Feldman's Faves: January 16, 2023

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

I hope people are enjoying life “BAC” at the firm (last time I use this pun, I promise). But first, I would like to take an informal poll – can you please let me know if (a) you have ever heard of the movie, “Back to the Future”, (b) you have ever seen the movie “Back to the Future”, or (c) none of the above. I’m actually most curious about those who pick (c).

Last week (at least on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) felt very much like the pre-Covid era and was really nice to be able to gather, have random conversations on the staircase and work together in the same space. I think more time together will be beneficial for all of us.

For those of you who are football fans this week has been epic. The College Final was a total blowout that should have invoked the mercy rule. This week’s games in the NFL were also amazing and Buffalo feels like the team of destiny this year (despite yesterday’s lackluster performance). For those of you who couldn’t care less you probably used your time this weekend in a much more productive manner than me.

The theme this week is historical in nature.

THE NIGHTINGALE By: Kristin Hannah – This book came highly recommended to me from a number of my friends and I can understand why. Kristin Hannah does an incredible job in setting the scene and feelings that people in the French resistance lived through during the Nazi occupation of France. The Nightingale is a novel of two sisters who experienced the war in two very different ways but both of whom were heroes. One took wounded allied soldiers across enemy lines to safety and the other stayed at home hiding Jewish children even as Nazi soldiers billeted in her home. This story is one that shows the incredible feats of bravery that people are capable of during the absolute worst of times. As one reviewer notes, “Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II. In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews.” I have read many books about WWII and all of its horrors. This book shows these horrors from a perspective I had not really focused on previously. Here’s a good review from The Bookish Elf - https://www.bookishelf.com/book-review-the-nightingale-by-kristin-hannah/

Freakonomics Radio - In Search of the Real Adam Smith – Adam Smith is the most quoted (we all know about the “invisible hand”) and misunderstood economist. The Chicago School adopted him as their guru but if you read more carefully you learn that Smith was not simply extolling the virtues of free markets (which he certainly did) but also expressed his views of their limitations. In this episode of Freakonomics Radio, we explore the story of the real Adam Smith and his complete view of the world. Here is an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “How did an affable 18th-century “moral philosopher” become the patron saint of cutthroat capitalism? Does “the invisible hand” mean what everyone thinks it does? We travel to Smith’s hometown in Scotland to uncover the man behind the myth. (Part 1 of a series)”: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519?i=1000589333538

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon