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Mark Wieting

Oh, my, thank you Kerrin. The testosterone in this forum was beginning to be overwhelming.

One other thing: I love Google maps. As I was reading Letter from America, Cooke talks about New England in the fall, focusing on Newfane, Vermont, which, although I have relatives in Vermont I'd never heard of. With churches, an inn, and the county building surrounding "the green," it is the quintessential, idyllic New England village. So I look it up on Google maps. There's the map view, the satellite view, and--best--the street view. If you enter Pond Rd and Church St, Newfane, VT, you can see what Cooke is talking about, with a church that looks like First Church of Lombard's Maple Street Chapel, another church, the Four Columns Inn [you can see the four columns] and other buildings that shout New England.

In my search to reconnect with Al Bolton--last seen at the 2013 reunion, contacted by phone several times since, but the last time about three years ago--I found him in Brighton, IL, near St. Louis. Why there? It's a long story I found out. But with the satellite view of his street in Brighton, I could see where he lived. It's in the sticks but he likes it.

The satellite view also shows me the layouts of famous golf courses I can dream about playing and feel like I've had a taste of them, from Shinnecock Hills on Long Island to Cypress Point GC in Carmel, California. I usually shoot par or better on these satellite courses. Fairways and greens, plus a few good putts. My scorecards are a bit of Bakos's science fiction.

An afterthought: I just looked at my profile picture and must admit I haven't worn a tie since my daughter got married almost seven years ago.... Gotta update it.

Thomas Kent Marquardt

In answer to Mark's first question, I began boycotting the NFL several years ago.  The reasons were many, and among them were the injuries, the obscene celebrating when touchdowns were scored (they needed to act like they had been there before), kneeling during the National Anthem, and my sense that far too many of them could be described as overpaid thugs.  I also discovered that I had missed many wonderful fall Sunday afternoons planted in front of the television.  Not watching the NFL on a beautiful fall afternoon certainly opens up your day.  On the second question Mark posed, I no longer read fiction.  Much of my reading is World War II and espionage cases along with some criminal stuff.  Recently finished "5 Families" which is a 700 page book about the NY organized crime families-absolutely fascinating reading and as I worked OC in NYC it brought back a lot of old memories of the city.  "Cassidy's Run" was another good one as it is about an espionage case where I previously worked with some of the guys that investigated it.  When I go to my reward, the local library won't have to tax their Dewey Decimal system to put my books on the shelf.

Jim Gauker

Thomas L. Bakos

Bill H:  Yes, The Expanse is a good story.  SciFi becasue it has space ships and interplanetary travel but like all stories it is a stroy of man.  There's politics, greed, a Mars, Earth, Belter (astoroid belt) conflicts - similar ro racial conflicts, perhaps, but not based on race - based on socio economics and place.  Belters, for example, live in low gravity which affects the development of their bodies so they are human but have a different look.  .  The story takes place, at least through Book 3 in our solar system.  The science is developed but not too extreme.  It still takes months to go from Earth to Jupiter's moons.  But, the story is really about the people - the characters - and there are some good ones.  

The Expanse first became known to me through the TV shows on the SciFi channel and now Amazon Prime.  The TV story was truncated and modified a bit to fit that format and it was difficult to get the background story.  Reading the books has solved that problem.  Now I know what was going on.  And, when you get through reading a part of the story you can go to Amazon and see the TV interpretation.  

I can understand your French connection and how HS French got you through college French.  Me, I was taking German in college (IIT - no Latin) taught by a german graduate student who learned English in Texas and spoke it with a southern accent - somewhat amusing.  But, halfway through the school rearranged its majors and I changed to one that didn't have a language requirement but everything else remained unchanged.  I had to explain to my Department head, a German professor who spoke English with a thick German accent, that I wanted to change my major so I didn't have to take German.  That ended up being easier than I thought it would be.  

I am not really into nonfiction or history.  I am not entirely convinced that there is much difference between fiction and nonfiction.  I prefer the honesty of fiction.  History, I think, is a tad more interesting if one goes back far enough beyond the part we have lived through.  But, then, you have to ask yourself: how does the historian actually know, at least, with respect to obscure historical accounts?  

Bob Dove

While I admire all the readers in this group, here's an extremely diverse viewing list of about 235 titles from many sources for those of us who use more electricity to get drowsy:

24

7 seconds 

A Place to Call Home 

A Very English Scandal

Afterlife 

Alias Grace

All American 

American Crime 

Anne with an E 

Atlanta 

Atypical 

Away

Babylon 5

Babylon Berlin

Bates Motel 

Belgravia 

Berlin 

Better call Saul 

Better Things

Big Little Lies 

Black Money 

Bloodline 

Boardwalk Empire 

Bodyguard 

Bonus Family 

Bordertown 

Borgen 

Bosch 

Breaking Bad 

Broadchurch 

Burned Cocoon

Caliphate 

Call My Agent 

Call the Midwife 

Case 39

Catastrophe 

Chuck 

Claws

Cobra Kai 

Community

Dash and Lilly 

DCI Banks 

Dead to Me 

Deadwind

Dear White People 

Death to 2020

Derry Girls 

Designated Survivor 

Deutschland 83 

Doctor Foster 

Easy 

Elite 

Emily in Paris 

End of the F___ing World

Endeavour

Enola Holmes

Episodes 

Explained

Family Business

Fauda 

Feed Phil 

Finnish Police 

Firefly Lane

Fleabag 

Friday Night Lights

Gilmore Girls

Giri/Haji

Good Girls

Good News

Goodfellas

Gotham 

Grace and Frankie 

Halt and Catch Fire 

Hamish Macbeth

Handmaids Tale 

Happy Endings 

Happy Valley 

Haunting of Hill House

Heartland

Heavens Garden 

Her Mother’s Killer 

Hinterland

House

House of Cards 

How Do You Mend a Broken Heart

I Am Woman 

iZombie

I’m Sorry 

In the Dark

Insecure 

Jane the Virgin

Justified 

Kath and Kim

Killing Eve 

Kim’s Convenience 

Last Tango in Halifax

Lillyhammer 

Line of Duty 

Living Dangerously

Locke and Key

Longmire

Loving  

Lucifer

Lupin

Luther 

Manhunt 

Mansfield Park

Marcela 

McLeod's Daughters

Medici 

Mindhunter

Modern Love 

Money Heist 

Moone Boy

Morning Glory

Miss Scarlet and the Duke

Mrs. America

Ms. Maiden 

My Brilliant Friend

My Octopus Teacher

Mythomaniac 

Narcos 

Never Have I Ever 

New Girl 

Newsroom

Night Manager

No Tomorrow 

Normal People 

OA 

OBX 

Occupied

Odd Mom Out 

Office

Offspring 

On My Block

One Night in Miami 

Outer Banks

Outlander 

Ozark 

Parasite

Peaky Blinders 

Penguin Bloom

Peppermint

Poldark 

Pretend It’s a City

Prisoners of War in English 

Queen of the South

Queens Gambit 

Reckoning

Rectify 

Reign 

Rita 

Salt Fat Acid Heat

Scandal

Schitt’s Creek 

Schrugim

Scrubs

Seaside Hotel 

Sex Education 

Shtisel 

Sick Note

Sinefeld

Six Feet Under

Small Axe

Sopranos 

Spinning Out 

Stranger Things 

Suffragette

Summerland

Surviving Death

Sweet Home 

Sylvie’s Love

The Aeronauts

The Alienist

The Americans 

The Blacklist

The Bletchley Circle

The Bureau

The Crown 

The Dig

The Durrells in Corfu 

The Fall 

The Five

The Flight Attendant

The Good Cop

The Good Place 

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society

The Imposters 

The Kaminski Method 

The Killing 

The Lighthouse

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

The Politician

The Professor and the Madman

The Queen 

The Queen’s Gambit

The Restaurant

The Salisbury Poisioning

The Same Sky

The Sapphires

The Spanish Princess

The Stranger

The Tudors

The Tunnel 

The Twelve

The Undoing

The Unicorn

The Virgin River 

The Wilds 

The Wire 

To the Lake 

Top Boy 

Trapped 

Ugly Betty 

Unbelievable 

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Undercover 

Undoing 

Unforgotten

Unorthodox 

Unauthorized Living

Upload 

Velvet 

Victoria 

Virgin River

Wanderlust 

Wanted 

White Tiger

Winter Sun 

Wonderland

Yellowstone 

You

You Were Never Really Here

Young Wallander 

Your Honor 

William Gibson Heller

Good heavens, Bob, have we really been in covid hell that long?

Mark Wieting

Bob,

You must keep a TV diary, yes?

Are these things you've watched (all seasons of Fauda, for instance) or just a list of good to great TV you are recommending? If it's the former, I second Heller's comment/question. 

Bob Dove

I got much of the streaming list from an aggregated post on Nextdoor, but it was in no order with repititions. I copied it into Word, alphabetized it, then began adding titles from various sources. (I just noticed Fargo was missing. It goes in next to Fauda.) It's a totally haphazard collection, offered with no recommendation. The breadth of the list bespeaks its crowdsourced origin. There's stuff here we have enjoyed and stuff we would never watch. For instance we are not fans of horror, serious or satirical. I hope it helps address the "What is there left to watch?" question. (I also figure it's a kinda splashy post.)  

Thomas L. Bakos

Boib:

You should be celebratiing Valentines Day .

William Gibson Heller

Mark, I rather like the posters with ties.  It makes us appear (notice I said appear) civilized.  Tom on the otherhand looks like he's got a contaption ready to hurl rocks at the castle walls.

Bob Dove

Tom, True. We had cards, flowers, and a delicious dinner created and delivered by a local unemployed chef. The wine was a gift from a condo neighbor I helped recently. It was a TV-free evening  

Thomas L. Bakos

Mark Wieting

Tom, this is a follow-up to Bill's observation about a machine that throws rocks at castle walls. What is that thing?

And, yes, I'm going to keep the tie picture for a while longer because it is an old picture and I was younger.

Camilla Ray (Farley)

Catapult

Karen Kluender (Sewell)

 Hello, Everyone,

First of all, Mark, thank you for administering and encouraging this forum.  Even though I have not responded previously,  I have enjoyed reading each entry. It is wonderful seeing your names and faces and learning what is going on in your lives!

Introducing some new topics is good. I enjoy sports, but not to the extent and with the encyclopedic knowledge shown by many.  Reading is another matter.  I have always enjoyed reading, but with travel off the table there is more time available. Like Tom Marquardt, I have recently been drawn to books set in the time period of WWII.  I went through a phase of Tom Clancy and Clancy-ish stories, but the testosterone got a bit thick! Then I moved on to mysteries and eventually WWII.  The first, with a bizarre title, was recommended by a close friend.  The title? The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris, based on a true story.   

We have all been without controversy for several days now, so let's start something.  Opinions are important.  So, what is it? E-reader (Kindle, Nook, etc) or BOOK? I believe there are gently held feelings on both sides.  What are yours?  I'll save mine for the next round.

Here in coastal South Carolina it is a beautiful sunny 60 degree day.  My husband and I are getting together with a few friends for a Mardi Gras party a little later. We live in a small community and have all been quite careful during this time.  It will be masks (and masks), beads, coins and small flags in a private dining room.  

Karen Kluender Sewell

Don Comfort

We do a lot of reading especially at bedtime. Since hardbacked books take a lot of shelf space and I do not like to get rid of them, we have turned to Kindle.  It is convenient, less bulky on trips, and the reading material is much cheaper.  My Kindle library includes:

1. The Heart of Everything. The untold story of Red Cloud and the Indian Wars.

2. Slaughter at Golid.  The fight for Texas independence.

3. The Alamo Avengers. More on the fight for Texas Independence.

4. The Pioneers. First hand account of the westward movement.

5. The Apache Wars. The Indian Wars.

6. Leadership in Turbulent Times.  Abraham Lincoln's Presidency.

7. Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln's Presidency.

8. The Lincoln Conspiracy. The assasination of Lincoln.

9. The Bully Pulpit. Theodore Roosevelt's Presidency.

10.. Presidents of War. Several presidents handling of major wars.

11. The Hope of Glory. Reflections on Jesus' last words.

There are so many more.

On another note, Patti and I celebrated our third anniversary this past weekend at Lake Geneva.  Great restraurants, beautiful scenery, ice and snow sculptures, and most importantly all with social distancing.  We also played a lot of Mexican Train Dominoes which we are addicted to.

Thomas L. Bakos

Mark:

The thing at the road end of our driveway is a big post in the ground with a smaller piece pretending to hold the post up.  It also provides a place to hang an address sign.  It is not a catapult although, apparently, it gives a very good impression of being one.  It's been there for, at least, 15 years.  The wood tree trunks were from our property.  This is a close up of the sign.  

Thomas L. Bakos

Mark:

As for a picture, perhaps this might work for me if I wanted to look young and Klingon.  It also fits well with my return to Science Fiction.

This is a characture done by a characturist working off a younger me picture. 

Mary Lou Schmidt (Brunner)

Hi all.

This has certainly been a very different year. We have been enjoying the Winters down on the Gulf Coast of AL since 2014. However this year things are not the same. Our group of friends has dwindled because of illness and death. The area was also severly damaged by Sally and they are still trying to rebuild. The condo we had been renting is still not up and running, but luckily last winter we had decided to move to a different one, which did not suffer from Sally. All the Mardi Gras celebrations were cancelled, so no parades or beads. This year has been unseasonably cold and rainy but we have managed to walk the beach and trails when the weather permitted. Eating out has been limited to a couple lunches when we could eat outside. The locals are for the most part not masking up, so we are pretty much staying in the condo. All the Senior activities have been cancelled, so no cards or trips. We really miss seeing our Euchre playing friends.

We prefer books to the digital form and the library is our source of reading material.  Our list includes James Patterson, Sandra Brown and Sara Paretsky to name a few. For those of you not familiar with Sara, her main character is a PI who lives in Chicago and was raised on the South side. 

Hope everyone stays safe, warm and healthy.

Mary Lou

Thomas L. Bakos

By the way, if you walk up the driveway, this is the view you would get of the San Juan mountains to the south.  This looking out over a valley towards the mountaiins about 20 miles away.  The tallest is Mt. Sneffles - about 14,000 feet.  

We have not been too affected by any lock down orders.  We would tend to have ignored them anyway but really had no need to.  There are not a whole lot of other people around here.  

Restaurants have been open with slightly limited capacity in our part of Colorado for some time now.  What more do we need - a good book, a place to eat, and a view.

I hope by early spring, we'll have the Power Wagon.  It will look something like this.

It's been under restoration for about a year now in Idaho - just across the state line from Jackson Hole.  

Ethel (Jean) Snyder (Riskus)

I have always loved to read.  It's like taking a mini vacation.  I own a Nook, and I have Kindle on my computer for books I can't find on Nook.  If I had hard copies of all the books on Nook and Kindle I would have to build another room to fit them all.  My favorite author is Ann McCafferty.  I've read all her books more than once.  Next to Ann McCafferty is Simon Haynes.  As you can tell, I prefer fiction.  I believe Timothy Zahn went to Glenbard East.  I haven't read any of his books but plan on checking them out.

Thomas L. Bakos

Hey Jean:

Yes, checked Wikipedia, Timothy Zahn a Glenbard East graduate and a SciFi writer  Can't get much better than that.  Thanks for pointing it out.  I've still got 5 1/2 books in The Expanse series to get to the end of but that might be a next.

Gladys Christine Hallbeck (Hart)

Thanks, Karen. Just finished The Tattooist. I don't know how people survived! I've read a few others re WWII. Try Night by Elie Wiesel, a first person account of life in the concentration camp. And, one that made me cry, We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. Defectors by Joseph Kanon and The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. In between, I read anything by Nelson DeMille, Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling!), and the Bosch books by Michael Connelly. Have also read all the Lee Child/Jack Reacher books. I do all my reading on the iPad through an app called Overdrive that connects to the Helen Plum Library. So, no books stacking up here!

William Gibson Heller

Thanks for mentioning Overdrive, Gladdie, I had never heard of it.  Will have to see if my library participates in it.

Karen Kluender (Sewell)

Gladys, Glad you found the book interesting.  I agree with a fascination about survival in umimaginable conditions.  I have read many non-fiction aocounts like Into Thin Air about climbing Everest, Knock Down about a tragic off shore sailing race, Dead Wake, about the sinking of the Lusitania,  Unbroken, Japanese prisoner of war camp, and many more.  All have caused me to consider whether I would ever have the strength and determination to keep going.  I guess that is the type of question we hope never to have to answer!  By the way, there are a couple of books by Susan Goodring centered in Europe and taking place during WWII and the 2000s. I particularly enjoyed My Name is Eve.  The author does a great job of weaving the characters and events of the wartime years with people and events more than 50 years later.

Is anyone one else watching "Resident Alien" on SyFy?  I am hooked. 

I realize there is a new "status symbol"...Have you had both shots?! It has become a weird topic among friends here.  It is also a way to find out who is a lot younger than you are!

Karen Kluender  (Sewell)