My material of choice became fabric. After some searching, I settled on this product, in particular the “vlaggendoek” or “flag sheet” variety. This material weights just 115 grams for 1m2, which is conveniently almost the same size as an A0 (841mm × 1189mm). Printing + delivery costs just over 20 euros, which is actually cheaper than an A0 paper poster with a plastic coating. That’s not all: apparently the material is fire retardant, because you never know when fire could break out at a conference. But the best thing of all? You can fold it and it still looks great when you unfold it!
Author: Chris Aldrich
Chris Aldrich is reading “5 easy ways to do more with your poster”
How can you make your poster stand out at the poster session, if you only have a limited amount of time? There are many tips out there on how to design the poster and how to structure all the infor…
📖 13.0% done with Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
Fletch has a son. He’s a convict and he’s on the run after a prison break. Will Fletch help him out?
📗 Started reading Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
Checkin Goodwill
Book Review: Fletch and the Man Who by Gregory Mcdonald
Fletch #6 (in the stories' chronological order: #9)
Fiction; Mystery and Suspense
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
August 1, 1983; re-released September 1, 2004
e-book
226
“A girl jumped off the motel’s roof. Five minutes ago.” "Give it to me straight. Does the girl have anything to do with us? I mean, with the campaign? The presidential candidate?" "It's your job, Fletch, to make damned sure she didn't." FLETCH and the Man Who When Fletch arrives as the new press representative for Governor Caxton Wheeler’s presidential campaign, he isn’t sure which mystery to solve first: what his new job actually is or why the campaign has been leaving dead women in its tracks. FLETCH and the Man Who He finds himself on the other side of the press, a human shield deflecting the questions he is asking himself. Are the murders just coincidence, or is a cold-hearted killer looking for a job in the White House? FLETCH and the Man Who When the campaign shifts into high gear, Fletch’s skills are working overtime in a desperate bid of his own to find the killer and to make sure the governor doesn’t lose any more votes.
Caxton’s Technology Platform
The most interesting portions of the book were the prescience of the role of technology in modern life that were described within it. Mcdonald wrote this in 1983 long before the advent or ubiquitization of satellite communications, cellular phones, desktop computers, and even the internet. Yet somehow the discussion being pushed by the lead presidential candidate in the story feels very forward thinking and is highly relevant even today. Given the rise of Twitter and Facebook, it may actually be more interesting and relevant today than when the book was written in the early 1980s. Interestingly it feels like we have yet to figure out where technology is taking us. This book brings up a lot of philosophical ideas that we’re still heavily grappling with and on even deeper levels. Some of the mentions of religion and politics are all still alive and well in the modern political scene (though Communism/Marxism have died and disappeared after this book was written) and are just as touchy in their relation to technology. The recent presidential campaign certainly highlighted some of these technology issues, particularly with relation to the effect on political communication via fake news and Facebook. Mcdonald takes aim at the idea of “truth” within a political campaign and having a well informed electorate.
Political Satire
There is some really great satire on politics in the book. Oddly, not much of it originates with Fletch or his views on life. While there are a handful of good zingers that Fletch delivers in his wry signature fashion, this book seemed like a major departure in that the supporting characters take on the typical Fletch role of smartasses. This felt interesting and almost natural from a storytelling point of view as Fletch himself actually throws off his typical rebel character mantle to “join the establishment” and run interference for the presidential candidate’s press corps. Most interesting to me a lot of the mentions about politics still play as well today as they did 30+ years ago.
Other observations
We meet one of Fletch’s old war buddies and learn a few new pieces of backstory that flesh out his character a bit more, which is something I didn’t expect as much of at this point in the series.
There isn’t as much sexual tension in this as in some of the past works, but Freddie Arbuthnot makes a reappearance and really forces Fletch to work overtime for her approval. This seemed more interesting to me than some of Fletch’s past sexual exploits which seemed to come too easily for him. It’s more interesting to see him have to work at creating a relationship, particularly with a woman who had previously thrown herself at him.
Of interest to me with regard to the plotting and the reveal at the end was that there were a nice number of potential suspects. Better, despite my decade+ affair with Law & Order and similar procedurals on television, there was just enough psychological subtlety and distance that the reveal of the killer was not only well motivated but also hidden enough to be entertaining right up to the end. (No spoilers here…)
One thing I did miss was the complete lack of phony characters invented by Fletch as cover stories. To my recollection there were none in this installment. I did however notice that a despicable character in the plot had the name Hanrahan which was (probably not coincidentally) one of the fictional names that popped up in a cover story Fletch spun in the film version of the first book:
Well now, you know that and I know that, but… somebody’s bucking for a promotion. Probably that pederast Hanrahan. I don’t know. All I know is if I don’t go back with something, you and your son-in-law are going to be the scapegoats of the week.
This book would have been out and available well in advance of the May 31, 1985 release of the film.
There were a few tidbits that could have been better resolved at the end (what was Caxton really doing during those disappearances?), but overall, this was a very satisfying and interesting read. It’s certainly made me think about politics and the philosophy of technology in a different way than I have been recently, and for that this may have been to me the most interesting book in the series so far. Some of the philosophy in particular deserves additional thought and study, and may motivate me to actually re-read this one.
Reading Progress
- 08/7/16 marked as: want to read; “The Rio Olympics reminded me that I’d gotten Carioca Fletch to read back in the 80’s and never got around to it, so I thought I’d come back and revisit the series.”
- 11/03/16 started reading
- 11/03/16 02.0% done
- 11/05/16 03.0% done
- 11/08/16 04.0% done
- 11/11/16 08.0% done
- 11/20/16 18.0% done
- 11/21/16 21.0% done; “Fletch has a new job, and like usual, the first few minutes of the book throw us right into a riveting high concept. Where we’re ultimately headed is anyone’s guess…”
- 11/22/16 22.0% done
- 11/23/16 35.0% done; “Usually Fletch is the one with all the sharp, ascerbic statements, but in this installment I’m noticing that he’s the tame one and everyone else is somehow playing the part he usually does.”
- 11/24/16 56.0% done
- 11/25/16 Finished book; “There’s some great stuff in the last half of the book about Wheeler’s platform that is eerily prescient of the situation we now find ourselves in with regard to a heavily internet connected world and who owns it. It’s also an odd feeling reading this after experiencing what’s recently happened in the 2016 presidential election and it’s ensuing results.”
Highlights, Quotes, & Marginalia
Added on Thursday, November 3, 2016 11:39:44 PM
Added on Thursday, November 3, 2016 11:41:19 PM
“Potato chips.”
Added on Thursday, November 3, 2016 11:44:42 PM
“No,” she answered. “I’m on my way up.”
Added on Thursday, November 3, 2016 11:46:06 PM
“My dentist doesn’t subscribe.”
Added on Thursday, November 3, 2016 11:46:52 PM
“Not on crime. Gross stuff, crime. Reports on what the coroner found in the victim’s lower intestine. I don’t even want to know what’s in my own lower intestine.”
Added on Saturday, November 5, 2016 11:06:02 PM
Added on Saturday, November 5, 2016 11:07:46 PM
“Funny,” said The Man Who. “I thought the government is.
Added on Saturday, November 5, 2016 11:10:36 PM
Added on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 2:16:39 AM
Added on Friday, November 11, 2016 9:36:20 PM
Added on Friday, November 11, 2016 9:37:00 PM
“On politics?”
“On an American western artist. You know: Edgar Arthur Tharp, Junior.”
Added on Friday, November 11, 2016 9:39:22 PM
“Who said that?”
“I did. I think.”
“You’re wrong. But it has a nice ring to it.”
Added on Friday, November 11, 2016 9:40:09 PM
Added on Friday, November 11, 2016 9:46:35 PM
“You can save a lot of money by not smoking.”
Added on Friday, November 11, 2016 9:48:09 PM
“Just one, for now.”
“And what would that be?”
“To be loyal to you.” Fletch grinned. “Until I get a better offer. Isn’t that what you just said politics is all about?”
Added on Friday, November 11, 2016 9:48:48 PM
Added on Friday, November 11, 2016 9:51:55 PM
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 9:38:17 AM
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 9:52:16 AM
“Had to spend some time in the bar, Mother. Something happened. This girl—”
Doris Wheeler slapped her son, hard.
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 9:58:41 AM
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 9:58:55 AM
“Now you’re leaving out Arbuthnot!” said Joe Hall.
“All creatures great and small?” asked the governor.
“Why’s that man up there calling us a bunch of animals?” Stella Kirchner asked Bill Dieckmann loudly. “Trying to get elected game warden or something?”
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 10:00:49 AM
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 10:05:24 AM
“That’s another thing,” Fletch said. “I will never evade any of your questions.” He turned the microphone off and hung it up.
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 10:06:40 AM
“Some people,” announced Fletch, “think I always have been.”
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 10:07:28 AM
“You’ll never make it.”
“I know it.”
“That’s all right.” She patted him on the arm. “I’ll destroy you as painlessly as possible.”
“Great. I’d appreciate that. Are you sure you’re up to it?”
“Up to what?”
“Destroying me.”
“It will be easy,” she said. “Because of all those conflicts in yourself. You’ve never tried to be a member of the establishment before, Fletch. I mean, let’s face it: you’re a born-and-bred rebel.”
“I bought a necktie for this job.”
She studied his solid red tie. “Nice one, too. Looks like you’re already bleeding from the neck.”
“Got it in the airport in Little Rock.”
“Limited selection?”
“No. They had five or six to choose from.”
“That was the best?”
“I thought so.”
“You only bought one, though, right?”
“Didn’t know how long this job would last.”
“Glad you didn’t make too big an investment in your future as a member of the establishment.”
Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 10:12:26 AM
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Added on Sunday, November 20, 2016 11:50:32 PM
Added on Monday, November 21, 2016 12:01:09 AM
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Added on Monday, November 21, 2016 12:07:43 AM
Added on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 4:20:14 AM
“Yeah,” Freddie said. “Everyone in the country who can’t read, reads Newsbill. Big deal.”
Added on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 4:22:00 AM
Added on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 4:24:11 AM
Added on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 4:25:06 AM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:07:07 AM
“You don’t like lawyers either?”
“Even lawyers’ mothers don’t like lawyers. If you do a survey, I think you’ll find that lawyers’ mothers are the strongest advocates of legal abortions in the land.”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:08:02 AM
“Ask anything?”
“Anything your heart desires. You know a man more from his questions than from his answers. Who said that?”
“You just did.”
“Let’s not make a note of it.”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:13:37 AM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:15:01 AM
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Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:25:09 AM
“Oh, yes,” the governor said. “They couldn’t have played ‘America’ that badly without practicing it.”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:34:41 AM
“You don’t know?”
“No idea.”
“Some press rep. you are. You ever been on a campaign before?”
“No.”
“You’re cute, Fletcher. But I don’t think you should be on this one, either.”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:36:05 AM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:37:18 AM
“The answer is yes,” she said. “Anytime. You don’t even have to bring a bottle of wine.”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:39:17 AM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:40:26 AM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:43:07 AM
“What’s a rum toff?”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:47:17 AM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:53:21 AM
I read this little snipe at Fletch (and the ubiquitous mention of his disliked first name) as a blatant reference to the Gelett Burgess nonsense poem Purple Cow first published in 1895. One will note the reference comes via verbal transmission rather than direct as the line is slightly modified.
I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one. [1]
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:53:41 AM
The bus driver said: “Just guessed.”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 12:54:59 AM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:04:32 PM
“Yell with the toothache,” Paul Dobson said. “They’re yelling because it makes their teeth hurt!”
“Make ’em hypertensive with sugar at breakfast,” Phil Nolting intoned, as if quoting, “then slap ’em down at school.”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:05:14 PM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:08:55 PM
“Uh—Fred Fenton?”
“Who was he?”
“Cooked for Henry the Eighth.” The governor gave him a weird look. “Buried under the chapel at the Tower of London. Forgot to take the poultry lacers out of roast falcons.”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:10:20 PM
Fletch said: “Wow.”
“… The Third World, as it’s called, is no longer something out there—separate from us, inconsequential to us. Whether we like it or not, the world is becoming more sensitive. The world is becoming covered with a network of fine nerves—an electronic nervous system not unlike that which integrates our own bodies. Our finger hurts, our toe hurts and we feel it as much as if our head aches or our heart aches. Instantly now do we feel the pain in Montevideo, in Juddah, in Bandung. And yes, my friends in Winslow, we feel the pains from our own, internal third world—from Harlem, from Watts, from our reservations of Native Americans …”
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:19:01 PM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:20:04 PM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:23:02 PM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:31:09 PM
Added on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 2:32:14 PM
“Well,” Fletch said, “roughly he said the world is getting it together despite man’s best ideas.”
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 12:34:30 AM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 12:36:52 AM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 4:15:48 PM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:01:08 PM
Doris Wheeler’s voice became that of a reasonable lecturer. “Caxton, you know damned well the farmers and merchants of Winslow, of the U.S.A., do not want to hear about the Third World. They want to hear about their taxes, their health programs, their Social Security, their defense, their crop subsidies. The voter is a totally selfish animal! Every time the voter hears the name of a foreign country, he thinks it’s going to cost him money.”
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:08:02 PM
“I take a cold shower in the morning.”
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:19:55 PM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:23:45 PM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:27:10 PM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:28:31 PM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:30:11 PM
“Unreal, man. Totally unreal.”
“I believe you. On television you were wearing a coat and tie.”
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:36:02 PM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:38:44 PM
“Two yesterday. No outstanding warrants on you, though. I check first thing every morning.”
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:41:16 PM
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:41:30 PM
“Tits for that,” Judy said.
Added on Thursday, November 24, 2016 8:49:38 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:43:29 AM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:46:51 AM
Slowly, carefully, Fletch said, “No. That’s why the chicken crossed the road.”
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:58:20 AM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:59:21 AM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 3:10:08 AM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 3:14:29 AM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 3:17:32 AM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 3:22:48 AM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 12:57:58 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 1:00:02 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 1:03:51 PM
“Am I wrong to think that most of the bad things that happen on this earth happen because people don’t have the right facts at the right time? It’s all very well to believe something. You can go cheering to war over what you believe. You can starve to death happily over what you believe. But would wars ever happen if everybody had the same facts? There is no factual basis for starvation on this earth,” Governor Caxton Wheeler said softly. “Not yet, there isn’t.”
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 1:12:03 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 1:14:56 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 1:55:45 PM
“Yeah,” Fletch said. “That’s the difference between boys and girls.”
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:03:34 PM
“I never wear that jacket.”
“Then why do you carry it?”
“That’s the jacket I carry.” He pointed to one on the unmade bed. “That’s the jacket I wear.”
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:06:12 PM
“I live out of a suitcase, Fletcher. All the time. Anything that doesn’t fit in the suitcase can’t come with me.”
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:07:24 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:14:13 PM
“Oh, I see,” Fletch said brilliantly. “That’s why people refer to what you write as questionable. ’Bye, Mike.”
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:17:07 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 2:18:05 PM
“It’s not?”
“Politically, it’s suicide. As I said last night. You can knock the institutions on their goddamned asses,” her voice grated, “as long as you always give them lip service. That’s the only reality.”
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 3:23:19 PM
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Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 7:24:10 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 7:25:34 PM
“You’re good at that.”
“I think it’s what I do best.”
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 8:02:31 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 8:11:08 PM
Added on Friday, November 25, 2016 8:11:22 PM
Guide to highlight colors
Yellow–general highlights and highlights which don’t fit under another category below
Orange–Vocabulary word; interesting and/or rare word
Green–Reference to read
Blue–Interesting Quote
Gray–Typography Problem
Red–Example to work through
References
Chris Aldrich is reading “Off-Grid in Alaska: Farewell and Thanks for the Fish!”
I'd like to share some of our lessons learned to aid anyone dreaming of going entirely off-grid in the wilderness.
🎞 Watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Warner Bros., 2007)
Directed by David Yates. With Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Brendan Gleeson. With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts.
🎞 Watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros., 2005)
Directed by Mike Newell. With Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Eric Sykes. Harry finds himself mysteriously selected as an under-aged competitor in a dangerous tournament between three schools of magic.
📕 Finished reading Fletch and the Man Who by Gregory Mcdonald
There’s some great stuff in the last half of the book about Wheeler’s platform that is eerily prescient of the situation we now find ourselves in with regard to a heavily internet connected world and who owns it. It’s also an odd feeling reading this after experiencing what’s recently happened in the 2016 presidential election and it’s ensuing results.
Chris Aldrich is reading “Fix the internet by writing good stuff and being nice to people”
Today’s internet is mean. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when everyone online became a jerk, but to me it seems that the tipping point occurred right when making money off content started being worth more than the content itself. I wrote the following post before the election but never got around to publishing it. Now, it seems more necessary than ever.
Chris Aldrich is reading “Let’s replace Twitter with something much better.”
I love that by following certain people, my timeline has become a stream of interesting and entertaining information. I love that sometimes I am able to fit my little publication just so into the 140 characters given to me.
Chris Aldrich is reading “How The 2016 Election Blew Up In Facebook’s Face”
As Facebook attempted to capture the fast-moving energy of the news cycle from Twitter, and shied away from policing political content, it created a system that played to confirmation bias and set ...
[ hypothesis user = 'chrisaldrich' tags = 'akbf112116']
Advanced Apple Pie Making Techniques
Among your cook books and the dozens of online sites there are a bevvy of apple pie recipes that are all pretty much the same with the exception of whether or not they’ve got nutmeg. (Hint: double down on the nutmeg and microplane it from a real, actual nut–they don’t really go bad and keep forever. Heck, why not keep one in your pocket for the entire holiday season?!) But somehow the pie never comes out quite right. The crust is a sloppy mess and doesn’t come out flaky the way your great grandmother’s most assuredly did. And when you cut into it, the insides come pouring out and make a huge mess. Served on the plate it looks like a heaping pile of slop.
What’s missing you ask yourself?
Most cookbooks either completely leave out the finer points of pastry making from their recipes or hide them in introductory sections that no one ever reads, because–let’s be honest–who even knew these sections existed? No one besides me really reads a cookbook do they?
So in a quick synopsis, here are a few pro tips to help your pie come out the way you knew it should.
DO NOT overwork your dough!
This is the cardinal rule of pastry making.
The less you can touch your dough, the better off you’ll be. Kneading bread dough for 10 minutes or more is fine because you want to form a doughy and stretchy network of gluten chains that will make your bread nice and chewy once it’s baked. For pie or pastry dough however, you want the exact opposite. After you’ve used a pastry cutter to cut your flour and your fat together into pea sized bits, stir your dough as little as possible when you add your liquid. If you can get it all together with just five short stirs, then for god’s sake do not use six! If it takes ten or more when you first start practicing, that’s alright, but don’t touch it an eleventh. Whatever you do, don’t knead it together for 10 minutes like you’re making bread or that’s what you’ll end up with.
When working with your dough, keep everything cold.
Old wives tales about baking often insist “You will only make a good pastry chef if you have cold hands.” While I feel this is patently false, the root of the thinking to keep things cold while working your pastry is very sound advice. At all costs you want to keep the fat in your dough nice and cold. Allowing it to melt and mix further with your flour is only going to make things less flaky and will also tend to make a huge, sticky mess. Toward that end, keep everything that touches your dough cold–even your hands if you can help it.
One of the worst offenders is your counter top temperature when rolling out your dough. You take some nice cold dough and put it on a room temperature (or higher because you’ve probably got a stove nearby that’s already preheating) counter top and start working it over. The thinner you roll it out, the greater its surface area and thus the larger amount of heat it begins absorbing from the counter. The fix for this is easy! Just fill a 9×13″ (or larger if you’ve got it) cake/cookie pan with an ice and water slurry and set it on the part of the counter top where you’re going to roll out your crust. Do this for a few minutes at a time to cover the area where you’ll be working. The colder things are the better off you’ll be. Those thick and massive granite counter tops you spent thousands on can now be your best friend with their spectacular specific heat capacity.
Apple Pie Architecture
Wonderful pies you see in shops and stores hold together incredibly well, in great part because they’re in cold display cases. When cut cold they tend to hold their shapes incredibly well. But as everyone knows warm deserts taste better and sweeter. (Don’t believe me? Try microwaving a bowl of ice cream and tell me it isn’t the sweetest thing you’ve eaten.)
But how can you keep the delicious, gooey goodness of your apple pie together when it’s been cut open just minutes out of the oven? Most cooks just heap their pie filling into their delicate crusts, but why? Laziness?
Instead, let’s use the structure of the apples and the sugary filling to our advantage. Layer your apple slices into the crust in alternating circular and radial patterns. This criss-cross pattern will allow them to hold not only all the additional sweetness you can thrown into them, but the structure will hold the thing together.
Creating this lattice structure will usually hold so well, that a pie right out of the oven can be cut almost immediately and it won’t ooze an ounce.
Take your new-found knowledge, go forth, and bake!
📖 35.0% done with Fletch and the Man Who by Gregory Mcdonald
Usually Fletch is the one with all the sharp, ascerbic statements, but in this installment I’m noticing that he’s the tame one and everyone else is somehow playing the part he usually does.