My picks and such

There is a wonderful comic that spoofs the tabletop and LARP communities.  IIRC, it is Knights of the Dinner Table.  Kovalic (SP) just could not go around calling it WarHammer, as that would infringe on something legal, nor could he call one of the Vampire clans Brujah (but Bruhaha worked nicely).  I think I gave most of my copies away, but I will take a look in the dungeon and see what I find.  Seamstress will be overjoyed if I find them and bring them to you.

If not I have a large Knights of Dinner Table collection that I can lend out next time I'm home.  One of my favorite comics.  The larp ones are absolutly hilarious (it involves the characters being tricked into thniking there is a larp going on at a very dangerous biker bar).  Another larp one has the male characters get tricked by a hot gothic female vampire larper who uses her male "vampire" clan members to do chores and errands for her.


Look it up online as well, they put a lot of free strips on their website.  Hoody fricking hoo!

Its election season in the USA, so what better selection than Hunter S. Thompson's  "Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72?"

A tour de force through the muck of America's favorite blood sport, Thompson, writing for Rolling Stone's National Affairs Desk had the only one on one interview that Richard Nixon granted the entire campagin - with the provisio that only football would be discussed!  Thompson's pithy summation  "Say what you will about the man (sic - Nixon), and there are times I doubt his v ery humanity, he does know his football."

FTW

Wonderful Matt.
You do win!  Even if the reference is from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, one of my "read every five years" books.  Copy is going down to Jamaica next trip.

Tonight while doing a little editiing, I saw that PBS was showing the 1967 film, "In the Heat of the Night" with two tour de force performances turned in by Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger.  If you have never seen this one, I urge you in the strongest terms possible to do so.  From the first scene with Poitier, who plays a Philadelphia Homicide Detective (according to his chief, the best) being told upon being sighted by a deputy sheriff in Sparta MS, "On your feet boy" the range of emotions portrayed is extraordinary.  The looks on Steiger's (The police Chief) face when in response to his question "What do you do for that kind of money ($162.39/week, much more than he makes) in Philadelphia, boy?" Poitier responds "I'm a police officer."  is in and of itself worthy of the price of the rental.

I cannot give the entire scene where Poitier utters the film's most famous line, but the controlled fury in his voice and posture says much more that his words.  Whatever the rating in stars, this is a must watch for any serious film buff. 

Oh yeah - Steiger received an Oscar for his role as Chief of Police Billy Gillespie (reprised by Carroll O'Conner on the TV series).  Shed no tears for Poitier, who after narrowly losing to his co-star, had to settle for a Golden Globe.

I was just watching that as well
I love in the heat of the night, great movie I try to catch anytime it's on
" Keep Cool, Harvey"

Heavy reading in the back yard today waiting for a deer or three that never materialized (I hunt in comfort, thank you) was Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel which won a Pulitzer Prize, which joined the author's MacArthur Fellowship as notable awards.  In this book, Diamond comes up with a nice hypothesis on human history, which he bolsters by extensive research.  It will make you think. It is a tad over 400 pages, but reads fast.  Don't worry, Andy - there are pictures too.

It is available for loan at the Festival.  PM me if interested.

Those desiring to read military history are often faced with the fact tht such prose is usually a dry as overdone toast.  While at University I discovered S.L.A. Marshall (Samuel Lyman Atwood - Slam Marshal for short).  I just picked up Vietnam  Three Battles .  Marshall's writing is informative and lively, always engaging the reader's attention.  He brings things to life - even things I would not normally find interesting.  He is not some armchair historian, but was Brigadier General in our army.  He had 4 tours in Vietnam and wa there when he was 66 years old, to get first hand information.  Somehow, he was still connected well into retirement age.  General Matthew Ridgeway (if you do not recognize the name, that's why God invented Google) had no doubt he was the best author in his genre for at least their generation.

A few pithy quotes and I will let you go.  Considering Low Intensity Conflicts (what ws then called "Irregular Warfare" he says "The sure thing is an empty bag.  The seeming flash-in-the-pan turns into a major explosion.  Elephant guns are used to bang away at rabbits.  Tigers are hunted with popguns."  Succinct, informative, lively.  He does not spare the feelings of those in G2.  Concerning Operation Thayer "Either the enemy was not there, or if present was so clever and adroit that American genius and aggressiveness must be rated as something less than waht we believe." 

The book is borrowable.  LEt me know via PM.

Gran Torino more than lived up to the hype.

Cause it should have been said

Continuing my Vietnam Conflict  reading, I've just finished The Things they Carried by Tim O'Brien.  It is one of my son's textbooks, IIRC from The George School.  It is a first hand account of a young soldier's experience in Vietnam in the late 60s.  While a good book, it is disturbing at some levels, as the things they carried include a lot of mental baggage. 

If you read this and Marshall's book, you will have a decent picture of things. 

All three Spiegel's thought this was a book worth the time to read, a rarity, with only Ender's Game having achieved the same status.

I've pushed Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card as being a book liked by all that I know who has read it.  This includes my son's entire class of 20 in 7th grade.  It is a series that he has taken with him on vacation, consisting of several other works as well.  Last year, Card came out with a quick read, A War of Gifts, which tells the story of a child of a Christian fundamentalist minister who is chosen for Battle School, to which all picked must attend.  "They can make me go, but they can't make me fight."  Thus begins the saga of the counterpart to Ender Wiggens.  A splendid quick read with great moral and ethical depth.  Understand the least of those who are chosen for Battle School are among the best minds the planet produces.

Still on my Vietnam binge, I read O'Brien's other book on the topic, If I Die in a Combat Zone.  As with his other autobiographical work, there are some disturbing pictures, noting like the movies, but disturbing nonetheless.  It is a quick read probably because I felt it compelling, unlike The Things They Carried.

I'm going to loan Luis To the King's Taste, Richard II's book of feasts and recipes adapted for modern cooking.  Hopefully he will find something in there he will let me make.  Probably no tripe, and I will not donate enough venison. 

Lots of books don't make the cut - one must kiss a lot of frogs to find a princess. :)

Three more:

1 - Fred Saberhagen, author of the Berserker series, died two years back.  Check out his short story Wings Our of Shadows.
www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498860/0743498860___9.htm

2 - Christopher Hitchens has written a nice book, God is Not Great.  Yeah, no religious postings allowed.   Read the book.  I've often asked my friends in Law enforcment what they would do if they confronted a father who had taken his son to a remote spot, bound said child and stood over him with an upraised knife.  Fortunately Abraham had no interference.

3 - My old company, Clash of Arms Games, has released on of my last projects, Atlantic Navies.  I must say, the section on the German Navy inWWII, Gruppe Nord, is well written, with wit and accuracy. :)  Sadly the game lists for $125 (but includes the French and German scenarios, plus their data annexes and the "All things British Annex."  Cheaper than lobster by the pound, it will last much longer.

Anyone wanting to play "Bismarck" let me know and I will run it.  Want something more balanced, try "Graf Spee's Greatest Battle."  Her commander will feature prominently in my next quiz.

For those of you with children age 3 and up I highly recommend Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.  This and Green Eggs and Ham should be staples in any child's library.

I've recently read the entire Daniel Leary series by David Drake.  No serious insights, but great entertainment featuring flawed characters.  Each, however operates on a code of honor that makes for interesting situations.  Sometimes, PCs die.  Usually the yeomen make it. :)

Since Atlantic Navies came out, I have been reading a bit about the French Navy in WWII.  Never have so modern a collection of ships been so ill-served by their political leadership.  Historically the Italians have been dumped on, military wise, in WWII.  Individually, their skippers were valiant, lacking the leadership of their admirals.  While the French admirals overall sucked, their political leadership should have been taken behind the walls and shot.  A bit of guts could have taken the Allies a long way in the naval conflict.  Instead, the Brits had to sink the French fleet in Algeria at Mers-el-Kabir.  Google it and pick a book.

Lighthearted fare for this weekend.  Went to a nice used book place in Doylestown and picked up a few books, two by the great sage of the 20th century, Yogi Berra.  The one I started today sitting on the front porch sipping tea, is When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It.  Hey, it cost five bucks and I've already had twice its value in good laughs, with a smattering of chuckles.  Yeah, he's not the Dali Lama or Confucius, but could either of them block the plate or win 10 World Series rings, or for that matter, make any all century team?

Every once in a while one gets a song running through one's head and just cannot get rid of it.

Have Gun Will Travel reads the card of a man.
A knight without armor in a savage land.

His fast gun for hire heeds the calling wind.
A soldier of fortune is the man called Paladin.

Paladin, Paladin Where do you roam?
Paladin, Paladin, Far, far from home.

For those of you who saw The Shootist, the Duke's last film, Richard Boone played one of the heavies.

So I Googled the show, Have Gun - Will Travel, which ran when I was a wee lad (yes, they had TV then, though B&W) and much to my surprise, episodes are available online.  The first one, the Statue of San Sebastion, co-stars John Carradine as the Padre.

www.cbs.com/classics/have_gun_will_travel/

Where else does the protagonist smoke fine cigars, wear good clothes, and quote Shakespeare?  Oh, the commercials were only a few minutes long in total.