Is Bravery Measured By Winning?

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“I thought the announcers were a little hard on him. He fought his usual fight against the best pound for pound fighter in the world and lost,” John “Iceman” Scully said.

Scully fought as a professional for 13 years and finished with a record of 38 wins and 11 losses. He fought for world titles a couple of times and fought guys who were considered at or near the top of the pound for pound ratings.

Scully analyzes pay-per-view fights for ESPN News from the studio. Saturday night there was a really big fight that wound up being a very lopsided win for the favorite.

Some of the announcers who called the fight live said the challenger didn’t come to win and they suggested cowardice. To the best of my knowledge the announcers saying those things never were fighters.

To get in the ring in front of 50,000 live fans against the best of the world in the most demanding sport isn’t cowardly. Losing, being badly outscored isn’t cowardly. Not having the skills to win isn’t cowardly.

Why did Scully see that and the other guys didn’t?

I don’t think you need me to tell you.

Sunday Dog Heroes: Sisters Sandy, Little Red and MLK’s Killer

Brushy Mountain Prison in Tennessee is a serious place.

Barbed wire fences, walls and the surrounding mountain landscape make it one of the toughest joints to get out of.

In 1968 James Earl Ray provided our country with one of it’s ugliest and most tragic moments. He cowardly shot Martin Luther King.

Ray got sent to Brushy.

He worked out a lot but a lot of inmates do. In 1977, he and a couple of other did the unthinkable. They escaped and alluded capture for 54.5 hours. They think Ray built up his upper body so he could climb the fences and then survive the mountains. The escape put him deep in the thickly wooded mountain area and he knew his outdoors techniques.

Can you image what it would’ve done to this country if he was successful?

Meet Sandy and Little Red.

Bloodhounds have a sense of smell thousands of times more powerful than man’s. They can detect the fine layer of skin we are constantly shedding. They can pickup a sent 14 days old and follow it for miles and miles. Every year they find missing kids and old folks who have wondered off.

They also find bad guys.

Three hours after they got the two bloodhound sisters on the trail, the cops followed behind them for five miles while they ran  up and down a mountain, over a creek, around trees and past a rocky area until suddenly the hounds stopped over a bed of leaves. The sisters got giddy like hounds do when they quench the drive that sets them off to find something.

Ray had buried himself in the leaves.

Bloodhounds are the least violent of all breeds. When they find bad guys they usually jump up on them and lick them because they are so happy to have won their game.

James Earl Ray wasn’t giddy that day.

He lost the game.

Sandy and Little red won.

And so did justice.

DUFFY DOG OF THE WEEK! BOB!

Bob the Dog

Bob the Dog

Bob was adopted at age three. His forever home is with Bob and Kathy Nali in Tacoma, Washington.

Right away bob set out to raise money for basset hound rescue organizations. He was the 2008 King of the Michigan Waddle, he’s been the Grand Marshall of the Oregon Basset Hound Rescue Waddle and he’s raised money through various fundraisers like The Chick Magnut, the Drool Playing Cards and Bob’s Basset Butts.

Bob rocking the Michigan Waddle

All of that would’ve been enough to earn Duffy Dog of the Week.

But then Bob added a huge treat bone of inspiration.

NOTE: This part MUST be read accompanied by the video below. Push play, wait for the music  and begin to read.

On November 11, 2009. Bob’s back legs went lame. It was his birthday.

Bob's legs went lame

The vet said it didn’t look good and a very painful and intense surgery

Bob working on the under water treadmill

was needed. It was highly likely Bob would never walk again.

Bob couldn’t use his back legs but it didn’t affect his mood. He kept playing, his tail kept wagging and he kept training.

He trained a lot.

He got fitted for a set of wheels and he kept those lame legs moving.

On February 10, 2010, an eleven year-old Bob did this:

Step One

Step Two

Step Three and "Get The hell Out of My Way!"

That’s right, Bob’s back walking.

To watch a really cool video of Bob, check our Bob the Dog Nali on Facebook

FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR: Should Men Dance?

The Catholic high school I went to closed after my sophomore year and merged with the inner city Catholic high school.

I played for the new school’s basketball team and we were half uptown white guys and half downtown black guys.

The white guys mostly listened to 70’s country rock like Marshall Tucker and Lynnrd Skynnrd (‘course I was listening to Elvis) while the black guys listened to disco. I remember  in ‘78 Lemo playing “Freak Out” on a 45 minute bus strip, over and over, both ways.

The black guys liked to dance. They would dress real sharp and after games they’d go to discos and dance. They talked about dancing, they danced in the locker room and they’d dance in the aisle of the bus.

We wore flannel shirts and work boots and pounded beers in the woods or in the seedy bars that would let us in.

I remember one of the white guys saying “We’re gonna do some partying tonight!” One the black guys looked at him and said. “They means you’re gonna get drunk, right? How’s that partying?”

He had a point.

Why do men, or at least white men, have such an issue about dancing?

White Man Overbite

Should a guy dance?

I say, if he wants to.

But if he’s gonna dance, he should dance.

What’s with the guys who are willing to dance with a woman but only if they’re allowed to bring their long neck with them? It’s like their security blanket to tell the world, “Look, I’m dancing but I’m really here to drink beer, not be a sissy dancing man.”

For awhile it seemed like every white guy in the 80’s danced like Bruce Springsteen in the “Dancing in the Dark” video. Hey, if the Boss danced, it had to be okay, right? After all,  he did Nautilus.

Really?

What about the weird circles that form at parties where no one really dances together? What’s that even about? What kind of weirdness is that? It’s like dancing light with all the flirtation and sexuality removed from it.

How do you feel when you see a guy who is too good at dancing? You know, the guy who has honed his moves and dances all night with all the women. Ever notice that guy came by himself and goes home by himself? He’s usually a little off in the way he dresses or a little too much attention has been paid to the hair. Who wants to be that guy?

Then there’s the foxtrot, tango, “Do the Hustle” guy who knows the official dance steps of those dances that have rules to them. Women like it but aren’t most guys cringing when they see that guy at the wedding reception?

Then there’s the guys who dance alone in the weird styles of the music they like. There’s that weird LSD-inspired Grateful Dead thing that says, “I’m stoned or pretending to be.” There’s that awful kind of trot-in-place thing that The Who fans do to be like Pete Townsend and I think there are guys who try to do the Axl Rose creepy sway thing. (Rose copied it from Davey Jones of the Monkees, which is decidedly far less cool.)

It’s a quite a lot to think about.

“I’m into you almost as much as beer.”

But after careful analysis mostly bad things can happen if you dance. It’s like throwing the ball in football–three things can happen and two of them aren’t good.

Me, I’ll slow dance with my wife but I resist other dancing.

Often, women get mad and say “C’mon, it’ll be fun!”

No it won’t, not for me. I’m not dancing.

I’m not making an issue out of it.

FREE PSYCHOTHERAPY THURSDAY: Corey Haim, how overdose works

Why would an experienced drug user overdose?

After all, once an individual uses drugs over a long period they come to understand what to expect from doses.

I’ve worked as a drug counselor or college professor on the topic since 1985.

Corey and Corey

The answer to the overdose question lies mostly in the dynamics of getting high and addiction.

Some commonly used drugs of abuse cause the user to develop physical tolerance. Tolerance means it takes more of the substance to get the same effect. This is a physical dynamic, the body adapts to the substance and it simply takes more and more of it to produce the desired high.

Sometimes the user, depending on the substance, progresses to the point where the dose they are taking has come dangerously close to the fatal dose. One day they take too much and the nervous system slows down or speeds up and breathing stops or a heart attack occurs.

Elvis Presley had gotten to the point of taking a “six-pack” cocktail to go to bed. Most of the drugs in the cocktail caused tolerance. On August 16, 1977, he couldn’t sleep and asked for a second six-pack. That dose probably came too close to the first and Elvis’s heart stopped.

There’s something else.

The dynamic of getting high also leaves the user with always wanting to experience more, better, intensified, bigger highs. Their first use of alcohol led to the desire to try pot which led to a curiousity to try, say, cocaine which turned into a desire for freebasing and on and on. The desire to alter one’s consciousness keeps upping the ante.

John Belushi loved cocaine and one night kept upping the ante with heroin to experience the speedball effect of combining an upper and a downer.

Michael Jackson appears to have been dependent on painkillers but also progressed to anesthesia–which is a wildly significant progression and ridiculously dangerous.

What about suicide?

Sometimes users decide to kill themselves but more often they get sloppy with their use. Sometimes they mix desires and think to themselves that if they get really high and don’t wake up it wouldn’t be so bad.

Sometimes a user gets a new dealer or a dealer gets a new supplier. Street drugs are wildly inconsistent in the amount of the actual mind altering substance contained in them. The same amount of heroin injected on a Monday may look like Tuesday’s dose but it might actually be double. That causes overdose.

Drugs differ in what they do in the body. Some classes of drugs don’t have a physical tolerance. Marijuana, LSD and XTC don’t cause physical tolerance though they certainly can cause the user to develop a psychological tolerance. Medically speaking, cocaine doesn’t have a tolerance or a withdrawal dynamic but if you ask anyone who’s gotten addicted to it they’d argue with you quite a bit.

People don’t die from smoking a lot of marijuana or tripping a lot. Alcohol, narcotic analgesics, barbiturates and benzodiazepines all cause tolerance.

We’ll find out about Corey Haim after toxicology reports come in.

If it shows that drugs caused his death he won’t be alone.

WEDNESDAY WRITING TIP:Bruce Springsteen, Noir Crime Writer

Note the Elvis Pin...

It was the part of town where when you hit a red light you don’t stop.

Johnny 99

The screen door slams. Mary’s dress waves.

Thunder Road

Screen door hangin’ off its hinges kept bangin’ me awake all night.

Ain’t nobody can give anybody what they really need anyway

Dry Lightning

They say you gotta stay hungry. Well, I’m just about starving tonight.

Dancing in the Dark

You end up like a dog that’s been kicked too much.

Born in the USA

It’s a town full of losers. I’m pulling out of here to win.

All the redemption I can offer is beneath this dirty hood. Thunder Road                                                                                                                                   Sweatin’ out on the street of this runaway American dream…

Born to Run

Great writing doesn’t come over the course of 100,000 word manuscript, it comes word by word and phrase by phrase. To me, when he’s at his best, no one is better than Bruce Springsteen.

I’m not a huge fan of his last 15 or 20 years but through the late eighties his phrasing, economy of words and expression resonated with me.

Take his use of “Screen door.” What does a screen door conjur? Usually, a low income house and a working class culture. If it bangs off the wall it tells us it’s old, wasn’t installed properly or it’s worn out. A screen door banging sets a total scene economically.

How about “All the redemption I can offer is beneath this dirty hood”? “Redemption” and “hood” don’t seem to go together which makes it perfect. For an 18 year-old high school graduate, the promise of something more comes on four wheels. And “Pulling out of here to win” is something you have the opportunity to do.

“It was the part of town where when you hit a red light you don’t stop.” Do you need anything else to describe that setting? I don’t. I picture an intersection in my home town. The corner one block up from Henry Johnson and Clinton appears in my mind every time.

In the nineties Springsteen wrote “It’s a funny world when you find yourself pretending and you’re a rich in a poor man’s shirt” in the song “Better Days.” And maybe for me this is where he stopped connecting with me. The lyrics became more psuedo-spiritual to me and the causes overblown. The “Rising” album which was supposed to heal all of us after the WTC tragedy fell flat with me.

I wanted to be back on the porch, in the car or at that troubled intersection. The day to day nuances of life connect like good noir fiction. The other stuff is probably great for those who relate to it. It’s just isn’t me.

In the meantime, I’m gonna try to stay hungry while I sweat out on the street of my own American dream.

Reviewing the Reviewers: Jen Forbus

Jen Forbus is one of my absolute best friends in the book business. I know, as a writer, I’m not alone, either. When I finally got to meet Jen at Bouchercon last year I noticed the steady stream of authors who flocked to give her a hug.

Her blog, Jensbookthoughts.blogspot.com, is far more than a review site. It’s more like a tribute to everything in crime fiction. Her Six-Word Memoir project has drawn authors from near and far, from the biggest names to, well, names like mine. It’s worth a trip just to see it but while you’re there be careful, you can lose hours.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my first installment of Reviewing the Reviewers, fittingly with Jen Forbus.

1. What really gets you interested in a mystery?

Great characters definitely hook me in any book, but especially in a mystery. I want to care what happens to them. They can be repulsive villain-type characters and I want to see justice or they can be strong protagonists that I’m rooting for. I also appreciate characters who are witty or smart or both.

For me to care about what’s going on in the book, I first have to care about the people the action is happening to and around.

2. What bores the hell out of you?

The same old, same old. When it feels like the same plot is being re-enacted, just in a new location or with new supporting characters, I lose interest. Some people feel comfort in that; they know what to expect from their favorite writers, but I prefer when my favorite writers challenge me and surprise me.

Alafair Burke, Jen and Me in Milwaukee last month

I’m also not a big fan of gratuitous sex, violence or profanity in the books. If it serves no more purpose in the plot than to show how macho the protagonist is, it doesn’t need to be there. If it’s obvious that it’s serving a purpose in the overall scheme of things, I appreciate it. But violence for the sake of violence is offensive and insulting.

3. What cliches would you really like to see go away?

Probably my biggest turnoff cliché-wise is the damsel in distress. The woman who is so helpless that she needs the strapping hero to save her from life’s evils. And while I see less of that – maybe because I purposely stay away from it – I do still see it on occasion. There’s nothing wrong with having a great male protagonist. Some of my favorite characters are male. But, don’t make the females helpless. They’re allowed to be smart or funny or talented. They don’t have to be beautiful, dumb or helpless. They CAN help save the day and they don’t have to be every hero’s Achilles heel.

But, on the flip side, I’m also turned off by the female character who hates all men. Just strike a good, realistic balance.

4. What topics, themes etc would you like to see more of in mysteries?

I don’t like to see a lot of any one thing. I enjoy variety and uniqueness. I’ve been surprised at topics I’ve taken an interest in because the writers handled them so well. That’s one of the joys of reading, having your world open up to new ideas and concepts.

5. What mistakes do you think authors make?

I would never presume to know what makes the publishing industry tick and what mistakes authors do or don’t make in that realm. As a reader, what makes me stop reading an author is when he/she becomes formulaic. There are several very popular authors that I don’t read for that reason. Since they’re making the best seller lists, I don’t guess they’re actually making mistakes since they’re selling books, but I don’t read them.

Michael Connelly made the statement that publishing involves a great deal of luck. There are many, many talented writers but it’s often some element of luck that raises one above others. So, I guess you could be doing all the right things and just never walk under that lucky star.

6. Do you write? Would you like to?

Not beyond my blog. I’ve never felt like there was an idea or concept that I really needed to turn into a story. Maybe if that ever happened I might. But I prefer to be the reader and to talk about books with other people.

7. Who are your favorites?

Wow! Answering this one better not get me into trouble.  The two people I always credit with hooking me on the genre are Robert Crais and Linda Fairstein, so they definitely are favorites. Alafair Burke absolutely writes my favorite female protagonist, Ellie Hatcher, so she has to be on my list. Michael Koryta is simply amazing. Gregg Hurwitz and Marcus Sakey are my favorite thriller writers. People will often hear me say that I think James Lee Burke is one of the greatest living American writers today. And the folks I will always spend money on to get their books right away: Chris Grabenstein, Craig Johnson, Louise Penny, Tom Schreck, Craig McDonald, Kathy Reichs. An author I really like but he hasn’t published anything for awhile is Thomas Holland. And this past year I was introduced to and fell in love with the works of Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman.

A couple of writers who had their debut novels in 2009 and who I believe will join the ranks of my favorites are Sophie Littlefield and Brad Parks.

If you ever asked me to pick just one, I’d not be able to do it. These are all favorites for all different reasons. They are all amazingly talented writers. I’m so thankful that they do what they do.

8. Why did you start reviewing? If you really hate a book will you still review it?

I just wrote about this question recently. As odd as it may sound, I started reviewing because I left the classroom. I was a high school English teacher and when I left the classroom and didn’t have a daily opportunity to talk about books, I felt a real void. So, I started talking about books on a blog. It was purely for selfish reasons, so when CRIMESPREE contacted me about submitting reviews to the magazine, I was extremely flattered.

If I really hate a book, I won’t review it. I don’t think there’s any benefit in that. I want to encourage people to read, not discourage them from it. And I have absolutely nothing to prove by being snarky or mean. If there are minor elements that didn’t sit well with me, I’ll mention them in a review.  But if my overall reaction was, “god, this is terrible,” no, I won’t review that.

CONSPIRACY TUESDAY: AMISH PUPPY MILLS

Hey, those wacky Amish, aren’t they quaint?

Rockin’ the old gear, trippin’ in the horse and buggy and funkin’ up the facial hair.

Then there’s those great quilts, rocking chairs and even the infomercial-marketed fireplaces.

Screw you guys

Hard not love ‘em and their old backward ways, ain’t it?

Well, the Amish can kiss my fat technology lovin’ ass.

They run puppy mills.

Bad ones.

I found video and I won’t show it because I hate that stuff but it’s got all the horribleness that you hear about.

The NY Post reported that they sell upwards of 20,000 puppies a year and rake in over $4 million.

The dogs are crowded in cages, in filth without socialization. When a dog is done getting pregnant over and over they get euthanized.

You know the drill on puppy mills. I don’t like talking about it.

The Amish do it.

And they can go to hell.

DRINKS WITH JENN ANISTON

“Wow, so your book is out?” Jennifer Aniston said. She took a mini sip of Pinot Grigio.

“Well, yeah, it officially came out February but the publisher released some advanced copies awhile ago,” I said.

We were at this small vegetarian joint called “The Sprout” in Alphabet City.

“An author, a real author…” Her brown eyes sparkled and she looked at me so long I started to get uncomfortable.

“Hey, I’m no Robert Ward.”

“What’s it about?” Jenn toyed with her wine glass running a slender finger along its rim.

“Oh, come on. I don’t want to bore you.” I paused and looked at her. “What about “Friends” and your movies,” I panicked slightly, not being able to remember any of the movie titles.

“Please…” She said and scrunched up her face in that adorable Jennway. “Tell me what it’s about.”

“Okay,” I sighed. Before becoming a big deal published author I dreamed of beautiful women asking me about it. Now, frankly, it had become tiresome.

“It’s called Out Cold, A Duffy Dombrowski Mystery and there’s this social worker about to get fired from his job because he never does the paper work. He’s also a bad pro boxer who lives in a trailer. He winds up trying to prevent  some domestic terrorism predicted by a crazy client. In the meantime he has to deal with his obstinate Black Muslim basset hound, Al. Then–” Jenn interrupted.

“What’s obstinate mean?”

“You know, disobedient.” I say.

“Oh…”

“I also haver a Kindle book out with JA Konrath. It’s called Planter’s Punch. That’s a bestseller in the Kindle category “Police Procedurals.” I was glad my description was over. It’s so tedious going over this stuff with women again and again.

“That sounds soooo cool. Where can I get it?”

“Most bookstores, though I prefer the independents. Planter’s Punch, exclusively at Amazon Kindle”

She tosses her hair and looks away. Then she puts her hand over her mouth and sort of giggles. She shakes her head.

“What?” I say.

“Oh…I don’t know. it’s just…” She looks away again, frowns and her eyes seem just a little wet.

“What?”

“It’s just that the guys I know…the guys I’m used to… they’re so…I don’t know…shallow. But you…you’re an author,” she says.

I feign a smile. I get this a lot lately.

“Will their be others?” Her playful giggle is gone and in its place is a kind of sad intense look.

“Sure, I‘m working on a stand alone that will be ready soon and then there’s another Duffy in the works where Duffy and Al go to Las Vegas. But–”

I didn’t get to finish.

“I didn’t mean other books.”

She looks down and I can sense she’s embarrassed. “I meant… oh, never mind.”

Her eyes well up again only this time I was almost sure a tear would escape.

It was awkward.

Being a big deal author often was.

Basset Hound Saves Man From Suicide

I volunteer on a suicide hotline. In fact, that’s where I am right now.

Fortunately, it’s quiet.

One of the things we learn in our training is that if people feel they have a reason to live they are less likely to act on their suicidial thoughts.

Meet Antigone.

Marshall Lee got Antigone from a basset rescue organization. She was  from one of those scumbag puppy mills. Those are those horrid places where they exploit dogs through breeding and sell them to your cheery mall pet stores.

Anyway, Marshall loved his college teaching job and when he got laid off it broke his heart. After sending 200 resumes around and not getting a single response he got despondent. This Persian Gulf War veteran began to have suicial thoughts and began to believe he’d be better off dead.

If you haven’t had a bout with depression it might be hard to understand. It took Marshall two hours to get out of bed every morning. He didn’t have any energy for anything.

He decided to kill himself. He began to make the plans.

Something kept getting in the way of his death strategy.

Antigone.

He couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her alone and uncared for. Then, something rose up inside of Marshall, that something inside us that doesn’t accept defeat. That pissed off something that says “Fight back.”

So after losing his job and his apartment, Marshall Lee got on his bike. He put Antigone in the pull along thing and the two of them set out to ride from Chicago to San Francisco to raise awareness for two causes.

Suicide prevention and basset rescue.

Victor Frankl, the philosopher who survived Nazi death camps, once said that life gets meaning when you take on a cause greater than yourself with a vitally absorbing interest. People vitally absorbed in helping people live fulfilled lives.

They l-i-v-e.

So, this Thursady when Marshall and Antigone pedaled across the Golden Gate Bridge, a bridge that someone commits suicide off every fifteen days, there were two vitally absorbed lives being transported by a whole lot more than a bicycle.

Antigone was rescued by Guardian Angel Basset Hound Rescue, an organization I call family. Out of the Darkness is an organization that helps raise suicide awareness. Read about them on Marshal Lee’s  blog: http://antigonebasset.blogspot.com/