AMAZON GIVES LEE CHILD’S HERO A PROPER METAMORPHOSIS AT LONG LAST! OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED ON 4 SEPTEMBER. WELCOME ALAN RITCHSON.

At 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, 37 years old Ritchson is the new Reacher – much closer to Lee Child’s description of the physically imposing character (who is described as standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 250 pounds) – Tom Cruise is 5’6” and 170 lbs – that must be one of the worst bit of casting I can remember.   

Child said of the recasting:

“I really enjoyed working with Cruise. He’s a really, really nice guy. We had a lot of fun. But ultimately the readers are right. The size of Reacher is really, really important and it’s a big component of who he is…So what I’ve decided to do is – there won’t be any more movies with Tom Cruise. Instead we’re going to take it to Netflix or something like that. Long-form streaming television, with a completely new actor. We’re rebooting and starting over …” Lee Child in November 2018.

CELEBRATED IN A FEW IMAGES … MORE TO COME

BBC Radio 5 Live@bbc5live·7 Sep”A cold shower a day keeps the doctor away.”

Wim Hof aka ‘The Iceman’ [@Iceman_Hof] explains to @tonylivesey why his freezing shower technique is worth trying.

Listen via @BBCSounds

https://bbc.in/3jVCh1e https://pic.twitter.com/3DbdjC9vTzReplying to @bbc5live @Iceman_Hof and 2 others

Red Stag roaring https://youtu.be/1-3A9JAzCt0 via @YouTube

Red Deer Stag Bellowing – Bradgate Park – 2018-10 https://youtu.be/o0f5n9qDqsk via @YouTube

“EXERCISED A QUITE CLINICAL MANIPULATION OF POWER WORLDWIDE WHILE MASQUERADING AS A FORCE FOR UNIVERSAL GOOD.

Harold Pinter – Nobel Lecture https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2005/pinter/25621-harold-pinter-nobel-lecture-2005/

I LITERALLY GREW-UP WITH HER AND THE AVENGERS 1961 – 1969. While staying at Nain & Taid’s, I used to watch Emma and Jonathan Steed, with them, as a treat, on their black and white TV, of course.

She enjoyed a long and distinguished acting career on stage, in film and on television. The range of her roles was enormous, from serious drama to high camp – becoming a Dame was well deserved. And, of course, she was the only Bond girl to get 007 to the altar.a

As for the tune? Encapsulates a big part of my teenhood! The Avengers TV Intro – Season 5 – 1966 https://youtu.be/10QW3Az1FTw via @YouTube

There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find,
Nor can his Watch Fiends find it; but the Industrious find
This Moment & it multiply; & when it once is found
It renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed.
In this Moment Ololon descended to Los & Enitharmon,
Unseen beyond the Mundane Shell, Southward in Milton’s track. in each Day


Just in this Moment when the morning odours rise abroads,
And first from the Wild thyme, stands a Fountain in a r
Of crystal flowing into two Streams: one flow thro’ Golgonooza
And thro’ Beulah to Eden, beneath Los’s western wall;
The other flows thro’ the Aerial Void & all the Churches,
Meeting again in Golgonooze beyond Satan’s Seat.

From Blake's 'Milton'

Evil Fate

To lift a weight so heavy,
Would take your courage, Sisyphus!
Although one's heart is in the work,
Art is long and Time is short.

Far from famous sepulchers
Toward a lonely cemetery
My heart, like muffled drums,
Goes beating funeral marches.

Many a jewel lies buried
In darkness and oblivion,
Far, far away from picks and drills;

Many a flower regretfully
Exhales perfume soft as secrets
In a profound solitude.

Baudelaire  tr. William Aggeler (Flowers of Evil, 1857)