Monday, June 26, 2006
".....the times they are a changing"
Mid-term Elections * A Treasure Trove of Travel Books
Interesting to read in a British paper, The Observer (Guardian), that Mark Parkinson, former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, is running as a Democratic candidate for the position of Deputy Governor. My regular source of such news, the Washington Post, buried it in Page A20 on May 31st, and it was one of many items under the heading Nation in Brief ! "TOPEKA, Kan. -- Mark Parkinson, the former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, switched his affiliation to Democrat amid speculation that he would become the running mate of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) as she seeks a second term."
No wonder I missed it. How did Mark Parkinson dare to leave God's Own Party! As the Queen said to Alice "Off with his head". (Alice In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll)
The Observer piece, filed by Paul Harris from Topeka, Kansas, deserves attention. Mr. Harris mentioned Mark Parkinson's defection and more. "Sitting in his headquarters, the new Democrat is sticking to his guns. Republicans in Kansas, he says, have let down their own people. "". 'They were fixated on ideological issues that really don't matter to people's everyday lives. What matters is improving schools and creating jobs,' he said. 'I got tired of the theological debate over whether Charles Darwin was right.'
- This is music to Democratic ears and has profound potential implications for November's mid-term elections. Kansas has been an iconic state for the Republican right, a symbol for issues such as teaching creationism in schools and fighting abortion rights. The modern Republican party, masterminded by political guru Karl Rove, has harnessed fury over such topics to allow the Republicans to dominate US politics since 2000. This was the topic of Thomas Frank's hit book of the 2004 presidential election campaign entitled: What's The Matter With Kansas? It used the state's falling under the spell of conservative Republicanism to explain national American politics.
- But in a swath of heartland states such as Kansas, Democrats are seeing the first signs of their party's rebirth. Parkinson is not alone in switching sides. In Virginia, Jim Webb, a one-time Reagan official, is seeking to be a Democrat senator. In South Carolina, top Republican prosecutor Barney Giese has defected after a spat with conservatives. Back in Kansas another top Republican, Paul Morrison, also joined the Democrats and is challenging a Republican to be the state attorney-general.
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."
---Bob Dylan
Unrequired Reading !
The world wide web continues to amaze me. Last year I posted an item about Chasing the Monsoon, a book by British travel writer Alexander Frater. Checking recent visitors to my blog I found one who came to it from Marriott Picks, web site of the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library! Following the link I landed at a page titled "Unrequired Reading - Travel and Adventure". To my great pleasure I found a listing of travel books that took my breath away. I like to travel and I enjoy reading travel books. Don't believe I shall find all of them in local libraries but there will be enough of them to keep me content for months.
The list below is just to impart a flavor of what the Marriott has.
A Time of Gifts; from the Hook of Holland to the middle Danube /Patrick Leigh Fermor
As an 18 year old walks from Holland to Istanbul in 1933
London / John Russell
“a fine and scholarly book that is also, in a sense, indulgent. John Russell is like a kind uncle who is taking London itself out for a treat.” NYTimes
A Corner in the Marais; memoir of a Paris neighborhood /Alex Karmel A short history of Paris as exemplified by the author’s pied-a-terre.
Long ago in France / M.F.K. Fisher
America’s most gifted food writer on her life in Aix , Marseilles, and Dijon.
The Roads to Santiago / Cees Nooteboom
An appreciation of Spain by an art-lover who especially favors the Romanesque and small towns.
Motoring with Mohammed; journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea / Eric Hansen
Shipwrecked on a Red Sea island, Hansen must bury his travel journals and return years later to isolated Yemen to retrieve the experiences.
The Heart of India / Mark Tully
” ... powerful moral fables, informed by an elegiac sadness at the gradual erosion of the rural old India before a riptide of corruption, brutality and intolerance.” The Times
In Xanadu / William Dalrymple
A retracing of Marco Polo’s trek from Jerusalem to Kubla Kahn’s legendary palace.
Desert Places / Robyn Davidson
Trek with the Rabaris, one of India’s vanishing nomadic peoples.
The list below is just to impart a flavor of what the Marriott has.
A Time of Gifts; from the Hook of Holland to the middle Danube /Patrick Leigh Fermor
As an 18 year old walks from Holland to Istanbul in 1933
London / John Russell
“a fine and scholarly book that is also, in a sense, indulgent. John Russell is like a kind uncle who is taking London itself out for a treat.” NYTimes
A Corner in the Marais; memoir of a Paris neighborhood /Alex Karmel A short history of Paris as exemplified by the author’s pied-a-terre.
Long ago in France / M.F.K. Fisher
America’s most gifted food writer on her life in Aix , Marseilles, and Dijon.
The Roads to Santiago / Cees Nooteboom
An appreciation of Spain by an art-lover who especially favors the Romanesque and small towns.
Motoring with Mohammed; journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea / Eric Hansen
Shipwrecked on a Red Sea island, Hansen must bury his travel journals and return years later to isolated Yemen to retrieve the experiences.
The Heart of India / Mark Tully
” ... powerful moral fables, informed by an elegiac sadness at the gradual erosion of the rural old India before a riptide of corruption, brutality and intolerance.” The Times
In Xanadu / William Dalrymple
A retracing of Marco Polo’s trek from Jerusalem to Kubla Kahn’s legendary palace.
Desert Places / Robyn Davidson
Trek with the Rabaris, one of India’s vanishing nomadic peoples.
Travel, it is wonderful. It educates your mind and your palate. It broadens your horizons. If you travel, go with an open mind.
