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Monthly Archives: June 2008

Reading Forgotten Books: Day of The Moon

20 Friday Jun 2008

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

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Books, Forgotten Friday Book

Day of The Moon by Bill Pronzini and Jeffrey Wallmann is a fine little crime novel. It was recommended a few weeks ago by James Reasoner on Patti Abbot’s Forgotten Friday books.

Flagg works for the “organization” as a troubleshooter, a sort of detective for the mob. He’s not a thug, preferring to use his brain instead of a weapon. But he’s capable and will use violence if necessary.

The novel is actually three novelettes smoothed into a single story, what in SF is termed a fix-up.The three stories involve an armored car heist gone bad, hijackings of the organization’s trucking operation, and an illegal moonshine operation cutting into profits. They all neatly tie into one story.

Flagg, single name only, is a character akin to Donald Westlake’s Parker(as by Richard Stark), a criminal that the reader ends up rooting for, the antihero who;s slightly less violent.

Originally it was to be a series, but the vagaries of publishing shot that down. There is a fourth novelette that remains uncollected. I’d be interested in reading that, but it doesn’t seem likely at this point.

Day of The Moon is easily available, at a good price, on the used book web sites and worth a look. The copy I bought looked like it had never been read, though one corner of the cover had small wrinkles.

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Bond, James Bond

19 Thursday Jun 2008

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Books, spy

I just finished the new James Bond novel, Devil May Care, by Sebastion Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. A mouthful.

I enjoyed it, though I didn’t think it measured up to Raymond Benson’s efforts a few years back. I’d read a couple of bad reviews on it, so I approached it with a bit of trepidation. The two writers who didn’t like it I have a lot of respect for, but I didn’t think it was nearly as bad as they thought. Different tastes I imagine.

I’d not read any of Faulks’ other novels(he seems to be thought of as a literary writer). That’s not a bad thing, but maybe not the type to write Bond novels. I’ve always placed them closer to the best pulp writings of the thirties/forties. I don’t know whether Mr. Faulks will do anymore, but I’ll probably read them if so. He’ll likely get better.

We’ll have o wait and see.

Laker Destruction!

18 Wednesday Jun 2008

Posted by Randy Johnson in Sports

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Sports

The Lakers went down in flames! HaHaHaHa!

The Boston Celtics captured their seventeenth NBA championship amd completely dismantled the Lakers 131-92, the largest margin in a clinching finls game in history. The old record was in 1965, another ass-whipping by the Celtics of the Lakers, 129-96.

Paul Pierce won the MVP and well deserved it was. But I think the star of the game was Rajon Rondo. 21 points, 6 steals, 6 rebounds.

Let’s do it again next year, guys!

Father’s Day Sports

16 Monday Jun 2008

Posted by Randy Johnson in Sports

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Sports

Sunday was a big day for sports. Let’s get started.

1.The Lakers squeaked by in the fifth game, sending the series back to Boston for the sixth-and possibly seventh-game. After taking a huge lead in the first quarter(Kobe scored fifteen), the offense seemed to take a holiday, letting the Celtics slowly back into the game. They briefly took the lead and both teams jockeyed back and forth the rest of the game. Boston missed a few crucial free throws down the stretch, made a few turnovers, and the Lakers managed to pull the game out.

It doesn’t say much about the Lakes’ defensive skills to let Boston trim huge leads in the last two games to nothing. The series should be over and probably will the next game. The Lakers can win, they are a good team, but not two in a row.

Kobe has been stellar in spots, both scoring and assisting, then just disappears for periods of time. That’s because of the Celtics defense, but Kobe IS the best player of his generation. He’s no Michael Jordan, not yet, but will probably reach that rarefied air before he’s through.

Celtics in six I think.

2.The US Open. Tiger Woods made a tremendous birdie putt on eighteen yesterday to tie Rocco Mediate, forcing an eighteen hole playoff today.

Both of them played some hellacious golf this weekend. Mediate is forty-six, ranked up over a hundred in the world. He’s never won a major, it’s been about six years since he won a tournament. Tiger is coming off knee surgery, no tune-up tournament. A number of times you could see the pain in his face after a swing. The man can play some golf.

Luck to both of them in the playoff today.

3.The Michigan 400(I refuse to call it the Lifelock 400 because of all the bad press lately. Their security measures don’t seem to work nearly as well as they claim. You know the commercials with the CEO’s SSS number prominently displayed on the side of the trailer. It seems a mentally challenged man used it to obtain a 500 dollar loan. The company found him  and badgered a confession, on camera, out of him, rendering  the whole thing inadmissable in court.  The prosecution is not going to proceed. And there is the eleven driver’s licenses obtained from the SSS number. Embarassing all around). I’ve gotten off track here.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the Michigan 400, his first win in 76 starts. Good for him.

Game 4

13 Friday Jun 2008

Posted by Randy Johnson in Sports

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Sports

It was quite a game last night. The Celtics looked miserable in the first quarter. The Lakers went on a 9-2 run to start and the score at the end was 35-14, the largest first quarter margin in the history of the playoffs.

It wasn’t much better at half time, an eighteen  point blow out, the largest in the shot clock era.

The Celtics had a minor rub to start the second half, then the lead went up to 24 points, the largest in the game. That’s when Boston knuckled down and went to work.

Their defense improved. Paul Pierce had started guarding Bryant and, ultimately, turned in a masterful performance. Kobe finished the game with seventeen points and his levels of frustration became more pronounced as the game wore on.

Boston’s big three ended with a total of 55 points. There was plenty of help from the supporting cast also. An all around team effort in the truest sense of the word.

Final score: 97-91, Boston.  The greatest comeback in  play-off history(24 points), breaking the old record of 21 held by them.

Can the Celtics finish it off in game five Sunday? Probably not. But it’s virtually impossible that they will lose three in a row to the Lakers, two of them in Boston.

Go, Celtics!

Disgraced Referee

11 Wednesday Jun 2008

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Sports

Disgraced ref Tim Donaghy claims now that two officials conspired to get a playoff series into a seventh game during the 2002 playoffs. The only series that fits that statement is the Laker/Kings, the only one that year to reach a seventh game.

Let’s look at the evidence. The Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter to only 9 for the Kings. It’s been well documented that it was the worst called quarter of professional basketball that attending sports writers had ever seen. Phantom calls, flat out bad calls, ignored calls.

On the surface, it seems Donaghy may be telling the truth. Gut, is he?

His sentencing for a federal offense comes up soon. He’s fighting for a lighter sentence. Could it be possible that he looked over past records and picked the one series where there was already some controversy? There had never been a hint before that  the series might have been fixed.  Officials DO have bad games. Thet are human beings. People have bad games, they make mistakes.

My own belief is that Donaghy is just trying to save his ass. Nothing else.

Game 3

11 Wednesday Jun 2008

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The Lakers took game three 87-81. It wasn’t a pretty game by any means. Neither team played up to their potential. Boston’s big three played horribly. If they intend to keep the Celtic record of never losing a finals after leading 2-0(it presently stands at 7-0), they need to come back big time in the next game. They have an anemic road record of 2-8 in this year’s playoff games.

Game 2

09 Monday Jun 2008

Posted by Randy Johnson in Sports

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My Celtics tried to blow it last night. They had an up and down second half. From a sixteen point lead, they let the Lakers off the hook. Once the lead was cut to nine, with the Lakers looking much better, the Celtics turned it back on and blew the lead back out to twenty-four with seven and a half minutes left in the game.

Then they tried cruise contro; again and all of a sudden, the Lakers were only three down with a minute and a half left. They managed to squeak by with some judicious baskets and foul shooting.

They’re 2-0, business taken care of at home. But the next three games will be in Los Angeles. At worst, they’ll be back in Boston for game six. But I’d like to see them finish it in L.A. They can do it, having beaten them two out of two games in the regular season. The playoffs are different of course, but I believe the Celtics are the better team. I hope that’s just not personal bias showing through.

We’ll see in a couple of days.

Treasures

06 Friday Jun 2008

Posted by Randy Johnson in Personal

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Books

I took advantage of Bush’s economic stimulus check and laid in a supply of books from Amazon. Ups delivered seventeen in the last couple of days. I’m good to go now for the rest of the month. I got King, Preston,  Alten, Haldeman, Niven, Reilly, Johnstone, Dockery and Niles,Swierczynski,  Faulks, Rollins, Wellman, Stark, Denning, Allson, Wilson, and Traviss.

Science Fiction, thrillers, westerns, crime, fantasy.

I’ll never in my life order that many books at one time again. Unless the President does it again.

Celtics-Lakers! Yea!

06 Friday Jun 2008

Posted by Randy Johnson in Sports

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Sports

My Celtics took care of business in the first game, winning 98-88.

I never thought I would see such again. The Celtics had been brain dead for so many years. There was a whole generation of fans that had never seen Byrd, Parrish, and McHale play, le alone any of the earlier versions of the team(Bill Russell’s era of eleven championships).

Twenty-one years had gone by since the last team’s visit to the finals.

I’d gotten out of the habit of watching NBA games after sticking so long with the Celtics and watching them steadily get worse. I never was a big fan of the Hornets. And certainly not Charlotte’s current team, the Bobcats(hate that name).

It took a match-up with the Lakers to get me back aboard I’m ashamed to admit. I’d read a bit during the regular season and play-offs, but hadn’t really cared. I think I was waiting to be disappointed one more time.

They haven’t won yet by any means, just held court at home. But it ‘s gotten me interested again. I’ll be there pulling to the end and the future looks bright. For a couple of years anyway. Just hope they can sustain it with good choices in the draft or trades. Red, old buddy, look out for us up there!

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