Books reviews, current events, and other musings

 
There has been some humorous commentary about Bush's response to the recent business scandals. Here's what Jay Leno has to say:

President Bush was on Wall Street giving a speech on corporate responsibility. He called for the doubling of punishment for corporate crime. That means they will slap you on both wrists apparently.

Meanwhile, David Letterman pondered,

President Bush was in New York City this afternoon. He was giving a speech imploring people to crack down on accounting fraud, lashing out and attacking accounting fraud. And I am thinking to myself, "Hey wait a minute, isn't that how he got elected?"

Also, Molly Ivins's latest column had a great line:

As it happens, Clinton did not appoint Harvey Pitt chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a position from whence Pitt has achieved the almost-unimaginable distinction of getting himself criticized by The Wall Street Journal for being too close to business.

posted by Julian at 7:44 PM

 
Last month I ordered 4 games from Funagain Games, who sell a wide selection of less known games. Some of them were pretty good, but none were of Carcasonne caliber.

Starship Catan is a nice relaxing game. The two players each have a starship in a distant part of the galaxy. You have a limited number of resources which you utilize for trading, enhancing your ship, colonizing planets, and other activities. The purchases increase your capabilities. You must decide which improvements provide the most leverage, so you can achieve the victory criteria before your opponent. Starship Catan games are a bit long and drag towards the end, but reducing the victory criteria resolves those issues.

Through the Desert is a good strategy game. The players take turns playing camel pieces on the board, each person growing five separate caravans of adjoining camels. You score points for reaching certain spots on the board (oases and waterholes) and for surrounding territory. Also, the longest caravan of each color receives additional points. We're still trying to figure out the winning strategies.

Zertz is an intriguing logic game. In some ways, it's similar to checkers: pieces jump over adjacent pieces to capture them, and you must make a jump if one is available. Beyond that, Zertz is rather unique. The board, a triangular matrix, starts with no marbles, and the two players take turns either adding or capturing white, black, and grey marbles. You win by capturing certain combinations of the marbles. Also, after you add a marble you must remove part of the board, limiting future moves. My girlfriend and I have figured out a few helpful tricks, but Zertz requires a different kind of thinking.

We've been less impressed by El Grande. In that game, each player is a Grande (Spanish aristocrat) who positions various Caballeros (attendants) on a map of Spain. You score points based upon how many Caballeros you have in each region. El Grande hasn't hooked us after playing it two or three times.
posted by Julian at 9:45 PM

 
This evening I saw the TheatreWorks production of Smokey Joe's Cafe. It's a musical revue of songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. You may not have heard of them (I hadn't), but they wrote an impressive number of classic oldies, including Kansas City, On Broadway, Yakety Yak, I'm a Woman, Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, and Love Potion #9.

It was an entertaining production. The singers ranged from good to excellent, and it's fun to hear familiar songs performed live. The better known fast-paced songs, such as those listed above, were the most appealing. Plus, it's a nicely choreographed show; the Broadway version played for 5 years and received 7 Tony nominations.

Also, surprisingly, none of the cast had appeared on Law and Order. Even in California, most plays have some actors who appeared in guest roles. Hey, it something to look for while you're waiting for a play to start.
posted by Julian at 11:18 PM

 
I just posted 18 book reviews, the backlog that has been sitting on my PC, to Julian's Jabberings. As I read additional books, I'll add them to the list.
posted by Julian at 9:51 PM