Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeletons and the Origins of Humankind by Kermit Pattison. - 2020 - 534 pages- Narrative Nonfiction

Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeletons and the Origins of Humankind by Kermit Pattison. - 2020- 534 pages- Narrative Nonfiction 

Fossil Men tells the story of the discovery of the fossil remains of human ancestors over a million years older than Lucy, dating back 4.4 million years.

In 1994 a team lead by a maverick genius among fossil hunters Tom White, lead a team in the Afar region of Ethiopia, a dangerous harsh region full of tribes that hated outsiders.

Radiometric dating of nearby rocks indicated the resulting skeleton, classified as Ardipithecus ramidus—nicknamed “Ardi”—was an astounding 4.4 million years old, more than a million years older than the world-famous “Lucy.

White and is team spent 15 years in secrecy researching the finds. His team found many more discoveries. Teaching at the University of California at Berkeley, White was embroiled in bitter disputes with other paleontologists, including the Leakys.

When White at last went public with his findings, they strongly challenged fifty years of orthodox academic doctrine about the origins of humanity. Orthodox paleontologist fought back.  We learn a lot about academic squabbling.

Ethiopian officials made fossil hunting difficult with regulations designed to keep all fossils in Ethiopia.  

Pattinson goes into how we came to walk upright, how we developed nimble fingers and who our ancient ancestors were descended from.  In the process we learn about the evolution of Gorillas and Chimpanzees, their ties to humans.

Pattison brings on stage lots of interesting paleontologists.

Anyone interested in the ancestry of humans will find this book fascinating, as I did.

“Kermit Pattison is the author of Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind. He has written for the New York Times, GQ, Inc. and Fast Company. Fossil Men is his first book. He lives with his family in Minnesota.”   https://kermitpattison.com/

This is my first time participating in the Historical Fiction Challenge hosted by The Intrepid Reader.  The rules of the challenge are here

http://www.theintrepidreader.com/2021/12/historical-fiction-reading-challeng.html

Mel Ulm

 

"Milk Bread Beer Ice" - A Short Story by Carol Shields- 11 Pages- Included in The Short Stories of Carol Shields

Buriedinprint.com 

 This year, Buried in Print, a marvelous blog I have followed for over ten years,is doing a read through of the short stories of Carol Shields. I hope to participate fully in this event.

The more I read in the stories of Carol Shields the more grateful I am to Buried in Print for turning me on to her work. There are sixty some stories in the collection, it is my hope to read and post on them all

"Milk Bread Beer Ice" is the 36th story by Carol Shields upon which I have posted.

Like numerous of her other stories this one is about a married couple in their late middle ages on a trip.

"Imprisoned now for five long days in the passenger seat of a brand new Oldsmobile Cutlass, Barbara thinks of herself as a castaway. Her real life has been left behind in Toronto. She and Peter are en route to Houston to attend an estate auction of a late client of Peter’s, a man who ended his life not long ago with a pistol shot. For the sake of the passage, admittedly only two weeks, she has surrendered those routines that make her feel busy and purposeful."

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1984-Starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, and Amrish Puri.

 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1984-Starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, and Amrish Puri.

Academy Award for Best Visual Effects 

Available on Amazon Prime Video 

In this second installment of the "Indiana Jones" franchise, Harrison Ford reprises his iconic role of Indiana Jones. After a nightclub deal goes south, Indy and his unlikely companions — singer Willie Scott and street-smart kid Short Round — make a dramatic aerial escape out of Shanghai. Their bad luck doesn’t stop there — they must abandon ship right before their plane crashes spectacularly near a remote village, where the community has been struck by a theft of its sacred stone. Unable to say "no" in the face of adventure, Indy journeys to recover it and comes up against a force more evil than he could have ever imagined.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark - Directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1981 - Starring Harrison Ford and Karen Allen

 

               

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark - Directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1981 - Starring Harrison Ford and Karen Allen

                                  

Who is right Sheldon or Amy? - Season 7, Episode 4 - Big Bang Theory 

The Movie and Big Bang Theory are both Available on Amazon Prime Video on The Max Channel 

"" I found the movie very entertaining except for "the large plot-hole". (Amy) )

Sheldon tells her that it was made by two of the most gifted film makers of our time, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and has watched it 36 times except for the snakes and the face melting that he won't watch after dark. Sheldon defies her to find a plot-hole to make his jaw drop. Amy explains that if Indiana Jones were not in the movie, the Nazis would still find the Ark of the Covenant, would still have taken it to the island, then opened it up, and all would have died. Sheldon does open his mouth with his jaw hanging and Amy closes his mouth for him."

I found Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark very entertaining and a lot of fun to watch.

Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, a globetrotting archaeologist vying with Nazi German forces to recover the long-lost Ark of the Covenant which is said to make an army invincible. Teaming up with his tough former romantic interest Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Jones races to stop rival archaeologist René Belloq (Paul Freeman) from guiding the Nazis to the Ark and its power..  

Raiders of the Lost Ark is considered one of the greatest films ever made and has had a lasting influence on popular culture, spawning a host of imitators across several media and inspiring other filmmakers. The United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1999. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the first entry in what became the Indiana Jones franchise, which includes four more films—Temple of Doom (1984), Last Crusade (1989), Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and Dial of Destiny (2023)—a television series, video games, comic books, novels, theme park attractions, and toys.

Saving Private Ryan - Directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1998 - Starring Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg and Jeremy Davies.

 Saving Private Ryan - Directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1998 - Starring Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg and Jeremy Davies.

Available on Amazon Prime Video on Max Channel 

Academy Award Winner for Best Director 

Saving Private Ryan is set in 1944 during World War II in France. The film follows a group of American soldiers dispatched to locate Pvt. James Ryan so he can return home after his three brothers have been killed in combat.

In a flashback, the film portrays the first wave of Allied troops landing on Omaha Beach in Nazi-occupied Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in a 24-minute scene that has been described as one of the most brutal film depictions of war. The invaders incur heavy losses, with soldiers dying onscreen in a variety of grisly and unpredictable ways. As the battle progresses, cameras follow Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) as he pushes dazedly through the confusion of battle. Miller and a few survivors are eventually able to breach the German fortifications, clearing the way for subsequent waves of Allied attackers.

In a U.S. War Department office, as secretaries type out a tremendous quantity of condolence letters to the families of those killed in combat, officials become aware that one family in particular, the Ryans of Iowa, are poised to experience an extraordinary loss: three of the family’s four sons have died in combat, with the last remaining son, James, currently in an unknown location behind enemy lines in France. The army officials determine that the sole surviving son must be rescued and shipped home.

Back in France, Miller receives orders to find and rescue Ryan and assembles a group of soldiers to accompany him: Mike Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Richard Reiben (Edward Burns), Adrian Caparzo (Vin Diesel), Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper), Irwin Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), and Timothy Upham (Jeremy Davies), the last of whom lacks any combat experience.

The film follows the efforts lead by Captain Miller to find Private Ryan.

"Family Secrets" - A Short Sfory by Carol Shields - 15 Pages - included in The Short Stories of Carol Shields- 2002,

 This year, Buried in Print, a marvelous blog I have followed for over ten years,is doing a read through of the short stories of Carol Shields. I hope to participate fully in this event.

The more I read in the stories of Carol Shields the more grateful I am to Buried in Print for turning me on to her work. There are sixty some stories in the collection, it is my hope to read and post on them all.

"Family Secrets" is the 33rd Short Story by Carol Shields upon which I have posted.  It in just 15 pages it follows the lives of a woman  from childhood to late middle ages.  It is narrated through remembrance of conversations. A central issue is why her mother took a year of sick from work prior to marriage.

"I’ve thought lately about that time of sickness; what kind of sickness is it that makes a young woman leave a job and go home to her parents for a whole year? The last time I saw Barclay I said to him, “I think Mom must have got pregnant that year she had to quit her first job.” It took him a minute to figure out what I was talking about. For a man so intelligent he has a poor memory for the details of our childhood. Once I tested him on the color of the garage doors we had at home in Maywood. “Blue,” he said. “No,” I shot back, “brown.”"

"The Balcony" - A Short Story by Felisberto Hernández - Copyright 1993, 2014 by the Heirs of Felisberto Hernández Translation copyright 1993 by Luis Harss Preface copyright 1974 by Italo Calvino Copyright © 1993, 2014 by the Heirs of Felisberto Hernández Translation copyright 1993 by Luis Harss Preface copyright 1974 by Italo Calvino, Introduction by Francine Prose 2014 - Piano Stories published in 2014 by New Directions Press

"The Balcony" - A Short Story by Felisberto Hernández - Copyright 1993, 2014 by the Heirs of Felisberto Hernández Translation copyright 1993 by Luis Harss Preface copyright 1974 by Italo Calvino Copyright © 1993, 2014 by the Heirs of Felisberto Hernández Translation copyright 1993 by Luis Harss Preface copyright 1974 by Italo Calvino, Introduction by Francine Prose 2014 - Piano Stories published in 2014 by New Directions Press

Available at the New York City Public Library 

Felisberto Hernandez

Born: October 20, 1902, Montevideo, Uruguay

Died: January 13, 1964 (age 61 years), Montevideo, Uruguay

Nationality: Uruguayan

 "Afterward I went out to buy a book suitable for reading in an abandoned house among weeds, on a still night and a full stomach."

I am very glad to be able to start 2025 with a new to me writer I wish to read in full, Felisberto Hernández,  

As detailed in the introduction Hernández made his living giving piano concerts, traveling about with no fixed home.  The leaders character and speaker in "The Balcony" after a concert is approached by an old man who invites him home to have dinner with his daughter, who has a fear of going outside.

"“She has her own way of keeping entertained. I bought an old house, too big for just the two of us, but it’s in good shape. It has a garden with a fountain and in her bedroom there’s a door that opens onto a winter balcony. It’s a corner room, facing the street, and you could almost say she lives in that balcony. Or sometimes she goes for a walk in the garden and on some nights she plays the piano. You can come and have dinner with us whenever you want and I’ll be grateful to you.” I understood at once. So we agreed on a day when I would go for dinner and play the piano."

He becomes very involved with the man and the daughter.

"There was sorrow in the girl’s laughter, but she begged me to go on telling my stories. Her mouth had stretched at the edges, into a painful gash. Her eyes, caught in their web of “crow’s feet,” were full of tears, and she was pressing her clasped hands between her knees. The old man was coughing so hard he had to put down the pitcher before filling his glass. The dwarf laughed, bending over as if to bow. We had all been miraculously united and I felt not the least regret."

Who is the dwarf you ask, read this so magical story to find out.

There are 10 other works in Piano Stories,  we will return to it.