Crime Expert BURL BARER. Edgar Award Winner and NYT Bestselling Author

Jim Lichtman -- Honest!

It is my personal pleasure to call Jim Lichtman my friend. Not only is he a good guy, but he gave my book HEADLOCK a rave review. I know he meant what he said because Jim is honest. In fact, when it comes to honesty and ethics, Jim wrote the book. The Washington Post called Jim’s first book, THE LONE RANGER’S CODE OF THE WEST – An Action-Packed Adventure in Values and Ethics, “...entertaining and informative.”  New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch called it, “An attempt to ring the bells of ethics and courage once more.”  His latest book, WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?  features stories “about principles that matter,” from Mario Cuomo to the Dali Lama to ordinary citizens.

Jim Lichtman has been writing and speaking on ethics to corporations, associations and schools since 1995. Feature stories and appearances include USA TODAY, the Washington Post, the Weekend Today Show in New York, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, NY-1 and CNN NewsNight with Aaron Brown.   Jim’s Op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, New York Daily News, and New York Times.

A graduate of the Josephson Institute’s Ethics Corps, it is the strategies and techniques offered by this nationally recognized Institute which form the basis of what Lichtman believes and teaches.

Not long ago, Jim posed the following questions:
(1) How much trust and confidence do Americans have in the critical institutions that constitute a great part of the infrastructure of the country – corporate, government, and media?

(2)  Are Americans, themselves honest and trustworthy or are they willing to bend the rules for personal gain? 

(3) Is America becoming a culture of corruption? 

Then, Jim did the research required to get the answers. I recently read the study, and found it both fascinating and encouraging.  I hope Jim makes this study widely available, and that it gets more media coverage than it has received so far.   Do a search on Jim Jim Lichtman -- go ahead, Goodle him...it's worth the time...HONEST!

Fear as News revisited

The NBC Today Show recently claimed that the number of “missing children” in America has risen 44 percent since 1982.

What is really scary is this: There is NO TRUTH to that statement.According to the United States Department of Justice, the best source for such data, there has been no increase at all. In fact, there are signs of a decline 
Fear as news is a basic staple of American news, be it print or broadcast.  It is only rarely that a newspaper bravely prints a headline that tells it as it really is:

“Crime Wave Across Nation Called a Mirage; Despite Fears, Figures Indicate Rate Isn’t Rising,” 
Stories of criminal mayhem fill the evening news. Crime sets the agenda
for state and local politics from Florida to California. Polls regularly rank
crime alongside the economy and health care as the nation’s most pressing concerns. . . . The president promises federal action; the first lady declares the fight on crime to be her next big issue. It is as though the country were confronting a devastating new wave of theft and violence. It isn’t. There is no new national crime wave.. .

PIT BULLS

We’ve all heard about Pit Bull attacks. They’re covered on most local news stations and sometimes nationally as well. Of course, there’s never a news report about a Pomeranian or Lab or Setter biting someone. And yet, they most certainly bite occasionally.

Have you ever wondered, though, whether the reports of Pit Bull attacks are accurate? Have you ever wondered if the dog that attacked was really a Pit Bull? As it turns out, many dog attacks reported as Pit Bull are really not Pits at all. It’s a shame that Newscasters don’t think that correcting their erroneous reporting would make for good television. So the mistaken report of a Pit Bull attack remains in the viewer’s mind.

Dont’ believe me? Well, could you pick out a Pit Bull from a line up? I thought I could but in fact, it took me two tries. That’s right, I missed it the first time. And I’ve owned Pit Bulls! So, let’s see how you do with this quiz. Click through the 5 pages of 26 pictures. You can go all the way through and back again. Look them over carefully. Then click on the American Pit Bull Terrier. Just be aware, there is only one Pit Bull.

I’d love to know how everyone does with the test. Hopefully, everyone will be honest. I’ve never known anyone who could find the pit bull on the first try. Now be honest, how many tries did it take you?

MARTHA! This is a Joke!

My friend and co-worker, Martha, had a slight problem with my post "How to Write Good."  English is not her primary language.  Smart, hard working, and dedicated, Martha looked to my blog for guidance and inspiration on how to write well.  The problem with "How to Write Good," she told me, is that I used words and phrases that were difficult for her to understand. 
What made this even more embarrassing for me, is that I couldn't figure out how to explain the joke.    The same problem came up the other night when I told my friend Glenn about the Reform Jew who went to the Orthodox  Shul on Shabbat.

Glenn: "Why does the Reform Jew attend the Orthodox Shul on Shabbat?

Burl: He can walk. 


No, Martha, I can't explain that one either.

HOW TO WRITE GOOD.

How to Write Good Some of this is derived from William Safire's Rules for Writers.    1. Always avoid alliteration.    2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.    3. Avoid cliches like the plague—they're old hat.    4. Employ the vernacular.    5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.    6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.    7. Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.    8. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.    9. Contractions aren't necessary.   10. Do not use a foreign word when there is an adequate English quid pro quo.   11. One should never generalize.   12. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."   13. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.   14. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.   15. It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.   16. Avoid archaeic spellings too.   17. Understatement is always best.   18. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.   19. One-word sentences? Eliminate. Always!   20. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.   21. The passive voice should not be used.   22. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.   23. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.   24. Who needs rhetorical questions?   25. Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary.   26. Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.   27. Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.   28. Subject and verb always has to agree.   29. Be more or less specific.   30. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.   31. Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch    typograhpical errers.   32. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.   33. Don't be redundant.   34. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not   needed.   35. Don't never use no double negatives.   36. Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.   37. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.   38. Eschew obfuscation.   39. No sentence fragments.   40. Don't indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.   41. A writer must not shift your point of view.   42. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!   43. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.   44. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.   45. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.   46. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.   47. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.   48. Always pick on the correct idiom.   49. The adverb always follows the verb.   50. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.   51. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.   52. And always be sure to finish what

DOGS DON'T PURR

For those of you who are new here, you should know that a frequent commentator on my blog is a well known glandular artiste.  Yes, she paints with her breasts. I often wondered what women did with those things when they weren't using them to feed chldren, or hold up halter tops. .  Media:  mixed media, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas Dimensions:  9 x 12 x 1 1/2 This is painting #7 in a series of 12 paintings entitled, "Breasts: The Mood Series." Each of these paintings was made by covering my breasts in various paints, then pressing my breasts against the canvas. In some cases the canvas was already wet with a base painting when I pressed my breasts onto it.....other times I would start with a virgin canvas that was dry, press my breasts onto that and then add more paint on or around my breast prints. I feel like each painting strikes a different mood or evokes a different feeling...even thought they are all of the same theme. Right about now, you are asking yourself, "How may I, puny mortal that I am, actually own a piece of art d'niplette?" Simple: go to her website and follow the links to her art. No, there are no close-ups of her "brushes" http://dogsdontpurr.diaryland.com/

Italy Vs Rosie

Italian Television

This is the hostess for an Italian afternoon t.v. talk show.









American Television

This is the hostess for an American afternoon t.v. talk show.



 We can learn a lot from Italian television!

MAN OVERBOARD -- THE MOVIE

 

 Ever since Man Overboard:The Counterfeit Resurrection of Phil Champagne was first published, various movie and television producers have expressed interest in making it into a movie. Every time we were close to a deal, something went haywire. Well, here we go again!!  I'm not divulging details, but once again there is significant interest in MAN OVERBOARD as a feature film. Keep your fingers, toes, and other body parts crossed. Perhaps this time I will actually see some negotiable currency. That would be nice :-)

Sneaky Pete

I was thinking today about my deceased pal, Gram Parsons. We became friends first at the Seattle Pop Festival in 1969, then got better acquainted when he played The Trolly Club and ...sometime remind me to tell you the story...at Sky River Rock Festival II.  Playing with him, of course, were the rest of the Flying Burrito Bros. including Sneaky Pete.  Sad news:
"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, a steel guitar prodigy who rose to fame as one of the original members of the Flying Burrito Brothers, has died. He was 72.

Kleinow, who also worked in film as an award-winning animator and special effects artist, died Saturday at a Petaluma convalescent home near the skilled nursing facility where he had been living with Alzheimer's disease since last year, his daughter Anita Kleinow said.

During a musical career that spanned six decades, Kleinow helped define the country-rock genre in the late 1960s and 1970s by taking the instrument he had picked up as a teenager in South Bend, Ind., to California.

His prowess with the pedal steel guitar influenced a generation of rock-and-rollers, including the Eagles, the Steve Miller Band and Poco.

Besides co-founding the Burrito Brothers with the Byrds' Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons in 1968, he enjoyed a steady gig as a session musician, recording with such singer-songwriters as John Lennon, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell and bands as varied as the Bee Gees and Sly and the Family Stone.

Kleinow played and recorded regularly with Burrito Deluxe, a band he founded in 2000 following the rebirth of alt-country music and fronted until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. His last recording with the group is scheduled to be released next month, said Brenda Cline, the band's manager.

Kleinow also won acclaim as an animator, special effects artist and director of commercials in television and film. His credits ranged from the original Gumby  series — he wrote and performed the theme music as well as designed cartoons — and the relaunched The Twilight Zone  to the movies Under Siege,Fearless  and The Empire Strikes Back.  He won an Emmy award in 1983 for his work on the miniseries, The Winds of War.

Kleinow is survived by his wife of 54 years, Ernestine, his daughters Anita and Tammy, and three sons, Martin, Aaron and Cosmo.

Plans for a memorial service to be held in Joshua Tree later this month are pending.

ROME ON HBO

One of the great joys of having friends in show business is impulsively calling them on their cell phones. The Executive Producer of the hit HBO series ROME is my buddy Bill Macdonald. I pulled up to an intersection on Vanowen Blvd. yesterday and there was a mini-billboard for ROME (season two) with the slogan: "Brutality masks a Code of Honor."

Waiting for the light to change, I whipped out my cell phone and called Bill  As my cell number is not secret, he knows it's me calling. "Hey, it's Burl Barer!"

As always, I skip greetings and begin mid thought.

"How the hell can brutality mask a code of honor?  A code of honor may mask brutality, but not the other way around. This makes no sense!  You didn't write the billboard did you? If so, what were you thinking!"

Thankfully, Bill has a sense of humor in addition to literary accumen. "If the slogan shocks you, wait till you see the first episode of season two," said Bill.

Apparently, ROME will be the closest thing to porno on HBO. I always thought HBO's REAL SEX was porno! 

I'm thrilled that ROME is doing so well internationally -- I get a huge kick out of freinds having success, and remember when Bill and his cohorts were first pulling this one together.  Of course, I hope our soon to be revealed, and dangerously exciting update on THE SAINT has equal if not greater success. More news on that as prudency allows.

In the meantime, watch ROME on HBO....it's worth it just for the anachronistic dialog.  Although I have yet to hear someone say "Okay, Caeasr, cut to the chase and give us the bottom line," it wouldn't surprise me in the least.