The day after Labor Day (six days from today) our new book comes out, and our publisher finally gave us permission to excerpt it.  I’m going to post the entire introduction so you’ll know why we came to write this particular book.

The story you will read will be true and the names won’t be changed to protect the ‘innocent.’  Until the events transpired that you will soon be reading about, I was not especially a proponent of fast weight loss.  I mean a low-carb diet will make people lose weight quickly, but that’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about the people who used to come into my office saying, “I’ve got my high school reunion in a month.  How much weight can I lose by then?’  I always considered these as fairly ludicrous requests because the requesters clearly weren’t concerned about health issues, but simply about how they would look in the short run, without an eye to maintaining their lifestyle.

As a consequence of dealing with so many of these patients, I really developed an aversion to the notion of quick weight loss to meet some sort of deadline where appearance counted.  But, as with so many things in life, it’s easy to pontificate until you find yourself in the same position as the people to whom you’re pontificating.

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Before I get into a discussion of the absolutely phenomenal book you see pictured at the right, I’ve got a few disclosures to make.  First, I’m not much of a believer in the notion of man-made global warming or climate change (as they now call it since temperatures have been constantly falling instead of rising).  I’m a denier, in the pejorative term used by those who are believers.

Second, I’m not particularly pro-feminist.  And I certainly don’t hang around with any self-proclaimed radical feminists.  I have a wife who is smarter than I am, who is more talented than I am, and who, pound for pound, is probably a better athlete than I am, and I’m not bad. (In my defense, I can read much, much faster than she, but, she has better comprehension.) I long ago gave up the idea (if I ever really considered it seriously) that men are superior to women in any ways other than brute strength.  Having said that, however, I do believe that men are better suited to certain endeavors than woman and vice verse, but that doesn’t mean either men or women should be denied the opportunity to give whatever it is they want to do a whirl just because of their sex.  I guess I consider myself an egalitarian.  But from what I’ve seen of radical feminists, I’m not sure that I would count myself a big fan.

Given the above, you wouldn’t think I would enjoy and recommend a book written by a self-proclaimed radical feminist who is obviously a believer in global warming and the impending end of the earth as we know it.  I wouldn’t think so, either. Not my cup of tea even when it is sort of preaching to the choir.

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While looking for an old post for a reader, I came upon one of the bestseller lists I did last year, which reminded me that I hadn’t posted one of these in a while.  I had been trying to keep them up quarterly so that readers of this blog could see the books other readers were buying, but, what with all the links required, these posts are a real hassle to put up. So, since I, like most everyone else, gravitate toward pleasure and away from pain, I’ve not kept up with my quarterly timetable.

I can probably muster up the gumption to do it annually, so here is the list of the bestselling books from 2008.  These are the books that readers of this blog purchased through Amazon by clicking on the links or book icons on my blog, MD’s blog and the home page of the website.  I’ve listed only books not written by MD and/or me.

The number one bestselling book was Mistakes Were Made, which is one of the better books that I’ve read in a long, long time.  It’s now out in paperback, so if you haven’t read it, get a copy.  It explains in an easy-to-read way how the confirmation bias works and why we all need to carefully examine why we believe what we believe.  And it shows the validity of Stuart Chase’s famous quote: Read more »

Seattle skyline from the plane window as we flew in a couple of days ago

I’ve long thought the critical thinking skills of the majority of Americans have been decaying over time.   More and more people seem to accept whatever they hear from a television commentator or a newspaper reporter without ever considering that whatever they’re hearing may be incorrect.   In many ways we’ve become a nation of sheep, and kind of stupid sheep, at that.   When I ponder on this, I always think of my favorite George Carlin quote:

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

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Skulls in our library. See bottom of post for description.

In 1981 MD and I read a book that changed our lives.  I don’t know why because I didn’t have a particular interest in paleontology or anthropology at the time, but I picked up a copy of Lucy: the Beginnings of Humankind by Donald Johanson.  The book sat around the house for awhile before I found the time to read it, but when I started reading, I couldn’t quit.  It was an absolutely riveting read.

I carried the book with me and read it everywhere.  At the time, I was doing a lot of emergency room medicine, so I took the book along on one of my 24 hour shifts.  As luck would have it, I had a slow night, so instead of sacking out as I would have usually done, making sure I got some shut eye before the inevitable car wreck or gunshot wound showed up to shatter my peace, I read Lucy.  I finished it sometime during the middle of the night and the couldn’t get back to sleep for thinking about it.  I couldn’t wait to get home to MD and tell her about it and force her – at gunpoint, if necessary – to read it.  I couldn’t live with myself if I were this enthusiastic about something and had no one to discuss it with.

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