Saturday, April 03, 2004
ROMANTIC RATS
Very seldom. today, do we come across the romantic rogue type bad guy in today's novels – even the “romantic” ones. I met with such a lovable scoundrel recently when a neighbor dropped off one of several books she thought I must read./ It is a novel titled:”Homeport”,:written by Nora Roberts..
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Dr.Miranda Jones, in the novel, of Jones Point, Maine, where they had long been a leading family, is an art expert and especially adept authenticating old art works of art and placing them where they rightfully belong. In this exciting novel, Dr. Miranda encounters art theft of a special kind and becomes romantically involved with a man who specializes in stealing art treasures for a price on order for art collectors. He is a thief, but a very specialized one, and also a young man who takes good care of of his extended Italian family - owners of a fine arts exhibit center of note - with his "earnings". His family - mother, father and others, including a younger sister, who is, oddly enough, a member of the local police force know about his unusual line of work. The next job" they seem to believe is going to be his "last one" which makes it all acceptable for the time being. With his accumulated earnings he has uprooted them from their old urban area which "was becoming dangerous" and bought them a spacious old farm home in Maine where they live in relative splendor and comfort. A happy family, too..
Dr. Jones' mother is also an art expert and runs the family studio and exhibit hall in Florence, Italy. A small bronze figure is found and Miranda is ordered by Mother to come to Florence at once to authenticate it. Thus begins a complicate story of art theft with many facets of romance, adventure and danger.
Mirnada, after a short study, finds the bronze to be the real thing and in doing so here reputation as an art expert will be greatly enhanced. It is placed on exhibit with special safety precautions, but "someone" manages to walk in; steal it and cause all manner of trouble. But, it seems, the "stolen" figure is indeed a fake and has been substituted for the real bronze somewhere along the line..
The plot continues with other thefts and leads, eventually, to murder, but it works out well for Miranda, her brother Andrew and Ryan Boldari - the consummate thief . It is a book to be read for enjoyment. The heavy layer of art is art not at all cumbersome and is not used in a stuffy or academic manner.
I enjoyed reading it . It was a welcome respite from today's mass mayhem mystery overload.. I'd even like to get to know the Boldari family better. The cover blurb called it "romantic suspense". It does well on both counts. Try it: Nora Roberts' “Homeport”. I would say it is one of the better examples of this genre in recent years.
A. L.M. April 2, 2004 [c505wds]
Friday, April 02, 2004
GENESIS
How DID all this get started? I've been asked why I do what I do'. Here's how it began.
There is nothing wrong with keeping a diary. I tried it when I was a kid, and quickly found it to be a record largely of weather conditions for the days, months and years, plus notes about incidents which had been forgotten and rightfully so. Those sections of diaries which endure and mean something worthwhile for the writer or others were. Thatt finished my diary keeping. I started calling it a ”Journal.”
As a journal it held a hint of being done daily and part of it was to keep a record of want I did, where I went, who I met, what we talked about and, most important, what I understood and thought and what I did about those things as they took place. Some people, especially those living along coastal areas, often take a nautical and call their Journal: a “Log” and make “entries” in their official Log Book as a duty of the one who is in charge and obligated to do so. Before too long you hope a new crew member will be told to take over the task.
I missed that nautical tangent which is an at-sea diary. and went from journal keeping to writing “articles”as they were called it in those days. I admired such successful writers of that time such as O .O.MacIntyre who wrote a syndicated week-days only “column” titled “Day By Day.”
I found myself gathering a stack of such writings - usually one sheet of single-spaced typewritten pages. I remember I made a cardboard binder out of an old cardboard suit box to hold what called ”My Nine Hundred Days.- Part I” .The makeshift binder closed with a string and it got stuffed in a drawer or another, larger box because because I had no file cabinet at the time. The idea was to put them aside in lots of three hundred with the avowed intent of taking one month off between each set. That hiatus never caught on, however. I was hooked, for sure.
Imagine my elation when I found the local weekly paper would use one now and
then - usually around holidays .A national church paper bought one called “Scrapbooks As Textbooks” paid me five dollars. Then, two others, as well. I keep a “scalp list” so eyer so often that list would encourage me to even up the tally of items given away and those which kept a tally to show me how many were the source of real money.. I made good use of my writing experience when I took off for the University in 1939. There I took on pen ames because I had two short stories in one magaine one month and they didn't want the same name every month thereafter eiuther. I have used six such nom de plumes over the years for various reasons. I left the University too start writing copy for WSVA, Harrisonburg ,Va.- commercial copy, program material, and PR releases. Ithen tookla ten year turn at writing sales brochures, installation and operating manuals for a major air-conditioning and heating manufacturer , as well as more PR work,.and a series of Incentive Travel scripts for reintroduction. I loved all of it, but the job moved to Hartford,Ct. and I chose not to go with it. I was welcomed back to WSVA-AM-FM-TV writing copy again and some on air work on talk shows. and I retired at age sixty-two to write.- which I'm still doing. During my earlier stay of eighteen years, I did, for several years , a five-minute thing for week-end use titled TOPIC which I recorded each Friday.. A newspaper editor who heard those programs, asked me to do an “under the cartoon “ editorial feature column in his weekly paper The Shenandoah “Herald”:which I did for three years. .During those years I sold to the “Post” in DC, the Dow-Jones weekly “National Observer”- may it rest in journalistic peace, and in other papers.
I have made use of them in teaching Sunday School, as well - first with teenagers, then with adults for forty-three years.. I have been encouraged along the way by some fine individuals and I promise to tell you about them another day.
A.L.M. April 2, 2004 [c729wds]
Thursday, April 01, 2004
NATIONAL SPORT
You, too?
Have you been seeing some nosy surveys asking you to name our national sport? They seem to assume that bas ball no longer holds that place of honor among re-blooded Americans.. I hope you are with me in disagreeing with that premise,
It may well be true that, at the moment, the hold baseball has on the American people may appear to be less than it has been in the past, That does not mean it has been supplanted as the nation's favorite sport.. Sports, as with most things we do, are often led around by the nose by faddists - people who want to ry something different, and who, for a while, find some temporary satisfaction in doing something other than playing, watching or reading about baseball. It can be secondary in the off-season part of the year ,but now that it has started again for this year, we can expect a strong upturn in interest.
Baseball is competitive, these days,and vies with many well-financed sports activities.. Baseball demands, however, more individual and team skill than most of the others and they will fade as baseball ball is restored to its usual place.
Those who think baseball has ceased to be our national sport, are not secure in their understanding of why baseball has been the favorite for;so long. The number of hours a sport demands from a fan's day influences some, perhaps, and let;s face it; some who be disenchanted with sports in general because of excessive wages paid to players and ballyhooed excessively by a sometimes over-eager media.. The grassroots sentiment seems to be:“They aom't no man wuth 'at much!” That fan sees such cost as the reason for higher cost on tickets at the gate.. You can't judge a game by its gate. This is the same thing that has hurt the movie industry so severely. .Movie quality has steadily declined even as b ox office prices nave advanced to new peaks. Officials hold that they can determine the :best picture by a system which holds that the picture that brings in the most money is best.. Fewer people see movies today but they pay many times more than the admission prices set years ago when ”the best” film was selected by the number of people who came to see it....not how much they overspent tp do so. Sports is suffering the same agony of misjudging what the public accepts as “best”.
The biggest single factor for all sports today is television. It cannot be ignored. Radio is in there, as well. as an important ingredient. Radio engenders new, expanded interest in the competitive individuals and and among sports fans by constant talk
cencerning the competition's of individual and team actions which is laudable, including what we can only call “idol gossip”.It may often smell but it will sell well. Ring Lardner ,the sport writer of yesteryear, proved that amply enough.
What sport would appear to you as the main contender to vie with baseball to be our national game?
Football? Pro - or collegiate?. . NASCAR racing?? Stock Car, or Formula?
That's based the sheer number of people who turn out for such events. In what order do you place them? Basketball, Volley Ball, Golf.,Tennis,. Boxing. Soccarr, Wrestling, Field events and Gyumastics - add your own -.others and also-rans. Remember too there are some purists out there who do not consider car racing and pro-wrestling be sports at all..
In a wide sense, let's hope they all do well. Good exercise is a health and happiness builder for. all. Because it is has more sports meaning and demands more skill among players, teams of players, coaches and management staff members. Fans, too, have more in which they can become involved when baseball is their choice.
A..L.M.. March 31, 2004 [c652wds]
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
THINGS UNDONE
Very few days go by without us being reminded that we should have done certain things which we have left undone.
All of us are guilty, too, without exception.
Let me tally up a few of them as examples of how lax we can become, and so easily, too.
Do you get enough rest, for instance? Do you sleep erratically? Can it be that your irregular hours do you notifiable physical harm? I have found, by experience, that if one keeps regular hours - getting up and retiring at more or less the same times each morning and evening, life proceeds smoother and without undo complications. I am not a harsh, demanding stickler for such rules because a change of pace can also bring some special benefits as well, if properly compensated for by a nap now and then or just a period if "quiet time" time during the active day.
We need to stay within a certain, pre-set framework insofar as foods , medications and routines of work and play are concerned. I know there are now certain physical acts which I can no longer perform, so I've got to temper my ways of doing so that I do not violate any of the warning signs which tell me - quite plainly, as a rule - when I am "overdoing it" or "showing off". Ego does play a role in much of this, too, in case you think my use of the term "showing off" too harsh or too playful. We learn it individually. I have come to know I can't do the outdoor gardening work I used to get done as routine. I see other older men continuing to do such chores, but not for long. Om,e had to learn things the hard way and we do not all have the luxury of time in which to use trial-and-error methods. I know they are watching me, too. Every now and then we spot each other "showing off" by doing physical things we know, full well, are either forbidden or questionable.
Yet there is another aspect of it all, as well. Often we see older people slacking off on on mental activities at this special time when they should be increasing that sort of thing while eliminating physical work. The tendency toward become what is now called a "couch potato" is a hallmark of our times with many people - far too many - with TV as the main (but not to only) area of concern. It is a mistake to cut down on one's reading, for instance. It is, perhaps, an error to turn to technology in the form of computerized equipment which intimidates us even more so than it does the younger people who are now compelled to make use of it daily. Use your computer as an "adjunct to"; as an "extension of" living'; as "condiment" rather than "entre" and as a "dessert" rather than the "main course" of your intellectual meal.
A.L.M. March 30, 2004 [c504wds]
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
ONE MORE
, Mel Gibson's recent monumental and rather sensational merchandising of his R-rated movie “The Passions of Christ” set the ball a-rollin' and people are avidly searching for religious books to read or re-read. May I suggest one.. I re-read it a year or two ago after about fifty years or more..You will find it at your local library
Look for a small book:.HenryVan Dyke's "The Story of the Other Wise Man". Yes ,it is about Christmas time and Wise Men and who can deny that we have need of such learned men here in the Spring of 2004 during the days of worldwide terror.
The "other" wise man was named Artaban, in case you, too, have forgotten and his faithful horse for the initial phase of his long journey was named Vasda. (What a fine "Jeopardy" category that would make. A rider and his and his steed, either with other such steeds and riders or alone as the super-duper "Final Jeopardy" question. "Artaban and Vasda." Identify. The question, of course, would be : "Who was the Other Wise Man and what was the name of his Arabian horse?” Reversed, of course, in good “Jeopardy” fashion.)
Oddly enough, I find the “camel” Artaban used for the major portion portion of his journey has not named in the book.
The edition had was published in 1906, in New York, by Harper and Brothers. The original copyright date shows as 1895. The book is a serious examination of the Eastern faith called Zoroaster ism and is set in ancient Babylon, in part where the Three Wise Man - members of the Magi group - are watching for the special star to shine. They were called Castor, Melchior and Balthazar and and they had reasoned according to the Second scroll of a Hebrew book called "Daniel" that a Messiah was to be born who "would restore Jerusalem be the special appointed One, the Prince" and they had studied the event and the timing of it in detail threw Babylonian numerology practices and with the help of a local religious scholar named Abgarus. Artaban is to watch for the special star in the sky and they will wait ten days for him to join them from his home a hundred miles to the East.
The Oriental religious background may hamper the present-day reader because we are no longer conversant with such ecumenical thought - in spite of our pretended Oneness. The story will seem "used" too because so many writers have used the "plot" in the meantime. In his quest to take fine gifts to the new born Babe, he meets with persons in dire need and shares the gifts with them until he has nothing left to present to the Christ child. In his old age, we see him as one who has, after all, met the Christ in a very personal way through service to others even though he never actually found the Babe in the Manger or came to know Jesus in reality.
Before Christmas rolls around, make it a special point to re-read "The Story of the Other Wise Man " by Henry Van Dyke. You'll be glad you renewed literary ties with Truths from long ago.whch are useful today as swellheaded old world. hasn't changed as much as we like to think it by this time..
A.L.M. March 29, 2004 [c505wds]
Monday, March 29, 2004
DECOR
Why do some people get so upset about decor?
To me, it seems entirely natural that all we would want would be to have our our furniture, all of our many possessions available quickly and conveniently arranged..That would be proper. Any kind of decor idea beyond that practical, utiliitarian level can only be done with check book in hand and a well-fed bank account..
My idea of proper residential decor is wrapped up in the motto:? a place for everything and every thing in its place.? Neat, clean, ,inexpensive and easy to do. It is not a household problem about which people should worry, fret and double their trouble.
All too many people, out to equal or excel friends and neighbors start off with great enthusiasm and end up being so-so. Many a home which the owner's think of as perfect is really ?1943 Ho-Jo? at best. There are many types of home re-doers: There are the:?Granny's Attic? people who are happy with organized clutter. Others choose to excel ion some special way :Dan'l Boone-ers? may allow no Persian rugs in their home under the sturdy, solid wood and unpainted chairs, tables, beds and benches. Establishing n historical feeling or selecting a section of the nation as typical of the life style you enjoy.
I remember visitmg a home years ago which was owned by a husband and wife who ran a furniture store in a nearby city. They had funished their large house ?by the book?. It was a deadly place to visit. Every room - upstairs and down, looked like a display area in their store. It was not the placefor an entire week-end. I would have been better off in fheir store.. At least, it was what it was - iot pretending to be something it could hope to become
We have many type of decorators. You can build a Spansh home which may turn out to be more Mexican; an Oriental may conjure up more of a G&S Musical Comedy than ut does authenic Asian living. Or, you can always choose mod or futuritic. Be ready for the mod house to look like something out of a Buck Rogers comic book or prepare youself so se your futuristic home of glass, stainless steel, colorful plasfics and paints with elegantly reostated lighting tucked away in cracks and crevices.
.I think of one decoration job I saw many years ago which impressed me. The house was at the far end of our little town, but the railroad tracks; so close. In fact, that the house trembled when a train passed.. The small frame house was owne by a negro couple both of whom did odd job and house work for the town dwellers. In those days,.as a youngeter, I delivered the town's weekly paper. That family was one of my better and most appreciative customers. I always enjoyed my brief afternoon visits. The house was set within a wrap-around.white picket fence. A green grass lawn ws the only one in that end of town - bushes cllipped back neatly, too.. The four widows across the front of the house were,I remember one year, wore the most beautiful green drapes I remember ever seeing. .Imagine my surprise when I found them to be made of inexpensive crepe wrapping paper. A wide strip of the green tissue paper, attached to curtain rod at the top, fell down the sides of each window. They were gently tied back with a thin, silvery string and a white platsic harp was fixed to the string on the widnow I examined c losely. So much of the decorqtion of the house had a personal touch not that you thought of fhem as being home-made at all.
I ofen think of the couple's home and I think I find something which seems to keep telling me trying to tell me that so may of us go about this decor bit backwards.
The furniture, the decorations. the colors do not make up the real decor of a home,.Only the personal pretense of the living, loving people who dwell there and use and enjoy their holdings give the place a special aire, a unique aura, a rich, encrusting patina which bring it forth wearing a happy halo setting it apart from all others..You don't buy d?cor, you live it.
A.L.M.. March 27, 2004 [c735wds]
Sunday, March 28, 2004
ESTIMATES
I am amazed at the statistics which come our way uninvited these days.
This past week, I heard a talking head interrupt his own freely flowing verbal listing of his reasons about the many things – what, when and where - which went wrong, and caused 9-11 to happen.
I suppose it, in his mind, at least, his words had something to do with the subject at hand because he paused long enough in his list of reasons concerning the causes of 9-11, to speak an aside, and, then to quickly repeat it when his panel associates did not seem to respond alertly enough to his statement which noted our relationship to eternity. “In relation to eternity,” I'm sure he said, “the average length of a human life totals about seven minutes.”
Just how he had arranged to have eternity to stand still long enough between it's unknown beginning and indefinite end, he did not not say.
Nor did he clarify exactly what strange system of math he used to arrive at his sensationally short seven minute life span for Man. minute. It would seem the element of time would be flexible since eternity, as such, must continue without end. That makes his statement invalid and of little use for any worthwhile purpose.
Where do we find these intellectual crackpots?
How can I trust any of his observations about any subject after he dishes up such fare as that? How many more of “them” are running around loose out there, awaiting their turn to contribute to television's tedious trail of trivia?
I find it easy enough to totally forget anything he might have said about the causes of 9-11, but that bit about man's seven minute life span has followed me around ever since he dropped it within my range of hearing.
The concept solves so many of life's problems, doesn't it? How about all those things we started and never quite finished? There must be a score of times when we would have done so-and- so, had we had enough free time! Think what a fine excuse we now have for ourselves. We don't have to start things if we know we will only be around for seven minutes or less ...because with eternity advancing the span is being shortened all the time. Why bother about anything? Now, even tomorrow, is too late..
I think many of us can agree with the fact, that in the Creator's eye we appear as small things. Certainly we are minuscule in relation to the proportions of other objects made, but to think we are of such little consequence in his overall plan is asking too much.
Seven minutes! That's about the total length of actual program time on television between every-growing blocks of commercials.
A.L.M. March 25. 2004 [c429wds] .
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