Random Thoughts

Gun control doesn’t take guns out of the hands of criminals; it takes guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. Citizens who want to maintain their right to shoot between the eyes every criminal they encounter. Sometimes they may mistake an innocent bystander for a criminal, but that’s the price we must pay for protecting the Second Amendment.

Last week we finally said, what the heck, nothing much in the theaters, but let’s take a chance on Knight and Day, the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action flick. We’re both glad we did. Our local reviewer didn’t think much of it, but other reviewers around the country thought it was worth at least a B rating. It had lots of flaws in the logic of the plot. But who cares? It had Cruise doing a comic parody of Bond and Bourne, and Diaz was the comic foil. The body count was beyond counting, the action nearly constant and exciting, the romantic outcome apparent from several miles away. But as I said before, who cares? Go see it.

I read the Q & A section in this week’s Time, ten questions for James Patterson. Marlene Jones asked, “What’s the greatest number of books that you’ve worked on simultaneously?” His answer: “In my office in Florida I have, I think, 30 manuscript piles around the room. Some are screenplays or comic books or graphic novels. Some are almost done. Some I’m re-writing. If I’m working with a co-writer, they’ll usually write the first draft. And then I write subsequent drafts.” Wow! He just explained why I stopped reading him. Doesn’t he realize his readers might deserve better than the drivel he’s now writing by the ton instead of the Alex Cross diamonds by the ounce of his earlier writing?

We're leaving in two days for a week's visit to South Dakota, to see a few old friends, to see some really old relatives, and to drop a buck or two at the west-river casino. And this year, since daughter Jeri is accompanying us, I'm going to see my first rodeo in sixty years. You see, I'm just not a rodeo fan. But Jeri is looking forward to the experience.