ThomStratton.com

I was trying to explain to my kids where I got a certain quote and turned to YouTube to save me. Some of you may remember the catch-phrase “Well of course not, don’t be ridiculous!” So while I was introducing them to “Perfect Strangers” I ran across this little ditty, which I also use frequently.

Yeah, the series was short on distinct plots (there were basically only two, Balki gets carried away and Larry has to rescue him, or Larry gets carried away and Balki has to bring him back down), but they were funny. This clip reminds me that we used to be able to laugh without getting crude or crass. I kinda miss the sweet simplicity of “Perfect Strangers”.

I also came across an interview the two actors did twenty-five years later. I had just been thinking that shows back then were more “kind and gentle” compared with shows today. Around the mid-point of the interview they discuss how the director aimed purposefully for “heart moments” in each episode, and then end the show, whereas now-days, if they have that moment at all, they then undercut it with more digging humor before they cut away. It’s a telling observation.

I’ve been enjoying audio books for years now. They’re a great way to spend my hour-a-day commutes. But I’ve noticed lately that I’ve developed a weird habit.

I can’t just sit and listen to an audio book.

I can listen in the car just fine. I can listen to them while working on something, like staining the deck or something else where I need my hands. But I can’t just sit and listen. That’s…wrong somehow.

I used to think it was just because I knew I was cheating and getting ahead just because I don’t want to wait until my next commute to hear what happens next. But I’m currently listening to a novel I’ve listened to before. I know what happens. This weekend I had free time, and I didn’t want to start reading another book. I wanted to read that book. No, I didn’t want to go read my hard-copy version, as I’d have to waste time later trying to advance the audio version to where I left off.

So I listened to it. But it still felt wrong! Horribly wrong! I had nothing in my hands!

Yeah, I’m weird.

I’ve already said my piece about NFL protests. Knock yourself out, Colin. You too, Donald.

But I do have to wonder something. Suppose you went out to see a movie. You buy your tickets, your popcorn and soda, find your seat, and sit through the commercials. Then, just as the featured presentation is about to begin, the lights go up. Down the aisles walk a half dozen theater staff, who take up positions before the screen and proceed to put on “Make America Great” ball caps and kneel down for a minute.

Never mind the fact that this is a theater and they may get stuck to the floor like that indefinitely, would you mind this intrusion on your entertainment time? Do your mind part of your concessions money going to these people? Do you respect their freedom of speech, or do you complain to the management and threaten to never watch another movie there again? Do you keep going to movies knowing that they will be doing this every time for the foreseeable future?

At what point does freedom of speech impose on your freedom to avoid their speech? At what point is a protest at a paid event a violation of your rights as the person who paid for one thing and got another?

This is more of a general question; the NFL ownership/management have pretty much stated their support for players taking some of their “on-stage” time to make political statements, as is their right. They’ve made their bed and are willing to lay in it. And frankly I don’t care. The NFL doesn’t get my money anyway.

But, to the fact that NFL attendance/viewership is down, the last thing I want to hear is accusations against fans. All this means–if indeed it means anything–is that when people plunk down their hard-earned cash to attend or watch a game, you can’t blame them if what they want is to watch a game, not your protest. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get what you pay for–and only what you pay for. Don’t try to tell people they shouldn’t be upset when their can of corn also contains earwigs.

I suspect cable “Pay-Per-Protest” channels aren’t likely to be a viable business model any time soon.

Though I most often read fantasy or science fiction, anyone who follows my blog (all three of you) knows that I also enjoy history, biographies, non-fiction, and historical fiction. “Liberty Boy” is the latter.

Written by David Gaughran, an Irishman who lives in Prague and has previously written about South American history, this book is the first volume in a planned series about Jimmy O’Flaherty, a young man caught up in the turbulent turn of the nineteenth century in Ireland. Jimmy lost his father in a rebellion against the English, and is now trying to take care of his ailing mother and make a living amidst the aftermath of the 1803 uprising. He’s content to stand as a casual witness to history, even though that “history” revolves around hanging revolutionaries in the main street on top of the spot where he sells his wares.

There’s not much he can do about it, of course, and he tries to find other options to keep himself and his mother fed, while hoping the hangings will end soon and his life can get back to normal. But then he meets Kitty Doyle, a young, pretty revolutionary, with an unknown agenda of her own, and his life begins to drift away from the safety of his neutrality and his plans to sail to America to join his cousin.

“Liberty Boy” is the opening to a larger story, and serves primarily to set the stage by introducing Jimmy and the circumstances that get him into book two. He’s a likable character, but largely passive for much of the book until his personal conflicts force him to act. He wouldn’t be the first or the last man to get in over his head over a pretty girl, and I’m interested in learning what happens to him as the series develops. The novel leaves him in a difficult situation and at a major turning-point. I’m certain he’ll come through–he’s the main character, after all–but the real question is who he’ll become in the process.

The novel is worth the read for the historical insight alone. His portrayal of Dublin in the early 1800’s is fascinating and reveals yet another significant gap in my knowledge of history. I’ve long known, of course, that the domination of Ireland by the English has been a long, nasty sore spot that remains to this day. But it’s not something I’ve taken the opportunity to explore until now. With the amount of detail that went into this book, I trust that Gaughran has given me an accurate glimpse into that corner of history.

The novel is not overly long–about 250 pages in ebook format–and an easy read, even with the Irish dialect and gaelic words sparingly employed throughout the book. There’s some violence, some language, some gore, and some sexuality, mostly by allusion. It’s an adult novel, though not one that pushes boundaries by any means. It’s probably no more troublesome than the musical “Paint Your Wagon.”

I do have to offer this disclosure, however. This review is the result of a solicitation by the author’s publicist. Having discovered my review of Bernard Cornwell’s “Sharpe’s Tiger” a while back, they offered me a free ebook if I’d be willing to review it. I informed them of my policy on book reviews (I only review books I can review positively, as I feel in most cases the dislike of a book is a matter of personal taste) and they were fine with that. So in spite of the circumstances, you can rest assured that this review appears here because I enjoyed the book. There’s a good chance I’ll give the planned sequel a read when it’s released (I’d tell you more, but the book title itself is a significant spoiler).

There’s a fair amount of “grit” in this novel; Gaughran doesn’t soft-pedal how things were, but it doesn’t rise to the level of the aforementioned “Sharpe’s Tiger”, which was fine with me. Through Jimmy we’re given a fair cross-section of life among Dublin’s lower classes, and while it’s not an easy life, and its easy to see why so many would want to leave for America, it’s also understandable that so many stayed, as well. And it’s completely understandable that Jimmy is mostly a passive character through this part of his story–it seemed the best way to get by during that time was to keep one’s head down and nose clean, though even that was no protection at times. But on the whole, I enjoyed this view of Dublin of 1803 through Jimmy’s eyes. He’s a good guide.

Guilt by association. Guilt by breathing the same air. Guilt by handshake. Guilt by non-denial. This is the culture we now live in; a culture where a friend of mine has to wave off negative comments when simply posting that her father, a prominent business leader in the small city we grew up in, has been invited to a White House conference on business. As if being important enough to be invited somehow makes him a full-on, Kool-aid-drinking Trump adorer.

Are we really so small-minded that we cannot conceive that someone else might have different ideas than us without immediately branding them as evil? I hear all the time how people are ending friendships over political leanings, how couples are divorcing, and how people are being targeted for harassment simply because they don’t see the same way as the harassers. I myself have been labeled as a Trump supporter simply because I tried to explain how there could be more than one side to an issue. And after writing that last sentence I feel an immediate compulsion to make it clear that I did NOT vote for Trump, when really, why should I have to?

Why should it matter? But somehow it does. I don’t understand it. Have people lost their minds? Since when has it become acceptable to spew vile, vitriolic hate at someone and try to excuse it as fighting hate? It’s like a parody video I saw recently where someone shoots someone in the stomach, then claims it was just a prank. The victim, who was angry at first, suddenly accepts it with grins and nods.

It’s like banning all guns by shooting everyone who owns a gun. Shouldn’t you start with yourself first? And are you really surprised when they decide the don’t want to get shot and start shooting first? Quite frankly, this hating haters to stop their hateful hate is what got us into our current political mess in the first place. Whatever happened to Love Trumps Hate? I think those adhering to that policy forgot that it means you have to love everyone, not just those who agree with you. Echo chambers don’t change the world. They entrench the problems.

I won’t advocate love as the answer. I think that’s too much to ask right now. I’d be pleased enough if we could start by simply not judging each other in the worst possible light, followed by taking time to actually listen to those we disagree with and be willing to accept some validity to their views. That in itself would be a major step forward.

Dana Cowern is back with an episode that appeals to both my scientific side and my musician side. Full of “gee whiz” moments for the musically inclined.

I had intended to post more frequently. I really did. Then a couple things happened, almost at once. For one, my wife and daughter went to Finland to spend time with my wife’s family, leaving the two boys and I at home. Right after I dropped them off at the airport I had to hurry to work for a meeting in which management announced mandatory overtime for the next month or more to get a project back on track. I now not only had a lot more work to do around home in the evenings, but I had less time in which to do it. Other things had to be put aside in favor of survival, like blogging.

Work on my novel came to an abrupt halt as well, as I opted to work through lunch–my usual writing time–rather than work an extra hour at night. It wasn’t entirely with regret, either. I’ve been struggling with this rewrite. Some of the new approach has been good, but some of it has felt like using my head for a tunnel boring machine. So taking a forced break has been good, because I didn’t even have to feel guilty about not writing. And much to my guilt, I didn’t.

But that’s not to say I haven’t been thinking about my story in the meantime. I’ve been picking things apart in my head, moving them around, and seeing if they fit back together in better ways. In the last few days I’ve been feeling a growing impatience with the status quo; I want to get back to writing so I can clean up the mess I’ve been making. The rewrite has been good. It’s given more depth to a character I’ve long sensed needed it. But at the same time it nearly killed my main character, who was forced into a mold I subconsciously didn’t like. I thought it would be good, but it made him unlikable.

But in my forced exile I’ve reached a compromise I believe will help. I’m going to revert back to my original scenes with him, but give him the new motivations I attempted to create for him in the rewrite. I’ll just do it better, and make it clearer his motivations are good, and not just spiteful. It wasn’t bad, but as I said, it was making him unlikable. His motivations are going to change during his arc anyway, so why not make my main character someone people will want to read about? I’ve never cared much for dark, gritty or angst-ridden characters anyway–I’ll let someone else write them.

My wife and daughter are home now, so my home life has relaxed a little. I’m nearly caught up on the backlog of work around the house, so I may be able to start carving out some writing time in the evenings soon. We’ll see. I do still have more thinking to do on my setting as well. I’ve been challenging my foundation, and decided it could do with a little shake-up. The basic premise is good, but it all needs more fleshing out and spicing up.

But if nothing else I’m encouraged to find the desire to write returning. As I’ve said before, the past year or so have been really difficult for me, to the point of wondering if I should hang it up. But it’s something I can’t easily give up, it seems.