Colors, Critters, Cats, and my Journey with MS: Richard Farnsworth

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Monday, May 18, 2026

On this day in movie and book history - Travis McGee (1983)

Travis McGee

directed by Andrew V. McLaglen,

written by Stirling Silliphant,

based on the novel The Empty Copper Sea by John D. MacDonald,

was released in the United States on May 18, 1983.

Music by Jerrold Immel.

Cast:

Sam Elliott, Gene Evans, Barry Corbin, Richard Farnsworth, Geoffrey Lewis, Amy Madigan, Vera Miles, Katharine Ross, Marshall R. Teague, Walter Olkewicz, Jack Murdock, Greta Blackburn, Owen Orr, Pilar Del Rey.

Recommended reading:

The Empty Copper Sea

by John D. MacDonald.

Introduction by Lee Child.

Filmed as Travis McGee (1983), directed by Andrew V. McLaglen.
# 17 in the Travis McGee series.

Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks.
First published 1978.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0812984080
ISBN-13: 978-0812984088

Description:

“John D. MacDonald is a shining example for all us in the field. Talk about the best.” - Mary Higgins Clark.

From a beloved master of crime fiction, The Empty Copper Sea is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.

Asking for help is something a proud man like Van Harder would never do. So when he shows up at the Busted Flush, Travis McGee knows that he must be the man’s last resort. What Harder wants salvaged is his reputation. After a long career as a seaman, he was piloting a boat the night his employer fell overboard. Harder is certain he’s been set up, but to help him, McGee must prove that a dead man is actually alive.

The fateful ride started with Harder at the helm of Hubbard Lawless’s luxury cruiser.

It ends with him coming to, fuzzy and disoriented, and Hub lost to the water. Now everyone is saying that Harder got drunk, passed out, and is negligent in his boss’s death. The thing is, Van’s not a drinker . . . at least, not anymore.

Who would want to frame the good captain, and to what end? Dead or alive, Lawless is worth a lot of money. People are always eager to get a piece of that action – including some, as McGee soon finds, who are willing to take a piece out of anyone who gets in their way.

Features a new Introduction by Lee Child.

Monday, May 11, 2026

On this day in movie and book history - The Natural (1984 and 1952):

The Natural

directed by Barry Levinson,

written by Roger Towne and Phil Dusenberry,

based on the novel by Bernard Malamud,

was released in the United States on May 11, 1984.

Music by Randy Newman.

Cast:

Robert Redford, Paul Sullivan Jr., Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Rachel Hall, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Barbara Hershey, Robert Prosky, Richard Farnsworth, Joe Don Baker, Darren McGavin, Michael Madsen, John Finnegan, Alan Fudge, Ken Grassano, Mike Starr, Mickey Treanor, Jon Van Ness, Anthony J. Ferrara, George Wilkosz, Robert Rich III, Sibby Sisti.

Recommended reading:

The Natural

by Bernard Malamud.

Filmed as The Natural (1984), directed by Barry Levinson.

Paperback.

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

First published 1952.

ISBN: 9780374502003

ISBN 10: 0374502005

ASIN: 0374502005

Description:

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first – and some would say still the best – novel ever written about baseball. In it, Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material – the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era – and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work. Four decades later, Alfred Kazin's comment still holds true: "Malamud has done something which – now that he has done it! – looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology."

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

On this day in movie and book history - The Getaway (1994)

The Getaway

directed by Roger Donaldson,

written by Walter Hill and Amy Holden Jones,

based on the novel by Jim Thompson,

was released in the United States on February 11, 1994.

Music by Mark Isham.

Cast:

Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Michael Madsen, James Woods, David Morse, Jennifer Tilly, James Stephens, Richard Farnsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Burton Gilliam, Royce D. Applegate, Daniel Villarreal, Scott McKenna, Alex Colon, Justin Williams, Peppi Sanders, Jo Ann Soto, Louis Martinez, Boots Southerland, George Dobbs, Kenny Endoso, Don Pulford, Rick Taylor, Phil Allen, Bill Mosley, Debbie Dedo, Gary Kirk, J.W. ‘Corkey’ Fornof, Peter Donaldson, Michele Hawk, Sammy Hernandez, Parker Anderson, William Bolander, Bill Cook, Kacee DeMasi, Maria Frisby, Lee Hollingsworth, Bob Huff, Elaine Huff, April Manchester-Miller, Elske McCain, Richard Meek, Brian Patterson, Ella Arlienne Scofield, Robert Sucato, Tracy Sucato, Oliver Theess, Rodd Wolff.

Recommended reading: The Getaway

The Getaway

by Jim Thompson.

First published 1958.
Published by Mulholland Books.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0316403970
ISBN-13: 978-0316403979

Description:

Doc McCoy is the most skilled criminal alive. But when for the first time in Doc's long criminal career, his shot doesn't hit the mark, everything begins to fall apart. And Doc begins to realize that the perfect bank robbery isn't complete without the perfect getaway to back it up.

THE GETAWAY is the classic story of a bank robbery gone horribly wrong, where the smallest mistakes have catastrophic consequences, and shifting loyalties lead to betrayals and chaos. The basis for the classic Steve McQueen film of the same name, as well as a 1994 remake with Alec Baldwin, Thompson's novel set the bar for every heist story that followed - but as Thompson's proved time and again, nobody's ever done it better than the master.