By John Ratzenberger
While filming his show, John Ratzenberger's Made in America on the Travel Channel, John Ratzenberger gets an up-close view of the American industries whose products and workers once made our nation the most self-sufficient in the world. Yet with companies opting every day to move their factories overseas, it sometimes seems that we're losing more than our jobs. We may also be losing our way as Americans. Too many of us equate a country that's not perfect with one that's inferior. No country, not even America, can survive a chronic lack of national pride or the idea that patriotism is only for the mindless. Nor can the American way of life endure without a profound appreciation for hard work and the products created by skillful hands.
In this collection of insightful essays, John captures what most of us hold dear in our hearts but which too few of us declare loudly and proudly. In his witty and fun-loving style, John reveals the pinnacles and pitfalls of our nation's culture and reminds us why we love America.
Contents
Introduction
Life: A Reality Show
Out to Lunch
A Hill of Beans
Seven Six Lessons I've Learned (So Far)
They Don’t Make 'em Like That Anymore
Thinking Outside the Big Box
When No One Is Looking
TV or Not TV
A Tractor with a View
Sorry I Ruined the World
"History Will Be Kind to Me, for I Intend to Write It"
The Morally Stupid
The Sound of Silence
Where Nobody Knows Your Name
Monday Morning Politics
A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy
Aliens Among Us
Fear Itself
A Tribute to Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"
Life Experience for Sale
In Praise of Failure
Rat Pack Nation
The Power of Prayer
I Remember Love Songs
Thank God It's Wednesday
One Nation
Credits