On Desperate Ground, by Hampton Sides

Hampton Sides is an excellent historian and an engaging writer. In this book, as in his others - In the Kingdom of Ice is one of the most compelling books I have ever read - he latches on to an incident about which many know a little. 

In On Desperate Ground, his detailed telling of the story of - and the stories around - t the ill-fated 1950 advance to the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea and the heroic, terrible withdrawal of the American forces, including the storied First Marine Division, gives a rich understanding of the event and also places it into a broader political and historical context. And, along with the events and the forces that shaped them, he adds finely drawn portraits of individual protagonists - politicians, generals, officers, fighting men and civilians. Even if you’ve read biographies of Truman and MacArthur, there are insights here. If you know the military history of the campaign, you will learn more. And if you have studied actions of individuals and groups under dire circumstances, this book holds new portraits of courage, gallantry, callowness and redemption.

Sides weaves these three levels of the story. First, the macro-political and strategic featuring Truman, MacArthur, commander of the First Marine Division General O.P. Smith and Army Major General Edward Almond who had overall command of American ground forces. Next, the intricacies and details of the preparation for battle on the home front and the battlefield. Finally, intimate and harrowing stories of what happened to those engaged in the battle - soldiers and civilians on both sides.

A true historian, Sides leaves the judgments about character, morality and success or failure to his readers. He is even-handed to a fault, even offering redemption to the most venal of the protagonists. He communicates the absolute horror of the battles and their aftermath without sensationalism, again leaving the reader to softly whisper ‘Holy shit’ at the endurance of the human spirit.

The book bears some poignancy. Sides interviewed survivors of the battle - the Chosin Few - as their numbers dwindled. The epilogue tells the stories of what happened to many of them in later life. Read it closely.

Like In the Kingdom of Ice, this is a very compelling read. Detailed enough to appeal to dedicated non-fiction readers and with characters, color and intricate stories that will appeal to those with a more casual interest.

Published by Doubleday. Borrow it from your local library, or buy it from your local independent bookstore - I recommend Warwick's of La Jolla.

Book review - Magna Carta, The Birth of Liberty - Dan Jones

Magna Carta
The Birth of Liberty

Dan Jones - Viking Press

A short and enjoyable read for anyone who thinks they (casually) know anything about the Magna Carta. In addition to a good description of what the document (or collection of documents) is and is not, the 200 or so pages have a vivid history of how it came to be, which involved a fair bit of combat and undermining (figuratively and literally) of enemies and allies of King John. There are some lessons for modern politics in here, although I can't quite draw a straight line from Runnymede to Brexit.

I'm not saying don't order it online, but purchasing from your local independent bookstore will make you a better person.

Book Review - Bucky F&%@ing Dent by David Duchovny

Book Review

Bucky F&%@ing Dent

David Duchovny

I don’t know why I read this book, but I did enjoy it. I generally do not read novels, but #PersonalBookAdvisor brought this one home for me. It sat for a while, then I saw David Duchovny plugging it on the Late Show. After a dozen or so pages I put it down, thinking “I’ll never pick that up again.’ The next night ,20 pages and a yawn. This went on until I finished it and I did not regret the time spent.

Part of the attraction is hearing Duchovney’s sardonic voice in my head. There are enough bright spots of writing to keep it moving along and interesting. Most of all, though, once I finished I realized there was a lot here. The story is about ambition thwarted by pride, potential done in (almost) by selfishness, and the redemption that comes from leaving history behind and getting on with what matters. And that’s only about the Red Sox pennant pursuit. Also, the inspiration of the story explained in the notes (go ahead, turn right to it) alone is worth the read.

If you are going to buy a book, go to your local independent bookstore. They can figure out what you want way better than an algorithm.

Diamonds – What Makes the Grade?

What gem labs have in common with Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes, your ninth-grade science teacher and the IOC.

  

Lots of things are graded – students, movies, restaurants and Olympic champions. Grades from trusted authorities like schools, movie critics and Olympic judges help us understand the world around us (or at least the finer points of figure skating) and to make informed decisions about what movie to see, where to have dinner or whether we are making the best of our education.

The same is true for diamonds. Diamonds from jewelers and retailers often come with a grading report that evaluates the  elements that determine the gem’s quality and its value. A grading report that measures the well-know 4Cs – color, clarity, cut and carat weight – against universally-accepted standards can help  consumers compare one diamond to another and to understand what goes into the value of a particular gem. 

Unlike at the Olympics, where athletes don’t get to choose their judges, consumers have choices for diamond grading reports. Some jewelry retailers, like the venerable Tiffany and the new brand Forevermark, part of the group that includes diamond miner De Beers, have their own reports or certificates for the diamonds they offer for sale.

Other retailers will have reports from well-known grading laboratories like AGS, EGL, or IGI. These labs may be privately owned or affiliated with a trade organization. There are also reports from third-party organizations like GIA.

While each type of laboratory has different characteristics and some specialize in certain types of gems, they all use the same system international diamond grading system, based on the GIA-created 4Cs.

I work for GIA; this post is personal.

Hitting the reset button

I'm getting back to this blog after a little time and a few changes.

Since my last post, my younger son started college; the older one graduated and started working; I've changed jobs and we moved to San Diego.

I've been thinking about a few things, and thought I'd start this up again. Maybe this time a few people will read it!

Here is a general, including-but-not-limited-to list of potential topics:

• The United States and the world - how we relate to the world and how others relate to us.
• The gem and diamond industry - since this is what I do now, I guess I'll write about it.
• Books - what I'm reading and what I think about it.
• Running - maybe if I write about it I'll do more of it.
• California v. Texas - my on-the-ground observations of the difference between the 12th and 14th largest economies in the world.
• Energy - issues big and small, from the domestic gas and oil shale boom to home energy efficiencies to national policy.

Health care, money, economics and turning 50

Is it better to spend more money on fewer people if we all benefit in the end?

Last week I heard a former healh-care executive now in the power business (a seemingly odd transition, but since we have a competitive power sector in Texas, both are essential services) say that two-thirds of health care costs in the U.S. are due to diet, lack of exercise and smoking, so "If people quit smoking, ate less fast food and went for a walk every day, we'd save billions." Then I read an article in a recent New Yorker about data-driven health care. Digging into billing records (becase actual patient records are not digital and are not available for this kind of analysis) the analysts discovered that a very small percentage of patients accounted for a very large percentage of costs. That reminded me of another New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell that did the same analysis for homelessness. The conclusion is that spending more on prevention especially for those who either are or are likely to become the highest-cost consumers of medial or social services reduces costs and delivers better care. However, the political cost will be high because it directs scarce resources - health care and social service dollars - to people who superficially 'undeserving.' While society gets a long-term benefit, some individuals get a greater immediate benefit seemingly at the expense of others. It is more acceptable to spend millions (read the article - it is millions) providing ineffective treatment to a person in crisis than to spend thousands preventing that same person from getting to that crisis. We'll pay for someone with chronic asthma to visit the emergency room, but not for a health care or social worker to check in on them to make sure they had and are taking the medications (or making the life changes) to keep them out of the ER.

I'm not sure how to translate this to policy, but at least I can work on my own stuff. So - I'm tracking what I weight and what I eat on livestrong.com. Today I'm at 205.5 lbs. Until Valentine's Day, it's no alcohol and cutting red meat drastically. I exercise with the Rummel Creek Men's Bootcamp and Social Club two or three times a week. Two friends and I are signed up to run a half-marathon in Upstate New York in September in honor of my 50th birthday. Yesterday I jogged 5 miles with Anthony - took about an hour and my right leg is just a little sore. I don't smoke and I take my cholesterol meds every day.

We'll see how it goes.

We, the moderate people

The center determines who governs; that is the only national mandate; Dems and GOP - ignore at your peril.

The relatively narrow band of independent voters put Pres. Obama into office and took the House from the Democrats. They (OK, we) don't want one party in the White House and leading Congress (see Jonathan Rauch column in the NYT) . Neither party has a monopoly on hubris. Speakers Gingrich and Pelosi made the same mistake - winning the middle is not a national mandate for the positions that won a primary or district. If either party wants to get and keep the radical moderates of the middle they will need to govern, not just occupy government.