Last week was the second anniversary of Begging the Question. I spent a while thinking of a neat way to mark that milestone, but never came up with more than this post. I didn't have the energy to scroll back through the archives for a greatest-hits-of-the-last-year post. Feel free to suggest your favorites, though.

I do want to take a moment to thank all our my readers, old and new. It wouldn't be worth doing this if you folks didn't stop by. Thanks especially to the other bloggers who link here from time to time. And thanks to Fitz-Hume for everything else.

UPDATE: Contrary to the hopes fears suggestions of various commenters, this blog hasn't died. Yet. I have just found myself unexpectedly busy and lacking in material. Both should change soon. Thanks again.

The mysterious Jane asked for a list of ten books she should read in the next year. I had an inordinate amount of trouble with this one because I don't know anything about Jane. Since I didn't have any idea what type of books she preferred or had already read, I didn't feel like going with some kind of canonical top ten, or even the ten best books I've read in the past year. Instead, I decided to go with ten books I plan to read in the coming year. I'll admit that I left out a few of the nerdier items on my reading list, but I do have a pretty eclectic taste. I already own some of these, others I plan to buy soon, and one hasn't been published yet.

1. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I really liked The Virgin Suicides, but I'm just now getting around to his follow-up. I've heard good things, though.

2. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I have an Austen collection, but always get distracted before finishing any of the novels. I'll try to buckle down this time.

3. Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov. Chris Hitchens finally convinced me to give it a try.

4. Wonder When You'll Miss Me by Amanda Davis. I have read some of Davis's short stories, and they're very good. Her novel has perpetually been on my "maybe" list when I've visited the bookstore, and I suppose it's time to graduate to "yes."

5. The Great Influenza by John Barry. I don't know if the avian flu will turn out to be a pandemic or not, but I think this will be a good book to read when you get tired of hearing the tv commentators mimic Chicken Little.

6. Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden. This one is scheduled for publication in May. Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down, has been teasing readers with wonderful tidbits in "The Atlantic." The eventual book on the Iranian hostage crisis should be excellent, and since several of the captors are now running Iran, it should provide insight into that regime. One wonders if anyone in the White House is awaiting this book as eagerly as I am.

7. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman. Klosterman is kind of a pop culture commentator, but much funnier and more insightful than that title would make him sound. I liked his Killing Yourself to Live, so I decided to go back and read one of his earlier ones.

8. Still Stuck in Traffic by Anthony Downs. Okay, there's still some nerdiness on this list. The title of this one isn't a metaphor; the book is actually about traffic. I hate traffic so much that it played a role (a minor one, but still) in my decisions about where to live, what job to accept or apply for, and where to go to law school. This book is about some planning strategies to reduce congestion. As soon as I finish it, I'm going to read Sprawl by Robert Bruegmann, a sprawl apologia. I may find it hard to be objective.

9. Dream Boogie by Peter Guralnick. Man, that Sam Cooke could sing -- and he wrote those excellent songs, too! But there was a dark undercurrent to Cooke's life, even before its bizarre and tragic ending. This huge biography of Cooke presents the good and the bad, and looks fantastic.

10. Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte. This one has been "next" on my shelf for about a month, but has gotten bumped a few times. I originally had The Chosen by Jerome Karabel here, and while I'm interested in the exhaustive study of Ivy League admissions and their impact on America, I have a feeling it would be one of those books I would buy and never read. I think I'll enjoy Royte's work on trash more.

If none of these seem worth reading, you may want to check this New York Times list of notable books from 2005 (link via Althouse). The NYT links to lists from previous years, too. You might also want to check Powell's book clubs and book blogs (thanks to PG for that tip). Anyway, I hope this helps some. Surely Jane hasn't read all of these books!

There was an item by Warren Bell in The Corner over the weekend whose title amused me. It was, "A hero is a victim who doesn't sue." The story it related: A balloon in the Macy's parade on Thursday struck a lamp post, breaking off pieces of the post. The pieces fell and injured two sisters, aged 11 and 26. Fortunately, they weren't seriously hurt. Their father says they don't plan to sue anyone over the mishap, because it was "a freak accident" and "accidents just happen."

Well, maybe. Sure, maybe the cause of these injuries was the kind of freakish, random event that no one reasonably could foresee. Charles Perrow, for example, argued that some modern technological systems are so complex that accidents were inevitable and were not the fault of any individual operator, but rather on account of the system itself. I have my doubts that ballooning is such a system. It seems eminently foreseeable that lofting a heavy balloon in high winds might lead to a collision like this.

Don't get me wrong. I can understand not wanting to sue over something like that, a case of ordinary negligence. The victims here weren't hurt very badly, they probably enjoyed most of their day in New York City, and Macy's will probably let them cut in line for Santa now. And I'm sure that being labeled a "hero" by Warren Bell is a nice reward, too.

But what if this wasn't just a simple case of the handlers not being able to keep the balloon off the sidewalk? What if parade organizers sent the balloon off on its journey with inadequate or untrained handlers? What if they knew that winds were so high that an accident was inevitable? What if some Grinch deliberately sabotaged something with the balloon in order to cause injuries? Would the father of these "accident" victims be so quick to let bygones be bygones then? And how does he know for sure that this was just a "freak accident"?

I'm not saying that litigation is the only way to answer the question of what caused the balloon derailment. Apparently, the city and the parade folk are investigating the matter and looking into whether to change their policies. But litigation would also serve the purpose of compensating the victims of the balloon accident. And for anyone who says that tort litigation drives up insurance costs, do you really expect Macy's insurers not to raise rates after this incident, even without litigation to prod them?

Here's a little entertainment news while I get back into the swing of blogging after the holiday. I found an neat interview with Will Ferrell (registration req'd, sorry) from the Charlotte paper. Ferrell is filming a movie there. Ferrell plays a NASCAR driver named Ricky Bobby, and his rival racer is French. I smell a hit.

A couple of other interesting notes from the interview. One is that another of Ferrell's upcoming movies, Stranger Than Fiction sounds like it could be good. And, Ferrell says that a film version of A Confederacy of Dunces (which I loved as a book and which Ferrell was slated for) may never happen (at least with him, I take it). Perhaps 'tis for the best. I think Dunces would make a great movie in the right hands, but I'm not sure Ferrell is right for Ignatius. I think he'll be fine tradin' paint in the NASCAR movie, though.

I was with some older family members over the holiday, so I ended up having to watch the evening network news. I saw a story about ex-FEMA Director Michael Brown starting up a disaster preparedness consulting firm. The tone of the piece, and many like it, was incredulous, or almost mocking. Forbes asked if "it takes one to know one?" I realize that many people who followed Brown's response to Hurricane Katrina might have the initial reaction that I would have had to, say, the founding of the Clinton-Nixon School of Ethics. I guess I have two responses to that sentiment (which I'll admit, was my initial gut take on it, too).

First, what do you really expect Brown to do? I suppose he could go back to the quarterhorse association or wherever he came from. But did people really expect Brown to take a vow of poverty, flagellate himself with a cat o' nine tails, and go live in a cave where no one can see his shame? The man needs a job, and he might as well make some money off the fact that when you think of disasters, Michael Brown's name comes to mind.

Second, maybe this is a ridiculous venture. But let the market decide that. If disaster planners think Brown learned some valuable lessons, they'll pay him what he's worth. If everyone thinks it's a liability to have Brown giving preparedness advice, he'll go out of business. Yes, I think it sucks that he had to get his training the hard way. And I'm not necessarily saying I would ask his advice. But if some people will, why not let him charge them for it? Now that's the American dream!