Show Notes - Week of September 13, 2021

Greetings from 53.5° north latitude on the last week of Summer 2021. It was a decent week, with two books read, one new beer, one great playlist, and a handful of new words. It was also a week of reunions with friends, even if the visits were outside and masked. 

Reading Pile:
As noted above, I finished two books this week, one non-fiction and one fiction. 

Book #33 for 2021 was "Between Man and Beast", by Monte Reel. The subtitle for this book is "An unlikely explorer, the evolution debates, and the African adventure that took the Victorian world by storm". This is a non-fiction book recounting of how Paul Du Chaillu an African / French / American explorer was the first non-native African to see, kill, and preserve the remains of a gorilla. The book explores Du Chaillu, his quest for acceptance, and the controversy he created in 1860s London during the debates over Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", which was published just as Du Chaillu was "discovering" the gorilla. This was a really engaging read and helped bring focus on some of the debates and issues of Victorian England. If you enjoy non-fiction that reads like fiction, I suggest picking up "Between Man and Beast".

Book #34 for 2021 was "Rogue Protocol" by Martha Wells. This is the third book in the Murderbot Diaries series. I have commented previously how much I enjoy the Murderbot stories, and this was no exception. Murderbot, as an individual, is filled with irony, melancholy, and even humanity, and the first-person narrative form does a great job of showing how Murderbot thinks and feels about everything that transpires around ... him? her? it? I am not sure what gender Murderbot is or if if matters, but I think of a male version of the android on the movie poster for "Ex Machina". Anyway, that is irrelevant to the book, but might be useful insight. Murderbot continues to be entertaining, and I hope to get through the fourth book in the series soon. 

Cycling Update:
​Not much progress was made on the cross-Canada virtual tour, but I was able to complete the Winnipeg to Falcon Lake segment. As per Wikipedia, Falcon Lake is "an unincorporated urban centre at the western end of Falcon Lake situated in the southeasternmost section of the Whiteshell Provincial Park in the Canadian province of Manitoba". The fun fact that caught my eye is that the local golf course was designed by prominent golf architect, Norman H. Wood. Wood designed many other courses, including the Glendale in Edmonton. 

Here is the updated progress chart:

New Music:
I have not had a music update for a long time. This week though I do have a great playlist to share. Tidal has a feature called "My Daily Discovery" which Tidal describes as "Songs by new and familiar artists inspired by your listening. Updates every morning." The problem with My Daily Discovery is that if I listen to a mid-70s album by one artist, every daily playlist for the next several days will be from the mid-70s. 

However, last Monday the daily playlist was a great collection of old and new. "Ooh La La" by Faces from 1972. A new release by Billy Idol. A late-90s favorite by David Gray. Of the ten songs in the playlist, I added eight to My Collection. Take a listen and tell me what you think. 

New Beers:
Just one new beer this week. This is another from Almanac out of San Francisco. Beer #810 was their LOVE Hazy IPA, and it was really good but not as good as their LOUD! Hazy IPA. It was well put together with a nice maltiness and a lot of citrus from the hops without too much bitterness. (3.75 / 5)

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New Words:
All of the new words this week came from "Between Man and Beast". One can easily imagine the Victorian bigots rating the worthiness of a person based on how "white" their blood was. 

admixture
[adˈmiksCHər]
NOUN

1. a mixture.
2. the action of adding an ingredient to something else.
3. something mixed with something else, typically as a minor ingredient.

involute
[ˈinvəˌlo͞ot]
ADJECTIVE

1. (formal) involved or intricate.
2. (technical) curled spirally.

quadroon
[kwäˈdro͞on]
NOUN

1. (dated) (offensive) a person who is one-quarter black by descent.

cicerone
[ˌsisəˈrōnē]
NOUN

1. a guide who gives information about antiquities and places of interest to sightseers.