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Past Time: Simulation Football Leagues, Living in the Past, and Learning to Love Football Again
by Ted KluckAuthor Ted Kluck found, online, a community of computer nerds and football enthusiasts so rooted in the past and so uninterested in the future that they have created algorithms and computer software that can accurately simulate football games, seasons, and careers using fields of data that already exist on the thousands of players who have suited up in the National Football League. All of these players are now old. Some of them are now dead. But they became the object of Ted Kluck&’s fascination. The Odyssey Online Football league began in 2006, with the 1966 NFL season, and has been gradually working its way through NFL history ever since, &“drafting&” players, crafting game plans, calling plays, winning and losing. Theories are tested. Team owners have theories. What if NFL teams went back to power offenses like the late-80s Parcellsian Giants? Are running backs over 220 pounds more effective and less likely to get hurt? Can a running quarterback survive if he&’s deployed more like a running back? And why are there whole groups of people out there this obsessed with the past? Past Time explores these questions and many others, as the author—a jaded journalist, a lifelong football player, and a burned-out coach—spends a year immersed in the late 1970s, in hopes of rekindling his love for the game. Part memoir and part Bill-Jamesian exploration into football nerdery, Past Time is an homage to football&’s past, and a meditation on its present and future.
Birds of Florida (Falcon Field Guide Series)
by Todd TelanderEach Falcon Field Guide to birds introduces the most common and sought-after species in a state. Conveniently sized to fit in your pocket and featuring full-color, detailed illustrations, these informative guides make it easy to identify birds in a backyard, favorite parks, and wildlife areas. Each bird is accompanied by a detailed listing of its prominent attributes and a color illustration showing its important features. Birds are organized in taxonomic order, keeping families of birds together for easy identification. This is the essential source for the field, both informative and beautiful to peruse.
Fascinating True Tales from Old California: Crooked Con Men, Eccentric Immigrants, and Fearless Females Who Shaped the Golden State
by Colleen Adair FliednerFor over four centuries, California has been an ever-changing landscape of innovation and revolution, triumph and tragedy. In Fascinating True Tales from Old California, author Colleen Adair Fliedner mines the history of theGolden State to collect more than fifty tales of famous Californians and their escapades from 1542 through 1940. For many, like James Lick, Leland Stanford, and John Downey, California was a place to strike it rich. Others sought freedom and a new beginning, including Chinese immigrants and African Americans, like philanthropist and freed slave, Biddy Mason. And still some characters just wanted to live their lives outside of society&’s rules, like swindler James Reavis or the cross-dressing stagecoach driver, Charley Parkhurst. Readers will be entertained and enlightened as they take a trip through California&’s colorful past.
The Curious Naturalist: Nature's Everyday Mysteries
by Sy MontgomeryBoston Globe nature columnist discusses the lovelorn messages sent by singing insects on autumn evenings, the messages contained in spiderwebs, the effects of winter snow on the way sound travels, the way all life depends on the unusual structure of water, and much more. Most fun is the author's description of ways to interact with other creatures (e.g., teaching wild birds to eat out of your hand).
Unitas to Unitas: Life's Lessons Passed Down from Father to Son
by Joe UnitasQuarterback John Unitas was all that America wanted in a man in the late 1950s into the 1960s. He was hardworking, humble, respectful, and true to his word. As a football player, Unitas became known for his trademark crew cut and black high-top cleats . . . which he would later wear when cutting grass because &“they were comfortable and still fit.&” Blessed with athleticism and a goldenarm, he had a heart that pumped ice water through his veins, allowing him to remain unemotional in the tensest moments of football games. In fact, he is credited with inventing—and perfecting—the two-minute drill; but statistics and accolades weren&’t important to him—only winning.Joe Unitas was fortunate enough to have had twenty-eight great years with his dad and he knows the essence of the man. His father's ambition, determination, and courage never wavered. The examples he set and the lessons he taught are a father's legacy to his son as Joe's biggest supporter and most incredible source of inspiration. His passion and motivation to be the best served as the foundations upon which many of Joe's successes have been built.Unitas to Unitas offers a deeply personal reflection on John Unitas's legacy and its profound effect within every aspect of his son's life. His life lessons allowed the author to make his own dreams come true. This collection of twenty lessons informed the author's life, and in this book he shares them as inspirational wisdom from one of football's greatest leaders.
Life Painted Red: The True Story of Corabelle Fellows and How Her Life on the Dakota Frontier Became a National Scandal
by Chuck RaaschIn 1884, twenty-three-year-old Corabelle Fellows left her family in Washington, DC, and journeyed out West to teach Native children in Nebraska and Dakota Territory. She hoped her missionary work would improve the lives of the Dakota and Lakota Sioux people by helping them assimilate into white culture, following the predominant government policy at the time. But after years of living among the Native people, it was Cora&’s perceptions of life, love, and faith that were transformed. It began with her friendship with Elizabeth Winyan, a remarkable Dakota woman who was a model of strength, compassion, and adaptability among her people. Winyan became a maternal figure for Cora in the strange land so far from the &“civilized&” city. She even saved Cora from being married against her will.Then Cora met Sam Campbell, a man from Scottish and Sioux stock. They fell in love and were married, though the match made national headlines after Cora&’s family disowned her. The couple struggled to find a place in the American frontier, straddling two worlds. For years their marriage was grist for the yellow press, and they became a sensational national story that led them to a brief stint as a sideshow attraction for traveling exhibitions and dime museums to support themselves. They would never live happily ever after, and the couple was plagued by racist rhetoric and sexist slander even after their divorce.Life Painted Red details Cora&’s experiences from her Washington, DC, exodus to her years living among the Sioux, and her scandalous, short-lived marriage to Sam Campbell.
Breeding in Captivity: One Woman's Unusual Path to Motherhood
by Stacy BoltBreeding in Captivity takes us on Stacy Bolt’s journey to have a child at "advanced maternal age," first with the help of a Really Expensive fertility specialist, and then ultimately through a local adoption agency. But this isn’t your typical serious memoir about struggling with infertility; it’s an entertaining, witty read that perfectly balances humor with its more poignant moments. Breeding in Captivity is about a quirky, lovable couple that you root for through their fertility struggles and adoption adventures. It's about the hundreds of Internet message boards where annoyingly perky women from Kappa Alpha Fruitcake refer to sex as "babydancing" and sprinkle virtual "baby dust" on each other. It’s about meeting birthmothers and deciding on open adoptions. It’s about being chosen and then having a birthmother change her mind. But ultimately, it’s about hope, how life can surprise you, and laughing through the insanity.
Soft Child: How Rattlesnake Got its Fangs
by Joe Hayes Kay SatherA Native American legend tells how Sky God helped Rattlesnake to defend himself.Ages 4-8
Sea of Troubles: A John Pearce Adventure (John Pearce)
by David Donachie1794: In the wake of the Glorious First of June, Lieutenant John Pearce has pressing matters to attend to. He must undertake an urgent commission from Lord Hood, track down midshipman Toby Burns, and placate Emily Barclay. Meanwhile smugglers whose ship Pearce inadvertently stole are on his tail. And it is not only John Pearce who has his fair share of trouble. The triumphant Channel Fleet returns, but the battle is already the subject of controversy—and Ralph Barclay is accused of holding back from the action. Pearce turns the table on his enemies and sets off for the Mediterranean with Emily Barclay. He can only hope that his troubles will end along with his mission. But are they only just beginning?
How It Looks Going Back: Growing Up in the Montana Woods
by Doris Knowles PulisIn 1949, taking a break from San Diego&’s post–World War II bustle, the Knowles family went camping in Canada. Heading home through northwest Montana&’s Yaak River country, they found a two-bedroom, story-and-half log cabin on a small lake.There was neither electricity nor plumbing. Access was via dirt road, slow at best and iffy during the long, hard winters. Darwin Knowles saw a peaceful life, and adventurous wife Marilyn agreed. Third-grader daughter, Dee (for Doris), could attend the one-room school, and three-year-old Bob (Barbara) have a safe place to play. Enthusiastic but ignorant of wilderness living, the family moved in that fall—working together to cook and heat with wood, hunt and fish for food, haul water, and wash clothes by hand.They stayed for six years, during which son Stevie was born. Dee&’s reminiscence of her childhood in &“the Yaak&” presents quirky neighbors, growing girls&’ adventures, wildlife huge and tiny, and especially one loving family. As she writes, &“It was a cozy, scary, painful, hilarious, dangerous, interesting, and grand time, and the most fun I ever had.&”
Pennsylvania Off the Beaten Path®: Discover Your Fun (Off the Beaten Path Series)
by Christine O'TooleTired of the same old tourist traps? Whether you&’re a visitor or a local looking for something different, let Pennsylvania Off the Beaten Path show you the Keystone State you never knew existed. Discover extinct creepy crawlies at the Insectarium, the country&’s largest bug museum. Put your car in neutral, take your foot off the brake, and feel the spooky effects of Gravity Hill. Head 150 feet underground to get an up-close look at the history of coal mining at Tour-Ed Mine. So if you&’ve &“been there, done that&” one too many times, get off the main road and venture Off the Beaten Path.
African American Women of the Old West
by Tricia Martineau WagnerThe brave pioneers who made a life on the frontier were not only male—and they were not only white. The story of African-American women in the Old West is one that has largely gone untold--until now. The story of ten African-American women is reconstructed from historic documents found in century-old archives. The ten remarkable women in African American Women of the Old West were all born before 1900, some were slaves, some were free, and some lived both ways during their lifetime. Among them were laundresses, freedom advocates, journalists, educators, midwives, business proprietors, religious converts, philanthropists, mail and freight haulers, and civil and social activists.
See You Tomorrow: The Disappearance of Snowboarder Marco Siffredi on Everest
by Jeremy EvansMarco Siffredi was the first person to make a complete snowboard descent of Mount Everest in 2001, and was regarded by many as the world&’s best snowboarder. But the following year in 2002, Marco mysteriously disappeared on Everest while attempting a more difficult route known as Hornbein Couloir, an unrelentingly steep, difficult to access route with a high failure rate. Using exclusive never-before-granted interviews with family and friends, Evans aims to solve Everest's greatest mystery in nearly a century while exploring Marco's pursuit of a dream, his love of freedom and adventure, and how his French family was forever altered by his loss.
Our Favorite Slow-Cooker Chicken & Beef Recipes
by Gooseberry PatchIt&’s Our Favorite Slow-Cooker Chicken Recipes in the front half and Our Favorite Slow-Cooker Beef Recipes in the back...you'll never wonder what's for dinner again. This clever cookbook is packed with over 60 recipes and as many time-saving tips, and the size is perfect to take along to the grocery store.
Dawn in the Dooryard
by Timothy CottonFollowing his best-selling The Detective in the Dooryard, Tim Cotton brings a fresh set of keen observations to his new collection. Drawing upon more than thirty years as Maine police officer--and even longer as a born-and-bred Mainer--Cotton shares stories about life--in Maine and elsewhere--about his experiences, and about the people he's met along the way. With a generous portion of wry Yankee wit, this new collection from Tim Cotton will leave you laughing, crying, or maybe both at once.
Machiavelli: A Renaissance Life
by Joseph MarkulinThis epic piece of storytelling brings the world of fifteenth-century Italy to life as it traces Machiavelli's rise from young boy to controversial political thinker. The often-vilified Renaissance politico and author ofThe Prince comes to life as a diabolically clever, yet mild mannered and conscientious civil servant. Author Joseph Markulin presents Machiavelli's life as a true adventure story, replete with violence, treachery, heroism, betrayal, sex, bad popes, noble outlaws, deformed kings, menacing Turks, even more menacing Lutherans, unscrupulous astrologers, untrustworthy dentists-and, of course, forbidden love. While sharing the stage with Florence's Medici family, the nefarious and perhaps incestuous Borgias, the artists Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and the doomed prophet Savonarola, Machiavelli is imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately abandoned. Nevertheless, he remains the sworn enemy of tyranny and a tireless champion of freedom and the republican form of government. Out of the cesspool that was Florentine Renaissance politics, only one name is still uttered today-that of Niccolo Machiavelli. This mesmerizing, vividly told story will show you why his fame endures.
Haunted Boston: Famous Phantoms, Sinister Sites, and Lingering Legends (Haunted)
by Taryn PlumbAmong Massachusetts's many treasures is Boston, a city rich in culture and history. Haunted Boston, a collection of stories of ghosts, mysteries, and paranormal happenings in Beantown, will leave readers delightfully frightened.
Climb: Tales of Man Versus Boulder, Crag, Wall, and Peak
by Cameron Burns Kerry BurnsFrom straightforward narratives of ascents to meticulous self-examination to spiritual reveries, climbing prompts men and women to pour forth essays, articles, and books that are unlike any other field of literature.Here is an adrenaline-infused collection of some of the finest climbing stories ever assembled. Noted mountaineer and climber Cameron M. Burns and Kerry L. Burns bring together tales of climbers, boulderers, and mountaineers from around the world. These intriguing adventures include Francesco Petrarch&’s 1336 ascent of Mount Ventoux, Pat Ament&’s descent into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison with Layton Kor, Josh Lowell&’s bouldering adventures in Harlem, and much more.Including stories from:Royal Robbins ? David Pagel ? Mick Fowler ? David BrowerPaul Ross ? Jeff Salz ? Warren Hollinger ? Mike Thompson ? Isabella Lucy BirdJames Outram ? Leslie Stephen ? Albert L. Ellingwood
Food Cure for Kids: A Nutritional Approach to Your Child's Wellness
by Oz Garcia Natalie Geary Carol Mann AgencyA must-have resource for any parent whose child has chronic ear infections, bronchitis, stomach aches, or skin rashes. This eye-opening book will finally offer parents the results they've been searching for--without yet another trip to the doctor's office.
Going, Going, Gone!: The Art of the Trade in Major League Baseball
by Fran ZimniuchEarly in the history of America's favorite pastime, trading baseball players was almost as easy as trading baseball cards. This was before the end of the reserve clause and the advent of arbitration, free agency, gargantuan salaries, and no-trade contracts. Fran Zimniuch takes an in-depth look at trading throughout the years, profiling many of infamous players who teams regrettably traded and getting insiders' perspectives from the general managers and the players themselves. With a foreword by former general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers Fred Claire, Going, Going, Gone is a must-read for baseball fans.
Seven Mile Bridge
by Michael BiehlMichael Biehl's first two novels, mysteries featuring medical law, were highly critically acclaimed. Now he enters new territory with an intensely introspective mystery, so finely written that Seven Mile Bridge transcends the genre—but still keeps you turning pages to find out who, if anyone, did it.Jonathan Bruckner, a middle-aged Florida Keys diveshop owner with a taste for whiskey and not much else, has returned to his Wisconsin childhood home after his mother's death. He knows he should tidy up, sell the house, and get back to the Keys. But he admits his journey home has deeper objectives."I didn't travel from Marathon, Florida, to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and close my dive shop for three weeks because I thought I would find valuables or money in the house on Foxglove Lane. I came because I thought I might find answers."What he finds in sifting through the sad remnants of his once-happy family life spins him back to the quest that obsessed him in his early adult years. When he was seventeen, he found his father dead in the garage. All the grownups said it was suicide, but Jonathan thought he knew better. He risked his life and compromised his future trying to find his father's killer.He has lived his entire adult life under the cloud of his father's death, isolated by suspicion and frustrated by his failure to uncover the truth. He now has one final chance to solve the mystery and track down whoever was responsible."Now, more than half my adult life is behind me, and where am I? Fearful that the blood of monsters runs in my veins, hoping for vindication, desperate for resolution one way or the other."As he searches for clues to his father's death, Jonathan is stunned by what he discovers about his father's life, and comes to know his parents in a way he never did as a child. He is shocked to find that he may have had a sister he never knew, and rediscovers his relationship with his schizophrenic brother. Mostly, he is surprised by what he learns about himself.Fluidly moving between past and present, between hope and despair, Seven Mile Bridge is a story about one man's obsession with the truth, and how much can depend on finding it.
Greek Search for Wisdom
by Michael K. KelloggThe philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said that all of Western philosophy was "but a series of footnotes to Plato." By the same token, one could argue that all of Western civilization is but an extension of the ancient Greek cultural legacy. The Greeks invented tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, history, philosophy, and democracy. They also made remarkable advances in science, medicine, and mathematics. In the author's view, what ties this wide-ranging intellectual ferment together is a restless search for wisdom. The author looks at ten outstanding examples of Greek wisdom, offering fresh and engaging portraits of the epic poets (Homer, Hesiod); dramatists (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes); historians (Herodotus, Thucydides); and philosophers (Plato, Aristotle) against the background of Greek history. In each case he asks what the author has to tell us- regardless of genre-about our place in the world and how we should live our lives. By surveying some of the highest peaks of ancient civilization, the author argues that we gain perspective on the historical terrain that lies below. This book presents an eloquent and convincing case that a study of the Greek classics, as Gustave Flaubert explained, makes us "greater, wiser, purer."
Saddling Up Anyway: The Dangerous Lives of Old-Time Cowboys
by Patrick DearenEvery time a cowhand dug his boot into the stirrup, he knew that this ride could carry him to trail's end. In real stories told by genuine cowboys, this book captures the everyday perils of the "flinty hoofs and devil horns of an outlaw steer, the crush of a half-ton of fury in the guise of a saddle horse, the snap of a rope pulled taut enough to sever digits. Threats took many forms, all of them sudden, most inescapable—a whooshing arrow or exploding slug, a raging river ready to drag him to the depths, and lightning that rattled bones and deafened if it missed, or came with silent finality if it didn't." Whether destined to be remembered or forgotten, a cowhand clung to life with all the zeal with which he approached his trade. He was the most loyal of employees, repeatedly putting his neck on the line for a mere dollar a day. Patrick Dearen has brought these reckless and risky adventures to life with colorful stories from interviews with 76 men who cowboyed in the West before 1932 as well as 150 archival interviews and written accounts from as early as the 1870s and well into the mid-twentieth century.
Greatest Polar Exploration Stories Ever Told (Greatest)
The newspaper advertisement for volunteers to accompany Ernest Shackleton on his planned traverse of Antarctica in 1914 was frank in its offering.&“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.&”Still, hundreds applied. There were few chances left to be the first to reach the last challenge on Earth.As the 20th Century came of age, explorers had uncovered most of the world&’s mysteries, sailing to the far corners of the globe, ascending many of its most forbidding peaks, crossing its greatest deserts and penetrating its thickest jungles.Frozen, alien, inhospitable, dangerous, and close to impossible to reach, there were only two tiny dots on the globe that human beings had not yet set foot on—the North and South Poles.The Greatest Polar Exploration Stories Ever Told is a visceral, exciting and stunning collection of twelve stories recounting the bravery, resoluteness, and strength of the men who willingly traversed frozen hells to be the first to reach the North or South Pole. It is a collection that will both inspire and inform—and answer questions about the limits of human endurance.Many men would die during their challenging, frozen journeys, and their deaths were not pleasant. Yet they continued to try again.Here are stories, wrought by the challenging landscape and weather, that made these explorers household names and heroes: Peary, Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton, Franklin,Cherry-Garrard, Scott, Kane, Cook—and others lost to history whose bravery was nonetheless as admirable.Each of these men knew success would bring glory for their countries and financial security and fame and eminent places in history for themselves. Each knew also the odds of success were slim and the chance of dying great.Nations held their collective breaths for news of each expedition and those years later were termed the Heroic Age of Exploration—there were simply no other endeavors that captured the world&’s attention the various races to the poles. The Greatest Polar Exploration Stories Ever Told recaptures the spirit, drama, and tragedy of a time in history that will never come again.
Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan, America's First Sports Hero
by Christopher Klein&“I can lick any son-of-a-bitch in the world.&” So boasted John L. Sullivan, the first modern heavyweight boxing champion of the world, a man who was the gold standard of American sport for more than a decade, and the first athlete to earn more than a million dollars. He had a big ego, big mouth, and bigger appetites. His womanizing, drunken escapades, and chronic police-blotter presence were godsends to a burgeoning newspaper industry. The larger-than-life boxer embodied the American Dream for late nineteenth-century immigrants as he rose from Boston&’s Irish working class to become the most recognizable man in the nation. In the process, the &“Boston Strong Boy&” transformed boxing from outlawed bare-knuckle fighting into the gloved spectacle we know today. Strong Boy tells the story of America&’s first sports superstar, a self-made man who personified the power and excesses of the Gilded Age. Everywhere John L. Sullivan went, his fists backed up his bravado. Sullivan&’s epic brawls, such as his 75-round bout against Jake Kilrain, and his cross-country barnstorming tour in which he literally challenged all of America to a fight are recounted in vivid detail, as are his battles outside the ring with a troubled marriage, wild weight and fitness fluctuations, and raging alcoholism. Strong Boy gives readers ringside seats to the colorful tale of one of the country&’s first Irish-American heroes and the birth of the American sports media and the country&’s celebrity obsession with athletes.