Taggart’s and a Secret

ByJohn Brown

taggartsgrillMost of the time when you go to hole-in-the-wall restaurant, it’s a hole-in-the-wall.

But sometimes you strike gold.

And my youngest daughter and I struck big-time gold last week two miles east of Morgan, Utah, in the canyon between Morgan and Henefer off of exit 108. I’ve driven that stretch many times and never knew anything was off that exit. Literally, if you blink, you’ll think nothing is there.

But if you do, you will miss out on Taggart’s Grill.

It’s nestled in some trees up against the northern slope. The first thing that strikes you when you get out of the car is the delicious aroma. Then you notice the peacocks running about. And then you enter the diner and see a display case of tantalizing, large desserts such as cheesecake, carrot cake, and huge pink-frosted cookies.

The diner itself has a wonderful airy feeling with a high ceiling and lots of windows that offer views of the grove and garden surrounding the diner. There are seats outside in an area with a small waterfall. But we sat inside with the walls of log-cabin wood and the stained glass panels hanging in the windows.

They serve a variety of dishes from sandwiches and soups to pizza, burgers, and fancy plates of salmon or tenderloin. And while the views and setting is awesome, the food is where they really shine.

The beef stew was thick and amazing. The battered fries perfect. The sandwiches were wrapped in thick and soft flat bread that was delicious. And speaking of bread, they asked if I wanted a roll with the stew. I said yes. They didn’t bring out a roll–they brought out a small loaf of what appeared to be freshly baked bread. We of course had to try one of the desserts and opted for the
carrot cake. It was lovely with a hint of almond in the cream cheese frosting.

The portions were huge and so we took enough home for another meal for three.

We’re going back.

I want to try one of their burgers, the halibut, and the BLT.

If you like great food at a great price and are anywhere near Morgan, don’t blink at exit 108. Just pull off and enjoy an awesome meal.

*

Parents of Rich Middle School students, what if I told you that researchers have uncovered a secret activity that teens enjoy that has the side benefit of actually raising their grades in all of their classes.

But that’s not all. This one secret thing will help them get better jobs years in the future.

It will help them make more money.

And they won’t even know that it’s doing this for them. They won’t care. Because they won’t be doing it for the grades or money. They’ll be doing it for the enjoyment it brings. They’ll be doing it just because they like to do it.

One little surprising thing.

And it’s backed up by lots and lots of research.

Do you want to know what this activity is?

Do you want to open up opportunities for your child?

If you do, come to the meeting Mrs. Brown is having at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 12 at the Rich Middle School.

We will reveal all there.

Share

Similar Posts

  • “Somewhere My Love” by Stephen Mark Rainey

    ByJohn Brown

    The latest issue of Intergalactic Medicine Show just hit the net. Of course, I don’t have time to read. But how can I help myself when Mark Rainey’s “Somewhere My Love”  starts with this line: “She lived in our town’s one and only haunted house.”

    What a hook!

    And soon I found myself reading a wonderful story about a boy and a teacher, who happens to be a witch.

    But the kind of witch Rainey writes about is not some gal with warts and a black hat. Nor is she some kind of Alice Hoffman Practical Magic type.

    She’s a Rainey witch.

    And this tale is about a boy caught in her class in school. I loved it. It evoked perfectly how some teachers affect us boys. I haven’t read any of the other stories in this issue yet. But I can still say the measley $2.50 subscription for issue 12 is worth it if only so you can read this one story. Besides, even if you don’t have time to read it, scroll down on the TOC and you’ll see you don’t have to–you can listen to Scott Card read the thing to you.

    Share

  • Good Stuff! Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

    ByJohn Brown

    hillenbrand-unbroken-4

    Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is the finest book I’ve read in some time.

    It’s tells an engrossing and true World War 2 story about Louis Zamperini, who started out in life as a steal-and-run trouble-maker. He was a kid who’d try the patience of Job. His mother tried to reform him to no avail. His father administered spankings, but physical punishment seemed to have no effect. Louis was constantly in trouble with neighbors, school mates, cops, teachers, store owners.

    Louis’s older brother thought Louis would succeed if he were to just receive some positive attention. He thought track, a very popular sport at the time, was just the ticket. Louis loved his brother. In 9th grade he tried running, but the workouts chafed, and then one day he had an altercation with his parents. Louis figured the train would take him away from all his problems. So he ran away, hopped a boxcar, and very quickly learned the freedom of the rails wasn’t freedom at all. It sucked.

    When he returned home, defeated, he decided to submit to his brother’s plan. This time it was just what the doctor ordered. Louis ran like mad. He broke records. He got a scholarship to USC and broke more. Louis ran in the 1936 Olympic Games. He didn’t win, but he would the next time they came around. However, the world was in turmoil back then, and Germany and Japan had their own plans which changed Louis’s life forever. He became a bombardier in the Pacific theater.

    And that’s where I’m going to stop. The story that awaits you is truly amazing. And Hillenbrand brings it to life with surprising and powerful details. From start to last, I was enthralled. And towards the end, just when I thought the story was over, it took a turn that lifted it from being just another WW2 story with plenty of action to a tale that goes right to the heart of what it means to live. I wept, not for Louis’s pain, as awful as that was, but for something far more vital.

    When I first saw the book, its sepia-washed cover turned me away from the tale. But with so many folks talking about it, I thought I’d give the first pages a go. I was delighted, but didn’t make it a priority. Not long after that, my 10th grade nephew told me how much he enjoyed it, and that prompted me to go back (and I’m so glad I did). It’s not that this is a kid’s book or that my nephew has the maturity of an older man. He’s definitely got some reading chops, but it’s not about an advanced writing style either. What is enthralling old and young alike is Zamperini’s story and Hillebrand’s skills in telling it.

    How much do I like this book? I’m reading it again, slowly this time, so I can savor every word. Let me recommend you do yourself a favor. If you read one book this year, make it Unbroken.

    Share

  • I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells

    ByJohn Brown

    IAmNotASerialKillerYou can scare the crap out of me (Aracnaphobia), and I will love you forever. You can make me bite my nails in terrible suspense (Wait Until Dark, The Village) or throw supernatural at me (Poltergeist) and I will sing with praise. But the moment you do gruesome, the moment you start showing me entrails and organs, my discomfort level shoots through the roof.

    And this is why I would not have finished  I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Well’s if I had just picked it up off a shelf–because the main character is the son of a woman who owns a mortuary. We get to see him help process a mutilated body very early in the book, pumping fluids in etc., and Wells knows his craft so I was THERE. I’m sure it’s not too gruesome for some, but I just have issues with organs. I don’t know why. I also have an issue with clowns.

    Clowns are, by far, the scariest things around. And this is not because I read the book IT by Stephen King as a wee lad because I didn’t. It’s because they’re painted vessels of evil. End of story. They’re perfect examples of the freakazoids that lurk in the uncanny valley.

    Anyway, I’d heard Wells read a portion of this book that had all of us in the room crying because we were laughing so hard. So I read on, telling myself I had to at least get to that part. And I am so very happy I did. 

    I Am Not A Serial Killer is young adult story about a good-hearted teen named John Cleaver who is a sociopath with all the traits shared by serial killers. John’s in counseling, but more importantly, he is convinced he can prevent himself from becoming a serial killer by keeping rules he’s made for himself like not watching people for too long and complimenting someone when they make him angry. Such rules, he hopes, will keep him from feeding compulsions he won’t be able to resist.  The problem is a real serial killer has come to town (but unlike any you’ve seen before). And John may be the only one who can stop him. Will he let go of his rules to save the town? Or will he keep his monster asleep while others die around him?

    It’s a fascinating situation (without a clown in sight, may the writing gods be praised). And Wells takes the reader on a journey through it that includes mystery, dread, and humor. In the hands of some other author, that would be enough. But Wells does more than entertain us. He gives us things to think about. He gives us great characters to boot–come on, when was the last time you read a book where the hero was a likeable sociopath? And most of the gruesome is up front anyway.

    Read this book. Skim the body processing if you must. But you simply don’t want to miss the rest. It was a fabulous read and I recommend it highly.

    The US version comes out in March of 2010. But you can get the UK version now on Amazon UK, Borders UK, etc. The links are all here on Well’s site.

    Share

  • Author Janci Patterson Goes Indie

    ByJohn Brown

    Everythings Fine by Janci PattersonI met Janci Patterson a few years ago when she was shopping her book Chasing the Skip to NY publishers. It’s about a girl named Ricki. Her mother flakes and runs off,  and so Ricki goes to live with her estranged Dad who happens to be a bounty hunter. I was hooked right there. But it gets better. Ricki gets to ride along and help and, wouldn’t you know it, develops a crush on a guy the dad is chasing.

    I loved the premise. Traditional publisher Henry Holt loved it too and thought Janci had done a great job telling the tale, so they made her an offer that Janci accepted. It was published in 2012.

    Sounds like a match made in heaven, right?

    Well, Janci just released another book called Everything’s Fine, a mystery about a girl named Kira. Her best friend commits suicide immediately after her first date with her longtime crush, Bradley Johansen. Kira’s devastated and wondering why. She’s sure the answers are in her friend’s journal. As she searches for it she quickly learns she’s not the only one who wants that journal. Someone else is trying to keep the secrets the journal contains hidden.

    Another great premise. And this book won the Utah Art’s Council award for Best Young Adult Novel. Clearly, Janci can tell a story. But Janci didn’t take this one to NY.

    She’s publishing it as an indie.

    Here are her own words explaining what helped convince her going indie was doable.

    A Paradigm Shift

    For years I refused to think about self-publishing. This wasn’t because of the stigma, honestly, but because of all the work I watched my self-publisher friends put into creating, shipping, and marketing their books. I couldn’t do that! I told myself. I wanted to be a writer, not a publisher.

    When it became obvious to me that self-publishing was the next logical step in my career, I was terrified. Having published with a big publisher, I wasn’t willing to skip steps in the publishing process–it was my editor’s keen eye and the rounds of revision we did together that transformed CHASING THE SKIP from a messy dJanci Patterson - Chasing-the-Skip-webraft into a product I was proud of. I wanted to be just as proud of my independent work, and for that, I knew I’d need help.

    I knew just enough about book and cover design to know that I couldn’t slap them together on my own and expect them to be instantly good. But when I did the math on what I’d have to pay an editor and a book designer and a cover designer to put out even one book (let alone the several I have waiting), I knew that I couldn’t afford it. Self-publishing felt even more impossible than selling books in New York–I knew how I wanted to do it, but I didn’t have the resources.

    So it was with this trapped feeling that I attended the Precision Editing Group’s workshop on indie publishing last fall. The workshop was packed with great information, but the thing that impacted me the most was a presentation by Heather Horrocks. She was talking about the importance of editors, and as a side comment, said something to the effect of, “yes, all my books have now been edited, but when I first got started, I didn’t have an editor because I couldn’t afford it.”

    It’s not my intention to suggest that editing isn’t important, because it is. But that one sentence blew my mind. I’d been working with the New York publishing paradigm for fourteen years. And in that world, there are very few ways to be published. You query agents. You send books to publishers. You do your very best to follow all of the guidelines and to do everything perfectly right, hoping to minimize the barriers that stand between you and success as a writer.

    But this self-publishing thing was a whole different game. I sat in the audience at the workshop, stunned. That was the moment when I finally realized this truth: there are as many ways to publish as there are people who are publishing. There is no one right way to do it. There are so many things you can do that can help you succeed. It’s better to do something than nothing, because nothing is never the road to success. Even if that means you’re doing it wrong.

    So when I got home, I made a list of my assets. Forget about what I lacked. Forget about what I didn’t know. What did I know how to do? What resources did I have access to? And, most importantly, who could I ask for help?

    If you’re looking to self-publish, I’d suggest that you do the same. Because here’s the thing–your list of assets is going to be uniquely yours. You have a unique set of skills; you know a unique network of people. You don’t need to worry about who and what you don’t know. Instead, focus on what you do have, what you can do. If you’ve been writing for years, you probably have some book-related skills. If you’re part of a community of writers to which you regularly contribute, you probably have some friends who you’ve helped in the past, or can help in the present, who would be motivated to help you out in return. Start from there, and you can pick up the rest as you go along.

    In the end, I did have my book edited (repeatedly!) and my cover designed by a graphic designer. I was able to do that because I had friends who believe in me who were willing to enter into financial agreements that didn’t involve them getting paid in full upfront. I wouldn’t have thought to work out those arrangements when I was focused on doing things right–it was only when I opened my vision to look at what was possible that I began to envision what shape my own unique path might take.

    Each path to publication is different, not only for each writer, but also for each book. With all the options available to us, it’s not enough to focus on our feet, doing only the next “right” step. Opportunity is everywhere. Focus on what you have, and even if you don’t win the jackpot on the first try, at least you’ll be playing the game.

     

    Share

  • Top 200 YA Authors of 2010

    ByJohn Brown

    On Thursday I posted the top 200 YA  novels of 2010. Today I’m happy to share the top 200 authors. You might be wondering: if we already have a top 200, why post this? Because yesterday was about individual titles. Today’s post is about authors. Some authors might not have any books that are checked out in huge numbers. But because they have a lot of books available, the numbers of checkouts they do have add up. Yesterday’s list showed you the volume for individual books. Today’s list shows you the volume for each author. You’ll see it does result in a different ranking.

    This list is based on the same dataset as the previous list. And so while I can’t claim it represents the top YA authors for the whole United States, it does show who is being read in this neck of the woods. It’s a great list for those wanting to find YA authors to try.  Please be aware that these are YA books as defined by the library, which takes its cue from places like Booklist and School Library Journal. Other books like the first three Harry Potters, Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series, and some of Dashner’s stuff are considered Middle Grade and so do not appear on this list. Later, I might do a combined list.

    There were 1,283 authors on the list. “Times Checked Out” is the sum of all the times any of the author’s books were checked out. “Number of Titles” is the number of different titles the author has that were checked out. “Avg Check Outs per Title” is the average number of times each title was checked out. “%” is percentage of total checkouts. Rank is rank. Another way to sort this would be by the Avg Check Outs per Title to see who’s getting the highest number of readers per book. But I’ll let you fiddle with that on your own. Again, I’m very happy to see a number of Utahans on the list. Kudos to the following (ranking in parentheses):

    • Stephenie Meyer (4)
    • Shannon Hale (5)
    • Jessica Day George (10)
    • Chris Heimerdinger (18)
    • Jack Weyland (38)
    • Lisa Mangum (55)
    • Mette Ivie Harrison (56)
    • Aprilynne Pike (71)
    • Brandon Sanderson (73)
    • Ally Condie (82)
    • James Dashner (94)
    • Bree Despain (110)

    EDIT: 1/15/2011 12:57 AM. Okay, okay here’s the list by average checkout: Top 200 YA Authors of 2010, Part 2. A number of people drop off, new names appear, and positions shuffle.

    EDIT: 1/16/2011 9:32 AM: Informed that Bree Despain is also a Utah author.

    The List

    Author Times Checked Out Number of Titles Avg Check Outs per Title % Rank
    Rick Riordan 989 8 124 2.68% 1
    Suzanne Collins 888 3 296 2.98% 2
    Tamora Pierce 634 26 24 1.60% 3
    Stephenie Meyer 529 5 106 1.56% 4
    Shannon Hale 517 6 86 0.96% 5
    John Flanagan 413 9 46 0.93% 6
    Meg Cabot 396 37 11 0.58% 7
    P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast 393 7 56 0.37% 8
    Scott Westerfeld 354 12 30 1.19% 9
    Jessica Day George 328 6 55 0.99% 10
    D.J. MacHale 328 15 22 0.32% 11
    L.J. Smith 326 22 15 0.15% 12
    J.K. Rowling 318 4 80 0.30% 13
    Darren Shan 313 24 13 0.14% 14
    Cassandra Clare 309 4 77 1.25% 15
    Lisi Harrison 304 23 13 0.40% 16
    Eoin Colfer 302 11 27 0.13% 17
    Chris Heimerdinger 280 16 18 0.50% 18
    Cameron Dokey 271 9 30 0.74% 19
    Anthony Horowitz 260 24 11 0.46% 20
    James Patterson 257 8 32 0.23% 21
    Angie Sage 246 6 41 0.11% 22
    Joseph Delaney 240 9 27 0.33% 23
    Richelle Mead 202 6 34 0.21% 24
    Christopher Paolini 191 3 64 0.10% 25
    Alyson Noel 188 9 21 0.10% 26
    Garth Nix 182 11 17 0.21% 27
    Sara Shepard 181 8 23 0.41% 28
    Hilari Bell 178 12 15 0.10% 29
    Michael Scott 165 4 41 0.61% 30
    Gary Paulsen 163 26 6 0.20% 31
    Ellen Schreiber 160 9 18 0.20% 32
    Patricia C. Wrede 158 9 18 0.78% 33
    Frewin Jones 155 8 19 0.19% 34
    Melissa de la Cruz 154 7 22 0.28% 35
    Maggie Stiefvater 153 4 38 0.09% 36
    Ally Carter 152 5 30 0.37% 37
    Jack Weyland 151 11 14 0.09% 38
    Suzanne Weyn 150 8 19 0.09% 39
    Sarah Dessen 150 9 17 0.37% 40
    Margaret Peterson Haddix 144 8 18 0.46% 41
    Libba Bray 136 4 34 0.82% 42
    Rachel Caine 134 9 15 0.09% 43
    R.L. Stine 132 43 3 0.09% 44
    Caroline B. Cooney 132 30 4 1.07% 45
    Kelley Armstrong 131 3 44 0.27% 46
    Gerald Morris 129 10 13 0.09% 47
    Diana Wynne Jones 128 6 21 0.26% 48
    Jean Ferris 127 13 10 0.17% 49
    Anna Godbersen 127 5 25 0.17% 50
    Cecily von Ziegesar 126 24 5 0.17% 51
    Janette Rallison 125 10 13 0.08% 52
    Markus Zusak 124 4 31 0.08% 53
    Lurlene McDaniel 124 47 3 0.17% 54
    Lisa Mangum 124 2 62 0.91% 55
    Mette Ivie Harrison 123 4 31 0.08% 56
    Ann Rinaldi 119 31 4 0.72% 57
    Kate Brian 118 21 6 0.08% 58
    Carolyn Meyer 115 12 10 0.08% 59
    Cinda Williams Chima 113 5 23 0.38% 60
    Amelia Atwater-Rhodes 112 11 10 0.08% 61
    Frank Beddor 110 3 37 0.08% 62
    Heather Brewer 108 5 22 0.08% 63
    Laurie Halse Anderson 108 8 14 0.30% 64
    Herbie Brennan 106 5 21 0.30% 65
    Kristin Cashore 105 2 53 1.91% 66
    Robin McKinley 105 6 18 0.07% 67
    R.D. Henham 104 7 15 0.21% 68
    Donna Jo Napoli 104 15 7 0.14% 69
    Catherine Jinks 101 10 10 0.21% 70
    Aprilynne Pike 101 2 51 0.21% 71
    Louise Rennison 101 10 10 0.55% 72
    Brandon Sanderson 100 4 25 0.34% 73
    Debbie Viguie 100 6 17 0.46% 74
    Melissa Marr 99 4 25 0.07% 75
    Catherine Fisher 98 8 12 0.13% 76
    Jonathan Stroud 97 6 16 0.99% 77
    Lauren Brooke 95 26 4 0.33% 78
    L.A. Meyer 95 8 12 0.13% 79
    Lisa McMann 94 3 31 0.13% 80
    Simone Elkeles 93 7 13 0.39% 81
    Ally Condie 93 6 16 0.32% 82
    Lynne Ewing 91 18 5 0.06% 83
    Donita K. Paul 90 6 15 0.06% 84
    Carrie Jones 88 3 29 0.06% 85
    Lois Lowry 86 3 29 0.06% 86
    Kenneth Oppel 80 4 20 0.19% 87
    Mary Hoffman 79 7 11 0.06% 88
    Philip Reeve 78 9 9 0.57% 89
    Jen Calonita 78 6 13 0.12% 90
    Holly Black 78 5 16 0.12% 91
    Laurie Faria Stolarz 76 7 11 0.06% 92
    Catherine Gilbert Murdock 76 4 19 0.24% 93
    James Dashner 75 2 38 0.06% 94
    Diane Duane 75 9 8 0.06% 95
    Philip Pullman 73 9 8 0.18% 96
    Gordon Korman 72 16 5 0.18% 97
    Neal Shusterman 72 9 8 0.47% 98
    Jerry Spinelli 72 8 9 0.17% 99
    Jane Yolen 71 14 5 0.06% 100
    N.D. Wilson 70 3 23 0.23% 101
    Ellen Hopkins 70 6 12 0.06% 102
    Carrie Ryan 69 2 35 0.45% 103
    Becca Fitzpatrick 68 2 34 0.05% 104
    Lesley Livingston 68 3 23 0.05% 105
    Esther Friesner 68 6 11 0.05% 106
    Megan Whalen Turner 68 4 17 0.43% 107
    Alex Flinn 68 3 23 0.48% 108
    Elizabeth Knox 67 2 34 0.48% 109
    Bree Despain 66 2 33 0.32% 110
    Bryan Davis 66 8 8 0.11% 111
    Patrick Carman 66 5 13 0.84% 112
    Nancy Werlin 65 6 11 0.05% 113
    Ann Brashares 64 4 16 0.05% 114
    K.A. Applegate 64 18 4 0.05% 115
    Rachel Cohn 64 9 7 0.05% 116
    Linda Buckley-Archer 63 3 21 0.05% 117
    Cornelia Funke 63 2 32 0.05% 118
    Ted Dekker 62 7 9 0.05% 119
    Vivian Vande Velde 62 13 5 0.21% 120
    Nancy Springer 62 7 9 0.05% 121
    Carolyn Keene 61 49 1 0.15% 122
    Kieran Scott 60 6 10 0.10% 123
    Robin Palmer 59 3 20 0.45% 124
    Claudia Gray 59 3 20 0.30% 125
    Victoria Hanley 58 4 15 0.55% 126
    Carl Hiaasen 58 3 19 0.15% 127
    Philip Pullman  57 2 29 0.15% 128
    Lauren Kate 57 2 29 0.29% 129
    Marilyn Kaye 57 29 2 0.05% 130
    Lili St. Crow 56 2 28 0.14% 131
    Sharon Shinn 56 5 11 0.05% 132
    T.A. Barron 55 6 9 0.05% 133
    Marissa Doyle 55 2 28 0.05% 134
    Celia Rees 54 6 9 0.05% 135
    Alane Ferguson 54 6 9 0.05% 136
    Ridley Pearson 54 4 14 0.05% 137
    Elizabeth Scott 54 4 14 0.05% 138
    Clare B. Dunkle 53 6 9 0.05% 139
    Jaclyn Moriarty 52 4 13 0.05% 140
    James A. Owen 52 4 13 0.05% 141
    Justin Somper 52 5 10 0.05% 142
    David Klass 52 11 5 0.19% 143
    E. Lockhart 51 6 9 0.24% 144
    Cornelia Funke  51 1 51 0.09% 145
    Rachel Vail 51 3 17 0.28% 146
    Susan Beth Pfeffer 49 4 12 0.09% 147
    Rachel Vincent 49 3 16 0.14% 148
    K.M. Grant 49 7 7 0.27% 149
    Michael Grant 49 3 16 0.14% 150
    Maureen Johnson 48 4 12 0.05% 151
    Terry Pratchett 48 5 10 0.05% 152
    Kay Lynn Mangum 48 3 16 0.05% 153
    Sarah Mlynowski 48 5 10 0.05% 154
    Judy Blundell 48 1 48 0.05% 155
    Wayne Thomas Batson 48 7 7 0.05% 156
    Christopher Pike 47 19 2 0.05% 157
    David Lubar 47 8 6 0.05% 158
    Janet Lee Carey 46 3 15 0.40% 159
    Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl 46 2 23 0.31% 160
    Lene Kaaberbol 45 4 11 0.54% 161
    Alison Croggon 45 4 11 0.98% 162
    Tera Lynn Childs 45 3 15 0.13% 163
    Lois Duncan 45 13 3 0.13% 164
    Carol Lynch Williams 44 3 15 0.09% 165
    Louis Sachar 44 2 22 0.17% 166
    Laini Taylor 44 3 15 0.13% 167
    Martha Finley 44 14 3 0.08% 168
    Kimberly Pauley 43 2 22 0.04% 169
    John Grisham  43 1 43 0.04% 170
    Beth Fantaskey 43 2 22 0.04% 171
    Guillaume Prevost 43 3 14 0.08% 172
    Margaret Mahy 43 5 9 0.04% 173
    A.J. Butcher 42 5 8 0.04% 174
    Lauren Conrad 42 3 14 0.04% 175
    Justine Larbalestier 42 5 8 0.04% 176
    Deb Caletti 42 4 11 0.13% 177
    Joan Lowery Nixon 42 16 3 0.04% 178
    Aimee Friedman 42 3 14 0.04% 179
    Gloria Whelan 41 10 4 0.04% 180
    Anne Osterlund 41 2 21 0.04% 181
    Philip Caveney 41 3 14 0.04% 182
    Eva Ibbotson 41 2 21 0.04% 183
    Michael Carroll 41 3 14 0.04% 184
    Francine Pascal 40 14 3 0.04% 185
    Walter Dean Myers 40 11 4 0.13% 186
    Gillian Shields 40 3 13 0.08% 187
    Isobelle Carmody 40 7 6 0.46% 188
    Fuyumi Ono  40 4 10 0.12% 189
    Stuart Hill 39 3 13 0.12% 190
    William Sleator 39 14 3 0.08% 191
    Michael Cadnum 38 11 3 0.08% 192
    Timothy Zahn 38 6 6 0.16% 193
    Sharon M. Draper 38 9 4 0.16% 194
    Peter Abrahams 37 5 7 0.33% 195
    Madeline L’Engle 37 11 3 0.12% 196
    Jenny B. Jones 37 3 12 0.28% 197
    Kimberly Derting 37 1 37 0.92% 198
    William Nicholson 37 3 12 0.20% 199
    Susane Colasanti 36 3 12 0.94% 200
    Ben Mikaelsen 36 5 7 0.08% 201
    Jacquelyn Mitchard 36 5 7 0.08% 202
    Richard Peck 36 9 4 0.04% 203
    Tim Green 36 6 6 0.04% 204
    Marilyn Reynolds 36 8 5 0.04% 205
    Sarah Miller 36 3 12 0.04% 206
    Sara Zarr 36 3 12 0.04% 207
    Share

  • The Blind Side, Blink, Tandoori Oven, Bischoff Cookies

    ByJohn Brown

    The Blind Side

    Every time I see a sports movie advertised, I groan. Gee, what could this be–yet another story about an individual who, through pluck and determination, overcomes great odds to yadda, yadda, yadda win the game, yea, go team?

    Yawn.

    I enjoy sports, but only those where the outcome really is in question. Only those where I don’t already know the story. If I want a scripted win, I can watch some long-hairs and freaks on WWF.  

    So you’ll understand why I didn’t rush out last year to see The Blind Side. What? A monstrously huge kid plays high school football as a lineman? Wow, he must have really worked hard at that. Is the paint still drying at the Zeyer’s house? Maybe I’ll go watch that instead.

    And this was my response even though Sandra Bullock plays the leading role. I usually enjoy the movies Bullock stars in. Well, except for the last two–The Proposal and All About Steve–which I couldn’t bring myself to watch more than ten minutes of combined. But besides those, she’s probably been one of the most enjoyable actresses since Katherine Hepburn. This is because she actually plays real women, interesting characters, people with personality.

    This is opposed to some actresses who don’t really play people at all, but are put in movies by directors who must think that if they can make the eyes bong out of male heads, those very males won’t notice that the story is dumber than a bag of rocks. These gals have lips that are so puffed up they look painful (e.g. Angelina Jolie, ouch, ouch, OUCH, somebody help her) or have seemingly nothing else to bring to the table besides their looks (e.g. Megan Fox, oooh, look at her shirt ride up over her belly, oooh, another shot of her eyes, oooh, white teeth), and so all their roles end up including very little besides posing for the camera so that we can see that, yes, Timmy, these women really were born with some mathematics, i.e. symmetry and facial proportions conforming to the golden ratio. Are your eyes bonging out yet, Timmy? See, that’s why you should study algebra and geometry. Math lets you do things like that.   

    Anyway, so it was a Bullock film, yet I still didn’t want to see it. But my real-man brother-in-law suggested it for a date night, and so I reluctantly went to watch. (Date night as in double date with the wives, not him and me. Sheesh, you people.)

    I’m so glad I went. The movie was excellent. Probably because it was not about the plucky athlete winning the game, but about something far more important and enjoyable. It’s based on the true story of a rich southern white couple–Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy–who try to take a homeless teenage African-American, Michael Oher (“Big Mike”), into their family. Michael’s mother is a crack head. His father is unknown. Michael himself is not doing very well. He’s failing school. He doesn’t even have a place to sleep sometimes. And he’s got the good old boys of his neighborhood wanting to hook him up with their gang and drug scene. But Leigh Anne soon takes charge.

    And, boy, does she take charge. She’s one of the most delightful characters I’ve seen in a long time. I laughed again and again at her lines and personality. She also made me think about what I’m doing with my life. This woman and her family did something significant. I won’t tell you what happened with Michael–blah, blah, blah, yea, go team. You can find out for yourself. That wasn’t the important story here. The important story, the one that touched my heart and funny bone, was the one about a delightful family who went way out of its way to try to give a complete stranger a chance at a happy life.

    Go see this show. No, it’s not in the theater, but you can buy or rent it. Me, I get all my films via Netflix. If you haven’t subscribed, consider it. Then you too can feel the excitement of seeing the happy little red Netflix envelopes waiting for you in your mailbox.

    By the way, I have enjoyed a number of other great sports films over the years. If you like The Blind Side, I think you’ll enjoy Coach Carter, Miracle, Invincible, and Cool Runnings (a Brown family favorite).

    Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

    We are told to make decisions based on logic, not emotion. Reason must prevail. The closer we are to Spock, the better. At least in our decision-making, right?

    Well, no. That’s actually wrong.

    Over the last two decades researchers have found that the vast majority of our decisions are made by our gut, in the blink of an eye. And even those we make consciously, we make with a large input from our emotions. In fact, people who have the emotion centers in their brains damaged seem almost unable to make good decisions. Give them seven types of apples to choose from, and they can’t seem to pick one. Ask them to schedule an appointment, and they’ll go round and round listing the pros and cons of different dates and times. Let them know one deck of cards is stacked against them, and they still choose to play with it. They have logic, but lack judgment.

    The rapid, emotional part of our brain is critical for good decision making. Of course, out guts can often be spectacularly wrong. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explores both sides of the choices we make in the blink of an eye.

    But this is no tome of dry erudition. Gladwell writes with fantastic simplicity, clarity, and power. He explains what we now know about human decision-making by letting us meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on just a few minutes of observing the couple; the tennis coach who knows a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; and the art experts who can spot a fake at a glance. He helps us see why New Coke failed, how we pick presidents, and how it was possible that the police shot down Amadou Diallo, who was simply coming home one night. He shares the story of Paul Van Ripper who beat the Pentagon war-gamers in a massive defeat and why.

    Blink reveals that great decisions makers aren’t those who have the biggest brains and highest IQ, but those who have perfected the art of “thin-slicing”—focusing in on the factors that make the biggest difference.

    The book was fascinating. Read it. You’ll start seeing the world differently.

    The Tandoori Oven

    While living in Orem, UT, Nellie and I got our first taste of Indian food. When we moved to the San Francisco area, we found a few Indian restaurants and really learned to love the cuisine. So you can imagine how excited we were when we moved up to boonieville Laketown and were told that just an hour away in Logan was a great Indian restaurant. So we followed the directions to the address we were given and ended up at the gas station just south of the USU football stadium on 720 East and 1000 North. And there above the gas station was the sign for the restaurant.

    We both looked at each other and rolled our eyes. Were the people who told us about this kidding?

    But I decided to just go look. Sometimes the little holes-in-the-walls can surprise you. Maybe in the back by the Hostess rack and chips we’d find some great food. I entered the gas station and found it run by a pleasant Indian fellow. I thought, dang, we’ve got our very own Apu’s Quiki-Mart (Apu being one of my favorite characters on the The Simpsons). However, there was no restaurant. I looked around and saw nothing but racks of normal gas station snacks. I was confused. “I was told there was an Indian restaurant here?” I said.

    “Right over here,” he said in his Indian accent and pointed me to an entryway in the far wall hung with strings of beads. “Through there.”

    Intrigued, I passed through the beads and did indeed find a small restaurant. They’d simply sectioned off a part of the original gas station. I also found that there was a separate door to the outside which I’d missed. I examined the buffet, which looked pretty good, went outside and waved Nellie in. We were going to give it a shot. We let them seat us, and proceeded to enjoy a fabulous meal.

    The restaurant is called The Tandoori Oven: http://TandooriOvenLogan.com. Nellie and I go there regularly. It’s been updated since the first time we went and dished up our soup into treacherous styrofoam bowls. Now they use real cutlery, but the good food and friendly service hasn’t changed.

    If you know Indian food, you can go in the evenings and order a number of dishes to share. But if you want the best deal, go for lunch. They put on an all-you-can-eat buffet which will let you sample a number of dishes. We love the kurmas, saags, vindaloos, curries, naans, and, dude, the spinach soup! Heck, it’s all good. Especially when we can sweeten it a bit with their tamarind or mango chutney. And make sure you leave room for their saffron helwa (spiced cubes of farina) smothered with cardamom rice pudding for dessert.

    Bischoff Lotus Cookies

    I recently performed a taste test. I got a package of Oreos and a package of Bischoff Lotus cookies, and I am here to state that the Bischoff Lotus cookies spanked the Oreos and sent them back to kindergarten for some schooling.

    After the taste test, I had to force myself not to eat the rest of the Bischoff Lotuses in one sitting. I succeeded in lasting for two sittings. Yes, they’re that good—crisp, caramelized, sweet. They have none of the bitterness of gingersnaps, yet have enough spice to delight the tongue.

    But these aren’t new cookies. The Dutch and Belgians have been enjoying them for years. Over there these types of cookies are called speculaas and are probably the most popular cookie around. I can testify they’re great with milk, hot chocolate, and Pero (hey, this is Mormon country). I understand they go great with coffee, even though I have not imbibed in that Aztec concoction and, therefore, cannot vouch for it personally. And for two years I enjoyed them, along with picturesque scenes of cobblestone streets, bicycles, and windmills.

    When I came home, alas, I couldn’t find these delights anywhere except at specialty Dutch stores. And when we moved away from Utah, I never found them again. Then Delta Airlines started serving them on their flights. Oh, joy. But I don’t fly that often. So I’m excited to report that recently I was walking in Macey’s grocery store just across from the Stadium 8 movie theaters in Logan, scanning the packages along the cookie aisle and finding nothing appetizing, when the heavens parted, and a beam of light illuminated a white package with red lettering. I believe I heard a choir.

    Bischoff Lotus cookies.

    Could it be?

    It was.

    I heard reports they were also in Wal-Mart, but I didn’t see them there. So for the sure bet, go to Macey’s, buy, enjoy. And consider yourself Dutchified.

    Share