Ever since I heard this book was coming out, I could not wait to get my hands on it and see what John Ed Bradley had to say. I’m from Louisiana and there are two universal truths about being from that state. One, you are going to be sociable and interesting. Two, the state revolves around L.S.U. - especially L.S.U. football.

John Ed was a center for the Tigers when I was in grade school. While, I don’t remember him as a player, I vividly remember his peers. They were all folk heroes, legends and celebrities in a compartmentalized culture that reveled in their being. John Ed talks about his childhood in Louisiana in much the same way mine existed - we all pretended to be Tigers in our backyards, schoolyards and pee-wee football teams. To be an L.S.U. football player represented an epic accomplishment to kids growing up there. I’m quite sure it’s the same in many of the different cultures across the country.

This book has needed to be written for a long time. But it could not have been written by anyone other that someone like John Ed who had been there and and experienced that life in that limelight. John Ed has put to words what so many who have played a game and have been successful at that game feel. I would expand that to include anyone who has been accomplished at anything - be it business, personal, sports or anything else.

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Since everyone else in the world has an opinion on the Soprano’s finale, what’s it gonna hurt to have one more?

I’m gonna bet that I’m in the minority on this one. I thought it was brilliant. I can’t imagine how difficult it was to come up with an ending. Look at all of the other shows and how they went off into the sunset. Seinfeld … sucked. Friends … mushy. Cheers … predictable. Really M*A*S*H is the only show considered to have a great ending. I believe that you can now at The Soprano’s to that list.

All of my neighbors had a little pool going on trying to guess what was going to happen with the episode. It was pretty interesting, but also a small take on how difficult it was to write this one. There were 7 in the pool and there were 7 different scenarios. So, why not a cliffhanger? We can all hypothesize as to what was going to happen right there at the end. Lord knows there are millions talking about it today.

I’m an avid music fan and have seen so many bands and artists fail on their second album. I can’t imaging how tough it is to get something together to follow-up a smash album. I mean think about Hootie’s “Cracked Rear View” - they never got it back.

This new Maroon 5 album, however, doesn’t seem to be an album that’s going to fall into that category. They’ve been able to capture the essence of their sound from their first record and build upon it with this new album. Give it a listen and I think you’ll be impressed.