BITS AND PIECES

A Pulpish Opening:  You may say I'm crazy, but if you look at me you won't laugh while you say it.  You will turn away from me, shutting your eyes tightly, shaking your head in an effort to forget.  It's not that I'm deformed, and my face is not hideous.  But you will see in my eyes some shadow of the things I have seen -- and you will wnt to forget.  -- Wyatt Blassingame, "Song of the Dead" (Dime Mystery Magazine, March 1935)

I've Been Reading:  Books finished this past week:  Edwin Lester Arnold's Lieut. Gullivar Jones:  His Vacation (yes, I did finish it), Charles Osbourne's Spider's Web (a novelization of an Agatha Chrisite play), Donald E. Westlake's Forever and a Death (the James bond that wasn't from Hardcase Crime), Brian Michael Bendis' Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2:  Angela (a graphic novel with the title character created by Neil Gaiman), and Ryan North's The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1:  Squirrel Power (a graphic novel with my new favorite super heroine).  Currently I'm reading The Beetle Horde by "Victor Rousseau," The very first story to printed in Astounding/Analog, back in January 1930 when the magazine began as Astounding Stories of Super-Science, it's a two-part serial about (are you ready for this?)...giant beetles!

No More Three-Armed Models?:  I see that CVS is doing away with photoshopped or manipulated images on their CVS beauty brands and are placing labels on those from other sources.  A good thing, methinks.  There is a beauty and freshness in reality that is not present in marketing fantasies.

Norwegians Are Staying Put:  Surprisingly, they don't want to move to the United States despite what our president wants.  Going around the internet now is a quote from Bob Phillips:  "I wonder if parents in shithole countries have to tell their idiot kids not to eat Tide laundry pods."

Today Is Martin Luther King Day:  It was not a federal holiday when we first moved down to Virginia from Massachusetts in the 1990s; with true Southern resistance January 15 was designated Lee-Jackson Day. later changed to Lee-Jackson-King Day.  Kind of reminds me of Irish Alzheimer's, where you forget everything but the grudge.

Going to Pieces:  Besides the Rev. Dr. King (and Generals Lee and Jackson), today marks the anniversary of the discovery of the dismembers body of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles in 1947.  The so-called "Black Dahlia" has never been solved.  The crime has been featured in many novels and stories, including those by James Elroy, John Gregory Dunne, Max Allan Collins, Craig McDonald, and Joyce Carol Oates.  Over 500 persons have confessed to the crime (including some who were not yet born) and various writers and experts have put forward a number of suspects.  John P. St. John, an L.A. detective working the case, is quoted as saying, "It's surprising how many people offer up a relative as the killer."

Speaking Of:  Let's take Professor Peabody's Wayback Machine to last October when Senator Ben Sasse said he had spilled Dr. Pepper on Ted Cruz during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, to which someone tweeted, "If I was sitting next to the son of the guy who killed Kennedy Imight do worse than spill some Dr. Pepper."  To which Sasse tweeted the he was wearing his "Lee Harvey Oswald was framed" t-shirt.  Cruz tried to get into the fun and tweeted a cryptic letter by the Zodiac Killer.  The problem is Cruz has no sense of humor and his trying to prove that he does went over like a lead balloon.  I'd tell Cruz not to give up his day job but that's exactly what I hope he will do. 

#FixTrumpIn5Words:  That's what's trending on Twitter.  Any suggestions/

My Sunny Personality:  It's finally warming up here after a few days of frigid weather.  I say it's my sunny personality, my wife disagrees.