{"id":5005,"date":"2013-12-18T13:49:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T18:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5005"},"modified":"2014-01-08T14:45:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T19:45:32","slug":"front-porch-perspective-gift-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-gift-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: Gift Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville <\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2001, PBS aired a television series entitled \u201cCracking the Code of Life\u201d, which \u201cchronicled the race to capture one of the biggest prizes in scientific history: the complete letter-by-letter sequence of genetic information that defines human life — the human genome.\u201d
\nThe television program ends with the two participants in the race, the publicly funded Human Genome Project and the private company Celera Genomics, both completing a rough draft of the sequence.
\nThe Human Genome Project gives us the ability to read nature\u2019s complete genetic blueprint for building a human being for the first time.
\nWhat was especially fascinating about the show was the way they made the science understandable \u2013 even for me.
\nMapping the human genome may lead to scientific discoveries or unlocking the mysteries surrounding many of man\u2019s major diseases.
\nBut, all these things pale in comparison to the real issue that the Human Genome Project should have been trying to solve; man\u2019s inability to shop for Christmas presents.
\nAnd it is that time of year, once again.
\nI believe that there is something in a man\u2019s gene pool that does not allow them to begin purchasing any presents until at least 4 p.m. on December 23.
\nMy situation is magnified, as I now need to shop for birthday gifts during the holiday season.
\nMy wife\u2019s birthday is the day after Christmas and my son\u2019s birthday is the day after that.
\nWhen I was first courting Julie, she made sure to inform me \u201cthat Christmas and my birthday are two separate and distinct events.\u201d I guess she felt shortchanged in the gift department growing up. Great, now I get to deal with the guilt!
\nI thought our son being born so close to Christmas would solve part of my Christmas buying dilemma; the argument being that Ryan is my annual and ever loving gift to Julie. I don\u2019t know why, but this did not sit very well with her.
\nIn the spirit of the holiday season that is just beginning, I offer up some book suggestions that could make a great Christmas gift.
\nFor anyone who appreciates reading biographies that touch upon history and politics, then Doris Kearns Goodwin\u2019s book, \u201cTeam of Rivals \u2013 the political genius of Abraham Lincoln\u201d, is an absolute must read.
\nWhile this 749 page book is centered on the race for the 1860 Republican nomination, it takes us through Lincoln\u2019s upbringing, his famous Illinois Senate race versus Stephen Douglas, his views and actions regarding the slavery question, his campaign for the U.S. Presidency and his handling of the U.S. Civil War.
\nI was startled by the incredible number of casualties in the U.S. Civil War; over 600,000 soldiers died, with an estimated 500,000 civilian deaths. To put this number in perspective, the 600,000 dead are more than resulted from U.S. participation in all subsequent wars combined, until this day.
\nA marvelous, insightful, thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring book.
\nFor the business person or the kid in all of us, there is a book about Lego entitled, \u201cBrick by Brick: How Lego rewrote the rules of innovation and conquered the Global Toy Industry.\u201d
\nI think most parents at some point have come across the ubiquitous Lego bricks, usually by walking over the ones that your children may have left scattered around the house.
\nWhat you might not know is that not that long ago Lego was in bad financial shape and only a wholesale change in the way they did business saved them.
\nLego management learned to really innovate to not just make incremental leaps in sales and profits but to leap frog their major competitors, Mattel and Hasbro.
\nWe all know Chris Hadfield as the first Canadian to undertake a spacewalk, and recently as the Commander of the International Space Station. But he has also accomplished a number of other things and his book, \u201cAn Astronaut\u2019s Guide to Life on Earth\u201d goes into these.
\nThe last book on my list is entitled, \u201cLong Walk To Freedom\u201d, and it is the autobiography of the late South African President Nelson Mandela.
\nI have been reading the papers and watching the news about the recently passed 95-year-old freedom fighter but I wanted to know more about the man, so I purchased his autobiography.
\nI have not yet begun to read the book but I am looking forward to \u2013 over the Christmas holidays \u2013 reading about Mr. Mandela\u2019s life before his twenty seven years in prison, the reasons behind his release, and his time as President of South Africa.
\nAny of the above books would make great Christmas presents.
\n
\nStephen can be contacted at stephengsomerville@yahoo.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville In 2001, PBS aired a television series entitled \u201cCracking the Code of Life\u201d, which \u201cchronicled the race to capture one of the biggest prizes in scientific history: the complete letter-by-letter sequence of genetic information that defines human life — the human genome.\u201d The television program ends with the two participants in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1iJ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 20:30:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}