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SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS Novelists
I have many beloved authors, but if I had to narrow the list to four they
would have to be Anthony Trollope, P. G. Wodehouse, Iris Murdoch and Robertson
Davies. Each wrote many novels and, almost without exception, I know that I can curl
up with any of their works and be by turns enchanted, enlightened and entertained.
Other Favorite Novels
Middlemarch by George Eliot, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger,
Villette
by Charlotte Bronte, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, Frankenstein by Mary
Shelley, Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, All the King’s Men by Robert Penn
Warren. I could go on and on but then this would become a bibliography
instead of a list of favorites ...
Works of General Non-Fiction
Robert Caro’s multivolume biography of LBJ, Paul Johnson’s Sam Patch the
Famous Jumper, Steven
Stoll’s Larding the Lean Earth
Baseball Books
The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter, You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner,
Baseball before We Knew It by David Block, The End of Baseball As We Knew It by
Charles Korr (I never realized until now how partial I am to books with “Know”
or “Knew” in the title), Dollar Sign on the Muscle by Kevin Kerrane,
Dickson’s Baseball
Dictionary, Ball Four by Jim Bouton, almost any collection of Roger Angell’s
essays. Again there are many, many more I could add, but ...
Underrated Baseball Books
A Clever Base-Ballist by Bryan Di Salvatore, The Answer Is Baseball by Luke
Salisbury, The View from the Dugout by Bill Anderson, Touching Second by Johnny
Evers and Hugh Fullerton, Diamonds in the Rough by David Hanneman, Banana Bats and
Ding-Dong Balls by Dan Gutman, and Richard Bak’s Cobb biography, Peach
Baseball Team
Toronto Blue Jays!
Baseball Play
It has to be Toronto catcher Buck Martinez’s double play on July 9, 1985.
In the third inning, Phil Bradley of Seattle was on second and tried to score on
Gorman Thomas’s single to right field. Right fielder Jesse Barfield threw
to Martinez in time to retire Bradley, but Bradley bowled him over and broke
Buck Martinez’s ankle. Meanwhile Thomas has gone to second on the throw and,
seeing Martinez in the ground in agony, figures he’ll toddle off to third.
Somehow Martinez cottons onto his plan and, while still prone, fires wildly in
the direction of third base. The ball heads into left field and Thomas takes off
for home. He would have made it but Martinez was still lying in the way.
While Thomas is considerately tiptoeing around Martinez, Martinez half-sits
up and catches a perfect throw in from left fielder and tags Gorman Thomas.
I’ve seen this replayed at least a hundred times and never get tired of watching
it. Broadcaster Jon Miller. And he even calls a batted ball that
bounces over the outfield fence an “automatic double” instead of the erroneous “ground rule double” used by most announcers. Sports Team
Michigan State University
Volleyball, of course Jump Serve Allyson Karaba. It’s
not easy to do justice to in words, but I’ll
do my best: There’s a deceptively serene smile on
her face as long as Allyson holds the ball, but once she starts bouncing the
ball it hardens into a look of fierce concentration. Then she begins to spin
the ball and the transformation is completed – her countenance now displays the
steely-eyed gaze of an assassin. A hush comes over the audience as well as
the spectators undergo a mood shift that mirrors Allyson’s. Looking at the new
expression on her face, it’s hard not to suspect that she is preparing, not to
serve the ball, but to belt out the aria from the end of a doleful opera or to
propose a plan for world peace. And then she suddenly does none of those
things and instead hurls the ball toward the rafters. Spectators gasp in amazement
and wonder whether she spotted a spider beam among the rafters and chose this
unlikely moment to do some spring cleaning. But then they notice something
equally astonishing. She’s now racing after the ball with staccato-like steps
and rapidly closing the insurmountable distance. The pursuit looks futile until
she seems to step on a trampoline hidden beneath the floor and is launched
skyward. It still appears impossible for her to even get close to the ball, yet
she keeps trying and inch by inch she closes the cavernous gap. And then,
miraculously, fist and ball collide in midair and the startled ball is
catapulted over the net. The even more startled spectators shake their heads in
amazement, believing that they will never see anything like it again. But after
Allyson repeats the entire sequence a dozen times or so, they have no choice but to conclude
that there is no spider web in the rafters and that all this has taken place by
design. Looks As If It
Will Be a Jump Serve, But Then She Neglects to Jump and Hits the Ball Just like
a Jump Serve and While the Pass Receivers Exchange Puzzled Glances It Bounces
Off One of Their Chins That would have to be Katie Johnson’s serve Music --
Longtime Favorites
Dar Williams, Cowboy Junkies, Neil Young, Barbara Manning, U2, Tori Amos,
Nirvana, Patty Griffin
Music -- New Favorites
White Stripes, Nellie McKay, Martha Berner, Beth Hart, Tara MacLean, Emm
Gryner, Thea Gilmore, Coldplay, Serena Ryder, Sarah Slean, Feist, Allyson Karaba, Hannah Fury,
Arcade Fire, A Fine Frenzy, The Hard Lessons, Martha Wainwright, Broken Social Scene, Decemberists,
Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis, Amy MacDonald
Television Shows
The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fawlty Towers
Movies
Heathers, Young Frankenstein, anything by Hitchcock
Roadside Sign
What would Kurt Cobain think?!?
Way to Spell “Favorite”
Favourite -- I am still a Canadian at heart, eh?
Scrabble Plays
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