{"id":2271,"date":"2017-03-25T12:39:48","date_gmt":"2017-03-25T12:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/?p=2271"},"modified":"2017-03-27T13:47:50","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T13:47:50","slug":"a-review-of-dan-jenkins-stick-a-fork-in-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/golf\/personalities\/2271\/a-review-of-dan-jenkins-stick-a-fork-in-me","title":{"rendered":"A review of Dan Jenkins’ “Stick a Fork in Me”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stick-a-fork-in-me-9781507201466_lg\"<\/a>If you\u2019re in a funk, then go out and buy Dan Jenkins latest novel, \u201cStick a Fork in Me.\u201d It\u2019s a romp and will deliver a tonic of laughs and amusement.<\/p>\n

This is the legendary sportswriter\u2019s 21st book and his 11th comic novel. At 88 years of age, Jenkins ably demonstrates he\u2019s hitting it long and straight and not moving up to the senior gold tees. With his wicked wit and laugh-out-loud lines, he\u2019s still reaching the par-fives in two.<\/p>\n

The novel is about Pete Wallace, a native (like Jenkins) of Texas where he graduated with a degree from \u201cTexas College of Fine Arts & Ranching\u201d and where \u201cthe owls hump the chickens.\u201d After a successful stint as football coach, Wallace moved up the ranks as an athletic director. Now AD at Western Ohio University, Wallace speaks to readers, taking them \u201cbehind the scenes of a life of a dutiful athletic director.\u201d<\/p>\n

The setting allows Jenkins to lampoon a host of characters and institutions, most notably big time college sports and football, \u201cthe undercard of the NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s joined by his golf-loving but cantankerous wife Glenda and his long-time deputy assistant, Rita Jo Foster, \u201ca blue-eyed blond who can hold her own with those smokin\u2019 hot babes on Fox News.\u201d There\u2019s lively encounters with coaches, administrators, faculty, boosters, trustees, pampered athletes, students and media members. About his often impolite comments and observations, Wallace admits, \u201cI sometimes say things to see if I can give a coughing fit to a politically correct disciple. It\u2019s a hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n

About \u201cleft-loon professors and students,\u201d he wishes them a special kind of torture: \u201clock them in a room and make them listen to rap till they beg for mercy.\u201d (By the way, Earth\u2019s fate as a planet was doomed on, according to Wallace on \u201cFeb. 13, 1979\u2014the day rap went mainstream.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Fortunately, some pithy and funny golf lines work their way into the book, most notably when Glenda can\u2019t understand why after Western Ohio is admitted to the Big Ten, her husband isn\u2019t being rewarded by a membership at Augusta National. \u201cGlenda, you don\u2019t ask to join\u2026you have to be invited to join,\u201d says Pete. \u201cSo find somebody to invite us,\u201d retorts Glenda. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone who knows a member\u2014I guarantee you if that person ever existed, our butts would be worn out hearing about his round.\u201d<\/p>\n

On that note, I love this rejoinder by Pete after hearing Glenda go through her latest round of golf: \u201cI\u2019m gonna have to have caddie fees.\u201d (I\u2019m borrowing that line this season.) Another favorite is Pete\u2019s comment about teenagers: \u201cLove means never having to say anything you can text first.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Jenkins\u2019 alter ego, Wallace has favorable things to say about a Big Ten school in Ann Arbor: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind losing to Michigan fairly. I\u2019m an admirer of Michigan. Great helmets, great history.\u201d<\/p>\n

But such compliments are not Wallace\u2019s (or Jenkins\u2019) stock in trade. Far better to expose hypocrisy, greed, and folly with satire and caricature. Suffice it to say, big-time college sports and society in general allow for plenty of scoring opportunities. In Jenkins\u2019 deft hands, \u201cStick a Fork in Me\u201d is a winner.<\/p>\n

Stick a Fork in Me<\/em> is published by Tyrus Books and available via Amazon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re in a funk, then go out and buy Dan Jenkins latest novel, \u201cStick a Fork in Me.\u201d It\u2019s… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":2280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18,7,19164],"tags":[4906,224530,1012991,1012992,2832,2862],"class_list":["post-2271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-lifestyle","category-personalities","category-offcourse","tag-book-review","tag-dan-jenkins","tag-stick-a-fork-in-me","tag-tyrus-books","tag-terry-moore","tag-michigan-golf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2017\/03\/Stick-a-Fork-in-Me.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2271"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271\/revisions\/2281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}