Thanksgiving Holiday was a great time to catch up on some reading. Here are brief reviews:
American Spinx: The character of Thomas Jefferson.
This biography by J. Ellis explores the philosophical development and world view underlying what seem like the fundamental paradoxes of Thomas Jefferson life. Writer of Declaration of Independence and slave owner; dislike of conflict but ardent revolutionist and founder of American partisan politics; belief in the simple agrarian life-style, but wretchedly lazy farm management and extraordinary lavish lifestyle; and privileged land owner who espoused little d democracy. Unfortunately, while Ellis is able to trace how Jefferson's world view evolved from Whig thinking, document his need for polarity in all aspects of history and politics, and illustrates how his essentially invented version of world history and events allowed him to ignore fundamental contradictions, Ellis does not really give us insight into why Jefferson choose this way of viewing and responding to the world, and why he was unwilling to see his own contradictory nature while assuming the worst in others around him. Ellis also wrote "His Excellency, George Washington" which I found to be a far more insightful biography.
Quite Strength: Tony Dungy.
This autobiography by the highly successful coach of our most feared NFL rival, the Indianapolis Colts, was written as a way for Coach Dungy to share his Christian message. The theme of the book is that trusting that God has a plan for each of us leads to success, although not necessarily the kind of success that we immediately desire. Although books of this sort can easily become tediously preachy, this book does not, principally because Dungy is pretty brutally honest about his doubts and failures along the way and his very real sense that winning football games isn't that important in the larger scheme of things. In particular, the loss of his oldest son to suicide is dealt with in a very moving and honest way. I definitively came away with an appreciation of the work that Coach Dungy is trying to do.
The Perfect Mile.
This book chronicles the lives of three outstanding mile runners, Roger Bannister, John Lundy, and Wes Santee, over the period of about two years as they attempt to be the first man to break the holy grail of running records, the four-minute mile. Superbly told, this is compelling story. We discover that for each man, failures of previous training to bring success at the 1952 Olympics drive the three men to experiment with new training methods and more particularly, with extreme training intensity that is ultimately necessary for first Bannister and then Lundy to finally break the 4-minute barrier. Beyond their personal stories, the book wonderfully reveals how national pride, attitudes towards athletes and athletics, and cultural expectations play a role in the pursuit and final conquest of this "Everest of Athletics."
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Pacer Game
My sister RS got cheap tickets to the Pacers game on Friday, so JP and I, as well as my brother-in-law, went to the Pacers-Bobcat game. On our way into the field house, we also saw Indy's Lighting of the Circle, their big Christmas lighting ceremony.
It was JP's first NBA game. I realized how little I have paid attention to the NBA since leaving Jazz land when I didn't recognize a single player on either team.
It was an exciting game, with the Pacers falling way behind early, catching up in third quarter, then missing the final shot with the scored tied 99-99 in regulation to go into overtime. The Pacers missed about 15 layups in the 4th quarter and overtime and lost the game in the end.
One of the most exciting incidents during the game wasn't the game itself, but the t-shirt cannon. You can imagine that cheap NBA tickets are way up in the rafters and during one of the time-outs the mascot for the Pacers (which I swear is a blue mouse) was walking around on the court with a t-shirt cannon. The guy in the seat directly in front of me was standing up and waving for a shirt, the only person in the whole area doing so. I told JP the guy was crazy as there was no way the mouse could shoot it all the way up to where we were. Apparently the blue mouse noticed this loyal t-shirt lover and took careful aim and fired, the t-shirt flew in a direct line, just out of his reach of his fingertips, and unfortunately, also just out of mine, and into the arms of the man two seats back of me. The man in front turned around and said, "You know he was shooting that for me!" and I said "Yes, he was, I can't believe it got all the way up here!"
It was JP's first NBA game. I realized how little I have paid attention to the NBA since leaving Jazz land when I didn't recognize a single player on either team.
It was an exciting game, with the Pacers falling way behind early, catching up in third quarter, then missing the final shot with the scored tied 99-99 in regulation to go into overtime. The Pacers missed about 15 layups in the 4th quarter and overtime and lost the game in the end.
One of the most exciting incidents during the game wasn't the game itself, but the t-shirt cannon. You can imagine that cheap NBA tickets are way up in the rafters and during one of the time-outs the mascot for the Pacers (which I swear is a blue mouse) was walking around on the court with a t-shirt cannon. The guy in the seat directly in front of me was standing up and waving for a shirt, the only person in the whole area doing so. I told JP the guy was crazy as there was no way the mouse could shoot it all the way up to where we were. Apparently the blue mouse noticed this loyal t-shirt lover and took careful aim and fired, the t-shirt flew in a direct line, just out of his reach of his fingertips, and unfortunately, also just out of mine, and into the arms of the man two seats back of me. The man in front turned around and said, "You know he was shooting that for me!" and I said "Yes, he was, I can't believe it got all the way up here!"