The subtitle of this remarkable book written by Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan is “From sex to money to food, Taming our primal instincts.” The first sentence grabbed my attention. “Consider this book an owner’s manual for your brain.” That is followed a bit later by warning us that our brains have minds of their own and sometimes (or often) they encourage us to do things that aren’t in our best interest. For example, our genes encourage us to eat in excess when food is plentiful to survive when food is scarce. The trouble is that food is seldom scarce for some of us.

We also enjoy having nice things and spend money to have them in times of plenty. That might have worked well when we had to use actual cash and noticed when it was gone. Credit cards allow us to buy pretty and fun things without the need for cash. Making yourself pay off the credit card balance when the bill arrives is one way to learn when you aren’t in a time of plenty. Learning to save doesn’t come naturally. Surveys indicate people want to save ten percent of their income, but the reality is that the average savings is less than one percent. The authors say they found they had to hide money from themselves in the form of automatic withdrawals into some kind of investment or savings account. Another interesting discussion is about how we are genetically programmed to be lazy. This comes from when energy in the form of food was often hard to obtain and frivolous activity wasted energy. “The only people who exercise in poor countries are the privileged…” Animals that expend energy needlessly die and their genes die with them.” Continue reading →

I was intrigued about this man’s story, and this book was the one available at the local library under “young adult biographies.” The book was short, easy to read, and welcome compared to the complex and lengthy books I’ve recently reviewed. It is a well-written book describing the life of a fascinating person. The inside flap begins, “Espionage agent. Wartime hero who refused the Medal of Freedom. Major league catcher who practiced law in the off-season. Eccentric, intellectual, athletic Moe Berg…” Berg’s father was an industrious Jewish immigrant from Kippinya Ukraine who is described as neither practicing his religion nor trying to hide it. Morris, immediately nicknamed Moe, was the third child of Bernard and Rose Berg. Moe became passionate about baseball very young. He achieved his first baseball headline while playing on a Methodist team under the name “Runt Wolfe.”

Moe’s father disapproved of baseball as a waste of time and never changed his opinion even as Moe played baseball for Princeton and then began making a living at it in the major leagues. Moe signed with the Brooklyn Robins (later Dodgers) in 1923. He was given a three month contract that paid him $5,000 to play shortstop. He was described by one scout as “Good field, no hit.” He attracted the attention because he was an avid reader and enjoyed learning new languages. He was teased that he “…could speak many languages but couldn’t hit in any of them.” Fellow White Sox catcher Frank “Buck” Crouse told him, “I don’t care how many of them degrees you got. They ain’t learned you to hit a curve ball no better than me.” He had a career hitting average of .243 and was also described as a very slow runner (something that struck me as odd for a shortstop.) Continue reading →