Sunday Sundries, 240

1. AOTWs: I've written about them before; no doubt I'll write about them again: tailgaters. There are just some folks out there--men and women-- who just can't bear it that I go only 4-5 mph over the speed limit. And so they pull up so close to my rear bumper that they risk carbon monoxide poisoning. If I had to brake for, oh, a squirrel or a buffalo or whatever, they would hit us--hard. Sometimes, I'd like to have one of those James Bond cars--one that has some sort of rocket that can fire from the rear of the car, and ...  (Can you tell I was hassled by more than one of these AOTWs this week?)

2. I finished three books this week; two were from my Night Pile (ones I pick away at a little bit each night in bed before Lights Out).

     - The first from the Night Pile was Jared Diamond's Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (2019). I've read a few of Diamond's other books, the first being the one that propelled him into celebrity: Guns, Germs, and Steel, a book I loved and learned so much from. Later, I read his Collapse (about civilizations that have fallen--and how and why)--and now this one.

Diamond looks at six countries (he knows them all well) and looks at how they have/have not adjusted to crises they have faced. And, yes, the USA is among them, and, yes, our crisis is now (our deep political divisions).

This one was a little sort of formulaic, I thought, organized a little like an old-fashioned school essay--but still some telling points, some alarming statistics and other evidence.

Back in the early/mid-90s, by the way, I was out in the Bay Area doing Jack London research. On one of my trips I stayed with dear Hiram College friends, Claude and Dorothy Steele, who, at the time, were teaching at Stanford. While I was there, they asked me if I'd like to go hear Diamond speak. Duh! He was working on Collapse at the time, and I had already read Guns, Germs, and Steel.

I must have taken some notes on that talk ... where are they?

But it was a great night with two of the finest human beings I've ever known.

     - The second from the Night Pile was Career of Evil, a Cormoran Strike novel by Robert Galbraith (a pen name for J. K. Rowling). My friend Chris Cozens got me going on Galbraith (I'd not read any of them before), and now I have but one left.

In this one, Strike--an Afghan war vet who has lost part of a leg as a result--is investigating someone who's mailing body parts to his PI office. It's a long and complicated story--but gripping, as well. And I especially like the character of Robin, his young secretary, who is extraordinarily bright and loves the PI business. A subplot is her relationship with Matthew--a marriage is imminent--yet there is some sexual electricity between her and Strike, though nothing (so far!) has happened between them.

Cinemax has a limited series--CB Strike--based on the early novels, and we've just started streaming it. Kind of like it ...

     - The final book is one I read this week, Richard Russo's new one, Chances Are .... The title is a reference to the old Johnny Mathis song (link to YouTube), released in August 1957; I was just about to start 8th grade, and I remember that song was a soc-hop favorite that year--and later years.

Anyway, the novel tells about three men, now in their mid-60s, who were close friends in college. They have decided to meet on Martha's Vineyard (where one of them has a family cottage) for a kind of reunion. On the minds of all three of them: a young woman named Jacy who was with them on an earlier weekend at college commencement. A classmate, Jacy won the hearts of all three of the men, but none of them made a move. They were the Four Musketeers.

But after that long-ago weekend, Jacy disappeared. Totally.

So--slowly, slowly--the story emerges in the minds and words of Russo's three men. And we eventually learn what we need to know.

Russo names each chapter for one of the three (Mickey, Teddy, Lincoln), and so we get the story in slices, in varying points of view.

Oh, there's also a jerk who lives next door on the island. He's hard to ignore ...

I've loved Russo's work since I saw that film Nobody's Fool, 1994, based on an early novel. (Link to some video.) And I've now read all his work. This one, I thought, had a bit of a problem at the end (I'll not tell you what it was), but, overall, Russo once again lassoed me and dragged me behind his stunning stallion.

3. Didn't go to the movies this week, but we're streaming happily away--Waking the Dead, Line of Duty, CB Strike ...

5. Our older grandson, Logan, started ninth grade this week. Impossible.

6. Our son (Steve) and daughter-in-law (Melissa) had their 20th wedding anniversary this week. Impossible.

7. Later this year, Joyce  and I will celebrate our 50th. IMPOSSIBLE.

8. Last Word--a word I liked this week from one of my various online word-of-the-day providers ...

     - from Oxford English Dictionary

fuhgeddaboudit, int.

In representations of regional speech (associated especially with New York and New Jersey): ‘forget about it’, used to indicate that a suggested scenario is unlikely or undesirable. Cf. forget v. Additions.’

Forms:  19– fahgedaboudit,   19– fahgedaboutit,   19– fahgeddaboudit,   19– fahgeddaboutit,   19– fuhgedaboudit,   19– fuhgedaboutit,   19– fuhgeddaboudit,   19– fuhgeddaboutit.

Origin: A variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: forget about it at forget v.

Etymology: Representing a colloquial and regional (chiefly New York and New Jersey) pronunciation of forget about it at forget v. Additions.

 U.S. colloquial.

1987  T. Wolfe Bonfire of Vanities  viii. 175 Fuhgedaboudit. Bed-Stuy's the worst.

1996 N.Y. Times Mag.  1 Sept. 18/1 ‘Will copywriters ever capture the vernacular of New York City?’..‘Fuhgeddaboutit.’

2000  F. P. Wilson All Rage(2006) 83 Me work in a junkyard? Fuhgeddaboudit.

2006  G. De Stefano Offer We can't Refuse  i. 39 We ain't gonna be Vegas or New Jersey... In other words, fuhgedaboudit.

2009  W. Leonhard Windows 7 All-in-one for Dummies  viii. 789 If your computer has less than 512MB of memory.., use a 512MB or 1GB key drive for ReadyBoost. Otherwise, fuhgeddaboutit.

2012 Daily News (N.Y.)(Metro ed.) (Nexis) 26 Jan. 2 So you think you'll have enough money to retire? Fuhgeddaboudit!