LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY

After finishing Ivanhoe, I started the death issue of Lapham's Quarterly.  It has articles on subjects like animal grief and last meals, and Jessica Mitford's book The American Way of Death. (I should read that someday.)

Last night I dined at the Mengrai Thai restaurant downtown with the Life Begins at 40 Meetup group. (There were about 25 people there.) I think I prefer the Golden Thai restaurant, or at least for my taste that place is almost as good for a bit less money.

We finished The World at War this evening.  In the larger sense, it's hard to imagine how they could have done it significantly better.  But there are a lot of minor shortcomings.  One example is that they say very little about China's eight-year war, except to mention that they lost 15 million people, mostly to starvation. (I suppose they had a hard time finding eyewitnesses in the communist bloc, which would also explain why there's rather little about Poland.) There's also little about India, and the Japanese veteran who speaks admiringly of the Korean "comfort women" seems unaware that they were often coerced.

Another shortcoming is that there isn't that much about the Commonwealth:  the episode about the Battle of Britain omits the Dominions' all-important support, though they do mention the Canadian navy's role in the Battle of the Atlantic.  They do mention the Commonwealth in the last episode, where Imperial War Museum director Noble Frankland (who had a big influence on the series) mentions in the last episode that the Bomber Command he served in was multinational.