The Nevada Historical Society Quarterly magazine does not have a large readership. Nonetheless, I am never happier about doing an occasional freelance piece than when it appears in the Quarterly. In the latest issue, Spring 2009, I have a long review of two books, Gus Russo's Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers and Gary Sleeper's I'll Do My Own Damn Killin': Benny Binion, Herbert Noble, and the Texas Gambling War. Both books added important bits to my knowledge of Las Vegas history.

Besides my occasional book reviews, the Quarterly contains lots of interesting articles about Nevada's past. A highlight of the Spring ’09 issue is Stephen Marino's heady discussion piece about the ambitious Marilyn Monroe/Clark Gable movie The Misfits, which was filmed in Northern Nevada.

In order to get a subscription to the magazine, one must become a member of the Nevada Historical Society. It's $35 per year for an individual. Send to 1650 N. Virginia St., Reno, NV 89503.

Las Vegas freelance writer Steve Friess had a travel piece published in Friday's New York Times. It's a friendly look at Boulder City, touting its history and "Small Town USA" flavor. Find it here.

It's summer, when the National Football League doesn't get a lot of media attention. But sometimes a story comes along that keeps the NFL at the top of "Sports Center" even during the height of the NBA and NHL playoffs.

For the second straight summer, the story is whether Brett Favre will come out of retirement. Last summer, Brett decided to come back and play for the New York Jets. For the first half of the season, he did pretty well. The Jets were talked about as a playoff contender. The Jets swooned in the latter part of the season, in part because Favre didn't play as well. His shoulder was banged up, it turned out, but it wasn't just that. He also was 39 years old and a 16-game season was getting the best of him.

So Favre retired again. But now the sports news is aflutter with talk that Favre is talking with the Minnesota Vikings about playing quarterback in a purple uniform. This, in fact, is what Favre wanted to do last summer, but he couldn't make it work with the Vikings and ended up with the Jets.

Just like last summer, I have mixed feelings about all this. It's no secret that Favre has been my favorite player in my favorite sport to watch for a very long time. He's a great player and a great Packer. But while many Packer fans were royally ticked off when Favre came back in a Jets uniform, I took it in stride. I bought a T-shirt with "Brett the Jet" emblazoned across the front. I watched a bunch of Jets games last season and enjoyed watching No. 4, as usual.

This summer is a little different, because we're talking about the Vikings, not the Jets. The Vikings are in the same division as the Packers. This is not cool. The very last thing any Packer fan wants to see if Favre suited up in purple and warming up on the sidelines at Lambeau Field. This is just wrong and bad.

Still — just being honest — I'd love to see Favre play one more year . . . if he's healthy enough to do so. He needs shoulder surgery. It's fairly minor, apparently, and I don't know why he didn't get it done in February or something like that, just in case, of course.

An interesting development last week: Fran Tarkenton, the great Vikings QB, blasted Favre, saying he screwed the Packers and wouldn't help the Vikings if he comes back. Tarkenton said a lot more stuff in several radio interviews and on his blog, including that Favre is not a team player and thinks only about himself.

In the Twin Cities, Tarkenton's comments didn't appear to fare too well. It turns out Tarkenton wasn't much of a team player himself, and some wondered why he had suddenly taken such an interest in the Vikings after all but ignoring the team for years. Apparently he never comes to Vikings games and doesn't spend much time in Minnesota.

But more interestingly, the Twin Cities sportswriters seem to be in love with the idea of Favre coming to play there. Mainly, they say he'd be a lot better than the quarterbacks the team has now. But there's no question they also are quite familiar with Favre, who came to town at least once a year for 15 years or so. He's a nice guy, a good quote, and he would generate tremendous copy throughout the season.

Emotions aside, can you imagine the attention the Vikings-Packers games will generate this coming season if Favre suits up? Who wouldn't watch those games? It doesn't hurt that both teams are good and likely playoff contenders.

Bottom line: I'm tentatively okay with Favre playing for the Vikings, as long as he Packers at least split with the Vikes this season, which is the usual thing anyway. Also: I will not buy or wear anything related to the hated Vikings.

Part of me wants Favre to retire and move on, but I also can tell that he isn't a guy who has a lot to do in retirement. He's a quarterback — born and raised. It's his DNA, what he does well, and retiring at age 39 with nothing to do is a recipe for a sad couple of decades. Look at Mike Tyson and other boxers. They got nothing going on in retirement.

Favre will have to come to terms with retirement at some point, but maybe he's got one or two more years in him. As a big football fan, I hate to think of him poking around his property in rural Mississippi with nothing much to do.

visited 27 states (54%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or another interesting project

Check out my recent Review-Journal blog post here , and be sure to look at the comments below it. Good anecdotal stuff from readers.

I wrote a blog post about this today for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Find it here .

Big news in Las Vegas used book circles: Academy Fine Books has reopened after being down and out for six months after a fire.

I recently posted a long piece about all this on the Las Vegas Review-Journal's books blog. It can be found here .

So, book people, get yourselves down to Academy Fine Books sometime soon and help the owner get back on his feet. He has a large and eclectic collection of books. You're sure to find something you'll want to take home.

This is a huge deal for Las Vegas journalism, the first Pulitzer ever won in Southern Nevada. (The Reno Gazette-Journal won a Pulitzer for editorial writing back in the 1980s.) Link to Pulitzer site here. Congrats to Sun reporter Alexandra Berzon and her editors.

I came across a couple of really cool literary sites:

The New Canon (click here ), according to its home page, "focuses on great works of fiction published since 1985. These books represent the finest literature of the current era, and are gaining recognition as the new classics of our time." The reviews are written by Ted Gioia.

Great Books Guide has a subsection called "The One Hundred Greatest Novels of All Time." (click here ) I believe they, too, were selected by Gioia, who introduces them this way: "We all love lists . . . well, let's stir the waters with an ambitious one highlighting the 100 best novels. Be warned: This ranking is based on cranky and subjective standards. (But aren't they all?)"

It's early. A lot of year to go, and lots of albums still unheard (Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Green Day, Wilco . . .). But this is what I've been listening to so far in 2009:

1. Dan Auerbach, Keep It Hid. The Black Keys guitarist/vocalist offers a little variety, to awesome effect.
2. J.J. Cale, Roll On. This old dude — best known as Eric Clapton's songwriter and collaborator — is really catchy and good.
3. Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream. Not great Bruce but very good Bruce.
4. Heartless Bastards, The Mountain. Love the stripped-down sound and the female singer's rich voice.
5. The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love. This progressive art rock album grows on me each time I listen to it. May ultimately rise in rankings.
6. U2, No Line on the Horizon. Some very good songs, some not-so-good songs. Overall: glad to have it.
7. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Self-titled. After his great first solo album, I had very high hopes for this one. It isn't awesome.
8. The Soundtrack of Their Lives, Communion. If two discs had been culled to one, this could have been a huge hit this year.
9. Justin Townes Earle, Midnight at the Movies. I have high hopes for Steve Earle's son but his second album is just okay.
10. The Derek Trucks Band, Already Free. This had all the makings of a classic, but it doesn't get there. We need more Derek Trucks guitar and less of the other stuff that dominates this album.
11. North Mississippi Allstars, Do It Like We Used to Do (live). Man, I thought this could become my favorite album for a good while, but again, it doesn't deliver on its promise. Two okay discs could have been trimmed to make one great one.