioned into dreams and I was asleep. How much was daydreaming and how much sleeping dreaming? I don’t really know.

Ann said

“Daydreaming…does not get problems solved or children raised or legal cases settled or books written.”

True. But if daydreaming and brainstorming are closely akin, then maybe good things start from daydreaming. I think that’s how many of my writing ideas come, from daydreaming. Later today, if time stays available as I think it will be, I intend to write out the composition of a future Bible study (not the one from my last post). It’s an idea that came to me…how? I think it came from a daydream, or a brainstorm, thinking about a Bible story then thinking about how I would teach it, how many lessons it would make, if it would make a good lesson series, etc.

I don’t think I daydream as much as I did 20 years ago. Although, maybe it’s so much a part of my being I just don’t think about it. I’m going to think about it for a while, understand when I’m daydreaming. Maybe I’ll be pleased with the results.

Thanks you, Ann Hood, for your article. Sorry it took me so long to get to it.

Bible study, Christianity

My Next Bible Study Will Be…

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Yes, I’ve made up my mind. After much consideration, and looking at the easiest items, as discussed in my last blog post, I’ve decided my next Bible study to write will be:

Entrusted To My Care: A Study of 1 and 2 Timothy.

My reasoning behind it is:

  • I have the best notes from past teaching
  • It’s been taught twice, to two different groups in our church
  • The subject still interests me
  • I think it will make the right length book for a Bible study

I just found the sheet I made back in January that laid out writing goals for 2020, divided into months. They might not truly be called goals but more properly my 2020 writing program. On that I show selecting my next Bible study in February and beginning to write it in May. I was a little behind (ten days only) making the selection, but beginning the writing per that sheet is still doable.

Why make the decision now if I’m not going to work on it for a couple of months? I’ll pull my notes together and get them into a place where I can work on them at any time. I’ll take some time to read the two Timothy books again. I might do a little more research. Just knowing what I’ll be working on and when will help me focus my mind in preparation for the task.

Of course, there’s no magic in what’s on that sheet. As the months roll on, what I’m accomplishing should inform later months, and my interests should come into better focus. I can make any changes I want to: accelerate some things, delay others, decide not to work on something because my interests now lie somewhere else.

I’m pretty sure ETMC isn’t going to go away. And I’m pretty sure I should write a Bible study in 2020. The months might change, but I’ll be working on this later in the year.