Finally a great book review from the hard-boiled former editor for Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler, and Hunter S. Thompson.

 

"…wonderful fun to read, from start to finish…convincing and compelling for even a skeptical cynic like me…winner here…thoroughly credible…a wonderful vision…a splendid conception, brilliantly executed…deep, spiritual piece of work…" Alan Rinzler (former editor for Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler, and Hunter S. Thompson. My literary agent asked former editor Alan Rinzler to look at one of my early novels. He didn't like it. I asked if it needed editiing. He said it needed a blowtorch. Yikes, that bad? Conventional wisdom, I later found out, was that you should burn your first million words. I took that to heart and paid attention to "learning my craft." The same agent submitted my manuscript for DESTROYING ANGEL to Rinzler for his critical review, and he gushed over it. One of the biggest ironies of my life is that I never swung a movie deal for a book that could have made the careers of many women actors. Sigh. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man

A wasp decoy that replaces the wasp killers that capture and then starve them?

 

I'm getting soft in my old age. Last year we replaced the wasp death traps that torture them in favor of decoys. The theory is that wasps are territorial and will not venture into other wasp's nests. These decoys seemed to do the trick. We did the same thing with vole repellant, rather than the chemicals that not only kill the voles but the predator birds that eat the dead voles. My wife just stuffs moth balls into the vole holes. Moth balls drive voles off our property. I call this positive messages (advertising) to pests. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Humane Ad Hit Man

“It's not whether you win or lose, it's how good you looked doing it!” David Lee Roth of Van Halen

 

My buddy Charlie Engar and I had a bike ride that didn't interfere with showing up at Arlyn Anderson's son's wedding reception. It was down the hill from us, so we just dropped in. Arlyn had his photographer queued up to get this photo, which he sent to us. Standing behind me, Charlie died last year of a brain tumor. The day before he died, I showed him this photo from my phone. He laughed one last time. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man

My creative for Post Modern Computing scared them so badly, they never hired me. Maybe my pitting them against Microsoft's OLE was a bad idea?

Sigh. Sincerely yours Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man

The old TV show HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL inspired this headline.

 

Interestingly, MR Rangaswami and Jorge Lopez went on to spectacular careers as VC/Indiaspora founder and Gartner guru respectively.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man