The 24th book (2024) in the Joe Pickett series is Three-Inch Teeth.
Excellent. As are all the rest.
A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage—killing, among others, the potential fiancé of Joe’s daughter.
At the same time, Dallas Cates, who Joe helped lock up years ago, is released from prison with a special list tattooed on his skin. He wants revenge on the people who sent him away: the six people he blames for the deaths of his entire family and the loss of his reputation and property.
Due to the pandemic, I hadn’t made it back to Port Townsend, Washington since 2019.
Since then, Doug and Diana had built a new house on one of their properties.
I was both 3rd and 4th in the guestbook, visiting both going to and coming from Coeur d’Alene.
Carrie came up from Vancouver WA to videotape a chat with myself and Doug about the start of the Tumbl Trak Ambassador Program. Actually, she drove MANY hours in the dark and rain to pick me up in Port Angeles.
I was the first Ambassador, we think, when Doug gave me an inflatable tumbling mat to take to my Gymnastics tour of Australia in 2007. I did clinics in 5 different States.
The other BIG news of my visit was that Diana was getting packed for a trip to Europe with a friend.
Also — Doug bought a new car. A Nissan Leaf.
It was my fault. I took the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton WA by mistake — and there happened to be a Nissan dealership there. 😀
As always in Port Townsend, we enjoyed some terrific meals.
My favourite was Finistère.
As always, I got out running and hiking.
This is dawn down close to Fort Worden.
If you’ve never been, Port Townsend is a tourist gem hidden away off the main highway in northern Washington State.
Yellowface (2023) written by R. F. Kuang is a satire of racial diversity in the publishing industry as well as a metafiction about social media, particularly Twitter.
Super popular, it sounded right up my alley.
The first quarter of the book was engaging. An interesting plot.
June Hayward, an unsuccessful young author, finds herself the only witness to the death of her former classmate and casual friend, Athena Liu, a Chinese-American author who is an industry darling.
She decides to position herself as best friend of the author and begins to edit and re-write Athena’s manuscript, a novel about Chinese laborers in World War I.
As she changes more and more of the draft, June begins to feel ownership over the novel and decides to publish it as her original work. …
It started to drag. Too much doom scrolling on Twitter. Too repetitious.
Finally — I quit about half way through the book.
I’d avoided this Facebook social media alternative — until the pandemic. It’s very popular with outdoor recreation folks so I started posting near daily on @BestHikeVisuals.
This parody nails it. 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.
Day 1 for me on Instagram was November 9, 2020.
It’s shocking how limited Instagram is compared with Facebook. For example:
I’m up to over 600 posts now. And it IS rewarding to quickly scan all of those. And there are some very good photos.
But many of the coolest influencers are posting less to Instagram. Looking to TikTok and other social media.
Both are excellent.
The Sweet Hereafter is a 1991 novel by American author Russell Banks. It is set in a small town in the aftermath of a deadly school bus accident that has killed most of the town’s children.
The novel was adapted into an award-winning 1997 film of the same name by Canadian director Atom Egoyan. …
The novel was based on an actual bus crash in Alton, Texas and its aftermath just before the book was written. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
To keep my hands warmer and dryer, I’m now carrying Pogie Lites from BikeIowa.
What’s a Pogie?
An over-sized “wind-breaker-like mitten“.
Here I’m riding in the cold and rain. They work surprisingly well. I’m bare handed underneath, making it very easy to work brakes and gear changes.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Pogie Lites are so flexible, they SHOULD fit on any kind of handlebar.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’m riding my brother’s Ebgo electric purchased at Costco.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Kara Swisher is today the #1 reporter covering the business of the internet.
Her mentor, Walt Mossberg.
The first of her 2-book memoir is a hit.
An entertaining read, even if you care nothing about the history of the internet.
Almost everyone in Tech picks up the phone when Kara calls.
She’s a pugnacious interviewer who won’t back down to anyone.
I only follow Swisher because she launched Pivot, a semi-weekly news commentary podcast co-hosted by Swisher and Scott Galloway.
She’s a very hard worker. Extremely well connected. And a competent interviewer.
But Prof. Galloway is my guru in ALL things business. Swisher was smart — as well — to sign up Galloway.
In her new book, Swisher reflects back on some of the biggest stories she’s covered. And her opinions of some of the Tech giants.
John McLaughlin comes across worst. Also, Rupert Murdoch, her long time boss.
Mark Zuckerberg stories are embarrassing. Facebook evil.
She’s fascinated by Elon Musk — but entirely disappointed since he bought Twitter and made his legacy being something of a right wing troll.
I was surprised how much she admired Steve Jobs. A well known asshole, but one who slung less B.S. than the rest.
Paul Theroux is a jerk — but I’d rank him one of the top wordsmiths working today.
This man can write.
Now age-82, Theroux’s 2024 book is as sharp and insightful as ever.
Burma Sahib is the story of George Orwell’s Burmese days. Back when he was in his snivelling early 20s.
A fictional rewriting of young Eric Blair’s years with the police in Burma. Eric Blair is Orwell’s real name.
He arrived Mandalay 1922, age-19, fresh out of Eton.
As unimpressive and pitiable as any Brit in the Raj.
His story is depressing. Mostly colonial bigotry and hateful racism.
Sunburned officer smoking and drinking their lives away.
… the young probationary policeman, bookish and too tall, is plagued not only by the vicious mosquitoes of the river delta but by a pathological awkwardness. …
Theroux, like Orwell, is the sharpest observer of the nonsenses of the class system …
Guardian – Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux review – George Orwell’s Burmese days vibrantly brought to life
For once, the sequel is better.
Cheesy. But enjoyable.
Some of the editing reminds me of the (much superior) Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock TV series.
Inspired by the book series The Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer — this film instead takes real-life inspiration from the 1888 matchgirls’ strike. Following the strike’s success, the Union of Women Matchmakers (later the Matchmakers’ Union) was formed later in 1888. On its creation, it was the largest union of women and girls in the country, and inspired a wave of collective organizing among industrial workers.
Again, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) is the highlight.
A mystery / comedy.
Enola opens her own detective agency, but struggles to get clients unlike her famous detective brother Sherlock Holmes.
A factory girl named Bessie asks Enola to help find her missing sister Sarah Chapman. Bessie takes Enola to the match factory, which is experiencing a deadly typhus epidemic …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Though it got mixed reviews, this book kept me going.
16-year-old Shay Renby arrives in Hollywood with $58 and a handmade knife. She’s got to find her brother before Singular does….
Odin’s a brilliant hacker but a bit of a loose cannon. He and a group of radical animal rights activists hit a Singular Corporation research lab. The raid was a disaster, but Odin escaped with a set of highly encrypted flash drives and a post-surgical dog.
When Shay gets a frantic 3 a.m. phone call from Odin — talking about evidence of unspeakable experiments, and a ruthless corporation, and how he must hide — she’s concerned.
When she gets a menacing visit from Singular’s security team, she knows: her brother’s a dead man walking.
What Singular doesn’t know — yet — is that 16-year-old Shay is every bit as ruthless as their security force, and she will burn Singular to the ground, if that’s what it takes to save her brother…
Rick McCharles 