Archive for July, 2008

Get Rommel by Michael Asher

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Get Rommel by Michael Asher
Cassel Publishing
Historical

My wife bought me a box set of three books. The author is Michael Asher, ex-paratrooper and special forces in the British Army. One of the books I will be reading is a best seller. This book, Get Rommel, isn’t a best seller. At least not by what I have read.

The book covers the creation of special forces during the second world war. They mention their first attempt at using the forces… or should I say the mis-use of forces. He only included this story so that he could introduce some of the players in the “Get Rommel” mission.

Some characters? My gosh, no such luck. It seems to me that anyone who may of had even a small part to play in the mission had their brief history given. I don’t mind getting some background on the major characters but Asher gave little histories on dozens. So much so that I was wondering at points was this supposed to be an exciting historical novel or some dry thesis for a masters diploma. In the end I would say it was a thesis not a novel.

When you think of special forces you think of highly trained, highly motivated professional soldiers. Perhaps in the future they have become that model. In this book it was more like the mis-adventures of Spanky and the Gang.

After reading this book I was tempted to shelve the other two books in some dark corner of the basement. I guess I will try one more book to see if his delivery of a story improves. Though I have to admit, after that first one it has been weeks since I even wanted to read anything at all. If I had to rate this book, one star is bad and five stars was excellent, I would be hard pressed to give it a half star.

Here is my sketch of Rommel.

Commander of the Africa Corps - General Erwin Rommel

Commander of the Africa Corps - General Erwin Rommel

Location, Location, Location

Monday, July 14th, 2008

Ah, that is a familiar phrase when wanting to sell products, from ice-cream cones on a city corner to estate homes on well treed lots in the suburbs.

So I was taking my late night walk one evening and came across a lady of the night looking for her next white knight to come along and whisk her away for a ten minute engagement. Alas, we all do what we have to do to survive. Keeping in mind that location is king when “advertising” a product I found it a little funny and a little sad where this woman stood to show her wares. Perhaps it was to make the next “John” believe that she was really ok. A person safe to be with. Or perhaps just bad placement? Here… you decide for yourself. Here is a drawing of what I saw:

lady of the evening: location, location, location

Now for you women out there with wandering husbands? There was another sign across the street to her right. It was an animal hospital and the sign outside said: “Have your pets neutered.” I am quite certain there are a few of you who would like to bring their husbands in for a consult.

😉

Oh Oh Canada

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

I like my country. I like what it use to stand for in a world going crazy. Yet over the years I have watched as my country leapt to the front of the line. Follow us, my country cried, to the other nations as we blazed the back-sliding trail away from God. There used to be a sweet fragrance coming from our political flower. The flower has changed and so too the aroma. The seeds we sow now are for our own eventual destruction. When a person like Dr Henry Morgentaler can be given the Order of Canada medal and inducted into their ranks something has gone awfully wrong. Perhaps it is time to change the direction and name of the medal. Here is my idea of what it could be now…

Too harsh? Give it another twenty years and you may not think so.

Danger in the Park

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

So I take my bike out for a ride. It was nice ride out towards King’s Forest. I don’t really go all that far because my back is in bad shape. It wasn’t long then before I decide to turn around and head back home. I like bike rides. I get to see places that I normally wouldn’t go to.

So as I get closer to home I decide to travel through Gage Park. Just skirt the northern section where all the flowers are laid out in large plots. Today I see police officers and several vehicles in the park. I thought they were there as part of some practice maneuver. Not quite. They were getting ready to handle a real emergency.

I was stopped by one of the officers and informed that I had to make a detour around the area I was travelling through. You see, someone set up something in the trees. I was told that they are treating this odd looking device as a potential explosive threat. I rode around and grabbed my camera and took a long range shot of the device.

 

Guess I will have to wait for the news tonight to find out if the device was a working bomb. What kind of a person would put such a device in a public park? Even if it turns out to be something else… it takes a weirdo to do such a thing.