This episode of Burns and Allen is just as funny as all the others I've heard. But I've learned one thing--don't buy a one episode tape with just 15 minutes per side. Just when I got into the story it was time to flip the tape. From now on I'm only buying tapes that have a whole 30 minute episode on each side. They're much more enjoyable.

A VERY WELL WRITTEN STORY ABOUT THE RAH RAH COACH OF THE REDSKINS. IT IS A STORY OF AN INTENSE, WORKAHOLIC, NEVER SATISFIED COACH, WHO BELIEVES IN WINNING WITH VETERANS. HE HAD IMMEDIATE SUCCESS WEAREVER HE COACHED. THE BOOK FOLLOWS HIS PLAYING CAREER IN SCHOOL FOLLOWED BY HIS COACHING CAREER IN COLLEGE, ASSISTANT COACH IN NFL, AND AS HEAD COACH OF RAMS AND REDSKINS. IT MOSTLY COVERS THE 1971 REDSKIN SEASON AND THEIR RISE TO THE PLAYOFFS. VERY DETAILED AND FACT FILLED. WELL WORTH READING.

If your familiarity with George Burns only goes back as far as "The Sunshine Boys", here's a refresher course. Of the six hour-long cassettes, four of these come from the 1940s-era Burns and Allen show, one of the classic sitcoms of American radio (and early TV). The remaining tapes include guest spots George did (with and without Gracie) with Jack Benny and Bing Crosby. All programs are complete (or as complete as possible). A few of my favorite Burns and Allen shows were passed over in the selection, which is why this set doesn't get the extra star. However, this set is a bushel of fun and a great gift idea for the comedy fan in your life

Any comprehensive study of a historical figure must include a reading of his or her words, public and private. This collection of letters and addresses spans George Washington's entire life and provides a behind the scenes look at how he managed many of the seemingly insurmountable problems he faced. Maintaining good order and discipline in the continental army, dealing with a lethargic continental congress, lending support for adoption of the consitiution, the trials of organizing the executive branch of the government as it's first president...all are brought to life through the great man's own words. His numerous private letters show the depth of feeling he held for his friends. The only fault in this work is a lack of in-depth background information on the events and people discussed in his writings. Additional footnotes would help those of us only vaugely familiar with that period in American history. This book is a great opportunity for all Americans to come to know the man and the magnitude of his achievements better than ever before.

This is not a bad book at all.... if you want to learn how to play Pai Gow POKER. However, "Pai Gow" is NOT Pai Gow Poker, and if Pai Gow TILES (the real, original game) is what you're really looking for, you'll have to look elsewhere - such as the excellent book by Michael Musante. If you want to learn Pai Gow POKER, stick to the classic work by Stanford Wong - the only one you'll need.

As a Canadian I find that this book is an excellant example of what can be achieved through exploring our multi-culturalism. The children's artwork, coupled with the text make this book very informative to others so they can understand a little about other cultures, and see the differences and similarities. What I find to be an added bonus is that the text is written both in English, and the writers native language! An excellent read for children mostly, but still enjoyable to adults.

This is an accessible introduction to George Mason, a Revolutionary Virginian of lesser fame. The book is very short and the print rather large, making this an easy read. Robert Rutland dwells mostly on Mason's public life, only hinting at his private life. Like Jefferson, Mason was a slaveholder who abhorred slavery (he wished the Constitutional Convention had abolished it), but Rutland leaves this paradox unexplored. For those of a scholarly bent, the book lacks footnotes. Mason was the moving force behind Virginia's Declaration of Rights, and, for that reason alone, is quite significant. Any person wishing to learn more about him will find this book a good place to start.

In an era when Americans seem to be quickly losing touch with their own history, one of the greatest crimes of all is that the name of George Mason has faded into almost complete obscurity (if there weren't a university named after him in Virginia, how much worse would it be?).

In his foreword to this brief book, Dumas Malone, the biographer of Jefferson, notes what a shame this is: 'More than any other single American, except possibly Thomas Jefferson, whom in some sense he anticipated, George Mason may be regarded as the herald of this new era [of declarations of rights]; and in our own age, when the rights of individual human beings are being challenged by totalitarianism around the world, men can still find inspiration in his noble words.'

Biographies of Mason, the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (which inspired, among other things, the US Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen) are woefully few. Rutland's short book is a fine and easily digestible introduction to the man, his times, and his impact upon history. The value of that is hard to overstate.

It seems quite clear, that the author reviewes his own books: After reading the comment of the as it seems real Albert Hardounian, I became further convinced. I came across some fishy reviews for his other books, the style is obviously the same, and, as I read many of Pattersons books, the style the same as in the books he wrote!

It's hard to believe that the same man who wrote the brilliant "Struggle of the Magicians" also wrote this thing. We can only assume that Patterson evolved very much both as an individual and as a writer in the intervening years (this is the earlier work). The book is an inelegant string of shameful incidents in the author's life; he merely presents them with a sort of glee at his own ability at objective (in his mind) self-disclosure, without ever mentioning in any detail about how Gurdjieff's ideas ever helped him to use these incidents in transcending himself. You can get that much from daytime talk shows, if you want it. It seemed at the very end that the book had a happy ending, when Patterson seems to be leaving those antedeluvian "masters" like Gurdjieff and Jung behind (having discovered a true anti-guru in Sunyata), but unfortunately for him and perhaps fortunately for readers, it didn't turn out that way. To this day he continues to propagate the Gurdjieff cult in a series of wonderfully well-written books that are easily the best of their dubious kind.

This is an esoteric book that most people won't recognize as such. That's because of the picture most people have of what constitutes an esoterically spiritual person. The pursuit of an ultimate reality beyond the cacophony of mundane life is connected with images of serene meditating monks, of wandering recluses, of wide-eyed dreamers and spooky mystics. To read instead a book full of parties and socializing, office politics, career moves, flirtation and adultery, and ego posturing seems odd. "Real" esoteric and spiritual people are expected to get away from petty socializing, to take vows of poverty and chastity, and to put their all into the pursuit of some strenuous austerity or achievement, as do monks, yogis and fakirs. But this book is about the Fourth Way, in which mundane life is grist for the mill of self-development.

It covers a period in the adult life of William Patrick Patterson. He's a writer and editor in the cutthroat milieu of New York City. He's also married, and tempted by bold, modern women. He rises like a meteor and is shot down by an office competitor. He knows wealth and poverty, arrogance and fear. He finds and honors a rare spiritual teacher. More than one in fact. There's cussing, drinking, verbal clashes, and relationships gone bad.

It's not the bald subject matter, but the insights and principles that illuminate it that distinguish this book from an ordinary memoir. Here is one of many examples: Patterson faces an ugly truth underlying his employment situation concerning the way a boss is using and mistreating him. He withdraws his cooperation from the boss at a critical moment, knowing full well the it will at least create extreme unpleasantness at the office if not result in his ultimate dismissal. He has upset an equilibrium that needed to be upset, yet what will the consequences be? Can he get control and set the situation right or not? There is no way of knowing this at the moment his decision must be made. He is on a fatal trajectory that continues when the co-worker confronts him and demands an explanation for Patterson's absence from an award dinner. Should he appease his adversary by making a phony excuse? "These two "I"'s inside me debate. The one, very rational, mature-sounding. The arguments are so reasonable, sensible. So what if I lie - so what? But then, just at the last instant, a feeling comes of total disgust - disgust for what stood before me, disgust with that whole way of life. And inside that feeling a silent voice declares: I-am-not-going-to-lie-to-him.

I tell him: "No excuse."

"What!" he screams and sags, a look of horror, bewilderment, frozen to his face .......

And something falls away and I know right then: I have broken free of him."

Later he tells his wife that he'll apologize if she really wants him too but is not optimistic about doing it, because: "I feel like there's you know, a big movement going on. Big wheels are turning. I'm at the interval in the octave. all this has to happen. I'm being moved on now."

How right he was. At the end of the book he had moved on and found some peace. With his wife, with his departed teacher the formidable Lord Pentland, and with a new career. No this is not a book claiming that the Fourth Way will make one rich, sexy, happy, or lucky. But it is about what the study and practice of the Fourth Way looks like from the inside of a modern man in modern society, which is where it was meant to be practiced all along.

What is it not about? : Gossip, lies, boasting, turning the truth upside down, praising one-self (particularely by using pseudo-names and writing reviews about ones own books, yes, that happens very strongly with Patterson). I could go on and on.

"The Gurdjieff-work" has been quite protected until now, but now it seems, that since most of the great followers have died, the the old saying can be applied: When the cat is out, the mice are dancing. Well, here we have quite a big mouse, rather a...

The reviews under the name of Ivan Butovitch and under R. Cazares have the same style. I do not trust these reviews.
The reviews of "Eating the I" by the same author stronly
suggest that this problem is repeating itself here again!

I was very curious about this book, but after reading it, I found that it is basically advertisement for Pattersons workline, and trying to put down others. Clever attempt, but
not for the serious. Patterson gives in to the fascination of
the "rainbowpress", reducing readers and writers to this sort of "sharks, thriving in pecking in the serious work and suffering of people, who are far above them"!

If this book were stripped down so that it only told George's story, it would be excellent. But it contains far too much fiction and flowers to be considered biography. I got thoroughly tired of the terms "prodigal singer" and "snake-oil" and I didn't see why the author found it necessary to insert his personal opinions of all the characters. The narrative portions were written like dialogue without quotes. It came across as a weak attempt to sound folksy, with the true result of sounding unprofessional.

The book had interesting content, but it could be fiction. The author only refered to sources that claimed that they had seen this or that they had heard that Mr. Jones had done that. All of the incidents were "hear say".If you read this book and read I lived to tell it All, you can see the incidents are not the same. Mr. Allen wrote an interesting book and if Biographys interest you, you should read it, but it needs to be compared with the autobiography. Actually if you would combine both books, one heck of a screen play could be developed from the contents.

i liked this book better than the one written by tom carter. they are about the same,this one has more un-flattering stories in it. stories that never made it in the authorized (tom carter) version. its the most incredible biography i've ever read. a must read. don't plan on setting it down!!!