Play Ball!

That great harbinger of Spring is upon us. Yes, Baseball's Opening Day. All teams start out even, and all may have hopes now of later October glory. So I've spent some devouring Rob Neyer's new book, Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, The Lies, and Everything Else (Simon and Schuster $16.00). Rob is one the most well-regarded of baseball writers and analysts. He began his career as a protegee of Bill James (who wrote the introduction to this book), and much of his previous work is stat-driven. His previous books also have equally long titles, which you can see at his website.

Needless to say, as a baseball fan, I have always enjoyed his work. This book actually is a series of short essays about the baseball myths and legends that have grown out of the game's years and decades of good stories. Rob asks the question "Did this really happen" of many of them. Did Billy Martin outplay Jackie Robinson every time they met in Series play? Did Negro Leaguer Gene Benson really know Cleveland's second baseman, Johnny Beradino, out of baseball and into his acting career? Was Freddy Lynn the clutch hitter he think he was? Did Leo Durocher really steal Babe Ruth's watch? And did Babe Ruth really call his shot?

The story, in case you don't know it from the truly awful movies made about Ruth's life, is that in 1932 World Series, the Yankees swept the Cubs in four games where there was much bench jockeying between the teams. In the fifth inning, Ruth came up to hit against Charlie Root, a pitcher not known for being a nice guy on the mound. Legend has it that Ruth, with two strikes on him, dramatically pointed to the bleachers, indicating that the next pitch would be deposited there. And on his swing, he indeed homered. But did it really happen? Neyer examines all the eye-witness accounts, and while not completely debunking the story, suggests that it wasn't such a grand gesture. (Root always maintained if the Babe had done so, he, Root, would have knocked Ruth down on the next pitch). Ruth probably held up a finger to indicate that he had one more swing. (By the way, even if you are not a baseball fan, Robert Creamer's biography of Ruth, The Babe, is a great read. Ruth is the stuff of legend and it is a shame the movies gave him such bad Hollywood treatment. One starred William Bendix and the other John Goodman; I recommend Max Gail's one man show, The Babe, which, I'm afraid, isn't on the Youtubes).

Rob's book is available from Jackson Street Books and other fine independent bookstores.

Here's hoping your favorite team is beaten by the Seattle Mariners in the playoffs and World Series this year.

I hear democommie is planning to throw out the first pitch of this season. Let's hope it's a strike.

Real Life vs. Second Life

There is a big difference and you need to be very careful at those scary virtual worlds.
Oh, wait...

Hey Paul Krugman!

Food not Lawns

To celebrate Spring and Michelle Obama's new garden, I'd like to point you at Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community, by H.C. Flores (Chelsea Green Publishing, $25)

This book gives you all the basics for growing food on that most wasted ground in America, the manicured lawn. The lawn itself is a hold over from romanticizing Colonist's desire to best the "old country". Our suburbs and cities do not have the acreage to support vistas of lawns for each household and the result is a cramped bit of yard. Why not turn it over and quit using the chemical broadleaf suppressant fertilizers? You'll mow less, and eat better.

Flores' work in Eugene has now blossomed into a global movement, and you can find many resources at foodnotlawns.com.

The community building suggestions here are quite simple, seed exchanges, offering surplus produce to neighbors and helping supply your local food bank to Superhero Bike Rides.

Still think it's too difficult? Here's a nifty video to show you how one garden started a movement.


If you're in the greater NW this next week, check out the Second Annual Greenfestival. Keynote speaker will be Alice Waters.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sign the Thank the Obamas petition!
Thanks to the good folks over at The Political Carnival for pointing out the Alice Waters interview.

democommie turned tail and ran when he learned this book report would actually entail use of a spade and turning shovel. Order the book anyway!

Good-bye Bookstore

Despite being located on the bustling stretch of 3rd Street east of La Cienega, she is convinced the bookstore lost business to online bookseller Amazon. She and her staff might spend 30 minutes with a customer, she says, only to have them write down the recommendations and leave — to buy the books over the Internet, she thinks. "Bookstores are suffering," she said. "It's pretty discouraging." And with the current economic climate, the bookstore faced insurmountable challenges.

Good-bye paper!
Good-bye Bistro!
Good-bye Neighborhood!

Nuclear Jellyfish

If you don't like over-the-top violence, random mayhem, senseless sillyness and excessive drug ingestion, just move on. This book isn't for you, mkay?

If you think Jim Hall is too serious, S.V. Date is only writing non-fiction anymore, Charles Willeford died too soon, Randy Wayne White is spending too much time in his bar, Carl Hiaasen has mellowed with age, and Vicki Hendricks just doesn't write enough... it's time to pick up a copy of Tim Dorsey's work!

As we join Serge Storms and his hapless sidekick Coleman, Serge has begun blogging. Just what the blogsphere needs! Another OCD/anal compulsive blogger with a disdain for his audience. Lord knows, there's too few of those around. (Note: for you close readers, who actually retain facts from earlier installments; Yes, Coleman did technically die at the end of Florida Roadkill, but if you -the author- kill off every character in your first book, it's hard to meet your publisher's demands of an on-going series. Let's just move on and accept this reality, shall we? Still confused? Perhaps this chronology will help.)

And just in case you suspect Tim may not actually research his novels, please look here.


I'm not going to give away the plot here, but if any of the following pique your interest, Nuclear Jellyfish is the book for you!

Strippers in the community college, the grudge match between coin and stamp enthusiasts, astronaut diapers, the NASCAR superstore, Lynyrd Skynyrd, guns, drugs, bloody crime scenes, a tragic tattoo parlor mishap, historically relevant sex, library quiet time, glow‑in‑the dark deformities, hotel drink coupons, a naked woman in a shark cage, and John Travolta.

Type that into a google search and there will be a knock on your door. Wouldn't it be safer to buy the book? Use the "ask the bookseller" button to request a signed copy.

UPDATE: Just got a note from Tim, and he sends along a teaser chapter for us!
Hey Tammy,

Great to hear from you and sorry we missed each other in Seattle. Still smiling about the Seattle Tour and bullet holes! ... I've pasted in the opening below. Hope all is well with you up there!

All the best,

Tim




Serge’s Blog, Star date 485.328.
First off, fuck the word Blog. I hate it and all who use it. “Lol,” “imo,” “Today’s mood: Introspective yet ambivalent.” Just shut up. The Internet was supposed to become the ultimate democratic forum. It did: Now everyone can be a porn star. Then there are these retarded blogs.
It’s been said that inside every life is a fascinating book, or at least a chapter. Wrong. Some people don’t have a freakin’ semicolon, like that woman in Delray who blogs everything her cat does, and her cat even has a blog and every word is meow. But you have to play the hand you’re dealt, and I can’t exactly stand on street corners with a megaphone sharing my Big Answers on Everything. That was my first choice, but a monkey wrench hit the works: a few itsy-bitsy little
incidents. Murder is such a charged word. You know how some people fixate and won’t let things go? They’re called cops.
So I guess I should be thankful for the Internet. Especially since my newly launched travel advisory service demands the latest cutting-edge communication technology! Who better to guide you around my fine state? Right, I know what you’re thinking: “Serge, without delay, give me an example with more value than I could expect to find elsewhere!” Okay, if you’re staying at a budget motel that has mandatory daily maid service, they have a meth lab problem. Or I can tell you how to extract yourself from the wrong bar with only a paper clip and a ballpoint pen. And if you’ve ever seen a motel room scanned with one of those ultraviolet semen cams, your head would never hit another pillow. Does William Shatner provide this kind of biting insight? I think we both know the answer. Before I debuted this blog, I applied to all the big established Internet travel sites, but they said they didn’t think their clients were interested in how to pick hookers who wouldn’t take all their credit cards. I said, “Look, you can spend the rest of your days scrapping it out in the web site ghetto, or you can make the roaming gnome your bitch.” I think there’s something wrong with my phone because the line kept going dead at that point. So until I
get proper sponsorship, I’m forced to put up my own wildcat site. Did I mention it’s totally free? What a bargain! Let’s get to it!

democommie was unable to help with this book report as he is outside, sitting next to his mailbox, waiting for his copy of Nuclear Jellyfish to arrive. If he keeps dumping out the mailman's bag everyday, "just to make sure", we may need to start another Bail fund.

And now a word or two from the author: