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Reading, Writing But No Arithmetic

30 Jul

I have been struggling for something to write about. Everything that comes to mind seems like a stretch. In other words, it would not flow naturally, and I would be forcing the issue. This morning I read a post by Garry about his disappointment with Three Bad Men, a book about John Ford, John Wayne and Ward Bond. I read that book and was disappointed, as well. Garry’s complaint is more serious than mine. I just thought it was a badly written book.

The post brought to mind the reading that is going on in our house. My stepdaughter is constantly reading a book, and I could not be more proud. Right now, she is in the middle of the Pretty Little Liars series. I have no idea if they are any good, but I know that a kid who loves to read will probably take that love with them throughout their life.

I love reading and am constantly in the middle of a book. Usually, it is something that I do while on the treadmill. I know a book is good when I miss the times when I am supposed to increase the speed. I know that a book is not as good when I am constantly glancing at the timer for my cue. However, it does not matter the quality of the book. When I start one, I have to finish it. I finished Three Bad Men, and I promise that it was a chore.

At the moment, I am reading The Quick, a novel about the mysteries of Victorian London. It started slow but is starting to get better. Before that, I read Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. You know it is a history book when it has a title that long.Empire

Speaking of history books, I recently submitted a book review of Tennessee Women in the Progressive Era: Toward the Public Sphere in the New South. Any day now, I expect to receive an email explaining revisions that need to be made.image-26

A few days ago, my wife started book that has been in the drawer of her bedside table for a while. She is really into it and tells me all about it when she puts it down. She has been reading this blog and thinks that I should try my hand at fiction. I may dabble in it a little, but there are other important things to do. It is almost syllabus time, and I have also spent several weeks putting together a new course for the fall semester. Who knows? I may give it a quick shot during my spare time.

Anyway, there is always a book being read at our house. There is always some writing going on, too. It could be a blog, which my wife is started to do for her business. It could be a review. It could be something fun. Whatever the case, we are always reading or writing.

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Out of the Dark

1 Jul

When my old laptop died, I had to get another one. There was no way I was going to know what to get, so I asked my nephew. Under his guidance, I bought a Mac, and it is a cool piece of machinery. It has all kinds of bells and whistles that I have no idea how to use. However, there is one thing that is mega-cool. The keyboard lights up.

That means I can work in the dark, and, as I have always said, I do some of my best work in the dark. Some people refer to my office as a cave because there is only a single bulb burning. More than once, a security person has stopped by because they thought I had left my door open by accident.

I have always liked the dark. Nights are better than days. Staying up late is better than getting up early. It could be the mystery of the dark that fascinates me. You cannot really tell everything that is going on. People do things differently in the dark than they do in the light. Simply, darkness is a favorite of mine.

Just think about all of the cool stuff that is associated with the dark.

The Dark Knight (Batman at his best.)

Dark Chocolate (Good stuff.)

It was a dark and stormy night. (Every book should begin this way.)

Cinemax After Dark (I got cable in my room way too soon.)

Darkman (Alright, this one is a little obscure. If you think Liam Neeson was a badass in Taken, then you should see him in this.)Darkman

Dark Shadows (Think of it as Phantom of the Soap Opera.)

Dark Night (A great song by The Blasters. Everyone should give it a listen.)

Dark Horse (Not the Katy Perry song. I am talking about that person who comes from nowhere to achieve greatness.)

The Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd made what could be the greatest album of all time.)Dark Side

The Dark Tower (A series of books by Stephen King about Roland Deschain, the Gunslinger.)Dark Tower

On The Dark Side (A song from Eddie and the Cruisers that was actually performed by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.)

See, there are a lot of great things that come out of the dark.

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Book Readers of the World

2 Jun

I was driving down the interstate with my nephew when the conversation turned to books. We had been to the movies and saw preview for a book adaptation. He was telling me that I need to read the book before the movie came out. The conversation continued with books that we are currently reading. He has started the Game of Thrones series, and I am reading one about a secret government agency looking into the destruction of the United States by a Mormon senator who knows about a secret message to Abraham Lincoln. It is better than it sounds.Lincoln Myth

At some point, he asked, “What percentage of people have read a book in the past year?”

We began to answer by establishing our parameters. Does this include students who are assigned to read? Are we talking about people in the United States or throughout the world? Does this include people who read religious texts?

After all of that was settled, we unscientifically decided that few people have read one book in the past year.

In the blogging world, there are a lot of people who read. I think that reading is what leads us to write these posts. There are also a lot of blogs focused on books and the people who read them. Being someone who likes to read and is in contact with others who do the same, it is hard to imagine that we are the minority. However, I believe that is true.

Reading is good on many levels, but the most important is that it keeps the brain active. It does not matter is someone is reading about the great philosophers or a drugstore romance novel. The brain is working.Romance

People who do not read books are missing out on a lot of fun. Books can take people on great adventures in far off lands. They can scare people or lead them into a world of fantasy. They can educate people and introduce them to ideas they never before considered.

Books can also lead people to one of my favorite places – the bookstore. Due to technology, these places are fading fast, but I hope they never go away completely. I can spend a long time in bookstores looking through the shelves. Many times, I have sat in a chair a scanned several books before deciding which one to buy. Bookstores are places where people can mingle or find a quiet corner to relax. They are places that offer us countless adventures for our imaginations.

When I go to a bookstore, I always try to make a purchase. Even if it is just a magazine, I will buy something. It is my small way to helping these places stay viable.

People need books, and we need places to purchase them. It is hard for me to imagine that people make the choice not to read. However, I know that there are more of them than there are of us.

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The Makers of Legend

11 Mar

This semester, I am teaching Expansion of the United States and had my students read The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend by Glenn Frankel, an excellent study of how a historical event can get turned into a movie.

The book is chronological, and the reader can see how the story continues to evolve as different people use it for different reasons. I will not go into great detail, but, as the story gets passed on, those who tell it do so with various reasons. In the end, the story barely resembles the reality, and the reality, to many, would be more interesting.

I chose this book because I want my students to know that there is more to history than what happened in the past. History is also about who interprets it and when they do that. I believe it is as much about the people looking into the past as it is about people who lived in the past.

One of my favorite movie lines comes from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. When Senator Ransom Stoddard finished telling reporters about his life and what happened in the town of Shinbone, Maxwell Scott, the newspaper editor, rips up the notes and throws them into the fire.Print the Legend

Ransom Stoddard: You’re not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?

Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

That line conveys the difficulty that historians of the American West, or any other history, faces when trying to find out what happened way back then. Dime novels. Newspapers. Journals. Diaries. Inaccuracies and embellishments can be found everywhere.

However, it is not just those who record history who cause problems. Those who took part in history do the same. In the book I mentioned, the story was being told incorrectly from almost the beginning, and those incorrect accounts were coming from people who were there.

This brings me to a video I stumbled upon while scanning through YouTube. It is called The American West of John Ford and should be watched by anyone who likes the Western genre. John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda reminisce about working with Ford and take turns interviewing him.

During those interviews, all of them freely admit that Ford was not interested in depicting historical accuracy. He was interested in telling stories within a Western backdrop. He used the genre to study the human condition. However, there was one part of the documentary that got my attention.

While talking about My Darling Clementine, about the actions at the OK Corral, Ford said that Wyatt Earp had personally told him what happened at the gunfight and drew a map for him. In the movie, Ford depicted the gunfight just as Earp had described. According to Earp, a stagecoach came by, and he used it for cover to get closer to those he was after.

I have read a ton about Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral. I have been to Tombstone, Arizona and stood where the gunfight took place. At no point have I ever heard about a stagecoach being used as cover. It could have happened, but that would be a new take on it for me. Hopefully, a historian can tell me that I am wrong, but I do not think a stagecoach had anything to do with it.

So, who are the makers of legend? Was it John Ford, a director who admitted to not caring about historical accuracy? Was it Wyatt Earp who could have embellished a story to impress his Hollywood friends? Was it the director of the documentary who included that story in his movie? Is it me for writing about it?

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Italians Have Twitter, Too

1 Feb

This morning, I stirred up a small storm on Twitter. As everyone surely knows, Amanda Knox was found guilty of murder for the second time. I do not know what happened on that fateful night, but I know that the saga has gone on for way too long.

The return of this story brought to mind a book that I read, and I sent out a tweet that said:

If you want to know how screwed up the Italian justice system is then read The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston.The Monster of Florence

It ended with an Amanda Knox hashtag.

Immediately, I got a couple of responses from, what I assumed to be, people from Italy. They wondered if I had ever heard of Sacco and Vanzetti, a controversial trial from America’s past where two Italian immigrants were convicted of murder and executed.Sacco Vanzetti

I replied but immediately deleted it. There was no point in getting into an argument that I could not win. However, I thought their tweets were interesting.

I have heard of the Sacco/Vanzetti case and teach about it in my survey class. In Massachusetts, a murder took place during a robbery at a shoe factory. The two men, Nicola Sacco and Bartolemo Vanzetti, were arrested and convicted. Later, another man admitted to the crime and stated that they were not involved. Despite the new information, a judge refused to grant a new trial, and the two men were executed. The case has served as an example of anti-immigrant mindset. (Things do not change much do they?)

Debate has raged about their guilt or innocence, but, undoubtedly, their rights were violated when a new trial was not granted. It was a terrible time for the American justice system. However, I do not know what that has to do with my tweet about the book.

I never said the American justice system was a shining example of fair play. Everyday, we see where that is not the case. Despite that, I think that it works better now than it did in the 1920s when Sacco and Vanzetti found themselves in its grip. I understand that the folks who replied to my tweet were standing up for their country by telling me that my country is no better. However, it could also be taken as, “You screwed a couple of Italians in the 1920s. Now, it’s our turn.”

As I said at the beginning, I do not know if Amanda Knox is innocent or guilty. Also, I do not know if Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent or guilty. I know that our system messed up, and it is looking like the Italian system is messing up now. Actually, I do not think they know anymore about her guilt or innocence than those of us watching it on television.

That brings me to The Monster of Florence. Preston was a writer who moved to Florence. Not long after his arrival, he began hearing about a serial killer who terrorized the area many years before and was never caught. Preston became fascinated and decided to research the subject for a book. He found articles, witnesses and other sources to weave his tale. He also found a journalist who reported on the murders and had been studying it for years. Together, they found new evidence and thought that may have a few suspects.

They took this information to the lead investigator. He was very interested in what they had found and began an investigation of his own. In the process, he consulted a psychic; he questioned the writer and the reporter; and chased down suspects. However, they were not the people who the writer and reporter had thought about. As a disagreement grew, the investigator came to the idea that the writer and the journalist took part in the killings. Officials grilled Preston for hours while trying to get him to confess.

Apparently, they did not care that he was not in Italy at the time. I guess he was covering up for the journalist who was in Italy when the murders took place. After all, he wrote the stories.

Why did this book make me think of Amanda Knox? Because that same investigator led the charge to have her arrested.

I apologize. I should not have said that Italy’s justice system was screwed up. That is a blanket statement. However, I think this investigator might be. He has a history of using psychics to pull theories out of the air.

Somebody committed a murder in Italy. Somebody committed a murder in Massachusetts. In both cases, I am not sure the authorities did a very good job. Sacco, Vanzetti and the victim deserved better here. Knox and the victim deserve better there.

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If I Can’t Read a Newspaper, Then I Will Read a Book About Women’s History

26 Nov

There is a semi-serious post floating around in my brain. It is from something that I read in the newspaper. Those are the things that have been around for years but are slowly fading away. The world will be missing something when we can no longer read the news from folded paper that leaves ink on our hands. I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to the death of newspapers, but I will miss them when they are gone.

I only have one pet peeve when it comes to newspapers. I don’t mind the ink. I don’t mind when a page is cut wrong. I absolutely mind when someone folds a newspaper in unnatural ways. You aren’t making origami. Turn the pages like they are supposed to be turned. Don’t flip it and flop it. Keep it in order like a civilized person would.

The Civilized Way

The Civilized Way

Anyway, I didn’t mean for this to be an ode to newspapers. All of that just kind of spilled out of my mind. I meant to say that I have this semi-serious post floating around in my brain, but I don’t feel like writing about that topic. In fact, I don’t really have anything to write about.

I was just handed two books to review. One of them is about drug abuse and prostitution in Tennessee history. Long ago, I began researching prostitution in the American West, so this will fit in with some of my area of expertise. The other one is about women in the Progressive Era. I am not as certain about this one, but I will give it a shot.

Speaking of books, I have some favorites lining the shelves of my office. One is about Pauline’s, a famous brothel in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I know a few men around town who spent some formative evenings there.

There is also a book about Pretty Shield, a Crow medicine woman. It is a fascinating account of Native American life. The students in Expansion of the United States are going to read it. They need to find it just as fascinating as I do.

Parlor Politics is awesome. It is about the women who helped build culture and society in the early days of Washington, D.C. If you think deals are made at cocktail parties, then you should read about what was going on back then.

That’s it. I’m not going to write anything else.

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Let’s Talk About Hawthorne (and a few other things, too)

27 Aug

Another semester is upon us, and a new crop of freshmen have arrived.

That sentence popped into my head last night as I contemplated that start of a new academic year. It is always an interesting time as the faculty scramble to get their classes organized and new students scramble to figure out what they have gotten themselves into. The returning members of the sophomore, junior and senior classes are the only ones to be taking things in stride. This is old news to them.

For the first time in a couple of months, the campus is buzzing with activity. The freshmen have been divided into pods and are making their way around the place. I am not sure what they did this morning, but one session was spent going over The Birth-Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Each group met with a different faculty member and discussed what they read.Nathaniel Hawthorne

My group had a decent meeting. They did not like what they had to read but understood that it would probably happen more than once in the next few years.

I enjoyed the part where they talked about themselves. Most were from around this area, but a couple had traveled some distance. A student from Alabama, who is here to play basketball, had been to All Steak. Another student from Lawrence, Kansas is here to be on the cycling team. I told them that I had been to Holcomb, Kansas, and, to my surprise, a student from around here knew why that place is famous.

Another student from a nearby town came from a graduating class of thirteen people. Our discussion group was bigger than that. We advertise about having small classes, but we can’t compare to that.

I learned a lot from the students – more than they probably learned from me. I learned that they already know how to complain about the cafeteria food. I learned that most of our students still come from the general vicinity. I learned that they are generally glad to be here and are looking forward to what lies ahead.

Some of them will make it to graduation. Some of them will wash out within a few semesters. All of them have the experience of reading The Birth-Mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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Categorically

30 Jul

We just finished walking around the neighborhood. As we did, I noticed a man through a window. He was working at his desk, and I began to wonder what he was working on. Was he writing the next great novel? Was he writing a letter? Was he blogging? At the moment, I am sitting by a window, and people are probably looking in and wondering what I am doing.

I like to think that people like what they read here. It’s a hodgepodge of stuff, but it comes right out of my head. Sometimes, It’s travel. Sometimes, it’s music. Sometimes, its stories from the past. All the time, it’s something that is stuck in my mind and needs to get out.

I am not sure what needs to get out tonight, so I will just go down the list of categories on this blog and type this first thing that fits.Scattergories

Academics – School starts back soon. That means inservice.

Agriculture – The other day, I got gas at the Farmer’s Co-Op.

Art – There is a guy named Art who works at Beauty Boutique, Necole’s store.

Biography – The last one I read wasn’t very good, It was about Ward Bond, John Ford and John Wayne. It should have been good.

Books – I just finished The Eye of God by James Rollins. It is the further adventures of Grayson Pierce.

Childhood Memories – Tonight, I mentioned that my parents had a Weeping Willow in their front yard, and I used to play under it.

Comedy – Nothing is funny, at the moment.

Community – I was named to the local Planning Commission. This afternoon was my first meeting.

Crime – Tonight, I found out that a guy I once knew tried to kidnap his wife and lock her in a closet. Hopefully, he will get what’s coming to him.

Did You Know? – I forgot about this category. It needs to be revisited.

Dining – Tonight, we had a home cooked meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and green peas.

Dreams – Lately, my dreams have been less than memorable.

Government – Necole went to the DMV this morning. There is no reason they should be that slow.

History – I am getting my lecture voice warmed up.

Movies – We watched Batman Begins, and I realized that the guy who plays Joffrey on Game of Thrones was in it.

Music – We have a couple of concerts coming up – Don Williams and The Eagles.

Nature – There’s a great article about sugar in the latest National Geographic. Everyone should read it.

Photography – In a few days, we are getting more wedding photos made.

Rambling Ruminations – I think that is what this post is all about.

Relationships – I’m married.

Religion – I would like to write about it more, but a few things are better left unsaid.

Sports – College football is about to start, and my team, the University of Tennessee, is in the Southeastern Conference. However, you’ll never hear me chant S-E-C. I cheer for one team and hope the other ones lose every week.

Stupid Stuff – It’s an accurate description of this post.

Television – I’m waiting for Justified to crank back up.

Therapy – I used to go. I don’t anymore.

Travel – We just returned from California and will be heading to Arizona soon.

Writing – Am I the only person who doesn’t mess with those writing prompts?

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Twenty Thousand

22 Jun

I have been away from the blog for a few days and returned to find that it has gone over 20,000 views. I don’t know if it reached this number quickly or at a snails pace, but I know that I appreciate everyone who clicked on Surrounded by Imbeciles to read a few words. I hope that everyone has found something enjoyable in what they have read.

To celebrate reaching 20,000 views, this post is about a few “20,000” things.20,000

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – This is an easy one. The classic novel by Jules Verne turned into a movie starring James Mason, Kirk Douglas, Peter Lorre, and a seal. However, it has actually been turned into a movie a lot of times.

The $20,000 Pyramid – One of many versions of the classic television game show. It was most famously hosted by Dick Clark and had contestants guessing categories by picking up clues from celebrities.

20,000 Days and Counting: A Crash Course in Your Life Right Now – This book by Robert D. Smith takes on the struggles of life and inspires people to succeed.

20,000 Patties Under the Sea – Obviously a play off the Jules Verne novel, this is an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. I don’t know what it is about, but I hope it involves Plankton.

Uprising of the 20,000 – In 1909, Jewish women who worked in shirtwaist factories went on strike. They gained better wages, working conditions and working hours.

20,000 Years in Sing Sing – Starring Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis, this 1932 movie is about a criminal who is sentenced to the the famous prison. The warden tries to help him. Do his efforts work?

That’s a few things connected to 20,000. Thanks for being one of the 20,000 that stopped by.

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Picture This – Keel Drug

5 Apr

West 2010 562

A few years ago, I found my way to Ballinger, Texas, a little town south of San Angelo. It sits a far piece off the interstate, and nothing of great historical importance happened there. It is simply a little town like thousands of little towns across the country. However, it was a place that I needed to go, and the need was to walk into Keel Drug Store.

This is the story of Keel Drug; the family who used to own it; and the reason I needed to walk through its doors.

Gene Keel was raised at the Masonic Home Orphanage in Fort Worth, Texas during the Great Depression. As the name implies, it was filled with kids who had little chance to succeed in the world, and Little Gene Keel was one of them. However, good things happened for him at the school. Although girls and boys were kept apart, he met his future wife at the home. He also found a chance with the football coach, Rusty Russell.

The story of the football team is a fascinating one and has been chronicled by Jim Dent in Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mights Who Ruled Texas Football. A team that could not afford a football to practice with defeated almost everyone that they played, from small schools not much different from them to the big schools in the cities. Little Gene Keel was the quarterback for those teams and parlayed that experience into the store pictured above.

Attending Rice University on a football scholarship, Gene got married; became a pharmacist; and opened a drug store in Ballinger. He became well-known in Ballinger for providing medicine to those who couldn’t afford it and for serving the best treats in town at his soda fountain.

Gene Keel grew up in the Depression and lived in Ballinger, Texas. I grew up in the 1980s and live in the middle of Tennessee. What’s my connection?

Gene’s son, Johnny Keel was raised in the aisles of Keel Drug and on the links of the local country club. He grew up with his dad’s personality and flair but not with his football abilities. Johnny’s talents were with the golf club, and they took him to the golf team at the University of Texas.

Johnny stayed in Austin; opened a chain of health clubs; and became well-known throughout the city. Of course, owning a health club involves more than just running the day-to-day operations. At times, you have to attend conventions to keep up with the latest innovations. It was at one of these conventions that Johnny met my aunt, the owner of a local health club.

Johnny married my aunt, and, after some time living in Austin, they returned to middle Tennessee. Johnny became as well-known here as he was in Texas. He became involved in the community, and almost everyone came to like him for his enthusiastic outlook on life. He was fun-loving and wanted everyone else to have fun along with him.

I can’t remember all of the times that he and I sat at a Blackjack table together. Johnny always sat on first base, and I always sat on third base. He also tried to pass on his love of golf to me. We played many times, but I never grasped the game. Despite my lack of ability, we always had a great time.

Johnny’s outlook on life was brighter than anyone else I have ever known, and that outlook was needed when he was diagnosed with cancer. I will not go through the details, but he and my aunt fought the disease together. They tried everything to beat cancer and convinced everyone that they were going to succeed. They succeeded for ten years until Johnny could fight no more.

That’s why I went to Keel Drug in Ballinger, Texas. Johnny talked about his hometown so much that I wanted to see it for myself. Perhaps, it would help me to understand the strength and positive outlook that came from him everyday. Perhaps, there was something in Ballinger that made him help others who had cancer while he needed help himself. However, none of that was in Ballinger. It was in Johnny, and, he got it from Gene.

Johnny was still alive when I went to Ballinger, and my plan was to call him from the store. However, I couldn’t get a cell signal in the little town and had to call him when I got near a tower.

Johnny is gone, but his memory remains with everyone who knew him. His work to help others also remains with Go Johnny Go, a 5K fundraiser that my aunt started after his death. If you would like to donate or learn more about Johnny, then go to www.gojohnnygorun.com.

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