The Largesse Recommends Strange But True Sports Stories

Look.  I’m not going to pretend that I watch tennis or anything, but of course I ended up streaming the ridiculousness of today’s portion of the Isner-Mahut match online.  And of course now I’m reading about how there are no words and that we’ve never seen anything like this before and never will again…

No shit.  It’s completely unbelievable.  It’s awesome in the most literal sense.  It’s the kind of thing I used to read about in the single most important book from my childhood: The Giant Book of Strange But True Sports Stories.

The Self-Loathing Largesse Denounces The Twilight Series

Anything that becomes an overnight phenomenon (Harry Potter, Hannah Montana, Michael Jackson’s memorial proceedings) is easily deplorable, so it’s not even remotely controversial to hate on these books.  Basically, if you like them, you’re an asshole. You don’t even have to read Twilight to hate it.  I mean, the premise is clichéd and weak: an ordinary girl seems extraordinary to vampire, ordinary girl falls in love with vampire, vampire boosts ordinary girl’s self-image by yearning for her “blood,” sexual tension ensues.  I think Days of Our Lives covered this shit in 1990.  So did Melrose Place.  And Harry Potter porn.

The Original Largesse Recommends Tim Ferriss

Ok that’s enough from you, lock it up because you are only proving the point I am about to make.  Great minds do not think alike: great minds think for themselves.  Recently, I have enjoyed exploring a man who compliments his great mind with a collection of kinesthetic skills that would make most decathletes shutter with fear.  This man is Tim Ferriss, and he is certain that he can learn ANYTHING faster than you can (we have this in common) and do so without any exceptional gifts (we do not have this in common).  If you have not heard of the guy yet, he is a #1 NYtimes best-selling author, a Chinese kickboxing champion, an MTV breakdancer, an international Tango champ, and a polyglot of the grandest order.  And no he’s not the guy from the Dos Equis commercials, although he could probably do that too if he wanted.  Oh yeah, he’s only 31.  Makes one ask “What the hell have I done recently,” does it not?

The Largesse Goes on a Jazz Odyssey

We’re going to go a bit free-form this weekend.

Let’s all congratulate Plax for a couple of things.  First, his Penguins (somewhat improbably) won the Stanley Cup last night, bringing success to the single most underrated city in the country.  Plax and I once drove to Pittsburgh to see a midget named Man Boy run down a bar and pour shots in people’s mouths.  (True story.)  We went to a Pirates game so we wouldn’t have to tell people we went all that way just to see a midget, but then two things happened: Man Boy was worth the drive and so was the whole city of Pittsburgh.  Cool town.

The Financially Astute Largesse Recommends: The World is Curved

Maybe it is because David Smick’s book is more recent, or maybe it is because he’s dedicated his life to the study of Economics while guys like Thomas Friedman seem to just dabble in whatever tickles their intellectual fancy, but regardless, the arguments Smick presents beat Friedman’s down with the fury of a loin-clothed King Leonidas.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)  Of course, despite his successes, people will not buy Smick’s book because it is not on any bestseller list.  And yes, the logic of the American consumer is awesome.

The Largesse Presents: The Book Club for People Who Hate Book Clubs (appearing each Wednesday for a while)

Nicholas Nickleby

Second Installment, Chapters 5-7:  The End of The Beginning of Things

Alright, so the second installment can really be seen as representing the quintessential Dickens:  some good, some bad, lots of funny, and even more precise and revelatory detail.  We move from the sentimental to the slapstick to plain and simple filler to the beginnings of what promises to be cutting social commentary and satire.  That he can do all of this and pull it off with style saves Dickens from the real problems that exist with the two inserted stories in Chapter 6 – “The Five Sisters Of York” and “The Baron of Grogzwig” – and lets us continue on reading with only the slightest of misgivings.

The Largesse Presents: The Book Club for People Who Hate Book Clubs (appearing each Wednesday for a while)

Nicholas Nickleby

First Installment, Chapters 1-4: The Beginnings of Things

So, it’s a bit confusing.  Get over it.  We’re not going to be focusing on the plot right now, anyway.  The key to Dickens is the characters.  People will tell you that he only wrote caricatures, but you can safely ignore those people; they’re assholes who heard some other asshole say that in a class back in college.  Now’s your chance to think for yourself, remember?  So just read already.

The Largesse Presents: The Book Club for People Who Hate Book Clubs (appearing each Wednesday for a while)

So, here’s the thing.  Charles Dickens is not the writer you all hated in high school.  I’m not really sure how this happens, but, of course, it has happened nonetheless.  You probably read Great Expectations or maybe A Tale Of Two Cities, and somehow the vast majority of you came away from the experience thinking that Dickens is boring.  You ignored the hilarity of Wopsle’s attempt at performing Shakespeare or Trabb’s boy stomping down the street and mocking the pretensions of Pip, and you somehow missed the basic human drama of the French Revolution.  The important thing is that you move on from your mistakes and accept that there is a whole new world out there (and in there).