"Catch 22"
I guess it's a show on HULU that they put on discs. I guess showing the show on HULU ain't enough? Anyways.
It's about bombers in WW2 over Europe. It has elements of "Klinger" from "M*A*S*H*" where a bomber wants to go home but rank keeps raising the mission quota every time dude gets close. Then there's an operator hustling black market goods. It's a okay show so far.
It's about bombers in WW2 over Europe. It has elements of "Klinger" from "M*A*S*H*" where a bomber wants to go home but rank keeps raising the mission quota every time dude gets close. Then there's an operator hustling black market goods. It's a okay show so far.
0
-
I am flabbergasted, yosh. You've never heard of the book? Really? 0 -
Ditto. Read the book. MUCH better than watching.Rocky Raab wrote:I am flabbergasted, yosh. You've never heard of the book? Really?0 -
If you are crazy, you can get out of the army. If you know you are crazy, you are not crazy and you can't get out of the army. Like everything in government, it is rigged. 0 -
Joseph Heller ring a bell...
It's on of those books they forced us to read in school like catcher in the rye or to kill a mockingbird or 1984 or flowers for Algernon or such...
While the book is supposed to expose you to what the combat lifestyle was like for those who lived it - not in a heroic or celebratory fashion but the day to day drag and nonsense and inhumanity...
The weird antics of the characters is on the whole rather disrespectful of the vets and the greatest generations service and sacrifice...
Mash is an ultra liberal anti war show at its heart - gets worse as it develops.
As a student of culture and literature you are assumed to have read this book and understand the pop cultural references and literary allusions referencing it to belong to or gain entry to certain cliques...
Someone says "I'm sorry about the rabbits George" or "she asked me to come in and bust up the chifferobe" and your supposed to have read the books and place the reference - plus they are so overused as metaphors throughout media and so overquoted as part of linguistic drift and patois that they are ingrained...
If I say I am tired of beating roccinante he's dead you are supposed to implicitly understand based on study and sharing of obscure unreadable fiction from Harvard's classics.
BTW he is Sancho Panza's horse - ridden while tilting at windmills...
Oh sorry I tried to explain one reference with another.
Mike0 -
Mike Rocinante was Don Quixote's horse 
Sancho Panza rode a donkey named Dapple.0 -
Sorry.
Don't beat a dead horse...
Oh wait.
I can't keep it all straight - but good catch.
Mike0 -
I have seen the bronze in Madrid several times
Its been years since I read the book and if I recall it wasn't all that good.0 -
Sam, you know what you meant, but WHICH book? The thread is now about two of them. 0 -
Rocky Raab wrote:Sam, you know what you meant, but WHICH book? The thread is now about two of them.0
-
No...
I referenced or made allusions to or quoted from 6 books - which makes 7 by my count total in the thread...
Mike0 -
Yeah, that's the one I didn't read, either. :roll: 0 -
Catch-22, the book, which is often considered a classic, is in reality a ponderous read. Author Joseph Heller, a combat veteran who flew 60 missions, writes a highly structured tale using what I suppose is Alternating Person, which means differing points of view of every event. Comparing Heller's novel to our own Rocky Raab's, Heller makes you feel remote from the events, where RR has you right there in the cockpit. I didn't like Heller's book, and I liked the movie based on the book even less. 0 -
i have read Catch-22 several times and enjoyed it every time. the Choir Boys by Heller is one of the funniest books i have ever read, made me laugh out loud several times. 0 -
How kind of you, Mark. 0 -
Bravo Mark.
By the age of twelve I had worked my way through the Harvard classics - or at least the 150 or so we had in the house...
I will say that most of them are unreadable garbage - the theme and concepts and ideas are supremely important but the books were a hard read...
I went back through them in highschool and college - probably hit the 500 mark by 25
Some of them I appreciated more as I got older - some less so.
If I may opine children under a certain age should not read most of these works - especially the Bible and Koran and Torah and isa Upanishads or the book of Mormon...
They are filled with things young children need not be exposed to...
David drake and several other sci fi and fantasy authors have in the last two decades taken many of these human myths and shared stories and rewritten them for new readers in new genres...
The Iliad and oddessy and homer and the Greeks stuff and such - I have yet to not smelled a rat or realized what was going on in the first few chapters but many have never read them and could enjoy or benefit from the core concepts...
I have always felt embraced here as a heavy avid reader schooled in the classics - because most of you are well read and educated - even if you may deny such a thing...
I know my reading was and is abnormal - I still maintain a pace of 2-3 books a week - say 150+ each year...
Was a time were over school break summers I would go to the library once a week and was allowed to take out 7 books at a time or one per day...
The interlibrary loan system and librarians were close friends.
I would find a classic science fiction book or war book and the authors would always reference book titles and authors I was unfamiliar with...
Once the librarians talked to my parents and then to me and understood I was reading these books not wasting there time I was allowed incredible access...
One time I requested a half dozen books referenced in an ancient trade paperback from 1969 and we heard nothing back - the librarians said the requests had not been declined or come back with no book found...
Agents from the Philadelphia FBI field office had been dispatched to investigate - a request that originated from the CIA!!!
the only copies of books held by any official library or university that was part of the interlibrary loan system turned out to be in the CIA library - 4 at Langley and two at the farm...
The government wanted to know who had requested these titles all at once and why - I remember the librarians being quite perturbed about how nosey they were...
A field agent had approached our neighbors and asked about my father and the family...
Background checks were run (which actually benefited me later on)
The only title I remember was "escape from colditz" which was bundled with a book that contained short stories about POW camp escapes - one was on the Manhattan project and one on united fruit company...
I know it was pre internet and pre cell phone and the height of the cold war - but I thought they over reacted a bit...
We found out from the local police department that they had been questioned about me and my father...
I did get the books - they came in a parcel with the CIA Langley library address and post mark...
The library got a letter saying as long as the publications were not currently still classified they would honor any such future request - they received a big stack of special request cards from the CIA...
I know or at least I think that none of these books had been banned or redacted or were / should have been classified top secret or above...
I don't recall any of the books being illicit or dangerous or national secret level stuff.
I think it was a ridiculous over reach and waste of tax payer funds - when they talked to my father they had copies of his device record including records of his top secret or above or code word specific clearances - some of which were maintained while he was in the reserves and working for rohm and Haas chemicals research spooks in springhouse PA...
My father expressed that his child was not a national security threat or a communist sleeper agent but their response was that a foreign agent or traitor could be using my ID or library card as a cover or ruse...
I wonder if in some file somewhere there is still a record of such events or if I could request my file...
A year later at the age of twelve I sent in my paperwork for my DCM M1 garand semiautomatic infantry rifle (I think it was like $120.00 and the mailman left the package at the door cause nobody was home - it was interesting in several ways...
I was apparently the youngest person ever to submit such a request to the DCM (what we now know of as the CMP) - I was the first minor under 18 to apply - I also began training my NRA instructor ratings and became a certified range safety officer - I was issued a NJ mandated firearms ID card - however the BATF declined to issue me an FFL Dealers "PInk Card" until I turned 18 (in theory prohibiting me from selling firearms through the dealerships license or making you entry into the dealers bound FFL / BATF record books - and they said I could not carry a gun until I turned 18 either)
I was allowed to call in NICS checks - and allowed to take guns on the books out of the shop to test fire - I think the NRA and DCM / CMP and the BATF and local police and possibly the FBI were all pretty fair and accommodating - I don't think you could do those things today...
I figure a few folks will not believe the details of what happened to me.
I did get interviewed by the NRA American Riflemen about some of these issues - they were doing a feature article and cover piece on Nicole Panko and Lones Wigger at the national championships at camp Perry - and I got cut from the article - missing my chance at fame.
I still have a copy of that issue somewhere - with Nicole on the cover - perhaps some of you remember that particular issue - I think Nicole was 12 or so at the time she was on the cover...
I shot my first on the record course of official match fire perfect score or possible 400 out of 400 that summer - in prone at 50 yds (smallbore international 4 position Olympic style sanctioned match - leading up the the national championships - I later that summer fired an additional perfect score or possible in a prone only shoot at 100 yes with a unertl 20 1/2 power scope on my Winchester model 52 - it was the first year I was national ranked and received my coveted presidents 100 bright yellow patch and medal and certificate - I was ranked 98th - I remained ranked for 5 years rising to number 78 at one point - earning me an invitation to the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs to try out for the Olympic team - I did that 3 years in a row but was a dismal failure compared to others...
I did go back another two additional years to be a test dummy and be a towel boy and equipment guy - they called these coaches conferences and listed me as an assistant coach and staff member - I received my coaches certification - my father became a CLASS B coach...
One year I was seconded to the support staff for the team from Bangladesh - one year to the team from Japan - I was the first person under 21 to be accorded such status...
First time I ever received sponsorship - from champions choice and true value hardware Co.
Art cook and Carlos Hathcock and Mike anti and Dave Lyman and lones wigger and the DuPont family and many other notables began to appear in my sphere of existence...
I don't mean to ramble or thread Jack - I know I am off topic...
I just thought some of this might interest some of you - I will post it separately and create a new thread to entertain comments or questions - if by some means some of you might be interested..
Upon reflection I think I was lucky - and I think much of it was notable.
If not feel free to tell me to check myself.
It sort of came out organically today - some of which I have told before.
A Forest Gump style story if you will.
Mike0 -
Didn't know they had a movie let alone a book.
I take it there wasn't a "section 8" in WW2 few years later in Korea I guess there was?
I do wonder if the author flew missions nekked?0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
17 comments