Bad Bond! Bad Bourne! Good Don?

I just finished a Bond novel by an Ian Fleming imitator --Sebastian Faulkes. It's called DEVIL MAY CARE. I guess I didn't realize before how very disagreeable Bond is--I found myself not caring whether he survived the bad guys or not. Constantly drinking, smoking, womanizing. When in foreign lands the only thing he thinks about is whether the hotel, cigarettes and booze are up to his standards. 

Or maybe it's just this author's "take" on Bond. Bad. 

This is the second book by an imitator I've read; the other was a followup on Robt. Ludlum's BOURNE series. It also wasn't very good for me because I didn't care about any of the characters, even Bourne himself. 

But why am I reading so much cheap fiction? Is it the need to escape from my own work? Which is, of course, deeply serious, great literature???

Tai Chi and Kill Hitler!

Tai Chi camp: Penny and I just returned from our visit to tai chi camp in the Catskills. Our teacher, Master Yu, is older than we are, and amazingly strong at 130 pounds. He customarily gestures to the biggest guy in our class, says, "touch me here" and when the hand approaches, Master Yu moves quickly and before you can say, "wha hoppen?" he pushes the guy gently or not so away. He needs to use demonstrations because his English is, to put it nicely, lousy. When we started his classes (back in NJ, about Y2000), I could understand only maybe 1/20th of what he said. Now my average is double that, maybe 1/5th. So I'm almost able to hold a conversation with him, though when I speak, he sometimes says, "What?" But he's a great guy and he even believes in me, that I somehow can learn to do all four forms (108 "chapters or movements") that he teaches. I was at it for 2 years before I learned the first one, and then let it drop because he could no longer come to NJ to teach and his NYC lessons were too difficult for us to get to.

Penny, however, is much better at it than I; she does all 4 forms and additional stuff too. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm just lazy... However, being at camp I got enthusiastic about it again and intend to practice more. (Another) however, my current list of duties and obligations is enough to use up 26 hours at my current rate of accomplishment. 

I finally managed to get my website for the Kill Hitler book registered with Google, but each time I try a search on some of the specific phrases listed in the website, NOTHING, ZILCH turns up. Despite the title it's a good book if I do say so myself; some other people have thought so too. Now I'll go back and work some more at it. I really want kids (boys, mostly, since four 10-year-old boys are the protagonists) to find the site and download the FREE BOOK. No catch, no games, no fooling.

add later: I finally think my website is indexed by Google. But I googled the phrase "Kill Hitler" and got 111,000 replies!!! How to make my site jump to top of the queue???

More, later, probably...

Shakespeare (and Me) in Love

Hot at last. Over 80 in the shade. Inside the house is slightly cooler. Need to head for the beach soon.

I just completed a novel that I didn't want to read: The Bourne Legacy, by Eric v Lustbader, taking Robert Ludlum's character Jason Bourne and extending his adventures. Although very professionally done, in research on the different foreign locales and in the hand-to-hand combat and in the many deaths, I was unmoved by any of the characters or events.

I also read the script for SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and it reminded me how much I love that movie. Need to watch it again. Strange to me that several of the women in my life don't find it compelling.

Grandkids coming this weekend for a week's stay. We'll put them in a camp for the mornings and in the afternoons hope to take them to the beach, finish up with supper, a ride on the Flying Horses, ice cream and... bed!

"Blogger(s) Call For Immediate..."

Today, in the NYTimes email that I receive that lists stories, was one that said two bloggers had called for "immediate withdrawal" from Iraq. 

This makes me suspicious because that's the same stance taken by the editorial writers (and, apparently, most of the columnists, etc.) at the Times.

So I wondered, if I post an opposite opinion, will that attract the Times' attention and will they feature me?

So this is an experiment. I call for the armed forces of the United States to remain in Iraq until the mission is truly accomplished: that a free and stable Iraq is able to govern itself.