My mention of Partying with Charlie in yesterday’s Buzzyblog post reminded me of a John Steinbeck book I read many years ago Travels With Charley (click here.) Whereas I was talking about Charlie Simms, Steinbeck’s Charley was his pet dog. No doubt in my mind as to which one us can rightfully claim the better companion.
Early in his book, Steinbeck describes how during Hurricane Donna he swam out to try and rescue his boat. As he did so, he described the reverse wind effect and how it complicated his task in trying to rescue his boat. (The reverse wind effect occurs when the wind whips in from one direction but after the eye of the storm passes thru, the wind then comes in from the other direction.)
I just heard a Weather Channel dude talk about this last week. Every time I hear someone explain this phenomena I think back to reading about it in Steinbeck’s Charley book 60 some years ago. Funny thing is that while I don’t remember one single thing about Steinbeck’s most famous book Grapes of Wrath, I always recall this little bit of hurricane trivia he laid on me such a long time ago. The mind retains what it wants to I guess.
Another irony about this other “JS” talking about his Charley connection is that thru the years there have been some critics who have opined that John made up many of his so called encounters with folks across the USA. For one such review (click here.) Tending to confirm these allegations, there is this Wiki note:
Conversely, most of what I write IS true. That is because the characters I meet in Buzzy’s, coupled with the stories that they tell are so good that I don’t have to make anything up! (Note however, that I did say MOST is true!)
Great travel tune here written by Gram Parsons and Tim Brown covered by Adam and company. Gram’s original version with Emmy Lou is worth a listen to also (click here.)