Celebrating Asian American, Native Hawai'ian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Dr. Sammy Lee, first Asian American man to win an Olympic gold medal

Sammy Lee, born August 1, 1920 in Fresno, California to Korean parents, was the first Asian American man to win an Olympic gold medal for the US and the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in platform diving.

He received a degree in civil engineering from Occidental College, and then received his MD from the University of Southern California School of Medicine in 1947. At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, Lee earned the bronze metal in the 3-meter springboard and a gold medal in the 10-meter platform events.  He became the first Asian American man to win a gold medal and the second Asian American to earn the gold, since Vicki Draves won a gold medal just two days earlier in the springboard diving event.

In 1952, he was a major in the US Army Medical Corps.  He expected to be sent to the Korean War, but was sent to the Olympic Games in Helsinki instead. He won the gold medal in the 10-meter platform, making him the first man to win back-to-back gold medals in platform diving.

Lee continued to serve in the Medical Corps in South Korea from 1953-1955, where he specialized in the diseases of the ear.  He practiced as an ear, nose, and throat doctor for 35 more years until his retirement in 1990. 

He passed away in Newport Beach, California in December 2016.

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" published 1886

A poster from the 1880s

Robert Louis Stevenson published his classic gothic horror novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, January 5, 1886 by publishers Longmans, Green & Co. It is one of the most famous and popular pieces of English literature and it continues to have a prolonged effect on popular culture.  

The story follows Gabriel Utterson, a legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange events in London.  

The story first appeared on stage in 1887 in Boston and was adapted to film in 1908. It has been produced, adapted, spoofed, and re-broadcast countless times since its publication.

Happy birthday, actor Tom Hardy!

One of the sexiest actors on screen, Tom Hardy, born September 15, 1977 in London, England, has won numerous awards for his acting, including an Oscar nomination.  He starred in Star Trek: Nemesis, Inception, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Venom.  His performance in The Revenant is the role for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.  

I came to love him when I saw him in Venom!  

Happy birthday, Helen Mirren!

Helen Mirren, born July 26, 1945 in London, is one of the most prolific and honored actresses of our time.  She has won an Academy Award (out of four nominations), won four Primetime Emmys, (out of eleven nominations ), two Golden Globes (out of eight nominations) and one Tony Award (out of three nominations).  Dame Mirren has won numerous other acting awards.  She is the only actress to portray three different British queens.

She became Dame Helen Mirren in 2003 for her services to drama.  She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013.

Celebrating Black History Month: Alice Coachman, first African-American to win an Olympic Gold medal

Alice Coachman, born November 8, 1923 in Albany, Georgia, is the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal.  She represented the US at the 1948 Olympics in London, in the women's high jump, defeating England's Dorothy Tyler.  King George VI presented her medal. 

She was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1979.  At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, she was honored as one of the 100 Greatest Olympians.  She has also been inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame (1975) and the US Olympic Hall of Fame (2004).

She passed away from cardiac arrest in Albany, Georgia in July 2014.

"Invisible Curtain" by Alex Morgan re-released on Amazon!

My third Corey Shaw novel, Invisible Curtain, has been re-released and is available on Amazon!

Here is the link to Amazon.

Blurb:
Paranormal sleuth Corey Shaw is enjoying vacation with his family in the Baltic Sea when terrorists bomb restaurants hosting World Cup parties in London and Copenhagen. On each occasion the explosion coincides with the cruise ship leaving port. Although the United States isn’t attacked directly, Corey and his colleagues are unavoidably drawn into the investigation with or without the blessing of international intelligence agencies. When a third bomb goes off in St. Petersburg, Russia, Corey is convinced the answer lies aboard his ship. 

He must use all his psionic abilities to protect his family, and his friends, and keep the world safe from this worrying upsurge in international terrorism

Celebrating Pride Month - Cave of the Golden Calf, world's first gay bar

June 1912, the Cave of the Golden Calf opened in London, probably the world's first gay pub.  It was founded by Frida Strindberg in an underground location on Heddon Street just off Regent Street, and it quickly gained a reputation as a heathen den of iniquity.

The purpose of The Cave was to promote arts and encourage artists and other persons interested in literature and the arts to gather.  The opening night was packed with journalists, artists and  curiosity seekers.

It went bankrupt in 1914 but it helped set London as a place for artistic expression and progressiveness.

Happy birthday, Elizabeth!

Comedienne Josephine Tewson, born February 26, 1931 in London, has been acting since the late 50's, but she is probably best known for her role as the nervous, oppressed next-door neighbor Elizabeth to Hyacinth Bucket (prounced "bouquet") on Keeping Up Appearances.  Afterwards she starred as the librarian in Last of the Summer Wine.

She is at least the fourth cast member of Keeping Up Appearances to celebrate a birthday in February!

Book review - "Murder Wears a Cowl" by P. C. Doherty

Murder Wears a Cowl, the sixth installment of P. C. Doherty’s medieval mystery series featuring Hugh Corbett, clerk to King Edward I, is a convoluted tale with more twists and turns than any of his previous stories.  It also has a bit more character development on the main characters.  Hugh is now more spy than clerk for Edward I.  Maeve, although still in the background, is much more present since their daughter is about three months old.  Ranulf, Corbett’s faithful servant, falls in love and thinks about escaping his current station and bettering himself.  At the end of the story, Ranulf exacts some revenge in a calm, cold, ruthless scheme.  I was a bit surprised at Ranulf’s actions, thinking what happened to our lusty lad who’s only mission in life was to bed someone else’s wife or mistress?

In Murder Wears a Cowl, Edward I commands Hugh to investigate murders of prostitutes in London, which have occurred once a month for over a year.  Edward isn’t interested in the women, but Lady Somerville, the widow of one of Edward’s friends has been murdered in the same fashion.  Is there a connection?  And what does her message “a cowl does not make the monk” mean?

Hugh had planned to take Maeve and the baby to Wales to visit her family, but the king is most insistent that he postpone the trip to investigate the crimes.  To add insult to injury, Hugh’s nemesis and French spy de Craon is in London along with a notorious criminal is a master at the art of disguise.

In the previous novel, The Prince of Darkness, we had naughty nuns.  In Murder Wears a Cowl, we have naughty monks.  Early on, Hugh suspects a connection between the murders and the monks and priests at St. Paul, but he finds more than he expects. 

Doherty has a knack for bringing fourteenth century London to life in all its fetid, foul and malodorous glory.  Despite the stomach-churning details, this novel delivers several surprises and keeps the reader guessing until the last page. 

Book review - "The Sempter's Tale" by Margaret Frazer

Over the past few books, Frazer has concentrated mainly on the corruption that surrounded Henry VI.  Her sleuth, Dame Frevisse, is cousin to the duchess of Suffolk, Alice de la Pole.  Alice’s husband was the duke of Suffolk, who was murdered after years of usurping the king’s power and treasuries for his own gain.  Frazer’s novels have taken an interesting turn from Frevisse solving murders in and around the quiet nunnery St. Frideswide, which is a safe distance from the dangerous London, to her in the midst of the court intrigue with its backstabbing and vices, usually culminating in someone’s murder.  A series that started out as cozy mysteries is now historical fiction based on the life of King Henry VI.

In "The Sempter’s Tale" (‘sempster’ a medieval term meaning ‘seamster’), Frazer addresses the vile hatred toward the Jewish in mid-fifteenth century England, where Jews had been banned, but lived in utmost secrecy to save their skins.  The sempter/widow Anne is hopelessly in love with Daved, a secret Jew.  She knows who he is and knows the dangers to him will also be hers if they are found out. 

Against her will, Frevisse is forced to become a pawn yet again, in another of her cousin’s troubles.  This time, Alice wants her husband’s gold to be secretly brought back into England, without paying the required taxes but also without attracting the attention of the late duke’s enemies.  Anne and Daved are part of this plan to return Alice’s gold to her as well.

Then a boy, who is part of Anne’s household disappears and is found later murdered, with wounds that are similar to a crucifixion.  Immediately, suspicion falls on the Jews, although there aren’t supposed to be any in London.  Later, when Daved is unsurprisingly discovered, a fanatical priest blames him for the murder.  Frevisse, again, must sort through the convoluted clues and events to discover what happened to the young man.

Frevisse has her own doubts about Jewish people, but having known some in her youth, she isn’t as prejudice as almost everyone around her.  I found it interesting some of the horrible arguments and feelings that Londoners used to justify their oppression of the Jews.  But as Daved points out in his ‘discussion’ with the fanatical priest, Christians don’t mind them when Jews are helping them make money. 

   

Frevisse does not get into any arguments about faith, but has to withhold her own judgment when she discovers the depth of Anne and Daved’s relationship. 

Not much on mystery in this one, but definitely another great insight into the environment of fifteenth-century England, Henry VI included and not included.

Book review - "A Pint of Beer, a Bag of Chips and Thou" by J. L. Merrow

Merrow’s short story is a fun tale of opposites attract and co-exist as well.  The main character, Liam, is a twenty-three year old punk with a Mohawk and piercings and plays saxophone for tips in the London Underground.  He’s cast his eye upon a silver fox, a commuter who passes by him every day without even looking in Liam’s direction.

Liam lives with his mother and two aunts, all witches.  A third aunt is an Anglican priest but all four sisters get along.  His aunts and mother are worried about his single status so they announce they will give him his Christmas presents early.  Liam is very afraid.  Although he is loathe to wear their hand-knitted, garishly-colored articles of clothing, the gifts seem to do the trick. 

Neil, who is older than Liam’s father, is as attracted to the punk as much as Liam is to him.  Neil finally gets the nerve to speak to him and Liam is happy to leave his post to have a coffee with Neil.  Thus begins the romance between two diametrically opposed opposites. 

What I liked about this story is the ease of the conversation between Neil and Liam. It’s a nice mix of getting-to-know-you with blatant innuendoes.  It’s no stretch of the imagination to hear two guys talking like that.  My favorite line:

“Neil,” he said.  Then he grinned.  “That’s my name, not an order.” 

This story will probably sit well with Dr. Who fans!  Just sayin'.

Review of Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva

For decades, I read mysteries and science fiction novels almost exclusively, with an occasional history non-fiction title thrown in there, but in the past year or so I’ve become a big fan of spy stories. After reading, Daniel Silva’s The Defector, I’ve been hooked. I picked a Portrait of a Spy without hesitation but waited until my novel Invisible Curtain was complete and released.


I mentioned in an earlier post how great minds think alike. The synopsis on the jacket of Portrait said Gabriel Allon, Silva’s spy, investigates bombs in London, Copenhagen and Paris, while my character, psionic detective Corey Shaw investigates bombs in London, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. Wow! That was enough to hook me even if I hadn’t read the previous two novels by Silva.  It appears we came up with similar plot points at the same time!

In Portrait, Gabriel is enjoying his retirement on the rainy cliffs of Cornwall with his beautiful wife Chiara, doing nothing more than restoring paintings of the Great Masters. A routine trip to London takes a horrible turn as Gabriel witnesses a suicide bomber kill eighteen people and wound many more, a tragedy he could’ve prevented. Hopelessly entangled in the investigation into the terrorist acts, Gabriel assembles a team from the Israeli secret ops and reluctantly, the CIA. His plan: buy a terrorist cell.

A charismatic Muslim cleric, recruited by the CIA, has switched sides and is recruiting terrorists instead of spying on them. The CIA wants him to go away. Permanently.

Gabriel, through a series of meticulously planned steps approaches the ultra-wealthy daughter of a terrorist he killed several years ago. He takes a gamble that she will not follow in her father’s footsteps and will work with them to bring down a big embarrassment to the CIA and avenge the deaths in Europe, as well as strike a blow to the terrorist network her father developed.

His gamble pays off. Nadia is rich, powerful and smart and agrees to help Allon, not for Israel or the US, but to bring about an end to the oppression of women in her country. Despite her wealth, even she must obey the strict rules levied against women in the Middle East.

Much of the story is the seduction and preparation of Nadia to enter the world of global terrorism. I found it difficult to follow Allon’s plan in some areas, where it seemed the story contradicted itself. Still I found it to be an engaging, captivating story filled with great spy techniques with covert listening devices, devices to befuddle listening devices, surveillance and secret messages.

Silva brings so many minute and vivid details to each of his novels to give the reader the feeling they are standing in the middle of the desert with Allon, or holed up in a safe house in DC with his team.

The exciting page-turning climax in the desert with Allon, Nadia and a multitude of surprises and twists gave me sweaty palms as I gripped the book tightly. I can’t wait for the next novel.

Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard

In an interview with author Louis Bayard, he said he didn’t set out to write a sequel to A Christmas Carol, and although Mr. Timothy takes place fifteen years after the events in Dickens’ classic novel and contain two of its most memorable corporeal characters, it most definitely is not a sequel.

Tiny Tim is now Mr. Timothy and his crippled leg has nearly been healed, leaving him with only a slight limp. He’s not the sweet innocent boy, spouting ‘God bless us, everyone’, endearing himself to all. His parents have passed away and his surviving siblings scattered across England.

Timothy has immersed himself in the seedy underbelly of London, teaching the madam of a brothel to read Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. As part of their arrangement, he rooms at the bordello.

Timothy seems determined to distance himself from his beneficent Uncle N, aka Ebenezer Scrooge. The crabby old miser remains changed after his encounter with the spirits. He dotes on his ‘nephew’ Tim. He spared no expense in finding the best doctors and medical care money could buy in treating Tim’s bum leg.

But Scrooge’s change of heart had a negative effect on the Crachitt family. He hired a second clerk to help Bob. Mr. Crachitt had more time on his hands and drifted away from his family.

Timothy’s siblings didn’t begrudge him the attention shown him by Scrooge but it did manage to set him apart from him. The final result is Timothy is only in contact with his brother Pete and his wife Annie.

Mr. Timothy is a trip through the sexual deviancy in Victorian England, a stark contrast of the prudish era in which the novel is set. It could probably be considered a prequel to Jack the Ripper, since Bayard’s novel shows us the dark and violent side of London. We see the buildings covered in soot from hundreds of chimneys belching smoke. We smell the Thames at low tide where the receding water reveals refuse Londoners have tossed away. We feel the bitter cold, sleet and fog that permeate thin blankets, threadbare clothing and worn shoes. No Mary Poppins or Eliza Doolittle here.

In these filthy streets, Timothy finds the bodies of two young girls. He soon encounters a third who is very much alive. He pursues her, wanting to keep her safe from the diverse people – a rich gentleman, a female ‘proprietor’ of a safe haven for orphans – eager to grab her and ‘save’ her.

Bayard’s tale gets even seedier as Tim uncovers a child prostitution ring catering to London’s elite. Why should the dukes and lords of the city degrade themselves with the common whores when they can have a younger, prettier and more importantly, pure and innocent.

Sexual perversion is a recurring theme throughout the novel and not just the mystery and Tim’s abode. He is accused of being a homosexual as his manhood is questioned more than once. And he is assaulted by his accuser.

The harshness of Mr. Timothy packs as much of a punch as A Christmas Carol, but more shocking than scary. It’s a grown up version of the Dicken’s tale. Bayard doesn’t give us a happy closing line from Tim Crachitt and he leaves a huge question unanswered.

Slow to start, Mr. Timothy draws you into the shadows and you may not want to leave.

Day 3 (cont) - Leaving Tilbury

Once we were back on board, the Prinsendam set sail. The small town of Tilbury is a commercial port city, so cruise ships do not usually dock there. Many of the townsfolk came out to see us off.

The terminal port in Tilbury.

Monica and Jeanette watch with keen interest.

Pulling away from the dock.

Captain Schoonderbeek directs the operations from the port flying bridge.

Citizens of Tilbury watch us depart.

Yes, he's going backwards. And passing us.

An old fort on the banks of the Thames.

Day 3 (cont) - Tower of London

After a roundabout, circuitous route we ended up at the Tower, a medieval fortress in the heart of London.

Rex and the boys skipped out shortly after arriving to find a pub. Unfortunately, the pubs don’t open until noon so they ended up eating at Subway, which they said wasn’t as good as back home.

Traitor's Gate

The Moat.

Water Lane

The Wall of the Inmost Ward (from Roman times)

The White Tower

The entrance to Waterloo Block where the Crown Jewels are displayed. Mom was very pleased to find they were all in her favorite color: shiny. She went through the exhibit 11 times. Photographs weren't allowed but it would've been difficult anyway because Mom kept fogging up the protective glass.

Legend has it that Charles II was told that if the ravens left the Tower, the kingdom and the fortress would fall. England isn't taking any chances.

Recreation of Edward I's chambers.

Fuzzy enjoys a rest.

The Rack. Not the real one. That would be too creepy. This is a reconstruction of one from plans found during the 1800's.

Fuzzy, Micki and Mom on the South Wall Walk.

Mom and Fuzzy in front of the Tower Bridge.

Day 3 - Bus Tour of London

Saturday morning, we headed back into London (via bus) to tour the Tower of London. We all surmised that this tour company charges by the length of the tour guide’s narrative. This woman, very knowledgeable about London and its environs, never shut up. Yes, it’s interesting to know certain facts about a city with which we are unfamiliar but we don’t need to know about speed limits or points against your driver’s license in that city. Especially since y’all drive on the left side of the road. Not right.

Still there were beautiful sights along our drive to the Tower. Many new buildings mixed in with the old.

Big Ben

British House of Parliament

The Eye of London (back in one piece thanks to the Fantastic Four)

The Tower Bridge

Statue of Sir Winston Churchill