The greatest sleuths, as seen on TV

Fans of mystery fiction would agree with me: Some of the greatest private eyes in fiction are not found in books. They are, or were, in TV screens, solving one complex, controversial crime after another, week after week. My favorites through the years have been the offbeat ones: Columbo, Morse, and Adrian Monk:

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 Lieutenant Columbo. This detective, whose first name remains a mystery, deserves a spot here; after all, he's one of TV's foremost detectives, and the show itself presented a groundbreaking take on the whodunit at that time: Each episode began with audiences already knowing the culprit. It made viewers witnesses to how the crime was committed and how Columbo, in his disheveled disguise and feigned dimwittedness, would outsmart even the sharpest-witted murderer.  

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Inspector Morse. Like Columbo, this lead character of the successful British series is the exact opposite of the prototype fictional detective. Unlike Magnum, Crockett, and Starsky and Hutch, Morse isn't young and brawny, doesn't possess hip and suave looks, and doesn't drive fancy cars. Instead, he is a cranky, high-brow, art-loving fella. But such characteristics came in handy as he solved crimes in aristocratic Britain: In one episode, when valuable erotic paintings were stolen from a mansion, he searched for and found answers by using his knowledge of how the minds of the rich and famous work.  

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Adrian Monk. At first glance, and TIME's Lily Rothman would agree, this neurotic detective is an odd candidate. But to me, it's their quirks that make great P.I.s tick, and Monk, with his obsessive-compulsive and phobic tendencies, fits the bill quite well. These same propensities, coupled with his sharp memory, would help him stumble upon the answers to mysteries behind the crimes he handled. But more than his ability to solve crimes, his accidentally funny behavior endeared him to legions of audiences, me included.  

I am Zachary Wood, Orlando resident and a fan of fictional mystery that arrests my imagination. Visit this blog for more about the best of crime fiction.

REPOST: Laird Hamilton: What I've Learned

I love watersports. But indulging in such activities made me think, “Can I enjoy doing watersports forever?” Good thing, I chanced upon this article on Esquire.Some of the things discussed I can easily relate to. Read on and be enlightened.

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Just because people are doing extraordinary things doesn't mean they're not ordinary people. 

One of my favorite things to do in the morning is to stand on golf balls and roll them along my arches. You have seventy-four hundred nerve endings on your feet, so you stimulate your whole metabolism when you do that. 

When we first decided to try to ride Jaws,* no one had ever ridden waves that big. Period. So we didn't know if we were going into a black hole never to be seen again. Regardless of how it was perceived from the outside, we operated conservatively within the environment. We always say: Ride to ride another day. We go out there with the attitude that we're going to do it in a way that we can do it again tomorrow. 

Riding a fifty-foot wave for the first time is like the first time you go more than a hundred miles an hour in your car. Afterward, you can't remember what was on the side of the road or if there were even other cars on the road. Once you've driven more than a hundred miles an hour five hundred times, you start to be able to look around. 

When you make a mistake, the ocean gives you an instant reminder. You get punished. If golf clubs could shock you every time you hit the ball wrong, we'd probably learn how to play golf pretty well. 

When I was a kid, the lifeguards would come to my mom's house and say, "Well, Laird's out at sea again." She'd say, "Oh, no, he's inside sleeping." They were like, "No, he's out at sea and we're going to have to go get him again. That's the third time this week." 

When you're little, you ride a one-footer, then a two. Then a ten. It keeps evolving. 

The Genghis Khan warriors used to have a rule that you never talked about injury. The way it translates for me is: Don't train for what you don't want to have happen. It's like this: People say, "Oh, I can hold my breath for five minutes." I say, "I wouldn't be working on that because that might be something that you get tested on." 

Wiping out is an underappreciated skill. Look at any sport that has crashing or falling. Football. Motorbike. There's an art to crashing. If you took a normal person and threw them into that situation, they'd be severely hurt. But the guys who've developed a certain skill at it hop right back up. 

Surfing's one of the few sports that you look ahead to see what's behind. 

First of all, you always try to avoid ever getting down there in the first place. But when you are deep down and getting washed around, you're pulling on all the years of what's happening to you and the skills you've acquired. You're getting rag-dolled and spun around thirty times and you're wondering, Am I near the bottom? Am I near the top? Normally, I close my eyes. Seeing only disorients you and makes you use more oxygen. Sometimes you know that any kind of movement is just a waste of energy. So you totally calm yourself. I open my arms and try to expand out — like a floating leaf. It's a little bit like wrestling somebody four times bigger than you. If he's got you pinned, chances are you should just wait until you feel him let up, and then make your move. But then there are times when you feel you don't have much air, so you just dig down and turn into some sort of sea creature to get to the surface. 

I'm almost forty-seven now. I've never felt stronger, never felt in better shape, never felt more focused, never felt more experienced. There are strong young guys. But there's nothing meaner and more experienced than a fifty-year-old tough guy.
*A huge surfing spot on Maui where waves can reach seventy feet high and travel at speeds up to thirty miles per hour.

I am Zachary Wood, a Tennessee native now living in Orlando, Florida. I am passionate about arresting mystery novels and exciting water activtiies. You can subscribe to my blog for more of my everyday musings.

Surf's up, America: The best spots to ride the waves

I currently live in Florida, and while the sunshine state has more than enough coastlines where I can surf the whole summer away, I believe North America has a way longer stretch of surfing-friendly beaches.

 

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Three of the best surfing spots in the US and in nearby Canada come to mind, not only because of their long summers and beaches, but also for their solid cultures in which surfing is so well ingrained.

Santa Cruz, California almost always ranks first among the best surf towns in the US. It is said to be the birthplace of surfing in America, with the Kawananakoa brothers riding the first waves in 1885. Since then, the surfing fun has never stopped. Surges of waves both soft and massive are available every time and everywhere along its cove-like coast, thanks to its myriad beach breaks and rocky reefs that attract swells of waves from all directions. What adds charm to Santa Cruz is that despite its robust urban landscape, it has managed to keep a strong community of homegrown surfers and artists.

 

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Meanwhile, surfers who think of heading to the Pacific (and want to get their wave riding fix in the winter) will never go wrong with Hanalei Bay in Hawaii. More than the waves that range from beginner-friendly curls in the south shores to heavy and gigantic reef breaks, it's the unsullied beauty and rich sense of culture that make it worth the visit. Have friendly lifeguards and instructors teach you to hit the waves. Afterwards, discover more about the Polynesian ancestry that has remained intact long after Hawaii became the 50th state in the federation.

 

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Last, but definitely not the least in terms of thrill and adventure, is a great surfing place that can be found in far-northern British Columbia. A lot more outdoorsy in vibe than any other surfing spots, Tofino boasts cool misty weather, diverse wildlife, and hectares of ocean for your wave-riding fix. While waves in some areas can be quite challenging even for daredevils, the tides are flat and mellow enough for beginners in others. National Geographic suggests Long Beach and South Chesterman Beach for the novice surfer.

I am Zachary Wood, a surfing fan from Orlando, Florida. I seek adventure by reading arresting mystery novels and doing watersports. Visit my blog for more about surfing facts and ideas.

A non-fiction mystery: The death of Ernest Hemingway

Some true stories are as engrossing as fiction. Ernest Hemingway died more than 50 years ago, but mystery hounds his death to this day.

What we came to know is this: One July morning in 1961, Hemingway woke up, went straight ahead to a roomful of guns, took a double-barreled shotgun and pulled its trigger. But instead of pointing it to pigeons as he usually did, he put it against his head. He died in that single blow.

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The question at that time was how could someone of that stature--a journalist and a literary giant, a brawny man who loved adventuring in the great outdoors--take his own life?

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Different speculations arose. His wife Mary claimed Hemingway accidentally killed himself while cleaning the shotgun--a claim she withdrew a few months after. Others say he had just gone mad out of his uncontrollable dependence to alcohol.

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Or is alcoholism to blame? I came across a research of around 15 of Hemingway’s biographies that revealed the great writer was a victim of a sad childhood under his parents who displayed difficult behavior. He was heir to a tendency for moody, erratic behavior, and an addiction to alcohol. Such would probably explain the unpredictable temper, countless dalliances, a tendency for flight, the love for gore, the injured spirit, and that eventual move to end his life.

What exactly made him pull the trigger, then? One of his friends, playwright Aaron Edward Hotchner, floated an idea on the possible reason behind the mental anguish of his final days. Hemingway was afraid the FBI, suspicious of his ties with Cuba after retreating there for decades, was following him.

But how that plot had set would be both interesting and perplexing to know.  

I am Zachary Wood, a business manager living in Orlando, Florida. I am a water sports enthusiast and a fan of Ernest Hemingway's mystery works. Visit this blog where I blog about celebrity arrests taking place in my hometown. That’s how I keep up with mystery in real life.