StanleyWheeler

I sauntered into the courtroom with the ardor of MacArthur wading ashore at Leyte. It was 3:30 in the afternoon. The outside air was hotter, and only slightly less moist, than an ogre's armpit, but the air conditioning in the courthouse blew as cool as the kiss of a barrow wight's blade. I enjoyed the refreshing chill brushing across my toes. The hair on the tops of my feet rose in joyous celebration of the exchange of hot pavement for the invigorating caress of cold carpet. I had information for the attorney that was about to blow his case as wide open as the mouth of Charybdis. I had never been privileged to see Gordon Q. Vlengelman wet himself in court, but I suspected that this would be my chance. There are some joys, even for a halfling, that money can't buy.

--Except from an unfinished story sloshing around in my brain pan--

I may have to take out the MacArthur bit (and the air conditioning) as I've not entirely decided upon the setting.

***

First in big news: I passed the 60K word point of Power to Hurt. I may run over 80K words, but that's still my target for completion. I was slowed by the fact that I had to go back and make some changes to a couple scenes which omitted some important references to a character whose presence will be significant in the coming scenes.

Second: The most quotable thing I heard last week came from a conversation I had with two boys of about 14 years of age.
Me: Are you becoming a video game expert? You've talked about quite a few games this weekend.
Boy 1: I am.
Boy 2: You shouldn't be an expert on that. (Gesturing to the surrounding outdoors) You should be an expert on all this.
Boy 1: I am. I just don't know a lot about it.

***

A Book Review:

I must confess that this was a DNF. I got the book for free. It purported to be a tale of one of the most famous of all Greek warriors. It was a New York Times best seller (which I have now come to believe means that people who have no idea about what kind of stuff most people want to read, list the stuff they insist that everyone should read). I should have been alerted by the fact that instead of the usual intriguing information on what the book was about, there were two high-falutin blurbs praising the book and the author. A sea of editorial reviews also followed. I didn't read any of that. I didn't read any of the reviews. After reading 20% of the book I felt like I had confirmation of what I had suspected from the first chapter. This was not in fact the rousing tale of the great Greek warrior and his daring deeds and stirring exploits. Having no desire to promote the steaming pile that constitutes the book, I'll mention neither the title or the author. The one-star reviews (which I should have read before I began the book) have it correct--except that they give it one star too many.