Smart Talk

Radio Smart Talk: Stormwater still an issue for Chesapeake Bay

2013-06-18T20:08:00Z

Radio Smart Talk for Wednesday, June 19:

Progress has been made in the 30-year-old Chesapeake Bay clean up. Underwater grasses are flourishing again in some rivers feeding the bay and the populations of striped bass and blue crab have increased.

Pennsylvanians have done their part toward restoration of the bay. Farmers have changed their practices and municipalities have upgraded their waste water treatment facilities.

However, one problem that continues and is actually growing in scope is storm water run off.

Storm water run off is created when precipitation falls in urban or suburban areas and can't be soaked into the ground because there is so much pavement, concrete, roofs, or other hard surfaces.

Storm water picks up contaminants as it moves toward streams, which eventually dump into the bay.

Phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment are the three pollutants that are still growing. Storm water can carry all three.

Appearing on Wednesday's Radio Smart Talk to address how to reduce storm water run off will be Harry Campbell, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Pennsylvania.

Also, rain barrels are increasingly being used to help reduce storm water run off. We'll hear about a rain barrel festival scheduled for this weekend.

Radio Smart Talk: Transportation money for biking and walking paths?

2013-06-17T20:19:19Z

Radio Smart Talk for Tuesday, June 18:

More than one-tenth of all trips in Pennsylvania are made on a bicycle or on foot.

That's one of the reasons a coalition of groups has gotten together to encourage state lawmakers to include money in any transportation funding plan to expand biking and walking trails.

The $2.5 billion transportation bill approved by the state senate recently did include $2 million dedicated to the trails.

The group -- Walk and Ride PA -- says the trails would improve Pennsylvania's economy, environment, public safety, and roadway safety.

We'll learn more on Tuesday's Radio Smart Talk. Appearing on the program will be Steve Doster, the state director of Mission Readiness and head of Walk and Ride PA.

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Steve Doster, State Director of Mission Readiness & Head of Walk and Ride PA

Radio Smart Talk: Bloodhounds search for the missing

2013-06-17T19:57:58Z

Radio Smart Talk for Tuesday, June 18:

Bloodhounds have an incredible sense of smell -- about a thousand times better than a human's. The breed has been used to track missing people or criminals since the early 1800s.

Why are bloodhounds such good trackers? All dogs can discriminate between scents so why are bloodhounds used to find people? How does such a gentle breed of dog become so aggressive when tracking?

Those are questions we'll pose to Terri Heck of Summit Search and Rescue on Tuesday's Radio Smart Talk.

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Below is a slideshow of scenes from today's show, including photos of Merit the bloodhound.

Radio Smart Talk: Bee colony collapse; What does the Fed do?

2013-06-16T20:27:59Z

Radio Smart Talk for Monday, June 17:

When millions of honeybees began dying for no apparent reason almost a decade ago, many people reacted with a collective "so what!" Beekeepers have lost a large percentage of their hives since then and those who know how important bees are to the food produced for human consumption now realize Colony Collapse Disorder is a major concern. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says up to one-quarter the of the American diet relies on pollination from honeybees.

We still don't know what exactly causes CCD. Speculation has centered on pesticides, viruses, or even small mites. The bottom line is bees are still dying.

CCD will be the focus on a segment of Monday's Radio Smart Talk. Appearing on the program will be Maryann Frazier, a Senior Extension Associate at Penn State University, who is an expert on bees and insects, and Jim Pinkerton, president of the Lancaster County Beekeepers Association.

Also, do you know what the Federal Reserve does?

Most Americans don't, even though decisions made by the Fed have an impact on all of us.

Stephen Axilrod, who worked at the Fed for decades, has penned a new book, The Federal Reserve: What Everyone Needs to Know. He'll answer your questions about the Fed on Monday's program.

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Do you have questions about the Federal Reserve?

Radio Smart Talk: author Jeff Shaara and filmmaker Jake Boritt live from Gettysburg

2013-06-13T19:11:19Z

Radio Smart Talk for Friday, June 14:

On June 14, 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate troops drove a small Union army garrison out of Winchester, Virginia. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was in the Shenandoah Valley, on its way to Pennsylvania as part of the Gettysburg Campaign. The Battle of Gettysburg would be fought two weeks later.

One-hundred-fifty years later to the day, witf's Radio Smart Talk will broadcast live from Gettysburg as part of the commemoration of the historic battle.

The program will be produced at the American Civil War Wax Museum and Gift Shop at 297 Steinwehr Avenue in Gettysburg.

Special guest on the program will be New York Times best-selling novelist Jeff Shaara. His latest book, A Chain of Thunder, is about the siege of Vicksburg. Last week, the book was at #9 on the Times' best-seller list.

Also joining us will be filmmaker Jake Boritt. His documentary, The Gettysburg Story, will premiere at the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Gen. Lee will make an appearance on the program as well.

Radio Smart Talk: Buying local and organic food

2013-06-12T15:25:26Z

Radio Smart Talk for Thursday, June 13:

Many Pennsylvanians are changing how and where they buy the food they eat.

Purchasing fruits and vegetables and other food items that were grown or produced locally is becoming more popular.

The reasons they buy local include food safety, taste of the food, the environment, and supporting local farmers.

The same could be said about organic food too.

On Thursday's Radio Smart Talk, we'll look at buying local food and organic foods.

Our guests will be Casey Spacht, Manager of the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative and Casi Babinchak, Chief Operations Officer of the Central Market House in York.

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Casey Spacht, Manager of the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative and Casi Babinchak, Chief Operations Officer of the Central Market House in York.

Radio Smart Talk: Communications privacy

2013-06-12T15:11:12Z

Radio Smart Talk for Thursday, June 13:

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks forced Americans to think more about security and privacy and weigh the two against one another in many cases.

Government agencies charged with keeping the country safe did so in many cases by trying to find would be terrorists before they had a chance to implement their plans. Often, that meant intercepting their communications.

Polls showed that most Americans didn't disagree with those methods.

But then came the leaks last week that the National Security Agency had collected huge amounts of telephone records and other communications information from ordinary Americans. It raised the debate to a whole new level.

Chuck Davis, a communications security expert from Harrisburg University of Science and Technology and Randy Lee, a professor of Law at Widener School of Law will appear on Thursday's Radio Smart Talk to discuss privacy and communications.

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Chuck Davis and Randy Lee

Radio Smart Talk: Housing still an important issue

2013-06-11T19:08:37Z

Radio Smart Talk for Wednesday, June 12:

For as complicated as life is today, one of the basics of human survival is having a place to live.

For some, it could mean simply having a safe space to sleep at night with a roof over their heads.

Others opt to rent or lease the room, apartment, or house they call home.

But for millions of people, owning a home is a huge part of the American Dream. It provides security and a sense of satisfaction that the homeowner has achieved enough success to be able to afford such a large investment.

And investments were how most looked at homes. The common thought was houses always would increase in value and they could be used to leverage for more financial equity.

Then came the housing bubble of the last decade that sent the economy into a downward spiral. Too many people had mortgages they couldn't afford and banks and other financial institutions gambled too often and lost.

Which brings us to today. The economy and housing is improving but it still is a major issue for many Americans.

Liz Hersh of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania will appear on Wednesday's Radio Smart Talk to discuss the Pennsylvania Housing Trust Fund, foreclosures, the housing market, homelessness, and how the federal budget sequester has impacted home ownership.

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Michael Kearney and Liz Hersh

Radio Smart Talk: Ellery Schempp, who brought suit that struck down school prayer 50 years ago

2013-06-11T13:35:00Z

Radio Smart Talk for Tuesday, June 11:

"No state law or school board may require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord's Prayer be recited in the public schools . . . even if individual students may be excused from attending or participating."

That was the ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on June 17, 1963 in the case School District of Abington Township vs Schempp. In the 50 years since, many simply describe it as the case that removed prayer from public schools. That description wouldn't tell the whole story though.

Before the ruling, each school day in Pennsylvania began with a reading from the Bible and the Lord's Prayer.

In November, 1956, 16-year-old Ellery Schempp silently read the Quran during the morning devotional at Abington High School near Philadelphia. It wasn't because Schempp was a Muslim -- he was doing it out of protest. When the teenager refused to participate, he was sent to the principal's office.

Schempp eventually filed the suit that challenged school-sponsored school prayer.

Ellery Schempp will be a guest on Tuesday's Radio Smart Talk -- 50 years after the Supreme Court ruling that changed history.

Also appearing on the program will be Lauri Lebo, a volunteer board member with the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union. Lebo authored the book, The Devil in Dover after covering the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District intelligent design case for the York Daily Record in 2004 and 2005.

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Ellery Schempp and Lauri Lebo

Radio Smart Talk: Searching for George Gordon Meade; 1968 exhibit marks overwhelming year

2013-06-08T19:54:19Z

Radio Smart Talk for Monday, June 10:

The 1960s were a turbulent time in American history. If one year in the decade had to be singled out as the stormiest, it probably would be 1968.

The Vietnam War was at its height, peaceful and violent protests and demonstrations against the war, civil rights marches, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy, riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and the election of Richard Nixon all were part of a year that some called overwhelming.

On the pop culture side, "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" was in its infancy, the Beatles released the White Album, and "2001: A Space Odyssey" was one of the year's top films.

On Monday's Radio Smart Talk, we'll look back with Brian Horrigan, curator of The 1968 Exhibit, which opens at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia this Friday, June 14.

One-hundred-five years before that in 1863, Gen. George Meade was the commander of the Army of the Potomac that won the Battle of Gettysburg. As author Tom Huntington writes, Meade is often forgotten as one of the heroes or not even remembered at all for his role at Gettysburg.

As part of our Gettysburg 150 coverage, Huntington will appear on Radio Smart Talk to discuss his book, Searching for George Gordon Meade.

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Tom Huntington

Radio Smart Talk: CO2 levels raise alarm, Dr. Michael Mann explains

2013-06-06T19:32:58Z

Radio Smart Talk for Friday, June 7:

Dr. Michael Mann, one of the world's renowned climate scientists, will appear on Friday's Radio Smart Talk.

Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere had passed 400 parts per million on average. Scientists have long viewed that as a milestone on the way to a warmer climate. To put the reading into context, scientists said it could be the highest level of CO2 in the air in three million years -- even before humans evolved.

It also left many in the science and environmental communities saying steps being taken around the world to reduce the burning of fossil fuels are not having as much impact as needed to cut CO2 levels.

Dr. Mann will explain how the Earth could be affected by the rising carbon dioxide levels and if there still is time to reverse climate change.

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Radio Smart Talk: Water safety and PA water trails

2013-06-06T09:01:00Z

Radio Smart Talk for Thursday, June 6:

Earlier this week, Slate Magazine published a story that went viral on line. Written by Mario Vittone, the article, “Drowning doesn’t look like drowning” says that most people think a drowning person screams, kicks and flails in the water. They get that picture in their minds from what they’ve seen on television.

The article points out that most drowning people can’t scream, wave for help, or control their arm movements.

It may not be pleasant to think about but its valuable information to have with most people going in or near water during the warm weather months.

Thursday’s Radio Smart Talk will devote one segment of the program to water safety.

Then, we’ll look at a recreational and education activity that is becoming more popular – boating, canoeing, or kayaking on Pennsylvania’s water trails. Water trails are access points, boat launches, and day use sites that serve the same purpose as dry land trails. Learn more about Pennsylvania's River Sojourn Program here.

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Cindy Dunn, Deputy Secretary for Conservation & Technical Services at PA DCNR & Laurel Anders, Dir. of the PA Fish & Boat Commission's Bureau of Boating & Outreach

Joining us to talk about the PA Water Trails program is Laurel Anders, Director of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission 's (PFBC) Bureau of Boating and Outreach and Cindy Dunn, Deputy Secretary for Conservation and Technical Services at Pennsylvania Department of Conseravation and Natural Resources.

Ryan Walt, Outreach & Education Coordinator for the PA Fish & Boat Commission and George Zimmerman, Mid Atlantic Divisional Manager for Aquatics at The American Red Cross

Also on the program to talk about water safety is George Zimmerman, Mid Atlantic Divisional Manager for Aquatics at American Red Cross and Ryan Walt, Outreach and Education Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

Radio Smart Talk: Local super utilizers

2013-06-05T13:55:00Z

Radio Smart Talk for Wednesday, June 5:

One medical professional said, "This is something we should have thought of and done years ago."

There are many others across the country who would agree about programs designed to treat "super utilizer" patients.

Super utilizers are 5% of the patients who account for more than half of all healthcare costs.

How can that happen? Certainly lifestyle choices, especially bad ones, can contribute to poor health and multiple illnesses or conditions. However, there are some patients who the system fails.

Miscommunication between medical providers can lead to repetitive or conflicting treatments.

Often, super utilizers don't have a family physician so they end up going to the hospital emergency room, which is more costly and there isn't as much follow up.

Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, a pioneer in the field who developed a super utilizer program in Camden, New Jersey, appeared on Radio Smart Talk last month to explain how it all got started.

On Wednesday's program, we'll learn about local super utilizer programs.

Guests will be Dr. Chris Echterling of WellSpan Health and Dr. Jeffrey Martin of Lancaster General Health.

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Wednesday's program is part of witf's Transforming Health initiative.

Dr. Jeffrey Martin and Dr. Chris Echterling

Radio Smart Talk: Golden Venture 20 years later

2013-06-03T18:31:50Z

Radio Smart Talk for Tuesday, June 4:

The United State Congress is reportedly putting the finishing touches on an immigration reform package. Much of the focus will be on the U.S.' southern border with Mexico where hundreds of thousands of immigrants enter the country illegally each year. Most are seeking a better life and employment in the United States.

Now, think back 20 years ago when a cargo ship named the Golden Venture ran aground in Queens, New York. On board were nearly 300 illegal immigrants from China. Those immigrants wanted to enter the U.S. and sought political asylum in order to escape China's forced sterilization policy put in place to control China's population growth.

Ten drowned trying to swim to shore. Others were rounded up by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and were held in prisons across the country, including the York County Prison, while applying for asylum. More than a hundred were deported.

While illegal immigration is often a divisive issue, the passengers on board the Golden Venture found hundreds of people from diverse political and religious backgrounds willing to help in their quest to stay in the U.S.

It took four years before President Bill Clinton relented and released the final 52 passengers.

On Tuesday's Radio Smart Talk, we'll hear the story of the Golden Venture and what became of the immigrants seeking a home in the United States.

Joining us will be attorney Jeff Lobach, who as president of the York County Bar Association at the time, started a pro bono program to represent the detainees and Mary Weaver, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center and was on the staff of former Congressman Todd Platts, who proposed legislation that would provide permanent legal status for 31 men in the York contingent.

Mary Weaver, Exec. Dir. PA Immigration Resource Center and Jeff Lobach, Former President of the York County Bar Association

Detainee Artwork

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To learn more about the Golden Venture, explore these resources:

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe

Golden Venture, a documentary about the U.S. immigration crisis

Radio Smart Talk: Books for summer reading

2013-06-02T05:01:00Z

Radio Smart Talk for Monday, June 3:

What books are you reading this summer? Maybe something off the best-sellers list or a classic? Do you have a certain type or genre you like to read on the beach, when you're on vacation, or just relaxing at home in warm weather?

Monday's Radio Smart Talk is all about books.

Todd Dickinson of Aaron's Books in Lititz and Jon Walker of jonosbookreviews.com will be us to describe several books they're reading and that they think you may enjoy too.

I just finished Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz. It's the best account I've read about John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859 that precipitated the beginning of the Civil War. After reading the book, I'm still not sure if John Brown was delusional in believing he could incite a slave revolt or he knew exactly what he was doing to start a violent resurrection over the institution of slavery. It's a great example of a book that makes you ask more questions.

We'd like to hear from you as well. What books have you read recently that you liked and would recommend or what titles do you want to get your hands on this summer?

Perhaps, there are a few children's books you can suggest for kids to read this summer when they're out of school.

Let us know!

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Children's books recommended by witf's Education Coordinator Debbie Riek:

Summer Children’s Books

Picture Books:

It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw

Repetitive text story about looking for familiar images in the clouds

At Night by Jonathan Bean

Wonderful bedtime story with beautiful illustrations

Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner

Skippyjon Jones is a cat who thinks he is a Chihuahua and a spirited one at that. He has great adventures.

The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

The classic tale told from the wolf’s perspective

Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park

Junie B. is a precocious, funny girl—these stories take real life kid issues like losing teeth and bedtime and make them funny and enjoyable for children and adults

Older kids (recommended by Olivia Riek, 11 years old)

Diary of The Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney

The main character Greg navigates growing up and managing middle school in a funny, relatable way

Charlotte’s Web by E. B.White

This is a wonderful, classic story about friendship and loyalty.

Wonder

August is born with a facial deformity that has kept him out of mainstream school but now he is starting 5^th grade with challenges and bullies and also friends. Told from August’s perspective and many other characters.

Matilda by Ronald Dahl

Matilda is an exceptional young girl with a big heart and a massive imagination. She finds a friend in her teacher.

A Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup

Three children and their father are on the run, trying to protect a secret invention. Full of action and strange characters, it is very entertaining.

Todd Dickinson and Jon Walker

Todd Dickinson's Book Suggestions:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane; Neil Gaiman
Hardcover, available June 18

This is the summer book I am most excited to read. Gaiman writes wonderful books for children (e.g. Coraline and The Graveyard Book) but his best work is for adults. This book is being called a modern fairy tale, with mystery and magic. If it's half as good as American Gods, it will be well worth the wait.

www.indiebound.org/book/9780062255655

The Great Gatsby; by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Paperback

Now is the time to revisit this American classic. It is the bestselling book of the spring at Aaron's Books, and we expect this to continue through the summer. Whether you think the new film is bright and refreshing or loud and pointless, the book will remind you why it's one of the great works of the 20th Century.

www.indiebound.org/book/9780743273565

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo; by Tom Reiss

Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, this is the true story of the mixed-race French general whose life as a swordsman and revolutionary inspired his son's novels, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.
Paperback

www.indiebound.org/book/9780307382474

Looking for Me; by Beth Hoffman
Hardcover
Hoffman is the author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, continuously one of our bestsellers at Aaron's Books. Her new novel is a wonderful study of about family dynamics in a small Southern town. This is the one for fans of Fannie Flagg, Lee Smith and other standouts of Southern women's fiction.

www.indiebound.org/book/9780670025831

His Majesty's Hope; by Susan Elia MacNeal
Paperback
This is the third in a new mystery series we are excited to share. The Maggie Hope books started with Churchill's Secretary and continued with Princess ELizabeth's Spy. Maggie is British woman, raised in the United States, working in London at the start of WWII as a typist for Churchill. The mystery, history, romance, and adventure are fun, but the fascinating characters, both real and fictional, are what really make these books stand out.
www.indiebound.org/book/9780345536730

Jon Walker's Book Suggestions:

Red Brick by Christopher Benfey

There's an iconic artistic pattern known as the "Greek Meander" that frequently appears as a design motif on ancient Greek clay pots. The Mayans of Central America also came up with this same design and variations of it echo down the ages and in different cultures all around the world. Besides pottery, you see it in paintings, textiles and architectural friezes.

In the spirit of this timeless and ubiquitous design, Christopher Benfey explores the meanderings of his far-flung family -- going back in some cases hundreds of years -- as his forbears make their way through the rich twists and turns of the American cultural experience. Like many of us, Benfey can trace his lineage down through some highly unlikely roots. His mother was the daughter of a North Carolina brick layer of Quaker descent -- hence the "Red Brick" in the title. His father, a theoretical chemist and college professor famous for devising a spiral periodic table, comes from a prominent German Jewish family that was forced to escape the Nazis. His aunt and uncle, Josef and Anni Albers, were influential modern artists and key players in the avaunt-garde Black Mountain College which flamed into and out of existence in much the same way as did the hippy "happenings" that were invented there. He's also related to William Bartram, a 18th century naturalist from Philadelphia who became famous for wandering around and writing about the swamps of Florida and Georgia. All of this is somehow intertwined with the historic search for the rare type of white clay that the Chinese used to fire into their highly prized fine porcelain. Turns out, there's a few pockets of the stuff in the hills of Western North Carolina, and Josiah Wedgwood of Wedgood dinnerware fame spent a lot of time and money trying to procure it back in the 1700's, which is just one of the many fascinating back alleys that Benfey leads you down.

When it's all over, you've traveled around the world -- from North Carolina to Indiana, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Chili, Cuba, Greece (to name but a few of the stops) and back and forth through time on a rambling yet provocative reflection of art, family and survival. Benfey's prose is sometimes highly cerebral (especially when he gets into the ins and outs of artistic theory) and sometimes warm and touching, like when he talks about his mother's experience with love and loss that predated her marriage to his father.

While there were times when I felt all but completely lost in Benfey's maze, I just kept going with the flow and found this hard to define and oddly faceted little book utterly spell binding.

The Yellow Birds, by Kevin Powers

It is the sheer beauty of the writing that makes The Yellow Birds so breathtakingly out of kilter. This, I believe, is Kevin Power’s intention in his debut novel about a foot soldier in Iraq: to frame the horrors of war in such beautifully poetic terms that the irony of it all blares like a dissonant trumpet right up against your ear. The screech sounded between the words is so loud and out of tune you have no choice but to take notice.

Powers reminds us that war is about as horrible and senseless a thing as was ever invented. While veterans of other wars may say otherwise, it’s hard to imagine a conflict more nightmarish than the War in Iraq. It’s a military misadventure with no clear objective waged against an enemy that is so hard to define, bewildered soldiers at the front (if you can even call it that) end up shooting everybody and anything that moves. It’s a war so fu-barred, even little old ladies and children must be seen as threats and occasionally taken out. And it’s a war waged in a country so dysfunctional and turned upon itself it’s impossible to see what’s worth defending (or was it liberating?) and what isn’t.

Powers doesn’t make any political judgments about the War in Iraq – he makes no indictment of this particular war of choice but does succeed in making the most searing indictment of war in general I have read in a long time.

A Hologram for a King, by David Eggars

Move over Willy Loman … hello Alan Clay! David Eggars’ newest novel, A Hologram for a King has got Death of a Salesman written all over it. It’s a pitch-perfect re-examination of a regular guy facing the end stages of his career. Just like Death, Hologram is about an older man contemplating the extent of his usefulness. There are however, important differences between these two classic works. Willy Loman is his own worst enemy whose downfall is largely the result of his half-baked understanding of the American Dream. Willy Loman had choices. Things could have worked out differently for him if only he wasn’t such a hapless boob.

Alan Clay’s situation is a bit different. He’s a boob alright and his life is careening out of control, but unlike Willy Loman, Alan Clay owns up to his failures. He blames the mess he’s in on the business decisions he made, and therein lays his blind spot. His career choices were and continue to be just as illusory as the hologram technology he’s hoping to sell to the King of Saudi Arabia. He’s not out of control because of his own poor choices. He’s out of control because the entire virtualized global economy is out of whack. That’s the part of the picture Alan isn’t quite able to see and what he wrestles with as his character grows throughout the novel.

Here’s a quick sketch of the plot: Alan Clay is a 54 year old businessman (most of his career was with Schwinn Bicycle) who finds himself as a consultant-for-hire hoping to convince the King of Saudi Arabia to purchase his client’s hologram technology for the sparkling new modern city the King is planning to erect in the desert. Alan’s been out of steady work for a while. He’s divorced and in debt – so broke in fact, that he may need to ask his daughter (whom he cherishes) to drop out of college. Pulling off this deal is Alan’s last chance to turn things around. Trouble is, when he gets to the desert he finds nothing but a few buildings, a hole or two in the ground and a big Bedouin tent. The prospects for the city ever getting built appear to be remote, especially in the opinion of the few skeptical locals who are wandering about. What’s worse, the King isn’t even there to listen to his presentation, and in spite of assurances he will be arriving any day, Alan and his small team of young assistants are kept waiting for weeks.

This taut and oftentimes darkly humorous retelling of Death of a Salesman soon takes on strong echoes of Waiting For Godot, but there are again important differences. From what I remember, nothing happens or gets resolved in Beckett’s play. It’s two acts of empty promises. And while on one level Hologram is also an empty promise wrapped in an illusion inside a chimera, you do eventually get a sense of there being some “there” out there someplace.

Some words of warning: Anyone who has ever worked inside a corporate cubicle will immediately identify with Alan Clay, and the book is definitely going to pull back the curtain on your own career’s successes and failures. Indeed, Eggars’ depiction of the corporate rat race in our rapidly evolving virtual age is spot on target and his insights about how the global economy has grown into a beast no one can grasp or tame will make you despair. And yet in the end, as Alan comes to terms with his life, you are left with something important; something about the enduring human condition to hang onto.

I highly recommend this book. It’s a must read for 2013.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport, by Cathleen Schine

This is a highly entertaining modern day knock-off of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility set in Westport, CT which just so happens to be my hometown. But you don’t have to hail from Westport or be a big Jane Austen fan to enjoy this quick breeze of a novel. It’s a beach book through and through with a bunch of characters you eventually grow to admire who are dealing with their various affairs of the heart. Like in Austen’s novel, the protagonists (the “sensible” older daughter, the drama queen daughter, and the disinherited “widow”) fall in love in all the wrong places. We watch them stumbling around trying to make the most of their diminished circumstances against the backdrop of the cold cruel world (with welcome splashes of comic relief) only to find – as you strongly suspect all along – that everything works out happily in the end.

There is plenty of sharp satire about modern day living and America’s pop culture smattered throughout the novel. Indeed, Schine couldn’t find a more appropriate setting for this Jane Austen remake. Like Austen’s Devonshire, Westport offers equal measures of Old World-esque charm and phony-baloney social artifices. While Austen jabs at the English obsession with titles and social pedigrees, Shine jabs at the American obsession with celebrities and those who strike it rich. I was delighted to see that even one of my old girlfriends from high school earns a brief nod in the book! She’s the cheerleader who grew up to become one of the country’s most notorious porn stars and one of the many resident celebrities Westporter’s love to casually mention they just bumped into at the supermarket.

I’ve never actually read Sense and Sensibility but my wife dragged me out to the movie and we’ve probably rented other versions of it on numerous occasions over the years. I feigned to yawn my way through each showing of the movie and feel exactly the same about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it from cover to cover but totally hate to admit it!

Thomas Jefferson – The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham

No doubt about it, Thomas Jefferson was an uber dude. As Jon Meacham chronicles in his most recent book, Thomas Jefferson - the Art of Power, our third president was both a deep thinker and a practical politician who never let his ideology get in the way of getting things done. He had the political vision and skills to write the Declaration of Independence and effectively weigh in on the Constitution, and as President he snookered France out of half the North American continent for just three cents an acre.

That’s one hell of a resume and the lessons to be gleaned from it are self-evident. If only Barack Obama had Jefferson’s personal charm and political instincts to go along with his innate intelligence he’d magically turn into the effective leader we so desperately need. Channel his inner Jefferson, and Obama would finally achieve sensible gun controls, immigration reform, a comprehensive energy plan, peace in the Middle East, equal rights for gays and lesbians plus a Grand Bargain with Republicans that will create jobs and fix the long term debt while at the same time protecting our safety nets and re-establishing a vibrant middleclass.

Meacham’s book may have been marketed as a parallel lesson for our times, but Meacham himself doesn’t directly make that argument. He simply provides a rather detailed biography of one of our most influential Founding Fathers. He uncovers a few things about Jefferson’s life – especially his personal life – that I didn’t know before and can relate to. Like, for example, Jefferson had a few unrequited love interests in college; he made a point to read and exercise every day all his life; and he loved to have long informal discussions (what we might call “bull sessions”) over dinner with people that interested him. Meacham’s portrayal of Jefferson’s life at Monticello after his stint as Pres is the most interesting and insightful part of the book. You really get an intimate look at the “Renaissance Man” in full possession of his talents in his golden years, working on his estate, studying in his library and building the University of Virginia.

Thomas Jefferson – The Art of Power is an excellent cradle-to- grave review of a remarkable man’s life. It is rich in detail yet a bit short on depth.