Michael Carnell

Blogs I Read – Exercise #25

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My five favorite blogs. Wow, now there is a dangerous request. I have some good friends who blog. And I have some great people I admire. And there there are blogs I enjoy reading. And then there are blogs I read just solely for the technical information – whatever the field. So when I saw the exercise for today, day twenty-five, and it says “your 5 Wonghands Bloggingfavorite blogs”, I knew I had to do something different. I don’t want to overlook anything important, but I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings either.  So instead of my five “favorite” blogs, I am going to list here the five blogs I like that are not run by friends and a couple you probably haven’t heard of. How is that for the cowards way out?

So first off, let’s look at Bring-A-Trailer. This site is for car buffs like me who always dream of the hidden find. It is the worst nightmare of our wives. Bring-A-Trailer lists unusual cars for sale that are often in need of restoration; hence the need to “bring a trailer” to retrieve them.  Looking right now, the three most recently listed finds are a 1959 Triumph TR3 (had one of those), a 19k-Mile 1973 Ford E-Series Club Wagon (no desire for that), and a 1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal that has been in storage since 1988 (that would be kind of interesting). A fun site, an interesting diversion, and a constant exposure to the unusual.

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Not Your Typical Childhood Book – Exercise #24

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When I was a kid, my mother would read to me for hours, I loved it.Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbettir?t=palmettobugdigit&l=as2&o=1&a=0195622553That simple act has had a great affect on me and is the key to my answer for today’s exercise. Exercise number twenty-four out of thirty-one is to detail my favorite childhood book. The answer to that may actually answer a lot of questions about my personality.

My mother saw no reason to stick to kids books when reading to me. Basically, if the subject was interesting and I could handle and understand it, then it was fare game. Game. Huh. The book I remember the most and will call my favorite was Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett. To quote Amazon,

Corbett was also an author of great renown. His books on the man-eating tigers he once tracked are not only established classics, but have by themselves created almost a separate literary genre. Man Eaters of Kumaon is the best known of Corbett’s books, one which offers ten fascinating and spine-tingling tales of pursuing and shooting tigers in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of this century. The stories also offer first-hand information about the exotic flora, fauna, and village life in this obscure and treacherous region of India, making it as interesting a travelogue as it is a compelling look at a bygone era of big-game hunting.

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