Code Girls: the Book and the Mom

My brother highly recommended that I read Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, by Liza Mundy. He suggested this as a must-read shortly after it was published in 2017. I'm finally listening to it now, in 2021. It's a good thing that books wait for me.

This historical account is at times enthralling and at times tedious. We're talking about codes, and the details are difficult to absorb on the fly. But the real point of the book for my brother and now for me is that our mother volunteered for service during WWII, and she revealed many years later that she was part of a group that cracked the Japanese weather code. Whaaa? She suddenly announced this sometime in the 1960s, a good twenty years after the fact. We knew she had joined the WAVES during the early part of the war, and gone to basic training in Cedar Falls, Iowa, before taking a post in Norfolk, Virginia.

My memories of my mom are clouded by time and by the disability brought on by her stroke. She loved to bake bread and wild blackberry pies, lived each week by a strict schedule (Monday washing, Tuesday ironing, etc.), enjoyed writing letters, and had a positive outlook on life. Not very exciting, right? Except she was also a college graduate who decided to take the opportunity to get away from home by joining the Navy. Wild!

I wish that I had asked her to tell me all about her wartime experiences. Our dad didn't want to talk about his time in the Army, and maybe this made me assume that Mom didn't want to talk about her history. But, wow, if we could have read this book together, and looked at her old photos... or pondered which club she visited on this public transit route:

Mom's notes, written on envelope from a Tacoma photo shop

Well, the opportunity to talk with her is long past, but this book (and others) is right here. As always, Polo is listening with me. He didn't care much about sniffing these photos, but it always warms my heart to see Mom when she was young and happy.

Polo's review: Many people moved away from homes. Very crowded dormitories. They could have used the love of a few good dogs back there.

"C" is NOT for Cat -- Authors Whose Last Names Begin with C

I let my dog pick out books. Polo can’t actually read them, so I limit his search options to things we can download and listen to together. We're working our way slowly through the alphabet of authors, one letter at a time. Sometimes we listen to mysteries or realistic fiction, sometimes history or psychology or biography. We listen when we're relaxing, while we're cooking, when we're sewing or doing housework. Okay, actually, Polo doesn't cook or sew or do housework, but he's a pro at relaxing and listening to books with me. And then we do this little report to share our thoughts, one author-letter at a time. 

Monsters

I love football, although my one-word summary of this story is "profane" -- both in the sense of the language quoted in interviews and as a description of the game itself. Football is just now (maybe) beginning to get a little cleaner, a little less punishing in terms of players' lifetime health. This book replays the long history of football, from company and town teams to the NFL as we know it today. George Halas, longtime owner of the Chicago Bears, was the first coach to use an "eye in the sky" by having an assistant way up in the stands who could observe formations and send notes down to the field. In the 1980s, animosity between head coach Mike Ditka and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan was legendary, yet together they led the team to win the 1986 Super Bowl. It was fun to hear about many players that I watched back then. They were hard-working athletes, if not the best role models. (Also available as a book.)

Polo's response: I like it when my humans watch football, because it keeps them at home with me. But it's bad when the Seahawks score, because there are very loud fireworks.

The Crow Trap

Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope is a British version of Columbo, all messy and scattered and sly as a fox. It wasn't until we were halfway through this book that I realized that the BBC's Vera television series originated here. This particular novel involves three women taking an environmental inventory of a large plot of land slated for industrial development. Before they even arrive, there is a suicide. Then, as they're busily counting plants and mammals and birds, and maybe having a secret affair with a man from town, there's a murder -- and then another murder. Complex characters, tangled lives, scenic countryside, and a gripping story!  (Also available as an eBook, audiobook CD, or book.)

Polo gives this one two paws up. He dreams of running over hill and dale, looking for birds and otters.

The Orchardist

Wenatchee's apple country provides a beautiful, inspiring setting for this piece of historical fiction and the reader does a masterful job of taking you right into the orchard, the barn, the simple farmhouse. Life there has sharp edges, rocky ground, difficult relationships. From the mother who vanished, to young mothers-to-be who appear from out of nowhere, Talmadge is the lone constant with the fruit and the garden and the house. A hard story and beautiful at the same time, like the time and land in which it's set. (Other formats include eBook, audiobook CD, book, or pre-loaded audiobook.)

Polo's pause: Good men -- both the reader and the main character. This was a story I could really sink my teeth into.

The Invisible Gorilla

So, you think you're pretty smart? Especially observant? With an above-average memory? Then don't read this book. The authors devised a social experiment in the form of a video, instructing viewers to count the number of times a basketball was passed from one person to another. There was just enough distracting action in the scene that counting those passes took effort. But in the middle of the basketball activity, an actor in a gorilla suit walked in, pounded its chest, and walked off. Most people did not notice the gorilla. At all. Even though they were working hard to give full attention to the video, they missed seeing something big and unexpected -- because it was totally unexpected. This is just one example of a typical illusion of our abilities, and the whole book gives very interesting insight on basic human nature. (You may choose to read the book or eBook.)

Polo, being a dog, admits no "blind spots" of inattention or perception. [Note from Katharine: I won't mention the times I've seen rabbits along the trail, and he was busy looking up at squirrels in the tree. Please don't tell him I told you.]

"B" Authors -- Give This Dog a Bone!

My dog, Polo, has been at work picking out audiobooks again. It works best to limit his choices to certain author names so he doesn't chase all over the alphabet. After all, I have a short attention span and might not remember which authors we've already sampled.

The Windfall

Mr. and Mrs. Jha have lived with adequate comfort in their East Delhi home, but everything must change when Mr. Jha sells a website and they come into sudden wealth. Nothing about their current situation is good enough -- so he rushes to buy a big house in the best neighborhood, fill it with amazing new furniture, park a fancy car in the garage, and impress his potential new friends. 

Polo's favorite scene: There is a certain painting activity that is both hilarious and horribly embarrassing. Also, Polo dreams about being the Jha's family dog and living in the (literal) lap of luxury.

Once We Were Brothers

A modern-day court drama requires a detailed exploration of the past in this historical novel with a mystery. Two boys grew up in Poland during World War II; one of them became a Nazi; the other had to hide. In present-day Chicago, one man is an elderly widower. But did that young Polish boy, who was forced to join the German army, become a well-known millionaire? Or is this all just the confused imagining of a lonely old man?

Polo's best feature: The narrator's use of different voices and slight accents makes the story easy to follow as it goes from the 1930s to the present.

The Throwback Special

I remember the play. It was Monday Night Football, 1985, Washington Redskins versus the New York Giants. Joe Theismann suffered an injury seen by millions of fans on live television. If you were a football fan, you remember it, too. That one play changed Joe's life, and the moment lives on in twenty-two men who get together every year to re-enact it (but without the actual injury). No matter how much -- or how little -- changes in their lives, these men have a standing commitment to meet every year. Just them, no girlfriends or wives or children or distractions, going through the motions in exact detail. The real story here isn't the football play, but the men's real lives and inner conversations.  

Polo's highlight: Playing ball on a grassy field with friends. What could be better?

MWF Seeking BFF

A real-life young married white female (MWF) moves to Chicago and misses her old best friends forever (BFFs). Needing someone to be able to call for spur-of-the-moment manicures or movie nights, Rachel Bertsche embarks on a year-long project to find new friends. Her goal is to have one friend-date per week, hoping that at least a few of her new contacts will lead to more friend-dates which will blossom into real friendships. The narrator's energy is contagious, and I felt myself wondering if I should try this experiment!

Polo's take: This is all complicated and ridiculous! If you want to make a friend, all you have to do is watch for friendly body language and ask them to scratch behind your ears. If they also give you a treat, you're true BFFs.

Epic Seattle Adventures, Part One

I had an unexpected opportunity to see a few of THE things to do in Seattle. Here are a few photos from our first stop -- the Space Needle! First time I've been up there since my son became a t**nager lo, those many years ago. (When my kids were adolescents, I vowed I would not say that particular four-letter word.)

Wheel Ferry Crane Port

it was kind of wet that day

"Rain Gets in Your Eyes"

it stopped raining for a while

fall colors

Sea plane! Sea plane! Landing on Lake Union

those hills are pretty marvelous way out there

the Stadia, and that remarkable red building

For authentication purposes, here's a self portrait from the glass-floored observation level. Sorry I didn't think to adjust the lighting, but this is obviously me. You can even see the tread on my left boot.

"F" is for Frolic, Failure, and Fun -- or, Authors Whose Last Names Begin with F

A couple of years ago, my library system added blog posts to our website. Many of the posts were short collections of book reviews, often following a theme. I tried writing a few of these, but never felt like I could keep up with the thought-provoking themes of my librarian colleagues. It was a good challenge, a growth opportunity, and I was honored to have been selected to write for our site. After a few successes, and several wadded-up-and-thrown-in-the-trashcan failures, I realized that what I needed was my old writing partner to get me going again. Enter Polo!

Polo in his reading chair

The next step was figuring out what we could do for themes. I enjoy a range of material from quirky fiction to educational nonfiction, and Polo's game for whatever. How to cover this mix? Let's go alphabetically, by the authors' last names! We like to listen to books (Polo struggles with reading, at least when I'm around), so we only review things we can access via compact discs (audiobook CDs) or electronically (downloadable audiobooks on my phone).

We started listening, reviewing, and posting together on the library website with "A" authors, and the whole process was very satisfying now that we were doing it together. Our posts made it through "E" authors before a website update brought adjustments to the backstage side of the process. Also, my workload seemed to intensify, so we decided it was time to bow-wow out of the website thing. (See what we did there? A little dogga humor!)

And now, feigning fantastic fanfare, Polo and I feature frisky fiction (and whatever) by authors whose last names begin with the letter F.

The Tumbling Turner Sisters

By Juliette Fay

A great story from just past the turn of the century – the last century, that is – complete with cultural references and history made story. An average family is pushed to the brink financially when the father badly injures his hand, and mother and daughters realize it’s up to them to become breadwinners… by creating a Vaudeville act and hitting the road! Ups and downs, twists and turns, as the Tumbling Turner Sisters learn to balance each other, both literally and figuratively. Nothing comes easy for them, but these women have bonds and resilience that carry them forward.

Polo’s considerations: “It would have been helpful if they'd had the companionship of a good dog. I would have helped, but I do not travel.”

The Confusion of Languages

By Siobhan Fallon

How important is cultural awareness when you join your military spouse on assignment to the Middle East? Is attendance at security briefings optional, and can you draw caricatures of the officer presenting this material while he’s speaking? What if you are assigned to acclimate a newly arrived wife, but she resists your help? Told in alternating voices of the experienced, careful Cassie and the upstart, impulsive Margaret, this is an intriguing story of what-ifs and what-now.

Polo’s deliberations: “Again, they could have used a good dog to keep them safe. Margaret needed a herding breed to keep her in check.”

The Mitford Murders – A Mystery

By Jessica Fellowes

You may have heard of Julian Fellowes, creator of the award-winning Downton Abbey television series. His niece, Jessica Fellowes, has collaborated with him to write companion pieces for Downton Abbey, and she has crafted this wonderful period mystery set in the early 1900s. Strong characters, evocative scenery and characters, and a tricky tale of murder make this a winning audiobook.

Polo’s opinion: “The best stories have dogs in them. This is a very good story, complete with a dog and a couple of young human children.”

Are You Ready to RUMMMMBLLLLLLLE?

Welcome to our 20th season with the Chargers! The team I love because they wear my initials... and because the coaching staff is great, and they let me be on the sidelines instead of far away in the stands! My excitement for the first game is like a kid on Christmas Eve. It's here -- let's get started!

Thanks to the wonders of modern computing (I guess), the printed score books I'd used have become obsolete. A few years ago, I designed my own, drawing it on graph paper and getting it printed each season. This year, it seemed like time for a change, so I have been working on an Excel template instead. I still want to fill it out by hand -- if I entered the data directly onto my laptop, I'd be stuck way up in the stands. Where's the fun in that?

So, I printed a few sheets of the new form and looked for a recorded game to use for a test. The first one I found was an AFC Divisional Playoff between the Bills and the Browns. This was in 1989, recorded from television and posted on YouTube. No computerized markers to show line of scrimmage or first down, fewer replays, sideline camera angles -- a pretty good simulation of real life for tonight's high school game. I had forgotten Bernie Kosar's sideways stance under center. The commentators recounted Ron Middleton's highs and lows as his son was born 12 weeks premature and Ron was released and rehired a couple of times that year. I remembered a few names -- Jim Kelly, Pete Metzelaars, Thurman Thomas, Cornelius Bennett, Ozzie Newsome. In a promo for the next day's game, baby-faced Bob Costas and OJ Simpson were pictured. My, how the times change.

Ahhh... good nostalgia. But now I must make a few last adjustments to the score sheets and get them printed again. Sharpen the pencils, dig out the clipboard, it's time for FOOTBALL!

Oh, and if you'd like to share my little trip down memory lane, here's the link to that video. Enjoy!

Days of Well-Spent Youth

I never considered us "weekenders". Sure, we mostly visited our cabin on summer weekends, but we owned that piece of paradise. Owned it. Every tree, every rock, every high and low tide.

My grandparents bought a derelict farm, acres of woods, and several beach lots on lower Puget Sound back in the 1950s. They fixed up the house, tried their hands at raising a steer, and cursed the deer that kept eating Gramma's roses. All my aunts and uncles had a beach lot, and a couple of my dad's cousins came along and built nice cabins there, too. If anything, it was the non-family full-time residents down the road who were "outsiders".

I spent many, many happy hours combing the beach, digging clay and making tiny pots, walking in the woods, hanging out with my cousins, eating hotcakes cooked on an outdoor griddle, and digging clams. Oh, and watching Dad and my brothers fix the tractor. There was always a project to be done, and the machinery was never ready to run immediately. For me, this place and time were idyllic. (For my brothers, perhaps not so much. The benefit of being the much younger sister.)

Many years later, after most of the property had passed out of the family, my Aunt Margret said that she hoped all of us could hold some woods and beach in our hearts where it wouldn't go away. I think this is why I crave quiet, natural places and wild flora. I'm always going back there, to where life was gentle and the silences were companionable.

Following are a few photos from the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. I had a wonderful, quiet, spectacular day there yesterday, and I'll be going back again and again in my mind. Hope you enjoy these little glimpses of our temporary home.

Looking to Sea

Olympic Mountains

THE Mountain

Little Singer

Narrows Bridge from Nisqually

Code Talker -- Book Review or Vicarious Experience?

My father volunteered in the Army during World War II, serving in the South Pacific. My mother was an Aerographer's Mate in the Navy and helped crack an enemy weather code. Those two sentences sum up almost everything I know about their experiences. I'm very grateful for their service, but wish I had a better understanding of what they did and what it was like.

Chester Nez grew up in the Checkerboard area of New Mexico, herding sheep and goats, living a pretty traditional Navajo life in the 1920's and 1930's. No electricity, no running water, sleeping under the stars while roaming with the grazing animals, he appreciated life and honored his elders. Then came boarding school.

Because it was deemed necessary for Navajo kids to learn English, Chester and his siblings ended up having to leave the sheep and goats and the secure familiarity of the hogan for the alien discomforts of live-in elementary and secondary schools. Nothing in his life seemed easy, but Chester held firmly to the values and beliefs taught by his father and grandmother. He learned to remember the small joys and look for beauty wherever it might be found.

During the beginning stages of WWII, it was realized that a super-sophisticated code might be created using the unwritten and little-known language of the Navajo nation. Chester and many other young men volunteered for a "special project" in the Marine Corps, and the Code Talkers were born.

Chester was involved in the battles of Guadalcanal, Guam, Peleiu, Bougainville, and Angaur. The conditions were awful and even horrific. The odds were often significantly against the US troops. Although most (if not all) of the other Marines got occasional R&R away from the front lines, the Code Talkers were an absolutely vital piece of our strategic success and could not be spared for even a few days' respite. Those hard times back on the Checkerboard, sleeping on the ground and going for days without fresh food or any comforts of home, made the Navajos able to be survivors.

I listened to this book as an audio, and the reader (David Colacci) became Chester Nez for me. His pronunciations of Navajo names and words, as well as his careful use of emotional voice, brought the story to life. Although it was difficult to hear accounts of the treatment of Native Americans of that time, I appreciated their resiliency of spirit and commitment to their family values. Survivors.

Code Talker -- the First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Code Talkers of WWII (link to library catalog)

I've Been Lookin' on the Railroad

On a whim, I made a stop for a train that's stopped. This is one of the few remaining rotary snow plow engines made famous (to me, at least) in the book White Cascade, by Gary Krist.

It was cool to see this machine up close. Too bad there wasn't even a skiff of snow on the ground -- maybe I'll have to return in a colder season. The sky made an interesting backdrop. Someday, our skies might be blue, but for now they're just interesting.

Dismal Nitch (sic)

"About 3 oClock the wind lulled and the river became calm, I had the canoes loaded in great haste and Set Out, from this dismal nitich where we have been confined for 6 days…"
--William Clark

The husband and I had a terrific road trip this past weekend. The main purpose was participation in a "dinner in the dark" for Lutheran Blind Mission. However, since it was our 28th wedding anniversary, we added a few extras to this trip and revisited one of the historic sites from our very memorable honeymoon. (That's a great story in itself, but I'm not telling it now. It would scare Rufus to hear of our perils.)

Just before we crossed the Great and Marvelous Bridge to Astoria, we found this wayside rest area with a name too good to pass by. In 1805 as Lewis and Clark made their way westward along the Columbia, they reached this memorable place on a stormy November day.


Please refrain from cleaning fish in the restroom, and another sign requests that you limit your stay here to less than eight hours.

No problem!

I couldn't get over the name. Dismal Nitch. If you've ever found yourself in a dismal niche, I'm sure you did not choose to stay there long. This is a place to wait out the storm and move ahead as soon as possible.

But then, in the restroom, I found this not-so-dismal piece:

Just for you, Diane! Flowers to soothe the soul in a dismal place.

Railroads Revisited

About a year ago, I reviewed Gary Krist's book about an epic snowstorm in Washington's Cascade Mountains in 1910. There was an incredible amount of snowfall that trapped two trains, and then another storm blew in that caused a horrific avalanche. The trains were wiped off the hillside and nearly a hundred people lost their lives.

One important figure in the book was the great railroad magnate James J. Hill, whose quest for a passable route through the high Cascades led to the construction of the longest tunnel in the nation.

My family enjoys watching The History Channel, and last night I stumbled onto an episode of Extreme Trains that mentioned that very tunnel and that awful disaster. This episode was all about the Empire Builder train from Chicago to Seattle, and the climax of the show was this infamous section of the Cascades that claimed so many lives all those years ago. The episode is not available for online viewing, but perhaps will be rebroadcast a few more times. It was a great way to spend an hour while keeping company with napping dogs.