Books by the Pound

Wow, nothing since August.  What have I been doing?  Lost count of the number of 1,000 piece jig saw puzzles I've done simply to turn off one side of my brain, the thinking side, and open up the Zen side that can find pieces if not by feel than by magic.  Many of them have already been donated to local concerns,  But I have been reading, as I mention, books by the pound.

Some time ago I finished Chernow's Hamilton and absolutely loved it.  First of all recalling how I tried to convince one of my co-workers to go see it when it was still off Broadway.  But did get some theatrics once I finished the biography:  Got to sit in the front row when Chernow received this year's NYS archives award in Chancellors' Hall.  Got my book autographed and my daughter-in-law's too.  Chernow was charming, but as I keep reading the introductions to his other books, Titan and The House of Morgan, his interviewer threw soft ball questions at him that he discloses in these volumes.

I wish I had known that the Archives awarded this distinguished honor every year.  Before I discovered him, my favorite biographer was Caro, having devoured his books on Robert Moses and LBJ.

Time has even moved on since I drafted the above three paragraphs.  Finished Titan on John D Rockefeller and still only half way through Morgan.  I am left with a certain respect for JD.  Today, a day or so after DJT ordered progress on the two cross national pipelines, it threw my thoughts back to the controversies of the first pipelines JD laid in Pennsyvlania and then to connect to sea ports.  Oil and fuel are necessities of modern life; perhaps it should be regulated by a public service commission rather than snarled in EPA issues.  People today cannot live without oil, and it does not fall within the "buy local" movement.  It has to flow to the market and end user.  Don't want to get into preachy mode, I ain't no "Womens' March-er" so have to say JD was not quite as good as Hamilton, and Morgan, a tad less as well.

Chernow's books should be on college reading lists, nay even on high school summer reading lists.  Perhaps there are many other Lins out there who would read and discover a character, worthy of emulation, of American founding fathers and be inspired to tell others about the struggles, talents and successes of our country.