Category: Fun

Michael Connelly – Desert Star

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I’m about a hundred pages into the “Desert Star” novel and Renee Ballard is limping along as the head of a volunteer “cold case” unit. One person, whom she did not choose, is channeling info back to a wealthy, powerful councilman, so Renee has already intentionally “cut him out of the loop” for an update meeting. She has to keep the councilman happy because he is a possible major source of funding for this volunteer unit.

Harry has already ignored Renee’s “do not copy” policy and she has had to wink at that. But, Harry is uncontrollable, and even though Renee wants all of her staff to focus on one case, Harry just refuses and keeps spending his time & energy on another case. After all, how can you ignore the death of a family of four? Well, it’s not like the family just got killed. And, if it was THAT important, maybe Harry shouldn’t have retired and left that case to someone else several years before. He could have solved that case years ago and be focused on this other case now.

And Renee has hired a “psychic” for her other abilities in researching, but now the psychic has tainted evidence because she had to “touch” items in the evidence box without gloves.

So with all these dysfunctional people on this volunteer unit, Renee can’t last long. In fact, if you can’t control the people either you shouldn’t be their boss, or they shouldn’t be on the “team”.

Renee: “Oh Harry, I didn’t think you would have a problem with the “psychic” trying to get a feel for the case by touching the evidence in your boxes.” “Yes, I know you said something about tainting evidence that might affect your case later, but we’re all just here to work together, aren’t we?”

So, the way it has been written thus far, I don’t see this unit lasting past the end of “Desert Star.”

So now Harry is planning on flying to Chicago, for a day, to pick up a campaign badge for evidence in a case. He agrees to do the trip, “on his dime” but if the department comes through later, he’ll get reimbursed. The mother doesn’t remember touching the button and Harry is trying to preserve any fingerprints or DNA that might be on the badge. I guess the parents didn’t touch the button when they packed up their dead daughter’s things in L.A., to send them back to Chicago. And, that would be possible if they just took the drawer that the campaign button was in and dumped the whole thing in a box. Don’t waste the tax payer’s money on a “hail Mary” ornament. Everyone doesn’t attain the excellence of maintaining the viability of evidence that the Great Harry Bosch does, but surely there must be some adult in Chicago that can package the campaign button up, without touching it, and mail it to L.A. Expedite the transfer, and even if you pay extra for shipping, it’s got to be less than a round trip ticket between L.A. and Chicago. What a waste, for a baby that can’t wait.

[NOTE]: What will be the end of Harry Bosch? Well, “Morse” ends his days as an impotent, sickly human being, and the roles between Morse and Robbie Lewis have switched. Morse is no longer the aficionado of wine & opera, but is stumped when trying to identify a common bird. So Morse dies at the hospital, alone, while Lewis is out solving a case. Just realized that Morse has opera and Bosch has jazz.

I’ve said elsewhere that Harry Bosch has done for L.A. what Morse did for Oxford, England. I noticed early that the street signs in Bosch were always in focus. If you stopped the video and read the street sign, you could go to Google Maps and Street View and find the exact location. Later, much later, once I started reading the Bosch novels I realized that Connelly put his fictional characters in “real” locations. This was fun to get a better feel for what Connelly was describing. *One problem is that the Bosch novels span a 30 year period, and if you are reading the early books, those actual locations may no longer exist to be viewed online. [end NOTE]

Pharaoh’s Legacy – Lamb Gyro Pita & Greek Salad

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Today the rental agents were supposed to come around to the Longhill Pointe Apartments with a “mortgage” inspection. I decided to leave my apartment for the day, read more of “The Black Ice” at the Main Cumberland County Library in the morning, then go across town for lunch at Pharaoh’s Legacy for a Lamb Gyro Pita and Greek Salad, come back across town to the parking lot, for my cardiologist appointment, and then read some more until my 2:15 pm appointment.

I had been up early most of the morning before having breakfast at home, showering, dressing and leaving for the day, so when I went to the library and started reading, I was sleepy.

I was at the restaurant a little before noon and ordered soon after entering and being seated at a table directly in front of the entrance door. Unfortunately, the Greek Salad wasn’t as good as it normally is. The red onion was thin, the Pepperoncini skin was tough and there wasn’t much Italian dressing. Several previous visits to the restaurant, had delicious salads and the Kalamata olives especially had good flavor. *I even learned how to make the Italian dressing at home satisfactorily. There are things I don’t like in my Greek Salad… cucumber and sweet bell pepper. The basic dressing is easy to make at home: red wine vinegar, olive oil, Italian herbs, S&P, Dijon mustard and some sweetener. I’ve started using Romaine Lettuce (I buy the whole head because it lasts much longer than prepared, chopped Hearts of Romaine, which turns brown quickly.). I have several jars of Pepperoncini, and just bought more Kalamata olives from the Olive Bar at Fresh Market in Fayetteville.

I ate most of the salad, except for some of the tough Pepperoncini, and a bit of Romaine. I ate just a little of the pita bread, and then got a box for the remaining Lamb Gyro in the pita. I was in the doctor’s office parking lot about an hour and a half early, but eventually backed into a spot and started to read my book again. I went in to the office a little after 2pm, and at around 2:15 a nurse came out and directed me back, for a weigh-in, and some other tests. She commented on my loss of weight, as did the doctor later. He set up an appointment for another year from now. *I’m feeling good, but know that at my age, 70, a serious illness (even terminal) might jump out at me, unannounced. And, although I currently am healthy and able to easily take care of myself, cooking, bathing, grocery shopping, etc., if I lose my mobility that would seriously affect my lifestyle.

I don’t really want to move back to Jacksonville, Hubert or Swansboro, NC even though Mary Ann and her family are in Hubert. I am alone in Fayetteville, but I would be pretty much alone wherever I went now.

[NOTE 03/14/24]: The simple Greek Salad: chopped Romaine Lettuce, diced sweet onion, Pepperoncini, Kalamata Olives, quartered Campari Tomatoes, sun-dried tomato slivers, Feta cheese. Dressing: Olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, oregano, S&P, sweetener. [end NOTE]

[NOTE 01/09/25]: When I remember, I take a sandwich baggy with me, to the restaurant, that has some pepperoncini, grape tomatoes & sliced sweet onion, and I now ask my waiter/ess for an extra cup of their Italian dressing. Usually, the restaurant’s pepperoncini has a tougher skin but their Kalamata olives, which I normally can’t find in my refrigerator, have a better taste.

I’m currently reading “Magic Foods For Better Blood Sugar.” Three of the ingredients they suggest for lowering blood sugar include: red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and olive oil. These are all included in the Italian dressing.

I haven’t been making many salads for my meals, and most of those are not Greek salads, but I do have some Romaine lettuce in the fridge.

[end NOTE]

Connelly – The Black Ice

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Fortunately, it only takes about 30 pages of the novel, “The Black Ice” to understand what the phrase “Black Ice” references. There is a Hawaiian version of a drug mix called “glass” but Mexicans are able to reproduce it more cheaply, and deliver it more cheaply, and money talks, so the Hawaiians are selling less and less. The drawback is that the Mexicans are using a brown heroin in the mix and this lends it’s name to their “Black Ice.”

But, we start with a dead LA detective, Plaxico Burrus… no, Calixeco Moore who apparently has committed suicide with a double barrel shotgun, in a cheap motel room, and a good portion of his head has been disintegrated.

Harry and Moore had met once, outside of work, at a bar, the “Catalina Bar & Grill.” Harry gets an education on “glass” versus “black ice.” But Harry also sees that Moore is just a committed drunk. And now, several weeks later, just before Christmas, Moore’s body has been found. *So I thought this bar would be easy to find in Google Maps, but then you realize that “The Black Ice” was written about 1993, so that was about 31 years ago. There are quite a few restaurants & bars that don’t last anywhere near as long.

Harry’s nemesis, Irvin S. Irving, sends him to notify Moore’s widow of her husband’s death. Harry knows that the widow is a teacher and that at the time of Moore’s death, he was separated from his wife. In fact, this might have been a reason, or one of the reason’s for Moore to commit suicide. But, Harry can’t remember the widow’s name, which she later tells him, it’s “Sylvia.” Harry is attracted to her.

Sylvia tells Bosch that she teaches English, and that she assigns different books to her students that have something to do with the history of Los Angeles. There is a quote from one specific book, “The Long Goodbye,” that she likes, “There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself.” She says it’s about a detective, and Harry says he’s read the book. *When does Harry read a book?

“The Long Goodbye” was written by Raymond Chandler in 1953, and it was released as a movie in 1973, featuring Elliot Gould as Detective Philip Marlowe. I know the movie, having just rewatched it in the last week. In the movie, Marlowe is living at the High Tower Apartments, the apartments with the iconic elevator in a tower (located very close to the Hollywood Bowl). Because I haven’t read the Bosch novels in the order in which they were written by Connelly, I read “Echo Park” early. Recall that in “Echo Park” a young woman had been killed 13 years before, and only her automobile had been found in one of the small garages at the High Tower Apartments. When I saw the name “High Tower Apartments,” I immediately thought of the Long Goodbye movie, although at the time it had been several years since I last watched this film. The film is iconic, for the elevator in the tower, and Marlowe’s finicky cat that only will eat a certain brand of cat food, Marlowe’s scantily clad, and sometimes even nude female neighbors, and even for the movie’s ending when Marlowe shoots and kills his friend, who had killed his wife (not Marlowe’s wife) and set Marlowe up for a roller coaster ride with the cops & gangsters. *And one of the gangsters included a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. ***Written in 1953, released as a movie in 1973 and referenced in a Connelly novel in 1993. Before I forget, I’m also a Sterling Hayden fan, who’s character commits suicide by swimming out into the Pacific Ocean. Henry Gibson is also in the film.

So I went to Target today to see if they had celery seeds. I hadn’t found any at Walmart, and had mentally gone through the various other grocers that might have celery seeds in their spices section.

I rarely go to Target, but have bought various items there in the past. I walked off to the side in the store to their grocery section, and then looked back to one of the shelves. I saw what appeared to be about four hardback books laying on top of each other. They weren’t displayed for selling the books, but just as a display of “some books on a shelf.” For some reason, I decided to walk over to see which books they were, and even thought that they were about the size of a Connelly novel. And what? Yes, there was “Resurrection Walk” with a discount of 30% off the listed price. That would be about $21 dollars, plus tax.

And, as I’m writing this, the first episode of “The Rookie” is coming on again and I see that it is set in LA also.

I forgot. There is a dead Hawaiian “mule” who had a stomach full of drug sausages, but he had been strangled, and this is Harry’s case.

So, I am trying to think of how this story will all come together. Who killed the Hawaiian? Was Moore killed, or did he commit suicide? Will Harry screw Moore’s widow? Will Harry close two cases, before January 1st so that the department can say they have solved more homicides that year, than failed to?

Yes, he does screw Sylvia Moore before he heads to Mexicali. *Now, my next question is, “Does Sylvia Moore get killed by the end of ‘The Black Ice’?” And, I am still wondering if Harry actually marries Eleanor Wish.

Hotel De Anza, Calexico, CA

Sunshine Canyon Landfill

Monumento a Benito Juárez Mexicali, Mexico

[ADDENDUM 03/15/24]: So I’ve finished “The Black Ice” and have now started reading “City of Bones.” It’s been about eight years, between the two stories and Bosch needs Teresa C, the Chief Medical Examiner of LA, to identify a bone as ‘human.’ He stops by her front door, at night, and she quickly authenticates it as a humerus bone, probably of a child of about 10 years old, and then dismisses Harry quickly as she is on her way to some event. It’s New Year’s Eve.

Now here’s the thing. You just have to go back and review the last time Teresa and Harry were together, intimately. Seems that Teresa had completed the autopsy on Calexico Moore and she had found evidence that he hadn’t committed suicide, but Harry doesn’t know this, but Harry is questioning her as to what evidence she has discovered. She reluctantly tells Harry, “you can’t tell anyone this because it will jeopardize my chances at work of becoming the Chief Medical Examiner and not just the “Acting Chief…” Harry agrees willingly to “keep mum” about whatever it is, and Teresa spills the beans, and then they make love. Afterwards, while Teresa is taking a shower, Harry calls a reporter friend at the newspaper and suggests that there is a conflict with Moore’s cause of death. A suicide or a homicide? And then Harry heads down to Mexico.

When I read this, I remember thinking, “If I were a male contemporary of Harry Bosch, and he treated me the way he had just treated Teresa, I would probably think Harry was a sorry piece of shit that couldn’t be trusted. The information she had given him, in confidence, and that he had agreed not to share, because it might cost her the job she wanted, he had shared, immediately with the newspaper, and it would be obvious where the “leak” had come from. If I were a male co-worker with Harry, I would write him off right then as being a lying son of a bitch that couldn’t be trusted, and there wouldn’t be anything he could do or say that would ever change that. *Even if he makes it in the end so that I get approval from Irvin S. Irving to become permanent Chief Medical Examiner, which Harry did. Harry would have betrayed the trust between us, and become just another self-serving dick. Make her out to be some self-serving bitch, but Harry was worse, a lying asshole that couldn’t be trusted. His word, was about as long as his dick.

[end NOTE]

Bosch: Legacy

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Bosch: Legacy, Season 1, Ep. 5

Maddie Bosch talking on phone, walking down Hollywood Blvd.

Bosch: Legacy, Season 1, Ep. 6

Hollywood Cactus Taqueria #1 – Bosch & Potter talking at night.

Citibank on W. Sunset Blvd.

In this episode, a young “boot” LAPD officer gets shot and Maddie is assigned to act as liaison to her family. Maddie is talking to Harry later and he tells her about being shot, when he was pursuing a couple of bank robbers in a downtown tunnel. *We see a large poster of “The Black Echo” briefly as the camera pans past Harry sitting in a chair. Harry begins telling his story of the events, and how in the darkness, he trips over one of the robbers, who now is dead from an earlier gun shot wound. But his partner is waiting around the corner and shoots Harry and Harry falls. Harry then hears the bad guy coming back to finish him off, but Eleanor Wish (an FBI agent, to be Harry’s wife, and Maddie’s mother) shoots the bad guy before he can shoot Harry again, and saves Harry’s life. Maddie does this also, later, at a marina where another bad guy has got the drop on Harry on a boat. *I’m currently reading “The Black Echo” (the first Bosch novel, and set back in the early 90’s) so now I have some idea where this is all going. That is if there aren’t differences between the book & the Legacy TV show. But, I haven’t read why the Army “tunnel rat” has been killed, but I am guessing it is to keep him quiet about an upcoming bank heist.

**When you realize that “The Black Echo” was written & set in 1992, then you have to go back to how things were then. I was a year or so into my “Microcomputer Systems Technology” training at Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville, NC. PC monitors were multi-colored by this time, but there was no wide-spread Internet. In fact, in August of 1995 when I was hired at Fayetteville State University, the Netscape browser was not even a year old, yet. At the time, I didn’t know that Netscape was still in it’s infancy.

Connelly – The Overlook

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Maybe this is why I either misplaced “The Overlook” or never actually bought it at the book sale in “Little Washington.” I would not have gone looking for a signed copy of this book online. But, I have just ordered it for about $42 (including tax & shipping). Why? If it arrives with a valid Connelly signature as shown below, it would be well worth it for me, “Bill,” even though the “Bill” mentioned in the signature, wasn’t me… but maybe it was meant to be. ‘All the best from Harry Bosch, Good luck in court’;-)

from JOHN CARTER
The Overlook
from BOSCH
If only, would this not be my perfect signed copy?

Apparently this is the novel in which the FBI agent, is having an affair and kills the husband, who has stolen radioactive Cesium, and somewhere during this case Harry is exposed to the radioactivity… later giving him a mild form of Leukemia (With mom dying of Leukemia, I find it difficult to imagine a “mild form.”).

On the TV Bosch, Lynn Collins plays the unfaithful wife, who’s husband has been murdered, by her lover, an FBI agent. The actress played Dejah Thorin in “John Carter.” I liked the “John Carter” movie, but later, much later, was reading online that this movie was a “stinker,” and had lost a bunch of money for Disney. In that movie, Lynn Collins looked like a goddess, while she was more haggard looking in the Bosch episode.

[NOTE]: I just recalled that I did a Google Maps Street View on some of the locations from the Bosch TV series that included this story (The Overlook). They had an outside scene for St. Agatha’s Hospital, which I eventually found was another “out of business” hospital that they had put a sign on. There had been an actual “St. Agatha’s Hospital” but that location had been razed to the ground, pending new development. [end NOTE]

I suppose this is the Overlook.

And this was the victim’s home (which is actually very close to the Overlook location.

St. Vincent’s Medical Center used as St. Agatha’s Hospital

Snow Hill, Greenville, & Little Washington

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Well, Friday started off with a visit to the cardiologist’s office to have an echocardiogram. I had forgotten that I had this scheduled at 9:30 am on Friday. I originally was planning to get up a little earlier and make it to Greenville, NC by 9:00 am to be one of the first in the Library Book Sale at the Greenville Convention Center. But, no, I knew the doctor’s appointment was more important, and I hadn’t remembered that visit until the 24 hours advanced notice time was past. But, the echocardiogram went quickly and I was on the road to Greenville before 10 am.

I had decided to take Hwy. 13 all the way to Greenville instead of going up I95 and then taking I264 from Wilson to Greenville. The Wilson to Greenville route was a few minutes quicker, but I have driven that route many times through the years, and wanted a more “scenic” trip.

You turn onto Hwy. 13 at Berkley Blvd. to head to Greenville. The Berkley Mall is within sight of this traffic light. I had driven this route at least once before, because I remembered Snow Hill and had taken a picture of a string of old buildings in downtown Snow Hill on a previous “pass through.” Hwy. 258 intersects Hwy. 13 at Snow Hill. I know Hwy. 258 from my old stomping grounds in Jacksonville & Onslow County years ago. I also recall my NC Driver’s License number because part of it has the number 258 in it. I was 24 in ’88 and there is a Hwy. 258.

Even though I had gotten a late start on my trip because of the echocardiogram, I knew I needed to stop and take a “walk around” break from driving. When I was younger it was nothing for me to drive for four hours straight, and stop only to refuel my vehicle. I might not even have to take a “pee” break back then. Now it is the opposite, I usually have to plan for a pee break, whether I need to or not, because I at least feel like I need to. *But, this was the first time that I came up with the idea to go into a grocery story and walk around there. I saw a Piggly Wiggly and drove into the parking lot, got out and went into the store.

I walked through the store, first looking at a spice section, and eventually around to their meat section. The meat section had good looking cuts of meat, and I noted that some of the pork chops appeared to have a good price, per pound. Didn’t really plan to come back to this store on my way back to Fayetteville, but that is what I did do, and I bought a package of pork chops for $1.59 / pound. **I may have even bought the same package of pork chops that I had taken a picture of on my first visit of the day that morning.

The book sale was a little disappointing. I did end up buying two Michael Connelly novels that I didn’t already have, “City of Bones” and “The Lincoln Lawyer.” “City of Bones” is an earlier Bosch novel. Although I like the “Lincoln Lawyer” TV series, I wasn’t enamored with the Haller story I started to read, so I put it down. A note on the book cover for “City of Bones,” is that I have seen that cover before. Probably at one of the book sale visits somewhere. Part of the cover has a raised letter grid that was memorable. Don’t know why I didn’t buy this novel when I saw it at the earlier sale. Also don’t know what happened to “The Overlook” novel that I recorded as having bought in Little Washington, but couldn’t find when I got home, still… to this day.

I bought the two Connelly novels and about 4 other, German Language, books. One of those language books was a novel with a title, in German, meaning something like “The Snowmaiden’s Secret.” Another larger book has a title meaning something like, “First Men” or “People.” And, the check-out woman said my total was $6, so I gave her a $20 and told her to “keep the change as a donation.” She asked me if I was sure, and I said, “Yes.” After all, a donation to most libraries is “a good cause,” and where else can you buy a book for a dollar, or three, or even @$10 for a book that probably originally cost $35?

So, I’ve read eleven of the Bosch novels so far and am currently reading the first, “The Black Echo.” Definitely hadn’t planned on reading any of them, but have enjoyed most of them, and really like the characters and story line differences from the TV series. ****e.g. Irvin S. Irving is white in the novels and black ( played by Lance Reddick ) on TV. It is necessary for him to be white and prejudiced in the book, “The Closers,” for the comment, “Irving is a Jewish name, isn’t it,” to make any sense. I never really noticed the animosity between Irving & Bosch in the TV series, although I do recall an office scene between the two where Bosch has realized that Irving “planted evidence,” shows him the archived photo that proves it, and Irving shreds the evidence in front of him. It is a shame that Lance Reddick died. I liked him in whatever I saw him in, especially “Fringe.”

All through my adult “working” life, I never read much for entertainment. I read a great deal for work, and enjoyed much of that, but I wasn’t interested in “wasting my time” reading fiction, sci-fi or detective novels. I wasn’t interested in historical fiction. If it’s history, I want it to be historically accurate. But, from my historical research on the Cape Fear River steamboats, I do realize that sometimes the researcher/writer has to draw items together, when there is no written evidence as proof. You have to do this just to make the story “come together.”

When I got home, I took one of the pork chops out of the package. They looked good, and they were cut a little thicker, but not actually a thick cut chop. I decided to dice up some onion, jalapeno, poblano, red bell pepper & a couple of small tomatoes and fry the pork chop up on the stove-top. I also added some cayenne pepper and a chipotle pepper and some of the adobo sauce, with sweetener & a little agave nectar. I didn’t fix anything else with the pork chop. No rice, or sweet potato, or even tortilla chips. No slaw or cucumber & onion salad. Any of these extras would have been good with this spicy hot pork chop. It did turn out very well. ***Part of no sides with this meal was because I had eaten a bunch at lunch time. I had a Shrimp Po’Boy sandwich with coleslaw and a side of fried okra. The sandwich and the okra were “good again,” and this time I noted that they had put extra fried shrimp on my plate around the sandwich, and there was a very generous portion of okra. There were so many okra, that I asked for a “to go” box, and a “to go” cup of water with ice. In retrospect, I may have gotten a few extra shrimp and a bunch more fried okra because it was “late” lunch-time and maybe the chef was trying to get rid of these items so as not to have any left (or perhaps not enough for one more plate).

Looking out the back door of
Down on Main Street.

I was seated at a slightly different angle my last visit to Down on Main Street, and I think the black throw rug was in a slightly different position, but here was the kitchen door where the waitress came out of and did her dance with the woman customer coming out of the nearby Women’s Bathroom, and spilling some items. But note the man sweeping. Several of the men were in what I would call “a cleaning mode” which is definitely something I don’t have. I’m nasty, but it doesn’t mean I don’t recognize “clean” people, and even appreciate them.

As I am getting ready to pay my bill, and I had already taken my VISA card out (as I normally do), I looked at the ticket and noted that there was an extra charge (less than a dollar) if you didn’t pay by cash. I realized what this meant, but I did verify the meaning with my waitress a short time later. Yes, an extra charge if you paid with a credit card. So I fished around for enough cash and only included a $2 tip. The meal and unsweet tea were about $16. $1.60 would have been a 10% tip, so is that a 12.5 % tip? I think so. This waitress got the job done, but I didn’t really feel that she had “invested” enough in our brief relationship for me to be generous and give her a $3 tip. $2 felt cheap, but cheap I am, and I wasn’t going to pay a credit surcharge if I had enough cash.

Connelly – The Closers

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C. Erwin Piper Technical Center – Evidence Storage Warehouse

Chinatown

[NOTE 02/26/24]: Okay, let me come up with a scenario for “The Closers.” I’m about a 140 pages into this novel, and… the murdered girl, had an abortion a few months before she was killed. She was shot with a stolen gun (so he says) and another man’s DNA was found in the gun (now 17 years after the murder). Apparently this weapon was known to “pinch” the handler, if they weren’t cautious, and some skin, attributed to someone, not the gun’s owner, was found in the gun, from such a “pinch.”

The girl was part of a small group of girls that had known each other since 1st Grade. But, none of the girls seemed to know that the murdered girl had been pregnant. They knew of no boyfriend, other than one that had moved from the area about a year previous to the murder, and who had an alibi, a long way off… which Harry found hard to believe. But, you’ve also got to ask, why would this former boyfriend have a reason to kill this girl.

After the murder, the father left the home and became a “street” person. The mother stayed in the home, made a shrine to her daughter, in her daughter’s bedroom, and made ends meet by collecting items and then selling them online.

I’m going to guess that incest is going to be the reason for the murder. The girl’s father. Her father ran a restaurant, where she also worked. I’m guessing that the father may have procured the murder weapon from someone who stole the gun and left his DNA in the weapon. Could be the burglar threw the gun away in a dumpster behind the father’s restaurant. [end NOTE]

Connelly – The Narrows

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I just finished reading “Lost Light” and just before that, “A Darkness More Than Night.” “…Darkness…” dealt a great deal with the former FBI Agent, Terry McCaleb, who had had a heart transplant and had to leave the Agency and was then performing charter boat fishing tours, and taking a bunch of prescription drugs twice a day to stay alive. He was living with his wife, Graciela, and children in Avalon, on Catalina Island. Terry had thought that his partner on the boat, Buddy, had betrayed his trust by “eves dropping” on a private conversation, aboard the vessel, between Terry & Jaye Winston (female Sheriff’s Deputy), and then selling that info to a reporter. Eventually Terry figured out that Buddy hadn’t admitted to selling the private info, but had thought he was admitting to using the boat to entertain a hooker.

Terry was attacked aboard his boat by the murderer, a crooked cop, and his younger brother. Harry Bosch came to his rescue, and by the time everything was over, the younger brother was dead, and the crooked cop was seriously wounded. There was a large media coverage of these events & the death. Terry even had Buddy untie the boat so that Terry could leave the marina without having to face the questioning by all the congregated reporters.

Now I have started reading “The Narrows,” and once again we find ourselves down at Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro, The Port of LA…

[NOTE 02/20/34]: As I am writing the above sentence I just checked and the YM Warranty has left the Port of LA and is now just rounding the eastern side of Catalina Island, and Avalon, heading up to the Port of Oakland. The BBC Volga is still tied up at Douala, Cameroon. [end NOTE]

I am surprised by the interaction between Harry and Buddy. I know that Buddy had no direct interaction with Harry in “…Darkness…,” but it seems as if neither of them ever had any clue about the existence of each other but both were involved intimately with the other participants: Terry, Harry, and Jaye. *And, just a page or two later, Buddy realizes who Harry is, awkwardness solved.

Already, Terry’s widow has called on Harry, the PI, to investigate Terry’s death. Apparently, Terry in his last days was taking placebos, unbeknownst to him, because someone had replaced his actual heart medications with a benign powder. The first interview after Terry’s widow, is his former boat partner, Buddy.

[NOTE]: I’ve read little more and then went out to Cross Creek Mall for a massage, and then over to Publix to buy some small scallops. I bought .75 of a pound at around $9 plus tax. I’ll probably use half in each Seafood Chowder.

But, while I was driving around, I came up with the rest of the plot for “The Narrows.” From what we have been given currently, it is obvious that Graciela, Terry’s wife killed her husband. She was having an affair with Otto. She is a nurse, so she would have been able to research the medications and realize that she could just change out a couple of medications for placebos, and on a four day fishing trip, which Otto arranged, that would be enough time for Terry to bring his own life to an end, unknowingly. Graciela was unhappy with her marriage to Terry and his insurance was an incentive. Look at all the time he was spending on the boat. Once Terry was gone, Graciela would be able to move herself and her kids back to the mainland. The Poet is just an unimportant side hustle. Prove me wrong Connelly;-) [end NOTE]

[NOTE 02/24/24]: So, I knew my version of the plot of the Narrows wasn’t going to be correct. Mainly because that simple a plot could have ended the novel at about page 100. Once in the rushing torrent, not sure that Harry, actually would ever survive. Like going for a swim in the Cape Fear River. You go in, and you come out dead. [end NOTE]

Catalina Express Schedule

Avalon Freight Services In watching the Port of LA web cam, I have seen a vessel like the “Catalina Provider” coming in or out of the Port. Not sure if this was what Graciela planned to use when “packing up the children” and heading to the mainland.

Zzyzx Road

Finished this one and on to
“The Narrows.”
Stylish cap that blocks the glare
from this floor lamp
beside my easy chair

Like peas in a pod, don’t you think?
I’m three years younger, but
a much, much, more talented writer.

At the end of “Lost Light” Harry meets his four year old daughter, Maddie, who he didn’t know existed. A welcome, ex-wife’s surprise, and Harry’s salvation.

Pared Down Spaghetti Sauce

bgibson135

I haven’t made spaghetti sauce in a long time, but in the past, I made it quite often, probably every two or three weeks, and each time I made it there would be at least enough for three meals. I just haven’t needed the extra carbs of the spaghetti noodles, and I can’t imagine substituting zucchini noodles for actual pasta. *I do think I had some zucchini pasta with chicken at the Olive Garden, and wasn’t too thrilled when I found that the cheap special came with the zucchini noodles.

Olive Garden is one of those restaurants that I’ve completely stopped going to, although since my last visit to Dr. Norem (quarterly checkup), I haven’t been eating at very many restaurants. I’ve even pared my weekly visits to Taco Bell down to almost none. A day or so ago when I was preparing my schedule for meals for the next week, I thought of stopping by Taco Bell to buy either a Beef Burrito Supreme or a Crunchy Taco, but when I looked at the calories in just one taco, I decided to not go there,… and I love the flavors of their burrito supremes & tacos & bean burritos.

I haven’t been to the Rainbo in many, many months. Nor have I visited R.K.’s, or Zorbas. I’ve even made my lunch and took it with me twice when I was going up to Cary, Morrisville & Raleigh shopping. Ate twice in the Wegman’s parking lot and think I had a Greek Salad both times. The sesame crackers had become stale the second time, and they keep their crunch a long time. Probably should have put them in a plastic bag instead of actually on top of the salad, in the Tupperware container. Haven’t been to Golden Corral in way more than a year. I had been to the Pizza Hut in Lillington (just across the Cape Fear River) for their lunch buffet several times, but since my doctor’s visit, not once. I will have to say that their pizza and salad needed something, but I’m not sure what.

But this time I started with the intent of making only enough for one, or two meals. Quickly, I realized that you almost have to prepare spaghetti sauce for at least two meals. I had 4 oz. of ground beef, and diced a very small onion, some chopped red bell pepper, added half a can of diced fire roasted tomatoes to about a third of a jar of Rao’s Marinara Sauce, and a small can of mushroom bits & pieces. Italian seasoning, marjoram, bay leaves, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, onion flakes, garlic powder, ground Indian pepper, some dried parsley flakes, S&P, very little chicken stock, Agave Nectar and Splenda. I can see that this is going to provide me with two generous portions of spaghetti sauce, and I am planning to sauté some zucchini and add that to the pasta & spaghetti sauce (at the end). *Recall that fennel seeds are in some Italian sausage and provide a licorice flavor.

I have been to Helen’s Kitchen for breakfast a couple of times, when I visit Hubert & Jacksonville and Mary Ann. And on January 19th, I ate at both Helen’s Kitchen and at Down on Main Street, in “little” Washington, NC. I really, really, really enjoyed the shrimp burger with coleslaw, fried okra and cocktail sauce. Now, these are exceptions to my current eating patterns. And, if I am successful at getting my A1C below 7 this next doctor’s office visit, I might take a quick trip up to Greensboro, NC to “Sticks -n- Stones” Pizza. I love their Margherita Pizza with some jalapenos. The only other restaurant treat might be a visit to Pharaoh’s Legacy for their Lamb Gyro and Greek Salad, and my last visit there (about January 17th) I even carried my own Greek Salad and at the meal out in my car. But, this did throw my resting blood sugar level way high on January 18th, my & Mary Ann’s birthdays.

My change in eating patterns since shortly before my last checkup have greatly reduced my resting Bgl. And that only went up when I couldn’t refill my Trulicity prescription in a timely manner. I went up about 20 points on average until I got on Rybelsus, and then got Trulicity and started back on it. *I only used about 15 tablets of the Rybelsus because I had started to see things about extreme side effects, and then a commercial about another like product that was including Rybelsus in a law suit.

I left the spaghetti sauce cooking on low on the stove-top as I wrote the above, and when I went to it just now, most of the liquid had cooked out and I had enough for two 2-cup containers (only filling each about 2/3rds full). Fortunately, the sauce was just about perfect, and none of it had burned on the bottom of the pot. Sometimes, especially when I am cooking beans, and specifically those large white butter beans, I leave them and at some point realize that the water has cooked out of the pot and the beans on the bottom have become “scorched.” Although not inedible, the overcooked flavor is not my usual goal.

Both the YM Warranty and the BBC Volga appear to be in port at this time. The Warranty is at the Port of LA, and the Volga is at Douala, Cameroon. You know I am enamoured of the vessel Volga and her vast travels around the World since I first became aware of her, as she pulled into the Port of Morehead City in late November of 2022. If I were ever going to teach World Geography, I would hope to incorporate the travels of such a vessel because, and greatly to my surprise, the Volga, in a year almost completely travelled around the World in both directions. She did travel completely from West to East, and then turned around and almost completed the entire journey for East to West. And since, she has also gone through the Panama Canal, travelling completely down the western coast of South America, and then back up the entire eastern coast of South America, going to the Port of Houston, and then Panama City (USA) and then Jamaica and from there across the Atlantic to Cameroon. When you figure that she has been up to Norway, and over to Gdansk, Poland, and then to the UK, and around past the Straits of Gibraltar, across the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, down and across to Singapore, up to China and all the way to Japan, I think you should be impresses with this “little” vessel. A Handysize container vessel literally travelling the World.

[NOTE 05/04/24]: Well, I was successful in getting my A1C down to 6.7 for my last visit to Dr. Norem, and I had also lost about 15 lbs. during that time. And I think it was the following week that I took a trip up to Greensboro, NC and had a pizza at Sticks-n-Stones. “I love their Margherita Pizza with some jalapenos.” That pizza was good, but it wasn’t the best I have had there. After looking at this picture, the colors are vibrant, and the ingredients look tasty (and they were), but I noticed that the crust was uneven and gigantic around the edges. I began to think that the chef wasn’t really “into” making my pizza, this time. Different chef, maybe?

After Greensboro, I drove to Burlington, then through Gibsonville, and finally to Mebane before heading back south and home. I stopped at the library and a bookstore in Burlington. I found the downtown section of Gibsonville and they had a neat little small toy train setup, and finally I stopped at a used book store just out of Mebane and the the library in Mebane. I had just missed the used book sale at the Burlington Library, and then was told that the Mebane Library is part of the Burlington system.

I’ve stopped going to Taco Bell altogether, and before I got serious about my A1C & weight, I probably would visit at least once or twice a week. Haven’t been to Golden Corral in many months, and for years when I was working, I would probably visit Golden Corral at least once or twice a week. Covid shut down most buffet restaurants, and I don’t have any buffets that I go out to now. I would visit Mi Casita at least once a week, but haven’t been there in a long while. I still will make a special visit to Pharaoh’s Legacy for a Lamb Gyro, but I now order out and eat in my car. I make a Greek Salad at home and bring it along with me for this lunch.

The last time I went down to Jacksonville to see Mary Ann, I didn’t eat at Helen’s Kitchen. And, at the moment, I can’t remember where I did choose to eat, or maybe, now that I think about it, I ate at home before driving down and then had lunch out at Marakesh with Mary Ann.

[end NOTE]

Harve Presnell, What a Surprise!

bgibson135

So, I see “Paint Your Wagon” on the movie listing on the TV and I start going down the list of cast. I see Lee Marvin, no picture, which I just finished watching in a WWII movie, “Attack.” Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg and then I come to the name and image for Harve Presnell (1933 – 2009). But, here is the surprise. The image they are using isn’t of the younger Presnell maybe from him singing “They Call the Wind Mariah,” in Paint Your Wagon,” about 1965. No, it is a photo of the old man Presnell and this is what I recognize as about the time that he played in an episode of the Outer Limits (newer one) along with Barbara Rush, playing his wife. I’ve seen this episode at least a couple of times. From 1998, “The Balance of Nature” and this episode involves a man who has figured out how to rejeuvenate frogs & eventually humans. The man’s wife dies and this is impetus for him to figure out this rejeuvenation machine, which doesn’t work at first, the patient always dying from the failure. Well he moves to another town, and meets his neighbors, Barbara Rush and her over bearing, old, salesman husband played by Harve Presnell. But, until just this morning, I didn’t connect the dots between the viril Harve Presnell singing, “They Call the Wind Mariah,” and the old man in the Outer Limits slapping his wife and treating her, otherwise, badly. In the end, Presnell’s character dies in the machine, but just after giving some of his new found youth to the man. 

Harve Presnell in Paint Your Wagon
1965
Harve Presnell in the Outer Limits
1998

Through the years, I’ve played the YouTube video of Harve Presnell singing “Mariah” and enjoyed it. I think I actually wondered what happened to Harve Presnell as I was listening to him sing. But surprisingly, I never went looking online for his bio. So, now this was a really big surprise, and I repeated some expletives, as I mulled over this revelation. At first, I found it difficult to reconcile the younger Presnell from his much older Outer Limits version, but then I realized that the two performances were about 30 years apart. **Started watching “Tidal Wave: No Escape” which I just googled and it came out in 1997. And to my surprise, there walks in Harve Presnell looking like he did a year later in the Outer Limits episode.

I also like Lee Marvin singing, “A Wandering Star.” I’m not sure you could call it singing, but I really, really like this song and Lee Marvin leading “The Dirty Dozen.”

Barbara Rush is an old woman in “The Balance of Nature” episode of the Outer Limits, 1998, but she had also appeared in the original Outer Limits, 1964, episode called “The Forms of Things Unknown.” In the 1964 episode Rush is joined by the also beautiful Vera Miles, and talented David McCallum. I think Rush and Miles are in their nubile best in this episode. I look at them both and think how good looking they were. And recall that Barbara Rush was in the 1951 Sci-Fi movie, “When Worlds Collide.”

When Worlds Collide
1951
The Outer Limits
1964
The Outer Limits
1998

I can think of three actresses that whenever I see them on-screen, I say to myself, “Now that’s a beautiful woman.” Lee Meriwether, Vera Miles and Martha Hyer. 

Martha Hyer
Vera Miles
Lee Meriwether

VERA MILES

Vera Miles was in the very first episode, “Revenge,” of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” in 1955. She plays the newly wed bride of husband played by Ralph Meeker. They get a small trailer at the beach, and while he is away at work, she is raped. Afterwards while she is still in a fragile condition, they are driving down a street and she comes to attention and says, “There he is,” pointing to a man going into a hotel. Meeker’s character stops the car and follows the man into the hotel, and after tracking the man down, attacks him brutally. (I don’t recall, but he may have killed the man.) So the husband gets back in the car and he and Vera Miles starts down the street again, but not too long after, the raped wife, comes to attention “again,” and says, “There he is,” pointing to a different man. Meeker’s character comes to a thoughtful look as he realizes he has either attacked or killed an innocent man, and that his wife is severely disturbed.

Having recounted this story to “my AI of choice” ChatGPT, it was brought to my attention that the same story was recreated in another episode of a different Alfred Hitchcock anthology series, but someone else played her husband. *I am not referring to the 1985 episode in which Linda Purl played the role formerly played by Vera Miles.

In the episode, “Death Scene,” of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1965) Vera Miles plays the wife of John Carradine. She is beautiful in this episode, as she is intentionally attracting a young chauffer. But at the end of the episode she begins to take off make up and a wig (That’s how I recall it.) and becomes an old, monstrous looking woman. *Still, her earlier look shows how fine she can look!

LEE MERIWETHER

She may have the most beautiful face I’ve seen, but I think her weakness is her overall, tallish body. I watched many of the Barnaby Jones episodes a few years ago, and often her face was perfect, but her body was a little plain.

MARTHA HYER

“They Call the Wind Mariah” Lyrics“Wandering Star” Lyrics
Mariah
Mariah
They call the wind Mariah

Away out here they got a name
For rain and wind and fire
The rain is Tess, the fire Joe,
And they call the wind Mariah

Mariah blows the stars around
And sends the clouds a-flyin?
Mariah makes the mountains sound
Like folks were up there dying

Mariah
Mariah
They call the wind Mariah

Before I knew Mariah’s name
And heard her wail and whinin?
I had a girl and she had me
And the sun was always shinin?

But then one day I left my girl
I left her far behind me
And now I’m lost, so goldarn lost
Not even God can find me

Mariah
Mariah
They call the wind Mariah

Out here they got a name for rain
For wind and fire only
But when you’re lost and all alone
There ain’t no word but lonely

And I’m a lost and lonely man
Without a star to guide me
Mariah blow my love to me
I need my girl beside me

Mariah
Mariah
They call the wind Mariah

Mariah
Mariah!
Blow my love to me
—
goldarn: meaning “god damned”		I was born under a wandrin’ star
I was born under a wandrin’ star
Wheels are made for rollin’
Mules are made to pack
I’ve never seen a sight that didn’t look better looking back
I was born under a wandrin’ star
Mud can make you prisoner, and the plains can bake you dry
Snow can burn your eyes, but only people make you cry
Home is made for comin’ from, for dreams of goin’ to
Which with any luck will never come true
I was born under a wandrin’ star
I was born under a wandrin’ star
Do I know where hell is?
Hell is in hello
Heaven is goodbye for ever, it’s time for me to go
I was born under a wandrin’ star
A wandrin’ wandrin’ star
When I get to heaven tie me to a tree
Or I’ll begin to roam, and soon you know where I will be
I was born under a wandrin’ star
A wandrin’ wandrin’ star



























I think I want to write an article entitled, “Bobs Your Uncle,” and see where it takes me.

Kielbasa, Shrimp, Zucchini w/ Polenta Waffles

I sift some ground Cayenne pepper, and some Red Pepper Flakes into the dish above while cooking. But at times, I’ve also added some chopped jalapenos & poblanos, and even the more exotic Brazilian Starfish, Biquinho or the Trinidad Perfume peppers (all of these I got at the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh, this past year). *These peppers also go great in my Seafood Chowder.