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And two things happened. One, much of the blood coming out of Michael Emory's head kept going into Adam Schumann's mouth. And on the day he left the war and all the days since, it's not that he can still taste it, it's that he hasn't been able to stop tasting it.

And the other thing that happened is he was exhausted at the end of these three flights of stairs, and when they finally got Emory — a big guy — on this litter to get him to the Humvee, there's this moment where Adam loses his balance and almost drops Emory on his head.

And years later, there's a part in the book when Emory — who's alive, who shouldn't be but is alive — comes to visit Adam in Kansas. [Emory] just starts making fun of him for almost dropping him and killing him. And it's heartbreaking and it's tender and it's lovely — it just encapsulates so much of the intimate lives that are being played out in all these people trying to recover.

On the availability of treatment programs for veterans

Random is a very good word here. There are three people I write about in this book who go into treatment programs. Tausolo Aieti spent seven weeks in an inpatient PTSD program at a [Veterans Affairs] hospital, so he got the seven-week program.

Another guy I write about, Nic DeNinno, he wanted to get into the VA one, but it was full, so his case worker looked around and found one in another state that lasted four weeks. Was it as good? Well, it did OK for him, but four weeks is not seven weeks.

War and Literature

'Operation Homecoming': The Writings of War

Day One of the federal government shutdown, 2013 edition, was business as usual, at least when it came to each side trying to win the message war and keep the pressure on the political opposition in the hope of getting them to blink first.

President Obama had a White House Rose Garden event to mark what also was the first day individuals were able to enroll in the Affordable Care Act's health-insurance exchanges. With real people who would benefit from Obamacare arrayed behind him in a photo op, he used the moment to blast Republicans.

"They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans," Obama said. "In other words, they demanded ransom just for doing their job."

Congressional Republicans worked a two-pronged strategy. First, they portrayed themselves as eager to negotiate with Democrats but disappointed that the other party declined to talk with them.

Second, they proposed a plan suggested by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to fund various federal agencies and services in a piecemeal way, like the National Park Service, Veterans Affairs and the District of Columbia, in a partial reversal of the shutdown.

They were so eager, in fact, that some House Republicans held a photo op where the other side of the table was empty (to symbolize that they lacked Democratic negotiating partners).

"I would say none of us want to be in a shutdown," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said. "The way to resolve our differences is to sit down and talk. And as you can see, there's no one here on the other side of the table."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., didn't spare the sarcasm: "Now that's really so unique," he said of the GOP photo op. "Has it ever been done before? Only 5(000) or 6,000 times since I've been in Washington."

Democrats were equally dismissive of House GOP idea of a piecemeal reopening of the government, which was aimed, in part, at making it appear that Democrats were the reason national parks remained closed. Jay Carney, the president's press secretary, said the proposal pointed to an "utter lack of seriousness."

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate minority leader, reinforced his message that Democratic intransigence is to blame. "It's pretty clear to me, at least at this point, that neither the Senate Democratic majority nor the president of the United States have any interest whatsoever in entering into any discussions about how to resolve this impasse."

Shutdown Sidelight: The Battle Of The Mall

A group of World War II veterans found themselves in the shutdown news cycle Tuesday. The elderly men were confronted by barriers and police tape at the World War II Memorial, which was closed because of the shutdown.

But aided by Republican congressmen who included Louie Gohmert of Texas and Steve King of Iowa, the vets got in to the closed memorial, although it's not entirely clear how, according to The Washington Post.

Shutdown-related promotions sprung up around Washington. A local Italian restaurant offered free use of its private dining rooms to Obama, Reid and House Speaker John Boehner to negotiate over pasta.

Another local restaurant offered furloughed federal workers a free daily cup of coffee. Members of Congress, however, would be charged double the price.

It was proof that one person's shutdown is another's marketing opportunity.

No doubt most of you reading this post have looked at Yelp or Google+ Local to check the user reviews before you tried that fish store, bakery or even dentist. On occasion, you may have wondered if some of those reviews were too good to be true.

It turns out that some of them were.

New York's attorney general revealed the results of a yearlong investigation into the business of fake reviews. Eric T. Schneiderman announced Monday that 19 companies that engaged in the practice will stop and pay fines between $2,500 and $100,000, for a total of more than $350,000 in penalties.

Schneiderman said his office used undercover agents. One agent, posing as the owner of a yogurt shop in Brooklyn, called up search engine optimization companies and asked for help in combating negative reviews on consumer websites. In many cases, the agent was told that they would write fake positive reviews for a fee.

One of the reputation companies required its freelancers to have an established Yelp account more than three months old, and at least 15 reviews and 10 Yelp friends. The jobs paid the false writers — who lived as far away as Bangladesh and the Philippines — between $1 and $10 per review.

The investigation also uncovered businesses that did their own reputation management. For example, US Coachways, a charter bus company on Staten Island, had its employees write positive reviews and offered $50 gift certificates to customers who would do the same — without requiring those customers to reveal the gift.

Ratings website Yelp says it welcomed the crackdown. However, the company has also been accused of manipulating reviews on its site by merchants who claim Yelp offered to move positive feedback closer to the top of the page for a payment. Yelp denies this.

All Tech Considered

Dear Apple: Good Luck Against The Smartphone Black Market

These days, many people wear their vegetarianism as a badge of honor — even if it's only before 6 p.m, as food writer Mark Bittman advocates. (Actually, he wants us to go part-time vegan.) There's even a World Vegetarian Day, which happens to be today, FYI.

But more than 100 years ago, when Hitl, the world's oldest continually operating vegetarian restaurant, opened its doors in Zurich, it was an entirely different story.

"The first several years, people entered Hiltl through the backdoor," says Peter Vauthier, the head of Hiltl guest relations.

The Swiss, you see, have long been a pretty meat-loving bunch. "If you didn't eat meat, it meant you had no money," he says. Vegetarianism, in other words, was kind of a badge of shame.