In the 1970s academic kids in my neighbourhood went to Viscount Bennett High School. The rest (losers 😀) went to Earnest Manning High School which had far superior TRADES training.
The internet accelerated the fortunes of knowledge workers. Relative wages of those working in trades declined.
Everyone wanted to be a white collar worker. Sitting all day at a computer manipulating electrons.
Author/mechanic Matthew Crawford argues that is wrong. And is changing.
He quit his job at a Think Tank, instead opening a Motorcycle repair shop.
I’m hopeless. Not the least handyman you know, … but close.
I ride bikes but can’t fix them when they breakdown.
By comparison, my Dad and brother Rob are career Jack-of-all-Trades.
The late great buddy Rob Glaser was probably my most trusted authority for all things broken.
Needless to say, he was expert in living outdoors. Manipulated firewood with his bare hands, for example.
In the wild you want to carry only those items which can be repaired on the go. Metal, not plastic.
In 2022 it would be smart to seek work in an occupation where you can’t easily be replace by a computer. Gymnastics coach, for example. It will be a long time before Artificial Intelligence replaces human sport coaching.
Take pride in being able to physically make and repair things.
He’s a brilliant FBI agent who’s maintained his southern manners and accent.
Stoically aloof and eccentric. Polite and charming.
A master of disguise. Speaking many languages.
All in all a fascinating character.
I’d not read any of the 20 novels before trying this 2021 book. I ASSuMEd it was a murder mystery. But should have guessed by the title that it was some kind of horror story.
In the ghost-haunted city of Savannah, Georgia, bodies are found with no blood left in their veins—sowing panic and reviving whispered tales of the infamous Savannah Vampire.
Perhaps my least favourite, so far. An intriguing plot — but the resulting story really didn’t work for me.
Cork O’Connor is sitting in the shadow of a towering monolith known as Trickster’s Point, deep in the Minnesota wilderness.
With him is Jubal Little, who is favored to become the first Native American elected governor of Minnesota and who is slowly dying with an arrow through his heart.
Although the men have been bow-hunting, a long-standing tradition among these two friends, this is no hunting accident. The arrow turns out to be one of Cork’s, and he becomes the primary suspect in the murder. …
Though it’s a hassle to get a ticket, I managed to visit one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. Built in 1906, a mix of Art Nouveau and Neo-Gothic styles.
J.K. Rowling once lived in Porto, no doubt getting some inspiration from this magical setting.
She named Salazar Slytherin after the Portuguese dictator Antonio de Salazar.
BEST book in the series, so far, I reckon. Mainly because it features rogue Nate Romanowski more than any other book. He’s the most fascinating character. I also like Wyoming State Governor
TripFiction:
TF: Off The Grid is the 16th book in the Joe Pickett series. How do you manage to keep a series fresh and relevant without it becoming perhaps a little tired and formulaic?
CJB: Two reasons, I think and hope. The first is that each book in the series includes a real issue or concern beyond who-done-it. In Off The Grid it’s domestic terrorism as well as a runaway grizzly that’s been stalking hunters. Additionally, since the books take place in real time Joe Pickett, Nate, Marybeth, and family age and change. …
TF: Who are your favourite authors?
CJB: I’m a huge fan of Thomas McGuane, the late Jim Harrison, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O’Connor, and too many biographers and historians to list here. In the genre I never miss books by Michael Connelly, Denise Mina, John Sandford, and George Pelecanos. …
When the Department of Energy puts an underground iron mine on its short list of potential sites for storage of nuclear waste, a barrage of protest erupts in Tamarack County, Minnesota, and Cork is hired as a security consultant.
Deep in the mine during his first day on the job, Cork stumbles across a secret room that contains the remains of six murder victims. Five appear to be nearly half a century old—connected to what the media once dubbed “The Vanishings,” a series of unsolved disappearances in the summer of 1964, when Cork’s father was sheriff in Tamarack County.
But the sixth has been dead less than a week.
What’s worse, two of the bodies—including the most recent victim—were killed using Cork’s own gun, one handed down to him from his father. …
Cork O’Connor, now a Private Investigator, paints a picture of racial conflict in rural America, as well as a sensitive look at the secrets we keep from even those closest to us and the destructive nature of all that is left unsaid between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, friends and lovers.
Of the series so far, this is the book I enjoyed least.
It’s too complicated. Too violent.
Gundamentalist Americans make insane mistakes yet the author seems to have nothing against guns — aside from Cork moving his own weapons away to safe keeping.
Rick McCharles 