Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Pages
A Quote to Start Things Off
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Pictures of Memories I
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Friday, September 23, 2022
27 years ago today ... Lance Johnson Triples Three Times in Six-Hit Game
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Monday, June 27, 2022
What Jim Edmonds Greatest Career Catches has to do with my ADD
Monday, June 20, 2022
"A Song About Baseball"
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
More Than a Song: Bob Bennett
Thursday, June 9, 2022
Made To Fly (Original Song)
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Moby Dick: My White Whale
White Whale - Something that someone pursues obsessively with little chance of success.
In 1993, when I was teaching English Literature while living in Russia I taught the first chapter of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I had never read Moby Dick before and was only provided multiple copies of the first chapter. The chapter contains probably the best first paragraph of a novel I have ever read. The first sentence, Call me Ishamael is highly regarded as one of the best opening sentences ever written. It is not, however, my favorite opening sentence. That distinction belongs to the first sentence of C.S. Lewis's voyage of the Dawn Treader, "There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.".
I have asked Dave from Dave out Loud to come in from out of the loud and read the first paragraph for us.
- The book is a long read at 822 pages. This does not make it the longest novel ever written but it's certainly a long swim.
- The format of the novel is odd. It ranges from traditional story telling to essays on the different species of whales to philosophy.
- Herman Melville has a big vocabularly. If your preparing for the GRE Moby Dick is good preperation for the vocabularly section of the test.
- Melville draws from many classics of western civilization. If you have not read the Bible, Shakespeare, or Plato his ideas will go right over your head.
- Moby Dick was written a couple hundred years ago. The reader may need to do historical research to better understand the lives of sailors in that time period.
- Moby Dick is not only a story about whale hunting. The whole back drop of the story is whale hunting. Why did they hunt whales? They needed whale oil for their lamps and cooking. This is a story about energy and what lengths we will go to provide society with it. I think this goes over many readers heads.
- Moby Dick is a dense book. It must be chewed on and thought about. It's meaning and themes don't explain themselves.
- Moby Dick is about life experiences that many of us can't relate to. Most readers don't understand the terror of the ocean, the hard work of harvesting energy, and the bitter loneliness of being away from friends and family for a long time. Rest assured Moby Dick captures real human experiences.
- The book contains lots of symbols and metaphors and they don't easily explain themselves.
- The whole. Once you add all nine of these things together into one book many people may decide Moby Dick is not a voyage worth taking. Rest assured it is. It will grow you as a person and give a perspective on life that is hard to find anywhere else. You will be glad when you finish this whale sized book.
Saturday, April 9, 2022
H is for Hammer, Hank, and Hairy
Good morning and welcome to Day 8 of the A to Z challenge. This year I chose 3 themes for the challenge: Limericks, MLB sluggers in my lifetime, and A to Z wordles. For more information about these themes click here.
I was born in 1964. I was 9 years old when Aaaron broke Ruth's record. Aaronhit his first homer in 1954 and his last in 1976. From 1954 to1963 Hank hit 342 home runs. This was 5th most of all players over that time period and only 40 less than Willie Mays who hit the most in that time period.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Sunday, March 20, 2022
Barbara Streisand and John Wayne show how to present and receive Oscars
Monday, February 21, 2022
Friday, February 4, 2022
Allen Levi Concert in Reverse: Introduction and Song #1
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Monday, January 31, 2022
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Friday, January 28, 2022
Allen Levi Concert in reverse song # 6 Anywhere close to you
Monday, January 10, 2022
Bob Saget sings the National Anthem before a White Sox game.
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
These Blogs Are So Last Year
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Does Grief Last Forever?1 year ago
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Growing Up1 year ago
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