Heston RIP?

Well last week Charlton Heston died. I have certainly enjoyed some of his movies over the years, but I think he totally undermined his own popularity by his own actions as President of the NRA. Not that I have a problem with gun ownership. There are plenty of responsible gun owners, but you can't legally allow something as dangerous as guns amid the public without rules, because not everyone is going to be so trustworthy with them, which is why in Canada, since we instituted the FAC (Firearms Acquisition Certificate), no one can legally own a firearm without also undergoing rather extensive training in how to safely use firearms. They don't have that in the US, so the average gun owner in the US relies on Uncle Bubba to train him/her on the safe use of firearms.

A rather interesting and politically unpopular fact has come out in a Canadian study that looked at the drop in accidents, injuries and deaths related to firearms, and it showed that the drop did not coincide with the rise in regulation, but with the creation of the FAC.

But I digress. I didn't blog today with the intention of debating gun control, but was merely pointing out some reasons why, when I heard the news of Ben-Hur's death, I couldn't really be bothered. But in his obituary, I learned something that I didn't know....

Charlton Heston isn't his real name. It was John Carter.

Yes, you might wonder why the hell was his name changed from such a manly, easy to say in a western sense name? Well, as it turns out there already was a man named John Carter, and he had been gracing the pages of pulp novels for some time. Only the geeky set would today know about Edgar Rice Burroughs and and his series of novels that started with John Carter of Mars. Wanting to distance himself from the titular character, he changed it to Heston.

I thought that was kinda funny. So that explains why Heston did what he did with the NRA. He'd spent too much time on Mars.

So in honour of this discovery, here's a what if thing that was posted on Ain't It Cool this week.

A RAMBLING MAN...

It has been a very long time since I posted last, and if you only know about what I’m up to through my blog, then you’d think I was still in Miramichi! Alas, I’m back, and then some. I have traveled more in this year than I have in my entire life. It has been quite a ride. So I thought I’d run through a condensed version of what I’ve been up to since September.

I arrived in Miramichi and thoroughly enjoyed my stay. It was great seeing Robby and the family again. I do find it strange that even though they don’t live here any more, I saw them so infrequently that it doesn’t really feel like they are gone.


On the first day, I got to see Fatkat. It looks like a really nice studio, and the people really seem to be quite nice. I must say that I was really impressed with the place, and once having seen it, I have at least added Miramichi as a possible place to move to.

The second day we went to the beach. I’d never seen the sea before, so this was quite a sight. The place was called Escuminac Park, and they had a nice place to sit and eat lunch in.



On my last day, I went for a walk and found this little path that led down to the shore. It was another hidden gem in the town.



But in the end, I did have a train to catch, and headed back home. Again, I was put in cabin 7, 007 for the trip back. In the end, what I got most out of the trip was to see my friends again, saw a beautiful city, and discovered a love of train travel.


I didn’t go anywhere in October, but in November I went off to Vicky and Anders and tested out my new 3-season tent, and my all season insulating mattress with my sleeping bag that is rated to –12 degrees. It was a lot of fun getting really rugged, and surviving the experience. I was well prepared and supplied. It sounds crazy to try sleeping outside in the snow, even when the temperature dropped to –15 degrees Celsius. I was fine.


The tent look twisted only because in my rush to put the tent up, I forgot to attach the Velcro fasteners on the tent cover to the support poles, so when the weight of the snow pushed on it, it twisted.


Once I had the straps attached, the tent took on its more natural shape.


On the last night, I took my food thermometer into the tent to illustrate just how warm it was inside. It was –5 outside, but inside, as you can see, it was 15 above (it went up past 15 after I took this picture), a full twenty degrees warmer.


The next trip I went on was at Christmas. My brother and I had to go on a family gathering of sorts, which would take us across two provinces, and staying in 5 cities. The car we rented turned out to be a Pontiac Grand Prix GT.


If I may turn into an episode of Top Gear, I have this to say about the car. If I have the stats to the right model, it’s a 3.8L V6 engine with 260 HP. Being used to riding in econo-boxes, this was a very different beast entirely. When you put the foot down to pass another car ahead, it just happens without much fuss. It accelerates in a slow but steady lumbering fashion, but it was strange that once we pulled back into the right lane after passing the other car, you really felt like it was just starting to go. We never did find out where the acceleration petered out and slowed, but that’s because my brother is a very good driver. I think it was lucky that we didn’t come to any corners, or windy roads because I’m not sure how this American Highway car would have reacted. We would have probably ended up in the ditch. I would have to sum up the drive in these terms: “It’s a bit like making love to a woman through a duvet cover. You know there is something really great going on, but you can’t really feel it.” This car separates you from the feel of driving so much that you don’t really feel a part of the driving experience. And that’s not good.

But I digress. We left home and stopped at a place called Grand Falls near the northwestern border of New Brunswick. This was the view out of our motel window. Rather nice I would say.


So the next day we headed out and arrived in Miramichi again to see Rob and his family, and then we headed out to Saint John to see family. Then we went back to Miramichi for Christmas dinner, then the next day we made a beeline for Quebec City. Now I’ve never been there, but this was the view out of the hotel the night we arrived.


I really fell in love with this city. I’ve been saying that if you can’t afford a trip across the Atlantic to see Europe, then Quebec City is the next best thing. We spent the entire stay in the old section of Quebec City.


We found this restaurant called the Continental, which was across the street from the French consulate. We ate dinner there, and I had the best scallops I have ever eaten before. When I go to restaurants, I usually come away feeling a bit unimpressed, as I usually could cook a better dinner myself. At the Continental, I found a dinner that was better than I could, but only just, which I found not only surprising, but made me feel good about my self taught culinary skills.


On our way back home we found Dinosaurs. They didn’t bite, as they were already eating fish.


We made a stop in Montreal to have Chalet Barbecue. It’s a local secret, and they make the best barbecue chicken in town. Forget Swiss Chalet and St. Hubert.

The last trip I went on, of which I only got back last Saturday, was to Windsor Ontario, with a short trip to Detroit. I was doing research for my book that I wrote. I needed to see the places I wrote about and see where I had to tweak things, having seen the place in person. I had a really nice view of Detroit out of my window. So I can now say that Detroit is a beautiful city, from a distance. It was a really incredible experience going around finding out where my character might have lived, worked, and ate. It really blurred the boundary between reality and fantasy, and it was thoroughly rewarding.




So that’s what I’ve been up to. Things are going to calm down from now on I think, and get back to normal. I need to make the alteration with the information I have learned from seeing Windsor and Detroit, and once that’s done, it’s back to work.