Blogger Gets All Patriotic & Whatnot for Memorial Day



Photo Credit: Top Reader and
Gifted iPhone Photographer Katherine. 
WBD Norman enjoys a river sunset. 
Other hobbies include collecting ticks and
barking his brains out.



This Bookworm, Andrew and World’s Best Dog Norman enjoyed a lovely three day weekend with friends at the Rappahannock River.  Friends ranged from Top Blog Reader and Head of the Unofficial Word of Mouth Campaign Katherine to Oh You Are Still Doing That Blog How Cute Jed and Kristen.  Nevertheless we had a wonderful weekend swimming in the river, drinking beers and in Norman’s case, collecting ticks.

So what better way to enjoy a patriotic holiday weekend than finishing the 475 page tome In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson?  There is really no better way to relax than reading about the American Ambassador to Germany’s time in Berlin from 1933 – 1937.  Apparently nobody listened to that guy when he said stuff like “hey, Roosevelt (and other State Department guys) this Hitler character seems like bad news.”  I recommend this book to Granddads everywhere, and also to people who like books about presidents, history, etc.  It was a little dry for my taste.  Larsen would end chapters with what seemed like important cliff hangers, but which really didn’t become part of the specific story about Ambassador Dodd – they were just hints that WWII was coming, which I pretty much already knew (see every third entry in this blog for reference.)

I preferred the only other book of Larson’s that I have read, which was the oh-so-popular-especially-because-I-lived-in-Chicago-when-it-came-out The Devil in the White City.  That book had two story lines happening at once, another jolly read about a real serial killer and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.  (Fun fact: it was during this World’s Fair that Pabst won that Blue Ribbon they are still bragging about.)

Despite the accounts I read of the State Department and the rampant anti-Semitism even in the US in the ‘30s, I was still proud to live in the good ol’ US of A this weekend while lounging on a dock with the American flag flapping.  I can always rely on my favorite patriot – Samuel Adams and his delicious Cherry Wheat beer.

Playing River Wiffle Ball at Sunset While Loving America.  Photo credit: Wonderful Katherine.