Reading Instead of Blogging — The Nerve!
Well, I have finished “Supreme Conflict” by Jan Crawford Greenburg, and have a lengthy review drafted up . . . but my Internet access went down yesterday. And last night, I felt like reading — more than I felt like spending a bunch of time on hold trying to fix the Internet problem.
I’m about halfway through “L.A. Rex” by Will Beall, which (so far) is a thinly disguised over-the-top Suge Knight tale told in snap-crackling prose, filled with street references that probably go over the heads of 90 percent of the people who read it. So far, it’s a fun ride — better than being on hold!
I finished “The Blue Knight” recently, which I enjoyed pretty well. I think I like Beall’s book better. Is that sacrilege?
Anyway, I’ll see if I can’t find the motivation to work out the kinks in the Internet coverage tonight.
In the meantime, let me join the chorus of praise for DRJ’s thorough and even-handed summaries of the Border Patrol shooting trial transcript. She is doing an absolutely amazing job.
I even got her to agree to summarize the summaries, once she’s made her way through the transcript. And she also plans to grade Johnny Sutton’s papers by analyzing the truth of his “fact sheet.” I already showed one of his claims to be false, and a few more may bite the dust before we’re through. Good work, DRJ!
Dereliction of duty, damn it! Where’s the sherfii when you need him?
Dana (3e4784) — 2/21/2007 @ 7:02 amsherfii = sheriff. Chalk it up to dyslexic typing! 🙂
Dana (3e4784) — 2/21/2007 @ 7:02 amI dunno, I kinda like Sherfii…. 🙂
Sherfii (722480) — 2/21/2007 @ 8:59 amThe most memorable line from “The Blue Knight” is “for contempt of cop”. I agree that “The Blue Knight” may now seem little quaint. A lot of icons have been smashed since it was written, including that of the neighborhood beat patrolman.
nk (79f144) — 2/21/2007 @ 9:08 ami’ve read some of the joseph wambaugh books, they’re…ok.
assistant devil's advocate (a965bb) — 2/21/2007 @ 12:32 pmputting in a plug for my favorite lawyer novelist, walter walker “rules of the knife fight”, “a dime to dance by”
Dude, if you think it’s over the top now, stand by … anyway, glad you’re diggin it.
Will Beall (9fc768) — 2/21/2007 @ 2:27 pmAh, I don’t know. Once you get round to Wambaugh’s latest book Hollywood Station–written after all nearly 40 years after he wrote and published The New Centurions, you’ll see that there are still some side splitting jokes.
One of the first ones happens when a fairly young patrolman gets caught up in a tussle with a psychotic or drugged out individual; the local neighborhood gang bangers see the fight and bring their pit bull along to help out and maybe take a chomp or two out of the patrolman. The patrolman’s partner sees the pit bull and shoots the dog to protect his partner.
In today’s LAPD, any discharge of a weapon brings on an investigation–big time. The cop that shot the pit bull is in trouble until another cop comes up with a cockamamie story that the gang members knew that pit bull had terminal cancer and that the pit bull had decided to take the honorable way out and “commit suicide by cop”.
Great line, but I doubt that it worked.
Mike Myers (4e1716) — 2/21/2007 @ 5:55 pmI already read Hollywood Station. Good stuff.
Patterico (c34894) — 2/21/2007 @ 6:11 pmPatterico, I’d recommend Wambaugh’s The Delta Star for your next dip into his writing. It covers the Rose Bird period of California history, and I strongly suspect that the novel had a lot to do with Bird being kicked off the bench.
Weren’t the descriptions of meals in The Blue Knight wonderful? *grins*
Robert (8542ed) — 2/21/2007 @ 10:05 pm