Lee Child sells out to the movie industry.

For many years one of my favourite authors has been Lee Child; his many novels featuring the character Jack Reacher have always been very enjoyable - as many millions of other readers have discovered.

One of the greatest things about reading is that we each establish a picture in our minds of the characters in a work of fiction and, when the central character is defined over time as to his/her size, weight, features, manner and so forth we each imagine exactly what that character is like.
Each of us has our own "picture" of that make-believe person.

I had long admired Child for not selling out to the movie industry and looked forward to the next Jack Reacher adventure with eagerness.

Not any more.
Lee Child has betrayed my imagination. He has sold out and I am contemptuous of him for doing so.
It's not as if he needs the money - he's certainly not poverty-stricken.

I could not believe it when I heard that (a) a "Jack Reacher" movie is being released and (b) Tom Cruise has been cast as the titular character!
TOM CRUISE?!!!

I never had a mental image of any particular actor as Jack Reacher - none at all. But if I had then Tom Cruise would not have even made the initial list, let alone a final interview.
Why?
Well, here is a summation of Reacher's physical attributes as gleaned from the various stories (courtesy Wikipedia):-

• Reacher is 6' 5" tall (1.96m) with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds (100–115 kg). He has ice-blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He has very little body fat and his muscular physique is completely natural (he reveals in Persuader he has never been an exercise enthusiast). He is exceptionally strong but is not a good runner.

Tom Cruise is 5'-7".
He does not have a 50" chest and certainly doesn't weigh between 210 and 250 pounds.
Jack Reacher is NOT Tom Cruise.

But now, when you Google "Jack Reacher" or "Lee Child", the majority of the images which appear are of Tom Cruise.

I will never be able to read a Jack Reacher novel again without seeing Cruise in my mind's eye and that is not only disheartening but also ridiculous.

No thanks to you, Mr. Child.

My grand-daughter at 100

She is six years old and in her last few weeks of kindergarten.
Her class was given a blank sheet of paper with the words "When I am 100 years old I will look like this!" at the top and then each child was asked draw a self portrait of themselves projected some 95 or so years into the future.

This was my grand-daughter's masterpiece..............

(Click on it to enlarge to full-size)

I thought the glasses were significant; a child automatically assumes that old people wear glasses. (Well, I do and so does my wife).
I was also impressed by the fact that she retains her natural teeth - obviously dental science will improve in leaps and bounds (and maybe the cost will reduce, too.)

I will keep this work of art and bequeath it to her so that when I'm gone and she has grown to adulthood she will have a reminder of her crystal ball-gazing in 2012.