Anonymous. The Tank Engines (n.d, early 1970s)

     Anonymous. The Tank Engines (n.d, early 1970s) A 32-page picture album of NZ Railways tank engines, of which there were many classes used in every kind of traffic. The photos are just fine for a railway fan, especially a NZ one, and fairly well reproduced. I’m trying to get rid of this book, but so far (23 July 2007) no takers. ** (2007)
     Update 2013: if you want this pamhplet, send me an e-mail. Free, including postage, but you must donate a suitable sum to your favourite charity.

Rex Stout. The Rubber Band (1964)

     Rex Stout. The Rubber Band (1964) A theft, a murder, and an ancient (and outdated) debt come together in this confection. Wolfe, Archie, Cramer and the rest behave as expected, the puzzle is neat and fairly clued, and Stout’s wit is fresher than usual. He targets the respectable and mighty with a few satiric darts, and alludes to Wodehouse in his language. Good entertainment. I usually read two or three of these confections at a time, but this was the only one available. **½ (2007)

John Gribbin & Jeremy Cherfas. The First Chimpanzee (2001)

John Gribbin & Jeremy Cherfas. The First Chimpanzee (2001)  I read this book twice. The ratings indicate that I mellowed some. I've combined them, and made some light edits. 2026-08-24

First review (2004):  The authors contend that humans evolved before chimps, i.e., that chimps are more recent derivatives of the common ancestor. They outline their case in the first couple of chapters, and that’s really all they need: I’m convinced.

     At least I’m convinced that it’s a tenable theory. I can’t judge its soundness, but the rest of the book seems to me to be mostly padding, so I haven’t read it. The style is workmanlike, which means it doesn’t engage, and almost all the information is old news, some of it so old that it’s no longer useful. For example, the authors persist in using the blueprint metaphor for the genome, although this metaphor does nothing to help their case and in fact raises questions they haven’t addressed. Maybe they address them later, but the outline of their case gives no hint of this. I’m surprised at the date of the book: by 2001 many of the notions presented by Gribbin and Cherfas were outdated. * 

Second Review (2007) An extended (and unnecessarily long IMO) argument that humans, chimps, and gorillas shared a common hominid ancestor some 3 to 4 M years ago. In other words, the chimp-gorilla line did not split from the human line before the evolution of hominids, but afterwards. That would make chimps and gorillas hominids. This hypothesis was developed by Sarich and Wilson in the late 1960s, when the molecular clock was first calibrated.
     The argument rests on molecular biology, and the development of the molecular clock. It’s been shown that DNA/RNA and hence proteins evolve at surprisingly steady rates. This enables the calculation not of dates but of ratios of time spans, and hence of the relative positions of divergence points in the evolutionary trees of related species. Fossil evidence has calibrated the molecular clock pretty accurately for non-human genera, and for vertebrates and chordates generally, so that its application to the primate group should be a no-brainer. However, it seems that paleontologists don’t like to have their speculations checked by objective evidence from a different discipline. Even amongst themselves, they get rather testy when a colleague finds a fossil that requires “re-evaluation” of existing guesses.
     Along the way, Gribbin and Cherfas provide reams of more or less interesting data, the most important of which is that the sum total of all humanoid fossils could be laid out on a dining room table. Most of them are teeth.
     Insofar as I can judge the evidence, I go with Gribbin and Cherfas. Well enough written, but somewhat whingey in the final chapters, where they discuss the reception of the Sarich-Wilson hypothesis **½ (2007)

Mordecai Richler. The Best of Modern Humour (1983)

      Mordecai Richler. The Best of Modern Humour (1983) Nothing dates as fast as taste in humour. Here it is a mere quarter century after Richler's collection appeared, and most of the pieces already seem dated. That is, their humour is lame, jejune, and superficial. Richler likes the New Yorker type, and while not all the pieces in here were first published in that magazine, many of the later ones read as if they should have been. Richler is a satirist, and most of the pieces he has selected are satires. The oldest ones, from the turn of the 20th century, are the best, I think. Lasting humour reveals itself with age, as current concerns and fashionable twitches recede into the misty twilight of history. Leacock’s “Gertrude the Governess” opens the collection,, and it is by far the best piece in it. I won’t keep this book, as I no longer feel the need to have such representative anthologies by me. They are really reference works. ** (2007)

Ngaio Marsh. Death in a White Tie (1938)

      Ngaio Marsh. Death in a White Tie (1938) The fourth Alleyn mystery, IIRC. Lord Robert Gospell is killed on his way home from a party. He has been helping Alleyn gather evidence about a blackmailing racket. A charming man, much more intelligent than his looks and manner suggested, he was a much loved figure in Society. The killer was the blackmailer. Marsh is in fine form here, she has a satirical eye as well as a very good sense of character. the puzzle is well done, and we hardly notice that Alleyn behaves more like a private detective than a policeman. Agatha Troy appears on the fringes of the case, which gives Alleyn an opportunity to avow his love for her, which she eventually returns. So that’s all right. A pleasurable read (for the second or third time). **½ (2007)

 

David E. Stephens. Iron Roads: Railways of Nova Scotia (1972)

     David E. Stephens. Iron Roads: Railways of Nova Scotia (1972) Stephens ran the Musquodoboit railway Museum for a while, but it has long been defunct. This little book, clearly an amateur’s production, summarises the history of NS railways, with nicely reproduced photos, and rather sketchy maps. A few typos mar the text. The book has been superseded by more thoroughly researched texts, but is still of interest to any one who wants a brief introduction to Nova Scotia's early railway history. ** (2007)

Mel Gordon. Lazzi (1983) & Susan Kelz Sperling. Poplollies and Bellibones (1977)

      Mel Gordon. Lazzi (1983) A compilation of stage business bits used in the Commedia. Of interest to scholars, as they say, and perhaps to actors studying improv. * (2007)

      Susan Kelz Sperling. Poplollies and Bellibones (1977) Sperling has not only collected “lost words”, she has devised rimes, dialogues, and catechisms using these words. Lovely. Dad made notes of related Austrian and German words, and I’ve made a few too. A Poplolly is a little darling, or mistress. A Bellibone is a pretty girl. A book for the words shelf. *** (2007)