Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

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Random Sherlock Holmes crankery.

Friday, March 11th, 2022

I do buy books that are not gun books. As a matter of fact, I’m quite fond of Sherlock Holmes. I don’t expect an invitation to join the Baker Street Irregulars, but I have both annotated versions of Holmes, and I enjoy reading about Holmes, Doyle, and related subjects.

I picked up two Holmes related books recently. One purchase was prompted by a Doyle-related book I recently finished, while the other was a word-of-mouth purchase. Since this is kind of long, I will put a jump here. For those who are not interested in bibliophilia or Holmes, another post should be coming along eventually.

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Brief historical note, suitable for use in schools.

Wednesday, March 9th, 2022

Today is the 106th anniversary of Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico (also known as the Battle of Columbus).

KXAN has offered us a nice summary of the commemorative events going on in the area.

Short summary: Villa was bouncing around during the revolution, had just lost a battle, and his army was short on everything. He thought it would be a swell idea to do a cross-border raid, especially when he was told there were only about 30 soldiers in Columbus.

There were actually about 350 soldiers in Columbus. Villa sent “about 600” of his people (since he didn’t have enough supplies and ammo for everyone) and his troops had the initial advantage of surprise. However, the American forces rallied and drove off Villa’s forces.

In addition, many of the townspeople were armed with rifles and shotguns.

Armed citizens for the win!

In spite of Villa proclaiming that the raid was a success by evidence of captured arms and equipment from the camp, which included over 300 rifles and shotguns, 80 horses, and 30 mules, the raid was a tactical disaster for him with ill-afforded casualties of 90 to 170 dead from an original force that had numbered 484 men, including at least 63 killed in action and at least seven more who later died from wounds during the raid itself. Of those captured during the raid, seven were tried; of those, one sentence was commuted to life in prison; and six were convicted and executed by hanging. Two were hanged on June 9, 1916; four were hanged on June 30, 1916.

I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve liked Jeff Guinn’s other books, so I’ll mention War on the Border: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion (affiliate link), which comes out in trade paperback in May.

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Obit watch: February 16, 2022.

Wednesday, February 16th, 2022

A long time ago, I wrote about reading Car and Driver when I was in high school.

“Ferrari Reinvents Manifest Destiny” was one of those pieces of writing that hit me right between the eyes at exactly the right time.

Julian settled into the driver’s seat and gave the Millennium Falcon–like controls a momentary glance. Then he stamped on the accelerator with an expensive loafer and redlined the 308 up through the gears to a hundred miles an hour through the potato fields and abandoned burger stands without time to even take his hand off the shift lever until he hit fifth, and when he did have time to take his hand off he used that hand to plop a Blondie cassette into the Blaupunkt and a quarter-ton of decibels came on with “Die Young Stay Pretty,” and the scenery exploded in the distance, bush and tree debris flying at us while my eyeballs pressed all the way back into the medulla, and that quadruple-throated three-quart V-8 wound up beyond the vocal range of Maria Callas, Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, leaving, I’m sure, a trail of shattered stemware in the more prosperous of the farmhouses we passed along our way.

…

And, after all, what have we been getting civilized for, all these centuries? Why did we fight all those wars, conquer all those nations, take over all that Western Hemisphere? Why, for this! For this perfection of knowledge and craft. For this conquest of the physical elements. For this sense of mastery of man over nature. To be in control of our destinies—and there is no more profound feeling of control over one’s destiny that I have ever experienced than to drive a Ferrari down a public road at 130 miles an hour. Only God can make a tree, but only man can drive by one that fast. And if the lowly Italians, the lamest, silliest, least stable of our NATO allies, can build a machine like this, just think what it is that we can do. We can smash the atom. We can cure polio. We can fly to the moon if we like. There is nothing we can’t do. Maybe we don’t happen to build Ferraris, but that’s not because there’s anything wrong with America. We just haven’t turned the full light of our intelligence and ability in that direction. We were, you know, busy elsewhere. We may not have Ferraris, but just think what our Polaris-missile submarines are like. And, if it feels like this in a Ferrari at 130, my God, what can it possibly feel like at Mach 2.5 in an F-15? Ferrari 308s and F-15s—these are the conveyances of free men. What do the Bolshevik automatons know of destiny and its control? What have we to fear from the barbarous Red hordes?

…

It made me wish I didn’t belong to the Republican Party and the NRA just so I could go out and join both to defend it all.

P.J. O’Rourke wrote an awful lot of other great stuff, but this is what I’ll remember him for.

NYT. John Podhoretz. National Review. (Edited to add: Reason.)

I’m going to miss him.

Kathryn Kates, actress. She was most famous as the bakery counterwoman on two episodes of “Seinfeld”, and also appeared several times on “Law and Order: SVU”, “Orange Is the New Black”, and other TV shows.

Posted in Books, Obits, TV | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: February 13, 2022.

Sunday, February 13th, 2022

Ian McDonald, co-founder of King Crimson and Foreigner.

(Hattip: Lawrence.)

Lars Eighner. I’m not sure how many people outside of Austin recognize that name. For those long time Austinites, this should be a blast from the past.

Mr. Eighner lost his job and spent three years homeless on the streets of Austin with his dog. He wrote periodically for the “Austin Chronicle”, and eventually published Travels With Lizbeth about that experience. He published two other books after that, but those were less successful.

I’m going to put this last obit behind a jump. I’m noting it because it’s a sad sundae with chopped sad and a sad cherry on top.

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Somebody ought to write a book. (Part 3)

Friday, February 4th, 2022

I don’t want to talk about this story, because maroons.

The only reason I even link is that it reminded me of a book idea I had a while back.

The inspiration for this idea was an article I read, which I can’t find now, about the extreme precautions taken to keep the identities of the celebrities appearing on “The Masked Singer” secret: the signed agreements never reference the show by name, the celebrities are picked up in obscure places (like in front of a 7-11) by unmarked vans and taken to unlabeled warehouses…

…so the basic idea is: celebrity gets invited to appear on a “Masked Singer” like show, goes through all the steps, gets picked up in front of a liquor store in North Hollywood by an unmarked van…

…and it turns out that there is no “Masked Singer” appearance, and the whole thing is an elaborate, carefully staged, kidnapping plot…

…and because the celebrity thought they were appearing on “Masked Singer”, and would blow their shot if they weren’t careful, they kept much of their interactions secret. Therefore the police have very few clues to work with…

I’m thinking of this as a kind of modern take on Westlake’s The Comedy is Finished except with a younger and fitter kidnap victim. Probably someone who, while being a celebrity, has a reputation for being a not-terribly-bright party person: but while being held captive, realizes that they have to reach inside and develop strengths they didn’t know they had in order to get themselves out alive.

Perhaps this person is a B-list celebrity: used to be big, is still recognizable, but now mostly gets one-and-done guest shots on TV shows. Why would kidnappers nab a B-lister? Maybe because they’re not bright. Perhaps they think this person has more money than they really do. Maybe they see it as a political statement inspired by something the celebrity said or did.

This could set up a mildly humorous bit where the FBI is talking to B-lister’s agent. “(X) thought they were going to appear on ‘The Masked Singer’? Seriously?”

Or maybe they are an A-lister, known to be difficult to work with, tending to rely on other people, and not able (or willing) to do anything for themselves. Perhaps they’re starting to alienate important people in the business: they haven’t slipped down to the D-list yet, but if they don’t change their ways…Maybe a hidden drug habit?

By the end of the book, they’re experiencing a career resurgence, thanks to the kidnapping and whatever happens after the kidnapping. Think Rick Dalton, but possibly female?

If you like this idea, I’m putting it out there for the taking. After all, ideas don’t matter: what you do with them does.

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Obit watch: January 23, 2022.

Sunday, January 23rd, 2022

Dennis Smith.

I think a lot of people (outside of firefighting) have forgotten that name, but Report from Engine Co. 82 was a huge deal back in the day.

The book sold some three million copies, ennobled Mr. Smith as a champion of his profession and inspired countless men and women to become firefighters.
“The author’s pride clearly derives not from his writing, but from his job as a firefighter — the most hazardous job of all, according to the National Safety Council,” Anatole Broyard wrote in his Times book review. “The risk one takes in, writing a book — and there are those who will tell you that this is the most hazardous occupation — must seem comparatively small to him. One hopes he will go on taking it.”

I read it at an inappropriately young age. I won’t say how old I was, but “Emergency” was on first-run network television at the time. The thing that sticks with me all these years later is how much abuse Smith and his colleagues took from the people they were trying to help.

Mr. Smith was a Renaissance firefighter.
He played eight musical instruments; founded Firehouse magazine in 1976 (and sold it in 1991 and made $7 million); was the founding chairman of the New York City Fire Museum and was instrumental in converting the Engine Company 30 firehouse in SoHo as its site; was president and chairman of the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, which moved from Manhattan to the South Bronx; and was a chairman of the New York Academy of Art.
He was the first chairman of the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Near Miss task force, focused on preventing firefighter injuries and deaths, and won awards from the Congressional Fire Services Institute and the National Fire Academy, and the New York Fire Department.

Any man who tries to prevent deaths and injuries in his chosen occupation, no matter what that is, deserves mad props in my opinion.

In a Times opinion essay in 1971, Mr. Smith recalled his ebullience at the prospect of becoming a firefighter: “I would play to the cheers of excited hordes — climbing ladders, pulling hose, and saving children from the waltz of the hot masked devil. I paused and fed the fires of my ego — tearful mothers would kiss me, editorial writers would extol me in lofty phrases, and mayors would pin ribbons to my breast.”
After eight years, he wrote, the romantic visions had faded.
“I have climbed a thousand ladders, and crawled Indian fashion down as many halls into a deadly nightshade of smoke, a whirling darkness of black poison, knowing all the while that the ceiling may fall, or the floor collapse, or a hidden explosive ignite,” Mr. Smith added. “I have watched friends die, and I have carried death in my hands. With good reason have Christians chosen fire as the metaphor of hell.”
“There is no excitement, no romance, in being this close to death,” he wrote, later adding: “Yet, I know that I could not do anything else with such a great sense of accomplishment.”

I’ve gone back and forth for a few days about whether I should include the obit for Ann Arensberg. There was finally one thing that tipped me over the edge.

“Sister Wolf” was roundly praised by critics and won the 1981 National Book Award for best first novel, beating out Jean M. Auel’s mega-best seller, “The Clan of the Cave Bear.” (Between 1979 and 1987, the awards were known as the American Book Awards, not to be confused with another, unrelated literary prize with the same name; they also included many more categories than they do today, including best first novel.)

That wasn’t the tipping point. This was:

Ms. Arensberg’s next book, the satirical “Group Sex” (1986), grew out of a short story she had written in 1980 and drew on material closer at hand, including her own life. It told the story of a meek, eager-to-please book editor named Frances Girard who falls in love with her temperamental opposite: a brash, rebellious theater director named Paul Treat, best known, Ms. Arensberg wrote, for putting on a production of “As You Like It” but with seals.

I’m sorry to laugh at someone’s obit, but “As You Like It” with seals kicks over my giggle box. Indeed, it has me thinking about a whole line of Shakespeare productions with animals. An all-racoon production of “Macbeth”?

Posted in Books, Heroism, Obits | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: January 17, 2022.

Monday, January 17th, 2022

Brigadier General Charles E. McGee (USAF – ret) has passed away at the age of 102.

Gen. McGee was one of the Tuskegee Airman. He was promoted to brigadier general by President Trump in 2020.

Captain McGee flew more than 130 combat missions in World War II, and returned to the United States in December 1944 to become an instructor for another unit of Tuskegee Airmen, the 477th Bomb Group, flying B-25 Mitchell bombers out of stateside bases. That group never got into the war. Mr. McGee served at Tuskegee Field until 1946, when the base was closed.

He remained in the military after the war and served with the Air Force flying P-51s in Korea (100 combat missions) and “172 combat missions in McDonnell RF-4 photo-reconnaissance aircraft” over Vietnam.

After other postings in the United States, Italy and Germany, he was promoted to full colonel and retired on Jan. 31, 1973, ending his career with 6,308 flying hours and 409 combat missions, among the most in service history. That three-war total was exceeded only by Col. Harold Snow, who flew 666 missions in those wars, and Col. Ralph Parr Jr., who flew 641, according to Air Force records. Colonel Snow died in 2016 at 93, and Colonel Parr died in 2012 at 88.

I am having trouble determining how many of the airmen are left. The NYT obit says there were nine living (counting Gen. McGee) as of February of 2020. Wikipedia states there were 11 living as of 2019, but does not mention any deaths since then.

John Connolly, “investigative journalist”. He wrote some for “Spy” and various other magazines. He also wrote a book (“with James Patterson”), Filthy Rich: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein – The Billionaire’s Sex Scandal (affiliate link).

As an author, Connolly had been working on a new book on infamous LA private eye Anthony Pellicano to be called “The Sin Eater.”

I hope this is completed, as I’d actually like to read that book.

NYT obits for Ralph Emery and Dallas Frazier.

Tributes to Ron Goulart: “Great But Forgotten” on “The Morning Chex Press”, and Michael Swanwick on meeting Ron Goulart’s college roommate.

Posted in Books, History, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 16, 2022.

Sunday, January 16th, 2022

It has been a bad time for country music and SF writers.

Ralph Emery, noted country music broadcaster.

Beginning his career at small radio stations and then moving into television as well, Emery was probably best known for his work on the Nashville Network cable channel. From 1983 to 1993, he was host of the channel’s live talk-variety show Nashville Now, earning the title “the Johnny Carson of cable television” for his interviewing style. From 2007 to 2015, Emery hosted a weekly program on RFD-TV, a satellite and cable TV channel.

By way of Lawrence: Ron Goulart, SF and mystery writer.

Dallas Frazier. Among other credits, he wrote “Elvira” (“…previously recorded by Rodney Crowell before it became a smash hit for the Oak Ridge Boys in 1981”)

Frazier also found success co-writing songs with A.L. “Doodle” Owens, including Charley Pride‘s first No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs hit, 1969’s “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me).” Pride also had No. 1 country hits with the Frazier/Owens collaborations “(I’m So) Afraid of Losing You Again,” “I Can’t Believe That You’ve Stopped Loving Me” and “Then Who Am I.”

Dave Wolverton, who also wrote as “Dave Farland“.

Wolverton worked as an English professor of creative writing at Brigham Young University, and held writing workshops for aspiring and established writers. He taught writers Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Jessica Day George, Eric Flint, James Dashner, as well as others.

NYT obit for Andrew Vachss, including quotes from Joe R. Landsdale. According to the paper of record, he passed on November 23rd, but “his death had not been widely reported previously”.

Obit from “The Rap Sheet” for Mr. Vachss and for J.J. Lamb.

Posted in Books, Music, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 14, 2022.

Friday, January 14th, 2022

Terry Teachout, critic, blogger, playwright, cultural commentator, and biographer, passed away yesterday.

“About Last Night” blog. WSJ (through archive.is). National Review.

I wrote briefly about him and his blog when his wife died. I was still an irregular follower – I tried to check in once a week – but I knew he had found a new love and was excited about that. This seems especially unfair.

On Twitter, he described himself as a “critic, biographer, playwright, director, unabashed Steely Dan fan, ardent philosemite.”

Though he led a sophisticated life of culture in New York, Mr. Teachout retained some of his small-town earnestness. “I still wear plaid shirts and think in Central Standard Time,” he wrote in his memoir. “I still eat tuna casserole with potato chips on top and worry about whether the farmers back home will get enough rain this year.”

I never met Mr. Teachout, though I would have liked to. He seems like one of those good decent people whose passing leaves a void in the world.

Edited to add: tribute from Rod Dreher.

Posted in Art, Books, Media, Music, Obits, Theatre | Comments Closed

Rules of the Gunfight.

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

I did some training this past weekend at the KR Training facility. (KR Training, official firearms trainer of Whipped Cream Difficulties.)

Before I talk about this, I feel like I need to address an elephant in the room. It seems like there are two schools of thought in the gun blogging community:

  1. “Why aren’t you running out every weekend and traveling 500 miles, and then 500 more, to attend tactical operator fantasy camp where you learn how to operate tactically in operations using tactics? Aren’t you serious about this stuff? Don’t you have a job that lets you travel and pay thousands of dollars multiple times a month to take training courses?”
  2. “Fark you, I don’t have the time or the money to travel every weekend and play pretend ninja with my gun writer buddies. I have a job that doesn’t involve shooting guns or people, a family to take care of, and I don’t get free training classes because I’m a gunwriter.”

I hate to be lukewarm, but I totally get both sides of this issue. Training is good. Training is fun. I should do more of it. But I don’t have time or money to train every weekend, so I pick my opportunities carefully.

I’m lucky in that KR Training’s facilities are just a little over an hour away from my house (an hour and a half if I stop at Buc-ee’s on the way). I’m also lucky in that KR Training concentrates almost entirely on practical training for private citizens. (I do not get free training from KR Training, even though they are the official trainer of WCD. I would not accept free training if it was offered: I insist on paying real American money for their services. They do not accept Bitcoin or Dogecoin yet, as far as I know.)

In this case, KR Training was offering two classes from John Hearne. Yes, they were a little expensive. But I decided to treat this as a personal indulgence. I’ve heard Karl talk about Mr. Hearne’s presentations at the Rangemaster conferences, and figured this was worth taking a flyer on.

(These two classes were the second and third I have taken in roughly a month, so you can throw stones at me now. However, the first class was Red Cross First Aid/CPR/AED certification: also through KR Training because that was convenient, but you can pretty much do that anywhere these days. And you should, in my ever so humble opinion.)

tl,dr: If John Hearne is teaching near you, go if you can. He’s worth it.

I’m putting in a jump here because this is going to run long. I can feel it.

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Posted in Books, Endorsements, Geek, Guns, Leadership | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: January 6, 2022.

Thursday, January 6th, 2022

Lawrence N. Brooks. He was 112 years old, and, at the time of his death, was the oldest surviving veteran of WWII.

Assigned to the mostly Black 91st Engineer General Service Regiment stationed in Australia — an Army unit that built bridges, roads and airstrips — Private Brooks served as a caretaker to three white officers, cooking, driving and doing other chores for them.

…

Mr. Brooks said he considered himself fortunate to have been spared combat duty when later in the war troop losses forced the military to send more African American troops to the front lines. In 1941, fewer than 4,000 African Americans were serving in the military; by 1945, that number had increased to more than 1.2 million.
“I got lucky,” he said. “I was saying to myself, ‘If I’m going to be shooting at somebody, somebody’s going to be shooting at me, and he might get lucky and hit.’”

By way of Lawrence: Willie Siros, noted Austin SF fan, book collector, book dealer, and a personal friend. (Apologies if that Facebook link is wonky: for some reason, I can view it on my phone, but I can’t view it on the big computer even in incognito mode. At least, not without logging into my non-existent Facebook account.)

Peter Bogdanovich. Ordinarily I would wait until tomorrow, but it looks like they had this one in the can. (And it has already been corrected once.) THR. Variety.

Before the end of the ’70s, however, Mr. Bogdanovich had been transformed from one of the most celebrated directors in Hollywood into one of the most ostracized. His career would be marred for years to come by critical and box-office failures, personal bankruptcies, the raking of his romantic life through the press and, as it all unspooled, an orgy of film-industry schadenfreude.
“It isn’t true that Hollywood is a bitter place, divided by hatred, greed and jealousy,” the director Billy Wilder once observed. “All it takes to bring the community together is a flop by Peter Bogdanovich.”

I wouldn’t mind seeing “Paper Moon”. I saw “What’s Up, Doc?” many many years ago, and would welcome seeing it again. And we’ve watched “Last Picture Show” recently. I’d also like to read those MoMA monographs.

Though Mr. Bogdanovich repeatedly disavowed the connection, critics liked to point out affinities between Welles’s career and his own: Both men began as directorial wunderkinds. (“Citizen Kane,” released in 1941, was Welles’s first full-length feature.) Both were later expelled from the Eden of A-list directors. (In the 1970s, a down-and-out Welles lived for a time in Mr. Bogdanovich’s mansion in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles.)

…

In the late 1990s, after declaring bankruptcy again, the down-and-out Mr. Bogdanovich lived for a time in the guesthouse of the young director Quentin Tarantino.

Posted in Books, History, Movies, Obits | 1 Comment »

Random thoughts.

Wednesday, January 5th, 2022

I think it is time that we admit “Imagine” is a bad idea.

Not just a bad song, which it is, but we should admit it is just a bad idea in general and toss it on the dustheap of history. No more airplay, no more covers, no acknowledgment that this song even exists.

I have no strong opinion about Lennon’s other songs. But I have left instructions in my will telling my pallbearers to open carry at my funeral, and that they should use any degree of force necessary to stop “Imagine” from being played.

Today’s example of why I feel this way.

I happened to note this the other night, and I’ve seen other people point it out since then. But for the record: 2022 is the year of “Soylent Green”.

(Make Room! Make Room! (affiliate link) was set in August of 1999, for comparison’s sake.)

Posted in Books, Movies, Music | Comments Closed

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