The Tide Is Turning

Once again, the sun came out from the clouds around 7:00pm last night. This is just about the best view of the mountains across the bay that we have seen. And the snow-capped mountains to our immediate south revealed their summits as well.

For this white suburban boy, the secrets of the tides were a mystery. We knew of their existence, but never directly experienced them. Last night we stepped out to the bay to view the high tide. Our initial reaction was amazement. Because the area that we had walked along the night before was gone, all under water. Intrigued, we checked the tide tables and set out this morning to view the low tide. Our findings are displayed below, both images taken from the same location.












If you don't know, the tides come basically twice a day. From the charts, it appears that the levels of high and low tide fluctuate over days in a gentle wave of higher and lower depths. And from unscientific observation, the eagles seem to prefer low tide, probably when whatever goodies the tide brings in are left exposed, and easy pickings. The fishermen are out at all hours, and seem not to have any preference at all. And the fish we have seen that are caught are big, twelve to sixteen inches at least. Must be what makes the eagles and other birds so big, too.

Sights of Sitka

Our first full day in Alaska was spent exploring the city. And this was the first thing we saw out the door: the cruise ship. The walk into town was about two miles. The first place we located (and visited most throughout the day) was the public bathroom. The visitor center did not offer the information we sought about public transportation. Every Community Ride vehicle we saw was going the other direction. Across the street we found the bike rental shop. We decided $20 for two hours per person was too expensive.

The shop owner talked to us about hiking trails. From him we learned that one of the trail heads had been closed, because a bear had just killed a deer and cached it nearby. With the bear guarding his kill, the area was considered especially dangerous. There were three other areas higher in the mountains where he said bears had recently been spotted.

All we saw today were berries. Along the road and throughout the state park we found wild salmon berries. We were told they are especially abundant this season. The one we ate was slightly tart. We also sampled a chocolate chip cookie from two local children who had a dockside table displaying their goods.

After an expensive lunch in one of the two downtown hotels, we strolled the main streets and visited a few shops. Though Sitka has only about twenty miles of roads, and a single traffic light, it has the second largest total area of any incorporated area in the United States, nearly six times the size of the largest city in the lower states, Jacksonville, Florida.

Of course, a book fancier can not resist a visit to the local bookshop. This one offered a small assortment of new books, including a lovely selection of local interest, as well as a small cafe in the rear.

We ventured next down to the docks. All the bays are fully stocked with boats. Here we saw the cruise ship shuttle loading and unloading tourists. Also a family bringing their groceries down from town to their docked houseboat. A different route home led us into the national park. We followed the trails and found lots of berries, dense forest, and a memorial to Russian soldiers who died fighting natives in the early 1800s.
Now, at 7:00pm, the sun has finally emerged from the clouds. We are headed out to the bay again to look for bald eagles.

They are everywhere. Four of them in the trees above our head. Three of them across the bay on the tree tops. A man in the bay caught a fish about fourteen inches long. The eagles are huge and amazing.


Until tomorrow, goodnight from Alaska!

North of Expectations

The trip begins with eight hours of air travel.

Alaska Air makes it all easy. The website is quick and simple. From there, we made reservations, checked our bags, and selected our seats. At the airport, all we had to do was get our bags tagged. And all this at the best price we could find.

North of expectations is the newest marketing tagline for Alaska Air. The flight and service was as expected for us, but did not exceed our expectations. Neither did it disappoint. And the plane we had for the first leg of the trip was one of their newest. Drinks and a cookie were complimentary; everything else (from snacks to personal digEplayers) cost $6, credit or debit only.

Our ninety minute layover was in Seattle. It might well have been any metropolitan city for all we knew. One major airport looks like another. The terminal in Sitka, however, was strictly a single building the size of a small primary school.

Our lodgings are brand new, and don't have a complimentary shuttle. We had to call a local taxi. The woman who picked us up was the owner of the business, and wonderfully kind. She gave us lots of information while taking us to our inn. Since we don't have a car, she will likely get more of our business.

Our room has a small refrigerator and microwave. After settling in, we decided our first order of business was to go hunting. Thank goodness for Google, whose maps we used to find our location and directions to the nearest grocery. So we packed our umbrella and reusable bags and set off for food.

Weather at landing was cool, in the sixties, with rain. The rain quickly ended, but the clouds have stayed. We strolled the one mile to the small grocery, past the post office, trailer park, raptor center, national park, and rows of homes. Prices were expensive, and we had to lug everything, so we purchased only the basics.

But we are in Alaska! So far, we have seen a lot of trees, a lot of people on bicycles, and a lot of water. Tomorrow after a good night's rest we intend to check out some of the city, including the public transit, and investigate bicycle and car rental options. Probably four or more hours of daylight remain today, but we are going to rest and read up on some of the local activites. A full day of travel and brand new experiences have left us weary.

But we are in Alaska!

Turning the Page

We had a great four years, but the time had come to sell the bookshop. Thankfully, we found a buyer. And what is even better, even though he is from out of town, he will be keeping the shop open in our community. That is a big win for local lovers of books.

What new adventures await this book fancier? We will be using this blog to do some feature writing that goes beyond the cover of a book. A big part of the reason for selling the bookshop was to enable us to do some traveling. So we are proud to announce our first trip begins Wednesday.

Destination: Sitka, Alaska.

We have never been to Alaska, so this will be an exciting new chapter in our life. We hope you will come back to join us as we recount our experience. Bon voyage!

Bad Traffic, by Simon Lewis

The illuminated signs outside the bus window all said the same thing -- 'You do not understand.'

This is the essence of the experience of Inspector Ma Jian, a Chinese policeman searching for his troubled daughter in England, in the new thriller Bad Traffic, by Simon Lewis.

In the middle of the night, Jian receives a call from his daughter, pleading for help. She is abruptly cut off, and her phone rendered inoperable. With no other information available, Jian sets off to find her. All he knows is her address at university, but he quickly discovers she had dropped her classes and moved out three months earlier. He has no idea where else to look for her, or how to reach her. Unable to speak, read, write, or even understand English, Jian faces an impossible task.

His experience as a police officer helps him discover a cold trail. But his troubles multiply. He finds his daughter's phone, on which is saved a brief video of her being stabbed to death. The images give him a clue to identifying her killer, and revenge becomes his goal. He must summon all his wits and experience to overcome an endless series of pitfalls and setbacks, and then just to survive.

Merging into this storyline is a subplot involving Ding Ming, a young Chinese peasant who has been smuggled into England to work as little more than an indentured slave. The promise of a wage incomparable in China lures him and others into this illegal bargain. But the exorbitant fee for smuggling, and the expenses for food and lodging, mean he will be working for twenty years before paying off his debt.

Ding Ming has studied English, but his language skill is a crude utility. His path crosses with Jian, who uses Ding Ming as a translator and guide. Ding Ming's confusion increases, as he is unable to tell who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. At times he thinks Jian will help him, and at other times he thinks he would be better off with his gang master. Whatever situation he finds himself in, he soon worries that the other is preferable.

Though the signs at the beginning of the novel tell Jian that he does not understand, he has no doubts. He knows what crimes have been committed, and he knows what he must do. He does not struggle with questions of morality, or even legality. He struggles with himself, the realisation that he did not have a close relationship with his daughter, and therefore has failed her. Ding Ming, however, is never clear about what is right or what is wrong. The place where he is taken to work was known in China as Gold Mountain, but all he sees is mud. This mud comes to symbolise his outlook on events. In his desire to make things work, he rationalises everything. Ding Ming is the one who does not understand.

This is the spot of our disappointment with the novel. Though the story begins and ends with Jian, much of the middle is given over to Ding Ming. Even when the two characters are together, events are often related through Ding Ming. Jian has 37 scenes totaling 145 pages; Ding Ming has 26 scenes totaling 115 pages; and three other characters combine for 19 scenes totaling 90 pages. The result is that Jian narrates only 45% of the scenes in the novel, or 41% of the pages. The book cover states "An Inspector Jian Novel" but there is simply not enough of Inspector Jian to justify this for us. It is that subtitle that creates unfulfilled expectations for us, and ultimately disappoints.

Inspector Jian is an interesting character more than capable of carrying an entire novel. A jian is an ancient Chinese double-edged straight sword, and this weapon captures the inspector's personality. He is no supercop, but a flawed man who has superficial relationships with his daughter and his lovers, who believes the end justifies the means, and who has a tarnished past. Fully exploring the costs of knowledge, instead of displaying the foibles of naivete, could have resulted in a much richer story.

This is a minor flaw in an otherwise compelling novel. Mr. Lewis has written a very accessible book. Short, declarative sentences make the writing clear and concise. Combined with scenes that average no more than five pages, the pace is swift. The lead characters can be thoughtful and reflective, yet they are always active, never captured in a dull moment. Any of us could find ourselves faced with similar situations, making up for failures, or compensating for inadequacies. The universal threats lend an immediacy to the story, and give the reader reason to cheer for the compromised protagonists.

Near the end, as Ding Ming blames himself for all the troubles that have occurred, he decides the reason for his suffering is so that others might benefit. He was a poor man and the lot of a poor man was the consumption of bitterness.... This echoes throughout the novel, in all of the characters. They all have ambitions that exceed their abilities. The nefarious characters prey upon these ambitions. In Ding Ming, and Jian's daughter, and several of the minor characters, we see how easily they become victims, how thin the line is that separates good from evil, and what a slippery slope to doom lies on the other side of that line. It is often too easy to take advantage of what is foreign to us, but that is only because we do not understand.

Inaugural Poetry

Elizabeth Alexander is the American poet who was chosen to solemnize the Presidential Inauguration. A spokesman for President Obama called her "incredibly gifted." Before an estimated crowd of 2 million people, she delivered her poem, composed for the event, entitled Praise Song For The Day.

Jim Fisher, of Salon.com, predicted Ms. Alexander would be “skillful in tone, bold in emotion, deeply rhythmic in delivery.” Unfortunately, the honored poet was none of these things. She spoke every word as if it stood alone, enunciated every syllable as if speaking to a group of preschoolers. What might have been a moving work turned out to be an exercise in proper speaking.

More than anything, a poem is about rhythm. Her delivery was devoid of rhythm. Instead of allowing us to feel the power of her words, we were forced to consider each one of them on its own merits. She read like a conceited poet who believes each one of her words is golden. She failed to allow that only taken together, as a single poem, not as a string of 336 words, did her writing have meaning.

She would have done well to hire a professional speaker.

Compare her delivery to that of Reverend Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor who was chosen to give the invocation. He did not set out to compose a poem, yet the prayer he read to the crowd was poetry. His prose had rhythm. He did not assume his audience consisted of preschoolers who needed to be presented with each word one by one. His words flowed together to form a coherent whole, giving his message precedence over his words.

To some, this inaugural poem sent a signal that poetry would resume its formerly important role in celebrating special events. Sadly, Ms. Alexander instead embarrassed herself today, and showed millions of people just how dry and boring poems can be. Rev. Warren showed a better part of religion: the soaring poetry of its language.

An Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi

Madame Speaker,

I am the owner of Mad About Books (www.madaboutbooksonline.com), a used bookshop in Oglesby, Illinois. My business has been clobbered by lackluster sales and choked credit, and could go under before year's end. Such a collapse would be a severe blow to our local economy -- and to the view of the nation's economic strength -- and deal a crippling blow to the ability of many Americans to afford quality books for education and pleasure in these trying financial times. In addition, the loss of our online international sales will further undermine an already unstable world economy, and the export of American ideals.

In order to prevent the failure of my business, I would like Congress and the Bush Administration to take action to provide immediate, targeted assistance to allow my business time to develop a plan to assure its long-term viability. I understand such emergency assistance would be conditioned on compensation restrictions, a prohibition on golden parachutes, rigorous independent oversight, and other taxpayer protections to ensure that my company -- and not the taxpayers -- bears the full burden of repaying any costs that are incurred.

I am sure you will agree that books will continue to play a crucial role in the expansion of our nation's knowledge, culture, and leisure, at home and in the global marketplace. I am willing to work with Congress to meet all conditions, and provide a plan for long-term viability and competitiveness, in order to receive short-term assistance through the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) recently authorized by Congress.

Thank you.