Showing results by author "Jerry Bader" in All Categories

It all started five years earlier with the murder of Peter "Pretty Boy" Chen, a low-level soldier for Benson Yeung's Hong Mian triad. Rumor had it that the statue that sat on the old man's desk, the symbol of his Dragon Head status as leader of the Hong Mian, was filled with priceless Pigeon Blood rubies, or at least that's what Peter thought. Whether he was right or wrong is a tale for another time and another place. What's significant is, his desire to get his hands on those rubies led to his brains being splattered all over the wall of the Green Dragon Restaurant.

What's the Big Idea? lays out 28 optional approaches for creating the high concept that can be the center point of all marketing decisions a business needs to make. By using one of these concepts, entrepreneurs can make the appropriate decisions to invest and use the numerous tactical marketing and advertising options available and, more importantly, avoid wasting money on fad, over-hyped tactics that may be suitable for some, but may not be suitable for everyone.

Jesse James, the daughter of a deceased mob-connected rug salesman, becomes a jockey working for the Hong Mian triad in order to feed winners to state Senator Somersby. The Senator is responsible for approving California gaming licenses. To date, only Native CANGV casinos are allowed to have slots. California horse racing will die if they aren't allowed to add slot machines to their venues. Benson Yeung, Dragon Head of the Hong Mian triad, and his chief lieutenant, Johnny Luck, have a plan to force Somersby to approve their Native partner's demands for off-reservation gaming licenses.

14 Ridiculous Tales of Sage Silliness is a compendium of 14 rhyming stories of cyborgs, vikings, pirates, puppeteers, dragons, politicians, a wueen, an umbrella salesman, a baseball player, and a toothless has-been super hero. Each short lyrical tale has a moral for children to learn, from staying in school, to listening to parents, to avoiding excess, and much more.

In order to cover up the disastrous plan, CIA stringer Richard Lancaster kills Michi's father and any other witnesses associated with the failed scheme. Upon learning of her father's death, Michi is transformed from a peace-loving traditional Japanese daughter into a revenge-seeking vigilante in the form of a Japanese-style bosozoku, dubbed "The Black Crane".

In the 1950s, westerns were the most popular form of television drama. Saturday mornings were filled with black and white images of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger, and The Cisco Kid. In the evening you had the more adult westerns like Have Gun - Will Travel, Rawhide, and Wanted Dead or Alive. Sprinkled amongst these shows were programs purporting to be about real historic characters, people like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Annie Oakley, and Wild Bill Hickok.

As a Jew whose parents survived the Nazi concentration camps, I learned life is fragile, and survival arbitrary. As a jockey, I developed an approach to life of living in the moment, of pushing the envelope, of reacting first, because not reacting can cost you the race, or maybe your life. Jockeys are modern day serfs that travel the country picking up rides where possible, for the most part earning scraps, guaranteed to be seriously injured. Did I bend the rules? Yes. Did I break many of them? Most certainly, because that's the way the game is played.

Psychiatrist and amateur artist Higgins Idaho is haunted by his family's tragic past. An infamous artist grandfather, a hotshot lecherous movie director, and a murdered party girl combine to push a psychologically damaged man over the edge. The senior Idaho was an infamous Hollywood painter who designed movie posters for the industry, but his life spiraled downward after he was charged with a murder he didn't commit. The stain of bad publicity and circumstance haunts the younger Idaho.

We are all familiar with the classic tale of Casey at the Bat but that story was written a long time ago. I felt it was time for a new story about about the best sport there is, baseball. Baseball is unlike any other game, it requires great individual skill, as well as practiced team co-ordination. In terms of life lessons, baseball has a lot to offer children. The Ninth Inning is a humorous take on the game with a nifty rhyme. I hope you like it.

From the bizarre world of female Japanese motorcycle gangs to the historic rise and fall of London's 40 Elephants, the history of female organized crime is both fascinating and strange. These are the stories, both true and legendary, of the female crime bosses that broke the mold of feminine gentility. This is the secret world of female gangsters. Most of society thinks of women as the gentler sex, the sex with more compassion and empathy, not prone to violence. The truth is history, and current events, are littered with stories of violent women who do whatever it takes to get what they want; women who either revel in, or accept as needed, whatever acts of torture, murder, and depravity that are required to achieve their goals.

Why do we call mixed alcohol drinks "cocktails"? How do they get their exotic names — names like the Singapore Sling, Screw Driver, the Alamagoozlum, the Angel’s Kiss, the Hanky Panky, the Harvey Wallbanger, Sex on the Beach, the Monkey Gland, the Brass Monkey, the Margarita, the Japalac, the Lion’s Tail, and many, many more?

A down-and-out LA actor with a knack for impersonations finds his circumstances completely reversed by a chance meeting with a look-alike stranger. After a night of drinking with his new friend discussing the possibilities made possible by their similar appearance, the stranger offers the actor a ride home. On the way there is an accident and one of them is killed. The survivor finds himself in the hospital with amnesia and everyone assuming he's the stranger, the right-hand man for a mob boss.

Crime...it's a dirty business, and eventually someone always dies. The thing is...you got to make sure it isn't you, or someone you love. That's the problem: the someone you love may just be the reason you end up on an aluminum table with some white-coated ghoul slicing you open like a prized Thanksgiving turkey. There comes a time when everybody has to make a decision...you're either all-in, or you cash out, if they let you. But you know in the end that's not going to happen. It always gets messy.

Harry is drawn back into the Quandary orbit when his restaurant partner goes missing, and a dead North Korean RGB agent is found murdered on Benten Island under the torii gate of the Itsukushima Shrine, near Matsumae Castle in Hokkaido, Japan. A Japanese Naicho CIRO agent, a Mossad Kidon agent, and twin brother casino operators join Harry and his Quandary colleagues to unravel the latest attempt by the Chinese and North Koreans to disrupt the financial institutions in the West.

Art and artifact investigator Axel Webb is asked to investigate a lawyer, A. Barton Bailey. The lawyer claims he represents a client willing to sell a portfolio of paintings by 20th-century bad-boy, Welsh portrait painter, Augustus John. Bailey approaches the Art Gallery of Ontario, owner of what is arguably John’s best work, a portrait of the flamboyant Marchesa Luisa Casati. The bohemian excesses of Augustus John and Luisa Casati, his occasional sexual partner, friend, and muse for over forty years, are legendary.

The Sūn Collection auction of Qing Dynasty snuff bottles at the Shangri-la Hong Kong Hotel was highly anticipated. Three super-wealthy international financial magnates wanted the collection, but only one could get it. The winner, Canadian Kyan K. Tomkins, represented by Alastair Hughes, snagged the prize. Tomkins’ British competitor, Sir Benedict Foxcroft, had to settle for two miniature jade Fu Dogs. American Michael C. Bullock was represented by his daughter-in-law, Wu Jing.

In my business, you meet all kinds of people; some, let’s call them civilians, are ordinary, what the politicians call “folks;” then there are the characters, the peculiar sorts, people with strange peccadilloes: what an old friend of mine might call, “people who scare the horses.” Some, let's call them “the desperate:” come to me because they find themselves in a situation, sometimes of their own making and other times… well… let’s just say, imposed upon them. In each case, they have secrets.

Antonius Stradivari was the premiere maker of string instruments during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Only six hundred and fifty Stradivarius instruments still exist; each is worth millions of dollars. Like many historic masterpieces, these instruments, particularly the violins, have become the targets of thieves. Unfortunately for the thieves, Stradivarius violins are nearly impossible to fence. As such, only a handful have been stolen, usually by amateurs.

On Christmas Eve, 1984, two Mexican veterinarian dropouts broke into the Museo Nacional del Antropologia. They stole over one hundred ancient Mayan treasures found in the tomb of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, a discovery that rivals Tutankhamun in beauty, wealth, and cultural significance. The burglary became known as the El Robo del Siglo: The Theft of the Century.

Investigator Axel Webb is drawn into an intricate web of revolution, greed, and infidelity when his Russian nemesis, gangster Vladimir Bok, pressures Axel to find a missing Fabergé Egg.