John Lange, I presume

With Michael Crichton's passing, I found myself perusing eBay looking at the signed books listings and getting interested. I stopped collecting 'things' (comic books, autographs, baseball cards, that sort of stuff) about 5 years ago and that's about the time I think I lost the old me. I wouldn't say that I got depressed, though dysthymia has been a part of how I've felt these last few years. But the interest I had in a lot of things just sort of stopped. I stopped playing video games (as I type, Metal Gear Solid 3 sits on my shelf unfinished. The old me would have finished it in the first week I got it). I sold all of my CD's after ripping them to my computer. I have a few boxes of comic books that I honestly don't know what to do with (they hold some sentimental value so I don't want to just throw them away or even sell them but they take up a lot of space also).

But Michael Crichton's passing has shaken something inside me. Despite knowing better, I had thought that I'd have a new book of his to read every 2-3 years for the rest of my life. It never occurred to me that he would pass at a relatively young age. Now I know that only one more book will be published next year and that's it. No more books from the author and person I hoped to emulate.

As I was saying, while looking at the books that he signed, I felt a stirring somewhere that I hadn't felt in years. I feel like I have goals again-- things I want to accomplish. I don't know where the desire to set and complete goals went, but it's starting to come back and I want to fan the flames and stoke the fire. I plan to get a signed copy of one of his books and put it next to my computer for inspiration (not as an 'investment'). It seems silly, but I'm to the point of not questioning why I feel it would provide inspiration so I'm just going to get one and see where it goes. In addition, I found a couple of beat-up copies of the books MC wrote as John Lange used and fairly cheap (these can be expensive if in good condition given their age and scarcity) so I ordered those. I was hoping that Hard Case Crime would re-issue all of them (as they did with Zero Cool and Grave Descend), but I read somewhere from the publisher that with John Lange's passing (they still wouldn't acknowledge that MC and JL are one and the same, though they said it was a 'co-incidence' that Mr. Lange passed at the same time as MC) the plans for releasing more of his works are in the air and may not happen. Scratch One and The Last Tomb should be here by the end of the month. The rest are going to be a lot more expensive.

Lions fan jinx on Crosby

Look here first:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Detroit-Lions-fan-jinxes-Pens-by-touching-Cup-c?urn=nhl,121348

Classy.

OK, I don't quite understand the outright hate that people have for Sid. You get a pass if you're a fan of any Atlantic division team-- fine, I can understand why a Flyers, Rangers, Islanders, or Devils fan would actively hate Sid.

But a Red Wings fan like this guy? I don't get it. Um... dude? You realize that your team already won the Cup, don't you? And to wear a Lions shirt while posing with the Cup? What does that say about how much of a fan he is?

Ok, so he's vacationing in Traverse City (that alone sounds like a joke, but I'll leave it alone) and the Cup happens to be on display there and-- Red Wings fan that he is-- he has to go see it. Oops, except that he doesn't have any Red Wings clothes with him, just a Lions shirt. His excuse for wearing a Lions shirt is "I didn't pack any Red Wings gear, I just happened to have a Lions shirt in my suitcase because it was clean when I packed." Awesome, dude. You don't have any gear of your CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM on you, but you happen to have packed a shirt for the local horribily run, joke of a football team that (amongst other indignities): 1) hired Matt Millen for GM on the basis of his color commentary work and didn't figure out that he didn't have a freakin' clue how to run a football team until EIGHT YEARS later and 2) Barry Sanders was so embarassed to play for that he decided to retire instead of risking further pounding just for the chance to finish last in his division again-- even though he was on pace to break Walter Peyton's rushing record. And you evidently don't do laundry before you leave for vacation. Your house must smell like a rose.

So anyway, somehow this Red Wings fan thinks that chanting Crosby's name while wearing a Lions jersey and touching the Stanley Cup will jinx Sid. This is analgous to me wearing a Pirates jersey while posing/touching the Lombardi trophy and chanting Matt Hasselbeck's name.

Right.

Oh, and by the way-- the Wings blew a 3 goal lead in the 3rd period and lost in OT. Crosby had a goal. Sir, I have one thing to tell (show) you:

So much for jinxing Sid. Maybe you jinxed the Wings with some Lions mojo (it would actually make more sense. But who's talking about making sense here...). BTW-- Mr. Selke looked awesome in the final 2 minutes of OT. Maybe you'd have been better off wishing good luck to your own team than bad luck on one player. If the Wings choke and get hit with injuries the rest of this year, Hockeytown will know who to thank. Be sure to stand up and take credit. Dick.

As a parting shot, the guy says:

"The funniest part of the story is that my five-year-old son wouldn't touch the Cup. He said, 'My body just wouldn't let me.' Could it be fate?"

I hope so. I'm 36 and haven't touched the Stanley Cup. I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, either.

Michael Crichton 1942-2008

As exhilarating as it was to have Barack Obama win the election Nov 4, it was sobering to hear that Michael Crichton died that day.

Michael Crichton was someone I long admired. He was a true Renaissance man; well educated (it often gets lost amongst his many achievements that he graduated from Harvard Medical school), a critical and independent thinker (not many people would criticize the "Global Warming" theory in our times), and of course a prolific novelist, screenwriter, director, and producer. At one point in time he had a hand in the #1 TV show, the #1 bestselling book, and #1 boxoffice movie at the same time (ER, Disclosure, and Jurassic Park respectively). Not to mention that he directed several movies. Amazing.

I've made my way through his books these past years. I slowed down my reading, intentionally delaying starting his last couple of books as I realized that I was rapidly catching up to the latest book that he wrote. I finished State of Fear last year and just have started Next. I suppose technically I still have The Great Train Robbery and Eaters of the Dead to read but those are historical fiction pieces that he experimented with and I prefer his modern day social commentary works. I'll make my way to those older works eventually (as well as the stuff he did under his John Lange pseudonym once SOMEONE gets around to republishing them-- Odds On, Scratch One, Easy Go, The Venom Business, Drug of Choice. C'mon, you can't tell me that there's no market to republish them. Zero Cool and Grave Descend were both recently republished, after all). And I read that he had a book that was to be published on December 2 but it will be understandably pushed back to May.

You'll be missed, Dr. Crichton. I don't know too many authors who can shift gears the way you did. Who else can write about genetic engineering dinosaurs to Japanese business culture to sexual harassment in consecutive books? None, I daresay.