Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Supertrain

I remember hearing rumors of such a show back in the 1970s but I never realized they actually went ahead and made it. Then again, most of my train-related memories in the 1970s involved traveling via Amtrak to visit my Detroit kinfolk. So seeing a show like this right afterwards would have seemed just weird.

Please don't ask me how they got the late mystery novelist Donald E. Westlake to co-create this series. I'm guessing that wasn't one of his more satisfying achievements.

Literary Quote I Like

She wanted to excuse him because he was forced to be an insurance salesman when he really wanted to be out there on the gridiron again, but I want to be President and I’m an automobile salesman and I don’t go around giving women black eyes. 
--Donald E. Westlake, “Nackles”

All the Donald E. Westlake Books That I Have Read

1. High Adventure (1985).



A caper set in Belize that involves a plot concerning Indian relics and a would-be invasion. Contrary to what the cover may indicate, the protagonist of this novel is nothing at all like Indiana Jones but one can understand why an overoptimistic book publicist might want to see it that way. It's not a bad book but I have read better.

2. Humans (1992).



A demon and an angel compete in a contest in which the stakes include the end of the world and the game pieces include a motley crew of humans. Actually it's quite a good book. And yes, the plot does sound similar to Neil Gaiman and Tim Pratchett's Good Omens.

R.I.P. Donald E. Westlake



Mystery writer extraordinaire who never quite got the attention he deserved despite living to see several of his novels made into movies. He passed away on New Year's Eve.

He was nominated for an Oscar and won an Edgar for his screenplay for the 1990 film The Grifters. He was also nominated for an Edgar for his screenplay for the 1987 film The Stepfather and for his collaboration on the screenplay for the 1999 made-for-TV movie A Slight Case of Murder.

He will be missed.