Book Review: The Weight of Vengeance

Hardcover: 344 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 11, 2012)

This year, America has been celebrating the bicentennial of the War of 1812.  Maybe observing is more like it.  I don't know.  In any event, The Weight of Vengeance by Troy Bickham is a nice way of celebrating the war.

History buffs will appreciate the effort that Bickham, an expert on the war, put into it.  It's a well-written book that looks at the behind the scenes of another rejection of Great Britain and the first of many major wars that define American imperialism.

Bickham's account of this "forgotten war" is provocative and places the 1812 war in a global context.  With the Napoleonic Wars going on across the Atlantic Ocean, the United States was able to challenge Great Britain.  This was in spite of the fact that many Americans were opposed to the war and that they were outmanned, outnumbered, and underfunded.  In waging war against Britain, the United States confirmed it's independence and it's right to be recognized by the great powers.

This book truly transforms how people will think of the War of 1812, otherwise known as the second war of independence.  It's no longer just the war that is known for Dolly Madison taking down a Washington portrait or making the careers of Andrew Jackson (elected President in 1828 and 1832), Richard Mentor Johnson (elected Vice President in 1836), and William Henry Harrison (elected President in 1840).

If you are a history buff, make sure to get a hold of this one for a greater understanding.

Book Review: Starting and Closing by John Smoltz

Starting and Closing Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (May 8, 2012)

John Smoltz is going into the Hall of Fame with an Atlanta Braves cap.  It doesn't matter that his final season consisted of playing horribly with the Boston Red Sox before turning it around with the St. Louis Cardinals.  Smoltz was given one more chance to make the postseason.  One more chance to get a World Series ring.  That didn't happen.  Matt Holliday dropped the ball in the outfield and the Los Angeles Dodgers would go on and beat the Cardinals and advance to the 2009 NLCS.

In Starting and Closing, John Smoltz starts out talking about his final season before flashing back to other moments in his life.  As Smoltz writes, it's not your typical autobiography that starts out with "I was born in..."  Far from it, actually.

Smoltz writes about what it was like to be a member of one of the best pitching rotation cores in history--including Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Steve Avery.  Together, the formed the core of a rotation that would lead the Braves to the top of their division each year.  But it was between Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine that it seemed the Braves pitching would rotate the Cy Young Award between 1991-1998.

There are plenty of fun stories about the Braves pitching core, including their golf outings.  It was Smoltz's way to relax.

From 1991-2005, the Atlanta Braves would win their division title each year.  They would win 5 NL pennants between 1991-1999, only winning 1 World Series in 1995.  All John Smoltz wanted to do was win.  And win, he did.  Sure, he didn't take home more than one World Series ring.  And yes, he moved to the Atlanta Braves bullpen if it meant helping his team win.

The numbers speak for themselves but that's not what this book is about.  It's about how John Smoltz recovered from another surgery.  Also, his love of golf but that's beside the point.

One chapter does focus on how Smoltz became a born-again but aside from that, he never goes all-Tebow on those reading the book.

At it's core, this book focuses on Smoltz wanting to win, never being afraid to fail, and accepting fate with regards to his shoulder.  As far as baseball books go, it is a fun read.

Book Review: Fat, Drunk and Stupid by Matty Simmons

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (April 10, 2012)

Fat, Drunk, and Stupid: The Inside Story Behind the Making of Animal House is written by Matty Simmons from a first hand perspective.  Simmons produced the movie and dedicates the book to Doug Kenney, John Belushi, and John Vernon.

The comedy is one of the most quoted and funniest movies of all time.  Simmons gives us an uncensored look at what went on behind the scenes.

Simmons reflects on how National Lampoon came into being and the experience in just trying to sale a screenplay to Hollywood.  When it did happen though, the script had to be rewritten again and again and again.

Try making a comedy on a budget of $3 million in this era of digital filmmaking and what you would be making is an indie.  To do so in 1977 over the course of four weeks in Oregon?  What Simmons and crew created was an iconic comedy that made them millionaires.  Except for Donald Sutherland as he was only paid a sum of $35,000 for a day and a half of work.  Sutherland turned down the points as he thought a film like this would not have made much.  He would have made $6 million when all was said and done.

What this book is, in earnest, is a romp through one of the most celebrated comedies of all times.

Without Animal House, there would be no Vacation, no Van Wilder, and really, no John Hughes era in Hollywood.  There would not be the raunchy comedy that we love so dearly today.  What they did with that movie was take a chance and risk a huge loss.  If the movie were released in this era and brought in the numbers that it did, the movie would make $500 million!

So thank you, Matty Simmons, for not only the film but a loving look back at the late 1970s.

Book Review: The Kentucky Derby by James Nicholson

Hardcover: 296 pages
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (May 5, 2012)

 What James C. Nicholson has done with The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America's Premier Sporting Event is tremendous.  This is a book that took me at least 8 hours to right, give or take a few.  It's a rather quick read and the 296 pages closer to 220 pages when you take out the index and the footnotes.  As a result, this book is as fast as the track at Churchill Downs.


The Kentucky Derby is the most exciting two minutes in sports and the city of Louisville gets the spotlight for the week.  It didn't always use to be this way as Nicholson explains.


The first running in 1875 was ran in front of only 10,000 spectators.  In 1925, WHAS Radio aired the first national broadcast of the race and it would not be until 1949 when the race would be first aired on TV on WAVE-3.  Soon thereafter, the CBS network would air the first leg of the Triple Crown in a national broadcast on television.


The Derby started as a reflection of Old Kentucky and during World War 2, it became the American Institution that we know it as today--only to become larger.  People would travel to Louisville to experience "southern hospitality," as Nicholson writes, but without having to travel into the Deep South.  It's the best of both worlds, he says.


I've only read a few books about horse racing and this is one of the best.  A must read and a must own if you ask me.


Grade A+

Book Review: Over Time by Frank Deford

Hardcover: 351 pages
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (May 1, 2012)

Over Time is not just a sportswriter’s memoir but a history of American Sportswriting.  Frank Deford is a genius for making it work.  There's a reason that he is one of the most respected sportswriters of his generation.

I zipped through the first 300 pages over Memorial Day weekend and I probably would have finished the book, too, had their been a few more hours in the day!

In Over Time, the longtime Sports Illustrated writer reminisces about some of his favorite moments in sports and some of his favorite sportswriters.  Deford takes us back to the days of when SI was just becoming what it is today.  The relationship between sportswriters and athletes in the 1960s is not what it is today.  Can you imagine NBA players today going out with any writer to a bar after the game, where the writer pays for the drinks?  It happened in Deford's early days, when the NBA was "bush."

There’s some mentions of Kentucky—mainly Lexington but just briefly.  Deford visited former Kentucky Wildcat Frank Ramsey at home to interview him about the tricks of the Celtics.  This was the only time that Deford made the cover of the sports magazine.

Deford goes into detail on how he became an editor for a daily sports newspaper, The National, which failed—of course—but not because of him.  Rather, in the age prior to the internet, it would be because of delivery issues.

Deford’s book is a must-own for sports fans.  If you prefer not to own it, try and find it at your library and read it.  You won’t regret it.  It’s a fun read and a rather fast one.  It's storytelling and sports history in one place.

Grade: A

Book Review: Watergate: A Novel by Thomas Mallon

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Pantheon (February 21, 2012)

Watergate was one of the darkest moments in modern American history.  What Thomas Mallon does with Watergate: A Novel is making this period of time captivating to say the least.

Through seven characters, Mallon conveys the drama and comedy of the Nixon Administration.  The "third-rate burglarly" has become a "tulmultous, first-rate enteratinment."  It's the polar opposite of Dick but it solves mysterious in Mallon's own way.

The prose at hand manages to keep the audience reading but at the same time, this is one of those books that will either having you turning pages at light speed or struggling to get by page by page.

Maybe it was the content involved, I’m not sure, but this was a book that took me several weeks just to finish.  Take out the network television season coming to a finish and maybe, just maybe, I could have zipped through this one in less than 2 weeks instead of 6 days spread out through the month of May.

This book is not non-fiction nor is it pure fiction.  It is historical fiction.  It’s not the first time Mallon has undergone a project such as this but I am very certain that it won’t be the last.  I feel somewhat confident in that prediction, actually.  Writers write so it would not surprise me, to say the least, if Mallon is starting his next project now…if he hasn’t already done so.

Mallon will be appearing at the Louisville Free Public Library in June to give a lecture about his book along with signing those that are being purchased.  Whether you are going to attend is your choice.

Grade: B

Two reviews coming soon!

On Thursday or Friday, I'll have reviews up for Watergate: A Novel by Thomas Mallon and Over Time by Frank Deford.  Stay tuned!

Louisville Jewish Community Center fails its mission

I submitted the following editorial to the editor of the Community newspaper in plenty of time for publication prior to being mailed out to Jewish families within the Louisville community.  Unfortunately, they chose against publishing it.  What a shame, though.

As a religious member of the Jewish community, I was very sad to read that the JCC would allow their pool to be open on Yom Tov. Even if it is Memorial Day, the fact of the matter is that it is also the second day of Shavuot. To allow the JCC to open during Yom Tov is saddening.

When I consider financial contributions in the future, I know which organizations do not represent my interests at heart. The JCC has shown that by closing the indoor café, previously open year round, they could care less about those of us who eat kosher food. I would love to eat out at a kosher restaurant but Louisville just does not provide that ability. It’s a shame.

 Despite Memorial Day coinciding with the second day of Yom Tov for Shavuot, the Louisville Jewish Community Center decided that it was better to fulfill the needs of their non-Jewish membership that wanted to go swimming than it was to fulfill the Jewish values that they were founded on. As such, Rabbi Litvin had a nice (sarcasm intended) thing to say about the neighbors across the way during the sermon this morning.

This was something that was talked about not just at Kiddush yesterday but then again today! There was some talk that the JCC would do away with the kosher cafe and allow trayf food to be served. That battle has been won, for now, by the Orthodox community for the time being.  Since the Jewish Federation of Louisville has merged with the Jewish Community Center to become the Jewish Community of Louisville, you can understand how the Orthodox community feels when it comes to trayf food being allowed on the JCC premises.

In allowing the building and pool to be open on Shavuot no less, the JCL has failed it's mission statement.

Jewish Community of Louisville (JCL) serves as the collective body to preserve and enrich Jewish life and values in Louisville, Kentucky, and to identify a connection to the State of Israel, by providing the services and resources that meet the educational, recreational, social and cultural needs of the individual and affected organizations.

Can you imagine that?  An organization that wants to preserve and enrich Jewish life and values would be open on Yom Tov.  Shame on you, JCC.  Shame on you.

My Best Article Yet

Over at Wildcat Blue Nation, I wrote a feature story on former Wildcat point guard Rajon Rondo, who now stars for the Boston Celtics.  Please feel free to read it and share it with your friends!

CW unveils 2012-13 TV schedule

The CW has unveiled their 2012-13 TV schedule.

MONDAY
8/7c 90210
9 pm Gossip Girl  (THE CARRIE DIARIES takes over in January)

TUESDAY
8 pm Hart of Dixie
9 pm EMILY OWENS, M.D. (formerly known as First Cut)

WEDNESDAY
8 pm ARROW
9 pm Supernatural

THURSDAY
8 pm The Vampire Diaries
9 pm BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

FRIDAY
8 pm America’s Next Top Model
9 pm Nikita

CBS unveils 2012-13 Fall TV Schedule

CBS announced their schedule for the fall TV season.

MONDAY
8/7c How I Met Your Mother
8:30 pm PARTNERS
9 pm 2 Broke Girls
9:30 pm Mike & Molly
10 pm Hawaii Five-0

TUESDAY
8 pm NCIS
9 pm NCIS: LA
10 pm VEGAS

WEDNESDAY
8 pm Survivor
9 pm Criminal Minds
10 pm CSI

THURSDAY
8 pm The Big Bang Theory
8:30 pm Two and a Half Men
9 pm Person of Interest
10 pm ELEMENTARY

FRIDAY
8 pm CSI: NY
9 pm MADE IN JERSEY
10 pm Blue Bloods

SATURDAY
8 pm Crimetime Saturday

SUNDAY
7 pm 60 Minutes
8 pm The Amazing Race
9 pm The Good Wife
10 pm The Mentalist

When a website thinks something is fact

PAPERMAG got punk'd rather badly.  My friend, Liz, did a fake TV show poster for a fake sitcom starring John Mulaney and they picked it up as a fact.  Better fact-check next time!

ABC announces 2012-13 TV Schedule

ABC announced their schedule for the 2012-13 TV season.

MONDAY
8/7c Dancing With the Stars/The Bachelor (in January)
10 pm Castle

TUESDAY
8 pm DWTS Results
9 Happy Endings
9:30 pm Don’t Trust the B—– In Apartment 23
10 pm Private Practice

In January
8 pm HOW TO LIVE WITH YOUR PARENTS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE
8:30 THE FAMILY TOOLS

WEDNESDAY

8 pm The Middle
8:30 pm Suburgatory
9 pm Modern Family
9:30 THE NEIGHBORS
10 pm NASHVILLE

THURSDAY
8 pm LAST RESORT
9 pm Grey’s Anatomy
10 pm Scandal

FRIDAY
8 pm Shark Tank
9 pm Primetime: What Would You Do?
10 pm 20/20

In November
8 pm Last Man Standing
8:30 pm MALIBU COUNTRY
9 pm Shark Tank
10 pm Primetime: What Would You Do?

SATURDAY
8 pm Saturday Night College Football

SUNDAY

7 America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 pm Once Upon a Time 

9 pm Revenge
10 pm 666 PARK AVENUE

Fox unveils 2012-13 Television Schedule

MONDAY
8/7c Bones
9 pm THE MOB DOCTOR

TUESDAY
8 pm Raising Hope
8:30 pm BEN AND KATE
9 pm New Girl
9:30 pm THE MINDY PROJECT

WEDNESDAY
8 The X Factor

THURSDAY
8 pm The X Factor (Results Show)
9 pm Glee


FRIDAY
8 pm Touch
9 pm Fringe

SATURDAY
8 pm Fox Sports Saturday

SUNDAY
7 NFL OT
8 pm The Simpsons
8:30 pm Bob’s Burgers
9 pm Family Guy
9:30 pm  American Dad


Midseason: American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, The Cleveland Show, The Following (to air Mondays) and sitcom The Goodwin Games (to air Tuesdays) along with Cops

Some thoughts on the 2012 Fall Network Schedules

It’s that time of year again.  The broadcast networks are all releasing their fall 2012 television schedules.  With that comes the chance of your new favorite television show being pulled within weeks of going on the air.

In this age of a thousand cable channels, the broadcast networks are fighting for their life, especially NBC.  It does not matter what CBS puts on the air because, more often than not, it will stay on all season long because their viewers have misplaced their remotes a long time ago.

One of the more promising shows of the next season is being held until the midseason: 1600 Penn, a show that NBC picked up.  The series focuses on a First Family but, as is the case with sitcoms, they all have their own quirks.

The biggest question of all is whether or not viewers will move with their shows?  That’s going to be a very important question for FOX, especially in light of moving Glee to Thursday nights to a very competitive time-slot.

We saw what happened when CSI: NY moved from Wednesdays at 10 to Friday nights at 9.  They lost viewers.  They are continuing to lose viewers.  After being on the bubble for two seasons in a row and getting a last minute renewal, I fully expect the 2012-13 season to be the last for the CSI spin-off.

ABC officially announces their schedule on Tuesday.  I expect them to move Revenge to Sunday nights at 10.  Even with the juggernaut called Sunday Night Football, we saw that Once Upon A Time was able to hold its own so one would think that the Revenge viewers would move with the show.

I do have a bone to pick with NBC.  They might think that they are protecting Community but placing it on Friday nights does hurt the show.  Moreover, instead of airing it at 8:30, the show should kick off the night at 8 PM.  In addition, I expect heavy competition from Fringe during the timeslot.

The CW picked up Arrow, based on the DC comic book Green Arrow.  My gut feeling says that the CW will keep it on their Friday night genre night, thus more competition.

I don’t understand why viewers have not given up on American Idol.  The series sucks.  I don’t even watch it.  Instead, why do you not make the decision to vote with your remote and watch shows that deserve an audience?

One big thing to note is that comedies are back.  NBC has given their schedule a combined 5 hours of sitcoms.  FOX, on the other hand, has two nights of two-hour comedy blocks for a total of four hours.

NBC Fall 2012 Television Schedule

NBC released their fall schedule for the 2012 TV season.

MONDAY
8/7c The Voice
10 pm REVOLUTION

TUESDAY
8 pm The Voice
9 pm GO ON
9:30 pm THE NEW NORMAL
10 pm Parenthood

WEDNESDAY
8 pm ANIMAL PRACTICE
8:30 pm GUYS WITH KIDS
9 pm Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
10 pm CHICAGO FIRE

THURSDAY
8 pm 30 Rock
8:30 pm Up All Night
9 pm The Office
9:30 pm Parks and Recreation
10 pm Rock Center with Brian Williams

FRIDAY
8 pm Whitney
8:30 pm Community
9 pm Grimm
10-11 pm Dateline NBC

SATURDAY
Encore programming

SUNDAY
7 pm Football Night in America
8:15 pm NBC Sunday Night Football

SUNDAY (Post-football/Winter 2013)
7 pm Dateline NBC
8 pm Fashion Star
9 pm The Celebrity Apprentice
10 pm DO NO HARM

Dick Lugar's Loss: What Does It Mean?

In last night’s Indiana Senate primary election, longtime Indiana Senator Dick Lugar lost his bid for a seventh term in the United States Senate.

At 80 years old, Lugar is the senior Republican in all of the United States Senate. His leadership on foreign policy alone is what the Senate will miss in his absence.

In a written statement following his concession speech last night, Sen. Lugar has some scathing words when it comes to his opponent, Richard Mourdock. I don’t blame him one bit. In fact, I applaud the senator all the more for his scathing critique.

Mourdock is of the tea party wing of the Republican Party, meaning he is so far to the right that he would rather alienate moderate Republicans and lose votes to Democratic opponent Joe Donnelly, a moderate.

This is all a whole lot worse when you factor in what Dana Milibank wrote about last week in The Washington Post. What we have seen from this Congress is an absolute disgrace. An outrage, if you will. Nothing has gotten accomplished, and the things at have? They came after the threat of a government shut-down.

It gets worse when you look at not just the state of the economy but how much tuition is going up for college—and Republicans are not moving from their stance on the increase of the student loan interest rates that go into effect on new loans, starting on July 1, 2012.

Senate Republicans that are in favor of increasing the burden on the next round of college graduates should look at their views on student loan interest rate as political suicide. It should be viewed as an elected official voting to re-instate the draft or voting to screw with Social Security.

At the same time that Lugar was defeated, the citizens of North Carolina decided that it was more important for Kim Kardashian to make a mockery of the sanctity of marriage than it was for same-sex couples to either marry or have a civil union. What the press really doesn’t tell the simple folk is that these sort of amendments hurt straight couples that have a “common law marriage” but not a “civil or religious ceremony” to honor their commitments to each other, til death do they part.

This afternoon, it was announced that President Barack Obama has announced that he is in favor of same-sex marriages. It came only a few days after Vice President Joe Biden made similar remarks. While the Democratic leadership is in the 21st Century, as Sheppard Smith commented, the Republican Party wants the government in and out of the bedroom.

It’s funny, too, because Republicans are in favor of lesser government but at the same time, they want the government in their bedroom. This is one of those things that will never be understood. Religious conservatives don’t even vote on domestic or foreign policy matters. Rather, they vote on social issues. They do so in droves. Interestingly, these social conservatives are by no means a fan of their nominee for president, Mitt Romney. We shall see what happens come November.

Book Review - Mike Wallace: A Life

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (April 13, 2012)

Scheduled to come out later this year, this biography by Peter Rader was pushed up following the death of the newsman.

Mike Wallace had a lengthy career with CBS News.  His death came just a few months after that of 60 Minutes colleague, Andy Rooney. His most recent memoir was released in 2007, which I read recently.

Rader's writing in the biography uses a cinematic style.  Rader explores how Wallace, a feared reporter, was able to transform his depression into a style of journalism that went on to redefine how television news works.

If you think you knew Mike Wallace, think again.

Between You and Me by Mike Wallace

Paperback: 292 pages
Publisher: Hyperion (May 2, 2007)

Following the death of 60 Minutes legend Mike Wallace, the first thing I did upon getting back to Louisville--following the first days of Passover being spent in Chicago--was head over to the Louisville Free Public Library to pick up a copy of this book. It was a rather quick read for me but that's also because Wallace's voice was in my head while reading.

Wallace goes in-depth on his battle with depression during the Westmoreland lawsuit and how he felt betrayed by the whole incident with getting the Jeffrey Wigand interview onto the small screen.

There are excerpts upon excerpts of a countless number of interviews that Wallace did throughout his career, starting when it was just a local show in New York. The hardcover version includes a 90 minute DVD--no doubt including clips in the recent 60 Minutes clip show to celebrate Mike Wallace's life in the news.

There's no doubt that Wallace has been missed by many since he went into retirement a few years back. There's not that many people, in news these days, that can do what the iconic newsman was able to do. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. That's what I'll say as you begin to read his book.

Peter Rader just wrote Mike Wallace: A Life, published earlier this month. Brilliant timing on the part of the publisher. It's sitting in my book pile at the moment and I expect to get to it shortly.

Grade: A

Book Review: Elite Eighth by Larry Vaught

Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Triumph Books; Commemorative Edition edition (April 17, 2012)

With an introduction and articles by acclaimed Kentucky sportswriter Larry Vaught, this book is a must-read and must own for Wildcat fans. After recapping the championship and Final Four games, the rest of the season is highlighted--mainly the big games during the season and the postseason.

Vaught includes feature articles on all the players that were published during the regular season.

If you are looking for a keepsake book to celebrate the championship, you can't do any worse than this one. While there are a few typos, those are trivial compared to the rest of the book. I let it slide myself and enjoyed every minute of reading it.

Grade: A