he had apparently murdered tampson or george donner for their money and also in order to cannibalize heir bodies. in the end of the 87 people who came out of the mountains as official members of the donner party, 47 had died. a few had been cannibalized. fewer than a dozen actually. and that's basically the outline of the story. there are a couple of interesting side notes i wanted to mention. one this business about how women outsurvived men. as i say the book is full of these sides into various scientific topics. and why outsurvived men so much and why i looked into that. there's a fellow at the university of washington in seattle named donald grayson who wrote a paper specifically on gender mortality in the donner party. and he found some interesting things. women have smaller bodies than men, generally, and so, therefore, be harder for them to maintain core body temperature in very severe climates. but he found that women also tended to carry a higher proportion of body fat which insulates the body and also provides reserves of energy. so some of the survival may have been that bo

george -- no one reads that book anymore. but nonetheless, he talks about how this donner will forgo his dinner to buy an old edition he loves of the decline and fall of the roman empire, if i'm remembering correctly. while i am not want to forgo my dinner because by god i like a good meal and wine, please, but nonetheless, i would scrape my money together to buy books and art that i couldn't afford. but why not. if all this appears to mauro god forbid i will be fine without the material possessions as long as i has got my wife but since i've got them i try to enjoy them. the other thing about books i think if you own a really good guitar you got to play. can just let it sit, a good acoustic guitar. the need to be played. it helps develop the wood and the age. likewise with books i feel you shouldn't just collect them. i don't think of myself as a book collector. i read them and i like to read the nice additions. if i am travelling to africa or iraq i might take a paperback or something because i don't want to destroy the good books but i like to hold a good book in my hand. there are other things i could hold in my hand, bu