“long road to boston” – this one came in maybe the day after the attack – a fiction book from 1988 – weave of the 1978 (fictional) boston marathon and the story of why the guy that finished high (again, fiction – he didn’t exist) was an unknown competiting against bill rodgers – the best part was about the race – just a great glimpse of what that race was like back then – i could’ve done w/o other things in there – particularly with how quickly the guy got over his dead wife…

“off-balance” what do you do when you’re a gold medalist at 14??? i think i have eighth graders near that age – anyway, this gymnast, now 30-plus, had gold at 14 – and had adults that made her life awful – so rather than the tale of a self-destructive teen (although she did become this later), it’s a story of how adults can mess up youth sports so very often – and the way olympic teams are picked in gymnastics defies logic – except that we do it through centralized, undemocratic control (there would be a rebellion in track and field and swimming if teams were chosen based on one family’s control – grrr…)

by my watch, maybe two weeks left of journals – make them count
mafeld