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[Hello Goodbye]

OK. To clarify, Barry, and not to emphasize semantics to a picky degree, I wrote that your tone was becoming patronizing, not that you as a person are patronizing. One doesn't need to be a professional aviator, sailor, etc., to be able to critique a situation such as Capt. Smith and the Titanic.

I would encourage you to read the transcripts of the American inquiry and the British Board of Trade inquiry, neither of which censured Smith. 

Kathy, you really can't guess my "tone" from what I put in words.  Both my avocation and my profession involve assuming responsibility for passengers' and patients' safety and lives.  As such, I am qualified to comment on such matters from that standpoint.

The American and British Inquiries differed  in their findings.  The American Inquiry found Captain Smith had shown an "indifference to danger [that] was one of the direct and contributing causes of this unnecessary tragedy."

The British Inquiry's report was a piece of double talk about excessive speed in icy waters, previous non-fatal ship piloting in icy conditions, the fine overall record of the White Star Line, lack of binoculars for the lookouts, etc., etc. The report concluded with a ridiculous statement that Captain Smith was at fault for not changing course or slowing down but he had not been negligent because he had followed long-standing practice which had not previously been shown to be unsafe.

At least the Titanic disaster brought about a change in the number of lifeboats ships had to have and drills for their proper use.

[Normandie]

^^^

Gotcha, Barry. Tone is notoriously hard to convey online, even given formatting and emojis.

My offer of the Ismay book stands.   

[Hello Goodbye]

My offer of the Ismay book stands.   

No thanks!

What I'll do instead is read The Caine Mutiny again.  If you haven't read the novel or saw the movie which closely follows the book, in the opening scene we see these words...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaOpGi2N0c" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaOpGi2N0c</a>

Even Herman Wouk, who won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel, teaches us that a writer is not qualified to render medical diagnoses.  Remember that this exchange erupted when I criticized writer Dan Butler for implying that Captain Lord was a sociopath. 

In The Caine Mutiny, Communications Officer Lt. Thomas Keefer (Fred MacMurray), a writer in his civilian life, spreads suspicion about the mental status of the captain of the destroyer minesweeper USS Caine, Lt. Commander Philip Queeg (Humphrey Bogart).  When a dire situation during a storm forces the executive officer Lt. Stephen Maryk (Van Johnson) to relieve Queeg of his duties, he and Ensign Willis Keith (Robert Francis) are tried for mutiny.  Lieutenant Barney Greenwald (Jose Ferrer), a naval aviator who was an attorney in civilian life, defends them at the court martial.  After the climactic trial, the novel and movie end thusly...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw6gwGawbXA" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw6gwGawbXA</a>

Herman Wouk based his novel on his own experiences aboard destroyer minesweepers in World War II.  His novel deals with the moral and ethical decisions made at sea by ship captains.

[Normandie]

The Caine Mutiny sounds interesting; I'll check it out soon. Right now my book budget is overextended a bit, so no more books for me for a bit. I just ordered Glory, Death, and Damnation: A Tale of Three Captains.

[Hello Goodbye]

The Caine Mutiny sounds interesting; I'll check it out soon.

It won the the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 

It's certainly better than reading about Ismay...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bACKLAgQmnU" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bACKLAgQmnU</a>

...the slime mold.

[Hello Goodbye]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWYs-bFK9_s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWYs-bFK9_s</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNd16XocjBg" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNd16XocjBg</a>

That's how to write a novel...and make a movie.

[Normandie]

Re-reading an old favorite: Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. 

[Hello Goodbye]

Re-reading an old favorite: Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. 

A favorite of mine too.

The 1958 movie is faithful to Hemingway's novella and is one of my favorite movies...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GvTIws-VGo" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GvTIws-VGo</a>

[Normandie]

The 1958 movie is faithful to Hemingway's novella and is one of my favorite movies...

Ooh, I'll have to look that up.

[Hello Goodbye]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCHwXrbfvLo&amp;t=40s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCHwXrbfvLo&amp;t=40s</a>

Now I have killed this fish who was my brother.  Now I must do the slave work.  Get to work, old man.

[Normandie]

I read Of Mice and Men last weekend.  I found my paperback edition on my bookshelf and couldn't resist...

One of Steinbeck's houses is for sale. I would love to live here! It looks so cozy: https://www.sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/180-l-1174-xg6wl9/john-steinbecks-sag-harbor-wf-sanctuary-sag-harbor-ny-11963

[Moogmodule]

And all yours for a cozy $16.5 million. 

[Normandie]

^^^^

Pocket change!    (I wish.)

[nimrod]

And all yours for a cozy $16.5 million. 

Washer and Dryer included though   

[Normandie]

Rereading an old tear jerker: Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls, about a young boy and his two beloved hunting dogs. I challenge anyone to read it and not get choked up at the end. None of the movies did it justice. One of my son's best friends cried at the end after their teacher read it to the class in second grade.

I had heard the old Indian legend about the red fern. How a little Indian boy and girl were lost in a blizzard and were frozen to death. In the spring, when they were found, a beautiful red fern had grown up between the two bodies. The story went on to say that only an angel could plant the seeds of a red fern, and that they never dies; where one grew, that spot was sacred.

Off to find some tissues. . . I'm getting weepy already.

[Normandie]

The regular posters here seem to be a pretty well-read group, so I thought I'd share this, from Book Nerd.

The Top 70 Books People Lie About Having Read:

1. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
2. 1984 - George Orwell
3. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy - JRR Tolkien
4. War And Peace - Leo Tolstoy
5. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
6. The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
7. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
8. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
9. Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
10. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen
11. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
12. Harry Potter (series) - JK Rowling
13. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
14. The Diary Of Anne Frank - Anne Frank
15. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
16. Fifty Shades trilogy - EL James (seriously???  Haven't read it, but if I had, I think I'd refuse to admit it)
17. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
18. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
19. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
20. The Catcher In The Rye - JD Salinger
21.   Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
22.   Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
23.   The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
24.   The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne
25.   The Lord of the Rings Series – J. R. R. Tolkien
26.   The Bible
27.   Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
28.   Odyssey – Homer
29.   Twilight – Stephanie Meyer
30.   Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
31.   Flowers in the Attic  V. C. Andrews
32.   Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
33.   Interview with the Vampire – Anne Rice
34.   The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
35.   Treasure Islant – Robert Louis Stevenson
36.   A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
37.   Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
38.   The Stand – Stephen King
39.   Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
40.   Moby Dick – Herman Melville
41.   The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
42.   Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
43.   Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
44.   Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll
45.   The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
46.   The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
47.   The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
48.   Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
49.   The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
50.   Catch- 22 – Joseph Heller
51.   The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
52.   Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
53.   Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
54.   Watership Down – Richard Adams
55.   The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells
56.   The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris
57.   Dune – Frank Herbert
58.   The Pearl – John Steinbeck
59.   The Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
60.   Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne
61.   Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
62.   Hatchet – Gary Paulsen
63.   Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
64.   The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
65.   Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes
66.   The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
67.   The Divine Comedy -Dante Aligheri
68.   Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
69.   Ulysses – James Joyce
70.   Any Stephen King novel

 

[nimrod]

I've read all those..

































I'm lying. 

[blmeanie]

I've read maybe 10 or so off the list

my literature teacher daughter will not read one of my all-time favorites off the list, #54 Watershed Down

[nimrod]

I've read maybe 10 or so off the list

my literature teacher daughter will not read one of my all-time favorites off the list, #54 Watershed Down

Is that the one where the shed gets flooded ?

[Hello Goodbye]

I've read them all with the exception of the Harry Potter series, Fifty Shades Trilogy, Interview with the Vampire, The Stand, Watership Down, Dune, Into The Wild, The Joy Luck Club, and The Outlander.