Mark Pryor's Blog, page 9

Look what arrived!

The books not the kids! I've had the pleasure of their company for a while.










(My wife's away so I had my kids take pics of me holding some books. Apparently they won't grow up to be photographers . . .  or surgeons.)





But that's okay, they are much cuter than me anyway.

Mysterious disappearances... should we keep looking?

And by "we," I mean someone else.  I'm kinda busy lately.



But what made me ask the question was this article at CNN about Jimmy Hoffa, another tip led to another fruitless search for his body.  Should we spend the public's time and money looking, after almost 40 years?



You tell me.



It did get me wondering about other mysterious disappearances, though, and a little research dug up (hehe) a few I didn't know about.  And as a mystery writer, you can bet some of these got my ima...

Books, books, books...

Who doesn't love 'em, eh?



I have some good news for the criminals of Austin, so I'll start with a message to them: first, if you're reading this on a laptop or iPad, please return it to its rightful owner.  Thanks.



Next, I ask this not just because it's the right thing to do, but because you'll have plenty of time over the next few weeks to exercise your felonious habits.  By the way, do you suppose Felonius Monk wore felonious habits?  Or do just nuns wear habits?



Sorry, tr...

Gun-toting bobbies? Not on your nelly...

You may have read about the tragedy in Manchester, England, where two police officers (both women) were killed.



Inevitably, when this happens in the UK there is a call from some quarters for police officers to be given guns.  The opposing cry then rings out loud and clear: "No bloody thanks!"



My last post mockingly used the term "quaint" and it's appropriate here, too, maybe.  That modern-day police in a busy, crowded nation dash off to emergencies with a truncheon as their only w...

Oh you English, how quaint you be

Even though I've been in the States for almost twenty years, I keep up with English news and sports all the time. I prefer the sports, frankly, and the news seems a little less... biased? Amateurish?

(And yes, I'm totally ignoring the phone hacking scandal and the newspaper with the boobs on page three every day.)

So imagine my surprise when I turn to the trusty BBC for my daily dose of news and sports and find something that, over here, might appear on the pages of The Onion.

There are two part...

What's it like to try a case? Picture this...

I'm often asked what it's like to try a case in front of a jury, in terms of the step-by-step process and also what's it's like for me.  As a writer, you'd think a flowery description would satisfy those interested in my answer.



But even a writer knows that a picture can be worth a thousand words.



So here it is:



First, I eyeball the jury panel...









Then I try to weed out the less analytical ones,









and retain the intelligent, ones who express themselves well.









Once that's do...

A rare moment

As I prepare to head out for my weekly ride-out with APD, a moment from last week.

We respond to an accident, a car crash during rush hour on a busy street running through east Austin. When we get there, both cars have pulled into a small parking lot. Both are damaged but driveable.

I see two men standing and talking. Ten feet away, a younger man is texting on his phone. My immediate assumptions:
no one was hurtthe two men were in one car, the young man in the other (probably caused it by textin...

Circular reasoning - it's easy!

We have a fairly new roundabout near our house, in a shopping center that we use frequently.  Now, I'm well aware that I grew up using roundabouts in England and Europe, and that they're not so common here.



But bloody hell.



Here's what it looks like:


|

-- O --

|


It's really pretty easy.  You drive up to the damn thing, see if the road is clear, and then enter slowly, missing the concrete curb and not driving over the grass.  Like I do.



Serious question: do they not put t...

Kids on a Plane

I've been reading news stories about an airline policy that forbids men from sitting next to unaccompanied kids on flights. A couple of times, men have been asked to swap seats with women because their neighbor is a child (or two) traveling alone. One story here, another here.

One of the men (a nurse, the other was a fireman) says the experience was humiliating because the whole cabin was watching, no doubt wondering why this chap was being asked to move away from a child.

Now, I have kids and...

Stop picking on the 'tutes!

We have all manner of discrimination in the U.S., based on race, color, religious beliefs, sexual orientation. . . and while you might think we have enough to argue about right there, how about a new target?



Prostitutes.



Okay, so it's not happening here in America, but check this out: in Australia, a prostitute sued a hotel because they refused to let her rent one of their rooms for work purposes.  She didn't just sue for access to the room, either, but for the equivalent of $30,000.


...