More dolphins

Hello Joan!  It's been many years since I listened to Toscanini; I remember I found his tempos "off" for some reason, too drawn out in the slow parts and too fast in the fast ones.
Napoleon is a riddle for me as well.  I sympathize with his projects, but he was clearly a monster of ego -- that comes out in all the writings about him.  At some point he decided that the only way to bring stability to French politics was to imitate Louis XIV and establish a court with all of Louis' formality.  This was largely successful, but the price was giving up many of the democratic ideals of the French Revolution.  We have to keep in mind the incredible difficulty of governing a country of such vanity as France.
Noah and Rivka are in 7th and 5th grades.  They don't have any extracurricular activities -- Noah loves video games and Rivka chatting on Skype with her friends at the computer.  They abhor the things Carolyn and I like to do -- going on hikes, visiting museums, so it's a challenge to keep them busy over the holidays.  Today Carolyn took them bowling while I work and bought them some hamsters, "Cookie" and "Skiddles."  They're both nice, affectionate children, and seem to be improving steadily in consideration for others and taking responsibility for their actions.  I'd like to inspire them with love for some activity, but don't believe in forcing them to do things they don't want to.  Noah was great at musical theater, but finds the practices boring (I agree); Rivka played clarinet for a while but says it hurts her mouth.  I haven't insisted that they continue.
The dolphins just seem to ooze affection and love for their trainers; maybe it's the smile frozen on their mouth by the shape of their jaws.  Still, I like to think that the love we experience is not our own creation, but a piece of a great cosmic love pervading the universe.  Since love just comes over me like an irresistible force, it seems reasonable to believe that it has its origin somewhere beyond myself, and that I'm part of a great system based on love.  It's a nice, comforting thought, and a reasonable one I think.  Take care, Sidney

Dolphins

Hello Joan!  The Takacs is the only recording l have of the Razumovsky quartets -- I like it a lot but can't compare it to other ones.  I almost always like recordings by anyone, even the most obscure performers, since even their technical ability astounds me.  The only conductor I never liked was Toscanini, I don't know why.  Michael Tilson Thomas here in San Francisco I sometimes find overblown, too loud and showy.  I've noticed that the recordings I listen to on our local classical station, KDFC, sound really superb these days, with many new and interesting interpretations of the classics.  I wonder whether the technology of recording has improved -- every instrument sounds so clear and distinct in its unique tone.
The story of Alexander I is engrossing -- such lows and highs, such a gulf between his well-developed democratic beliefs and his career as a victorious autocrat.  I had wondered why Napoleon retreated through the same devastated country he had advanced through, and consequently starved his troops.  Troyat loves Kutuzov, and says he blocked Napoleon from using his intended retreat route to the south with a battle at Maloyaroslavl, and cleverly forced him into his disastrous choice of route.
We had a great day at the Six Flags amusement park yesterday.  Rivka and I went on our highest roller coaster yet, terrifying and exhiliarating.  We watched a wonderful dolphin show -- dolphins really are the tenderest, most attractive creatures.  To see love and joy expressed in animals so different from us in form is inspiring.  Take care, Sidney

Troyat

Hello Joan! Good to hear from you -- I've been wondering how you are. I like your characterization of Jane Austen's writings -- it seems very true and insightful. I suppose that society became more individualistic later, so the often tenuous bonds that tie it together became less of a focus for writers. I've been trapped for some time in the works of Henri Troyat, an unfortunately prolific French writer of Russian descent and interest. He has written the life of every Tsar -- I've read Paul, Nicholas the First and Second, and Alexander the Second, all in Russian translation (our library doesn't have the original French). Now I'm on Alexander the First, and looking at the Third and Peter the Great which are awaiting me. They take a long time to read, but I find the grand sweep of the empire and the fateful string of events irresistable. It could have turned out differently at many points, but the luck wasn't good. The assassination of Alexander the Second, the Liberator, was really the worst piece of bad luck. He escaped the first bomb thrown at him, which killed several of his entourage, but he wanted to speak to the assailant on the spot, which gave his accomplice the opportunity to throw a second bomb at short range.
I'm listening to a lot of Bernstein lately, especially his songs. He is a congenial voice to me, of similar background (American Jewish), which I suppose brings his music close to me. I read delightful book on our current financial state, Boomerang by Michael Lewis. He's very funny and makes the innumerable economic errors the result of natural human biases. I'm also reading a book on symbolic logic by Douglas Hofstadter. Not much time for other books with all this, plus the entire New York Times every day!
Take care and keep writing!

Hello! I hear you're over the flu and like your job a lot -- great news. We had a very fun Thanksgiving vacation here in S.F. Mom made a great Thanksgiving dinner for our family, Ron Migdal, Marsha Fine and our best friends, the Bibliowicz family from Columbia, whose son Gabriel is Noah's constant companion from Hebrew School and Claire Lilienthal. The pumpkin pie and stuffing were especially good.
On Friday I got up at 4 a.m. (my usual time to wake up) and went to Best Buy and Office Depot where the old Sears used to be to buy things for Black Friday. I got the new laptop I saw advertised, a video game for Noah, and a camera. The person I was standing in line next to had purchased a "netbook" (small laptop) and some earbuds that were 70% off, so afterwards I went back and bought those too. The netbook -- earbud combination is wonderful. I read the lives of composers in the evening, and when the author speaks about a great piece I don't know I go to Youtube and listen to it on the netbook; the music sounds terrific with good earbuds. So we're continuing to mount up to cyber heaven.
Friday night was a reunion and Friday night service for Camp Tawonga, and Rivka saw the boy she likes, Ben, for the first time since camp. Unfortunately she didn't go up and say hello to him; he was talking with a friend. Maybe she's a little shy.
On Saturday we went to the Scandia Family Fun Fair in Fairfield with the Bibliowiczes, and had a fine time. They have gocarts to race with, lazer tag, miniature golf, and boats with squirt guns attached. Naturally the kids enjoyed it, and I liked racing the carts that go pretty fast -- you have to turn your whole body around to make the sharp turns on the course.
Yesterday we went to the annual Dickens Fair for the first time. The people who had the original idea for the Renaissance Faire many years ago (remember it?) have been putting on this one every Christmas time, and since Noah loves the Renaissance Faire (under new management), we thought he'd like this and learn some history about Victorian times in London. Many people walk around in Victorian costumes -- quite elaborate, as soldiers, drunks, fine ladies -- and there are many stages with plays of all kinds. The best were dancing demonstrations of cotillions, waltzes, etc. by dancers in costume, and my favorite an opera house with a performance of the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan and other opera arias. I just love opera singing, so I was in heaven. It's happening to Neal Bertram too -- he's completely given himself over to music, like me. Must have to do with aging.
I heard it was 70 degrees last week in N.Y. Enjoy the nice weather, and take care! Sidney

Ben Stiegler

Hello Ben!  It certainly is remarkable, our parallel lives.  I met my wife Carolyn Glaser in the Jewish Singles Hiking Club as well.  My children are in a Korean immersion program in a public school in S.F., Claire Lilienthal, which has given me license to indulge in my favorite pastime, learning languages.  When my children were in preschool at Beth Sholom I started relearning Hebrew from my childhood.   I read an Israeli magazine, Laisha, cover to cover for a year until my Hebrew got good enough to read novels and histories -- a great time.  Then I switched to Korean for several years, and now I'm reading mostly in Russian (except for science books which I read in English) -- there's a large Russian population among the users of the JCC  I enjoy interacting with, and Russian literature is of course tremendous.  Being a librarian is a good match for someone whose interests are all over the map like me.  Nothing beats fatherhood, though!  I always admired and envied your technical insights and ability.  Take care, Sidney

The Mating Mind

My favorite line from Geoffrey Miller's The Mating Mind -- It was bad enough to replace an omniscient creator with Nature, but to replace Him with the pebble-sized brains of invertebrates lusting after one another, that was scandalous! (On why Darwin's favorite theory of Sexual Selection did not catch on after his death.)

Troyat and Stendhal

Good to hear from you.  I know what it's like to get lost in an author -- I was too in Stendhal for about a year soon after college.  I read his two great novels, but my favorite book of his was his Life of Rossini.  It is great fun and quite wise about music.  The people who fascinate Stendhal -- young up-and-comers full of ambition -- are so different from me that while I admire his writing and insights, they don't touch me very directly.  You can't beat him for an understanding of a time and place.
Yes, I'm reading Troyat in Russian -- they don't have him in French in our library here.  The translations are very good, the Russians here agree, so I'm quite happy with them.  He's the best introduction to Russian history I've come across -- a light touch and no heavy axes to grind.  He's interested in the personalities of the individual Czars, which makes it interesting and easy to follow.  The Russians have an enormous number of biographies of literary figures like Pushkin for young readers (to inculcate them with a love for literature), which I enjoy a lot.  I seem to like simple, straightforward writing with a focus on an individual hero, his or her choices and destiny.  I loved the Harry Potter books.
Someone recommended the history Niall Ferguson to me, and I've started his works.  Since I loved the conservative historian Paul Johnson I thought I would like Ferguson too.  He's very interesting but doesn't write as well as Johnson.  I'm halfway into Fukuyama's latest book on the Origins of Political Order, but have found it rather heavy going.  So that's it!  Take care, Sidney