Marxian Economics I: Harwood Fundamentals of Applied Economics

Book Description

Miss Daisy is known throughout the nation as "Tennessee's First Lady of Southern Cooking." These Tennessee recipes were collected in honor of the bicentennial anniversary of the state. The recipes are combined with interesting sidebar features about Tennessee people, places, products, and each of the ninety-five counties.

Customer Reviews:

What a cookbook.......1999-12-15

If you love to cook, you'll love this book. Every recipe I have prepared from this cookbook a has been fantastic. If you have a friend or relative who hails from the 'Volunteer State', they will love the exerpts from each county.

Average customer rating:

Tells Tennessee Like It Is
AWESOME SOUTHERN COOKING

Miss Daisy Celebrates Tennessee
Daisy King , Winette Sparkman , and James A. Crutchfield
Manufacturer: Side Dish
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews:

Tells Tennessee Like It Is.......2004-07-04

I bought this book on the road as I traversed the complete 500 mile breadth of the great state of Tennessee. The recipes are super, and of incredible variety, but even more I like the lore that fills this unique book. You will benefit from cooking this cuisine, but, if you want a browser and a good read, let Miss Daisy be your guide. She knows Tennessee, she loves Tennessee, and it truly shows.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

AWESOME SOUTHERN COOKING.......2000-10-05

THIS COOKBOOK IS AWESOME! WHAT MORE CAN YOU SAY ABOUT A COOKBOOK THAT HAS ALL OF THE TREASURED SOUTHERN RECIPES THAT YOU REMEMBER FROM YOUR MOTHER'S AND GRANDMOTHER'S KITCHEN. IN THIS BOOK YOU WILL FIND EVERYTHING FROM CHOCOLATE MERINGUE PIE(ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITES FROM MY CHILDHOOD) TO TENNESSE ERNIE FORD'S CORNBREAD AND SAUSAGE HOLIDAY DRESSING TO MISS DAISY'S FAMOUS FIVE FLAVOR POUND CAKE TO GENUINE TENNESSEE CORNBREAD. THE LIST GOES ON AND ON. HOWEVER, THE MOST SPECIAL PART ABOUT THIS BOOK IS THAT MISS DAISY HAS JAM-PACKED IT WITH TENNESSEE HISTORY FACTS ON PEOPLE AND PLACES THAT HAVE MADE OUR NATION'S 16TH STATE SO WONDERFUL AND ENDEARING. BEING BORN AND RAISED IN TENNESSEE PROBABLY MAKES ME A BIT PARTIAL BUT I ASSURE YOU THAT NO MATTER WHAT PART OF THE COUNTRY YOU LIVE IN THIS BOOK WILL BRING YOU A SPECIAL HEARTWARMING JOY. MISS DAISY HAS DONE QUITE AN AWESOME JOB!

Average customer rating:

Great addition to your rcraft eference Library

Celebrating Holidays Scrapbook Style: 250 Sensational Page Ideas You Can Create (Memory Makers)

Manufacturer: Memory Makers Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Papercrafts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Scrapbooking | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Sizzling Seasonal Scrapbook Pages (Memory Makers)

Scrapbooking Your Adult Years: 185 Outstanding Ideas For Pages About Grown-ups (Memory Makers)

501 Great Scrapbook Page Ideas: A Gallery Of Themes And Inspiration From A-Z

The Amazing Page: 650 New Scrapbook Page Ideas, Tips And Techniques (Memory Makers)

Quick & Easy Scrapbook Pages: 100 Scrapbook Pages You Can Make in One Hour or Less (Memory Makers)

ASIN: 189212727X

Book Description

Holidays are an evergreen topic for scrapbookers, as their families gather together to create lasting memories. This book provides them with fresh ideas for remembering the special days. Readers will find:

* Hundreds of ideas for commemorating holidays, from Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, to Easter, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July

* Innovative techniques and step-by-step illustrations so they can create beautiful pages of their own

* Stories about special holiday traditions and their origins to bring to their own celebrations

With tips for collecting memories, this book gives scrapbookers added ways to remember their happiest days of the year.

Customer Reviews:

Great addition to your rcraft eference Library.......2007-07-14

I believe this to be well worth the money. Contains great ideas that help you learn and give you new ideas to use on your own. Great photos, and well done all around. If you are trying to develop a well rounded libaray of refference books and want one of holiday ideas for scrapbooking that can also be used for decorative projects in the home or as gifts and even used in card making, then get this book as your Holiday referrence book. I don't think you will be sorry.

Book Description

DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828) dominated the politics of New York State during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, serving as mayor of New York City and then governor of the state. At the same time, he was influential on the national scene, running for president in 1812 and only narrowly losing to James Madison. Although patrician in his sentiments, Clinton nevertheless developed new forms of party politics, including the spoils system. He was an early champion of the nomination of candidates by convention rather than legislative caucus, and as a United States Senator contributed the draft language for the Twelfth Amendment, which embedded party politics in the fabric of the Constitution. Clinton's greatest achievement was the Erie Canal, the establishment and implementation of which he championed as early as 1810. Construction of the canal began in 1817, and even before it was completed, eight years later, it had brought profound changes--economic, cultural, and social--to the state and the nation. As Evan Cornog illustrates in his detailed and compelling narrative, the Erie Canal hastened the economic expansion of the country, altered its political geography, set an example for activist government, and decisively secured New York City's position as America's foremost metropolis. It was a project unlike anything the Empire State--or the United States--had seen before, and was only the most successful of Clinton's many efforts to implement his view that government should play an active role in the economic and intellectual development of American society. The Birth of Empire chronicles not only the life of an important political leader but the accomplishments that underlay his success. As mayor of New York City, for example, Clinton was instrumental in the founding of the public-school system. He sponsored countless measures to promote cultural enrichment as well as educational opportunities for New Yorkers, and helped to establish and lead such institutions as the New-York Historical Society, the American Academy of the Arts, and the Literary and Philosophical Society. An amateur scientist of some renown, Clinton also wrote essays on geology, botany, entomology, archaeology, anthropology, and ichthyology. As shown here, Clinton's career was marked by frequent attempts to integrate his cultural and scientific interests into his identity as a politician, thus projecting the image of a man of wide learning and broad vision, a scholar-statesman of the new republic. Ironically, the political innovations which Clinton set in motion--the refinement of patronage and the spoils system, appeals to immigrant voters, and the professionalization of politics--were precisely what led to the extinction of the scholar-statesman's natural habitat. However visionary, the latter-day philosopher-king would eventually have no place in the modern world. DeWitt Clinton was born into the aristocratic culture of the eighteenth century, yet his achievements and ideas crucially influenced (in ways he did not always anticipate) the growth of the mass society of the nineteenth century. With this book, Cornog engagingly guides readers through the colorful maze of early nineteenth-century New York politics and society, illustrating both the depth of achievement and breadth of influence of one of its most important leaders. Those who wish to understand the development of American politics, the flowering of a distinctly American cultural life, the progress of the market revolution, and the growth of America's largest city will find many valuable insights in The Birth of Empire.

Customer Reviews:

The most important New Yorker.......2004-07-13

DeWitt Clinton's accomplishments have long been trumpeted in New York City and State, and for too long his canal has been perceived as a local triumph. Thanks to Evan Cornog's study, "The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828" the many triumphs of Clinton's career are given the national and historic scope they deserve.

NOTE: This is a study of Clinton's contributions to New York's and America's emergence as a world power, especially in terms of an economic power. This is NOT a biography in the ordinary sense of the word. Unlike McCullough's "John Adams" or Chernow's "Alexander Hamiltion", we do not get a full-length portrait of the man. Partly because DeWitt Clinton was much more reserved and reluctant to show his feelings than others of his time and partly because his diary entries, as Cornog points out, are very mundane, we mostly see the public DeWitt Clinton: DeWitt Clinton the politician, DeWitt Clinton the scientist, DeWitt Clinton the philanthropist, etc. So intensely private in some ways (his mother wondered if he was dead or alive because he never wrote her while he attended Columbia), it is remarkable that he would seek such a public career.

But it was to New York's and America's benefit that he did.

Although he never achieved the Presidency, he often influenced (directly or indirectly) every President in office during his lifetime. He clashed with some of the mightiest men of his day: Aaron Burr, Daniel Tompkins, Ambrose Spencer, et al. As Cornog points out, not all his confrontations were rooted in ideology; DeWitt Clinton was a political animal, even though the political realm he operated in was rapidly changing, often leaving Clinton behind. Clinton also could often be extremely self-centered, snobbish and vindictive. And, yet, this contradictory man also had long-reaching visions and programs for the benefit of the poor as well as the merchant and upper classes. He supported free education for all New Yorkers. He supported artists, writers, and scientists. Most importantly, his dogged determination to get the Erie Canal built provided jobs for immigrants, provided a market for farmers, provided work for New Englanders, and helped build the great cities along the canal's path. And as the canal propelled New York State and New York City into economic powerhouses, it also propelled America's westward expansion and its status as a world-class nation.

Well-written and well-documented, Evan Cornog's "The Birth of Empire" captures the feel of the early decades of America, with all its growing pains. And it puts DeWitt Clinton in American history's spotlight where he belongs.

A Complex New Yorker, Erie Canal and Historical Ironies.......2002-06-24

Evan Cornog has crafted an expert depiction and analysis of the life of DeWitt Clinton: the early nineteenth century mayor of New York City, governor of New York State and champion of the Erie Canal. Cornog puts this man in historical perspective; he ruled at the twilight of the age of elite, privileged politicians and the dawn of the age of popular democratic mass politics. Ironically, Clinton, the quintessential product of the former political age, helped usher in the latter by championing election reform, public education and the canal itself.

The historical ironies of the canal expressed by Cornog are insightful. Clinton was a proponent of federal funding for internal improvements yet the success of the canal as a state subsidized project discouraged massive federal public works projects for more than a century. Its success also led to a certain canal-building fever for other states. But later canal construction came when private railroads were gaining steam. This untimely investment, coupled with the Panic of 1837 actually frightened off and discouraged future state, federal and foreign investment in internal improvements.

A final unforseen result for Clinton was the social transformation which flowed quickly from the canal and led to the end of the elite age of New York politics.

Average customer rating:
The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828
Evan Cornog
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKMPEA

Book Description

“What do you think? You don't understand. You'll never know how much. ” Barbara Scot's memoir begins with a trunk full of memories and her mother's cryptic letters about a marriage unraveling. Like a mystery detective, the author searches for the truth, which takes her back to the scene of a tragedy—to the farm her family lost and the close-knit and secretive community she left behind. In uncovering the secrets of her family, Scot comes to understand her own failed marriage.

Customer Reviews:

Prairie Why?.......2003-02-09

This book is not my usual genre, but thought I'd stretch a bit. A few chapters in, I felt that I should not be reading Barbara's private diary. Several chapters later I was wondering WHY I was reading Barbara's private diary. Several more chapters in, I was wondering why Barbara felt we all should be reading her private diary. I am confident that Barbara got more out of writing this book than I got out of reading it.

While I was aware that this was a memoir, my assumption was that something interesting must have happened to the author, or her immediate family, or her friends, or her neighbors, or her not so immediate family, or ANYONE! But that was not the case. While Barbara does a very good job of recalling various parts of her childhood, the reader is not really provided any reason to care about any of the characters. Unless you grew up in the Midwest, or were divorced once or twice, or had a parent die young or commit or attempt suicide, there was no real "hook," no connection to the author or her life. We don't really learn anything or take anything away from this book, nor do we learn that the author learned anything but a few missing facts about her past. We don't get any inkling of how that information and/or revelations will benefit her or the reader.

Despite her inclusion of geographic maps and genealogical family trees I had no idea who was related to whom, nor which generation was involved with which other generation. I'm sure it all made sense to her extended families, but to the moderately engaged reader it was very disjointed.

Though this volume was self-absorbed and narrow, Barbara's other volumes may be worth a read assuming that she has an actual story to tell in them.

very good read.......2000-03-09

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. i am not an expert critic, but i found myself wanting to go"home" again after reading her book. very nostalgic and bittersweet.

Average customer rating:

Prairie Reunion
Barbara J. Scot
Manufacturer: New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NVEGW4

Average customer rating:

Prairie Reunion
Barbara J. Scot
Manufacturer: Riverhead Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HYSR2W

Average customer rating:

Prairie Reunion
Barbara J. Scott
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JPTZ16

Reunion on Blake's Prairie: A history of the Martin and Harris families

Average customer rating:

Reunion on Blake's Prairie: A history of the Martin and Harris families
Keith Martin
Manufacturer: K. Martin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006P28E0

Book Description

The facilitator's task of opening up discussion, getting ideas into the open and setting broad future direction is essential if a group is to reach consensus on a particular outcome and it is now one of the key techniques used in meetings and workshops This practical introduction to the essential skills needed will help readers develop a facilitation style that is unbiased and non-manipulative - allowing them to be in control without being overpowering. With detailed examples, proven tips for success, checklists and a self assessment guide to help readers test their own personal approach to facilitation, the book will help readers to: * Understand the facilitator's role * Develop the ideal structure for workshops and meetings * Control agendas and help to focus the outcome of meetings * Deal with difficulties.

Book Description

Get your meeting attendees to play by the rules!

Have you ever been to a meeting that dissolved into utter chaos? Or attended a meeting that seemed unfocused and unproductive?

Robert's Rules of Order have been the standard of parliamentary procedure for business and civic organizations since 1876. The Everything(r) Robert's Rules Book fully explains Robert's Rules and shows you how to apply them to today's social and business meeting situations.

Features clear explanation of:

Types of meetings and their rules

Proper voting procedures

The rules of debate

When and how to use motions

Proper minute-taking

Standards for teleconferencing and e-mailing

The Everything(r) Robert's Rules Book is your one-stop reference to holding productive, successful meetings.

Average customer rating:

Full Of Strategies, Tactics and Techniques

Excellent guide for people fearing cold calling

It may seem simple, but it works!

Not if you're calling anyone important

Great for Beginners or Veterans

Getting Through: Cold Calling Techniques To Get Your Foot In The Door
Stephan Schiffman
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Sales & Selling | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
Sales | Business | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
General | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
Similar Items:

Cold Calling Techniques: 20th Anniversary Edition: That Really Work

E-Mail Selling Techniques: That Really Work!

The Psychology Of Selling: The Art of Closing Sales

The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople

Successful Cold Call Selling: Over 100 New Ideas, Scripts, and Examples from the Nation's Foremost Sales Trainer

ASIN: 0743520211

Book Description

MAKE SURE YOUR FIRST CALL ISN'T YOUR LAST!

Everyone in sales knows how to sell -- if they can get to the buyer. But in today's selling climate, the road between seller and buyer is frequently blocked with layer after layer of objections, distractions and delays. Now, America's #1 Corporate Sales Trainer shares his proven techniques for getting through all that interference to make the sale.

In this powerful program, Schiffman provides sound advice and proven strategies for cold calling -- the technique used by salespeople everywhere to make their appointments and increase their sales exponentially.

Customer Reviews:

Full Of Strategies, Tactics and Techniques.......2007-09-16

This is a terrific CD program which is narrated by Schiffman himself. This is of benefit because you can hear the techniques demonstrated by a skilled master of the art of telephone cold calling.

The beginning of the program is spent setting up the context of the different strategies which could be employed to generate activity and first appointments.

In addition, the listener is introduced to skillful telephone techniques that really do work in getting appointments with customers, by successfully completing the "dreaded cold call". This process is very well explained and demonstrated.

The program is complete because it addresses the objections head on. "I'm not interested", "Send me more information in the mail" or "what is this all about" are only a few of the objections that can be over turned. Overcoming objections will become quite effortless and simple using these strategies and techniques. These techniques are also effective during any sales call to turn around certain objections when they arise.

This is a great program. Get it and listen to it repeatedly while in your car travelling between sales calls.

Eliot Hoppe
Author - Selling: Powerful New Strategies for Sales Success

Excellent guide for people fearing cold calling.......2006-01-28

I found the tape highly useful. I would strongly recommend to sales people wanting to start cold calling or improve the process. Just nake sure that you take notes and than act upon those.

It may seem simple, but it works!.......2003-11-25

I have seen some reviews that criticize Schiffman's techniques as being too simple and too sophomoric. I have to disagree. Just because a method is simple, doesn't make it null and void. Schiffman gives a sales person, who needs to have face-to-face meetings in order to sell product, very simple and repeatable procedures on how to set appointments and overcome objections to the appointment. After listening to the tape, you would think that you could come up with those steps on your own. But if you could, you wouldn't be surfing the internet looking for a book or tape.

I have listened to Schiffman's tape so many times, I can repeat it myself. I have practiced and used his techniques, and they work. Plain and simple. I have not had anyone not take me seriously when I got the appointment. In addition, the "hang up during the voicemail" technique works like a champ.

Don't listen to the guy who has to have a method developed by a PhD in order to validate it. Get the tape, listen to it, master the technique and just do it. My batting average went way up after I started using these techniques. My call back percentage increased too.

Not if you're calling anyone important.......2001-02-13

I bought this because other reviewers had said great things about it. Maybe it works if you are a salesperson who calls 800 random people a week. But when you fewer than 10 named accounts and are in larger sales, this is not the tape you need. His big secret to getting appointments is this: "Hi Mr/Ms Whoever, I'm so and so from company x. I want to make an appointment with you to talk about [enter product/service here]. You do want [enter benefit here], don't you?" I can't imagine that most people can't come up with that themselves. The moral of the story is: If you're selling life insurance, this might be of some use, since he lets you know almost everyone you use this technique on will say no, so you don't feel so bad when you're rejected. If you're selling anything else, save your money. Try "The Power To Get In" by Boylan.

Great for Beginners or Veterans.......2000-01-28

Steve Schiffman gives a quality effort in overcoming the myriad of objections that any sales representative faces. His practical approach deserves applause. I would recommend this for anyone just learning the ropes of the sales process or the road warrior who needs to brush up on his or her skills.

Average customer rating:

"That's why all these broads love me!"

Pure Blassie

Blassie was the King

Interesting story of a sad character

I'll hit you with my cane, you pencil neck geek!

The Legends of Wrestling - "Classy" Freddie Blassie: Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks (WWE)
Classy Freddie Blassie , and Keith Elliot Greenberg
Manufacturer: World Wrestling Entertainment
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
Wrestling | Individual Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Sports Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

WWE Legends - Superstar Billy Graham: Tangled Ropes (WWE)

King of the Ring: The Harley Race Story

Bobby the Brain: Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All

Terry Funk: More Than Just Hardcore

In the Pit with Piper: Roddy Gets Rowdy

ASIN: 074346317X

Book Description

"Classy" Freddie Blassie was universally acknowledged as one of the most hated heels in wrestling history. Freddie really knew how to antagonize the fans -- how to "get heat." Death threats were frequent, enraged fans stabbed him twenty-one times, and he was even doused with acid. Undeterred, Blassie just took the action up a level. He reveled in being the heel. It was commonplace to see him biting his opponents and then spitting out their blood. Blassie would routinely "file" his teeth during interviews. His matches in Los Angeles' Olympic Stadium brought him to the attention of Hollywood. Freddie's style and unpredictability made him a natural for the medium, and he became one of the biggest draws in the wrestling business. In the early '60s, he was invited to wrestle in Japan. Blassie both horrified and mesmerized sedate Japanese society.

At seventeen, Freddie made his wrestling debut in a carnival. Unhappy with his choice of occupation, his family persuaded him to get a "real" job, and for a while he worked as a meatcutter. But after serving in the Navy in World War II, Freddie returned to wrestling. Here he picked up his catch phrase: "pencil neck geek."

Early in his career, Blassie wrestled for Jess McMahon, and would later work for both his son, Vincent James McMahon, and his grandson, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the current owner of World Wrestling Entertainment. ™ When his days in the ring ended, "Classy" Freddie Blassie became the manager of heels, transferring to a whole new generation of wrestlers the style, moves, and ring knowledge that had made him a legend of wrestling.

Released just prior to his death, Legends of Wrestling: "Classy" Freddie Blassie contains vibrant tales of his days in wrestling with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Killer Kowalski, and the Iron Sheik. He frankly chronicles his dealings with the wrestling fraternity and the promoters, even recounting the infamous "boxer vs. wrestler" match with Muhammad Ali, who was managed by Blassie.

His out-of-the-ring stories are equally compelling. Freddie details his countless sexual exploits, and his three marriages. He reflects on the cult status that he gained after his song "Pencil Neck Geek" rocketed to the top of the Dr. Demento Show play list. He recounts his touching relationship with comedian Andy Kaufman, who cast him in Breakfast with Blassie -- an underground classic in which Blassie uttered: "What the hell ever happened to the human race?"

Added to this edition is an epilogue, recounting Freddie's last days and his unforgettable funeral.

Customer Reviews:

"That's why all these broads love me!".......2007-08-17

All you really need to know about me is the names of my five idols: Stan Lee, Stan Laurel, Gomez Adams, Steve McGarrett and Freddie Blassie (hmmm, they are all to some degree fictional--that's something I'll have to bring up in therapy).

Anyway, this is a thoroughly enjoyable and quick read that recounts the well-known events of Freddie's life and spills some beans about him and other wrestling superstars, too. I suspect that it's very heavily ghost-written but what the heck...and if it's cliche to call someone an original, then what the heck again--if anyone deserves it, it's Freddie Blassie.

Pure Blassie.......2007-07-12

He did it all: wrestle for real, for "real"; act on the Dick Van Dyke Show and an Andy Kaufman movie; make popular recordings; advise Muhammad Ali. And not too loing ago he worked on this important book, which belongs in any Sports library, or bookstore department.
When he retired from competition, he became one of the most villanous Managers, whose candor was never appreciated: he would openly admit on Interviews, and in the presence of his proteges, that he remains in the game for the watches and rings. He'd then counter this admission, by showing his self-deprecating side, by pummeling himself with a folding chair. (Just as he filed down his own teeth in his prime of his career).
Blassie takes you back to a period in Wrestling when the stars were believable; when they drove themselves to matches.

Blassie was the King.......2007-05-25

I too grew up in Southern California. To kids my age, Freddie Blassie was as big a sports personality as Don Drysdale or Roman Gabriel. Only Sandy Koufax had more elevated status, and was spoken of in hushed reverential tones.

Even though Blassie usually played the heel, I always stood by him. When he was a "good guy," I was in heaven! His rants with John "The Golden Greek" Tolos were priceless, and have never been duplicated by modern wrestlers.

This book was wonderful! I literally couldn't put it down, and read it in one enjoyable sitting. It really was a "no warts" look at his life. I was surprised to read that people took his work so seriously that he was stabbed several times.

Rest in Peace Freddie Blassie. There'll never be another like you!

Interesting story of a sad character.......2007-03-26

I began watching professional wrestling when I was 8 or 9 years old - back in the days of the Bruiser and Crusher, Verne Gagne and Bruno Sammartino. I loved it then and still watch it now on occasion for fun. The difference being that when I was 9, I thought it was real, when I turned 13 or so, I figured it out and understood it to be "entertainment". Freddie Blassie reminds me a lot of a 9 year old boy who fell in love with the image of professional wrestling and never out grew it. In his book you learn of his rough life growing up. His alcoholic abusive father who left his mother and him when he was young, his dropping out of school after the eighth grade, growing up during the depression, his countless affairs and cheating on his wife (which he justifies), his absentee role as a father of three children (which he justifies), his multiple paranoias and insecurities etc. You learn of Freddie Blassie thru his own words and see the sad and shallow character he truly was and the empty life he lead and yet amazingly he presents it with a sense of pride believing that others envy him and his life. It's this paradox of how he sees his life and how others see it that is truly fascinating. Like getting two completely points of view on a car wreck. The book itself is well written and a good job by the author, I enjoyed reading it. The main charactor howeve is just sad and I can't help but feel sorry for him and how shallow his life must have been.

I'll hit you with my cane, you pencil neck geek! .......2006-11-12

After Mick Foley's first autobiography, Have a Nice Day, became a #1 bestseller, Vince McMahon and the WWE saw a golden opportunity to enter the book market. With biographies by recent stars such as Shawn Michaels, Kane, Kurt Angle, and the late Eddie Guerrero, the leader in sports entertainment has concentrated on this medium as much as it has on other forms of merchandising like T-shirts and DVD's. However, while many of the WWE books have garnered strong sales, it has been the autobiographies by the legends of wrestling that have been the most interesting reads. Ric Flair's To Be the Man is one example and "Classy" Freddie Blassie: Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks, is another. Being a wrestling fan since the early-1980's, my long lasting vision of Blassie was as a manager for such devious rulebreakers as The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, and the East-West Connection tag team of Adrian Adonis and Jesse "The Body" Ventura. I only knew of Blassie's reputation as a wrestler through magazines like Pro Wrestling Illustrated and these publications usually only discussed his legendary feud with John Tolos.

However, in reading this book, I learned of the major impact that Freddie Blassie had on professional wrestling. A master storyteller, Blassie discusses his life with the no nonsense approach that you saw on television. He takes you back to a time when the term kayfabe was held as sacred as religion. Wrestlers endured hectic schedules, bounced from one territory to another to survive, and dealt with promoters who were so unscrupulous that they made Vince McMahon Jr. look like a saint. Whether he's discussing his rough upbringing, his legendary career which saw him gain notoriety in both the U.S. and Japan, or his reputation as a ladies man that eventually ended his first marriage and caused a rift in his family until his death, Blassie pulls no punches and leaves nothing unscathed. And unlike most wrestling personalities of his day, he was a crossover star as evidenced in stories with Muhammad Ali, Andy Kaufman, and Regis Philbin. He also pays tribute to his second wife, Miyako, who taught him the meaning of true love and would be the apple of his eye until his passing. A very enjoyable book that never drags, "Classy" Freddie Blassie: Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks, is an excellent autobiography that I would recommend to all wrestling fans.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books