I see Canadian Club is taking on beer as the drink of choice for meals and sports games.

 

What amazes me is filled fridge shelves that never collapse.

 

Richard Bolitho — Midshipman (Richard Bolitho, #1) by Alexander Kent

This is the first of the Bolitho series. It is more of a short story than a novel. Being short, it doesn't waste a lot of time on dressing, although some explanations seem to be left out, making you wonder. As the story starts he already has a four year career behind him. A career that seems to have been easy going as it now takes a turn for the worse. He suddenly becomes aware of the prejudices and cruelty that surround him. The story seems to lack strength.   

Corsican Gold by Dave Bartell

 

This is a youthful attempt to write an adventure story. Darwin, a graduating college student, returns to his roots in Corsica and reminisces about his past and hopes it will help mould his future. A meeting with an English woman leads to an immature attempt for a sexual encounter. While exploring caves they come upon a lost treasure which no one seems to have noticed in the last four hundred years. A short story suitable for the teenage market. An excellent cover.

Pompeii by Robert Harris

I wanted to read this book because I've been to Pompeii. I am familiar with a lot of the buildings and walked on their mosaic floors. For the most part it is about the workings of the water system, the aqueduct. In modern terms we would say it is about a bunch of plumbers trying to fix a watermain. We are mesmerized by the story of Pompeii and tend to forget that it is a town of ordinary people, going about their business, confronted by greed, lust and murder. It provides us with great insight into the lives of the Roman citizens especially the rich. The mention of historical figures brings a realistic touch to the story. 

My son mowed the lawn. It looks like it has been cut by Picasso.

It's amazing how many people think that if they get the vaccine they won't get COVID.

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.