GET READY...

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo!  It celebrates Mexico's victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.  Far more popular in the United States than in Mexico, it became popular here in the 1980s when beer, wine, and tequila advertisers began celebrating it -- and Americans will always fall in line for good advertising campaigns.  Today, beer sales on Cinco de Mayo rival those on Superbowl Sunday.  The holiday also gives us an opportunity to pay homage to a great Mexican-American culture -- great food, great music, and a great history.  In these perilous times it is good to be reminded of something positive.

Nothing says Mexican music more than the joyous rhythms of mariachi.  Here are some examples to get you ready for tomorrow's celebrations.

First we have a compilation of twenty-five great songs, paired with a visual tour of Mexico:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoXh_CzAo10

Followed by seven instrumental folk songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyjHTYF-4H0

Mariachi Divas de Cindy Shea was the first all-female mariachi ensemble to win a Grammy Award.  Here is their innovative and electrifying performance at the 11th Annual International Mariachi woman's Festival  in 2024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE-2JXIar3A

You may happen upon me celebrating Cinco de Mayo tomorrow.  I'll be the one saying, "Dos Equis, por favor."

HYMN TIME

 The Rev. T. T. Rose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqc9BQihB24

THE HAWK #2 (SUMMER 1951)

 

The Hawk is Bob Hardie, "Fighting Marshal of the American Desert"  and the "Scourge of Desert Badmen."  "He strikes with the speed and accuracy of the hunting falcon, with the grim silence of the bird of prey after which he is named."  The title appeared briefly (three issues) from Ziff-Davis, then for another eight issues, plus a special 3-D issue, from St. John. ending in May 1955.  The book was noted for decent storylines and excellent artwork.

• "Secret of the Sands" -- "An old prospector is fleeced of the gold he carries when two crooked gamblers use a marked deck to cheat him -- and The Hawk explodes into action!  A grim trail of death and robbery stretches across the desert wastes of the Southwest before The Hawk rips away the veil shrouding the secret of the sands!"  The bad guys go to the prospector's cabin to steal what gold he had left, leaving the old man for dead.  By the time The Hawk catches up with them, he learns that the prospector has had the last laugh.
• "Desert Gunsmoke" -- "In the desert country, where water is precious as blood, the small ranch owners struggle for their very existence against the greed and ruthlessness of cattle baron Jeff Driscoll!  And when Driscoll's brutal tactics are challenged by a lone girl, it becomes The Hawk's fight, and bullets mingle with desert gunsmoke."  I found it interesting that the townspeople have names like Kansas, Tex, and Laramie, and the ranch hand is Slim, because there's always a Slim.
• "Iron Caravan of the Mojave" -- "Like a wounded animal scurrying for cover, a chugging locomotive hurtles across the desert.  Its throttles wide open, it makes a desperate bid to outdistance a swarming horde of attacking Apache Indians..."  {SPOILER:  The train lost.}   But was it Apaches?  The Hawk does not think so.  Hmm, could have the rival Mesa Stagecoach Company, run by the viscous Dude Mullions, disguising his men as Indians?
• Also, "Hopi Hero" -- When cavalry man Sam Watt's troop is attacked  by the Navajo, everyone is killed except for Sam who is left for dead.  He is found by the Hopi and nursed back to health.  Then the Navajo attack the Hopi village, the peaceful Hopi have no one to lead them in the fight.  No one, that is, except for Sam.  "The annals of the United States Cavalry are silent concerning Sam Watt's exploits, but his story is still told around the council fires of the Hopi.

Plus the requisite amount of fillers.

An interesting issue.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=6251

FORGOTTEN BOOK: APACHE RISING

Apache Rising by Marvin H. Albert  (first published in 1957; reprinted as a m0vie tie-in titled Duel at Diablo, 1965; reprinted this month in paperback and e-book as Apache Rising under Stark House Press's Whipcrack Western line) 

For those interested in a fast-moving western with a tight plot and well-drawn characters, it's hard to beat the eleven paperback originals published by Mavin H. albert under his own name and as "Al Conroy" between 1956 and 1965.  Apache Rising, the second of these, is a tough and realistic example of how good albert was at his craft.

Jess Remsberg is a frontier scout on a mission -- finding and killing the man who murdered, raped, and scalped Jess's beloved Comanche wife, Singing Sky.   Jess has searched for years  but has not found any clue to who had killed his wife, until his friend Lieutenant Gil McAllister, came across Signing Sky's scalp displayed at a sutler's in Fort Duell; the scalp had a silver streak along the black hair, and a tiny silver bell attached to it -- there could be no doubt that it belonged to Jess's wife.

On his way to meet McAllister, Jess had rescued across a lone woman in the desert being stalked by two Apaches.  The woman was Ellen Graff, the wife of a local freighter who had been kidnapped by the Apaches several years ago.  She had been taken as a wife by the son of the powerful chief Chata and had born a son by him.  When the army raided Chata's camp, Ellen was knocked un conscious and -- recognized as a white woman by the soldiers because of her red hair -- was brought back to her husband who had given her up for dead and had moved on with his life, hoping to marry another woman.  Ellen's child had been unknowingly left at the Indian camp.  Graff resented Ellen for not killing herself while in captivity and for giving birth to an Apache baby; the mere presence of Ellen back in his home has severely damaged Millard Graff's personal and business reputation.  For her part, all Ellen wants to do is find her child.  She had run away and was crossing the desert to that when Jess rescued her.

The raid on Chata's camp had all but destroyed Chata's band of warriors.  With a few survivors, Chata made it to the Mexican hills to regroup as renegade Indians slowly made their way from reservation=s to join him.  It is now suspected that he has gained enough warriors to regain his war against the hated white men.  If Chata makes it across the order and past the army stationed at Fort Duell to the Mogollon Rim, he will have an impenetrable stronghold from which to wreak terror along Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.  McAllister is in Fort Creel next to the town of Avalanche to receive a shipment of four wagons full of ammunitions due at distant Fort Duell.  McAllister will have twenty-five soldiers with him to protect the shipment, but he is concerned that Chata might emerge from Mexico if he learns of the shipment of ammunition.  McAllister asks Jess to scout for him.  Jess, anxious to reach Fort Duell himself to question the sutler who had his wife's scalp, agrees.  Joining McAllister's group is Graff, who is bringing a wagon of goods to sell at the fort, and a gun-toting gambler named Toller, looking to relieve some long-isolated soldiers of their cash.

As the expedition heads out, Jess learns that Ellen has stolen two horses and has headed back into the desert in search of her son, and that Graff could care less.

Scouting ahead of the main party, Jess discovers Chata has crossed the  border and is nearby with a force twice the size of McAllister's.  He also discovers that Ellen has been captured by Chata's men.  Chata's son -- the one who took Ellen as a wife -- is dead and Chata is determined to keep Ellen alive until he reaches hos son's grave, where he will bury Ellen alive with him.  Jess also comes across the remain of a party of settlers -- men, women, and children -- who have been butchered by Chata's men.

Rather than turn back until he can get reinforcements, McAllister decides to attack Chala and stop him before any other settlers get hurt.  (And, if McAllister is able to stop Chata, it would not hurt his chances for promotion.)  But Chata is a skilled and wily battle leader, and the desert is a remorseless place for white men, but the Apache seem to know every square inch of it.  Surprise attacks, bad luck, and a lack of water combine to whittle down McAllister's forces.  McAllister's only hope is to get a message to Fort Duell for rescue, unaware that the messenger has been staked out and tortured  by the Apache.  No help is coming.

While Chata's men are attacking the McAllister, Chatoa's camp in a protected canyon has only women, children, and old men left, allowing Jess to sneak in and rescue Ellen and her child.  The smart thing to do would  be to bring Ellen and the child to Fort Duell, but to do that would be to abandon McAllister and his men.  Jess and Ellen fight their way back to McAllister, who has been left with just a handful of survivors.  McAllister has just one wild hope for survival while he sends Jess on a near suicidal mission to get help from Fort Duell.

The suspense never lets up and both the action and the setting are vivid.  Jess, of course falls in love with Ellen, and is torn between his feelings for her and the memory of his dead wife.  Complicating things is that Jess learns -- late in the novel -- that the man who murdered Singing Sky was Ellen's husband.

A fast and totally satisfying read.  Whipcrack Books, a new imprint from Stark House, was wise to choose this lone as their first release, biding well for the future of the line.

A word about the film, which was also scripted by Albert.  The movie starred James Garner, Sidney Poitier, and Bibi Anderson.  This was Poitier's first western and the film was directed by Ralph Nelson, who had recently directed Poitier in Lilies of the Field.  Poitier portrayed Trotter as a former Buffalo Soldier, rather than an itinerant gambler.  No mention was made kin the film of Poitier's color -- a wise decision, IMHO.  In the film, the final stand-off took place in Diablo Canyon; in the  novel the name Diablo was never mentioned, which must have left readers of the tie-in version scratching their heads.  As with the novel, the film is also visually graphic in its violence and scenes of torture -- something that was rare at that time.

Marvin H. Albert (1924-1996) began his writing career for Quick and Look magazines, moving into novels in 1952 with The Road's End, published as  by "Al Conroy."  with the success of his first western, The Law and Jake Wade, he became a full-time writer, eventually publishing more than eighty-five novels under various names, mainly in the crime, mystery, detective, suspense, adventure, and western fields; this number includes twenty-five film and television novelizations.  Albert also scripted at least five major films.  His 1975 suspense novel The Gargoyle Conspiracy was nominated for an Edgar.  He may be best remembered for a series of novels featuring private detective Pete (Pierre-Ange) Sawyer and for his Tony Rome novels, which were the basis for several films starring Frank Sinatra. 

No matter under what name or what genre, Marvin H. Albert always provided entertaining, exciting reading.

CABIN B-13: SLEEP OF DEATH (DECEMBER 26, 1948)

Cabin B-13 began as a radio play by mystery author John Dickson Carr, airing on CBS's Suspense on March 16, 1943.   The episode was rebroadcast later that year, and again as a separate program -- not part of the Suspense anthology series -- in 1948; it also received a special broadcast for screen executives early in 1949 as they considered filming it.  The show was also used as the premiere episode of the British radio series Appointment with Fear in 1943.  The script was reprinted in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1944.  It was televised in 1958 on the television version of Suspense, and in 1959 on Climax.  Canada's CBC aired it as an episode of the program The Unforeseen.  In 1992, it was the basis of a made-for-television movie, Dangerous Crossing.

In 1948, Carr used the ;program as the basis of a radio series which ran from July 5, 1948 through January 2, 1949, as a replacement for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, again on CBS.  The radio series was directed by John Dietz, and all scripts were written by Carr.  Here, Doctor John Fabian (Arnold moss, in all but four episodes, in which he was replaced by Alan Hewitt), ship's surgeon on the luxury liner Maurevania, would relate tales of mystery and adventure concerning various passengers of the ship as it made port in different areas of the world.  Cabin B-13 was Fabian's own cabin.

To win the approval of her overprotective and stubborn uncle )Peter Capel). a young suitor (Cliff Carpenter) dares to spend the night in the cursed Tapestry Room to win the hand of his beloved (Janice Gilbert) -- but all who have slept in the room have been killed.  SPOILER ALERT:  The uncle is not a murderer!

Enjoy.

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

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: BLACK BUTTERFLIES

"Black Butterflies" by Elmer Brown Mason  (first published in All-Story Weekly, June 24, 1916;  reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, April 1949; in Rainbow Fantasia:  35 Spectrumatic Tales of Wonder, edited by Forrest J Ackerman, 2001; in Brown's collection of stories, The Golden Anaconda, 2009; in= Apemen!:  Classic Tales of Anthropoids, edited by T. M. Gray & Charles G. Waugh, 2013 [revised version edited by Gray, Jon A. Schlenker, & Waugh, 2021]; and in Zoologica Fantastica, edited by Chad Arment. 2013)

A nifty lost civilization story -- the type that was done so well in the early pulp magazines, and sometimes so poorly.

"The way was strewn with the dead who had dared seek out the secret of those jungle depths ... but the lure was gold at safari's end, and the priceless wings of the sable  butterfly no man had ever caught..." -- introduction to the story in Famous Fantastic Mysteries. 

In brief, practical Scotsman Andy Freeman and his good friend, the obstinate Englishmen Trebor Dillingame, head into the depths of the Borneo jungle in search of rare butterflies and other species to sell to wealthy clients back home.  Specifically, they are search of a giant black butterfly -- a hitherto unknown species.  They are joined in their expedition  by the villainous, treacherous, and  murderous Gomez, who is in search for the reputed gold that lies deep in the jungle.  As they proceed, they encounter a beautiful white goddess who claims to be immortal, a race of humanoid apes, an ancient Chinese tong, flesh-eating insects, a giant underwater leech demanding sacrifices, and danger at every turn.

How could you ask for anything more?

Among the ingredients for this fantastic and enjoyable tale are:

• Kratas, the Preistess of the Land of Blood, who knows not death, who lives forever, and is the guardian of the souls of the dead.  The superstitious call her a hantus, a witch and a spirit who lives  on the top of Mount Kina Balu.  Kratas is very strong and very agile, and can disappear into the jungle easily; she is highly jealous and has fallen in ,love with Dillingame, whom she is obligated to slay.
• A mysterious and unnamed Chinese tong, which ruled Borneo long before the English, or even the Dutch appeared.   In this area, they live in a hidden city and are ruled by the cruel mandarin <Lo Chin, a giant 400-pound tyrant with a terribly disfigured face, a punshment for committing patricide.   
• The primitive Ida'an, a tribe under the control of the Chinese.
• A race of ape men, perhaps orangutangs, clad in sarongs and with human-like hair piled on top of their heads to contain poison darts.  They are experts with blowguns,  but appear to be under the sway of Kratas.
• Giant, flesh-eating caterpillars, eventually to mature into giant black butterflies which thirst for blood.  The black butterflies are sacred because they contain the souls of dead priests.
• A monstrous giant carnivorous leech living underneath a mysterious pool with red water.  Various Chinese and apemen are fed to it as sacrifices.
• A treasure trove of gold dust and nuggets, which is regularly transported out of the jungle to fund the tong in a manner that no authorities are aware of.  The dust is often carried inside large porcupine quills.
• And the Borneo jungle itself -- steaming hot, deadly, and mysterious.  It is portrayed in a very realistic manner by the author, who had spent time in Borneo and knows of what he writes.

Put it all together and you have a crackerjack of a story.

Mason wrote three stories about Andy Freeman, all published in Al-Story Weekly; this was the first.  the second "Red Tree-Frogs," was a direct sequel; the third story, "The Gem Vampire," which sends him on another Borneo adventure, this time with the son of Kratas and Dillingame.

Mason (1877-1955) was a bit of mystery man.  The son of a prominent family (his father was the surveyor general of Montana and his grandfather had been the mayor of Chicago when the Great Chicago Fire occurred), Mason himself suffered from wanderlust.  He would pick an area of the world at random and then go and live there until his money ran out.  then he would return home, get a job, and once he had money, would set off for another destination.  In this manner, he lived in Borneo, India, Europe, South America, and parts of Southern United States.  He was, at times, a journalist, a lumberman, an entomologist, and a writer, as well as in inveterate traveler.  As an entomologist, he was called  by the then-governor of south Carolina as the "bug man"; he became an expert on the Southern Pine beetle -- during this time in the South, he said that he had been "shot at twice and stabbed once in an illicit whiskey still in North Carolina, and generally had a good time."  At age 40, he enlisted in the army and was sent to France, where he was wounded at least three times and gassed at least twice, and spent six weeks in an English hospital.  He also reportedly had a raucous time while serving.  One of his later jobs was with the American Cancer Society, which may or may  not -- records are inconclusive -- have placed him on stage with Madame Curie in 1931.

From 1911 through 1926, Mason published over ninety stories.  From the Pulp Flakes blog, October 5, 2012:  "He wrote stories set around the world, in Borneo, Africa, South America and the swamp country in the US.  Some of his earliest stories centered around animals -- with the heroes usually trying to collect rare animals for one reason or the other.  These rare animals included an albino otter, a white gorilla, a dinosaur, and a large black butterfly.  The stories are usually set in place he had personally visited, so there is an authentic flavor to them."  Another series character was Wandering Smith, a swamp guide feature in five stories.

The April 1949 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries is available here:

https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/SF/FFM/FFM_1949_04.pdf

And here:

https://archive.org/details/Famous_Fantastic_Mysteries_v10n04_1949-04_unz.org/mode/1up

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS: THE CHICKEN FROM OUTER SPACE (MARCH 8, 1960)

A great riff on Arch Obeler's famous "Chicken Heart" episode of the radio show LIGHTS OUT, Dobie and Maynard goof up a biology experiment by injecting the bird with both male and female hormones.  The episode is pure science fictional hilarity.

Starring Dwayne Hickman, Bob Denver, Frank Faylen, Florida Friebus, and Sheila James.  Puire comedy gold.

Enjoy.

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

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CASEY KASEM!

 "Casey" Kasem (1932-2014) was an American disc jockey who created America's top 40 in 1970, the popular radio count-down show that still survives, having had many hosts and formats over the years.

I thought it would be fun to recapture those days from the beginning of the show.  I couldn't find the playlist for the first show from July 4, 1970 (radio station KDEO -- now KECR -- of El Capo, California jumped the gun by airing it first on the evening of July3rd), but truth to tell, I did not look very hard.  instead, here's the playlist from the August 1, 1970 outing,  but instead of the Top 40, I have limited myself to the Top 15.

How many do you recognioze?

#15 - "Lay Down (Candles in  the Rain)" -- Melanie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EiEtAQ8Es4

#14 - "Are You Ready?" -- Pacific Gas & Electric

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

#13 - "Hitchin' a Ride" - Vanity Fare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88EykxITki8

#12 - "War" -- Edwin Starr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-2pNCZiNk

#11 - "Ride Captain Ride" -- Blues Image

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

#10 - "O-o-o Child" -- The Five Stairsteps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dguz0IsCuKU

#9 - "Tighter and Tighter" --Alive 'n Kickin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjG9wK-Cn-o

#8 - "Ball of Confusion" -- The Temptations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9poCAuYT-s

#7 - "Spill the Wine" -- Eric Burdon and War

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Xs7NK-7B8

#6 - "The Love You Save" The Jackson Five

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkuULWqF3AY

#5 - "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" -- Stevie Wonder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6To0fvX_wFA

#4 - "Band of Gold" Freda Payne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daxiMb0rITA

#3 - "Mama Told Me (Not To Come)" -- Three Dog Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ1KBCSkH_Q

...we're getting closer to NUMBER ONE!...

#2 - "Make It with You" -- Bread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KXV0gB0dw

...and here it is!...the one you've been waiting for!...the NUMBER ONE Song of the Week!"...

[drum roll, please]

#1 - "Close to You" - The Carpenters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpQRsXrduc8

Any other fond memories of hits from 1970?

HYMN TIME

 A bit of western swing gospel from Shiloh Worship Music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDXeKmsuV2o

JACKPOT COMICS #9 (APRIL 1943)

This was the final issue of Jackpot Comics, a mixed-bag anthology title from MLJ Comics shortly before they became Archie Comics.  A number of the characters featured also appeared in other MLJ titles an=d many of them shifted to titles from the newly-formed Archie Comics, such as Zip Comics, Pep Comics, Archie Comics, Top Notch Laugh Comics, and Mighty Comics.

• "The Last Treason of George Carter"  A Steel Sterling Adventure.  Sterling was a superhero who had developed a formula that gave his body the strength and resistance of steel; he was also able to magnetize himself so he could fly (don't ask).  Nazis have held up a munitions truck and stolen its cargo of depth charges.  Working with Hitler's number one agent in America is the co-own=er of the Atlas Munitions Company, George Carter.  Steel has to stop the Nazis, expose Carter, and save a river tunnel from being blown up.  Sterling was the second superhero to be called "The Man of Steel"  -- wonder who was the first?
• "Archie's Super X-Press Service"  Bob Montana shows up with his popular red-headed teen.  Archie is hired by Tony the fishmonger to deliver a barrel of fish.  Because it is late in the day, he decides it would not matter if he delivered the fish in the morning.  The next day he has to drive his father to work...a flat tire, a loose cover on the barrel, and the heat of the day are working against him.  The fish begin to smell and get away from him, causing problem=s throughout Riverdale.  This early version of Archie (and his father) is drawn differently from what I was used to when I was reading Archie in the Fifties.
• "Map of Skin"  A Black Hood story.  The original Black Hood was Matthew "Kip" Burland, an ex-cop who had been framed by the Skull; after clearing his name, Burland still wore the Black Hood costume.  He may or may not have had superpowers (the original stories were vague on that account),  but he had unusual strength, agility, and healing powers.  The character had his own radio show in 1943-4.  At an antique store, girlfriend Barbara Sutton has fond two pieces of parchment with portions of a map drawn on them.  An amnesia patient wakes from a two-month coma and tries to get the maps from Barbara.  Meanwhile, lab tests have shown that the "parchment" was actually tanned human skin...Curiouser and curiouser...
• "It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog"  A "funny animal" story.  A puppy who does not like rain keeps getting wet through three pages of misadventures.
• "What Do Porkchops and Gooch See?"  Another "funny animal" story, this time with a pih (Porkchops) and a cat (Gooch).  This was evidently Porkchops' only appearance in Comicbookland.
• "The Radium Corpse"  A Mr. Justice adventure.  Mr. Justice was Prince James of England, who was murdered in Scotland in 1740.  His spirit was freed during World War II when a German submarine sank the boat carrying the ruins of his castle to America.  He is a supernatural presence who can communicate with other spirits, project himself astrally, and has super strength and can fly.  At the same time O'Hara, the mad killer, was electrocuted, Professor Stimes, in an experiment to make people immune to death, tried to project an radium ray at him, because this what respected scientists do in the 1940s.  It didn't work.  Or did it?  The corpse rises as a monster and begins wreaking havoc.  Mr. Justice descends to Hell to confront the Keeper of Lost Souls to claim the soul of O'Hara.  He fights off various demons, gains the Keeper's Scepter, and flies back to Earth with the magic incarnation needed to end the terror of the Radium Corpse.  Will he make it in time?
• "Murder Trap"  A two-age text story by Alf Corsican featuring the Black Hood.
• "Clancy and Looney"  Humor.  Sgt. Clancy of the Metropolitan Police meets up with Sgt. Looney Lunar of the U.S. Army.  Military police mistake Clancy for an AWOL  soldier and try to arrest him.  Hijinx (or perhaps low jinx) occur.  This was the final appearance of Clancy and Looney.

Like I said, a mixed bag.  Two things should be noted.  First, the cover proclaims a Sergeant Boyle story that does not appear in the issue.  Second, a number of these public domain characters were rebooted, reimagined, and revised over the years by other companies, so things can get confusing. 

Yet, over the years, Archie Andrews endures.

Enjoy this final bow of Jackpot Comics.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=98070&comicpage=&b=i

NO FORGOTTEN BOOK TODAY

 Sometimes life just happens and plans go awry.  Or, sometimes, backs just go awry.  My on-again, off-again back problems have flared up over the past few days and I have just not been able to concentrate on reading.  I have four very good, very enjoyable books that I am currently reading and have had to put on hold.  For a bibliophile such as myself, that may be the ultimate tragedy.

But all is not lost.  I have discovered a new rabbit hole, thanks to a recent post by Mike Toomey on Steve Lewis's Mystery*File website.  Mike brings attention to two lesser-known websites offering out-of-copyright reading:  Roy Glashan's Library and Standard Ebooks, both offering high quality reproductions of mystery, science fiction, and other genres. I was familiar with Roy Glashan's Library and have been using it for years, it being a standard stop for me to check out its near daily updates.  But for some reason, I had never stumbled upon Standard Ebooks and thought I should check it out -- and you should too.  Their books appeared to be carefully curated and exquisitely packaged.

Categories include Adventure, Autobiography, Biography, Children's, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Memoir, Mystery, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Satire, Science Fiction, Shorts, Spirituality, and Travel.  Their Short Story collections are carefully chosen public domain works from specific authors, many of them from the science fiction field, such as Frederik, Pohl, H. Beam Piper, Cordwainer Smith, Frank Belknap Long, Andre Norton, and others -- some of which may not be available in other single-author collections from these writers.

Their catalog shows over 1400 books thus far, some from the usual suspects, some not, but almost all look gorgeous.  To give a taste, here are the first fourteen books that they offered:

• A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first adventure of John Carter on Barsoom.  It knocked my socks off when I was much younger, and the fond memories still remain.
• The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe,  The weird classic that has inspired writers from Jules Verne to H. P. Lovecraft and beyond.
• The Turn of the Screw, Henry James, A classic ghost story that continues to haunt.
• Walden, Henry David Thoreau, a personal declaration of independence and a reflection on simple living in natural surroundings -- still meaningful.
• The Lady of the Barge, W. W. Jacobs, a collection of twelve short stories, ranging from the humorous and the nautical to the macabre, including the classic "The Monkey's Paw."
• Candide, Voltaire, the satirical French novel from 1759 which many consider to be the author's magnum opus, originally denounced by  both secular and religious authorities; Ellery Queen and others have pointed out the basic framework of a mystery novel in the  book.
• Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, a classic work of philosophy.
• The Time Machine, H. G. Wells, eloi and morlocks, oh my!
• The Jungle, Upton Sinclair, the sensational, muckraking novel of the Chicago meat yards that led to the implementation of food safety laws in 1906.
• The Book of Wonder, Lord Dunsany, a collection of fourteen fantasy stories by the Anglo-Irish writer, which greatly influenced future writers such as Lovecraft and Tolkien.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, in my opinion, in a dead heat with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as the greatest novel of all time.
• Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Thomas de Quincey, an autobiographical account of the author's addiction and its effect on his life, now considered a classic; the book has influenced both psychology and abnormal psychology; Poe praised its "glorious imagination -- deep philosophy -- acute speculation."
• Tao Te Ching, Laozi, a fundamental Chinese philosophical text from 400 B.C, a spiritual and philosophic classic that still resonates today.
• Dracula,  Bram Stoker, the classic vampire novel.

I have read ten of these first fourteen books and have made dents into a couple more.  It is good to see these titles available with great art design, consistent layout, easily readable typography, and best e-book and programming practices; the books are curated with care and the professionalism shows.

Later books issued expand the range of the catalog and include both familiar and less familiar works by authors such as Jules Verne, Anthony Trollope, P. G. Wodehouse (including his nearly schoolboy novels), Maurice LeBlanc, Sigrid Undset, George MacDonald, Emile Gaboriau, William Morris, Freeman Wills Crofts, Andre Norton, Ellis Parker Butler, Ford Madox Ford, Margaret Oliphant, Edith Nesbit, G. A. Henty, S. Fowler Wright, and many others, including early adventures of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.  There is something for everyone.

Do yourself a favor and check it out.  I can almost guarantee that there will be something you will want to click on immediately.

https://standardebooks.org/

THE LUCKY STRIKE PROGRAM STARRING JACK BENNY (JANUARY 12, 1947)

 If you have a refined and sophisticated sense of humor (like me), you cannot get enough of Jack Benny.

Here, the laughs are doubled because Jack's guests are George Burns and Gracie Allen.   Also featured are the usual gang  -- Mary Livingston, Phil Harris, Eddie Anderson, Dennis Day, and Don Wilson.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNVK6QCI8dI

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE LOST LIMERICK

 "The Lost Limerick" by Guy Gilpatric (first published in Britannia and Eve, January 1930; then published in America in The Saturday Evening Post, January 4, 1930; reprinted in Argosy  [UK], September 1940; reprinted in Glencannon:  Great Stories from The Saturday Evening Post, 1953)

This was the fourth recorded adventure of Mr. Colin Glencannon, ship's engineer of the S.S. Inchcliffe Castle, and the first to appear in The Saturday Evening Post.  A further sixty-six stories and one novel (in collaboration with Norman Reilly Raine, in which Glencannon met Raine's character Tugboat Annie) followed through 1950-- all but three appearing in SEP.  Glencannon, along with Tugboat Annie and William Hazlett Upton's Alexander Botts, was one of the most popular characters to appear in SEP.

So, who is Glencannon?

"Mr. Colin Glencannon, shjp's engineer of the S.S. Inchcliffe Castle, is blessedly, completely, blissfully, belligerently without redeeming social value.  If, by some horrible mishap, Guy Gilpatric had been a writer of pornography instead of humor, no judge in any court in any hall of justice anywhere between Alcatraz and Zanzibar would have permitted Glencannon to wind up in print.  For he appeals to that strange section of our phrenological chart, the prurient.  We lust after the pure, bellyaching, guffawing laughs Glencannon provides us.  He is a lewd, low, lascivious fellow who cares no more for his reader than he cares for a dry whistle.  Liquor is the guiding principle of his life."

As the Inchcliffe Castle makes her way from Melilla in Spanish Morocco to Algiers, Mr. Glencannon appears bereft, if not desperate.  He had foolishly sent his money back home while in Melilla and is facing three days in Algiers without funds.  Worse, he had even more foolishly not stocked enough liquor to keep him occupied over theose three days.

What to do?  What to do?

A breakfast (his time-honored repast of a heaping quart of porridge, lubricated with a lump of oleomargarine the size of a cricket ball), Glencannon was visibly troubled.  When Captain Ball asked what the problem was, Glencannon offered this story:

"My nairves.  They've been all a-joomp and a-jangle since we cleared Melilla for Algiers.  Yes, captain, since we cleared Melilla.  I just fear that Malilla will envetually be the death o' me.

"Weel, [he continued] it's a seetuation so strange as to be no less than eunuch.  As some of you know, Captain Ball and gentlemen, I've always been a great one for lummericks -- silly vurse of poesy, like, foe instance, the one about a suirtain young man from Bombay who went out a-riding one day, and the coolie who lived in Hong Kong whose job was to hammer a dong.  You know that sort o' thing?...O' course:  Weel, there are liteerally hundreds o' them, a' more or less immoral, but a' o' them verra comiuc -- yes, verra, verra comic indeed!  It's  been a hobby o' mine to collect and meemorize a lummerick for every port in the world; in fact, it's been a matter o' pride that no liviong man, aship or ashore, could stumnop me when it comes to lummericks.  Weel, when I heard about our next port o' call being Melilla, I o' course thought o' the famous lummerick which goes -- weel, the first line goes something about Melilla.  Ye know it?"

And here, Glencannon said that he could not remember the limerick.  Try as hard as he could the rhyme avoided him, although it always seemed on the tip of his tongue.  the captain and others at the table all agreed they were familiar with the famous limerick, but not one of them could recall exactly how it went -- not the officers, not the mess boy, nor the cook.  This bothered the captain, because, as captain, he had the best brain on the ship.  The other officers were also proud of their brains, and were equally frustrated.  Each swore that, with a little bit of thought they would remember the verse.  The captain was willing to bet that he  would remember it soon.  Others were willing take the bet, and soon it escalted to a shipwide poo, with everyone putting in ten percent of their wages, and the one who first remembered the rhyme before they reach Algiers would take the whole pot, which had swollen to sixty-four pounds, nineteen shillings, sixpence.

While everyone was racking their brains to remember a limerick that had never existed, Glencannon went to his room and scoured over his book of collected limericks, eventually finding one that could be adapted to fit Melilla.  Then he took his bagpipes and what little was left of his bottle of Duggen's Dew of Kirkintilloch and went on deck to play four hours of "Cock o' the North" -- which "as all good Caledonians know, is the greatest and grandest music ever composed by mortal man, but, unfortunately, none but the Caledonians are capable of appreciating it"  The  blaring music served to distract all the crew members who were trying to come up with the limerick.

Alas, for Glencannon., he did not count on the ship's radio operator, a young man as larcenous as himself.  The operator had been radioing all ships in the area for the words to a limerick about Melilla and had learned form dozens of sources that of such limerick existed.  He threatened to expose Glencannon's scam to the captain unless he receive a fifty percent share, and Glencannon had  no choice but the accede.

And so Glencannon and the radio operator won the  money.  While ashore in Algiers, the captain happened to meet the world's greatest expert on limericks and learned that he had been gulled:  the winning limerick was actually one about Manilla and had been written by the limerick expert himself many years before.  But it was too late, the money had been spent on liquor and, through a  window, the captain could hear a snake charmer's pipes change its tune to "Cock o' the North."  Looking out, he could see Glencannon, drunk as a lord, with a pile of wounded Arabs heaped all around him, while the wireless operator was selling a tom-tom to American tourists.

John Guy Gilpatric (1896-1950) was an American pilot, flight instructor, journalist, and writer.  He received his pilot's license when he was sixteen; that same year he set the United Stats altitude record.  As a teenager, he became a stunt pilot and a flight instructor.  He was stationed overseas as an engineering officer during World War I.  following the was he worked as a journalist in Paris, returning to America in 1940.  He is credited with popularizing spear-fishing in the 1930s and influenced diving pioneer Jean-Jacques Costeau.  An editor at The Saturday Evening Post, in response to a question, stated that the reason the magazine did not print more stories by Gilpatric was because he just didn't writing them fast enough.  In addition to his Glencannon stories, Gilpatric wrote a  number of aviation stories and tales about Francis X. Olvaney, a crooked Tammany Hall politician.  One of his novels, Action in the North Atlantic, was made into a film starring Humphrey Bogart and was nominated for an academy award.  A television series about Glencannon was produced in 1959, starring Thomas Mitchell.

Gilpatric's life ended in a tragic turn.  His wife Maude was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1950 and the couple made a suicide pact.  Gilpatric shot Maude in the back of the head, then turned the gun on himself.  Although it was never proven, it is now believed that Maude had never had breast cancet, and that the doctor had read the wrong medical chart.

OVERLOOKED OATER: CHEYENNE RIDES AGAIN (1937)

 Tom Tyler (1903-1954) was a popular star of low-budget westerns, appearing in at least fifty films as the star and dozens more as a supporting player.  At one time, the Poverty Row film company Victory Pictures tried to pitch him as a singing cowboy, a la Gene Autry or Tex Ritter, by having him lip-synch several songs -- it did not work.  Tyler was also noted for supporting roles in major pictures,, such as Stagecoach, Drums Along the Mohawk, Gone with the Wind, The Westerner, and The Grapes of Wrath.  He also played the mummy Kharis in The Mummy's Hand, and starred in several serials based on comic book characters in The Adventures of Captain Marvel and The Phantom.  After 1943 leading roles for Tyler dried up, although he he still continued working as a supporting players, eventually transitioning to television, mainly in westerns, until shortly before his death from heart failure.  One of his last roles was as the co-star on an unsold television pilot written and directed by Ed Wood, Jr.

In Cheyenne Rides Again, Tyler plays Tom "Cheyenne Tommy" Wade, a lawman posing as a gang member to expose cattle Thief Girard (Lon Chaney, Jr.).  Wade uses leverage to blackmail Girard into letting undercover lawmen join the gang.  Eventually, the lawmen out number the crooks, and arrest the entire gang -- a plan that could only work in a B western.

Directed by Robert F. Hill (Blake of Scotland Yard, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, Tarzan the Fearless).  Hill took a page from Alfred Hitchcock, appearing in cameos in many of his films; in Cheyenne Rides Again he appear as "Bartender Ed."  The script was written by Basil Dickey (The Masked Marvel, Captain America, Son of Zorro).  Also featuring Lucile Brown (The Moonshiner's Daughter, Secrets of Chinatown, The Story of Elias Howe) and Carmen Laroux (Two-Gun Caballero, Starlight Over Texas, Saved by the Belle).

A true Poverty Row oater.

Enjoy,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM8qbip16hc

BITS AND PIECES

Openers:  "Wait a minute, now.  You're saying you want us to deal with a pig problem?" Leonard said.

We were sitting in the agency office, just me and Leonard along with an economy-sized woman in a colorful flower-patterned muumuu and house shoes.  She looked as if she might take a bite out of your ear.  She had thick and bright false teeth and in my view wasn't afraid to use them.

"It's a hog.  Sizable.  Keeps attacking the family." the woman said.  "My kids, three of them.  Another one, Sharoline, doesn't live at home, so she's pig-free.  I hardly knew her father.  I was pretty wild once.  Used to drink a lot.  But that's a different story, and you don't want to hear about that."

She paused, perhaps hoping we did want to hear about it, but we offered no encouragement.  I found a fly on Brett's desk to watch.  The  moment passed for her story.  The fly had had its moment as well and flew off.

She said, "All the kids are afraid of Porky.  That's what we named him.  One time, Porky humped my leg like a dog.  I had to let him finish because he wouldn't let go.  He was kind of soothed afterward, so I was able to escape with a wet leg and all of me still intact.  Big as he is, wonder he didn't push me down.  but he's quite agile and can stand on his hind hooves.  He was more of a shoat then.  He put on some weight since that lovesick moment.  I bet that son of a bitch tops lout at four hundred ;pounds.  He still gives me the love eye when he catches me hurrying from the house to the pickup.

"The kids go to catch the school bus or come home on it, they got to run like wild horses to keep Porky from getting to them.  Goddamn bastard ate my daughter's cat, Tulip.  And that cat was sizable and a scrapper.  Seen Tulip whip a good-sized dog once.  But that hog ate old Tulip like she was an ear of corn.  Sometimes, to get the kids on the bus, Baby Darling, my youngest girl, owner of the cat, also the fastest of the kids even though she's short-legged, will put herself out there first and run around the house, old Porky following.  That gives the other kids time to run to the bus, and then Baby Darling will beat it to the bus just before the driver closes the door.  She's a brave little scamp."

Hatchet Girls by Joe R. Lansdale  (2025)

Thus, Hap and Leonard are hired to catch and pen a psychotic 400-pound hog whose meanness stems from a steady diet of meth -- not the easiest job they have ever had.  Before they were finished, one house was wrecked and both were beaten and tired.  But both soldiered on because Hap and Leonard, as usual, refused to give up, not knowing what dangers would stem from this little incident.  Soon they were facing in-bred criminal idiots, an East Texas meth cartel, crooked cops, stupid cops, indifferent cops, and a gang war, as well as the Hatchet Girls, so named because of the weapons of choice they used to torture, disfigure, and dismember there victims before setting them on fire.  And Hap and Leonard are not getting any younger and are facing changes of their own in their lives.  Danger, suspense, excitement, humor, racism, sex, corruption, and good ol' down home stupidity combine with truly evil deeds to make this another great entry kin this series as Hap and his wife Brett and Leonard and his fiance Pookie face off against their most dangerous enemies ever.

Incoming: 

• "Luke Adams" (Bill Crider), Apache Law:  Showdown.  The fourth and final book in this paperback western series about Mitch Frye, the reluctant half-Apache sheriff of Paxton, Arizona.  "Trace Beaumont once saved Mitch Frye from drowning.  Now Trace has shown up in Paxton and wants to renew the friendship.  Trouble is, Trace is now a gunslinger wanted for a string of murders, and Mitch is a lawman.  But Mitch doesn't have a ,lot of time to worry about his old friend -- he's got other things on his  mind.  A ruthless gang that he threw out of town is coming back to tear the place up and get their revenge on Mitch.  And there aren't a whole lot of folks willing to stand by him and help him face the gunmen down.  It looks like Mitch has no choice but to accept Trace's help.  But he'll always be wondering why Trace came to town in the first place.  And whether he 's more likely to be shot by the gang...or by his friend"
• Kevin J. Anderson, editor, Star Wars:  Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina.  From 1995, the first Star Wars tie-in anthology, with sixteen original stories; authors include Anderson, Kathy Tiers, Timothy Zahn, Jerry Oltion, and Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
• Piers Anthony, With a Tangled Skein.  Fantasy, Book Three of the Incarnations of Immortality series.  "When the man Niobe loved was shot, she learned that she had been the target, in a devious plot of the Devil's.  Hoping for revenge, Niobe accepted a position as one of the three Aspects of Fate, only to find that Satan's plots were tangled into the very Tapestry of Fate.  Now the Evil One was laying a trap to ruin Niobe's granddaughter  Lura, who threatened his plans -- and he had tricked her son into Hell."
• Andrea Camilleri, Excursion to Tindari.  An Inspector Montalbano mystery.   "A young Don Juan is found murdered in front of his apartment building early one morning, an9=d an elderly couple are reported missing after an excursion to the ancient site of Tindari --  two seemingly unrelated cases for Inspector Montalbano to solve amid the daily complications of life at Vigata police headquarters.  But when Montalbano discovers that the couple and the murdered yon=g man lived in the same building, his investigation stumbles into Sicily's brutal "New Mafia", which leads him down a path more evil and more far-reaching than any he has been down before." 
• John Dickson Carr, The Unexpected Instinct.  The final collection of fourteen early stories by Carr, dating from 1921 to 1935, many long forgotten and never reprinted.  Also included is  a newly discovered Sherlock Holmes pastiche, a playlet written for the 1950 Mystery Writers of America awards ceremony by never performed.  The stories include mystery, historical adventure, fantasy, and satirical tales.  A  must for any serious John Dickson Carr fan.
• Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields.  Speculative fiction.  "Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there's hope for even the  most battered hearts to heal.  Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain...and keep on sleeping.  After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they are willing to accept the shadowy side effects."  Not my typical cup of tea but it is this month's pick for Erin's Family Book Club, so we'll see.
• John Farris, Sharp Practice.  Thriller.  A psychopathic killer stalks and terrorizes Annie Ramsdell, who is haunted by a man she cannot remember but cannot forget.  Considered a classic of the genre.
• Alan Dean Foster, The Spoils of War.  Science fiction, Book Three of THE DAMNED.  "After millennia of relentless war, the union of alien races called the Weave was on the verge of winning a decisive victory -- thanks to their new allies from Earth, who in a mere handful of centuries had proved masters of combat.  But then the birdlike Wais scholar Lalelelang  found disturbing evidence that humans might not adapt so easily to peace -- that natural human aggression would next be turned against the Weave, unless they were once again confined to fight among themselves.  When her field research revealed the existence of a secret group of powerfully telepathic Humans called the Core, it looked as if Lalelelang would be the first victim in a n=ew war between Humans and  their allies.  But just as her fate was sealed, a lone Core commander took a chance on her intelligence and compassion, gambling the fate of Humanity on the possibility that together, they could find an alternative to a galaxy-wide holocaust."
• Raymond Z. Gallun, The Best of Raymond Z. Gallun.  Science fiction collection with thirteen stories.  Gallun was a popular early science fiction writer who published  most of his 120 stories between 1929 and 1942, including recognized classics as "Old Faithful" and "Davey Jones' Ambassador."  His writing was rough, but his plots were fast-moving and his stories were often full of original ideas.  Gallun is essential reading for anyone wishing to get a good view of science fiction at that time.
• Guy Gilpatrick, Glencannon:  Great Stories from The Saturday Evening Post.  Collection of 21 humorous stories about the irascible Scottish ship's engineer who sailed through more than seventy stories, 1929 -1947 -- all but six of which appeared in SEP.  Glencannon stands alongside Tugboat Annie, Alexander Botts, and other characters who made SEP required reading for much of the Twentieth century.
• Martin H. Greenberg, Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh, & Jon Lellenberg, editors, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (expanded edition).  Eighteen new Sherlockian tales of detection, suspense, and fantasy.  Authors include Anne Perry Stephen King, Edward D. Hoch, Peter Lovesey, Michael Gilbert, Lillian de la Torre, Dorothy B. Hughes, John Lutz, and Bill Crider.   Come. Watson, the game's afoot!
• Carl Hiaasen & Bill Montalbano, Trap Line.  Thriller.  Before he went solo, Hiaasen wrote three novels with fellow reporter Montalbano (no relation to the Camilliri character above).  "With its dozens of outlying islands and the native Conchs' historically low regard for the law, Key West is a smuggler's paradise.  All that's needed are the captains to run the contraband=.   Breeze Albury is one of the best fishing captains on the Rock, and he's in no mood to become the Machine's delivery boy.  So the Machine sets out to persuade him.  It starts out by taking away Albury's livelihood,  Then it robs him of his freedom.  But when the Machine threatens Albury's son, the washed-out wharf rat turns into a raging, sea-going vigilante."    Drug lords,  crooked cops, and homicidal marine lowlifes, oh my.
• Stephen Graham Jones, The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti.  Horror novella.  "If drinking mercury from a thermometer didn't kill him, maybe spray  painting in an unventilated garage would.  Or so Nolan's father thought.  One inspired yet failed suicide attempt after another, each with a note to his son -- with only a hint of accusation.  But as Nolan sits in an empty office building, the last customer service employee for a nearly obsolete video game, those many suicide notes come back to haunt him.  As do the levels of the game that no one plays anymore.  And now a homicide detective is on the phone.  Maybe his father was right when he wrote that he was teaching Nolan  not to give up.  But there's no cheatcode that's going to get Nolan through this."  Also, Night of the Mannequins.  Horror novella.  "One last laugh for the summer as it winds down.  One last prank just to scare a friend.  Bringing a mannequin into a theater is just some harmless fun, right?  Until it wakes up.  Until it starts killing.  Luckily, Sawyer has a plan.  He'll be a hero.  He'll save everyone to the best of his ability.  He'll kill as many people as he needs to so he can save the day.  That's the thing about heroes -- sometimes you have to become a monster first."  Also, Zombie Bake-Off.  Horror  novel.  "There's not much rumbling during the Recipe Days show at the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum -- except for stomachs that is -- until the professional wrestlers arrive early for their Saturday night matches.  Chaos ensues when the home cooks are overrun by Xombie, the Hillbillies, and Jersey Devil Jill.  They're not everyone's idea of family fun...especially when the rowdy wrestlers descend on the free donuts brought for the security tram -- and are turned into brain-eating zombies.  The night's main event starts early with undead wrestlers squaring off against kitchen divas and soccer moms.  And as the contagion spreads, the few survivors armed with  mixers, booth poles, and a Zamboni, must fight to keep their heads on straight -- and off the menu."  Jones, a true original, is one of the brightest stars on today's horror scene.  But somehow I have always had trouble getting into his novels, but once I am in there, the ride is exhilarating.
• Stephen King. Hansel and Gretel.  Children's book.  The fairy tale retold and presented with paintings by Maurice Sendak originally created for the Humperdinck opera of the story.
• Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven.  The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning novel and the basis for the 2021 HBO miniseries; the book was also nominated for the National  Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Bailey's Women's Prize for fiction.  "Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear.  That was also the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.  Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians.  They call themselves the Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive.  But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, They encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band's existence.  And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed."
• Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Velvet Was the Night.  Historical noir.  "Mexico in the 1970s is a dangerous country, even for Maite, a secretary who spends her life seeking the romance found in cheap comic books and ignoring the activists protesting around the city.  When her next-door neighbor, the beautiful student Leonora, disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman -- and journeying deeper into Leonora's secret life of student radicals and dissidents.  Mexico in the 1970s is a politically fraught land, even for Elvis, a goon with a passion for rock 'n' roll who knows more about kidney-smashing than intrigue.  When Elvis is assigned to find Leonora, he begins a blood-soaked search for the woman -- and his soul.  Swirling in parallel trajectories, Maite and Elvis attempt to discover the truth behind Leonora's disappearance, encountering hitman, government agents, and Russian spies.  Because Mexico in the 1970s is a noir, where life is cheap and the price of truth is high."  Moren-Garcia is one of the best writers working today.
• Will Murray, Secret Agent X vs. Dr. Death.  Original pulp superhero adventure novel.  "UP FROM THE GRAVE!  The world believed Doctor Death deceased.  The clinically insane super-scientist and occultist determined to throw civilization back into the Dark Ages would trouble mankind no more.  Yet when the disbanded Secret Twelve, originally organized to defeat Death, started succumbing to violent, malevolent forces not of this world, authorities suspected that the former Professor Rance Mandarin still lived.  And schemed.  Rising to meet the5 challenge was the Man of a Thousand Faces, known yet unknown as Secret Agent X.  But the man of mystery had never before faced a foe possessing supernatural powers.  Could X alone defeat the past master of zombies, elementals, and even more dire creatures?  Or must he seek out allies as mysterious as he?"  Of course he must.  Murray brings alone other pulp heroes such as the Moon Man, the Griffin, and the Cobra for the ride.  Great fun!
• Andre Norton, Exiles of the Stars.  Science fiction, the second book in the Moon Singer sequence, and a sequel to Moon of Three Rings.  The Free Trader starship Lydis is making a rub to the planet Thoth, carrying incense for the great temples of Kartum, when a civil war lands her in a battle of ancient powers and nameless evil, with a Forerunner treasure at its heart.  The crew seems normal until you look closely at two of its members:  Krip Vorlund, a man who walks kin a body not his own, and his pet, a four-legged beast hiding the mind of Maslen the Moon Singer, a woman whose esper powers can save them all -- or bring them to eternal destruction." Also,  Mirror of Destiny.  Fantasy, part of the Five Senses sequence.  "The King's lottery has determined that Twilla, young orphaned apprentice of a renowned wisewoman, must marry --  but only the wedded can survive the terrible fate awaiting those who penetrate the primeval forest.  Altered  by a talisman of great power, she escapes her unwanted lot -- joining a commander's tragically blinded son on a remarkable journey from peril to peril.  For they are the chosen who must rescue the vanquished of an ancient war of magicks...and shape the destiny of a bloody, disputed land."
• Joyce Carol Oates, Double Trouble.  the latest from Hard Case Crime: a collection of two novels (Star-Bright Will Be with You Soon and Soul Mate) plus two short stories -- all originally published as by "Rosamond Smith."  A companion volume is slated to appear later this year.
• Terry Pratchett, Nation.  A juvenile science fiction novel.  "When a giant wave destroys his village, Mau is the only one left.  Daphne -- a traveler from the other side of the globe -- is the sole survivor of a shipwreck.  Separated by language and customs, the two are united  by catastrophe.  Slowly, they are joined together by other refugees.  And as they struggle to protect the small band, Mau and Daphne defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down."
• Robert J. Randisi, Cold Blooded.  A Dennis McQueen mystery.  "NYPD Detective Sergeant Dennis McQueen has his hands full with a very bizarre case.  A series of dead bodies has been found, all frozen -- killed  by various methods, but disposed of in the same manner.  Just a coincidence, or is there a serial killer at work?  Thing8s heat up when McQueen is sent to investigate a body found in the rubble of a fire and meets FDNY Fire Marshal Mason Willis.  Willis is investigating it as an arson, but the medical examiner's report makes it obvious that this is a case for McQueen  McQueen and Willis have no choice but to work together.  Will even the combined efforts of the NYPD and the FDNY be able to stop the killer...or killers?"
• Alistair Reynolds, Pushing Ice.  Science fiction.  "2057.  Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice.  They  mine comets.  But when Janus, one of Saturn='s ice moons, inexplicably leaves its natural orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed, Bella is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach.  In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny -- for Janus has many surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome..."
• "J. D. Robb" (Nora Roberts), Glory in Death.  The second book in the bestselling near-future Eve Dallas mystery-romance series, which now totals 62 novels and 11  novellas.  "The first victim was found lying on the sidewalk in the rain.  The second was murdered in her own apartment building.  Police Lieutenant /Eve Dallas had no problem finding connections between the two crimes.  Both victims were beautiful and highly successful women.  Their glamorous lives and loves were the talk of the city.  And their intimate relations with men of great power and wealth provided Eve with aa long list of suspects including her own lover, Rourke.  As a woman, Ever was compelled to trust the man who shared her bed.  But as a cop, it was her job to follow every lead...to investigate every scandalous rumnor...to explore every secret passion, no matter how dark.  Or how dangerous." People whose judgment I respect love these books.  I have read the first book in the series and thought it was okay but no great shakes.  I have a number of others buried on Mount TBR, so I'll read a few more and see if I catch the fever.
• Tom Robbins, Wild Ducks Flying Backward:  The Short Writings of Tom Robbins.  A collection of articles, essays, observations, poems, lyrics, stories,  critiques, and whathaveyou from the best-selling cult novelist who passed away last year at 92.  He should have lived forever.
• John Scalzi, Fuzzy Nation.  Science fiction, a reimagination of H. Beam Piper's 1962 novel Little Fuzzy, the first of three novels about the popular golden-furred aliens.  There have also been five other novels by other writers about the Fuzzies, mainly* sequels or novels set in the same universe.  Scalzi's novel should be considered a "reboot," taking the general storyline and plot elements of the original book, and "adding new elements, characters, and events."  Because Scalzi is Scalzi, I'm sure Piper's many fans have forgiven him and, most likely, approve.
• Mary Stewart, Three Novels of Suspense.  Omnibus volume containing the romantic suspense novels:  Madam, Will You Talk?, Nine Coaches Waiting, and My Brother Michael.  Stewart was one of the authors who popularized this genre and all three books are considered classics.  There was a time when you could not toss a cat at a paperback spinner rack and not hit a Mary Stewart  novel.
• Jason Starr, Gotham:  City of Monsters.  Original tie-in novel of the television series set in the Batman universe.  "Having escaped Arkham Asylum, Hugo Strange's monsters stalk the streets, spreading chaos, fear, and death.  Herself a victim of the madman's experiment, Fish Mooney seeks to retake her place at the top of the underworld.  Street thief Selena Kyle covets a place at her side.  Overwhelmed by this crisis, the city offers to pay a bounty for the creatures -- dead or alive.  Though no longer a cop, [James] Gordon nevertheless proves to be the most skilled at bringing these superhumans to justice, some in body bags.  Yet even he may not be able to stop the most bloodthirsty of the monsters."

Infamous:  Today marks the 137th birthday of Adolph Hitler, failed artist and human being.  Born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, he was an early German nationalist and avowed racist.  It's hard to imagine a person rising from such beginnings to become a national leader, much less one responsoible for the deaths of millions, but hatred has no bounds.

Here's a song from Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, with vocals by Tex Beneke and The Modernaires, written  by Irving Berlin in 1941, dedicated to the Fuhrer.  Any application to our present situation is purely coincidental.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4IUesQQKKQ

Two years later, America's secret weapon was revealed -- a certain member of the family Anatidae with a speech impediment.  Hitler did not stand a chance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7vb89c6pQY

420:  Today is also 420 (pronounced four-twenty), a counterculture celebration of cannabis consumption, especially smoking around 4:20 PM.  In U.S. notation, April 20 is marked 4/20.

Sadly (or not so sadly), I am quite un-hip (is that still a phrase?)  I have never smoked marijuana, or eaten an Alice B. Toklas cookie, or even a gummy.  I have also never used drugs or psychedelics.  I am a very boring person -- happy, but boring.  So I am not one to discuss the drug culture in any way.

To kick things off, here's a 1930s anti-marijuana clip, complete with hep cats and jive dancing, explaining that marijuana use will lead to murder, rape, dead teenagers, and sexual experimentation.  Gasp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6NzN_u4Rnw&list=PL_T1X5PCI5Bp0Koar1kKT_JsC9IX6auXT&index=11

And, from 1933, here's a classic marijuana exploitation film, starring no one you have ever heard of because, I assume, they all ruined their lives with weed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxFKziRdvto&list=PL_T1X5PCI5Bp0Koar1kKT_JsC9IX6auXT&index=10

And Gertrude Michael singing "Marihuana" (1934).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzKqI8Lw_fY&list=PL_T1X5PCI5Bp0Koar1kKT_JsC9IX6auXT&index=6

And a PDF of Cornell Woolrich's After-Dinner Story, a collection of six tales, including the classic "Marahuana" (first published in Detective Fiction Weekly, May3, 1941, and sometimes reprinted as  by "William Irish").

https://www.fadedpage.com/books/20200949/html.php

I Think This Is a Joke:  Auto-correct walks into a bar, and the batman says, "Why the log fence"

All  Aboard:  From 1917, with Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, and Snub Pollard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6QxKDBwBcA

Oy Como Va:   Tito Puente, the flamboyant master of Latin jazz, with one of his signature hits.  It is impossible to listen to this and not be happy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZQh4IL7unM

Florida Man (Politics Edition):  Kevin Cichowski of Palm Coast, who is running for governor of Florida, has been arrested for battering two elderly people inside a home during what appeared to be a domestic dispute.  Cichowski hit one victim with a cane and threw a cell phone at another, and allegedly had a gun, according to police.  One of the victims was bedridden.  According to one victim, Cichowski had threatened to kill the two multiple times and said he would kill law enforcement if they interfered.  While taken to a detention facility, Cichowski mad a suicidal statement and was then place in protective custody under the Baker Act.  He was previously arrested in 2024 for domestic battery, domestic battery by strangulation, and false imprisonment.

The political hopeful had previously run for Palm Coast mayor in 2021.

There is no word on whether this arrest will affect his current campaign, but this is Florida, so who knows?

Good News:

• Chicago has turned all public school IDs into library cards        https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/chicago-turns-all-public-school-ids-into-library-cards-to-boost-student-access/
• Four groups work together in a massive effort to save a beached whale     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/group-works-together-to-save-humpback-whale-after-it-became-stranded-on-australian-sandbar/
• Restaurant owners scrap Easter plans to honor a dying man's last wish https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/restaurant-owner-shelves-easter-plans-to-fulfill-dying-mans-last-wish-to-feed-his-hospice-nurses/
• Alaska court ruling saves America's largest rain forest from logging        https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/americas-largest-rainforest-safe-from-logging-thanks-to-alaska-court-ruling/
• Young girl saves brothers from burning home       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/12-yo-girl-called-a-hero-for-running-into-burning-home-to-save-brothers/
• Applebee's worker shelters fifty people from on-rushing tornado https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/applebees-manager-praised-for-life-saving-organization-as-tornado-barreled-towards-them/
• And, because we all need a bit of joy, this aquarium seal loves his rubber duckie https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/aquarium-shares-video-of-harbor-seal-playing-with-his-rubber-duckie/

HYMN TIME

The King's Blues Club, with their take on Psalm 91.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUiyYZ_2Rpc

THE SPIRIT #1 (APRIL 1952)

The Spirit is private investigator Denny Colt, created by comics legend Will Eisner, and first appeared in as a feature (dubbed "The Spirit Section") in a tabloid-sized newspaper insert distributed by the Register and Tribune Syndicate newspapers on June 2, 1940.  The original comic strip lasted until 1952.  Since then, new and reprinted adventures of the character have appeared from at least nine different publishers.  In addition to various comic strips, The Spirit on television and in film; both a planned animated film and a radio program never materialized.  In  2011, the media website IGN ranked The Spirit as 21st of the Top 100 Comic book Heroes of all time.

While trying to apprehend the mad scientist Dr. Cobra, Denny Colt falls into a state of suspended animation and is pronounced dead.  Colt wakes up after being interred in Wildwood Cemetery and begins his career as a crime-fighter with the blessing of Police Commission Dolan.  Having been declared dead, Colt uses his anonymity to create The Spirit, and establishes his headquarters underneath his own tombstone.  He has no supernatural powers but he is an expert at hand-to-hand combat and has peak mental and physical powers.  His costume -- such as it is -- is a business suit and fedora with a blue domino mask and blue leather gloves.  Although he meets many beautiful women in his adventures, his main love interest is Commissioner Dolan's daughter, Ellen.  His assistant is a  small Black cabdriver named Ebony White, depicted in a cartoonish stereotypical manner.  (Ebony is an off-putting character for many, but was surprising popular with Black readers -- despite his physical appearance,  he was resourceful and respected by all, and came across as "a combination of Tom Sawyer and Penrod, with a touch of Horatio Alger hero, and color didn't really come into it."

The Spirit was innovative in both concept and execution and has been a major influence on the industry.  Even after Eisner had ceased most of his work on the comic,  The Spirit retained his unique artistic style and use of color, lettering, and background.  Later writers for the comic included Jules Feiffer, Jack Cole, Manly Wade Wellman, William Woolfolk, and Klaus Nordling.  Later artists included Lou fine, Jack Cole, Jerry Grandenetti, Wally Wood, Dave Berg, Jules Feiffer, and James Dixon.

One of The Sprit comic book incarnations came from Fiction House, which published five issues of reprint adventures in 1952-3.  Their first volume included:

• "The Case of the Counterfeit Killer"  A man claiming to be Denny Colt suddenly appears in Central City, demanding the remains of his family inheritance.  There is no way to prove that he is not the original Colt.  Then the imposter turns up dead and Commissioner Dolan is arrested for embezzling the proceeds of the Colt estate.  This one was scripted by Jules Feiffer and drawn by James Dixon.
• "The Curse of Claymore Castle"  The Spirit journeys to Scotland Yard on the trail of an international swindler and enters Claymore Castle on the isolated Scottish moors, where he encounters an abandoned bride, a *vanished ape, and "the jewels of destiny."  Written by Klaus Nordling and again drawn by James Dixon.
• "The Plot of the Perfect Crime:"  For his entire life, young Marvin had been accused of things he did not do.  He grew up bitter and hard and had only one desire -- to actually commit the perfect crime and never be blamed for it!  Marvin actually kills a man and gets away with it but he is -- caught, convicted, and executed for a crime he did not commit -- killing two men.  Written by Feiffer and drawn by Dixon.
• And, "Panic on Pier Eight"  A  big North City mob is moving in on the waterfront.  One of The Spirit's agents is killed, with a mysterious note in his pocket signed "The Ancient Mariner."  The Spirit heads to the waterfront just as a violent mob instigates a dock war.  To stop the war and to capture the ringleaders, The Spirit has to solve  maritime riddle.  Written  by Nordling and drawn by Dixon.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=24494

FORGOTTEN BOOK: SURVIVAL ZERO!

Survival Zero! by Mickey Spillane (1970)

"They had left him for dead in the middle of a pool of blood in his own bedroom, his  belly slit open like gaping barn doors, the hilt of the knife wedged against his sternum.  But the only trouble was that he had stayed alive somehow, his life pumping out, managing to knock the telephone off the little table and dial me.  Now he was looking up at me with seconds left and all he could do was form out the words, 'Mike...there wasn't no reason.' "

The dead man was Lippy Sullivan, a hard-luck character who had gone to school with Mike Hammer before he dropped out in the ninth grade.  He had Hammer had met up again when they bother served in the Army, then Lippy went back to his anonymous life in New York City.  Hammer had gotten him a job two year ago checking our groceries in a wholesale warehouse.  That was the last time Hammer had heard from Lippy...until the phone call.  It was strange because Lippy had to have memorized Hammer's phone number, and Hammer had changed the number more than a year ago, so Lippy had had to have gotten Hammer's new phone number at some time and memorized it.  Why?

Lippy had lived in a fleabag rooming house and had nothing worth stealing, yet his room had been professionally tossed.  Again why?  In Lippy's dying words, "There was no reason."

The police are willing to go through the motions, but just barely.  They are too busy with other, more important, cases, such as the gangland slaying of a major mobster and the unidentified man found mysteriously dead on the subway.   The government is keeping it quiet, but the unidentified man has died from a new and virulent pathogen, engineering and smuggled into America fifteen years before by the Stalin regime and held in abeyance until the time was right; the pathogen had the potential of destroying the entire country.  Because the plot was Stalin's and because all records of it had long been erased, the current Russian government is working desperately and secretly with Washington to stop it.  All anyone knows is that the virus will probably be released within two weeks.  In order to avoid widespread ;panic, officials are working to prevent news of the plot being released.

Meanwhile, Hammer discovers evidence that Lippy might have been a pickpocket.  Wallets of very ;prominent people, emptied of cash, have been found in the trash near Lippy's  apartment.  This lead Hammer to a powerful mob boss, a sexy actress, a wealthy business mogul and his oversexed assistant, and eventually, to the Russian plot.  Beautiful women thrown themselves at him, and killers try to kill him, but he's Mike Hammer, confident in his arrogance, able to withstand threats, as well as the passions of sexy women, without damaging his sense of masculinity.  

The end, of course, is violent, with only Hammer standing alive.

A male fantasy, where what needs to be done is done and the hell with all the rules in an ultimate libertarian world populated with the likes of James Bond, Jack Reacher, Parker, Quarry, endless action-adventure heroes a la The Executioner, and all the other literary characters who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.  This is the world where many of us fantasize about, where the bad guys get their due.  Where you have a secret button on your car that will fire a rocket ad the jackass who must cut you off.  Where your co-worker, who is trying to stab you ion the back, gets his comeuppance.  Where the woman who would not give you the time of day suddenly sees your intrinsic worth.  Where all of your fantasies play out and you become the hero of all your stories.  Where success is yours must because you are you.  Sometimes I think it is in this fantasy world where the ultra-right wing currently resides.  It's a nice, comforting, place to live for a while,  but ultimately, you have to go back to the real world.

Spillane was a deceptive writer.  Because of the male fantasyland he created, many people tend to overlook his talent and pure narrative power.  But there is a reason why he was one of the most successful authors of his era.  Survival Zero! was the eleventh published book in the Mike Hammer saga.  After this, Spillane retired Hammer for 19 years before returning with 1989's The Killing Man.  during that interim, and throughout his writing career, Spillane continued experimenting with the character, writing partial manuscripts and notes, which were completed and edited with Spillane's permission by his good friend Max Allan Collins to provide fifteen additional novels, a graphic novel, and numerous short stories.

Any story about Mike Hammer, whether by Spillane alone or in collaboration, is highly recommended by this fanboy.

SUSPENSE: THE HANDS OF MR. OTTERMOLE (DECEMBER 2, 1948)

Gas-lit, fog-enshrouded London is in the grip of terror due to a series of brutal, random murders.  A relentless police inspector is obsessed with unmasking the predator.  The tale has a twisted and powerful ending.

Scripted by respected mystery writer Kendall Foster Crossen and based on Thomas Burke's 1929 short story, this version features Claude Rains and Vincent Price, with Lou Krugman, Ben Wright, Raymond Lawrence, Alec Harford, and Paul Frees.

In 1949, a panel of mystery critics selected "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole" (The Story-Teller, February 1929) as the best mystery story of all time;  thirty-five years later, the Mystery Writers of America named it one of the four best suspense and mystery tales.  The FictionMags Index indicates the story has been reprinted at least 38 times since its original publication.  The story has also been televised several times, most notably on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, featuring Theodore Bikel and Rhys Williams.

Thomas Burke (1886-1945) was a British author best known for his stories about the poverty-stricken Limehouse District of London, collected in such books as Limehouse Nights, Twinkletoes:  A Tale of Limehouse, Whispering Windows:  Tales of the Waterside (also published as  More Limehouse Nights, East of Mansion House, The Pleasantries of Old Quong (also published as A Tea-Shop in Limehouse), and Night Pieces:  Eighteen Tales.  He also published nearly two dozen works of non-fiction, many of them about London and its environments.  In contrast to many of the tales of orientals and the "yellow peril" popular at the time, Burke showed a particular respect for his subjects.  The Limehouse of Burke's time -- with its crime, sex, and violence, is long gone, but can be relived through his stories.  Time has also blunted the effect of "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole," but it still remains a chilling and effective tale.

Enjoy this classic tale.

https://archive.org/details/TSP481202

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: UP IN SMOKE

"Up in Smoke" by "Tigrina" (Edythe Eyde)  (according to the copyright notice, this was apparently published in an unknown fan or amateur publication  in July 1949 -- or perhaps just written on that date; the actual date of copyright is 2001 for the anthology Rainbow Fantasia:  35 Spectromatic Tales of Wonder, edited by the author's friend, Forrest J. Ackerman; no further publication known)

It's 1947 and immature and petulant Carolynne Devereaux has just started her college career, meeting her "newest and best" friend Zelda Troyer only two weeks before.  Carolynne is 17 and is no longer a baby; she should be able to do what see likes, including smoking cigarettes.  After all, she had been smoking for the last three months of the elite Finishing School for Gentlewomen before her recent graduation!  But her parents object to her smoking in no uncertain terms, saying that smoking is immoral, un-Christian, bad for one's health, and could lower one's resistance to worldly wickedness.  They had even gone so far as to threaten to take away the car they gave her for graduation, making her promise to give up that wicked habit.  Carolynne resented this because, as stated, she was not a baby!

While driving through town with Zelda, who was two years older than Carolynne and oh-so-sophisticated, Carolynne borrowed an unusual cigarette from her friend, bright red in color and strangely shaped.  Zelda explained that they were made specifically for her by a mysterious man known as Morloq (rhymes with "Warlock").  The red color of the cigarette matched Zelda's dress perfectly.  Zelda need to order more cigarettes, so the two stopped at Morloq's odd establishment: "Morloq -- Cigarettes and Perfumes of Distinction."

Morloq welcomed the two to his shop with its display of individually shaped and colored cigarettes.  He offered to show them around the shop, including a back room where he kept his perfumes, where each scent was rare and bottle in unique containers.  One wall held intricate and delicately beautiful bottles that Morlock forbid them to touch because they were so fragile.  Carolynne was particulaly attracted to one -- a strange white cloisonne container.  While Carolynne relaxed in a chair, *sipping a small glass of a rare Asiatic liquor Morloq had offered the two, her friend went with Morloq to the front of the store to order her cigarettes.  Carolynne could not resist examining the white bottle. accidently dropping it to the floor.  Luckily the bottle did not break, but the top came off.  Was that a faint, whote  mkist that came from the bottle, exiting through th8e window?  No, it must have been Carolynne's imagination, spurred on  by the rare liquor.  Carolynne replaced the bottle where she had found it and sat back in her chair just as Zelda and Morloq returned.  Before leaving the shop, Carolynne ordered perfume for herself, and was told it would take several days to prepare.

That Saturday, her perfume was ready and Carolynne and Zelda returned to the small shop.  Morloq gave Carolynne a strangely pleasant black cigarette while he went to the front of the shop to wait on customers.  Zelda went with him.  This particular cigarette had a strange effect on Carolynne.  Suddenly she found herself standing in the middle of the room, all her senses sharpened, but at the same time she was still seated in the chair.  Carolynne was insubstantial with a pale string connecting her standing self to her seated self.  She could float in the air.  When Zelda and Morloq returned to the room, they were carrying large fans and could see the insubstantial Carolynne.  Morloq took a knife and sevred the cord between the ethereal Carolynne and her physical self.  Morloq and Zelda began waving the fans, drawing Carolynne closer to the open white cloisonne bottle.  Morloq explained that Zelda was his aide, bringing victims to him and that the Egyptian god Og Manankh, the Imprisoner of Souls, demanded souls be brought to Him.  When Carolynne dropped the bottle a few days  before, she released an important soul that could never be recaptured, so Carolhnne -- despite having a soul of lkittle depth and character -- would have top replace it.  The black cigarette was a means to release Carolynne's ka in order to be trapped in the bottle.  And -- whoosh! -- Carolynne was sucked into the bottle.

The next day the entire college was talking about Carolynne, who was found found wandering downtown, completely devoid of intelligence.  No one could understand what happened, least of all her parents.  Why, they said, she didn't even smoke.

Edtythe Eyde (1921-2015) was an actress, editor, songwriter, and active science fiction fan.  She created the first known lesbian publication in  North America, Vice Versa (nine issues, June 1947 through February 1948).  Writing as "Lisa Ben," she began publishing regularly for The Ladder. the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine    Also as Ben, she recorded a number of songs, often sapphic takes on well-known pieces; she had a very sweet voice.  The early lesbian organization Daughters of Bilitis proclaimed her "the first gay folk singer."  Active in science fiction fandom since 1941 under the name "Tigrina," she was an early member of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society, eventually becoming that group's secretary.  She gained som0e notoriety proclaiming her interest in satanism.  As Tigrina, she was known to nave published at least four fantasy stories (two of them in collaboration with Ackerman) and three poems.  She has been lauded as an important pioneer in the lesbian movement.  She was inducted in 2010 into the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association Hall of Fame.  Despite her acclaim, when she died at age 96, her death was unannounced and no obituaries published.

Forrest J. Ackerman (1916-2008) was known as "Mr. Science Fiction."  A writer, editor, and collector of science fiction memorabilia, Ackerman founded Famous Monsters in Filmland magazine and named and wrote the origin story for the comic book character Vampirella.  He was also responsible for bringing the German juvenile series Perry Rhodan to America.  He had over 50 cameos roles in science fiction movies.  Ackerman in person was bright, charming, and open.  (He and Kkitty once broke into a sppontanious rendition of "42nd Street" at a convention, earning her lifelong approval.)  He edited a number of science fiction anthologies, many of them filled with creaky and minor stories of the past, and many with gimmicky titles such as Martianthology, Womanthology, and Ackermanthology.  Rainbow Fantasia:  35 Spectromatic Tales of Wonder collects stories that mention a color in their titles: black, gray, smoke, brown, purple, violet, blue, green, yellow, golden, orange, red, scarlet, white, and rainbow -- a pretty weak basis for an anthology.  The stories range from pretty good to clunky and amateurish.  A noble, albeit unfocused, attempt.

"Up in Smoke" is an amusing, predictable, and far from great story.  Its main interest is in the author.  Still, it may be worth the few minutes of your time to read it.

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: RANDALL AND HOPKIRK (DECEASED) - EPISODE 1: MY LATE LAMENTED FRIEND AND PARTNER (SEPTEMBER 21, 1969)

Created by British television writer Dennis Spooner (The Avenger, Doctor Who, Betgerac, The Baron), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) ran for two seasons (26 episodes), and was syndicated in the United States as My Partner the Ghost.  The series concerned Jeffrey Randall (Mike Pratt, a popular screen and television actor and songwriter), who is a successful and somewhat seedy private investigator, and his friend and partner Martin Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope, Coronation Street, That Was the Week That Was, Carry On at Your Convenience, Carry On Matron), who is killed in a supposed hit and run accident.  When Hopkirk's ghost later appears to Randall, he learns that his partner's death was actually murder.  The two -- man and shade -- go off to solve the murder, aided by Randall's secretary Jeannie Hopkirk (Annette Andre, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Saint, Wuthering Heights) who was also Hopkirk's widow.

The show was remade in 2000 with an ampersand -- Randall & Hopkirk (Deceaed) -- and starred Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Emilia Fox, Tom Baker, and Charlie Higson (13 episodes).

At the end of the pilot episode of the original series, we learn that Hopkirk cannot return to the grave.  At least not yet.  It will take about a hundred years for him to do so.  So the partnership of Randall and Hopkirk lives on.

This episode was scripted by Ralph Smart (Danger Man, The Adventures of Robin hood, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot) and directed by Cyril Frankel (School for Scoundrels, Don't Bother to Knock, The Witches).  Also featured in the pilot episode are Anne Sharp, Frank Windsor, Delores Mantez, and Dave Carter.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDA6c0smJFE&t=5s

PLAYING FOR CHANGE

Playing for change is a multimedia music project, founded in 2002, featuring musicians and singers from across the globe.  The idea began when one of the founded, Mark Johnson, heard sidewalk singer Roger Ridley performing "Stand by Me" when he was in Santa Monica.  The project features mostly street singers and musicians performing much-loved and influential popular songs.  The project has also gathered many top name stars to appear in their videos.  A small film and recoding team travel to over fifty countries to record musicians outdoors (their first mobile recording studio was powered by golf cart batteries), then the individual recording are edited into one final piece.  The name of the project stems from the fact that sidewalk musicians are normally playing for change, and the fact that, as a universal language, music can break down social and political barriers and bring about needed change.  In addition to its "Music Around the World" videos, also records individual and groups doing solo songs.  A Playing for Change band was formed with a number of these artist, playing to sold out audiences throughout the world.  In 2007, a separate non-profit Playing for Change Foundation was formed to create music and art schools for children around the world; thus far there are fifteen such schools, usually in underdeveloped countries.

The music and the joy are absultely infectious.

"Everyday People" -- with Jack Jackson, Jason Mraz, Keb' Mo', Yo Yo Ma, and many others...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4UWvcZn5U

"Stand by Me" -- the Playing for Change Band live in Brazil, with Grandpa Elliott, Clarence Bekker, Jason Tambo, Tula ben Ari, Roberto Luti, and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4UWvcZn5U

"What a Wonderful World" -- all  kids (including Grandpa Elliott and Jason Tamba, both kids at heart , all amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddLd0QRf7Vg

"Lean on Me" -- with Renard Poche, Roberto Luti, Niki la Rosa, Grandpa Elliott, Clarence Bekker, Saritah, Titi Tsari, and many others 

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

"What's Going On" -- with Louis Mhlanga, Clarence Bekker, Titi Tsira, Sara Bareilles, Vasti Jackson, the Novi Sad String Trio, and others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEp7QrOBxyQ

'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for" -- this one will tug at your heartstrings; recorded in honor of the International Day of the Disappeared, it features Roopak Naigaonkar, Marta Kurakina, Daniel Lanois, Inara George, Shereita Lewis and Rosalyn Williams, Olivia Ruff, John Cruz, the Sosha Choir, Hala al-Saddar, Rebal Alkhadari, Chris Pierce, and others -- including the mothers, wives, and sisters of the Disappeared  

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

"Down by the Riverside" -- featuring the late Grandpa Elliott, with Nick Cavazos and Oscar Castro, Nevena Reljin and Mirjana Dragonic, Washboard Chaz, the Choeur de Grace, Keb' Mo', the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and others 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ1gHm8v3ek

"Mona Ki Ngi Xica" -- with Paolo Herman, Raul Tolingas, Alana Alberg, Bonga, Torcuato Mariano, 
Yuri Da Cuhna, the Daande Lenol Percussions, and others; the title means "The Child I'm Leaving Behind," written by legendary Angolan artist Bonga; it became an anthem for revolutionaries fighting against colonial rule.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA8LuZXTYo4&list=PLC122061BDC373B4B&index=9

"Riders on the Storm" -- with John Densmore and Robby Kreiger (original members of The Doors), the Lakota Drum Group, Lukas and Mikah Nelson, Sierra Ferrell, Don Was, Izzan Jaa, Aaron White, Foo Fighter Rami Jaffee, and others; a tribute to Ray Manzark and Jim Morrison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSiuMgKmiyk&list=PLC122061BDC373B4B&index=1Izzzx

 "Oye Coma Va" -- with Carlos Santana and Cindy Blackman Santana, Tito Puente Jr., Manuel Perez Selinas and Jose Valdes Teran, the Al Harben Brothers, Cory Henry, Estevinson Padilla Valdes and Carlos Cassiani Shimarra, Chouloute Minouche, and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJZW8U9bbmM&list=PLC122061BDC373B4B&index=17

"When the Levee Breaks" -- with John Paul Jones, ZStephen Perkins, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH0-WXUFY2k&list=PLC122061BDC373B4B&index=18

"Iko Iko" -- with Doctor John, Grateful Dead members Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart, Ian Neville, Donald Harrison, George Porter Jr., TPOK Jazz, and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwMuRu6m_aY&list=PLC122061BDC373B4B&index=24

"The Weight" -- with Ringo Starr, Robbie Robertson, Marcus King, Roberto Luti, Larkin Poe, Mermans Mosingo, Char, John Cruz and Hutch Hutchinson, Robin Moxey, Ahmed al Harmi, Rajeev Shrestha, Lukas Nelson, Sherieta Lewis and Roslyn Williams, and others

vhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph1GU1qQ1zQ&list=PLC122061BDC373B4B&index=35

"All Along the Watchtower" -- with John Cruz, Ivan Neville and Cyril Neville, John Densmore, Warren Haynes, and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UHHc7POovg&list=PLC122061BDC373B4B&index=44

"Bring It Home to Me" -- with Roger Ridley, James Gadson, Tony (Eiji) Hayashi, Reggie McBride, Roberto Luti, the Sassi De Matera Strings, Grandpa Elliot, Char, Alice Tan Ridley, The Havana Horns, and Karl Denson; this is the last song roger Ridley and Grandpa Elliott sang together be=fore their unfortunate passing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLa_J4CcHZU

"One Love" -- with Jimmy Buffett, The /Coral Reefer Band, Tula, Vusi Mahlasela, Roberto Luti, Mermans Kenkosenko, Sinamuva, Martin Machapa, the One6ness Choir, the Exile Brothers, Keb'  Mo',  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94mRU-ZGOsk

"St. James Infirmary" -- 15-year-old River Eckert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0AIt4BaE04&list=PL-x8Ol1-UMGu7v1CZoUJu0FHoJet2Yfok&index=17

"Weary Blues" -- the California feet Warmers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yez29hXBjuY&list=PL-x8Ol1-UMGu7v1CZoUJu0FHoJet2Yfok&index=49

I'm a bout eight months early for this one, but what the heck.  "Low Down Dirty Christmas" -- Grandpa Elliott, Titi Tsira, Tula Ben Ari, Clarence Bekker, and other members of th8e Playing for Change Band took a break from their Brazilian tour some twelve years ago to record this original song outside in Sao Paolo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI-Tdu_eYQg&list=PL-x8Ol1-UMGu7v1CZoUJu0FHoJet2Yfok&index=94

"Better Man" -- Keb' Mo' recorded this song on his back porch in 2007

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6cX61oNsRQ&list=PL-x8Ol1-UMGu7v1CZoUJu0FHoJet2Yfok&index=113

"Guantanamera" -- with over 75 Cubans musicians, including Carlos Varela, Diana Fuentes, Equis Alfonso, Grupo Sintesis, La Pasion, Gabino Jardines and Eva Grinan, Reinado Elosegui, Louis Bonfill, and Aymee Nuviola 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blUSVALW_Z4

"La Bamba"  -- with Alberto Manuel De La Rosa, Los Lobos, Andres Cslamaro, La Marisoul, Baby Black Ndombe, and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5dkwQY-_tk

Music is universal.  Would it be wonderful if peace and understanding were also?