Vestiges and Literary Heroes

This Magazine Has Met Its Match

Well yesterday was a whole cartload of fun operating on a couple hours of sleep on my first day back in the office. It made no difference that the lack of sleep was due to self-directed rage either. It’s amazing that you can be so honestly mad at yourself for a completely stupid act that it’s impossible to fall asleep. I’m glad I save this type rage for the mistakes that rise to the monumentally stupid level otherwise I’d never get any sleep. I did learn a lot on how to change passwords and deregister devices. I got a call back from the Massport lost and found department just after I’d finished turning all access to the devices off. I figured now that I’d finally figured out how to do that I’d have to turn them all back on again but they were just calling to learn where I’d specifically left the items. I was impressed with their initiative but nothing had been turned in. My items are still considered “lost”.

Down Goes the Y

I also saw that one of my childhood havens meet the wrecking ball. The Keene YMCA building that I literally grew up in is being torn down after several years of disuse after the Y moved out.It didn't go out without a fight though as one of the walls collapsed the wrong way and nearly took out city hall (message sent). There are way too many memories to recall of that building as the Cantankerous Friend and I spent so much time in either the pool, summer camp, and/or gym during our youth. I'll miss it when I return to Keene and rive down Roxbury Street. This whole time marcheth on theory can get kind of tiresome.

So Many Good Times (including a first kiss)

My granddaughter completely resurrected a battered psyche later in the day when she showed me a new basket of magnet letters she was arranging on her California refrigerator. This brought back some poignant memories of her mother doing the same thing on a Fort Benning, Georgia refrigerator at the same age oh so long ago. She also blessed me with a couple of her grandfather specific smiles which had the usual medicinal effect. Wingman reported she had spent a good part of her work day demolishing a magazine unfortunate enough to fall within her prey range.

Favorite Son was Rocking the Purple Last Night in his New Kitchen

Before my kindle headed for the ether or wherever the hell it is now I finished off the latest Virgil Flowers novel by John Sandford, Escape Clause. Virgil is the quirky Minnesota cop who evolved from the excellent Lucas Davenport series. Virgil is an brilliant investigator but every time he touches a case it devolves into a circus of completely unexpected, hilarious, and usually deadly consequences. This book could have been called Escape Claws since it involved the theft of two tigers but I think Sandford expected readers to pick up on that themselves. I actually rubbed my hands together when the plot was set up because I just imagined the havoc that would descend with Flowers involved. I was not disappointed. I’ve loved everything Sandford has written and this was yet another example of great American detective writing.

Another of my literary heroes, actually head of the pantheon, Jack Reacher, emerged on the silver screen again with Jack Reacher: Never Go Back which I saw last night. I’ve gotten over the initial rage I felt when I heard the pint sized Tom Cruise was playing the behemoth character of Reacher because Cruise did such a good job in the first film. He’s back in form here but this doesn’t resonate as well as the first. They drag in a potential daughter which wasn’t needed and added an unnecessary plot line. We don’t need to see Reacher’s softer side. He’s around to kick ass and take names. He gets to do the requisite amount of that and is ably assisted by Colby Smulders who apparently picked up some skills from her Avenger time. So not as good as the first one but that’s usually the case. Cruise at least doesn’t besmirch Reacher’s reputation and this should lead more people to read the books where they’ll meet the “real” Reacher. So this is, in fact, a public service film.