The Drop

Detective Harry Bosch and partner David Chu work in the open-unsolved unit.  A DNA match from a 20 year-old crime is assigned to them.  However, the matched drop of blood belongs to a man - a sex offender - who was only 8 years-old at the time of the crime.  Did forensic mix up a sample?  He is told to look into it quietly.  Before he leaves to tackle the case, his superior informs him that his DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plan) has been partially approved.  Bosch is at mandatory retirement but gets an additional 39 months through the DROP.  Bosch and Chu have hardly begun their case when they are summoned to the chief's office.  George Irving, son of Bosch's longtime nemesis and former Assistant Chief Irvin Irving, has been found dead, an apparent suicide.  On the other hand, there are indications that he may have been dropped while unconscious.

The two cases are independent of one another, which makes this feel like two books in one.  The investigation of George Irving dominates the first part of the book while the DNA match consumes the second half.  Each bleeds over but one is clearly the dominant case at those points in the book.  Bosch's latest partner is another disappointment.  The departure of Jerry Edgar and Kiz Rider has resulted in mediocre replacements.  Connelly has put a lot less effort into Iggy Ferras and David Chu.  Both feel more like a burden than a partner.  Maybe Bosch is becoming a crotchety old man compared to his younger partners.

Though the title is simple, it is probably one of the best titles ever.  Everything is a drop, just not the same kind of drop.  I wonder if he came up with the title and then the various links.

Highly recommended.

Drink Bleach

It has been a year since the 'drink bleach' story swept the country.  Did President Trump really suggest that drinking bleach would be a treatment for Covid-19?  Let's check it out.

During a briefing on April 23, 2020 that included William Bryan of DHS, Trump said the following:

"A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right?"

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful."

From this, the press latched onto the words disinfectant and injection.  It was a short step from their to drinking bleach.  Then again, injecting light sounds pretty wild too.  Is that a thing?

Yes, it is a thing.  Check out Healight for more details.  Given the opportunity between informing the public about a potential treatment for Covid-19 or making President Trump look like a moron, what did the press choose?  Is it any wonder he called them "Fake News."

Charade (1963)

Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) returns from her vacation to find her Paris apartment stripped bare and her husband missing.  She has hardly finished walking the empty rooms when a police inspector reveals that her husband is dead.  Though he reportedly earned $250,000 from selling the contents of the apartment, no money is found among his meager possessions.  Where is the money?

At her husband's funeral, three men arrive to view the body; none of them seem to mourn his passing.  Leopold sneezed on the corpse, Tex (James Coburn) held a mirror under his nose to test for breathing, and Herman (George Kennedy) stabbed his hand with a pin.  Soon after, each visits Regina and demands the money.  However, she has an ally.  While on vacation, she met Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) and he has arrived to offer condolences and otherwise assist her.  She is soon falling for him.  She is also contacted by Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau), a bureaucrat from the American Embassy with ties to the CIA.  He explains that her husband had stolen US money during WWII with 4 other men but then absconded with all the money.  He assures her that the money is still out there and she should find it before the others do.  If not, one of them is sure to do to her what happened to her husband.

Though directed by Stanley Donen, it has an Alfred Hitchcock vibe.  Throughout the movie, one is never sure whose side Cary Grant is on.  He has a variety of aliases and backstories that are highly suspect.  Still, he is ridiculously charming and Regina finds him irresistible.  There is a peculiar mix of humor and danger; at times, it feels like Grant is in a zany comedy while the rest of the cast are in a suspense-thriller.  Even so, it is quite entertaining and recommended.

Guilty

Derek Chauvin has been found guilty on all counts.  I hardly paid any attention to the trial but I did read one report that George Floyd had an alarming amount of drugs in his system according to the autopsy.  In fact, one witness testified that, based solely on the autopsy and toxicology, it looked like a classic overdose.  Both fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in abundance in his blood.  Moreover, he had Covid-19 too.  Reasonable doubt?  Apparently not.

One wonders if the jury took into account the politics outside the courtroom when deliberating.  One of the trial's witnesses had his house vandalized with pig's blood and a severed pig's head.  Congresswoman Maxine Waters called for protesters to stay in the streets and be more confrontational if Chauvin was acquitted.  It is a given that riots would follow an acquittal.  With that, do you convict on all counts in order to avert a devastating riot like the ones that tore through Minneapolis last year?  Two people died in the riots and there was $500 million in damages.  Send one man to prison to save the city?  Heck, anyone who saw the video would be glad to toss this guy in prison, all the better if it prevents further mostly peaceful protests.