Greatest Hits Medley

Resuming Reading Richard Rohmer

Yes, it’s 2018 and we haven’t read our last Rohmer yet. We should be ashamed. If Rohmer put in any kind of effort at all, he could write a book faster than we could read it. Herman Wouk is 102 and he published a novel last year. Rohmer is 93, a spring chicken in Wouk years. He could start pumping out thrillers again and we could end up farther back than where we were when we started.

Speaking of Herman Wouk – something only crazy people say – I wonder if Rohmer knows there’s an alternative to the bread trick for not getting drunk with Russians? It’s in War and Remembrance, page 931:

(Noble sea captain Victor “Pug” Henry is at a party in Moscow in 1943 when he runs into globetrotting war correspondent Pamela Tudsbury.)

“Seems to me,” Pug said to Pamela, “that we’ve heard that imbecile noise before. Dance?”
     “Must we?”
     “You’d rather not? Thank God.” He twined fingers in hers and led her to a small sofa. “They caught me at my white wine trick during the toasts. I had to switch back to vodka, and I’m reeling.”

The old white-wine-for-vodka trick. Second time I fell for it this war.

- CK

Ultimata

Five days into autumn, I report that the most disappointing beach read of my summer was Ultimatum 2. I know you both liked the book... at least I think you both liked the book, but I was a bit let down. It's nowhere near as good as the original - which I will remind you we graded 'C' - nor is it as memorable. How well I remember the sexy Deputy Premier of Nova Scotia of Ultimatum; how little I remember of the "amazing, sharp-minded, cool-tongued black woman" who serves as Secretary of State in Ultimatum 2.

Here's looking forward to Ultimatum 3. And why not? After all, Ultimatum is the one Rohmer title that Canadians of a certain age remember. Why stop at two? Coppola didn't. Sure, the premise of Ultimatum 2 wasn't nearly so interesting as Ultimatum, but that isn't to say that there aren't ideas out there. Some suggestions:

Mid-Canada in the News!

In its ongoing hunt for subscribers, the National Post uncovers a market that could've been:

The grandiose — but failed — 1960s plan by an Ontario war hero to settle a ‘second Canada’ below the Arctic