Bahia Mar - Lauderdale

[ebb]

Please be advised: I have it on good authority, I have no reason to doubt it:

Dock F ( and Slip 18) have been demolished!

and the John D MacDonald/Travis McGee plaque removed from the marina.:mad:

[Mike Goodwin]

Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

That's a travesty , no pun intended.

[ebb]

was trying to remember if the Busted Flush (there's a name for you) was ever hauled for a bottom job?...........

[Mike Goodwin]

So happens I'm reading all the John McDonald's Travis novels again , and I seem to recall Travis cleaning the bottom while at anchor . But hauled out on the hill ,I dont remember it .
I just finished " A Purple Place for Dying" last week .

"Busted Flush" got her name because that is the hand he won her on in a poker game .

[ebb]

oh my oh my oh my, what would I give to read those novels for the first time again! Happy to find you're a McGee fan, Mike.

I don't equate the incomparable JDM with any mystery writer, for me, he's the best ever there was! And I will admit that Meyer and McGee saved my life once...but that's another story.

[Mike Goodwin]

I bet I've read 6 or 8 McGee novels since Jan.2003, for the 1st time back in the 70's and 80's.
We have a little group that we swap books around as we all have the same taste ( for the most part );
John McDonald , Elmore Leonard , Randy Wayne White, Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, older James Patterson novels ( his new stuff is crap ), Michael Connelly ,Johnathon Kellerman , Ridley Pearson and others..... I still like a Jack Higgins although his last stuff is kind of pot boiler-ish.

[Mike Goodwin]

Ironic isn't it , MacDonald could have and did predict the demise of Travis's marina . South Fla. is like a snake swallowing it's own tail .
If you haven't read any Carl Hiassen , you should. He grew up on MacDonald books in S. Fla. and has the same attitudes as Travis and more humor. He has done the forwards in the re-prints of The Mcgee series.

[ebb]

I miss Trav trying to keep his big body in shape. Miss his ethical, honorable, positive frame of reference, love of life (and fishing,) love of strong women, yearning for a true mate, his strong, compassionate and trusting friendship with Meyer.

I miss Meyer's 'lessons', McGee's salty dropout lifestyle (never paid taxes,) taking his retirement along the way! Could have used more installments of support along the way, myself, in more novels. Miss the lean and sane jabs at failed ecology, racism, pollution, hippy sick culture, corruption and adulteration of great gin. Miss the intelligent problem solving, the lifestyle, the gorgeous women.

The 21 colors as a series is as good as it gets. JDm had written half of his lifes work by the time they were begun. The stories from this professional writer are incredibly erudite yet smooth to read. The books are almost transparant for me. As good as Dickens, or any of the "great" writers - MacDonald IS a great writer. (In a way, the Gillgamesh and Enkidu myth is continued in Travis and Meyer.)

Travis is so well drawn that Hollywood could never fake the character on screen. So true that no director or scriptwriter has ever come forward to match JDM's genius. Maybe Tom Robbins would do.

It was a black Xmas when Travis and Meyer bought the farm in 1983(?.) I remember the hopeless feeling like the Kennedy murders created. Not the same, of course. because most of the rabbits didn't know who Travis McGee was.

[Mike Goodwin]

Pour yourself a glass of Boodles and listen to the gulls .

[ebb]

read on McDuff..... With all that you accomplish, Mike, when do you have time to read???
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way later EDIT. There are quite a few of us who still remember the Travis McGee series,
here's a downhome site to help a little: http://jdmhomepage.org/slip-f18.html

[Mike Goodwin]

I dont sleep much and take a book with me wherever I'm going , I'm happy to read for 5 or 10 minutes in a traffic jam, at a bridge lift or just waiting in line somewhere.
Of course I was sick for the entire month of Feb and half of March so theat gave me lots of reading time.
I'm down to about a book a week unless it rains a lot.