jon meacham, "american lion: andrew jackson in the white house" book review

"american lion: andrew jackson in the white house," is the second book on the 19th century that i've read this year (following up on "tried by war: abraham lincoln as commander in chief"), and the third in the last six month, if i look back to "dark genius of wall street," the biography of robber baron jay gould. the most recent pair have been tied to my constitutional law class this semester but, ironically, given the financial meltdown and recent guilty plea by madoff, the jay gould book is decidedly more topical - ha.

in that vein, "american lion" reads more like a novel than history book. andrew jackson is what many consider the first popularly elected president. he won the poplar vote in 1824, only to have the election stolen from him by the house of representatives! four years later, he won the popular vote again, and this time took office. he went on and won a landslide reelection in 1832 - and left office (despite many enemies) as a hugely popular chief executive. the book focused on his years in the white house.

those years, again, felt more like a soap opera than traditional history. the bulk of his first term was preoccupied with the social problems attendant to the less than proper background of the wife of his secretary of war, john eaton! jackson measured the loyalty of his cabinet members on whether they would deign to have their wives socialize with the eatons! this litmus test extended to his own surrogate family at the white house. he exiled his own niece back to tennessee because she wouldn't tow the jackson line on this issue!

aside from issues of social stigma, jackson's major preoccupations focused on the threats of "nullification" from south carolina - preceding the actual reality of civil war by 30 years. lincoln himself looked back at jackson's handling of the south carolina problem as he confronted the outbreak of civil war. jackson also single-mindedly pursued the destruction of the second bank of the united states. a successful battle, which directly lead to his censure in the senate.

while this was a lively, and entertaining book, meacham paints a decidedly favorable image of jackson. one would be hard pressed to reconcile the take no prisoners, slash and burn, loud and forceful, my way or the highway historical image of jackson to the man presented in these pages. jackson had a serious dark side. he was no friend of the indians, no friend to slaves, and tacitly fomented revolution in texas (when it was still part of mexico).

it seemed that meacham, while not entirely glossing over those points, significantly watered them down to present the more positive forward looking jackson found in the pages of his book. that noted, it is a fun read (if such can be said about any 19th century president) - ha.

happy birthday: james taylor is 61 years young today!

today, march 12, 2009 is james taylor's 61st birthday. it's was an incredibly busy and productive year for him, which included a successful tour with his "band of legends" (a concert of which pat was happy to attend), a new album (albeit of covers (no new material) - and of the same name), and an intimate appearance on the sundance channel's "spectacle" with elvis costello!

in addition to his music, james taylor also exercised his political voice and took the time to campaign on behalf of obama. not only did taylor (along with fellow 1960's era icons, the grateful dead) attend the president's inauguration, but performed as well!



happy birthday james taylor - here's to another productive year!

joe torre "the yankee years" book review

when the first leaks about the contents of joe torre's "the yankee years" dribbled out in late january, i was dubious. would joe torre, "mr. trust" personified, crank out a "kiss and tell" book in the wake of his less than flattering departure as yankee manager in 2007? from the snippets that circulated, it seemed so. now, after i finished the book, all i can say is "oh how the mighty have fallen."

first, there is no doubt in my mind that this book would never have been written, much less actually published, if joe torre was still the manager of the ny yankees today. it may have been planned as a retirement project, but as an active manager - impossible. second, "written in the third" person seems like a lame canard to distract attention from torre's responsibility for the contents. while the book does rely on tom verducci's excellent reporting skills for the league-wide steroid use coverage, the bulk of the material is entirely within torre's purview. what, if any, is outside his personal knowledge could easily have been attributed as such.

while i have no problem with torre writing this book (any book for that matter), it troubles me that as an active manager he so flippantly ignores any notions of "trust" and it's connection to the player conversations and behaviors he witnessed first hand. amazingly, and utterly ironic in this context, the most overworked (and abused) word in the entire book is "trust." it's used so frequently that, at first, it's humorous then, finally, by the last chapter it became nauseating. imagine yourself a current member of the dodgers today - how would you go about your business this season (or any season) with torre as manager?

as a die hard yankee fan since the early 1970's - i found the relatively brief coverage of the rise of torres' late 90's yankees given far less attention than the post-01 years of inglorious decline. the short recap of the great years is quickly forgotten after pages, blow by blow, that described how the wheels fell off the yankee bus. the most painful part of the entire book (again, purely as a yankee fan) was reliving the agony of the yankee immolation in 2004 - losing the alcs to the red sox, after a 3-0 start, in 4 straight horrifying games!

settling old scores with difficult players and the yankee organization is predictable. the a-rod business in particular is old news to any new yorker mildly tuned in to yankee headlines. but the "a-fraud" crack, carefully scripted so as not to be uttered by torre in the retelling, is new grist for stadium fans. any guess what may be heard at the stadium from rowdy fans when a-rod is having a bad game? coincident? but that's hardly worth noting. what galled me in particular was the gratuitous cheap shot taken at bernie williams!

for a loyal yankee and torre solider his entire time on the team, joe somehow found it necessary to relate how bernie once forgot his kids at the stadium. embarrassing? how about a second go of it? bernie also forgot his wife at the stadium once! what on earth do either of those anecdotes (and whatever absentminded implication they imply) have to do with the yankee - or baseball in general?

to say this book is disappointing is the best praise i can muster up. the sole highlight was the discussion of "moneyball" - the rise of statistics and numbers crunchers. the low point (aside from the comments on bernie williams), was reading how joe felt "betrayed" by the yankees. interestingly, the actual word "betrayed" was never written. coy? cagey? skillful prose? diplomacy? "trust" was employed so frequently that its use in this context was almost offensive.

did torre think the buck for the long string of poor post-season performances would not stop with him? fairly or unfairly? whining about getting the ax those circumstances (however artfully framed) was just lame. and torre wasn't actually fired! he was, in fact, offered a one year contract (albeit with a pay cut). while the terms may have embarrassed him, the yankees nevertheless gave torre the option to manage the team for another season! he elected to walk away - right or wrong?!

yankee fans, joe comes not to praise caesar - but to bury him. so be forewarned. sadly, this is a more a book for red sox fans and erstwhile yankee haters. instead, a much happier read was last year's "the greatest game" which focused on the now historic (in yankee lore) 1978 playoff game against the red sox.

or check-out the baseball book i'm anxiously awaiting, the new thurman munson biography due out this summer.

boston build-up 25k: race report

this was my 4th time climbing the hills of boston build-up 25k course. my last time over this course, in 2006, netted a 1:48:36 - and was a minute better than 2005's 1:49:41. i missed the 25k for the last 2 years because of the caumsett park 50k. that couple of years away from the hills was just enough time for me to forget the nitty gritty details of the brutal climbs on this course. just a general sense of "it's definitely hilly" was all i managed to conjure up.

there was zero likelihood that i'd break 1:50 this time around. in fact, there was just as little likelihood that i'd hit a 1:53:06 (my slowest bb 25k). instead, i targeted a sub 2 hour finish, and hoped to push on the second (in bound) half for a negative split. this would turn out be a hard training run for me.

aside from the race, the event was also a social event because it was don's 60th birthday! emmy made a great happy birthday poster and card for don. jim planned to lead the runners on a chorus of happy birthday at the start. all we needed was don - who, in a rariety, entirely missed the start. he took the course 10 minutes after everyone had left! the birthday celebration took place post-race.

there were so many friends and familiar faces lined up. aside from emmy, rob, and kate - who, together with don, originally planned to run the celebrate life half marathon in sullivan county before the race was rescheduled last weekend - just a quick sample: jill, anton, luann, joe h., joe v., torpedo, brian, marty, roy, ted, evan, and noonie. emmy and noonie had both done the 50k on long island the week before.

as for the race itself, had my math skills be up to elementary school levels, i wouldn't have stressed out the pacing as much as did. for some bizarre reason, i kept thinking an 8 minute pace worked out to a 2 hour finish (instead of a 2:04). it led me to distraction when i'd mentally recalculate my projected finish - and constantly find it above 2 hours! it was maddening!

here are my splits:

7:39

14:50 22:29
7:28 29:57
7:38 35:35
7:54 45:29
7:50 53:19
7:44 1:01:03
7:44 1:08:47
7:31 1:16:18
7:24 1:23:42
7:17 1:30:59

14:38 1:45:37
7:20 1:52:57
3:54 1:56:51

7:31 pace

i was very pleased with this outcome - especially with the negative split and having picked up the pace over the last 3+ miles. i was also glad to have switched into a long-sleeve tech from the short sleeve i had on before the race. despite the sunshine, the wind kept me from warming up at any point on the course! throwing that same temperature caution to the wind, rob ran the entire race shirtless! ironically, rob finished right behind me - and, at that point, i was also shirtless (having just ditched my soaked shirt once i crossed the finish)!

afterwards, we gave don a lot of grief for oversleeping! also, somehow i managed to snap a lot of pictures of runners with bagels - ha. inside the school gym, with all the massage tables set up in orderly rows, it looked like a scene from a m.a.s.h. unit! all in all, it was perfect day to be out on the roads running!




i love this elevation profile (courtesy of raceslikeagirl)!

check out;

my race photos.
emmy's race photos (and report).
julie's race report.
ken's race report.

and, last but not least, video clip and press coverage from the stamford advocate.

next up: nyrr 8000 and trrc st. patrick's day 10K

boston build-up 25k video clip and press coverage!

hats off to dawn, who posted a link to this great clip of the start of the boston build-up 25k on her blog! the reporter from the stamford advocate, in addition to coverage of the start, did some post-race interviews of the finishers.

amazingly, you can catch a glimpse of yours truly (in the red) on the starting line :D

here's the print coverage of the record field from the stamford advocate.
here is my race report.

boston build-up 25k: race photos and results

what a great day for a race! amazingly, don woke up late and missed the start of race (and our planned rendition of happy birthday)! so his birthday wishes took place post-race.

i managed a 1:56:50, and rob was right behind me in 1:57. emmy, uncharacteristically, finished in 2:14.

here is my race report.

here are the results from clubct.

here are my race photos:


emmy, putting up don's b-day poster.


rob's post-race interview w/the media.


jonathan and julie ("raceslikeagirl")


noonie


evan


kate


emmy and noonie


brian


roy, signing card for don.


rob, "there's more salt on me, than the bagel!"


don and emmy grapple over who takes home to poster :D



al and roy discuss finer points of the camera :D

check out emmy's photos.
check out the video clip and press coverage.

napa valley wine tasting at zachy's

i haven't posted on a zachy wine tasting in a while (since the chilean wine tasting last summer). that's not to say i haven't attended a bunch of them over the last few months (my favorite, of which, was the awesome burgundy tasting held last october). so in a week that kicked off with some great beer at the blind tiger ale house, the weekend is all about california (and, more specifically, napa valley) wine. how better to usher it in than with a sunny warm day :D

on to the wines. there were four wineries represented: honig, grgich hills, bennett lane, and heitz wine cellars. while all the selections tasted were good, the highlights for me were the cabs - specifically the heitz cabs. it seemed like one heitz selection was better than the next. the heitz "martha's vineyard" (named after the vineyard, not the island) 2004 was undoubtedly the stand out of the entire tasting.

in terms of whites, the honig 2007 sauvignon blanc, grginch hills estate grown 2007 fume blanc, and the bennett lane 2006 maximus white were all excellent. my personal favorite was the bennett lane blend, which included sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and muscat grapes. it was truly an inspired wine.

my least favorite, unfortunately, was the grginch 2005 zinfandel. they purposely designed this wine to be a sophisticated un-big zin! as a fan of big zins - and i'd probably consider big zins my favorite wines - this was nothing less than a sacrilege! to each his own, so it goes - but zins are meant to be big :D

check out the bordeaux, malbec, and riesling tasting the following week at zachy's!