archives

These books will educate, infuriate, agitate, captivate, deflate and penetrate you. I've read 'em all, just before I came to Iraq or after I got here. They're all over the political spectrum, so there's something to please--or P.O.--everybody.

SHAKU MAKU: ON THE GROUND IN OCCUPIED IRAQ, Phil Borden, Outskirts Press. Phil, the friend of a good friend of mine, John Needham (retired LA Times editorial board member), spent a year off and on in Iraq as a business development expert. He learned that "meaning well and doing well are, well, two different things." The details and literate prose make this a fine read, and just in my brief time here, his experiences resonate with the realities unfolding in Iraq. "Shaku Maku" means "What's up?" or "Howzit hangin'?" as colloquially used by Iraqis.

Folks generally believe being a firefighter is a glamorous high-profile job. It's certainly a tremendous public service, a high calling, but we need to keep in mind much of what firefighters do is dirty, dangerous, physically demanding and exhausting work. As the race car drivers say, my hat's off to what our friends in the fire service regularly get called on to do.

That certainly was evident in two fires I reported about this week. Merced County firefighters spent many hours putting out a fire in a creekbed-ravine on Whealan Road in the Planada area Tuesday afternoon and evening and Merced city firefighters had their own struggles with a fire which destroyed a garage and apartment complex near West 18th and T streets Wednesday afternoon.