Three Weeks to Say Goodbye - C.J. Box

This was a departure for me in terms of CJ Box.  I haven’t posted any reviews of his books to date although I have read 3 novels by him in his Joe Picket series.  Those books I loved and I really do need to remedy the review situation on them.

But, Three Weeks to Say Goodbye!  I knew it wasn’t a Joe Picket novel when I downloaded it to my Kindle but Box’s writing in the previous offerings were most certainly 5 * but I had initial misgivings about this one in the opening pages. 

“God, I hate to be the one to tell you .”  “Tell me what?” A Beat. “The biological father wants Angelina Back.”  I made her repeat it in case I hadn’t heard her correctly. She did.  

Jack and Melissa have adopted a baby girl only to find that the adoption agency have not crossed all the T's or dotted the I's and after settling into the routine with the baby and loving her for nine months, the `father' receives a phone call from Julia Perala, the placements officer who handled their adoption, stating that the natural father had not signed away his rights to his daughter and that he now, through his father a Federal Judge, wanted his daughter back!

The father and grandfather turn up at the house to discuss the situation and it is clear that the baby’s father is less than interested, but the grandfather, the Federal Judge, gives them three weeks to give up the baby or he will turn up with the Sherriff!

The book now started to look interesting, imagine how would you feel in those circumstances.  You and your wife had been trying to make a family, suffered miscarriages and then ‘successfully’ and at great financial and emotional  cost, managed to adopt a child who you had loved and nurtured for nine months.... not a pretty thought.

Not my cup of tea, or so I thought. However I continued to read for a few more pages and Mr Box, like a couple of other authors I read at the moment, just sucks you in.  It is an easy writing style, well constructed and flowing.  Whether he had any knowledge of the subject of adoption or whether he just researched it I’m not sure. But he was writing an emotional book about parents losing a child to a teenage father who didn’t want it and to complicate matters the teenager had a disturbing personality and a Federal judge as a father.  And so a fight back began, but it was a fight back that was limited by circumstances, time, social standing and money, who wins, well, you’re just going to have to read it for yourself.

All I will say is; that this was not a Joe Picket book, and it is good to see that Mr Box has more than one story to tell and that augurs well for any reader who likes a well written story, laid out in a compelling and easy flowing way that just encourages you to turn each page!  And as the story develops, you discover that it is even darker and more horrible than you could have imagined, what could be more horrible than having a child, nurtured and loved by you for the first nine months of its life, taken from you..........

This isn’t a terribly long book, but it doesn’t need to be, at only 359 pages it starts of slowly and builds to an amazing climax.  26 chapters and in chapter 23 YOU too are ready to kill...

5 out of 5 stars

Jeremy Clarkson, Should be he Sacked?

Jeremy Clarkson, the BBC Top Gear co-host and professional agitator has done it again, he made a comment about taking Union strikers outside and shooting them in front of their families on prime time TV on Wednesday night.

Now I did not see the show go out live, but have of course seen it since as it has been replayed time and time again.  One Union official stated in the aftermath that they were consulting their lawyers to determine what suitable and appropriate legal action could be taken!

Another GMB Union chap was on TV this morning, denouncing that move, but likened Clarkson to a racist thug who was being allowed to get away with it, they were not his exact words, but that was my understanding of his comments and then commented that as a number of GMB Union members had died over the years, that Clarkson, if his apology was sincere, should show how sincere he was by putting his hand in his pocket and provide financial support for the families of those dead workers!

Seriously people, what is going on here.  Clarkson is a Buffoon and he is a Buffoon who earns his money from being a Buffoon with thousands of people following his every word.

Personally I can't stand him or Top Gear any more.  I have never been , as a guy, much into cars in the way that some are but I always enjoyed watching Top Gear.  It was a show that was dying on its feet a number of years ago and then some bright spark had the idea of relaunching it with The Buffoon and his two puppets, and it was a smart move because their anarchic style of delivery and presenting was totally different and injected some much needed revs into the show.

And it worked, the show is, I believe, the top earner for the BBC and now has been franchised out to major channels across the world. But I fell out of love with it a couple of years ago simply because I thought the three of them should have been arrested on numerous occasions for the stupid stunts they pull on the highways and bye-ways of some of our small British towns where they go out and disrupt people by driving a combine harvester or other mammoth monster into streets that clearly cannot cope with them, and they are still getting away with it because of their 'cheeky charm'.  Well I would like to be in one of those places to firmly put my boot on their asses when doing one of those stunts, if they inconvenienced me...

And through all of this, Clarkson makes his comments, whether on the show, or through his tabloid columns or in his annual book offering for Christmas, like and as regular as Santa Claus, (and his book and DVDs are constant best sellers) about all aspects of motoring and life in general and every comment is 'geared' to cause the maximum amount of  controversy, upsetting the small minded and the petty.

I don't get upset by his comments per say, because he is a Buffoon, and I have not been upset by his latest comment either other than the fact that he still makes them.  But the actual comment, upsetting, not so much.

If you actually watched the whole clip and I would point you to it here on the BBC's iPlayer, but I notice that that episode is not available and has seemingly been removed.  You will see that it was said in his usual booming Buffoonery way as part of a series of comments on the whole strike issue and I believe that offence was taken because a) It was Clarkson and b) it gives the Union the ability to keep going on about their case, which is about as dead in the water as I believe is where Clarkson should be, but that is only my opinion and other than his stupid antics where he and his co-hosts disrupt people in the street by their stunts, as long as you remember he is nothing more than a 50+ Buffoon and listen to him, if you must, in that way, why should you be offended by anything he says.

If we are to follow this to the conclusion that the 21000, so far complainers, want, which is head on a stick in front of TV House (or whatever it is called these days), then we may as well say that comedy shows on TV Radio, in underused theatres around the country, and town halls and, pubs, should immediately stop booking comedians for any performance as most of them have darkly comic sides to them, as we as a species do.  How many of those, have seen or heard of some tragedy and not then heard a ribald joke about it, and have never laughed or at least smiled at it, very few I suspect.  Some are comparing it to the Sachsgate when Russel Brand  and Jonathan Ross phoned and left comments on Andrew Sachs phone concerning his granddaughter.  This is completely different altogether, and does not compare.  Then it was two other Buffoons, but look heavens above another two guys who we pay millions to through our license fees, and 'we' all enjoy and laugh with them for years as they act out the part that 'we' want them to, because they are good at it or they are indeed funny, but then 'we' turn on them because some think they have overstepped the line that was never drawn in the sand for them, because 'we' never put a line there in the first place!

It's a big like the tabloid press in that respect, in that you get what you pay for' and while viewing figures for TV or listening figures for Radio, continue to outstrip all of their competition, then maybe the Unions should be asking for the name and addresses of all those people who turn up to watch the shows that they are in, can be taken to task as well, because it is those people who go to the recordings of the shows, who tune in on a Sunday night or buy the books and videos, who are guilty of allowing the Buffoons, to continue to do what they do.

And when the Unions and their Army of outraged members track down the viewers and find that a large proportion of them might be union members, what then.  Or here is another idea, why doesn't the union responsible for the men and women who man the cameras, who hold the sound mikes, who push the buttons in the control rooms, boycott the shows that these Buffoons are involved in, no, ridiculous to contemplate, well yes it is, but then so is complaining about what was nothing more than Mr Clarkson's usual Buffoonery and 'Black Humour'.

Oh, and yes he should be sacked, not for his comment, but the next time he does one of his stupid stunts that disrupts any street in the Kingdom and so too should the producers of the show that allow him to do it.

Leveson Vs McCarthyism

Not the usual light rambling you have come to expect from me so, you may look away now, if you wish.


Politics and the goings on of the world in general;  I do comment on these things from time to time, but have found that I get far to emotional to make any real sense, and that is probably what is going to happen with this one as well.  I usually put the world to rights in my office with those unwise enough to visit, the postman, the contractor, a police officer foolish enough to call in looking for my assistance in some small matter or the staff who also make the mistake of coming in to see me and by the time I have finished, they have forgotten why they came in, in the first instance!


So, what has me ranting today:


1.  The Leveson Enquiry / McCarthyism (Hearings):  Now if you are not living in the UK you might not have heard about this but, it is a public enquiry that has been set up (from what I know how these things work - a bit like a grand jury but unlike a Grand Jury instead of a panel listening to evidence to determine if there is enough information to launch a prosecution - this is a one man jury), with Lord Justice Leveson sitting in judgement on the eventual outcome.


The enquiry has been set up to look at the overall culture, practices and  ethics of the British Press as a direct consequence of allegations of 'phone hacking' and other unsavoury practices carried out by certain sections of the Press.
Now I should declare here that I am not a great fan of most of the press, well Red Tops in the main.  You see, I am probably unusual in that I think and believe that a newspapers role is to provide news.

• A Newspaper is there, or should be in my mind, to announce to us the plebs of the world, information on Government Policy and Decisions, taken, both on the National and International stage.
• A Newspaper is there to report on businesses and developments at the Local,  National and International level
• A Newspaper is there to inform us of Events and News, taking place locally, nationally and internationally.
• A Newspaper is there to inform us of  new TV, Radio, Film and Books and to comment on the  quality, as deemed by the author of the piece, of that new TV, Radio programme, Film, or Book.

What a Newspaper is NOT there to do is to intrude into the private lives of people where that news of what those people are doing, is not going to have an affect on the way we live our daily lives, and that includes politicians, even although I have an intense dislike for most of that ilk.

It is hard to have missed the drip drip from the daily news reports on television and radio from the Leveson enquiry from the parade of 'witnesses' giving evidence. and it is this parade of witnesses I have a problem with as they give their 'evidence' without any cross examination and in many cases giving unsubstantiated and unproven judgements on the press. 

I do not doubt, that they, the papers, all believed that what they were printing was in the readers best interests to know. And, having been an avid reader of 'Red Tops' until about ten or so years ago, when I finally matured, I too read stories about 'celebrities' getting drunk or shagging their best mates wife or girlfriend or studied the next photo with intensity.  But, then, as I say, I matured past this, thinking why am I reading this, what impact does this have on me or my friends or my family or the country or the world.  Absolutely none.  Tittle tattle and innuendo that did not in any way impact on my life.  And in some cases no doubt brought distress and sadness to those involved, and  for what reason, well for no other reason than to sell papers, not Newspapers, because papers with more tittle tattle and innuendo than news is not deserving of the title Newspapers.

Editors of these publications are still justifying this stuff even today, by commenting, 'Yes, but look at all the good we have done by supporting good causes..."  It's a bit like a Catholic Confessional, you can go out all week and Mug, Kill and Rape. Or Cheat on your Partner, Wife, Husband.  Or be a Terrible parent. Or Cheat on your Taxes or Cheat someone out of a payment for work done.  But, on Sunday morning you turn up at Church, Confess your Sins and you are Absolved of wrongdoing and will now be able to enter the Kingdom of God because you have repented, well at least until the end of that particular Sunday, as you then go back to be a Dirty Lying Cheating Scumbag on Monday morning!

I realise that there are many people out there who actually do live and breathe this type of rubbish and they want to know every salacious detail of a celebrities life: Hugh Grant with a hooker in a car in LA. George Michael in a public convenience with an undercover cop, also in LA, Max Mosely and his private orgies (not so private)!  Ann Diamond and her husband carrying the coffin of their dead child to the grave taken on a long range lens from behind a bush! ANd that last one, I heard an editor from that particular rag, The Sun, on Radio 4 yesterday justifying that by saying, (sic) "well yes clearly it was wrong but, we have worked with Ann since in supporting her charity into cot death", so that makes it OK?

Now before you say, 'Yes, well, if you had a photo that was worth money you would have sold it too", I can assure you that that is not the case.

In a past life as a Health and Safety Consultant I was not restricted to one particular area of H & S and used to do Method Statements and Risk Assessments for businesses in terms of company and fire safety.  I also used to do concerts and events and got to meet many well known (UK) celebrities.  On one occasion I   was doing an event for a well known UK charity at Crystal Palace, attended by many celebs. One male lead actor from Eastenders  who wasn't involved in the charity was there with his well known actress girlfriend.  I happened to photograph them holding hands and it was at the time (I was informed), where the BBC had warned their 'stars' that if any images appeared in the press with them in it, they would be fired!  Now I could have probably made a couple of thousand for those photos' or there was the time the brothers from the same show went into the river in a car, which I also had many photos of as it was near my then office, but, I didn't.  These were photographs I took for for no other reason than I was there at the time.  I knew that if I wanted to, I could have sold them.  But other than ruin a TV company's storyline and probably get an actor fired, and put a few shillings in my bank, what was the point, none, so I didn't.  And don't think for a minute that I have a bank account swelling with money, I am always skint and in need of a few bob, but there are some things that decent moral individuals should not do, and it is a sad reflection on society that decency, morals, scruples and principles seem to be in short supply in both members of the public, newspaper editors and some journalists!

So the Levenson /McCarthy style enquiry that is ongoing at the moment, where the press is being crucified on the cross of public opinion is, in many instances justifiable, BUT, let's also remember that there are many journalists and editors out there who have not crossed the line and continue to give us news and editorials that are worthy of being printed and commented on in Newspapers,  But also, let us not forget that old saying, that, "you get what you pay for" and if you are buying a paper, instead of a Newspaper, you are as much to blame for what is in it, as those hacks who are producing it! 

See also:

http://tomstronach.blogspot.com/2011/10/stir-sasha-brown-worsham-doesnt-write.html

http://tomstronach.blogspot.com/2011/07/is-immoral-press-our-fault.html

Somebody sent me this -Wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry

The following questions were  set in last year's GED examination 
These  are genuine answers (from 16 year olds)............and  they WILL breed.
Q.  Name the four seasons
A.  Salt, pepper, mustard and  vinegar

Q.  Explain one of the processes by which water can be  made safe to drink
A.  Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it  removes large  pollutants like grit, sand, dead  sheep and canoeists 

Q.  How is dew formed
A.  The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them  perspire

Q.  What causes the tides in the  oceans
A.  The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon.  All water tends to flow towards the moon, because  there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a  vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the  fight

Q.  What guarantees may a mortgage company insist  on
A.  If you are buying a house they will insist that you  are well endowed

Q.  In a democratic society, how important are  elections
A.  Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets  an election

Q.  What are steroids 
A.  Things for keeping carpets still on the  stairs              (Shoot  yourself now , there is little  hope)

Q..  What happens to your body as you  age
A.  When you get old, so do your bowels and you get  intercontinental

Q.  What happens to a boy when he reaches  puberty
A.  He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to  his  adultery               (So  true)

Q.  Name a major disease associated with  cigarettes
A.  Premature death

Q.  What is artificial insemination
A.  When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the  cow 

Q.  How can you delay milk turning  sour
A.  Keep it in the  cow                                               (Simple,  but brilliant)

Q.  How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised  (e.g. The abdomen)
A.  The body is consisted into 3 parts - the brainium, the  borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains  the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and  the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels: A, E,  I,O,U..                (wtf!)                                                  

Q.  What is the fibula?
A.  A small lie

Q.  What does 'varicose' mean?
A.  Nearby

Q.  What is the most common form of birth control 
A.  Most people prevent contraception by wearing a  condominium            (That  would work)

Q.  Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarean  section'
A.  The caesarean section is a district in  Rome

Q.  What is a seizure?
A.  A Roman  Emperor.                              (Julius  Seizure, I came, I saw, I had a  fit)

Q.  What is a terminal illness 
A.  When you are sick at the  airport.                  (Irrefutable)

Q.  Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic  feature?
A.  Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they  look like umbrellas

Q.  Use the word 'judicious' in a sentence to show you  understand its meaning
A.  Hands that judicious can be soft as your  face.                      (OMG)

Q.  What does the word 'benign'  mean?
A.  Benign is what you will be after you be  eight   (brilliant) 

Q.  What is a turbine?
A.  Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his  head


The only comment I shall make is that, If this is a true reflection of answers given by 16 year old's then god help us.  Can I also suggest that all parents of daughters print this off, without the answers and have all prospective boyfriends complete, it may determine the quality and level of intelligence gifted to any future grandchildren! Just a thought.


On the other hand I did think some of the answers merited a possible gold star award, choose your own


and thanks to to the man who I very rarely phone, PK, simply because within minutes of getting on the phone to him I am normally having an Asthma attack as he launches into another rant about the world and laughter is the worst enemy of asthma, there is no justice in this world and that's probably why I am a grumpy bugger....................