Desipio Message Board

Irony is still alive as Dr. Jack Kevorkian dies...in a hospital.

Mark it 9, Thrill

Former Kansas City Royal rotation stalwart Paul Splittorff, 64

So I was thinking of tuning in to this show.  Anyone hear about it?

Arthur Laurents, 93.

Was actually kind of surprised to learn that this parochial food item doesn't have its own thread.  

I was just merely intending to point out that Al's is opening up a restaurant by Wrigley (Clark/Newport/Sheffield).; however, since I've found myself with the duty of starting this thread, allow me to throw it out there--what is the best beef in Chicago?  Portillo's?  Al's?  Mr. Beef?  Roma?  

My vote is Al's, but Portillo's consistency from restaurant-to-restaurant is better....

Chuck Tanner, manager of the 1979 World Champion Pissburgh Pirates "family" dead at 82.

Steve Landesberg, age 65.

Bill Lee wrote this autobiography in 1984.  I read it as a 12 year old then, and then came across it in a used bookstore a couple weeks ago for $2, so I purchased it and read it again.  A small part of it may be a little dated but the stories Lee tells still makes this one of the best books ever written by an ex-ballplayer--In my opinion, it's the best.  Tales of Lee's days pitching while at USC (with future MLBer's Jim Baar and Tom Seaver) under the legendary Rod Dedeaux, to some of his stops in the minors and then Boston, where he quickly found himself in the conservative manager's dugout because he wore a shirt in Spring Training in 1972 with a big tongue that read "LICK DICK in '72", Lee's exploits are legendary but they're even more memorable as told through his eyes.  I found it interesting how many past and future Cub players and managers find their names in this book--Dave Kingman--who appears as a gangly, 20 year old pitcher throwing practice to USC hitters as they prepared for the College World Series--Ron Cey, who Lee describes in hilarious fashion upon first seeing him in college, Mike Garmin, Fergie Jenkins, Lou Piniella, and Gene Michael, to name just a few. 

Lee was in the midst of some of the more iconic events in the 70's--namely the legendary 1975 World Series with Cincinnati (he started 2 games) and the 1978 season when Boston pissed the division away to the Yankees on Bucky Dent's home run, a failed season that Lee pretty much puts squarely on the shoulders of Boston's manager Don Zimmer, who probably receives the biggest brunt of criticism in the book.  Booze, drugs, women, Lee's extremely frank when it comes to this and much more.  A definite recommendation; an easy read and I promise you'll laugh your ass off.

According to Tom Thayer and Wikipedia, he's alive, but a drunken Mike Ditka is not so sure.  (At the 9:50 mark...and apologies to Thrill for linking to such a shitty player)

Since the Beer thread runs the risk of getting hijacked...

Gaylord, one in River North, one in  Schaumburg.  I've eaten at the one in Schaumburg and found it delicious.

Shera Punjab on Devon Ave.  Of course, you can't swing a dead cat on Devon, between Western and Rockwell, without hitting an Indian restaurant, but I'm partial to Shera Punjab.

Also, the Klay Oven is steps from where I work.  Excellent lunch buffet.

I was originally going to start a thread about The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid but in reading this personal memoir of growing up in Des Moines in the 1950's, the thought occured to me that Bryson may well be one of the finest living writers today.  Plus, considering that the thread for A Short History of Nearly Everything was Ratto'd, I figured we could just use this thread to discuss the author's works in one spot.

For me, reading Bryson evokes many writers of variant backgrounds and reputations--James Thurber, Kurt Vonnegut,  Jean Shepherd, Garrison Keilor, Dave Barry, Philip Roth.  I know that some of those writers would be considered lightweights but, when you add it all up, you have a writer who, in my humble unapologetic opinion, could be mentioned in the same breath as the one and only Sam Clemens.  Yeah.  I went there.  

What's most impressive is that while Bryson is very a humorous writer, he's also been dubbed a "travel writer" and the fact that he was an editor of the business section of The Times of London demonstrates that he's no lightweight and is in fact quite skilled at establishing himself in mutiple literary forms.  A Short History, in fact, while humorous, is quite a departure from most of his work.

He's a writer's writer.  His use of humor, language, and well-placed hyperbole make me wish I had a fraction of his ability to take readers gliding through paragraphs in a seemingly effortless manner.

I've only read 3 of his books so far--besides the two mentioned here, I read Notes from a Small Island--and am curious about any suggestions people here may have.  I've heard the book that put him on the map--I'm a Stranger Here Myself--is a great read but that A Walk in the Woods may actually be his best book.  Anyone?