The Know-It-All: One Man’s humble quest to be the smartest person in the world by A.J. Jacobs

This is another book by a neighbor of sorts. A.J. Jacobs, I saw him speak at a J.C.C. of Manhattan talk on the Upper West Side. From how he seems to describe every nuance of his life, I gather he live somewhere in the West 80’s. I rarely make it up there.

Jacobs takes the reader through his adventure of reading the encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z.

He describes why. It is not really to be the smartest person in the world even though it is what he tells people. It is to regain his perceived lost sense of being the smartest boy in the world. Today, he finds his mind rotting in a perfect storm of pop-culture, which he works, lives and breathes. He is often surrounded by other know-it-alls, such as his father and brother-in-law.

Most of the time he reads , if you will, to us sections of the Britannica that he finds interesting; shares his thoughts, and kvetches about life. He endless describes his wife Julie, so much that you feel that she is the greatest woman who ever lived. I guess he loves his wife. They are trying to have a baby in the book, so I guess the book as sex appeal. Just to give it away. They do succeed eventually.

The book is peppered with vignettes about the relationships with his boss, his father, his brother-in-law, and his appearance in ‘Who’s wants to be a Millionaire’ TV game show.
Not to mention joining Mensa, meeting so-called smart people including Alex Trabrek; whom he mistakes for a Mexican gardener and who’s personal contact excludes him from getting on Jeopardy, which is the New York Times of games shows apparently.

The author does sound like your whinny little friend who spends a lot of time in doors and has share every little thought with you; like a less neurotic Woody Allen. He does write so conversationally that the book reads like a very long conversational letter.

You learn interesting things and not-so interesting while following A.J.’s adventure in reading. For instance, the average of a person in Roman times lived to be 29 years and that there is no entry for Tom Cruise, which is slight to Julie.

It does get it boring in the middle as he goes on and on with the , , and ‘who cares’ . However, after putting the book to do something else, anything else, it picks up again, and in the end there is wisdom.

This is where this project/effort by the author and the reader of the The Know-It-All becomes a success. Because all involved puts a lot of information in their mind, information that will soon be forgotten, and comes out of with wisdom.

Jacobs learns to appreciate life in modern times. He learns that intelligence and knowledge might not be the same but live in the same neighborhood, which might be a quote from the book. He learns to appreciate his father, brother-in-law, and feels more prepared to raise his soon to be new born baby.

For the reader, the reader gets some knowledge at Jacob’s expense, some wisdom at Jacob’s expense, and not laughs also at Jacob’s expense. Get the book from the Library and there will be no expense to you.

The Beatles, The Biography by Bob Spitz

Just what the world needs, another biography of The Beatles. Surely, the pantheon of knowledge is lacking study of the Fab Four. The Beatles’, who are the most celebrated, studied, covered and renowned rock band ever, story is as a part of modern culture as any musical figure in history. The Beatles are really the first band, so to speak. Before The Beatles, you had Elvis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and the Crickets. It was usually some dude or some dude and his backing band. After The Beatles, it was all Rock Bands, The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, etc. The few that followed, for example Elvis Costello with his band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, were, in fact, referencing the old style for effect.

The Beatles in fact did not invent the genre but they developed it, so much that there has been very little ground that they did not cover. Like anyone is a young field, think Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in 1979, the new world was their’s to dominate. If you can be the first at something, do it.

Again, there has been much ado written of The Beatles. I have only read one other book on them, Here, There, and Everyway: my life recording The Beatles by Geoff Emerick, which was the best music memoir I have ever read. Still, I have seen the Anthology and other Beatles specials. I have listened to “Breakfast on with the Beatles” on the radio in High School. So, I think I know a thing or two about them.

And maybe, do because this book by Spitz offered little new information. There weren’t enough details that really told the story. The most detailed section was about Brian Epstein’s homosexuality.

Spitz does cover the whole story, but mostly with highlights. However, there were a few new things for me. He does dig in on Yoko Ono more than I seen before. She is greedy and out to destroy to The Beatles so that she can get John Lennon all to herself. Ono would be motivated by the financial security and legitimacy that Lennon would bring her.

He also details Lennon’s misery in his highly successful life. Lennon is angry and impulsive. Spitz takes the excuse that he is an artist, and offers little other explanation. You do get the idea that Lennon, for all his acting out, doesn’t take control of his life and instead to just reacts to it, which is explained by his childhood of being passed around from his mother to his aunt, and his exposure to his mother’s various boyfriends. Throughout the drama of John Lennon, as bad as that was, he bitch seems worse than his bite. He was easily taken advantage of and he instead punished those that were weaker than him.

Spitz goes pretty easy on Paul. Even Emerick who couldn’t be more aligned with Mr. McCartney was more critical.

What I think I got most out of the book, maybe because it was what I was most interested in were the bits about the song writing. Spitz describes Lennon and McCartney both as artists. The difference between there styles being that Lennon was a sculptor and McCartney a painter. Lennon would makes songs out of something else, a child’s drawing, a poster, another piece of art. While McCartney would use things that came out of him without even Paul understand exactly how. “Yesterday” came out of a dream and “Michelle” came out of a need for a song; and John remembering that Paul did some French thing.

There are facts here and there, which I didn’t know much but probably could have gotten from another source, like Ringo got paid less or Twist and Shout was recorded with John screaming while being horse , sick and in pain, which you can hear once you are aware of it.

I somehow doubt that this is the best Beatles book out there. In fact, if you are looking to learn more about them, I would suggest the DVD of the Anthology over this book. However, it’s fun learning about The Beatles, and I enjoyed it as a fan.

I think that success of the book is based on the success of everything new of The Beatles come out with years, decades after they broke up. They could release new Beatles CDs of the band turning their guitars and it would generate a charting position. People are looking to recapture something, and maybe something new will do that, even if it’s just the same and the packing is different. I am not sure what that “Something” is, but I know that it is certainly there.

Semi-Pro (2008)

About 10 years too late. Somehow a retro 70’s movie seems passé in this retro 80s, soon to be retro 90s era. Semi-Pro is another common man Will Ferrell feature with a strong supporting cast, but unlike Anchorman and Teledega Nights this one lacks something in Ferrell’s character development. Still, it follows the genre of a common alpha-male kinda getting somewhere in a semi-professional talent pool, which is funny because we can all relate to that in someway.
It is really well edited. The movie moves very well also. It turns out to be an underdog Basketball movie that you have seen before many times over. However, they do a good job of it, and the movie is mildly entertaining throughout
The supporting cast really does support Ferrell tired shtick. One might even say that the supporting carries the film, most are up and coming character actors that you know from the Daily Show or movies like Superbad. Also, actors like Woody Harrelson can hold their own.

As for the Ferrell character Jackie Moon, he doesn’t seem as well developed as his previous films, nor does the movie seem to be as focused exclusively around him.
Semi-Pro starts out with a hilarious song over-the-top sexual song sung by Farrell and an introduction equally as funny. You see Jackie Moon in his natural environment, which is almost exactly like the start of Anchorman. Then it goes into that underdog sports story, and loses some steam.
Sadly, there are no guest appearances by the Wilson brothers or anyone like that.
Overall, it is worth a Saturday matinee price but probably not any more than that.