Thursday, March 24, 2005

Vertical Coffin

This book was penned by the legendary Stephen J. Cannell. I think everyone is familiar with his writing for television shows, but this is the first time I’ve run across a novel of his, although he’s written many.

Vertical coffin is the term police officers use to describe doorways. Doorways are often one of the most dangerous places for a cop, because they often don’t know what they are dealing with until sometimes it is too late.

But don’t let the title let you think that this is just a mishmash of stories describing officer incidents at doorways. It is, but this story centers around the politics and fighting over jurisdiction between the LAPD, ATF and LASO (Sheriff’s Office). As the story progress, we’re horrified to be witnessing an almost gang war erupt between the ATF and LASO’s SWAT teams, as their members are sniped at their homes by the very same weapons that they use on the job.

So how was this book: Outstanding. I love books that have the ability to really flesh out characters without slowing down the story. And this story is just, well, wow! Let’s just say that the story involves everything from Harley Davidson motorcycles to F/A-18 air strikes.

Usually after my commute, I’m completely ready to get out of the car. This is one of those audio books that had me sitting in my car waiting to hear what happened next.

Go get this book now!

Monday, March 21, 2005

The Memory of Running

I just finished up listening to the unabridged audio book of “The Memory of Running” by Ron McLarty.

At the end of the audio book, there is a lengthy interview with the author (pretty cool feature of an audio book). He mentions that since he is an actor and playwright, he often reads his writing aloud after he completes part of it to make sure it’s moving along as he intends. His opinion is that this book was really meant to be read aloud to be appreciated. I agree.



I really enjoyed this book, although I think it would have most likely made me miserable actually reading it. I’m not much of a reader, mainly because any time I do pick up a book for reading, it’s usually a technical manual. I read enough of those that I just don’t view reading as a leisure activity. It’s work for me.

The book really isn’t so much about the main character, Smithy, but about the people he meets and interacts with. I think most people can understand the main character as someone who just didn’t amount to much, and we’re happy to go along for the ride while he puts some meaning into his life.

The style of writing lends itself to many stories from the past, if not more so than the present. Because there are so many different interactions with other characters, it’s difficult to describe exactly why I liked this book so much. It must be the variety, and that the scenery and people are constantly changing which moves this read along.

I especially like that I feel that this story could have happened. It stays based in a "could have happened" reality, and didn't try to become a over the top "failure to astounding success" type of story. The ending was satisfying, but I wouldn't call it a happy ending, nor sad. Again, this book is difficult to describe, because it's a rare form that doesn't try to fill any of the well-known templates for modern novels.

Yes, I realize I'm being vague, so I leave you with this: I recommend the audio book to anyone, and the actual book to anyone that enjoys a good read but doesn’t need a compelling story to “hook” them into the book.

Friday, March 18, 2005

Los Angeles Angels

Okay, I think that changing the name of the Angels to the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" was a "whatever" moment for me. In any event, the owner of the Angels has gotten his wish and all of the media has started referring to the Angles as the "Los Angeles Angels".

It's just really, really weird looking at the scores and just seeing "Los Angeles". I've never liked the Dodgers much, and having to mentally seperate the Angels and Dodgers on a daily basis is annoying.




Whatever.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Happiness

One of my favorite radio personalities is April Winchell. She's definitely one of the funniest people on the radio. Unfortunately, she doesn't do much radio at the moment, so I like reading her blog.

Yesterday she posted about happiness, and I think she's more right than wrong in her assessment.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Plane Crash

A plane crashed last Monday in the next city over from where I live. In reading the accounts from the local newspaper, I get the sense that this accident was entirely avoidable.

According to weather.com, sunset was 5:42 p.m. In the newspaper article, they reported the following; my comments below each bullet:

1. That the instructor was planning on practicing takeoffs/landings from Redlands and San Bernardino airports.

This makes sense. If you want to carry passengers at night, you're required to make 3 full stop landings within the previous 90 days at night. The aircraft left at 6:30 p.m. and it would have been getting dark by then. If my memory serves, the whole area around the mountains was very hazy. Not a good time to be flying, and especially at night. Just the presense of some haze/light fog is a good indication that the dewpoint is close to the temperature, and as soon as the sun goes down: voila, fog city.

2. That a fuel problem was a possible cause.

Yep, fuel may have been a problem, but I'd guess that fog + night was the culprit. Plus, if you've ever flown up near Yucaipa, it's a box canyon, albeit a wide one. If you're not paying attention, the ground can catch up with you while you won't have much room to manuver. Again, this is a situation that difficult to handle on a clear day.

3. That a possible motive for where the plane was found was perhaps they were going to make instrument approaches.

WTF? You're going to start instrument approaches over a city that is next to a mountain? There are no instrument approaches there because there's mountains! The only airport in the area that has an approach is San Bernardino International, and you start that approach just to the east of Ontario airport. That's about a 50 mile distance from where the plane was found.

And if you're shooting approaches, you most likely are tuned into air traffic control. At the very least to be aware if there are any other aircraft on that approach. So, you'd have someone to talk to when you get yourself lost in the fog and hopefully they can save your butt. Obviously, that didn't happen.

It'll be interesting to read the NTSB report. Actually, it probably won't. My guess is that it will say the same thing I have in a more formal manner.