Showing results by narrator "Robin Gabrielli" in All Categories

Nail-biting is more addictive and harder to quit than heroin! I feel your pain, frustration, and embarrassment. This is my story, too. I’ve run businesses, written books, earned advanced degrees, raced Ironman, and given speeches about mental toughness - and yet only recently was I able to finally stop chewing my fingers down to tattered, bloody nubs.

With his disturbingly horse-like face and a pious distaste for strong drink and bad language, young Bartholomew Bandy doesn't seem cut out for life in the armed services, as we meet him at the start of World War I. Yet he not only survives the dangers and squalor of the infantry trenches, he positively thrives in the Royal Flying Corps, revealing a surprising aptitude for splitarsing Sopwith Camels and shooting down the Hun. He even manages to get the girl.

As usual, the RAF top brass don't know what to do with maverick flying ace and well-known loose cannon Major Bartholomew Bandy. They pack him off to a squadron where the flying record barely registers, thinking it'll keep him out of their hair. But after a shaky start, Bart gets a firm grip on things - one of those things being the adjutant, who jealously guards his own private and baroquely magnificent WC. With old pal Dick Milestone, Bart reinvigorates the superbly turned-out but demoralized pilots, who start doing some serious flying and very serious damage to the enemy.

Bartholomew Bandy has become an air ace. On the ground, he causes disasters wherever he goes, but in the air, he's deadly, shooting down dozens of German planes in the course of thrilling aerial combats. As a handy but disposable war hero, he encounters a number of hair-raising adventures, not to mention English plumbing and an unforgettable honeymoon night.

The oceans of the world are no longer safe. Ships are being attacked and sunk by what survivors describe as a giant sea monster. The United States Government sends the frigate Abraham Lincoln to investigate, carrying renowned scientist Pierre Aronnax in hopes of solving the mystery. They soon encounter the "sea monster", which is actually a submarine, far advanced than anything the world has ever seen - commanded by Captain Nemo.

The only work he finds is flying bootleg liquor into the USA. In desperation (what else?), he stands as a local MP and in desperation (why else?), they vote him in. But after spilling the beans on a bunch of government members indulging in Prohibition corruption, Bart’s soon cordially hated by everyone up to the Prime Minister - can he really be naïve enough to believe party propaganda that the people must be told the truth? So Bart’s goose - or gander - is cooked, and the resulting mess can be summed up as whisky galore!

Peace has broken out, and World War I flying ace and all-round chancer Bartholomew Bandy isn’t exactly making a success of being a commercial pilot in the USA. But when a job lot of aircraft bits purchased with the last of his pay turns out to be a complete Vickers Vimy bomber, he feels his luck has changed. With the help of his very tall, very sweet girlfriend Cissie, and the hindrance of his very short, very bad, and beautiful girlfriend Dasha, Bart smashes (literally) straight into the exciting new world of the movies.

Are you an athlete? Yes - you are! You may not know it yet, or have ever experienced the intoxicating rush of pure movement, but your inner athlete is lying dormant inside you just waiting to be unleashed! Even if you've played sports or undertaken athletic endeavors, have you really opened yourself to the physical and mental power that simmers just under the surface of your consciousness?

It is logical to suppose that the matrix of human psyche is recorded by exclusively taking into account its transmission "through nations, centuries and cataclysms". According to researchers of antiquity, the human race is tens of thousands to tens of millions years old. Therefore, there must be that language, by the means of which all baseline information about human species could be passed on.