Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Monday, September 30, 2024

OVERLOOKED FILM: GERONIMO! (1939)

Hollywood twists history a bit here, but what else is new?

With Geronimo ("Chief Thundercloud," born Victor Daniels) swearing revenge on the white man for killing his family years earlier, it falls to General Steel (Ralph Morgan), on orders from President Ulysses S. Grant (Joseph Crehan), to broker a peace deal with the rogue Apache.  Preston Foster stars as a battle tested veteran of the Indian wars, Captain Bill Starrett, whose new roommate is General Steel's son John (William Henry), fresh out of West Point and at odds with his stern father.  Ellen Drew plays the eye candy Alice Hamilton, who is torn between loving Starrett and loving John Steel.  Andy Devine is pretty good as the chief scout, Sneezer, and Gene Lockhart is suitably slimy as a gunrunner selling to the Indians.  Also featuring Monte Blue, Iron Eyes Cody (uncredited), Richard Denning 9uncredited), Francis Ford (uncredited), Olympian Jim Thorpe (uncredited), and Charlie Stevens (uncredited), who was reportedly a blood relative of Geronimo.  Not featured in the film was Henry Brandon (The Big Fisherman, Auntie Mame, The Ten Commandments), whose scenes were deleted.

Written and directed by Paul Sloane, the film had originally been intended to be another version of Cecil B. DeMille's The Plainsman until Paramount switched gears and decided to make an "epic" film.  Instead they got this piece of fluff.  Granted, it is a mildly entertaining piece of fluff, but epic it isn't.  As for historic accuracy, the president at the time the film was supposed to take place was Grover Cleveland, not Ulysses S. Grant.  In fact, Cleveland was four presidents after Grant (it ran;  Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, then Cleveland).  After that, all pretense of historical accuracy was thrown out the window.

Enjoy this western, but, please do not watch it prior to taking a history exam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k74yMghcS_0&list=PL8Nn95jd6kYU-00UwiFwDlmhByKobrJ5g

Sunday, September 29, 2024

BITS & PIECES

Openers:  Merlin told the King that the people beyond the Lake of Lausanne greatly desired his help, "for there repaireth a devil that destroyeth the country.  It is a car so great and ugly that it is horrible to look on."  For one time a fisher came to the lake with his nets, and he promised to give Our Lord the first fish he took.  It was a fish worth thirty shillings and when he saw it so fair and great, he said to himself softly, "God shall not have this but I will surely give him [sic] the next."  Now the next was still better, and he said, "Our Lord may want yet awhile; but the third shall be His without doubt."  So he cast his net, but drew out only a little kitten, as black as any coal.

And when the fisher saw it he said he had need of it at home, for rats and mice; and he nourished it and kept it in his house, till it strangled him and his wife and children.  Then the cat fled to a high mountain, and destroyed and slew all that came his way, and was great and terrible to behold.\

 When the King heard this he made ready and rode to the Lake of Lausanne, and found the country desolate and void of people, for neither man nor woman would inhabit the place for fear of the cat.

So the King lodged a mile from the mountain, with sir Gawain and Merlin and others.  and they climbed the mountain, Merlin leading the way.  And when they were come up, Merlin said to the king [sic], "Sir, in that rock liveth the cat"; and he showed him a great cave, large and deep, in the mountain.

"And how shall the cat come out?" said the King.

"That ye shall see hastily," quoth Merlin, "but look you be ready to defend, for anon he shall assail you."

"Then draw ye all back," said the King, "for I will prove his power."

"King Arthur Versus the Great Cat"  (a 13th century legend from the prose romance Lestoire de Merlin, lso known as Merlin and The Vulgate Merlin, translated by Lady Wilde as "King Arthur and the Cat," evidently written in 1887 and included in Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland, with Sketches of the Irish Past, 1888; reprinted in Mysterious Cat Stories, edited by John Richard Stephens & Kim Smith, 1993)


In this brief vignette, Arthur faces off against the cat, who first seized the king's spear with his mouth and broke it in half.  then the battle began in earnest, with Arthur delivering crushing blow after blow.  Even after having its legs cut off, the cat came at Arthur again and again until the final blow.  From that time on the mountain was called 'The Mountain of the Cat," and the name "will never be changed while the world endureth."

A neat and very minor Arthurian legend. (In their introduction to the story, Stephens and smith note that they "have heard of a version of this story where the cat kills King Arthur, but we have not been able to find it.")  I was impressed by Lady Wilde's prose. She was not writing a story; she was telling a story, as if it were being related by a fireplace on a cool evening.  that's the secret of legends.  They were first told, then meant to retold and retold.  That's how fiction started:  tales recounted over a fire long before writing existed, tales told to an enthusiastic and rapt audience.  i sometimes wonder if modern writers ignore the origins of Story,

Jane Francesca Agnes Lady Wilde (nee Elgee, 1831-1896) was a celebrated author in her own right but is today best remembered as the mother of Oscar Wilde.  She was an accomplished poet, collector of Irish legends and lore, an early advocate for equality for women, and a leader in literary salon circles.  She was said to have mastered ten languages by the tine she was eighteen.  She was the niece of Charles Maturin, author of the classic Gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer.  While close to death, she asked  to see her son Oscar, then imprisoned in Reading Gaol, and was refused; her "fetch" reportedly then appeared in Oscar's prison cell as she was dying.




Incoming:

  • Pete Brandvolt, four westerns from Mean Pete.  .45 Caliber Deathtrap.  "Life's been pretty good for Cuno Massey since he went into the freight business with Wade Scanlon.  That us, until Scanlon stopped off at a saloon and got shot dead by a band of outlaws.  When Massey comes upon his friend in a pine box with his freight wagon plundered and burned, he has one goal:  to find the killers.  Led by the notorious bank robber Clayton Cannady, the outlaws have raised hell across the countryside.  Now, allied with a bartender and a Chinese man whose daughter was kidnapped by Cannady's gang, Massey won't rest until his friend's death has been avenged and the outlaws have paid for their sins in blood..."  Deadly Prey.  A Rogue Lawman novel.  "Known as the Rogue Lawman, Gideon Hawk can turn from marshal to executioner with the pull of a trigger.  Even as he is hunted by the law he once worked for, Hawk will prove over and over why bad men fear him -- for none can escape the mark of his gun or the might of his purpose.  A hunted man, Deputy U.S. Marshal Gideon Hawk has retreated to his remote cabin in the San Juan Mountain, hoping to simple disappear.  But when young Catherine McCormick comes to him in the rain from the mining camp over the mountain, Hawk knows his respite is over.  A vicious gang fell on the mining camp, ravaging and brutalizing at will -- killing Catherine's ten-year-old brother.  She's willing to give Hawk anything to hunt the raiders down and dispense justice, his way.  But when evil men are concerned, the only payment Hawk needs is in blood..."  Hell on Wheels.  A Sheriff Stillman novel.  "When Sheriff Ben Stillman accompanies Judge John Bannon and friends to a wedding in sulfur, Montana, he aims to have a nice long weekend of rest and respite from gunslinging.  But Angus Wheeler has other plans.  He's just been released from prison and he's out to avenge the hanging of his cattle rustling sons -- hangings ordered by Bannon.  Backed by a gang of the most violent and vicious members of his family, Wheeler strikes when the judge takes a stagecoach back him,  Soon, Stillman finds himself fighting a wheel-bound war against a clan of killers, out for bloody revenge..."  Rogue Lawman:  Golden Express.  "Fighting the good fight is reason enough for former deputy marshal Gideon Hawk to get in one the action, but when the defenseless are involved, it gets personal for the former lawman.  Brazos got off lucky this time.  His pa, blue Tierney, saved him from receiving due justice at the hands of a hangman on Trinity Ridge.  Which means the Tierneys and their gang are continuing to roam free, spreading their terror.  What this town needs is a temporary lawman who exhibits little diplomacy when it comes to doling out justice -- and Gideon Hawk is that man.  Not everyone is sure of him though, especially a hard-nosed yet fetching schoolteacher and some shady businessmen.  Like most hardened outlaws, the Tierneys don't take kindly to getting pushed out of their territory, and they put up a damned good fight.  But Hawk won't back down until he has them strung up from the gallows they once escaped..."
  • [Max Allan Collins], Nathan Heller:  A Mysterious Profile.  A curiosity.  "The 'perfect private eye' looks back on his career among Chicago's famous and infamous in this profile by the Shamus Award-winning author (Daily News, New York)  As a ghostwriter settles in for a series of interviews with the semi-retired Nathan Heller -- who in his long career as a cop and a private detective has dealt with famous cases and colorful characters, from Al Capone to Amelia Earhart, and Jack Ruby to Jimmy Hoffa.  Fans of the mystery series by New York Times-bestselling author Max Allan Collins (the aforementioned ghostwriter) get to know this classic character, his A-1 Detective Agency, and the man who created him a little better."  This is a flash in the pan buy, a small book of 63 pages, part of a series of "Mysterious Profiles," published between 2022 and now,  covering 31 literary creations from best-selling authors.  Each, it appears to have been written by the authors themselves -- a claim that I look on with askance (the book about Spenser credits Robert B. Parker as author and was published in 2022, 12 years after Parker had died).  I picked this up online and have not had a chance to look at it yet, but I suspect it's a quick cut-and-paste cash cow.  **sigh**
  • Brian Garfield, Bugle and Spur.  Western.  "He was the best soldier Fort Dragoon ever had, but the colonel was out to break him.  Colonel Mallory loved busting young lieutenants like dried sticks.  so when he arrived at Fort Dragoon, he gave every low-down, scum-eating duty in the outfit to Lieutenant Ben Hannibal.  The colonel's orders were to ge t he Apache chief Togomachai dead or alive.  But Mallory and Hannibal knew that they'd be looking down each others' gunsights before that..."
  • Lee Goldberg, Ashes Never Lie.  A Sharpe and Walker mystery, with guest appearances from Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone.  "Vacant homes in a new housing development are erupting into flames in broad daylight with no apparent cause.  It's a perplexing mystery for dogged arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his restless new partner, Andrew Walker, an ex-US marshal who craves action.  but as they puzzle over the blazes, another home miles away burns to the ground, leaving a man's corpse in the ashes, and homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone demanding answers.  The burn patterns and charred body tell Sharpe a bizarre story that only creates more questions for Eve.  So the four detectives team up to find the answers.  Their investigation into the two unrelated cases leads to one shocking discovery after another."  Goldberg's novels never fail to delight and combining his Sharpe and Walker series with his Ronin and Pavone series is a treat for his many fans.  Also, since this marks the end of my read of all of Lee Goldberg's novels, it was time to move on to something else; namely, his non-fiction.  Goldberg is also a very successful television writer and he has published three books that no reader steeped in television of the past should ignore:  The Best TV Shows That Never Were, a look at oddball television shows that never got off the ground (previously published as Unsold Pilots:  The Greatest TV Shows You Never Saw, and as Unsold TV Pilots:  The Almost Complete Guide to Everything You Never Saw on TV), Unsold Television Pilots:  1955-1989, and Television Fast Forward:  Sequels and Remakes of Cancelled Series, for those who want to know if Marcia Brady ever married, or if the Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman ever hooked up for good (previously published as Television Series Revivals).  All three of these books look to be great fun.  I also picked up four books that contain some of Goldberg's early articles and interviews with filmmakers:  The James Bond Films 1962-1989:  Interviews with the Actors, Writers, and Producers, Science Fiction Film Making in the 1980s:  Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers (with Randy L'Officier, Jean-Marc L'Officier, and William Rabkin), The Dreamweavers:  Interviews with Fantasy Film Makers of the 1980s (with Randy L'Officier, Jean-Marc L'Officier, and William Rabkin), and The Joy of Sets:  Interviews on the Sets 1980 Genre Movies.  Goldberg was also, with Max Allan Collins, the founder of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, and he edited the following for that organization:  Tied In:  The Business, History and Craft of Media Tie-in Writing.  Those should keep me busy until the next Sharpe and Walker book comes out...





Blow Winds, and Crack Your Cheeks!  Rage, Blow!:  The affects of Hurricane Helene will be with us for the foreseeable futures...lives obliterated, homes lost, families displaced, whole areas destroyed...a stark reminder of the power and the callousness of nature.  Climate change, so long denied by meretricious politicians, is expected to bring more and greater storms in the future as Earth readies its defenses to strike back at humanity.

Here are some of the worst recorded hurricanes to hit the United States:
  • Katrina, 2005.  It overwhelmed the levees of Lake Pontchartrain and the storm surge covered 80% of New Orleans.  While the rest of the nation watched in horror, at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and its aftermath while officials bungled the response, making it the nation's worst hurricane since 1928.  You did a heck of a job, Brownie.
  • Galveston Hurricane, 1900.  The port city of Galveston was the largest city in Texas when this storm hit.  Approximately 8,000 people were killed and 3,600 building were destroyed in this community of 40,000.  It remains the deadliest storm on record to hit America.  Memorialized in the folk song "A Mighty Day."
  • Great Miami Hurricane, 1926.  Miami was the fastest growing city in America when this storm hit its downtown.  The damage (in 1926 dollars) was estimated to be $105 million.  The official death toll was 373, but it is believed that 800 people actually died.  The storm effectively ended the economic boom in southern Florida.
  • Florida Keys Labor Day Hurricane, 1935.  An estimate 408 dead, most of them World War I veterans working to build a railroad connecting the Key to mainland Florida.  With winds at 185 miles an hours, this was the most intense storm to hit the United States until Gilbert in 1988.
  • Superstorm Sandy, 2012.  The largest Atlantic hurricane ever, with winds spanning 900 miles, Sandy affected 24 states, but most of the damage was to New York and New Jersey.  It was the strongest hurricane to hit New York since at least 1700.  The East River overflowed, flooding Manhattan and many subway stations.  160 people were killed, over 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed, and more than 2 million were left without power.
  • Harvey, 2017.  Harvey has the distinction of being the wettest storm to make landfall; it was tied with Katrina as the costliest storm ever, with some $125 billion in damage to the Houston area.  Some 30,000 residents were displaced and an estimated 68-107 people died.
  • New England Hurricane, 1938.  The storm made landfall on Long Island, earning the nickname "Long Island Express."  Approximately 600 people were killed, 8,900 buildings were destroyed, and left 63,000 people homeless.  It flattened more than 2 billion trees.  Hear from some of the survivors eighty years later:        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFDLo4VuilM&t=46s
  • Hazel, 1954.  Hazel roared through Haiti first, killing about 400 people, before it hit the United Stated and swept up the coast, killing another 95 people.  She reintensified and traveled directed over Toronto, Canada -- a city unprepared for a hurricane -- and killed an additional 81 people.
  • Maria, 2017.  Maria caused the worst natural disaster in Puerto Rico's history, with over $91 billion in damage to an already struggling economy.  More than one-third of the island's homes were destroyed.  The official government death count was 64, but a Harvard University research team later placed it at about 4,645, with one-third of the deaths due to delayed or interrupted medical care.  Donald Trump tossed paper towels, after calling the mayor of San Juan an "ingrate" for criticizing the government's response to this tragedy.
  • Camille, 1969.  Thought to have created the largest storm surge until Katrina, Camille was the second most intense storm -- and one of only four Category 5 hurricanes -- to make landfall in the US.  With an official storm surge of 24 feet, Camille flattened nearly everything along the Mississippi coast.  The storm killed more than 259 people and caused more than $1,42 billion in damages ($11.8 billion in 2013 dollars).
  • Diane, 1955.  Diane caused intensive flooding from North Carolina to New York, but the worst damage was in Connecticut, where the state was effectively cut in two by the storm surge.  Diane killed at least 184 people and was the first hurricane to cause more than a billion dollars in damages (1955 dollars, equal to some $11 billion today.  After the storm the name "Diane" was removed from the list of future hurricane names.
  • Andrew, 1992.  When Andrew slammed into Florida, it destroyed 763,000 homes and damaging an additional 110,000 in Dade County alone, causing the state to later strengthen its lax building requirements.  There was over $1 billion in agricultural damages, making it the costliest hurricane until Katrina.  Oh...and Andrew also claimed 23 lives.
  • Betsy, 1965.  "Billion Dollar Betsy" swept up the Florida coast and eventually landed on Lake Pontchartrain, causing flooding in New Orleans' 9th Ward, causing water to reach up to attics and drowning residents trying to escape.  With a highest wind of 140 mph, Betsy caused a recorded 81 fatalities and nearly one and a half billion dollars in damage (1965 dollars).
  • Agnes, 1972.  Barely a hurricane when it made landfall in Florida, Agnes grew strength as it travelled up the East Coast, causing flooding from Virginia to New York, resulting in 128 deaths.\ and $2.1 billion in damage.  The major damage was in Pennsylvania, where the Susquehanna and Lackawanna rivers flooded, causing major damage to the Wilkes Barre/Scranton area.  In Pennsylvania and New jersey combined, some 43,594 structures were destroyed or significantly damaged.
  • Okeechobee Hurricane, 1928.  The Cat 4 storm had already killed 1,500 people in the Caribbean before it hit Florida.  In Florida, the storm surge overwhelmed the dykes on Lake Okeechobee sending s torrent 10 feet high and 75 miles across over the lowlands.  The official death toll, many of them migrant workers, was 1,836, later to be revised to over 2,000; he exact number will never be known because many of the bodies were washed out into the Everglades, never to be recovered.
  • Ian, 2022.  A Category 5 storm, Ian was the deadliest storm to hit Florida since 1935, killing 150 residents.  It was the costliest storm to hit Florida and the third-costliest hurricane to hit the United States.
  • Florida Keys Hurricane, 1919.  Also known as the Atlantic Gulf Hurricane.  It sank ten ship in the Florida straits before causing massive damage to Corpus Christi, Texas, which was flooded by the 12 foot storm surge..  The official death toll was 287, but the actual count may have reached 600.
  • Audrey, 1957.  Audrey is believed to have killed more than 400 people in Louisiana.  It flooded an area of 1.6 million acres.

You may have notice a preponderance of storms hitting Florida.  The state appears to be not only God's Waiting Room, but God's Target area.  More hurricanes have hit Florida than any other state of territory in the United States, and even when it comes to Category 4 storms -- contrary to Bill Crider's mantra -- Texas does not lead the way; Florida has had 14 Cat 4 storms since 1851 (the first recorded Cat 4 hit Florida in 1900), compared to Texas, which had only 8.  Other states and territories with Cat 4 landings include Alabama - 1; Georgia -1; Louisiana - 5; North Carolina -1; South Carolina -3; Hawaii -1; Guam -  (cyclones); Northern Marian Islands - 2 (cyclones); Puerto Rico - 3; and United States Virgin Islands -2.  This list does not include California, New Mexico, or Arizona due to reporting and categorization problems and due to the fact that I was too lazy to look up each individual flipping storm.


The fact remains that severe storms -- whether tropical storms or more sever hurricanes -- will be with us for a long. long time.  The good news is that with proper warnings, communications, and preparation -- both short- and long-term -- damage can be minimized and lives saved.  The question is whether our leaders have the courage, common sense, and moral fortitude to do so.  Time will tell.





The Old Mill:  Here's a Disney cartoon from 1937 featuring with a violent storm.  No matter wgat, life goes on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYEmL0d0lZE





Today's Joke:  What did 2 tell 4 when they saw that 6 was acting like and idiot?  "Don't worry about him -- he's just a product of out times."






Ask a Stupid Question:  Today is Ask a Stupid Question Day.  It is also Blasphemy Day, so you know what to do when someone asks you a stupid question.






Mulled Cider:  The timing is great because we are about to head into October.  (drum roll, please)  It's also Mulled Cider Day today!  It's pretty hard to screw up making mulled cider, but there are many, many ways of making it.  Here's some hints:

https://www.acouplecooks.com/mulled-cider/







Henry:  625 year ago Henry IV was crowned King of England.. I don't know if the ever made a song about him, but they sure did about a guy whom I suppose was one this dude.  From 1911, here's Harry Champion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeUl6s073RA.






The Hoover Dam:  n this day in 1935 the Hoover Dam was dedicated.  And because we all need a rap song about the Hoover Dam, here it is, DearJohn :  A Song About the Hoover Dam, from Jmes Lawrence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm45DWqNZto








What It Was, Was Football:  85 years ago today, NBC broadcast the first televised American football game.  That's all the excuse I need to revisit this Andy Griffith classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNxLxTZHKM8#:~:text=Andy%20Griffith's%20famous%201953%20stand-up%20monologue%20about%20college%20football.%20It





Happy Birthday:  Among the many celebrating birthdays today are:
  • German composer Johann Sebastiani, 1622-1683 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i7Vjsq1AhY)
  • French composer Jacques Aubert, 1689-1753 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdSo5YEE-MI&list=RDEMU_63NG_2Uyq5wKsFtVjNkA&index=1)
  • Ann Jarvis, 1832-1905, who co-founded Mothers Day
  • Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford, 1852-1924 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prB8HN4djhM)
  • Hans Geiger, 1882-1945, co-inventor of the Geiger counter
  • Silent film actress Renee Adoree, 1898-1933 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ojVQ3D7x0)
  • Bandleader Thelma Terry, 1901-1966 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac9qj2pNceE)
  • Singer, actor, and not the R2D2 guy Kenny Baker, 1912-1985 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctqa7kAdAvI)
  • Segregationist and Alabama Governor Lester Maddox, 1915-2003 (Ptah!)
  • Drummer Buddy Rich, 1917-1987 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9esWG6A6g-k)
  •  Ukrainian-Russian violinist Elizabeth Gilels, 1919-2008 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhsnPVjhgfI)
  • Soprano Patricia Neway, 1919-2012 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKXdOwRP8cQ)
  • Legendary film actress Deborah Kerr, 1921-2007 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlx6gQWfjp0)
  • British composer of Tolkien's The Road Goes Ever On and one-half of the comic duo Flanders and Swann, Donald Swann, 1923-1994 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2SZw9EBlus&list=PLvInjZgihFikfvhKTQg68ZRvEZPmgvQu3)
  • Novelist Truman Capote, 1924-1984 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY5PX5TK2k8 -- WARNING:  NOT THE REAL CAPOTE)
  • Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel, 1928-2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igjj870VMts)
  • Actress Angie Dickinson, b. 19e31 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZLMAdI8TgU)
  • Singer Cissy Houston, b. 1933 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzbv0IqfP7k()
  • Austrian-Swiss singer/songwriter Udo Jurgens, 1934-2014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPGEGxBI-Ko)
  • Singing legend Johnny Mathis, b. 1935 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEH3uqbpsm8)
  • Ukrainian composer and pianist Valentyn Silvestrov, b. 1937 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEH3uqbpsm8)
  • Tony-winning actor and Blue Bloods regular (and another actor I worked briefly with in my theater days) Len Cariou, b. 1939 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nn4U7rJwyQ)
  • Gone too soon singer Frankie Lymon, 1942-1968 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9PNVUpI19A)
  • Singer Marilyn McCoo, b. 1943 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us5XR4tOrAg)
  • Singer-songwriter Deborah Allen, b. 1953 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56qpMwBcwYY)
  • Polish singer-songwriter Basia, b. 1954 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Fv7qEshw8)
  • Brady Bunch kid Barry Williams, b. 1954 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NGPtWsvdDE)
  • Irish musician Frankie Kennedy, 1955-1994 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Wuroc8DQU)
  • Country singer Marty Stuart, b. 1958 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtLn4S2agwc)
  • Singer Crystal Bernard, b. 1961 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBQS4tAMCy8)
  • Rapper Marley Marl, b. 1962 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvKxRuES_64)
  • French actress Marion Cotillard, b. 1975 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlQ5d9bEYH8)
  • Blues singer Nick Curran, 1977-2012 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljvZlDOjQ2w)
  • Party of Five and Hallmark actress Lacey Chabert, b. 1982 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnsa4vIXtUM)
  • Actor Kieran Culkin, b. 1982 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af4gKBNGZTY)
  • Rapper T-Pain, b. 1984 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxRvDpF2FDA)
  • YouTuber Trevi (formally Trevor) Moran, b. 1998 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAVbB6K4Z6A)
Happy birthday to all.  Actually, to all but one, who is currently burning in Hell.  you know who are, Lester.






Today's Poem:
A Mighty Day

I remember down in Galveston,
When storm winds swept the town,
The high tide from the ocean, Lord,
Put water all around.

[chorus]
Wasn't that a mighty day? (a mighty day)
A mighty day.  (A mighty day)
A mighty day, great God that morning
When the storm winds swept the town

The winds began to blowin'.
The rains began to fall.
The lightning shafts were cracklin', Lord,
And the thunder started to roll.

[chorus]

The trumpets warned the people,
They better leave this place.
But never meant to leave their homes,
Till death was in their face.

The seas began to rollin'.
The ships they could not land
I heard a captain crying, God,
Please save this drownin' man.

[chorus]

The trains they all were loaded
With people leavin' town.
The tracks gave way to the ocean, Lord,
And the trains they went on down.

The waters like some river,
They went a-rushin' to and fro.
I seen my father drownin', Lord,
And I watched my mother go.

[chorus]

Now Death, your hands are icey.
You've got them on my knee.
You took away my mother now,
You're coming after me 

[chorus]

-- Milt Okun

HYMN TIME

 Jim & Jesse McReynolds.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IycCz7J5JKE&list=PLHhRHVQPfCehg96BmRaWFJOp6NAo1mdGn&index=31

Friday, September 27, 2024

THE ADVENTURES OF SMOKY DAWSON #7: SMOKY DAWSON v THE BAT (DECEMBER-ISH 1957)

 In real life, Smoky Dawson was Herbert Henry Brown (1913-2008), a singer and entertainer touted as Australia's first singing cowboy.  His highly-rated syndicated radio program, The Adventures of Smokey Dawson, along with television appearances, comic books, and recorded songs helped portray him as an easy-going, happy-go-lucky singing cowboy.  His father adopted the name Dawson, as did young Herbie. The use of the name Smoky in his professional career started around 1934; it derived from the time Herbie tried to smoke a pipe and became sick.  A year later Smoky was part of the first Western group to be broadcast live on an Australian radio station.  He had his first commercial success with Columbia Records with "I'm a Happy Go Lucky Cowhand" and "The Range in the Western Sky."

Smoky was rejected for service during World War II because of a "bumpy heart," so he spent much of the war entertaining the troops.   (Smoky's father was a survivor of Gallipoli, and Smoky participated in the annual ANZAC Day marches right up until he died at age 94.)  Smoky was finally able to enlist in 1941 as a non-combatant nursing orderly while continuing to perform for the troops.  After the was, he worked various rodeos, circuses, and country fairs; he also had a knife-throwing act where he would chuck machetes, commando knives, tomahawks and two-edged axes.  Smoky also did trick riding on his palomino Flash (Flash lived for 31 years and, towards the end, Dawson would feed her porridge with a spoon).  

Returning from a tour of the United States, he was hailed by his native press as an "Australian singing 'cowboy' who has made good in the Us at the expense of the world's best."

The Adventures of Smoky Dawson was on the airwaves for a decade, from 1952 to 1962.  The similarly-named comic book was published from 1953 to 1952.  Both featured Smoky's persona.  For the radio show Smoky provided various sound effects -- "renditions of a magpie, kookaburra, rooster, turkey, pig, cow, an impatient horse, a posse with bloodhounds, a pack of dogs fighting and the next door's dog howling in the middle of the night."

He founded the Smoky Dawson Ranch in 1957, part of which became a children's holiday camp.

Three years before his death, he was asked how he would like to be remembered.  "Ah well, just as Herb.  Just as one who's tried his best, he's carried out, lover of his country and always thought about the good things in life.  Being honest and true to yourself, the main thing. true to yourself.  And ah, I think to be remembered as an old friend."

Smoky Dawson was an old friend to generations of Australians.

Here's one of his comic book adventures.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=95985&comicpage=&b=i

Thursday, September 26, 2024

FORGOTTEN BOOK: MAD MESA

 Mad Mesa by "Kenneth Robeson" (Lester Dent) (first published in Doc Savage Magazine, January 1939 [Doc Savage #71]; reprinted by Bantam Books as Doc Savage #66, 1972; reprinted with Land of Always Night in Doc Savage Sanctum Editions [#4], 2007 later included in Sanctum's Doc Savage Classic Superpack #1, 2015; evidently reprinted with The Yellow Crowd, possibly by Bantam, no date given; available online at fadedpage.com, and possibly elsewhere)

This is a Doc Savage novel that you either love or hate; there appears to be little middle ground.

Thomas Idle has been hanging around Salt Lake City, looking for work with no success.  As long as he picks up after himself the cops will not roust him for sleeping on a park bench.  Then one morning he wakes up and he has different clothes on.  Worse, he is in a different body, that of notorious gangster Hondo Weatherbee.  Both citizens and the police appear to be gunning for him, thinking he the desperate outlaw.  A mysterious man in black gloves knocks Joe out and he wakes up in Utah State Prison, still in Hondo's body.  But wait.  Hondo has been in the prison for more than eleven years; back then he was captured in the exact same circumstances that Thomas Idle was captured only five days before.  Naturally, no one believes Idle's story and he is looking toward a sentence of life imprisonment.

Idle has just one hope.  He has read of a man called Doc Savage, who is a champion of the oppressed and innocent.  He smuggles a letter to his sister, asking her to ask Doc Savage for help.  Nona Idle writes to Doc and says she would like to meet with him to discuss her brother's plight.  On her way there, she is doped and supposedly taken to a hospital by a man calling himself Dr. Joiner -- who actually the man in the black gloves.

Nona had included her brother's letter with the one she sent Doc.  When Nona did not appear, Doc knew something was wrong.  With his five noted assistants -- Monk Ham, Johnny, Long Tom, and Renny -- Doc goes to Ohio to investigate.  All six are immediately kidnapped and are to be sent to their respective dooms in a lava pit., but we know there ain't no stinking lava pit that can hold Doc Savage.

Not a lava pit.  no.no.no.  But what about a jail?  Not long afterwards, Doc finds himself jailed at the penitentiary in the guise of Big Eva, another dangerous thug.  Doc Savage must face off against an evil genius who can place a man's mind in another's body...


The plot is a bit more phantasmagorical that many of Doc's adventures, but the pacing is fast, and, once the reader gets over the original shock, the plot seems pretty tight.  Many count this among Doc's greatest adventures, while some pan it utterly.  Your mileage may vary.

There were only a couple of off-putting things that bothered me.  

First, the use of the word "aid" for "aide."  Doc Savage has five aides, not five aids.  Eww, this grates on me, much as the use of the word "clew" for "clue" in the early Erle Stanly Gardner stories, but at least that was acceptable for the time; i may be wrong, but I don't think transposes "aid" for "aide" was ever acceptable.

Second, one character affects a pidgin English dialect, one of a stereotypical native American.  the character has absolutely no american Indian blood in him, but him likum talk likum Injun bigtime.  No reason for this.  It's simply off-putting.

Thirdly, also off-putting is the standard dialog of Johnny -- William Harper Littlejohn -- a man addicted to using big words"  "I'll be superamalgamated."  "An enigmatical verbal summation precipitated our eventuation."   Baa!  Off-putting to the extreme, but this trait follows him throughout the Doc Savage saga.

Fourthly (and finally), Doc Savage's "college," a super-secret hospital where the crooks Doc captures are given lobotomies to erase all memories of the past.  These patients (?)/students(?)/victims (?) are then trained to hate crime, are taught trades at which they could make a living, and then discharged back into the world.  This truly horrific concept was first introduced in the first Doc Savage adventure, but most of the later adventures do not mention it and I had hoped it would have been gone for good.  No such luck.  Lord save us from well-intentioned do-gooders.

With those quibbles aside, I thought this was a pretty good Doc Savage novel.


Wednesday, September 25, 2024

YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR: THE BLOOMING BLOSSOM MATTER (JANUARY 20, 1957)

Everybody's favorite insurance investigator Johnny Dollar investigates the disappearance of an insured only to find him murdered after getting a tip from a fan.

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ran from January 1949 until September 1962 on CBS Radio (there was also a 1948 audition tape which starred Dick Powell).  If my math is correct there were 827 episodes of the program aired.  Actors who portrayed Johnny Dollar over the years were Charles Russell, Edmond O'Brien, John Lund, Gerald Mohr, bob Bailey, Bob Readick, and Mandel Kramer.

This episode comes from the bob Bailey years, which covered October 1955 through November 1960.  Also featured in this episode were Howard McNair. Herb Ellis, Herb Vigran, Junius Matthews, Herb Butterfield, Frank Gerstle, and Johnny Jacobs.  Dan Cubberly was the announcer.  The episodes was written and directed by Jack Johnstone.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc3m9WhipqE

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: PROMISE ME

 "Promise Me" by Joe R. Lansdale  (first published in Bullets and Other Hurting Things:  A Tribute to Bill Crider, edited by Rick Ollerman, 2021)


This was a story that Joe Lansdale thought Bill would have liked.

An accountant named Ravel was working for a very shady company.  One day he walked off with half a million dollars, so the company sent two hit men after him.  Surprisingly, Ravel just went home after stealing the money.  He put the stolen cash in a drawer and waited for the hit men to show up.  Ravel, you see, was dying.  He had divorced his wife, whom he loved, because he did not want to have her or his nearly grown daughters watch him die.  He took out a large insurance policy -- one that would not go into effect if he committed suicide.  And he calmly waited for the hit men to come to him.  Before they killed him he offered them drinks and talked to them amiably.  His one request was that they not shoot him in the head.  He did not want his family to view his body like that.  One of the hitman (unnamed in the story) promised him that he would be shot in the chest.

The other hitman, Griffin, did not promise and callously shot the accountant in the head.  His partner was upset because he had promised, but Griffin merely said that he had not made the promise.

But for the unnamed hitman, a promise was a sacred thing...


This memorial tribute to Bill collects stories from twenty of his friends, who were invited "to write about small-town crime, hard-boiled PIs, or really just anything they thought Bill might have gotten a kick out of."  Bill was well-loved by every single person in the civilized world -- and most like by many in the uncivilized world.  His immense talent was only exceeded by his kindness, generosity, intelligence, wit, and love of Texas.  There are no more Bill Crider books on the horizon, but Bullets and Other Hurting Things gives us a bit of medicinal salve to cover his loss.

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

OVERLOOKED LUCHADOR FILM: SANTO AND BLUE DEMON vs. THE MONSTERS (1969)

Yesterday marked the birthday of Rodolfo Guzman Huerta (1917-1984), the Mexican luchador enmascadoro knwn as "El Santo."  Considered one of the greatest masked Mexican wrestlers of all time, El Santo transformed his fame in the ring  to become a much-loved folk hero and Mexican movie star, appearing in more than 53 movies between 1958 and 1982, most of which featured Santo as a professional wrestler moonlighting as a superhero.

Santo y blue Demon contra los monstuos was just one of five films Santo made in 1969.  Mad Dr. Halder's plan to conquer the world involves reanimating monsters.  But he did not count on Santo and his wrestling buddy Blue Demon to throw a spanner in the works.   Among the monsters are Dracula, the Mummy, the Cyclops, the Wolfman, and the Vampire Woman.  Helping the doctor are his assistants, an evil dwarf and an "octopus" man.  Santo surely has his work cut out for him here.

  Only four of the Santo movies were dubbed in English and this is not one of them.  Luckily, though, this one has English subtitles.

Enjoy.

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


Monday, September 23, 2024

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIC BOGLE!

 Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter turns eighty today.  He wrote one of my favorite songs -- regular readers to this blog will know which one.


"If Wishes Were Fishes"

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


"As If He Knows'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzEyReMhDj8


"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajPSmnZ2PRY


"Leaving Nancy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyztsSi_T4M


"Since Nancy Died'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apknkvU017I


"Glasgow Melody"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_i40-82jCM


"Now I'm Easy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIp5aJMzKbo


"A Reason for It All"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xy8ElO4hus


"The Green Fields of France (No Man's Land)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxkhBvO8_kM


"Do You Know Any Dylan?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Pph9BeMnE


"Santa Bloody Claus"

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


"Singing the Spirit Home'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYcWrcQFbp8


"Safe in the Harbour"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HpI79fadjc


"Katie and the Dreamtime Land"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5pdBrgNotw


"All the Fine Young Man"

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

Saturday, September 21, 2024

HYMN TIME

 The Chad Mitchell Trio.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z-JKb1KY1E&list=PL9TJw_91yyhD2Sh0_hgpAFg_pV3VSdVej&index=62

Friday, September 20, 2024

SUPER-DETECTIVE LIBRARY No. 9: THE ISAND OF FU MANCHU (AUGUST 6, 1953)

 Confession time:  I am a sucker for Sax Rohmer's stories of oriental menace.  Heck, I'm a fan of the Yellow Peril overall, from tales of Fu Manchu to the pulp stories about the Mysterious Wu Gang to stories by Achmed Abdullah and Thomas Burke's Limehouse.  They are the remnants of a time long gone and catered to the stereotypes of the day, but I do enjoy them.  Conversely, I find most tales from the same period depicting stereotypical Blacks to be off-putting (Octavus Roy Cohen's Florian Slappy stories ,for example).  Go figure.  Does this make me a racist?

Anyway, I am a big Fu Manchu fan.  I enjoyed the books, the movies, the comics, and was more than will to forgive the execrable television show of the 50s.

Britain's Super-Detective [sometimes hyphenated, sometimes, not] Library was a twice-monthly comic book from Amalgamated Press; it ran for 188 issues from April 1953 to December 1960.  [They also issued such long-running titles as Cowboy Picture Library, Thriller Comics, Schoolgirls Picture Library, and War Picture Library.]  Most issues offered a full-length adventure of various detectives, many taken from popular books -- The Saint, Bulldog Drummond, Sexton Blake, Sherlock Holmes, Blackshirt; other were from comic books characters (some created for the series) -- Buck Ryan, Rip Kirby, Leslie Shane, the space detective Rick Random; other issues adapted stories from popular thriller authors such as Vincent Canning.  As far as I can tell, only one issue adapted a Fu Manchu novel by Sax Rohmer.

According to Rohmer himself, he embarked on the Fu Manchu tales after a Ouija board spelled out C-H-I-N-A-M-A-N when he asked it what would make his fortune.  That's a great story for publicity purposes, I suppose/

The Island of Fu Manchu (1941) was Rohmer's tenth novel in the series.  It is 1941 and the United States has just entered the worldwide conflict.  From his hidden lair in the Caribbean, Fu Manchu decides to upset the balance of power by issuing naval assaults.  Employing both his vast scientific knowledge and his diabolical skills, Fu Manchu combines advance technology and mysticism for his attacks.  It's up to Nayland Smith to stop him.  Smith follows Fu Manchu's trail from London to New York to the Panama Canal and, finally, to the voodoo-haunted island of Haiti.  [Please note that no household pets were eaten in either the book or the comic book.]

Interesting artwork by Phil; Mendoza.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=95804&comicpage=&b=i

Thursday, September 19, 2024

FORGOTTEN BOOK: CARLA

 Carla by "Sheldon Lord" (Lawrence Block) (1958)


I'm more than a bit OSD in my reading.  When I find an author I like I want to read everything that author wrote, a tendency that sometimes takes me down strange paths.  One of my favorite authors is Lawrence Block.  Block may be best known for his novels about un licensed private investigator Matt Scudder; his other popular series characters include bookstore owner and thief Bernie Rhodenbarr, adventurer and supporter of lost causes Evan Tanner, professional hitman Keller, Archie Goodwin clone Chip Harrison, and defense lawyer Martin Ehrengraf.  Block has been named a MWA Grand Master, a Lifetime Achievement Ward from the Private Eye Writers of America, and a Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award.  His work has won four Anthony Awards, eleven Edgar Awards, and eleven Shamus Awards.  His official bibliography listed 209 books through 2020; at six six additional books have been entered since then.  Now in his mid-eighties, Block has been writing professionally for 66 years -- his first paid publication appeared in 1958, followed that same year by his first published novel, 
Carla.

Block's first written novel was Strange Are the Ways of Love, published under the pseudonym "Lesley Evans."  Due to the vagaries of the publishing world, this became his third published book.  Carla, his first published novel, came about when his agent asked him if he could write a sex novel; a new paperback house -- Midwood Books -- was looking for sex novels to add to their line.  Block was still in college and may have actually been a teenager (he was born in 1938).  Of course Block could write a sex novel.  Block would write anything a publisher wanted.

Block lucked out with Carla.  While not totally unreadable, the book was severely flawed.  Block had included a scene where Carla had made love to a gas jockey in the grease pit of a gasoline station.  Block had no idea what a grease pit was, nor what it looked like, but it sounded cool when he wrote the scene.  His publisher at Midwood enthused over the scene; for some reason, making love in a grease pit sounded incredibly sexy to him.  Block became one of the man's favorite writer and Midwood would go to publish ten more sex novels by Block.

A word about the sex novels of the 50s and 60s.  They had to be titillating but not explicit.  No details please.  The actual action was merely described as, Then he took her" and then there might be a reference to riding the crest of a wave, or the words "higher and higher,' but that was it.  And female breast are mounds of flesh.  Ho-hum.  But it worked, and hundreds of thousands of these paperback novels were sold as "one-handed reading."  The market for these books was thirsty and the quality was usually low, but it was an entry level into publishing and a good place for writers to learn their fictional trade.  Among the many later very successful-successful writers who plied in these trenches, beside Block, were Donald E. Westlake, John Jakes, Evan Hunter, Bill Pronzini, Avram Davidson, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Marijane Meaker, Robert Silverberg, and Joe R. Lansdale.

As I mentioned, Carla is a flawed book, a freshman effort.  I doubt if Block did more than perfunctory revisions and editing; the book reads as if he just began typing and stopped when his page count was reached.  The first chapter suffers from an excess of adverbs, something that soon vanished once we reach the second chapter.  One character, a randy negress, is described as having "red nipples" -- which, I think was the only time Block had used the word (I haven't gone back to check because I did not really want to reread any passages).  That character, BTW, had nothing to with the plot of the book, except to provide three varied sexual scenes that read like they belonged in another book.

The story centers around Carla, a beautiful young woman with desires, married to an older, impotent, rich man.  Carla grew up poor and now appreciates the money her husband has; it provides her with an MG, and clothes, and a maid, and some status.  What it does not provide her with is physical love.  Please understand that Carla does love her husband in a kind of platonic way and she does not want to do anything that would hurt him, or (dread!) his career.  So, trying not to hurt him, she begins an affair with a supposed close friend of her husband.  She also does the spur of the moment grease pit canoodling scene that so aroused Block's editor.  Soon, though, she finds another man -- a poor man (horrors!) and falls for him.  What to do?  Is Carla going to be able to give up her pampered life style for a life of poverty?  Do we care?

Well, no, we don't.  Because Carla, as well as every other other character in the book is shallow and one-dimensional; all are extremely unpleasant.  This is a book in which the central character whines a lot, and where nothing is remotely believable.  TRIGGER WARNING:  This is also a book where violent rape is equated with love.

So this is a "I read it so you don't have to" book.  Block's writing and plotting got much better as he continued to churn out sex novels early in his career.  He began to display a sensitivity to his subject and to exhibit depth in his characters.  Many of these early novels are very readable, but this one, his first published, does not fall into that category.

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

THE CASEBOOK OF GREGORY HOOD: THE MURDER OF GREGORY HOOD (JUNE 17, 1946)

 The Casebook of Gregory Hood began as a summer replacement series for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on the Mutual network beginning on June 3, 1946.  It was created and written by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green, who had scripted the Sherlock Holmes series; due to difficulties between Mutual and the Conan Doyle estate, the show continued to be aired that fall.  (Sherlock Holmes eventually moved to another network.)  Gregory Hood  moved to ABC Radio in 1949, and continued (with some interruptions) until the end of August 1950.  More than 150 episodes were made but less than twenty now exist.

The show itself was plagued by lackluster support from its producers, as well as a rapidly changing cast.  The first person to play Gregory Hood was Gale Gordon.  Others cast as Hood include Elliott Lewis, Jackson Beck, Paul McGrath, Martin Gabel. and George Petrie.  Hood's sidekick Sanderson Taylor was played variously by Art Gilmore, Carl Harbord, William Bakewell, and Howard McNear.  According to Jeffrey Marks, "Boucher grew increasingly annoyed with the lack of support for the series," eventually refusing to write a Gregory Hood short story when suggested.

Who was Gregory Hood?  A San Francisco importer in rare antiquities who traveled the world seeking items for his import house, Hood appeared to be an expert in everything -- a forensics expert, an expert in ancient and modern armament, fluent in a number of languages, an accomplished pianist and composer, a wine expert, an expert in oriental tapestry, and a former military intelligence officer.  Had it existed back then, I'm sure he would have been a world champion Wordle player.  Naturally, every place he traveled, he met with mystery and intrigue.

In "The Murder of Gregory Hood," our hero receives a number of death threats.  following one close encounter he decides to play dead while he solves his own murder. 

This episode, written by Boucher and Green, features Gale Gordon and Art Gilmore.  Also in the cast were Bob Bruce, Jeff Corey, Gloria Blondell, Carl Harbord, Garnet Marks, Anne Stone, and Bob Bruce.  Harry Bartell was the announcer.

Enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqThhuR5CM4 

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: CHARLIE THE BARBER

 "Charlie the Barber" by Joe R. Lansdale (first published in Alive in Shape and Color:  17 Paintings by Great Artists and the Stories They Inspired, edited by Lawrence Block, 2017: reprinted in Lansdale's collection The Senior Girls Bayonet Drill Team and Other Stories, 2023)


To say that Joe Lansdale is a unique writer is akin to saying that water is wet.  Lansdale is a wordsmith of great talent and imagination.  He can write crude.  He can write lyrical.  He can be meaningful.  He can be silly.  He can take the human condition, dissect it. stomp on all its parts, then put it back together, giving you an experience unlike any other you have ever had.  He can give you "The Night They Missed the Horror Show", Hap and Leonard, Bob the Dinosaur, Ned the Seal, or The Thicket.   I truly believe what he writes depends on what they're putting in the Texas water that day.

For his contribution to Alive in Shape and Color he chose Norman Rockwell's The Haircut, which appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post for August 10, 1919.  It depicts a barber giving a young boy his first haircut while an anxious mother looks on.

Charlie Richards is a barber, talented in his small-town craft.  He enjoys his job, he enjoys his craft, and he enjoys working with his daughter Millie.  Millie will be heading off the big city, Dallas, next year to study as a beautician, learning how to cut a woman's hair as well as she now cuts men's hair.  For now, however, Charlie basks in the knowledge that he and Millie are the only father and daughter barber team that he knows about.

Charlie closes his shop at five on the dot everyday, putting up the closed sign, locking the door, and drawing the shades.  Any person waiting in the shop for a haircut at five will be served, then he and Millie will go home to relax for the evening with his wife, Connie.  On this day, Millie has just finished cutting crusty, retired postal worker Mr. Weaver's hair, and Charlie is working on young Billly Thompson's hair.   Billy is the high school quarterback and, because he has cowlicks both in the front and in the back of his head, Charlie has to extra careful in order to give him a decent haircut.  It's just a few minutes to five and Charlie is about to put up the closed sign when two young men, cocky and self-assured, walk in.  They've just attempted to rob the local bank but something went wrong and a guard was killed and a bystander shot, perhaps also dead.  They pull out guns and hold Charlie, Millie ,and Billy prisoner, robbing them of all their money and taking Charlie's car keys.  their plan is to wait until things are quieter, then make their getaway.  What they plan to do with their prisoners is unclear, but Millie sure is awfully pretty...

The story is told through three crises in Charlie's life.  The most pressing is the two thugs who have taken over his shop.  Then there is Charlie's experiences in the war when he was held prisoner at the interment camp at Palawan, where the Japanese guards burned, bayonetted, and slaughtered all the prisoners but Charlie, who was left for dead but managed to escape with lasting physical and psychic scars.  The third crisis was back long before the war, when Charlie gave his first professional haircut; it was to a young boys who did not want his hair cut.  That was the day that Charlie learned patience, as well as how to perform the most difficult task he had ever faced until then.  All three of these crises merge in Lansdale's masterful tale.

Whatever they put in the East Texas water that day was mighty powerful.

Monday, September 16, 2024

OVERLOOKED FILM: THE MANDARIN MYSTERY (1936)

Based on the EQ novel The Chinese Orange Mystery, this is the second theatrical film featuring detective Ellery Queen.  It follows The Spanish Cape Mystery, and like that film it basically eviscerates the novel, substituting fast action and wisecracks for perplexing detective work.  This, and many of the B-programmers that followed, kept only the characters of Ellery and his father, Inspector Richard Queen, transforming both to unrecognizable stereotypes.  But Ellery Queen was a hot property and I suspect the only thing that Fred Dannay and Manny Lee had to with these films was to sit back and watch the money roll in.  The films really had no effect on the sales of the novels.

Ellery is played by Eddie Quinlan, a comedically charming, fast talking, wise cracking sleuth more interested in chasing the girl than in solving the puzzle.  Wade Boteler plays Inspector Queen; his basic role here appears to be as a stooge for Ellery's bumbling antics.  the eye candy, number one suspect, and object of Ellery's desire is Josephine Temple (played by a comely Charlotte Henry).  The one standout performance in the film comes from screen veteran Frank Pangborn, who true to form plays a frustrated hotel manager.

The plot?  There actually is one.  A valuable Chinese stamp has gone missing.  The thief is murdered in a locked room.  And...a tangerine goes missing?

Innocuous, mildly pleasant, and coming in at just under an hour, it's worth considering as a harmless time waster.


https://archive.org/details/TheMandarinMystery 

Sunday, September 15, 2024

BITS & PIECES RISING FROM THE DEAD BECAUSE I GOT MY COMPUTER BACK!

Openers:  At first there was music.  Popular songs played on her little radio, the volume pitched low enough to keep the music from interfering with her thoughts.   Then, as the sky darkened outside her window, she got up, crossed the room, turned on a lamp, then changed he mind and switched it off again.  And, while she was at it, switched off the radio as well.

Better to sit in the dark, Madeline thought.  Better to sit in the dark, and in the silence.

That way, though, you had only your own thoughts for company.  And her own thoughts were bad company these days.  They were a whirlpool, a vortex, sucking her deep down within herself, making her see parts of herself she didn't wish to look at.  It didn't do to see too clearly in the darkness, didn't do to listen too closely to those thoughts.  That is why the whole world played the radio loud, and kept the lights burning.  To keep the thoughts drowned out.  To keep the darkness safely at bay.

But there came a time when you couldn't do that anymore.

-- Into the Night by Cornell Woolrich, completed by Lawrence Block, revised edition, 2024


Madeline could not keep the darkness at bay.  Despondent, she picked up a gun that was the only thing she had left from her father.  She saw no reason to keep on living.  Conversely, she saw no reason not to keep on living.  but she could not leave the gun alone.  She placed it to her forehead and pulled the trigger...and the hammer descended on an empty chamber.  Suddenly, a great relief passed over her.  She did not want to die.  Thankful for her sudden escape from death, she tossed the gun on a nearby table.  That was when the gun went off.  Madeline was alive, but the bullet from the accidentally fired gun went through her window and stuck a young woman passing by in the chest, killing her.  no one knew the gun came from Madeline's gun.  The police assumed that the young woman was a random victim of violence -- something that happened all too often in the city.

Horrified by the death that she had inadvertently caused, Madeline became obsessed with the victim and wanted in some way to make amends to her.  The dead girl, Starr Bartlett, has recently arrived in the city.  She had been the only surviving child of a widow living in a distant  town.  Madeline traveled to the town and met the mother, hoping to find out more about Starr.  She learned that Starr had been cruelly betrayed by her husband, who had left her for another woman.  Madeline soon began to insert herself into Starr's life, with tragic consequences that began to reveal a very dark side of Madeline...


Cornell Woolrich was a master of dark suspense, penning such classics as The Bride Wore Black, Phantom Lady, and "Rear Window."  Into the Night was left unfinished at the time of Woolrich's death in 1968.  Almost the entire body of the novel had been completed, lacking only a beginning, and ending, and several short sections in the middle.  Lawrence Block completed the narrative and the book was published in 1987.  Now, more than thirty-five years later, a new edition has appeared from Hard Case Crime, with Block revising his original version and providing a darker, shocking, ending that is more in line with Woolrich's literary world view.

This is an important book because it is Woolrich.  It is also an important book because it is Block.  It is not the best Woolrich, nor is it the best Block.  What it is is a gripping and compelling nightmare of a tale that should please all suspense fans.  Vintage noir, and recommended.



 

 Incoming:

  • Kevin J. Anderson, editor, Blood Lite.  Horror Writers Association anthology of 21 humorous horror stories.  Authors include Kelley Armstrong, Joe R. Lansdale, Charlaine Harris, J. A. Konrath & F. Paul Wilson, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Mike Resnick, Nancy Holder, and Jim Butcher.
  • Lawrence Block, Fourteen early sex/sleaze/lesbian/erotic/softcore novels from early in his career:  A Strange Kind of Love (1959, as by "Sheldon Lord"), Born to Be Bad (1959, as by "Sheldon Lord," also published as Puta), Campus Tramp (1959, as by "Andrew Shaw"), Of Shame and Joy (1960, as by 'Sheldon Lord"),  Kept (1960, as by 'Sheldon Lord"), The Adulterers (1960, as by "Andrew Shaw"), High School Sex Club (1960, as by "Andrew Shaw" -- although listed as by "John  Dexter" on the title page [the publisher sometimes confused pseudonyms]; also published as The Corrupted), The Sin-Damned (1960, as by "Andrew Shaw"), Sexpot! (1960, as by "Andrew Shaw," also published as Bad Girl), I Sell Love (1960, as by "Liz Crowley"), Community of Women (1961, as by "Sheldon Lord"), Girls on the Prowl (1961, as by "Andrew Shaw," also published as The WantonsCircle of Sinners (1961, as by "Don Holliday," co-written with Hal Dresner; reprinted as by block and Dresner), and Gigolo Johnny Wells (1961, originally titled Lover by "Andrew /Shaw"; note that Block would later use the name "John Warren Wells" for twenty supposedly non-fiction books on sexual behavior).  These were supposedly hot stuff more than sixty years ago; today's reader of modern romance novels wouldn't bat an eyelash.   Also, Shadows, the first novel Block wrote, and the third book published; originally published as Strange Are the Ways of Love as by "Leslie Evans," and republished as by Block writing as "Jill Emerson."  (Long before it was known that Block had written the book, he would make reference to it by its original title and author in other pseudonymous sex novels, pointing out that it was a classic novel in lesbian fiction.  File under authors having fun.)
  • Marion Zimmer Bradley, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover.   Collection of 14 stories about Darkover, planet of the Bloody Sun.  For reasons that I won't go into, Bradley has fallen out of favor in recent years, and rightly so, but I also cannot forget the kindness she showed Kitty and me during the early years of our marriage.
  • James H. Curry, Descensus Averno; or, The Downward Drift.  This one was a pig in a poke.  It looked interesting but I couldn't tell a thing about it, but for 50 cents at a thrift shop it was worth a flyer.  This one is the 1881 (perhaps first) edition of a literary novel that, according to Google, "explores the theme of human nature and the consequences of one's actions.  The story follow the protagonist, Jack, who is a young man struggling to find his place in the world.  Jack's life takes a downward spiral when he becomes involved in a series of unfortunate events, leading to question his own morality and the existence of a higher power.  The title of the book, Descensus Averno, is a Latin phrase that translates to 'the descent into hell.'  This title is fitting, as the novel takes the reader on a journey through Jack's descent into a dark and troubled world.  The book is set in the late nineteenth century and is written in a style that reflects the time period.  Throughout the book, Curry explores themes such as morality, religion, and the human condition."  Looks like heavy slogging and I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to reading it.  My copy has a faded note saying that it was for sale on eBay at one time for $50; copies available on  line seem to go for $36 and up, although because it is way, way, way out of copyright, POD copies abound and it is available free online at the usual sources.  One final note:  one online source says that the book has been deemed "culturally significant" -- make of that what you will.
  • Robert Dunbar, The Pines.  Horror novel.  "When her husband died, Athena Monroe often wondered why she stayed in the dilapidated old farmhouse, buried deep in the harsh, blighted New Jersey pine barrens.  Perhaps it was because her mysteriously afflicted young son seemed to feel such strong ties to the area's primeval swamps and stunted forests -- such an affinity for the pines.  She didn't guess that his psychic connection was with something evil -- until ranting fits and night terrors gripped him in a vise of horror.  Athena was afraid her inability to really love the boy was now causing his strange behavior, but the old-timers in the region recognized something more sinister.  to them it was an omen of things to come -- a sign that the monstrous Jersey Devil was about to reappear."  I'll admit that this back cover copy is poorly written and few would have picked up the book on that basis.  In my defense, all I can say is...Jersey Devil.
  • Jules Feiffer, A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears.  Juvenile novel, a "baggy-pants fairy tale."  "Roger makes everyone laugh.  Kings, wizards, peasants, even the birds and animals in the royal forest -- they all fall apart when Roger comes into view.  but roger's gift for inspiring laughter is a stone in the heart of his father, good King Whatchamacallit, who understands that a prince who's a barrel of laughs lacks the stuff needed to succeed to the throne.  So Roger is sent on a quest, the purpose of which is to turn the carefree young prince into a sober man and a worthy monarch.  With only a bag of magic powder to help him, roger enters the Forever Forest, crosses the Dastardly Divide, descends into the Valley of Vengeance, and encounters the Mountains of Malice, which is so downright mean that his humor and spirit are all but crushed.  On this awful, awfully funny quest, Roger gets everything wrong -- except for the meaning of life, and that he gets right."  I love Feiffer.
  • John C. Ford, The Morgue and Me.  YA mystery.  From a Goodreads review:  "Christopher just needed a job to kill time after high school graduation.  He didn't expect it to be in the morgue.  Or that he would accidently discover a murder cover-up.  Or that his discovery would lead him to a full-blown investigation involving bribery, kidnappings, more murders...and his best friend.  And he certainly could never have predicted that Tina -- loud, insanely hot, overly ambitious newspaper reporter Tina -- would be his partner.  But all of that did happen.  And Christopher's life will never be the same.  With plenty of plot twists, red herrings, and dry wit, The Morgue and Me is a page-turning modern take on the classic detective genre."  It will be interesting to see this book compares to Christopher Golden's Jenna Blake Body of Evidence series, which also concerns a teenager working in a morgue.
  • Paul Gallico, The Silent Meow:  A Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats.  Evidently this book was written by Cica and translated from the feline by Gallico.  Accompanying the text is a photographic picture story by Suzanne Szasz.  Could this be a worthy book for childless cat ladies?  I'll have to check if Taylor Swift has this one on her bookshelf.
  • Mick Herron, Reconstruction.  Before there was Slow horses, there was Reconstruction, a stand-alone novel which takes place before the Slow Horses series but uses some of the same characters and provides some character backstory.  "When a man with a gun breaks into her school, nursery teacher Louise Kennedy knows there's not likely to be a happy ending...But Jaime isn't there on a homicidal whim, and is as scared as the hostages he's taken.  While an armed police presence builds up outside, he'll only talk to Ben Wheeler, an MI6 accountant who worked with his lover, Miro.  Miro's apparently gone on the run. along with a huge sum of money.  Jaime doesn't believe Miro's a thief -- though he certainly has secrets.  But then, so does Louise; so do the other hostages; and so do some of those on the outside, who'd much rather Jaime was silenced..."
  • Carl Hiaason, Skink -- No Surrender.  Young adult novel featuring the ex-governor of Florida now known as Skink.  "Classic Malley.  Her parents are about to ship her off to boarding school, so she takes off with some guy she met online...Poor Richard.  He's less of a rebel than Malley, and a lot less trusting.  He knows his cousin is in trouble before she does...Wild Skink.  He's a ragged, one-eyed, wandering vigilante. with perfect teeth.  Also, supposedly dead.  But he's a man who relishes a lost cause, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to find Malley.  With Richard riding shotgun, this unlikely pair set off on a breakneck chase, undaunted by blinging storms, poisonous snakes, crazed pigs, river rats, giant gators, flying bullets, and lightning strikes.  In Carl Hiaason's outrageous, hilarious and wildly dangerous state of Florida, there are a million places an outlaw might stash a teenage girl.  A million unpleasant ways to die.  And two who will risk everything to rescue a friend...and to, hopefully, exact a bit of swamp justice."  Is there anyone who understands Florida better than Carl Hiaason?
  • Robin D. Laws, City of Heroes:  The Freedom Phalanx.  Gaming tie-in novel, the second (and last) to be published.  "Despair stalks the streets of Paragon City.  Five decades after Statesman and his allies first formed the Freedom Phalanx, that legendary group of heroes is no more and power-mad villains stand poised on the brink of ultimate victory.  The fledgling hero Positron  has a plan to stop them:  rebuild the Freedom Phalanx.  but the world's mightiest champions no longer see the point in battling alongside others, not when they have their own private wars  to wage and personal demons to conquer.  For Positron to forge a new Freedom Phalanx  and save Paragon city from the schemes of the dreaded Tyranny Legion, he must first save Statesman, Manticore, and the other crime-busting legends from their greatest enemies -- themselves."
  • Elizabeth Linington, Policeman's Lot.  An Ivor Maddox mystery.  "Two people have disappeared -- a gas-station attendant and a doctor.  Is there a connection between the two men?  that's what Ivor Maddox and the ret of the men of the LAPD have to find out; but first they have to find out if there's even a crime involved.  They know there's a crime involved in the hit-and-run accident...in the activities of a gang of teenage car thieves...and with the counterfeiting ring they're trying to collar.  They also know that a recently discovered gun has had a long lit of previous owners -- and that one of them is a killer!"  Also, as by "Dell Shannon," Double Bluff.  a Luiz Mendoza mystery.  "When an agitated gentleman reports that his sister has been murdered by her husband, Lt. Mendoza is skeptical; there is no corpse to support the charge.  An examination of her house turns up the woman's glasses and dentures, but the owner is not at home.  Nor will their owner ever need them again, as soon her body is found in her car, at the bottom of a cliff.  Strangely enough, the autopsy reviews that she died of a head wound inflicted before the car plunged over the precipice.  In spite of the accusation against her husband, an inheritance of two million dollars suggests more than one person may have been interested in the woman's death.  the woman's niece is a high-priced prostitute who was about to be written out of the will; the woman's brother was madly in love with their niece.  and the husband of the deceased, who may indeed be innocent, refuses to substantiate his alibi.  Distracted by a new situation on the home front -- Mendoza's wife Alison is pregnant -- the dedicated Lt. must wade through a tangled skein of motives to find the person who killed for profit -- or for passion1"
  • Jonathan Maberry, Bad Moon Rising.  Horror novel, the third novel in the Pine Deep trilogy.  "Each year, the residents of Pine Deep host the Halloween Festival, drawing tourists and celebrities from across the country to enjoy the deliciously creepy fun.  Those who visit the small Pennsylvania town are out for a good time, but those who live there are desperately trying to survive...For a monstrous evil lives among them, a savage presence whose malicious power has grown too powerful even for death to hold it back.  Only a handful of brave souls stand against the king of the dead and a red wave of destruction,  Daylight is fading and a bad moon is rising over Pine Deep.  Keep watching the shadows..."
  • Louise Penny, A Better Man A Three Pines/Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel.  "It's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache's first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir.  Floodwaters are rising across the province.  In the middle of the turmoil, a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter.  As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned.  but with a daughter of his own, he finds himself developing a profound, and perhaps unwise, empathy for her distraught father.  Increasingly hounded by the question how would you feel?..., he resumes the search.  As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught against Gamache becomes crueler, a body is discovered.  And in the tumult, mistakes are made.  Gamache must face a horrific possibility, and a burning question.  What would you do if your child's killer walked free?"  Shame on me, I have not yet read any of Penny's critically acclaimed mysteries.
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry of the Future.  Science fiction.   "...a masterpiece of the imagination. using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all.  Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us.  chosen be Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis."  Jonathan Letham calls it "The best science fiction nonfiction novel I've ever read."
  • Dan Wells, Mr. Monster.  Thriller, a sequel to I Am Not a Serial Killer.  In the previous book, "John Wayne Chester saved his town from a murderer even more appalling than the serial killers he obsessively studies.  But it turns out even demons have friends, and the disappearance of one has brought another to Clayton County.  Soon there are new victims for John to work on the mortuary and a new mystery to solve.  But John has tasted death, and the dark nature he used as a weapon -- the terrifying persons he calls 'Mr. Monster' -- might now be using him.  No one in Clayton is safe unless John can vanquish two nightmarish adversaries:  the unknown demon he must hunt and the inner demons he can never escape..."





Stay Away From Seattle:  Seattle is one of the great American cities.  With a population of 775,000, it is the largest city in the American northwest and is the 18th largest city in the country.   Seattle is the home of Amazon, Norstrom, Weyerhaeuser, Expedia, Zillow, and some company that specializes in pretentious, over-priced, burnt-caffeine drinks; companies located in the Seattle area also include Costco, Microsoft, Nintendo, and T-Mobile.  Seattle currently has an estimated 54,200 millionaires and 11 billionaires.  (The city also has 11% of its population and 6.8% of its families living below the poverty line; an estimated 22.3 % of those living below the poverty line were either under 21 or over 60 years of age.)

A seaport city, Seattle enjoys a "warm-summer Mediterranean climate," with cool, wet winters and relatively dry summers.  The city is known for its musical history.  The very first Beatle record played on American radio was played on a Seattle station.  The city helped develop the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and Bumps Blackwell.  Musical groups from Seattle have included The Brothers four, The Fleetwoods, The Wailers, The Ventures, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Heart, The Foo Fighters, and Death Cab for Cuties.  Artists whose careers were advanced in Seattle include Kenny G, Jimi Hendrix, and Nikki Sixx.  the city is home to the Seattle City Orchestra, the Seattle Opera, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the largest youth symphonic organization in the united States, the Seattle Youth Orchestras.  The city boasts over 100 theatrical production companies and over two dozen live theater venues; it is probably the second only to New York for professional theater companies, with 28 theater companies having Actors Equity contracts.  Poetry is  big in Seattle, with a number of world and national Poetry Slam champions; the biennnial Seattle Poetry festival brings poets from around the world.  Seattle is also the supposed home of the television show Frazier.  And who can forget Sleepless in Seattle?

Seattle is home of the Space Needle, and of the Seattle Great Wheel, one of the largest Ferris wheels in the country.  The city is dotted with museums of all stripes, and hosts festivals galore.  The popular Seattle underground tour visits locations that existed before the city's Great Fire in 1889.  (Who can forget the scenes in Seattle's underground city in the television film The Night Strangler, with Darren McGavin as intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak?).  The Port of Seattle  and the Seattle-Tacoma Airport are major transportation hubs.  The University of Washington was ranked in 2017 in U.S. News & World Report as eleventh in the world.

Seattle has seven professional sports teams: the Seahawks (NFB), the Mariners (MLB), the Kraken (NHL), the Sounders (Major League Soccer),  the Storm (WNBA),  the Reign (National Women's Soccer League), and the Seawolves (Major League Rugby).  An early Seattle team, the Metropolitans, was the first American Hockey team to win the Stanley Cup back in 1917.  From 1968 to 2008, Seattle was home to NBA's Supersonics.  the city also has two collegiate sports teams, the University of Washington's Huskies and Seattle University's Redhawks.

Seattle's crime rate for both violent crime and property crime dropped in 2023, with a combined drop of 10%.

As you can Seattle is a city with many pluses, a city that has attracted a lot of new residents and a lot of tourists.  Some people are wary of the city's rapid growth.  Thus the annual Stay Away from Seattle Day was instituted to allow Seattle residents to stop, take a breath, and enjoy their city in peace and comfort. for at least one day.  The holiday was invented by a guy named tom Roy, a man who had never been to Seattle, or, indeed, Washington state.  (Roy was also the man who created Don't Step on a Bee Day and Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day.)  The holiday has taken off and has become very popular, although it should be noted that the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce does not support the holiday and more than one resident thinks the whole thing is stupid.  But, thanks to Hallmark, Huff Post, and others, the day is here to stay.  Seattle is a city of small neighborhoods and super friendly people.  The people are even friendly on Stay Away from Seattle Day.

HOW TO CELEBRATE STAY AWAY FROM SEATTLE DAY:
  • Stay away from Seattle
  • I mean it.  Stay away.  Go somewhere else.  Come back tomorrow.





Another Possible Holiday:  Try this one for size -- Haitian Dog and Cat Appreciation Day.  It could be celebrated in any one of the 67 so-named population centers in the Untied States, as well as in foreign countries studded with Springfields, such as England and Ireland.  It would be best celebrated in cities with a Haitian immigrant population, which could sponsor events to raise funds for local animal shelters.

I would also suggest that it could be celebrated with food festivals, all of which could offer the "J. D. VANCE," a really big wiener topped with a Haitian condiment, such as pikliz.  Here's a recipe for pikliz:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailv2&iss=sbi&FORM=recidp&sbisrc=ImgDropper&q=How+To+Make+Haitian+Pikliz+(Popular+Spicy+Condiment)&imgurl=https://bing.com/th?id=OSK.e178f39ae5b7efc395763b310a885458&idpbck=1&sim=4&pageurl=4c8e86d5ea5eea64e9ddb926e1657fab&idpp=recipe&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

Also at the food festival should be "The Trump," a really, really small cocktail wiener advertised as the biggest in the world:  "You've never seen anything this size before!"  "The Trump" wiener should come with a small magnifying glass, because its size keeps diminishing.

It's hard to believe that such a ludicrous claim of immigrants eating household pet would gain substance.  Well, it would be hard to believe if I did not live in an area where about 60% of the population -- what I call the Kool-Aid drinking majority -- did not believe wholeheartedly in MAGA lies.  **sigh**

Cities named Springfield have a storied place in our culture.  Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, Guiding Light, and The Simpsons all take place in a Springfield somewhere.  Now Springfield is another stories location, and the story is far more fictional than any of those others...





Other Holidays Today:
  • National Cinnamon Raisin Bread Day
  • National Guacamole Day
  • Play-Doh Day
  • Wrinkled Raincoat Day
  • National Tattoo Story Day (I'll gladly tell you the story of my one and only tattoo)
  • National Collect Rocks Day
And, more importantly,
  • International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer
  • National Stepfamily Day
  • National Respect for the Aged Day (Third Monday in September)
  • Trail of Tears Commemoration Day
  • National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims of Hurricane Katrina
  • Mexican Independence Day
  • Working Parents Day
  • Mayflower Day
  • Anne Bradstreet Day (commemorating the first writer in England's North American colonies to be published)

This week also marks:
  • Adopt a Less /Adoptable pet Week
  • Malnutrition Awareness Week
  • Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Wee
  • National Hispanic Heritage Week
  • Pollution Prevention Week
  • Prostate Cancer Awareness Week
  • National Truck Driver Appreciation Week
  • National Indoor Plant Week
  • National Historically Black Colleges & universities Week
  • National Adult Day Services Week
  • National Eczema Week
  • International Clean Hands Week

This is also:
  • AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Month
  • Animal Pain Awareness Month
  • Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month
  • Chiari Malformation Awareness month
  • Children's Good Manners Month
  • Classical Music Month
  • Eat Chicken Month
  • Happy Cat Month (void in MAGAland's Springfield)
  • National Blueberry Popsicle Month
  • National Bourbon Heritage Month
  • National Courtesy Month
  • National Wilderness Month
  • Self Improvement Month
  • Shameless Promotion Month
May you celebrate each with the dignity it deserves.






Honorius I:  On this day in 681, Pope Honorius I was excommunicated by the Sixth Ecumenical Council.  I doubt that he was bothered by this, though, because by then he had been dead for some 43 years.

Not much is known about Honorius I.  His historical record started on October 27, 625 when he was proclaimed Pope, just two days following the death of Pope Boniface V.  The short turnaround is probably due to the presence in Rome of Isaac the Armenian, the imperial exarch in Italy, who, as such, was authorized to confirm Honorius's election.  Honorius himself was an aristocrat from Campania, the son of the consul Petronius.  Beyond that, we know little of his beginnings.

During his rule as Pope, there was much discussion of Monothelitism, the theory that Christ has just one energy and one will, as opposed to two energies and two wills, each human and divine.  Initially, Honorius was thought by some to subscribe to Monothelitism, stating that Jesus had just one will and did not assume the human nature tainted by Adam's fall, but assumed a nature that existed before Adam's fall.  He did not truly support Monothelitism; rather that Jesus did not have two separate wills -- one of the flesh and one of the spirit, such as men have because of sin, but that Jesus had one natural will regarding his Humanity.  Such arguments and parsing of words and phrases were important to the early Church.  Honorius was later faulted for not ending the Doctrine of Monothelitism.

By 681, Monothelitists were widely condemned by the Church as heretics and followers of "the insane false doctrine of the impious Apollinaire, Severus and Themistius," specifically pointing out the long-dead Honorius, "who did not attempt to sanctify this Apostolic Church with the teaching of apostolic tradition, but by profane treachery permitted its purity to be polluted."  Thus, Honorius was anathematized and excommunicated with the blessing of then-Pope Leo II.  Leo's successors as well as subsequent councils continued to ratify the action.  As late as the nineteenth century, attacks on Honorius would be by opponents of the theory of papal infallibility.  Current thinking appears to be that Honorius was not really concerned with the theology of the matter and considered the argument to merely be more of grammar than theology.

Honorius remains one of two Popes excommunicated by the Catholic Church; the other was Leo I.  The Church has also excommunicated five saints:  Athanasius in the fourth century, Leo I in the fifth century, Columba in the sixth century (the excommunication was later deemed to bean abuse of justice and the charge was removed) , Joan of Arc in 1431 (she was fully reconciled at her Trial of Nullification in 1456), and Mary Mackillop in 1871; (she had angered Church officials by reporting clergy child sex abuse, angered others about educational issues, and was reputed to have a drinking problem -- her drinking was under doctor's orders to relieve symptoms of dysmenorrhea; an episcopal commission leter completely exonerated her.)





Under Two Jags:  A short silent film from 1923, produced by Max Roach and starring Stan Laurel, Katherine Grant, Mae Laurel (Stan's common-law wife), Sammy Brooks, and William Gillespie.  

Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson.  He met Mae Dahlberg in 1921; she convinced him to change his name to Stan Laurel because, having thirteen letters, "Stan Jefferson" was unlucky.  Laurel had already appeared in one film with Oliver Hardy in 1921, but it would not be until 1928 that the pair would team up to produce the wide string of comedies for which they are famous.

In Under Two Jags, Laurel plays a Foreign Legionnaire who has two women fall in love with him.

Enjoy this early comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP_-31CRcbg&list=PLA_4nSuZvaobm_Y0EzxSoVt2FEFxICmOj&index=22






Ha Ha:  A sixty-year-old multimillionaire just married a twenty-year-old model.  When asked how he managed to catch such a beautiful woman, he said, "I lied about my age."  "Oh.  Did you tell her you were forty?"  "No, I told her I was ninety."





B. B. King:  Today would have been his 99th birthday...

"The Thrill Is Gone"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oica5jG7FpU

'Lucille"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8hOvsg_AiY

"Sweet Little Angel"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNr_eIgP0tI

"Three O'Clock Blues"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ozjCQkqZs

"Don't Answer the Door"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjvru8f_t4o

"Bring It On Home To Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwbHQQuUovo

"Blues Boys Tune"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29wMp2nnx_0

"Rock Me Baby"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUD4Sz3STps

"Hold On I'm Coming" (with Eric Clapton)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lthX6gVC6e4

"Why I Sing the Blues"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccHrgxsO9z0







Florida Man:
  • Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.  Florida Man Gary Rivera, of Miami (age not given), has been found guilty of the production and the attempted production of child sexual abuse material.   Evidence at his trial revealed that Rivera gifted three items to a child; each item contained a hidden camera that could be controlled remotely.  The child's mother found the camera and contacted the Clay County Sheriff's Office.  When authorities looked at Rivera's cell phone, they found 14 files containing child abuse materials, as well as a control device for the hidden cameras.  Rivera was found guilty of three counts, each of which has a minimum sentence of 15 years up to thirty years in federal prison.  Rivera will be sentenced in early December.
  • Less than two weeks after a deadly school shooting in Georgia, schools in Florida and elsewhere in the country have been inundated with hoax threats of school violence.. these threats are coming from the students themselves and are being sent across social media platforms.  Near where I live, threats have arisen in Pensacola and in nearby Okaloosa County.  In Volusia County, Sheriff mike Chitwood said the situation is "absolutely out of control" and that his department has spent nearly $21,000 investigating bogus school threats in just one day.  54 threats were reported in less than one day.  Chitwood is threatening action.  Already his department has arrested a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old student on felony charges' a third student is being investigated.  He told parents that he would take their children and "perp walk" them, and if he finds that parents knew about the activities and did nothing, he would also perp walk them.  "This is absolutely ridiculous," he said.  "Go talk to the parents who have lost a loved one in a school shooting.  These knuckleheads think its funny.  Go talk to those parents and see how funny it is.  It's not."
  • Florida Man Amos Lee Hendricks, 36, of Marathon, appears to be not a fan of fresh bedding.  An unsuspecting nurse at the Fisherman's Hospital emergency room was met with a surprise punch, a neck grab, and an attempted kneeing from Hendricks when she attempted to change his soiled sheets.  "Clean sheets" are evidently fighting words in some parts of Florida.  
    Hendricks than compounded his woes by resisting arrest.
  • Florida Man Daniel James Lunch, 61, of Big Pine Key, decided to beautify his neighborhood by showing up at a neighbor's residence in a state of undress.  Not once, but twice.  In addition to attempting to improve the neighborhood aesthetics in this manner, Lynch reportedly engaged in some self-entertainment.  The neighbor, who now may be wishing she did not invest in her high-definition security camera, was at least able to provide footage to the police.  Lynch was arrested and charged with burglary, indecent exposure, and harassment.
  • Florida Man Christopher Kilpatrick, a former gas station employee, has been charged after a woman complained that she had been "poked" in the back while at a self checkout at a Circle K in Davenport.  Surveillance video from inside the store shows that Kilpatrick had exposed himself while poking the woman, and that he had done the same to another woman earlier that day.  Further examination of that day's security video allegedly shows Kirkpatrick recording photos and videos looking up the skirts of two other videos.  When interviewed, Kirkpatrick admitted to taking upskirt photos of between 300 to 400 woman, including juveniles, in a similar manner.






Good News:
  • A music festival comes to the rescue of fans.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/when-music-festival-ticket-holders-couldnt-get-a-refund-another-unaffiliated-festival-stepped-up/
  • Trucking firm transports tons of snow from the North to the South so special needs kids can have fun.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/hearts-melt-as-truck-firm-transports-tons-of-snow-from-north-to-south-for-special-needs-kids-to-have-fun/
  • Gene therapy trial shows 100 times improvement in sight.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/100-times-improvement-in-sight-seen-after-gene-therapy-trial/
  • We need more heroes like this.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/surveillance-shows-jon-bon-jovi-stopping-woman-from-jumping-off-bridge-in-nashville/
  • Lost Rembrandt found in Maine attic.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/lost-rembrandt-found-tucked-away-inside-an-attic-in-maine-sells-for-1-4-million-in-bidding-war/
  • Eagle Scout renovates Oklahoma nun's food bank.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/handy-with-a-hammer-and-saw-eagle-scout-hopeful-renovates-oklahoma-nuns-food-bank/
  • Charles Barkley keeps a one million dollar promise.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/charles-barkley-donates-1-million-to-new-orleans-academy-where-these-teens-solved-pythagoras-theorum/
  • Targeted sound waves can treat pain and depression.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/targeted-sound-waves-treat-pain-and-depression-in-as-little-as-one-40-minute-session/





Today's Poem;
At the California Institute of Technology

I don't care how God-damn smart
these guys are:   I'm bored.

It's been raining like hell all day long
and there's nothing to do.

Written January 24, 1967
while poet-in-residence at
the California Institute of
 Technology.

-- Richard Brautigan