I’m currently reading the Dick Van Dyke biography, “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir.”

I am enjoying it and am a little over a third of the way through at about 100+ pages. I’ve put the book in the little basket next to my toilet. That almost assures that I will read through it at a fairly fast pace since I read a few pages each time I go to the bathroom, and with my prostate, that is quite often during a day and night;-)

I’ve read several biographies/memoirs this past year since I started by reading the Matthew Perry memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” Recall that I had come across this memoir in one of the “Little Lending Libraries” and took it to pollinate another lending library location.

Not sure why I came up with the idea to go from one “LLLs” to another, taking one or two books from one location and then leaving each of them at other locations. Sort of playing “a Book Bee.” And, I’ve picked up and taken quite a few books to different locations both in Fayetteville and to other cities, towns and even a different state. I think it was Bennettsville, South Carolina where I stopped by several “LLLs” both taking and leaving various books, some children’s and some adult books.

So, I came across the Matthew Perry book about the 25th of October, 2023. I saw his face through the glass, which filled the cover of his book, and thought that someone, not me, would like to read about one of the recognizable “Friends.”

Less than a week later, I was at home on my laptop and happened upon one of those memorial web sites that lists, both names & photos of, the famous people who have died during the current year. The end of October is usually a little early to be looking for one of these sites. I might see a program on TV at the end of December and then will go to one or more of these websites to get a more complete list of the deaths. I started to scroll down the list and the third photo down the page was the picture of Matthew Perry, the same one that appears on the cover of his memoir. I said to myself, “I didn’t know that he was dead,” and then I went elsewhere to find out when he had died. To my surprise, he had died a few days after I had gotten his memoir, on October 28, 2023. I then said to myself, “That’s hinkey. I guess I’ll have to read his book.” And a few days later I started reading it.

I think it was about the third page into the Matthew Perry book that he stated, “I should be dead by now.” I’m pretty sure he didn’t actually think that his death would be as soon, but he was being honest about how his life long drug addiction (“The Big Terrible Thing“) had created several drastic events from which he could have easily died. He even had to wear a colostomy bag, which collects human waste, for a while due to his addiction.

Perry’s mom and dad had divorced when he was still a child. His father was an actor and his mother, for a while, was the Press Secretary for Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada. Later she would marry Keith Morrison, a very recognizable Canadian broadcast journalist, who Matthew Perry said treated him respectfully.

Perry never got control and although others may have provided him with the drugs that actually killed him, he obviously went looking for those drugs and was not innocent in his own death. I would classify his death as more of “an assisted suicide.” He made a lot of money from his part in the “Friends” franchise, and he spent a bunch of money on drugs. e.g. He once traveled by private jet from Europe to America and when he found that American doctors would not supply his drug needs, immediately returned by private jet to Europe.

I finished the Perry book and then I came across a memoir about John F. Kennedy, Jr. written by Robert T. Littell, his long time friend, called “The Men We Became, My Friendship with John F. Kennedy, Jr.” This was the first memoir that I absolutely enjoyed. There were both places and people mentioned in the memoir that I knew, or knew of. Kennedy, Jr. was married on one of the Georgia islands below St. Simons Island. An island only accessible via boat and not by bridge and auto. And, Christiane Amanpour, a journalist and television host for CNN, was a college roommate (several students, both men & women sharing a house) of JFK, Jr. for a couple of years.

It was probably while reading this memoir that I started googling for images of people, places and things mentioned in the book. This extra information deepened the reading experience and my understanding of the man.

I’ve attended several of the book sales sponsored by “Friends of the Cumberland County Library,” in the last couple of years. It was almost an afterthought at one of these sales that I walked along an isle that had various biographies.

Nothing much interested me until I saw the smiling face of Tim Russert on a book. I bought it.

Tim Russert was the moderator for “Meet the Press,” a long time, maybe “the longest running show,” on the air. A weekly political news show, that aired each Sunday morning, and provided interviews with various famous & not so famous politicians of the day. Russert was always well prepared and fair in his in-depth interviews. And he was a life long fan of the Buffalo Bills, and a faithful Catholic.

This memoir was more of a lauding of the life of Tim Russert by family, friends, fellow employees and acquaintences that Russert had worked with, loved and befriended throughout his years. He died on June 13, 2008 at the age of 58 years.

The next memoir I came across at an LLL in North Raleigh, well probably the outskirts of North Raleigh. I had stopped at the “Savory Spice Shop” located in the “Lafayette Village” which is a European-styled village in North Raleigh. It offers gourmet restaurants and upscale shopping. I decided to take an unfamiliar route and then detoured through an older upscale residential area. I’m not sure if I could find it again, but on that day I was driving through this neighborhood and had turned around to head back out the way I had entered. I noted an “LLL” off from one of the homes so I stopped and walked over to it. It was here that I found the memoir by Michelle Obama called “Becoming.” Another large smiling face prominently displayed on the cover of the book.

I really enjoyed reading this memoir! And more than the other biographies/memoirs that I had just read, I started googling for illustrations of people, places, things and events that had occurred in the life of Michelle & Barak Obama.

I recall that she likes smoked oysters. I must have known, but didn’t recall that she was a Harvard educated lawyer. And I listened to several speeches by her husband Barak Obama from which I came to respect him even more. He was the difference between night and day between an educated President of the United States, and a Presidential businessman. And Obama was “the day.”

I neither felt sorry for her nor envious of her good fortune because much of it was based upon her hard work, and being fortunate to have a loving and supportive family. And that she had a loving and supportive husband, and that she was a loving and supportive wife and mother. I like her.

And now I’ve come to be reading the memoir of Dick Van Dyke and am enjoying that also. Not quite as much as Michelle Obama’s, but Dick Van Dyke seems to be an honorable man. I seem to recall that he might have had a problem with alcohol, but I haven’t gotten to that part in his book yet.

I now realize that I had forgotten one other bio that I read, and now do not recall in which order I read it. I know it was after the Matthew Perry memoir (the first I read) and that’s about it. The biography I had forgotten was by Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, “Highest Duty, My Search for What Really Matters.“

He knew he wanted to fly from an early age.

His meticulous preparation, throughout his entire life led him to be the “right person at the right time” for landing a commercial jet filled with passengers safely on a river and not a runway.

The jet he landed on the river is now in a museum in Charlotte, North Carolina which is named after him, “The Sullenberger Aviation Museum.” I was planning a brief trip to Asheville in August and one of my thoughts had been to stop by this museum on the way to Asheville, but it happened to be closed on Mondays, and I went through Charlotte on Monday, August 19th. I only stayed a night in Asheville and then returned home on Tuesday, August 20th (2024). My last stop in Asheville before leaving, was to the New Morning Gallery in the Biltmore Village District. This is one of the areas that would be devastated by the 100 Years Flooding caused when Hurricane Helene passed through about five weeks later on September 24th – 27th. And I see that this gallery is still closed as of December 17th, 2024.

Perhaps I am not worthy of making the following comment, but my impression from reading his bio is that he hasn’t found “What Really Matters,” at least not yet. He has a wife and two daughters.

Now back to my current read, the Dick Van Dyke memoir, and why I named the title of this blog posting, “Peter Ganine Gothic Sculpted Chess Set.” I watched the Dick Van Dyke Show when I was a boy. I even recall a haunting episode in which (I think it was a dream sequence on the show.) there is a living room closet full of walnuts, and when the door was opened all the walnuts fell out onto the living room floor. I think there were aliens involved and missing thumbs. And I hope to re-watch this episode either later today or in the next couple of days. But that is the advantage I have of reading this memoir, and all the references to memorable people, places & events. I can google for more info, and I can even re-watch the episodes that Dick Van Dyke mentions in his book. I can google for photos of Maureen Stapleton and Jean Stapleton. I’ve watch the pilot episode of the show, and the two part episodes which included Jerry Van Dyke, Dick’s actual brother. *Jerry died a few years ago, but Dick is still alive as of a few days ago, an old man, but still with a sense of humor and a clear mind. I just heard him tell someone on a video that he was 12 years old in his mind, but 99 years old in real life. I even can re-watch some of his movies, “Mary Poppins,” or “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” or “Fritzwilli” (which I enjoyed watchin some years ago which includes Barbara Feldon (from “Get Smart” fame). *Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was an Ian Fleming (of James Bond fame) children’s novel.

I just saw an online item that Dick Van Dyke was rescued by neighbors and good Samaritans from the recent Franklin Fire in Malibu where his current home is located. They also rescued his cat, Bobo. And Van Dyke celebrated his 99th Birthday on Friday, December 13th.

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But, in re-watching several episodes of “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” my eyes immediately were drawn to a chess set displayed on a table in the set’s living room.

My favorite chess set was styled exactly like the one displayed in the show, and it is a “Peter Ganine Gothic Sculpted Chess Set.” I’m not sure if this set was first sold in 1957, but my set would have probably been sold & bought by me in the late 1960’s. I no longer have this set and I have played with quite a few other styles of sets through the years. Now I mostly play online, almost daily between myself and “the computer.” I win some I lose more.

The Ganine set was my favorite long ago, and I still favor it some, but in the last couple of years I have begun to favor a more minimalist style, both in metal, plastic and wood. About a year ago I even made a set and painted it from simple square blocks of wood. I glued some of them together, and pasted googly eyes on some and even used colored thumbtacks to represent the shields of the pawn warriors. The rooks include little colored flag thumbtacks as if a flag was flying from the castle turret (Turm).

The “tubular minimalist” chess set to the left above is my current favorite, but I also like the “Isle of Lewis” chess set on the right. I’m not sure if I had a dream, or if I actually saw an example of a pregnant queen (chess set piece), but I have since thought that a pregnant queen is the ultimate ruler. Who could be more vicious that a pregnant queen seeking to not only protect her king, but her child and the kingdom? I even cut some PVC piping to make a minimalist tubular chess set and thought of adding a large marble as symbolic of a pregnant queen’s stomach.

I’m in the process of having read six biographies during the past twelve months, but I’ve also read 30 of the Michael Connelly detective novels in about the same amount of time. I’ve read all of the Harry Bosch novels and several of the John McAvoy (journalist/detective) novels.

I watched the six seasons of “BOSCH,” and since, three seasons of “Bosch Legacy,” and during that time I liked the Harry Bosch character played by actor, Titus Welliver. But, I found as I read more of the Connelly novels that I came to hate Harry Bosch as he was writtern. Beyond hate, I despised him. Why?

It started during the second published Bosch novel, “Black Ice.” I did not read these novels in the order they were published. Some I did, but there was some jumping around. In the second novel Harry becomes involved in a case in which another L.A. detective has apparently committed suicide. Blown most of his head off in a cheap L.A. motel.

The Interim Medical Examiner examines the remains of the dead detective and from a frontal portion of the skull realizes that the dead detective was hit in the head from behind, shortly before his head was blown off.

Harry and the Interim Medical Examiner are “friends with benefits,” and while together Harry is pumping her also for information about the autopsy she has recently performed. She resists telling Harry what she has found (that it was murder and not suicide), and tells him he can’t tell anyone her findings because it would jeopardize her becoming the permanent Medical Examiner, which is the position she wants. Harry assures her that he won’t share the information she give him and eventually she agrees and tells Harry her findings. A little later she asks Harry if she can shower and he agrees. No sooner has she walked into the bathroom and started to shower, than Harry picks up his phone and calls a journalist acquaintance and gives the journalist a “heads up” that he journalist should check more closely into whether the detective’s death was suicide or murder. Harry then gets dressed and heads off to Mexico on the trail of a murderer.

This betrayal of trust by Harry toward the Medical Examiner was the start of my disrespect and hatred toward the character of detective Harry Bosch. She hadn’t even gotten the Bosch stink off of her in the shower before he had betrayed his word to her.

The next Bosch novel, or perhaps the second to next novel I read was published about eight years after “Black Ice,” and was called “City of Bones.” It’s in this novel that Harry once again contacts the Medical Examiner (now permanent) because he needs her to verify whether a bone that was found on a hill, was a human bone. He contacts the examiner on a Saturday late and she has a scheduled date, so she tells Harry to come over, but… and when Harry knocks at her front door, she take the bone, shuts the door and leaves Harry outside. Shortly she returns and verifies to Harry that it is a human bone and it also belonged to a child.

Now Connelly steps in to make commentary about how shamefully she treated Harry. But, in my mind, and because of having just read about Harry’s earlier betrayal, I’m thinking that if Harry had betrayed my trust, I wouldn’t be helping him out by having him come over to my house at all. I would have told him, Harry you need to wait until Monday and get in line first thing. After all the child that the bone belonged to had been dead several years, not just recently murdered.