AUROVILLE, India — In the Colours of Nature dye house, Vijayakumar Varathan is busy prepping a vat of indigo. At 51, he looks frail, with a tanned body made mostly of bones, but he runs to and fro, setting up an open fire where he’ll brew cauldrons of natural colorants made from plants.He’s worked here for 15 years. But until his early 30s, Varathan mixed chemicals in a conventional clothing factory in the same region of southern India. There he developed a disease that caused layers of his skin to peel off. Even today, it is discolored. “It was pretty bad,” he says, in his fragmented English. “But I didn’t have a choice.”
Category: Read
Don Katz’s letter about Ralph Ellison’s influence
Dear Listener,During the winter of 1971 I was a freshman at NYU, and I read two books that changed me. The first was Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury—a book I read in a single afternoon-to-dawn sitting. The second was Invisible Man, an astonishingly artful and complex work of literature written by a man I heard was actually teaching a course at NYU the next semester.
Over the next three years, after Ralph Ellison allowed me into a small seminar focused on the American vernacular, and a year after that, when he took me on as a tutee every Wednesday afternoon until I graduated, one of the greatest of all American writers taught me how to read. Ralph also helped me gain the courage and occasional insight to write, and I went on to make a living as a writer for 20 years after that. Ralph encouraged me and spoke up for me publicly until he died in 1994.
I learned from Ralph Ellison that Americans worked to create an identity from a synthesis of divergent cultures. We created a distinctive way of talking and telling stories, which led to the distinctive voice in the way we wrote. I understood from Ralph that the American experience derived from the process of a nation constantly making and remaking itself, a place that needed to create its own myths and art and even its own sounds because we had to. While Ralph Ellison taught me that Americans needed to create our own archetypes and myths, he also conveyed that in a nation creating itself without kings, a new order was created based on the color of people’s skin.
Because of Ralph I always heard the sound of what I read and what I wrote. Well-composed words sound like music to me, and after being a writer for 20 years, this led directly to an idea that became Audible.com and our 20-years of applying new technologies to the celebration and elevation of the unbridled power of the well-spoken word.
A few feet from my cube is the Ralph Ellison room, and the following is what I wrote about Ralph for the glass wall I see every day: Ralph Ellison’s understanding of the power of the oral tradition and his ability to hear the music in well-wrought arrangements of spoken words informed the vision and mission of Audible from the beginning. Ellison was the teacher and mentor of Audible’s founder. According to Ellison, the way the early American vernacular embraced storytelling around campfires, the braggadocio of our salesmanship, and the sound of our lamenting in the fields became the distinctive voice that defined American novels and our singularly “conscious and conscientious” culture, a culture that created itself “out of whatever it found useful.” Ellison loved the melodies in language and he told stories in a voice that sounded like a coal car coming out of a mine. He loved enormous cigars, jazz, and ideas. In many ways Audible exists to honor his legacy.
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that great teachers can’t direct the course and meaning of a life.
Don Katz
CEO, Founder of Audible
Download Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man as a Free Audiobook (Available for a Limited Time) | Open Culture
When Ralph Ellison published his first novel, Invisible Man, in 1952, it took the literary world by storm. Orville Prescott, a literary critic at The New York Times, wrote in April of ’52:Ralph Ellison’s first novel, “The Invisible Man,” is the most impressive work of fiction by an American Negro which I have ever read. Unlike Richard Wright and Willard Motley, who achieve their best effects by overpowering their readers with documentary detail, Mr. Ellison is a finished novelist who uses words with great skill, who writes with poetic intensity and immense narrative drive. “Invisible Man” has many flaws. It is a sensational and feverishly emotional book. It will shock and sicken some of its readers. But, whatever the final verdict on “Invisible Man” may be, it does mark the appearance of a richly talented writer.
Watch a Needle Ride Through LP Record Grooves Under an Electron Microscope | Open Culture
Last year, we highlighted a 1956 video from RCA Victor which demonstrated how vinyl records were made back in the good old days. If you have 23 free minutes, you can get a pretty good look at the production process — the live audio recording, the making of a master disc, the production of a mold, the eventual mass production of vinyl records, etc.
Almost 60 years later, vinyl is making a comeback. So why not let Ben Krasnow, a hardware engineer at Google X, give us a much more modern perspective on the LP? Above, watch Krasnow’s stop motion animation, made with an electron microscope, which shows us a phonograph needle riding through grooves on an LP. Much of the 9-minute video offers a fairly technical primer on what went into making this stop motion clip in the first place. So if you want to get to the action, fast forward to the 4:20 mark.
If you hang with Krasnow’s video, you can also see him take some microscopic looks at other media formats — CD-ROMs, early forms of DVDs, and more.
Why we don’t support old WordPress versions | Yoast
For all sorts of reasons, some people have a problem with updating WordPress installs properly. I will state now that for both our free and premium plugins we do not support anything but the latest and the prior to last version. At the time of writing that’s WordPress 4.5 and WordPress 4.6 . If you’re running anything else, we can’t help you. But mostly, I want to convince you to upgrade by dispelling all the reasons why you shouldn’t or “couldn’t” upgrade.
Why I close PRs (OSS project maintainer notes) | Jeff Geerling
I maintain many open source projects on GitHub and elsewhere (over 160 as of this writing). I have merged and/or closed thousands of Pull Requests (PRs) and patches in the past few years, and would like to summarize here many of the reasons I don't merge many PRs.
A few of my projects have co-maintainers, but most are just me. The bus factor is low, but I offset that by granting very open licenses and encouraging forks. I also devote a set amount of time (averaging 5-10 hours/week) to my OSS project maintenance, and have a personal budget of around $1,000/year to devote to infrastructure to support my projects (that's more than most for-profit companies who use my projects devote to OSS, sadly).
I don't like closing a PR without merging, because a PR means someone liked my project enough to contribute back. But sometimes it's necessary. I'm not trying to be a jerk (and I usually start by thanking the contributor to try to soften the blow of a closed PR), I'm just ensuring the continued health of the project. Below are the principles behind how I maintain my projects, and hopefully by reading through them you'll understand more about why I choose to close PRs instead of merging.
How much do our (supposed) intellectual elite…
That's a question I've been stewing about for the past few weeks, ever since reading the results from a quiz (at http://www.nature.com/…/three-minutes-with-hans-rosling-wil… ) in the scientific journal Nature, from Hans Rosling.
The quiz contains 8 fundamental questions about the state of the world: questions about poverty, life expectancy, wealth, population, and so on. All big, important questions.
What has me stewing is that respondents to the quiz - I presume, nature.com's readers - do far worse than chance. That is, they would have done much better overall if they'd simply guessed their answers at random (the questions are multiple choice). Only on 2 of 8 questions do respondents do appreciably better than chance. On most questions they do worse than chance, sometimes much worse than chance. A chimpanzee pushing buttons at random would have done better than nature.com's readers.(By the way, I'm not certain the response data is from nature.com's readers. It may be separate data, perhaps from Rosling's audiences. If that's the case, it weakens my argument below.)
I'm not usually bothered by this kind of thing. Media love to bemoan surveys showing lack of basic scientific knowledge among the general population. That kind of thing doesn't alarm me. We're a society in which most people specialize, and it's not surprising if most of us are ignorant in major areas; collectively we can still do pretty well. But this data from Rosling - the Nature survey - really got under my skin. It's a survey of a group (one I'm part of, I guess) that often seems to think it has special knowledge of solutions to big, important problems - things like climate change, energy, development, and so on. And what I take from Rosling's data is that that group isn't just ignorant about the state of the world in some fundamental ways. They're actually anti-informed.
So, why does this matter?
On Twitter, I regularly see people like Rosling, Max Roser, Steven Pinker, and Dina Pomeranz post graphs showing changes in the state of the world. Often, those graphs are extremely positive, like Roser's wonderful graphs on poverty, education, literacy etc over the last 200 years:
(See the images below, or: https://twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/811587302065602560… )
It is absolutely astonishing to read the responses to such tweets. Many people are furious at the idea that some things in the world are getting better. Many responses boil down to "Nah, nah, can't be true", or "I'll bet [irrelevant thing] is getting worse, why don't you focus on that, you tool of the capitalist conspiracy."
Of course, while those responses are irritating, & illustrate a certain kind of wilful ignorance, they don't really much matter. What bothers me more is that some of the most common responses are variants on "It doesn't matter, climate change is more important than all your graphs"; "Where are your climate graphs?"; "Nukes are going to kill us all"; etc.
This type of comment seems wrongheaded for more interesting reasons.
First, appreciating Roser's (and similar) graphs does not mean failing to acknowledge climate change, nuclear security, and other problems. Roser, for instance, has repeatedly acknowledged that the challenges of climate are huge and critical.
But I think the more significant thing is that graphs like Roser's don't happen by accident. They are extraordinary human achievements - the outcome of remarkable technical, social and organizational invention. If you don't know of these facts, in detail, or if you underplay their importance, then you cannot hope to understand the underlying technical, social, and organizational invention in any depth. And it seems to me that that kind of understanding may well be crucial to solving problems like climate, etc.
To put it another way, the anti-Pollyannas, including much of our intellectual elite who think they have "the solutions", have actually cut themselves off from understanding the basis for much of the most important human progress.
What's the solution? I'm not sure. But this line of thinking is deepening my appreciation for the work done by people such as Roser, Rosling et al. And it's making me think about how it can be scaled up & incorporated more broadly into our institutions.
Book Review: Son of Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
Son of Fletch
Fletch #10 (in the stories' chronological order #10); Son of Fletch #1
Fiction; Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
1993; ebook: April 19, 2010
e-book
241
Fletch has a son. He's a convict, a racist, a hate group organizer, and he's on the run after a prison break. Will Fletch help him out?
Plot
It was a dark and stormy night…
In eleven novels in the series, one of them was bound to start off like this, in a sense. Like most in the Fletch series, the story is off like a shot from the beginning, but then just a tad into the first act there’s another huge plot point (suggested by the title of the book) or known by the close reader who remembers Crystal Faoni who was a major (large?) character from Fletch’s Fortune.
I don’t know that I believed the convicts just taking Fletch’s word for where to hide out at the time, in part because the character development to make it plausible didn’t come until later. There was also a plot point involving the sheriff that I saw coming from a mile away that could/should have been much more subtle for a bigger surprise when it was revealed.
My biggest problem was that after some great build up I was expecting something really big or interesting from either Fletch or his son to close out the whole story. Sadly the end of the plot devolved in too quick and short a manner for a really satisfying pay off.
Of all of the Fletch books, so far this one seems to be the biggest influencer for the creation of portions of the movie Fletch Lives, which was otherwise made out of whole cloth based on the character. In some sense Cleavon Little’s character “Calculus Entropy” replaced Fletch’s son and big parts of the plot were heavily rewritten purely for entertainment’s sake.
Of all of the books which mention the seemingly ever-present Edward Arthur Tharp, Jr., this one seems to have more detail about it, particularly as in this story the book has finally been finished and it becomes a method by which Fletch and his son seem to probe each other about it. Oddly there was no mention or parallel between Fletch’s own mother as a writer and his having become a writer.
Character
Fletch’s girlfriend in this piece serves as pure plot and didn’t feel as multi-dimensional as she should have been given her role in the piece. She does serve well as the “better angel” as well as the gut reaction most readers will also be feeling through the story. But as always, one must just “trust” Fletch and his plan of where he’s going, even if he’s not sure himself.
Fletch himself seems to be much the same as we remember him, though I really wonder how and why he seems to have settled down into small town Tennessee life. Descriptions in the book make it sound like he’s still a man of the world, but somehow interesting people come to him instead of him going to see them. None of this really fits into the bigger character to me, but the story continues as if it doesn’t matter anyway.
Fletch’s son plays things very close to the vest, so his motivations and character aren’t really developed until much later in the piece, but in some sense he’s at least differentiated well enough from Fletch to be his “own man” here.
I liked that even the racists here were given some well done characterization so that despite their beliefs that one could actually feel bad for them in some sense. I will say it was relatively interesting to read in the timeperiod of the 2016 presidential election.
Summary
Overall this was a middle-of-the-road Fletch installment. (But still ranks relatively high on the mystery/suspense/detective genres). I suspect that it would have been more interesting to Fletch fans who hadn’t had an installment in a few years based on the time it was released. For a potential reboot of the series, or for kicking off a new series, it wasn’t a bad effort.
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.”
- 11/26/16 started reading
- 11/26/16 13.0% done; “Fletch has a son. He’s a convict and he’s on the run after a prison break. Will Fletch help him out?”
- 11/28/16 25.0% done; “We’re off like a shot. Somehow it doesn’t seem terrifically believable that the escape convicts so easily take Fletch’s advice on where to hide, but he does a fantastic job of coralling them in the opeining.
Some of the overt “Southernness” feels overdone to me, but perhaps it was the effect of Mcdonald’s many years living in Tennessee which had a tarnishing effect.” - 11/29/16 57.0% done; “We’re starting to go somewhere, but I can sadly already almost predict the ending. In particular, there was a ham-handed mention of a car that gave the whole thing away for me.
Of all of the Fletch books, so far this one seems to be the biggest influencer for the creation of portions of the movie Fletch Lives, which was otherwise made out of whole cloth based on the character.” - 12/1/16 64.0% done; “This is where things begin to go sideways! Here comes the third act… Much of what I anticipated was going to happen has; the question now is how will he manage to extract himself (and his friends/family)?”
- 12/03/16 Finished book
Highlights, Quotes, & Marginalia
“Some villains decided to take themselves a little vacation from the federal penitentiary up in Kentucky, Carrie.”
“Can’t blame ‘em,” Fletch said. “We’ve been advertising Tennessee as a vacation spot. Take yourselves off to Tennessee. Isn’t that the slogan?”
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“Mister Fletcher. Miss Carrie.”
“Howdy, Sheriff,” Carrie said.
“Don’t Francie let you take a shower-bath at home anymore?”
“Says I keep leavin’ wet towels on the bathroom floor. So she sends me out every time there’s a hard rain.
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A few months before, two of the county’s cars had smashed into each other, in a parking lot.
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Poor storytelling form here.
Added on Saturday, November 26, 2016 10:51:46 PM
“I don’t have a gun,” Carrie said. “What do I do if the wolf comes by?”
“What you charmin’ Tennesseans always do.”
“What’s that?”
“Say, ‘Hydy, Mister Wolf. How’s your pa?’”
“Which paw will I be askin’ about in this case? Right, left, front, back?”
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At first Fletch saw only the back of a soaking wet, lean male in his early twenties. The back of his denim shirt had stitched on it FEDERAL PENITENTIARY/TOMASTON. Fletch tisked. “You kids. You can’t wear anything without some sort of an advertisement or a slogan on it. Wouldn’t the usual beer logo or ‘YALE’ do just as well?”
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“It’s like being a beautician in the land of the ugly!”
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🔖 Bookmark on Location 537
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“Idea is, they could have Ms. Carrie hostage in one room while you’re sweet-talkin’ us.” “Me? Sweet-talk anybody?” Fletch grinned. “I understand.”
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“You got any of those Tharp paintings, Mister Fletcher?” “No. I guess I ran the price of them up too high for me to afford ‘em.”
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Added on Sunday, November 27, 2016 11:52:12 PM
In this life, who are the bastards?” Jack muttered, “The fathers, or the sons?”
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“You escaped from a maximum-security federal penitentiary after only five weeks?”
“I didn’t like it there,” Jack said. “Noisy. Food could have been better. I’d read all the books in the library.”
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Ever since you wrote the book Pinto: The Biography of Edgar Arthur Tharp, Junior. That was a big success, wasn’t it?”
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Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 12:04:44 AM
“Big book,” Jack said. Fletch said, “It took a while.”
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Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 12:05:15 AM
“You believe in straight lines, don’t you?”
“Nature does not love the straight line,” Fletch said. “Man is compelled to it.”
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People here don’t really, really believe frogs drop from the sky in a hard rain.
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“I could sit here forever,” Carrie said, “feeling you inside me. What would you do if I sat here forever?” On his back, Fletch shrugged. “Send out for Chinese, I guess.”
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“Everything all right?” she asked. “All things being relative.”
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Ha! Relative. Nice double entendre.
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 12:14:46 AM
“E=MC2!” Such was Carrie’s expletive. She considered the theory of relativity the most outlandish thing she had ever heard of.
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🔖 Bookmark on Location 910
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good, Fletch.
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Turning, Kriegel went to Jack and clasped him by the shoulders. “This man is your father! Why didn’t you tell me? He is one of us! We are saved!” “Praise the Lord,” Fletch said.
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🔖 Bookmark on Location 1003
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Kriegel took a few steps toward Carrie and Fletch. It seemed his intent to take them by the hands. Fletch stuck his hands in the pockets of his shorts.
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“Shit,” she said. “He’s your son, all right. Clear as a church bell on a crisp night. He’s got your body.” “Oh, don’t say that,” Fletch said. “Last time someone said that about me and someone else, one of us got shot through a window.”
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“You going to get married?” “These days you marry a woman and two lawyers. Beds just aren’t that big.”
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Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 7:57:47 PM
“Hey.” Jack trotted behind the horse. “You’re riding a horse barebacked in shorts.” “Yeah,” Fletch said. “Just like a Native American.”
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“Ah, Fletch. Don’t think of yourself as a Yankee anymore. You’re about gettin’ over it.”
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Like it was a disease
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 8:32:04 PM
Jack had been amazed to see Fletch come out of the henhouse carrying eleven eggs. “Wow!” he said. “You make your own eggs!” Then he said, “They’re dirty!” Fletch said, “You think they were hatched already scrambled with milk and butter?” Jack grinned. “I was hatched sunnyside up, I was.” “I see,” Fletch said. “So you scrambled yourself.”
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“For a guitar picker, you sure know some different scales.”
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Having been a print journalist, and someone who had written a book, Fletch persisted in believing there was not much future in electronics, generally.
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But what about his technology platform in the prior book (Fletch and the Man Who)?
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 9:00:35 PM
We’re as slick as a boxer after the tenth round.”
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should have been noting these. this is the 20th of these goofy similies…
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 9:12:36 PM
“Describe him.” “Hispanic.” “I’m prepared to call that a good arrest, aren’t you?” “Absolutely.”
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One way and another, Fletch had learned the importance of creating a diversion.
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Arms akimbo, Carrie said, “What are you? Only God and you know that, and I suspect you’re confused.”
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“Besides,” Carrie answered in a milder tone, “generally, Fletch doesn’t hold much stock in simple questions. He says, when you ask a question all you get is an answer to the question, not the truth. He says, to get the truth it’s best to wait and watch and listen.”
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Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 9:19:58 PM
“Oh, yes,” Carrie said. “Fletch calls you the tactile generation. For short, he calls you the scabpickers. What you know, what you do isn’t important, only what you feel.
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By golly, Ms.
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Consistency of chapter opens?
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“All three hundred and fifty pounds of white and naked flab you all call Leary is dead to the world out on the back lawn,” Fletch said. “I swear, if we drag him down to the roadside, the slaughter truck will pick him up for the glue factory without even stopping to ask which nature of beast he is.”
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apolitical
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“Come, come,” Fletch said. “Jack and I will be with you. What have you to fear? You know Jack is a karate expert. And I? Don’t even ask. Never have I met man or beast to make me tremble in nose or lip.”
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I love the stilted language here to poke fun of the racist
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Pity if you escaped prison just for a zoological experience in a ditch.”
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If biff came to bang, Fletch would be interested to see what John Fletcher Faoni would do.
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“Yes, I see,” Kriegel said. “Wasn’t it Julius Caesar,” Fletch asked, “who said something about divide and skinny through?” “He said, ‘All roads lead to Rome.’” “That, too,” Fletch agreed. “Quite a phrasemaker, that Caesar feller. I knew you know your military history.”
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stanchions
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Fletch shouted at Leary, “Now, hold on to that little cow!” Standing, with his feet spread, Leary grabbed the bull calf’s tail. As Carrie started the truck down the driveway, Leary’s boots slipped in wet manure already on the floor of the pickup truck’s bed. He landed on his ass. On the manure. Both his hands still held on to the bull calf’s tail. “Hold on to it!” Fletch ordered. “It’s shittin’ on me!” Leary yelled halfway down the driveway. It certainly was.
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Then Fletch watched Jack choking with laughter. “Oh, hello.” Fletch slapped Jack on the back. “How are you feeling?”
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Jack smiled. “Shall I sing a few bars of ‘Let the Punishment Fit the Crime’?”
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Jack said, “I’m amazed at the way you have kept us all weak, incapacitated.”
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In the backseat, blinking slowly, Kriegel was waking up. The guitar was propped up on the seat beside him. Their shapes were similar. The guitar had the more attractive neck.
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awesome description
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 9:47:33 PM
Kriegel asked, “Who is this Professor Josiah Black?” Neither Fletch nor Jack answered. Kriegel insisted. “What did you mean by ‘Josiah Black’?” Fletch did not answer. “It comes from an old American song, sir,” Jack answered. “What’s the name of the song?” Jack said, “‘Ol’ Black Joe.”’ “‘Ol’ Black Joe’?” Kriegel spluttered. “You called me an old, black Joe? Is that supposed to be funny?” “I had to tell him something, didn’t I?” Fletch asked. “Couldn’t say you are Santa Claus now, could I?”
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“I mean, don’t you realize you are the most despised person on earth?” “Who, me?” “You are the intelligent, educated to some degree, I gather, well-off, middle-aged, heterosexual white male. On this earth, you are distinctly the minority. Yet you and your kind have made the world, as we know it, what it is. For centuries, you have created the religious and political institutions, the businesses, the wars, laws that protect and suit you to the exclusion of others, while exploiting all people of color, Indians, Negroids, Orientals, even those less fortunate than yourself of the same tribe, the laborers, as well as all women and children.” “Wow.” Fletch well knew these sentiments. He had been confronted with such often enough. “And all this time I thought I was just gettin’ along best I could.”
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“What, your being thirsty? Chew buttons.”
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There is no place from the Balkans to the city of Los Angeles where tribal wars are not raging. Am I right? Humans basically are tribal, Mister Fletcher, something your government does not understand. There is the individual. There is the family. There is the tribe.
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“That tribalism is being used, around the world, by a lot of would-be tinpot demagogues and dictators, warlords, simply to grab power and all the good things for themselves. That that is what really goes on in the world, among whites, blacks, Orientals, women, children, always has and always will: power-mongering based on individual greed.”
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“Ummm.” Fletch smiled at Jack. “Not the first time I’ve noticed that those who lecture, frequently don’t listen.”
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Racism has taken off its coat,” Fletch said.
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“Best-laid plans,” Carrie said, “often get screwed up.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 1838-1838
Reference To a Mouse by Robert Burns: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.”
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 10:11:26 PM
The place looked like a wacky seven-year-old boy’s idea of heaven.
Highlight (yellow) Location 1881-1882
great description of a klan encampment
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 10:15:49 PM
“You came to my house to involve me.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 1936-1936
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 10:20:02 PM
“Joe Rogers’s wife.” Jack sat to Carrie’s right. “Sheriff Joe Rogers?” Fletch asked. “Yeah,” Carrie said. Fletch said, “Must be a coincidence.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 1969-1973
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 10:22:46 PM
Hello, Andy. How’s your head bone?”
Highlight (yellow) Location 1975-1975
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 10:23:07 PM
The governor of California has issued a statement reminding people that most of California is not affected by earthquakes at all. I suspect that bit was written for him by the Chamber of Commerce goaded by amusement park operators.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2003-2005
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 10:25:31 PM
Always he had noticed builders in this area of the South never left trees, or any source of shade, in their parking lots. Trees are pretty, give shade, lessen the need for air-conditioning, but golly gee, take up as much as a square foot of ground space.
Highlight (yellow) Location 2110-2111
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 10:34:09 PM
Apollonaris
Highlight (yellow) Location 2121-2121
Added on Monday, November 28, 2016 10:34:52 PM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 2179
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 12:34:21 AM
I hate to accept their food.
Highlight (yellow) Location 2180-2181
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:37:20 AM
She tasted her chili. “Yee! It tastes like chopped horned toads and ketchup! These foreigners don’t even know how to make respectable chili!”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2187-2188
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:38:15 AM
shifts
Highlight (yellow) Location 2196-2196
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:39:41 AM
“Fletch, the license plate is from our county.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2227-2228
Major tell that Sheriff didn’t pick up escapees
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:42:35 AM
She’s out of pocket.
Highlight (yellow) Location 2262-2263
I’m curious about where/when this phrase originated with the meaning of being “not available”? Perhaps with the invention of the cell phone that could fit into a pocket? Or earlier with a pool reference?
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:45:17 AM
“This kid could be as crazy as a groundhog on ice.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2269-2270
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:46:16 AM
“I suspect it’s not every man’s dream to discover his son is a cop-killing, escaped convict, racist, hate-group organizer.”
Highlight (blue) Location 2276-2277
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:46:53 AM
“I always want to know the truth.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2282-2282
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:47:18 AM
“I am Commandant Wolfe!” “I’m Shalom Aleichem.” Fletch stuck his thumb toward Carrie. “This is Golda Meir, as a girl.” “Doctor Kriegel has warned me of your sense of humor, Mister Fletcher.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2316-2319
Added on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:49:27 AM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 2326
Added on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 1:45:26 AM
“Ah, Fletch! You’re not going to give me that one-world crap, are you?”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2326-2326
Added on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 1:45:35 AM
Softly, Fletch said, “Since the beginning of time, a few have taken the fact of economic competition, no matter how great the resources, and used it to create hatred and violence to satisfy their own greed.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2328-2330
Added on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 1:45:56 AM
“How can I object?” Jack said. “I am a result of selective breeding. Aren’t I?”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2351-2352
Added on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 1:48:02 AM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 2352
Added on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:08:04 AM
“My, my,” Fletch said to Carrie. “This is being taped.” “‘Vanity, vanity,’” Carrie said. “‘All is vanity.’” “More than that,” Fletch said. “Like their predecessors, they are carefully documenting their own history.” “So later they can deny it, right?”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2365-2369
very remniscent of Trump
Added on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:08:59 AM
Ethnic cleansing. Separatism.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2392-2393
Added on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:11:21 AM
In the wasteland of Karoo, South Africa, Orania is the name of the headquarters of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement.
Highlight (yellow) Location 2453-2454
Added on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:15:46 AM
There, standing, staring at them, openmouthed was their friend, the sheriff, Joe Rogers.
Highlight (yellow) Location 2490-2490
Added on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:18:53 AM
I’ll believe that when catfish meow and climb trees.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2500-2500
Added on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:19:44 AM
If it were not the nature of these people to blame others for their ills, Fletch reasoned, they would not be here.
Highlight (yellow) Location 2546-2546
Added on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:22:23 AM
I mean, get the E=MC2 out of here!”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2576-2576
Added on Thursday, December 1, 2016 12:25:09 AM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 2576
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 1:29:41 AM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 2686
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 2:05:44 PM
Fletch heard Toninho say,
Highlight (yellow) Location 2710-2711
Quick reference back to Carioca Fletch
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 2:11:09 PM
“Animals? These aren’t the chosen people?” “No. You are the chosen people, Mister Fletcher. All this I do for you.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2756-2757
Sounds like something Jesus would say
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 2:16:10 PM
“Never judge a leader by his followers.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2759-2759
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 2:16:18 PM
“We are just using these fools, these psychotics, toward an end.” “‘Using’ them,” Fletch repeated. “Of course. Using them. I wish I didn’t have to. There are many reasons you should be grateful, supportive toward my efforts.” “Sorry, I never carry my checkbook.” “Where would these psychotic fools be tonight, what would they be doing if they were not here bashing each other’s brains out?” “Home baking cookies?” “They have to belong to something, something bigger than they are, something secret, of which they can be secretly proud. By their natures, these fools are gang members. They are incapable, you see, of standing on their own, as individuals. We’re just taking advantage of their natures. We direct their energies. We organize them. They need the discipline we give them.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2762-2771
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 2:17:11 PM
Jack said to Fletch: “What do you know? I’ve killed a cop.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 2888-2888
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 2:26:54 PM
Sabotage Corps is
Highlight (gray) Location 3082-3083
typo extra line return
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 2:44:09 PM
And you know the one thing people never can remain silent about is silence.” Andy remained silent.
Highlight (yellow) Location 3246-3247
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:01:35 PM
Carrie quoted Fletch: “‘We’re all mysteries awaiting solution.’” Fletch said, “We’re all histories awaiting execution.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3303-3304
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:05:12 PM
“God! We’ll never get rid of that damned body!”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3347-3348
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:07:54 PM
Jack had awoken in time to set up the sound system for The Reverend Kriegel’s religious service, prayer meeting, sermon, harangue, newly scheduled for eleven o’clock.
Highlight (yellow) Location 3357-3358
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:08:54 PM
The Reverend Kriegel then had said a few words over the grave. To the men’s amusement, he commented on the appropriateness of “burying the cook cheek to jowl with roasted beef.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3362-3363
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:09:39 PM
we will take just the men you have here—having chosen a small, fairly isolated city, in the Southwest, South, Midwest, West, it doesn’t matter—gather intelligence on it, turn off its power and water, attack it in force, and liberate from that town’s banks and other businesses what I think you Americans call ‘cash money.’
Highlight (yellow) Location 3465-3468
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:28:45 PM
Fletch realized he had the advantage. She was backlit by the fading light in the window behind her. The attendant had closed the door behind Fletch. He could see her amazing outline. She couldn’t see him at all.
Highlight (yellow) Location 3558-3559
Interesting use of “amazing”
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:36:02 PM
“If you had raised a son, he would have rebelled against you, dissented, probably become the opposite of everything you are and everything you stand for. Sons do that.” “Some sons, I guess.” “Your son would have. I’m certain your son would have. Not knowing you, Jack adores you.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3605-3608
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:39:43 PM
“His name is John Fletcher Faoni?” “Yes.” “Who’s John?” “You wanted more of Irwin Maurice maybe?”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3625-3627
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:40:56 PM
Strooth
Highlight (orange) Location 3690-3690
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:45:38 PM
“I’m not clucking.” It was getting dark outside and Fletch’s mind was settling on pizza. “I’m expostulating.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3695-3696
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 3:46:12 PM
For a moment, Fletch was unsure whether it was Wolfe’s idea to shoot at Jack and Fletch, or to shoot himself.
Highlight (yellow) Location 3882-3883
What a dull ending if this is it.
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 4:07:43 PM
“I’ve heard that about you. You once reported a murder to your editor and asked him to tell the photographers to give the widow time to get home to report the murder.” “Did I?”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3899-3900
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 4:08:48 PM
Fletch said to Jack, “A woman named Slavenka Drakulic, a victim of the most recent Balkan ethnic-cleansing wars, wrote in The New York Times Sunday Magazine: ‘We are the war. I am afraid there is no one else to blame. We all make it possible. We allow it to happen. There is no them and us. There are no numbers, masses, categories. There is only one of us and, yes, we are responsible for each other.’”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3977-3980
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 4:13:28 PM
While Jack studied his ticket, Fletch said to Jack, “A woman named Slavenka Drakulic, a victim of the most recent Balkan ethnic-cleansing wars, wrote in The New York Times Sunday Magazine: ‘We are the war. I am afraid there is no one else to blame. We all make it possible. We allow it to happen. There is no them and us. There are no numbers, masses, categories. There is only one of us and, yes, we are responsible for each other.’” “Got a pen and piece of paper?” Jack asked. “In the glove compartment. Just thought that quote might add something to your story, if it fits in anywhere.” “How do you spell her name?” “By golly. The kid can even work pen and paper!”
Highlight (yellow) Location 3977-3984
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 4:14:06 PM
“I doubt you’d attempt anything without accomplishing it. Even murder.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 4005-4005
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 4:15:13 PM
His new T-shirt had a logo on it which read: WHY HUG THE ROAD WHEN YOU’VE GOT ME? He had a choice of either that logo or a beer advertisement.
Highlight (yellow) Location 4009-4010
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 4:15:45 PM
Carrie answered. “Hello?” “Hello.” “Where are you?” “I’ll be home in a few minutes.” “That’s good. Hey, Fletch! Guess what?” “What?” “I made a firecracker cake!” Fletch said, “Oh, boy.”
Highlight (yellow) Location 4017-4023
After a half dozen mentions of the stupid firecracker cake, this is almost funny now.
Added on Saturday, December 3, 2016 4:16:37 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
📖 On page 127 of 206 of The Science of the Oven by Hervé This
📖 On page 127 of 206 of The Science of the Oven by Hervé This
Chapter 5 has had some of the most useful bits for the experimenting chef.
📖 On page 88 of 425 of A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis
📖 On page 88 of 425 of A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis
He’s spending quite a bit of time setting up the world, but it’s an interesting YA novel with some science/technology/alchemy underlying the story.
Go To Hellman: How to check if your library is leaking catalog searches to Amazon
I've been writing about privacy in libraries for a while now, and I get a bit down sometimes because progress is so slow. I've come to realize that part of the problem is that the issues are sometimes really complex and technical; people just don't believe that the web works the way it does, violating user privacy at every opportunity.Content embedded in websites is a a huge source of privacy leakage in library services. Cover images can be particularly problematic. I've written before that, without meaning to, many libraries send data to Amazon about the books a user is searching for; cover images are almost always the culprit. I've been reporting this issue to the library automation companies that enable this, but a year and a half later, nothing has changed. (I understand that "discovery" services such as Primo/Summon even include config checkboxes that make this easy to do; the companies say this is what their customers want.)
Point of View: North Carolina no longer a democracy | News & Observer
In the just released EIP report, North Carolina’s overall electoral integrity score of 58/100 for the 2016 election places us alongside authoritarian states and pseudo-democracies like Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. If it were a nation state, North Carolina would rank right in the middle of the global league table – a deeply flawed, partly-free, democracy that is only slightly ahead of the failed democracies that constitute much of the developing world.
Crocodiles (and Polo Ponies) Go Missing as Scalpel-Wielding Consumers Revolt | WSJ
Clothes buyers wield blades, markers and iron-on patches to kill off embroidered clothing logos; ‘a tricky surgery’
Since its debut in 1926, the Lacoste crocodile has adorned polo shirts on everyone from the brand’s tennis-star founder to President John F. Kennedy.
Yet you won’t likely find one on Max Ilich. The 47-year-old consultant has extracted the iconic reptilian from at least 10 of his Lacoste shirts. “It’s a tricky surgery,” he said. “But I was pleased with the results.”
I’d always thought of doing this and had tried on a few things with mixed results. Generally I just eschew logos and don’t buy them any more unless I really can’t manage.
Book Review: Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald
Fletch Reflected
Fletch #11 (in the stories' chronological order: #11); Son of Fletch #2
Fiction; Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
1994; e-book: April 11, 2006
Kindle e-book
226
Receiving word from an old flame who has recently become engaged to a billionaire inventor's son, Fletch and his newfound son, Jack, learn that a member of the billionaire's household staff may be targeting her future father-in-law for murder.
Character
Oddly, even after two books with Jack as a character, there isn’t very much differentiation between he and a young Fletch. I do feel like he’s a bit more reserved and not quite as ascerbic in his humor, but there’s just something missing to make him a completely differentiated character. I had missed Crystal, so it was nice to have her back, but she didn’t seem to have the same sort of spark or confidence, which I missed from her earlier appearance in Fletch’s Fortune. Fletch himself seems to have slowed down a bit, but he also wasn’t taking the lead in this either. I don’t think there was a single adverse reference to Irwin Maurice by Fletch in the entire text, yet there was one neutral to positive mention of it by Fletch, followed by a questioning disparagement of it by Jack.
I did like the Mortimer character and his long time hatred for Fletch, though some of the dialogue read/played more comedic than as a more appropriate brewing hatred. There is some scant background about Mortimer’s character and past with Fletch, but it could potentially play out as another entire Fletch backstory in itself. Without a really well motivated plot, I’m not sure I’d want to read that prequel though.
Plot
There is only the slightest of pauses between this book and the prior Son of Fletch. Except for the denouement of action in the prior book, this one simply picks up with what’s happening on the following day. Unlike most in the Fletch series where the plot gets off like a shot on page one or page two, the motivation for the major plot of the book doesn’t drop until about a fifth of the way in. Also different from most in the series, this book has a primary plot which follows Jack while there’s a secondary plot following Fletch and Crystal. I presume that Mcdonald meant for the two books about Jack to be a spin-off of sorts and so maybe he was changing the model a bit?
While I appreciated the close out of what Fletch did to help Crystal after the last installment and the Mortimer character did provide some entertainment, I could have done without the B plot here. I’d have preferred more action with Jack and maybe even Fletch on the “compound”. There is an interesting juxtaposition between the compounds of the last book and this book in terms of their functions and socioeconomic statuses within the two works.
The ultimate murder of Radleigh was unfulfilling though Fletch did get a few nice rejoinders as a result. The ending nearly mimiced the all-too-quick wind down of Son of Fletch and was generally underwhelming for me. I suspect the general problem with the piece overall, was that Jack didn’t really have to work too hard at hiding himself and wasn’t directly in danger at all during the entire piece which left some of the suspense out. Leaving all of the suspense on Radleigh’s shoulders just didn’t do enough for me.
Summary
While relatively entertaining, this is one of the least interesting and motivated stories in the Fletch canon. I’d rank it toward the bottom of the pantheon, though it was at least more fun to read than Fletch Too, which was just painful.
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.”
- 12/04/16 started reading
- 12/06/16 11.0% done
- 12/07/16 12.0% done
- 12/09/16 14.0% done
- 12/18/16 22.0% done
- 12/19/16 49.0% done; “This one immediately follows Son of Fletch, literally by few hours. It didn’t start out with the same type of bang that most of the Fletch series has, instead it was about 20% into the story before we knew quite what ride we were on. Now that’s it’s going, it’s as interesting as most Fletch tales.”
- 12/20/16 78.0% done
- 12/22/16 100.0% done; “I think this was the first (and only) in the Fletch series with an A and a B plot going on simultaneously. There wasn’t as much mystery or whodunnit as past books despite the number of suspects in something like Fletch’s Fortune. The ending was relatively interesting and certainly unexpected. I wouldn’t say it was very satisfying. I’d rank this one toward the bottom of the series overall.”
Highlights, Quotes, & Marginalia
“I know your name is Jack Faoni. The weekend we spent together you had me call you Fletch.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 25-25
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 1:02:47 AM
“We didn’t do all that much talking, as I remember. We went at each other like bear cubs.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 62-63
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 1:04:53 AM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 68
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 1:14:22 AM
“Chester Radliegh. He invented the perfect mirror.”
“Oh, yeah. The guy who straightened out our left from our right, right from left when we look at ourselves in a mirror.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 74-76
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:34:12 PM
“Boxers appreciate his mirror, too.”
“They do?”
“They don’t get blindsided so much these days. Haven’t you noticed?”
“Guess I haven’t.”
“More fights go the whole ten, fifteen rounds now.”
“Is that good?”
“Think of the philosophical, psychological, to say nothing of poetic ramifications of the perfect mirror. I mean, for centuries we were seeing ourselves wrong, weren’t we? Not as others saw us, as they say.”
“Do we ever, anyway?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 79-87
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:35:06 PM
“Oh. You called to invite me to your wedding? I’ll send a present. Shreds of my flannel shirt, as a keepsake, or a dust-cloth, whichever you need the more.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 93-94
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:35:57 PM
“This place is so big, there are so many people wandering around, you wouldn’t even be noticed.”
“Yeah, I do a pretty good imitation of a potted palm.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 112-114
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:37:09 PM
“…Sounds homey enough. Does it come complete with pricks?”
“Homey enough if your last name is Windsor.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 156-158
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:40:22 PM
“What did you say your relationship is with Mister Fletcher?”
“Relationship?” Jack would be damned before he would state his “relationship” with the member of the Board of Directors of Global Cable News, Consulting/Contributing Editor Irwin Maurice Fletcher.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 219-221
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:45:18 PM
“Things are tight here now, Jack. There’s so much competition in this business. We have difficulty, you see, in persuading all American businesses they should spend as much as eighty percent of their gross income on advertising. A few still resist the idea.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 262-264
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:48:01 PM
wallahs
Highlight (orange) – Location 280-280
He really does love this word.
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:49:18 PM
“I know what I’ve heard. One never knows what’s true.”
“One doesn’t?” Jack’s mouth was dry. “Isn’t that what this business is about?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 283-285
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:49:42 PM
“As a journalist, never be the rooster who believes it is only his crowing which brings up the sun.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 323-324
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:52:32 PM
“But gee, Dad, it really crimps the vanity, you know? I coulda been a see-leb-pretty.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 356-356
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:54:36 PM
“What are you going to do now that GCN has given you your walking papers?”
“Visit an old girlfriend in Georgia.”
“How close an old girlfriend?”
“She’s getting married. To someone else.”
“The best kind.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 377-380
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:56:07 PM
“Why? Doesn’t sound like there’s a story there.”
“Does there always have to be a story?”
“You’ve got to keep yourself in Pepsi and pizza, boy.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 387-390
Added on Sunday, December 4, 2016 3:56:42 PM
“‘To collect characters for the long ride,’” Jack quoted.
“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to say at this point?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 396-397
Added on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 1:59:01 AM
“How is Carrie?”
“Didn’t I just say? She’s crazy. She likes you. She loves me.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 407-409
Added on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 2:00:27 AM
“Just wanted you to know where I’ll be,” Jack said. “Tell my mother, please.”
“Sure,” Fletch said, turning the van left at the intersection. “Call if you find work.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 409-411
Added on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 2:00:33 AM
“Blair didn’t give you a job?”
“He gave me what he called ‘fatherly advice,’ to wit: get lost.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 421-422
Added on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 2:01:42 AM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 426
Added on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 2:03:09 AM
She was an enormous mound of mostly useless flesh in an outsized nightgown and bathrobe.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 430-430
Added on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 1:44:38 AM
“What did he say to you?” Fletch smiled.
“He told me to be careful not to let you fall on me again.”
After looking at Fletch a moment from the bed, Crystal laughed. “This time, I’d crush you to death.”
“Flatter than a manhole cover.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 446-449
Added on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 1:46:01 AM
“You’re back like the second half of a hurricane on a seaside resort!”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 461-461
Added on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 1:46:53 AM
coaxial sword
Highlight (yellow) – Location 474-474
Great description of a cable news network!
Added on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 1:48:21 AM
“…One thing I absolutely will not do for you is serve as your pallbearer. We’ll have to plant you with a crane.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 493-494
Added on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 1:50:00 AM
“I have done something about it.”
“What have you done? Send out for Chinese?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 495-496
Added on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 1:50:23 AM
“Crystal, the public cannot afford you. Not you and schools and the police and fire departments, too.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 502-503
Added on Friday, December 9, 2016 12:59:19 AM
“Mortimer.”
“Hi, Mister Mortimer. This is Fletch.”
“Who?”
“I. M. Fletcher.”
“Oh, no.”
“Did I call you at a bad time?”
“Yeah. I am not dead yet.”
“How have you been otherwise?” Fletch was using the phone in the handicap van. He had not left the front driveway of Blythe Spirit.
“Well enough to hang up on you.”
“Oh, don’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“I might have something interesting to say.”
“You always do. That’s why I’m hanging up. I’m too old to be interested in anything you have to say.”
“Come on, now.”
“Last time I listened to you is how I got so old.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 513-525
Added on Friday, December 9, 2016 1:00:24 AM
“…I’d rather be in jail. I would have known what I was doing in jail. What am I doing in Wyoming? There would have been more people I know in jail. We would have had a lot to talk about. I don’t know anybody in Wyoming. All the people here talk about is something they call beef cattle and the twelve deadly sins.”
“Seven.”
“Seven what?”
“I think it’s considered there are only seven deadly sins.”
“In Wyoming, they got twelve.”
“It is a big state.” “I can’t figure out whether Wyoming is big or just empty.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 532-539
Added on Friday, December 9, 2016 1:02:33 AM
“… Tell them all about my great life spent watching the mountains in Wyoming not move.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 545-545
Added on Friday, December 9, 2016 1:04:14 AM
“Beef cattle. Two legged beef cattle. That’s all they have out here: beef cattle. Four legged beef cattle, two legged beef cattle.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 550-551
Added on Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:08:33 PM
“… The other one, the sixteen year old, Ricky, actually thinks his muscles are pretty, if you’d believe it.”
“Doesn’t every sixteen year old?”
“The only opponent that interests him is in the mirror. And he likes him too much to get close. Even though they’re both wearing deodorant. Can you believe that? Ever hear of a boxer who insists on wearing underarm in the ring?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 559-563
Added on Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:09:35 PM
Crystal asked, “Where are you taking me?”
“Wyoming.” There was a long pause. “Fletch? Is that you, Fletch?”
“You were expecting Charon maybe?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 591-594
Added on Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:11:37 PM
“You can see out the windows. Nice scenery?”
“Yeah. The back of billboards.”
“All the fronts say is KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 615-617
Added on Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:12:58 PM
“I see. And you’re not much on farm laboring, I expect. It’s dry work, all right. I escaped a farm when I was a kid.” The man slapped the side of his stomach. “I wanted to wear a white shirt and have a gut.” He laughed. “See? I’m a success!”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 653-655
Added on Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:15:52 PM
“Is this The Magic Kingdom?” Jack asked the blue-and-white uniformed guard.
“You almost got it right,” the guard said. “You got a pass?”
“Yeah.” Jack handed the guard his laminated pass. “Winnie the Pooh dropped his.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 704-707
Added on Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:19:22 PM
He had entered the sort of world God might have created if He had money, to use an old wheeze.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 718-719
Added on Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:20:27 PM
“You count that as three possible attempts on his life.”
“There was a fourth, this morning.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 800-802
We’ve finally come to the motivating plot about 20% of the way into the book. usually it’s on page 2 if not before.
Added on Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:31:07 PM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 883
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:11:19 AM
“Is modern man ever more relaxed than when whizzing along a highway at the speed of a hurricane?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 890-891
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:12:00 AM
“Chester Radliegh lives in Georgia.”
“Ah, the state that originally banned lawyers. And slavery. First came the lawyers. Then slavery. Things haven’t changed much since.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 899-900
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:12:41 AM
“His family always had been in either the ministry or banking.”
“There’s a difference?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 912-913
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:13:52 AM
Thanks for your work, my good man. I’ll practice ’Git Along Little Dogies’ so I can sing it for you next time. In the key of Lee Marvin.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 1000-1001
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:20:07 AM
“Radliegh,” Crystal said after the van had gone another ten miles. “First he creates the perfect mirror, then he tries to create the perfect image. The first was scientifically possible—”
“And the second,” Fletch said, “is a goose’s chase.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 1008-1010
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:20:35 AM
“Plants; weeds,” she continued muttering at the soil: “Just like children.” She pinched a dead leaf off an azalea. “Nurture some plants beautifully, give them everything they want and need, and some of them just curl up ugly. Beat some weeds to death and they just keep popping up, growing, proliferating. If we had genuine respect for character, we’d cultivate weeds and send the plants to mulch.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 1016-1019
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:21:38 AM
“I don’t even want to go to heaven,” Mrs. Houston said as she dug her fingers into the soil, “unless they have some work for me to do there.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 1041-1042
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:23:11 AM
“For sure, you’re the sickest thing I ever saw in a health store.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 1364-1365
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 10:53:29 AM
While they talked, Fletch picked up all the wastepaper from their store-bought dinner and placed it in a nearby rubbish bin. Whether the American people realize it or not, Fletch thought, we are eating our trees.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 1765-1766
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 1:00:39 PM
I swanee down the back.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 1951-1951
What does swanee mean here? I’ve never heard this as a verb. A river yes, but never a verb.
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 1:28:23 PM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 1959
Added on Monday, December 19, 2016 1:28:58 PM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 2141
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 7:09:55 PM
“… Most people, I figure, never do anything unusual, they just go along with whatever it is, mediocrity, corruption, because they can’t stand the idea of being unique, alone, isolated.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2284-2285
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 7:28:33 PM
“There are gay members of Congress now.”
“Not from Georgia. Not at this time, there aren’t,” Shana said. “Sodomy laws have been removed from the books so recently here you can still see the dust from the eraser.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2403-2405
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 7:37:16 PM
“What happens to a black hole when it disappears?” Radliegh smiled. “You mean, what happens to the information within?”
“I don’t know what I mean.”
“It would be fun if it elongated into a line so narrow that its cut length would be a speck so small it might be invisible.”
“Why would that be fun?” Jack asked.
“Because it might help define the indefinite we’re prone to think of as the infinite.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2656-2661
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:26:20 PM
“Your grandmother, the defective novelist,” Fletch said.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2711-2711
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:30:28 PM
“So pleased to meet you, Doctor Fletcher.”
“No doctor at all,” Fletch said. “Not even a patient. Call me Irwin.”
“Irwin?” Jack muttered. “Since when Irwin?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2718-2721
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:30:58 PM
Enjoying the flora and fauna of the garden paths, Fletch said, “Gridlock in paradise. Could it be otherwise? I’ve always suspected Adam and Eve sinned out of pure boredom.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2764-2765
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:34:00 PM
“You must not spend all night every night reading. Man does not live by literature alone. You need sleep.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2858-2859
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:40:12 PM
Mortimer answered the phone. “Hello? Oh, my God, it’s that Fletcher bird. I thought we got rid of you, Fletcher. Please at least tell me you’ve left the state of Wyoming?”
“I’ve left the state,” Fletch said.
“That’s the best thing I’ve heard about Wyoming since I’ve been here—you’ve left.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2862-2865
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:40:47 PM
“I seem to remember you on the ground, on your back.”
“I tripped.”
“That’s what Schmeling said.”
“What happened to gratitude?”
“It came in last in the last race at Hialeah. Hasn’t been heard from since.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2882-2886
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:42:06 PM
“… She’s waiting for a mare to drop her filly.”
“Why would a Mayor drop cream cheese?”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 2923-2924
Added on Tuesday, December 20, 2016 10:44:18 PM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 3117
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 1:48:37 AM
Fletch said, “I killed Chester Radliegh.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3130-3130
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 1:49:30 AM
“Tell me the one about why the turtle crossed the road.”
“To get to the Shell station.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3130-3132
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 1:49:46 AM
“… An obdurate man, no matter how brilliant, is an idiot.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3138-3138
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 1:50:19 AM
“Doctor Radliegh died after dinner.”
“How? Did someone kill him?”
“Yeah. I did.”
“How did you do that?”
“Just by talking to him.”
“Mister Mortimer said no one should ever listen to you.”
“He’s right, I guess.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3232-3237
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 1:57:55 AM
Fletch yawned again. “Thanks died at Hialeah, or something.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3244-3245
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 1:58:51 AM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 3270
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 4:35:25 PM
“He spoiled it. He killed it with care.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3305-3305
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 4:37:45 PM
oriole
Highlight (orange) – Location 3321-3321
I suspect he meant oriel: “A bay window in an upper story, supported from below by projecting corbels, or brackets of stone or wood.” This typo appears twice in the text.
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 4:38:39 PM
He asked his father, “This guy any good?”
Fletch said, “If he were any stupider he’d need a bar code.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3349-3350
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 4:40:35 PM
“Homey,” Fletch commented. “Makes me want to ask when my flight to Tulsa leaves.”
“Do airlines still give out that kind of information?” Jack asked.
“Not voluntarily,” Fletch answered. “Or reliably.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3362-3365
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 4:41:34 PM
I couldn’t sell a ticket to a nun
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3568-3568
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 4:54:40 PM
At that moment, Fletch did not expect to be listening to a sixteen-year-old boxer in Montana recite poetry to him by long-distance telephone.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3579-3580
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 4:55:34 PM
“Oh, no.” Jack put the car in gear.
“I work for the truth.” Slowly he drove the little car around the groups of people in the semicircular driveway.
“Humph,” Fletch said. “Good line.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3877-3879
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 5:38:03 PM
“Where did you get an airplane like that?” Slowly, Jack drove Fletch toward the airplane. “The Smithsonian? Don’t they miss it?”
“I bought it from a friend. He needed the money.”
“And you learned to fly it?”
“Not really. I use a road map and stay out of traffic.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 3927-3931
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 5:42:16 PM
🔖 Bookmark on Location 3950 – Finished!
Added on Thursday, December 22, 2016 5:45:35 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
📕 100.0% done with Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald
📕 100.0% done with Fletch Reflected by Gregory Mcdonald
I think this was the first (and only) in the Fletch series with an A and a B plot going on simultaneously. There wasn’t as much mystery or whodunnit as past books despite the number of suspects in something like Fletch’s Fortune. The ending was relatively interesting and certainly unexpected. I wouldn’t say it was very satisfying.
I’d rank this one toward the bottom of the series overall.
