How ‘bout those Buffalo Jills!
Ah, football is back ... that bella time of the year when I can ignore MLB even more than usual. The other night the wife looked at me and said, “You’re like a big kid the night before Christmas.” Maybe ... but only if Santa can bring me a couple more wins than last year.
How ‘bout it, big guy?
The Moonachie Blue team took a punch in the gut (the Stella kiss of death predictions are alive and well, it seems), but this Sunday we learn just WTF both my beloved New York State Buffalo Bills and the Moonachie Green team are all about ... the Y-E-T-S, Yets, Yets, Yets field their clown act at 1:00 p.m. against a very much improved Buffalo defensive line. Will Stevie (can’t stop himself from taunting penalties) Johnson continue to swim on and off Revis Island at will? Will Tim Tebow come in to fake a run and throw a bomb? Will Mark Sanchez crumble under the pressure of Tebow? Tune in Sunday and find out.
DNC ... it’s all a big show and the Dems put on a much better one than the GOP ... MUCH BETTER ... and although I slept through the President’s speech Thursday night (literally, I hadn’t slept at all the night before), the line of the night (and the convention) came from John “always had a film crew following him while he was in Vietnam” Kerry: “Ask Osama Bin Laden if he’s better off now than he was four years ago.”
I know it’s a bumper sticker line, but since this country (both parties) remains committed to the absolute horror show that is the Afghanistan war (the GOP nominee didn’t bother to mention it during his speech), maybe Kerry’s line will serve as a reminder for us to get the hell out of there already. Maybe ...
Shakedown goes ebook next week ...
Shakedown will go on sale next week sometime for $.99. It’s our attempt to become big time entrepreneurs ... to strike it rich ... to bring home the fazools ...
Actually, it’s our attempt to lure ebook readers into buying the other Stella crime novels that are priced $2.00 and $3.00 (mostly because I can’t figure out how to make the $2.00 a $3.00 book). I’m technically challenged, you see ...
But we love the new cover ... designed by the efforts of my son-in-law, Anthony Caliendo and author, book cover designer, David Terrenoire.
Here’s the synopsis: Get married, have a kid – it's not much to ask. Unless you've got to first divorce the mob. And Bobby Genarro only thinks he has, in this brutal, funny, shrewd new crime novel from Charlie Stella, "who," says the Chicago Sun-Times, "may just be the best crime writer you've never read."
For three months now, ex-bookmaker Bobby G has been heading down the straight and narrow. He's got the girl – pretty, and willful, Lin Yao, a video-grapher with a black belt in karate – and he's bought the ring. He's also safely stashed away a tidy, slightly tainted retirement fund. Then his old boss, a captain with the Vignieri crime family, flips and rats on his Mafioso associates. And Bobby's past begins catching up with him.
"To get down to brass taxes," as the phrase-twisting enforcer Tommy Agro puts it, the family figures it's due, say, two percent of Bobby's take. Intelligent, combative, a bit of a smart-ass, and stubborn, Bobby resists persuasion, even when he's facing Agro's muscle, a former offensive lineman who bench-presses five hundred pounds. Soon, though, Lin Yao is facing an Irish goon freelancing for the Vignieris, and before you can say the Mott Street Shadows the wiseguys' shakedown is escalating as fast as Stella's rapid-fire dialogue into warfare with a Chinese gang in the Heart of Little Italy.
Tweet-tweet … Saint Sarah was at it again, this time commenting on Kerry’s line using her name. Sarah tweeted: “Diminished Himself By Even Mentioning My Name” …
It’s good to know she’s starting to get it, eh?
Currently Reading: Steven Sidor’s, Pitch Dark ... couldn’t put it down when I parked at work this morning … was almost late (and I get there 45-60 minutes early just so I can read) … excellent, Mr. Sidor is, as always … some scary stuff.
—Knucks
The King of the High C’s, Luciano Pavarotti vs. Ayn Rand/Paul Ryan … (from Andrea Chenier) … I got to see Pavarotti sing this twice back when I could afford it (let no one kid you, crime pays) …
