Another batch of 2-faced heads

Another collection, created with the help of my friends, of unintentionally double-meaning or just plain “Huh?” headlines:

• Something went wrong in jet crash, expert says

• Drunk gets nine months in violin case

• Prostitutes appeal to Pope

• Panda mating fails; veterinarian takes over

• Squad helps dog bite victim

• Plane too close to ground, crash probe told

• Stolen painting found by tree

• Never withhold herpes infection from loved one

Considering the R word

One by one, they’re falling by the wayside.

As the writers union strike drags on, the backlog of completed scripts for most of television’s sit-coms and dramas keeps drying up and the schedule is plunged into an endless loop of re-runs.

For some people, re-runs are a good thing. That’s why there is TVLand, the cable channel that sucks its life blood from re-broadcasting very old series ’round the clock. But, for most people not afflicted by terminal sentimentality, new material is a must. In fact, the majority of them feel as if a chunk has been ripped from their very souls these days.

There is, of course, this controversial thing called reading that might substitute quite nicely for sitting there and having people beam their words into your brain pan.

Not only does it make you get involved in the medium, it gives you the opportunity to pause to think about what you’re consuming, prompts curiosity, allows you to set your consumption schedule, gives you a chance to share an activity with the kids or grandkids … Heck, you can even swat a spider with a book if you’re in a murderous rage when one comes skittering along. Try that with your average TV set.

Reading enough might even help us in this godawful presidential race, if one can call something that has gone on for so long and has another 300 or so days to go a “race.” Instead of relying on TV sound bites, second-hand reports on who said what, and PR persons selling you versions of what the candidates stand for, reading might help you become an informed person who will cast an intelligent vote in November.

Then again, you might just read for fun. Nothing wrong with that. Ask the publishing houses that rely on such frills to make a living.

The rest of the story

(This is the second, and final, installment of an earlier post called “A Halfway Through Book Review”.)

Of the literally thousands of books I have read over the years, I can recall none more enthralling than Ken Follett’s uber-bestseller “Pillars of the Earth” back in 1989.

Before “Pillars,” the English writer entertained us with high-concept books with good vs. evil battles and much suspense. Such best-sellers as “The Mondiglani Scandal” (1976), “Eye of the Needle” (1978 ) and “The Key to Rebecca” (1980). Since “Pillars” he maintained the pace with the likes of “A Place Called Freedom” (1995), “The Third Twin” (1997) and “Jackdaws” (2001).

I loved ‘em all, but still wanted to go back to ancient England, the period in which a simple stonemason with grand dreams became a renowned cathedral architect and builder. Follett actually took stone and mortar and brought them to life in “Pillars,” making readers care about it and the generations of rough-living English people of the time.

Obviously, I wasn’t alone in my appreciation of his masterpiece. “Pillars” topped the bestseller list in every language into which it was translated — it was No. 1 in Germany for six straight years — and still, nearly two decades after its debut, sells 100,000 copies a year around the globe. And just to put an exclamation point to its enduring success, Oprah Winfrey jus this week picked it as her latest book club selection, ensuring even more sales.

Follett has shown over the decades he is nothing if not a prolific writer. Why, then did it take 18 years for this sequel? Simple, says Follett on his Web site:

” ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ is so popular that I’ve been nervous about trying to repeat its success. But at last I screwed up my courage.”

The result is his “sequel” historical novel, “World Without End” (Dutton, 1,014 pages, $35), which picks up in the 14th century, 200 years after “Pillars” ended, but again in the town of Kingsbridge. And, most important, again with the nobility, clergy, merchant class and serfs all being played against each other to create an excruciating tension as each struggled for supremacy, or at least for some improvement in their station in life.

This time Follett has included another malevolent entity in the mix: The Black Death. The bubonic plague, which began in China and spread westward through trade routes, killed an estimated 25 million people in a mere five years, from 1347 to 1352.

Again, Follett uses a master builder and visionary as his central character. It was Jack Builder, the innovative architect and cathedral builder, in “Pillars.” Now, in “World Without End,” it is Merthin, son of an impoverished knight who is apprenticed to a carpenter.

While that seemed a comedown in status, it actually unlocked Methin’s inherent genius for the vision, design and creation of bridges and buildings and machines that helped push him into prominence in Kingsbridge — and into the sights of jealous members of the nobility and church who saw him as an upstart and a threat.

Merthin is one of four children to whom we are introduced in the opening pages on the day after Halloween 1327. They witness a deadly fight in the forest, and the outcome forever entwines their lives even though they come from vastly different social levels. Following the lives of the four — Merthin and his brother, Ralph; Caris, daughter of a prominent merchant, and Gwenda, daughter of a thief — from childhood to middle age allows us to learn the unfolding of great changes in English society.

Follett has the knack of taking the tapestry of history and pulling at its threads to reveal through the lives of fictional characters how each stratum of society was affected:

The emergence of true medicine and the glimmer of understanding how the plague was spread. The mechanics of creating lasting physical structures heretofore unthinkable in their complexity and durability. The seismic shifts in power and social structure created by the manpower shortages of the Black Death.

“World Without End” is a worthy successor to “Pillars of the Earth.” Dare we hope, since Follett has left us in the 14th century, that he will not strand us there for another 18 years?

A HALFWAY-THROUGH BOOK REVIEW

I don’t know anything about Ken Follett’s religious persuasions, but the man should be made a saint of some kind. Or a demi-god. Or, at the very least, immortal so he can continue to write until the end of time.

I have read literally thousands of books and can’t recall any more enthralling than Follett’s uber-bestseller “Pillars of the Earth” back in ‘89. That is, until now, with his “sequel” historical novel, “World Without End,” which picks up two centuries after “Pillars” ended in medieval England. I’m about 500 pages into the 1,000-plus-page tome and have conflicting thoughts about it. To wit:

(1.) I am as entralled with it as I was with the first book and can’t wait to see how it turns out. And, (2.) I don’t want it to end. Especially not if Follett plans to make this a trilogy and it’s another 18 years before the next installment.

Before “Pillars,” Follett entertained me with what way-back-when were known as “ripping yarns,” high-concept books with good vs. evil battles and much suspense. Such best-sellers as “The Mondiglani Scandal” (1976), “Eye of the Needle” (1978) and “The Key to Rebecca” (1980). Since “Pillars” he maintained the pace with the likes of “A Place Called Freedom” (1995), “The Third Twin” (1997) and “Jackdaws” (2001).

I loved ‘em all, but still wanted to go back to ancient England, the period in which a simple stone mason with grand dreams became a renowned cathedral architect and builder. Follett actually took stone and mortar and made it live and made readers care about it and the generations of rough-living English people of the time.

Obviously, I wasn’t alone in this desire. “Pillars of the Earth” topped the bestseller list in every language into which it was translated — it was No. 1 in Germany for six straight years — and still, nearly two decades after its debut, sells 100,000 copies a year around the globe.

Here’s how Follett explains, on his Web site, how he came up with “World Without End.”

“Ever since ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ was published in 1989, readers have been asking me to write a sequel. The book is so popular that I’ve been nervous about trying to repeat its success. But at last I screwed up my courage, and wrote ‘World Without End.’

“I couldn’t write another book about building a cathedral, because that would be the same book. And I couldn’t write another story about the same characters, because by the end of ‘Pillars’ they are all very old or dead. ‘World Without End’ takes place in the same town, Kingsbridge, and features the descendants of the ‘Pillars’ characters two centuries later.

“The cathedral and the priory are again at the centre of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge. But at the heart of the story is the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race: the plague known as the Black Death, which killed something like half the population of Europe in the 14th century. The people of the Middle Ages battled this lethal pestilence and survived –- and, in doing so, laid the foundations of modern medicine.”

Follett is the master of the plot twist, the creator of sharply-defined characters, the deft explainer of the culture and business of the times. Reading a Follett novel is like reading a history textbook that, rather than having been drained of life as so many our kids read in school, has been infused with spirit, emotion and vibrancy.

Treat yourself. Read it.