Among the wonders one finds online, the Simple Sabotage Field Guide is an absolute must have in the pulp hero library (and in a writer’s box of resources).
The book is a 1944 field guide distributed by OSS – the precursor of CIA.
The pdf version of this small booklet can be found here.
As the clearance stamp notes “Use this information as you see fit”.
… ok, so probably it’s not really from the USMC.
But it sure suggests a lot of story ideas.
I took a tour of the Forebears website – a huge, wonderful resource for genealogical research1.
And of course I checked out my family name.
Turns out that Mana is the 8.487th most common surname in the world, so that about 67.000 people share my family name.
Quite a lot2.
But here the fun bit starts, because if we look at the distribution of these cousins of mine…
… turns out the Mana family name is prevalent in India, while the highest density of Mana is to be found in French Polynesia.
And as the Forebears site points out…
The meaning of this surname is not known.
Exotic and mysterious, eh?
If we talk about Technicolor epics in exotic, Arabian-Nights-style eastern locations – the stuff of Tits & Sand, if you will – we can’t ignore the beautiful Maria Montez.
Born María África Antonia García Vidal de Santo Silas in 19121 , daughter of the Spanish Consul in the Dominican Republic, Montez struck gold in Hollywood with a series of movies shot between 1942 and 1945, in which she was partnered with actor Jon Hall.
The postman delivered today my Halloween gift1, Steve White’s Dinosaur Hunter, freshly pressed by Osprey Publishing.
Yes, that Osprey Publishing – the one that had me spending extravagant amounts of money on marvelously-illustrated, authoritative books about pirates, samurai, assorted World Wars and what else.
Described as The Ultimate Guide to the Biggest Game, White’s book is basically a handbook for, well, big game hunters interested in bagging themselves a dinosaur.
The book – which comes in a backpack-friendly 200+ pages thick paperback – is essentially the orientation manual for those lucky individuals that have passed the preliminary selection for a Mesozoic hunting license.
Mesozoic Hunting Corporation (C) provides the gear and the means of transportation. Continue reading
Karavansara 