Each week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.
1. The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
With baseball season nearly upon us (because God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives) it is time to revel in the depths and breadths of baseball literature. While other sports are might be more gripping or explosive or presently popular, none have inspired the same volume of articulate outpouring as baseball, and Boys of Summer resides very near the top of the list. It is nostalgic in the best sense of the word. Kahn paints a picture of one of the great eras in the history of baseball. He writes of everymen and heroes, forgettable role players and all-time greats. The portraits of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson are especially gripping. But the best part of the book, at least in my opinion, was the account of his upbringing in Brooklyn with a baseball-loving, intellectual father and a mother who disapproved. He makes the reader feel like it is 1940’s New York wherever the book is being read and you are part of the family. For a baseball fan, this book is a must-read.2. The Diner Style Coffee Mug
We all know someone who is to the making coffee what Walter White was to the making of methamphetamines. They are delicate artists and perfectionists who measure everything precisely in grams using equipment that appears both fragile and expensive. They take greater joy in the crafting of the coffee than the consuming, although they claim to love coffee. But the fact is, that the true coffee lover is the one who never measures either in the brewing or consuming. It is all by gut feeling (pun intended) and measured more in tonnage and gallons. The quality matters, yes, but the circumstances and environment matter more. Mediocre coffee with good people is the best coffee. Bad coffee served in a greasy diner with love by a lady named Mable who smokes two packs a day and calls you “honey” or “sugar” is the best coffee. And you know what she pours it into? The diner style coffee mug. It never runs dry. It is ergonomically perfect. It is aesthetically pleasing next to a patterned Corelle plate of bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Somehow it keeps the coffee warmer longer, although this may be because the customer doesn’t pause long enough for the coffee to cool. Why would he?3. Stephon Marbury Highlights
Some of y’all don’t recall just how good Stephon Marbury was at basketball. One of the greatest “what might have beens” of my youthful sports fandom is “what might have been if the Timberwolves had kept him with Kevin Garnett.” He was ridiculous. Enjoy.
