2024 Media Diet - Third Quarter

I consumed by far the least amount of media this quarter of 2024 (June-September)In the five years I have been doing some variations of these media diets and not coincidentally, this was also the quarter in which we first moved in five years.

After being in Savannah since 2019, the Army finally moved us to a bigger and better place (well, at least bigger). Starting in July, we got a Pod storage container and a Uhaul and did the process of moving ourselves from Georgia to Texas. El Paso to be exact. 1700 miles.

In the process of moving, our POD flooded two days before we were scheduled to move it; Morgan had a tire blow out on the highway in the first hour of the drive; we got vicious food poisoning in New Orleans (think Bridesmaids), and showed up to our new rental house only to find it hadn’t been cleaned from the previous disgusting renters.

So yes, I did not have a chance to read as much as last quarter, or pretty much any quarter. As for moving — I give it an F. Absolute F. The only upside I can think of is the fact that if a marriage with a toddler can survive a move, that likely means it’s a healthy marriage. Though I never want to test that theory again.

Anyways, on to the list. *s indicate best-ofs.

Books

Ratline; Phillipe Sands (B -) & The Fall of Berlin 1945; Anthony Beevor (B+): Two books about WWII that besides both being non-fiction, could not be more different. Ratline’s title refers to the escape route that Nazi criminals used to get to South America after the war and the book follows one of those criminals, Baron Otto von Wachter, who was the main SS man in Krakow and oversaw the genocide of the Krakow Jewish Ghetto. While interesting and well researched, the problem is that Sands uses a lot of first-hand notes of von Wachter, his wife, and von Wachter’s son (who still very much admires his father) leading to von Wachter coming across as sympathetic, and von Wachter definitely does not deserve sympathy, or anything but a jail cell. Alternatively, The Fall of Berlin focuses not on any single person for more than half-a-page or so, but instead the big machinations of the end of the war. The amount of war-crimes on each page Beevor describes is staggering. I thought I had pretty much read about all the different ways the Russians and Germans tortured and killed each other, but Beevor dug up several horrible ones I had not read about before. Still, the narrative flows, and plus he is not sympathetic to a Nazi!

All the Worst Humans: Phil Elwood (A): Speaking of horrible people doing horrible things, author Phil Elwood admittedly enabled many of them while working as a PR flack. The most personal, amusing and/or terrifying stories have to do with his dealings with Muammar Gaddafi’s son Mutassim Gaddafi in Las Vegas. Also, did work for Bashar al-Assad and has some insights on the infamous “Rose in the Desert” fiasco.

Reporter: Seymour Hersh (A): While Hersh is known as somewhat of a crackpot today, not to mention an Al-Assad apologist, his work on My Lai was truly groundbreaking, and his memoir describes in detail how he managed to get the story, including a chase to find LT William Calley at Ft. Benning. Too bad he’s hurt his reputation so bad because this would make a great movie.

Night Manager: John le Carre (B+): The book is worse than the television series but that is only because the tv series is so good (see below). Short and very readable for Le Carre. Highly recommend as a beach read.

Smiley’s People: John le Carre (B -): If the Night Manager is Le Carre at his tight and readable best, Smiley’s People is the opposite. 500+ pages and I would say only 200 of them or so were not a slog. But those 200 or so — classic Le Carre!

The Secret Life of John le Carre: Adam Sisman (B -): Sisman got exclusive access to le Carre to write his most complete biography, only for le Carre to undermine Sisman right before the biography’s publication by le Carre releasing the memoir The Pigeon Tunnel (which I gave an A+ two years ago and stand by, it is better than book I read this quarter). Anyhow, Sisman got the last laugh by publishing this book after le Carre’s death about how le Carre had numerous affairs and tried to cover them up using spy craft. This could have been an article.

Podcasts

Revolutions: the Haiti Revolution (B+): After seeing a recommendation for this podcast somewhere I gave the Haitian revolution a listen. The upside, it was informative and I learned a bunch about the only successful slave revolt ever. The downside, at 14 hours it is one of the shorter revolutions so this can be a time-suck, and I feel In Our Time does a more succinct job of deeply explaining huge historical events.

*Welcome to your Fantasy (A+): The best media I consumed this quarter. I did not know what to expect from the history of the male stripper group Chippendale’s, and each of the six episodes kept delivering bombshells. Highly recommend.

Waldy and Bendy’s Adventure in Art (A): This was a pandemic podcast by two very bored, very opinionated, British art critics who could not go to museums during the lockdown. While I do not know 90% of the art they talk about, I do love hearing experts talk about what they love, and these two do love art, and especially arguing about art. Imagine Car Talk with a British accent and strong opinions about Vermeer.

Movies & TV

Death Wish (C ): Most contemporary reviews have said this has movie about a vigilante NY architect shooting people with no repercussions has not aged well, and they were right.

Caddyshack (A): I’m ashamed to say I’d never seen this all the way through before. That has now been rectified. The names alone deserve an A. You know who that guy was Danny?

Hit Man (B): Decent date-night flick. Morgan made a great point that Glen Powell is the male equivalent of Sandra Bullock where even though they are incredibly attractive and charismatic, they still are believable as the underdog. Let’s keep the Glenn-isannce going!

*The Night Manager (A): Speaking of Morgan, she loved this six-part series and so did I. It is several years old now but stands up. This is the second best thing I consumed this quarter.

Articles

Escape from the Block; How Car Dealer Scams Actually Work

Who Goes Nazi; No one thinks they will. . .until they do.

Who Gets to Decide What the Word Genocide Means; Similar to when I read the book The Crash Detectives and was surprised to learn how political airline crashes are, I was surprised at how political and contentious it is to define a genocide.

The MedBed Cure; Our conspiracy culture at its worst.

How to Escape From the Russian Army; The Russian-Ukraine War rages on and the price is now frequently paid for by mercenaries from Nepal and Bangladesh who did not know they are mercenaries until it is too late. The article describes the most human and inhuman aspects of war. Highly recommend. Also highly recommend the Perun YouTube Channel to stay up to date on the Ukraine war.

The Real Story About those Two Male “Business Partners” on Supermarket Sweep; Let’s leave on a fun high note!