keep business over the years, by it's a appropriate actually, the weather, because it's with seasons which people were known as the hippy-dippy stereo types of the city, and i really wanted with "season of the witch" to tell a history of the city with the same sense of the city's toughness, of its mystery and the rugged atmosphere. they were a tough irish catholic down, a traditional city in many ways, and the first wave of history that came to the city really had the drawbridge pulled up on them. many of the kids couldn't get treatment with drug problems and other medical problems. they were given a cold shoulder by the city officials, the cops harassed them so that was only the beginning of what became the first culture war here in san fransisco. america's first culture war was the civil war within san fransisco itself between the new forces, social forces that swept into the city in the 1960s and then the 1970s with gays, and once it took hold, it became bloody. i write in the book that so-called san fransisco values were not born with flowers in their hair, but born howling in blood and strife. the book has a happy ending because i think the city ultimately triumphs, resolves differences after very brutal times, and with the help of a mayor who was not terribly beloved in the city at first, couldn't win the office because she was a little straight laced for san fransisco. dianne feinstein, but she was the kind of calming hand, a stable political figure that the city needed after all the trauma that went through in the 1970s with jonestown, the people's temple, the assassinations of the mayor and harvey and so on. the city triumphed in end because of the 49ers, and people don't think of sports team of having that mystical power, but i think the 49ers, a team that kind of mirrored san fransisco itself, a very poetic coach, bill walsh, some ways in a gladiator, brought the city together for the first super bowl victory in 1982. the way the city dealt with aids, i think, was very significant. here's a city who went through very fractious times over gay rights, gay liberation, violence directed against gays on the streets here, and the city could have reeled backwards into the abyss at the point. they didn't know how the virus was spread, there was panic beginning to arise in san fransisco and throughout the country. people didn't know whether they could eat in restaurants where gays were working or even go to clothing stores, and once again, though, the city came together though, and, again, because of dianne feinstein's leadership in part, daughter of a doctor, someone with a medical background herself, married to a doctor, and the medical community in the city led by some young doctors and nurses at the aids ward, san fransisco's general, dr. paul and others, and they didn't know it at that point whether they were taking home the infections to their children, families, but they stood their ground, and they began to treat the sick and the ailing as if they were our children, the brothers, that we were part of the san fransisco family, and that, in essence, is what san fransisco values is all about. we take care of our own here. when the rest of the country was rejecting the aids vaccinations, dumping them in the city, putting them on airplanes to be flown to san fransisco in their dies days, san fransisco took them in and took care of them. we take care of our own. that's the value here. one of the key people who did that, going back to the 1960s, i'm very glad sheer with us today, dr. david smith, who was the brave, young doctor back in the 1960 #s who stood up to the medical establishment in this town when they were not treating the young on the streets, the runaways, swarming into san fransisco in the summer of 1967. st. mary's hospital nearby, and they would not treat young people who had drug overdoses and in emergency situations. the hay dash creek clinic under dr. smith and brave staff scraped together $500, i think, to open the clinic, and the first day, there were hundreds of young people lined up outside the clinic, next day, there were more, ran out of medicine, bandages. it was like a war zone. they treated people with problems that were more acute than problems in third world countries than a prosperous american city, but they stood their ground, and that's the kind of toughness i think that san fransisco really, you know, people forget how tough a town this is, and because of that toughness, we do have lasting institutions here that have become the embodiment of san fransisco values, and the free clinic was high among them. we have a wonderful residence of the hate community back in those days, someone who lived across the street, marilyn, who i interview in the book and tell wonderful stories. i hope she tells some what it was like. the hate was a small town, grateful dead living across the street, the jefferson airplane, and marilyn, glad you are here as well. i want to end by reading a section from the book that i think also conveys the sense of toughness about the hate in particular. they told me about the group, the neighborhood activists, the heros of hate, and i was amazed. i never read about this before. it was a commune called the good earth commune. how many people here heard of that commune? quite a few. that's great. well, it was news to me during the interviews for the book. they had several houses in the neighborhood here, not the stereotype hippies, but they were tough, ex-cons, vietnam veteran, they had been on the streets for a long time. they were tough, and they knew how to take care of themself, and they stood their ground. they moved into the abandoned houses in the area to fix them up, started businesses, started a car mechanic business, a cleaning business, house painting business, and it became a community at a time when other disstressed neighborhoods like the philmore were being bulldozed by agencies in san fransisco, and that's a great tragedy, of course, as one's thriving black neighborhood in san fransisco, that it was called the harlem of the west, great music coming from the neighborhood, it was leveled. the hate could have gone in that direction as well, but by the late 60s, hard drugs were taking over the neighborhood, and it took the good earth commune in part to stand their ground and help clean up the neighborhood, and that's the part of the book i want to share with you right now, and then we're going to go to the questions, and i'd love to have back and forth with y'all. this is chapter 17 in my book, love's last stand. the hate was a war zone. by the time that robert mccarthy found his way there in 1969, but he had seen worse. he served in vietnam on a patrol boat on the upper kong river near cambodia. it was the apock limings experience -- apocalypse experience. i killed a lot of people. i never said that until recently, he said. when he returned to the united states, he was stationed in treasure island in san fransisco bay. despite medical illness to get a medical discharge. one time, way too high on white lightning acid, he considered suicide. the reality was setting in, and it felt good to have a good, he recalled. they clutched pouches, and they were sent into action. the hate beckoned across the choppy cold waters of the day. he went strolling in the haven he read about years before in "life" magazine. he was not looking for sex, but comrade, a difficult connection to find in those days. speed freaks were hanging out, passing anybody who went by. a hooker passed, and they tried to pull her in the doorway. she broke away, and the navyman pitched them a look of death, and they backed off the woman. it was only enhanced by the acid. 20 yards pass the bridge, there was a loud scuffle behind him and crack of a gunshot. the young man said, my, god, they shot me. the kids who ventured into the hate from the suburb to score drugs, and jumping into action, he carried him to the corner where the girlfriend was waiting in the father's t-bird. the introduction started out as pure misery, but then he got lucky. he went to the ever loving trading post where a swarm of men and women were caught up in the christmas eve mood celebration, singing, dancing, and good cheer. he talked with them. that long flowing hair on all of them, men, women alike looked beautiful. although he was trying to hide where he was from, they took a look at him and knew he was military. they receivedded him warmly. they understood. they knew what i was looking for. i was looking for a hit. he spent the night a house, just junkies crashing around. he woke up christmas morning, went to the streets searching. ran into a young man he talked to the day before at the trading post. he had a strong compact body, long blond hair and beard, a looked like thor. i wanted to touch that, not his hair, but vibe. he had an open heart. he asked the sailor if he found what he was looking for. he said no. he invited him for christmas dinner at the communal house that evening. when he showed up at 1915 oak street, headquarters of the good earth commune, he felt he was stepping into it. the ornate 3-story victorian was beautifully kept with shiny, oiled wooden floors and staircases and curtains. the dining room was dominated by a table with railroad ties and bolted together. it was filled with platters of food, roasts, vegetables, potatoes, and the room was spilling over with people, men, women, babies, black, brown, yellow, red. he just stood there quietly in the midst of the chaos taking it in. he knew he found home. the good earth commune was a central part of the second wave of the hippy settlement. it was founded in 1968 by fellow ex-convict named issac where he served four and a half years for armed robbery. the idea came to him being on parole working on the transit constructed under the bay. he an an ex-con friends pooled resources. it was just a small group of friends and the women who loved them. it grew until it was a sprawling network of more than a half dozen houses in the hate, and the ever-losing membership was estimated to number over 700 people. the good earth commune took up where the diggers left off, but they were tougher and more resilient. the core group were life hardened men and women, ex-cons, vietnam veterans, and those who knew how to survive. they called themselves a church and claimed possibility as their sackment and preached peace and love philosophy. they were no pushovers. they loved the neighborhood, but they knew it was turning into a jungle with predators and cops around every corner. they made it known they were prepared to stand and fight to defend its turf. at first, self-defense took a form of escorting female members from house to house on the main streets, but then it was a campaign to clean up the streets themselves. .. as if they owned it, but they began to run them out too. one afternoon a smack pusher came roaring down the street in his flashy car nearly running over several commune members. the crew gladly let the dealer knew what they thought of him. 10 minutes later he returned in step out of the car with a gun. what are you going to do now he said. he and several other commune members began walking straight at him. they had no fear. rico freaked out and raced away. the commune member who was there that day. they knew they had backup. houston who it grown up in a bible something family and served briefly in the air force was stationed on the roof of the good earth house with a rifle. i was ready to shoot if necessary he recalled. i knew how to use a rifle with my military and hillbilly background. not long after he moved out never to be seen again. on another occasion sag darryl ferguson and leo known like many others by their astrological nicknames witnessed a gangster wrapping up his girlfriend on the street. we stepped in said ferguson. we didn't tolerate that kind of behavior. you beat a girl and you are going to pay for. at big mistakes that ferguson had learned how to handle himself on the streets after being kicked out of his family and house when he was just 16. we came down haight street and heap pointed at me like he was going to shoot me. when we caught him we smashed them over the head with a gun and beat the hell out of him and jumped in -- dumped them in a trash can left him for dead. good earth became a bulwark in a neighborhood battered by crime and decay and asserted by the city's authorities. some longtime residents like the free clinics dr. david smith credited the commune with saving the hague. smith said he knew of no other urban neighborhood that had been rescued once the scourge of heroin had taken hold on the streets. good earth one be the heroin dealers because they were warrior tribe haight-ashbury activists calvin welch. they knew how to fight. thank you. [applause] that is your history. you are tough. so i'm going to take questions now, and i would love to hear from you particularly neighborhood residents like marilyn, doctors smith. do you want to say a few words? >> thank you david. the book is absolutely fascinating and david has played an important role in our history. he asked to share memories of our favorite story but so many thoughts came back when he was talking. haight-ashbury free clinics played the good earth and touch football. [laughter] >> who won? >> well that is my story. [laughter] in fact we had a squad. very haight-ashbury and that chair was some like it hot, some like it cold but like it anyway, go team go. i can't identify ourselves but i see one of our former chairman. [laughter] she probably wants the story. >> i think you have told the country here david. [laughter] >> their fullback, these individuals who are nameless racing for the gametime touchdown and our ceo richard frank was a former wrestling champion, knocked him out of bounds. fortunately since he he was a wrestling champion he subdued him. we won the game and everybody smoked a joint afterwards. [laughter] that is the way it was. >> a peace pipe. >> millard fillmore paid in the ashbury clinic and the good earth came in and that is the way the scene was. this brings back so many memories and we used to have this building for a rehab center and upstairs we had our board of directors meeting of which many of the people came in and where there. that is where we met dianne feinstein. she was on our board of directors and has been as chairman of our clinic ever sense. i just happen to see her a month ago. anybody who has been through it remembers it. i came up to dianne, very prominent now. she said oh high david. this is ben nibert -- my neighborhood for 52 years. i started in keys are, watching the games on the roof. my story when david asked us to share with you, it's 1967. it is a world that he just described. the neighborhood was totally crazy. i am a graduate of you see med center. [inaudible] coming down here with sick sign of career failure. it was total insanity. and what happened, we were built on rock 'n roll. the concerts, and that is how you survived. and all the celebrities came to visit us. of course i would try to get a donation from them. that is how we did it. one of which was making a movie. so, we were totally on volunteers and another line of david's book that is so good is the hell's angels ran a daycare center or something like that. only at that time would that make sense. [laughter] so what i did was i worked during the day and at hate ashford -- haight -- mike haight asbury clinic at night. auto preminger was willing to come and make a movie and make a good donation so this big limo pulled up right out there. we had dinner at a restaurant down the way and i told everybody that auto preminger was going to come. this might be an opportunity for a -- we had a lot of volunteer doctors and recall that audit -- area nobody looked at anybody's credentials. there was this volunteer physician. his name was whatever. the next day i was up at the cement center and i heard his number being page. so i go to see him. that is not the doctor. [laughter] doctor whatever said i'd had my license revoked so the person that was masquerading with his license was not dr. whatever. so i come back and otto preminger is going to come and i said we have a problem. so i went in the backroom and i said they are going to close the clinic and i asked him a simple medical question which he didn't get. so i said you know this is very serious. he proceeds to throw the chart at me, starts running down the hallway past otto preminger and the film crew and the lemieux and the hell's angels are chasing him. [laughter] he runs down the street and in 1967 if he ran down the street you would have about 100 people after you. and this fake doctor whatever, they caught him in a bush. and he was scared out of his mind. he was followed by about 100 people including the hell's angels. if you did something and haight-ashbury, that is really bad. anyway that is my story. [applause] >> you this was the same day or the day before. someone from the dead came across the street and said somebody has got to take this guy around the haight on it to her. and so, i took off with preminger, who was very short, and i don't know half a dozen very gorgeous blonde young men. [laughter] on a tour of the haight. so i i've moved into the haight in the early 60's because i could afford to live here. i was a schoolteacher in the outer mission. it was a mixed neighborhood, a lot of working class, folks -- i felt as a single woman i had moved into a real community because when i came to california i didn't know anybody. within a short period of time i was in the community. i had a family and of course the family that i ended up with was the grateful dead across the street from my first-floor walkout. and of course this is the story story -- you know i have done a lot of things in my life but nothing has got me more credit and especially with my kid, who is now almost twice the age i was when i was living here. so i was a disaster. actually the six-day war, where i lost the guy i thought was going to be my life partner. my life partner of 40 some of odd years is sitting over here.ñ and that summer i was supposed to have met him in israel and of course i didn't go because of the six-day war. and i was at loose ends and i ended up, because the hunt street clinic -- i don't know if you remember the science. it said take the trip to end the drip where love means care. i should have come over to the clinic and not gone there, because they were not using disposable needles and i got a blood test, and i became really ill with hepatitis within six weeks. and, i mean really ill as in i couldn't pick up the telephone to make a call. and people i talked with put a sign up outside my door with breakfasts, three meals a day, early morning, late at÷ñ?ñ? nig, for people to sign up and take care of me. and the dead filled in most of those times. and took great care. i had food. i had my linens changed and people helped me to the bathroom. all those things that only come from family. when a family is taking care of you. so, around the time that i was recovered enough to get out of bed and sit in my wings chair and look out the window, and the view i would have was down ashbury street and across to the dead house. i watched the big famous bus go down. and so i sat there and i just noticed who was taken away, and who was allowed to run away. little mary, a 16-year-old neighborhood kid who eventually died of an overdose in our neighborhood, was let out of the house. but i notice that jerry, and mountain girl, were not taken so i sat in the window, and when they came home from the grocery store -- >> that's jerry garcia by the way. >> that's jerry garcia by the way. would they finally pulled up in part, i open the window and just started shouting, oh my god, i thought you would never get here. i need that so badly, and they just looked. [laughter] and they came upstairs, and for mountain girl it was crucial because she had already been busted for pot. they probably would have gone away at that time for many years. the narcs were a real problem in the neighborhood. there were a lot of busts for no reason at all. there was a lot of set up, people who were not holding drugs, and so that is my story. mountain girl and jerry. [applause] >> thank you, maryland. why don't we open it up for questions. questions. anybody have any questions? >> i was fortunate enough to meet the dead before i came and worked with the great caravan, and everyone was there. when i arrived here, i think my first thanksgiving was the congress of wonders. my first christmas was spent with the houck farm over in the east bay, and then it was glorious. coming from london, where we were so gray and tight and even if big rock stars only gained 20 pounds a month. when i met the dead, what really struck me was the inclusiveness. as you know if you have met one you have met 40. i did that for three months and that was 40 years ago. i looked at your music list in the back and was delighted to see that you had -- down so low. thank you, great book. >> thank you. >> just another shot at the k. mpx. one of the chapters in the book deals with fm radio and how san francisco in many ways was the cradle for underground radio. tom donohue and the other great pioneers and that was pre-internet. it was fm radio that really pulled together the youth culture. it was a secret society and it was the music and the messages that message is that we all needed to hear. to keep us in touch with each other and for a kid like me growing up in the suburbs in l.a., i could turn on that radio at night and hear that music and those long-winded raps that the djs would do in the commercials. i want to do one shout out to a person in the front row, someone who i should also it colleges in the book, another heroin from san francisco, alyssa flores who participated i have to say in the first safe sex feel that i know of and it is behind the green door, the same version of that back in the aids era so thank you. [applause] >> i would like to ask david what he was doing during this time? >> that is for my next book. [laughter] any other questions? so what happened to the good earth? >> well, that is asatir tale. they had a strict -- part of their revenue was -- but they had a strict policy against doing hard drugs and after a few years, cocaine started to come into the city and there was a very heated debate within the commie and circle, this governing group, about how to characterize cocaine. weather was a hard or a soft drug. fatally and tragically they decided that cocaine was a soft drug and it was okay to deal. they started making a lot of money and it created a lot of tensions within the group. they had to beef up their security because you know it brought a harder element around. and they felt prey to the sort of hard drug scene that they came in fighting, and the group split up in the mid-seventies. but, a happy note. i found them because they are all on line. there is a form that has brought all the survivors together and it's a very vibrant forum, and they not only go over the old days and all that, but you can really see what these people's values were and their san francisco values are still alive in their hearts. it's really great. >> obviously people in san francisco are familiar with a lot of the aspects that would seem unreal to people from other parts of the country between a cult leader that was very influential in local politics that led a massacre in african guyana to having a politician murdered two other politicians. those kinds of elements. so in terms of when you were writing this book what were the kinds of things that you try to think about in terms of making it accessible to the rest of the country that might not be familiar with how much craziness there was in san francisco but also making them understand how great a city it was? >> yeah, that is why the book is divided into three parts and sort of the enchantment as i call it is the first part in the 60's, starting with summer love and then the middle section of the book where san francisco does fall into this very dark period. as you say the zodiac orders, the sla, symbionese liberation army and the kidnapping of patty hearst. jim jones in the people's temple and how jim jones inserted himself into the liberal power structure in this town and really compromised great heroes in the city like harvey milk and mayor moscone and then the double assassination of mayor moscone and harvey milk. one thing after the next but i do think the city came out of this as i said earlier with their values intact and stronger than ever. the san francisco values of tolerance, and openness to the chinook, to change to experimentation i think are deeply embedded in the city and now that we have won our own simple war and those values are enshrined as the rest of the country that is threatened with them right now. it's only as recent as president obama's embrace of marriage last week shows how relevant these values still are so i'm very proud of this video. i think it's a laboratory for the new, and laboratory for new ideas from medical marijuana to marriage to immigrant sanctuary, a livable minimum wage, universal health care, which is something that doctors smith and the free clinic really popularized at health care is a right, not a privilege. all of these values were fought out here first in san francisco and now the rest of the country to the horror of "fox news" who is grappling with it. so i say right on, san francisco. [applause] >> i want to give an antidote to your comment. i went back east and the decision to want to go back east to wind my horizon. i made eventual asian. i am a chinese girl. my landlady, landlord to be, they'reñññ?ñ? less -- they weree grandfather of the neighborhood? so, they have never met an asian before. in fact, one weekend they invited their whole family to come see an asian. [laughter] and one of the relatives was disappointed because i was not wearing one of those chain dynasty -- so when i told them i was in san francisco and i grew up here, they said oh you mean that city of sin? [laughter] >> so glad we have so many wonderful friends from the neighborhood here tonight. >> you spoke of the old-school irish-americans who are here. is there anyone who is a liaison between the old and the new that were sort of heroic? >> absolutely. yeah. as a matter of fact my book, as i said i wanted to write a history of san francisco. the opening of my book is about the wonderful san francisco legendary character vincent hallahan the family, but reject what he had grown up in him became that link to the new. he starts off as hallahan felt he was defender frankie eagan who was the public defender in the town and thought it was the next mayor of the city but it turned out frankie eagan was actually runningç a racket ex-cons to bump off elderly women and steal their pension, there, the longshoreman leader when the f. ei in the federal government in the cold war worked work after harry bridges was the effective labor leader runs for president under the said party ticket. the fbi goes after him with everything they have and he is thrown in prison on trumped up tax charges twice. but he raises this rolling brood of tough irish kids. terry callan hand who grew up in the neighborhood and lived in the neighborhood lawyers themselves and gary of course was the d.a. in san francisco. the only one who was given a -- janis joplin and bay of san francisco. so, this is a book that really sold itself, have to say. these stories and characters archer leave brian cassation. they ran out of the victorian house and they were providing legal services while the kids that got us did in the neighborhood full generation of tough lawyers like brian and tony went on to defend them, along with other things the good earth commune when they were subjected to one raid after the next. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> that is a good testament to tell you. and by the way that is michael who is another great heroes and a great photographer michael has been a longtime photographer going back to bill walsh and montana were seen against the thank you, michael. [applause] >> we have time companion and a roof of lawyers. michael was the chairman of the board at haight asbury clinic and the idea of the segregated health care in the go over to their office at a and eddie and there was benson kellen kelenna and that mix was also willie brown. [inaudible] there was a group of lawyers case for tony and sarah me stories. he was he would drive the car and give so many tickets please would just take it away and he never paid any bills. he was never good at paying taxes. >> i wanted to say when david calledç me up to be interviewed about the book i said, can we even remember that time period? and it was a really rare moment in the sun and hunter thompson at the theater, and i lived with marty mitchell and david talbott came in and asked if he could come and follow us. i was actually going out -- [inaudible] >> iges want to make that clear. >> i used to pass out to the prostitutes and sit with them. this is my little pink outfit, and when the prostitutes were arrested they would take them in and when they were released they would poke holes in all of the, and it was just a very very rare moment in the sun when we shared that. thank you for shedding light on that. >> thank you. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> well just briefly, you know, i think it all comes to a head. the cops were the bastion of the of old irish catholic in san francisco and it all gone to the same for a few schools together and it was an old voice network. you know, there was a lot of great police work they did particularly on some of the cases i've read about and the seibert case which a family cracked when the city was on the verge of racial civil war by the time that case was cracked. but yeah there is a lot that they as npd has an answer for too so all these tensions come together or start to boil over rather during mayor moscone's tenure. when he tries to reform the police department he brings an outsider after promising initially he would appoint one of their own mischief. he brings an outsider, charlie gain and all hell breaks loose. people are sprawling death threats in the police bathrooms, cops against mayor moscone. at one point margot st. james another sans÷ñ?ñ? francisco here organizer of the union coyote, she had some good friends and clients among the san francisco police force and one of them kicked her off one night to the fact that charlie was going to be killed that night ostensibly by the cops. he was out speaking somewhere and she wanted him to get home. as quickly as she could. so this was the kind of violent tensions that were brewing within the city over reform, because what moscone wanted to do was open up the police force to minorities. it was a very white department in those days and they were fighting it tooth and nail. and two women. so we owe moscone a great debt for standing his ground. he was the son of -- have been a basketball star at st. ignatius and he was seen as a trader by traitor by many of the kids and the men he grew up with who later became part of the power structure in this town. [inaudible] [inaudible]áuñ?ñ?ñ >> i wanted to say one thing and it is very illustrated with the chapter i read about the good earth commune because that gentleman mccarthy was a vietnam veteran and he came to the haight and was embraced by people here. he was in pain and obviously was on the brink of a nervous breakdown or worse coming out of the experience in vietnam. he was not spent on, he was not rejected. these lies spread and became these mythologies that were spread by hypernationalistic patriotic types, the right wing. for the most part i think they are completely groundless and in the city, veterans by and large were warmly embraced and when they had drug problems, when they were in dire need and no one else was taking care of them, not their families, not the patriotic types, it was the city of san francisco that took them too hard into care of these men. >> i really wanted to reinforce that david, how it started here and the haight asbury clinic was nonjudgmental approach. all of the vets in the seventies came to our clinic for detox and medical problems and the va decided that they needed to fund wherever the vets when. that was when the haight asbury clinic got its first government funding. i recall being over here in a block in these government officials came across an wanted and wanted to give me money and i said last year you tried to arrest me and now you want to give me money. it was a vietnam vet, which has a very rich history. the head of our rock medicine for a long time was glenn rasberry who came out of the vietnam vet era, country joe and the fish. but it really caught the violence of that era. over here on haight street the tax god came down. i can see it right now. they have those big shields. they would beat the out of all the hippies in about 1968. i was standing up there and i came down because they were beating the out of this kid. i came down and then they started whacking me with a nightstick. i think the great thing about san francisco was the journalism. herb cain wrote in his column the next day about how smith got eat up and they don't even beat up the red cross in wartime so we had this kind of liberal journalistic force of states that shamed the establishment into backing off and certainly you have chronicled that very well. >> thank you. >> thank you everyone for coming tonight. the books are at for sale at the front counter and david talbott will be signing at the front, so go ahead and continue the conversation at the signing table. thank you very much for coming in. [applause] [inaudible conversations] david talbott is the ceo and founder of salon. for more information visit salon.com. >> what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. >> this summer i want to read the book, do not ask what did we do which is by robert draper. is sort of an inside look at the way he manages tea party freshman in congress. there are some great lines that i've heard and read in the book that showed just how crazy it can get in there with some of these freshmen who are put in by the tea party who arguably are controlling the way that the house is running. even though they are freshmen. there is one line i have right here. apparently in a meeting, in his conference, boehner told people, yet you're asked in line and i think this is how congress has been so polarizing and a book like this would be great for summer reading just to kick back and figure out some of the dramas that are actually going on behind the scenes as we watch nothing happened. another book i would like to read is called love is a mixed tape. it is written by someone who worked for "rolling stone" but it's a personal story about how he fell in love with someone and also fell in love with him. they were very unlikely pair. and from what i understand, she died and he was devastated but then they used to make each other mixed tapes which is something i did four years and years and years with all my exes, you know. but he basically writes a book that is essentially a mix tape to her in her honor because he loved her. it sounds like it was the final mix tape for her and i can't wait to read it. that is what i'm hoping to read this summer. >> for more information on this and other summer reading list, visit the tv.org. >> as you can see this as a very short introduction to a very big subject, "the u.s. supreme court." it's not the kind of book that an author is going to do a reading from. it's not a dramatic novel, but it's a pretty dramatic story actually when you step out and think about the supreme court over the centuries. and i know many of you are probably here because the supreme court today is -- this very day or next week, three days of the health care case being argued. the court is more visible in american life than it has been for quite some time. i will be happy to chat about that in answer to your questions but i want to talk about framing in writing this book what i try to do was put myself in a position of, i'm assuming many of you, or myself for a had the chance to attend yale law school and spent the next 30 years writing about the supreme court on a daily basis for "the new york times," and that is to say somebody who is interested in public affairs, interested in the civic life of the country, but just doesn't have to be an expert on this particular topic. so what would a person like that, a person as i was in maybe some of you are, need to know, to really get a personally satisfying handle on the court? so with that as a kind of framework, what i've are posed to do is to make a series of observations that i will elaborate on and then turn it over to what i expect will be a fruitful and fun commerce asian among us. so when you step that and think about the court, one thing that jumped out at me as i was organizing the material to write this book is the extent to which the supreme court is really the author of its own story. it wasn't given very much to work with. indeed i said i wasn't going to read that i will read the first sentence of article iii of the constitution, which says, the judicial power of the united states shall be vested in one supreme court and in such inferior courts as the congress may from time to time ordain and establish. and that is kind of it. article iii goes on and talks a bit about the jurisdiction of the court and so on, but many many unanswered questions include in for instance, there is no mention of the chief justice and article iii. we only inferred that there is supposed to be a chief justice, because he is given in article article ii, the presidential article, the right to preside over, not the right but the duty, to preside over the impeachment trial in the senate of the president of the united states. and remember william rehnquist did that in the bill clinton impeachment trial, and when he was later asked what that amounted to, he said i did nothing in particular and i did it very well. so, the duties of the chief justice are undefined and much about the supreme court initially was undefined. so it really had to create itself and it has done so not in a straight line progression, but it is done so through cases. the cases that in the early years had to decide because it had very little discretion over what to hear and the cases these days that it chooses to decide. even that was a choice by the supreme court. most appellate courts today in this country, they have to take what comes. and so they act sort of as courts of review, courts of appeal, courts of error correction and that was the supreme court's initial stage or so it seemed that william howard taft, the capstone after his presidency was becoming chief justice of the united states and he sized this up. he thought the court would greatly benefit from the ability to write its own ticket, create its own docket, not have to take every case that came along. so under his leadership, his urging, congress passed in 1929 what is known as the judges bill because all the judges of the country got behind this effort and gave the court for for the first-time discretion over its docket. and so that is the place we are today. we have the supreme court that is capable of and sets its own agenda, and in doing that, it really sets the legal agenda for