Our journey south for the Miami Book Fair and Readers' Favorite International Book Awards ceremony was a fantastic experience. The timing was also quite fortuitous. Final touches on the whopping new 13,000 square foot location for Nautical Ventures were still underway, so my cousin Hank McDowell and his wife Lauren had time to give us a tour of South Beach and Miami from a local's perspective, culminating with a pleasant dinner on the veranda at the Miami Yacht Club while reminiscing about the foolish days of our youth in Savannah. That alone was well worth the trip. But before I forget, here's a note to future attendees about the book fair: Miami is a coastal city, and on a peninsula. The tropical weather can and does change rapidly, from torrential rain to bright sun and back in short order. In retrospect, carrying a poncho or umbrella would have been prudent at the Miami Book Fair. But as we huddled under the vendor tents, the spontaneous rain shower became a great opportunity to shop for books. During one such interval my wife and I had the leasure of meeting Stephan Earl, author of the children's book Kayla and Eli Discover Jazz. We found Mr. Earl gregarious and engaging. His books are colorful, educational, and entertaining, so we got an autographed copy for my youngest grandson. If you have a preteen kid or grandchild who loves to read, you should check out his website. Miami is also headquarters for M2Hospitality. His client list includes U2, the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics sports teams, Jeff Gordon, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Leonardo Di … [Read more...]
The worst sort of liberal
What is the worst sort of liberal? A person who says something really terrible, then accuses his most hated political enemy of making the offensive statement. For example, meet liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. Theoretically, he gets paid big money to express his opinions about politics, not mine. But in a recent column purportedly about Chris Christie and the Tea Party, Cohen wrote about newly-elected mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio: Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) [emphasis added] This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all. Really! What exactly constitutes a "conventional view?" For whom does Mr. Cohen claim to be speaking? The columnist suggested that he had been misunderstood by his usually reliable liberal readers when they called for him to be fired. He even had the audacity to claim that it hurt his feelings to be called a racist. Oh, cry me a river, Mr. Cohen. I believe the applicable expression for him would be hoisted with one's own … [Read more...]
Communication barriers
In the movie Cool Hand Luke, actor Strother Martin famously said, "What we've got here is failure to communicate." I certainly know how that feels. Let me give you a couple of examples, from my distant past... Once upon a time, before I began writing books and novels, I spent almost two decades developing computer software. During the first seven years, I wrote and then supported components for international banking applications, as an employee of Unisys Corporation. Our Finesse banking application had been designed and developed in Atlanta with domestic U.S. financial institutions as our target market, but naturally a major bank in Australia became our first customer. My boss shipped me, the "single guy" on our team, Down Under with the software. I spent the next four months in Perth, helping a small development team customize the product extensively so it would comply with international banking requirements. Lucky me. However, I encountered the communications barrier almost immediately on the trip, during my very first pub crawl, only hours after the fourteen-hour trip from L.A. to Sydney. We had a very serious communication problem there in the bar, even though everybody at my table spoke fluent English. Our misunderstanding happened while a trio of secretaries were plying me with round after round of free beer, saying they wanted to keep me at their table, entertaining them with my American accent from the Deep South. From my own perspective, I was a very lucky man. Three beautiful young women were buying my drinks, in a very … [Read more...]
A disgusting new low for Mike Luckovich
There are several reasons I refuse to subscribe to my local newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That I would be helping pay the salary of the cowardly Mike Luckovich ranks at the very top of the list. Luckovich relentlessly bashes conservatives, especially those associated with the Tea Party. There is no balance to his world view. On those rare occasions he goes after the liberal Democrats on an issue, the kid gloves are invariably worn. Today's cartoon may be his most obnoxious and offensive ever, which is really saying something. It pictures an elephant, obviously representing Republicans, on CNN's Crossfire program. His debate opponent across the table? None other than the icon of Christianity himself, Jesus of Nazareth, to represent the Democrat perspective. The topic of debate displayed was: "Should corporate subsidies for the rich be cut instead of food stamps for the poor?" In fairness, the cartoon does inspire a fair question to ask -- what would Jesus do? Would Jesus advocate giving away "free" cell phones to able-bodied people perfectly capable of work, but too lazy? Would Jesus have given Solyndra half a billion taxpayer dollars to squander, with zero accountability and nothing to show for it? Would Jesus support politicians who seem hell-bent on bankrupting an entire nation, spending more than three dollars for every two dollars of revenue? Did Jesus say it was okay to lie in order to achieve your goals? For politicians to steal from their political opponents in order to buy votes from their constituents? Was Jesus a … [Read more...]
Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims
I'm not jealous that the first book produced by Rush Limbaugh since 1993, called Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans, immediately took the top spot on the Amazon hard cover bestseller list. His new book has already reached #152 overall in the Kindle store, #1 in its category for Teen/Young Adult historical fiction -- on first day it was officially available for sale. Nor am I jealous that Rush Revere has received twice as many reviews on the first day of release as all five of my books put together -- mostly because I'm glad that I don't have to contend with his vicious critics, who seem to resent him for breathing. Twelve of the initial forty-one reviewers of Rush Revere only gave the book a one-star rating. Those uber-negative reviews were obviously written by snarky and intolerant liberals. At least one of them was honest enough to begin his review by saying: "Did I read the book? No..." Then how can you review it? None of the most negative reviews were of the "Amazon Verified Purchase" variety. About half of the five-star reviews were verified -- but in fairness, I don't know how the pro-Limbaugh fans have had enough time to read the book and write a review, either. Remember, it was only released today. There is absolutely no reason for me to envy Rush Limbaugh's success selling books on Amazon. In our capitalist society, demand is the only constraint on the total size of the economic pie. My problem isn't that Rush's radio listeners prefer his book to mine. My biggest problem is that his … [Read more...]
