The Invisible Man

The "Invisible Man" in this story is a dejected academic. He had worked hard, but seemed to not get the credit he wanted, nor find the money he needed to complete his work. At the start of the story, he seeks isolation in a small town. He covers himself completely to hide his invisibility, and finds his privacy very important. His journals and equipment are his most important possessions. Once he is outed as being invisible, he goes on the run, where he confides in a tramp and eventually an old University colleague (from whom he hear the backstory.)

The invisible man has let his invisibility go to his head, and can only think of using it for personal gain. He plans a great streak of robberies and murders to help strengthen his position. He carries out a number of robberies and murders one man before he is finally caught by a town mob and inadvertently killed. (They only realize he is dead when they can't find his breathing and see him become visible.)

The book provides a cautionary tale of science and scientists. Innovations can lead to benefit or great destruction depending on how they are applied. People who feel oppressed in their life can launch out on to the mass oppression of others if their needs and desires do not show a positive trajectory.

While the book starts slow, it ends as a fast moving action story as everyone tries to capture this "evil villain" before he unleashes more murder and mayhem.

ttyl

The "gimmick" of ttyl is that it is written entirely in instant messaging conversations. This method works ridiculously well for conversation-driven works. Like works of drama, each character is clearly identified by name next to their dialog. However, it one-ups drama by also giving each character their own characteristic font, thus allowing you to know who is talking without even bothering glancing at the name. Another advantage is that IM is the method of communication, rather than a representation of it. Thus, all 'non-verbal' communication is succinctly embedded in the conversation (using emoticons, capitalization and brief '*' asides)
To be honest, this is more 'IM'-lite. The spelling and grammar are much more polished than typical IM conversations. The story flows well without too many jumps, and emoticon use is also lower than typical IM conversations. That helps it work reall well. Rather being a slave to authenticity, the work adopts IM to do the best job of telling the story. The author, does however, limit the story to IM conversations among the three characters (usually two and a time.) Other activities, in person chats and phone conversations are only told as through the instant messaging.

As for the story, well, it is ok. Three girls start their sophomore year in high school. Each of them have different bits of boy trouble. Sometimes they get a little vulgar, but its generally pretty good. Their characters seem fairly reasonable. The external characters, however, seem to suddenly transform from one person to another. Perhaps it could be excused as being filtered through the blinders of the three girls. However, I would still have liked to see the guys developed in a little more "normal" pattern, rather than being drastically changing chameleons.

Literature of C.S. Lewis

The Literature of C.S. Lewis provides some basic background on C.S. Lewis's life, and then launches directly in to an analysis of his works. The content and delivery are quite good. However, the pacing seems a bit off. He spends entire lectures covering a novel or two, then at the end rushes through his other works. The novel discussions also provide a heavy dose of synopsis. (You could just about skip reading the novels after listening to the details of the lecture.)

The lectures do acknowledge the importance of Lewis's religious conviction in all his works. However, they also make clear that Lewis never thought of himself as perfect, and loved smoking, drinking and eating. He also brings up a debate the Lewis lost (to another Christian) at Oxford that lead to him to focus more on fiction than overt apologetics.

The content was informative, but it could have been improved replacing some of the novel summaries with analysis of the novels and other works.

Amelia Bedelia Treasury

Amelia Bedelia interprets every request literally. This makes for jolly good fun at first, though it starts to get tiring after a few reads. This book consolidates three early Amelia Bedelia books. The first book stands on its own very well. The next two are obviously derivative. They employ the same literal-speaking misunderstandings, but seem to lack the originality and spunk of the first one. (The "misunderstandings" also become more of a stretch.)

I'm also a little curious about the illustrations. The pictures are copyrighted by Fritz Siebel, yet the illustration byline of the second two books goes to Barbara Siebel Thomas - after the drawings of Fritz Siebel. I'm not sure what this means. Perhaps he drew black some drawings and she colored them?

Golden Gate

Golden Gate is a short (200 page) history of the Golden Gate bridge. Much of the book is devoted to the "prehistory" of the bridge. (The bridge does not get constructed until well past the halfway point of the book.) The language is flowery in an attempt to mask the lack of content. Cut through the fluff and you could have a nice "long article". I was also disappointed with the coverage of the construction - one short chapter, and bang, the bridge is done. The historical narrative of the book also ends here, with the remainder consisting of isolated chapters on city, suicide and art related to the bridge.

The one interesting tidbit from the book concerned the bridge's color. There was some debate over the color to be used (among those advocated were stripes and grey) While this debate was going, the bridge was primed with "safety orange" to help preserve the work in progress. People liked the look more than they liked the "opponents" color scheme, and eventually it became the bridge's iconic color.

The sorry state of the ACC

Prior to the season, some were opining the ACC Coastal as the best in the country. Alas, that was before the season started.

So far the best the Coastal can claim is a 3-1 record vs lower division FCS schools. Against FBS schools?
Well:
0-1 vs WAC
0-1 vs Big-12
0-1 vs SEC
0-1 vs Big-10
0-1 vs ACC Atlantic
0-1 vs PAC-10

Only Virginia's loss to USC could be considered a "great mismatches" to the ACC teams. Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Miami all lost to teams within ten spots in the polls. You may be able to argue that Miami and VT faced higher ranked teams, while North Carolina had just seen a good junk of its team suspended.
However, even those excuses hold no water for the ugly loses this week. Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech were both top 15 teams that managed to lose games that were supposedly gimmes. VT lost to FCS James Madison, while GT lost to Big-12 doormat Kansas (who were coming off their loss to an FCS team.) At least Duke's loss to Wake Forest was a 'fair' match-up between two conference teams that finished last year with identical records.

Perhaps we can look at a moral victory - the teams have all played close in their loses - which is something that cannot be said for Atlantic Division's Florida State. (Utah State's performance in Norman last week looked positively brilliant compared to what Florida State did there.) However, that is the lone loss in the Atlantic. Alas, there are not many quality wins there, either. NC States win over UCF and Maryland's over Navy are the lone wins over FBS teams that finished last season with winning records. Boston College's slugfest with a mediocre Kent State does not exactly inspire confidence, nor does Clemson's disposal of North Texas, or Wake's narrow victory over Duke.

When the new rankings come out, look for Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech to totally fall out. They probably wont even show up in "others receiving votes?" - though James Madison might. Florida State should also be gone. (Oklahoma tumbled after beating Utah State. Now that they embarrassed Florida State look for them to be gone.) Miami might have a prayer in the lower reaches of the poll. Without any convincing wins, it is hard to see any of the Atlantic teams making it in the polls at all. It wouldn't be surprising to see the ACC shut out of the polls.

Now why does the conference get an automatic BCS bid? Must have something to do with the pull of the basketball teams.

Balkans: A Short History

Referring to the region of southeastern Europe as the "Balkans" is a relatively modern innovation. Prior to that, it had often been considered a component of the Ottoman Empire or "European Turkey". The region was primarily a backwater of the empire, mad up of peasants with a greater allegiance to their village than to any "nation". Religion was always important, but often flexible, with some people being "Muslims that prayed to the Virgin Mary." Freedom of religion in the Ottoman Empire was primarily a mechanism for exerting political control. The leaders did not encourage mass conversions, and thus the religions seemed to get along. (In the end, however, the head of Orthodoxy found his dominion gradually limited to net to nothing.) Intellectuals in the region often spoke Greek and thought of themselves as Greek.

The "nation states" were groupings of people that did not necessarily have strong ties to each other. Romania, for instance was a combination of two Ottoman provinces that primarily spoke Romanian (though had a large number of different elasticities and languages also.) The boundaries of Macedonia and Bulgaria were also artificial and tended to differ. It almost seems as if you would try to create new nation-states out of the United States.

For the people, the new states did not provide much benefit. They simply brought in a new group of leaders. For minorities, the condition could be much worse. Population exchanges were also used to help "balance" the residents of the new states. ("Nationality", however, was also flexible, and often times could simply require changing a name to meet the new "language") However, even when encouraging a homogeneous population, the new governments needed many of their minorities to keep the economy going.

The independence of the Balkan states was really only made possible by the intervention of other European powers. This also meant that they remained pawns in the European games. World War II lead to further partitioning as most Balkan states fell under the influence of communist Russia.

The author argues that the current warfare in the Balkans is not caused by deep-seeded tensions among the people, but by the desires of despots to invoke cruelty for their needs. These needs were often influenced by the external powers.

The book provides a good brief introduction to the Balkans and some of the background for the recent problems there. The facts presented bring out the point that the author is arguing. However, they tell only a small fraction of the story. Are they they most important part of the story?

The Time Machine

A time traveler voyages in to the future and finds a society of "playboy" humans. They seem to spend all day eating fruit and engaging in leisure activities. They also don't seem to do any work and the men and women seem to look a lot alike. Only later does he discover that humanity has apparently diverged into two different species, the decedents of the leisure class that he first met and the underground progeny of the working class.

In the end, he escapes and makes a side trip to see the end of the earth before returning back to tell his story. Later, he makes additional trips, never to be seen again.

The danger of the further separation of the working and leisure classes is obviously one of the principle goals here. Also, he regularly brings up the necessity of conflict and challenges to serve up advancement in society. Attempts to eliminate all pain and difficulty in society will also lead to the elimination of positive innovation. Instead, pent up desires will become a liability as society gradually denigrates. Wells does a good job of using science fiction to criticize problems in his current society.

Mighty Machines

The Great Big Book of Mighty Machines by Ian Graham and Jean Coppendale

This book collects a half-dozen "vehicle" books under one cover. Each section groups together a set of vehicles (like cars), and provides a big picture and description of it on a page. The vehicles range from BMX bikes to mining dump trucks and all sorts of things in between. It is actually fairly readable, with a bit of progression through each section. However, it never tries to tell a narrative. The real purpose is pictures of all sorts of big machines. There are obvious "detail" sections for each vehicle that can double the length of the book - though it can easily be read without them.

Five year old boys love it.

Cheaper By the Dozen

This light read details the life of a family of 12 kids who lived in New Jersey around the time of World War I. The central character is the somewhat eccentric father, Frank Gilbreth, Sr. He was a proponent of using motion study to reduce wasted motion and increased efficiency. He would try out these methods of increased efficiency on his own family, resulting in unpredictable humorous outcomes.

The book spends a little time covering Frank Senior's early life and how he met his wife and had their first kids. However, most of the book details the misadventures of the father and the 12 young children. (Though some of these adventures clearly happened outside the time of 12 children, since he died when the youngest was still a toddler. However, knowing large families, things could have been so crazy during those years that they could fill a book.)

Aside from the family relationships, it is also an interesting account of changing culture and values in the World War I era and the "roaring twenties". Frank Sr. comes across as both very eccentric and very conservative. The book, even ending with his death, manages to stay light and cheery throughout.

The Super Soybean

The author credits the Illinois Farm Bureau with providing assistance in the book. The strong pro-agricultural stand is obvious. Genetic modified soybeans are shown as positive, while organic soybeans are subtlety shown to require cruel labor conditions. These slick ways around controversial issues detract from what is otherwise a good book on soybean agriculture and uses.

Wringer

A young boy lives in a bucolic rough neighborhood. The town's big event includes a pigeon shoot, where sharppshooters shoot down thousands of live pigeons (with the remains being used for fertilizer). Ten year old boys serve as "wringers", gathering up the felled pigeons and wringing the necks of the living ones. As a birthday "right of passage", boys receive "the treatment" from an older boy - one hard punch in the shoulder for each year of age.

One day, a pigeon flies in to the boy's room. He eventually adopts the pigeon as a pet. After doing this, he gradually becomes alienated from the gang of tough's that he hangs out with - and closer to the girl across the street. In the dramatic conclusion, he saves his pigeon from being shot in the big pigeon shoot.

Similar to other Spinelli books, this one presents a kid who struggles with the desire to fit in, while also wanting to be himself.

Clockwork Orange

The narrator is a 15 year old who gets his kicks committing all kind of murder and mayhem with his friends. He also enjoys classical music. One woman they attack dies - but not until after calling the cops. He gets locked up in jail, where he generally acts the good guy - until he is provoked. One of these provocations results in him killing a new prisoner. This leads him to receive a treatment that will end his will to do violence. However, most of this treatment involves watching violent scenes accompanied by classical music. This, alas, results in classical music giving him the same ill feeling as violence.

After being set free, he returns home, only to find his room rented to a border, and all his stuff sold for restitution. He visits his old stomping grounds, only to get beat up by a bunch of old men he bullied earlier. The cops (who include one of his former buddies) take him away and beat him more. He eventually finds refuge with an author, who wants to use him as part of an anti-government propaganda. (He later learns that the author's wife had died to a beating from he and his friends.) He eventually tries to commit suicide, but survives, and finds the existing government trying to use him as a tool. Eventually, he ends the book as a mellower, older "man".

In the forward, the author complains that it is one of his inferior works, and that he doesn't like the movie which excluded the final chapter (which was excluded in the original American version of the book.) The book makes heavy use of a made-up slang (Nadsat). This adds to the flavor of the book and helps to tone down the violence. You can tell that he lives a life of all sorts of nastiness. However, you (as a reader) don't feel sucked in to it as you would with vivid modern language descriptions.

The message that is trying to be made is somewhat muddled. It seems to say that freewill is all important. Trying to reform society by restricting freewill is only replacing one evil with a worse one. However, the people that advocate this have their flaws - and attempt to restrict his freewill as a means to help bring about the downfall of the government. This muddling is seen in the modern society of today. People will often advocate "freedom of expression" for some issues, but on others attempt to regulate away others' freedom (because they think they know best.)

College Football Conference Rankings

Conference Rankings using "similar team" methodology:
1. Big 10
2. WAC
3. Mountain West
4. Pac 10
5. ACC
6. Big East
7. SEC
8. big 12
9. Conference USA
9. MAC
11. Sun Belt


Rankings are computed by comparing the results of teams against "similar teams" from other conferences. Games against independent FBS are not included, while only loses to FCS teams are included. A good win is a victory over a team with an equal or better record in conference play. A bad loss is a loss to a team with an equal or worse record in conference play. Loses to FCS teams also count as bad loses. (Of course, comparing this seasons records would be better, but we don't know them yet.)

This helps to exclude "body bag" games where a conference champion blows out the cellar-dweller from another conference. A game such as Alabama's victory over San Jose State really tells us nothing about the quality of the two conferences. After all, the WAC teams had no trouble disposing of San Jose State, while Alabama had no trouble disposing with the rest of the SEC.

The games that are included are ones such as Michigan State's victory over Middle Tennessee. Michigan State finished in the middle of the Big-10, while MTSU was at the top of the Sun Belt. This is a better indicator of the overall strength of one conference versus others.

The MAC, Sun Belt and Conference-USA are clearly the "lower conferences". None have quality wins over non-conference foes, while many have ugly loses to teams from other conferences with worse records.

The Big East is slightly above these, with Syracuse's victory over a similar Akron team from the MAC.

The ACC does not have any directly comparable games - mainly due to a schedule full of FCS games. However, they did lose the two games to teams within a game of their teams. Similarly, the Pac-10 didn't win or lose any games against similarly ranked teams. The closest was the loss to by UCLA to Kansas State.

The Big 12 and SEC have some wins over the "lower 3" conferences. However, they both have ugly loses to FCS teams.

The only unblemished conferences are the Big-10, WAC and Mountain West. All three have quality victories over Big East teams. The Big-10 also has sunbelt and MAC victories.







Big-12
Bad Loss: FCS: Kansas lost to FCS North Dakota State
Good Wins: CUSA: Texas Tech (5-3 in conference last year) over SMU (6-2 in conference)
MAC: Iowa State (3-5) over Northern Illinois (5-3)

SEC
Bad Loss: FCS: Mississippi lost to FCS Jacksonville State
Best wins: Sun Belt: Georgia over Louisiana Lafayette (both had 4-4 conference records)
Sun Belt: Auburn over Arkansas State (both had 3-5 conference records)
CUSA: South Carolina (3-5) over Southern Miss (5-3)

Big East:
Bad Losses: WAC: Cincinnati (7-0) to Fresno (6-2)
MWC: Pittsburgh (5-2) to Utah (6-2)
B10: Michigan over Connectiut

Best Wins: MAC: Syracuse (1-6) over Akron (2-6)

Big 10:
Best Wins:
Sun Belt: Minnesota (3-5) over Middle Tennessee (7-1)
MAC: Michigan State (4-4) over Western Michigan (4-4)
Big East: Michigan (3-5) over Connecticut (3-4)
No bad loses

Pac 10:
No unexpected or comparable wins or losses (Kansas St over UCLA is closest)

ACC:
No unexpected or comparable wins or losses (LSU over North Carolina and Boise over Virginia Tech are the closest)

Mountain West
Wins: Big East: Utah (6-2) over Pittsburgh (5-2)
loses: none

WAC:
wins: Big East: Fresno State (6-2) over Cincinnati (7-0)
loses: none

Sun Belt:
Bad Loses: B10: Middle Tennessee (7-1) to Minnesota (3-5)
SEC: Louisiana Lafayette (4-4) to Georgia (4-4)
SEC: Arkansas State (3-5) to Auburn (3-5)
Good Wins : none

Conference USA:
Bad Loses: SEC: Southern Miss (5-3) to South Carolina (3-5)
B12: SMU (6-2) to Texas Tech (5-3)

Mid American
Bad Loses: B12: Northern Illinois (5-3) to Iowa State (3-5)
BE: Akron (2-6) to Syracuse (1-6)

The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp

Alfred is a 15 year old who is average in everything except size is orphaned after his mother died from cancer. He never knew his father and ends up living with his uncle, who is a security guard at a large office building. They become involved in a scheme to claim the legendary sword Excalibur. In the process, he sees his uncle murdered by a guy keen on destroying the world and ends up in a foster home. He later travels with one of the last decedents of the knights of the round table, and discovers that his father was the rich owner of the building where his uncle had worked and that he is the last heir to Lancelot. He eventually dies, but lives again, saves the world, and rescues the girl.

The story seems to be something made for a summer popcorn movie. They always end up driving fancy cars, and people (other than the hero) are getting killed all around. There are daring getaways in airplanes and helicopters, fight scenes at historical location and plenty of attempts to pull at emotional strings.

It also suffers from the faults of the popcorn flicks - the characters are shallow, some plot twists move too fast to really make sense, and it seems to get preachy without really having anything to say. Alfred seems to make every wrong decision, until the plot requires him to make a right decision. He somehow seems to be loaded with money, despite being a fifteen year old orphan dragged across the world without a procession. Believability is not a strong point here. If some of the complexity were trimmed it could be a good "brain-dead" novel. Unfortunately, it tries too hard, and doesn't do very well at what it tries.

Boise State over Virginia Tech and WAC power

Boise State knocked off ACC frontrunner Virginia Tech.
Fresno State knocked off defending Big East champion Cincinnati.
And the WAC is supposed to be a weak conference?

A bunch of WAC teams also beat FCS teams.

The loses? The middle of the conference lost close games to top-15 teams, while a predicted last place finisher was blown out on the road to a number 1 team. Suppose these were reverse and instead of San Jose State playing at Alabama, we had Boise State playing a Mississippi school or Vandy on the blue turf. Or have Kansas visit Fresno. Or even Stanford at Hawaii.

In fair fights, the WAC has shown it can compete. Perhaps Boise's president is right that we just need more "home and homes" to compete on a fair playing field.

Sahara

The book starts with getting to the Sahara. He stops in Gibraltar (where no Spanish newspapers can be found), takes a ferry to Tanger, travels over to Fes (where parts maintain their mideival customs), and then continues on down through Africa.
Maps can also be seen on Palin's web site.

The narrative is fairly engaging, with about an even balance between descriptions of the people and the surroundings. During parts of the book, they are traveling through remote areas of the desert, while at other times they end up in Mediterranean tourist resorts. Much of the countries covered are Muslim countries of the former "French Africa". However, there are bits of true "nomads" and others.

It seemed like an interesting topic. However, I had trouble getting engaged.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

This short novella provides the story of a newborn vampire who appears briefly in the twilight books. Alas, she comes across almost the same as the human protagonist of Twilight, Bella. It feels like a short excursion on "what if Bella had fallen in with bad vampires instead of good ones." It doesn't add much to the stories in the books (the key relevant details are already known.)

On its own, it is a so-so sorry. A vampire girl lives with a bunch of childish vampire-lings. She casually associates with a loner among them because everyone stays away from him. She tries to be good, and ends up starting a relationship with a "good-guy" young vampire (Diego). He disappears shortly thereafter, (rumored to be on reconnaissance). She becomes slightly more friendly with the loner who planned to leave the group during the time of the big fight. She wants to leave too, but also wants to find Diego too. However, near the fight she finds Diego is already dead, but it is too late. She is caught and then killed by the vampire police.

Pretty ho-hum for a plot. There is plenty of violence, but all very tame (comic-book lite). It looks like it is supposed to be character driven. Alas, the characters seem flat and boring, with artificial relationships.

Oh well, I'm sure it made a lot of money for the author.

Err, What happened out west?

Opening weekend, and the Pac-10 wasn't all that impressive. The mountain west showed they were good at top, and perhaps made a good "rushed invite".

Cal and Stanford engaged in a bit of Bay Area vs. Sacramento football. Alas, the Sacramento reps are all I-AA, and the Bay Area dominated. Not much to say here. But, at least they are keeping their cupcakes local. Can't say the same about ASU with their win over Portland State.

Then we move on to the 'mid-major' cupcakes. Arizona had the guts to open AT Toledo. They also managed to show why the MAC doesn't get much respect. Oregon's blowout of New Mexico shows that the Mountain West has depth problems (and the New Mexico had made a horrible coaching hire.) However, before the PAC-10 can gloat, imagine what a TCU vs. Washington State game would have been like.
USC vs. Hawaii could almost be ranked as a disappointment. Sure USC won, but they
played no defense. A Hawaii team that was not supposed to have a chance was actually in it for most of the game.

Against the top of the mountain west, Oregon State lost a close one to TCU and Washington lost a close one to BYU. Neither was totally unexpected, but the Pac-10 did lose a chance to make a statement in the two biggest games. Both were essentially home games for the Mountain West teams. (Sure, Oregon State's Jerry-dome game was technically neutral, but it was only about 2000 miles closer to Ft. Worth than Corvallis.) All 4 teams expect to go bowling this year and could reasonably earn their conference championships (though only TCU is favored.) However, it was the MWV that did the impressing.
so
Against the Big-12, the Pac-10 also laid a goose egg (not so good for a conference they nearly destroyed.) Nobody really expected Washington State to do much against Oklahoma State. But Kansas State over UCLA? I guess UCLA was on the road. Maybe hald the team showed up at the wrong Manhattan...

Overall:
3-0 vs I-AA
0-2 vs Big-12
1-2 vs Mountain West
1-0 vs WAC
1-0 vs MAC

As for the Mountain West, Colorado State lost the Colorado rivalry game and UNLV lost to Wisconsin (though they were in the game until the third quarter.) New Mexico embarrassed itself at Oregon. The top 3 teams made great showings against BCS-AQ leagues, and all the rest beat up on I-AA schools.
Overall:
2-1 vs Pac-10
1-0 vs Big East
0-1 vs Big-12
0-1 vs Big-10
3-0 vs I-AA

The WAC probably had the best opening of the western conferences. Utah State nearly pulled off the huge upset over Oklahoma. This was not supposed to be close. Hawaii was also closer than expected in the USC game. Fresno did manage to take care of business vs. Cincinnati for the best win of the opening. San Jose State managed to get its paycheck in its body bag loss, and everyone else beat up on I-AA. We still have to wait for Monday for the big game with Boise State.
1-0 vs Big East
0-1 vs Pac-10
0-1 vs Big-12
0-1 vs SEC
3-0 vs I-AA
??? vs AC

There's a Girl in My Hammerlock

A boy smiles at a Junior High girl (Maisie Potter). She gets a crush on him. She was awarded athlete of the year last year, but this year tries out for cheerleading to be close to him. When she doesn't make it, she inexplicably finds herself trying out for the wrestling team (as the lone girl). She overcomes all odds to make the varsity team. However, the community is not proud of having a girl wrestler, and many opponents refuse to compete. She has to endure numerous taunts and criticisms by her classmates, though eventually she achieves respect and goes out with the "boy" (who she decides she doesn't like anyway).

The novel is written as a giant "letter to the editor" in an attempt to set the record straight with the community regarding her wrestling experience.

In the story she suffers through the abandonment of old friends and the slow adoption of new friends. For a time, her only friend is her pet rat. (Spinelli love's pet rats.) Her parents are supportive of her moves, even if they don't agree with them. Her youngest sibling and friend are also supportive and two of her biggest fans. Eventually, she is injured while saving one of the kids and ends up living happily ever, contented and respected by her schoolmates.

Throughout, it is a light, fun read. The boy asking her out on a date seems a little baffling - but who really understands the workings of a teenage mind. The story is in the similar "be true to yourself" vein of other Spinelli books, though here it is more like "stick with what you started, even if you had stupid reasons for starting it."

TCU vs. Boise State in BCS championship?

In 2008, Boise State played TCU in the Poinsettia bowl
In 2009, they had a rematch in the Fiesta Bowl
With the game moving later and later, the BCS championship game could be in line this year.
Never before has one non-AQ team made it to the game - could we have two?
We should know a little more by the end of this weekend.
Both play Oregon State early in the season. Oregon State tends to lose its early games, then finish strong. If Oregon State goes undefeated in all but these two games, that will help the ratings, and eliminate the Pac-10 from consideration.
Pitt is a favorite in the Big East. They have already managed to lose to Utah. The Big East is not much of a threat for the championship game, but if Pitt runs the table for the remainder of the season and Utah finishes with a lone loss to TCU, it could only help things.
Also in the Big East, Cincy is playing Fresno. A Bulldog victory could help the WAC, especially if the Bearcats do well the remainder of the season.
For the ACC, Virginia Tech is the favorite. If Boise State takes care of business and Tech wins everything else, it will keep the power position.
Just three more conferences to go - and those happen to include every currently eligible team that has played in the past few championship games.
For the Big 12, ideally Oklahoma would win the championship - after losing to Utah State and Air Force. Ok. That's probably not too likely. However, with a 4 game stretch against Florida State, Air Force and at Cincinnati before the showdown with Texas, there is ample time to flop. They could easily overlook Air Force or Cincy. Lets have them fall to the Falcons before beating the longhorns. The longhorns will then take their vengeance out on Nebraska who will in turn clobber Oklahoma in the Big-12 championship game. (Though the cornhuskers would already had two loses - with another non-conference loss to Washington in Seattle) Every Big-12 team would have at least two loses - including some to MWC teams, thus keeping them down in the standings.
The Big-10 could be a little more of a challenge getting to two loses. However, it would also be tougher justifying a one-loss team over an undefeated TCU or Boise. Wisconsin opens with a late game at UNLV. They could easily fall asleep here as the Rebels 'ASU' them. This would wipe out any chance of the championship game, while helping the MWC. If they in turn take vengeance on Ohio State and Iowa, that leaves only Penn State as a possible interloper. However, with road games at OSU, Alabama and Iowa, Penn State is likely to fall at least twice. This would pretty much eliminate the Big-10.
Now on the SEC. This conference has won the last few championships - including one by a two-loss LSU. How do you exclude them? Florida could be the first one out of the picture. They did not look too hot against Miami of Ohio. Next week, South Florida comes to town. The Bulls have a habit of starting strong, only to flop down the stretch. They could pull off a victory here. With consecutive games against Alabama and LSU, the gators will probably have at least one more loss.
For LSU, there is always the possibility that North Carolina looks past the distractions and somehow manages to win. However, more likely come in a conference game. LSU is ranked low enough now that one loss should be enough to keep them out of the top spot. Similar story for Arkansas, who may stumble to a fired up Texas A&M.

Alabama is ranked first and would need a couple good loses to keep them out of the top spot. The road game against Arkansas (right before the Florida game) could be a great chance to slip up. Add in a hungry Auburn in the rivalry game and they could be out of the championship picture.

With these games, it could be possible for a Boise vs. TCU championship game - especially if some MWC and WAC teams make a good showing in some of their other non-conference game. With this being the last year they are in separate conferences, this is the last year they an really continue the rivalry in the post season. The matchup requires a lot of things to happen "just right", but doesn't require any massive upsets (though some could really help.) By Tuesday we should have a more clear picture of the possibilities.

Maniac Magee

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

"Maniac" Magee was orphaned at a young age, and forced to live with relatives in a dysfunctional marriage. He eventually runs away. He has near super-human athletic and knot-untangling abilities. He also has the naivety and willingness to do just about anything that suits him. He is perfectly comfortable hanging out with bison and eating their vegetables as he is joining random families for dinner.

He finds himself in a town with a heavy black/white segregation. However, he is oblivious to it. He borrows a book from a black girl, and becomes "adopted" by their family as he returns it. He gets along great with the younger siblings, and does a great job doing chores there. However, some old-timers are not comfortable with a white guy in their part of town. So, he goes back to the zoo, and eventually helps an old former-minor leaguer learn how to read. After he dies, he ends up staying with a "white-trash" family, cajoling the kids to go to school. This family thinks the blacks are out to get them. However, he manages to get the black and white families to finally come to peace with each other - in part by setting up the situation where a former black "bully" could save a white boy from a dangerous situation.

In the end, the town is more at peace with each other, though not necessarily "happily ever after". The theme of race relations is fairly blatant, though more subtle is the general theme that it is easy to "hate" somebody you don't know (and much harder to hate them once you know them well.) This was fairly well written, and manages to be fairly serious, while still being somewhat light-hearted, though not quite as light as Spinelli's other books.

Milkweed

The narrator is a street urchin growing up in Warsaw during the build-up to World War II. He doesn't remember much of his past history, though he does "discover" that he was a gypsy who was separated from his parents (and horse) during some "bombing practice". He doesn't know much about "society", but he is great at stealing things from people. He even steals the birthday cake from the person who will be his best friend.

He has a general naivety. When Jews are rounded up and forced in to the ghetto, he wants to go too, and sneaks in to visit them. Eventually he gets sent there too. However, he finds a way to sneak out and uses his pilfering skills to help feed his "adopted family".

The story is fairly dark in tone. However, considering the subject matter, it is incredibly optimistic. Here is somebody living through the prelude to the Holocaust who is still willing to laugh at how silly Himmler looks. There are bits and pieces of Nazi atrocities. However, the focus is more on his personal life. He lived a life "outside" the law. Once the world disintegrated, he found his life style to be more respected (and even needed) by those around him.

Big East as WCC template

The Big East has 8 mostly small religious schools that play basketball, combined with 8 larger, mostly public schools that play basketball and football. The West Coast Conference has 8 small religious basketball schools, and just added 1 large football-playing school. Could it be going down a western model of the Big East?

With the battles going on in the conferences west of the Mississippi, there could easily be some "remains" to gather to form a conference. Cast-offs from the Big-12, WAC and MWC could band together within the existing banner of the WCC. Or big schools like Texas may do the casting off.

Far fetched? Yes. But there is the template.

Where does the Mountain West go?

The quick invites to Nevada and Fresno are looking a little on the stupid side now, but at least Utah State didn't accept an invite. The Mountain West tried using the best sticks in their arsenal to hang on to BYU. Alas, this only seemed to make BYU more eager to dart. Perhaps if the MWC were more willing to address BYU's concerns, they might still have them in an eight team conference.

As it is, Mountain West is a 10 team conference that still has aspirations of a BCS autobid. A ten team league with Boise, TCU, BYU, Utah and Air Force on top would probably been able to secure the bid. Surprisingly, the defections of Utah and BYU have only minimal impact on the "objective" criteria. Thanks to the strong showings of Boise and TCU the past two seasons, the MWC still meets two of the three BCS inclusion criteria.
For the first, the highest ranked team in the conference needs to finish in the top 6 of conferences. TCU's 4th place ranking last season obviously fit the bill. For 2008, Boise's 9th or TCU's 11th are both good for 5th best conference.(Utah's 6th would have been 4th.)

For the third criteria, the teams ranked in the top 25 are put through a convoluted formula to obtain a number. A conference needs to score at 50% of the score of the highest ranked team to meet this criteria. For 2009, the "one-day" mountain west (with Boise before defections) was the top team. Even without BYU and Utah, the high rankings of TCU and Boise the last two seasons keep them in good condition. The invitations of Fresno and Nevada actually hurt in this criteria, as the score is weighted by conference size. However, even the new Mountain West should easily meet it.

The second criteria is the big problem. It takes the final regular season computer ranking of all teams in the conference. To automatically get the bid, a conference needs to finish in the top 6. Using the Sagarin conference ratings as a proxy, the MWC is a pretty solid 7th best conference. Number 6 is Big 10, which, alas has upgraded with Nebraska. Behind MWC are Conference USA and WAC. The WAC is pretty much out of the picture with the MWC grabbing their 3 best teams. Those three teams help the MWC to maintain their led over C-USA, however, they actually bring them further away from the Big-10.

A conference is able to seek an "exemption" if they are in the top 5 in criteria one or two and the top 7 in the other and have a score on number 3 that is at least 33% of the top team. The "new look" MWC easily meets all those criteria. However, this leaves things in the political realm. The MWC containing the state of Utah had a strong case for deserving the exemption. They also had a US Senator pushing strongly for opening the BCS. The new MWC? The on-field product is not quite as good and the political pressure not nearly as strong. The audience is also an issue. The top teams draw an average of less than 40,000 fans per game. TCU, Air Force, Fresno and Boise all draw in the 30,000s. New Mexico, San Diego State, Colorado State and UNLV are in the 20,000s while Wyoming and Nevada are in the 10000s. (BYU has far and away the leader at 64k, with Utah 2nd at 45k) Every other BCS AQ conference has multiple teams ranked higher than the highest ranked MWC team (TCU).

Market sizes also don't look so hot. MWC has a strong hold on the Fresno and Boise markets. There is also a lock on the states of Nebraska and Wyoming, as well as a strong showing in New Mexico. Unfortunately all of these are rather small markets, many with significant newcomer population (not many people in Nevada have a connection to the schools.) For major markets, MWC has toeholds. TCU is in Dallas, though it is second fiddle to the Texas, Tech, and A&M (as well as in competition with SMU). Colorado State and Air Force are both somewhat close to Denver, though they are second to Colorado in a fairly week college football market. San Diego State is a "lesser" school in San Diego. There are probably more people their routing for the LA schools.

Numerically, the MWC is in the same condition for BCS auto-qualification as it was before BYU and Utah left. It is still a possibility. However, obtaining an exemption has become much more difficult. The best scenario now would be for the bottom of the conference to rise to the occasion and be worthy of a BCS conference.