Bred any good rooks lately?

[zotz]

As I'm still awake, I'll just note that the NY Times is quoting early exit polls in Michigan as giving a huge lead to Clinton and a very respectable one to Romney. But - ha ha - that's based on exactly one county having declared.

The reason I'm still up is that I've been reading Marek Kohn's "A reason for everything", a lovely set of biographical sketches of British (he says English, but Haldane wasn't - English-educated, maybe) evolutionary biologists, with an emphasis on the trend towards adaptationism, the Gould-reviled tendency to regard most features as some sort of adaptation rather than having a similar respect for happenstance. thehumanstomach lent me is copy against my strenuous objections and insisted I read it - and, well, he is very tall . . .

It's very good. Wallace comes off well, a thoroughly good and generous bloke if a bit insecure. Fisher's compared to Kenneth Williams and to Wagner, which is a neat trick. Haldane was, of course, imposing in all senses. I'd forgotten Naomi Mitchison was his sister. She had much better political judgement than he did. I'm trying to work out why I haven't read any of her fiction. Maynard Smith seems to have been very down-to-earth, while Hamilton got rather misanthropic in his old age (but no less energetic). Dawkins only gets one chapter rather than two, presumably for being very familiar, but comes over as rather admirable also. As Chris said, the little things are fascinating - most of them were fairly or completely tone deaf. Haldane had Maynard Smith tell him when a piece of music was the national anthem, so he could be sure he was sitting down. And they all went to Eton. Well, no, but there were some staggeringly posh schools involved.

Recommended.

Comments

[zotz]

Sorry about that. It's a very good book, if that helps.

[thehumanstomach.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I did briefly toy with the idea of how long I could pass myself off as a young blonde woman, but I think sulis minverva might have objected.

[badriya.livejournal.com]

Mitchison is one of my favourite authors. Memoirs of a Spacewoman is good and Not By Bread Alone, written ages ago, is very relevant now. There is also one called something like The Corn King and The Spring Queen that is completely different. You can't put her novels into one category.

[zotz]

That last one was singled out in at least one obituary, too. It seems to be particularly well thought of.

I must try to pick some up.

[badriya.livejournal.com]

Sadly many are out of print and expensive to get hold of. The library might have some though.

[zotz]

A literary Scottish author - the secondhand bookshops around here are probably better than average prospects too. And if I get another job with the University I'd be laughing - they're bound to have pretty much everything in their library.