Smeared Type

By Nancy Werking Poling

author of Had Eve Come First and Jonah Been a Woman and

Out of the Pumpkin Shell

Now, I don’t want to embarrass a friend. For one thing, she’ll read this. For another, no one will confide in me if they fear ending up the subject of one of my blog postings.

But I can’t resist announcing to the world what I just learned: she still irons!

I’m all the time recalling how people used to treat each other with civility, how we encouraged our children to play outside, ride their bicycles around the neighborhood. All the time forgetting the unpleasantries of the past.

Like ironing. It was my responsibility to iron the items whose appearance didn’t much matter: my father’s workpants, sheets and pillowcases. And a few that did matter: my own skirts, blouses, and dresses. I ironed on the  screened-in porch of our Orlando house, the radio tuned to the top songs of the day.

Something else my friend admitted: until recently (like within the past year) she sprinkled the clothes and put them in the refrigerator. But she has so many projects that sometimes mildew collected on the clothes before she got around to ironing them. Yes, in the refrigerator. That’s what my mother and I did too. A top fitting a Coke bottle had holes that released just the right amount of water. Dampening the clothes and keeping them refrigerated overnight made it easier to get the wrinkles out, made for sharper creases.

Nowadays, every now and then, I take out my table-top ironing board and steam iron. But not often. I doubt that my daughter even owns an iron. Anything needing ironing either goes to the cleaners or gets passed on to the Goodwill Store.

Meanwhile I use my grandmother’s old iron as a doorstop.

We already know that our new President, Barack Obama, has outstanding ability as an orator. We also know that he is a writer and has the eloquence to use language that can persuade and inspire.  His devotion to reading and language has been a powerful force in his ability to communicate his ideas to millions, not only in the US but around the world.

His two bestselling memoirs – DREAMS FROM MY FATHER and THE AUDACITY OF HOPE –highlight the importance of books both classic and modern, which have influenced his thinking.  It has been well publicized that his recent readings have contributed to his strategic plan for governance of the nation.

“TEAM OF RIVALS” – Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book about Abraham Lincoln and his decision to include former opponents in his cabinet, may have influenced the President’s decision to bring in Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.  He is clearly going out of his way to court Republicans from the other side of the aisle, and to develop a strong personal relationship with his former presidential rival, John McCain.  This appears to be clearly following Lincoln’s program.

He has also indicated that he has been profoundly influenced by books describing FDR’s first 100 days in office, which may help him deal with the enormous challenges, both economic and global, that he will face upon taking office.

Our new President has had a life-long love affair with books, and his personality, intelligence, and intellectual abilities have been shaped by his reading from the Bible, to Shakespeare, to the richness of American history. His use of language and its rhythms has been as important to Mr. Obama as his undoubted ability to inspire while at the same time provide down-to-earth analysis and inspiration.

As we enter a new era of change with a well-read intellectual President, who can exude and inspire confidence, maybe we shall truly see an America that once again surmounts major challenges and reinvents itself as the  Country of freedom and opportunity.

Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com

Cover via Amazon

I’ve always enjoyed espionage spy novels.

I recently read two new offerings by a couple of my favorite authors.  THE SPIES OF WARSAW by Alan Furst, and A MOST WANTED MAN by John Le Carré.

THE SPIES OF WARSAW was particularly interesting for me since my own recently published espionage novel takes place in Poland, albeit in 1983 during the Cold War, but covers a lot of history and some of the period of the 1930s, where Furst’s novel takes place.  It is the fall of 1937, and the world is stumbling towards War.  Colonel Mercier, a former First World War officer in the French Army, is attached to the French Embassy in Warsaw, and is working diligently behind the scenes to avoid the conflict between Poland and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.  The premise of the story is interesting, and historical facts are woven in cleverly, but perhaps because we know the inevitable failure of the efforts, I found the story less than gripping.

Apart from Colonel Mercier, the other characters appear to play bit parts.  There is no back story, and we don’t get to know much about them.  Nevertheless, much to my surprise, the book got rave reviews in the New York Times, and of course hit the bestseller list.

John Le Carré has always been one of my favorite authors.  His intricate and complex stories coupled with his knowledge of espionage, justifiably earns him the reputation as the “spy master” novelist.  His most recent novel, A MOST WANTED MAN, tackles the up-to-date terrorist threat of a Chechnyian Muslim mysteriously and illegally arriving in Hamburg Germany, ostensibly to start a new career.  He seeks help from an idealistic young German lawyer who inevitably clashes with the authorities – police and counter-terrorism units.

As always with Le Carré, the characters are complex but interesting.  However to me, the story was less than exciting, the ending somewhat predictable, and the action slow.  Needless to say, however as with all Le Carré books, rave reviews and the bestseller lists were inevitable.

We can’t always expect our favorite authors to hit “home runs,” but it occurs to me that sequels, as in some of the movies, are often disappointing shadows of former successes.  Well-established popular novelists sometimes have to do very little, to achieve rave reviews and bestseller success.  It would be interesting to hear other views on this subject.