BITS & PIECES

Openers:  It was around a quarter to five on a Wednesday Afternoon in October when I marked my place in the Fredric Brown paperback I'd spent much of the day reading.  I tucked it in my back pocket, then went outside and retrieved my table of bargain books from the sidewalk.  This was a good fifteen minutes earlier than usual, but when you're the store owner you can do this sort of thing on a whim.  That's one of the nice things about being an independent antiquarian bookseller, and there are days when it seems like the only nice thing.

This was one of them.

I typically start to shut down for the day around five, and usually manage to clear the last custoomer from the premises by five-thirty.  Then I do what tidying up needs to be done, freshen Raffles's water dish and put some dry food in the bowl, draw the steel gates shut, and lock up.  The Bum Rap, where Carolyn and I have a standing appointment with a bottle of scotch, is just around the corner at Broadway and East Tenth Strret.  It's a five-minute walk, and I generally cross the threshold within a few minutes of six o'clock.

I have to pass Carolyn's establishment, the Poodle Factory, in order to get to the Bum Rap; it's almost always closed when I do, and she's almost always at out usual table by the time I arrive.

But not today, because I was out the door at Barnegat Books by twenty-eight minutes after five.  (I don't know why I checked the time, or why I still remember it.  But I did and I do.)  The Poodle Factory is two doors east of the bookshop, and Carolyn Kaiser was sweeping dog hair out the door when I got there.

-- The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown by Lawrence Block (2023)

How can you go wrong?  A Bernie Rhodenbarr (who in my mind's eye was never Whoopi Goldberg!) story by Lawrence Block (the guy who writes rings around the other guys who write rings!), complete with Carolyn Kaiser (who in my mind's eye was never Bobcat Goldthwait!) in a mystery cum science fiction cum fantasy that references Fredric Brown -- and not just Fredric Brown , but Fredric Brown's What Mad Universe!  Sweet Saint Whoever the Saint of Pulp Is, I'm in Heaven.  I don't think anyone but Block could have pulled this one off.

Ignore my jabbering.  Just get the book and read it!

Incoming:

• William Lindsay Greshjam, Houdini:  The Man Who Walked through Walls.  Biography.  "An excellent account of the career of a fabulous magician, a legend even during his lifetime...it should be a best-seller for a long time." -- New York Herald Tribune  "Houdini's greatest illusions and escapes, explains Author Gresham as he gives away the master's sercrets, were constructed with the simplicity that is the essence of true genius...So successful were these illusions and escapes that many of Houdini's vast audiences actually believed he had supernatural powers." -- Time  This book was evidently written with the assistance of noted skeptic James Randi (The Amazing Randi).  Gresham led a sad life.  He was an alcoholic, serial adulterer, and abuser.  His third wife, Joyce Davidman, returned from a trip to England to discover he was having an affair with her cousin.  She sold their house where the three were forced to live together because of his finances, paid off Gresham's debts, and returned to England, where she eventually married C. S. Lewis.  Gresham was intersted in carnivals and sideshows, which led to his most noted novel, Nightmare Alley.   He was a believer in the Tarot and flirted with Scientology.  In 1962, Gresham, going blind and diagnosed with cancer, committed suicide (he had tried to commit suicide at once before, many years earlier).  He was 58.
• Del Howison & Jeff Gelb, editors, Dark Delicacies.  2005 original horror anthology.  "Noted horror anthologist Jeff Gelb and Del Howison, owner of Dark Delacacies, the world's premiere bookstore dedicated to horror literature, serve up a delectable feast of fright with these nineteen original stories, which bears the store's name.  With contributions from genre legends and fresh talents, Dark Delicacies will please the palates of readers with even the most discriminating taste in terro."  Introduction by Richard Matheson and stories by Ray Bradbury, Whitley Steiber, F. Paul Wilson, Brian Lumley, John Farris, Ramsey Campbell, Gahan Wilson, William F. Nolan, Richard Laymon, Clive Barker, and more.  A great line-up.
• David E. Kahn, as told to Will Oursler, My Life with Edgar Cayce.  Biography, tinged with bushwah.  "David Kahn was just fifteen years old when he met the famous prophet and psychic Edgar Cayce.  For the rest of his life, he was guided and directed by the strange, uncanny powers of this remarkable man.  He consulted Cayce on the most important decisions of his life.  He became an important business executive, met and worked with Eleanor Roosevelt, served the government in two world wars, and met and married a beautiful actress.  In this book, Kahn tells his story to the noted author of many books, Will Oursler.  While it is a classic American success story of a young man's rise, it is also a fascinating portrait of Kahn's mentor, Edgar Cayce.  Kahn conducted Cayce through innumerable 'readings' himself. and grew thoroughly convinced of the validity of the seer's methods and unconscious knowledge.  'If I ever gave a reading that's harmful,' Cayce told him, 'or isn't true, then I'll never give another one for anybody.'  While many books have described Cayce's amazing psychic performances, this book gives the reader, in addition, a warm and intimate portrait of Cayce himself, the great Sleeping Prophet."  I'll file this under Put On Your Boots, It's Getting Deep.  Oursler was the son of Fulton Oursler (The Greatest Story Ever Told, and the author of the Thatcher Colt detective series as "Anthony Abbott").  Will Oursler wrote more tha 45 books, including twelve mystery novels which is why I pick this book up as an associational copy.
• G. M. Malliet, Death of a Cozy Writer. The first book in the St. Just mystery series and winner of an Agatha Award for Best First Novel.  "Cozily ensconced in his eighteenth-century Cambridgeshire manor, bestselling mystery writer Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk delights in tormenting his four grown children with threats of disinheritance.  Then he announces his latest blow -- he's engaged to Violet, a beautiful widow with a dubious past.  Money-driven panic soon sets in among the backstabbing brood when eldest son and appointed heir, Ruthven, turns up dead in the wine cellar.  Who will win the inheritance sweepstakes?  It's a house full of suspicion, greed, vengeful malice -- and ample motives for murder.  Can Detective Chief Inspector St. Just nab the killer before another heir lands in the family burial plot?"  Please don't get the wrong idea; mystery author actually tend to be the kindest people in the world.
• "Kevin Matthews" (Gardner F. Fox), Barbary Slave.  Historical novel.  "Captured by Triploi's Barbary pirates, Stephen Fletcher was first enslaved, then assigned to guard the Pasha's harem.  Surrounded by sultry, sloe-eyed beauties whom he dared not touch under pain of torture, Fletcher lived only to escape -- until he met lovely Eve Doremus.  An American like himself, Eve had been bought by Marlani, the Pasha's favorite, to bedevil Fletcher for rejecting her advances.  Together, Fletcher and Eve fought their way through every temptation and indignity in their frantic bid for survival."  More sensational than historic, I fear.  Much tamer, though, than his later paperbacks about "The Lady from L.U.S.T.", written as "Rod Gray," or "Cherry Delight, the Sexecutioner", written as "Glen Chase."  Fox, who wrote dozens of books in all types of genres, is best known for his work in comic books -- he wrote over 4000 comics stories, including 1500 for DC Comics.  Fox created Barbara Gordon, the original Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and Zatanna, as well as co-creating the original Sandman.  He combined superheros to create The Justice League of America, and later for The Justice Society of America.  He was the writer to introduce the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics.  For Batman, Fox created the Caped Crusader's untility belt, Batarang, and a protoversion of the Batcopter..  
• Louise Penny, Glass Houses.  A Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel, the thirteenth in the series.  "When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious.  Then wary.  Through rain and sleet, the fugure stands unmoving, staring ahead.  From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Surete du Quebec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose.  Yet he does nothing.  What can he do?  Only watch and wait.  And hope his mounting fears are not realized.  But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied.  Months later, on a steamy July day as the trial for the accused begins in Montreal, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion that bitter November, from which there is no going back."  I still have not read any of Penny's books, although I enjoyed (with some reservations) thefirst season of Three Pines.
• Walter J. Sheldon, The Yellow Music Kill.  Spy novel.  "Matt Larkin, ex-Olympic sailing champion, was definitely the playboy type.  A fast boat, a winsome lady, a cold martini or jug of wine were as far as his dreams took him.  Until Pandora opened her pretty lips and told him Uncle Sam needed him.  Before Matt could say, "No, no, a thousand times no!" he had accepted an assignment behind the Bamboo Curtain.  They wanted his help in smuggling a Chinese big shot out of the country.  All Matt had to do was behave like an Olympic sailing champion and smuggle a small radio into China.  Sounded simple enough.  But it wasn't.  It was the toughest thing Matt ever did in his life.  And he came damn close to losing that."  This one follows The Blue Kimono Kill and The Red Flower Kill.  Sheldon wrote for the mystery, western, and science fiction pulps and digests, usually under his own name.  He also wrote Guess Who's Coming to Kill You? as "Ellery Queen",
• John Skipp, The Long Last Call.  Horror novel from one of the founders of the Splatterpunk subgenre.  "It was closing time at the strip club.  The bartender was cleaning up, and the girls were looking forward to calling it a night.  Then he came in, a well-dressed stranger with a lot of cash to spend.  A briefcase, full, in fact.  But this is no normal customer, and his money is a bit unusual too.  Every dollar he spends stirs up a little more hatred, a little more repressed rage in whoever he gives it to.  As the night passes, the pressure builds...and builds, and the stranger just smiles.  He knows what will come.  He knows he only has to wait to see all of his blood-drenched plans fulfilled."  This edition includes a bonus novella, "Conscience!"
• "Michael Slade" (Jay and Rebecca Clarke), Death's Door.  The seventh in the Special X series of thrillers.  ("Michael Slade" has been a combined pseudonym for Clarke and -- at various times -- John Banks, Lee Clarke, and Richard Covill.)  "A mummy has been stolen in England.  Authorities believe the motive is the treasure hidden in the wrappings.  They're wrong.  Mutilated bodies of young runways are discovered washed ashore on Vancouver beaches.  Authorities think they're victims of a random serial killer,  They're wrong.  When Chief Superintendent Robert DeClerq and his team follow a clue to an undercover snuff film operation, they believe they've encountered man's sickest desires.  They're wrong.  Something even more cunning, even more depraved is waiting for them.  If they have the guts to follow the clues through Death's Door..."
• "Brad Steiger"  (Eugene E. Olson) & Sherry Hansen Steiger, Star Born.  More New Age bushwah, the fourth in a series.  "You've read all the headlines -- stories of environmental disasters, military confrontations, UFO sightings, and a public acceptance of the possibility that we are not alone.  What does it all mean?  And how does it affect you?  Since the publication of the startling and controversial book, The Star People, author Brad Steiger has received overwhelming firsthand reports from men and women like yourself who have discovered that they are actual descendants of visitors from the stars.  Now more than ever, their stories must be told.  Awakened to the beauties of truth and hope, you and the ones you love can bravely enter the golden age of newfound awareness -- of the planet we need to heal, the hearts and souls we must uplift, and the mysterious visitors who watch over us, nurture us, and offer us the greatest gift of all.  A second chance for the human race."  Snake oil, thy name is Steiger.
• Petr Swanson, Eight Perfect Murders.  Mystery.  "Years ago, bookseller and mystery afficiando Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of fiction's most unsolvable murders -- which he titled 'Eight Perfect Murders' -- chosen from among the best of the best, including Agatha Christie's The A.B.C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, and Ira Levin's Deathtrap.  But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that appear eerily similar to the killings on Mal's old list.  And the agent isn't the only one interested in the bookseller.  The killer is out there, watchingn his every move --a diabolicial threat who knows way too much about Mal's personal history, especially the secrets he's never told anyone, not even his recently deceased wife.  To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects...and sees a killer in everyone around him.  But Mal doesn't count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake.  Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves victims dead -- and the noose around Mal's neck grows so tight he might never escape."  It's hard to go wrong with a mystery about mysteries.

Changes:  Tomorrow is Kitty's birthday, a day I had hoped I would never have to celebrate without her.  Some changes, I'm afraid, are as unpredictable as they are inevitable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9gyHnWegb4

Back during the Bicentennial, both Kitty and I were covering the ceremonies in Concord, Massahcusetts, for some local newspapers.  Actually, we were on the "other" side of that rude bridge, where what was billed as the People's Bicentennial Celebration was being held.  It was a drizzly evening and I was up six or seven flights of staging, photographing Pete Seeger's performance, while Kitty had taken shelter in a nearby tent.  The tent was filled with a couple of dozen very stoned kids...and Phil Ochs.  Kitty sat enthralled.  We have one photograph of that -- Kitty, probably the only straight person in that tent, looked stoned out of her mind.  **sigh**  A few months later, Ochs had committed suicide.  **double sigh** 

The Cosmopolitan John D. MacDonald:  John D. MacDonald (1916-1986), once one of the nost popular and prolific authors in America, appears to be fast fading from the public's sight.  A shame, really, because many of his books are among the finest published in the middle of the Twentieth century.  Although he started in the pulp magazines, he soon shifted to the slicks for many of his stories, just as his novels started as paperback originals eventually moved to the top of the best-seller lists.  He was very popular with the editors and the readers of pre-Helen Gurley Brown Cosmopolitan -- back in the days when they published readable fiction.

From 1942 to 1983, MacDonald appeared in the magazine 38 times, half of those appearances were with abridgements of his novels.  Those abridgements are:

• April Evil (January 1956)  *
• Bright Orange for the Shroud (a Travis McGee mystery) (April 1965)
• Cinnamon Skin (a Travis McGee mystery) (January 1983)
• The Crossroads (June 1959)  *
• Darker Than Amber (a Travis McGee mystery) (April 1966)
• Deadly Victim (an abridgement of You Live Once) (April 1955)  *
• The Dreadful Lemon Sky )a Travis McGee mystery) (September 1975)
• The Drowner (January 1963)  *
• The End of Her Life (an abridgement of Death Trap) (January 1957)  *
• End of the Night (an abridgement of The End of the Night, 1960) (May 1960)  *
• The Heat of Money (an abridgement of The Price of Murder) (April 1957)  *
• One Fearful Yellow Eye ( a Travis McGee mystery) (November 1966)
• One Monday We Killed Them All (November 1961)  *
• The Scarlet Ruse (a Travis McGee mystery) (August 1980)
• Taint of the Tiger (an abridgement of Soft Touch) (March 1958)  *
• The Tug of Evil (an abridgment of Slam the Big Door) (Janaury 1960)  *
• The Turquoise Lament (a Travis McGee mystery) (March 1974)
• Ultimate Surprise (an abridgement of Deadly Welcome) (Janaury 1959)  *
• Where Is Janice Gantry? (December 1960)  *
• Where the Body Lies (an abridgemnt of On the Run) (August 1962)  *

In addition, three shorter works were released as novels in Scandanavia; as far as I can tell, none of them have been reprinted in English:

• The Doll (November 1952) (reprinted in Swedish as Illa ute, 1972)  *
• Six Golden Pennies (February 1954) (reprinted in Swedish as Ana det vorsta, 1972)  *
• Suspicion Island (May 1953) (reprinted in Finnish as Huomio-tulta, 1964)  *

Five stories were reprinted in MacDonald's 1966 collection, End of the Tiger and Other Short Stories:

• The Bear Trap (May 1955)  *
• The Fast, Loose Money (July 1958)  *
• Hangover (July 1957)
• A Romantic Courtesy (July 1957)  *
• The Trouble with Erica (September 1953)

One story was reprinted in MacDonald's science fiction collection, Other Times, Other Worlds, 1978:

•  The Legend of Joe Lee (October 1964)  *

This leaves the following nine stories that are unavailable in any of MacDonald's books:

• College Man (February 1958)  *
• A Criminal Mind (November 1956 (reprinted in Best Detective Stories of the Year:  12th Annual Collection, edited by David C. Cooke, 1957)  *
• Firsr Offense (August 1954)  *
• The Impulse (June 1955)  *
• Night Fright (November 1953)  *
• The Payoff (May 1947)  *
• Pickup (February 1948)  *
• Refund for Murder (May 1952)  *
• Travel Light and Travel Far (January 1961)  *

Twenty-nine of these issues are available to read at Internet Archive.  For your convenience, I've marked them with an asterisk (*).

Heroes of the Alamo:  Yesterday, Evan Lewis posted "Westerns You May Have Missed Rides Again (1935)" ( a bunch of really cool movie posters) in his (really cool and always entertaining blog, Davy Crockett's Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and the Wild West.  One of the posters was for The Outlaw Tamer, starring Lane Chandler.  Who he? you might ask.  Chandler (1899-1972), born Robert Clinton Oakes, was a silent film star who grew up ona hirse ranch in Montana; his expoerience as a youth landed him some bit parts in westerns, beginning in 1925.  Soon he changed his name and began landing leading roles opposite starts like Clara Bow and Greta Garbo.  With the advent of talkies, be began getting supporting roles, often as the sidekick of the leading man in low buidget westrns.   He worked in more wesrteerns than you could shake a stick at and, with the advent of television, in more western series than you could shake a stick at, often in bit parts or with no billing at all.  No fool he, Chanlder retired in 1966 on his residential and commercial real estate investments.

I looked.  The Town Tamer does not appear to be on the internet.  What is avaailable, though, is Heroes of the Alamo, a 1937 film with Chandler featured as Davy Crockett.  Also starring are Earl Hodgins as Stephen Austin, Roger Williams as James Bowie, Rex Lease as William B. Travis, Edward Piel as Sam Houston. and Julian Rivero as General Santa Anna.

Today also happens to be the 177yh anniversary of the fall of the Alamo.

Check out the movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxT3rUsTRdQ&t=3s

Also on This Day:

• Caesar Augustus (Octavian) is named Pontifix Maximus -- the chief high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome -- incorporating that position into that of the Emperor.  (12 BCE)
• The Islamic prophet Muhammed delivered his Farewell Sermon, the Khutbatul Wada.  (632)
• The Treaty of Paris of 1332 is signed, relinquishing Flemish claims on the Country of Zeeland to William I, the Count of Holland, who, in turn, renounced all claims on Flanders. Just one of many Treaties of Paris over the years.  (1332)
• Ferdinand Magellan arrives in Guam, less than two months before he reached the Phillipines, where he would be killed in the Battle of Mactan.  (1521)
• Henry Oldeberg publishes the first issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, the world's longest-running scientific journal.  (1665)
• President James Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise, bringing Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while ensuring that the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory remains slave-free.  (1820)
• Toronto is incorporated.  (1834)
• The Supreme Court darkened its reputation by voting 7-2 in Dred Scott v. Sanford, with the damnfool affirmation that the Constitution does not confer citizenship on Negroes.  (1857)
• Dmitri Mendeleev present the first periodic tabler.  (1869)
• "Aspirin" is registered as a trademark by Bayer.  (1899)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "Bank Holiday" and closes all U.S. banks and freezes all financial transactions.  (1933)
• Norman Rockwell pu8bishes "Freedom from Want," one of his "Four Freedoms" paintings in The Saturday Evening Post.  (1943)
• The Ethel and Julius Rosenberg trail begins.  It does not end well for the couple.  (1951)
• Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union.  (1953)
• Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, officially gives Cassius Clay the name of Muhammad Ali.  (1964)
• Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Jospeh Stalin, defects to the United States.  (1967)
• The controversial Zapruder film is shown for the first ime on national television.  (1975)
• Forbes names Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person. with a net worth of $112 billion.  (2018)  [He's currently number 2, behind Elon Musk.]

Happy Birthday, Furry Lewis:  Walter E. "Furry" Lewis (1893? or 1898? or anywhere in between? - 1981) was a Delta blues guitarist and songwriter who was active in the 1920s and found renewed success in the folk blues revival of the 1970s.  Born in Mississippi, he moved to Memphis when he was young,  Tired of travelling to perform, he landed a job as a street sweeper for the city in 1922, a position he held until his retirement in 1966; his job allowed him to continue to perform in the Memphis area.  In 1972 he was the featured performer in the Memphis Blues caravan, which included Bukka White, Sleepy John Estes and other blues legends.  He opened twice for The Rolling Stones and appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  Lewis hated Joni Mithcell's song "Furry Sings the Blues," about her visit to his apartment in 1976, and felt Mitchell should have paid him royalties.  He died of heart failure after contracting pneumnia.  His gravesite has two headstons -- the larger one purchased by fans.

[Apropos of nothing, Walter Lewis was also the name of a neighboring farmer when I was growing up.  I overheard a conversation he once had with my father and I grew up being told that the only people in the world who were allowed to swear were my father, my mother, and Walter Lewis -- and I really don't remember my parents swearing at all.]

Just because it has a cool title, here's Furry Lewis with "Mean Old Bedbug Blues."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fw_GhdwGB8&list=OLAK5uy_ltzFPlTjoXWvY6oL2lQLYfSqq6ijVjQ2s&index=11

Florida Man:  Here's a walk down Florida Man Memory Lane:

https://brevardtimes.com/2023/03/florida-man-challenge-list-of-florida-man-stories-by-date/

Ha!:  A guy I know went ot his boss's funeral.  He knelt by the coffin and whispered, "Who's thinking out of the box now, Gary?"

Good News:

•  Skier buried by avalanche with just one arm showing manages to flag down helicopter      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/missing-skier-buried-by-avalanche-with-one-arm-showing-flags-down-helicopter/
• Grandmother stages one-woman protest to save willow tree      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/grandma-stages-one-woman-protest-to-protect-tree-due-to-be-felled-in-kent/
• Micro preemie born at 1 pound, 11 ounces is now thriving     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/1-lb-11-oz-micro-preemie-is-now-thriving-at-4-months-old/
• Check out this amazing photograph taken from space of an aurora       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/nasa-astronaut-captures-unreal-photo-of-aurora-from-space/
• Vitamin D supplements may fend off dementia, especially in females       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/exeter-and-calgary-large-study-on-vitamin-d-and-dementia/
• Volunteer knotters finish craft projects for loved ones who have passed         https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/volunteer-knitters-are-finishing-craft-projects-for-loved-ones-whove-passed/
• A mileston!  Twenty-nine species in Australia have recovered enough to be taken off endangered species list          https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/29-australian-animals-found-to-have-recovered-enough-for-delisting-in-milestone-for-celebration/

Today's Poem:

New San Antonio Rose

Deep in my heart lies a melody

A song of old San Antone

Where in dreams I live with a memory

Beneatht he stars all alone

It was there I found beside the Alamo

Enchantment strange as the blue, up above

A moonlit path that only she would know

Still hears my broken song of love

Moon in all your splendor knows only my heart

Call back my Rose, Rose of San Antone

Lips so sweet and tender like petals fallin' apart

Speak once again of my love, my own

Broken song, empty words I know

Still live in my heart all alone

For that moonlit pass by the Alamo

And Rose, my Rose of San Antone

-- Bob Wills

(and set to music:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fw_GhdwGB8&list=OLAK5uy_ltzFPlTjoXWvY6oL2lQLYfSqq6ijVjQ2s&index=11)