Error: Hefner’s plane was a DC-9, not a 727. My mistake, I was more interested in the stewardesses than in the plane! Fixed!
Potential error: Nowadays, military people are issued red passports, but I just heard that in the late 70s & early 80s they didn’t. Correct? What was the proper passport color then? Thanks.
rlfj
Not much to blog about here. A sharp eyed reader noted that in Chapter 63 I mentioned the Hotel Utica. In the time frame mentioned, the Hotel Utica was not actually being used as a hotel. From 1912 through 1972 it was a hotel, then was converted to adult care residences until 2001, after which it was converted back to a hotel. I’ve only been there since 2001, so I wasn’t aware of the adult care time frame. Ooops! I removed the reference to it.
In a similar vein, I refer regularly to the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Utica. That hotel is still present, and is the best hotel in the area, but at some point in the 90s (I think) it was sold to the Radisson chain. I tried researching the date, but haven’t gotten anything definite. If anybody finds an anachronism on this one, let me know.
rlfj
A few astute readers pointed out there is an airport a bit closer to Newark than Philadelphia. New Castle Airport is in Wilmington. It is an old airport taken over by the Army Air Corps in WW2, and services small planes, but has no scheduled air service there currently. I think that’s why I missed it in my search. It was an easy edit on Chapter 63, and a quick rewrite on 64!
There was a comment about the Bahamas not being British, since they became independent in ’73. I added the word ‘originally’.
rlfj
Congrats to those who recognized ‘Rufus T. Firefly’ as Groucho Marx’ character in the classic movie Duck Soup. It’s my favorite Marx Brothers’ movie.
To those who commented that it would be impossible to do venture capital in the Baltimore area, I simply point out that Warren Buffet has been able to earn a very nice living running his little shop in Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha? Really? Outside of corn and cattle, it has even less going for it than Baltimore! (I’m sure it’s lovely - don’t stone me with the wonders of Nebraska, please!)
There is still some controversy surrounding how cue balls get to the proper outlet in a coin operated pool table. I have had a lot of people reply it’s not magnetism, but different size that makes the difference. Okay, I went to the font of all knowledge - Wikipedia - and looked it up. Here goes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_ball
“Coin-operated pool tables such as those found at bars historically have often used either a larger ("grapefruit") or denser ("rock", typically ceramic) cue ball, such that its extra weight makes it easy for the cue ball return mechanism to separate it from object balls (which are captured until the game ends and the table is paid again for another game) so that the cue ball can be returned for further play, should it be accidentally pocketed. Rarely in the US, some pool tables use a smaller cue ball instead. Modern tables usually employ a magnetic ball of regulation or near-regulation size and weight, since players have complained for many decades that the heavy and often over-sized cue balls do not "play" correctly.”
So much for that issue; we won’t return to it.
Much like Carl has his brain trust, so do I - my readers! I am now in the process of working on Book 6, and need some information. I do not want this to be a spoiler alert. If you were involved in Operation Desert Shield/Storm, let me know. There may or may not be some events involved in that. I’m still very unsure on that. Send me a note and I can follow up on that. This may amount to nothing, and will have no effect on what is happening in Book 5. Thanks.
Enjoy!
rlfj
There were several comments that Carl shouldn’t have had to move his own stuff. The Army has a duty to ship your possessions from your last duty station to your last civilian address of record at their expense. This is true. However, my experience with my son, who is in the Navy, is that the military moves you at their convenience, not yours, and by their mover, not yours. My son lost several reserved apartments on his last move, and would have actually had to deploy to his next duty station ahead of his wife, by over two months, because the Navy’s movers were booked. He ended up getting a PODS and moving himself, and then getting reimbursed later. As another point, Carl’s last civilian address of record was in Troy, NY, not Lutherville, MD. I added a couple of lines explaining this.
In this chapter we finally learn what Carl is going to do in the future - venture capital. Of all the guesses I got, only one person mentioned this! Keep reading for more on this.
rlfj