GERMAN BRUTALITY
Readers of my novel, Amour et Vengeance, (Love & Revenge) have questioned my depiction of brutality by the German soldiers. Is it exaggerated or is it historically accurate?
I know immediately that these people have not read accounts of WW 2 and descriptions of what some German soldiers did during this time. (more…)
All the politicians in Fort Worth (and in the country) are going to be agonizing over the promises made for pensions which are tough to fulfill when the city’s revenues are dropping.
One major change that FW should consider (more…)
ENGINEER’S GUIDE TO
DIETING
Engineers don’t diet. At least not willingly.
It usually involves their POSSLQ. That’s an old acronym that is not in fashion anymore that meant your spouse or someone you were living with.
Anyway, my POSSLQ often goes on a diet when she thinks something makes her look fat. This is usually the latest diet in fashion. It’s always a new, different diet. But the new eating menu affects me, of course.
Now why don’t engineers diet? Because they are too organized, structured, focused. We have to be to produce dependable designs.
I’ll give you an example. (more…)
CHAPTER ONE
Amour Perdu (Lost Love)
He should be happy.
Six months earlier his colleagues of twenty-five years had honored him for outstanding performance in running the engineering department.
He stood in front of almost one hundred fellow workers and their spouses like a blond Viking in a tuxedo. They had lavished praise on him to send him off to the great retirement airship in the sky. He and his team had helped design the latest fighter plane for the Air Force, the YF-16. But what now?” (more…)
This Sunday’s NY Times Magazine had an article about Amanda Hocking and her phenominal success in publishing her books on Amazon and all the other e-book outlets. She is selling 9,000 ! ! ! books every day.
There is more to the story, but it illustrates what a powerful change is happening in the publishing business. The Big Six (now the Big Seven–see Christine Rose) will have to change their ways or go out of business. I predict that the Big Six will be forced to reduce their people and their influence in the business. (more…)
Every single Sunday morning for the past twenty-five years the Half Fast Bicycle group has met for breakfast. Somewhere in the Fort Worth area. And after breakfast, we may ride somewhere. Steve keeps us on roads with no traffic. The title ‘half fast’ was my wife, Marlene’s title for the bunch. We have no formal organization papers, although the name appears on some of the gang’s custom carbon fiber bicycles.
The wise guys in our bunch say that we have no by-laws only by-suggestions. If a new person shows up, one of us will declare “I am in charge of new members. Just give me fifty bucks and you are in.” But if we start getting too many showing up (more that ten riders), Cinco just calls only the core group on Sat. night at 6 pm to let us know where we will meet the next morning.
Cinco (Edward Phillips, the Fifth) calls each of the interested bike riders at 6 pm Saturday and leaves a cryptic message, such as “The Guys at Eight. The Guys at Eight.” If Marlene and I can make it, we will show up at the designated breakfast place. In this case, the cafe on the square in Weatherford at 8 am.
The group has about ten interested riders. All may not show up–vacations, illness, etc.–but for all these years we have met for breakfast. The location varies, but even if it is raining, snowing, sleeting, freezing–no mater the weather, we’ll meet for breakfast. Afterward we may ride our bicycles somewhere. ‘Where’ is not decided until we are rolling and someone says “How about to the golf course?” or some other direction.
There are dozens of bike routes around Weatherford that have little traffic. Sometimes the wind or the temperature influences our decision. As we are getting older, the routes are getting sorter. Now, most are about forty miles. That’s about my comfort limit.
Two of the younger riders were State Mountain Bike Champions in their age groups, and one woman has won gold in World Track Racing. The group is kind and, at times, waits for me or another slow, old rider to catch up.
Good exercise and friendship.
Smart women have always attracted me. Smart and strong like my mother. And like my wife.
Yesterday I met two more smart women; Mary Louise Garcia, Tarrant County Clerk; and Tobi Jackson, FWISD Board Member. I was impressed by their enthusiasm and agressiveness.
Fort Worth is an outstanding city because of its museums and institutions, the brick and mortar. But what make us really great are the people behind these insitutions–some outstanding men, but look at what smart, strong women we have. Mary Louise Garcia, Tobi Jackson, Judy Needam, Jean McClung, Marty Leonard, Adelaide Leavens, Elaine Petrus, Joan True, Remona Bass, and Kathy Hirt. We may not agree with their political stands, but they are smart women.
Although I have forgotten many the final three for me are Betsy Price, Wendy Davis, and Kay Granger.
You have a novel or instruction book in your head. Everybody does. Maybe you have even started writing. Should you find an agent, finally get a publisher, etc.?
No matter where you are in the process, get Christine Rose’s book Publishing and Marketing Realities. She gives one a real honest look at the book business–based on her experience. You don’t want to make the same mistakes she has made. I made different mistakes and am still contemplating more mistakes. It is a wild and changing business. The best advice she give is, that if you wish to get wealthy by writing a book, your chances are better if you just buy a lottery ticket every day. It’s a much easier and a smaller investment.
Thinking about the present problems the United States has, I have come up with a list of actions I would take if I were God:
First: All political entities (school boards, states, and federal) will rehire all the teachers and give them a 10% raise. I will decide which new teachers will be hired and who will be replaced.
Second: There will be a 10 cents per gallon tax increase on all fuels beginning immediately. Then a 10 cents per gallon increase each year for five years. I may change my mind and increase it even more. All federal incentives for efficient auto purchases and for use of ethanol are hereby recinded. The market will decide what is the best purchase. Oil companies will lose all tax advantages. immediately.
Third: Pot smoking is hereby legalized. The tax on marijuana will be the same as on cigarettes. After one year I will legalize other drugs that are now illegal. This will continue for five years until all drugs are legal. (If people want to kill themselves, I will allow it. I will not pass a law against jumping off balconies more than two stories in height.)
Fourth: The taxes collected will be used first to hire and increase the salaries to teachers. I will be giving large cash bonuses to teachers who are ourstanding.
Fifth: A study to determine the long term health dangers in smoking pot will be funded by the tax.
Send me an email if you have other actions you would like to see taken: god@heaven.org
If you like stories about clandestine actions against the Nazis while they occupied Europe for four years, you should read “Agent For The Resistance.” This is a true story told by Herman Bodson, a Belgian resistance fighter, from 1941 thru 1945.
His exploits of sabotage against the Germans in Belgium with his band accomplished as much as any small group that I have read about. Also amazing is that he didn’t tell his story until fifty years later, and it was printed in English by Texas A & M University Press.
I have borrowed from his story in my novels about WW2.
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