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I totally forgot to do my reading roundup at the end of August, so here it is, a little late.
Odd set of books last month, and more disappointment than I’d hoped for. Physical books first:
Jennifer Weiner, BIG SUMMER. This was another airport purchase. (Must be really good for your royalties to have your book out front at airport bookshops, as that’s typically where I buy big soapy novels in hardback that otherwise I’d never pick up.) After my less-than-stellar experience with Weiner’s THE GRIFFIN SISTERS’ GREATEST HITS, I thought I’d give her another try. BIG SUMMER will be my last venture for a while. It can’t decide whether it’s a romance, a mystery, or something else, and I had to flog myself into finishing the last third. Also I’m finding that Weiner’s narrators are becoming more or less indistinguishable from each other.
Harlan Coben, PLOT TWIST. I don’t usually buy “how to write” books, and I’m not a Coben reader. But I heard an interview with him about the book which was smart and interesting, so I ordered it. Not my cup of tea. The advice is simplistic and the writing style sets my teeth on edge. On the other hand, every time I put it down, I had the unexplained impulse to go back and work on my own novel some more, so I guess it had some useful side effect.
John Samuel Harphan, THE INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY. This bleeds over a bit into my work life, since I’m doing some history work in this direction, but it was an excellent read on its own. The central conundrum for Harphan is how English and American thinkers who prized freedom so highly were able to reconcile this with the massively-scaled slavery industry in the seventeenth century. The primary intellectual gymnastic was to recast all of Africa as a place where life was so wretched and the people so debased that any other fate was preferable to living on that continent. Sadly, I saw quite a bit of this rhetoric when I did my post on the Equal Earth map changes. It’s alive and well.
Ian McEwan, ATONEMENT. This is a reread for me; I’d been thinking about this book because of another essay I’m writing, and I hadn’t read it for twenty years. The reread did not disappoint. There are so many layers to this story—and the prose is so very lovely.
Madeline Miller, CIRCE. I’ve had this one sitting on my shelf for quite a while and finally pulled it off. It has its moments, and the writing is lyrical. But it mostly seemed to me like a retread of Lewis’s TIL WE HAVE FACES, minus any of the insightful spiritual observations or a central character that I actually liked.
And as for ebooks:
Charlie Kirk, THE MAGA DOCTRINE. Yes, that’s part of my ongoing effort to read books I’m pretty sure I won’t agree with, and I could borrow it for free on Kindle. Kirk lost me pretty early on, when he compared Elon Musk to Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, and Jonas Salk (“These sorts of people, and the divine creative spark they display, are the foundation of American greatness.” That would be Elon Musk’s divine creative spark, just to confirm). But I persisted until I got to this, “While Trump works to avoid the flare-up of total war with Iran, Mitt Romney, regarded by many of the “Never Trump” establishment Republicans as a voice of moderation and respectability, vowed in the early stages of his failed 2012 presidential campaign to take ‘military action’ against Iran to stop its nuclear program if elected—not merely if a crisis arose, simply if elected. A vote for Romney was a vote for war.” That was written by Kirk in 2020. It hasn’t aged well.
Dick Francis, BANKER. I needed a fun horse book for airplane reading. This hit all the requirements—horses, interesting subplot involving the narrator’s day job, a mystery, a hero in peril, and a tidy resolution. I haven’t read Dick Francis for a long time and I might go back and do some relaxing revisiting.
5 hours ago
Something in particular bothered me about Circe: for a book that was supposedly meant to center women in their stories, the last quarter of the story was obsessed with a man (Odysseus). I've always been a fan of Odysseus, despite his moral failings, and even I was thinking, "Give me a break."
Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach made me so mad I actually stopped reading (adult) fiction for a decade. Well written, absolutely, but I couldn't handle the level of unresolved trauma and unnecessary tragedy. It's become a core experience for me and how I interact with fiction and my own writing.
I was meh about Circe. Till We Have Faces and LeGuin’s Lavinia are just so superior, other myth retellings feel like chrome to their gold.
I often wonder if we would be engaged in Iran if Charlie Kirk hadn’t been assassinated. I think he was a positive influence on Trump.
I had completely forgotten about Dick Francis! I am adding his books to my list for fun reading!
I noticed you slipped in the little bit about writing a novel! How wonderful. Consider it pre-ordered. 😎
I just started Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know, and you’re absolutely right about his way with layering and lovely prose.
Hmmm … I have Circe sitting in my audible library … more a should read vs a want to read … but I’ve been eyeing it and intending to try it this fall. We’ll see how I do. Should reads are tough reads for me to start …
Lessons by McEwan was one of my favorites last year. Read Saturday this year. Always a good thoughtful read.
Dick Francis, especially his older books, are my comfort reads. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the others.
Love Dick Francis novels for a fun read
This is helpful. Ty!
It won't surprise you that I have some reservations about AI-driven education.
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From the article:
But like chatbots, A.I. in education is proliferating. Alpha already has branches in Miami and Brownsville, Texas, where Elon Musk has built a company town around his SpaceX rocket launch site. The next expansion will bring Alpha’s model to more than a dozen other American cities, including New York City and Orlando, Fla.
“Parents and teachers: We need to embrace this change,” Ms. Price wrote after President Trump signed an executive order pushing A.I. in schools.
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I actually think that AI drills could be useful in teaching phonics skills and administering computation drills--repetitive, concrete learning tasks that could be more useful if personalized.
But here's the part we need to talk more about:
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From the article:
At Alpha’s flagship, students spend a total of just two hours a day on subjects like reading and math, using A.I.-driven software. The remaining hours rely on A.I. and an adult “guide,” not a teacher, to help students develop practical skills in areas such as entrepreneurship, public speaking and financial literacy.
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I tend to shy away from philosophical discussions about WHAT IS EDUCATION? and HOW DO WE FORM THE NEXT GENERATION? and WHAT IS SCHOOL?, in part because I am much more interested in how kids learn how to read, write, and think, and in part because these discussions SO quickly veer into culture-war territority, which I am not only constitutionally uninterested in, but also simply don't have the energy for.
But that statement does stand out to me.
The Alpha "education" is all about practical skills. There's nothing wrong with practical skills. But the curriculum seems to be tilting WAY towards those practical skills.
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From the article:
Alpha isn’t using A.I. as a tutor or a supplement. It is the school’s primary educational driver to move students through academic content.
In the afternoons, students focus on projects that require interaction with other students, such as wilderness training, cooking and sports. For example, fifth and sixth graders last year decided to create a food truck. To accomplish their goal, they learned how to budget, form a business plan — with the help of a chatbot — and to cook eggs.
“When we were all in the kitchen, it would get really stressful,” Byron said. “Working through that calmly and together is something I really improved on.”
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Business plans. Teamwork. Great. But when do we learn for the sake of learning? When do we memorize poetry, read fantasy, talk about the difference between socialism and capitalism, contemplate the history of the world?
Will we no longer be doing this in twenty years?
A lot of gaps to be filled in here.
A.I.-Driven Education: Founded in Texas and Coming to a School Near You (Gift Article)
www.nytimes.com
At Austin’s Alpha School, students spend just two hours a day on academics, led by artificial intelligence tools. New Alpha schools are set to open in about a dozen cities this fall.4 days ago
A couple of points: 1) I don't think you necessarily need AI for "personalized" phonics for math drills. We've had all kinds of online learning platforms, for quite awhile, that allow kids to practice with immediate feedback, and can adapt future lessons based on results. (But that's just more basic programming- not AI.) 2) Friendly reminder- don't forget to include math on the list of things we learn "for the sake of learning." 🙂 Math can obviously be "practical" as well, but theoretical math is very much part of the liberal arts tradition...
Have you ever read Isaac Asimov's short story, "The Fun They Had?". I feel like we're headed toward making education into the "teacher" in that story (but only the negative parts).
I spend a lot of time talking to both my oldest child’s co-Op class and my music pedagogy collegiate students about the importance of education as a means to build and shape character and the role of teacher-as-mentor. We have discussed (both groups) the medieval university, the original idea of education as a means to explore the world and gain knowledge that we might know God better, and whether “education as instilling facts and techniques for pragmatic ends” is complete enough as compared to “education to seek truth and wisdom while shaping oneself into a person who can serve others in a variety of vocations.” Ultimately, my senior sighed and said, “I really wish studying classical literature were more practical. Maybe I should have lived in the Middle Ages. Or maybe I could go to Oxford?” I then had to explain that Oxford is definitely not in our family budget. 🤣 One of my college students called back through the door as he left one day, “I realized that I move my head the way my piano teacher in high school did. And I talk like him too. You weren’t kidding when you said that inadvertent mentorship by our character and our traits would turn out to matter…” This is why AI cannot walk us all the way through education: education is not only for practical fact-instilling and training in workplace skills. It should be the formation of who we are. /steps off soap box.
Guess what/ The public school system already has huge gaps! Do you know my 5th grader in Ky, at our local public school spent 2 weeks studying 9/11??? He is 10. They talked about suicide, body parts, killing, horror stories, and more!! They read aloud a novel about 9/11. It was mandated by KY!!! I would much prefer- teaching him reading, writing, spelling, math for 2 hours then let him play! Let him do projects!! Do huge projects!!! Choose art or science or reading (from classics) The Acton Model does include all the discussion and the classics!! Their Quests include deeper learning and projects too!! The the public school has taken on some pretty bizarre values! We know you can’t educate without a value system. AI- AI material- programs can help with personalized math and spelling and grammar lessons for sure- But the school currently in KY offers 0 personalized learning! They have new math and reading curriculum and robotic procedures- The teacher reads the math lesson material word for word to the whole class for 60-90 minutes… No small groups… If you are bored- oh well If you are lost- oh well The teacher can’t individualize- Can’t do small groups.. Math- similar.. They then have another hour of the day for catch up After the mandated time bound lessons- Each teacher must keep pace like a conveyor belt offering lessons! No stopping to explain or create personalize lessons as you see they are needed.. If the class is lost- too bad- the mandated pace rules. Also- recess is gone! Because of the mandates The principals are cutting recess!! 15 minutes The children in our school in KY- Get 15 minutes a day From 840-340pm 1 15 minute recess! One! I went to the principal and discussed it. She could offer 30 or 40 or 45 minutes , but chooses to fill the time with programming- The Math and Reading blocks are mandated currriculum So she has to offer a catch time to do personalized help for the kids… So they lose recess. If they used their 3 hours to teach the kids instead of running curriculum by a standardized pace and words to say They could have adequate recess.. So there is a huge systematic problem!! An Aloha school would solve a lot of problems!!! I love a literature rich classic based education- I have read your books about 20 years ago!! But Alpha sure would be better than the current public school here in my county!!! I would give anything to have 2 hours of academics then the day to play, create, do projects, read, discuss, problem solve!! That is what our homeschooling looked like Plus we read aloud an hour a day!! But Alpha would be soooo much better than what we have!! Dig deeeper into what the day and ma dated time stamped curriculum really is!!
I’m with you.
Some thoughts on the "Rise of A.I." by Ronald H. Card, retired freelance photojournalist in Virginia, age 81. The current, bandied about, so-called, unavoidable A.I. apocalypse, capable of destroying humanity by the end of the decade, is a nonsense hoax created by the gullibility of useful tech-ignorant idiots egotistically clamoring for the spotlight and personal recognition. Dumb-ageddon prevails. I believe that such problems can, and are, rooted in spiritual ignorance, and I believe also, that fools have a right to exist. In cutting to the chase here, I will go on record and say that, in effect, knowledge and information does not exist apart from, for that matter detached from, the (human) personality, or personalities, that psychologically holds the information. There is no knowledge lying around collecting dust, not belonging to human intellect. There simply is no interface between sentient, creative consciousness and machine; physical devices and A.I. human programmed algorithms into A.I. bots, for example. A.I. is limited in scope, depth and reach by the I.Q and thought processes, along with the available knowledge-- information, of the "H.I." human intelligence programming such mechanical devices, no matter what form they take on. Naturally speaking, humans can think, reason, feel emotions, exhibit human traits and characteristics, and, most of all, humans have the power and ability to create their own reality according to their held beliefs. Humans can create as well as procreate--can a machine do that? Human also innately possess the ability to love, which is the prime, sustaining energy force in life, in all of existence. Can A.I., or a bot, love? A.I is naturally not alive, it is artificial. However, A.I. is an extremely useful tool, that's right, a tool, purpose designed to assist humans in performing lightning fast calculations and processing information programmed into its algorithms. Additionally, A.I., no matter what the form taken, requires an electrical power source/supply in order to keep it functioning. If the power source runs down and dies out, so does, in turn, the A.I. system, and mechanism, which becomes a very heavy paper weight. As an interesting aside here, I recall, decades ago, the 1978 book by Jerry Mander, entitled, Four arguments for the elimination of television. Mander argued that many of the problems with T.V. are inherent in the medium and technology itself, which were dangerous in his considered opinion. That T.V. mediates and colonizes experience, diminishing human cognition and creativity, and T.V. exhibits inherent bias and information that distorts reality. Of course, TV was not eliminated. Then along came home computers, the internet and cyberspace along with its many social media platforms with an endless accumulation of shared information, whether good or bad, or in-between. Now along comes A.I. with all its many possibilities, good or bad, or in-between. I recall the early computer adage, called the G.I.G.O principal, meaning, garbage in, garbage out. And G.I.G.O. applies to A.I. All such avenues of information, cast in accordance with the social and technical development of the times in which they appear, provide a two-edged sword, so to speak, in that, not the medium itself, but the human element, with its inherent creative cognition, decides on imbuing the medium with good or bad or indifferent information and intent. Do we, as a society, allow a government, whether democratic or socialistic--communistic, to gather, edit, change, manipulate and control the flow of available public information, thus controlling what people think and do? I certainly do not want my available information controlled before I access it. Do you? I think, as individuals, and as groups of individuals, and also as societies, we must all insist upon the free accessing and interpreting of unrestricted information, and thus, we decide what we wish to believe in, or not, based upon our beliefs, and not those of outside influencers, or governments, sciences, or religions, attempting to manipulate us around to their way of thinking, believing and doing. What do you think?. And in closing, think while it is still legal. I believe in free thought.. -- Ronald H. Card.
Lauri Muse, I totally agree. The public school system has much larger gaps! I am on many teacher forums. Their hands are tied and very little instruction can be done. Kinder teachers are changing diapers, keeping ASD kids from eloping, and following 8 IEPs or more with 27 kids and no aide. Some districts strictly bind teachers to scripted curr. AND, even though that curr. includes objectives, they have to post detailed objectives in large letters tied to standards on the wall for each subject each day for students who cannot yet read! There is zero time for actual instruction, play or personalized instruction. When a special student destroys a classroom, it takes days to get everything in order. It's not even babysitting. Not good for anyone. The Alpha system has improved scores tremendously on all levels and made kids and parents excited and motivated. That is far more successful than pubic schools even though there are gaps. For Alpha, gaps can be fixed. For public, gaps get worse and worse. Alpha is not competing against homeschooling, but public. Look into Alpha more deeply. Your issues can be answered or fixed. To Lauri, I just saw a man-on-the-street segment where young adults were asked what they knew about 9-11. They knew nothing. OTOH, the instruction you described sounds horrible. They should be dealing with why it happened, the history, and why America allowed ourselves to be vulnerable. (I, as a mere accountant at a company conference, knew ten years before 9-11 that the military knew of our vulnerability of planes crashing into buildings.)
Well, folks, I didn't realize I was joining the culture wars by posting an interesting graphic comparing two world maps. But someone who's determined to take offense will always find a way.
Hoping this will be less controversial and, possible, even helpful.
The garden keeps on giving. What on earth do I do with the enormous variegated butternut squash on the right? Don't say soup, because we've done soup.
Pound of butter for scale.
1 week ago
Roasted with olive oil, then served hot with maple drizzle, toasted pecans and feta cheese
Swing it at detractors?
I found the map post excellent. I was intrigued by it and I've been thinking about it ever since.
This is close to a favorite recipe I make out of the Joy of Cooking. Apple Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash - Downshiftology share.google/xCGYMkpgsZxLWyAsI
Someone will always be offended by facts. I appreciate that your posts are factual and research-based in a world full of opinions and fiction that are presented as facts. I never pass up reading through one of your posts - and now I have a lot of great ideas for squash because of that! Thank you for being a breath of fresh air on my feed.
Stuff with a sausage bread stuffing mixture.
Beyond standard soups, puree roasted butternut squash into a velvety pasta sauce with sage and nutmeg, or fold it into gnocchi dough and dumpling fillings. You can also spiralize the neck for sweet-savory noodles, bake sliced rounds into crispy squash steaks, or churn the roasted flesh with maple and warming spices into autumn ice cream.
Or whatever your Memaw's favorite cushaw pie recipe is. www.southernliving.com/recipes/cushaw-pie-vanilla-bean-custard-sauce-recipe
I can't believe you used butter for size! Don't you know it's supposed to be a banana? 😆
Fritters!
Butternut squash ravioli?
Roasted squash as a side to dinner. You can also use it in a bowl or as a base for a salad.
How dare you pose such a logical, thought-provoking post and photo of these squashes!!!!! *clutches pearls*
I made cubed and sautéed butternut squash with taco seasonings one time on a whim and made burritos with butternut squash and black beans and cheese. It was delicious. And now I want one.
I’m, sadly, allergic to tomato. I use butternut squash as a base for „no-mato“ sauce. I make a big batch, the freeze it in measured quantities that cover everything from a serving of pasta to needing to sub for a Tb of tomato paste in a recipe. That said… if you like risotto, butternut squash is an excellent add-in!
I would sit it on my counter trying to decide what to do with it until it became too old to eat.
Butternut squash can be used as a substitute for pumpkin in pies, quick bread and cakes too! (Always one for the sweets! 😉)
Squash and apples. Layer cubed squash and apples in a casserole. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and pats of butter. Cover and bake for 45 min to an hour at 350/400. It pairs well with chicken, turkey and pork!
Dice and roast with chicken thighs. Add to wild rice with craisins and Parmesan cheese
Yum!! Just put it in the oven and roast it whole for about 30mins. Makes it easier to cut, then scoop out the seeds and chop into pieces. Toss with olive oil and some herbs/spices, then roast again (turn pieces every so often) until they’re all nicely caramelized. Great side dish for something grilled.
Bake it and eat it with butter and a hint of brown sugar. Make it into a pumpkin pie. Peel and cut into squares and cook on a sheet pan with chicken and carrots, sprinkled with salt and pepper and a drizzle of maple syrup. Or just stick it in the pantry, because it will keep for the next year!
Too graphic! Just kidding. But someone can be offended by anything! Keep up your good work.
Slice them thin with salt and oil and bake to make chips. So good.
I love a burrito filling with black beans, brown rice, butternut squash, cumin, and garlic! It's also good in omelettes. Also, dice, blanch, and freeze them for later!
Butternuts make an amazing base for queso!!
