Tom Swift

What could possibly go wrong?

"Tom was soon at Mansburg, and going to the post-office handed in the letter for registry. Bearing in mind his father's words, he looked about to see if there were any suspicious characters, but the only person he noticed was a well-dressed man, with a black mustache, who seemed to be intently studying the schedule of the arrival and departure of the mails.

"'Do you want the receipt for the registered letter sent to you here or at Shopton?' asked the clerk of Tom. 'Come to think of it though, it will have to come here, and you can call for it.  I'll have it returned to Mr. Barton Swift, care of general delivery, and you can get it the next time you are over,' for the clerk knew Tom.

"'That will do,' answered our hero, and as he turned away from the window he saw that the man who had been inquiring about the mails was regarding him curiously.  Tom thought nothing of it at the time, but there came an occasion when he wished that he had taken more careful note of the well-dressed individual.  As the youth passed out of the outer door he saw the man walk over to the registry window"
--Tom Swift and His Motorcycle

Last night I saw Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! (for the third time, I think) with the History Discussion Group. Miriam from the Vintage Meetup was there. Anthony Quinn steals the show! Since this was the early '50s, the role of the U.S. in the Mexican Revolution is predictably glossed over.

On the way over to Debi's place, in the pouring rain, I was reading Gulliver's Travels.  I couldn't help wondering what Gulliver would do when it rained--building him a shelter or a raincoat would tax Lilliput's resources!

I found a very interesting website at http://www.damninteresting.com .  It has articles on subjects like the life of Ulysses Grant and the development of the Korean alphabet. (I found out about it from the Pocket Hits newsletter.)

I've started reading the ebook Tom Swift and His Motorcycle. This is the original Tom Swift from about a hundred years ago, not Tom Swift Jr. from the '50s who built rocket ships and sonic boom traps.