Dear everyone,

It has been a week of 95 plus days in Chicago. We might as well live in Houston or something. This reminds me to mention two of the books I read lately. One is “Empire of the Summer Moon” by S. C. Gwynne. It is about the Comanche in the 19th century. They were the most successful horse warriors of the southern Great Plains, and perhaps rank with some of the other great marauders such as the Huns or the Mongols. They lacked visionary leaders liked Attila and Genghis Khan, and so while they fought aggressively to hold their land, they did not ride east past Fort Worth into the forests - - and the Texans were generally unwilling and unable to take the fight to the Indians. Thus the border between Texas and the ‘Comancheria” stayed fluid and bloody for 40 years (100s of years if you count the Mexicans). Unfortunately, just like the Mongols, their way of life ended with improvements in rate of fire and throw weight (in the Mongols’ case cannon fire from previously undefendable cities, for the Comanches’ mountain howitzers and semiautomatic revolvers), and the implacable force of land greed on the part of the Americans. The latter half of the book was about Quanah Parker and his successful ‘rehabilitation’. It was a well-written book , and we all know the ending. While I am at it, I also read Robert Olmstead's "Coal Black Horse", think of a mix of the civil war, and Cormac McCarthy, and you get the general idea.

The other book I see fit to mention is “Cider With Rosie”, by Laurie Lee. This is a personal history about life in the Cotswolds from about 1915 to 1930. The writing is very beautiful and elegiac, as only the British seem to be capable of (think of Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas”). However, once you get past the writing, a much grimmer picture of how the people of the Cotswolds lived unchanged for the previous thousand years emerges: barely literate and numerate, superstitious, dirty, illness without medical care, at the mercy of the weather, subject to ‘ village law’ (Lee describes murder, attempted gang rape, and statutory rape in such fetching terms, however). I almost would have rather been a Comanche! Both ways of life have been ruined by the advent of the 20th century. I say good riddance! Don’t tell me the genocides of the 20th century were due to our industrialization - - the people of Rwanda and Cambodia (as well as the North American natives, or the people slaughtered by the Mongols would surely disagree - - the 'improvements' of the 20th century are rate of fire and throw weight, not psychology or philosophy….). Our worries will be pollution and overpopulation.

Our boys are turning into sports heroes. Lucas spent the last three weeks out of the house. First he was a counselor in training at The Grove at Greenwoods, part of the summer camp he has spent the last six or so years at. He was the assistant to the Tennis counselor, and he got a couple of good games in. Then, last week Cindy drove him from Decatur to a week-long tennis camp up near Grand Rapids. Lucas won his session’s tennis trophy. It just shows you how competitive the Chicago region is for tennis at his level. Meanwhile, Jasper’s swimming has been on fire. Over the summer he made three qualifying times for the regional meet (one level below state), in the 100, 400 and 800 freestyle. The regional meet is this weekend, and he vastly improved his times in the 400 and 800. He swims the 100 today. He is in the younger half of his age group (13 and 14 years), so if he continues like this he might make a state time next year.

The last Harry Potter movie came out last week. Nicola dressed up and went to the midnight opening. Cindy thinks this was a bigger rite of passage than her graduation. Lucas saw the movie at camp. Jasper and I have yet to see it. Don’t tell us the ending. Meanwhile, we have seen the King’s Speech (OK), the Black Swan (I liked this more, but I thought it was silly); I think it is hard to beat Polanski’s “Repulsion” with Catherine Deneuve as a study about the descent into madness of a young isolated female. We also saw “Gnomio and Juliet”, a children’s level version of Romeo and Juliet with a lot of adult humor and sly references to the Bard. It was very cute, and I recommend it, especially if you like garden statuary. We have also been watching a lot of soccer: the women’s world cup last week (a bit disappointing for the USA, but the Americans were lucky to be there, and I think the Japanese played a better game), and the ‘friendly’ match between the Chicago Fire and Manchester United yesterday.

Work feels like it has been a bit busier than usual, but there is nothing new to say about it at the moment. I should add that Rasheed Hammadeh’s wife, Alia Salhadar, left her position as a pathologist at Loyola, and took on one at South Suburban hospital, as part of our pathology group. A lot of senior faculty in Pathology as well as other departments left Loyola in the last six months when news of the sale of the hospital to Trinity came out. I am pessimistic about this merger, since Loyola hospital purported to to be an academic institution. There is often a lethal clash of cultures between academic and non-academic, just as there can be between profit and non-profit. Trinity is Catholic and Non-profit, and maybe two of three similarities will be enough.

Nicola cut back her basil and mint plants this weekend, and we are going to try and make a lemon-basil-mint ice cream. Later, we will go do some bargain hunting at a nearby Border’s Bookstore.

Love,

H.