The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken

Bracken made her living as a copywriter. She wrote this, her first book, in 1960 when she was 70 years old. I’m reading it for the maturity of her wit, not the recipes.

Examples:

* “Add flour, salt, paprika, and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink.”

* “A mutual dislike can be quite as sound a basis for friendship as a mutual devotion.”

* “What most of us are after, when we have a picture taken, is a good natural-looking picture that doesn’t resemble us.”

* “It is important to remember that these are your Declining Years, in which you can jolly well decline to do what you don’t feel like doing.”

* “It isn’t true… that nothing is as bad as you think it’s going to be. Some things are exactly as bad as you thought they were going to be, and some things are worse.”

“The Land Where the Internet Ends” in The New York Times

The range of the Internet is fast expanding. Very soon it will cover just about every square inch of the world. But some people would like the government to preserve areas where cell phones cannot operate. The only hope may be areas where huge audio observatories operate. You can read the article here.

“The Day the Music Burned” in The New York Times

“The Papa Connection” in Taki’s Magazine

Taki’s Magazine is a regular of mine. It’s extreme in some ways… racist and misogynist. But its writers are smart and its editor, Taki, could be the most interesting man in the world. When he writes, I’m always delighted. Here is an example: a review of Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse, which I have yet to read.

The Latest Issue of AWAI’s Barefoot Writer

Including:

* The Million-Dollar Writing System that Awards Effort Above All Else
* Why Most Copywriters Never Make Big Money
* This Global Obsession Can Bring Writing Legends to Your Kitchen Table
* 4 Freelance Secrets From an Ex-Pat Writer in Mexico

“You Can’t Buy a Starbucks franchise. Here’s Why and What You Can Do About It”

I’ve had some experience with franchising. Just enough to know that it’s an industry best approached if you have money to lose and time to spare. Most of what’s written about franchising is not worth reading. But this short article on three of the biggest operations is good and well worth a few minutes of your time if you are thinking about a franchise business.

The River by Peter Heller

I’ve never read Heller before, although I read a New York Times book review of one of his previous bestselling novels: The Dog Stars. I remember thinking that the author had that Hemingway thing going on. It was with that expectation that I started reading The River– and I must say the book confirmed my suspicion. Hemingway as he might have been had he stayed in Idaho and become a teacher/novelist.

In any case, The River is a “guy” story – about two bookish but outdoorsy friends, Jack and Wynn, that take a canoe trip on the Maskwa River in northern Canada. What they hope will be an idyllic trip of eating blueberries and gazing at the stars turns into a race to save their lives.

The plot works. The other elements of fiction work too. It did feel a tad formulaic, but that might not bother you. I’d recommend it.

The latest issue of Independent Healing “The Autoimmune Epidemic”

Celiac and other autoimmune illnesses are now more prevalent than heart disease or cancer. Here’s why our bodies are attacking themselves and what we can do to stop it.

“The Hunt for the Great White Male” by Steve Saller

Are you white? Are you male? Then you are in! Or not. So says this NYT Book Review critic of Jared Diamond’s brilliant new book, Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis, in Taki’s Magazine.

Bill Bonner on “How the Financialization Scam Works”

If you sometimes wonder how so many public companies that make no profits are still worth billions of dollars, this recent essay by Bill Bonner will help you understand.