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    A Tour of the Horizon
    A Tour of the Horizon
    A Tour of the Horizon
    Ebook56 pages45 minutes

    A Tour of the Horizon

    By Jack O'Brien

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    About this ebook

    These stories were originally published in the Tico Times, Costa Ricas English Language newspaper, and are published here by permission.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateDec 15, 2015
    ISBN9781493168675
    A Tour of the Horizon

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      Book preview

      A Tour of the Horizon - Jack O'Brien

      Copyright © 2015 by Jack O’Brien. 540017

      ISBN: Softcover     978-1-4931-6866-8

      Hardcover     978-1-4931-6865-1

      EBook     978-1-4931-6867-5

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      Rev. date: 12/15/2015

      Xlibris

      1-888-795-4274

      www.Xlibris.com

      Table of Contents

      A TOUR OF THE HORIZON

      SAVERS AND SPENDERS

      TELL ME WHERE TRUE BEAUTY LIES

      THE TAIL OF THE DOG

      THE SOLARI PHENOMENON

      A PEECE OF WORK

      THE SPECIALIST’S SPECIALIST

      THAT PUSHY EGG

      DITHERING DENOUNCED

      LOVE MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND

      THE FUDGE FACTOR

      FUTURE SHOCK

      THE GOLDEN GIRL FROM COUNTY CLARE

      THE END OF THE AFFAIR

      KNOWLEDGE VERSUS BELIEF

      NOT TALKING ABOUT TOBRUK

      THE APOTHEOSIS OF PERCY

      A DRUG ON THE MARKET

      UNBUNKING HISTORY

      ODIOUS COMPARISONS

      SO WHO’S RUNNING THE JOINT ANYWAY?

      A TOUR OF THE HORIZON

      We used to get a bonus for interviewing Charles de Gaulle, because it was generally recognized as the supreme test of a reporter’s stamina. In his second presidency, during the Algerian crisis, Le Grand Charles, Master of Public Relations, formed the habit of summoning a dozen of us every fortnight to his home at Colombey- les- Deux- Eglises, political weather permitting.

      The format was invariable. For the first hour, La France Lui-Meme or just Himself as we called him gave his celebrated Tour de l’Horizon in which he pronounced his views on everything happening during the previous fortnight. Nothing escaped his scrutiny, from bloody revolution from bloody revolution in Africa to the birth of a two-headed sheep in the nearby village. And if you were caught taking a quiet nap in the back seat, you were hustled out, never to return to Colombey-les-deux-Eglises.

      But if you survived the Tour unscathed, the following question period was downright thrilling. Every reporter had his sixty seconds, the answers were concise and illuminating, and no one ever left disappointed. I was so enthralled by these sessions that the phrase Tour de l’Horizon stuck in my mind, and now it seems to me to have an even wider significance than we allowed it then. Let me explain.

      As a new-born babe, your horizon is virtually infinite, meaning that potentially you can do or be virtually anything you want. Then as you begin to show signs of intelligence, your parents will spend much time mapping out your future for you. At some stage you will realize that the glorious horizon they have assigned you is beyond your modest powers. President, Great Leader and so on all sound very grand, but obviously you have to be a bit screwy to deliberately aim at that level.

      Accordingly, you reduce your horizon to the radius of your area of comfort. But eventually you learn the ropes and begin to understand just how much help you’re going to need and just what load of political debt you’re willing to carry if you’re ever going to amount to more than a popcorn fart. . If you are lucky and choose your godfathers carefully you might even extend your horizon to something near your parents’ dream, and get to be known internationally. But most of us are content just to to be recognized on our home town’s Main Street, and our horizon is defined thereby.

      Then when you retire, your horizon is described by the number of lives you have touched, the number who remember your name, preferably with pleasure. Then eventually, irrespective of fame or fortune, you

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