I love going to Subway. Not for the food, that pretty much sucks. But I like the way they make the sandwiches. I think if Adam Smith designed a sandwich shop, it would look a lot like Subway. Adam Smith was the father of modern economics. He was a huge proponent of the division of labor. Of course he also opined that, in extreme cases, division of labor could lead to a stupid, dull, and unfulfilled existence for the majority of humanity. He obviously never thought about the time saved, and the immense wealth created and shared by all, that the division of labor could provide, opening the doors to climbing Maslow's pyramidal heirarchy of needs, blah, blah, blah.
Back to Subway. If you've ever been in there you know that one person greets the customer and asks what kind of bread and meat you would like. He then slides the product to the next person, who applies the vegetables and the toppings before passing it on to the next person who wraps the sandwich and hands it to the cashier, who rings you up and tells you to have a nice day. I know that all restaurants function in this manner, but it is so easy to see at Subway. It all happens right before your eyes. It is the most efficient, fastest way to make a terrible sandwich known to man. And it always makes me smile, especially because I know I'm not the one that has to eat it. One of the things I miss the most about Mass is the plethora of small, family-owned sub shops. It seems like every town, no matter how small, has at least 2 or 3. In Indiana, also known as the nation's largest truck stop, the choices are significantly limited. Less competition means worse food. Something else Adam Smith could have agreed with. And so that brings us to...drumroll please...Book review time.
Back by popular demand. Really, the letters, emails, and phone calls I received from publicists and authors begging me to review their books has been overwhelming since my last effort. They have been sending me free advanced reader's copies and just-released hardcovers by the truckload. So I thought I'd try to keep the gravy train moving. Free stuff is free stuff, even if most of it is crap.
I recently read P.J. O'Rourke's "Peace Kills". Unfortunately, this belongs in the crap section. Kind of like the food at Subway. Stale, homgenized, and tasting slightly of tin. I like O'Rourke. He can be funny, incisive, sarcastic and obnoxious. Sometimes all in the same sentence. I admire that. But this one has none of his usual humor or caustic wit. In fact, it felt to me as if he got his bar tab one night at closing time, took one look at it and said "Oh, Oh. Time to write another book." Then, during the cab ride home, he texted his secretary and ordered her to cobble together some of his old pieces, "Anything about foreign policy, that seems to be big right now, and Chomsky's making a killing", added a little commentary, hopefully before he sobered up, and sent it to his publisher. Now I know why I got it for 3 dollars online.
The reason I brought up Subway and Adam Smith in the beginning of this, is that I actually like O'Rourke's style. I've read a few of his other books and found them to be amusing and informative. He is, above all, a smart-ass. But he's also very smart. This makes for good reading in my opinion. 'Peace Kills' is not one of his better efforts. I recommend his book on Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations'. That one was so good, I was grateful that I slogged through the original before I read O'Rourke's take on it. Smith is difficult to read. He makes a point, then remakes it over and over and over again. Finding the nuggets of gold in 'Wealth of Nations' is akin to searching for a handful of needles in a 900 page haystack. Actually, pins might be more apropos. The search is long and difficult, but it is well worth the effort in order to see the depth and sincerity of his arguments in their original context. O'Rourke manages to capture the essence of the entire book in a scant 200 pages. Simply by visiting several countries, getting drunk, and writing down his observations, he highlights the main points of 'Wealth of Nations' as well as Smith did. Quite extraordinary if you ask me. That's why I was so disapointed in 'Peace Kills'. He set the bar too high, and this one falls woefully short.