Blog – Page 69 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

November 30, 2014

City of Widows (review)

hat Western writers often miss in all the flying lead and howling Indians is that there is something in the western genre that goes beyond all this. There is the thing that makes a western a western, and not simply a historical fiction with guns. It’s the pragmatism of the western hero. It’s the saddle bum with nobility, the tramp with a strong sense of right and wrong. That’s what makes a western, and why the same story with Russians or Hawaiians or Eskimos does not work. And Page Murdock, hero of City of Widows, has it in spades. I […]

December 2, 2014

OpsLog – B&M – 12/2/2014

t’s a long haul over to Rockledge on a work night – 53.3 miles to be exact. And this is to run a layout so small, only four mainline trains get to cross it. (That’s like 25 miles of driving per train run – whew). But Kevin Loiselle’s Boston and Maine gets around these small room limitations. While some modelers talk about details in terms of handrails and bells, Kevin thinks in terms of ops. When the Bellows Falls switcher comes out onto the main, he has to physically unlock (with a key) the turnout controls, then call the dispatcher […]

December 4, 2014

Getting older (DOG EAR)

hen I was young, I was reading a book on anime (this was back before Akira, and if you don’t know what that was because you are too young or too old, shame on you). There was a picture of a Japanese artist sitting in front of a pyramid study room in his back yard, something someone had told him to make. It was supposed to give him all sorts of mystical triangle powers of creativity. “All I do is sit in there and drink sake,” he told the interviewer. I didn’t understand that – if you can draw so […]

December 6, 2014

OpsLog – L&N – 12/6/2014

oday was one of my hardest dispatcher gigs ever. Was running the namesake side of John Wilke’s twin-route L&N Railroad (Bruce Notman held down the Southern), dispatching under warrants for four hours. I was doing it the hard way, running off actual train sheet reporting (keeping time like I had at the B&M a week past, but this time for something like twenty-plus trains rather than four). And I was starting to lose it. South of Norton Yard, there is a stretch with two sidings, some shared trackage (at Goodbee, and thankfully under my control) and then another siding. I […]

December 7, 2014

The Kill List (Review)

his one was a tough one to review. Not because I had a difficult time with it or couldn’t find anything positive, but because I’ve got a sick wife. Five times, when I started the review, we had a crisis. The sixth was today. So now she’s settled. And now I can review. Drones. This is what the book is about. The liberal bugaboo, the conservative uncertainty. Drones. Yeah, so there is a fellow raising cain out in the Middle East somewhere, the Preacher. He’s calling for Jihad with untraceable internet speeches. All one needs to do to go to […]

December 11, 2014

Torpedoes Los! (DOG EAR)

can’t tell you how many times I’ve posted Indigo out. It’s been launched at agents for about two years. At first, three would go out and as soon as two rejections came in, I’d launch another barrage. Then, as noted HERE, I realized it had been months. Inertia – just part of getting old. What is confounding is how much pressure I put on myself about this. I actually worried. And worrying about submissions is like worrying about a trip to the corner grocery story (the what?). I’ve got submissions down to a science. I’ve got different letters for […]

December 14, 2014

Accelerando (Review)

f I had to review this comment in a single line, I’d tell you this – it’s Snow Crash for a new century. Accelerando follows three generations of a family, from 2010 (or so) through the hundreds of years to follow. We start with Manfred Macx, a “venture altruist” (meaning he has great ideas, but because he thinks the economics of scarcity is a dying concept, he’s giving them away to make others rich and hasten the in the brave new world). He’s married to a business-blade dominatrix, a rocky on-again, off-again, divorce-and-hatred sort of thing (she rapes him and […]

December 14, 2014

I hate: Jawas

hate jawas. Not those little shadowy creatures with the tan sand-robes and the glowing bulb eyes. No. But I hate the ones I saw today. The wife and I walked over to Juniors, the local breakfast/lunch joint that is our Sunday tradition. Came in and there they were – six teens sitting at a table, five of them with their hoodies up. “I can’t abide those Jawas! Disgusting creatures!“ -C3PO The deal was that the Corrine merchants were having a shopping drive over the weekend, with wares on the walks, a book show (got an invite but didn’t attend) […]

December 15, 2014

New York – Day One – Hitting the City

ur latest travels – my mom decided to sponsor the entire family for a trip to New York City, up to Christmas Eve. And that’s good – I haven’t been there since I was seven. And it would be a good test of JB’s resilience – given her injury and the complications that came from it. Okay, so you gotta understand – this was one packed day. Up at 3am, on the road for the airport by 4am, in the air by 6am, and in New York shortly after 8am. Interesting to see this city (this ‘living reef’ as HG […]

December 15, 2014

New York – Day Two – The Big Cold Lady

ong day today – took the subway first thing out to Battery Park where we caught the ferry to the base of the Statue of Liberty. Interesting that the last time I was out here, when I was seven, it was cold and bleak, too. Anyway, got to check out the monument’s museum and all the cool things there. Also got to go all the way up to the top of the pedestal (all 176 steps, which is nothing compared to my 14th floor office at work – like after a fire drill when the lobby is packed with everyone […]