A Couple of Good Guys and a Bunch of Bad Guys

I'm just finished reading Good Friday On The Rez by David Hugh Bunnell. In the book the author mentioned the Native American runner Billy Mills.

I had forgotten all about this. Of course, I was 14 years old at the time so it's been over 50 years ago but it was one of the most stunning upsets in Olympic history. Watch the clip - amazing finish! And when you finish the clip you might want to seek out Good Friday On The Rez to read. Lots of good history about the area around the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation including the 1973 Wounded Knee incident/occupation. I do remember that happening. I might have to re-read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It's been years - I could do with a little refresher.

I read Crooked Politics In Northwest Indiana by Jerry Davich before I started Good Friday On The Rez. As the title implies, there's been some shady politicians in my corner of the state for a long time. The only real surprising thing is the fact that it's a short book. When working in East Chicago I had the dubious honor of doing some work for a couple of the headliners. I made a couple of wrought iron pieces for Mayor Pastrick's summer home as well as dealing with a couple of the double-dippers that worked for the school city as well as the civil city. A couple guys I was familiar with did some jail time and a couple of them went into witness protection. If I remember correctly, one guy was an athletic director or something and he fled the country when the Feds got too close. Interesting years. Pretty good book, also. 

I've been doing well on the book count - 27 so far this year. I took Hero Of The Empire by Candice Millard with me when I went to Louisiana and got that one knocked out. I've read some on Churchill in the past but didn't know a whole lot about his involvement in the Boer War. Seems he was pretty arrogant as a young man and could be rather grating but you can't argue with success. 

I'll have to take a couple of the books back to the library this week and see what else they've got on the shelves that strikes my fancy. Surly gave me a book on the Shackleton Expedition to read and my buddy Kevin, who loaned me the Millard book, gave me another one to read as well. Maybe try those next.