RIP: author Tom Clancy, 66

RIP: author Tom Clancy, 66

He's most famous as the creator of Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst played by Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin. Clancy was an insurance agent when he wrote The Hunt for Red October some 30 years ago, but soon became a full-time author when public praise from Ronald Reagan shot that book to the top of the best-seller list.

My Russian relatives get a kick out of the movie version of Red October, in which all the written and spoken Russian is completely screwed up, starting with the title, which says "КРАСНЫЙ ОКТIАВR" instead of "КРАСНЫЙ ОКТЯБРЬ." The first word is correct, but the second word makes no sense at all. "I" and "R" are not even Russian letters, while "B" is the russian "v", not the Russian "b".

The many errors in the film's Russian had my relatives howling out loud in moments when the film is supposed to be highly dramatic. (I have not read the book so I don't know whether it is accurate.)