There are multiple media reports stating author Tom Clancy has died. Assuming it’s true (especially in the Twitter era, these things are at times quite premature), it is quite a sad day. I have almost all of his books, though I passed on his “franchised” series.
To salute him, here’s one of my favorite passages, from “Red Storm Rising” (you know me, it’s not safe for work though it’s often replayed there, and the emphasis is in the original):
“Let’s have an attitude check!” Edwards said as he walked over to his meteorlogical instruments.
“I hate this fucking place!” the tower crew answered at once.
“Let’s have a positive attitude check.”
“I positively hate this fucking place!”
“Let’s have a negative attitude check.”
“I don’t like this fucking place!”
“Let’s have a short attitude check.”
“Fuckit!” Everyone had a good laugh. They needed it.
