I really recommend this book; it will definitely encourage you to think more about color and form as you choose fabrics for quilts.

From the minutiae of technical detail - i.e. TCP/IP, T1 lines, routers, etc. - which make this a valuable read for anyone merely interested in how the internet works, to the references to culture both pop and classical, this novel carries the reader on a psychological journey through the minds of characters so flawed and thus so human that we cannot help but sympathize with them - whether they be insanely ambitious mothers or Richard Nixon.

Despite the non-chronological story, Heppner manages to masterfully link characters and incorporate details so that the book reads with continuity. At once suspenseful and pensive, The Egg Code viciously slashes through the illusions of fact and truth - both in print and on the internet. And it may be this that truly makes Heppner's debut so brilliant - this is not merely a novel about the internet - this dares to examine the continuity of deception in human nature and the vast ability that people have to deceive themselves. In juxtaposing characters that on the surface seem almost diametrically opposite from each other, Heppner manages to bring our attention to their fundamental similarities, letting us see in them our most basic human flaws.

The Egg Code is a very satirical work, and yet should not be taken as a mere mockery of Midwestern America today. It is a much richer and deeper look into society as a whole, and into the evolution and corruption of the information dissemination process, from the earliest days of print to our current world of instant internet. Mike Heppner has truly created a modern masterpiece here, and it can only be hoped that his future works will be as stunning.

But after getting past the first chapter, it's obvious there is a lot more depth here. This book is about its characters and the (convoluted) plot is actually not that important.

The action is out-of-sequence and as such it is a very difficult book to read. But the glue that keeps it all together is how much we care about, despise, laugh at, and cheer the Motivational Speaker, Earnest Salesman, Pushy Mother, Our Hero, and the Supporting Cast.

WARNING: This book requires an investment of time and energy. It's worth it. Even when you get confused by what's going on at any given moment, you can simply savor Heppner's snappy, funny, and engaging writing. "The Egg Code" is very long, but there are no wasted words.

Mike Heppner is a really cool person, and this book is witty and funny. Buy it. Read it. Reccomend it to other people.

One element was to exaggerate the atrocities committed, meaning that yeah, some of it happened, but not in the large scale depicted by the white leaders to drive home the point that we had to kill these unholy, ungodly, . Colonist Mary Rowlandson's accounts on her captivity and the massacre she survived was the archetypal demonizing of the "enemy."

Victory culture nestled itself cozily in new visual media--the movies and television. Basically, the enemy performed some horrible atrocity on innocent whites, and it was up to the heroes to punish the enemy. The enemy would be defeated, more often than not killed, and everybody would live happily ever after. Straight and simple. It was in straight black-and-white (the issues as well as the early programs before colour TV and film came into being).

Engelhardt argues that between 1945 and 1975, the ends of WW2 and Vietnam respectively, that victory culture ended
Pearl Harbor gave plenty of opportunity to dehumanize the Japanese as an enemy, along with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

The Cold War was where it all went into overdrive. The Communists were now the enemy, and that paranoid ideological struggle into the unknown carried through not only into Korea and Vietnam, but into movies, TV shows (Twilight Zone), comic books (Tales From The Crypt, MAD), and even toys (GI Joe).

A new dynamic also came, of the enemy hiding behind some citadel or bunker, such as the Forbidden City or Kremlin, with only large posters of the leader representing the human face of the enemy. Thus the enemy couldn't be destroyed.

Vietnam demonstrated once and for all that we were fallible, and for a while, we were in a funk. And with My Lai, WE became the massacring enemy, the Vietnamese the colonists. The concept of victory culture was turned on its head with that event. And think about it: we lost Vietnam for the same reasons the British lost the American War for Independence. History has come full circle to America.

This book came out in 1995, and early on in the book, Engelhardt makes a well-worn but important point: "with the end of the Cold War and the loss of the enemy, American culture has entered a period of crisis that raises profound questions about national purpose and identity." Ponder that passage, and what's going on today in the world.

The main thing to ask today is, do we really need to have an enemy and a war to unite the people together? Peace and harmony can do the same thing. We do not need victory-for-one-side culture anymore. What we need is victory-for-all culture.

In its outline, the thesis is straightforward: a long-established racially-exclusive national myth of bloody but righteous American retaliation to treacherous foes unraveled in the three decades after World War II. The new limited war strategies of the nuclear age forced awkward "containments" of this myth. The battlefields of Asia and, in particular, of Vietnam, led to "reversals," in which increasing numbers of Americans came to conclude that the familiar patterns that had helped to define national identity had been turned upside down. It is in the details of his argument that the author is at his best, making unexpected but genuine links between Mr. X (George Kennan) and Malcolm X; between the Mary Rowlandson captivity narrative of 1675 and the My Lai massacre of 1968; between the Strategic Air Command and Rod Serling; between V-for-victory signs and peace signs; between Chewbacca and Edward Teller; between Charles Manson and 1950s comic book culture.

Engelhardt brilliantly explores the complex connections between the games of American children and the broader national culture. That Engelhardt himself, born in 1944, was embedded in the post-war childhood culture is simultaneously a source of the book's greatest strengths and its greatest weaknesses. On the positive side, he draws upon autobiographical reminiscence in an understated and thoughtful manner. At times, however, he risks confusing the disillusioning of a generation (his own) with the end of what he calls "victory culture." The myth of American innocence is indeed a powerful one, but Engelhardt perhaps exaggerates its coherence and pull in the pre-December 7, 1941 world. The boundary lines of any national story are always fluid, and it was not only the Civil War that tested these boundaries in earlier eras. I also wonder whether it may be too soon to conduct post-mortems on victory culture. Engelhardt sees efforts to reinvigorate the tales of American exceptionalism in the post-Vietnam decades as tortured and ineffective. His comments about yellow ribbons, POWs, and new myths of victimization are intriguing, but my sense is that the metaphorical circling of the wagons will continue. Americans are not yet ready to see themselves as part of a vast human comedy.

Overall, regardless of these matters this book is very fine. I would certainly use it were I to teach a reading class on the play.

"The Eumenides" begins a few days after the end of the previous play, with Orestes seeking refuge at the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. In a most unusual move for a Greek tragedy, the action then jumps ahead several years when Orestes, after years of wandering as a tormented outcast, arrives at Athens and throws himself on the mercy of the godess Athena. The Furies arrive, hot upon his heels, and demand he be punished for his act of matricide. However, Orestes insists that since he acted according to the dictates of Apollo, he is guiltless of the crime. This is a shocking declaration, especially for someone from the accursed house of Atreus. Athena convenes a special court to hear the case against Orestes, but they are unable to reach a verdict, leaving it to the goddess to decide his fate.

Ultimately, the Orestia is a celebration of the Athenian civilization that had created a democratic government and a system of trial by jury. That such a system could be perverted might be true, as the case of Socrates strongly suggests, but Aeschylus is comparing the system to the past to draw a strong distinction between vengeance and justice. The Orestia has great importance because of this theme, and not simply because it is the only surviving example of a Greek tragic trilogy. The climax of "The Eumenides" is rather strange for a Greek tragedy, since it ends on an exalted note of reconciliation and optimism. This is symbolized most by the transformation of the Furies into the Eumenides ("kindly ones"). But ultimately it is the Athenian legal system, where a new type of justice is tempered by mercy, that is being glorified in this triology. The tragic story of Orestes is simply the tale Aeschylus chooses to teach his lesson.

Each of the 87 areas includes a quick summary of important info such as distance & elevation, detailed instructions to reach the areas and find the trailheads (and whether 4WD is required), a basic map of the wilderness area (including access roads and designated trails), discussion of geology, plants, wildlife, and sometimes historical notes. Many areas include B&W pictures.

Some areas have descriptions of activities beyond hiking, such as river running, rock climbing, and cross-country skiing.

This book is one of Scott Warren's exemplary outdoor-related books. This mammoth effort includes area and trail descriptions for 87 of Arizona's Wild Areas. Descriptions of each area include statistics, hiking seasons recommended, plants and wildlife, geology, and a hiking narrative which includes good trail information as well as detailed information on how to access trailheads. An excellent basic map detailing every trail accompanies each area. This book is the first one I reach for when I am looking for Arizona hiking information. I am sure it will be yours too