As many of you know, I’m a pop culture illiterate. I rarely
watch TV or go to the movies. My main form of “entertainment” is reading the New
York Times and an occasional non-fiction book. This made for good fun during my
Public Presentations class this fall as the young college students marveled at
my lack of knowledge of music artists, movie stars, movies, TV shows, and
pretty much anything else related to pop culture. Thanks to my young and
maturity challenged 12-year-old son James, however, I have been exposed to two “shows”
that I like a lot: 1. Dude Perfect videos on YouTube. 2. Impractical Jokers on
TruTV. The first is a group of young guys who have struck it rich by making
really cool videos of trick shots and other sports-related fun stuff. The
second is a pretty hilarious show featuring four New York area guys pulling
candid camera jokes on unsuspecting regular folks … and themselves. Both are
laugh-out-loud funny and have actually gotten me to sit down and watch a screen
for more than a few minutes.
Regarding books, this past week I tore through two books in
rapid-fire succession: “Stranger in the Woods” and “Lead … for God’s Sake.” The
“Lead” book was loaned out by Marist women’s basketball coach Brian Giorgis. It’s
must reading for any coach or athlete of a team sport. The story is told in
parable form and the message is strong and powerful, albeit a bit redundant –
the book could have easily been shortened by 100 pages and been just as effective.
It’s a quick read. The “Stranger” book was truly phenomenal, a story about a
guy who lived in the woods of central Maine for more than 25 years without
human contact. The subtitle is “The extraordinary story of the last true
hermit.” The book was extremely well reported and written, another quick read
and I definitely recommend it.
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