On August 3, 1949, the National Basketball Association was born, comprising 17 organizations that ranged geographically from Boston to Denver and culturally from Manhattan to Sheboygan. The league being the result of a merger, there were two different reigning champions vying for NBA supremacy between the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers and the small-town Anderson Packers, with teams from Syracuse, Rochester, New York, Chicago, and Indianapolis all hoping to upset the apple cart enough to take both teams down. This history of the BAA-NBL merger that created the NBA demonstrates that, amid icy executive relations that reflected the league's larger cultural clash between bustling East Coast metropolises and quiet Midwestern towns, the relentless march toward integration sneaking up quicker than expected on the segregated league, and the Second World War still distinctly visible in the rearview mirror and America's involvement in Korea closer than it may have appeared, it was what lay just beyond basketball that mattered. From Tony Lavelli's halftime accordion, Lee Knorek's airport escapades, and Chicago Stags owner John Sbarbaro's Capone-era mob ties to tales of antisemitism, systemic racism, and prisoners of war--with cameos from Jackie Robinson, Chuck Connors, and President Gerald Ford--the book brings back to life, in its totality, the NBA as it was nearly 75 years ago in the year of the merger.
Few rugby league players are more notorious than John Elias. The fearsome-looking forward not only intimidated his opponents on the field for first grade clubs like Canterbury, Wests and Balmain, he also led a double life off the pitch as a career criminal. After serving an eighteen-month sentence in Long Bay Goal at the age of sixteen, in his life away from football he became a part of the seamy Sydney underworld, working as a standover man and enforcer, and orchestrating illegal bookmaking rings. Loved by his friends and feared by his enemies, John Elias life story is one of the most colourful in Australian sport, as he careered between league at the highest level, and long years in jail for crimes as various as gun and drug dealing and the shooting of a hated rival.Sin Bin is John's incredible story. You'll never look at John Elias, or Rugby League, the same way again.
Everything Is Symbolic is a compilation of blog posts—366 of them, to be exact. So it’s also a devotional. I grew up reading and listening to the King James Version of the Bible. Alongside this, I developed a seriously fluid imagination and mind (what with all the emergent media of the eighties). If I hadn’t had the former, the latter would have driven me mad as the inevitable “storms of life” came to me during my twenties. Herein are the distilled thoughts in the wake of those events, presented one day, one thought at a time.
On August 3, 1949, the National Basketball Association was born, comprising 17 organizations that ranged geographically from Boston to Denver and culturally from Manhattan to Sheboygan. The league being the result of a merger, there were two different reigning champions vying for NBA supremacy between the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers and the small-town Anderson Packers, with teams from Syracuse, Rochester, New York, Chicago, and Indianapolis all hoping to upset the apple cart enough to take both teams down. This history of the BAA-NBL merger that created the NBA demonstrates that, amid icy executive relations that reflected the league's larger cultural clash between bustling East Coast metropolises and quiet Midwestern towns, the relentless march toward integration sneaking up quicker than expected on the segregated league, and the Second World War still distinctly visible in the rearview mirror and America's involvement in Korea closer than it may have appeared, it was what lay just beyond basketball that mattered. From Tony Lavelli's halftime accordion, Lee Knorek's airport escapades, and Chicago Stags owner John Sbarbaro's Capone-era mob ties to tales of antisemitism, systemic racism, and prisoners of war--with cameos from Jackie Robinson, Chuck Connors, and President Gerald Ford--the book brings back to life, in its totality, the NBA as it was nearly 75 years ago in the year of the merger.
6 ready-to-use Bible lessons on the biblical book of Joshua. Each Bible lesson consists of 20 or so ready-to-use questions that get groups talking. These questions make small group Bible study a joy. If you can read 20 questions, you can lead a Bible Study. Answers are provided in the form of quotes from respected authors such as John Piper, Max Lucado and Beth Moore. These lessons will save you time as well as provide deep insights from some of the great writers and thinkers from today and generations past. I also include quotes from the same commentaries that your pastor uses in sermon preparation. Ultimately, the goal is to create conversations that change lives.
How did Friday the 13th begin as a movie about a grieving mother killing camp counselors and spawn a movie in which a nanobot enhanced, hockey masked man destroys a space station? Similarly, how did A Nightmare on Elm Street evolve from a film by Wes Craven about Freddy Krueger into a film about Wes Craven making a Freddy Krueger movie? Film series are destined to change with time, but horror film series are often unrecognizable after multiple sequels and reboots. This work examines horror films and their sequels to determine the glue that holds individual franchises together, which films matter to a series' continuity, which should be considered as canon, and what goes into the process of continuing--or, in some cases, abandoning--the overarching storyline. Series covered include Friday the 13th, Halloween, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Leprechaun, and Scream.
The Korean War rages on in this thrilling alternate history sequel to Beat the Devils: Morris Baker, now a private investigator, must solve a missing persons case in the midst of an endless battle. December, 1959: The Korean War rages on. Protesting the bloody conflict, a Korean-American man by the name of William Yang suddenly blows himself up in the middle of a Los Angeles department store just before Christmas, which leads the U.S. government to reopen the internment camps used during World War II. President Joseph McCarthy's America has never been more on edge, paranoid, and above all, dangerous. Several weeks later, a woman hires Morris Baker, now working as a private investigator, to track down her missing husband — Henry Kissinger — who may have a shadowy connection to Yang's purported terrorist attack. The ensuing investigation for the missing State Department consultant working for Vice President Richard Nixon sends Baker on another thrilling adventure of deceit, intrigue, sex, murder, and conspiracy where the safety of the entire world may hang in the balance.
This is the most comprehensive guide ever published, covering all things Masters of the Universe and Princess of Power from 1982 through today! The universe of He-Man and She-Ra is full of mystery. And thanks to over four thousand individual entries covering characters, beasts, vehicles, locations, weapons and magic, you can learn the secrets of this entire universe!
One couple's inspiring memoir of healing a Rwandan village, raising a family near the old killing fields, and building a restaurant named Heaven. Newlyweds Josh and Alissa were at a party and received a challenge that shook them to the core: do you think you can really make a difference? Especially in a place like Rwanda, where the scars of genocide linger and poverty is rampant? While Josh worked hard bringing food and health care to the country's rural villages, Alissa was determined to put their foodie expertise to work. The couple opened Heaven, a gourmet restaurant overlooking Kigali, which became an instant success. Remarkably, they found that between helping youth marry their own local ingredients with gourmet recipes (and mix up "the best guacamole in Africa") and teaching them how to help themselves, they created much-needed jobs while showing that genocide's survivors really could work together. While first a memoir of love, adventure, and family, A Thousand Hills to Heaven also provides a remarkable view of how, through health, jobs, and economic growth, our foreign aid programs can be quickly remodeled and work to end poverty worldwide.
California is an infamously tough place to be poor: home to about half of the entire nation's homeless population, burdened by staggering home prices and unsustainable rental rates, California is a state in crisis. But it wasn't always that way, as prize-winning historian Josh Sides reveals in Backcountry Ghosts. In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, the most ambitious and sweeping social policy in the history of the United States. In the Golden State more than a hundred thousand people filed homesteading claims between 1863 and the late 1930s. More than sixty thousand Californians succeeded, claiming about ten million acres. In Backcountry Ghosts Josh Sides tells the histories of these Californian homesteaders, their toil and enormous patience, successes and failures, doggedness in the face of natural elements and disasters, and resolve to defend hard-earned land for themselves and their children. While some of these homesteaders were fulfilling the American Dream--that all Americans should have the opportunity to own land regardless of their background or station--others used the Homestead Act to add to already vast landholdings or control water or mineral rights. Sides recovers the fascinating stories of individual homesteaders in California, both those who succeeded and those who did not, and the ways they shaped the future of California and the American West. Backcountry Ghosts reveals the dangers of American dreaming in a state still reeling from the ambitions that led to the Great Recession.
The developed world is struggling with unsustainable promises and unappealing choices, and sustained economic growth represents one of the few ways out. And over the centuries, growth in advanced economies has been strongly linked to innovation. Despite the vast amounts written about innovation over the years, understanding of its drivers remains surprisingly limited. This book, by top Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner, seeks to remedy this shortfall. It highlights that while organizational economists have made strides in understanding what combinations of incentives and organization structure can encourage innovative breakthroughs, many of these insights have not yet received the attention they deserve in the real world, or been developed in ways that can easily be applied in real situations. The author focuses on two models for encouraging innovation, the corporate research laboratory and the start-up. Each model, while proven and successful, also faces significant challenges and ambiguities. A central argument is that there remains considerable potential for hybrids between these two approaches. This book draws on important research in economics and reviews different approaches to innovation, combining this with a series of case examples to explore the challenges that face start up firms, large firms, and nations. It is essential reading for anybody faced with the challenge of innovation.
Nice is the secret ingredient to a better life. It makes us happy. It may even be what makes us civilizedÑwhen we say thank you, shake hands, send flowers, we're doing the nice things that bring people together. ?A compulsive and chunky book for lovers of trivia, popular history, customs, and cultureÑand a perfect gift to say Òyou're niceÓÑThe Book of Nice is an entertaining, quirky compendium of those signs, traditions, and expressions that we so often take for granted, yet turn out to be quite fascinating. It's about why we cover a yawn (originally to prevent evil spirits from entering our bodies, now to hide the impression that something's boring us). About holiday traditionsÑit's thanks to Guy Lombardo's December 31 broadcast in 1929 that we now sing ÒAuld Lang SyneÓ on New Year's Eve. About customary offeringsÑthe wedding cake evolved out of the Roman use of wheat as a symbol of fertility (and it's much tastier than bits of grain). And about those simple yet essential nicetiesÑhow Thomas Edison championed an obscure term, ÒhelloÓ (if Alexander Graham Bell had gotten his way, we'd all be saying ÒahoyÓ). Why not put a little nice in your day?
With the success of The Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic, baseball in Europe has begun to receive more attention. But few realize just how far back the sport's history stretches on the continent. Baseball has been played in Europe since the 1870s, and in several countries the players and devoted followers have included royalty, Hall of Famers from the U.S. major leagues, and captains of industry. Featuring approximately 80 new interviews and 70 new photos and images, this second edition builds extensively on the previous edition's country-by-country histories of more than 40 European nations. Also included are two new appendices on European players signed by MLB organizations and European countries' performance in worldwide rankings.
This step-by-step guide to medical technology innovation, now in full color, has been rewritten to reflect recent trends of industry globalization and value-conscious healthcare. Written by a team of medical, engineering, and business experts, the authors provide a comprehensive resource that leads students, researchers, and entrepreneurs through a proven process for the identification, invention, and implementation of new solutions. Case studies on innovative products from around the world, successes and failures, practical advice, and end-of-chapter 'Getting Started' sections encourage readers to learn from real projects and apply important lessons to their own work. A wealth of additional material supports the book, including a collection of nearly one hundred videos created for the second edition, active links to external websites, supplementary appendices, and timely updates on the companion website at ebiodesign.org. Readers can access this material quickly, easily, and at the most relevant point in the text from within the ebook.
This new volume in the JPS Guides series is a fiction reader?s dream: a guide to 125 remarkable works of fiction. The selection includes a wide range of classic American Jewish novels and story collections, from 1867 to the present, selected by the author in consultation with a panel of literary scholars and book industry professionals. Roth, Mailer, Kellerman, Chabon, Ozick, Heller, and dozens of other celebrated writers are here, with their most notable works. Each entry includes a book summary, with historical context and background on the author. Suggestions for further reading point to other books that match readers? interests and favorite writers. And the introduction is a fascinating exploration of the history of and important themes in American Jewish Fiction, illustrating how Jewish writing in the U.S. has been in constant dialogue with popular entertainment and intellectual life. Included in this guide are lists of book award winners; recommended anthologies; title, author, and subject indexes; and more.
College student and PI Cav has a secret edge when it comes to investigating: he sees ghosts. But this time, his abilities make him vulnerable, because his missing-persons case is related to a decades-old murder-suicide, and he’s caught the attention of a killer….
He thought Christianity was a sham. Then it changed his life. Skeptic Josh McDowell thought Christians were out of their minds. He ridiculed and insulted them, then decided to combat them with his own thorough research to disprove the claims of Jesus Christ. To his surprise, he discovered that the evidence suggested exactly the opposite--that Jesus, instead of being simply a first-century Hebrew carpenter, truly was the God he claimed to be. Josh went on to write the inspirational work on Christian apologetics, More Than a Carpenter, which has sold over 15 million copies. In this revised and updated edition, with over 15 million copies in print since its original publication, More Than a Carpenter has changed countless lives. Now, in this revised and updated edition, Josh is joined by his son, Sean, as they tackle the questions that today's generation continues to ask: "Can I be spiritual without believing in God?" "How can I make sure that my life counts for something?" "Is it really possible to know anything for sure about God or Jesus?" This edition is an accessible read for seekers and a great evangelism tool.
This candid panoramic history of the last four decades in American film is an insider's account by the man who helped produce such classic movies as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Annie Hall, Rocky, The Silence of the Lambs, " and "Philadelphia.
A riveting tell-all biography that delves into the extraordinary life of Hollywood’s most infamous private detective and “fixer” to the stars, revealing newly discovered shocking revelations from his never-before-seen investigative files. During the height of Hollywood’s golden age, one man lorded over the city’s lurid underbelly of forbidden sin and celebrity scandal like no other: Fred Otash. An ex-Marine turned L.A.P.D. vice cop, Otash became the most sought-after private detective and fixer to the stars by specializing in the dark arts that would soon dominate the entertainment industry. Otash was notorious for bugging the homes, offices, and playpens of movie stars, kingmakers, and powerful politicians, employing then state-of-the-art methods of electronic surveillance and wiretapping for a who’s who list of clients for whom he’d do “anything short of murder.” He lied to federal authorities to protect Frank Sinatra from criminal liability; recorded Rock Hudson’s coming out confession to his estranged wife; moved in with Judy Garland to help her get sober; taped President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s tragic love affairs with the greatest sex symbol of all time, and he listened to Marilyn Monroe die. Based on Otash’s never-before-seen investigative files and personal archives, THE FIXER takes readers inside the sensational and nefarious world of the man whose art imitating life inspired the private eye characters portrayed by Jack Nicholson in Chinatown and Russell Crowe in LA Confidential.
A moving, funny, inventive parenting memoir, written in a surprising form: an encyclopedia of failure in sports What can a new father learn about parenthood from reading sports almanacs? For most dads, the answer to this question is: nothing. But to Josh Wilker, whose life and writing have been defined by sports fandom, all of the joy, helplessness, and absurdity of parenthood are present between the lines. After all, what better way to think about losing control than Eugenio Velez's forty-five consecutive at-bats without a hit? How better to understand ridiculous joy than the NFL career of Walter Achiu, whose nickname was "Sneeze"? In the stories of sports figures large and small, Wilker finds the pathos in success and the humor in losing. As the terrified father of a one-day-old, Wilker recalls the 1986 World Series, when the moment was too big for the Red Sox. When he finds himself stealing away for an hour of alone time, Wilker thinks of boxer Roberto Duran, so beaten by Sugar Ray Leonard that he finally gave up. And yet, even as the frustrations and anxieties build, Wilker remembers Mets pitcher Anthony Young, who broke the baseball record for most consecutive losses -- and never stopped showing up. Finding the richness of life in obscure wrestling maneuvers and pop-ups lost in the sun, Benchwarmer is a book of unique humanity and surprising wisdom.
From Monte Carlo to Morocco to Egypt and into Petra, Marwan Accad is pursued by authorities for murders he did not commit. Tracked by advanced intelligence-surveillance technology, his every location is eventually found out, thrusting those he loves into danger. Nurtured by a bitter past that equipped him with what he needed for his company to thrive, Marwan Accad never looks back. Yet the way forward promises only uncertainty, and living each day is a lie in which corruption and greed play in the lives of man. For whose lie is he going through all of this? Even as Marwan races against time to find his pursuers and their motives, he must grapple with what is beyond his life, with what is eternal.
USA Today Bestseller Part memoir and part call to action, Interrupting Violence is a blueprint for cities across America looking for a new way to address community violence. Readers will be energized by the book Kirkus Reviews calls a "heartfelt, authentic guide for combatting community violence.” For over a decade, Cobe Williams has been a violence interrupter, a highly trained conflict resolution expert working to stop the killing. Alongside thousands of workers across the country, many of whom he trained, Cobe intervenes in street conflicts before they result in murder. Interrupting Violence follows his evolution from gang leader to vanguard of a social justice movement. More than a memoir, Interrupting Violence spans three generations of trauma to portray a radically optimistic vision for addressing urban violence. Born into the notorious Black Disciples, Cobe became a drug dealer, hustler, and shot-caller. His father, an influential gang member, was murdered before Cobe turned eleven. Five men, his father’s so-called friends, beat him to death in the lobby of a public housing project. Cobe spent years seeking answers about what happened that night. As Cobe rose through the ranks of the Black Disciples—at one time commanding over one hundred men throughout the city while still in high school—a gang war turned his world upside down. Its escalation overshadowed his ascent. Stoked by police, who fanned the conflict’s flames, the war would engulf Cobe’s friends and family, nearly costing him his life. Ultimately, Cobe would end up behind bars for attempted murder, a crime he didn’t commit. Interrupting Violence follows Cobe as he undertakes his redemption journey, offering new hope for the nation’s most violent communities. As the country wrestles with the inequities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic and the complex intersections of urban violence, racial injustice, police brutality, and poverty in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, this book provides an inspiring blueprint. Cobe’s story demonstrates how the country can resolve the issues plaguing our inner cities, taking readers into an often misunderstood and misrepresented aspect of the Black experience in America.
Be prepared "in season and out" with this handy reference book of faith. Timely and biblically based, Josh McDowell's work offers defenses in 60 of the most-challenged areas of faith. All in one easy-to-reference volume, this book will strengthen your commitment and help you stand firm against challenges to the truth.
An edge city, poised at the northernmost tip of Africa but just nine miles from Europe, Tangier is more than a destination, it is an escape. The Interzone, as William Burroughs called it, has attracted spies, outlaws, outcasts and writers for centuries – men and women breaking through artistic borders. The results were some of the most incendiary and influential books of our time and the list of outlaw originals is long, stretching from Ibn Battuta and Alexandre Dumas to Twain and Wharton and from the darkly brilliant Beats of Bowles, Kerouac, Gysin and Ginsberg to the great Moroccan novelists: Mohamed Choukri, Mohammed Mrabet and Tahar Ben Jelloun.
Truth is stranger than legend . . . and your journey into both begins here. World adventurer and international monster hunter Josh Gates has careened through nearly 100 countries, investigating frightening myths, chilling cryptozoological legends, and terrifying paranormal phenomena. Now, he invites fans to get a behind-the-scenes look at these breathtaking expeditions. Follow Gates from the inception of the groundbreaking hit show (at the summit of Kilimanjaro) to his hair-raising encounters with dangerous creatures in the most treacherous locations on earth. Among his many adventures, he unearths the flesh-crawling reality of the Mongolian Death Worm, challenges an ancient curse by spending the night in King Tut’s tomb, descends into a centuries-old mine to search for an alien entity in subterranean darkness, pursues ghosts in the radioactive shadow of Chernobyl, and explores sightings of Bigfoot from the leech-infested rain forests of Malaysia to the dizzying heights of the Himalayas. Part journey into the unexplained, part hilarious travelogue, part fascinating look at the making of a reality-based TV show—and featuring never-before-published photographs— this Destination Truth companion takes readers on the supernatural expedition of a lifetime.
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