Showing posts with label Flashman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flashman. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Which 1st Lady Probably Has Eaten at Illinois Bar & Grill? Come on!

Ist Ladies of Spain, France and USA
Ist Burger USA

Dude One "Oh dang. Did you see that chick that just walked past?"
Dude Two "Yeah bro, sure did. She's a totally cheeseburger." from the Urban Dictionary
Indeed? Rather . . . Urbane translation - E'Gad, Sir! Well, they were likely big wenches, certainly, and they bounced along very jolly, but when I watch a wobbling buttock I prefer it to be unobscured by a dangling skull. And I’m no hand with women who look as though they’d rather kill and eat me than grapple in the grass.Flash For Freedom!, p.76, Pan edition, 8th printing, 1980.


With all due deference to our 1st Lady's Charter to eliminate choice in gustation, I hurl defiance in defense of Choice! I say, there ain't nothing in this breathing world that is anything like a . . .( no, Not Dame!) cheeseburger with the works at Illinois Bar and Grill!

Take a gander at the ground round and the trimmings above in the photo - No, not the one of the three wives of State - the one on the hefty paper plate.

Illinois Bar and Grill is working man's chow in a working man's neighborhood -Chicago's Archer Heights and home to Polish and Mexican Americans who know the business end of the shovel and the fork.

Illinois Bar and Grill
4135 W 47th St
(between Kedvale Ave & Keeler Ave)
Chicago, IL 60632
Neighborhood: Archer Heights

(773) 847-2525

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Harry Paget Flashman and George Macdonald Fraser - R.I.P.




Te Deum! Non Nobis Sed Te Deum!

Well, that was what the old Anglo/Catholic rituals and send-offs should ring from England's fields and forests. But - I prefer this quote from Flashy from Flashman's Lady:


"I'm not proud of what happened in the next moment. Of course, I was very young and thoughtless, and my great days of instant flight and evasion were still ahead of me, but even so, with ... my native cowardice to boot, my reaction was inexcusable ... in my youthful folly and ignorance, I absolutely stood there gaping ..." at a lusty busted Temptress!

In my Freshman year at Loyola University (1970) I was introduced to the world of history by Father Charles Ronan, S. J. and to the one created by George MacDonald Fraser, a Scottish novelist with a jeweler's eye for history, and his creation - Harry Paget Flashman. Fraser took a 19th Century villain of Tom Brown's School Day and developed the greatest scoundrel, lecher, coward, hypocrite, swindler, pimp, cheat, drunkard, and lay-about into the most affecting and charming rouge in literature.

History often presents us with idealized heroes who often can not withstand the careful eye of truth and our delusions and illusions cast us into funks of depression and incivility. Not so our villains. George MacDonald Fraser once said that he always rooted for the 'bad guys' in adventure stories and movies- Basil Rathbone over Errol Flynn; Aaron Burr over Thomas Jefferson; Mike Tyson over Anyone.

George Mac Donald Fraser died but his character Flashman - Flashy lives on Fraser's novels - Read them. You may learn some history and you will laugh yourself to good health.

Damme, More Claret! Now for some bodice ripping! Here's a Wikpedia Plot Summary from the first Novel in the series - Flashman

Flashman's expulsion from Rugby for drunkenness leads him to join the Army for what he hopes will be a sinecure. He joins the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons commanded by Lord Cardigan whom he toadies in his best style. After an affair with a fellow officer's lover, he is forced to fight a duel but wins after promising a large sum of money to the pistol loader to give his opponent blanks in his gun. He does not kill his opponent but instead delopes and accidentally shoots the top off a bottle thirty yards away, an action that gives him instant fame and the respect of Duke of Wellington. However, once it was found out what they were fighting over, Flashman is stationed in Scotland. He is quartered with the Morrison family, and soon enough he takes advantage of one of the daughters, Elspeth. After a forced marriage, Flashman is forced to resign the Hussars due to marrying below his station. He is given another option, to make his reputation in India.

By showing off his language and riding skills in India, Flashman is assigned to the worst frontier of the British Empire at that time, Afghanistan. His adventures include the retreat from Kabul, Last Stand at Gandamak and the Siege of Jalalabad, in the First Anglo-Afghan War. Despite being captured, tortured, and escaping death numerous times, and hiding and shirking his duty as much as possible, he comes through it all alive and with a hero's reputation.


Here are Gorrge Mac Donald Fraser's Flashman novels: ( again from Wikpedia - Thank God for that handy tool)

Flashman • Royal Flash • Flash for Freedom! • Flashman at the Charge • Flashman in the Great Game • Flashman's Lady • Flashman and the Redskins • Flashman and the Dragon • Flashman and the Mountain of Light • Flashman and the Angel of the Lord • Flashman and the Tiger • Flashman on the March


Click on my Post Title for the Death Notice of George MacDonald Fraser - Good on You George!
Get To Reading!