Best mid atlantic us biographies according to redditors

Other posters have touched on the heart of it, but here is a little elaboration if you want to know more:

The only recorded instance of pirates burying treasure anywhere is when Captain William Kidd buried a portion of his ship's cargo on Long Island before meeting with Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont and Governor of New York. It bears mentioning that he didn't bury this treasure specifically to dig it up later, but because he was facing charges of murder and piracy and his goods were likely to be seized.

He buried the treasure to use as a bargaining chip with Bellomont, hoping it would give him leverage and help him avoid going to trial (Bellomont was one of his benefactors and had even financed a previous voyage). This tactic failed completely, and Kidd's treasure was simply dug up. There are rumors that portions of it remain buried, but this is almost certainly nonsense.

I'd also like to point out that Kidd, in terms of what we usually refer to as 'pirates', hardly qualifies at all. He was well known and respected among the colonial nobility, went to sea with the funds and blessings of many high-ranking people, and happened to end up on the wrong end of a political scandal and with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak. His trial was rushed, and he may have even had a legitimate letter of marque, making him a privateer, not a pirate.

Robert Louis Stevenson used Kidd (or rather, the fictionalized Kidd-as-pirate that had persisted to the late 19th century) as a prototype for Long John Silver, and embellished the part about burying his treasure. Treasure Island is really the root of so many of the pirate icons we know and love (peg legs, parrots, buried treasure, etc.).

If you're interested in learning more, I recommend you take a look at Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates, The Pirate Hunter, and Under the Black Flag.

Edit: It's actually Gardiner's Island, as one of the above posters mentioned, which is near Long Island, but is separate.

I really enjoyed Peter Sagal's (from NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me show) running memoir 'The Incomplete Book of Running.' Not a how to, but very engaging, funny and thoughtful. I got it as an audiobook since he reads it himself, and you know, he's a radio guy so he's got a good voice. Covers everything from the runners trots to the Boston marathon bombing.

This guy is actually something I'm fairly well versed on. I read a whole book by his psychiatrist about him less than a year ago.

David Berkowitz is above all a compulsive liar. He falsely claimed insanity regarding his hallucinations about Captain Cosmo and Harvey the demon dog. They were false by admission and by virtue of that hallucinations are independent of the real world whereas he claimed his were based off the barking of a neighbor's dog. The real cause was sexual frustration and abandonment issues from being adopted.

In jail he even slit his own throat in order to give himself a harder exterior look by the scar and so he could say "I'm not going to snitch on the guy who did this"(paraphrased)

Inmates didn't like him because you're on the bottom of the pecking order if you kill innocent young women.

I've little doubt that this new found faith of his is anything more than spit-shine for the parole board, weaseling out of prison politics and trying to make some connections outside of jail. Above all it's probably just because he wants some more attention. You don't go writing murder notes and sending them to the newspaper if you aren't an attention whore.

Even if he is genuine, this does little but to show the power of scapegoating in the bible.

"Report from Engine Company 82," by Dennis Smith, a Bronx firefighter back in the 1970s. Brutal stories, funny stories, it's all in there.

A more scholarly source on the history of Captain Kidd is Robert C. Ritchie's Captain Kidd and the War against the Pirates. Zacks doesn't provide that sources for where he gets his conclusions that Kidd was innocent.
http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Kidd-War-against-Pirates/dp/0674095022

Pretty sure you're thinking of RANDOM FAMILY by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.

http://www.amazon.com/Random-Family-Drugs-Trouble-Coming/dp/0684863871

Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada

I actually heard about this on reddit in the comments section of a video of a teacher stopping a fight. I work with kids, most of whom have moved to our district from the Southside of Chicago, and I think it would help me understand where they're coming from.

Looking for a ship is a good read for research. A bit dated, but things are the same in many regards today.

I'll try and give feedback on your writing when I have time later.

They were a group of Jewish and Italian gangsters based in Brownsville, Brooklyn that operated in the late 1920's - 1940's as hitmen for the mafia. When another gangster stepped out of line e.g. killed someone they shouldn't have, didn't pay money that was owed, became an informant, or broke an agreement the mafia bosses would decide that he had to be killed. The order would be passed onto Louis Lepke, who was the boss of Murder Inc, and he would get his hitmen to carry out the hit. They were kept on a retainer so they would always be available and they would be paid extra for each hit. They would often fly out to another city, follow the victim for a few days and work out their routine in order to find the best opportunity for a clean hit. After the deed they would fly back home and the local police would not be able to track the killers. They used a variety of methods but a favourite would be to use an ice pick as it was silent and sometimes they would tie a victim up in such a way that through their own struggling the victim would strangle himself to death.

A famous victim was Dutch Schultz, a very big New York gangster at the time. A New York prosecutor called Thomas Dewey was trying his hardest to put gangsters in prison and because of this Schultz wanted him killed. All the other mob bosses told him he couldn't do it because it would just make the police and the public go after them even more but Schultz said he was going to do it anyway. The bosses decided Schultz had to go so hitmen Mendy Weiss and Charles "The bug" Workman shot Schultz at a restaurant in New Jersey.

One of the top people within Murder Inc (which BTW was a name made up by the newspapers) was a Jewish gangster named Abe Reles. He had directly committed and been present at many murders. He found out that other people in Murder Inc were starting to mention his name to the police so he thought he would beat them to it to save his skin. One day he walked into a police station and said he would be willing to give information on hundreds of murders as long as he received complete immunity. The police could not pass up this opportunity and so they made the deal.

Reles gave information that put many of his former colleagues in prison and effectively ended Murder Inc, he also gave evidence against his boss Louis Lepke who ended up receiving the death penalty, I believe he is still the highest ranking gangster to receive that punishment. In between his court appearances Reles was being held at a hotel for his own safety, he had 6 policemen watching him at all times. He was soon to give evidence against Albert Anastasia who was arguably ranked even higher than Lepke and was a direct link to the very biggest gangsters of the time such as Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello and Meyer Lanksy. But one morning Reles was found dead on the roof of an adjoining building. It looked like he fell out of his window whilst trying to escape but he was so far from the the window that it would not have been possible to jump that far. Lucky Luciano later stated the Frank Costello had bribed the guards to perform this hit.

For further info check out the book Murder, Inc: The Story of the Syndicate

Could you be referring to THE HAUNTED by Robert Curran? Based on the 'true story' haunting of the Smurl family. It was also turned into a TV movie in the late 80s/early 90s (which is awesome cheesy fun).

When did Piazza admit using PEDs? He said he would discuss it in his book, and in the book, he says he didn't use them.

A good friend of mine got me a first edition copy of Brendan Behan’s New York for my birthday last year. It offers an immigrant’s perspective on the city and has a bunch of lovely illustrations that capture what the city was like in the 1960s. Another fantastic book that I picked up that I think every New Yorker interested in history should read is Springs and Wells of Manhattan and the Bronx by James Reuel Smith. Smith went up Manhattan and found old wells and springs to document before they were destroyed. Given the inordinate impact that the old watercourses still have on the city (they often flood old buildings and cause troubles during construction), it’s an invaluable resource.

The Goshawk by T.H. White

lovely. Engine 82 is out of West Farms in the South Bronx. here it is today

there is a book written by one of its fire fighters as well

also seen in this vintage BBC documentary The Bronx is Burning

My wife is the manager of a GED program for 17-24 year olds in Chicago. I've heard many stories similar to Dukie's (and the rest of the child characters for that matter)...parents stealing from their kids, blatant neglect, nowhere to go, living on friends\family's couches, on the street, gang members who want out with nowhere to go. It's quite disturbing just how many kids out there start so far in the hole. These kids I hear about (and met) are also very street smart, but don't have essential skills to be successful beyond a minimum wage job indicative of failed institutions and social neglect that plague our inner city. Season 4 was so hard for me to watch because of these parallels.

If anyone is interested into getting a further glimpse of the inner-city life, there is a great book my wife had me read called "Random Family". While it is considered a work of fiction, it is written by a social worker who gathered her insight from working in the Bronx for about 11 years and most of the characters are based on real people. I had read it before watching The Wire and gave more context to the kid’s environment.

There's definitely a story. It can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Shot-Mike-Piazza/dp/1439150230

Thanks! I just wish I could say there were more good things on the list.

And thanks for the Patton recommendation, I'll check that out.

I do recommend anything by John McPhee in the strongest possible terms. It's all non-fiction, and always interesting and often very funny, and about a tremendous range of topics.

Like fishing? Read The Founding Fish, which is all about the American Shad, and I mentioned before.

Like boats? Looking For a Ship is about the merchant marine.

Planes, trains, and automobiles (and more boats)? Uncommon Carriers deals with all of them, and why almost all lobster eaten in the US comes from Kentucky.

Care for tales about why New Orleans is doomed, pissing on lava , and debris flows in LA? The Control of Nature covers those.

Fruit? How about Oranges?

Geology? The Annals of the Former World is a compilation of several shorter books more or less following I-80 across the US.

Sports? Tennis (and basketball to a lesser extent). He's also written about lacrosse in various magazines.

...And a ton of other stuff, ranging from bears to farmers markets to nuclear energy to lifting body airplanes to Switzerland.

I know the woman who wrote the book about this The Woman Who Wasn't There
She's a great author! Support her!

There's a great book on her, which was turned into a documentary - Youtube link. I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the story - The Woman Who Wasn't There (Amazon UK link). Absolutely fascinating and horrifying at the same time.

I just finished Takedown by Rick Cowen, a true-crime book about his infiltration into the Mafia-run New York City garbage and recycling industry in the early 1990's, an infiltration which brought down many major crime figures. I loved it., though it is a different genre than what you are currently listening to.

Read report from engine co 82 if you are interested. Written in the 60s/70s by a guy at the busiest fire station in the bronx/harlem new york. Fascinating read, right at the beginning of modern firefighting. https://www.amazon.com/Report-Engine-Co-Dennis-Smith/dp/0446675520

guy wrote a few books, but this was the first.

> It stated that hearing people were close minded and self involved.

This is true, but your teacher made the statement out of context.

With regard to deafness and Deaf issues, I would actually agree that the majority of hearing people are closed minded and self involved.

As an example: I'm starting a new job soon in the video relay industry. I recently sent a farewell letter to co-workers and in it I mentioned my new position. Later, I was approached by one of them who had been thinking about it and asked "Can't they just use SMS? That already works fine. " Even after explaining about English skills, native language, SMS being slow and error prone, etc he still didn't quite get why a deaf person would rather use sign language to communicate with someone instead of sending a text.

Obviously, hearing people aren't any more closed minded and self involved than any one else. However, people experience the world through our senses and our understanding of it is shaped by those experiences. Hearing people understand deafness (cannot hear) but cannot easily understand Deafness (experiencing the world without sound) and encounters such as I described above are the norm. This lack of understanding influences their behaviors and opinions towards deaf people.

Likewise, deaf people, whose own understanding of the world is also shaped by their experiences understand what sound and hearing is (vibrations of air turned into electrical impulses and interpreted by the brain) but lack understanding of what it's like to experience the world with sound. And just like hearing people, this lack of understanding influences their behaviors and opinions towards hearing people.

So far so good right? This is mostly just what you'd expect to find with any two cultures with a language barrier - except that's not JUST a cultural and language barrier. Deaf people learn to read and write spoken languages and hearing people learn sign languages but still tensions exist.

In the case of hearing people, the historical approach towards the deaf has been "make them Hearing, like us!" because that's what they understand. Give them hearing aids and implants and make them speak like we do. "Fix them", etc.

This Deaf oppression, oralism and audism has left it's mark on Deaf culture. Like in many cultures, there is a strong cultural memory in the Deaf community. For some people they are drawn to the Deaf Power subculture and in even more extreme cases develop reverse audism and persecution complexes but that's a very small minority. I find it hard to believe that 50% of the Deaf people you've encountered believe born Deaf are superior people (which is the very definition of reverse audism.) Superior signers maybe, but not superior people.

More subtle issues derive from just plain, run of the mill assumptions, misunderstandings, and miscommunications. What might be considered perfectly normal behavior to one person is taken to be intentionally motivated by malice on the other person's part, and it goes both ways.

I started this response hours ago and since then have had lunch and left and come back, so I might have veered off track at some point. For sure I lost my original train of thought and I don't think I can catch it again. Train Go Sorry.

So I'll just stop here. I hope this response helped.