May, 2011 | Warren Adler

Month: May, 2011

Off to Beaulieu

Posted on: May 30th, 2011 by Warren Adler 1 Comment

Sunny and I are leaving for a month on the Riviera, the beautiful village of Beaulieu a few miles from Nice. We know the area having spent a month in a nearby town Ville France Sur Mer at a school trying to learn French, my lifetime dream. Never did learn properly although I manage mostly using a small phrase intoned with a perfect accent. Je voudrais, meaning “I want”, then I mime the request. Works most of the time.

The villa we’re renting is owned by my friends Jon Pierre and Suzy Farout and apparently has hosted a number of scribblers like myself. In addition to entertaining children and friends I’ll be spending my time writing poetry and short stories to feed my compulsive writing obsession, reading Balzac and Simenon, sipping fine wine and enjoying my lifetime love and palship with Sunny.

We’ll be taking long walks on Cap Ferrat, a bit of gambling in Monaco, and then visits to St.…

E-Books: Unintended Consequences

Posted on: May 27th, 2011 by Warren Adler 5 Comments

While I have often patted myself on the back for recognizing more than fifteen years ago that e-books would one day surpass the printed book as the ultimate first choice of dedicated readers everywhere, I had not reckoned on the unintended consequences of an unfiltered tsunami of self-published books that would one day overtake the traditional distribution patterns of the publishing industry.

The number of self-published e-books has surpassed and will continue to surpass, by far, books published through the time-honored process of editing and distribution that has been the practice of publishing companies for centuries.

Evil as Entertainment

Posted on: May 21st, 2011 by Warren Adler 2 Comments

The further in time one gets from World War 2, its savagery and ruthlessness, the horrors of the holocaust, the destruction of cities and the senseless massacre of millions of soldiers and civilians, the more the memory begins to resemble a filmed entertainment complete with make believe pain and what passes for realism and authenticity.

One begins to see a growing army of doubters and deniers alleging that the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis were exaggerations for purposes of propaganda by the allies who needed to portray the Nazis as Neanderthals.

We Have All Been Googleized

Posted on: May 12th, 2011 by Warren Adler 3 Comments

When no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, a segment of the American public called then President George W. Bush a liar. His administration countered that most intelligence agencies of our principal allies believed, too, that Saddam Hussein had such weapons.

I do not believe that President Bush was lying. But I do believe that some cunning character in the intelligence chain had contrived the falsehood in such a way that it gained credence throughout the world, aided and abetted by Saddam who must have been enjoying the charade until it blew up in his face.

Can I Please Talk with Someone who Speaks American English?

Posted on: May 6th, 2011 by Warren Adler 12 Comments

Has anyone out there had this experience?

You put in a call to customer service of a company whose stated goals are to correct problems, field complaints, offer instructions or make reservations for airlines or hotels or whatever. This service is advertised heavily and assures the customer that all inquiries will be prompt, efficient and helpful.

An automated voice will prompt you to make decisions that will hasten your inquiry and either attempt correct your problem by pushing buttons or, if a live agent is busy, politely ask you to wait. Many of these automated services will give you a heads up on how long it will be before you are connected with a live operator.