Death in the Andamans by M.M. Kaye

This is a murder mystery with the background of the Andamans Islands, another British enclave in the Indian Ocean. Three couples, Christmas house guests, have their love affairs interrupted by a number of murders. Isolated by a hurricane, fortified by endless brandy & sodas, they take on the solving of these murders as a parlor game. 

When the murders solve themselves, the story, awash with political incorrectness, reverts back to the three couples and the inevitable happy ending.   

Can you imagine? Biden falling asleep while talking to a visiting diplomat.

SeaFire (John Gardner's Bond, #14)

The author writes a good James Bond story and this is one of the best. Ian Fleming must be smiling down on him. We know Bond's lifestyle and this book will point out his vanity, letting us see that he is far from perfect.

This book is written as the last of the Bond series and it was a good endeavor. We are told his weak points, his strong points, that he does not have a heart of stone and can shed tears. Although there are other Bond stories, they will not move his life and career further on. 

For those who don't know it, Don Juan is a work of fiction.

Nightblind (Dark Iceland #2) by Ragnar Jonasson

 

It was a bit difficult at first, getting used to the names and places but one gets used to it. When the story started out with a new detective, I thought the last one was finished. It wasn't until I finished the story and read some of the reviews, did I find out that the books are not in sequence. The story did take a leap forward, omitting a few years of the main character's life. 

There are two story lines going at the same time and I was unable to put them together till near the end, intentionally written that way. The main character is weak, easily taking offence at any small remark to the point that it overwhelms him. 

Dead Man's Footsteps (Roy Grace, #4) by Peter James

This is a story of multiple threads and as you read the chapters, you wonder what they could possibly have to do with each other. Each incident is a story in itself and I didn't know what to expect. This author is excellent at running different storylines, bringing them all to a page turning end. Very appropriate title. 

Population Control

It is possible that the virus is being used as a means of population control. Not the quantity of population but rather its acceptance of ideas. 

John Wayne used to Fetch Wyatt Earp’s Coffee

 “Earp was the man who had actually done the things in his life that I was trying to do in a movie. I imitated his walk; I imitated his talk” – said the famous actor John Wayne.

"On Wings of Eagles" by Ken Follett

 

Of course I remember this incident from the NEWS of the time but reading an account of it gives it a different perspective. If you are expecting something like a Rambo rescue, you will be disappointed. The main theme of the book is the negotiations involved to get the men out of prison which was a hard road to travel. When that was finally accomplished by other means, the problem was to get them out of the country. 

The book is an adventure story, written by a great storyteller, problems arise and are solved. All are heroes (after all, they are Americans), strength overcomes all weaknesses and we even have a happy ending. There are things you have to take with a grain of salt but you still have to admire Ross Perot.

Election Results.

Well, we had our provincial election yesterday with the Conservatives beating the Liberals. The new Premier is an accountant so I guess that means that we have someone who can cheat us honestly. 

In this riding we got the same guy back. A Liberal, formally a school monitor/actor. He didn't do anything for the last 8 years while his party was in power, so we definitely don't have to worry about the next 4 with his party out of power. There is a good point about him being re-elected. We save money. We don't have to pay his pension yet. So that is money saved for the next 4 years. 

We really didn't have anyone to vote for. The others running against him were worse. I don't think we voted in any strippers or drug dealers.

I read this.

"In a retirement town, the average is dead or nearly dead".

“The Future of Life” – Jacques Attali,

 “In the future it will be about finding a way to reduce the population. We will start with the old, because as soon as he is over 60-65 years of age, man lives longer than he produces and costs society dearly. Then the weak and then the useless who do nothing for society because there will be more and more of them, and especially finally the stupid ones.

Euthanasia targeting these groups; euthanasia will have to be an essential instrument of our future societies, in all cases. Of course, we cannot execute people or set up camps. We will get rid of it by making them believe it is for their own good. Too large a population, and for the most part unnecessary, is something economically too expensive.

Socially, it is also much better for the human machine to come to a screeching halt rather than gradually deteriorating. We won’t be able to give intelligence tests to millions and millions of people, you can imagine!

We will find something or cause it, a pandemic that targets certain people, a real economic crisis or not, a virus that will affect the old or the big, it doesn’t matter, the weak will succumb to it, the fearful and the stupid will believe it and ask to be treated.

We will have taken care to have planned the treatment, a treatment that will be the solution. The selection of idiots will thus be done by themselves: they will go to the slaughterhouse on their own. “

 

$2.3T spent in Afghanistan ends with Taliban back in charge. They also have a lot of new equipment.

 

If 2 years ago they had said, "In the region yesterday there was 9 cases of the flu, would you have cared?"

Winter of the World (The Century Trilogy #2) - Ken Follett

 

I love history and reading these books by Follett is like reading a history book but better. The characters are woven into the actual events bypassing the cold hard facts of history and making them come alive. Through the eyes of the  characters we see the events as if they are happening now. Well written and hard to put down.

 

As I read about the Covid passport, I'm wondering if it a good time to buy stock in barbed wire companies. 

 

Some people should not be sitting down when they read puns otherwise ....

 

I don't know why people get sleeve tattoos, they look like a big blur to me. What a waste of pain.

 Sitting on the patio, I feel like Michael Corleone in his last scene. 

 At this point in time, the Green Party seems to be more in the red.

What Seems True by James Garrison

 

When I started this book, I thought it would be a modern western. It had a murder, a Texas Ranger

but it soon morphed into a union problem at a Texas refinery. Soon, the murder and the Ranger 

fell into the background and the story became an arbitration hearing with union employees. 

The story had a good lead in and the descriptions were good but the author had trouble finding 

names for his characters, falling back on celebrities' like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and others.

The arbitration went in circles, no one was charged with the murder, a black man by the name of

Billy Graham, by the way. Being a black man might have had something to do with it.

The Oil Drum

Who invented the oil drum?

She became one of the most famous journalists of her day as a reporter for the New York World. Widely known as the remarkable Nellie Bly, Elizabeth J. Cochran Seaman, investigated conditions at an infamous mental institution, made a trip around the world in less than 80 days – and manufactured the first practical 55-gallon oil drum.

My Sketchers

Both of my Sketchers have a hole in them. Not in the bottom where you would expect but in the top where the big toe touches. 

The Latest NEWS

 

What news? We are being bombarded with agenda-bases journalism.

AM Radio

Sometimes I turn on my old AM Radio just to hear the hum. It's a 1951 Crosley and still works. No AM stations in the area but in the middle of the night I can hear something. 

Some of One

This morning I asked my wife if she bought bread yesterday and she said "some". I asked her how many was that and she said "one|". So my question is, can one be some? 

I've thought about it and found where this is true. You can say, " I bought one car and it is some car". 

Voting

Voting is our way of deciding who will fleece us rather than have it done randomly or by family inheritance.

Hamer's Quest - Jack Walker

Hamer's Quest is a book of fiction, a total fabrication bordering on the absurd. I wanted a western, something different from my usual reads but was disappointed by my choice. The pages are filled with name dropping of famous people, products and books, all to fill in pages. In a western one expects the usual fare of gunplay but this has been replaced by explanations of faith from old time religion, running on for pages and pages. Silly conversations make up another large part of the book. I am giving it three stars because it might be suitable as a screenplay.

You would think that with 36 million people we would find at least one intelligent person to vote for in the next election.

 

West to Bravo: A Western Novel - Eric H. Heisner

 

I was looking for a change from my usual reading
but found this was not my style of writing. It would
make a decent movie.

Fair Warning (Jack McEvoy #3) - Michael Connelly

 

A crime story that has us believing that and old reporter is a seasoned member
of the information highway. The book has great flow and holds us from beginning
to end. It leaves us with the belief that there are more stories to come.