BMTG Daily Dose

Formerly known as the Daily Dose, the Weekly Dose is home to weekly excerpts from a wide variety of important books. These excerpts are near and dear to the hearts of the BMTG membership. Submissions from BMTG members are welcome, as long as the guidelines are followed. Submissions that do not conform to the official guidelines will be rejected without the opportunity to appeal. Excerpts are best when read aloud with a dramatic flair.

2006
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Week of April 24, 2006

Reynolds Remembers by Jerry Reynolds with Don Drysdale

        People always discuss the shot that Robert Horry hit to win Game 4. If he misses, we're up 3-1 in the series and heading home. What all the brilliant experts in the national media fail to point out is that Horry - the Lakers' power forward, with his team down two points - was totally out of position on the play. [The Rapist] drove and missed a shot to tie the game. Shaq missed the follow attempt, and Vlade Divac couldn't control the ball, so he tipped it toward the backcourt. Where's the Lakers' power forward? On the boards, like he should be? No - he's standing at the three-point line. People say it's sour grapes on my part, but it's not. It's absolutely a bad basketball play. There's no way that Phil Jackson expected or wanted Horry to be out there when the Lakers needed two points to tie the score at home and two shots already have been missed. They weren't worried about protecting the backcourt at that point. But Horry was there, and I give him credit: he made the shot.

Bonus Reading from Reynolds Remembers
        The low point of the season - one of the low points in the team's history - was a 101-59 loss in Charlotte. I didn't see it, but listened to it on the radio while I was out for a walk. Our radio announcer, Gary Gerould, is brilliant at painting a picture with words, so I could see how ugly it really was. On the trip home that night, Dick said he was going to resign, that he'd had enough, and Wayman Tisdale and some of the other guys talked him out of it.
        Later on, Wayman told me, "Boy, I wish we hadn't done that."

Week of April 17, 2006

Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla

CIUTTI: Pues ¿qué os duele? But what pains you?

BRÍGIDA: Todo el cuerpo y toda el alma además. My whole body, and all my soul besides.

CIUTTI: ¡Ya! No estáis acostumbrada al caballo, es natural. Ah, you're just not used to riding, it's natural.

BRÍGIDA: Mil veces pensé caer: ¡uf!, ¡qué mareo!, ¡qué afán! Veía yo unos tras otros ante mis ojos pasar los árboles, como en alas llevados de un huracán, tan apriesa y produciéndome ilusión tan infernal, que perdiera los sentidos si tardamos en parar. I thought I'd fall a thousand times. Oh! What dizziness! What fear! I saw the trees one after another passing before my eyes as if on wings, blown by so quickly in a storm that they produced in me such a hellish illusion that had we delayed our halt much longer, I'd have lost my senses.

Twenty Years At Hull House by Jane Addams

The careful information collected concerning the juxtaposition of the typhoid cases to the various systems of plumbing and nonplumbing was made the basis of a bacteriological study by another resident, Dr. Alice Hamilton, as to the possibility of the infection having been carried by flies. Her researches were so convincing that they have been incorporated into the body of scientific data supporting that theory, but there were also practical results from the investigation. It was discovered that the wretched sanitary appliances through which alone the infection could have become so widely spread, would not have been
permitted to remain, unless the city inspector had either been criminally careless or open to the arguments of favored landlords.

Week of April 10, 2006

Summer of '49 by David Halberstam

That afternoon Boston played a doubleheader in near 100-degree heat. In the seventh inning of the first game Gowdy looked down and to his surprise saw Kinder amble in from the bullpen. He looked as if he had slept like a log the night before. He retired nine men in a row. Boudreau thanked him and told him he could take the rest of the day off. "I'll stick around, Skip," he said. "I've got nothing else to do." Stick around he did, coming in to pitch several innings of shutout baseball in the second game on this brutally hot day.

The Death of Outrage by William J. Bennett

The idea that the president should be a man of good character remained strong for many years in the early republic. But by the end of the nineteenth century and through the twentieth, our concept of political leadership began to shift. Management skills began to take priority over character; the idea was that a new and more "progressive" science of government would make reliance on good men unnecessary. This disjunction continued to take root through the following decades, to the point where many people today treat private and public character as entirely separate and unrelated categories.

Week of April 3, 2006

To America by Stephen E. Ambrose

In September 1945, American occupation troops began to move into and take control of Japan. The country had been a feudal monarchy for more than 1,000 years. The Emperor was worshipped. Young men flew kamikaze, sacrificing their lives for him. The country was ruled by the few families that owned the major businesses, held the largest farms, ran the military. Women had no rights. No Japanese worker or serf had ever voted in a meaningful election.
In 1945, the Americans determined to change the system. General Douglas MacArthur wrote Japan's new constitution, basing it on the Americans'. Under his efficient and autocratic direction, the occupation, which lasted until 1951, officially eliminated militarist, ultranationalist, and feudal vestiges. Japan's political system, its economy, labor relations, society, public health and welfare programs, and educational structure were reformed. Its Emperor was no longer divine. The new constitution included land reform and women's rights to education and the vote and provided for Japan's demilitarization. Amicable relations between Japan and the United States were established.

Blindfolded by Earle Ashley Walcott

        I looked across the room to the corner where Luella was entertaining the insignificant Inman. How vivacious and intelligent she appeared! Her face and figure grew on me in attractiveness, and I felt that I was being very badly used. As I came to this point I was roused by the sound of two low voices that just behind me were plainly audible under the shrill treble of Mrs. Bowser. They were women with their heads close in gossip.
        "Shocking, isn't it?" said one.
        "Dreadful!" said the other. "It gives me the creeps to think of it."
        "Why don't they lock him up? Such a creature shouldn't be allowed to go at large."

CIUTTI: Pues ¿qué os duele?		But what pains you?
BRÍGIDA: Todo el cuerpo y toda el alma además.		My whole body, and all my soul besides.
CIUTTI: ¡Ya! No estáis acostumbrada al caballo, es natural.		Ah, you're just not used to riding, it's natural.
BRÍGIDA: Mil veces pensé caer: ¡uf!, ¡qué mareo!, ¡qué afán! Veía yo unos tras otros ante mis ojos pasar los árboles, como en alas llevados de un huracán, tan apriesa y produciéndome ilusión tan infernal, que perdiera los sentidos si tardamos en parar.		I thought I'd fall a thousand times. Oh! What dizziness! What fear! I saw the trees one after another passing before my eyes as if on wings, blown by so quickly in a storm that they produced in me such a hellish illusion that had we delayed our halt much longer, I'd have lost my senses.