Required Reading
Solving the Nation's Ills andCelebrating a "Twin Killer."
Writer Brock Brower '53 has published in New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Life, and Harpers. Now he has a book out, co-written with David Abshire. Putting Anierica's House in Order is a widely endorsed wake-up call for political bipartisanship and how it can bring about workable solutions to the causes of today's public divisiveness, disillusion, and deficits.
The authors favor "communitarian" ways of thinking about national issues ranging from race to budget control to crime. They give good marks to such diverse pols as Warren Rudman and Paul Tsongas '61 (for founding the anti-deficit Concord Coalition); progressive state governors (for their imaginative use of block grants); and even Speaker Gingrich (for his straight-talking Contract with America). On the other hand, the book dismisses the proposal for a simplified tax code for discouraging personal savings and nvestment.
More of our problems, maintain the authors, should and can be handled locally, where they arise—and that's where leadership, too, should have its beginnings. An excellent handbook to guide the nation in common and familial effort, as it nears the new century.
Who was the best second baseman in history? John Bird '77 makes the case for Bill Mazeroski, who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1956 to 1972. Bird's argument is readably made in his new book, Twin Killing: The Bill Mazeroski Story.
No one was ever more reliable, or quicker and smoother turning the double play, a play that announcers call a "twin killing." Bird, who grew up a short trolley ride from Forbes Field, got to watch Mazeroski play dozens of times each summer. "As a kid, it felt like I was watching Houdini or some magic act," he says. Eventually, after stints in the family antiques business and advertising copywriting, Bird became a writer and editor. He wrote the book to honor Mazeroski and "a whole class of players who excel defensively but are often overlooked."
WEBWATCH The New York Times names U.S. Representative Rick White '75(R-Wash.) as the proprietor of one of "two of the most creative home pages on Capitol Hill." (The other belongs to Democrat Patrick Leahy, Senator from Vermont.) White had good reason to come up with a decent Web site: his district includes Bill Gates and the Microsoft headquarters. Check out White's page yourself at http://www.house.gov/white/welcome.html Got a creative home page of your own or know of one put together by a fellow alum? Send us the address at .
