MUSIC FROM THE PAST: WE BELONG TOGETHER

 Richie Valens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1hU2I2KlhU

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE MAN WHO VANISHED

 "The Man who Vanished" by J. A. Mitchell (from That First Affair and Other Sketches, 1896; any previous publication unknown)

Here's another animal story, a fable about "[a] certain hunter, clad in appropriate raiment, and armed with a fowling-piece of costly mechanism, [who] sought diversion in a forest."

Our intrepid hunter spies a squirrel, takes aim,  fires...and misses.  this indicated a want of consideration on the part of the squirrel.  "[T]hat one of the lower animals should thus take upon himself to to oppose the will of man, created in God's image, brought a shock to his higher nature, and, for the time being, shook his faith in Providence."

Nonetheless, he soldiered on, soon spying a woodpecker.  He had much better luck this time, blowing the bird's head nearly off.  He lay down his weapon and, with pride, admired the beauty of the creature he had just killed.  Then her herd a noice behind him.  It was a large bear standing on its hind legs.

The bear remarked on how good the shot was.  Did the hunter have a grudge against the bird?  No?  Maybe the bird was just noisy?  The bear told the hunter that he had known the woodpecker -- "a good enough fellow."  The bird's wife will be lonely now, the bear supposed.  The bear reiterted that it was a good shot, although taken at a disadvantage.

The hunter was very nervous as the bear continued to question him.  Perhaps the hunter was empty?  (A look at the hunter's ample waist belied this.)  Perhaps he sot the bird for the good of the world, it being perhaps better without the woodpecker?  Or, perhaps, he shot the bird just for fun?  The hunter fesrfully acknowledged this to be true.

"Well. it's good sport.  That is, of course, for the chap who holds the gun."

The gun, by the way, was out of the hunter's reach.  The bear was now between the hunter and his gun.  The bear began to muse.  If the gun had been within the hunter's reach, perhaps the hunter's family would feed on bear meat and a bearskin rug would decorate their home.  Was the hunter's family starving?  The hunter acknowledged they were not.

The bear explains his family is starving and he had promised to bring back food for his wife and three daughters.  The bear then invites the hunter back to his den for a meal.  Hooking its massive claws onto the hunter's jacket, the bear leads him off into the woods.

"This tale is not a sad one, even from the human point of view."  The man was very wealthy, so his family did not want.  "Moreover, he was a bully at home and used to open his wife's letters,."

Short effective, and told with a wry sense of humor.

John Ames Mitchell (1845-1948), a publisher, architect, artist, and novelist, was the co-founder, editor, and publisher of the original Life magazine.  Mitchell, born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, was president of the magazine from its founding in 1883 to his death in 1918.  Another Ridgefield native, Henry Luce, purchased the magazine in 1936, turning it into a p[icture-oriented magazine.  Under Mitchell, Life may have been best known for discovering Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson girl.  Mirchell and fellow journalist Horace Greeley were founders of the Fresh Air Fund, which operated a camp for city kids in Ridgefield.

Mitchell trained as an architect at the Ecole des Beaux-Artes in Paris.  He wroked as an architect in Boston for several years and returned to Paris in 1876 to study painting and developed an interest in studies in black and white.  He returned to America in 1880.  He lamented there was no printed outlet in America for black and white line drawings, which led to his founding of Life.  He returned to architecture briefly, designing the Unity Church of North Easton for his uncle in 1885.

With the magazine established as a success, Mitchell turned to writing, turning out six novels and a number of sketches.  Amos Judd (1895) was probably hjis most famous novel while he was alive.  It was turned into a Rudolph Valentino film, The Young Rajah, in 1923.  Today, Mitchell may be better known for The Last American (1889), a fictional journal of a Persian admiral who rediscovers Americas in 2951.

Although quiet and humble in his personal life, Mitchell held strong opinions and expressed them in his magazine.  He stronlgy distrusted modern medicine and was a fervent anti-vaxxer.  A great lover of dogs, he opposed vivisection.  Following the sinking of the Luisitania, he became bitterly anti-German.  He collected mote than $200,000 in a campaign to support French war orphans.  He had a genius for anticipating American trends and for using humor to express them; the humor could be effectively biting -- it's been said that politicians were more afraid of Life's cartoons than of its editorials.  He was married to Mary Mott Mitchell; they had no children.  He died suddenly of apolexy at his summer home in Ridgefield.

That First Affair and Other Sketches can be read online.

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: FEELIN' ALRIGHT

 Joe Cocker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvH0TocgLFU

FORGOTTEN MOVIE: THE LIMPING MAN (1953)

 Lloyd Bridges plays an american Wotld War II vet who returns to England only to find his former sweetheart is m ixed up with a dangerous spy gang.  The trouble begins when Frank Pryor (Bridges) exits his plane and asks a stranger for a light.  A short rings out and the man drops dead, the victim of  an assassin with a limp.  Things go downhill from there.

Moira Lister plays Pryor's old girlfriend, Pauline French.  Alan Wheatley, Leslie Phillips, Helene Codet, and Bruce Beeby are also featured.

Based on Anthony's Verney's Death on the Treadway, The Limping Man was directed by Cy Endfield from an adaptation by Ian Stuart Black and Reginald Long.

Enjoy.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046001/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: HAVE I THE RIGHT

 The Honeycombs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuhOUGO5em4

BITS & PIECES

 Openers:      The secret itself was still safe.  It was clear that the public not yet could have learned it.  No; the nature of the tremendous and terrific Discovery remained ocked in the breast of the men who had made it.  No one had broken so badly under the burden of it that he had let slip any actual details of what had been learned.

But the fact that there was a secret, of incomparable importance, was out.

David Randell received plenty of proof of it, as he stood at the liner's rail, and the radiograms from shore were brought to him.  He had had seven, all of the same sort, within the hour, and here was another.

He held it without opening it while he gazed across the sparkling water at the nearing shores of Long Island beyond which lay New York.  Strange that, in a city which he could not yet see, men could be so excited about his errand, while the fellow-passengers, at his elbow, glanced at him only with mild curiosity at the sudden frequency of radiograms for him.

They would be far less indifferent, if they had read them.

The first, arriving less than a hour ago, offered him one thousand dollars for first and exclusive information -- to be withheld from all others for twelve hours -- of what he carried in his black box.  It was signed by the most famous newspaper in New York.

Haardly had the messenger started back to the radio station wneh a second boy appeared with a message from another newspaper:  "Two thousand dollars for first information of your  business in New York."

-- When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer (1933)

The message was one of doom.  Scientists in the Southern Hemisphere had discovered that two rogue planets -- one the size of Uranus, the other the size of Earth, with the smaller orbiting around the larger -- had entered the solar system.  Exact calculations showed that the two wandering planets would just miss striking Earth on its first path but, after orbiting the sun, the Larger of the two would strike Earth, completely obliverating it.  There was a chance that the second, smaller planet may have the qualities needed for life, despite the fact that it had been frozen during its millions of years traveling through space.

The scientists are building rockets that would take a few -- selected for their intelligence and for being the most biologially useful -- to that new world where humanity might have a chance of survival.  

But the secret leaked, sparking a world-wide struggle among mankind for an invidual chance of escaping certain death.

The story of Earth facing disaster from a collision with an extrasolar body is an old one in science fiction.  Jules Verne and H. G. Wells both played with the idea in novels.  A number of writers in the early twentieth century wrote Noah's Ark-type stories in which humanity tried to escape doom.  Wylie and Bulmer's book, however, managed to hit a public nerve and the novel has not been out of print since its inception.  The cover of the 1973 Waner Paperback Library printing which I read has the tag line, "America's most famous science fiction classic that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World."  It helped that the theme was used by Alex Raymond the following year in his Flash Gordon comic strip.  The theme of escape from a doomed planet via rocket ship also formed the basis of Siegel and Shuster's Superman comic book.  The very successful 1951 George Pal film When Worlds Collide also helped cement the book's fame.  Wylie and Balmer followed the book with a sequel, After World's Collide (1934), which has also remained in print.  The comic strip Speed Spaulding, in part based on the two books, was created by Edwin Balmer and Marvin Brdley and ran from 1938 through 1941.

Today the story is a chestnut, but it is still readble and can be enjoyed.

Philip Wylie (1902-1971) was a popular author and social critic who defined the term "Momism."  Wylie's fiction covered the gamut from mysteries to his 69 popular stories about fishing in his Crunch and Des series.  His greatest fistional impact was on the science fiction and related genres.  Among his books:

• Gladiator (1931), the story of a superhuman created by eugenics and a major inflluence on the creation of Superman
• The Murderer Invisible (1932), this, along with the H. G. Wells novel, provided the plot of  the firt draft of the 1933 film The Invisible Man; the fianl version of the film relied more heavily on the Wells novel, as adapted by R, C, sherriff, with an assist from Preston Sturges
• The Savage Gentleman (1932) which features a Doc Savage prototype
• Night Unto Night (1934) a posthumous fantasy; it was made into a 1949 Ronald Reagan film
• Blunder:  The Story of the End of the World (1946) about the dangers of atomic power
• The Disappearance (1951) in which the world is split into two dimensions -- one with all men and one with all women
• The Smuggled Atom Bomb (1956) a thriller about the threat of an atomic bomb
• The Answer (1955) in which Americans and Russians mistakenly kill an angel
• Tomorrow! (1954) about the dangers of nuclear war
• Triumph (1963) in which Americans are rescued from a deep shelter
• The Spy Who Spoke Porpoise (1969) a political thriller
• Los Angeles:  A.D. 2017 (1971) A novelization of Wtlie's script for and episode of television's The Name of the Game series; the episode, BTW, was directed by Stephen Spielberg; by this time, Wylie's attention was drawn away from nuclear holocaust and directed at ecological disaster
• The End of the Dream (1972) Wylie's final novel and published posthumously; another warning about ecological disaster

One of Wylie's most famous novels was Finley Wren (1934), a baroque mainstream novel which has two science fiction tales embedded within it.  Wylie was also an accomplished screen writer.  Among his credits are Island of Lost Souls, King of the Jungle, Murderss in the Zoo, Charlie Chan in Reno, and Cinderella Jones.  His Crunch and Des stories were adapted for a television series in 1955, starring Forrest Tucker and Sandy Kenyon; 37 episodes were filmed.

Edwin Balmer (1883-1959) was a well-known editor and writer.  He edited Redbook from 1927 to 1949, and then became associate ;publisher of the magazine.  In 1910 he published a cornerstone book of mystery stories, The Achievements of Luther Trant, with his brother-in-law William MacHarg; the book was reprinted in 2013, with three additional stories, as The Complete Achievements of Luther Trant.  (MacHarg was also a popular author of novels and short stories,  His The Affairs of O'Malley [1940; also published as Smart Guy:  The Affairs of O'Malley] is another cornerstone mystery collection; MacHarg coauthored a number of books with Balmer.)  In addition to works co-authored by Wylie or MacHarg, Balmer published at least seventeen books, mainly in the romance and mystery genres.

Read the Book, See the Film:  For those interest, here is the 1950 film When Worlds Collide, produced by George Pal, directed by Rudolph Mate, screenplay by Sydney Boehm, and featuring Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen, John Hoyt, and Larry Keating.  Look closely and you'll see Superman's Kirk Alyn as a rioter with a machine gun.

https://archive.org/details/WhenWorldsCollide_201604

Read the Book, See the Film, Check Out the Comic Book:  And here's the May 1952 issue of Motion Picture Comics (issue  #110), which adapts the George Pal film:

https://archive.org/details/motion-picture-comics-110/mode/2up

Tapioca:  Today is National Body Piercing Day.  It's also Tapioca Day.  Since I am adverse to [papin, let's talk about tapioca.

Tapioca is a starch, extracted from the storage root of the cassava plant.  It is basically a carbohydrate, very low in protein, vitamins, and minerals.  The cassava comes from Brazil but is now grown in many South American countries, as well as in Asia and Africa.  It is a staple foodstuff in many tropical countries.  Tapioca ai also used as a thickerner for many manufactured foods.  Tapioca resin is used in making biogradable bags. gloves. capes, and aprons.  It's also used for starching shirts before ironing.

We know tapioca maninly as the little pearls found in tapioca pudding.  It's also used in bubble tea and other sweet drinks and is a common ingedient in Eastern and Asian desserts.  A thin flatbread called casabe is made without leavening from the bitter cassava root; it can be eaten like a craker, or, with the additiona of  few spinkles of water, as a bread.  

Tapioca pudding is made from tapioca and either milk or cream.  Its consistency can be runny or thick enough to eat with a fork, and all points in between.  It traditionally has beenn given a bad rap in England -- The Guardian termed it "Britain's most hated school pudding," and British schoolboys have commonly called it frog spawn, fisheyes, or eyeball pudding.  Tapioca pudding is making a comeback, though, and is now featured on the menus of many Michelin-rated restaurants.  Rhode Island army officers ate it as a desert during their Fourth of July celebrations at the Seige of Petersberg in 1864.

Something that may be if interest to anybody thinking of writing a murder mystery:  When the starchy root of the bitter casava is ground into a pulp and then squeezed, it produces a milky liquid called 'yare," which contain linamarin. a cyanogenic glycocide that can be used to produce cyanide; several weeks of eating improperly processed bitter cassava can lead to paralysis.

Cyanide or not, and discounting British schoolboys (as we really should), tapioca pudding can be pretty tasty.  Here's a recipe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapioca_pudding

The Crimes of Thomas Hickey:  Two hundred twenty-four years ago today, Private Thomas Hickey became the first person to be excucuted by the Continental Army for "mutiny, sedition, and treachery."  (Hickey was evidently a sergeant in the continental army, but upon his conviction, his rank was reduced to private.)

Hickey, bpornnin Ireland, came to America as a soldier in the British Army, fighting in the Seven Yar's War.  When the American revolution came, he joined the Continental Army and became part of the Life Guard, the group assigned to protect General George Washington, his papers, and the payroll of the Continental Army.  In the spring of 1776 Hickey and another soldier were caught passing counterfeit money.  While jailed, he allegedly told another prisoner that he and a number of other soldiers planned to defect once the British attacked New York City.  While Hickey was on trial, David Matthews, the mayor of New York, was accused of funding the plot to bribe soldiers to join the British.  Matthews and twelve others were imprisoned briefly but the accusations could not be proven.  Allegedly, the plot also included an attempt to kidnap Washington, assassinate his offiers, and blow up the Continental Army's supply of ammunition.

Hickey was hanged before a crown of 20,000 in New York.

Following Hickey's execution, Washington announced the excution, stating that it should be a warning to every soldier not to commit the crimes of mutiny, sedition, and treachery.  Interestingly, Washington added this:  "And in order to avoid those crimes, the most certain method is to keep put of the temptation of them, and to particularly avoid lewd women, who, by the dying confession of this poor animal, first led him into practices which ended in an untimely and ignominous death."  {Emphasis mine.]  So there was a woman in this affair?  Well, that spices things up.  Unfortunately I have no further information.

Rumor had it that Hickey was part of a supposed plot by Matthews to assasinate Washington and that was the real. reason he was executed.  There were a number of contempory anecdotal accounts to support this, one of which traced the plot beyond Matthews to Governor William Tryon.  Washington

s grandson, George Washington Parke Custis's memoirs were published in 1859 by Custis's daughter.  In it was the allegation that Hickey had tried to kill Washington by putting poison in a dish of peas; the attempt was supposedly foiled by Phoebe Fraunces, Washington's housekeeper and the daughter of one of the men accused of being in the plot.  (He denied the accusation and claimed he was the one who discovered the plot; he was released because of a lack of evidence).

Anyway, back to the poisoned peas plot...It turns out that the entire story was not part of Custis's actual memoirs, but had been added, along with a number of other "extended notes" by Benson J. Lossing, a popular American historian noted for his "diligence in seeking out primary records, his interviews with particpants of events and intimates of his biographical studies, and his care to weigh and contrast details of his various sources."  In 1870, Lossing freely admitted that his account was third-hand, having been "related to a friend of the writer (Mr. W. J. Davis), by the late Peter Embury, of New York, who resided in the city at the time, and was well-acquainted with the general's housekeeper."

There is no record that Phoebe Fraunces ever existed, which puts a crimp on the story.  This discrepancy has been explained away in a number of ways, but Phoebe's existence remains in doubt, as does Hickey's attempt to poison Washington.  We will never know Hickey's full involvement in a supposed plot, nor will we ever know exactly why Hickey was the only person excuted in the entire affair.

Teenage Girls' Fashion Trends in the 1950s:  An intersting look of way long ago, with nary a refernce to "reefer madness."

https://vintagedancer.com/1950s/1950s-teenager-fashions-girls-fashion-trends-and-clothing-styles/

Florida Man:

•  Florida Man Rick Meyers, 30, of Titusville, was charged with picking magic mushrooms while carrying an alligator.  And if these two charges weren't enough, he was also charged with violating his parole.  Soooo...HAT TRICK!
• If any Florida Man has ever shown remorse, it's Geoff Gaylord.  The 38-year-old Jacksonville man "killed" his imaginary friend, Mr. Happy, and the turned himself in.  Gaylord said that he stabbed Mr. Happy repeatedly with a kitchen knife, chopped up the  body with a hatchet, and  uried the remains in his back yard.  Drugs were involved.
• Eladio Garcia-Gasca, a 50-year-old North St. Petersburg Florida Man, has been arrested for th theft and slaughter of a horse last year.  When the owner and deputies searched the general area, they found the horse dead with most of its meat removed.  Eww!
• Florida Man Brendan Doaln-King, 23, of Clearwater, is evidently a fan of an ex-President-not-to-be-named   He waas arrested with five ecstacy pilles in the shape of the ex-President-not-to-be-named face.  And, yes, the pills were orange.
• Here's an oldie but goodie from 2016:  Florida Man Joseph Robinson, 45 at the time, of Orange country got into a heated arguement with 69-year-old John Stubbs.  When Stubbs, who had eleven children and whose wife had dies of cancer six months before, tried to walk away, Robinson attacked him with ax and killed him.  The argument?  It ws over lottery tickets and beer.

Good News:

•  Cmpany mimics spiders to create fax silk the is 1000% more energy efficient     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/company-mimics-spiders-to-create-faux-silk-1000x-more-energy-efficient/
• 16-year-old buys contents of storage lockers to returned contents to former owners     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/shane-jones-buys-repossessed-storage-units-to-help-owners/
• Co-workers donate kidneys to save each other's husbands     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/co-workers-donate-their-kidneys-to-save-each-others-husbands/
• America honors 98-year-old woman whose storn warnings delayed D-Day invation, thus saving the war     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/irish-woman-whose-weather-report-saved-the-d-day-landings-honored-by-congress/
• I like this one:  coffee is now linked to reduced risk of many ailmentss, including liver disease, Parkinson's, melanoma, obesity, and even suicide     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/all-of-coffees-beneficial-effects-liver-disease-cancers-obesity/
• A cure for hiccups?      Scientists Have Figured Out How to Instantly Cure Hiccups (goodnewsnetwork.org)

Today's Poem:

I Like Tapioca

I like even the word "tapioca."

It sounds like the name of a Latin dance,

the beat of the Samba underscoring

the ritual movements of some Amazonian tribe.

"Come, let's do the Tapioca."

Or it could be the local indigenous name

of a tributary of the Congo

the newsman Stanley hoped would

bring him closer to Dr. Livingstone.

"This is the Tapioca, I presume."

Or even a tropical insect,

whose bite transmits a lethal disease,

while its genes contain the secret

to conquering the riddle of aging.

"Tapioca face cream.  $26.59 a jar."

Yet tapioca is more than these:

A confection that puts a spring

in my step, takes my spirit

into worlds unknown, and renews my youth,

when I loved those gelatinous pearls --

even when told they were frog eyes -- the bigger, the better.

Where is it from?  There's the  mystery,

unlike the rice pudding they try to pawn off on me instead.

-- Bill Batcher

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: PRETTY POLLY

In keeping with today's murder theme, here's a classic murder ballad recorded by The Coon Creek Girls on May 30, ,1938.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7efYCgWS3s

THRILLING PICTURE LIBRARY #171: THE MYSTERY OF THE RED BARN (1957)

 Earlier this week I posted about the 1827 murder of  Maria Marten, which became a sensation in England.

Guess what, gang?  There was a comic book based on the affair!  The story plays fast and loose with some of the facts, but it does how how the crime still rsonated with the public 130 years later.

Check it out.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=78848&comicpage=&b=i

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: COME SHARE THE WINE

 Al Martino,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYWbIvnkXMU

FORGOTTEN BOOK: ZOMNIBUS

 Zomnibus, a collection of three graphic novels by Shane McCarthy, El Torres, and Chris Ryall (2009)

First off, cool title, huh?

If there's one thing we all know about any zombie apocalypse it's that mankind is going to come out on the short end.  It's a basic rule that no one knows where a zombis apocalypse came from, or why it originated.  That gives the zombies the advantage of surprise.  By the time humanity realizes what's going on, a goodly part of the population has already become ors d'oevres for the flesh-eating monsters.  In addition, we as a people, live in an overly-technological age.  We're too specialized; there's not that many people who know exactly how a power grid works and we usually fall back to a pre-technological world -- that's another basic rule.  Add to that, there's just not enough guns and bullets in existance to take on billions of the undead.  So, yeah, things look bleak for mankind.

And bleak is the theme of all three of these graphic novels.  "Bleak" includes the fall of societal norms and the rise of vigilantism, murder, rape, and gang violence.  There's some pretty graphic stuff in all three of these stories, so I doubt anybody would give give themE PG-13 rating.

First off, there's Zombies!:  Feast by Sahne McCarthy, with art by Chris Bolton and Enrique Lopez Lorenzana.  It's a stormy night and a bus is transporting eight of the country's worst criminals from one prison to another.  Through the blinding rain and far from anywhere, the driver swerves to avoid a man who just appeared out of nowhere.  (Yep, the man is a zobie, but no one knows that yet.)  The bus crashes and, although there are no significant injuries (well, the driver's dead, but that's not significant, is it?), the bus cannot be driven.  The prison guards start walking with their eight shackled and chained together prisoners start walking.  They come to what appears to be an abandoned house.  One guard remains to watch over the prisoners while nother guard and the US Marshal in charge of the transfer check out the house.  They find a blood-splattered bed; then a really disgusting zombie attacks them and take a bite out of the marshal.  A bullet through the head stops the zombie.  Meanwhile a cute little girl zombie approaches the prisoners and attacks them.  One of prisoners grabs a metal pipe and smashes the little zombie's head.  Blood and body parts go flying and a lkittle bit of blood and possibly a piece of zombie flesh land in the mouth of another prisoner, so we know he's soon a goner.  Then the marshal turns and one of the guards has to kill him.

The survivors head off to find help in the nearest town, the prisoners still shackled together.  Surprise, surprise!  the town is full of zombies.  The gang fight their way to a hardware store, killing a man keeping watch outside the store, thinking he is a zombie.  He's not.  There are a few other survivors hiding out in the store, including a couple of women.  Boys will be boys and one prisoner, Braxton, is the nastiest boy of all.  He throws one of the prisoners out a window for the zombies, and kills another to assert his power.  Then one of guards hits it off with one of the women and they go off to do more than simple canoodling, unaware that a zombie has crawled into the building though a hole in the wall.  The zombie takes a hunk out of the guard's leg.  His blonde bed partner screams.  (I.m not sure what happens to her, but we never see her again.)  More zombies.  More fights.  More bites.  More blood,  More gore.  Three people make it out of the hardware store -- one guard. one woman, and a prisoner seeking redemption.  No quesses on how the prisoner seeks redemption.  And then there are two with the zombies closing in...As I said, this is a bleak story and there is nothing bleaker than the story's final ironic panel.

The artwork is dark and claustrophobic, suiting the mood of the story.  At times, the colors are too dark, making it hard to distinguish the characters.  There is also very little characterization; the character's are either good, bad, or undead -- any further distinctions are unnecessary.

Then we come to the second book:  Zombies!:  Eclipse of the Undead, written by El Torres, with art by Yair Herrera.  We're in Los Angeles now and the zombies have taken over the city.  There is a qroup of survivors encamped on the roof of the Los Angeles Memoril Auditorium.  A number of survivors, including most of the children, have already been evacuated by the army; the rest are awaiting the return of helicopters to take them to safety.  They are going to have to wait a very long time.  Communication from all over the country is out.  The few army officers left cannot reach the preisdent, the Pentagon, Norad, or the high command, so, as in the earlier story, the survivors are out of luck.  More so, because there is a street gang trying to take over the rooftop.  The gang is ruled by Lonzo and, somehow, he has managed to get his car on the roof.  Not sure how he gets gas for it, though.

The story is told through the eyes of Brad Brazza, a med student who is now responsible for the health care of many of the survivors.  Helping Brad is Suzy Novorka, a mother whose two children had already been airlifted off the roof.  The other characters we meet are Paquita, who was once Lonzo's woman, Ishigami Shiguro, and elderly sensei who is deadly with a katana, Bernardo, Lonzo's second in command, and Chola, a prisoner who has been abandoned by the cop who was guarding him.  Somehow a few zombies manage to get up on the roof so there's biting and bloodshed and Shiguro's katana working overtime.  Order on the roof is falling apart -- mayhem, death and rape abounds.  The army is now able to evacuate their soldiers and some of the survivors; about half the population of the rooftop is left to their own devices.  On another rooftop in Los Angeles there is an End of the World Party/Orgy.  Almost everyone in L.A. has given up.

Brad, Suzy, Paquita, Lonzo, Chola, and Shiguro try to escape.  There is rumor that some survivors are hiding out in the mountains.  Lonzo tries to rape Suzy and she kills him.  Shiguro sacrifices himself in a swishing katana bloodbath so the others can escape.  We then flash forward to twenty years hence.  Brad and Paquita now have two children.  Susy went off to try to dind her children and ws never heard from.  Chola is now the leader of the mountain community.  And the zombies?  We assume they are still around, but these zombies follow some biological rules.  They can get rigor mortis and be unable to move -- making them easier to kill.  And their bodies putrify and sooner of later they just rot away.  there may be light at the end of the zombie apocalypse tunnel, after all.

The final story in the book is Complete Zombies vs. Robots by Chris Ryall, with surreal artwork by Ashley Wood.  Three scientists have perfected (?) a time machine that can travel to the future.  Two of them want to be the first to test the device.  The third thinks that it is too dangerous and that a robot should be sent instead.  One scientist enters the machine and comes back a mangled mess of blood, meat, and bones.  The second scientist enters the machine and...doesn't come back.  The third scientist activates a robot for the next trip.  Unfortunately, he ignores Asimov's Laws of Robotics and the robot decides that robots are better than humans and kills the scientist before entering the machine.

Now we are in the future and mankind has been eliminated by zombies.  Robots have exxpanded and began to specialize, including the introduction of a merciless war robot.  But, wait!  Somehow there is one human left -- a baby girl who is cared for by the robots.  The war robot kills the baby and then triggers the annihilation of zombies and robots worldwide.  That should be the end.  But wait, somewhere in the future there is a tribe of Amazons living (and, as with all Amazons in a non-patriarchal society, they run around naked).  Somehow, there are more zombies around, including what appearss to be a Minataur zombie, and a killer robot.  So the Amazons get wiped out, except for three 17-year-olds and a ten-year-old.  They manage to kill the zombies but at the cost of their own lives.  Warbot is the only one left.  He sails off in a freighter, which gets pulled down into the ocean depths by a kraken.  Then, surprise!  Mermen!

A totally chaotic story that moves all over the place.  Yet this is the best story in the book.  It's told with wry, dark humor and drawn in a surrealistic style that fits the tale well.  If you are looking for a zombie/robot/Amazon apocalypse story, this is the one for you.  A masterpiece of imagination and surrealism.

This was the first Zomnibus issued by IDW.  A second volume was issued in 2011.  I'll be on the lookout for that one.

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: CLARK KESSINGER

Kessinger (1896-1975) was an old-time fiddler and a major influence on modern bluegrass music.  B orn and raised in West Virginia, he began as a child, learning the banjo at age five, and by age seven he was performing at local saloons with his father.  He switched to fiddle and began playing at country dances.  He joined the Navy in 1917.  When he returned to West Virginia after the war, he found his reputation as a fiddler had grown.  He teamed up with his nephew Luke Kessinger and the duo performed at locations around the West Virginia area.  By 1927, they had their own radio show on WOBI in Charlestown.  The following year they went ot Ashland, Kentucky, to audition for the Brunswick-Balke-Collender recording company.  The same day they were hired as "The Kessinger Brothers," they recorded twelve songs for the company.  Within the next few years, their recording were best-sellers for Brunswick.  In September 1930, Clark retired as a recording artist.  Although he and Luke continued to perform, for the next 34 years he worked as a painter.  Luke died in 1944 at age 38, putting an end to their career.  

In 1963, Clark Kessinger was rediscovered by promoter Ken Davidson, who persuaded him to return to performing.  He formed a string band in Galax, Virginia the following year; the band went on to win first prize in the old-time music contest in Galax.  Keessinger continue to appear (and win) in fiddling contests over the net few years.  Davidson released at least four albums on his own label, Folk Promotion Records, of Kessinger's fiddle playing; the albums were later reissued by Folkways Records and Country Records.  In 1971, Kessinger won the World Champion Fiddle Prize at the 47th Old Time Fiddlers Convention.

Also in 1971, Kessinger recorded 12 tracks for Rounder Records for the first of a planned  series of albums.  Before the plan could be finalized, Kessinger had a stroke while at a fiddlers concention in Virginia.  The stroke numbed his left hand and he was unable to play the fiddle again.  He died in 1975.

Meanwhile, in the late Sixties, I was in college.  Most of the other kids there were deeply into Motown, so whenever I was in a bad mood, I'd put a Clark Kessinger album on the recoed player, turn the voolume up to max, and open all the windows in my dorm.  I feel responsible for a whole generation of kids hating Kessinger's redition of 'Turkey in the Straw."

Here's the Folkways 1966 reissue of Clark Kessinger, Fiddler, with eighteen tracks of good old fashioned country fiddling.  Incljuded in this album is 'Turkey in the Straw," in case you want to torment your neighbors.  Just sayin'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6fWNaBV7NQ

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: I'M GONNA GET YOU YET

 The Dixie Cups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxCDQL8Soak

THE CRIME CLUB: FISH FOR ENTREE (SEPTEMBER 11, 1947)

 The Crime Club was a mystery anthology series that ran on the Mutual Network for 46 episodes from December 2, 1946, to October 15, 1947.  Doubleday Publishing had entered a deal with Mutual to adapt mysteries from its Dobleday Crime Club imprint for the show and to use the Crime Club name for a few original scripts in the program.  This series is not to be confused with the Eno Crime Club that had aired years earlier on Columbia; there was no connection between that show and Doubleday.

Each episode began with with The Librarian of The Crime Club answering the telephone, telling the caller that he did have "that" book, and inviting the caller to stop by The Crime Club to get the story.   Once the caller arrived, The Librarian would take the manuscript off the shelf and the tale would begin.

In "Fish for Entree" -- presumably an original script; I could not find any reference to the book on Worldcat -- a corpse with dead fish in its pocket is hauled up from the harbor by the son of the local sheriff.  Written by Stedman Coles and directed by Roger Bower, this episode features Walter Kinsella, Virginia Dwyer, Bill Smith, Julie Stevens, and Paul Hammond.  Barry Thomson is The Librarian.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYd8hYKV1lI

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: SOUTHBOUND

 Doc Watson, making it look all so easy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTikRS7LhA

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE SLAMBANGAREE

 "The Slambangaree" by Richard K. Munkittrick (from his collection The Slambangaree and Other Stories, 1897; any earlier publicatin not known)

An enchanting juvenile fantasy, reminiscent of Winsor McCay's later Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend and with overtones of the much, much later The Cat in the Hat.

Reginald, a young boy, wakes up with a strange looking person standing by his bed.  Reginald is afraid that this person might be a robber, but the strange figure uts his fingers on each side of its muth and stretches the mouth extraordinarily, eventually hooking one side of the mouth to a bureau on the other side of the room, then letting go, slamming the mouth (sans creature).into the bureau.  this naturally disconcerts young Reginald, so the being places its moth back in its proper place.

The creature is a Slambangaree, a spirit from a can of plum pudding, come to give nightmares to those who overeat the plum pudding.  The Slambangree informs Reginald that it will remain until, the plum pudding Reginaald ate that evening (and he ate a lot of it) is fully digested.  The name, by the way, comes from being slammed and banged about while inside the can of pudding.  The creature, wondering what Reginald might have in his pockets, stretches his eyeball across the room to peek into the pants pockets, finding all sorts of treasures a young by might have within.  He takes a piece of string and drops it in a pitcher of water, drawing out a very large talking (and singing) fish -- the Capecodger, who, when he sings, the notes come out of his mouth as pieces of candy which drop on the floor, whereupon the Capecodger eats them (there was no five-second rule in those days).  The fish's fins grow into wings and he gives Reginald a ride around the bedroom.  

Then the Slambangaree conjures up a Cariftywhifty -- a large monster with two heads.  When it opens one eye, birds fly out, flit across its face, and fly into the other eye.  When the Criftywhifty grows and spins around, Reginald's room seems to grow with it.  The Slambangaree tells Reginald the Cariftywhifty eats people -- which is what it about to do to Reginald.  The monster grabs Reginald, pops him into his mouth and closes its jaws, trapping Reginald in its giant teeth.  Our yung her soon finds himself sliding down the monster's throat, which turns into a staircase.  At the bottom of the staircase is a large beautiful garden with papiere-mache great bullfrogs which threaten to put Reginald into a box and feed him flies.  Reginald flees up the long staircase and finds himself once again in the mouth of the Carifywhifty and then, surprisingly, in his own bed.  The Slambangaree was by then very. very tiny and Reginald knew that the plum pudding was almost digested.  The now tiny creeture jumped into the mouth of the Cariftywhifty, which then jumped through the bedrom window without breaking it.

The plum pudding was digested.  The Slambangaree was gone.  And Reginald went into his father's bedroom to tell him of the adventure.  Reginsld's fsther then wrote down the story in the hopes that young boys will no longer vereat on plum pudding, but always eat just the right amount.

Surprisingly charming.

Richard Munkittrick (1853-1911) was an english author, editor, and "natural born lotus eater" who claimed to be descended from "a race of clergymen and drunkards."  He spent much of his life in America but when The Slambangaree and Other Stories was published he was working at the British humor (Whoops!  I mean humour.)  magazine Punch.  He later was the editor of Judge from 1901-1905.  He had earlier published another fantasy collection, The Moon Prince and Other Nabobs (1893).  Other books include Yum-yum! (1878), Farming (1892), and Some New Jersey Arabian Nights (1892).  Munkittrick also wrote song lyrics.  Here are two of his songs (composed by Margaret Ruthven Lang and sung by tenor Donald George, with Lucy Mauro on piano:  https://songofamerica.net/composer/munkittrick-richard-kendall/

The Slambangaree and Other Stories is available to read online.

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: TWO FROM THE BEACH BOYS

Their first big hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s4slliAtQU

And one from 1988:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJWmbLS2_ec

OVERLOOKED OATER: KNIGHT OF THE TRAIL (1915)

 William s. Hart was one of the first great cowboys stars if the films.  He began his acting career on the stage in 1888 when he was inn his twenties and first appeared in film in 1914 when he was 49.  He had had some success on Broadway in Shakespearean roles and appeared in the original 1899 production of Ben Hur.  He had two supporting roles in 1914 and became a star with that year's The Bargain.  In 1915, Hart began a series of two-reeler westerns for producer Thomas Ince.  These shorts became so popular that they led to th production of feature films, beginning in  late 1915.  Knight of the Trail was one of the last of the two-reelers Hart made.  Hart went on to rule the western box office until the early 1920s, when flashier, more action-oriented films began featuring the likes of Tom Mix.

In Knight of the Trail, Hart plays Jim Treen, a cowboy who has been secretly terrorizing the town as a road agent.  He falls in love with pretty, innocent waitress Molly Stewart (Leona Hutton) and vows to himself to go straight.  Before the two were to be married, Molly discovers Jim's secret and breaks the engagement.  She then bounces right into the arms of cad W. Sloan Carey (Frank Borsage), who steals Molly savings on the eve of their wedding and flees town on an eastbound train.  Jim takes a perilous shortcut to overtake the train and forces Sloan to return the money to Molly.  Molly sees the good in Jim and marries him.

The rather simplistic plot, written by Hart, is compensated for by superb acting by Hart and Borzage (who appeared in over one hundred silent films and became the noted director of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, A Farewell to Arms, and The Big Fisherman).  Decent production values, intuitive direction, realistic western sets and costumes, and interesting locations also help make this short worth-while.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8a1pXVJjO4

BITS & PIECES -- A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT EDITION

 Openers:  I dropped into Jack's place the other night for a slice of tongue -- some of it in a sandwich and some from between Jack's lips.  The place was pretty crowded,  but I managed to find a booth as Jack glided over to take my order.

:What'll it be?" he asked.  Then -- "Well, I'll be damned!" said Jack.

"Probably," I observed.

But Jack didn't hear me.  He was staring at the tall thin man who elbowed his way toward the booth.

I stared, too.  There was nothing remarlable about the gentleman's thin, somewhat dour face, but his suit was enought to attract anyone's attention.  It isn't often you see a horse blanket walking.

"See that guy?" Jack whispered, hurriedly.  "He's a number for you.  Used to be an upper bracket in the rackets."

"He looks it," I confided.  "Is he dangerous?"

"No.  Reformed, completely reformed.  Ever since he divorced his third wife he's led a simple life, playing the races.  But I never expected to see him in here -- he hasn't been around for months.  Wait -- I'll see if can steer him into your booth.  You'll enjoy it -- he's the biggest liar in seven states.

-- Robert Bloch, "Time Wounds All Heels"  (Fantastic Adventures, April 1942)

The stranger is Lefty Feep and "Time Wounds All Heels" was the first in a series of twenty-three tales in Fantastic Adventures about the hapless hero, from April 1942 to July 1950.  The first eight stories (plus one original, "A Stich in Time")  were reprinted in Lost in Space and Time with Lefty Feep (1987) -- the first of a proposed three-volume collection from John Stanley's Creatures at Large Press.  The other volumes never appeared.

The Feep stories were tailored to the Fantastic Adventures audience -- young, undisciminating teenagers.  Feep, a race track tout who never seems to get a break, relates his tales in the first person, using a Damon Runyon-esque dialog, complete with slang, tortured puns, and other crimes against the English language.  The themes come from folklore by way of Thorne Smith -- thus you have flying carpets, a genie in a bottle, the Pied Piper, the Ariabian nights, Jack the Giant Killer, and a zillion riffs on time travel -- all about as corny as you can get.

Understand, these stories are not good.  They are strained and predictable and written to order.  Bloch himself had no particular fondness for then and, indeed, did not remember writing some of them.  But they were popular, and --doggone it -- I really like them.  Just not in heavy doses.  Reading more than one or two at a time would be too much of a mediocre thing.

Fantastic Adventures ran a lot similar stories, comic far-out fantasies with a humorous bent and a befuddled hero.  Dwight V. Swain gave us Henry Horn; William McGivern, Tink, as well as Philip Ppiuncare & the Three Musketeers; James Norman, Oscar, Detective of Mars; Leroy Yerxa, Freddie Funk; Elroy Arno, Willowby Jones; Harold Lawlor, Bill Mitchell; And Charles F. Myers, Toffee.  Not quite in the same vein was Nelson F. Bond's stories of Bullard; Bond would use the same formula for eom of his stories in Bluebook and Pat Pending, Squaredeal Sam McGhee, and (in Astounding, Horse Sense Hank).  And, in Astounding, there were the stories of Gallagher, who created the wackiest inventions imaginable while drunk and has no idea wht they were designed to do when he sobered.

Fantastic Adventures began in May 1939 by Ziff-David Publications as a companion to Amazing Stories.  Its first managing editor was Raymond A. Palmer, who had great success in turning around the moribund Amazing Stories, by aiming at a strictly juvenile audience.   The "official" editor was B. G. Davis, who held that post unitl 1947.  Assistant editor Howard Browne began as managing editor with the March 1947 issue, while Palmer was named editor.  Browne was soon replaced by associate editor William Hamling beginning in 1948.  Browne came back  as editor in January 1950,; Lila E, Shaffer served as managing editor for a few months in 1953.  The last issue of Fantastic Adventures in March 1953, making way for the far more adult-oriented digest Fantastic.  Browne was never a fan of science fiction or fantasy; his interest lay in mysteries and in Hollywood, where he made a name for himself.  Hamling went on to edited a number of low-level science fiction magazines and to find financial success in soft-core porn publishing.  FAs last associate editor, Paul W. Fairman became managing editor of Fantastic in 1953, beginning (with Browne) the magazine's quick slide into mediocrity which was only reversed with the appontment of the talented Cele Goldsmith (later, Cele G. Lalli) as editor in December 1958.  Fairman, BTW, went on to become the editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; Lalli left Fantastic in 1965 to become editor of Bride's Magazine.

Fantastic Adventures was noted for introducing Thornton Ayre's The Golden Amazon and for publishing a number of  stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  It had the distinction of publishing Theordore Sturgeon's first novel, The Dreaming Jewels, as well as long stories by Lester del Rey, Willian Tenn, and Walter J. Miller, Jr.  Most of the magazine's contents were written by a stable of Chicago-based writers such as William P. McGivern, Leroy Yerxa, David Wright O'Brien, Don Wilcox, and Berkeley Livingston, along with Hamling and Palmer, all writing under a plethora of house pseudonyms to provide the word count the magazine needed.  The magazine also dipped into Tarzanesque adventures with novels about Jongor (by Robert Moore Williams) and Toka (by Palmer under his J. W. Pelkie pseudonymn.

Robert Bloch needs no introduction.  The author of such classic stories as Psycho, "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," and "The Hell-Bound Train," Bloch was a master of the suspense, horror, fantasy fields, often with a sly humorous twist.  For many of my generation, Bloch was the entry point to a lifetime of fantastic reading.

Incoming:

• Philip Jose Farmer, Flesh/Lord Tyger.  Reprint of two fantsy novels.  Flesh is an expanded edition of a book originaly published as a Galaxy Novel.  "After 800 years of exploring the stars, Space Commander Stagg had returned to Earth,  But Earth had become a new world.  Where science and technology had reigned, now there were agriculture and tribal warfare.  And mankind worshipped the Goddess and was content.  They named Stagg 'Sunhero" and performed secret rites.  Endowed with the virility of a nation, and with foot-high antlers throbbing on his his head, he set out on a cross-country jaunt.  He was the Sunhero, king of the Earth and all its will women." As for Lord Tyger, "My mother is an ape.  My father is God,  I come from the Land of Ghosts.  So sings Ras Tyger, Philip jose Framer's monumental incarnation of a moder-day Jungle Lord.  Savage, heroic, and beautiful, he is master of the world.  And he rules his kindom with sex, savagery, and sublime innocence.  Unitl one day, with the landing of the great whirlinh 'birds,' the insane reality of his existence begins to unfold...and plunges him into an incredible quest for truth whic cannot end until he comes face to face -- with God."  Few people have played with ideas as Farmer has.
• L. Ron Hubbard, The Red Dragon.  Adventure novella, one of eighty volumes put out by Galaxy Press, LLC (a Scientology division) to cover Howard's pulp stories.  This one was published in Five-Novels Monthly, February 1935.  "Flame haired Michael Stuart's career as an officer in the US Marine Corps abruptly ended after a failed attempt to return the Chinese Imperial Dynasty ro power in 1930s Asis.  Abandoned by his country, he's unable to find safe passage out of china by Land or sea.  Now Stuart, also known as the 'Red Dragon,' has a new occupation:  he intervenes in matters for the good of the people.  Despite the danger, Stuart agrees to help a beautiful woman search for a mysterious black chest which her father hid in Manchuria before his murder.  Their quest takes them from Peking north to the Grt Wall of China and beyond.  With enemies coming at him from every corner, Stuart finds he;s playing a most deadly game of hide-and-seek.."  Now known as the creator of Dianetics and the father of Scientology, Hubbard has always been a giant in his own mind and is now considered one of the most well-rounded geniuses in history by his followers.  There seems to be nothing Hubbard had not done and nothing he had not mastered.  Hubbard was actually a talented pulp writer who produced a few outstanding stories.  He was also a mythomaniac, and egoist, and a bullshit artist.  He once said the surest way to become rich was to invent a religion.  Well, guess what?  A somewhat innocuous philosophy cobbled from diverse sources has now grown beyond all recognition into a money-making monster, as has Hubbard's reputation.
• Richard Laymon, After Midnight.  Horror novel.  "alice has quite a story to tell you.  That's not her real name, of course.  She couldn't givr you her real name, not fter all the things she reveals about herself in this book.  All of her...adventures.  And all that killing.  She wouldn't want the police to find her, now would she?  It started out so nice.  Alice was house-sitting for her friend, enjoying having the whole place to herself, with the sunken bathtub and the big-screen television.  But everything went wrong the first night, when she looked out the window and saw a strange man jumping naken into the swimming pool.  Alice knew he would be coming to get her, like all those other men before.  But she would never be a victim again.  Not after she remembered the old Civil War saber hanging in the living room..."  Laymon was one of the best horror writers of his generation, junfortuinately far more admired and respected in ??England than in his native America.
• Paul Tremblay, The Cabin at the End of the World.  Horror novel.  "Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin in Northern New Hampshire.  Far removed from the bustle of city life, they are cut off from the urgent hum of cell pones and the internet.  Their closest nieghbors are two miles away in either direction.  On a summer day, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard. a stranger unexpectedly appears.  Leonard is the largest man she has ever seen, but he is friendly, with a warm smile that wins her over almost instantly.  Leonard and Wen continue to talk and play, until three more strangers, two women and a man, all dressed like Leonard in jeans and button-down shirts, come down the road carrying strange, menacing objects.  In a panic, Wen tells Leonard that she must go back inside the cabin.  Before she goes, her new friend tells her,"None of what's going to happen is your fault.  You haven't done anything wrong, but the three of you will have to make some tough decisions.  I wish with all my broken heart you didn't have to."  As Wen sprints away to warn her parents, Leonard calls out, "Your dads won't let us in, Wen.  But they have to.  We need your help to save the world."  Tremblay is an author worth seeking out.

Guinn v. United States:  Juneteenth, our newest federal holiday, marks the practical end of slavery in the United States.  As we all know, the battle for racial justice did not end there.  Then Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution was ratified in 1870, declaring that the right to vote could not be dnied by any state due to "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."  Not surprisingly,  that did not sit well with a number of Southern states, which began enacting reach-arounds that, in effect, could negate the Fifteenth Amendment while not specifically violating it.  One way this was done was through "grandfather clauses."

Oklahoma ("where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain") entered the Union in 1907 with a state Constitution that apeased the Fifteenth Amendment by allowing men (sorry, ladies) of all races to vote.  Like many other states, Oklahoma had a literacy test that had to be passed in order for an indiviual to vote.  Such tests were one way to keep black citizens from voting.  But there were an awful lot of white citizens who were also illiterate.  What to do?  Well, you just "grandfather" them in through an amendment that waived the lteracy test if you or an ancestor were allowed to vote or had served as soldiers before a certain date...let's say, 1866.  Since slaves were not allowed to vote back then, nor were allowed to serve as soldiers, the literacy test could not be waived.  Also, most states thatb had allowed free persons of color to vote in the early 19th century had rescinded that right by 1840, so even those blacks whose ancestors were not slaves were basically out of luck.

Frank Guinn and J. J. Beal were both Oklahoma (where "the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet") election officials who had been indicted and convicted of "having conspired unlawfully, willfully, and fraudulently to deprive certain negro citizens on account of their race and color, of the right to vote at a general election held in that state in 1910."  Their case was argued before the Supreme Court on October 17, 1913, where the plaintiffs argues that they were following the state's grandfather law.  The decision, handed down on June 21, 1915, vehemently denied their argument on an 8-0 rulling (with one Justice taking no part in the determination or the consideration of the case, having come to the Courtin 1914).  Chief Justice Edward Douglass White delivered the opinion that the grandfather clause was clearly designed to interfere with the voting rights granted by the Fifteenth Amendment even though it appeared to be racially neutrl on its face.  the grandfather clause "was repugnant to the Fifteenth Amendment and therefore null and void."  It should be noted the Guinn v. United States was the first case in which the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed a brief before the Supreme Court.

Things did not end there and institutional racism was not stopped in its tracks.  State legislatures continued to craft and pass laws designed to restrict voting rights for blacks and others.  Much of the focus today comes from the Republican party's efforts to restrict voting -- not only of blacks -- to maintain their political hold.  The GOP has also declared was on critical race theory being taught in public schools, their claims at not being racist or that they are not  using this opposition as a political power grab notwithstanding.

Lincoln Logs:  One of the most popular toys in the twentieth century was Lincoln Logs, notched wooden (usually redwood) toy beams that could be assembled to make small cabins, such as replicas of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and Abraham Lincoln's log cabin.  The toy was invented by John Wright, the son of architect Frankin Lloyd Wright, in 1918 (probably, the date varies).  On a visit to Japan Wright noted that the use of interlocking wooden beams in the construction ot Tokyo's  Imperial Hotel gave the building more stability and security.  Lincoln Logs soon became popular, but not before Wright sold the rights to the toy.

The name of the toy did not come from Abraham Lincoln, as many believe.  Wright named to toy after his father's middle name.  Originally Frank Lincoln Wright, the architect changed his middle name to honor his mother's family after his father left the family.

Here's a video of an elaborate castle being built with Lincoln Logs:     https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lincoln+logs+history&&view=detail&mid=6468FCE579DD54671BF86468FCE579DD54671BF8&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dlincoln%2Blogs%2Bhistory%26FORM%3DVDRESM

Did you play with Lincoln Logs as a kid?

Maria Marten; or, Murder in the Red Barn:  One of the most popular plays of the 19th century was a domestic melodrama based on the real-life murder of Maria Marten in 1827 in Suffolk, England.  The play had no real author; instead, it was a "devised" play that changed depending on the actors, where it was performed, and who produced it.  The villain is one William Corder, who murdered his lover Maria and buried her in the "Red Barn" in Polestead, Suffolk.  Corder left the area but sent letters to Maria's family claiming she was in good health.  Maria's stepmother later claimed to have dreamed that she had been murdered.  After Maria's body was uncovered in the barn, a search went out for Corder.  and he was found in London, where he had married and had started a new life.  Brought back to Suffolk, Corder was tried and found guilty.  He was hanged in Bury St. Edmund in 1828 before a large crowd of what I assume to be enthusiastic witnesses.

The crime, the trial, and the execution was widely played out in the popular press.  A national sensation, it was the subject of mny songs and plays.  "Fit-up" companies, or traveling theater groups, performed the plays in music halls, drinking houses, and fairgrounds across the country.  Actors who moved from company to company often took their better bits with them and gradually additions became an integral part of the play's traditional structure.  By 1840, the play was being performed in theaters and it remained one of the most popular melodramas of the Victorian Age.

Here's Murder in the Red Barn, the 1935 film based on the case, featuring Tod Slaughter and Sophie Stewert, and directed by Miltn Rosmer:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026743/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Florida Man:

• Florida Man Jeffrey Hein, 25, of Tampa, was searching for egladon shark teeth in the Myakka River but found teeth of an entirely different sort when a nie-foot alligator chomped on him.  "I thought it was a propellor.  It hit me so hard.  I realized I was inside its mouth and if the alligator hadn't decided to let me go on its own, there was really nothing I could do about it."  Hein received 34 stitches in his head and was left with a minor skull fracture and bite marks on one of his hands.  A somewhat similar incident happed with Massachusetts (not Florida) Man and lobster diver Michael Packard, who was swallowed by a humpbacked whale earlier this month.  The whale also ejected Packard after a few seconds, leading one to assume that Florida and Massachusetts men taste pretty funky.
• Although I doubt it will become an Olympic event, the Florida Baby Toss was performed on May 26 by Florida Man John Henry James III, 32.  James was spotted driving erratically by a deputy in Vero Beach.  This led to a wild 40-minute pursuit  by Florida deputies and a police helicopter.  James smashed his Nissan Rogue into the front end of a deputy's car, dodge roadblocks and an attempted stop stick, and ran over another stop stick before being boxed in by police cars.  He then fled the vehicle, taking his two-month-old child with him.  He threw the baby at deputies before attempting to flee.  He was caught.  And the infant was also caught -- by Deputy Jacob Kurby (who may or may not have played football in school).   The baby was safe, and Jmes was taken to a nearby fire house, and then to a local hispitl for medical treatment, and finally to jail, where he faced a number of charges, inventing a possible Olympic event not being one of them.
• Florida Man and one of many Florida Men who didn't not get the message that Donald Trump lost the election Alexander Jerich, 20, decided to celebrate Trump's birthday by destroying a $16,000 LGBTQ crosswalk artwork in Delray Beach.  With an "All Aboard the Trump Train" flag on his pickup truck, Jerich deliberately did "burnouts" across the newly installed artwork.  He was arrsted and charge with criminal mischief over $1000, reckless driving, evidence of prejudice (i..e, a hate crime), and may well be charged with Florida's new "Combating Public disoreder Law," which ironically was passed by the Trumpist GOP stae legislative majority in response to Black Lives Matter protests...In a tragic accident this week, the driver of a pickup trunk hit to people just before the Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride Parade just outside Fort Lauderdale started.  Both men were taken to a nearby hospital where one of the was pronounced dead.  The driver, a 77-year-old man whose ailments prevented him from walking and was thus chosen to drive the lead vehicle in the parade, and the two victims were members of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men's chorus.  None of the three were immediately identified. 
• An unnamed 14-year-old Florida Boy decided to steal a $200,000 Lamborghini in Miami Beach but only got a few blocks before abandoning the vehicle.  As he fled, he told an onlooker, "I stole a Lamborghini just now.  I can't drive.  I don't have a license."  The car's owner, Florida Man Chris Sander, had been home when he heard the car being started.  Sander ran outside, saw the Lamborghini tking off, and hopped on a motor scooter to take chase.  Meanwhile the onlooker had suggested to the boy that he give himself up peacefully.  By then, an officer on the other side of a fence was pointing his gun at both of them, so the boy took the onlooker's advice.  Sander said he had left the Lamborghini in his garage, along with the keys, when the boy stole the vehicle, leading some to question the wisdom of leaving the keys with the car.
• Florida Man Ronnie Oneal III, of Tampa, was convicted of to counts of murder.  He had shot his girlfriend Kenyatta Brown with a shotgun and then beat her to death.  Oneal also killed his 9-yer-old disabled daughter with a hatchet and wounded his 8-year-old son with a knife before setting fire to their home.  The daughter had cerebral palsy and could not speak.  Oneal made the unwise decision to serve as his own lawyer, accusing the state of manipulating call logs and recordings.  He also accused a police detective who later adopted the 8-year-old of turning his sone against him.  Perhaps his greatest legal mistake was yelling and berating the jury during closing arguments -- the judge had to admonish Oneal severl times for using epithets -- and admitting to the jury that he had killed his girlfriend.  That sort of argument tends to prejudice juries.

Good News:

• World's most premature baby celebrates first birthday after being given 0% chance of surviving     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/worlds-most-premature-baby-has-celebrated-his-first-birthday/
• Yemeni fishermen find $1.5 million prize in the belly of a floating sperm whale carcass       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/yemeni-fishermen-discover-1-5-million-dollars-worth-of-ambergris-in-a-whale/
• One-legged woman is a world-class salsa sncer (video at the link)     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/one-legged-salsa-dancer/
• Dad breaks record for 1.5 million pushups -- all for charity     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/nate-breaks-31-year-world-record-for-1-5-million-push-ups-all-for-charity/
• Two days after wedding, bride donates kidney to groom's ex-wife    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-bride-donates-kidney-to-husbands-ex-wife-debby-neal-strickland/
• Dengue disease rate cut by 77% with this new mosquito "hack"     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/indonesia-mosquito-trial-cuts-dengue-fever-by-77/

Today's Poem

For Once, Then, Something

Others taunt me at having knelt at well-curbs

Always wrong to the light, so never seeing

Deeper down in the well than where the water

Gives me back in a shining surface picture

Me myself in the summer heaven godlike

Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.

Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,

I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,

Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,

Something more of the depths -- and then I lost it.

Water came to rebuke the too clear water.

One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple

Shook whatever it was lay there at the bottom,

Blurred it, blotted it out.  What was that whiteness?

Truth?  A pebble of quartz?  For once, the, something.

-- Robert Frost

DAD JOKES

 For Father's Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAgYiERRDPY

What's your favorite "Dad joke"?  Better yet, what's the worst joke your Dad ever told?

HYMN TIME

 Cheerers of Faith with a Father's Day message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHL7QFEExeU

MUSIC FOR TODAY: OH. FREEDOM

 A Juneteenth song from Ruth Naomi Floyd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqCSnb7wcJg

ALL-NEGRO COMICS #1 (JUNE 1947)

 There was only one issue of this ground-breaking comic.  "Every brush stoke and pen line in the drawings on these pages are by Negro artists....another milestone in the splendid history of Negro journalism."  The brainchild of Orrin C. Evans, a former reporter and editor in the Afro-American newspaper field, Evans was also a contributor to The Crisis, the official organ of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Here you will meet Ace Harlem, noted Negro detective.  You'll journey to the African Gold Coast, where Lion Man, a college-educated American has been sent by the United Nations to watch over the world's largest deposit of uranium -- and with the help of his young friend Bubba -- faces the minois of "any treacherous nation that might seek to carry away the lethal stuff for the purpose of war."  And you'll travel the rails with Sugrfoot and Snake-Oil, two roving minstels who bring a dash of unintentional humor to their journeys.  For the kiddies, there's the adventures of the Dew Dillies -- Bubbles and Bibber, two little sprites who live in a fantasy land.

All-Negro Comics is dated and somewhat stereotypical, but it was an important advance for its time.  For all of its hep cats, jive talk, and slurred English, the book goes a long way to portray the situation of African-Americans in the late 1940s and to provide wholesome entertainment to its readers.

"REMEMBER -- Crime Doesn't Pay, Kids!  Stick to the church, and use up your energy in good clean sports."

And a Happy Juneteenth to all!

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=37543

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE BALD SPOT

 "The Bald Spot" by H. G. Dwight  (from the collection The Emperor of Elam and Other Stories, 1920;  reprinted in Sunset:  The Pacific Monthly, September 1924)

A little tale of ego and pridefulness and of how one may set (or not set) artificial limits for purely artificial reasons.

[And, of course, the protagonist had to be named Jerry.  In fiction, very few heroes are named Jerry.  Jerry is more commonly either a buffoon, a villain, or (if he is lucky) a side kick to the story's hero; he may even be a third-string character.  Not that I'm complaining.  My wife, on the other hand, swears that every character ever written named Kitty is either the upstairs maid or a hooker with a heart of gold.  But enough of paranthetical remarks.  On to the story, such as it is.]

Our protagonist is a not quite young but at least youngish man who takes pride in himself and in his appearance.  On a regular trip to the barber. he refuses to use pomade, preferring to let his hair remain dry.  The barber makes some silly remark about Jerry's hair getting a bit thin.  Nonsense! Jerry thought.  His hair is as it always was.  When the barber takes out a hand mirror to show Jerry the finished haircut, there it is -- a bald spot.  Certainly that must be an error.

Back at home,Jerry uses a hand mirror to check out the back of his scalp.  The bald spot is still there.  Perhaps it is just a trick of the light.  But no.  No matter how he angled the mirror, the bald spot remained.

So it had come to this.  His youth had fled without Jerry even realizing it.  Jerry had gone blithely through life believing there was alway tomorrow.  If adventure did not come today, there was always tomorrow.  A thousand beautiful women to pursue?  Again, they would be there tomorrow; there was no rush because there was always tomorrow.  Now, instead of youth with its flowing hair and fast automobiles and pretty girls, there was a rapid slide away from youth to taking the elevated and having to perhaps settle for a less than beautiful woman -- the obvious fate of those who time has passed by.

Figuratively girding his loins, Jerry half-heartedly decides to face his fate and to saunter into the outside world with his bald spot.  Strangely, people do not stare at him or his bald spot, but Jerry feels they should.  He passes a group of children happily at play -- they all have full heads of hair.  The happy people he sees are young people with hair, not balding people.  Life seems to have passed the balding people by.

Jerry wanders through New York with these dark thoughts, finding himself on the George Washinton Bridge.  He stands by the edge of the bridge and contemplates suicide.  Why not?  Youth is gone and he only faces a helpless inexorable slide toward death.  He will never be able to be Important or do something Important now.  (When you are young and there is always tomorrow, the word deserves a capitol I.)  The darkness of the chasm below seems to be calling him.  Then a voice interrupts him, asking if he's thinking of jumping.

The voice belngs to an older policeman.  Jerry turns to him.  If he were thinking of jumping, shouldn't the policeman be trying to stop him?  No, the cop says, you.ve been standing there to long; if you were going to jump, you would have done it by now.  The cop asks him what his problem was.  Did he break up with his girl?  Did he lose his job?

Jerry notices the policeman's hair.  It is slicked down.  The cop says that his hair "stared droppin like leaves in the fall o' the year, when I was about as young as you."  He goes on to say that he uses plain castor oil on his hair.  It's just as good as the "high falutin' " stuff they try to sell you at a barbershop.  And the missus, he goes on, "says a bald spot's worse inside the bean than out. an' there ain't no oil that'll help it."

Jerry considers that wisdom for a while.  Then the policeman offers to "go over to a place I know an' let me treat you to a shot of something wet."  That sounds good to Jerry and off they go.

Sometimes you just have to look at things from another's viewpoint.

Harrison Griswald Dwight (1875-1959) was born in Constantinople, where his father was connected to a school there.  Dwight entered the consuar service after graduating from Amherst.  He served as a translator with the Supreme War Consul in Versailles and in 1919 was the secretary to General Tasker Bliss at the Paris peace conference.  He later worked as the assistant drafting officer for the State Department in Washington, D.C.,  moving to the protocal department a few years later.  Frm 1935 t 1947, he served as assistant director for the Frick Collection in New York.  In addition to four collections of short stories, along with books reviews, poems, and  a handful of articles, Dwight's short story "In the Pasha's Garden" was the subject of an opera produced by the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1934.  Dwight also published a book about the Frick Collection of art.

Regarding The Emperor of Elam and Other Stories, Edmond J. O'Brien wrote in The Best Short Stories of 1920:  "Those who read Mr. Dwight's earlier volume 'Stamboul Nights' will recall the very real genius for the romantic preservation of adventure in exotic backgrounds which the author revealed.  Every detail, if studied, was quietly set down without undue emphasis, and the whle was a finished composition.  In the title story of the present volume, and in 'The Emerald of Tamerlane," written in collaboration with John Taylor, Mr. Dwight is on the same familiar ground.  I had occasion three yers ago to repint 'The Emperor of Elam' in an earlier volume of this series, and it still seems to be worthy to be set beside the best of Gautier.  There are other stories in the present collection with the same rich background, but I would like to call partiular attention to Mr. Dwight's two masterpieces, 'Henrietta Stackpole Rediviva' and 'Behind the Door.'  The former ranks with the best half-dozen American short stories  and the latter with the best half-doxen short stories of the world.  I regard this volume as the most important which I have encuntered since I began to publish my studies of the american short story."

High praise, indeed.

The Emperor of Elam and Other Stories is available to be read online.

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO YOU

 Olivia Newton-John.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhOn4oPn3Bw

OVERLOOKED NOIR: THE GUILTY (1947)

 Bonita Granville, now a bit older from her Nancy Drew days, plays twins Linda and Estelle -- one nice and one not so nice.  Army veterans and roommates Don Castle and Wally Cassell become involved with the twins and Estelle plays one man against the other.  Then Linda's body turns up in a barrel of gravel.  Regis Toomey plays the detective in charge of the case.

Based on Cornell Wollrich's story "He Looked Like Murder" (from Detective Fiction Weekly, February 8, 1941), the film was adapted by Robeert Presnell, Sr. (The Kennel Murder Case, Meet John Doe, Hurricane Smith).  Vienna-born John Reinhardt directed this B-movie for Poverty Row Monogram Pictures.  Granville's husband Jack Wrather produced The Guilty; she and Wrather went on to produce the Lassie television series.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAUnpfIDJjA

BITS & PIECES

 Openers:  The clock in the tower of the Record struck two.  Although I didn't know it then, the clock of my destiny struck at the same time.

Hard on the throb of the chime Smithson stuck his head out of the door of his den, and swept his eyes over the local-room.  He found nobody but me.  Every one else was absent.  As for me, I was having a smoke after a light lunch, and waiting for something to do.

"Nobody here but you, eh?" said Smithson.  "Well, c'm'ere."

Smithson was city editor of the Record.  Therefore, I cast aside my cigarette and complied with his request.

He bobbed back into his room, withdrawing his head from the door very much like a turtle drawing into its shell.  I followed him and stood waiting his next remark.  When it came I didn't know just what to make of it after all.

Said Smithson:  "Know anything about Semi Dual?"

-- "The Occult Detector" by J. U. Giesy and Junius Smith B. Smith (first published in three parts -- February 17, February 24, March 7, 1912 -- in The Cavalier)

Ah...Semi Dual, aka Prince Abdul Omar of Persia.  Psychiatist, telepath, mystic, astrologer, and an early "occult detective."

The occult detective mixes the mystery/crime story with the superntural, fantasy,  or horror genres.  Perhaps the first was Fitz-James O'Brien's Harry Escott, who appeared in two stories beginning in 1855.  soon the floodgates were open for the likes of Bram Stoker's Abraham van Helsing, Sheridan Le Fanu's Martin Hesselius, Algernon Blackwood's John Silence, E. and H. Heron's Flaxman Low, William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki, Sax Rohmer Morris Klaw, Dion Fortune's Dr. Taverner, Seabury Quinn's Jules de Grandin, Joseph Payne Brennan's Lucius Leffing, and so many more, leading up to the present day with such characters as F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack, Brian Lumley's Titus Crow, Mike Mignola's Joe Golen, Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, and Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden.  Even Sherlock Holmes has moved into occult territory by confronting Dracula, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, H. P. Lovecraft's Old Ones in reimaginings written by other authors.

Geisy and Smith wrote 33 Semi Dual adventures from 1912 to 1943.  The character gained his nckname from the dual nature of his investigations -- part material and part occult.  Semi Dual lives and operates in a skyscaper that he owns. A later tenant of the office building is the detective firm of Glace and Bryce.  Glace is Gordon Glace, the former Record reporter who narrates many of the stories; his partner in the detective agency is retired police detective James Bryce.  In most of the storie, it is one or the other of these two who first encounter the mystery or menace du jour; Semi Dual, like Nero Wolfe, seldom leaves his home.

In "The Occult Detector," Grace follows smithson's orders and goes to interview the mhyysterious Semi Dual.  During the interview, the detective learns enough about a recent murder to solve it.  Many of the early stories involve "small-scale" cases, kin which Semi Dual helps individuals.  Later stories have the detective going aginst occult forces that threaten the world, especially the Devil-inspired Black Brotherhood.  Semi dual also takes on criminal gangs in the later stories.

The series, though popular, was never reprinted during the pulp era, perhaps because to their length -- most of the stories were novella-length or greater.  Altus Press is releasing the entire series in nine volumes, and nine of the stories are avaiable to read online at Roy Glashan's Library (http://freeread.com/au/index.html)

Pro Se Press has revived the character in The New Adventures of Semi Dual, a collection of three stories by I. A. Watson, Kevin Noel Olsen, and James Palmer.

J. U. Giesy (1877-1947) was a physician, astrology enthusiast, and pulp writer, best known for his Json Croft trilogy of fantasy books, beginning with Palos of the Dog Star Pack.  Fellow astrology believer Junius B. Smith (1883-1945) began his fiction career co-writing "The Occult Detector" with Giesy; in addition to the Semi dual series the pair collaborated on at least eight other stories.  Smith published another sixteen stories on his own and contributed a regular column, "My Stars," to Ainslees (later retitled as Ainslee's Smart Love Magazine, and then as Smart Love Stories) beginning in 1934.

'Tis Himself:  Today, Flag Day, we also celebrate the birthday of my late father-in-law, Harold A. Keane.  More than one person has said that you could tell Harold's family came from County Cork because he was built like a fireplug.  I don't know what happened on that long-ago day in County Cork when three brothers decided to emigrate the same day -- one to Canada, one to Australia, and one -- Harold's father -- to America, but I suspect someone was close on their heels.  Harold's father ended up in Rockland, Massachusetts, working in a shoe factory.  He evidently once had a chance to become a partner in a new shoe company, Thom McAn, but felt it was too risky,  

Harold was one of eight kids.  There was not much money and Harold's youngest borther Don (who passed away several months ago in his nineties) always felt close to Harold because Harold has scrimped and saved to buy Don a bicycle in the days when Don thought his family would never be able to afford one for him.  When World War II broke out, Harold dropped out of high school and joined the Navy with his cousin Eddie.  Harold and Eddie switched temporarally identities so that each would pass the parts of the physical the other couldn't.   Harold fell in love with Eileen, whose fiance had been killed earlier in the war.  When Harold proposed, Eileen put him off by saying she would marry him once the war was over, and -- son of a gun! -- the war was suddently over within a week, so with a wife and a Bronze Star, Harold went off the Georgia Tech, studying engineering.  Soon , there were three of them (Michael had been born), living in a trailer while Harold studied and sold newspapers outside of Sunday mass to get along.  (He had had a chance to run bootleg liquor but Eileen put the kibosh on that, despite the easy money.)  Shortly before he graduated, the school tried to kick him out when they discovered that he had never graduated high school, saying that Harold had entered Georgia Tech on false pretenses.  Harold made them dig out the original application he had made to the school, pointing out that the space for year graduated from high school was blank.  Harold was scrupulously honest and had made no false pretenses.  They allowed him to graduate.

Harold worked for various companies subcontracted to the defense industry one rockets and the space program.  Because of security concerns he could never really say what he did and Kitty and her brothers used to make up extrvagrant stories about what he did.  One night, while they were living in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Harold woke the kids up and said it was a beautiful night for a walk.  They ended up on a sand bar watching the original Gemini rocket take off; he just could not tell them why they were really out that late at night.

Harold was quiet, patient, and good-humored, but he remembered the time when "no Irish need apply."  He could be feisty and quick to anger when he felt someone was taking advantage of him; I once saw him walkout on a shady car dealer just moment before the deal was to close.  (And it was a sight to see when the woman who was making Kitty's wedding dress decided she couldn't/wouldn't make the dress agreed upon.  Kitty got married in wedding dress she wanted, one that was as perfect as she is.  Thank you, Harold.)

It was pancreatic cancer that got Harold.  We suspect it might hve been a result of radiation from the various secret places he worked.  (Toward the end of each week, he and many of the other workers would remove the radiation counter all employees were requred to wear to ensure they were not exxposed to dangerous levels.)   Harold appeared to beat the cancer twice, but that evil, evil disease kept coming back.  He passed away just weeks before the birth of his first grandson, Mark.  For that reason I have also considered Mark as living proof that the circle continues.

It's a blessing Harold never knew he shared a birthday with Donald Trump.  He would have hated that son of a bitch.

Flag Day:  Today has always been an important holiday to me.  It's a time to reflect on what the promise of our imperfect country is and what we can do to come closer to achieving that promise.  The flag, and what it stands for, and the people who have sacrificed to stand behind it are all part of the core of who I am as a human being.  I hold no truck with idiots who demean the flag by mugging while hugging it on stage, just as I hold no truck with those who selfishly and stupidly use it as an excuse for their own deplorable actions.  For me, the flag and what it stands for is sacred, which is why I support the protester's right to burn it -- but not to desecrate it.

Here's a ten-minute documentary from 1939 that tells The Story of Our Flag:  https://archive.org/details/0841_Story_of_Our_Flag_The_E01383_14_27_16_16

And somewhat off topic:  Here's a 1917 film titled Betsy Ross, a totally non-historic melodrama whcich includes a "blink and you'll miss it" scene where Betsy creates the flag.  The rest is the film is a silly, but somewhat enjoyable, love triangle between Betsy, her sister, and a British soldier.     https://archive.org/details/0985_Betsy_Ross_01_00_36_00

The Big Chick with the Big Roscoe in the Kentucky Diner:  Just because every once in a while you need a Jean Shepherd fix.  Here's The Jean Shepherd Show from Febraury 26, 1965:

https://archive.org/details/TheJeanShepherdShowWOR19650226TheBigChickWithTheBigRoscoeInTheKentuckyDinerTrixRadioEdit

Gowrow:  The Gowrow is a lizard-y thing/With nasty jaws.  It cannot sing./It's horn-like spikes run down its back./A sweet nature it does does lack./So if you're down in Arkansas/Visiting your sister or your Maw,/Avoid the Gowrow. (Note: He or she/Often comes after a moonshine spree.)

https://cryptoresponse.weebly.com/gowrow.html

R.I.P. Lt. Col. Sam Lombardo:  Sam Lombardo wan an Italian immigrant who cme to America when he was ten and later served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, died Friday at Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  He was just one month shy of his 102nd birthday.  He was one of four World War Ii veterans who, at age 100, participated in the coin toss for Super Bowl LIV in Miami Gardens to commemorate the NFL's 100th season.  The four rolled onto the field in golf carts, passing a group of cheerleaders.  ("They wouldn't let us stop by them," Lombardo recalled with a wink.  "they kept going.  I said 'Why don't you stop for a minute?  I just want to shake some hands.' ")

Lombardo served as the executive officer of an infantry company following the battle of the Bulge in World War II.  As they advanced across the German countryside, Lombardo noted that he had not seen any American flags.  He asked the company commander for a flag but the request ws denied by headquarters.  Well, that got Lombardo's back up.  "If they won't give us one, we'll make one."  That's just what he and his comany did.  They used pieces of white cloth surrender flags hanging from German windows, and found pillows made of red fabric.  A blue curtain was added and the stars were cut from the surrender flags using the medic's scissors.  It took weeks to make the flag, using sewing machines found or borrowed during their march across Germany.  The flag was finished three weeks before the war in Europe ended and was carried proudly by the men in Lombardo's company.  The hand-made flag is now prominently displayed at the Fort Benning museum.

I am of the firm belief that every genertion is the greatest generation, but some may be more "greatest" than others.

Lombardo, an avid golfer, is now Somewhere where there are no greens fees.

Florida Man:   Just one item today because ti happened in mmy neck of the woods.

• It began when Florida Man Marcus Lavoie of Escamvia County told another man that his tires had been slashed.  When the other man came out to investigate, only to find his tires had not been slashed, Lavoie pulled out a samrai sword and began chasing him down the street.  A deputy arrived and was told that Lavoie was known to also carry a weapon.  Lavoie was told to put down the sword.  He didn't; rather, he threatened the deputy and reached toward his waist. and was tasered for his efforts.  Turns out there was a loaded 9mm handgun in Lavoie's waist, with a bullet in the chamber.  According to WEAR-Pensacola, "Lavoie has a license to carry the weapon."  By weapon, I assume is meant the handgun and not the samarai sword.  Florida may be strange, but even it would not stoop low enough to force its citizens to get a samarai sword license -- that would go against the Second-and-a-Half Amendment, or something.

Some of the Good Stuff:

• Firefighters get creative to rescue a baby raccoon with its head stuck in a sewer grate     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/firefighters-rescue-raccoon-with-head-stuck-in-sewer-cover/     (with the cutest photo of a stuck baby raccoon evah)
• Rsearchers create AI device to sniff out cancer in blood samples with a 95% accuracy for hard to find cancers     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ai-device-sniffs-out-hard-to-detect-cancer-in-blood-with-95-accuracy/
• Pregnant mom saves four kids from drowning     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/pregnant-mom-gets-hailed-a-hero-after-saving-4-kids-from-drowning/
• Quick-thinking kayakers save a pait of rare eagles from drowning in the Danube     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/quick-thinking-kayakers-save-pair-of-rare-eagles-from-drowning-in-danube-river/
• Teacher swaps shoes with student to save him from missing his graduation     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/student-had-the-wrong-shoes-for-graduation-teacher-gave-shoes/
• Now you can download free coloring books from 102 museums, libraries, and collections     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/download-free-coloring-books-from-102-museums/

Today's Poem:

The Star-Spangled Banner

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red galre, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say does that star-spangled banner still wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream;

'Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so valiantly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country, should leave us no more?

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, nor the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spagled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it  is just,

And this be our motto:  "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triump shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

-- Francis Scott Key