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 January 30, 2006

101 Reasons to Love the Red Sox by David Green

#31 Harry Frazee
A self-made millionaire who had built his fortune in the theater, Frazee purchased the Red Sox from Joe Lannin in November of 1916 and stocked the roster with new talent that teamed with the remaining stars from the 1916 champions. Frazee's Red Sox went on to win their fifth World Series title in 1918
Despised by countless fans for selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees in December of 1919, Frazee was merely conducting business as usual for him. Ruth had twice left the team without permission, was thought to be a physical risk with bad knees and a weight problem, and created unrest in the clubhouse by lobbying for the ouster of manager Ed Barrow. Frazee, who was crucified by the press in the ensuing years, simply did what he thought was best for the team. At the time, no one could have predicted the staggering success Ruth would achieve in his subsequent years with the Yankees.

Bonus Reading from 101 Reasons to Love the Red Sox
#68 Carl Yastrzemski
In 1961, rookie Carl "Yaz" Yastrzemski replaced the legendary Ted Williams in left field. Playing in the shadow of the Green Monster, Yaz filled Williams' shoes better than anyone expected. Throughout his career he played the game with passion and dignity. In 1967, one year after the Sox finished ninth in the American League, 26 games out of first place, Yaz carried the Red Sox to the World Series with an MVP and Triple Crown performance that included a .326 batting average, 44 home runs, and 121 RBI. With a 4-for-4 performance in the last game of the regular season, and 23 for his last 44, he was the difference in giving the Sox the penant by one game over Detroit and Minnesota in a season that became known as the "Impossible Dream."
Yaz played 3,308 games for the Red Sox in his 23-year career, an American League record. He holds the team record for RBI with 1,844, is second in homers with 452, and won the AL batting title three times. His number, 8, is one of five numbers retired by the Red Sox.

Week of January 23, 2006

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no ONE by BIRTH could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and though himself might deserve SOME decent degree of honors of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the
strongest NATURAL proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ASS FOR A LION.

Bonus Reading from Common Sense
The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent--of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually
involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a
young oak; The wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.

Week of January 16, 2006

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

Imagine a woman duly decorated, according to the new Code; with the front half (i.e., the half containing the eye and mouth) red, and with the hinder half green. Look at her from one side. Obviously you will see a straight line, HALF RED, HALF GREEN.
Now imagine a Priest, whose mouth is at M, and whose front semicircle (AMB) is consequently coloured red, while his hinder semicircle is green; so that the diameter AB divides the green from the red. If you contemplate the Great Man so as to have your eye
in the same straight line as his dividing diameter (AB), what you will see will be a straight line (CBD), of which ONE HALF (CB) WILL BE RED, AND THE OTHER (BD) GREEN. The whole line (CD) will be rather shorter perhaps than that of a full-sized Woman, and will shade off more rapidly towards its extremities; but the identity of the colours would give you an immediate impression of identity in Class, making you neglectful of other details. Bear in mind the decay of Sight Recognition which threatened society at the time of the Colour revolt; add too the certainty that Woman would speedily learn to shade off their extremities so as to imitate the Circles; it must then be surely obvious to you, my dear Reader, that the Colour Bill placed us under a great danger of confounding a Priest with a young Woman.

Henry VIII And His Court by Louise Muhlbach

She shook her clenched fist threateningly at Hodge, fully convinced that now, as always before, Hodge would retreat before this menacing weapon of his jealous and irritable lady-love, and seek safety under the bed or the table.
This time, however, she was mistaken. Hodge, who saw that all was lost, felt that his patience was at length exhausted; and his timidity was now changed to the madness of despair. The lamb was transformed into a tiger, and with a tiger's rage he pounced upon
Gammer Gurton, and, throwing aside her fist, he dealt her a good sound blow on the cheek.

Week of January 9, 2006

Alvira: The Heroine of Vesuvius by A. J. O'Reilly

"The mysteries of Eleusis," says the profound German mythologist, Creuzer, "did not only teach resignation, but, as we see by the verses of Homer to Ceres sung on those occasions, they afforded consoling promises of a better futurity. 'Happy is the mortal,' it is said there, 'who hath been able to contemplate these grand scenes! But he who hath not taken part in these holy ceremonies is fore ever deprived of a like lot, even when death has drawn him down into its gloomy abodes.'"

The Gentleman From Indiana by Booth Tarkington

        He laughed and raised a protesting hand. "But _we_ couldn't."
        "No, you couldn't; it's the ribbon of superiority in your buttonhole. I know several women who manage to live without men to open doors for them, and I think I could bear to let a man pass before me now and then, or wear his hat in an office where I happened to be; and I could get my own ice at a dance, I think, possibly with even less fuss and scramble than I've sometimes observed in the young men who have done it for me. But you know you would never let us do things for ourselves, no matter what legal equality might be declared, even when we get representation for our taxation. You will never be able to deny yourselves giving us our 'privilege.' I hate being waited on. I'd rather do things for myself."
        She was so earnest in her satire, so full of scorn and so serious in her meaning, and there was such a contrast between what she said and her person; she looked so preeminently the pretty marquise, all silks and softness, the little exquisite, so essentially to be waited on and helped, to have cloaks thrown over the dampness for her to tread upon, to be run about for--he could see half a dozen youths rushing about for her ices, for her carriage, for her chaperone, for her wrap, at dances--that to save his life he could not repress a chuckle. He managed to make it inaudible, however; and it was as well that he did.

Week of January 2, 2006

Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard

After much deliberation and inquiry we came to the conclusion that our best starting-point for Mt Kenia would be from the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Tana River, and not from Mombassa, a place over 100 miles nearer Zanzibar. This conclusion we arrived at from information given to us by a German trader whom we met upon the steamer at Aden. I think that he was the dirtiest German I ever knew; but he was a good fellow, and gave us a great deal of valuable information. 'Lamu,' said he, 'you goes to Lamu -- oh ze beautiful place!' and he turned up his fat face and beamed with mild rapture. 'One year and a half I live there and never change my shirt -- never at all.'

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini

        He saw her now, it seemed to him, for the first time, and saw how he had misjudged her.
        "Sure, now, how was I to guess that... that Colonel Bishop could have an angel for his niece?" said he recklessly, for he was reckless as men often are in sudden penitence.
        "You wouldn't, of course. I shouldn't think you often guess aright." Having withered him with that and her glance, she turned to her negro and the basket that he carried. From this she lifted now the fruits and delicacies with which it was laden, and piled them in such heaps upon the beds of the six Spaniards that by the time she had so served the last of them her basket was empty, and there was nothing left for her own fellow-countrymen. These, indeed, stood in no need of her bounty - as she no doubt observed - since they
were being plentifully supplied by others.
        Having thus emptied her basket, she called her negro, and without another word or so much as another glance at Peter Blood, swept out of the place with her head high and chin thrust forward.