David Brooks, The Social Animal (2012)

I just polished off David Brooks' The Social Animal.  He's a political commentator on NPR, playng the reasonable conservative to contrast with the reasonable liberal, E.J. Dionne.  Anyway, I joke with my wife that we should believe the opposite of anything this wag says.  He's the annoying Samuel Johnson of his day.

So that's my take on this guy before reading this book, and it's essentially the same after reading it.  Basically this is a fictional account of a relationship of a married couple that he uses as a vehicle to discuss various social science and neurosicence research.  His thesis is that the unconscious has much more influence over what we do than previously thought.  As an example, a guy named Dennis is more likely to end up a dentist than someone not named Dennis.

His method was effective in that he found a way to deliver conclusions without having to get bogged into the details.  The content was interesting and surprising, and doubly so coming from an enlightenment wag knockoff.  I would also say that he is a very talented and creative writer.  

David Brooks is still a pundit in my view but a curious one who is very good at the craft of writing.

Comments on Zealot, the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Reza Aslan, 2013

This is an attempted historical take on Jesus of Nazareth. 

The author's description of the context is easy to swallow.  The Roman occupiers collaborative with the Jewish religious elite to oppress everyone else. 

His description of Jesus as a peasant or day laborer nobody is also easy to swallow.

Where I could not go with the author is his conclusion that Jesus was a Jewish Zealot Nationalist whose goal was to overthrow Rome the Jewish scribes by force.  For one thing, I don't think this is supported by the gospel readings he purportedly relies on.  Nor is it automatic that any person who opposes the system of domination would want to do so with swords and clubs.  Not every rebel is a Barabbas or Spartacus.   

I think in the end the author's assumptions reveal much more about himself than his subject, but that's probably true of any Jesus biography. 

Tao, James, Dan Hall Family Milestones from 4/3/2005 to the Present

04/03/2005 Tao comes to US, lives in Pasadena with her cousin

8/2005 (specific day unrecalled) Taoski and Dan meet

9/23/2005 our first date at Delmonico's in Pasadena (no longer there)

05/2006 moved in together in a rented house in Sierra Madre

7/18/2006 Tao and Dan Married-- civil marriage at Norwalk, CA

4/2007 buy condo in Pasadena, move in

10/2007 trip back to China with American Mom and Dad, meet Tao's family in China

8/2012 (or thereabouts) after some investigation "discovered" St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Altadena, CA and decided to make it our Parish

12/12/2009 James born

5/2010 first Bikram yoga class

9/2010 James at St. Elizabeth

6/8/2011 Richard L. Hall, Sr. (James' grandfather) passes away

12/20/2011 Tao sworn in as US Citizen

1/14/2012 Tao and Dan married at St. Elizabeth

4/8/2012 Tao baptized at St. Elizabeth

5/2012 Tao, James and Dan go back to China, James meets Tao's family

6/2012 James starts Sierra Madre Cooperative Nursery School

9/2013 James starts A Child's Garden School at Church of our Savior, San Gabriel, CA

Review of The Jasmine Trade, Denise Hamilton (2001)

This post is part book review of The Jasmine Trade, written by former LA Times report Denise Hamilton in 2001, and part personal reflection.  The Jasmine Trade is a murder mystery set in the burgeoning San Gabriel Valley "Chinatowns" of Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, and San Marino. 

The murder mystery part of it was workmanlike but it is the background that I read the book for. I have lived most of my life in the San Gabriel, including in Alhambra, and have seen this community spring up like a mushroom out of nowhere.

I have been back to where I spent my very early years, just cruising by to observe, and see almost no trace of the white working class neighborhood that is was. It has nearly completely transformed into an American version of China. I've been to see where my grandmother lived the last couple decades of her life in Arcadia and the same thing has happened. Where there was a Lucky's, there is a 99 Ranch Market. Where there was the Horseshoe Bar, there is 幸运 Bar.

I live 3 miles from where I grew up, and have been transformed along with the comunity. I have a Chinese attorney, Chinese accountant, Chinese (now Chinese American) wife, Chinese in-laws and a son of Chinese ancestry. I have been to an interior city in China 2 times in the last 6 years and will in all likelihood go back again next year.

If you are from the San Gabriel, or live in the San Gabriel valley now, read this book. If you know nothing about this community, it will serve as your introduction to Chinese triads, "parachute kids," fung shui, and other new and fascinating things. if you are a part of this community already, you can read a good suspense thriller set right in stomping grounds.