Introducing Buff Bookman

Dear Readers: One of the responsibilities of an aging genius is to cultivate new talent, which is why Dr. Ink will be turning over some of his space to newcomer Buff Bookman. Buff will offer an occasional alternative perspective to that of the so-called “Book Babes” who write for this site. His manly perspective on bibliomania is meant to focus on books, new and old, that Doc, uh, that is, Buff, thinks will be of interest to journalists. So Buffster, let’s get ready to rumble.


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Thanks, Doc. Buff’s first recommendation is “The Arithmetic of Life and Death,” by George Shaffner. Published in paperback by Ballantine Books (1999), this volume of 204 pages costs $10.95. Buff’s ranking: 3 and a half biceps out of five.

The big dirty secret about journalists is that most are innumerate. That’s why they make so little money. They can’t even calculate the percentage increase in their salaries; or compare that increase to the rate of inflation. “The Arithmetic of Life and Death” is for them. George Shaffner should become their hero and their god.

The reference to theology is not hyperbole. Consider Shaffner’s description of how the book came into being: “[The book] began by accident in 1997 when I noticed a change in my octogenarian mother-in-law. Normally a cheerful, bright woman, her mood began to darken as her brother-in-law, also in his eighties, slowly lost his fight against cancer and its complications. Certainly, my mother-in-law was sad for him and for her older sister. But there was something else gnawing at her from within. For the first time in her life, she was afraid of dying. Though a devout, lifelong Catholic, she was afraid because she wasn’t absolutely sure that there was another life waiting for her on the other side of this one.”

Rather than give her a hug or a good snort of brandy, Shaffner wrote an essay “that uses common sense, along with rudimentary chaos theory and a little inferential logic, to establish a secular case for life after death. I do not claim to have cracked the mystery of the ages, but my mother-in-law seemed to feel a lot better after she read it.”

This is Buff’s kind of accountant, a guy who can apply simple arithmetic to problems small and large, from scatology to eschatology. Buff’s favorite chapters include “The Value of Education,” a funny rant in which the author persuades potential high school dropouts that every hour of high school they attend is worth about $200, which is even more than plumbers make.

The mysterious powers of compound interest are explained in “Investing Young.” Sin is proscribed in the chapter on “Gambling” but humorously prescribed in “The Case for Smoking.” What are the chances of your running into someone you know in the airport? Does alien life exist? Why are we here? No problem lies beyond the ken of the professor’s slide-rule.

Here are two reasons why journalists will benefit from this book:
1.  Shaffner is a fine writer who demonstrates how to combine numbers and narratives, a craft we all need to embrace.
2.  After reading this book, we’ll be less phobic and more imaginative about the world of numbers that surrounds us.

Muscle up, class.

– Buff