Poirot Marathon-ing

Poirot's  famous Boutonnière Vase

This is late being posted because of "'Air-kyool"  - Hercule Poirot.    And I feel fine about it.  Some things are important. Marathoning a series is valid in this case - my life is in flux and it is a fine and affordable distraction; and a lesson in authorship for any writer, and  a quality engagement.  To me, it is an honor thing - he completed the entire series, a thing not easily done! Bravo!   But for me, it is just the epression of it all at this phase of things, of my passion for the mystery-thriller of quality since childhood- so do not gloat, Monsieur! I just happened to be going that way.

At ages 8-10, in the late 50s, I was the one in line at the LIbrary - no Google - for the next episode of Nancy Drew Mysteries!  How would it be this time?  Never disappointing!  Never bored, curled up with a exciting Nancy Drew Adventure Mystery !   Days were sunny for me and in Nancy Drew land.  We'd spend a Saturday or rainy afternoon companioning along as her chums and I followed her lead,  immersed in one more challenging scenario to happy conclusion!    No other girls my age on the block just then,  Nancy was a handy friend and inspiration for so much in spirit and goodness.  

Then, hooked on mysteries, I'd raid my brother's Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, then, back to my "Trixie Belden"  nurse sleuth stories.   And then it was  TV and  "Mr. &  Mrs. North", "The Thin Man", and favorite "Charlie Chan" - my Father was Charlie Smith and so we'd come tearing in from school or play and call out, with Key Luke's enthusiasm,  "Hiya, Pop!" as Charlie's many children did in old China and US Chinatown.  Dad was a fine one,  and would return the fun at us, mimicking "yeh, yeh, but..." Chan's longsuffering love for his "number one son" and  'number one daughter".  

At fourteen, the crush I seemed to be dealing with, for the family friend and local beach lifeguard, enjoyed some satisfaction, when I asked him about the book he was reading and it was Ian Fleming "Bond, James Bond" - brand new in the movies!  He , his steady girfriend and later wife, and I read all the books - such fun to talk the good and bad of it....always that excitement in realizing some of such things are true!  

Soon it was on to college and cutting study hours for "The Avengers" and "the fuge"  ... "The  Fugitive"  Some things were more important than - there was the place for mysteries;  the appeal to the intellect and skill set and the way all issues are resolved at stories' end.  Life ahead, no matter how well we prepped, was a mystery, still,  when it came to the core of it all.

Then  into the core, indeed, with no-joke time:   JFK's assassination , Martin Luther King's, Robert Kennedy - serious bad guys , right in our back yard!  Worse:  instead of John Wayne wars, it was about Americans as idiots sacrificing our own in unwinnable conflicts and Agent Orange of the insidious kill.  

Lucky me - bride to the son of a Federal Agent / whose job in Viet Nam after college was getting rid of chem warfare/ Agent Orange, with USACE's special ops, while I spent my first hours with wonded soldiers and  felt honored to serve....while others were fighting for peace with pot and dancing in the mud - horrors!   Dangers notwithstanding, I felt the lucky one.   My brother too, in berets jumping out of planes chasing enemy in the jungle.   The day they came home from war in one piece remains te happiest day of my life!

This go-round , we won thru nicely!    

And sooner than we ever hoped, at the mysteries again -  Husband relaxing in the den after his work day with Wellcome making medicine, and our son asleep and helping our little girl in her wiggly age, by NOT engaging with her , but quietly rocking along side her crib, crocheting a coverlet for her, or reading a book - this time  the COMPLETE Sherlock Holmes stories.    

Then it was winter and I was critical of me because I'd finished the Holmes and now what?  Winter reading hunting,   I met Hercule - and  I ran to the mailbox when "Curtain" arrived from my book club - after going through the Poirot stories  and looking for more of the Herculean ouevre...50 years of works about Hercule Poirot!   Better.

I wrote sometimes and so I was impressed with the 56 years of Agatha Christie's stories about the wonderful Belgian sleuth !    

 I always wonder - did the Herculean name inspire the Herculean achievement, or the other way around? 
And why is there not more said  about the famous Boutonnière Vase of such romantic origins in "The Chocolate Box"?  He was rarely without it.  Like the famous swan cane.

Then there were the years with NO TV and no fun reading: but that's another story.   

Lucky  me today! The past few days, "In " for me - resting a toe-fix -  I have just completed marathon viewing "Agatha Christie's Poirot" videos at Acorn TV !     I cried at the final story, "Curtain" then realized that our hero, Hercule, and his world,  was not dead but sleeping - not "Sleeping Murder" as one of his mysteries was called, but sleeping mystery chum -  and I could revive him at the click of my trackpad!  Thank you Acorn TV !  Well Done!   

David Suchet, the actor who played the role, spoke my thoughts, when he stated that the idea was to faithfully portray and  that was certainly done so that Dame Agatha would be pleased if she could view the results. In fact, Ms. Christie's  daughter found the David Suchet portrayals  perfect, and said so !     Me, too!  Thanksomuch for the immortality of it for us.   And most of all thank you,  David Suchet and the book he has written about the world-class achievement of the complete Hercule ! It is worth the read for fans !      

They say that we immerse in someone else's mysteries to remain calm when we cannot work on my own, and get back to solving our own puzzles with renewed energies for it.   Life!   I am non-violent so I always wonder why it must be murder mysteries, then decide that the author feels that if it is not life and death, when it's only a story, and not real,  we might not be interested.  

I don't know: for me it has become part of grief recovery -   before Hercule,  the last time, it was Jessica Fletcher all 268 (  I think ) episodes , they helped when my Father died and now it's Mother at her last days and Poirot and Phryne Fisher - yay girls CAN!  and when my FBI godfather passed, it was NCIS.   Unique validity in it I guess  :-D  since,  finding a thing to companion along during such testing times, is better than "biting the lifesaver' in it all.

Thank you three times, then!  

There remain so many places in my life, where my reply must be:  "It's still a mystery to me" !   Notes for my own mystery next?  okay.  I realize that I can actually solve a few of them - do you not agree, Captain Hesssteengs?   Hein?  

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercule_Poirot_in_literature