Roy's Reads

[Roy Tucker]

Every so often, I come across an article that I want to share. I keep thinking about putting here on RZ but I have nowhere to put them.

So it struck me last night to create a thread. Duh. They most likely won't be controversial and will just be something that struck me as excellent and I want to share.

[Roy Tucker]

I read this over the weekend and it choked me up big time....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...22/1/index.htm

[dabvu2498]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

I read this over the weekend and it choked me up big time....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...22/1/index.htm

Never heard of Chris Ballard, but he's a great writer.

And that's a great story.

[Redsfaithful]

What I've been using lately is Instapaper:

http://www.instapaper.com/

Combined with this site:

http://longreads.com/

Ensures I always have something quality to read on my phone during down times, but Long Reads is a great site for long form pieces even if you're not using Instapaper.

[cumberlandreds]

That was a great first installment of Roys Reads. Thanks for posting!

[NJReds]

Since you dipped into the SI Vault, I thought I'd post a link to "Pure Heart" by William Nack. It's a beautful piece of journalism about Secretariat, and one of my all-time favorite sports articles.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1005832/index.htm

[westofyou]

The Vault gave me this and I've read it about 5 times over the last 2 years.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...69/5/index.htm

[BuckeyeRed27]

Originally Posted by Roy Tucker

I read this over the weekend and it choked me up big time....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...22/1/index.htm

Great article about a great person. I was a rower at Ohio State and have coached crew the past few years. I was familiar with this story and even though I never personally met Jill her story has touched so many people. That article captured so many elements of crew that I often struggle to put into words. Thanks for posting that Roy.

[Roy Tucker]

Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967

For a fifteen-year-old there was plenty
to do: Browse the magazines,
slip into the Adult Section to see
what vast tristesse was born of rush-hour traffic,
décolletés, and the plague of too much money.
There was so much to discover—how to
lay out a road, the language of flowers,
and the place of women in the tribe of Moost.
There were equations elegant as a French twist,
fractal geometry’s unwinding maple leaf;

I could follow, step-by-step, the slow disclosure
of a pineapple Jell-O mold—or take
the path of Harold’s purple crayon through
the bedroom window and onto a lavender
spill of stars. Oh, I could walk any aisle
and smell wisdom, put a hand out to touch
the rough curve of bound leather,
the harsh parchment of dreams.

As for the improbable librarian
with her salt and paprika upsweep,
her British accent and sweater clip
(mom of a kid I knew from school)—
I’d go up to her desk and ask for help
on bareback rodeo or binary codes,
phonics, Gestalt theory,
lead poisoning in the Late Roman Empire,
the play of light in Dutch Renaissance painting;
I would claim to be researching
pre-Columbian pottery or Chinese foot-binding,
but all I wanted to know was:
Tell me what you’ve read that keeps
that half smile afloat
above the collar of your impeccable blouse.

So I read Gone with the Wind because
it was big, and haiku because they were small.
I studied history for its rhapsody of dates,
lingered over Cubist art for the way
it showed all sides of a guitar at once.
All the time in the world was there, and sometimes
all the world on a single page.
As much as I could hold
on my plastic card’s imprint I took,

greedily: six books, six volumes of bliss,
the stuff we humans are made of:
words and sighs and silence,
ink and whips, Brahma and cosine,
corsets and poetry and blood sugar levels—
I carried it home, past five blocks of aluminum siding
and the old garage where, on its boarded-up doors,
someone had scrawled:

I can eat an elephant
if I take small bites.

Yes, I said, to no one in particular: That’s
what I’m gonna do!

~Rita Dove, from On the Bus with Rosa Parks.

[dabvu2498]

I'll throw this one out there, even this guy has gotten quite a bit of publicity with Buster Olney's new book about him. Still one of the most impressive people I've ever met, and that was when I was too young to appreciate how impressive he was and before he went through his "trials."

Anyway, it's a good article.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...9630/index.htm

[Roy Tucker]

Mark Curnutte used to be the Bengals writer for the Enquirer...

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...ed-with-honor-

[Roy Tucker]

So I'm sentimental. Sue me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/op...ylan.html?_r=1

[Redsfan320]

Roy, I was thinking you had written that poem a few posts back on the spot until I saw the bottom. Thought we had an official RZ poet.

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[Roy Tucker]

Originally Posted by Redsfan320

Roy, I was thinking you had written that poem a few posts back on the spot until I saw the bottom. Thought we had an official RZ poet.

320

Hokey smokes, no way.

Rita Dove is pretty famous in poetry circles... http://people.virginia.edu/~rfd4b/

[Redsfan320]

Hokey smokes, no way.

Rita Dove is pretty famous in poetry circles... http://people.virginia.edu/~rfd4b/

Huh... Miami grad.

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