Bills fans are still in shock over the surprising 16-0 win over the New England Patriots. This week, the Buffalo Bills travel to California to play the Rams. The Rams are 3-1 and looking vastly improved. The Bills get their massive Defensive End Marcell Dareus back from his 4-game Drug Suspension. The Rams are favored by 4 points. How will your favorite NFL do today>

US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport and 208 seconds later had a “forced water landing” in the Hudson River. We all remember the dazed passengers standing on the wings of the plane waiting for the ferries to rescue them. Tom Hanks plays the pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, who makes the fateful decision not to try to turn back to LaGuardia or try for Teterboro Airport in New Jersey but to put his plane down in the Hudson River. We know the story, we know the ending, so what is there to hold our attention? Sully manufactures a lot of drama as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates the incident. This movie is less than 90 minutes but it felt longer. GRADE: B-

Back in the 1980s, Loren D. Estleman wrote some wonderful mystery novels and a bunch of first-rate short stories. Many of these books and stories involved Estleman’s private detective, Amos Walker. Amos Walker reminds me of Philip Marlowe in Detroit without many of Raymond Chandler’s prose flourishes. The stories in General Murders (1988) draw Walker into several murder investigations. Amos Walk’s specialty is finding people. That skill comes in handy in many of these stories. Most of the plots of the stories in General Murders center around human weakness. The stories are clever and well-written. If you’re looking for private detective stories with actual sleuthing, pick up a copy of General Murders. GRADE: A-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Greektown
Robber’s Roost
Dead Soldier
Eight Mile and Dequindre
I’m in the Book
Bodyguards Shoot Second
The Prettiest Dead Girl in Detroit
Blond and Blue
Bloody July

Cynthia Ozick recommended Collected Stories: A Play (1998) in her New York Times Book Review interview in “By the Book.” I had never heard of Donal Margulies, the author of Collected Stories, but I learned Margulies taught playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.

Collected Stories is a two-character play. Ruth, an established writer, is teaching a fiction writing course. Ruth states that she doesn’t think writing can be taught, but she does her best anyway. Lisa is a graduate student who dreams of being a writer like Ruth. Lisa idolizes Ruth. And with some luck and skill, Lisa becomes Ruth’s assistant.

This two-act play extends over six years. The nature of the relationship between Ruth and Lisa changes. The professor-student relationship changes. Their “friendship” changes. I found Collected Stories smart and clever and surprising. GRADE: B+

“We wanted flying cars–instead we got 140 characters.” Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire made this comment famous in his analysis of the shortcomings of the Future. Robert J. Gordon documents what happened to our Future in this mammoth book (784 pages!). From 1870 to 1970 incredible inventions and changes boosted economic growth in the U.S.: electricity, cars, planes, antibiotics, air conditioning, rockets, and computers. But, as Gordon points out, the pace of innovation has slowed to a crawl. Cat videos on YouTube don’t have quite the economic impact as the invention of the telephone. Gordon’s message in a nutshell is that unless technological innovation increases, the growth rate of the U.S. economy will stagnant (kinda like it’s doing now). If you’re interested in economic history, this magisterial book is powerful and comprehensive. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface ix
1. Introduction: The Ascent and Descent of Growth 1
PART I. 1870-1940–THE GREAT INVENTIONS CREATE A REVOLUTION INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE HOME 25
2. The Starting Point: Life and Work in 1870 27
3. What They Ate and Wore and Where They Bought It 62
4. The American Home: From Dark and Isolated to Bright and Networked 94
5. Motors Overtake Horses and Rail: Inventions and Incremental Improvements 129
6. From Telegraph to Talkies: Information, Communication, and Entertainment 172
7. Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Illness and Early Death 206
8. Working Conditions on the Job and at Home 247
9. Taking and Mitigating Risks: Consumer Credit, Insurance, and the Government 288
Entr’acte. The Midcentury Shift from Revolution to Evolution 319
PART II. 1940-2015–THE GOLDEN AGE AND THE EARLY WARNINGS OF SLOWER GROWTH 329
10. Fast Food, Synthetic Fibers, and Split-Level Subdivisions: The Slowing Transformation of Food, Clothing, and Housing 331
11. See the USA in Your Chevrolet or from a Plane Flying High Above 374
12. Entertainment and Communications from Milton Berle to the iPhone 409
13. Computers and the Internet from the Mainframe to Facebook 441
14. Antibiotics, CT Scans, and the Evolution of Health and Medicine 461
15. Work, Youth, and Retirement at Home and on the Job 498
Entr’acte. Toward an Understanding of Slower Growth 522
PART III. THE SOURCES OF FASTER AND SLOWER GROWTH 533
16. The Great Leap Forward from the 1920s to the 1950s: What Set of Miracles Created It? 535
17. Innovation: Can the Future Match the Great Inventions of the Past? 566
18. Inequality and the Other Headwinds: Long-Run American Economic Growth Slows to a Crawl 605
Postscript: America’s Growth Achievement and the Path Ahead 641
Acknowledgments 653
Data Appendix 657
Notes 667
References 717
Credits 741
Index 745

Tim Burton’s movie is better than Ransom Riggs’s book. Miss Peregine’s School For Peculiar Children is a novel of discovery. A teenage boy finds the body of his dead grandfather. His grandfather told his grandson incredible stories of a “special school” for special children. The boy find Miss Peregine’s School in Wales…and finds a lot more. Tim Burton’s movie follows the book closely until the end (which is a Good Thing). Yes, the children are “peculiar.” Samuel R. Jackson is the Bad Guy. Although there are monsters in the book and the movie, I didn’t find them very scary. Mildly entertaining. GRADE: B+ (movie), B- (book)

These two volumes present “The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek” in an entertaining fashion. Each episode, each movie, and all the trivia you could imagine–it’s all here. I’ve only read the first volume, but plenty of memories fired up as I encountered the decisions made at the beginning of Star Trek to focus on stories based on science fiction short stories. If you’re a Star Trek fan, these books are as good as it gets. Do you have a favorite Star Trek episode or movie? GRADE: A

The Bills lost their best offensive player, wide receiver Sammy Watkins, for 8 weeks because of a foot problem. The Patriots will be without Tom Brady who is serving his Deflategate suspension. Many fans thought that Head Coach Bill Belichick would lose games with Brady gone, but the Patriots are 3-0 using backup QBs. I think it’s time Bill Belichick is acknowledged as a great coach. How will your favorite NFL do today?

TV (The Book) is subtitled: “Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time.” Sepinwall and Seitz make their case for the “Best” TV shows and rank 100 TV series. But most TV fans will focus on the TOP 10. Here they are:
1. The Simpsons
2. The Sopranos
3. The Wire
4. Cheers
5. Breaking Bad
6. Mad Men
7. Seinfeld
8. I Love Lucy
9. Deadwood
10. All in the Family
I have no major arguments with this list. How about you?