BITS & PIECES

Openers:   Tony Quinn stirred restlessly in his sleep as a man's form moved silently across the room.  The intruder was in a hurry, but he made not the slightest sound.  Moonlight brought him into relief for a moment, showing him to be about forty with a high, bald forehead, pointed, narrow nose and a small mouth.  While there was nothing sinister or evil looking about him, he did exude one specific quality -- that of being slippery.

He touched the sleeping man's shoulder and shook him slightly.  In a flash Tony Quinn was awake.  His brain\oriented himself immediately and one hand darted beneath his pillow to come forth with a .38 automatic.

"Wait, sir," the intruder whispered.  "I'm doing you a great favor.  Hear me out -- please."

"Go ahead,"  Tony quinn said softly.  "Explain what you're doing in the house of the District Attorney."

"Are you the D.A.?" the intruder gasped.  then, without waiting for an answer, he went on.  "That settles a lot of things.  I'm not the only man in this house, sir.  There's another, searching the rooms, and he's carrying a gun.  Oh, I admit I came here to rob, but I don't relish being made a part of murder, sir!"

"In the closet with you," Quinn said quickly.  "Close the door and make no sound.  If you're telling the truth, you won't be sorry.  If this should be a trick, I'll riddle that closet with slugs."

-- Brand of the Black Bat by "G. Wayman Jones" (Norman A. Daniels) (from Black Book Detective, July 1939; reprinted in The Black Bat Omnibus, Volume 1, 2010, as by Daniels)

Tony Quinn, a.k.a. the Black Bat, pulp-heroed his way through Black Book Detective magazine for 62 adventures from 1939 to 1953.  At least 55 of the Black Bat stories were penned by creator Norman Daniels, three were written by Laurence Donovan, one by Norvell Page, and two remain uncredited, although it is believed that Whitney Ellsworth write one of them; the final Black Bat story in Black Book Detective was written by Prentice Mitchell under his "Stewart Sterling" pen name.  Three previously unpublished Black Bat tales (including one by Mitchell) appeared from 1999 to 2001 in small press magazines edited by Tom Johnson, who also added an additional seven Black Bat stories from 1995 to 1999.  J. Michael Major and Wayne Skivener added one story each to the saga in 2000 and 2007. 

As a crusading District Attorney, Quinn has made some powerful enemies in  the underworld.  The robber who first encountered Quinn in The Brand of the Black Bat is Silk Norton, who reforms himself and becomes Quinn's body guard.  Norton was not enough to protect Quinn in the next chapter, in which Quinn is blinded by acid, supposedly for life.  But Quinn's sight slowly come back.  He decides to continue the facade of being a blind public official, while donning a black costume and hood to become the crime-fighting nemesis of evil -- the Black Bat!

Daniels created the character of Ned Pines' Thrilling Group of magazines.  Daniels had originally called the character the Tiger, but editor Leo Margulies wanted a name that would resonate with the title of the magazine in which he would appear:  thus, the Black Bat.  The stories were published under the house name G. Wayman Jones to indicate that the Thrilling Group owned the character (the name had also been used for stories about the Phantom Detective, Mr. Death, Johnnie Wells,  and others).   In 1942, a new editor (an unnamed female) replace Margulies as editor of the series, and she insisted on more sex and adult content to the stories, something that made Daniels somewhat uncomfortable, so Laurence Donovan was brought in to write some of the stories.

The early Black Bat stories featured organized crime, super criminals, foreign agents, and Nazi threats.  Later stories descended into ordinary crime, drug activity, juvenile gangs. prostitution, and long-ago crimes coning back to read their heads; interesting stuff, perhaps, but a far cry from Daniels' original vision.

Incoming:

• Marvin Albert, Rider from Wind River.  Western.  "Yesterday he was just another cowboy.  now he was a wanted man -- wanted for murder!  A man has been killed for a bag of gold nuggets, and posters tacked all over the southern Wyoming Territory said Joe Land was the murderer.  To clear his name, Lang had to bring back alive Ed Stone of the Stone gang, one of the most vicious, bloodthirsty gangs in the West.  Through the foothills and saloon of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming he tracked the outlaws, through stagecoach holdups, saloon brawls, and pistol whippings.  Finally, in Oregon, and with the aid of a beautiful woman who wanted him to use her as bait, Lang set the final trap of blazing gunfire to take his man alive, and send the others straight to hell."  Also, as by Marvin H. Albert, Dual at Diablo (originally Apache Uprising).  Movie tie-in edition.  "It was mean country, mean and demanding and crawling with enraged Apaches.  And Jess /Romberg was in the middle of it when he found the corpse staked out, spread-eagled on the sand hill.  The man had been burned alive -- and it had taken a long time.  'They'll pay for it,' Jess swore.  'They'll scream to be killed before I've finished with them' "  the film was also co-written by Albert and starred a post-Maverick James Garner, Sidney Poitier, Bibi Andersson, and Dennis Weaver.  Albert was a prolific writer of mysteries, western, and film tie-ins, with occasional; jaunts into adventure and thriller territory, and was one of a handful of dependable latter-Gold Medal paperback writers.  He's always fun to read.  I also picked up a third western by Albert, published under his "Al Conroy" pseudonym (q.v.).
• Anonymous editor, Great Tales of Terror.  An "instant remainder" anthology, actually a reprint of the combined two editions of H. Douglas Thomson's 1936 anthology The Great Book of Thrillers, printing 41 of the 52 stories that were in the combined original editions, and allowing me to finally read all the stories that were in the combined two editions.  (I had previously read only the second edition which dropped six or the 50 stories while added two to the first edition.  Confused?  So am I.) 
• C. J. Box, Nowhere to Run.  A Joe Pickett novel; this is the tenth of (currently) twenty-four. Joe Pickett adventures.   "It's Joe Pickett's last week as temporary game warden in the mountains of Baggs, Wyoming, but his conscience won't let him leave without checking out the strange reports coming from the wilderness:  camps looted, tents slashed, elk butchered.  Not to mention the Olympic hopeful who had been training in the region and the just...vanished.  What awaits him is like something out of an old campfire tale, except this story is all too real -- and all too deadly,  Joe thought he was saddling up for his last patrol.  If only he'd known how true that might turn out to be..."
• Erskine Caldwell, Claudelle Inglish.  "Southern" sensational novel by the best-selling author of Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre.  ""Word got around quickly when the shy, 18-year-old daughter of a dirt-poor sharecropper suddenly turned into the most willing girl in town.  But the price was his -- and not always in money.  sometimes it was a broken marriage, a wrecked career, a ruined reputation -- or even life itself."  Caldwell's formula of detailing poverty, racism, and social conditions in the deep South brought him fame and millions of readers from the 1930s through the 1950s.  He published 25 novels, 150 short stories, twelve nonfiction collections, two autobiographies, and two books for young children, and edited the 28-volume American 
  Folkways series of nonfiction books.  Paperback editions of his books often sold in the millions.
• Andrea Camilleri, The Voice of the Violin.  An Inspector Montalbano mystery. involving (as did three previous ones) violins.  ""Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately set him on a search for her killer.  among the suspects are her ageing husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; and antiques-dealing lover from Bolgnia; and the victim's friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate.  but it is a mysterious, reclusive violinist who holds the key to this murder..."  Translated by Stephen Sartarelli.  Montalbano, the focus of 28 novels and nine short story collections, has become popular worldwide and was the subject of an Italian television series (fifteen seasons, 1999-2021) starring Luca Zingaretti, and of a prequel series, The Young Montalbano, two seasons, 2012-2015) starring Michele Riondino.
• Tim Cockney, Backstabber.  Mystery novel featuring undertaker  Hitchcock Sewell.  "Trouble is on the way when the corpse isn't even cold and Hitch is already on the scene -- before the police.  The apparent murderer, and Hitch's supposed friend , wants Hitch to scoop out the body and dump it in an unmarked grave.  Hitch declines the invitation, but the police still want answers that Hitch can't provide.  Meanwhile, across town, unsavory doings at a local nursing home have piqued Hitch's interest when an elderly friend residing there takes a swift turn for the worse.  Pursued as a potential conspirator in one murder while attempting to sort out the facts of the suspicious nursing home death, Hitch barely has time to work his day job.  But he does.  And nobody turns the turf with more wit and charm than Hitchcock Sewell.  Aided by his ever-lovely ex-wife Julia, his sly Aunt Billie, and a big blonde backup singer, Hitch again makes the dark arts of crime fighting and interment a joy to behold."  The first book in this series, The Hearse You Came In On, was nominated for a Dilys Award, while the third book, The Hearse Case Scenario, won a Lefty Award from the Left Coast Crime Association.
• "Al Conroy" (Marvin H. Albert), Last Train to Bannock.  A Clayburn western.  "Wagon train.  The trail from Parrish City to Bannock was the deadliest stretch in the West., plagued by man-hunting Apache raids, crippling blizzards, and gold-hungry white men hired to kill.  Any man who led a train on this trail gambled with his life against losing odds.  Clayburn was willing to take that gamble -- for the sake of a woman and for revenge."  This was the second of four westerns about Clayburn, all of which were later reprinted under albert's name.  The last book in the series was also filmed as Rough Night in Jericho, with a script co-written by Albert.
• John Farris, The Captors.  Crime thriller/psychological horror novel.  " 'Kidnappers are frequently complex devious people,' the detective had warned her.  But that wasn't the half of it.  what began as a routine kidnapping would end in much more -- sins of unspeakable evil and terrifying violence,  Who are these strangely sinister captors and who is their wickedly erotic victim  What has been happening to this strange young girl, and what has produced this nerve-fraying nightmare of sheer electric terror?"  When Farris is good, he is very, very good.
• Alan Dean Foster, Star Trek:  Into Darkness.  Film novelization.
• Donald Hamilton, Mad River.  Western.  "Boyd Cohoon -- cowman, jailbird, knife fighter, came home to Mad River.  Waiting for him was a girl.  A her father paid him to stay away, Cahoon saw the relief in her eyes.  there was her brother, who had dome the crime for which Cohoon had gone to prison.  Cohoon saw the hatred in his eyes.  The mine owner who had gotten rich off Cohoon's land gave him a smile and slapped him on the back.  Cohoon saw the deceit in his eyes.  There was the sheriff. they had been boys together.  Cohoon saw the suspicion in his eyes.  There was also the Mad River country.  Boyd Cohoon knew it like he knew the blade of his knife."  amilton is best-known for his Matt Helm books.
• Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, with Tim Waggoner, Ghost Trackers.  The first (of two) in a series by the stars of the reality (cough** cough**) series Ghost Hunters ("Wait!  What was that?  Did you hear that?"  "Whoa! Did something just move over there?"  "Can you hear me?  Do you want to communicate with me?"  Jump start.  Jump start.), fleshed out by horror, fantasy, and tie-in writer Waggoner.  "For fifteen years, Amber, Drew, and Trevor have barely been able to recall -- let alone explain -- what happened the terrifying night they decided to explore the old, abandoned Lowry House.  According to local legend, the house was cursed by a dark past and inhabited by evil.  It burst into flames on the night of their visit, leaving the friends traumatized and nearly dead with only vague memories if the frightening events they had witnessed inside.  Now, on the eve of their high school reunion, they have gathered to reopen their investigation and figure out, once and for all, what took place that fateful night...before the supernatural entity they escaped threatens to overtake them again."  Oh, those plucky kids...
• Douglas Hill & Pat Williams, The Supernatural.  Nonfiction.  According to Tuck, "About half devoted to history and current practices of magic and witchcraft, and half to discussion of supernatural beings believed to inhabit darkness, history of spiritualism, and coverage of cults and factions."  Fodder for thems that believes, bushwah for the rest of us.  Hill was a prolific author of science fiction and fantasy for both young readers and adults.  This was the first of thirteen nonfiction books by Hill, five of which explored the supernatural in one way or another.
• Fritz Leiber, The Black Gondolier & Other Stories, Day Dark, Night Bright, Smoke Ghost & Other Apparitions, and Horrible Imaginings.  Four collections of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories by one of the greatest writers of our time.  A total of 71 stories, many of them quite rare.  Yummy!
• Ellen MacGregor, Miss Pickerell and the Geiger Counter.  Now that I have completed my read of the Jay Williams & Raymond Abrashkin Danny Dunn I thought I would start to catch up on another favorite juvenile science fiction series.  the Miss Pickerell books are aimed at a younger audience than the Danny Dunn books, but they also depend heavily on accurate science of the time.  If you are not familiar with the character, Miss Pickerell is a take-no-nonsense spinster who travels with her unnamed cow.  In Geiger Counter (1953), the second in the series, While "on route to the State Capitol, to see a veterinarian with her sick cow, Miss Pickerell discovers a new source of uranium."  Miss Pickerell Goes to the Arctic (1954) was the fourth in the series, and was published shortly after the author's sudden death.  (The series was continued eleven years later by Dora Pantell, who based the books on notes that MacGregor had left before her death; the next eleven books in the series were published with Pantell listed as co-author, and the final two books in the series were released as by Pantell alone.)  Arctic involves "a lost weather-study expedition, a new snowmobile trailer she wants for her cow, [and] her niece and nephew who are ham radio operators."  I wish I had had a relative like Miss Pickerell when I was growing up, although I did have a cow when I was young (her name was Lucky), but she could not hold a candle to Miss Pickerell's unnamed bovine. 
• "Barbara Michaels"  (Barbara Mertz, aka "Elizabeth Peters), Ammie, Come Home.  Gothicky thriller with possible supernatural elements.   "Until Ruth Bennett's attractive young niece, Sara, came to live with her, the elegant old house in Georgetown was just what it appeared to be:  a charming, graceful relic of a bygone era.  Then a strange chill began to envelop the house,  Something cold and evil seemed to possess it.  Everyone they cared about -- every moment of their lives -- was now brushed by the tentacles of this unseen horror.  Sara was the first to be touched.  Something had wrapped itself around her mind, and she was no longer Sara.  What was it?  Where was it hiding?  What did it want?  They had to find out before it grew strong enough to destroy them all..."
• "Kit Reed" (Lillian Hyde Craig, or Lilian Craig Reed, name later legally changed to Kit Reed), Tiger Rag.  Literary thriller.  "Buried within the shell of Dorothea Randall, wife and mother, is the former Dopey Cutter, tomboy and lone wolf.  Behind the white gloves, proper marriage, and the proprieties of a small town is the daughter of long gone Merle Cutter, the bad woman from out of town.  Dorothea reads about the murder of her childhood friend, Richard Thrall, and the mystery of his death opens up the mystery of her life:  Merle waiting for the big romantic break; Guy Lufkin, Merle's lover, a town power but secretly tied to his mother; Dopey shut in a bedroom at Guy Lufkin's; Merle's disappearance and Dopey's life with Lady and Sailor, the cheerful drunks who take her in; poor Richard; and Bill Randall, whom she marries.  Her tiger is in the past; her passion is the truth.  Her rage is to put it all together and to fit into a town that will not admit her past, or its own."  That author was a massive, underrated talent.
• "Kenneth Robeson" (Laurence Donovan this time), The Black Spot.  The 41st Doc Savage adventure, first published in Doc Savage magazine, July 1936; number 76 in the Bantam paperback reprints.  "The murder party.  All the guests were dressed as gangsters but their millionaire host was dead in the library with a black spot over his heart,  Then the black spot struck again.  And again.  THE MAN OF BRONZE and his courageous crew leap into action against Jingles Sporado and his mob but they soon suspect a peril greater than any they have ever confronted."   Gotta love that name, Jingles Sporado.  Donovan, who had begun writing for the pulp in the 20s, had been hired by Street & Smith editor John Nanovic to alternate writing the Doc Savage novels with Lester Dent; he also created Captain John Fury for The Skipper, launched The Whisperer, and ghosted Pete Rice novels for Wild West Weekly.  He wrote nine Doc Savage novels before falling out with Nanovic in an alcohol-laden argument; Donovan's problems with alcohol were legendary..  He then moved to Thrilling Publications, where he ghosted the adventures of The Phantom Detective, and -- eventually -- most of Thrilling's other heroes.  Three of Donovan's Doc Savage novels were adapted as early Superman comic book stories; I don't now which ones.  
• Kate Wilhelm, Clear and Convincing Proof.  A Barbara Holloway mystery.  "The Kelso/McIvey rehab center is a place of hope and healing for its patients -- and for the dedicated staff who volunteer there.  But David McIvey, a brilliant surgeon whose ego rivals his skill with a scalpel, wants to change all that.  His plan to close the clinic and replace it with a massive new surgery center -- with himself at the helm -- means that the rehab center will be forced to close its doors.  Since he is poised to desecrate the dreams of so many, it's not surprising to anyone, especially Oregon lawyer Barbara Holloway, that somebody dares to stop him in cold blood.  When David McIvey is murdered outside the clinic's doors early one morning, Barbara once again uses her razor-sharp instincts and take-no-prisoners attitude to create a defense for the two members of the clinic who stand accused.  And in her most perplexing case yet, Barbara is forced to explore the darkest places where people can hide --- the soul beneath the skin."  Wilhelm wrote fourteen novels about Barbara Holloway, as well as six novels and at least seven short stories  about private detective Charlie Meiklejohn and psychologist Constance Leidl.  Her science fiction and relater work garnered her two Hugo Awards, three Nebula Awards, two Locus Awards, and a Jupiter Award.  A talent extraordinaire.

The Gardner Art Heist:  Thirty-four years ago today, the largest art theft in U.S. history took place at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston,  Twelve works of art, collectively worth some $5,000, 000 were stolen   The actual number of pieces stolen may have been thirteen -- in question is a small self-portrait etching of Rembrandt, which may have been invented by the FBI as an investigative technique.  There is currently a $10,000,000 reward for the missing pieces, with a separate $100,000 reward for the return of an eagle finial that once stood upon a flag in Napoleon's army.

I've included photos of the missing artworks in the link below.  So...

If you happen find any of these sitting in your attic or in a spare room, or if you run across one at a garage sale, you know what to do.

https://www.livescience.com/51808-photos-paintings-stolen-from-gardner-museum.html

An Irish Joke, In Honor of Yesterday:  An Irishman was not feeling up to snuff so he went to the doctor.  After an examination, the doctor said, "Well, Paddy, the problem is with your heart, but if you take these pills, I think you'll be okay."  "Do I have to take them every day?" Paddy asked.  "No." the doctor said, "Take one on Monday, skip the Tuesday, then take oe on Wednesday and skip the Thursday, and just continue on like that."

A couple of weeks later, while on the way to the pub, the doctor ran into Paddy's wife.  "Tell me, Mrs. Murphy, how's Paddy doing?" he inquired.

"I'm sorry to say he's dead,' she told him.

"What?"  the doctor was surprised.  "Hadn't he been taking the pills I gave him?

"Oh, he took them, no problem," she said.  "It was the bloody skipping that killed him."

And You Can Save This One for the Ides of Marsh, 1025:  Julius Caesar walks into a bar and says, "Give me a martinus."  The bartender says, "Don't you mean martini?"  Caesar says, "Look if I wanted a double, I'd have said so."

Chuck Berry:  It's been seven years since he left us.  A man of great talent and showmanship whose personal life was marred by allegations of physical and sexual abuse and voyeurism.  But his songs were great.

Johnny B. Goode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf4rxCB4lys

No Particular Place to Go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaT5JplqDbk

Memphis Tennessee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrbPlr4Wskc

Mayballene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPc5BqwF5NA

Route 66:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg2EbJy-9dc

You Never Can Tell:

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

Roll Over Beethoven:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sagmwSY-ZEY

Too Much Monkey Business:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b2w_nJLuvw

Rock'n' Roll Music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_F1mmC3Nhg

Carol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MC9CRL1cX4&list=PLbqlYXEyLVwbxXGGQzVk3ANdKekp_vEQZ&index=4

Sweet Little Sixteen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx-HaJ7V9ao&list=PLbqlYXEyLVwbxXGGQzVk3ANdKekp_vEQZ&index=7

 

Birthday Fishes:  Three years ago, NOAA released this video on Fish Life History:  An Important Role in Fisheries Management:

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/outreach-materials/fish-life-history-important-role-fisheries-management 

Birthday Wishes:  Check out these Pisces, who are intuitive, intense, enigmatic, empathetic, and are passionate and manifest their desires with ease., although somehow I don't think these qualities apply to all who share this birthday.

Al-Zamakhshari (1075-1144), Persian scholar and theologian, whose book Al-Kashshaf (begun in 1132) linguistically analyzed Quranic expressions; Mary Tudor, Queen of France (1495-1533), fifth child of Henry VII and third wife of Louis XII (Louis, who was thirty years older than his 18-year-old bride, was determined to have a male heir, but died some three months after the marriage, reportedly from his exertions in the bedchamber -- but more likely from gout); Adam Eisheimer (1578-1610), who, despite dying at a relatively early age, was very influential in the field of Baroque paintings (view some of his paintings here:  https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/e/elsheime/); Jerome le Royer de la Dauversiere (1597-1659), who founded the Societe Notre-Dame de Montreal in 1639. it was dissolved in 1663 after constant attack by Iroquois and lack of support from Quebec; Madame de La Fayette (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) (1634-1693), French author of La Princesse de Cleves (1678), the first historical novel published in that country and one of the earliest novels in literature; Phillipe de La Hire (1640-1718), French painter, mathematician, astronomer,  architect, and all-around smart guy, among other things, he helped map France by extending the Paris meridian to the north, and proposed what are now known as the Amontons' laws of friction; Niclas Sahlgren (1701-1776), , co-founder of the Swedish East India Company; Christoph Friedrich Nicholai (1733-1811), German writer who like to consider himself the spiritual heir to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and who wrote Freuden des jungen Werthers, a satire on Goethe's Werther, and Anekdoten vom Konig Friedrich II. von Pruessen, about the court of Frederick II the Great; John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), the seventh Vice President of the Unite States, serving under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, Calhoun was a fierce defender of white Southern beliefs and practices, he lost the 1844 Democratic nomination for president to James K. Polk, Calhoun married his first cousin once removed, he was said to be "intensely serious and severe, he could never write a love poem, though he often tried, because every line began with 'whereas'..."; Harriet Smithson (1800-1854), Shakespearean actress and the first wife and muse of composer Hector Berlioz; Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, a bachelor when he began his presidency and a number of political opponents tried to brand him with profligacy, calling him "Grover the Rover," he married his wife, the 21-year-old daughter of a late friend, when he was nearly fifty, their eldest child, Ruth, who died of diphtheria when she was twelve, lives on in the name of the Baby Ruth candy bar; Wiliam Cosmo Monkhouse (1840-1901), poet and art critic who once wrote "There once was an old man of Lyme/Who married three wives at a time/When asked, 'Why a third?'/He replied, 'One's absurd!/ And bigamy, sir, is a crime!' "; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1903), Russian composer who wrote a lot of music besides "Flight of the Bumblebee"; Kicking Bear (1845-1904), Oglala Lakota tribal leader who was active in the Ghost Dance religious movement of 1890, he was the first cousin of Crazy Horse, to his shame he joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in 1891, leaving after a year; Rudolph Diesel (1858-1913), inventor of the titular engine; Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), British Prime Minster whose policy of appeasement encouraged Adolph Hitler; Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), American mystic and psychic, known as the "Sleeping Prophet", his clients included Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Edison, George Gershwin, and Irving Berlin, inexplicably, he still has followers to this day -- or perhaps explicably, because there's one born every minute; Bernard Cronin (1884-1968), English-Australian writer and editor who published science fiction under the name "Eric North," and edited one nonfiction crime book by Arthur W, Upfield about the Murchison Murders; Edward Everett Horton (1886-1970), American character actor and narrator of Fractured Fairy Tales for The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show; Wilfred Owen (1893-1918(, English poet and soldier, known for his moving poems about the First World War, many of which were published after his death, Owen was killed in action exactly one week (almost to the hour) before the signing of the Armistice which ended the war.

Manly P. Hall (1901-1990), Canadian mystic and author, founder of the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, a complete woo-woo, IMHO; E. O. Plauen (1903-1944), German cartoonist who created the comic strip Vater und Sohn (1934-1937; 157 episodes), he was arrested for expressing anti-Nazi opinions in 1944, he committed suicide in his cell the day before his trial was scheduled to begin; Robert Donat (1905-1958), English actor, the star of The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Ernest Gallo (1909-2007), the "E." in E. and J. Gallo Winery of Modesto, California, here's a commercial for their wine:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5nNv29ne3g; C. Walter Hodges (1909-2004), English children's book illustrator, winner of the Greenway Medal in 1964 for Shakespeare's Theatre; smiley Burnett (1911-1967), western sidekick to Gene and Roy and many other B-movie stars, and a regular on television's Petticoat Junction, he was also a songwriter (over 400 songs), and an inventor; Art Gilmore (1912-2010), radio and television announce for (on radio) Amos 'n' Andy and (on television) Highway Patrol, The George Gobel Show, and The Red Skelton Show; Rene Clermont (1913-1996), French film director and screenwriter, known for Purple Noon, Is Paris Burning?, and others; Richard Condon (1915-1996), author of The Manchurian Candidate and Prizzi's Honor, among others; Fred Shuttlesworth (1922-2011), American civil rights leader, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he not only talked the talk, he walked the walk; Andy Granatelli (1923-2014). American auto racing personality and CEO of STP, he was believed to have attended every Indianapolis 500, whether as a participant or as a spectator, from 1946 to 2012, his autobiography was titles They Call Me Mister 500; Peter Graves (1926-2010), Jim Phelps from Mission:  Impossible, he also starred in Fury, Whiplash, Court Martial, and hosted the A&E series Biography, and played Captain Clarence Oveur in the first two Airplane! films; George Plimpton (1927-2003), patrician-sounding writer, often about sports, his best-selling book Paper Lion was about his experiences playing for the Detroit Lions, he served as the first editor of the literary magazine The Paris Review; Lillian Vernon (1927-2015), founder of the Lillian Vernon Corporation, which continues to sell all sorts of gewgaws, it was the first company founded by a woman to be publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange; John Updike (1932-2009), a major American writer, one of only four to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, he wrote Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit at Rest, and "Rabbit Remembered", as well as The Witches of Eastwick and the Bech books; Charlie Pride (1934-2020), country singer with 52 Top Ten songs on the Billboard Hot country Songs chart -- 30 of which made it to Number One; F. W. de Klerk (1936-2021), the last president of the white-minority rule in south Africa, he dismantled that country's apartheid policies, although his earlier support of apartheid and racial segregation helps muddy his reputation; Carl Gottlieb (b. 1938), actor and screenwriter, he co-authored the script for Jaws; Wilson Pickett (1941-2006), he sang "In the Midnight Hour," "Land of 1000 Dances," "Mustang Sally," "Funky Broadway." "Hey Joe," and "Mama Told Me Not to Come"; Brad Dourif (b. 1950), the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play franchise; Ben Cohen (b. 1951) , ice cream guru and philanthropist, co-founder of Ben and Jerry's; Will Durst (b. 1952), political satirist, "Men are superior to women.  For one thing, men can urinate from a speeding car."; Deborah Jeane Palfrey (1956-2008), the "D.C. Madam," she operated the escort agency Pamela Martin  and Associates, which catered to many influential clients, many of whom have never been publicly named; Luc Besson (b. 1959), French film maker, he directed The Messenger:  The Story of Joan of Arc, The Fifth Element, Lucy, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets; Irene Cara (1959-2022), who sang her was to Fame; Thomas Ian Griffin (b. 1962) actor and martial artist, known for The Karate 

kid Part III and Cobra Kai;  Vanessa Williams (b. 1963), actress, model, and singer, she was the first African-American Miss America, but was forced to resign when nude photographs of her were published in Penthouse, 32 years later she was given a public apology during the Miss America 2016 pageant; she has received eleven Grammy nominations, three Emmy nominations, a Tony Award nomination, seven NAACP Image Awards, and four Satellite Awards, she is a strong supporter of LGBT rights and same sex marriage, has partnered with Dress for Success, an organization which provides professional clothing for low-income women seeking employment, and is involved with a school for boys at risk, all in all a pretty neat lady; Bonnie Blair (b. 1964). american speed skater, winner of five Olympic Gold Medals and one Bronze Medal; Queen Latifah (b. 1970), actress and singer, the first hip-hop artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she starred in the sitcom Living Single created talk show The Queen Latifah Show, had the lead in Star, and is currently the title character in the revival of The Equalizer; Reince Priebus (b. 1972), politician who served as chair of the Republican National Committee and was Donald Trump's chief of staff during the first six months of his presidency, Priebus worked hard to restore the RNC's financial footing, he openly criticized Trump while he was running for office but then bent the knee, saying Trump was a role model (three days before the Access Hollywood tape was first aired) and continued to support him thereafter, which led Trump to making Priebus his chief of staff, I find it hard to say much good about ol' Reince; and Adam Levine (b. 1975), lead vocalist for Maroon 5.

Happy birthday to all.

Florida Man:

• Naples police received several complaints from the city's Cancer Center Alliance about a man who had locked himself in a bathroom and refused to leave.  Police found 34-year-old Florida Man Frederick Lloyd Day standing over a pile of paper towel.  EMS staff arrived and took Day to a local hospital, but the hospital staff refused to admit him due to "disorderly and destructive behavior."  The police report said that Day was strapped to a stretcher during transport; he had his hands inside his basketball shorts, fondling himself.  (The police report was a bit more descriptive.)  When a paramedic told him to take his hands out of his pants, he continued fondling himself and attempted to touch the paramedic on the thigh.  Day continued to try to touch the victim.  He also removed his medical equipment and unbuckled himself from the stretcher.  So it was off to jail for Day.  While traveling there, he managed to move his handcuffed arms from his back to his front and unbuckled his seat belt.  He was charged with battery on a specified personnel.  Some medical personnel are just not paid enough.
• Transient Florida Man Scott Hannaford, 50, who gave his address as Fort Lauderdale, has been arrested for setting a rabbi's van on fire and attempting to burn the Las Olas Chabad Jewish Community Center.  Although the accused failed to set fire to the center, the burning car was able to spread the fire to the building.  Fire damage to the center was limited to the center's kitchen.  Sabbath services had to be held outside because of the smoke and soot damage.  Hannaford, whom police described as suffering mental illness and "has been trespassed from this property before."   Police characterized this as an isolated incident by a known vehicle and do NOT consider this to be a hate crime -- which raises a few questions in my mind.
• Florida Man and State Surgeon General (and pure-dee fool) Joseph Lapado is rightfully drawing flack by advising parents they are allowed to send their unvaccinated children to school.. This during a measles outbreak in Broward County and other areas.  Lapado's advice contradicts established medical advice and seriously endangers Florida's population..  Measles had been eradicated in the United States since 2000, but a recent anti-vax movement has led to a surge in cases nationwide.  Lapado previously issued guidance to evade the mRNA Covid-19 boosters based on the totally false idea that they alter DNA and can cause cancer.  According to Dr. Robert Speth, a professor of pharmaceutical science with more than four decades of research experience, "The surgeon general is Ron DeSantis's lapdog, and says whatever DeSantis wants him to say.  his statements are more political than medical  and that's a horrible disservice to the citizens of Florida.  He's somebody whose job is to protect public health, and he's doing the exact opposite."  Evidently in the Ron DeSantis/Joseph Lapado Florida, only woke people will get measles, and they deserve it.
• A Florida Man went fishing and pulled out an alligator that chased him.  cue the Benny Hill music:  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/florida-man-went-fishing-and-pulled-out-an-alligator-that-chased-him-video/ar-BB1k3pCv#

Good News:

• Broadcasting healthy reef sounds can spur degenerated coral to new life     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/broadcasting-audio-of-healthy-reef-sounds-can-spur-degraded-coral-to-new-life/
• 10-year-old raises $80,000 for pearl Harbor Memorial      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/10-year-old-raises-80000-for-pearl-harbor-memorial-after-school-project-inspires-deep-admiration/
• CAR-T cell therapy achieves near-complete tumor regression in brain cancer    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/car-t-cell-therapy-achieves-near-complete-tumor-regression-in-brain-cancer-after-five-days/
• Liverpool is building the world's largest tidal power project that could power one million homes      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/liverpool-unveils-plans-to-build-the-worlds-largest-tidal-power-project-to-power-a-million-homes/
• "Macgyvered" neck brace save rare Peruvian grasshopper     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/macgyvered-neck-brace-saves-rare-peruvian-grasshopper-no-matter-how-big-or-small-the-zookeepers-care/
• Watch firefighters rescue truck driver from semi dangling off a bridge      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/hero-firefighters-rescue-driver-trapped-in-semi-truck-dangling-off-ky-bridge-look/
• Gray whale, extinct for centuries in the Atlantic, is spotted off Cape Cod          https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/gray-whale-extinct-for-centuries-in-atlantic-is-spotted-in-cape-cod/
• Deputies rescue a five-year-old girl with autism in a Florida swamp      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/deputies-rescue-5-yo-girl-with-autism-wandering-in-a-florida-swamp-we-were-looking-for-you-sweetie/

Tomorrow's Poem, Marking the First Day of Spring:

A Light Exists in Spring

A Light exists in Spring

Not present on the Year

At any other period --

When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad

On Solitary Fields

That Science cannot overtake

But Human Nature feels

It waits upon the lawn,

It shows the furthest Tree

Upon the furthest Slope you know

It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step

Or Noons report away

Without the Formula of sound

It passes and we stay --

A quality of loss

Affecting our Content

As Trade had suddenly encroached

Upon a Sacrament.

-- Emily Dickinson