Cheap Books

My wife just delivered two hardback copies of recent books to me. Ted Koppel's "Off Camera" ($25.00 retail) and Sebastian Junger's "Fire" (author of the Perfect Storm) ($25 retail). Know how much she paid for them? $1 each! Where? Where else? Dollar Tree. So all you inveterate shoppers, keep an eye on the book selection at Dollar Tree - you sure can't beat the price. She's even picked up books off of Oprah's list there.

Disappearance
If you've wondered where this column has gone in the past week or so, well I got a new Tungsten T3 palm pilot and I've been buried in it for awhile. Am now resurfacing to deliver you a new stream of gripping entertainment! I assume this sentiment is shared? :)

Mattie Stepanek
Was sorry to hear of the demise of little Mattie. This was the most courageous and incredible kid I have ever seen. He was light years ahead of so many of us. I still remember the first time I saw him on Larry King and just sat there open-mouthed. If you never saw Mattie speak in person, then you truly missed a once in a lifetime event. You can read about the Hero Poet here If there were only more Matties, the world would be a lot more peaceful.

Tennis
Did you catch the women's final this morning at Wimbledon? A gorgeous and very likeable young 17 year old (Maria Sharapova ) smacked Serena Williams around the court, 6-1, 6-4 to win her first Grand Slam title. She's better looking than Anna Kournikova and with this win is destined to make millions. Coming with her father to this country at the age of 7, she enrolled in a tennis camp and just 10 years later is the Wimbledon champ. I'll say one thing - she had that determined spirit - highly impressive. First Russian woman to win Wimbledon.

You can catch a great Men's final tomorrow morning between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer, last year's champ. #1 and #2 duking it out - should be a great match. Tune in early. The last time 2 top seed met was Connors and McEnroe in 1982.

Movies
Watched "Touching the Void" last night. A fabulous mountainering movie. A guest from England had tipped me off to the book a few years ago and I read it back then, thinking it was even better than Krukauer's "Into Thin Air". Translated into over 60 languages and over a million copies sold, it is a classic and well worth the read. Rent the DVD and get a chance to meet these 2 climbers who went through such an incredible week. Beautiful photography. I won't clue you in on what it's all about, but let's just say when you lose a 1/3 of your body weight in 4 days, then you've obviously come up against quite a challenge.

Don't forget to watch the upcoming Olympic Track and Field Trials!
They start July 9th. First day's coverage is on USA from 11 p.m. - 1 a.m. Eastern (whew). July 10th at a more reasonable 8-9 p.m. on NBC - unusual for this to be a prime time event. The Swimming Trials are going on at the same time. Tune in to see which athlete can consume the most drugs and still not be caught!

Quote of the Day
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy."
Ernest Benn (although I could have sworn this was a quote from GW's personal diary)