One Hundred Things My Mother Taught Me A Million Times – Chapter 87

#87 – “Never put your knives in the dishwater. You’ll cut yourself.”

Most of the 100 things mom taught me again and again are very practical, like #87. When I was young and she told me not to put knives in the dishwater I would be so incensed! I was smart and agile. Only graceless Dilberts would cut themselves on a simple kitchen knife! That was approximately 30 or so knife cuts ago, none of which required stitches, but all of which required the eating of crow.

Being the curious gal I am, as soon as I typed the term eating crow I wondered where and how it originated. As it turns out, the topic of eating crow is pretty interesting. Eating crow is defined as a colloquial idiom, two words I adore when written together. Yes, I know that is weird.

Of course eating crow is about admitting wrongness, (i.e., I was wrong in thinking I was too smart and agile to avoid cutting myself on a knife dropped into the dishwater). Anyway, apparently crow is a particularly foul-tasting fowl, to wit eating crow, admitting wrong, is distasteful. The British idiom, eating humble pie, has the same connotation, but the association goes even deeper as “umbies,” the intestines, offal and other less valued meat of deer, were made into pies to serve to those of lesser class who didn’t eat at the table of the king/lord/governor. CLICK ON READ MORE BELOW. 

The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

I’m getting tired of Texans being portrayed as illiterate gun freaks or morally bankrupt oil bazillionaires in what seems like every other book or movie. First off, Texas is a fine state with fine people. Second, not all hunting enthusiasts are illiterates or freaks! And finally, I’ve known a few oil magnates that were way nicer than some arrogant pseudointellectuals.

So, now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’ll tell you about The Informationist by Taylor Stevens which is full of such clichés, but a pretty damn good thriller otherwise.

Michel Munroe, the main character in the book, was raised in Cameroon (west coast of Central Africa) and became a gun-and-drug runner at the age of 14. Author Stevens interestingly wrote Michael as a rather atypical hero with tons of flaws, like a not fully explained compulsion to kill people in particularly sadistic and gory ways. And yet I can see Michael becoming a serialized character in many future "Michel Munroe" books. Although it is fairly standard that the protagonist of a thriller be uncannily skilled, Michael is so much stronger, faster, smarter, and a better shot than everyone else in the book, that it requires a major chasm leap of faith by the reader.

Oh, and did I mention that Michael is a woman? Of course she is also thin, beautiful and heterosexual.

One Hundred Things My Mother Taught Me A Million Times – Chapter 86

#86 – “Look for meat or poultry with plenty of fat, that's where the flavor comes from.  You can drain the fat off later.”

(Dad - 1930-something)

Fat gets a bad rap. Mom taught me that it’s not about what you eat; it’s about how much. Mom emphasized and science confirms, by the way, that fat provides the flavor while overindulgence provides the death.  Research also shows that despite the fact that Americans have steadily decreased their consumption of fat, they have also steadily increased their consumption of calories as a result of food manufacturers replacing the natural fats in foods with sugar or some other taste-altering substance.

Science also says, "The human body has a natural affinity for fat because it adds taste to food and, more importantly, it helps the body absorb key vitamins such as A, D, K, and E. Fat also adds a sense of satiety we get from foods." Have you noticed that many of the trendy diets we've seen over the past two decades have recommended pork rinds as a snack food? That's because they satisfy that hardwired instinct for fat, and are much less harmful than sugar and carbohydrates.

But honestly, the older I get the more I realize that we are really just rats in the laboratory of life. Each time science emerges with new breakthrough research I just label them the "theory de jour." Logic seems the only constant. If you eat too much, you'll get fat. It really is just that simple. Click On Read More Below...

Yoga La Vista Baby - From Very Smart Gal Wilma Schindeler

Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales

Although I rarely watch sports on TV, I love to read about sports. When I saw Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN I couldn’t wait to read about the who’s and how’s, and the first 350 pages were absolutely fascinating. Unfortunately, the book was 748 pages long - a tome, a doorstop, a trotline weight. The other unfortunate thing about this book is that those guys really weren't having any fun (stuck in Bristol, Connecticut, working 24-7, and at each other's throats constantly), and neither does the reader.

I suspect that those who read the hard cover had strained wrists by the end, just as those of us who listened to the audio version had strained patience from listening to a play-by-play that went into waaaayyyy too much detail. This book could have easily been edited down to a really good 500 pages. Instead, it is a mediocre 748-page hardcover and 16-hour audio.

The insight into the birth and growth of the ESPN sports empire, and the juicy behind-the-scenes corporate boardroom entanglements were pretty interesting, but you sure had to slog through a lot of minutia to get the story.

Here are a few highlights of the ESPN rise to sports broadcast dominance:

1. Bill and Scott Rasmussen (father/son), who have virtually no experience with sports or broadcasting, borrow $20,000 from friends and family in 1978 to buy a transponder on RCA SATCOM, and ESPN was born. Seriously!
2. Getty Oil invests $15 million in 1979 and ESPN stumbles towards success.
3. ESPN gets TV rights to NFL games in 1987 and ESPN is sling-shot towards success.
4. ESPN gets TV rights to Major League Baseball in 1989, and the rest is history.

Read it? Only if you are obsessed with ESPN and the “players,” love holding really heavy books, or have time to burn. Otherwise, wait for the better version, which no doubt someone is penning as we speak.