I posted The Fall of Baghdad by Jon Lee Anderson on the side panel before really reading it. Now that I did, I have mixed feelings about the book. It is basically an American journalist's first person account of the weeks before the day the coalition forces entered bagged with an extended account of his various trips back over the next year. The primary source material is his own observations and accounts of some of his contacts, including his driver and a doctor/poet who was a favorite of Saddam Hussein. The net result is that the book is somewhat limited in scope, though written in an easy to read/novel fashion.
Likewise, I think he spent too much time in the lead-up to the war, resulting in material that did not really add to the overall story. Some insights, including the problem of looting/lack of control, probably could have been handled in a more detailed fashion. The best part might be the last chapter, an extended epilogue with various quick takes respecting the year after the fall of bagged. So, though worthwhile, the book was a bit of a disappointment.
The same can be said about today's football games. Though playing well, fans of the NY Giants and Jets know not be too cocky, realizing both team's penchant to keep things a bit too interesting and choke at the worst moments. The Jets have played down to too many teams this week, and this time (helped by a poor outing by the QB, who left mid-4Q for medical reasons), they gave the game away to Buffalo (3-5). A bit of late game magic failed when the defense could not make the stop needed to give the offense a shot to come back from behind (the back-up, after a safety, fairly quickly got them halfway to pay dirt).
The Giants started off strong vs. another team that started the day off 2-5 ... a quick fourteen points seemed to mean the Bears would play their expected role. Not so fast -- twenty points in the 2Q, mostly early Christmas presents, made it 20-14. A mid-4Q score + 2pt shot made it 28-14, Bears with more time left for the Giants to embarrass themselves in front of their hometown fans. The two games did provide time to finish the book, six hours of football like this being a bit too much for me to bear ... pun appropriate, if not intended.
Last week was a respite, but it just hasn't been a good few weeks for NY sports. btw I found out the TMQ is still around and added his link on my blogroll. He should have a thing or two to say about the bad play of Jersey/A and Jersey/B. Did I say already that nothing is worse than sloppy football? Not that I think Bills and Bears fans probably will be too sympathetic.