NY Daily News: Two workers at a Chinese restaurant stir-fried an irate customer with a stun gun after he claimed he was overcharged by 75 cents, cops said Thursday.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, June 19, 2015
FFB: Pay the Devil -- Jack Higgins
When Pay the Devil was published as a Berkley paperback in 1999, no information was given about its original publication. So I didn't know until I read Ben Boulden's review of the book a year or so ago that it was a reprint of an 1963 hardcover or that it was Higgins' seventh published novel. I mentioned in a comment to Boulden that the book was languishing on my "to be read again" stack, and I finally got around to it the other day when I was looking for some fast, entertaining reading.Clay Fitzgerald is a Colonel in the army of the Confederacy as the war is ending, and General Lee suggests that he and his men slip quietly away and go home. Fitzgerald has inherited the old family estate in Ireland and he decides to pay a visit there, sort of a sentimental journey, taking along his faithful retainer, Joshua. When he arrives, he finds a situation in which a brutal aristocracy treats the poor like animals, or worse. Rebellion is brewing Clay declares that he doesn't want to take sides, and then almost immediately takes sides, becoming a masked avenger known as Captain Swing. He deals out rough (very rough) justice to one particularly despicable landowner before getting involved in the complicated relationship between a couple of families on opposing sides.
There's a beautiful young woman, fast action (and lots of it), Higgins' usual fine descriptions of weather and landscapes, and a satisfying plot. This might not be a great book, but it's a lot of fun and a good way to spend a few hours in another time and place.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Rick Ducommun, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Rick Ducommun, a comic actor best known for playing shlubby loudmouth types in '80s and '90s comedies like "The 'Burbs" and "Groundhog Day," has died at 62.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
John David Crow, R. I. P.
A&M Heisman Winner John David Crow Dies At 79: COLLEGE STATION (June 18, 2015) Texas A&M's first Heisman Trophy winner, John David Crow, has passed away.
10 Etiquette Rules Nobody Follows Anymore
10 Etiquette Rules Nobody Follows Anymore
This is a slideshow that I found amusing because Judy was a great believer in manners and etiquette. She's the only person I knew who still kept Amy Vanderbilt's etiquette book handy. If you wanted to know what was once considered right and proper (and was still considered so by at least one person), you could just ask her. If she didn't know, she'd look it up. She rarely had to look.
This is a slideshow that I found amusing because Judy was a great believer in manners and etiquette. She's the only person I knew who still kept Amy Vanderbilt's etiquette book handy. If you wanted to know what was once considered right and proper (and was still considered so by at least one person), you could just ask her. If she didn't know, she'd look it up. She rarely had to look.
Nelson Doubleday Jr., R. I. P.
The New York Times: Nelson Doubleday Jr., who shortly after taking over his family’s publishing business used it in 1980 to buy the lowly New York Mets and put the team on course to win the World Series in 1986, died on Wednesday at his home in Locust Valley, N.Y. He was 81.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Ron Clarke, R. I. P.
The New York Times: middle- and long-distance runner who broke 17 world records, some by huge margins, in the mid-1960s but never won an Olympic or British Commonwealth gold medal, died on Wednesday in Gold Coast, Australia, where he had recently been mayor. He was 78.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Dig Ten Graves eBook: Heath Lowrance: Kindle Store And also this one.
Two for the price of zero dollars and cents. You can't miss.
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