The Writer's Life 12/28 - Fecundity

In today's NY Post George Will devotes another of his op-ed pieces to the superiority of the private sector over government control of an economy. He cites a new book, The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge by Matt Ridley. Here are excerpts plucked by yours truly: "...Leonard E. Read’s famous 1958 essay, I, Pencil. In it a pencil explains that 'I am a mystery' because not a single person knows how to make me. The seemingly simple pencil is wood harvested by loggers using saws and ropes made elsewhere, wood transported by trucks and trains made by many thousands of people, to mills where machines — the products of ore mined by thousands and steel mills staffed by thousands more — prepare the wood to receive graphite mined abroad and the eraser from foreign rubber, held in place by aluminum mined somewhere and smelted somewhere else, before lacquer (castor beans and other ingredients) is applied, and... This is why worshipers in the church of government disparage a free society’s genius for spontaneous order: It limits the importance of government and other supposed possessors of the expertise that supposedly is essential for imposing order from above. No one, writes Ridley, anticipated that when Gutenberg made printed books affordable, increased literacy would create a market for spectacles, which would lead to improved lenses and the invention of telescopes, which would produce the discovery that the Earth orbits the sun. No one planned that one particular book’s argument for the fecundity of freedom would bolster the case for limited government the way Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations did when published in 1776." Once again, kudos, sir.

MLB lost two former players yesterday. Jim O'Toole, 78, a left-handed pitcher, had a ten-year career, nine with the Cincinnati Reds. He went 98-84 and had a 3.57 ERA. He will probably be remembered most for his two losses, although he pitched well, to Whitey Ford in the 1961 World Series, which the Yankees won in five games. Dave Henderson, 57, was the center-fielder on the Oakland team that featured Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Rickey Henderson, and played in three straight World Series, winning one. He hit 198 HR's in 14 seasons for five teams. He was also a member of the Red Sox in 1986 and hit .400 in the Series vs. the Mets. "Hendu" succumbed to complications from a kidney ailment. RIP, gentlemen, and also to basketball legend Meadowlark Lemon, 83, who played for the Harlem Globetrotters during the team's heyday from the mid 1950's to the late 1970's, delighting fans with his skills with a ball and a joke. Traveling by car, bus, train or plane nearly every night, Lemon covered nearly four million miles to play in over 100 countries and in front of popes and presidents, kings and queens. Known as the ''Clown Prince of Basketball,'' he averaged 325 games per year during his prime. When the legendary Wilt Chamberlain was asked who he believed was the greatest player of all-time, he said: "Believe it or not, Meadowlark Lemon." (Facts gleaned from articles at Yahoo Sports)

It was an abbreviated session of the floating book shop today, as the lack of sun and stiff breeze had me packing up after a little more than an hour. My thanks to the young man who purchased Jack Kerouac's On the Road and The Dharma Burns, and to the elderly gentleman who donated two Vince Flynn thrillers.

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