Miscellany
1 - One of the reasons we have to be proud of our country is how we have broken down social discrimination. Okay, it ain't perfect, but it's a lot better for blacks and homosexuals than it was fifty years ago. Contributing to the decline in discrimination has been a focus on hate crimes. Recent statistics illuminate a remarkable success in dealing with — or an incredible over-statement of — the problem. During the most recent three-year reporting period, of the 5,400,000 crimes reported, 2,976 were labeled hate crimes. That's five-hundredths of one percent, and fewer than 1,000 per year. And considering most crimes are based on some kind of hatred, ya gotta think that it's mostly factors other than race, creed, or religion that provoke the villainy. For what it's worth....
2 - You've likely heard my rant about the publishing industry being not about literature, but about sales — first, subsidiary, and residuals. So it should be of no surprise that the only relationship a cover artist has to a book is cursory at best. To wit, the recent re-release of Rex Stout's first Nero Wolfe mystery, "Fer-de-Lance", whose cover artist clearly hadn't read the book. The cover drawing is a mostly-green serpent snaking its way through the headboard of a brass bed, which is accessorized by a palm-type plant and mosquito netting. On the bed is a pillow with what look like three bullet holes, and blood dripping from the "wounds". First of all, a fer-de-lance is a nasty-looking brown pit viper with gray markings. Second, there was no brass bed in the story, which takes place in New York, where they use screens or repellant to deal with the few mosquitos that care to fly through the citified air. Third, no one was killed on a bed. Fourth, no one was shot. Other than that....
3 - Speaking of marketing, driving down the interstate, we passed a bunch of trailers and campers, which you do when you're driving eighty and they're driving seventy, or more slowly. Whether self-propelled or lugged by large pick-up trucks, these hulking pod-like creations are like aluminunized armadillos, half-shimmying, half- waddling their bulky way between the lines. There is certainly nothing sleek about them; not a hint of alacrity or poise. So it is kinda surprising that folks are thwumping down the highway in metal boxes named "Flair" and "Prowler". I'm not talkin' names like people give their boats, these are brand names. I can seeing naming a motorcycle an "Intruder", for its noisy intrusion, but "Flair" and "Prowler" simply don't make sense.
4 - Linda and I raced back from Oakland to return to Redding to attend a wedding late Saturday afternoon. We were 45 minutes late, which we thought might mean that we had missed the ceremony but were in time for the reception. Nope. We were even a little early. It was a tender affair. Two people who had been living together who finally were tying the knot. Good for them, and their friends and relatives, working people who were glad to see the deed done. I wondered if these were the folks who would be called to fight. They were probably too old, most of us. Besides it's not gonna be that kind of war, probably. In this war, we are all just targets. Collateral damage, they would call us. I hope not. May they live long and prosper, as should we all, in peace.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.