Weekend Links 9-25-20

 As summer gives way to fall, 2020 continues to churn on with uncertainty. It sure seems like this year has been no other in terms of the challenges we have faced. Perhaps that is why I have been committed to finding diversionary links to fill these pages. I hope you enjoy this weekend's collection of links.

Letters play a key role in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Often a letter will help propel the story forward. One author has worked to bring those letters to life in a new edition of the book. 

These are some amazing photographs: capturing Ellis Island's lost period before its restoration. 

I suppose this gives new meaning to the term "epic battle": this Dungeons and Dragons game has been going on for 38 years!

All British people are potential murderers according to Richard Osman, author of the upcoming novel The Thursday Murder Club which looks like it will be fantastic. You can read an excerpt here. 

Answering the important questions: If I haven't read X book, am I reader? I think this is a fascinating question particularly there are a number of books that many folks would say I should have read and that I haven't. 

True crime solved: a fortune in rare books that had been stolen in London have been found under a floor in Romania. 

I tend to read a lot of mystery novels written in the so-called Golden Age (basically the period between the two World Wars). Here's a list from Martin Edwards, current president of The Detection Club and an expert on Golden Age fiction of authors from that period that deserve a lot more attention. 

The Walther PPK is known as a classic spy gun because it is so closely associated with James Bond. However, when the gun was first introduced in 1930 it revolutionized the way that pistols were made. 

Travel to Europe or anywhere else isn't really feasible right now but here are a list of American towns that will make you feel like you are in Europe. 

Without a doubt one of the most difficult sequences to film in Star Wars was the fighter battles near the end of the movie. Director George Lucas turned to footage from World War II aerial battles for inspiration. 

A new adaptation of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small has just premiered in the UK and will air in the US on PBS in 2021. Herriot's children reveal the truth behind the beloved books. 

Weekend Links 9-18-20

 Happy Friday! Here is your weekly roundup of interesting links for your weekend reading.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. So what better way to celebrate then with a life-sized cake shaped like Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.

Speaking of anniversaries, it is also the 25th anniversary of the premiere of the short-lived but beloved PBS series Wishbone. Here's a fascinating oral history from the creators of the show.

 Now I know where I want to take my next vacation: Lindt has opened the world's largest chocolate museum in Zurich. 

Selecting the best P. G. Wodehouse books. Because he was so prolific it is often difficult to narrow down a "best of" list when it comes to Wodehouse. Still there are a lot of interesting selections on this list even if it omits my personal favorite, The Code of the Woosters.

Throughout baseball history, there have been many players who only played in one major league game. In fact, according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, there have been approximately a thousand players who have only played once. I had no idea they tracked this information. Perhaps the most famous was Archibald "Moonlight" Graham who was also a prominent character in the movie Field of Dreams. But this story is probably the most unique "one game wonder": a player who made his major league debut in a game he didn't actually play in. What's even more interesting is that while he never had a major league career his younger brother was a Hall of Famer. 

Speaking of baseball oddities, you don't see this every day: a player who gets ejected while crossing home plate on a home run. 

How a thirteen year old's comment to her father changed the course of asthma treatments. 

Ever wonder what happens to books left behind in public places such as subways, airplanes or hotels?

There are many reasons why Agatha Christie is considered one of the greatest novelists of all time. One reason could be because she can draw readers in with some fantastic opening lines. 

Never Forget

The following post was originally written on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. It is my own family's history of our experiences on 9/11. I am reposting it today because we can never forget what happened on that terrible day.

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I will never forget 9/11. No matter how hard I try, I can't block out the memories of that day. They will be forever burned in my memory.

I was supposed to be attending a meeting in Bala Cynwyd (just outside of Philadelphia) on 9/11. My wife and two daughters (ages 4 and 5) went up a few days early to explore the Amish country as well as downtown Philadelphia. We had had a great time visiting an area that we had never visited before. But that Tuesday morning everything would change - in ways far greater than we could have ever imagined.

The day started normally enough. My meeting was supposed to start at 9:00 so I headed downstairs to the hotel restaurant early to eat breakfast. My wife and daughters were a little later getting ready.

Our meeting started on time and was underway for about an hour before taking our first break of the morning. Many of the folks in this meeting were from New York. While we were on the break, several guys tried to call the office but couldn't get through. One of them finally decided to call the operator and see what was wrong with the telephone lines. He would be the first one to share the news with us: the World Trade Center had been hit. Another person came in and said it was the Pentagon. It would be a few minutes before we realized that it was both.

By the time we managed to get a TV brought into the conference room we were able to see the replay of the South tower being hit. Moments later it collapsed. It took all of us only a split second to decide we needed to go home. The fourth airliner, United flight 93, would crash in Western Pennsylvania within the next few minutes.

My wife had taken the kids next door to Denny's to eat breakfast. A waitress told her that the Pentagon had been hit. Her sister's husband often worked at the Pentagon. Was he there? Frantically, she was calling her unable to get through. It would be much, much later before we found out he wasn't there and was completely safe.

My wife came back to the hotel not knowing how to find me. At the time, I didn't carry a cellphone (I have ever since). She was in the lobby trying to call her sister when I finally came upstairs. I looked at her and said "We're going home".

At the time we lived in Richmond, VA, almost directly due south along Interstate 95 from Philadelphia. Under normal circumstances, it would have taken about five hours to drive home. But Washington, DC is directly on Interstate 95. Due to the attack at the Pentagon, Washington was completely locked down. Our only choice was to head west and then south in a long circle along interstates through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virgina. It was a long drive home.

As we were leaving the hotel we turned on the local news on our radio. The mayor of Philadelphia was holding a press conference announcing the evacuation of the city. Everyone was being ordered home since at that time we didn't know where the hijackers intended to fly United 93. It was reasonable to assume that Philadelphia was a target.

One thing was clear: we were at war. We weren't sure yet who was responsible but we knew we had been attacked. The peaceful setting of Lancaster County was strangely appealing. Surely whoever this was wouldn't attack the Amish. We would be safe there, wouldn't we?

As we drove on there was this eerie feeling of not knowing what to expect next. Would there be further attacks? Who was responsible? Why had they attacked us?

Our daughters tahnkfully were oblivious to what was happening. At least until the announcement was made that Walt Disney World had closed (we had made our first visit as a family the previous year). Then it registered with them that something was wrong.

Everywhere we stopped along the way home people seemed to be trying to carry on with life as normal even though they all knew that life would never be normal again. Everything had changed.

By late afternoon we had made it to Harrisonburg, VA (about 3 1/2 hours from home). At first we thought we would just find a hotel room and spend the night but there were none to be found. Greyhound had ordered all their buses to stop wherever they were and as a result people had to find hotel rooms. Everything was closing down: restaurants, stores, shopping malls were all closed. We managed to find a gas station that was still open. When I went in to pay there was the extra edition of the local paper with the photo of the burning towers above the fold. This was not just a bad dream. This was real.

As we left Harrisonburg and headed towards home I can remember the eerie sight of a single jet plane crossing the sky. I knew it was a military plane since all civilian aircraft had been grounded much earlier in the day. This is what it felt like to be at war.

We eventually made it home safely that evening. But we knew that everything had changed. A couple days later we got another grim reminder of just how serious things were.

Where we lived, we never saw military traffic. But around 9:00 one evening just a few days after the attacks we were buzzed twice in the span of a couple of minutes by a pair of F-14 fighter jets. It was yet another reminder that we were truly at war.

There would be other reminders, as well. I went to Las Vegas for a meeting a couple of months later (a meeting that was originally supposed to take place the week after 9/11). The sight of armed soldiers patrolling the airport was a clear sign that things had changed.

While I was in Las Vegas I stayed at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino. As the name suggests, the hotel is supposed to remind one of the New York skyline. Even three months after 9/11, there was a memorial of flowers, posters, and messages of support for the police, firefighters, and people of New York City. I couldn't help but be struck by the sight.

Driving by the Pentagon several months after 9/11 and getting to see firsthand the devastation caused by the terrorists would be yet another grim reminder of the war we had been dragged into by our attackers.

I can't forget no matter how hard I try. We should never forget for this is why we fight.

Weekend Links 9-4-20

Hard to believe it's already September. It seems like summer flew by. Hope that you take this long Labor Day weekend to rest if you can. Here are a few links of interest for your weekend reading. 

There's a new documentary coming out featuring the last Blockbuster Video store in existence.

As the school year starts back up many families are choosing to homeschool. Here's some advice to parents homeschooling for the first time. 

There is one particular occupation that is well-suited to being Jeopardy! contestants: authors.

Vin Scully may no longer be broadcasting Dodgers games but he still has a lot to say.  He's also starting his own social media accounts.

Road trip ideas: 8 places in Virginia that aren't what they seem. 

8 fascinating facts about Disney's Monorail system.

The history of the paralyzed World War II veterans who invented wheelchair basketball. It's quite a remarkable story. 

Revisiting the genius of Monk. This is still one of my all-time favorite crime dramas.