I needed a break from the sampling of mystery writers I've been doing the past few years. I was in the mood for serious fare. Among the donations given to me was Adolph Caso's The Straw Obelisk, which I'd never heard of. I balked when I read the jacket and saw that it was an anti-war novel. All reasonable people know that war is the worse thing ima
What's to be said when a maniac breaks down an emergency door of a theater, hurls a smoke bomb, and opens fire on innocents? The political arguments will rage. The left will demand greater gun control, the right slacker so that an armed citizen might kill or severely wound such a murderer before fatalities climb. I'm in the right's corner, although
I opened the floating book shop an hour later than usual. As expected, my friend passed her cardiograms with flying colors. Needless to say, she is pissed at her regular doctor's associate, who threw a scare into her without even taking her blood pressure or having enough imagination to discern that a person with a rare neurological disorder is vul
The sky has darkened. Thunder is crackling. It looks like the heat wave is about to be broken. I probably should log off and pull the plug from the laptop, but I'll wait a few more minutes to see if the lightning is a serious threat. I went with Plan B today. Returning from my morning walk, knowing the storm was predicted for late afternoon, I move
I was rooting around with the remote control last night, searching for something interesting to watch. PBS came through, as it so often does. Photographer Robert Knight was profiled in a documentary called Rock Prophecies. The son of a Baptist minister who failed to shelter him from the devil's music, he has taken photographs of all the guitar grea
Here's a quick quiz: which is the most valuable sports franchise in the world? I was shocked at the answer, which will be below. In terms of temperature, it was the hottest round of golf Cuz and I have played this season. Last night's heavy thunderstorms slowed the track down considerably. There was no extra roll to shots. I really messed up the se
Fortunately, the cloud cover and breeze negated the heat, but the humidity was draining out there today. I was fortunate to attract a buyer immediately, who spotted Suzi Orman's Women & Money, which I'd displayed prominently. An early sale always goes a long way to lessening the feeling of futility the endeavor engenders. I sold a sci-fi novel in R
I had another odd, vivid dream last night. In it, I was in bed and someone, probably my mom, was moving the quilt in the area of my feet. Then I heard an announcement over a loudspeaker. I approached a window and saw a repair shop set up in the driveway shared by the Mazzos and Venerusos. When I awoke it took me a moment to realize I was in Sheepsh
This week I have the honor of being profiled in the Brooklyn newspapers. My thanks to Sol, who led me to Eli Rosenberg, who wrote the article, and to Steve, the photographer. Here's the text, amended by my own comments: Brownstone Brooklyn has the title for the borough’s most literary land around, but a Brooklynite who sells his books on the street
We've all heard the old saying: "It pays to shop." I ignored it in large part when I had good cash flow. Not so the past four years, when I've watched every nickel. I've dreaded July, when the car insurance bill is due, the biggest hit of the year, which I always paid in full to take advantage of the discount. I was shocked to find that Liberty Mut
Yesterday, conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher mentioned an interesting development concerning a movie star's mom. I got the following from NYPost.com, editing it a tiny bit. It illustrates how intolerant some liberals can be: Brad Pitt’s mom, Jane, has faced a barrage of death threats and other slurs after writing to her local paper bashing
I had a fun dream last night. I was riding the subway and seated next to me was none other than the lovely Tina Louise, the "movie star" among the odd group stranded on Gilligan's Island. She fell asleep and her head rested on my shoulder. When the train lurched suddenly, her face went to my lap and she shrieked. It's not hard to figure that the dr
In a profile at IMDb, David Cronenberg is described as "The King of Venereal Horror" and "The Baron of Blood." I first learned of him in the early '80's, intrigued by the exploding heads in Scanners (1981). In Videodrome (1983), Deborah Harry did something creepy with a lit cigarette. That same year he did The Dead Zone, which remains my favorite a
"He punked-out," we used to say in Brooklyn about someone who backed down from a tough task or a fight. That's what I did today regarding the floating bookshop, which I eschewed because of the heat and humidity. Man, am I getting soft. In high school, we had two practice sessions in such weather. When I trained for the marathon, I jogged ten miles
Some days good things happen in bunches. I set up shop knowing people would be hurrying back to their AC's or backyard swimming pools to beat the heat, although it wasn't nearly as hot today as yesterday. I hadn't seen Morty, a retired salesman closing in on 80, in six weeks. He recently "graduated" from a program of radiation treatments on a growt
I watched another of the music videos I made, this one circa '95, an eclectic mix of performers. It started on a high note, Bonnie Raitt doing the blues lament Love Me Like a Man, featuring dazzling guitar work that would put many men to shame. She may have used every blues lick ever invented. There was only one cut I had to fast-forward through, s
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whe
There's an interesting one-man show coming to Broadway: The Undisputed Truth, starring Mike Tyson, directed by Spike Lee. It seems an effort to rehabilitate his image. At one time Tyson was in the argument of greatest heavyweight of all-time. He struck fear into opponents and the general public until a relative unknown, Buster Douglas, flattened hi
After not playing golf at all last year due to concern about my right hip, two things have surprised me. One, the absence of pain (knock wood); two, my ball striking is no different than it was before the hiatus. In fact, it's a little better, and this despite the fact that we've lost five rounds to weather. I expected it to be the last thing to co
I've now seen both the Swedish and American versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Which is better? I can't say. More than a year passed between viewings. Whose portrayal was better, Noomi Rapaci's or Rooney Mara's? Both were excellent, but I lean to Rapaci's, perhaps because it was my introduction to Stieg Laarsen's great protagonist, Lisabe
