BITS & PIECES

Openers:  Miss Pickerell was trying to think of a name for her cow when she heard the telephone ring.

I can't imagine why I've been so neglectful,"  she said to herself as she walked across the bif farmhouse kitchen to the telephone that hung on the wall near the sink.  "Every animal should have a name."

Pumpkins, her large black cat, followed her to the telephone, meowing his agreement.  He jumped up on the high windowsill next to the sink, pushed down two school books and three sheets of lined paper that were lying there, and rolled himself into a comfortable ball.

"Oh, dear," Miss Pickerell sighed.  "Will children never learn to pick up after themselves?"  For an instant she regretted ever having asked her seven nieces and nephews to come an visit her.  She was glad they were out on a picnic this morning.  The house was much more peaceful without them.

The telephone rang again.  Miss Pickerell gave up her idea about putting the books and papers away and answered it.

-- Miss Pickerell Meets Mr. H.U.M. by Ellen MacGregor and Dora Pantell, 1974.

I have made no secret of my fondness for Miss Lavinia Pickerell, the heroine of seventeen charming juveniles published between 1951 and 1986.  The series was created by Ellen MacGregor, who wrote the first four books before passing away in 1954, leaving behind many notes for further books.  The publisher, McGraw Hill, was not able to find someone suitable for continuing the series until ten years later, when they settled on educator Dora Pantell.  Pantell used MacGregor's notes to pen eleven more adventures of the plucky spinster -- all published with Pantell listed as the co-author.  Pantell went on to write two additional books before the series ended.

Miss Pickerell lives on Square Toe farm, locate on Square Toe Mountain, overlooking Square Toe City (part of Square Toe County).   Her best friend and constant companion is her beloved, pampered cow, who has gone nameless for the first seven or eight books in the series.  The cow will soon be given the name Nancy Agatha.  I was sad to see the cow given a name; part of the charm of the series was having Miss Pickerell's best friend (the cow) having no name.  Que sera sera.

In the first book co-authored by Pantell, Miss Pickerell was given a cat, named Pumpkins, which was short for "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pumpkins," a mnemonic for remembering the names of the planets in the solar system from the sun outward (this was back in the days before Pluto was demoted).  Later in the series, Miss Pickerell would also add a dog, Sampson, to the household.  Love and respect for animals and for all of nature is a common theme throughout the series.

Each book in the series also concerns a different scientific area, from space flight to arctic exploration, from energy issues to evolution.  Each topic is carefully researched and painlessly inserted into the books.  In Miss Pickerell Meets Mr. H.U.M. the themes are computers and artificial intelligence (somewhat prescient for 1974).

H.U.M. (Highest Universal Monitor) is a giant computer installed by the Governor to run the state efficiently.  H.U.M.'s edicts are affecting the people of Square Toe City.  Moonburgers are no longer allowed at Mr. Rugby's diner.  Every house in the city must be painted brown.  Miss Pickerell can no longer have mail delivered because she does not have an official index card.  Worst of all, H.U.M. has just decreed that nobody in Square Toe County can own more than one animals!  What will happen to Miss Pickerell's beloved cow and cat?  And to all the other pets in the neighborhood?  Clearly it's time for Miss Pickerell to take action.  And no one takes action better than quiet and demure Miss Pickerell.

The older I get, the more I keep going back to many of the books and series I read as a kid...Miss Pickerell, Oz, Danny Dunn, Tom Swift, The Three Investigators, Tom Corbett, Rick Brant.  It's not senility (I hope); it's just plain fun.

Incoming:

• James Lee Burke, Another Kind of Eden.  A Holland Family novel.  "The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise:  golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals.  Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding the rails for book inspiration and odd jobs.  Jumping off in Denver, he finds work on a farm and meets Joanne McDuffy, an articulate and fierce college student and gifted painter.  Their soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne's involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult.  When a sinister businessman and his son, who wield their influence through vicious cruelty, set their sights on Aaron and draw him into an investigation of grotesque murders, it is clear that this idyllic landscape harbors tremendous power -- and evil.  Followed by a mysterious shrouded figure who might not be human, Aaron will have to face down all these foes to save the life of the woman he loves, and his own."
• Christopher Golden, Mutant Empire, Volume 2:  Sanctuary.  X-Men tie-in novel, the second ion a trilogy.   "Magneto, the X-Men's oldest, deadliest for, has taken over the entire island of Manhattan and declared it a haven for mutants.  ruled by Magneto and his Acolytes, enforced by reprogrammed Sentinels -- giant, powerful robots -- this is the first step to Magneto's ultimate goal of world domination:  the Mutant League.  Now only the X-Men stand between Magneto and that goal.  But the road to victory will not be an easy one, as half the X-Men are trapped in space -- and mutants from all over the world are flocking to Manhattan and taking Magneto's side against the X-Men!"  Golden, best known for his supernatural thrillers, is also an accomplished tie-in and comic book writer.
• Arthur Maling, Schroeder's Game.  A Brock Potter suspense novel.  "Brock Potter of the brokerage firm of Price, Potter and Petacque was having a weekly Monday-morning staff meeting -- an exceptionally lively one, discussing among other things, the market's performance for the preceding week and the rumor that the Citizens Bank of Northern California was overextended and that the Justice Department was preparing an antitrust suit against Federated Office Equipment -- when his telephone rang.  His secretary knew he didn't want to be disturbed during a meeting, but when he answered the phone she said, 'Mr. Petacque would like to see you in his office.'   'Tell Mr. Petacque I will see him later,' Potter said and put the phone down.  The phone rang again.  It was Potter's partner Mark Price.  'You get your fucking ass into Tom' office this minute,' he shouted, and hung up.  When Potter for to Petacques' office he knew at once something was very serious.  'Go ahead,' Mark Price said to Petacque.  'Tell him.'  "I've decided to sell my interest in the business,' Petacque said.  'You and Mark have first option.  Do you want it?   You have forty-eight hours to make up your minds.' "  Then the murders began...
• D. R. Meredith, The Sheriff and the Panhandle Murders.  A Charles Matthews mystery, the first in a series.   "Sheriff Charles Timothy Matthews was glad to leave the stress and sprawl of Dallas, and some unpleasant memories, for the quiet of Carroll, a small West Texas town.  Nestled deep in the heart of the Panhandle, a day's drive from the big city Matthews left behind, Crawford County hadn't seen anyone murdered in cold blood for more than 80 years.  And if the sheriff's wish came true, that peace would continue when he took over his new post.  As he settles into the job, the annual Frontier Days are drawing near;  Sheriff Matthews is expecting come rowdiness but no real trouble.  Both he and the entire town are stunned when a shiftless good ol' boy and a pretty teen-age Mexican girl  are found brutally murdered less than 24 hours before the eve of the festivities.  Stern, meticulous, uncompromising,  Matthews narrows down the suspects and finds a surprising amount of information in a town where secrets are hard to keep."
• Rick Ollerman & Gregory Shepard, editors, The Stark House Anthology.  Celebrating 25 years of one of the best small publishing houses anywhere (yes, I said anywhere), this beauty collects 30 stories from writers well-known and really-should-be well-known.  If there is a list of must-buy books of 2025, this anthology will be on it.  Check out this lineup:  Charles Runyon, Peter Rabe (with a story never before in print), Wade Miller, James McKimmey, Jean Potts, Lionel White, Jada M. Davis (a previously unpublished novel), Dan J. Marlowe, Stephen Marlowe (with a Chester Drum story), Frank Kane (with a Johnny Liddell story), Henry Kane (with a Peter Chambers story), Orrie Hitt (with the only short story he ever published(, Harry Whittington (with a Pat Raffigan story), Gil Brewer, Day Keene, Helen Neilson, Lorenz Heller (writing as "Frederick Lorenz), Ed Gorman, Bill Pronzini, Fletcher Flora. Fredric Brown, Rick Ollerman, Gregory Shepard, Timothy J. Lockhart, Robert W. Chambers and E. Philips Oppenheim (names from the distant past), A. S. Fleishman, Robert Silverberg, Barry N. Malzberg, and Bruno Fischer.  If you haven't done so, buy this book now!...I'll wait.  And, no, thanking me isn't really necessary.
• "James Rollins" (James Czajkowski, who also writes as "James Clemens"), The Last Oracle.  The sixth book in the Sigma Force series (Book #18 is scheduled for August publication).  "In Washington, D.C., a homeless man takes an assassin's bullet and dies in Commander Gray Pierce's arms.  A bloody coin clutched in the dead man's hand -- an ancient relic that can be traced back to the Greek Oracle of Delphi -- is the key to a conspiracy that dates back to the Cold War and threatens the very foundation of humanity.  For what if it were possible to bioengineer the next great prophet -- a new Buddha, Muhammed, or even Jesus?  Would this Second Coming be a boon...or would it initiate a chain reaction that would result in the extinction of humankind?  Vital seconds are ticking rapidly away as Pierce races across the globe in search of answers, one step ahead of ruthless killers determined the reclaim the priceless artifact.  Suddenly the future of all things is balanced on the brink between heaven and hell -- and salvation or destruction rests in the hands of remarkable children"
• Charles Stross, The Fuller Memorandum, The Jennifer Morgue, and The Rhesus Chart.  Three novels in the Laundry Files series of Lovecraftian fantasy thrillers.  In Fuller, "Computational demonologist Bob Howard is taking a much-needed break from the field to catch up on his filing in the Laundry archives when a top secret dossier known as the Fuller Memorandum vanishes -- along with his boss, who the agency's executives believe stole the file.  Determined to discover exactly what the memorandum contained (and perhaps clear his boss), Bob runs afoul of Russian agents, ancient demons, and the apostles of a hideous faith who have plans to raise a very unpleasant undead entity known as the Eater of Souls.  Now Bob must use all of his skills to learn the secret of the Fuller Memorandum in order to save the world -- and avoid becoming an item of the Eater of Souls's dinner menu..."  In Jennifer, "Ruthless software billionaire Ellis Billington has unearthed a device that will enable him, to raise an eldritch horror, code-named 'JENNIFER MORGUE,' from the ocean's depths for the purpose of ruling the world.  Thwarting his devious plan is a job for the Laundry,  And since James Bond doesn't work for the Laundry, it's up to Bob Howard, geekish demonology hacker extraordinaire.  His mission is to inveigle his way aboard Billington's yacht and stop him, while fending off the beautiful but deadly Ramona Random, an American agent with her own agenda..."  And in Rhesus, "As a newly appointed junior manager within the Laundry -- the clandestine organization responsible for protecting Britain against supernatural threats -- Bob Howard is expected to show some initiative to help the agency battle the forces of darkness.  But shining a light on what's best left in the shadows is the last thing Bob wants to do -- especially when those shadows hide an occult parasite spreading a deadly virus.  Traders employed by a merchant bank in London are showing signs of infection -- an array of unusual symptoms such as super-strength and speed, an uncanny talent for mind control, an extreme allergic reaction to sunlight, and an unquenchable thirst for blood.  while his department is tangled up in bureaucratic red tape (and Buffy reruns) debating how to stop the rash of vampirism, Bob digs deeper into the bank's history -- only to uncover a blood-curdling conspiracy between men and monsters..."
• F. Paul Wilson, A Compendium of F, Volume One:  The Seventies and the Eighties, Volume two:  The Nineties, and Volume Three:  2000 and Beyond.  A massive three-volume collection of Wilson's stories, with new introductions.  I have read most of the stories in other collections, but Wilson's introductions are not to be missed.  Also, Other Sandbozes:  Stories with Characters and Places Shared with Writers Living and Dead.  "Pastiche...sounds like something you might eat...but the official definition is 'an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.'  A pastiche can be respectful or can descend to parody."  There are a lot of authors who influenced Wilson and some of them are lovingly covered in these stories, including H. P. Lovecraft, Mary W. Shelley, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sax Rohmer, Dashiell Hammett, and Arthur Conan  Doyle.  And, The Upwell, a horror novel, Book One of The Hidden.  (Pre-ordered; due to be published next week.)   There was a problem with the cremation of Pam Sirman's husband's cremation.  His body would not burn.  "Pam is one of three lives that will be drawn together by the apocalypse of the Upwelling.  The other two are Chan and Danni, but their worlds are already in chaos.  A few weeks ago, a fierce storm accompanied by an upwelling from the Atlantic abyssal plain tore into Atlantic City.  When it receded, the city and its 25,000 inhabitants were gone without a trace.  Chan and Danni remember being in the city on that day, but the ten hours in which the Upwelling occurred have been wiped from their memories."

Hammacher Schlemmer:  Last week Jack needed a routine blood test, so I went along with Christina and Jack because one of the few simple joys in my life is embarrassing Jack.  in the waiting room -- lo! and behold -- was a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog.. I had not seen one in ages.  Indeed, I forgot they even existed.  But exist they do, still pushing the "best" *their word), the "unique" (their word), and the "unexpected" (their word) in totally unnecessary (my word), overpriced items for more than 175 years.  What a revelation!  Everything you never needed at prices you will never pay -- all laid out in 56 pages! Naturally, I had to point a number of super cool items to Jack in my loudest voice.  To wit:

• The Giant Inflatable Bumper Ball.  A 51" inflatable rubber sphere in which you can stick a kid --age 6 or older, and weighing up to 143 pounds -- inside and roll him or her down a hill.  (How exactly did they get at that 143 pound limit, one wonders.  What if somebody is retaining a little bit of water that day?)  What fun!.  Watch out for cars, trees, and cement walls at the bottom of the hill.  For only $99.95
• The Cicada Blocking Canopy.  What it is is mosquito netting, but cicadas are due to take over the world this year so why not use them as a marketing ploy.  Blocks flying insect like cicadas while providing safe and odorless protection from mosquitoes and other pests.  It'll fit over umbrellas 7' high and 11" diameter.  You think that won't give you much room inside, but wait!  It comes with a bottom PCV ring that can be filled with water or sand so you can enlarge the interior.  Somewhat.  All yours for just $49.95.
• The 100' Illuminated Backyard Zip Line.  Perfect if you have a backyard with two strong trees just 100 feet apart.   This one has an integrated seat with 30 LEDs for nighttime rides.  (What is an "integrated seat" you ask?  Don't ask.  Just don't.)  Includes mounting hardware, back-up safety cable, and detailed instructions.   One part of the detailed instruction is be sure that eon end of the zip line is higher than the other so you can actually zip.  Supports up to 200 pounds.  A steal at $249.95.  
• The 50 Gallon Collapsible Rain Barrel.  It folds.  Just in case you want to collapse your rain.  Only $89.95.
• The Patriotic Lightshow Bunting.  56' in length.  Illuminates a porch or backyard with red, white, and blue lightshows, providing eight different lightshows, including flashing, fading, solid colors, and drive your neighbor crazy.  Comprised of 242 LEDs  rated for 100,000 hours.  You can even show your support for the January 6th insurrection by hanging it up side down.  This bit of patriotism will only cost you $59.95.
• The 7' Sprinklesaurus.  Just what it says.  Be the first to get your homeowner's association mad.  Just $99.95.  For the same price you can get as a unicorn, but I don't think that will be as much fun.  And rather than huffing and puffing until you trun lue and pass out, there's a Quick Fill Electric Air Pump for only $29.95.
• The Breathable Insect Repelling Shirt.  I'm really not sure how this works but it's made of nontoxic permathrim (no idea what that is).  I'm sure you can repel insects by printing things on the shirt like, "Hey, bugs!  You have no friends and your mother dresses you funny!"  whether for men or women, the shirt is only $49.95.  The men's is available in Navy or Heather gray; the women's in Slate Blue or Raspberry.
• The Illuminated Ear Wax Cleaner.  Something nobody wants.  It has an integrated 3mp 1980 x 1980 camera that can be hooked up to a smartphone or tablet so you can see the earwax as you clean your ears.  (Dear God in Heaven, why?)  It comes with eight different silicon tips so I guess you can invite seven of your besties over for a party.  Just 79.95.
• The Best Nose Hair Trimmer.  Needs one AA battery (not included).  Jack will be turning twelve in a week or so, so I'm trying to convince him that he needs this because once puberty hits, the nose hairs start growing prodigiously.  (Of course they don't, but what does he know?)  I haven't fully convinced him of the need for this time but I'm working on it.  Only $29.95.
• The Hot Tub Boat.  It's a boat AND it's a hot tub!  How cool is that?  This one was featured on the cover of the catalog.  How can you live without this?  Especially for the low price of $125,000.00.
• The Six Minute Laser Hair Regrowth Therapy Cap.  Is you masculinity (or femininity) threatens by thinning hair?  Fret not!  "This is the baseball cap that rejuvenates hair by stimulating follicles with laser light technology.  It uses the same Photobiomodulation Therapy (PBMT) that has long been demonstrated  to be an effective treatment for hereditary hair loss."  It has 82 medical-grade lasers that zap your scalp.  One size fits most.  A steal at $799.95.  For really difficult cases, you can get it with 272 medical-grade lasers for $2,400.00.

There are so many great things in this catalog.  There's a string you can attach to a door for you cat to bat at ($39.95).  There's a musical plush five foot long caterpillar that plays "The Alphabet Song" or "Twinkle Twinkle" (%59.95).  There's 10X hands free binoculars that strap around your head, but you have to use you hands to adjust them or take them off or else you will be bumping into things ($69.95).  And there's a torture device posture correcting neuroband shirt that makes you stand up straight whether you want to or not ($99.95).

So many thing you can loudly read off to your grandchild while in public.

Is this a great country, or what?

R.I.P., Kinkster:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FSWm67IhDU

Dialing:  What would happen if one of today's whippersnappers got caught in a time loop and was transferred back to 1927?  For one thing, their phones would not work and they would go into severe withdrawal.  But fear not, young whippersnapper.  You CAN learn to use a dial telephone!

Just follow these simple instructions from Ma Bell.  (If said young whippersnapper was thrust back to a time before 1927, they'd have to do it the old fashioned:  Getting hold of Bessie, the local operator, and asking her to put you through to Mrs. Richardson (or whoever), knowing full well that /Bessie will be listening in your call for any juicy gossip.  But in 1927, dial phones came into being.  Like magic.  And as you can see, they were so simple to use...

https://archive.org/details/HowtoUse1927

Francois-Jean Lefebvre de la Barre:  Hell has no fury like religious intolerance in 1766 France.   Just ask Francois-Jean de la Barre.  Oh wait.  You can't.  That's because the twenty-year-old was tortured and beheaded, his body then burned on a pyre with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso.  His crime? reputedly not saluting a Catholic religious precession.  It happened on this day 254 years ago in Abbeville, Somme, Picardy, France. 

Catholicism was the state religion in France.  In July of the previous year, a wooden crucifix on a bridge in Abbeville was vandalized -- an act that caused shock and anger among the townspeople..  The vandals went unknown despite pleas of the Bishop of Amiens for persons with any knowledge of the act to come forward to the local authorities, on pain of excommunication.  No one came forward, but a local judge who had previously had arguments with la Barre, a rowdy young nobleman with the title of Chevalier (but he was also an orphan and from outside Abbeville), gathered evidence that seemed to implicate la Barre and several other young men -- not realizing that one of the accused would be the judge's own son.   La Barre's group supposedly had done other heresies, including defecating on another crucifix, singing impious songs, and spitting on religious images.

It came out that la Barre and two others had not removed their hats wen a Corpus Christi procession went by.. This was the icing on the cake and supposedly the main reason charges were brought.  Most of la Barre's group (the sons of two former mayors and the son of the judge) managed to flee the area; la Barre did not.   A search of la Barre's bedroom revealed a number of pornographic prohibited books, as well as a copy of the Voltaire tome, which provided an excuse to blame Voltaire's work on the young men's misbehavior.  (One sign of rampant intolerance through the ages is to blame books; any point in my comparing this with today's Christian Nationalist environment would be gratuitous).

La Barre was tried by a secular court and found guilty, a foregone conclusion considering the influence of the Church.  There may have been some feeble attempts to sentence him to life in prison, but non-cooler heads prevailed and he was executed.

The sentencing minced no words:  La Barre was "convicted of having taught to sing and sung impious, execrable and blasphemous songs against God; and having profaned the sign of the cross in making blessings accompanied by foul words which modesty does not permit repeating: of having knowingly refused the signs of respect to the Holy Sacrament carried in precession by the priory of Saint-Pierre; of having shown these signs of adoration to foul and abominable books that he had in his room; of having profaned the mystery of the consecration of wine, having mocked it, in pronouncing the impure terms mentioned in the trial record over a glass of wine which he held in his hand and then drunken the wine; of having finally proposed to Petignat, who was serving mass with him, to bless the cruets while pronouncing the impure words mentioned in the trial record.

"In reparation of which we condemn him to make honorable amend, in smock, head bare, and a rope around his neck, holding in his hands a burning candle of two pounds before the principal door of the royal church...of Saint-Wulfram, where he will be taken in a tumbrel by the executioner who will attach before and behind him a sign on which will be written, in large letters impious one; and there, being on his knees, will confess his crimes...this done, will have the tongue cut out and then will be taken in the said tumbrel to the public marketplace of this city to have his head cut off on a scaffold; his body and his head will then be thrown on a pyre to be destroyed, burnt, reduced to ashes and these thrown to the wind.  We order that before the execution of said Lefebvre de la Barre the ordinary and the extraordinary question [that is, torture] will be applied to have from his mouth the truth of several facts of the trial and revelation about his accomplices...We order that the Philosophical Dictionary...be thrown by the executioner on the same pyre as the body of the said Lefebvre de la Barre."

These guys did not fool around.

Today, Francois-Jean Lefebvre de la Barre is honored as a symbol of Catholic religious intolerance.  There is a statue to la Barre at the summit of the Butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city of Paris. 

Despite torture, la Barre did not name any accomplices.

Something to Remember:  "If you don't think every day is a good day, just try missing one."  Cavett Robert

Birthdays:  Birthday people today include my sister Linda; I miss her laughter and her kindness every day.

Also, Liu Ji (courtesy name Liu Bowen, 1311-1375, Chinese military strategist whose prophecies have led him to be known as the "Divine Chinese Nostradamus"); Peter Street (1553-1609, British carpenter and builder, who may have built the Globe Theatre -- we do know he built the Fortune Playhouse); Joseph Hall (1574-1656, British bishop and moralist, known as "England's Senaca"); Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1645-1716, revered German polymath who invented calculus and who made major contributions to physics and technology, and led to advances in probability theory, biology, medicine, geology, psychology, linguistics, and computer science); Acharya Bhikshu (1726-1803, Jain saint, the founder of the Svetambara Terapanth sect of Jainism); Charles Gordon Greene (1804-1886. American journalist who founded the Boston Post in 1831; the Post, which ceased publication in 1956, was one of the major publications of its time; in 1839, the first printed appearance of the phrase "OK" appeared in the the newspaper; many older New Englanders can give you the history of the "Boston Post Cane"); "George Sand" (pen name of French novelist Amantine Lucille Aurore Dupi9n de Franceiul, 1804-1876. one of the most popular writers of her time in Europe; she was a notable writer of the European Romantic era [some 70novels]; she was also notable for her romances with novelist Jules Sandeau, Russian prince Norbert Przanowski, Prosper Merimee, Alfred de Musset, Charles Didier, and Frederick Chopin, among others); Thomas Green Clemson (1807-1888, founder of Clemson University); Ygnacio Ramon de Jesus del Valle (1808-1880, Californio ranchero who owned much of Santa Clarita Valley and briefly served as mayor of Los Angeles); Florence Earle Coates (1850-1927, popular American poet and women's rights advocate; her poem "Poetry" reads, "One spot of green, watered by hidden streams,/Makes summer in the desert where it gleams;/And mortals, gazing on thy heavenly face,/Forget the woes of earth, and share thy dreams!");  De Lancey W. Gill (1859-1940, American painter and photographer; some of his paintings are here:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_by_De_Lancey_W._Gill; some of his photographs are here:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photographs_by_De_Lancey_W._Gill); William Grant Stairs (1863-1892, Canadian-American explorer and adventurer who took part in two of the most controversial expeditions in the notorious "Scramble for Africa"; William Strunk, Jr. (1869-1946, author The Elements of Style [1918], later revised by E. B. White as Strunk & White's The Elements of Style [1959]; Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weill (1875-1976, noted con man, reputed to have bilked over $8 million in his career); James M. Cain (1892-1977, author of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and many other novels); Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993, musician and Christian evangelist; he wrote "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" and "Peace in the Valley"); Charlkes Laughton (1899-1982, British American actor, known for Mutiny on the Bounty, Ruggles of Red Gap, Jamaica Inn, The Canterville Ghost, and Witness for the Prosecution'; he also directed The Night of the Hunter.

Also, Irna Phillips (1901-1973, American scriptwriter who created The Guiding Light and As the World Turns); William Wyler (1902-1981, German-born American film director who won Oscars for Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur; he also directed Dodsworth, Wuthering Heights, The Little Foxes, Detective Story, Roman Holiday, and Friendly Persuasion, among other classic films); Estee Lauder (1908-2004, cosmetics lady); David Brower (1912-2000, environmentalist and founder of the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, Friends of the Earth, and Earth Island Institute, and who served as the first Executive Director of the Sierra Club); Willie Dixon (1915-1992, American bluesman; here's "I Just Want to Make Love To You":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHVkxFOMx2Y); Cletus Elwood "Boots" Poffenberger (1916-1999, American baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and the Brooklyn Dodgers; his off-field antics caused him problems with team management; the Christopher Lloyd character in the television series Tremors was named for him; Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020, British and American film star, older sister of Joan Fontaine; her first of five Oscar nominations was for portraying Melanie Hamilton in Gone With the Wind); Iosif Shklovsky (1916-1985; Soviet astronomer and astrophysicist; his 1962 book on extraterrestrial life was revised, expanded, and co-authored by Carl Sagan in 1966 as Intelligent Life in the Universe); Ralph Young (1918-2008, one half of the singing duo Sandler and Young; here they are on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQQUrwQ4cOw); Toshijuki (Harold) Sakata (1920-1982, American Olympic weightlifter, professional wrestle, and actor; of course you recognize him -- he's Oddjob from Goldfinger); Michalina Wislocka (1921=2005. Polish gynecologist and sexologist; her 1978 book Sztuka kolchania [A Practical Guide to Marital Bliss] was the first guide to sexual life in a communist country); Toshi Seeger (1922-2013, American filmmaker, activist, and wife of Pete, co-founder of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and of the Clearwater Festival; the Hudson River is a hell of a lot cleaner now thanks to their efforts); "Scotty" Bowers (1023-2019, American sex trafficker and pimp, active from 1948 to 1980 in procuring prostitutes for Hollywood industry insiders; he famously refused to be embarrassed by sex; Raymond Burr once said, "Scotty just likes to make people happy."); Florence Stanley (1924-2003, who played /Abe Vigoda's wife on Barney Miller and Fish); Farley Granger (1925-2011, American actor, perhaps best known for Alfred Hitchcock's Rope); Art McNally (1925-2023, American football executive and referee who became the first NFL game official to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame); Carl Hahn (1926-2023, German business man and head of the Volkswagon Group from 1982 to 1993, during which he increased production from two million units to 3.5 million); Nobel Prize winner Robert Fogel (1926-2013, an American economic historian and scientist who espoused cliometrics -- the use of quantitative economic methods in history); Gerald Edelman (1929-2014, who won a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in discovering the structure of antibody molecules, which has led to the discovery of cell adhesion molecules and advances in adaptive immunity); Leslie Caron (b. 1931, French and American actress who shined brightly in Daddy Long Legs, Gigi, and Father Goose);l Jamie Farr (b. 1934, Corporal Klinger); Jean Marsh (b. 1934, British actress in Upstairs, Downstairs and presenter of public television's International Animation Festival; she has appeared several times on Doctor Who);  Sydney Pollack (1934-2008, film director of Out of Africa, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and Tootsie); James Cotton (1935-2017, American blues harmonica player; here he is with "Cotton Crop Blues" from 1954:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7rzCpaJRuI); Wally Amos (b. 1936, who made some "Famous" cookies (sometimes they would serve them to Christina after she donated blood, which made her happy); Karen Black (1939-2013, American actress who appeared in some 200 films, including Five Easy Pieces, Nashville, and Burnt Offerings); Alfred G. Gilman (1941=2021, another Nobel Prize laureate, this time in Physiology for "discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells"); Twyla Tharp (b. 1941, dancer and choreographer who founded Twyla Tharp Dance, which merged with the American Ballet Theatre in 1988; she has won more awards than you can shake a stick at); Genevieve Bujold (b. 1942, Canadian actress known for Anne of a Thousand Days, The Trojan Women, Swashbuckler, Coma, Murder by Decree, and Deadringers; she had originally been sign to play Captain Janeway in Star Trek:  Voyager, but dropped out, leaving the role to Kate Mulgrew; actress Taina Elg once confused my daughter Christina with Genevieve Bujold, but since Christina was a teenager at the time, she did not realize what a compliment that was); Andrae Crouch (1942-2015, "the father of American gospel music"; here's one of this signature songs:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RZTYDPavEY ); Debbie Harry (b. 1945, lead singer of Blondie; here's "Heart of Glass":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxU); David Duke (b. 1950, white supremacist, former grand wizard of the  Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and waste of protoplasm); Trevor Eve (b. 1951, English actor, eponymous star of the detective show Shoestring and former star of Waking the Dead); Anne Feeney (1951-2021, folk musician, activist, and lawyer; her anthem for civil disobedience was "Have You Been to Jail for Justice?":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwCtKlM9dI); Dan Ackroyd (b. 1952, he may not have been ready for prime time, but he was one wild and crazy guy); not only was he a Blues Brother, but he introduced us to the Bass-o-matic); Keith Whitley (1954-1989, country music singer who sadly died of alcoholism at age 34; here he is singing "Don't Close Your Eyes":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rF_jr4RGe0); Li Keqiang (1955-2023, premiere of china from 2013-2023; he was in charge of the government's Covid-19 pandemic response);

Lisa Scottoline (b. 55, American author of legal thrillers, author of 30 bestselling novels, with 30 million copies in prints; she has won two Edgar awards and her books have been translated into 30 languages); Alan Ruck (b. 1956, American actor, known for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Spin City, and Succession; he played USS Enterprise captain Jonathan Harriman in Star Trek Generations); Carl Lewis (b. 1961, track and field athlete who won ten Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and ten World Championship medals, including eight gold); Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997, the "People's Princess"); Andre Braugher (1962-2023, American actor whose television roles included Frank Pembleton on Homicide:  Life on the Streets and Raymond holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine; a man of great talent, warmth, and kindness); Pamela Anderson (b. 1967, Playboy made and Baywatch and Home Improvement actress, and animal rights activist; a sex tape she had made with then husband Tommy Lee had been stolen and aired in the internet, resulting in a controversial law suit); Missy Elliot (b. 1971, four-time Grammy winning hip-hop and rap artist; sadly, i would not know any of her songs if they hit me over the head); Liv Tyler (b. 1977, daughter of musician Steven Tyler and adopted daughter of Todd Rundgren; actress who played the elf  Arwen Undomiel in the Lord of the Rings trilogy; in 2003 she became a spokesperson for Givenchy perfume and cosmetics; a couple of years later, thy named a rose for her); Savvy (for Savannah) Shields (b. 1995, Miss America 2017; her talent was a jazz dance performance to "They just Keep Moving the Line"); and Storm Reid (b. 2003, American actress who played Meg Murray in 2018's A Wrinkle in Time and has been featured in films Don't Let Go,  Invisible Man, Missing, and The Nun II; this year she won a Black Reel Award and a Primetime Emmy Award for a role in The Last of Us.

Ha!:   I had to throw away my toaster because it keep burning the bread.  Turns out I'm black 

toast intolerant.

Florida Man:

• Florida Man Dennis Winn, 72, of Lake County has been arrested for shooting a Walmart delivery drone with a 9mm pistol.  Further details are unavailable, but haven't most of us been tempted to do something similar?  Yet it had to be a Florida Man who took action.
• Florida Man Blake Robinson, 27, got a bit more than he was asking for.  Robinson allegedly tried to steal the truck of a 66-year-old Brevard County man.  The victim saw what has happening and went inside his home to phone the authorities.  Sadly for Robinson, the victim could not find his phone so he went back outside to confront Robinson.  That's when Robinson supposed punched the unnamed victim in the head, throwing him to the ground, where he began kicking the victim in the head.  Evidently this irritated the victim, who got up and began to retaliate, resulting in Robinson "getting his butt whipped," according to police.  Rnbinson received little sympathy from Broward County sheriff Wayne Ivey.  "You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes," Ivey said.  The prizes Robinson got were "a chauffeured ride to a local medical facility to check his injuries before arriving at his less than luxurious accommodations at 'Ivey's Iron Bar Lodge'!  At the Lodge he was given a freshly washed two-piece ensemble to get comfortable in before being shown to his sleeping area inj our open floor plan."
• Florida Woman Melissa Barnes, 22, of Hillsborough County, has been accused of putting bleach in her 13-month-old daughter's baby bottle inside the shed they lived in together.  A "concerned relative" founf that the pair were living in a "cold, cluttered, and unsanitary" shed without electricity so she took the baby in her care.  When she tried to give the baby a bottle, the baby refused it.  The woman then discovered the bottle contained bleach.  Barnes claimed she was using the bleach to clean the bottle.  On May 28, the sheriff's office obtained arrest warrants for Barnes on charges of child abuse and child neglect.  the child's relative was promptly given custody of the young child.
•  This past Thursday, an unnamed Florida Man was killed while trimming palm trees in Hudson while using an elevated bucket.  Caution was not used and the victim evidently was electrocuted while coming into contact with nearby power lines.  "I heard all these electrical explosions, like a transformer" according to a neighbor.  "look across the street and see these big balls of sparks come down."  According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, the incident caused power in the area to go down temporarily.
• Florida Man Salem Seleiman, 28, was arrested on a warrant on May 10, becoming the sixth man arrested in a brutal on-camera attack on a Jewish man in Times Square nearly three years before.  The attack occurred during clashes between Jewish and Palestinian protesters in Midtown.  Seleiman was allegedly part of a group who hurled 'antisemitic slurs like 'dirty Jew,' 'filthy Jew,' and 'f-k Israel' at victim Joseph Borgen, who was wearing a yarmulke.  According to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, as good Samaritans tried to intervene in the beating, Seleiman pretended to offer to help Borgan -- only to then unload a kick in his face as he lay on the ground.  Five other attackers have already been convicted and sentenced in their role in the case.
• Florida Man Javontee Brice, 28, of Bradenton, murdered his mother and two other women he knew in separate locations before he was sot and killed in a gunfight with deputies hundreds of miles away.  Authorities said he killed the women Monday night in Manatee County before heading to Georgia to confront an ex-girlfriend when he was stopped by deputies from Hamilton County.  "Hr came pout of the car shooting at deputies," according to Manatee Country Sheriff Rick Wells.  In addition to Brice's mother, the victims were Brice's cousin and a female partner of another of Brice's ex-girlfriends.

Good News:

• Just check out this cutie.       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/endangered-bairds-tapir-calf-born-at-san-diego-zoo-delights-visitors-look/
• Over the lips, through the gums...50 years later, here it comes.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/metal-detectorist-finds-farmers-rolex-50-years-after-eaten-by-a-cow/
• In a world first, a brain implant controls epilepsy.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/uk-boy-has-brain-implant-fitted-to-control-epilepsy-seizures-in-world-first/
• discovery hints at compassion in early humans.       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/fossil-of-neanderthal-child-with-downs-syndrome-hints-at-early-humans-compassion/
• the largest ever pardon of US cannibis convictions.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/maryland-governor-issues-nations-largest-ever-pardon-of-cannabis-convictions-with-175k-people-receiving-clemency/
• New tech revives "unusable" organs.       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-tech-revives-unusable-organs-10-successful-transplants-used-kidneys-that-are-normally-discarded/
• $4 thrift store vase was made ny ancient Mayans.       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/diligent-woman-discovers-thrift-store-vase-she-bought-for-4-made-by-ancient-mayans-delivers-it-to-mexico-immediately/
• Device can rewire your brain to ignore tinnitus.       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/tongue-zapping-device-can-rewire-your-brain-to-ignore-tinnitus/

• Today's Poem:

Black Friday Poetry Sale

Here's an offer

on Romantic poetry

that won't cost you

the Earth:

BYRON GET ONE FREE

if you want your

Wordsworth.

-- (found on the internet)