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As a boy, all Ted Williams wanted was to be the best hitter there ever was. Through his storied tenure with the Red Sox, he pretty much got his wish. He not only hit, he knew how to hit; there was no keener, more devoted, more articulate student of the art. The Science of Hitting is his comprehensive book of wisdom and anecdote, a baseball bible that offers clear, concise, well-illustrated, fundamental information on how to hit a baseball and, just as important, how to think about hitting a baseball. Williams's first commandment is "Get a good pitch to hit," and, in one of baseball's most dramatic teaching tools--a photograph that divides his strike zone into 77 baseballs, seven wide by 11 high--Williams projects what he would hit at each pitch location, from .230 on the low-outside strike to .400 in what he called his "happy zone," the heart of the plate belt high. In 1941, that happy zone was obviously ecstatic; Williams hit .406 that year, the last to break the magic .400 barrier.
Book Description
Ted Williams is our greatest living expert on how to hit a baseball -- the last baseball player to hit .400 in the major leagues. Williams's career hitting statistics will stand forever as a monument to his complete mastery of the single most difficult thing to do in sport: .344 lifetime batting average, 521 home runs, 1839 RBI and 2654 hits.
The Science of Hitting has reigned as the classic handbook on hitting since being published in 1971 -- and now it's even better! Ted's hitting advice has been updated, and exciting new color graphics and photos have been added to enhance your reading pleasure. The Gallery of Great Hitters has been expanded to include Ted's choices for the best hitters of the '70s and '80s: look inside to see who made the cut!
You'll still find all of Ted's great advice on how to improve your turn at bat and become the best hitter possible. Learn:
* How to think like a pitcher and guess the pitch
* The three cardinal rules for developing a smooth line-drive swing
* The secrets of hip and wrist action
* Pitch selection
* Bunting
* Hitting the opposite way
And much more!
Whether you play the game or simply enjoy reading about it, you'll find The Science of Hitting an unforgettable addition to your sports library.
Customer Reviews:
Should be the ART of hitting.......2007-09-26
- I think this should be the first book on hitting any baseball player reads.
- Should be "The ART of hitting." Very little, if any, science in this book. Mostly stories and tips from Ted Williams.
- Ted Williams makes a great point that 50% of hitting is from the neck up. Many players are physically capable of hitting a baseball but lack the confidence to do it in a game. Mr. Williams gives some very good information on developing game confidence.
swing away.......2007-07-23
having been out of baseball for years, getting back into the game in a men's senior league, i have completely deconstructed my slowpitch softball swing, and can pick up pitches and hit the ball the way i want to. for a young player, this book could be invaluable. i pick it up and reinforce what ive learned by reading sections again and again. plus ted williams' anticdotes as both a player and a manager are a fun way to relive the game the way it was.
A ball player's must read........2007-06-27
This is a book that you can read just to enjoy a bit of baseball history. Or to read deeper into and look into the mind of one baseballs greatest hitters of all time. It really dwells into the mental side of hitting which is probably the most often overlooked, but is just as important as the physical side of hitting. If there was ever a mandatory reading list for hitting this would be number 1 on a very short list.
a true hitter's bible!.......2007-05-31
lau's great for putting the ball in play at the lower levels. williams is essential for succeeding at the highest levels! take it frome someone who was there.
Reviewers all are in agreement on this one........2007-05-28
I read this book more than 20 years ago when I was in my early twenties. It profoundly effected my thinking on the game of baseball. Ted Williams had the best plate approach of any hitter, with the possible exception of Babe Ruth. Bonds used this strategy his entire career, but it only seemed to take full effect post "cream and clear". This system is simply the best. You can't even argue the point. All the sabrematricians have done the research, and it concurs with Williams. But he said it quite elegantly, I think. I also caught a lucky break when I traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y. to visit the Hall of Fame, and guess what I see on display there? A wall of colored baseballs 7 wide and 11 high. I'll never forget that moment. I couldn't adequately explain that scenario to my wife, but that's another matter. I can still get goosebumps just thinking about it. If you care about what wins baseball games, then there is no substitute for this book. This should be required reading for every fan, broadcaster, player, manager, general manager, owner, and anyone else remotely interested in the game. When I looked at the Amazon page I noticed that out of 42 reviewers, this book had a full 5 star rating. I wonder if anybody gave it less than 5 stars. If they did, well, there are always a few idiots around.
Average customer rating:
- Great Book!
- Hands are not for Hitting
- My kids like it a lot
- good, but too wordy
- Disappointed in board book version
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Hands Are Not for Hitting (The Best Behavior)
Martine Agassi
Manufacturer: Free Spirit Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 157542200X |
Product Description
HANDS ARE NOT FOR HITTING BB
Customer Reviews:
Great Book!.......2007-10-08
This is a really great book. When my 2 year old daughter started hitting, my daycare provider suggested this book. My daughter loved reading it at bedtime and her hitting has stopped! Now she will reminder other, "Hands are not for hitting".
Hands are not for Hitting.......2007-09-27
Hands Are Not for Hitting This book approaches the problem of toddlers hitting others and pets with imagination. Children find it fun and enjoy trying to find other things they can do with their hands without hitting. This would be a good book in an infant school library and is for anyone who interacts with toddlers on a daily basis. Will help positive development with social skills. Highly recommended for mums, dads and grandparents.
My kids like it a lot.......2007-08-23
My kids like this book a lot. They each have a favorite page of the book, they fight over it, and they like to have it read to them. It is sturdy construction, and has not yet been destroyed or even seriously injured. On the downside, I wish that there was a better link between the words and the pictures, so that I could more easily go from reading the few words to pointing out something about the illustrations.
good, but too wordy.......2007-08-06
This is a good book, based on the whole series. But to me, and my 28 month old son, it is too wordy. I have cut out a lot of it and picked out my own main points that deal with his behavior problems and left out a lot of other stuff. I think the board book would be better, like the others I have (Teeth Are Not for Biting and Feet Are Not for Kicking). Maybe would be better for older kids. But I still like the concept and he still enjoys it, just not as much as the other two.
Disappointed in board book version.......2007-06-09
A previous reviewer had mentioned that the original book is more in depth, so maybe I should have opted for that version, as I was disappointed in the board book's lack of content. It tells what hands are used for, and adds in "hands are not for hitting" occasionally, but doesn't even touch on why we don't hit.
On the plus side, the book is nicely illustrated, has wonderful warm colors, and even has a small section with helpful hints for parents/caregivers on how to help your toddler deal with frustration.
Book Description
Author of Writing Solid Code tells what worked and didn't work at Microsoft. This book is a practical guide to staying focused, hitting ship dates and building solid programming teams. You don't have to be a manager to appreciate this book; anyone involved in programming will appreciate the humor and practical advice it contains.
Customer Reviews:
A feel-good management book.......2005-09-12
Maguire's book is a very gentle handbook to guiding software projects. Relatively light and fast-paced, it can be read in just a few hours. His insights and tips about team management are definitely helpful, but my feeling is that he never attacks the difficult problems of management.
In a nutshell, his advice is to 1) free up the engineers' time by reducing unnecessary paperwork, 2) eliminate any unnecessary features, 3) slip ship dates to ensure quality, and 4) increasing training for under-performing engineers. He advises against 1) adding extra engineers when the project looks to be in trouble, 2) forcing engineers to work long hours to hit ship dates, 3) schedule development activities without a clear milestone plan in mind, and 4) holding on to superstar engineers who need room to grow.
These ideas are very good, of course. It's important to keep engineers from being overworked and to keep product quality as high as possible. But there is a limit to how far Maguire's tips can take you.
Schedule slips and dropped features seem like an easy thing to do when you're just talking about it, but what can you do when the command comes down from the upper echelons of management that you must ship or die trying? Maguire does get one thing right on this count, he describes teams where a third of the engineers (the best ones, of course) quit the company after the project completes.
What happens when an engineer is severely underperfoming and is holding the team back? Continue providing that person training? Maguire's teams, luckily for him, are made up of well-trained, highly focused engineers who, given the chance, can work on a product for 8 hours a day. Unfortunately, Maguire does not even approach the topic of terminating bad employees for the good of the team. A discussion of this, including how the team benefits overall from the firing, as well as how it may have unintended psychological effects on the rest of the team, would have been appreciated.
After reading this book, you'll come away with a new energy towards leading your team. You will see every problem as something easily conquered with just the right amount of finesse and encouragement. Maguire gives valuable tips to help overcome many problems that plague projects, and many of these work well. But this isn't the book to end all management books.
In a sense, it is a "Tony Robbins" guide for managers. It gets you pumped up, gives you some tools, and puts you in the right right frame of mind. I like to reread Debugging the Development Process when I need that recharge, but it is not the book I go to when I need to deal with real problems.
Good advice for software development teams.......2005-07-06
This book makes lots of good points about the software development process. Steve's ideas ring true based on my past experience with more companies than I like to think about. Although the ideas are somewhat obvious if one thinks about them, I found it amazing how many companies ignore these 'obvious' ideas. The most impressive ideas I found in this book pertain to meeting schedules without brow beating to the point where people with hard earned experience leave the organization simply because they're driven into the ground.
Quick Read That's Worth Your Time.......2004-06-14
When I read this book, the information seemed simple and obvious. However, I also realized that there were a number of things mentioned that I wasn't doing. That begs the question: Is the material that simple and obvious? Maybe not.
Maguire gives some simple, practicle advice for improving the development environment that a manager is responsible for. For example, he recommends starting each day by asking, "What can I do today that will help keep the project on track for the next few months?"
I also found the section on feedback loops to be interesting. The suggestion that you have a person stop feature work to fix a bug that they created as soon as it is found is a way to emphasize quality and make it in the best interest of developers to produce high quality code.
The chapter on attitudes is also very good. Much of the time, there isn't a lot knowledge wise that separtes good and bad developers. The difference comes in attitude. Attitudes such as, "We can't do that!", "The users won't care!", "Bugs are going to happen!" need to be rooted out.
This book gives good insight as to what you as a manager can do and help your developers do in order to have smoother projects that are high quality and on time.
Too Bad it is Out of Print.......2002-12-25
This is really a very good book. I wanted to use it as a textbook for a Software Engineering class I am teaching, but now that it is out of print I felt I couldn't.
Anyone who needs to manage programmers, or is dependent on programmers should read this book. It is also a good read for anyone looking to help improve the overall productivity of "information workers." Simple things like how and why you schedule your meetings make a big impact.
Excellent!!.......2002-02-02
This is a good book on software development process improvements. Steve talks about practical strategies for staying focused, hitting ship dates and building solid teams. These strategies are common-sense but are often ignored by managers, project manager and technical leads.
Chapter 1 talks about "laying the groundwork" -- priorities work, establish goals, coding priorites. How true this is ... how often have we started development when we are unsure of what the management wants to achieve out of it.
Some of the other strategies include having 40 hour week(hmm ... reminds me of Extreme Programming) and about the danger of having working 12 hours per day. He also spoke about ensuring personal growth in dividuals, and how it directly helps the company.
This book is written in simple english, straight to the point. To everyone doing software development, this is a must-read!!!
Customer Reviews:
Line Drive Hitting and Contact.......2002-08-16
I was a borderline .300 hitter until I read this book. Now, I hit over .400, rarely strike out and have become a line drive hitter. I read the triumvirate of hitting books-Carew's, Ted Williams The Science of Hitting, Charley Lau's The Art of Hitting .300 and settled on Carew's method. The same basic principles in hitting are set out in all three books, but Carew's method is great for players without power or the ability to dominate pitchers. Ted's view is from a power perspective of dominating the pitcher. For most guys, domination of the pitcher is not possible. Carew's is from using the proper techniques and ajustments for the situation you find yourself in. In the amatuer league I play in, the adjustments make a big difference. As a manager, I teach Carew's Flex Stance and bat/hands techniques to low average hitters for an almost instant improvement in hitting.
Solid Contact, No Punch.......2000-01-13
Rod Carew's book is my second favorite treatise on hitting. The seminal treatment of the subject is, of course, Williams' "The Science of Hitting." Like Williams, Carew's book offers valuable insight into the mental and mechanical processes necessary for great hitting. Unlike Williams, Carew concentrates almost solely on his opinion, and approach, toward hitting. Williams' surveys the styles of the great hitters of the game and uses them to back up his theories on hitting. Rather than pedantic, his book encourages the hitter to stick with what works and use it to fashion an approach that achieves the same results of all great hitters' styles. Carew preaches pure contact and a very specific approach. He abhors power at the expense of contact. To believe his theory is to suppose that Williams could have hit .450 consistently if he avoided pulling the ball. It is at that point that books diverge. Williams contends that pulling the ball for extra bases is an important piece of the approach puzzle. Pulling the ball improves one's average by forcing the pitcher to the outside of the plate. The Carew book is a great one for teaching contact, and should be read by serious young hitters (I'm speaking of the wonkish, future-Wade-Boggs-Don-Mattingly types), but it isn't complete without the Williams book. And the Williams book is the one that a hitter will want to keep for life and refer back to. It's message is that elegant.
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful nostalgia with great illustrations, well written!
- Superb -America as seen through its map covers.
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Hitting the Road
D. Yorke , and
J. Margolies
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
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Customer Reviews:
Wonderful nostalgia with great illustrations, well written!.......1999-03-13
A treasured trip down memory lane when the country was crossed with roads instead of major freeways and the towns didn't all look alike! The writing is excellent and the road maps used to illustratate the text remind us of better days in auto travel and also in advertising.
Superb -America as seen through its map covers........1998-09-25
I collect UK Ordnance Survey maps and this book tempts me to collect some US roads maps. The quality of the pictures is wonderfull and the commentary is excellent. If you like this you should like "Map Cover Art" by John Paddy Brown about OS map covers. Now out of print apparently but amazon will try and look for you . Some of the covers from the 20's are very similar to those in the UK.
Book Description
The U.S. war in Iraq was not only an intelligence failureâit was a failure in democratic discourse. Hitting First offers a critical analysis of the political dialogue leading up to the American embrace of preventive war as national policy and as the rationale for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Taking as its point of departure the important distinction between preemptive and preventive war, the contributors examine how the rhetoric of policy makers conflated these two very different concepts until the public could no longer effectively distinguish between a war of necessity and a war of choice.
Although the book focuses on recent events, Hitting First takes into consideration the broader historical, ethical, and legal context of current American policies. Precedents are examined for preventive military action based on conventional as well as nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons threats. The authors also consider recent examples of the rhetoric of âhumanitarian intervention,â which have tended to undermine traditional notions of national sovereignty, making purportedly âmorally justifiableâ actions easier to entertain. Intelligence gathering and its use, manipulation, and distortion to suit policy agendas are also analyzed, as are the realities of the application of military force, military requirements to sustain a policy of preventive war, and post-conflict reconstruction.
Hitting First presents a timely and essential view of the lessons learned from the failures of the Iraqi conflict, and offers a framework for avoiding future policy breakdowns through a process of deliberative public and governmental debate within a free market of ideas. The critiques and prescriptions offered here provide a unique and valuable perspective on the challenges of formulating and conduct of national security policy while sustaining the principles and institutions of American democracy. This collection will appeal to students and scholars of American foreign policy, international relations, political communication, and ethics.
Customer Reviews:
First views of an emerging strategy.......2007-04-01
This is just one of a whole bunch of book that will be coming out. The invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation, in combination with other events has changed the world order.
This book is primarily about changes in the US stated strategy of not necessarily waiting for an attack before attacking a suspected enemy. With the advent of WMD's and the stated intent by organizations such as al Qaida to use them, can a country wait until a city is gone before using force to prevent it? This has been a a question for many years, such as England/France attacking Germany in 1938 rather than signing a treaty.
This book is written by a series of experts from all around the country that bring differing points of view to the problem. Other books that are out or coming out will stress different points of view, and different, shall we say, levels of approval.
The whole concept of Preventive Force is new and being developed, this is still the early phases. This book gives a good analysis of where the doctrine is at the moment.
Book Description
For over two decades, Michelangelo Signorile has been among the most outspoken and controversial critics of American politics and culture. As a gay activist and journalist, he earned acclaim as the father of the “outing” phenomenon. Today, he remains one of the most widely read and talked about gay muckrakers. In Hitting Hard (Signorile’s first new book since his national bestseller, Outing Yourself), the author tackles the most heated topics of debate among gay people and the political left.
Customer Reviews:
Signorile does it again........2006-02-25
I have a great deal of admiration and respect for this man. I think he is intellectually honest and pulls no punches. Always enjoy his take on topics and people he writes about.
National treasure.......2005-08-30
Once again, Michele Signorile has put out a collection of articles that express -- clearly, elegantly, wittily and pertinently -- the best thinking on gay issues being thought today. With Larry Kramer and a few others, he has been the voice of sane homosexuality for quite some time, saying things that should long ago not have needed to be said -- but wow! the attention span does seem to get shorter every day. I hope, therefore, that he will continue to say them as often and as copiously as he deems necessary, and for many years to come. I most seriously urge every gay man in America (and elsewhere too) to read him and to LISTEN. He really knows what he is talking about --and there are truly not many men around these days, in any sphere, about whom one can say the same! I do not know him, but I love him. He is a national treasure. Long may he flourish. I eagerly await his every article and his next book.
Richard Miller
Book Description
In 1637, Puritan settlers in Connecticut were at war with the Pequot Indians. In retaliation for a Pequot raid, Captain John Mason led an assembled militia of English and Indian allies in an attack on a Pequot fort that left over four hundred Pequots dead. Within two years, the Pequot tribe was all but extinguished. It would remain that way for the next 350 years. In 1973, the last remaining descendant of the Pequots to live on the tribal reservation, Elizabeth George Plouffe, passed away, but not before imparting the advice to her grandson Richard "Skip" Haywood: "Hold on to the land." These words would instigate a thirty-year legal and political drama that would lead Hayward and his relatives to re-create the Pequot tribe and become the richest Indians in history. Hitting the Jackpot uncovers a labyrinthine tale of legal maneuverings, back-room political dealings, and ethnic reinvention. Fromson details the process by which today's Pequots gained tribal recognition, hired top lawyers to claim thousands of acres of land, gained the right to open a $1.2 billion-a-year operation, and distilled the barest traces of Pequot lineage into a full-fledged tribe with over six hundred tribal members.
Customer Reviews:
too bad.......2005-02-22
Indian history always takes a back seat to drama. Why doesn't a book like the Pequot War sell big?
Good Book - What's With These Other "Reviews".......2004-08-07
A good book on a fascinating subject. One of the things I got from this case history is that a few committed bureaucrats and lawyers can massage the system in such a way as to turn a couple hundred folks with a very tenuous link to the First Nations into fairly powerful and semi-rich people.
I feel that the First Nations were the victims of a massive injustice and deserve any break they can get. What shocks me is that the Pequots who run Foxwoods are raking it in without really being victims of anything.
Anyway, a fascinating book told in a pedestrian style. But one of the sloppiest editing jobs I've ever seen. Typos and repeated phrases are inexcusable in a pricey hardcover release.
An Outstanding Book.......2004-02-24
"Hitting The Jackpot" is not just a great read but a real eye-opener about the reality of some Indian tribes. I had no idea that tribes like the Pequots existed -- most tribal members with 1/64th to 1/128th Pequot blood at best and no living culture! This book is a real corrective to the sterotypical perception of tribes today. I just read it and urge everyone --Indian and non-Indian -- who cares about gambling and tribes to pick up a copy.
Since I live in Connecticut -- I first heard Fromson on Colin McEnroe's radio show on WTIC -- and subscribe to The Hartford Courant, I read the absurd attack on the book by the head lobbyist from the Indian casino tribes that someone from Oklahoma -- most likely another Indian casino lobbyist -- has posted on this site. Well, here's what the author said in reply in last Saturday's Courant. I thought it explained really well the real agenda behind the casino lobby's attack on this work of investigative journalism.
Here's what the author wrote in reply in The Courant last Saturday:
I am the author of "Hitting The Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History," which tells the remarkable story of the reinvention of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the creation of Foxwoods casino.
My book is the first to take readers inside a casino tribe, show the gritty reality of such groups and reveal how they are created.
Based on exclusive interviews with tribal members, confidential documents and interviews with key governmental and tribal advisers and leaders, "Hitting The Jackpot" raises serious questions about the proliferation of casino tribes with massive gambling operations in urban and suburban America.
"Hitting The Jackpot" has received uniformly favorable reviews from the mainstream press, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Courant.
Why, then, is an attack on my book published as an op-ed in this newspaper by Ernest L. Stevens Jr., chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association in Washington and a member of the Oneida Indian tribe [Feb. 15, "Resilient Pequots Should Be Applauded, Not Criticized"]?
Stevens does not question a single fact in my book, yet he calls it "a vicious and racist attack on American Indian identity in the 21st century." Nothing could be further from the truth.
As one Pequot tribal leader wrote me in a letter dated Dec. 5, 2003, "Thanks for your honesty and effort with this book."
A second Pequot, the matriarch of another tribal family, telephoned to say how much she appreciated the book and to thank me for "telling the truth."
In truth, the Indian gambling lobby attack stems from the attention my book has attracted wherever Indian casinos are popping up.
That is unacceptable to lobbyists like Stevens, who are paid to protect these lucrative gambling franchises.
Such people try to pre-empt debate by cynically playing the race card.
They seek to impugn the motives of anyone independently investigating casino tribes, Indian gambling and the social costs imposed on the public.
They do not want to be held accountable. They do not want the citizenry to be better informed about this special interest and how it often works contrary to the public interest.
Brett D. Fromson, Salisbury
Nuff said!
Fromson book is a shameful contemporary stereotype.......2004-02-17
CTnow.com
Produced by The Hartford Courant
Resilient Pequots Should Be Applauded, Not Criticized
February 15, 2004
By ERNEST L. STEVENS JR.
I have been observing with dismay the publicity that has followed the publication several months ago of Brett Fromson's book "Hitting the Jackpot: The Inside Story of the Richest Indian Tribe in History." As an American Indian and a member of a federally recognized tribe that also has a successful casino, I can no longer keep quiet about this book and its underlying messages.
The book is, at its core, a vicious and racist attack on American Indian identity in the 21st century. That its author is also making the rounds as an expert on Indian tribes and Indian gaming is extremely distressing; and I suspect I am not the only Indian person out here who is deeply offended by the "expertise" that he is toting to his primarily non-Indian audience. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe has proved to be an easy and - I also should point out - probably quite lucrative target for the author.
The words "genocide" and "holocaust" come to mind when I think about what happened to the Mashantucket Pequot people - and other Eastern tribal peoples - following the arrival of Europeans to the North American continent. In the 1637 Pequot Massacre at Mystic, upward of 400 Pequot people, many of them women, children and elderly, were burned alive in their homes or killed as they confronted the English, who brandished both guns and swords. This is one of the most gruesome examples of the slaughter of Native peoples that became commonplace during the early years of this country.
The Pequot Massacre was not an isolated incident that occurred among the tribes of the East Coast, although it probably ranks as one of the most horrific. I'm sure, though, that none of us heard about it even two decades ago, before the Mashantucket Pequots began their casino gaming operation in 1992.
The Pequot people, like so many others, suffered greatly following that massacre. Many were sold into slavery and ended up far away from their homelands. As people do everywhere, they had to adapt to survive. But, despite the diaspora of the Pequot people over time, it is important to note that a few of them chose to remain on their ancestral land.
Now, all these centuries later, the Mashantucket Pequot people have experienced a renaissance. And it is because of their financial success that they are now being attacked.
Is it any fault of our brothers and sisters of the East Coast that they experienced the horrors of European encroachment well before any of the tribes west of the Mississippi encountered the white man? Too many of the East Coast tribes, their names remembered only as place names - for example, the Potomac and Anacostia tribes that once lived in the Washington, D.C., area - were either greatly diminished or decimated in the early days of this country. The Pequots, cut down as they were by massacre and forced migration, somehow managed to survive and to hang on tenaciously to what little they had left of their culture. They should be applauded, not criticized.
It is shameful for Fromson to belittle a people like the Mashantucket Pequots for what they have lost and for what they are trying so hard to reclaim - their culture. Indian people all across the country have had to adapt their cultures to survive into the 21st century. This is nothing new. To think otherwise is to keep Indian people stuck in the past. This is one of the most prevalent stereotypes of all - ranking right up there with the still widespread belief that Indian people live in teepees, wear buckskin robes and ride horses. Of course, an even more contemporary stereotype is that all American Indians own casinos and, as a result, are rich.
At the heart of all this, of course, is jealousy about a tribe's financial success. Indian gaming has provided a better life for many Indian people. Finally, a few of us are catching up to the "American dream." However, there are those who would prefer to keep the Indian down. Don't tell me this isn't true. It was long the policy of our federal government. Only it didn't work. And today we have tribes such as the Mashantucket Pequots, who have overcome the odds.
It is no fault of a people that they were almost wiped off the face of the Earth. We all should be celebrating the Mashantucket Pequot peoples' renaissance and not perpetuating these damaging stereotypes and myths about who is and who is not "Indian." Only Indian people can do that for themselves.
Incidentally, most Americans do not know that Indian people have long had to carry identification cards proving who we are. I can think of no other group in America that has had to prove their identity in this way.
Ernest L. Stevens Jr. is chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association in Washington. He is a member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians (Wisconsin).
Wow...You'll never look at them the same........2003-10-08
As a local and semi-frequent guest to Foxwoods I had to read this book. I couldn't put it down. Fromson realy makes you feel the emotion that is evoked from this true life account of the rise of the Mashantuckets from their near extinction. You feel excited for Skip when he wins (with great luck I might add) all of the legal battles, and you feel anger at how the "minority majority" handled their new wealth. I can definately say that I have a new outlook on the Mashantuckets...this book draws you in, makes you want to know more. Well written, and a must read for anyone who lives in CT (especially SE CT) or has heard of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
Book Description
Twelve brand new and exciting science fiction short stories by the winners of the 2002 Phobos Fiction Contest.
Customer Reviews:
A rewarding immersion in other-worldly tale-telling.......2004-01-14
Collaboratively compiled and edited by Orson Scott Card, Keith Olexa, and Christian O'Toole, Hitting The Skids In Pixeltown: The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology - Volume 2 collects twelve winning stories from the 2nd annual Phobos fiction contest, as judged by seven distinguished individuals including celebrated authors Orson Scott Card and Larry Niven, and NASA astronaut Marsha Ivins. Mind-expanding quality stories, supplemented with a new feature "The Coldest Place" by jury member Larry Niven, make for a rewarding immersion in other-worldly tale-telling. Hitting The Skids In Pixeltown is enthusiastically recommended to every dedicated fan of science fiction.
Cowboys, Yeti, and Opera Singers.......2003-09-10
If you are hungry for good science fiction, "Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown" will have you drooling like a lion at an antelope buffet. One of the things I love about a good science fiction anthology is the way your brain has to shift gears with each tale, groping around for clues to discover if you are on another planet, in an alternative history, far into a strange future, or still in the here and now. This anthology provides a fantastic range of settings. You've got straight up space opera (in the most literal sense of the words) with "Callus Redux" by Rebecca Carmi, a hard-boiled mystery caper in Eugie Fosters "All in My Mind," a really cool cowboy tale in "The Bear Eater" by Paul Pence, and the tale of a comet hunt told in a Native American folk style by David Levine in "Ukaliq and the Great Hunt." The tone swings from the truly horrific in Kyle David Jelle's "Hidden Scars" to more playful tales like Carl Frederick's Yeti hunt, "The Beast of All Possible Worlds."
Let me single out a couple of favorites. "Hidden Scars" is a deeply disturbing story. Jelle plunges us into an underworld of people who have dark secrets and go to extreme lengths to keep them. You know the story is going to haunt you right from the opening line: "I love women with scars on their wrists." Jelle's cool, unflinching narrator leads us into a tale of the worst possible human behavior. This is outstanding work, and I can't wait to read more from this promising writer.
"The Bear Eater" was the anthology's biggest surprise. Paul Pence tells the the simplest story in the anthology, and the most suspenseful. A trapper in the old West finds himself stalking a beast big enough to eat bears. The story reminded me of the best of Jack London's adventure stories, a gritty life or death struggle of man versus beast, an intense page turner that keeps you guessing what's next. Highly recommended.
Finally, the cover story, "Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown," by Matthew Rotundo, is a nice artistic argument against the coming age when humans will vanish from film-making, replaced by virtual computer generated doubles. This story takes a gamble by attempting to anticipate the near future of film making, when films such at this summer's "Hulk" already seem to be landing with their toes already over the line of that future. I'm not 100% convinced I buy the premise that actual humans on film trump virtual creations--"Finding Nemo" would have been rather silly with actors in scuba gear and fish masks--but the story still works because Rotundo has crafted a bit of virtual magic of his own. His fictional characters instantly seem real, and you want their attempt at making an "honest" film free of digital magic to succeed. This is good, solid, story-telling.
In fact, the whole book is filled with solid stories. Buy a copy. You won't be disappointed.
Average customer rating:
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Softball Hitting: Fast and Slow Pitch (Arts and Sciences Series)
Tom Petroff
Manufacturer: Sporting News
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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