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Wednesday, March 7, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/7 - Great Finds

Today's NY Post features an article on an exciting discovery. Here's the gist, edited by yours truly: One of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's passions is plumbing the sea for wreckage. His latest find is the USS Lexington, which, along with the USS Yorktown, fought the first-ever carrier duel with the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. It was two miles down. 217 of the crew were lost, 2770 rescued. Badly damaged, it was sunk by torpedoes fired from the USS Phelps. It was the first aircraft carrier casualty in history. Here's one of the pics:


The Post's Weird But True column also reports a rare find, which led to a bit of research: 132 years ago a message in a bottle was thrown from a German ship sailing about 600 miles off Western Australia. Recently, a family walking along a remote beach spotted it sticking out of the sand. It was taken to a maritime archaeologist, who tracked it down through records. He said: “Incredibly, there was an entry for June 12, 1886, made by the captain, recording a drift bottle having been thrown overboard." It's been donated to a museum. The second oldest message in a bottle was a mere 108 years old. Here's the recently discovered one:


Here's interesting though unsurprising news featured in a blurb in the Post. In February USA gun sales increased 4.4%, 13% in Florida. Sales of Smith & Wesson's gun stocks rose 18%. It seems this always happens after a mass shooting that leads to fears of a gun ban.

Kim Jong-un is vowing to ditch his nukes. A long line of American presidents has fallen for NoKo's malarkey. Will Trump? South Korea's president seems to have been hooked. I wonder how much money Dear Leader will con out of him. Wanna buy a bridge?

I spent this snow day doing tasks. The most important was the completion of the first serious reading of next year's novel, Inside Out. I doubt I will have any of the problems I had with this year's, Present and Past. The margins look good and I already have the page numbers in place. I'll return to it for the first of three sweeps on October 1st. And I will have no qualms about using "Can a novel be both explicit and meaningful?" in the book's blurb. I didn't tone it down as much as I'd thought... I also sorted through the donation of CD's I received yesterday. About a fifth is Christmas music. One third is either classical, orchestral or atmosphere recordings. Several are R & B, dance and pop. A few are rock. I downloaded eight songs. I passed on long versions of Donna Summers' Hot Stuff and She Works Hard for the Money. Each was more than six minutes, great in clubs but tedious outside them... Now we wait to see how much accumulation there will be. So far not much. A weather guy just said the worst in NYC will be after eight PM. He held to the prediction of eight to twelve inches. I know it's ridiculous to hope it will be a lot less, but here I am, hoping.
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/6 - EGOTs & more

On his radio talk show this morning, Mark Simone mentioned EGOTs. I did not recall having heard the term. It is an acronym for those who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award. 12 people have been so honored: Richard Rodgers, Helen Hayes, Rita Moreno. John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick (Composr/Conductor), Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg, Scott Rudin (Producer) and Robert Lopez (Composer). Another six have won three of the awards and been bestowed an honorary one in a fourth: James Earl Jones, Alan Menken (Composer), Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones and Harry Belafonte. 83 artists, including the six just mention, have won three of the awards. Several have passed away.


I eliminated another of my individual stock holdings. I'd put an order to sell my 48 shares of Conduent, a business process services company, at $20. It was spun off from Xerox, one of my big losers. I'm now about two grand in the hole on it. The only reason I held onto it is because it continued to pay dividends through hard times. I'm hoping it gets bought out by a successful firm. Management seems clueless in adapting to the post copier world.

It looks like NYC's run of good luck regarding this year's winter is about to run out big time. The forecast is for a foot of snow. Fortunately, it will be followed by five straight days of temperatures in the 40's, four of them sunny, one with a threat of rain/snow. I'm glad I've left the shovel in the car. I'm hoping for a quick melt, which usually happens in March. Just in case, I will go out later and try to find a parking spot on the left hand side of the street. I put off a bunch of tasks to help fill the hours tomorrow. I'm hoping the book shop will return Saturday.

My thanks to Mr. Conspiracy, who settled his tab, and to the woman who purchased Danielle Steel's Palomino, and to the other who bought a book in Russian. Special thanks to the woman who donated a box of CD's just as I was about to leave. Last year she gave me about 100 classical albums, all of which sold. I will bring the new batch, 50 or so, to the apartment when I go out to move the old Hyundai, and sort through them manana.


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Monday, March 5, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/5 - Passing of a Legend

RIP Roger Bannister, 88, who in 1954 did what many believed couldn't be done - crack the four-minute mark in the mile run. He did it in 3:59:04. At the time he was a medical student at Oxford. He went on to a career in neurology. Well done, sir. Since then, the record time has fallen to a point no one would ever have dreamed of in Bannister's heyday. Hicham El Guerrouj, a Moroccan, is the current men's record holder with a time of 3:43:13, set in 1999. Svetlana Masterkova of Russia holds the women's record of 4:12:56, accomplished in 1996. Since 1976 the mile has been the only non-metric distance recognized by the IAAF for record purposes. Will anyone break those marks? I wouldn't bet against it, especially the women's. Here's the iconic photo of Bannister crossing the finish line:


Last night Movies!, 113 on Cablevision in NYC, ran Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon (1993), which starred Ryan O'Neill as a con man and his then nine-year-old daughter Tatum as an orphan who comes under his care. I always sniffed at O'Neill's talent, a sentiment probably aroused by envy of his good looks and jealousy of his success. The repartee between father and daughter in the film is impressive, even astounding. Another interesting aspect of the flick is the appearance of P.J. Johnson, who plays a 15-year-old sold by her impoverished mom to be the valet of a loose white woman, played by the late, great Madeline Kahn. She has only three credits listed at IMDb, in another Bogdanovich film and in one episode of the Paper Moon TV series starring Christopher Connelly and Jodie Foster, which was canceled after 13 episodes. I googled her name and found nothing more than what has already been stated here. What the heck has happened to her? Here's a picture of how she appeared in the movie:


Although I'm not an avid photographer, I'm enjoying taking pictures with the camera one of my nieces gave me for Christmas. Three years ago a friend helped me put together a shot of what at the time was my six books. Since there are now nine, I decided a new pic was in order. If it looks good, I'll use it at my Facebook author page:



I took the show to Bay Parkway today, hoping to see two regular customers for whom I have books I thought would interest them. One showed and bought two hardcover thrillers by Vince Flynn. My thanks, and also to the young man who wanted something easy that would help him improve his English. I suggested Eye Candy by R.L. Stine, and he bit. Special thanks to the woman who bought eight books in Russian, seven hardcovers that had similar coloring and a paperback of what I had correctly assumed was by Vladimir Nabokov.

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Sunday, March 4, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/4 - Words & Pictures

I stopped watching news broadcasts long ago. They focus largely on the negative, drag out stories way longer than necessary, are dumbed down, and almost all have an extreme liberal bias. In an article in today's NY Post, Susannah Cahalan cites a new book that refutes the doom and gloom the media presents with such gusto. In Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker argues that the world keeps getting better. He uses statistics to prove that there is less prejudice, that literacy has skyrocketed, that people have more disposal income and higher life expectancy than ever, that we're safer from accidents and mishaps, that 56% of the planet lives under Democracy, that world GDP keeps increasing, that birth rates are falling, and that the environment is rebounding. I agree with these conclusions, but I'm concerned social decay and, of course, terrorism negate much of the good. American society is far different, far messier than when I was a youth. Are we headed the way of the Roman Empire, or are we simply in a period of steep transition? I doubt that will be resolved by the time I shuffle off this mortal coil. Meanwhile, we in the western world are fortunate to have the choice to be happy or miserable. It's largely in our own hands. Many seem to have opted for the latter. I've been and don't want to go back.


RIP actor David Ogden Stiers, 75, who was at home on the big or small screen. His most famous role, 131 episodes as Major Winchester on MASH, made it a better show. The character was a conservative often allowed to get the better of Hawkeye, not the easy target Major Burns was. Stiers did much more than that revered series. He has 167 titles under his name at IMDb. He appeared in five Woody Allen films. A student of music, he conducted 70 orchestras. Here's a quote attributed to him: "What's next is what I really really like to regard. I don't care if it's voice over work, or commercial, or directing a play, or doing a guest appearance with an orchestra, or going into some sort of ear training for a movie, or what is next. That I keep working just astonishes me. I never take it for granted." Well done, sir. Thank you.


Shaquem Griffin played LB at the University of Central Florida. He's six-two and weighs 223, a bit light for the position by NFL standards. Nevertheless, he has been wowing the evaluators at this week's combine, doing 20 reps of 225 pounds of the bench press, and running the fastest 40-yard dash ever by linebacker at the event — 4.38 seconds. Here's a picture. Notice anything unusual?


According to an article in the Post, NYC buses average 23 accidents and mishaps per day. An MTA spokesman countered the appearance of chaos by stating there were 55 collisions per one million miles in 2017, down from 92 in 1988.

My thanks to the middle age woman who said she has MS, who bought The CarbLovers Diet: Eat What You Love, Get Slim for Life! by Frances Largeman-Roth and Ellen Kunes, and to the younger one who was sharing either a joint or a rolled cigarette with a girlfriend, who purchased Help, It's Broken!: A Fix-It Bible for the Repair Impaired by Arianne Cohen. Special thanks to the young man who selected Frank Stella: Schriften / Writings by Frank Stella and Franz-Joachim Verspohl - which is in German! Here's an example of Stella's work, The Earthquake in Chile:




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Saturday, March 3, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/3 - Sicilian Omelet

I had a few laughs at today's session of the floating book shop. A lovely middle age woman with a Russian accent, who I believe purchased Killing a couple of years ago, remarked at how good strategically the spot in front of the Chase bank on Bay Parkway and 85th is - in the sun and out of the wind. She nailed it. That building has shielded me many, many times on blustery days such as this one, and enabled me to work when the temperature dipped into the twenties. My thanks to the gentleman who purchased three thrillers in Russian, and to the young man who selected Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business: Shocking Declassified Details from the FBI's Greatest Undercover Operation by Charles Brandt & Joseph D. Pistone. Ralph stopped by after doing business in the bank. He's discarded the crutches he was using two weeks ago after back surgery. He's far from 100% but doing much better. He purchased a book on success and Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military by Bryan Mark Rigg. He teased me when I asked for the rubber bands that bound them. I use them to keep the covers exposed on windy days. I said my Sicilian mentality doesn't let anything go to waste. He replied with a joke: "How do you make a Sicilian omelet? - First you steal two eggs." He apologized and said he's half-Sicilian. No apology was necessary. I love ethnic humor.


Here are translations of Sicilian proverbs from thoughtco.com. Many are familiar. I had no idea their origin is Sicilian:
Every dog barks at a poor man.
Buy at the cost of four and sell at the cost of eight.
Latin hides the stupidity of the priest.
Strike while the iron is hot.
Buyer beware.
The early bird catches the worm.
Who seeks, finds; who perseveres, wins.
Who starts many things, finishes nothing.
Who doesn't intend to pay, signs any contract.
Who looks for a quarrel, finds a quarrel.
Who gets married will be happy for a day, who butchers a pig will be happy for a year.
In war, hunting, and love you suffer a thousand pains for one pleasure.
Everyone wants to go to heaven; the desire is there but the fortitude is not.
The more you have, the more you want.
Too compassionate the doctor, too inadequate the treatment.
Repentance washes away sin.
God made things straight, the devil came and twisted them.
There's honor among thieves.
When love knocks, be sure to answer.
When the cat's away the mice will play.
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Not every pain comes to harm you.
We learn by standing on the shoulders of the wise.
Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Ticks and money are difficult to pluck out.

I can't leave out my favorite Sicilian character of all time, Frank "Five Angels" Pentangeli, from The Godfather Part II (1974), played precisely by Michael V. Gazzo, as genuine a depiction of a Sicilian-American as there ever will be: "Your father did business with Hyman Roth, your father respected Hyman Roth, but your father never trusted Hyman Roth."


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Friday, March 2, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/2 - This n That

Here's more evidence that Turkey's leader is no friend of the USA and possibly dangerous, from a NY Post editorial, edited by yours truly: While delivering a speech last week, Recep Erdogan spotted a little girl weeping and saluting. He brought her to the stage and said: "... If she becomes a martyr, God Willing, this flag will be draped on her."

My biggest and perhaps only beef regarding President Trump's economic policy is his protectionist threats. Yesterday he called for a 25% tariff on steel and 10% on aluminum. If enacted, they might incite a trade war that will affect the pocketbooks of American consumers negatively. I hope it's only a ploy to get other countries to negotiate better deals.

Among the gifts in this year's Oscar swag bag, worth in the neighborhood of $100,000, is mace in a camouflaged container. Here's a pic of last year's gift, followed by the aforementioned. Future Harvey Weinsteins take note:





Just to be on the safe side, I checked the level of lower Sheepshead Bay while on my morning walk, which began just after six AM. From across Emmons Avenue it looked like it was five feet from breaching. I opened the newspaper as soon as I got home and went right to the weather page, where the tides had been listed in the past. To my surprise, they're still there. High tide at Coney Island was scheduled for just short of eight AM. I didn't move the old Hyundai until after eleven, and I did that just to make sure there wouldn't be an unhappy surprise tomorrow morning. The car had sat idle since Monday. I spent the day attending to chores, and reading 30 more pages, in increments of ten, of next year's novel, Inside Out. I'm about two-thirds of the way through. Also, for the first time, I boned up on how to run the video portion of my camera. I shot myself playing My Funny Valentine, plucking a note for each word of the lyrics. The film was fine but there was no sound. I didn't know a mic is required - duh. There's a tiny portal for it. I'm certain that there wasn't one in the package, that it has to be purchased separately. Maybe I'll get around to it some day.

I just returned from a pizza run at Delmar. It seems the worst of the storm is upon us, the wind vicious. A mix of rain, sleet and snow is in the air. Any accumulation shouldn't be much. We've been very lucky in that regard this year, and may it continue in the weeks ahead.

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

The Writer's Life 3/1 - Billboards Plus

Sabo, a conservative street artist, has taken aim at the Oscars and Hollywood’s sexual harassment scandals by using three billboards in L.A. that look like those featured in the nominated film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.  Here they are:





An Italian model has been suspended from Instagram due to fears she is trying to influence upcoming erections - er, elections, by promising oral sex to male voters. She claims to have satisfied 700 men after a 2016 election. Though tempting, at this stage of my life nothing could get me to vote for a leftist. Maybe if a beauty promised once a week's worth. Here is the woman in question:

In his business column in today's NY Post, John Crudele raises interesting points about driver-less vehicles. Here are excerpts, edited by yours truly: "...are they going to be programmed to adhere to the speed limit? If so, they will be the only vehicles on the road obeying the law..." "... if they do exceed the limit, who gets the ticket? Will the programmers be tracked down and made to pay? Or will the passenger have to pay even though he/she is not responsible?"... "... how will towns balance budgets without high ticket revenue?"... "And what about insurance companies? If nobody is getting tickets, will it hurt profits?" I doubt I would be comfortable in such a vehicle, but it wouldn't surprise me if they became the new norm for the younger and future generations.

Donations outnumbered sales by nine to one at today's session of the floating book shop. My thanks to Matt, who bought Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell, the wildly successful author of the fictional crime series featuring CSI whiz Kay Scarpetta. According to Wiki, Cornwell worked at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia for six years, as a technical writer and then as a computer analyst. She also volunteered with the Richmond Police Department... The most interesting of today's donations came from Alan, a retired cabbie: Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military by Bryan Mark Rigg. According to a blurb at Amazon: "...as many as 150,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen of partial Jewish descent (Mischlinge, in Nazi terminology) served..."

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