BITS & PIECES -- EVERY LETTER OF THE ALPHABET EDITION!

 [Santa came through with a new computer keyboard that actually has an "S" key and an "X" key that works!  I'm back, baby!]

Openers:  Kellogg has just climbed the ladder and entered the veranda of his corrugated-iron bungalow when he heard heavy steps approaching from behind.  He shot the bolt on the mosquito-screen door, turned and waited.  In Port Moresby at night it was well to be cautious of strangers.

A moment later a bulking figure strode out of the gloom and approached within speaking distance.

"Just a minute there.  Are you Sam Kellogg?  If you are, I'd like a word with you."

Kellogg reached into his pocket, pulled out a small flashlight and sent a white ray stabbing forward.  His eyes narrowed as the light centered on the man before him.  He was dressed in a dirty suit of white drill with a sun helmet pushed far back on his head.  A long scar ran across one side of his brow, and the lower part of his face was dark with a week's beard.

Scratching a match. Kellogg lit the gasoline lamp suspended from the ceiling, then moved back and unlocked the door.

"Yes, I'm Kellogg," he said crisply.  "Come in.  What's on your mind?

The man stepped over the sill, extended his hand.  "Heron's the name," he said.  "Bill Heron.  I got a proposition to make to you.  You are a sea-faring man, aren't you?"

--"Black Passage" by Carl Jacobi (from Thrilling Adventures, May 1936; reprinted in Jacobi's collection East of Saraminda, 1989)  Note that the first sentence jumps from the present tense to the past tense (where it remains for the rest of the story); this may have been due to hasty writing, hasty editing, or slip-shod proofing -- all of which was possible in the pulps.

The original magazine blurb:  "Command of the 'Bamba Queen' Falls to Sam Kellogg, Stranded in Port Moresby -- and the Vessel Proves a Plague Ship, with Murder at the Helm!"

Kellogg had been the first officer of the Markella, which sank in the Papuan Gulf two months before.  Now unemployed with little chance of finding work in Port Moresby, Heron's offer seemed provident.  Heron has a ship with a full crew -- everything except a skipper.  Kellogg, however, did not yet have his master's papers and told the stranger so.  "Papers be hanged!" Heron said.  The ship in question was the Bamba Queen, a two-thousand tonner under British registry that had been quarantined for bubonic plague and was not due to be fumigated for another few days. The skipper and his two white officers had snuck off the ship and were hiding out at a copper mine at Rona Falls, waiting for the ship to be declared safe.  Heron proposed that he and Kellogg row out to the Bamba Queen, fill her with steam, and slip out to sea.  The government would raise hell, of course, but that would blow over, and the ship's true captain wouldn't show back in Port Moresby for three weeks.  In short, Heron wanted to steal the ship.  It's cargo happened to be munitions -- rifles head to Rabaul in New Britain to put down an uprising there.  Heron proposed to sell the rifles to natives at a very high price.  He would split the profits with Kellogg, fifty-fifty.

Since this is a pulp story and Kellogg is the hero, he refuses to have anything to do with the plot and kicks Heron out.  In dasdardly pulp fashion, Heron vows that Kellog will regret doing so.

You know what is going to happened next.  Kellog is shanghaied and wakes up aboard the Bamba Queen, where he is forced to navigate a ship that had not been fumigated amd whose crew had been exposed to bubonic plague.  To complicate matters, a large trove of stolen diamonds is discovered on board the vessel, further infecting the greed of Heron and his two cronies, Rigori and Lobeck.  And then native crew decided to mutiny...

Carl Jacobi (1908-1997) was best known for his weird fiction.  An editor and a journalist by profession, he wrote mostly for his own pleasure, penning well over 130 stories from 1928 until his death.  His work was consistenly well-plotted, competent, and concise.  A number of his tales have achieved semi-classic status within the horror/fantasy/weird genres.  Five main collections of his work were published durinmg his lifetime, four of them of weird fiction:  Revelations in Black (1947, abridged as The Tomb from Beyond, 1977), Portraits in Moonlight (1964), Disclosures in Scarlet (1972), and Smoke of the Snake (1994); twenty-one of his more than forty far-East adventure stories were included in East of Samirinda (1989).  Although his tales of action-adventure in the far-East comprised nearly a third of his published work, Jacobi never travelled there and seldom left his native Minnesota.  He relied on his fetile imagination and his extensive personal library of far-East hisoty and lore, including such titles as In Borneo Jungles, The Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters, Field Book of a Jungle Wallah, and Where Strange Trail Go Down, as well as extensive correspondence with commanding officers of the military outposts in Long Nawang and with the many companies and organizations doing buisness in the area.  An interesting biography (probably the only one) of Jacobi's life is Lost in Rentharpian Hills:  Spanning the Decades with Carl Jacobi (1985).  

Two retrospective collections of Jacobi's best weird tales, both arranged by S. T. Joshi, are available:  Mive and Others and Witches in the Cornfield (both 2021), as well as an e-book collection, The Tenth Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack (2014).  In addition, Centipede Press has issued the massive (900-page), expensive ($350) Masters of the Weird Tale:  Carl Jacobi (2014).   A paperback edition of East of Samarinda is currently available from abebooks for $9.45, plus shiupping.

Incoming:

• Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three.  Science fiction novel.  "A starship hurtles through the emptiness of space.  Its destination -- unknown.  Its purpose -- a mystery.  Now, one man wakes up.  Ripped from a dream of a new home on a new planet, he finds himself wet, naked, and freezing to death.  The dark halls are full of monsters but trusting other survivors he meets might be the greater danger.  All he has are questions -- Who is he?  Where are they going?  What happened to the dream of a new life?  What happened to Hull Zero Three?  All will be answered, if he can survive the ship."  Bear, who died much too young last month, was one of the greats in the field.
• Stefan Dziemianowicz, editor, Great Ghost Stories:  101 Terrifyihng Tales.  Doorstop collection of weird stories, both familiar and uncommon.  Many of the classic authors are represented, as well, as some popular names from the distnt past that many today may not recognize.  A smorgasbord of macabre treats for the afficiando.  This one came to me via the Sage of Tonawanda, may he be thrice blest. 
• Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg, The Pursuit.  Thriller, a Fox and O'Hare novel.  "Nicolas Fox, international con man, thief, and one of the top ten fugitives on the FBI's most-wanted list, has been kidnapped from a beachfront retreat in Hawaii.  What the kidnapper doesn't know is that Nick Fox has been secretly working with the FBI.  It isn't long before Nick's covert partner, Special Agent Kate O'Hare, is in hot pursuit of the crook who stole her con man,  The trail leads to Belgium, France, and Italy, pitting Nick and Kate against their deadliest adversary yet:  Dragon Kovic, an ex-Serbian military officer who's plotting a crime that will net him billions...and cost thousands of American lives.  Nick and Kate have to mount the most daring, risky, and audacious con they've ever attempted to save a major U.S. city from a catastrophe of epic proportions.  Luckily they have the help of an eccentric out-of-work actor, a bandit who does his best work in the sewers, and Kate's dad, Jake.  The pressure's on for Nick and Kate to make this work -- even if they have to lay their lives on the line.{"  Evanovich is best known for her books abouit bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, a series I really enjoyed at its beginning but wore thin for me after a while.  Goldberg, on the other hand, is a TV writer and producer whose novels have not failed to entertain me.
• Eric Flint, editor, Grantville Gazette V.  Science fiction antholgy of 25 stories in the Ring of Fire series, in which a 20th-century West Virginia town is hurtled back to 17th-century Europe; the storiers originally appeared in the e-zine Grantville Gazette, which expounds on (and adds consistency to) the shared universe of the Ring of Fire novels.  Flint passed away earlier this year and with his death, alas, I fear, so too has the Grantville Gazette expired.  It will be missed.
• Martin Gardner, Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers.  Young Adult assemblage of various types of puzzles, riddles, and problems -- including many that woud confound many adults.  An interesting and fun way to pass a couple of hours, presented by a master of logic.
• Thomas Godfrey, ed., Murder for Christmas.  Mystery anthology with 26 Yule-themed tales of crime.  Authors include John Collier, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Marjorie Bowen, Stanley Ellin, Baynard Kendrick, Baroness Orczy, Woody Allen, O. Henry, Ngaio Marth, H. R. F. Keating, Georges Simenon, Dorothy L. Sayers, Carter Dickson, Edward D. Hoch, Margery Allingham, Rex Stour, Damon Runyon, and G. K. Chestertton.  How can you go wrong?  This one came to me through the good graces of George Kelley.
• Parke Godwin, The Tower of Beowulf.  Fantasy novel.  "Under the harsh tutorlege of a merciless father, young Beowulf grew to be a strong and skillful leader of men,  But shame, guilt and loss have marked him a coward in his own mind -- unworthy of praise and the noble trappings of victory.  Attend the saga of Beowulf, tormented warrior and slayer of monsters -- an indominitable champion driven to confront great peril and ever-greater foes in his vain attempt to throw away a life he holds at no value.  Here is the epic story of a hero in spite of himself, whose legend is born at the dark bottom of a haunted lake -- and of the unwanted mantle of glory, duty and pain that Destiny has decreed he must wear until the end of his days."  Godwin was a World Fantasy Award winner whose novels have explored such legends of King Arthur, Guineviere, Robin Hood, and St. Patrick.
• Simon R. Green, Something from the Nightside and Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth.  The first and sixth novels in Green's Nightside series, which features P.I. John Taylor, who works the dark and corrupt Nightside, a city within London teeming with monsters.  In the first book, "My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert at finding lost things.  It's part of the gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside.  I left there a long time ago, with my skin and sanity barely intact.  Now I make my living in the sunlit streets of London. But business has been slow lately, so when Joanna Barrett showed up at my door, reeking of wealth, asking me to find her runaway teenge daughter, I didn't say no.  Then I found out exactly where the girl had gone.  The Nightside.  That square mile of Hell in the middle of the city, where it's always three a,m,  Where you can walk beside myths and drink with monsters.  Where nothing is as it seems and everything is possible.  I swore I'd never return.  But there's a kid in danger and a woman depending on me.  So I have no choice -- I'm going home..."  In Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth, the Nightside is "[n]ot a nice place to visit or a nice place to live.  So you wouldn't think I would care that it was about to be destroyed, by none other than my very own long-missing, not-quite-human mom.  But I do.  I was born here.  I live here, and I got friends here.  They might not be acceptible in polite company, but they're my friends, nonetheless.  I know that I'm the only one who can stop her.  The trick is, how to do it without fulfilling this prophecy that says whatever action I take, not only is the Nighside doomed, but the rest of the woirld will soon follow..."
• George Mann, editor, Sexton Blake, Detective.  Collection of 26 stories about Sexton Blake from 1909 to 1934, from The Penny Pictorial, Union Jack, and Detective Weekly.  Sexton Blake was created as a response to the popularity of Sherlock Holmes.  He first appeared in writing by Harry Blyth (using the pseudonym "Hal Meredith") in 1893.  From that time until 1978, he appeared in over 4000 stories written by over 200 authors.  The character has appeared on stage, in film (both silents and talkies), on radio, on television. in comics, and on a 78-rpm record.  At one time, he was featured in 217 original stories writtenn in Bengali by Bengali author Dinedra Kumar Roy.  Another gift from the very gracious George Kelley.
• Susan Oleksiw, Under the Eye of Kali.  An Anita Ray mystery.  "Trouble befalls two American tourists staying at the cozy seaside Hotel Delite in southern India.  Helping her aunt Meena run the place, photographer and gallery owner Anita Ray is drawn into the mystery.  The victims, both women, were nurses, one of whom admiitted to smuggling black market medicak supplies across the border to those in need.  Now one of them is dead, the other in a hospital.  Aunt Meena is teetering on hysteria and Anita needs answers.  Of all the exotic sights and sounds of the city, few are as captivating as the Balabhadrakali Temple and its alluring statue of the goddess Kali.  But tourism had little to do with the tragedy -- something else was going on.  Pushing aside her fear of poking into the dangerous world of illegal trade, Anita discovers the motive for murder was far more personal.  And now one of her own photographs may hold the key to the killer's identity."  Besides writing a number of well-recieved mysteries, Oleksiw is the author of A Reader's Guide to the Classic English Mystery, which holds a treasured place in my library.
• Whitley Steiber, Critical Mass. Comspiracy thriller.  "What would we do if a nuclear weapon was detonated in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. government suddenly disappeared?  What would we do if a terrorist organization announced that it had concealed nuclear weapons in every major Western cities...and the demanded that the entire planet embrace its twisted brand of fundamentalism?   Nuclear interdiction expert James Deutsch and his Muslim wife, Nabita, struggle to stop an impending nuclear attack on a great American city.  Along the way, they delve deep into the hidden world of nuclear terrorism and the titanic battle within Islam for its own future."  Steiber wrote a lot of very good books early in his career, but (IMHO) he jumped the shark by getting on the "aliens have kidnapped me" bandwagon.  From the brief blurb at the back of this book, I doubt if he has found his way back.
• John Varley.  Dark Lighning.  Science fiction novel, the fourth book in Varley's Thunder and Lightning series.  "On a voyage to New Earth, the starship Rolling Thunder is powered by an energy no one understands, except for its eccentric inventor Jubal Broussard.  Like many of the ship's inhabitants, Jubal rests in a state of suspended animation, asleep yet never aging.  The moments when Jubal emerges from stasis are usually a cause for celebration for his family, including his twin daughters -- Cassie and Polly -- and their uncle who is the captain of the Rolling Thuinder.  But this time, Jubal makes a shocking announcement...The ship must stop, or everyone will die.  These words from the mission's founder, the man rsponsible for the very existence of Rolling Thunder, will send shock waves throughout the starship  -- and divide its pasengers into those who believe and those who doubt.  And it will be up to Cassie and Polly to stop a mutiny, discover the truth, and usher the ship into a new age of exploration"  Another part of the Kelley bonanza; again, much appreciated.
• Richard S. Wheeler, Restitution.  western novel.  "Truman Jackson and his family are a pillar in the frontier community of Cottonwood, Utah.  A successful rancher, there is no one he wouldn't lend a hand to, and no one who wouldn't consider him a friend.  But no one in Cottonwood knows much about the Jacksons.  When asked about their past, they give vague and shadowy answers, and no one is able to find out where they came from, or what they did.  Truman Jackson and his wife, Gracie, have been hiding their outlaw roots -- and their criminal deeds -- for the past seventeen years.  To become whole once again, Truman is ready to confess his sins -- even if it turns his family, friends, and an entire town against him."  Few people were better that Rchard Wheeler at writing page-turning, provoking westerns with an authentic flavor.
• Bill Willingham, Down the Mystery River.  young adult fantasy novel.  "Max 'the Wolf' is a top-notch Boy Scout, an expert at orienteering, and a master of being prepared.  So it is little odd that he suddenly finds himself, with no recollection of his immediate past, lost in an unfamiliar wood.  Even odder still, he encounters a badger named Banderbrock, a black bear named Walden, and McTavish the Monster (who might also be an old barn cat) -- all of whom talk -- and are as clueless as Max.  Before long, Max and his friends are on the run from a relentless group of hunters and their deadly hounds.  Armed with powerful blue swords and known as Blue Cutters, these hunters capture and change the very essence of their prey.  For what purpose, Max can't guess.  But unless he can solve the mystery of the strange forested world he's landed in, Max may find himself and his friends changed beyond recognition, lost in a lost world..."   Willingham is the genius behind the graphic novel world of Fables.  Mark Buckingham, who has drawn most of the Fables titles, porvides the illuistrations for this book.  A winning combination.

Boxing Day 1:  Today is Boxing Day.  I may be unclear on the concept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7LWny6c4wI

Boxing Day 2:  Still unclear.

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

Boxing Day 3:  I'm never going to get this Boxing Day thing right, am I?

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=71593

Light-Horse Harry:  Henry Lee III (1756-1818) was an American Revolutionary War hero who served as a major general in the continental Army and won the nickname "Light-Horse Harry."  He was a member of the Continental Congress and  later governor of Virginia (1791-1794) and served his state in the House of Representatives from 1799 to 1801.  It was there, on this date 223 years ago, in a eulogy before Congress, that he famously described his close friend George Washington as "First in war, first in peace and  first in the hearts of his countrymen."  He was the father of Robert E. Lee.

Here is the full funeral oration.  The famous quote can be found on page 14.

Little Maid of Arcadee:  Also on this date (in 1871) the first operatic collaboration between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sulivan premiered.  Thespis -- described as "An entirely original Grotesque Opera in Two Acts" -- tells the tale of an acting grouip led by Thespis, the Greek father of the drama, who temporarily trade places with the gods of Olympus.  The actors are inept at ruling.  Mayhem ensues and the gods angrily return, kicking the acting troupe out of the heavens, dooming them to be "eminent tragedians,  whom no one ever goes to see."  The show ran for 63 performances, a surprisingly good run for a seasonal work.

Thespis was performed only one other time during its creators' lifetimes, a benefit performance shortly after its oringinal staging.  During the 1950s, interest in the opera was renewed and it has been perfomed an number of times since.  Because the original music -- except for two songs and some ballet music -- survived past 1897, the twentieth century stagings have used music from later works by the pair or used original music.  The two compisers went their separate ways for three years after the performanmces of Thespis, reuniting for Trial by Jury in 1875 with manager Richard D'Orly Carte, to begin their sucessfulk careerrs, which included such works as H. M. S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado.

One of the two songs that has survived from Thespis is "Little Maid of Arcadee."  Here it is performed by Richard Holmes (brother of Rupert Holmes) at the 75th anniversary gala of New York's Gilbert & Sullivan Society on October 18, 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn0W1ozmc6o

Celebrate:  In addition to Boxing Day, December 26 is also National Thank-You Note Day ( a no-brainer), National Candy Cane Day (I can see that), and National Whiner's Day (I assume for those who got coal in their stocking).  We're also starting Kwanzaa, the seven-day African American and pan-African cultural holidayToday also marks the beginning of Junkanoo, a celebration i  the Bahmas and for the English-speaking Caribbean culture and the Black-Caribbean diaspoora; marked by parades,usic, and dance, the celebration goes on until January 1.  It's also National Homeowners' Day, Slovenian Independence and Unity Day, St. Stephen's Day in Ireland, and the Synaxis of the Mother of God, celebrated by the Orthodox Church in  Greece in honor of the Virgin Mary.

Among those born on this date are Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (b. 1194), English poet Thomas Gray ("Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," and the sad ode to a drowned cat [below], b. 1716), Scottish mathematician, scholar and polymath Mary Somerville, whose signature was the first on John Stuart Mill's petition to Parliament to give women the right to vote (b. 1780), inventor of the Difference engine Charles Babbage (b. 1791), popular author E. D. E. N. (Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte) Southworth, the most popular American novelist of her day (b. 1819), Admiral of the Navy Geroge Dewey (b. 1837), co-founder of Pathe Records Charles Pathe (b. 1863), Nobel Prize laureate (Nobel Peace Prize 1933) Norman Angell (b. 1872),  English runner and Olympic champion Percy Hodge (b. 1890), author (Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capicorn) Henry Miller (b. 1891), Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong (b. 1893), character actor Elisha Cook, Jr. (b. 1903). American politician Albert Gore, Sr., father of Al Gore (b. 1907), actor Richard Widmark, who famously pushed actree Mildrid Dunnock and her wheelchair down a flight of stairs in 1947's Kiss of Death (b. 1914), first host of The Tonight Show Steve Allen (b. 1921), legendary comic book artist and one of the founding artists of Mad John  Severin (b. 1921), English-American actor with eyebrows that would not stop Donald Moffat (b. 1930), Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch portrayer Caroll Spinney (b. 1933), Estonian architect with a great name Peep Janes (b. 1936), "wall of sound" record producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector (b. 1939). best-selling author Catherine Coulter (b. 1942), baseball legend Carlton Fisk (b. 1947), former CNN journalist Candy Crowley (b. 1948), shortstop (the greatest ever, according to Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone) Ozzie Smith (b. 1954), Indiana politician Evan Bayh (b. 1955), Sherman's Lagoon cartooist Jim Toomey (b. 1960), actor Jared Leto (b. 1971), and "You know nothing, Jon Snow" actor Kit Harington (b. 1986).

Those who died on this date (many of whom will be missed) include Pope Dionysius (d. 268), Pope Zosimus (d. 418), Swedish King Valdemar (d.  1239), French bishop Jean de Marigny (d. 1350), archaelogist Heinrich Schliemann (d. 1890), American painter Frederic Remington (d. 1909), Henry Watson Fowler, author of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (d. 1933), American wrestler Gorgeous George (George Raymond Wagner) (d. 1963), notorious photojournalist Weegee (Asher -- later modified to Usher -- Felig) (d. 1968), president Harry S. [often without the period] Truman (d. 1972), Jack Benny, the greatest comedian ever, IMHO (d. 1974), film director Howard Hawks (Scarface, Bringing Up Baby, Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Red River, The Thing from Another World, and Rio Bravo, among many others) (d. 1977), actress Elsa Lanchester (d. 1986), tragic murder victim JonBenet Ramsey (d. 1996), singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield (d. 1999), actor Jason Robards (d. 2000), fashion photographer Herb Ritts (d. 2002), president Gerald Ford (d. 2006), singer Teena Marie (Mary Christine Brockert) (d. 2010), television and film producer and "supermarionation" pioneer (Supercar, Fireball XL 5, Thunderbirds, etc.) Gerry Anderson (d,. 2012), professional wrestler Brodie Lee (born Jonathan Huber; he also used the stage name Luke Harper) (d. 2020), Greek president Karolos Papoulias (d. 2021), Bishop Desmond Tutu (d. 3021), and entomologist E. O. Wilson (d. 2021).  Requiescet in pace.

Florida Man:

•  Florida Men John L. Moore Jr., 56, and Tanner J. Mansell, 26, have been convisted of stealing fishing gear in federal waters.  They cut and removed a fishing line they claimed was entangled with vulnerable lemon sharks, releasing at least nineteen sharks in the process.  They each face up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.  The line was attached to a commercial fishing buoy and was allowed by federal law; the NOAA HMS Compliance Guide allows commercial fishermen to catch sharks species that otherwise are not allowed by Florida law.  The sharks were freed while the pair had taken a group of tourists, including a police chief, to swim and dive with sharks off the coast of Jupiter.  Moore and Mansell, believing they had frred the sharks from an illegal line, reported their actions to authorities.  Sadly, they were wrong.
• The New York Post, once Donald Trumo's favorite newspaper, has sadly dismissed him as "Florida Man" and relagated his 2024 Presidential announcement to page 26.  Could not happened to a nicer guy...
• 27-year-old Florida Man Alisha Lalani has been charged with battery on police horse after he slapped the horse (named Patch) on the butt with his open hand in St. Petersberg.  A policeman was on Patch at the time.  According to officers, Lalani did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time; he stated he did not know that it was not allowed to slap a horse on the butt.  It tuirns out that battery on a police horse is a first-degree misdemeanor. 
• In other, more srious and certainly more disgusting, anim al related news, Florida Man Chad Mason, 26, of Clearwater, has been charged with having sex with a dog in public (including in front of a child under the age of 16).  When confronted by witnesses, Mason fled the scene, causing mayhem along the way.  At the nearby Northwood Presbyterian Church, he allegedly broke potted plants, tossed around children's toys, and knocked over a nativity scene, after which he destroyed a nearby mailbox and attempted to steal a car before he was arrested.  Mason has since been released on bond, after having a Christmas season that he will not soon forget.
• 25-year-old Florida Man Austin Harrouff avoided jail time after a judge acepted an insanity plea from the man who killed a 59-year-old man and his 56-year-old wife six years ago and chwed on the face of one of his victims.  It is "highly unlikely" that Harrouff will ever be released from the mental facility where he is being held.
• 38-year-old Florida Man Jermaine Bell had just been convicted of armed robbery and was facing a life sentence when he interupted the Miami-Dade courtroom proceedings by drinking a cup of a "bleach-like" substance.  How he got the liquid and why he was allowed to have it on his person is unknown.  Bell was hospitalized but survived the incident.

Good News:

• Work set to begin on asteroid hunting observatory -- NASA's new mission to protect Earth from disaster      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/work-set-to-begin-on-asteroid-hunting-observatory-nasas-new-mission-to-protect-earth-from-disaster/
• Scientists have discovered an "Achilles heel" for a rogue protein that fuels a dealy brain cancer, effectively shutting down the protein and potentially bettering the 10% current survival rate      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/an-achilles-heel-for-glioblastoma-discovered-a-rogue-protein-that-turns-natural-defenses-off/
• A perfectly spherical dog?        https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/this-perfectly-spherical-dog-with-100k-instagram-followes-reminds-us-that-cute-comes-in-all-shapes-and-sizes/
• Pennies thrown into Rome's Trevi Fountain go to help the city's poor         https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/every-penny-thrown-into-romes-trevi-fountain-goes-to-help-the-citys-poor/
• Young people help restore a historic arch in East London        https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/young-people-help-restore-historic-arch-and-local-pride-in-east-london/
• Five good news stories from a memorable World Cup series     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/from-messi-to-morocco-5-good-news-stories-from-a-memorable-world-cup/
• Woman who hated exercise started lifting weights to combat arthritis and is now a regional champion     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/woman-who-hated-exercise-starts-lifting-weights-to-help-combat-arthritis-and-is-now-a-regional-gold-medalist/
• Agressive leukemia disappears in a 13-year-old girl who was the first to receive new CRISPR treatment      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/aggressive-leukemia-disappears-in-13-year-old-girl-who-was-first-to-receive-new-crispr-treatment/

I Should Have Followed This Advice Yesterday:  "Never eat more tha you can lift." -- Miss Piggy

Today's Poem:

Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat

Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes

'Twas on a lofty vase's side,

Where China's gayest art had dyed

The azure flowers that blow;

Demurest of the tabby kind,

The pensive Selima, reclined, 

Gazed on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declared;

The fair round face, the snowy beard,

The velvet of her paws,

Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,

Her ears of jet, her emerald eyes,

She saw, and purred applause.

Still had she gazed; but 'midst the tide

Two angel forms were seen to glide.

The genii of the stream;

Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue

Through richest purple to the view

Betrayed a golden gleam.

The hapless nymph with wonder saw;

A whisker first, and then a claw,

With many an ardent wish'

She stretched in vain to reach the prize.

What female heart can gold despise?

What cat's averse to fish?

Presumptous maid! with looks intent

Again she stretch'd, again she bent,

Not knew the gulf between,

(Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled)

The slippery verge her feet beguiled,

She tumbled headlong in.

Eight times emerging from the flood

She mewed to every watery god,

Some speedy aid to send.

No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred;

Not cruel Tom, nor Susan heard;

A Favourite has no friend!

From hence, ye beauties, undeceived,

Know, one false step is ne'er retreived,

And be with caution bold.

Not all that tempts your wandering eyes

And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;

Nor all that glistens, gold.

-- Thomas Gray