notanotherbookreview

Other Places, Other Times by Robert Wexelblatt  (Pelekinesis)  is a collection of twenty-six short historical fictions. Thirteen of the stories are about Chen Hsi-wei, an imaginary peasant-poet of the Sui period, circa 600 C.E. As a boy, he  served the emperor and turned down material rewards for an education. He became a poet (though nobility found an educated peasant as implausible as a flying pig), Hsi-wei travelled the empire making verses, along with straw sandals for customers.  He often set up a sign for sandals in marketplaces, before looking for a corner to sleep in an inn or stable.  Often Hsi-wei's curiosity about people and places led him to incongruous events and mysteries. The poem,  The Madness of Nowa   sums up a strange murder he resolved for a skeptical magistrate. At a seasonal festival, a chance meeting inspired rare insight about time, nature and men. U nknown truths, injustices, fateful sorrow inspired poems.  After some year...

What did the Founders intend for a future United States? While no historian, I began reading biographies in lock-down for insight into our fractious nation. It's oddly comforting to learn of similar divisions in colonial times--a political split between the east and north (which wanted a strong Fed) and the south and west(which wanted power invested primarily in the States). During the Continental Congress, some representatives were more interested in keeping their British trading partner than war. After winning independence, there were rebellions against government authority. The Whiskey rebellion (against a tax) had to be quelled in-person by Washington and Hamilton with troops. I wondered if the optimism and unity of post WW2  America, when I grew up, was a historic aberration--result of a boom economy built on war production. Perhaps factional discord is the norm? Is our time more dire--can the center hold against the assaults on democratic ideals?  Can anything solid...

S PECIAL EXHIBITION  Colonial Firefighting & The American Revolution   Closes  8/13  at New York City Fire Museum, 278 Spring Street, New York.  www.nycfiremuseum.org  and www.savingnewyork.com.   News 12  interview with Exhibition originator; Bruce Twickler,  GothamToGo   and   FireRescue1 . C elebration of fire fighting!   The untold story of a group of volunteers, the colonial FDNY, that stood between New York and disaster during years of rampant arson, wars for North America, and the American Revolution.   1000 copies of The Art of Saving New York  gifted to the first viewers of this Special Exhibition.  THE FIRE DEPARTMENT SAVING THE EXCHANGE The FDNY at the Exchange The FDNY rallied at the inception of the fire to save the Exchange, a large covered market with a second story meeting hall, located in the middle of lower Broad Street. They stopped the initial blaze from destroying the building even t...

  SHERATON in 2250. Not much works, but meeting is scheduled. After the dissolution of the Old Fed, Corporate Business Estates consider Paradise Gardens. Chapter 2 Year 2250, The Earth’s Surface   The Selling of Paradise Gardens If Madge Chilton wasn’t sure she was alive, it was clear she wasn’t dead. The problem was a matter of personal style and professional necessity. Being pleasant and agreeable was the stock and trade of public relations. Who cared about the emotional burn-out after decades of calculated pleasantness—her real personality mourned like a memory? Eject self-pity , she thought, crossing the eerily deserted lobby of the crumbling New York Sheraton. You can’t afford it. Wasn’t it her reputation for equa nimity that helped her win Paradise Gardens? Madge reached the peeling brown and gold enam eled elevator doors and hit the Up button. Where was Security at 9:30 Sunday morning? The confe...