#Wendy Bertsch

[darklingichor]

Once More Fom the Beginning, by Wendy Bertsch

I wish I liked this one more than I did. The way it was billed was a retelling of the old testament from the perspective of the women. This seems like a good premise for a chuckle or two. However, what it is is basically a sumerizatuon of the old testament with modern language showing all the men to be dicks and maybe a headshake or an eye roll from the women every now and again.

I mean, if I wanted to read the Old Testament, I would have, nothing was added to it by having everyone talking like they're 20 somethings in the western world. I mean, there was no humor, unless the humor was supposed to *be* the fact that they were talking like that and the woman stood around rolling their eyes.

I felt like this book really wanted to be like The Twisted Tales of Shakespeare where the humor comes from puns and playing with context and sentence structure.

It wasn't. Look, The Old Testement can read like a bonkers game of mad libs if you look at it right, and nothing was stopping the author from playing with the madness.

There could have been stories about how while the men were yelling and stabbing and talking to burning bushes, the women were behind the scenes trying to orchestrate a different plan and maybe the differences in their plan and the men's plan accounts for why some stuff doesn't make sense.

Or, maybe play with the stories a little.

Like:

The tower of Babel was just supposed to be a multilevel market place, designed to save space. They got it up pretty high, but people started arguing about branding and store fonts and whether one person should collect the rent or perhaps they should figure out a different solution, and then one day, during a particularly contentious discussion about who could actually own the space at the bottom (First for foot traffic) and who could be at the top (tourist spot, clearly) when Benjamin the fine foods merchent was arguing that he should have the top spot because people would be hungry by time they got there; while Jemima the goat merchant was insisting he should be at the top, because, the goats will end up there anyway ("I mean, c'mon Ben, you've met a goat!"). And while Ben was making the case that just because a goat could climb to the top doesn't mean they should ("Having everyone *below* goats? It's an open concept plan Jem, that could only end badly").

And all the shareholders put in their two cents, no one was watching when, running late Oppidiah, owner of the perposed ice cream and paint mixing emporium ( There were health concerns here which is why he was on thin ice as it was) tied his donkey to one of the support struts and ran inside. Now, the donkey was annoyed because the entire way Oppi was singing 1000 skins of wine on the wall and as migraine inducing as that song was, the jerk stopped at two. TWO! The least he could have done was finish! So, the donkey disregarded his tether and decided he was just going to leave the irritating little man behind. He began to walk away. Now, this was long before building inspectors and structural integrity rules. The whole structure creaked if someone sneezed too hard, if we're honest. So, it didn't take much for the support to pop free and send the whole thing tumbling down.

The reason that everyone ended up speaking different languages because everyone was pissed off at everyone else. Yeah Oppi tied the donkey up, but whose idea was it to allow for anyone to just walk up and mess with a building under construction? Why wasn't there a fence? Talk to Mickiel, the fence builder who wanted to be on three! Well, no one was paying him for labor and materials to assist in construction. Who was in charge if contracts? Oh don't even talk to Abrial, he's the one who brought in Oppi to begin with! All of them left in a huff, and refused to speak with each other ever again, they each taught their families a code with which they could talk shit about the others right in front of them and eventually each family became mutually unintelligable to each other. Also,this is why we call a donkey and ass, because that animal was a, in fact, an ass.

See? Just be a little silly. Instead, this book was just boring.

#Once More Fom the Beginning #Wendy Bertsch #book #books #book blogging 2024

[lastsonlost]

The incident in Karla Dominguez’s apartment last October was violent, and it was not consensual, she testified in Alexandria District Court in December. The man she accused was indicted on charges including rape, strangulation and abduction and jailed without bond in Alexandria.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. Ibrahim E. Bouaichi’s lawyers argued that the virus was a danger to both inmates and their attorneys, and that Bouaichi should be freed awaiting trial. On April 9, over the objections of an Alexandria prosecutor, Circuit Court Judge Nolan Dawkins released Bouaichi on $25,000 bond, with the condition that he only leave his Maryland home to meet with his lawyers or pretrial services officials.

On July 29, Alexandria police say, Bouaichi, 33, returned to Alexandria and shot and killed Dominguez outside her apartment in the city’s West End.

When police couldn’t find Bouaichi after the slaying, they issued a video news release asking for the public’s help in locating him, declaring him “armed and dangerous.” Then on Wednesday morning, federal marshals and Alexandria police spotted Bouaichi in Prince George’s County and pursued him, causing Bouaichi to crash, authorities said. When the police went to arrest Bouaichi, they found he had apparently shot himself. He was reported to be in grave condition Thursday.

Bouaichi’s release from jail and the slaying of Dominguez represent a tragic side effect of the pandemic. As the coronavirus erupted in America, civil liberties advocates called for the release of large numbers of prisoners from jails and prisons in order to keep them from being infected and possibly dying in necessarily confined spaces.

In Alexandria, Bouaichi’s lawyers said in their motion for bond that “social distancing and proper disinfecting measures are impossible while incarcerated.… Simply put, the risk of contracting Covid-19 in a jail is exceedingly obvious.” The lawyers, Manuel Leiva and Frank Salvato, also noted the risk for themselves in the jail, saying that lawyers seeking a contact visit would “also expose themselves to contaminated air and surfaces.”

Leiva and Salvato also claimed that the Alexandria jail had “imposed severe restrictions on visitation since the Covid-19 outbreak,” that all contact visits (meaning no glass or separation between visitor and inmate) were stopped and that the lawyers could only have video conference sessions lasting 30 minutes maximum. A trial date was set for Bouaichi, and his lawyers said he was “being effectively deprived of legal counsel.”

Alexandria jail officials responded that they do allow contact visits for attorneys upon request, and have accommodated several requests. “We have also provided video conferences in excess of 30 minutes,” jail spokeswoman Amy Bertsch said. “However, we do not have any record of Mr. Leiva or his co-counsel requesting a face-to-face visit with Ibrahim Bouaichi after the protocols went into effect in late March.”

Bertsch noted that the jail implemented increased cleaning and health screening in early March “and there were no cases of covid-19 at the jail during their client’s incarceration.”

Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan L. Porter said Leiva and Salvato filed their motion on April 8 and Clark set the hearing for the next day, so prosecutors did not file a written response. Porter noted that under Virginia law, those charged with certain violent crimes such as rape are presumed to be a danger and are not eligible for bond.

“We strenuously argued that the presumption” against bond, Porter said, “had not been overcome, given the facts of the case and the violent nature of the alleged offense.” He declined to provide details of the attack because both the rape and murder cases against Bouaichi are pending.

Judge Dawkins retired in June, after serving 12 years as a circuit court judge and 14 years before that on the juvenile and domestic relations court. He did not respond to a request for comment. Judges typically are prohibited from commenting on pending cases.

Very little information is available about Dominguez, who police said was a native of Venezuela and did not have family in this country. A GoFundMe account was launched after she was killed, to help pay for her funeral, but the organizer did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Dominguez lived on South Greenmount Drive, in the Town Square at Mark Center Apartments. Alexandria police said they received a report of gunshots on July 29, and at 6:20 a.m. they found Dominguez outside her apartment, dead of multiple wounds to the upper body.

Police obtained a murder warrant for Bouaichi two days later, but could not find him until Wednesday.

In October, Dominguez called police and alleged she had been sexually assaulted by Bouaichi on Oct. 10.

Bouaichi was charged with six felonies — rape, sodomy, strangulation, abduction, burglary and malicious wounding — and turned himself in on Oct. 21. He was held without bond. At a preliminary hearing before Alexandria General District Court Chief Judge Donald M. Haddock in December, prosecutors dismissed the rape and malicious wounding charges, and Haddock found probable cause to send the case to a grand jury. He denied a request to allow Bouaichi to post bond.

The grand jury indicted Bouaichi on five charges: rape, sodomy, strangulation, abduction and burglary. A trial date was set for March 30, and Leiva and Salvato’s bond motion indicates they were preparing for trial, until the courts shut down in March due to the coronavirus and trials were postponed. “The two individuals involved were boyfriend/girlfriend,” the lawyers wrote, “and there is a substantial defense here.”

Alexandria police declined to provide any details of the alleged criminal assault from October.

Leiva and Salvato said in a statement they were “certainly saddened by the tragedy both families have suffered here.” The lawyers said they “were looking forward to trial. Unfortunately the pandemic continued the trial date by several months and we didn’t get the chance to put forth our case.”

After his release from the Alexandria jail, Bouaichi next encountered police in Greenbelt, where he lived with his parents. Greenbelt police said that shortly before midnight on May 8, they received a holdup alarm from a Wendy’s restaurant. Greenbelt police spokesman George Mathews said officers arrived to find no robbery, but instead a motorist in the drive-through acting strangely.

Mathews said the driver was uncooperative, “may have been intoxicated, and wouldn’t communicate with the officers. He then put his vehicle in drive and rammed the K-9 officer’s vehicle,” which an officer and a police dog were sitting in. The officers eventually took him into custody, at which point Bouaichi reported having a medical issue. He was taken to a hospital, and eventually to the Prince George’s jail, where he was served multiple charges: two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, harming a law enforcement dog, resisting arrest, driving while intoxicated and multiple traffic charges.

Maryland court records indicate Bouaichi was released from jail on May 11. Porter said Alexandria officials were not notified of the charges in Prince George’s County or they would have sought to revoke Bouaichi’s bond.

[darklingichor]

Start of the 2023 Birthday Book Haul

Okay, so I cheated a little bit and used the last of my birthday money on some Kindle books as these books were interesting, but either not keeping within my goal of spending no more than $10 per book or Thriftbooks didn't have them.

1. Mrs. Tim Carries On, by D.E. Stevenson

I got the first one in this series from the library after reading about them on a list. It's told in diary entries written by a wife of a soldier before WWII. So the first one is funny so far so I decided to get this one.

2. Anyway the Wind Blows, by Rainbow Rowell

It's about time I finish this series!

3. The Last Adventure of Constence Varity, by A. Lee Martinez

This author comes up a lot when I read Chrstopher Moore, so I thought I'd give him a go. This one and the next one both sound interesting. This one seems to be about a chosen one who is sick of being the chosen one. Sort of like if Percy Jackson and Kim Possible decided to retire?

4. Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest, by A. Lee Martinez

This one is about a road trip across a mythical US. You had me at road trip.

5. Joan, by Kathrine J. Chen

A novel about Joan of Arc. I had to.

6. The Helios Syndrome, by Vivian Shaw

Same author that wrote Greta Helsing, I'll be honest, I didn't even read the description.

Once More from the Beginning, by Wendy Bertsch

This retells the Old Testament from the female perspective. It just sounds like fun.

The rest will trickle over the next few weeks, but I'm happy with the start of my haul!

#books #book #book haul 2023