Picks for March-April 08 Film I have loved the series on John Adams on HBO. The acting is so superb and the attention to historical detail—in the script, costumes and set—is really unparalleled. Now that George Washington is dead, I do miss David Morse's laconic portrayal of the first president, but there is still much to satisfy. I have been so struck by the mettle of the men who founded this country and wrote the Constitution. What unbelievable persistence and integrity. I wonder if any of us would have the attention span required to forge a whole new world. I wish we did. Theater "The Seafarer" by Conor McPherson, which just closed on Broadway (link) starred the currently ubiquitous and completely wonderful David Morse among others in a fantastic cast. This Faustian tale about myth, Ireland, alcohol, friendship, brothers and how the past will suddenly reappear to shake you to your roots, was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I am a big fan of McPherson, and of literate, dark and humorous plays like this one. Book I read several books in the last few weeks, but my favorite by far was "Saturday" by Ian McEwan. May I join the chorus in proclaiming McEwan one of the top five— maybe top three—novelists alive today? I loved "Atonement", but "Saturday" really seals the deal for me. It takes place entirely on one Saturday in the life of a London neurosurgeon. As an added bonus for me, McEwan sourced Frank Vertosick's "When The Air Hits Your Brain" for his neurosurgical details, a book which was one of my picks earlier in the year. "Saturday" has everything—a real understanding of music, and lots of specific references to artists and records, neurosurgery (which has occupied my brain a lot lately—no pun intended), monogamous love and the mystical pressure cooker we find ourselves in when our lives change on a single day. I can say, unequivocally, that you will find reading this to be an ennobling experience. Music I find myself listening to Steve Earle's 'Washington Square Serenade' and Rodney Crowell's new record lately. (I am not sure what Rodney's record is called—producer Joe Henry gave me an advance copy). Both writers are deeply inspiring to me, as I've said many times before. Both cover a lot of emotional territory here. Interestingly, Rodney is a bit darker than usual, and Steve is a bit lighter, probably due in part to the presence of the angelic Allison Moorer. It is really thrilling to follow the convoluted journeys of such great songwriters. Speaking of songwriting, please check out Measure for Measure in the New York Times online. I'm delighted to be part of a group of songwriters documenting the process. Picks Archive

Dear Friends,

I am so sick of reading about school shootings that I am ready to move to another country. Maybe I will go to Japan (Japan: rate of intentional gun deaths per 100,000 people: 0.7. Oops! I forgot a zero-- it's actually 0.07). Or I could move to Kuwait (0.37 intentional gun deaths per 100,000), or the land of my ancestors, Scotland (0.49 per 100,000), or even Northern Ireland (4.72 per 100,000). I might be happy in Australia (2.94 per 100,000) or Israel (2.56 per 100,000) or France (5.48 per 100,000. (Who would have thought France had more gun deaths than Northern Ireland?) It's a dilemna. I love my country but I don't feel particularly safe here anymore. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, aka the New Wild, Wild West (only this time with semi-automatic weapons) there are 13.47 intentional gun deaths per 100,000 per year. The country that is closest to us in this abysmal statistic is Finland, with 6.65 intentional gun deaths per 100,000 citizens. When you cross-reference the number of deaths simply with the number of households that contain firearms, it gets a little weird. Grumpy Finland, who still has about half the amount of gun deaths as the United States, shows that fully half its households contain guns which is more than the United States, at 41 percent. Japan, which has a rate of gun violence so low that the shooting of a single person is front page news, has only 0.6 households with guns, to match up with death rate of 0.07. But why do countries like Finland and Norway (32 percent of households with firearms) have all these guns and not use them, while we do? I don't have an answer for this, or even an opinon, but I do have a forecast: If our gun laws don't change, we are going to see more school shootings, mall shootings, street shootings, fatal domestic disputes, teenage suicides and all manner of horror perpetrated by people on the edge with access to firearms. This is not the kind of situation that gets better on its own. This is a public health crisis that demands intervention by people who aren't invested in the perpetuation of a myth, but take the long view on society and civilization. In other words, I'd like to see my children grow up without fear of gunshot when they go to school or a mall, and if I hear one more person cite the Second Amendment in defense of an emotionally disturbed young person with an AK-47, I'm going to puke.

You can bet that whoever gets my vote in November is not going to be in the pocket of the National Rifle Association, and will be someone who will look at the above statistics and say, 'we can do a hell of a lot better than Finland'.

There are lots of ways to get involved. I belong to PAX. (Paxusa.org)
You can check the above statistics at http://www.guncontrol.ca/Content/
international.html.

Love from Mrs. L

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