BITS & PIECES

Openers:  At four o'clock on Thursday afternoon, Peter Finney rushed past the beautiful receptionist in the waiting room and burst into Dr. Eyck's teak-paneled Hollywood office.  There. seated behind his free-form, polished deask, beneath the Picasso sketch, to the right of the Giacometti sculpture, was Dr. Eyck.

"You bastard," Finney said.  "You stinking, rotten bastard."

If Dr. Eyck was surprised, he gave no indication.  He glanced at his watch and said mildly, "You're early today, Peter.  Is something troubling you?"\"You're goddamned right," Finney said.  "You're goddamned right, you slimy, crud-coated Kraut."

Dr. Eyck stroked his goatee thoughtfully and nodded toward the black morocco couch.  "Do you want to talk about it?"

--"How Does That Make You Feel?" by Jeffery Hudson" (Michael Crichton) (first published in Playboy (as by "Jeffery S. Hudson"), November 1968; reprinted in Crime Without Murder, edited by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, 1970, and in The Peeping Tom Patrol, edited by "The Editors of Playboy," 1971)

 Finney accuses the psychiatrist of having an affair with his wife, a beautifulk actress who has not had a starring role in over four years.  Finney himself is the star of the nation's top-rated comedy show, Peter and George.  The night before, filming had run later than usual and, rather than head straight home, he took his co-star's suggestion and went out for a quick drink at El Greco, a place often frequented by Hollywood elite.  The bartender there was talking to some out-of-towners, impressing them with the type of people who frequent the place -- Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Angie Dicknson, and Gloria Starr.  Finney's ears picked up at that because Gloria Starr was his wife.  He heard the bartender to go to say that she and a man dined there every Tuesday and Thursday; Tuesdays and Thursdays were the nights Gloria went out to her "bridge club."  When the bartender said that the man who always accompnaied Gloria was a fat man with a goatee, Finney knew it had to be Dr. Eyck.  Now, Finney w2as in Eyck's office, ranting and pulling out at gun.

The doctor remained calm, stating that there were many fat men in Los Angeles with goatees.  Slowly, patiently, he was able to calm Finney down and make him see that he had rushed to judgement.  After Finney's appointment, Eyck phoned Gloria and told her that they had to make alternate plans because Finney knew about El Greco.

Many writers would have ended the story at that bit of irony, but Crichton devoted the last two pages of the story with an unexpected twist.

I was surprised to find a short story by Crichton, whom I thought wrote only full-length works.  Crichton began publishing adventure novels as "John Lange" in 1965, while he was still in medical school.  The year this story was published, 1968, Crichton published A Case of Need, the only novel published under the "Jeffery Hudson" pen name; it went on to win an Edgar as Best First Novel.  The following year, he published The Andromeda Strain, the first of many best-selling novels under his own name.  "How Does That Make You Feel?", the first of only three short stories by Crichton listed in the FictionMags Index.  (In fact, the Index did not acknowledge that "Jeffery S. Hudson" was a pseudonym belong to Crichton; it did list one 1968 story as "John Lange" and one 1971 story under Crichton's own name.)  

Crichton evidently took the "Jeffery Hudson" name from the 17th century court dwarf of English Queen Henrietta Maria of France, Jeffrey Hudson (1619-@1682; note the difference in the spelling of the first name.).  The historical /Hudson fled with the Queen to France during the English Civil War but was expelled after killing a man in a duel; he was captured by Barbary pirates and spend 25 years as a slave in North Africa before being ransomed.

Incoming:

• Megan Abbott, The Fever.  Suspense.  "In this impossible to put down 'panic attack of a novel' (Jodi Picoult), a small-town high school becomes the breeding ground for a mysterious illness.  Deanie Nash is a diligent student with a close-knit family; her brother Eli is a hockey star, and her father is a popular teacher.  But when Deanie's best friend is struck by a terrifying, unexplained seizure in class, the Nashes' seeming stability dissolves into chaos.  As rumors of a hazardous outbreak spreads through the school. and hysteria and contagion swell, a series of tightly held secrets emerges, threatening to unravel friendships, families, and the town's fragile sense of security.  The Fever is a chilling story about guilt, lies, and the lethal power of desire."  This one plays to all of Megan Abbott's considerable strengths.
• Poul Anderson, The Fleet of Stars.  Science fiction, the fourth and final novel in the Harvest of Stars sequence.  "Anderson brings back the wildly colorful Anson Guthrie, his iconclastic hero from Harvest of Stars.  The staid, somber people of Earth are not only dependent on technology, they are all but ruled by machine intelligence. Suspecting a conspiracy to supress the last vestiges of freedom known to humankind, Guthrie sets out on a dangerous and hair-raising journey encompassing the realm of comets, the asteroids, and the stars themselves.  Among the many exciting characters he meets along the way are the brave, beautiful Kinna Ronay and her courageous friend Fenn, who, against the advise of the wise and cautious Chuan, will join Guthrie in his attempt to stop the Terrans.  Guthrie and his friends are determined that humankind will travel to the stars and roam the galaxies, even the universe itself, or die trying."  The second book in the series, The Stars Are Also Fire, won the Prometheus Award.
• Lawrence Block, Hit List.  A Keller novel.  "Keller is a regular guy, a solid citizen.  Call him for jury duty and he serves without complaint.  He goes to the movies, watches the tube, browses art galleries, and works diligently on his stamp collection.  But every now and then a call from the breezily efficient Dot sends him off to kill a total stranger.  He takes a plane, rents a car, finds a hotel room, and gets back before the body is cold.  He's a real pro, cool and dispassionate and very good at what he does.  Until one day when Dot breaks her own rule and books him for a hit in New York, his home base.  She sends him to an art gallery opening, and the girl he gets lucky with steers him to an astrologer.  He's Gemini, his moon's in Taurus...and he's got a murderer's thumb.  Then the jobs start to go wrong.  Targets die before he can draw a bead on them.  The realization is slow in coming, but there's no getting around it:  Somebody out there is trying to hit the hit man.  Keller, God help him, found his way onto somebody else's jit list."  Block and Max Allan Collins are the only two writers I know who can sustain a long-running series about a professional killer and make it entertaining.
• JJ Elliot, Gallows Humor. Collection of fourteen holiday-themed horror stories.  "A man who wakes up in a cemetery on his own grave.  A brother loses a sister in a fun house.  A politician raises from the dead to vote.  A girl who can feel no pain.  These and other stories are part of Gallows Humor, a collection of short stories about the weird things that can happen on holidays in the course of a year.  These tales will capture the imagination and fill the reader with wonder, awe, andin some cases, terror.  So pull up a seat at the bar in Gallows Humor and have a drink or two."  Evidently a self-published book, undated.  The author says he lives in San Diego, eats donutes, drinks tea, and has been telling stories for over 20 years.  There is no listing of previous publication for any of the stories.  Neither he nor the book are listed in ISFDb, the FictionMags Index, or on Worldcat.  This is a pig in a poke purchase.
• Erle Stanley Gardner, The D.A. Takes A Chance.  The eighth (of nine) Doug Selby mystery.  "Blond [sic] Eve Dawson came to Hollywood to be a star and didn't make the grade.  But as a party girl she was much in demand until -- someone shot her during a specially wild party given for a lot of prominent politicians.  Everyone clammed up and the pressure was put on -- even on the popular D.A. Doug Selby.  But Selby and Sheriff Brandon woulodn't hush.  The next time beautiful Eve turned up she was a corpse with a carving knife deep in her chest.  And even that suave old fox A. B. Carr couldn't stop the D.A. from finding out who killed her and why."  The Doug Selbyt mysteries were never as popular as Gardner's books about Perry Mason or Bertha Cool and Donald Lam.  The D.A. Takes a Chance was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post before book publication; the week the magazine began serialization, the first installment was adapted for the ABC Radio serial Listening Post.  Selby made it to TV once, in a 1971 movie starring Jim Hutton.
• David Gerrold, Chess with a Dragon.  Humorous science fiction novel.  "The Galactic InterChange was the greatest discovery in history.  Through the InterChange, humanity gained access to the combined knowledge of all the worlds and all the races in the galaxy.  For librarians, scientists, doctors, teachers, and anybody who had an interest in the spread of knowledge, it was a field day.  All they had to do was find something interesting on the menu and request a copy.  Then the bill came.  It was the greatest bill in history, and humanity had no way of paying it off.  No way except one -- indenture.  Beings slaves to aliens didn't sound like much fun.  Yake Singh Brown was the man who had to negotiate the deal for humanity.  It was the toughest assignment he'd ever faced, like playing chess with a dragon.  All he had to do was figure out the rules of the game before being eaten."
• Contance & Gwenyth Little, The Black House.  Mystery novel.  "Henry's aunt painted the outside of her house black.  But she isn't that gloomy.  She still enjoys an occasional glass of sherry.  Too bad she's been dead for a year.  When Henry Debbon accepted (most reluctantly) the job of bodyguard to his boss's beautiful red-headed daughter, he never expected he'd end up beoing shot at (twice), or have his clothes confiscated at a hospital.  He also wasn'r prepared for hosting most of the people from his office at the house (painted black) in upstate New York he recently inherited from his very eccentric aunt.  And though he thoughtfully poured out an extra glass of sherry in his aunt's memory, he was just as surprised as the rest of his 'guests' when she (apparently) drank it.  A little ghostly imbibing was the least of Henry's worries.  Those unwelcome guests also included a potential murderer -- an escaped convict who will seemingly stop at nothing to avenge himself on Henry's boss for refusing to represent him.  Worse yet, a major snow storm has isolated them all from any help.  First published in 1950, it's vintage Little mayhem, although told for the first time from an entirely male point of view."  I've been wanting to read a book by the Littles for some time now, and this seems like a perfect opportunity.
• Sylvia Melvin, Death Behind the Dunes, Death beyond the Breakers, and Death on Blackwater Bay,  Lieutenant Nick Melino mysteries.  Some more pig in a poke purchases.  The author is local and has published (probably self-published) romances, Christian historicals, humor, and a couple pf biographies (one of which, about a relative who had been a Florida judge, got one review on Amazon, and two on Good Reads -- all were five-star reviews without comment; gee, I wonder who wrote them?).  Anyway, in Dunes, the former head cheerleader is murdered on her 25th reunion.  Nick Melino of the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Department, another member of the Class of '86  investigates.   There's a hurricane, blackmail, and a heroin ring,  In Breakers, the dead body is on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.  Is there a drug connection, or perhaps some corporate shenanigans?  In Blackwater (near where we spend out Easter holiday), a prison inmate is released after eighteen years for a crime he did not commit.  Two days later, the judge who sentenced him is murdered.  Revenge, politics, drugs (again), and a Ponzi scheme combine to muddy the waters for Melino.  Another thrift store find.  All three books were inscribed to "Lotus" and signed by the author.
• Kim Newman, Anno Dracula:   One Thousand Monsters.  The fifth novel in the Anno Dracula series.  "In 1899 Genevieve Dieudonne travels to Japan with a group of vampires exiled from Great Britain by Prince Dracula.  They are allowed to settle in Yokai Town, the district of Tokyo set aside for Japan's own vampires, an altogether strange and less human breed than the nosferatu of Europe.  Yet it is not the sanctuary they had hoped for, as a vicious murderer sets vampire against vampire, and Yokai Town is revealed to be more a prison than a refuge.  Genevieve and her undead comrades will be forced to face new enemies and the horrors hidden within the Temple of One Thousand Monsters..."
• James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, I Even Funnier:  A Middle School Story.  Juvenile.  "Get your laughs, whoops, yucks, chuckles, chortles, giggles, and guffaws right here!  Step right up and see me, Jamie Grimm, laugh my way through the roller-coaster ride called middle school!  Watch me joke my way to the top of the Planet's Funniest Kid Comic Contest!  Be amazed as I fend off the attention of thousands of starstruck girls!  Or something like that anyway...People say I can be pretty funny sometimes.  But when things get really tough, I EVEN FUNNIER!"  Don't think unkindly of me; I bought it for Grabenstein.
• Terry Pratchett, Nation.  YA fantasy novel.  "When a giant wave destroys his village, Mau is the only one left.  Daphne -- a traveler from the other side of the globe -- is the sole survivor of a shipwreck.  Separated by language and customs, the two are united by catastrophe.  Slowly, they are joined by other refugees.  And as they struggle to protect the small band, Mau and Daphne defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside-down."
• Bill Pronzini, High Concepts.  Science fiction/fantasy short story collection.  34 stories from 1968 to 2023, including fourteen stories written with Barry N. Malzberg, one with Jeffrey Wallman, and one with H. L. Gold.  Some are short and funny, some are clever and gimmicky, some serious and thoughtful, some experimental; combined, they display Pronzini's amazing level of versatility and ability to stretch his authortorial wings.  I've read all of Pronzini's novels (excepting the early softcore paperbacks he wrote with Jeff Wallman, and I can be forgiven that), short story collections, and nonfiction, and still the man's talent amazes me.
• Peter Robinson, A Necessary End. An Inspector Banks mystery, the third novel in the series.  "A peaceful demonstration in the town of Eastvale ends with fifty arrests -- and the brutal stabbing death of a young constable.  But Chief Inspector Alan Banks fears there is worse violence to come.  For CID Superintendent Richard Burgess has arrived from London to take charge of the investigation, fueled by professional outrage and volatile, long-simmering hatreds.  Crossing Burgess could cost the Chief Inspector his career.  But the killing of a flawed Eastvale policeman is not the only murder that needs to be solved here.  And if Banks doesn't unmask the true assassin, his supervisor's misguided obsession might well result in further bloodshed."  Robinson's Alan Banks series of 28 novels sets a high standard that few could equal.  There will be a free online tribute to Peter Robinson on June 8, with Louise Penny, Michael Connelly, and Ian Rankin.    https://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/whats-on/a-tribute-to-peter-robinson-8-june-2023/
• Robert Silverberg, Gutter Road and You Can't Stop Me.  The latest two-fer volume of softcore paperback novels from Stark House, reprinting books from some six decades ago.  Gutter Road (from Sundown Readers, 1964, as by "Don Elliott"):  "If only Fred Bauman hadn't stopped that raininy night and offered the young woman a ride, his life wouldn't be such a hell now.  How was he to know that Joanne was working a con on him when she enticed him in the friont seat of his car?  Now he's paying more blackmail than he can afford to keep her from crying rape.  Fred certainly doesn't want his wife Ethel to find out about his crazy indiscretion.  But what he doesn't know is that Ethel has issues of her own.  To stave off sexual boredom, she keeps a hidden bottle of vodka for her afternoons, dreaming of a man who can offer her some excitement of her own.  Joanne's simple con sets the wheels in motion, and they're all heading down a road that will change their lives forever."  You Can't Stop Me (from Pillar Books, 1963, under the title Lust Lover, as by "Dan Eliot"):  "When Lou Andreas is [sic] a teenager, filled with the lust of youth, all he wants to do is lose his virginity.  But his first experience is a fiasco, and the young prostitute berates him for his failure.  Filled with rage, Andreas finds another prostitute, and kills her.  After that, sex and death become all mixed up in his head.  He kills only prostitutes, but it becomes a compulsion.  Then he meets Tony, and for a while Andreas knows what it's like to have a normal relationship.  She is everything he could want in a woman.  But Marion makes the mistake of falling in love -- she wants marriage, which is the last thing on Andreas' mind.  And besides, there are so many more streetwalkers who need killing..."   Silverberg churned out over 175 of these softcore novels early in his career, all (in Barry N. Malzberg's words), "flawless in their execution and force."
• Rex Stout, Bad for Business.  A Tucumseh Fox mystery.  "Amy Duncan was a beautiful working girl who had a strong attachment to her job, an affection for her boss, and a frightening way of attracting trouble.  Private investigator Tecumseh Fox met her when she literally walked into the bumper of his car.  She promptly sped him off into the most puzzling case of Fox's brilliant career.  It involved her family's food enterprise called Tingley's Tidbits.  The firm was in an uproar because their appetizers were suddenly very unappetizing.  This, of course, was bad for business.  Profits dropped, but it was murder that kept them in the red."  Fox appeared in three novels from Rex Stou, a far cry from his other "animal" detective, Nero Wolfe.
• Martin Walker, Bruno, Chief of Police.  Mystery, the first in a series.  "Meet Benoit Courreges, aka Bruno, a policeman in a small village in the South of France.  He's a former soldier who has embraced the pleasures and slow rhythms of country life.  He lives in a restored shepherd's cottage, shops at the local market, and distills his own vin de noix.  He has a gun but never wears it; he has the power to arrest but never uses it.  Most of his police work involves helping local farmers -- his friends and neighbors -- to avoid paying E.U. inspectors' fines.  But then the murder of an elderly North African who fought in the French army changes all that.  Now Bruno must balance his beloved routines with an investigation that opens wounds from the dark years of Nazi occupation, and he soon discovers that even his seemingly perfect corner of la belle France is not exempt from his country's past."  A highly recommended series.

Theories:  Our current theories about the early days of the universe will have to be revised after the James Webb telescope peered into the very distant past, discovering galaxies that should not exist.   Up to now our iunderstanding of cosmology allowed billions of years to pass after the big bang before galaxies could be formed.  The Webb telescope has discovered a huge galaxy -- ten time that of the Milky Way -- that existed only 500 million years after the big bang.  Not only that, they also discovered a  nearby mini-galaxy -- much smaller than thought possible -- that ezisted from 500 to 550 millions years after the big bang, and this galaxy was producing stars at an incredible rate -- again, something thought to be impossible.  With these discoveries, out view of physics has changed and fundamental new theories are needed tp explain what had happened.

One idea that has been floated is that this rapidly speeding expansion of the universe was caused by a massive black hole from a previous universe.

Wait.  What?  A previous universe?

Yeah.  This theory, taken to its logical conclusion has an endless series of universes, each created by a massive black whole from a previous universe.  Like the big fleas who have little fleas to bite 'em, and the little fleas have littler fleas, and so on ad inifinitum...I'm picturing and endless Human Centipede, but with universes instead of human bodies.

Mind blowing. 

Other possible explanations are multiverses, alternate dimensions, and many other things most commonly found in CGI-enhanced big budget movies.

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Here's another theory I came across lately.  Our universe exists at the bottom of a black hole.  As more and more things get sucked into a black hole, nothing can get pout and the bottom of the black hole just keeps expanded infinitely.  One of things expanding infitely at the bottom of a black hole could be our universe, and we'll never know because there is no escaping from a black hole.  If true, could this happen in every black hole, in the large universe our black hole comes from and in the black holes in our universe?  Another case of fleas biting fleas biting fleas? 

"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."  Variations of this quotation have been atributed to Werner Heisenberg, Sir Arthur Eddington, J. B. Priestly, J. B. S. Haldane, A. N. Whitehead, and J. D. Schrodinger.  To which I can only add, "True, dat."

The Ides of May:  Today is the Ides of May.  You don't have to beware of the Ides of this month.  The Ides falls on the 15th of March, May, July, and October.  It falls on the 13th of the other months.  It has something to do with the moon, but don't ask me.  The Romans were strange.

Speaking of Romans:  Did you know there one one Roman emporer whp mever aged since the day he turned 19?  You may have heard of him.  They called him Constant Teen.

60 Years Ago:  The final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9, launched.  Astronaut Gordon Cooper became the first American to spend more than a day in space.  The spececraft, Faith 7, made 22 orbits of the Earth before landing only four miles from the prime recovery shiup.akming this the most accurate landing to date.  There had been some discussion about this mission since the previous mission, Mercury-Atlas 8 with Walter Schirra, had been a near-perfect mission and many at NASA thought they should quit while they were ahead and move on to the Gemini program.  In fact, there were a few blips near the end of the space flight.  A faulty indicator light came on during the 19th orbit; all altitude readings were lost on the 20th orbit; and on the 21st orbit, a short circuit left the automatic stabilization and control system without power.  John Glenn, aboard the tracking ship, helped Cooper prepare a revised checklist for retrofire.  The carbon dioxide level was also rising in the cabin and in Cooper's spacesuit.  Despite these blips, the Mercury program had forfilled all of its goals and plans for a Mercuiry-Atlas 10 launch with Alan Shepard were scrapped as preparations were made to start Gemini.

Birthday Greetings:  Tauri born this day include Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), whose Turkish Embassy Letters described her travels to the Ottoman Empire as the wife of the British ambassador, and who also introduced smallpox innoculation to England; Levi Lincoln, Sr. (1749-1820), Thomas Jefferson's first attorney-general, who advised Jefferson on the Louisiana Purchase; Exakial Hart (1770-1843), Canadian businessman and politician, who became the first Jew elected to public office in the British Empire, and who cause wuite a flapddodle when he took the oath of office swearing on a Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) instead of on a Christian Bible; Debendranath Tagore 1817-1905), Indian philospher, religious reformer, and writer, the father of Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore;  Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916), Russian zoologist and co-winner (with Paul Erhlich) of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering work in immunology; Victor Vasnetsov (1848-1926), Russian artist considered a founder of the Russian folklorist and romantic nationalist painting some of his work can be viewed on his Wikipedia page  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Vasnetsov); L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), the Oz guy; Williamina Fleming (1857-1911), American astronomer, who devised a common designation system for stars and cataloged over 10,000 stars, 59 gaseous nebulae, more than 310 variable stars, and ten novae; Pierre Curie (1859-1906), husband of Marie Curie, and a pretty smart guy in his own right; Paul Probst (1869-1945), Swiss traget shooting who won a gold medal in the 1900 Oympics with the Military pistol team for Switzerland; Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980), author of Ship of Fools and many acclaimed short stories; Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), author of The Master and Margarita and Heart of a Dog; Prescott Bush (1895-1972), banker and politician, father of President George H. W. Bush and Grandfather of President George W. Bush, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and also the grandfather of Neil Bush, but let's not talk about him; Ida Rhodes (1900-1986), American mathematician and computing pioneer in the analysis of systems of programmibng; Richard J. Daley (1902-1976), Chicago mayor and "the last of the big city bosses"; Clifton Fadiman (1904-1999), American author, editor, and radio and television personality, whose idea it was to publish Robert Ripley's Believe or Not! newsper cartoon into book form, who arranged for the first English-language translation of Felix Salter's Bambi, and who hosted the popular guiz show Information Please!; Joseph Cotton (1905-1994), actor and member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre; James Mason (1909-1984), one of my favorite actors; Constance Cummings (1928-1999), acclaimed stage and film actress who will remain forever in my heart as Harroet Vane in Busman's Honeymoon; Turk Broda (1914-1972), Canadian ice hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs, 1935-1951 (with time out for WWII), and named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Playersin History and the first goaltender to reach 300 wins; Paul Samuelson (1915-2009), Nobel Prize-winning economist; Eddy Arnold (1918-2008), country music singer and guitarist who sold more than 85 million records. who's biggest hit was "Make the World Go Away"; Richard Avedon (1923-2004), fashion and portrait photographer; Anthon (1926-2001) and Peter (1926-2016), playwrights, Anthony wrote Sleuth and the screenplay for The Wicker Man, Peter wrote The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Equus, and Amadeus, together (as "Peter Anthony") they wrote mystery novels; Jasper Johns (b. 1930). American painter, sculptor, and printmaker (Michael Crichton wrote a book about him); Ken Venturi (1931-2013), golfer and sportscaster who won 14 events on the PGA Tour; Utah Phillips (1935-2008), folksinger and activist, a card carrying member of the IWW; Paul Zindel (1935-2003), playwright and novelist, author of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-

Moon Marigolds, The Pigman, and My Darling, My Hamburger; Madleine Albright (1937-2022), former U.S. Secretary of State; Trini Lopez (1937-2020), singer who covered "If I Had a Hammer," and made it big with "Lemon Tree"; Nancy Garden (1938-2014), children's and young adult author of the lesbian novel Annie on My Mind (she lived one town over from my home town); Roger Ailes (1940-2017), Fox News Chairman, CEO, and dirtbag; Lainie Kazan (b. 1940), actress (My Favorite Year, My Big Fat Greek Wedding; understudy for Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl); Jaxon (Jack Edward Jackson, 1941-2006), underground cartoonist and founder of Rip Off Press; K. T. Oslin (1942-2020), country music singer; Freddie Perrin (1943-2004), song writer and record producer who co-wrote and co-produced "Boogie Fever," "I Will Survive," and "Shake Your Groove Thing"; Jerry Quarry (1945-1999), American boxer whose overall record was 53-9-4, with 32 KOs, whose most famous bouts were against Muhammad Ali, and who suffered a severe case of dimesia pugislitica late in his career; Brian Eno (b. 1948), British musician and composer, one of popular music's most influential artists; Kathleen Sebelius (b. 1948), former Kansas Governor and HHS Secretary; George Brett (b. 1953), third baseman for the Kansas City Royals fro 21 seasons; Mike Oldfield (b. 1953), British musician and songwriter, whose debut album Tubular Bells provided mucis for the film The Exorcist; Dan Patrick (b. 1957) co-host of Football Night in America and anchor of ESPN's SportsCenter; Meg Gardiner (b. 1957), thriller writer and author of the Evan Delany novels and the Jo Beckett series; Ruth Marcus (b. 1958), journalist with The Washington Post since 1984, currently Deputy Editorial Page Editor and Op-Ed columnist; Lauren Hillebrand (b. 1967), author of Seabiscuit:  An American Legend; Ahmet Zappa (b. 1974), American musician and author, son of Frank; David Krumholtz (b. 1978), he played Charlie Eppes in Numb3rs; Zara Tindal (b. 1981), British equestrian and Olympian, daught of Anne, Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips, and 20th in line for the throne; Jamie-Lynn Sigler (b. 1981), Meadow Soprano on The Sopranos; and Chase Hudson (b. 2002), also known as "Huddy," Tik-Tok music influencer (Is that really a thing?  Not in my geezer neighborhood).

National Chocolate Chip Day:  They're not just for cookies.  Here's 30 recipes to tempt you.

https://www.purewow.com/food/chocolate-chip-dessert-recipes

Early Pogo:  Here's an early example of Walt Kelly's Pogo Possum and Albert Alligator, from back in the days of Bumbazine, the little boy who lived at the edge of the swamp.  From such crude beginnings genius was born.

Animal Comics #1 (December 1942):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N1eh84uz-6H3Rvr5pRWedO53rM9Cm5_p/view

Florida Man:

•  Florida Man Zachery Waldo was on trial for manslaughter when he went out to lunch and did not return.  Waldo was accused of causing the deaths of three people when the pickup truck he was driving crashed into a passenger car on December 25, 2019.  Waldo took his extended lunch break in March; police caught up him two weeks ago.
• Florida Man and Dentist Eddie Orobitg, 52, was arrested for allegedly bludgeoning Dr. Joseph Civak at Harbor Hills Golf Club in Lake County.  The argument started as Civak and his wife were takling a walk along the gold cart path.  Orobitg, who is known as a dentist with a "light touch," told police that the fracus had started with Civak attacking him.Civak suffered a fractured cheekbone, broken ribs, and a ripped earlobe.Florida gold courses may be a breeding ground for vilence.  At the Cleveland Heights Golf Course in Lakeland, where fists started flying and feet started kicking during a scuffle.  No word on what caused the fight but video is making its rounds non the internet.  And, earlier this year, police chased a Florida Man through the Orange Blossom Hills Golf and Cpountry Clib after the man, Jessie Webb, 29, stole a Community Watch vehicle after reportedly running around and shouting that people were trying to eat his brain.  After zipping through the golf club, the chase lead police through town un til Webb crashed the SUV into the side of a retirement home.  The country club reported several thousands of dollars worth of damages.
• Florida Man Dave Hughes, 70,  entered and won a woman's poker tournament at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.  Eighty-two of the eighty-three competitors were women.  Hughes was allowed to enter because anti-discrimination laws prevent Florida casinos from baning men from entering a woman's tournament.  Hughes defeated Dayanna Ciabaton to win a tot6al of $5.500 in the World Series of Poker Ladies' event, which has a $10,000 buy-in, although women get a 90% discount in the hopes of preventing males to compete.
• Florida Man David Knight, 60, a professor at the Florida Institute of Technol;ogy in Melbourne, has resigned following his arrest for lewd and lascivious behavior,  aggravated stalking of a child under 16, and disorderly conduct.  Allegedly, Knight would follow young girls while pushing a shopping cart in Walmart, take photos of them from behind, and then would walk to a corner of the store and "touch himself."  Knight admitted to the behavior and told deputies that he had been doing this for over one year.  
• In Gainesville, an unidetified 54-year-old Florida Man stole a Cadallac hearse frpm a funeral home and then crashed it.  Multiple vehicles were involved in the crash but there were no serious injuries.
• Florida Man Michael Barr was spotted by Volusia Sheriff's officers driving a SUV reportedly stolen in Kissimmee.  Barr had gotten off at a Volusia County exit because he was trying to get a wi-fi connection.  As police chased him, Barr jumped out of the moving vehicle, which crashed into a building.  Police located him at a nearby motel, where they found he had a gun in his possession.  Barr is being held without bail in a facility that also has no wi-fi connection for him/

Good News:

•  Canadian family turns old school into hydroponic farm, proving fresh vegetables for the whole town      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/canadian-family-turns-old-school-into-hydroponic-farm-growing-fresh-veggies-even-in-winter-for-the-whole-town/
• Practicing and listening to music can slow cognitive decline in healthy seniors by producing more gray matter      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/practicing-and-listening-to-music-can-slow-cognitive-decline-in-healthy-seniors-by-producing-more-gray-matter/
• Greece makes hundreds of beaches accessible to wheelchairs by providing self-operating ramps into the water      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/greece-makes-hundreds-of-beaches-accessible-to-wheelchairs-with-self-operating-ramps-into-the-water/
• First of its kind brain surgery on baby inside the womb has successfully prevented heart failure      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/first-of-its-kind-brain-surgery-on-baby-inside-the-womb-has-successfully-prevented-heart-failure/
• Formerly homeless hero stops baby carriage moments before it rolls into traffic      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/formerly-homeless-hero-stops-runaway-baby-stroller-moments-before-it-rolls-into-traffic/
• Mars rover discovers liquid salt water on the Red Planet for the first time      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/mars-rover-discovers-liquid-salt-water-on-the-red-planet-for-the-first-time/

Today's Poem:

Apatosaurus

A huge reptile

With tree trunk legs

And a l o n g  neck

Stomps slowly

Across the plains

Low growing plants

Are swallowed

And a long, slender tail

Sways above the grass.

-- "Fae"

(Today is National Dinosaur Day)