THE PIRATE COTTAGE is moving one week from today to Brigham City, Utah.

 

Rita and I are both from small towns (Elko, NV and Sheridan, WY respectively). Brigham City is about the population of our childhood homes, and we're still within an hour of the Salt Lake City airport should we need to go anywhere. Thanks to the Internet, I can conduct guerrilla warfare and continue to write novels the goal of which is to…well…short-circuit people's brains.

It's only a mater of time until my TIME MAGAZINE op-ed piece on finally stomping out cybercrime (see https://lnkd.in/gXkKUKMZ) becomes the only acknowledged solution to today's plague. How long are my old buddies Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff going to put up with the inadequate protection offered by Congress?

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Hit Man

Remembering My Old Man

He'd be about to turn 103 this Father's Day. At 97, I still worked NYT crossword puzzles with him, and played brain twisters with him from the Seattle newspapers.

When I was 12 years old, he said, "Rick, you're old enough to play cards for money. If I win, you and your brother Marsh work for me all summer. But if you win, you split the winnings." Since he was one of 23 attorneys in a town of 10,000 people (Sheridan, Wyoming), the law practice was his hobby. He supported the family as a professional gambler.

I agreed to play the Hollywood/Oklahoma version of Gin Rummy for a penny a point (my brother swallowed hard when I took the bet). But I had a pretty good memory for cards and cleaned out dear old dad. That was the best summer me and my brother ever had.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

In Memoriam: The Candy Bomber and Frank Herbert.

 

In this last week since Memorial Day, I've been thinking about two of my heroes who I hope got to meet in the hereafter: Gail Halvorsen, the famous WWII CANDY BOMBER, and Frank Herbert, author of DUNE with whom I became friends and who urged me to run for congress in 1978. I see Halverson's son amost every week as I work in the Draper Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And I'm about to submit a homage to Herbert in a novella THE TACTFUL SABOTEUR. When Frank sponsored my almost-successful race for congress, he said I reminded him of his short-story character "The Tactful Saboteur." My novella is a modern-day update of the concept. But this isn't about me or my writing. I just want to reminisce on two people who dramatically affected my creative view. Halverson makes me try to emulate the charity of the CANDY BOMBER, and Herbert gives me a shining star toward which I strive in my writing. Anyhow, Gail and Frank, I hope you got to meet in the far beyond. Sincerely Yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man