For years I have loved driving through a “well to do” neighborhood. There are many nice, old homes and there are streets which travel along the edge of a small lake. On a single morning, I have seen a hundred ducks, most floating end to end in a crisp October morning. I have seen the lake, frozen over with snow on the ground. And, not too long afterwards, I have seen the lake almost completely drained, mostly mud, with just a very narrow channel of water flowing from it’s high end, and on down to the dam at the low end. There are two Little Community Libraries, but only one of them that I drive by quite often.
And then there was a large old home, two storied, that had a couple of full-sized dog statues standing out, in the front yard, next to the short, crescent shaped drive way. As I passed by, I could look past the house and see the lake, behind the home. For years, I drove by this house and looked at the two dog statues, one white and one black, standing faithfully in place. The statues had not been put out front at the same time, and so I had come to believe that each had been erected as a memorial to a long loved pet that had gone beyond the veil. And, after years, and years, one day I saw the statues had been removed, and the home began to look unlived in. Then the thought came to me. Our pets come into our lives. We love them, but eventually they die. At some point we usually acquire another pet, we love them in a different way, but they die also. Maybe we put up a reminder of this beloved pet. But, if we live long enough, it is us that die, and the pet lives on. At least for a while.
Our pets normally do not erect life-like likenesses of us, in our memory.
I love the way these pieces fit together for storage. This is a simplistic pattern that could easily be repeated. Still my favorite is the tubular metal set.
Not set up on board correctly. Not white on right.
This is my favorite minimalist chess set. The pieces are easily recognizable. The king & the queen are easily distinguishable. The bishops have a recognizable shape as do the rooks (castles). I especially like the knights, with the two sides having different helmet shapes. *I have started making a version of this set using PVC tubing. I have cut the individual pieces but have not started shaping the distinctive elements.
Not sure, but I must have seen a “pregnant” queen sitting on a throne some time ago, and then thought what Queen would be more viscous than if she were pregnant, so from then on, I wanted a chess set that had an obviously pregnant queen. Having said this, when I saw the tubular chess set, I imagined that you could symbolically create a pregnant queen by drilling a larger hole in the side of the queen and then gluing a marble to the piece thereby making a pregnant queen.
I’ve also seen a minimalist set that has a small protruding pipe, symbolizing a knight’s lance. You might use this piping in various ways to accent the other pieces. Maybe a cross on a pole being held by the bishop. Perhaps even a flag pole for the rook.
I was in a local antiques store and happened to see a package of wine bottle corks, and then I saw the above, both black & light corks, all about the same size. I realized that I could use these to create a similar set to the metal set above.
THEMED SETS I LIKE
ISLE OF LEWIS
I like this small Isle of Lewis Chess Set for two main reasons: The pawns are in the image of little warriors and the rooks look like castle turrets. Many other sets have a rook that looks like a large rune stone or a large warrior figure. In other sets, the pawns are small rune stones. I have seen something labeled “Berserker” that gives the figures a more warrior-like look.
This was a late night series from the early 90s. I thought it might have been earlier, and didn’t recall that it was written by Stephen J. Cannell. I did think that this was the first time I had seen Stephen McHattie and he was one of an ensemble cast. But, the twist to this series was that each week was a different story, and the actors did “change up,” not playing the same character from week to week, and usually playing a different role each week. An actor might be wealthy and own a mansion and several fast cars one week, and the next week, they might be a policeman, a maid or a street bum. That change from week to week provided a real twist for the viewer to try and wrap their head around. I might have liked an actor or actress in the role they were playing last week and this week they were somebody totally different, playing a totally different role, and in a totally different story. But, I think you got to see “real acting” and how actors & actresses are able to “change for the part.” This was something you normally never see. You learn to enjoy an actor or actress in a show for a season or several seasons, playing a part that may develop more deeply as the show progresses, but usually with a slow character development.
CAST:
Barbara Parkins George Touliatos Kim Coates Maxine Miller Sandra Nelson Stephen J. Cannell (I don’t recall if he was just the writer, or if he also acted in some or all of the episodes.) Stephen McHattie Teri Austin
I had googled for different restaurants in Goldsboro because I had come to the conclusion that I couldn’t justify going to my old standby, the Longhorn Steakhouse Restaurant and having my old standard, a hamburger with lobster/crab soup and eating a whole loaf of the bread they give you as an appetizer. Even if you don’t eat any of the hamburger bun and justify the whole loaf of bread in that way. Longhorn is in front of the Berkley Mall and I have the shortest route to it from Fayetteville tattooed on my psyche.
I have even taken some sweet pickles (because they only serve dill slices) and extra slices of sweet onion because they only put on a single ring of onion on the burger. The Goldsboro restaurant seems to consistently have the best tasting soup, although I have tried the soup in Fayetteville and Southern Pines.
But after I looked at the nutritional value and calorie totals, this meal would have easily been over 1K. The loaf of bread alone would have probably totaled 500 calories. And, I consider 700 calories for a meal to be very high.
So, the initial google listed several local diners that looked like they had the good country breakfasts like I had at the Rainbow for years. In the end, I pulled over shortly before entering the Goldsboro city limits and found the Laughing Owl. One of the photos looked extremely delicious. It looked like an oriental chicken dish, with hot peppers, and it was served with some rice. When I got there, my waitress was new (I don’t know how new.) and I showed her a picture of the dish I wanted. She wasn’t sure of what dish this was on the menu so she went back and asked the chef. I think the suggestion was that it was a Garlic Kang Pow Chicken dish that had peanuts. *I don’t like peanuts in my Asian dishes, but I do like peanuts in all their various forms, and I’m not allergic to them, except for one time several years ago, at Russ & Deborah’s when Jeff Mitchell have me some peanut butter candy. I think it had “turkey” in it’s name and it was like a brittle toffee. I ate a bite and was watching TV by myself in the living room. At some point, I realized that my throat was beginning to close up so I stopped eating the candy and sat there quietly hoping my throat would stop closing. It did stop closing and I didn’t eat any more and I haven’t had any problem with an allergic reaction to any peanut variations since.
I ordered a cucumber salad with the meal. The meal was disappointing. The peanuts were a distraction and the entree wasn’t spicy although there were a couple of red hot peppers (hard even after being cooked). The rice was good. The chicken was tender with a sweet sauce. I ate half and asked for a “to go” box. I ate the rest at home before dinner, when I had a pared down liver & onions, with steamed cabbage & cauliflower and one disk of polenta which I heated in the microwave.
After lunch I drove out to my favorite location to watch the jets take off and land at SJAFB. There is a road that “dead ends” at a fence that runs along one side of the runway. In the winter and as long as the summer crops aren’t tall enough to block the view, it is a good place to be self-entertaining.
There is a Little Lending Library in a nearby neighborhood, from Berkley Mall, that I have left a few books there before. I may have even taken one from there, but don’t actually recall, but today I just left one, “Two Kinds of Truth.”
I didn’t drive directly back to Fayetteville along Hwy. 13, but took a circuitous route that included Pikeville and Smithfield.
Here was the Pikeville Book Exchange.
I even turned into this “Gander Lake” housing development. The sign says these homes start at the high $200K range. This is funny because near Fuquay Varina there is one development I pass that says their homes start at the low $500K range, and they don’t look any different from these (to me). Don’t know what kind of jobs these people are going to have to be able to actually afford to live in these homes. May be like the mortgage loans fiasco several years ago where people were given loans that they really were never going to be able to afford. But who cares as long as the Developers and Bankers make their money up front. *I never actually saw a lake from the ground, but there may be one at the back of the development. Not sure if anyone living in the development actually has access to this small body of water.
I was trying to find a new business in Benson that I had seen advertised on TV. Seems like it was a man & woman, maybe married and it was either a produce or meat business. I couldn’t remember their business name (was their first names I think), or exactly what kind of business (probably a butcher with various types of meat). I ended up stopping at Lee’s Produce, and they had tomatoes, various onions and some potted flowers. I bought some cheap heirloom tomatoes and have had one at home, at its not the worst or the best tomato I have ever had. A Campari or some of those grape tomatoes from Wegman’s have better flavor, still I could make a palatable tomato & bacon sandwich, which I might do tomorrow.
This was Lee’s Produce, but this Street View as taken when they weren’t “in season.” The woman that waited on me told me they had a place at the Raleigh State Farmers’ Market. I recalled the Lee’s name, and also Tarts. I think I’ve bought peppers & other veggies at both.
I’m thinking the business might have been Lee’s Fresh Market which has all sorts of good looking meats.
So, I’m watching an infomercial for Meaningful Beauty, by Cindy Crawford. Early in the commercial, they put two melons side by side and somehow the product they are selling protects their melon from normal decay, while the other melon quickly (with timelapse) decays. And then it came to me… If you want your melons to look as good as Cindy Crawford’s then use Meaningful Beauty;-)
Cindy Crawford is 58 years old, which is the same age of Brooke Shields.
I just came across a picture of Lucy Boynton and recognized her as being an extremely pretty woman that I had seen in some British detective movie… and googling was reminded that she was in “Murder on the Orient Express.” But this time, as I was looking at her face I realized there was some resemblance to Kate Beckinsale that many years ago, now, I first watched along with John Cusack as he traveled that serendipitous journey to find his lost love in Serendipity. I was much younger then, and so much in love with Kate Beckinsale by the end of that movie. And then life took over and through the years, I learned to like Kate Beckinsale less each time that I saw her on screen, or read about her online and finally decided that I had been so wrong to find her attractive at all.
After Lip Surgery?
I have the haunting feeling that I’ve also seen Lucy Boynton in something else Agatha Christie, where she played off another young man as they travel across country on an amateur detective spiel. *And googling it, “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans,” one of my favorites.
Just started reading “The Black Box” and do not know what the title references yet. But this Bosch novel was published in 2012 which was twenty years after the L.A. Riots (of 1992). *Funny that I recall so little about the riots, although I think there were riots elsewhere, especially in Miami where my cousin, Yvonne, suggested I not come down for a visit because there were unsafe areas. I think she mentioned that if you go to the right, you’ll be okay, but if you go to the left you could be in serious trouble.
But, just a few years ago, after George Floyd, the Fayetteville Police did little to nothing regarding the looting in the Fayetteville Mall (J.C. Penny’s entrance had to be boarded up afterwards.) or I think there was video evidence of looters (white & black) in Walmart.
Brian Mims with WRAL, reporting on Fayetteville Walmart looting.
So Harry says something to Chu to the effect, “If you need to be thanked all the time for just doing your job, then maybe you got into the wrong profession.” And Chu doesn’t respond. Now I think the immediate response by Chu could have been to tell Harry, “Well Harry, you condescending piece of shit. I should know not to come to you for support or encouragement.” But rather than an immediate response, if I had a “partner” that had that “lone wolf” attitude, and repeatedly directed condescending barbs toward me… first I would be looking to get as far away from being “his partner” as I could, and I would also know that at some point in the future, Harry Bosch would go fishing for an “undeserved” compliment and I would feed his exact words back to him, with a wry smile, “Well Harry, if you always need to be thanked for just doing your job, then maybe you got into the wrong profession… and if I haven’t told you, I’m transferring next week to a different division. See ya, Bosch.”
Art Pepper “Patricia” (YouTube) So I just listened to the entire song on YouTube, and see that most of the comments for this are regarding Bosch & Connelly… just years before my introduction. *If you enjoyed “Morse” and his finer things, wine & opera, then you could probably see the similarities between the two fictional detectives. I tried listening to opera, but just could never get into it. And, I went through my jazz phase years ago, probably the 1970s & 80s, part of the time when I was living & going to school in Louisville, KY. John Klemmer’s sax was a fav then. John Klemmer “Touch” 1970s (maybe early 80s). For me it was 1982-4, mom had died in December of 1980. Loved Al Jarreau back then also. *Art Pepper on Art Pepper from this he says he grew up in San Pedro (pee-droh) , so Harry Bosch & Terry McCaleb at Cabrillo Marina, Vincent Thomas Bridge & Avalon, Catalina Island all in the mix.
Just read the part where Harry becomes aware that he may have been unintentionally disrespecting his partner by just calling him Chu. Harry has been so much more disrespectful to his partner than just this. In fact I am surprised that Harry didn’t just shrug it off and keep calling him Chu. But, recall that Chu had given case info to one of his newspaper journalist friends and Harry wanted “him gone.” Wasn’t right for Chu to do it, but understandable since Harry had repeatedly cut Chu out of the loop, keeping him like a mushroom in the basement, in the dark and shoveling shit on top. **Chu should have called Harry a “whore spawn” and wiped the dust off his (Chu’s) feet as he walked out the door.
I found “The DROP” at B.J.’s Bookstore in Fayetteville, NC last week. Unfortunately, it was a paperback edition, on medium greyish paper, and although I am about 70 pages into it, the smaller print & darker background makes the reading less pleasant. *I’ve been looking, this morning, to see if I can find an online copy that won’t cost an “arm and a leg” to read, but if not will muddle through the paperback. (Also bought hardback copies of “The Burning Room” and “The Black Box.”) All three were $3 each, and I had a good long talk with the male owner of the book store (I guess he owns it, and the woman, might be his wife.) “The Burning Room” is another Bosch story that I have already seen on TV, and like “The Wrong Side of Goodbye,” I don’t feel like reading this since the TV version is still strong in my mind, and also from a Bosch period that I don’t much want to revisit.
Having said that, I am now reading “The DROP,” and Harry’s partner is Chu.
Harry is called in at the special request of Councilman Irvin Irving, because Irving’s 40 something years old son has dropped from the 7th floor of the Chateau Marmont hotel. George Irving has made a big splash, but Harry isn’t sure if Irving has committed suicide, or if he had assistance by someone else in making his final leap. And there is a play on the word “drop.” Harry is going to be forced to retire, according to the DROP and George Irving lying dead at the northwest corner of the Marmont, has made the drop. Truly nothing yet has been revealed to make anyone think that George has done anything other than commit suicide, for what reason or reasons we do not know, but the bed in his room is untouched, his clothing neatly hung on hangers in the closet, a black button off his white dress shirt on the floor, a white robe on the back of his balcony chair, and a digital clock lying on the floor. Harry doesn’t think “accident” even though the balcony has a low lying railing.
The Chateau Marmont may have been mentioned in some other Bosch novel, or TV episode, because maybe a couple of years ago, I went online and viewed the area where this hotel is located. And, from another Bosch story, I recognized the commercial complex in which “The Crush,” an exercise business is located a short distance down Sunset Blvd.
Chateau Marmont
There are great pictures of the Chateau Marmont online and especially of the side of the hotel in which this story has started. Oh, John Belushi died in this hotel, and Led Zepplin were raucous in one of the bungalows.
LAPD Police Academy Elysian Park
LAPD Headquarters – Downtown LA
The Bradbury Building on 3rd St.
Charlie Chaplin Statue in Bradbury Building, Los Angeles, CA
Charlie Chaplin, “the Tramp” StatueRobert Culp, Outer Limits “Demon with a Glass Hand”
Harry and Kiz have a clandestine meeting at the Charlie Chaplin Statue in the Bradbury Building.
The LA Times Building. Across the street, to the left, is LAPD Headquarters. Behind this view is The City Hall.
Chinatown Entrance on Broadway
Harry has just found out that his partner, Chu, may have shared private case info with “GoGo,” an LA Times reporter. Not something a detective should be doing for any reason. But, I can see where “lone wolf” Harry Bosch doesn’t inspire loyalty with his partner, especially this partner. Harry has treated Chu like a mushroom… keeping him in the dark and shoveling shit on top. *But, should Harry have shared private case info, regarding autopsy results, with a reporter friend of his, in “The Black Ice?”
I enjoyed watching the “Morse” episodes, and there are parallels between Endeavor Morse and Hieronymus Bosch. Morse kept his partners, like Lewis, “in the dark” but I guess that goes with being the more intuitive & experienced partner in a relationship. Neither Morse nor Bosch have any real success with women. I look forward to reading the early Bosch novels to see where Bosch marries Eleanor Wish (post FBI and prison for her). I know the marriage doesn’t take place in the first two novels because I’ve read those. I know Eleanor dies in “The Nine Dragons.” And I don’t recall the novel where Harry actually figures out that he has a four year old daughter, Mads, that Eleanor hasn’t even told him about. Not a great relationship or commitment by either Harry or Eleanor. Definitely not something to be copied to have success in a “good” marriage.
Maybe Morse and Bosch are “idiot savants” regarding their insights into solving cases. But, they are idiots at relationships, especially with women. And being that way, no wonder they spend inordinate amounts of time on cases, and not developing outside, intimate relationships.
The Standard on W. Sunset Blvd.
I guess the Standard is no more, because the signage is turned upside down (see below).
The setup and attack by Pell on Hardy in the Sheriff’s transport is reminiscent of someone else who manipulated their arrest and then stabbed (???) someone to death in a holding cell, although I don’t recall which other novel in which that scenario was included. Also, it was a little bit of a stretch to think that Pell would have been strategically placed directly behind Hardy on the transport.
[NOTE 04/08/24]: I was watching an episode of “the Rookie” yesterday and there was a prisoner bus accident where the bus went over an embankment. I immediately recognized the location as being very near the LAPD Police Academy at Elysian Park. They also have a drone fly-over at Echo Park that is iconic.
I am pleased regarding my geographic education of Los Angeles which has resulted from my reading of the Bosch novels, and my follow-up online of the area of Google Maps and Street View. As much of the layout that I now know, I still don’t think I would want to live in L.A… or New York, Chicago or even Atlanta… Dallas or D.C. [end NOTE]
Sesmark makes at least two different Sesame Rice Crackers, and I like the flavor of them both. But, a short time ago, I found some Black Sesame Rice Crackers at Whole Foods in Raleigh, and bought a bag of them. They had an even more distinct flavor that went really well with the Wegman’s Intense Brie. The Capricho de Cabra and the Bucheron Goat Cheeses are semi-soft and mildly tart and these would go well with either of these rice crackers. They also go well with raspberry jam.
Now I like liver, liver pudding/mush, liver pate, beef/calf liver, chicken livers, all types of liver. I especially like the flavor of Nueske’s Smoked Liver Pate. This will go good with the rice crackers also.
I’m about a hundred pages into the “Desert Star” novel and Renee Ballard is limping along as the head of a volunteer “cold case” unit. One person, whom she did not choose, is channeling info back to a wealthy, powerful councilman, so Renee has already intentionally “cut him out of the loop” for an update meeting. She has to keep the councilman happy because he is a possible major source of funding for this volunteer unit.
Harry has already ignored Renee’s “do not copy” policy and she has had to wink at that. But, Harry is uncontrollable, and even though Renee wants all of her staff to focus on one case, Harry just refuses and keeps spending his time & energy on another case. After all, how can you ignore the death of a family of four? Well, it’s not like the family just got killed. And, if it was THAT important, maybe Harry shouldn’t have retired and left that case to someone else several years before. He could have solved that case years ago and be focused on this other case now.
And Renee has hired a “psychic” for her other abilities in researching, but now the psychic has tainted evidence because she had to “touch” items in the evidence box without gloves.
So with all these dysfunctional people on this volunteer unit, Renee can’t last long. In fact, if you can’t control the people either you shouldn’t be their boss, or they shouldn’t be on the “team”.
Renee: “Oh Harry, I didn’t think you would have a problem with the “psychic” trying to get a feel for the case by touching the evidence in your boxes.” “Yes, I know you said something about tainting evidence that might affect your case later, but we’re all just here to work together, aren’t we?”
So, the way it has been written thus far, I don’t see this unit lasting past the end of “Desert Star.”
So now Harry is planning on flying to Chicago, for a day, to pick up a campaign badge for evidence in a case. He agrees to do the trip, “on his dime” but if the department comes through later, he’ll get reimbursed. The mother doesn’t remember touching the button and Harry is trying to preserve any fingerprints or DNA that might be on the badge. I guess the parents didn’t touch the button when they packed up their dead daughter’s things in L.A., to send them back to Chicago. And, that would be possible if they just took the drawer that the campaign button was in and dumped the whole thing in a box. Don’t waste the tax payer’s money on a “hail Mary” ornament. Everyone doesn’t attain the excellence of maintaining the viability of evidence that the Great Harry Bosch does, but surely there must be some adult in Chicago that can package the campaign button up, without touching it, and mail it to L.A. Expedite the transfer, and even if you pay extra for shipping, it’s got to be less than a round trip ticket between L.A. and Chicago. What a waste, for a baby that can’t wait.
[NOTE]: What will be the end of Harry Bosch? Well, “Morse” ends his days as an impotent, sickly human being, and the roles between Morse and Robbie Lewis have switched. Morse is no longer the aficionado of wine & opera, but is stumped when trying to identify a common bird. So Morse dies at the hospital, alone, while Lewis is out solving a case. Just realized that Morse has opera and Bosch has jazz.
I’ve said elsewhere that Harry Bosch has done for L.A. what Morse did for Oxford, England. I noticed early that the street signs in Bosch were always in focus. If you stopped the video and read the street sign, you could go to Google Maps and Street View and find the exact location. Later, much later, once I started reading the Bosch novels I realized that Connelly put his fictional characters in “real” locations. This was fun to get a better feel for what Connelly was describing. *One problem is that the Bosch novels span a 30 year period, and if you are reading the early books, those actual locations may no longer exist to be viewed online. [end NOTE]
Bill Gibson, II 