Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Isis thwarted
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 26/12/2019
» Until the 20th century, jihadists had no bones to pick with the US. Their ire was directed at the UK and France who coveted their lands, and the Jews trying to carve out their own. They got good press when T.E. Lawrence led the Arabs against the enemy Ottoman Turks. The silent film The Sheik romanticised them. The Riffs were favoured in their uprising against Spain. They didn't participate in the North African campaign in World War II.
Big city, small town
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 11/05/2018
» People are natural actors. Observe how they tell stories to their friends, passing on telephone conversations or what they saw or heard. They mimic and flap their arms for emphasis. Hoping for smiles or groans. Novelists aim to do the same with more words. Alas, only the better ones succeed. All too many try and fail.
How to get rich
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 09/02/2018
» During the Great Depression in the Big Apple, one of the games we played was choosing our role model among the comic strip heroes we all read. Dick Tracy, Superman and Batman got most voted. They scoffed when I picked Daddy Warbucks, the billionaire who adopted Little Orphan Annie. (“Yeah, how many bad men did he catch?”)
The 18-year itch
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/12/2017
» Contrary to poems and films, love isn't the only reason for marriage. Nor is it the strongest. Arranged marriage takes precedence. So does making the girl pregnant and doing the right thing. Indeed there's a list of reasons, not least lust -- the sap running in both the male and female.
Be prepared
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 09/06/2017
» A reporter outside my homeland for more than a half-century, I never had the gall to call myself a foreign correspondent, lacking the qualifications of working for an American publication -- my byline in India, Japan and Thailand notwithstanding -- even though Time magazine gave me an honourable mention.
A crime-busting dog
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 18/11/2016
» What is the most intelligent animal? Orangutans, dolphins and pigs are in competition for that honour. Yank author Robert Crais claims dogs. Training hones their natural skills. They have the advantage of hearing that is seven times sharper than man's, not to mention their sharp sense of smell.
First century AD
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/11/2016
» The first century AD automatically brings to mind Jesus of Nazareth. The New Testament, thought to have been penned up to a century and a half later, told of his extraordinary birth, miracles and ascension to heaven. Two millennia later, circa a billion people believe it.
An enduring spirit
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 18/01/2016
» With the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the world entered the atomic age. More devastating hydrogen bombs were tested, weapons of mass destruction indeed. The US and USSR rattled theirs at each other over the next 44 years, until the Soviets called it a day and the Cold War was over.
Journalists are fair game
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 03/08/2015
» With Yank James Patterson, alone and with co-authors, penning a crime thriller a fortnight, this reviewer is falling behind writing critiques. But, on the whole, they are compelling page-turners and worthy of your attention. To their further credit, they aren't copies of one another.
An honest lawyer
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/02/2014
» Truth be told — I’m a sucker for courtroom dramas. Inherit The Wind, Witness For The Prosecution and Judgement At Nuremberg are my all-time favourites. Some courtroom novels or plays are adapted to the screen, others made into movies or television shows. Many remain in book form.