Sunday, May 13, 2007
Mud In Your Eye
May 13th. 2007.
I spent some time recently preparing a long blog but it mysteriously vanished when I pressed the 'publish' button. I will repeat only part of what I wrote then.
Firstly I made a terrible mistake in omitting Marlowe from my list. He was on a hand written list but I didn't transcribe it exactly to the blog list. I also should have included Mario Conde and I am reminded of that by the arrival of "Havana Blue" from Amazon in the last few days. It came with "Borkmann's Point", another highly acclaimed Scandinavian detective story.Hakan Nesser's detective is Inspector Van Veeteren. Is he destined for a place amongst the great European detectives, I hear you cry? In due course I will let you know but in the meantime I advise you to avoid the Norwegian Margaret Moss who appears in Kjiersti Scheen's "Final Curtain". She's another female private detective who's easily distracted from her investigation by alcohol and sex , so she doesn't pursue the few leads she has managed to collect and an investigation which Marlow or Spenser or Cole would have solved in hours, if not minutes, drags on for weeks. Odd style, too.
I do agree that any one of the seven Chandler stories featuring Marlow is better than any of Robert Parker's but I don't know if Marlowe is actually a better detective than Spenser. Bernie Rhodenbarr certainly qualifies as a detective, one who has an insider's perspective since he is also a thief.
I was also comforted this week by the arrival of "Split Images" by Elmore Leonard, which I will save with the Padura for the Summer holidays. I was seriously uncomforatable reading Rex Stout's "Too Many Cooks" partly because Nero Wolfe is such a deeply obnoxious, physically repulsive, self regarding, snobbish detective , but more because of the racist overtones which would be completely unacceptable in anything published today. As for for the food, it was rich and varied but even more excessive than Nero Wolfe. It reminded me a bit of Monsieur Creosote(Monty Python). I have also been reading "The Perfect Murder" by H.R.F.Keating. His detective Inspector Ghote unfortunately never has time for a meal and everyone abuses and takes advantage of the poor chap. I may try another one in due course to see if he becomes a bit more assertive and gets to eat. I had been hoping for some some really interesting Indian Meals.
The good weather meant that I spent a lot more time recently on the allotment which now looks as though it will be quite productive. I had at last cleared enough ground for a second row of runner beans but ran out of stakes, so the row was completed with dwarf French beans. There is now also a row of Brussels sprouts which I am hoping will be so much nicer because they are home grown; normally I would never bother with a sprout. Heavy rain has prevented any action on the allotment for a few days but I am glad to report a few games of squash recently. This doesn't seem to have lead to any weight loss and I suspect that this is because of totally abandoning the diet which may be resumed very soon. I have however proved- if it needed proof- that food is very addictive.
I was shaking the earth off the root of a weed that my allotment neighbour calls a "rat's tail" when some flew into my eye. This proved to be a very disagreeable experience as both hands were covered with mud and it was not possible to wipe it out. It made me wonder why "Mud In Your Eye!" is a toast. Perhaps its like "Break A Leg", a theatrical toast. Mud in your eye is obviously more down to earth and is appropriate for gardeners, labourers and grave diggers.
I was amazed to discover that Audrey Hepburn was Belgian, or least half Belgian. This of course made me think of that old game "Can you name ten famous Belgians" but of course it might be equally difficult to name ten famous Lithuanians or ten from most countries of the world. Its easy if you know their national football side but I do feel that they should be people that most of us have heard of, and that again depends on your age and interests. In the case of Belgians , some of the most well known were actually Flemish and I'm not sure that that counts.
So if you exclude team sportsmen and women you may have to struggle to name ten from most countries. Since I went to New Zealand recently I offer the following ten NewZealanders:-
231. Edmund Hilary
232. Archibald MacIndoe
233. Maurice Wilkins
234. Ernest Rutherford
235. Ngaio Marsh
236. Katherine Mansfield
237. Bob Charles
238. Bruce McLaren
239. Danny Hulme
240. Kiri Ti Kanawa
There are some unusual Christian names amongst that lot . You can almost guess their era from the name.
I spent some time recently preparing a long blog but it mysteriously vanished when I pressed the 'publish' button. I will repeat only part of what I wrote then.
Firstly I made a terrible mistake in omitting Marlowe from my list. He was on a hand written list but I didn't transcribe it exactly to the blog list. I also should have included Mario Conde and I am reminded of that by the arrival of "Havana Blue" from Amazon in the last few days. It came with "Borkmann's Point", another highly acclaimed Scandinavian detective story.Hakan Nesser's detective is Inspector Van Veeteren. Is he destined for a place amongst the great European detectives, I hear you cry? In due course I will let you know but in the meantime I advise you to avoid the Norwegian Margaret Moss who appears in Kjiersti Scheen's "Final Curtain". She's another female private detective who's easily distracted from her investigation by alcohol and sex , so she doesn't pursue the few leads she has managed to collect and an investigation which Marlow or Spenser or Cole would have solved in hours, if not minutes, drags on for weeks. Odd style, too.
I do agree that any one of the seven Chandler stories featuring Marlow is better than any of Robert Parker's but I don't know if Marlowe is actually a better detective than Spenser. Bernie Rhodenbarr certainly qualifies as a detective, one who has an insider's perspective since he is also a thief.
I was also comforted this week by the arrival of "Split Images" by Elmore Leonard, which I will save with the Padura for the Summer holidays. I was seriously uncomforatable reading Rex Stout's "Too Many Cooks" partly because Nero Wolfe is such a deeply obnoxious, physically repulsive, self regarding, snobbish detective , but more because of the racist overtones which would be completely unacceptable in anything published today. As for for the food, it was rich and varied but even more excessive than Nero Wolfe. It reminded me a bit of Monsieur Creosote(Monty Python). I have also been reading "The Perfect Murder" by H.R.F.Keating. His detective Inspector Ghote unfortunately never has time for a meal and everyone abuses and takes advantage of the poor chap. I may try another one in due course to see if he becomes a bit more assertive and gets to eat. I had been hoping for some some really interesting Indian Meals.
The good weather meant that I spent a lot more time recently on the allotment which now looks as though it will be quite productive. I had at last cleared enough ground for a second row of runner beans but ran out of stakes, so the row was completed with dwarf French beans. There is now also a row of Brussels sprouts which I am hoping will be so much nicer because they are home grown; normally I would never bother with a sprout. Heavy rain has prevented any action on the allotment for a few days but I am glad to report a few games of squash recently. This doesn't seem to have lead to any weight loss and I suspect that this is because of totally abandoning the diet which may be resumed very soon. I have however proved- if it needed proof- that food is very addictive.
I was shaking the earth off the root of a weed that my allotment neighbour calls a "rat's tail" when some flew into my eye. This proved to be a very disagreeable experience as both hands were covered with mud and it was not possible to wipe it out. It made me wonder why "Mud In Your Eye!" is a toast. Perhaps its like "Break A Leg", a theatrical toast. Mud in your eye is obviously more down to earth and is appropriate for gardeners, labourers and grave diggers.
I was amazed to discover that Audrey Hepburn was Belgian, or least half Belgian. This of course made me think of that old game "Can you name ten famous Belgians" but of course it might be equally difficult to name ten famous Lithuanians or ten from most countries of the world. Its easy if you know their national football side but I do feel that they should be people that most of us have heard of, and that again depends on your age and interests. In the case of Belgians , some of the most well known were actually Flemish and I'm not sure that that counts.
So if you exclude team sportsmen and women you may have to struggle to name ten from most countries. Since I went to New Zealand recently I offer the following ten NewZealanders:-
231. Edmund Hilary
232. Archibald MacIndoe
233. Maurice Wilkins
234. Ernest Rutherford
235. Ngaio Marsh
236. Katherine Mansfield
237. Bob Charles
238. Bruce McLaren
239. Danny Hulme
240. Kiri Ti Kanawa
There are some unusual Christian names amongst that lot . You can almost guess their era from the name.
# posted by Bob @ 5:03 am 
