Manly men doing manly things in manly ways on manly adventures.
I finished Tim Cahill's delightful little travel book Jaguars Ripped My Flesh and was casting about for another well-written book about man vs. nature when I came across David McCullough's in-depth study, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870 - 1914.
I haven't finished it - in truth, where I am in the story they haven't even started digging yet - but the preliminaries are fascinating. What's even more fascinating is that 100 years later China is building another canal through Nicaragua, following the route that was originally decided on - then discarded - in the 1870s. You can read more about that here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-31936549.
Oh, China - is there nothing you can't do? Tammy asked me why China thinks it can just build islands
( http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/opinion/sunday/chinese-mischief-at-mischief-reef.html?_r=0)
and dig canals all over the place; I said it was like the old joke: "Where does an 800 lb gorilla sit?" Wherever it wants. The last thing we need is to upset 1.3 billion indoctrinated people who know Wing Chun and can hack our defense system; it went badly in 1950's Korea. I wonder how it will be under their rule when they take over the world? Will they let us use their fancy canal?
Why? Because it's there. Closer to us.
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