This is a catch-all for random and undifferentiated thoughts that didn’t make it into my previous NRAAM reports. I’ll put in a jump, since this is running long…
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Random notes toward an after action report: Dallas.
Tuesday, May 8th, 2018Obit watch: April 24, 2018.
Tuesday, April 24th, 2018Speaking of the use of the US Mail to commit crimes, I meant to note this the other day, but it got past me:
Walter Leroy Moody Jr. descended into Hell Thursday night.
Some of you may recall the crime, but not the name. Mr. Moody was a crank who had a grudge against the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. So he sent a bomb to the home of one of the judges, Robert Vance Sr. The bomb killed Vance and seriously injured his wife. To cover his tracks, Mr. Moody sent out more bombs: one of them killed Robert E. Robinson, a lawyer. Others directed at the NAACP and the offices of the 11th Circuit were intercepted.
Law enforcement eventually tracked the bombs back to Mr. Moody, who was convicted of a whole host of federal charges. He was sentenced federally to seven life terms, plus 400 years. However, the state of Alabama prosecuted Mr. Moody for the murder of judge Vance: he was convicted at that level, resulting in his death sentence.
There are two books about the case, neither of which I’ve read: I used to see Priority Mail regularly at Half-Price, but I haven’t seen a copy in a while. Blind Vengeance: The Roy Moody Mail Bomb Murders is the one I wasn’t aware of, but stumbled across while trying to find Priority Mail. Blind Vengence seems to have been published by a university press (which probably explains its obscurity), and both are available used from Amazon relatively cheap. I may have to bend my “one true-crime book per case” policy.
Updates.
Thursday, April 19th, 2018Melina Roberge has been sentenced to eight years in an Australian prison. I missed this previously, but her co-conspirator, Isabelle Lagace, received a seven and a half year sentence.
You may recall Ms. Lagace and Ms. Roberge as the two women who posted photos of their travels to exotic locations on Instagram…right up to the point where they were busted trying to smuggle 95 kilos of cocaine into Australia.
The third member of the conspiracy, Andre Tamin, is supposed to be sentenced in October.
In other news, Alex Malarkey is suing the Christian publisher Tyndale House.
I’ve written about this before, but it was brief, inside a TMQ Watch, and the related TMQ (and all the other ones that were on ESPN) has been deleted. So:
In 2004, when Alex was six, he and his father Kevin were involved in a serious car accident. Alex was in a coma for two months, and is a quadriplegic as a result of the accident.
In 2010, Alex and Kevin wrote, and Tyndale House published, a book called The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World. (Link provided for informational purposes only, and should not be interpreted as endorsement of the book.) In the book, Alex and Kevin claimed that Alex had visited heaven and encountered both Jesus and Satan. The book was a bestseller.
In 2015, Alex Malarkey publicly renounced the book:
Tyndale House took the book off the market after Alex’s admission.
In the current lawsuit, Alex is asking for a financial accounting from Tyndale House. Additionally:
The suit says identifying Alex as a co-author of the book violates Illinois’ Right of Publicity Act, and he is entitled to profits from the unauthorized use of his name, along with punitive damages. Malarkey also seeks an injunction requiring Tyndale House to disassociate his name from the book, which lists his father as a co-author.
The suit also alleges the publisher violated Alex Malarkey’s right to privacy, cast him in a false light, intruded on his seclusion, defamed him, violated Illinois law barring deceptive trade practices, and financially exploited him in violation of an Illinois law barring the exploitation of people with disabilities.
Obit watch II.
Wednesday, April 18th, 2018Bill Nack, noted sportwriter who specialized in horse racing.
That Bob Kalsu story is a great piece of work.
Mr. Nack also wrote the book on Secretariat.
And:
Obit watch: April 2, 2018.
Monday, April 2nd, 2018Man, it’s been a really busy couple of days.
Deborah Carrington, actress. Among her credits: Thumbelina in the original “Total Recall”, Valerie Vomit in “The Garbage Pail Kids Movie”, various Ewoks, and the “Bride of Chucky”.
Stéphane Audran, Babette in “Babette’s Feast”.
Delores Taylor, also an actress. She appeared in a bunch of her husband, Tom Laughlin’s, films, including “Billy Jack” and the two sequels.
Anita Shreve, noted novelist.
Separated at birth?
Former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt
INS reporter Carl Kolchak.
Finally, noted TV producer Steven Bochco. (“Hill Street Blues”, “LA Law”, “NYPD Blue”, “Doogie Howser MD”. And where’s my damn “Hooperman” box set? I’m not kidding: I remember that being a kind of fun show.)
Let’s go out with a bang, shall we?
Obit watch: March 29, 2018.
Thursday, March 29th, 2018Philip Kerr, noted author.
I read A Philosophical Investigation based on someone’s recommendation: I wish I could remember who it was. (I feel pretty strongly that it was either Andy Watson or Pat Cadigan, but I’m getting old. It could have been an entirely different person.)
Anyway, I liked it well enough that I intended to read more of Kerr’s work. The Bernie Gunther stuff in particular intrigues me, but too many books, too little time. Also, I’m thinking I got tangled up somewhere with chronology issues in the Gunther books. I’m kind of sad that there won’t be any more – except for the forthcoming Gunther origin story mentioned in the obit – but, at the same time, this settles the chronology issue pretty thoroughly.
Obit watch: March 19, 2018.
Monday, March 19th, 2018Noted SF writer Kate Wilhelm passed away on March 8th.
I genuinely wish I had more to say about this, but I don’t right now.
He shoots, he scores!
Sunday, March 18th, 2018This week was another Half-Price Books coupon week. And I picked up a few things. Most of the books I bought were firearms related, so I thought I’d pull a Lawrence and document some of them here.
Small Arms Profile 17: Smith and Wesson Tip-Up Revolvers. This is a thin little pamphlet dated January 1973, and published by Profile Publications Ltd. in the UK. Profile had at least 17 other books on various types of small arms (including one specifically on ammunition). It also looks like they had separate series for aircraft, cars, and warships: I think they catered, at least in part, to model makers. This had a cover price of $2 US/40p UK in 1973 dollars: sources tell me that’s closer to $20 in 2018 money.
I was a little hesitant to shell out $6 for an 18 page British handgun publication, until I opened the front cover and saw “By Roy G. Jinks”. That’s pretty much a “must buy” flag.
Defensive Pistol Fundamentals by Grant Cunningham. This isn’t particularly rare or hard to find, but I note it here because it is one of KR Training‘s recommended books. $10 with no coupon discount (because I used the coupon for other things), which is inline with Amazon’s new price, but this is pretty much “like new” as well. I don’t feel rooked.
And I’ve written before about how much I like picking up those Firearms Classics books at a steep discount. I added a few more to the collection:
Not from the Firearms Classics library, but a limited edition reprint (#1383 of 1500) from “Wolfe Library Classics”: Big Game Rifles and Cartridges by Elmer Keith. (Originally published by Thomas G. Samworth, much like so many of these other books in my library.) $12 after 40% off coupon.
(Damn. I really ought to pick that up.)
Firearms Curiosa by Lewis Winant. I’ve only had a chance to flip quickly through this since I bought it on Friday, but it looks like a whole lot of fun: there’s an entire chapter, for example, on “Knife Pistols and Cane Guns”. Not a Samworth book, oddly. $6 after 40% off coupon.
Actual Firearms Classics Library reprints of actual Samworth books: With British Snipers to the Reich by “Captain C. Shore” (“a classic hands-on, nuts and bolts, how to sniping book” according to the intro), and Shots Fired In Anger by Lt. Col. John B. George. What I didn’t know, until I flipped through the introduction to Shots, is that these two books complete my quartet of Samworth “war” books (the other two being McBride’s A Rifleman Went to War and Dunlap’s Ordnance Went Up Front). Together, the two of these with one coupon were $22.50: I probably could have gotten away with making three trips instead of just two, but I didn’t want to push my luck. And I’d been looking for a copy of With British Snipers for several months now.
Finally, this is in the Firearms Classics Library, but I think this copy may be a true first (I’m having trouble tracking down bibliographic information):
Experiments of a Handgunner by Walter F. Roper. Roper was a somewhat famous gun guy: among other accomplishments, he designed the N-frame “Target” grip for Smith and Wesson revolvers. Yeah, the dust jacket is pretty badly worn (it has a plastic cover protector). But I’ve never seen a copy of this before – Firearms Classics or otherwise – and it was $12.50 after coupon.
Obit watch: March 14, 2018.
Wednesday, March 14th, 2018I don’t feel like I need to say much more than that, but I like this quote:
Obit watch: February 14, 2018.
Wednesday, February 14th, 2018A little late on this, but here’s your obit for Vic Damone.
After winning on the radio show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” in 1947, he recorded some 2,500 songs over 54 years. He had his own radio and television programs, made movies, survived rock ′n’ roll and its noisy offspring and became a mainstay of the Las Vegas Strip, and nightclubs where audiences were so close he could almost reach out and touch them with his voice.
Along the way, he made millions, entertained presidents and royalty, refused a part in “The Godfather,” married five times, had four children and underwent analysis. He also survived a brush with the mob, four divorces, a custody fight over his only son and the suicides of two former wives. And he was still working as the millennium turned, with a voice that critics said had not lost its mellow subtleties.
Marty Allen is dead at the age of 95. He was most famous as half of the comedy team Allen and Rossi, who were big in the post Martin/Lewis era. (Steve Rossi apparently died in 2014: I don’t seem to have noted his passing here.)
Victor Milan, SF and fantasy author. I read Cybernetic Samurai not long after it came out, and kind of liked it.
Jarndyce v Jarndyce.
Monday, February 5th, 2018Charles Dickens, call your office, please:
It seems fair to say, 11 years after James Brown’s death, that his estate planning has failed in its major mission: to distribute his wealth efficiently.
Not a penny has gone to any of the beneficiaries of his will, who include underprivileged children in Georgia and South Carolina, to whom Mr. Brown sought to donate millions, perhaps tens of millions, of dollars.
Random notes: February 1, 2018.
Thursday, February 1st, 2018There’s a really good profile in The Guardian of Mary Beard, Cambridge professor of classics and noted historian.
The timing on this amuses me, as I just finished SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome earlier this week. (And Amazon now has the paperback for a shockingly low price.)
I’d love to meet Dr. Beard and spend some time talking to her. I suspect we’d disagree on a lot of contemporary issues, but I think she’d be a fun person to talk history with. One of the things I loved about SPQR was how much time she spent on things other authors don’t talk about: the daily lives of the poor, middle class, and other people who didn’t write long letters to their friends, to take one example. For another example, her discussion of the ancient bar in Ostia, with pictures of the “Seven Sages” and their profound advice. Or the discussion of early Roman dice games.
And some of Dr. Beard’s views on contemporary subjects are a bit surprising, at least to me:
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Llano is a town northwest of Austin, about 90 minutes away. It’s a small town (a little over 3,000 people in 2010). It is perhaps most famous as being the home of Cooper’s barbecue, one of the top 50 joints in Texas.
As a small town, Llano has a small police force. Which can be…a problem.
The four officers are currently on leave. Another former officer was also indicted “on a charge of tampering with evidence and accused of destroying a digital recording of a drug crime scene on March 26”.
So what the hell happened?
Officer Shannon allegedly threatened to tase Nutt as well. Nutt was charged with public intoxication, but the charges were dropped.
It sounds like the dispute boils down to: Nutt was drunk and probably making a scene, the officers responded, he stepped outside of his camper briefly and then went back inside, and the officers stepped up into his camper and arrested him for PI. At least, that’s the spin that two of the defense lawyers are putting on it.
However:
Quaint and curious
Sunday, January 28th, 2018Lawrence forwarded me a link to a website that looks interesting, and that I hope to be able to explore further in the near future: targetballs.com.
Yes, yes, I know: you didn’t know targets had balls. Ha ha, very funny. But seriously: targetballs.com is “the online presence of On Target!, The International Journal for Collectors of Target Balls”. “Target balls” being what exhibition shooters used in their demonstrations if they weren’t shooting live birds, and before the “clay pigeon” was introduced.
Quoth the “About” page:
Of course, you can’t really talk about target balls without talking about the people who used them. Which is why On Target! tickles my fancy: I’m going to have to scrape up the bucks for a subscription and set of back issues.
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Found at Half-Price Books a few days ago:
Precision Shooting at 1,000 Yards, edited by Dave Brennan. I’ve written before about the late and much lamented Precision Shooting magazine: I think I’ve also mentioned that there was a small press associated with it. I try to snap up books from that press whenever I find them, because:
- they’re usually jam-packed with information
- Even if they are old, the fundamental principles of accuracy don’t, and won’t change, barring some major revolution in arms technology (like caseless cartridges and electronic ignition systems, both of which have been ten years away for the 45 years I’ve been an avid person of the gun).
This is a collection of articles from the magazine. I paid $40 minus a 10% coupon for it, which is a little more than I usually like to spend on gun books. But asking prices for used copies on Amazon are in the $75 and up range, and the condition was good…
…and what made me pull the metaphorical trigger, so to speak, was the two-part article included in the volume, in which a small handful of eccentrics (and I mean that in the best possible way: I want to hang out with these guys) attempt to recreate Billy Dixon’s legendary long shot at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874.
Whodewhatnow? Billy Dixon was a buffalo hunter. He was part of a small group that was attacked by Comanches at Adobe Walls, Texas. They were besieged for the better part of three days (the Comanches initially intended to slaughter them in a sneak attack, but rolled a critical fail on initiative): on that third day, Mr. Dixon, encouraged by other members of the party, took a shot at a group of mounted Indians about 7/8ths of a mile away (remember, he was using an 1874 vintage Sharps rifle, with black powder cartridges, and no telescopic sight)…
…and knocked one of the warriors off his horse. The Comanches broke off the siege shortly afterwards.
(Side note: the Dixon memoirs are available from Project Gutenberg.)
(Side note 2: Mr. Dixon sounds like another person I’d love to have a few beers with. I love one of the things the authors of the Precision Shooting article say about him: to paraphrase, he didn’t hunt buffalo for the money, but because he loved long range shooting. Hunting buffalo was a great way to indulge that passion, and by the way make a few bucks on the side.)
Last time Mike the Musicologist was in Austin, this came up in discussion, though I disremember exactly how: I think we were discussing contemporary makers of falling block rifles, which led to a Google search, which led to me finding either this one or this one.
One other thing I find intriguing about this article: the shooters used rifles and bullets as close to Dixon’s as you could get at the time of their experiment, but used a modern smokeless black powder substitute instead of actual black power. Their reasoning for this:
What many modern shooters might not know is that black powder was, in that era, as highly developed as today’s best smokeless powders. Produced in England, Curtis & Harvey’s Diamond Grade was the world’s best, likely because of a superior charcoal root stock and extended blending time. As folklore had it, their charcoal came from a certain type of willow tree that grew only in one locale. Further, C&H could afford to prolong the blending operation because they could get a premium price for the superior product they produced. Serous target shooters widely acclaimed Kentucky Rifle from a United States producer, Hazards, as the best alternative choice but, nonetheless, a second-best choice. Behind these two premier powders came an entire plethora of brands, manufactured in various places around the world.
The author goes on to note that, if there was sufficient demand, someone somewhere would be turning out super-high-grade black powder today. But there isn’t enough demand, so the quality smokeless BP substitutes seem like a good choice for consistent results.
This casts a new light for me on a quote of the day I highlighted a while back from another buffalo hunter: “…by then I had begun to use the English powder…and it added 10 to 30 percent efficiency to my shooting.” I suspect this might have been a reference to the C&H product. Sadly, the Mayer book does not appear to be on Gutenberg, so I haven’t been able to confirm this.
Obit watch: January 24, 2018.
Wednesday, January 24th, 2018Edited to add: David “Cloud Atlas” Mitchell on A Wizard of Earthsea.
Obit watch: January 22, 2018.
Monday, January 22nd, 2018Hemmingway and Ruark have a new hunting partner.
Harry Selby passed away on Saturday at the age of 92.
I’ve touched briefly on Selby in the past, but more in the context of Ruark. So please indulge me:
…
Without cellphones or evacuation helicopters, Mr. Selby had to be the doctor, mechanic, chauffeur, gin-rummy-and-drinking partner and universal guide, knowledgeable about mountain ranges, grassy plains, rivers, jungles, hunting laws, migratory patterns, and the Bushmen, Masai, Samburu, Dinka and Zulu tribes. He spoke three dialects of Swahili. And he improvised; if there was no firewood, he burned wildebeest dung.
He was no Gregory Peck, but had an easygoing personality that made for good company in the bush. He coped with emergencies, pulling a client clear of a stampede or a vehicle from a bog, treating snakebites or tracking a wounded lion in a thicket — his most dangerous game. He was left-handed, but his favorite gun was a right-handed .416 Rigby, which can knock down an onrushing bull elephant or Cape buffalo in a thundering instant.
…
For 30 years, Mr. Selby ran company operations in Botswana, and guided hunters and photographers into leased concessions covering thousands of square miles in the Okavango Delta in the north and the vast Kalahari Desert in the south, home of the click-talking Bushmen. He cut tracks and built airfields in the wilderness.
In 1970, he established Botswana’s first lodge and camps for photographic safaris. He hired guides and a large support staff for what became a dominant safari business in Southern Africa. After Ker, Downey and Selby was bought by Safari South in 1978, he remained a director, and even after resigning in 1993 he continued to lead safaris privately until retiring in 2000.
Noted actor Bradford Dillman.
He was “Capt. McKay” in “The Enforcer” and “Captain Briggs” (not to be confused with Hal Holbrook’s “Lt. Briggs” in “Magnum Force”) in “Sudden Impact”. As we all know, Callahan went through captains like CNN goes through Russian conspiracy theories.
And finally, more of local interest: Hisako Tsuchiyama Roberts. Mrs. Roberts and her husband, Thurman, founded the Salt Lick barbecue restaurant in Driftwood, a little outside of Austin.
…
She was 104.