TMQ Season Sign-Off: Tuesday Morning Quarterback folds its tent and steals off into the desert till August, though will resurface briefly around the NFL draft. As usual, I recommend you employ the offseason to engage in spiritual growth. Take long walks. Perform volunteer work in your community. Exercise more and eat less. Attend worship services of any faith. Drink less coffee, more green tea. Appreciate the beauty of nature -- God did not make nature by accident. Read one of the great books you've always meant to read. Be with your family and friends. As Barbara Bush said to the graduating class of Wellesley College in 1990, "At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent."
Of newly released works, in political books, I recommend "The Party Faithful" by Amy Sullivan; in science, "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry Coyne; in psychology, "Beyond Revenge" by Michael McCullough (explains why the desire for retribution is an evolutionary proclivity we must overcome); in general nonfiction, "Traffic" by Tom Vanderbilt (hilariously shows that traffic jams have plagued society at least since the days of the Caesars); in economics, "Good Capitalism Bad Capitalism" by William Baumol, Robert Litan and Carl Schramm; in history, "A Nation on Fire" by Clay Risen (about the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. -- the night before King died, he said, "Only when it's dark can you see the stars"); in self-published books, "The Losing Game" by T.E. Scott, which argues Wall Street is a giant hustle designed to separate investors from their money; in sports, "Positive Sports Parenting" by Jim Thompson, a book every youth-league and high-school coach and parent should read; in humor, "Our Dumb World" by the writers of The Onion; in fiction, "Bridge of Sighs" by Richard Russo and "Lark and Termite" by Jayne Anne Phillips.
Read, mediate, serve others: Do these things, and you will feel justified in racing back to the remote, the swimsuit calendars and the microbrews when the football artificial universe resumes anew in the autumn.
You may find Gregg Easterbrook's final TMQ column of the season here.
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