First The Jackal, Now The Cobra

BobLee
July24/ 2011

To even novice aficionados of the gendre, Frederick Forsyth’s Day Of The Jackal is a standard of is it as good as for espionage thrillers since 1971.   Forsyth elevated Carlos The Jackal to #1 on every “name an international assassin” list.  Forty year later Forsyth’s latest – The Cobra – is a worthy successor to DOTJ.    BobLee passes 300 miles in his recreational trekking and reistening.

“OK, fine BobLee; but do you have an Unpleasantness Update for us? “  Do wild bears you know what you know where?  Of course there IS an Unpleasantness Update and it’s a DOOZIE!

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For all of you keeping track, BobLee’s “Trekking & Reistening” has indeed passed 350 miles and over 40 pulse-pounding audio books.   “Reisten” = “Read by Listening”.   Without a doubt THE most enjoyable recreational activity I have ever undertaken.  Not suggesting it is for everyone but long solitary walks with a good book fits my admittedly eccentric asocial personality to a T.

A cosmetic by-product of all this walking & reistening is “2% of a ton” less of BobLee than there was when I began.   Drafted as a Tight End, I am now down to Wide Receiver size.   I still shop at the Big & Tall Shop but now only go to the Tall section.   So The Inevitable Quandry – alter my entire wardrobe or clean out the closet and start over?  I’m opting for (1) alter about 25% and (2) bag & tag the rest to Goodwill which plays perfectly to Blondie’s and My “de-clutter our empty nest” program.

Five miles every day even on 100 degree days.  Secret to Hot Day Walking = Start at 7 AM and pick shady routes.  Not getting in my daily walk is not an option.

Equally wonderful to the exercise is the pleasure of reistening to endless action novels.   I’ve gone thru Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series and every David Baldacci novel.  Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp and Andrew Peterson’s Nathan McBride.  Noted earlier, all the Harlan Coben Myron Bolitars and a dozen Louis L’Amours and Ted Bell’s Sir Alex Hawkes.  I’m now into Forsyth with The Cobra a definite recommend.

I have Pat Conroy in waiting along with Ken Follett’s The Pillars of The Earth and its sequel (40 hours each for those two!).  I get all my books thru audible.com which I definitely recommend for flawless downloading to iTunes then to my iPhone.  So simple even Prince Albert could do it.  OK, not THAT simple, but pretty darn simple.

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We lost a Baby Boomers 4 Jesus this week – Roy Wall.   Roy had been a BB4J from its inception five years ago.  In an assemblage of 50 or so fellows the tendency is to hang with a dozen or so guys more frequently.  Roy was in my dozen or so and an avid BLSays reader.   Roy and I shared POVs on politics, sports and that whole Virgin Birth & Resurrection Thing.

The average age of BB4J is pushing 70.  We don’t do many births or weddings.  Yours truly is one of the youngsters.  It’s that final inevitable rite of passage that’s more common with us.   Prince Albert did Roy’s eulogy; keeping it short and not mentioning $$$.   Roy would have liked it.

Roy “went” suddenly which we all say is “how we want to go” …. but I wish my friend Roy Wall hadn’t gone at all.

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LSU got hit with probation last week as did Tennessee and yet another Georgia Bulldog blew up his career with stoopid crap.   Tiger, Vol and Dawg fans just yawned.  For legitimate BCS poker players such news is commonplace and considered collateral damage from a hazardous undertaking.

UNC fans should finally implode that ridiculous “Carolina Way” elitist myth and adopt the SEC’s “it ain’t cheating unless you catch us” attitude.   The UNC Brd of Trustees has strong-armed a reordering of the institution’s priorities, so lets just (1) ‘fess up to the crime – (2) do the time and – (3) move on until we get caught the next time.   GoodBy Harvard comparisons.  Hello Mississippi State.  “Chapel Hill has more pine trees than Starkville … naay naay naay.”

This week’s Unpleasantness Update:

On Wednesday the highest paid guy in the UNC System not named “Roy” looked like an 8 y/o whose pet turtle had died.   ACC media access mandates 50 some press conferences between now and October 28.   Butch Davis emerged from a summer of reclusion to begin his season-long perp walk aka “death by 1,000 embarrassing questions” .   Here are the highlights of this week’s “HE SAID WHAT?”

“The one thing I do know,” Davis said, “is that Marvin knows that I am completely ethical and that I always do the right thing.” 

Former Miami AD Paul Dees and the entire Cleveland Browns organization responded with deafening guffaws.

Butch is now using Marvin Austin as a character reference !!  To quote Larry The Cable Guy:  “I don’t care who you are… THAT’S FUNNY.”

So funny that it overshadows Butch’s earlier announcement that he WILL release his “216” phone records…. just as soon as he power washes away any incriminating calls.  Release date of the scrubbed clean records will be “pretty soon”.   Butch is apparently now using Dickie’s gag writer.  (i.e. “we could see it in their eyes ….”)

Butch Davis touting his own integrity is akin to pointy-headed uber-liberal peacocks in high academia touting their own intelligence.

Integrity and Intelligence are qualities that are self-evident.  Both are invalidated by self-proclamation.  If one has to announce that one has either, then one likely has neither.

Sam Pittman was named UNC’s Associate Head Coach.  Anyone holding Kenny Browning’s name in the “Likely Interim Head Coach” pool can tear up their ticket.

What does all this silliness mean?  We are guaranteed a fun-filled next 90 days of verbal pratfalls and gaffes aplenty.   Grab some popcorn and enjoy the demolition derby.

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