On this episode we’re discussing Anton Chekhov’s marital affair themed short story, “The Lady with the Little Dog.” We’ve got the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments coming up and we invite you to join the Torg Stories Bracket Challenge. We’re doing that through the ESPN website, and I’ve got links on the post for this podcast at TheTorg.com.
Anne, we have snow on the ground here in Boone. I heard you were in the 90’s today in Los Angeles.
NCAA Bracket Challenges: Just for fun, we’d love to have you join our groups. If you are a leader in the pool, we will mention you on the podcast as we update each week through the end of the tournaments!
Anne, a lot of this story is about an affair. I asked you if you could think of any other affair stories whether that was in books, in the movies, or on television. Did you think of any?
A few things about Anton Chekhov:
Chekhov was a physician. He said, Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress.”
A quote I have hung on to since graduate school around the year 2002: The role of an artist is to ask questions, not to answer them.
Tolstoy called Chekhov an impressionist, inventing a new kind of story, a slice of life kind of story. -from the Introduction to the book we read this story from: Anton Chekhov Stories.
Chekhov’s gun rule for telling stories: “Chekhov’s gun is a narrative principle in which every element introduced in a story should have a purpose that contributes to the plot, character development, or tone of the piece. The idea is that writers should not mislead the audience by including unnecessary details that are not a part of the story’s climax or conclusion.” from Backstage click here
What else was being written around the time this story was published?
Paving the way for modernism, which explored disillusionment, fragmentation, alienation, and the chaotic inner workings of the human consciousness through innovative techniques.
1898 War of the Worlds
1899 Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”
Anne, I asked you to learn a little about this time period in Russia and anything if you could about these translators.
Let’s talk our way through the story.
Additional discussion questions besides what I wrote on the text:
Whose perspective is this story written from?
What seems of the 1900 time period and what seems like it fits in fine today?
Why is “little dog” the title?
What do we think happens after the end of the story?
The private vs the public life. Social media? s
Click here for an article by Chris Power titled “How Chekhov Invented the Modern Short Story.”
Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!
Rocky, Long Distance Running, Writing, Grief and Ambition
Rocky, Sylvester Stallone, Running, Writing and Grief
This week on the Torg Stories Podcast we discuss an an essay called “Shadow Boxing” by Jeremy Collins. It was first published in the Georgia Review in 2007 and was included in the Pushcart Prize collection published in 2009.
After I first read and admired this, I reached out to Jeremy to see if he would be willing to endorse my first novel Love on the Big Screen. He was generous enough to do so. Don’t forget that the second edition is available on Amazon: $2.99 for the Kindle. $9.99 for the paperback. Click here to check out the book.
What got me most about this essay:
Jeremy and his friend were in a car wreck. His friend died. He wrote this:
I set two goals. I decided I’d write three pages a day for one hundred days, and I signed up to run the Philadelphia Marathon, which ended at the steps of the museum.
When I read about Jeremy’s life, it certainly caused me to remember some things I did when my first wife moved out of the house where we lived. She said she didn’t know if she would come back. Not too long after, I set two goals:
I would write 800 words a day 6 days a week and tell the story of what looked like the end of my marriage. I figured it would either end when the divorce was final or when we reconciled.
I signed up to run the Chicago Marathon.
The Long Distance Running Section:
Let’s take a minute to remember our longest runs:
Chicago Marathon: Dad came and filmed me with a large video camera. I trained with a fellow teacher who was also having trouble in her marriage. I planned to drive myself home. It was cold. I slept on the ground wrapped in one of those silver blankets and then drove home.
Charlotte Marathon: Megan was there. I crashed.
Columbus Marathon: I was so disappointed in my Charlotte run that I signed up for another one a few weeks later and a week before I got married. I ran slower at the start and it was a fun day.
Collins writes, “No one ever warns you about bleeding nipples.”
He writes about the people who are running around you in a marathon.
Questions for discussion sparked by the essay:
How would you describe the author Jeremy Collins’ relationship with the original Rocky movie? What’s the closest thing you have to a relationship like that with a work of art? Say Anything, High Fidelity
Related: What movie have you seen the most? Say Anything, Elf, No Country for Old Men, High Fidelity (Maybe only Elf 10x) let alone a thousand.
He fell asleep every night as a kid listening to the Rocky audio recording. Do you do anything different to fall asleep?
The car wreck. Then he goes to see the dad and promises to write a book. Promising someone you will write a book is a big promise. Sometimes, an idea just doesn’t pan out. (The Fern Story and the US Marshal Plane)
The writer Jeremy Collins read that story about how Stallone wrote Rocky. He thought he’d copy that plan. He says he missed this: What I didn’t see was the most important lesson of the creation of Rocky: some things, perhaps the best things, cannot be taught. Anne, what do you make of that?
Favorite Parts:
Bottom of p. 174 he tells the story he read about Stallone getting Rocky made.
I admire Stallone and Collins’s ambition.
Lines that grabbed me:
…I’ve yet to publish the book I’ve been writing for ten years.
I made mourning my mission.
Defeat and loss are our most honest teachers.
Memory’s triggered:
He listens to a tape of a recording. I make 6 minute quarter countdowns on a tape player for my imaginary basketball games.
His answering machine players the opening bars from Eye of the Tiger. My current alarm I wake up to is the original Rocky training montage.
He has Rocky on his wall. I have Rocky IV poster in our workout area.
Jeremy types other people’s books. I used to retype interesting sentences and then I’d emulate them as practice and a warm up for what I was writing. Those didn’t count toward the word count.
The film Rocky came out in 1976. Where were we?
Lines about writing:
Writing takes time, and good writing is earned a word at a time. (makes me think of AI)
Write it first in pencil, then again with a typewriter. – Hemingway
Stop when it is going well so you’ll know what happens next. -Hemingway
Do not mistake motion for action. – Hemingway. A basketball practice can be like this too.
Make sure you read, read, read–read everything. – Faulkner
He’s someone with pain and experience. Someone who might have a story to tell.
I try to write a little bit each day. – Flannery O’Connor
My divorce was the catalyst to my most creative work: books, films, articles, screenplays
Wrapping Up:
He refers to Donald Trump in the 80s. This was published in 2007, 10 years before he became president.
Anne, do you know what the Pushcart Prize is?
From wikipedia: The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best “poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot”[1] published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to submit up to six works they have featured.[2] Since 1976, anthologies of selected works have been published on an annual basis. These initiatives are supported and staffed entirely by dedicated volunteers.
Jeremy’s friend writes him off when Stallone wears elevated shoes.
A bit about the writer Jeremy Collins:
His writing has appeared in Best American Sportswriting and The Pushcart Prize.
He once shook hands with Mr. T as a kid at the ball.
The thing of his I’d most like to read is a piece in esquire called “When My Father Talked About Larry Bird.”
It’s TORG FAVORITE BOOKS, MOVIES, MUSICAL ARTISTS and TELEVISION SHOWS on this edition of the Torg Stories Podcast.
BOOKS OR ESSAYS: Bill’s Favorite Books or Essays of All Time…
(Anne’s lists appear further down on the page.)
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby – came to this book through the film with John Cusack. Book set in London, Rob works in a record shop and visits ex girlfriends as a way to figure out his current relationship. Lots of lists!
Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. Rob writes about music and the mix tapes he finds as a way to write about the passing of his wife.
Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion writes about the year that follows after the passing of her husband.
“A & P” by John Updike – first time I realized stories could reflect my life
“The Planet Trillaphon as it Stands in Relation to the Bad Thing” by David Foster Wallace as my favorite of a whole bunch of essays by Wallace that I like.
Honorable mention: No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut, Wonderboys by Michael Chabon, Illusions by Richard Bach, “The Ecstasy of Influence” essay (not the collection) by Jonathathan Lethem, Missoula by Jon Krakauer, My Losing Season by Pat Conroy, On Writing by Stephen King, Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon, The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov, Moneyball by Michael Lewis, Catcher in the Rye by Salinger
MOVIES: Bill’s 5 Favorite Movies of All Time…
Pulp Fiction – non linear story with some of my favorite actors including Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta, let’s check out LA! Capture the way a certain person talks with language that I don’t hear. Picked this over Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
No Country for Old Men – the force of evil and human beings inability to stop it but to try anyway, beautiful landscape, Tommy Lee Jones fan
High Fidelity (directed by Stephen Frears) – a more grown up and mature romantic comedy that comes after the 80s, lots of lists by the characters who work in the record store
Good Will Hunting – Robin Williams to Matt Damon: It’s not your fault! Genius movies are fun.
Moneyball – a sports story where someone (Billy Beane / Brad Pitt) has the courage to try something different and compete
Honorable mention: Say Anything, The Fugitive, Silence of the Lambs, The Green Mile, Secret Garden, The Shawshank Redemption, Unforgiven, Nodding Hill, Air, The Bourne Ultimatum
MUSICAL ARTISTS OR GROUPS: Bill’s Favorite Musical Artists or Groups of All Time…
The Killers – Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me, When We Were Young, Human. I saw them at Mohegan Sun in CT.
Noah Kahan – Mess, Homesick, Dial Drunk, She Calls Me Back, the collaborations, saw him in Nashville
REO Speedwagon – Keep on Loving You, Take it on the Run, Time for Me to Fly,
Ed Sheeran – Castle on the Hill, Old Phone, Galway Girl
Def Leppard – cassette getting turned over and over, Hysteria album, Women, Rocket, Animal, Love Bites, Pour Some Sugar, Hysteria
Honorable mention: Luke Combs, The Outfield, Bare Naked Ladies, Rolling Stones, Prince, Liz Phair, Chappell Roan, Jackson Browne, Bob Seeger, Journey, ABBA
SHOWS: Bill’s Favorite Shows of All Time…
Ted Lasso – positive vibes with lots of 80s sports pop culture allusions that are funny and thought provoking
PTI – writing background of Tony and Wilbon, their chemistry as friends, the rundown
Daily Show with Jon Stewart – news with some funny commentary
Saturday Night Live – live sketch comedy, Will Ferrell, Colin and Che, Marcello
Seinfeld – the group of friends, uniqueness of George and Kramer
Honorable Mention: Landman, Family Ties, Penguin,
Anne’s BOOKS OR ESSAYS: Anne’s Favorite Books or Essays of All Time…
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Once and Future King, by TH White
Honorable mention: Demons by Fyodor Doestoevsky, Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones series, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
MOVIES: Anne’s 5 Favorite Movies of All Time…
The English Patient
2001: A Space Odyssey
Terminator
The Princess Bride
Spy
Honorable mention: The Silence of the Lambs, Titanic, Return of the Jedi, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Thin Red Line, Heat, My Name is Ivan, Dirty Dancing, The Sixth Sense, Gattaca, Goodfellas
MUSICAL ARTISTS OR GROUPS: Anne’s Favorite Musical Artists or Groups of All Time…
Fleetwood Mac
Bon Iver
Bad Bunny
Abba
New Order
Honorable mention: The National, War on Drugs, Radiohead, The Antlers, Shelby Lynne, Silversun Pickups, Local Natives
In this episode I talk with the North Carolina Basketball Coaches’ Association 2024-2025 Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year, McDowell’s Zack McCartha.
click above for audio post or listen on Apple or Spotify / video podcast below
Coach McCartha and I discuss some of the keys to his team’s undefeated season, our coaching influences, how we use analytics to aid in our coaching decisions, and what it’s like to coach our daughters on our respective teams.
There are even some book recommendations at the end!
Coach McCartha with his daughter Clara and son Everett
Coach, you’re at McDowell High School in Marion, North Carolina. Your team went undefeated in the regular season last year. What are a couple things you’d point to that made your team so successful?
Torg: Best player in the state, Pace, the three point shot, basketball IQ which goes with game planning on both sides of the ball
Is there a Zack McCartha brand of basketball? To what degree do you have a way of playing that you try and install vs. adapting your way of playing depending on the players you have?
Torg: shooting in practice, custom scheme for the group, adaptability for each opponent, limited fundamental reps and high on Small Sided Games SSGs.
Coach McCartha at the Final Four in Winston Salem 2025
I’d like to hear about your education in basketball, your coaching influences if you will. Could you look back and start naming coaches and maybe telling me what you took or adapted from them to get you to the way you think about basketball now?
Torg Influences:
Coach Knight at Indiana: game planning with film and walk through, motion concepts, the phrase “surprise and change” when it comes to defense even though that isn’t what Coach Knight believed.
Don Meyer from David Lipscomb – comprehensive skill development, mini solutions to fundamental problems such as traveling with poor footwork. 4-out motion offense. Could pair this with Majerus.
Rob Irwin who I assisted at Carroll High School in Indiana: gave me 1 min three shooting drill. Just one thing but it was a big one that we do almost every single time we come together.
Laura Barry who I assisted at Watauga: teaching transition def, teaching the 1-3-1 defense, intro me to PGC where I found a modernized version of a lot of what I liked about Don Meyer. Footwork especially but also things such as lighting your team up with enthusiasm. Coach Barry gifted me the Legacy book which I take the term blue head from.
Bill Belichick – game planning. From his book The Art of Winning: “We did what any winning team should do: we looked at our opponent, and we adapted to what we saw.” ALSO… “I’ll say it again: not the same plan; the same planning.”
Brian McCormick – mostly for small sided games SSGs. Read quite a few of his books but 21st Century Guide to Skill Development is one that sticks out as memorable.
Doug Lemov – author of The Coach’s Guide to Teaching. Coach Barry also pointed me to this one. Focused feedback. Short term memory processing while you might be trying to listen to a coach and read the defense.
Has your coaching style changed over the years and how so?
More shots per practice. Brief on reps heavier on small sided games. I am more calm and patient. I used to to stay with things in practice until we got every detail right. I think I used to spend a lot of time on getting something right that wasn’t going to matter that much. Now I get in what I want to get in and I keep coming back to it with hopes of cleaning up.
How much influence do you put on analytics when it comes to the high school game?
What do we mean when we say analytics? Torg answer: using numbers and probability to aid in decision making about practice and games
we shoot a lot of threes in practice and we are trying to shoot a lot of threes in games. Last season we averaged 9.4 threes made per game on 27.4 attempts for 34.2%. (that’s up over 4 made threes per game over a 4-year period. When I started at Wataga as an assistant, I think we averaged something like 2-12 per game. We had games of 18, 16 and 14 twice made threes.
I like to look at our defensive points per possession depending on what defense we are playing.
I look into when to call timeout. For example, after a made free throw. Also, is it really advantageous to foul up 3 with less than 10 seconds to go? The execution of this can be really shaky and even when executed, it’s an incredibly slight advantage to foul. Another: Should I take a player out in foul trouble?
Don’t know but think yes: should most of our players take the wide open 15 footer? How much should we practice it?
Do you have any thoughts as it relates to load management throughout the course of a high school season? This could be in practice and/or games. If so, is this a change?
The is Coach McCartha’s question. For me, not much thought about load management other than that was a tough game last night. I know you once asked me if Kate practiced.
Also, playing 2-3 games in a day. I def just take my lumps if I have to and I don’t play anyone big minutes.
We do things like take charges and dive for balls.
More film and rehearsal than live
Coach McCartha and daughter Clara competing for McDowell HS in Marion, NC
We each coach our daughters. Let’s try and talk about that a little bit:
Are there parts of it we enjoy? Chance for them to know me and see how I am everyday instead of if I went off to work for 12 hours a day and saw them once in awhile. Riding to and from in the car. We’re sometimes working on a project together.
What’s difficult about it? People, including teammates, treating my kids in a different way because of things I do. Incorrect assumptions about what my kids know. She must have told Coach X whereas people come to me all the time with good and bad they think about what our players do.
What is one non-negotiable that you have for your teams?
Torg: non-negotiable and culture are not phrases I use. The best I can do is to share what I emphasize. I call these things out when we fall short and I find as many ways as I can to praise them when I see them: enthusiasm, team first attitude, 9 and 7 shots on offense, sportsmanship, positive body language, being a blue head, bolting, the extra pass
We’ve got the NCAA exposure event coming up in June at the RISE facility. Let’s talk about that, recruitment, and then travel basketball. Is your daughter playing?
What is a book or a movie possibly that you feel like all coaches should read or see?
The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov. Click here for Torg’s post about the book.
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We talk Knicks-Pacers series, give report on the Indiana Fever, Mission Impossible Final Reckoning, and talk second chances from Ted Lasso Season 3, Episode 11 on this edition of the Torg Stories Podcast.
You can click on the audio player above to listen to the episode, or you can watch it on YouTube at the link below:
The Pacers have a 2-0 lead at the time of the recording. Anne, what has been the keys?
Balanced attack, more scorers than the Knicks that can lead to Nesmith going 8-9 from 3 and Siakam scoring 39 in game 2.
Haliburton has some Harden in him in that he’s a hub that can spray the ball around everywhere and put pressure on the defense with his pace and vision.
Timely shooting: Brunson and Kat were great but big misses late while Haliburton and Nesmith hit huge shots.
Report on the Fever:
Off to a 2-2 start. Hammered the Sky and Clark and Reese got into it. Lost by 1 and had a chance to win it on the final play vs. Atlanta. Came back and beat the Dream in Atlanta. Lost by 2 after blowing a 12 point lead in the second half to the Liberty. Clark had the ball with a chance to tie or win at the buzzer.
Noticeably harder for Clark to get a good three point look. She’s Curry from a standpoint of how defenses are playing her. No three vs. Atlanta in win. She missed 12 threes in a row before hitting one and getting fouled in the 3rd quarter vs. Liberty. Then hit one at the buzzer to end the third.
Clark draws so much attention. People are open. Elite vision and ability to deliver, especially in setting pace. Kelsey Mitchell really benefitting. Still getting a lot done finishing and in mid range.
Fever are more active on defense. Vision and hands on balls.
Outscored Liberty 30-13 in third quarter.
Looks like a group that roots for each other.
The rotation of Howard, Boston, and Bonner among the post looks really good. Cunningham coming through the two and three spots good as well.
The offense ends of games. Need actions, 1v1 can be tough vs players like Jones.
Three of the new Fever players and what they bring:
Sophie Cunningham: mix it up defensive mentality, shooting, enthusiasm talking leader
Natasha Howard – upgraded inside scoring punch, wanting her own shot for a Fever player more than I’m used to. I’m hopeful.
Dewanna Bonner – length on defensive, championship experience, I’m assuming a good relationship with the coach
We both went to see Mission Impossible Final Reckoning:
Let’s talk about what the theaters were like. I went to the AMC in Johnson City, TN.
$20 for a ticket. Tom Cruise hangs off two planes. Really can I ask for more than that?
We hear from Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise before the movie starts.
Too much talking. Too much tech talking.
Best part from Cruise escaping the underwater sub to the end.
Dislikes: exposition for us as viewers. The action along with more natural dialogue should show us. 25 minutes of previews plus 2hrs and 50 mins of movie is a long time to be in the theater.
Likes: music, Tom in shape, familiar characters, guy in charge of Navy sub, listening station couple and their dogs, the underwater scene, the lady who sticks the pen in Benji’s chest, Cruise and the planes
Ted Lasso: There’s only 1 more episode! Season 3, Episode 11 Discussion Questions:
Why does Nate’s girlfriend Jade act like she does, for example disappearing. Let’s assess what Nate did. Let’s talk about if we bring him back.
What’s Ted’s deal with Ted and his mom? Ted doesn’t seem to want his mom around. Then let’s walk through our mom showing up. She tells him his son misses him. Ted is scared to get close to him because he knows he’s going to leave.
What’s wrong with Jamie? Where are my wings, Roy? Return game. Roy and Keeley follow Jamie to his childhood home. Now that he doesn’t hate his dad, he is lacking for motivation.
What’s with the Wizard of Oz? We get Ted playing a Wizard of Oz pinball machine. We get “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in a Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks movie. Is it, You’ve Got Mail?
There is a town called Tooting. Some weird town names you can think of? French Lick, Chili which is right by Denver, Mexico, and Peru. Santa Claus. You like Seven Devils, North Carolina. We went to Duck. There’s a Bat Cave. Meat Camp is in the same Watauga County I live in.
Memorable Quotes from this Episode of Ted Lasso. We’ll see if Anne can tell us who said it about what:
Shouting is Roy’s love language. -Trent Crimm when Roy calls Jaimie into the boot room
Your mom and dad F you up. They don’t mean to, but they do. They fill you up with the faults they had and they add some extra just for you. -Mae to Ted in the pub about his mom coming for a visit.
I’ve literally never thought about work after work. It’s weird how good of a waiter you are. -Jade to Nate about how he is always trying to be good at what he is doing.
Hurt people hurt people. -Ted to Jamie talking about his dad and Freddy Krueger
I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by our weakest moments, but rather by the strength we show whether and if we are given a second chance.-Ted to Beard about judging Nate for ripping up the sign.
Your son misses you. -Ted’s mom to him
All we can do is keep playing. -Ted’s mom again, about being a parent
No truth bomb this year. – Rebecca to Ted
Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!
