July Assignment

Character assessment of Isaac Gonzales:

This character in particular has taken an interest to the Molasses tower. He is a hard working immigrant trying to support his family by working for USIA. But this has also lead him into a sticky situation. The way he gets up a countless number of nights and makes a grueling two mile midnight sprint to the source of his demons, as Puleo so calls it, isn’t a normal thing for a USIA employee to do. But all he wants to do is settle his racing mind of thoughts of the tower collapsing by releasing some of the molasses. In reality it makes no difference but to calm his mind, that I believe is driven to insanity, this helps on those sleepless nights. People don’t just go insane. It happens over time, so it makes me wonder what did Isaac do before he went to work for Mr. Jell and USIA? Im no psychologist but I sense a little ocd/anxiety disorder following him to the time of the construction of the molasses tower. Knowing something bad is going to happen and yet no one listens to you for months on end could definitely have pushed Isaac a little too far.

Once again, I’m no psychologist, hey maybe he was just a concerned citizen. But really what person in their right mind runs 2 miles every night back to his job to check on something that you or your family wouldn’t even be hurt by if it collapsed anyways? Exactly.

August Assignment

1. I believe that the purpose of Outliers is to show that there is more to success than simply hard work or innate ability; the recurring theme seems to be that a person needs support in order to do well in life, whether that comes from his or her community, parents, or culture. No one can suddenly manage to do well if they have absolutely nothing, whether that is in the monetary, social, or emotional sense. They must either be provided with an opportunity that they have the initiative to take, or some kind of background that gives them a strong foundation to build off of. Gladwell does a good job conveying this message, and uses a series of relevant and convincing surveys and data to back up his claims. I found his ideas and writing style enjoyable to read, and will most likely look up some of his other works in the future.

2. My question for Dark Tide is: If people were more informed about the molasses flood in Boston, do you think they would be more sympathetic about it, rather than laughing it off or treating as an insignificant event?

July Assignment

1. The writing style in Dark Tide was intriguing in that it had various perspectives from different people. In the beginning, I was slightly confused because I had expected the same person to be narrating the entire story; I had actually expected the entire book to be told from the perspective of Isaac Gonzales, who appeared in the prologue. However, as I read on, it became clear what the purpose of each introduced character was, and I liked how Puleo tied all of these seemingly unrelated roles together in the end to convey his ideas. Although the beginning was somewhat difficult to understand and like, by the end of the book I found the story both informative and enjoyable to read.

2. One thing that I disagree with in Outliers is when Gladwell discusses how being born at a certain time will give people an advantage over each other; he includes schools and the educational system in this claim. Gladwell states that students who are born earlier in the year and are therefore more mature and capable than their slightly younger peers are seen as more intelligent, and receive more attention from teachers than their "slower" classmates. As a result, the gap between the two groups continues to widen until there is an obvious difference in the perceived ability of the students. However, I believe that rather than the gap becoming larger, it actually shrinks and evens out by the time students reach their high school and college years. If Gladwell's theory were the case, wouldn't all the level 3 classes be filled with students born in the summer, and the honors and AP classes with fall and winter? Instead, based on my own observations, there seems to be an even distribution of birthday months throughout each class level, a sign that the gap does not necessarily widen like Gladwell claims it does. Perhaps his theory is true in elementary or middle school; however, I stand by the opinion that the difference becomes smaller almost to the point of being negligible as students get older.

August Assignment

I believe the purpose for Levitt and Dubner in writing "Freakonomics" was to introduce the usefulness of economics to the world. I think they wanted to break free of stereotypical economics where they regurgitate what is complex and essentially useless information to the everyday person, to big companies and the government. They defiantly got their purpose across in my mind. For a second after reading the book I was considering economics as a possible career path. Although that wasn't their purpose of the book, it shows how well they conveyed it; convincing me economics is interesting and useful in today and tomorrow's world.
Although one thing I think they could have done better was take out some of the repetitiveness. It almost seemed like they were trying to make the book longer by just dragging out the explanation of some obscure detail.

My question for the class is why did the authors put the "Introduction: The hidden side of everything" in this book? After all it is just a frivolous summary of the book without reveiling any juicy facts, isn't it.?

June Assignment (Better late than never)

Well i have read both Outliers and Freakonomics in addition to Dark Tide but I will be writing about Freakonomics because I loved this book.
One thing that surprised me in the book Freakonomics was how you are more likely to die in a gang on the streets of Chicago than if you were on death row. This alone opens a whole other side showing the "hidden agenda(intended or not) of the United States". One moment I'm thinking that were the most logical and prestigious nation on the planet, to then having to rethink the whole judicial system and ethic of Americans. If this piece of information is true, and it was unveiled about 7 years ago, why hasn't anything been done to fix it? That honestly scares me a little bit.

Three things my class mates don't know about me:
1. I always write in Georgia font becasue I want to go to The University of Georgia so badly
2. Freakonomics is the only books I've ever "loved"
3. My dream is to own my own Fortune 500 Company!

Purpose

The purpose of Dark Tide was to create awareness for a disaster that most know little to nothing about.  Stephen Puleo wanted readers to understand all factors of the disaster, from the tanks rushed completion to how it affected families in the area.  Freakonomics was written to get readers thinking that everything is somehow correlated.  This was accomplished through several examples comparing things like teachers and sumo wrestlers.  Outliers was written to display the unknown necessities of success.  We all know it takes talent and ambition to become successful, but Gladwell argues that special opportunities are required on top of these qualities.  All of those who are successful are because of unique advantages that they received, allowing them to excel in a particular field.  The month and year in which one was born, the surroundings in which one was raised, one's ethnicity, and one's cultural influences all play a role in determining success.  All of these stories were accomplished in their purpose.

My question for the class is  Which author's style best gets his/her message across to the reader?

August Post

1) I believe that Gladwell's purpose for writing Outliers was to provide people with a new perspective of looking at things differently. For example, one would assume that hockey players on a professional team got there through pure talent. However, Gladwell shows us that there are other factors that play a role besides what appears at first glance. The month one was born in, how motivated one is, as well as many other factors play a role as well. Overall, Gladwell's purpose for writing Outliers, in my opinion, was to show the reader that not everything is what first meets the eye.

2) My question for the class is can anyone find any similarities between Outliers and Dark Tide?

August Assignment

1.  I believe that Freakonomics was written in order to give readers a different perspective on thinking.  Freakonomics taught a way to think that I feel most people do not use.  Freakonomics goes into the ways economist think and I believe is even written in the way that economist think issues through.  I found my process of thinking begin to change as I read Freakonomics, I assume that this was a hope when writing this book.  Not only did this book teach me a new way of thinking, but Freakonomics also helped me to ask many more questions and think about many more issues.  Every morning I had already been reading the news and trying to stay current on today's issues.  What started to change though was my actions after reading an important world issue I began to think about what was the true underlying cause of the issue and my own possible improvement.  I also began to research issues more and started to understand every part of the issue and no longer skip over parts that I did not understand.

2.  My question for the class about Freakonomics is what if everyone in the world went through the thought process an economist goes through before actions or as issues arise throughout life?

July Assignment

1) Puleo's writing style in Dark Tide is quite unique, because he goes back and forth between different people's perspectives. At first, I found it difficult to read because of this and I was mixing some people up, but as the story progressed and the characters developed I began to understand what the author was getting at. The way Dark Tide is written reminded me of My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult. It, too, jumps back and forth between the characters' perspectives, just as Dark Tide does. Overall, I enjoyed the book quite much, I just wish the beginning was less confusing.

2) The question I have about Outliers, is why does it take exactly ten thousand hours to master a certain field? I found this part of the book compelling when it showed how people such as Mozart and the Beatles took virtually ten thousand hours to get to mastery.

Dark Tide Purposes

Dark Tide had many purposes in my view. First and foremost, bringing attention to a commonly overlooked historic event was something that Puleo obviously wanted to accomplish. His attempt was successful and he allows the reader to become extremely knowledgeable on something that they would not have known otherwise. This purpose is most obvious, but what is not so obvious are some of the ramifications of the tank bursting. Puleo describes the aftermath of the tank and how it led to the most extensive civil court case in Massachusetts’ history. This case was the foundation of many more to come. Another purpose that is brought to the reader’s attention is the importance of molasses during that time period. Not only was it used as a sweetener, but it was also used for industrial purposes and manufacturing. Overall, Puleo brings about many purposes of the novel and successful meets the expectations.

Question: If an event such as the great molasses flood happen today, do you believe that it would be so easily overlook in future years?

Dark Tide Question

If this were an anarchist attack do you think that the country would come together for the victims and their families as was done in other terrorist attacks in our nation.

The Purpose of Freakonomics

The main purpose of Freakonomics is to make the reader look at the world in an abstract way. As a society humans tend to judge and categorize certain people and events as good or bad and nothing else. Levitt and Dubner taught me how to look at the world in a more in depth way and back up my statements. In Freakonomics all statements and ideas had solid statistical back up, this makes it very hard to refute their statements.

Dark Tide

I think that the purpose of Dark Tide was to make something that many people heard of but didn't exactly know a lot about easy to learn about. I think that Puelo did a good job, if that was indeed his purpose. He had an interesting way of portraying the incident in a manner that was both some what entertaining and also factual at the same time. I would say that this was one of the more interesting nonfiction books that I have read, because it told like a story and flowed nicely from chapter to chapter. I think that one of the reasons that Puleo really wanted to publish this book was because being something that happened so long ago and effected so many people in an area that he is around all of the time. Overall I think that Puleo met his goals, by writing an interesting and informative non fiction book about the molasses flood in 1919.

My questions about Dark Tide are; do you think that in any way this book is opinionated too much to make you feel bad for those victims of the flood? Also, do you think that if Choate had represented the USIA with something other than the anarchist conspiracy defense, he would have been more successful?

Dark Tide Question

My question for Dark Tide is, Why did Hammond Iron Works send the USIA pieces to the tank that weren't the right size?

The Purpose of Freakonomics

Though the obvious answer to the purpose of Freakonomics is right on the cover (to explore the hidden side of everything) the purpose I see is a little bit beyond the cover. True, the book opens people's eyes to the fact that not everything is how it seems at first glance. Sometimes teachers can be like sumo wrestlers and cheat (or are sumo wrestlers just like teachers?) and that's not a comparison people would usually think of. I think that the purpose lies, not in the traits both parties share but in the examples that were used in the first place. Obviously, when you look at a real-estate agent you don't think "Oh hey they operate a lot like the KKK" and in there lies the reason this book was written. The authors want people to question everything, find hidden connections that may not be obvious right away. They want the readers to not take things at face-value but to dig deeper and find what lies underneath. Maybe us readers might not think of things so out there as comparing teachers and sumo wrestlers but who says we can't find comparisons in other different things? And that is what the book is all about... finding the things that don't seem to belong together and making them so they aren't so different in the end.

Dark Tide Question

Why do you think a tragedy that took twenty one lives, ruined hundreds of thousands of dollars of property and took up so much time and energy to fix is most of the time looked on as a joke?

Freakonomics (July)

I am reading Freakonomics along with Dark Tide this summer. One thing I question is how are the authors, Dubner and Levitt, finding this information and then how, in their minds, do any of these things correlate? Another question I have is why these particular topics? What gave them the inspiration to talk about how sumo wrestlers and teachers are alike? And by the answer they gave in the book (they both cheat) you could, logically, say that any two people, professions, or groups are alike because almost everyone cheats. Furthermore where would one go to find information on sumo wrestlers and how they cheat? The book cites scores from every official sumo match (which I'm assuming you could find as easily as you could find the Red Sox scores). But how is it the authors can take the gigantic jump from sumo wrestlers to teachers? In what way do these two things correlate? Not only the sumo wrestlers and teachers but things like real-estate agents and the KKK! How could they possibly go from something that is so common and seemingly harmless as a real estate agent to the white supremacist group that rampaged the country and struck fear into the large majority of African Americans? Maybe it's just the fact that there is something to compare and one little thing that makes them similar that makes them a great comparison. Or maybe it's just that the authors really do want to show the hidden side of everything and so finding two things that seem vastly different and finding one common factor is finding "the hidden side of everything".

Dark Tide Style

I'll be upfront about it. I did not like Dark Tide. I thought the idea was great and the tragedy itself was something that would be interesting to study and learn about, however Puleo lost me. I tried to like the book, I really did. I read and reread and wrote in the book and underlined and tried to make sense of it, but the cast of characters mixed with the fact that there was so much going on that wasn't entirely important to the main plot was hard to follow.
        
             Puleo simply incorporates too many characters at random points of the book and then waits fifty pages before revisiting them. As an example, we are first introduced to Hugh Ogden on page 63 (paperback) and are told of him as he is in France. Readers are told for three pages of his background and only the very last line of that seems even a little relevant to the main part of the plot, "... he would preside over one of the country's most celebrated civil lawsuits, stemming from one of the most unusual disasters in United States history." The next time we hear from him is page 80 (paperback) when we learn all about the "Rainbow Division, his wartime sights and the fact he wants to start his own law practice. Soon after the disaster happens and the reader is pummeled with images of the devastation and thoughts of the dead. And, as if out of nowhere, Ogden comes back in on page 163 (paperback) without any re-introduction. Personally, I had to search through the book to find out and remember who this man was and what, to this point, he had done. I admire Puleo's attempts to show the disaster in as many ways and lights as possible but I think he over-shot it too much and it just seemed scattered. One way he could have avoided the confusion would be to have one worker (such as Issac), one manager (like Jell), one or two towns people (instead of the many he had) and one lawyer (Ogden). I think if he had done this then the book would be much simpler and it would be less characters to have to remember and follow.  

            On top of the multitude of characters there was the fact that Puleo wants to incorporate so much history he tends to loose the main focus of the book. I understand that he wants to give the full account of the history, he says in the first line of author's note "This is the first full accounting of the Great Boston Molasses Flood". However, he seems to go too far off topic sometimes and I would increasingly become bored or wait for these incidents to have any kind of impact on the flood story and be disappointed with the fact that it never did seem to have any relevance. Obviously, the anarchists played a small role in the flood, with that being USIA's main defense and excuse for the tank's demolition. Puleo, however, seems to want to prove to the reader that the anarchists are evil beings who may detonate a molasses tank due to the many times he goes off topic and gives the reader details about anarchist's bombings in  other cities, to other buildings and other people. He even goes and names the anarchists and adds even more characters to the reader's growing list of names. Then readers get the stories of the anarchists and their ultimate demise whether by capture or suicide. Yes, this gives the reader background into the anarchists that were threatening Boston and the country as a whole, but all that could have been summed up with "USIA believed and stuck to the claim that the tank was bombed by anarchists who were making the same kind of moves all over the country" or something to that effect. One sentence would have given the reader all the information they needed to understand why this might be a believable excuse.

             I like history, please believe me. It's not that I'm uninterested in the Molasses Flood, because I am. Just like most people who live near Boston, I've heard the jokes and the tales that you can still smell Molasses on a hot day and I've heard of the flood prior to reading this book. Honestly, I did want to know more. But, this book made it hard for me to be able to learn because I had such a hard time getting through it. I respect that Puleo was trying to give the reader a full coverage of the disaster from everybody's viewpoint. I admire him for trying to put as much history as possible into the book and honestly trying to teach something to the reader, past just the flood. However, these things lacked in execution. I'm not saying I hated the book, there were good things about it and Puleo's writing. He has great imagery and I could ofter times, for better or worse, see the molasses and the tank when it was painted the color of the molasses and the poor townspeople who were in the hospital after the tragedy their hair staining the pillows to the color of molasses. It just happened that the people he chose to talk about were too much and the world around the disaster was full of changes and occurrences that had to be brought into the discussion. Overall I think Puleo is a man who is a little bit too focused on all the details and that sometimes gets lost in those rather than the big picture.

August Assignment

1. I think Stephen Puleo's purpose for writing Dark Tide was just to get it out there. It's a story that very few people know of and he wanted to get the story out there with the right information. I think another reason is that he wanted to give respect to the deceased and have people know that the collapse of the tank did kill people and cause people great harm. It wasn't just like the tank collapsed and everything was all good the next day. No, people died and it changed the people of Boston. Puleo also must of wanted to let people know of the court case that followed the collapse. It was one of the largest class action suits in Massachusetts at the time. All in all, Puleo's purpose was to just let people know what happened. He didn't want it to be unknown anymore. I personally believe that he met those expectations. I am now aware of the tank's collapse and what happened during that time. I know about the details of the collapse, not just that there was a molasses flood.


2. My question for the class is what do you think of the comparisons that Levitt and Dubner used in Freakonomics?

Dark Tide Question

My question about Dark Tide is: Why do you think that most people have never heard the story of the molasses flood, and the ones that have heard of it, don't know the full story of the flood.

Purpose of Freakonomics

The reason Levitt and Dubner wrote Freakonomics wasn't to explore random topics that somehow relate to each other. It also wasn't to feed one's curiosity, even though it my have. The purpose instead was to change the way one thinks about the information that is presented to them. 

Every day one gets information from somewhere. Too often, we accept what we hear is a bent version of the truth or a complete fallacy. One result of this book is to question the information presented to the world and who presents it. Ultimately, we all want to know the truth. The only way to do this is with reasonable questioning and debate. In this case, Levitt and Dubner will be successful because reading this book has encouraged me personally to be more skeptical of conventional wisdom. 

Purpose of Freakonomics

The purpose of Freakonomics, I believe, is to get readers to think abstractly about the world around us and question it. Instead of just taking the world in which we live in and thinking nothing of it, we should instead question what we consider common knowledge. Levitt and Dubner did a great job not only questioning common knowledge and coming up with theories about how things correlate, but also provided data which backed up their theories in ways that are hard to argue with.I believe this is the most important lesson of the book, that if we want to question why certain things in the world happen, we are not powerless anymore because information and data is readily available to us. With all the information we are now provided with we should never hesitate to research a link between two events that interest us. After reading this book I have a greater curiosity with the world around me. My question for the class is: Did reading Freakonomics affect your views about the world? If it did, in what ways will you start to think differently during your everyday life?

Dark Tide Question

My discussion question  about Dark Tide is : How do you think this story would be different if not as many character viewpoints were included? What would some positive and negative results of this change be?

Purpose of Dark Tide

I think that Puleo's purpose of writing Dark Tide was to educate people about the true story of the molasses flood, since there weren't many recordings of it in history. I think that Puleo also wanted to help people to appreciate the fact that this awful disaster could very well have been prevented if Jell and his company had not been so careless. Maybe Puleo wanted people to be informed of what caused the disaster, namely Jell's greed and concern for money over human safety, to prevent history from repeating itself. I definitely think that Puleo successfully achieved his purpose in Dark Tide. It wasn't just him relaying the numbers of fatalities and the cost of the damages. I liked the way Puleo humanized the book by authoring it through the perspectives of different people who actually lived the event and showing how it affected them personally. It really makes the reader think about how many people's lives were impacted and how the loss of each person was a tragedy in itself. The way Puleo conveyed all of this definitely made me, personally, think of the molasses flood in a different way, as more than just an event in history and I think that's what Puleo was trying to do. My question for the class about Dark Tide is which person's story told in the book do you think has the greatest impact on it?

Freakonomics Purpose

I think the purpose of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner in Freakonomics is to open the eyes of the world to the subtle things that happen in the world around us.  They pay attention to the little things that occur in the world and wrote the book to help the common person understand what they see on a daily basis.  I think it is an excellent topic to write about, but i believe that the two authors could have done a slightly better job writing the book.  The hook in the introductory chapter was very good.  I was really excited to read the rest of the book when I read the introduction.  Then my interest kind of dropped off when i started to actually read the book itself.  I believe this is because the authors go too far in depth with some of the topics.  When they do that, I completely lose sight of what they are supposed to be "teaching" me about.  That is the thing I would change the most about the book.  Other than that, I think they did a good job writing their stories.      

Freakonomics Purpose

     The purpose of Dubner and Levitt in writing Freakonomics, I feel is quite obvious : to open the eyes of their readers to the world that surrounds them.
     Throughout the book thought provoking questions and eye-opening statistics were provided, which encouraged readers to ask questions of their own, and hopefully get interesting answers. According to the book, just because a question may never have been asked before does not necessarily mean that it is a good question,after all only the best of questions get the most useful and informative answers.
     The authors in my opinion did achieve their goal. During and after my reading experience in reading this book i feel enlightened by the information they provided. I see myself noticing subtle connections between things and making comparisons that to others, go unnoticed. This book did in fact open my eyes to "the hidden side of everything" and I appreciate that a book could do that.

Stephen Puleo's Purpose

Puleo states in the Author's Note section that there has been little written about the Great Boston Molasses Flood. He says that there were no other books written about the Molasses Flood, except for a few children's books. Puleo also says that the flood is rarely mentioned in the history books, and even in the city of Boston there is only a small plaque. I think Puleo wanted to get the story out there. Most people who know that the flood even happened live around here, and even they probably don't know the story in depth. I knew about the flood before I read this book, but all I knew was that the flood happened, I didn't know any details of the flood. Puleo wanted to teach people the real story of the disaster, the court case that followed it, and the impact the Great Molasses Flood had. I believe Puleo achieved his goal very well as I certainly learned a lot about the flood. Puleo did very well conveying all the information from the construction of the tank, to the disaster itself, to the court case, and to what happened to the people who were mentioned in the book after everything was over. Puleo definitely succeeded in getting the story of the Great Molasses Flood across.

Question about Dark Tide

After finishing Dark Tide, I had many different reactions towards it. I liked the way the book was organized and the content that made it interesting to read. I especially liked how the beginning of the novel explained the events from an individuals' perspective, and then caught up with the stories at the end and how each person or family played a factor in history.


My question for my classmates is: What do you think can be learned more about from this book considering the setting; the troubles of an industrializing country; or the functionality of the legal system?

The Home Stretch

For your final two posts you need to do the follow:

1. Comment on what you think the purpose for writing any one of the books you read was and how well you believe the author(s) met those expectations.

2. Create your own question for the class. I'm excited to see what you all come up with.

As you did in July, please comment on at least two classmate's posts. Also if you know of anyone who has had problems accessing the blog or has yet to reply please have them email me so they can be invited. Please aim to have your original posts done by the week before school starts so your classmates have time to respond.

Email me if you have any questions.

Take care,

Mr. Scott

Writing Style of Dark Tide

The thing I found most interesting about Puleo's writing style was the multiple perspectives the story is told from. As others have stated before me, this reminded me of the movie Vantage Point. I found this to be interesting because throughout the story the reader gets bits and pieces what is going. Then at the end of the book all the separate pieces come together to show how the event happened in its entirety, almost like a puzzle being put together. The dates and times he used didn't help as much as they seemed to help others out. At times I was confused about when certain events were happening but once I got to the end it all made sense. I am a fan of Puleo's writing and will probably look into some of his other books.

Disagreement with Outliers
Towards the end of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell starts to explore the reasons behind why Asians seem to do math much better than their Western counterparts. One argument he uses is the fact that Asia had primarily been a rice-growing region throughout time. Rice farmers were hard workers who put their heart and soul into all their endeavors and were never lazy. Gladwell argues that this tradition of hard work has been passsed down through the generations to modern Asian students. This work ethic, he proposes, allows Asian students to perform better in school because they are willing to work harder to learn. He presents statistics that seem to back this up, however I do not believe hard work has been passed down through the generations. I believe that an individual usually chooses how hard they will work, not an ancient culture.Even if it is true that their hard work has been passed down, I still believe the individual has their own choice of whether or not they want to study hard or slack off.

July Assignment

Stephen Puleo's writhing style is unique to any book I've read, as it switches from different points of view to show the different effect that the molasses spill had on people. However I found it a bit confusing at times as he quickly switched back and forth between the many people he introduced and sometimes I found myself not remembering which person was which. Also, Puleo sometimes went into tangents that seemed very unrelatable to the main story, like how he went into World War I and Woodrow Wilson. I didn't see the point in including these section and they seemed to break up the flow of the story.

What I disagree with in Outliers is Gladwell's claim that there are more hockey players born in the beginning of the year because they get more experience. Even his own lists disprove his claim. In his first list on page 20 about the 2007 junior league team the Medicine Hat Tigers there are only 6 players that eventually made it to the National Hockey League, and only 3 were from the first half of the year. Then, on his second list on page 31 about the 2007 Czech junior hockey team, of the 8 people on that list who ended up playing in the NHL, 5 of them were from the second half of the year. That seems to prove the opposite of what he is saying, which is why I disagree with his claim.

Dark Tide: writing style of Stephen Puleo

The writing style of Stephen Puleo is one that is easy to understand. His style is very organized and allows the reader to completely grasp the importance of every character and what their involvement was in the molasses flood. In some novels it is a mystery of the involvement of certain characters but in Dark Tide Stephen Puleo leaves no stone unturned and gives background information for every character. This gives the reader multiple vantage points of the molasses flood. Puleo also has very good imagery skills and is able to paint pictures with words, a skill that is very hard to master. All possible questions that the reader could ask are answered before they are even thought because there are many small details that Puleo includes in his writing. This book was interesting because it had a different writing style than any other novel I have read and it also took place in Boston so I was able to relate to it.

July post

In Dark Tide, Puleo has a very interesting approach to writing the story.  His style is quite complicated, but is portrayed to the reader as simple, so he is easily understood.  He uses strong background information and detail to depict the lives of many of those involved in the molasses flood, letting us get to know the characters years before the actual incident.  In addition to this approach, he unbiasedly delivers hard facts - numbers, dates, and occurrences - to his audience.  His technique creates a historically accurate, but at the same time, colorful and interesting, account of the molasses flood.

 Freakonomics is a book that, although it answers many unique questions, leaves some things unanswered.  I want to know why they chose the studies that they did.  Where they were conducted seemed a little strange to me.  I would guess that they chose the most dramatic data studies to push their point.  I'm sure the daycare center experiment, for example, had been done in other places, so it seems a little odd that they would choose a daycare in Israel as for the data in their study.

Dark Tide and Freakonomics

Dark Tide

At first Dark Tide was hard to read. Stephen Puleo would jump around from one year to the next and then go back to the first year. After awhile though it helped. I could see the connections that he was trying to make. The reason he would jump around from person to person or from year to year is because they were related in some way and it helps the reader. He didn't leave anything unsaid and if something was mentioned in one section and it didn't have a lot of details surrounding it, the next section would be about that event or person. Also, Puleo is very descriptive. Unlike most books about historical events, Dark Tide allowed me to get a sense of what was happening at that time and what people in the North End were like. He doesn't just say something, he elaborates on it and makes sure the reader is fully aware of the time that the book takes place. I felt as if I wasn't reading a nonfiction book because usually for me those are boring. Dark Tide was told like a story. There wasn't just random facts and just short biographies of the people affected. Puleo really wanted his readers to know about the people who died or who were injured from the molasses flood.

Freakonomics

For the second book I decided to switch to Freakonomics. I'm actually not that far into the book. But, I feel as if Levitt and Dubner are just trying to prove other people wrong. To tell you the truth it reminds me of my older brother because he will just say random things that have somewhat of a connection to the conversation and he will think he is right. At first they say something that is right and all of the things behind it, but then they will put a twist on it. It just feels like I'm reading someone ranting about things in the world. My question is how the authors are making these connections. For an example in the introduction, it goes from the amount of money spent on campaigning to the amount of money spent on chewing gum in America. Campaigning and gum are not alike at all. The two are very different. Yes maybe the price is the same, but while doing research how did the authors come across the amount Americans spend on chewing gum every year? That just doesn't make sense to me. Like I said before it just seems like the book is just a rant. The first chapter is about schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, but it doesn't mention the connection of the two for awhile. Yes the stuff said before does help with the connection, but I want to know how the two are related on the first page of that chapter, not about daycare and parents picking their kids up late.

Character Analysis; Isaac Gonzales

Isaac Gonzales was a common family man in the early 1900s. His employment at the United States Industrial Alcohol Company, although it paid well, placed a burden on both himself and his family. His knowledge of the deteriorating molasses tank deprived Gonzales of many nights' sleep. His attempt to alert his employers about the life-threatening situation were to no avail. Gonzales was put into a difficult situation. He was forced to choose between pressing the matter with his management and risk being fired, or keeping his job and supporting his family. In order to relieve some stress from the predicament, Gonzales often went on night runs across the North End in Boston to the molasses tank. Once at the tank, Gonzales released gallons of molasses as a method to relieve his stressful and terrifying thoughts. Although, he knew in reality it did not make a large difference.

Through these details, it is easy to see that Gonzales has allowed a stressful situation deprive him of his normal human function. He allows the stressful situation to get the better of him. His inability to cope with said situations placed burdens on the people around him. His constant waking and worrying negatively impacts his relationship with his wife. He also hinders his relationship with his employers by insisting there is a problem with their company. Overall, it shows that Isaac Gonzales has personal struggles as to what is and what is not morally right.


Outliers:

In the novel Outliers Malcolm Gladwell makes the claim that in order to be successful in certain aspects of life, one must be born at precisely the right time. Although Gladwell provides sufficient details and examples, I still can't seem to completely agree with his claim. The physical and intellectual aspects of children who are born just after the cutoff date are not always in overwhelming comparison to those born in the later half of the year. Take Abington High School for example. If we conducted a study and recorded the birth months of students in this year's AP history class we would find that the months in which we are born are spread out across the year and are not stockpiled in the months of August, September, and October. Gladwell takes the examples that he wants to prove his point but these are just theories and not actual, cold-hard, facts.  

Connection to History in "Dark Tide" and Disagreement with Freakonomics

Dark Tide Like others, I also made connections with the writing style of Stephen Puleo in Dark Tide to other books I've read. But I found a connection with the story itself, too. It reminded me of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the 1911 that we learned about in history last year. In Dark Tide, Jell was in charge of the building and upkeep of the molasses tank. It was a rushed and somewhat careless build and the necessary precautions weren't taken. This resulted in leaks in the tank which Jell knew about but didn't bother fixing. This is much like what happened at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The bosses neglected the safety and health of their workplace. There were many fire hazards and few exits in case of an emergency. In both instances, the people in charge didn't pay attention to possible danger and were more concerned with money than safety, so both ended in disaster. Freakonomics Overall, I like this book. The connections made are interesting, but some don't make too much sense to me. One thing that I didn't fully agree with was the connection made between schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers. They were only alike in regards to cheating, but not all teachers cheat for their students and not all sumo wrestlers cheat. The authors kind of generalized both groups so it felt like they were trying too hard to make a connection.

Writing Style of Stephen Puleo in "Dark Tide"

I am roughly three quarters of the way through Dark Tide. I really like the way that he has set up the book, it reminds me of another book that I read from the perspective of ten cowboys telling the tale of a murder (obviously not the murder and cowboy part just the multiple points of view). This is also like the popular movie Vantage Point.  I like the way he writes the story because it isn't complex, it's easy to understand, and the story flows nicely from one view to another. Structurally I like how the book is set up because dates are included in the chapters along with significant things that can be connected to from the time period.

My question about Freakonomics is along the same line as Leighann's. Other than the obvious reason of comparing things that aren't commonly compared, why choose these things. My theory is that after the studies are done they simply found the answers and then relayed them to us with interesting facts about how such things are connected and how and why they work. If anyone has a better theory I'd be glad to know about it.

Writing and Organizational Style of Stephen Puleo

I am almost done with Dark Tide and so far, I like the style of writing by the author Stephen Puleo.  The way he organized the beginning of the story kind of confused me at first, but as the story progressed, I understood what he was trying to do.  Then he continues to use the same style by telling of each characters involvement in the molasses flood.  It reminded me of the movie Vantage Point, with Dennis Quaid because the movie does the same sort of thing.  It shows the viewpoint of many different characters before finally putting it all together at the end.  I also like the writing style of the author.  He does a very good job with imagery and painting the picture that he is trying to tell.  He also makes sure to include all of the small details so that the reader knows whats happening at all times.  It is not my favorite book overall, but it is enjoyable to read.

Writing Style of Dark Tide and Unanswered Question in Freakonomics

Dark Tide

Two aspects of Dark Tide that i favor is the author's organization and style. Dark Tide uses rather specific time settings by incorporating specific days and times. This allows me, the reader, to better imgine what was going on during a certain scene. This organization is shown in mainly the chapter headings but occasionally during the reading itself. I also appreciate Stephen Puleo's ability to incorpoate real pictures of what had happened or what something looked like, because it makes the understanding a bit more easy.

I like also how the author's use of the narrative style allows the reader to see through a variety of character's eyes so we get a full point of view of what was specifically happening. It allows us to see the story from every angle. This is shown in chapters six and seven most notably, the day that the tank collapsed. In chapter six, it shows a variety of diffrent people's perspectives on what they were doing that day and in the following chapter how quickly, hours later, things could go terribly wrong. For example they show Martin Clougherty in chapter six simply walking home from the Pen and Pencil Club and reviewing his thoughts on prohibition and moving and then in chaper seven struggling for his and his family's lives.

Freakonomics

A question I have about Freakonomics is, how and why did the authors choose these very specific comparisons for this book? So far this book has been quite entertaining with the comparisons and hidden connections between what seemed to be very different topics. For example I am perplexed as to how they decided to compare the cheating ways of sumo wrestlers and school teachers when many other groups of people cheat ; or how they decided to compare specific cases such as Roe vs. Wade and the sudden drop in crime rate when the drop in crime could have been for a million other different reasons.

I am interested to see how each of these books play out and also what my fellow classmates' thoughts on these books are.

Writing Style of Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J Dubner

It is quite clear from my own reading experiences so far with Freakonomics that it is a very unique and interesting book. I'm about half way through and I can see a reoccurring pattern in the way each chapter is structured, or the style in which each are written.

Each chapter starts with a question, creating a condescending tone which Levitt/Dubner use to ask more questions until a conclusion is reached. In chapter 1 the question is "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?" Following this, short paragraphs still abiding by the introductory tone, speak theoretically and end in a question, building the reader's imagination and thirst for answers. The third and fourth paragraphs ends in no question. These paragraphs build the reader back up with an explanation of each theoretical idea when it is put into place.

Following this, is a long explanation of how the conclusions let to relates to the principles of economics. By this time, the tone has turned from condescending to informative. With this, the word choice also changes. In the first two paragraphs, words like "imagine", "some", and "should" are used to build up questions that will be answered in the following paragraphs where the diction changes to include words like "enacted", "announced", and "added". Proving, the explanation spoke of actions rather than questions.

Another important tool used by the authors was irony. Not so much speaking in ways that was ironic, but rather exploring situations that had ironic outcomes. The entire book is based on the result of specific incentives, and the result of economic incentives can backfire to do the complete opposite than the reason they were implemented. For example, in Chapter One, A fine of $3 was added to the bill of any parent who arrived late to pick up their child at daycare. Apparently, a $3 fee is actually a way to pay back one's distress for leaving their children at daycare late. Ironically, this did the complete opposite of what it was supposed to do.

Overall, the style plays on the conventional wisdom of our society, which is actually not wise at all. This book looks at correlations and asks why they are; and proves so with statistics. The only way this is accomplished is through a specific style that thirsts on the needs of the reader and rewards it with intriguing explanations.

July Assignments

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July holiday.  Your comments from the previous month were insightful and interesting to read.

Here are your new assignments.  For Dark Tide I'd like you each to create a new post related to any one of the following topics: 1) The author's writing and organizational style, 2) A connection you can make to something else you've learned about history, or 3) an analysis of a character from the book. These topics should give you ample freedom to explore and write about something interesting to you.  For whichever book you've chosen as your second read create a new post related to a claim you disagree with or a question you believe the author has left unanswered.  Be sure to support your post with ample details.

Please comment on at least two posts made by classmates.  Your comments can be questions, ideas you agree or disagree with, elaborations on the original post, or any other direction you'd like to take.  Please aim to complete your original posts by Sunday, July 22 in order to give your classmates enough time to read and comment on your original posts.

June only has a few days remaining, so this month's duties will be light.  I would like you to do three things.  

1. Post which book you'll be reading in addition to Dark Tide.

2. Write one paragraph about something has surprised you so far from either book. 

3. Write three things you think your classmates don't know about you. 

As this month is short, you are not required to comment on classmate's posts for June.  You may want to try it so you can experiment with the feature, but it is not required. 

My copies of the new books just came in the mail and I'm very excited to read them as they've been on my list for a few years now.  

3 things you probably do not know about me:

1. I did not own my first cell phone until I was 22. 

2. I played at Symphony Hall as a senior in high school.  2nd seat, bass clarinet section in the All-State band.

3. I used to caddy during the summers when I started teaching.  

Welcome to the A.P. U.S. History summer reading blog for the 2012-2013 school year.  There will be questions released throughout the summer for you to contemplate.  These questions should foster analysis of the readings and also conversations among the class.  I look forward to working with all of you as this blog will be a great introduction to your work ethic and insight.  Please contact me with any questions throughout the summer. 

Remember, organization is the key to enjoying all the beach and/or pool time you're looking forward to.