Two long plane rides and a snow day gives a reader time to read. I picked up, The Girl on the Train, and put it in my satchel as I headed for the airport on Sunday. I completed inhaling it today while resting my sore arms from the toil of shoveling.
Very good book. A thriller and a page turner with an unsettlingly plausible plot.
A woman takes a train into London daily. Ostensibly a commuter, when the train stops each day by a certain neighborhood she stares wistfully at the back yards of the homes on one street. She does so because she used to live in one of the houses as the spouse of the man who still lives in one of them with his new wife.
There is a disappearance and a murder. Who did it is a major plot line as is the emotional journey of the commuter who deals with her sadness as well as other hurts by knocking them back far more than she should.
There are five central characters with a few interesting and multi dimensional supporting ones. The author's, (Paula Hawkins) ability to piece the story together is as impressive as the story itself. Told in the first person by three of the characters, from different periods in 2012 and 2013, the reader --or at least I--had to go back a number of times to make sure that one event had taken place before another, because the first person narratives are not sequential.
Unlike a lot of whodunits, this book goes beyond the plot line. When we've taken an emotional jolt our ability to think rationally is compromised. We might think of others as far more solid than they are and we just have a hard time connecting the dots. Maybe we become drunks or maybe we just are intoxicated from the poisons of loss. It's important to try to purge the toxins, solve our puzzles, and piece our lives back together.
Great way to spend a snowy day and a long ride on an airplane. Highly recommended.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Belichick's Press Conference
Earlier this afternoon I saw a replay of Belichick's complete press conference on Saturday.
I believe him. I've watched his press conferences and tv shows for 15 years now. I think I can read his nonverbal messages as good as most. Once, serendipitously, I was on a plane where he was, in row one, with his girlfriend. (So help me he was reading, in early April, one of those pro football digest books you can pick up at a news stand).
I think he is telling the truth and that Brady was similarly telling the truth. If I am wrong, as I wrote earlier, the behavior is reprehensible on so many fronts--even if it is done all over. And the Pats should be severely punished.
But until and unless it is proven that they did do something to give themselves an unfair advantage--that was specifically prohibited--Patriot players should be allowed to enjoy what they have earned. And Patriot fans should be able to enjoy their team's successes.
If deflate-gate is deflated, the pats will win on Sunday by more than the 8 points I originally projected. And if so, I wonder if the trophy ceremony will not include some choice monosyllabic words typically not uttered on network television--words directed at the media, league and others who explicitly and implicitly pilloried the team this past week.
I believe him. I've watched his press conferences and tv shows for 15 years now. I think I can read his nonverbal messages as good as most. Once, serendipitously, I was on a plane where he was, in row one, with his girlfriend. (So help me he was reading, in early April, one of those pro football digest books you can pick up at a news stand).
I think he is telling the truth and that Brady was similarly telling the truth. If I am wrong, as I wrote earlier, the behavior is reprehensible on so many fronts--even if it is done all over. And the Pats should be severely punished.
But until and unless it is proven that they did do something to give themselves an unfair advantage--that was specifically prohibited--Patriot players should be allowed to enjoy what they have earned. And Patriot fans should be able to enjoy their team's successes.
If deflate-gate is deflated, the pats will win on Sunday by more than the 8 points I originally projected. And if so, I wonder if the trophy ceremony will not include some choice monosyllabic words typically not uttered on network television--words directed at the media, league and others who explicitly and implicitly pilloried the team this past week.
Klay Thompson
If you haven't seen it yet, go onto espn.com and watch Klay Thompson score 37 points in ONE QUARTER in the game against the Kings last night.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Light, Sight, and Darkness
I don't know how strange this is, but when I read a book I tend to find myself talking and thinking like the characters in the book. This can be amusing, to me at least, but is a liability when reading a book like All the Light We Cannot See. It is a liability because this beautiful book is very depressing and I found myself sad and blue for most of the week when I snorted the read.
The story alternates between describing the life of a blind girl who lives with her father in Paris and an orphan who lives in a small town in Germany during the thirties and early forties. At several points the novel jumps to August 1944 when the Allies liberated Saint-Malo. The blind girl has gone with her father to Saint-Malo in an attempt to escape the occupation. The boy in August 1944 is stationed in Saint-Malo. While the story is about these two and how they are connected, their actual meeting is confined to about twenty pages of the book.
Werner, the boy, is good with radios and is able to escape a life of drudgery in the mines because he is selected to a school for young men who, ostensibly, have bought into the philosophy of the third Reich. Werner does not buy into that philosophy. However he doesn't want to live a dead end life in the orphanage. Consequently he is torn between doing what he knows is right and what he can see all around him is clearly horrible. Marie-Laure is the blind girl who with the aid of her father an uber locksmith for a museum, and his agoraphobic uncle, attempts to survive, escape the darkness, and find the keys to light.
Long book but a fast read-in part because the chapters are very short. I like that in a book. I know when I start a chapter that I can take a small bite and finish the chew.
A problem with the writing is that the vocabulary is so sophisticated that after a while I just had to give up looking up words. There is a character who is into birds so there are a lot of words that bird people would know. Also there are allusions to the sea and again many technical terms for water and fish. Finally a significant part of the book deals with a gem and the language around gemstones is alien to me. There are inclusions of French words and, less often, German ones which can make you guess at what is being written.
Still, with all this, I turned the pages and sucked this sad beautiful depressing book up.
I have read my share of novels related to world war 2 and Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich history. Not sure any of these better captured the horrors of the period.
All the Light We Cannot See was not about the holocaust centrally, but depicts--very believably--the decayed society of Germany. If we are not vigilant we could lapse into something similar.
Recommended if you are a reader. This book will hang around my head for a while.
The story alternates between describing the life of a blind girl who lives with her father in Paris and an orphan who lives in a small town in Germany during the thirties and early forties. At several points the novel jumps to August 1944 when the Allies liberated Saint-Malo. The blind girl has gone with her father to Saint-Malo in an attempt to escape the occupation. The boy in August 1944 is stationed in Saint-Malo. While the story is about these two and how they are connected, their actual meeting is confined to about twenty pages of the book.
Werner, the boy, is good with radios and is able to escape a life of drudgery in the mines because he is selected to a school for young men who, ostensibly, have bought into the philosophy of the third Reich. Werner does not buy into that philosophy. However he doesn't want to live a dead end life in the orphanage. Consequently he is torn between doing what he knows is right and what he can see all around him is clearly horrible. Marie-Laure is the blind girl who with the aid of her father an uber locksmith for a museum, and his agoraphobic uncle, attempts to survive, escape the darkness, and find the keys to light.
Long book but a fast read-in part because the chapters are very short. I like that in a book. I know when I start a chapter that I can take a small bite and finish the chew.
A problem with the writing is that the vocabulary is so sophisticated that after a while I just had to give up looking up words. There is a character who is into birds so there are a lot of words that bird people would know. Also there are allusions to the sea and again many technical terms for water and fish. Finally a significant part of the book deals with a gem and the language around gemstones is alien to me. There are inclusions of French words and, less often, German ones which can make you guess at what is being written.
Still, with all this, I turned the pages and sucked this sad beautiful depressing book up.
I have read my share of novels related to world war 2 and Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich history. Not sure any of these better captured the horrors of the period.
All the Light We Cannot See was not about the holocaust centrally, but depicts--very believably--the decayed society of Germany. If we are not vigilant we could lapse into something similar.
Recommended if you are a reader. This book will hang around my head for a while.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Belichick's Press Conference
(1) I believe him. If there was evidence that he is lying, he would know it would surface which would make this denial worse.
(2) Don Shula references to Belicheat are interesting. Shula famously did not cover the field when there was a heavy rainstorm in Florida before a playoff game with the Jets who had a strong running game. His claim was that they did not have a tarp. Sure, in Florida, it doesn't rain why have a tarp. A year ago I flew to Florida and the water was up to just below my knees after a monsoon. Shula may be jealous since he had Dan Marino--maybe the best passer ever--for over ten years and got to the super bowl once. Belichick with Brady is going for his sixth time since 2002. And uh, Shula was the head of the rules committee and met with the referees for years. Coincidentally, go figure, the Dolphins were often among the least penalized teams in the league.
(3) The deflategate chatter has reduced the fun of having a team in the super bowl for me. Instead of talking about the game we won and the game to be played, I debate whether there was air in the ball. Everyone is taking shots at the Patriots.
(4) I hope we win 77-0 and Belichick accepts the trophy, thanks the fans and the players, and tells Goodell that if his dad had not been a famous politician, the commissioner would be in a less prestigious line of work.
(2) Don Shula references to Belicheat are interesting. Shula famously did not cover the field when there was a heavy rainstorm in Florida before a playoff game with the Jets who had a strong running game. His claim was that they did not have a tarp. Sure, in Florida, it doesn't rain why have a tarp. A year ago I flew to Florida and the water was up to just below my knees after a monsoon. Shula may be jealous since he had Dan Marino--maybe the best passer ever--for over ten years and got to the super bowl once. Belichick with Brady is going for his sixth time since 2002. And uh, Shula was the head of the rules committee and met with the referees for years. Coincidentally, go figure, the Dolphins were often among the least penalized teams in the league.
(3) The deflategate chatter has reduced the fun of having a team in the super bowl for me. Instead of talking about the game we won and the game to be played, I debate whether there was air in the ball. Everyone is taking shots at the Patriots.
(4) I hope we win 77-0 and Belichick accepts the trophy, thanks the fans and the players, and tells Goodell that if his dad had not been a famous politician, the commissioner would be in a less prestigious line of work.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Barry and Howard
Two basketball stars with two last names that are also first names. Rick Barry and Juwan Howard.
Rick Barry was a star in the upstart American Basketball Association and later in the NBA when the two leagues merged. Juwan Howard was one of the fab five: University of Michigan freshman who came within a foolishly called time-out and a national championship.
I have gone to the last three Northeastern University basketball games. Our team is well coached and fun to watch. They don't always play well, but they are moving continuously. Last week we beat a very good Hofstra team. On Saturday night we again won--that time against the College of Charleston. We laid an egg on Martin Luther King day losing a very winnable game to the University of Detroit.
I noticed something during the last two games. At halftime of the Charleston contest I saw that one of the players for the opponents was practicing foul shots like Rick Barry. Rick Barry was one of the few players in the NBA to shoot foul shots underhanded. In the fifties and sixties you would see a few players who would take the foul shot underhanded. Wilt Chamberlain who was hopeless from the line no matter how he shot the ball tried the underhanded shot for a stretch. But others took the shot and made them successfully during basketball's early years. But then nobody was taking them. Until Rick Barry came along in the mid sixties. And he shot nearly 90 per cent for his career. Since Rick Barry, I don't remember seeing a single NBA player take the shot underhanded despite the many players who could use a boost in their shooting averages.
So, I noticed this twenty year old kid taking the foul shots underhanded. He turned around at one point and I noticed the name on his jersey. Kid's name was also Barry. What are the odds of that?
On Monday when I went to see NU lay an egg, I listened to the introductions of the opponents and one player was introduced as Juwan Howard Jr. How many Juwan Howards can there be? Juwan Howard Sr. was the player among the fab five who lasted the longest in the NBA. He wasn't the best of the five, but he had the greatest longevity.
I checked it out when I got back to my home. Both college players, Barry and Howard, are the scions of their famous fathers. I wonder how much pressure this puts on the players and those who coach them. Interestingly both players had about the same impact on their respective teams. They both were starters and both scored in double digits, but neither was "the man" on their teams. Neither is going to be playing in the NBA.
But their daddies sure did. Probably the only kids on the teams that did not need their scholarships given what basketball stars earn currently. So the good news is that you're Rick Barry's/Juwan Howard's kid. And the bad news is that you will always be Rick Barry's/Juwan Howard's kid.
Rick Barry was a star in the upstart American Basketball Association and later in the NBA when the two leagues merged. Juwan Howard was one of the fab five: University of Michigan freshman who came within a foolishly called time-out and a national championship.
I have gone to the last three Northeastern University basketball games. Our team is well coached and fun to watch. They don't always play well, but they are moving continuously. Last week we beat a very good Hofstra team. On Saturday night we again won--that time against the College of Charleston. We laid an egg on Martin Luther King day losing a very winnable game to the University of Detroit.
I noticed something during the last two games. At halftime of the Charleston contest I saw that one of the players for the opponents was practicing foul shots like Rick Barry. Rick Barry was one of the few players in the NBA to shoot foul shots underhanded. In the fifties and sixties you would see a few players who would take the foul shot underhanded. Wilt Chamberlain who was hopeless from the line no matter how he shot the ball tried the underhanded shot for a stretch. But others took the shot and made them successfully during basketball's early years. But then nobody was taking them. Until Rick Barry came along in the mid sixties. And he shot nearly 90 per cent for his career. Since Rick Barry, I don't remember seeing a single NBA player take the shot underhanded despite the many players who could use a boost in their shooting averages.
So, I noticed this twenty year old kid taking the foul shots underhanded. He turned around at one point and I noticed the name on his jersey. Kid's name was also Barry. What are the odds of that?
On Monday when I went to see NU lay an egg, I listened to the introductions of the opponents and one player was introduced as Juwan Howard Jr. How many Juwan Howards can there be? Juwan Howard Sr. was the player among the fab five who lasted the longest in the NBA. He wasn't the best of the five, but he had the greatest longevity.
I checked it out when I got back to my home. Both college players, Barry and Howard, are the scions of their famous fathers. I wonder how much pressure this puts on the players and those who coach them. Interestingly both players had about the same impact on their respective teams. They both were starters and both scored in double digits, but neither was "the man" on their teams. Neither is going to be playing in the NBA.
But their daddies sure did. Probably the only kids on the teams that did not need their scholarships given what basketball stars earn currently. So the good news is that you're Rick Barry's/Juwan Howard's kid. And the bad news is that you will always be Rick Barry's/Juwan Howard's kid.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Deflate-Gate
Would I be stunned to find out that the Patriots deflated the balls prior to the game? On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being flabbergasted, I would rate the extent of my surprise at 3 or 4. I don't think it is impossible, just unlikely.
One thing that I don't quite get with the discussion is a point that has not been brought up, at least I have not seen it.
After every play, every single play, a referee touches the ball. A player catches a pass-- he throws it to a referee who often throws it to another referee who puts the ball down. A runner is tackled--he tosses the ball to a ref or leaves it on the ground for a referee to pick up the ball. An incomplete pass is retrieved by a referee who then sets the ball down.
If the balls were discernibly deflated how is it possible that not once during the game did the referee acknowledge something strange? The only time the ball was changed was at the beginning of the second half when after a kickoff the same ball that was used to kick off was the ball put into play. Different balls are used for kicks than other plays.
Maybe the referees will be called into the NFL inquiry and identify something peculiar with the balls. But if they do not, how deflated could the balls have been? And if the refs could not identify a poorly inflated ball, how much of an advantage could it have given the Patriots?
Again, it would not startle me to speechlessness to discover shenanigans. And if that was the case it is unconscionable even if every team does the same thing, and even if it pales in comparison with what the Raiders would do on a regular basis. (I once heard how the Raiders would soak the endzone the Chiefs would practice in during pregame, so that every Chief player's shoes would be heavy after simple jumping jacks). Regardless of chicanery of others, you don't do it yourself AND you are foolish and stupid, besides dishonest if you do.
Yet, can't believe such chicanery was done in this instance or else it would have been detected.
One thing that I don't quite get with the discussion is a point that has not been brought up, at least I have not seen it.
After every play, every single play, a referee touches the ball. A player catches a pass-- he throws it to a referee who often throws it to another referee who puts the ball down. A runner is tackled--he tosses the ball to a ref or leaves it on the ground for a referee to pick up the ball. An incomplete pass is retrieved by a referee who then sets the ball down.
If the balls were discernibly deflated how is it possible that not once during the game did the referee acknowledge something strange? The only time the ball was changed was at the beginning of the second half when after a kickoff the same ball that was used to kick off was the ball put into play. Different balls are used for kicks than other plays.
Maybe the referees will be called into the NFL inquiry and identify something peculiar with the balls. But if they do not, how deflated could the balls have been? And if the refs could not identify a poorly inflated ball, how much of an advantage could it have given the Patriots?
Again, it would not startle me to speechlessness to discover shenanigans. And if that was the case it is unconscionable even if every team does the same thing, and even if it pales in comparison with what the Raiders would do on a regular basis. (I once heard how the Raiders would soak the endzone the Chiefs would practice in during pregame, so that every Chief player's shoes would be heavy after simple jumping jacks). Regardless of chicanery of others, you don't do it yourself AND you are foolish and stupid, besides dishonest if you do.
Yet, can't believe such chicanery was done in this instance or else it would have been detected.
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