BITS & PIECES

Openers:  MONDAY:  PRINICIPAUTE de MONACO -- Victor Jenning, tanned and very fit, walked down the steps of the casino into the cool night air.  They were already bringing his blood-red Lamborghini around from the lot.  It was a new car, and Jenning was pleased with it -- Carrozzeria Touring body mounted over a 3.5-liter V-12 engine that ran smoothly at 240 kilometers an hour.  It was a hardtop, of course.  Jenning loathed driving fast in an open car -- unless he was racing -- and he had rolled enough cars to have a healthy respect for solid protection overhead.

People were gathering to admire the car as he came up to the bottom of the steps.  It was only natural; the car had never been produced prior to 1965, when old Ferrucio Lamborghini, the tractor and oil-burner tycoon, had established a limited production shop in Cento, just a few miles from Ferrari's plant in Maranello.  Three hundred Lamborghinis were made a year, so it was quite a rarity.  It had cost him $14,000.

As he made his way around the crowd, he answered their questions with smiles and a slightly bored voice, then go in  behind the wheel.  He was a jaded man, and so felt only mild pride, but it was sufficient for make him forget -- momentarily at least -- the ten thousand dollars he had just dropped that night at baccarat, in a particularly poor run of luck,

He started the engine, listening with satisfaction to the bass growl from the twin exhausts.  the crowd parted, and he reached down for the lights.  His hand flicked on the windshield wipers, and he had a twinge of embarrassment.  Damn!  It was painfully obvious that he'd owned the car for just a week.  He bent over to peer at the switches.

At that moment his windshield shattered in front of him.

Scratch One by "John Lange"  (Michael Crichton), 1967

It may be hard to find a more Ian Fleming-James Bondian opening than that.  The scene rapidly shifts from Jenning narrowly escaping an assassination attempt to various parts of the world -- Cairo, Portugal, Demark, Paris...in most a successful assassination attempt had been made; only in Paris did it fail -- there, the victim lay comatose, his head crushed.  Also in Paris, a cabal meets, upset that the attempt on Jenning had failed.  No, it seems, "the arms shipment may not be delayed."  Moreover, a very talented American assassin has been sent and will soon arrive in nice.   The cabal has then hired the world's most formidable assassin to incept and kill the American.

Enter Roger Carr, an innocent victim of mistaken identity, who finds himself 'trapped in a squeeze play involving a sadistic mastermind, a primitive killer, and exotic hook and the CIA", all of whom seem willing  to eliminate Roger.

Scratch One was the second novel written by Crichton while he was a medical student.  Eight of his early novels were published under the "John Lange" pseudonym.  His fourth novel, A Case of Need, published as by "Jeffery Hudson," won an Edgar Award for Best novel in 1969; curiously it was the one book by Crichton that I absolutely detested (your mileage may vary).  Crichton's sixth published novel, and the first to be published under his own name, was The Andromeda Strain.  From that point on, best-sellerdom, Hollywood blockbusters, and a Jurassic Park franchise followed.   His books have sold over 200 million copies world wide.  Although Crichton died in 2008, his appeal to reaers has not.  Currently a posthumous collaboration with James Patterson was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller.  The current hit movie Twisters, is the follow-up to Crichton's 1996 film Twister. 

Concerning Scratch One, Crichton wrote the book in eleven days, saying, "Any idiot should be able to write a potboiler set in Cannes and Monaco."

Incoming:  Because I am a technical Luddite, I somehow manage to erase this entire section of the post, and cannot retrieve it no matter how many goats I sacrificed to the Internet Gods.  A shame really, because I had listed about thirty really nifty books and had included my usual scintillating comments.  In brief, here's much of what I had listed.

• Lawrence Block - I went on a Lawrence Block overload this week.  I picked up Random Walk, a serial killer new age-y novel, and Passport to Peril, a suspense thriller that seems to have been marketed as a Gothicky, woman-in-peril  romance, originally published as "Anne Campbell Clark."  Also, Dead Girl Blues, Block's latest (and possibly last) standalone novel.  Wagons Ho! was a juvenile published by Whitman under the name "Trevor Cole," and Ten Heroes of the Twenties was a young adult set of biographies by sports writer and broadcaster Rex Lardner, with Block acting as a ghostwriter to complete the book -- it's not known how much of the book block actually wrote.  Also, Inherit the Dead, a round robin novel edited by Jonathan Santlofer, featuring twenty authors, including Block.  And then there are the 'non-fiction" books on sexual behavior that block penned as "John Warren Wells."  The ones I picked up were Eros and Capricorn (also published as Comparative Sex Techniques), The Taboo Breakers (also published as Your Husband, My Wife), The New Sexual Underground  (also published as Something for Everyone), Older Women and Younger Men:  The Mrs. Robinson Syndrome, Sex and the Stewardess, Tricks of the Trade:  A Hooker's Handbook, 3 Is Not a Crowd, The Male Hustler, Women Who Swing Both Ways (also published as Versatile Ladies:  The Bisexual Option), Beyond Group Sex, The Sex Therapists, Come Fly with Us, Wide Open:  The New Marriage, Love at a Tender Age, Different Strokes (a collection of sex columns from the men's magazine Swank), and Sex without Strings, Yes, that beet-red thing you see in the distance would be me, blushing.

Also, in no particular order:   High Adventure #110 (January 2010 issue of this pulp reprint magazine, edited by John Gunnison; this one includes two of the three stories Murray Leinster had written about Malay Collins, the Master Thief of the Far East); The Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis, a classic mystery; Forbidden Forest by Michael Cadnum, a novel about Little John and Robin Hood; Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders by john Mortimer, wherein Rumpole meets She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed; and Chance to Kill, Murder Most Strange, The Ringer, three more Luis Mendoza mysteries by "Dell Shannon" (Elizabeth Linington). The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller. horror novel; The First to Lie by Hank Phillippi Ryan, mystery-suspense; and Death Comes Too Late by Charles Ardai, a collection of 20 stories.

One Monkey Don't Stop the Show:  Slick McGhee, the younger brother of Brownie McGhee, wrote and recorded this sing in 1950.  Some confusion came about when other artists recorded different songs with the same title:  Big Maybelle in 1955 covered later by Bette Midler), Joe Tex in 1965 (covered later by The Animals and by Terry Knight and the Pack), the all-girl group the Honey Cone in 1971, and Little David Wilkins in 1975.  Others who recorded similarly titled songs include Hank Ballard and the Moonlights, Jesse Rogers, Gillian Welch, and Goodie Mob.  Bobby Rush recorded an "answer" song in 2021, and Earthgang used the title in the third verse of their song, "Meditate."

Here's the original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6usR4-nzZXg

Animal Sounds:  It's said that the best place to live is where you can hear birds in the morning and crickets in the evening.   Here are a few animal sounds that may or may not be familiar, courtesy of a 1954 Folkways recording of various zoo and farm animals.

https://archive.org/details/lp_sounds-of-animals-audible-communication-of_arthur-merwin-greenhall-nicholas-collias

Naughty But Mice:  It's city mouse Herman versus the champion country mouse-catching Katnip, in this 1947 Paramount cartoon.  I don't have to look far to see where Itchy and Scratchy got their thematic template.

https://archive.org/details/noveltoon_naughty_but_nice

National Toilet Paper Day:  Today we honor an item that many feel is an indispensable item of modern day living.  The modern commercially available toilet paper was introduced in the United States by Joseph Gayetty in 1857:  "The greatest necessity of the age!  Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."   Previous to 1857, it had been kind of rough sledding for much of the world.

Not so, China.  The recorded mention of toilet paper comes from about 589. even though paper had been used in china for other purposes for about eight centuries.  An Arab traveler in 851 was amazed that paper was used for cleansing themselves.  In the early 14th century ten million packages of toilet paper ( each with 1000 to 10,000 sheets) were produced annually in one section of China alone.  The imperial court of Nanjing in the Ming dynasty was recorded in 1393 to have an annual supply of 720,000 sheets of toilet paper.  Clearly, some enterprising manufacturers were cleaning up.

Elsewhere, people had to stick to the old tried and true, using  wool, lace, and hemp (if you were wealthy), or "rags, wood shavings, leaves, grass, hay, stones, sand, moss, water, snow, ferris [?], plant husks, fruit skins, seashells, or corncobs."  In ancient Rome a sponge on a stick was used, then placed in a jug of vinegar.  In the eighteenth century the rise of publishing led tot he use of newspapers and cheap editions of popular books; often the pages would be read while in the facility before being used, or so I'm given to understand -- I wasn't there.

In many parts of the world today, water is considered and cleaner and more sanitary practice than using paper.

Anyway, back to the history of toilet paper.

In 1883, Seth Wheeler, of Albany, gained the earliest patent for toilet paper and a dispenser.  In 1890. the Scott Paper company began selling toilet paper in rolls.  Manufactured toilet paper still had its risks -- as late as 1930 one company advertised a "splinter free" product.  St. Andrews Mills in England introduce a softer, 2-ply roll in 1942, which presumably helped the Brits to keep calm and carry on.  Wet wipes -- moist toilet paper -- was introduced in in the 1990s; years later it was discovered that these caused a problem with sewer lines when improperly disposed of.

Toilet paper today comes mostly from pulpwood trees, although sugar cane byproducts or bamboo may be used.   It can be colored, or festooned with designs, or perfumed with various scents.  It can be smoothed or embossed.

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY

Should toilet paper hang over or under the roll?  Although it is just a matter of habit or personal preference, I have heard some people insist to the over orientation is more sanitary, which makes absolutely no sense.  People appear vehement in their choice, as Ann Landers found out when she raised the issue in her newspaper column in 1986; she concluded that under was the obvious choice, but 15,000 readers disagreed -- more responses than for any other single topic in her career.  About 70% of Americans today say over.

TOILEGAMI

Toilegami refers to toilet paper origami the art of folding the first squares of toilet paper on the dispenser in a fashionable manner.  It is very popular in Japan.  The housecleaner that we use once every other week is a toilegami artist, whether we want her to be or not.

After typing all the above about toilet paper, I'm wiped.  Time to move on to another subject.

Other Holidays:  Today is also Women's Equality Day, which should be a given.  

Perhaps we can extend this holiday to Tuesday, November 5th.  Today is also Make Your Own Luck Day ( I would do that but I'm having a hard time finding the ingredients), National Dog Day (because they deserve it), Motorist Consideration Monday (something that's needed for many whom I encounter on Route 98), and National Cherry Popsicle Day (huzzah!).

Concerning the Photo of Tim Walz Hugging His Son at the DNC:  That's the type of person I want as my Vice President.

Krakatoa:  181 year ago saw the beginning of the final stage of the eruption of Krakatoa.  The eruption took place from May 20 to October 21, 1883, with the final eruption peaking on August 27, destroying over 70% of the island and surrounding archipelagos.  The eruption was heard 1930 miles away in Perth in one direction, and 3000 miles away near Mauritius in the other direction.  The acoustic pressure wave circled the globe more than three times.  At least 36,417 deaths can be attributed to the explosion and the ensuing tsunamis.  The eruption caused a volcanic winter with temperature drops and increased precipitation.  The sky was darkened worldwide for months.  Some people theorize that the eruption was one source for Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream," as the sky in the painting greatly resembled the reddish skies that resulted from the eruption; the theory goes that this had a great effect on Munch ten years later in 1893 when he painted the picture.

Despite the title of the 1968 flick Krakatoa, East of Java, Krakatoa is actually west of Java.

A Minor Annoyance:  Every time I go to post an item on this blog, I get a cue as to what time I wish the item to appear.  The fallback position is "12:00 AM" and I mentally begin to fume when seeing this.  There ain't such critter as 12:00 AM or 12:00 PM -- there is only 12:00 Noon and 12-:00 Midnight, dammit!  Does this bother you as much as it does me?

Happy Birthday, Otto Binder:  Otto Binder (1911-1973) was a pioneering science fiction and comic book writer.  In the science fiction field, he began writing with his brother Earl Binder, as "Eando Binder" with 'The First Martian" (Amazing Stories, October 1932).  Earl Binder soon became inactive as a writer, although he continued for a while as Otto's manager; a third brother, Jack, was an artist, working heavily in the comic book field.  From 1936 on, all work published as by Eando Binder was solely the work of Otto, including the classic stories of Adam Link, Robot and Anton York, Immortal.  

Binder began working in comic books in 1939.  While at Fawcett comics, he began writing for Captain Marvel, eventually penning 986 stories -- more than half the total output -- for the Marvel Family, co-creating Mary Marvel and other characters.  For Captain Marvel Adventures he wrote over 60 prose stories about Lieutenant Jon Jarl of the Space Patrol.  He created a number of other characters for Fawcett, including Black Adam, Mr. Mind, and Mr. Tawky Tawny.  At Timely Comics, he created Captain Wonder, The Young Allies, and Miss America, while also writing for Captain America, The Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and others.  He also worked for MLJ Comics (later Archie Comics), Quality Comics, Gold Key comics, and EC Comics.

In 1948 Otto binder began working for DC comics, where he soon made an impact on the Superman group of comics.  He introduced the Legion of Superheroes, introduced Brainiac and the bottle city of Kandor.  He co-created Supergirl, Krypto, The Phantom Zone, and supporting characters Lucy Lane, Beppo the Super Monkey, Titano the Super Ape, and Bizarro, as well as the Bizarro World.

Binder was posthumously inducted the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame and the Will eisner Hall of Fame, as well as receiving the Bill finger Award.  In the first episode of the television series Supergirl, Supergirl prevents a crippled jet from crashing into the "Otto Binder Bridge."

Binder's first non-prose Captain Marvel story was "Captain Marvel Saves the King" in Captain Marvel Adventures #9 (April 1942).  Here's that issue:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=15842

Florida Man:

• The wheels of justice grind slowly in Florida.  Ten years after the death of four-year-old Antwon "A.J." Hope was murdered, his mother and Florida Woman Destine Simmons has been arrested for the boy's murder.  Simmons did not have custody of the child at the time of the murder; she had been Baker acted the year before after Simmons' mother reported that she had tried to suffocate the boy with a pillow.  Simmons had been involuntarily committed a total of three times before the boy's death.  Simmons' mother had told Broward County deputies that the woman suffered from schizophrenia and depression.  Simmons and the boy's father were in a custody battle at the time, and the Florida Department of Children and Families was in the process of reuniting the mother and her son.  Hope was found dead during the first unsupervised visit [italics mine] since his mother lost custody.  It is unclear why officials waited ten years before charging Simmons with the murder.
• Florida Man Omar Simpson, 21, has been arrested in the murder of 22-year-old Mikesha Johnson near the Hollywood/Hannandale Beach border.  Johnson was shot in the chest and dropped from a vehicle to the side of a road.  Emergency medical procedures failed and Johnson died on the scene.  Motive is unclear, but police have learned that Simpson and Johnson met at a party that evening.
• As Florida has been trending more Republican lately, top Democrats have turned their attention away from Florida and to more closely contested states.  Florida Man and Democratic Convention Delegate state Senator Shevrin Jones, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, said he hoped to change when he got to  the DNC.  Alas, the Florida delegation found themselves seated at the back of the United Center, "as far away from the main stage as you could possibly be."  One delegate said, "We're sitting in the redheaded stepchild section," while another took a much more positive outlook:  "Sure, some delegates are front and center , but Florida delegates have the best access to the restrooms.  Take that, Pennsylvania!"
• Florida Man Jose Marti-Alvarez, 55, has been accused of fraud for allegedly impersonating a popular pizzeria to fool tourists into ordering undercooked and fraudulently priced food -- a scam that apparently has been going on for several years.  Targeting hotels throughout the Miami Springs, Marti-Alverez falsely advertised as Roman's Pizzeria, a real establishment that had been given a high rating from Barstool Sports founder and pizza Critic Dave Portnoy.  The scam has tarnished the reputation of roman Pizza; dissatisfied customers of Marti-Alverez have complained to the Better Business Bureau and have posted negative reviews online.  Marti-Alverez was charged with "organized scheme to defraud".  when officers attempted to arrest him in a parking lot, he tried to flee the scene, hitting a hotel worker with his car.  So you can add an aggravated battery charge to the rap sheet.

Good News:

• Maryland college staffers save bald eagle.        https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/injured-bald-eagle-plucked-from-river-in-daring-rescue-by-college-staffers-in-maryland/
• Deadly poison may lead to more effective drugs.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/cone-snail-poison-is-deadly-but-may-now-lead-to-better-diabetes-drugs/
• Manuka honey reduces breast cancer cell growth.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/manuka-honey-reduces-breast-cancer-cell-growth-by-84-in-human-cells-and-mice/
• A happy ending for a stray pup.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/stray-pup-chases-a-doggie-day-care-bus-and-gets-adopted/
• Colonial grass -- a bumper crop that could stop coastal soil erosion?     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/colonial-grass-could-become-a-bumper-crop-even-with-salty-soil-and-stop-coastal-erosion/
• 94-year-old daredevil ziplines at 100 mph.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/daredevil-94-year-old-is-oldest-ever-to-take-on-worlds-fastest-zip-line-going-100mph/
• Charles Barkley turns down $100 million contract so sports staff can keep their jobs   https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/charles-barkley-turns-down-100-million-contracts-to-ensure-tnt-sports-staff-keep-their-jobs-another-year/

Today's Poem:

The Boston Evening Transcript

The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript

 Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn.

When evening quickens faintly in the street,

Wakening the appetites of life in some

And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,

I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning

Wearily, as one would turn to nod good bye to Rochefoucauld,

If the street were time and he at the end of the street,

And I say, "Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript."

-- T. S. Eliot