A Journey Around My Room

I bought this wooden model of a fishing trawler on the island of Skye in 2006 when we visited Scotland for the second and probably last time. It wasn’t that it was particularly pretty or anything, though it is.

What it reminded me of was what I would see out the second-floor window of our room in a B&B in Portrey on the island of Skye. I would wake up before my wife and look out on to the dock and the bay. The B&B, which was above a pub, sat right on the dock in a line of connected houses, all painted in different and bright colors. Ours was purple; at least that was what it looked to me. I’m color-blind. It makes for some challenging viewing.

Anyhow, I would wake about seven each morning and sit at the open window – it had no screen, but the gulls who walked along the outside window ledge never came in – watching the birds and the boats bobbing at anchor in the small bay. A few minutes after the hour a small van would pull up along the ramp that ran down along the dock into the bay where there was a dingy waiting. The men – 2 or 3, usually no more – would get out and begin to unload the van, laying coolers, thermoses, fishing rods, and other necessary gear for the day. 

One man would carry things down to the dingy, get in, and wait for the others to bring the rest of the stuff. Once the van was unloaded, one man who was the driver would take it further along the dock and parked it, returning to the others.

Once the dingy was loaded and everyone was in the small boat, they untied it, started a small outboard motor, and began to move into the bay towards the anchored fishing boats. 

I could hardly hear the motor as the dingy quickly moved into the bay. When it reached the men’s fishing boat – similar to the picture I have of the small model – the process was reversed and everything was unloaded.

Next, the engine on the fishing boat was started – I could hear this as well as see the black smoke from it – and the men were sure everything was okay; the dingy was untied from the trawler, anchored in the bay to wait for the trawler’s return that evening. The trawler then began its chugging out of the bay for the day’s work.

From driving up to the dock to moving out of the bay took 20 minutes…every day. And I heard very little words spoken among them…very little.

News Crawlers

Today is a gripe post. It’s about news crawlers. Sometimes they are called news tapes. They are the things that scroll across the bottom of your screen and report news and other things that are not being talked about in the main part of the screen. That is usually they’re not. But not always.

I admit that they serve a purpose. If you are not particularly interested in what is being talked about but don’t want to change the channel because some other news will be discussed in a moment, then the tape can actually provide some other news. But not always.

My biggest problem with these tapes is that they decrease the overall size of the viewing screen. By the time you add two lines for the network identification and the name of the person shown on the screen at that time, and maybe a weather ticker added just for other info, and oh, by the way, over in the corner is a large digital clock with a title counting down something important like a government shutdown, or a news conference and the like, well, you have lost about a third of your screen.

It gets so ridiculous sometimes I just try to find something on TV that doesn’t have anything or at least very little. It used to that sports were okay. But not anymore.

Between the ads and statistics, the screen gets pretty cluttered. Major League Baseball is the worst with all of the stats flashing all over the screen and staying until the slowest person in America can read it.

The Premier Soccer League is one of the best. Much of their advertisements are running on the actual field of play. The shirts of the players have their sponsors like NASCAR drivers while running around the field of play along the fence barrier is normally a computer-driven moving banner promoting something, usually the home team’s sponsors.

That’s why many times I just like to look at an old painting, or even better, an actual outdoor scene. 

I wonder what the Mona Lisa would look like with a banner or two across the bottom.

(Tahoma 13)

The Inspector Rutledge Mystery Series, Part 2

Here is the complete list of the Inspector Rutledge mysteries written by Charles Todd, a pseudonym mother-son writing team. The list is in suggested reading order, with a prequel, number 17 in writing order, listed first. I hope you’ll try them.

Each book is listed by chronological story date, title, setting, and (publication date).

June-Dec 1914, A Fine Summer’s Day, various locales around England (2015)

June 1919, A Test of Wills, Warwickshire (1996)

July 1919, Wings of Fire, Cornwall (1998)

August 1919, Search the Dark, Dorset (1999)

September 1919, Legacy of the Dead, Northern England, Scotland (2000)

October 1919, Watchers of Time, East Anglia (2001)

November 1919, A Fearsome Doubt, Kent (2002)

December 1919, A Cold Treachery, Westmorland (2005)

January 1920, A Long Shadow, Northamptonshire (2006)

March 1920, A False Mirror, West Sussex (2007)

April 1920, A Pale Horse, Yorkshire (2007)

May 1920, A Matter of Justice, Somerset (2008)

June 1920, The Red Door, Lancashire (2009)

July 1920, A Lonely Death, Sussex (2011)

August 1920, The Confession, Essex (2012)

September 1920, Proof of Guilt, London (2013)

Late September 1920, Hunting Shadows, Cambridgeshire (2014)

 October 1920, No Shred of Evidence, Cornwall (2016)

November 1920, Racing the Devil, South Downs, Hampshire (2017)

December 1920, The Gatekeeper, Suffolk (2018) 

(Calibri 12)

No More Library Books...Right!

I have thought about this for some time. Yet, every time I decide to do it, a book comes in the library and I take it out, begin to read it, and disrupt my current reading. Every time. And once my reading is disrupted, it seems it takes me a couple of days before I can get back on track. Why would this disrupt my reading, you ask?

Plain and simple, reading my books have my own applied time schedule on them. I can decide if a book needs to have a time schedule placed on it or not. Other than maybe the monthly book group selection, none of my other books usually have any time constraints on them. 

That‘s not true for the library books. If it is a new book or even an older book that the library has ordered a new copy and I see it come in, then I only have two weeks in which to read it. And that is not really enough time considering what I am usually reading.

The downside of this is that I will lose out on very good new books that are published. I understand that and will have to live with it. But I can also be smart about it and still make an exception now and then if I abide by a few rules. 

One, if I know a book is coming out ahead of time, then I can clean my current reading list down. Instead of having 3 or 4 books going at one time, then maybe only 2, or even 1 if I am really efficient. 

Two, the library book then becomes a “required reading” daily with a certain minimum pages to be read each and every day. 

And third, I don’t saddle myself with more than one library book at a time. That includes any library book, whether it a two-week new book, or if it is a normal four-week return. It doesn’t matter because I have seen the latter mess up my reading just as easy as a new book.

Of course, at the root of this whole problem, and it is certainly a problem, is that I have so many books that I have not yet read. And I need to get started seriously on reading them. 

More seriously, that is, than I have been in the past.

Well, here’s wishing me luck…

(Book Antiqua 12)

The Inspector Rutledge Mystery Series

I’ve just finished reading the 20^th installment of this fantastic post-WW1 Scotland Yard inspector who returns from the war and suffering from shell-shock. He has in his mind a Scots soldier who he ordered court-martialed for refusing an order. And the soldier haunts his mind. There’s more to it, but I will let you read about it.

Some readers say you can read them in any order, but I disagree. They have come out almost every year since 1996. But in terms of story advancement, they take place about one month further on, with the first one beginning in June 1919. The last one that I just read brings us to December 1920. But there is a catch.

The 17^th in the series is actually a prequel. And I recommend you read it first. It sheds light on many things and lets you compare Rutledge-before-the-war to Rutledge-after-the-war. It’s very interesting.

Rutledge has his own car and he gets to drive all over England and even to Scotland a couple of times. I believe it might be a Rolls Royce, but not sure. It’s rather indirectly referred to in the latest book.

The Author goes by Charles Todd, but it actually a mother-son writing team. One lives in Delaware (Mom) and the other (Son) lives in North Carolina. Together, they make a great team. You should go to their website. Some readers write reviews on every book and swear they can tell who writes what, or if one wrote most of the book. I’m not that good, but I can tell the writing, which was good in the beginning is even better now.

Actually, I recommend you go first to the “Stop You’re Killing Me!” website and find the author and all of the books listed. This site is a great site to check out any mystery author and series or non-series for that matter so you can read them in order if that is a big thing for you. It is for me.

I will write again in another day or two with a complete listing of each book in the series, in chronological story order, publication date, as well as where the mystery primarily takes place. This last item I particularly like since he goes all around in his Rolls (?).

Oh, did I mention that I have just begun re-reading them? This will be the second re-read. I've already read the prequel (1914) and the first post-war (June 1919) so far. 

Talk to you soon… 

(Gadugi 12)

Reading Connections

I love reading.  A good book often will make me feel better.  I learn a great deal from reading.  In fact, I have noticed a very strange thing that occurs often as I read.  It happens more with a nonfiction book than a novel or fictional mystery.  I will be reading along when I come across a person’s name, a place name, an event in history, or just some other tidbit that jars my memory of something I had recently read somewhere.  Sometimes I saw it on television.  Whatever it was, it starts a chain of connections to other books that I have either read or more likely, want to read and they are lying around the loft waiting their turn.  Now, they go up on the priority list.

The latest example came as recently on a past Sunday.  I was re-reading Anthony Price’s first spy mystery, “The Labyrinth Makers”.  Towards the end of the story, David Audley, an agent for British Intelligence and the main character of the series, is given a gift book by a good friend of his who helps him often in his cases.  The book was Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”.  I’m still not sure what the connection was to the overall plot, but knowing Price there was a connection.  But that is not the point I’m trying to make.  The point is that I was reading another book about Tolkien and Lewis and have been seriously considering reading the Rings book. 

As I thought about this serendipitous event and what I was reading, I found that this was not the only “connection”.  The plot of the mystery involved missing treasure from Troy.  And that conjured up in my mind two other books that I have been thinking of reading – The Iliad and The Odyssey.  Why was I thinking already of these two classics by Homer?  Because I had just read an article in The New Yorker about a writer, director, and producer named Brian Doerries who has been using the classics as a way to help war veterans and current military, including commanders, deal with the trauma of war.  I found one of his books and I now own it.

When these Reading Connections happen most of the time they are straightforward or branch off and go in other directions.  But sometimes they are circular.  These connections do two things for me. One, I almost always learn something new from them.  Two, it almost always changes my reading list.  I wander off to follow my new interest and where it leads me.

Unfortunately for my reading list, the Reading Connections is not the only wolf in the woods.  

(Gadugi 11)

When Words Get Weird

I had always thought it was only me. It’s amazing when you find out that you are not only alone but that what you are experiencing is something that has been quite common for a long time. What am I talking about? I am talking about when you get a word in your brain and when you keep saying it over and over again, it soon loses any meaning. It just sounds like a meaningless bunch of letters that you are pronouncing and it makes no sense at all. Well, there’s a word for that; actually two words. The term is semantic satiation.

Now this phenomenon has been around for a long time, but it was known by a variety of terms or just its description. It took a man by the name Leon Jakobovits James in 1962 when he called it this in his doctoral dissertation at McGill University.

But as I said, it goes back to the nineteenth century when Edgar Allen Poe talked about it in a short story called “Berenise”. James Thurber also described it in a 1933 short story, “More Alarms at Night”. And finally, William Faulkner mentions it in his novel, “As I Lay Dying”. All three authors had their protagonists mention or describe the activity – can I call it that? – in the course of the stories.

But why does it happen? Well, the experts say is that our brain gets tired saying it. That’s right. Each time we say a word, our brain cell uses up energy. The next time, if it hasn’t recovered yet, it is harder to get as much energy again. This repeats until the brain just can’t identify the word as originally it did, and it just becomes first a general idea, and then a jumble of vague sounds.

As bad as this sounds, there is a silver lining in all of this. Experts are using this in assisting persons who stutter to lose that close identity with a particular word, to the point where they can say it without stuttering.

The website Scienceabc.com has a very good explanation of this phenomenon as well as Wikipedia, though the latter is slightly more technical. Much of my information came from these two sites.    

(Times New Roman 13)

Fonts, Fonts, and More Fonts

If you have been following my blog, or even if you have just recently stumbled across it, you have probably noticed I usually write the name of the font I am using for that day. That's because I love different fonts and I love experimenting with them. What follows is something I wrote back before Christmas. Just for fun. I hope you enjoy it.

Today’s writing topic is an exercise in fonts.  Not one in particular, just choosing down the list.  I am reading a book about fonts, “Just My Type”, by Simon Garfield.  I enjoy reading what kind of font was chosen for a particular book, but not all publishers put that information in the book.  It’s like making Art Deco in a way.  

This one is called AR CARTER.  I’m not sure that I am going to experiment with a different font always, but know that if I use one of the smaller fonts, I’ll have to write more.  And it will be more difficult to read.  It’s interesting that most of the first fonts are darker print.  Until one gets used to a font, it takes awhile to get used to reading it (and did you notice that this font is lighter just as I made a comment about it.

Using these fonts to make signs, posters, and the like – this one is in all caps making it very nice for posters, etc,  Personally, I have not seen a particular font that has really grabbed me yet.  Maybe once I get out of the AR series.  

What could I use this one for except something comical or light-hearted?  It might be interesting to find a font that I could write a different chapter for a novel.  

Ah, Good old Arial, I remember you!  And your more emphatic sister.  I don’t think I’ve ever used the Arial narrow version and not sure I like it.  Another thing I have noticed about different fonts is that some are more difficult than others to read, while others are very much easier to read.  That would definitely be something to remember when writing my book (I like this Book Antiqua!).  

Some fonts are definitely more serious looking than others.  The previously font was symbol-driven and this one is very very light.  Calibri – this is another standby for many.  And it’s light version.  Cambria is another common font many people use.  Cambria math doesn’t really look much different.  

Candara is very chiseled looking to me.  And Century is another standby font.  Century Gothic now looks like Century on a diet.  And of course, one of the very most popular, Comic Sans MS.  Consolas sounds like a Spanish font, doesn’t it?  

Constantia must be a Turkish font, don’t you think?  Corbel is delicate looking and hard to read because of the closeness of the letters.  Courier New is an old favorite when I began to work on computers.

Ebrima – what no fonts beginning with the letter d?  And only one that began with E; this is Franklin Gothic Medium.  If I wanted to pretend I was writing I could use Freestyle Script.  Or maybe French Script MT; this is with no slant like I write sometimes!  I just read something about Gabriola font today – was it in the Simon Garfield book?  

Gadugi – this has been the font I have been using each day prior to today.  Garamond is such a neat looking font but would need to be larger.  And Georgia is the last of the fonts I’m going to play with today.

A Gun Survey

With so much in the news lately about gun control, I have several questions that I have not seen answered. Maybe this information is not important in the greater scheme of things, but I would like to know. Anyhow, if I could, here is a short survey I would do. It would be given to ONLY military veterans, NOT ACTIVE DUTY.

·         Did you serve in any of the military or naval branches of the United States?

·         How long did you serve?

·         What was your primary duty?

·         Were you issued a weapon? If “NO”, please skip the next two questions.   

·         If so, what was it?   

·         Did you ever use it in combat?

·         Do you own a weapon or weapons now?

·         If the previous question was “Yes”, do you own an assault rifle (aka AR-15 or similar)?

·         If the previous question was “No”, do you presently plan on purchasing one?

I would conduct a separate survey of active duty service personnel with slightly different worded questions. I think it would be interesting to see the results of these surveys, particularly the veterans’ survey, as compared to the nation as a whole. Of course, the only questions for the nation as a whole would be the last three questions.

I don’t know what I am going to do with this right now, but I thought I would get my thoughts down while they were fresh in my mind.



(Trebuchet MS 12)

Early TV Detectives

On our weekly Sunday Skype call, my brother, who lives in Colorado Springs, and I were discussing last evening’s episode of The Artful Detective, a favorite of both of ours. More on that episode, and the series in general later, but our conversation drifted over to early detective shows we remembered on TV growing up. We both remember the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s well enough, and I’m sure most of you do as well if you were into detective shows. But we were remembering those first ones in the 50's and early 60's. Most were private detectives, but two of our favorites were police shows. Here are our favorites, in chronological order of the first episode. I admit that we remembered the main characters and general plot, but I did have to use the IMDB website for some details.

“Rocky King” (1950-54). Rocky King was a police detective, working in NYC, and played by Roscoe Karns. It was shown on the old Dumont station. His wife Mabel was never shown, but I remembered him walking away into the darkness, saying “Goodnight, Mabel”. When I checked IMDB, it said he always phoned her from the office at the end of each episode, and said, “Case closed, Mabel, I’m coming home.” After he hung up, he would say, “Great girl, that Mabel.” At least I remembered her name.

 “Boston Blackie” (1951-53). Kent Taylor played the lead. With his black mustache, he was a natural for other bad guy roles, but he was a good one here. It was set in Los Angeles, and he had a “pal” named Mary, and a dog named Whitey. I think the dog was a black and white terrier, but couldn’t find a picture of it.

“Dragnet” (1951-59). I remembered this one after my call with my brother, but I know we both watched it religiously. Starring Jack Webb, who created the show, he played Sergeant Joe Friday and it was set in Los Angeles. His partner was Officer Frank Smith, played by Ben Alexander. It came back three times to TV, but the original was the best.

“The Thin Man” (1957-59). Starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk as Nick and Nora Charles, it was set in NYC. With their terrier, Asta, they would solve crimes that seemed to find them.

“Richard Diamond” (1957-60). This was one of my very favorites. David Janssen played the lead. The first two years was in NYC, but then he moved to LA where he got a car with a car phone and had a switchboard operator who no one saw except for her lovely legs and heard her voice. It was Mary Tyler Moore at first, but when she left, Roxanne Brooks replaced her.

“Peter Gunn” (1958-61). The music was jazz, arranged and played by Henry Mancini, and Craig Stevens played Gunn to his enemies and Pete to his friends. Of course, he had the requisite friend on the police force as well a girlfriend, this one a jazz singer.

(Trebuchet 12)

Getting Library Volunteers

I have spent most of the last two days on sifting through volunteer applications from the library. Some go back as far as a year and a half ago. Most I had to send emails to instead of just calling them. Since I have an area code from New Jersey, most would not pick up but would call back after they heard my voicemail message. But since many of them have area codes not from here, I wouldn't have picked up until I heard their voicemail message. A lot of wasted time there.

But I have gotten through the applications. I have heard from one couple who applied last May. They would love to volunteer, but they have moved to Utah. I did one get one person, however, who seems a great fit for a much needed Neatoscanner for our books we send to Amazon. And I got another volunteer to work at the Monthly Book Sale. Not bad for two days when you consider it.

It's supposed to snow and maybe even ice up a little tonight, but warm up tomorrow. We're not going anywhere. And I have a new episode of The Murdoch Mysteries this evening. 



(Trebuchet Normal)

Army C-Rations

I bought Spam in a can the other day. I wanted to make a sandwich and it had been quite awhile since I made a Spam sandwich. When I first began eating Spam, I was in the Army way back in the 60’s. Today there must be at least a dozen varieties – pepper, jalapeño, smoked, bacon are the ones that come quickly to mind. This got me to thinking about Army C-rations. Today there’s the MRE, or Meal, Ready-To-Eat. But when I went to the field it was the good, old C-ration in a can.

The C-ration came in a flimsy cardboard box about the size of a Girl Scout Cookie box only it opened on the top along the long end of the box. It was actually a flap that had the name of the meal on it. So if you wanted a particular meal you could pick it out. My personal favorites were Chopped Eggs and Ham for breakfast and Turkey Loaf for dinner. When I was a company commander my driver would always ensure that I got my choice, even though the officers ate after the soldiers, and the commander ate last. The thought was that if the food ran out, the commander would suffer along with any others who didn’t get to eat.

To avoid an argument, or even a stampede for the boxes when the First Sergeant brought the “C’s” to the field for distribution, he would slash open the large case holding about 12 individual boxes or meals and then flip it over on its top. That way, no one could see what was printed on the meal box top. But, soldiers quickly memorized where their favorites were. You just to be sure that Top flipped the box in the right way!

Opening the cans was easy because each box contained several flat can openers, each of which we called a P-38. The official name was “Opener, Can, Hand, Folding, Type 1”. You can see why we all called them by the former.

Of course, if you ate C’s for several days you were sure to get constipated. That was good since you got 22 pieces of toilet paper in each meal. What else was in the ration?

You'll just have to wait until another time…

Cambria 13

Reading One Book at a Time or Several?

I read a lot.  It’s safe to say it’s my favorite hobby; maybe my only regular hobby.  Today I thought I’d write some things about reading that I have been jostling around in my brain for a very long time.

The thing that has been taking up my thinking reading-wise lately is whether it is better to read one book at a time, or the polar opposite, more than one.  I have read arguments for doing it either way.  The arguments all make very good points.  I personally read more than one book at a time.  I don’t know when I began to do it.  I know I read only one book at a time for most of my life.  I remember as recently as when I was working in NYC (1987-2004) I was reading only one book at a time.  When I retired in 2010 and moved to Lexington I was reading more than one.

On the plus side, it is a lot like watching various shows on TV.  I can enjoy a variety of programs and stories at the same time.  The only requirement is to remember what you are reading and where you left off.  The downside is that it takes me longer to finish any given book.  But as long as I am enjoying the book, why would that matter really? 

But there is a problem with multi-book reading and that is how many is too much?  And how do you schedule all of them (and you do need some sort of a schedule or you will get hopelessly lost in one or more of them)?  I’ve read as many as six simultaneously before, but have found 3-4 to be the optimal number.  I usually read only one fiction at a time while the rest are usually different types of nonfiction.  

Having said all that, at this time I am reading four.  The fiction should be read as a nonfiction math or philosophy book.  As is my general habit, a couple of the books are only “I’ll start to read them and see if I’ll like them” kind-of books.  I’ll as often stop reading them as not.  Often I’ll return to them at another time, but then I may not either.

One factor that has an impact on my decision is how much time I can reasonably devote to reading on a daily basis.  Obviously, the more time I have to read, the more books I may decide to read at the same time.  When I do that and then run into a time crunch or some other problem that affects my reading, I have to let some books go.  And regardless of whether that happens or not, and I have all the time I want, there comes a time in my reading that one book reaches the final stretch and I then drop the others to finish it. 

I guess in the end it will depend like so many things depend on: the situation.  And what I am reading of course.



(Cambria 12)

French Lottery Uniforms

As I walked into the library last week, I noticed that the display in the front hall window was a variety of Revolutionary War uniforms. One was a long-tailed coat that I immediately recognized as one that soldiers in the Continental Army wore. The identification card said “French Lottery Uniform” and it had belonged a soldier in the Pennsylvania 2^nd Regiment. I asked inside why it was called a French lottery uniform, but no one seemed to know. I let it go then for I had many things on my mind.

Yesterday, after our monthly book group meeting, at which we discussed “1776” by David McCullough, I returned to the library and when I went in I again saw that uniform. I resolved to find out.

In 1778, France was supplying the colonies much of what they needed to carry on the war with England. In addition to food, weapons, gunpowder, and the like, France was also providing clothing, especially uniforms for the Continental Army. Ben Franklin and Silas Deane were instrumental in making a deal with the French to provide about 40,000 uniforms, consisting of coats, waistcoats, and breeches in addition to other pieces of clothing.

The rest of the uniforms being the same, the difference was in the coats. Most were in blue with red cuffs, while a lesser number were brown with red cuffs. In order to determine who got what – since almost everyone wanted the blue – Washington had his aides develop a lottery in which each state drew for the uniform color that their soldiers would get.

(The above photos are from historytube.org/2013/08/revolutionary-military-attire) 

Nine states were in the lottery. Rhode Island and Connecticut had their soldiers outfitted by private clothiers from their own states by the firm Otis & Andrews. The lottery results were that North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York drew the blue uniforms. Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts drew the brown uniforms. 

Afterwards, when it was determined that additional blue uniforms were available, a second lottery was conducted for the “brown” states, and blue uniforms were issued in the priority to Massachusetts, Virginia and Delaware together, New Hampshire, and lastly, Pennsylvania. 

Since the uniform I saw in the library belonged to a Pennsylvania unit, one can question how well the lottery seemed to have worked. Just sayin…

(Cambria 13 font)

Mary Cheek, Samuel Pepys, Maxwell House Coffee, and Me

I found a condensed version Modern Library Edition of the diary of Samuel Pepys in our library’s monthly book sale about two years ago. I paid $1.00 for it. I already had a large copy of his diary, albeit also condensed, but this one was not only a small pocket version, but it had an interesting bookplate in it. I love bookplates.

The bookplate said, “Mabel Wood Cheek” on the left side of the plate and “Her Own Book” on the right. The book had belonged to Mabel Wood Cheek at one time. On the bookplate in the lower left margin, written in Roman numerals, MCMXI-XII, 1911-12. I got to investigating. Mabel Wood had married Leslie Cheek of Nashville, Tennessee, partner with his brother Christopher in a wholesale grocery business. Leslie was president of the company by 1915. 

Leslie’s cousin, Joel Cheek, had developed a very good coffee which he marketed through Nashville’s finest hotel, the Maxwell House Hotel. Leslie and Mabel were among the investors of Maxwell House Coffee which was sold in 1928 for about $40 million dollars.

With the sale of the business, Leslie then bought 100 acres in West Nashville and built an English-like estate with beautiful gardens. It was completed in1932, Leslie died in 1934, but Mabel lived there until the 1950’s.

Today it is the site of the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art.


(Cambria 13 font)

Thistle Physics Building

I finished reading “The Last Enchantments” by Charles Finch this weekend. It’s a novel about a young American’s year at Oxford after graduating from Yale and working as an aide on an unsuccessful political campaign. I won’t give away any more of the plot – I’ll save that for the end of the month when I discuss my reading.

What I want to talk about is a passage on page 239 of the hardback in which the main character discusses Oxford in the winter. It reminded me of a similar view I’ve had of Washington and Jefferson College where I went to college in the sixties. First, the entry from the book:

            “Already I’ve forgotten to explain how the Bodleian looked under snow, how total the silence of that inner courtyard became, above all how companionable it was for all of us working anonymously together in the bright reading rooms, warm. How we all glanced through the window from time to time at the chill fall of light, how honored and safe it seemed to belong to that loose set of humans inside the Bod, in the days after it snowed, for a moment present in the infinite continuum of Oxford.”     

As soon as I read that passage I immediately thought back to my undergraduate days, actually my freshman year, when I would seek out a place to study my mathematics and chemistry courses. The Thistle Building had a great study area below the main floor of the building where the classes and laboratories were located. The phrase “bright reading rooms, warm…” was what made me remember my own days of winter studying. The under room was filled with overstuffed large leather chairs for reading and studying, while interspersed among them were heavy, overlarge dark wood rectangular tables where students could sit in dark wood chairs with large spindle backs.

My favorite spot, which we all would first seek out if we didn’t have much writing to do, was the center of the room where two of those large stuffed chairs sat as sentinels guarding large roaring wood fire. As soon as I sat in one of those chairs I would be out in minutes, but it was so warm and cozy I was only copying what everyone else did when they were lucky enough to get there first.

I still remember the fire and snow outside and the chairs and the smell of furniture polish, wood burning, and rich leather. It was a great place to read.

(Cambria 13 font)

Opening Lines

I’m doing a writing exercise today instead of my normal writing. The exercise is to write an opening line for a story. I haven’t tried it before but decided to give it a whirl. Here goes…

“As he opened the door, the faint odor of blood came sickeningly to his nose.”

“I knew that no matter what I said to the police was going to help me since they caught me holding the revolver, though in truth it was not as it looked.”

“The road and land opened up once we crested the mountaintop and I was able to let the Jaguar accelerate quickly above the speed limit, knowing the police would do the same in the same place only seconds later.”

“I heard someone explain that heaven allows you to keep watching over someone even after you die, but gives you a better view.”

“The woman was excited as the train pulled into the station and she was going to see him for the first time since he went to war, but she was trying to convince herself that the amputations didn’t mean a thing.”

“The dog knew something was wrong a long time before its master but wasn’t able to get him to understand the seriousness of it.”

“The comedy of the situation was immediately evident to both of them, though it would have been better if they had had their clothes on at the time the police arrived.”

“The house was burned completely to the ground only a few hours after the cease-fire began, but the reason had nothing to do about war but was very personal and was between friends since childhood.”

“Rutledge knew it was only a matter of time that he would have to answer the man in his head about the question that heretofore had not been asked, and when that time came he might have to use the war souvenir revolver he had tucked away for just that purpose.”

Well, not bad for the first try I guess. I guess practice will improve things…

(Cambria 13)

Current Reading

Looking over my last month’s entries, I realized that I needed to update my current reading. Again, you have to remember that I quite often will list a book as one I am currently reading, then it might disappear and reappear again later. That’s because sometimes it just takes me a very long time to read it. Other times, it is because I have stopped reading it for some reason, then go back to resume reading it or to give it another chance depending on the reason I stopped in the first place. I hope that makes sense. The first entry below is such an example.

“The Annotated Flatland” – The original was written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott. Ian Stewart has written the annotated version along with a very good introduction. The book is about two-dimensional people who are geometric figures who live in just two dimensions. For us, it would be like looking at them drawn on a piece of paper. For them, it would be like looking at different lengths of lines because there is no height. The main character, A. Square, is visited by a 3D Sphere and taken where he can see this aspect of his universe. Of course, the book is about more than that. It is a satire on Victorian class society of England, its social mores, and about the rights of women in England at the time.

“Pox Americana” – Written by Elizabeth A. Fenn, this is about the smallpox epidemic from 1775-1782. Almost corresponding exactly with the dates of the American Revolution, it covers the epidemic throughout North America with particular emphasis on Native Americans.

“Killers of the King” – Written by Charles Spencer, brother of Diana, it describes the period during the Revolution between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, the persons behind the execution of King Charles I.

“The Gatekeeper” – The only fiction right now is the 20^th installment of Superintendent Inspector Ian Rutledge of Scotland Yard in 1920. This is my favorite mystery series. Rutledge is a war veteran, who suffered from shell-shock and is still dealing with the after-effects while continuing to solve the most difficult crimes of the day. Many of them involve other veterans or have some connection to the war. Written under the name Charles Todd, it is actually a mother-son combo who write them. I got mine in the mail yesterday and am already a third of the way done.

I have a couple of others that I am reviewing at the moment, but I will not list them just yet. If I do get serious, I will add them to another list, or maybe they will just show up on the “Reading for the Month” entry. We’ll see…

(Cambria 12 font)

"The End" of My Colonoscopy Day

Since I was diabetic I got an early appointment. My wife drove me up and we went through a quick registration, then onto the second floor where everything was to happen. A very nice older lady volunteer, who I tried to recruit for the library, helped us. 

A nurse came and guided us to the prep room. It was prettily decorated because it used to be the birther room when the hospital. Being a relatively small town, the Stonewall Jackson Hospital just does relatively small general surgeries. Anything more complicated or serious than appendectomies, gallbladder removals, and tonsillectomies are done in larger hospitals about 35-50 miles away.

Once in the prep room, they put in my IV, took my blood pressure, told me about the anesthesia, and generally let me know everything that was to happen. The nurse that did my IV was particularly good. She got it on the first try in my hand no less! I had been told when I made my appointment that to help find my veins – I am what they call a “hard stick”, meaning my veins are hard to find – I should keep my arms and hands warm. I wore a long sleeve flannel shirt to the hospital. When I was in the prep room, they wrapped my arm and hand in an electric blanket.

About 8 o’clock, the doctor came in, introduced himself and again went over everything with me. He was very personable. I had chosen him because several of my friends had recommended him. Once he left, the operating room nurse came and took me down to the OR. The anesthesiologist actually did the pushing of the bed.

When I got in the room, two other nurses were waiting. They introduced themselves and hooked up the anesthesia in my nose. As I was talking to the OR Nurse about her name I fell asleep. I woke up about 25 minutes later, which actually felt like no time. I was in post-op.

The post-op nurse kept checking my blood pressure and talking to me as the drowsiness went away. I felt fine except for some cramping that slowly got worse. I was told it was the gas that was used in the procedure and that it was okay to burp and “pass the gas”. They didn’t mind and were used to it.

After about 15 minutes, I was taken out by wheelchair to the front where my wife was waiting with the car. From there we went to our favorite breakfast restaurant, Nikos’, and ate a GREAT breakfast!

For the rest of the day, I rested, passed gas, and relaxed. Oh, by the way, the doctor had said that the prep was excellent. Now, I have something to look forward to in five years. 

(Cambria 13 font)