Review of "Flashing Before My Eyes," by Dick Schaap

 Review of

Flashing Before My Eyes, by Dick Schaap ISBN 0380975122

Five out of five stars

Oh, the names you will read about

 I have long been an intense fan of adolescent sports fiction and books by sports figures. Over the years, I have read many books “by” professional athletes where the author was listed as, “The name of the athlete following by something similar to ‘as told to Dick Schaap.’” His name has appeared as a co-author of many books, and his assistance has clearly made the books more interesting and entertaining.  This book can be strongly described by both of those adjectives.

 This book belongs in the name dropper hall of fame. The people that Schaap interacted with are some of the most famous people in the world, some before they were famous. There was his interactions with a teenager named Cassius Clay, who expressed surprise when he met people that knew who he was. There was the budding comic Lenny Bruce, simultaneously brash and insecure. Many other encounters are described, covering the major sports and other forms of entertainment.

 At the time the book was written Schaap was the only person that voted for both the Heisman and Tony awards.  One interesting aspect of this book is that there is no index at the end. It would have been one of the few indexes that would have been entertaining to read from A to Z.

 

Review of "Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares," by Frank Murphy

 Review of

Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares, by Frank Murphy, ISBN 0439328934

Three out of five stars

Interesting, but based on muddled history

 As a longtime enthusiast of recreational mathematics, I was pleased to see this book your young people that describes Benjamin Franklin’s interest in magic squares. The story moves along very well, accurately describes the wide range of Franklin’s interests and achievements and is well written.

 However, there is a fundamental flaw. Starting on page 32 there is the story of a bored Ben Franklin doodling with numbers and eventually inventing a 3 x 3 magic square using the numbers 1 through 9. This is simply not historically accurate.

 This magic square is known in China as the Luoshu and in Chinese legends dates back to before the CE. Other cultures such as Indian, the Babylonians, the Japanese, Greeks and European were also well aware of this simple numerological device. It is impossible to believe that someone of Franklin’s intellectual curiosity would have been unaware of this most basic of magic squares.

 For the implication that a bored Franklin invented this magic square, I give an otherwise quality book an average ranking.

Review of "D-Day Under Fire 1: Storming Fortress Europe," graphic novel, ISBN 9781472838780

 Review of

D-Day Under Fire 1: Storming Fortress Europe, graphic novel, ISBN 9781472838780

Five out of five stars

History being made by the minute

 I have always been of the opinion that education should be carried out by all available means. This includes everything from formal lectures to comic books. Graphic novels have been and continue to be an effective way to teach topics from the routine to the critical. When the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy in 1944, history was literally being made by the minute. Many of those events are captured very well in this graphic novel.

 Given that the invasion proved to be a success, the fact that it could have gone differently is often lost in the explanations of victory. One of the most fortunate aspects of the invasion was that German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, the leader of the German forces, was away from the Atlantic front on leave. It was his wife’s birthday and so he was hundreds of miles from the action. Had he been there, Rommel was the only one who could have ordered an immediate counterattack by the German Panzer forces. That counterattack could have succeeded and the Allied forces on the ground could have been defeated and captured.

  Using brutal imagery and reporting the dark humor of many of the troops, the organized chaos and brutality of the fighting are recounted. There is also a recurring theme of how the Scottish troops moved forward under fire to the accompaniment of a man on bagpipes.

 There is no question that one of the most significant historical days of the twentieth century was June 6, 1944. This book is a reasonably in-depth treatment of how the Allied soldiers did their duty, fighting against entrenched German forces, moving bravely against a determined enemy. It could serve as a textbook in history classes.

Review of "Summoned: Frances Perkins and the General Welfare," a PBS video

 Review of

Summoned: Frances Perkins and the General Welfare, a PBS video

Five out of five stars

The first woman in the cabinet most significant

One of the best decisions that President Franklin Roosevelt made was to appoint Frances Perkins the US Secretary of Labor. She was the first woman appointed to the presidential Cabinet and is arguably one of the top ten best cabinet appointments in history. She was a driving force in the creation of the Social Security program, the 40-hour week, the eight-hour day, the federal minimum wage and unemployment compensation.

 Given the deep conservative currents in the American political establishment and the judiciary, the legislative battles to enact these programs were intense and uncertain until they were passed by the Congress, signed by President Roosevelt and passed the judicial review of the Supreme Court. While both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt provided Perkins with some political cover, she was unquestionably the primary force in making it happen.

 This video is the history of movements that were a fundamental change in the social contracts between the Federal government and the citizenry. Perkins was an extremely skilled political operative as well as a writer of legislation. It seems unlikely that President Roosevelt would have been able to achieve anywhere near the social legislation that he was able to enact without her.

 Frances Perkins is very much an underappreciated person in the history of the United States. So much of what she was able to steward into law is now considered a fundamental component of the American political and economic system. Her story and significant accomplishments are explained very well in this video. All high school students should be required to view it.

Review of "The Lady or the Tiger," by Frank Stockton

 Review of

 The Lady or the Tiger, by Frank Stockton ISBN 9781540351227

Five out of five stars

Arguably the best short story ever written

 I clearly remember reading the title story of this collection in my eighth-grade language arts class. A few of the girls hated it because they didn’t know the ending and were not shy about expressing their opinions. Explanations as to that being the point of the story did not change their opinions at all. Finally, with a gleam in her eye, the teacher announced that we would read “The Discourager of Hesitancy: A Continuation of ‘The Lady of the Tiger’.” The class, as we all wanted to know what had happened, eagerly received that announcement. There was great disappointment in all of us when we realized that there was to be no resolution and the situation was made worse by the second unresolved ending.

 To make things a little better, the teacher then had each of us write our own ending to both stories. To date, this remains the most interesting writing assignment I have ever received, the level of interest and energy in the class for this assignment was the highest I have ever seen.

 Stockton was a masterful storyteller, he takes what would otherwise be slightly absurd circumstances and turns them into stories that grab and hold your attention. The only downside, and it is a slight one, is that you need to know a little about the social mores of the time the stories were written. Stockton wrote them right before the start of the twentieth century, so his descriptions of the interactions between single men and single women are proper for the time but seem strange to the modern reader.

 The stories in this collection are:

 

*) The Lady of the Tiger?

*) The Griffin and the Minor Canon

*) Love Before Breakfast

*) “His Wife’s Deceased Sister”

*) Our Story

*) Mr. Tolman

*) Our Archery Club

*) The Discourager of Hesitancy

 

each and every one of them is a gem.

Review of "The Red Scarf," by Richard Mason

 Review of

The Red Scarf, by Richard Mason ISBN 0874838509

Five out of five stars

Deeply moving story involving segregation

 It is an extremely rare occasion when the printed word can generate moisture in my eyes. However, I grew misty at the description of two boys spending their money for eyeglasses that are a Christmas present for their “Uncle” Hugh. A little historical context is needed to appreciate the significance. The setting is southern Arkansas in the early 1940’s, the two boys (Richard and John Clayton) are white and their “Uncle” Hugh is an elderly black man. When Richard finds a dead mink on the side of the road he is relatively wealthy and can buy Christmas presents for his entire family as well as a beautiful scarf for Rosalie, the girl he wants to woo. However, when he is shopping, he remembers how badly Hugh needs reading glasses so that he can continue to read his bible and this leads him to give up the presents and buy the glasses for Hugh.

 There is a great deal of love between the boys and Hugh, he tells them wild stories that keep them spellbound. Hugh lives alone in what amounts to a shack some distance from the small town and is a railroad pensioner. The boys look after him, getting his groceries twice a week and the other members of the community understand and appreciate what they do, sometimes seeing that Hugh gets a little extra.

  There is not the slightest hint of racial prejudice in the story, although “colored”, the polite term of the time is regularly used. When the boys tell the optometrist that they are buying the glasses for an elderly colored man that is a friend of theirs, he reduces the price for them. Furthermore, they are also able to buy a Christmas goose for Hugh when the seller reduces the price. In the end, Richard’s good deeds are rewarded and he even gets a kiss from Rosalie.

 Some of the other very memorial characters are Bubba, a cook at the local diner, Peg, a one-legged saloonkeeper and Wing, a one-armed police officer with a wicked swing with a blackjack. Richard and John Clayton have a wonderful childhood full of (mis)adventures as they are constantly scheming to make money. There is a sad ending with a plot device that one would not expect from a story positioned in the segregated south of the 1940’s.

Review of "Meet Babe Ruth," VHS tape

 Review of

 Meet Babe Ruth, VHS tape

 Five out of five stars

 Babe sitting and recalling his deeds

  No other figure has ever changed their sport more than Babe Ruth changed baseball. Furthermore, no one else even comes close. Before he reached the major leagues, baseball was a “station-to-station” game, where the offensive mentality was to hit the ball and then stop at the next base. Before Ruth entered the majors, the home run was a rarity, never considered a fundamental offensive weapon. However, once he began hitting them, the game changed forever.

 One of the most amazing statistics one can ever find in sports is the fact that in 1920 Ruth hit more home runs than all other teams in the league except one. This was also at a time when baseball was the national pastime, making Ruth a superstar at a level that has never really been equaled.

 This tape is a collection of video clips of Ruth in action, it is presented in the format of Ruth sitting in a chair with pipe in mouth and turning the pages of a scrapbook. All fans of baseball history will recognize nearly all of the players and will know about the circumstances of the action in the clips. No attempt is made to set a dramatic stage for the video, it is narrated in a monotone manner as if Ruth is talking to a small audience.

 The baseball fan will appreciate this look at the life of Ruth, as impressive as his statistics are, they still don’t give an accurate account of how much he changed baseball. One segment that surprised me was the one that showed Ruth playing golf with Ty Cobb. Given Cobb’s reputation for being vicious on the field and being hated by his fellow players, it seemed unlikely that anyone would associate with him off of it.