COLD SUNDAY

 It's a cold  🧊Sunday  in Miami with "feels like" temperatures in the 20's, much like the heart of a new DeSantis judge sentencing a single mother with no priors who lost a jury trial on two counts of resisting with after the judge threatened informed her that she faced ten years in prison. 

It is also the first Sunday with no professional football since the dog days of August. What to do? 

You can, in no particular order, 

Brush your cat; put on a hat; go out for a walk; call a friend and have a talk. 

You can make some soup and bake some bread, and like Admiral William McRaven famously says, make your bed. 

Or you can do what we love best, read a book!

Our recommendations:

A great Biography of Richard Nixon that covers new ground and treats the former president in a very fair light is Richard Nixon The Life, by John A Farrell.  Query: Which president formed the EPA, did more for protecting and preserving clean water than any president since Teddy Roosevelt, supported and signed legislation requiring yearly cost of living updates to social security, tried to enact national health insurance, and in the words of an old Vulcan proverb:  went to China? RMN of course. His sensitivities to personal attacks are reexamined in the historical light of just how fairly or unfairly the press actually treated him, and the result is a very balanced biography that will have you re-thinking your thoughts about Nixon. If you are a history fan like we are, you will luxuriate in the deep examinations of fascinating incidents mostly lost to history like his involvement and probable illegal activities to undermine the peace talks with Vietnam in the waning days of the Johnson administration (as he was running for president) with a character like Madame Anna Chennault.  The examination of his unsurpassed political survival instincts when during his run with Eisenhower for the vice presidency he was accused of running a slush fund will have you shaking your head in admiration. Not only did the Democrats want him off the ticket, so did Eisenhower and most of his inner circle. And yet his famous Checkers Speech saved him from political ignominy and not only rescued his career, but out maneuvered both Democrats and Eisenhower and left many ordinary Americans who watched the speech in tears. 

Well worth a read. 

If your interests are British as ours always are, Henry V The Astonishing Triumph of England's Great Warrior King, by Dan Jones is a very good read. 

And if you need a little fiction in your life see if Atonement by Ian McEwan floats your boat. 

There is more to life than Football on Sunday. Now go brush your cat.