Category Archives: blue funks

The Monday Book: ZEITOUN by Dave Eggars

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This is a sad book. It’s hard to read. It tells its story in pieces, and the pretty pieces make the ugly ones stand out all the more.

It’s the true story of a man named AbdulRahman Zeitoun, his wife Kathy, their kids and extended family, during and just after Hurricane Katrina. One small piece of a very big, weird, awful time. And that drill down into what happened to one little group of people makes the bigger picture that much more terrifying.

How fast does society break down, and who gets to decide what that looks like: The police, the criminals, the rich people, or the ones with guns? It was just that chaotic. And that awful.

Don’t read this story if you’re depressed, but do be aware that Eggars has a writing style that borders on poetic journalism for most of it. He jumps back and forth between family history and the days of the storm and its aftermath. I’m glad I read Zeitoun. And I kind of wish I hadn’t.

Jack does NOT look like Statler OR Waldorf…. no, really……

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Jack’s weekly guest blog

We switched from a reliable but slow Verizon phone and internet service to a fast but unknown Comcast service a few months ago. When it works it’s great, but this morning seriously tested my forgiving Quakerish tendencies!

Starting with a phone call from our good friend Jennifer Cutting and leader of The Ocean Band (one of the headliners at Big Stone Celtic in a few weeks) which ended up being carried on over 5 interrupted calls. Then a long standing customer came in to make various orders on-line with ABE Books and that turned into a long and much interrupted process as well !

The blasted router kept switching itself off and on again as if it had a bit-part in ‘The I.T. Crowd’ and causing serious delays in all our work. Of course people phone in orders and reservations to The Second Story Cafe and almost certainly Kelley had as many problems as me.

But I can remember when my family in Scotland were unusual in having a phone at all and no-one except a science fiction writer would have imagined the Internet. Now here we are and we have become dependent on technology. It’s mostly technology we don’t understand and can’t repair – I can also remember when you didn’t have to plug your car into a computer to find out what was wrong with it.

Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon! Or maybe these two muppets had it right!

Statler and Waldorf discover computers

Oliver and JackHey wait, how did that picture get there? We don’t look anything like Statler and Waldorf……