Words Written Down Book

Words Written Down A journey with a boy and his blog

My ruminations on book, magazine & web writing of interest

Dave Stark March 2012

2

Words Written Down

Overview Words Written Down is a compilation book project that came out of the blog www.wordswrittendown.com and an appreciation of words put down on a page in a meaningful order. The blog itself was begun some 3 ½ years ago and contains the following top of page description: Blog is all about words because... they matter, they influence, they entertain and when you take 'em and put them down on a page in a meaningful order, they acquire permanence. Contained here are a bunch of written words in the form of book reviews, magazine and web article links & summaries and other stuff I like to write about. Links noted throughout the book can be found at the referenced blog post and criterion for inclusion of each revolves around the concept of Interesting. If writing was deemed interesting, it‘s noted along with my ruminations on the topic and view of what makes that particular set of words grouped together into a book or story be so good that they acquire permanence. The goal of Words Written Down is to highlight and pay homage to this permanence of words. Why? Cause I like words. Writers on words Joe Posnanski from his blog post "The Most Beautiful Word" – "Something kind of clicked with me, I think; it was a whole other way of looking at words. And over time I would start to think about that, how words sound together, how the pacing of language and how the velocity and tempo can create layers of meaning, the staggering power of the simplest words." J.R. Moehringer describing in his book The Tender Bar a relationship with various father figures – “That was the day everything changed. I‟d always thought there had to be a secret password into the men‟s circle. Words were the password.” Writers on writing Kevin Van Valkenburg from the Chris Jones blog post ‖LAST CALL AT ELAINE'S, ft. KEVIN VAN VALKENBURG‖ – “I write because I want to say something beautiful and true. And I want it to connect with someone who reads it, even if we never meet, or the reader hasn't even bothered to see my name atop the story.” Scott Raab in his website post ―Writing‖ – “Writers love to write — and not because it‟s easy. Getting it right isn‟t easy at all, and that challenge is a big part of why writers love to write. It‟s a high, working on your game, a way of being in the world that feels absolutely honest and true.” Could just as easily have included here writing on words or writing from any of Wright Thompson, Chris Jones, S.L. Price or many other great writers.

3

Words Written Down

Table of Contents Overview / Writers on Words / Writers on Writing

2

Introduction / Permanence of Words

4

Blog Content / Blog Process / Book Process

5

Writing

7

Work

26

Sports

36

Business

68

Everything else

102

Book reviews

150

Conclusion

197

4

Words Written Down

Introduction I like words. It‘s a basic statement and one that led to the www.wordswrittendown.com blog (previously known as Like to Write Stuff). This book is by and large (not Buy N‘ Large from Wall-E) a compilation of Words Written Down blog posts so a good way to expand on the word appreciation idea is with the following blog post done 6/30/2010: Permanence of Words A topic I've thought about quite a bit and have written around, but never quite about, is why I like writing. Now, this blog is all about writing (note the blog title) and I've gone beyond the book reviews and magazine article links a few times to get at what I'm doing with the blog. Perhaps it's even been a somewhat annual process with Like To Write Stuff: Why & How Thus Far from August 2008 and Wherefore the Blog... Again that was posted December of last year. So I've certainly thought about what I'm doing with the blog and have established what it's about, but have not (least I don't think) written about why I like writing. The answer to this is arrived at through a bit of a progression... Starting off, I'd say that I think everyone should have a thing that's of import to them. When I say that, I'm thinking of that thing being something greater than simply liking a given sports team (as Joel Klein wrote of in this Time Magazine piece (which I posted about here) or being say... good at video games. I'm thinking more along the lines of something with some heft and meaning to it. Now, this isn't to marginalize the huge significance of being a good parent or friend as someone's thing, but me thinks there's a lot to be said for people having something that serves as a creative outlet. Some people's creative type thing is to paint, some to make movies, some to excel at a particular sport... I simply like the idea of my thing being words. When I think about words, the feeling I have is that they matter (least the ones that are put together into a meaningful order). They influence, they entertain and when you take 'em and put them down on a page, they acquire permanence. There's a certain gravitas about something that remains behind in written form... whether that be on a printed page or out on the superhighway of information. Either way it's stored and delivered, something written down leaves a metaphorical vapor trail. It may be a crazy good trail in the neighborhood of F. Scott Fitzgerald level prose or it may be less than one of the great books, but either way, words written down have permanence. This concept of permanence very much relates to what I've tried to do thus far with this blog... to create a record both of good writing I've come across and why I like it (and have that be hopefully in a somewhat entertaining fashion). This record may be something that someone else reads on the blog and finds of note, it may be something that I look back on to remember cool stuff I've read, or it may be something the kiddos see in future years and find interesting that their Pa did. Now, in terms of more traditional narrative writing (fiction or non-fiction both), would I love to be able to at some point answer the "what do you do?" question by saying "I'm a writer?" Darn tootin' I would. Even if that doesn't take place, though, I like words. I like what they can do and I like creating a record of myself in relation to words... both ones arranged well by others and my own original ones. Yep, I like to write (and read... and link to good) stuff.

5

Words Written Down

Blog Process With this appreciation for words hopefully firmly established (never fear, will later in the book be lots more pontificating on the value of words and referencing others doing so), the next step becomes a looking at the actual process around the blog and its writing. With much of the following taken from the August 2008 blog post Like To Write Stuff: Why & How Thus Far, going all the way back to 2005 I was a "read and rip out" kind of guy. I'd come across various things I find interesting (mostly magazine articles) and rip out and save the page(s). Blog was then created in mid 2006 with the first posts to it in mid 2007 being lists of articles ripped out along with associated websites from said articles. This process then continued on a here and there basis until mid 2008 when one of those strange lightning bolts of inspiration struck and the intent to not only link to things and writing of note, but actually write about what make them noteworthy was hatched. Since that sunny July day (actually, no idea of the weather that day), there‘s been some 500-600 posts done. Shortly after beginning the blog, a minimum of 11 posts done each month became a goal and while there have been a number of months with exactly 11 posts and it‘s understood nobody else keeping score, happy to say that there‘s always been at least 11 done per month. Small accomplishments can become big when added up, ya‘ know. Blog Content There really wasn‘t a starting grand design of what the blog would link to (keeping in mind most of the writing being appreciation and analysis of work done by others), but by virtue of my interest areas and associated magazine subscriptions, the blog topics have been around the following subject (or tag cloud section on the blog) areas… with many posts that could have gone into areas in addition to the one chosen: 

Writing – includes content from others on writing, my ruminations on it and a soliloquy post on the topic of Social Media.



Work – posts on both links to career related content and my writing around work.



Sports – lots of extremely entertaining content linked to and written about in this category… love me some great sports writing. Also, it‘s a bit of an obvious statement but excellent sports writing is about more than just sports. Pieces referenced came from Sports Illustrated more than any other source.



Business – includes companies, profiles and lots of other business related content written on and linked to. Some of the specific areas of business covered (and noted in the blog tag cloud) include customer service, social media and cloud computing. Content referenced as interesting came from a variety of sources, with Businessweek and Fast Company fairly heavily represented.



Everything else – perhaps could have been named better, but really is… everything else (life, current events, history, politics, money, profiles, etc) in terms of non-book content written on and linked to. A fair amount of the content noted came from both writing in and writers for Time or Esquire.



Book reviews – Not all the books were great, but definitely quite a few excellent ones I‘ve read and posted reviews on here.



Blogging – posts around creation of and process of the blog… like the ―Why & How Thus Far‖ post referenced above. Also heavily represented in these posts are statistics around topics covered and

6

Words Written Down

written on. For this reason, posts that fell in the category of Blogging were left out of the book as they mostly feature recaps of blog work done to that point. Book Process Translation from the blog to the book is for the most part an only slightly edited transcription of each post. There were some posts not carried over to the book as time passed rendered them not terribly interesting (keeping in mind litmus test for inclusion on the blog has always been this interesting so the book no different), but most represented in the book. It should be noted that not every story or reference to a story had to be interesting to make it in… just that there be something from each post of sufficient interest at the time of book compilation (with content from posts through the end of February 2012). Another thing to note about the translation from blog to book is pieces referenced sometimes are noted by quotes, sometimes italics and sometimes nothing other than just the name of the piece… was a function of periodically changing styles throughout the years of doing the blog. Additionally, some posts feature an excessive usage of colons and other strange punctuation, which came about whilst moving content from blog to book and removing bullet point lists. Finally, the book biography… left out entirely as it can be found and best worked with online at www.wordswrittendown.com. The blog has lots of content that can online be searched, categorized and sliced and diced any number of ways so the question of why to create a 150,000 word book might come up. It is a fair question and the overriding answer is why the heck not? If there‘s value in the words written in blog form, then there‘s also value in them sitting on the printed page… and links noted (oftentimes with a ―this blog post‖ mention) throughout the book can be found on the blog itself. Also, it may be a bit of a pet project, but a lot has gone into the blog and putting it in printed form adds to the aforementioned Permanence of Words concept.

7

Words Written Down – Writing

Writing Writers on Writing - by Ballard, Jones & Sullivan – posted 2/15/2012 There have been a few great interviews I've come across lately featuring top level writers dishing on the process of writing. It‘s probably fitting that one interview was with Esquire writer Chris Jones as he's the guy whose writing helped spark my interest in great non-fiction prose, and then fed the flames of said interest with his Son of Bold Venture blog about "writing and words". Interview itself was done by Brandon Sneed on his website (which has also been a source of motivation about writing as a process). It was really interesting content under the title "Chris Jones of Esquire on His Zanesville Zoo Massacre Story 'Animals,' 'The Most Dramatic Story of The Year'". I'm waiting for the hard copy Esquire to arrive before reading the piece, but there were excellent nuggets of wisdom from Jones (prompted by Sneed questions) around writing. My take aways (which may well be different than those by other people) from the piece are as follows: Heavy sense of content focus by Jones with it being centered on the police and the writing in it being something sparse that "reads almost like a police report". Idea I took from this was the import of deciding on a particular approach to take and then following through. Also interesting from Jones was his commentary about writing to music... with his doing so actually referenced in one of the other recent interviews I've seen). Since I just brought it up... Sneed even more recently did for his website another great writing interview, this one with a writer answering questions about a piece I've actually already read. "Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated on his Mike Powell Story "Man In Full"—And Way More" contains some excellent writing wisdom type content from Ballard (again, extracted by Sneed's questions), most notable to me being the following: Ballard started at Sports Illustrated as a fact-checker and built up to doing feature pieces (a completely different approach to getting an SI gig than Thomas Lake wrote of his path being). Interesting was how fact-checking hammered home the need to be thorough in reporting... a common theme from writer wisdom pieces (like this featuring Michael Kruse) is the importance of solid reporting rather than simply grabbing perfect words out of the air. Also tremendously insightful from Ballard was his comment about immediately writing down an insight or feeling that strikes him. I've noticed in my own writing that I'll have a visceral reaction towards something I read, but if I don't note it immediately, I may have a hard time remembering what it was (this has led with the reading of books to needing to decide whether to take notes whilst reading as opposed to just finishing the thing and then going back through to capture the high points). Ballard also writes in this interview some excellent structure content with the Powell story (which was great, and I will post on before long) as containing multiple acts and a specific focus (reminiscent of Jones and his decisions made prior to writing). From a where and how to write perspective, there was interesting content about writing with friends in a bar as well as the idea (poached from Jones) of writing to one song on repeat). Additionally, there was good content on the outline, structure and lede of this particular piece written about Mike Powell and Ballard provided recommendations to other great writing, including The Imaginary Girlfriend, a sort of autobiography by prolific writer John Irving. After I've rambled on about the great content from Jones and Ballard, will be somewhat briefer about the third writer piece I've seen lately. Bookforum did an interview with John Jeremiah Sullivan which included content both on his book of essays, Pulphead (which I enjoyed tremendously) and areas of interest as a writer. Specifically, Sullivan wrote "I‟m working on a book now about a German lawyer, an obscure jurist from Upper Saxony who came to the New World, to South Carolina, in the 1730s. He tried to establish an enlightened republic among Cherokee Indians beyond the frontier, and he wrote a book, a kind of utopian manifesto that, based on what we know about it, was a century or more ahead of its time philosophically. It was destroyed when the English arrested him in the 1740s and it became a sort of a famous lost book. In my book, I‟m making the case that I‟ve identified it, that it exists. I‟m very curious about what happens to the Enlightenment when it arrives in the South." Sounds to me like it would be a terribly interesting read and brings to mind someone like Erik Larson who writes history with an excellent narrative bent.

8

Words Written Down – Writing

Writing on Writing - from Kruse, Lake, Altucher and Pearlman – posted 2/1/2012 Have come across a number of interesting pieces lately on the why and how of writing that bear noting. Two different writer interviews were The Fury Files: Michael Kruse for the blog TVFury and Thomas Lake on Pop Herring, How to Make It as a Journalist, Coffee, and Why You "Have To Get Yourself Good" by Brandon Sneed for his website. From the Kruse interview I was struck by his statements on the absolute importance of solid reporting to the nonfiction writing process and the very methodical outlining he does prior to and as part of the actual writing. It was super detailed work that's a long ways from just sitting down and letting nonfiction magic flow to the page. The interview with Thomas Lake also featured the same idea of reporting leading to the story and an at times absolute dogged pursuit of access and information. Additionally, Lake spoke of his career path and the six years, four newspaper jobs and over a thousand stories written until he reached out to someone who opened the door for him to land at Sports Illustrated. Very cool content about putting in the work. Still on writing, but on a specific output of writing were two additional blog mentions of interest. James Altucher wrote Self-Publishing Your Own Book is the New Business Card which echoed and expanded on sentiments expressed in his book I Was Blind But Now I See and Jeff Pearlman wrote on his blog Chris Dessi comes of age about his former classmate‘s selfpublished book on Social Media Your World is Exploding. Scott Raab on Writing / Dave Eggers on Creating (& not Dismissing) – posted 1/17/2012 Came across a few weeks ago a short and terribly insightful piece by Scott Raab (Esquire guy) on his website. The succinctly titled Writing has his advice for aspiring pen to page types and (to over simplify) boils down to if someone wants to be a writer, they write... and then they keep doing it. Raab's advice reminded me of stuff I've linked to from James Altucher (who extols the virtues of writing fast and selfpublishing) and Brandon Sneed (who did a few posts on the writing process including an encouragement to write a book) and while not just on writing, seems in line with a Dave Eggers piece I recently found. Taken from a 2000 interview with The Harvard Advocate, his words on the dual subjects of creating / not dismissing create a mental visual of Eggers standing at a pulpit and railing away with his truth. What makes it all the much better is how much truth there seems to be in what Eggers so forcefully proclaims. Very cool stuff that connects with Messrs Raab, Sneed and Altucher is that each writes about the process of writing (heck, the process of anything if you want to expand the circle a bit) getting accomplished by just doing it and Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Kevin Van Valkenburg Q&A on Blog TVFury – posted 12/22/2011 It's been a few months since I've posted on any writing from Kevin Van Valkenburg and, fortuitously enough, came across recently a ridiculously good Q&A with him about his career and other topics around writing with Kevin Van Valkenburg from TV Fury. Interview was done by and posted on the blog TVFury ("Sports, writing and life through the eyes of Terry Vandrovec and Shawn Fury") and the final words of the Q&A intro are pretty much catnip to someone with an interest in great narrative sports writing... "Here, Kevin talks about growing up with an editor mom, life as a college football player, literary heroes, leaving Montana and living in Baltimore, his story that made it into the Best American Sportswriting book, The Wire, David Stern‟s ego, the writing life and much more." Couple of things that stood out in the (long at 10,000+ words) interview was how different journalism was when Van Valkenburg graduated college and (towards the end of the piece) his listing of favorite long-form pieces, books and authors. Quite a few of the writers noted were ones I follow and of particular interest was a quote from sportswriter S.L. Price in his excellent memoir Far Afield. Very well done interview with interesting answers provided. Not a surprise, though, as Van Valkenburg is a really good writer who (as noted in the piece) does a number of different types of writing. He references in the Q&A his most rewarding work being this five-part serial narrative about a football team in West Baltimore and my favorite piece of his I haven't already linked to was Sense of loss drives Ngata on Baltimore Ravens (and former Oregon Ducks) lineman Haloti Ngata. Additionally,

9

Words Written Down – Writing

Van Valkenburg is known for his interesting Five Things We Learned Baltimore Sun column following Ravens games. Entrepreneurial Journalism Education / Difficulty in Sports Reporting Today – posted 12/9/2011 Expanding a bit on my post from yesterday about the Nieman Foundation (and Nieman Storyboard), I've come across some interesting Journalism education content lately including a webinar attended earlier this week. As could be expected, the online session was the most engaging of the various sources of wisdom and class itself the Knight Center webinar to teach journalists how to start a successful entrepreneurial project taught by journalist and City University of New York J-School professor Jeremy Caplan. I wouldn't say I was disappointed with my time spent, but it did leave me feeling it tough to get a tremendous amount from an online learning environment. There was the opportunity to post questions to a chat board that were then answered, but not much interactive learning (which isn't a terribly damning statement as you likely shouldn't expect much more from a two hour online session). There were important points made in the session, but I thought the content pretty basic business school type stuff (but, again... maybe that's not being critical as it could be new learning for some in the session). Actual application of the steps seemed to be described as most frequently towards building hyper-local community news websites. All in all, Journalism and the business around writing (which obviously could cast a pretty wide net) is definitely of interest and attending the session was a good step in learning more. On this subject of new opportunities in Journalism, the aforementioned Nieman Foundation had on its Nieman Lab site recently a Justin Ellis piece How Time Inc. is preparing for a future in digital news with a j-school of its own: Interesting concept with the old media giant offering in-house education (heavily leaning towards digital new media topics) to employees. Finally (and also related to the idea of changes in Journalism), excellent piece titled Death of the interview posted to ESPN earlier this week. Written by Tim Keown, it delves into the changes in sports reporting in today's environment of short attention, tight news cycles and need for the sensational. Very solid piece that's both entertaining and thought-provoking. Writing & Work from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism – posted 12/8/2011 Having not heard of it until fairly recently, I've found online some really cool work and resources from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. As is detailed on the about page of the site, the foundation administers a yearlong fellowship program for journalists, but where I heard about them was through the Nieman Storyboard website. Taken directly from the Storyboard about page... "Nieman Storyboard looks at how storytelling works in every medium. In addition to highlighting outstanding print narratives, we seek to feature the best examples of visual, audio and multimedia narrative reporting. As a bonus, we‟ll also give you occasional updates on conferences, awards, and other narrative news." Given my interest in learning more about and love of interesting narrative stories written down (and to fall a bit into a cliché)... that's right in my wheelhouse! First time I came across Nieman (Foundation or the Storyboard website) was with mention of venerable narrative journalist Gay Talese doing a lecture with two-time National Magazine Award winning Esquire writer Chris Jones. While it would have been great to actually attend the talk, Nieman Storyboard provided this transcript of the session as well as the notes from an equally interesting Jones Q&A with Narrative Writing Instructor Paige Williams. Looking further into the Storyboard site, I found noted as contributors a number of the writers whose stuff I admire and look for. From 2009 there was Tommy Tomlinson: making words work for a living and more recently a Storyboard series titled why's this so good? with analysis of classic narrative nonfiction writing. Concept held a lot of sway with me as it's the intent of this blog... but, with stuff by accomplished writers rather than just my ramblings. Penn State Crimes, Moral Failures & Journalism – posted 11/9/2011 While the typical path of this blog has been to link to and write about specific pieces or books that struck me as interesting, this post is about the Penn State scandal and it's mesmerizing (in mostly bad, but also some good) elements. Details of the actual indictment and alleged crimes within are horrifying, but what

10

Words Written Down – Writing

really captured attention has been the people apart from the accused molester Jerry Sandusky, especially living legend and now ex Penn State coach Joe Paterno. In his case, you have someone who has done much good, but in this case (by all appearances) failed at the most important moment. It's a fascinating subject, this concept of duality within an individual... his good deeds remain so, but one specific thing handled in entirely the wrong way impacted so much for the victims. Paterno is of course the most recognizable name involved that could have raised these allegations to police years ago, but there's also now ex Penn State President Graham Spanier and his head in the sand approach both years ago when Sandusky's crimes were raised and since the indictment came down over the weekend. If one can detach from the horrible nature of the crimes, it's a study in how people in power (now including the Penn State Board of Trustees that fired both Spanier and Paterno) react to events, create environments and set policy. So... the story itself has been riveting, but what also holding my attention over the past week has been the words from sports journalists reporting on the story. Some writers I respect a great deal have had fascinating observations to make and they've first appeared as real-time twitter musings and then as published columns. There's been so many good pieces written already, but what many sports journalists and fans of sports journalism are waiting to eventually read is the announced earlier this year book from Joe Posnanski on Paterno and this season (which of course nobody could have envisioned turning out like it has). Posnanski thus far has written two different blog posts on the scandal, first Darkness and then Curiously Short Posts and I doubt he knows what his eventual book on Paterno will contain, but I have to imagine it's going to be an enthralling read. Just a guess of course, but it may well be heavy on the aforementioned duality of how a good person (which Paterno certainly seems to be) can do a bad thing (specifically, the limits to his actions taken when allegations were brought to him). Back to the subject of reporting and sports journalism... reading the columns and musings from good writers as this story has unfolded has gotten me thinking more about journalism and writing. To this end there's been three different pieces I've come across lately about the profession that all stand out as interesting. First was an address given by Nate Silver to the Columbia School of Journalism. Silver founded the political blog FiveThirtyEight and in his speech imparts both his background and valuable career lessons for someone about to enter the field of journalism. Second was a series of tweets from Tommy Tomlinson about an Ira Glass speaking event. I've also been at a live event by the This American Life creator and concur that Glass is a definite master storyteller. Third was a Tumblr site We Are Journalists I just came across today. Very interesting vignettes from people in the profession working to chase down and report well on stories... including things like the horrible crimes and subsequent inaction (and now action) out of Penn State. Brandon Sneed Writing – posted 10/22/2011 Having followed him on twitter for a while now, I've been seeing more and more interesting content lately from journalist Brandon Sneed. Previously I had posted on his interview with newly published in Sports Illustrated writer Tommy Tomlinson and now Sneed has made the same author jump to national magazine (well, least first national magazine piece I've come across). The October 2011 issue of ESPN the Magazine has Sneed's story Nobody walks alone on former NBA player Mike Williams and his near-fatal injury and learning to walk again. It's an excellent piece of unfairness, struggle, courage and determination (yep, those oft seem to travel in a pack). What really strikes me about Sneed, though, is the process of writing posting he's done on his site http://www.brandonsneed.com/. Love me some good content on the topic of writing... as evidenced by my month-ago post Five for Writing Posts from Son of a Bold Venture Blog. Sneed has certainly reached a level of success (published in ESPN the Mag at a young age), but he seems really grounded around the process and work required. To this point was his blog post The Giant in the Wheelchair III: It's Out. It's REALLY Out about the ESPN piece and since then he's done three insightful posts on the writing process: Making It As A Writer: Remember, It's All Relative, Progress & Why You Should Write A Book : Really cool content in all of these.

11

Words Written Down – Writing

Tommy Tomlinson Writing - for ESPN, GoodCall and Personal Blog – posted 9/6/2011 In a veritable onslaught of Tommy Tomlinson content, today there was a piece of his posted at ESPN.com and interview with him on a new sports website. Now, lest this onslaught comment be seen as sarcastic, it really did seem remarkable to see tonight via twitter links to a Tomlinson ESPN story and interview about another he did for Sports Illustrated: Pretty heady publications for a guy who is an excellent writer that seems to just now have his work getting national publication. Tomlinson penned for ESPN "How we find healing through sports" on sports and what games mean and can provide. The commentary revolves around 9/11 and the upcoming 10 year anniversary and really does a good job conveying the impact of sports as well as where that impact stops in a larger context. It's really well done and insightful work... profound, but with that profundity not oversold. The interview on a new website was done by Brandon Sneed for GoodCall and centers on the piece "Something Went Very Wrong At Toomer's Corner" that Tomlinson did for Sports Illustrated. It was a tremendously interesting interview that covered not only how the story was written, but how the assignment (his first for SI) came about. Sneed obviously shared the same curiosity I did after reading what was an excellent piece... I'm just thankful that he and Tomlinson got the story out (you know, on the Interweb Superhighway Tubes). While on this whole Tommy Tomlison kick (if posting on and linking to a piece by and interview with him is a kick), it seemed apropos to note to a very cool (and short) blog post by him from last month. "Waaaaaaaay Overdue" was on an overdue library book, but (not surprisingly given how boring that sounds) also much more. Routines, habits, inertia, breaking out of a seemingly intractable state... these are the themes covered well by Tomlison here. True, it's easier said than done, but as they say... "If it was easy, everyone would do it." Five for Writing Posts from Son of a Bold Venture Blog – posted 8/19/2011 I first mentioned it in a Feb 2011 blog post and lately have thought more about the Five for Writing Series done by Chris Jones on his Son of a Bold Venture blog. Concept as introduced in this blog post by Jones is five questions he e-mails to a writer and then their responses... with the writers covered (and each Series post) hyperlinked below: 1. Gene Weingarten - a Washington Post columnist and humor writer... winner of two Pulitzer prizes for feature writing. Notes the absolute need to get correct the details of what's been written. 2. Wright Thompson - an ESPN website writer who also provides some excellent and heavy on sentiment work for the ESPN/Bill Simmons site Grantland. Provided both links to some of his past work and content about the writing process and concept of becoming interested in a topic, hopping on a plane and go learn about it, and then recording its details in print. Thompson also covers his seeming penchant for producing first person writing (reminds me J.R. Moehringer in this regard). 3. Jeff Pearlman - columnist for the Sports Illustrated website and author of multiple books about famous teams or athletes: Dallas Cowboys, New York Mets, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and now Walter Payton. Blog post has some solid writing process stuff both in relation to physical act of writing (where it works for Pearlman) and what type of book subject is (and isn't) going to attract readers. 4. Charles P. Pierce - highly esteemed Esquire and Boston Globe writer: Makes some interesting points in this post about writing the perfect words to describe something. Somewhat related to this, the post also had some good content on the power of language and rhetoric (which Pierce then expands on really well in this Esquire piece). 5. Glenn Stout - editor of the Best American Sports Writing series and himself a book author. Post contains Stout's mention of the unequivocal need for a writer to tell a story with confidence and in a manner that doesn't let the reader's attention wane. Also of interest from Stout was his writing about words as his job... not that he doesn't enjoy it, but he's got to work to get paid. Also linked to this piece was an SI story "Heavyweight Championship of the Word" by Jeff MacGregor on the writer W.C. Heinz. 6. Gregg Doyel - CBS Sports columnist. Nothing specifically stood out from Doyel's responses to the Five for Writing questions, but as Jones writes, he deserves definite credit for the incredibly fast turn-around answers provided to the questions posed. 7. Drew Magary - writer for the websites Deadspin and Kissing Suzie Kolber... now author of the novel The Postmortal. Almost counter to some of the other Five for Writing authors who wrote about the power of words, Magary writes about the notion of words arranged on a page for the enjoyment of readers... and

12

Words Written Down – Writing

financial gain for the writer. As part of this is his commentary about viewing a novel as being a promising track to wealth given the (free) availability online of so much sports commentary or humor writing out there. Not to forget the blog host himself, there was a similar Q&A blog post done with Jones by the aforementioned Jeff Pearlman... this time on Pearlman's blog. Big take-away from this piece was late in the Q&A how Jones described the experience of writing in the flow... just as Charlie Pierce's above noted description of writing the perfect words. Wright Thompson Pieces from Grantland – posted 8/6/2011 Some remarkable pieces I've seen recently by Wright Thompson of ESPN and Grantland. Thompson is I guy whose I first heard mention of in this Five for Writing feature with his responses to writing process questions posted by Esquire writer Chris Jones on his Son of a Bold Venture blog. A few months after that Feb 2011 interview, I came across the lengthy ESPN Outside the Lines story "Deadly Games" on the Macacos slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pretty remarkable piece whose subtitle tells the story of its content "In Rio, where the next Summer Olympics and World Cup will be held, nearby neighborhoods have become war zones." The writing I've seen lately by Thompson, though, was the trigger to post about and link to him. For the ESPN/Bill Simmons website, Grantland, he's done a series of heartfelt and well written pieces about loss and remembrance. The last two pieces posted were "On Whiskey and Grease: A Yoknapatawpha Wake" and "On Whiskey and Grease: Drinking the last bottle of Jim Beam". Each is a really good blend (no booze pun intended) of the solid and the sentimental about someone‘s passing and how their lives are celebrated. Reading these stories then sent me back to looking in the Grantland archives (not that vast since the site is only a few months old) for other Thompson stories... two of which I recall having read and thinking "man, that's good writing." "On Whiskey and Grease: Pappy Van Winkle" (yep, more booze) was about the hard to find Pappy Van Winkle bourbon and then "Four Nights at Elaine's: The Last Will and Testament of a Great Saloon" about the heavily writer-frequented New York bar closing for good. Really good writing that brought to mind the piece "Last Call at Elaine's, ft. Kevin Van Valkenburg" from the Son of a Bold Venture blog: Similar pieces from these young writers who were part of a group having their last night at Elaine's. Sebastian Junger's "The Storm" for Outside Magazine – posted 7/26/2011 Recently came across "The Storm" by Sebastian Junger for Outside Magazine and found it to be extremely compelling writing. The piece was published in 1994 and became the basis for Junger's bestselling book (and subsequent movie) "The Perfect Storm". I've posted on Junger previously and after reading four of his books now enjoy both the work itself and reading pieces like this Outside Magazine interview that get into how he became a writer. Additionally, Junger makes a point in the interview that I completely agree with... people who do dangerous stuff are fascinating. Whether it‘s someone Junger writes about (including himself) or people written about by Susan Casey (also in relation to the ocean and giant waves) there's something interesting about those who live with such risk. Was an Excellent story from Outside for both those who have and haven't seen his book that it's based on (and anyone who hasn't had a chance to read the book would likely want to after this story). Pieces on Becoming a Writer – posted 7/17/2011 One thing terribly fascinating to me is how someone became a writer... this being why I was so riveted by the J.R. Moehringer memoir The Tender Bar (which I reviewed here). Recently I've come across a few interesting pieces that traffic in this topic. I've posted on Moehringer a few times now and maybe a month ago received an e-mail from someone good enough to give me links to a bunch of us work I hadn't seen before. As part of this collection, I enjoyed quite a bit his 2007 Denver Magazine feature "Ballad for a Plain Man" on singer/songwriter Jeff Finlin, but was most struck by a shorter Moehringer piece about him at the Denver Rocky Mountain News. Titled "Yesterday's News", it's interesting and personal writing about becoming a writer... practically picking up right where The Tender Bar left as a writing memoir. Some more

13

Words Written Down – Writing

recent stuff on becoming a writer came courtesy of a "Q&A with Kevin Van Valkenburg" on the I Hate JJ Redick blog covering Baltimore sports. Van Valkenburg writes for the Baltimore Sun and I've enjoyed his work since learning about it from a Chris Jones blog post and now following him on Twitter. The first question posed to him is how he became a writer and got to his current job and maybe it's just me, but it was terribly interesting reading the answer provided. Final piece lately around becoming a writer isn't so much on one person's path, but rather around a genre of writing. From an issue of Time Magazine a few weeks ago came a piece by Lev Grossman on Fan Fiction titled "The Boy Who Lived Forever". Fan fiction is the concept of writing story extensions for one's own amusement (many posted to the site FanFiction.Net) and while there may be more unpaid stories on Harry Potter than any other character or series, it could be done for the work of virtually any author. Interesting genre of writing that I hadn't heard about before, but makes sense as people are simply doing something they enjoy based on... yep, something they enjoy. As someone who loves both reading and (hopefully) producing good writing, it's fascinating this whole culture of both paid and unpaid work out there. What & Who I Like to Read - and Where I Find It – posted 7/9/2011 A topic kicking around in my head lately and discussed with a few different people is what and who I like to read. It's definitely something previously considered... with over a year ago my post on topics of interest to read and write about and then favorite authors as well as the more recent post on books from said authors. So, to revisit the topic and add a few updates... Type of writing enjoyed – I like good non-fiction, particularly that with some emotional heft, and a balance between sentiment and reporting. It's tough to pull off, but also done by some good writers out here. Where I find it – Much of the writing posted on and linked to here came from print magazines (with publishing there requiring that the pieces have made it through the filter of the publication), with my having subscriptions to the following magazines: Sports Illustrated, Businessweek, Esquire, Fast Company, Time. There may well be other great magazines out there I should subscribe to, but each of these serves as a source of good articles and mention of books to read. Also, I've written about it before, but Twitter can be an excellent source of links to both good feature writing and non-fiction books. Who I liked to read – it was only a few months ago I did the aforementioned post on books from authors, but there are a couple of additions both in terms of writers I look for: Tommy Tomlinson, Kevin Van Valkenburg, Jeff MacGregor, Jeff Jarvis, Michael Lewis, Eric Weiner and J.R. Moehringer. Oregon Quarterly Feature on YA Novelist Gayle Forman – posted 6/17/2011 Pretty compelling piece of writing from the summer 2011 issue of Oregon Quarterly: The Magazine of the University of Oregon. Written by 1995 Oregon grad Kimber Williams, "Books to Write" is about Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay, the 1999 Young Adult bestselling novel. It's a solid profile by Williams and provides a view of Forman's life and how a tragic life experience led to writing the book. It's pretty profound stuff and gives a good sense of Forman's life and experience as a novelist: Kind of inspiring. Waiting on Writing: Good Authors - Good Books – posted 5/16/2011 While reading the just released In the Garden of Beasts from Erik Larson, it got me thinking about how long it takes to write good non-fiction... and when some of my favorite non-fiction authors might have new work. A good starting off point for this inquiry is my Nov 2009 post Blog Topics List: Redux Part Duex... Stuff of Interest & Authors Enjoyed, with focus on the people noted as book authors (and a few more added). Erik Larson: Writes historical content with lots of detail and narrative around events in time; Published Thunderstruck Sept 2007 and then In the Garden of Beasts May 2011 - 3 1/2 years apart. Jeff Jarvis: Writes on business topics and published What Would Google Do? Jan 2009. New book Public Parts scheduled for Sept 2011 release some 2 1/2 years later. Susan Casey: writes sports-related with a bent towards adventure prose. Penned The Devil's Teeth May 2006 (which I felt like put me in an elite club for having read) and then published 4 1/2 years later in May 2010 her bestselling The Wave. Michael Lewis:

14

Words Written Down – Writing

writes books that sell lots and lots of copies on a variety of topics... from High Finance to Parenthood to Major League Baseball. Last published The Big Short in Mar 2010 and has Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World scheduled for Oct 2011 release. While this does sound to be a follow up to The Big Short, it is interesting to see that release would be only a year and a half after it. Eric Weiner: travel writer who released The Geography of Bliss Jan 2008. Not sure when his next book will be out, but looking forward to it after 3 plus years now. J.R. Moehringer: someone I've come across more recently and just last year read his 2006 memoir The Tender Bar. Last book was the co-written with Andre Agassi biography Open, published Dec 2009. Bill Bryson - prolific travel writer who last did At Home in Oct 2010. Other authors who I look forward to seeing their next books (hyperlinks to past work) include S.L. Price, Chris Jones, Austin Murphy, John Grogan and David Von Drehle. The point of all this... there's great non-fiction work out there, but it can take a while to write a new book. As evidence of this, the excellent Laura Hillenbrand book Unbroken, released in Nov 2010 eight years after she published Seabiscuit. Words, Writing & Windmill Tilting... – posted 5/5/2011 I've written about it a few times here, but lots of great stuff on of the Chris Jones blog Son of a Bold Venture. Content ranges from the tactical with writers answering questions on their craft to profound with missives on aspiring writers (or really aspiring anyones) tilting at windmills as they try to realize career goals. The last two posts at Son of a Bold Venture trafficked more towards windmill tilting with "Lydia Could" about pursuing a Journalism degree in spite of the profession's career arc (much less arcy these days) and then "The Chattanooga Fix" about the small chance of success in writing a book measured against required time and effort. Rather than leaning towards the doom and gloom, though, me thinks these posts both inspire based on what I take as the directive that... you try, you may or may not succeed, but you try. If you know what you want, great... you try to do that. If you don't know, but have an idea... you try around your idea and see where that takes you. If you have no idea, you scattershot about at different things and hopefully find something of import to you. Either way... yep, you try. If these two most recent Son of a Bold Venture posts were about... duh, trying, there were a few prior to that on a different topic I feel strongly about, words. "A Parting Glass" featured a Charles P. Pierce written eulogy on fellow writer Clif Garboden. It was simply very cool reading about how someone loved what they did, and that thing being the writing of words on a page. One other Jones missive from the past month that struck me around this topic, but it really wasn't his writing in the post that hit me, but who he wrote about... and then a reader posted blog comment. "Opening Acts" begins with a reprinting of a J.R. Moehringer magazine piece, which I found of note as Moehringer's memoir The Tender Bar seems a close relative (if not ancestor) of what Son of a Bold Venture is all about. Both on writers, writing, words; all things I feel of import. In relation to this specific post, though, what I keep thinking about is actually a comment from another reader of it. Valerie said... I have let the busyness of life crowd out the time and love I once had for reading. As a bureaucrat my own writing is dry and dull (but sometimes artful in its own way). Your posts are drawing me back. I must go out and buy something other than a newspaper to read right away. I need to find time again to slowly savor and enjoy someone else' art of telling a story. I love it. I enjoy the blog from Jones in part because it's about writers and writing as an act, but it was great to see someone make mention of writing and words as a something to consume. Whether I'm writing them or simply reading them from someone else... I love words organized on page in a meaningful way (note the heading of this blog) and it's cool to read other people say much the same thing. John Hyduk Essay from Esquire – posted 5/1/2011 Interesting piece of writing from the May 2011 issue of Esquire Magazine: Written by John Hyduk, "The Loading Dock Manifesto" is an account of the author's job for a beverage distributor along with past work experiences. Its solid writing that relates what it's like to have something far removed from a white collar career and life. With myself as a reader having said white collar circumstances, it‘s interesting reading about someone in a completely different orbit (which is of course is what can happen through reading). In

15

Words Written Down – Writing

addition to the story, I also found myself ruminating on the author himself. Here's a guy who can definitely write, is published in Esquire (with a byline note made of occasional publishing in Ohio and Cleveland magazines), but works on a loading dock. I'm interested in this idea of a guy with writing talent who doesn't actually write as his full time job. Does he want to write for a living, but can't catch a break? Is his stuff simply not good enough (though, this piece certainly is solid)? Is he not able to write as compelling prose if not about his life? Or, is he simply satisfied with his life and work (including both the loading dock and writing) and doesn't want to change? I certainly can't say, but (without knowing there is any sad tale there) you gotta allow for the possibility that this is someone with a job that meets his needs and a writing interest that he's able to do well on the side... and he's good with that: If that's the case, then kudos to Hyduk for carving out something that works for him. All conjecture here of course, but me thinks interesting things to ruminate on, and an interesting essay to read. Two additional pieces of writing from this issue of Esquire that while they didn't strike me as much as that from Hyduk, I found of note. Financial writer Ken Kurson did "Let Them Eat iPads" on his prediction of coming inflation... and ways to have the possibility guide one's investing. Definitely seems like there's something to his premise as higher prices on a variety of goods and services appears to be more and more widespread. "Walking the Border" is a feature from Luke Dittrich that chronicles the first part of his solo journey from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The writing wasn't bad by any means, but what stood out to me was this idea of taking on a challenge. The endeavor of course doesn't have to be walking the US-Mexico border, but that's something to be said for taking on a task whose outcome isn't certain. Profound Thoughts on Writing - from Chris Jones Blog – posted 4/10/2011 I've written on it previously, but some really interesting stuff on writing (and the process of) at the Son of a Bold Venture blog from Esquire writer Chris Jones. Since the above mentioned last post I wrote, what's really resonated with me from the blog has been the content written around something I'll call "becoming a writer, and then a great one". HOW I GOT MY JOB (PART I) & FEAR by Chris Jones on his blog... on his perspective around the struggle to get the right words on the page. Really interesting stuff from both of these posts (and I'd say most of the posts and subsequent comments on this blog). Where me thinks the ante was upped was with a still ongoing discussion that started with the Son of a Bold Venture post LOSING'S REWARD... about the author's disappointment at not getting award recognition for an Esquire feature on Roger Ebert. This launched a slew of interesting post comments both for and against said disappointment. People's commentary delved into subjects ranging from motivation to validation and took the various forms of concurrence, honest disagreement and snarkiness (it is the Internet, after all). In the ―disagreement‖ category, Esquire writer Scott Raab posted a note which linked to his interesting and well written Try Selling Shoes blog post. Gist of both his post comment and blog post was that if you're doing the work you want to for a living, you shouldn't complain... at least not to people outside of your sphere who may actually aspire to your relative level. Jones wrote I felt reasoned comment responses (including to Raab) and followed up with the post THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH. This missive contained more of his thoughts on validation of writing, but also had something else. While not to discount the original (and still important) topic of what makes a writer feel recognized, it seems to me infinitely more valuable in a discussion of writing to look at what makes a writer great. On this producing of great work subject, Jones wrote of desperately wanting something and desperately working towards it. This concept of going all in is me thinks what makes someone great at a chosen profession. Howard Stern talked about it as recently as last week in relation to radio and now Jones references it in relation to writing... it's a dedication approaching manic level need for success. Granted, this whole discussion started around the topic of what signifies success, and the role award winning plays in that, but to me... this thing of what it takes to reach whatever level might have the shiny baubles of "success" (whether they be jobs, awards, or simply great prose), that's the big rock there.

16

Words Written Down – Writing

Assembling New David Foster Wallace Book - From Time Magazine – posted 4/5/2011 Interesting piece from the latest issue of Time Magazine in "Unfinished Business" by Lev Grossman... about "The Pale King", David Foster Wallace's posthumously published novel: What struck me wasn't necessarily writing about the book itself, but rather the compilation of the work. As I've been reading about (and posting on) the process of writing lately, one thing that's come out repeatedly is the import of editing in the process. This (presumably) final work from Wallace presents a remarkable example of that import with Grossman's description of how the book came together. After Wallace's passing, reams of pages were found with scattered chapters, notes, vignettes and story fragments... and out of this, the book was assembled. Over the course of two years, longtime Wallace editor Michael Pietsch pored over the work and through an exercise in "extreme editing", made what he felt were the best decisions possible about how it should all fit together into a narrative. This endeavor by Pietsch (and him winding up with the finished product as described by Grossman) is remarkable to me from the perspective of how both incredibly creative and highly process oriented it must have been. Now, this of course wasn't editing under normal circumstances, but maybe it is a statement on what editing can be. Frequent Blog Tag: "Writing" – posted 4/3/2011 After early last month doing a post about blog tags used, I a few weeks back posted "Frequent Blog Tags: "Customer Service", "Social Media" & "Work" to highlight the more "about or pertaining to business" topics often written about and tagged here. Looking further at this concept of things frequently posted on... another process/topic tag oft used here is "Writing". Out of these 15 posts I've done with this a tag, three different categories seem to emerge as "the point of what I've getting at" with this tag (categorization of these not a scientific process, but little on this blog is): Posts about the writing process - Included is this category is both my own ramblings and those of some of my favorite writers (i.e. Chris Jones, Joe Posnanski, Eric Weiner, Roger Ebert, J.R. Moehringer). Not coincidentally, many of these guys have blogs or twitter accounts that give them an avenue to "write about writing". Posts about words and how great they can be - This is after all the point of this blog (see: blog heading just below the title) and often times the aforementioned writers get into words and their import at the same time they write about putting them down on a page. Also included are my own ruminations (it is my blog, after all) on what words placed together into meaningful order can do. Also there are posts about writing as an end in itself or career: A two part concept... with one being the act of writing getting accomplished and the other actually getting paid for it. Wisdom I've gathered (and linked to) is that to become a writer as an end to itself, you just... you know, write. This act done and then repeatedly done again more than anything else is a writer someone makes. Now, if only things were as clear cut around how to then go from being a writer putting words on page for its own sake to one doing it for a living. That said, those people putting in the effort to write, but who haven't yet made it a career should take heart. Without first "writing for the sake of writing", the making it a career part wouldn't stand a chance (not to mention you wouldn't have the writing for writing's sake thing). It‘s about small victories one at a time. Son of a Bold Venture Blog – posted 2/19/2011 This isn't the first post I've done on it, but big fan am I of the blog Son of a Bold Venture from Esquire writer Chris Jones. In my aforementioned first missive, I wrote of my excitement about a blog on the subject of words and writing and have found it's thus far completely met my expectations. It may be odd that a blog heavily about journalism could resonate with me so much, but when you get down to it... print journalism is about words and their meaning (and I like words and their meaning a lot). Two posts in particular resonated with me thus far... both on the topic of writing as a passion/career choice. Lester's Dilemma addressed the heartache and struggle faced by many writers and Lara Logan's Math the actual physical danger journalism can pose... as horrifically endured by a female CBS correspondent in Egypt. Also, one series of postings I'm completely drawn to as a concept is Five for Writing... Jones e-mail interviews with other writers take on their craft. Last thing to mention is the idea of a community interested in writing. The

17

Words Written Down – Writing

posts usually have 10 t0 30 different comments... with many featuring insightful takes from people both known (Charles P. Pierce) and new to me (Brandon Sneed). I've had the thought and made mention on this blog previously of wanting my writing to become more part of a community, and perhaps this is jumping off point. In summary, I like words, like to write stuff and love the idea of a blog about (well, close enough about) this same words and their arranging in a meaningful order. New Blog about Writing & Words from Chris Jones – posted 2/3/2011 Since I do a goodly amount of blathering on about words and what they mean, I was very (did I mention very?) interested to learn of a new blog from Chris Jones (one of my favorite writers) that he describes as being "about writing and words." On the Blogger network (ok, since I've now seen this blog and the one from Joe Posnanski on blogger, I'll remain on and not move to TypePad); Son of a Bold Venture features a hodgepodge of writing from Jones... with almost if not all of the posts thus far on the subject of Writing. His first post provides both some short back story around becoming a writer (which frankly, made me want to hear the long back story) and impetus behind the blog. With the second post a day later being on another of my favorite writers, the aforementioned Joe Posnanski, I was sold as a reader. Well, I would have been into it anyways, but you get the point. I posted a comment to this second blog entry with a portion of it being the following: Joe Posnanski for me hits on multiple elements of good writing. It's thorough, conveys a message and is emotional... but without dropping into the realm of sentimental just for the sake of sentiment (if that makes sense as an accolade). Now, I'm not going to follow the traditional path that my blog has taken of reposting or linking to good writing and saying why it's good since that would be, you know, my commenting on my own writing and saying why I like it. What I will do though, is say that I love this idea of what makes good writing good. Me thinks it's especially a trick to come up with good writing of the more heartfelt variety (which I tend to lean towards rather than away from) because if not done well, it just becomes ooshy-gushy. The writers I most enjoy and seek out stuff from (Posnanski, Jones, S.L. Price, David Von Drehle, and Austin Murphy when he's not doing straight game reporting) all seem to accomplish this feat of solid and thorough writing that also has heart. So, back to the point (and title) of this post... a blog on writing by a guy who writes in a fashion that I admire, its Word Gold to me. Joe Posnanski on Words – posted 1/30/2011 I like words. Yea... that's a highly simplistic statement to make, but a very material one as it's the whole point of this blog. From the front page, Blog is all about words because... they matter, they influence, they entertain and when you take 'em and put them down on a page in a meaningful order, they acquire permanence. While the majority of posts here are done as vehicles linking to great writing, I've also done a handful of entries on the creation of said writing (posts having the blog label "writing" and the most recent linked to here). This being said, I felt a bit like kid in a candy store upon seeing a blog post on writing from one of my favorite writers. "The Most Beautiful Word" by Joe Posnanski takes the oft-asked question of how he became a writer and answers it by telling a story about his youth, parents, and how he was raised. Specifically, Posnanski makes reference to his mother asking him "do you know what word is beautiful?" Posnanski wrote of this question's impact on an elementary school aged kid, "Something kind of clicked with me, I think; it was a whole other way of looking at words. And over time I would start to think about that, how words sound together, how the pacing of language and how the velocity and tempo can create layers of meaning, the staggering power of the simplest words." Hey, that's kind of how I describe words and why I like them! On the subjects: of Posnanski writing, mothers, and words organized into meaningful prose was a feature on Tony Pena... originally written in 2003 and then linked to after Pena's mother passed away last week. Piece on Chris Jones - Writer Guy – posted 12/24/2010 Found on twitter something very cool, an in-depth piece on one my favorite writers, Chris Jones (with link to said twitter feed). From the Ryerson Review of Journalism, "Not All Smurfs and Sunshine" has some history

18

Words Written Down – Writing

on the guy and his writing career, but most interesting to me... gets into the whole approach to the craft of writing (with here and here being recent posts on the topic). It seems a well written story on Jones and underscores that writing is hard work, but for those who are talented, work really hard at it, work hard at getting found, and are lucky enough to actually succeed at efforts to be found, a living can be scratched out. Inspiring stuff to be sure, but I guess that's the point... things aren't always easy, but in the words of the immortal Jerry Seinfeld, "you just keep showing up." I've made this point a number of times on this blog, but it's not always going to be easy, and when it's not, you do it anyways... and consider yourself blessed during the times that you're flowing and it is easy. Wisdom taken (maybe crowbarred by me the reader, but that's ok... taken nonetheless) from the piece and links to a ton of Jones writing... that's some good stuff there, me thinks. Elizabeth Edwards Passing & Not Giving Up – posted 12/13/2010 Two different things that I really want to meld together here into one coherent blog post. Thing A - the passing of Elizabeth Edwards. Roughly a week ago, the estranged wife of Presidential want to-be and dirt bag-is John Edwards succumbed in her fight with cancer. In May of last year I linked to and posted on an excerpt from her book and found myself pretty captivated by how she reacted to the hand she was dealt. Just after her death, I came across "Elizabeth Edwards Was the Right Kind of Woman" by Chris Jones on his Esquire blog. Good short writing, but in terms of Edwards herself... geesh, that's a rough go of it she had. Thing B - don't give up. I found out about the Jones story on Edwards' passing from his twitter feed... which later had the following two posts: "Elizabeth Edwards in Allendale came from a story I quit halfway through. Worst move of my career. Don't quit until the story quits on you. Seriously, I almost left the writing biz that week in South Carolina: In tears with my editor. Fuck me. Game could have changed right there." Intent isn't to say that Edwards‘s terminal cancer (and other horrific things she faced) is the same as Jones struggling with a story, but I also don't think it trite to say they both feature the concept of not giving up. In terms the writing thing... I've many a time struggled to get something on page and tried to follow the maxim of... you set a writing goal, slog away, and get something down that reaches your goal. The inspired times are great, but they're not always there and it's just as if not more important to carry on without inspiration around: My soliloquy. Eric Weiner Wisdom & Musings – posted 11/30/2010 One of the first posts to this blog was on the excellent Eric Weiner book "The Geography of Bliss" and after following him on Twitter for a while now I gotta say... the guy has some interesting things to say. Point of this post is to repeat some of his said Twitter-posted insight from the last six months... From today, Nov 30 link to a TED talk by Weiner! Nov 29 - "Life is too short for pettiness or bad coffee." Nov 13 - "Death is the Universe's way of making sure we pay attention." Nov 3 - "The only thing worse than writing is not writing." Nov 2 - "Most things in life get easier with practice. Unfortunately, writing is not one of them." Oct 21 - '"A writer is person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." --Thomas Mann. Amen.' Jul 22 - "Writing is the art of taming your demons by naming them. That's why I've yet to meet a sane writer worth reading. They have no demons." Jul 15 - "Silence may be golden but so is sound. We need the ambient chatter of others to cushion our own churning minds. That's why cafes thrive." Jul 15 - "Never analyze enthusiasm. It's a sure way to kill it." Ok, now that I've copied my favorite Twitter missives from Weiner, I know why I like said missives so much... If not obvious already, I've put the oneword clue as to why in italics above. Writers Write... And Not Always Well – posted 9/22/2010 After an hour or so ago making in this post the comment "my blog is about writing", it got me to thinking about the idea of writing words and how it's done. I know I like both reading and writing words organized well on a page and I've certainly written about that... with posts on the "Permanence of Words" and "How We Value and Entertain Ourselves" as examples. What I don't think I've written as much about is the

19

Words Written Down – Writing

process of getting said words on a page organized well. S'hard stuff... this writing thing. Well, not always hard, but those fits of inspiration are oft mere exceptions to the rule of writing as a slog. I suppose that's ok, though. There's contemporary writers that do great work (and I've written about them many times including in this post), but I'd be willing to bet dollars for doughnuts that these writer types as well as the "all-time greats" like Fitzgerald, Rand, Twain and Lee (Harper, that is) often weren't writing great prose when they wrote, but just kept at it. Basically following the principle of "if you keep doing something long enough, you're eventually going to get good at it" (labeled the "10,000 hour rule" by Malcolm Gladwell in "Outliers"). Therein lies the trick, me think (and this is about writing, but one could apply the idea below elsewhere)... When you're inspired, motivated and creative... you write, you do great work. However, when you're not inspired, not motivated and not creative... you still write, you do work. Maybe through the act of the work it'll become great, but even if it doesn't, you're still being a writer, and by acting as one, you'll eventually become an even better writer. How We Value Things & Entertain Ourselves - Roger Ebert on Huck Finn vs a Great Video Game – posted 7/25/2010 A few weeks ago, I did a post on reading which made mention of something that I think deserves more attention... that being a Roger Ebert blog entry on Huck Finn vs video games. Ebert's piece on his Chicago Sun-Times blog stems from him posing to readers the question "which of these would you value more? (A) A great video game or (B) "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain." The tally at the time that his blog post was written was 13,823 to 8,088 in favor of video games (or 63% to 37%). Ebert writes of the unscientific and open to interpretation nature of his question, but the results (and Ebert's take on them) are still very interesting and certainly worth a read. As I think about the general popular opinion, it reminds me of a "Permanence of Words" blog post I did and how Ebert's poll results show that everyone has their thing (or things). For my own personal "thing", younger me (not even that much younger) would have put sports above all other non-family things, but I now view my favorite sports more as entertainment and less as something of great import (due in large part to now having children, me thinks). At the same time that sports has moved down the list, words (both the reading and particularly writing of them) have moved up. In many ways, my life would be easier if that weren't the case as I'd have available as free time that which I spend now on reading and writing... and I'd also get rid of that persistent nagging feeling I put upon myself of thinking I should spend more time writing. However, we all choose what dragons we want to slay, and as the aforementioned "Permanence of Words" post details, I've at least for the time begin (and presumably going forward) chosen mine. Going back to the Ebert piece, it's a fascinating question to think about the "absolute value" of something. Is a great book such as Twain's of more value than a great video game? My personal answer is yes, but what Ebert raises for consideration is whether a comparison such as this can be definitively answered in any context other than each person's individual view. Reading - It's the Right Thing to Do – 7/7/2010 A topic I've had bouncing around in my head for a bit now is that of good books... and why to read them. This follows up on both my "Permanence of Words" post about words and what I like about them and "Words Written Down - The School Days" piece about writing. Main difference between those and this is I want to write here about reading. I recall from his excellent book "On Writing", bestselling author Stephen King extolling the virtues of reading for any writer. He was referring I believe to fiction writers, but a nonfiction writer would me thinks have even more of a need to be well read. If you're writing about actual things (i.e. non-fiction), helps to actually know something about said things. Through reading, you're going to be able to both envelop yourself in a story (whether real or fictional) and have time to draw your own conclusions and thoughts on it. If you compare reading to say, watching a movie... the experience of film I believe just isn't as immersive and as a result, the viewer has less opportunity for take-away than the reader. This import of reading established, I think the question becomes what to read. There's obviously a lot of options ranging from novels and non-fiction books (and me thinks both type of books valuable) to

20

Words Written Down – Writing

magazines and newspapers, and then blogs and all the way down (in size) to Twitter posts. In terms of online writing, one criticism I've seen is that a reader there not likely to think as deeply about and gain as much as from a book. While I do agree with this generally, I think it not a reason to skip reading online, just an argument to pick up a book as well as surf the Interlyweb. In fact, a great thing that vehicles like Twitter and magazines can provide is a recommendation of books to read. To that end... the July 12 issue of Time Magazine contained "What to Read This Summer". The article featured authors and other public figures saying what books they're reading now as a form of recommendation. Many of the books noted in this piece I'm not terribly interested in, but one that did jump out is "The Tender Bar: A Memoir" by J.R. Moehringer. Written by the co-writer of Andre Agassi's fantastic memoir "Open" (which I reviewed here), it's about Moehringer's time spent in a bar and how that related to his life and writing career. Man, by a guy who wrote (well, co-wrote) a book I love and this book involving stuff about becoming a writer... "The Tender Bar" sounds like catnip to me. Ok, that's quite a progression I ran through in this post. To whit: (A) previously wrote about writing, now writing about reading, (B) writers should read stuff, (C) writers should read all different kinds of writing, (D) online writing can lead to books, (E) here's a link to an article recommending books and (F) hey, here's a book I want to read! Again, lots of steps there, but ones I'm happy to have walked through reaching this point. Closing thought around this whole reading theme is a link to a most excellent writer in Roger Ebert blogging about the value of a great video game vs great book ("Huck Finn" to be specific). Words Written Down - The School Days – posted 7/5/2010 What things do we write that stick with us? Well, it's probably not a terribly important question for most people, but for those who fancy themselves writer types (me being one of those), it's pretty important. For the purpose of this missive, I'm interested in looking back at the writings of note (you know, to me) that I did in school. High School - not "The Wonder Years", but still a time I wrote some stuff that I remember to this day. As an aside, I was a voracious reader in elementary school and think it not a stretch to proclaim that the foundation of my interest in writing. Two things written in High School I remember: 1. An extemporaneous writing assignment for Yearbook Class. While it's true that I didn't do much else there, I do remember having my paper brought up in class as being really good. Who knew? 2. My admission essay for University of Puget Sound. The topic was Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and I recall being told by the interviewer that it was one his favorite essays on the book. Maybe he was just humoring me because I didn't get into the school (course, I also blew off their social mixer), but I did like being told I could write well. College - needs to be separated into Undergrad and Graduate writing. As an Undergraduate English major, I recall the process I would follow to write Freshman English papers. First step would be to do a free write on the topic... elapsed time, 4 hours. Next would be to take what I wrote and write a new document based on the original... elapsed time, 4 hours. Final step would be to rewrite and revise this new document... elapsed time, 4 hours. Now, perhaps I'm remembering spending more time than was the case, but that's how I recall it. Guess the lesson here is that it takes work to do good work... a concept written about in my last blog post. Literary Theory class was another one that I remember for the writing. To generate papers for the class I would read something, take a specific nugget from it and then figure out how to write about that one sliver in a larger context... hopefully a completely different context than others might consider. While this was the process I enjoyed, the topic I remember being most interested in from this class was Jacques Derrida and his writings on "difference" vs "differance"... a very cool look at context and meaning. Also have found memories of a paper I wrote for a Native American Studies class. For the content of the piece, I basically copied an encyclopedia entry on the native tribe in question, but did so as if I was telling a story through the eyes of a village elder. One might quibble and consider this a form of plagiarism, but I instead think of it as a preamble to my interest in historical fiction. As a Grad Student, I recall most fondly an essay I wrote in class as part of an exam. I don't recall the exact assignment, but I know the end product I wound up with was a paper on how Major League Baseball at the time appeared to use business strategies taken out of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." The only problem was that MLB seemed

21

Words Written Down – Writing

to be using multiple strategies against themselves, not a great way to run a business. Was fun to write and yea, I was recognized for it which felt good. In summary of the words on pages portion of my time in school: producing stuff you like to write and having people appreciate it... both very worthwhile things. Permanence of Words – posted 6/30/2010 (and included in the book intro) A topic I've thought about quite a bit and have written around, but never quite about, is why I like writing. Now, this blog is all about writing (note the blog title) and I've gone beyond the book reviews and magazine article links a few times to get at what I'm doing with the blog. Perhaps it's even been a somewhat annual process... with Like To Write Stuff: Why & How Thus Far from August 2008 and Wherefore the Blog... Again posted December of last year. So I've certainly thought about what I'm doing with the blog and have established what it's about, but have not (least I don't think) written about why I like writing. The answer to this is arrived at through a bit of a progression... Starting off, I'd say that I think everyone should have a thing that's of import to them. When I say that, I'm thinking of that thing being something greater than simply liking a given sports team (as Joel Klein wrote of in this Time Magazine piece (which I posted about here) or being say... good at video games. I'm thinking more along the lines of something with some heft and meaning to it. Now, this isn't to marginalize the huge significance of being a good parent or friend as someone's thing, but me thinks there's a lot to be said for people having something that serves as a creative outlet. Some people's creative type thing is to paint, some to make movies, some to excel at a particular sport... I simply like the idea of my thing being words. When I think about words, the feeling I have is that they matter (least the ones that are put together into a meaningful order). They influence, they entertain and when you take 'em and put them down on a page, they acquire permanence. There's a certain gravitas about something that remains behind in written form... whether that be on a printed page or out on the superhighway of information. Either way it's stored and delivered, something written down leaves a metaphorical vapor trail. It may be a crazy good trail in the neighborhood of F. Scott Fitzgerald level prose or it may be less than one of the great books, but either way, words written down have permanence. This concept of permanence very much relates to what I've tried to do thus far with this blog... to create a record both of good writing I've come across and why I like it (and have that be hopefully in a somewhat entertaining fashion). This record may be something that someone else reads on the blog and finds of note, it may be something that I look back on to remember cool stuff I've read, or it may be something the kiddos see in future years and find interesting that their Pa did. Now, in terms of more traditional narrative writing (fiction or non-fiction both), would I love to be able to at some point answer the "what do you do?" question by saying "I'm a writer?" Darn tootin' I would. Even if that doesn't take place, though, I like words. I like what they can do and I like creating a record of myself in relation to words... both ones arranged well by others and my own original ones. Yep... I like to write (and read... and link to good) stuff. Author Websites – posted 3/14/2010 Following up on the heels of my blog post on tags or labels noted, I wanted to create a new label category for posts with an "author website" linked to within. This certainly doesn't mean that each site will be tremendously interesting as I know at least a few are there just to help sell the book and don't have much else on or from the author. On the flip side, I know there's also at least a few that have lots of content from the writer and should make for compelling reading. It will of course be searchable via the tag cloud on the blog now that I've put this new label onto the given posts, but just for giggles, I've listed out below those authors I've reviewed who do have a site I linked to (with the site hyperlinked on his or her name): From January-March 2010 blog posts: John Grisham - "Ford County", Malcolm Gladwell - "What the Dog Saw", Chris Brogan - "Trust Agents". From 2009 blog posts: Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner "Superfreakonomics", David Kord Murray - "Borrowing Brilliance", Alain de Botton - "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work", Kurt Andersen - "Reset: Financial Crisis", Scott Rosenberg - "Say Everything: Blogging", Lee Gutkind - "Keep it Real: Creative Nonfiction", John Grogan - "The Longest Trip Home", Stephenie

22

Words Written Down – Writing

Meyer - "Eclipse", Jeff Jarvis - "What Would Google Do?", Dr. Andrew Weil - "Healthy Aging", Will Leitch - "God Save the Fan", Dave Bidini - "Tropic of Hockey", Doris Kearns Goodwin - "Team of Rivals". From July-December 2008 blog posts: Jason Peter - "Hero of the Underground", Mark Jenkins - "The Hard Way", Randy Pausch - "Last Lecture", Tom Vanderbilt - "Traffic", Curtis Sittenfeld - "American Wife", Sarah Lacy "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good", - Jason Roberts - "A Sense of the World", Garth Stein - "The Art of Racing in the Rain", Stefan Fatsis - "A Few Seconds of Panic", J.K. Rowling - "Harry Potter", Max Barry "Company" and Eric Weiner - "The Geography of Bliss". Roger Ebert Profile from Esquire – posted 2/19/2010 Great piece on Roger Ebert in the March 2010 issue of Esquire: From the frequently linked to in this blog Esquire writer Chris Jones, "Roger Ebert: The Essential Man" is an in-depth look at the film critic. What comes out in the piece is the health battles that Ebert has gone through and how that's impacted and guided his life and work. I'm always interested in the idea of a writer who also does a large amount of blogging and Ebert's blog definitely puts him in this category (with another writing resident being Sports Illustrated writer Joe Posnanski who publishes his "Joe Blog"). To the mention of Ebert's blog, Esquire included online a link to his blog post about Jones writing the profile. Not often that you get to read both a deeply personal story about someone and then the subject's thoughts about that story. Also of interest to me from this March 2010 Esquire issue was the extremely short Scott Raab piece "How to Teach Your Kid About Money" and a reference to the W.C. Heinz book "The Professional". I don't find the Raab piece online so I'll just list out here some of the concepts I liked from it: - Even at a young age, your kids should learn about money... and a $100 bill from the Tooth Fairy can help accomplish that. - An allowance says your kids work for you... they don't, they're part of the family. The W.C. Heinz book reference was of interest as Heinz was written about shortly after his death by the aforementioned Chris Jones... with his story "Death of a Racehorse" noted as an example of great writing. As I looked online a bit for Heinz and his work, I found he also had a few different pieces included in "The Best American Sports Writing of the Century". It was pretty good company there for Heinz. Social Media... What a Place to Be!(?) – posted 1/23/2010 (could be in business, included here as my longest personal writing) For companies today, hopefully it‘s ―Social Media… What a place to be!‖ Occasionally instead it‘s ―Social Media… What a place to be?‖ More often than not, though it‘s ―Social Media… What? A place to be.‖ Punctuation isn‘t usually given much gravitas today (except of course for fans of the Lynne Truss bestseller) but it can make a large difference in some things, Social Media being one. The hot business buzzword topic has gone from unknown to the ―it idea‖ in the span of a few short years… and was the topic of the recent BusinessWeek feature story ―Beware Social Media Snake Oil.‖ As companies large and small figure out what if anything to do around the Social Media space, mistakes are easy to make. These can of course be in the execution of Social Media strategies and tactics, but can also be back in the all-important deciding what to do phase. Back to the three statements above: Social Media… What a place to be! – Something felt a company invested in Social Media and pleased as punch with the results. Social Media… What a place to be? – Something felt by a company invested in Social Media and that hasn‘t gotten what they expected. Also could be felt by a company slammed by others via Social Media communication. Social Media… What? A place to be. – Something felt by… most everyone else. Companies (and the people in them) don‘t want to be left out, but are trying to figure out the best approach to take around Social Media. This ―what to do?‖ is the big question to be asked up front and the companies that put the most thought into it are likely going to be the ones who are happy with their experience around Social Media. As is detailed below, this figuring out process needs to include not just what a company might say via Social Media, but what's said about it. It‘s been already stated here that Social Media is a new concept, but to understand it, one needs to look at where it lies on a communication (note that the word technology isn‘t used here) continuum. Prior to the wacky worldly-wide Interweb-net, people communicated

23

Words Written Down – Writing

with one other largely via the telephone, letters and meeting in person. Conversely, companies communicated with people via the telephone, print ads, in person interaction and television. Now with the internet enmeshed in our lives, people communicate with one another via… the telephone (including text messages), letters (including e-mails) and meeting in person as well as oh yeah, via the internet. People and companies communicate with one another (person to person and company to person) in many of the same ways as before. In terms of company to person communication, television hasn‘t gone away, nor has direct mail, sponsorship or cold-calling over the phone. With the internet (and specifically Social Media via the internet) added, though, there‘s a new method of company to person communication, but probably even more important (and new to the scene via Social Media) person to person communication about companies. In looking at Social Media, one has to keep in mind there‘s widely different forms out there and from his book about blogging, Scott Rosenberg gives both the history of that particular Social Media vehicle and how it relates to some of the even newer Social Media vehicles. Rosenberg's theory is that MySpace, Facebook and Twitter don't signal the end of blogs as the intent and execution of them is so different than that of blogging. He writes of how these sites can be considering a telephone type communication in that they're short form contact and blogging is about a longer form publishing of thoughts. Regardless, all of these communication vehicles along with YouTube and even texting should be considered Social Media in that they deal with the idea of information disseminating… whether that be directly from a company or from people passing along communication themselves about a company. As a result, companies considering Social Media should look at Social Media from both perspectives… what and how they want to communicate with people and what‘s being said by others. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs among other Social Media vehicles are all new methods of communication, but frankly, they‘re still just communication vehicles. A company has a target audience, figures out where to reach them and then crafts a message. That isn‘t necessarily different than the typical 30 second ad buy on network television… which still can definitely have its place in a world that includes Social Media. What is new, though, is how Social Media as an original communication vehicle (or vehicles) can be used to string together and supplement other forms of messaging to customers. Result is that any company working in the Social Media space needs make sure that via either in-house or outside experts, they understand how to best use the tools. It's in a way akin to how if a company is going to pay for the aforementioned 30 second network TV buy; they want to nail the message. In terms of Social Media, here‘s where things get really interesting. The biggest difference between traditional communication for companies and today‘s communication including Social Media is control. Previously the company controlled the message and could target, filter and adjust it to the audience. Today, however, Social Media enables a message to be passed along virally outside the control of a company so it becomes crucial to influence that as much as possible. How to influence? You‘ve got to both get it right the first time in your messaging, have people who are paid to monitor person to person communication about your firm and then be responsive when you need to be. In terms of the response, it doesn‘t help to know that everyone in Social Media is talking negatively about you if valid complaints are not then acted on. Once they are out there, it then becomes a case of both action and communication of that action... hopefully through the same Social Media channel that the complaints came in on. These would appear to be things that any company (whether they‘re employing Social Media or not) needs to do, but the moral of the story is that whether you‘re doing things yourself or not, you‘re active in Social Media. Really, it's a way to propagate information, whether you‘re doing it as a company or people are doing it for you. Hence the need to try to set up the framework to be able to thrive (say powerful things as a company, but more importantly have powerful, and good, things said about you) in this Social Media space. Authors Are Nice People Too – posted 12/4/2009 A habit I've acquired as a result of writing this blog is to e-mail authors I like to express said admiration for their writing. I suppose there's part of me thinking how great it would be if people were to then ask me to "work with them on a hot new book/movie script/epic tome," but really... I just think it's cool to express

24

Words Written Down – Writing

appreciation for something you like. I found interesting from doing this that of the nine authors I've reached out to, eight responded with e-mails or notes. The intent wasn't to demand (or even request) anything back, but I do think it exceptionally good of people to take the time to write something. So... very cool move on the part of the following authors: Alain de Botton, Dave Bidini, David Kord Murray, Eric Weiner, Jeff Jarvis, John Gardner (since passed away), John Grogan, John Wooden. "Day of the Writer" Cinequest Film Festival Event – posted 3/7/2009 I attended the "Day of the Writer" event yesterday in downtown San Jose and there was some extremely interesting stuff. It was put on by the Cinequest Film Festival and featured four different events throughout the course of the day. 1. A seminar with Professor Hal Ackerman of the UCLA screenwriting program. 2. Another seminar... this one with Professor Richard Walker, from the same UCLA program. 3. A panel discussion with four accomplished screenwriters talking about their work. 4. A moderated Q&A session with "Juno" screenwriter Diablo Cody. Yep... a pretty good value for the $20 ticket price. The dominant theme that I took from the day was something said in one way or another by multiple speakers... writers write. The idea being that for someone to consider themselves a writer, they simply have to put pen to paper (or hands to keyboard) and do it. Where the success comes from (keeping in mind that whole thing about talent helping) is from repeating the writing process over and over. There were variations on this theme to be sure with some people focused more on the writing schedule that you stick to and some on just getting the words out whenever, but all seemed to echo this notion that you just have to keep writing consistently. With this said, below are some of what I felt were the more interesting things from each speaker. Hal Ackerman: author of ―Write Screenplays that Sell: The Ackerman Way" was a really friendly seeming and engaging guy who hit probably harder than any other speaker this notion of creating a writing schedule and sticking to it. As others noted, you're not always going to create great work during that time (heck, you may not write much of anything), but you're committing to it. Tying into the prior stated concept of "writers write", Ackerman told an anecdote about how he wanted to call his screenwriting book "Take Vienna" (as opposed to the title that he attributed to the book's publishers). The story behind this was from Napoleon Bonaparte who when asked his military strategy replied somewhat incredulously... "If the goal is to take the city of Vienna, then the strategy is... take Vienna!" As Ackerman related... nothing gets written if you don‘t write it, and what makes you a writer is the physical act of writing. Ackerman also imparted some of what I'll call high-level wisdom through his story of meeting George Burns at a party and the comedian asking ―What do you do?‖ and then upon hearing that Ackerman was a writer, following that up with ―Do you love what you do?‖ Ackerman then being able to respond "yes, I really do"... that's good stuff. There was also some pretty good technical type advice from Ackerman: Desire: when you start writing something, don‘t worry about theme, instead think about what the desire of the character is... what does the character want?... what are they willing to do?... how will they get it? Intimacy trumps morality: if they audience connects with a character (often through experience or the objective of the character), what they do isn‘t as important… they can still be rooted for. The 3 act movie: end of act 1 – sea change event, end of act 2 – something horrible, end of act 3 – it all goes down. Inevitability: what to shoot for, as opposed to predictability. Richard Walker: also a professor (and screenwriting author) from UCLA has some interesting things to say as well. Some of his ideas are the following: You must write your own personal story… told an anecdote about George Lucas and his father (with whom he had a difficult relationship) influencing the story of Star Wars. All we have in life is time… and the clock is ticking so we have to decide how to use it. Integration of a story means absolutely everything moves forward the character and expands your knowledge of him. Be wary in writing of using ―discussions‖ to reveal plot. Have to think about how people really interact (isn‘t sitting around talking about their motivations). 1. Suck for bucks – should try to reach as big an audience as possible. 2. Sex and violence are good – remember that it‘s dramatic art. 3. Lie through your teeth – it‘s not a true story. Panel Discussion featuring: (1) Executive producer of Fringe and Everybody Hates Chris. (2) Writer of both the book and screenplay for 1906… being made by Pixar. (3) Writer of ―The Machinist‖. (4) Writer on George Lucas Clone Wars TV

25

Words Written Down – Writing

show. There were lots of random interesting things from the panel discussion: You have to learn to write well… it‘s a craft. Clone Wars guy started after he didn't like his 9-5 job and enrolled in a short-story program at Stanford. Research can be a good way to start writing. Exec producer screenwriter writes from 12:00-3:00AM. The minutia of life is not high drama. Importance of the writing schedule… eventually stuff will come: The idea of outlining as a critical part of writing. All different types of writers represented on the panel, three described themselves as a bleeder writer, a component writer & a vomit writer: Should read ―Writers at Work‖ from the Paris Review. If you sit in a chair for an amount of time, you‘re a writer: Should be confident in your voice… from the writer of ―1906‖. Diablo Cody spoke as well and was super cool. She came across as down to earth, friendly and very grateful for the success that she's had. Probably more than anyone else she provided evidence of the fact that if you're doing good work (in her case, it was writing a blog), it's actually possible for someone influential to notice it... and there's your big break. Her appearance was a "moderated" Q&A discussion with the audience and Lew Hunter, the Chairman Emeritus and Professor of Screenwriting at UCLA. I use the quotes because... well, because it was a bizarre often rambling moderation. That said, Cody‘s appearance was excellent. The following are some of the random things I noted from her talk: Author of ―Candy Girl‖ prior to "Juno" and has "Jennifer's Body" coming out this fall. Wrote ―Juno‖ w/o outlining or taking a screenwriting class… just bought a script in a bookstore and followed that. Highly recommends blogging… it‘s a way to get eyeballs w/o rejection. Just hit publish. Posts regularly to Twitter and does a column for Entertainment Weekly. She loves John Irving. You just have to write daily… it may not be good, but it‘s done. All in all, it was an excellent day with some really good content. "Voice of this Generation" Piece on Writing from Time – posted 1/9/2009 It's not a recent piece, but an article titled "Who's the Voice of this Generation?" from a 2006 Time Magazine bears reading. Written by Andrea Sachs, it looks at the current crop of writers out there and examines why none of them can without question lay claim to being the preeminent young writer of our times. As opposed to past generations where writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway plied their trade, today it's harder to say who speaks for whom. There are certainly great young writers like Jonathan Franzen (who wrote "The Corrections") and Curtis Sittenfeld (who had written "Prep" at the time of this story and has since published "American Wife", which I reviewed here), but not truly seminal authors. It's an interesting topic that has to do with some very interesting and brilliant authors... none of whom have reached that proverbial "next level"... yet.

26

Words Written Down – Work

Work Working... & Writing on Michael Lewis Working – posted 10/11/2011 Having previously done a number of posts on work (the most involved probably being Working on the Railroad... with help from Robert Fulghum & Patrick Swayze), it seemed high time to revisit the subject, and link to a guy doing work very well right now. A couple of concepts around work have been floating in my head lately... that of everything counts and taking a path. Everything counts as a perspective is something to employ (pardon the pun) when looking at where we want to go or want we want to be doing careerwise. It can oft be a daunting task looking at something new, but the past shouldn't be discounted when looking to the future. Past experiences (whether education, past jobs held or roles within those jobs) can very well provide the linkages to the go-forward ideal. The old jobs held may not related to the future jobs sought, but the connections and relationships from those prior roles could well provide that entree to what is desired... just gotta be proactive about looking. At the same time, skills from the past may not necessarily be the skills that a desired job would employ, but perhaps the skills learned could either get a foot in the door of something new, or even be used in the finding of thing new. Taking a path in relation to careers and job changes is the principle of just doing something. In cases of uncertainty as to how to reach an end goal (or even knowledge of what that goal may actually be), it's best to just do something and be going forward. One may not know whether it's the right path or not, but if the current state isn't an ideal one, it's best to be moving and maybe the ideal will reveal itself eventually. So... if you want to do something not done previously, think of what you have done and how that can help and then just start doing something new. Maybe it will work out, maybe it won't, but the movement probably won't hurt. Granted, all of this can seem a bit fluffy and hypothetical, but it should be noted that with talent, work, utilization of past efforts and action-taking, work efforts can come up roses. To that point in the writer world, there's the subject of It‘s Good to Be Michael Lewis: Pretty fascinating piece on the author by Jessica Pressler for New York Magazine. Lewis is an excellent writer deserving of success... and he's certainly knee-deep in success right now. Inc. Magazine Speaker Event – posted 9/8/2011 Recently attended a speaker panel put on by Inc. Magazine here in San Jose and found it to be pretty thought provoking. The event was titled "Helping Businesses Grow Healthy" and put on by Inc. in conjunction with United Healthcare. Information on the event from the Inc. website: "Building a healthy workplace is a tough job. Leaders that promote and support wellness in the work environment reap the benefits of loyal employees and gain a competitive advantage. Hear from a panel of entrepreneurs that are implementing new workplace initiatives and have been recognized for their winning culture. Even if you aren't in a position to execute ideas at once, you'll learn about the small steps that make a difference for your employees and for the health of your company." Featured included: Moderator Kyra Cavanaugh – President and Founder of LifeMeetsWork Panelists, Tania Binder – Senior VP of Global Sales of TRX, Chris Mittelstaedt – Founder and CEO of The Fruit Guys, Eric Ryan – Chief Brand Architect & Co-founder of Method and co-author of The Method Method: Seven Obsessions That Helped Our Scrappy Start-up Turn an Industry Upside Down. My thoughts on the event: 1. The invite was very much appreciated and while I don't imagine running these events is a profit center for Inc., having them is probably very much in line with the message and value-add of the magazine. 2. It of course relates to the "Healthy Workplace" theme, but there seemed to be such an emphasis by the panel speakers on employee culture. This manifested itself in things from the hiring process (was interesting to hear of the difficulty in hiring good people) to how employees are treated. Ranging from things like encouraging healthy living to asking workers what matters to them, this concept of employee treatment was a big deal to the panelists. Pay value of that to the company would be to both keep attrition low and have employees be more productive and better ambassadors for the business if they feel treated well and buy in to the company mission. 3. I found myself wondering how much harder it must be for leadership of a public company to have this same focus on

27

Words Written Down – Work

employee culture. The long term benefit of a positive work experience is of course there for both public and private companies, but a publicly traded business is more beholden to shareholders and short term results. That whole mandate for officers of a public company to increase shareholder value... it can be a nebulous charter. 4. Was very impressed by the panelists from the perspective they each had an idea which they made into something. Eric Ryan from Method probably has achieved the most success so far, but all had interesting stories to tell. My take away from their accomplishments was whether it be for a product, a company or a person in the workforce… an offering or value add can be a powerful thing and shouldn't be discounted. If someone has said offering, the goal then should be to find a place for that thing rather than simply trying to sledgehammer a product, service or candidacy as an employee into an existing slot that may not jibe with or appreciate it fully. True, this may or may not be what the panelists were really trying to communicate (and its presumed wisdom that trends towards the squishy), but anyone having taken the time to attend the event should take from it what makes sense to them. Back to the statement made at the beginning of this post... thought-provoking stuff that I'm glad Inc. put together and extended the invitation for. Laura Dodd Book signing - "Dig This Gig" – posted 6/7/2011 Closely related to the last post of Working Towards Something - a Career in Writing... I recently went to the local Barnes & Noble for a book signing with Laura Dodd, author of Dig This Gig: Find Your Dream Job or Invent It. Dodd's background is in television production and sometime between that work and now (she's 29) she combined together an interest in writing with idea for this book. I don't know the chronology of how it all happened, but she had a book proposal (for the aforementioned Dig This Gig) accepted around the same time she got into Journalism School at Columbia. Dodd spoke of the book as containing a number of stories of people in their 20s figuring out what they want to do and then creating that work for themselves. One thing utterly fascinating was her mention of self-financing the book tour and living on the cheap as she tries to get as many copies sold as possible. This showed Dodd‘s dedication as she's continuing to put in the work even though she's... a published author. To this point, I liked her mention of viewing the large number of books out there as inspiration while writing and now consternation after publishing. Gotta respect someone both doing what they want to do and putting in the work to make successful. This dedication on Dodd's part also made me actually buy a copy to support her rather than just getting it from the library as I do most books: Looking forward to reading it. Working Towards Something - a Career in Writing – posted 6/7/2011 After a few days ago doing the post Wanting to Do Something Not Being Done - Writing as a Career, it seems appropriate to also give space and words to a (hopefully) closely associated topic... working towards something, specifically a career in writing. In my case, the path began with the long ago high school level interest in writing that carried through to an undergraduate degree in English and enjoyment of crafting papers. It wasn't fiction writing that floated the proverbial boat, but rather doing really solid analysis type writing on a book or topic. After this formative years education the process of real life began with work in Sales and then a graduate degree in Business (Sports Marketing Business, but really Business). From that it's been off to said land of Business with more Sales and then Program Management / Customer Coddling work (with a brief interlude on the Sponsorship Marketing side of Business). Throughout these years, there's always been at least a flicker of interest remaining in words and their arranging on a page... and that's where this blog began in earnest some three and a half years ago. What I've found through the process of writing it is both that I really enjoy writing, and that I enjoy the same analytical type of nonfiction writing that I did as an undergrad. With this interest in writing and producing non-fiction work established, it then becomes a question of what careers could be done and how to work towards those. I've got significant time invested in this whole Business track thing and maybe it's a delusional view on my part, but really do think there's a need for compelling narrative writing in Business (and I do find many areas of business interesting enough to write about). The trick becomes the figuring out exactly what type of business

28

Words Written Down – Work

writing to go after and how to be successful at that. In terms of the going after and getting part, education and work background should count for something and the blog (you know, this one) is intended as a portfolio of writing work (in addition to just the fact that I enjoy writing it). Belief is that it should be easier to transition to new role within current company (rather than having to sell ability to new company to do new role). While that belief hasn't yet manifested itself as true, it still could have legs... we'll see. Also, some other things considered around type of writing that could be done and how to pursue it: Don't really envision going to Journalism School (and I see what's going in the field), but interested in the idea of Entrepreneurial Journalism and new business models around writing. Additionally, I‘m considering various non degree path courses like a Creative Nonfiction workshop through UC Berkeley and have reached out through my contacts to people who do career coaching... some with experience in writing. Think sometimes about my educational background in Sports Marketing and what writing that could be done in that area of Business and also find myself wondering about editing as a field. Hear from internal company contacts about Executive Communication as an area of Business Writing... taking on someone's voice in messaging. Lots of things to consider, lots of options, lots of work: Just a matter, though, of continuing to head towards the believed goal... and trying to stay entertained in the process. Wanting to Do Something Not Being Done - Writing as a Career – posted 6/2/2011 The large majority of what's on this blog is around the work and words of others... which makes sense given that my love of writing is a dual notion around both the act of writing and appreciation of great work come across. To this point, the blog tag "writing" has been utilized on posts around the process of writing, whether that process be my own ruminations or the concept of writing as written on by others. The majority of posts with said tag link to and are about thoughts other than my own, but I do like to throw in personal ramblings occasionally. On this whole personal ramblings subject, an idea that's been kicking around in the head lately is around the concept of wanting to do something not being done. In my case it's wanting to work in writing and not doing it yet, but (to probably use the phrase wrong, but still in a pithy way) everybody has their own private Idaho. Though I may not be a working (i.e. paid) writer or even working in writing, there‘s two things that give solace: (1) the idea of working towards something and (2) association. The manifestation of my concept around working towards something isn't always easy, but is obvious. I want to work in writing... so I write. It's enjoyable writing this blog and provides a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when I write something with meaning (and link to something with gravitas), but there's also a portfolio being built brick by brick (totally different than Step by Step by NKOTB). Eventually and somehow the opportunity to transition to doing my aforementioned thing not being done will present itself, and the portfolio of work will be there... and by there I mean, here. In terms of association, I find tremendous value in reading great writing, but also in reading others who enjoy great writing. The best example of this comes out of the Son of a Bold Venture blog (which I try, perhaps unsuccessfully, to not mention too much) by Esquire writer Chris Jones. There's great content from Jones around the writing process, but also some pretty fascinating comments made by others. Tagged onto the post LAST CALL AT ELAINE'S, ft. KEVIN VAN VALKENBURG was a comment from a reader, Scott Warden. I don't know the guy at all, but from an association perspective, it feels good to read something I feel as well: From Mr. Warden about the words from Kevin Van Valkenburg, "This might sound a little too kiss-assy (just pretend that's a word, folks, and move along), but on a smaller scale, the way Kevin felt that night is how I feel when I read this blog. We get to chat up Chris and share the comments section with Scott Raab, Gene Weingarten, Mr. Charlie Pierce, etc. For most of us, it's the closest we're going to come to rubbing elbows with legends. Really, it's as good as it gets for those of us not on an esteemed masthead. Twelve years ago or so, when I was younger, hungrier, I e-mailed a handful of my favorite writers, wanting to pick their brains. As a huge fan of The Sporting News growing up, I was thrilled when Dave Kindred e-mailed me back. His advice was great, but the thrill was more "Holy shit, Dave Kindred now knows my name! It's the same thrill I get with this place, this bastion of words and truths." So, I may not be where I want to yet, but

29

Words Written Down – Work

gonna take solace in working towards the goal and through that work, already associating with great writing and others of like mind about great writing. Working on the Railroad... with help from Robert Fulghum & Patrick Swayze – posted 12/4/2010 I've done quite a few posts on work (recently there was this Oct 2010 post on the subject... which then linked to additional posts) and lately have been thinking about the subject both in terms of the goal for and approach towards it. From a goal of work perspective, there are multiple answers... with one being first and foremost. Work gets people money, people use money to buy things that help them both enjoy aspects of life (entertainment) and stay alive (food and shelter). Particularly when one's got a family, this basic notion of work towards the goal of money takes precedence. Beyond this "goal 1A of work being to make money", there's also the idea of work towards the end of building something. This could be by someone who started their own company or by someone working as part of something they're invested in and trying to help grow. Either way, there's huge value in this idea of ownership in the place and a point to the efforts on behalf of that place. There's of course nothing at all wrong with work being done for the first goal of making money. Really, this probably describes the majority of the working population and is necessary for society to function. The second idea is of work as building towards something more ideal. One sector of work that me thinks should fall into this second category of work being done for the purpose of building something, but oft times falls back into just a work for a paycheck category is corporate work. To this end (and going back to the intro of this post), I've been thinking lately about what happens to someone in a corporate environment who doesn't particularly see their efforts building to anything. Approaches could be to either just do the bare minimum (or less in the case of people hoping to prove themselves just replaceable enough to get offered severance packages to leave) or to take a different tact and follow the principles brought to us (in decidedly different forms) by both Robert Fulghum and Patrick Swayze. Fulghum's principles pertaining to this topic came from the bestselling compilation of aphorisms "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten". There's many more than this in the book itself, but here's a sampling (taken from this website)... “Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.” Additionally, Patrick Swayze provided us wisdom around work from the movie Road House. So, Fulghum said some profound things, Swayze said some profound things (well... sure, why not?), but do they tie back to the world of corporate work (or even the non-corporate kind) as discussed in this post? Heck, yea. I've been thinking lately that even in a setting where someone might not feel their efforts are building anything, there's still a lot to be said for just doing what you feel is the right thing with work: At different times that may mean doing right by customers, by your own company or by your co-workers. In short... you do what you think should be done and treat people well (to put a fine and oft necessary in the corporate world) point on this, you don‘t throw people under the bus). Do that and though a job may be more of a job for money than a building opportunity, it's still something to feel good about. Doing Work You Care About: Inc. 500 List / TechCrunch / Facebook – posted 10/19/2010 Three different things I've come across lately that all lead to me ruminating further on the subject of work... and the goal of efforts put into said work. Starting off on the topic was Inc. Magazine's annual Inc. 500/5,000 List of the fastest growing private companies in America. The top 500 are in the magazine itself and then top 5,000 featured online. In reading some of the profiles of the companies and their

30

Words Written Down – Work

founders, I really got a sense for how hard the whole thing has been for many of the people (yes, also with exceptions)... and also how many of them just were doing something they really liked and kept at it. Very tied into this idea of just starting something you have a degree of passion for, "The Way I Work: Michael Arrington of TechCrunch" was featured in the October issue of Inc. The piece describes Arrington as a guy who likes to write, likes to break stories and has actually built a pretty large business out of it. This is a conjecture-based statement to be certain, but I got the sense that if TechCrunch hadn't hit it big, Arrington would still be plugging away writing missives about breaking news in tech because that's something he really likes to do. The quick, easy and obvious point to draw from all this... try to figure out what you like to do and then do it. If it's something that turns into a viable business, that's great. Heck, maybe it's not even something that would ever turn into an ownership-stake business, but even if you just build a viable career working somewhere you like for others, that's not so bad. Related to this subject of work and where it can go... went and saw The Social Network the other night. Good movie, perhaps not as fantastic as I expected (based on reviews I've seen and that it was directed by David Fincher), but I definitely enjoyed it as a piece of entertainment (and it's acknowledged to be a fictionalized story for the purpose of greater entertaining). Here's how the movie relates to the Inc. content and notion of working at something you care about... Zuckerberg did. He was a genius with a passion for the idea that would become Facebook and now a $25B business. Whether he thought it would get that big or not is almost beside the point that he was really into what he was working on. Zuckerberg has gotten rich from the idea and others who were there as early employees have also gotten wealthy, but I'm going to guess (or, perhaps just hope) that early on, they were putting in the long hours because they both liked what they were doing and saw the potential of it growing bigger. The fact that it did grow bigger than probably anyone would have imagined... a happy consequence of the idea and work to be sure, but definitely not one that was guaranteed. The actions towards that by people doing work they were into... that's something that's controllable (a different way of saying guaranteed). So, tying it all together... do work you care about. If you've got the idea and willingness to fail, try to make a company out of it. If you don't have the idea or aren't in a position to take on the risk of starting a company, still do work you care about. Seems simple, but that goal can be just as vexing a proposition as starting a company if you're not there yet. Well, I guess this is where the old phrase comes in, if it were easy, everyone'd be doing it. Working & Writing... and Writing about Working – posted 10/14/2010 One thing I like to do with this blog is look back every now and then at what I've written and pull some of the disparate posts together. Topic for today's soliloquy is going to be working and writing, and the content written here about both since Sept 1st. Additionally, a piece from back in January bears linking to because... well, because I liked writing it. Work, it's an odd thing. People engage in it to get the money for the things they want to do (like eat and put clothes on their kids), but in many cases, work can define someone and give their identity. For many, it becomes a struggle to bridge the gap betwixt the identity created by the work they're doing and the identity sought through the work they'd like to do. Actually, to that end, I've at times been jealous of people who have a job and are fine with it. Yes, I'm super duper jealous of someone with a job they love, but it doesn't seem like that bad of a racket to have a job that you work, leave it at the end of the day and merrily not think about either that work or any different (i.e. better) type of work till the next day. However, burdens to bear are what they are and for those of us who aspire to something different, it's a good idea to think about it and take steps towards said different. In terms of general musings around work, I posted both Commitment. To Work? and Urgent vs Important Work in the past six weeks. Looking more specifically at the type of work I fancy, Writers Write... And Not Always Well and Ex-CEO as Nebraska Volunteer Coach / Not too Late for Career Changes (title sure sings, doesn't it) appeared on this blog since mid-September. All this said (and linked to), here's the point... if you want to do something, the best path forward is probably to start doing it. Ergo, if I want to write and want to have a particular type of work (yep, a writing type)... there's not many better ways towards that than writing, including writing about work. To this end (and yea, I know the phrase was already used above), one piece

31

Words Written Down – Work

I particular enjoyed writing about a field of work that's becoming increasingly bigger (with associated import) is Social Media... What a Place to Be!(?) Really had all the elements for me... a topic I find interesting, something I enjoyed writing and something I'm happy with the output. Not bad... and something to aspire to doing more and more of. Ex-CEO as Nebraska Volunteer Coach / Not too Late for Career Changes – posted 9/30/2010 Very cool story I came across the other day from CNNSI. Written by Jon Wertheim, "Nebraska's billiondollar assistant" is all about former Ameritrade (now TD Ameritrade) CEO Joe Moglia and his current volunteer position with the Nebraska Cornhusker football staff. The story struck me not necessarily for the writing (Wertheim is a solid writer who seems to write on tennis more than any other sport for SI), but the story itself. Moglia is the classic example of a guy who decided to follow his passion... in this case for football and his work seems to have made him an important "consultant to the program" at Nebraska. Now, you could say that having made himself rich through business has enabled Moglia to pursue his coaching dream, but a counter to that would be that many people who amass piles of wealth simply make it their goal to amass bigger piles. I'm so interested in this whole concept of people changing careers midstream. To look at the idea through the lens of writing as profession... there's certainly people like Stephen King who knew at a young age he wanted to write and always worked towards that end, but there's also alternate stories. One good one I saw firsthand the other day was that of Skip Horack, author of "The Eden Hunter." In a library talk he made, Horack discussed how he graduated with an English degree, went to law school and then practiced law for three years... all while kind of thinking of himself as a writer, but not really writing. He then saw lawyer colleagues who loved what they did, realized that he didn't have that for the law and gave writing a shot. Nothing profound at first, just an hour in the morning before starting his day... but, that led to finishing some short stories and then submitting them to writing journals. After a bit of success, he applied for and got a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Stanford's Creative Writing Program. With this new path opened up, Horack left the law firm he was at and headed off to the two-year program. Very cool story from the perspective that Horack wasn't one of those people who knew what he wanted to do at a young age and single mindedly pursued it. Rather, he realized mid-stream want he wanted and proved that it's never too late to go after a goal. Hey... that's just like the story of Joe Moglia. Urgent vs Important Work – posted 9/19/2010 A topic that I've ruminated on a bit lately is the idea of urgent work vs important work. Basic distinction between the two is that one category is something requiring (or purported by someone to require) immediate action and one category has no immediacy, but is of import in the big picture. Really what you've got with the first category of "urgent" is two different things... "Urgent / Important" and "not important, but urgent to the person who says it is." One thing to keep in mind is that urgent and important is a very relative terms depending on the work at hand. I've made a comment to this effect in a previous blog post, but the type of work written about here by Sebastian Junger is very different than the type of work referenced in this blog post. It having now been said that fighting in a war and working in an office is about as different as two things can be, both activities are subject to this whole urgent / important distinction. First, the urgent things... and how they can double as important ones. For a soldier, there's no more urgent situation than combat, and also nothing more important. In the much more mundane corporate world, a situation both urgent and important could be one with a time-sensitive deliverable that impacts the business and people who work in it. Not all urgent scenarios in work double as important, though, regardless of the type of work at hand. For a soldier, an order from a commanding officer could be urgent from the perspective that you're supposed to execute on it immediately, but that order could accomplish little beyond making the commanding officer feel powerful to have given an order acted upon. In an office environment, there can be lots and lots of non-important urgent work. Much of this coming from people being sent off to do tasks that don't accomplish much in the big picture, but make someone feel good to give directions... or that task assigner incorrectly thinks it matters. With it established that there's urgent and

32

Words Written Down – Work

important work as well as urgent, but not important work, this takes one to the third type of work... that which is non-urgent, but important. To stay within the same comparison of a military and corporate setting... soldiers aren't going to spend 100% of their time in combat. While not engaged in an urgent activity, something of huge import would be training as well as planning and preparing for future missions. Conversely, for a white collar worker, there's important (again, relative term when compared to things done by Servicemen and Women) activities like documenting processes and tracking of activities to ensure needed activities brought to completion. There may be nobody asking for this type of non-urgent work to be done (in any work environment), but it's certainly important. Now, in the military you're more obligated to obey orders than other kinds of work, but with this acknowledged, the goal in work should be to focus on the urgent / important as well as important activities, and not get bogged down in the urgent / unimportant. True, it's easier said than done, but to accomplish pretty much anything you have to start with the intention towards that end. Commitment. To Work? – posted 9/1/2010 Heard a story from a friend of mine the other day about his boss asking whether he's "100% committed to the company" and that got me thinking about commitment to work. Commitment as a concept is usually not at this "100% in" status. To truly exist, it requires two parties in sync and requires a progression to reach what we'll call real true commit. The beginning stage of commitment is the evaluation... that period of time when each party is "thinking about thinking about" and making a decision as to how they feel. In the context of work, things kick off when a company needs a warm sentient body to do stuff on its behalf. While the company is casting about to find the right person to help them make more money (which is the end goal of pretty much all companies), the prospective employee is also looking to put themselves in the best work situation they can. Often times based on money, but can also have lots of other criteria in play. After the two parties meet, finish their dance and decide to pair off in the form of an employment offer and acceptance... are they committed? Not hardly. Even a signed contract is only enforceable as far as either side is willing to abide by the terms. In most company-employee cases, though, there's not much of a contract and the worker can either be let go or walk away at any point. Particularly in the case of firms beholden to shareholders (and as I wrote about here), this is often company initiated in the pursuit of lowering expenses. So, commitment: What is it then in terms of employment? I'd say that commitment is an employee doing such a good job that a company couldn't stand to let them go and a company doing such a good job by its employee that they wouldn't want to leave. It's not something that gets put in place via an ultimatum from either side, but simply a genuine desire for someone to be kept around or someone to not want to be elsewhere. It's not about the commitment; it's about the place and the work. If the place is right and the work done is right, the concept of drawing a line in the sand and having someone step forward never needs to come about... and employees don't have to ask those silly "do I have job security?" questions of their management. In line with this, I think about a post done with link to a Scott Belsky Creative Meritocracy piece... it's a free agent world for all. With all this talk about commitment in work... really, here's where I wrote about the type of work I can think of that needs this aforementioned "100% commitment." Everything else that we do with work is in comparison, pretty trivial. The Finding of White Collar Work & Scott Belsky Creative Meritocracy Piece – posted 8/3/2010 A topic I've thought quite a bit about over... I don't know, the last few years, is that of finding white collar work. My thinking on the subject has been how difficult it is for many white collar works to quantify or even demonstrate outside of their organization their value and skills. Someone can give their title and the company they work at and those they've worked for, but I'd posit it's more difficult for the white collar worker to showcase and explain their value than a blue collar worker such as a mechanic or plumber. Even within the broad category of white collar workers, there are some fields that lend themselves more easily to demonstrating value and skills than others. An engineer, writer or design person can often have either portfolios of their work or can at least speak to what they've done. For many white collar workers, though,

33

Words Written Down – Work

the profession can become a bit of a trap if what they do is "manage things for their company." This jack of all trades business type role can be a difficult one to both break out of and to advance in if care isn't taken to showcase both work done and ability to do work going forward. I've been meaning to post on this, but finally compelled to do so after reading an interesting article by Scott Belsky. The author of "Making Ideas Happen", Founder and CEO of the Behance Network and guy who posts interesting stuff on Twitter, Belsky seems a good person to write about the area of work. From his aforementioned Twitter account, I found Belsky's post "Welcome to the Era of Creative Meritocracy" on recognition and advancement of creative work and talent. Some might view it as overly optimistic, but it's a fascinating concept he puts forth. Basic idea is that as we move forward in the Internet age (my words, not his), the best creative work and workers should rise to the top because (among other reasons) more people can view their output online ("The Wisdom of Crowds" idea) and there are more places for one to post and demonstrate work. If you take Belsky's Behance Network as an example of where a white collar worker can display their work and further this "Creative Meritocracy" it makes sense, but I think his idea has practical applications as well for those white collar creative professional type who aren't necessarily Creatives in the traditional Advertising/Design sense of the word. Even with keeping in mind that some things might be company confidential information about projects or clients, there's a ton of opportunities someone can have to put forth their work so that it's more than just lines on a resume. Portfolios don't have to be limited to the industries that speak in that language every day. Rather, anyone with access to a computer can set up a free BlogSpot account and create a website about what they've got to bring. Maybe it's gonna take a while to reach Belsky's vision, but it's definitely a direction that can and should be moved in by people. A Loss of Control: Running (or Hoping to Run) a Public Company – posted 6/11/2010 So... you start a company and want to run it a certain way and then take venture capital fund and go public, sounds like a logical (though still challenging) goal. However, there are a few different things I've seen lately that make me think about this idea of public companies (and ones that may hope to become public) and what's expected/required of their leaders. In a Inc. Magazine book adaptation piece, Tony Hseih wrote "Why I Sold Zappos" about his perspective on what made the company and what then compelled him to agree to a 2009 sale to Amazon (with Hseih still running Zappos as an Amazon owned business). In short, Hseih built Zappos on the belief that Zappos was primarily a customer service company... and the best way to have great customer service is to have really satisfied employees. This belief came into some conflict, though, with Sequoia Capital... the source of some $50M in VC funding for Zappos. As a VC firm, Sequoia's charter (presumably) is to maximize return on investments and while satisfied employees can help grow a company, extraordinary expenses around things like employee development and health care can also reduce that return on investment. It's not a knock on Sequoia, but I took from reading this article (which made me want to read Hseih's book) that the money they provided Zappos both helped fund the company's growth and prevented it's founder and CEO from running it how he wanted to. Also in this category of running a business (in this case one that's already public) was a DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) ad against Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina: As a Democrat (perhaps even a liberal), I hope that Barbara Boxer gets reelected and Fiorina defeated. Furthermore, as someone that worked at the company she was fired from, I heard a common refrain from people describing her as "great on vision and getting people excited, poor on execution" and don't think this experience (which is what she seems to hang her hat on) is enough to qualify her for work in the Senate. This said, I viewed the ad as related to the Zappos piece in that Fiorina is criticized for getting tons of money from the company and then laying off a large number of employees. While neither thing endears her to me, I don't view them as character flaws, but rather functions of good contract negotiating on her part and following the mandates of the market and board. In terms of a mandate, she to my knowledge was basically required as the CEO of a public company to have her actions all be towards the ultimate goal of maximizing shareholder value... i.e. bumping up the stock price. One primary way to do that (at least in the short term) is to cut expenses through the form of employee headcount. Doesn't make it fun for

34

Words Written Down – Work

the people being pushed out the door, but Fiorina could certainly make the argument that if laying people off looked to drive up the stock, she was compelled in her role as CEO to do so. Thinking about this topic reminded me of a book I was required to read upon starting business school over a decade ago. From Eliyahu Goldratt, "The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement" is told in parable form and makes the argument that a company exists for one reason... to make money. The concept is that if the company doesn't make money, then any altruistic purposes it may serve don't matter because a money losing company isn't a self-sustaining enterprise. My thought from this is that the idea may well be true, but perhaps there's an additional statement that could be made about companies that are traded publicly. The presence of shareholders (whether they be of the public corporation or venture capital variety) often compel a leader to take on the singular goal of making as much money as possible. In most cases this is still a fine goal, but starts one down a slippery slope if that's neither the be all end all intent of the business or if the founder/leader wants to invest now in a fashion that shareholders don't agree with. One avenue that could be pursued to help a leader run a company in a certain way is benefit corporation status (as described in the BusinessWeek piece "New Legal Protections for Social Entrepreneurs"), but this is only going to be applicable in a limited number of cases. None of this unequivocally says that public companies or the people that work at them are bad places, but it does say to me that people either working at a public company or one aspiring to become public need to have their eyes open about what they're getting into. Time Magazine Cover Story on Jobs... & Job Ruminations – posted 3/27/2010 There was a solid Time Magazine cover story by Barbara Kiviat titled "The Workforce: Where Will the New Jobs Come From?". All about the economy and how eventual real growth will have to be in the form of newly created jobs (and job categories), I particularly noted the ending of the piece (below) and what it makes me consider. "If the key characteristics of the American economy are flexibility and forward motion, then we would all be better off if people felt more support — both financial and social — to invest in their education, switch jobs and industries and venture out to start new firms. Establishing job creation as a discrete goal is a misleading enterprise. Beyond cyclic swings in demand, what we're really talking about creating is not jobs but ideas and technologies and more efficient ways of producing and selling goods and services." I've always felt that career success is a complicated recipe which incorporates the following ingredients (probably among others): 1 hard work 2 ability/proficiency 3 knowing what you want to do and actually doing it 4 being in the right place at the right time 5 being in a place where the first two things above matter and the second two are possible. Of this list, hard work and ability should (hopefully) be required things (but, sadly... aren't always). Knowing what you want to do and actually doing it is hugely important because for many, that doesn't describe their work situation. When you hear stories about people who came up from the bottom floor of something, they in many cases were fortunate enough to know early on that thing was what they wanted, so they could start working on it early in their career when most everyone is on the bottom floor. Where it gets tougher (but, not impossible) is for people who don't know early on what they want to do and don't have the same flexibility to start at the bottom of a field. The fourth one is just as it's written... being in the right place at the right time is where many people have that big leap forward in their careers. If you combine effort and ability towards a goal that really matters to you, that right place at right time break "should" eventually come. This is where the fifth career ingredient comes into play. There are a lot of different types of companies and work opportunities out there. Many of them are going to reward the first two, have the types of positions that let people let people who know their area of interest work in it and then have those chances to shine and advance... but, not all. So, to tie back full circle to the Kiviat piece and quoted section at the end of it... I agree completely with her statement about people being willing to take career leaps, whether those be at a job role, company or industry level. Working hard and becoming proficient at something is all good and well, but it should be at an activity that someone wants to do and in a place that provides rewards and opportunities to move forward. Can be scary to move out of something comfortable that doesn't allow for this, but sometimes it's just plain needed.

35

Words Written Down – Work

BusinessWeek Career/Business Pieces - Mar 15 issue – posted 3/8/2010 Some pretty interesting stuff from the Mar 15 issue of BusinessWeek... much of it around a common theme. The first story that struck me as interesting was "What I Learned from My Dad"... a commentary by Peter Buffett following the much larger profile of his uber-investor father, Warren Buffett. The piece is actually excerpted from his forthcoming book "Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment" and tells the interesting tale of how the younger Buffett was staked with a roughly $90K inheritance at age 21 and used the money to fund making a go of it in the music field he loved. Immediately following that in this BW issue was "And Google Begat..." about the Angel investing (no, not these kinds of Angels) done by current and former Googlers. Pretty interesting stuff about the "next generation" impact Google wealth is having by helping fund tech startups such as Twitter, Tesla Motors and a host of smaller unknown (but, probably not always) ventures. The story was also noteworthy to me with mention of Truckee, CA based ex-Google guy Chris Sacca (his blog here). Granted, the town is what I noticed, but it was cool to read how Sacca came across one of his investments after posting a message on his Twitter account one Friday night asking if any startups were working late. Finally, from this issue I liked "The Road to Reinvention" about career changes following personal setbacks. Specifically the one that got me (out of three vignettes) was that about Todd Morris... a 30 something tech sales guy who had an interest in a product category (security and surveillance gadgets), didn't see anyone dominating the field and up and created a now successful company, Brick House Security) in that space. Gotta be something to that idea of building a business around something you think valuable, but not already out there. Three stories... one theme. Two guesses, that's right, building a career/investing in a business around something of interest.

36

Words Written Down – Sports

Sports Excellent Sports Writing - from Ballard, Lake, Bamberger & Hruby – posted 2/16/2012 There have been a number of sports pieces I've come across lately that featured really solid writing worth noting. Personal favorite was "Man in Full" from Chris Ballard a week ago for Sports Illustrated. It was profound and thoroughly reported (as detailed in my blog post linking to a Ballard interview) writing on Chicago area high school wrestling Coach Mike Powell. Stricken with the muscle wasting disease polymyositis, Powell is put in horrible personal circumstances and what makes the story so compelling is his continued relationship to the team of kids he leads. It was a really well done piece by Ballard which includes Powell's career path working with kids in need and imparting to his athletes a lesson of "manliness" different than is traditionally associated with the term. It‘s not to say one guy exactly the same as another, but the story of Powell reminded me of that I saw years ago on youth track coach John Baker (who had an elementary school named in his honor). The most recent Feb 20 issue of SI also had two pieces that stood out with one being another profound high school athlete related story and one an insightful golf piece. The "writing with great meaning" was done by Thomas Lake and titled "The Legacy of Wes Leonard". Subtitle to the piece is "You may have heard about the Michigan high schooler who made a game-winning basket and then died. Here's the rest of the story: a violent car crash, a bone-shaking tackle, a near-perfect season, a reluctant substitute and a search for the will to carry on" and what got me most from the story was the content about the automatic external defibrillator. Leonard suffered a sudden cardiac arrest of his heart and its definitely unknown whether a defibrillator would have saved him, but the potentially lifesaving machine at the high school had been neglected and found to have a dead battery when applied to Leonard's chest. Out of this sad situation has come some good, though, with mother Jocelyn Leonard creating the Wes Leonard Heart Team and spearheading efforts to have a working defibrillator available at youth sporting events with someone trained to use it. Additionally, of note on the Heart Team site is a link to an ESPN Outside the Lines 16 minute story "Wes Leonard: Never Forgotten". From the same issue of Sports Illustrated came a piece that stood out to me in part because I didn't expect it to. "The Meaning Of Pebble Beach" by Michael Bamberger could have simply been a recap of the recent PGA Tour event, but instead wound up as an insightful look into Tiger Woods and where he is now in both life and his golf game. It‘s very cool to come across pieces like this that don't scream out "feature story on something of great meaning", but wind up as interesting and insightful. Last piece to note here was written by Patrick Hruby in the Yahoo Sports ThePostGame section. "End Game: Brain Trauma And The Future Of Youth Football In America" details the head injury suffered by Sequim, WA high school QB Drew Rickerson and then gets wider on the danger of concussions and need for concussion education. It was sad, but not surprising to read of mother Jean Rickerson and her attempt to further awareness and training around concussions and getting ignored by some coaches and administrators. This difficulty in getting people to move past their preconceived notions of "toughness" and "playing through pain" reminded me of something from the excellent Thomas Lake SI story "The Boy Who Died of Football". Lake wrote the following towards the end of a piece on Max Gilpin, a 15 year old who suffered heatstroke during a practice and then passed away: "Later, when he looked back at his son's last practice, Jeff Gilpin was filled with pride and wonder."I underestimated this kid, big-time," he said. "His heart. Can you imagine the fortitude it took to keep running out there?" Back to Hruby and his piece on concussions, his commentary at the end of the piece is me thinks spot on with "Protect our national pastime. Protect our children's brains. The hope is that we can do both. Biology and physics suggest otherwise. Safer does not mean safe. In locker rooms and school board meetings, quiet funerals and noisy grandstands, the future of youth football may not be matter of risk management. It may be a matter of risk acceptance. Roll the dice." Excellent Sports Writing - from Reilly, Wetzel, Lake, Segura, Phillips & Wertheim – posted 2/6/2012 I‘ve seen a host of interesting pieces of sports writing lately from a few different sources. The recent Feb 6, 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated had two of them in Game, Set, Matchless by Jon Wertheim and Under

37

Words Written Down – Sports

Siege by Thomas Lake and Melissa Segura. The Wertheim story was on the just under six hours epic Australian Open Final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Solid writing on a domination of men's tennis with Wertheim noting that 24 of the last 28 Grand Slam semifinal spots have been claimed by one of Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray (with the four in that order as of late). It‘s a pretty remarkable level of competition right now and brings to mind Wertheim's chronicling of what at the time was more just a Federer-Nadal rivalry in his 2009 book Strokes of Genius. On the same just completed Australian Open Final, Brian Phillips penned the exceedingly well written Nadal vs. Djokovic: Here We Are Again, My Friend for Grantland. Piece covers the four-headed domination of the men's tour, but his piece differs from that by Wertheim in that Phillips gets further into Nadal and his drive, brilliant play... and still coming up short. It was definitely writing on athletic struggle that traffics in the profound. The Lake and Segura story in this same issue of Sport Illustrated was on the three months ago kidnapping of Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos in his native Venezuela. Lake's writing carries an air of thorough reporting and this piece no exception as he and Segura delve into the particulars of the case and what may or may not have been the reality of his capture by Venezuelan government agents. Another Jon Wertheim piece that stood out recently was Driving for Home from the Jan 23 issue of SI. About Delaware college hoops star Elena Della Donne, it brings to mind the 2009 Selena Roberts commentary "Burning To Play Again" on the enrolled at Delaware, but not yet returned to the game of basketball Della Donne. Finally, there were two excellent pieces recently on New England Patriots QB Tom Brady. Shortly after his Super Bowl loss to the Giants, Dan Wetzel wrote Tom Brady in postgame daze of disappointment for Yahoo Sports and Rick Reilly did Tom Brady is as advertised for ESPN. Wetzel's story takes a more conventionally reporting approach than Reilly's (makes sense as Reilly tends towards commentary with his writing) and each shows Brady as someone who has both stayed a good guy and continued to try really hard despite being at the top of his profession. Writing on Joe Paterno and his passing – posted 2/3/2012 Perhaps not the most timely of blog posts given the short news cycle that rules the day, but there was some exceptional writing over the past few weeks on former Penn State coach Joe Paterno. Shortly after his January 22 passing from lung cancer were two pieces from esteemed journalists, one of whom had conducted the last ever interview with Paterno just a week prior. Sally Jenkins wrote Joe Paterno dies, leaving a record for others to debate for the Washington Post and for Sports Illustrated, Jack McCallum penned Joe Paterno wasn't perfect, but legacy more than final chapter. Over the next week there were two stories on Paterno that stood out for their depth in reporting on the man. Joe Posnanski (currently writing a book on Paterno scheduled for release this fall) did Paterno's final days: no bitterness, just marveling at his fortunate life for Sports Illustrated and Wright Thompson wrote for ESPN the ridiculously lyrical Bringing home Joe on son Jay Paterno and reaction of Penn State faithful to his father's passing. Sports Illustrated Writing: from Chris Ballard & Michael Rosenberg – posted 1/6/2012 Two excellent feature stories from the last two issues of Sports Illustrated. From the Jan 6 edition was Tom Brady As You Forgot Him by Michael Rosenberg. It's been widely reported that Brady was a 6th round NFL draft pick out of Michigan, but Rosenberg provides a lot of interesting back story to his time there. Conventional wisdom seems to be that he was always great and nobody noticed, but Rosenberg does a really good job detailing Brady's college experience and how that helped shaped him. Additionally, Rosenberg writes some pretty interesting content on fellow Michigan QB Drew Henson, his career and relationship with Brady. In the Dec 26 Pictures of the Year issue Chris Ballard wrote The Kiss on the Vancouver riots after the Canucks Game 7 defeat. His story really stood out as solid writing that examined multiple characters associated with the riots (a policeman, a rioter, the couple photographed kissing on the street, person who took the picture) and walked though their experiences chronologically: Was a compelling story very well reported.

38

Words Written Down – Sports

John Branch on Derek Boogaard / Sports Journalism Today – posted 12/16/2011 There was a remarkable profile of former NHL player Derek Boogaard earlier this month in The New York Times. Written by John Branch, the three-part series is titled Punched Out: The Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer with first Learning to Brawl about his early years and then Blood on the Ice about his National Hockey League career. Finally, A Brain 'Going Bad' covers both his accidental overdose (from painkillers and alcohol) death last summer and then damage found upon study of his brain. It's captivating reading about first the idea of sixteen and seventeen year-old hockey players seeking to make a career with their ability to fight during games and then those same players having severe neurological trauma later in life... in Boogaard's case, a life of just 28 years. Branch's piece is an extremely thorough profile that's sports journalism by virtue of its athlete subject, but does more than hold its own in the broader category of journalism. To this point, there's been several interesting stories come across lately about sports journalism and the great work being done in the field. For New York Magazine, Gabriel Sherman wrote Blitz!: How sports journalists learned to go for the hard tackle which uses the Branch series as an example of the deep investigative reports being done into sports topics in recent years. A second piece lately on sports journalism is The Sporting Scene column for the New Yorker by Reeves Wiedeman. It's an interesting short missive about the volume of solid beyond the box score sports writing being generated online. Sports Illustrated Writing: from Alexander Wolff, Charles P. Pierce & Jim Gorant – posted 12/12/2011 There was some great writing from the recent Sports Illustrated double issue that features Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski as the SI Sportswoman & Sportsman of the Year for 2011. Longtime SI writer Alexander Wolff did the cover profile on the coaching icons and paints a revealing portrait of two driven individuals who appear focused on winning the right way. Its solid writing made the more so given that Summitt no longer does one-on-one interviews with her diagnosis of having early-onset dementia, Alzheimer's type. If Wolff's piece was a well-written profile of exceptional public figures, two other features from this issue of Sports Illustrated stood out as really good writing on subjects known in much smaller universes. Centered in the town of Magazine, Arkansas, How to Become an American is on the children of Hmong immigrants (with the Hmong portrayed by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino) playing high school football. Written by Charles Pierce, it combines an almost lyrical beginning with an in-depth description of the athletes and their assimilation into the community and impact on the team. I see Pierce stories most frequently in Esquire and expected and then found a great piece after noting his name in this SI story byline. A feature that actually turned out to be much more than I expected was According To Alex Kline... on the 17 year old college hoops recruiting guru. Written by Jim Gorant, the two things that stand out in the piece are Kline for creating a thriving avocation out of his interest and Gorant for the style of the piece. After the introduction, the writing flows backwards with sections on various ages of Kline's life to trace what led him to today. This approach helps take something that if done superficially could be little more than a puff isn't that cute type of piece and makes it a revealing and interesting profile. Sport in America from Sports Illustrated... and role of Sports Journalism – posted 12/3/2011 Very interesting cover story in the November 28 issue of Sports Illustrated: The entire text of the piece by Time Inc Sports editor Terry McDonell doesn't appear to be online now (just silly, me thinks), but Sport In America is posted as an abridged version. The story introduces a future HBO series of the same name that Sports Illustrated will be co-producing. Overall concept of the series and introductory story is described in this Inside Sports Illustrated blog post around the question of what sport means to individual people... with this question still quite relevant in today's environment of large money and high level cynicism around sport. The piece by McDonell was interesting (if only the whole text could be provided here) and got me thinking more about sports journalism and what it does. There's certainly recapping of with scores and game summaries, but also much more. The narrative recreation of fan memories is a huge offering that sports journalism can provide and another aspect of journalism around sports is the revealing of information. This can be around things like player profiles a well as supremely important topics like Jerry Sandusky and the

39

Words Written Down – Sports

Penn State child sex abuse case (with my blog post last month on writing about the scandal). This case provided another example of how sports journalism can play a much more important than score and game notes role with this NBC interview with Sandusky where noted sports journalist Bob Costas let Sandusky eviscerate himself in relation to the accusations made and charges filed. Very important stuff to be sure... and this revealing, recreating and recapping that can be provided by sports journalism doesn't even fully cover the entertainment value that solid media coverage can add to the (financially very valuable) total fan experience. Sports Illustrated Writing: from Alan Shipnuck, Chris Ballard and Tim Layden – posted 11/27/2011 There have been a few excellent pieces from Sports Illustrated in recent weeks that stood out as solid. From the October 17 issue was The Invisible Fastball by Chris Ballard and Owen Good. The piece chronicles the life and 1950s era career renaissance of minor league pitcher (Kelly) Jack Swift in rural North Carolina. It's a solid read on baseball as I wrote about it here and reminds me again of how hockey is my favorite sport, football the one I'm most easily entertained by and baseball the one I find to be the best. For the November 7 edition of SI, Tim Layden wrote The Forgotten Hero on former Williams College football player Mike Reily and why his jersey has been retired since the 60s: Excellent piece that combines together a thorough reporting job with profound story. Finally, the recent Nov 28 issue had Tim Tebow's Wild Ride by Alan Shipnuck. Tebow's story is fascinating given how polarizing he is to both the media and general public and Shipnuck uses the tactic of writing the piece through quotes in and by the media. It's the same approach as was taken in a recent book on the history of ESPN (which I reviewed here) and seems to perfectly fit the breathlessly reported on overall Tebow story. Clay Travis Writing on College Football – posted 11/14/2011 As a college football fan and fan of good sports writing, I'm surprised I haven't heard of him until recently, but glad I've come across Clay Travis and his website Outkick the Coverage. According to the Bio page on the site (which lists eight different writers), Travis is a Nashville afternoon radio show host in addition to writer and I first came across his stuff with the hilarious Les Miles and LSU Make Alabama Frat Boys Cry about the game in Tuscaloosa. On the more serious (not you know... serious, serious, but more in-depth reporting serious) note, I last week saw the profile Kirk Herbstreit: the Face of College Football on the ESPN/ABC announcer and College Gameday host. I found both this and the LSU piece to be very well written and had planned on doing a post on College Football writing that doesn't make you ill, but then learn that lo and behold... both pieces from the same guy. With the first two pieces of his I've seen being highly funny/entertaining and detailed/insightful respectively, the trifecta completed with now the third story of his I've seen (all on Outkick the Coverage) being reasoned/informative. Starting 11: If LSU Splits Arkansas, Georgia, it's in Title Game is on this year's BCS Title Game possibilities and includes the analysis from Travis that "there is a 95% chance -- potentially even greater than that -- that this title game will be LSU-Oklahoma State or LSU-Alabama." Wright Thompson on Good BBQ, Les Miles and Great Pizza – posted 11/5/2011 There are a few writers whose stuff I'm drawn to and Wright Thompson has definitely become one of them. A few months ago I did a post linking to a number of his pieces and fairly recently I've come across some more of his writing from various sources. To this point, the story that stood out the most did so because it was published not by ESPN (or the ESPN property Grantland that Thompson also writes for), but in Garden & Gun Magazine. The piece is titled Pork-a-Palooza and is about Thompson joining together / hanging on with a team of BBQ aficionados (like, they make their living doing it) competing in the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. It's really engaging writing that coupled together with the other Thompson stuff I linked to solidifies the concept of him as someone whose writing oft includes first person alcohol and food indulgences (sweet niche he's carved out). In the same (completely fantastic) subject vein, another piece of his I came across earlier today was The Best Pizza in the South from Grantland. The story

40

Words Written Down – Sports

is about a hole in the wall joint in Baton Rouge and chowing down with LSU football coach Les Miles and the Miles family. Yep, as noted before... pretty sweet writing life he's got there. Linked within the Grantland story was actually the point of Thompson's time in Baton Rouge... an ESPN Outside the Lines profile on Coach Miles. I suppose it's a bit of a cliché to say, but it's one of those profile pieces that stands out because the author goes deep and gives a nuanced look at the subject's personal as well as professional life. So, it's not all about the food and booze... it's also just solid research and excellent writing from Thompson. 2011 World Series Writing – posted 11/4/2011 Following on the heels of an incredible final day of the regular season was an equally astounding (more so given the stage) World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals winning in 7 games. There was great writing done on that Game 162 (with pieces by Messrs. Verducci, Posnanski and Kruse linked to here) and as could be expected, also some excellent pieces on the World Series and particularly the epic Game 6. Starting things off with the widest (post World Series) view was the excellent Go Crazy, Baseball, Go Crazy by Tom Verducci story for Sports Illustrated. It doesn't take anything away from the very solid Verducci piece, but the unbelievable if not real 6th game of the World Series provided the writing that stuck with me the most, with the three most memorable pieces being 2011 World Series: David Freese caps Cardinals‘ unbelievable comeback by Thomas Boswell for the Washington Post, David Freese, St. Louis force Game 7 by Jayson Stark for ESPN and Game Six by Joe Posnanski for his Sports Illustrated blog. Sports Illustrated Pieces: on Walter Payton, Gary Patterson & the Philadelphia Phillies – posted 10/1/2011 There have been a few different feature stories from Sport Illustrated lately with really solid writing on interesting topics. For the September 12 issue, S.L. Price wrote "The House of Dream Chasers" on TCU football coach Gary Patterson. While Patterson's tale was an interesting one and told well as Price stories inevitably are, what stood out from the piece was the author's connection to the coach. The sub-heading to the story alludes to the time spent living in the small college town of Davis, CA and it was fascinating reading about how both the author and subject were living lean and starting out in their desired careers. "Twenty-five years ago TCU coach Gary Patterson was a tumbleweed assistant clinging to a Division II job. No one expected he would rise to the top of his profession—not even the author, who lived with him then." Most recently, the Oct 3 issue of SI featured an interesting book excerpt from Jeff Pearlman. "The Hero No One Knew" was taken from Sweetness: the Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton and (similar in this regard to most of the books excerpted in Sports Illustrated) a solid read. Granted, I wasn't Bears or Payton fan, but it's remarkable to me the flack that Pearlman has taken about the contents of the book. Even in this excerpt (which is of course just a portion of the book), Payton isn't portrayed as a terrible guy... just a flawed individual who probably became more flawed after leaving the game that defined him. For someone to think any favorite athlete infallible and then criticize those who would reveal him as less than perfect just doesn't make sense. Also in this latest issue of SI was 'We're In Baseball Heaven' by Gary Smith on the Philadelphia Phillies and the town‘s relationship with the team. The piece was the third installment of a series Smith has done of the Phillies this year with the first two being on the starting rotation and then profiling catcher Carlos Ruiz. Smith writes very well pieces with a strong emotional hook and in describing specific fans and their relationship with the team, he's definitely in his element as a writer: Pretty compelling reading. Game 162 of the MLB 2011 Season & Great Writing on the Night – posted 9/29/2011 Stunning, crazy, epic, redonkulous... all words that apply to last night's events in the final game of the MLB regular season. I suppose one could make the point that once the playoffs start it doesn't matter how a team got there, but sports fan me would respectfully disagree. Yes, the players are the ones competing and they've all got their own motivations (including of course the paycheck variety), but the fans are by and large in it for the entertainment value provided. To that point, last night's Red Sox-Orioles and Yankees-Rays

41

Words Written Down – Sports

games were each remarkably entertaining in its own right, but the two games viewed together as they should be... yep, redonkulous (this doesn't even consider the National League games yesterday). I fully expected to find some great writing on the events transpired and (not surprisingly) some of the best I've seen today has been in pieces for the Sports Illustrated website from Tom Verducci and Joe Posnanski respectively. Verducci wrote the illustratively-titled Drama of Game 162 never seen before and likely never will again and spent more time chronicling the events of the games than Posnanski did in his Baseball Night in America. While I found both works to be exceptionally solid (and Verducci's had a very cool timeline of events), the piece by Posnanski really did it for me with its vivid descriptions of what makes baseball so great for those who follow it. Going back in time a bit, this idea of baseball fandom was eloquently laid out by Kevin Van Valkenburg in A funny thing happened on the way to Camden Yards for the Baltimore Sun. Very cool writing from all three guys on a sport that (as Posnanski says) can be boring, but also can be so very much more to its fans. Postscript – the text above was the original post done yesterday, but in the "too good to not include here" category was Six minutes that shook baseball history and put the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL playoffs from Michael Kruse and Ben Montgomery. Written for the St. Petersburg Times, it's got the same timeline approach that Tom Verducci provided, but also provides content around individual Rays fans and how they followed and reacted to the madness: Great human-element writing. Tennis Writing on Roger Federer – posted 9/18/2011 I lately have come across some very interesting writing on tennis star Roger Federer. The work is from a variety of different sources over a pretty wide timeframe, but a constant is there's something about the guy and his game that lends itself towards great copy. In 2009 I posted and linked to writing about the FedererNadal rivalry with this review of an L. Jon Wertheim book as well as this blog post on an S.L. Price story for Sports Illustrated. More recently I had recommended to me the Michael Kimmelman New York Times column "Where They Paint the Lines With Topspin." It's really solid prose that features a short description of Federer as tennis virtuoso. With the US Open tournament played out over the past few weeks, there's been a raft of interesting tennis writing (perhaps because of the individual rather than team sport competition)... and writing on and related to Federer being some of the best. For ESPN.com, Jeff MacGregor did the column "U.S. Open: Beginnings and endings." It's solid and lyrical writing with the subtitle "The constant of Roger Federer's grace seems to soothe a volatile sport in transition." Posted on Grantland a few days later was the piece "Director's Cut: Federer as Religious Experience". Director's Cut is a recurring Grantland feature with writer Michael MacCambridge detailing background on well known writing and providing his take on what makes a piece good... in addition to providing the original writing. In this case, "Federer as Religious Experience" was on the 2006 profile of Federer by the late David Foster Wallace for the New York Times magazine, Play. The Wallace piece is remarkable writing with its description and use of language and MacCambridge provides really interesting content around the story and process of it. As an aside (and not to say that it's done as well on this blog as by MacCambridge in his "Director's Cut" features), what he does in linking to great work and noting what makes it stand out is much the exact same intent of this blog. Wrapping up this dissertation on Federer and Federer writing was another Grantland piece. This one by Brian Phillips, "Novak Djokovic: The Shot and The Confrontation" was posted the day after Djokovic fought off two match points to win the semifinal matchup between the two star players. The writing was certainly solid, but what struck me was the actual play sequence described... where another Federer triumph could have wrapped itself up, but was instead completely turned around in a stranger than fiction shot and Djokovic reaction. Also interesting from the piece was the description of Federer's postmatch reaction to Djokovic's shot. Some may view it as dig against Djokovic, but when you're a player of Federer's stature and have hit against you on match point the shot that Djokovic unleashed probably really truly does seem a matter of a "lucky shot." It doesn't in any way make the win by Djokovic any less impressive, but does perhaps make sense in the context of the person he hit the shot and got the win against. This remarkable shot then turned into a remarkable championship win by Djokovic and capped off probably one of the more remarkable individual years in modern tennis. So, acclaim deservedly due to

42

Words Written Down – Sports

Djokovic, but that Federer sure plays an amazing brand of tennis... which in turn has spawned some great writing. Sports Illustrated Writing: Lee Jenkins & Joe Posnanski – posted 9/2/2011 Couple of entertaining works lately from Sports Illustrated writers... one written for the magazine and one the website: Cover story for the August 29 issue was by "Strange Brew (but It's Working)" on the first place team. Written by Lee Jenkins, the writing is solid, but more than that... it's just fun. The team comes across as a personification of the little engine that could just trucking towards a playoff showdown (or for Milwaukee fans, hopefully three showdowns) against better known and bigger market teams. Heavily featured in the piece was sparkplug outfielder Nyjer Morgan and while reading about him didn't necessarily make me love the guy, it did make me want to watch... and after all, the point of being a sports fan is to be entertained. From the Sports Illustrated website yesterday was "My Favorite Year" by the excellent and prolific writer Joe Posnanski. It's a long piece (did I mention he's prolific?) on the sports stories that struck him from 1986. Included in the story (which had more beyond this) was the Chicago Bears Super Bowl team, Bo Jackson taking baseball by storm, Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters at 46, the death of Len Bias and the MLB playoffs featuring Bill Buckner and the much sadder tale of Donnie Moore. It's really entertaining reading made all the much more so by the links and videos that Posnanski embeds (highly recommend the Bo video of an outfield wall catch and then strike to first base). Finally, he does that thing that much of his best blog writing features where he includes personal anecdotes along with stories of the athletes and their accomplishments. A big part of this was commentary about 1986 being a pivotal one in the beginning of his writing career... and linked to was a profile of Jim Murray by Rick Reilly, and noted by Posnanski as being "probably the best story ever written about a sportswriter." Sports Illustrated Pieces: Dustin Pedroia / Toomer's Corner Trees / Pitching Prospect Trevor Bauer – posted 8/12/2011 Three excellent stories from the latest issue of Sports Illustrated starting with "The Muddy Chicken Hits It Big" by Tom Verducci for Sports Illustrated on Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia and gets into Pedroia, who he is and what he does. The story does a good job of covering both Pedroia's personal and professional lives, with the professional being grounded in his love of the game and how that helps him be a leader on a team full of personalities: Lot of ground written about well by Verducci. Additionally, "Trevor Bauer Will Not Be Babied" was by Lee Jenkins and no slight at all intended towards the writing, but what stood out here was the subject covered. Similar to Stephen Strasberg and Bryce Harper (SI cover stories about each posted on here and here, respectively), Bauer represents the idea of potential greatness in baseball. As Jenkins details, the 20 year old Diamondbacks prospect could see Major League time as soon as September for the Arizona Diamondbacks. What makes the story even more interesting is Bauer's singleminded ownership of and contrarian approach to his pitching development. Pretty fascinating content both in terms of what Bauer has done and how baseball thinking has adjusted somewhat in his direction around training and conditioning practices. Final story that stood out in this SI was the Tommy Tomlinson feature "Something Went Very Wrong At Toomer's Corner". About the University of Auburn oak tree poisoning, the piece features the type of compelling writing that can often be found in the last feature of each SI issue. Tomlison goes beyond the crime itself and delves deeply into football in Alabama and what it means to people... both for better and much worse: Excellent "slice of life different than known by many" prose. Joe Posnanski & Gary Smith for Sports Illustrated - on Baseball & Lyndon Baty – posted 8/2/2011 There were two really good pieces from the last two issues of Sports Illustrated. For the July 25 issue, Joe Posnanski wrote "Loving Baseball" about a cross-country road trip he took visiting different ballparks and spending time with icons like Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. Posnanski is an excellent writer who traffics very well in sentiment (more on that topic with the second piece) and he hits the metaphorical home run with this story. The subtitle is "What Keeps the Grand Game Great? Everything Old is New Again" and

43

Words Written Down – Sports

topics covered range from Derek Jeter's epic game in which he got hit number 3,000 (story posted on and linked to here) to the bat Wonderboy from Robert Redford's The Natural. As Scully said upon reflecting on The Meaning of Baseball, "dreams and escape", and Posnanski does a really good job of putting that idea into print. Out of last week's SI issue came another good piece from acclaimed writer Gary Smith (and the blog post on Jeter by Posnanski also links to a Smith article). "A Boy and His Bot" is about 15 year old Lyndon Baty and his life attending high school via robot (from VGo Communications). Baty suffers from polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and given his weak immune system any exposure to germs could prove deadly. The story makes it into Sport Illustrated as Baty pursues his dream of being a sports announcer, but really it's another case of Smith penning a tale that sits on the fringe of sports, but squarely in the heartfelt. I've seen pieces by him before that went too far towards the sentiment, but the majority of his stuff seems more like this... well written and telling stories with a sports bent of people fighting through obstacles: Quite solid writing from Messrs Posnanski and Smith. Joe Posnanski & Gary Smith for Sports Illustrated - on Derek Jeter & Carlos Ruiz – posted 7/14/2011 Some very cool stuff both from and related to the latest issue of Sports Illustrated. In terms of stuff related to, the wide angle cover shot of Derek Jeter and his regular season hit number 3,000 is almost a carbon copy of the Jim Thome SI cover last September... linked to here and which also had an accompanying cover story by Joe Posnanski. Before this latest issue came out I saw "The Day Jeter Hit 3,000" published by Posnanski for his Sports Illustrated blog. The actual magazine story is an ever so slightly edited down version, but the blog post carried more impact reading it the same Saturday that Jeter had his ridiculous 5-5 day with hit number 3,000 being a home run. A sidebar story around Jeter and this feel-good day was provided by Yankee fan Christian Lopez. Pretty much immediately after catching Jeter's home run ball Lopez volunteered to give it back because as he said (quoted in the Posnanski piece), ―It‘s HIS accomplishment.‖ Piling on with the feel-good and good things happen to good people concepts, came "Yankees Fan‘s Generosity Is Returned, With $50,000 to Ease His Debt" from the New York Times. From this same Sports Illustrated issue also came "The Legion of Arms: Part II - Brotherly Glove" on Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz. The Gary Smith piece was solid writing to be sure, but particularly compelling as it was the follow up to Smith's extremely original "The Legion of Arms" on the Phils starting rotation for the SI Spring Training Preview issue (posted on and linked to here). Good writing on compelling stories... or compelling writing on good stories? Either way, there was solid writing within the pieces. Sports Illustrated & Grantland.com Championship Features: Dallas Mavericks & Boston Bruins – posted 7/3/2011 Some solid writing on recent Championship runs by the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Bruins. The NBA Title from the Mavs yielded the SI cover story "Lone Star Power" by Lee Jenkins: Very solid piece that conveyed the details of the Finals along with the human drama supplied by Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki. Reporting on the Bruins win differed in that while there was a good individual achievement piece in Sports Illustrated after the Stanley Cup Finals, it was tougher to find really good writing on the team and series as a whole. The aforementioned SI writing was "Hub Fans Bid Tim Yahoo!" by Brian Cazeneuve: Very solid recounting of the path to a championship taken by Bruins goalie and playoff MVP Tim Thomas. In terms of an overall write up on the Bruins and the extremely compelling Finals against the Canucks, the best I came across was written for the new website Grantland. "Proud to be an NHL front-runner" was written by Bill Simmons after game four of the Finals and did an excellent job of portraying the level of nastiness in the first four games and contrasting the two teams... and why for many fans, the Bruins were an easier team to like than the Nucks. After the game seven win by the Bruins, Simmons penned "A Black and Gold Day for Boston. Finally" for Grantland as well. There's a lot written on Tim Thomas in the second Grantland piece (and justifiably so), but Simmons also does a solid job of linking this win to Bruins championships (and goalies) from the past: Excellent writing on two big triumphs.

44

Words Written Down – Sports

Sports Illustrated Pieces: Luis Salazar / Boston and its Bruins – posted 6/2/2011 There were two really solid pieces of writing from the latest Sports Illustrated. The first was Sight To Behold by L Jon Wertheim for Sports Illustrated on Atlanta Braves minor league coach Luis Salazar and his horrific injury suffered during a Spring Training game this year. From a foul ball off the bat of Brian McCann, Salazar had his left eye damaged to the point it had to be removed. Rather than being a sad tale, Salazar's story is one of a man who has done what he loves in the game of baseball and is able to continue... just without as his doctors put it, the possibility of being a fighter pilot on the side. While the anecdote may seem glib to some, it really isn't given how much worse the injury from a batted ball to the head could have been. For evidence of this possibility, one need look no further than the riveting book "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" by S.L. Price (which I reviewed here). Additionally, Deep in the Heart of the City was by Leigh Montville for Sports Illustrated on the Stanley Cup Finalist Boston Bruins. The story chronicles city's love affair with the team from the days of Orr and Esposito through this current iteration of Lucic and Thomas and is very cool writing that traffics in what a team can mean to its fans and town. Alabama Tornado Story for SI by Lars Anderson – posted 5/25/2011 Really compelling and well written cover story in the May 23 issue of Sports Illustrated. Written by Lars Anderson, Terror, Tragedy and Hope in Tuscaloosa is about the devastating tornado of April 27 and delves into the storm's impact on the University of Alabama and its community... with 6 UA students among the 41 dead in town. The writing comes across as very personal and contributing to that is Anderson's mention of living in neighboring Birmingham. While this inclusion violates the widely held writing rule of not injecting oneself into a story, it seems appropriate here. It's profound stuff and does an excellent job of looking at the role of sports (particularly Alabama football) in a community. There's solid linkage of what sports means to people, but not to the point of overreaching in describing its importance. Gary Smith SI Profile on Dick & Rick Hoyt – posted 4/17/2011 There was a really remarkable feature written by Gary Smith for the latest issue of Sports Illustrated. Titled "The Wheels of Life", it profiles Massachusetts native Dick Hoyt and his athletic endeavors with 49 year-old son, Rick Hoyt. Rick was born a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy and since the 1970's, he's participated in over a thousand 10Ks, marathons and triathlons... while either in a trailer pushed, bike pedaled or raft towed by his father. The story is a powerful one and traffics in important themes ranging from the love of a family to import of not discounting the handicapped. In terms of the telling of their journey, challenges and achievements, Smith seems well suited to the task as his stuff is nothing if not solid on sentiment. I suppose much of this is going to stem from the topic being written about, but find that invariably if there's a story with the author's byline; it's going to be an emotion-inducing read. Seems a tough proposition for a writer to sign him or herself up for this type of work, but not get lost in flowery hyperbole when telling the story. I'd say Smith, however, does it well. To the topic of Dick Hoyt and his son Rick... the Team Hoyt website can be found here and in the site archives, there‘s a story from the Today Show on the duo. Thomas Lake on the Death of Darrent Williams – posted 4/8/2011 Really good long form piece from the latest Sports Illustrated. Written by Thomas Lake, "Bad Nights In The NFL" is a narrative report (yes, I just made up the description, but me thinks it fits) on the circumstances surrounding the New Years Eve 2007 death of Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams. It features some pretty lyrical and interesting prose from Lake, but also a ton of detail around his killing and what led up to it. With this, one thing that stood out in the piece was the telling of secondary story arcs to contribute to the whole. Best example of this was the focus around teammate and friend Javon Walker. As someone who had lived the star athlete life for a few years longer than Williams, Walker's tale was an excellent one to tell around this "celebrity with new money to show off" lifestyle. The one qualm I have about the story is I found myself getting lost as Lake recounted the minute by minute events immediately before Williams was

45

Words Written Down – Sports

shot. It could well be that I should have paid better attention, but that's the thing about great writing... it's great writing for the individual person reading it. While someone else may have had the same level of interest and appreciation of the story as I did, but not had the same issue around following the details... I did and so, there you go. All in all, an excellent piece on a tragic event that hopefully (but, not likely) serves as a cautionary tale for someone else in the public eye with money and acclaim. Gary Smith & Jeff Greenfield SI Baseball Pieces – posted 4/1/2011 Two pretty compelling stories from the Sports Illustrated 2011 Baseball Preview issue. Cover story is written by Gary Smith and on the Philadelphia Phillies fabulous four (plus solid fifth) starting pitchers. The collection of talent makes for an interesting topic, but Smith's "The Legion of Arms" takes a unique approach to the storytelling. Each of the pitchers is labeled as a particular superhero and the piece is written in an over the top comic book style. It's an entertaining approach and one very befitting the remarkable and somewhat unbelievable rotation talent. Smith is also well-suited to write this type of story as his writing can be somewhat over the top. In short, he tries to pull something new and creative off and it works. Any author deserves kudos for that. In same vein of "departure from straight reporting" was another baseball feature from this issue. "It Was All Just A Bad Dream" is penned by Jeff Greenfield and chronicles the fictional events after Steve Bartman didn't interfere with Moises Alou catching that ball in the 2003 NLCS. Pretty rollicking and entertaining stuff based on the premise that something which happened (the interference which precipitated the Cubs collapse), didn't: Similar to the Smith profile on the Phillies rotation, very original and entertaining writing. Joe Posnanski Crystal Ball Piece on the Kansas City Royals – posted 3/18/2011 Really cool piece of writing by Joe Posnanski in the latest Sports Illustrated. It's titled "Royals, Flush" and features one of my more favorite writing techniques (if done well)... the "written in the future" backwards look. The story is about the Kansas City Royals future predicted success (but, with the writing actually looking back on it) and how the absolutely stocked farm system under GM Dayton Moore made that possible. I have to confess to also liking the story from the perspective of it being about a small-market team (with a beautiful looking stadium) making it big, but the solid writing from Posnanski was what really made the piece for me. Not to make this post about something other than the writing itself (or imply I can write as well as Posnanski), but his technique reminded me of a favorite piece of writing from college... my story on a Native Alaskan tribe which was basically a copy of an encyclopedia story (you know, like Wikipedia, but without the Internet) that I told through the eyes of a tribe member. It was enjoyable writing that piece... and enjoyable reading this one from Posnanski. Sports Illustrated Pieces: John Calipari & the Denver Nuggets – posted 3/12/2011 Two stories from the latest Sport Illustrated that struck me both for the level of the writing and thoughts about fandom they elicited in me. The larger of the two pieces was "Too Slick, Too Loud, Too Successful Why John Calipari Can't Catch A Break" by S.L. Price. It's a profile of the University of Kentucky Men's Basketball Coach and features the same type of interesting and in-depth writing I usually see from the author. One thing I did find, though (and maybe Price either did this intentionally or at least knew of it), was a difficulty in telling whether Calipari was a good guy or not. Not to say that every piece of entertainment I consume has to be black and white in terms of its good guy/bad guy depiction, but me thinks it raises the bar on the quality needed from the story if this ambiguity exists. Fortunately, Price handles the task with aplomb and it's a really solid read. The second piece from this March 14 issue that I found noteworthy was "Defiant in Denver" on the post-Carmelo Anthony Nuggets. Written by Lee Jenkins, the story gets heavily into the comparison of a basketball team with a number of solid, but not spectacular pieces working together (the current team) against a superstar-led one (that with Carmelo). This idea of a team and the sum of its parts rather than the efforts of its star is interesting to me, but probably even more interesting is the idea of rooting for such team. Fandom is a concept I've thought of quite a bit lately and

46

Words Written Down – Sports

there's a number of different ways to look at it. Some people become a fan of a particular star and that's where their rooting interest is tied up (Michael Jordan as a good example). Really, though, I'd say that Seinfeld had it pegged for many when he said "we're just rooting for laundry." Wherever we live (or wherever we once lived and formed a team attachment)... that's who we root for. This concept comes up for examination based on the contents of these pieces from Jenkins and Price respectively. In the Nuggets story, you've got the idea that a team could become easier (or in fact, more likely) to root for based on the makeup of its parts. The Calipari profile is interesting in that the idea of it being easier to cheer for nonsuperstar players is actually turned on its head. Calipari as a coach has made his name by unapologetically seeking out the one and done type of high school who will star for a year in college and then move on to the NBA. Now, I'm as much of a "follow a team for my entertainment value / root for laundry" type of guy as anyone, but... Calipari's approach might be a bit much for me if I were a fan of a team he came in to coach. Now that I think about it, maybe that's where the aforementioned ambiguity about the character from the Price story came from: Interesting concepts to chew on. Sports Illustrated Profiles: Jake Plummer & the Brothers Harbaugh – posted 2/12/2011 There were two really good Sports Illustrated profiles that bear posting on together. From the most recent issue, Chris Ballard wrote "What Was He Thinking?" about former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer and an October 2010 SI piece was "Beat, Play, Love" by Michael Rosenberg on now NFL coaches Jim & John Harbaugh. Both were detailed and well written looks at the respective men, but what struck me as the common thread was how each of them appears to be doing what they want in life. The Harbaughs were raised in a football family, but the path each followed really points to the goal of being a head football coach. There's a fair amount of interesting back story from Rosenberg as to what brought John to the head job in Baltimore and Jim more recently to that with San Francisco, but its impressive reading about someone knowing what they want and working over time to get there. Ballard's story on Jake Plummer differs from that on the Harbaughs as rather than being about people in marquee NFL roles, it's about someone who walked away from a position in the spotlight. After starring in college and then earning accolades and wealth with first the Cardinals and then Broncos, Plummer left his role as an NFL quarterback (and $5M upcoming season salary) and retired to his home in Sand Point, ID. Instead of pining away for the past, Plummer comes across as completely at ease with his life... including his passion for competitive handball (and associated comradeship). Excellent stories both with solid writing from Rosenberg and Ballard respectively, but what really struck me was the subjects themselves. Yea, maybe not everyone has made the type of money Plummer has to be able to walk away from a profession, but he still left a lot behind to follow his desires. The Harbaughs path may be more traditional in that theirs doesn't so blatantly diverge from the traditional, but it's nonetheless impressive to read about the work they've put in to now have their aspired to positions. Aliquippa, PA & High School Football by S.L. Price – posted 1/26/2011 There was a great story from S.L. Price in the Jan 31issue of Sports Illustrated. Titled "The Heart of Football Beats in Aliquippa", the piece looks at the hardscrabble community of Aliquippa, PA (some 20 miles outside Pittsburgh) and import of football to the town. It's an extremely well written story on a place portrayed as dangerous, but that's also turned out a disproportionate number of big-time football stars... including Tony Dorsett, Darrelle Revis, Ty Law and Mike Ditka. In many ways Price's writing reminded me of a Nov 2009 SI feature by Austin Murphy. That story was "The Muck Bowl" (which I posted on here) and rather than being about football economically depressed Western Pennsylvania... Murphy's story looked at the Central Florida towns of Pahokee and Belle Glade. Violence or the possibility of it seem a part of everyday life in both areas, but for many (sadly, not all), football an even bigger part. There were a number of parallels between the two stories, including really solid and interesting writing.

47

Words Written Down – Sports

Austin Murphy SI Story on Bill Phillips – posted 12/20/2010 Really solid piece by Austin Murphy in the latest Sports Illustrated (which featured a cover story on "The Fighter" in theaters now): Murphy writes regularly for SI and I make a point of reading his stuff I come across. Typically, it leans towards nuts and bolts type pieces on college football and while those are good... I'm most fond of his longer form human interest type writing (with the last example I posted on being "Muck Bowl" from Nov 2009. In this Year in Sports Media issue, Murphy did "The Season After" on one of the people killed in an Alaska small plane crash along with Senator Ted Stevens. Related to sports in that the aforementioned Bill Phillips left behind three Division One football-playing sons (along with a fourth and youngest son that survived the crash); it's an impactful story about Phillips and his family. Scott Pioli Profile & other SI Writing including ―The Boy Who Died of Football‖ by Thomas Lake – posted 12/3/2010 The annual Sportsman of the Year Dec 6 issue of Sports Illustrated featured multiple interesting pieces... with one great one from Joe Posnanski. The cover story was a solid read on someone who appears a very stand-up guy in New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. It's easy to be skeptical of a pro athlete's "goodness", but Brees seems to actually have it. Also, a worthwhile story that unfortunately doesn't appear to be available online was "The Boy Who Died of Football" by Thomas Lake. About the heatstroke-caused death of 15 year-old Kentuckian Max Gilpin, it's a look at an all too common football-related catastrophic injury. What made the story uncommon was Gilpin's High School coach being prosecuted for reckless homicide in Gilpin's passing. It's a sad tale about a kid who perhaps didn't really want to play football, but was pushed to do so. Particularly jarring from the story was the quote by Gilpin's (portrayed as aggressive) father after his death... "I underestimated the kid, big time, his heart; can you imagine the fortitude it took to keep running out there?" It‘s a messed up sentiment from him. Interesting and solidly written stories both of these were, but the one from this issue that really got me was the aforementioned Joe Posnanski piece. "A Dream in the Making" is about Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Scott Pioli and succeeds spectacularly in that it's a riveting look at an inconspicuous guy. One of those stories that I read and think... man, would be nice to write that well. Jill Costello Sports Illustrated Profile – posted 11/26/2010 There was a great piece from the latest Sports Illustrated by Chris Ballard. Titled "The Courage of Jill Costello", it's about a remarkable student-athlete from Cal and the piece reminds me a great deal of the Dec 2009 SI piece "The Games of Their Lives" by L. Jon Wertheim. I posted on the Wertheim profiles of Paralympics Athletes Marin Morrison and Nick Scandone and Costello definitely reminds me of these also champion individuals. SF Giants World Series by Joe Posnanski – posted 11/5/2010 Great piece I came across on CNNSI titled "An unlikely story, San Francisco finally has a World Series champion". From Joe Posnanski, the piece covers an interesting topic (at least for me), but qualifies as really good writing in that the author manages to convey key pieces of hard information (such as around World Series MVP Edgar Renteria) along with a more profound vibe of the team, the city and what it all meant. Concussions in Football Writing – posted 11/3/2010 Really interesting content from a Sports Illustrated Special Report on concussions in football... which brought to mind for me some other solid writing on the topic. The lead story was "Concussions: the hits that are changing football" by Peter King and it covered both the impact on life that football-related head trauma can cause as well as the tipping point of sorts brought about by the weekend in football Oct 16-17. Starting with Rutgers player Eric LeGrand getting paralyzed while making a hit and then continuing to a Sunday in the NFL featuring multiple violent head shots and associated injuries... the weekend brought

48

Words Written Down – Sports

about action from the NFL commissioner‘s office to try to make the game safer. King details this is his story as well as looks at the reaction of players who see the league as going too far in policing physical contact. It was a solid piece and then followed by several other related stories from the same report. The two that stood out to me related to not the violent concussion-causing hits that the NFL was attempting to curb, but rather less sensational, but perhaps more disturbing idea of kids suffering damage playing youth sports (football in these pieces, but really could be any sport involving contact and potential head trauma). In "The Damage Done", David Epstein wrote of how simply repeated head contact (such as any high school lineman has) can impact brain functioning and the Farrell Evans piece "Early Warning" has mention of cognitive baseline testing in kids so that any trauma suffered can be diagnosed through comparative post injury testing. From this SI report, I thought of other writing on the same two content areas noted above... headshots in the NFL and then in youth football. From an NFL perspective, there's the Malcolm Gladwell (he of best selling Outliers, The Tipping Point, and Blink) New Yorker piece "Offensive Display: How Different are Football and Dog fighting?" Additionally, I came across the interesting Chris Jones Esquire blog post "The NFL's Meathead Chorus Needs to Grow Up" written a week after the new league rules to reduce violent headshots went into effect. So... with all this content noted and linked to, it then begs the question of whether the NFL is taking unnecessary steps. Looking at the YouTube video below of one of the Oct 17 hits that caused all the fuss... I'd say they're on the right track. Going back to the topic of youth football (and all youth sports)... I recall doing this Dec 2009 blog post about San Jose high school football player Matt Blea and his almost dying from a head injury (and not the big hit variety) suffered in a game. It's a dangerous world, but within that... contact sports and particularly football can be a particularly dangerous activity. This doesn't mean that kids should live in a bubble, not play sports or not play football, but a combination of eyes open to the danger and consideration of ways to reduce risk... all things highly in order. Believing in Sports – posted 10/24/2010 Interesting topic to write about that came from a piece (well, two pieces actually) on ESPN.com by Jeff MacGregor. I came across them via a Chris Jones twitter recommendation of MacGregor and I agree with Jones... its good writing that leads one to thinking on the topic (which of course is in many cases, the definition of good writing). The first story from MacGregor was a call to his readers asking for their commentary on the question "What do you still believe about sports?" Following up on this a week or so later was the piece "Fan belief and disbelief" with some of the responses received. I was fairly well fascinated reading people's missives on the question and it led me to consider my own answer. What I found myself doing while looking at my belief in sports was actually looking at the importance I attach to them. First thing in my opinion is a separation of sports as a topic area into (A) sports as a participant and (B) sports as a fan. Thinking of sports as an actual participant, I think they're a great thing... both for kids and adults. For a child, they can both entertain and teach those life lesson things about trying hard and working with others. For an adult, the entertainment portion of the equation trumps the life lesson part, but the portion of that entertainment that involves trying hard and being part of the team... yea, that's still a good thing for us older type people. So, in summary of sports as a participant... I do believe in them and think they matter. The second topic area of sports as a fan and how much they matter and you believe in them (which is more of what I think MacGregor asking about anyways), this is a bit more complicated of an answer. As a young lad (you know, prior to the ripe old age of 37), following sports mattered more than to me now due to time available and priorities of how to use that time. With having both kids and career aspirations (which may well take even longer than career goals because aspirations oft have to be figured out... taking additional time), sports just aren't as important as they used to be for me. What‘s occurred is following or watching sports has simply become entertainment. The import of it all (and whether my particular team wins or loses) isn't there in my mind as much as when I was younger, but the entertainment still certainly is. Seeing someone achieve greatly on a large stage... that's still highly entertaining to me even knowing that in the context of my life and family, it's not that big a deal. This approaches the question of sports as a fan from the import perspective, but MacGregor's question is around belief... especially in

49

Words Written Down – Sports

relation to things like steroids and cheating. On this topic, I'm a bit conflicted. I think my entertainment the most important thing (for me as fan). If I'm not thinking of things like Performance Enhancing Drugs while watching, my entertainment isn't diminished, but if I believe that someone does have an unfair advantage over others, that will diminish my entertainment. Good example of this is Barry Bonds. When he was at the peak of his accomplishments, it was tremendously exciting for me as fan. When it then become known with pretty much certainty that he was taking steroids during that period, it didn't retroactively change how entertaining the time was for me as a fan, but did certainly impact future entertainment provided me by Bonds... and I cared not a whit about his chasing the home run mark. So, I think sports important. I think especially important as something to play, but also think them important as something to be a fan of. Should you believe in them? I don't know, but do think that you should be entertained by them (and with that entertainment not the most important thing in life). I know as fans we're not cheering for perfect members of society and some people could be cheating. However, unless the evidence is enough to pretty much remove doubt, I'd prefer to think it all fair and enjoy the achievement, spectacle and entertainment provided by it all. Along these lines, I really liked reading and agree with the MacGregor reader he quotes as having "the second to last word on the matter", ―Before answering your question I would like to propose an alternative definition for "belief," one of which Americans have very little understanding. Our word believe actually derives from the German word beleiben. The root being leib, which means love. Believe, in its root, means to belove, not to think something is right or true, which is what we have come to think in a society that only values the head and not spirit. Our word believe is now translated into German as glauben, which is more like to know. (This sounds a lot like our English word gullible to me, which may be a good part of this discussion of what do we trust about sports). I can't tell you what I think about what's true and what's not about sports, and I'm not certain my opinion on that point matters. I can tell you what I belove about sports though. I belove a redemption story, even the case of Michael Vick, because no matter how much we stumble we can get a second chance. I belove the transcendence of athletes pushing each other higher and making each other better, even in the midst of competition. I belove my expectations being shattered, and I belove the camaraderie of a team. I belove what athletes can do with their bodies. I belove the joy and I belove learning about myself and society. I belove the purity of a well struck free kick, of a perfect driver down the fairway, of Ken Griffey Jr.'s swing, and the paradox of outcomes on any given sports day. I am not always certain what to think about sports, but I belove them. -- Peace, Ben” Billy Wagner Sports Illustrated Pieces by Michael Bamberger – posted 10/2/2010 Good story in the Oct 4 issue of Sports Illustrated... that led to my reading an even better story written 11 years earlier by the same author on the same topic. "The Last Stand of Billy the Kid" was by Michael Bamberger for Sports Illustrated about Atlanta Braves closer Billy Wagner. It's interesting reading about a guy who after 16 years in the major leagues states that this will be his last. A professional athlete retiring doesn't typically have great profundity associated, but Wagner's story is one to pique interest. He's having one of his best seasons in baseball and by retiring will leave at least $6M on the table. In the Bamberger story, Wagner's stated reasons for walking away have to do with spending time with his family. As he puts it "Sarah's been raising our kids and running the house alone for a lot of years now, it's time for me to step in." This piece struck me as interesting writing on an interesting guy, but in doing a search for the story on the CNNSI Vault, I came across a Bamberger piece from September 1999 that reached a different level of the aforementioned profundity. Titled "Astro Physics", its subtitle gets at the content within, "To understand how Houston closer Billy Wagner can throw a baseball 100 mph, you've got to examine the dynamics of his rural upbringing." Really compelling writing about someone who has been through things in life that few have experienced. Wagner retiring perhaps before he needs to (i.e. gets forced out of the game due to production on the field) doesn't seem as important or foolish when you consider Wagner's life story. Perhaps it even leads one to consider the real import of wins or losses on the field. Two other things of interest from this recent issue of SI were mention of the recently published books "The Lost Dogs: Michael

50

Words Written Down – Sports

Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption" by Jim Gorant and "Sports Illustrated The Hockey Book." 32 Great Sports Illustrated Covers from Joe Posnanski – posted 9/28/2010 Following up on the amazing Jim Thome shot on the cover of SI, Joe Posnanski wrote "32 Great Sports Illustrated Covers" for his SI blog. Really interesting stuff that got me on a few different levels: 1. how can a reader who really likes Posnanski's stuff not be interested in 7,000 words on a topic? Well, I guess he could write without my caring that many words on some subjects, but I love great sports pictures... and Posnanski writing on them makes the piece even better. 2. The stories behind the images. Some profound stuff that shows sports and it's captured drama. Examples of this: Number 26 of KC Royals pitcher Zach Greinke, number 25 of Boston Celtics draft pick Len Bias titled "Death of a Dream", Number 2 of Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan (not really #2, but included as a great image) and number 1 of... something epic. 3. The fact that the aforementioned Ali cover at number two is noted as being the favorite of Esquire writer Chris Jones. Just feels like the world is spinning correctly when a guy whose writing I really like references in glowing terms another guy whose writing I really like. 4. Mention of my old employer, Athlon Sports. Yea, it's not mention of me nor is it of Athlon whilst I was there, but was interesting to see. Sports Illustrated Excerpt from Susan Casey's "The Wave" – posted 9/11/2010 I was excited to see the latest Sports Illustrated cover and one of the pieces within. Noted at the top is "Surfing's Sacred Monster: The-100 Foot Wave" and the associated author Susan Casey... both things being of note to me. The idea of someone surfing a 100 foot wave (and the $500,000 prize for the first to do) is intriguing and I've found big wave surfing in general to be interesting since watching the movie Riding Giants. In terms of the writer... big fan of Susan Casey ever since reading her book "The Devil's Teeth" about the Farallon Islands off San Francisco and linked to and posted about her work here. The piece itself within this issue of SI is "The Wave" and actually an excerpt from the upcoming (Sept 14 release) Casey book "The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean." Reading the story itself, lots of cool stuff about the aforementioned quest for the 100 foot wave ride and big wave surfing. Found particularly interesting the portion about the surf spot Teahupo'o off the coast of Tahiti... and mention of Laird Hamilton's ride featured on the cover of Surfer Magazine. I‘m definitely looking forward to reading the entire book from Casey. Violating Baseball's Code Piece by Jason Turbow – posted 9/3/2010 Terribly interesting piece I came across on CNNSI that has to do with the concept of "baseball's unwritten rules". Titled "Nationals' Nyjer Morgan enrages baseball by violating The Code", the piece is about recent transgressions and rabble rousing by Washington Nationals leadoff hitter Nyjer Morgan. The author is Jason Turbow and this is written as a special to SI in part to publicize Turbow's book "The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime." Baseball is a sport that appeals to its fans in part for it's different than other sports quirks... such as there being no clock, the continued missed umpiring calls as "part of the game" and this idea of "playing by unwritten rules" that dictate what's ok and what's not for players to do. The concept makes me think of a quote I heard years ago along the lines of "if these 'unwritten rules' are so important, why don't they write them down?" Well, I guess it's because it's baseball and that's just how it is. Excellent article which made me want to read the book as well as read more stuff by Turbow on his about the book blog. Joe Posnanski on Jets Fullback Tony Richardson – posted 8/20/2010 Great story from the latest issue of Sports Illustrated: From Joe Posnanski, Made to Last is a profile of 16 year NFL veteran Tony Richardson. It's solid writing about a guy who takes pride in helping every season the young players trying to take his starting job. Definitely worth a read for anyone who likes football... and reading about one of the good guys. Also from this issue of SI was The Summer's Best @#$%! Comedy by

51

Words Written Down – Sports

Steve Rushin about "Hard Knocks" on HBO: A really cool show that reveals a more human side of the NFL than is usually shown. Joe Posnanski Piece on Rafer Johnson – posted 8/10/2010 Found myself to be pretty well riveted by a recent Joe Posnanski blog post on Olympic Decathlete Rafer Johnson. Titled Stories of an Extraordinary Life, the piece details how Johnson was much more than simply an amazing athlete. Confidant of Bobby Kennedy (and person who wrestled the guy from Sirhan Sirhan), UCLA basketball player under John Wooden, supporter of Special Olympics, close friend of Muhammad Ali and lighter of the 1984 Summer Olympic torch... Johnson has led a life described well by Posnanski. Just a great piece of writing by Posnanski... who I've linked to a number of times here, with the most interesting and profound (to myself, at least) story being "The Quisenberry Tree" linked to in this post. Luis Suarez Handball & Joe Posnanski Blog Post – posted 7/11/2010 Granted, this is from a play now a week past, but I'm fascinated by the discussion around the Luis Suarez handball which prevented Ghana from defeating Uruguay in the World Cup Quarterfinals. This particular putting up of his hand to block an end of the game goal resulted in Suarez being pilloried by many as having done something unsportsmanlike and morally wrong. An example of this I've seen in print has been from Grant Wahl who for Sports Illustrated wrote of the "cynical" play by Suarez. Now, in considering whether Wahl is a bit over the top in his assessment of the Suarez play, one should consider the definition of the word... at least according to this source. "An emotion of jaded negativity or a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of other people. Cynicism can manifest itself by frustration, disillusionment and distrust in regard to organizations, authorities and other aspects of society, often due to previous bad experience. Cynics often view others as motivated solely by disguised self-interest." Yea, I'd have to disagree with the depth of Wahl's commentary on the play and found myself fascinated by the Joe Posnanski blog post "Return of the Hand". The approach in this piece isn't so much to look at whether the play was "morally acceptable", but rather the concept of rules in sports and motivation towards particular behavior. Comparisons of this play (and associated rule) are made against things like the goaltending rule in basketball, pass interference in football and even usage of steroids in baseball (especially the pre-testing era in MLB). It was some really interesting stuff from Posnanski to consider. Sports Illustrated Pieces - Don Coryell & World Cup Final – posted 7/10/2010 Two good stories from the July 12 issue of Sports Illustrated. The feature story from the issue is "Don Coryell 1924-2010"... excerpted from the Tim Layden book "Sports Illustrated Blood, Sweat & Chalk: Inside Football‘s Playbook: How the Great Coaches Built Today‘s Game". I'm oft interested in book excerpts from the magazines I read (as they tend to pick interesting stuff) and this piece is no exception. The particular topic of the excerpt centers on former San Diego Charger coach and offensive innovator Don Coryell who passed ear recently after a long illness. Layden writes two different angles on Coryell... one is on his impact on the NFL passing game and one on his visit with the aging ex-coach at his San Juan Islands (WA) home: Was very cool to read of Coryell looking back on his life and career... and the legacy from that. The second thing from this issue that stood out to me was a short piece by (primarily) soccer writer Grant Wahl on the upcoming World Cup Final between the Netherlands and Spain. "The Day That Lasts a Lifetime" is all about the impact of playing in the biggest sporting event in the world and what it's meant to some past winners. Gives a sense of the scope of things when you consider that this particular game tomorrow will be giving one of these soccer-mad countries their first ever World Cup Championship. Chris Jones Paraguay Soccer Piece from ESPN – posted 7/3/2010 I came across a week or so ago a treasure trove of Chris Jones (whose stuff I like quite a bit and have linked to and posted on a number of his pieces) writing on ESPN.com. Here's the link to the ESPN search query for Jones and online now are a number of short World Cup soccer posts that he's done from South

52

Words Written Down – Sports

Africa. These blog posts are not as long as his features I've most enjoyed (and he probably didn't spend as much time on), but a lot of them I still consider really good writing. Probably my favorite piece from his recent World Cup dispatches was "Not sad to see Paraguay go at all" on the heels of their defeat against Spain earlier today. It's got all the stuff I like in good writing... an interesting point of view, communicated well, and entertaining in the delivery. As an aside, one thing I notice in writing from Jones is his phrasing leans towards the dramatic... but doesn't go over the top as I've noticed in some other authors like Gary Smith from Sports Illustrated. As someone who fancies himself a writer type, me thinks the style from Jones one to try to emulate. Gary Smith SI Story on the Gulf Oil Spill – posted 7/3/2010 Two pieces from the July 5 issue of Sports Illustrated that stood out as cool (in the emotional and moving sense of the word). The feature story was "7 Days in the Life of a Catastrophe" about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It's written by Gary Smith and is good in the same way that I've found other Smith work from SI to be good... leaning a bit towards melodrama, but interesting (and usually profound) nonetheless. The thing about the Gulf Oil Spill is it's so woven with tragedy and melodrama that Smith is probably well suited to report on it. He writes at the beginning of trying to figure out a connection to the world of sports and while he does come up with ties between sports and the spill, it's really the human drama that he writes about and captures well: Sad piece, good writing. Something else from this issue that stood out to me was the last page column by Phil Taylor. "A Gift from the Game" is about 12 year old autistic Charles St. Germain and how playing golf has helped him learn to interact with others in social settings: Just a nice story. Joe Posnanski Piece on Dan Quisenberry – posted 7/2/2010 I recently came across a great story titled "The Quisenberry Tree" about the former Kansas City Royals pitcher who passed away from a brain tumor in 1998. The piece is written by Sports Illustrated writer Joe Posnanski and hits at what I love about great writing on multiple levels (a concept I previously posted about here)... the delivery, the topic and the prose itself. In terms of delivery, I learned of the piece through a twitter update from Posnanski which included a link to the Quisenberry story posted on his personal blog. So interesting to me the concept of new forms of written delivery... and so cool someone like Posnanski who embraces said new forms (which, yea... I also posted about before). From a topic perspective, I found this to be just a very moving piece on a fascinating guy. As both Posnanski and Quisenberry's Wikipedia page detail, the pitcher's career ended in 1990 and then post-baseball he became a published poet. The final level mentioned above that I thought the story excelled on was prose. It's thoughtful stuff whose most meaningful section (I imagine to Posnanski as well since the italics are from him) was below... "The thing that strikes me about Dan‟s quotes, even now, is that they‟re so perfectly worded. He was an artist. Take a simple quote like this one, from his acceptance speech at one of the Rolaids Relief functions: 'I want to thank all the pitchers who couldn't go nine innings, and manager Dick Howser for not letting them.' I mean, that‟s just a little quote, mostly in fun, but read it again — it‟s perfect, not a wasted word, Gettysburg Address concise. Not a wasted word. I don‟t believe I‟ve ever written this before — for obvious reasons — but almost at the end of his life, Dan told me that he loved the way I wrote because it‟s the way he tries to write. It‟s one of the three greatest compliments of my life." Really cool stuff. Sports Illustrated Stories - the Macon Ironmen & Stephen Strasburg – posted 6/24/2010 Couple of stories of note from the last two issues of Sports Illustrated: The first was interesting for the topic covered and second for the writing itself. For the June 21 issue, Albert Chen wrote "National Treasure" on America's favorite phenom pitcher (yea, it's a bit of hyperbole, but not a lot), Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg fascinates me from the perspective of both his potential and how he actually seems to live up to it (as referenced in this previous blog entry). Maybe something will go wrong and his anticipated brilliant career won't materialize, but it's cool to think of seeing the beginning of what could amount to baseball greatness.

53

Words Written Down – Sports

The second piece that I really liked was from SI's basketball guy (least it seems that way), Chris Ballard. Here he branches a long ways out to write about 1971 high school baseball in small-town Illinois. His feature "The Magical Season of the Macon Ironmen" is excellent writing and paints a vivid portrait of an interesting story. The sub-headline gets at the gist of things covered with "Hoosiers, anyone?" Doing it Right: SI Pieces on John Wooden & Joyce/Galarraga – posted 6/14/2010 Two good (and much related to one another) features from the June 14 issue of Sports Illustrated. The cover story from Alexander Wolff is "Remembering the Wizard" about coaching legend John Wooden who recently passed away at the age of 99. I've been extremely partial to anything Wooden after receiving a card in response to a fan letter some 10 year ago, but also found Wolf's piece to be really well written. If one of the aims of good prose is to impart something new and interesting to the reader, this was very much accomplished in the SI story. The Piece was fascinating stuff within about both the coach's devotion to his wife who passed in 1985 and the author's role in convincing Wooden after her death to reengage with the sport of basketball that valued him so much. Thinking of Wooden as someone who tried to impart life lessons rather than just basketball coaching (which isn't a stretch at all if you consider his Coach Wooden website), I'd surmise that he'd approve of the actions shown by the subjects of a different piece in this SI issue. "A Different Kind Of Perfect" is written by Tom Verducci and about MLB umpire Jim Joyce and Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga. I posted about it previously, but the actions of these two men were remarkable in their approach to a very unfortunate situation (caused by Joyce) and seemed very much in line with some of the maxims that Wooden taught. Sports Illustrated on Baseball Phenoms Strasburg & Harper – posted 6/5/2010 Love me the idea of a phenom in sports: So interesting to think about athletes with practically limitless potential and then to see what they do with it. Possibilities range from the very little (see: Leaf, Ryan) to quite a bit with more to come (see: Crosby, Sidney... with this post linking to an article about him) and everything in between. Perhaps more than in football and hockey, baseball lends itself to the idea of phenoms and potential to singularly impact games. This is particularly the case with pitchers as a great starter can every five games (or 3 out of 7 games in a playoff series) shut down an opposition... and reminds me of the Earl Weaver quote "momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher." To this end, the June 7 issue of Sports Illustrated has two different pieces that deal with this idea of phenoms in baseball. First was "Wave of the Future" by Tom Verducci. The beginning of the piece is about the great equalizer potential of the MLB draft and the end about can't miss (in the eyes of many experts) 3rd base/outfield prospect Bryce Harper (who last year was the 16 year old subject of an SI cover story). One interesting quote from Verducci's "Wave of the Future" piece was this statement a year ago by uber-agent Scott Boras in talking to Washington Nationals ownership "There is a thing called a 50-year player—a player so extraordinary that he comes along once every 50 years. This year there is a 50-year pitcher and next year there is a 50-year player. And they both may be available to you."Yep, Boras was right, the Nationals next week are pretty much a lock to take Harper with the first pick and last year took starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg with the first pick. It doesn't happen a lot that one team can draft superstars in back to back years, but as the Pittsburgh Penguins experienced with drafting Evgeni Malkin and Crosby in 2004 and 2005 respectively, it does happen sometimes. From this same June 7 issue of SI comes the Joe Posnanski piece "What Took You So Long?" on Strasburg. Intriguing stuff about a highly anticipated prospect leading up to his MLB debut Tuesday June 8 vs the Pirates. Of course, success is not guaranteed for either Strasburg or Harper (they are both still "prospects" after all), but the anticipation of what may be possible... that's pretty cool stuff. Tom Verducci & Matt Lauer on Armando Galarraga / Jim Joyce episode – posted 6/4/2010 There‘s been really compelling theater from MLB in the last few days that goes beyond sports to being what President Barack Obama might refer to as "a teachable moment." Starting things off, umpire Jim Joyce got wrong the call that would have completed for Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga the 20th Perfect Game in

54

Words Written Down – Sports

MLB history. From this came a series of interesting events. To whit… Galarraga maintains his cool and completes the game; Joyce see the video and realizes his error; Joyce tearfully apologizes to Galarraga; the pitcher accepts his apology and gives him a hug; Joyce speaks to the media and acknowledges his mistake; Galarraga takes the lineup card to home plate for the next day's game and shakes hands with Joyce (who could have taken the day off, but didn't). In terms of after the fact analysis, I really liked and agree with Tom Verducci from his CNNSI piece "Selig should review Joyce's blown call for the future, not the past" as well as Matt Lauer in his Today Show interview with Joyce. It was a remarkable sporting event made more remarkable in that out of it, two people acted respectively as forthright and understanding adults. Sports are great, but something like this is just plain cool beyond a mere sporting event. Sports Illustrated Features: Andy Ferrara & Lionel Messi – posted 5/27/2010 Two very compelling pieces from the May 31 issue of Sports Illustrated. The first was written by David Epstein about West Point cadet Andy Ferrera. Titled "Spikes on the Ground", the piece details Ferrara's collegiate track career and forthcoming military service upon graduation. He comes across in the Epstein piece as a leader of men (one of only four cadet regimental commanders at West Point), but also someone with a remarkable family background. Three brothers before him entered the military and he's gone through the heartbreak of having older brother Matthew Ferrera killed in action in Afghanistan Nov of 2007. It's moving to read of someone who deals with such loss and moves forward with an incredibly difficult path... with Andy Ferrara's statement from Epstein's article being "just because my brother died, doesn't mean I don't have to serve." The second article from this SI that stood out to me was written by one of my favorite writers, S.L. Price. "Lionel Messi: The World at His Feet" is about the F.C. Barcelona and Argentina National Team football (leading into the World Cup next month, I'll use the global name for the sport) star. Messi the player makes for an interesting subject given his widely noted status as best player in the world, but the context around him makes for some pretty remarkable reading. As Price describes Messi... loved in Spain, but viewed with some combination of detachment and demanding expectation in his native Argentina. Add to that a large personality conflict with his coach/brilliant former player/train wreck Diego Maradona... there's a lot there of interesting to chew on. Sports Illustrated Stories - Dallas Braden Perfect Game & Genes Impacting Sports – posted 5/16/2010 Two different pieces from the May 17 issue of Sports Illustrated that stood out to me... neither for what I thought was necessarily great writing, but both with very interesting content. The cover story was "Happy Mother's Day" about the 19th Perfect Game in Major League history... thrown by Dallas Braden. Written by Tom Verducci, the story chronicles the trials and tribulations that Braden has been through and how they led up to his masterpiece performance. Such a great narrative around the performance with it being on Mother's Day / Breast Cancer Awareness Day and in front of his grandmother who raised him after his single mom passed away from cancer. From the same May 17 issue was "Sports Genes" by David Epstein about how genetic markers can and do influence athletic performance. What was terribly interesting about this piece to me wasn't so much from the perspective of what's known now about genes and their impact on sports, but what the future holds. With performance enhancing drugs or the possibility of their use being so prevalent in many sports, gene therapy takes the idea of artificial enhancement to a new level. Gareth Thomas Profile from Sports Illustrated – posted 5/6/2010 Really powerful feature story from the May 3 issue of Sports Illustrated. From senior writer Gary Smith, "Gareth Thomas: The Only Openly Gay Male Athlete" tells a story that is statistically almost impossible to believe. Of all the competitors in all the professional sporting leagues around the world, only one has openly come out. Knowing that there must be many more gay pro athletes, it seems that it would be an enormous inspiration should others step forward as Thomas has. The story by Smith at times leans a bit towards melodrama, but is written in a style to captivate and certainly covers an important topic. Also from Sports Illustrated, but this time from the May 10 issue, was a memoriam piece on longtime SI writer Ron

55

Words Written Down – Sports

Fimrite. Interesting stuff about someone who sounds to also be quite the lyrical writer... with a "makes me want to read" description about his 1983 piece about "The Play" from Cal vs Stanford titled "The Anatomy Of A Miracle". Steve Nash Profile from Sports Illustrated – posted 4/13/2010 Really good feature on Steve Nash in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated: The story is titled "The Genuine Point Guard" and interestingly (well, to me) was written by Charles Pierce. I first came across Pierce probably ten years ago via his book "Sports Guy" and have since seen him published (fairly regularly) in Esquire. Just a really good writer who penned the late 2008 essay "American Surprise: How Election Night Brought Us Home Again". Back to the piece on Nash... what was so compelling about it was the rare combination of excellent writing about an interesting subject. I found particularly of note Pierce's description of Nash as "genuine" as opposed to "authentic". Authenticity is described as something packaged for the purpose of public favor, but genuine the much harder to find concept of someone who just is himself... and that being a good thing. Among other things, Nash founded the production company Meathawk... which is producing an upcoming ESPN movie on Terry Fox (that I posted about here with link to a Fast Company cover story on Nash.) In Nash, there seems to be a really good guy who acts well without ulterior motives: An admirable concept that Pierce does a great job of bringing home to the reader through his usage of language and the meaning behind specific words. In short, words are might powerful things and are used really well here by Pierce. Duke over Butler CNNSI Story – posted 4/7/2010 Compelling piece by Joe Posnanski on CNNSI titled "Magical game comes down to last shot and Duke earns greatness": It's all about the Duke NCAA basketball title. Really, though... it's about the excitement of sports and how anything can happen. Roy Halladay Profile from Sports Illustrated – posted 4/2/2010 There was an excellent cover story from the latest issue of Sports Illustrated. Written by Tom Verducci, "What Makes Roy Run" is a detailed profile of new Phillies ace Roy Halladay. I found myself drawn to the story of Halladay for the same reason I found compelling this SI story on Sidney Crosby (which I posted on here)... it chronicles a gifted athlete who works perhaps harder than anyone else to become even better. So much to be said for someone that couples together work and skill... and it would be so easy to just be content with being near, but not at the top of the game. NCAA Basketball Tourney SI Article – posted 3/22/2010 Excellent piece from this week's Sports Illustrated on the NCAA Basketball Tournament. From Tim Layden, "High Stakes" is all about March Madness and the ramifications of what can happen out of the tournament... with reference to some great past storylines in Bryce Drew and Valparaiso from 1998 and George Mason 2006. For me personally, though, I think of Tyus Edney going coast to coast to win an early round game en route to a UCLA Championship and the #16 seed Princeton Tigers almost taking down Georgetown in a first round matchup. In the not quite as amazing, but still memorable category were the games I saw this last weekend with Michigan State taking down Maryland at the buzzer and Northern Iowa beating #1 seed Kansas. One great thing about the tournament is each memorable game can stand on its own as exciting, but then you never know what will follow and just how much that win can mean... i.e. UCLA wouldn't have advanced out of the early rounds to later win the title if not for that Tyus Edney bucket. Even if someone's not a huge basketball fan, it's compelling writing from Layden about something with a lot of human drama.

56

Words Written Down – Sports

Spring Training Stories from Time & CNNSI – posted 3/9/2010 Man, I do so love this time of year in sports... You've got hockey starting to get really interesting leading into the NHL playoffs and MLB Spring Training has officially sprung. The time two months from now with baseball past it's "playing in the snow" phase and hockey fully into the Stanley Cup playoffs is great as well, but what this current time has is... anticipation. Two different pieces I recently came across that really encapsulate this idea for me. The first was David Von Drehle's (extremely short) Time Magazine piece "The Moment" about Spring Training and promise of the future. Love the way Von Drehle can describe so well with so few words on a page... The second piece was from CNNSI and by Joe Posnanski... he of the frequently written to Joe Blog. Titled "Chapman justifies hype in debut", it's about Cincinnati Reds lefty Aroldis Chapman, but more than that... it's about this same idea of how every Spring, each team has an equal shot at glory that year. Even beyond that, Chapman represents the idea of a previously unknown talent stepping up in the spring to show would could be possible. Maybe Chapman will wind up in the Hall of Fame, maybe he won't and maybe the Reds will win a pennant (more than likely not), but for sports fans who love the great and unexpected story, it's fun to think about. Sports Illustrated Pieces - Brian Burke & Defense in Baseball – posted 2/26/2010 Two different stories that I really liked from this week's Sports Illustrated. The more impactful was "Man of His Word" about Team USA Men's Hockey GM Brian Burke. Written by Michael Farber, the piece was about how Burke has dealt with the passing of his son Brendan at 21 years of age. Very powerful piece that gets into the support that the elder Burke showed after Brendan came out publicly as a homosexual only a few months ago. Now after Brendan's death, Brian Burke pledges to use his name to help fight for gay rights. On a very different note... "Feel the Glove" was by Albert Chen and a story to get one excited for the upcoming baseball season. All about how defense is the "new on-base percentage" as trumpeted in the Michael Lewis book "Moneyball", the Seattle Mariners are featured as a team built around preventing runs in the field: Can't wait for baseball. Sports Illustrated Pieces: Olympic Spirit & Bob Costas/Al Michaels – posted 2/21/2010 Two different stories that struck me from the Feb 22 issue of Sports Illustrated. Starting off in this first SI issue since the Vancouver Olympics began was the Tim Layden piece "The Spirit Is Back" with an overview of the Games thus far. Really, though, it was Layden's first section about (for lack of a better phrase) the Olympic Spirit that got me good. I'm quite the sap for genuine Olympic human interest stuff. The second story (and the one of the two which I really liked in its totality) was "It's Not As Easy As It Looks" by Joe Posnanski (who I recently posted about as the frequent writer of his voluminous "Joe Blog"). This SI article is about the Olympic co-hosts Bob Costas and Al Michaels and is a really good look at two guys doing what they love and always wanted to do, but doing it in different ways. Posnanski writes of the hard work and study that Michaels brings and the different approach that Costas brings of sheer brilliance with language on the air. Regardless of how they go about the job, Costas and Michaels are titans of Sports Broadcasting and it's impressive to me to think of how well (and for how long) they practice their craft. Sidney Crosby Profile by S.L. Price for Sports Illustrated – posted 2/8/2010 There was a great piece on Sidney Crosby in the Vancouver Winter Olympics Sports Illustrated Preview Issue. Titled "Destiny's Child", it's written by one of my favorite SI writers, S.L. Price, and is an in-depth look at the 22 year old Captain of the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins... and now major piece of the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team's hopes for Gold. Through Price's story a view of Crosby emerges that is consistent with other truly great athletes... that of someone born with exceptional potential who then works harder than anyone else to maximize that. This concept coupled with a recent Michael Farber SI story about Crosby stepping up his goal-scoring for the Pens by necessity really heightened the respect I've got for the guy. The other thing that struck me about the Price story, though, was just how important winning Gold in the upcoming Olympics is to Canada. Granted, I'll be rooting for the U.S. (even though I think their

57

Words Written Down – Sports

shot at winning is slim to none), but unless lightening doesn't strike in the form of Gold for America, I really hope Canada does in fact beat the Russians and take the tournament. Hockey Playing Lamoureux Family SI Piece – posted 2/2/2010 Great story in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated from Senior Writer Gary Smith: Titled "House of Hockey", it chronicles the lives of the Lamoureux family of Grand Forks, N.D. and their six hockey-playing kids. Interesting story on a lot of different levels, first and foremost is that these six kids aren't simply average hockey players. Offspring in the family plays or has played: top-level US college division one (two of the kids, including one who has been a NCAA Player of the Year candidate), Canadian college hockey, US Junior hockey and oh yeah, Olympic hockey via the twin sisters who will play in Vancouver. This by itself would make for an interesting story, but there's a lot more to the piece... ranging from the backyard pond that everyone skated on growing up (gotta build me one of those backyard rinks some day) to the battles with depression faced by one of the sons, Jacques. I would have liked to know more about his struggle, but can't help but be impressed by someone who went through so much and still reached his current point as one of the best players in US College Hockey while playing for Air Force. Good stuff and a compelling read for any hockey fan. Urban Meyer Follow-up from S.L. Price on CNNSI – posted 1/31/2010 Back in December, I did a blog post titled Urban Meyer SI Profile by S.L. Price which linked to an in-depth Sports Illustrated article on the University of Florida football coach. One of the main take aways from that article was the health problems Meyer has had and how he's struggled to reconcile them with the demands of being a top of his profession college coach. Well, just several weeks after the publication of this piece, Meyer has made headlines by first being admitted to the hospital following Florida's loss to Alabama in the SEC Title Game, then resigning as coach due to health concerns, then taking back that resignation to simply take a leave of absence... which now appears it will manifest itself as maybe just a long weekend away from UF football. It's fascinating stuff as you've got someone obviously conflicted between what they love to do and how what they love to do can be detrimental to their health. Since hearing of Meyer's resignation and everything since, I was curious to know what the take of the excellent author of the SI feature, S.L. Price, would be. It's not a long piece, but I'm glad I came across on CNNSI "To understand Meyer's flip-flop, one must first understand his past." Within it, Price explains the conflict for Meyer and why it's so hard for him to leave something that in reality is dangerous to his well-being... at least has been with the way he's worked the job to date. Here's to hoping that Meyer is able to actually reconcile his coaching with keeping himself healthy and around for his family. Boise State RB Ian Johnson Profile & Sports Media Coverage from Sports Illustrated – posted 1/12/2010 The December 28 issue of Sports Illustrated was one of those magazine issues that works on multiple levels... had great content and a lot of it. A couple of weeks ago I did two different posts with content from this issue. The first was "Wish of a Lifetime Piece from Sports Illustrated" and second "Sports Illustrated Picks for Best Writing of the Decade". Linked to was inspiring and excellent writing respectively, but which also left me with a piece from the very solid writer Joe Posnanski to post on. "The Running Back, The Cheerleader And What Came After The Greatest College Football Game Ever" is about former Boise State running back Ian Johnson... he of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl two-point conversion for the win over Oklahoma and subsequent marriage proposal to BSU cheerleader Chrissy Popadics. The audio probably detracts from the effect of the video, but said proposal begins about 1:10 into the below clip. It was a really interesting story that fits perfectly in the category of where are they now. Also from Sports Illustrated (the week prior Dec 21 issue) came the cover story section "5th Annual: The Year in Sports Media". Starting off with the interesting story of Stephen Colbert promoting the U.S. Speed skating Team, this linked piece also included mention of the (entertaining sounding) HBO show Eastbound and Down and (having watched it... entertaining) Versus show Sports Jobs with Junior Seau (posted about here). Additionally of interest from this

58

Words Written Down – Sports

Sports Media section was this story on "The Art of Basketball" from ESPN writer Bill Simmons and the Digital Media page which featured mention of the iPhone apps MLB At Bat 2009 and FIFA Soccer 10. Sports Illustrated Picks for Best Writing of Decade – posted 12/31/2009 From the same Sports Illustrated issue that had the Wish of a Lifetime piece I posted on came a very interesting sidebar piece. What stood out to me was that Sports Illustrated did something that I've tried to do with this blog... highlight great writing (which sometimes is due to great prose, sometimes great content and rarely, both). Under the general heading of "Best of the Decade", SI named its "Best Stories of the Decade"...which contained one that was familiar to me and two that I hadn't seen before. The piece I was familiar with was written by S.L. Price and interestingly enough... was one I hadn't actually seen before in this form. Titled "A Death in the Baseball Family", this 2007 story profiled the life and tragic passing of former minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh. I actually first heard about Coolbaugh from a different SI piece, "Hit in the Head", that was an excerpt from the Price book "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in Minor League America" (which I reviewed here). I didn't realize it at the time of reading either the excerpt or book, but it appears that the Price story on Coolbaugh actually began with this "A Death in the Baseball Family" Sports Illustrated story. The two other pieces referenced as "Stories of the Decade" by SI are both from 2001 and featured very different subjects (as described below by Sports Illustrated)... "Higher Education" by Gary Smith on High school basketball coach Perry Reese and his impact an Amish community. Also noted was "The Wrecking Yard" by William Nack on retired NFL players still struggling with disability and pain. Wish of a Lifetime Piece from Sports Illustrated – posted 12/31/2009 Great Point After piece from Selena Roberts (who I can't help but view fondly after she revealed Alex Rodriguez as a steroid user) in the latest Sports Illustrated. Titled "Special Senior Moments", it details the charitable foundation created and led by former Olympic Freestyle Skier and NFL player Jeremy Bloom. The mission of Wish of a Lifetime is to enrich the lives of low-income seniors and a quote in the story from Bloom was "I just believe that too often in our society, seniors are an afterthought." In a way, this reminds me of the excellent John Grogan book "The Longest Trip Home." Reviewed here by myself, the memoir details Grogan's relationship with his Dad and coping with aging... just excellent stuff that reminds one of how important it is to pay attention to the aging just as one does the young. Back to Bloom's foundation, though... extremely admirable stuff and the story Roberts paints of a wish recipient is very touching. SI Piece on Marin Morrison & Nick Scandone – posted 12/14/2009 There was some excellent writing in the latest Sports Illustrated with pieces by Austin Murphy on Alabama football and Lee Jenkins on Vince Young of the Titans. My favorite, though, was on U.S. Beijing Paralympics Athletes Marin Morrison and Nick Scandone. Written by L. Jon Wertheim, it's titled "The Games of Their Lives" and profiles Morrison and Scandone and their respective battles with terminal illness. For each person, their love of sport and the Paralympics Games appeared to give them a goal which sustained their health. In Morrison's case, she fought cancer and competed as a swimmer and Scandone suffered the effects of Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) while still sailing at high level. Not a lot to say about the piece other than it's solidly written (Wertheim wrote the book "Strokes of Genius" on the Federer-Nadal tennis rivalry, which I reviewed here) and powerful. This may be a cliché to write, but I would dare someone to read Wertheim's profile of these athletes and not be moved by their stories. Urban Meyer SI Profile by S.L. Price – posted 12/11/2009 Excellent feature story on Urban Meyer in the Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year" issue: Written by S.L. Price, it's a very in-depth look at the University of Florida head football coach and the path he's taken to prominence. Meyer seems a fascinating guy who has had to both work extremely hard and overcome obstacles every step of the way. Perhaps additionally, or perhaps as part of this, Meyer also was raised by

59

Words Written Down – Sports

an extremely authoritarian father who constantly pushed him to achieve. What helps make this a great piece is that Price is such a good writer and able to provide a nuanced portrait of the subject. Some of the stuff he's written include the book "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" which I reviewed here and the SI profile "Big Love "cc!" originally linked to here about Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia. I enjoyed the piece on Meyer primarily for the quality of the writing, but also really liked the "2009 Sportsman Of The Year: Derek Jeter" article for the subject himself. I've never been a Yankee fan, but can't help but admire how the future Hall 0f Fame shortstop conducts himself and how he feels about the game of baseball. So cool to read about someone who gets joy out of what he does and doesn't take anything for granted. This is completely an aside, but I also have thought of Jeter in the last week as the Tiger Woods infidelity scandal has grown. If Tiger wanted, he could have just as easily developed a Jeter-like "man around town with the ladies" persona and nobody would have faulted him. Rather than Jeter's lifestyle as a single man, Tiger appeared to choose BOTH the playboy and wife with kids lifestyles. C'mon, not sustainable and frankly, not very cool. SJ Mercury News Column on High School Football Player Matt Blea – posted 12/5/2009 Since I heard the day after Thanksgiving about the life-threatening fractured skull suffered by San Jose High Academy football player Matt Blea, I've followed the news with hopes of his getting better... and thankfully he now has. My interest in the story is I'm sure heightened by now having two children, but also by the freakish nature of the injury itself. In the violent game of football, Blea was hurt on a clean play that frankly could have occurred while playing hockey, soccer, or just running around in the grass. With this in mind, I found myself drawn to the Mark Purdy San Jose Mercury News piece "Fear of injury nags all parents of prep athletes" last Friday. In his column Purdy writes about how this was something that couldn't really be prevented and also gives his perspective as a parent whose kids played high school sports: While they did have injuries, certainly none of the cataclysmic variety that landed Blea in a medically induced coma for a week. Pretty insightful writing that makes one think. To the "thankfully he has gotten better" note I made, this morning's Mercury News had the story "Injured high school football player's condition improves." Head injuries leave a big unknown question as to recovery, but things are definitely better than could have been the case and hopefully will continue to look up. I thought at the time I heard of the injury and still do think it strange that the game continued, but I guess it's hard to know how situations like that should be handled unless you're actually in it. The hope now would be both for the continued improvement of Blea and that between private insurance, coverage from the school district and private donations, the financial impact of his recovery and care isn't debilitating to the family. At this time, though, I would imagine everyone is just happy that he's doing as well as he is. Austin Murphy SI Story on South-Central Florida H.S. Football – posted 11/25/2009 There was a really good story from the latest issue of Sports Illustrated that I was surprised to come across. What was of such interest to me wasn't necessarily the topic, but rather the author... Austin Murphy. Murphy is an excellent writer and I previously posted on two of his books I've read... "The Sweet Season" about small-school college football and "How Tough Could it Be?" about being (for a brief period of time) a stay-at-home Dad. Not very frequently, though, do I see his byline in SI. In this piece titled "Muck Bowl", Murphy chronicles the football rivalry between Pahokee High School and Glades Central High. As he writes about, the two schools can be bitter enemies on the field, but also share much in common. Separated by some 12 miles in an economically depressed part of Central Florida, west of Palm Beach, the small town programs have sent 48 people to the NFL over the last four decades (including Santanio Holmes, Fred Taylor and Anquan Boldin). Very compelling "slice of life" writing about how many live... including a sizable numbers of the players we watch on the NFL and major college football fields. Out of curiosity, I did a Google Maps satellite view search of Pahokee and the neighboring town Belle Glade, and yep... not very developed areas.

60

Words Written Down – Sports

Peyton & Other Stories from Sports Illustrated – posted 11/14/2009 Excellent content in the latest Sports Illustrated: Leading into the annual epic battle between New England and Indianapolis, the cover story by Peter King is "Manning At His Best" about the approach to the game by the Colts QB. It's an interesting piece in that it really shows the combination of things usually required for excellence (I guess in any endeavor)... natural ability, intelligence and desire to work. Two other short articles I found interesting were the "update" piece on Russian billionaire Shabtai von Karlmanovic and last page commentary "Burning To Play Again" by Selena Roberts (she of the A-Rod's steroid use story). The Karlmanovic piece is a follow up to the Dec 2008 SI story "To Russia with Love" which I linked to in this blog post. The original story profiled the impact of Russian billionaires on sports and was now updated with the news that Karlmanovic was gunned down while sitting in his car. Just a different life some people live. The Roberts commentary is a solid look at heralded college hoops player Elena Delle Donne... who after first arriving as a freshman phenom at powerhouse UConn, decided that family and being around her cerebral palsy afflicted sister mattered more and returned home. It's not really that Delle Donne made absolutely the right as opposed to wrong move in general, but rather that she appears to have made the right move for her. Andre Agassi Book Excerpt from Sports Illustrated – posted 11/1/2009 The latest issue of Sports Illustrated has quite the interesting book excerpt... taken from "Open", Andre Agassi's autobiography. The excerpt is titled "I Hate Tennis" and covers a lot of ground from the book. Sections begin with Agassi's early years first with the relentless pushing courtesy of his overbearing father and then his money match against football great Jim Brown at age 9. Later portions of the book here get into Agassi's Wimbledon championship at 22 and now much publicized (as a result of this book) Crystal Meth usage. Finally, the excerpt wraps up with Agassi's final US Open... with both family and thoughts of family around him. To this point of family, the section on Agassi's 60 something year old father meeting Steffi Graf's similarly aged father is so amazing you almost question if it happened as described. The gist was these two tyrant "sports father" types getting so competitive and worked up that they practically came to blows... with the argument between the two not having the benefit of a shared language. Wild stuff and while the book itself is I imagine an interesting read throughout, this SI excerpt provides a good condensed view. Basketball & Joe Pa Sports Illustrated Writing – posted 10/22/2009 Several good pieces in the latest Sports Illustrated about topics I didn't expect to be that drawn into. The cover image has Lebron and Shaq and the most compelling writing within is about... a 38 year old trainer who never played nor coached basketball at a high level. Idan Ravin is profiled by Chris Ballard as being the go-to physical trainer for star players from Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony to Lebron James. The piece titled "The Hoops Whisperer" is excerpted from Ballard's book "The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA" and provides a really interesting look at an inner working aspect (and guy in that) of the game. One thing to note is this continues in the line of great book excerpts I've posted on from SI... with the first being that from "Heart of the Game" by S.L. Price and the second an excerpt from "The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds" by Joe Posnanski. Also of interest as a sports fan was "The Rich Get Richer" about how stacked the top teams in the league are for this upcoming NBA season. Between the Lakers and Spurs in the West and Celtics and Cavs in the East, there's potential for some great Conference Finals matchups. Finally, it's not basketball related, but compelling was Joe Posnanski's "Joe Paterno Top of the World, Pa!" About the longtime Penn State football coach, it's written as a piece to Paterno's (presumably very proud) late father and is just really solid writing.

61

Words Written Down – Sports

Mariano Rivera & Chris Andersen Sports Illustrated Profiles – posted 10/2/2009 There were two really good profile pieces in the Oct 5 Sports Illustrated. The first is by Tom Verducci and titled "Mariano Saves" about the exploits of the Yankee pitcher. Throughout the piece is detailed Rivera's unflappable cool and incredible success closing games. Perhaps even more amazing than what Rivera has accomplished is the manner in which he's done it... with 92% of his pitches thrown being the cut-fastball. The second is about someone who certainly hasn't had the longevity or success of Rivera, but perhaps is just as popular in the town he plays. Denver Nuggets forward Chris Andersen is profiled in the L. Jon Wertheim story "Flight of the Birdman" and his is quite the ride. After serving a 2 year drug-related suspension from the NBA, Andersen is now a fan favorite due to both his approachable every-guy attitude and reckless abandon style of play. Both stories portray interesting people and do so through really solid writing... an excellent combination. LA Angels & Nick Adenhart Story from SI – posted 9/14/2009 There was an excellent story in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated on a team that experienced tragedy and has spent the season figuring out how to cope and move forward. The Lee Jenkins piece "Touched by an Angel" looks at the LA Angels' season that began with such tragedy when Nick Adenhart was killed by an allegedly drunk driver in Southern California. The crash also took the lives of two Adenhart friends and as Jenkins details... left a third close to death and needing extraordinary efforts from doctors to help avoid paralysis. I've posted links to stories by Jenkins a few times with the most recent story being his piece on Mark Buehrle's Perfect Game and find him to be a really solid writer. The Adenhart story is compelling stuff and paints a vivid picture of what the Angels have had to go through to reach their current point of what will be a playoff season. Marc Buoniconti Sports Illustrated Cover Story – posted 8/20/2009 There was a great story in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated on quadriplegic Marc Buoniconti. Written by S.L. Price, it's titled "Three Lives, Two Hits, One Happy Ending" and is about the impact that Buoniconti has had since his freak spinal-cord injury suffered on the football field some 24 years ago. In addition to his vast contribution to spinal cord injury research through The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the ex-Citadel football player has individually helped both the person involved in the accident (through Buoniconti hitting him, not the other way around) and countless others. Price gives a riveting tale that makes me both have tremendous respect for Buoniconti and wonder what the heck was going on at his school at the time he was injured. The article details how (incredibly) The Citadel didn't want to pay medical bills for or honor the scholarship of the athlete injured during a game... one in which there's question as to whether team doctors should have allowed him to play. It's a good postscript that the school and individual have since reconciled, but still... it just sounds to be bizarre behavior on the part of the military school. Just a compelling read from an excellent author. Price has done several different SI stories I've linked to and is also the author of the excellent books "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" (which I reviewed here) and "Far Afield: A Sports writing Odyssey". Also from this issue is a memorial piece on Eunice Kennedy Shriver who passed away recently. Written by Jack McCallum, it remembers the tower of a woman who founded Special Olympics. Having volunteered at local Special Olympics events, I can say it's an amazing organization and the world is a better place for it. From McCallum's piece, I love the anecdote he provides about Shriver prior to the founding Special Olympics, "Everybody told my mother that mentally challenged kids would start crying if they lost," says Bobby Shriver, "to which my mother said, 'So what? That's what everyone does.' Her thought was, you compete, you exult if you win, you get sad if you lose, and you go back and try harder." Sports Illustrated Pablo Sandoval and Mpho 'Gift' Ngoepe Pieces – posted 8/10/2009 There were a couple of very cool baseball profiles from the latest Sports Illustrated. The first was written by the frequent writer of great SI pieces, Lee Jenkins, and chronicles the San Francisco Giants fun-loving and

62

Words Written Down – Sports

from the heels swinging 3rd baseman. The profile on Pablo Sandoval reveals a guy who is easy to root for and becoming more and more the face of a franchise (at least the hitting face) whose visage was much more of a scowl in recent years. The second story is very similar in showing someone who loves the game of baseball, but different in that it portrays a guy with a long way to go to equal Sandoval's success. Mpho 'Gift' Ngoepe is a 19 year old infield prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates lower minors... and attempting to become the first MLB player from Africa. The profile on him is written by SI Senior Writer Gary Smith and combines excellent writing with a compelling story. The overriding feeling I had from reading this is hope that Gift is able to make it. As the S.L. Price book "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" (which I reviewed in this blog post) details, minor league baseball is a tough road to glory and riches. MLB Perfect Game Article from Sports Illustrated – posted 8/1/2009 Really cool piece titled "Miracle on the South Side" from the latest Sports Illustrated on Mark Buehrle's perfect game. Written by Lee Jenkins, it chronicles the events around the White Sox pitcher throwing on July 30th only the 18th perfect game in major league history. Compared to this, mere no-hitters are practically a commonplace event with there having been 263 in the major leagues: Just a really well written story about an amazing event. Also makes me feel bad for Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants (who lost his July 10 perfect game to an 8th inning Juan Uribe error) and all other "close but not close enough" pitchers detailed in this sidebar piece. Additionally of interest from this SI issue was this Kenny Moore written piece about the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics: Very short and very solid writing from a guy that I wrote about in this blog post. Sports Illustrated Piece on MSU Spartans Basketball – posted 7/26/2009 Not considering myself a huge college basketball or a Michigan State fan, I almost didn't read and didn't expect much from the recent story on the Spartans in Sports Illustrated. Having now finished this piece by Lee Jenkins titled "The Fire Still Burns"... I'm glad I did and found it to be pretty compelling. The story is part profile on head coach Tom Izzo and his longtime ties to the area and University, but more than that, it's a look at how a team, school and championship run connected with a community. The fact that the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament culminating in the Final Four held in Detroit's Ford Field resulted in a Spartans loss rather than win against North Carolina is almost secondary to the emotions brought out through MSU's improbable advancement to the Final and how it resonated with the city of Detroit. It's pretty common knowledge that there's been tough economic times there of late and one team's efforts on the court led by some hometown players certainly doesn't change living conditions, but in this case, it seemed to give people something to rally behind and get excited about. At the end of day, that's not a bad thing to be accomplished through sports. Also from this issue was a mention of NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield and his drug-testing problems with NASCAR as an organization. In short... multiple failed tests for meth, denials from Mayfield, quotes from his stepmother saying he does in fact do meth, rebuttals from Mayfield calling her a whore and saying she murdered his father. All of this combined with other Mayfield quotes about how NASCAR spiked his testing samples and is led by someone with a drug problem. Good stuff... makes me think "you can take the driver out of the trailer park, but can't take the trailer park out of the driver." Sports Illustrated Kobe Bryant and Rex Ryan Pieces – posted 6/18/2009 A couple of solid articles from the June 22 Sports illustrated that really get into the character of the people covered. Attached to the cover image, Chris Ballard wrote a piece titled "Satisfaction" about Kobe Bryant's now realized single-minded pursuit of his fourth NBA title. Like him or not, I think it would be an interested read for a lot of sports fans in its portrayal of one guy's drive. Also from this issue was Tim Layden's story "The Joy of Rex" about New York Jets first-year coach Rex Ryan. What I found interesting about the portrayal of Rex (as well as brother, Rob and father, Buddy) was their dedication to football, each other and doing the job the way they felt it should be done... even if that ran counter to what others thought.

63

Words Written Down – Sports

Finally, it's different than the first two pieces noted above, but also bears mentioning a hockey blog post I did on the Penguins Stanley Cup win... an article about which is also linked to from this issue. Bryce Harper baseball phenom: SI cover story – posted 6/5/2009 There was a really interesting cover story from the latest Sports Illustrated. From Senior Writer Tom Verducci, "Baseball's Lebron" is an extremely well written look at a guy that many scouts are viewing as a can't-miss prospect. The subtitle pretty much tells what the story reveals in greater detail: "His name is Bryce Harper. You don't know him, but every big league scouting director does. He hits the ball a desert mile, clocks 96 on the gun, and he's only 16, more advanced than A-Rod and Junior were at the same age and his ambition is as great as his talent." Randy Johnson Profile from Sports Illustrated – posted 5/29/2009 There was really good writing by Tom Verducci in his piece "Randy Johnson Will Grind Your Bones to Make His Bread" from the May 25 Sports Illustrated. It's an interesting look at someone who will be the next (and possibly last) pitcher to win 300 games in a career. Federer vs Nadal Piece from Sports Illustrated – posted 5/15/2009 Interesting story from the latest issue of Sports Illustrated titled "The Takedown" on the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal rivalry. Written by S.L. Price, the story details change in the rivalry with Nadal now besting Federer the majority of the time. The interesting question posed by Price (about whom I've previously posted) is "how can Federer be deemed the best ever when he might not be the best of his own era?" Also from this issue of SI was a short piece titled "The Tweet Hereafter" at the current sensation of pro athletes communicating via Twitter with their fans. S.L. Price Book Excerpt from Sports Illustrated – posted 4/18/2009 There was a really interesting book excerpt from S.L. Price in the April 20 issue of Sports Illustrated. The story is titled "Hit in the Head" and adapted from Price's book "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America". The book itself is about Colorado Rockies minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh who was killed by a batted ball while coaching first base in 2007 and much of the SI piece is about the bigger picture of dangers from projectiles faced by baseball players, coaches and fans. I did a post referencing a different S.L. Price story several weeks ago and was very interested to read about this new book from him... enjoyed his "Far Afield: A Sports writing Odyssey" quite a bit. There was quite a bit of press in 2008 about shattered bats and the risk of injury these cause, but not as much attention has been paid to what a batted ball can do. From the SI issue one week prior, Michael Bamberger wrote a profile of Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer. I note this and link to the story not because I'm a huge Phillies or Moyer fan (he does come across as a good guy in the piece). The reason I do so is because Bamberger has done some excellent work in SI (which can be through a search for him in the CNNSI Vault) and is the author of the book "The Man Who Heard Voices" about M. Night Shyamalan and the making of the movie "Lady in the Water". Fully understand I'm in the minority on this, but I enjoyed the movie... and found Bamberger's account of its creation by Shyamalan to be quite interesting. Great Isiah Thomas Story – posted 4/15/2009 Really interesting piece posted onto Yahoo! Sports yesterday. Written by Adrian Wojnarowski and titled "Thomas Won't Find Soft Landing in College" it gives a sense of the fun that Florida International University is in for now that Isiah Thomas has been hired as head basketball coach. For more details about past bizarre and destructive behavior from Thomas... his Wikipedia entry gets really entertaining once you reach the "post-NBA career" section about halfway down. Some of the highlights (and you know if they're on Wikipedia, they must be true)... End of Continental Basketball Association ownership: "Many CBA managers blamed Thomas for the league's failure, citing mismanagement and out-of-control spending on his

64

Words Written Down – Sports

part. Many such managers publicly declared that Thomas ran the league into the ground, possibly on purpose to eliminate the non-NBA-owned minor league in order to make room for the NBA-owned NBDL." End of New York Knicks employment: "As part of the reassignment agreement Thomas was banned from having contact with any Knicks' players under the rationale that he could willingly or unwillingly undermine Donnie Walsh and the new head coach." "Sexual harassment lawsuit: In October 2006, Thomas and Madison Square Garden were sued for sexual harassment by Anucha Browne Sanders. The matter came to trial in September 2007 and Thomas was determined to have made demeaning statements to Sanders, as well as making sexual advances and repeatedly telling her that he was in love with her." "Drug overdose: On October 24, 2008, Thomas was taken to White Plains Hospital Center near his New York City area home after taking an overdose of Lunesta, a form of sleep medication. In the opinion of Harrison Police Chief David Hall, Thomas tried to 'cover up' the incident by claiming his 17-year old daughter required medical treatment when in actuality he was the patient." CC Sabathia Profile from Sports Illustrated – posted 4/4/2009 There was a great piece in the 2009 Baseball Preview issue of Sports Illustrated on New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia. Written by S.L. Price and titled "Big Love 'CC'" the piece gives a very nuanced portrait of a guy that many sports fans would only associate with his recently signed $161M free agent contract. In this, there were a lot of parallels to a blog post I did about a Lamar Odom profile... both show wealthy athletes who have a lot more layers of complexity than would be expected by the casual observer. The story on Sabathia is longer than that on Odom and able to give more details into his life and family. Additionally, though, what makes it an excellent read is really good writing provided by S.L. Price. Further work by Price can be found through a search of the CNNSI Vault archives or through reading (as I have) his book "Far Afield: A Sports writing Odyssey". Chronicling his time living with his family as an expat in the French countryside, it's an interesting look at a lifestyle from an outsider perspective. Lamar Odom Story from Sports Illustrated – posted 3/19/2009 Even though I don't follow basketball very closely, I found really interesting the story on Lamar Odom in the latest Sports Illustrated pictured below. Written by Lee Jenkins, "Another Sunny Day in Lamar's L.A." is about a guy who I remember as a highly-questionable "student-athlete" signing by the University of Rhode Island. It could well be that my view of Odom at the time was right on, but he's certainly been through a lot since then and has much more to him that I would have suspected: Very nuanced and well-written portrait of an interesting guy. Kenny Moore Profile in the Oregon Quarterly – posted 2/2/2009 There was a very interesting profile on writer and former Olympic distance runner Kenny Moore in the summer 2008 issue of "Oregon Quarterly" magazine. Moore was featured in the alumni publication due to his receiving first an undergraduate and then a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the U of O in 1966 and 1972 respectively. The "Oregon Quarterly" website can be found here, but the path to the article itself is a bit more circuitous... the Oregon Library has the entire issue archived here and then piece itself, titled "Intertwining Ovals" by Todd Schwartz, is on page 40 of the pdf file. With that long and winding route now laid out... the story is a fascinating look at Moore and his life first as an athlete and then a writer. Of particular interest are the anecdotes about how his career writing for Sports Illustrated came about... showing how opportunities can often present themselves in odd and unexpected ways. Moore wrote for SI until 1995 and a compilation of his work there can be found through a search of the CNNSI Vault. Additionally, information on both Moore and his writing can be found on the author's website. Sports Illustrated Point After Piece on Kayla Hutcheson – posted 1/16/2009 Sometimes you come across a piece of writing that is just brilliantly worded and the topic almost secondary. From a pure "good writing" perspective, that's... well, that's incredibly cool... but, also pretty

65

Words Written Down – Sports

rare. More frequently, you read to find writing that's solidly written, but whose style takes a backseat to its substance. From the Jan 19 issue of Sports Illustrated, the end of magazine Point After piece on freshman Community College basketball player Kayla Hutcheson provides a story of such weight. It's a short (one page in the magazine) telling of how Hutcheson has relied on her teammates to help her cope with the effects of a concussion and subsequent memory loss suffered on the court: Powerful story that's both interesting and has a lot to say about the impact of teammates and friendship. "2008: Best Sports Year Ever" Story from Sports Illustrated – posted 12/27/2008 From the same Dec 29 Sports illustrated issue with "Michael Vick's dog" on the cover comes an excellent piece from Michael Farber (who usually writes about hockey for SI) titled "The Best Year Ever 2008". Chronicling the amazing and incredible in sports from 2008, the story runs the gamut from David Tyree's Super Bowl catch against the Patriots to Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt's record-breaking efforts in the Summer Olympics. While the above-mentioned story details the inspiring and amazing, a sidebar piece titled (and subtitled) "Precious Medal: An altruistic act by eight high school runners in Washington reaffirmed the value of sportsmanship" is equally inspiring, just in a different way. "Michael Vick Dogs" Story from Sports Illustrated – posted 12/25/2008 It being Christmas, it's more than appropriate to have linked here the cover story titled "Happy New Year" from the Dec 29 Sports Illustrated issue. The very well written piece by Jim Gorant details what has taken place with the 51 pit bulls from Vick's dog-fighting operation. Not to give all the details, but keeping in mind the title of the article, the subtitle on the magazine cover and the allusion to a proper Christmas Day story... it's a very cool read. Sports Illustrated: Dec 15 Issue – posted 12/19/2008 Some interesting stuff from the latest Sports Illustrated including a brief mention of former SI writer Roy Blount Jr. and his new book "Alphabet Juice". Sounds as if it's an interesting primer on the English language (perhaps similar to "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" or many of the books from Bill Bryson), but written by an accomplished former sportswriter. Additionally, there was a profile on Northern State men's basketball coach Don Meyer titled "The Game of His Life". It's a really good look at the person poised to overtake Bobby Knight atop the list of men's NCAA coaches with the most wins. Beyond the victories, what's interesting about Meyer is the impact that he's had on the game and his players... and their impact on him as he lives with the effects of a near fatal car accident which required the amputation of his left leg below the knee. Finally, there was also an in depth look at the impact of Russian billionaires on the world of sports titled "To Russia with Love". From England's Chelsea Soccer Club to teams in Russia itself, these uber-rich individuals are raising the profile and skill level of the teams they own through huge cash layouts. Rather than doing so for the purpose of turning a profit, these "oligarchs" are able to spend lavishly for the purpose of enjoyment (and at the same time to curry favor with the Putin government by supporting Russian sporting achievement). The article has the astounding quote that "22 men reportedly control some 40% of the country's gross domestic product". 2008 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Issue – posted 12/7/2008 Two excellent articles from the SI Sportsman of the Year Issue... one being the cover story on Michael Phelps, SI's Sportsman of the Year and the second being a profile of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver... SI's pick for its inaugural Sportsman of the Year Legacy Award. The story on Shriver is extremely well written and (as could be expected) very touching. Interestingly enough, though, the story on Phelps is also moving as it gets into the time Phelps has spent as a role model and the impact that he's had. Not from the same issue (or same blog post for that matter), but another SI story worth noting was "Friday Night Futbol" by Melissa Segura about a high-level Mexican high school football team that travels to Texas

66

Words Written Down – Sports

to play their American counterparts. The story is especially interesting for any reader familiar with the fervor around big time high school football in Texas. Brilliant Sports Illustrated Writing – posted 9/30/2008 Sports Illustrated has provided some great writing over the years (perhaps all of which is now available online at through the SI Vault), but for the purpose of this point, I want to focus on both a recent story and two columns from a few years ago. The Sept 29 issue of Sports Illustrated features a great cover story by Gary Smith on the Chicago Cubs... more to the point, on Cubs fans and their devotion (and frequently associated heartbreak). The story brings Smith together with the same group of fans he met 10 years prior in the Wrigley bleachers and looks at what the team means (as well as what a Cubs World Series title would mean) to them. Having just come back from a college football sojourn to Lincoln, Nebraska, I understand devotion to a team, but it was fascinating reading Smith's account of that devotion being associated with baseball. It‘s an entirely different topic, but my thought would be the only rival (in terms of fan association) to big time college football would be said Cubs baseball and soccer outside the US. Pro football, basketball, auto racing and hockey... all are followed by given audiences, but I don't think with the same level of fervor as college football and Cubs baseball. Anyhoo... the cover story is a great read and makes the reader think about what it is to be... a fan. Not Recent: Rick Reilly pieces: "Worth the Wait" about high school runner Ben Comen who competes (and finishes) despite having cerebral palsy and "Funny You Should Ask" about a made up conversation between a dad and his kid about sports, life and things in between. Writing from Susan Casey – posted 9/9/2008 In July of this year I posted "The Devil's Teeth" & other writings by Susan Casey about her book on Great White Sharks around the Farallon Islands as well as a piece she wrote for Esquire Magazine. Since that time, I've learned that Casey works for Time Inc and writes extensively for Sports Illustrated. From the Aug 25th issue of SI, she wrote "We Are All Witnesses", that week's cover story on Michael Phelps. Additionally, some of Casey's past SI writing can be found through doing a search on the Sports Illustrated website. "Chill-Inducing Olympic Moments" from Esquire blog – posted 8/21/2008 From the Esquire Magazine website, writer Daniel Murphy in the "Blog of Lists" provides his "Five Most Chill-Inducing Olympic Moments" with accompanying You Tube videos. The list starts off incredibly strong with British track star Derek Redmond being helped across the finish line by his father (video of which has now been made famous by Visa and a Morgan Freeman voiceover) and goes on to cover moments featuring the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team and gymnast Kerri Strug vaulting her way to a team gold on one good leg. Michael Vick's Financial Woes: Buzzards Circle the Pro Athlete – posted 8/19/2008 Never would I be a Michael Vick apologist, but Lester Munson's "Bad advice, bad decisions: the loss of Michael Vick's fortune" piece on ESPN.com tells a remarkable tale of one advisor (mostly financial) after another seeming to line up for a (larger than deserved) piece of Vick's money. Reading a story like this demonstrates why exactly the NFL holds a mandatory multiple day rookie orientation to prepare aspiring stars for everything that comes with the package of being a pro athlete: Quite the cautionary tale. 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay – Posted 8/11/2008 Amazing victory by the US men's 4x100 freestyle relay team with anchor-leg swimmer Jason Lezak overcoming a huge deficit against a quality French opponent for the win. While the NBC coverage was a bit annoying with its focus on Michael Phelps, it was interesting to hear commentators talk about this as one

67

Words Written Down – Sports

of the most incredible relays they've seen. The broadcast of the race itself can be found on the NBC Olympics website. 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony – posted 8/9/2008 After great anticipation of the event, the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Summer Olympics were in a word... breathtaking. This probably shouldn't be surprising given the government support of these games (to the tune of a reported $300 million USD on the production), but the actual event itself was truly spectacular. Some coverage and reporting of the ceremonies can be found at the following: CNNSI: Beijing Games Opening Ceremonies Photo Slide Show. Yahoo! Sports: "Opening Ceremonies Memorable Moments" commentary by Charles Robinson. NBC Sports: "Opening Ceremony in Review" video. Additional NBC video can be found by browsing the NBC Olympics video site. CNNSI: "China's Spectacular Show" slide show with accompanying audio commentary.

68

Words Written Down – Business

Business Businessweek Pieces: on Amazon / Zappos / United Airlines & Hearsay Social – posted 2/12/2012 There was some interesting content from the last few issues of Businessweek starting off with the Jan 30-Feb 5 cover story. Written by Brad Stone, "Amazon's Hit Man" details the new in-house publishing imprint at the web retail giant. Concept is for Amazon to hold tighter control over book pricing and distribution by cutting out traditional publishing houses and signing agreements with the authors themselves. It‘s an interesting approach led within Amazon by Larry Kirshbaum, the former head of Time Warner Book Group and has already resulted in agreements with authors Tim Ferriss, James Franco and Penny Marshall. The Feb 6-12 issue as well featured an interesting cover story along with a few other pieces of note. "Making the World's Largest Airline Fly" was a solid look at integration work done out of the United-Continental merger. The piece was written by Drake Bennett and details the thousands of needed decisions around areas such as customer care systems and coffee to provide. Additionally, "Las Vegas: Startup City" is on Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and his backing of development efforts in the area around headquarters for the Amazon division. It‘s an interesting look from Brad Stone at personal for-profit efforts that also have an altruistic bent. Also of note from this issue was the short piece "Clara Shih's Hearsay Social" on the writer behind The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Market, Sell, and Innovate. Shih was working at Salesforce.com is 2007, then built herself into a Social Media expert and in 2009, wrote her book and started the consulting company Hearsay Social... and more recently was named to the Starbucks board of directors. Fast Company Feb issue: Changing Business & Careers – posted 1/19/2012 There were a couple of really good features in the latest issue of Fast Company. First two pieces that stood out both relate to the cover verbiage and get into how business as well as career management differs from their past iterations. Starting things off, magazine editor Robert Safian wrote the long (and long titled) This Is Generation Flux: Meet the Pioneers of the New (And Chaotic) Frontier of Business. Really interesting content that looks at change in business and how people are navigating careers from the standpoint of a toolbox of skills to take anywhere rather than simply hitching early to a corporation and hanging on. Closely related to this career management path was the companion piece of The Four-Year Career by Anya Kamenetz. Solid stuff about how jobs and people's employment in them is going to change over time and workers should expect, be ready for and use to their advantage this change. Not really connected to the first two stories, but also interesting was MakerBot's 3-D Printers Let Consumers Dream up Prototypes of Pretty Much Anything. But Do We Need More Plastic? by Rob Walker. The creation of actual objects at home based on the specs... an entirely new concept that could well become common in the future. Business Pieces: Larry Scott & the Pac-12 Conference, Nick D'Aloisio & Summly, other stuff... – posted 1/11/2012 A bevy of interesting people and companies featured in Businessweek over the past few weeks... and one guy and his startup not from BW, but which bears noting here. Only feature to mention from Businessweek was Head of the Pac by the excellent Karl Taro Greenfeld. About the Pac-12 Conference and its Commissioner Larry Scott, it shows how much TV money rules the day in college sports, with college football leading the charge. Other pieces that stood out as interesting are the following: Charlie Rose Talks to Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff on efforts at the cloud-based CRM firm. Alain Rossmann's Klip, a Twitter for Videos on a member of the early Apple Macintosh team and his startup aimed at amateur video on the web. Keeping the Sea Safe from Plastic on a new biodegradable in water material called PHA from Archer Daniels Midland and the startup company Metabolix. Finally, the technology blog GigaOM last month featured 16-year-old Nick D‘Aloisio and his startup company Summly. The product offering is a phone app that provides a quick web page summary, but what stands out in the piece is the description of D'Aloisio from GigaOM founder Om Malik. Title of Meet the Internet‘s newest boy genius indicates what's to follow

69

Words Written Down – Business

and below is a pretty remarkable statement from Malik: "In my life I have met many smart people — Jeff Bezos, Andy Bechtolsheim, Larry Page, Andy Grove, Sergey Brin, Vinod Khosla and Bret Taylor. D‟Aloisio belongs with them, I am convinced. Not because he has started the next hot company — who can predict what will be hot? But instead, he is a self-taught polymath, who is so adept at learning from reading, listening and observing. He is an old-fashioned technologist who was born this way." Fast Company Dec/Jan Issue: Toms Shoes, Louis C.K., General Assembly, Bluefin Labs, Nest – posted 12/25/2011 Several short pieces of interest from the Dec '11 / Jan '12 issue of Fast Company magazine. In the Now section of the magazine was Toms Founder Blake Mycoskie's Fashion-Forward Childhood. Nothing terribly new in the short piece, but Toms Shoes an interesting company given its practice of giving away a pair of shoes for each sold. Also notable for the subject was Louis C.K.: the Next Steve Jobs Will Be a Chick. As this CNN story details, C.K. has been selling online for $5 a self-produced standup special and after a few weeks is now at $1M in revenue. Very interesting approach taken by C.K. and also cool given the $280K+ in charitable donations he's already dispersed from the proceeds. Two longer, but not feature length pieces from this issue were on augmented education and utilization of Twitter for business intelligence. Anya Kamenetz penned General Assembly Provides Entrepreneurial Skills to a Chosen Few about the New Yorkbased startup which offers classes and education programs in the fields of "technology, design, and entrepreneurship". Seems a solid concept for a business as education certainly can't stop with the traditional receipt of a college diploma. On a company working to aggregate and make accessible some heavily fragmented information, Rachel Arndt wrote Bluefin Mines Social Media to Improve TV Analytics. Selling services to "brands, agencies and TV Networks", Bluefin Labs works in an interesting area. Finally, this issue of Fast Company had a short piece on the company Nest and its smart thermostat. Fascinating product designed with user experience in mind from former Apple exec Tony Faddell. Businessweek Dec 12 Issue: Vegas Real Estate Fraud, OnLive Video Games, TV Remotes and Tableau Data Analysis – posted 12/23/11 Quite a few interesting pieces from the Dec 12 issue of Businessweek. Cover story by Felix Gillette was The King of All Vegas Real Estate Scams on fraud run amok in the area of faulty condo construction. It's a fascinating look at the illegal practice of taking over homeowner association boards and then funneling damages and repair contracts to businesses tied to colluding board members. Not surprising to read of something like this given legal Vegas real estate practices like buying larger and walking away from old property, but the scam described by Gillette shows a remarkable amount of fraud and deception. Also from this issue were three smaller pieces that each dealt with interesting companies and topics previously noted on this blog. OnLive Mobile Helps Gamers on the Go is on the cloud gaming service from startup veteran Steve Perlman and stood out both with Perlman being someone I've linked to previous BW features on and with the described OnLive efforts around online tablet and Smartphone gaming. Voice Control, the End of the TV Remote? covers innovation already occurred and especially to come in the future around the home television. Topic is especially interesting given rampant speculation about what Apple may eventually bring (in conjunction with the iPhone and iPad) to the TV market. Pat Hanrahan's Tableau Analytics Software provides a brief look at data analysis tools way beyond simple Excel in terms of both user interface and display of information. It's an interesting subject area and Hanrahan as a guy (and his Tableau Software by extension) is interesting with his time spent as an early stage Pixar engineer and two Oscars awarded for animation work. Writing on Unstructured Data Analysis - Palantir / Hewlett-Packard – posted 12/1/2011 There was a very interesting cover story in the latest Businessweek that got me thinking about the concepts of structured and unstructured data analysis. The feature is Palantir, the War on Terror's Secret Weapon and looks at the Palo Alto, CA company whose data mining software is used by a number of government

70

Words Written Down – Business

agencies to flag and compile information on potential threats. The aforementioned unstructured data refers to information held not in database (structured) form, but rather in bank transactions, purchases made, videos recorded and social media postings. What Palantir does is take in and sift through all these disparate data sets to try to provide a clear picture of what's going on... with this offering being valuable for private industry (example being banks fighting fraud) as well as government. The BW story detailing all this is an interesting piece from Ashlee Vance and Brad Stone on a fascinating topic. This idea of unstructured data analysis is coming to the forefront in Business today with both the amount of loose data multiplying and newer and better product offerings trying to tame and make sense of said data. Written a few days ago by Brandon Bailey for the San Jose Mercury News was HP unveils new products for sorting 'unstructured data'. The piece is around the first publicized results of HP's Autonomy acquisition and published yesterday on ZDNet UK was HP mates Autonomy with Vertica that brings in the early 2011 HP acquisition of Vertica. Fast Company Pieces - 3M Design Chief / Serial Entrepreneurship / Ads on the Web – posted 11/19/2011 Three different stories from the past few months of Fast Company that stood out as being on interesting companies and/or business topics. From the recent November 2011 issue came Bill Nguyen: The Boy In The Bubble on the founder (or co-founder) of at least four different startups, including Lala (sold to Apple) and now the much talked about, but uncertain as to its eventual success or failure, Color. The piece is written by Danielle Sacks and a pretty fascinating read not so much because of the verbiage about Nguyen himself, but the article's description of the ethos of Silicon Valley and the startup culture. Interesting content on seed and venture capital investors backing founders who have had multiple successes (defined by exit with money for investors) and a business idea in an area considered hot at the time. While both of these things do certainly carry an import to them, what are often not taken into effort account are the particulars of the idea itself. Also interesting from the piece was the description of how investors don't necessarily put a mark against the company founder's track record if not all ventures succeeded. Concept being the business failure looked at as simply a shot that didn't work out and not a big deal as long as other efforts did succeed. As to Nguyen himself, Sacks details his bona fides in the areas of wealth creation and dealmaking (in both the initial cash raising and then end-game business selling phases) and how this past success led to such large amounts of money invested in Color as a business idea. This outlay by investors takes on greater import given the underwhelming launch of Color and subsequent repositiong (with that so called pivot being another acceptable and almost expected thing in startups). Whether the company eventually succeeds or not, Nguyen is wealthy from past successes... and likely would resurface with another business idea, and investors willing to back him. From the October 2011 issue of Fast Company was another solid feature... this one dealing not with a startup culture, but rather someone creating change in a large corporate environment. The Nine Passions Of 3M's Mauro Porcini is written by Chuck Salter and details the design chief at the Minnesota based conglomerate. Porcini is described as succeeding at 3M by trumpeting the process involved with outstanding design work as well as its pure aesthetic value. Beyond this, he's developed credibility within the company by doing the all-important trick of being behind design work that's increased sales. Additionally, Adam Lisagor Is Advertising's Quietest Pitchman was an interesting short piece from the September FC issue. Written by Bill Barol, it's about Lisagor's small production company, Sandwich Video and the straight-forward and well received online product videos (web ads) produced for the likes of Groupon, Airbnb, and Flipboard (with an Airbnb spot and four other videos linked from the Fast Company piece). Businessweek Pieces: Workplace Productivity Software / Apple Supply Chain / Rare Earth Metal Mining – posted 11/14/2011 There were several interesting pieces from Businessweek lately with the largest of which on a new productivity software startup. Asana: Dustin and Justin's Quest for Flow was written by Ashlee Vance and

71

Words Written Down – Business

profiles the company started by two beginning stage ex-Facebook employees (with Dustin Moskovitz at eight days younger than Mark Zuckerberg being the world's youngest billionaire). Vance details how Asana is offering a free version for smaller groups (with the idea that even personal tasks will be managed via Asana) and then building larger demand. Other recent feature of note from BW recently was Alaska‘s Billion Dollar Mountain on entrepreneur Jim McKenzie and his mining company, UCore. Focus is on Bokan Mountain near Ketchikan, Alaska and the large support of valuable rare earth metals held deep underground. It's an interesting story written for Businessweek by Daniel Grushkin in the efforts of McKenzie to gain mining access and in how the land reached its current valuation. Previous attempts to mine Bokan were unsuccessfully trying to find and extract uranium and this is exactly what McKenzie was initially interested in and hoping to convince the old prospector (Bob Dotson) who owned the mineral rights to allow him access to. Through spending time together, McKenzie learned of it's rare earth metal potential and then brokered a deal with Dotson and his estranged children (to whom who he had granted shared rights) to be able to mine Bokan. In 2010, China as the world's largest producer of rare earth metals then made the decision to dramatically cut its exports of these minerals (that go into complicated electronics, jet engines and missiles) and as a result made prices skyrocket and dramatically increased the value of Bokan. It still remains to be seen whether the cost of deep underground extraction will make the investment pay off, but the potential is very much there: Interesting story from a lot of different perspectives. Final Businessweek piece to mention is Apple's Supply-Chain Secret? Hoard Lasers: Apple combining great consumer experience with supply-chain competitive advantage... that's a pretty compelling proposition. Cover Story on Amazon... & Other Businessweek Pieces – posted 10/5/2011 Amazon, the Company That Ate the World is written by Brad Stone and details the company's tablet entry, the Kindle Fire. The company as a whole has done a lot right over the years and early indications are that they've created a compelling offering. Not quite as profound in terms of its potential reach to consumers, but also from this issue of BW was a profile of New York City based drugstore Duane Reade. Written by Susan Berfeld, It's pretty interesting reading on a retail chain that previously could do no right and now seems to make the correct move with every step. Finally, I found noteworthy the short piece How to Give the Perfect TED Talk by Sebastian Wernicke. TED is a fascinating concept and it was interesting reading about what types of things help make some TED talk speeches stand out over others. Businessweek Pieces: Double Eagle Coin, HP, Apple, Salesforce & Rachel Ray – posted 9/2/2011 Some interesting pieces from the August 29 issue of Businessweek... I find BW often has interesting features and with this edition being no exception, "Gold Coins: The Mystery of the Double Eagle" was written by Susan Berfield. The story looks at the exceedingly rare 1933 Double Eagle gold $20 coin and the layers of intrigue and drama surrounding its collection. As Berfield details, 500,000 of them were made, but then supposed to be destroyed prior to issuance. However, not all were... with what was billed as the only one remaining auctioned off for $6.8 million in 2002. Back to the whole intrigue and drama thing, another 10 coins then were discovered in 2004 to still exist. As might be expected, this led to a courtroom dispute that's still only sort of settled. In addition to this feature, there were a number of smaller stories from this issue that stood out: "Rachael Ray on Catching Her Big Break" on the now talk-show host and how she was discovered for television (and what she did leading up to that). "How Salesforce Tames Twitter for Big Business" on Social Media tools offered to clients by the company. "Is It Time for Hewlett-Packard to Go Back to the Garage?" featuring the sub-headline "Once an icon of stability, HP is in chaos under CEO Léo Apotheker." "Steve Jobs: ‗Unfortunately, That Day Has Come‘" about Tim Cook taking over for the visionary CEO at Apple. Businessweek Pieces: Steve Perlman / Google+ / Most Popular Things – posted 8/13/2011 Quite a few interesting stories and mentions in Businessweek lately... particularly in this week's edition labeled the Popularity Issue. The cover feature looks at an eclectic blend of companies and products and

72

Words Written Down – Business

below are three which had fairly sizable write ups in this BW... and three with only brief vignettes, but that still stood out as interesting. "Behind Five Guys‘ Beloved Burgers" profiles the expanding burger chain noted for its simple menu and "authenticity" (perhaps like Chipotle). "Vibram's shoes: the next best thing to nothing?" is about the FiveFingers shoes that were heavily mentioned in the excellent Christopher McDougall book Born to Run (posted on here earlier this month). "How Nordstrom Bests Its Retail Rivals" features the department store with the exceptional customer service reputation. As part of this, the piece has some interesting content about how the family (three brothers and a cousin) runs Nordstrom. Three additional products mentioned in this Popularity feature that stood out as interesting were the all-electric Nissan Leaf, the not killed by the iPad Amazon Kindle and Story Cubes... the dice game where people make up stories based of the various images on each die rolled. From this same issue of Businessweek was also mention of an interesting retail product and restaurant chain with both coming soon to the US market. The story "Toys 'R' Us Wants a Robot (to Sell) for Christmas" is about the My Keepon toy and "A Spanish Starbucks for Sandwiches" details the casual dining chain 100 Montaditos and its planned (major) expansion into the US. Two other stories featured in Businessweek lately that stood out. From the July 21 issue was "Google+‘s Circle Logic" on the latest Social Networking foray from the search giant (and what appears to be their best effort yet to compete with Facebook in this space). Finally, the July 27 edition had "Steve Perlman's Wireless Fix" on the successful inventor and his latest company. Perlman's previous ventures include WebTV (sold for half a billion to Microsoft), the graphics company Mova (whose technology has been used in a number of studio movies) and streaming video game venture Onlive. Pretty remarkable background and the BW story subtitle makes reference to Perlman himself and the subject of this piece. "Silicon Valley‟s self-styled Thomas Edison has found a way to increase wireless capacity by a factor of 1,000." It's very interesting stuff about Perlman's DIDO wireless technology and the guy himself (who is also noted in the BW story as having founded the business incubator Rearden... as in Ayn Rand's Hank Rearden from Atlas Shrugged). Businessweek Pieces: Transocean, Anheuser-Busch & Other Stuff – posted 7/19/2011 Handful of interesting stories from the last month of Businessweek: In terms of feature writing, the issue that stood out was the July 4 edition with the exploding oil rig on the cover. The lead story of "Transocean: No Apologies Over Gulf Oil Spill" painted a remarkable picture of a company focused on limiting their blame (and eventual liability) in the Deepwater Horizon fire and then Gulf Oil Spill. Good writing by Paul Barrett on the strategy taken by Transocean and its crisis management firm (led by a former tabloid editor). Another feature from this edition of Businessweek was "Fall of the House of Busch" by Susan Berfield. It was pretty remarkable reading on the previously family-run Anheuser-Busch and its ex-president (and current train wreck) August Busch IV. A bunch of other stories from this and other recent issues were notable in featuring interesting companies and technology: "Daniel Ek‘s Spotify: Music‘s Last Best Hope" on a recent entry to the US market for music delivery. "Pay as You Go with Smartphones" on current efforts to finally get something widely adopted in the field of mobile payments. "Turntable.fm: Where the DJ Is in the Next Cubicle" on a music service with a social component. "Can Jeff Weiner Realize LinkedIn‘s Full Potential?", "Raves for Robert Brunner‘s All-New Nook" on the Kindle competing eReader from Barnes & Noble, "Ford Steps on the Gas in Asia" and "HP's Plan to Make TouchPad a Hit". Fast Company Jul/Aug 2011 issue - Milo within eBay / Social Media ROI – posted 6/28/2011 Two pretty solid stories from the latest issue of Fast Company. From writer Danielle Sacks was "How Jack Abraham Is Reinventing eBay" about the 25 year old who sold his online shopping site Milo to eBay for a reported $75m. Abraham comes across as a very smart guy with the idea of showing online the inventory of brick and mortar stores... known as cross-channel shopping. Whether Milo (now a division run by Abraham within eBay) takes off or not, it's a concept that makes sense. The second story from this issue that stood out to me was "Does Social Media Have A Return On Investment?" by Farhad Manjoo. Idea put forth is around the extreme difficulty in quantifying the effectiveness of Social Media spend as part of a

73

Words Written Down – Business

company's Marketing budget. I'm sure there's companies out there purporting to be able to measure that (either within their own firm or on behalf of clients), but Manjoo writes of how difficult it is to quantify the return on a dollar spent in Social Media. Result of this is many companies are simply taking a land grab approach and trying to accumulate Twitter followers and likes on Facebook. I wrote about Social Media over a year ago now, but the one thing that's known is it's important. The second thing known about Social Media beyond this is... well, that's what people are trying to figure out. Fast Company Magazine 100 Most Creative People Issue – posted 6/21/2011 Some interesting content from the Fast Company annual 100 Most Creative People in Business issue. Keeping in mind the Fast Company guideline of not featuring anything on a prior 100 most creative list (nope, no Steve Jobs in this issue), here's the vignettes that stood out... Wadah Khanfar / Al Jazeera at #1 Not to discount what Khanfar and Al Jazeera have done, but what struck me was mention of the Qatari government ownership... and willingness to lose what Khanfar says was "much more than $80M last year." Not a promising statement for the field of Journalism when this appears to be what it takes for a major player in News like Al Jazeera to emerge. Sal Khan / Khan Academy at #7 - I a few weeks ago posted on and linked to this Businessweek profile of Khan and view the guy and his efforts as just plain remarkable. Ted Sarandos / Netflix at #22: Remarkable how the company has completely remade themselves for a digitized streaming content world. Sitaram Asur / HP Labs at #26 - Profile includes mention of HP Labs fellow Bernardo Huberman... whose efforts around Prediction Markets were featured in Businessweek back in 2005. Laura Ching / Tiny Prints at #60 - Impressive products from the online stationery company recently acquired by Shutterfly. Kevin Systrom / Instagram at #66: One of those companies that I just keep hearing about. Natsumi Iwasaki / Author at #90 - Wrote the Japanese bestseller What If a Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team Read Drucker's 'Management'? Sounds interesting: Now, if only there was an English translation. Businessweek Pieces: Nokia / Subaru of Indiana Plant / Stuck in Jobs – posted 6/19/2011 Couple of different pieces of note from the June 6 issue of Businessweek: Cover story was "Stephen Elop's Nokia Adventure" written by Peter Burrows and looks at the turnaround efforts at the mobile phone maker. It's pretty fascinating given the various elements around Nokia right now. The Finnish company has been floundering in recent years and some 6 months ago hired an outsider in Elop, former head of Office products for Microsoft. Pretty drastic action he's taken thus far in the scrapping of Nokia's internally built phone software in favor of Microsoft Windows Phone 7. It may or may not mean success for Nokia as it battles Apple and its proprietary software, HP and its Palm-acquired software and a host of other hardware manufacturers running free Android software from Google, but it is certainly a bold move. Another interesting corporate view piece from this issue of BW looked not at a company struggling, but one thriving. Subaru sales last year increased at twice the rate of the rest of the automotive industry and the feature "Subaru of Indiana, America's Scrappiest Carmaker" looks at operations at Subaru's sole US plant. Pretty remarkable stuff detailed in this Roben Farzad piece with the facility operating at a level of high efficiency as well as minimal waste generated. Interesting as well from BW lately was "Stuck in Jobs: The New Swing Voters" from the June 20 issue. The notion put forth by Mike Dorning deals with employee's having the confidence to willingly switch jobs. He looks at it as a comparative measure with a larger number of employee's willing to switch being a positive indicator for the economy... and for people voting for politicians based on their feelings of our economic track. What got me weren‘t the political implications, but just the general idea around the import of this willingness to move. Perhaps an obvious thing, but people who are employed not liking a job, but feeling trapped in it is certainly something that can have big ramifications of the economy, as well as of course the happiness of people working in it.

74

Words Written Down – Business

Businessweek Pieces: Robert Young Pelton on Somali Pirates / Khan Academy / Interesting Companies – posted 6/1/2011 Interesting content from the past few issues of Businessweek that stood out for different reasons: There's the interesting story by an interesting writer, the story on an interesting guy with a noble venture and finally some pieces on companies that are just plain... interesting. Probably the best writing was by Robert Young Pelton in his story Somali Pirates' Rich Returns. One of the points of this blog is to highlight cases of excellent writing on a topic of note and this piece definitely qualifies. I was struck even more by the story after realizing it was written by the author of The World's Most Dangerous Places (which I read years ago). Big fan I am of what seems to be a Businessweek practice of having diverse and fairly well known (and presumably non-staff) writers doing feature stories. Also standing out as a BW piece lately was Salman Khan: the Messiah of Math. While the writing from Bryant Urstadt was certainly solid enough, the mission of Khan is just plain remarkable. On his Khan Academy website he provides free access to a self-created 2,100+ video library tutorial which began with math education and is now expanded to many other subjects. These were the metaphorical big rocks from Businessweek lately, but there were also a number of smaller pieces on companies doing interesting things... In the category of "writing on a big and innovative company continuing to do big and innovative things" was Apple's Deals May Transform Digital Music about a potential announcement of cloud storage for a user's music collection. As detailed in the piece, this type of offering has been chased by many... and would be yet another coup for Apple if they can introduce a user-friendly program bought into by the record labels. Similar to the aforementioned Pelton story in this regard, the piece Pacific Biosciences' $600 Million Decoder Ring was made more interesting in relation to another story. In this case, that other story wasn't by the same author, but rather on the same guy at Pacific Biosciences. As written about in this Esquire piece (which I posted on here), remarkable guy this Eric Schadt. Short, but interesting piece was Innovator: Carnegie Mellon's Richard McCullough on McCullough's efforts at the company Plextronics. His is fascinating work in the field of conductive ink for use in ultra-thin flexible displays (think: cell phones, televisions, magazines, etc): Definitely an area of business with huge potential. Finally of interest was SeatGeek Helps Online Ticket Buyers Beat the Scalpers on the ticket search site SeatGeek. Not the most profound offering in the world (digital music storage isn't either), but the company appears to be using technology well to fill a consumer need. May 9 Businessweek Pieces: Why Bin Laden Lost / Supply Chain Efficiencies – posted 5/21/2011 Some solid content from the May 9 issue of Businessweek: The lead essay was "Why Bin Laden Lost" by Brendan Greeley and featured insightful writing about Bin Laden in the same vein as the commentary by David Von Drehle for Time which I posted on and linked to. Less profound, but also interesting from this issue was the feature piece "Taco Bell and the Golden Age of Drive-Thru" written by Karl Taro Greenfeld. This was one of those cases where I first took note of a piece based on the author... as I recall reading and posting on Greefeld's "Growing Old with Autism" book excerpt two years ago in Time Magazine). This first Greenfeld piece fit into the category of excellent and important writing and while I don't imagine he saw Taco Bell and Supply Chain efficiencies on the same level of import as autism in his family, the recent story it's an interesting one about the mechanics of a huge business segment. Also from this issue were two one page pieces of interest because of the companies and offerings being written about: Charlie Rose interview with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and "Otávio Good's Instant Translator" about the Word Lens iPhone app. Program does visual language translation via augmented reality, or layering of new data on top of an image from the phone's camera. Sharing Economy Piece from Fast Company – posted 5/17/2011 Really interesting piece on the topic of collaborative consumption in the May issue of Fast Company Magazine: Written by Danielle Sacks, "The Sharing Economy" overviews the idea and business of people sharing stuff and provides a look at the current players and where the market might be headed. Sacks begins with the story of Neal Gorenflo, a former DHL staffer and then founder of the non-profit Shareable...

75

Words Written Down – Business

which came out of Gorenflo working to remove from his life things that didn't add value. While it may seem a squishy step to go from life purpose to growth business area, there really is a lot of use to be had and money made from resource sharing. To this point, one of the main things covered by Sacks and in this sidebar piece is how many different categories of goods and services can have the concept of collaborative consumption at play. Freecycle, Thredup, Zipcar, Airbnb, Neighborgoods... all players in this space sure to joined by many others. Several additional sources of information that Sacks cites are a Lisa Gansky Tedx talk on car sharing and the Rachel Botsman book What's Mine Is Yours: the Rise of Collaborative Consumption. Reference is also made to the idea from Botsman of access to goods and services being more important than ownership of them. Fascinating concept this sharing thing... and also referenced elsewhere in this issue of Fast Company with Brave New Co-Working World about shared workspaces. Businessweek Pieces: Groupon / Innovation / FIELDf/x – posted 4/25/2011 Couple of interesting features from Businessweek lately that almost serve as point, counter-point articles: From the Mar 17 issue was "Are Four Words Worth $25 Billion for Groupon?" about the Chicago company that turned down a $6B purchase offer from Google. The Brad Stone and Douglas MacMillan article chronicles the history behind the site... and delves quite a bit into the coming development from Groupon that may help make their refusal to sell a great business move. To whit... what Groupon is looking to do is move beyond coupons and to point in time and point in location deals. Concept is that consumers would use a Groupon app on their phone and select either "I'm hungry" or "I'm bored" and then receive targeted local offers. A time window would likely be associated with each offer... making it more valuable for companies looking to immediately reduce inventory or have non-prime table times utilized. It's an interesting piece on an interesting company, but as noted at the top... there's a second Businessweek story that serves as a counter-point of sorts. It's not that the prospects of Groupon are marginalized, but rather that the business impact is questioned. From the Apr 14 issue of BW was "This Tech Bubble Is Different" by Ashlee Vance. As a piece of writing, it's probably not the greatest in the world as it seems to wander a bit, but does have a compelling idea put forth and examined. What Vance and the experts she quotes look at is the true innovation (or lack thereof) from companies like Groupon, Facebook, or Zynga that don't really create anything new... other than perhaps a new experience to spend time or money on. It's not to be overly critical of a business with this model or intent (companies exist to make money after all), but perhaps there is something to the words put by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Perlman... "Facebook is not the kind of technology that will stop us from having dropped cell phone calls, and neither is Groupon or any of these advertising things," he says. "We need them. OK, great. But they are building on top of old technology, and at some point you exhaust the fuel of the underpinnings." Another piece from Businessweek lately that was interesting enough to bear linking to was "Baseball: Running the New Numbers". Written by Ira Boudway, it looks at the company Sportvision and its FIELDf/x system of cameras and data analysis designed to truly quantify the performance of a fielder. Similar to the companies noted above, it's not curing cancer... but is something that could impact baseball and the business around the game. Charles Fishman on Water - from Fast Company Magazine – posted 4/22/2011 There was an excellent piece from the April 2011 issue of Fast Company, which brought to mind some other interesting writing on the same topic of water. The recent article was "Why GE, Coca-Cola, and IBM Are Getting Into the Water Business" by Charles Fishman. Adapted from Fishman's book The Big Thirst: the Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water, it's an interesting look at how cheap and easy water is becoming scarce, and what that means for both society and business. It's really interesting reading and I imagine the book came out of Fishman's 2007 Fast Company article "Message in a Bottle" with this original piece linked to and written on in this post also about bottled water and the found in plastic bottles industrial chemical BPA: Solid writing on an important topic.

76

Words Written Down – Business

Businessweek Pieces: USA Inc. / Cloud Computing / Hubris & Hacking – posted 3/16/2011 Three different feature stories from Businessweek lately that stood out to me as particularly interesting. Cover story from the Feb 24 issue was "USA Inc.: Red, White, and Very Blue", a report on the financial health of the country as if it were a corporation. Written by Mary Meeker, it's reading that trends a bit towards the heavy for someone not financially minded, but is nothing if not in-depth (has an accompanying 460 page presentation). Beyond the sheer weight of it, though, the story struck me as important and featured specific recommendations of what steps could be taken to improve the financial health of the country. As Meeker writes in the beginning of her examination, ―I reached three conclusions. First, USA Inc. has serious financial challenges. Second, its problems are fixable. Third, clear communication with citizen-shareholders is essential. If the American people embrace the need for bold action, their political leaders should find the courage to do what's right.” Perhaps her statement could be met with a hearty "yea, if only...", but this type of response wouldn't necessarily mean she's wrong. The Businessweek cover story from a week later was "The Cloud: Battle of the Tech Titans". Perhaps not as big a nut as the financial health of the U.S., but really... in terms of the Tech Business, there's not many more important topics. In June 2009 I wrote on another BW Cloud Computing feature and in the close to two years since then, the growth in Cloud Computing has been tremendous. This latest story featured interesting compare and contrast material looking at industry establishments like Hewlett-Packard and IBM (with significant hardware and consulting services) as well as more "true cloud" providers like Amazon. Last (and most recent) Businessweek story I found of interest lately was "Hacker vs. Hacker" about the shenanigans at and against a top exec of Computing Security firm HBGary Federal. The hubris of this guy Aaron Barr is pretty remarkable... and almost (but, not quite) equaled in zeal on the part of the hackers taking him down piece by piece. Quite the entertaining read. Twitter as a Social Media Tool – posted 2/12/2011 The impact of both Twitter and Facebook really is remarkable. While they're of course different platforms operating in different ways, each works in Social Media (posted on here) and each is a remarkable enabler of Social Media. Facebook started first and has a wider usage (primarily for personal connections, but also with a business application (as detailed in this post on personal recommendations), but Twitter in no way should be discounted as a tool towards the Social Media idea of information dissemination. The thing that amazes me about Twitter as an application is how it can work with such widely varied groups of people towards widely varied purposes. If someone wants it as political vehicle... easy, get a Twitter account and follow what political figures say. If someone wants it as a tool to keep in touch with friends... great, follow them. Related to all this and in terms of Twitter as a tool for business... the audience is there, it's just a matter of being compelling enough to get people paying attention and following (or the influencers following and re-tweeting your message to their followers). There's been a lot written about Twitter as a business (with this post about a Fast Company cover story), but what strikes me is my usage of Twitter as a way to learn of information held elsewhere. Basic concept is that it's all about the links. Someone you follow on Twitter links to a blog, a video, and news story... you're now taken somewhere and exposed to something that without Twitter might have gone completely under the radar. The topic could be virtually anything (and as detailed above, it's self-selecting based on followers chosen), but the impact is remarkable... and will continue to grow in both width and depth as more people use the tool. Feature Writing from New Businessweek - on Glock, Apple, Google & Ford – posted 2/6/2011 After having my Businessweek subscription expired for the past six months, I decided recently to start reading again... and find the new Bloomberg Businessweek pretty solid. Each issue is larger than those from the previous format and while it has a goodly amount of vignette pieces I'm not into, I find the feature writing excellent. Thus far I've seen four issues and there's been at least one excellent lengthy piece in every issue. The Jan 13 issue cover story was Glock: America's Gun and a thorough look at the company that for better or worse has provided arms for American streets (cops and robbers both) over the past 25 years.

77

Words Written Down – Business

Cover stories from the next two issues of BW followed with looks at top companies going through changes (both intended as temporary and permanent) in leadership. The Jan 19 issue featured Apple, with or Without Steve Jobs and Jan 26 issue Larry Page's Google 3.0. Each story provides a well written and indepth look at the companies in question. Finally (at least for the purpose of this blog post) was the Feb 3 issue which featured (but, not as its cover story) The Happiest Man in Detroit about Ford Motor Company and its CEO Alan Mulally. I've written about and linked to stories on Ford previously and am pretty well fascinated by the company and its current (and future) product offerings: Nothing that would be considered lyrical in any of these pieces, but solid writing on interesting topics. Businessweek Cover Story on Electric Cars – posted 1/2/2011 There was an interesting cover story in the latest issue of Businessweek. Written by Eric Pooley, "Electric Cars Get Charged for Battle" focuses on entries to the field from Nissan and General Motors. The Leaf from Nissan has a higher green credential being all electric, but the electric/gasoline hybrid Volt from GM follows in the already proven to be successful footprints of the Toyota Prius. Reading the piece, it seemed to me that Nissan will have a tougher road to success (pardon the pun) with its higher reliance on the availability of public charging stations. Even if the places to charge are available, consumers have to feel comfortable enough that they won't get stuck or the car purchase will never happen. All this said, electric and hybrid cars are a big growing business and I'm now curious to see what may be brought to the market by both Subaru and Ford (having written about the company in previous posts). Fast Company - Twitter, Boing Boing & Gaming – posted 11/29/2010 Lots of interesting articles and mentions from the Dec/Jan issue of Fast Company Magazine with the cover story "I Want My Twitter TV!" written by Ellen McGirt. The piece looks at how the company with an incredibly popular platform may have just found a way to really monetize what they do: Very innovative and cool stuff with a big push in the area of creating community around mass media. Also from this issue of Fast Company was a host of other things of note... Profiled was the blog Boing Boing and its founders/current contributors. Basic premise of the article is these guys started the blog because they wanted to write on things they found interesting... and have continued towards that exact same goal: Something to be said for this idea of doing things that give you enjoyment. A piece titled "How Video Games Are Infiltrating—and Improving—Every Part of Our Lives" about... well, that. It was a pretty fascinating topic that featured content about Jane McGonigal and a famous in its circles talk on games from Jesse Schell (video below from the TED website). Fast Company Magazine - Russian Resource Grab / New Faces of Social Media – posted 10/29/2010 There was a really good story in the November issue of Fast Company Magazine... which reminded of a past feature from FC. In this issue was "The Siberian Energy Rush" about Russia pushing natural gas exploration further and further into the Arctic Circle. Written by Joshua Hammer it's a pretty amazing look at a country staking a claim to new territory. Thinking past just Russia and past natural gas, the story reminded me a great deal of the "China Storms Africa" special report from the June 2008 Fast Company (and which I also linked to here). Taking these two features together with other statistics and content I've seen about jobs, education and innovation moving from the U.S. to other countries... it's disconcerting. A counterpoint of sorts to this concern was another piece from this Nov 2010 issue of Fast Company. "The New Faces of Social Media" is all about the industry and careers carved out today that one wouldn't have dreamed of 10 years ago. Considering these two different somewhat opposing ideas, the thing that occurs to me is it's definitely possible to create and innovate as an individual in America today... but, you can't rely upon anyone other than yourself to make that happen.

78

Words Written Down – Business

Fast Company Magazine - Masters of Design Issue – posted 10/11/2010 There was some interesting content in the Oct 2010 issue of Fast Company that got me thinking about career choices. Theme was Masters of Design and the first thing I found of note was the series of short profiles "A Generation of Emerging Designers Who Design With Purpose." Within the story were a handful of people who come across as passionate about doing great work. In the same vein was the longer profile "Fiona Morrisson Brands JetBlue with Whimsical Design" on the airline's Brand and Advertising head. I love reading pieces about people who are really into whatever their chosen endeavor is. Definitely got the impression that these individuals wanted to do something a certain way and would be willing to fight for that. So much more to that than simply going along in a work environment and not making waves. Two other things that caught my eye... mention of Tony Hawk's new book "How Did I Get Here: The Ascent of an Unlikely CEO" and fabric iPhone headphones from Frends. Both from a functionality (hate the way my headphones tangle) and story (Frends being the group of snowboarders whose best known member is Kevin Pearce) perspective, it's a product I want to buy... now, if only there was somewhere I could buy them (doesn't appear to be sold online and the Zumiez I visited didn't have any). Inc. Magazine - Zappos / TOMS Shoes / 37signals CEO... on how to hire – posted 9/5/2010 I‘ve never really been an Inc Magazine reader, but will likely become one after seeing a couple of good pieces from the June 2010 issue. I decided to read Inc. after seeing a link on Twitter to the book excerpt "Why I Sold Zappos" from CEO Tony Hsieh. Compelling enough stuff that I went and got Hsieh's book ""Delivering Happiness" and posted about it here. Also from this issue of Inc. was "The Way I Work: Blake Mycoskie of Toms Shoes" about the CEO. It's an interesting piece that charts how the 33 year old founder spends his time. Mycoskie appears quite the fascinating guy who has built a growing company which is also doing good... as evidenced by its policy of giving away a pair of shoes for each one sold. I found myself interested in his mention of being a reader of business biographies given that Mycoskie's personal story is one I'd want to read. One other compelling piece from this issue was from Jason Fried, the head of a software firm called 37signals. Titled "Never Read Another Resume", it's about Fried's views on staffing a company and has a couple really solid insights. The first is that someone hiring for a position should spend time actually doing that role. One reason is this helps ensure that the hire is based on actual rather than just perceived need for another resource. Additionally, this idea of a hiring manager doing the job being hired for helps determine exactly what's needed in someone. Another insight from Fried is the driver behind the piece's title and all about cover letters. Idea is that they should be a bigger determiner in hiring decisions than actual resumes. Reason being that the cover letter reveals more about the applicant. In particular, the cover letter can reveal how well someone can write and how much they really want the job. To that end, Fried links to a website all about wanting to work for 37signals put together by a recent hire. Fast Company Magazine - TED / Alex Bogusky – posted 8/27/2010 Two really interesting pieces in the Sept 2010 issue of Fast Company Magazine. In "How TED Connects the Idea-Hungry Elite" Anya Kamenetz profiles the famous (at least in the circles that most Fast Company readers run in) TED Conference and how it's extended out beyond the namesake annual event in Long Beach. One avenue of extending reach for the non-profit enterprise is through the TEDx program of allowing virtually anyone anywhere to stage a "TEDx Conference" based on the format, content and ideals of the main conference. Even more interesting than this idea of releasing control of the events is the release of event content via TED talks online. With some 700 talks posted on the TED website (all viewable via the iPhone, thank you very much) there's plenty of content out there and an 18 minute cap on each speaker makes each ripe for easy consumption. Also from this issue and not in the same "opportunity to learn stuff" as TED talks, but riveting in its own right was "Alex Bogusky Tells All: He Left the World's Hottest Agency to Find His Soul." It's a look at the career path of the former Crispin, Porter + Bogusky advertising guru and how he's "finding himself" since abruptly quitting the industry. Just the stuff about Bogusky and what he's doing now would be interesting enough, but author Danielle Sacks spends time with a good number of

79

Words Written Down – Business

Bogusky's former colleagues and from this examines the question of motive behind the career change. Sacks doesn't try to make any definitive statements, but does bring up whether Bogusky is really just steering his career in a now hot in business direction. Part of this is also consideration of whether he's a classic narcissist getting off on the idea of a grand manipulation of people and how they view him. Fast Company Magazine - Apple, Method Products & mGive – posted 8/22/2010 Some interesting pieces from the latest issue of Fast Company Magazine: Most prominent was the cover story "Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere" by Farhad Manjoo. Lots of interesting things in list format from the company Manjoo notes as being now the largest technology company in the world... 1. "Go into your cave" - about the idea of having a focus on providing value as you perceive it... and not getting bogged down in what others say should be provided. 2. "It's ok to be king" - To the first point, Apple is a company in which CEO Steve Jobs both sets and steers the course: Highly, highly centralized decisions – which is fine as long as it's working. 3. "Transcend orthodoxy" Apple is oft criticized for being a "closed system" company (primarily in relation to things like their oversight of what gets into the App Store), but the counterpoint from Jobs is both that they're not closed off... just preserving the user experience they seek to provide. Sort of like point 2, this also closely relates to point 1 above. 4. "Just say no" - see point 1. 5. "Serve your customer. No, really" - Not just providing the aforementioned user experience (which is typically thought of in interaction with the product), but also the customer experience (like, what do you do when you need help/support). Example provided by Manjoo (that I can completely back up from firsthand experience) is the value provided via the free Apple Store Genius Bar support help. 6. "Everything is marketing" - Crazy focused attention to deal from Apple around anything touching the consumer. Examples range from product consistencies in the ubiquitous white ear buds and Mac startup sound to marketing coordination around product launches. 7. "Kill the past" Innovate and always move forward. The phrase "kill your little darlings" comes to mind for me here. 8. "Turn feedback into inspiration" - Like other items on this list, related to point 1 in that the company creates products and features on its own terms and timetables according to what Apple thinks will inspire the masses. That said, this point is about taking consumer requests and using them as jumping off points for said product introductions on Apple terms. 9. "Don't invent, reinvent" - Closely related to the "innovate" idea from point 7, but rather an idea around taking ideas that may already exist (i.e. portable music players & cell phone PDAs) and completely changing the product category through a radical focus on user experience. 10. "Play by your own clock" - Again... point 1 above. Innovate and action from Apple based on what the company (specifically, Steve Jobs) views as the right product introductions at the right time. An enormously key point made by Manjoo here is around the status of Jobs as CEO. The stock and company have done well enough under his stewardship (especially now during his second CEO go-round) that he (and Apple as a whole by extension) have the latitude to act based on what he feels best... basically a free pass from the never-ending cost-cutting pressures that many public company CEOs seem to be reacting to: Lots and lots of stuff written here about a fascinating company. Me thinks if one were to identify the "big rock" point from Manjoo, it would be that Apple both can and does operate in the manner it sees best to provide a great user experience to the customer... and has Apple as a company prosper as a result. Fast Company Magazine - 100 Most Creative People in Business – posted 6/29/2010 In its June 2010 issue Fast Company published its annual list of the "100 Most Creative People in Business". I expected to find it of interest after there being tons of good content (and people covered) in the 2009 iteration (posted about and linked to here) and found that this issue didn't disappoint. One interesting thing about the content is FC made the editorial decision to not feature anyone that has been previously profiled in the magazine (much less a prior "100 MCPiB" type person). For reasons known only to me (nah, actually for reasons that I'll note here), below are the people and stories of those people that stood out: #17 - Reid Hoffman - Founder and Chairman of LinkedIn. Profile features quotes from him that "people need to run their careers like real businesses" and in speaking of entrepreneurs... "I want to know that they care

80

Words Written Down – Business

about people more broadly than themselves." #21 - Josh Sapan - CEO of Rainbow Media, the umbrella company over AMC (which brought viewers "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men") and IFC. Interesting piece for its mention of Sapan's outside interests, including being a published poet. I gotta be impressed with a corporate exec with such a creative bent. #26 - "Shmuel "Mooly" Eden - VP/GM at Intel: Write-up was cool from the perspective of Eden's focus on consumer use of future technology. #53 - Soraya Darabi Product Lead for Drop.io: She got the cover of this FC issue and at 23 was responsible for social media marketing at The New York Times and now at 26 helps lead the efforts of Drop.io in the field of cloud data storage and sharing. Would be fascinating to know both how she landed the gig at the NYT and what she did to be successful there. #60 - Fred Wilson - Venture Capitalist: Have heard of Wilson previously through his widely read blog A VC. Very cool this concept of transparency about what you're doing in business. #68 - Caterina Fake - Past founder of Flickr and now Hunch. I find very interesting the idea behind Hunch... basically a recommendation engine that pulls from the likes and dislikes of over 1.5 million users to help guide said recommendations. #69 - Charlene Li - Founder of Altimeter Group and social media guru type... and author of the book "Groundswell: Winning In a World Transformed By Social Technologies". Yep, she definitely had me at "social media" and "author". #73 - Scott Belsky - Founder and CEO of Behance... a platform designed to bring together creative types and people looking for said creative talent. FC piece includes mention of the Behance "Action Method" project management product/system/way to help get stuff done. Also from this issue, but not the 100 Most Creative list (though it seems he at least a candidate) was this short piece on Aviv Hadar... the 25 year old Portland resident behind the web design studio Think Brilliant. All in all, lots of really interesting stuff from Fast Company this past month. South Africa Story from BusinessWeek – posted 5/19/2010 Pretty compelling story from the May 17-23 issue of Businessweek: Written by Ken Walls, "South Africa: A Big Bounce from the World Cup" is all about the largest economy on the continent leading into its time on the world stage starting June 11. What struck me about the piece are both how fraught with risk / opportunity the event is for South Africa and the description of the place itself. In terms of beauty, Walls writes of Cape Town within South Africa as being a city like San Francisco, but with the towers of Yosemite there as well. The overall concept of the country is also terribly interesting in that you have a place that used to be something completely different during the times of apartheid, but is now finding its way with two different races figuring out how to make it all work as a country. Really the place sounds amazing to me and makes me think of the descriptions of it (both the land and the apartheid-era conflict) from the excellent Bryce Courtnay (author website here) books "The Power of One" and "Tandia". Most Innovative Companies Story from Fast Company – posted 4/26/2010 Some interesting mentions in the "50 Most Innovative Companies" Fast Company cover story. Yea, Facebook, Google and Apple (among others) are all innovative and interesting companies, but the ones on the list that stood out to me weren't because of who they were, but because of what's described in the Fast Company write-up. Wal-Mart and its sustainability initiatives: Cisco and its efforts in sports. Patients Like Me and the idea of social networking your own health care, Sportvision and technology to measure the effectiveness of MLB players, Twitter and mention of twitter using Daily Show correspondent (and author of "More Information Than You Require") John Hodgeman. Ford in India & iPad for Work Pieces from BusinessWeek – posted 4/22/2010 Two interesting stories from the Apr 12 issue of Businessweek. The first was titled "Alan Mulally's Asian Sales Call" and details how Ford Motor Co. and it's CEO have been focusing on expanding its minimal 23% market share in India, China and surrounding countries. On the heels of other posts I've done on Ford lately, it really does seem the company is both making good moves and has a huge opportunity to grow. The second was "The iPad, Your Newest Workplace Productivity Enhancer" about... yep, the iPad. The new boy wonder device from Apple has been pretty much everywhere lately including a recent cover story in

81

Words Written Down – Business

Time linked to in this post, but what was interesting about this BW piece was the notion of the iPad for work. With someone like Marc Benioff of Salesforce making quotes about the iPad, perhaps its applications (no double entendre intended) do go beyond entertainment to work functional. Apple iPad & New Media: from Time Magazine – posted 4/12/2010 There‘s been some really interesting writing from Time Magazine lately about the iPad, its potential impact and the related area of journalism and new media. To the iPad itself, the April 12 issue gave us a cover image of Steve Jobs and mention of two stories within the pages (but, more later on this idea of "pages"). First was "The iPad Launch: Can Steve Jobs Do It Again?", a fan-boy piece penned by novelist and screenwriter Stephen Fry and second was "Do We Need the iPad? A TIME Review" by Lev Grossman. Grossman wrote a number of nice things about the iPad, but also noted that it's usage appears to be "lovely for consuming content, but not creating it"... which echoed what I've seen from writers such as Jeff Jarvis in his Buzz Machine post "iPad danger: app v. web, consumer v. creator." Fry's essay takes a very different approach in that he writes of his visit to Apple headquarters to speak with Jobs and his lieutenants responsible for running various facets of company business. While not having anything that would contradict the idea of the iPad as being for content consumption, Fry presents a compelling vision of it being an elegant and personal device for its intended purpose... allowing users an immersive user-friendly experience with the things they want to access on a computer (including, but not limited to: music, videos, pictures, games, books and websites). While the iPad itself is simply a device, the Editor's Letter from this April 12 issue gave a glimpse of at least the potential for it to change markets (in this case the field of Journalism). In "Ushering in a New Era", Richard Stengel writes of Time's efforts to get a version of the magazine available for the iPad. In the same category of "Journalism: Where it's Been, Where it's Going" was an essay by Alan Brinkley from the April 19 issue of Time. "What Would Henry Luce Make of the Digital Age?" covered the co-founder and former head of Time Inc. and addressed how he might have approached the current business climate and rush to digital facing print media. What media should do doesn't have an easy answer, but is a fascinating topic. In February of last year I linked to and wrote about the Walter Isaacson Time cover story "How to Save Your Newspaper" and also find interesting (and encouraging) people like the aforementioned Jeff Jarvis and his Buzz Machine blog (and teaching around Interactive/Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York Journalism School). No way to tell where things with media will wind up, but ranging from the guys writing about and working on it to the new products coming up in the space (even if they're designed more for content consumption than creation), there's a lot of interesting stuff going on around this field of new media and user experience with media new and old. Ford Motor Cool Tech Story from Fast Company – posted 3/29/2010 I wouldn't have had this view a few years ago, but if I were buying a car right now, me thinks I'd buy a Ford given Toyota's imploding quality along with Ford‘s innovation and being the only US automaker to not take huge bailout dollars. On the innovation front, the April issue of Fast Company featured the most excellent "How Ford‘s Sync Technology Will Turn It Into America‘s Most Surprising Consumer Electronics Company" from Paul Hochman. A sidebar piece was all about the Sync communications platform from Ford. Copied directly from this "A Look at the Next Generation of Ford Sync" is the instrument panel on one of the new models with the forthcoming MyFord Touch user interface. So great... car design that mimics and incorporates the best of consumer technology. From the story I really liked this featured quote from Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally, "It's cool to connect. But it's past cool. It's a reason to buy. We're going to be the coolest, most useful app you've ever had." And to answer the question in advance, Mulally is quoted elsewhere in the story as saying "we won't do it unless it lets you keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel." This combines with other mentions in the piece of how the open system aspect of the Sync system has influenced other areas of automotive development (related to this June 2009 blog post about the company)... very compelling stuff. Also from this issue of Fast Company was a pretty interesting story from

82

Words Written Down – Business

Ellen McGirt titled "How Adam Carolla Became a Podcast Superstar". Podcasting has been around for a while, but stories like this along with the companion piece about available podcasts show that it's starting to reach mainstream status. Fast Company Magazine - Feb 2010 issue – posted 3/7/2010 There were a couple of things of interest of the Feb 2010 issue of Fast Company Magazine. The first was from the cover story on Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash. Rather than the entirety of the story, what struck me was mention around his off the court involvements. One of Nash's business ventures is a film production company, Meathawk, and its first documentary is an ESPN 30 for 30 project on Canadian hero Terry Fox. The movie is titled "Into the Wind" and will chronicle the run across Canada that Fox made to raise money for cancer research after losing a leg to the disease. While Fox passed away in 1981, his legend has carried on to the point that his mother was a featured participant of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies. No ESPN air date yet for the documentary, but I'm looking forward to seeing it. Looking into details on "Into the Wind" led me to read further about the 30 for 30 documentary series. The main website features this Bill Simmons essay on 30 for 30 along with a listing of the features. Among these is "Kings Ransom" about Wayne Gretzky going from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings. Directed by Peter Berg, this movie aired fall 2009 on ESPN and appears to be shown next April 25 on ESPN Classic. Businessweek Story on AT&T Problems – posted 2/28/2010 There was a pretty interesting cover story on AT&T in the in the Feb 15 issue of Businessweek. The story is titled "AT&T's iPhone Mess" and stood out to me as it's got multiple angles worth reading about, with one leading to another. First, I'm a huge fan of the iPhone and am usually interested in reading about the device itself and ramifications of it... in this case, to basically swamp the AT&T data network that provides net access for the $30/month that most iPhone users pay. Second was the interesting question of how companies reach for short term profits vs long term investments... with the apparent answer in this case being this one large company metaphorically squeezing the lemon and neglecting needed network investments. Lastly, what AT&T has created is a situation ripe for the forces of Social Media. If people feel that they're being shafted by a company, there's so many avenues to communicate disgust to the masses.... and communicate disgust people have, in forums ranging from blogs to Facebook and even the simplest not even media form of Social Media, word of mouth. From the same BW issue came another piece tied to Apple... only this one even more so. "An iPad in Your Pad? It's Up to the Apps" is a short commentary about the content that should be available on the iPad, and how important the availability of worthwhile content is to the future success of the hardware. Personally, me thinks the content will be stellar (maybe not at first, but not far in the future) and I think the device will be, for lack of a better word, rad. Apple vs. Google, Zappos, & Salesforce.com BusinessWeek Pieces – posted 1/26/2010 Interesting cover story in the Jan 25 issue of BusinessWeek: Titled "Apple vs. Google", the piece is about... well, that, and details how the prior close "work friends" have had their relationship move at least into the "frenemies" if not "enemies" status. This increased competition has come in the mobile space as Apple has entrenched themselves in the category with the success of the iPhone and Google has gone beyond simply the Android Operating System to now the Nexus One phone by Google. This competition is about much more than the hardware, but also poised for huge growth mobile ad market. In addition to the above piece about a couple of really good companies now battling it out, I wanted to link to a few additional BW articles about some interesting efforts from Zappos and Salesforce.com (well, from its founder and CEO). From the Jan 11 issue of BusinessWeek came "Zappos Retails Its Culture" about efforts at the (recently purchased by Amazon) company to sell as a service its management culture through an offering called Zappos Insights. The Nov 30 issue featured a review of the book "Behind the Cloud" by Marc Benioff... Salesforce.com CEO.

83

Words Written Down – Business

Workplace Culture Blog Posts – posted 1/4/2010 Last month I did a blog post with the business topics most frequently covered here and within those topics, have now aggregated posts done around touch-screen technology (as a part of aforementioned business topic blog post) and Social Media links and commentary. With this leaving Cloud Computing, Workplace Culture and Customer Service as other business areas of note covered here... I wanted to tackle first Workplace Culture... but, with the statement that it closely links to Customer Service. The concept behind this coupling notion is that the helpfulness and attitude of a company's employees in many ways can be an indicator of how well those employees feel treated. Someone simply doing their job is one thing, but to do it exceptionally well often requires a combination of personal excellence (pardon the cliché) and a desire to exercise that on behalf of the company. This is going to be particularly true in a customer facing role where someone may not necessarily have to "delight the customer" in order to fulfill their job function. So... blog posts done around workplace culture: The most recent was last month and my post about Best Buy included pieces both about the retailer's success and its People Management. In Nov 2009 I did a post titled "Employer / Employee Relationship Businessweek Pieces"... containing several links from the Nov 16 BW issue. These included both one about the (seemingly outstanding for both the employee and company) Microsoft health coverage and one about the pending talent exodus from companies where employees feel mistreated. From Sept 2009, I linked to the annual Businessweek "Best Places to Launch a Career" and then in Jan 2009, did a post on Fortune Magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For". Getting outside the realm of "best places to work" lists, I did a March 2009 post around the Fast Company 2009 "50 Most Innovative Companies" List. Does a company being innovative mean that its employees have a good work environment? Nah, definitely not, but it sure doesn't hurt as it's going to be tough for a well-intentioned and employee friendly firm to hold onto its best employees if they're bored. Two different blog posts about People Management at IBM... from Nov 2009 was a post about the 401K... and IBM's program offering to employees and from Mar 2009 was a post with two different pieces on IBM... one on training and one mentoring. Finally, in October 2008 I posted a blog entry titled "Corporate Workplace Culture: the Good (Not the Bad or Ugly)." Within that was multiple links about (positive workplace example) companies like Microsoft, Netflix, REI, Costco and Google). Lots of posts, even more links within those and I think it all comes down to a basic concept... companies that want to do well over the long run have to offer a solid product or service AND have employees that feel valued. Short-term positive results can certainly be achieved without these employees, but sustainable excellence... not so likely. Best Buy Articles in Businessweek – posted 12/28/2009 Couple of interesting pieces on electronics retailer Best Buy from Businessweek: The first was from the start of December and titled "Why Tech Bows to Best Buy." As could be inferred from said headline, it's about the current dominance in its category and how that translates to increased control in relationships with suppliers. Best Buy certainly must have done some things right to enjoy this position, but along with their success, it's also helped that competitors such as Comp USA and more recently Circuit City have shuttered their doors (again, though... leads to a chicken and egg type question as perhaps moves by Best Buy helped take down the other retailers). Getting at what they've done right, the second BW Best Buy piece of note was a December 2006 cover story titled "Smashing the Clock. No schedules, No mandatory meetings, Inside Best Buy's radical reshaping of the workplace." As the story was from three years ago, I was curious to see what the current usage of this ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) program may be and how it seems to be doing. Well, a Google search later seems to indicate that the usage is there and it seems to be a success. I found this May 2008 post from the Tim Ferriss blog (he of the bestselling book "The Four Hour Workweek") and more recently, this June 2009 post on the blog Free Pursuits. Additionally, the two Best Buy employees behind the ROWE program have since written a book and been spun off from Best Buy into a new consulting venture, CultureRx) to spread this management practice.

84

Words Written Down – Business

Business strategies to do well: Simplicity & "Special" – posted 12/16/2009 One of the things I've done on this blog is post about business topics that I find of interest (which included touch-screen technology and was followed up by this post on Social Media) and that's been an entertaining exercise (you know, for myself), but I also keep thinking beyond business areas and about business strategies and tactics. For the purpose of this post, I want to look at business to consumer interaction (as opposed to business to business) and highlight two strategic consumer interaction concepts... which, done well, go a long way in helping decide who I want to spend money with. In addition to the concept itself, I also list out some tactical examples of it executed well... or not so well: Concept # 1 - Simplicity of interaction: Very impressed with the new Bank of America ATM machines. To give customers the ability to go from entering their ATM card to walking away with cash with the combination of pin # and two touches ("fast cash" and "no receipt) is an excellent example of how to make an experience easy. Love the simple menu at Chipotle. I know what they offer and can plainly see what it costs. I suppose there's something to be said for a fast food restaurant offering a lot of options, but so many places require you to either go with one of the limited offerings on the board, have knowledge of what else is available or just sort of guess at the offering or cost. Again, options are nice, but me thinks it doesn't behoove a company to have a stressful purchasing experience. I will almost always pick a mobile-enabled website (like the CNNSI site http://m.si.com/) over a standard one when surfing on my iPhone. Why there are still heavily visited sites (Yahoo! Sports as an example) which don't automatically send mobile users to a mobile-enabled site is beyond me. Not a fan of shopping at stores that don't have transparent and easy to find pricing. To this end, I'm a huge proponent of price scanners in stores, but even places that have them can still be annoying to shop at if there are not enough of them and prices aren't clearly marked. Bad example that comes to mind is Kohl's... yes, they've got scanners here and there, but it's still not always easy to know what stuff costs. Concept # 2 - Making the customer "special" (or at least feel that way). Love the Starbucks Gold Card. They give a card and instantly you get a discount not available to all... fantastic way to make someone feel "special." With them doing away with the discount and moving to a "free drink with 15 purchases" format, I'm a bit skeptical of the same cache remaining. Really not a fan of stores that want to check you upon your exit: I get that shoplifting is a major problem for retailers, but have avoided Fry's Electronics for years with their practice of checking receipts against items as people leave. My understanding is that (at least in California) shoppers are under no obligation to stop and be checked (different story entirely for stores like Costco that are membership based), but I view the request as intrusive. Social Media Blog Posts – posted 12/9/2009 Earlier this week I did a post that listed out the business topics most frequently covered in this blog... and which tackled the blog topic area of touch-screen technology. For the purpose of this post, I want to start looking at another large business topic... that of Social Media. The area deserves attention it's become ubiquitous from a person to person communication perspective through mediums like blogs, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook among others. Arguably even more important, though, is the corporate perspective as companies attempt to use many of these same channels to reach consumers. From either approach, Social Media is a big deal that I've written about and linked to quite a bit here. With this post I want to bring together some of those posts and links. Books & Associated Content: Back in Sept 2008 I did a book review post titled "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good" by Sarah Lacy which was about... yep, Sarah Lacy's book on Web 2.0 companies. It was an interesting read in that the book looks at the newest web entries with particular focus on platform companies such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. The post above also links to a Businessweek excerpt from the Lacy book which focuses on the platform company Ning. In Feb 2009 I did a blog post linking to another Businessweek excerpt... this time from the Jeff Jarvis book What Would Google Do? As to the book itself, I found it an extremely interesting read and wrote a review of it here. While it's true that the book isn't about Social Media, Jarvis is a prolific writer on web topics (often via his website Buzz Machine) and his writing deserves mention in any discussion of web or "new internet" stuff. The last "Social Media as a topic" book I posted on was Say Everything: How

85

Words Written Down – Business

Blogging Began, What it‟s Becoming, and Why It Matters by Scott Rosenberg which I reviewed here. An excellent book which looks at blogs and their import... as both an ongoing medium and the precursor of other Social Media mediums like Facebook and MySpace (among others). Magazine Pieces: The most indepth Social Media magazine writing referenced in this blog was probably in a June 2009 post titled All Around the Social Networking Mulberry Bush. Linked to within was a Time Magazine cover story on Twitter and Businessweek cover story about online relationships. Also deserving of mention here, though, are three additional blog posts done. The first was an Apr 2009 post which referenced the Jarvis book along with the concept of the how relatively easy it is to launch an internet company today. The other two posts had various and sundry articles on Social Media companies and concepts linked... with the first including Facebook and LinkedIn and the second Amazon, Facebook and mobile commerce. There was lots of writing out there about a big topic which will only get more important as both person to person and company to consumer communication moves forward. Fun times for those who understand and work in this area. Best Magazine Writing: Bottled Water & BPA Articles – posted 12/8/2009 Following up on my "Best Magazine Writing: Esquire & Sports Illustrated"... which follows up on my "Stuff of Interest & Authors Enjoyed", I began looking at posts with Businessweek and Fast Company links and found some excellent writing from each magazine on both plastics and the bottled water industry. Three different articles with three different angles... all raising red flags around bottled water and the plastic compound BPA. From Dec 2007, Fast Company writer Charles Fishman wrote "Message in a Bottle" on the bottled water industry. This award winning article basically was an expose of many of the negative things about bottled water. In July 2008, one of the earlier posts I did to this blog was titled Impact of Bottled Water on a Town and links to the BusinessWeek story "A Town Torn Apart by Nestlé." Not to get overly "up with small town, down with big corporation" here, but it's nettlesome when you have a company (Nestle for its Arrowhead water brand) retaining a lawyer on behalf of a town (McCloud, CA) and then the company negotiating with the lawyer: Seems to raise just a few conflict of interest questions. The first two blog posts and articles are around bottled water and one company that sells it, but the third is around a component that's in many of the bottles themselves. In Feb 2009 I did this blog post linking to the Fast Company feature "The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A" As the blog post and article (in of course much greater detail) covers, the compound BPA (or Bisphenol A) is a building block of many shatterproof plastics and can be found in products ranging from cell phones to drink cans and baby bottles. The issue comes from the concerns around the product's potential to leech into water and impact the reproductive system... particularly given its presence in products used by babies with highly undeveloped immune systems. Three different pieces around three slightly different topics, but all linked together by excellent writing that raises some disconcerting questions about both bottled water and BPA. Business Topics of Note & Touch-screen Technology – posted 12/7/2009 As part of my recent trend of looking back on what I've written, I wanted to specifically look at some of the business topics and companies that I've posted on and linked to. From a perspective of what companies I've most frequently posted on, the following are those that I've written on the most: Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco and IBM. More to the point of this post, though, the following are some (but, not all) of the business topics I've posted on: Touch-screen technology, Cloud Computing, Workplace Culture, Customer Service &Social Media. Touch-screen Technology: For the purpose of looking at the first topic above, I wanted to expand a bit the field of touch-screen to also encompass handheld e-readers along with the more well known smart phones and personal computers. Touch-screen is a fascinating area of business that really came to the forefront with the iPhone from Apple and has huge potential for growth and ubiquitous adoption through multiple product manifestations. Touch-screen & Apple: In Dec 2008 I did this post that linked to pieces on one of the pioneers in the field, Jeff Han and I've done multiple posts on Apple, the iPhone and associated App Store. The first was back in Aug 2008 on my new iPhone and then

86

Words Written Down – Business

in Jan 2009 I linked to an article about digital books via the iPhone and in Nov 2009 did a post on the Businessweek apps cover story... with the whole field brought about due to Apple and the App Store. Even though the Cupertino-based company brought touch as a technology into the popular lexicon, they're certainly not the only player in the market anymore. eReaders & Amazon: Amazon for several years now has been the dominant player in the online book market (among others) and their more recent foray into ereaders is a fascinating play that may bring huge advances to the book and magazine industry just as the iPhone did for smart phones. In terms of the general subject area, I did a Feb 2009 post on written content online. Writing this piece (which linked to a Time cover story on the topic) really showed me how desperately innovation is needed around written content online... and how Amazon could move things forward as a result of their Kindle e-reader. Whether it's via the Kindle or a forthcoming competitor Plastic Logic or any new entry from Apple, the market is ripe for innovation. Following up on this idea were two ereader content containing blog posts I did in June 2009. The first linked to a Fast Company article and second linked to pieces from both Time and Businessweek. Touch-screen & HP: The last two sections written covered touch as a general technology area and the iPhone and e-readers as a product area within. However, blog posts I've written also cover the good old fashioned (well, not really old fashioned) personal computer as a product area which uses touch. This Feb 2009 blog post references Hewlett-Packard's recent success in the PC business (and links to other HP blog posts done here). HP has done well with the Touch Smart desktop PC, but what really interests me is the prospect of touch becoming a standard component of notebook computer displays. In a way, this seems to me to be a melding together of attributes from smart phones, e-readers, netbooks and full-size desktop computers. You wouldn't see smart phones go away, but the convergence of the various technologies is an interesting prospect. It's tough to know exactly where this technology (or any technology, I suppose) will wind up, but there's a lot of good stuff out there and some very big companies committed to innovation around touch. Will be interesting to see where it all goes. Businessweek Report on Startup Ventures – posted 11/23/2009 Interesting feature in the Nov 23 Businessweek issue: Titled "World's Most Intriguing Startups", it details some of the companies that are poised for success during this downturn in business. Some of the startups contained within are Hunch... a "website that used the experiences of others to help people make decisions." The venture was started by Flickr founder Caterina Fake and is written about in the opening story from this BW report. Another interesting startup report was "Augmenting Reality" on the Dutch startup Layar. Augmented reality is a very cool field in that it's about the overlay of digital data on a physical world... an example of which would be pointing your iPhone (via a now available free app) at something and pressing a button to then have information about that appear on the screen. Not part of the Startups Report, but also of interest from this issue was "Buddy, Can You E-Mail Me 100 Bucks?" about mobile to mobile phone transfers of money. Seems closely related to the topics in the blog post I did earlier this month on apps and m-commerce enabled websites. "Gunning for an Elephant in Silicon Valley" was an interesting piece from the Oct 19 Businessweek on networking company, and Cisco rival, Arista. Founded by Silicon Valley pioneer Andreas Bechtolsheim, the venture appears to very much below in this post on hot new startups. Employer / Employee Relationship Businessweek Pieces – posted 11/13/2009 Two brief interesting pieces around employees and the companies they work for from the November 16 issue of Businessweek. The longer of the two is titled "The Return of the House Call" and details the Microsoft program that lets employees request an in-home doctor visit. From a financial perspective, it can actually reduce Microsoft expense in helping to bring down company costs for any unneeded emergency room visits by covered employees (should probably be noted that the Microsoft health care plan is apparently noted for being low-cost to its employees). The secondary, but still important impact of the program is in showing employees how valued they are by the company. Very much tied to this latter concept, I thought the point made in "Are Your Employees Just Biding Their Time?" a solid one. The concept

87

Words Written Down – Business

is that there are a number of companies out there taking the current recession as an opportunity to squeeze employees and that could turn out to be counterproductive when the economy turns around. If an employee doesn't feel valued or treated fairly, it could well be a mass exodus of talent once other opportunities present themselves. I find this whole idea of the employee / employer relationship to be a fascinating one and (keeping in mind things are always as they appear) it's interesting to read about and reflect upon the approaches taken by some large corporations. Reminds me of a blog post in Oct 2008 titled Corporate Workplace Culture: the Good (Not the Bad or Ugly) which featured some positive employee treatment stories from companies such as Costco, Netflix, Google and Microsoft; and then another post in March of this year on People Management at IBM. I think the point is that companies can squeeze employees under certain conditions, but I really question how sustainable the practice is over the long haul. Customer Experience Pieces from Businessweek – posted 10/22/2009 Some interesting articles from the September 26 Businessweek around how companies are trying to bring in and then keep customers. The cover graphic is titled "The Hard Sell", but the point wasn't that consumers are being pressured. Rather, it's that companies have to provide a great purchasing experience and not just great products. Probably the best example of this the piece titled "Amazon: Turning Consumer Opinions into Gold." The main thing detailed is the "customer review" area for products on the Amazon website. As opposed to worrying about any negative reviews hurting sales, Amazon has focused on the idea of being an information source that also happens to sell the products it provides information on. Two other pieces from this BW report looked at this same idea of how people buy things. While more in its infancy than Amazon, the Facebook Connect program is fascinating in its potential to change how people make purchasing decisions. "Facebook Banks on a Little Help from Its Friends" details how the social networking company is looking at and instituting features that could at a large level help guide people towards products and services recommended by those they trust. Finally, "Retailers Are Learning to Love Smartphones" details the move from "e" to "m commerce" whereby Smartphones are being used to access smart-phone optimized company websites that people buy stuff from. As someone with an iPhone, I find it incredibly annoying going to a website that isn't formatted to come across well on a phone and imagine that's where things are headed. Noreena Hertz & Hulu Pieces from Fast Company – posted 10/18/2009 There were two very good (and very different from one another) feature pieces in the November issue of Fast Company Magazine. The first was a fairly long profile on economist Noreena Hertz titled "How an Economist's Cry for Ethical Capitalism was Heard." A well-written piece by Danielle Sacks, it delves into Hertz's work and writings around capitalism at both a government and corporate level. Hertz first came to prominence with her 2001 book "The Silent Takeover" and followed that up with "The Debt Threat" in 2004. Sacks describes the first book as being "about the unsustainability-environmentally, socially and economically-of laissez-faire capitalism and the idea that markets are stable." This tying into Hertz's notion that corporations simply acting in the sole interest of shareholders eventually leads down a path detrimental to all. Her second book focuses on the idea of 3rd World debt forgiveness and the idea (often trumpeted by Bono) of 1st World countries wiping out the debt obligations from less developed nations. It's interesting stuff from Hertz... in part due to the credence in her idea held by capitalist firms such as ING, McDonald's and Salesforce.com. It makes one take note when statements are paid attention to by the very people you'd think would reject them. The idea that Hertz is now espousing is one of co-op capitalism... a model in which companies, NGOs and governments work together. I also found interesting from this issue the piece titled "Can Hulu Save Traditional TV?" This fairly long profile on the network-owned video sharing site examines the growth of the company and how it both has and could impact television in the future. It's not as important as the topics Hertz talks about, but Hulu as a medium is intriguing.

88

Words Written Down – Business

Fast Company Magazine - Oct 2009 Issue – posted 10/7/2009 Some interesting stuff (for various reasons) from the latest issue of Fast Company Magazine: The NextTech feature "OnLive Goes Online--And It Could Kill the Game Console" chronicles serial tech entrepreneur Steve Perlman and his latest venture, OnLive. The company itself is about streaming video games over the Internet, but I was struck by the piece not so much because of OnLive, but because of Perlman himself. After hitting big by co founding and then selling WebTV, he created the business incubator Rearden (which I think was originally named Rearden Steel). Yep, he named it after the main guy in Ayn Rand's manifesto/book "Atlas Shrugged". Onlive is actually the third venture to come out of Rearden, with the first two being a set-top box maker and motion capture company that provided technology to help make "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"... a most excellent film with stellar effects. I suppose my only data point is that he named his company after an Ayn Rand character, but out of that, I'll say he's an interesting guy whose companies definitely work on interesting stuff. I also found of note the cover story on Coca-Cola VP of Design David Butler. While I have to admit personal envy of Butler's cool (at 43) look and job, I also appreciated his interest in and ideas around systems and platforms. Additionally, I found interesting Butler's commentary around the role of design not just for the sake of design itself, but to put things in place to sell more stuff. As evidence of this, Butler's big step forward after arriving at Coke was his three page memo "designing on purpose" about the overarching role of design within the company. The other design piece I really liked in this issue was that on information architect Lisa Strausfeld. The whole idea behind her area of interest is information and how it tells a story to the people who interact with it. I also found interesting her mention of her late mentor Muriel Cooper and how she "wanted to do hard-core information design rather than entertainment-oriented work." I love things that entertain, but even more so completely get what Strausfeld finds appealing about this concept of working on something lasting with teeth. Businessweek Articles: Cover Story on Glock & "Change by Design" – posted 9/30/2009 Pretty intriguing article in the Sept 21 issue of Businessweek on the handgun manufacturer Glock: I suppose it's not a shock given the industry it operates in, but as "Glock's Secret Path to Profits" details, lots of shady (but entertaining) things there. Contracted hits on the founder... tax-haven shell companies, good times all. On a very different note, there was an interesting piece in the Oct 5 BW issue from IDEO design shop founder Tim Brown. The book excerpt was taken from "Change by Design"... about how companies (such as Kaiser Permanente) can apply design thinking to internal and customer-facing processes. BusinessWeek Cover Story on Optimism – posted 8/22/2009 There was an interesting Special Report containing multiple pieces on Business/Economy optimism in the latest issue of BusinessWeek Magazine. The lead story is "Why It's Smart To Be Optimistic" and contains lots of good points around reasons to practically be thankful for the recent economic problems... ranging from laid off people starting new ventures to the increase in education as people prepare for a different future. Really good points all contained within. The final page essay (thankfully not written this week by Obama critics Jack & Suzy Welch) is also very interesting, and unfortunately, almost a counterpoint to the "cause for optimism" from the prior piece. "The Buyback Boondoggle" is penned by William Lazonick and details the lavish amounts of money spent by corporations on stock repurchases. Lazonick brings up three excellent points about this practice. First is that the money is often spent at the expense of jobs... with companies buying back large of amounts of stock at the same time employees are being laid off. Second is that it can be done by a corporation for the sole intent of raising the stock price... which can lead to an interesting question as public companies are legally chartered with maximizing value to shareholders, but that often can wind up more short than long term. Third is that when companies buy back stock on a large scale, the largest beneficiaries can wind up being executives of the company with options to exercise.

89

Words Written Down – Business

Sept 2009 Fast Company Magazine - Open Content Ed & Other Stuff – posted 8/14/2009 Some interesting stuff from the September 2009 issue of Fast Company... including a feature story about a fascinating topic I've been hearing frequently about of late. FC writer Anya Kamenetz penned "How WebSavvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education"... a long title given for a piece about an important topic. The concept is "open content" education, basically making available online learning that previously had been held behind an (often extremely expensive) brick and mortar wall. The leading force behind the movement seems to be BYU professor David Wiley... who is also heavily involved in both nonprofit and for profit private enterprise around open-content (or open-source) education. The first I heard of the movement or concept was from a Nov 2008 Time Magazine article about Western Governors University and more recent mentions of YouTube EDU and Apple iTunes U. Attached to the Kamenetz piece is Fast Company's "Five Startups to Watch"... with these and other companies being part of the inaugural Venture Capital in Education Summit held earlier this year. The field is growing and I'm terribly interested from both a macro and personal level. Big picture, the concept in its various forms and representations should make education more available to all and for myself, I'm thinking of it as a way to find resources and forums to improve my writing. In addition to that on open source education, there were two other pieces from this FC issue that stood out to me. The first was "Heard of Allegiant Air? Why It's the Nation's Most Profitable Airline" about a carrier profitably serving mostly small markets (and doing it well I can say from personal experience). The authors of "Made to Stick", Dan and Chip Heath, provide the second with "The Gripping Statistic: How to Make Your Data Matter"... about how to describe data and have it make sense. An example they give of something that could be worded better is "disposable diapers used could stretch to the moon and back 7 times". The Heath brothers‘ point is that this doesn't tell you much, because if the trash generated was cut in half, "to the moon and back 3.5 times" still seems like a heck of a lot. Fast Company Magazine - Jul/Aug 2009 Issue – posted 6/27/2009 There were a couple of interesting articles from the most recent Fast Company Magazine. First and foremost is an investigative report titled "Beyond the Grid" by Anya Kamenetz which looks in great detail at the concept of small-scale household or business power generation and its potential. Not surprisingly, this idea of a "micro-grid" is being fought by large power utilities looking to prevent this competition by either installing and controlling it themselves or by simply making it go away. What's also very interesting in the piece is the mention of clean-energy advocates such as Al Gore trumpeting the idea of an "electric superhighway"... which is much less efficient and more costly than the micro-grid, fascinating piece. Also from this issue is the cover story "Amazon Taps its Inner Apple" about the company's dominance of the online book market and impact on the larger brick and mortar based publishing industry. Closely tied into that is the speculation of how Apple might get into the fray with a larger version of its iTouch / iPhone that could compete with the Amazon Kindle. Another interesting piece is "Why Walgreens Is Building Its Own Universal Health-Care System" about the clinics that Walgreens operates in both its retail stores as well as onsite at various companies. The retail-based side is interesting from its ability to offer quick and easy (read: affordable) health care to the uninsured, but the corporate located side even more interesting in its goal of keeping a company's employees healthy and productive. Last story to note is titled "Why America Is Addicted to Olive Garden". As someone who doesn't find appetizing the idea of eating at Olive Garden, I was interested in this story not so much from being about the food, but rather about the corporation and how it's run. Amazon & the Kindle – posted 6/23/2009 Couple of interesting articles I've seen lately about Amazon. From the June 22 issue of Time Magazine comes "Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business?" by Time writers Lev Grossman and Andrea Sachs. It's just a fascinating look at a company that's remade themselves over the years and is dominating and now guiding an industry through their share of the online book sale market and introduction of the Kindle reader (and its new iterations). Not quite as wide ranging, but still an interesting product review is "Amazon's

90

Words Written Down – Business

New Kindle DX Means Business" by Stephen Wildstrom in the June 22 BusinessWeek. I wrote previously about written content online and the wireless reader market that Amazon practically created in this blog post... interesting topic. Cloud Computing Revisited – posted 6/13/2009 I first wrote a post about Cloud Computing (at Google in this case) back in Jan 2008, prior to when I even regularly posted to this blog and just came across another in-depth story that makes the topic worth revisiting here. The July 15 issue of BusinessWeek contains an in depth piece (with associated sub-stories) titled "How Cloud Computing Will Change Business" that shows a compelling area of technology taking off at a fast pace. The term cloud computing may not be familiar to all, but its usage is close to ubiquitous. Everything from e-mail accounts through Gmail and yahoo to Facebook and YouTube involves information "in the cloud". The BW story gets off to a compelling start when it references a Bill Gates speech back in 1990 (forever ago in technology time) that references three coming developments: "1. A more personal PC"... iPhone anyone? "2. More powerful communications networks"... granted high-speed Internet could be as far along in the US as in Europe and Asia, but should continue improving."3. Easy access to a broad range of information"... there you go, the aforementioned cloud (data on servers backed up by other servers). Also of interest are some of the BW vignettes about various usages of Cloud Computing by companies. Probably most interesting to me was "How Clouds Can Change Management" about the uberconnected approach taken by the CEO of Serena Software. Small story, but a cool look at what a company can do when it really wants to take advantage of available technology. Ford Motor Coolness - Who'd of Thunk It? – posted 6/13/2009 As someone that has happily owned a Toyota, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru and then Toyota in the 20-year car owning portion of my life, I'm now fairly amazed to be interested in what Ford Motor is doing. Press about it appearing to be the only solvent major US car company and two recent articles about new models make me think that maybe one day I'll actually own a Ford. In its July issue, Esquire Magazine named its 2009 Car of the Year... the Ford Taurus SHO. Never would have expected Esquire to talk up a Ford like this, much less a Taurus, but the car is described (as part of an interesting and short read) in pretty glowing terms. A second positive piece about Ford and the cars it's putting out comes from the June 15 BusinessWeek and is titled "Can Ford's "World Car" Bet Pay Off?" About current efforts at the automaker to pull off the sought-after car company trick of one model that is sold (well) globally, it focuses on the Ford Fiesta... already a success in Europe and Asia and launching in the US early 2010. The article talks about the Fiesta body lines being modeled after the BMW 3 series, but the Fiesta image below reminds me of a stubbier version of the Subaru Impreza (which I happen to own and like). Very interesting stuff from Ford: I'm surprised, in a good way. All Around the Social Networking Mulberry Bush – posted 6/8/2009 Given that I last week did a blog post about my social-networked online life (and its various parts and pieces) it's only appropriate that there should be two different magazine cover stories (below) that delve into the topic... albeit in very different ways. The whole point of the blog post was to look at the different online profiles I've got and try to figure out how to have them integrate, link to and interact with one another. With that fairly dialed in (at least I feel that way for now), I found interesting the two aforementioned pieces that look respectively at online relationships (not between different profiles/sites, but between friends) and at the fastest growing social-networking site... Twitter. In terms of online relationships between people, the June 1 issue of BusinessWeek featured the story "Learning, and Profiting, from Online Friendships" that examines the efforts from various companies to figure out how to help connections between consumers lead to increased sales for a brand or product. These ways can range from targeted ads to friends on a social-networking site to attempting to mine and garner product recommendations between friend networks. There‘s huge potential there and it will be quite the race to see what sites benefit

91

Words Written Down – Business

from friend relationships the most and quickest. Taking a different, but very much related, approach was the June 15 Time Magazine cover story on Twitter. Titled "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live", it's a detailed look at the site/tool/medium/phenomenon that according to a Time graphic, has grown some 1,300% in year over year monthly visitors. My "related to the BW story" comment about Twitter comes largely from the article description of Twitter users figuring out new ways to use the service... one of the largest being the forwarding of links to their network of friends or followers. This forwarding doesn't of course have to be able a product or service they like, but... it could. It's fascinating stuff and all revolves around the concept of people using the Internet as a social tool that can accomplish a lot... whether it‘s simple personal expression, the spreading of causes or pointing their friends in the direction of a good purchase. Definitely a lot there either way you slice it. Fast Company Magazine - June 2009 Issue – posted 6/1/2009 Lots of interesting stuff from the June issue of Fast Company Magazine. The cover story is "The 100 Most Creative People in Business" and I've listed below some of the ones that struck me as particularly interesting (omitting some that I find interesting, but already know about). The Fast Company link on each person has both the write-up from the magazine and further information about said person's activities: #4: Reed Hastings - CEO of Netflix. Nothing terribly insightful in the piece, but I find Netflix as a company interesting both from the perspectives of what it does and how it manages employees (i.e. trusting them to do right). #11: Prith Banerjee - Director of HP Labs. Having toured HP Labs in the past, I can vouch that it's a fascinating place where they work on lots of cool stuff. #16: Dave Morin - Senior Platform Manager at Facebook. I found this to be interesting in that Morin is the responsible for Facebook Connect... an initiative to let users log on to over 8,000 different sites using their Facebook login. Seems to be a much needed and big step forward in allowing people to build and link their social network identities among multiple sites. #17: Stephen Chau - Product Manager for Google Maps and Google Earth: Interesting in that he works on a really compelling application, particularly when you consider actual photos now being included in Google Maps. #34: Evan Williams - CEO of Twitter. Easily the most talked about website of the last year. #37: Shai Reshef - Founder of University of the People offering close to free open-source education. #41: Maurice Sendak - Writer of the acclaimed children's book "Where the Wild Things Are"... which is being released this fall as an incredibly cool looking feature film. #46: Jim Jannard - Creator of the new digital movie camera, the Red One. Interesting in its potential as a disruptive technology... serving the role of current $150,000 cameras at a cost of $17,500 (and already being used by some major directors). #59: Noah Brier - Head of Strategic Planning at Barbarian Group Advertising. Responsible for a very compelling website called "Brand Tags" at which consumers give their quick impressions of various brands... quite the database of information being compiled. #78: David Wiley - BYU Professor who (similar to Shai Reshef) is a driver of cheap, open-source education online. #80: Jane McGonigal - Director of Games at the Institute for the Future: Creator of massive multi-player online games that can have a social impact. #98: Scott Schuman - Blogger whose website http://www.thesatorialist.com/ has launched his career as a writer and photographer. Two other things of interest from this Fast Company issue were the letter from the editor with mention of HP Marketing guy David Roman's interview about Shaun White and the story about the web bookmarking site http://www.twine.com/ launched by Nova Spivack (whose grandfather happens to be the late management guru, Peter Drucker). BusinessWeek Magazine - May 25 Issue – posted 5/22/2009 Some interesting pieces from the May 25 BusinessWeek issue: "Wal-Mart: Making Its Suppliers Go Green" is about the "encouragement" to have an environmentally sound supply chain provided by the retail giant to its suppliers. People can certainly quibble with some of the actions taken by Wal-Mart around its workforce, but it is positive to see the world's largest retailer acting on behalf of the environment. "Cisco's Big Push into New Markets" provides a look at how the networking company is currently extremely active in entering new markets... from sports to servers to consumer electronics. One interesting facet of this

92

Words Written Down – Business

(particularly in relation to the server foray) is how this puts Cisco in competition with some of its largest partners who resell Cisco gear as part of integrated solutions for corporations. "Giving Products a Good Back story" provides a look at the marketing firm Starlight Runner Entertainment and how it's helps corporate clients create narrative stories around existing products and marketing ideas. The end result of this being larger and more lasting narratives to influence consumers. It's an interesting read and I also found compelling the back story of the firm's founder, Jeff Gomez, that went from being a public school creative writing teacher to launching a gaming magazine and then working for a gaming company. It seems a very entertaining career path for him. Fast Company Magazine - Feb 2009 Issue – posted 5/20/2009 Granted, this is a bit out of order as I just posted on articles from the April issue of Fast Company, but I wanted to link to a copy of interesting pieces from the Feb 2009 Fast Company (cover below). Previously, I wrote about and linked to a really compelling story on the plastic BPA from the Feb issue. Two other stories of interest were... "Next-Gen Investing" about the financial planning website Thrive (found at http://www.justthrive.com/) and a listing of some of the most influential female bloggers in tech along with the blogs they author. Fred Wilson Venture Capitalist Website & Time Internet Business Article – posted 4/28/2009 I came mention of venture capitalist Fred Wilson and his blog http://www.avc.com/ in the Jeff Jarvis book "What Would Google Do?". I'll definitely write more about the book itself when I finish later this week, but wanted to mention and link to Wilson's site in the interim. One of the principle ideas that Jarvis puts forth in his book is interconnectedness online (as he terms it, being "Googly") and he refers to Wilson as "the "Googliest guy I know in this (venture capital), the Googliest industry." The Wilson site features his thoughts on technology and what cool things are out there. This very much has similarities to what I try to do with this site, primary difference of course being that Wilson is actually a VC and is in what I'll call... a better position to fund and make successful these business ideas he comes across. That said, as a recent Time Magazine article titled "The New Internet Start-Up Boom: Get Rich Slow" details, you don't really have to be a venture capitalist in order to be involved in business start-ups. If you've got an idea, the opportunities for business creation are there with much lower upfront costs than ever before. IBM People Management Articles from BusinessWeek – posted 3/28/2009 BusinessWeek Magazine featured in its March 23/30 issue a special report titled "Game-Changing Management Ideas". Under the topics of business landscape, growth, talent and partner management, the issue contained multiple short pieces about some transforming ideas in management today. Under the talent management area, two particularly interesting articles were about IBM and its approach towards developing people. "The World is IBM's Classroom" is a piece that details Big Blue's program which relocates top management prospects to far-flung areas of the world to work in IBM teams on local humanitarian projects. The communities they work in benefit from the output of the projects and the team members benefit from the collaborative experience and good deed done. Immediately following this article was a short piece titled "IBM Reinvents Mentoring, Via the Web" about a new corporate program where employees can post profiles and easily search and connect either as a mentor or someone seeking guidance to an appropriate match. Both programs offer an interesting approach that seems to make sense. Customer Service Special Report from BusinessWeek – posted 2/28/2009 The March 2 issue of BusinessWeek featured its annual ranking of the top performing companies in the allimportant area of customer service. The list itself was interesting (with online retailer Amazon at #1), but there was lot of associated pieces of note. These ranged from the special report introductory article to the feature piece on Amazon and a host of other vignettes that can be found at this special report jumping off page from the BusinessWeek site. I previously posted about customer service here in reference to the 2008

93

Words Written Down – Business

special report from BusinessWeek and find this to be such a hugely important thing for companies needing to compete harder than ever for every customer... and every customer dollar. Company-Employee Relationship – posted 2/22/2009 Interesting commentary piece by Nancy Gibbs from the Feb 16 issue of Time Magazine: Titled "Married to the Job" it features Gibb's views on the delicate balance between companies and employees in difficult economic times. It's a short read, but pretty compelling... especially for those who work in large corporations. Related to the topic of corporations and how they interact with employees... in its Feb 16 issue, BusinessWeek did a book review of Everything I Know about Business I Learned at McDonald‟s: the 7 Leadership Principles that Drive Break out Success by Paul Facella. I didn't necessarily find myself compelled to seek out and read the book, but was interested in the employee appreciation practices attributed to McDonald's. The phrase that stood out to me from the review was "at McDonald's, praise is always given in public and always heartfelt." It's a simple concept, but... there can't always be raises, promotions or bonuses given, but there can be appreciation and respect shown to employees. In the longrun this is going to help achieve success more than a different approach. HP Mention in Shaun White Fast Company Article – posted 2/21/2009 I wrote previously on Hewlett-Packard with a post on various and sundry media mentions back in July of last year and then a December post about positive things in the HP PC business and recently came across a few interesting and related HP references. The Fast Company Magazine Feb 2009 issue cover story on snowboarder/skateboarder Shaun White details White's activities with various companies looking to sell in the markets he connects most with. One of the more visible partnerships White has is with Hewlett-Packard and in the Fast Company piece, HP Marketing VP David Roman comments on how White was the subject of the first HP "hands" commercial. The idea behind the campaign is that celebrities describe how they use their personal computers as an extension of themselves... while using their hands (and very cool ad production) to tell the story. This focus on computer functionality as an expression of personality can also be found in HP's new mini-note netbook (detailed in this BusinessWeek article) with the exterior graphics from fashion designer Vivienne Tam. Fast Company Investigative Piece on BPA in Plastics – posted 2/20/2009 There was a terribly interesting (and frightening) article in the Feb 2009 issue of Fast Company Magazine about the chemical BPA and its impact. The piece titled "The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A" looks at both the effects of BPA with constant exposure and how those effects are denied by the industry producing it. In short, BPA is produced in the U.S. by five different companies and is an enormous business with the chemical serving as a core ingredient in hundreds of different products that need to be shatterproof. This plastic or plastic-like output serves as the core ingredient in everything from cell phone parts to... baby bottles. This last item in particular is where things get a bit dicey. BPA has been shown to be harmful to the reproductive system and potentially cancer causing if exposed to repeatedly... especially for those with weakened or not fully developed immune systems. Where things cross over from bad to worse is with the narrative around BPA from the companies making it. While one purely arbitrary research study after another shows BPA to be a harmful ingredient in products, industry-funded studies proclaim that all is well. Oh yeah, the U.S. regulatory arms charged with oversight of something like this have to date decided that the industry-funded studies are the ones to go with. Despite much more stringent regulation of BPA (particularly in products used by infants) in Europe as well as Canada, it's pretty much up to consumers to try to seek out non-BPA-containing products for their kids. Those products are definitely out there, but you have to work to find them. Good times.

94

Words Written Down – Business

Pierre Omidyar and Social Entrepreneurship – posted 2/16/2009 I wrote in August of last year a blog post about Jeff Skoll... the former eBay founder who has since founded Participate Media and the Skoll Foundation. So, it seemed only right to do a post about the other eBay founder (really the guy who was there before Skoll), Pierre Omidyar. Both Skoll and Omidyar have been pioneers in and advocates of the field of Social Entrepreneurship, the sometime for-profit, sometimes nonprofit category of business that benefits disadvantaged people. Skoll's efforts are written about in the linked blog post and Omidyar's can be found through the organization he started... the Omidyar Network. Additionally, lots of interesting mentions of Omidyar can be found through the Omidyar search results on the BusinessWeek site as well as the Omidyar search results on the Fast Company site. Written Content Pricing & Delivery - from Time Magazine – posted 2/8/2009 Couple of interesting articles in the Feb 16 issue of Time around online news content... focusing both on the financial viability of the companies that publish it (online and in print) and on the delivery mechanism of that content. The first piece is by Walter Isaacson, formerly a managing editor of Time Magazine, and details his views on how to make this whole financially viable thing work. The cover story titled "How to Save Your Newspaper" espouses an idea that Apple has made ubiquitous through its iTunes Music Store... micro-payments. It's an interesting idea in that it drills down further from the idea of online subscriptions (which are usually on a monthly basis) and questions why content couldn't be received on a micro-basis (with costs that could be anywhere upwards from a penny). This would enable the organizations that create that content to remain open for business and in essence, keep the industry alive. Isaacson's assertion is that even though it would be different than the current mostly-free model around web news content, the idea of paying Apple $.99 per song on iTunes likely seemed revolutionary to those getting content free on Napster. The second piece around written content from this issue of Time focuses not on the type of content itself, but rather on the delivery mechanism. Whether via a newspaper, magazine, book or other printed material, there's efforts from multiple companies to figure out the best type of mobile electronic reader for that content, and to deliver that. This is the topic covered in the story "The Race for a Better Read" which looks at both current handheld offerings and what the future may hold. The best known option out there is the Kindle handheld reader from Amazon, but competition will be likely coming in the future. Some companies to keep an eye on would be the Silicon Valley startup Plastic Logic (which is being led by a former HP manager I've met) or Apple if they (as rumored) get into the market with a larger version of the iTouch. Also mentioned in the article is the Adobe AIR software program that serves as a platform for material to be written onto. "What Would Google Do?" Book Excerpt from Feb 9 BusinessWeek – posted 2/7/2009 Very thought provoking excerpt from Jeff Jarvis' What Would Google Do? in the February 9th issue of BusinessWeek. Jarvis is the author of the Internet and media website http://www.buzzmachine.com/ and his book looks at some of the lessons of Google success that could be adapted to other companies and industries. A general theme that's examined is the idea of open-source innovation and product development and the book excerpt (that can be found here) is about how open-source could be utilized by the beleaguered Big Three automakers. The excerpt is interesting in its examples of what Ford, Chrysler and GM could (but, likely won't) do to utilize consumer feedback in the design and features of new autos. In addition, Jarvis writes about the concepts of both community and personalization... and how much could be done to more closely connect consumers with their cars. There are steps in these areas already being taken by both BMW and Toyota's Scion brand and Jarvis describes how this could be taken further following this "Google model" of development. BusinessWeek Magazine - Jan 19 Issue – posted 1/17/2009 Several interesting things from the Jan 19 issue of BusinessWeek. Probably most noteworthy was a book excerpt from Consultant Ram Charan in the Jan 19 issue of BusinessWeek. Titled "Leadership in the Era of

95

Words Written Down – Business

Economic Uncertainty", the book purports to give detailed steps on how corporations can make it through the current financial conditions. The excerpt itself provides an example of how a major company (which also happens to be a Charan client) reacted to the first signs of an economic crisis and what steps they've taken with their business. It's of course difficult to fully evaluate Charan's book on just an excerpt... and I question a little bit the accolades heaped on a CEO who retains the author as a consultant... but, I did find interesting the employee communication that appeared to take place at DuPont. Given that the main thrust of the actions were around reducing costs, this certainly must have both impacted employees used to the existing environment in the company, and concerned them with questions around their job security. Probably not a lot different than actions that have had to take place at other companies lately, but where Charan appears to say DuPont has done it better is in the speed and execution/communication. From an individual employee perspective, people are going to be a lot more behind the actions of their company if they've had the reasons completely explained and share some ownership in the decisions themselves. The specific example that Charan provides is that within 10 days of official corporate action around cost control, each employee had both met face to face with a manager to discuss what was needed and also specifically asked what they could do to help. As Charan writes, these types of corporate actions are rarely going to fun for employees, but if both done quickly and with the buy-in of employees, the odds of success are going to be much higher than might otherwise be the case. Also from this issue were the following (smaller) stories: "Digital Books via Cell Phone" details the large number of books available through the App Store for iPhone downloads. Particularly interesting is the low-cost of many classic titles. The "Innovation" section of the magazine has as one of three different mentions what may well be the next big thing in personal computers. 2008 saw the introduction and popularization of mini "netbook" computers such as the ePC from Asus or mini-note from HP and this type of device coupled with touch screen technology will likely soon be coming to a store near you. Not a Circuit City, of course, but, you know... a store. Lastly, there's an interesting book review on "The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising". Sounds like a fascinating portrait of quite a guy. "What's Wrong with Silicon Valley?" Cover Story from BusinessWeek – posted 1/10/2009 Really interesting cover story from the Jan 12 issue of BusinessWeek: With its alternate title for the web of "Whatever Happened to Silicon Valley Innovation?" the story looks at the current environment of technology innovation and how it compares to the past. The simplistic (but, still open for debate) answer is that it's lagging as companies focus less on basic science and "fundamental breakthrough" research and more on incremental innovation. Additionally, the idea of going public as a goal is implicated by the article as a cause for concern. The reason being is that this approach favors a more short-term view of the company and can limit the chance for big game-changing innovations. Related to these concepts, an examination is made of the hottest private Silicon Valley tech companies. Right now some the firms generating the most attention are Facebook, Digg and Twitter... all social networking ventures. Social networking is a huge growth area and shouldn't be discounted, but it's also a fair question to ask whether its emergence is as profound as actual breakthrough technologies around hardware (either broad categories like computer processing power or specific technology like the iPod or iPhone from Apple). Interesting questions raised by the article... which also links here to a full-chapter excerpt from a book on the topic titled "Closing the Innovation Gap". Written by Judy Estrin... formerly the CTO at Cisco Systems and now an advisor to President-elect Barack Obama, it examines further this notion of short-term focus on the part of US companies... and investors in them. "Multi-touch" Screen Technology – posted 12/10/2008 I suppose I'm interested in it due to my huge appreciation of my iPhone and have come across a few different articles about multi-touch (using two hands in natural movements) touch screen technology and one of its innovators, Jeff Han. This 2007 Fast Company Magazine article on Han was the first I heard about the technology (now fairly well-known on the "magic walls" used by various news organizations to show

96

Words Written Down – Business

election projections. Then in May 2008, the BusinessWeek article "A Touch of Genius" overviews the technology and then Time Magazine profiled Han as one of its "100 Most Influential People". Fascinating stuff both from the perspective of the technology out there right now and what's to come. Fast Company Magazine - Nov 2008 issue – posted 11/15/2008 There were a couple of very different articles of interest from the November 2008 issue of Fast Company Magazine. First was a profile of Microsoft Live Labs head Gary Flake and his efforts to innovate at the software giant. While it will take years to measure the true legacy Flake leaves at Microsoft, early returns have been interesting with the 3-D photo application photosynth as an example. Also from this Nov 2008 issue was a Q&A session with Costco cofounder and current CEO Jim Sinegal. Among other things, it feature's Sinegal's views of how a big publicly-traded retailer can (as some assert) be overly generous to its employees and still prosper (perhaps due in part to said generosity). BusinessWeek Magazine - Oct 13 Issue – posted 10/13/2008 There have been three different (and completely unrelated) features from the recent BusinessWeek that stood out as interesting. 1. "Dangerous Fakes: How counterfeit, defective computer components from China are getting into U.S. warplanes and ships" is a downright alarming piece that exposes a systematic problem... with potentially devastating impact on our military servicemen and women. 2. "The Power 100: Most influential people in sports": as compiled by experts from all sides of the industry... including the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. 3. "Nokia's Bid to Rule the Mobile Web" is an interesting look at some of the efforts and strategies under way at the phone maker. While not as sexy as Apple with the introduction of the iPhone, Nokia has a huge influence due simply to its large share (half a billion handsets expected to ship this year) of the market. Sports Illustrated Article on FiveThirtyEight.com – posted 10/12/2008 The Oct 13, 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated has a brief piece titled "The Sports-politics Connection" on http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/. The article describes the website as using a statistics-based approach to predicting the winners of political contests. The sports connection (and why this would appear in SI) is that the economics grad creator of the site also has a background in sabermetrics. This statistical approach to predicting player performance in baseball was begun by Bill James and became better known as a result of the Michael Lewis book "Moneyball" which was previously reviewed on this blog. Back to FiveThirtyEight... it's a fascinating site and given that it's about politics and predicting winners, it's probably worthwhile to note that on the FAQ section of the site, the author, Nate Silver, describes himself as someone who votes Democratic the "majority of the time", but attempts to not have his own convictions reflected in any of the statistical predictions. TED (Technology, Entertainment & Design) Conference – posted 10/8/2008 I've been hearing about the annual TED conference in Monterey, CA (moving in 2009 to Long Beach) and am just plain fascinated by the whole thing. The impression that I continually get from reading stories such as this BusinessWeek TED wrap up are that it's full of terribly interesting ideas given by brilliant people. Additionally, I pick up from the linked in BW story column by tech author Sarah Lacy (who happened to write a book described on this blog) that it's also a bit elitist... but, c'mon... it costs $6,000 to attend and everyone wants to. How could it not be elitist? Anyhoo... regardless of how kind and friendly TED as an entity (kind of like the computer "Hal" from "2001: A Space Odyssey") may be, it does have those aforementioned brilliant people and accompanying ideas. At the end of the day, maybe you just have to be thankful that the organizers of TED are good enough to provide us common folk with a website where we can view what's been presented at TEDs past.

97

Words Written Down – Business

Corporate Workplace Culture: the Good (Not the Bad or Ugly) – posted 10/6/2008 While Corporate America often gets a bad rap (justifiably so) for the environment (not CFC-type environment, but employee mattering-type environment) it's people work in, there are some stories out there of companies that do it right. In a September 2007 article, BusinessWeek ran "Netflix: Flex to the Max" about the efforts at Netflix to both attract and retain the best employees... through extreme "flexibility and responsibility" provided from CEO Reed Hastings on down. Also, from September 2007, BusinessWeek published "How to Make a Microserf Smile" about the efforts at employee responsiveness done at the tech behemoth. Led by HR chief Lisa Brummel, Microsoft has fought gamely over the last few years to keep both its star employees and overall moral up. It's probably not necessary to point to Google as a company that treats its employees well (given the legendary free cafeteria, child care, laundry, etc), but in its March 2008 "50 Most Innovative Companies" issue, Fast Company has a piece about the perks enjoyed at Google, including an author and Presidential Candidate speaker series (pretty good stuff). Finally (and more recently), Fred Kiel in his October 6, 2008 BusinessWeek opinion piece, tears apart the notion that employees are motivated only by self-interest. Kiel argues that rather than this, employees greatly value a workplace culture that trusts it's people (REI as an example) and gives them opportunities to advance (i.e. Costco Wholesale). BusinessWeek Magazine - Sept 22 Issue – posted 10/5/2008 Some interesting stuff from the September 22 issue of BusinessWeek. There was a piece on Business Exchange, a new portion of the BusinessWeek website where individuals can track and comment on specific business topics. "Los Alamos and Sandia: R&D Treasures" about how Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories are sharing their research expertise (for a fee, of course) with private sector companies such as Proctor & Gamble. Also, "Philips: Philanthropy by Design" about how Royal Philips Electronics is designing products to for purchase by the world's poor. The result can be both increased profit for the company and something valuable provided to the consumer (in one case a new chula stove that causes vastly reduced smoke inhalation). "Getting Inside the Customer's Mind" about marketing research firm Dunnhumby and its partnerships with major US retailers Kroger and Macy's. Finally was the Jon Fine media opinion piece about the website http://www.spinspotter.com/. Customer Service: The Good, Bad & Ugly – posted 8/28/2008 In a May 2008 special report (which was also its cover story), BusinessWeek published a series of articles on customer service. It's an interesting and all-encompassing look at what consumers are getting from corporations, and how they're demanding more. The following are some of the pieces published as part of the report: "Customer Vigilantes" is the lead story and focuses on how today's consumer world of blogs, feedback websites and access to information (such as contact #s for corporate execs) makes it much easier for consumers to express their frustrations... and publicly (http://www.comcastmustdie.com/ being one example). "Rebel with a Stalled Cause" about the customer advocacy website http://www.gethuman.com/ which has had a mixed record of success, but still provides an interesting service... the ability to look up phone #s and the menu prompts to select to get a live customer service rep at thousands of different companies. "Trader Joe's Recipe for Success" about how the supermarket thrives through a mixture including excellent employees and niche product stocking. The Businessweek ranking of companies on their 50 Customer Service Champs list. The top 5 according to BW are: (5) Trader Joe's, (4) Lexus, (3) Fairmont Hotels, (2) L.L. Bean & (1) USAA. This special report reminded me of how in Jan 2006, BW published an interesting article titled "Would you Recommend Us?" about the fairly new concept of measuring customer sat using the concept of "net promoter scores" (or NPS) derived through asking customers to rate on a 1-10 scale how likely they would be to recommend that company to friends and/or colleagues. It's an interesting idea in that it seems to both get to the heart of how a consumer feels about a brand and also ties into a concept from the BW special report... how in today's "information society", the consumer has many new

98

Words Written Down – Business

ways to tell their experiences (good or bad) with brands. My Fancy New iPhone – posted 8/26/2008 After pining for one since first hearing word of its release, I picked up my new 3G iPhone last week (and as this photo essay from Time Magazine shows, I certainly wasn't the only one). While it has received some criticism in the press (mostly for trouble with phone reception), I'm thrilled to now have it. After being asked why I made the purchase, I realized that the cause is probably split equally between the iPhone's features and what it represents. The features themselves are pretty well documented... phone, e-mail, web browsing and access to the application store; basically a small personal computer that can make and receive calls. Everything for the most part appears to work well (though I do find odd both that the typing screen can't be rotated 90 degrees to make the keys larger and that the phone texting function can't receive attachments), but what the iPhone represents is a story in and of itself. A Nov 2007 issue of Time put the original iPhone on the cover (shown below) and in the contained "Invention of the Year" story, details its leap forward in the areas of both design and user interface. Additionally, though, the iPhone is hyped (in a good way) both for it's being a platform rather than just a phone and it's likelihood to shape technology going forward. This shaping would be from other manufacturers designing to keep up and Apple itself introducing new and better generations of the iPhone... which it has of course already begun to do with the 3G intro. So, while I don't consider myself to be much of a technology early adopter, I'm excited to now own this thing. The functionality is there and maybe just as meaningful, so is the promise of things to come in consumer technology. Prefabtastic: The Rise of the Prefabricated Home – posted 8/24/2008 "Home Thoughts" from the August 25, 2008 issue of Time Magazine chronicles a prefab home exhibition currently showing at the New York Museum of Modern Art. This same exhibition was also detailed in a recent BusinessWeek article and made me think of some other interesting mentions I've seen over the last few years of prefab homes. Back to 2005, this BusinessWeek story shows seven different prefab homes and for several years now, I've seen recurring mentions of designer Michelle Kaufmann and her "Glidehouse" prefab home. Kaufmann seems to be the rockstar designer for this new movement of sustainably built prefab homes and the below You Tube video can also be found along with several others at this link on Kaufmann's website. Prefab homes... affordable, sustainable and very cool. Jeff Skoll... Participant Media & Skoll Foundation – posted 8/18/2008 I first came across Jeff Skoll in a December 21, 2003 BusinessWeek interview titled "Jeffrey Skoll: Why Delay? Give It Away". The piece was featured in a BW Special Report on philanthropy and reveals glimpses into Skoll's path from aspiring writer, to eBay founder (along with Pierre Omidyar), philanthropist and Hollywood leader focused on social issues. The result of Skoll's efforts can be found both at the nonprofit bearing his name, the Skoll Foundation, and his entertainment company Participant Media (formerly Participant Productions... chronicled in this 2005 BusinessWeek article). It would certainly be a fair statement to say that Skoll's original idea of being a writer is what stood out to me, but he's a fascinating guy who is involved in a lot of interesting and worthwhile efforts. Fast Company Magazine - Sept 2008: Clorox & the Sierra Club... and other stuff of note – posted 8/15/2008 Some interesting stuff from the Sept 2008 issue of Fast Company Magazine. Headlining these was a fairly large piece titled "Cleaning Solution" about the Sierra Club (America's oldest and largest environmental organization) allowing its logo to be featured on Clorox Corporation's new line of "Green Works" cleaning products in exchange for undisclosed sums of money. While it's understandable that the Sierra Club would want to maximize revenue (and likely will put said funds to good use), many Club members are raising the question of whether they should be in the product of co-labeling on for-profit products. Additionally, many

99

Words Written Down – Business

are concerned about the particulars of this deal (such as what's received by the Sierra Club and how "green" is the "Green Works" line). Some other things of note out of this issue: An update on awards conferred on writer Charles Fishman's 2007 Fast Company expose "Message in a Bottle" on the bottled water industry. This was particularly interesting coupled with a previous post made here about the impact of a Nestle Corp/Arrowhead brand bottled water plant in rural Northern California. Yep, water is good for you... bottled water, maybe not so much. A separate update on former Sierra Club president Adam Werbach who caught a large of "green flak" for consulting with Wal-Mart as chronicled in the 2007 Fast Company piece "Working with the Enemy". Werbach has since sold his consulting company to Advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi where he'll ostensibly continue his environmental efforts... while at the same time defending himself about fellow environmentalists who feel that he has "sold out" to corporate interests. "Forces of Nature" about the newly rebuilt California Academy of Sciences in the Golden Gate Park area of San Francisco opening Sept 27, 2008. - Former Microsoft (and now everywhere tech) blogger Robert Scoble and his "Sky Fighters" piece about competing telescope's available on the web, Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope and Google Sky. Marketing of "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer – posted 8/15/2008 I previously wrote about Stephenie Meyer as now being one of the "blockbuster writers" and have now come across an interesting article titled "Harry Potter with Fangs- and a Social Network". Featured in the Aug 11, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek, it chronicles some of the online efforts that have helped her "Twilight" series achieve blockbuster status. Some of these sites include: Twilighters, Twilight Moms, Twilight Guy and Meyer's personal website. One particularly interesting thing from the article was mention of how other best-sellers such as "Freakonomics", "The Last Lecture" and "The 4-Hour Workweek" have attempted to replicate this type of online community. This illustrates that true impact status is often achieved not just by singular success, but by the impact that success has on the world around it. Colleges Marketing Credit-Cards – posted 8/2/2008 A question I find interesting is which industries are the worst to work in. This question isn't about which ones pay the least or are the most dangerous, but rather which ones require the most "checking of the morals at the door" to work in. Often the "sin industries" of alcohol and tobacco are assumed to be the worst, but there's a sometimes overlooked contender for most repugnant... the specific areas of the credit-card industry that target college students. The July 28 issue of BusinessWeek features "The College Credit-Card Hustle" about the contracts between large credit-card companies and Universities and University Alumni Associations to target students. These can be big money deals and often include commitments from the school to promote affinity cards to students. Schools and alumni associations make big money from these deals and credit-card companies defend them by saying their cards offer the valuable service of credit to students. The question the article raises is how valuable is this service for youth who often don't comprehend what they're getting into with a credit-card and according to figures from Florida State University are "four times as likely as alumni to be delinquent on a (MBNA) credit card bill." Credit-card companies cannot (and shouldn't) be prevented from offering cards to students, but schools and schoolaffiliated organizations should take a hard look at their complicity in the effort. The Wonderful World of Blogging – posted 7/26/2008 Very interesting cover story in the August 2008 issues of BusinessWeek titled Beyond Blogs, a follow up piece to a 2005 BW story, blogs will change your business. Blogging is interesting in part because it can like The Huffington Post develop into an actual news source and in other cases can be simply the stereotypical "guy in his basement". What's important for those who do spend time blogging, it has to be interesting to do. From there, some may achieve fame and fortune, but most will simply spend some free time doing something they find interesting (hopefully).

100

Words Written Down – Business

Energy & the Environment: Reason for Optimism? – posted 7/13/2008 There's a fairly huge topic in business/society/the world today that demands attention... energy and the environment. Each could of course be treated as a separate topic with umpteen numbers of subtopics (all important), but for the purpose of this post, I'd like to bring them together and look at some of the articles I've noticed lately in this area. To start off, there's a baseline distinction to keep in mind when considering energy... public (i.e. government) vs private (i.e. you and I and the companies that we live and work around. Public action: Not much confidence that anything will happen there, especially with the current administration. To this point, there's a June 2008 essay in Time Magazine titled "The Oil Follies? Our Fault": About the lost opportunity following Sept 11 when President Bush could have enacted a significant gasoline tax. Benefits of this from the public side would have been bringing money into the coffers (at a minimum for fighting terrorism and perhaps even funding alternative energy research). On the private side, this increase in gasoline costs would likely have caused consumers to reduce gasoline consumption (as they're doing right now, some 7 years later). This idea and the positive benefits from it are detailed in "10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas" from the July 14 2008 issue of Time. On the corporate sector private side, consumer demand for reduced energy would have sped up the process (as in happening now) of developing alternative sources of energy to replace the rapidly depleting and environmentally harmful current forms (i.e. oil & coal). There are a large number of examples of this corporate private sector movement towards energy and the environment. They range from pure energy development to environmentally sound actions apart from energy itself. A couple of examples of energy development can be found first in the Oct 15 2007 issue of BusinessWeek which features a story titled "Solar's Day In the Sun" on Silicon Valley startup Ausra Inc and second in the July/August issue of Fast Company Magazine... in which investor Vinod Khosla, "The King of Green Investing", is profiled. If you're looking for stories of companies focusing on environmental efforts rather than pure alternative energy development, examples abound there as well. In Sept 2007, Fast Company profiled former Sierra Club wunderkind president Adam Werbach and his environmental consultations with Wal-Mart titled "Working with the Enemy." More recently, BusinessWeek in its June 30 2008 issue published "I Have Just One Word for You: Bioplastics" about biodegradable plastics and Time gave us "Pick Up a Mop" in its July 14 edition about the idea of, and science around, soaking up already emitted carbon dioxide. So, energy and the environment are huge topics both that are getting a lot of attention both separately and together. I stated earlier agreement with the Time piece arguing President Bush should have taken steps around energy in the form of a gas tax after 9/11, but he didn't, so the question becomes 'is it too late for optimism?'. In an excellent commentary (which I would love to link here, but can't find) contained in one of his 2008 Esquire Magazine "Editor's Letters", David Granger gives his optimistic view of future energy given the new technologies coming about . Additionally, I echo the sentiments in the "Things to Like About $4 Gas" piece around consumer demand making a difference. Finally, there's the hope (which may be fools hope, but we gotta take what we can at times) of changes stemming from a new administration in the White House. When you come down to it, there's opportunity to make things better and I'm guardedly optimistic (and very hopeful) we'll embrace that on all fronts... public and private. Impact of Bottled Water on a Town – posted 7/9/2008 We've all heard about the environmental problems due to plastic waste and the fossil fuels associated with the transportation of bottled water, but the April 14, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek details the impact that bottled water plants can have on the communities that contain them. Given that the story (which is featured on the magazine cover) is titled "A Town Torn Apart by Nestle", you'd be correct if you assumed that the overall message isn't a particularly favorable one towards the maker of Arrowhead bottled water. One interesting tidbit details how Nestle paid for the lawyers who represented the town in negotiations with... Nestle. Additionally, a distinction is draw between two types of bottled water that can be purchased... that which is from a municipal source and then refined (Aquafina as an example) and that which comes directly

101

Words Written Down – Business

from a source in nature (Arrowhead and Fiji as examples). The message conveyed is that the environmental impact of water from a municipal source is less than the alternative. Interesting HP press coverage – posted 7/7/2008 I‘ve come across some interesting content on Hewlett-Packard that bears noting. The Aug 2007 BusinessWeek listing of the "Best Global Brands" had HP at #12 in the list, but also included mention of HP as a turnaround brand due in part to the "Computer is Personal Again" spots. BusinessWeek in Sept 2007 did review of HP's efforts in Smartphones. Also from Sept 2007, there was a very interesting profile of the Microsoft HR head and the people management (aimed at employee happiness & retention) done at the corporation. This article was of course not HP related, but it's always interesting to see what type of things other big companies do. In Oct 2007, Fast Company Magazine had a profile of HP VP Design Sam Lucente and his impact on and role in the company. Lucente is considered in part an ethnographer and launched a research project following the lives of families in their homes – result was his design team creating ―Q control‖ for use across HP product lines. Having met with him, I can also say he's a heck of a nice guy. In the Nov 2007 "Inside Innovation" section of BusinessWeek was a piece on the HP Innovation Office led by Phil McKinney with specific mention of the efforts around the VooDoo PC. The Feb 2008 issue of Fast Company Magazine had a feature titled "Loco Motion" about advertising agency Motion Theory and the spots it has created for HP among other companies. In April 2008, BusinessWeek looked at HP Labs and its initiative to focus on major projects. From July 2008, the San Jose Mercury News published an interview with the aforementioned HP PSG CTO Phil McKinney & Innovation Program Office head. McKinney has been pretty visible lately both outside (as evidenced by this interview) and inside (I recently heard him do a talk where he discussed his open to the public blog) the company. China in Africa: Grab it While You Can – posted 7/6/2008 The June 2008 issue of Fast Company Magazine contains a very insightful special report titles "China Invades Africa" on the ongoing Private/Public efforts of China to stake claim to needed resources (both now and in the future) that are and will be taken out of the continent of Africa. There's several interesting things about this report... one is the Chinese government backing of private enterprise in this effort and a second is the long-term view being taken to look at what resources will be needed as the population expands.

102

Words Written Down – Everything else

Everything else Outside Magazine Pieces - by James Nestor & Brian Mockenhaupt – posted 2/16/2012 There were two stories that stood out as particularly interesting and well written from the March issue of Outside Magazine. The first piece was "Open Your Mouth and You're Dead" by James Nestor and chronicles the 2011 Freediving World Championships held in Greece. It was an engaging piece on people pushing themselves to the limit (not just "giving 110% on the field", but at times almost dying limit) in a sport that doesn't really pay financially. I don't know that I've seen any of Nestor's work previously, but his writing really had an element of suspense to it and it made for a tremendously interesting story. Also in this issue was "As Long As They Both Shall Live" by Brian Mockenhaupt, someone whose work I've seen previously (in Esquire). Its solid writing that features the subtitle "Professional daredevils Rex and Melissa Pemberton were drawn together by a mutual passion for risk and adrenaline. Now they have a marriage based on love, trust, and the strange, stoic acceptance that their life partner could die at any moment." The Pemberton's seem to do better financially than the Freediving athletes, but also appear to live and work with greater risk as evidenced by their friends who have died while in aeronautics (Melissa's specialty) or extreme sports pursuits. Comparing this piece to the one by Nestor, his work perhaps has more of a building of tension throughout and Mockenhaupt does a great job of relating how the risk taken on both by Rex and Melissa becomes more profound given that one could die and leave the other behind. Time Magazine Pieces: Facebook timeline / JC Penny pricing / GOP Presidential Race / Mediterranean diet – posted 2/13/2012 There's been some excellent writing from the past few issues of Time Magazine. In the Feb 6 edition, the excellent David Von Drehle wrote "Who will be the GOP Candidate?" on the slate of GOP Presidential contenders. More recently, the Feb 13 issue had two interesting business related pieces with "This Is Your Life (According to Your New Timeline)" by Allie Townsend on Facebook and "The Price Is Righter" by Brad Tuttle about pricing strategies at J.C. Penney under new CEO Ron Johnson, former head of Apple retail stores. Finally, the latest issue of Time contained "Eat like an Italian" on the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. It was an excellent piece by Stephan Faris that really hammered home how good it is to eat fruits, vegetables, nuts and beans. Writing from Feb '12 Esquire Magazine – posted 1/26/2012 Latest issue of Esquire had a number of pieces that didn't necessarily stand out for the flowery prose, but were well written and on interesting topics. Lengthiest feature was Counter-Terrorism Is Getting Complicated by Tom Junod on a Federal conspiracy to commit terrorism case against retired Navyman Fred Thomas and three other seventy-somethings in rural Georgia. Detailed what was either a proactive ferreting out of terrorist ambitions or a shady government informant leading disillusioned old people down the path of horrible crimes they would have never committed. Two other interesting features from this issue involved the topic of information and how it's acquired, used and communicated. The Man Who Knows Everything was written by Ryan D'Agostino and profiles Tibco Software and it's CEO Vivek Ranadive. Tibco provides infrastructure software and provides offerings like its TopCom communications platform for use by world leaders. A second Esquire piece around information was If You Could Master All the Data in the World... penned by Chris Jones. Story is on Jeopardy winner Roger Craig and the work he did to identify knowledge needed to be successful on the show. Out of this, Craig is now attempting to take this idea of learning patterns and attempt to pass it along commercially. Finally, this Esquire edition also contained two celebrity pieces that contained nuggets of interest. Ricky Gervais: The ESQ+A was done by Scott Raab and had some very cool content from Gervais staying true to himself in his work. A cynic could say it's easy to do that when already successful, but there's probably also a lot to be said for the idea of this approach helping someone make it in the first place. Also interesting was Mike Sager's Who Doesn't Love Woody Harrelson? which included quite a bit on Harrelson's avoidance of chemicals and processed/artificial food.

103

Words Written Down – Everything else

Time Magazine Pieces: on Warren Buffett, Barack Obama & YouTube – posted 1/23/2012 There were excellent feature stories in the last two issues of Time Magazine. Cover story from the Jan 23 edition was Warren Buffett Is on a Radical Track and it featured a look by Rana Foroohar at the business titan. Some of the things detailed and touched on in the piece were Buffett's belief the economy will continue to improve, his views on taxes for the extremely wealthy and his personal life. It's an extremely well written profile on an important and interesting guy. To this point, the piece made more appealing the idea of reading Alice Schroeder's biography The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. From the most recent Jan 30 issue were two excellent features... including the cover story on President Barack Obama and his foreign policy record thus far. Written by Fareed Zakaria, The Strategist is a nuanced and equitable piece on the foreign policy successes in addition to failures thus far Obama has had. Also from this issue was The Beast with a Billion Eyes on YouTube, its place in American viewing habits and where it's trying to head. It was solid writing as usual by Lev Grossman and a very interesting read. Excellent pieces... it‘s a shame Time puts online content behind a print subscriber pay wall preventing new audiences from seeing the quality of work. Writing On Lives Outside of Normal – posted 1/13/2012 One of the hallmarks of good writing is it conveys a story outside the life experience of the reader and there's been a number of pieces I've come across lately that fit this bill. Subjects of the various works cross a wide spectrum of the population and how they became story subjects varies from decisions made, life circumstance or simple chance. Two of the pieces stood out in detailing people whose lives are so far outside of my own to have them almost seem from a different species. The Ballad of Johnny France is a Richard Ben Cramer story from a 1985 issue of Esquire and reprinted with author permission on the blog Alex Belth's Bronx Banter. It's the ridiculously fascinating story of Montana Sheriff Johnny France and fugitive mountain-men Don and Don Nichols. After kidnapping (apparently in a twisted bid for female companionship) biathlete Kari Swenson, the elder of the father-son duo wound up shooting and killing a would-be rescuer and then they disappeared into the wilderness. Cramer's is a long and multi-faceted feature which not only portrays people living far outside the norm, but which utilizes language in the story as a way to drive home the difference. Other piece in this different life than mine category was much shorter and remarkable for the choice made by the subject of the story. Gang tattoo leads to a murder conviction is by Robert Faturechi for the L.A. Times and introduces gang member Paco Rivera, who tattooed on his chest details of the unsolved murder he committed. Lest this post descend into a quagmire of the twisted and bizarre, two other stories I've seen lately cover people who faced (or continue to face) great hardship and show how to carry through it. Strength from Weakness is an ESPN E: 60 feature on former MLB player Ben Petrick and his battles with young-onset Parkinson's. Written by Steve Wulf, the piece reveals how someone cheated of his potential athletic greatness seems to have created a form of greatness with the life he now has. Additional piece of feel-good inspirational value is Cary Williams overcame abuse and anguish on way to NFL by Kevin Van Valkenburg. Written for the Baltimore Sun, the profile on Williams details his hardscrabble early childhood, abuse suffered at the hands of his single dad and then being taken in and lovingly raised by extended family. Out of this, Williams then followed a path to his current position as a starting cornerback for the Ravens. Politics & Individual Welfare Writing – posted 1/5/2012 Have come across some really good writing lately on the all too frequently not related subjects of politics and how people are fairing financially (with one of the pieces being about this very disconnect). An overview of how individual people and families are doing came from two Charlie Pierce pieces in America's Muddling Purpose, Circa Christmas 2011 and then America Will Only Get Better When It Is Ours Again on the Esquire website. Excellent writing in both and to grossly generalize, the shared message is people are struggling to make it through and just how important that goal is. Unfortunately, politics and the political process oft times seem to be removed from people‘s daily lives as detailed well in The

104

Words Written Down – Everything else

SportsCenter-ization of Political Journalism for The Atlantic by Patrick Hruby. The piece was one of those you hope and wish weren't true, but the arguments (which quote the aforementioned Charlie Pierce) valid. People can still accomplish things (and we still have feel good stories like The Bank Around the Corner by Alan Feuer in The New York Times), but has definitely been some solid writing (including by James Altucher) which argues that political results and scoreboards oft don't matter for individual people. A Whole New World Out There - Writing on Opportunities & Education – posted 1/2/2012 The James Altucher book I Was Blind But Now I See that I reviewed yesterday was timely as I've seen a raft of pieces lately on Altucher's topics of education and opportunity. A pretty firmly held idea from the book was traditional higher education being overvalued and in the past two weeks I've seen M.I.T. GameChanger: Free Online Education for All from Forbes and mention of the organization Code Year and its push to have people learn the skill. Additionally, there have been a number of other pieces recently that at least in part echo the Altucher refrain of there being opportunities out there for those willing to pursue them. Seth Godin wrote in his The chance of a lifetime blog post of how it may be a rough time for traditional business as usual, but the conditions are there for innovation and entrepreneurship. This concept reminded me a blog post from Clay Travis titled 2011 Belonged to Twitter, So Does the Future of Sports Media. The piece from Travis is about Twitter, but beyond that, there's the theme touched on by Godin and hammered at by Altucher (easier of course to go deep in a book) of technology and how it's created, enabled and changed communication and business. Also interesting from Travis was his mention of things to come in the form of Twitter monetization... which brings to mind Altucher's encouragement to think of and write lists of ways to utilize existing technologies. On this subject, I recently came across the blog post bitly in 2011 from the URL shortening company heavily utilized on Twitter. There are definitely lots of opportunities and ways to move towards them written about out there. Time Magazine Pieces - Familial DNA testing / Rhode Island Pension Reform / Jon Huntsman / Nest Thermostat – posted 12/6/2011 Quite a few interesting stories from the December 5 issue of Time Magazine. All pieces require a magazine subscription to read online and first of note was The Case of the Grim Sleeper by Terry McCarthy. Pretty fascinating content on familial DNA testing and how it was used to locate a suspected serial killer in Los Angeles. Another feature was by the excellent David Von Drehle titled The Little State That Could about the recent Rhode Island pension reforms enacted by State Treasurer Gina Raimondo. Her efforts might run counter to those from AFL-CIO labor leader Richard Trumka (profiled well in this Esquire piece), but Raimondo comes across in the story as someone extremely intelligent driving necessary change. With the subject being in the same adult voice in the room category, Joe Klein's column was Jon Huntsman's Big Idea. As Klein writes, the top six banks hold assets of almost 65% of U.S. GDP and Huntsman's idea is to reduce their power (via a targeted fee) and hold on the economy. Final thing of note from this issue of Time was the short Reinventing the Wheel on the new high-tech home thermostat from Nest. Very interesting product designed to foster energy conservation through both its technology and stellar user interface (with the company founded and led by Apple iPod creator Tony Fadell.) Profiles from December 2011 Esquire – posted 12/5/2011 There was some excellent writing from the December 2011 Esquire. Americans of the Year on the cover refers to an entire section of profile pieces within and not to make short shrift of seventeen of these remarkable individuals, but three stood out as particularly interesting. Cover story itself is Mark Kelly, American by Chris Jones and portrays someone who appears to exemplify the best of people can offer of themselves. I find Jones to be an excellent writer and it seems some of his best pieces are on the subject of space and the people who explore it. The other two profiles highlight people in roles not necessarily as glamorous as astronaut, but are on individuals doing things both interesting and impactful to many. Richard Trumka, American is written by John H. Richardson and profiles the head of the AFL-CIO. As Richardson

105

Words Written Down – Everything else

details, the union is made up of "twelve million firefighters, teachers, nurses, miners, electricians, and entertainers" and Trumka's efforts have a large impact in the role of labor in America. Additionally, the statements made and advocacy described by Trumka in this piece seem to ring true and be very timely in what could be described as a rich getting richer economic climate. Another of the people profiled is similar to Trumka in the leading of a large organization many have strongly held views on. Craig Fugate, American is about the head of FEMA and, as chronicled by Tom Chiarella, seems to be doing an exemplary job (much better than "a heck of a job") running the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Structure put around the agency and its role by Fugate appears to be extremely solid and is described well by Chiarella. Money Writing from Businessweek, Bloomberg & Time – posted 12/1/2011 Several piece of writing on money I've come across lately that were interesting by themselves... with two downright fascinating when viewed in relation to one another. From the Nov 28 issue of Time Magazine was the feature Below the Line on living in poverty. Written by Barbara Kiviat, it's a solid piece that looks at the 46 million Americans living on less than an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four. A lot of interesting content there including how different external events (sickness, injury, car breakdown) can be cataclysmic financially for those barely making ends meet. A different story on what feels like the opposite end of the financial spectrum was Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress from Bloomberg. Very much made me think of my blog post from a month ago on Boomerang by Michael Lewis as well as Wall Street Isn't Winning – It's Cheating by Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone. Also on money, but not of the same curl your stomach varieties were two short pieces from the Nov 21 issue of Businessweek. All Those Stock Buybacks: A Bullish Sign? is on the trend of companies feeling valuations low and buying their own stock and James Altucher, Wall Street's Keeper of the Pain on the venture capitalist and author (who also writes a self-titled blog). Writing of Profundity - Posnanski, Kruse, Brooks and Simpson – posted 11/22/2011 While most of the individual posts on this blog have story links pulled from either one writer or website, lately there have been a few pieces I've come across from different writers and sources that both share a leaning towards the profound and are really darn good. With this idea of profundity as the common thread (why the heck not?), the first piece to note here was the Joe Posnanski blog post I Hope You're Happy With Your Husband. Very cool and heartwarming story about his youngest child... and which brought to mind this equally cool and heartwarming piece about Posnanski's oldest. Other three pieces to link to here all have a retrospective on life slant to them... beginning with Born to race; Dan Wheldon found happiness in town's slower pace. Written by Michael Kruse for the St. Petersburg Times, it looks at the Indy car driver who died as a result of injuries suffered during a Las Vegas race. The story is well told through vignettes and anecdotes of people who interacted with Wheldon (with this story approach being something I've previously seen employed successfully by Kruse). Given that Kruse's subject in the link immediately above was Steve Jobs, it seems fitting to also highlight A Sister‘s Eulogy for Steve Jobs by Mona Simpson. Extremely poignant and well written piece (Simpson is a novelist and English professor) for the New York Times on the brother she didn't meet until in her twenties. Also in the New York Times, I also found noteworthy The Life Report by David Brooks. It was written about a month ago and asks readers over 70 to provide Brooks with written evaluation of their lives and what they've learned. It's an interesting request that Brooks wrote of making to then post some reader responses online. There may well be more coming, but as of today, Brooks has posted to his Times blog ten of these reader Life Reports. Esquire Mental Health Writing - Chris Jones & Mike Sager – posted 11/17/2011 Two excellent pieces of writing (neither currently posted online) from the November issue of Esquire Magazine with Panic by Chris Jones and Depression by Mike Sager. The Jones piece covers with his own past suicidal thoughts to the point of first contemplating jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge and later

106

Words Written Down – Everything else

superficially cutting himself with a knife. Each episode was described as something of a culmination of spiraling emotions involving excessive anger, stuck thoughts of problems not improving, or runaway thoughts of those same problems getting much worse. It was remarkable reading because of the level to which the author gave himself up to readers and a positive conclusion of sorts to this story comes in the form of a post by Jones towards the bottom of this SportsJournalists comment thread. Wouldn‘t be true to write that I understand how he felt because that‘s just dumb and I've never been in the place he describes (my brain not wired to go that dark... just fortunate, I suppose). That said, life can be a challenge at times and it's refreshing (yep, that's the word) to read of how it's not easy for those that one might think live a charmed life (and I‘ve had that view of Jones with his writing ability and career). The Mike Sager piece differs in that it's about someone who was not actually sick with depression, but very well could have been giving his life circumstances. Sager was going through a divorce (and accompanying time apart from his teenage child) and actually diagnosed with major depressive disorder. He fought the diagnosis (which drove up insurance costs) and was able to overturn it as incorrect. Sager‘s writing certainly seems to indicate a lack of depression as he keeps his life moving forward and makes the all-important statement “how much can one man take? As much as need be." While the two pieces come from very different places, it seems the aforementioned Sager quote in line with how Jones closed his story by writing that he wished "we would always be terrified of death... and spend the rest of our lives running from it." Other thing I keep thinking about in relation to both pieces is the distinction between two different ways of viewing situations… one being to imagine how much better things could be (bad view) and the other how much worse the possibilities (good view). This relative ranking of viewpoints doesn‘t advocate for perpetual status quo, but rather for an appreciation of things good and/or really not that bad. Time Magazine - Troops Coming Home / Progressive Messaging / Virus Hunting – posted 11/14/2011 There were several features of note from Time Magazine over the past few weeks including the Nov 21 issue cover story on US Servicemen and Women returning home from duty. Written by Mark Thompson, the other 1% examines the ever-widening disconnect between those in our Armed Forces and the rest of the population (including our elected representatives). The problem detailed by Thompson is an important one, but short of a there being mandatory service (which hardly anyone advocates), it's not really clear how to fix the problem and bring more in step the military and rest of US society. Also, it's neither a backing for Thompson's points nor a rebuttal, but another piece closely related (and referenced in the issue's Editor's Note by Richard Stengel) was The New Greatest Generation by Joe Klein on contributions made by returning veterans. The other story from this issue that stood out was the Michael Scherer written profile on former Obama Administration staffer Van Jones. The Return of the Rabble Rouser looks at the efforts by Jones around messaging of progressive issues and features interesting content related to both the Occupy Wall Street movement and President Barack Obama. Extremely simplified point around Obama was any sort of effort has to be led by ideals rather than an individual. It certainly didn't seem to be a slam at the President, but rather a statement that the man is not the movement. Final recent Time piece to mention was Virus Hunter from the Nov 7 issue. The Bryan Walsh story looks at Nathan Wolfe and his work as founder and head of Global Viral Forecasting: Fascinating efforts from Wolfe in an effort to identify early on future infectious diseases so outbreaks can be prevented prior to the level of a full-blown pandemic. Michael McRae & Mark Jenkins in Outside Magazine – posted 11/2/2011 How the Nomad Found Home by Michael McRae for Outside Magazine –details Fay's work creating National Parks and championing conservation in Africa and more recently holing up in the Southeast Alaskan wilderness. It's an interesting portrait of a guy extremely dedicated to his causes... and who has been able to accomplish quite a bit in relation to them. Amundsen Schlepped Here by Mark Jenkins for Outside Magazine – about Jenkins and his brother Steve skiing the path taken across the Hardangervidda Plateau 100 years ago by adventurer Roald Amundsen. While the writing was solid and contents interesting, what got me was recalling my three years ago reading and then posting on The Hard Way by

107

Words Written Down – Everything else

Jenkins. Seems a long time ago this blog was begun in earnest, but it's been enjoyable writing (and reading the stuff written on). Luke Dittrich on the Joplin Tornado & Other Esquire Pieces – posted 10/19/2011 Remarkable feature on the Joplin Tornado in the October 2011 issue of Esquire (which includes an interesting, but not linked to online cover story by Chris Jones about his time hanging in full Bert & Ernie costumes with Justin Timberlake at Comic-Con). Really, though, what stood out from the issue was the Luke Dittrich feature from Joplin, MO. It's one of those stories that pulls double-duty with being very well written, but also about an absolutely gripping topic. The storm killed 160 in Joplin and Dittrich profiles the experience of a dozen or so whose lives were saved by taking refuge in a convenience store walk-in cooler. Several times during the reading I felt a bit choked up reading about the decision points that led each person to that convenience store and just how arbitrary the difference between living or dying was for many hit by the tornado. Two other Esquire pieces I found interesting recently: From the same Oct 2011 issue was the brief vignette on the Esquire Economy Car of the Year - the 2012 Ford Focus. The story was much less profound than the Dittrich piece (or Pierce one noted below), but I have grown fond of Ford lately and like quite a bit the looks of this car. Mentioned in the same issue's Note from the Editor was a Charlie Pierce profile on Barack Obama some six months prior to his November 2008 Presidential victory. The piece is titled The Cynic and Senator Obama and Esquire editor David Granger referenced the following passage on Obama from Pierce, "There is a remove to his movements and a distance to everything he does that mutes his charisma and dampens what might be a frenzy in his crowds into a patient, well-behaved enthusiasm." It's an interesting view and may well factor into how Obama seems to have garnered admiration for his efforts, but has also taking quite a bit of criticism (even from ardent supporters) for not selling his ideas well enough and even for not trumpeting well enough his successes. GQ October 2011 Issue - Devin Friedman on Hip Hop Artist Rick Ross & Other Features – posted 10/18/2011 One tremendous and several other solid stories from the latest issue of GQ Magazine: Piece that stood out the most was that on hip hop star Rick Ross by Devin Friedman. It's an entertaining recount of the author's time spent hanging out with Ross and his entourage, but also featured some really good writing... with the following being from Friedman's profile, ―Where Rick Ross really separates himself is that he inhabits the cliché completely while also seeming to know it's a cliché. You can like him if you think you're hard, and you can like him if you think being hard is ridiculous. Because Rick Ross is always both inside and outside a joke he's making about hip-hop music. I mean, look at him in the Lil Wayne "John" video. The man is sitting in a wheelchair that has big silver spinner rims on it. But at the same time he looks so freakin' boss in that burgundy velour suit." Couple of other pieces of note from this issue: Cover feature was an interview with Leonardo Dicaprio and Clint Eastwood leading up to the release of J. Edgar (with trailer linked) on the former FBI head. Currently GQ is only posting an excerpt of the interview, but Eastwood as the Director and Dicaprio as movie's star both come across as people having interesting views on solid movies and the folly of chasing box-office success. Additional feature story from GQ this month was The Man Who Sailed His House by Michael Paterniti. It's a lengthy piece on someone found at sea floating on his roof days after the Japan tsunami... and is as amazing a tale as the description would indicate. Actually, reading it made me think of the even more amazing story of Louis Zamperini told in Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken (which I reviewed here), but it's certainly a good piece on its own merits from Paterniti. Final piece to mention here didn't necessarily stand out for its writing (wasn't meant to be about the prose, I'm sure), but for the topic written on: Josh Dean did an interesting short piece on the need to walk as a way to overcoming health problems brought about by the largely sedentary jobs most of us hold.

108

Words Written Down – Everything else

Steve Jobs Writing... On & By Him – posted 10/11/2011 There's been some extremely solid writing on Steve Jobs published or brought back up with his passing last week. I'm sure more great content out there I haven't seen, but the following is the best from what I have. The cover story from the latest issue of Time was American Icon by Walter Isaacson. Formerly Managing Editor of Time, Isaacson's short piece on Jobs gets at the man as well as what he accomplished... and is a good indicator that the upcoming authorized biography Steve Jobs from Isaacson could be excellent. From Michael Kruse for the St. Petersburg Times came As Apple grew, so did an entire generation. Kruse seems to do very good human impact writing (another example being this on the Tampa Bay Rays a couple weeks back) and he writes of Job's death through the story of someone that's grown up using the devices conceived of and supplied by Jobs and Apple. Another piece of writing on Jobs that stood out to me wasn't even directly about him, but rather the concept of forward-thinking entrepreneurship best exemplified by him. The Steve Jobs MBA Unit 101: Don‘t think about the present was published in June 2011 and part of a series for Wired Magazine. What got me to read the piece (and truth be told, what also influenced my enjoyment of it) was it being written by Alain De Botton... author of the fascinating book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (which I linked to and posted on here). Finally, it's been referenced over and over since Jobs passed away, but his June 2005 Stanford Commencement address really is deserving of the all the attention as a testament to the guy and his ideas. Money and Related to $ Writing from Time – posted 10/5/2011 There was some solid writing on money, the economy and jobs in Time lately... particularly in the recent Special Money Issue. Leading off the section was a piece by Rana Foroohar titled No. 1 A new Era of Volatility. Good writing on the current economic climate and its ramifications for economies and people. Also on this subject was the Jeffrey Sachs essay Why America Must Revive Its Middle Class. It's certainly an argument brought up by others as well, but Sachs does an excellent job discussing the divide in haves and have nots in the U.S. as well as takes to task the oft-trumpeted idea of "Reagan economic policies were great... need to go back to those." There were two other pieces from the prior week's issue of Time that stood out as interesting and related to the same topic of money. At a macro level, Michael Grunwald provided Street Smarts on how widespread infrastructure work could help revitalize the economy. This notion of long-term improvements being done on public-works projects such as highways and electrical grids has been certainly talked about, but seems to be on a limited basis and only at a city level. With a much more individual focus, this same Oct 3 edition contained The New Online Job Hunt. Written by Francine Russo, the piece details how Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter (as well as career site LinkedIn) are taking on a great place of import for both employers and job seekers. Moneyball Movie & Writing On It – posted 10/1/2011 In what would seem to be a highly improbable trifecta, the Brad Pitt vehicle Moneyball was an excellent movie loosely based on a great book sort of about a team that was often, but not always a great team to be a fan of. There are of course a lot of modifiers in that statement, but good things don't always come wrapped with tidy bows on top. With my having attended 20-25 of their games a year from probably 2000-2005, I can say the Oakland A's provided some amazing moments to watch and countless instances of exhilaration as well as heartache (with both being necessary ingredients of fandom (see: Red Sox circa September 2011). One constant on this team of frequent roster upheaval was General Manager Billy Beane and what certainly seemed to be his "smarter than the average bear" approach to building a team. When the Michael Lewis book Moneyball came out, I eagerly grabbed it like most A's fans and found it to be a pretty phenomenal read. While on-base percentage as a holy grail was the concept generally taken from the book, really what Beane appeared to be doing was using an undervalued asset that could be stockpiled using the limited resources (see: $ for salary) available. The fact that it was on-base percentage wasn't really as important as the approach of exploiting the overlooked. Either way... a team that provided some great experiences and memories for the fan and a fascinating book. Now, after several false starts

109

Words Written Down – Everything else

including multiple directors, the movie was made and hit the theaters. I had high expectations going in and not because I expected it to be entirely true to real life (in this case, baseball) or to have the exact book presented in a different medium, but because I was excited to see what was done was the material available. After watching the thing, I walked away a fan... already was a fan first of the team for certain reasons, then of the book for others, and finally the movie for still other reasons. In many ways, my view of what made the movie so good were elucidated by two pieces from a couple of my favorite sports writers. First Joe Posnanski on his blog and then Austin Murphy in Sports Illustrated wrote about how the story told in the movie didn't necessarily stick hard and true to the events that transpired, but was both tremendously interesting and unlike almost every other sports movie ever made. Excellent writing from each guy on a very cool film (again, which was pretty much on a great book for the most part about the building of a great team). 9/11 10th Anniversary Writing – posted 9/14/2011 Really remarkable commemorative issue of Time Magazine this past week: The special edition was published without advertising and much of the content was a "Portraits of Resilience" gallery with individual people's stories. Leading things off was a short piece by photojournalist James Nachtwey on his experience in New York that day and accompanying the writing was a series of images he took at and around Ground Zero. From Nachtwey's work, the picture below made me think of the Tommy Tomlinson piece for the Charlotte Observer "Tribute and renewal in a New York moment" with its reference to St. Paul's Chapel by the Trade Center site. Another thing that struck me from the Tomlinson story was his closing paragraph about life in the City continuing on... which was very much in line with the sentiment expressed by Scott Raab in "The Memorial" for Esquire (which I posted on here). In this same life moving forward view, one vignette from this Time issue that stood out was the profile on Lyzbeth Glick Best which included significant mention of the 10 years since losing her husband in the Shanksville, PA crash of United 93: Really powerful stories on Best and by Nachtwey, Tomlinson and Raab... and excellent work overall by Time Magazine. Esquire Writing - Scott Raab on WTC Memorial & C.J. Chivers "What I've Learned" Feature – posted 9/6/2011 September 2011 issue of Esquire contained exceptional writing by Scott Raab... as well as an interesting one page piece of musings from C.J. Chivers. The Raab story is "The Memorial" and the seventh installment in his "The Rebuilding" series about the World Trade Center since 9/11. In October of last year I read part six "Good Days at Ground Zero" and his work is both emotional and conveys an extremely real view of the people working at the WTC site. Pulled out of the latest story and put as a heading is this from Raab... "People talk a lot about the "healing process." Well, this is New York. In the aftermath of a tragedy of monumental proportions, the healing process has been noisy and rude, with elbows out, redolent of greed, power, and the darker forces that drive human existence. And most of the shouting has been about how to make a fitting monument to what happened here. But in a hundred years, all the shouting and all the politics will be forgotten. What will be remembered is what is built here, now, on these sixteen acres." Also in this issue of Esquire was the "What I've Learned" installment featuring war reporter C.J. Chivers. I'm drawn to anything resembling wisdom from a writer, but also to someone willing to put themselves in dangerous situations to write about a conflict (with Sebastian Junger being another guy who does amazing things). Time Magazine Writing - Joe Klein on Veterans, Mehmet Oz on food & Barton Gellman on Dick Cheney – posted 9/4/2011 Some solid pieces from Time lately: Two of them cover stories and another within the latest issue (and all of them requiring a magazine subscription to be viewed online). From the August 29 edition came "The New Greatest Generation" by Joe Klein. It's a pretty lengthy feature on the contributions back here at home of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and has some impressive stories within. There's leadership, teamwork, a

110

Words Written Down – Everything else

dedication towards helping others... a lot of actions being done in the U.S. by people who recently served their country overseas. Klein also notes as a big part of the story how the roles and contributions of these returning veterans will continue to grow over time. Cover story was "The Oz Diet" and while this piece from Dr. Mehmet Oz was a bit of a slog at times, it was on the important topic of food and included mention of what foods he eats for and their health benefits. Piece from this same issue that was terribly fascinating was by Barton Gellman on Dick Cheney. "The Power and the Zealotry" looks at the memoir "In My Time" by the former Vice President and is a pretty scathing rebuke of Cheney. From what he did to the way he went about it and then how it's described in the book, Gellman's impression is definitely not a positive one: Remarkable content in this piece about a guy who wielded an immense amount of power, and then saw that power diminish in the George Bush White House. GQ September 2011 Issue - Will Leitch on Michael Vick & Other Features – posted 8/30/2011 I've not been much of a GQ Magazine reader in the past, but found the most recent issue to have some solid content as well as (at the risk of being a bit hyperbolic) borderline spectacular. What got me to purchase the magazine (and it's the first issue of anything I've bought from the rack in probably years) was seeing that J.R. Moehringer wrote the cover story. Author of the brilliant memoir The Tender Bar (which I reviewed here) as well as co-writer of the equally brilliant Andre Agassi memoir Open, Moehringer pens for this issue a profile of New York Jets Quarterback Mark Sanchez. The piece is titled "Broadway Mark" (currently available online just in excerpt form) and while good, didn't necessarily strike me as great. To this point, I kind of like when my favorite writers do stuff that I like, but not as much as other work of theirs. Reminds me that everybody's human and while you strive to do your best work at all times, you're simply not going to have everything you do in life be your best work. When it is, that's great, and when it's not... you know you did what you could and then move on to the next project. What I felt was the best piece of writing from this issue was another quarterback profile... this one written by Will Leitch (he off the book God Save the Fan that I reviewed here). His piece "The Impossible, Inevitable Redemption of Michael Vick" is really good writing on an interesting subject... and has the additional cachet of having created news itself. Leitch's reporting of Vick being directed towards the Philadelphia Eagles by the NFL is likely not something the league office would want put out and there and a pretty remarkable detail assuming it's true (and I have no reason to think it's not). Back to the writing itself, though... Leitch takes the approach of portraying Vick as more than just a caricature of someone who was a bad guy who hated dogs and now is a good guy that loves dogs. Really interesting look at someone who is both an ideal (good or bad) that people assign to him and an actual guy. Another piece from this GQ that featured a compelling story was a restaurant review (that's right, a restaurant review as compelling) by Alan Richman. "Diner for Schmucks" details his experiences at (and with the proprietors of) the New York eatery M. Wells. It's remarkable reading that traffics in the concepts of service, customer expectations and the power of accusation. Postscript to the M. Wells piece... restaurant lost their lease and now closed. Finally, this issue contained the Chris Heath piece "Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men in the Military". It featured accounts from various gay current and former Servicemen and what struck me was an anecdote towards the end of the piece. From an unnamed member of the military who will soon be able to serve his country without his sexual orientation being grounds for dismissal if publicly known... "Since I'm a single officer in the Marine barracks and I've got the highest security clearance you can get, I also serve at the White House in close quarters with President Bush and President Obama at social events. Very seldom was the president ever alone, but one time the president had said, 'Go and get the vice president,' and all the straphangers went, and the president went in the Blue Room and was just standing there waiting for Biden. And there was no Secret Service around or anything, and I went, “Fuck it, I'm going to go and talk to the president about „Don't Ask, Don't Tell‟. He was looking out south—there's an incredible view down past the Washington Monument to the Jefferson. And I just stepped in and said, 'Sir?' and he turned around and walks to me and I just started: 'You know, sir, I want to let you know that there are a number of us that work very close to you who appreciate very much what you're doing on „Don't Ask, Don't Tell‟—more than you probably

111

Words Written Down – Everything else

realize. And he was shaking my hand, he looks up and it's like...he got it. I said, I want to thank you for this. And he goes, 'No, I want to thank you. Thank you for your service, and thank you for your courage.'" Politics of Discontent Writing - Time Magazine, Laurie Penny & Charles Pierce – posted 8/16/2011 I've come across from a few different sources lately some excellent writing that definitely shares a common theme and seems to also offer the same take away idea. The theme is around violence perpetuated at least to a degree by politics and examples of it have been way too common. In the US there's been the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and other innocents and in Europe recently both the attack in Norway and riots in London. Now, these atrocities are all distinct events and care should be taken to not link them too tightly, but they do all traffic at least somewhat in social standing and politics. In terms of political discourse, the Charles Pierce Esquire feature "The Bomb That Didn't Go Off" examines the prevalence of right-wing violence and how what Pierce describes as an us vs them fragmentation of politics feeds the fire. I previously posted on the story, but it was just fascinating stuff that looks beyond the superficial causes people like to attribute atrocity to in order to make them feel better. Not long after this piece came the aforementioned London riots and some excellent writing on them from both Time Magazine and a blog by UK-based writer Laurie Penny. Latest issue of Time featured two really solid pieces on the London riots... one on the violence itself and one about the causes of it. "London's Long Burn" was by Nathan Thornburgh on the first subject and the more lengthy "The End of Europe" from Rana Foroohar looked at some of the systematic causes and raises definite flags about prospects for stability in the future. The story is obviously on Europe, but reading Foroohar's words towards the end brought to mind the political climate in the US as both described by Charles Pierce and evidenced by the recent budget debates and political entrenchment. Point is made in the piece of the role Germany could play in the financial stability of the continent... but, both in Germany and elsewhere, the trend towards a politics of polarization would have to give way to a discourse around the greater good. Closely related to both Time features and that by Pierce was the aforementioned Laurie Penny blog post "Panic on the streets of London." It's good writing that in a short space conveys both the violence that was happening and how it's wasn't simply "mindless acts perpetuated without cause." This of course isn't to say they were justified acts, but just as Pierce wrote... to simply call a heinous act something heinous done by crazies and nothing more is to not look at the conditions behind them and whether steps can be taken to improve and prevent. The idea from Pierce makes me think of how George Santayana told us (according to Google): "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Politics Writing from Esquire - Pierce, Marche & Jones – posted 8/3/2011 Latest Esquire featured three different excellent pieces that dealt with politics. One of them was a solid Presidential candidate profile, one a commentary on the President and one a ridiculously profound look at our country's political discourse and the violence it's wrought. The profile is by Chris Jones and titled "Romney Doesn't Scare Obama. This Guy Does" on Republican challenger Jon Huntsman. It's a solid look at someone who could be a formidable general election opponent. On the subject of the President, Stephen Marche penned "How Can We Not Love Obama? Because like it or not, he is all of us". Oftentimes I find myself skimming Marche's monthly 1,000 words column, but here he provides a really interesting piece. Best of the three, though, is "The Bomb That Didn't Go Off" by Charles Pierce. It's a thought-provoking look at domestic terrorism and how it's caused in part by a poisonous climate of political conversation. Pierce begins the piece with the gripping tale of an attempted Martin Luther King Day parade bombing earlier this year in Spokane, WA. That story in itself was compelling and worthwhile narrative, but it's then tied to what Pierce terms a fragmentation of politics into an us vs them combat rather than conversation between people and parties. The point is made that the perpetrators of such terroristic acts are simply labeled nut jobs and we go on with our lives, but perhaps a closer look should be paid to what's bringing so many cases out of the woodwork. Pierce references journalist David Neiwert who counts close to 30 such acts of domestic terrorism (completed or foiled) since 2008 and uses that as backing for his point that ignoring the

112

Words Written Down – Everything else

cause of the attempts and climate that ferments them just keeps the cycle going. Pierce strikes me as homerun type of writer who I at times read without taking much away from and sometimes am practically awestruck by how good a piece he has written. This story definitely falls into the latter category with his combining together of an extremely human story of an attempted terrorist act with a larger take-away message: As stated in the beginning of this post, ridiculously profound writing. Russell Brand, Dave Bidini & Caroline Sullivan on Passing of Amy Winehouse – posted 7/26/2011 Never would have expected heartfelt and incredibly well written prose from him, but that's what goofball actor Russell Brand provided with "For Amy" after Amy Winehouse passed away July 23rd. Written for his website, it's about the life of an addict and what that struggle means as well as being about Winehouse herself: Interesting, profound, solid and just excellent writing. On this same subject of Winehouse and her death there's a few other not quite as great as that from Brand, but also good pieces of writing I came across. From the London newspaper The Guardian came the "Amy Winehouse obituary" by Caroline Sullivan and Dave Bidini penned "Let's not raise a glass to this" for the National Post. Sullivan's writing provides an overall look at the life of Winehouse and Bidini's piece in the Toronto newspaper is about the inexorable linking of drugs and alcohol to someone living a celebrity life... particularly one in music. It's an interesting take from someone who's a musician as well as writer (and guy with interests close to my heart as evidenced by his book "Tropic of Hockey" that I reviewed here). Good writing all on Winehouse and her passing... a shame to have anyone die young and to have such a talent gone. Best Newspaper Columns of All Time – posted 7/6/2011 Pretty fascinating piece I came across on Twitter recently with Charlotte Observer columnist Tommy Tomlinson linking to a Wall Street Journal blog entry titled "What‘s the Best Newspaper Column of All Time?" It‘s an arbitrary question to be sure, but interesting nonetheless. Actual listing was done courtesy of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists with the story from their website being "Top Ten American Columns in History". Linked to from both the WSJ and this piece was a 31 page PDF of what was said to be the top fifteen (I know, the story was titled "top ten") columns. One through fifteen ranking was then determined by picks from both members of the Society and the general public. After reading both the ranking and the stories, I kind of wish I had seen the stories first so as to not influence which ones stood out to me, but below were my personal favorites in no particular order (with links I was able to find directly to the pieces)... Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus – Frances Pharcellus Church – New York Sun – 9/21/1897. The Death of Captain Waskow - Ernie Pyle - Scripps Howard – 1/10/44. It‘s an Honor Jimmy Breslin - New York Herald Tribune - November 1963. Daley Embodied Chicago – Mike Royko – Chicago Sun Times – 12/21/76. We‘ll Go Forward From This Moment – Leonard Pitts Jr. – Miami Herald – 9/11/01. All were pretty short, but powerful in their own distinct ways. The piece by Pitts practically overpowers the reader with its imagery, and those by both Breslin and Pyle work to great effect in a much more understated way. The Church story is just plain famous (and good) and the Royko story (around the middle of the PDF previously linked) has what I'd consider to be some iconic phrases: "So when Daley slid sideways into a sentence, or didn‟t exit from the same paragraph he entered, it amused us." "The town was built by great men who demanded the drunkards and harlots be arrested, while charging them rent until the cops arrived." Really good writing linked here (granted, it is supposed to be The Best)... that said, I am a touch surprised to not see here Death of a Racehorse by W.C. Heinz for the New York Sun in 1949. I first heard of the piece from W.C. Heinz, 1915-2008 by Chris Jones for Esquire and found it to be definitely on par with the other great works in how each and every word has such heft behind it. Writing on Loss: from Joe Posnanski, Wayne Drash and Tommy Tomlinson – posted 6/26/2011 Some really remarkable writing lately on the lives and passing of Nick Charles and Nina Leavitt: Charles is by far the more well known of the two as the former co-anchor of CNN Sports Tonight and then boxing commentator for HBO and Showtime. Diagnosed in Aug 2009 with terminal cancer, he passed away

113

Words Written Down – Everything else

yesterday and left behind three grown children, a wife and five-year old daughter, Giovanna. His story also has a tremendous amount of uplift and I first learned of Charles through the Mar 2001 Joe Posnanski column "Lessons of the Fight Game" for Sports Illustrated. This morning I saw word of Charles' death in the Posnanski blog post "My Friend Nick Charles". Both pieces are poignant and portray a life-affirming approach to death (may be a bit cliché for me to write that, but true nonetheless). Further writing on Charles can be found in the lengthy April 2011 CNN piece "Facing death, CNN sports legend embraces life" by Wayne Drash: Really solid work on the man and his life. The story of Nina Leavitt is perhaps more sad than Charles' in that her passing was sudden and came at a younger age. Written by Tommy Tomlinson for the Charlotte Observer, "Nina & Kristopher: A story of great love, great loss" was actually the second column by Tomlinson on the couple. The first was "Love lands ... and moves quickly" and reads as absolute tragedy given the news of Leavitt's passing. Powerful writing from Tomlinson (linked to from the aforementioned Joe Posnanski's blog) that reminds of The Last Lecture (which I reviewed here) from Randy Pausch. "Life after High School" Annie Murphy Paul Piece - and other life lessons – posted 6/14/2011 Latest issue of Time Magazine featured an interesting story with connections to pieces by a few other authors. "Life after High School" was written by Annie Murphy Paul and looks at the idea of how important high school is (or is not) in shaping who someone turns out to be. The piece is only sort of linked to here in that Time has decided not to post it online, but I was struck by Paul's high school graduation speech notions (which she had just been asked to deliver at the commencement for her old high school). In short - be all you can be, don't be limited, dream big: All the stuff of Successories posters to be sure, but perhaps nuggets (or even big piles) of truth there for those of us trying to figure out what to be upon growing up. To this end, Paul's writing led me thinking on a few different concepts written on by various authors linked to on this blog. From the linked to here on a recurring basis writer, John Gardner... "If we are conscious of the danger of going to seed, we can resort to countervailing measures at almost any age. You don't need to run down like an unwound clock. And if your clock is unwound, you can wind it up again. You can stay alive in every sense of the word until you fail physically. I know some pretty successful people who feel that that just isn't possible for them, that life has trapped them. But they don't really know that. Life takes unexpected turns." From the posted on here Robert Lipsyte book An Accidental Sportswriter... "Don't quit. Gut it out. Try to hold on till the final buzzer. It will work out, somehow." From the Joe Posnanski blog post "My Kansas City Goodbye"... "And who am I now? I still love Springsteen and chocolate and reading in bed. I still have a soft spot in my heart for Winona Ryder, even after the whole shoplifting thing. But those are not who I am, not like it was then. I'm a father, a husband, a writer. Most of the things that mattered then don't matter at all to me now. Most of the things that matter to me now would have been unimaginable to me then. I am not floating. I am anchored.” My take away gist from the Paul piece along with the words from Gardner, Posnanski and Lipsyte... should move forward towards a goal while still appreciating the present. Good things both. David Von Drehle on the Joplin Tornado – posted 6/4/2011 There was recent great writing by David Von Drehle for Time Magazine with Torn Asunder: How the Deadliest Twister in Decades Ripped through Joplin, Mo. Von Drehle has an ability to convey detailed reporting on a story in conjunction with the personal tales of the people involved. This piece on Joplin is no exception with its thorough research and big picture reporting on disaster that also delves heavily into the stories of individuals and their experiences with the storm. Additionally, the two paragraph intro is just riveting... and a call to keep reading. In terms of this personal look at the people impacted by the tornado, Von Drehle's piece brought to mind this story by Lars Anderson for Sports Illustrated. I posted on it less than two weeks ago, and both Von Drehle‘s look at Joplin, MO and Anderson's at Tuscaloosa, AL stand out as excellent writing on people touched by the carnage of a large tornado.

114

Words Written Down – Everything else

Joe Posnanski Blog Posts: Daughters & Roller Skating / Honesty – posted 5/11/2011 It's been a few months since I last posted something from Joe Posnanski, but it's certainly not for a lack of quality words published by him... either for Sports Illustrated or on his blog. Really, I'm perpetually amazed at the volume of work he publishes and frequently find writing that strike a chord. Two blog posts that stood out to me lately were Honesty and then Daughters and Roller Skating a few weeks later. Whereas one piece centers on a Vietnam Vet and the other Posnanski's 6 year old daughter, both pieces traffic in what can be generically called the Human Element. Posnanski writes eloquently about being true to yourself and others as well as finding your way as a kid and parent. Time Magazine - David Von Drehle on the death of Bin Laden – posted 5/9/2011 May not be incredibly timely at this point, but two good Time Magazine pieces from David Von Drehle on the death of Bin Laden: The cover story was Killing bin Laden: How the U.S. Finally Got Its Man and from the Time website came After Bin Laden: a Stronger America. Von Drehle is an excellent writer and both pieces feature thorough and insightful prose on the conclusion to a long pursuit. Additional note to make, though, is how annoying it is that the cover story link doesn't actually go to the entire text of the Von Drehle story, but rather an abridged version that tells readers to go buy a hard copy issue or utilize the Time iPad app. Question on this topic would be what exactly the Time staffers making this decision to abridge think they'll accomplish? Perhaps said decision-makers wouldn't agree, but I think it more likely for someone to read an entire piece online and be interested in subscribing than they are to read an abridged piece on the web and then go somewhere to purchase a hard copy issue. As to the notion of driving people to the Time iPad app- ok, that works for the people who have an iPad, but as great as the device may be, it's not something everyone's got. Time Magazine Cover Stories: David Von Drehle on the Civil War & Jon Meacham on Pastor Rob Bell – posted 4/18/2011 Each of the past two Time Magazine issues featured cover stories which stood out as having really interesting content. From the Apr 18 issue, David Von Drehle penned "150 Years after Fort Sumter: Why we‘re still fighting the Civil War". Von Drehle is an excellent writer who I've linked to a number of times on this blog and in this story he investigates what caused the conflict leaving 625,000 Americans dead. Specifically, what he looks at and debunks is the notion (which I've heard before) that the Civil War was about something other than slavery. It's a fascinating read for anyone interested in history... specifically the actually happened kind of history rather than revisionist looking view subscribed to by some (in this case for the purpose of aggrandizement of the Southern states who were fighting for the perpetuation of slavery). From this week's (Apr 25) edition of Time came the cover piece "Is Hell Dead?" by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jon Meacham. Basis for the story is Evangelical Pastor Rob Bell and his recently written Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (a heavy-sounding title to be sure). Bell blends solid evangelical credentials (in the form of a 7,000 person congregation at Mars Hill Bible Church about 3 hours outside both Chicago and Detroit) with strong youth following (in part because he's just 40 and started Mars Hill at 28). What inspired the Time cover story, though, is the idea put forth in Bell's book. In short, he questions the existence of Hell as a place long described in Christianity and wonders instead if the intent of God isn't instead to bring everyone into a place in Heaven. It's a bold idea that for those who take stock in it, changes much current dogma about what it means to become a Christian. It was a really interesting idea and one being put forth by someone deeply within the Christian community that's having a principle tenant of its belief questioned. Esquire Writing - on "New Biologist" Eric Schadt & Extreme Health – posted 3/29/2011 There's a piece of writing in the latest Esquire that both has solid content and makes me think about words and what writers think about when they pen them. The profile by Tom Junod is "Adventures in Extreme Science" and looks at brainiac Eric Schadt and his "emperor has no clothes" approach to conventional

115

Words Written Down – Everything else

wisdom in the field of molecular biology. Schadt makes for an interesting topic with his proselytizing about the vast networks and cause-effect relationships within the body... and how that runs counter to the previous belief that things within ran independently enough that successful mapping of human DNA would start us on the road to disease cure. In terms of this new viewpoint, the book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" is cited as being both the source of the term "paradigm shift" and one of Schadt's early influences around the idea of necessary breaking away from conventional belief. Junod details not just the intelligence and contrarian viewpoint of Schadt, but also his propensity to get out in front of his ideas and advocate loudly for him. Lest that statement make him appear a simple self-promoter, also noted in the profile is Schadt's collaborative approach to solving problems and curing disease... regardless of whether it's he or his company getting the credit and subsequent revenue: Really interesting reading on the guy. What also struck me in the piece was a specific anecdote told. Schadt early on is described as being a breaking from convention kind of guy and torch bearer for "New Biology"... in short, a whole new approach. After this was established about Schadt, Junod related how he "likes to do his supercomputing on planes." The further description of this was how Schadt would figure out what data he needs run and then simply hop onto a plane's Wi-Fi network and order that data run via Amazon servers. It's a remarkable detail that carries both an interesting feel to it and shot across the bow backing for the "New" advocated for by Schadt. Maybe it's just because I'm a sucker for funky (and yet important) detail, but this anecdote made it much easier for me as a reader to embrace a paradigm shift idea (or someone extolling the virtues of one), simply because the tools available are also a paradigm shift from previously capabilities. It was a really cool inclusion by Junod and as an interested reader; I really wonder whether he put as much gravitas behind the anecdote about server time via Amazon as I took from it. Also of note from this issue was the concept of Extreme Heath as written about in multiple short pieces. Featured were a number of otherwise common folk who decided to push themselves to do uncommon things... including surfer Laird Hamilton, subject of a "What I've Learned" piece. Not that I necessarily want to go all crazy with it at this point, but I think there a lot to be said for the idea of pushing to see what you can accomplish. Japan Disaster & New Ideas Feature - from Time Magazine – posted 3/23/2011 Some pretty compelling writing and interesting content from the latest issue of Time Magazine. The Special Report on the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami featured pieces that captured well both the scope of the devastation and resilience of the people impacted. To this end, the cover story essay was "The Day the Earth Moved" by Nancy Gibbs and Hanna Beech provided "Aftermath: How Japan Will Recover from the Quake" highlighting actions taken by individual citizens after the disaster: Really solid writing in both stories. In the much less important, but still interesting from this issue category was some of the things mentioned in Time's "10 Ideas That Will Change the World" section. Two I found of note were about the concepts of airport communities as well as that of sharing rather than owning: "Think of Your Airport As a City — but Nicer" makes reference to the ideas put forth in a book I've heard about several different times lately... "Aerotropolis" by John Kasarda. "Today's Smart Choice: Don't Own. Share" is about the idea of item rental as championed by well known companies like Netflix. Also mentioned are less well known businesses such as SnapGoods (borrowing and renting of stuff), Zipcar (car rentals) and Airbnb (vacation rentals). "The Fighter" & John Gardner Writing – posted 3/16/2011 Some of my favorite posts to this blog have been on disparate subjects twined together... a good lead in to this missive on a boxing movie & a former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. As to the boxing movie... watched The Fighter last night and found it to be an excellent movie. It was based on the true-life story of Micky Ward and his boxing career, but struck me as being more about the idea of fighting through adversity and trying to do what you feel right. To this end, Ward came from a fairly unbelievable (for someone who never lived it) background and had to constantly reconcile the choice between going his own way without family or sticking with them through a lot of hardship. It was pretty heady stuff and not to just

116

Words Written Down – Everything else

write in lofty platitudes, for me showed the import of not giving up and trying to push through to see where you'll land. Someone might not always know what the right thing is, but they just keep trying to figure it out and go after said right thing. Also, Christian Bale was really, really good in the film. On to the perhaps not so different subject of John Gardner, former Cabinet member under President Lyndon Johnson, I wrote some two years a blog post on Gardner linking to his writing and found him to be (along with Coach John Wooden, who I wrote about in these blog posts) a champion of this same "doing your best" idea that I took from the movie. Additionally, a quote from Gardner (and the two years past blog post) traffics in the topic of family and priorities... ―Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account." Yea, perhaps it's a bit of a stretch, but I'd say the Micky Ward as shown in the movie and hypothetical person who takes Gardner's advice... not so different from one another. Time Magazine Stories: America Not in Decline & Anthony Bourdain Travel Show – posted 3/8/2011 There were two solid pieces from the latest issue of Time Magazine. As part of the cover feature, "Don't Bet Against the United States" was penned by the excellent David Von Drehle and later in the issue, James Poniewozik wrote "Guilty Pleasure" on the Anthony Bourdain travel show No Reservations. I've noted this previously about Von Drehle, but his work almost always strikes me as solidly researched and well written (with this piece no exception). In the view of "if you like this, you'll love...‖ I recommend the Von Drehle book "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America" (which I reviewed here) to anyone a fan of his Time writing. Going back to the Poniewozik story, it‘s perhaps not as big picture as Von Drehle's piece about America's place in the world, but an interesting read nonetheless. Joe Posnanski Writing... and Blogging – posted 3/4/2011 Since my last blog post included a missive about how great it is to read and link to a new to a newly discovered (by me) author, it's only fitting that this post feature one of my favorite writers, Joe Posnanski. Additionally, this post started as being a chance to link to some solid writing from the guy, but writing it got me thinking more about the concept of writers and blogging. Earlier this week, Posnanski posted on his blog a piece on the life and recent passing of Kansas City sports announcer Bill Grigsby. The story title of "Beautiful" is referenced as being a nod to Grigsby's "favorite word, the word that doesn't just describe his life but how he felt about life." It's writing like this on a region-centric figure that struck me (perhaps incorrectly) as why Posnanski writes a blog in addition to his writing for Sports Illustrated. The great thing about the blog is the national audience requirement falls by the wayside, leaving just a forum to write something of interest for the author. The fact that there are readers out there like myself seeking out and enjoying the work is simply bonus. In addition to this idea of a writer's blog being a place to publish something of personal interest, said writer's blog can also elaborate and provide background to a published piece. The latest issue of Sports Illustrated featured a short piece by Posnanski on boxing commentator Nick Charles. While I subscribe to SI, I haven't even gotten this issue yet, but heard about the story from Posnanski's blog through his post "Behind the Back Page". The SI story about Charles and his life (including his terminal cancer) was poignant reading, but made all the better by the additional story details in the blog post. So... a writer blogging can both provide them place to write freely and be a way to add details to a work published elsewhere. Both good reasons to write a blog... with the additional benefit of blogging quite possibly being that one will improve their writing by simply doing more of it. I've written before (and about Posnanski) of how it's impressive when a writer publishes frequently in a variety of different mediums, but perhaps they're doing it for good reason.

117

Words Written Down – Everything else

Iraq Terrorist Hunter Piece from Esquire – posted 3/2/2011 There was a really solid piece by Daniel Voll in the latest issue of Esquire. About an Iraqi citizen who works with American operatives to capture terrorists, "The Hunter Becomes the Hunted" is a story that would seem a Hollywood fabrication were it not real. To that end, it combines plot lines that could have been taken from a movie with well rounded reporting... like that provided by a David Von Drehle from Time. I enjoy reading stuff from authors I know and like, but also like quite a bit coming across a solid piece like this from someone I haven't heard of. J.R. Moehringer Writing – posted 2/24/2011 As this blog is all about great writing... the reading of it, the linking to and commenting on it, I find myself constantly seeking out information on and new work from the writers I like the most. Picking up a Sport Illustrated and seeing that Susan Casey (who I first wrote on here) has a new book excerpted there (which I then posted about), reading a Roger Ebert blog post which gives an e-mail address for Esquire writer Chris Jones, finding out Erik Larson has a book coming out in May... to me, that stuff is just golden. To this whole writing crush concept, I'm kind of amazed that it's not terribly easy to find much about the excellent writer J.R. Moehringer (author of "The Tender Bar" ... one of my two favorite books read last year, with the aforementioned Casey book as the other). Yea, he's got a Wikipedia page, but in today's hyper connected twitter-using world, I expected to find more about him and what he's working on (fairly incredibly to me, a Google search for the term "who does J.R. Moehringer write for?" provided my "Tender Bar" review as the fourth result). With this as the impetus, I set out to find and read me some more Moehringer... and glad I did. First thing I found was a Sept 2010 piece for GQ titled "Three Weeks in Crazyville" about the author's time spent with LeBron James prior to his "The Decision" ESPN event, its great writing about both a guy (James) and a process. It reminded me of his "Tender Bar" memoir in that Moehringer injects himself into the story and as a result reveals more about James by revealing the process of writing about him. Not to overstate things, but it struck me as a pretty audacious approach... that worked very well. While reading this piece, I saw mention on the GQ site of another Moehringer athlete profile from earlier in 2010. "In It To Win It" looks at the life and drive of Kobe Bryant and while the story was written in a more conventional manner than that on James, it's still solid work on a pretty fascinating guy. Two other features from Moehringer I found (and enjoyed) whilst browsing on the worldly wide Interwide net: Written on the town of Gees Bend, Alabama, "Crossing Over" looks at a pocket of the country unknown to many and seemingly caught in a tug of war between staying that way and becoming "modernized". While I wasn't as captivated by this as I was the GQ pieces (primarily due to interest in the subject), it's excellent writing from Moehringer... as evidenced by his 2000 Pulitzer Prize for the story. Also from the L.A. Times (and later made into a movie), "Resurrecting the Champ" is about Moehringer's relationship with and search for the truth about an ex heavyweight boxing contender. It's pretty riveting stuff and though written some 13 years before the story on James, features (very effectively) the same narrative device of writing about writing. Reading about the author's interactions with the subject provides a piercing view into him. So, anyhoo... Moehringer... really solid writer and I look forward to reading more stuff by him in the future. Thomas Hoenig & Inflation Piece by David Von Drehle – posted 2/20/2011 There was a really solid and compelling piece of writing from the Feb 14 issue of Time by one of my favorite current writers. Good writing is such a fascinating thing to me... it has to be grammatically and structurally clear and correct (the aforementioned solid), but also compelling. That type of compelling may well have an emotional bent (but, as I write about here, shouldn't fall too far into sentiment). Compelling as an attribute oft times relates to the topic... but, what's really impressive is writing on a subject that someone might not think they'd be interested in, but become so through the story. This is what Time writer David Von Drehle pulls off in his piece on Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President, Thomas Hoenig. The Fed's Dissenter: Saying No to Easy Money is about one guy (though, an influential one) and his fears of inflation.

118

Words Written Down – Everything else

Von Drehle's writing is excellent from the perspective that it explains fully and in an interesting manner, perhaps more interesting than I would have expected on the subject. The guy is just a really good writer... as shown through both his work for Time (with writing on the Tucson tragedy posted on and linked to here) and his book (with "Triangle" reviewed here). "Restrepo" & "The Tillman Story" Documentaries – posted 2/15/2011 I recently watched two documentaries lately that had a lot in common with one another. Both about the people in the military, both closely related to books that I've read and both excellent... with that excellence leading me to a sense of disgust about the military leadership featured in one of the films. First movie was "Restrepo" from filmmaker Tim Hetherington and writer Sebastian Junger on their time spent embedded with a US military unit in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan. The movie is the companion piece to Junger's written account "War" and shows a portrait of just how chaotic and messed up combat can be. I wrote of this in my review, but I was struck by the idea of someone doing a tour in such extreme and violent conditions and then (hopefully) returning home to live a normal life. I'd say my thought was that it takes a special person to be able to do transition back seamlessly, but really... I don't know how anyone could compartmentalize the type of combat written of and then return home without issue. Second movie (and the one featuring the military leadership) was "The Tillman Story" by Amir Bar-Lev. It's about former NFL player Pat Tillman, killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan and covers much of the same territory as the Jon Krakauer book on Tillman, "Where Men Win Glory" (which I reviewed here). Both the movie and book portrayed Tillman as someone shamelessly exploited by his military chain of command after his death. The books and movies referenced here depict the death as well as emotional scars that can come from combat. What's so troubling is how someone (like Tillman) could sign up for that, and then have the circumstances of his life and death manipulated for a political goal... in this case, support of a given war. Really good books and movies all four... just not the happy and fluffy kind of really good. Barack Obama Tucson Speech & Patti Davis on Ronald Reagan – posted 2/1/2011 There's a great number of topics posted on and linked to on this blog... including those from the worlds of sports, business, family and politics. Two pieces I've come across lately fall loosely into the Political category, but squarely into the category of great writing. The first was President Barack Obama's address to the nation by President Barack Obama following the shooting in Tucson. The writing in his speech had the same elements as other outstanding writing posted on and linked to about the tragedy. It covered the topic (if that's not too crass of a term to use in this case), did so in a clear voice, and conveyed a message well. One could either disagree or agree with policies from the man, but this particular speech was just... solid. The second piece of writing sort of about politics (but, not really) that I found excellent lately was by Patti Davis on her late father Ronald Reagan. From Time Magazine, "Grace Under Fire" is a commentary about time spent with the former President as he suffered from Alzheimer's. The piece was excellent writing that reminded me of family writing from memoirs by Gary Dell' Abate and John Grogan... which I reviewed here and here respectively. Tiger Moms Writing from Time Magazine – posted 1/23/2011 There was a thought provoking cover story from the latest issue of Time Magazine. Written by Annie Murphy Paul, "Tiger Moms: Is Tough Parenting Really the Answer?" looks at the idea of strict parenting... with the why and how practice of that described in a current bestselling book by a Yale Law Professor and mother of two. Amy Chua describes loving her work in academia, worked extremely hard while young (which she cites as the foundation for her current success), and wants the same level of career success and life satisfaction for her two daughters. Out of this, she wrote "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" about her demands placed upon the girls... including long hours of schoolwork and music practice. Additional treatment (and source of the book's controversy) included threats to burn toys if expectations not met and rejection of handmade presents if sufficient work not deemed to have gone into their creation. The Paul

119

Words Written Down – Everything else

story details all of this and Chua's assertions that in raising her girls this way, she's preparing them for life. As a reader of the piece, I found the whole topic fascinating and agreed in general with her. Setting aside as just plain mean some of her treatment, Chua's concept of putting in work to develop mastery does make sense... and brings to mind the "10,000 hour rule" as described in the Malcolm Gladwell book "Outliers" (reviewed here). An additional concept from Chua is that children need to be raised not to be protected from harsh realities, but rather as people that can accomplish despite hardship. While some of her parenting techniques can be described as draconian, the premise that children gain confidence by accomplishing something they weren't sure possible does have weight to it. Related to the cover story was a secondary piece in Time I found of note. The one page commentary "Tiger Daughter" was written by Bill Powell and about his six year old daughter and her long hours spent on schoolwork growing up in Shanghai. Basically, the same (but, less over the top in its delivery) idea as Chua... it's hard work working hard, but should pay off. Going back specifically to the Gladwell "10,000 hour rule", this (perhaps forced) time spent leads to proficiency and excellence. Take that and combine it with a loving upbringing and you've got something pretty solid. Tragedy in Tucson Writing from David Von Drehle & Joe Posnanski – posted 1/20/2011 Two great pieces I've come across recently on the shooting in Tucson. From David Von Drehle in Time and Joe Posnanski in Sports Illustrated, they stand out as excellent for similar reasons. Great writing is a tough thing to achieve (with the point of this blog of course being to highlight examples of it). You have to have a good subject of course (with good being made up of: interesting, important, sad, inspiring, etc), but you also have to have something that comes out in the writing itself. Assuming that the mechanics of a piece are there and it's easy to understand and gets it's point across, great writing to me often can be characterized as either Profound, Thorough or Different. Writing examples of this would be a piece on Jill Costello as Profound and that on the Gulf Oil Spill as Thorough... and why both stories were included in those I considered as Best or Close to Best Writing Linked To from the past year. Profound and Thorough are me thinks a bit easier to describe or understand as concepts than Different, though. The Different trait in great writing is when an author takes a story (especially a heavily reported on and interesting one) and crafts solid prose about a different aspect than others are scribing about. Good example of this also from the Best Writing Linked To category was Eleven Lives about the men who perished in the explosion prior to the aforementioned Gulf Oil Spill. It's this category of Different that the Von Drehle and Posnanski pieces on the Tucson shooting fall into (in addition to the very much evident Profound). Rather than being about cause, effect and blame of the senseless act, both are able the people who lost their lives... with the Posnanski piece focusing on the youngest victim. Really great writing in these two stories... The Real Lesson of the Tucson Tragedy by David Von Drehle and A Death in the Family by Joe Posnanski. Joe Posnanski on Harry Potter World Experience – posted 1/16/2011 Really cool blog post I came across from the excellent Joe Posnanski. It's titled Katie the Prefect and tells the story of his 9 year old daughter and an experience she had at Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Orlando. This piece was different than the Posnanski stuff I usually link to, but as I wrote about before, one of the great things is how much writing he puts out there in different places. A blog post on Harry Potter World and your kid's experience there likely wouldn't get printed into Sports Illustrated, but its compelling writing and perfect for his blog. "What I've Learned" by John Wooden from Esquire – posted 12/29/2010 The Jan 2011 iteration of Esquire is its annual "Meaning of Life" / "What I've Learned" issue and features a number of solid pieces by notable figures imparting their wisdom to the masses (at least the Esquirereading masses). What stood out to me above the rest were Coach John Wooden's missives from the "In Memoriam" section. The interview was done by Cal Fussman in 2000, published in this form July 2010 and then shortened a bit for this issue of Esquire. Shortening even further, below are my favorite statements

120

Words Written Down – Everything else

from this piece by Wooden... "You can do more good by being good than any other way." "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation." "If I am through learning, I am through." "Don't let making a living prevent you from making a life." True, this blog is more frequently about great writing in longer form, but if these aren't great words written down, I don't know what is. Time Person of the Year Profile on Mark Zuckerberg – posted 12/28/2010 Excellent Person of the Year piece from Lev Grossman in the latest Time Magazine: It's a pretty large feature on the Facebook founder and conveys the fascinating confluence of events that brought Zuckerberg and his company to where they're now at. You've got an immensely smart guy with an idea that to him seemed obvious... which he's then pushed forward both personally and through people brought into leadership roles at the company. Couple of things that struck me about Zuckerberg and the piece on him: 1. Grossman's description of the character portrayal in The Social Network movie as being a fiction (which of course, it was). Grossman describes Zuckerberg as having solid personal relationships and being more like the brilliant and driven characters from The West Wing television series (also written by Aaron Sorkin). 2. The concept of Facebook serving as a sort of referendum on two separate, but related areas: The first being the Internet as something controlled by people using it as they will and the second on the idea of living life in the open... as opposed to having a "personal life" and then an "online life." 3. The notion of what Facebook could potentially become in the area of recommendation around business. A sort of Holy Grail of the web is its power to have consumers sell product and with Facebook becoming a ubiquitous platform, it could become THE place for personal product and service recommendation online (with this concept of online recommendation previously posted on here). All this through the idea of "liking" an ad, product or company just as you can "like" a new friend. Also interesting was a comment by a Facebook Product Manager about his job being "a shot to actually truly affect the course of a major piece of evolution." Even if you view the enthusiasm expressed with a grain of salt and consider it being about just building a product for a company, it's still got to be pretty great to have that be your field of work. NYC Dept of Transportation Commissioner Profile from Esquire – posted 12/17/2010 Fascinating piece from the Best and Brightest 2010 issue of Esquire Magazine: Written by Lisa Taddeo, "Janette Sadik-Khan: Urban Reengineer" looks at the NYC Transportation Commissioner and her efforts to reclaim the city for the people (my words, not necessarily hers). It's terribly interesting reading and reminds me of "Traffic" written by Tom Vanderbilt (and which I reviewed here two years ago). In fact, reference is made in both the Taddeo piece and Vanderbilt book of various cities in Scandinavia as the ideal for traffic planning. Less cars, more bike lanes and pedestrian plazas... all designed to improve the livability of an area while also increasing safety. Very cool stuff. In this same issue of Esquire was reference to a website I've heard about a few different times, but have never actually been able to fully use. The Wilderness Downtown was designed around the Arcade Fire song "We Used to Wait" and is supposed to have really cool technology around it... you just need the Google Chrome browser to make it work. Time Magazine Cover Stories - WikiLeaks & The Decade Past – posted 12/5/2010 There were interesting cover stories from each of the past two issues of Time Magazine. Most recent was the Dec 13 edition with its story on WikiLeaks... and the recent release of US intelligence documents, including 11,000+ marked "secret" by the government. Written by Massimo Calabresi, "WikiLeaks' War on Secrecy: Truth's Consequences" is a detailed look at the documents, the WikiLeaks website that published them and the guy behind the site, Julian Assange. While the recent trove of leaks is described by some as not being terribly damning (Time Columnist Fareed Zakaria in this essay), it's still pretty riveting stuff to read about. As is oft the case, Time and its writers did an excellent job giving a thorough look at the story, its players and ramifications. The Dec 6 issue of Time featured a Special Report looking back at the past 10 years with a series of different stories examining different aspects. Most compelling to me of them was the "Looking Back to the Future" introduction by Nancy Gibbs, a very short and well written piece.

121

Words Written Down – Everything else

PTSD Comfort Dogs & Other Stuff - from Time Magazine – posted 11/27/2010 Some interesting stuff from the Nov 22 issue of Time Magazine. Foremost was "Bringing Dogs to Heal" about the pairing of pets with Veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's a well written piece from Mark Thompson and is accompanied by this video from Time's website... Also from this same issue of Time was a book review of "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption". The book is about track athlete and Army Air Corps draftee Louis Zamperini and written by ―Seabiscuit‖ author Laura Hillenbrand. Finally, neither had actual articles written on the topics, but also of note from this issue was mention of three different new ventures... with the first two (both part of Time's "50 Top Inventions 0f 2010‖) being the Flipboard iPad app and the new Bookprint website from Scholastic. Idea behind You Are What You Read (as it's also known) is a Social Networking site noting favorite books from both public figures and everyday folk. It's an interesting concept that reminds me of the book community site Shelfari. Also of interest was mention of the Responsible Homeowner Reward Program from Loan Value Group. Started by the Howard Hubler (of the $9B in bad mortgage bets made at Morgan Stanley), underwater homeowners can sign up and then get a cash sum at the time they lay off their loan in full (after consistently making payments up to that point. Writing of Profundity - by Ebert & Posnanski – posted 11/15/2010 Two different blog entries I've come across lately that struck me not so much for the topics covered, but the depth of the writing. To his widely-read Chicago Sun-Times blog, Roger Ebert posted "All the Lonely People" about the masses of people on the Internet (but, really just masses of people everywhere) living through tormented, difficult and just plain lonely existences. While I didn't necessarily identify with what he wrote, I respected both the profound sentiments from Ebert and those left as comments to the blog entry. Some 10 days after the article was posted, there's been 493 different reader reactions composed, vetted for submission and posted to the blog. I found myself scanning through and reading the ones that Ebert felt compelled to comment on, with none striking me more than that below... By Sam Salant on November 8, 2010 10:48 AM “In December, I will have been married for 61 years to the same loving woman. For the last ten years, she's been afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, and little by little she has lost her personhood, and I, even at 87 years of age, miss the intelligence and spirited love that for so long I took for granted. She must be even lonelier than I am, except when I hold her in my arms and tell her stories about our past life. She can recall what I've said for less than ten too short seconds, but for that tiny period, we are together again. Thank you for your column, and please accept my best wishes -- both of you.” Ebert: “Oh, my God, this took my breath away. What a lovely man you are.” In the same category of profound work from one of my favorite authors was "The Promise" on the blog of Sports Illustrated writer Joe Posnanski. Similar to Ebert's piece, the content struck other's more personally than I, but it's really good stuff about Posnanski, his Dad, drudgery-based work and a Springsteen song. The piece was described by Posnanski on his twitter page as "probably the most personal post I've written." Chris Jones on Wheel of Fortune Solve and Sgt. Joe Montgomery – posted 11/14/2010 Some solid writing I've come across lately from Chris Jones. His Esquire blog featured two interesting pieces... each reminding me of past story by Jones. "Was the Wheel of Fortune One-Letter Solve Really a Miracle?" fit squarely into the "amazing game show happenings" just as did his "TV's Crowning Moment of Awesome" from Esquire earlier this year. One about guessing a puzzle, one about guessing the exact value of items in a Price is Right Showcase Showdown... both well written looks at the trivial done well to the point of seemingly impossible. Also from the aforementioned Esquire blog was "The Breathing Ghost of Veterans Day" reminiscing back on Sergeant Joe Montgomery... subject of "The Things that Carried Him" in the May 2008 issue of Esquire. The original piece was the first story I linked to and wrote about on this blog and still gets me when I think about it. About the journey home and steps involved when a service member is killed, it's damn straight powerful work.

122

Words Written Down – Everything else

"The War for Late Night" Book Excerpt – posted 11/7/2010 Man, I do like me some good book excerpt. In this case, "The Unsocial Network" in Vanity Fair was taken from the Bill Carter book "The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy." The piece (and book it's taken from) is all about the Shakespearean drama played out in early 2010 between Conan O'Brien, NBC and Jay Leno. Background is that NBC gave The Tonight Show (which always aired at 11:30 after the local news) to Conan and then inserted Jay Leno in the 10:00 hour prior to the news. Totally outside the tradition of putting an hour long drama in that time slot, NBC considered the move one that would cut costs, keep Jay in their stable and basically make themselves look brilliant. When the newly created Jay Leno Show received horrible ratings (and The Tonight Show lagged from where it was previously), things started to get interesting... this being where the Vanity Fair excerpt picks up. Conan had nothing in his contract preventing the move NBC wanted to make so what ensued was a fascinating conflict between the players involved. Lots of financial ramifications, but what struck me from the piece was the human conflict and people's reactions. To this end, the Vanity Fair excerpt makes reference to the Conan O'Brien authored statement that pretty much closed the door on him staying at NBC: Struck me as a well written and from the heart missive by a guy whose career in front of the camera began with him as a writer. I can't speak for the entire book at this point, but definitely recommend the excerpt (and Conan's statement) as being worth a read. Kids Mental Health / Ted Kaufman - from Time Magazine – posted 10/29/2010 Two different pieces from the Nov 1 issue of Time Magazine that struck me as interesting. The first was "Keeping Young Minds Healthy" by Jeffrey Kluger about some of the psychological ailments that can manifest themselves in childhood. It was a really interesting story with important content. I also found that this piece was part of a larger section on the Time website titled "Health Checkup: Kids and Mental Health"... which featured additional content around kids and health. The second thing which stood out was the Joe Klein In the Arena column "Ted Kaufman, the Temporary Senator". The piece was interesting reading about a very solid sounding politician.... and the writing reminded me of Nate Silver's excellent political forecasting site FiveThirtyEight (now part of the New York Times). Roger Ebert on Secretariat Writer Bill Nack – posted 10/18/2010 It's not terribly often I come across writing I consider to great because of what I feel is the confluence of events required to reach the level of... great. Well written, you most definitely have to have that. Beyond that, the subject has got to either hold a certain gravitas of import or at the very least, be interesting (I write in this blog post about an example from Charles Pierce meeting this dual criterion). Point of all this is to say that it takes a lot to make a piece of writing great and the follow on point is "The storyteller and the stallion" by Roger Ebert is great writing. Written on his Chicago Sun-Time blog, the work is about Ebert's college friend Bill Nack... including his life in writing (25 years of which spent at Sports Illustrated) and his authoring of the book Secretariat, since made into a movie. From a writing perspective, it's really well done work by someone I'm tremendously impressed with as an author in Ebert. Additionally, I find it incredibly cool that one of my favorite current- day writers, Joe Posnanski, would link to the story on his twitter account and refer to Ebert and Nack as two of his favorite writers (very similar to the way Posnanski mentioned another one of my favorites, Chris Jones, in an SI blog piece a few weeks ago). From a subject perspective, I enjoyed this Ebert piece not because it's got content about horse racing, but because it weaves a tale of both the relationship betwixt Ebert and Nack and writing itself. Now, the phrase writing itself may seem a bit melodramatic to use, but what got me was how the piece is someone with both a proven love for words and the process of writing them detailing a friend and his love for words and the process of writing them. To boil it down... that's just cool, and results in a piece of great writing.

123

Words Written Down – Everything else

New World Trade Center Piece & Chris Jones Blog from Esquire – posted 10/7/2010 Two things I found of note in the October 2010 issue of Esquire Magazine. The first was great feature writing about an important topic. Written by Scott Raab, "Good Days at Ground Zero" is about the transformative work being done at the World Trade Center in New York City and Raab details a level of accomplishment I had no idea of. Second thing that struck me (and gave me a bunch more stuff to read) was mention of the Esquire blog My Second Empire (with associated twitter page!) written by Chris Jones. It's about his efforts renovating a house, but since the most recent post is an MLB playoff prediction, I'm expecting to see a goodly amount of ground covered by an excellent writer (I mean, how bad could he be if praised by Joe Posnanski?). Time Magazine Cover Story on Militia Groups – posted 10/5/2010 There was a fascinating cover story from the latest issue of Time Magazine. A pretty length piece by Barton Gellman (with accompanying photos by 19 year old Ty Cacek... I don't know what I was doing at 19, but it wasn't shooting cover pictures for Time Magazine), "The Secret World of Extreme Militias" is definitely worth a read. For lack of a better way to put it, the story is scary stuff and makes me think about the importance of the Time cover story I wrote about and linked to a couple of weeks ago. Teaching in Public Schools - from Time Magazine – posted 9/15/2010 There was a very interesting cover topic in the latest issue of Time Magazine. There's actually two different stories featured... one about teaching in public schools and the upcoming movie Waiting for Superman and one about how to get better teachers in our school. The lead piece is "What Makes a School Great" by Amanda Ripley, but the link to the story won't provide a lot since Time has made the decision to make much of their magazine content unavailable online. What I will say is it sounds a really compelling movie about an important topic... with the trailer below as evidence of that. Two other short pieces from this issue of Time about companies doing interesting things... Scribd that works in the mobile publishing space and Layar that provides augmented reality information for mobile phones. Tony Blair on three U.S. Presidents - from Time Magazine – posted 9/7/2010 Following in a long line of interesting book excerpts in Time, the Sept 13 issue had an excellent one. From the former British Prime Minister, "Tony Blair on Clinton, Bush and the American Character" has part of his "A Journey, My Political Life". Specifically excerpted is content around his dealings with the current and last two American Presidents... provides for some very interesting compare and contrast material. I likely won't take the time to read the entire Blair biography, but do recommend this portion of it and am thankful that Time decided to go ahead and make available online the entire piece (which they don't always do). Also from this issue of Time is mention of The Wilderness Downtown website, built for the band Arcade Fire. Concept behind it is that you put in a street address and the site does interactive stuff along with the song playing. Now, if only I had Google's Chrome browser installed so I could actually see it. Esquire Magazine - Sept 2010 issue – posted 8/24/2010 Whole bunch of stuff worth linking to from the Sept 2010 issue of Esquire... with an additional piece from the prior issue: One of the feature stories from the latest issue is "Newt Gingrich: The Indispensable Republican." Written by John H. Richardson, the piece tells the story of a revived politician seemingly aspiring to high office. In the category of really excellent writing, Tom Junod contributed "Eleven Lives" about the men who lost their lives in the Deepwater Horizon drill rig fire. Very poignant stuff about people relegated to a postscript with the ensuring environmental calamity from the oil spill. Two additional (and much smaller) pieces from Esquire worth linking to: "Jonathan Franzen Will Go Down Swinging" is from Esquire "Books Guy" Benjamin Alsup and about the soon to be released "Freedom"... either the "Next Great American Novel" or a 576 page small print paperweight. Me suspects it will be in the NGAM

124

Words Written Down – Everything else

category, but will just have to try to find the time to set aside and find out. From the Aug 2010 issue, "What They Did to Pat Tillman" is a short Mark Warren piece about the documentary "The Tillman Story". Following on the heels of the excellent Jon Krakauer book "Where Men Win Glory" (which I reviewed here) as well as the Mary Tillman (Pat's mom) book Boots on the Ground by Dusk, the Amir Bar-Lev film hit theaters Aug 20th and examines the government cover-up and spin doctoring around Tillman's death in Afghanistan. Nothing earth shattering noted above, but some solid and interesting pieces about big topics. Jonathan Franzen Cover Story from Time / Access to Time Content Online – posted 8/14/2010 Great cover story in the latest issue of Time Magazine... too bad it's not easy to access (more on that later, though). Titled "Jonathan Franzen: Great American Novelist", the piece is an extremely well done profile by Lev Grossman. Franzen received enormous acclaim for his 2001 "The Corrections" and the upcoming publication of his 10 years in the waiting follow-up "Freedom" is what's put him on the cover of Time. Interestingly enough, it's the first time since Stephen King in 2000 that a living novelist has had a Time cover feature. I was interested to see this story on Franzen both from the perspective of such attention being paid a writer and because after my having read "The Corrections" halfway through (it's quite the massive book), I find Franzen to be just a brilliant writer. As Grossman makes mention of, Franzen doesn't write of amazing topics or extraordinary abilities held by his subjects, he just writes great and authentic prose about what could be called "the human condition"... life as people live it. Within the piece itself, what struck me the most was the work involved in Franzen's craft. After many initial false starts and abandoned roads travelled down, the author wrote "Freedom" over the course of 12 or so months filled with 6 or 7 day weeks starting early and going late. The physical writing of the book took place in a barren office on a notebook computer with its Internet capability permanently and irrevocably broken off by Franzen to avoid distractions. Not messing around, this guy. I also found intriguing Franzen's description of the social usefulness of reading and the focus and commitment required for someone to immerse themselves in a book. Really it's a concept that I feel to be true in general with reading and writing, and a different kind of true with fiction reading and writing. I don't think fiction better than non-fiction or vice versa, but rather that both types of reading a worthwhile endeavor that one doesn't get from easier to digest media like movies or television. I definitely lean towards non-fiction reading on maybe a 90/10 basis, but also think it important for any serious reader or writer to keep a place for both, and Franzen may well be carrying the torch right now in the field of fiction writing. Another piece from this issue of Time I found memorable was the last page essay by Joel Stein. "Bring On the Elites!" critiques (and makes fun of) the popular notion of "anyone is qualified for anything" as personified by the blogosphere (and I'd say current Presidential want to-be from Alaska, but that's a different topic). As I alluded to early in this post, though, the ability to read either the Stein column or Grossman profile might be a bit limited. Should you go to the URL for most Time Magazine stories these days, you'll get a few paragraphs of the original piece followed by something to the effect of "This is an abridged version of an article that appears in the August 23, 2010, print and iPad editions of TIME magazine" and then an invitation to buy the hardcopy issue or the iPad pad. So, it's not even a pay wall that Time's instituting... instead it's an "invitation" for someone reading something in one media (online through whatever non-iPad vehicle) to stop everything and either (A) find a store where they can hope to find the hardcopy issue, (B) pay what I believe is the inflated price of $5/issue to read on the iPad or (C) drop $500 to buy an iPad (unbeknownst to the decision makers at Time, Inc., not everyone owns one now) and then the inflated $5/issue price. Please... nice way to restrict readers from viewing your content. Time Magazine Pieces - Summer Vacation / Ford / Hyper local News / Other Stuff... – posted 8/3/2010 Several interesting pieces from Time Magazine over the last two weeks: The Aug 2 issue cover story was "The Case Against Summer Vacation" by David Von Drehle about the academic damage that's incurred for kids away from learning for three months. Reminded me of both the Von Drehle piece "The Myth About Boys" (posted on here) and other stories I've seen about how lower income students often fall behind during

125

Words Written Down – Everything else

the summer. Attributed cause for this is they don't get as much opportunity for out of classroom learning as do kids from better off families. Also from this issue was "Are Hyper locals Replacing Traditional Newspapers?" which covered the wave of new journalism startups over the last few years. It was interesting stuff that brought to mind this blog post from Feb 2009 about and linking to the Time cover story "How to Save Your Newspaper". In the same category of "Time piece that makes me think of past writing" was the Aug 9 issue profile of Ford Motor Company under CEO Alan Mulally titled "How to Make Cars and Make Money Too". Nothing terribly exciting in this particular story, but it does follow up on past writing and stories about Ford I've linked to. Finally, two other stories about interesting topics from this issue that I wanted to make note of... "Funny or Die: How the Web Is Changing Comedy" about the popular website and "Building a Better Playground" about the idea of kids play areas having loose items for use rather than simply stuff to slide on and climb. Nothing in any of these that stood out to me as great writing, but lots of cool topics covered. Presidential Choices / Twitter Complaints & Books to Read - from Time Magazine – posted 7/20/2010 Some interesting stuff from the July 26 issue of Time Magazine. In the last page essay, Nancy Gibbs wrote "Judge a Presidency by Its Crises Avoided" about... well, about that. I have my definite opinion on the current vs last President, but with that being said, it's still an interesting take from Gibbs on an incredibly difficult job. Basic idea put forth by her is that you've got at any given point, a fallible human making decisions around actions that can change the course of people's lives, deaths and history. Also from this issue was "The Customer-Service Express Lane" about the success people have had taking complaints to Twitter, and getting pretty immediate corporate action taken on their complaint. Not from this same issue, but another Time piece of late I of note was "What to Read This Summer"... a recommendation list of books being currently read by some prominent authors and other public figure types. From this I learned of a really good book just finished that I'll review soon. Inception by Christopher Nolan – posted 7/17/2010 After hearing great pomp and circumstance about the movie Inception, I saw it today and found it to be fascinating, maybe great, maybe not great... but certainly fascinating on multiple levels. Different vantage points that could be used to consider the movie begin with (a) director of the film (b) what he tried to do (c) how well he did that and finally (d) what the response has been. Director – I don't typically post on movies with this being only the third after one on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and then a post on Avatar. One thing Inception and these films share is the involvement of a Director whose work I find interesting, if not groundbreaking. To whit: 1. Curious Case of Benjamin Button by David Fincher whose prior work included Zodiac, Fight Club and Seven. 2. Avatar by James Cameron who previously did Titanic (which a few people might have heard of). Also, Avatar had the distinction of bringing in an entirely new wave of technology with 3D, the actual kind and not the up-converted 3D that multiple movies since Avatar have been released in. 3. Inception by Christopher Nolan who previously did: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Insomnia, The Prestige and Memento. Pretty heady stuff and these three guys along with M Night Shyamalan (yes, I am one of the people who liked Lady in the Water) are the directors whose new films I'm going to consider seeing based on filmmaker reputation alone. Attempt made in the movie: If nothing else, Inception deserves huge credit for its attempt. The movie is a visual tour de force ($160M can buy a lot of special effects), but where it differs from most other films is in its layers of complexity. Stealing of dreams, dreams within dreams, 3rd level dreams within 1st and 2nd levels... lots and lots going on and me thinks Nolan as the Writer/Director should be commended for creating something truly original... especially in this era of the sequel as blockbuster movie. Success at the Attempt: I found the action sequences (of which there were many) to be really solid and story arc of Leonardo DiCaprio's Dom Cobb character to be intriguing, but the aforementioned complexity made it harder for me to appreciate both the action and story. Just a lot of energy spent as the viewer trying to both figure out and validate that I knew what was going on. Additionally, I found myself wanting more back story about the dream infiltration concept in

126

Words Written Down – Everything else

Inception... where it came from and why Ellen Page as a character introduced to it wasn't a bit more shocked by the idea. Was this a world where people knew all about the idea? If so, either I missed or mention could have been made of that. Reaction to the movie: I hadn't heard about this prior to seeing the film, but there's been pretty interesting critical discussion of how good (or not good) it was. The long and short of it is some (seems to be many) critics really liked it and gave it huge credit for ambitious movie making and trying to accomplish something different. As the counterpoint to this, there have also been critics who thought it too muddled and perhaps overreached in its attempt. Course, then the original positive camp critics criticized the negative camp critics... and on they go. It‘s interesting stuff that's written about in the NPR piece "'Inception,' Art, Edelstein, And the Impossibility of Accounting for Taste." Perhaps the best way to go at this is for someone to say the movie tries something different and if it sounds of interest, to see that and then form an opinion... or simply see if you're entertained. Better this than to get worked up over whether someone else is of your same mind on the matter. As Roger Ebert noted on his twitter page "Announcement: It is OKAY to dislike Inception"... which was in fact given four stars in Ebert's Chicago Sun-Time movie review. June/July 2010 Esquire - Parenting from A.J. Jacobs & Other Stuff – posted 7/4/2010 Some interesting topics covered and excellent writing from the latest issue of Esquire Magazine: The piece that stood out to me the most was "How to Raise Men" by A.J. Jacobs. He's a frequent contributor to Esquire and while I've enjoyed some of his writing, some I haven't cared for as much (such as his book "The Know it All" about reading the encyclopedia). However, this story about some specific values in relation to his young boys (a 6year-old and twin 3 year-olds) is really solid. While it's true that it strikes a chord as a result of my having two boys, the writing from Jacobs is entertaining and poignant at the same time (always a good combo). Some of the values he discusses are tribalism (in relation to cheering for a given team), brotherhood (just what you'd think) and delusional optimism (that all kids seem to have more of than adults). What really hit me, though, were the vignettes about two nightly rituals Jacobs has with his boys (probably more the oldest at this point)... (1) saying what you're thankful for and (2) talking about what you did right and wrong during the day gone by. Other stuff I found particularly interesting from this issue... From writer Cal Fussman was the cover story, "Tom Cruise: The Fixer". While I can understand why Cruise has developed a reputation as a bit of a wacko (see: his postpartum depression jag about vitamins and exercise), this piece provides a different view. Beyond portraying Cruise as a normal(ish) guy, it attributes to him a pretty profound view of work and getting good at things. The basic concept is when you try to do something you haven't done, you first keep your mouth shut and listen and then you put in the work to figure it out. Boil that all down to… you put in the work. Maybe Cruise is simply repeating a basic concept, but I respect him putting credit for his success there. Also, financial writer Ken Kurson provided his one page essay "Why Saving Money Won't Save You". In it he covers two things that struck me. The first was the idea of income and expenses... and how income is something you often get by doing what you'd rather not do, that being work. If you like the work, that's great... but, if you don't always, you can still do it as a means to an end. The second thing from Kurson that I really liked was mention of his financial guy turned doctor turned inventor (of the Zigo bike) friend. Thing to note here from Kurson was how the friend created the bike (and company to sell it, I imagine) in "his spare time." Finally, this issue had something interesting from Jon Favreau in his "What I've Learned" piece. The quote was "I had a writing teacher who said, 'if you want to learn to write a screenplay, read "The African Queen" twice'." Petraeus Assignment & Kagan Nomination - Time Magazine – posted 6/28/2010 Two pieces of note to me from the July 5 issue of Time Magazine. Both were about personnel decisions from President Barack Obama and while the writing took different approaches, each piece told an interesting story. In "Judging Elena", Adam Cohen gave a really well written look at prospective Supreme Court judge Elena Kagan leading into her upcoming Senate nomination hearings. It's that type of writing that's short (one page) and manages to cover salient details and do so in a compelling manner. Also from

127

Words Written Down – Everything else

this issue of Time was "Can Obama and Petraeus Work Together?" by Joe Klein. It's a different type of writing than that from Cohen in that Klein's writing feels to be more commentary based, but is interesting in the content covered. The heart of it was around relationships between the Executive branch and the military. The micro level view detailed was between Obama and his top military commander, General David Petraeus and macro level the overall working together of Democratic political leaders with leaders of the Armed Forces. Gulf Oil Spill Cover Story from Time – posted 6/18/2010 Good cover story from Bryan Walsh in the June 10 issue of Time Magazine. Titled "The Gulf Disaster: Whose Asses Need Kicking?" the piece is a follow up to Walsh's cover story from last month (posted about and linked to here) about the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I liked the first piece from Walsh for the same reason I found this one to be solid writing... it's orderly, yet interesting. He very much covers the basics of the story with examinations from multiple angles (the cause, the immediate impact, the subsequent fallout and what should happen next), but does so in a compelling fashion that doesn't lose sight of the people impacted and involved. Perhaps an odd comparison, but I found it to be almost like a really good school report... one which would hold the reader's attention. Two other pieces from Time lately that I found of note dealt with the category of creative stuff. First there was "Altered Beast" about popular novelist Justin Cronin and then the review "Breaking Bad: TV's Best Thriller" from Time writer James Poniewozik. The piece on Cronin interested me from the perspective of how a writer... writes and Breaking Bad just sounds like a good show. Investing Approaches... & Businessweek May 6 Market Drop Piece – posted 6/14/2010 There was an interesting piece in Businessweek recently that made me think of the larger question of investing and how to go about it. People work hard (presumably) to get money and then once gained, they have to decide what to do with it... options ranging from using it to purchase gold bullion, bury in a shoebox or invest in the market. Regardless of how they go about it, people's decisions are geared towards the end of having money (or more money) later. From the perspective of having money for retirement, the historical approach was that employees would rely in their later years on benefits provided by lifelong employers. However, as more and more companies exit the pension providing to employees business, the 401K is oft trumpeted as the way to accumulate the nest egg that will be needed for retirement. However, as this 2009 blog post details and links to articles about, the 401K is speculative in nature and comes with the inherent risk (and potential reward, of course) that any investment in the market contains. With this in mind, one thinks about the markets... and how sound investments there are. If a measure of soundness is logic, then perhaps there is cause for concern. One good example of this was the Michael Lewis book "The Big Short" (reviewed here) about the madness of the housing market (and related CDOs and credit default swaps) prior to its recent crash. So... with this as the background, I came across the recent Businessweek story "The Machines That Ate the Market" about the stock market's 6% drop in a 20 minute span on May 6. Yes, the market then bounced back to recover much of that drop, but the stability (and sanity) of the whole thing could certainly be questioned. When you couple this with the idea (written about on this blog post) of how public companies often have to be run towards the goal of short term investment value... investing can be pretty pause inducing stuff. Roger Ebert Blog Essay on Race & Racism – posted 6/9/2010 There was a great recent blog piece from Roger Ebert on racism. Titled "How do they get to be that way?" the essay focuses first on a mural flap in Prescott, AZ and then goes wider to the experiences of Ebert himself with race. I liked Ebert quite a bit after reading this Esquire profile of him (which I posted about here) and am glad that someone was good enough to link to Ebert's essay via Facebook so I could read it. I've written about this a bit on this blog (most recently in this post about a Charles P. Pierce SI story), but the thing that really strikes me in writing is when an author can combine together great content and great

128

Words Written Down – Everything else

writing. Great content can be about something important (as Ebert's racism piece is), something interesting (as is the Pierce piece) or something profound (as is the Chris Jones story about fallen American soldiers returning home). Great writing, however, is in how it's delivered to the reader. To this point, Ebert's writing on racism and his own experiences with race struck me as almost lyrical in his choice of words and phrasing. Sometimes I read a piece like this and am torn between being inspired to try to reach that level of prose and deflated in feeling I never could. Course, I then tend to "re-inflate" when I think about all the bad writing out there and how I can do better than that. All this said, just a great story by Ebert that can be best summed up in this quote from it, "I believe at some point in the development of healthy people there must come a time when we instinctively try to understand how others feel. We may not succeed. There are many people in this world today who remain enigmas to me, and some who are offensive. But that is not because of their race. It is usually because of their beliefs." Recommendation Pieces from Time Magazine – posted 6/2/2010 A couple of interesting pieces from the last two issues of Time around the concept of recommendation... with the first being from the May 31 cover story on Facebook. The story by Dan Fletcher is titled "How Facebook Is Redefining Privacy" and looks at the concept of sharing information online via Facebook and how the company enables (or as some privacy advocates assert, forces) that sharing. One very interesting area that Facebook is getting into is that of recommendation with the company making a concerted effort to enable users to easily click a button on other websites saying they "like" a product or service. With this information then broadcasting to the friends of that user, you've got a powerful influence mechanism. In this same category of recommendation, the June 7 issue of Time contained the Lev Grossman piece "How Computers Know What We Want — Before We Do" about Internet music company Pandora. The concept is the company breaks a song down to the presence or absence of some 20-30 specific attributes and then uses the results to recommend/play songs for users. Basically you have users who say they like a song (or group), then a database of now 740,000 songs which Pandora algorithms use to match up other music with the same characteristics. The examples from Facebook and Pandora are different in that one handles recommendation based on individual feeling and one on technology and defined characteristics, but both cases are about influencing perception and then purchase decisions. Coupling these examples with recommendation efforts from other companies like Amazon and Netflix (with Netflix and their recommendation engine being fairly heavily featured in the Grossman piece)... you've got a whole new world around purchase decisions. On a completely different note, but something that also struck me from Time lately was the Nancy Gibbs essay "TAPS: Help for the Families of Fallen Soldiers." It‘s powerful stuff that's also profiled in an ABC News story. May 24 Time Magazine: Roots of Empathy, Personal Branding, Elena Kagan & Lost – posted 5/19/2010 A lot of interesting stuff from the May 24 issue of Time. First was "At Center Court: Can Kagan Be a Consensus Builder?" by Jeffrey Rosen. What struck me about this profile of Obama's Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, was how darn smart she must be. An academic background of Princeton and Oxford followed by Harvard Law... and then Professor and Dean of the Harvard Law School, she's no dummy. Second was the James Poniewozik piece "Preparing for Life After Lost." As described in this story, Lost upended popular convention by being a complicated serial drama... and one that then ends on top rather than dragging out past its prime. Third was "How to Deprogram Bullies: Teaching Kindness 101." Very interesting concept here about bringing mothers and babies into school classrooms to help teach a concept labeled Roots of Empathy (ROE). One of the fundamental notions of the program is that people who victimize others often have been victims themselves... and can get a lot out of watching the frustration of a cute and protection needing infant. Finally, I noted the Joel Stein last page column "Love Me, Love My Brand, Says the Sultan of Snark™." It didn't necessarily have much gravitas for me until the part about one's personal brand being important because "if you don't give your brand some thought, you become the guy whose funeral is all about how much he loved the Mets." Perhaps this was just intended as a

129

Words Written Down – Everything else

throwaway line, but it resonated with me from the perspective of people considering what they'll be known for. It's not a knock on sports of course, but rather it's the idea of what one leaves behind for others. Oil Spill Cover Story from Time – posted 5/14/2010 Interesting cover story from the May 17 issue of Time Magazine: Titled "The Far-Ranging Costs of the Mess in the Gulf", the piece by Bryan Walsh examines the recent oil spill resulting from an explosion on and subsequent sinking of an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Walsh paints a pretty fascinating picture on a number of different fronts. First was the loss of 11 lives in the rig explosion and now environmental and economic impact from the resulting oil gushing from burst pipes to the ocean surface. Then you had both the response of the responsible for the mess oil giant BP and the Coast Guard... acting on direction from the White House and other governmental agencies. From the perspective of BP, it's interesting to read how their primary plan is to do something that's never really been done in basically putting a big cap over the spill. From a policy perspective, the spill has already been used by various agenda carrying parties as reasons "offshore drilling is bad" or "the administration is bad". In addition to detailing the event and ramifications of the spill, Walsh also includes in his story recommendations around energy policy and open discussion of what he terms the "ok, but not in my backyard" approach to unpleasant (and potentially devastating as this example shows) things such as offshore drilling. Also from this issue of Time was the interesting last page piece "How a Cancer-Stricken Dad Chose a Council of Successors" by Nancy Gibbs. About author Bruce Feiler (known for his book "Walking the Bible"), the story details Feiler's response to a rare and aggressive cancer diagnosis. Rather than retreating, he reaches out to those he respects with the idea of them agreeing to serve as father figures for his twin toddler girls. It's a slightly different approach, but makes me think of that taken by Randy Pausch with his book "The Last Lecture" (reviewed here). Supreme Court Piece by David Von Drehle – posted 4/30/2010 Really good piece from Time titled "Who Will Get Steven's Seat?" about the Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and his forthcoming retirement from the bench. Similar to Charles Pierce's "The Genuine Point Guard" on Steve Nash (which I posted about here), this David Von Drehle story on Stevens combines excellent writing and an interesting subject. Admiral Mike Mullen Story from Fast Company – posted 4/26/2010 Some pretty interesting stuff from the May 2010 issue of Fast Company. The cover story is a profile of Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Written by Jeff Chu, "Mullen on the Move" is an interesting look at the nation's top military officer. What comes across is a guy who combines together a huge work ethic (as evidenced by a snapshot of one day's schedule) with what appears to be an excellent grounding in his role and that of the U.S. Armed Forces. In terms of his role, Mullen describes himself as being someone who doesn't necessarily do anything (in the sense that he doesn't make troop decisions), but does seek to advise well President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as his bosses. Beyond that, he comes across as a strong advocate of the military who interacts with both business and the public. From dinners with CEOs to time on Jon Stewart and his own Facebook account, Mullen seems to be a guy that... gets it. As he says "I am resourced by the American taxpayer. I take great care with the stewardship of the money they pay for the national defense." Two other things of interest from this issue were this piece on IBM's World Community Grid (whereby spare computing power is used for large scale public good projects) and this on Susie Wee and touch efforts from HP. Tis' the thing of the future, that touch technology. Danger Around Us - Plastics & Bombs: from Time Magazine – posted 4/15/2010 A couple of interesting pieces from Time lately about two very different threats to public health: The first was "Environmental Toxins" from the Apr 12 issue... which also contained the iPad and Apple stories I posted

130

Words Written Down – Everything else

on and linked to here. The toxins piece is by Bryan Walsh and all about the chemicals in plastics and other products we purchase. What it immediately brought to mind for me was my blog post from Feb 2009 on the BPA chemical component in shatterproof plastic (such as yep... baby bottles). The linked to BusinessWeek piece "The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A" was one of the more disconcerting articles I've come across in the last few years of reading BW. The subheading of this Time article is "chemicals in plastics and other products seem harmless, but mounting evidence links them to health problems — and Washington lacks the power to protect us." To that end, here's a quote in the piece from Walsh… "If you want to market a new drug, you need to convince the FD, in multiple tests, over the course of years, that it won't cause serious harm. If you want to sell a new pesticide, you need to prove the same thing. The burden of proof is on the manufacturers to make the grade, and government regulators are the final judge. But if you want to market a new chemical for use in a product-even one that will come into contact with children or pregnant women-it's up to the EPA to prove that it's unsafe, using whatever data are provided by the chemical company, with little power to ask for more." The second "danger around us" piece from Time was "Rescuing a Potential Nuke from the Chile Quake" out of the Apr 19 edition. In it, Eben Harrell recounts a story of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) which is charged with seeking out and securing around the globe sufficient quantities of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to build a nuclear bomb. Specifically, representatives of the agency were in Santiago, Chile to take possession of around 40 lb. of HEU when the magnitude 8.8 quake hit. From that point, it was quite a tale of speed and alternate action in getting the material and then getting it safely out of the country. Equally interesting was Harrell's mention of how HEU became so widely disseminated through a mid-1950s program called Atoms for Peace. To whit, HEU was given out to countries that could both prove they would use it for peaceful research (into things like medical isotopes) and would submit to regular inspection of said potential bomb material. Businessweek Magazine: Mar 22/29 Issue – posted 3/20/2010 Three articles of note I found in the latest issue of Businessweek... all with a common theme that I'll call hubris about money. The most interesting was the last I came across... a review of the new Michael Lewis book "The Big Short". Being a fan of the handful of Lewis books I've read (most recent reviewed here), I'm always curious about new stuff by him and based on the BW review, this sounds fascinating. The idea is a chronicling of several individuals who made boatloads of money predicting the real estate crash of 1998. Specifically, they shorted some of the high-risk mortgage securities out there and flew in the face of conventional wisdom at the time... which assumed everyone would continue getting rich forever off real estate. It certainly didn't help me at the time (since I still bought a house at the 2005 peak of the market), but I recall thinking about what would happen if home values actually were to go down... and be down when people's exotic low fixed rate loans adjusted to significantly higher conventional loans. Well, these guys did think about that and made themselves rich from it. I'll now have to actually read the book to say any more, but the review itself is an indicator that it should be good. In the same category of books and people assuming perpetual riches was an excerpt from the Harry Markopolos book "No One Would Listen". All about the author's experiences with those close to and making money (or so they thought) in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, it's pretty compelling reading. Even if it didn't make sense upon examination, people wouldn't question the source of money that they thought Madoff was making them. Finally from this issue was the short piece "Can Manchester United Kick Its Debt Habit?" Simple summary would be... rich guys thought they'd get richer by borrowing huge sums of money and then began to get crushed under the debt payments. Hmmm, seems to relate a bit to the other two articles linked to here, doesn't it? "Tom Hanks: Historian" Cover Story from Time – posted 3/12/2010 Excellent cover story from the Mar 15 issue of Time Magazine: Titled "How Tom Hanks Became America's Historian in Chief" the story is about... that. Really interesting stuff detailing Hanks' big and small screen

131

Words Written Down – Everything else

ventures about our nation's history with "The Pacific" starting Mar 14 on HBO following on the heels of: "Saving Private Ryan", "Bank of Brothers", "John Adams", "Apollo 13" and "Charlie Wilson's War". The article itself is an interesting read as Hanks speaks of historical writers such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephen Ambrose and David McCullough. One other piece of the story I found interesting was mention of Hanks obtaining the rights to the Vincent Bugliosi book "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy". From the prosecutor of Charles Manson, it's a debunking of the various conspiracy theories surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald and whether he acted alone. Politics Frozen Cover Story from Time – posted 2/27/2010 A few interesting pieces in the Mar 1 issue of Time Magazine... highlighted by "Why Washington Is Tied Up in Knots" by Peter Beinart. Prior to reading this cover story, I saw the David Von Drehle article "Why the Tea Party Movement Matters"... and the order in which I read them led to some interesting thoughts (you know, for myself). Von Drehle writes of how this loosely organized political movement is gaining traction with people frustrated with government and feeling there has to be a better. Contained within this group of people are those ranging from former Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo and his "Barack Hussein!!! Obama" references to much more measured non-crazy types. From this, I found myself wondering a bit as to why exactly it's been so difficult for Obama to gain traction (not with The Crazies types, but with people who have legitimate frustration as to why it's hard for Washington to get stuff done)... and this is where the Beinart piece comes in. It's a fascinating look at how difficult it is to get anything accomplished in a two party environment where one party contains the power (the Democrats right now) and the other party (the Republicans) is intent on blocking anything not proposed by themselves. This blocking is achieved through the tactic of a filibuster and Beinart writes that "in 2009, Senate Republicans filibustered a stunning 80% of major legislation... and GOP leader Mitch McConnell led a filibuster of a deficit-reduction commission that he himself had demanded." Beinart closes his well written piece with his recommendations for what may help get past this political gridlock situation. Less caucuses... open primaries, a larger number of talk shows and blogs that consider both Democratic and Republican viewpoints and another legitimate 3rd party candidate (ala Ross Perot)... all things that seem like they would be a benefit. All in way, Beinart gives some compelling writing... which may well repeat itself in much longer form in the June 2010 release of his book "The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris." Way unrelated to the topic in these two articles above, the product review "Shout Hallelujah, Come On, Get Appy" is some more interesting content from this issue of Time. All about the Windows Phone 7 Operating System from Microsoft... it makes me very curious to see (after a Christmas 2010 release) phones with this OS. They may not be quite as great as the iPhone, but new handsets with this WP7 may also have access to a better wireless network than AT&T is now providing. Kennedy Writing from Esquire – posted 2/15/2010 I really enjoyed the cover story from the Feb 2010 issue of Esquire Magazine. This was Esquire's annual "Meaning of Life" issue with many different short pieces of (mostly) public figures giving their views of what things matter. For this particular iteration of the series, Esquire chose to have a large piece with various quotes and thoughts from Ted, JFK and Bobby Kennedy. The piece is titled "The Kennedys: What I've Learned" and truth be told, would be a bit of a slog to get through online with it being done as a 78 page slideshow. I did find, though, linked on the Esquire site the excellent one-page "Ted Kennedy: What I've Learned" from 2003. These pieces combined with the Sept '09 Ted Kennedy pieces from Time Magazine that I linked to in this blog made me interested in Kennedy... and in (eventually) reading his book "True Compass". "Avatar" – posted 2/9/2010 I've only posted once previously about a movie I've seen (that being this post about "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), but "Avatar" was compelling enough to me to warrant mention. What was so interesting

132

Words Written Down – Everything else

to me was both the story and the technology... both of which brought to mind other great films. From a story perspective, the same "epic tale of life" that I liked so much in "Titanic" (of course also directed by James Cameron) and the aforementioned "Benjamin Button" were both here, but really... "Dances with Wolves" is the movie I most thought of based on the plot. On story alone I would have found it a solid movie, but what really took into a higher category was the technology (and I highly recommend watching it in 3D). It was amazing on the screen... and also fascinating to view the movie in the context of it being likely the first in a long line of current 3D technology live-action films. Based on this front of the curve usage of technology and coupled with the great story, the comparison film that probably most comes to mind for me is "Star Wars." Quite a comparison, but "Avatar" to me was quite the movie. Postscript: Ok, after thinking about it further and being a few days removed from the amazing 3D effects, I feel now the story probably wasn't the greatest in the world (and certainly not up to "Star Wars" story territory), but the technology made this a great film to me. To that point, there was an interesting Businessweek cover story on James Cameron a few weeks ago. Titled "King of the World (Again)" the piece details how even after the huge success of Titanic, the director had to win over skeptical studio executives when he expressed desire to make the most expensive movie ever filmed. In fact, he had to put his own money in to help develop the cameras used during shooting... which should pay off nicely for him with other directors interested in that technology for their own 3D films. Haiti Earthquake Writing from Time & CNN – posted 1/28/2010 There were a couple of really powerful pieces on the Haiti earthquake. From the Time Magazine Feb 1 issue came the piece "Aftershock" from writers Bryan Walsh, Jay Newton-Small and Tim Padgett. Just powerful writing that looks heavily at the latter part of the subheading below... "One of the worst-ever natural disasters in the western hemisphere leaves the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in ruins. What it will take to rebuild." From the CNN website, I a few days ago came across the Elizabeth Cohen piece "Hard lessons, humility for big-city doctors in Haiti". Gut-wrenching stuff that fits squarely into the category of "makes you think about what things are important and what things aren't." Esquire Piece on Barack Obama... & Other Stuff – posted 1/22/2010 Really interesting story titled "Barack Obama: Papa in Chief" from the latest issue of Esquire. Written by Tom Junod, it relates Obama's first year in office to the parenting movement/book series Positive Discipline. From the PD website, the first two concepts (among others) of Positive Disciple are "Mutual respect" and "Identifying the belief behind the behavior". The main point that Junod makes is that Obama's style of governing is both the same measured and thought-out approach that he showed while campaigning and is very much in line with the principles of Positive Discipline. As defined by myself, these include "take the time to teach", "understand the viewpoint of others" and "don't act impulsively". While it's true that more aggressive techniques of parenting or governing may get more immediately tangible results, the long haul outcome should (hopefully) be all the better for this long term approach: Intriguing stuff. Finally, it wasn't from this particular issue, but given that these are all Esquire works, I wanted to link to "Garret Dillahunt: The Man Who Disappears" by MFLW (my favorite living writer) Chris Jones. I've posted on lots of his stuff here (with his story "The Things That Carried Him" being my favorite) and I suppose just as Jones writes of a sort of man-crush on Dillahunt's movie and TV work, I have the same thing for his writing. Attempted Airline Terrorism Story From Time – posted 1/2/2010 There was an interesting (and disconcerting) cover story from the latest issue of Time Magazine. Titled "What We Can Learn from Flight 253", it examines the attempted detonation of a bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight into Detroit on Christmas Day. As the piece by Michael Duffy and Mark Thompson reveals, would be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came very close to his goal of blowing up the plane... which raises a host of questions about both how that occurred and also what our response was. Abdulmutallab used a similar explosive to what hopeful shoe bomber Richard Reid used, only rather than in his shoe, it

133

Words Written Down – Everything else

was sewed into his underwear. While it's true that there are some next-generation airport screening devices that would have detected the bomb-making gear, the standard metal detectors at most US airports wouldn't have spotted it. Additionally, Abdulmutallab was on a US terrorist watch list (but, only the first level which doesn't mean much). Profiling is another way that authorities can try to help prevent terrorism, and in their book "Superfreakonomics", (which I reviewed here) Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner tell an anecdote about how effective it can be. However, profiling as well as full-body scanning machines at airports raise legitimate privacy concerns and can't be counted on to prevent bad things from ever occurring. On the same subject of preventative measures, there's the concern of simply taking after the fact actions that don't help going forward. From his book "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable", Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote about this idea... with a potential example being everyone taking their shoes off going through airport security. Another thing to keep in mind is the recent example of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. As Nancy Gibbs detailed in her Time cover story (which I wrote about here), terrorism doesn't necessarily have to be sponsored, paid for and planned by a terrorist organization, but rather can be the act of a person or persons wanting to commit a terrorist act. All this considered, and as Duffy and Thompson argue in their cover story, you can't guarantee as a government that terrorism will always be prevented, so as prevention is practiced, you also have to look at response. To this end, the Duffy and Thompson piece quoted Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano playing down the attempt by saying "once the incident occurred, the system worked" and spoke not of terrorism, but "man caused disasters." Also, "The Lesson: Passengers Are Not Helpless" by Amanda Ripley in this same issue of Time addresses both passenger response on Flight 253 and then how the FBI treated people after the attempted bombing was thwarted by the same passengers. The whole things is a big nut and tough to easily solve, but after reading the pieces both Ripley and Duffy/Thompson (as well as past stuff), I think our government can do a better job of its preventative measures, but perhaps even more importantly... of communicating with us as adults who understand we live in a dangerous world in which bad things can happen. Time Magazine Person of the Year - Ben Bernanke – posted 12/21/2009 Interesting and well written profile of Ben Bernanke in the latest Time Magazine: The Federal Reserve Chairman was selected by Time as its "2009 Person of the Year" and the in-depth piece on Bernanke by Michael Grunwald provides several different views of note. At a macro level, Grunwald writes of the role of the Fed in overseeing financial markets and financial meltdown at the latter part of the decade. At a more micro level, Grunwald details the steps that the Fed Chairman took to mitigate the impact of the recession and avert a second Great Depression. Solid writing and it makes the case that while people could certainly quibble with some of the actions taken, Bernanke deserves huge credit for choosing action over inaction. As a student of the Depression, Bernanke felt that global markets were on the verge of going down that road again, and took the steps to try to prevent that. The Grunwald piece has the argument (which I agree with) that if something‘s not working, you should do something different... the outcome may not be perfect, but it's usually going to be better than if those things not working just continued. Whether someone agrees with the notion or not, Bernanke certainly seems a good choice as the Time Person of the Year given his influence on the global economy... and conversely, the people in it. Esquire Magazine - Dec 2009 issue – posted 12/4/2009 Lots of good stuff from the Dec 2009 issue of Esquire Magazine. It‘s the Augmented Reality (as referenced in this blog post done a month ago) Issue and by using the camera in any camera-having computer one can view on said computer information triggered from the printed page graphic. As to the content within the actual issue, quite a potpourri of interesting writing and topics covered:"Psyop Makes Ads You Actually Want to Watch" is about the New York-based creative shop that both worked on the augmented reality portion of this magazine and did the "Happiness Factory" Coke commercial viewed 6+ million times on YouTube... and which can be viewed from the article link. Interesting about this to me is the Social Media implications of a company doing ads so compelling that links to which are being passed around and

134

Words Written Down – Everything else

viewed via Social Networks, basically marketing gold."How Peter Orszag's Budget Team Makes the Government Work" was written by Esquire writer John H. Richardson and a fascinating look at both the financial machinations of the Obama White House and those who create and implement them. Additionally, "Meet the Man Who Could End Global Warming" was about Scientist Eric Loewen and also by John H. Richardson, the piece details the efforts of one individual who believes he has the answer as to how to both provide clean energy w/o depleting resources and deal with nuclear waste. There was also a review of the forthcoming novel "Union Atlantic" and its author Adam Haslett. The book was trumpeted in this piece by Tom Junod as being the "first great novel of the new century." Featured was an essay from Philadelphia based evangelist Shane Claiborne titled "What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?" Interesting writing in which Claiborne attempts to separate from one another the concepts of God and organized religion as many know it. Finally, "The Emptiest, Loneliest, Highway in America" was a very short well written piece by Chris Jones about ruminating on the past, planning for the future and taking a long solo drive. "Decade from Hell" & Optimism for the Future Writing – posted 12/1/2009 Solid cover story in the most recent Time Magazine: The Andy Serwer piece is titled "Goodbye to the Decade from Hell" and is about... yep, the not always rosy last 10 years. Serwer is the Fortune Magazine managing editor and details some of the things which happened since 1989: the bookended stock market drops (and we thought the tech crash in 2000 was bad), 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Hurricane Katrina. Basically lots and lots of bad stuff happened during the decade, but the piece concludes with hopeful optimism that people collectively will be able to learn from some of the missteps and move forward stronger. To this end, the story made me think of some "hope for the future" writing that I found captivating. In August of this year I linked to a BusinessWeek "Case for Optimism" Special Report and Time Magazine also provided several excellent pieces to the same effect. Two of them were by Kurt Andersen with "The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?" and his "The Avenging Amateur" back page essay (with my blog posts referencing each piece here and here respectively). Also from Time was the Nancy Gibbs cover story "The Great Recession: America Becomes Thrift Nation" (referenced in this blog post). Good writing all, but also stuff to make one feel hopeful that for most people, the next ten years will be better than the last. Helicopter Parenting Piece from Time – posted 11/22/2009 Might not appeal to all, but as a parent of two (man, that sounds weird), I found intriguing the cover story from the latest Time Magazine. Written by Nancy Gibbs and titled "The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting" the feature examines the question of "how much is too much" in relation to parental involvement. Two basic concepts the story could be boiled down to... (1) it's counterproductive for your kids to hover over them and (2) it's not healthy for you as the parent. The idea behind letting kids figure stuff out for themselves (and fail at times) is not a new one. In fact, David Von Drehle wrote a Time cover story in November 2008 on the topic titled "The Myth About Boys" basically saying "the kids are alright." If you want to go further back, you could view Mark Twain's Huck Finn as a good example of detachment parenting appearing to work out fine. And, oh yeah, both the Von Drehle piece and Time's cover story on Twain are linked to in this blog post. In terms of how over parenting impacts the parent themselves, the Gibbs piece was likely inspired by (or at least related to) her Time commentary piece "Parenting Advice: What Moms Should Learn From Dads." The generalization contained within is that parents shouldn't be so hard on themselves... and that Dads in general seem to do a better job of this than do Moms. Some interesting "additional reading" stuff from the Gibbs cover story would be on Lenore Skenazy... the Ivy League educated New York mom who let her 9 year old son ride the subway alone (and has now built quite the writing and speaking industry around that)... and parenting websites such as http://www.honestbaby.com/ (with the heading "celebrating the imperfect journey of parenting). It's not

135

Words Written Down – Everything else

mentioned in the Gibbs story, but also of interest would be the wave of wilderness exploration programs for kids. Fort Hood Domestic Terrorist Piece from Time Magazine – posted 11/18/2009 There was a solid cover story in the latest Time Magazine on Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. "Terrified or Terrorist?" was written by Nancy Gibbs and investigates the life of Hasan... and both what appeared to lead him to his shooting rampage on the Texas Army base and how the military might have been able to prevent it. To the question of what brought about his heinous act, signs seem to point to a severe disillusionment with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Hasan (who is a Muslim) viewing the US as waging a war against the religion. The interesting question that Gibbs looks at is whether Hasan's actions following up on his views make him basically a self-contained terrorist... operating outside any terrorist organization. In terms of how this act could have been prevented, Gibbs details the various red flags about Hasan that were raised by members of the military, but with none of them thoroughly followed up upon. The reasoning put forward was that to voice questions about Hasan as a Muslim could be viewed as act of discrimination. Not good, but understandable. 401K Pieces from Time & Businessweek – posted 10/12/2009 There was an interesting story on the concept of a 401K retirement plan in the latest Time Magazine. In his piece "Why it‘s Time to Retire the 401(k)" Stephen Gandel examines the heavily trumpeted retirement plan... and looks at its shortcomings and what to do about it. The basic statement Gandel makes is that 401K programs were never designed to be a replacement for company pension programs, but rather a supplement to them. However, the present-day corporate climate has one company after another eliminating pensions and relying on 401K plans... leaving the retirement income solely up to (A) home equity, (B) 401K and other investment income and (C) Social Security. 401K plans in and of themselves are not a bad thing as they encourage employees to save money and often feature some form of company matching of funds (as a replacement for pension programs), but in current form they can fall victim to the vagaries of the stock market. For those who hoped to retire last year, this year or in the next 5-10 years, the plummeting of 401K values in many cases put those plans on hold. As to the idea of house equity as a source of retirement income... see aforementioned 401K value plunge. The alternative in Gandel's piece is an idea that combines aspects of a pension program and 401K. There's a plan that still gets employee contributions, but rather than those contributions then going towards investments, they go towards a guaranteed monthly check from retirement until death... in short, a pension. Difference is that in this case it's funded not by the company (and to be fair to corporations, the US auto industry is an exhibit of how pension programs can cripple a business), but by the individual. It remains to be seen how effective 401K programs are for many as they simply haven't been around long enough. Perhaps over another 20 years they'll prove wildly successful if the market continues on an upward path, but I get completely the idea of there being an alternative with less risk. Perhaps that alternative sacrifices the possibility of high returns in the market, but would do so while providing more of a guarantee for retirement... and reduce the number of people worried about their money running out before they die. Within the same topic, but taking a different approach, Businessweek featured an article in its July 13 issue titled "IBM Reinvents the 401(k)". The idea implemented there works on the idea of there being a 401K rather than pension program and then attempts to get the best 401K program possible. That involves a generous company match, but also access to both online financial planning tools and no-cost sessions with financial advisers. I don't agree with the IBM consideration of using the 401K and other benefits on a tiered scale rewarding highly ranked employees more than others (as I feel that's what salary and bonuses are for), but do appreciate the concept of trying to set employees up as much as possible to succeed without actually having the expense of a traditional pension program. Gotta have some sort of balance between the bottom line of the company on one hand and the long-term financial success of its employees on the other.

136

Words Written Down – Everything else

Domestic Terrorism Piece from David Von Drehle – posted 10/4/2009 There was some solid writing from the October 12 issue of Time Magazine. Most noteworthy was "An Enemy Within: The Making of Najibullah Zazi" about the investigation and arrest of a suspected domestic terrorism plotter. The piece was pretty compelling reading and makes one wonder what might have been the eventual intention of Zazi. What would have been interesting to read more of, though, is the purported tip off of Zazi as a result of NYPD inquiries... and to know what could or should have been done differently in the investigation. That said, it's excellent writing that mirrors past work from Time Senior Writer David Von Drehle, including his book "Triangle" The Fire that Changed America", which was reviewed in this blog post. Also from this issue was the Joel Stein back-page column titled "The Tough-Love Dictator of My Dreams." Someone could try to assign point of view or message to the piece, but it's probably easier to just appreciate it for what it is... very funny writing. Finally, I found interesting the short memoriam piece by Peggy Noonan on fellow speechwriter (and columnist) William Safire. I particularly like the quotes about writing attributed to Safire... "Write what you see because what history needs more of is first-person testimony" and "never feel guilty about reading; it's what you do to do what you do." Detroit Writing from Time & Sports Illustrated – posted 9/26/2009 There‘s been an interesting concept from Time, Inc. that‘s already resulted in some compelling writing. The idea is for Time Magazine and its affiliated publications Fortune, Money, and Sports Illustrated to continually report on the once thriving city of Detroit. Both Sports Illustrated and Time had cover stories about Detroit this week and each issue featured pieces from the editor about why Time Inc. made this decision. Both the piece from Time Inc.‘s Editor-in-Chief John Huey and the essay from Sports Illustrated‘s Terry McDonell detail how far the city has fallen. The statistics referenced are 29% unemployment, 50% illiteracy and 70% unsolved murders… all from a place that used to be the epicenter of American manufacturing. As Huey describes, the goal of Time Inc. in reporting so thoroughly on the city is to shine a spotlight and perhaps help Detroit “recover and find its way into the future.” On to the first stories: The Time Magazine cover piece is titled ―Detroit: The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City‖ and written by Daniel Okrent. It‘s a broad overview of Detroit and its current struggles from someone who grew up there. Solid writing from Okrent, but probably more compelling to me was the Sports Illustrated cover story by Lee Jenkins. The frequent baseball writer contributes ―Tigertown‖ about the team and efforts led by owner Mike Ilitch to help revitalize the city. While the role a sports team can play in such a big task may seem insignificant, the franchise has worked hard to put a contending team on the field as well as make games affordable to its fans. An additional anecdote from the Jenkins piece showed the team‘s support of local industry. When General Motors found itself unable to continue sponsoring the popular "home run water fountain", Ilitch decided to not seek different sponsor dollars. Instead, he simply added Chrysler and Ford alongside the GM name in centerfield... at no cost to any of the beleaguered automakers. Not a bottom-line based decision, but a very cool one. Time Magazine - Ted Kennedy Pieces – posted 9/2/2009 Two excellent pieces on Ted Kennedy and his passing from the Sept 7 issue of Time Magazine. The first is "Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009: The Brother Who Mattered Most" by Richard Lacayo and the second "Ted Kennedy: Bringing the Myth Down to Earth" from David Von Drehle. I particularly enjoyed the Von Drehle piece as he's an excellent writer and the author of the non-fiction work "Triangle" about the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911 (which I reviewed here). Both Von Drehle's and the piece by Lacayo examine the legacy of the Kennedy brothers and how Ted fits in. He's the least mythologized as a result of his long life, but perhaps the most impactful over his political career... with the youngest brother's Presidential ambitions having led into his highly successful run in the Senate. As Von Drehle eloquently writes, "Ted might have gone early. In 1964 he was dragged, critically injured, from the wreckage of a plane crash. Had he died that day, he too would have remained forever young and dashing. No Chappaquiddick, no divorce, no boozy indiscretions. But also: no antiapartheid campaign, no Americans

137

Words Written Down – Everything else

with Disabilities Act and no Family and Medical Leave Act." Such a shame for him to pass away now before one of his battles (that for universal health coverage) could be realized (with his passing also taking away a perhaps needed vote in the Senate). Gibbs‘ essay "Cash for Clunkers: The Bribery Stimulus" details the enormous public response to a program that may not do much other than get people excited about a deal. As Gibbs writes, if that gets people excited and optimistic about the economy, its $3B well spent. Time Magazine - Organic Food & Republican Politicians – posted 8/24/2009 Couple of really good articles in the latest issue of Time Magazine: The cover story is titled "Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food" and provides an excellent look at the food industry in America. Written by Bryan Walsh, the piece looks at the potential for problem throughout much of the food chain feeding us today. In order to keep down costs, pigs and cattle are typically raised in unhealthy conditions making them vulnerable to disease... which has to be combated with copious amounts of antibiotic drugs. It's definitely acknowledged in the article to be more expensive (even in the title), but the basic premise is that local organic agriculture and sustainable farming is the way to go. Tough to bring around everyone, but the point made is that it's worth it to try. The second piece of note is the commentary by Joe Klein on Republican political opposition to President Obama's health care plan. Just ill-inspiring is the description of how otherwise level-headed Republicans feel compelled to let Sarah Palin prattle on about "death panels"... simply because to refute her would help their political opponent. Titled "The GOP Has Become a Party of Nihilists", it's a balanced story that points out this is not the way to have political discourse around an important issue. Time Magazine - Aug 24 Issue – posted 8/16/2009 Nothing I found enthralling in the latest issue of Time, but several different stories that had interesting enough stuff to be noted here for posterity. The cover story by Joel Stein (he of the frequent back page commentary) is "Less Vegas: The Casino Town Bets on a Comeback" about the recession impact on Sin (& Eternal Optimism) City. Striking about this piece was its vignette about successful estate agent Brooke Boemio... and her specialty of representing current home buyers who buy larger at reduced price, and then walk away from the old house: Lovely, just lovely. Not that shady real estate agents and homeowners with no sense of responsibility to their debts are the only poor links in this poorly functioning chain (with Banks and mortgage brokers also deserving blame), but geesh... this doesn't help. Also from this issue was a profile on Steven Chu, Obama's choice as head of the Department of Energy. Of interest here was both how Chu is perhaps the first truly qualified scientist in this role and his championing of white roofs and lightcovered pavement. As remarkable as it sounds, Chu cites studies that the carbon savings of these two introductions (which would have to come over time) would be equivalent to taking all cars off the roads for 11 years. Finally, two other articles of interest were "Building a Media Empire around I Can Has Cheezburger" about Seattle-based funny website entrepreneur Ben Huh and a poignant commentary piece by Nancy Gibbs on the costs and benefits of raising a child. Chris Jones Esquire Piece on Photographs of Military Caskets – posted 8/12/2009 I've posted umpteen times writing from Chris Jones, but just came across yet another poignant work of his that I want to keep track of. In the May 2008 issue of Esquire, Jones wrote "The Things That Carried Him" about Sgt. Joe Montgomery and the process and care involved in transporting fallen servicemen and women back to the US for burial. This story garnered a greatly deserved National Magazine Award and was the jumping off point for a short piece from Jones about the Pentagon lifting its ban on news images of military caskets returning home. The title is "From Iraq to Grave, We Can Finally Remember the Fallen" and piece just plain powerful.

138

Words Written Down – Everything else

H1N1 Flu Article from Time... & Books of Note – posted 8/12/2009 Intriguing (and a bit pause-inducing) article titled "Inside the Fight Against a Flu Pandemic" from the Aug 17 Time Magazine. Written by Michael Scherer, the piece looks at the flu formerly known as "swine" and steps private industry and the Federal Government are taking to prepare for the fall flu season. As the story details, many are expecting a rash of cases as school starts as well as when the more traditional flu season hits in the fall. In anticipation of this, an H1N1 vaccine is being manufactured, but that likely won't be ready until the October time frame, and require two shots spaced four weeks apart... this on top of the standard flu shot already long recommended each year. Scherer writes of the uncertainty about H1N1 because nobody knows if the virus will remain in its fairly non-dangerous state, become even milder or turn into something with a larger impact. While that works itself out and vaccines are prepared, the standard anti-illness remedies of washing hands frequently and keeping surfaces clean are very much recommended. Not from the same issue, but also from Time are a couple of different mentions of books that sound interesting: The first is a recommendation of "The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works" by Representative Henry Waxman (Democrat from California). The second is Time's "Summer Reading List" featuring 15 different recommendations. Those that stood out for myself are listed below: Recommendation for "The Man Who Was Thursday" by G.K. Chesterton. I've heard of Chesterton's writings about religion and apparently this is a short read also available for less than $2 on the Kindle (and conversely the Kindle for iPhone app). There was a Recommendation for "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas. Must be good as I keep hearing about it... plus, I already have it on my iPhone. Finally was a Recommendation by Joe Klein for "The Increment" by David Ignatius. It's a spy novel from a prolific writer in the genre... and recommended by one of my favorite writers. Time Magazine - Judd Apatow Profile & Kurt Andersen Piece – posted 8/2/2009 Several interesting things from the August 10 issue of Time Magazine. First was the back page essay from Kurt Andersen titled "The Avenging Amateur" about the amateur spirit of many Americans... and how that can help us come stronger out of the current financial crisis. The essay relates to Andersen's new book "Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America". Interestingly (well, to myself), the book came out of a Time cover story that I linked to in a March 2009 blog post. Andersen is an excellent writer and also penned "Heyday"... a work of historical fiction set in the mid-19th century which I've seen rave reviews for. Also from this issue of Time was "Taking Judd Apatow Seriously" about the producer / director / writer. As his wikipedia entry shows, everything Apatow is involved with seems to succeed at the box office. For good reason, though... they're funny movies. Finally, this issue also contained in the "Short List" section film director Werner Herzog's picks of things he's found interesting. Three books mentioned within are the following: "All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy, "The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway" (including Herzog's favorite "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber") and "The Warren Commission Report: Report Of The President's Commission On The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy" (which Herzog describes as the "best and most convincing detective work he's read"). Time Magazine Special Report - Bush, Cheney & Scooter Libby – posted 7/25/2009 Terribly interesting cover story in the August 3 issue of Time Magazine: Titled "Inside Bush and Cheney's Final Days" it's written by Massimo Calabresi and Michael Weisskopt and details the Vice President's attempts to get a Presidential pardon for his former aide, Scooter Libby. Much more than being about this singular attempt, this Time Special Report also illuminates the relationship between Bush and Cheney and how the gears of power and relationship grind between the two men. It's also a fascinating look at how Cheney functioned in the White House along with the multitude of advisers, lawyers and Cabinet members who provided influence on Bush. Having finished the piece yesterday, I then saw today an Associated Press report that in 2002, Cheney wanted Bush to send troops into Buffalo to arrest terror suspects... what would have been unprecedented since the Civil War and also questionable within the bounds of the Constitution. After reading something like this it just shows me that understanding history is important and makes me

139

Words Written Down – Everything else

wonder what could have occurred had the Vice President continued to hold sway with the President through the entirety of both terms. Also from this issue of Time, I found interesting this review of Richard Holmes' new book "The Age of Wonder". The book is account of experimental science at the end of the 1700s and described by Time writer Lev Grossman as "the most flat-out fascinating book so far this year." 40th Anniversary of the Moon Walk - Time Cover Story – posted 7/20/2009 Really good cover story from the July 27 issue of Time Magazine: Titled "Moon Walkers" it looks at the 24 men who have gone to the Moon and is written by Jeffrey Kluger, co-author of Apollo 13. It's an interesting account of America's lunar astronauts and how they were wired. One of the things that stood out from the story is how far some it was tough to appreciate and live through the normal aspects of life after such a singular experience. Reading this story reminded me of both a Chris Jones story from Esquire titled "Why We Shouldn't End Our Manned Space Program" and his book on astronauts stranded at the International Space Station after the Columbia disaster. In paperback, it's "Out of Orbit: The Incredible True Story of Three Astronauts Who Were Hundreds of Miles Above Earth When They Lost Their Ride Home" and the seemingly more appropriate "Too Far From Home" the hardcover title. The book was fascinating stuff about some select people who have done something different than the rest of us through human history. Yea, I could see being back on Earth feeling weird after that. FDR Articles from Time Magazine – posted 7/3/2009 The July 6 Time Magazine issue was its annual "Making of America" edition and carried the cover heading "What Barack Obama Can Learn from FDR". Time's 2008 version on this theme was about Mark Twain (and linked to at this blog post) and this year's iteration had multiple pieces of interest about President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his connection to President Obama and current times. The first story was titled "FDR's Lessons for Obama" and written by historian David Kennedy. Maybe I just really like historianauthored pieces in Time like this one on the Great Depression by Niall Ferguson, but it's fascinating stuff. One of the main points that Kennedy makes is how FDR used the bleak economic climate as an opportunity to enact programs that he felt the country needed long-term. It's an interesting concept and to me seems an example of what can occur when you have both a great leader and confluence of events makes that greatness needed. Maybe not a perfect connection, but it makes me think of the Shakespeare "12th Night" quote... "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em." Two other articles in this feature I found to be of interest were "The First 100 Days" about the beginning of the FDR presidency and "The Price of World Peace" about FDR's management of the US entry into WWII and subsequent dealings with Stalin's Russia. The first story to me showed how FDR deserves huge credit for taking such bold steps and being willing to risk failure. The second stood out as almost the flip side to the first in that it showed a highly pragmatic FDR making deals with Stalin that he knew not perfect, but in the best interest of all. Mental Health Piece from Time – posted 6/23/2009 Very thought-provoking story from the annual Time Magazine "Health Issue" in its June 22 edition: Titled "Staying Sane May Be Easier Than You Think", it examines the idea of psychological health and both how there can be early indicators of mental health problems and ways to ward them off. Specifically, it follows the research of Dr. William McFarlane and his efforts to "pre-treat" youth prior to any episodes of psychosis. It's the type of stuff that would likely have been viewed as being in the purview of witch doctor science in years past, but today is certainly worth consideration and debate. Esquire Magazine - July issue – posted 6/17/2009 There were a couple of things of note from the July issue of Esquire Magazine. Well, yeah... the cover image of swimsuit model Bar Refaeli wearing body paint (or body text as the case may be) itself is noteworthy, but the text on her is taken from the Stephen King short story "Morality" contained within the

140

Words Written Down – Everything else

issue. I didn't find the story linked to anywhere on the Esquire website, but suspect that's by agreement between the magazine and author. This being the case, the best I can do for links is provide this one to a description of "Morality" on http://www.stephenking.com/. The story itself is a compelling read which reminds me a great deal of the King short story "Apt Pupil"... contained in his collection "Different Seasons" (from which also came two short stories that led to the movies "Stand by Me" and "Shawshank Redemption"). Two other things I found interesting from this issue of Esquire... both of which are about one of my favorite writers, Chris Jones. The first was his extremely short (3 paragraph) piece titled "Arrivals at the Airport". In a way the polar opposite of "Morality" by King, it's nice. The second was mention of Jones being honored with a National Magazine Award for his Esquire piece "The Things That Carried Him". I wrote about Jones and this piece in what was kind of my first blog post and the story itself can be found here on the Esquire site. Growing Old with Autism Story from Time – posted 5/17/2009 Very heartfelt and thought-inspiring article from the latest issue of Time Magazine: Written by Karl Taro Greenfeld, "Growing Old with Autism" is in an excerpt from his book "Boy Alone: a Brother's Memoir" about the struggle associated with his adult brother's autism. It's somewhat painful in that it makes you think of the circumstances that some are dealt and also how that impacts their loved ones. On a much lighter level, the last page essay by Joel Stein is titled "Give Hockey (and Me) One More Shot"... yea, it's an entertaining read. Time Magazine - Elizabeth Edwards Excerpt & Other Book Pieces – posted 5/12/2009 From three different Time Magazine issues are taken three different pieces that all fall in what I'll so eloquently call the "book category"... Out of the May 18 issue came the piece "How I Survived John's Affair" by Elizabeth Edwards. Excerpted from her new book Resilience, it's a first person description of the emotions and actions of Edwards as she learned of and as dealt with the cheating by her husband, former Presidential candidate John Edwards. I likely won't read the book itself, but the excerpt published in Time provides a fascinating portrait of reaction to an extremely unjust situation. From the March 9 issue is an interesting book review of the Eric Kraft novel Flying. From the February 9 issue is an appreciation of recently deceased novelist John Updike by Time writer Lev Grossman. Not much I can add here other than to say that the piece tends to make one want to read Updike. Rescue Shuttle Article from CNN – posted 5/12/2009 Interesting article from CNN titled Astronauts ready for rescue mission they hope never happens about the contingencies required with something as dangerous as space travel. With space shuttle Atlantis about to launch its crew to the Hubble Space Telescope, shuttle Endeavour is fully prepared to launch a rescue mission if required. It's a short, compelling read that makes me think of the Chris Jones book Too Far From Home (strangely renamed "Out of Orbit" for the paperback edition) which I reviewed as my first real (non list of magazine articles) post to this blog. Joe Klein Piece on Obama's First 100 Days – posted 5/3/2009 There was a really insightful cover story from Joe Klein in the May 4 issue of Time Magazine. The title "Joe Klein on the President's Impressive Performance Thus Far" gives an idea of the bent of the article, but it's simply an interesting read. Time Magazine - Apr 27 Issue – posted 4/30/2009 Some really interesting stuff from the Apr 27 issue of Time Magazine. "The Great Recession: America Becomes Thrift Nation" is the cover story and written by one of my favorite Time writers, Nancy Gibbs. Definitely not a long piece, but a very insightful look at how Americans are cutting back in difficult economic times... and how that can have a long-term impact on how people will even when economic

141

Words Written Down – Everything else

conditions improve. Also from this issue of Time is a fascinating story titled "Logging On to the Ivy League". The story details something I had heard about before, but not in such detail. In short, there are tons and tons of free university lectures available on both iTunes U from Apple and now YouTube Edu. In addition to these well known platforms, lectures can be found through the Open Courseware Consortium, led in part by MIT efforts to have its coursework online. Also, www.AcademicEarth.org and www.TED.com are sites at which interesting material can be found. Finally, there was an interesting mention in the Entertainment Short List section about a graduation speech from deceased writer David Foster Wallace. Health 2.0: Patients as Partners Article from Businessweek – posted 4/29/2009 Very interesting article titled "Heath 2.0: Patients as Partners" from the Dec 15 2008 issue of BusinessWeek. This piece relates to the Jeff Jarvis book "What Would Google Do?" (which I reviewed) and looks at how social networking and collaboration could be used to help people with their personal health care. Esquire Magazine - May issue – posted 4/11/2009 As part of the May 2009 issue, Esquire published multiple pieces around the topic of "How to Be a Man"... with two that stood out as particularly interesting. The first was an extremely well written and compelling essay by Tom Chiarella titled "What is a Man?" I suppose some of the points he makes you could quibble with and I'm sure you could add others, but all in all... it's definitely worth the short read. The second can't really qualify as being well written as it's more of a list with pictures. The slideshow titled "Things Every Man Should Own" has 30-some items that Esquire feels a man shouldn't be without. There are probably other needed things not on the list, but I don't know that someone would be the worse for it by having each of these things along with a competency of how to use. Also from this issue of Esquire was mention of a few different books to read. "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen: Having begun and not yet finished (but, someday I will), I can say that it falls into that category of "writing so good it makes you feel you can't write". "Empire Falls" and "Bridge of Sighs" by Richard Russo: Similar to my above statement, I've had the change to read Russo's "Straight Man" and found Russo to be both an excellent writer and storyteller. "A Fraction of the Whole" by Steve Toltz: Whereas the books above by Franzen and Russo were recommended by Esquire readers, Toltz's book was actually highly trumpeted by Tom Chiarella in a Feb 2008 review: High praise indeed from Chiarella. Time Magazine - Apr 13 Issue – posted 4/7/2009 Lots of interesting writing from the April 13 issue of Time Magazine (which was subtitled the "Special Environment Issue"). The most profound piece was titled "Why Are Army Recruiters Killing Themselves?" Written by Mark Thompson, it's a painful look at the pressures put on Army recruiters (particularly those out of the Army's Houston recruiting battalion) to "make mission" and meet recruiting numbers. A job characterized by 15-19 hour work days and belittlement by leadership... very messed up. Another interesting story was by Michael Grunwald and titled "How Obama is Using the Science of Change". It looks at some of the social science behind the Obama campaign and office message, specifically how the field of behavioral economics is employed. Some of the examples put out were how get out the vote campaign efforts often promoted the idea of record turnouts to get people to "emulate their neighbors" and the more recent idea of opt-out 401K programs to encourage savings. Also from the Grunwald article was mention of books written by some of the Obama advisers that made up what's referred to as his "behavioral dream team": "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness" by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein. "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism" by George Akerlof & Robert Shiller &"Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions" by Dan Ariely.

142

Words Written Down – Everything else

Time Magazine - Apr 6 Issue – posted 3/30/2009 There was a hodgepodge of insightful stuff from the latest issue of Time Magazine... some grouped together and some that might call for further reading. In the grouped together category, two different commentaries had interesting views of President Barack Obama. In his "Obamathon: Is the President Overexposed?" piece, Time media writer James Poniewozik examined the recent flurry of media appearances by Obama... and resulting questions about whether it was too much. The conclusion drawn (which is both logical and insightful) is that it's not excessive given the fragmented media culture in which we live and people's propensity to get their news information in snippets and sound bites. Obama is simply communicating to people how they want to be communicated with... meaning you gotta take all different approaches to reach all different people. Also about President Obama, Joe Klein's "In the Arena" column discusses in detail a recent book titled "Power Rules" from former president of the Council of Foreign Relations Leslie H. Gelb. The title Gelb held doesn't mean much to me, but the book and its views of power and diplomacy (a balancing act to be sure that we all hope Obama can master) sound fascinating. Now that the stories with similar topics have been covered, it's on the two other stories I found of note from this issue (both of which follow Klein's example and make me interested in further reading). It's a fairly long piece, but the cover story by historian Kurt Andersen titled "The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?" is a compelling read that looks at America in each of the last few decades and how things led up to the economic collapse of the past six months. Beyond this, the piece examines the path forward and the positives that can be taken from this experience. Excellent writing contained within and it made me interested in Andersen's critically acclaimed historical novel Heyday about mid-19th century America. The fourth story from this issue of Time that struck me was a short work titled "A Primer for Pessimists" by Alice Park. There's nothing earthshattering in it, but it does contain the oft-stated notion that optimism can lead to greater success... and can be developed. Contained with the article is reference to two different books (both of which sound interesting) by Harvard Professor Tal Ben-Shahar... "Happier" and "The Pursuit of Perfect". So... lots of stuff from this issue of Time, but it wouldn't be that hard to attach a story arc to it all. There's a crisis (Andersen), but we can come out of it (Andersen and Park). While we're doing that, we have to keep the world safe (Klein) and make sure people support how we're doing it (Poniewozik). Geesh, couple of things to take care of there: Can't wait to see what Obama is going to do after lunch... ;) "Keeping it Real" Writing from Esquire – posted 3/16/2009 Some interesting writing in the issue of Esquire Magazine... much of it around the general theme of identity / being true to oneself and yep, keeping it real. The cover story by Tom Chiarella is about celebrity guy Ben Affleck... who also happens to be: a parent of two (yes, with a celebrity wife), an accomplished writer (if you recall "Good Will Hunting"), a pretty good actor (reference back to his monologues in "Boiler Room" and the aforementioned "Good Will Hunting") and an up and coming director (with "Gone Baby Gone" to his credit). The Chiarella piece manages to convey how Affleck is often stuck in this "celebrity guy" role despite all accomplishments above and beyond that. It's an interesting read showing what someone in this position faces. If someone doesn't have time to read the piece itself, the story title of "Ben Affleck: A Smart, Talented Man Trapped in Lindsay Lohan's Life" conveys the point pretty well. Additionally, this issue of Esquire contains a piece by my writing man-crush object of admiration, Chris Jones. The story titled "Jonathan Papelbon Grinds His Teeth" is a profile of the Red Sox closer that reveals the focus and downright anger that Papelbon channels to help him pitch so successfully. Finally, there's another piece by Chris Jones that's much shorter and (using the results of Google searches as a yardstick) gathering more attention than the one he did on Papelbon. Titled "My Vacation from Hate" it's about the return to competitive golf of Tiger Woods and how Jones enjoyed golf more without Woods around. This piece from the Detroit Free Press website quotes Jones' story at length, but doesn't quote Jones' sentence about how depressing it was writing this 2003 Esquire story on Woods. The statement made in this most recent piece is "there's no joy for me in anything Tiger Woods does"... likely referring to how Woods closes off his personal life from view (and the 2003 story was written even before marriage and kids for Tiger). So... all

143

Words Written Down – Everything else

this being said, you've got three different stories from this issue all tied together by the theme of keeping it real / dealing with the spotlight / being true to yourself / etc etc. In the case of Jonathan Papelbon, there's someone who basically sticks their chin out at the world and is brutally honest. With Tiger Woods, you've got someone who shields the world entirely and then with Ben Affleck you've got some sort of middle ground with a guy working hard to maintain a private life while at the same time live a human experience. Health-Care Cover Story from Time – posted 3/16/2009 Really good (and depressing) story titled "The Health-Care Crisis Hits Home" from the March 16 issue of Time Magazine. Written by regular contributor Karen Tumulty, the story details the insurance troubles her brother has gone through after having a major medical condition. Being self-insured, Pat Tumulty would regularly buy six month policies, which was all well and good as long as he simply paid the premiums and never needed the insurance. After getting sick and filing a claim, he was proclaimed not covered because of his illness being a "pre-existing condition", even though it was the same Assurant Health that covered him six months prior. This is a terrible story about (I don't think it stretches to say) a terrible company, but the piece goes much further than one bad business and looks at health-care in the U.S., particularly for those underinsured like Pat Tumulty. Cited in the article was a 2005 Harvard study that looked at 1,700 personal bankruptcies declared and found that half of them were due to a medical problem... with three quarters of those people actually covered under some form of health insurance. The problem that occurs is for those who do work and do have coverage, those policies often wind up not amounting to much, but the income and coverage makes people not eligible for federal or state health coverage programs. It's a big mess, with the biggest shame being people dealing with serious illness while at the same time trying to figure out how to pay to treat it. John Gardner "Personal Renewal" Speech – posted 2/1/2009 I first came across John Gardner from a March 1994 article titled "Meaning: Something You Build into Your Life" that he wrote for Stanford Magazine. Given to me by my parents, the piece is about the themes of human potential, character and commitment (other themes as well, but I reckon these three are weighty enough to suffice as a description). I've not seen this exact article in electronic form (Stanford Magazine is archived online back to 1996), but did find a section of the PBS website devoted to Gardner, his life and his work. Part of the site is a speech that he gave in 1990 titled "Personal Renewal" containing many of both the same concepts and exact language later reprinted in the aforementioned magazine article. Gardner's speech is reprinted here and some of the more profound highlights are the following: "If we are conscious of the danger of going to seed, we can resort to countervailing measures at almost any age. You don't need to run down like an unwound clock. And if your clock is unwound, you can wind it up again. You can stay alive in every sense of the word until you fail physically. I know some pretty successful people who feel that that just isn't possible for them, that life has trapped them. But they don't really know that. Life takes unexpected turns." "The things you learn in maturity aren't simple things such as acquiring information and skills. You learn not to engage in self-destructive behavior. You learn not to burn up energy in anxiety. You discover how to manage your tensions, if you have any, which you do. You learn that self-pity and resentment are among the most toxic of drugs. You find that the world loves talent, but pays off on character." "I'm not talking about anything as narrow as ambition. After all, ambition eventually wears out and probably should. But you can keep your zest until the day you die. If I may offer you a simple maxim, "Be interesting," Everyone wants to be interesting -- but the vitalizing thing is to be interested. Keep a sense of curiosity. Discover new things, care, risk failure. Reach out." "Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique

144

Words Written Down – Everything else

pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account." "Why We Shouldn‘t End Our Manned Space Program" Article from Esquire – posted 1/28/2009 Finally, I know this borders on the ridiculous, but I say... finally, the article "Why We Shouldn't End Our Manned Space Program" from the Feb 2009 issue of Esquire Magazine is online so I can write about it (and of course link to it). It may seem a bit obsessive for me to have been continually checking the Esquire website, but me thinks the writing that good. Done by my favorite living writer (I know it sounds kind of odd to say that, but it's not fair to compare everyone to Ayn Rand), Chris Jones, it achieves that dual goal that I think so hard to find in writing... something about an interesting topic that's written really well. I've linked to and written about writing from Jones several times, touching on various pieces from Esquire and about his book "Out of Orbit (or "Too Far From Home") and gotta say... I really like his writing. His stuff is insightful, poignant and colorfully written about topics of either interest or great import. It doesn't relate at all to why I like the writing, but I'm very interested to know if as a Canadian, he's written about hockey. I might gotta try to find that out. Time Magazine - Feb 2 Issue – posted 1/24/2009 Great cover story by Joe Klein in the Feb 2 issue of Time Magazine: Titled "Obama Promises New Destiny, Work Begins Today", it details both the language used in President Barack Obama's inaugural address and his actions both before and after taking the oath of office. As Klein highlights, especially interesting from the speech was Obama's message about the political process... "What the cynics fail to understand is that that the ground has shifted beneath them- the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply." Whether Democrat or Republican, some may feel it an impossible aspiration, but... as Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin said of Obama, "he's selling hope, and I'm buying." Also from this issue of Time was the story "Books Unbound" about the publishing industry. As the book business has gone through great upheaval of late, one of the consequences has been the emergence of unknown authors self-publishing on the cheap... and in many cases becoming not-so-unknown. To this idea of books not going through traditional routes to market, the article reveals that 4 of the top 5 best-sellers for 2007 in Japan were written on cell phones. Granted, the adoption of consumer technology in Asia is ahead of that in the U.S., but the statistic is amazing bordering on ridiculous. Inauguration of President Barack Obama – posted 1/20/2009 From http://www.time.com/ comes Nancy Gibbs' piece "Barack Obama's Inaugural Address: Humility, Gratitude, Sacrifice", was excellent writing befitting the occasion. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" – posted 1/3/2009 "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" came as part of the Christmas Day wave of hopeful blockbusters and even for those with high expectations, it definitely didn't disappoint. The movie stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, but most intriguing to me prior to release, it was directed by David Fincher. His past directing credits (which can be found on Fincher's http://www.imdb.com/ page here) include "Zodiac", "Seven" and "Fight Club". What I enjoyed most about the film was its effectiveness at telling an "epic tale of life"... with the twist of it being lived in reverse by Brad Pitt's character... leading to the poignant scenes of relationships between characters aging in different directions. To this whole "epic tale of life" concept... the movie reminded me of both "Titanic" and "Forest Gump". This connection makes sense given the fact that the screenwriter Eric Roth (whose imdb page is here) wrote "Forest Gump" as well. Another thing that helped give the film its scope is the screenplay by Roth was adapted from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same name.

145

Words Written Down – Everything else

Obama Election Night Piece from Esquire – posted 12/27/2008 A great piece from the Jan 2009 issue of Esquire Magazine is "American Surprise: How Election Night Brought Us Home Again" by noted author and frequent sportswriter-type Charles P. Pierce... whose website can be found here. The short essay by Pierce is part of a collection of works from various Esquire writers who describe their experiences and thoughts about Barack Obama's election on Nov 4. I found all of them to be interesting, but Pierce's piece to be the most moving as he vividly paints this day into a historic context. Time Magazine - Person of the Year: Barack Obama – posted 12/24/2008 No surprise at all, but it's still cool to see President-elect Obama as Time's pick for 2008 Person of the Year. Featured in the Dec 29 issue are an insightful piece on Obama's current actions and priorities by the excellent writer David Von Drehle as well as a series of the best Obama images and art posted to the photo site Flickr. Additionally, found compelling Nancy Gibbs' "Listen to the Kids" commentary. Really good stuff about children, tradition and (especially now two days before Christmas) the things that count. Time Magazine - Dec 22 Issue – posted 12/18/2008 One really good opinion piece and several interesting tidbits from the recent Time Magazine: In his story "Black Gold: It's Time to Raise the Gas Tax", Michael Kinsley presents a very compelling argument for why the gas tax should be increased. He makes the point that just months ago, oil (and correspondingly, gasoline) prices were at all-times highs, but consumers were dealing with it just fine. Now, the economy has tanked (pardon the pun) and oil/gasoline prices have plummeted as well. Kinsley's argument is that we shouldn't simply celebrate our good fortune (while the economy remains poor) and aimlessly waste gas and abandoning the adoption of hybrids and new energy sources and technologies. Rather, we should raise the gasoline tax to keep the conservation direction going... and at the same time cut payroll taxes to stimulate both job creation and reduce the taxes coming out of consumers‘ paychecks. The idea seems logical both from an economic as well as a trying to save the planet perspective. "The Six-Figure Job Hunt" is an interesting piece about the number of white-collar workers looking for work. One thing that stands out about it is rather than just being a doom-and-gloom story, it makes the point that there's still jobs out there through natural turnover and the right approach through networking and resume targeting can land them for those inclined. Time's "Top 10 Everything of 2008" is a list section highlighting the biggest people, stories and things from the past year. Time Magazine - Dec 8 Issue – posted 11/30/2008 Quite a few interesting articles from the Dec 8 issue of Time Magazine. The cover story is about Michelle Rhee, the controversial chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system. It's a look at Rhee and her efforts to turn around the extremely troubled public schools in Washington D.C. and makes one think about Rhee's overriding philosophy that students will do better when they have better teachers... and the way you get better teachers is through better pay for the best ones. Also in this issue was a look at President-elect Barack Obama's actions around the economic crisis titled "Why He Just Can't Wait". It chronicles the steps that have already been taken to prop up the economy prior to the Jan 20, 2009 inauguration and shows someone who appears to be stepping up to a huge challenge. Interesting Television Articles – posted 11/27/2008 There have been some interesting articles I've come across lately about various television shows. In the February 2008 issue of Esquire, David Simon, creator of the critically acclaimed HBO show "The Wire" gives a fascinating look into the newspaper industry through his story "A Newspaper Can't Love You Back". In a March 2008 issue, BusinessWeek did an interesting profile "From Hit men to Hitless" of the management issues at cable channel HBO as they attempt to replicate the success of "The Sopranos". From its May 2008 issue, Fast Company Magazine published the story "Rebel Alliance" about the successful

146

Words Written Down – Everything else

young creators of hit sci-fi television shows... and how many of them were influenced by Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Finally, in May 2008, Time Magazine published "10 Questions for Ira Glass" with the creator of the popular NPR radio show ―This American Life‖ that has since been adapted into a Showtime series by the same name. Esquire Magazine - December '08 Issue – posted 11/23/2008 As is almost always the case, there was some excellent writing in Esquire Magazine's latest issue... it's "Best & Brightest" from Dec 2008. The cover story was written by Esquire writer-at-large Chris Jones, the object of my "writing man-crush". An in-depth profile of Vince Vaughn, it features the same type of great prose that Jones seems to deliver with each piece. From this same issue, Jason Fagone writes a fascinating profile on iconoclastic video-game programmer Jason Rohrer and his most well-known creation, "Passage". Available for download here, it's a small game with old-school pixilation that has been trumpeted at video game conferences by some of the biggest game designers in the business. Rather than having more bells and whistles than the current hot titles on the market, the game has enough depth in its plot to bring both Rohrer and other industry bigwigs to tears... all in the five minutes it takes to play. Time Magazine - Nov 10 & Oct 6 Issues – posted 11/15/2008 This is very much a hodgepodge posting, but below I've come across some interesting articles in Time Magazine lately. Time's "Invention of the Year" piece highlighted the various product breakthroughs from in the last year. In the purely entertaining category, the list included the online video "Dr. Horrible's SingAlong Blog" from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon and starring Neil Patrick Harris. The 43minute 3-part musical has since crossed over from mere online video to now having a DVD in the works. On the more serious front, Time's #1 Invention of the Year is a $399 DNA test that people can use to determine their susceptibility to various genetic diseases. While the test (and current science behind available to the consumer gene testing) has its detractors, it's still a fascinating concept from the Googlebacked startup 23andMe. Contained in the other issue of Time was a profile of Michelle Obama, wife of now President-elect Barack Obama (whom I've written about a few times). Written by Curtis Sittenfeld, author of the novels "Prep" and "American Wife" (a fictional look at the life of current first lady Laura Bush that I previously reviewed), it's a fascinating look at this woman now very much in the public eye. Also in this issue was a James Poniewozik commentary about the ABC Television show "The View" and what it provides to the public. The opinion piece makes the interesting assertion that "The View" is good television precisely because of its inherent bias. Poniewozik's point is that watching the show you know where each member of the panel comes from... and how they likely feel about Democrats or Republicans among other topics. As a result of this, people watching the show are able to listen to very different perspectives... while knowing whatever preconceived notions might be behind those views. This becomes particularly interesting to me when you consider the oft-made argument that the media is biased towards a particular political party. My feeling is that I don't agree with this argument because I think that the media is not a large entity (like "The Borg" from Star Trek), but rather a collection of writers and broadcasters all of whom have their own particular feelings and leanings. I think we can expect our network news anchors to come across as completely objective, but not every person reporting information to us. Thus... you have the interesting dynamic that "The View" provides. "Boys Will Be Boys" Writing from Time Magazine – posted 11/13/2008 About a year apart, Time Magazine published two issues whose cover stories shared a common theme. The first was from Aug 2007 and contained a cover story written by the excellent writer David Von Drehle. Titled "The Myth about Boys" it examines the held in some circles notion that today's male youth are going down the wrong path and pretty much concludes... things are fine. One interesting point the article touches on is the held in some circles idea that boys are not spending enough time exploring on their own, but rather spending all their recreational time in highly structured team sport environments. Drehle doesn't

147

Words Written Down – Everything else

completely disagree with this assessment, but does offer examples of how many boys are spending time on wilderness exploration and makes reference to the wildly popular "The Dangerous Book for Boys" activity guide book written by Conn and Hal Iggulden. The second issue was Time Magazine's July 2008 annual Making of America special report... focused on Mark Twain. Pieces range from Managing Editor Richard Stengel's "The Mark of Twain" introducing the issue and it's chosen subject to an in-depth look at the man titled "Mark Twain: Our Original Superstar" among several other pieces from the entire issue: Great writing on interesting subjects from both issues. As to the connection between the "Myth About Boys" piece and Mark Twain himself... well, I think the guy who wrote "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" would have been quite interested in what Von Drehle had to write. Barack Obama Victory Speech – posted 11/5/2008 What to say? Well... maybe the best way to express it by offering up the words of some others. From http://www.time.com/, there's Joe Klein telling us that "Obama's Victory Ushers in a New America" or Nancy Gibbs giving us "The Meaning of Obama's Win: How He Rewrote the Book". Really, though, the best words to use are from the man himself. Excellent Writing: From Esquire – posted 11/2/2008 The following is a hodgepodge listing of some really good writing from Esquire Magazine over the last few years: "What I've Learned" by Glenn Fitzpatrick from March 2008 on the 46-year old Esquire editor diagnosed with ALS. "What I've Learned" by Carrie Fischer features some ramblings in the Jan 2008 issue from the actress who portrayed Princess Leia. One of the most interesting is “I like having written the same way I like having gone to the gym. I‟m a conversationalist more than a writer. I take dictation from myself. I talk about myself behind my back.” A Scott Raab written profile of Sean Penn just before the release of "Into the Wild", the movie Penn wrote and directed based off the Jon Krakauer book of the same title. "I Do Not Have a Death Wish" from writer David Vann. This story was from the Dec 2007 issue of Esquire and it's a first-person account of Vann's preparations to attempt a round-the-world sail of a homemade boat. The follow-up to this introduction can be found here on the Esquire site. One of the compelling things here is that it's such good first-person writing of an interesting story. There was also an obituary of sorts of writer W.C. Heinz by my favorite living writer, Chris Jones (previously posted about here as well as here). Jones references Heinz's short story "Death of a Racehorse". Obama Articles from Time Magazine – posted 10/30/2008 Couple of really interesting articles from the October 20 issue of Time Magazine. The first is essentially the cover story by David Von Drehle titled "The Limits of Race". With a subtitle of "For White Working Class, Obama Rises on Empty Wallets", it's a very well written and interesting look at voters in the key swing state of Missouri and how the economy appears to be trumping everything for voters looking at their Presidential selection. Also in this issue is a commentary written by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the bestseller "Eat, Pray, Love" titled "A Family Divided by Obama and McCain". Gilbert is an Obama supporter and the piece is about her relationship with her McCain supporting father. "The End of Prosperity" Article from Time Magazine – posted 10/15/2008 Really interesting cover story from the Oct 13 issue of Time Magazine titled "The End of Prosperity". Written by Niall Ferguson, its subtitle is "a noted historian looks at parallels between this financial crisis and 1929 and shows what must be done to avoid Depression 2.0". Teaching the Bible in Public Schools & Katharine Jefferts Schori interview – posted 10/10/2008 There was a fascinating Time Magazine cover story from April 2007 titled "The Case for Teaching the Bible" about the author's view that the Bible should be taught in Public Schools. The argument is that the Bible's impact as a book that shapes and impacts people's beliefs should be openly discussed... and if that

148

Words Written Down – Everything else

discussion is done properly, there is no conflict between religion as a thing and public school education as a separate thing. Very interesting idea and the article is a fascinating read. Additionally (and related in that it's a non-religious look at something closely associated with religion), Time in 2006 ran a very interesting "10 Questions" interview with then President-elect of the U.S. Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori. Many religious conservatives have taken umbrage with Schori's "liberal" views on gay clergy and in the interview she speaks to that criticism as well as her feelings on the relationship between religion and science. Again, interesting ideas and regardless of someone's religious beliefs, there's a lot to be said for understanding where such an influential religious leader is coming from. Dixie Chicks on the cover of Time Magazine – posted 10/1/2008 It's certainly not recent, but the May 2006 Time cover story on the Dixie Chicks is worth a read. It's a fascinating look at a modern day Salem Witch Trial: All because someone criticized President Bush. Time Magazine Sept 22: National Service – posted 9/19/2008 There was an interesting cover story on National Service in the Sept 22 issue of Time Magazine. It beings with an overview from Managing Editor Richard Stengel (who references the cover story from a year ago also on National Service). From there, the issue contains "21 Ways to Serve America"... some of the ones more personally interesting noted along with the corresponding # in Time: #1: Support the "Serve America Act": Bill being introduced in the Senate this month. #4: Give Up One Day: Service events being planned for Sept 27 and Jan 19 (MLK Day) with details at http://www.events.servicenation.org/ & http://www.mlkday.gov/. #8: Get Out!: Civilian Conservation Corps is an organization helps clean and protect parks and other natural resources. #9: Work with the Secretary: California is the first state to have a Cabinet (CA) level position around Service & Volunteering (from this came the California website http://www.californiavolunteers.org/.) Done at a Federal level this type of position would be in the President's Cabinet. #15: Do It Pro Bono: Service opportunities utilizing Professional skills can be found through the Taproot Foundation or http://www.abillionandchange.org/. #21: Log On: Another place to seek out volunteer opportunities is through http://www.volunteer.gov/. More Great Chris Jones Writing From Esquire – posted 8/22/2008 The first "official" (non-list) post to this blog was about Chris Jones who writes (I believe) primarily for Esquire Magazine. Titled "Out of Orbit (or "Too Far From Home") & other writings by Chris Jones, the post is about his book ("Too Far From Home" in hardcover / "Out of Orbit" in paperback) chronicling the astronauts and cosmonauts who were on the International Space Station at the time of the Challenger disaster. Additionally, it has mention of the poignant story "The Things That Carried Him" from Esquire. Jones' book and this Esquire story now duly noted (twice), his other writings from the magazine also deserve mention. His work there can be found through a search of his name at the magazine's site and some of the stories that stood out as particularly interesting are the following: "The Runaway" from Dec 2004 about Ricky Williams and his less than excited return to the life of an NFL player. "Barry Zito is Lights Out" from June 2007about the newly signed (to a $126M contract) San Francisco Giant pitcher. Similar to the Williams piece, it shows a fascinating look at an individual whose vocation places them squarely in the public eye. "Into the Void" from Feb 2007 about Chris Snow, Minnesota Wild Director of Hockey Operations: Snow took this role at 25 after previously being employed as a Red Sox beat writer by the Boston Globe. The particulars of this story are amazing in and of themselves and Jones as always does a great job of fleshing out the details. "One of Us" written in three installments from August 2006 through March 2008 about the presumptive 2008 Republican Presidential candidate, John McCain. It's a very detailed and intimate look at a one of the two remaining major party challengers to lead the country through the next four years.

149

Words Written Down – Everything else

Disaster Response – posted 7/30/2008 A couple of really interesting articles on disaster response over the course of the last few years. The June 2 issue of Time Magazine gives "Roused by Disaster" about the response of the Chinese government to the disastrous earthquake of May 12. From the Time issue one week later, "How to Survive a Disaster" describes the steps that can be taken by an average citizen in cases of calamity... with special mention of the Morgan Stanley Security Director Rick Rescorla who saves scores of lives in one of the Towers on 9/11. Finally, if you go back to an August 2007 issue of BusinessWeek, there's "If the Levees Fail In California" about the potential for disaster in the Sacramento Delta region of California. Thinking about these stories, they come at the topic from different angles... one is the response of an entire government to tragedy, one is what a government could do in cases of disaster and one features near superhuman individual response. I guess the point is that in cases of need, both the government and average citizens need to rise to the occasion. Something that didn't happen enough on either side in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but... you gotta hope for the future.

150

Words Written Down – Book reviews

Book reviews Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan – book review posted 2/8/2012 I recently finished reading Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan: a book of largely first person essays done really well. Sullivan's writing reminded me of that from Wright Thompson with his story subjects tending towards his southern home area and reading his essays inspired a jealously due to the things experienced. The most memorable story from Pulphead was "Violence of the Lambs", a story that... well, I don't know how to describe it other than to echo the words of accomplished Tampa Times writer Ben Montgomery and say it‘s the strangest magazine story I've ever read. Other essays from the book that struck me were the following: "Upon this Rock" - on Sullivan's time at the Creation Christian rock festival, "Feet in Smoke" - on his brother electrocuting himself and almost dying, "Mr. Lytle: an Essay" - on time spent living and working on his writing with an aging professor, "At a Shelter (After Katrina)" - about his experiences along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina and which featured a fascinating reference to end of the world type experiences, "Michael" - on the amazing talent and completely different than all other people Michael Jackson, "The Final Comeback of Axl Rose" - about time spent looking into how the lead singer of the seminal rock band grew up" and "Unnamed Caves" - covers time Sullivan spent with some of the leading archaeologists and cave explorers of caverns in the south. Again, amazing experiences that Sullivan has had and the writing is of such quality to make me interested in reading his book Blood Horses, a sort-of memoir, sort of history of horses and horse racing. I'm not interested at all in the horse part, but very much curious to read more about the life experiences of Sullivan. Man Seeks God by Eric Weiner – book review posted 2/1/2012 Having previously enjoyed immensely The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner I looked forward for some time to his recently published Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine. The book came out of a health scare that included him in the hospital being asked "have you found your God yet?" Weiner comes from a Jewish background, but his not terribly devout path led to the idea of him trying out various religions to see how they fit him and figure out what he truly believes. It's obviously a very personal construct for a book and the best parts of it were those where Weiner gets colloquial and personal about his experiences and thoughts on them. To this end, he reveals in the book nagging bouts of depression and self-doubt. Particularly interesting was his self-description of the pain that comes from doing things "7/8 assed... neither all the way nor not caring." For the purpose of the religious exploration (and book about it) Weiner chose eight different religions (or slivers of faith like Kabbalah as part of Judaism and Sufism as part of Islam) and went and lived with each. Some of the faiths didn't have much in their feature chapter that resonated as a reader (or appear to resonate for Weiner as the person experiencing it), but some did have very interesting nuggets related on them. About Buddhism, Weiner wrote on the idea of the pause between a given experience and then how that experience affects us. It was a fascinating concept that actually made me think of the James Altucher book I Was Blind But Now I See and it's idea (or at least the idea I ascribe to Altucher) of not letting ones thoughts get dragged somewhere not beneficial to go. About the Franciscans Weiner spent time with, he wrote of both the idea of actions not needing to wait for full belief if the action a positive one and the concept of good work for others. Specifically noted around this idea of giving was there not needing to be returned gratitude in exchange for good works done. The book isn't written as a math problem that began with a question and finished with a solved proof, but rather an examination on a topic with entirely personal answers. At an overall level, Weiner writes of connection with something greater as well as the all important idea of how someone‘s truth makes them feel (and that truth is what works for someone). Especially in conjunction with Weiner giving of himself to the reader and making the thing personal, it's a good read overall even if not on as entertaining a topic as The Geography of Bliss.

151

Words Written Down – Book reviews

Public Parts by Jeff Jarvis – book review posted 2/22/2012 Took me a while to make it through it, but I a few days ago finished Public Parts by Jeff Jarvis. I enjoyed quite a bit the prior Jarvis book What Would Google Do? and while I didn't get quite as much out of Public Parts, found it still to be an interesting read. Book carries the subtitle How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live and has some really solid content about how information is now exchanged. Jarvis writes about us living in the age of links and offers an examination and endorsement of Twitter that reminds me a great deal of the Clay Travis website post "2011 Belonged To Twitter, So Does the Future of Sports Media." Quite a few similarities in the extolling of Twitter's virtues, with the immediacy of news (such as on the Tahir Square protests in Cairo, Egypt) being foremost. Additionally, Jarvis examines the overarching question of public vs private and while it seemed to drag at times, did provide good historical context around things like the printing press as well as geographic context in looking at German push back against Google Street View mapping. All in all, was a good book for those interested in public vs private as well as Information Technology (more to the point, Information Dissemination), where it‘s at and where its headed. The Best American Sports Writing 2011 book edited by Glenn Stout and Jane Leavy – review posted 1/13/2012 It felt a bit like cheating to have the type of great stories I like discovering all compiled for me, but the point of a compilation like this is to pull in a number of excellent pieces and it was accomplished well in this book. There's 29 stories reprinted in the book and of those I had only previously seen four (all in Sports Illustrated)... ―High School Dissonance‖ by Selena Roberts, ―Eight Seconds‖ by Michael Farber, ―Pride of a Nation‖ by S.L. Price and ―The Courage of Jill Costello‖ by Chris Ballard. Of the remaining 25, five were from ESPN (one ESPN The Magazine and four the website), two each from The New Yorker, GQ and the L.A. Times and the rest from sources with one piece each featured. There were a lot of excellent stories in the book with the following being those that stood out the most: Sally Jenkins for the Washington Post with ―Culture of Silence Gives Free Reign to Male Athletes‖ - very short and exceptionally well written missive on incidences of assault (including murder) tied to male athletes and the warning signs often ignored. Paul Solotaroff for Rolling Stone with ―The Surfing Savant‖ - written about Clay Marzo and his experience growing up to become a professional surfer who also has Asperger's syndrome. Compelling writing about someone pulled in different directions by (often times well intentioned) people. Bret Anthony Johnston for Men's Journal with ―Danny Way and the Gift of Fear‖ - super interesting piece that similar to the one of Marzo, features an extreme sport (skateboarding) phenom who went through a number of challenges growing up. Chris Ballard for Sports Illustrated with ―The Courage of Jill Costello‖ - piece was previously included in my listing of Best 2010 Writing Linked To (not sure why it's included in a 2011 anthology, but no matter). Written about the Cal-Berkeley crew member and her final days fighting cancer while continuing to complete with her teammates, it‘s solid writing about a remarkable person. A lot of great pieces featured in the book and it was overall an excellent read. I Was Blind but Now I See book by James Altucher – review posted 1/1/2012 Altucher is a former finance guy who was at times fabulously wealthy and completely broke and his current writing leans towards the self-help variety with this book describing what makes him (and may help make others) happy. It was self-published using CreateSpace from Amazon and doesn‘t seem to have been closely edited, but if a reader would dismiss the book due to typographical and grammatical errors, they‘d miss out on some excellent points and ideas. Starting point from Altucher is that happiness is something different for each person and a big first step towards reaching it is to drop any ingrained notions or definitions of happiness that may not personally apply. He then goes on to write of the financial value of this happiness goal as there's enough opportunities out there that people should be able to combine together being happy both outside and inside of a career. Towards this end, Altucher's stated personal goals are the following: 1. Be happy, 2. Eradicate unhappiness in his life, 3. Have each day be as smooth

152

Words Written Down – Book reviews

as possible with no hassles. These concepts can certainly be easier said than done, but Altucher provides some solid suggestions towards reaching them with one being to have a daily practice of actions taken in each of the following areas: Physical – Advice includes sleeping enough and not drinking to excess (ideally, not at all). Mental – Idea is to challenge your mind continuously and steps to take include engaging with others and assuming they have wisdom to pass on and simply writing down lists of ideas. Spiritual – Even if someone not religious, daily work in this area could be as simple as taking time to be grateful. Emotional – This is the area that Altucher spends the most time on and simplest manifestation of action to take would be people should do (and think about) things that make them happy and not do (or think about) things that make them unhappy. Another framework from Altucher that seems to make a lot of sense is to assign a designation of useful or non-useful to things, people and situations. The useful is then embraced and the non-useful avoided or walked away from… with the following being some of what Altucher characterizes as non-useful: College as the path to learning – He writes of people spending 4 or more years in a higher education system that leaves them in debt and still not knowing what they want to do for a vocation. Alternative would be to try to simply start doing things of interest to see if they‘re still interesting after having been experienced. Home ownership as an important goal – Idea here is that the purchase of a house both ties up capital that could be used elsewhere and can hold someone back from opportunities elsewhere with the financial obligation to a bank. Being caught up in the daily news cycle – Point made is that news organizations often-times get caught up selling fear and sensationalism. As few of the things (including politics) reported on actually impact someone‘s life, reading about or watching reporting on events can often just be avoided. Spending time on bad thoughts and situations – This relates very closely to the emotional category that would be worked on via a daily practice. Altucher writes of a number of different applications of this concept with things to avoid including: resentments, dwelling on problems, anger, attempted revenge, gossip & spending time with or thinking about people that bring you down. He details how the best thing to do with people who are not being useful is to just write them off and get on with life. Really, there's a ton of content in the Altucher book and (like any book) it‘s up to the reader to make of it what they will, but his basic concept of "spend time on things that bring happiness, avoid things that bring unhappiness" is both profound and seems very actionable. Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson – review posted 12/28/2011 Isaacson is an accomplished biography writer and the start of this book includes mention of how Jobs didn‘t ask for any editorial control and convinced Isaacson to write it so there would be an account of him done by someone trusted. The trade off for that which Jobs acknowledged was there would be some stories and details showing him in a negative light. All in all, though, he comes across as a remarkable individual and the following are some of the things noted by Isaacson that stood out as particularly interesting: Differences between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak - The two met while in high school and were draw to one another by shared interest in electronics as well high intellects. Where they diverged was both socially and in terms of motivations. Wozniak was a brilliant programmer while Jobs wasn't nearly as technical, but could both conceptualize and sell very well. Early on, the two developed technology that Wozniak would have given it away, but Jobs pushed for selling something he knew people would want. This initial successful partnership eventually led to the creation of Apple. Non-traditional lifestyle choices and views of the world - Jobs at an early age because interested in LSD, fad diets and Eastern Spirituality and Zen Buddhism... to the point of leaving his job at Atari to go to India searching for enlightenment and a guru. Almost immediate judgments made - Other people & their ideas would oft be decided by Jobs to be either great or horrible. This same hair-trigger determination could then be reversed at a moment's notice, at times with Jobs proposing as his own an idea previously rejected. Favoring of open rather than closed systems - Jobs early on decided to not license the Macintosh operating system (different than Microsoft and their approach with Windows) and instead had hardware and software bundled together. This same closed system approach came out later on with development of the iTunes store, apps and Apple stores. Championing of Design over Engineering Jobs would seek for and identify great design and push for that in the products sold, oftentimes to the

153

Words Written Down – Book reviews

chagrin of engineers who would have to figure out how to make work the design. This was a topic throughout Jobs career and he talked about Apple products being "at the intersection of humanities and technology." A respect for the creative - This manifested itself both in the appreciation of great design, focus on stellar advertising and actions taken while running Pixar. Jobs had respect for people who he viewed as truly creative and that led to him following the lead of John Lasseter and other Pixar creative types requesting money to make animated shorts. This work that was outside of Pixar's initial core hardware business eventually led to Toy Story being made... and started the company on the path to taking over leadership of Disney Animation. All this said, Isaacson wrote an excellent biography of Steve Jobs and as previously stated, the book wasn't designed by Jobs to be his legacy, but perhaps he would want his famous June 2005 Stanford commencement speech to serve as such. The Postmortal book by Drew Magary – review posted 12/1/2011 I'm not a huge reader of fiction, but I heard about The Postmortal from the Chris Jones Son of a Bold Venture blog with a Five for Writing Q&A with Magary and have since seen Magary‘s work for the sports websites Deadspin and Kissing Suzy Kolber. The Postmortal is set in the future where a cure for aging has been discovered and follows one particular character through this landscape. It's an interesting premise leading to negative enough outcomes that the book could probably be included in the genre of apocalyptic fiction. Additionally, Magary is an engaging and entertaining writer which prevents the read from devolving into pathos as the inevitable bad things occur. I wouldn't say I loved the book, but thought it to be a pretty good read and developed from it an appreciation for Magary as a writer. Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World book by Michael Lewis (& Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone) – review posted 11/8/2011 If Lewis's 2010 book The Big Short (which I also reviewed) looked at the recent financial meltdown at a corporate level in relation to things like Credit Default Swaps and CDOs, this new effort looks at financial train wrecks at a larger country level. It's a riveting and fast read and separated into five sections (with the following being my thoughts on each). Iceland - "Hey, let's all become heavily leveraged investment bankers assuming the markets will rise forever. What could go wrong?" Greece - "I want services provided by the government, but see no reason to do things like pay my taxes since the government doesn't seem to mind me not paying." Ireland: A bit like Iceland, but financial insanity through real estate development. Germany - The adult in the room... needing to decide how much pain to take on themselves to try to rescue the irresponsible kids (or PIGS). United States: Perhaps the most interesting simply because it's local (including Lewis writing on Vallejo and San Jose here in the Bay Area). The section covers the concept of country level financial problems (like underfunded pension obligations) simply getting pushed down to the cities: The ramifications of this are… bad. Lewis has quite the talent for creating easy reading on complex topics and with Boomerang, writes an excellent (and frightening) book on bad money decisions run amok. On the same subject of money, greed and decisions made at a high level impacting the common folk was a piece for Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi. Wall Street Isn't Winning – It's Cheating is a look at Occupy Wall Street and offers a harsh indictment of the financial system and how it's structurally set up to reward the bankers who run it: Very well written and thoughtful story. In the same vein as the Lewis book was a quote from Businessweek by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (author of The Black Swan about outside of normal financial events)... "We're not living in capitalism. We're not living in Socialism. We're living in some weird economic situation with the banks controlling more than their share. It's like we're serving them rather than them serving us." Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend book by Susan Orlean – review posted 10/27/2011 Orlean is also the author of The Orchid Thief (which I also reviewed) and each book features as part of the storyline specific individuals and their obsessions. In the case of The Orchid Thief, it was a guy and his devotion to a type of flower and in the latest Orlean effort; it‘s actually several different people (with one

154

Words Written Down – Book reviews

primary) and devotion to a dog. Beyond that, though, the story of Rin Tin Tin is about devotion to what Rin Tin Tin meant. The story began on the battlefields of WWI with US solider Lee Duncan rescuing some German shepherd puppies and then bringing them back home. From there, Duncan developed a deep attachment with one of the pups and he eventually got the idea of and was successful at getting a silent film made starring the dog. This spawned many other feature films with Rin Tin Tin performing amazing feats and saving the day countless times. As a result of this, the dog became inextricably tied with the hero persona for countless movie goers who could be completely entertained in a silent film by this concept. Eventually, talking pictures came to Hollywood and that signaled a decline in Rin Tin Tin‘s career with Warner Brothers cancelling with him in 1929 and then Rin Tin Tin dying in 1932 at 14 (when Lee was in his late 30s). Lee was unquestionably devoted to Rin Tin Tin and even though there were Rin ancestors, none resonated with him as much as did his original dog. Rin Tin Tin Jr. performed in smaller budget movies earning less and then Rin Tin Tin III was born in 1941 and eventually become known through promoting the US Dogs for Defense effort during WWII. After the war, came The Return of Rin Tin Tin in 1947 and though the movie was a success, things were relatively quiet for both Lee and his dog until Bert Leonard met the trainer in 1953. This was during the time that television was exploding in popularity and Bert convinced Lee that the traits of goodness and heroism personified by the character of Rin Tin Tin would translate perfectly to the new medium. The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin television program was a Western set in 1870 and once again made Rin Tin Tin a household name. One interesting distinction between the show and the original silent films was the actual character of Rin Tin Tin was being played by a dog completely unrelated to the original dog brought back from WWI. Bert and the backers of the television show didn‘t view the current Rin Tin Tin dog to be smart or physically capable enough to star in the show so brought in another dog to play the role of Rin Tin Tin. Lee didn‘t seem to mind (or at least left no record of his objection) so maybe the point is that he realized the original dog was his favorite and all of the descendants were about representing rather than actually having the traits of the original. The show started in 1954 and was an immediate hit and then Lee got wealthy once again and passed away in 1960. A key point that gets made in the book by Orlean is how Lee seemed a good person, but one who seemed to have less of a connection with his family than he did first the original Rin Tin Tin dog and then with the idea of the dog's qualities and legacy. Its interesting reading about someone completely devoted to a thing or idea, but an effect of the devotion often seems to be that other areas of their life suffer. At this point, the Rin Tin Tin legacy on television was being carried on by Bert Leonard with episodes being rerun in syndication at various points and Bert unsuccessful seeking to have another Rin Tin Tin movie made, but this one being the story of Lee and his life with the dogs. The story of Bert then becomes a sad one at the end as in addition to his lack of success in continuing with Rin Tin Tin entertainment, he become entangled in a web of lawsuits with people around the name of Rin Tin Tin and what could be done with it. Primarily legal combatant was Daphne Hereford, the granddaughter of someone who got Rin Tin Tin puppies in the 50s and then bred them. It‘s a good book by Orlean and really it‘s about the ideal of Rin Tin Tin and how it became such a strong narrative through many decades in people‘s lives. As part of this, she wrote about her grandfather who cared so much for a Rin Tin Tin figurine (and his attachment would have come from the original silent films), but also how writing the book made her feel like Lee Duncan in the way she became consumed by the story. Solid read on the human condition and devotion to a concept. Life Itself book by Roger Ebert – review posted 10/13/2011 Roger Ebert‘s memoir was a very interesting if somewhat peculiar read. What struck me as peculiar is the writing seems to be a set of ruminations on life, life experiences and people rather than traditional autobiography. In this regard, it made sense to me that I was told while reading about someone who loved Roger Ebert's writing, but didn't care for the book. However, if a reader accepts that it follows a somewhat meandering non-traditional path, the book can then be an excellent and thought-provoking read. I first developed an interest in Ebert from the highly regarding Esquire piece "Roger Ebert: The Essential Man" (which I also posted on). What caught my eye was the profile being written by a writer I like in Chris Jones,

155

Words Written Down – Book reviews

but it revealed a pretty fascinating individual as the subject. From there, I started reading with some regularity Ebert's Chicago Sun-Times blog and found some great work by him. Some of the posts that stood out (and all of which I posted on and linked to) were "How do they get to be that way?" on racism, "All the Lonely People" on... that, and one on the value of a great video game vs The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It was from an Ebert blog entry that I first heard about this memoir with him posting online the beginning of the book back in July. The writing both in this first chapter and throughout has very much a lyrical and pensive quality to it and Ebert definitely reveals himself as an intelligent if not brilliant guy from a young age up to and including today. In this regard, it was borderline annoying reading about how he knew at a young age he wanted to be a writer and then devoted himself tirelessly (and with success) to the goal. Stephen King wrote in On Writing of basically having the same goal and approach at a young age. Good for both of them that they knew, but the annoying part is that most of us don't know the life or career goal that early on. Anyhoo... not Ebert's (or King's for that matter) fault, and he wrote with this memoir an interesting almost stream of consciousness book about his life, relationships and experiences. Those people noted in the book as huge influences included the writers Studs Terkel and Thomas Wolfe as well as his wife Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert. In terms of experiences written about, good portions of the book came across almost as travelogues with detailed descriptions of Venice, London, and Boulder... specifically the Conference on World Affairs on the University of Colorado campus. Additionally, a huge part of Ebert's story is his health problems and the aforementioned Esquire story made them known to many. It's a bit of an aside to note here, but reading of the various surgeries and rehabilitation involved made me feel Ebert fortunate to have the resources available for what I'm sure has been an incredibly costly process. All of this said about the book, it did seem to be written by Ebert for himself as a record of his life, its experiences and relationships... and as long as reader is fine with that, the book is a fascinating portrait of the man. Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN book by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales – review posted September 25, 2011 It did drag on at times in its 750 odd pages, but was a worthwhile read for anyone interested in sports… and particularly sports journalism. Here‘s what stuck with me from it – Style of the Book: It was written as an oral history with segments of interviews done with people in the business or related in some way to ESPN (both within and outside the company). Some 500+ interviews by Shales and Miller went into this effort and there‘s frequently interspersed text from the authors linking together the interview segments. At first I thought the book would lack in narrative flow, but I‘d say it worked fairly well as an approach. That said, I did note one interview segment given in two different places in the book (ESPN exec John Skipper about personality Tony Kornheiser on page 677 as well as 610). Maybe this was done intentionally rather than being a mistake in construction then overlooked in the editing process, but I found it jarring as a reader. ESPN Business Early On: It was pretty interesting reading how the idea for ESPN began with the intention of showing local Connecticut sports, but then the realization that it cost no more to send a signal nationally. Shortly after this was made what turned out to be the brilliant decision to buy a satellite transponder for broadcasts when it was still relatively inexpensive as cable was a new thing. These early years were pretty fast and loose (with Stuart Evey as the Getty Oil money guy helping lead the party charge), but the business took hold… in large part due to the dual revenue stream of both advertising dollars and cable operators paying to run the channel. Content on the ESPN Networks: It came across in the book that the deals with various sports properties drove the company forward (with the NFL being by far the most important partner), but also there was significant mention of key non-game broadcast content provided via various platforms (with the non-TV platforms obviously being more recent). ESPN the Magazine was created to slap back at Sports Illustrated and their CNNSI sports network and (while I personally find the graphic-intensive delivery to be annoying) established a new way to reach the audience. Additionally, programs such as SportsCentury (produced by wunderkind and future exec Mark Shapiro) established ESPN as a credible news outlet and source for documentary filmmaking. Non-game content discussed at length in the book were successful programs like Pardon the Interruption with Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser and

156

Words Written Down – Book reviews

College Gameday. Perhaps successful from a ratings perspective, but not critical view was the LeBron James spectacle ―The Decision‖... which showed the ongoing tightrope that ESPN had and continues to have to walk between journalism/reporting and game broadcasting/league partner. Journalists at ESPN: In the beginning, ESPN put a focus on showing a professional production on screen and worked to have solid on-air talent. Among early hires were current notables like Chris Berman and Bob Ley. As time went on, there continued to be very interesting stories around the anchors and broadcasters, with Keith Olbermann and his acerbic brilliance often in conflict with management. The closer to present-day stories about the writers for ESPN might have been the most compelling part of the book for me (with the following people featured): Buster Olney – excellent baseball writer and someone who puts incredibly long hours into the job. Bill Simmons – created his Boston Sports Guy blog in 2001 and got noticed with a scathing review of that year‘s ESPY Awards. Writes an enormous number of words and comes across as a bit of an ESPN outsider… and who runs the ESPN writing website Grantland. Dan Patrick – one of the early stars at ESPN… left fairly recently and now does a weekly column for Sports Illustrated. Rick Reilly – a former Sports Illustrated star writer (one of the only actual stars in the sports writing world)… came not long ago to ESPN and its various platforms (including of course, The Magazine). Wright Thompson – excellent young writer for the ESPN website and its E: 60 investigative journalism unit. Also does great content for Grantland. The book could have I think been a bit shorter, but there was definitely solid content on an interesting and powerful (and with only around 6,000 employees worldwide) company. The Greater Journey book by David McCullough – review posted 9/12/2011 Didn't finish the book, just finished reading close to half-way through. I had high hopes for it after enjoying a great deal John Adams, Truman and 1776, but never found myself captivated in the same way by McCullough's latest effort. The experience of reading was similar to that I had with the Bill Bryson book At Home... really good author with a new book I was looking forward to reading, and then never could get into. Actually, an even closer comparison would be to another McCullough book that I didn't make it through, The Johnston Flood. This notion of liking an author, but not having the same level of enthrall with everything they write was something I wrote about in a blog post in relation to a J.R. Moehringer GQ piece. For a reader to really get into a book or story, there has to be a combination of both interesting topic and good writing... with that writing then needing to hit the always elusive balance between sentiment, entertainment and information providing. It's a tough nut to try to crack and even the best writers don't do so every time for every reader... which is ok. Keeping in mind that again... McCullough is a good writer and my not being into The Greater Journey doesn't make it a bad read, the New York Times book review by Stacy Schiff was a generally positive one (and I probably would have stuck with McCullough's book to conclusion were it not for so many others I want to read). Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias book by Don Van Natta Jr. – posted August 16, 2011 Didrikson was an incredible athlete (listed in the top 10 of the Sports Illustrated listing of best athletes of the twentieth century - male or female) and the book is a solid account of both her achievement and life as a whole. At times I found my interest in Didrikson waning with the accounts of her over the top cockiness to the point of extreme rudeness, but the account of her later years really brought her back into the realm of someone I wanted to care about. Van Natta I'm sure portrayed her as his research revealed, it was just nice to feel some semblance of warmth towards someone time as a reader has been invested with. Completely setting aside how nice Didrikson may or may not have been at different points of her life, one thing that struck me reading the book was her struggles with eligibility for amateur competition due to her attempts to actually make a living at sports. Different times than now to be sure, but I really saw correlation between what she faced and the environment modern day college athletes compete and live in. All in all, a good book on a remarkable athlete and competitor... one who faced adversity along the way and when all

157

Words Written Down – Book reviews

was said and done, seemed to have her heart in the right place. Bossypants book by Tina Fey – review posted 8/1/2011 An entertaining memoir from the 30 Rock creator that covered a lot of ground and was frequently pretty funny: Point of the book wasn't necessarily to impart lessons on work, but it included that and I particularly liked some of what Fey attributed to Saturday Light Live from Lorne Michaels, "The show doesn't go on because it's ready; the show goes on at 11:30." "You're gonna do some great stuff, but also some crap it's ok, just know the difference." "Don't make big decisions when you're in the thick of things." - "Don't hire anyone you wouldn't want to run into in a hallway at three in the morning." "Never tell a crazy person he's crazy - get the best you can out of people and don't alienate or show them up." "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall – book review posted 8/1/2011 Recently finished one of my favorite books of the year thus far, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Published in 2009, it's subtitled ―A Hidden Tribe, Super athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” and combines a compelling story with well researched detail about running as a pastime. The book extends on a piece done several years ago by McDougall for Runner's World Magazine and starts with the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico's remote (and dangerous) Copper Canyon region. The Tarahumara then serve as a center for the book while different topics and areas are examined and then brought together in a reporting of the aforementioned race. McDougall writes early on of being a runner with the personal question of why his feet hurt from running. He then did extensive research and the writing on running here gets into both the technical and conceptual. In terms of actual how to run advice, there's the ideas of staying below your aerobic threshold and running with a straight back, from the gut and light on the feet. Additional ideas are given around a low meat, low carbohydrate diet (heavy on fruits salads) and using minimalist running shoes. On this topic, McDougall writes of staying away from new and heavy cushioned running shoes and instead using older broken in shoes. Along these lines, barefoot running or the use of Vibram brand Five-finger shoes is spoken off as definite options that could be worked into. Barefoot running is a fairly controversial idea, but one of the main benefits as trumpeted by its proponents would be to encourage running light on the feet and help keep the legs under the hips while running. The idea behind beat up or less padded running shoes has the same basis with the striving towards the goal of the natural foot working with you and seeking to find an optimal landing point at each step. In terms of conceptual ideas on how to run effectively, McDougall broaches the topic of enjoyment and love of running. Whether it's the Tarahumara, Czech Olympic runner Emil Zatopek or the American runners featured in this book, there's a definite thread of people running well who truly love it. The struggle may certainly be there as people push themselves, but that's enjoyed as part of the overall experience. McDougall writes both scientifically and through examples from runners themselves of the health benefits of running with it serving to lower disease, help bring about better sleep and serve as an anti-depressant. Additionally, he writes of endurance running as an evolutionary step that our bodies are built for. The Tarahumara are the center of this story around running and life, but there's some remarkable Americans featured as well. Early on in the book McDougall introduces Caballo Blanco... the man who came to live among the Tarahumara (and previously went by the names Michael Hickman, Gypsy Cowboy and Micah True). Also central to the story are the ultra marathoners Scott Jurek, Jenn Shelton, Billy Barnett and the iconoclast (though, they all are in one way or another) Barefoot Ted. There's a lot of interesting content in the book and what keeps it driving forward is the compelling narrative of the Copper Canyon race put together by Caballo Blanco with the Tarahumara and the American ultra marathoners (as well as McDougall himself). It‘s fascinating stuff that brings together running (both the how to do it, why to do it and how to feel about it) with the human drama of those competing at the highest level, but with that competition being grounded in a brotherhood of sorts. It's remarkable (and serendipitous at times) content about incredible people and achievements.

158

Words Written Down – Book reviews

The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House book by Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy – review posted 7/12/2011 I was interested both because of Gibbs as a writer I enjoy and the subject of Graham, but found myself not wanting to continue now that I've reached about the halfway point. The writing is certainly good enough, but at least through his younger years and into the Johnson administration, I found the story of Graham not terribly compelling. Someone with a relationship with so many different Presidents is interesting to me, but Gibbs and Duffy reference Graham being much more into Presidential policy making (at least through this first half of the book) than I would have expected... or thought would be the case with someone of Graham's reputation as a preacher, not politician. It could well be that the second half of the book shows a Graham with acquired wisdom and focus on simply advising Presidents in spiritual matters, but I simply find myself wanting to now read other stuff more. Dig This Gig: Find Your Dream Job - or Invent It book by Laura Dodd – review posted 7/7/2011 The book is geared towards people in their 20s who are trying to figure out what to do and presents 32 different vignettes on the careers (and path to those careers) of 20-somethings who work in 8 different fields. Additionally, Dodd interviews a mentor from each field who provides their longer view wisdom around careers. Dodd's writing isn't necessarily brilliant (how many people's actually is?), but she obviously put her work into the book and I'd say there's value in the whole book for young people who don't really know what they want to do and in specific sections for people interested in a given career field. Sections of the book: 1. Healthcare Gigs, 2. Entertainment Gigs, 3. Do-Good Gigs, 4. Green Gigs, 5. News Gigs, 6. Government Gigs, 7. Derailed Gigs, 8. Outdoor Office Gigs. I skimmed some of the sections, but found myself (and would have expected this) drawn to the Entertainment Gigs, News Gigs and Dan Rather as Mentor section of Derailed Gigs. What stood out was that the fields were tough (with Entertainment being a coveted area and Journalism a shrinking one), but people like Young Adult author Kathyn Williams or screenwriter Lane Shadgett are on the right paths for themselves by both having talent and hustling (you know, just like Dodd herself). Extremely closely related to this, the aforementioned CBS News Anchor Dan Rather offers the following, "I think the most helpful advice is from Winston Churchill - 'Never, never, never, never give up.' Just always keep putting one foot in front of the other. Just keep on keeping on." Basic concept I took from Rather, many of the people featured by Dodd and Dodd's efforts around her book is you gotta look for different paths, gotta try something and then gotta work at it: Simple, profound, elegant, and if easy, everyone would do it. Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness book by Frank Brady – review posted 7/1/2011 In terms of an actual review of Endgame, Janet Maslin published "Odd, Odd Case of Bobby Fisher" for the New York Times and my take on the book is that it was definitely worth the read. Even if the thought of Fisher and his story doesn't interest a potential reader, there's something interesting about people who live a remarkable life of extremes. To this point, the Robert Lipsyte book jacket quote seems spot on, "Weird and fascinating... Bravo, Brady." Fisher is portrayed by Brady as brilliant (and I suppose pretty much any biographer of Fisher would agree), but also someone prone to obsessiveness. He was exposed to chess at a young age and then spent enormous time during his formative years playing the game... with two mentions by Brady relating to the impact of this time spent: A Robert Frost quote about having a successful education "just hanging around until you have caught on” and The Malcolm Gladwell "10,000 hours to master something" concept from his book Outliers. Fisher combined a high intellect with putting the time in to master the game and an over the top focus on winning... with these things leading to his becoming a World Champion, but also likely to his paranoia and eventual retreat from the game of chess. Fisher was a fascinating (and troubled) individual that Brady provides a very readable look at.

159

Words Written Down – Book reviews

An Accidental Sportswriter book by Robert Lipsyte – review posted 6/14/2011 I first heard about the book from a Sports Illustrated review and enjoyed the description of his life and experience in writing. Lipsyte's choice of title of title was fitting given both his writing outside of sports (both general-life type column and Young Adult books) and non-traditional subjects when working as a Sportswriter. This idea of topics on the fringe of sports comes out as Lipsyte writes of the Lodge Brother (in italics to note as Lipsyte's term) approach to sports writing practiced by many through the years. Rather than celebrating the Jock Culture atmosphere, Lipsyte often sought out the story that revealed a greater slice of life than simply someone who could play great ball and whose exploits generated the type of prose readers wanted. Nowhere in recent memory is this concept more in evidence than the Mark McGuireSammy Sosa home run race... celebrated at the time as a magnificent (and non-steroid pumped) achievement. Later in the book there was an interesting mention of ESPN writer Bill Simmons, who wrote of steroids as only being a negative in how it caused him to look at achievements. It's representative of an interesting viewpoint by Simmons... rather than focusing on the game or athletes themselves, the thing that matters is one's reaction to and thoughts of sporting events. Makes sense if one believes that big time sports not as important as life for a fan, it's about being entertained. Additionally, Lipsyte wrote of this Jock Culture mentality towards sports (and associated Lodge Brother mentality of sports writing) with his prose around the seemingly lack of interest that people have in looking at or writing about gay athlete's coming out. Finally, I also found of note Lipsyte's mention of his early years as a New York Times writer. From that period he references working with Gay Talese, writer of the Esquire piece "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"... often credited as being the example of New Journalism or compelling narrative non-fiction. Closing out the book was Lipsyte's chapter on his relationship with his father (who lived past 100). Solid read, especially for someone interested in writing. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin book by Erik Larson – posted 5/27/2011 Larson writes historical non-fiction and previously did the excellent Devil in the White City, Thunderstruck and Isaac's Storm. I've wondered at times just how much of the detail in Larson's books is real and how much extrapolated, but I've decided as a reader that it's both entertaining and real enough, with what I've read at the very least passing the smell test around authenticity. In the Garden of Beasts looks at the rising power of Hitler in prewar Germany through lens of new U.S. Ambassador William Dodd and his mid-20's daughter, Martha Dodd. It's well researched and along with providing a view of prewar Germany, chronicles how Hitler and his ascent could well have been kept in check had the U.S. and other countries taken a less isolationist (and interested in German repayment of debts) view and censured Hitler's antiJewish actions. While reading Larson, I found myself thinking of The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. It was based on the fictional premise of Charles Lindbergh defeating Franklin Roosevelt for the Presidency in 1940 and the U.S. taking dual paths of isolationism from the war in Europe and discrimination against Jews here at home. Roth's work was fiction, but based on real possibility as there were groups in the U.S. who firmly wanted to let Germany do what they will (a "not our problem" approach) and also wanted to curtail opportunities for Jews. Going back to the Larson book, this early U.S. attitude of not making waves with Hitler and the German government helped clear the path for his consolidation of power and growth of the German war machine. Obviously, the U.S. later entered the war in Europe and Germany was defeated, but it perhaps Hitler could have been stopped earlier. All conjecture of course, but an interesting thing to think about and Larson does a good job in his book of writing about Ambassador Dodd and his daughter Martha as vehicles to detail Germany at the time and Hitler's taking of control. Love Wins book by Evangelical Pastor Rob Bell – review posted 5/27/2011 Interesting book that I first heard about from the Time Magazine cover story ―Is Hell Dead‖ (and then wrote about in a blog post). There‘s no unequivocal answers that come out of Bell‘s work, but it's thought provoking on the questions and subjects covered... with the following being the main things I felt Bell was

160

Words Written Down – Book reviews

addressing: Is it a God of inclusion or exclusion? Both in the beginning and later in the book, Bell questions the conversion to Christianity story as it‘s commonly thought of. Specifically the notion that if people don‘t repent their sins and accept Christ, it‘s over for them… off to a lifetime in Hell after death. Basic question he raises is whether a benevolent God would exclude so many people just… because. The "love wins" notion is that God has a purpose and doesn't give up, to the point of granting virtually endless chances to live a Godly life, even after death as we know it. Basically, a story of inclusion for those that want it, not a story of exclusion by God based on a time space continuum. Where are this Heaven and Hell and is the point to just reach the first place? The idea is put forth by Bell of Heaven as a place on earth (no, not like the song) and entering into this state of living here and now for people who accept Christ. Rather than the acceptance being a free pass for after death, two phrases from Bell are "dragging the future into the present" and "living in this age and the age to come." In terms of Hell as a place, Bell notes that there‘s no mention of it in the Old Testament and New Testament mentions could easily be interpreted as referring to a Hell on earth type of living by those who reject a righteous life. Additionally, Bell relates the story of two sons, one who strayed from his family and returned to an embrace in spite of his wrongdoings and one who stated and was resentful of not being rewarded for his good behavior. The reason for inclusion of this story seems to be to illustrate the concept of God's love always being there waiting for people, and them having the choice to accept it at any point. Bell also uses the phrase "we shape our God and our God shapes us" in the telling of this father and two sons story. Bell had very interesting content in the book, but (while he perhaps limited the scope of the book by design) I wish that he had touched more on a couple of different areas: Moral living or Christian living? One could almost take what Bell wrote about view it through the lens of morality rather than Christianity. However, I believe it was C.S. Lewis who wrote about God as the basis of morality… with the concept being that if righteous living didn‘t come from a higher power, where would it had come from at all? In short, actions by people show what God's love looks like. What comes after death? Bell just doesn't get into it other than reference to a series of endless chances to come to God. I don't know if that's a case for reincarnation (and none of us including Bell know for sure what comes), but I did find myself unclear about the author's beliefs on the subject other than his brief mention of multiple dimensions in relation to God. All in all, I thought it an interesting book that also made me want to learn more about what Bell says through his Mars Hill Bible Church... and read more C.S. Lewis (who Bell notes being impacted by) for that matter. "Branch Rickey" by Jimmy Breslin – book review posted 5/4/2011 Just finished reading Jimmy Breslin's short book Branch Rickey on the man who brought Jackie Robinson to Major League Baseball: I heard about the biography from Sports Illustrated and generally agree with the SI assessment of it being a solid read on the man who brought Jackie Robinson to Major League Baseball. Rickey is a well-known author and newspaper columnist and the book definitely features quite a bit of the lyrical phrasing that Rickey is apparently known for. At times, it got to be a bit much for me with language used actually muddling up the story or point being made, but I do give credit to an author making an effort with his or her choice of words. All in all, I found it to be a pretty good book that shouldn't take more than a few hours from start to finish. "Under the Banner of Heaven" book by Jon Krakauer – review posted 4/18/2011 After reading half, I decided that was enough for me. It's not that Jon Krakauer a hack author... to the contrary, I enjoyed from him the books "Into Thin Air", "Into the Wild" and "Where Men Win Glory" (which I also reviewed). The issue I had with "Under the Banner of Heaven" is how distasteful is was to read about true wackos who do something horrible and at the same time pervert religion (in this case the Mormon religion) by using it as the basis for their twisted actions. I understand Krakauer's intent to explore the basis behind a heinous crime, but for myself as a reader, it's both not worth it and the connection isn't there. Not worth it from the perspective of there being little redeeming in reading about said crime (yes, I know the world not a shiny, happy place). As to the connection... while the actions perpetrated did come

161

Words Written Down – Book reviews

from people who were at one time devout Mormons, they were also kicked out of the church before committing their crime. I did find interesting reading about where the Mormon religion came from and can see how its views could be peculiar to someone not in the Faith, but it would seem patently unfair to hang the blame for this deranged behavior on the Church. Krakauer didn't seem to have this goal, but for me as a reader... if they're just wackos, then the background of the Church has to stand by itself apart from what turned these guys into said wackos. Definitely not a poorly written book... just one about people I didn't care to read about. To the subject of the author himself... pretty fascinating recent 60 Minutes piece (featuring commentary by Krakauer) on "Three Cups of Tea" author and Central Asia Institute charity founder, Greg Mortenson. "The Investment Answer" book by Daniel Goldie & Gordon Murray – review posted 4/11/2011 Found it a solid book. Written by Daniel Goldie and Gordon Murray, it's a basic (about an hour to read) primer on investing co-written by a Financial Advisor (Goldie) along with a Wall Street guy (Murray). I heard about it through the Mike Cassidy piece Gordon Murray dedicated his final days to giving us 'The Investment Answer' from the San Jose Mercury News. As could be gathered from the Cassidy title, Murray has since passed away and Cassidy's story behind the book and the authors is an interesting one. To the book itself, here are the basics of the recommendations provided around making investment decisions: Don't get caught up in past performance as an indicator of future success. Don't go it alone... use a Financial Advisor, but a Fee-Only Advisor, not a Retail Broker. Asset allocation decisions are more important than choices around individual stocks... and play heavily in the area of risk/reward decisions around an investment strategy. Diversification (multiple asset classes) and passive investing following a strategy trumps going all-in on a stock or asset class and frequently changing courses: Simple stuff to be sure, but probably not simple to people who might have been burned by polar opposite approaches towards investing. "The Orchid Thief" book by Susan Orlean – review posted 2/28/2011 After following for some time her Twitter feed, I decided to read the book. It's subtitled "A true story of beauty and obsession" and a work of non-fiction about the Orchid industry and one of the more maniacal players in it (at least for most of the time Orleans was writing), John Laroche. I had no connection to the subject of the book (and found my interest waning at times as a result), but did find interesting the level of aforementioned obsession. A guy like Laroche may be a bit of a loon, but does provide good fodder for writing. Basic concept is of someone living to the extreme in life. Any project undertaken is going to be enormous, any failure the result of a grand conspiracy... and any moving away from something a complete abandonment. It's reading about this extreme approach to life that made the book mostly worthwhile for me. I say mostly because if I had an interest in Orchids, I would have been more into the read... as it was, I liked it, but probably would have been good with simply reading her excellent New Yorker piece on Laroche the book came out of. They Call Me Baba Booey book by Gary Dell‘ Abate – review posted 2/23/2011 Book was a fine memoir from the longtime Howard Stern Show producer. Surprisingly, I found the most interesting parts not related to the Stern radio show that I'm a listener of, but rather content about his parents and brothers. Due largely to his mother, Dell' Abate grew up in a household very different than most. She suffered from mental issues characterized by depression, mood swings and erratic behavior and while her behavior may have become normal to the immediate family, it made for compelling reading. Additionally, Dell' Abate went through tragedy in relation to his brother and it's a pretty emotional depiction in the book... not confessional writing, but rather open and honest stuff. To this end, the latter part of the book makes me think of the excellent John Grogan memoir The Longest Trip Home. Other thing I noted from Dell' Abate's tale of his life was his work. He was fortunate enough to figure out at a young age what he wanted to do... and then seemed to pretty tirelessly go after that. He is no doubt talented at what

162

Words Written Down – Book reviews

he does, but that comes from a lot of hours spent on it. It's not due to tremendous inside stuff about the Stern Show (has little of that), but is a worthwhile read for someone who knows of Dell' Abate's and is interested in his life experiences. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption book by Laura Hillenbrand – review posted 1/8/2011 Book chronicles the life of Olympic athlete and WWII veteran Louis Zamperini. I learned of the book from a Time Magazine review and then came a Sport Illustrated interview in which Hillenbrand‘s struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is covered. However, someone with no familiarity with Zamperini and designs to read the book might want to go ahead and do so prior to reading either piece linked above (or the below story details) to maintain suspense around the events of his life. Hillenbrand begins with Zamperini as a youth in Torrence, CA in the 20s and 30s. From early years, his life fit the redemption story from the book's title as he went from wayward teenager to champion runner before turning 20. Zamperini then an Olympic athlete turned solider who found himself as part of a bomber crew based in WWII Hawaii. What struck me as remarkable from this early period of his military service was the danger involved. Completely apart from the risk posed by Japanese forces was the general risk involved in being a U.S. Airman in WWII. Between planes breaking down and minimal emergency supplies onboard, people were dying at an alarming rate in crashes not involving the enemy. The next step of Zamperini's tale found him a victim of one of these airplane malfunctions and he and two other Servicemen floating in the Pacific. An incredibly taxing time that seemed amazing anyone would survive... which he did. In the just his luck category, what little remained of Zamperini's raft after 40 some days floated into Japanese occupied territory and he became a Prisoner of War. In addition to the frequently inhumane treatment of Allied POWs by the Japanese, what I found remarkable from Zamperini's latter time as a prisoner was the description how the Japanese viewed surrender. Even in the face of great bombing inflicted upon Japan by the U.S.; they were prepared to keep fighting to the death. Reading this portion of Hillendbrand's book made me think of the idea (which I had heard before) that by twice dropping the atom bomb and devastating two cities, the U.S. probably saved untold numbers of Allied and Japanese lives. After his release, Zamperini's tale continued with him dropping into alcoholism, but then ultimately redemption with an embrace of religion as proselytized by a young Billy Graham. From there, Hillenbrand wraps up the book fairly quickly, but the story of Zamperini definitely closes with him as someone at peace with this incredibly difficult period of a remarkable life story. The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy book by Bill Carter – review posted 12/24/2010 Book was an interesting read from the perspective of both business and people. From a business perspective, there were large dollar decisions being made by NBC execs... and the Carter book quotes people who raise the valid question of whether financially things turned out as best they possibly could have for NBC. From people standpoint, the decisions made greatly impacted a lot of people... but, were also made by very fallible individuals guessing at what they felt was the right course of action. Where this got really interesting to me is that the business decisions revolved around talent. It's a pretty compelling subject, this idea of managing or placing a value on creative work and how to best do it. The epilogue delved into this explicitly with thoughts from no less an expert on large dollar generating creativity than Jerry Seinfeld. He had some interesting takes around working, what should be taken personally and the notion of doing a job as opposing to carrying on an institution. In short, he felt the high-minded approach from Conan didn't make sense and references the success cliché about how "95% of it is just showing up." The inference from his commentary was that a job is a job, and Conan O'Brien should never have taken as personal something that is about money. Basically, doing great work is important, but that work has an end goal (money) and that end goal has masters (studio execs in this case)... and if those masters want to either have you modify or move 30 minutes later a show they've created, then so be it. The book is pretty lengthy

163

Words Written Down – Book reviews

and someone without interest in this central idea of business decisions around creative people and things might have their attention wane, but it's a good read... and definitely at least worth a read of the aforementioned Vanity Fair excerpt to gauge further interest. How Lucky You Can Be book by Buster Olney – review posted 12/7/2010 Solid book about now retired Northern State University men's basketball coach Don Meyer. I first heard of Meyer from a December 2008 Sports Illustrated piece and was interested in the book when I last week came across mention of it having been penned by the excellent ESPN writer, Buster Olney. From the acknowledgements in the book, it seems that Olney met Meyer as a young writer in Nashville and the two became friends. Really good and very quick read on someone who has the NCAA record for most men's basketball coaching victories and has gone through a harrowing several years personally, but maintained a steadfast focus on what he feels is important. There's nothing fancy about the book or guy, but it's just remarkable reading about how grounded Meyer appears and what he's accomplished through his passion of coaching basketball. Reminds me in many ways of what I've read of Coach John Wooden and in fact... Wooden is referenced as a Meyer friend in both Olney's book and by Meyer himself in his acceptance speech below for the 2009 Jimmy V. Award for Perseverance at the ESPYs. Compelling stuff and I was also struck during the Olney book by how Meyer's accident and cancer diagnosis seemed to actually help him open up to people and express more. Solid book and worth the short amount of time to read it. At Home: A Short History of Private Life book by Bill Bryson – review posted 11/16/2010 I previously enjoyed several Bill Bryson books and looked forward to reading At Home: A Short History of Private Life, but haven't been terribly into it thus far. Actually, I've had quite the juxtaposition of experience with titles from Bryson. Some I've loved, some I've found to be simply good and some I've not been compelled enough to make it through yet. Bryson works I'd recommend to anyone were A Walk in the Woods about journeys on the Appalachian Trail, In a Sunburned Country about Australia and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir about... well, it's a memoir. Stuff I've simply enjoyed was I'm a Stranger Here Myself about returning to and traveling in America and one of two books set in his adopted home continent of Europe... Neither Here Nor There or Notes From a Small Island (shows the impact on me when I can't recall which I read). In the third category of books that I didn't think were bad in any way, but also didn't hold my attention enough to finish were A Short History of Nearly Everything about science-type things, The Mother Tongue about the English language and now At Home. I own At Home so am confident I'll finish reading it someday, just not likely soon. I'm six chapters or 130-some pages into the 450 page book and it's certainly well written, but the material set largely in European households in centuries past hasn't really been enthralling to me. Just as I'll eventually finish it, I'm also interested in giving another go to A Short History of Nearly Everything... especially since there's apparently now a Special Illustrated Edition, you know... with pictures! "The Wave" book by Susan Casey – review posted 10/7/2010 Recently finished reading "The Wave" by Susan Casey and enjoyed it quite a bit. I heard about the book from an excerpt in Sports Illustrated (which I linked to and posted on last month) and was looking forward to reading the book even before I read the excerpt. One of the early posts I made to this blog was on Casey and her excellent book "The Devil's Teeth" about the Farallon Islands and the Great White Shark containing surrounding waters. From that book along with Casey writing I've seen in Sports Illustrated as well as Esquire, I consider her one of my favorite authors. To the new book from Casey... really interesting read that's split between (A) giant waves and their impact... and (B) the people who surf them. I often felt like I was reading two different books joined together as the chapters would go from one on Laird Hamilton surfing Jaws off Maui to one on the very busy rescue and salvage operators who work out of Cape Town, South Africa. Pretty different topics, but everything that Casey wrote about was interesting enough to stand on its own, and still worked together as part of a larger look at the power of the ocean. The Sports

164

Words Written Down – Book reviews

Illustrated excerpt was excellent and almost exclusively focused on the big wave surfing content from the book (understandable since its Sports Illustrated), but the bigger picture content in other parts of the book are fascinating. More and more big waves coming due to climate change and oceans rising, large numbers of ships lost at sea every year, giant rogue waves that known models wouldn't have predicted the height of (including an 1,800 foot wave at Lituya Bay in Alaska)... all stuff that Casey details. This is the non-surfing stuff, but there's also some extremely compelling content in the book on big wave surfing. Casey spent a large amount of time with Laird Hamilton... and retells the story of his surfing partner Brett Lickle almost bleeding out in a December 2007 day with 100+ foot waves on Giants off Maui. Just amazing content written about well: Some places to go for addition content on the book and topic are the book website (which is pretty rudimentary), the associated Facebook page (which has a lot of good content) and Laird Hamilton's website. Pretty wild subject matter and definitely worth reading about in Casey's book. "War" book by Sebastian Junger – review posted 8/19/2010 Recently finished reading "War" by Sebastian Junger and found it be a pretty good book... with some really compelling parts interspersed with a few that dragged somewhat. I'm a fan of Junger's writing after having finished "The Perfect Storm", "A Death in Belmont" and then "Fire" (which I reviewed). His most recent effort stems from a year spent in the Korengal region of Afghanistan entrenched with a Forward Operating Base Army platoon. From this time came the book as well as a documentary film titled Restrepo after combat medic Juan Restrepo who was killed in action. What struck me about "War" was the descriptions of the men in the platoon and how they functioned together in a combat situation. Junger describes their connection as one of Love (also the heading of the book's third and final section) for your fellow soldier and a togetherness that one just doesn't find elsewhere. To that end, I also found myself very interested in what Junger wrote about the difficulty of leaving combat to return to the trivialities of a noncombat zone base or civilian life. In particular, the life of platoon member Brendan O'Byrne was featured and as I was writing this review, I found this really interesting piece about O‘Byrne and Junger's relationship since their time in the Korengal. Gotta be tough to return to "real life" when it doesn't get any more real life than war. Additional thing I found noteworthy was the idea of courage. As stated before, Junger equates courage with love, but many soldiers didn't seem to view their actions as courageous, but rather simply doing the job they were trained to do. To illustrate this, Junger included in the book a 1908 quote from New York City Fire Chief Ed Croker at the funeral for five of his men. "Firemen are going to get killed. When they join the department they face that fact. When a man becomes a fireman his greatest act of bravery has been accomplished. What he does after that is all in the line of work." Compelling notion and a quote that I'm glad to have seen in this interesting book... which also made me want to see the aforementioned movie, Restrepo. "Star Island" book by Carl Hiaasen – review posted 8/8/2010 I just finished reading "Star Island" by Carl Hiaasen, good writer, funny book. A perusal of the "books" page on Hiaasen's official website tells me that I've now read almost all of his books in the "fictional tale of wacky Florida characters" category. To whit... the following are the ones I know I've read: Star Island, Nature Girl, Skinny Dip, Basket Case, Sick Puppy, Lucky You, Native Tongue, and Stormy Weather. Granted, none of them are anything you'll gleam huge knowledge from or become a better person for having read, but darn it... they're funny books and that certainly counts for something. "Delivering Happiness" book by Tony Hsieh – review posted 7/30/2010 I recently finished reading "Delivering Happiness" from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. Good book... I wouldn't call it great, but definitely solid, and features insight into Zappos and the building of a company. I first heard about the book from an extremely interesting Inc. Magazine piece from Hsieh titled "Why I Sold Zappos" (which I wrote about here). Regardless of whether or not someone reads the book, I recommend the Inc. story. Just an excellent tale of running a company in a desired way... and having to reconcile that

165

Words Written Down – Book reviews

with the interests of outside investors (which in this case were Venture Capital, but could also be shareholders of a public corporation). From both the Inc. story and book, I've got quite a bit of respect for Hsieh and his approach... with additional credit going to the rest of the leadership at Zappos. The book and what it covers: Hsieh was an extremely smart kid, and also one who had an interest at a young age in running businesses. His intelligence helped him get into Harvard and from there land a programming job at Oracle. After quickly becoming bored with corporate life, Hsieh quit to embark on running his own show. What started out as a web design business turned into the banner ad company LinkExchange. Several months into the venture, Hsieh turned down half a million dollars for the company and then a few years later sold to Microsoft for $32M. Rather than remaining at Microsoft for a year to collect an $8M retention bonus, Hsieh realized he wasn't doing what he wanted and left the company. He started an investment fund and early on put money into an online shoe website. Before long, the fledgling company reached a point of either failing or needing more investment. Hsieh then put in personal money and got actively involved in helping run things. It was certainly a struggle at times, but the company carried through. If the first part of the book is the background of the author and what led to Zappos reaching its current point, the second part is about many of the core beliefs that Hsieh and the other managements have made a part of Zappos. The evangelizing of Zappos was a bit much for my taste, but I can't take great exception with it... Hsieh believes in what he created at Zappos and wanted to write about that in this book. Most interesting stuff for me: The decision was made to have Zappos be about the best customer service... as well as best workplace culture. I've written about these dual topics before and they're definitely easier said well than done well, but Hsieh seems to have genuinely built a company that tries hard to nail both goals. This has been done through things such as a learning library of books that employees could borrow and more importantly, a general transparency within the company culture. Biggest manifestation of this openness is The Culture Book which is an actual unedited hardcover book with employees saying what the culture means to them. I love this idea of an actual book with unedited content and this idea of transparency makes me think beyond just companies and to how the same openness can lead to effective writing (as I made note of in this review of "The Tender Bar" by J.R. Moehringer). Back to Zappos... from reading the book (and particularly the Inc. Magazine piece), I think they probably made the best move possible with the Amazon deal, but suspect they would have preferred to continue on their own... which couldn't be done with Venture Capital investment looking to cash out and move on (an idea I wrote about in the same blog post in which I linked to the Inc. piece). All in all, a good book about a guy that's built a solid company in what appears to be the best way he possibly could. "Sh*t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern – book review posted 7/25/2010 Finished reading "Sh*t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern... funny book and totally worth the three or so hours it took to make it cover to cover. Yep... it's a fast read. The book is a combination of author relationship to his father memoir and quotes from the aforementioned Dad. Gruff, to the point, profane, lovable and loving... all of these qualities come across in Halpern's quoting of and writing about his father. While one could debate whether the language used around his kids growing up should have been cleaner, he still comes across very favorably. This Time Magazine piece gives some background on how the whole thing came out of a Twitter account created by Halpern and me thinks the best way to sum up the book is to say it's short, funny and good. If the quotes from the book website strike someone as amusing, they'll I'm sure enjoy reading the whole thing. "The Tender Bar" by J.R. Moehringer – book review posted 7/22/2010 Sometimes reading great writing can be an odd thing for me... both inspiring and frustrating. The inspiring part comes from thinking I could maybe write just as well and the frustrating part comes from thinking maybe I can't. There's a duality in there which makes me think of other dualities like Jacques Derrida's "difference vs differance" (which I mention in this post on the words and their import) or the Bryce Courtnay quote (apparently borrowed from elsewhere) "together since the world began, the madman and the lover"

166

Words Written Down – Book reviews

from his book "Tandia" (which I reference in this post dealing with South Africa). But, enough digression into dualities: What this post is about is about is great writing... specifically in the form of J.R. Moehringer's memoir "The Tender Bar." Moehringer is the co-author of Andre Agassi's brilliant memoir "Open"... which I reviewed here. I wasn't really aware of Agassi's collaborator other than that he didn't want his name on the cover so as to not distract from Agassi. Really glad I did hear of "The Tender Bar", though, as it's good for the same reason that I enjoyed "Open" so much. The big similarity between the two memoirs is their honesty... each memoir lays the subject bare on the table for readers to examine and (to borrow a phrase) sift through the entrails of their lives and take as a reader what they will. The Agassi book is more widely read with he being a famous athlete, but Moehringer's personal memoir is more interesting to me in that it traces the events of his life that helped lead up to being a writer. Specifically, it's about growing up with a single mother and male role models who haunt the Manhasset, Long Island bar Dickens (which later became Publicans and eventually Edison's and is referenced in the book title) and the following is what I took from it: Entertainment via a well told yarn about how other people live: Moehringer's time growing up didn't seem to reach the dysfunction in that of Augusten Burroughs youth, but I will say that his story was similar in that he grew up in a completely different time, place and atmosphere than I know... which is me thinks a good thing for a reader. The idea of life events, people and their ability to impact... but, how that impact is not preordained: It would be easy to read this book and conclude that Moehringer was destined to be a writer due to his introduction to literature at a young age, mentorship from zealot-like bookstore workers and time spent at a bar where people cared about great writing. Heck, keep in mind the place started out called Dickens. I don't think that's a safe assumption, though, as throughout there's a number of metaphorical forks in the road that Moehringer came to and which ultimately would up with he being a working author. Not to give away any portion of the book and its events, but it's interesting to read of how some of those forks are ones that the author chose and some were entirely chosen for him. I think the idea here is that it's simply really interesting to see the turns that one's life takes and how one event or choice can impact what's to follow. Got to try to take from things, people and places (including bars) what they have to give you and then move forward. Great stuff about writing... as well as the process around it: There are some frequent references to great works of literature such as "The Great Gatsby" (which was set by Fitzgerald in the Moehringer's hometown of Manhasset), "Great Expectations" by Dickens and "Finnegan's Wake" from Joyce. Beyond this, there's some really profound statements made by Moehringer that bear noting here. Description of his various father figures and finding that the way to get close was through "words being their password." Quote from the author after reverentially describing the people at Dickens... "These exaggerations weren't false, they were what I believed." Story told Moehringer by a Priest... "Do you know why God invented writers? Because he loves a good story and He doesn't give a damn about words. Words are the curtain we've hung between Him and our true selves. Try not to think about words. Don't strain for the perfect sentence. There's no such thing. Writing is guesswork. Every sentence is an educated guess; the reader's as much as yours. Think about that the next time you cur a piece of paper into your typewriter." Perhaps due to this "Divine lesson", there's mention from Moehringer fairly late in the book of how began to write well when he didn't focus on producing great prose, but rather simply getting words out on a page. How good writing is above all, truthful writing: This is I suppose mandatory for memoir writing (well, perhaps not for all), but me thinks it can be extrapolated as a statement about all good writing. Whether it's as interesting (to many) as the story of a tennis champion (Agassi), a writer who spent a lot of time at a bar (Moehringer) or a guy trying to build a career (me), there's a lot to be said for open and honest writing. A desire to read more from and about Moehringer: Mention is made in the epilogue of how September 11 brought him back to Manhasset and then Moehringer writing a story for the LA Times about his cousin Tim who died in the Towers. Also referenced is another piece for the Times about Manhasset itself and the impact of Sept 11 on the town. Additionally, there's bibliography links on Moehringer's Wikipedia page and the book website can be found here. Great book, loved it.

167

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"Swimming to Cambodia" by Spalding Gray – book review posted 7/16/2010 I was recommended to check out Spalding Gray and after now reading "Swimming to Cambodia", I'd have to say that I didn't really care for his most well known book. Gray himself seems like he was an interesting guy (at least from a read of his Wikipedia page) and I thought I might be into his "commentator on life" approach, but... wasn't really. "Lost in My Own Backyard" by Tim Cahill – book review posted 6/20/2010 I finished reading earlier today "Lost in My Own Backyard" by Tim Cahill, who has this author Wikipedia page). Cahill is a travel writer who I heard about from this interview with the San Jose Mercury News... which noted that he just finished a semester teaching at SJSU. This being enough to send me scurrying off to the library, I found "Lost in My Own Backyard", published in 2004 about Yellowstone National Park. Cahill notes right from the start that it's not intended as a guidebook, but rather his reminiscences on time spent there. It was a good and very short read which if I lived closer to Yellowstone would make me want to go spend time there (likely the intent of Cahill). With my being in Northern California, Cahill's short book made me want to go back to Yosemite (which I also suspect the author might well be pleased with as a result of his work). The easy comparison to make is of Cahill to Bill Bryson (author website here) and while I find Bryson to be funnier (and I suppose more entertaining as a result), Cahill's writing is solid in that it's able to inform without being dry on the subject at hand. "Fire" by Sebastian Junger – book review posted 6/20/2010 I recently finished reading "Fire" by Sebastian Junger. Junger is best known for writing "The Perfect Storm" (excellent book made into a very good movie) as well as the compelling "A Death in Belmont". I came across "Fire" after hearing about Junger's recently non-fiction work "War" about his time with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Published in 2001, "Fire" is a collection of short non-fiction... most if not all of which was first published as magazine features. The title of the collection comes from the largest piece in the book and while some of the other stories in the book I wasn't as interested in, this work about those who fight wildfires in the Western U.S. was pretty riveting. What struck me the most from the book, though, was actually from the author introduction. Junger left behind a job waiting tables and apprenticeship as a tree cutter and flew to Boise, Idaho where he presented himself to the National Forest Service as someone wanting to write about fighting forest fires. Out of this non-magazine representing basis, Junger was granted access to the fire zone and proceeded to create a well written and interesting narrative about the men who battle in it. While I imagine Junger's writing career wasn't immediately successful right after finishing "Fire", I find very cool the description of him starting this way and out of that creating such solid work. "The Age of Wonder" by Richard Holmes – book review posted 6/3/2010 I wanted to like it... I really did. I recently stopped reading (didn't finish the book, just stopped reading) "The Age of Wonder" by Richard Holmes. The book is account of experimental science at the end of the 1700s and I had high hopes for it after reading this review from Time in which Lev Grossman described it as "the most flat-out fascinating book so far this year." Additionally, I tend to like books about exploration type stuff from days of yore... as evidenced by my enjoying "A Sense of the World" by Jason Roberts (reviewed here) and "Thunderstruck" by Erik Larson (reviewed here). However, "The Age of Wonder" didn't really do it for me. It's a series of 10 chapters on 10 different scientific explorer types and I only made it through the first two.... with the first being on Joseph Banks and his time on the Galapagos Islands and the second William Herschel and his astronomy work (including the discovery of the planet Uranus). In his review, Grossman wrote of particular interest in the account of Herschel, but I actually found that chapter to be less interesting than the one on Banks. I imagine that Grossman isn't the only guy out there who enjoyed "The Age of Wonder" as both chapters struck me as interesting subject matter (and I believe the book has sold well), but the writing was just a little bit dry for me.

168

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"The Big Short" by Michael Lewis – book review posted 5/6/2010 Recently finished "The Big Short" by Berkeley-based author Michael Lewis and felt it was an excellent read. I was interested in this book after previously reading by Lewis "The Blind Side" (yep, that one), "Moneyball", "The New New Thing" and "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood". Good books all with the most recent review linked to here. "The Big Short" is ostensibly about a handful of people that got rich betting against the financial hubris that preceded the real estate crash at the end of the '90s, but it's also about the mechanisms that made them wealthy. Lewis writes about a highly complex financial system that's designed to be... highly complex and "above the common man", but Lewis does I'd say as good a job as could be done explain all the instruments of the financial industry around subprime mortgages. Mortgage backed securities, Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), credit default swaps... all of them tools that were created to either continue riding the wave of rising home values or to bet against that prospect. Where the individuals Lewis features made their money was by basically betting that consumer home loans would have higher incidences of default than predicted by those selling the CDOs and credit default swaps. The way it all worked as described by Lewis was pretty fascinating in that you had rating agencies like Moody's and Standard and Poor's responsible for setting the values of the credit default swaps on pretty much arbitrary or made up terms. Even worse than the ratings agencies were the financial institutions packaging the loan bunches and continually manipulating the contents to make the loan pools appear less likely to have defaults than they actually were. The whole thing is described by Lewis as being a crazy system designed by people who figured it would go up forever. However, it didn't and the few contrarians who (to borrow a phrase) "saw the emperor had no clothes" got very wealthy very fast. All in all, the Lewis book is entertaining and as easy reading as possibly could be given the high finance topic. "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande – book review posted 4/23/2010 Finished reading "The Checklist Manifesto" by noted surgeon Atul Gawande and found it to be a fairly interesting book. Gawande is the author of two bestsellers that I enjoyed quite a bit, "Complications" and "Better"... both about his experiences as a doctor. Where "The Checklist Manifesto" diverged is that is covered not just medicine, but the wider-reaching concept of using a checklist in the pursuit of excellence. Fields discussed in the book range from aviation (where the checklist is perhaps most ingrained) to investing, building and yes... surgery. While I found definite value in the checklist concept, I was more captivated by his prior two books in that they were all about a topic that he's dedicated his time to. Gawande is a good writer (contributes frequently to The New Yorker), though, and I'm interested in his National Magazine Award winning piece "The Cost Conundrum" (on health care expenditures in McAllen, TX) linked to from his website. I'd recommend "The Checklist Manifesto" to anyone who either enjoyed Gawande's previous two books or is interested in the idea of peak performance and how to attain it in a given effort. "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom – book review posted 4/14/2010 Recently finished ―Have a Little Faith‖ by Mitch Albom and found it a nice read. Albom is a Detroit-based sportswriter (who of course has a website) who also wrote the bestselling memoir of all time, ―Tuesdays with Morrie‖ about his time spent as an adult with his aging former college professor. In a very similar vein, ―Have a Little Faith‖ is about the time Albom spent with his lifelong Rabbi as well as a recently met pastor in poor inner-city Detroit. Through the tale of these Men of God (but, different Gods) and his interactions with them, Albom weaves a narrative of faith, hope and impact. The faith part is summed up well by the Rabbi with "faith is about doing… you are how you act, not just how you believe” when speaking of the import of ritual in daily life. The hope part applies in great measure to the Detroit pastor who struggles to keep his hole in the roof and no heat inside Church operating as… a Church. The impact part could pertain to either the Rabbi or Pastor, but for me, I felt it applied best to Albom himself… and what came out of his local newspaper columns on the Church. ―Have a Little Faith‖ definitely has a religious component to it (and

169

Words Written Down – Book reviews

multiple religions at that) and for that reason and others may touch some readers more than others, but back to what was said at the beginning of this missive… it‘s a nice read. "White Fang" by Jack London – book review posted 3/20/2010 Recently finished "White Fang" by Jack London and found it to be a good read. Having previously used the "Classics" app on my iPhone to read "Call of the Wild" by London (which I reviewed), I used the Amazon Kindle Reader app on my phone to read this one. Really didn't see much difference at all in the user interface or experience with the Kindle Reader app as opposed to Classics... both solid. To "White Fang" itself, I definitely enjoyed "Call of the Wild" more as it simply seemed to have more action packed into a tighter space, but still did like this book. Particularly the ending I enjoyed in that it showed how multiple events over a long period of time can all come together to influence a moment. Also, London as a writer definitely is one of those people that I read and wonder how the heck they can write so well. ―Planet Google" by Randall Stross – book review posted 2/22/2010 I've had the book out from the library for a while and finally got around to reading "Planet Google" by San Jose State Professor and New York Times Digital Domain columnist Randall Stross. I was initially interested in the title after reading "What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis (which I reviewed) and while I liked the Jarvis book more, Stross did provide good insight into one of the more interesting companies out there. The following are chapters of the book along with some of the topics covered in each: Introduction - Google's stated goal of "organizing the world's information." Chapter 1 - Open and Closed... about how Google in some areas really is "open" and not so much in others: Interesting comparison to rival Facebook on the "Open vs. Closed" question. Chapter 2 - Unlimited Capacity... lots of data centers out there. Chapter 3 The Algorithm... concept of the "brains" behind Google and PageRank being done by computers. Chapter 4 - Moon Shot... a look at Google Book Search... seems to fit very well as a venture within the overall goal of the company. Chapter 5 - GooTube... about Google's efforts around video and subsequent purchase of YouTube. Relates to two larger questions addressed in the book of how "open" Google is and how tightly aligned with corporate objectives are all it's efforts... with YouTube perhaps being more outside the bounds than something like Google Book Search. Chapter 6 - Small World, After All: Google Maps, Google Earth, mashups. Cool areas that certainly seem in line with the organization of information. Chapter 7 - A Personal Matter... about privacy and ads in Gmail being targeted as a result of text from user emails. Chapter 8 - Algorithm, Meet Humanity... looks at the initial concept of computers making search results based on PageRank, and whether there's a different or better way. Conclusion - contains mention of how Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt control 40% of the stock voting power. That plus the fact the ad dollars have been there has enabled the founders and CEO take the company where they want it to go and avoid the problem of short term growth needs hindering long term initiatives. Overall... pretty good book if you're curious about Google. "Last Words" by George Carlin – book review posted 2/8/2010 Finished reading "Last Words" by George Carlin and found it to be fairly interesting. Reminded me of Steve Martin's autobiography (which I reviewed) for a few different reasons. The obvious one would be them both being stand-up comedians, but beyond that, they both knew what they wanted to do from an early age and went through periods of pretty big internal struggle around their careers. Another connection between the two is Carlin's mention of his respect for both the work of Martin and the apparent niceness of both guys. What I really liked about Carlin's book (and I guess the guy by extension) was his focus on and fascination with the power of words (as evidence, he titled one of the chapters "I do love words." What they are, what they mean... all of this fodder for examination given the weight they can hold in the world. Two other things from the book: I liked his concept of children... basically "leave them alone, they're going to be alright, they're smarter than you are." I also found interesting his time spent on the children's shows "Shining Time Station" and "Thomas the Tank Engine", both with Britt Allcroft. After reading his book, I now

170

Words Written Down – Book reviews

find myself wanting to see one of Carlin's HBO Specials. In particular, "Jammin' in New York" sounded to be his favorite. "Ford County" by John Grisham – book review posted 1/18/2010 Finished reading "Ford County" by John Grisham and found it to be a fairly enjoyable book. It's the author's first collection of short stories following on the heels of his one non-fiction and scores of fiction bestsellers. Said catalog of Grisham books is detailed on his website and for myself "Ford County" as a read ranked somewhere above "The Street Lawyer" (which I didn't like at all) and below "The Innocent Man" (which was the non-fiction effort and I found to be excellent). I can't say that I learned anything from "Ford County" or that the writing was particularly enthralling, but... I was entertained and if someone generally enjoys Grisham, this book would not disappoint. "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell – book review posted 1/9/2010 Finished reading "What the Dog Saw" from Malcolm Gladwell and found it to be a really interesting read. Gladwell is a solid writer (whose website can be found online) and I've enjoyed reading his prior books "Outliers", "Blink" and "The Tipping Point". "Outliers" was my favorite of these and it's hard to compare his new effort as "What the Dog Saw" isn't about one overarching idea, but rather a collection of Gladwell stories from The New Yorker. Probably the best way to review the book as a whole is to note the chapters that stood out as most interesting and get into why exactly that was. Section One - Minor Geniuses: The Ketchup Conundrum - Addressed the question of why ketchup differs from mustard in its number of varieties. Had the very interesting mention of amplitude as a measure of food ranking... with the concept being how well various flavors work together. Gladwell writes during this portion of how this amplitude measure is often the difference between the most popular consumer brands of a product and generic store brands... for that same product and featuring many of the same ingredients and flavors. Blowing Up - About Nassim Nicholas Talib and the idea of not knowing what the stock market will do so betting on big deviations from the norm. Talib two years after this Gladwell story wrote about this idea in his bestseller "The Black Swan"... which I found to be an interesting, but also pretty weighty read. Gladwell's story here is interesting in that it really gets at the idea that you can't predict the future. Really, perhaps the only prediction that can be done is the obvious... like for example if housing prices are rapidly increasing and people are buying them based on income they don't have, problems will follow and prices will drop. What the Dog Saw - The title chapter of the book and written about the "Dog Whisperer", Cesar Millan. It featured Gladwell's writing about the fascinating concept of Laban Movement Analysis: Basically high level non-verbal communication (and the concept of phrasing as a combination of posture and gesture). Section Two - Theories around Experience or Events: Open Secrets - About Enron accounting and how it wasn't lies, just information people didn't look for or want to believe. The model the company followed was predicated on normal, but the company was brought down by not normal conditions. In many ways, this chapter reminds me of the Taleb story. Connecting the Dots - About military intelligence and stands out as interesting given how this chapter relates to the intelligence failure around the attempt to blow up a Detroitbound airliner (from Time Magazine). Blowup: About the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and how it really was due to an acceptable risk not having an acceptable outcome. Reminds me of my blog post about terrorism in Detroit in that the world isn't a perfect place and bad things can happen. Section Three Predictions about People: Late Bloomers - Was a fascinating chapter about how you have boy wonder types and then those who work and flounder around prior to success. Gladwell quotes the economist David Galenson who says "late bloomers goals are imprecise, so their procedure is tentative and incremental" (and experimental). Another idea put forth by Gladwell is that late bloomers simply often aren't that great to start, they have to improve to get there... which reminds me of the David Kord Murray book "Borrowing Brilliance" (that I reviewed and summarized here). All in all, really an interesting book with some chapters that may appeal more than others, but that's where the practice of skimming through the less interesting stuff comes into play.

171

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"Trust Agents" by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith – book review posted 1/7/2010 Finished reading "Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust" and found it to be a solid read with lots of things to check out. It's written by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan (who is probably the more well known of the two as a result of his blog and associated Social Media evangelism). I heard about the book from the Dec 2009 Businessweek story "Beware Social Media Snake Oil" and found him to have a lot of interesting things to say. Social Media as a category is a fascinating growth area (for both business and interpersonal communication) and I've written about and linked to a good amount of content on it... much of that consolidated into this blog post from a few weeks ago. Linked within there was four or five magazine articles and three different books that deal at least a bit with Social Media... one by Jeff Jarvis, one Sarah Lacy and one Scott Rosenberg. Back to "Trust Agents" itself, though... having already said that it's a good read for someone interesting in Social Media, there's probably also value in detailing the things I found of most interest and websites from the book I want to check out. So... stuff of note (you know, to me, so some of this is straight out of the book and some my ideas as a result of content in the book): Intro - The aforementioned Chris Brogan blog. Chapter One: Trust, Social Capital, and Media: Idea of a Trust Agent building a portfolio of themselves through their online interactions... a very real and complete resume of sorts. Things to consider around blogging... usage of Word Press as a hosting service a step above Blogger, usage of Copy Blogger for writing and both LinkedIn Answers & LinkedIn Reading List for Social Media content, commenting on other blogs. Chapter Two: Make Your Own Game: The Four Hour Workweek blog by Tim Ferriss and how he both wrote a bestselling book of the same name and basically created the category of Lifestyle Design from scratch. Links and comments are basically a form of currency is building a personal brand on the web. The Guy Kawasaki blog: Hacking as a way of doing something different... and better. Much easier to hack work when at a small firm than large corporation: Affiliate Marketing site Commission Junction. Chapter Three: One of Us: Quality of website / blog gives a powerful impression of someone. Importance of being human in online communications: the Guy Kawasaki website Alltop... featuring tons and tons of content in different areas. Concept of searching the web (possibly using Technorati or Google Blogsearch) for groups interested in the things you're interesting in. Yet again, the idea of comments on other's blogs as a valuable form of currency: Site to check out around comments is BackType. Chapter Four: Archimedes Effect: Chapter is about the idea of leverage... in both time utilization and accomplishment. The idea of RSS Reader usage, such as Google Reader: - The seemingly non-profit focused website Drupal as well as the Chris Brogan launched parenting site Dad-O-Matic. Chapter Five: Agent Zero - No, not a Gilbert Arenas (he of the Agent Zero nickname) reference. The idea seems to be a restating of the Trust Agent concept... someone who uses the web to make connections, between people, companies and ideas. - Links, links, links and links. - Dynamic usage of LinkedIn. Chapter Six: Human Artist - As stated before, have to be human on the web. - If hoping for a response from someone you're reaching out to... first make a connection, then look at being a part of their world by commenting, then perhaps reach out in a short manner with your specific question. - Keep your connections live by regular touches. Chapter Seven: Build an Army & Chapter Eight: The Trust Agent - Getting into summarizing the prior chapters, but still valuable content about the idea of Make Your Own Game and what future businesses (and categories of business) are to be built. If it's important to you, there's value in it... and probably others as well. Good principle to think about when looking at where to invest time and energy. Intent in this blog post wasn't to provide a Cliff Notes version of the book, but rather to create a record of what I felt of import from it and the links it pointed to. Really an interesting topic this Social Media thing and quite frankly, someone else would likely have different ideas that stand out to them from reading the book. Highly recommend to anyone interested in the topic. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown – book review posted 1/2/2010 Finished reading the Dan Brown blockbuster novel "The Lost Symbol" and found it to be... fairly entertaining. Didn't like it as much as "The Da Vinci Code", but enjoyed the book a far sight more than

172

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"Angels & Demons". I will say, though, that I thought "Angels & Demons" was a decent (heavy on the action) movie and I imagine "The Lost Symbol" will be a pretty good and similarly crazy fast-paced movie. As to the need to read the book rather than just wait for the film... eh, lots of other good books out there in my opinion. "Superfreakonomics" by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner – book review posted 12/23/2009 Recently finished "Superfreakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner and found it to be a fast read... with some very interesting stuff. As the follow up to the 2005 book Freakonomics, "Superfreakonomics" contained more viewpoints from the economist authors. Basic premise of each is the usage of raw data and actual experience to investigate various and sundry aspects of the world. That's not a very clear explanation, but frankly, it's tough to describe well what Levitt and Dubner write about. The authors themselves describe "Freakonomics" as only having a unified theme if you consider the idea that "people respond to incentives" as qualifying as a unified theme. If that's not weighty enough as a common denominator, then the original book simply needs to be enjoyed based on its stories... of how people name their kids, how drug dealers run businesses, and how abortion impacts crime rates. Superfreakonics carries this same data and experience based investigation forward to topics in the first few chapters like walking drunk, how high end prostitutes prosper and why suicide bombers should buy life insurance. I found these discussions somewhat interesting, but enjoyed more the second half of the book. This fascinating portion of the book began with chapter 4 and three different topics covered: How over a century ago, the simple fix of washing hands saved the lives of countless new mothers and babies... a full decade prior to germ theory being accepted. The relative safety benefits (there, but not to the degree one would think) of kids using car seats as opposed to regular belts in the back seat. Concept of using what amounts to basically floating inner tubes in targeted areas of the ocean to prevent hurricanes from forming. Chapter 5 followed up on this idea of preventing hurricanes to look at another "natural phenomenon"... global warming. Levitt and Dubner discuss in depth the company Intellectual Ventures in Bellevue, WA... led by ex-Microsoft genius type Nathan Myhrvold. The company works on a lot of cutting edge science and this particular discussion (along with the hurricane / inner tube idea also from them) is around the idea of "geoengineering" or having an actual man-made alteration to the environment. It's best to just read the section to fully understand it (or, somewhat fully), but the concept in relation to global warming from Intellectual Ventures is that we don't know for sure that global warming will doom the planet, but if that's where it's headed, we need to do more than conserve and use less energy to reverse course. Specific geoengineering based solutions from Intellectual Ventures range from producing additional clouds over the ocean to pumping sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. If Freakonomics is about how people respond to incentives, I'd say the most interesting portions of Superfreakonomics are based on two things... the same response to incentives and the idea of simple solutions. One of the fundamental reasons Myhrvold and company feel conservation wouldn't do a lot is around incentivized behavior. If either a person or country converses or cuts back, it will help all, but not necessarily help them. In terms of simple solutions, both this idea of geoengineering and washing of hands simple (geoengineering may not seem simple, but as Myhrvold describes it, it's could be relatively low cost)... and yet would require shifts in attitudes and behavior to be fully adopted. Whether someone agrees with Levitt, Dubner, Myhrvold and Intellectual Ventures or not... it's interesting stuff to think about. All in all, that's how I felt about "Superfreakonomics"... had some not so great, but some really interesting things (and was a fast read). "Open" by Andre Agassi – book review posted 12/16/2009 Just finished reading the Andre Agassi biography "Open" and liked it quite a bit. A month or so ago I came across in Sports Illustrated an excerpt from the book (which I linked to in this blog post) and as I hoped... the actual book improved on the excerpt in that it had much more of the same great writing. I'm pretty sure I saw it around the same time as the excerpt, but this Time Magazine review also paints a good picture of "Open". The reviewer, Sean Gregory, includes the lofty praise "Agassi may have just penned

173

Words Written Down – Book reviews

one of the best sports autobiographies of all time. Check--it's one of the better memoirs out there, period." What made the book so good was its inner view of an amazing life that Agassi has lived thus far. From people including his almost caricature-level taskmaster father, Mike Agassi, and Coach/Handler/Surrogate Guardian Nick Bollettieri, the influence put upon the sports prodigy was amazing. What you had was someone being first pushed by an inner circle and then defined by an outer circle of fans and media... with that definition being put upon a teenager still figuring himself out. Of course, what made Agassi different than our average 18 or 19 year old is he was playing Grand Slam Finals and having copywriter produced phrases ("image is everything") assigned (incorrectly) as his mantra. Gregory also references this at the end of his review, but one of the more telling anecdotes from Agassi is his commentary on something said by broadcaster Bud Collins. At the end of Agassi's career, Collins attempted to sum things up with the catchy phrase "from punk to paragon." I agree completely with Agassi taking umbrage with this idea of a teenage punk, and for that matter, of him as now having transformed to "paragon" level. Instead of a transformation, you had the same guy going through different stages of his life (a life where he had to become "an adult" at an early age) and figuring out things as he went along. What the book showed to me was a very vividly detailed portrait of a guy with a life way different than most. "Borrowing Brilliance" by David Kord Murray – book review posted 11/28/2009 Just finished reading "Borrowing Brilliance" by David Kord Murray... which I heard about when it was reviewed here in Businessweek. The overarching theme behind Murray's book is business ideas and where they come from... with that spot often not being one of "out of the blue" originality. I found the guy himself almost as interesting as where the ideas come from. The Guy: Murray seems quite the interesting fellow given his personal and business highs and lows described in the book. He first worked as a NASA engineer and then became an entrepreneur who was poised to sell his Lake Tahoe based financial company for $50 million, and would up with close to nothing. Through a combination of his past experience, lots of reading and a good contact made, Murray eventually found himself consulting with Intuit on its Turbo Tax via direct mail program. This then led to a full time Innovation Exec role at Intuit, and then another entrepreneurial venture and now him writing this book and living back in Lake Tahoe. Solid stuff and his story seems to be an interesting example of how speed bumps can come and you may not know where you'll wind up, but you just try to keep moving forward. The Business Ideas: As stated previously, the book works with the concepts of ideas... and how to generate, repurpose and repackage them. Following up on this idea of pattern recognition and meaning making, Murray writes of how as a business society we're now out of the information age and onto the conceptual or innovation age. The structure of the book is broken into 6 steps: 1. Defining - Define the problem and figure out the right one to work on. The idea here is one of scope and how small problems can both fit within and when solved, sometimes create other ones. Murray cited Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as good people to think of when considering problem definition. The idea behind Google began when they were Stanford PhD students, each working on a separate data mining problem. This led to thinking about organizing information, which led to search. Now that the lower level problem of search has been worked (and of course, continues to be), Google has moved back to the high level problem they talk about of organizing the world's information. Related to this idea, I also think of the information architect field and how it focuses on the presentation of data, facts and ideas... interesting stuff. 2. Borrowing - Take ideas from places near and far. This is tied to the third step, but focuses on looking for the answers to your problems from your competitors, but also other fields of work entirely. Murray writes heavily about Hollywood and how the construction of movies into acts with emotional triggers and levels was something he thought about in relation to the Turbo Tax offering while at Intuit. This is in many ways the concept of critical observation... just with a wide net. 3. Combining - Throw the ideas together and try lots of different iterations. Related to borrowing, Murray writes about Star Wars and how George Lucas spent years working on it until he had the perfect combination of science fiction and mythology (with the light saber as an example). Also discussed by Murray in relation to these borrowed combinations were Google utilizing page ranks,

174

Words Written Down – Book reviews

Disneyland being built to scale like a movie set and Facebook as a metaphor of a college yearbook. Interesting concept... causes me to think about Social Networking and web publishing as done through various sources such as Facebook, blogs, Digg and Ning among others. 4. Incubating - allow the combinations to come together. This step centers on the concept of the subconscious mind being the best source of creative ideas. Murray describes historical intellects like Einstein and Newton as being in touch with their subconscious, but also provides his thoughts on how people can train themselves to get more in touch with their subconscious. Input: Think about what problems you want to solve. Incubation: Work on clearing the mind... whether it be throw daily walks, meditation or simply doing creative work immediately after a good night of sleep. Output: Be willing to let ideas in, but not be held captive by them: Sort of a duality concept of listening to ideas and emotional responses, but at the same time having doubts about them so as to not get led astray by something that is not a true belief. I liked this concept as it made me think of how creativity doesn't always come, but when it does, you want to run with and get the most out of it. Most simple example of this would be people who jot down thoughts that come to them so that they're not lost in the ether. 5. Judging - Identify strengths and weaknesses... the throwing out of the bad parts of any idea and expanding of the best. 6. Enhancing - Eliminate the weak and enhance the strong. This sounds a lot like point five, but Murray describes it as in many ways being like a recycling of ideas one through five. Just continually cycle the process. The conclusion of Murray's book contains his view of "the creative life"... and how one can view these steps as being part of a creative process around more than just business. Solid stuff (with more details on Murray's book website) and it reminds me of some of the great John Gardner's writing that I linked to in a blog post. "Where Men Win Glory" by Jon Krakauer – book review posted 11/16/2009 I recently finished reading ―Where Men Win Glory‖ by Jon Krakauer and found it to be pretty powerful. The book is on former NFL standout and Army Ranger killed in Afghanistan, Pat Tillman, and features much of the same great writing that Krakauer provided in two prior books of his I‘ve read, ―Into Thin Air‖ and ―Into the Wild‖. Krakauer had access to Tillman‘s diary and conducted numerous interviews with people tied to him. One of those was his mother, Mary Tillman, who authored the book ―Boots on the Ground by Dusk‖. There‘s a lot of ground covered in the Krakauer book, but I think it could all be boiled down to two basic concepts, Tillman the man and Tillman the used object. Tillman the man: There‘s an interesting section at the end of the book where Krakauer writes of the archetype known as the ―alpha male‖… the strong character unafraid of danger who seeks out challenges. What‘s interesting is that Tillman really seems to have had both this type of makeup (in spades) along with an introspective side who really wanted to do what he felt was the right thing. Evidence of this was of course his decision to forgo NFL millions to join the Army after 9-11, but other signs also point to this sense of internal judgment leading his decisions. While with the Arizona Cardinals, Tillman turned down a qualifying off from the St Louis Rams that would have paid him $2.6M guaranteed… and took $512K instead. Additionally, it comes out in the Krakauer book that Tillman could have left the military (and a war in Iraq he didn‘t believe in) after a year and a half, but instead stayed in to finish his three year commitment… to what is now known as tragic consequences. Tillman the used object: The story of Tillman and what he represented would by itself have made for a compelling narrative (and I‘m sure there are other books out there devoted entirely to Tillman the man), but the Krakauer book also gets heavily into the other side of the story… the usage and manipulation of the Tillman story by his government. Tillman was initially reported to have been killed by enemy combatants, but it was quickly known at multiple levels of the military that Tillman‘s death was caused by friendly fire… almost certainly at the hands of Ranger gunner Trevor Alders. The actual announcement of friendly fire was released later in a manner that would mitigate the amount of press coverage and couched in terms that it ―possibly‖ could have been friendly fire. This preceded the events of his actual death which involved what‘s described as an unnecessarily risky splitting of the platoon… for the purpose of reaching an arbitrary goal set by military planners. Then immediately after his death, Tillman‘s uniform, diary and notebook were all burned against Army regulations. After this, Tillman was almost immediately awarded posthumous medals

175

Words Written Down – Book reviews

for his actions on the fateful night, with the witness statements for those medals leaving out any mention of how the actual events transpired. Then results of the mandatory investigation into the cause of death were disregarded, presumably because the outcome of it was negligence by Army personally eventually resulting in death by friendly fire. In fact, there would then be a second investigation with the results set aside… finally with a 3rd leading to still unsatisfactory information for the Tillman family. Testifying before Congress, Pat‘s brother (and fellow Army Ranger) Kevin Tillman said, “The fact that the Army, and what appears to be others, attempted to hijack his virtue and his legacy is simply horrific. The least this country can do for him in return is to uncover who is responsible for his death, who lied and who covered it up, and who instigated those lies and benefited from them. Then ensure that justice is meted out to the culpable. Pat and these soldiers volunteered to put their lives on the line for this country. Anything less than the truth is a betrayal of those values that all soldiers who have fought for this nation have sought to uphold.” All of this is fairly sickening stuff about the internal response to the event of Pat Tillman‘s death, but to the point of Tillman the man… it‘s important to investigate the usage of his legacy, but also remember the legacy itself. Since his death, the Pat Tillman Foundation was formed and Leadership through Action scholarship program instituted at Pat‘s alma matter of Arizona State University. Really compelling stuff and short of reading the Krakauer book (or book by Tillman‘s mother), this ESPN feature article also delves into the life and death of Pat Tillman. "Paris to the Moon" by Adam Gopnik – book review posted 10/27/2009 Just finished reading ―Paris to the Moon‖ by Adam Gopnik and didn‘t love, but did enjoy it. It's a compilation of essays Gopnik wrote for The New Yorker and his personal journals from his time living in Paris (where he, his wife and young song spent five years leading up to the millennium). The book itself is a personal and funny view of Gopnik‘s experiences as an expatriate from New York raising a child in the City of Lights. Two things from the opening chapter that struck me were Gopnik‘s description of Paris and what he hoped to accomplish there. In describing the attraction to the city, the phrase Gopnik wrote of he and his wife was that they “love Paris not of „nostalgia‟, but because we love the look of light on things, as opposed to the look of light from things.” This struck me as a very nuanced and interesting way to describe something of natural (even if it involves man-made structures) surroundings. To further describe why they moved to Paris, Gopnik wrote of “two kinds of travelers. The kind who goes to see what there is to see and sees it, and the kind who has an image in his head and then going out to accomplish it.” I also liked the parts of the book that were about some of the more mundane things around his son (which I suppose makes them not mundane at all). In his chapter ―The Rookie‖ (about making up a long-form narrative baseball bedtime story) and that on swimming at The Ritz pool (with his son spending time with a first crush), Gopnik provides some touching and well written stories. I suppose the parts of the book I didn‘t care for as much were those that dug more deeply into Paris itself (but, I think I would have liked them more had I been more than once) and those on cooking. That being said, the chapter on Alice Waters did make me interested in her Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse. All in all, a good book and it reminded me of two other books I enjoyed quite a bit also with significant content around being an American living with young children in France. In "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood" (which I reviewed here), Michael Lewis wrote (in part) of living with his wife and young child in Paris and S.L. Price's excellent book "Far Afield: A Sports writing Odyssey" was about his experiences living and working in small-town France. "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work" by Alain de Botton – book review posted 10/12/2009 I came across Alain de Botton‘s ―The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work‖ from a Businessweek review and just finished reading this interesting book. As the BW review details, de Botton is a fascinating guy as an heir to a financial asset management fortune who renounced his trust fund in order to live off his writing. Even if you assume he always had family money to fall back on, it's still admirable. Looking at de Botton's website it appears that he's done well for himself with a number of books in print that take a philosophical bent on daily activities... with his latest tackling the notion of work. The approach taken in this book was for de

176

Words Written Down – Book reviews

Botton to immerse himself for a period of time in multiple occupations and then write at length about them. The chapters and topics covered are the following: Chapter 1 – Cargo Ship Spotting, Chapter 2 – Logistics, Chapter 3 – Biscuit Manufacture, Chapter 4 – Career Counseling, Chapter 5 – Rocket Science, Chapter 6 – Painting, Chapter 7- Transmission Engineering, Chapter 8 – Accountancy, Chapter 9 – Entrepreneurship, Chapter 10 – Aviation. de Botton's book for me was one of those reads that covered a lot of ground... with some pretty mundane sections, but also some incredibly interesting concepts: CREATING SOMETHING – The chapter on painting delved into what for me is the extremely meaningful idea of working at something that provides an output of someone‘s efforts… even if not always for great monetary gain. HAVING A THING – Cargo Ship Spotting was an interesting chapter because it wasn‘t even about a money making enterprise. Rather, it described a group of people who as an avocation immerse themselves in a specific and fairly obscure enterprise. What‘s appealing about this is that even if they didn‘t do it as their vocation, these people had "a thing‖ they immersed themselves in. For some people, their ―thing‖ is their work (which is great for them), for other‘s it‘s not their work (which can still be ok) and for others, they don‘t really have a ―thing‖… which for lack of a better word, sucks. HOW THE WORLD WORKS – The concept in two of the chapters seem like it could jointly be described as ―how the world works.‖ Logistics takes an interesting look at how a tuna steak goes from line capture in the Maldives to a family in England... basically a look at the world you live in and how it functions. Entrepreneurship as a chapter meanders around quite a bit, but has some fascinating stuff around the most financially successful entrepreneur mentioned. This person‘s statements showed a view of the working world different than many might have. Rather than seeing a haphazard collection of objects and services mystically provided, he appeared to view the world as a place built for profit by people with intent. While it‘s still very true that someone taking this view of the world isn‘t necessarily going to be successful or happy (as this entrepreneur didn‘t seem to be so), it probably could be said that taking this big picture view of things and figuring out how you can function in them is likely a key ingredient to the success held by many. Taking it a step further... for someone to figure out their function in that chain (and make money) combined with it being ―a thing of theirs‖ (and be happy)… that‘s the good stuff there. COG IN THE MACHINE – The chapters on Biscuit Manufacture, Accountancy and Aviation could I think be described as the more depressing chapters in the book. While it‘s certainly possible that the people featured in these sections do have interesting avocations where they spend time on their ―things‖ (whether those be family, hobbies, or whatever else interests them), they certainly didn‘t seem to be getting much out of work. Instead of great fulfillment, their non-monetary takeaway from jobs appeared to be the not so inspiring concepts of work as a way to pass the time. As de Botton describes it, their jobs winds up making life “no longer mysterious, sad, haunting, touching, confusing or melancholy; it is a practical stage for clear-eyed action." I think the thing out of these sections of the book is about how one views work. Jobs in and of themselves are not bad, in fact they can be necessary to make money in order to finance a life. Where jobs can be bad, though, is if you view them as either a distraction from things more important or as something that negatively impacts the person. Having a vocation that provides money, fulfillment and everything someone would want in an avocation is great, but not always practical or available to all. If it‘s not, there‘s still a lot to be said for the idea of work that may not provide you everything you want, but let‘s one make a living… while still making a life outside of work. Interesting read with some interesting ideas contained within. "Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America" by Kurt Andersen – book review posted 9/27/2009 Just finished "Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America" by Kurt Andersen and found it to be pretty good... not great, but pretty good. I first heard of Andersen as his work of historical fiction "Heyday" was on the bestseller list and then later came across two excellent pieces he wrote for Time Magazine. The first was an Apr 2009 cover story "The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?" that I described in this blog post as a compelling read that looks at America in each of the last few decades and how things led up to the economic collapse of the past six months. The second was an

177

Words Written Down – Book reviews

essay titled "The Avenging Amateur" Andersen wrote for an Aug 2009 issue of Time and which served as the basis or jumping off point for "Reset". I linked to the article in this blog post and truth be told, probably enjoyed this essay a bit more than the book Andersen wrote out of it in that it was more focused. That said, "Reset" is a mere 70 pages and an extremely quick and fairly interesting read. The amateur spirit referenced in both the Time article and book is a hearkening back to the founding fathers of America, who helped create the country while at the same time running farms and businesses. Some of the other points Andersen makes are around getting control of health care costs and oil dependency, while at the same time using the economic crisis as a trigger to both control spending and foster innovation. Good concepts all and more information on Andersen can be found on his website. "Home Ice" by Jack Falla – book review posted 9/19/2009 Just finished reading "Home Ice" by Jack Falla and found it a good book. I've previously read two of Falla's books... his fictional hockey story "Saved" (which I reviewed here) and "Open Ice" (which I reviewed). I enjoyed this book just completed, but probably liked "Open Ice" more as it featured a wider range of hockey writing by Falla (in addition to the really interesting material from "Home Ice" around his backyard hockey rink). To the point of his rink, I believe a story on how to build one is how I first came across the author. Falla was definitely a hockey guy, but just as much a writing guy (worked for Sports Illustrated). One of the chapters in "Home Ice" is titled "On Rinks and Writing" and contains the following, "I think it was now-retired Boston Globe columnist Tim Horgan who said „to be a sportswriter, it is necessary to love the writing as much as the sport.‟ Like most writers I love the 'having written' a lot more than I love the writing. But I've already regarded sports writing as worth and fulfilling in itself and not a synthetic substitute for playing. When I feel like playing I go out on my rink and play." Just seemed like a really good guy (as a Facebook memorial page seems to indicate) and such a shame for him to have passed away last year at the young age of 62. For anyone who loves hockey and good writing about it... I highly recommend "Open Ice" and then perhaps the other Falla books. "'Tis" by Frank McCourt – book review posted 9/4/2009 Having really enjoyed "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt, I decided to read his follow-up memoir "'Tis" and found it... ok. In my review of "Angela's Ashes" I wrote of its dual elements of an interesting story and descriptive language and unfortunately, didn't really find "'Tis" to have either of these things. I often felt like I was simply reading a journal of "then I did this, after that I did that" and none of it was terribly interesting. McCourt's chronicle of his years as first a newly arrived immigrant in New York and then a teacher, husband, father and sometimes caretaker of his mother at times seemed like a series of lists. It may not have occurred to me had I not seen criticism of McCourt as a son in a Richard Harris interview, but I didn't find McCourt's actions and attitudes towards both his wife and mother to be that endearing. It's hard to form a well-versed opinion on simply what was written in "'Tis", but frankly, I felt bad about his mother's time in New York after the struggle she went through keeping McCourt and his siblings fed when they grew up poor in Limerick, Ireland. I‘m probably not going to read the third McCourt memoir, "Teacher Man". "Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters" by Scott Rosenberg – book review posted 8/29/2009 I first heard about Scott Rosenberg's "Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters" from a Businessweek review of the book and found it to be an excellent book on a few different levels. Book Content: The beginning of the book details some of the early blogging from people like Justin Hall... along with his "dark night" blogging sign-off video. From this point, Rosenberg goes into the "war blog" movement out of 9/11 and rise of political blogs. The influence of these has been significant ranging from the blog Little Green Footballs helping call into question the "60 Minutes" piece on George W. Bush and his National Guard record to Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo blog helping both fight off the Bush plan to kill social security & bringing to light the Alberto Gonzalez scandal around firing Justice Department

178

Words Written Down – Book reviews

lawyers. Also featured in the book is the blog Dooce from Heather Armstrong. Sitting firmly in the "narrative life story" blog category, this blog author became famous for being fired from a job due to her blogging about it. From that point, she's written some very personal stuff that's at the same time very funny (and it's cool that "getting dooced" has since become the descriptive phrase for someone getting fired as a result of their blogging. From this same influential blogger category, I found interesting mention of Robert Scoble and his video on how to scan through 600+ RSS Feeds daily. Additionally, there's detail given by Rosenberg as to some mechanics that have helped blogging become so successful. They range from the ―last in first out‖ (or "stacking") principle of blog postings to features such as Permalink, Trackback (or Backlinks in Google Blogger) and RSS Feeds (which were of course mentioned above). Another area that's touched on towards the end of the book is around the introduction and subsequent popularization of Social Media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Rosenberg's theory (which seems sound to me) is that these sites don't signal the end of blogs as the intent and execution of them is so different than that of blogging. The new Social Media forms can almost be considering a telephone type communication in that they're about short form communication and contact with others. Blogging on the other hand is about a longer form publishing of thoughts. There is of course some blend between blogging and Social Media in each direction, but also differences. What It Meant to Me: Everything above describes the book and its contents... good things for sure to have in any review of a book. Below, though, I want to touch on some of the things that struck me while reading and I "may very well" carry forward. The basic concept I took is that there's so much that could be done with a blog. There could be important political discourse, could be insightful and profound narrative, or could simply be thoughts and ideas about things of import that a blog author wants to pass on. I particularly enjoyed mention from Rosenberg's book about the blog Boing Boing. The statement of the blog is "A Directory of Wonderful Things" and Rosenberg's discussion is around how the four blog authors really enjoy doing the site. At the end of the day, that should be the reason that someone writes a blog and whether it "becomes a hit" isn't as important (and especially isn't as controllable). I also was fascinated by the personal narrative quality of Dooce. I'll have to see what direction my writing takes me, but am interested in spending time on and exploring this "personal narrative" writing. As long as it's done with the best quality I can muster (after all, a blog is a written record (or "resume" in work terms) and I'm enjoying writing it, things should work out just fine like. Finally, back to the book... solid read and further details can be found on Rosenberg's blog and his "Say Everything..." book website. "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt – book review posted 8/17/2009 Finished reading "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and I'm glad I didn't grow up poor in Ireland 60 years ago. The second paragraph of this memoir describes pretty well what's to come in the follow few hundred pages, "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." What makes it such a compelling read is that it contains the two basic elements of great writing... a compelling topic that's described well. McCourt's phrasing and language used through the book is simply excellent writing and brings to life the day to day scratching for survival of he and his family. One thing I found interesting after reading the book was to see what happened to the main characters of the book. McCourt himself passed away of cancer in July 2009 and his Wikipedia page describes his three brothers now living in the US, two of them being published authors and one also having run against Eliot Spitzer for Governor of New York. There's also some controversy around McCourt, not surprising given that he doesn't portray his hometown of Limerick, Ireland (or that Catholic Church there) as being terribly nice. A particularly incendiary attack was made by the late Irish actor, Richard Harris (who played Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies) in an interview. It's certainly possible that some of what McCourt wrote of in "Angela's Ashes" isn't an exact retelling of events, but I still found it a fascinating story written really

179

Words Written Down – Book reviews

well. I suppose it had the mark of a good book in that I'm now interested in reading McCourt's follow-up autobiographies "Tis" and "Teacher Man". "Strokes of Genius" by L. Jon Wertheim – book review posted 8/10/2009 Recently finished reading "Strokes of Genius" by L. Jon Wertheim and found it pretty good. In it, the Sports Illustrated writer expands upon his original coverage of the 2008 Wimbledon Men's Final into a book subtitled "Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played." At times I found my interest waning as the match itself was detailed, but always found interesting the descriptions of the players themselves. What emerges throughout the book is a fascinating portrait of the two undisputed heavyweights in men's tennis who have many characteristics in opposition to one another, but also have much in common. That you can have such high level competition between combatants with so much respect for one another's abilities as well as each other is refreshing to read about. All in all, an interesting book for either a hardcore tennis fan or sports fan interested in rivalries at the highest level of the game... whatever that game may be. One thing I did find odd (though it doesn't reflect at all on the book itself) is in reading Wertheim's coverage of the one year later 2009 Wimbledon Final between Federer and Andy Roddick, I never came across any real comparison between the two matches. I would expect that the Federer-Nadal match had more gravitas in the broad scheme of things, but also would think a five set final that ended 16-14 in the 5th set deserves to be at least compared to "the greatest match ever played." "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" by S.L. Price – book review posted 7/25/2009 Just finished "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" by Sports Illustrated writer S.L. Price and goodness, that's a powerful book. I've found Price to be an excellent writer from reading his book "Far Afield: A Sports writing Odyssey" and learned about this new work from an excerpt in an April 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated (which I wrote about in this post). While the excerpt itself is interesting in that it's about the dangers of batted or thrown balls on the baseball field, it leaves the root of the story for someone who reads the book itself. Price's work is a non-fiction narrative about long-time minor league baseball player (and subsequently minor league hitting coach) Mike Coolbaugh being killed by a foul ball while coaching first base during a AA game. While the most impactful part of the book is those pages which describe the event itself, the entire story covers much more ground... and well. Coolbaugh's life and that of his wife and young children is profiled along with that of the batter, Tino Sanchez Jr., but more than that, the book is about minor league baseball. Fans of major league teams see the upper echelon of players in terms of skills, salary and achievement of dreams, but the minor leagues is different. Throughout the book, Price eloquently portrays the struggle of thousands of minor league players attempting (most unsuccessfully) to reach this major league goal. For those like Coolbaugh who briefly reach the majors, the game can be perhaps more painful when it provides a taste of success, but then takes it away with a return to the minors. So close, but just not quite there... whether due to skill level, injuries suffered or simply bad breaks. As is described through multiple stories (with Coolbaugh's of course being the most heartbreaking), the game can be a huge burden for those who play it. In short, "Heart of the Game" is a great baseball book... which works on many levels beyond the game, but at its core, is still about the game. "Keep it Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching & Writing Creative Nonfiction" by Lee Gutkind: editor – book review posted 7/16/2009 Just finished an interesting book edited by University of Pittsburgh English Professor Lee Gutkind... credited as "the godfather of creative nonfiction" by Vanity Fair Magazine. While this description of Gutkind perhaps a bit over the top, the book itself has a lot of interesting things in it for an aspiring writer (well, I guess for a writer of any kind given an aspiring writer is someone who doesn't yet know how to write). The book is an incredibly fast read with many short chapters devoted to a specific how-to area of creative

180

Words Written Down – Book reviews

nonfiction, including fact-checking, memoir writing and point of view. I found it interesting in that I like the genre (populated by writers such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Erik Larson and Jon Krakauer) and it made me want to learn and write more. Gutkind himself is a prolific author and a list of books he's either written or edited can be found on a page of his blog. He's also the driving force behind the literary journal Creative Nonfiction, a magazine about and populated by this particular type of writing. Between some of these books and resources and the creative nonfiction classes (online and otherwise) that must be out there, there's definitely avenues to follow for someone interested to learn more and improve their writing (heck, just write) in this area. "American Parent" by Sam Apple – book review posted 7/8/2009 Having finished the heartfelt "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood" by Michael Lewis (which I reviewed), I decided to stay in the genre and just finished Sam Apple's "American Parent" (subtitled "My Strange and Surprising Adventures in Modern Babyland"). It was different than the Lewis book in that it lacks a lot of the sentimentality, but has some interesting facts and information. The approach Apple took was to look at the whole baby-industrial complex (a fairly descriptive term given the $s involved) on a chapter by chapter basis starting at conception and then running through early parenthood. Choosing a name, birth classes, attachment parenting, sleep training... lots of topics covered by Apple and all in a fairly humorous manner while still providing some lots of details about each area. The overriding thing that comes out of the book is that parenting can be tough, but you do the best you can for you and the kid and it'll probably all work out for good. Not a bad concept. "Open Ice" by Jack Falla – book review posted 7/8/2009 Recently finished "Open Ice: Reflections and Confessions of a Hockey Lifer" by Jack Falla (also the author of the novel "Saved" that I reviewed). I enjoyed it quite a bit and what really struck me about the book is the coincidence of Falla's passing from a heart attack just prior to its release. This is even more profound as the book deals quite a bit with Falla's view of mortality in this highly personal account of his life in hockey. Some of the chapters I found to be of note are the following: "A Death in Montreal": About Falla's trip on his own dime to be at the memorial service for Maurice "Rocket" Richard. A fascinating account of how Richard impacted French Canada... which compels me to recommend the movie "The Rocket" (sometimes known as "Maurice Richard". Available on Netflix, it features some excellent hockey action from this era and shows the circumstances of Richard's career and why he mattered so much. "Skating the Rideau Canal": One of the chapters that struck me in light of Falla's passing as his stated goal was to skate the canal through Ottawa while 80. Sadly, he didn't make it. "Requiem for the Cucumber": About another Falla hockey field trip of sorts... this time to the small town of Chicoutimi, Quebec to learn about local legend Georges Vezina and view his grave, was an interesting look back in hockey history. "Searching for Hobey Baker": Chronicles a Falla trip to the New Hampshire school attended by perhaps the most famous American hockey player. The namesake for the college hockey player of the year, Baker was one of those larger than characters that died extremely young... actually, the last person to die in WWI. It was similar to the chapter on Vezina in that there was a very cool history lesson of sorts provided. "Goodbye to the Backyard Rink": Details Falla's experience with his backyard rink and how it has influenced the lives of he and those close to him. Another poignant section of the book as Falla wrestles with the question of whether to stop putting the rink up of his volition, or whether to wait until he's no longer healthy enough to put it up. Apart from the book, I found to be of interest a memorial Facebook group page that I found through a Google search for Falla. Just seems like he was a really good guy and definitely an excellent hockey writer. "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood" by Michael Lewis – book review posted 6/30/2009 Having previously read three different Michael Lewis books (which I also reviewed), I was interested to come across mention of Lewis in a Nancy Gibbs essay from Time Magazine titled "Parenting Advice: What Moms Should Learn From Dads". In addition to having some very interesting commentary about fatherhood,

181

Words Written Down – Book reviews

Gibbs wrote about a new book by Lewis titled "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood". Based on his series of articles for Slate Magazine, it stitches together some of his experiences with his three children (not really germane to the book itself, but I also found interesting that Lewis is married to former MTV VJ Tabitha Soren). Having now read the Lewis book, I can say it's an extremely fast read that contains some entertaining vignettes and insights about fatherhood. Since the book itself is in pieced together form, I don't feel bad at all about giving my impressions in the same manner. To whit: The idea of fumbling around for the definition of and actions required of being a good father. A murky idea that has changed greatly through the years and you just gotta make it up as you go, and have it seem both right and livable to you, the trauma for a first child at the birth of a second, or for the first two at the birth of a third. Following this, the inherently challenging task of two continuing to raise little functioning (almost) members of society while providing the stuff needed to stay alive for an additional member. As Lewis describes it, what previously could be done in a tag-team fashion on one child now involves much more separation of parental labor to make it happen, the seemingly spot-on description of the difference between paternal and maternal love. That being that father to kid bonds need to be formed through action (helping keep alive and later just helping the young 'un) and mother to kid bonds are there from the start (that whole giving birth to thing). The notion of how the adult world for a child is likely a crazy, grotesque place where everything is odd and everyone sized wrong. As an example of this insane place kids inhabit, Lewis retells the anecdote of his oldest daughter asking prior to a flight about his "chickens in luggage"... yep, that's check in luggage to those who actually know different, the family trauma that came after the birth of their third child, Walker. First Postpartum Panic Disorder for Tabitha and then a respiratory virus (RSV) for the baby. Tough times, but really touching stuff about Lewis in effect standing guard over Walker while in recovery at the hospital. Reminds me of the first point made in this review... fatherhood is something that in many ways you have to make up as you go along. Good stuff and worth the read for father-types. "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson – book review posted 6/20/2009 Just finished reading "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson and thought it was ok. I think it very much falls into the category of books that I felt like I should have enjoyed due the "classic" status, but I didn't care for it a great deal. I suppose a lot of it was due to the dialect used throughout that made it at times hard to read, but truth be told, I was glad was I finally finished it. Enormous props once again to the makers of the "Classics" iPhone app (which I used previously to read "Call of the Wild" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and reviewed here and here respectively). Such a great user interface and with these three books down, I still have another fifteen different classic books I could read on this iPhone app should I choose. "The Longest Trip Home" by John Grogan – book review posted 5/27/2009 Having finished "Marley & Me" (which I wrote about on a different blog post), I decided to read the subsequent John Grogan book… ―The Longest Trip Home‖. It‘s subtitled ―a memoir‖ and just as ―Marley & Me‖ tells the story of Grogan‘s life through the lens of his relationship with Marley, this book tells the story of his life (albeit a longer portion of it than in ―Marley & Me‖) in relation to his parents. The book is split into three parts about distinct portions of the author‘s life: his youth, leaving home, and return to be with his aging parents. From the first part I took that Grogan had extremely loving parents who worked hard to raise him and his siblings well, and also that they were devout Catholics who worked to instill the same religious piety in their kids. This last effort leads to one of the central themes of the book as both sides of the relationship between the parents and author attempt to deal with the failing of that aim. It‘s during the third portion of the book when Grogan‘s father battles illness that light is really shined on the relationship and you see how the difficulties as well as love coexist in the family. Really, it‘s quite a read seeing how his father wanted things for him that he didn‘t fulfill, but still the connection and raw emotion during this time. I‘m glad I read the book, but view the first two thirds as being a setting of the stage for this final portion. From a perspective of the relationship portrayed and experiences lived through, it‘s powerful.

182

Words Written Down – Book reviews

I suppose that the author Ann Hood said it well in her back book jacket testimonial, “With his telltale humor and poignant observations about life and our humanity, John Grogan delivers another emotional wallop here. The Longest Trip Home is a must read for anyone who has questioned their faith, sought to understand their identity, and loved their family. In other words, everyone.” Particularly as a relatively new father, I can say that the book (really, the final portion of it) did indeed pack an impact. "Marley and Me" by John Grogan – book review posted 5/25/2009 I recently finished reading ―Marley & Me‖ by John Grogan and… really liked it. There‘s a lot that struck me in this book so I‘ll start first with the minutiae and then hit the big picture. On a not as important to the book, but interesting to me level was Grogan‘s mention of natural home cleaners and organic gardening as opposed to using chemicals and pesticides. It‘s certainly open for debate how much harm the artificial stuff can cause, but I think it safe to say that chemicals are not going to help the body. I also found interesting from the book the idea of the Pennsylvania country lifestyle that the family moved to from Florida. It just came across as a nice way to live. To the larger book, though… ―Marley and Me‖ is a vibrant story of Grogan‘s personal life intertwined with his experiences with his dog. Marley gave tremendously to the family and the parts of the book in which it came across the most were the times of happiness, of heartbreak and of danger (looking back on the movie it kind of amazes me that Marley‘s role as protector when Grogan‘s neighbor was stabbed didn‘t get into the film). I don‘t recall if it was mentioned in the movie, but I was also moved by the section of the book where Grogan describes reading a noted dog trainer describing ―the unbalanced dog‖ and how these animals might be best just put to sleep. Maybe it‘s that I‘ve had a pet with behavioral problems (not able to get along with other dogs in that case), but I think these dogs more than others can impact their owners as they‘re the ones who need love the most. Overall, it‘s a great book that would likely appeal to animal lovers, but also people simply interested in the human experience as it‘s just as much a story of the author‘s life as it is a story about a dog. Additionally, it‘s the only case I can think of where I first saw a movie and then finished the book the movie was adapted from. As is probably to be expected, the book was better, but… the movie still pretty darn good. Lots of additional information (and a huge message board populated by dog lovers and Grogan fans) can be found at the author‘s website and the link to the original Philadelphia Inquirer column about Marley can be found here. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain – book review posted 5/24/2009 Just finished reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" on my iPhone (highly recommend the "Classics" app at a cost of $2.99 for I believe now 18 books in total). I of course did read Huck Finn as a kid and enjoyed it again now. Beyond that, not much to say about the book other to say that it's entertaining and cite here the opening words of Mark Twain himself: "Persons attempting to find a motive in the narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer – book review posted 5/9/2009 It took me a while to slog through all of it, but I just finished "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer. After really liking "Twilight" (the first book in the Twilight series), pretty much liking "New Moon" and now a little bit liking "Eclipse", I think I'll take a Stephenie Meyer break before reading the conclusion to the series, "Breaking Dawn". I shouldn't be too critical, though, as the book really isn't written for me, but rather primarily for teenage girls (and as such is very heavy on relationship melodrama). That said, I enjoyed quite a bit the first half of the original book as the anticipation and suspense building was solid. I may well finish off the series at some point, just not soon.

183

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis – book review posted 4/29/2009 I've already done two different blog posts about the Jeff Jarvis book "What Would Google Do?", but now that I've actually finished reading the book, I can do a more complete summary. I first came across it from a Businessweek excerpt which I posted about and linked to here and then made a second post about mention in the book of the blog http://www.avc.com/. The book itself is an interesting read that looks in the first half at what Google does to be successful and the second half at how its business principles could be adapted to other companies and industries. Granted, there's a bit of prognostication and crystal-ball seeing in this latter half, but it's definitely compelling business reading. Jarvis himself has a fascinating background in that he was first behind Entertainment Weekly and then went on to create the blog http://www.buzzmachine.com/. From this blog (which Jarvis still writes), came his current teaching position in the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism and backing of the news website http://www.daylife.com/. Not to take the easy way out, but it's probably easiest to switch to listing out some of the key ideas given around business on the web: Customers are in charge, openness in the key to success, most successful enterprises are networks or platforms, have to be searchable and able to be found on the web (whether you're a person or business). All in all... an excellent read. "Healthy Aging" by Dr. Andrew Weil – book review posted 3/14/2009 Took me a little while to slog through it, but I just finished reading "Healthy Aging" by Dr. Andrew Weil. I previously did a blog post about both Weil and Dr. Mehmet Oz so was interested in this book when I saw it at the library. As an aside, sometimes it's a hindrance to reading a particular author you're interested in when they have a number of books in print and you have to pick one. I this was a good choice, though, as the book seemed to fully impart Weil's views on aging (in the first half of the book) along with his recommendations to try to age well (in the second half). Some of the things I found most interesting from the book are the following: Chapter One - "Immortality": Interesting mention of cells in the human body and how they stop regenerating... with the exception of the only truly immortal cells, cancer cells. Chapter Two "Shangri-La and Fountains of Youth": Discusses various communities throughout the world that are known for having a longer living population. There tends to be some constants around diet in these areas, but an even more recurring thread is a pervading sense of community... as well as respect for the elderly and inclusion of them in daily lives. Chapter Three - "Anti-aging Medicine": Features Weil's view that most of the anti-aging field is a sham. Also contains a sentiment from Weil that recurs throughout the book... the idea behind healthy aging is not necessarily to extend life, but rather to extend health so that quality of life remains high up until a rapid decline at death. Chapters Five & Six - "The Denial of Aging" & "The Value of Aging": Both related to a point noted above from chapter 2: An examination of the notion that aging is a good thing as it can provide valuable experience to be passed on and can actually lead to improvement with age. The second half of the book beyond this focuses more on specific recommendations to aid in healthy aging. Things get a bit bogged down with lots of detailed tips, but all appear good. They range from simple things like getting enough rest to foods that should be eaten as part of an anti-inflammatory diet. Details around the diet and tons of other information can be found on Weil's website at http://www.drweil.com/ or the "healthy aging" micro site within it. Additionally, his book "8 Weeks to Optimum Health" sounds like an interesting read. Finally, the conclusion of the book has a mention of ethical wills, a Jewish tradition that has been getting adopted by more and more people from all cultures. The idea is to create a document that passes along to your friends and family your feelings about what's important and what you want to pass on as a legacy. This was I thought a really interesting idea and made me think of both Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" (which I did a blog post about here) and what appeals to me about writing... this idea of creating something (sometimes profound, sometimes not at all, but I figure... if it's written, it's "created").

184

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"Call of the Wild" by Jack London – book review posted 3/11/2009 Man, technology is so cool. I just finished reading (well, rereading as I first came across the book probably 25 years ago) "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London on my iPhone. I'll begin with the technology. I've had the 3G iPhone since last summer and heard about books being available to read via phone from a Businessweek story, which I then linked to in this larger blog post. After doing a very simple search of the iPhone app store, I found and downloaded the "Classics" application (website of which can be found here). For what I believe was no greater than $2.99 I received first 12 and now 18 different titles (with the increase coming via software updates at no additional charge). These titles range from "Gulliver's Travels" to "Robinson Crusoe" and "Call of the Wild" among others (listing can also be found at the "Classics" website linked above). In terms of usability, I have nothing but high marks to give... it's very easy to read the text and the user interface is designed so that you see the page turning every time you glide you finger across the screen to move forward. It was super cool technology and a very nice thing to have available... especially if you're in line somewhere or waiting for any period of time. To the book itself... it really is a powerful read that I think should be experienced by first and foremost any kid in school, but also by adults. The reason for this is portrays such a different world than most people experience. Told through the experiences of a dog (see, that's different to begin with), the book tells a tale of the Alaska Gold Rush and a hard life lived. When I say hard, I don't simply mean difficult, but rather a life requiring resiliency and self-sufficiency to survive. Interspersed with that, though, is also a story of both love and that of a journey. The love story told in "Call of the Wild" portrays an incredibly powerful bond between dog and owner. At the same time (and running for a longer period throughout the book), there's the tale of the journey that the lead character Buck travels. Through his portrayed experiences, he becomes something new and different that is part of his heritage (an illusion to the whole "call of the wild" idea). I suppose the story has more meaning for me as a dog owner (particularly as a Husky owner), but it's a very descriptively written story which moves forward briskly (quite a fast read). In terms of "big theme" elements... it has quite a few: high drama, love, coming of age, fighting for survival. Did I mention I liked it? "God Save the Fan" by Will Leitch – book review posted 3/5/2009 I just finished reading "God Save the Fan" by http://www.deadspin.com/ founding Editor Will Leitch. Pretty interesting read from a guy who built an enormous website around the types of sports stories not traditionally covered in the mainstream media. Leitch's website with links to his work and current writing for New York Magazine can be found here and (as his website also features) "God Save the Fan" is just his most recent book, with several others, including the Young Adult book "Catch" coming prior). Back to the book at hand, though, it's an entertaining read that gives the author's view on sports through the prism of its major entities: The players, the owners, the media and most importantly, the fans. The fundamental point that Leitch makes throughout the book is that sports are simply games that provide an escape from everyday life for the fans who watch them. The commentators who ascribe huge meaning to events and attempt to generate epic controversy can get in the way of that basic escape and enjoyment. Maybe it's expanding on this and maybe it's digressing from it a bit, but the following are some of the more interesting things I took from the book (yep... in order from start to finish): Introduction: Features an anecdote about the "preeveryone finding out about the dog fighting" Michael Vick. At the time he was hugely popular and heavily promoted by ESPN and other major sports entities. Though it was posted on The Smoking Gun website, nobody seemed to care that Vick was being accused of giving someone herpes and then seeking medical treatment under the most excellent name "Ron Mexico". Good stuff. Part 1: Players. Leitch makes the point that the steroid controversy is a touch silly given that it's portrayed as such a crime and yet taking cortisone shots described as athletes simply paying the price. NBA star Gilbert Arenas is trumpeted as being the perfect pro athlete for fans to relate to because... he's a bit loony and speaks of sports as being a diversionary entertainment for the fans rather than being something of enormous import that it's not. Part 2: Owners. Observation about how fans often side with owners over players in cases of salary disputes. The surmised reason why is that fans can see themselves as being management more than they can imagine

185

Words Written Down – Book reviews

being pro athletes, which is tied closely to the fact that people think they could be general managers "if just given the chance". Mention of the college football website http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/. Part 3: Media (and why it can be lame). Leitch's college experience reporting with Michigan basketball player Robert "Tractor" Traylor: The phrase "because he can" comes to mind... and the story is enough to push anyone away from wanting to be a sports reporter. The ESPN empire and its various foibles... some amusing and relatively harmless (especially for the fellas) and some more disconcerting: Especially how ESPN influences through its coverage choices. The Carl Monday saga: Too nuanced and fantastic to fully describe here so the Wikipedia reference will have to do. Having seen it, I highly recommend The Daily Show with Jon Stewart report on Carl Monday. The idea of a "sports media expert": C'mon... please, hence, the blogs. Part 4: Fans. Again... it should be about being entertained (or distracted and entertained as the case may be). Everything else... well, to borrow a phrase, its just noise (or Dick Vitale / Stephen A. Smith / Skip Bayless shouting). Good book and it should be entertaining for a sports fan. "Triangle" by David Von Drehle – book review posted 2/26/2009 Just finished reading "Triangle" by David Von Drehle and found it to be an excellent work of historical writing. I've previously enjoyed quite a bit Von Drehle's writing for Time Magazine... which sent me off in search of books written by him. What I found in "Triangle" was a detailed look at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911 that left 146 Garment Industry workers dead. What Von Drehle does with the book (subtitled "The Fire That Changed America") is paint both a portrait of the lives lost in this disaster, but also one of how that loss was not in vain. I find it terribly interesting when a writer can take an event and provide the context for that and then show its ramifications in a larger picture. This is exactly what's accomplished here as Von Drehle starts by profiling the working lives of those who would have perished in the fire and then goes from there. The Garment Industry grew rapidly around this time with its ranks being filled by under paid and over worked immigrants from Europe. At the time of the fire, there had been efforts to improve the lot of these workers (most of whom lived crammed into tenement buildings in New York City), but things didn't really start to get better until after the tragedy. One would like to think that the loss of life wasn't required, but Von Drehle shows how in this situation, it combined together with efforts already undertaken (and with extraordinary individuals) to improve employee working conditions. In fact, "Triangle" shows how the fire was in many ways the catalyst pushing forward progressive ideas as an alternative to the previous approach of the Tammany Hall regime that controlled New York politics. These progressive ideas would be later championed by FDR and become the bedrock of the Democratic Party in America. The other thing that "Triangle" does on a much more micro level is provide a face to those who perished in this tragedy. Very interesting stuff and for those who are interested in history, it's certainly worth the time to read. "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer – book review posted 2/13/2009 I just finished reading "New Moon"... the second book from Stephenie Meyer's four-part "Twilight" series. The book picks up where "Twilight" left off with Bella (human) dating Edward (vampire). From Stephenie Meyer's official website, here's a key passage from the first chapter, "Shoot," I muttered when the paper sliced my finger; I pulled it out to examine the damage. A single drop of blood oozed from the tiny cut. It all happened very quickly then. Edward threw himself at me, flinging me back across the table. I tumbled down to the floor by the piano, with my arms thrown out instinctively to catch my fall, into the jagged shards of glass. I felt the searing, stinging pain that ran from my wrist to the crease inside my elbow. Dazed and disoriented, I looked up from the bright red blood pulsing out of my arm—into the fevered eyes of the six suddenly ravenous vampires.” So... an intriguing beginning to the book for all who enjoyed part one of the series (myself included), but as a whole it seemed like the story fell short. There was definitely some interesting development of characters (notably Jacob Black, Bella's friend) and storylines, but sometimes things seemed to get a bit muddled. The consequence of this for me was either hard to follow action or abrupt drops in story threads. The other criticism I would have is that the writing got weepy (lots of "can't

186

Words Written Down – Book reviews

live if living is without you") and felt like it should be set to a Taylor Swift high-school ballad. That said, the books aren't really written for my demographic so I shouldn't quibble here. All of this said, I did really enjoy book one of the series (particularly the first half) and am terribly impressed by a writer who came out of nowhere with a great first book (story of that here) as well as someone who gets a lot of people reading (just as J.K. Rowling has). "New Moon" as a book probably isn't the greatest piece of writing ever done (or even the greatest Stephenie Meyer writing), but does have some interesting development to Bella's story as part of the series. If someone liked "Twilight" and wants to continue the saga, it's certainly not a bad use of time to read "New Moon" as a prelude to "Eclipse" and then the conclusion book, "Breaking Dawn". "Tropic of Hockey" by Dave Bidini – book review posted 1/29/2009 "Tropic of Hockey" is from Canadian musician/author guy Dave Bidini (his website here) and it's a chronicle of his experiences with the game in such hockey hotspots (maybe literally, but not figuratively) as Dubai, remote (and not so remote) China and Transylvania. As I touched on in my hockey blog post about the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships, the impetus for Bidini to write "Tropic of Hockey" was a growing sense of disillusionment he felt with the NHL version of the game and a desire to reconnect with it by playing and seeing it from different parts of the globe. While I do love the NHL, I could understand his romantic notions of the game and this desire to experience it in a new way. Not entirely the same, but it makes me think of my appreciation for the "Original Six" teams of the NHL and the fans in hockey markets that care deeply about their local team (see: hockey blog post about Montreal). This said, there's a lot of stuff that struck me from the Bidini book, so I'll run through some of it here and try to explain why. Chapter 4 - "Wendel and the Bells": Bidini's story about how he became a hockey fan again as an adult. A very cool description of how it came about and how one player (the aforementioned Wendel Clark of the Leafs) became his favorite. Chapter 9 - "Bobby Clarke's Teeth": Mention of Bidini communicating with people in China entirely through the language of Russian hockey players they all know of. I like how the words "Fetisov", "Tretiak" and "Kasatonov" can tie people together. Chapter 14 - "Journey to the Temple of the Dog": Includes anecdotes about Bidini and his friend masquerading as members of the press to secure interviews with favorite players and entry to parts of one of my most vividly remembered hockey events... Rendez-vous '87 in Quebec City between the Soviet National Team and NHL All-Stars. Chapter 17 - "A Busload of Espo": Primarily about Phil Esposito the '72 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union. The description of the eight-game set makes me wish I had been a fan then (difficult since I wasn't born until a year later). Chapter 23 - "The Last Canadian Game": Interesting to me for two reasons... one is how much I appreciated the description of Bidini's attendance at the final game in Maple Leaf Gardens (which I wish I had been able to watch Toronto play in). The second (and very different) reason is Bidini's mention of "The Whiskey Robber" during this section of the book on Transylvania. As I was reading this portion, much sounded familiar to me and it was because of my reading of "Ballad of the Whiskey Robber" by Julian Rubinstein. I had completely forgotten this it was a true (or at least mostly true) story about a Robin Hood-esque Hungarian hockey player. So cool, I love when stuff comes together. So, all this said about the Bidini book... I liked it a lot and think that most hockey fans would as well... particularly those of us that love the history of the game and its impact. "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell – book review posted 1/25/2009 Just finished reading "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell and I'd say that its place high up the New York Times Bestseller List is richly deserved. Gladwell is also the author of two prior best sellers... "Blink" and "The Tipping Point". Details of each of these (well, all three books) can be found on the author's website, but personally, I enjoyed "Outliers" the most. The subtitle is "The Story of Success" and throughout the book Gladwell paints an interesting portrait of what causes some to achieve greatness, and others... not so much. He certainly doesn't give short shrift to the idea of talent leading to achievement, but provides example after example of how the right external circumstances are needed to lead people to the top of their professions. In looking at this idea of the "stars being aligned", it's important to not overlook the

187

Words Written Down – Book reviews

prerequisite of hard work that Gladwell writes of. During the course of the book he details underclass New York City students achieving success academically... largely as a result of a school schedule that both takes more of the day and runs longer through the year than that of most students. Additionally, he lays out what he terms as the "10,000 hour rule" as a guide for what it takes to achieve mastery of a subject. With examples ranging from Bill Gates of Microsoft, Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems to The Beatles, he shows how these high achievers had early periods of their "professional lives" where they put in this amount of work to become truly proficient. This all said, the external circumstance notion is where Gladwell details what he sees as a needed component of success that is often overlooked... the right time and place. For the innercity student, they have to win a school lottery to attend this "KIPP School" in New York and for Bill Gates and Bill Joy, they were born at a particular time ideal for them to be a part of the personal computers revolution. More specifically, Gates and Joy both had the good fortune of being (through no real plan of their own) in a position to be able to put the time in (hearken back to the 10,000 hour rule) to achieve mastery early on. This doesn't mean that they weren't both extremely smart, but does mean that the circumstances of their lives enabled them to be able to put the effort into their subject area and then capitalize on this mastery gained. Another example from Gladwell around this idea of both fortunate external circumstances and development time spent comes from the world of youth hockey in Canada. It's a fair statement to say that the best adult players were likely some of the best players growing up and got the best coaching and most opportunities for meaningful practice. From this, the question becomes how they got identified as having potential... especially in a system where players by the age of 10 are grouped into "competitive" teams (which is where the elite usually come from) and "recreational" teams. To get at the answer, you have to know that at a young age, the best players are usually... the biggest. At this same young age, the biggest players are often... the oldest. So, what you see when looking at the rosters of NHL players or the top junior leagues that feed the NHL is a preponderance of players born just after the Jan 1 birthday cut-off for classification into age groups. These players born at the beginning of the calendar year are then competing against players up to a year younger (when you match up someone born Jan 2 vs Dec 30 as an example). The difference isn't going to matter in the prime of their careers, but matters quite a bit at 10 years old when someone is determining who has more potential... and will get more ice time, access to better coaching and the opportunity to put in more work and get rewarded accordingly. A different section of the book revolves around how background contributes to success. Getting at this, Gladwell looks at commercial airline pilots and how their ethnic background (external circumstances in the vernacular of this book) contributes to their success or failure as a pilot (measured here in the most important scoring parlance... accident rates). For someone to fly passenger jumbo jets, they're almost certainly going to be smart and highly skilled at flying, but the external circumstance of their culture can have an impact on how likely they are to be involved in crashes. The reason that Gladwell points to has to do with a culture's willingness to question authority. In multiple examples from the this section, he points out how people from certain cultures are going to be less likely to question their "superiors", even if they know that their superiors are wrong. This can manifest itself as deadly in a cockpit if you have pilots who for whatever reason are making a mistake, but the ―subordinates‖ (co-pilot and first officer in this airline example) are hesitant to directly point out or call the pilot on the error they see. Through either not saying anything or making gentle suggestions when forceful language is required, the people around the pilot could have prevented a crash from occurring had they been willing to takes the steps needed to prevent it. While not carrying as much import as the life or death involved in plane crashes, Gladwell also included a chapter with similar meaning around how class rather than ethnic circumstances can impact the success of two equally smart people (has to do with the interpersonal skills and willingness to question authority of those raised in the upper or middle as opposed to lower class). These are just a few of the concepts from the book that struck me as most interesting. Whether about smart kids, pilots, hockey players, inner-city students or computer guys, though, all the examples from the book touch on this idea of great success not coming out of the blue. Rather, a combination of talent, hard work, social circumstance and good fortune making it happen. Very interesting read and I highly recommend.

188

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin – book review posted 1/13/2009 It's been some time since I read it, but I highly recommend "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin (website here) for anyone interested in politics, Abraham Lincoln, or... on a more timely (and specific)note, President-elect Barack Obama's approach to coalition-building. The subtitle of the book is "The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" and after reading it, I can say that the description fits perfectly. Lincoln comes across as a man who may still have had faults, but above all had the strength to recognize that he needed to both reach out to and bring together behind him people with opposing viewpoints. To this point, Goodwin writes in great detail how Lincoln devoted significant effort to recruiting some of his most bitter rivals... knowing that these people were crucial to his ability to govern and lead. Fascinating stuff and... applying this to the present-day, Barack Obama has both spoken extremely highly of this approach and utilized it in many of his Cabinet choices... which included both former Democratic nominee rivals and Republicans from the Bush Administration. Like many things, it will now be interesting (but, also very important) to see how the Obama administration shakes out and what guiding principles it continues to use. "Too Fat to Fish" by Artie Lange – book review posted 12/30/2008 I recently finished reading comedian Artie Lange's memoir "Too Fat to Fish" and man, what a train wreck (not the book, but his life). The book itself is well written and if someone is an Artie fan, they'll likely be entertained by it (which is of course the point). Some of the stories from Artie's life he's told while on air at the "Howard Stern Show", some are brand new, and all are interesting (again, if you're a fan). Back to the train wreck of his life comment, Artie certainly deserves credit for his talent and work put in towards his comedy career, but it's both painful to read about his drug addiction and the situations it and his selfdestructive behavior have put him in. Through what's likely equal parts luck and his talent (and associated people helping him), he's still alive and not in jail, but there's really no telling how long things will stay that way. It was interesting reading this book about an entertainment figure who has gone through (and may well still be going through) drug addiction and comparing it to the memoir of a pro athlete who was also hooked on drugs. In his book "Hero of the Underground" (which I reviewed here) ex-Cornhusker and NFL player Jason Peter tells his story of addiction. One huge difference is that while Jason could of course go back to the addiction that held him for so long, it seems like Artie is still there. He hasn't publicly stated that he's on drugs now, but all indications seem to point in that direction. The "Last Word" chapter from "Too Fat to Fish" is insightful both in that it makes reference to drug problems at the time the book was being finished and the forgiveness and help he's been granted due to his talent and the ability to earn money for people. While it's great that this has helped keep him alive and out of jail, there are limits of how much people will forgive and be willing to bail someone out (as Artie himself states in this section). To borrow an old phrase, it's a slippery slope that he's on. As a fan, I hope he's able to keep it together and not fall off the metaphorical edge. "Hero of the Underground" by Jason Peter – book review posted 12/18/2008 Sakes alive... "Hero of the Underground" by ex-Nebraska Cornhusker football star Jason Peter is quite the read. It's a memoir that takes the reader from Peter's youth to his role as a leader of Nebraska's famed "Blackshirts" Defense and then his NFL career... and subsequent descent into addiction. There are so many levels on which the book is interesting. In the anecdote about a famous person category, there's the story of Peter's younger brother Damian. A hugely talented high-school football player, Damian was headed to Notre Dame to play for Coach Lou Holtz. However, a freak swimming pool accident left him paralyzed... and according to Jason, also no longer of interest to Coach Holtz. Additionally, Peter's story shows some of the profound differences between life for a college as opposed to pro football player. He may have had it exceptionally good in college playing at Nebraska for top-level coaches and in front of extremely knowledgeable and supportive fans, but the NFL was a whole different story. Fans at the pro level were much more fickle towards the players (probably understandable given that their large contracts) and the coaches much more desperately needed to win in order to hold onto their jobs. As a result, Peter found an

189

Words Written Down – Book reviews

environment where it was all about winning... to a point where the camaraderie was gone... and where you did whatever you had to do in order to keep your body performing at a high level. This concept of health (or lack thereof) and what players did with their bodies in the pros takes the reader to the most interesting, and astonishing at times, aspect of the book... Peter's drug addiction and the hold it took on him. What started as a vicodin habit in order to keep playing then morphed into a full-blown painkiller addition. Throw in recreational cocaine use (often as an attempt to bridge the gap between the social life he loved in college and his outside of football boredom as a pro) and Peter's habits were set. Once his body officially gave out, he found himself a late twenty-something guy living in New York City with a drug habit, money to burn and a unfulfilled identity as a pro athlete. From there, Peter began his hard-core partying career... including time spent holed up in $400/night LA hotel rooms with hookers and hanger-on fellow addicts. This all became much more complicated (and potentially deadly) when Peter eventually brought heroin and crack into his addiction menu. This whole portion (really, the largest portion) of the book is amazing in reading about the various situations that Peter put himself into and to know that he actually came out alive. His story is certainly still an unfinished one, but after many trips in and out of rehab, Peter appears to have pulled himself through. Reading his story, it's easy to be amazed by the experiences he had, but also to hope that he can continue to keep everything together. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves football, is interested in the psyche of the pro athlete and fascinated by tales of "extreme lives lived". "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama – book review posted 12/12/2008 I almost feel guilty for saying this, but I found "The Audacity of Hope" (at least the first half of it that I did read) by President-Elect Barack Obama to be... ok. Well, good, but a bit boring. I definitely agreed with many of the views he espouses about politics and found his personal anecdotes to be extremely interesting. That said, I also found myself wanting more personal anecdotes and less about policy. It's not a slam on the book at all, but perhaps just a sign that I would enjoy much more Obama's book "Dreams from My Father". "Zero Days" by Barbara Egbert – book review posted 11/28/2008 I just finished reading "Zero Days"... a pretty interesting book by Barbara Egbert, who took a sabbatical from writing for the San Jose Mercury News to hike the Pacific Coast Trail from Mexico to Canada with her husband and 10 year old daughter. I came across the story from reading an excellent newspaper article by Egbert for the Mercury News after the hike. I wish I could find it to post here, but at least for the time being will have to simply say that it was a really good piece and I enjoyed it more than the full-length book itself. While the topic of the through hike for a family that included the youngest person to ever hike the entire distance was interesting, I wasn't a huge fan of the narrative structure of the book that had chapters organized as topics rather than narrative following the duration of the hike. This said, it was an interesting story and I have to give huge credit to both the then 10 year old daughter who completed the journey and the parents who did it along with her. Further details about the Egbert family can be found on their website, PCT Family. "The Hard Way" by Mark Jenkins – book review posted 11/20/2008 I recently finished "The Hard Way" by Mark Jenkins and celebrated reading this tale of mountaineering exploits and excursions to the remote corners of the Earth by... catching a cold and staying inside all week. Well, while this is a bit of an aside to the book itself, it actually does relate. When I read Jenkins' tale of his various adventures, I admire him for the desire and needed heartiness to visit these dangerous locales, but don't actually want to myself. What I can say, though, is that even though I may not wish to climb a mountain after reading about someone else doing it, I am probably a bit motivated to get out and go camping or hiking... and to do so with my son as he gets older. So, that takeaway combined with the

190

Words Written Down – Book reviews

experience of being entertained by the interesting content combined with excellent writing (from someone who's doing what they love)... yep, it adds up to time well spent having read the book. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch – book review posted 11/8/2008 I just finished reading "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. It was written along with Jeffrey Zaslow after Pausch's lecture about life and preparing to die (Pausch passed away recently from cancer) to his Carnegie Mellon students. The book itself is somewhat interesting, but its primary impact was to make me want to actually watch the lecture itself and to learn more about some of the work that Pausch did while teaching. Two of the outputs of his efforts are the "Entertainment Technology Center" and "Alice". The ETC is a master's degree program in what sounds to be incredibly cool stuff... robotics, video games, animation, etc. and Alice is a software program that teaches computer programming. Additional information on these works as well as links to other aspects of Pausch's life can be found at http://www.thelastlecture.com/. "Saved" by Jack Falla – book review posted 11/6/2008 I just finished reading "Saved" by acclaimed hockey writer Jack Falla. It's a fictional look at a goalie in the NHL and blends in stories of family, commitment and life around a hockey tale. While I would say that the book probably is a bit longer than need be, it did make me interested to learn about and read more from the author who passed away in September 2008 at the age of 64 with his career included stints writing for Sports Illustrated and more recently teaching communications at Boston University. Some of his most well known writing was about his backyard rink in Massachusetts and can be found in his book "Home Ice: Reflections on Backyard Rinks and Frozen Ponds" or in a condensed version at this link to the story "How and Why to Build a Backyard Rink". Early in 2008, Falla also came out with the book "Open Ice: Reflections & Confessions of a Hockey Lifer" discussing his life spent around the sport he loved. "How Tough Could it Be?" & "The Sweet Season" by Austin Murphy – book review posted 10/28/2008 There were a couple of interesting things from the latest Sports Illustrated... one of them written by an author I've come across in the past. In his magazine story "Coming Attractions", senior writer Austin Murphy wrote about Penn State football and their upcoming game against Ohio State (in which they've now beaten the Buckeyes). It was good writing and reminded me of the two books I've read by him. In "How Tough Could It Be? The Trials and Errors of a Sportswriter Turned Stay-at-Home Dad", Murphy recounts his time on sabbatical from SI. Taking over the household management and primary (during the work day at a minimum) responsibility of their two kids provided Murphy a chance to see just how tough the whole stay at home parent thing is. Overall, it's a very funny book and also gives good insights into what Murphy went through. I definitely recommended for those with kids, particularly if one of the parents has this stay at home role. Several years prior to this, Murphy wrote "The Sweet Season: A Sportswriter Rediscovers Football, Family, and a Bit of Faith at Minnesota's St. John's University" about his time spent with Coach John Gagliardi and the small-college St. John's football team. It was an excellent book for those who love college football, particularly a smaller and "less corporate" version of college football that isn't necessarily leading towards the bigger NFL stage, but rather just towards the love of the game. "Traffic" by Tom Vanderbilt – book review posted 10/26/2008 It likely wouldn't have been predicted to sell well, but "Traffic" by frequent magazine writer Tom Vanderbilt reached into the Top Ten on the New York Times Best Seller list. Having just finished reading it, I can see why as it had some very interesting points to make about something that affects many people each and every day... traffic. Some of those insights are the following: Late merging onto a freeway: Rather than simply being selfish driving, it's the most efficient usage of the road as it means the largest portion of available space is being utilized for the longest period of time. Cell phone usage: While it probably is safer to use a hands-free device than to not, the safest thing to do is not use a cell phone at all while driving. The reason has to do with attention... studies of driver's gaze while on a cell phone shows them picking a fixed

191

Words Written Down – Book reviews

point directly in front of them and keeping focus there. This is as opposed to experienced (i.e. good) drivers not talking on a cell phone who are continually scanning the path ahead to adjust to any obstacles that may arise. We miss seeing things we don't expect: Accidents often result from outliers in traffic that they're not used to seeing. Cars frequently collide with police and emergency responders parked alongside the road and a main reason why is that the drivers of those cars don't expect to see anything parked there and when they do, the processing of that information often isn't done quickly enough to take the right course of action driving. Roundabouts and shared spaces are safer for all: It's really two different but related points... roundabouts are a good thing in traffic because they slow everybody down and make them be aware of their surroundings (similar idea to not talking on a cell phone) and shared space between cars and pedestrians accomplishes the same end. The alternative to this is simple four-way stops and lights... where accidents often occur when people don't expect either the other car or pedestrian to enter "their space". Related to both of these concepts is the idea that the most dangerous roads are the most boring ones. Rumble strips on highways help reduce this danger, but what occurs is driving are lulled into a false sense of security (or sleep) and reduce their attention... which is never good on the road. There's definitely some other interesting concepts (around commute times, parking and building more roads, for instance) out of the book and even though it's a bit dry (it is an entire book about traffic for gosh sakes), I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the concepts. "For those About to Write" by Dave Bidini – book review posted 10/26/2008 It's I'm sure an extremely little known book in the U.S., but I just finished reading "For Those About to Write" from Canadian writer Dave Bidini. Written for the young adult (teen) audience, it's a very fast read and contains Bidini's autobiographical path into a writing profession. There's not much in the way of narrative to the book, but there are some interesting things aspiring writers can take away: Reach out to writers: Bidini knew from a young age he wanted to be a writer and worked towards that... by both spending time writing (outside of school) and sending letters to accomplished writers asking for advice. While not everyone knows that they want to do from a young age (or even middle age), Bidini deserves admiration for his efforts toward his goal of being a writer (and his path reminded me of that Stephen King described is his autobiographical book "On Writing"). Just write: I suppose it ties into the above notion, but one point that Bidini makes (which also happened to be made in King's book) is the best way to become a good writer is to just write. As he puts it, writing garbage is ok to do, it gives you practice and if you write enough, the good stuff will eventually come out. When it does and you're "feeling it", that's great and you of course keep writing the good stuff, but even when you're not writing well, it's still good to keep putting pen to paper so to speak. It's not necessarily a criticism, but one thing that I found interesting in the book was that at the end, Bidini comments about writing on the Internet and while he doesn't disparage it, he's also doesn't seem terribly impressed with it as a medium. Where this seems odd to me is that earlier in the book he recommends writers put out "fanzines"... short newsletters on a given topic. To me, this would be in essence a different version of a blog. Both simply mean that the aspiring writer is doing the best thing towards their goal... writing. All in all, I think "For Those About to Write" a pretty solid book. I came across it because Bidini does a fair amount of hockey writing (I'll be reading his "Tropic of Hockey" book soon) and wanted to see what he had to say about the process of writing itself. If that's a goal of someone, they probably couldn't go wrong reading his thoughts on the topic. "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld – book review posted 10/17/2008 I tend to be more of a reader of non-fiction books, but try to throw in some fiction here and there to "keep myself honest" and read stuff from both categories of work. To this end, I just finished reading "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld. It's a fictional (i.e. made up) account of first lady Laura Bush and the circumstances of her life and how she wound up married to George W. Bush (again, fictional, but with general themes from the President's past that many would recognize). Additional information ranging from author bio to a reading guide for the book can be found at http://www.curtissittenfeld.com/. My reaction

192

Words Written Down – Book reviews

to the book is both that I was impressed by it and thought it could have been better. The basic genre (if genre is the right term) is fiction, but I think "American Wife" could be further categorized as what I'll call "story of life" fiction. Similar to "Straight Man" by Richard Russo (which I finished earlier this year) or "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen (which I'm about halfway through and hope to finish eventually), Sittenfeld's book carries the reader through a life (or at least period of life) history of the main character. The manifestation of this on the page is Sittenfeld's (as well as Russo's and Franzen's) work comes across as being character as opposed to plot based. One of the thoughts I have reading good character based fiction (especially Franzen's) is "damn, I wish I could write that well." I love the way this type of writing (done well) paints a vivid portrait on the page of who a person actually is. This is in no way to mean that plot based is bad as there is of course great plot based stuff out there (The "Twilight" books by Stephenie Meyer and "Harry Potter" books by J.K. Rowling come to mind), but just as I think it's good to read fiction in general, it's also good to read really good character based writing. I suppose it should also be said that there's fiction writing out there that does both character and plot based well, but it's not common (an example that comes to mind is the character of Howard Roark and circumstances of his life... as written by Ayn Rand in "The Fountainhead"). Anyhoo... back to Sittenfeld's work. What I liked about it was the portrait of a first a girl and then a woman growing up in small town Wisconsin. Her meeting and then interactions with the character later to become President was a fascinating juxtaposition (if I'm actually using that word correctly). What the reader sees is how someone assimilates into a family and social class completely different than their own and the emotions and actions that then evokes in the main character. This period of the book was really well done. Interestingly enough, the part I liked the least about the book was what caused me to read it in the first place. It's marketed (correctly so, I suppose) as a fictional account of Laura Bush and her life with George W, but for me, the book basically ends with the conclusion of the section just prior to the Presidency. I suppose this ties into one of the problems with this so called "story of life" fiction... you either have to pick a discreet time period (as Russo did in his book) and have it be manageable for the reader or cover it all (as Franzen did) and have the book take forever to get through (much as I love the writing, I don't know when I'll finish it). What I don't like about Sittenfeld's book is that it feels the final part in the White House is simply tacked on to be able to say "this book is about Laura and George W". However, I would have been just as happy if that last section were treated as simply a postscript paragraph rather than another 100 or so pages. That said... all the stuff above about the excellent character based writing is true: That alone I think is enough to make this a solid read. "Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin – book review posted 10/2/2008 Having heard Steve Martin's book "Born Standing Up" spoken about in glowing terms on the Howard Stern Show, I decided to give it a read and was not disappointed. The book is an autobiography of sorts about Martin's time in doing stand-up (was a distinct period of his life), but also has both some fascinating insights into his character as well as interesting asides that reveal how he views things. At times it gets a bit tedious and reads a bit like a list of the things he's done, but that's outweighed by the good stuff. Some of that is as follows: The idea of Martin starting his entertainment career at age 10 working at the newly opened Disneyland. I couldn't help but be jealous of someone who basically knew from an early age what he wanted to do (even though he went from magic to comedy and then movies and writing)... course, I also give huge credit to someone who kept going after that despite adversity. Tied to the earlier mentioned notion, Martin had a quote about his "lean" years that I loved... "Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration." Additionally of interest was Martin's depression during his period of greatest stand-up success (right before he ended standup) and his reconciliation with his parents and corresponding reconnection with his sister. All in all, an interesting read for anyone who is either a fan of Martin or wants some insight into the show business world through someone that has been very successful in it. It's also short with big words... ;)

193

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good" by Sarah Lacy – book review posted 9/2/2008 In "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good", Businessweek technology and Yahoo! Finance writer Sarah Lacy paints an interesting picture of the "Web 2.0" scene and the companies and individuals in it. An excerpt (focusing on Marc Andreessen and Ning) was featured in a May 2008 Businessweek issue and the basis for Lacy's book was from an Aug 2006 BW cover story (that featured Kevin Rose) she co-wrote. Getting back to the book itself, "Web 2.0" roughly refers to the new generation of companies that have formed since the 2000/2001 tech downturn and includes some big and sure to be bigger companies as well as still building start-ups that may or may not make it on their own. Just as the companies in these categorizations run the gamut, so do the lead players that Lacy chronicles in her book. The following are some of the companies and people that she gives the greatest coverage to (Lacy makes an interesting observation that new web technologies are either platforms, applications or features): Platforms (roughly described as companies and websites where people come to do stuff): - Facebook: Currently the hottest privately owned Web 2.0 company (and perhaps hottest private or public Web 2.0 company depending on how you compare it to News Corp. owned MySpace). Lacy spends a good amount of time detailing Facebook as a company, but also Mark Zuckerberg as its founder and CEO. LinkedIn: Right up there with Facebook as a predicted billion dollar company once it does go public. It's similar to both Facebook and MySpace in that it's a Social Network, but different in that it's designed for the professional set. Founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman is also profiled by Lacy, just not in as much detail as Zuckerberg. Ning: Another Social Networking company, only different than the prior ones mentioned in that it's much newer and aspires to the platform status achieved by the others. One of the more interesting things that Lacy writes about Ning is that it was co-founded and heavily funded by one of the leading statesman of tech (and now CTO of Ning), Marc Andreessen. Applications (roughly described as companies and websites that people do stuff with): Slide: A very interesting company. I had only peripherally heard of Slide prior to reading Lacy's book, but now know it to be the force behind some of the most downloaded applications on Facebook and MySpace. One of the things about Slide is its nature as a "widget" or application company. People constantly use Slide products, but may not even know who is behind them... and have to go to one of the "platform" companies/websites to use them. Heavily chronicled in Lacy's book is Slide (as well as PayPal) creator Max Levchin. Tougher to Categorize (definitely not feature, probably best described as now being application companies with potential and desire to become platforms): Yelp: A review website that has individual member posts on their favorite bars, restaurants, doctors and dentists (and of course many other categories) for a given local. Digg: A story ranking site where members "digg" specific articles found on the web, which then get listed as the "top stories" on the Digg website. It‘s a fascinating idea that seems to get at the best aspects of "participatory news". Digg also has some of the highest star power of the Web 2.0 companies as it was started by tech entrepreneur and Businessweek cover guy Kevin Rose. Several other companies that Lacy spends time discussing are Six Apart & Blogger. Both are "guts" companies that created (and continue to create) tools for use in blog writing. - Technorati: Blog search engine. Twitter: Hmmm, not sure how best to describe Twitter so I'll just use the verbiage from its homepage.... "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?" Another character profiled by Lacy is PayPal co-founder and Facebook investor and board member Peter Thiel. Lacy relates an anecdote in which Thiel provides his view that "older tech companies are eventually worthless investments". Thiel feels this is because engineers are the greatest asset of a tech company and without the carrot of going public (or being sold), those employees are going to either leave or simply not work as hard. All in all, I highly recommend Lacy's book as being an extremely interesting look at this "Web 2.0" world. "A Sense of the World" by Jason Roberts book review posted 8/27/2008 In "A Sense of the World", a narrative nonfiction account of blind traveler James Holman, author Jason Roberts provides a fascinating look at this adventurer. I first heard about Roberts' book in the Time Magazine review titled "Have Cane, Will Travel" by Lev Grossman and was definitely not disappointed

194

Words Written Down – Book reviews

after actually reading the book. Roberts does a very compelling job of describing the travails and challenges faced by the explorer and I‘d definitely recommend this book for those who love adventure travel, or at least the idea of it. "Politics Lost" & other writings by Joe Klein – book review posted 8/20/2008 Time Magazine writer Joe Klein may be best known for being the "Anonymous" author of "Primary Colors" (a fictionalized account of Bill Clinton's run for the Presidency), but that's by no means all that Klein has written of value. Klein's book "Politics Lost" is a fascinating look at his view of some of the problems in the American political process. To this end, the sub-title of the book "From RFK to W: How Politicians Have Become Less Courageous and More Interested in Keeping Power than in Doing What's Right for America" offers a good preview of his feelings on many elected officials... and the political consultants and handlers who shape those officials. One thing of particular interest in the book is Klein's mention of Robert F Kennedy's speech (overviewed and available in this NPR story) the night of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Kennedy's unrehearsed (and now famous) speech to a largely black crowd on this extremely emotional and volatile night is held up by Klein as an example of the best that political leaders can and should offer the public. While Klein has garnered a good amount of attention for his books, he is also well known for frequent commentaries (named after the famous "Man in the Arena" quote from Theodore Roosevelt) in Time Magazine. Several of Klein's commentaries that I've found to be of note are those on Merle Haggard returning to the Democratic Party, Tim Russert and his relationship with Klein and Barack Obama's Cabinet choices should he become President. That said, Klein has a breadth of excellent writing and his "In the Arena" work can be found at this compilation list. "The Blind Side", "Moneyball" & "The New New Thing" by Michael Lewis – book review posted 8/17/2008 It doesn't seem terribly frequent that you come across a non-fiction writer whose books cover a broad range of subjects extremely well. Berkeley, California resident Michael Lewis shows himself to be the exception to this norm with three excellent books about the widely disparate subjects of baseball team building, Technology Company creating and football star blooming. His most well-known book in the San Francisco Bay Area has to be "Moneyball" that Lewis wrote as a chronicle of Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane and his (highly successful) efforts to build a winning baseball team while spending less money than the opposition. To this end, Beane focused (and continues to focus) on trying to exploit untapped market opportunities (i.e. to draft the best college players if other teams are primarily going after only high-school athletes). With its roots still in Northern California, Lewis also wrote "The New New Thing" about Silicon Valley legend Jim Clark. It's an extremely interesting subject to take on as Clark is currently the only person to create three different companies (Netscape, Healtheon and Silicon Graphics) that each reached over $1 billion in value. Clark's former hire at Netscape, Marc Andreessen may be the closest to joining him with his past success at Netscape and Loudcloud/Opsware and current effort at Ning, but for now Clark stands alone in this "$3B club". Lewis' most recent book goes after something entirely different, both in terms of subject and geography. "The Blind Side" is an account of current college football star lineman Michael Oher who went from a poor neighborhood in Memphis, TN to a likely first-round NFL draft pick in the summer of 2009. Oher's is a fascinating human tale about someone with raw physical abilities and the help then provided to help him reach this current status of potential millionaire. In addition to these excellent books, Lewis also has published a series of pieces for Slate Magazine titled "Dad Again" which chronicle various stages in the births and lives of his three young children with former MTV VJ wife, Tabitha Soren. "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein – book review posted 8/14/2008 In his book "The Art of Racing in the Rain", Seattle author Garth Stein weaves a fantastic tale narrated through the inner voice of a dog as he observes the life challenges faced by his intrepid owner. Through this looking in on family heartbreak and challenge, the dog/narrator provides insightful life lessons that in

195

Words Written Down – Book reviews

many ways... only a dog could. While this is probably not a book that will resonate with all, it's lyrical and deep in meaning nature is sure to appeal to many... particularly those who love both wisdom and dogs. ―Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk‖ book by Peter Bernstein – review posted 8/12/2008 There are a great number of financial sages to be found in print and one of those with an extremely long track record of solid investment wisdom is Peter Bernstein, author of "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk" among other books. I first came across author Peter Bernstein in a 2004 Money Magazine interview which led me to read the aforementioned title. The book is an interesting look at the concept of risk through the years and the Money Magazine interview had some fascinating nuggets from Bernstein about his approach to investing. Some highlights from the interview are the following: “Diversification is both recognition of ignorance and an aggressive strategy because it puts you in position to profit from wherever the next big hit might come.” “You can never be sure that today‟s market is going to be a replay of the past.” “Maximizing returns is an investment strategy that makes sense only in very specific circumstances. In general, survival is the only road to riches. You should try to maximize returns only if losses would not threaten your survival and if you have a compelling future need for the extra gains you might earn.” This last concept around not simply attempting to "maximize returns" struck me the most in that it means you never will know the absolute highest point an investment will reach, so you never attempt to simply maximize, you always balance against risk. ―A Few Seconds of Panic‖ book by Stefan Fatsis – review posted 8/7/2008 Wall Street Journal writer Stefan Fatsis gives an extremely interesting account of his training camp spent as a 43-year-old journalist going through Training Camp with the Denver Broncos as a field goal kicker. The journey he took was reminiscent of George Plimpton's decades ago when he went through Camp with the Detroit Lions as part of his book Paper Lion. While the book dragged on at times, I still highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the NFL as it gives a detailed look at what life in the league can be like for the players... a very few of whom are the stars and majority are often expendable parts. I've for quite a while found fascinating the fact that the NFL is the major league you're most likely to suffer a catastrophic injury in, and the only one that doesn't have fully guaranteed contracts. This view I've had of it as a "chew 'em up and spit 'em out" league is reinforced throughout the book from Fatsis... particularly in the several sections where he talks about players going through camp knowing they won't make the team and the coaches knowing they won't make the team, but being kept around to the end to "keep other teams from getting them... you know, just in case someone gets hurt." There's also a terribly interesting observation made in the middle of the book that the league is broken down into two types of players... not by age, race or salary, but by respective love of the game. There's one camp of players that still just love the game and accept that the parts of being a pro athlete they don't like just come with the territory. The other camp probably also started out loving football (as I imagine most college players still do), but now continue on with NFL careers for the money (understandable given how high the salaries can get), but question whether the berating of them by coaches and potential for life-impacting injury is worth it. "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer, "The Innocent Man" by John Grisham and... J.K. Rowling – book reviews posted 8/4/2008 Whereas the last post was about a process of writing (specifically writing while holding a different job), I thought it would be interesting to pull together some different stories about "the big guns", those writers who certainly may have had held down day jobs while writing, but certainly don't have to now. Additionally, these are all authors I've had the chance to read and form an opinion on. Starting off at the very top is of course, J.K. Rowling who was featured as a "Person of the Year Runner-Up" in the Dec 31, 2007-Jan 7, 2008 issue of Time Magazine. Having been a devoted reader of the entire Harry Potter series, I completely agree with the accolades received by Rowling... and shared her view of the last Harry Potter book as being the best. Following on the heels of Rowling is Stephenie Meyer. In an Apr 2008 piece titled

196

Words Written Down – Book reviews

"Stephenie Meyer: A New J.K. Rowling?" Time profiled the author of the Twilight series. Being curious to see what the hullabaloo was about, I read Meyer's first book "Twilight" (which became so popular that it became the first in a series) and can attest that it's very entertaining writing and that yep... I'm looking forward to the movie. Also, I highly recommend Meyer's account of how Twilight was written and published from her website. Moving on from the teen fantasy genre, Time in Oct 2006 gave a profile of John Grisham which went into detail about his non-fiction book "The Innocent Man". A fascinating read that made me never want to grow up in small-town Oklahoma. And finally... having gone through the progression of authors I find brilliant (Rowling) to very good with potential for brilliance (Meyer & Grisham), there's James Patterson. In March of 2006 Time had "The Man Who Can't Miss" on the gazillion copy selling writer. Having read one of his books... I just don't get it, but with 100 million readers (even better for Patterson, 100 million copy purchasers), he's doing something right. Writing whilst working & "Company" by Max Barry – book review posted 8/4/2008 It's a tough thing to do... writing while at the same time holding down a full-time job (even tougher for those also rearing a baby). However, there is light before the dawn and dusk before the bonny doon... Whatever, there‘s reason to believe it can be done, and well. The May 2006 issue of Fast Company Magazine contains "Join the Corporate Literati" about people who have succeeded (and continue to) at this dual effort. Another story from Fast Company in Jan 2006, "In Good Company" is about Australian author Max Barry who wrote his first novel during lunch breaks away from Hewlett-Packard. There are of course many ways to skin a cat, but in Barry's case, he utilized the Internet Writers Workshop to improve his craft. I can attest that Barry's most recently published book, "Company" was an excellent read with a very funny (of the biting humor variety) look at Corporate America and it's follies. So, all this being said, the point of the story is someone wants to write, they will. It may be tough and may require disciple, but it can be done. That's encouraging. "The Devil in the White City", "Thunderstruck" & "Isaac's Storm" by Erik Larson – book reviews posted 8/3/2008 Historical fiction is a really interesting genre. Take a topic or event, research it painstakingly, make up a few of the details and linkages and if put to paper in an engaging manner... voila, you've got an excellent book. Some quibble with the not entirely true nature of historical fiction (or historical non-fiction with a few liberties), but if the reader is aware of what they're getting into, I don't see the harm. To jump a bit from the historical fiction category and into autobiographical humor, I like the way author David Sedaris describes his stories as being "real enough." Back to actual historical fiction, though, an author who seems to frequent this genre is Erik Larson. Having read his last three books, I would highly recommend all and look forward to Larson's next book (wish I could figure out when it will be). The following is a listing of the three with a brief overview of each. "Thunderstruck": published in paperback in Sept 2007, it's a dual account of the invention of the telegraph (by Marconi) and a murder in England... including how the two intertwine. "The Devil in the White City": published in paperback in Feb 2004, also a dual account of the Chicago World's Fair and you guessed it, a murderer in the city. "Isaac's Storm": published in paperback in July 2000, a tale of the deadly Hurricane which hit Galveston, Texas at the turn of the 20th century... told with focus on the local weather bureau chief, Isaac Cline. "The Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner – book review posted 7/20/2008 Similar to Bill Bryson in his whimsical and entertaining books "In a Sunburned Country" & "A Walk in the Woods" among other travel tales, Eric Weiner delivers in "The Geography of Bliss" an excellent global search for happiness detailing the relative moods of people in places as far flung as Iceland, Moldova and Qatar. Weiner seamlessly mixes together humor with the descriptions of each place and comes to the conclusion that one of the biggest drivers of happiness is a common culture... as held by the people in Iceland and not to be found at all in Qatar: Interesting stuff, and very entertaining.

197

Words Written Down – Book reviews / Conclusion

"The Devil's Teeth" & other writings by Susan Casey – book review posted 7/12/2008 In her book "The Devil's Teeth", published in hardcover back in 2005 and then paperback a year later, Susan Casey gives a fascinating account of her time spent on and around the Farallon Islands 27 miles out of San Francisco and home to a thriving seasonal population of great white sharks. Very interesting read and highly recommended for anyone who likes a true adventure yarn... particularly someone in the Bay Area who may have flown over the Farallones at one point or another. I was not familiar with Casey's writing prior to reading the book and didn't come across her name again until seeing in the May 2008 issue of Esquire a profile of 75 year old workout fanatic and extreme thrill seeker Don Wildman, appropriately titled "The World's Healthiest 75 Year Old Man". The story was interesting given both the crazy regimen followed by Wildman and his celebrity-athlete workout partners (including surfer Laird Hamilton and hockey player Chris Chelios), but Casey's solid writing added to the effect. Was fascinating to recognize the name and then realize that she had also been behind the book on the Farallones. "Out of Orbit (or "Too Far From Home") & other writings by Chris Jones – book review posted 7/5/2008 In the May 2008 issue of Esquire Magazine, writer at large Chris Jones contributes "The Things That Carried Him" about fallen serviceman Sgt. Joe Montgomery. It's an amazingly poignant piece about the path taken by the body from time of death in Iraq to burial back home. Jones has been writing for Esquire for some time now and at http://www.esquire.com/ additional stories can be found. Also, he has the book "Out of Orbit: The Incredible True Story of Three Astronauts Who Were Hundreds of Miles Above Earth When They Lost Their Ride Home" currently available in paperback and previously titled "Too Far From Home" in the hardcover edition. Regardless of what it's called, it's an excellent book that presents an extremely human portrait of the US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts who were at the International Space Station at the time of the Shuttle Columbia disaster. Conclusion Well, there are a lot of words written and many more in works by others referenced here. What do they all mean? It depends… some carry great heft, some are instead pretty vaporous, but all have potential. Me thinks that‘s the great thing about words. They can signify pretty much anything and their meaning can change worlds, it‘s just a question of how they‘re organized on a page.