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Matt Phillips's avatar

Love it. Thanks for sharing some of your inspirations.

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Benjamin Liar's avatar

Thanks bud! Obviously my BIGGEST inspiration is Jimmy McNulty from The Wire, but I couldn't figure out how to make that work thematically

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Marylou's avatar

I digress (from boats) but Yes, some failures are beautiful

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Benjamin Liar's avatar

SOME of them!

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Betsy Wollheim's avatar

OH, and wasn't that band who had a call-in number for the song of the day They Might Be Giants?

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Benjamin Liar's avatar

Yes! That's not the band I was thinking of but that phone call-in thing was AWESOME. That's my buddy Len's favorite band.

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Betsy Wollheim's avatar

Peter and Zoe opened for them in Albany and Ithaca. They wanted Peter to open on their nationwide tour, but I'd have to take weeks (or months) off work to drive after the tour bus (which had no space for us). Plus the Johns (that's what I call them) were not driving in any reasonable cross country manner--just bopping around all over the place, and it would have been too much driving and too little money to make sense for us.

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Benjamin Liar's avatar

HOLY COW! That's incredible!

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Betsy Wollheim's avatar

Well, this was very interesting. I've never built a boat but I've sailed in lots of wooden ships. I even sailed up the coast of Yorkshire in a beautiful wooden 48 ft catamaran, painted every color of the rainbow (the sails were royal blue, the mast and deck were bright yellow and the hull was red) with my friend Margery and a MADMAN (he owned the boat). I have to tell you about that some time.

ALSO, one of my besest, bestest friends is an author I used to work with in the 90s but who stopped writing fantasy. Guess what he does now? He builds boats for fun (when he's not skiing, skating, hiking, sailing, and doing all sorts of sports that I can't do). Here's a photo of my friend Sean: OH, WELL--it won't post so I'll just have to send it by email. Shucks.

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Benjamin Liar's avatar

I am more jealous than you can possibly ever imagine! I've never even TOUCHED an actual wooden boat. It's on my bucket list to sail on one, though.

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Betsy Wollheim's avatar

I sailed a single mast, single jib sloop at camp (we were all taught sailing) but now I'm too seasick to sail (except possibly on a catamaran which doesn't pitch as much.) plus my balance sucks and balance is imperative on a sailboat!

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Michele Sharpe's avatar

All failures are good.

Still thinking about your Failures novel, and I read it 2 months ago after it somehow got in a stack of library books I was checking out. Avidly awaiting your next one.

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