It's not over ...

The news reports today are of the death of the American baseball player Yogi Berra. It's not often that I am particularly aware of a baseball player, and a retired one at that (probably one who retired around the time I was born), but obviously it was the name that did it.

I grew up watching cartoons about a certain resident of Jellystone National Park who was 'smarter than the average bear'. As the linked article says, the baseball player was apparently none too happy about the naming of the bear, and sued Hanna Barbera about it, but they claimed it was a coincidence and he withdrew the lawsuit.

However, as this wikipedia article says, it is pretty much accepted now that the baseball player inspired the bear. Hardly surprising really - a bit of crazy coincidence!

The other thing - apart from baseball of course - that Berra was famous for was his sayings. At first glance lots of them appear to be nonsense, but actually I suspect they've stood the test of time, and are remembered because if you get behind the words they are rather lovely and contain some real meaning hidden in the humour.

My favourite is "always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours".

The BBC magazine article here focuses on another of his sayings, "it ain't over till it's over" which has been taken up as a mantra by sportsmen across the world to remind themselves that even when the chips are down, there's still hope.

And the thing that struck me was that there was another link, down the sidebar of the magazine article, to the story of Derek Redmond, recounted on the BBC website here. I was aware of Derek's story already, and what had happened to him at the Olympic stadium in Barcelona. For him, it could have been all over down the back straight when he heard that 'pop' and collapsed. However, he made a different choice, and told himself that it wasn't going to be over until he finished the race, however painful, however difficult, however long it took it, and irrespective of what place he achieved.

Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves of the example of people like Derek, and of his Dad as well, who dashed onto the track to provide support to his son.

The BBC video only has stills from the race, so here's the video version.

 

Three in one

A good week for reading, finished off today by finally being able to give to Kate the signed copy of the Seed Collectors that I got for her back in July. Poor form on my part not being organised and sending it to her sooner, but at least she has it now and I hope it will be enjoyed.

I ended up finishing three books this week - two that I'd already got on the go, and one that I both started and finished yesterday.

The first one was the second instalment of the 'Bill Hodges trilogy' by Stephen King - Finders Keepers, although Bill Hodges (and his sidekicks Holly and Jerome) don't really feature until the second half. However, the story makes enough connections to the first book, and leaves you with the knowledge that Mr Mercedes may be on the mend enough to cause some havoc in book three. There doesn't seem to be any information just yet on when the final book in the series will be out - presumably some time in 2016.

The second one was Straight White Male by John Niven, a new author for me, and one I only found due to browsing in Waterstones, seeing his new hardback book (The Sunshine Cruise Company), thinking that it sounded interesting, and then investigating what else he had. Straight White Male was excellent. Caitlin Moran's comment on the cover does a great job of summing things up - "I cried three times and laughed fifty. Magnificent." Kennedy Marr is a difficult guy to like at times, but by the end you are absolutely rooting for him.

The final book, devoured yesterday, was the new James Bond book, this time written by Anthony Horowitz, 'Trigger Mortis'. Set just after the events of Goldfinger, and kicking off with a rather awkward after the adventure domestic arrangement with Pussy Galore, Bond soon gets into some new scrapes in Formula One racing - an idea supplied directly by Ian Fleming himself and which his literary estate provided to Horowitz. Clearly Horowitz felt that this wasn't enough to sustain the novel (fair enough given that Fleming had put it forward as an idea for a Bond TV series - never made), and so segues into a plot concerning the space race between the US and Russia, with the British spy stepping in to save the day. Good stuff, and very much out of the Fleming mould.

Magic

Just booked to go and see the Orlando Magic!

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Benson

Another hectic evening deserving of a longer post, but at least I remembered the author I'd forgotten - Raymond Benson came after John Gardner. Having checked the shelves the main reason for forgetting being that I don't actually have any of his books!

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Trigger

Intended to blog yesterday, but let's just say that the evening rather ran away with me.

Bought the latest Bond book, Trigger Mortis, as it came out yesterday, and looking forward to reading it.

Was thinking of doing a little inventory of my Bond collection, as I reckon it is reasonably impressive. I have official Bond stories by:

Fleming
Markham (Amis really)
Gardner
Wood (possibly doesn't count as might just be film novelisations)
Higson (well, Jake does)
Faulks
Deaver
Boyd
Horowitz

And I might have forgotten one or two - was there another after Gardner? Will have to check later.

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Hove

Late finish today - not home until 10.30.

Been out for dinner in Hove with a client and come colleagues from Japan.

Rearrange

A bit of a rearrange in the conservatory, and we have a new seating area, ideal for stopping for a cup of coffee and a chat, maybe curling up with a good book, or who knows, even catching up on a bit of blogging. Finishing touches were added today with the addition of a new coffee table and rug.

50

Today is another one of those milestone days. The Kostromin family are doing a good job of being the advance party for us, judging by a couple of photos that Bec just sent over to Nicky, but in exactly 50 days from now, we'll be heading out to the Sunshine State ourselves.

At the moment, we are still booked in to be staying here.


This is all fine and dandy, and based on a number of holidays we've had before, we'll be very happy to stay at Old Key West again. However, Nicky has phoned up and pushed us up to the top of the wait list, and so we just might get lucky and end up staying here.


We'll just have to wait and see, and keep our fingers crossed.