BITS & PIECES

Well, my computer's acting up again and I spent half the weekend trying to recover/rewrite much of this post that vanished into the ether.  I got some of it, couldn't get it all.  That's why this very lengthy post is shorter than I planned.  Maybe I'll squeeze the missing stuff in next time... 

Openers:  Station WQJ was on the air.  Its waves were spreading through the ether, seeking the favor of a vast audience that ignored it.  Few radio listeners had ever heard of WQJ.  Their dials were tuned for large and more popular stations, particularly at this hour -- eight in the evening -- when national networks were parading their best-liked programs.

Those millions who scorned station WQJ were to miss the most sensational radio mystery that had ever been staged.  Real tragedy, not the mock variety, was on the air tonight.

One group of listeners was interested in the program from WQJ, although they had not been forewarned regarding its real significance.  The group was gathered in a small, well-furnished office that formed part of an apartment.  They were the guests of New York's police commissioner, Ralph Weston.

The commissioner, a brisk man with a military mustache, was still explaining matters to his friends, while a voice from the radio was filling in a with a drab announcement of the program.  Beside the radio set was a stocky, swarthy man who was trying to hear the announcer over Commissioner's Weston's voice.  The swarthy man was Joe Cardona, an inspector of the New York police force.

"It's a new kind of mystery drama," stated Weston.  "This letter" -- he showed a typewritten sheet -- "suggested that we listen in.  Apparently, the program has some featured that give new slants on crime detection.  That ought to interest you, Graham"

-- The Murder Master, as told to "Maxwell Grant" (Walter B. Gibson), from The Shadow Magazine, February 15, 1938.

Yes, it's another adventure of that mysterious nemesis of crime, The Shadow -- a figure who has many names, but is, in reality, Kent Allard, the internationally famous aviator.  the Shadow began as the mysterious personage introducing CBS Radio's The Detective Story Hour in 1930 (it was actually a half hour radio program, but who am I to quibble?). which presented adaptations of stories published in Street and Smith's Detective Story magazine.  Fans were a bit confused and, conflating the magazine title, began asking news dealers for "the Shadow magazine."  This led Street and smith to consider publishing a magazine based around the central figure of "The Shadow."  Detective Story editor Frank Blackwell was asked to start such a magazine, and was given an unpublished Nick Carter detective story for the first issue.  It happened that Gibson, a professional magician and reporter, was visiting Blackwell that day, and he asked Blackwell for permission to rewrite the Carter story.  The first issue of The Shadow Magazine was dated April dated 1931 and featured Gibson's story The Living Shadow, published under the house name "Maxwell Grant."  The magazine ran for 325 issues, each with a Shadow novel, ending with the Fall, 1949 issue; Gibson wrote 282 of the original novels.

But The Shadow was not done.  From 1963 to 1969, Belmont Books published nine new novels featuring the character, one by Gibson and the remainder by Dennis Lynds, all under the "Maxwell Grant."  Gibson also wrote two Shadow short stories for anthologies in 1979 and 1980.  Author Will Murray, working from un published material written in 1932 by Doc Savage creator Lester Dent, published a novel featuring both Doc Savage and The Shadow in 2015; a sequel came out in 2016.  I hesitate to mention the abominable series of "authorized" Shadow novels perpetrated by James Patterson and Brian Sitts, beginning with 2021's The Shadow.

The character has also had a long life on the radio, in films, in a syndicated daily comic strip, in comic books, and in a video game, and several attempts have been made to bring The Shadow to television.

But what of The Murder Master?  He is the demonic, laughing figure who used the WQJ studios to announce imminent murders -- three victim within fifteen minutes -- and the police could do nothing to stop him.  As a coup de grace, the Murder Master also announced to upcoming murder of The Shadow!  Can The Shadow, who found himself near death from electrocution at the hands of the Murder Master, be able to stop this fiend?  I think you know the answer.

The Murder Master was the 144th novel in the series, and the 141st written by Gibson.

Incoming:

• Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Scarred Woman.  Scandinavian crime novel in the Department Q series.  "In a Copenhagen park, the body of an elderly woman is discovered.  The case bears a striking resemblance to an unsolved murder more than  a decade ago, but the connection between the two victims  confounds the police.  Across town, a group of young women are being hunted.  The attacks seem random, but could these brutal acts of violence be related?  Detective Carl Morak of Department Q, Copenhagen's cold case division, is charged with solving the mystery.  Back at headquarters, Carl and his team are under pressure to deliver results:  failure to meet his superiors' expectations will mean the end of Department Q.  Solving the case, however, is not their only concern.   After a breakdown, their colleague Rose continues to struggle with the reemergence of her past.  It'd up to Carl, Assad, and Gordon to uncover the dark and violent truth at the heart of Rose's childhood before it is too late."
• 'Catherine Aird" (Kim Hamilton McIntosh), His Burial Too.  An Inspector C. D. Sloan mystery.  "The first sign anyone had that something was wrong in the tiny Calleshire village of Cleete was when Fenella Tindall woke up to find her father missing.  Nobody at his office has seen him that day either, and when the body of a man is found crushed to death under the fragments of a massive marble statue in the local church tower, Inspector C. D. Sloan's suspicions that the victim may be Richard Tindall are soon confirmed.  This doesn't make his superior officer, Superintendent Leeyes, at all happy, nor does a second murder, this time of a prominent industrialist.  Meanwhile, back at the research firm of Struthers and Tindall, an important file has gone missing, and somebody is very anxious to buy the company.  Once again Sloan is assigned his least favorite partner, the inept Detective Constable Crosby (generally known as the 'Defective Constable'), and together they patiently fit together the pieces to solve the case."
• Mike Ashley, editor, four horror anthologies, all from The British Library Tales of the Weird series:  Fear in the Blood:  Tales from the Dark Lineages of the Weird, 18 stories by various writers showcasing lineages that echo through the history of weird fiction:  Dickens, Hawthorne, Le Fanu, Pangborn, Marryat, and Aiken.  The Platform Edge:  Uncanny Tales of the Railways, 18 strange railway stories dating from 1885 to 1976.  Queens of the Abyss:  Lost Stories from the Women of the Weird, 16 stories by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Marie Corelli, E. Nesbit, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Marie Belloc Lowndes, and others. And, Weird Sisters:  Tales from the Queens of Pulps, 14 stories (1926-2011) from women who had a distinct impact on Weird Tales and other pulps.  There are many other books in this great series and I'm tempted.  I'm tempted.
• C. J. Box, editor; Otto Penzler, series editor, The Best American Mystery Stories 2020.  Best of the year collection with twenty stories.  It should be noted that Penzler (who selected the original list from which Box chose the stories) has a very wide definition of "mystery."  Authors include James Lee Burke, David Dean, Jweffrey Deaver, John M. Floyd, Tom Franklin, and John Sanford. 
• Marion Zimmer Bradley & Deborah Ross, Thunderlord.  Science fiction/fantasy, a Darkover novel, the fourth in the internal chronology of the series.  Bradley died in 1999 and this book is copyrighted 2016,  so the inclusion of her name as co-author is most likely a courtesy.   "Far in Darkover's past, the Ages of Chaos were a time of constant warfare, when immensely powerful; psychic weapons ravaged the land and slaughtered entire armies.  Perhaps none was more dangerous and unpredictable than the mental Gift to sense -- and control -- thunderstorms.  When the realm of Aldaran and their Scathfell cousins came to blows, that Gift turned the tide of battle, and Aldaran prevailed.  A generation later, Gwynn-Alar, the heir to Scathfell, plots revenge for his family, seeking a wife from the Gifted Rockraven clan.  Since childhood, Kyria Rockraven has been able to sense approaching storms.  hoping to secure her family's financial future, Kyria accepts the proposal and sets out for Scathfell, accompanied by her beloved younger sister, Alayna.  But as they travel through the mountains, a blizzard drives them to seek shelter, where they encounter Edric, the young heir to Aldaran.  Edric, too, inherited the storm control laran, which he has never dared tio use.  Now, disguised as an ordinary traveler, he journeys home after years spent learning to control his powers.  When he meets Kyria, he senses the presence of the same laran.  Though they know each other only as Kyria and Edric, they find themselves drawn to one another -- and when Kyria is abducted, Edric tears off in pursuit.  Neither returns, leaving a devastated Alayna to continue on to Scathfell to fulfill the marriage contract in her sister's stead."
• Larry Correia, Warbound.  Fantasy, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles.  "Only a handful of people in the world know that mankind's magic come from a living creature, a refugee from another universe.  The Power showed up here in the 1850s because it was running from something.  Now it is 1933, and The Power's hiding place has been discovered by a killer.  The Power's nemesis is a predator that eats magic and leaves destroyed worlds in its wake.  Earth is next.  Jake Sullivan, former private eye, knows the score.  The problem is hardly anyone believes him.  The world's most capable active, Faye Vierra, could back him up, but she is hiding from the forces that think she is too dangerous to let live.  So Jake has put together a ragtag crew of airship pirates and Grimnoir knights and sets out on a suicide mission to stop the predator before it is too late."
• Wes Craven, Fountain Society.  Thriller.  "A tale of breakthrough medical technology run amok, a terrifying government conspiracy, and a life-after-death love story.  At the center is a sinister plot to confer immortality on a select, elite group of government scientists -- a plot of such fiendish, cold brutality and evil that has long been kept secret -- including from most of those who might one day benefit from it.  Peter Jance is a brilliant scientist, dying of cancer as he hears completion of his greatest invention.  Beatrice is his beautiful scientist wife.  Dr. Frederick Wolfe is the dark genius who, with Beatrice's help, has discovered the secrets of immortality.  Elizabeth and Hans, young lovers, healthy and strong, are the unknowing victims of Wolfe's sinister plans." 
• Charles de Lint,Someplace to Be Flying.  Urban fantasy.   "Lily is a photojournalist, stealing away from the music scene she usually covers to pursue bizarre rumors of 'animal people' living in the ruins of the Tombs -- the city's darkest slums.  Hank, on the other hand, knows the crumbling tombs all too well.  This is the part of the city he calls home, creating a life and a ragtag family on streets where many fear to tread.  One night, in a  brutal incident, their lives collide -- uptown Lily and downtown Hank, each with a quest and a role to play  in the secret drama of the city's oldest inhabitants -- the animal people.  For the animal people walk among us.  Native Americans call them the First People, but they have never left, and they live disguised among us.  And they claim the city for their own.  Coyote the Trickster, wily, dangerous, and utterly compelling.  Jackdaw the Storyteller, nursing the secret wounds of tragedy.  Raven, guarding the pot that holds the birth and destruction of life itself.  The unpredictable Fox, the deadly cuckoos, the Wolves that prowl city streets.  And the Crow Girls, two charming young punks who delight in mischief, gossip, and thievery -- and who are much. much more than they seem.  Not only have Hank and Lily stumbled onto a secret, they've stumbled into a war.  But in this battle for the city's mythic soul, nothing is quite as it appears"
• Gordon R. Dickson, two novels and two collections.  The Dorsai Companion . A collection of Dickson's shorter pieces -- 'illuminations' of the Childe Cycle -- presented together, for the first time, in one remarkable volume.  Including new, previously unpublished material, these stories magnify and elucidate the stunning world that has enthralled Dickson's readers for decades."  (The Childe Cycle -- Dickson's unfinished magnum opus -- a thematic treatment of the evolution of the human race from the fourteenth century to the twenty-fourth century; the completed works -- six novels and a number of shorter works -- begin in the twenty-first century.)  Also, In Iron Years.  A collection of seven science fiction stories (the inside blurb says nine stories -- oopsie!), dating from 1956 to 1974.  And, Young Bleys.  A novel in the Childe Cycle.  "By the workings of chance Bleys Ahrens was born the genetic equal of Hal Mayne, the hero of The Final Encyclopedia, but he was destined by nuture to a far different fate.  Raised alone by hin unhappy Exotic mother, Bleys was an outcast from every society until his half-brother Dahno claimed him.  Disciplined by Friendlies, schooled by Exotics, Dahno was beginning to nuold an interplanetary network of half-breeds, who call themselves 'Others.'  But Dahno thought only of gaining wealth and power for himself; Bleys saw an opportunity to challenge the Dorsai for control of the human worlds."  Also, by Gordon R. Dickson and David W. Wixon, Antagonist.  A novel of the Childe Cycle, published six years after Dickson's death; Wixon was Gordon R. Dickson's assistant for many years.  "Donal Graeme was a Dorsai, a mercenary soldier, and also a mutant gifted with insight into the path forward for the human race.  Through his gifts, Graeme would come to bend time and live three lifetimes -- and, in the process, run up against the existence of another mutant, Bleys Ahrens.  Like Graeme, Ahrenas has a clear vision of the struggle in which he's involved -- but, unfortunately, much less a sense of human values.  Ahrens and his organization, the Others, are tracking down an elusive interplanetary opposition -- but his own personal quest for power, which began with the best of motives, has become something darker and more fierce.  Ahren's devisings may bring about the advent of Homo superior,  And they may destroy the human race."
• Charles Earle Funk, Thereby Hangs a Tale:  Stories of Curious Word Origins.  Non-fiction.  A delight for word browsers like me.
• Parnell Hall, Caper.  A Stanley Hastings mystery.  "Poor Stanley Hastings.  After getting hired by a hitman and nearly getting shot, the put-upon PI needed some fun, so when a gorgeous damsel in distress walks through his office door, she seems just what the doctor ordered.  Wrong again.  The fair maiden turns out to be a married woman who wants Stanley to out  why her teenage daughter is skipping school.  Playing truant officer isn't exactly Stanley's idea of fun, but at least it should be easy.  Fat chance.  Stanley being Stanley, nothing goes right, nothing is as it seems, bodies start to pile up, and faster than you can say 'fall guy,' guess who's left holding the bag?"  Also, Last Puzzle and Testament, the second in the Puzzle Lady series.  "Emma Hurley died the way she lived -- surrounded by an air of mystery, with only her servants at her side.  That is, until she finally passes away -- and her greedy heirs crawl out of the woodwork to stake a claim to Emma's fortune.  But unlike most people, Emma was not content to leave behind a simple will.  instead, her final testament includes of all things, a clever puzzle...one to be given only to her living heirs.  the first one to solve the puzzle will inherit Emma's entire estate; everyone else will be left with a pittance.  Complicating matters further, the will stipulates that Cora Felton -- local celebrity and famed author of a popular syndicated crossword puzzle column -- must referee the contest.  Unfortunately, Cora knows far more about the fine art of mixing a martini  than creating -- let alone solving -- crossword puzzles.  It's Cora's niece Sherry who's the brains behind Cora's 'Puzzle Lady' personas.  And it's up to Sherry to unravel the bizarre riddle Emma Hurley engineered before her death.  for soon it is plain that Emma's game is one without a clear winner...and that the players could lose far more than they ever imagined."
• Charlie Huston, Six Bad Things.  Crime novel, the second in the Henry (Hank) Thompson  trilogy.  "Hank Thompson is living off the map in Mexico with a bagful of cash that the Russian mafia wants back and many, many secrets.  So when a Russian backpacker shows up in town asking questions, Hank tries to play it cool.  But he knows the jig is up when the backpacker mentions the money...and the family Hank left behind.  Suddenly Hank's in a desperate race to get his parents in California before anyone can them.  Along the way he'll face Federales and Border Patrol, mafiosi and vigilantes, extortionists and drug dealers, and a couple of psychotic surf bums with an ax to grind. From the golden beaches of the Yucatan the seedy strip clubs of Vegas, Charlie Huston opens a door to the squalid underworld of crime and corruption -- and invites the reader to live it in the extreme."  And, A Dangerous Man.  The third book in the Henry Thompson trilogy.  "Reluctant hitman Henry Thompson has fallen on hard times.  His grip on life is disintegrating, his pistol hand shaking, his body pinned to his living room couch by painkillers -- and his boss, Russian mobster David Dolokhov, isn't happy about any of it.  So Henry is surprised when he's handed a new assignment:  keep tabs on a minor league baseball star named Miguel Arenas.  Henry has no pity for the slugger and the wicked gambling problem that got him in trouble, but he can't help liking the guy.  After all, Henry used to be just like him:  a natural-born baseball player with a bright future.  But hell, that was long ago.  Before Henry did some guy a favor and ended up running for his life.  Before he agreed to buy his parents' safety with a life of violence.  And when Miguel gets drafted by the Mets and is sent to the Brooklyn Cyclones, Henry must head back to New York, back to the place where a;; his problems began -- and where Henry might find the real reason to keep living, a reason that may just cost him his life."  Also, Already Dead.  Vampire crime novel, the first in the Joe Pitt series.  "There's a shambler on the loose.  Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around. trying to much on folks' brains.  Joe hates shamblers, but he's still the one who has to deal with them.  That's just the kind of life he has.  Except afterlife might be a better word.  From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres.  Joe is one of them, and he's not happy about it.  Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he's tough as nails to kill.  but spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that's eating at him isn't his idea of a good time.  And he doesn't make it any easier on himself.  Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan -- it ain't easy.  It's worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition -- the city's most powerful Clan -- and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who's gone missing from Alphabet City.  Now the Coalition and the girl's high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him.  No time to complain. though.  Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down...and before the sun comes up."
• William Kotzwinkle, Jack in the Box.  Comic coming of age novel from the author of Doctor Rat, E.T. the Extraterrestial, The Fan Man, and the Walter the Farting Dog books, as well as a childhood friend of Joe Biden.  "Here comes Jack Twiller!  The bravest cowboy on the block, astride his invisible horse, making the bumpy journey from childhood to young manhood.  Here comes Jack Twiller!  Spurred on by Captain Marvel, the Lone Ranger, the Boy Scouts, James Dean, sexual madness, and the fabled contents of Gina Gabooch's brassiere.  Here comes Jack Twiller!  Plunging into the teenage abyss, always surprising, always surprised -- kust like a JACK N THE BOX." 
• William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace,  Edgar-winning crime novel.  "New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961.  The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter oh Halderson's Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack.  It was a tine of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president.  But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum, a preacher's son, it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms.  Accident.  Nature.  Suicide.  Murder.  Told from Frank's perspective forty years later, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him.  It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God."
• Richard Laymon, The Woods Are Dark.  Horror novel.  "Neala and her friend Sherri only wanted to do a little hiking through the woods.  Little did they know they would soon be shackled to a dead tree, waiting for Them to arrive.  The Dills family thought the small hotel in the quiet town seemed quaint and harmless enough.  Until they, too found themselves shackled to trees in the middle of the night, while They approached, hungry for human flesh..."  The original publication of this book cut nearly fifty pages from the novel; this has now been restored.  We'll see if that was a good decision.
• Dennis Lehane, editor, Boston Noir.  Original anthology of eleven noir tales  taking place in Boston and its immediate surroundings.  Authors include Lehane, Stuart O'Nan, Brendan DuBois, Jim Fuselli, and others.
• Jonathan Lethem, Chronic City.  Novel, exploring "the disconnections among art, government, space travel and parallel realities,,,All truths and realities are open to interpretation, even negotiation."
• Peter Lovesey, Cop to Corpse.  a Peter Diamond novel.  "PC Harry Trasker is the third policeman in the Bath area to be shot dead in less than twelve weeks.  The assassinations are the work of a sniper who seems to be everywhere and nowhere at once, always a step ahead.  The younger detectives do their best with what little evidence he leaves, but they're no match for this murderer and his merciless agenda.  When Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond is assigned to the case, he consults the dead officers' widows and begins to find curious connections.  But then a chilling encounter with the killer leaves Diamond in the lurch and the sniper in the wind.  Things get even more complicated when the evidence starts to suggest that the killer might be one of Britain's finest -- a theory unpopular among Diamond's colleagues.  Can Diamond manage to capture the elusive killer while keeping his team from losing faith in him?"
• Brian Lumley, Necroscope:  The Lost Years.  Horror, the ninth book in the popular series of eighteen books; this contains the first half of the duology, to be followed by Necroscope:  The Lost Years:  Volume II.  "As a young man, Harry Keough discovered that he was a Necroscope -- that he could take to the dead and converse with the greatest minds from centuries past.  Harry Keough wrote novels, composed symphonies, and patented inventions -- all creations of the dead men and women who were his friends.  He even ;earned how to transport himself instantly to any place in the world.  His most horrifying discovery was that vampires stalked the earth, seeking human blood and human victims, and that they were a thousand times more terrible than anyone had ever imagined.  Joining forces with a supersecret organization of people with psychic posers, Harry Keough made it his life's work to battle the undead vampires and the evil they spawned, no matter where that journey might take him or what penalties he might have to pay.  In the heat of the war against the vampires, Harry's wife and infant son disappeared.  For eight years Harry searched for his family, scouring the Earth for even a trace of his loved ones.  The story of those years has never been told -- until now."
• Ngaio Marsh. Alleyn and Others:  The Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh.  Contains two essays by Marsh about Scotland yard Inspector Roderick Alleyn, four short stories about Alleyn, foiur non-series stories, a telescript, and a newly discovered short story by Marsh (which may have been her first published fiction).
• Sharyn McCrumb, The PMS Outlaws.  An Elizabeth MacPherson mystery,  "Hospitalized for depression over her missing husband, forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson is pleased to discover that insanity liberates one from polite hypocrisy.  Out in the real world, Elizabeth's brother, Bill, has bought a stately old mansion to use as his law office, only to find that the house comes with a charming lodger-in-residence who is far too old to be a dangerous outlaw...isn't he?  Meanwhile, Bill's law partner is trying to track down the PMS Outlaws -- an escaped convict and her fugitive attorney -- who are cruising pickup joints and wreaking a peculiar vengeance on lust-crazed men."  I have always enjoyed McCrumb's writing, but even more so after I realized that she was a dead ringer for my late sister, Linda.
• Adrian McKinty, Fifty Grand.  Suspense thriller.  "a man is killed in a hit and run on a frozen mountain road in the town of Fairview, Colorado.  He is an illegal immigrant in a rich Hollywood resort community not unlike Telluride.  No one is prosecuted for his death, and after a hurried funeral service his case is quietly forgotten.  Six months later another illegal makes  a treacherous run ac ross the border.  Barely escaping with her life and sanity intact, she goes to work as a maid for one of the employment agencies in Fairview.  She does her job well, keeping her head down, saying little, and dissolving into the background, but secretly she begins to investigate the shadowy collision that left her father dead.  But the maid isn't just a maid after all.  She's Detective Mercado, a police officer from Havana, and she's come to America looking for answers:  Who killed her father?  Was it one of the smooth-talking Hollywood types?  Was it a minion of the terrifying country sheriff?  And why was her father, a celebrated defector to the U.S., hiding in Colorado as the town ratcatcher?  What happened all those years ago when he and a dozen friends hijacked a Havana Bay ferry, sailing it to the Keys?  Mercado doesn't have long to find these answers.  If she doesn't get back to Havana within a week her family will be arrested and the police will be on her trail.  Caught up in a devil's playground of human trafficking, drug dealing. Hollywood decadence, murder, cover-up, presidential politics, sex, and espionage, Detective Mercado must steer clear of Fairview's cops, gangsters, and would-be allies, navigating her own entanglements with the town's more salacious temptations as she conducts her unofficial investigation."
• Chuck Palahniuk, Bait:  Off-Color Stories for You to Color.  Collection/coloring book of eight stories with line art by eight illustrators.  Interesting concept from an interesting and off-times unpredictable author.
• Gary Phillips, The Unvarnished Gary Phillips.  Collection of 17 "mondo pulp" tales.  "[S]traddles the line between bizarro, science fiction, noir, and superhero classics.  in these pages grindhouse melds with Blaxplotation along with strong doses of B-movie hardcore drive-in fare."
• Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky.  Fantasy, the second Tiffany Aching adventure in Pratchett's Discworld universe.  "Witch-in-training Tiffany Aching hadn't expected magic to involve chores and ill-tempered nanny goats!  But as Tiffany pursues her calling, a sinister monster pursues Tiffany, and neither Mistress Weatherwax (the greatest witch in the world) nor the six-inch-high Wee Free Men (the greatest thieves in the world) can defeat it.  When the monster strikes, Tiffany will have to save herself -- if she can be saved at all!"
• "Dere Raymond"  (Robert "Robin" Cook), How the Dead Live.  the third book in the Factory Series -- 'the books that revolutionized British noir."  "The nameless detective visits a decrepit country house to look into the case of a disappeared woman.  It is, for the detective Sergeant, a deeply unsettling investigation of love and damnation.  The woman's husband seems to love her entirely.  And yet he seems reluctant to find her, preferring to hide in a house that resembles the set of a horror film.  Meanwhile other cops are getting in the way of the Sergeant and he's making new enemies on the force.  With growing desperation and his traditional sense of enraged compassion, the Sergeant fights to uncover a murderer not by following analytical procedure, but by doing the most difficult thing of all:  understanding why crimes are committed."  
• "James Rollins" (Jim Czajkowski), Black Order.  Thriller, the third book in the SigmFa Force series.  "In Copenhagen...a suspicious bookstore fire propels Commander Gray Pierce on a relentless hunt across four continents -- and into a terrifying mystery surrounding horrific experiments once performed in a now-abandoned laboratory buried in a hollowed-out mountain in Poland.  In the mountains of Nepal...in a remote monastery, Buddhist monks inexplicably turn yo cannibalism and torture -- while Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force, begins to show signs of the same baffling, mind-destroying malady...and Lisa Cummings, a dedicated American doctor, becomes the target of a brutal clandestine assassin.  Now only Gray Pierce and Sigma Force can save a world suddenly in terrible jeopardy.  Because a new order is on the rise -- an annihilating nightmare growing in the heart of the greatest mystery of all:  the origin of life."  the author also writes as James Clemens.
• Rob Spillman, editor,  Fantastic Women:  18 tales of the surreal and the sublime from Tin House.  Stories from the literary magazine.  Authors include Kelly Link, Lydia Davis, Lydia Millet, Karen Russell, and others.
• James Thomas, Denise Thomas, & Tom Hazuka, editors, Flash Fiction:  Very Short Stories.  72 stories by well-known and not-so-well-known authors.  Included are Margaret Atwood, Heinrich boll, Richard Brautigan, Raymond Carver, Julio Cortazar, Mary Morris, and Joyce Carol Oates.
• Terri Windling, The Good Wife.  Fantasy novel, winner of the Mythopoetic Fantasy Award.  "Leaving behind her fashionable West Coast life, Maggie Black comes to the Southwestern desert to pursue her passion and her dreams.  Her mentor, acclaimed poet Davis Cooper, has mysteriously died in the canyons east of Tucson, bequeathing her his estate and the mystery of his life -- and death.  Maggie is astonished by the power of this harsh but beautiful land and captivated by then uncommon people who call it home -- especially Fox, a man unlike any she has ever known, who understands the desert's special power.  As she reads Cooper's letters and learns the secrets of his life, Maggie comes face-to-face with the wild, ancient spirits of the desert -- and discovers the hidden power at its heart, a power that will take her on a journey like no other."
• Connie Willis, Doomsday Book.  Time travel science fiction novel, winner of the Nebula and the Kurd Lasswitz Prize, nominated for a Hugo, Locus, BSFA, SF Chronicle, Mythopoetic, Clarke, Primio Ignotus, and Imaginaire Awards, and named number 37 in a Best Twentieth Century Science Fiction poll.  "For Kivrin, preparing for on-site study of one of the deadiest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone.  For Dunworthy and her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be retrieved.  But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in the most dangerous year of the Middle Ages as her fellows try desperately to rescue her.  In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin -- barely of age herself -- finds she has become an unlikely Angel of Hope during one of history's darkest hours."

A Dad Joke:  I seldom make good decision and things tend to go very wrong.  I once decided to try bobsledding and things went downhill from there pretty fast.

Celebrate:  Today is National Dolphin Day.  what couold be better?

Perhaps Don't Celebrate:  I am not going to mention another holiday being celebrated today because I blush.  It involves cake.  If you are really curious you could look it up, but don't say I didn't warn you!

I Like This Song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE-hE-2xh8o

And This One:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB3KaZNWKII

Birthday Felicitations:  Once again it's time to jump down the rabbit hole and see who is celebrating today.

Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198), Andalusian polymath who wrote over 100 books covering philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, linguistics, and Islamic jurisprudence and law; he wrote a lot about Aristotle, and was called "The  Commentator" and "Father of Rationalism"; Henry I of Castile (1204-1217). a hapless king, he became heir to the throne at age seven when his brother Ferdinand died, and king at age 10 when his father, Alfonso VIII, died, and his older sister Berengaria became regent, when he was 11, he married Matilda of Portugal, but the marriage -- which was not consummated -- was dissolved by Pope Innocent II the following year, and Henry became engaged to his cousin Sancha, Henry died at age 13 when a roofing tile fell on him; Jeanne-Marie de Maille (1331-1440), French anchoress and saint, her marriage to Roberto de Sille remained chaste (with Roberto's permission) and the two spent much of their time feeding the poor and caring for the sick, after Roberto's death from battle injuries in 1353 she became a nurse to help the ill, then she had a vision of Saint Ivo of Kermartin told her to remain in the world in a spirit of faith, she became a member of the Third Order of St. Francis and was noted for the advise she gave during her lifetime, she was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1871; Abraham Otelius (1527-1598), Netherlandish cartographer who created the first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published in 1570, he was the first person to suggest that continents were joined before drifting to their present positions (the theory of continental drift); Adam Tanner (1572- 1632), Austrian Jesuit and mathematician, noted for defending the Catholic church and its practices against Lutheran reformers, he was also outspoken against the use of torture in witch hunts, after his death, he was refused a Christian burial and remains in an unmarked grave because a "hairy little imp" was found on a glass, plate in his possession; Philip III of Spain (1538-1621), king from 1598 until his death, his family was inbred (his parents were uncle and niece as well as fist cousins once removed, Philip's older half-brother died insane, and Philip himself married his cousin Margaret), although Spain was at its height, Philip's reign marked the beginning o tis decline, he was an "undistinguished and insignificant man," "a miserable monarch," and a "Pallid, anonymous creature, whose only virtue appeared to reside in a total absence of vice"  (**sigh**); 

Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), a major figure in the Scientific Revolution, he studied the rings of Saturn and discovered its largest moon, Titan, he invented the pendulum clock (the most accurate timekeeper for 300 years), he made major contributions to optics (the wave theory of light) and mathematics (the theory of evolutes), he was the first to identify the correct laws of elastic collision, he was the first tom idealize a physical problem by its mathematical parameters, he gave the first mathematical and mechanistic explanation of a physical problem, and he geometrically derived the formula for centrifugal force...in short, he was a pretty smart cookie; Abraham Darby I (1677-1717), English ironmonger and foundryman who developed a method of producing pig iron in a blat furnace using coke rather than charcoal, the first major step in producing iron for the Industrial Revolution; Charles Colle (1709-1783), French dramatist and songwriter, author of La Veritie dans la vin (1747), as well as many popular frank, jovial, and often licentious songs, his earliest work appears to have been amphigouris -- verses whose merit was measured by its unintelligibility; Adam Gib (1714-1788) Scottish religious leaders, head of the Antiburgher section of the Scottish Secession Church, he was dogmatic, fearless, rude, scornful, and despotic, he reported wrote his first covenant with God in his own blood; Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738-1809), Prime Minister of Britain in 1783, the of the United Kingdom from 1807 to 1809, making the gap of 26 years between his terms as Prime Minister the longest in British history, an ancestor of King Charles through his great-granddaughter, Cecelia Bowles-Lyon, who was the mother of Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother), Charles's grandmother, during his first term as Prime Minister the Treaty of Paris was signed, formally ending the American Revolutionary War, during his second term he was basically an acceptable figurehead; David G. Burnet (1788-1870), the second vice president of Texas, 1839-1841, and the Secretary of state after Texas entered the Union, 1846, after Sam Houston's victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, Burnet took custody of Mexican General Santa Anna and negotiated the Treaties of Velasco, many Texans were angered that Santa Anna had escaped execution and called for Burnet to be arrested for treason (he wasn't), Burnet served for seven months in an interim capacity as the first president of Texas after he had declined to run for president, Burnet was senile in his later years and burned all his private papers shortly before his death; Prince Dmitri Kipiani (1814-1887), Georgian statesman, publicist, and writer, known for his support of Georgian culture and society, exiled in 1886 and murdered by Russian imperial authorities, he was the first Georgian translator of Shakespeare and wrote Modern Georgian Grammar, he was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church in 2007; Harriet Ellen Arey 1819-1901), American educator, author, and publisher, she was one of the first  to be educated in a co-educational environment, she was co-founder and first president of the Ohio Women's Press Association and served on the board of the Women's Christian Association, she co-published The Home Monthly, the first magazine devoted to the interests of the home, her books included Household Songs and Other Poems and Home and School Training; Augustus Pitt Rivers (1827-1900), British army officer and archaeologist, his international collection of about 22,000 items was the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford and his collection of English archaeology from the area of Stonehenge is the basis of the Salisbury museum in Wilshire, he was greatly influenced by the evolutionary writing of Darwin and Spencer, and arranged his collections to be displayed typologically and (within types) chronologically, he was also an early advocate of cremation; Alexander Greenlaw Hamilton (1852-1941), Austrian naturalist born in Ireland, noted for his studies of pollination, desert plants, birds, and terrestrial worms, among the species named afvter him are the plants Drosera hamiltonii, Pterostylis hamiltonii, Scavola hamiltonii, the earthworm Spenceriella hamitonii, and a subspecies of Southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius hamiltoni; Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (later Princess Henry of Battenberg, 1857-1944), fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria, and the last of Victoria's children to die, Victoria relied heavily on Beatrice (whom she called 'Baby") and Beatrice felt she was fated to stay with her mother forever, despite having many suitors, Beatrice finally fell in love with Henry of Battenberg and, after a year, finally persuaded her mother to consent to he marriage (by law, Victoria's consent was necessary), provided that Henry and Beatrice move in with Victoria and that Beatrice continue her unofficial duties as Victoria's secretary, after ten years of marriage Henry died of malaria while fighting in the Anglo-Asante War, and Beatrice stayed on at her mother's side until Victoria's death five years later, Beatrice spent the next thirty years editing her mother's journals; Anne Sullivan (1866-1936), American educator, tutor and life-long companion to Helen Keller, and eye disease left Anne partially blind at age five and without writing or reading skills, when she was ten she was sent to an alms house that was part of the Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts, around that time, an investigation was launched into the hospital because of rumors of cruelty to inmates (including "sexually pervert practices and cannibalism" !!!), when she was twelve, Anne was sent to a hospital in nearby Lowell, Massachusetts, for an unsuccessful operation, soon she was back in Tewksbury under duress. where she was house with single mothers and unmarried pregnant women, in 1880 Anne managed to convince a state inspector to have her transferred to the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, where she not only receive an education but had a series of operations that partially restored her sight, she graduated from Perkins at age 20 as Valadictorian, and was hired a few months later as a teacher for seven-year-old Helen Keller, neither the play nor the film The Miracle Worker went into details of Anne's horrid early life; Syd Gregory (1870-1929), Australian cricketer who played a world record 58 test matches during a career that spanned from 1899 to 1912, he was a right-handed batter and a renowned fielder, he captained Australia six times, winning two, losing one, with six drawn; Cecil Chubb (1876-1934), his wife inherited the mental asylum Fisherton House (later Old Manor Hospital, now Fountain Way) and Chubb became chairman, leading the hospital to become the largest privste mental hospitals in Europe, in 1915, on a whijmm, he bought Stonehenge at an auction for 6000 pouinds (about $875,000 in today's money -- well, pre-tariff rollercoaster, anyway); he donated Stonehenge to the British government in 1918 and waas ewared the following year by being named a baronet; Moritz Schlick (1882-1932), German philosopher and physicist, the founding father of logical positivism, his 1915 work Space and Time in Comtemporaary Physics used Poincare's geometric conventionalis to explain why /einstein used non-Euclidean geometry to form his theory of relativity -- a bookm that was praised by /einstein himself, Schick's major work was 1910's The Nature of Truth According to Modern Logic, unlike many of his colleagues he did not flee Austria during the rise of Nazism, he was shot and killed with a pistol by Johann Nelbock, a former student, who offered as motive Schlick's anti-metaphysical philosophy, as well as an excuse that he viewed Schlick as a rival for affections of a schoolgirl who had rebuffed him (political motives were never mentioned, although many feel that was the cause), the case became a cause celebre, with nationalist and anti-Jewish sentiments rising (although Schlick was not a Jew, he was a member of the intelligensia, which. as we all know, is as good as), Nelbock was sentenced to only ten years and was released on probation after only two; Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975), English intellectual and historian, regarde during his lifetime as one of the premiere historians of his time, author of the 12-volume Study of History (1934-1961), Toynbee was also an expert on international affairs, producing 34 volumes of the Survey of Internaational Affairs while serving as director of studies at Chatham House, a British think tank; Juan Belmonte (1882-1962), Spanish bullfighter who modernized the art(?) [SIDEBAR:  I am not a fan of bullfighting; I find it dehumanizing], Belmonte nhad slightly deformed legs, making it impossible to move or jump like other bullfighters, so he placed himself firmly in from on the bull, inches away from the horns (yes, he got gored many times), in the 1919 season, he fought 109 bullfights (corrodos), a record fianlly beaten in 1965 by Manuel perez (a few years earlier, matador Carlos Arruza fought 108 bullfights and refused to go any further because he did not want to break Belmote's record, fearing it would be an insult to the master), Belmonte's autobiography (ghosted by Manuel Chaves Nogales in 1937) was translated into Eng;ish by Leslie Charteris (creator of Simon Templar, the Saint) as Juan Belmonte, Killer of Bulls to some success.  Belmonte appeared in two novels by his friend Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon and The Sun Also Rises, like his friend Hemingway, Belmonte committed suicide by shotgun; V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957), Australian archaeologist, specializing in European prehistory, a prolific writer, he was co-founded and first president of the Prehjistopric Society in 1934, Childe was a socialist and a Marxist, using Marxist ideaas as an interpretive framework for archaeological data, he visited the Soviet Union several times but became disillussioned with Soviet policy following the Hungarian Revloution in 1956, he was barred from entering the United States because of his political beliefs (despite receiving many invitations to lecture here), toward the end, fearful of becoming old senile, a b(urden on society, and believing he had cancer, he told friends that he planned to move back to Australia, visit relatives, and committ suicide, which he did -- although many believe that the main cause of his suicide was his disillusionment with Communism;Claire Woindsor (born Clara Viiola Cronk, 1892-1972) silent film actress, a WAMPA Baby Star in 1922, and one of the leading actresses of the silent era and a fashion trend-setter, like may others, she did not navigate to sound films very well and she nver regained the luster of her early days, several of her omanatic entsnglements made tablopid copy in the 20s; 

John Geilgud (1904-2000), British actor, one of the best of his time, he was a member of the famed Terry Theatrical Dynasty -- his great-aunt was international star Elln Terry, his borther Val was a BBC radio executive who for 35 years made radio drama a major cultural force -- Guilgud ptreferred the stge early in his career, concenrtrating more on films during the last half of his career, in films he may be remembered for playing Asheden in/Hitchcock's Secret Agent, as Beddoes, opposite Albert Finney in Agatha Christie's 1974 Murder on the Orient Expressn and as the valet Hobson in 1984's Arthur,  Gulgud is an EGOT winner and a Bafta awardee; Faisel of Saudia Arabia (1906-1975), king of Saudi Arabia from 1964 until his assasination, the third son of King Adbulaziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, Faisel was a progressive and worked hard to bring Saudi Arabia into the modern word. instituting political, religious, social, and economic reforms, while udating the countries edutation, health serices, and infrastructure, he believed in pan-Islamism, was anti-Communist and pro-Palestinian, by most accounts, he was known for his integrity, humility, kindness, and tact, hard-working and one to avoid extrsvances, he was shot point-blasmk and killed by Faisel bin Musaid, the son of hisn halkf-brother on March 25, 1975, the current leadership of Saudi Arabia is pure-dee evil, IMHO;Francois Duvalier (1907-1971), "Papa Doc," the president of Haiti from 1957 until his death, a voodooist,an oppresive despot who formed a secret government death squad -- the Tonton Macoute -- to torture and kill his opponents (one method of torture was to immerse the victim into a bath of sulfuric acid), Duvalier used Haitian mythology to build a cult of personality around himels, he suffered a major heart attack in 1959 which left him in a coma for nine hours and may have caused significant brain damage, in 1963 he began a nationwide search for one of his political opponents and, when told the man may have transformed himself into a black dog, ordered that all black dogs in the capitol city be shot on sight, he declared himself President for Life in 1965, upon his death he was succeeded by his 19-year-old son "Baby Doc," who was little better, the regine fell in 1986; Valerie Hobson (1917-1998), English actress who played Baroness Frenkenstein in Bride of Frankenstein, appeared opposite of Henry Hull in Werewolf of London, was the adult Estrella in David Lean's Great Expectations, and played Edith D'Ascoyne in Kind Hearts and Coronets, her second husband was John Profumo, the British minister who was caught with his pants down with Christine Keeler in 1963, Hopbson stuck by Profumo during the affair and the two spent years doing charity work and slowly reviving hs reputation, it seemed to hve worked because he was invited to Maggie Thatchert's 70th birthday party, where he was seated next to the Queen; Marvin Miller (1917-2012), American labor leader and baseball executive, the first presidnet of the Major Leaague Baseball Players Association, which he led until 1982, during which time there were three strikes and two lockouts; Mary Healy (1918-2015), American actress and singer who worked with her husband Peter Lind Hayes for fifty years, she made her screen debut in 1938, the following year hse had a major role in the film Star Dust, in which she sang Hogy Carmichael's title song, she and her husband were the first oto sing the jinglehttps://misscellania.blogspot.com/2025/04/coyote-alert.html"See the USA in Your Chevrolet," which began a signature song for Dinah Shore, she and Hayes headlined at the Sands Hotel in las Vegas 14 times; Thomas Scjhelling (1925-2016), American economist who won a Nobel Prize for "having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game theory analysis; he died at age 95 following complications from a hip fracture;  "Shorty' Rogers (born Milton Rojonsky, 1924-1994. American jazz musician and trumpet and flugelhorn player, one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz, Rogerd was also in his demand as an arranger and worked with Herb Alpert, Chet Baker, Elmer Bernstein, Les Brown, Bobby Darin, Frances Faye, Bobbie Gentry, Jerry Golsmith Vince Guaraldi, Lena Horne, Dean Jones, Frankie Lane, Peggy Lee, Harvey Mandel, Carmen McRae, The Monkees, Michael Nessmith, Buddy Rich, and Mel Torme, among others; Rod Steiger (1925-2002), American actor, he played the title character in Paddy Cheyevsky's 1953 teleplay Marty, he had notable roles in such films as Doctor Zhivago, On the Waterfront, The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, No Way to Treat a Lady, and The Illustrated Man, number of times for major acting awards and won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and two BAFTA Awards; Gloria Jean (born Gloria Jean Schoonover, 1926-2018), American actress who was in 26 feature films from 1939 to 1959, noted for her appearance with W. C. Fields in Never give a Sucker an Even Break, when she was 12 she worked with a small New York opera company and became the youngest member of an opera troupe in the United States, later her career was marked by a double whammy -- too old to be a child star and too young for adult roles,her highly-praised half-hour sequence from 1943's Flesh and Fantasy was removed at the insistence of a powerful stockholder, her lawyer made off with most of her money, she began to appear more and more in minor movies, a brief marriage failed, by the mid-Fifties she was working greeting and seating customers at a Studio City restaurant, Jerry Lewis hired her from that job and cast her for a singing role in 1961's The Lady's Man, then cut her scenes so she appeared only as an extra, the IRS came after her for unpaid taxes, and she ended up working as a receptionist for Redken Cosmetics from 1965 to 1993, Gloria Jean retired and eventually moved to Hawaii where several falls impaired her mobility, she died at age 92 of heart failure and pneumonia, throughout her life she retained her fan following and corresponded frequently with friends and admirers; Alan MacDairmid (1927-2007), New Zealand-born American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate in 2000, his best-=known research was in the discovery and development of conductive polymers -- plastic materials that conduct electricity -- the Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery that plastics can, after certain modifications, conduct electricity, this has led to important practical applications and the field of molecular electronics is predicted to dramatically increase speed, while reducing size, of computers, he was also an active waterskier and nudist,  he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome late in life, he died from injuries suffered when he fell down the stairs at his Pennsylvania home; Gerry Anderson (1929-2012), English film and television producer, director, and writer, noted for his work with puppets, including on the television programs Fireball XL-5 and Thunderbirds, as well as television programs UFO and Space 1999. he died of Alzheimer's but was about to raise over one million pounds for an Alzheimer's charity in just over a year; Martin Adolf Bormann (1930-2013), German theologian and Catholic priest, the eldest of ten children of Martin Bormann, Hitler's private secretary and the head of the Nazi Party Chancellery (Hitler was young Martin's godfather), he was an ardent young Nazi until 1945, when he found himself abandoned in Salzburg where (with false identity papers) he found refuge with a Catholic farmer, after the war h confessed his identity and was taken in the care of a local rectory, he converted to Catholicism, became a missionary and a priest, he had a near-fatal injury in 1959 and eventually left the priesthood to marry his nurse, he spent some twenty years teaching theology and speaking to schools in Germany and Austria about the horrors of the Third Reich, in 2011, a former student accused Bormann of raping him when the student was twelve, other students came forward to detail stories about physical abuse, by this time Bormann was suffering from dementia and made no statements about the accusations, no legal proceedings were made (although the accuser was awarded a sum from the independent Klasnic Commission, Bormann died 2013; Bradford Dillman (1930-2018), American actor, known for Compulsion, a slew of television appearances, and a number of television movies, he appeared in ten episodes of Falcon Crest, and was a guest on Murder, She Wrote eight times, he was married to actress and model Suzy Parker for forty years until her death; Loretta Lynn (1932-2022) American country music star, she wrote more than 160 songs, released 60 albums, had 10 No. 1 albums and 16 No. 1 singles on the country charts, won three Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, eight Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, 14 Academy of Country music awards, and 26 fan-voted Music City News awards, she's been the Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year, The Academy of Country Music's Artist of the Decade, and has been inducted into the Country music Hall of fame and the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame, she has been the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors (back when the Kennedy Center meant something), and was Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she received the country music pioneer award from the Academy of Country Music, in 2002 she was named number 3 (the highest ranking of any living woman) in in CMT television's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music, she was honored as a BMI Icon at the BMI Country Awards, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, she has received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, she was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1962, she has received both the Crystal Milestone Award from the Academy of Country Music and the Billboard Legacy Award for Women in Music, she was the subject of a PBS American Masters program in 2016, CMT named her Artist of a Lifetime, she was inducted into the Woman Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone placed her at number 132 of the 200 Greatest Singers of all time...not bad for a "Coal miner's Daughter"!...oh, and "Coal Miner's Daughter" was among NPR's 100 Most Significant Songs of the 20th Century; Boris Strugatsky (1933-2012) Russian science fiction author who collaborated with his brother on a number of internationally best-selling books, including Roadside Picnic, Destination:  Amalthea, Hard to Be a God, and Monday Begins on Saturday; the asteroid 3054 Strugatskia was named for the two brothers; Erich von Daniken (b. 1935), Swiss conman, nut job, pseudo-historian, author of Chariots of the Gods, Gods from Outer Space, the Gold of the Gods, and other drek, it may be of interest that, at the time his first book was published, von Daniken (previously convicted for theft, fraud, and embezzlement) was on trial for "repeated and sustained" embezzlement, fraud, and forgery (he received a three and half year prison sentence); Frank Serpico (b. 1936), retired New York City cop who blew the whistle on police corruption in 1967 and in 1970, he was played by Al Pacino in the film, during an arrest attempt in 1971 he was shot in the face, the bullet severed an auditory nerve and left several fragments in his brain, suspicions that he was set up by fellow officers were never proved, and the shooter was subsequently convicted of attempted murder; Julie Christie (b. 1940), English actress who has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actor's Guild Award,  she has appeared in six of BFI's Top 100 Films of the 20th Century, and has received a BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement, her films include Darling, Doctor Zhivago, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Fahrenheit 451, Petulia, Heaven Can Wait, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; Pete Rose (1941-2024) American baseball player, most prominently for the Cincinnati Reds as part of the "Big Red Lineup," "Charlie Hustle," he was banned from baseball in 1989, and prevented from being in the Baseball Hall of Fame because of a gambling scandal, for years he denied his involvement in the scandal but finally, in 2011, he admitted his guilt, Rose's pride was his downfall, the lawyer for the Baseball Commission once told me:  if Rose had simply admitted to the gambling, the punishment would have been light, but his repeated and vigorous denials forced the Commissioner's hand; Richie Blackmore (b. 1945), English musician, founding member and lead guitarist for Deep Purple, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 and acknowledged as one of the greatest and most influential guitar players of all time; Berry Berenson (1948-2002), american actress who appeared in Remember My Name, Winter Kills, and Cat People, the widow of actor Anthony Perkins, she died on American Airlines Flight 1 when it crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11; Dave Gibbons (b. 1949), British comics artist who collaborated with Alan Moore on Watchmen, he was a prolific contributor to the British weekly comics magazine 2000 AD beginning with its first issue in 1977, he drew the main story for Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly for all but four of its first 69 issues, he has worked on major titles for DC, Vertigo, Marvel, and Dark Horse; John Shea (b. 1949), American actor, he was Lex Luthor on Lois and Clark:  The New Adventures of Superman, was Adam Kane on Mutant X, and played Harold Waldorf for five years on Gossip Girl, he has 93 acting credits listed on IMDb, as well as 2 writing credits and 3 producing credits; 

Julian Lloyd Webber (b. 1951), British solo cellist and conductor, former principal of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and founder of the Harmony music education programme, the younger brother of Andrew Lloyd Webber; Bobbi Brown (b. 1957), American make-up artist and founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, she created ten natural-shade lipsticks which "revolutionized the beauty industry", and has written nine books on beauty and wellness; Peter Capaldi (b. 1958), the twelfth Doctor -- he's done a lot more, but really? do Whovians really care about that?; Brad Garrett (born Brad H. Gerstenfeld, 1960), American actor and stand-up comic, best known for his role on Everybody Loves Raymond (he won three Emmys and a Screen Actors Guild award) and for playing Jackie Gleason in the television film Gleason (he was nominated for both an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild Award); he's six foot eight inches tall; Robert Carlyle (b. 1961), Scottish actor, his films include Trainspotting, The Full Monty, and The World Is Not Enough, television credits include Stargate Universe and Once Upon a Time, for three seasons he played Scottish policeman Hamish Macbeth in the BBC mystery series, he's a member of Clan Bruce, Carlyle is a patron of "The School of Life" in Romania, he was given an OBE in 1999; Jeff Andretti (b. 1964), American former race car driver, son of Mario, brother of Michael, nephew of Aldo, uncle of Marco, cousin of John and Adam, racing appears to be in the blood, Jeff was Rookie of the Year in the 1991 Champ Car World Series; David Justice (b. 1966), American former baseball player who played 14 seasons in the Major Leagues, he was part of the World Series-winning 1995 Atlanta Braves and the 2000 New York Yankees, he was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1990 and is a three-time MLB All-Star, his batting average was ,249, with 305 home runs and 1017 RBIs, he has denied ever using performance enhancing drugs, his first wife (1993-1996) was actress Halle Berry; Greg Maddux (b. 1966), another former baseball player, this time spending 23 seasons in Major League Baseball as a pitcher, known as 'Mad Dog" and "the Professor," he was on the 1995 World Series Atlanta Braves, he won the Cy Young Award four consecutive times, he was the only pitcher in MLB history to win 15 games for 17 straight seasons, he is only one of ten pitchers to achieve 300 wins and 3000 strikeouts, and the only one to have 300 wins, 3000 strikeout and less that 1000 walks; Anthony Michael Hall (b. 1968), American actor who played Rusty Griswald in National Lampoon's Vacation, as a member of the so-called "Brat Pack," he appeared in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science, he had the lead role in The Dead Zone (2002-2007) and recently appeared as a main character in Season 3 of Reacher, he was a cast member during the 1985-86 season of Saturday Night Live; Roberto Ayala (b. 1973), Argentine former football (that's soccer, if you grew up like me) player, considered one of the best central defenders of his generation,  nicknamed "El Raton", he captained Argentina in a record 63 matches, played in three FIFA World Cups, and made 115 international appearances; Adrian Brody (b. 1973), American actor, winner of two Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, among his films are The Pianist and The Brutalist, his passionate kiss to presenter Halle Berry when he won the Oscar for The Pianist became controversial, Berry returned the kiss (with the permission of Brody's girlfriend) when he won the Oscar for The Brutalist, but this most recent kiss took a backstage to Brody's very lengthy acceptance speech; Da Brat (Shawntae Harris-Dupart, b. 1974), American rapper, her 1994 debut studio album Funkdafied was the first album by a female hip hop solo artist to go platinum, she has received two Grammy Award nominations, in 2002 she serve a year's probation after battering a woman with a gun over a dispute about VIP seating in an Atlanta nightclub, in 2008 she was sentenced to three years in prison for striking a woman in the face with a rum bottle, in 2010she was temporarily released after 21 months on a work-release program, and was released in 2011, a civil trail in 2014 awarded the victim %6.4 million to cover her injuries and lost wages, in 2022 she married hair product businesswoman and social media influencer Jesseca Dupart, in 2023 she gave birth to a son after an embryo transplant procedure; Lita (Amy Christine Dumas, b. 1975), American retired professional wrestler and singer, regarded as one of the greatest female wrestlers in history, a four-time WWF/WWE Women's Champion, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014, and (with Becky Lynch) won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in 2023, she formed the band The Luchagors in 2006 and they performed at various WWE events, she retired from wrestling in 2009 and splits her time between homes in Atlanta and Nicaragua; Georgina Chapman (b. 1986), English fashion designer and actress, she was a regular on Project Runway All Stars (2012-2019), and is co-founder of the fachion label Marchesa, she was married to Harvey Weinstein before leaving him in 2017 in the wake of multiple accusations of sexual abuse, since 2020 she has been in a relationship with actor Adrian Brody (see above); Sarah Michelle Geller (b. 191977), American actress, she won a Daytime Emmy Award for her breakthrough role as Kendall Hart in All My Children (1993-1995), multi-talented and multi-faceted, she will always be Buffy Summers to me; Harumafuji Kohei (b, 1984), Mongolian former professional sumo wrestler, he was the sport's 70th yokozuna from 2012 to 2017, and that's important -- take my word on that; and Abigail Breslin (b. 1996), American actress, at age 10 she played Olive Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine, followed by a slew of popular films, she was also a regular on the Fox television series Scream Queens, in 2017, she reported that an ex-boyfriend had raped her and that she is suffering from PTSD, she did not report it the time out of embarrassment and fear  of reprisals, she has since become a strong advocate against sexual assault, she married Ira Kunyanski in 2023.

These are just some of the people born under the sign of Aries -- some great and notable, a few not so great and a waste of protoplasm. but all have become part of the fabric of our lives in ways great and small.  I hope that we can draw inspiration and joy from many of them.  The human race is a wonderful thing and it's great to be just a small part of it.

Today's Poem:

Coal Miner's Daughter

Well, I was born a coal miner's daughter

In a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler

We were poor, but we had love

That's the one thing that daddy made sure of

He shoveled coal to make a poor man's dollar

My daddy worked all night in the Van Leer coal mines

All day long in the field, a-hoin' corn

Mommy rocked the babies at night

And read the Bible by the coal-oil light

Everything would start all over, come break of mornin'

Daddy loved and raised eight kids on a miner's pay

Mommy scrubbed out clothes on a washboard every day

While I've seen her fingers bleed

To complain there was no need

She'd smile in mommy's understanding way

In the summertime we don't have shoes to wear

But in wintertime, we'd get a brand new pair

From a mail order catalog, money made from sellin' a hog

Daddy always managed to get the money somewhere

Yeah, I'm proud to be a coal miner's daughter

I remember well, the well where we drew water

The work we done was hard

At night we'd sleep 'cause we worked hard

I never thought of leavin' Butcher Holler

Well, a lot of things have changed since way back then

And it's so good to be back home again

Not much left but the floor, nothin' lives here any more

Except the memories of a coal miner's daughter

-- Loretta Lynn