BEVERLY HILLS (MI) –- I can recall back in elementary school when the good Sisters of the Presentation at St. Leo’s Elementary School in Leominster, MA would to try and foist a “required reading list” off on all of us students over summer break. Yeah right, Sister…like I’m gonna do any schoolwork on my time off. I did, however, snap to attention when I got a similar suggestion from the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, the summer before I became a freshman at Notre Dame Prep. Since my older brother Bud was entering his senior year there, I knew full well that the bros most definitely meant business.
You can relax…this isn’t “required reading” and there won’t be a quiz in the morning, but here are some articles that I found to be worth the time and effort:
-- An in-depth look by the
Freep at BG’s alma mater’s incoming recruiting class, which actually has a couple of UD tangents to it: former Flyer DBA Jon Borovich is now an Assistant Coach under Greg Kampe and Dayton is mentioned a one of the schools that pursued Port Huron Northern HS product Jay Thames before he signed with the Golden Grizzlies:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../1056/SPORTS08
I have to keep reminding myself that OU is no longer a member of the Horizon League, but rather plays in the Summit League.
-- The cautionary tale of one Brandon Cotton, a former Mickey D’s All-American from Negele Knight’s alma mater who first left MSU and then subsequently quit at UDM:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll.../1049/SPORTS05
-- Are you ready for the 3BA? The best way to describe it is ‘3-on-3 arena basketball’:
http://www.oregonlive.com/nba/oregon...990.xml&coll=7
I don’t know that I would pay cash money to watch the 3BA, but I’d sure as hell love to play in it!
-- With 2 World Championships in the last four years, being a Red Sox fan these days is the trendy thing to do in New England. Back in the day –- translation, the ‘50s -– you had to be hardcore to follow the Sox. And if you did, one name said it all: Ted Williams. Here’s a link to a great article by then
Sports Illustrated columnist Leigh Montville (who also spent 21 years with the
Boston Globe) which he wrote on the passing of “Teddy Ballgame” from the
SI Vault:
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.c...6236/index.htm
-- It’s always nice to read a piece about a famous athlete who is a normal, down-to-earth human being. Josh Beckett of the Red Sox appears to be one of those guys:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3488178
-- If you’ve ever wondered how I came up with my bullet-point style of writing (other than the fact that I’m ADD), you can blame two guys: Bob Talbert and Sydney J. Harris.
Talbert was a pony-tailed transplanted South Carolinian who penned his “Monday Moanin” observations on life in the Motor City environs for three decades; Harris wrote a syndicated column on whatever struck his fancy. Their columns ran on the same Features Page in the
Freep for years, until each unfortunately passed away. They were both “required reading” for me soon after I arrived here in 1981.
Among other things, Talbert came up with these keen observations:
“The problem with traffic is that the people of today are driving the cars of tomorrow on the roads of yesterday.”
"
Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more."
“Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.”
Bob died in 1999. Of Talbert, Michigan actor Jeff Daniels wrote:
"He wrote for us. About us. To us. But never above us."
I also recall a review Talbert wrote on the BBQ chicken he tasted on his first visit to Chicken Shack. Bob really liked to eat and his travels around Metro Detroit usually centered on food and favorite restaurants. Based solely on his recommendation, I went to Chicken Shack, tried the BBQ chicken and have been going there ever since.
I Googled Tal’s name, but unfortunately there are only bits and pieces of his columns that remain (the best of which were compiled in a book entitled
Good Moanin' that is still out there), along with dozens of quotes from positive reviews of books, restaurants, movies, authors and musicians that he wrote over the years.
Here is a listing on "Tips on how to win, lose and not to excuse," written by Talbert in 1995:
Top Ten Most Used Excuses in the Workplace
1. I forgot.
2. No one told me to go ahead.
3. I didn't think it was that important.
4. Wait until the boss comes back and ask him.
5. I didn't know you were in a hurry for it.
6. That's the way we've always done it.
7. That's not in my department.
8. How was I to know this was different?
9. I'm waiting for an OK.
10. That's his job - not mine.
Ten Commandments for Losing
1. Quit taking risks - play it safe.
2. Be content with what you are doing.
3. Before making any moves, ask what your predecessors would have done.
4. Rely totally on research and experts to make decisions for you, not your gut feelings.
5. Once you have a formula for success, never change it.
6. Always hide your mistakes.
7. Concern yourself more with status than service, more with image than production.
8. Concentrate on your competitor more than on your customer.
9. Put yourself first and listen only to yes men and women.
10. Have a "that's good enough" attitude.
Still works in today’s workplace, doesn’t it?
Sydney Harris, on the other hand, has a ton of books available, according to Wikipedia:
Collected Columns
Strictly Personal (1953)
Majority of One (1957)
Last Things First (1961)
On the Contrary (1964)
Leaving the Surface (1968)
For the Time Being (1972)
The Best of Sydney J. Harris (1975)
Pieces of Eight (1982)
Clearing the Ground (1986)
Other Books
The Authentic Person: Dealing with Dilemma (1972)
Winners and Losers (1973)
Would You Believe? (1979)
Like Talbert, unfortunately, not too many of his columns are accessible online. Harris was a modern day philosopher of sorts. Some of his thoughts:
“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.”
“Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.”
“Happiness is a direction, not a place.”
“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”
"Maturity begins when we're content to feel we're right about something, without feeling the necessity to prove someone else is wrong."
And like Talbert, Harris has his own ‘rules’ for winners and losers:
“A loser thinks there are rules for winning and losing; a winner knows that every rule in the book can be broken, except one -- be who you are, and become all you were meant to be, which is the only winning game in the world.”
“A winner stops talking when he has made a point; a loser goes on until he has blunted his point.”
“A winner says, "Let's find out"; a loser says, "Nobody knows."
“A winner says, "There ought to be a better way to do it"; a loser says, "That's the way iit's always been done here."
Here’s to Syd and Tal.
That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at:
swampy@udpride.com
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