Myths of Love by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Jerome Singerman

Yes, "Dr. Ruth," the ebullient little sex therapist who had best sellers and was a talk show favorite years ago...is back. At 86, and with no Johnny Carson or Merv Griffin to amuse, she's not been booked on high profile talk shows, and her new tome isn't from a major book company. The benefit is she can do as she pleases, which might explain this very silly excuse for a book.

It was sold to an indie company, and they are attempting to sell it to you, as something that "analyzes ancient myth and its relevance to 21st century relationships." Maybe. Maybe not. The main problem is that the book doesn't seem co-written by Westheimer. The tone is very academic, reflecting the lecture style of Harvard's Jerome E. Singerman. Having met them both, I can't quite understand the problem except that Dr. Ruth, who is as peppy as ever in person, apparently didn't have many juicy case histories to balance what reads like lecture transcripts.

The chapter on Narcissus is typically dry: "The dictionary defines a narcissist as someone exhibiting excessive vanity or self-admiration..." This could've led to some recollection of a comically pathological egomaniac, but instead, the chapter ends with a cut-and-paste joke: "Woody Allen once said that the nice thing about masturbation is that it's sex with someone you love. This is apparently not a thought that would ever occur to a character in Greek or Roman mythology..."

This is supposed to be a book, not a collection of easy-going lectures on mythology, but the formula for each chapter is the same. There's a reminder of who Iphis and Ianthe were, or Pasiphae, or Pygmalion...and nothing from Dr. Ruth to explain how these dimly colorful figures relate to people today, or the problems related to sex on the Internet, STD's, rampant porn, lifelike rubber sex dolls or anything else that might get in the way of, or enhance, sexual gratification in the 21st Century.

Leda and the Swan? Well, one doesn't expect that Dr. Ruth ever had a patient who had sex in an aviary. So why bother?

That would be a question for co-author Singerman, perhaps, as the un-Ruthian prose strays from the myth itself to a rumination on how this myth was depicted in art:

"The artists of the Italian Renaissance seem to have loved the story of Leda nad the swan. Correggio places the couple at the middle of a jolly forest scene. Here, Leda is sitting in the shade of a tree by the edge of a pool or a stream, facing forward. The swan stands between her open legs, his neck curving upward between her naked breasts, his bill reaching just far enough to chuck her under the chin. She looks down rather sweetly at him..." A photo of the painting would've sufficed instead of all the padding. Perhaps Dr. Ruth did add the final paragraph, recalling "...some very curious medical illustrations of the following centgury that depict the elongated but obviously non-erect human penis oddly but gracefully curving — like the neck of a swan perhaps? In one example I have in mind, the artist has even omitted any representation of the testicles, but has drawn a setion of the legs flanking the organ so that they look very much like the outspread wings of the bird. I don't want to put too fine a point on it, but if all this is not quite as anatomically impossible as a woman who lays eggs, I nevertheless suspect that the two are very closely related."

I don't want "to put too fine a point on it" either, but the reason Dr. Ruth was so popular on TV and in her early books, was that she didn't sound like some guy from Harvard recalling old paintings and what he remembers from Mythology 101. Why even include this Leda business, and with no photos? Rather than ask Singerman, the question is put to Westheimer. It turns out the "Leda" legend is one of her favorite myths because... "I love swans. Every year when I go to Zurich, I say hi to the swans on Lake Zurich. It reminds me of the years I was a child in an orphanage in Switzerland...and now I am coming back to visit as Dr. Ruth." Oh. Ok.

The Westheimer name will probably help dispose of copies to libraries, and should be one of the more successful titles from the indie press involved. It's also nice to see that she hasn't been soured on publishing after offering what she remembers as one of her better manuscripts to the infamous S.P.I. book company circa 1988. They slipped into bankruptcy, intentionally leaving printers, authors and even its defense lawyers stiffed, and were, far more than Westheimer, experts in the art of screwing.

RED CLOUD - Native American Warrior Gets a Bio

Though the authors say they were “primarily interested in telling a good yarn," there's a lot of research and scholarship in their study of neglected warrior Red Cloud, with really few embellishments or "interpretations" that may annoy a scholar looking to separate (to use Mort Sahl's famous catchphrase) what's "actual if not factual."

The fact is, while most everyone has heard of Geronimo, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, few have heard of Red Cloud. In fact, activist Leonard Peltier (a Lakota/Chippewa) didn't even list him among his Top 10 Greatest Native Americans...which included Chief Seattle, Chief Dull Knife, and Sequoyah. Red Cloud's main claim to fame is his victory over Captain William J. Fetterman and his men in 1866, following a series of raids against Fort Phil Kearny. Come to think of it, Fetterman is not well known either, even if he and his soldiers put up a better and more heroic fight than Custer did at the Little Big Horn.

Most any book on Native Americans is already loaded with a hundred years of resentment and misinformation on either side...with some bemoaning the white man's relentless expansion into another ethnic group's territory, and others resenting the guilt over how a giant expanse used for little more than tribal squabbles and buffalo hunting was transformed into a great industrial nation. Red Cloud's background, his fearsome reputation, and yes, some grim instances of savagery...are all covered here in depth, making this the definitive book on the subject. It also is the deepest account of the Fetterman debacle and also offers surprisingly vivid insight into the motley crew at Fort Phil Kearney. Custer, Sitting Bull and The Little Big Horn remain the most popular story regarding the Old West and Native Americans, but there's a movie waiting to be made on the world of Red Cloud...perhaps some Hollywood big shots are reading this book at this very moment.

Five Came Back: WW2 and Mark Harris

If "Five Came Back" seems like a familiar title to you, congrats, and nibble some popcorn.

If you know it was a film with a who's who of obscure character actors and B-list leading men (Chester Morris, Kent Taylor, Patrick Knowles, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine, Joseph Calleia, and C.Aubrey Smith) put a whole tin of Jiffy Pop on the stove.

Mark Harris's new book is about World War 2 in Hollywood, as seen through the eyes of five directors. In these days of ADD and cable channel surfing and streaming videos, who'd expect a book to focus on just one person? Harris takes a look at what John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler and Frank Capra did during the war, daddy.

Harris, who previously wrote "Scenes from a Revolution," about the five 1967 Academy Awards "Best Picture" nominees, dials back to the start of World War 2, and examines what some of the most influential directors decided to put on the silver screen. Capra, for example, chose to make some "We We Fight" propaganda films, and heroically endured shrapnel in his arm while he filmed the Battle of Midway.

Film buffs are free to rifle the pages back and forth, looking at favorite directors or films first, or for juicy gossip (Huston's sex life, Ford's antisemitism). More devout cinema fans will be at the edge of their seats over the authors analysis of "The Battle of San Pietro," for example, and how much of Huston's script was actual, if not factual. The 40's...many who were in World War 2 are now gone, but not all...and Harris has been able to dig up a lot of fresh material to make this valuable and not just another Film 101 rehash from somebody who likes to talk movie trivia.

Rockefeller Eaten By Cannibals : CARL HOFFMAN

Rockefeller? If that name is associated with a gruesome death, most would think: "Clark Rockefeller." That was the alias of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who pretended to be a related to the rich and famous clan...in order to scam and kill. But anthropologists, students of explorers and adventurers, and those over 50...remember the disappearance of Nelson Rockefeller's 23 year-old son Michael. Back in 1961, it was believed he'd drowned while on an expedition.

The truth? He was killed with one thrust of a spear and an ax to the head...and then most likely gutted, sliced from neck to butt, and roasted over a fire. His arms and legs would've been gnawed on by a happy, grinning collection of savages eager to get their share of a rare commodity; meat. Carl Hoffman's new book, "Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art," describes the world of the Asmat tribe of the Dutch-owned New Guinea. Today, we are surprised there are still backward, brutal natives who indulge in cannibalism, superstition and bizarre blood-lust rituals. Back then, those, such as Rockefeller, looking for museum pieces, knew they were risking their lives bartering with savages.

In October of 1961, Rockefeller spent three profitable weeks in New Guinea offering tobacco and other goods for the natives' art, spears, masks and other objects. All went well until he reached one remote area and suffered a boating accident. Surprisingly strong and tenacious, he floated and swam for nearly an entire day until he reached the shore...where he was met by a ferocious tribe of angry, near-naked men. Author Hoffman was able to track down Dutch Catholic priest, Hubertus von Peij, who had heard about the barbaric incident via a confession from one of the natives. Yes, a man with glasses had been found, wearing nothing but strange shorts, and yes...he was killed and his skull eventually given to one of the lucky savages. Author Hoffman believes Rockefeller's brutal death was retribution for an incident a few years earlier, in which a Dutch official had a few headhunters killed as a warning to cease their illegal practice. Seeing a lone, helpless white man had set them off, although the author does state "Headhunting and cannibalism were as right to them as taking communion or kneeling on the carpet facing Mecca."

The bizarre world of a cannibal tribe comes to life once again, helped by the "solved mystery" of a famous man's disappearance. The story is fascinating and factual, although the exact method of butchering and cooking Michael Rockefeller is based on Asmat custom, not eyewitness reporting. Perhaps it's for this reason that so far, nobody from the Rockefeller family has officially agreed that the young man's death was murder and not drowning.