Ye Olde Partners
Page
*A Collection of
Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"Each
night, when I go to sleep, I die. The next morning,
when I wake up,
I am reborn . . ."
--Mahatma Gandhi
Dearest Mick--
Chip, my loyal manservant, and I
had just returned from the Walton family's secret compound when we found your
care package outside my villa's security gate. It certainly looked
enticing with titles like Clive Cussler's The Assassin (9780399171758)
28.95, Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant (9780307271037) 26.95, and
David Axelrod's Believer (9781594205873) 35.00, which, mind you, had
Chip singing to the tune of the Monkee's 'Daydream Believer': "Oh, what
could it mean to a Daydream Belieber? He's the homecoming queen . . ."
But we put all that aside.
I had already asked Chip to invite two newsmen, Bill O'Reilly and Brian
Williams, who I had mentored many years ago over a nightcap. I had taken
Bill under my wing when I owned WFAA-TV in Dallas, and he was merely an up and
coming reporter. My words of advice to Bill: Never let the truth
get in the way of a good story. As for Brian, I met him in the 80s when
we were at an undisclosed island for an Exxon shareholders party. I will
share a snippet of our conversation with you:
I asked, "So, Brian, what
brings you to Napoli?"
"I was on a sabbatical, and
you know how I just loooove southern Italy."
Bill sniffed, "You mean an
enforced sabbatical. Does a helicopter trip in the Iraq War ring a
bell?"
Brian bristled, "Oh, you're
really one to talk, Mr. Bill 'I was at the door when the Russian friend of Lee
Harvey Oswald shot himself' O'Reilly! You claim to be a historian, but
you've been caught in a lie in your book, Killing Kennedy (9780805096668)
28.00."
"Wrong! I never
claimed to be a historian. Hampton Sides in his review of Erik Larsen's Dead
Wake (9780307408860) 28.00 described the author as 'a modern master of
popular narrative non-fiction' and that's what I do too."
I added,
"Oh, the book about the Lusitania. Did you know that I was on the
Lusitania when it sank in 1915?"
Brian sniped, "Oh yeah and I
bet Bill was on it too. Ha, ha!"
Bill was starting to turn purple,
"That's it! You're off my show! Cut his mic!
"Bill, you're overreacting .
. ."
"Why am I still hearing
you? Frank! Cut his mic or you're fired!" O'Reilly screamed as
veins began to pop out of his neck.
Sadly, it went rapidly downhill
after that. Eventually, I had to have Chip physically throw them
out. C'est la vie . .
.
Warmest Regards,
Charles Edmund Wilson III
Odds
& Sods
Spring is right
around the corner. *Knocks on wood* And the spring titles are
starting to hit the docks. For everyone in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and
Michigan who loves their loons and wants to pass that loony love on to their
children, we have Gene Klco's Loon Chick's First Flight (9781933272511)
17.95 in stock . . .
We have also
received a nifty little hardcover book for the youngsters called The Colors
of Mackinac Island (9781933272498) 10.95 by Jennifer Powell. This one
is sure to be a fan favourite for Mackinac Island visitors for years to come .
. .
The Caldecott
winner, Dan Santat's The Adventures of Beekle (9780316199988) 17.00 is
here . . .
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