This was a short book. It wasn't a biography of the late James Brown as much as it was a series of stories about Brown and the impact he had, good or otherwise on the people he interacted with in his life. Brown likely never saw himself as a victim and would (and did) reject anyone who tried to view him through that perspective. But as McBride points out much of Brown's early life was heavily influenced by poverty, familial strife and of course Jim Crow in all of its forms. Some people who worked with Brown claim that his deepest emotion was fear of white racism. This could be expressed in a number of different ways, not all of which were positive. In some respects this is a sad book. Although Brown died a millionaire he didn't have as much wealth as he should have had. Brown's inability to trust very many people, dislike of banks and chaotic business dealings led him to hide cash all over the place. Some people stole this money. But the book's primary vitriol is resolved for the South Carolina good old boy political and legal network that used Brown's family strife to throw out a clear will and trust after Brown's death. This led to a decade long and ongoing court battle in which the money that Brown intended to be used for the benefit of impoverished children in South Carolina and Georgia instead flowed to the pockets of well connected attorneys, judges and accountants, all of whom were determined to prolong court proceedings until the very last penny was extracted from Brown's estate. Money can make even the best person greedy. Some of Brown's children sued him for royalties for songs he had ghostwritten in their names when they were children. At one point Brown became so reclusive and upset that he insisted his children and grandchildren make appointments if they wanted to see him. That may have been Brown's way of screening out people who just wanted money. This book is no hagiography. This book argues that Brown was at various times a distant father and husband, a tyrannical boss, and a horrible businessman. Brown also had substance abuse issues late in life. This is something which the workaholic and temperamentally conservative Brown always despised in others. But McBride also takes pains to point out and document all the ways in which the recent Mick Jagger produced film on James Brown (reviewed here) got things wrong, sometimes deliberately. McBride is also a musician. He provided some interesting insights into the differences and similarities between funk and jazz. Some very talented jazz musicians spoke of being unable to perform to Brown's expectations even though in some aspects jazz is more advanced music than funk.
McBride also put into context all of the ways that a musician can be ripped off. McBride interviewed many other musicians about Brown. Not all of these people had great love for Brown, either as a man or as a musician. But most conceded that Brown was, pardon the pun, instrumental in directing them to a higher level of musical performance. Brown's unchecked ego was a dangerous thing. There is a thin line between practicing a band until it is damn near perfect and calling grueling all night practices after a three hour concert because the second guitarist made a minor mistake on the intro to "Get on the Good Foot". Brown crossed that line too often. Despite his habit of referring to his employees and band members by their surnames he had no problem making it clear that he was the star, not them. He flew in a plane. His employees had to take the bus. If they didn't like his treatment they could leave. Over the years many of his bands did just that. It was very difficult to work for Brown and maintain your self-respect. Brown was obsessed with keeping his employees financially and professionally dependent upon him. He also wasn't above sabotaging opening acts if he thought they were getting too popular or taking too much time. Of course if you were a bandleader who must deal with musicians of varying talents and temperaments, crooked promoters and radio DJ's, dangerous criminals who want a "loan" from you, lawyers who will rob you blind with just a pen and paper, politicians who want to use your image, and IRS agents who just love making examples out of people like you, you also might put up a harsher front than normal. But for all of Brown's egomania and paranoia he could also be a kind man albeit a quite sensitive one. When Bill Cosby sent a plate of collard greens to Brown's room as a (presumably well meaning) joke about Brown's southern origins and funk exemplar status, Brown wasn't amused and had to be physically prevented from attacking Cosby. Brown took a fatherless Al Sharpton under his wing and taught him a great deal about show business. It was Brown who shamed Sharpton into helping Michael Jackson during the child abuse allegations. Brown was there with financial help for Isaac Hayes when Hayes was going through bankruptcy. McBride also investigates Brown's long term platonic relationship with one of his female employees, who over the years probably gave Brown more emotional support than most of his wives. Some of Brown's short fuse dealings with his bandmembers came from an inability/unwillingness to speak openly. Sometimes a Brown firing or fining was not to be taken seriously. As mentioned this is a very short book (less than 200 pages). The title comes from a James Brown quote about leaving immediately after a show. The deeper meaning refers to Brown's refusal to share his true thoughts or his personal business. During his heyday and for most of his life Brown refused to be seen in public unless he was at his best. Brown considered the kind of salacious details or familial stories that sell magazines and books today to be private and none of your damn business. So although the book's subtitle is "searching for James Brown", most of the people who really knew Brown are either dead or reluctant to say too much to McBride. McBride details his distaste for the leeches and bottom feeders that surrounded Brown in life and death while struggling with the question of whether he isn't doing the same thing. McBride is adamant that as much praise as Brown received for his musical genius, he probably deserved more. I liked this book. And you will too if you want to know more about Brown and his influences on culture, music and performance. One interesting note about the book is that one of the people with whom I went to grade school is referenced within because of a news story he wrote about James Brown. I will have to reach out to this fellow on Facebook if he's there. Small world. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
H.P. Lovecraft was one of the most influential horror writers of all time. He was also a racist of the most vile sort who always believed that black people were subhuman. Lovecraft's racism wasn't just incidental to his work. His work could not have existed without it. But sometimes flowers grow out of s***. Although ironically, Lovecraft wrote most of his best work during the Harlem Renaissance he seems to have been utterly unaware of that movement. The idea that blacks could actually create worthwhile literary or musical works would have been confounding and probably greatly amusing to Lovecraft. In his novels and short stories blacks were dumb savages for the most part. At best they might be submissive and silent servants. At worst, well never mind. There's not much you could reasonably expect on that front from a writer who was initially supportive of Hitler. Anyway this book imagines a Lovecraft setting except with black protagonists. This takes place in the early fifties. The supernatural elements of the story are less important than the everyday racism which impacts all of the characters. It's not discussed as often as it should be but although the South made a fetish of separating and subordinating blacks in exquisite legal detail the North often did so in less formal matter via housing discrimination, police harassment and of course Sundown towns: neighborhoods or cities in which blacks were legally or extra legally required to be out of town by Sunset. Or else. In order to know ahead of time which areas were safe, which hotels, motels or gas stations were black owned or at least black friendly and which areas should be avoided at all costs, black travelers before 1965 or so often relied on a travel guide which collected shared experiences. It was titled the Negro Motorist Green Book. It is fictionalized in this story as the Safe Negro Travelers Guide. The Green Book went out of business once desegregation became the law of the land but based on some ongoing incidents I imagine that the function of the Green Book if not its format will continue on in blogs and websites that cater to black travelers. There will be more on that in another post I think. Anyhow this story opens up with Black Korean war veteran Atticus Turner, who works for his uncle George as a researcher for the Safe Negro Travelers Guide, returning from his journeys across the South and lower Midwest to his uncle's home in Chicago. Turner has had the normal share of run-ins with racist and hostile police and other whites who don't like his looks or his seeming success. Turner's father, Montrose, who is open about his disdain for racist whites (and whites in general for that matter) has disappeared into New England, leaving behind strange clues as to what he's up to. Strangely enough, considering the elder Turner's views, he was last seen in the presence of a white man. Well there's nothing for it but for Atticus, George and Atticus' friend Letitia to take a road trip to New England to find and/or rescue Montrose Turner. It doesn't help matters that Montrose Turner and Atticus Turner aren't overly fond of each other.
This starts a multi-year adventure in which the Turners and their friends are manipulated by and battle against a shadowy cabal that has plans for the world that might not be all that wonderful for humanity. This group is linked to the Turners via America's original sin of slavery.The big bad of this group is not a fire-breathing bigot. He's rational and calm. He likes to position himself as a rational man as compared to some of his more traditionalist and irrational compatriots. All in all he would rather make deals and appeal to people's self-interest than to openly threaten people.Of course if he's pushed to extremes he might behave in a different manner. One of the more interesting ways that this man can seduce some of the black protagonists is to give them gifts which remove the stigma of their race. One woman finds it tempting to temporarily live life as a white woman. Another man finds that a car that deflects police attention is very useful. Thematically this book reads more like a collection of short stories than a novel. Each little adventure is complete in itself though the reader also knows there is more to come because smartly Ruff doesn't explain every little thing. I was reminded less of Lovecraft and more of Twilight Zone. I thought that Ruff did his research on how race was lived and experienced in 1950s America. From a thriller/horror perspective this is solid but not awe-inspiring work. There are a lot of the normal tropes and cliches employed: vicious dog packs, hostile small towns, teleportation to different universes, strange things locked in basements, haunted houses, crusty old wizards. It's not a overly or overtly violent book all things considered. There are some well drawn female characters who are arguably the book's centerpiece.
Ok, first things first. If you are a person who is very sensitive to apparently realistic cinematic depictions of violence then this is most definitely not the flick for you. People are threatened, slashed, beaten, shot, stabbed, bitten, bludgeoned, spat at, choked, cut open, punched, kicked and otherwise harmed. Gender, age or formerly pacific nature is no protection from harm and no predictor of violent capacity. Anyone can get got and does. This movie is mildly transgressive not so much in its violence but in its unspoken assumption that despite their loathsome political and racial views and glorification of violence, white supremacists, white nationalists and Nazis are human too. I DEFINITELY don't mean this in any sort of goofy let's all find each other's humanity and love each other way. Only a masochist would love someone bent on their destruction. No rather, like any other group of humans, the bad guys here make mistakes and have internal romantic and business rivalries. They have a Bell Curve population distribution of leaders, followers, cowards and people who will go along to get along with whoever appears to be in charge. Just like Hitler loved his dog, a Nazi dog-handler is greatly dismayed anytime someone harms or misuses his animals. New information or a new perspective can make someone who was previously determined to kill you become an ally. This also works the other way, obviously. There may or may not be a world beyond our own but this world already has plenty of angels and devils in human form who are far more depraved or beatific than anything we could dream up. And some of them probably work and live right next to you. The Ain't Rights are a gritty punk rock band who haven't exactly fallen on hard times, because apparently they've never had too many good times. The only positive thing you could say about them is that they usually earn just enough money to make it to their next gig. Barely. Sometimes, well more frequently than they like, they have to steal (siphon) gas from other vehicles to make it to their shows. Tiger (Callum Turner) the singer, Reece (Joe Cole) the drummer, Samantha (Alia Shawkat) the guitarist, and Pat (the lateAnton Yelchin) the bassist, drive their own van, set up their own gear and evidently aren't even well known enough yet to have groupies. That seems like a pretty crappy lifestyle for a band-no money, no roadies and no groupies. It doesn't help matters when one of the sleep deprived musicians falls asleep at the wheel of the van, leaving the engine running.
But that's the life they've chosen, and they still love it. They are apparently young enough not to have spouses nagging them about getting a real job or needing to worry about children's college costs. But like the Albert King song Born Under A Bad Sign goes, if it wasn't for bad luck, they wouldn't have no luck at all. A gig that was supposed to bring them "big money" (i.e. hundreds of dollars each) is not as lucrative as promised, netting each member about $6. The magazine interviewer who was going to help break the band's music to a larger audience neglected to mention that he just got fired from his job. So the interview won't run. But never fear! He has a cousin who knows someone who can arrange The Ain't Rights a better paying opening act gig in a town near Portland, Oregon. The only drawback is that the audience will probably tend a bit more overtly right-wing than the band is used to drawing. But beggars can't be choosers, right? Right-wing money spends just as good as anyone else's. As long as The Ain't Rights keep their mouths shut off the stage and stay away from any overtly left-wing political statements they should be ok. After all they're all part of the punk scene. The band arrives at the club. The good thing about this gig is that the bouncers and managers are more professional about the money, the time and the sound. The bad thing is that the bouncers, managers and apparently all of the audience are white supremacist neo-Nazis. The style of dress, signs and graffiti all make it clear that this club is a no go zone for anyone who is non-white and/or to the left of George Wallace. As a joke and as a middle finger to the audience the band opens with an anti-Nazi Dead Kennedys song but swiftly moves to other material once the audience becomes a bit unruly. But music can soothe the savage beast. Before long everyone in the club is peacefully grooving to the music, or rather doing whatever passes for grooving in the Pacific Northwest. After all, this is an area that, Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and Jimi Hendrix notwithstanding, is not exactly known for funk or soul.
The band finishes their set to applause. They get paid and start to leave. All's well that ends well. That is everything is just peachy until Sam realizes she left her phone charging in the green room, where the headliner band is preparing for their set. Pat runs back to retrieve the phone but has the misfortune to see something that everyone agrees he would have been better off not seeing. Hearing his dismay the other band members come running and also become witnesses. With that the ambitious head bouncer Gabe (Macon Blair) locks the band in the green room until he can decide what to do. Or rather he locks the band in the green room until he can contact his boss Darcy (Patrick Stewart) and Darcy can decide what to do. Locked in the room with the band to keep an eye on them is the large, physically intimidating and armed bouncer Big Justin (Eric Edelstein). Also in the room is Amber (Imogen Poots), a woman who constantly says she's not a Nazi though she may be a girlfriend of a Nazi. Amber is someone you want to watch out of the corner of your eye. As you might expect Stewart does a good job with a limited role that might otherwise have been cartoonish. His dulcet baritone and obvious leadership status makes you and some of the people inside the room want to believe that everything can be worked out. Obviously Darcy means that everything can be worked out for him. He couldn't give a **** about most of the people in the room. He has some ideas he'd like to try. And if nothing else his ideas will give some of his more dangerous followers a chance to get in some practice. The light and sound was realistic throughout this film. I was impressed. Often in movies like this the sound levels can vary and drown out dialogue but that wasn't a problem. The tension feels very real in the film. There are a few surprises judiciously spread throughout the movie. The acting is strong. This is a horror movie but without anything supernatural. The monsters are all human. There are a few plot holes and people doing stupid things to move the plot along but much fewer than you might expect. The plausibility of much of the movie is what gives it its edge. Well, it's the plausibility and Patrick Stewart. If you can appreciate siege films or movies where one slip up changes everything then you'll enjoy Green Room. TRAILER
Once a year everyone in my company has to complete online training on how to prevent or not engage in sexual harassment. It's painfully obvious stuff. You don't have to believe in or accept 100% of the most radical feminist worldviews to understand that putting hands on someone without their permission, commenting on their body parts without invitation or God forbid making their promotion, continued employment, assignments or pleasant work environment contingent upon them having sex with you is illegal and something which could cost you your job and your employer a lot of money. Some of the examples which are used in my company's yearly training are so over the top that I couldn't believe that even the densest rockhead out there wouldn't already know that this stuff is out of bounds. But there's always someone out there who thinks that the rules don't apply to him. The latest example of this was former Fox News Boss Roger Ailes, who was accused by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson of long running virtual textbook sexual harassment over several years of her employment at Fox News. You can read some of her complaint here. Among other things Ailes allegedly asked Carlson to turn around so he could look at her bottom and told her that she should have had sex with him a long time ago in order to help her career. Ailes' alleged statements to and activities around Carlson are exactly the sorts of things which I thought were so obviously sexual harassment as to not be worth mentioning in a corporate CYA training video. Now to be fair there are a fair number of married people who meet each other in a work environment. And I don't think that one pass is grounds for harassment. But Ailes was Carlson's boss. That alone should have made Ailes keep everything above board. Apparently Ailes' bosses, Rupert Murdoch and his sons, decided that Fox News could get along without Ailes. Ailes "resigned" with a reported $40 million payout. If someone "suggests" that you resign or be fired, resigning is probably the smart move, right? According to some reports the Murdoch sons and Ailes were never overly fond of each other. Ailes chafed at having to report to the younger Murdochs. Some other women, most of them anonymous, claimed to have been harassed by Ailes over the years. But what may have flipped the switch was alleged confirmation by Fox News' top star Megyn "Jesus is White" Kelly, that Ailes sexually harassed her some years ago. Kelly is the future of the network. Presumably the Murdochs want to keep her happy and around. It puts more money in their pockets. So Ailes will have to face Carlson's lawsuit on his own. Fox News is of course, depending on your POV, famous or infamous, for transparent desks, thigh level camera POV, and women who show off expanses of cleavage and legs. So all in all I'm not surprised that the man who created a sexually charged work environment allegedly sought to benefit from same. For most people it's usually a bad idea to get your honey where you get your money. And it's always a bad idea to tell someone to give it up or get out. Allegedly....
Jon Stewart has a special talent for the describing the phenomenon which is the Donald Trump campaign for President of the United States. Below is his appearance on the Late Show where he goes in on the double standards that the conservative media uses when discussing President Obama and the birther running for President, Donald Trump. I liked what Stewart had to say about conservatives not owning America. It's a point worth repeating over and over again. A lot of Trump's support comes from dismay with or fear of THOSE people. This fall election is going to be very interesting from a blogging perspective, regardless of who wins.
Donald Trump has run a deliberately disruptive and occasionally amateurish campaign for President. He's gotten as far as he has by breaking or ignoring the normal rules of political decorum. You can't argue with success I guess. But one rule that Trump and his team probably shouldn't ignore is that you use your own words to tell your own story. Doing otherwise goes against a major theme of Trump's campaign: that he's the only candidate who's honest enough to tell it like it is. Trump's wife, Melania Trump, seemed to violate that campaign focus last night when in her speech, which she claimed to have written herself, she used not only the same theme found in a previous speech by First Lady Michelle Obama, but several of the exact same words and phrases. It was something that was pretty obviously lifted from Michelle Obama's speech. Plagiarism is not only dishonest but it's lazy. In this day and age where anyone and everyone can look up what was said previously, plagiarism is also pretty stupid. The whole point of a wife's convention speech (I guess at the Democratic convention it will be the husband's speech) is to humanize the candidate. The spouse theoretically knows the candidate better than anyone else, so he or she can explain to the world exactly why the candidate is the right person for the job. That's it. It's not rocket science. The speech doesn't have to be anything too personal or intimate. And it can't be something where everyone thinks that the spouse had to have his or her arm twisted to say something positive. All it has to be is something in the spouse's words that make everyone feel good about nominating his or her better half to be their Presidential candidate. Unfortunately for the Republicans, the Trump organization couldn't meet that admittedly low bar of competence. Although the plagiarism scandal is not in truth all that important compared to other world events it is humorous to me. As the saying goes,"If I can't trust you with the small stuff, why would I give you greater responsibility?". Why should Americans vote for a candidate who brings in an immigrant wife to steal American speeches? And if Trump's lady is going to steal speeches why would she steal from the Obamas? I thought the Trumps hated the Obamas?
Since presumably Trump is not going to fire his wife (not yet at least) I would imagine that after a round of blameshifting and denials, someone is going to have to face the axe. Someone in the Trump campaign presumably had the job of ensuring that Melania's speech was grammatically correct, fit in the allotted time slot and wasn't lifted in whole or part from other speeches. Whoever that person was needs to be unemployed today. Trump is trying to sell people on hard work, authenticity and taking the country back from THEM. That's a hard sell when your wife is cut and pasting swaths of Michelle Obama's speeches. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe as one of my cousins sarcastically noted on Facebook, "Word is your bond" is a phrase found as much in Slovenia as on the South Side of Chicago...
Ms. Trump, Monday night:
“From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”
Mrs. Obama, in her 2008 speech:
“Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them onto the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”
Ms. Trump:
“I was born in Slovenia, a small, beautiful and then-Communist country in Central Europe. My sister, Ines, who is an incredible woman and a friend, and I were raised by my wonderful parents. My elegant and hard-working mother, Amalija, introduced me to fashion and beauty. My father, Viktor, instilled in me a passion for business and travel. Theirintegrity, compassion and intelligence reflects to this day on me and for my love of family and America.”
Mrs. Obama, in 2008:
“And I come here as a daughter — raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue-collar city worker and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.”
I had heard different things about this book. Judging by some of his blog posts the author seemed like an optimistic sort though we certainly wouldn't agree on very much politically. Correia has said that this book and the resulting series was inspired in part by his love for classic and cheap horror movies, the kind that come on late night or on Saturday afternoons. This book's premise shared some themes with the Supernatural tv series. So I decided to give this older book, Correia's first and initially self-published novel, a chance. It was an okay read. I liked the opening. I didn't like some of Correia's right-wing swipes at his political betes noires. But compared to some authors (cough* Stephen Hunter* cough) for the most part this book didn't have too many political statements. The characters' behavior is itself an explicit political statement. People tell aspiring writers to write what they know. I guess Correia took that advice. The story protagonist is a Correia avatar in terms of looks, attitude, career path, size and politics. Owen Zastava Pitt is a huge (6'4"+, 300lb+) recent college graduate who works as an accountant. Owen has an interesting family background. His Green Beret father was a disciplinarian survivalist. Owen's father insisted that his sons learn to handle weapons and protect themselves. Owen may be white collar but he can fight, thanks not only to his father's training but also to Owen's past employment as a bouncer and underground cage fighter. When pushed Owen has a bad temper. However in the corporate arena the size of your paycheck means more than your physical size. And Owen doesn't make much money. He's under the thumb of a boss who can charitably be described as an a$$hole. Owen doesn't care for his boss. And the feeling is definitely mutual. One night while Owen is working late with no one else around, his boss calls him into the office and explains that he never did like Owen. And then the boss shifts form and tries to eat Pitt. Yes you see the boss is a werewolf. But Owen is not a man who runs from confrontation. More importantly, he can't outrun a werewolf. dies easily. A knockdown, drag out no holds barred fight ensues. It doesn't help Owen's chances that a werewolf can almost immediately heal itself from most wounds. This was both an exciting fight and something that was almost satire. Long story short, Owen manages to throw his boss out of a 14th story window. Even a werewolf can't regenerate from that. Owen is severely wounded and technically briefly dies.
Owen wakes up in a hospital regarded cautiously by unfriendly government agents who inform him that if he should tell anyone of his experiences he will disappear, likely permanently. Owen is also greeted by a chain smoking man of indeterminate age who introduces himself as Earl Harbinger and a beautiful serious young woman whose name is Julie Shackleford. Earl and Julie run Monster Hunter International (MHI). MHI is a private company licensed to capture or kill monsters-vampires, werewolves, ghouls, etc. All of these things exist. All of these creatures have various government bounties attached for hunters. MHI gives Owen a check for the werewolf he killed. The fact that Owen was able to kill a werewolf all by himself and hasn't had an emotional breakdown or gone insane means that he's exactly the kind of person that Earl and Julie want to hire. That is,they want to hire him if he's got the stones. Well, stones Owen has in abundance. He will join MHI for the money, the camaraderie, the excitement, the training, the guns and the chance to get next to Julie. She's just Owen's type. There's just a few problems. (1) The enigmatic Earl, Julie's relative, warns Owen that if Owen ever hurts or disappoints Julie, Earl will be displeased. (2) Julie already has a boyfriend with whom she appears to be content. Owen and Julie's man, a MHI supervisor, take an immediate dislike to each other. (3) Although Owen isn't afraid to mix it up physically with any one at any time and is something of a smarta$$, he gets tongue tied around Julie. Either he can't find the words to say to her or stupidly blurts out too much information at exactly the wrong time. But Julie doesn't have time for Owen's goo goo eyes. MHI has new teams to train. They've lost good people chasing monsters. They need to get the new recruits up to speed as soon as possible. Atypically some master vampires have started working together. MHI can't figure out why. But Owen thinks he knows why. Since his short "death" he's been having visions and warnings from a ghostly WW2 era Eastern European Jewish hunter. This hunter knows what's coming and intends to get Owen ready to fight it. And only all existence is at stake. I thought the book was too long. The description of the swamps and caves where much of the action takes place is excessive. Correia, along with being a former accountant, is also a former firearms instructor and gun dealer. So there is a lot of information about guns. There's endless exposition on choosing the right gun for a particular person or job. Correia likes guns. YMMV on this. Unlike some of Stephen Hunter's later work though, none of this knowledge is transmitted with a sneering exclusionary "I'm a real American and you're not" tone. MHI rushes from one crisis to another. Some family secrets are revealed. Owen has a self-deprecating sense of humor, most of which revolves around his massive size. The main thing I didn't like about this story is that Owen is too often a deus ex machina when his team gets into a tight fix. That damaged my ability to care about some of the characters. The humor carries this book through some of the (from my POV) leaden political statements or people occasionally doing stupid things to advance the story. All in all I'll probably read the rest of the series. Although the book is in my opinion too long it rarely drags. There's a lot of action. Hijinks and narrow escapes occur on almost every page. I liked Owen's run-ins with the laconic federal agent Franks, who is about as big as Owen and to Owen's dismay MUCH faster and more skilled at fighting than Owen.
I was raised to believe that no matter what your family should be united against the outside world. So this means that if your brother gets into a fight with the local college football team you jump in to protect him even if he started it and was utterly in the wrong. If he gets his behind kicked then you'd better be right there on the floor taking the beating with him. If someone calls your sister stupid or otherwise insults her then you rise to her defense even if you think to yourself that the person making that statement may actually have a point. You can cuss out and fight with your relatives later. But if someone else bothers them then that someone else has a problem with you. And this would obviously go double for your husband or your wife. After all you took a vow which, depending on when you were married, probably included some language about forsaking all others, honoring, obeying, and/or protecting your spouse in sickness and health, in good times and bad until you are separated by death. That's not just boilerplate. It's pretty serious stuff. You're taking an oath, after all. None of these ties and bonds, whether familial or romantic, mean that you are always going to like your family or your nookie providers or agree with them. You may well believe that a relative had to have been dropped on their head as a child to be so dumb or idly wonder if your spouse will indeed bequeath an unpleasant trait to your children. But it's your right to have and express those beliefs, no one else's. I'm not going to publicly criticize or distance myself from family even if I think they are 100% offbase. I'll have a discussion with them in private about what I think they're doing wrong. I'm not going to criticize family because an outsider says I should. But I am not married to Miko Grimes, who has a history of statements and actions which would sorely test my commitment to handling family business behind closed doors. Miko Grimes, the wife of former Miami Dolphins and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Brent Grimes, blasted Miami brass on Monday, using anti-Semitic language that she later tried to clarify. In a tweet referencing Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum, Miko Grimes tweeted: Gotta respect ross for keeping his jew buddies employed but did he not see how tannenbaum put the jets in the dumpster w/that sanchez deal?
Reached by the Tampa Bay Times, Miko Grimes remained adamant that the insult was only directed at two people and that no one else should be offended by what she said. "What would I have against Jewish people?" she wrote to theTimes in an exchange Monday afternoon. "Why is this the first time I'm being called anti-Semitic, as big as my mouth is, if I really have an issue with Jewish people? Is anything I said false? Do Jewish, Catholic, Christian and frat brothers, etc. hire their own people? … I was intending to offend the Dolphins, specifically Stephen Ross and Mike Tannenbaum. Anyone else that chooses to dive in front of those bullets is their own fault."
Asked about the insinuation that someone would get a job only because of religious ties, she did not back down from her stance. "If you are a GM in the NFL and you happen to be Jewish, nine times out of 10 you will get another job if fired because the majority of the owners are Jewish and 'rumor has it' Jewish people take care of their own," she wrote. "I'm actually quite envious of them. I think it's dope!" The comment was picked up by several national sports sites and ESPN, and the nature of the "Jew buddies" comment has relevance with the Bucs because the Glazer family, which has owned the team since 1995, is Jewish. Bucs co-chair Bryan Glazer last year donated $4 million to a new Jewish Community Center in West Tampa that will carry his family's name. The Bucs were aware of the comment Monday but had no immediate response.
Leaving aside the substance of Miko Grimes' comments for now, statements attacking alleged Jewish excessive clannishness are indeed often meant and experienced as anti-semitic insults. There's no way that an adult does not know that in 2016. And even if Miko Grimes didn't mean it that way and (insert eyeroll) was just trying to start a serious conversation about (ahem) having a more diverse hiring profile in the NFL, using the term "Jew buddies" isn't the way to go about that. This is especially the case when her husband's new bosses, the people who sign his checks, happen to be Jewish. This isn't the first time that Mrs. Grimes has had some outrageous stuff to say. Her self-described big mouth is part of the reason her husband now works for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers instead of the Miami Dolphins. But this is the big leagues. Racial comments and slurs are not exactly unknown in professional football, in the locker room or out of it. NFL owners and for that matter players can be quite tolerant of bad behavior or loose talk provided they believe that a player can help the team win. Just ask Riley Cooper. However Brent Grimes is on the downside of his career. He's not as quick or as fast as he used to be. He will likely soon transition out of the NFL. While I wouldn't say Grimes is a marginal player I would say he's at the point where a team might think twice about adding him and his loose cannon wife to the payroll. The competitive benefit might not outweigh the off field headaches. I don't think that the NFL or the Bucs can or should fine Brent Grimes because of what his wife said. She's her own woman. She doesn't work for the NFL. But NFL or not, making public derogatory comments about your spouse's new boss's ethnicity or religion is just not a very smart move in any business setting. Now every relationship is different. We don't know if Miko is speaking for herself or if she's saying things Brent wishes he could say. If I were Brent at the very least I would probably have a short blunt conversation with the wife on things we don't say in public.
What's your take? Should people be responsible for their spouse's statements?
