THE BIRTH OF THE MERCENARY

 

            Most people know, I believe, that Jerry and I were the creators of the men’s adventure series, THEY CALL ME THE MERCENARY by Axel Kilgore.”  How may of you know that we never wanted to write it, had no interest in doing it and when more or less coerced into it, fell in love with the main character and his subsequent sidekicks?

            In the late 1970s, the Prepper Movement was in its mainstream infancy, thanks to publications like Mother Earth News and the like.  Falling off the grid wasn’t as important to most of us then but self reliance and sustainability was something to strive toward.  Relations with the Soviet Union were very chilly.  What would happen if that all important red button got pushed and World War III commenced?  Many thought it would never happen or hoped so but Jerry and I couldn’t stop talking about “if.”  We quickly came up with a workable scenario, centered on a somewhat believable family and subsequent supporting characters and Jerry, who could sell the proverbial refrigerator to Eskimos, set out to find a suitable home for the series.  I will have to say that most editors turned down the idea very politely.

            One young editor at Zebra Books turned the tide for us.  She liked the idea of a survival-type series well enough but she had another idea in mind – a hard boiled, killer mercenary with psychological problems and a missing body part.  This concept was partially based on the fact that Jerry had a new products column called Terrain and Situation in Soldier of Fortune magazine and mercenaries and far away wars were becoming hot items.  They were the new BAD BOYS.

            After lots of negotiating and not a lot of money up front, it was decided that not only would we be doing THE SURVIVALIST but we would be penning THEY CALL ME THE MERCENARY by Axel Kilgore.  Jerry had a business associate named Axel and we drove through Kilgore, Texas and thought it had a neat sounding name.  We were thrilled to finally have a home for John Thomas Rourke and his entire fictional family, but now we had to cope with doing two series simultaneously. 

            I don’t remember how exactly the name Hank Frost evolved but you've got to say that its simple, easy to remember and rolls easily off the tongue – a perfect name for a series character.  As to his physical attributes or lack of, we were in a quandary.  An action hero with a missing limb just didn’t seem right at the time so we settled on a missing eye, giving him an eye patch and an attitude. Along the way, he also acquired a bad back and as his character evolved a sense of humor.

            Next time, I’ll tell you more about this great guy and his horrible jokes and  how he met his true love, Bess and his one and only friend, Mike O’Hara.  THEY CALL ME THE MERCENARY series is available through Speaking Volumes www.speakingvolumes.us in print and ebook format as well as audio.

Sharon

LIFE IS A RIDE

     It’s hard to imagine that January is almost behind us and that we’ve already used up twenty-eight days of this fresh, new year.  I am sure I’m not the only person lamenting over things not done yet as promised, unfinished projects and missed opportunities.  Here we are already beating ourselves up for being lazy, worthless human beings.  Can you imagine our guilt level a few months from now?  We should listen to the mental health gurus who tell us to “not sweat the small stuff.”  Life is indeed too short.

            On January 28, 1958, Charles Starkweather and his fourteen year old girlfriend, Caril Ann, killed a Lincoln, Nebraska businessman, his wife and his maid.  This was just part of a ten day killing spree that would eventually leave ten people dead, including Caril Ann’s mother, step-father and two and a half year old sister.  Their last victim was killed January 29th and the couple was caught that same day. The nineteen year old Starkweather, who idolized James Dean’s persona as a lone rebel, was convicted of murder and sent to the electric chair the following year.  Caril Ann was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released in 1976. 

            A tragedy occurred on this date in 1986 that was seen live by millions of people, many of them children, due to the fact that one of the participants was a teacher.  The space shuttle Challenger exploded only seventy-three seconds after liftoff, resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts.  Engineers warned that the cold temperatures that day could have adverse effect on some of the shuttle’s equipment but evidently, their warnings went unheeded and the shuttle took off at 11:39 am.  The O-ring seal, which had become brittle from the cold temperatures, failed.  Flames broke out and damaged the fuel tank.  The shuttle broke apart, plummeting into the ocean.  It is suggested that some of the astronauts were still alive until the shuttle impacted the water.  Some of the wreckage has yet to be recovered.  Two large pieces of the shuttle were found floating off Cocoa Beach, Florida, almost eleven years later.  The “Challenger flag,” sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 514 of Monument, Colorado, was recovered, still sealed in its plastic container.

            President Reagan spoke at a memorial service three days later and said:

“Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short.  But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain.”

            One year earlier, in 1985, over twenty million copies of the single “We Are the World” were sold.  Between the vinyl and the associated merchandise, sixty-three million dollars for humanitarian aid in Africa and the US was raised.   The idea was conceived by singer/activist Harry Belafonte who brought together some of the most talented musicians of the day.  Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie worked together, composing the song over the course of four months.  On January 28^th.the final recording session was held at A & M Recording Studios in Hollywood.  Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross were some of the forty-five participants in this heavily guarded night of song.  Stevie Wonder warned them all that if this session couldn’t be done in one take, he and Ray Charles would drive them all home.  Singing commenced around 10:30 pm.  The rest is history.

            Maybe I’ve not gotten done what I intended to so far this year.  I’m falling short on my goal for the day, as a matter of fact.  Don’t beat yourself up too much.  Life is a ride and you just don’t know where it’s going to take you and where it’s going to let you off.  Just do what you can do and don’t sweat the rest.

 Sharon

Thoughts on the Presidential Inauguration

            You know, of course, that the real swearing in occurred yesterday, which is in accordance with the timing laid out in the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution.  Today’s ceremony was more for show and for celebration. It was a beautiful and dignified ceremony.   Since 1937, the inauguration has been set for January 20, unless it comes on a Sunday, then, it is held on the Monday after.  The next Monday because of Sunday inauguration will be January 21, 2041.  I don’t know if I’ll be commenting on that one.

I caught a few moments of one of yesterday’s parties after the official swearing in where Joe Biden triumphantly shouts to the crowd that, “He’s just getting started!”  Great! 

            The President, during his speech, said that it is our generation’s task to make life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness “real for every American.”  He goes on to say, “Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness.  Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in out time.”   I’m sorry, but did he just say there that the authors of our Constitutional framework wrote the laws of our country in various shades of grey so they can fit into any situation that comes up, now or in the future?

            Hitting heavily on “conservative old farts” like me, Obama goes on to tell us that times change and we must change too.  “…America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.”  What did we do with the middle class we had?  Did we let them sink, to push up this new generation?  The “old” middle class might have gotten there by climbing up the rungs of life’s ladder.  Maybe they got there with a little help from their friends or family. They got there, put money in the bank to buy a house, put their kids through school, for their retirement, whatever.  Jobs started disappearing, banks got shaky.  The government comes in to “help.”  So goes the middle class.  Good luck to the new, rising middle class. Be careful what you ask for.  You might get it.

            Sunday afternoon, I enjoyed an excellent production of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs by the Jefferson Community Theatre.  This is the first part of his autobiographical trilogy taking place in 1937 Brooklyn, just before World War II breaks out.  It’s a comedy with some serious undertones.  Here you have a lower middle class family who has undertaken to support other family members in need.  The family is struggling to survive, but even in their most dire moments, they look forward to welcoming more family members who have escaped Europe, (by this time in history, the Buchenwald concentration camp is open for business), and moving them into their already bursting at the seams apartment. 

            I’m not saying everything the Federal government does is bad.  Let me think on that for a few moments.  Ronald Reagan once warned us though that “A government big enough to give everything you want is also big enough to take everything you have.”

            “The world is very different now.  For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.  And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which out forbearers fought are still at issue around the globe – the beliefs that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”  John Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address

Sharon

SUICIDE, WINTER SPORTS AND THE CONSTITUTION; ALL DOWN A SLIPPERY SLOPE

Reading the news this morning I was taken with the utter absurdity of world events.  This, of course, does not come as surprise, as the same can be said on any given day but some days are more of a head shaker than others.

A young Pennsylvania man attempted to take his own life Tuesday morning.  That in itself is a depressing news story but the real kicker is that he tried it twice and failed both times.  First, he jumped out of a moving vehicle that was taking him to work onto the interstate and, not getting the results that he anticipated, tried another attempt thirty minutes later, this time walking out into the path of an eighteen-wheeler.  The driver was able to avoid striking the man but caused him to be knocked out of his shoes.  The unsuccessful young man then grabbed his shoes, slid down a hillside and walked to work.  He has since been flown to a Pittsburgh hospital. I wonder why!

Think twice before riding a zorb.  Two friends were enjoying a day of winter sports at a ski resort in mountainous and rugged southern Russia when a decision was made to take a ride down the slope inside a zorb, which is a transparent plastic ball equipped with harnesses. The men were harnessed in and then released down the hill.  The ball veered off its intended path and eventually went over a ledge and fell into a gorge.  They were rescued by skiers who were able to pull them back up the hill but, one of the men died, the other suffered injuries but will recover.  The zorb supplier said that the resort was at fault for not having a safe location for the zorb run.  By the way, zorbing is usually done on grass.

Vice President Biden is meeting today with various anti-gun organizations such as the Brady group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the like.  Don’t worry; I will spend plenty of time defending gun rights.  One important point he has brought up is that executive action would be involved in the plan for gun control.  Although the Constitution isn’t explicit regarding executive orders, it leaves enough grey area to allow a president to make laws without the approval of Congress and to change the substance of existing laws.

An executive order side-steps any checks and balances that were put in place by the founders of our government.  It has been used and sometimes abused since 1789 in this country.  Some presidents rarely made use of the order and others seemed fonder of the privilege and used it repeatedly.  I found it interesting that Jimmy Carter reformed the Intelligence community and banned assassination in 1978. Gerald Ford, not thinking as broadly and far reaching, I guess, had banned only political assassination in 1976.  Truman prohibited racial, religious and ethnic discrimination in the Armed Forces and Bill Clinton directed Federal Agencies to respect the constitutional right of states with executive order 13132 in 1999.

We Americans have not traveled far from our roots.  Most of us have a hard time swallowing orders.  If our ancestors hadn’t felt the need for self government and the rights of freedom, we very well might not be living here but instead existing under a different type of government; one where our lives might be dictated to.  Once the checks and balances that were thoughtfully put in place to stop any part of our government from taking away our rights no longer exist, what do we have left?

Sharon

TELEVISION DRAMA

There is so much stuff going on right now, I don’t know where to start! 

Al Gore, former Vice President, is a happy camper.  He was the recipient of 20% of the take on a $500 million deal yesterday when Current TV was sold to Al-Jazeera.  Current TV, if you’re not familiar with it, is a liberal biased news station with a viewership of less than 50,000 during prime time.  It has been struggling along for seven years.  Glen Beck reportedly tried to buy the cable channel but his bid was rejected.  How this cable channel is going to do with so many other cable news channels out there is unknown. It will also have to overcome other obstacles such as Americans remembering Al Jazerra being the voice and image of Osama bin Laden after 9/11/01 and, even the name the channel was tentatively given –Al Jazeera America – sounds too foreign to most of us, too close to the government of Qatar who now owns it.

Time Warner Cable has not made a decision whether or not it is going to carry the station.  It was supposedly close to dropping the station due to its low ratings before this sale, which TW did not consent to  If it does continue to carry the station, it will be at a much lower rate than the twelve cents per subscriber per month Current TV was receiving.  To put this in perspective, CNN receives fifty-seven cents a month per subscriber and FOX News, eighty-nine cents.  Outfits like Dish Network, Comcast and Directv may be contractually stuck carrying Current TV or whatever they end up calling it.  I think I can do without my news being bent in still another direction.  How about you?

Another television news story comes from the New York Post.  It is suggested that CNN needs not an outstanding journalist like Ann Curry to bring people over to CNN for their prime time slot but an outstanding personality, Howard Stern.  The author of the article thinks Mr. Stern would be their new Larry King.  I imagine myself sitting there waiting for the first bleep of the evening, the first fight, etc.  How does he get his hair to look that way?

Thank you House of Representatives for re-electing John Boehner speaker of the House!  Now, get off your butts and do some real work to help the people who got you there!  Some of you need to pretend that you work for a living and that you can and will get fired if you piss off your boss.  If you drama queens have forgotten who your boss really is, you may be in for a shock.  We don’t want contrived reality tv.  We want reality.  Reality is, we the people can’t spend money we don’t have, so we don’t spend.  If we get too far into debt, we get in trouble.  We can’t make more money down in our basements and we can’t borrow money from China like you do.  So, lower the debt, stop spending and stay out of our state government unless you’re invited.  I know government is on a vastly larger scale than we the people are but, the same rules should apply.  We put you in charge of helping us maintain and protect our lives in a fashion according to The Constitution of the United States.  We did not elect you to tell us what to do differently.

Sharon

Update on Monday, January 7, 2013 at 10:03AM by Jerry

An update to the news regarding the purchase of Current TV by the Qatar owned Al Jazeera.

Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor, cancelled his show Sunday.  Spitzer, a politician turned TV show host, announced that he had a relationship with Current's founders, Joel Hyatt and Al Gore -- not Al Jazeera. Spitzer took over VIEWPOINT last year when Keith Olbermann was fired from the show.

Time Warner Cable originally said that it would not carry the channel but now seems to be moving more toward the middle ground. We willl keep you updated.