The car [Taurus] is out of commission. It misfired all the way up to Jimbo’s, then once Charlie replaced the cap and rotor, it won’t fire at all. It is electrical with the possibility of a timing chain malfunction. The car gets left overnight and I’ll have the bad news tomorrow. Remind me to buy a round or two for the house out of tips tomorrow, as everybody helped out. Here’s a shot of Bill and Dicks Auto Repair. They later get an A+ from me.
Sidney Sheldon gets a good book report. I finished “Windmills” and it picks up after the stereotyped beginning, which now appears more a deliberate literary marketing tactic. Sheldon, while not ahead of his time, was a man of the times. Like many who understand politics (I do not) he appears able to predict governmental errors. This ability is, in my opinion, nothing more than drawing parallels in history.Here’s a small cooking adventure. Maybe a little insight into the bachelor mindset, too. Last day we baked a pork shoulder. Neither of us know how to carve meat or poultry. While we get all the meat we often have a plate of misshapen odds and ends. So I bought this big size pork and beans. Most of us probably wondered why they call it that, when there is but one meatless scrap of pork rind in the can. Ah, the plate. That’s pork, right? And beans, right? It’s heating with the wooden spoon in the pot. My favorite wooden spoon; the handle doesn’t get hot. Food fans, check back tomorrow but we are going to have real pork and beans tonight.
Back to Sheldon and his book from 1987. That’s the year I met Robynette. Had no time to read after that. I suspect he dug out some of his older work and polished it up. Spy novels of this cliche are filled with gadgets, yet Sheldon never once mentions a computer or the Concorde. It is worth a read because just when you think you’ve guessed the plot, that person gets killed. Sheldon does it on purpose. My question to American spy novel authors is what is your fascination with bad guys and conferences?
Let me abet some sinister types here. Listen you underworlders, quit attending bad guy meetings. The authorities are on to that. In particular, no board meetings in Helsinki, Alice Springs, Cairo and absolutely stay away from Rio unless you want to die tonight. (Rio isn’t on the list, but I heard the street food is that bad.) Avoid Heathrow, Dulles, Orly and Templehof. These places utterly bore your readership. Last, stay away from waterfronts, heavily wooded ski slopes and, if any of the other [seemingly innocent nearby] patrons are wearing Panama hats or named Hannibal Lector, sidewalk cafes.
One of Sheldon’s predictions was unintentional. He anticipated the “sharing” of records and how any one slip-up in a person’s entire life could mark them forever. That part he got right long before databases. He was trying to shock the reader with the power of government to do “background checks” and how easily a person can avoid being checked. In spy novels only criminals object to illegal searches.
ADDENDUM
Due to the Taurus, I will not be ready with the Karaoke show. Another item is the TV display. My original plan is help up for lack of an adapter, VGA to coax. Can’t put a PCI card in a laptop. Wallace has been working all day long in the yard, which seems to attract all the French ladies in the vicinity. I am so glad he enjoys yard work. He’s thinks the soil is infertile. It is sandy, salty soil that does not hold water very long. But infertile doesn’t explain the Everglades.
Trivia. While googling for the Taurus firing order I found out one of those details you never think about. On a four stroke engine think about the spark plug. (Um, I mean a reciprocating engine. A jet engine is also (four stage) intake, compression, power, exhaust.) That means a power stroke only each second cycle. How does the spark plug know to fire only every second time? Answer: it doesn’t. The plug fires every time. Each second firing is called a “wasted spark”. If that is hard to visualize, draw a diagram.
I knew an old guy from Peace River (the one in northern Canada) who had an English car from after the war. It had a four piston engine around the size of a sewing machine. He used to take it apart once a year on his kitchen table and polish the parts. He got 40 miles per gallon back in 1955.
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