Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Heroes is a re-telling of a portion of Greek mythology by Stephen Fry. This is a sequel to his book Mythos, which told the stories of the Olympian gods. Heroes re-tells the stories of mortal humans who tales have come to us through mythology. This includes: Heracles, Perseus, Atalanta, Jason and several others.

The author does an excellent job of telling these tales, bringing out both the humor and pathos in the stories. The footnotes are excellent and there are charts at the beginning of the volume which show the relationships between the gods. The maps are also very helpful, especially in the discussion of Jason and the voyage of the Argo.

I really enjoyed this book! I remember learning some of the Greek myths in school a long time ago, and it was fun to reconnect. And Mr Fry has a very entertaining way of presenting the stories. I definitely recommend this book.

The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Situation Room is the story of the room in the West Wing of the White House where intelligence professionals gather and collate data to support the decision making process of the president. Mr Stephanopoulos traces the history of the Situation Room from 1961 when it was created by President Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco to its use by President Biden.

This could have been a very long book, but Mr Stephanopoulos has written in detail about only one crisis for each of the twelve administrations who have used the Situation Room. Each crisis is covered in detail, and some interesting insights into the various presidents, cabinet officials and political appointees on the National Security Council are developed. But the real heroes of the book are the non-political staff members who man the Situation Room.

Mr Stephanopulos has a great sense of the narrative, so the book is an easy read. I really enjoyed the book and found it very worthwhile to read.

I went to a traditional lutefisk dinner at Christ Lutheran Church in DeForest on Saturday, November 9, 2013. I’ve got some pictures, and this gives me the perfect chance to compare two Flickr photo gallery plugins:

This gallery is from the Responsive Flickr gallery:

Ok? compare to this from the Awesome Flickr Gallery:

Christ Lutheran Church in DeForest

This was the first time I visited Christ Lutheran Church in DeForest

Christ Lutheran Church in DeForest

In the past I've gone to lutefisk dinners at Lakeview Lutheran in Madison, but they canceled their dinner this year.

Lutefisk dinner

We didn't have reservations so we had to wait about 50 minutes before being seated

Lutefisk dinner

Clockwise from the top: mashed potatoes and gravy, rutabaga, meatballs, lutefisk with melted butter, cranberry sauce and coleslaw

Lutefisk dinner

I didn't get a picture of the lefse (which was quite good) but here's dessert: pie. I choose the cherry pie which was very good.

I’m testing a new polling plugin. Here is my test poll: