Wayne Mutza has written the definitive work on the airplane that defined land-based Long-Range Maritime Patrol (LRMP) aircraft in the years following WWII.

The author begins with Lockheed's original proposal, and follows the Neptune through a comprehensive history of every major and minor variation through the Vietnam War. My memory is a little different in a few places - I recall the "big" tip tanks holding 350 gallons each and the "small" ones 275 - but that's all 35 years ago, and a P-2 wingtip is a lonely place...[and so much for memory - the P2V-5 pilot's handbook has the small tanks at 200 gal.]

I would have liked to see more on the Neptune in Reserve service, but that's only my personal perspective, and certainly doesn't change the story of the airplane itself.

Don't know what it is about Schiffer's books but like David Reade's P-3 Orion Book, Mutza's work also lacks an index - somewhat compensated for by the 11 Appendices.

~500 hr USNR Aircrewman (FCO) P2V-4, P2V-5FS, P2V-6 (1962-1966) + 2 flights OP-2E 1968.

Mr. Mutza deserves a standing ovation for his outstanding publication on the P2 Neptune aircraft family. As a former crewman on SP-2E/H aircraft I found his discussion of this aircraft most thorough, quite competent and absolutely entertaining. Well Done!

Wayne Mutza has created a fully illustrated history of the venerable Lockheed P2 Neptune that is a MUST READ for any military aviation affectionado. I amassed over 2500 crew hours in the Neptune over a ten year period, including night combat operations in the only NP-2H, and could hardly put his coverage of the seven models of the P2 and their numerous variations down, I just had to finish it! The color illustrations and photographs are superbly annotated with accurate, detailed captions of the Neptune's 55-year history including perhaps the most famous Neptune, the "Truculent Turtle". Several P2V-7's are still flying today in their roll as a "fire-bomber"! If you want the complete story of the Neptune, this is the book for you!

The combination of poetry and photography make this book appealing for a variety of readers. The photography is especially humorous, for ex., a piece called "Second Service" pictures a chapel half full of hay. The poetry is entertaining and classic Minnesotan, covering fishing, Norwegian humor, landscape, and of course, climate.

These poems and the accompanying photos bring back memories of summer vacations spent visiting relatives in northern Minnesota. Word scultures, along with visual portraits of life "up North" will make this an enjoyable read for you. If you liked the movie "Grouchy Old Men", you will love this book. Anyone with a small town experience will chuckle at the poignant humor and sigh at half forgotten memories remembered. I bought three more copies to share with friends and family.

I lived in Minnesota for 11 years. While working on the Eastern Coast of the United States for a while I happened to find myself in a rather large bookstore in mid-town Manhattan on one of my weekends off. Upon browsing for nothing in particular, I happened upon the book Minnesota Gothic. I brought it home and read through it all in one evening (it's not big at all). Upon completion, I realized how much I missed Minnesota. The poems are simple yet heartwarming, and fun to read while the accompanying pictures add more clarity to the uniqueness of the authors' Minnesota. The authors caught the spirit of that state as well as anyone could, including the likes of the more well known Garrison Keilor. The book is Minnesota, and anyone "from here" or the upper mid-west will easily identify with it and simply enjoy it.

I couldn't put it down. In fact, I've read it twice more since. It seemed I had found someone else that verbalized the sentiments I had, relative to my overall "church" experience. Wayne does an excellent job of not only putting this in writing, but motivates and provokes the reader to move toward the intimate relationship with God for which we all really do look. Should be required reading for every Believer! Pass it on.

Pastor Jacobsen writes openly and honestly about the problems confronting todays church and Christianity in general. It is written from the perspective of a man who is earnestly seeking the face of God and His will with none of the frills and trimmings of modern Christianity.A very "Back to the Basics" book. Next to my Bible, this is my most valued book in my library. I keep having to buy new copies as I loan them out to pastors and never see them again!!! I recommend VERY highly!

Ever felt like you're on the outside looking in? Why do those church programs look so good when it feels to you like it's all for show? This heart-felt, Scripture-based plea for intimacy is a must for those who are seeking to know more of what God wants the church to be.

In this book we see games we have played many times, and have (maybe) become bored with, revitalized with clever ideas, enhancements and suggestions from the author. As an example, consider the section on balancing non-symmetric games (such as Chess and Go which have an inbuilt first person advantage). Bidding, simultaneous playing of two games and the ingeneous "I'll make a move and then you decide whether to play black or white" idea where one player makes a move that the other player has to decide is bad or good are suggestions that are useful not just in the context given, but in the design and evaluation of all games. Recommended for anyone who enjoys, studies, reviews or designs games -- especially strategy games.

Wayne Schmittberger is a longtime associate of Games Magazine. It's a lot of fun to tinker with games to see how they change. The growth in Chess Variants is just one aspect of this. He explains those well, along with variants on Go, Risk, Monopoly, and many other games. He introduces many games you probably haven't seen before. All of them are great games, too! If you are considering designing a game of your own, or if you just have a collection of games, you need this book.

This book is excellent. This book will open a gamer up to new possibilities and ideas. Lots of variants on common games like chess.

Absurd Realist poet, translator, and memoirist Ron Padgett, long ensconced in New York's East Village boho Beat & Existentialist milieu, turns to his roots in this tale of Tulsa folklore circling around his father, Wayne Padgett; King of the oil town's bootleggers. The Tulsa time of this wiley tale is somewhere 'tween boom & bust. The earliest reaches extend back two generations to Padgett's granddad Grover, though only briefly touching upon Teddy Roosevelt's trust busters and the populist ferment brewing against BIG OIL. Padgett barely mentions the Tulsa race riots in passing.

Oklahoma was a "dry" state when it came to hootch, but oil lease rigs were still dripping when Wayne Padgett came of age. Though there isn't much of Osage tribal flamboyance on display, as Ron Padgett hews closely to his dad's immediate territory. Terry Wilson's book on the Osages and their visibility in and around Tulsa during the boom years can fill in some of the local composition. Ironically Wilson deploys an absurdist deadpan in chronicling the Osages, close as an academic can come to the style Ron Padgett pioneered earlier in his career writing Beat memoirs & punchline poetry. Wilson cinematically captures the new oil heirs on their joyrides into town having assimilated silk top hats, tux and tails into their tribal regalia. Padgett is challenged with a central subject dry as the Protestant work ethic he embodied, illicit work notwithstanding. Despite the Dixie Mafia contacts and some compulsive gambling that plays out in tragic ways a bit up the family tree, the Padgetts seemed to be straight shooters, with only narrator Ron betraying much of an appetite or curiosity for life lived on the wild side.

The contrasts found within the House of Padgett are the stuff of cross-pollinated literary dreams. Imagine Elmore Leonard or his fictional hardboiled characters holed up in a tornado alley Plains safehouse with Burroughs adding-machine heir and stiff-lipped Wild-side explorer William Burroughs, as this Tulsa teen scene deftly sketches in. Ron Padgett recalls his fledgling effort at publishing an underground lit journal while still in high school and working out of bootleggin' dad's house:

"But the oddity of the larger situation dawned on me only years later: at one end of our house was the office of one of the biggest whiskey businesses in town, while at the other was the 'office' of an avant-garde literary magazine. Really, though, I was simply imitating my dad: I had my office desk, I operated a cottage industry, and I pursued a project that most people would have considered bizarre. But what was truly bizarre was that Daddy was reading Beat and Black Mountain poetry." Wild-eyed ecstasy chasing visionaries such as Ted Berrigan, er rather, a private eye hired by Berrigan's squeeze's proper parents, might stop by the house looking for the literary mentor, only to be gruffly chased off by Big Daddy. How did a high school junior out in the oil & red dirt provinces manage to net a cast of literary luminaries like LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Paul Blackburn, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Ron Loewinsohn, Clarence Major, Gilbert Sorrentino and Berrigan for his WHITE DOVE REVIEW 5x8 1/2 staple job? Just neighborhood luck to have buddy Joe Brainard hangin' out as Art Director. The same Joe Brainard whose too short career retrospective was being exhibited at top tier museums of modern art from Boston to Berkeley a year or so ago. But this is Wayne's story, a different sort of exemplar of Junior Achievment in action.

Don't be put off by the title OKLAHOMA TOUGH. Turns out the subtitled: "My Father, King of the Tulsa Bootleggers" is a tender and flavorful slice of regional folklore. Virtually every minor character does a star turn, burning some bit of colorful essence onto a reader's retina. From the penitentiary cameo by old school toughs like Jew Snyder, to the more fully fleshed out complex shades of modern men-in-the-making like Bobby Bluejacket, the bedrock matriarch Verna Padgett, and the younger generation roadhouse loves from whom off-the-cuff wisdom literature flows in Ron Padgett's interview tapes, one only wishes this memorable Tulsa tale included an index. If this ever makes it to the big screen I have no suggestions for the casting of King Wayne or Boho Scribe Ron. But the soundtrack wouldn't be complete without some ol' J.J. Cale-Leon Russell seductive shuffles, Jimmy LaFave dustbowl retreads and the Red Dirt Rangers' roadhouse stomps.

A very well written story that depicts an unique individual living in an intriguing time and place. Wayne Padgett is a compelling and contradictory man, some one I would like to get to know. Reading this book is like having a conversation with this powerful figure.

This gripped me from beginning to end: a very finely drawn portrait of a man of unusual quality. Anyone who's ever been drawn to the "outlaw" mystique will appreciate the opportunity to see how it begins, lives, and ends in Wayne Padgett, the author's father. A terrific read.

I thought this book was sweet.I liked it because it told me about his life and how he would play hockey with kids twice his age and still get goals.It said how he would win Stanley Cups and Art Ross trophys(a highest goal scorer of the year).Ialso liked it because it wasn't very long.

This book was very good. It told about Wayne Gretzkys life, his stats and how great he really was. Thats why his nick name is the Great One. He set more than 61 records and has set untouchable ones. This is one of the best sport books ever made.

it really taught you that he didnt have the best lif

I love the Oregon Trail II game and this book provided tons of useful information in helping understand what the pioneers faced on their journey west. It helped me achieve a really high score too (34,085)!! It is packed with information on which trail to take, how to load your wagon, which wagon to choose, which draft animals are best, how to care for your people, and so much more. I'm hooked on the game and the Strategy Guide helped me appreciate this bygone era for all it was worth. I think it is a great compliment to owning the game!

The Official Strategy Guide is a wonderful guide. It not only helps you through your journey, but it is very informative. I would find myself sitting down to read the guide more than using it while I was playing the game. It has a lot of historical facts about the trail, the people, towns, and diseases. I would recommend buying it, because it is two-fold, informational for the game and for yourself!

If you are playing the 2 version of the game this book is the best. I hope to see one for the newest game version. It is still helpful in your travels. Give it a try.

I remember reading, and rereading, this book as a child. Growing up in Kentucky, I can relate to the rural aspects of the book. The story is timeless and timely in the world today. Jesse Stuart will remain forever in my heart and the hearts of grown children everywhere who read his works an example of what goodness can come from writing for children.

In "A Penny's Worth of Character" Jesse Stuart takes the reader back to a simpler time, when a boy could exchange used paper bags for a candy bar at the store. The message of the book is as old, that of honesty. Stuart skillfully illustrates the inner turmoil of a young boy who has been dishonest and how he makes it right. It's an excellent book for kids from 4th grade up and would make an excellent story to read aloud.

A story that I've never forgotten in 50 years of reading. I've searched for a copy of it for 40+ years. Any one, young or old, who readys this simple story will be changed forever...unless they are the most callous individual alive

Al Hansen was my advisor in college. Having said that, let me also add that his teaching continues to impact every day of my life in a most positive fashion. i had the good fortune of being a member of a small group of earnest students at Rutgers University in Newark who basically followed Al around for four years and never regretted it. perhaps, my most memorable experience was going with Al and a few other students to a party at Andy Warhol's factory for the Velvet Underground. i also collected hersey chocolate wrappers and empty camel cigarette packs for Al.

Do you know anything about Al Hansen? Before buying this book, I had no idea that he was such a renown member of the Fluxus/Happenings community. Al was colleages with such icons as Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon. In the book, it is mentioned that as children, Beck and his brother Channing would be sent on missions to collect cigarette butts for their dear grandpa's art. I used to wonder how Beck could be so inventive, but now I see where his roots lie. Al is the reason we have our beloved Beck. Al is why we can today defy all sexx laws. And so even though he is deceased, it is comforting to know that his legacy lives on, not only in his art, but in his eccentric rock-star grandson.

Note: In case you were going to buy this for your Beck-crazed teeny-bopper, be aware that this book contains some nudity.

beck hansen and his zany grandpa use cigarette butts as artistic media. you wouldn't think that something so trashy could be so beautiful. it's miss-shapen, partially grotesque, and acutely obtuse. human shapes composed of matches and cigarettes provide a uniquely symbolic look at what makes us-- bits and pieces of what others throw away. i personally drove from seattle to nyc to see the opening of the art exibit featured in the book. although i wouldn't suggest everyone go to such extents, injesting the book is nice start.

I read this book and wanted to cry. I asked the Lord where is this kind of true, loving, caring ministry today? Whatever the Lord has sent me to read, he will use. My husband and I are now in a one-year old ministry. I hope to use this book as a model of love and caring for the people of God. I have done much reading on what goes on in ministry for those who name the name of Jesus Christ and I have come away sorely discouraged and disappointed. I have given this work to our ministry leaders and asked them to read it! The comments from those who read it were truly blessed by this man's work and obedience to God. To think that his work started with a "washing machine"; just meeting the needs of God's people, opened a great door of ministry in Chicago. I truly love this work! I have never met the author, but his work has greatly influenced what we will do in our ministry for God. He that has begun a good work... I tell our leaders that this is the spirit we are endeavoring to have in our minstry at Christ's Church. Thank you for sharing his story and carrying this resource.

How can a white man go into an all black neighborhood and change the community? Wayne Gordon felt the calling of God to leave his comfort zone and step out into a community with little hope. He dared to break the wall of racial prejudice and strife in one of the toughest inner-city areas of the nation. It is a story of hope that will motivate you to accomplish the seemingly impossible and to trust in the God who can make it happen. Simply amazing!

The narratives in this book will tug at your heart and inspire action in a time of easy inertia. Wayne Gordon has created a special community by developing leadership from within, supporting basic needs within his neighborhood and valuing each individual for who he or she is. The various profiles are moving and show clearly that there is "real hope" not only for Chicago, but for the rest of our nation as well.