BITS & PIECES

Openers:  Now, touching this business of old Jeeves -- my man, you know -- how do we stand?  Lots of people think I'm much too dependent on him.  My Aunt Agatha, in fact, has even gone so far as to call him my keeper.  Well, what I say is:  Why not?  The man's a genius.  From the collar upward he stands alone.  I gave up trying to run my own affairs within a week of his coming to me.  That was about half a dozen years ago, directly after the rather rummy business of Florence Craye, my Uncle Willoughby's book, and Edwin, the Boy Scout.  -- P. G. Wodehouse, "Jeeves Takes Charge"

April Incoming:  

• "Luke Adams" (house name), Apache Law:  The Lonely Gun.  The second of four in the Apache Law western series.  I don't know who wrote this one, but Bill Crider wrote the second and third books in the series.
• Donald Beman, Dead Love.  Horror novel.
• William Bernhardt, editor, Legal Briefs.  Mystery anthology with 11 stories.
• M. V. Carey, The Mystery of the Blazing Cliffs.  A Three Investigators YA mystery.  This series is addictive.  Carey wrote fifteen books in the series, following Robert Arthur, "William Arden" (Dennis Lynds), and "Nick West" (Kin Platt).
• Terry Carr, editor, Universe 5.  Part of the long-running, critically acclaimed SF anthology series.
• Sean Chercover, Trigger City.  The second in the Ray Dudgeon, P.I.  mystery series.  This one was a 2009 Dilys Award winner, and a finalist for the Anthony, Barry, and Macavity awards.
• "Jackson Cole" (house name), Trigger Law.  A Jim Hatfield western.
• Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness.  A Lincoln Lawyer mystery.
• Blake Crouch, Good Behavior.  Fix-up thriller featuring Letty Dobesh.
• Gordon R. Dickson, The Stranger.  SF collection with 14 stories.
• Walter B. Gibson & Litzka R. Gibson,  The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences.  Nonfiction bushwah.
• Ken Goddard, Outer Perimeter.  Thriller.
• Christopher Golden, Tin Men.  SF novel.
• William Harms, adapter, Charlaine Harris' Grave Sight.  Graphic novel version of the first Harper Connelly novel, with art by Denis Medri.  The dead tell Harper how they died.
• Joan Hess, Mummy Dearest.  A Claire Malloy mystery.  Claire finally remarries and her honeymoon is murder.
• Jonathan Kellerman, Evidence.  An Alex Delaware mystery.
• Damon Knight, A Reasonable World.  SF novel, the sequel to CV and The Observers!
• Kozuo Koike, Lone Wolf and Cub, Volume 6:  Lanterns for the Dead.  Manga with art by Gosaki Kohma.
• Richard A. Lupoff, Edgar Rice Burroughs:  Master of Adventure.  Nonfiction from a Burroughsphiliac. This is the 1968 revised edition.
• Lia Matera, editor, Irreconcilable Differences.  Mystery anthology with 20 stories.
• "P. J. Parrish" (Kelly Nichols & Kristy Montee), South of Hell.  Thriller.
• Tom Robbins, Villa Incognito.  A novel from a cult writer who claimed soul with Another Roadside Attraction many year ago.
• Jay Williams & Raymond Abrashkin, Danny Dunn, Scientific Detective.  YA mystery/SF novel.  this series is another of my guilty pleasures.
• F. Paul Wilson, Deep Is the Marrow.  Thriller.
• Brian Wood, Northlanders, Book One:  Sven the Returned.  Graphic novel with art by Davide Gian Felice.

I've Been Reading:  Not much.  The silly thing called life kept interfering.  I'm halfway through August Derleth's The Milwaukee Road, a history of railroads in Wisconsin (and beyond).  There's a lot of interesting things there -- personalities, politics, chicanery. and greed.  Plus several of the historical characters mentioned have been the protagonists of some of Derleth's historical novels that I have enjoyed.  It's not that long a book and it's not a bad book but sometimes it's hard to concentrate.  So what to do?  I landed on Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell's new collection, Bizarre Romance.  Niffenegger (The Time Traveller's Wife) and cartoonist husband Campbell (From Hell) combined their considerable talents to make this book a delight.  Since that took me halfway there, I next landed on Jason Aaron and Jason Latour's Southern Bastards, Volume 1:  Here Was a Man and Volume 3:  Homecoming.  (I had previously read the second volume.)  What their series Scalped did to Indian reservations, this series does to small town football in the South.  Good and gritty.  Finally, I read the Manga version of Stephen Moffat's Sherlock:  A Study in Pink, an adaptation of the first episode of the BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.  One of those start at the back and read right to left books. Amusing.  I started five books this week and pput each one down; with luck, I'll be able to get back to them this coming week

The Name Game:  Erin was inducted into her high school's National English Honor Society this week, along with half a gazillion other kids.  As always, I'm interested in the diversity of names among the students.  (There were three Erins honored, a name that is not usually found in the South.)  Anyway, take a look at the names.  Are these millennials, or what? 

Zachery, Katherine, Lauren, Benjamin, Josie, Juliana, Ava, Kaitlin,Bailey, Sydney, Clayton, Emma, Ashley, Douglas, another Clayton, Kendall, Ana, Brittan, Eden, Christina, Amirah, Madie, Riley, another Benjamin, Kaylie, Jackson, Mary Kate, Breanna, Sally, Trevor, Erin, Chloe, Courtney, Caroline, Bickston, Britton, Bethany, Adelyn, Solo, Allison, Carrington, Shealan, Anna, Sachi, Hannah, Elizabeth, Matthew, another Ashley, Kellen, Brianna, Abby, Frances, Savannah, Abigail, Serafina, Siena,Kayla, Kimberly, McKenna, Ryan, Tulla Bee, Gabrielle, John, Brooke, Hadleigh, another Erin, Annalise, Mary, Ashlinn, the third Erin, Morgan, Luke, Alexandra, Parick, Emma, Joshua, Mammoon, Mya, Julina, Ashton, Bridget, another Emma, Alexia, Olivia, Ian, Shayla, Merigrace, Lizabeth, Alyse, Victoria, and another Allison.

Some Jokes Come with Their Own Punchline:  In science news this week, it was announced that Uranus has a foul odor.

Lone Wolf:  Comic Michelle Wolf has been getting some flak from her presentation at the White House Correspondents Dinner this week.  She gave a raunchy, profanity-laden, take no prisoners speech.  What did they expect?  This what she does.  This is what comics do.  This is what court jesters have done throughout history.  They use humor to bring truth to power.  Depending on the comics viewpoint, this may be a liberal truth or a conservative one, but each serves an important function.  Wolf's comments about Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders drew the most fire.  Well, no one actually cared about the Kellyanne comments because she is Kellyanne.  Sarah Sanders, on the other hand, was sitting stoically at the head table, while Wolf ripped her apart -- leaving many people sorry for this wife and mother.  I, too, felt embarrassed for Sanders, but -- as Wolf said -- if you tella joke when the subject is not present, you should be able to when he or she is there.  What do you think?  Did Michelle Wolfe cross the line?  I don't think so.  Comics are supposed to make you feel uncomfortable.

Meanwhile:  POMOTUS (Pathetic Old Man of the United States) avoided the whole deal by skipping out of Washington and going to Washington, Michigan, for another self-love fest. POMOTUS's comic stylings there left me flat.  

"It's Worse Than That...She's Dead, Jim":  The world's longest living spider (that we now of) has died at age 43.  The previous record was 23.  Good riddance, I say.  I hate spiders.  Hate'emhate'emhate'em!

Birthday Boy:  Poet John Crowe Ransom was born 130 years ago today.  Here's a poem:

ADA RUEL

The Queens of Hell has lissome necks to crane

At the tall girl approaching with long tread

And, when she had caught up even with them, nodded:

"If the young miss with gold hair might not disdain, 

We would esteem her company over the plain,

To profit us all where the dogs will be out barking;

And we'll walk by the windows where the young men are working

And tomorrow we will all come home again."

But the Queen of Heaven who had advanced and stood

In the likeness, I hear, of a fine motherly woman

Made a wry face, despite it was so common

To be worsted by the shrewd ladies of hell,

And crisped her sweet tongue:  "This never will come to good:---

Just an old woman, my pet, that wishes you well."

Endings:  This week we lost Pamela Gidley, who played murder victim Teresa Banks in the Twin Peaks prequel Fire  Walk with Me;  Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey; and Golden Girls producer Paul Junger Witt.

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