Friday's Odds and Ends

Columnist Mark Davis recently wrote, "Nothing tickles me like complaints that American presidential campaigns are too long. People start running early because we start paying attention early."

He goes on to highlight what he terms "compelling story lines" about the different contenders and their current standings, as well as their chances of capturing the nomination.

Memo to Mark: If journalists would stop writing about all the political maneuvering we could pay attention to something more newsworthy.

It saddened me to read another story in The Dallas Morning News this week about a student who was tied to a chair and then assaulted in a Dallas area middle school. Again, a teacher was in the classroom, but did nothing to stop the assault. The incident is still under investigation, but the Dallas ISD has put that substitute teacher on a do-not-call list.

An eight-year-old girl in San Francisco who competes in beauty pageants lets her mother inject Botox in her lips and cheeks, because she "… like, doesn't like big wrinkles."

Eight, and she thinks she has wrinkles? I should invite her to my house.

But seriously, this mother also waxes the girl's legs to give her an edge in the beauty pageants. Talk about misplaced priorities.

Some people predict that tomorrow the world will end. I sure hope not. I have a vacation planned to visit family in Michigan, with a few appearances at bookstores during the trip.

On Monday, May 23, I will be at The Book Rack in Moline, IL from 12 to 2 in the afternoon.  I've never been to this store before, but the owner, Bob, was very receptive to having me there, and I am looking forward to meeting some of the people who visit his store on a regular basis. The store is located at 3937 41st. Drive. (Just in case you want to enter that into your GPS and find the store. LOL) While I'm in Moline, I will go by the library and donate copies of my books. 

On May 28th I will be at Horizon Books in Cadillac, MI from 1-3pm. My family lives near Cadillac, so I have been to this store several times and always enjoy going back. They have a nice coffee shop and a wide selection of books. They also have a wonderful staff that always makes me feel very welcome. The store is located on 115 S. Mitchell St.  

The nice people at Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookstore in Ann Arbor, MI, are buying several copies of OPEN SEASON, and I will stop by to sign them while I am there. I didn't find out that I would be stopping in Ann Arbor in time to set up an event, but one of the owners, Jamie, was gracious enough to arrange to have books in the store. 

Next I will be at Howard's Bookstore in Bloomington IN on June 2 from 6-9pm. I have never been to this store, either, so I am looking forward to meeting the owner, Joie Canada. She was most helpful in arranging the time to fit my driving schedule, as well as giving me a contact person at the local newspaper for a press release.  Howard's is located at 101 West Kirkwood Ave.

If you live near any of these stores, I would love it if you came by so we could meet. I have met so many terrific people on the Internet, and it is always fun to meet in person.  If you have friends or family in the areas, I would appreciate it if you let them know.

While I'm gone, there will still be new posts up on the regular schedule - if Blogger cooperates with my pre-scheduling. I will have limited Internet access where I will be staying most of the time, so I won't be able to comment here or visit the blogs I normally do. But I'm sure the Internet will carry on just fine without me.

I just got the cover art for One Small Victory which will be released in Turkey within the next two weeks. Thought I would share it now. My first foreign sale. I think my name will be the only thing in English.

I keep thinking I am done with this blog, then I get another e-mail with a link worth sharing. Jenny Jasik, the central character in One Small Victory has been interviewed on Paula Petty's blog, Petty's Coppers. She features interviews with fictional police officers and other crime-solving characters, and there have been some interesting folks featured there. Stop by and meet Jenny if you get a chance.

Do Politicians Think We're Stupid?

Actually, I think they do. Consider all the mis-steps, lies, shady dealings, and other nefarious activities associated with those in the political arena. How can they keep doing all that and still try to convince the general public that they deserve our trust and respect?

The latest bit of shady-dealing news concerns Texas House of Representatives member  Joe Driver   who is on the hot seat for double billing the state and his campaign fund for travel and other expenses.  The total amounted to a little over $17,000.

Granted, not a lot of money in the overall scheme of things, but it is money he thought he was entitled to. When the double billing was discovered, he said he did not realize there was anything wrong with asking reimbursement from the state for expenses his campaign fund had already paid for. Can he look at himself in the mirror and honestly say there was not a little voice suggesting that perhaps this was wrong?

More recently, he has said an ethics official told him that charging both was okay. So, if he did not think there was anything wrong with it, why did he consult an ethics official?  I would really like to know the name and credentials of that ethics official.  None of the ethics courses I took ever had a loophole for outright fraud. 

Perhaps the biggest irony in this whole mess is that Driver has reimbursed his campaign fund, but not the Texas taxpayers. So he still get's to keep the money. Shame on him.

What do you think? Is there any excuse for this type of thing?

Thank You, Mr. Safire

It's never too late to honor someone of the stature of William Safire, the columnist who died last Sunday. If I hadn't been absolutely buried in work, I would have done this sooner, but later is better than never, as the old cliche goes.

I have always enjoyed Safire's columns for their ability to make us laugh, while he prodded us to consider other points of view, and one that I particularly enjoyed was published in 2005. Perhaps that one resonated with me because I, too, worked for print publications as a columnist, and he came up with rules for reading a political column.

Here are just a couple of those rules:

9. Cherchez la source. Ingest no column (or opinionated reporting labeled "analysis") without asking: Cui bono? And whenever you see the word "respected" in front of a name, narrow your eyes. You have never read "According to the disrespected (whomever)."

10. Resist swaydo-intellectual writing. Only the hifalutin trap themselves into "whomever" and only the tort bar uses the Latin for "who benefits?" Columnists who show off should surely shove off. (And avoid all asinine alliteration.)

11. Do not be suckered by the unexpected. Pundits sometimes slip a knuckleball into their series of curveballs: for variety's sake, they turn on comrades in ideological arms, inducing apostasy-admirers to gush "Ooh, that's so unpredictable." Such pushmi-pullyu advocacy is permissible for Clintonian liberals or libertarian conservatives but is too often the mark of the too-cute contrarian.

12. Scorn personal exchanges between columnists. Observers presuming to be participants in debate remove the reader from the reality of controversy; theirs is merely a photo of a painting of a statue, or a towel-throwing contest between fight managers. Insist on columns taking on only the truly powerful, and then only kicking 'em when they're up.

If you are sufficiently intrigued, you can read all the rules HERE