WC 062222

 This week's challenge it Auto Buy authors. Writers who when they come out with a new book, you have to buy and read it in a single day even if it nearly kills you.

For a long time, these authors fit the category until I couldn't keep up, or they died:

Isaac Asimov

Harlan Ellison

James A. Michener

Anne McCaffery

Collen McCulloh

Harold Robbins

Micky Spillane

C. S. Lewis

Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Barry Sadler

Anne Rice

Today's authors are:

Tony Roberts, I just got his 8th book in the Dark Blade series and I'm loving it.

Blake Banner

Tom Clancy

Leigh Berdugo

Mark Dawson

Julia Quinn - Love Bridgerton

Paula Paul

Berthold Gambrel, blogger friend who has reviewed a number of my books on his blog.

Joseph Badal, local author and I've met a number of times at book signings.

Hank Bruce, another local author and member of Writers2writers. He had great books on gardening, and is pushing the nutritional value of the Moringa Tree for developing nations.

Dr. Irene Blea, another member of Writers2writers, she has a trilogy about her aunt who was sold into marriage at age 13, ran away from an abusive husband and went on to live her life. Great reads, she has an autobiography of her life coming out soon that we in W2W read portions and gave input, as they did with my work.

Jonathan Miller, local author who told me about Soutwest Writers way back in 2006. I went to my first meeting, found out about a print on demand in August, had the first two copies of Optimus Praetorian Guard by November. He's an attorney and writes legal thrillers.

Legend of Bagger Vance

 

Hard to imagine it's been 24 years since this movie came out. It cost 80 million to make and earned 39 million. A bust for Mat Damon, Charlese Theron and He who shall not be named.

Of all the movies on golf, this is by far the best. It's more than about golf, As is often said, Golf is life. It's a game that can't be won only played, like life.

It's set during the Great Depression and Matt Damon is a local golf hero before WWI, he comes back damaged. The girl he left behind is spending all her money to save her father's golf course by holding a golf tournament with Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, two of the best golfers alive. Junah is roped into playing in the tournament. Bagger Vance comes along to be his caddy and gets him back in mental shape to play.

The most important part of the movie is after Junah has a disastrous first round. Bagger tries to tell him a story about overcoming adversity. Junah doesn't want to hear it. 

There's a little boy named Harley who is the one who talked Bagger into playing in the tournament and is a fore caddy. The boy's father used to own the hardware store until the depression and is now sweeping the streets and renting out a room in their house to strangers. He tells Junah how ashamed he is of his father and that his friends have too much pride to sweep streets.

Junah then berates him and says, his father paid back everyone who he owed money to instead of declaring bankruptcy like his friends' fathers. "Your father faced adversity and beat it back with a broom."

It's here he realizes what Bagger had been trying to tell him. He and Harley discuss golf and that it's only a game, that can't be won, only played.

That's all I'm saying about the movie. It's great and everyone should watch it. It's available on DVD and on Prime Video.

WC 061522

 This week's challenge is: name the best father in a book, movie or TV show.

I'm going to date myself here, but growing up watching TV, Robert Young was the father I wish I had. No matter what happened he kept a cool head, and settled it in a loving way. Oh for the days of Father Knows Best.

Don't get me wrong, I had a great dad, but he wasn't perfect like Robert Young. I learned at an early age that life was not perfect like it was on TV.

They had great dads on TV back then, Fred MacMurray on My Three Sons, Lorne Greene on Bonanza, Leave it to Beaver, (stop snickering at the title), they had a great dad, Hazel, Chuck Conners in The Rifleman, Bill Bixby in The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Brian Keith in Family Affair, the list goes on and on. Some were in nuclear family, some were widowers, the last one was an uncle taking his brother's children. then something happened. TV started depicting dads as not perfect, but buffoons. All in the Family, Married with Children. Can't they try to go for human? 

He who shall not be named tried to resurrect the perfect father, but he's in disgrace now. 

Rant over.

Don Perkins

 

Yesterday, one of my heroes passed away. The reason I've been a diehard Dallas Cowboys fan is because of Don Perkins. He was a top running back for UNM and the first from New Mexico to make it big in the NFL. 

On the Lobo field where they play football, they have huge pictures of all the Football players that have been All Americans. His is the first one on the side of the building. Brian Urlacher's is the last for now.

We moved to New Mexico in 1963 and the only football games on Sunday afternoon showed the Dallas Cowboys. The whole city went crazy because Don Perkins was their premier running back. I've been a 'Boys fan from then on. A very disgruntled one for the last twenty years. Dak Prescott makes them worth watching anymore.

After Don retired, he returned to New Mexico. He did some announcing, for a while did sports on a local TV station.

What I remember most was his work with the local high schools through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I was in 9th grade in junior high, my brother was a junior in high school and captain of our FCA huddle. He arranged a meeting at our house with Don Perkins. He forgot to tell Mom.

Mom answered the doorbell and Don Perkins was there a little early and Bruce wasn't home yet. He introduced himself and Mom didn't have a clue who he was, all she knew was that a big black man wanted to come inside.

 Bruce drove up with a car full of jocks. They had a nice meeting. High school got out before junior high, and I had practice, so I missed it.

When I was teaching at Higland High School, Don put on a one-man presentation each period for the U.S. History classes. He portrayed Frederick Douglas and did a masterful job.

It's a sad day now that he is gone. Only a few Cowboy fans remember him now, and only the old timers like me in New Mexico know what a truly remarkable man her was.

 

 

Bunny O'hare

 

Today's challenge is a book, movie or TV show set in or around your town.

Albuquerque and New Mexico have had lots of all three. The Oscar best picture No Country For Old Men was filmed in Albuquerque, the TV shows In Plain Sight, Breaking Bad and just finishing Better Call Saul were filmed here. Trying to take pleadings down to the three courthouses as Lomas and 4th street was quite a challenge when they were filming around or in them. Pleadings now are done electronically and that's not much of a problem anymore. That was one of the tasks I fulfilled in order to use an office at a law firm for my writing.  

Sony Pictures has a studio in Mesa Del Sol north of Kirkland Air Force Base and the Albuquerque Sun Port. Lots of filming is happening around here.

I have a story about a movie filmed here in 1970.

I was a junior in high school running cross-country. We had a race at our Western Skies course. It's at the mouth of Tijeras Canyon at the base of the Sandia Mountains and Monzano Mountains. Tramway Blvd, at the time was still a dirt road. The course began about a half mile east of the road on another set of roads where new houses were being built. We started and went downhill that half-mile to Tramway and ran on it until we came to another road then uphill for a mile went around a hill and down to the start/finish line.

Driving in we saw a bunch of poles, cameras and other stuff in the middle of Tramway. At the starting line the coaches got together and discussed this obstruction to our racecourse. They decided our race was scheduled before the movie people showed up and since Los Alamos High had traveled down to run we were going to run.

C-team ran first, we all dropped down to Tramway and watched as 50 guys, this was before Title IX and there wasn't girls sports. Anyway fifty barreled through the mish mash of objects in the way. We heard someone yell, "What the hell!"

When junior varsity's turn came they'd cleared a path through their set and the next two races went without incident.

The movie was Bunny O'hare with Ernest Borgnine and Betty Davis. It was a huge flop. I watched it on late night TV about ten years later and I've seen film on the side of a bathtub better than this one.

Top Ten Tuesday

 

Top ten things I look for in a comfort read.

1. A fantasy world I can get lost in. Examples:

Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Riders and Harper Hall series. I want a fire lizard. Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Tony Roberts' Kastania Chronicles and Dark Blade series.

2. Historical Fiction about an interesting time period or location. Barry Saddler, now Tony Roberts' Casca: The Eternal Mercenary series, now up to 56 books. James A. Michener has some great books: The Source, Alaska, Centennial, Texas, Chesapeake, Hawaii, The Drifters. I tried to read all his books but gave up as that's all I would read for the rest of my life.

3. A particular author. Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, James A. Michener, Tony Roberts, Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Anne Rice, Mary Stewart, Anne McCaffrey, Colleen McCullagh.

4. Writer friends: Dr. Irene Blea who has a book about the seven women found dead on the mesa: Daughters of the West Mesa, a series about her aunt's life: Suzanna, Poor People's Flowers, Beneath the Super Moon, Hank Bruce, who writes about gardening and has a children's book about the Maringa Tree, Jonathan Miller, an Attorney in town that writes legal thrillers, Paul Paul, a local writer with a wide range of topics. The Mind of a Deviant Woman is my favorite, and a good blogger friend that I have linked to many times who also writes in the horror and science fiction genres, Berthold Gambrel.   

I think I've dropped enough names and titles to satisfy the question.

One hand on the Bible the other one on a gun.

 

"Which Way Are You Goin'?"

Song by Jim Croce

 

Which way are you goin'?

Which side will you be on?

Will you stand and watch while,

All the seeds of hate are sewn?

Will you stand with those who say

Let his will be done?

 

One hand on the Bible

And one hand on the gun.

One hand on the Bible

And one hand on the gun.

 

Which way are you lookin'?

Is it hard to see?

Do you say what's wrong for him

Is not wrong for me?

You walk the streets of righteousness

But you refuse to understand.

 

Say you love the baby,

And then you crucify the man.

Say you love the baby,

And then you crucify the man.

 

Every day,

Things are changing.

Words once honored turn to lies.

People wandering

Can you blame them?

It's too far to run

And too late to hide.

 

So now you turn your back on,

Everything that you used to preach.

It's let him live in freedom,

If he lives like me.

Well your light has changed,

Confusion reigns.

What have you become?

 

All your olive branches turn to spears

When your flowers turn to guns.

All your olive branches turn to spears

When your flowers turn to guns.

Why Do You Read?

  The burning question: Why do you read? Click on the post and write your answer at Writers Supporting Writers.

I posted mine there.

Berthold Gambrel posted this question, and I decided to pass it on to my readers also.

WC Favorite Quote from a book

 

I'm deviating from today's topic. Friendly Persuasion is a book by Jesamyn West that was turned into a movie. For a more indepth review check out Berthold Gambrel's on his blog.

The problem of making the movie was that the book didn't have enough conflict, at least not the type of conflict movie goers would expect. They added the conflict of Josh, the oldest son leaving to fight against the Rebel Raiders. It is here that the greatest quotes come.

Josh has left, Jess is chopping wood when his best friend Sam Jordan and Friend Purdy ride up. Both are carrying guns. 

Purdy tries to get Jess to join them in fighting the raiders. Jess refuses. Purdy then says, "War time changes things."

Sam Jordan then says, "War changes things, but you haven't. Last week you told my son he's going to hell for fighting and today you tell Jess he has to fight. Whatever's right for Purdy has to be right for everyone else."

Nothing sums up the Evangelical thought process more completely than this statement.

Later the horse Josh took comes back without him. Jess gets his hunting rifle and starts to leave to bring him back. While going to the horse he tells his younger son, Little Jess, "Thee's the man of the house now."

Little Jess says, "Kill a Johnny Reb for me."

Jess leans down and places his hand on his son's shoulder. "Son, never says that about another man's life."

This is the true meaning of the phrase "Sanctify of human life."

My best book for today's world.

 https://www.amazon.com/Human-Sacrifices-Patrick-Prescott-ebook/dp/B004W0NPD8/ref=sr_1_11?crid=RYOV3642OD6X&keywords=Human+Sacrifices&qid=1653160197&s=digital-text&sprefix=human+sacrifices%2Cdigital-text%2C100&sr=1-11

Jan is a preacher's daughter recently graduated from a religious college with a teaching degree. She divorced her husband as he was beating her up and demanding sex.

The church they attended starts a campaign to make her return to her husband by picketing the house where she's living.

She starts seeing a face in two trees outside her window. The face of a demon feasting on her pain and despair. She names it Mal. Soon she doesn't have to look out the window as she sees Mal in her dreams.

This book is about spousal abuse, church abuse, overcoming the abuse and starting her life over as a teacher and seeing her students as her mission field to keep them out of the jaws of Mal.

Wednesday Challenge 051822

 

Today's Wednesday Challenge is, what do I do when I'm not feeling well?

I get in bed, have medicine, snacks ready to munch on, plenty of liquids, A TV with a dozen streaming services to choose from and with my trusty dog, Sammie lying next to me, suffer through it.

A big must is to have no other human bothering me.

Well, that's what I did until I gave Sammie to my son. He has a bigger yard and two kids, so the dog is much happier.

Today is the last day to get The Fan Plan Trilogy for free as an e-book at Amazon.

Sixteen Hours

 

Sixteen Hours

By

Patrick Prescott

 

Chorus:

You work sixteen hours and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter don’t you call me I can’t go. I owe my soul to the student loan bank.

 

Borrowed two hundred thou, to get through law school

Worked thirty years made partner, paid four hundred thou, still owe six hundred thou,

Can’t retire and enjoy my life, Ronald Reagan says, "Well bless my Soul."

Chorus

 

 Borrowed a hundred thou to become a teacher. Still work waiting tables to pay off loans.

Big political fundraiser made me work late, Republican Governor stiffed me on the tip.

Can’t buy house or drive a decent car, H. W. Bush smiles at what he’s done.

 

Chorus

 

Whether they’re cops or mechanics, nurses of para legal, they’re all indebted for life.

They all pay taxes and want the dream, but the interest eats up their future.

Living from payday to payday just to get by W Bush paints in happiness.

 

Chorus

 

Did four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, can’t get a job due to PTSD.

VA conveniently lost my file. I’m pushing a shopping cart and live under a bridge.

Broiling in summer, freezing in winter, Trump just says,” Loser, how do you think we kill the middle class and steal Social Security?”

You work sixteen hours what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don't you call me I can't go. I OWE MY SOUL TO THE STUDENT LOAN BANK.

 

 

 

 

Fan Plan Trilogy for free

 

Starting Saturday May 14, 2022, until Wednesday May 18, 2022. Fan Plan Trilogy will be free to purchase as an e-book.

Berthold Gambrel wrote a review on his blog that helps explain the story.

When a meteorite hits Yellowstone in 1965 the computers of Trans Global Oil predict the super volcano will erupt in 50 to 100 years.

Unlike others who know this TGO decides they will create a foundation that will build up a fund to save civilization. They call it the Fan Plan, because when it hits the fan, you have to have a plan. 

For the next three generation, up to the election of Trump in 2016, Trans Global Energy (name changed when they dropped oil due to fracking), has an island in Hawaii named World's End which will be the refuge of the family when it hits the fan.

They are building a Scientific Secret Police. When the volcanic winter is over, the SSP will stomp on any religions asshole that wants to blame God for what happened and drive civilization back to the stone age.

Fan Plan Trilogy: Meteor Strike, Preparation, Countdown - Kindle edition by Prescott, Patrick. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

WC 051122

 

Today's Wednesday Challenge:

My strongest belief is reason. I believe in reasonable faith. I believe in the scientific method; I believe that the possibility of life on other planets exists by sheer mathematical probabilities.

 I do not believe that space travel is possible based upon physics and the sheer distances involved. 

Do we have the ability to travel within our solar system? Yes. We've reached the moon. We've placed machines on Mars and working on putting either man or woman or both there.

Do I think we'll be able to travel to our closest star Alpha Centauri, no. Four light years is way too far at the speed we are capable. A ship would take four years just to get there at the speed of light. 186,000 miles per second. At that speed a speck of dust would destroy it. Space is a vacuum, but it is not empty.

Science fiction uses devices, like warp speed or gate or cryogenics, to overcome the suspension of disbelief to further the story, and the reader understands this and enjoys the story. For an alien to travel the distances to come to earth in my reasonable estimation is not probable. Anything is possible.

Top 10 Tuesday

 It's been a while since I've done a top ten, here goes.

1. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe

2. I Claudius by Robert Graves

3. Claudius the God by Robert Graves

4. The Autobiography of VIII by Margaret George.

5. The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George.

6. Elizabeth the Great by Elizabeth Jenkins.

7. Pontius Pilate by Paul Maier.

8. The Constantine Codex by Paul Maier.

9. Genuine Jesus by Paul Maier

10. I Maury by Patrick Prescott

This is the reason I've taken a break from Top Ten. The life of the father of oceanography, meteorology, and pathfinder of the seas as autobiography.

Stories of Love and Lust

 

Latest e-book 

Stories of Love and Lust - Kindle edition by Prescott, Patrick. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

WC 050422

 

OOPS, I posted wrong and doing a makeover.

My best mother in a book or movie is Eliza Birdwell from Friendly Persuasion.

For and Indepth review of this movie, check out Berthold Gambrel's blog. 

The story is about a Quaker Family during the civil war. Eliza is a Quaker minister. This is misleading as the movie doesn't explain that all believers are considered ministers because of "Priesthood of the Believer."

Throughout the movie Eliza is the glue that keeps the family faithful to their beliefs. When they go to a fair she's finds her daughter dancing, the younger son at a shell game, the older son and husband are in an altercation. She sets them straight.

Jess, the father takes Josh the elder son on his sales trip and a nurseryman. When they get back a man shows up with an organ. Jess bought it at the fair.

Eliza is appalled, a musical instrument is not allowed in their faith. When she tells him if the musical instrument goes in, she goes out to the barn. Jess moves the organ in and Eliza and her pet goose Samantha head to the barn. Samantha is a major character of the film. She's a pure pet. Jess doesn't like her because she eats his strawberries and Little Jess is constantly fighting with her because Samanta sneaks up on him and bites him.

That evening Jess joins her in the barn, the next morning they've compromised that the organ goes to the attic and no playing on First Day (Sunday).

Rebel Raiders are reported heading their way. Josh sees the damage they've caused and decides to join the fight. This is huge. Quakers are pacifists, nonviolent. At first as he's leaving, she turns her back on him. This is an expression of shunning. Because he's leaving the faith, he's dead to her and all other Quakers. Eliza turns around and hugs him, she can't go through with it.

The horse that Josh left on comes back alone. Jess then rides out to find him.

Eliza and the children are alone when a band of raiders come riding in. She greets them, tells them where the food is and even offers them a cooked meal inside.

While she's serving inside and the raiders are rounding up the livestock one spots Samantha, and decides they'll have roast goose tonight.

Eliza hears the squawking of her pet and runs outside just as the man is about to ring Samantha's neck. She grabs a broom and clobbers him about the head, he turns around and she tells him, "Samantha's a pet, she's a pure pet."

The man shakes his head and says, "I wish I'd known that sooner ma'am." Samantha walks about shaking her displeasure.

The raiders leave and Eliza is stricken with guilt. She resorted to violence.

Jess returns with Josh who's been wounded but is also agonizing about the men he killed.

Eliza is mortified when Jess finds out about her whacking a Reb. As they're leaving for First Day, he puts him arms around both and says, "Come along, veterans."

Wednesday Challenge 042722

 

Today's challenge is book, movie or TV show you can't wait to see.

 This is a fascinating Science Fiction series. To move through long distances of space requires sailing through dark matter like old time clipper ships.

Dark Matter was included in a number of Star Trek series and comprises around 90% of our universe.

A young woman becomes a midshipman and want to advance through the officer ranks. Naturally the top brass is against any woman as an officer. Alex Carew has to fight misogyny, surly crewmen, hazardous shore leave, and taking on the complexities of sailing through dark matter. The science is top rate, and the stories are compelling. It would be well worth a studios investment to create a series to compete with the Star Trek universe. If done right the galaxy is the limit on this. 

My latest novel about the Father of Oceanography. Available as e-book and paperback.

I Maury: Life and Times of a Rebel - Kindle edition by Prescott, Patrick. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

WC 042022

 

Today's challenge is one meal everyone should try.

Teppan Yaki.

You are seated at a table with a stainless-steel cooking area. There are spaces for eight people. They seat eight people most will be strangers. It is communal dining. You can choose to ignore them or engage them in conversation. The experience is best if you get to chat with people while dining.

There's a large plate and cloth napkin with silver ware and you can ask for chopsticks. There's the option for alcohol or soft drinks and tea, hot or iced.

The menu has appetizers, I prefer sea food tempura: shrimp, crab meat, scallops, and Calimarie fried in a light batter. It comes with a ginger sauce for dipping. You can also order sushi if you're into that.

Entres consist of chicken (some places use breast others use thigh meat, I prefer thigh meat it's not as dry), steak (sirloin, filet mignon, New York strip), shrimp, sea food and oriental vegetables either as tempan yaki (only soy sauce) or teriyaki, a tasty saki flavored sauce. You can mix the chicken and steak or sea food.

It comes with fried rice, or you can opt for a bowl of rice or if diabetic skip from the meal.

After your drinks arrive you get a salad with a soy dressing that's quite tasty, then a bowl of soup with slivers of mushroom and chopped chives.

The cook comes out with a tray and all the food. He (I've never seen a female cook at any of the places I've tried.) usually comes out drips oil and lighter fluid on the cooking top and then lights it sending a whoosh of flame. Small children will either laugh or cry. He then prepares the rice by cracking a couple of eggs, dollops of butter and mixed vegetables. While that's cooking, he'll lay out the chicken, steak, and sea food on the side, he'll ask those who chose steak how they want it cooked.

He mixes up the rice until it browned and then with a spatula measures out a portion and places it on the large plate in front of everyone. Next, he'll take an onion and form a volcano out of it and fill it with lighter fluid then light it on fire. He might then take out wooden paddles that resemble large salt and pepper shakers and do a routine of drumming on the cooking top, twirling them around and going around his back and over his head.

Tackling the entre he spreads out the chicken to cook, then the steaks and with shrimp he'll place them in a line on their sides then cut off the tails, slice them down the middle and cut them in half, he might even flip one of the tails onto his high white chef's hat. He cuts the meat into bite size portions separates the servings that are tempan yaki and places them on the plates, then he pours teriyaki on those servings and places them on the plate.

Next comes onion, zucchini, and bean sprouts which are cooked up and delivered.

After cleaning the cooking top he'll bow to the customers, who usually give tips and leaves.

This is not just a meal, but an experience meant to be as savored as the food, which is always excellent.

Japanese Kitchen was the first teppan yaki restaurant in Albuquerque nearly forty years ago, now there are a number of other places. The only disagreeable experience I had was when the cook mixed soy sauce and teriyaki sauce in the rice. They do not mix well. I think the place got the message and they didn't do that the next time we went.  

There's a fast-food place in town called Teriyaki Chicken Bowl, that sells bowls of fried rice with chicken in teriyaki sauce. It doesn't have the experience of tepan yaki, but is quite tasty.

Wednesday Challenge 041322

 

Today's challenge is what's on my TBR list?

From this month's First Reads off Amazon is Druid by Jeff Wheeler. I can get two books a month free, but 95% of them are women's romance and I pass.

Amazon Unlimited has LOTR all three books in one e-book with the latest version.

I went to the main library here a few Sundays ago, twice a year in the basement they let you fill up a shopping bag of books for only $6.00. I got the hardback of Tom Clancy's John Ryan book 8, The Bear and the Dragon, and six other books. I can't read paperbacks as the prints too small now and I got only hardbacks. This book sells for $28.95.

I'm at the office and off the top of my head can't remember the other books.

I just finished publishing I Maury: Life and Times of a Rebel, and with some free reading time got through all 1,028 pages in two weeks. I've now bought e-books 9-13, Red Rabbit, Dead or Alive, Locked On, Threat Vector and Command Authority. At nine bucks each on Amazon I'm not sure number 8 was such a bargain, and the books number up to 24 or 25.

A book we're studying in grief group at church (mother passed away,) What Loss Can Teach Us: A Sacred Pathway to Growth and Healing, By Beth Taulman Miller. 

A friend from church recommended The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt.

Wednesday Challenge

 

Today's challenge is: What is my unique talent? Analysis.

To this I give credit to Mrs. Jamar, my American and World literature professor at Wayland Baptist University. May she rest in peace. She worked my ass off, and all of her students in analysis. This helped me while teaching history, as it's the purpose of history to analyze the present with similar situations in the past and be able to predict the future. (Think banks requiring credit history which tells them your credit future). It helped me teaching literature and getting students to discover the theme of a story, not just the plot.

It has helped me as a writer to analyze my own work and make it better.

I Maury: Life and Times of a Rebel - Kindle edition by Prescott, Patrick. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

Wednesday Blogging Challenge, I'm back

 

I've finished my novel, I Maury, and am now back to share with my blogging friends.

Today's challenge is "What Mythological animal would you like as a pet?

A Little Fuzzy, the before there were Tribbles, there were Fuzzies. They would be great to have and let them call me Pappy Pat.

I Maury now in Paperback

Book is now available in paperback at Amazon.com

When I started writing I Maury

This is the post when I announced I was writing this book and why it was important to me.

 Family and Friends blog: Pathfinder of the Seas (pmprescott.blogspot.com)

Newest Book: I Maury Life and Times of a Rebel

 My latest novel is now an e-book at amazon, free on Unlimited only &2.99 to buy.

I Maury Life and Times of a Rebel.

Matthew Fontaine Maury 1806-1873 was the Father of Oceanography, Meteorology, The U.S. Naval Academy and much more.

Maury explains tariffs

 

Writing my book on Matthew Fontaine Maury I came across a paper he wrote after the war explaining why he chose to fight for the South. His most compelling argument was about tariffs, I'm copying it here. Bold face in emphasis mine.

A Vindication of the South and Virginia

By M. F. Maury

IN consequence of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, and the Orders in Council, the embargo and the war with Great Britain which followed in 1812, the people of the whole country suffered greatly from the want of manufactured articles, many of which had become necessaries of life. Moreover, it was at that time against the laws of England for any artisan or piece of machinery used in workshops to be sent this country. Under these circumstances it was thought wise to encourage manufacturing in New England, until American Labor could be educated for it and the requisite skill acquired for the establishment of workshops. The Southern statesmen took the lead in the passage of a tariff to encourage and protect the manufacturing industries of the North. But in course of time these restrictive laws in England were repealed, and it then became easier for New England to import than to educate labor and skill. Nevertheless, the protection continued, and was so effectual that the manufacturers of New England began to compete in the foreign markets with the manufacturers of Old England. Whereupon the South said “Enough. The North has free trade with us, the Atlantic Ocean rolls between this country and Europe; the expense of freight and transportation across it, with moderate duties for revenue alone, ought to be the protection enough for these Northern industries. Therefore, let us do away with tariffs for protection. They have not, by reason of geographical laws, turned a wheel in the South; moreover, they have proved a grievous burden to our people.”

Northern statesmen did not see the case in that light; but fairness, right, and the Constitution were on the side of the South. She pointed to the unfair dispensation among the States of the Government favor and patronage, and to the fact that the New England manufacturers had gained a firm footing and were flourishing; therefore, protection had accomplished its purpose. Moreover, peace, progress, and development had, dictated Free Trade as the true policy of all nations. Our senators proceeded to demonstrate by the example of hardships of submitting any longer to tariffs for protection. In their arguments they quoted examples to this effect:—The Northern farmer clips his hundred bales of wool, and the Southern planter picks his hundred bales of cotton. So far, they are equal, for up to this state the Government affords each equal protection in person and property. But the Government would not stop here. It went further—re-protected the industry of one section and taxed that of the other; for though it suited the farmer’s interest and convenience to put his wool into his wagon and to send it to a New England mill to have it made into one hundred bales of cloth, it also suited in the like degree the Southern planter to put his cotton in his own ships and send it to Old England to have it made into one hundred bales of Calico. And now came the injustice and the grievance. They both, so the case was made to run, preferred the Charleston market; each with his invoices of one hundred bales, to the Custom House. There the Northern man is told he may land his hundred bales duty free, but the Southern man is required to leave forty of his for the privilege of landing the remaining sixty. It was in vain for the Southerner to protest, or to urge, “You make us pay bounties for Northern fishermen under the plea that it is necessary for the seamen. Is not the fetching and carrying in Southern ships as much a nursery for seamen as the catching of codfish in Yankee smacks? But instead of allowing a bounty for this, you exact taxes and require protection of Northern fellow-citizens at the expense of Southern industry and enterprise.” The complaints against the tariff were, at the end of ten or twelve years, followed by another compromise in the shape of a modified tariff, but which the South again gained nothing, and the North everything. The effect was simply to lessen, not abolish, the tribute-money exacted for the benefit of Northern industries.

Fifteen years before the war, it was stated officially from the Treasury Department at Washington, that under the tariff then in force the self-sustaining industry of the country was taxed in this indirect way in the sum of $80,000,000 annually, none of which went into the coffers of the Government, but all into the pocket of the protected manufacturer.

Thus, dealt by, there was a cumulative dissatisfaction in the Southern mind towards the Federal Government, and the Southern men began to ask each other, “Should we not be better off out of the Union than we are in it?” Nay, the public discontent rose to such a pitch in consequence of the tariff that nullification was threatened, and the existence of the Union was again seriously imperiled. Dissolution might have ensued had not Virginia stepped in with her wise counsels. She poured oil upon the festering sores in the Southern mind and did what she could in the interests of peace; but the wound could not be entirely healed: Northern archers had hit too deep.

The Washington Government was fast drifting towards centralization, and the result of all this Federal partiality, of this unequal protection and encouragement, was that New England and the North fattened upon the tribute forced from the South and prospered as few people have ever done.

Golden Eye: a review

 

Berthold Gambrel has done a review of Goden Eye. You might want to read it before coming back to mine...

Are you back? 

Growing up in the Sixties, Bond movies were as close to what would later be called an R rated movie. They were full of double entenderes, smart alec remarks, action and after From Russia With Love, nude silhouettes in the opening credits, not to mention Dominoe's black swimsuit with a sheer cutout cleavage in Thunderball. I wasn't that infatuated with Ursula Andress's bikini in Dr. No. She didn't compare to Annette Funicello in the Beach Blanket movies.

I also loved the henchmen. Odd Job in Gold Finger with his deadly top hat comes to mind, the gadgets and other things. It was a golden age of spy movies. The rip offs like In Like Flint or I Spy and The Man From U.N.C.L. E. on tv were also fun. Things haven't changed too much since then. It seemed like every week or every movie they're trying to keep a nuclear bomb from exploding. Now with The Sum of all Fears they actually explode, and the spy has to keep the politicians from Armageddon.

After, by far the worst, Bond movie ever made, A View to a Kill, ended Roger Moore in the role. The studio wanted Brosnan for the part, but he was on contract for his Remington Steele tv show. They settled on Timothy Dalton who was horribly miscast. He could look grim, look real while stuntmen did all the heavy lifting and failed miserably giving the punch lines. In License to Kill I wish when he set Sanchez on fire he was engulfed too. The only redeeming aspect of the movie was Cary Lowel running around in a loose bodysuit.

Okay enough preamble. To Golden Eye.

I was elated when Brosnan got the part as Bond for Golden Eye. He looked like James Bond, he had good running form, he was deft at giving clever lines. My wife's heart would beat faster in his love scenes and sometimes that translate over to me, except in Goden Eye. 

Love scene? What love scene! 

It came at the end of the movie while they're talking around a campfire. The Bond car? The studio chose a BMW sports car. You see Q telling Bond about the gadgets and then at the end of the movie he drives to the beach and the CIA guy drives it away. At least Timothy Dalton's Bond car, a late model Astin-Martin, had a laser that burned through a police car separating it from the chassis.

Izabella Scorupco as Natalia was shrill and irritating. She screamed at Bond when they were tied up in a helicopter to wake him up, that was understandable. From then all she did was scold Bond and lectured him. There wasn't much to be romantic about. 

Question, how did Natalia get from the destroyed Goden Eye complex to a city in a Russian winter on a dog sled wearing a skirt and light sweater?

Famke Jansen is one of my favorite Bond villains, squeezing men to death with her legs. The sparks and quips flew between Bond and Onatopp. Best parts of the movie.

The opening stunt. Bond bungy jumps from the top of a dam onto the secret complex. He meets up with another 00, Trevelyan, no idea how he got in, mayhem ensues, and he sets everything on fire. Bond flees jumping onto a fighter jet taking off over a cliff and you see the complex blow up. One big problem. No dam! Show the fireball to let the audience know the place blow up, a model of a building blowing up without a dam behind it ruins the suspension of disbelief. The entire opening stunt was bogus.

The chase scene through the center of town while he's in a tank, smashing through a truck full of cans of water and having a statue of a mounted knight fall off when he goes under a bridge was pure vintage Bond. After a few viewings over the years when all the cans start rolling around, where's the water?

A good ticking bomb trope as they're trying to escape being locked into a train let Bond use his laser pen to get them out, and a belt with a built-in escape wire comes in handy when earlier he was trapped in library.

Sean Bean as Trevelyan comes off as too overfriendly and cocky. Did he really escape the place exploding in the opening sequence with only a part of his face burned? Bond sums up what he's trying to do as only robbing a bank. True on a grand scale, but Golden Eye, basically a giant EMT device could be used to greater gain than this. The revenge angle was rather weak.

Okay, I'm done critiquing the movie. No Bond film is without it stretching the viewers suspension of disbelief to the max. Moonraker was by far the worst for this. Still every winter my wife and I do a Bond marathon either starting with the first going in order, or from last to first. It's a time capsule of technology through our 60+ years of life and something to do on cold winter days and nights around our electronic fireplace.

My Twin

 Freshman year in college I met Pat Penny. We became friends and loved chess. While doing intramural chess everyone we played was confused on who they would play because our names were so close. We laughed about it and decided we must be twins.

We were both history majors being in many classes together and by our senior year were both married to different partners. She was pregnant. The daughter she bore now works at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

After graduation we lost touch. At our 20th reunion another friend who had kept in touch gave me her address and phone number, we've been in contact now for 25 years.

She changed her name to Anne Littlewolf upon becoming an artist. At the time she lived in Gunnison, Colorado, now she's in the village of Tijeras in the Monzano mountains not far from Albuquerque. For many years we've met and shared a meal at local restaurants every couple of months. 

I own two of her oil paintings making me in the illustrious company of John Denver and Ricky Skaggs who boasts the same.

Her husband died of an aneurism. She wrote and illustrated a children's book. I desktop published it and have sold over a hundred copies. I talked her into doing it in a coloring book and she did that as well. The last copies of the book I gave to the hospice nurses when my mother was in care, and they were appreciative of the copies.

The book Friends Forever is about two fish who are good friends, one dies and the other mourns and gets angry at the new fish in the tank until she decides to make new friends. It was catharsis for her loss.

Her last e-mail mentioned an aggressive cancer leaving her weak and with little time.

It's that time in my life where all I went to high school and college are ending up in the obits. Getting old sucks.

Here's a few frames from the book. I plan to publish it at a local printer to give out at her funeral.

Coming up for air

 Wow, last post was September. I've been writing furiously on my autobiography of Mathew Fontaine Maury. I'm doing a proof of the entire skeleton at present. I have some fleshing out on the times part of the life and times, which requires me to do more research. 

Thanks to Berthold Gambrel who has been a great friend and has given some good advice after reading portions of the book.

Berthold did a review of Isaac Asimov's Foundation today. Did it ever bring back memories. Asimov was a giant in my life. I read the Foundation Trilogy in 9th grade, a year after Lord of the Rings. 

I read everything I could get my hands on of him at used bookstores, Science Fiction Book Club, Isaac Asimov's essays on science in Amazing Science Fiction magazine, and libraries. I subscribed to the Isaac Asimov magazine. I've barely scratched the surface of his prodigious writing well into the grumpy old man stage.