Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Odds and Ends

A Great Book on Presidents

The books called Don’t Know Much About the American Presidents by Kenneth Davis. This is of course part of the Don’t Know Much series of books. I find this one to be very enjoyable.

There are short biographical sketches about each of the presidents. A section called milestones which are the important events in the president’s life. Fast facts which cover religion, military service, political party, wife and kids. They the biography itself. At the end of each sketch, there’s a grade given in what’s called Final judgement. After that is administration milestones.

There’s not a huge amount of depth in any of the sketches but there is a whole host of useful information about each president. One thing I find interesting is the firsts that take place in the White House. First inside plumbing, first time central heat was installed. It gives a good idea of how the country was progressing.

I’m in the early 1900s. I should probably finish the book in the next couple of days. I highly recommend this if you want a great snapshot of each president and what he did or in some cases did not accomplish.


C. Everett Koop

In the upcoming 2political podcast Arthur and I discuss the legacy of Dr. Koop. What he did about AIDS and smoking was certainly unexpected. When few important people in government were talking about AIDS he was.

From the Post:
Dr. Koop, however, believed information was the most useful weapon against HIV at a time when there was little treatment for the infection and widespread fear that it might soon threaten the general population. In May 1988, he mailed a seven-page brochure, “Understanding AIDS,” to all 107 million households in the country.

“He was a guy who surprised everybody,” said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was Dr. Koop’s chief tutor in AIDS matters and became a close friend. “People expected one thing, and they not only got another thing, they got someone who was amazingly effective.”


Open Houses

One of the things I like to do is go to open houses on Sunday. It is a great way to get some exercise especially if it is a nice day out.

I went on Sunday to one such open house. It has 7 bedrooms, five full baths and a half bath too. It is a huge house. It is three stories. 4,785 Sq. Ft. in all. Finished basement. In fact it would be huge house if it was only two stories.The price $775,000.

There is a deck on the back of the house. It is on all three levels of the house. It is in the back of the house.

I went up to the second floor and looked at the bedrooms. The master suite is truly impressive with a huge walk in closet. A fantastic master bath with a huge shower and an immense tub. It is a rather a unique looking tub and I wish I had taken a picture of it. There is a small version of the master suite on the third floor with a smaller version of the tub too.

Now here's the interesting thing. There is this great balcony on both floors. There is just one very small problem with it. There isn't any door on either floor in which you can go out on to the balcony. There are a couple of doors on the first floor but none on the other floors. At first I thought I was missing something so I asked the other people viewing the house. They didn't find any doors either. And they thought it was just as peculiar as I did.

You figure for that price they could have put in a couple of doors.


No comments: