On 12/16/2009 10:20 PM, ATP* wrote:

I bought a few at Costco for my son. Mrs. Hardy is slim, attractive and
always serves the guests and defers to her husband. They have one fat friend
who is obsessed with food, and the bad guy was a typical Spanish type, small
and excitable.....

You need to find the originals at a used book store. Much more
interesting. When my son was (perhaps?) 8, I asked him what was on his
Christmas list. The answer? "An ultralight airplane and a revolver".
Frank Hardy had a revolver.

Ed started this... I went off on a jihad to find a photo of a propeller
driven iceboat on the Navesink...puller, not pusher...didn't find it.

There appears to be a fair amount of coincidental places in the Hardy
Boys books and south of Ed in the Bayshore area.

Stratemeyer (who ran the syndicate that published the Hardy Boys books)
has been reported to have had a summer house in Atlantic Highlands
(Bayport). The old mill (on Whippoorwill Valley road), the Shore Road
(upper and lower Scenic Drive), The house on the cliff, the train to New
York, all point to the area.
But the books were ghostwritten by a Canadian. Go figure.

If you're a SF guy, Fritz Leiber uses Atlantic Highlands as Bayport in
Conjure Wife. At one time he lived on Avenue D.

Kevin Gallimore