For Your Reading Pleasure

In other news, the quicksand in which Michael Vick is sinking just got mushier. The other 2 of "his boyz" are looking at accepting a plea bargain, which would clear them to testify against Vick if need be. Uh Oh. This clears the way for more charges against Vick - well, actually only if a superceding indictment is filed after hearing the testimony of Vick's "boyz". Roll over. Play dead. Bad News for Badnewz...

Tilam and Thew bid a fond farewell and safe journey to Phil Rizzuto, truly a colorful baseball player if there ever was one. Never quite taking himself seriously, but always taking his job first as player and next as announcer so, he was a delight to listen to and just an all around great guy. Who says nice guys finish last. Say hello to all your old teammates in heaven Phil...

The newest MLB record you didn't know got broken - Placido Palanco broke the consecutive games without an error streak for 2nd basemen. Didn't know that did you, oh gentle readers?

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The top 10 most influencial books:

The following of Tilam's choices are on my list as well...

The Bible/Koran
The Art of War
The Communist Manifesto
The Interpretation of Dreams

These others get on *my* list for most influential books:

Mein Kampf - the basis for Hitler's political views and essentially the Nazi ideology. Plus, you cannot have the Communist Manifesto here without Mein Kampf.

The Kinsey Reports - two books on human sexual behavior, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), by Dr. Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy and others. Kinsey was a zoologist at Indiana University and the founder of the Institute for Sex Research. The research astounded the general public and was immediately controversial and sensational. The findings caused shock and outrage, both because they challenged conventional beliefs about sexuality and because they discussed subjects that had previously been taboo.

Common Sense - Published in 1776, Thomas Paine's work challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain. Joins the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf as the major influential political-foundation works.

The Joy of Sex - was a ground-breaking illustrated sex manual by Alex Comfort, M.D., Ph.D., first published in 1972. It was the first illustrated, serious such manual to gain wide distribution—at least in modern America. The original intention was to use the same mainstream approach as such books as The Joy of Cooking, hence section titles include "starters" and "main courses". The book features sexual practices such as oral sex and various sex positions as well as bringing "farther out" practices as sexual bondage and swinging to the attention of the general public. Yeah, Yeah, Tilam will have a field day with this choice, but it was TRULY influential in its time.

I'm also going out on a limb to add "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to *my* list. Harriet Beecher Stowe's work may have been a driving force in starting the American Civil War. When the book was published, many thousands of people thought it was a true story. For this reason, many people (even to this day) have the idea that the entire south during that time period had slaves, used slaves, and abused slaves.

I have to add the US Constitution. Even though it is not a "book" per se, the influence of this literary work cannot be understated. It has influenced many other nations' wills to be free states. Soon after the US became independant of England, Mexico began fighting to become free from Spain. Similar things happened elsewhere in the world, especially South America and Africa.

Kudos to Tilam for finding The Dialogues (I could have added this to my list very easily), Discourse on the Method, The Wealth of Nations (VERY hard to keep off the list as well), Free to Choose - all great works. The Origin of the Species would have made my top 10 CONTROVERSIAL, but falls a bit short of my most INFLUENTIAL. Not sure where he goes with Shakespeare - again, controversial and penetrating into culture, but influential isn't the first adjective I think of when pondering the works of Billy.