Ailantha - Blog

2040 Is Here

10/18/2018

       A few days ago I talked to my daughter who lives along the Southern California coastline.
       She was worried about last week's report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned of near future devastating droughts, world-wide shortages of food and water, rising coastal waters, behemoth wildfires and a massive dying off of sea life, all due to a catastrophic warming of the planet from greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels (1).
   My daughter and her husband were talking about keeping several month's supply of non-perishable food, water and other life-sustaining necessities on hand. She wanted to know if Tom and I were planning on doing the same.
"What for?" I asked her, "According to the report the crisis is twenty years away."
          "Mom," said my daughter, "the crisis is here. There are already food, water and gas shortages in Florida."
           "Oh, well, that's just because of the hurricane," said I. But then it hit me: It's warming global temperatures that are causing the bigger, slower, wetter - and consequently stronger and more destructive - hurricanes (2).

And so I understood what my daughter meant: the string of monster hurricanes, Harvey, Irma, and Maria last year and Florence and Michael this year, are just the beginning,

...as is the deadly flooding from the record-breaking rain that continues to pour rain over Central Texas (3, 4),

...and this past summer's historic droughts and biggest wildfire in history in California (5).

And because of these global warming climate changes, parts of California, Texas, North Carolina, Florida,

...and, most tragically, Puerto Rico,

...remain unlivable or barely livable.

In parts of the Florida panhandle there are still food, water and gasoline shortages and no power.

People line up outside of schools, fire stations and other aid stations desperate to secure some food and water.

Looting is rampant.

Thus in the hurricane, flood, fire, and drought-ravaged parts of our country 2040 is already here.

According to the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, unless fossil fuel emissions stop immediately in twenty years the whole planet will be suffering the likes of what the residents of the Florida Panhandle are suffering today.

My daughter is worried. I'm worried. Much of our country and the world is worried.
And the the response to the dire Climate Change report by the person who has the power to get the wheels turning to do something to prevent the coming disaster?

...essentially nothing.

References:
1. "Major Climate Report Describes A Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040," https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-climate-report-2040.html

2. "A Warmer World Makes Hurricanes Wetter and More Intense,"
https://www.apnews.com/47d8e0bf05354260931de08ad9976a37

3. "Record-breaking rain leads to DFW's Wettest Autumn Yet. Will We See More Flooding?"
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/weather/article220156395.html4,

4. "Flooding Concerns Stretch Into Another Day in Central Texas," https://abcnews.go.com/US/flooding-concerns-stretch-day-central-texas/story?id=58581093

5."California Fire Now the Largest in State History,"
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/us/california-fires-mendocino.html

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/17/us/hurricane-michael-aftermath-wxc/index.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/10/14/hurricane-michaels-aftermath-shortages-mourning-darkness/1641106002/

https://www.wxyz.com/news/national/survivors-scramble-for-food-and-water-in-the-wake-of-hurricane-michael

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/15/us/hurricane-michael-lines-food-gas.html

http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/gas-shortages-in-wake-of-hurricane-michael

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/17/florida-hurricane-michael-looters-target-homes-without-power

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/us/texas-llano-river-flooding/index.html

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It Was The Best Of Birthdays

10/15/2018

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It Was The Best Of Birthdays

This past Saturday, October 13, was my daughter-in-law Callie's birthday.

I asked her if she'd like me to come to Cincinnati for a day of shopping and dinner, which is what we did last year (see post from 10/14/2017), but she said she would rather drive up to Columbus with Theresa - my daughter, her wife - for some shopping since in Columbus there's a big and tall women's shop called Torrid where she hoped to find a pair of dress shoes.
As Theresa had to put in a few hours of work on Saturday morning, it was early afternoon before she and Callie arrived,

...hence we decided to start out with lunch at Panera.

After lunch Theresa - who hates clothes shopping - begged off the shopping trip,

...and so Callie and I headed for the Torrid at Easton Town Center,

...where she found several cute pieces,

...and some cute shoes.

That evening we met up with Tommy and Emily at Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Columbus for dinner.

Unbeknownst to us it was Homecoming night, and so in addition to the usual Saturday night crowd,

...were crowds of nicely-dressed teenagers.

However we waited less than fifteen minutes for a table,

...and were soon chowing down on that soft, warm, out-of-this-world bread with the herb butter that is the Spaghetti Warehouse hallmark,

...followed by appetizers,

...fried zucchini sticks,

...and spinach artichoke dip.

For dinner we ordered among us:

...fifteen-layer lasagne,

...cheese ravioli,

...Turin Trio

...fettuccine alfredo,

...and bruschetta,

...with sides of the freshest salad,

...and Italian Wedding Soup.

After dinner we stood out in the Spaghetti Warehouse parking lot for a moment to take in the pretty view of the Columbus skyline,

...then we drove to Tommy and Emily's place in the Brewery District,

...where their sweet poochie Cici waited patiently,

...and where we had a Dairy Queen birthday cake.

     As we sat around eating our ice cream cake Callie at one point said, "This is my best birthday ever."
      I was a little surprised to hear her say that. After all, what was so special about going shopping, going out for dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse then having a Dairy Queen Cake?
      I asked her why this birthday was so much better than any other but she didn't explain much, saying that it just was.
       But I think I know what she meant. This is Callie's third birthday as a transgender woman. I think she meant that each year life gets better.

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Scan, Bag, Go? I Don't Know...

10/10/2018

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All you need is a good read.
"Equal And Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay
Buy it at Amazon
http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa

Scan, Bag, Go? I Don't Know...

The other day I walked into the Kroger's at the Hunter's Ridge shopping center in Gahanna, Ohio,

...to be greeted by this just inside the main entrance.

    It looked like some high-tech shopping gadgetry not intended for the likes of techno-challenged individuals of a certain age such as moi, and my initial intimidation caused me to quickly pass by the kiosk, which I imagined most folks were doing, considering that most of the gadgets were sitting in their holders unused.
      But then I thought, heck, if this is the wave of the future I might as well start surfing now.
       So I turned around and headed back to the kiosk,

...snagged myself a scanner, which is what the gadgets were,

...and a few of the plastic bags provided (these days I usually bring my own recycled bags to the supermarket, but alas, this trip I left my bags on the front seat of my car and had not the patience to go and retrieve them, of which I'm not particularly proud),

...then I followed the start-up instructions on the scanner,

...which were in fact not at all difficult follow,

...and commenced my maiden voyage on the Kroger Scan, Bag, Go.
How the operation works is that one points the scanner at the bar code of the item one wishes to purchase and presses the scan button, which causes the price of the item to appear on the screen and apparently in the memory of the scanner.

    Should one change one's mind about an already-scanned item one has the option of erasing the item from the scanner's list.
      Now, the produce section is a weence more involved, though, I thought, quite ingenious.
      First one scans the bar code on the fruit or vegetable.
      Next one brings the item over to the weigh station and places it on the scale.
      Then one scans the bar code on the scale, and the scanner puts all the info together and the name, weight, and price of your purchase pops up on the scanner screen and is added to the shopping list stored in your scanner,

...which will let you know when all the info has been digested, at which time you will be directed to put your produce into your cart and move on with your shopping.

Now, the idea is that you bag your items as you go along.

Then when you get to the self-check out,

...all you have to do is scan the bar code at the bottom of the machine and all your items pop up on the machine for your review.

    Then you just pay and, your groceries being already bagged, you're ready to go. And that's how Scan, Bag, Go works.
      So, was it faster and more convenient?
      I'm not really sure.
      First of all there was the issue of the scanner, which you have to carry around in your hand,

...or else set in the child seat of your cart while taking care that it doesn't fall through one of the spaces or slats.

As for the scanning, I had a hard time getting the scanner to work by pointing it at an item on the shelf.

I generally had to hold the item in my hand while I scanned it,

...or else put it into my cart and reach into my cart to scan it,

...though I eventually figured out that it was easiest to scan the item if I first set it on the child seat.

Then there was having to stop and bag each item as it was scanned. That felt like kind of a hassle.
Not to mention that the whole process was complicated by the fact that my daughter called me while I was doing my Scan, Bag, Go-ing, so trying to scan and bag things with one hand while trying to hold my phone in the other hand was a real juggling act and, I'm sure, slowed the process down by many percentage points. In fact I had to put down my phone often just to get the scanning and bagging done, so I can say with assurance that the Scan, Bag, Go model is incompatible with the talking-on-the-phone-while-shopping model. Unless maybe one has a Bluetooth.

However, all that being said, the payoff came at the checkout when I had only to scan the bar code on the check-out machine and insert my credit card, then I was done.

    However, I did have one moment of dismay.
       After I'd removed my credit card from the machine and returned it to my purse I turned back to my cart to get my scanner and return it to the scanner-return rack at the end of the pay area.
       My scanner wasn't in my cart. I looked under my cart and all around on the floor. I looked in my purse and in all my bags. I'd had that thing literally seconds ago. I had a scary moment of wondering if I was having an initial episode of some category of dementia. I didn't really know what to do. Finally I approached the cashier who was monitoring the pay area and, embarrassed, told her that I'd somehow lost my scanner.
       "Oh, no, I grabbed it from your cart and took care of it," she said cheerfully.
       I'll withhold my verdict on this new shopping technology until a future occasion.

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The Gahanna Flea Market

10/7/2018

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Don't stress the holidays!
Give the gift of some sweet and spicy reading!

"Equal and Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay
Buy it at Amazon
http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
Or Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/equal-and-opposite-reactions-patti-liszkay/1126530153?ean=9781612968865

The Gahanna Flea Market

Last Sunday, September 30, as I stood at my table beneath my tent in my designated spot on Mill Street in Olde Gahanna, Ohio for the purpose of pedaling my books at the Gahanna Historical Society Flea Market,

...I thought to myself, Well, here's something I never saw myself doing.

In fact I was thinking the same thing at the several previous First Friday Gahanna Arts in the Alley events - which I guess were technically flea markets, too, if smaller and artier ones - at which I set up a table,

...in July

...(where I snagged a prime spot near the rubber duck sculpture [see post from 7/14/2018]),

...in August,

...and in September.

   But as I've learned - as I guess all authors learn very soon after their books are published if they didn't know beforehand - books are like art pieces, and just as artists need to be involved in marketing and selling their art, authors also need to be involved in marketing and selling their books.
      Strangely enough - or at least it seems strange to me - I haven't had to search around to find venues at which to sell my book. The opportunities seem to seek me out, as was the case with the Gahanna Flea Market.
      It was during one of the Arts in the Alleys that an event organizer from the Gahanna Historical Society came up to my table and asked me if I would be a vendor at the Historical Society's up-coming flea market and offered me a discount on a table.
     And so I signed up to be a flea market vendor, declining the discount offered, considering it a civic duty to support the Historical Society.
    In truth I was a weence nervous about the event, especially about where I would park my car on narrow Mill Street, how I would find my spot, and how I would schlepp all my stuff from my car to my spot.
     However the process went quite smoothly, in no small part thanks to my hubby Tom, who came along to help with the schlepp and the set-up.
      Apparently each vendor was given an arrival time, and we arrived at Mill Street at my appointed time of 7:15,

...to find that the vendors were just parking their vehicles any old where on Mill Street, even in the middle of the road, and leaving them there until they were finished setting up.

And so we did the same.

Thankfully, Tom had come up with the smart idea of bringing along a wheelbarrow in which to cart my table, chairs, tent, and wares.

Also thankfully, event organizers rode around directing everyone to their spots.

And so we found my spot and began the set-up,

...starting with the tent I found on clearance at Menard's for $21.99,

...not counting the four 89-cent concrete blocks I bought to stabilize the legs,

After we were all set up Tom left and my daughter Theresa arrived to help me woman the table.

After most of the vehicles, including mine, had been moved, I did a once-around Mill Street to see what everyone else was selling.

Our next-door tent-neighbor was a vintage crafts business,

...called the Painted Gypsy,

...owned by two lovely ladies, Lisa and Rachel.

Shoppers began arriving early, and though the flea market was scheduled to begin at 9:00 am, I'd sold my first book by 8:50.
Soon after and for the rest of the day Mill Street was crowded,

...with shoppers,

...browsers,

...and strollers.

As for Theresa and me, we spent most of the day at the table,

...selling a few books, giving away a lot of bookmarks and sample pages from my novel,

...and explaining to folks whose eyes were caught by one of my table posters that I was advertising my book and not a plumbing service. (The main male character in my novel is a plumber).

Theresa and I each took turns taking occasional breaks, for lunch,

...where we snagged some incredible French fries, fresh cut and fried up to order by the Kiwanis Club,

...or for zipping over to nearby Creekside Plaza,

...where can be found some of the cleanest, nicest public restrooms on the planet.
The Flea Market closed at 4 pm, at precisely which time we vendors were urged to quickly close up and pack up our respective shops so that Mill Street could re-open for business and traffic.

It turned out to be not a bad day sales-wise,

...and now I can add "flea market vendor" to my resume.

2 Comments

Little White Liar

10/5/2018

1 Comment

    Though the fix is probably in for Brett Kavanaugh becoming the next Supreme Court justice, today I nonetheless called the offices of Susan Collins, Joe Manchin, and Jeff Flake and left each a message urging them to vote "no" on Kavanaugh's confirmation. You do what you can.
     If anyone else wants to call their offices to leave a last-minute message here are their numbers:
    Susan Collins: (202) 224-2523
    Jeff Flake: (202) 224-4521
    Joe Manchin: (202) 224-3954
    To me it's no longer a question of whether or not Brett Kavanaugh assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when they were youngsters. That's something that even the FBI seems to be unable to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. But what is 100% true is that while sitting at a Senate Judiciary hearing Kavanaugh was rude, flippant, arrogant and extremely partisan.
     But more critical than his bad behavior is the fact that he lied.
     Oh, maybe the lies were over insignificant things, little white lies. But they were lies all the same, and the man was under oath. Which begs the question: if it wasn't important that "Devil's Triangle," "bouf" and "FFFFF" referred to sex acts then why did Kavanaugh feel the need to lie about what they meant?
      In truth it doesn't really matter why Kavanaugh lied but he did, as everyone - including myself - who googled those words knows. Of all the things that can't be proven about Brett Kavnaugh's past behavior we have proof of the kind of man he is today.
     The question, then, for the several Senators who are still on the fence about Kavanaugh is whether or not white lies matter.
        Some of us would say that for a prospective Supreme Court justice they do.

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Where Were The Adults?

10/3/2018

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I suppose we'll find out by the end of the week - or whenever the Senate Judiciary Committee decides to vote - whether or not all the garbage young Brett Kavanaugh dumped onto his high school yearbook page will make any difference in whether or not he is chosen to be a Supreme Court justice.

    Still, there's no arguing that Brett Kavanaugh would be in a better spot today if 36 years ago he'd left "Keg City Club (Treasurer)," "100 Kegs or Bust," "FFFFF," "Renate Almnius," "Devil's Triangle," "Boofed," and "Beach Week Ralph Club - Biggest Contributor" off the page.
    By his own admission he was a super-smart, super-high achieving student at Georgetown Prep, the most elite of elite college preparatory schools: He was the Yale-bound class valedictorian, captain of the basketball team, organizer of everything.
      And yet apparently young Brett Kavanaugh wasn't as smart as he thought he was.
       But then at 17 years old, who is?
       Kavanaugh was an only child born into privilege who'd breezed though his adolescence with the knowledge and confidence that he was among the best and brightest, a leader among his peers, most popular, most envied, most entitled, and most exempt from any consequences of his behavior. How could he possibly have known any better than to post those admissions of excessive under-aged drinking and those nasty - and in the case of Renate, cruel - sexual references next to his picture?
       Which begs the next question: Why was there no adult in the picture to keep that chronicle of bad teen-aged male behavior from being published for the present and future world to see? Was there no yearbook faculty advisor checking the content of the book before it went to press? Was the teaching staff at this most prestigious of Catholic educational institutions oblivious to the fact that even smart Catholic boys need adult guidance?
        Or were the Jesuits who taught at Georgetown Prep so wowed - or even intimidated - by the brains, ability, popularity and family influence of the likes of Brett Kavanaugh that they wouldn't dare restrain such a golden boy from writing anything he wanted to in his yearbook?
        In any case, if 36 years ago there had been a supervisory adult to keep Brett Kavanaugh from posting those words in his yearbook then he wouldn't have to be lying under oath about their meaning today.

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The Happytime Murders

10/2/2018

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Last week Tom and I saw the movie "The Happytime Murders,"

... a sort of classic film noir murder mystery in which the main character - a standard-issue hard-boiled, down-on-his-luck-in-the-mean-streets private detective named Phil Phillips - was a muppet, as were most of the movie's down-on-their-luck-in-the-mean-streets characters,

...though the humans in the cast included Melissa McCarthy as a police detective named Connie Edwards who'd been Phil's partner before he was kicked off the force;

...Maya Rudolph as Phil's
heart - of - gold secretary, Bubbles;

...Elizabeth Banks as Jennie, Phil's stripper ex-girlfriend;

...and Joel McHale as a clueless FBI agent.

The plot centers around the suspicion of a serial murderer on the loose,

...who may be targeting the puppet actors from an old TV show called "Happytime."

The story portrays the muppets as having the same psychological make-up as their human counterparts,

...including a predisposition for illicit sex,

...drugs,

…though for muppets the substance of choice is crystal sugar snorted through a cherry Twizzler,

…and shooting each other. Thankfully, the muppets are filled with fluff instead of human innards, because with all the muppocide it was a pretty fluffy movie.

     Now, I knew before I saw the movie that it had gotten pretty stank reviews.
      The Hollywood Review called "The Happytime Murders" "coarse, crude, and vulgar."
      Vanity Fair called it "A total disaster with puppets...maybe the worst movie of the year...a waste of time and felt."
       Rolling Stone went a step further and called it a contender for the worst movie of the decade and promised that anyone who bought a ticket was in for two hours of hell.

Rotten Tomatoes didn't like it much, either.

     Actually the movie sounded pretty funny to me.
    But after having seen "The Happytime Murders" I'm not sure I'd describe it as funny; hilarious is more like it. Tom and I laughed from start to finish. In fact I kind of want to see it again.
      Still, it appears that most folks who've seen "The Happytime Murders" have found it irredeemably dreadful, and I think I can understand why.

I’m conjecturing it's because of people's sentimental attachment to “Sesame Street,”

…whose characters the “Happytime” characters greatly resemble,

...their creator being Brian Henson, son of the late Jim Henson, the creator of the muppets of "Sesame Street" and The Muppets franchise.

As for me, I don’t really have any particular emotional bond with muppets, as my children didn’t grow up with “Sesame Street;” my children grew up without television; we did not purchase a television until my oldest daughter was in high school.
Still, I can imagine that for those with fond childhood or parenthood memories of “Sesame Street” it must be unbearable watching their beloved muppets behaving like humans.

Reference:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/08/the-happytime-murders-review

https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/happytime-murders-movie-review-melissa-mccarthy-713004/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/happytime-murders-review-1136680

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There's Nothing So Bad For A Woman

9/27/2018

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"I never see it fail, I never see it fail,

...a girl who's involved

...with a virtuous man,

...is doomed to weep and wail.

Stonecutters cut it on stone,

...woodpeckers peck it on wood,

...there's nothing so bad for a woman,

...as a man who thinks he's good."* -Oscar Hammerstein

*There's also nothing so bad for a boy.

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The Waffle House Jump Team

9/26/2018

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My daughter Claire, below,

...returned this past Sunday from a week in North Carolina on a medical mission with the International Medical Corps,

...treating victims of Hurricane Florence.

Her team traveled in mobile medical units around the flood-ravaged areas of Moorehead City, Pender County and Wilmington,

...meeting up with other medical groups,

...and setting up clinics, one time outside a filled-beyond-capacity hospital emergency room, another time outside a medical center, and another time inside a high school auditorium-turned-shelter next door to shelter set up for the hurricane victims' pets.
Claire's team usually spent the night in Raleigh, setting out at 5 or 6 am and working 14- to16-hour days, often with half of those hours spent trying to make their way around flood waters that washed out the roads to and from their daily destinations.

     The water levels seemed to rise and fall randomly; a road that was reported as passable might be washed out by the time the team encountered it, or a road that had been impassable earlier in the day might be dry later in the day. The team spent much time on the road searching out alternate routes.
        Though Claire has worked at disaster scenes, in health emergency situations and among the most vulnerable populations around the world, she always comments on how, no matter how impoverished people might be, still people always try to help each other. In the wake of Hurricane Florence the people of coastal North Carolina were no exception.
        Claire spoke of how people who looked as though they had little to spare themselves would show up at the high school shelter in Wilmington in beat-up-looking cars and trucks bringing parcels of water, blankets, clothing, and other necessities for the people staying in the shelter, some of whom had lost everything.
   And then there was the Waffle House Jump Team.
         The Waffle House restaurant franchise has a policy – well, it’s more of a mission – of never closing, of staying open all the time, 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, even under the direst weather conditions, so that people will always have a place to eat.
        So dependable is Waffle House in this mission that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in determining the severity of a natural disaster, refers among other data measurements to one known as the Waffle House Index: when there is a natural disaster FEMA runs a continuing check on which Waffle Houses in the stricken area are still open to determine the severity of the storm. If a Waffle House is closed then this indicates a dire situation indeed.
        And so dedicated is Waffle House in its mission that when disaster does strike in an area in which one or more of its restaurants are located the company sends in its Waffle House Jump Team.
        The Waffle House Jump Team is made up of restaurant employees who have enlisted to be deployed on short notice to areas where they are needed to help keep a Waffle House open.

The Waffle House Jump Team is sort of like Claire’s disaster emergency medical team, however instead of providing health care the Jump Team provides food.

Claire had the opportunity – she would call it the honor – of seeing a Waffle House Jump Team in action last Saturday, her last day in North Carolina, when her medical team moved to Wilmington. Her team, in searching out a place to eat,

came upon the local Waffle House

As this was the only restaurant open in the area, the place was jammed-to-over-capacity with people. But among the busy cooks and servers were members of the Waffle House Jump Team making sure that food was quickly prepared and served up to the hungry patrons.
Claire talked to one of the Jump Team Members, a cheerful Waffle House waitress from South Carolina, though other members of this group had traveled from as far away as Colorado. Claire was impressed and heartened by how friendly and happy to be there all the Jump Team members were, and how kind and helpful the were to the hurricane-weary customers.

The Lord's work comes in many varieties.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index

https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2018/09/14/the-waffle-house-jump-team-is-on-the-ground-in-wilmington-and-feeding-first-responders/

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You've Read "Crazy Rich Asians;" Now Read These Books.

9/23/2018

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The "Crazy Rich Asians" franchise, in which author Kevin Kwan chronicles the hilarious fictional saga of the travails of the Singaporeans who shoulder the burden of belonging to the Richest-People-On-The-Planet Club,

...continues to rank at the top of the best-sellers list,

...as well as at the box office.

There's no arguing that the "Crazy Rich Asian" books are the best of reads, and if you haven't already read them, do.
But there's another fiction series also set in South East Asia that you absolutely should read: R. Bruce Logan's superb "Finding Lien" (See post from 5/11/2018) and his equally superb just-released sequel "As the Lotus Blooms."

      One could say that both authors' books deal with the problems of a particular economic class; however R. Bruce Logan's novels are about wealth, poverty, and depravity intersecting in the most horrendous way in the child-sex trade that is rampant in South East Asia, where among the other commodities that wealth can buy is the body of a child.
        Still, despite the harrowing subject matter, both of Logan's books are engaging, fast-paced thrillers full of twists, turns, heart-gripping and heart-stopping moments of daring rescues of young girls who have been enticed or entrapped then sold to brothels, pimps or as child brides.
          In the first novel, "Finding Lien," a sudden shocking revelation compels a retired U.S. Army officer to return to Vietnam to deal with the consequences of a brief, long-forgotten liaison with a young Vietnamese woman back when he was a young soldier during the war over forty years earlier. This compelling, quick-moving story takes the reader down into the dark world of the Southeast Asian child sex-trafficking trade and is populated with realistic characters in realistic settings. It is an authentic story that juxtaposes human evil, depravity and corruption with human goodness, courage and love.
         Though "Finding Lien," can stand by itself, “As the Lotus Blooms” picks up where the first book left off.
       In “As the Lotus Blooms” - and don't be fooled by the tranquil title, this book is dynamite - a sex trafficking ring led by an elusive leader known only as The Pied Piper has been luring and kidnapping girls from Vietnam to sell to the brothels and pimps of Singapore or to men seeking young brides in rural China. An organization of courageous anti-trafficking workers whose mission it is to rescue these young victims must take on the dangers, hairpin logistics and super-sleuthing of organizing rescues where minutes make the critical difference between saving the lives of these children or losing them forever. This book, like the first, is an edge-of-your-seat page-turner that also pulls your heart along for the ride.

Author R. Bruce Logan knows his subject matter well, as he is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and humanitarian whose cause is that of ending the child sex-trafficking trade in Southeast Asia.

Bruce and his wife, Elaine Head, travel frequently to Vietnam and in their work and research have come to know well the structure of the trafficking and slavery network and have met and interviewed victims of child sex trafficking in that part of the world.

    Bruce is donating all profits from his books to Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, (https//www.bluedragon.org), a Vietnamese organization working to end child trafficking and slavery, and represented in "As the Lotus Blooms" as as a group called Green Gecko, a thinly veiled pseudonym for Blue Dragon.
    Though worlds apart in subject matter from the "Crazy Rich Asians" books, I promise that once you pick up "Finding Lien” and "As the Lotus Blooms" you won’t be able to put them down, and once you’ve finished reading them you won’t be able to stop thinking about them.
     And good news: There's a third novel in the "Finding Lien" series in the works.

"Finding Lien" is available at Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Lien-R-Bruce-Logan-ebook/dp/B01F9ETB2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526000305&sr=8-1&keywords=finding+lien

"As the Lotus Blooms" is currently available in paperback at Amazon, but will be released in Kindle Edition next week.
https://www.amazon.com/As-Lotus-Blooms-Bruce-Logan/dp/1684331021/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537728654&sr=8-1&keywords=as+the+lotus+blooms

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