sdunlap's blog

Do you think that the present state of political discourse in the United States has hit an all-time low? Do you think the population has grown irrevocably divided? We hear words like "unprecedented," and "in all of our history," and other hyperbole nearly every time a political commentator opens their mouth. Along with blaming the mess on social media and technology.   Well, read H.L. Mencken on U.S. politics of the 1920s through the 1930s, and then you will see that now, a hundred years later, our current situation does not look so unprecedented afterall. They didn't have Twitter or Facebook, but they had the same divisiveness and inflammatory remarks. The difference in Mencken's lifetime: they did a better job of proof-reading and had editors and typesetters to catch the more obvious errors. 

Most people today only know Mencken from his quote, frequently turned into an internet meme, about how no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the average American.* Mencken wrote for decades (mostly for the Baltimore Sun), however, employing a wit and invective that many a commentator today must envy. You do not need to recognize all of the names in order to enjoy his writing – Mencken's columns he wrote for the Baltimore Sun reprinted in this book, refer to many failed candidates and other people who everyone at the time recognized but have since fallen into obscurity. You do not have to have a detailed knowledge of the history of the time to enjoy this book (although it may help). 

A few excerpts from Mencken are below. 

On Presidential candidates: 

“All of the great patriots now engaged in edging and squirming their way toward the Presidency of the Republic run true to form. This is to say, they are all extremely wary, and all more or less palpable frauds.” 

On political discourse: 

“It seems to me that this fear of ideas is a peculiarly democratic phenomenon, and that it is nowhere so horribly apparent as in the United States…”

“It has been, by God's will, a very bitter campaign, which is to say, an unusually honest one.”

On the urban-rural divide in America:

“What the average native yokel believes about the average city man is probably nine-tenths untrue, and what the average city man believes about the average yokel is almost as inaccurate.” 

*Note: The actual quote is "No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”

Improve your chess calculations : the Ramesh Chess course 794.1 Im78

In practice you can "run through" problems on a chess board to see how a given move will work out. During games, however, it is against the rules to do this. The process of figuring out the results of a given move or series of moves chess players call "calculation." This book provides advice and exercises for players to improve their ability to visualize the board in a variety of different situations.

A. E. J. Mackett-Beeson Chessmen 794.1 M157

A wonderful, beautiful, well-illustrated book on the chess pieces showing remarkable chess sets throughout history. A very welcome donation to our collection.

Danny Gormally Pandemic shark : a journey through the world of chess improvement 794.12 G671p

A grandmaster addresses the common mistakes that amateur chess players (and also grandmasters) often make. Organized thematically by kind of mistake. Intended for beginners and intermediate players.

Efstratios Grivas The passed pawn : power of the passer, an innovative course 794.12 G872

Arranged thematically by the kind of passed pawn position. With a tribute to Aaron Nimzowitsch in the introduction reminding us of his warning: The passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient.

Boroljub Zlatanovic The essence of chess strategy 794.12 Z825e

A 2 volume work. Volume 1 : Strategic elements ; volume 2 : Pawn structures. Recommended for club players, advanced players and masters.

Gabor Kalla. Basic chess openings 794.122 K14b

An excellent "first book" about chess openings for beginners who have only just started to study on how to improve their game. Keep in mind that this and many of the best "beginners books" are old enough to have some lines that no longer work effectively in club play. Very good for beginners to learn the core concepts of a given opening, but for more up-to-date and detailed lessons, look for a book specifically about a given opening.

Sergey Voronkov Masterpieces and dramas of the Soviet Championships 794.157 V954

A massive three-volume work covering Russian chess games from 1920 to 1953. An important addition to our collection for those members who want to study the great games of the early 20th century and for chess historians who want to see the development of opening thought and the roots of current ideas. Includes a selection of games annotated by the players themselves, checked with modern computer evaluation to provide up-to-date analysis. "It's hard to find the right balance between analytical facts and historical truth." (From the Forward by Garry Kasparov).

Walter Tevis The queen's gambit / Ebook

The library recently purchased a license to the eBook version of Walter Tevis' popular novel about a young woman chess champion in the mid-20th century America. (Basis for the Netflix mini-series of the same name).

Dima Novak Pushing pawns Fic Novak

A new young adult fiction book from an "indie" publisher. Urban high school kid Moses Middleton hoped that chess competition could be a ticket out of mediocrity, but everything goes pear-shaped after a disastrous tournament. That's when he meets Viktor, a mad Russian grandmaster who agrees to coach the team by revealing the secrets of Soviet chess.

In the bookstacks of the Mechanics Institute Library, hidden in an almost literal sense, we have many books that, once you find them, can hold you in fascination, to the point of losing track of time. Among these hidden gems we have an annual publication, World Press Photo, that compiles the most compelling and relevant photographs from photojournalists for the year. Even just looking at the covers you get a sense of the events that, although you may remember them, happened more recently or later in the past than you thought. Picking up the 2017 issue, I find myself shocked all over again by the cover photograph of the immediate aftermath of the assassination of a Russian Ambassador by an off-duty Turkish police officer. Or the 2014 issue cover showing an eerie picture of a crowd of people outside at night holding up their mobile phones -- African migrants in Djibouti trying to catch an inexpensive signal from neighboring Somalia to contact their relatives. Opening these books and looking through the photos can lead you through a tour of your own memory. Oh, I remember that now. Has it been that long since that happened? It feels like last year.  

The World Press Photo Foundation is a global platform connecting professionals and audiences through trustworthy visual journalism and storytelling, founded in 1955 when a group of Dutch photographers organized a contest ('World Press Photo') to expose their work to an international audience. In the six decades since then, the annual contest has grown into the world's most prestigious photography competition, with the objectives to support professional photojournalism, stimulate developments in photojournalism, encourage the transfer of knowledge, help develop high professional standards in visual journalism and promote a free and unrestricted exchange of information.

(Adapted from promotional material by the World Press Photo Foundation)

The Mechanics Institute Library acquires new books each week. Some you will see on the new books tables, but members often check out some of the most popular books right away. If you do not know how to place a hold on a book, please call us at 415-393-0102 (or send a message to [email protected]). 

Non-fiction

Tokyo Stroll by Gilles Poitras. 

Full disclosure: I have known Gilles for about 30 years, at times working in the office next to his. So now you know I am very biased. He writes books on Japanese anime, makes frequent trips to Japan and in answer to almost any question he displays an encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese culture and all things Japanese (even if your question has nothing to do with Japan). Tokyo Stroll, as you can guess, does not bother much with the usual "tourist traps," instead shows you how to find the interesting out-of-the-way places of all kinds: temples, bars, book stores, toy stores, public parks and more. Intended for people who like to walk. 

Existential physics : a scientist's guide to life's biggest questions by Sabine Hossenfelder.

A physicist who has gathered a large following on YouTube explains scientific concepts for the non-scientist. This is her first book and by all accounts she employs the same wit and humor to her writing as she does her videos.

Pests : how humans create animal villains by Bethany Brookshire.

The author challenges the idea that sees some animals as only problems to be solved. From a given animal's perspective, we may look like the pests.

Neurocomic by Dr. Matteo Farinella and Dr. Hana Roš.

Nonfiction graphic novel explaining the physiology of the brain and describing theoretical and experimental developments that led to our present understanding. Graphic novels have reached a point in their evolution that makes them no longer "just for kids" comic books.

Terry Pratchett : a life with footnotes : [the official biography] by Rob Wilkins.

Pratchett may be known mostly for the book Good Omens (made into a popular mini-series) that he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. He also wrote scores of "Discworld" books that have proven immensely popular (and some made into mini-series). This biography has the same wit and humor as Pratchett himself did.

Fiction

The Magic Kingdom and Foregone, the last two novels of Russell Banks.

Banks' novels have proven very popular with Mechanics Institute members, judging from our circulation records. Readers among may have missed these two novels after we had to shut our doors during the pandemic.

The book of lost names by Kristin Harmel.

Librarians are suckers for books about librarians. In this one, taking place in the past and present, a librarian searches for people who do not know who they really are.

Please report your bug here by Josh Riedel.

An app developer in the San Francisco Bay area blunders into an alternate universe.

The passenger and Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy.

These companion novels by McCarthy came out in 2022, 16 years after his last one. Hollywood turned two of his previous novels  into movies: No Country for Old Men and The Road.

The question came up during Paul Whitehead's lecture preceding Felix German Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon on December 13: could Elon Musk buy the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and then do whatever he wants with it? The short answer is no. Verifying this answer leads us to some interesting (to chess players anyway) trivia.

The International Chess Federation, known the world over as FIDE (pronounced "Fee - Day") the initials of its official name in French (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) is a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) and as such would be extremely difficult, even for a billionaire, to take over. 

Want more information? Mechanics’ Institute Librarians are here to help! I found a downloadable copy of The FIDE Charter that can help cure your insomnia. This document will tell you that FIDE draws members of its General Assembly from constituent national chess associations, and this body elects FIDE's officers, commission members, etc. As such, no mechanism exists for a single individual to take over this organization. 

Musk would have to take over enough national chess Federations to acquire a two thirds majority in the FIDE General Assembly to change FIDE's bylaws. And even if he tried, he would run afoul of this rule: 

[To meet the Obligations of Member Federations a Member Federation must] "[A]ct independently from any government, public or private institution." (Article 11, section 'l'). 

The FIDE charter has rules for "suspension and expulsion of member federations" that empowers its current leadership to kick out any national chess federation. So if Musk managed to get his hands on a member federation and attempted to stage a coup, he would be failing to "act independently from ... a private institution" (that institution being any given one of Musk's business entities). 

And if Musk tries to dispute the expulsion, well, best of luck with that: 

FIDE decisions can only be challenged by an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, using binding arbitration according to Swiss federal law.

And so I conclude, no, Elon Musk can't "Buy FIDE and do whatever he wants with it."

The "big name" in action adventure writing in the mid-20th century, Alistair MacLean, enjoyed considerable success writing best-sellers that Hollywood often turned into movies, such as The Guns of Navarone and Ice Station Zebra. His very first book, however, has an immediacy and authenticity that his later works do not quite match. He wrote  H.M.S. Ulysses in three months while teaching school, based on his own experiences serving on a Royal Navy Cruiser in the disastrous Convoy PQ 17 during the Second World War. Although a work of fiction, his writing gives the impression of a true story told by an active participant. He works into the narrative the harsh conditions of arctic sailing in wartime – small details about which an armchair sailor would not even dream. MacLean created a unique and unusual blend of reality and fiction that you do not often find. 

H.M.S. Ulysses / by Alistair MacLean   Fiction - 2nd Floor  Fic MacLean  

List of all works by Alisair MacLean in the MI Library collection (including movies).

Former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon teamed up with former Baltimore Police Department Homicide Detective Ed Burns to create a police procedural series that looks at both police and criminals and everyone caught in between. Simon and Burns also chose to employ former criminals and police detectives who grew up in Baltimore as actors in this series. Of special note: the 4th season breaks with the preceding three to focus on four boys growing up in poverty and each coping with his life’s circumstances somehow differently. This shift in focus from the police versus criminals perspective also takes a hard look at Baltimore politics featuring a Mayoral election and a subplot involving government corruption.

You do not need to have seen the preceding 3 seasons in order to follow what happens in The Fourth Season of The Wire.

(All five seasons of The Wire available in the MI Library on DVD). 

Homicide : a year on the killing streets, Simon's book based on the year he spent with the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit, remains the best true crime book I have ever read. This book served as the basis for the television show Homicide's first few seasons. After these incredible seasons based on the book, subsequent seasons of the series deteriorated rapidly.

Purely by coincidence, I read Mel Brooks' autobiography, All about Me, right after I read Gerald Durrell's semi-autobiographical My Family and other animals. In many respects the two men could not be more different, although I cannot escape noticing some striking similarities. Born within a year of each other but on opposite sides of the world, they grew up without their fathers. Both of them the youngest of four children, each had an eldest brother who took on the role of father. Both had highly intelligent mothers with charismatic personalities. And, obviously, both produced works of great humor and intelligence. Both men had uneven formal educations, relying on mentors to help them learn and develop. Their childhood and early adult years turned them into autodidacts.

They both took big risks, fighting for something they believed in. While Brooks' risk-taking behavior paid off, launching him into a wildly successful Hollywood career, Durell's risks had, at times, the opposite effect.

Gerald Durrell grew up on the Greek island of Corfu in the 1930s, a small, rustic, and remote place. He loved studying plants and animals, spent his days exploring the fields and forests of his homeland, learned from first-hand observation, and from the mentoring of a kind-hearted Greek scientist and tutor. He became a self-taught naturalist and kept a mini-zoo starting from his time in Corfu and continuing through most of his life.

Brooks grew up in a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn, returned after WWII with ambitions of working in show business, and made connections that led him to write for Sid Ceasar on the 50s comedy T.V. show Your show of shows. He then made the transition to working on movies. When first released,his movie The Producers proved only moderately successful, but then Blazing Saddles launched his career as a writer/director and started him on the path to making genre satires for which he is best known, but the success of Blazing Saddles looks certain only in hindsight. He made a decision to break boundaries and not to worry about the consequences, telling his team of writers "We're all going to jail for making this film, so write anything you want." Taking on racism, racist tropes, and stereotypes in the 1970s did not look like a safe way to make a living in show business, but it paid off. Many people came to see Mel Brooks as a visionary.

Durrell loved animals above all else, which led to conflict with many of the zoo keepers he encountered. Looking at Durrell's vision of what zoos should be, I find it striking that zoos in the 21st century have nearly universally adopted his principles. In the mid-20th century the philosophy of most zoos emphasized making money by entertaining people -- the needs of the animals only secondary. Durrell believed that zoos should focus on conservation, saving species from extinction, and returning animals to the wild as much as possible. Secondary to this was education, while entertainment and profit did not enter into his philosophy. As a result of his conflict with "mainstream" zookeepers, the British Zoo community blackballed Durrell, making it impossible for him to find employment at any zoo in the U.K. However, with the success of his first book, My family and other animals, he was able to fund his own expeditions and set up his own zoo. Starting in the late 1950s, he finally gained attention for his efforts and by the 60s, he had become a popular television personality in the UK, appearing in numerous nature and conservation documentaries through the 70s and 80s. Belatedly, many people came to see Gerald Durrell as a visionary as well.

Gerald Durrell's three books about his childhood in Corfu contain a compilation of many hilarious stories -- all greatly exaggerated and embellished I'm sure. His books proved so popular, humorous and entertaining that they have inspired 2 television series and a T.V. movie.

I have to wonder what might have happened had these two men, with very similar lives, childhoods and senses of humor, had met. What would a movie directed by Brooks about Durrell’s life in Corfu have looked like?

Books and movies by Mel Brooks in the MI Library collection.

All of the Books by Gerald Durrell in the MI Library collection.

A collective biography of the Durrell family by Michael Haag: The Durrells of Corfu

Showcasing a guilty pleasure from the turn of the century. Show creator Joss Whedon wondered why horror movies always had to make teenage girls into victims. He created a new mythology for the vampire genre involving a supernaturally strong and capable teenager who, with training and support from her “watcher,” can do battle with vampires and other demons. Buffy the Vampire Slayer,  part “demon of the week,” and part high school soap opera, throws in some screwball comedy along with the overall campiness. A word to the wise: the first three seasons are a blast but the fourth season has both the best and worst episodes of the series – don’t be put off by the bad so much that you miss out on the good. Perhaps Whedon & Company should have stopped after the fifth season (maybe the best one), but they  continued with two more.

The Mechanics’ Institute Library has the first four seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD.

The series also continued after season seven as graphic novels.

Jimmy Adams, Editor. Gyula Breyer : the Chess Revolutionary 794.1092 B848a

About a lesser known pioneer of the hypermodern school of chess. Brings translations of Hungarian archival material into English translation for the first time. Includes 242 games annotated by Breyer and others.

Luc Henris The complete Albin Counter-Gambit : a dangerous weapon against the Queen's Gambit 794.1225 D09 H519

The MI Library only has one book about the Albin Counter-Gambit -- this is it.

Sergey Kasparov Doubled pawns : a practical guide 794.14 K192

Theoretical work on the ways to take advantage of doubled pawns -- as a strength in your position or as a weakness in your opponent's. Organized thematically (e.g.: Isolated Double pawns, In the middle of the board, on the c-file, etc.)

P. A. Romanovskiĭ Selected games Peter Romanovsky 794.15 R75

Includes a biography that covers the Russian Civil War, World War II and Romanovsky's chess championships in the Soviet Union. The Second half of this book comprises Romanovsky's own chess autobiography first published in 1954 in Russian, including 72 of his best games, his annotations updated with computer analysis by IM Grigory Bogdanovich.

Frank Brady Profile of a prodigy; the life and games of Bobby Fischer 794.1 F52bb

A comprehensive biography of Bobby Fischer that contains material about his life and career never before published.

J. H. Gelernter Captain Grey's gambit : a novel eAudiobook

A historical novel in which chess and a chess tournament play a part. A member of Napoleon's inner circle contacts the British naval intelligence service in hopes of defecting to London. His escape plan calls for a rendezvous at an international chess tournament in Frankfurt, a rare opportunity for him to travel outside France.

Laura Sherman Chess is child's play : teaching techniques that work U 794.1 S55 

Teaches parents to teach their young children (ages 2-7) to play chess. Laura Sherman and Bill Kilpatrick have created a simple step-by-step system that any parent can follow. Whether the parents know how to play chess or not, they can learn to teach their children through this book.

Murray Chandler How to beat your dad at chess U 794.124 C45

This book explains the best way to beat a stronger opponent (whether a friend, a clubmate, or even Dad) in the opening stages of the game and shows the fifty most effective opening traps that chess masters use to win games.

(U=Universal, or children's section)