Home

Operation Glenn Miller
Written by Leo Kessler (AKA Charles Whiting)
Published: 2001 by Severn House Publishers (UK and US)
Pages:212 

Glenn Miller, for those of you not familiar with the name, was a popular bandleader in the late 30s/early 40’s. At the height of his career, Miller disbanded his hugely popular orchestra and enlisted in the Army, creating a band there that was hugely popular with the servicemen and women and with the general public. In June of ‘44, Miller and his AAF band were transferred to England. In December, Glenn got on board a plane bound for Paris and was never seen again

For those of you who are familiar with my writing, you know I wrote a Hogan’s Heroes story with “guest character” Major Glenn Miller. I had never written anything in my fiction with real people before and don’t intend to make a habit of it after this. LOL. However, while looking through Amazon.com one day for Glenn Miller CD’s and whatnot I came upon this book. Operation Glenn Miller.

Of course, I could find no synopsis for it and had no idea what the plot was, but it was fiction and it obviously had something to do with Miller and by golly I was gonna get my hands on this thing to see what it entailed. Getting a hold of the book however, proved a test of patience. I attempted to order it through Amazon.com but after 6 months of “We’re unable to locate this product, do you still want the order to remain?” Amazon finally gave up. My order was suspended and my $ credited back to me.

I kinda gave up on the book after that. Then one day a couple of months ago, I decided to try again, only this time I checked out the “Used” section of Amazon.com and found a copy available. I placed my order and a few days later I had the book in hand.

A brief skim of the book indicated that Miller was in the story itself as a character. This had been the Big Question in regards to my wanting to get the book to begin with. Is Miller in it? What the heck kinda plot are we talkin’ here? How is he portrayed?

Friends….sit down for my Critical Review of “Operation Glenn Miller.”

In my few short years of Studying All That Is Miller, I think I’ve come across just about every half-baked conspiracy theory there is out there as to what really happened to him. Various “fictional crap” (as Miller’s biographer George Simon put it) have speculated that he ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed by black marketers, he dropped dead upon arrival in Paris, he dropped dead at a whore house in Paris, he took off to save Marlene Dietrich when the Battle of the Bulge began (hell, what red blooded American male wouldn’t have done that?), ect., ect…

One conspiracy theory even claims that Miller was shot to death in Ohio in May of 1945. Although this theory fails to account for where the heck he was between December ‘44 and May ‘45, the theory has a mysterious Doctor X, who on a radio show in 1993, claimed to have been the doctor in attendance when the wounded Miller was brought in. Now, really, what good is a conspiracy theory without a mysterious Doctor X?! By the way, you can purchase a copy of this “famed” radio broadcast on the internet for the low sum of $80.

Anyway, I digress. I’ve read it all folks. And I was glad to know that at least my story, which will incorporate Miller’s disappearance as part of the plot in the third segment but is in no way a conspiracy theory, can serve as something good for the legacy of Mr. Miller, instead of being something akin to tabloid journalism. Really bad tabloid journalism. Read more

 

What Does Your Car Color Say About You? <--- Das Link. LOL

Hopefully the above link still works. LOL. A recent study in the UK found that the color of a car says a lot about it's driver. They concluded....

• Black cars denote an aggressive personality or someone who’s an outsider or rebel.
• Silver cars indicate someone who’s cool, calm and slightly aloof.
• Green cars can often be chosen by people with hysterical tendencies.
• Yellow cars signify someone who is idealistic and novelty loving.
• Blue cars are chosen by the more introspective, reflective and cautious driver.
• Gray cars represent those who are calm, sober and dedicated to their work.
• Red cars denote those who are full of zest, energy and drive and who think, move and talk quickly.
• Pink cars are chosen by gentle, loving and affectionate drivers.
• White cars represent status-seeking extrovert drivers.
• Cream cars are the least likely to be involved in accidents and denote self-contained and controlled owners.

Upon hearing that this study came from the UK, I found it interesting considering one of the best known car colors to come out of jolly ol’ England is “British Racing Green.”

So by all intents and purposes, the English are hysterical??? Hysterically funny yes (ie, Benny Hill, Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances…) but not exactly hysterical as in frantic or panic stricken. At least, I’ve never got that impression.

Anyway, although I found the study interesting I had to take a little issue with it. Like… wouldn’t this survery have to take into account the people who are driving a car that is the color they WANT as opposed to people, like me, who are driving a car that is whatever color it was when it was bought and the color of the car was not a determining factor in the purchase of said car??

Case in point. My car is black but I’m about as aggressive as Ghandi. However, if I had my choice, my car would be painted blue. And thus, the introspective, reflective and cautious driver would be a correct description. Tho’ it’s odd to have a reflective, cautious, introspective driver driving a Firebird. But then again it’s only a V6….

 

  

I actually have two cars and the other one is green. Me? Hysterical? WHO YOU CALLING HYSTERICAL?!?!?  Heh heh…

More interesting is thinking of some chracters I’ve introduced in this new story my partner-in-fictional crime and I have been working on these past few months, and the cars they drive. First is Lieutenant Jack Morrison, driving the standard issue gray Chevy Caprice unmarked sedan. Now, I suppose he could have been randomly assigned a car, but maybe he had a choice. And if he did, the color fits. Jack, for the most part, is calm, sober and dedicated to his work.

Meanwhile, a colorful underworld character by the name of Jiji drives a cream colored Cadillac. “Cream cars are the least likely to be involved in accidents and denote self-contained and controlled owners.”  Okay, I had to look up “self-contained” or rather synonyms of and….Jiji is definetly an independent, self-sufficient individual. He’s a gambler, in the “Maverick” tradition. If Brett and Bart Maverick aren’t good examples of independent, self-sufficient individuals, I don’t know what is. LOL

Then of course, we have MaryAnne, who has traded her blue Firebird for her black Olds Tornado in this adventure. (Even the model name is aggresive. Tornado! Look out, MaryAnne’s blowin’ through! GAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!! LOL). Ironically, MaryAnne’s involvement in this story does put her in the “outsider” category. She’s neither cop, nor criminal….yet crosses over the blue and black lines with ease. (Scary actually.) LOL.

So perhaps car color really does say something about our personalities, at least for those of us who have a car that’s in the color of our choice. LOL. Obviously within the deep recesses of my mind when I’m thinking of cars for characters I end up picking colors that match character personality….even when I don’t have the characters fully developed yet, and don’t know what the colors represent. Now THAT’S scary. 

 

Greetings and salutations! Welcome to my blog. An outlet for all the various crap floating around in my head that I never get a chance to share with anyone because either I don’t have an appropriate venue or I just don’t have an appropriate venue. Heh heh! Please note that the stage dressing for this show will change as I get settled in here. But I thought it was about time I opened up and said something. Ya think?! LOL

First a big thank you to Meadowmufn for helping set this up! Now that Brian and I have blogs we’ll be trading blogbarbs and commentary from here forth. I’ll also be adding various other entertaining, educational and totally useless things. Needless to say, this should all be interesting!

So stay tuned for Chaos by Coltrane. We set (and break) the rule in unruliness. Khee!