After reading the Callahan Chronicals I have come to realize that there are many things to be learned in life. This book captured my attention by trying to figure out just what it is that Spider Robinson is trying to pass on to the reader. I have come to the conclusion that the author is trying to portray real life situations with a little twist to keep the reader interested.
There is a lesson to be learned from each story. Each visitor that passes through Mike Callahan’s bar is teaching the people who are already there a lesson and there is In the Centipede’s Dilemma I learned that apperance really dosen’t matter. Dink Fogerty led the whole bar to believe that he was incapable of even throwing a dart but then he, dispite his image, used telekinesis (mind over matter) to project the darts into the dartboard with tremendus accuracy. You cannot just sleep on your opponents in real life situations.
You must look beyond your opponents apparent capabilities to be a contender in any game, espically the game of life. If you don’t you will surely get stepped on throughout your life. If the people at Callahan’s didn’t catch on to Dink’s attribute then he would have walked out of that place knowing that he screwed over the entire bar. I have learned to look for things like this now and will not get decieved eaisly in my lifetime.
Fogerty wasn’t all that bad though, any bird that can keep their glass filled with gin all the time would be a good companion for mostly anyone. Just Dessert was a good story on how people do not like to be made a fool of. This story’s focus was on practical jokers. The message I received from this writing was that people don’t like practical jokers even if their motifs are just for fun. You also must be careful because that joke can turn foul and hit you right back in the face. That is exactly what happened to the men who tried to pull one over on Mike and the Doc.
The men planned to drink heavily and pull the old fake vomit gag. This one was more complex though because the guy who puked had his two friends dig into the gross mess with spoons to sicken the crowd. The vomit was just beef stew to make it look real. The funny part is that the Doc slipped some “serum of ipecac” into the stew before the man’s friends dug in. Who do you think got the last laugh in the end? Well, I know for sure that the jokers will not be playing that gag again in the future.
This goes for me as well. I will not be playing any joke like that in the future because now I can see what possible outcomes there can be. I wouldn’t like it done to me so I will stick to the golden rule. When the tall guy with the eyes walked through Callahan’s door there was a feeling of uncertainty among Jake Stonebender.
He had seen a man like this before and he ended up blasting four men with a gun. To make a long story short this guy was sent by his master to destroy the world but he had a conscience and couldn’t kill everyone. Mickey Finn realized that love and feelings do exist among humans and he couldn’t destroy them. He let everyone know that all they had to do was kill him and they would all be saved.
The people at Callahan’s did no such thing though. They got him trashed instead and talked it through. They even dragged him to the back room where Mike keeps a cot and laid him down to sleep. This taught me that it is best to talk things out in a bad situation.
All you have to do in certain situations is kill them with kindness. There was a guy in this book who possessed fivesight. It is when you can see things that are going to happen in the future. Unfortunately for this guy he could only see the bad things that were going to happen. He married a women and that same women ended up at Callahan’s place telling the story of her husband.
It seemed like the man with fivesight could prevent bad things that are going to happen but he couldn’t. He could only make them better by preparing for it. He always said he was not permitted by whomever sends him the messages to prevent anything. The couple had a kid. That boy was killed on his way home from school when a tractor trailer hit the school bus he was on.
The women asked why he did not try to save him. He was just living by his own rules and he could not change. I guess you shouldn’t ask for something that is worse for In Dog Day Evening a scrubby guy walked into Callahan’s with a well trained German shepherd. He soon made a bet to all the people at Callahan’s that his dog could talk. They all accepted the bet for two hundred dollars.
They were all ready for a prank since there was serious money on the line. The guy with the dog had a full beard and they suspected that he might be a ventriloquist. The man and the dog won the bet and the dog really could talk. The funny thing was that the man was a mute and the whole time the dog was doing the talking.
The people at Callahan’s thought that it was pretty cool even though they lost money. Mike felt bad for the since they were so nice about everything and nobody ever gave them a chance. All they knew was how to hustle for money. Mike Callahan offered to get the dog a job on the radio and the guy a job working with computers. I learned from this that it is good to help good people even if they play you for some cash. I also learned not to bet because anything is possible if a dog can talk.
In Have You Heard The One it was tall tales night at Callahan’s. Jake told a story about how her was not superstitious. In his story he asked god for a sign to know if something bad was going to happen to him. Sure enough a bird ended up falling dead on the hood of his car. If that is not a sign I don’t know what is. This story opened my mind to the possibility of the supernatural.
I know this book is not for real but it opened a door for the possibility of something larger than life. That is the main thing that I received from the story from the After reading this book I have learned many things. There are things in life that you must be ready for and I think that this book helped open some windows for me to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The Callahan Chronicals is a great way to learn about Bibliography:
