It's hard to coach a team when your players don't show up. Mafi muscula. Hard to make air flights without reservations. Mafi muscula. Can't tape ankles without tape. Hey! Why isn't Darrin here from the States yet? Mafi Muscula. Can't understand these Hungarian menu forms...we could starve. Mafi muscula. We're almost out of tea. Muscula! In Arabic, mafi muscula means "no problem." But a better definition is probably: "no problem for ME, big problem for YOU." Saudi Arabia is where mafi musculas start, but they don't end there. From Saudi it's on to a training camp near Budapest then onward to Beruit for the basketball championships of the Eighth Pan Arab Games. Some funny things happen along the way. And there, too. These are recounted through the eyes of an American coach. They sometimes happen on the court., but more often off. Some are pretty peculiar and that's the kind of questions they raise. For example: —Was Bruce Springsteen born in Saudi Arabia? —Do you know how to properly kiss your players? —Why are Homer's underpants radioactive? —Is Martin as dead as he thinks? —Is Adel as dead as Coach tells his mom he is? —How to get a lunatic asylum airborne? —When must camels kill you? And more.
The superb classic memoir from a dazzlingly eccentric and endlessly fascinating author and feminist icon - a woman very much ahead of her time - including her time spent on the glorious island of Skiathos 'A happy, hilarious book' Daily Express Nancy Spain was one of the most celebrated - and notorious - writers and broadcasters of the 50s and 60s. Witty, controversial and brilliant, she lived openly as a lesbian (sharing a household with her two lovers and their various children) and was frequently litigated against for her newspaper columns - Evelyn Waugh successfully sued her for libel... twice. Nancy Spain had a deep love of the Mediterranean. So it was no surprise when, in the 1960s, she decided to build a place of her own on the Greek island of Skiathos. With an impractical nature surpassed only by her passion for the project, and despite many obstacles, she gloriously succeeded. This classic memoir is infused with all Spain's chaotic brilliance, zest for life and single-minded pursuit of a life worth living. Perfect for fans of A PLACE IN THE SUN and ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY 'Full of fun, and that zest of intelligence that never left her' Sunday Times
The Franken-Coleman campaign saga really begins with the tragic plane crash resulting in the death of Senator Paul Wellstone. That moment provided Norm Coleman his second opportunity for major political reinvention (the first being when he switched parties). Following the tragedy, Coleman shifted gears to run a kinder, gentler series of television ads that hardly mentioned his new opponent, Walter Mondale. Meanwhile, when Republicans accused Democrats of turning the Wellstone memorial service into a carefully choreographed political rally, Franken was outraged. He immediately set upon a mission to unseat Coleman, which ended up with their eventual head-to-head run in 2008. The unprecedented recount and legal drama that ultimately decided the election was an appropriate coda to what had already been an extraordinary Minnesota Senate race. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Senate tells the whole story.
Bill Saylor decided to share his life with all his friends. His book begins with his childhood, proceeds to his Naval career, the many jobs he performed, his life as a broadcaster, first in radio, then television, and finally politics. Along the way there is a great emphasis on baseball, a major part of his life.
Author Desi Sanchez, a native of Cuba, was twenty-two years old when the Bay of Pigs incident took place there in 1961. He had made the decision to side against Fidel Castro long before the confrontation and served as a merchant marine in the SS Houston during the invasion. In 2010 Desi Sanchez received an honorary crew member certificate of the DDE-510 Eaton. Havana was Desi Sanchezs home. He was born there, grew up there, went to school there, and fell in love there. Eventually, however, as Castros regime began to take hold and everything began to change, he learned that home isnt where your life happened; its where your heart is. Sometimes you just have to find a new home. Originally writing his memoir in order to bridge the gap between generations within his own family, Sanchez has since come to realize the importance of preserving history from the perspectives of the participants for all to see. Now he shares his life story.
This book is the opposite of a misery memoir and is certainly safe to give to cancer patients as a cheerful present. More importantly, it sheds new light on:• Why Kim Kardashian is worth Keeping Up With• What playlists to make for MRI scans• The truth behind the legend of Medea• Bikini etiquette on a deserted beach• What to do with a glut of rainbow chard• What an Oscar-winner should say in an acceptance speech• How to deal with cold-callers selling life insurance• And what to wear on a March Against Menopause (layers, obviously)
Ever been chased by a jealous husband swinging an axe? Or had your shoelaces and socks chewed by a cheetah while you couldn't move? What about having a doctor pass out beside you while he was delivering your child? If your answers are no, then you are lucky. If you want to find out how someone survived these wild and crazy adventures, read this book! The light-hearted autobiography of Hugh MacDonald recounts the laughable and unusual adventures and misadventures of a budding concert pianist, a minister of one of Canada’s largest churches, a college professor, a radio talk-show host, a Paris tour guide, and a civil marriage commissioner. MacDonald tells of being carried down a main street in Montreal completely naked; walking a marathon with raw eggs squishing in his boots; being forced to eat beef stew, well-flavoured with cat hair; inadvertently buying 3,125 condoms in preparation for his wedding; being marooned and coming close to death in a Northern Ontario blizzard; and so much more! MacDonald winds these yarns into an interesting account of his long and varied life. This book can be read in one sitting, or you can savour it as bedtime reading, enjoying one or two funny stories each night. Either way, you can’t go wrong with this humorous telling of MacDonald’s life.
Luis A. Rivera saw NYPD as larger-than-life while growing up in the South Bronx in the late 1960s and 1970s. From the time he was seven years old, he dream to become one of them. As a kid, he’d sneak a quick peek through the closed curtains just to see the arriving police cars—the old green, black, and white ones with a siren that seemed to go on forever. He’d notice the big Irish cops getting out of their police cars, with their hats on and nightsticks under their arms. In 1989, he was accepted into the New York City Police Academy. Soon, he was hitting the books and navigating shooting range qualifications. The courses were intense. As he achieved his dream, he soon realized the NYPD was not the Boy Scouts, and how unforgiving the police department can be. In this memoir, we look back at how it was like to be a rookie cop with it’s ups and downs in an officer’s career.