COLD WAR PARANOIA JUSTIFIED!!! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!

And I'm here to tell you it coulda happened, on account of it just happened to me yesterday. No, really. See, when I do these e-blasts, I inevitably make a few mistakes. Like misspelling the word "Irresistible" in the blessed opening heading! Or saying right at the end of the first damn paragraph that THE HAWK at Road America runs from July 7-19 (it's actually July 17-19). Or leaving off a damn web link. Or repeating a word twice in one sentence. Or having a whole chunk of a freaking paragraph go Missing In Action.

Naturally I try to minimize such things by sending myself the e-blast first and then looking at it again when I get to my office. Usually (at least in decent weather) after a nice, mind-clearing bicycle ride that takes me through a couple cemeteries. There's nothing that gives you perspective like pedaling through a cemetery and watching a bunch of happy squirrels and chipmunks chasing each other around the tombstones....

 

Only this time I didn't send the "e-blast-to-be-edited" to myself. Nope, after being up since around 4:30am or so (WARNING: EXCUSE ALERT!!!!), I hit the wrong damn button and sent it to you all.

Errors, warts and all.

Damn.

So, if you care, here are the corrections:

1) Header. Yes, I know "Irresistable" is really spelled "Irresistible"

2) I have the word "above" twice (which is certainly once more than absolutely necessary) in the sentence below the Turkish Bath House diorama. And if you didn't catch the Turkish Bath House diorame (complete with nekked ladies), you need to go back and look a little more carefully.

3) Middle of the MAMA story: yes, I know other descriptive modifiers besides "amazing" (although that is one of my favorites ever since a past editor/publisher threatened to fire me if I ever used "gobsmacked" or "gob-smacking" again). And then he fired me anyway....

4) Sentence about Jeeps should read "Jeep models for the rough-riders (or at least those wanting to LOOK like rough riders) among us"

5) In the section about the fine (?) Spam-derived cuisine at Steve Crowley's Alfas-and-Spam cookout, Steve reminded me that I forgot to mention the "Boles Caliente"  (hot spam balls), which I was intelligent enough not to consume.

6)THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT: I totally screwed up the links to the Part 1 and Part 2 BS Levy interviews with Mark Green on his oh-so-excellent CARS, YEAH audio & podcast site. So, if you haven't already had a lifetime supply of listening to me mouth off, please

CLICK HERE!!!

BTW, Mark's site is an absolute gold mine/treasure trove/sink hole of interesting and/or important car people telling their stories (or telling stories, at any rate) and I highly recommend a bit of browsing. But bring a pot of coffee and some sandwiches. You'll be there awhile (also wonderful entertainment for road trips!).

7) ALSO IMPORTANT! PRINTER'S ROW LIT FEST UPDATE!: We now know (as of late last night) that I'll be buttonholing passers-by and trying like hell to interest them in my books on the west side of TENT PP (not to be confused with the pee-pee enclosures that will surely be scattered around the LitFest landscape), which will be kind of off to the east at the FAR south-east end of the Dearborn Street LitFest gauntlet run (right near the EAST entrance gate and directly across the street from the hoary and historic DEARBORN STREET STATION at Dearborn & Polk streets. Carol and I will be there from noon to 4pm (along with a bunch of other desperate authors) on Sunday, June 7th. Do drop by and say "Hi." I'll probably try to give you flyers to hand out....

8) Isn't that enough?

*for those of you who noticed the asterisk (I ain't saying where) here's an honor-only (in other words, no prizes) bonus trivia question:

What's the name of the movie and who's the actor shown in mid-leap?