Call Me Puke

What a title! For a blog post or a book, that's gotta be one that grabs your attention. Call Me Puke, A Life on the Dirt Circuit is an autobiography by Mark Sieve, better known as "Puke" of the "Puke & Snot" comedy duo seen nationwide, mostly at Renaissance festivals. My family and I love to go the Ren Faires and have been to several in the US, Germany and England. But it wasn't until a couple of years ago, in 2008, when we visited the Colorado Renaissance festival near Larkspur for about the fourth time that we actually saw the Puke & Snot show. Unfortunately, later that year, Joe Kudla, who played "Snot" passed away, only a couple of weeks after we had seen the show. This year, my wife and kids went back to the festival and saw Puke & Snot once again, with a new "Snot" in play. They were lucky to have been a bit early to the show and lo and behold, Mark "Puke" Sieve sat down next to them and starting shooting the breeze. As a souvenir, because I couldn't attend, they brought home this book as a gift for me, autographed by the author. Cool!

This is a great little autobiography and, not surprisingly, won the Midwest Book Award. Mr. Sieve does not tell his life story in direct chronological order but rather mixes it with other, themed vignettes. He does a great job of being humble (but not overly so like some autobiographies that just make you want to...well, puke). We get to experience his life, from his early days working in his parents’ cinema, to his potential major league baseball career, and through his early days as a public school teacher. But always there was his love for performing comedy and getting the audience to laugh. Together with his partner, Joe, they carried the Puke & Snot show for about 35 years, usually on the "Dirt Circuit" as he calls it but elsewhere too...even Disney. Along the way they've met and worked with some memorable characters including some you've heard of like Penn & Teller who got their start in similar circumstances.  Mr. Sieve writes from a very personal point of view and it's never more heartbreaking than when he serves tribute to his long time partner.

Highly recommended.

Blood and Thunder

I've completed another of my "morning reads".  For the uninitiated, these are books that I used to read during the half hour or so before leaving for work in the morning, usually taking a month or more to complete.  However, now that I am unemployed, I still use the early morning hours (when it's nice and quiet) to work on these books.

Blood and Thunder, subtitled, "The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West", was written by Hampton Sides and was an important book for me.  You see, I grew up in the Southwestern US, namely New Mexico, and have since lived all over the western US including California, Utah, and Colorado, also spending lots of time in Nevada, Arizona, and Texas.  And yet, I have long felt my historical education of the region has been aquired in bits and pieces only with no real handle on how it all fit together.  I was first attracted to this book by the great cover art and the subject of Kit Carson since I had always wanted to read about his life.  But this book turned out to be about quite a bit more than just Kit Carson's life.

Don't get me wrong, Kit Carson's life and deeds are incredible.  He seems to have been everywhere in the West, at most of the important events, often effecting them in astounding ways.  We read of John Charles Fremont and his Pathfinder expeditions, with Kit Carson as his guide.  We follow the Civil War events in New Mexico (a good followup to the set of four novels I read last year by P.G. Nagle), as well as learn about General Stephen Watts Kearny, the conquerer of the West.  And through it all is the plight of the Navajo Indians, and their leaders.  These events and characters just scratch the surface of what this book covers.  I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in a good all-around discussion of the history of the American South West.

Eisenhower, Soldier and President

Every time I take a trip somewhere, I always buy a book to add to my library.  As often as possible I try to get a book about the area I am visiting.  About a year ago I took a trip to Washington DC for about the 12th time but since I've seen just about every tourist attraction there is to see there, I decided I would finally visit that which I had been putting off all this time...the Pentagon.  I had never been all that excited about the Pentagon; when you get right down to it it's just one of the world's largest office buildings.  But I did go, and while I was there, I saw a hallway tribute to Eisenhower and thus, the book, Eisenhower, Soldier and President by Stephen E. Ambrose, came into my possession.  I also chose it because I thought it might be a good companion volume to the major biography I read last year, American Ceasar, by William Manchester, a biography of Douglas MacArthur.  Since I knew Eisenhower served as MacArthur's exec officer in the Phillipines, I was curious if there would be a different point of view presented.

Mr Ambrose is known as one of the great US historians, having written some 20 books, several of which have become quite well known.  Among them is a comprehensive 2-volume work on Eisenhower as well as this one which is a consolidation of those two volumes.  In my view Mr Ambrose does a good job of presenting Eisenhower's faults along with his positive traits, his failures as well as his triumphs.  Undoubtedly Eisenhower was a great general and as the primary architect of Operation Overlord (D-Day invasion), he deserves the accolades of his military accomplishments.  But what I really like about a well-done biography is to see the early years, the childhood influences which led to the way the subject reacts to experiences in adult life.  Mr Ambrose provides that for us here, taking the little boy from Abilene Kansas all the way to the Presidency.  Unfortunately, my hopes for the tie-in to MacArthur's Phillipine experiences were dashed as that realtionship was glossed over almost completely.  I suppose a biographer needs to keep to his subject and not let other notable figures of the time take over.

Most of the book deals with the Eisenhower presidency, a time in the 50's that most knowledgeable people refer to as the age of missed opportunities and Eisenhower himself as the "do-nothing president."  While Mr Ambrose does point out Eisenhower's penchant for stearing down the middle of the road, pushing off any responsibility in dealing with the racial divides of the country, and unwilling to deal with McCarthyism in any definitive way, he also spends time on the positive things such as keeping the budget in balance, establishing the Interstate Highway System, and keeping the peace for his entire 8 years as president. 

Along the way we do get to witness some great moments in history and meet the towering figures of the time such as Montgomery, Churchill, DeGaul, Stalin, Truman, Nixon, McCarthy, and his own family of Maime and son David.  I came away from this book with a much greater appreciation for the era of the 50's (I've never studied much from that decade) as well as a better understanding of how all of that led us to the 60's.  Mr Ambrose, I know, came under fire several years ago for plagarism (something about quotes not used correctly) but this book does not seem to ever be mentioned as a case of that.  This biography still is known as the definitive Eisenhower biography and I, for one, appreciate it.  I certainly have a much better understanding and "feel" for one of my nations true heroes while at the same time appreciate one of our more under-rated presidents. 

Sure wish we had him now.

American Caesar

This morning I completed the latest book in my morning reading program, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964 by William Manchester. Wow, what a read! This is a long biography, coming in at over 700 pages (not counting the lengthy bibliography and source material references). I bought this book back at the beginning of the year when I was on a trip to San Diego for work. I always pick up a book of some kind, usually nonfiction to help build my library and usually, I take years to get around to reading it. But this one seemed to fit my needs when I was ready and so I was very happy to tackle it.

This is, I believe, the best historical biography I have ever read...and I've read some great ones. Part of that may be due to the subject at hand, Douglas MacArthur, one of the more complicated personalities of history out there. A brilliant man, but flawed in several respects, he was such a major figure of American history and, indeed, world history. He was at once, a genius, a great leader of men, a supreme strategist, as well as an incredible egoist capable of monumental mistakes in judgement. I have heard numerous anecdotes throughout my life about this man but had never developed a complete picture of him or his life. William Manchester certainly satisfied that for me.

The book itself is delightful to read, packed not only with the facts of MacArthur's life and times, but also making a compelling case for MacArthur being one of history's greatest generals. We get a close-up look at his development of brilliant warfare strategies and how they came about. We see his tactics in war and we see how he reacts to his superiors and subordinates. We see his entire life, starting, actually before his birth with a good look at his father, a great general in his own right and we progress through his childhood and then his amazing career at West Point. We see his success in WWI and then spend a lot of time with him in the Pacific during WWII, and his ultimate shining moments as the near-emporer of Japan after the surrender. MacArthur seems to be mostly remembered for his time in the Korean War and his ultimate firing by Truman and that is truly unfortunate given his numerous remarkable accomplishments for so many decades prior.

But this book is far more than historical facts. The author gets behind the public personna and shows us the man himself. While reading the book, I felt like I knew MacArthur personally and was able to understand how and why he reacted to the great and tragic events of the 20th century. The book's title says it all...MacArthur was, indeed, the American Caesar. The author does a superb job of showing us all aspects of his character, making the reading of this book a truly great experience.

Nelson

I've completed the latest in my morning reading program. It seems now that I don't have to drop my son off at school on the way in to work, I have an extra 15 minutes or so each day so my morning reading productivity has picked up a notch. Nelson, the Man and the Legend by Terry Coleman is the latest and it is a biography of Lord Horatio Nelson, legendary, almost godlike British admiral of the Napoleonic era. As usual I tried to do some research on this book and author prior to discussing it here but this time it was very odd because I could not find it listed anywhere. I did find another book entitled, The Nelson Touch, The Life and Legend of Horatio Nelson, also by Terry Coleman and then the light dawned on me. I had purchased this book while in London two years ago. No doubt the name had been changed for publication in the US. At least that is a plausible explanation because the Amazon description seemed perfectly suited to the book I had just read.

Anyway, this is one of my "travel" books. That is to say it's not one I meant to read while traveling nor is it some sort of travelogue. Rather, every time I travel (and I do that fairly often) I buy a book to add to my library, usually nonfiction and if possible, relevant to the place I am visiting. This time it was London and during the city tour I kept hearing about Lord Nelson, saw the monuments, statues, etc. and realized I really knew very little about the man. It certainly seemed like Londoners revere him like people in my country revere George Washington. So I purchased this book. It also helped that I was reading (and have now completed) all 11 Horatio Hornblower books, about a fictional character with more than a passing resemblance to Nelson. My interest was high.

Mr Coleman goes out of his way to demystify Lord Nelson in this book; indeed even to go far toward the other side of his legend and present him as a much more human character, suffering from a large ego and power hungry for more and faster self promotions than most people believe. The very first chapter calls out predecessor biographers as falling for the propoganda that was put out at the time of Nelson's death at Trafalgar and producing haphazard facts based on sloppy research. Mr Coleman, who has a journalistic background,I understand, claims to use all available documents including letters in and among senior British Navy personnel, personal letters between Nelson's relatives including between he and his wife, etc. And to give him credit, he includes a lengthy bibliography to support his depiction for those that may want to check his sources.

But Coleman doesn't "trash" Nelson. He takes pains to also point out instances where Nelson backed underlings despite risking his own reputation and he is shown several times taking care of his crew and foregoing standard punishments for his men such as flogging or hanging. That's not to say that he never did that but rather he seems to have taken into account all angles of a situation before issuing orders. There is no doubt that Nelson had one of the largest impacts on the history of sea warfare that we know. And there is no doubt that he achieved some remarkable successes. This book however spends less time on the military engagements and more on the motivation of the man himself. After all, a sea captain/admiral who gave up eyesight in one eye, lost one arm, incurred a possible skull fracture, and ultimately gave his life in the name of doing his duty, is certainly to be admired. Surely his bravery is beyond question. Nor does Coleman question it other than to suggest his bravery was unnecessarily foolhardy. His death at Trafalgar, for example, seems as if it could easily have been avoided. I've read biographies of other great military men and it seems that trait is a common thread whether we are talking about Nelson, or Custer, or Crazy Horse.

I learned a lot, as expected, about Lord Nelson in this book and now feel I have a much greater understanding of him, his life, his loves, his very essence. I'm sure Nelson enthusiasts would prefer I read other works to get other opinions on his life but this is probably enough for me. I plan to read a couple of non-biographies next during my mornings before returning to more great lives.

All The Best

This morning, I completed my "morning reading" book, All The Best, George Bush. For those of you who have read my first couple of postings on this blog, you'll remember that I have one book that I read exclusively in the mornings before going to work. I read about half an hour per day on it and just keep going Monday through Friday. That's why it has taken me all the way from January 1st to today to get through this one.

This was a book that has been on my shelf for quite a few years. I received it as a Christmas present from my parents and I thought its format would suit my morning routine well. You see, it's a collection of letters and personal dictations from George H. W. Bush throughout his life. The book is divided into major sections that align with what he was doing at the time. It includes letters to his mom back when he voluntered to enter the US Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and goes all the way up until the date of publication of the book, just prior to 9/11. It includes sections during his time as an oil man in Texas, as a congressman, as the Ambassador to the UN, as the Chairman of the RNC (during the Watergate era), as the Director of the CIA, as the US liaison to China, and of course as the Vice President to Ronald Reagan and ultimately as the US President.

I have not read very many political autobiographies, at least not of the modern era. I figure they are pretty much attempts to justify their own actions, show things from their point of view, etc. But since this was a collection of actual letters written at the time I think that phenomenan is lessoned. Overall, I was very happy to have read this book...it was a far better experience than I was expecting. Afterall, George Bush, our 41st president is usually considered forgetable, despite Desert Storm. This is probably due to being only a one term president sandwiched between the personalities of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. It was fascinating, however, to see what his thoughts were regarding all of the events he participated in. He spent a lifetime at or near the top of huge events in this world and that fact can be easy to forget. I was struck by the very nature of the man. This book confirmed my impressions of him, showing him to be a compassionate man, who holds high ideals, who loves his family above all else, and who tends to give everybody, even his political foes, the benefit of the doubt. Of course an arguement can be made that only the letters that showed him in a positive light were included but there is just too much here to dispute the very nature of the man himself.

I'm not sure of my next pick for my morning reading program...I have plenty of books to chose from but I prefer to use this time for factual reading, not fiction. So we'll see...