Word: ryans
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...baseball fan for half a century, I dispute Tom Callahan's contention that we all depreciate present-day stars in favor of those from our youth [Aug. 22]. I rate Johnny Bench ahead of Mickey Cochrane, Bill Dickey and Roy Campanella. I rate Strikeout Artist Nolan Ryan above Bob Feller, Dizzy Dean and Sandy Koufax. And I rate Callahan's pithy, disciplined but delicious piece on the waning golden age above any single article I have ever read by Grantland Rice or Red Smith. So, Tom, don't go around prejudging us as prejudgers! Hear...
DEADLINES by Desmond Ryan...
According to Ryan's report, the Army's use of Barbie began in the confusing aftermath of the war, as American attention shifted from defeating the fascist foe to a more subtle ideological battleground. While the CIA was in the process of being established, the Army was faced with the daunting task of assembling an effective ring of European informants to spy on Germany as well as on the Soviets and the other occupying powers. For help, the Army turned to veterans of Hitler's police and intelligence services, like Barbie, whom the CIC placed...
...veracity, try Deadlines, written by Philadelphia Inquirer Film Critic Desmond Ryan and crammed with enough lore and craft about U.S. newspapers to qualify the reader for a diploma from the Annenberg School of Communication at Penn. Around a wheezing plot about a young investigative reporter trying to get the Big Story (a U.S. Congressman turns out to be-gasp!-corrupt), Ryan writes knowledgeably about libel law, newsroom computerization, labor disputes, inheritance taxes and galleys of other forces threatening to turn American newspapers into bland copies of one another...
Unfortunately, Ryan's characters talk like relics from The Front Page ("You want to hang a Congressman by the balls, you need more than a piece of thread. And how many times do I have to tell you not to smoke in my office?"). Otherwise, Deadlines is honest, unpretentious and informative. Breasted and Weinraub should have taught Ryan the third rule of journalism: don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. -By Donald Morrison