My 11-mixed-breed dog, Rufus Cooper, had a mini-adventure three weeks ago.  Himself (commonly known as "The Mister") and I took Rufus to our home in Kerrville, Texas where he met several of the neighborhood canine residents and saw some small, spindly-legged creatures that we told him were called "deer" (I had the definite suspicion that he pronounced it "dinner", but I, perhaps, am being uncharitable!)  Rufus is from the town that Himself and I have lived in for 50-some years, Liberal, Kansas but seemed to be delighted to be residing, part-time, in Kerrville and feels that not only the dogs in the neighborhood but also the people will be quite acceptable and nice to know.  So do Himself and I.

I, by the way am originally from Chicago and Jim is from Wakeeney (Kansas, that is), he's a (hopefully!) retired lawyer who did estate planning and oil and gas leases, I was always interested in theater, having a bookstore, being a seminar speaker on Body Language and how you affect people by it and a part-time Public Relations staff member in Liberal Memorial Library. 

I told Rufus that the "nice editor" of the Kerrville Daily Times had agreed to put in a Non-Fiction column and then a Fiction one, as the papers here had been doing for 12 years, and we'd hope that people in the lovely Hill Country would enjoy them. After these two, we'll see what the opinions in Kerrville are---and referring still to that part of the country, there are some already-favorite places I've found and I look forward to discovering 38 more, as I go back there.

First, run do not walk, to the wonderful Clark Family Bakery--and the family is right in there, making my favorite Cranberry-Orange scones and, I'm told homemade pies!  Don is so friendly and the place is sunny and clean--a natural people-pleasing place to go to for "a cuppa"(as the Brits say) and to relax.  I'll mention a few more places throughout this column which, as I mentioned, is the Non-Fiction column and my favorite "spots" are facts that can be tried out as are the books we'll discuss.   ("Helen, now the woman's sending her column to someplace in Texas and I hope they miss their Nascar news as much as I do! Why doesn't she take up tatting? Maybe she'll take up bareback bronco riding !")

We'll soon be minus our president and his v.p., Dick Cheney, so let's talk about "Angler; The Cheney Vice Presidency", by Barton Gellman and his reporting (by the way, Gellman is a former Pulitzer Prize winner--not the hopeful young reporter) takes in Cheney's role in the choices Bush made on the war, "unleashing the National Security Agency to spy at home", and he promoted (and stayed in the background) on using our methods of torture and inhuman treatment for prisoners of war.   The curtains of secrecy were, for the most part, well in place around Cheney but those who knew him well were wary of and cognizant of "remorseless will and deep convictions", which is all very well for the most part but in the way he was the office and his method of "handling" his president, there were  problems that arose.  He felt he should control all important information and decide what should be given and to whom--and, unfortunately, this included his Commander-in-Chief, who was often left out of "the loop". The thing that surprised me--although maybe it shouldn't have in thinking about powerful, ambitious personalities--was that Dick Cheney defined the office he was about to run for in 2000, and decided what he would make it into! Good grief! Right there, whoever was president was going to face trouble! Written in very reader-friendly style, and with a wealth of details--particularly the 9-11 attack, this is one to come in and pick up and spend 3 evenings reading.

Oh, the men will love this one! It, like the Gellman book, is a New York Times Best Seller title, and "The Trouble WIth Boys; A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do" (Heavens! the title is almost a first chapter in itself) is by Peg Tyre, a writer at Newsweek, also a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Clarion award winner. One of the mothers quoted in this book, pertaining to her son Joseph who was 6 and in first grade, said he was a bright boy but complained to her that he couldn't sit still all day (they only had a 20 min. recess, which is average time in most schools) and  "he began boarding the bus each morning as if he was facing a firing squad". She, the mother, asked the teacher about ways that Joseph could move around a little more and--surprise!--was told "Moving around is for recess only."

Today, there is a definite imbalance in both graduation from high school and entrance into college between boys and girls, and, says Tyre, "from the moment they step into the classroom, boys begin to struggle." and my throat closed up 'cause I could remember taking my son, Rick, to kindergarten as well as his sister, Bonnie, and the difference that I noticed in their first year's experiences.  The teachers, I hasten to add, were kind and caring--the "system" much less so.  Athletics is a realm where boys seem to do much better, but by the 8th grade "huge numbers are reading below basic level" (and have you ever inquired, in your own social circle, how many men read for pleasure vs. the women in their lives?)Today, less then 43 percent of college students are boys and Tyre traces this back to schools that  have eliminated --eliminated, mind you!--recess and then there's the doctrine that drives my teacher friends up the proverbial wall, No Child Left Behind outlook that is almost mandated if you want to keep your job.

The last point is that most curriculum is "girl-friendly" as in writing "about your feelings and sharing your innermost thoughts with the class".  Yeah, right--boys of ALL ages love that one. Ask your male golfing partner about his innermost thoughts and then stand well back!  The lady has some well-thought-out points from the school's unease with the newest technology to--here's a biggie--the lack of male teachers as role models unless they're coaching! Great!

Everything I read in this book rang true and should be required reading by everyone--our kids and grand kids could fill us in with personal anecdotes--just ask 'em!  You might consider ordering this book from Hastings and passing it around to your friends--male as well as female (tell your "significant other that Constance Clarke of Chicago (a name given to me years ago) said he will enjoy it and you'd like his opinion of it afterwards). 

And now one for the ladies--certainly for moi--" Pieces of My Heart" by Robert Wagner and Scott Eyman, another NY Times Bestseller. It tells, obviously, chapters from Wagner's life, why he decided to become a movie star and about his father, who determined he was going to become something else--anything but a movie star!  He was very much in love with and had great admiration for Barbara Stanwyck, an actress twice his age. After they separated,  he met the ultimate love of his life, Natalie Wood, and for awhile they stayed together, very much in love, "until the stress of their careers" drove them to divorce.

His film career took him to Europe and acting with David Niven, Peter Sellers, Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Collins and his stock in the industry became a solid-gold bankable commodity then he branched out into television. His second marriage to a former actress and model, Marion Marshall, didn't last long and he came back to Natalie, who fell back in love with him and they remarried.

Most of us can remember the news stories about her falling off their yacht and drowning and the tragedy for both he and their daughter, Courtney. Depression hit--hard--and one of the main factors in his pulling out of it was his friendship and eventual marriage to Jill St. John, "who helped keep his family and his fractured heart together" (and, I'll wager, his sanity and a willingness to enter life again).

I personally found his story of the end of David Niven's life (with a touch of James Cagney thrown in) to be very effective. I'd suggest getting this book and going to the wonderful back-in-time bar and restaurant, Pampelle's, downtown on Water Street, have a glass of wine, and let MIss Kelly, the resident chef, fix you a wonderful lunch while you go back in time to when movies were good and not badly directed or have questionable story lines. The restaurant has a 105 year-old history, being a former hotel and (are you ready?) opera house--somehow that makes my homemade Cream of Mushroom soup rate a 3rd star to add to Kelly's two that I was told she had. 

Okay, a fast look at a last choice, because I can hear my editors begin to mutter to themselves about space and my column taking it up--but haven't you had fun so far? If you've never read Bob Woodward, you've missed a lot in a man who knows Journalism, presidents, politics, and--and--has won two Pulitzer prizes. He is currently associate editor of the august Washington Post and certainly passionately believes in the responsibility of good reporting.  In the case of exposing Watergate, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and the owner of the Post, Katharine Graham, grimly held on to expose Nixon et. al., which you may remember from the movie.

Anyway, "The War Within; A Secret White House HIstory" is his newest and the two key words here are "war" and "secret" as by 2006 there are intrigues, messages, tensions, secret debates, and a loss of faith between the White House , the public, the military commanders--" it was a royal mess", as Himself is wont to say--with "a retired Army general used his high-level contacts to shape decisions about the war, as Bush and Cheney use him to deliver sensitive messages outside the chain of command."