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Names on the Land and the Devil's Dictionary

Peter T. Coyne

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COYNE Peter T. Coyne, our beloved father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend, died peacefully surrounded by his family after a courageous battle against cancer Thursday, February 26, 2009. Peter will be sadly missed by his loving sister, Sheilagh and devoted daughter, Jennifer and her mother, Judy. Peter will be lovingly remembered by his cherished grandsons, Joey, P.J. and John as well as his son-in-law, John, his nephew and nieces and their families and many dear, devoted friends. Peter was born in New York City and later moved to Stamford with his parents, the late Thomas and Bertha Coyne. Peter was also predeceased by his beloved son, Tommy and a brother, Tom. Peter's strong work ethic carried him far in his career in sales and marketing. His determination and drive later propelled him towards business pursuits in the livery industry. Peter's professionalism, charm and keen wit accompanied his clients on many a journey. What often started out as a business relationship blossomed into friendships that he cherished. Peter was also an avid fisherman who took great delight in telling many a "fish tale." His gentle, warm ways were apparent with any encounter with a four legged critter. Peter found great strength through out his life in his faith and his contributions to Christian organizations were many. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Assumption Church, 98 Riverside Avenue Westport. A private family interment will be held at a later date. Friends may call Monday March 2nd from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Leo P. Gallagher and Son Funeral Home, 2900 Summer Street, Stamford. Contributions in Peters name may be made to MSKCC P.O. Box 27106 New York, New York 10087. Family and friends who are unable to attend may light a virtual candle, share photos or stories by visiting www.mem.com "You can shed tears that he is gone or you can smile because he has lived"

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ctpost/obituary.aspx?n=peter-t-coyne&pid=124785858#sthash.ihQSNYCg.dpuf

When you enter "Boston" on weather.com you may be in for a surprise. At least I was. Besides Boston, Massachusetts you'll find the weather for Boston, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New York and Virginia as well as Boston, Sweden, United Kingdom and South Africa. Enter "Portland" and you'll get more than the expected Maine and Oregon. There's also Portland, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, New York and Ohio. Maybe there are even a few Bostons and Portlands that weather.com missed?

Although he was born in a small town in northeast Tennessee, Dave Loggins was not thinking small town when he sang "Please Come to Boston" back in 1974. You can be sure it was Boston, Massachusetts he was talking about when he wrote the song. (The lyrics also mention big cities like Denver and LA in other verses.) But what would he have written if there had been a Boston, Oregon to consider? In 2012, Portland, Oregon's population was over 600,000 people, only about 33,000 less than Boston, Massachusetts.

"Names on the Land, a Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States" by George Stewart (1895 - 1980) was originally published in 1945. Mr. Stewart was a sociologist, toponymist and a founding member of the American Name Society.  (Never heard of a "toponymist" or of this society before.) My soft-cover edition was published in 2008 by the New York Review of Books. The author states on page 313 that "only a rash prophet would venture to predict that the number of states, even within the continental limits, will remain perpetually at 48". This comment was prophetic.  On page 386 we're told that "here ends the book as originally written; the supplemental material follows." The last 3 chapters cover Alaska, Hawaii and Current Affairs 1944 - 1958. The first edition to include these chapters was printed in 1967.

So how did Portland, Oregon almost become named Boston, Oregon? On page 253 of my 2008 edition it reads:

"When more people arrived in Oregon, Amos Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove laid out a little town, four streets each way , in 1845. Lovejoy was from Massachusetts and wanted it to be Boston, but Pettygrove was from Maine and wanted Portland. Being good Americans they flipped a coin. The name of a great city went spinning into the air. It fell for Portland." That's one of my favorite anecdotes from this book, but there is much more in its 438 pages.

Although many names in this country are of Indian origin, the Indians themselves left no written records. The Spaniards were among the first to name the land, mostly in Florida and California. Not all names survived. The English gave some of these places new names. Butt kissing was sometimes a factor, names bestowed to honor or curry favor with a king or other influential party.

Some other tidbits:

Explorers with the most names bestowed upon the land: Marquette & Jolliet who were responsible for naming Wisconsin, Peoria, Des Moines, Missouri, Osage, Omaha, Iowa, Wabash and Arkansas.

Dallas was named after a Vice President under Polk, George Dallas.

Maine is the only state with a one-syllable name.

I would recommend this book to those interested in American history or this subject matter in particular - how our cities, states, rivers, mountains, roads, etc got named. Is "Names on the Land" an exciting read? Uh, No! Some parts may be even dull - strike that - are dull, but then occasionally you'll find something to peak your interest.

I suppose you could almost regard Names as a reference book. Whenever you want to know the origin of a name, you could just go to the book's index. It provides some guidance at its beginning, e.g., you won't find variants such as "Ouisconsin" listed separately. It will be mentioned under its final form as Wisconsin.

This is not the first time that I've sort of recommended a reference work. In my post of October 21, 2010 titled "Bierce",  I mentioned Bierce's cynical and at times hilarious  "Devil's Dictionary". A writer named LaValle suggested that the Devil's Dictionary reads like a collection of great Twitter posts.  There's actually a website, www.thedevilsdictionary.com. Here are some examples to whet your twittering appetite:

Corporation - "An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility". (Wonder if Ambrose would be surprised to find out that a corporation is now a person. Probably not.)

Lawyer -  "One skilled in circumvention of the law".

Politics - "A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage".

PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

Impartial - "Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions".

"Education" -  "That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding".

Happiness -  "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another".

Finally, something unrelated but I can't resist mentioning:

I don't often read book reviews, but this one  from Bierce is one of my all-time favorites:

"The covers of this book are too far apart." (Wish I knew which book he was talking about.)

 

Peter T. Coyne

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COYNE Peter T. Coyne, our beloved father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend, died peacefully surrounded by his family after a courageous battle against cancer Thursday, February 26, 2009. Peter will be sadly missed by his loving sister, Sheilagh and devoted daughter, Jennifer and her mother, Judy. Peter will be lovingly remembered by his cherished grandsons, Joey, P.J. and John as well as his son-in-law, John, his nephew and nieces and their families and many dear, devoted friends. Peter was born in New York City and later moved to Stamford with his parents, the late Thomas and Bertha Coyne. Peter was also predeceased by his beloved son, Tommy and a brother, Tom. Peter's strong work ethic carried him far in his career in sales and marketing. His determination and drive later propelled him towards business pursuits in the livery industry. Peter's professionalism, charm and keen wit accompanied his clients on many a journey. What often started out as a business relationship blossomed into friendships that he cherished. Peter was also an avid fisherman who took great delight in telling many a "fish tale." His gentle, warm ways were apparent with any encounter with a four legged critter. Peter found great strength through out his life in his faith and his contributions to Christian organizations were many. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Assumption Church, 98 Riverside Avenue Westport. A private family interment will be held at a later date. Friends may call Monday March 2nd from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Leo P. Gallagher and Son Funeral Home, 2900 Summer Street, Stamford. Contributions in Peters name may be made to MSKCC P.O. Box 27106 New York, New York 10087. Family and friends who are unable to attend may light a virtual candle, share photos or stories by visiting www.mem.com "You can shed tears that he is gone or you can smile because he has lived"

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ctpost/obituary.aspx?n=peter-t-coyne&pid=124785858#sthash.ihQSNYCg.dpuf

When you enter "Boston" on weather.com you may be in for a surprise. At least I was. Besides Boston, Massachusetts you'll find the weather for Boston, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New York and Virginia as well as Boston, Sweden, United Kingdom and South Africa. Enter "Portland" and you'll get more than the expected Maine and Oregon. There's also Portland, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, New York and Ohio. Maybe there are even a few Bostons and Portlands that weather.com missed?

Although he was born in a small town in northeast Tennessee, Dave Loggins was not thinking small town when he sang "Please Come to Boston" back in 1974. You can be sure it was Boston, Massachusetts he was talking about when he wrote the song. (The lyrics also mention big cities like Denver and LA in other verses.) But what would he have written if there had been a Boston, Oregon to consider? In 2012, Portland, Oregon's population was over 600,000 people, only about 33,000 less than Boston, Massachusetts.

"Names on the Land, a Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States" by George Stewart (1895 - 1980) was originally published in 1945. Mr. Stewart was a sociologist, toponymist and a founding member of the American Name Society.  (Never heard of a "toponymist" or of this society before.) My soft-cover edition was published in 2008 by the New York Review of Books. The author states on page 313 that "only a rash prophet would venture to predict that the number of states, even within the continental limits, will remain perpetually at 48". This comment was prophetic.  On page 386 we're told that "here ends the book as originally written; the supplemental material follows." The last 3 chapters cover Alaska, Hawaii and Current Affairs 1944 - 1958. The first edition to include these chapters was printed in 1967.

So how did Portland, Oregon almost become named Boston, Oregon? On page 253 of my 2008 edition it reads:

"When more people arrived in Oregon, Amos Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove laid out a little town, four streets each way , in 1845. Lovejoy was from Massachusetts and wanted it to be Boston, but Pettygrove was from Maine and wanted Portland. Being good Americans they flipped a coin. The name of a great city went spinning into the air. It fell for Portland." That's one of my favorite anecdotes from this book, but there is much more in its 438 pages.

Although many names in this country are of Indian origin, the Indians themselves left no written records. The Spaniards were among the first to name the land, mostly in Florida and California. Not all names survived. The English gave some of these places new names. Butt kissing was sometimes a factor, names bestowed to honor or curry favor with a king or other influential party.

Some other tidbits:

Explorers with the most names bestowed upon the land: Marquette & Jolliet who were responsible for naming Wisconsin, Peoria, Des Moines, Missouri, Osage, Omaha, Iowa, Wabash and Arkansas.

Dallas was named after a Vice President under Polk, George Dallas.

Maine is the only state with a one-syllable name.

I would recommend this book to those interested in American history or this subject matter in particular - how our cities, states, rivers, mountains, roads, etc got named. Is "Names on the Land" an exciting read? Uh, No! Some parts may be even dull - strike that - are dull, but then occasionally you'll find something to peak your interest.

I suppose you could almost regard Names as a reference book. Whenever you want to know the origin of a name, you could just go to the book's index. It provides some guidance at its beginning, e.g., you won't find variants such as "Ouisconsin" listed separately. It will be mentioned under its final form as Wisconsin.

This is not the first time that I've sort of recommended a reference work. In my post of October 21, 2010 titled "Bierce",  I mentioned Bierce's cynical and at times hilarious  "Devil's Dictionary". A writer named LaValle suggested that the Devil's Dictionary reads like a collection of great Twitter posts.  There's actually a website, www.thedevilsdictionary.com. Here are some examples to whet your twittering appetite:

Corporation - "An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility". (Wonder if Ambrose would be surprised to find out that a corporation is now a person. Probably not.)

Lawyer -  "One skilled in circumvention of the law".

Politics - "A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage".

PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

Impartial - "Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions".

"Education" -  "That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding".

Happiness -  "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another".

Finally, something unrelated but I can't resist mentioning:

I don't often read book reviews, but this one  from Bierce is one of my all-time favorites:

"The covers of this book are too far apart." (Wish I knew which book he was talking about.)

 

Peter T. Coyne

Obituary

Guest Book

4 entries | 2 photos

 

The Guest Book is expired.

Restore the Guest Book

More Photos

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COYNE Peter T. Coyne, our beloved father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend, died peacefully surrounded by his family after a courageous battle against cancer Thursday, February 26, 2009. Peter will be sadly missed by his loving sister, Sheilagh and devoted daughter, Jennifer and her mother, Judy. Peter will be lovingly remembered by his cherished grandsons, Joey, P.J. and John as well as his son-in-law, John, his nephew and nieces and their families and many dear, devoted friends. Peter was born in New York City and later moved to Stamford with his parents, the late Thomas and Bertha Coyne. Peter was also predeceased by his beloved son, Tommy and a brother, Tom. Peter's strong work ethic carried him far in his career in sales and marketing. His determination and drive later propelled him towards business pursuits in the livery industry. Peter's professionalism, charm and keen wit accompanied his clients on many a journey. What often started out as a business relationship blossomed into friendships that he cherished. Peter was also an avid fisherman who took great delight in telling many a "fish tale." His gentle, warm ways were apparent with any encounter with a four legged critter. Peter found great strength through out his life in his faith and his contributions to Christian organizations were many. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Assumption Church, 98 Riverside Avenue Westport. A private family interment will be held at a later date. Friends may call Monday March 2nd from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Leo P. Gallagher and Son Funeral Home, 2900 Summer Street, Stamford. Contributions in Peters name may be made to MSKCC P.O. Box 27106 New York, New York 10087. Family and friends who are unable to attend may light a virtual candle, share photos or stories by visiting www.mem.com "You can shed tears that he is gone or you can smile because he has lived"

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ctpost/obituary.aspx?n=peter-t-coyne&pid=124785858#sthash.ihQSNYCg.dpuf

When you enter "Boston" on weather.com you may be in for a surprise. At least I was. Besides Boston, Massachusetts you'll find the weather for Boston, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New York and Virginia as well as Boston, Sweden, United Kingdom and South Africa. Enter "Portland" and you'll get more than the expected Maine and Oregon. There's also Portland, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, New York and Ohio. Maybe there are even a few Bostons and Portlands that weather.com missed?

Although he was born in a small town in northeast Tennessee, Dave Loggins was not thinking small town when he sang "Please Come to Boston" back in 1974. You can be sure it was Boston, Massachusetts he was talking about when he wrote the song. (The lyrics also mention big cities like Denver and LA in other verses.) But what would he have written if there had been a Boston, Oregon to consider? In 2012, Portland, Oregon's population was over 600,000 people, only about 33,000 less than Boston, Massachusetts.

"Names on the Land, a Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States" by George Stewart (1895 - 1980) was originally published in 1945. Mr. Stewart was a sociologist, toponymist and a founding member of the American Name Society.  (Never heard of a "toponymist" or of this society before.) My soft-cover edition was published in 2008 by the New York Review of Books. The author states on page 313 that "only a rash prophet would venture to predict that the number of states, even within the continental limits, will remain perpetually at 48". This comment was prophetic.  On page 386 we're told that "here ends the book as originally written; the supplemental material follows." The last 3 chapters cover Alaska, Hawaii and Current Affairs 1944 - 1958. The first edition to include these chapters was printed in 1967.

So how did Portland, Oregon almost become named Boston, Oregon? On page 253 of my 2008 edition it reads:

"When more people arrived in Oregon, Amos Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove laid out a little town, four streets each way , in 1845. Lovejoy was from Massachusetts and wanted it to be Boston, but Pettygrove was from Maine and wanted Portland. Being good Americans they flipped a coin. The name of a great city went spinning into the air. It fell for Portland." That's one of my favorite anecdotes from this book, but there is much more in its 438 pages.

Although many names in this country are of Indian origin, the Indians themselves left no written records. The Spaniards were among the first to name the land, mostly in Florida and California. Not all names survived. The English gave some of these places new names. Butt kissing was sometimes a factor, names bestowed to honor or curry favor with a king or other influential party.

Some other tidbits:

Explorers with the most names bestowed upon the land: Marquette & Jolliet who were responsible for naming Wisconsin, Peoria, Des Moines, Missouri, Osage, Omaha, Iowa, Wabash and Arkansas.

Dallas was named after a Vice President under Polk, George Dallas.

Maine is the only state with a one-syllable name.

I would recommend this book to those interested in American history or this subject matter in particular - how our cities, states, rivers, mountains, roads, etc got named. Is "Names on the Land" an exciting read? Uh, No! Some parts may be even dull - strike that - are dull, but then occasionally you'll find something to peak your interest.

I suppose you could almost regard Names as a reference book. Whenever you want to know the origin of a name, you could just go to the book's index. It provides some guidance at its beginning, e.g., you won't find variants such as "Ouisconsin" listed separately. It will be mentioned under its final form as Wisconsin.

This is not the first time that I've sort of recommended a reference work. In my post of October 21, 2010 titled "Bierce",  I mentioned Bierce's cynical and at times hilarious  "Devil's Dictionary". A writer named LaValle suggested that the Devil's Dictionary reads like a collection of great Twitter posts.  There's actually a website, www.thedevilsdictionary.com. Here are some examples to whet your twittering appetite:

Corporation - "An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility". (Wonder if Ambrose would be surprised to find out that a corporation is now a person. Probably not.)

Lawyer -  "One skilled in circumvention of the law".

Politics - "A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage".

PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

Impartial - "Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions".

"Education" -  "That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding".

Happiness -  "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another".

Finally, something unrelated but I can't resist mentioning:

I don't often read book reviews, but this one  from Bierce is one of my all-time favorites:

"The covers of this book are too far apart." (Wish I knew which book he was talking about.)

 

The Fifties - great read for us seniors who remember them

David Halberstam's "The Fifties" was published in 1993 by Villard Books, a division of Random House. My sister-in-law loaned it to me over a year ago but it took me a while to get around to reading it. I'd pick it up and check the length - 733 pages - and set it back down again. My wariness was unwarranted. I would recommend it without reservation. (There are plenty of reviews on-line.)

Other than music and sports, I've never given much thought to the 50's. There was obviously a war early on but the Korean conflict has never gotten the attention given to the wars of the decades before and after. I was only 4 when it started. Truman was finishing his second term as president and Ike would get 8 years. The book ends with the first Kennedy-Nixon debate.

When someone mentions the 1950's, what other names or events would be familiar to most older readers? 

I jotted down some names as I was reading -  Tom Dewey, Dean Acheson (Truman's Secretary of State), Alger Hiss (perjury trial),  the bomb boys - J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller, General MacArthur, Joe McCarthy, Senator Estes Kefauver (organized crime hearings), Adlai Stevenson, J. Edgar Hoover, Dulles brothers, Allen (CIA) and John Foster (Ike's Secretary of State), Chief Justice Earl Warren, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Orval Faubus, Gary Powers (U2), Castro - Fidel, not the convertible.

A few other events besides the war included the decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education, United Fruit - South American adventures, and Little Rock.

If you're not into the more serious news, there are sections on GM's dominance and the Beetle, Leavitt houses, EJKorvettes, fast food - the McDonald brothers & Ray Kroc, Holiday Inn - I didn't know it was named after the movie starring Bing Crosby, Lucy - CBS didn't want Ricky, Brando-Williams-Kazan Streetcar, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, the beat generation, Elvis, Sam Phillips, Alan Freed, Ed Sullivan, family tv sitcoms - the Nelson's etc., Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Hefner, Peyton Place, Betty Friedan, the pill, quiz show scandals, Bill Russell, etc.

Halberstam, who died in an auto accident in 2007, wrote over 20 books. The only other that I've read (over 20 years ago) may be his best known, "The Best and the Brightest" (1972). It's about how we got into the Vietnam quagmire. A more recent (2009) treatment of this subject can be found in Gordon Goldstein's "Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam".

David Halberstam's "The Fifties" was published in 1993 by Villard Books, a division of Random House. My sister-in-law loaned it to me over a year ago but it took me a while to get around to reading it. I'd pick it up and check the length - 733 pages - and set it back down again. My wariness was unwarranted. I would recommend it without reservation. (There are plenty of reviews on-line.)

Other than music and sports, I've never given much thought to the 50's. There was obviously a war early on but the Korean conflict has never gotten the attention given to the wars of the decades before and after. I was only 4 when it started. Truman was finishing his second term as president and Ike would get 8 years. The book ends with the first Kennedy-Nixon debate.

When someone mentions the 1950's, what other names or events would be familiar to most older readers? 

I jotted down some names as I was reading -  Tom Dewey, Dean Acheson (Truman's Secretary of State), Alger Hiss (perjury trial),  the bomb boys - J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller, General MacArthur, Joe McCarthy, Senator Estes Kefauver (organized crime hearings), Adlai Stevenson, J. Edgar Hoover, Dulles brothers, Allen (CIA) and John Foster (Ike's Secretary of State), Chief Justice Earl Warren, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Orval Faubus, Gary Powers (U2), Castro - Fidel, not the convertible.

A few other events besides the war included the decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education, United Fruit - South American adventures, and Little Rock.

If you're not into the more serious news, there are sections on GM's dominance and the Beetle, Leavitt houses, EJKorvettes, fast food - the McDonald brothers & Ray Kroc, Holiday Inn - I didn't know it was named after the movie starring Bing Crosby, Lucy - CBS didn't want Ricky, Brando-Williams-Kazan Streetcar, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, the beat generation, Elvis, Sam Phillips, Alan Freed, Ed Sullivan, family tv sitcoms - the Nelson's etc., Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Hefner, Peyton Place, Betty Friedan, the pill, quiz show scandals, Bill Russell, etc.

Halberstam, who died in an auto accident in 2007, wrote over 20 books. The only other that I've read (over 20 years ago) may be his best known, "The Best and the Brightest" (1972). It's about how we got into the Vietnam quagmire. A more recent (2009) treatment of this subject can be found in Gordon Goldstein's "Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam".

Rocket Men

Just finished reading Robert Kurson's "Rocket Men" (The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the astronauts who made man's first journey to the moon). The book was published earlier this year (336 pages, exclusive of acknowledgements, notes & index). Strange to say that while I've never had much interest in our country's space program - never even watched the Apollo 13 movie with Tom Hanks and preferred reading about the Wright Brothers, Lindbergh, etc. - I enjoyed reading this book. OK, there were some technical descriptions about g-forces, etc. that were way over my head. But they weren't anywhere near being an overwhelming part of the book. If they were my brain would have fogged over and I would have stopped reading. I admire the courage of the men who manned these space ships since I sure wouldn't have volunteered. The crew members were Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell. The book also covers their wives and children, how they were affected, and personnel in mission control.

Before I began reading, the only space program recollection I had was of Apollo 11. The crew of Apollo 11 was Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the lunar surface while Collins remained in orbit around the moon. I still have a Stars & Stripes newspaper, Vol. 25, No. 203, of Wednesday, July 23, 1969. The headline read "It's Hail Columbia! Linkup Completed. Lunar Liftoff Is 'Beautiful'. The last moon landing was in 1972. I didn't know that the Apollo 8 flight, between December 21 and December 27, 1968, was the first manned space mission to the moon. These rocket men orbited the moon on Christmas Eve but did not land. 

The last chapter before the epilogue is titled "The Men Who Saved 1968". The Kurson book reminds us that 1968 was a bad year - the assassinations of Martin Luther King (April 4th) and Robert Kennedy (June 5th), the year in which U.S. suffered the most casualties in Vietnam (see below) due in part to the Tet Offensive, conflicts between Vietnam war protesters, civil rights protesters and police, etc. The success of the Apollo 8 crew ended the year on an up note.

 

Casualties in Vietnam by year

Data source - http://www.thewall-usa.com/stats/index.html

U.S. MILITARY CASUALTIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA -
- DEATHS BY CALENDAR YEAR -
- Year of death may either be actual or based on a presumptive finding of death
- (originally declared missing and later declared dead). -
- AS OF MARCH 31, 1997

1957 - 1
1958 - 0
1959 - 2
1960 - 5
1961 - 16
1962 - 53
1963 - 118
1964 - 206
1965 - 1,863
1966 - 6,144

1967 - 11,153
1968 - 16,589
1969 - 11,614

1970 - 6,083
1971 - 2,357
1972 - 640
1973 - 168
1974 - 178
1975 - 160
1976 - 77
1977 - 96
1978 - 447
1979 - 148
1980-1995 - 66

TOTAL DEATHS - 58,178

 

Jack Finney's "Time and Again"

I just finished reading "Time and Again" by Jack Finney - again. It was first published in 1970. I have the 1995 First Scribner Paperback Edition which I read in '95. An adventure in time travel, it's just under 400 pages and that includes quite a few great NYC sketches/photos. Our hero, illustrator Si Morley, leaves 1970 NYC and arrives in a very different Manhattan in January of 1882. He was recruited by a secret government agency. Si was to observe but not influence the course of events, being careful not to mention things that were not yet in existence like automobiles and television and buildings like the main Public Library which took over the space once occupied by the Croton Reservoir. Roughly, the first quarter of the book deals with Si's recruitment and preparation to make the trip back in time. The story heats up once he arrives in 1882. Si's departure point for the past was The Dakota, across from Central Park on Manhattan's Upper West Side. As most know, the building later became famous in connection with the death of John Lennon.

What makes us wish to travel back in time? Is it to be a witness to history? To see the evolution of a famous city such as Paris, Rome, San Francisco or New York? To view firsthand the architecture or fashion of the times? Or is it just to go back to the "good old days"? The good old days were not always so good. While I think it would be fascinating to see NYC before the dawn of the automobile and gridlock, there were issues, one of which the author captured on page 126 of my edition: 

"We were at the intersection where Broadway crosses Fifth, and vehicles were pouring from Broadway to join our traffic stream, which was just possible, or to fight their way across it, which was almost impossible. Nearly every vehicle had four wheels and every wheel was wrapped in iron that smashed and rang against the cobbles, every horse had four iron-shod hoofs that did the same, and there was no control whatsoever. Wheels clattered, wood groaned, chains rattled, leather creaked, whips cracked against horseflesh, men shouted and cursed, and no street I've ever seen of the twentieth century ever made half that brain-numbing sound."

And he didn't even mention that other bi-product of horse drawn vehicles.

I'm not going to provide an analysis of the plot since I don't want to ruin the story for potential readers. This post is a recommendation rather than a review. As I've commented elsewhere, my criteria for rating a book, music, work of art, etc., is Chekhovian. (See my post of October 26, 2009 re A Favorite Quote from Chekhov.) I divide all works into two categories - those I like and those I don't like. You can safely gather that if I'm reading a book for the second time, it's a book I like.

Why should anyone read Time & Again or any books I recommend? I admittedly possess no expertise whatsoever. Do you only read books favorably reviewed in the NY Times or some other erudite source? Many of the authors I've really come to enjoy were recommended to me by friends. You're not my friend? You don't trust my judgment? I understand. Then get the book out of the library so it doesn't cost you anything. I would recommend T&A to all readers but especially to those born or currently residing in New York City or the NY metropolitan area. It may also appeal to sports fans, particularly football fans, since the story describes the first known use of the Statue of Liberty play.

You might wonder if "Time and Again" was a bestseller. You don't have to travel back to 1970 to find out. Although it may have been on the bestseller list during that year, it was not in the top ten for fiction best sellers of 1970 according to the book "80 years of Best Sellers, 1895 - 1975" by Alice Payne Hackett and James Henry Burke. (There were previous volumes, 50, 60 and 70 Years of Best Sellers.)

Here's the 1970 Top Ten for Fiction:

1. Love Story - Erich Segal

2. The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles

3. Islands in the Stream - Ernest Hemingway

4. The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart

5. Great Lion of God - Taylor Caldwell

6. QB VII - Leon Uris

7. The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight - Jimmy Breslin

8. The Secret Woman - Victoria Holt

9. Travels with My Aunt - Graham Greene

10. Rich Man, Poor Man - Irwin Shaw

I've read numbers 2, 6, 7, 9 and I wouldn't consider any of them to be better than Time and Again. (I also checked the 1971 top ten, just in case Time and Again had significant 1971 sales. The original hard cover edition's publication date was June 23, 1970. It was not on the 1971 bestseller list.)

Jack Finney wrote a sequel to T&A, "From Time to Time", that was published in 1995, shortly before his death at 84. It was good but a notch below T&A. Finney is also known for writing "(Invasion of) The Body Snatchers", "Assault On a Queen" and "Good Neighbor Sam". His short stories are also worth reading.

Books from Liz & Tim

I recently read Elizabeth Warren's new book, "This Fight Is Our Fight, The Battle to Save America's Middle Class" (270 pages, exclusive of notes). From the back cover - After the Depression our country built the greatest middle class the world had ever known. It was done through hard work and the tools of government - tax policy, investments in public education, new infrastructure, support for research, rules that protected consumers and investors and antitrust laws.

 

a sampling: (page 60)

 

"Trump likes to talk about forgotten working people, but he opposes raising the minimum wage, plans to propose the largest tax cut in history for the rich, and promises to get rid of the rules that hold Wall Street accountable. That is not populism. That is trickle-down economics on steroids. After vowing to "drain the swamp", and fight for the little guy, trump turned the keys to our government over to a group of Wall Street insiders, billionaires, and CEOs who have a long history of looking out only for themselves and others just like them. This isn't the way to strengthen opportunity in America - it's the way to help the rich get richer and shove everyone else out of the way."

  

Read the reviews. Here's one by NY Times columnist Paul Krugman on 4/18/17:

"Warren lays out a position I’d call enlightened populism. She rails against the growing concentration of income and wealth in the hands of a tiny elite; argues that this concentration of economic rewards has also undermined our political system; and links unequal wealth and power to the stagnating incomes, growing insecurity and diminishing opportunities facing ordinary families. She puts a face on these stresses with capsule portraits of middle-class travails: a Walmart worker who needs to visit a food pantry, a DHL worker forced to take a huge pay cut, a millennial crushed by student debt."

 

I also recently read "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century", a very powerful and interesting little (only 126 pages) soft-covered book by Timothy Snyder, published earlier this year. The NY Times calls Mr. Snyder "a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present". The quote chosen for the back cover is as follows: "The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, nazism or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from the experience."

a few subject samplings:

Beginning on the bottom of page 29, Mr. Snyder writes, "The odd American idea that giving money to political ideas is free speech means that the very rich have far more speech, and so in effect far more voting power, than other citizens. 

pg 65 believe in truth - to abandon facts is to abandon truth. see the 4 ways truth dies.

pg 73 the leader who dislikes the investigators is a potential tyrant, promised to suppress freedom of speech. lies mean statements of facts not to his liking

pg 75 the president on women - they belong at home, mothers do not give 100% at work, etc

pg 112 what is patriotism? begin by saying what patriotism is not !!!

not patriotic:

to dodge the draft and mock war heroes and their families

to compare one's search for sexual partners in NY with the military service in Vietnam that one has dodged

to avoid paying taxes, especially when American working families do pay

to ask those working families to finance one's own presidential campaign, and then to spend their contributions in one's own companies

to admire foreign dictators

 

 

Grisham's "The Innocent Man"

Just over 10 years ago, I read John Grisham's first work of non-fiction, "The Innocent Man," published in 2006. It's described on the inside of the dust jacket as "an exploration of small-town justice gone terribly awry".  I'm a big Grisham fan having read 29 of his books so far. The only book of his I would not recommend is "Playing for Pizza".

Why am I reading "The Innocent Man" again? Besides the fact that it's a very interesting story, my reason is that in the last few years I've become hooked on watching NBC's "Dateline". There have been quite a few Dateline episodes that have dealt with innocent people jailed for crimes they didn't commit and many involved police, prosecutors, etc. who either screwed up the investigation or when presented with new exculpatory evidence refused to admit they were wrong.  They'd say something like "a jury of their peers found them guilty. It's not my place to overturn that verdict". But would that jury have reached the same verdict if all the evidence was available? The last episode I saw on this issue was about two brothers who spent 25 years in jail for a crime they didn't commit. Dateline's been around since 1992 and I can't say why I had never watched it. Looking for more things to keep me occupied in my retirement led me to give it a try.

The Grisham book is primarily about an Oklahoma native, Ron Williamson, who spent about 11 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit (one of the reasons I'm against the death penalty. I wonder how many innocent people have been executed in this country). Ron was a high school baseball star who was good enough to get a $50,000 signing bonus from the Oakland A's in 1971. Some compared him to fellow Oklahoma native Mickey Mantle.  Injuries, drinking and mental issues derailed his career. His comeback attempts ended when he was released by a low level Yankee minor league team after the 1977 season.

He was convicted of murdering a woman based on a half-baked eyewitness ID by a man who actually had a confrontation with the victim the night of her death. That man was not fingerprinted and no hair or saliva samples were taken although samples were taken from quite a few other friends and acquaintances of the woman. The police put together a list of 23 people and interviewed most of them. No one recalled seeing Ron Williamson that night. He was convicted and sent to death row where he spent 11 years until he was exonerated with help from the Innocence Project (give them a google). Another man, Dennis Fritz, was also convicted and given life in prison. He too was exonerated.

I can't imagine going through what Ron Williamson and many others have endured. Besides loss of freedom and terrible living conditions, there were a few sadistic guards he had to deal with.

The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

The Innocence Project's mission is to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.

 

We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young

We're getting close to celebrating another Memorial Day and this past April 30th marked the 40th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, a war which resulted in over 58,000 American casualties. I don't believe that the term PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) was ever used during the Vietnam War, which doesn't mean that it didn't affect those soldiers. Their condition just had another name like "combat fatigue" or "shell shock". According to vva.org (Vietnam Veterans of America), "2.8 million served in Vietnam. Given the nature of guerrilla warfare, it is hard to estimate the number exposed to hostile fire. However, the Research Triangle Institute’s Vietnam readjustment study concludes 480,000 have full-blown PTSD and another 350,000 have partial PTSD."

I just finished reading "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young" for the second time. The first time was early in 2002, before our recent misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan caused PTSD to come to the nation's attention. If you're interested in the history of the Vietnam war or how war affects those who survived, "We Were Soldiers ... " may be for you. The book is subtitled, "Ia Drang: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam", and was originally published in 1992. It was written by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting. My Harper Perennial soft cover edition, 409 pages, was published in 1993 and the book was made into a movie "We Were Soldiers" in 2002. I haven't seen the movie and don't plan on ever seeing it. 

The events of "We Were Soldiers"  took place almost 50 years ago in November of 1965. About 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry were dropped by helicopters into a clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were almost immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. 79 men were killed and 121 wounded in the first battle at LZ (Helicopter Landing Zone) X-Ray and 155 were killed and 124 wounded in the second battle at LZ Albany. Besides the men of the 7th Cav, you'll also read about the heroic helicopter pilots who risked their lives to bring in needed supplies and get wounded soldiers to safety. 

The battles described in "We Were Soldiers" were so horrific that I can't imagine any of the participants not being affected. Anyone doubting the reality of PTSD is not likely to cling to those doubts after reading this book.

Here's an example I recall reading of a stressful dilemma faced by one of the surviving soldiers. (it's described on page 309 of my edition.) North Vietnam Army soldiers were killing American wounded as they lay on the ground. One U.S. soldier who wasn't wounded and was bandaging up a fellow soldier, pretended to be dead when some NVA jumped them. Pretending was easy because he was covered with blood from treating the wounded. An NVA soldier started using him as a sandbag for his machine gun. "The only reason he didn't discover I was alive was that he was shaking more than I was." If this soldier stood up, the NVA would kill him. If he just lay there, fire from his own men - "friendly fire" - could kill him. He was wounded and the NVA machine gunner was killed. 

The book was dedicated to the memory of the solders who gave their lives. Their names and the names of the units they served with are listed in the front of the book. You can find more information on these men on www.virtualwall.org, sometimes with photos and written tributes. The easiest way to search the Virtual Wall is by last name.

Some further notes:

According to www.thewall-usa.com/stats/index.html (not the same as the Virtual Wall website), years in which casualties reached 1,000 or more were:

1965 - 1,863
1966 - 6,144
1967 - 11,153
1968 - 16,589
1969 - 11,614
1970 - 6,083
1971 - 2,357

(Retired General Moore celebrated his 93rd birthday a few months ago and Mr Galloway is 73.) 

 General Moore died February 10, 2017, three days shy of his 95th birthday.

Mr. Galloway died August 18, 2021 at the age of 79.

 

 

 

Ron Rash - Great Writer

Just finished reading another book by Ron Rash, this time "The Cove", a novel set in the "rugged Appalachians of North Carolina" near the end of World War I. On the back cover of my 239 page paperback edition, the cove is described as "a dark, forbidding place where spirits and fetches wander, and even the light fears to travel." The townsfolk believe that Laura, the young woman who lives in the cove with her brother Hank, is a witch. Hank is back from the war missing a hand. Laura finds a man playing a flute in the woods near her home. He has a note explaining that his name is Walter and he is mute. Their relationship forms the basis of the story which I won't give away by telling you more.   

After the end of the novel, the book includes an interview with Ron Rash. One of the last questions is "What are you most proud of as a writer?" His response, "That I didn't give up, that I had enough faith in myself to keep writing when I was getting rejection slip after rejection slip. I didn't publish my first book with a national publisher until I was in my late forties. .... (Mr.Rash was born in 1953.) Nevertheless, I feel very fortunate that what attention has come to me has come after thirty years of writing. I was learning my craft in solitude."

I'm very glad that Mr. Rash didn't give up. He has become one of my favorite authors. I would call him a great writer but I admit that a recommendation from me is undoubtedly worth little. However, Janet Maislin of the NY Times recently included his short story collection, "Something Rich and Strange" among her favorite books published in 2014. She wrote that "Mr. Rash is one of the great American authors at work today, and this short story anthology confirms that stature. His prose rings clear and true ..." 

Here's my first Rash post of September 16, 2011:

Rash Story - Serena

After reading a review by Janet Maislin in the NY Times on-line of October 5, 2008, I added Ron Rash's fourth novel, "Serena", to my "to read" list. There it sat for a few months shy of 3 years. Many titles have since been added by retractable ball point pens to this 8 1/2" x 11" standard sheet of printer paper. Quite a few have been crossed out. Serena remained. More titles have been added to the back of the paper. I fold the list into 1/8th of its size and stick it in my back pocket every time I go to a library or book store. There are some tiny holes along some of the creases.

Maislin's review of Serena was titled "Couple creates an empire by felling trees and anyone in their way". With that enticing lead in, how did I wait so long to read it? All the book reader's cliches apply: a real page turner, couldn't put it down, etc. But don't just take my word for it. Read Maislin's and some of the other reviews on line. Serena's 370 pages were gone before I knew it. I confess that I did put it down a few times since I read it over 3 or 4 days.

I won't give away the story but it takes place primarily in western North Carolina at the beginning of the Depression. You might guess from the title where the real power resided in the relationship of this power couple invading the mountainous Carolina woods. Some reviewers likened the wife Serena to Lady MacBeth. Besides the main story, we are told that a battle was going on between timber interests and those favoring the creation of what became the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The big losers in these business affairs, besides Serena's competitors, were the workers who faced death and serious injury on a daily basis, something that was of little concern to the timber barons. If you got hurt and couldn't work, you were discarded with no compensation.

I'll have to check out Ron Rash's other novels and short stories. He has also written some poetry which may be of interest to some.

 

Since writing this 2011 post, I have read and would recommend Rash novels "One Foot in Eden", "Saints at the River" and "The World Made Straight" in addition to "The Cove". I've also read his short story collection "Chemistry and other Stories" and I've added these other shorty story collections to my "to read" list:

"Something Rich and Strange"

"The Night New Jesus Fell to Earth ..."

"Burning Bright"

"Nothing Gold Can Stay"

You can go wrong with Rash. 

 

Names on the Land

Peter T. Coyne

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COYNE Peter T. Coyne, our beloved father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend, died peacefully surrounded by his family after a courageous battle against cancer Thursday, February 26, 2009. Peter will be sadly missed by his loving sister, Sheilagh and devoted daughter, Jennifer and her mother, Judy. Peter will be lovingly remembered by his cherished grandsons, Joey, P.J. and John as well as his son-in-law, John, his nephew and nieces and their families and many dear, devoted friends. Peter was born in New York City and later moved to Stamford with his parents, the late Thomas and Bertha Coyne. Peter was also predeceased by his beloved son, Tommy and a brother, Tom. Peter's strong work ethic carried him far in his career in sales and marketing. His determination and drive later propelled him towards business pursuits in the livery industry. Peter's professionalism, charm and keen wit accompanied his clients on many a journey. What often started out as a business relationship blossomed into friendships that he cherished. Peter was also an avid fisherman who took great delight in telling many a "fish tale." His gentle, warm ways were apparent with any encounter with a four legged critter. Peter found great strength through out his life in his faith and his contributions to Christian organizations were many. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Assumption Church, 98 Riverside Avenue Westport. A private family interment will be held at a later date. Friends may call Monday March 2nd from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Leo P. Gallagher and Son Funeral Home, 2900 Summer Street, Stamford. Contributions in Peters name may be made to MSKCC P.O. Box 27106 New York, New York 10087. Family and friends who are unable to attend may light a virtual candle, share photos or stories by visiting www.mem.com "You can shed tears that he is gone or you can smile because he has lived"

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ctpost/obituary.aspx?n=peter-t-coyne&pid=124785858#sthash.ihQSNYCg.dpuf

When you enter "Boston" on weather.com you may be in for a surprise. At least I was. Besides Boston, Massachusetts you'll find the weather for Boston, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New York and Virginia as well as Boston, Sweden, United Kingdom and South Africa. Enter "Portland" and you'll get more than the expected Maine and Oregon. There's also Portland, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, New York and Ohio. Maybe there are even a few Bostons and Portlands that weather.com missed?

Although he was born in a small town in northeast Tennessee, Dave Loggins was not thinking small town when he sang "Please Come to Boston" back in 1974. You can be sure it was Boston, Massachusetts he was talking about when he wrote the song. (The lyrics also mention big cities like Denver and LA in other verses.) But what would he have written if there had been a Boston, Oregon to consider? In 2012, Portland, Oregon's population was over 600,000 people, only about 33,000 less than Boston, Massachusetts.

"Names on the Land, a Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States" by George Stewart (1895 - 1980) was originally published in 1945. Mr. Stewart was a sociologist, toponymist and a founding member of the American Name Society.  (Never heard of a "toponymist" or of this society before.) My soft-cover edition was published in 2008 by the New York Review of Books. The author states on page 313 that "only a rash prophet would venture to predict that the number of states, even within the continental limits, will remain perpetually at 48". This comment was prophetic.  On page 386 we're told that "here ends the book as originally written; the supplemental material follows." The last 3 chapters cover Alaska, Hawaii and Current Affairs 1944 - 1958. The first edition to include these chapters was printed in 1967.

So how did Portland, Oregon almost become named Boston, Oregon? On page 253 of my 2008 edition it reads:

"When more people arrived in Oregon, Amos Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove laid out a little town, four streets each way , in 1845. Lovejoy was from Massachusetts and wanted it to be Boston, but Pettygrove was from Maine and wanted Portland. Being good Americans they flipped a coin. The name of a great city went spinning into the air. It fell for Portland." That's one of my favorite anecdotes from this book, but there is much more in its 438 pages.

Although many names in this country are of Indian origin, the Indians themselves left no written records. The Spaniards were among the first to name the land, mostly in Florida and California. Not all names survived. The English gave some of these places new names. Butt kissing was sometimes a factor, names bestowed to honor or curry favor with a king or other influential party.

Some other tidbits:

Explorers with the most names bestowed upon the land: Marquette & Jolliet who were responsible for naming Wisconsin, Peoria, Des Moines, Missouri, Osage, Omaha, Iowa, Wabash and Arkansas.

Dallas was named after a Vice President under Polk, George Dallas.

Maine is the only state with a one-syllable name.

I would recommend this book to those interested in American history or this subject matter in particular - how our cities, states, rivers, mountains, roads, etc got named. Is "Names on the Land" an exciting read? Uh, No! Some parts may be even dull - strike that - are dull, but then occasionally you'll find something to peak your interest.

I suppose you could almost regard Names as a reference book. Whenever you want to know the origin of a name, you could just go to the book's index. It provides some guidance at its beginning, e.g., you won't find variants such as "Ouisconsin" listed separately. It will be mentioned under its final form as Wisconsin.

This is not the first time that I've sort of recommended a reference work. In my post of October 21, 2010 titled "Bierce",  I mentioned Bierce's cynical and at times hilarious  "Devil's Dictionary". A writer named LaValle suggested that the Devil's Dictionary reads like a collection of great Twitter posts. I don't Twitter so I'll take his word for it 'til some expert on twittering refutes his claim. There's actually a website, www.thedevilsdictionary.com. Here are some examples to whet your twittering appetite:

Corporation - "An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility". (Wonder if Ambrose would be surprised to find out that a corporation is now a person. Probably not.)

Lawyer -  "One skilled in circumvention of the law".

Politics - "A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage".

Impartial - "Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions".

"Education" -  "That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding".

Happiness -  "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another".

Finally, something unrelated but I can't resist mentioning:

I don't often read book reviews, but this one  from Bierce is one of my all-time favorites:

"The covers of this book are too far apart." (Wish I knew which book he was talking about.)

 

Doubleheaders

When I was a kid, I loved doubleheaders. I would take the Q17A bus from my family's home in a Bayside garden apartment to the subway at 169th Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica. There I would take the E train into Manhattan where I'd  transfer to the D train to 161st St and River Avenue in the Bronx, the stop for Yankee Stadium. I especially loved twi-night doubleheaders. The one that stands out was against the White Sox on Tuesday, July 25, 1961 when Roger Maris hit Home Run #'s 37 & 38 in the opener and 39 and 40 in the 2nd game on his way to 61. You can find the recreated boxscores in www.basball-almanac.com under History, team by team.

Well baseball fans, I now offer you a different kind of doubleheader - two recent books about baseball that I would heartily recommend. (There are plenty of reviews on-line. I don't really expect you to just take my word that these books are worth reading.) The first is about Hall of Famer Ted Williams and the second is about the Montreal Expos, both no longer with us. The Expos left the frozen north to become the Washington Nationals in 2005. Ted Williams was frozen and taken from Florida to Arizona in 2002.

Ben Bradlee, Jr.'s, "The Kid, The Immortal Life of Ted Williams" is probably one of the longest baseball biographies ever written at 775 pages. Think of it as an extra innings game. Published in December of 2013, it's a "cradle to the grave" bio, not just Ted's baseball doings. I enjoyed it all - except for a short chapter on Teddy's accomplishments as a fisherman. The book chronicles his often prickly relationship with the press, his military service during World War II and Korea, his work with the Jimmy Fund, and much more. Reading about Williams at times made me cringe at his behavior and at others almost made me cry at stories of his kindnesses.

You may ask why a lifelong Yankee fan would recommend a book about a Red Sox player? While the rivalry has been contentious this century, it wasn't nearly so during the time Williams played. The Red Sox were rarely in contention as the "Curse of the Bambino" continued well beyond Ted's playing days. Back then, if the Yankees couldn't win the pennant, I hoped the Red Sox would. I've been to Fenway Park four times.

Jonah Keri's "Up, Up & Away, The Kid,The Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, Le Grand Orange, Youppi!, The Crazy Business of Baseball, & the Ill-fated but Unforgettable Montreal Expos" has one of the longest sub-titles for a baseball book but comes in at the moderate length of 383 pages. It was published in March of this year. Why did I choose to read about the Expos? On a vacation to Montreal and the Laurentian Mountains in 1971, I went to Jarry Park with a friend on a Sunday in August to see the Expos play the San Francisco Giants. I remember the announcements were in French and English and I bought and still have an Expos yearbook with all the player write-ups, etc., printed in both languages. Rusty Staub hit a 3 run HR and ex-Yankee Steve Hamilton, of "folly floater" fame, struck out the only Expo batter he faced to end the 6th inning. Unfortunately, we left the game shortly after because the late afternoon wind and cold had my teeth chattering.

The Expos started play as an expansion team in 1969, playing at Jarry Park until 1977 when they moved to Olympic Stadium, which had been the site of the 1976 Summer Olympics. Neither park was up to major league standards. None of the players mentioned in the subtitle (Youppi was a mascot) finished his career as an Expo. Financial issues constantly beset the team. Besides the Expo history, you might also find it interesting to learn some of the French words for baseball terms (see pages 58 & 59 - e.g., "voltigeur" ia an outfielder, "coup a l'entre champ" is a bloop hit, etc.).      

Previous posts on baseball books:

just one -

June 26, 2012 - "Pinstripe Empire, The New York Yankees, from Before the Babe to After the Boss", a must read for Yankee fans by Marty Appel. The post - not the book - includes a quiz aimed at those who profess to be knowledgeable Yankee fans. If you score well on the 20 questions, you can pass on reading the book. Happy reading.