My Current Interest

             As with most things I came upon the show Tavis Smiley by accident.   I was flipping through the channels and found the host, Tavis Smiley, talking to Tony Danza.   When I was younger I watched Mr. Danza’s show, Who’s the Boss? , and I was curious to see what he was up to now.   Mr. Danza was on the show to discuss his new book about the year he spent as a teacher.   It was an interesting conversation.   When the show was over I was happy I saw it, but did not think of watching Mr. Smiley’s show regularly.   Then I came upon the show again when he had Penny Marshall on speaking about her book.   I enjoyed that episode, and soon I was checking every day to see who was being featured on Tavis Smiley .                                             While celebrities were the first people that attracted me to the show, they are not they only type of guest on Mr. Smiley’s show.   I have also seen independent filmmakers, economists, and political commentators.   Those are

               I do not like Ryder.   This is something I am laying out there.   Since book one of the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy I have not liked him.   Now in the third book Ryder is the hero.   After finishing it, I find Ryder to be only slightly more appealing.   I do mean slightly.   With the series over, I still do not like him.                                           Since I do not like one of the main characters so much, you are probably wondering why I read the book at all.   There are two main reasons.   First, I read the first two and I wanted to finish the series.   Second, I was really interested to see what happened with the inn’s ghost, Lizzy.   By reading the book, I got my answer.                                 Hope is the innkeeper for the Inn Boonsboro owned by the Montgomery family.   The entire time she has worked at the inn, the oldest Montgomery son, Ryder, has been very unfriendly to Hope.   He has been antagonistic, surly, and at times down-right na

             Oh Jeopardy! , how I have missed you.   I used to watch every day.   Then the political campaigns began to heat up.   With all the political ads at every commercial break, I could not watch this show without going crazy.   For over a month I had to leave my Jeopardy! viewing in order to keep my sanity.   Now that the election is over, I am able to watch again.   That makes me very happy.                             Jeopardy! is a long running, and well-known, television quiz show.   I do not know of anyone who has not heard the song to the Final Jeopardy! round.   It is used all over the place.   While there are a lot of different quiz shows, Jeopardy! is a little different because you have to answer in the form of a question.   Also there are not any options, just clues.   Either you know the answer or you do not.   If you know the answer you earn money, if you give an incorrect answer, you lose money.   Clue difficulty increases with the money values.   The o

              For some reason there appears to be a belief that nothing and nobody good or of worth comes from the Midwest. I do not know where this mentality comes from, but I have heard it quite frequently in all sorts of media. As a person born and raised in the Midwest, it can be very frustrating to hear the cracks and implications about people from this part of the country. I know wonderful people have come from here. Dick Van Dyke is one of those people and I greatly enjoyed his book, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir .              Raised in Danville, IL, Dick Van Dyke has had quite a lengthy and eclectic career. His most famous work is probably The Dick Van Dyke Show . Having never seen the show, I know Mr. Van Dyke because of Mary Poppins and Diagnosis: Murder . Reading this book, I discovered that these are only a few of the things Mr. Van Dyke has done throughout his career.           In the early years Mr. Van Dyke spent his