Winter Watching and Reading Projects

[Spock]

Me and Mrs Spock make it a point to stay up on the Taylor Sheridan universe. "Landman' is a dream show for me. Have to go back and catch up on "The Mayor of Kingstown." She watches more shows than me-but that is our main couples watching until now.

I have owned to Magnum PI TV series on DVD for a couple of years now. The show first aired when I was in 8th Grade-so saw some but the teenage running around years limited my watching of the series.

I watched the first 2 episodes last night and we watched the 3rd one tonight-I think this will be a couples watch. To no one's surprise-I am fascinated by "Higgins" and he is the main reason I wanted to watch the series with bikinis and attractive women being a mere bonus.

Higgins said tonight that he did a short stint at the British Museum in Cairo during the war. I told her that I should start a spreadsheet of all the things Higgins had done.

For winter reading-I wanted to tackle a bigger project so after some reflection and consideration of other stuff, I decided to tackle "War and Peace." So we will see how that goes. It is an older translation without a character list-so I have a wikipedia character list opened when I read it.

[Spock]

Well, since I might as well be the ultimate "Higgins" fanboy from the beginning-I started the spreadsheet of his life-LOL

S1 E1-His regiment was the Prince of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regiment

S1 E2-Expressed knowledge and familiarity with firearms including his personal preferences for weapons of war.

S1 E3-Speaks Chinese and served a short stint at the British Museum in Cairo during the war.

This is going to be fun. What a badass.

[silverscreenselect]

An interesting note about John Hillerman, who played Higgins. He was actually a native Texan who attended the University of Texas. He learned his Higgins accent by listening to recordings of Laurence Olivier.

[Spock]

An interesting note about John Hillerman, who played Higgins. He was actually a native Texan who attended the University of Texas. He learned his Higgins accent by listening to recordings of Laurence Olivier.

Do you know anything about how the character was written in the first place? IE-Did one of the writers have a father-in-law that had served on the far-flung frontiers in the closing days of the British Empire?

Obviously, I find him endlessly fascinating and I found myself wondering about the genesis of the character in the first place. As 1980 was much closer to the events in question there had to be a lot of "Higgins" still floating around the world and did somebody meet one in a bar or something?

And, Yes, I do remember the "Mau-Mau" episode where his past came back with a vengeance.

[tlynn78]

An interesting note about John Hillerman, who played Higgins. He was actually a native Texan who attended the University of Texas. He learned his Higgins accent by listening to recordings of Laurence Olivier.

Do you know anything about how the character was written in the first place? IE-Did one of the writers have a father-in-law that had served on the far-flung frontiers in the closing days of the British Empire?

Obviously, I find him endlessly fascinating and I found myself wondering about the genesis of the character in the first place. As 1980 was much closer to the events in question there had to be a lot of "Higgins" still floating around the world and did somebody meet one in a bar or something?

And, Yes, I do remember the "Mau-Mau" episode where his past came back with a vengeance.

He was a great character. Making him female in the latest version was a travesty.

[silverscreenselect]

An interesting note about John Hillerman, who played Higgins. He was actually a native Texan who attended the University of Texas. He learned his Higgins accent by listening to recordings of Laurence Olivier.

Do you know anything about how the character was written in the first place? IE-Did one of the writers have a father-in-law that had served on the far-flung frontiers in the closing days of the British Empire?

I'm not that familiar with the Magnum series. I always liked Hillerman, and he usually played the same type of proper, refined roles in his earlier work, albeit without the English accent. I first noticed him on the Ellery Queen TV series. He played one of Queen's foils in several episodes, another consultant who always used his form of faulty logic to come up with the wrong answer just before Queen revealed the actual solution.

[Spock]

An interesting note about John Hillerman, who played Higgins. He was actually a native Texan who attended the University of Texas. He learned his Higgins accent by listening to recordings of Laurence Olivier.

Do you know anything about how the character was written in the first place? IE-Did one of the writers have a father-in-law that had served on the far-flung frontiers in the closing days of the British Empire?

Obviously, I find him endlessly fascinating and I found myself wondering about the genesis of the character in the first place. As 1980 was much closer to the events in question there had to be a lot of "Higgins" still floating around the world and did somebody meet one in a bar or something?

And, Yes, I do remember the "Mau-Mau" episode where his past came back with a vengeance.

He was a great character. Making him female in the latest version was a travesty.

Not aware till now of the new version of Magnum. I watched a few clips and I probably won't make the time to watch it

Dang it-S1 E4 contained no new Higgins backstory. C'mon guys, you have to give the public what we want. LOL.

War and Peace is going better than I thought it might. It helps that there are very short chapters (I think of them as scenes) of maybe 4 to 6 pages-so a nice length to read every so often when I am working on end of year financial stuff.

[Beebs52]

I must confess I never read War and Peace. Do I really need to?

[Vandal]

Reading:
I tried reading Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises just to see what all the fuss is about. I couldn’t finish it. The characters rambled on for pages and if there was a plot, I was not able to find it. Lots of people drinking in French bars and cafes. I wish them well.

Call me small-minded, but I’ll take John Grisham over Papa any day of the week.


Watching:
Finished season 3 of the Lincoln Lawyer and it was another good season. Quite the cliffhanger. Looking forward to S3 of Reacher comin* soon.

My late night watching is Lost, the ABC show from 20 years ago. I never saw it back then, so I’m catching up now. Season 1 was great and hoping for more before it inevitably jumps the shark.

[Vandal]

I must confess I never read War and Peace. Do I really need to?

Yes, and please submit a 10,000 word book report, double spaced and spellchecked by this Friday.

[Beebs52]

I must confess I never read War and Peace. Do I really need to?

Yes, and please submit a 10,000 word book report, double spaced and spellchecked by this Friday.

I'm withdrawing from school.
Reading Janet Evanovitch.
Frickin russkies.
But I DID get an A in Russian language my freshman year!

[Spock]

Reading:
I tried reading Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises just to see what all the fuss is about. I couldn’t finish it. The characters rambled on for pages and if there was a plot, I was not able to find it. Lots of people drinking in French bars and cafes. I wish them well.

Call me small-minded, but I’ll take John Grisham over Papa any day of the week.


Watching:
Finished season 3 of the Lincoln Lawyer and it was another good season. Quite the cliffhanger. Looking forward to S3 of Reacher comin* soon.

My late night watching is Lost, the ABC show from 20 years ago. I never saw it back then, so I’m catching up now. Season 1 was great and hoping for more before it inevitably jumps the shark.

Kind of ambivalent on Hemingway, and in theory he should be in my wheelhouse.

And Beebs-if you don't want to read W&P I can always assign you some of the other harder choices I was thinking of tackling this winter.

1)Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" and "Conquest of Peru"

2) Parkman's "France and England in North America"

But realistically, they should both be in my wheelhouse and I should read them anyway-I started Parkman the other day and started to get into it, but decided not to go in that direction.

A couple of years ago, I read Dostoevesksy's "Crime and Punishment" and that went better than I thought and all indications are that I should read his "Brothers Karamazov"-Maybe next winter if W&P goes well. It seems to be a well-loved book.

But, back to the important stuff-in S1-E5 of Magnum we learned that Higgins was a Sergeant Major in Hong Kong in 1951.

Back a few years ago, when Magnum was on Netflix-I watched a few episodes and caught Donna's sister (IIRC) in one of the episodes and I remember being surprised at how much of a role military and intelligence stuff played in the series. I did not remember that aspect of the series.

[Vandal]

But I DID get an A in Russian language my freshman year!

I'll bet.

[Spock]

I must confess I never read War and Peace. Do I really need to?

Yes, and please submit a 10,000 word book report, double spaced and spellchecked by this Friday.

I'm withdrawing from school.
Reading Janet Evanovitch.
Frickin russkies.
But I DID get an A in Russian language my freshman year!

Yeah, but did you get to know the Russian Mob like Burt Kreischer did in his college Russian classes?

NSFW-Strong language warning-but a must watch if you haven't seen it. my kids made me aware of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paG1-lPtIXA&t=7s

[Spock]

I remembered that George MacDonald Fraser (my favorite author) has a description of a 1914 "Higgins" in "Mr. American.

At the end of the book, the main character's 55-year old very proper English butler (Samson) is heading off to join Selous in Africa to fight the Germans in WW1.

>>>"Recalling the embarassment of Kid Curry, he considered the potential of a group of veterans like Samson, ex-service for the most part, versed in the ways of bush and frontier, too old for regular military duty, but infinitely wise in the arts of living off hard country, trekking, foraging, scouting, back-tracking and dry-gulching, irregular adventurers and soldiers of fortune who knew the wild ways of the earth--the Empire must be full of them, eager for one last fling on the frontiers of danger, one last chance of active service."

Transfer Higgins to 1914 and he would have leaped at the chance to join Selous and the boys and he would have fit right in.

[silverscreenselect]

Yeah, but did you get to know the Russian Mob like Burt Kreischer did in his college Russian classes?

NSFW-Strong language warning-but a must watch if you haven't seen it. my kids made me aware of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paG1-lPtIXA&t=7s

Kreischer made a movie called The Machine a couple of years ago in which he essentially played himself as a comic who uses his Russian escapade as his stand-up routine. He gets kidnapped by a Russian mobster and goes back to Russia to retrieve a valuable watch he stole as a teenager. Mark Hamill plays his father, who also goes to Russia with Bert. The film is available on Netflix.

[Spock]

Yeah, but did you get to know the Russian Mob like Burt Kreischer did in his college Russian classes?

NSFW-Strong language warning-but a must watch if you haven't seen it. my kids made me aware of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paG1-lPtIXA&t=7s

Kreischer made a movie called The Machine a couple of years ago in which he essentially played himself as a comic who uses his Russian escapade as his stand-up routine. He gets kidnapped by a Russian mobster and goes back to Russia to retrieve a valuable watch he stole as a teenager. Mark Hamill plays his father, who also goes to Russia with Bert. The film is available on Netflix.

Yeah, I watched that one. It was so bad it was great.

Haven't seen it yet-but my understanding is that National Lampoon's Van Wilder is also based on Kreischer. His college years in this case.

[Spock]

After 6 episodes of Magnum, I noticed something interesting (to me anyway). In the first and second episodes which are paired together-ie-Episode 2 is the continuation of Episode 1-it is very clear that Magnum's friend Rick runs a bar known as "Rick's Cafe American" which is obviously a shoutout to Casablanca.

However, and I was watching for it, in the next 4 episodes you don't see that again. For sure something I will be watching for.

And tonight-in S1 E6-we learned that Higgins is a ballistics/wounds expert and was on a night patrol in North Africa and they had to get water from a Jerry well. This escapade apparently involved the shotgun deaths of some Germans-but as is obviously part of the schtick of the show-whenever Higgins starts telling about his past-Magnum always cuts him off.

[Bob Juch]

I must confess I never read War and Peace. Do I really need to?

I read the first book when I was 14. I never got around to the rest.

[Vandal]

I must confess I never read War and Peace. Do I really need to?

I read the first book when I was 14. I never got around to the rest.

Great. You even got to meet the author.

[Bob Juch]

I must confess I never read War and Peace. Do I really need to?

I read the first book when I was 14. I never got around to the rest.

Great. You even got to meet the author.

I'm not quite that old.

[Spock]

I picked a really, really bad week to start reading War and Peace.

A very special book ("Safari Sam")showed up from Johannesburg that came much quicker than I thought it would.

While I have way too many books and each one has to be thought about to earn a place in the To Be Read list. This one seems pretty special.

I am a member of Safari Club International and the monthly (or so) magazine always has an excerpt from old safari books courtesy of Trophy Room Books. This selection was from “Safari Sam” by Gordon Makepiece in 1933.

>>>”Makepiece loved hearing about dangerous big game hunting from lesser known men who spent all their time in the bush. He believed that Africa produced many strange and interesting characters with picturesque tales to tell. They may not always be completely accurate, but the stories always evoked the atmosphere of the African bush, of long trails in far-off territories, and of real and near-real adventures. Many of these old-timers have never been writers. So Makepiece went out and talked with some of these men and produced a book of wild game, swamps, forests and jungles, and of adventures in the heart of Africa. The story teller he created from all these characters is Safari Sam.”<<<<<

[Spock]

I picked a really, really bad week to start reading War and Peace.

A very special book ("Safari Sam")showed up from Johannesburg that came much quicker than I thought it would.

While I have way too many books and each one has to be thought about to earn a place in the To Be Read list. This one seems pretty special.

I am a member of Safari Club International and the monthly (or so) magazine always has an excerpt from old safari books courtesy of Trophy Room Books. This selection was from “Safari Sam” by Gordon Makepiece in 1933.

>>>”Makepiece loved hearing about dangerous big game hunting from lesser known men who spent all their time in the bush. He believed that Africa produced many strange and interesting characters with picturesque tales to tell. They may not always be completely accurate, but the stories always evoked the atmosphere of the African bush, of long trails in far-off territories, and of real and near-real adventures. Many of these old-timers have never been writers. So Makepiece went out and talked with some of these men and produced a book of wild game, swamps, forests and jungles, and of adventures in the heart of Africa. The story teller he created from all these characters is Safari Sam.”<<<<<

Do we have any newspaper people here? The "Safari Sam" book has a prologue that any newspaper peeps would appreciate.

As it is not the cheapest book, I lent it to Jim over at Frontier Partisans and as his day job is at a small-town newspaper it will be right up his alley in more ways than one. If I ever get it back, I would be willing to lend it to any newspaper peeps just for the Prologue.

As I said to Jim, the book gave me a feeling that I never had before-it felt like I was reading it in an English study beside a roaring fire with a glass (neat) of good Scotch. But my wee dram of Scotch by a space heater worked as well.

[Spock]

S1 E7-we find out that Higgins was at the Nuremburg trials. We also find out that he was at Suez after the war.

[Spock]

Got to Barnes and Noble yesterday and bought some Jack Carr thrillers. I want to read more of his books besides the Terminal List.

And then, just in case I feel ambitious after "War and Peace", I bought 'Don Quixote."