Review of
Kings of the Hill: An Irreverent Look at
the Men on the Mound, by Nolan Ryan with Mickey Herskowitz,
ISBN 0060183306
Four out of five stars
This book is
not in the “Ball Four” genre, where the dirty laundry of major league baseball is
put down in the clearest of inks. While Ryan does spend some paper in talking
about a few pitchers that did a figurative self-immolation in engaging in
behavior that was not in the best interests of their major league careers, it
is more about their strengths and weaknesses as pitchers.
Yet, in some of
those instances, he is a staunch defender of his fellow pitchers, pointing out
that while their actions were inappropriate, they should not have had the negative
consequences to their careers that they did. For example, he expresses sympathy
for Denny McLain, the last man to win 30 games. Ryan points out that McLain was
heavily injected with cortisone in his pitching shoulder during his magical
1968 season. Although McLain did some rather stupid things, the reality is that
his arm was burned out in those years where he was so heavily used.
Ryan is surprisingly
candid about pitchers throwing at batters, although he is focused on doing it
as retaliation and protection of teammates rather than as an act of meanness
with the purpose of getting batters out. There are also many top-ten lists,
such as top ten pitchers with the nastiest sliders, top ten most dubious
distinctions a pitcher ever suffered and top ten pitching records that will
never be broken. While one should always be careful when saying a record will
never be broken, think the Lou Gehrig streak of consecutive games, one of them
simply cannot be broken. That is the lowest batting average for a season by Bob
Buhl. For it is mathematically impossible to have an average lower than 0.000.
This book is not deep in the weeds of baseball, just a
rendition of one pitcher’s long-term experiences with other players, mostly
pitchers. Although he sometimes brings in the hitters to give the reader some
perspective.
Review of
NFL Films Crunchtime,
VHS version
Five out of five stars
Review of
Quarterback Walk-On,
by Thomas J. Dygard ISBN 0688010652
Four out of five stars
This story is
one that all who aspire to sports greatness but lack the skills to do so will
relate to. Denny Westbrook is a walk-on to the Sutton State Cowboys football
team. The Cowboys are a national powerhouse in college football and Denny is a
physical education major with his career goal being that of a football coach.
His knowledge of the game is superb, his role on the team for his years at
Sutton State has been to quarterback the scout team, running the plays of their
next opponent. While Denny lacks the physical size and skills, his ability to quickly
learn offences has proven invaluable.
Through an
unusual set of circumstances, fourth-string quarterback Denny Westbrook is
suddenly forced into the role of starting quarterback in their upcoming game
against Allerton. Fortunately, the team has nearly a week to prepare and Denny
comes up with some unusual strategies to use.
After some
initial problems and recurring difficulties, the game begins and Sutton State
holds their own, being five points behind late in the fourth quarter. Although
the conclusion is predictable, the path there is a joy to read. For this is not
a story about an unknown rising to the position of a star, it is about a man
that understands football so well that he develops an effective strategy to win
a game, even though no one thinks they can win with a small and unskilled man
at quarterback. This is truly a triumph of brains over brawn.
Review of
This Is Home Now,
by Floyd A. Robinson ISBN 0813817765
Five out of five stars
The timespan of
this book is 1913 to 1926 and the location was an Iowa farm. The author was a
boy on that farm, and this is a description of the life he led. You grew up
fast in that environment in those days, children as young as six were expected
to perform significant tasks, including managing the work horses and even
operating machinery. Their workday was generally well-planned in advance and
the hours were from pre-dawn to dusk. There were few slack times over the
course of the year, most often due to the seasons or a specific weather
pattern.
It was also a
time of change, for during this tale, cars made their significant appearance
leading to a higher quality of roads being constructed, tractors and gasoline
motors were added to the farming process and electricity slowly expanded out
from the cities. Accidents were a constant danger, one of the author’s brothers
was killed in a farming accident. Had that happened fifty years later, he would
have lost a foot, but not his life.
One interesting
aspect of the story is how the main characters extracted the cream from their
milk and took it along with their chicken eggs to the local businesses for
credit and cash. The sale of dairy products in that manner is now illegal,
although there has been a minor movement to allow it once again.
Life on the
farm before there were good roads, government programs for assistance and the
local school was truly local was a time of hard work and a continuing sense of
accomplishment. For at the end of the day or season, there was no doubt whether
you had accomplished your tasks or not. This is a look back to those times,
while they were hard, as can be discerned from this book, they were not all
bad.
Review of
Natural Disasters As a Catalyst for Social
Capital, by Kevin F. Adler ISBN 9780761864660
Five out of five stars
Since I live in
the city of Marion, Iowa, which is contiguous to Cedar Rapids, my experiences
with the great flood of 2008 were indirect, yet consequential. I knew people
that were forced to move and had to adjust my work schedule as a consequence of
the high water. Due to the water shortage in Cedar Rapids, fire hoses were
connected between hydrants in Marion and Cedar Rapids and the residents of
Marion were urged to cut back on usage. This book is not simply a factual
rendition of the flood and how people were directly affected, it explores the
nature of how a community responds to a disaster where the event was predicted
but the scale significantly underestimated.
To be specific,
until shortly before the water began its rapid ascent, the consensus was that
it would be a flood similar to previous ones, a major inconvenience but not significantly
consequential. One of my students at the time told me that he had approximately
48 hours advance notice before the water overran his rental property that had
never flooded before. In his words, when he contacted an official requesting
information regarding the danger to his address, he was told, “You’re screwed.”
The analysis
here of how the community responded short-term and then long-term are fairly
predictable. In the immediate, people rally to aid those severely affected with
support at all levels. There is an immediate feel-good atmosphere of sympathy
and gratitude.
However, in the
long term there is the inevitable battle for scarce resources as well as
impatience with the slow pace of the development of long-term recovery. Many
houses simply sat and rotted while the owners waited for decisions to be made
by the city as to whether there would be a buyout, or they would be given the
appropriate permission and aid that will allow them to rebuild. The erosion of
trust in the governments from the city to the national level was severe and ten
years later has not been fully restored.
The phrase “social
capital” is defined as the level of goodwill and understanding between the
citizenry that allows a society to function while under great stress. When it
exists, people not directly affected will step up and give a little to aid
those most significantly affected by a disaster. Adler starts out by explaining
the term and then describes how it was applied during a flood that will hopefully
happen only twice in a millennium.
Review of
Story of Iowa,
by W. L. Wallace
Four out of five stars
Written in
1931, this short history of the state of Iowa must be read with that fact in mind.
It was designed to be a history textbook for students before they enter high
school, there are sections that will seem simplistic to the modern reader. Unlike
other history books that cover this area, a great deal of ink is consumed explaining
the role and actions of the Native Americans in affecting the early history of
the state. Even though they were warlike in many ways, there was often
friendship and cooperation between the Native Americans and the European interlopers.
While modern readers
may consider the explanations of the exploration, settlement and development of
the state of Iowa to be a bit quaint, this is still an interesting book to
read. For it shows how the history of the state was presented to students in
the early thirties. One fascinating feature is the appendix listing the origin
of the names of all the counties in Iowa.
Review of
Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe,
retold by Joanne Asala ISBN 1932043268
Five out of five stars
In this case,
the phrase “Eastern Europe” can be replaced by “Slavic people,” yet as is often
the case across cultures, the fundamental plots of their most popular fairy
tales are similar. Fans of fairy tales will recognize the widely told story of
Cinderella, presented as the character Marouckla. Kinkach Martinko is the
Slavic version of the Germanic tale of Rumplestiltskin and there is the classic
tale of the energetic versus lazy brother.
There are great
and dangerous adventures, heroes that must succeed against great odds or lose
their heads and cases of false witness in an attempt by a nefarious person to gain
wealth and power that rightfully belongs to another. These tales are a peek
into the Slavic culture and a demonstration of how many of the basic fairy
tales of humans are based on the same plots across cultures. While the background
climate may change, the expression of human and mystical nature does not.
Review of
Varsity Blues, movie
Five out of five stars
High school football coach as absolute monarch
While this is a
work of fiction, in some areas of the United States high school football is
akin to a religion and the coaches are the clergy with nearly absolute power.
Jon Voight stars as Bud Kilmer, one of the most successful coaches of all time.
He will let nothing stand in his way, from injecting star players with drugs so
that they can play, even though they are risking permanent injury, to making
threats that will destroy scholarship chances. Kilmer is so powerful in the
community that even the local law enforcement will bow to his wishes.
All of this is
set against the backdrop of the players being adolescents in high school, with
many of the coming of age problems common to teens. There are some disturbing
scenes of very heavy drinking at a strip club where the players are shocked to
see someone they know up on stage, giving new meaning to the term moon(light)ing.
Much of the
action is predictable, specifically the way the big-game-at-the-end concludes.
One of the most interesting and unusual characters is the younger brother (Kyle)
of the second-string quarterback that is forced into a starring role when the
starter is injured. Kyle is heavily into traditional religion, providing a
curious backdrop to the many adults that consider high school football to be
their religion.
While this is
ultimately a teen movie, adults will relate to the problems these characters
have in trying to meet the unreasonable expectations of the adults. The conclusion
is one that will satisfy all viewers, as the game and girl are both won at the
end.
Review of
The Wonderful World of J. Wesley Smith,
by Burr Shafer
Five out of five stars
These cartoons
are based on non-trivial historical facts that may be lost on those not well
versed in history. One of my favorites has a man reading in a stuffed chair
while a woman struggling with six small children tells him, “Instead of just
sitting there reading Malthus, why don’t you help out around here?” This is of
course a reference to Thomas Robert Malthus and his theories of how a
population will tend to outgrow the resources available to it.
Another favorite
has a man in a publishing house where there are posters of books authored by
Horatio Alger. A man is sitting in an office chair and the caption is, “Why don’t
you do a story about me, Mr. Alger? How I inherited this business from my father
and …” Of course, Horatio Alger was famous for writing rags-to-riches stories,
in fact the phrase “A Horatio Alger story” is used to refer to such events.
My final
featured cartoon has a man about to board an ancient sailing galley and the
caption is, “I’m in a hurry to get home so I’ll go with Ulysses.” Of course,
this is a reference to “The Odyssey,” the ten-year adventurous journey back
from the victory in the Trojan War.
Many of these
cartoons would be excellent supplements to materials in history classes, they
are entertaining and challenging.
Review of
Sagebrush Trail,
a western movie starring John Wayne
Three out of five stars
Released in
1933, this movie stars John Wayne as a very young and unpolished actor. His
character is John Brant, a man wrongly convicted and imprisoned for murder. He
decides that his only hope is to escape and find the real killer, which may
have been an original plot device in 1933 but is now well worn.
After he
escapes, he eludes two law officers and meets outlaw Bob Jones, who introduces
him to an outlaw gang living in an abandoned mine. Determined not to make his
situation worse, Brant warns of upcoming robberies to be carried out by the
gang and predictably starts a romance with a local store clerk.
The plot
unfolds in a manner that can be foreseen, the romance continues, Brant commits
no other crimes and at the end, his newfound friend confesses to the murder
that Brant is accused of. It of course ends with a kiss between Brant and his
newfound love interest.
There is one
very amusing aspect of this movie and that is the number of rounds that the men
sometimes fire without reloading. Their guns are closer to sixteen shooters
rather than the standard six. This is a movie that you watch because it is a
John Wayne western and no other reason.
Review of
American Expansion: A Book of Maps,
by Randall D. Sale and Edwin D. Karn
Five out of five stars
In this book,
the authors move stepwise through the decades, starting at 1790 through 1900.
At each step, there is a page of text on one side and a map of the continental
United States on the other. The map has the borders of the states and
territories imposed on the regions along with three levels of color-coded population
density. They are: less than 2 per square mile, 2 to 6 per square mile and more
than 6.
The color
coding gives the reader a clear indication of how the population of the country
moved generally westward from the Atlantic coast, sometimes bypassing large regions
that were filled in later. Territories that were in dispute at that time are
also marked with hatching.
The textual
supplement states some high points of the past decade as well as giving the
basic population numbers and the percentage of growth. Specific locations where
the Europeans established settlement, conducted explorations and the specifics
of land grants, offices and key actions such as the establishment of railroad
lines are explained.
The westward
movement of higher densities of population often exhibits the characteristics of
tendrils following the paths of least resistance. The most notable exception is
the thousand-mile leap from Missouri to California as a consequence of the gold
rush in 1849. If you are looking for an understandable overview of the
expansion of the United States from one coast to another, this is the book for
you.
Review of
Zentangle Basics,
by Suzannne McNeill ISBN 9781574213270
Five out of five stars
A zentangle is
a very creative artform where the artist starts with a simple line structure such
as a zigzag line, half-moons, a symmetric design of small squares or even
simple crosses. From this beginning, the pattern is either repeated or filled
in to create a completed black-and-white design.
The end results
are simplistic yet elaborate. While they require a steady hand, none of the
images are beyond the skills of even the minimally talented with pen and paper.
If the simpler ones are selected, they can be the subject of even the early
years of the K-12 education.
Like all good books
that introduce new art forms, it is easy to imagine variations of the patterns
contained in this book. I highly recommend it to all people that love drawing
and want to try something different.
Review of
Compair Lapin and Piti Bonhomme Godron
(The Tar Baby) as written by Alcee Fortier in 1894
Four out of five stars
The American
literature of the old south is in many ways an amalgam of two widely different
cultures. There is the ruling class of white European heritage and the African
slave heritage. Alcee Fortier was born in 1856 and spent much of his life
writing about the folk tales that the imported African slaves passed down in a
rich oral tradition to their descendants born in the Louisiana area of the
United States.
The slaves that
passed these specific stories from generation to generation were originally
from the Sene-Gambia river region in Africa and the stories feature animals
from that region. The primary villainous character is a rabbit and he is, “Compair
Lapin, the most famous rascal in the universe.” He is constantly stirring
things up with the other animals that get very frustrated with his annoying
antics. One of the main characters adversarial to Compare Lapin is Mr. Monkey, a
doctor that is half wizard and half voodoo.
The stories are
a bit disjointed in their telling, the flow is often a bit rough. However, if
you read them giving some slack regarding the origin of the stories, then they
are entertaining. They follow the basic theme of the good critter(s) versus bad
critter plot device, so there is a bit of predictability in the outcomes.
Review of
Skull In the Ashes: Murder, A Gold Rush
Manhunt, and the Birth of Circumstantial Evidence in America,
by Peter Kaufman ISBN 9781609381882
Five out of five stars
I have been
through Walford, Iowa many times, sometimes passing through and other times
doing construction work and eating in the café. Until I encountered this book,
I had no idea that an event that took place in 1897 put that small town into
the limelight. When the general store owned by Frank Novak burned down it was
of course a major event. It took on even more significance when a badly burned
body was found in the ashes.
At first, the
belief was that it was the remains of the owner Frank Novak, but after a bit of
investigating, the conclusion was that it was Ed Murray, a man known to have
been with Novak earlier in the evening. This result was based on dental records
as well as scraps of clothing that somehow survived the fire. Once this
conclusion was reached and Frank Novak was nowhere around, a nationwide search
for him was initiated. Novak was finally tracked down in the booming gold
fields of the Yukon by detective Red Perrin, he was captured and brought back
to Iowa to stand trial. The only way to get to the Yukon was to go to the west
coast of the United States, then up to Alaska by boat and then upriver to their
destination.
In an era where
people got their news from newspapers and their thrills from dime novels, this
was better than the fiction they were reading. The story captured the
imagination of the public and led to a legal precedent, where a series of
linked events were used to construct a convincing circumstantial case for Novak
having murdered Murray.
The story is one
where fact is truly more unusual than fiction. For Perrin traveled thousands of
miles by boat and rail in order to find Novak, utilizing the slimmest of clues.
It is a great tale of persistence, luck and sensational events that would
challenge the most talented of fiction writers.
