My Family

Who Is The Short Bald Stranger There, Maverick is the Name…?

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John McCain's claim of being "the original Maverick" prompted Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown to recall fond memories of the TV series MAVERICK…and to seek out the sage advice of my Uncle Burl Barer, the author of THE MAKING OF MAVERICK :

I mentioned to Barer how McCain was using "The Original Maverick" as
a campaign slogan, causing my initial confusion with Garner having
played, Bret, the first Maverick, which I cleared up when I remembered
his brother Bart, the other Maverick.

"Yes, you mean Jack Kelly," Barer said.

Jack Kelly?

"Jack Kelly played Bart Maverick," Barer said.

It wasn't John McCain?

"No."

Then which of the Maverick brothers did McCain play?

[…] he
patiently explained that at various times Maverick starred Garner as
Bret, Kelly as Bart, Roger Moore as Beau and Robert Colbert as Brent —
the poker-playing Maverick brothers. But never McCain.

"It wasn't, 'Who was the short bald stranger there?' " Barer said,
playing off the opening stanza from the theme song about a tall, dark
stranger.

MAVERICK was a great show back in the 1950s and holds the unusual distinction of being the only vintage TV series revived three times on three networks in three years…ABC's THE NEW MAVERICK, CBS' YOUNG MAVERICK, and NBC's BRET MAVERICK…all in the early 1980s.

Get your fix of THE FIX

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My brother Tod has posted a link to the first chapter of his new novel BURN NOTICE: THE FIX, which comes out nationwide next month. He also talks about some of the challenges he faced writing the book:

I would be lying if I said writing this book wasn’t a challenge. It
absolutely was. I’ve never written a traditional crime novel. Anyone
who has read my work in the past will tell you that linear storytelling
isn’t exactly my calling card. Nor is having a narrator who is
reliable. Of course I’ve written linear work in the past. And of course
I’ve written reliable narrators in the past. But one thing I don’t
think I’ve ever written is a hero, even an ironic hero like Michael
Westen. My characters tend to be pretty fucked up and of course Michael
is fucked up in his own way, too, but not in the “he may have killed
his wife and daughter” sort of way. The challenge for me was to convey
him on the page in a way that made me enjoy writing him and also was
true to Matt Nix’s creation.

I think it’s the best book my brother has ever written, but hey, I’m biased.

My Uncle Does a Very Good Thing

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The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that my Uncle and Aunt, Stan & Alta Barer, have just made a generous donation to the University of Washington to establish The Barer Institute for Law & Global Human Services:

University of Washington Regent Stanley Barer and his wife, Alta,
have pledged $4 million to the UW's School of Law to establish an
institute to improve human services around the world.

The Barer Institute for Law and Global Human Services aims to use
binding legal agreements, such as compacts, treaties and foreign aid
agreements, to coordinate efforts to address social problems.

Lives saved will be the institute's measure of success, said Stanley Barer, an owner of Seattle's Saltchuk Resources Inc.,
a marine transportation company. The institute will focus primarily on
poor areas that lack education, health services and economic
opportunities, he said.

"I think it is now in our best interests to think about safety nets
globally," said Barer, who is also the chair of the UW's Board of
Regents.

I think my Mom and my Uncle Burl may try to convince my Uncle Stan that a contribution to them would also enhance global safety. As for me, Saltchuk just snapped up the cargo operation of the now-defunct Aloha Airlines, so I think I'm going to ask Uncle Stan if we can send ourselves to Hawaii as freight this summer.

Joking aside, I think my late grandfather David Barer, who immigrated to this country as a child from a village in Russia and sold scrap metal in Walla Walla, would be so proud that his son was able to do this…I know I am.

We Are Family

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The Goldberg siblings were out in force signing our latest books at the LosKaren_and_linda_at_lafob_2008
Angeles Times Festival of Books. Tod and I were signing at the Mystery Bookstore while my sisters Linda Woods and Karen Dinino were over at the Borders booth. As usual, women threw their underwear at Tod and me while my sisters were deluged with cakes made by their fans. The cool Goldberg kids are wearing shades. Afterwards, Tod  hid out from Dr. Laura, who has been emailing him since he besmirched her on his blog, while my sisters were busy stalking Julie Andrews, who was taking the necessary precautions. I took the high road and had a cheeseburger with my daughter.

Mitzvah for Tod

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My brother Tod’s story "Mitzvah" in Akashic’s anthology LAS VEGAS NOIR got a shout-out in a positive Publishers Weekly review today:

Columnist Tod Goldberg’s
“Mitzvah” makes good use of the Las Vegas myth that people come to the
city to bury their past identities and reinvent themselves. His
antihero, mobster Sal Cuperine, has for years posed as Rabbi David
Cohen, managing to handle the demands of the pulpit until the strain of
his charade becomes too much to bear. 

Tod in the Times

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My brother Tod’s review of two new novels set in Las Vegas, both by first-time authors, appears on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times Calendar section.

What "Beautiful Children" and "The Delivery Man" share — apart from
the obvious thematic portrayal of Las Vegas as "Caligula" — is,
surprisingly, hope. Both Bock and McGinniss flash across the page with
firm style, compelling voices and the desire to go deeper than their
subject matter. Although neither of their novels has defined literary
Las Vegas, both carry the imprint of burgeoning talent, and that is
always worth gambling on.

My Brother Gets BURNED

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Today, my brother Tod talks about his new, three-book deal to write original novels based on the USA Network series BURN NOTICE:

How this came about is how many things come about when you’re not
expecting them — your brother calls you from a scratchy phone in
Germany and says, "Hey, do you like the show Burn Notice?" You reply,
"Yeah, I love it. It’s like an Elmore Leonard novel crossed with Steven
Soderbergh’s direction and a dash of Albert Brooks’ mother issues for
good measure. Why?" And then twenty minutes later you’re on the phone
with your agent, 36 hours later you’re making demands of the publisher,
72 hours later you’re sitting down with Matt Nix […]and you’re discussing the show he created, Burn Notice, and then, about
100 hours later, you’re figuring out just how on Earth you’re going to
meet your first deadline — February — without getting hooked on crank
(again)