Movie: “Pride of the Yankees.” 1942. “The Lady Eve.” 1941. “Broadway Danny Rose.” 1984

Easy, “Pride of the Yankees.” Seriously: “The Lady Eve,” quintessential romcom by my favorite director, Preston Sturges. Also “Broadway Danny Rose,” a hilarious depiction of New York Jews and Italians, and a profoundly Christian movie that my family watches every Thanksgiving.

Book: “The Edge of Sadness” by Edwin O’Connor (1961)

The first novel that I enjoyed — I read nothing but baseball and World War II nonfiction before the age of 16 — contains the full spectrum of the human condition. Uproariously funny, comedic in the best sense, and sparkling piece of social history: the pre-Vatican II Irish-American world. Also Philip Roth, “The Great American Novel,” riotously funny, but often off-color, and about my two favorite subjects—World War II and baseball—with a communist plot to destroy America by destroying our national pastime.

Song: “Never Stop” by Echo and the Bunnymen (1985)

From big-band jazz – along with baseball and the Constitution, America’s greatest gift to civilization —  anything by Count Basie in the late 1930s. From my first love, ’80s New Wave, anything by Echo and the Bunnymen, “Never Stop” probably above all.