Books and Movies

Since the last week was so horrific I have decided to completely ignore it and instead share some things that have made me happy in the last few weeks.

First, of course, would be my awesome new Tesla. I still love that car. I love driving it, I love the color, I love the endearing way the door handles ease out as you approach the car. I particularly love the feature that updates the car over the internet. You go to bed one night and the next morning there is a message on the computer screen that you can now set the car to start charging at a particular time. Good for those who have lower electricity rates at two in the morning. (Denver does not.) And, not mentioned in the message, but found out over the next few days, when you save your seat position it now includes the side mirrors!  Yay! No more Laurence messing up my mirrors! Our marriage is saved!

Michael Pollan has a new book out, “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.”  Just saw him on the Colbert Report and the main message of his book seems to be not to worry about what you eat as long as you cook it yourself. (The example he gives is french fries. Not good for you, but easy to order in a restaurant. Now if you cook at home, how often do you make fries?) This easy rule comes as a great relief because his previous book espoused the message, “Eat food, mostly plants, not too much,” which seemed a bit difficult to follow.

I am a big fan of Mr. Pollan’s ever since I read his book, “Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World.” He discusses apples, tulips, potatoes and marijuana. My favorite thing I learned from this book was that if you plant apple seeds, none of the trees will be the same. You cannot plant seeds from a Macintosh and get a tree that produces Macintoshes. You will get all kinds of different apples, most of which will not taste very good. All of our apples come from grafts. It is a wondrous thing to contemplate. 

Another of my favorite authors has a book out.  Mary Roach has just published, “Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal.” I have just started it, but already I am hooked. So far she has covered saliva (amazingly we have two types and she covers both!), the stomach fistula of one Alexis St. Martin, and the crunchiness of food (including fruits and snacks.) Along the way she points out that people who have a disorder or injury that will not allow their voice box to move so that they can swallow would rather have it removed and be mute than not be able to eat properly. She also gives advice on that age old question: If you had to be swallowed whole by an animal, which animal would you choose? I do not think I am giving too much away when I tell you that she recommends picking the penguin. Truly, I cannot wait to head into the intestinal tract. 

      Anyone familiar with Ms. Roach will no doubt have read her book, “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.” This book is a must read if you have any ambitions at all regarding your life after death. Always wanted to go to med school? Volunteer as an anatomical teaching aid. Car safety your thing? You can go to work as a crash test dummy. Law enforcement? The FBI is always looking for a few good men to study decomposition. The mind boggles at the career opportunities.

      And last, I have a movie recommendation. We rented “28 Days Later,” I loved it. Of course, I do enjoy a good zombie movie so if you do not like zombies, I think you should probably rent “Groundhog Day” instead. As to “28 Days Later” it starts out with animal liberationists in England liberating the wrong animals, in this case rage and virus filled chimps. One bite and twenty seconds later (no kidding, it is very specific) people become homicidal zombies who run way faster than the traditional shuffle we have come to expect. This makes them scarier, but luckily, they still succumb to repeated blows to the head. This is particularly good news for the Brits because they lack any good access to guns. The movie follows the trials and tribulations of four of the survivors, one of whom awakens from a coma in a deserted hospital with no knowledge of the epidemic. It was directed by Danny Boyle of “Slumdog MIllionaire” fame and I’ll admit we watched it because we are probably going to go see his new movie “Trance” at some point and just felt like watching a Danny Boyle movie. So, if you like post-apocalyptic zombie movies watch it. If you don’t, watch “Groundhog Day.”