BITS & PIECES

Openers:  There is a sort of legend abut Corporal George Orbach.  More than one man of his outfit has summed him up as the only person he ever met who didn't know what fear was.  They have a good many pat explanations, the way men will when they have nothing to do between patrols but pin labels on one another.  "A born killer" is a favorite.  A lieutenant called it "a suicidal complex."  This particular phrase did not take with the men.  A handful of sleeping pills, a loaded .32, they figure, and he could die in bed without scurvy, without frostbite, and without Migs.

-- "Born Killer" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 1953)


Incoming:

• J. L. Bourne, Day by Day Armageddon.  Zombie novel, the first of four novels in the series.  "Sporadic news reports indicate chaos and violence spreading throughout U.S. cities.  an unknown evil is sweeping the planet.  The dead are rising to claim the Earth as the new dominant species in the food chain."  From small press publisher Permuted Press.
• Jon Ajvide Lindqvist, Handling the Undead.  Zombie novel.  "The power grid has gone crazy.  Electric appliances won't stay switched off, and everyone has a blinding headache.  Then the shocking news beaks -- in the morgue and cemeteries, the newly dead are waking up.  What deadly price will grieving families have to pay for the chance to see their loved ones just one more time?"  Lindqvist previously put a new spin on vampires with Let the Right One In; now he does the same with zombies.  Translated by Ebba Segerberg.
• David Moody, Autumn:  Purification.  Zombie novel.  Noticing a trend here?  The final book in the Autumn trilogy even though three additional books in the series have been published.  "Trapped between the military and the dead, the survivors carve out a fragile and uncertain existence.  In a moment of madness their safety and security is jeapordised.  Surrounded by relentless hordes of bodies they run blindly through a harsh and lifeless world."  From small press publisher Infected Books.
• Alan Moore, Voice of the Fire.  Moore's first novel.  From Wikipedia:  "The story follows the lives of twelve people who lived in the same area of England over a period of 6000 years, and how their lives link to one another.  Each chapter carries the reader forward in time, but circles around the center of Northhampton, drawing in historical events and touchstones, before seguing into metafictional narrative in the closing chapter, as the author himself directly comments upon the previous chapter's ambiguous closing line, before relating a personal (;possibly fictional) anecdote about Northhampton which relates a personal experience of local myth, and features a personal appearance by his daughter and son-in-law, the writers Leah Moore and John Reppion. Throughout, the image of fire sparks resonate between the tales, while Moore finds a different voice for each character -- though most are inherently duplicitous in some manner, leading to a further commentary on the disparity between myth and reality, and which is more likely to endure over time."   The edition I have includes fourteen full color plates by Jose Villarrubia.  Moore is best known for his graphic novels V for Vendetta, Watchmen, From Hell, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Batman:  The Killing Joke, and Lost Girls.  He marches to the beat of a different drummer.
• Z. A. Recht, Thunder and Ashes.  Yet another zombie novel, the second in the Morningstar Strain trilogy.  "A lot can change in three months:  wars can be decided, nations can be forged,,,or entire species can be brought to the brink of annihilation.  The Morningstar Virus, an incredibly virulent disease, has swept the face of the planer, infecting billions.  Its hosts rampage, attacking anything that remains uninfected.  Even death can't stop the virus -- its victims as cannibalistic shamblers."  Another book from small press publisher Permuted Press.  The author died (at age 26) the year after this book was published; the final book in the trilogy was published three year after the author's death -- it may have been completed by Thom Brannon, who is listed as co-author on the French edition, though not on the American edition.  

A Trump Tent:  Over the past weeks, a Trump tent has appeared sporadically on the site of a closed gas station a couple of blocks from where I live.  The tent is festooned with flags and large banners proclaiming "Trump 2020."  There are t-shirts and (presumably) other paraphernalia.  Noticeably lacking on all the banners and t-shirts is the name "Pence."  I suppose they are just covering their bases.  Pence, who believes that God has singled him out to one day be president, appears to be in a shaky position vis-a-vis 2020.  It's interesting to note that here in the middle of solid Trump Country there has been absolutely no traffic stopping at the Trump tent.   Compare that to the long lines of vendors of Trump merchandise outside the Pensacola Bay Center whenever Trump has a campaign rally there -- something that he has done frequently.

In the meantime, Trump's antics and criminal behavior seems to be catching up with him.  The Iran crisis...the horrid treatment of minors at the border...the stonewalling of his people before the House Judiciary Committee...the lies...the corruption...and the even more lies.  Impeachment seems to be closer.  When it does come, I hope enough evidence has been compiled that it is a slam dunk and even the Senate Republicans will be hard-pressed to defend him.

Speaking of Senate Republicans:  Is there anyone who has abused his position more than Mitch McConnell?  He appears to have met his match in Jon Stewart, who passionately pleaded for the 9-11 first responders.  McConnell made the mistake of poo-pooing Stewart's remarks and Stewart tore him a new one.  Good show, Jon.

And the Flood Gates Opened:  Seventy-two years ago today Kenneth Arnold made the first widely reported UFO sighting.  Arnold, a businessman and an experienced pilot, claimed he saw nine unusual objects flying in tandem in the skies near Ranier, Washington.  The objects "shaped like a pie plate" had an odd motion "like a fish flipping in the sun."  The press soon dubbed these objects "flying saucers;" Arnold said that one of the objects resembled a crescent or flying wing.  Soon there were sightings all over the place and the saucer craze had begun.

Arnold wrote several articles on at least one book (THE COMING OF THE SAUCERS, 1952, with Raymond Palmer, the SF wunderkind who never met a conspiracy he did not like) and several articles, one of which (from Palmer's Fate magazine, Spring 1948) is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxFf7XEiYdGxY3M0SXZORF9rYVU/view

They're Here?:  A former manager of the DOD Threat Assessment Program says the UFOs are real:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fmr-manager-of-dod-aerospace-threat-program-ufos_b_59de2f4be4b0b992a8214874?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaHVmZnBvc3QuY29tL3NlY3Rpb24vd2VpcmQtbmV3cw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEC_UyjggbV7rL0evCPkhmGLiXLOo_04LM2LL2ezOZCaBuxw1VtAgb_Nomz-l_ZKgVbb1MZkUJ2wcmySvTiqkXLQeKow-oUbFcjqens88mdWRAKpUKNc_XVBkKymONeZ2bYNuZZprZVh7Zpy43zsqTmRX0Kie8txy0_tTMNFE-sK

Pardon me while I leave the room to scoff.

Another Conspiracy Theory Smashed:  Despite popular opinion, Walter Cronkite was not the second highest mountain in the Andes.

Today's Poem:

A Bit of Science

What!  Photograph in colors?  'Tis a dream

And he who dreams it is not overwise,

If colors are vibration they but seem,

And have no being.  But if Tyndall lies,

Why, come,  then -- photograph my lady's eyes.

Nay, friend, you can't.  the splendor of their blue,

As on my own beclouded orbs they rest,

To naught by vibratory's motion due,

As heart, head, limbs, and all I am attest.

How could her eyes, at rest themselves, be making

In me so uncontrollable a shaking?

-- Ambrose Bierce