"This is just a mild zephyr compared to the big wind of '67. Or was it, uh, '76? Oh well, no matter.Dearest Mick--
Oh, I remember the big blow well. It was the year my Aunt Clara went to visit her cousin. Now, her cousin was not only gifted on the glockenspiel, but being a screech owl, also sang soprano in the London Opera. You see, her constant practicing so unnerved my aunt, that she laid a seagull egg by mistake!"
--Owl, Winnie the Pooh & The Blustery Day
Chip, my loyal manservant, and I had just finished speaking with my plucky entrepreneur friend Donald Trump via the Transatlantic cable when your parcel arrived. Donald was seeking my advice in regards to the recent media fallout from his sons' big game hunting safari in Africa. I, of course, regaled him with stories of my own hunting expeditions with Ernie Hemingway in the 1950s. I suggested that his best course of action was to say as little as possible (I know that is a really tall order for Donald.) and to just ride the media storm out. It wasn't like they were hunting homeless people on an uncharted sub-tropical island for sport. Now, that was a public relations nightmare. And as much as I like Napoli, I am not necessarily here by choice.
So on to the books, I was excited to see a copy of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1 (9781607060765) 59.99 in the box. I'm not usually one for comic books, but I have been following the AMC TV series. The Hershel character reminds me of myself when I was a youngster. Of course, back then I was fighting real voodoo zombies in Jamaica with Sir William Rutherford. They were not these namby-pamby undead that you could finish off with a simple shot to the head. No, those zombies would keep coming at you headless or not. I tell you, dear boy, it still gives me the creeps.
I have quite a large cookbook collection, so I will add Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier (9780061997181) 29.99 to that wing of my library. When it came to book acquisitions, Mr. Carnegie was an amateur. But God bless him, we had some great times together.
At first, I was a bit baffled by the inclusion of Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit (9781400069286) 28.00. I had not been a fan of nuns since my days of attending parochial school at St. Patricks in New York City. And then I read the subtitle and realized that he is speaking of the daily habits of our lives and business. Even though I am no longer involved in marketing, I do find it fascinating how advertisements can manipulate us. And as you well know, I did make my first million in the cigarette industry.
Well, it is time for bed. Chip has just turned the covers over. As always, your gifts are appreciated . . .
Warmest Regards,
Charles Edmund Wilson III
Odds & Sods
Alert! Alert! Attention all old sea captains! The Know Your Ships 2012 (9781891849152) 18.95 by Roger Lelievre is here! A-woo-ah! A-woo-ah! Order yours today!
Finally, we've already sold out of Katherine Yung's Coney Detroit (9780814335185) 24.95 once, but they came back in today. I wouldn't normally be this excited about a title like this, but it has a great cover and it will sell. In fact, I want to eat the bookcover -- it looks that good. They might want to consider a 'scratch 'n sniff' version. And as a friend once said, "You can't tell a book by its cover, but I can tell if a book is going to sell by its cover."
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