Friday, April 29, 2005. Back from Costa Rica and trying to get organized.
First up - reorganize website.
Sunday, January 9, 2005 - Okay, so I got it wrong. I forgot about
Curt Schilling. Am I thrilled that the Red Sox finally broke through? I would have liked it better if there weren't guys there
writing instant books on it.
No looking back- The new year is here with more than the usual natural disasters
- negative psychology will be my mantra -
Phillies Journal - 2005
Phillies management would have us believe
in 2005 the team will achieve.
But we fans have heard this before,
we're fed up and plenty damn sore.
We know what it feels like to grieve.
Off to Monteverde at the end of the month - working on a novel about what I know
best - the calamitous 1950s, beginning with the Korean War - it was a war all right, and it's not forgotten.
Friday, October 22, 2004 - Liddy's birthday and time to get to work.
Will, at the Shoprite quicklane checkout counter noticed my cap. "Montgomery Biscuits," he said. Sure, but how did he know?
He found it on a website. This world may be getting too small for me. Three days ago on our morning walk, Liddy found 3 one
dollar bills- queer. The Series of the World for 2004 has come down to St. Louis v Boston, a big relief that the Texas
team is out of it. The certain outcome is that the team from Massachusetts will lose again, first because the curse of the
Bambino has 14 years to go before it reaches the century mark, and second because as baseball goes, so goes the country and
St. Louis is closest to the center.
Monday, June 21, 2004 - New entries on Cacao link
Friday, April 16, 2003
Back from Costa Rica, ready to face the baseball season and whatever
else turns up. Monteverde, the place where we stay, is so peaceful and quiet it's hard to leave it. We stay in this little
cottage with a purple verbena shrub in front that attracts hummingbirds-six different kinds including the Ruby-throated Hummingbird
that winters in Costa Rica just like Liddy and me. The Ruby-throated is about the size of your thumb and when it decides to
fly north in June it can cover 500 miles at a stretch. Oh yeah, Babe.
Monteverde. No TV, no newspaper except an occasional glance at La
Nacion, no computer. Just Liddy, me, our CD player - lots of Mozart and Beethoven, stuff like that, and our deck of Gin
Rummy cards. Liddy beats me at Gin Rummy but she really creams me at double solitaire. Liddy read 13 books and I read 15.
And my writing book - a bunch of empty pages to fill up. Working on two novels - Overcome - the sequel to For Those In Peril
On the Sea, and Cold Front Passing Hokkaido. Finally time to write about the 1950s conflicts in Korea and the Formosa straits.
A cute little Coatimundi wandered out of the forest next to our
cottage every day around noon looking for a handout. Liddy fed him with bread and bananas. He turned up his nose at carrots.
We called him Fred. And we looked at birds every day - 14 new birds for our lifetime list which now totals 453 Costa Rican
Birds - see birding link.
And a new insight. I suspected this for some time, but I now think it's
real. I am writing books to fictionalize as much of the 20th century as I can. Times - the most recent, is about 1916-1918.
Giessow's Cottage Farm - 1937. Higher Ed - 1965-1985. For Those In Peril on the Sea - 1939-1953. The Pacheco books - 1990s
and Luz Stella's Tale 2003.
Saturday, December 20, 2003.
About 60 years ago, I sat in a high school class room listening to Miss
Winchell, the English teacher, talk to the class about poetry. Miss Winchell had her favorite poets and she wanted to
share with us. One of them was William Cullen Bryant. I wonder if Miss Winchell had any idea that when she required us to
memorize Bryant and others, that some of those lines would stick in our heads for a lifetime. Listen to this:
To him who in the love of Nature
takes communion with Her miriad forms,
She speaks a various language.
For his lighter hours
She has a voice of gladness,
and a smile, and eloquence of beauty.
And She glides into his darker musings
with a mild and healing sympathy
that steals away the sadness
ere he is aware.
Max Blue is not Nature, but it seems that he, too, speaks with
various voices- I hope you'll forgive the third person narrative- it is one of his voices that slips in and out now and then. On
this Home Page are the voices of his novels - summarized and introduced with the circumstances that surrounded the writing.
On the navigation bar are listed some of his other voices - Costa
Rica, Baseball, Fishing, Birding. There may be more- Max is something of a dilletante when it comes to deciding who he is.
Additions to site:
Sunday December 21, 2003 - The Bare-necked Umbrellabird - see Birding
Monday December 22, 2003 - Hell or High Water - see Fishing
A new link - see Cacao
Tuesday, December 23, 2003- A Pot For Wilber - see Liddy and Loo
Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - Cinco Punta Dos - see Costa Rica
Saturday, December 27, 2003 - Sin Sprint - see Costa Rica
Monday, December 29, 2003 - Forty Thousand Pitches - see Baseball
Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - Glue Buddy - see Liddy and Loo
Wednesday, December 31, 2003 -Pink Cards and Piscators - see Fishing
Thursday, January 1, 2004 - A Little Something For the Kids -see Costa
Rica
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2004 - Viernes de Trece - see Costa Rica
Sunday, Jan. 4, 2004 - Stover's Dam - see Fishing
Monday, Jan. 5, 2004 - Many Pennies - see Liddy and Loo
Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004 - Nailed In Santa Elena - see Costa Rica
Monday, January 12, 2004 - The Rhyme of the Ageless Piscators - Fishing
Thursday, January 15, 2004 - A Squint For All Seasons - see Baseball
-
Resplendent Quetzal - see Birding
Thursday, April 8, 2004 - Back from Costa Rica and ready to go. Note:
TIMES was published in February.
Friday, April 16, 2004 - Adrian's Foliage Gleaner - see Birding
Monday, April, 19, 2004 - Liddy and Max Check Out the New Ballpark -
see Baseball.
Tuesday, June 1, 2004 - Sixteen in Sixteen, The Renowned Quaker Sets the Bar - see Baseball
