BITS & PIECES

Openers:  It is an old saw in the world of Nehwon that the fate of heroes who seek to retire, or of adventurers who decide to settle down, so cheating their audience of honest admirers -- that the fate of such can be far more excruciatingly doleful than that of a Lankhmar princess royal shanghaied as cabin girl aboard an Ilthmar trader embarked on the carkingly long voyage to tropic Klesh or frosty No-Ombrulak.  And let such heroes merely whisper a hint about a "lost adventure" and their noisiest partisans and most ardent adherents alike will be demanding that it end at the very least in spectacular death and doom, endured while battling insurmountable odds and enjoying the emnity of the evilest archgods.  

So when those two humorous dark side heroes the Grey Mouser and Fafhrd not only left Lankhmar City (where it's said more than half the action of Nehwon world is) to serve the obscure freewomen Cif and Afreyt of lonely Rime Isle on the northern rim of things, but also protracted their stay there for two tears and them three, wiseacres and trusty gossips alike began to say that the Twain were flirting with just a fate.

"The Mouser Goes Below" by Fritz Leiber (from the collection The Knight and Knave of Swords, 1988; portions of which were previously published as "Slack Lankhmar Afternoon Featuring Hisvet" in Terry's Universe, edited by Beth Meacham, 1988, and as "The Mouser Goes Below" in  Whispers, October 1987)

The adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser first saw print in 1939.  Their names were first devised by Leiber's friend Harry Otto Fischer in a letter dated September 1934.  Both Leiber and Fischer toyed with characters, penning several stories that would not see print until 1947; one early story was revised and finally printed in 1964, and another was incorporated into a 1961 story.  At least 31 stories about the pair were published, plus several vignettes and poems, collected in seven volumes.

Fafhrd is a tall (nearly seven-foot) barbarian warrior, modelled after Leiber; the Grey Mouser is an accomplished thief, modelled after Fischer.  Nehwon is a world in the multiverse where occasionally gods from other worlds appear,, most notably Loki and Odin.  The greatest city in Nehwon if Lankmar, home of rogues, sorcery, and danger.  Each of our heroes report to powerful sorcerous patrons,  Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face; these sorcerers sometimes like to toy with our heroes.  There are numerous gods for Nehwon, including three godlings (brutal Kos, spiderish Mog, and the limp-wristed Isak); they are upset when Loki who had been trapped by the Mouser and flung into a giant maelstrom, placed a curse on the Mouser that, even as Loki sinks under the water, may the Mouser sink under the ground -- how dare Loki try to take away one of their worshippers!  But requests from gods, however minor or foreign, should be respected.  Death and his sister Pain were told they could take the Mouser, but not just yet, effectively elongating the torture.

As mentioned above, Mouse and Fafhrd are enjoying life on Rime Isle with their mistresses, and their young nieces/acolytes.  Both have gathered loyal troops around them.  And then, Mouser suddenly sinks into the ground and is out of sight.  Is this the end of the Grey Mouser?  Perhaps not.  As Fafhrd says, "I've known the Grey One for some time.  It never does to underestimate  his resourcefulness under adversity or coolth in peril."

An amazing and entertaining capstone to an amazing and entertaining series.

Incoming:

• [anonymous editor; forward by Daniel Wittenberg], Time Travel Short Stories.  So I got a box of books and CDs from George, who is kindness personified, and this one was near the top.  31 new and classic tales, including right novel excerpts (Bellamy, Buchan, Dickens, London, MacKaye, Morris, Twain, and Wells --twice).  A good mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar.
• Charles Ardai, editor, Great Tales of Crime & Detection.  Another book from George.  Twenty-five short stories from the files of  EQMM and AHMM.  Authors include Block, Estleman, Asimov, Michael Innes, Eberhart, John Lutz, Dick Francis, Paretsky, Avram Davidson, Bloch, Kemelman, and Simenon, as well as Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Graham Greene, Poe, and Doyle.  Ardai went on to become co-founder nd editor of Hard Case Crime, as well as a noted author in his own right.
• Mike Ashley, editor, The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunnits.  Original anthology of 19 crime stories set in Egypt over the past four millennia.  Authors include elizabeth Peters, Paul C. Doherty, Keith Taylor, Lynda S. Robinson, Marilyn Todd, Ian Morson, Michael Pearce, and Gillian Bradshaw.
• Paul Auster, Travels in the Scriptorium.  Literary novel.  "An old man awakens, disoriented, in an unfamiliar chamber.  With no memory of who he is or how he has arrived there, he pores over the relics on the desk, examining the circumstances of his confinement and searching his own busy mind for clues.  Determining that he is locked in, the man -- identified only as Mr. Blank -- begins reading a manuscript he finds on the desk, the story of another prisoner, set in an unfamiliar, alternate world.  As the day passes, various characters call on Mr. Blank in his cell, and with each brings frustrating hints of his forgotten identity and his past,"
• Stephen Baxter, Moonseed.  Science fiction.  "It started the night Geena and Henry broke up.  What was that strange light in the sky?  A new star?  A comet?  Neither.  It was the death of Venus.  As if to commemorate the bitter end of NASA's golden couple, Venus has explored, showering the Earth with deadly radiation and bizarre particles. Moonseed is the the story of a menace that falls to Earth from an unimaginably distant past, pushing us to the brink of an extinction event unparalleled in out planet's history.  Henry is the NASA geologist who strives to understand what is happening.  Geena is the astronaut whose help he needs to make possible the greatest evacuation since Noah braved the flood."
• Terry Bisson, The Outspoken and the Incendiary:  Interviews with Radical Speculative Fiction Writers.  Another example of George the Tempter at work.  Among the authors covered are John Crowley, Samuel R. Delany, Cory Doctorow, Karen Joy Fowler, Elizabeth Hand, Nalo Hopkinson, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Joe R. Lansdale Ursula K. Le Guin, Jonathan Letham, Ken Macleod, Michael Moorcock, Kim Stanley Robinson, Rudy Rucker, John shirley, and Norman Spinrad. 
• C. J. Box, Badlands.  Thriller, a Cassie Dewell novel.  "Twenty miles across the North Dakota border, where the scenery goes from rolling grass prairie to pipeline fields, detective Cassie Dewell has been assigned to be the new deputy sheriff of Grimsted -- a place people used to be from but were never headed to.  Grimsted is now the oil capital of North Dakota.  With oil comes money, with money comes drugs, and with drugs come the dirtiest criminals hustling to corner the market.  In the small town resides twelve-year-old Kyle Westergaard.  Even though Kyle has been written off as the 'slow' kid, he has dreams deeper than anyone can imagine.  He wants to get out of town, take care of his mother, and give them a better life.  While delivering newspapers, he witnesses a car accident and takes a mysterious bundle from the scene.   Now in possession of a lot of money and packets of white powder, Kyle wonders if his luck has changed.  When the temperature drops to thirty below and a gang was heats up, Cassie realizes that she may be in way over her head.  As she is propelled onto a collision course with a murderous enemy, she finds that the key to it all might come in the most unlikely form:  an undersized boy on a bike who keeps showing up where he doesn't belong.  Because a boy like Kyle is invisible.  And he sees everything."
• Jerome Charyn, editor, The New Mystery. subtitled "The International Association of Crime Writers Essential Crime Writing of the Late 20th Century."  Also from George (may his blessings ever increase).  Forty-two short stories, many with a literary and international bent.  There are a number of authors here that I am not familiar with and I am eager to sample their work.
• Douglas Corleone, Bae-1.  A near-future AI novelette, Book One of the Ghost Signal:  Dark Frequencies series.  "LynnAnn Duff would do anything to see her son smile again.  When a revolutionary new service called Bae-1 promises to rekindle hope by reuniting the lonely with their long-lost loves --- through the magic of AI -- she signs up without hesitation.  At first ir works; Howie is happier than  she's seen him in years.  But as the illusion deepens, so does Howie's obsession.  And by the time LynnAnn realizes the truth, it's far too late to turn back."  Also, Room E-36.  The second volume in the series.  "Veteran travel writer Jack Alden has spent his life chasing the warmth of human hospitality -- from barefoot beach shacks to billion-dollar resorts.  But nothing prepares him for his SmartStay at The Echo in Oahu.  the world's first fully automated luxury hotel, operated without a single human staff member.   Jack is repulsed by the idea.  Cold.  Calculated.  Soulless.  Still, he agrees to stay -- planning to expose the hotel; in print as a high-tech graveyard dressed in luxury linens.  Bur Room E-36 has other ideas..."
• Michael Crichton, Jasper Johns.  Nonfiction.  The life and work of the visual artist, in celebration of an international (New York. Cologne, Paris. London, Tokyo, San Francisco) showing of his work in 1978.  Heavily illustrated.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Lost World & Other Stories.  A collection of the three Professor Challenger Stories and the two short stories.  Much of this is essential reading, although I balk at the novel The Land of the the Mist, which promulgates Doyle's spiritual leanings.  Another great book from George.
• Day Edgar, editor, The Saturday Evening Post Reader of Sea Stories.  Twenty stories first published from 1916 to 1961.  Authors include Jack London, Ray Bradbury, Robert Nathan, Robert Murphy, C. S. Forester, and H. E. Bates. 
• Lee Goldberg, Crown Vic 2:  If I Were a Rich Man.  Noir novella, "brutal, sexually explicit, and darkly funny."  "Ray Boyd is an ex-con traveling the open road in a used Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, going wherever his need for money and sex lead him. thinking only of himself and nobody else... {Now} Ray is on the trail of lost diamonds from a legendary jewel heist ... and stumbles into a twisted honey trap."
• Christopher Golden, Of Saints and Shadows.  Horror novel, the first in the Shadow Saga, and his first novel.  "A secret sect of the Catholic Church, armed with an ancient book of the undead called The Gospel of Shadows, has been slowly destroying vampires for centuries.  Now the book had=s been stolen, and the sect races to retrieve it before their purpose is discovered:  a final purge of all vampires.  As the line between saints and shadows grow ominously faint, private eye Peter Octavian is drawn into the search.  And he'll do anything to find the book...for Peter Octavian is also a vampire.  Ostracized by his kindred for refusing to take part in the 'blood song,' he cannot stand by and watch while they are destroyed. In a deadly game with a driven, sadistic assassin., the trail leads to Venice and the time of carnival, where the Defiant Ones, as the vampires are known, engage in a savage battle for their lives."
• "Michael Innes" (J. I. M. Stewart), The Ampersand Papers.  A Sir John Appleby mystery.  "Sir John Appleby is back -- and literally on the spot -- when the body of Dr. Sutch, an architect, plunges down the cliff from the North Tower of Treskinnick Castle, the Cornish ancestral home of Lord Ampersand.  Was he pushed, and if so, why?  Could the motive be the missing Ampersand papers, potentially valuable family documents that could contain lost correspondence from Shelley and Byron?  Or could it be the legendary Ampersand gold, the treasure from an Armada galleon, reputedly hidden in the castle?  The investigation takes up through a maze of speleology and genealogy, right to the core of bitter family enmity.  It all adds up to a fast-paced mystery, with dozens of unexpected twists, and a solution that comes as a real surprise."
• Kij Johnson, At the Mouth of the River of Bees.  Collection  of 18 speculative fiction storiews from the Hugo, Sturgeon, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award winner.
• Keith Lansdale, Joe R. Lansdale, & Karen Lansdale, In Waders from Mars.  Children's book, based on a story by Keith Lansdale when he was five.  Ducks from Mars come to conquer earth.  They have "silly silver spacesuits" and wear waders.
• [Yo Yo Ma}, Classic Yo Yo, Simply Baroque II, and (with others)Tchaikovsky Gala in Leningrad.  Also (but not including Yo Yo Ma), Cello Adagios, over 24 hours of classical music from 10 noted performers and orchestra.  I have some great listening ahead of me on these CDs.  Again, Thanks, George!
• Randall Munroe, What If?  Serious Scientific Ansswrs to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.  Are you filled with weird questions, such as what would n happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light?  Or, if every person an Earth aimed a laser pointer at the mon at the same time, would it change color?  Or, could you built a jetpack by using downward-firing machine guns?  Or, what place on Earth would allow you to free-fall the longest by jumping off it?  What about using a squirrel suit?  Fear not, these questions and more are answered ina very serious manner by the genius behind xkcd.com and its What If! feature.
• "Flann O'Brien" ( Brian O'Nolan), Further Cuttings from Cruiskeen Lawn.  A follow-up to The Best of Myles, a collection of comic pieces O'Brien wrote for The Irish Times under the name of "Myles na Gopaleen" between 1940 and 1966.  This volume comes "in response to the clamorous demands of men of science aand the art, men of steam, of sraw, and of the the law..."  A jopyous collection.  O'Brien may best be known here for his classic novels The Third Policeman and At Swim -- Two Birds.
  
• Amy Poehler, Yes. Please.  Short comic sketches.
• "J. D. Robb" (Nora Roberts) Naked in Death.  Near future mystery novel, the first of umpty-ump zillion in a series.  "Eve Dallas is a New York police lieutenant hunting for a ruthless killer.  In more than ten years on the force, she's seen it all -- and knows that her survival depends on her instincts.  And she's going to need every warning telling her not to get involved with Rourke, an Irish billionaire --and a suspect in Eve's murder investigation.  But passion and seduction have rules of their own, and it's up to Eve to take a chance in the arms of a man she knows nothing about -- except the addictive hunger of needing his touch."  I've picked up a few books in this very popular series lately, but I've been holding off on them until I could read the first one; I probably have no excuses left now.
• Leonard W. Roberts, South from Hell-fer-Sartin:  Kentucky Mountain Folk Tales,  Animal tales. ordinary tales, jokes and anecdotes, and myths and local legends...I'm a sucker for this stuff.
• "Kenneth Robeson"  (Lester Dent, except where noted),  Eight Doc Savage pulp novels:  The Fantastic Island (from Doc Savage Magazine, December 1935; written by Dent and W. Ryerson Johnson; "It looked just like any other deserted island.  Bur hidden under its tropical sands was a monstrous slave empire, a vast underground network of death pits, giant carnivorous crabs and prehistoric beasts, ruled by the blood-crazed Count Ramadanoff.  Blasting their way into this nightmare of horror, Doc Savage and 'the fabulous four' embark on their most daring adventure."), Fear Cay (from Doc Savage Magazine, September 1934; "It was all a great mystery.  who was this man called Dan Thunden who claimed he was one hundred and thirty tears old?  Did he really have the secret to the fountain of youth?  What was this island called Fear Cay that spelled horror and death?  What was the strange thing that turned men to bone?  These were the mysteries that Doc Savage and his fearless crew had to solve at the peril of their own lives.")  Land of Always-Night (from Doc Savage Magazine, March 1935; written by Dent and W. Ryerson Johnson; "With the fate of America hanging in the balance, Doc Savage and his fearless crew battle a hideously white-faced man named Ool who kills merely with the touch of his finger.  The only clue to this diabolical power is a mysterious pair of dark goggles which brings death to whomever possesses them.  Th trail leads to a fabulous lost super-civilization hidden deep in the bowels of the earth, where Doc Savage and his fabulous five face their supreme challenge."); Murder Melody (from Dox Savage Magazine, November 1935; written by Lawrence Donovan; "It began with a series of quakes which tore huge, gaping holes in the surface of the earth.  Soon the sky over the Northeast was filled with the bodies of strange floating men playing a weird melody of death.  Was the world doomed?  Could Doc Savage and his Fabulous Five save it from almost certain destruction?  Join them as they race to the center of the earth for a titanic battle with the power-crazed leaders of a fantastic super-civilization.")  Quest of Qui (from Doc Savage Magazine, July 1935; "It started when a Viking Dragon ship attacked a yacht in the waters outside New York.  Next, 'Ham' was stabbed with a 12,000 year-old Viking knife.  The Johnny was captured and frozen solid in a block of arctic ice.  Finally, even the might man of bronze himself -- Doc Savage --  is kidnapped and enslaved by the chilling menace.  What is his plan this time?  Can he save himself and his friends from almost certain destruction?"); The Red Skull (from Doc Savage Magazine, August 1933; "Into a subterranean world of red-hot lave, Doc Savage and his fantastic five descend -- to face the most fiendish for of his career.  Awaiting Doc is an irresistible power that can level mountains...that can enslave the world...and that threatens to make Doc's most dangerous adventure his very last..."); The Sargasso Ogre (from Doc Savage Magazine, October 1933; "A ruthless attempt on the life of one of Doc's crew thrusts the Man of Bronze and his incomparable companions into a chilling new adventure.  From the ancient skull-lined catacombs of Alexandria to a fantastic se of floating primitive life where they unravel the centuries-old mystery of the Sargasso.  Doc Savage nd his men once more pursue the perverse agents of evil!"; and The Spook Legion (from Doc Savage Magazine, April 1935; "The entire city of New York is swept up in a wave of terror, as an evil international conspiracy devises a crime so sinister that only Doc Savage and his five mighty cohorts can halt its fiendish plan.  Led by a phantom master criminal with stupifying supernatural powers, the conspiracy sets trap after trap for Doc.  Finally, in a fantastic underground empire, the fearless bronze giant and his courageous crew must fight for their lives against a diabolical enemy that cannot even be seen.")  Pulp at its finest.
• Frank M. Robinson, Not So Good a Gay Man:  A memoir.  Robinson "accomplished a great deal in his long like, working in magazine publishing, including a stint in Playboy, and writing science fiction such as The Power, The Dark Beyond the Stars, and thrillers such as The Glass Inferno (filmed as The Towering Inferno).  Robinson also passionately engaged in politics, fighting for gay rights, and most famously writing speeches for his good friend Harvey Milk in San Francisco.  This deeply personal autobiography, addressed to a friend in the gay community,  explains the life of one gay man over eight decades in America.  By turns witty, charming, and poignant, this memoir grants insights into Robinson's work not just as a journalist and writer, ,  but as a gay man navigating the often perilous landscape of 20th century life in the United States.  The bedrock sincerity and painful honesty with which he describes his life makes Not So Good a Gay Man compelling reading."  Robinson was also a noted historian and collector of science fiction, and was the executor of the estate of Harvey Milk.  (Robinson's co-author of The Glass Inferno, Thomas M. Scortia, was also gay, but spent much of his life closeted because of fear what might happen to his career in the aerospace industry.) 
• Peter Robinson, Not Dark Yet.  A DCI Banks novel.  "When property developer Connor Clive Blaydon is found dead, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his Yorkshire team dive into the investigation.  As luck would have it, someone had installed a cache of spy-camera all around Connor's luxurious home.  The team hopes they'll find answers -- and the culprit -- among the video recordings.  Instead of discovering Connor's murderer, however, the grainy and blurred footage reveals another crime:  a brutal rape.  If they can discover the woman's identity, it could lead to more than justice for the victim; it could change everything the police think they know about Connor and why anyone would want him dead..."  This was the 27th (and penultimate) book in the award-winning series.
• Hank Phillippi Ryan, The First to Lie.  A standalone thriller.  "We all have our reasons for being who we are -- but what if being someone else could get you what you want?  After a devastating betrayal, a young woman sets off on an obsessive path to justice, no matter what dark family secrets are revealed.  She isn't the only one plotting for revenge."  Ryan has won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Daphne du Maurier, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards.  As an on-air investigative reporter for Boston's WHDH-TV, she has won thirty-seven Emmy Awards, along with other journalism honors. 
• Fred Saberhagen, Berserker's Planet.  Science fiction novel, then third book in the long-running series.  ""Five hundred years have passed since the combined fleets of humanity met and broke the berserker armada at Stone Heath.  But though that human victory was total, one of the killer machines -- weaponless, its star drive a ruin -- managed to limp to secret sanctuary on a planter called Hunter's World.  Over the years since then a new cult has arisen there, a cult dedicated to Death as the only and Ultimate Good,  For Hunter's World has become a BESERKER'S PLANET."  Also, Berserker Man.  The fourth book in the series.  "Long ago, the forces of humanity under the brilliant leadership of Jahan Carlson met and conquered the berserkers at a place called Stone Heath.  So total was Carlson's victory that the rulers of the worlds of me decided that the Berserker Was was over -- and being men these rulers soon resumed fighting among themselves, even though it was known that some of the enemy had escaped... A hundred or more years have passed with only an occasional sighting of the killer machines.  But the Berserkers have not been idle:  they have been regrouping, rebuilding, until they are stronger than before.  And this tine there is no Carlson to unify and lead humanity.  This tine the only hope for humankind, and all other life in the galaxy is an eleven-year-old boy..."  I was a big fan of the Berserker stories when they first appeared in the SF magazines (who wasn't?) but I somehow drifted away from them and the author.
• Doris Stuart, editor, Creepy Classics II.  YA anthology of eight horror stories :  Poe, A. M. Burrage, Paul Louis Courier, E. Nesbit, Ralph Adams Cram, Doyle, E. F. Benson, and Mary Cholmondeley.  The stories range from very familiar to not-so familiar, with one from the early 19th century (the Courier) I had never heard of.  George was really looking out for me.
• Richard Walinsky, ed.,  Space Ships!  Ray Guns!  Martian Octopoids!  Interviews with Science Fiction Legends.  Even when George isn't tempting his friends with boxes of books, he's tempting them with reviews of books like this one.  "In these highly candid radio interviews, more than fifty legendary, larger-than-life personalities trade anecdotes about the Golden Age of science fiction.  Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Margaret Atwood, Fritz Leiber, Frank Herbert, Frank Kelley Freas, and many more, depict the wild personalities, sparks of contention, and wild imagination that made science fiction thrive."  Also featured are Clare Winger Harris, Ed Earl Repp, Charles Willard Diffin, Otto binder, Laurence Manning, and other now relatively forgotten authors.  Interviews by Wolinsky, Richard Lupoff, and Lawrence Davidson.
• "Ruth Ware" (Ruth Warburton), The Lying Game.  Thriller.  "On a cool June morning, a woman is waling her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten, along a tidal estuary known as the Reach.  Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but turns out to be something much more sinister...  the next morning, three women in and around London -- Fatima, Thea, and Isa -- received the text they had always hoped would never some, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, which says only, 'I need you.'  the four girls were best friends at Salten, a second-rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Cannel.  Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty.  But their little game had consequences, and as the four converge in present-day Salten, they realize their shared past was not as buried as they had once hoped."
• Stephen Weiner, Jason Hall, & Victoria Blake, Hellboy:  The Companion.  A guide to the Hellboy universe created by Mike Mignola, includes an official timeline, 27 character profiles, a complete bibliography (as of 2008), and much more.  Enough to make any Hellboy fan go, "Squee!"

Stolen from the Internet, Motivation Dept.:  She believed she could.  But it was 91 degrees and humid so she didn't.

A John Ford Film You May Not Have Seen:  From 1941, an Army training film directed by John Ford.  Not The Informer, not The Grapes of Wrath, nor How Green Was My Valley or The Quiet Man.  Not Stagecoach or Fort Apache or The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  Nope, this one is Sexual Hygiene, a thirty-minute training film for the U.S. Army Signal Corps about hoe to avoid venereal disease.  Check it our and be glad you were not one of those hapless GIs who had to watch this one.

https://archive.org/details/SEX.HYGIENE

Alice:  To counter the above, here's a 1915 film about Alice in Wonderland.  Directed by W. W. Young and written by Young and DeWitt C. Wheeler.  Viola Savoy (who was fifteen at the time) is Alice and Herbert Rice is the White Rabbit, with Willian Tilden as the Mad Hatter, Louis Merkle as the Dormouse, Harry Marks as the Dodo Bird, and Lotta Savoy (whom I assume was Viola Savoy's real-life mother, but don't hold me to it) s Alice's Mother.  Look closely and you'll see the screen's first Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln.

The link brings you to both the silent version and the sound version.

Enjoy this charming fantasy.

https://archive.org/details/AliceInWonderland1915_503/AliceInWonderland-Sile

https://archive.org/details/AliceInWonderland1915_503/AliceInWonderland-Silent.mkv

Happy Birthday, ERB!:  Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, and so many more fondly remembered characters from my youth.  ERB wasn't a great writer but, boy, could he write great stuff!

Tarzan of the Apes began its comic strip existence on January 7, 1929, drawn by Hal Foster (who would go on to create Prince Valiant).  The daily strip (Sundays would not begin until 1931) adapted the Burroughs novels, beginning with Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan, The Beasts of Tarzan, and Son of Tarzan; in all, the daily strip carried 26 story arcs through August 26, 1939.  The link takes you to all of them, including strips drawn by Rex Maxon and Burne Hogarth -- eleven years of daily strips...don't plan to read them all at once.

Enjoy.

https://archive.org/details/tarzan1929/Tarzan%20-%201929/mode/2up

Boxcar Willie:  Lecil Travis Martin (1931-1999) was better known as Boxcar Willie (originally a character in a ballad he wrote; he adopted the name for his professional career), the "King of the Hoboes."  His stage presence included overalls and a big floppy hat as he played what he called old-time hobo music.  Willie became a full-time recording artist after leaving the Air Force in 1976.  He became well-known after compilations of his songs were heavily promoted on television, along with other artists who had little recognition in the United States but were popular abroad, such as Slim Whitman and Gheorghe Zamfir (he of the pan flute).  By 1981, Boxcar Willie was a major country music star and was inducted into the Grand Ol Opry.  In 1985 he purchased a theater in Branson -- one of the first country music stars to do so -- performing there until his death of leukemia at age 67.

"I Love the Sound of a Whistle"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlxva3y-n6w

"Wabash Cannonball"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYI6ZPtg3RU

"King of the Road"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0VdCAOawGU

"Truck Driving Man"

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

"Ain't Gonna Be Your Day"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcy71uJv3lQ

"Phantom 309"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv2GQOaA0mc

"Blue Moon of Kentucky"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F_vb2ANgMw

"Railway to Heaven"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9uvb_3CA2U

"Pistol Packin' Mama"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCC2FxoFaMU

"Orange Blossom Special"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRr9wbGymSU

Medley:  "Cold, Cold Heart," "Take These Chains from My Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "You Won Again," "Wedding Bells Will Never Ring for Me," "Lovesick Blues," "Move It on Over," "Wabash Cannonball"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRr9wbGymSU

Happy Labor Day!:  Labor Day honors and recognizes the American labor movement and the works and contribution of laborers to the development and achievements in the United States.  It became an official federal holiday in 1894; by that time thirty states already celebrated the holiday.

It has not been an easy climb.  At various time the labor movement has been disparaged and become politicized, as evidenced by the propagandized wording of Donald Trump's official declaration this year:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/labor-day-2025/

Whatever your political leanings, the American workingman is the backbone of our country and should be respected as such.  (Getting off my soapbox now.)

Speaking of Labor Day:  I called the doctor.  "My wife is in labor!  What shall I do?"

"Is this her first child?" the doctor asked.

"No. This is her husband.'

Today We're Also Celebrating:

• Acne Positivity Day.  Yep, I'm sure that's a zit on your face.
• National Chicken Boy Day.  Recognizing the 22-foot-tall statue of a man with a chicken head located on the top of Future Studio in Los Angeles.  Holding a bucket of chicken, the statue was originally designed to promote the Chicken Boy Restaurant until it closed in 1984.  The statue has been called the "Statue of Liberty of Los Angeles" and we celebrate it because...well, it's Los Angeles.
• Emma M. Nutt Day.  Celebrating the first female telephone operator in history, hired by Alexander Graham Bell, hisownself.  Previously, telephone operators were all men, but then Bell had the diea that females were more predisposed to being polite, and the rest is history (sexist history, but history).  Emma Nutt began work on this day in 1888,  She worked a 54-hour week for $10 a month and was said to remember every number in the New England Telephone Directory Company.  Her sister soon joined her at the switchboard.
• Ginger Cat Appreciation Day.  Founded in honor of Doobert, Chris Roy's beloved ginger, who died in 2014 at age 17.  A cat's ginger color is the result of a genetic mutation on the X chromosome; about 80% of gingers are male.
• National Little Black Dress Day.  Somebody alert Kinsey Milhone.
• Wattle Day.  No, not the thing under a chicken's neck, but a type of acacia known in Australia as a wattle.  Wattle Day indicates the start of the spring season in Australia, when the wattles sprout flowers in abundance.  Originally Wattle Day ws used to enhance and promote patriotism in the then-new-Australis.
• National Burnt Ends Day.  I suppose it was created to celebrate my mother-in-law's cooking.
• National Chess Day.  also known as National Show Jerry How Little He Can Think Ahead Day.
• And, Cherry Popover Day.  Yum.  (https://www.kenarry.com/easy-cherry-popovers-recipe/)

Florida Man:

• Here's a blast from the past from six years ago:  Florida Man Christopher Meader, 20, of St. Petersburg, for sexually assaulting multiple stuffed animals at Pinellas Park Target, starting with an Olaf Doll from Frozen.  Olaf was evidently not enough to satisfy his needs; when he was finished with Olaf, he placed him back on the shelf and started on a stuffed unicorn.  Meader was arrested on charges of criminal mischief, leaving Olaf to wonder why he wasn't good enough.
• 29-year-old Florida Man Jordan Anderson was arrested for playing basketball naked at a public park in Longwood.  Anderson said he did it to enhance his skill level.  Longwood, in Seminole /county, has a crime rate considerably higher than the national average of all communities across the United States; in Florida, about 71% of the communities have a lower crime rate.  Statistics do not show us the basketball skill level rating for Longwood, though.
• Speaking of naked, Florida Man Henrry Antunez-Avarado, 25, ran naked through the Planet Fitness gym on South Tamiami Trail in Lee County.  the gym was about to close for the evening and Antunez-Avarado began to act erratically, stripping off his clothes. crawling into the ceiling and knocking down several tiles, then entering the bathroom and trying to set it on fire.  He ran unclothed through multiple rooms and then lay down on a hydro massage bed.  Police found him -- still naked -- hiding inside a tanning bed.   Seems like a customer can no longer try all the amenities of a gym any more.
• In a sad story, a fifteen-year-old girl from Cocoa went missing seventeen months ago, a victim of human trafficking.  The good news is that, after a lengthy multi-agency investigation, she was found in South Apopka in Central Florida, and taken into custody.  Details are scant, but the outcome is welcome.
• Speaking of Apopka, Florida Man and local artist Ridge Bonnick painted a mural in the downtown area and was accused of plagiarism from an Iowa artist who claim the work closely resembled an earlier work she had dome.  Bonnick claimed that any plagiarism was done unknowingly, saying that he had been commissioned by Main Street Apopka and had followed its directions  It is not known if Main Street Apopka knew of the design's origins; the agency's executive director declined to comment directly on this question.  The agency, however, did state that they were in contact with the original artist to provide fair recognition and compensation.  the City of Apopka said they were not involved in the mural but are reviewing their relationship with Main Street Apopka before deciding how to proceed.
• Florida Man Dannel Larkin, 21, was arrested for the 2023 shooting death of Kenneth
  Glover Jr., 31, in Jacksonville; glover had been found in a parking lot and died at the scene..  Larkin was then placed in the Duval County Jail when things got worse for him -- he was then charged with the murder of 43-year-old Volondia Norris in April of 2024 and the murder of seven-year-old Breon Allen this past January.
• Florida Man Malik McKenzie was awaiting sentencing at a Volusia County jail for two counts of attempted murder stemming from a Deltona home invasion in August 2024.  He apparently does not think things through, and attempted a jail break, gaining access to the jail's rook before getting tangles in razor wire from which deputies had to free him.  Officials are understandably mum about how McKenzie manage to get on the roof. 

Good News:

• It would be pur-fect if this pans out      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-cancer-therapy-for-cats-could-save-human-lives-too/
• Spinal chord repair with #D printed "scaffolding"?      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/injured-spinal-cords-repaired-with-breakthrough-3d-printed-scaffolding-team-regrows-nerves-in-rats/
• "Cuteness overload" at Lithuania corgi race; Queen Elizabeth would have approved  https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/corgi-race-causes-cuteness-overload-in-lithuania-at-its-5th-annual-event-watch/
• A way to improve bee populations?      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/scientists-engineer-yeast-to-create-honey-bee-superfood-colonies-grew-15-fold/
• Unknown heroes walk among us       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/polish-officers-looking-for-teen-hero-who-saved-woman-from-bus-stop-attacker/
• And sometimes heroes help with the laundry       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/postmans-unusual-act-of-kindness-makes-him-a-rainy-day-laundry-hero/

Today's Poem:

A Sunset of the City

Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love.

My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls,

Are gone from the house.

My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite

And night is night.

It is a real chill out,

A genuine thing.

I am not deceived, I do not think it is still summer

Because sun stays and birds continue to sing.

It is summer-gone that I see, it is summer-gone.

The sweet flowers are indrying and dying down,

The grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown.

It is a real chill out.  The fall crisp comes.

I am aware there is winter to heed.

There is no warm house

That is fitted with my need.

I am cold in this cold house this house

Whose washes echoes are tremulous down lost halls.

I am a woman. and dusty, standing among new affairs.

I am a woman who hurries through her prayers.

Tin intimations of a quiet core to be my

Desert and my dear relief

Come:  there shall be such islanding from grief,

And small communion with the master shore.

Twang they.  And I incline this ear to tin,

Consult a dual dilemma.  Whether to dry

In humming pallor or to leap and die.

Somebody muffed it?  Somebody wanted to joke.

-- Gwendolyn Brooks

HYMN TIME

 A Southern rock blues gospel song from Kellie_with_an_ie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeHquWGLz5o

WOMEN OUTLAWS (SEPTEMBER 1949)

Why should men have all the fun, robbin' and killin' and all that?  Isn't it time for the distaff side to prove their worth?

Bella Trent and her husband Fred normally tread the boards as actors. but when roles are tight they perform a different act -- dressing up as two innocent sisters to rob trains.  Using her feminine wiles, Bella would manage to get them into the baggage and mail car.  There, Fred would knock out the conductor and the pair would help themselves to the loot.  Before going back to the passenger car, they would shed their disguises and, unrecognizable, get away.  But Bella got a little bit too greedy and on their next fob, she brought a gun.  The robbery went as planned, except for the two dead bodies they had to throw off the train.  When the train slowed down, they jumped off with the loot and made their way to the nearest town.  They probably would have gotten away with it except that Fred did a poor job wiping rouge from his face...

Janet Storm and her father were passengers on a stagecoach when it was robbed and  her father was killed.   Janet was obsessed with vengeance and her mind became so twisted that she  would shoot anyone who got in her way, whether they were the law of ordinary citizens.  The bloody trail of the "Vengeful Vixen" stretched across the west.

The two-page text story in this issue was not a western, nor did it have any women outlaws.   Jungle trader Jim Brennan is after the people who killed his partner, beheading him to make it look like the work of natives.  When he does get to the guilty party he extracts a hideous revenge. 

In the final story, Anna Marker became "The Killer from Katyville, "who never once in her brief but meteoric career of robbery, pillage, and murder showed even the slightest inkling of sympathy or compassion for those in her power!"  First she shoots down two men who tried to rob her Faro game.  She is jailed but manages to kill the sheriff as she escapes.  Then  she kills the owner of the gambling house where she worked and burned the pace down.  Burying her loot at the local Boot Hill, she blazes her way through anyone who tried to stop her.  In the end, she just became killing-mad.

Needless to say, the nifty cover on this issue had absolutely nothing to do with any of the stories therein.

Rest easy as you enjoy this issue, knowing that women can be as violent and dangerous as men.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=97026&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: NOTHING BUT A DRIFTER

 Nothing But a Drifter by Lee Hoffman  (1976)

Brian (no last name ever given) is a drifter, never having the urge to settle down.  After an unsuccessful attempt at mining, he had wintered in Tallow Dip, then sent out a bit prematurely for greener pastures, but an unexpected avalanche had got his pack horse and all his supplies, and nearly got him.  After days of hard riding, hungry and weary, he had finally come from the mountains to Ada's Ridge, where green grass awaited him and his weary, near skeletal mount.  But what awaited him was the sight of two riders working to free a steer from a muddy bog.  With an effort they had done that, but then the steer gored one of the older of the two riders, ripping him from pelvis to just under his breastbone.  Brian rode out to see if he could help.  The injured man was Sam Pearson, a local rancher; the other person was his young, startling beautiful daughter, Laurie.  Brian arranged a travois to carry the man back to his ranch,,  but Sam's injuries were so severe it was not clear that he would survive.

Pearson lived on a small ranch with his wife, daughter, and two young sons, aged 15 and 12.  All three children were seasoned ranch hands.  Laurie, however, was a bit of a flirt, fickle, and somewhat immature.  Jump, the oldest boy, was thoughtlessly eager to prove himself a man and displayed a great amount of pigheadedness.  The younger boy, Eddie, was just eager to please.  The nearest doctor, a veterinarian, After a while it appeared that Sam would survive but would not be able to work the ranch for at least a couple of months.  The Pearsons had had a hard year.  Their barn had burned, there herd seemed to be thinned, Brian had come across one of their prize bulls, dead in the hills and shot through the head, and money was very tight.  They had hoped to avoid hiring a ranch hand that year, praying that they could make enough to keep them above water financially.  With Sam severely injured, they asked Brian to stay on and act as foreman.  But Brian was a drifter and did not want the responsibility.  But somehow he was talked into it, and Laurie was a right pretty girl.

A neighboring rancher, Frank Hunt, was an imperious former professional soldier who was interested in Laurie and had asked her several times to marry him, although he was much her elder.  Hunt took an instant dislike to Brian, sensing him a possible rival for Laurie's affections, and did all he could to denigrate him in front to her.  Someone seems to be targeting the Pearsons and Brian suspected it was Hunt, although he had no proof.

Much of the novel is taken up with Brian trying to get the ranch ready for a roundup. while also trying to manage the impetuous Jump and trying to navigate Laurie's wildly fluctuating moods.  In an attempt to severely injure or kill Brian, someone had sabotaged his saddle.  Four Cheyenne hunter-warriors had made friends with the Pearsons; one of the Indians was shot and severely wounded after witnessing a white man -- the Beef-Killer -- shooting a number of bulls, presumably in an attempt to drive the Pearsons into financial hardship.  The Indians also located about five hundred steers that had been rustled from the Pearsons and two other ranchers, and it was up to Brian to stop them.

Descriptions of authentic western action and life help make this a fast-moving and interesting read, and Brian -- as a die-hard drifter place in an uncomfortable position -- makes for a great protagonist.

I really enjoyed this one.

Lee Hoffman (1932-2007) was a noted science fiction fan and editor and the author of science fiction, western, and romance novels.  Her most popular work was in the western field, where she published seventeen novels and won a Spur Award for her 1967 novel The Valdez Horses (a 1973 film directed by John Sturges starred Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland).  She wrote three historical romances as "Georgia York" and published four science fiction novels under her own name.  Her two science fiction fanzines were the highly influential Quandry and the Hugo-winning Science Fiction Five-Yearly.  In addition, she published two folk music magazines, Caravan and Gardyloo.  She also published an early book of poetry, Many Sunsets (1952).  From 1956 to 1958, Hoffman was the assistant editor for two science fiction magazines edited by her then-husband, Larry Shaw.

Nothing But a Drifter is currently available in a Kindle edition.

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF NERO WOLFE: THE CASE OF THE GIRL WHO CRIED WOLFE (DECEMBER 15, 1950)

 The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe aired on NBC Radio from October 20, 1950 to April 27, 1951, for a total of 26 episodes.  This was Wolfe's third incarnation on the radio.  Sidney Greenstreet portrayed the one-seventh of a ton detective.  Greenstreet, who suffered from diabetes and Bright's disease, had already retired from film acting; he died in 1955 of complications from both diseases.  Six different actors played Archie Goodwin over the run of the show:  Gerald Mohr, Herb Ellis, Lawrence Dobkin, Harry Bartell, Lamont Johnson, and Wally Maher; in this episode the role of Archie was played by Lawrence Dobkin.  Also featured in this episode were Barbara Shaw, Al Gerard, Herb Butterfield, Howard McNeer, and  (as Inspector Cramer) Bill Johnstone.  J. Donald Wilson was the director.  Don Stanley was the announcer.  I am not sure who scripted this episode, but Wikipedia states episodes in the series were written by "Alfred Bester and others."

 Rex Stout, by the way, was very pleased with Greenstreet's portrayal of Nero Wolfe.

The episode begins with a telephone call to Wolfe's office.  Archie is unsure whether somebody is going to kill a rabbit or a rabbit is going to kill somebody... Wolfe liked to think of this case as "The Case of the Friendly Rabbit."  Intrigued?  Check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M53b7FSLmH4

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: FLOWERING SEASON

"Flowering Season" by Virginia Kidd  (first publishing in Orbit 1 (1966), edited by Damon Knight, under the title "Kangaroo Court"; reprinted in The Future Now:   Saving Tomorrow (1977), edited by Robert Hoskins, under the title "Flowering Season")

A future Earth, fifty years after the wars and the establishment of Pax Magna, which forbade humans from further space travel...

Tulliver Harms is the First Exec of the Middle Seaboard Armies  -- Earth's armies were ever in readiness but had not fought for the last half century of peace -- where sat the Communications Tower.  Recently a signal had now come to the Tower from outer space, indicating that a vessel was approaching Earth.  With a spaceship approaching, a computer selected Wystan Godwin to act as Liaison Agent to work directly and equally with Harms to contact the vessel once it landed.  Godwin, a by-the book liaison, had spent the previous six months out of contact and in retreat in a Buddhist temple in Tibet and had no inkling of the approaching ship.  Harms was determined that Godwin would be kept out of the loop once he arrived at Middle Seaboard because Harms intended to destroy the alien ship against all laws and protocol.  The ship, when it arrived, was massive.  Godwin waited for weeks to receive daily reports from the Liaison team assigned to meet the ship, but Harms kept all information away from him, allowing Harms time to stockpile enough bombs the destroy the ship.  (The ship was so large that Harms needed more bombs than he had originally planned for to destroy it.

After two weeks, and despite Harms's attempt to keep all information away from Godwin, the Liaison Agent managed to secure some reports.  He then went to the ship and found members of his liaison team hard at work trying to communicate with the aliens, who resembled large kangaroos.   The aliens, known as the Leloc, actually were kangaroos, of a sort.  Their home planet was at least 100 million light years away.  Their space ship was an experimental type, the first of its kind, and was wildly erratic, able to arrive at the present, the past, or the future with little control.  And some 100 million years or so ago, it had arrived at Earth and deposited a group (? colony? expedition force? possibly along with some native animals) on our planet; these Lelocs soon devolved and became our kangaroos and the animals devolved/evolved into various marsupials.  The ship left them here and, for some reason, decided to return after six months and pick them up...although what they thought was six months turned out to be at least 100 million years.  The Lelocs from the ship had no idea that so much time had passed; they earnestly thought they had dropped their companions off six months before.

The Lelocs were a peaceful race and had never known war.  Part of their communication was through body odor; another part was through movements of their tails.  (They each had a special chair for sitting which turned out to be an extraterrestrial bidet.)  Warned that Harms intended to bow them to bits, they refused to move because their society did not allow them to retreat from threats.  Godwin, whose training for this particular assignment was extremely inadequate, had to find a way to save the aliens and stop the maniacal Harms.

Put like this, the story may seem to be a bit silly, but the author does a stellar job creating a convincing, truly alien race, and a truly alien science of space travel.  Part anthropology, part diplomacy, part hard science, and part suspense, this tale also comes with an important philosophical message as explained by the author:  "Freedom is something that has to be learned and earned anew by every generation.

This tale is a winner.

Virginia Kidd (1921-2003) was a literary agent, editor, and science fiction author who was married to James Blish from 1947 to 1963.  He literary output was small, beginning in the 1950s, and "Kangaroo Court" was her first solo story.  She was the uncredited co-author of Blish's 1962 novel  The Night Shapes; her only book was a collection of poetry, Suburban Harvest (1952, as by Virginia Blish).  She edited five anthologies (two with Ursula Le Guin) and a collection of Judith Merril's best stories.  as an agent, many of her clients were women science fiction authors, including Le Guin, Carol Emshwiller, Josephine Saxon, and "James Tiptree, Jr."  (Alice Sheldon).  And, yes, she was an avowed feminist, and more power to her.

OUT OF THIS WORLD: LITTLE LOST ROBOT (JULY 7, 1962)

 Out of This World was a short-lived British anthology series hosted by Boris Karloff.  Of the fourteen episodes, apparently only this one survives -- an adaptation of one of Isaac Asimov's "Robot" stories.  ("Little Lost Robot," Astounding Science Fiction, March 1947; reprinted in I, Robot, 1950; in a separate chapbook, 1977; in The Complete Robot, 1982; in Robot Dreams, 1986; in The Asimov Chronicles:  Fifty Years of Isaac Asimov, 1989; in Robot Visions, 1990; and anthologized numerous times)  Other episodes, presumably lost included adaptations of John Wyndham's "Dumb Martian," Rog Phillips' "The Yellow Pill,", Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations," Philip K. Dick's "The Imposter," Robert Moore Williams's "Medicine Show," Katherine Maclean's "Pictures don't Lie," Raymond F. Jones's "Divided We Fall," and Clifford D. Simak's "Immigrant" and "Target Generation."

From YouTube:  "At the Hyper Base, a military research station on an asteroid, scientists are working to develop the hyperspace drive [...]  One of the researchers, Gerald Black, loses his temper, and swears at a NS-2 (Nestor 10) robot and tells the robot to get lost.  Obeying the order literally, it hides itself.  It is then up to U.S. Robots Chief Robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, and Mathematical Director Peter Bogert, to find it.  They know exactly where it is:  in a room with 62 other physically identical robots."

Featuring Maxine Audley as Susan Calvin (although she does not look anything like what I imagined Asimov pictured her), Murray Hayne as Peter Bogert, and Clifford Evans as Major General Kaliner.  Also featuring Gerald Flood and Hayden Jones.  Roger Snowden donned the world's cheesiest robot costume to play NS-2.

Directed by Guy Verney.  Script by Leo Lehman.

Be warned:  The settings and costumes are at a level (or perhaps below) those of early Dr. Who episodes, but that should not detract significantly your enjoyment of this episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WKVDG-_rVE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RUBY KEELER!

She may not have been the world's greatest singer but, boy. could Ruby Keeler hoof it.  Keller (1909-1993) lied about her age, saying she was 16 rather than 13, and got a tap audition for George M. Cohen's The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly for which she was paid $45 a week (equal to at least $830 today).  She worked her way through stage and Broadway shows when, in 1928, Flo Ziegfield's Whoopee!, but the part was recast before the show opened.  That same year she married singer and entertainer Al Jolson; she was nineteen years old.  in 1923 Darryl Zanuck paired her with Dick Powell for a series of musicals, starting with 42nd Street.  She retired from show business shortly after divorcing Jolson in 1940, and married businessman John Horner Lowe in 1941, with whom she had four children (she and Jolson also had one adopted son).  Horner died in 1961 and Ruby Keeler returned to the footlights two years later in a successful Broadway revival of No, No, Nanette; Keeler stayed with the Broadway show for two years, following it with another two years of touring.  She suffered a brain aneurysm in 1974 and became a spokesperson for the National Stroke Association.  She died of kidney cancer in 1993, age 83.

Ruby Keeler had a certain winsomeness and enthusiasm that carried well for the camera.  Watching her perform still gives me joy, although the more I watch her dance the more my feet ache in sympathy.

    

From Ready, Willing, and Able (1937), Ruby Keeler and Lee Dixon tap dance on a giant typewriter to "Too Marvelous for Words"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV2ZwftnaHg&list=PLRjputxXCIWVSpDxZ3yGtVwmBf4zjtnne&index=11

"I Want to Be Happy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aDJGvFSVOQ&list=PLRjputxXCIWVSpDxZ3yGtVwmBf4zjtnne&index=1

From 42nd Street (1933):  "Come and Meet Those Dancing Feet"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBmGCn81Qc8&list=PLRjputxXCIWVSpDxZ3yGtVwmBf4zjtnne&index=3

With Paul Draper and Chorus in Colleen (1936)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfT1w6YtmWA&list=PLRjputxXCIWVSpDxZ3yGtVwmBf4zjtnne&index=10

 Ruby and Clarence Nordstrom "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" in another clip from 42nd Street

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BhKrEPQ9dg

Tap dancing for Dick Powell in Dames (1943)

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

 Also with Dick Powell:  "Pettin' in the Park," from  Gold Diggers of 1933

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7sGPbapvxU

With James Cagney in the "Shanghai Lil" scene from Footlight Parade (1933)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUyREZ_Hcr4

HYMN TIME

 CeCe Winans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcFM9CBiOE

RED RYDER COMIC STRIP -- 1952

 Red Ryder was a western licensing juggernaut which began as a comic strip which ran from November 6, 1938 through 1965.  Created by comic syndicator Stephen Slesinger and western artist Fred Harman, the strip's rollout was carefully times to take advantage of all possible merchandising opportunities:  radio, films, Big Little Books, events, rodeos, powwows, contest, commercial tie-ins, and licensed products (including the famous Red Ryder BB Gun; Slesinger also had Harman make numerous personal appearances at charity benefits, schools, and civic and Red Ryder youth enrichment programs.  Slesinger was no slouch at such promotion, having already worked his magic with Tarzan, Winnie the Pooh, and other comic strip character franchises.  "Red Ryder became the longest-running and most popular comic character of the Western genre movies, radio, comic strips, comic books, mass marketing retailing, and  the collectors' market."

Red Ryder was a tough and decent cowboy who lived on the Painted Valley Ranch in the the San Juan Mountain Range section of the Rocky Mountains in the 1890's with his aunt (the Duchess) ans his young Indian companion Little Beaver ("You betchum, Red Ryder!").  Red Ryder and Little Beaver would face off against many bad guys over their career, but like the Lone Ranger, our hero did not kill the villains, preferring instead to shoot the guns from their hands.  

The Red Ryder radio series began on the NBC Blue Network three days a week in 1942, and proved more popular than The Lone Ranger among its young audience until it moved to the Mutual Network and was heard only on the West Coast.  The program ran until 1951, and featured Reed Hadley, Carlton KaDell, and Brooke Temple in the title role.  The radio program also founded the Red Ryder Victory Patrol, a club that promoted conservation to further the war effort.

There were 28 Red Ryder films made, beginning with a 12-part serial in 1942, which stared Don Barry (who became professionally known was Red Barry because of this role); Tommy Cook, who also had the role in the radio series, played Little Beaver.  The second film, 1944's Tucson Raiders, featured Wild Bill Elliot as Ryder ( a role he would play for another 15 films) and Robert Blake as Little Beaver.  (Blake, who has starred in the Our Gang shorts as Bobby, would go to acclaim for his role in 1967's In Cold Blood and in the television series Baretta, would also go on in notoriety for his arrest and trial for the murder of his second wife, Bonny Lee Bakeley (he was acquitted but later found liable for civil damages in her death).  Blake would be featured as Little Beaver in 23 of the Republic westerns, the last seven featuring Allen Lane as Ryder.

 Slesinger published a Red Ryder comic book in 1940, followed by one issue of Hi-Spot comics.  In 1941, Dell began publishing its Red Ryder comic book, using newspaper strips for the first 46 issues, then original stories from #47 on.  in total, Dell published 151 issues of the book, ending in 1957 -- one of the longest continuous newsstand runs for a western comic book.  For the next four decades, King Features Syndicate would issue reprints in eleven languages (unauthorized reprints would reach 30, languages).  From 1954 to 1984, Spanish distributor Novaro would issue 474 regular editions (plus specials) in 21 Spanish-speaking countries and territories.

We start 1952 with a warrant issued for Red Ryder's arrest.  (Ryder's neighbor has accused him of moving mortgaged cattle across state lines.)  The year ends after 314 daily strips, with Ryder rescuing a pretty lady geologist from a gang of gold-hungry thieves.  Along the way are thrills, shills, hard riding, and hard fighting.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96918&comicpage=&b=i

For those who are interested, Comic Book Plus also has Red Ryder Sunday strips from 1938-39 and 1943.  Check 'em out.

FORGOTTEN BOOK: CADAVER IN CHIEF

Cadaver in Chief:  A Special Report from the Dawn of the Zombie Apocalypse by Steve Hockensmith  (2012)

Sometimes you just need a good zombie apocalypse to make you feel better.  Especially one the begins with:  "The world was coming to an end, and Jan Woods was surrounded by people who spent their days shaving dog butts."

Jan is one of the few last reporters for The Washington Tribune, a dying newspaper.  (Actually, newspapers -- and everything else -- were dying.  It's the zombie apocalypse, after all.)  She has given her two-week notice, has just two days left on the job,  and plans to spend at the the first week of her retirement safely locked in her apartment.  In a very inglorious way to end her career, she has been assigned to cover a national dog groomers convention, at a time when most conventions -- including the Republican and Democratic conventions -- have been cancelled.  The dog roomers fiercely carried on because they felt if they had cancelled, the zombies would have won.  Now, with the dog groomers behind her (as well as the dogs' behinds), Jan has been assigned to check out a rumor from a very unreliable podcaster that the President of the United States is dead...and has been for some time.  According to the rumor, the Party is covering up the president's death by bringing out a double until after the upcoming election.  The president is leading both in the pools and in PAC funding by a wide margin, and the Party does not dare replace him with the vice president because of the VP's recent Vestigial Vaginagate scandal (don't ask).

The White House is denying the president is dead.  The podcaster won't reveal his sources (if he ever had any in the first place) and his evidence is flimsy.  But a story is a story and Jan tries to report it in a fair and balanced way.

Meanwhile, the Democratic challenger announced his running mate -- a neophyte politician with six weeks' experience on the Evansville (IN) City Council (and who has managed to miss every meeting), and "a differently-abled Midwestern Catholic of Chinese-Mexican descent who's married to an African-American Jew with whom she's raising a brood of Filipino foster children."

And the unreliable podcaster got a hold of the president's death certificate and released it; unfortunately the official signature on the certificate was a made-up name that is usually reserved for junior high school jokesters.

Amazingly though, Jan seemed to be getting closer to the truth.  Someone had just sent her a large package containing a very hungry, very dead, yet extremely active, purple dwarf with an exploding head.

Political shenanigans increase, as does the political divide.  The President remains dead, or undead, or living dead, or whatever.  And the country continues to go to hell in a handbasket.  But the military has a plan, and it's not a good one.

The apocalypse has never been more fun.  It may actually be more fun than the current political climate.

Recommended.

I should mention that the book has a distinct anti-MAGA bent, although it was published some four years before MAGA was a gleam in its daddy's eyes.

Steve Hockensmiith is the bestselling author of the Holmes on the Range mystery series, the Hired Gun western series, the Tarot mystery series, the Nick and Tesla children's adventure series, and two Pride and Prejudice and Zombies novels, among other works.  His books are inventive, funny, and worth checking out.

I LOVE A MYSTERY: THE MILLION DOLLAR CURSE (PRESENTED IN FIFTEEN 15-MINUTE EPISODES, JANUARY 1, 1940 TO JANUARY 19, 1940)

I Love a Mystery ran fifteen-minute episodes five days a week from 1939 to 1952, with from eight to over forty episodes per story arc, allowing the creator Carleton Morse and the actors room to flesh out the stories.

This story arc, also known as The San Diego Murders" and "The Richards Curse," starts with Jack and Doc coming to the aide of a crying woman in a hotel room.  Sunny Richards has decided to take her own life because she feels she is the victim of a generations old family curse.  Jack and Doc are joined by Reggie, determined to prove the curse is nonsense -- but they have only two weeks to do so.

Featuring Michael Raffetto as Jack, Barton Yarborough as Doc, Walter Paterson as Reggie, and Gloria Blondell as their secretary, Jerry Booker.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPUT4r-IIv4

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: IF I WERE A RICH MAN

 Crown Vic 2:  If I were a Rich Man by Lee Goldberg  (from Eight Very Bad Nights:  a Collection of Hanakkah Noir edited by Tod Goldberg, 2024, as "If I Were a Rich Man"; also released by Lee Goldberg as a separate e-Book, 2025)  

Ray Boyd is not a very nice man.  He's an ex-con wandering the country in a used Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, going wherever this appetites lead him; his appetites being mainly money and sex.  He made his first appearance in Crown Vic (2023), a collection of two stories, "Ray Boyd Isn't Stupid" and "Occasional Risk."   When his brother Tod was assembling stories for the Eight Very Bad Nights, be suggested a Ray Boyd story would be a good fit for the anthology; and although Ray Boyd was not Jewish, so it happened.  The Ray Boyd stories are dark, violent, and erotic -- all good fodder for noir.

This time Boyd is on the track of a treasure trove of stolen diamonds.  One of the inmates Boyd spent time with while in prison was Phil Zarkin, an innocuous man serving time for second degree murder and one who was part of a huge diamond heist years back.  Zarkin never revealed where he had hidden his hare of the loot.  Now Zarkin was isolated in an assisted care facility suffering from dementia, his only solace appears to be the constant game of Battleship he played both continuously and poorly.  Boyd locates Zarkin and begins to visit him on the fourth day of Hanukkah, pretending to be his long lost nephew.

Complicating things are a sexy, hot to trot college coed with a penchant for blackmail and another villain on the trail of the diamonds; neither suspect that Boyd is always single-handedly concentrating on his own self-interests.

An entertaining tale of villainy.  Goldberg makes the pages fly and makes one long for more tales of Ray Boyd.  Luckily, Goldberg promises more stories coming sometime in the future.

Highly recommended.

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: THE BEST TV SHOWS THAT NEVER WERE -- UNSOLD PILOTS (2004)

Writer/producer Lee Goldberg's 1991 book The Best TV Shows That Never Were and his earlier (and much  more massive) Unsold Television Pilots 1955-1999 were both a great success and formed the basis of two hour-long network specials, The Greatest Shows You Never Saw (CBS) and The Best TV Shows That Never Were (ABC).  I though it would be fun to take at one of them.

Sit-coms, cop shows, sci-fi, horror, and some things "that simply defy description"...and stars in the roles that did not make them famous.

You get to see Dennis Franz struggle to stay on a horse in NYPD Mounted, Tom Selleck and Robert Urich doing absolutely nothing in Bunco (the network passed because the stars had "no staying power"), John Denver as a tough guitar playing FBI agent in Higher Ground, and a four-in one cop-family-lifeguard-car racing show like Daytona Beach.

The Questor Tapes has an android pretending to be a human being, but if he gets sexually excited he overloaded and becomes a nuclear bomb.  In Condor, a sexy blonde robot babe/cop is interested in you know what.  In Steel Justice, a tough cop's young son is killed and is reincarnated as a toy robot dragon who can become a giant fire-breathing monster when Dad's in trouble.  Annihilator has everybody on an airplane flight replaced with evil alien robots; will their loved ones notice?  Infiltrator has Scott Bakula merges with a military satellite when he beams himself into his girlfriend's lab.  

In Ethel Is an Elephant, a New York photographer gets an elephant for a roomie and the laughs just keep not coming.  Channel 99 gives us a mid-Western television stations airing such shows as "Bowling for Eggs" and "Shine Your Shoes with Mike."  And Robert Goulet hides whatever comic chops he might has as a Broadway superstar turned Acting Sheriff in a small town.  Because no one can hit it out of the park every time, Norman Lear gave us a sit-com with actors in dog suits telling one-liners in A Dog's Life.

There's a lot more, and it just has to be seen to be believed.  Check it out at the link and enjoy.  (Actually, "enjoy" may not be the most suitable word here.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7fu7Nn_Tdk

WOMEN POWER

 One hundred and five years ago today the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, guaranteeing women's  suffrage. You came a long way, baby.  But enjoy it while you can because common sense rights are under attack.  So, before the incels get their way, here's a few things to consider:

Breaking down the history, courtesy of Schoolhouse Rock:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFOieRHRzh8

To often, women have to fight society's expectations.  Here's Peggy Seeger:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCRRe72mwwY

The give and take between the sexes:                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnzQDVE8R6Y

Seneca Falls, back in the day:                                                                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd7_5SkTlvQ

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Together They Stand, Together They Rise:       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRGnvMQg9Uo

A great take on Janis Ian's "At Seventeen":                                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNg19rTulw       

Here's some popular women's protest songs of the Sixties"                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkuGKomZlGE   

"We Were There" by Bev Grant and The Brooklyn Women's Chorus:            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyGT6gfDFms&list=PLZL6aghSvHokarP7b26GN6pdqLKjzDhl9&index=12

The ever-feisty Malvina Reynolds speaking the truth:                               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHfFmo4NXi8&list=PLZL6aghSvHokarP7b26GN6pdqLKjzDhl9&index=13

We who believe in freedom cannot rest.  The struggle is for all, male or female, white of black, straight or gay:                                                                                                                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHfFmo4NXi8&list=PLZL6aghSvHokarP7b26GN6pdqLKjzDhl9&index=13

"Standing on The Shoulders" by Earth Mama                                                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjjKXuceRYQ&list=PLZL6aghSvHokarP7b26GN6pdqLKjzDhl9&index=17

Rhiannon Giddens & Yo Yo Ma:  "Build a House"                                                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYDo0ZjXegM&list=PLZL6aghSvHokarP7b26GN6pdqLKjzDhl9&index=8

The Eurythmics and Aretha!:                                                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drGx7JkFSp4&list=PLZL6aghSvHokarP7b26GN6pdqLKjzDhl9&index=5

With women's rights, sexual choice should also be a personal choice.  "The Lesbian Anthem":    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zmk_yMc7HbE

The struggle is world-wide.  Take the case of Mahza Amini as the Marsh Family sings "Zan, Zendigi, Azadi" (Women, Life, Freedom):                                                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U2jiFAPTkw

Let's go full circle and close with three songs from Peggy Seeger, starting with "Song of Choice":         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okas_K7g89s

And, "Lady, What Did You Do Today?':                                                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb9Zqb5Rspc

And, the final food for thought, "Reclaim the Night":                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe6TqapzX3k