Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship

Cover of my copy of
TOM SWIFT and His Rocket Ship (1954).

Today I finished reading the third (#3) book  of The New TOM SWIFT Jr. Adventures, TOM SWIFT and His Rocket Ship. Last month I read #2.

The copy pictured above is a "yellow spine" edition  or "gold printed" (i.e., third version, published after 1961). I have a another copy of this book which is a first printing with a blue tweed cover and a dust jacket. I read the copy pictured above since it is less rare.

Frontispiece:
"He could easily be spun off into space!"

The book opens with: "Somebody's flying into our restricted area!" Tom Swift cried as an alarm bell broke the midnight stillness of his rocket laboratory on Fearing Island.

The plot summary from the dust jacket says:

The third volume of the new TOM SWIFT JR. series takes the brilliant young inventor into outer space in a rocket ship of his own design. 

On Fearing Island just off the Atlantic Coast, Tom's space craft project attracts the attention of the spies and agents of a foreign scientist whose plan is to rule the world and space. 

Tom Swift's advantage over his competitors is that he has perfected a rocket fuel which can carry his ship into and out of orbital flight. But it takes all of Tom and Bud's ingenuity to outwit the ruthless efforts of the foreign scientist and his desperate gang of henchmen. 

The flight through space makes thrilling reading-the more exciting because you know the details of the flight are scientifically accurate. 

Readers of the TOM SWIFT JR. AND HIS FLYING LAB, the first book of this new series, will recall the message that came in the shape of a meteor-like object falling into the Swift plane enclosure. In this story, another message from the same mysterious source proves very valuable to Tom as he is flying through space.

Sample of the illustrations in the book.

The New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures #3, TOM SWIFT and His Rocket Ship by Victor Appleton II, Illustrated by Graham Kaye was published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., Publishers, New York, NY © 1954. Twenty-five chapters are spread over 208 pages with 10 illustrations (see sample above).

Each book in the series is filled with fanciful inventions, many of which later came to fruition.

I'm reading these books because they are fun, mind candy. I like the covers and the illustrations. The writing is obviously pretty corny but enjoyable. A guilty pleasure.

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Links:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2019/10/tom-swift-and-his-jetmarine.html

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2017/11/tom-swift-and-his-flying-lab.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift_Jr.
http://www.tomswift.info/homepage/rocket2.html
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Written Thanksgiving 28 November 2019.

Epping NH

On Sunday on the spur of the moment, Lynn and I drove up to Epping, New Hampshire to see our son, Richard. He was there after delivering a load and waiting for the next (and on his 34-hour reset).

The weather was terrible: rainy and foggy. And to top it off the Patriots were playing at home, so there was a bit of extra traffic on the way there. Rather stressful driving for me. But we made it (Lynn was the navigator helped by her phone's directions). The drive should have been 2.5 hours but turned into three due to the weather.

We found Richard's truck without a problem. Took Richard to a nearby laundromat so he could do a week's worth of laundry. We needed quarters and I had nothing smaller than a 20, so I ended up with a pocket full of quarters. The place was kind of dingy but we enjoyed chatting with several others who were there too. One guy was a drummer and a plumber (he said because they rhymed).

Can't forget a quick stop at Walmart so Richard could pick up some food for the upcoming week.

Afterwards, we had dinner at a nearby Applebees. Richard had steak and I had a burger with fries. Lynn had a veggie burger that turned out disappointing (oily). However, good company.

Rick, Richard, Lynn.

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Written Thursday 28 November 2019.

Graced Tech Support

Our Lady of Charity prayer card

Once again, Our Lady of Charity worked a miracle of tech support for me.  Thank you!

Last Sunday, I turned on my computer to only discover that I could not log in because my mouse and keyboard did not work. I tried all kinds of things (including the essential <CTRL-ALT-DEL>) such as using a different mouse and safe mode start up. When I searched for answers using the internet on my phone, my heart sank because no quick clean simple answers were shown. Instead, lots of BIOS changes, and other such techno approaches.

After many anguishing minutes of futile attempts, I shut down the computer, unplugged it and turned it over to Our Lady of Charity I asked for her miraculous intercession to restore functionality to my old computer. For extra protection, I placed an Our Lady of Charity prayer card on top of the computer. 

Yesterday, almost a week later, I said a prayer, plugged in the power cord, and started it up and held my breathe. And now the proof of the miracle is that here I am, with the computer working, documenting that everything is back, functioning correctly.

"Oh Holy Virgin of Miracles, No one can explain all the miracles and fortitude you give to the souls that come to you. We, your children, thank you for all your graces. Amen."

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Links:

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

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2018/11/divine-tech-support.html

https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-charity.html

https://discountcatholicstore.com/products/prayer-to-our-lady-of-charity-prayer-card
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Written Sunday 27 October 2019.