I found this to be a good guidebook, but one glaring omission really has me ticked off. The most famous, and considered by many to be the best steakhouse in Chicago, completely ignored! Mr. Savage, apparently, has no idea that the extremely famous Morton's of Chicago exists!

MY SON HAD TO READ A BOOK ABOUT A MALE SPORTS STAR THAT HE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT, WELL IT TOOK AWHILE TO FIND A MALE ATHLETE BUT MY SON LOVED THIS MOVING BOOK AND FOUND IT TO BE VERY INSPIRATIONAL AS WELL.

This book is very good in that it offers numerous questions, which gives the student very good practice, but the answers that follow have no explantions. Also, it lacks info on the actual format of the test, the pacing a student should use when taking it, and the time allowed. The tactics given are helpful, but this book would have been better if the book had set times the student should try to achieve, offered explanations to the preceding questions, and given more information about the format of the test. However, it did offer much practice, which was very useful.

Written in the early '80s, Inside Prime Time was long considered to be one of the quissential books to be written about the business about how a small group of insiders shaped American culture through television. The book has since become quite dated. Author Gitlin, best known as a former '60s radical and a co-founded of the SDS, is highly complimentary of what -- at that time -- was then the dominating creative forces on television, the socially relavent comedies of Norman Lear and the humanistic dramas -- like Lou Grant and the White Shadow -- that came out of MTM productions. As such, many of his predictions for the future of television would be blown out of the water by the advent of such comedies as Seinfeld and, to a lesser extent, less topical dramas like ER and the rise of HBO programming like the Sopranos, OZ, and Larry Sanders Show. That being said, the book still remains an interesting look at how television shows were sold and produced during the '70s and '80s and his argument that television is essentially controlled by a network of "insiders" and "social friends" who go out of their way to prevent any outsiders from getting a hold in their industry (and therefore prevent anything new or unusual from reaching the screen) remains relavent and, probably, accurate. Less succesful are Gitlin's attempts to argue that the entertainment industry, despite all appearances to the contrary, is actually a right-wing institution with a strong Republican bias. In these chapters, it appears that Gitlin allows his own political feelings to get in the way of serious scholarship and his own rather paranoid prediction that the then-recent election of Ronald Reagan would somehow lead to an artistic wasteland on television have since been descredited. (For all the dark portense that entertainment folks seem to use when talking about how Republicans equal censorship, it was during the Reagan/Bush administration that networks were actually willing to risk airing quality but hardly widely popular TV shows like St. Elsewhere, thirtysomething, Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey, Moonlighting, and Twin Peaks.)

However, its perhaps unfair to condemn this book for making a few incorrect predictions. Afterall, hindsight is 20/20 and certainly, its easy to forget just how much of a mystery Reagan and conservatives in general were back when the '80s were just beginning. The book's true value remains in its two most interesting chapters. Since these chapters are both histories as opposed to analysis, one can simply focus on Gitlin's lively and witty writing style and enjoy the way he makes even the most mundane details seem like pivotal moments of human drama. The first of these chapters tells the story of American Dream, a forgotten, one-hour drama that lasted for only a few episodes in the late '70s. American Dream, produced by future Cagney and Lacey producer Barney Rosenzweig (who is widely quoted in the chapter and becomes a vivid character as a result; one is torn between sympathy for his obviously sincere artistic intentions and disgust by his banal attempts at self-promotion), was the story of a white man who decides to move his family to a widely black section of Chicago in order to teach his kids what real life is like. It sounds like a typical '70s television show and, despite Gitlin's claims to the contrary, it also sounds like a rather annoying, typically elitist example of '70s liberal chic (while many people are quoted in the chapter saying that the show had to be toned down to appeal to the widest possible audience, nobody seems to wonder what the point is of making a "realistic" television show about life in a black ghetto where all the main characters are white). Anyway, what were told about the show and the scripts make it all sound terribly banal and the chapter, despite Gitlin's intentions, becomes a rather compelling look at how entertainment insiders often delude themselves about the value of their product. Beyond that, however, the detailed stories of the conflicts that doomed the show (from the miscasting of Ned Beatty as the lead to the firing of the head writer and the eventual forcing out of producer Rosenzweig) make for interesting reading and should serve as a strong cautionary tale for anyone who wants to make it in the industry.

The other chapter deals with the creation of Hill Street Blues and remains the most important and detailed analysis of what made that show ground breaking television. Drawing from revealing interviews with men like Steven Bochco and Brandon Tartikoff (at the time, neither was as well known as they'd become), Gitlin reveals how sometimes the insider politics of the tv industry somehow conspire to create something special and groundbreaking and its rather inspiring. After the discouraging portrait painted by the failure of American Dream, Gitlin's analyis of Hill Street Blues is a nice reminder that sometimes, somehow, things actually do work the way they should. Though Gitlin admits that he felt Hill Street Blues eventually sold itself out in the name of ratings, he still shows why the success of that show proves that television actually can play an important and positive role in the American culture it has so often been accused of corrupting.

Inside Prime Time isn't perfect but its must reading for anyone planning on pursuing a career behind-the-scenes entertainment or who occasionally watches the flicking onscreen images and wonders what chaos raged behind-the-scenes to create the slick world they're now viewing.

This book contains verbatim case decisions from Supreme Court cases, District level cases and Appellate court cases. Each case is followed by a detailed comment section written by the editors which explains in plain English what the Justices are talking about. All the way from the First Amendment and Marketplace of Ideas theory to broadcast regulation, this book covers all major cases that have developed media law into the beast it is today. Good for the classroom, but better without a time limit.

The loss of Todd Huston's leg was as horrible an experience as anyone could imagine, and his response to it is admirable. Viewed from that angle, this is a fine book. It suffers, however, from some jumbling and some factual errors (probably on the part of Huston's ghost writer). Most notably, he climbed McKinley as his first high point, not his 45th. Late in the book this can be discerned, but it makes things confused elsewhere. Some other goofs: notable climber Lou Whittaker becomes "Lee" in this book, and the huge crevasse often found at the top of an alpine glacier, a bergschrund, this book comically calls a "bergstrom." This is a fine inspirational book, but very weak if you're looking for information on mountain climbing. If there is to be a second printing I recommend that Todd get a fact checker to go over it.

This story takes place in a camp called "Camp Run-A-Munk" It is a camp where you should not act like a teachers pet. All the food in the cafetieria is horrible. All the kids are counting on the one and only canteen where they sale candy.

Sunndenly the canteen catches on fire. There is nothing for the kids to eat.Now the two assistant cooks are getting mobbed for anything sweet. The assistant cooks are trying to find out what was the cause of the fire. The kids are all going crazy and will eat anything! For example, toothpaste and stale cereal. They are desperate! Later on Lucas and Justin(assistant cooks) find out that someone in the woods is selling candy for a huge amount of money. No one in camp knows who the mysteriouse merchant is. All Lucas and Justin want to know is who is selling the expensive candy. They wonder where the candy is from and how the seller thought of somthing so smart! They think it might be the stuck up teachers pet that is over pricing valuble candy, but he's not smart. So he probably couldn't be. They check any way here is there plan. They get an old mutilated monkey and make a shish kobab with that.(since he loves shish kobabs) They make the one and only girl he likes to bribe him into eating it, and of course he ate it, but he has no idea what meat it contains. Then she said what she was craving for, and that was candy, and he stared straight into space. The story goes on..............

This book is well written but it has one problem. The action in the book takes place in a simulator. I had already had enough of this when Peter David wrote Worf's First Adventure. Somehow it isn't as fun or exciting if you know the battle isn't real.

This is not an exceedingly nice book. However, it served to clear up some of the confusions I had previously. The purpose of this book is clear. It is a philophical textbook for the beginning undergraduate level. As the book goes on, there appear, in my opinion, certain misrepresentations, especially those concerining connectionism. However, the historical introduction in the first chapter was very much enjoyable and other philosophical concepts are presented very lucidly.

This book is beneficial to both Progressives, and their arch-enemy, the Conservatives

For Progressives ---

the book is a Bible of Progressive politics. It gives readers a backround and a full instuctional book on how to create the policy-jewel of the Progressive movement, which is merging counties so that everyone shares the same tax duties (in other words, a contemporary form of Socialism)

Aside from tax-base sharing, the book offers other Progressive arguements that are very in tune with the Progressive movement --- a great book for anyone aspiring to become a Progressive Poseur

For Conservatives ---

Do you ever watch Progressives debate on Fox News and think to yourself, "What the heck is their logic??? What planet are they coming from??" If you would really like to get INSIDE the mind of a Progressive, and finally see what they truly think, their logic behind their thinking, and the ways that they reach their conclusions, then this is the book for you!

The book is a roadmap of all Progressive policies, allowing Conservatives to truly dissect their policy approaches, in a manner that would allow them to have the upper hand in a debate after thorough analyzing.

Conclusion ---

Many of the policy recommendations in here are far-fetched and are not very likely to occur anywhere in America ---- but nonetheless, it serves as a great Bible for Progressives, and for Conservatives, as an excellent reference to a Progressive cause that is extremely difficult to comprehend.

Think of the book as 'American Progressivism for Dummies'