Valediction |
     |
     |
   |
Valediction |
|
|
|
Latest Update 03 February 2007 by Bob Ames
| Hardcover Edition | |||
| Published by: | Delacorte Press | ||
| Publication Date: | 1984 | ||
| ISBN: | 0-385-29385-2 | ||
| Paperback Edition | |||
| Published by:: | Dell Publishing Co., Inc. | ||
| ISBN | 0-440-15316-6 | ||
| Large Print Edition | |||
| Published by | G. K. Hall | ||
| ISBN | 0-816-13702-1 | ||
| Audio Cassette Edition | |||
| Published by: | Books on Tape | ||
| Read By: | Michael Prichard | ||
| Length | 5 cassettes, 300 min. | ||
The above information is from the online catalog of the Minuteman Library Network and my own collection.---Bob
"For Joan, like gold to airy thinness beat" See the discussion of the title below for the significance of this dedication.
Taken from the back cover of the paperback edition.
"The most dangerous man to cross is one who isn't afraid to die. But the most deadly is one who doesn't want to live. And Spenser has just lost the woman who made life his number-one priority.
So when a religious sect kidnaps a pretty young dancer, no death threat from the fanatics or their mobster friends can make the tough detective cut and run. Now a hit man's bullet is wearing Spenser's name. But Boston's big boys don't know Spenser is ready--and willing--to meet death more than halfway."
My best guess is that Spenser cannot take Susan's absence because he feels like he is losing a part of himself. Anyone care to comment?
I have posted the poem on the Poetry page, and you can see for yourself that Mike was quite correct. Note that Parker refers to his relationship with his wife Joan in the dedication above by quoting from stanza 5:
"Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat."
Of course this also is Spenser's view of his relationship with Susan, although she has a much longer and harder road to travel before she realizes it. One of the best parts of the next book is an exploration of that journey.
County Mayo borders the Atlantic Ocean on the western coast of the Republic of Ireland. It’s Parker’s way of saying the Cambridge cops are Irish.
“Veritas,” which is Harvard’s motto, means truth, and Susan tells the truth when she says, “I’ve taken a job in San Francisco.” At the end of Chapter 1 she was evasive when Spenser asked her if she’s going back to D.C.
Note that Spenser uses it rather ironically after Hawk salutes "Rum, religion, and slaves." Many an old Yankee fortune began with the infamour Trangle Trade of molasses to rum to slaves. Liberty came a bit later for some people.
Dennis Tallet notes:
"Faneuil Hall, Boston, was the center of many Revolutionary meetings and became known as the cradle of liberty."
http://www.kermitage.com/html/epguide/tms/season3/bailey.html Pearl Bailey performed with Sgt. Floyd Pepper, the bass guitarist for the Muppet band called Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. According to http://www.answers.com/topic/dr-teeth-and-the-electric-mayhem. Sgt. Floyd Pepper was a laid back hippie-type with a pink body and long reddish-orange hair. His name refers both to Pink Floyd and to the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Floyd's pink color is a little insider joke; he is a Pink Floyd.In Season 3 of The Muppet Show, Pearl Bailey was a guest on the episode that aired on November 16, 1978.
 |
<Old Logo
New Logo> |
 |
"I believe this is a paraphrase of a line in Hamlet, Act I,
Sc. 5, "That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain".
Bay Rum is a traditional Caribbean skin tonic and after-shave that’s been around for centuries. It is made from a combination of bay oil, citrus and spice oils, alcohol, and water. It was first made in the West Indies, where it was prepared by boiling the leaves of the West Indian Bay in white rum and collecting the distillate.
This was by Lord Acton in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 3, 1887: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Actually they are called mules. The toes can be open (peep toes) or closed. The heel can be high or low. Today there are mule sneakers, mule loafers, and mule clogs.
 |
||
 |
|
 |
"While I'm a little slow on my Tennyson and Frost I do know my Stan 'Mr. Marvel' Lee. The Hulk had a girlfriend (later his wife) named Betty Ross, daughter of General 'Thunderbolt' Ross, the guy who lead the army battalion sent to stop the Hulk."
Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Thinkest thou that I, who saw the face of God
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?
Update:
He actually proved just the opposite. A letter from Simone Hochreiter reminded me that the concept goes back to Aristotle, who in the fourth book of Physics (c. 350 BCE) carefully explained why a "void" is not possible. By the middle ages it was being referred to as "horror vacui." Torricelli inverted a tube filled with mercury into a pool of the same. The level fell a certain distance then stopped. He reasoned that it was not the "abhorence of a vacuum" that was keeping the rest from falling, but was instead the weight of the atmosphere pushing down on the surface of the pool.
And yes, this will be on the final exam. Class dismissed.
"A mention for Harry the Horse, a personage beloved of all who enjoy 'Guys and Dolls.'"
Harry the Horse appears first in Damon Runyon's short story, "Butch Minds The Baby". In the story, he and two others employ Butch to open the coal company safe. (Runyon's short story) "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (was adapted) into the musical "Guys and Dolls" taking Harry the Horse in the previous story and putting him on stage.
Just to fill this out, the musical Guys and Dolls, (book by Abe Burrows, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser) was based on the short stories written by Damon Runyon, opened on Broadway 24 Nov. 1950 and ran for 1200 performances. The thing I find fascinating is that most of the plot was extrapolated from the above mentioned "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown," which was all of three pages long.
Tom Mix was the first of the colorful, escapist motion picture cowboys. His film career spanned 25 years from 1910 to 1935. During that time he starred in between 300 and 400 films. An exact number is not known as few of his films exist today. Many of them have deteriorated, and others were disposed of by the studios. Regardless of the precise count, Tom Mix's film output was phenomenal.
BTW: I was going to put in that famous Dostoevsky quote "If God did not exist anything is possible" except that he never wrote it. I found a very well done research paper on the subject at http://www.tassos-oak.com/extras/soundbite.html
"(It's) from Wordsworths' Michael:
'Make subterraneous music, like the noise
Of bagpipers on distant Highland hills.'"Then again Dennis Tallet has this to say:
"(This) sounds very much like Raymond Chandler writing as a non-mystery writer and knowing Robert Parker is a follower, here is what I think he is parodying:
'...left no echo, evoked no image beyond a distant hill." Raymond Chandler in an essay The Simple Art of Murder writing about Dashiell Hammett.'"
Another source expanded on that just a bit:
"A decade after Hammett, in 1933, Raymond Chandler appeared in Black Mask. If Hammett bequeathed the American detective story a distinct voice, then Chandler honed it and pushed it toward greater literary respectability. He had read Hammett and respected his work, but, '... the American language ... can say things he did not know how to say, or feel the need of saying. In his hands it had no overtones, left no echo, evoked no image beyond a distant hill.'"
Very good, but to my eyes it looks like Chandler is citing an earlier source. Is it Wordsworth or someone else? The question remains open.
"Yesterday's a mem'ry gone for good forever
while tomorrow is a guess
What is real is what is here and now,
the here and now is all that we possess
So take my hand and we will taste the moment
if for just the moment's happiness"
See Lyrics
...the reference books do not use the prefix 'Old'. It was produced by Ballantine of Newark, NJ. until they were bought up by, you guessed it, General Brewing of Vancouver, WA.
Later, he adds:
Ballantine's IPA still brewed but now in Indiana. (Ref:Bob Klein's Beer Lovers Rating Guide - WorkmanPublishers, 1995)
"The whole place was getting out of hand. There were women in there now as well as men. There was a lounge where you could sit around in a velour sweat suit and drink carrot juice, there had been complaints that the speed bag in the boxing room made too much noise, and some of the people working on the Nautilus wore Lacoste shirts. Hawk had told Henry that if anyone came in to work out wearing Top-Siders that he, Hawk, would demand a refund on his membership.
'Hawk,' Henry said, 'you come here free.'
'Fucking place is full of guys in tennis shorts,' Hawk said.
'Hell, you even get the tanning booth free,' Henry said.
Hawk looked at him. 'Wimp city,' he said, and walked away.
'He just don't understand upscale,' Henry said."
"'You ought to date,' Paul said.
'How about I get a Qiana shirt and some gold chains and tight pants with no pockets...'
'And a bulger,' Paul said.
'Yeah,' I said, 'and shoes with Cuban heels, and maybe have my hair styled and blow-dried.'
'On the other hand,' Paul said, 'maybe you hadn't ought to date.'"
"I looked out the window. The dark-haired art director in the ad agency across the street was conferring over her board with two colleagues. Too busy to look in my window. Probably resigning. Probably going to take a job in Miami doing bilingual dope ads."
"She was a very large boned, tall woman, and she had managed to keep her weight up. She was probably fifty-five and wore a loose-fitting dress with a small gray print in it, and a large straw hat. For her to find a loose-fitting dress was something of a triumph, I thought. She wore a lot of makeup, badly applied. There was lipstick on her teeth. If she had been a dancer, it must have been in Fantasia."
"She was wearing high-heeled shoes with no backs and her tan legs were bare. Not bad hips for a religious zealot. Susan had told me that those kind of shoes were called fuck-me shoes. 'On the assumption that you didn't want to order them in quite that way to a saleslady at Filene's,' I had said, 'what else would you call them?' Susan had said that she'd simply have to find some and point. She'd never heard them called anything else. Probably called hold-my-hand shoes here."
"The Escort was getting a little far ahead and I passed a Chevy wagon with kids in the back making a V sign at me. It had no meaning anymore and the kids probably didn't know why they made it. But two fingers were better than one."
"I called Vinnie Morris. 'What do you know about Paultz Construction company?" I said.
- 'Why ask me?" Vinnie said.
'Because they're crooks and so are you. Figured you might have crossed paths.
- 'Spenser,' Vinnie said, 'You got a big pair of balls. Last year Joe Broz and I discussed acing you. Now you call up and ask for a favor.'
'What are friends for, Vinnie?'"
"'Is Hawk the negro who told me Paulz had to see me?'
- 'Yes.'
'The one who was with you when you took the pictures?'
- 'Yes.'
'He'll guard me alone?'
- 'He could guard Yugoslavia alone,' I said."
"Vince Haller drew up a trust agreement for me that was twenty-eight pages long and read like the Rosetta Stone.
'They give courses in gobbledygook at law school?' I said.
'Law school is gobbledygook,' Haller said. 'No need for a special course.'
'If it had been written by a sentient being, what would it say?'"
"Vinnie Morris had promised two men on Bullard Winston around the clock and whatever else Vinnie was, he was good for what he said.
- 'Vinnie tell you something, you can take it to the morgue,' Hawk said."
"The cowboy hat had long since gone. I didn't remember it falling off. They didn't make them like they used to. Tom Mix never lost his."
(thanks to Cindy Forman for adding this quote)
"I got my bottle of Old Bushmill out of my desk and had a small snort from the bottle. Decisive. Not a man to sit around and do nothing. I had another small tap from the bottle neck.
I hadn't seen Linda Thomas since the shootout in the weeds. Broad had no sense of adventure. She'd liked Darth Vader okay. What was wrong with me.
I had some more whiskey.
Nice date. We'll go to the movies and after, I'll shoot four guys. Linda probably wanted to get a snack afterward. No imagination. Sit around, eat and drink. Get logy. Probably take in too much salt and saturated fats. Movies and a shootout, now that was different. If you skipped butter on the popcorn, it was cholesterol-free, non-fattening, and low-sodium."
"I turned back to Banks.
- 'I'll look into it,' I said.
'You took all my money last time and found shit,' Banks said. 'You cleaned me out.'
- 'No charge this time,' I said. 'You're still under warranty.'"
"My living room was littered with records and Paul and Paige were lying among them listening to Anita Ellis and Ellis Larkins. It was an album Paul had bought me as a half joking Father's Day gift. They were drinking jug wine and smoking. I sniffed.
'I believe I sense the presence in this room of a controlled substance,' I said.
'You going to shoot us?' Paige said.
'With the price of bullets the way it is,' I said, 'I'll let you off with a vicious beating.'
Paige grinned at me. 'Oooh, good,' she said. 'I'm really into that.'"
"I didn't know a fact. I didn't know who was with whom or who was in charge of what or who was good and who was bad and what to do. Maybe I should forget about it and lecture the kids on drug abuse. I tried saying drug abuse and slurred the s, and decided to forgo the lecture."
"We went in Hawk's Jaguar. As he drove he unlocked the glove compartment and took out a 9-millimeter automatic and put it in his lap.
'You could tuck it in your jock,' I said.
'No room,' Hawk said. 'You want to tell me who to shoot?'
'Christ,' I said, 'I don't know. Everybody but me, I think.'"
"'The next time I woke up Linda was gone and so was Belson. Hawk was there and Paul. As I came out of the sleep I heard Paul's voice, softly.
'No, like this, shuffle, ball, change. You see, shuffle, ball, change.' I heard his feet move lightly on the hospital floor. 'How can a man with your heritage not be able to tap-dance.'
I heard Hawk's gliding chuckle. 'My ancestors busy eating missionaries, boy. We didn't have no time for no fucking shuffle ball change.'
'Well, you wanted me to show you.'
'That's before I knew you was going to do it better than me,' Hawk said."
"Parker miscounts Spenser's bullets in the long chase scene that started at the theater. Seems to have forgotten the first shot as he sped away from the theater."
Yep. He fired one shot through his passenger side window at the Buick and sped off. After wrecking his car he shot the bearded guy and noted he had four bullets left, having started with five.
Those golden days of yore: Rita Fiore lights up a cigarette in Spenser's hospital room. Nowadays they'd lead her away in manacles.
Those less than golden days of yore: Cindy Forman points out that interest rates on mortgages back then were positively frightening by today's standards:
"Spenser discovers that the mortgage loans for $3.5 million were loaned 'at less than ten percent, five or six points below market.' Yes, folks, in 1981 and 1982 rates went as high as 16%, and even higher."
![[Page Top]](images/Button_TopofPage.gif)   |
This Page Created by Mike Loux
Maintained and updated by Bob Ames. Find out why here.
