TODAY'S UNFINISHED POEM

a Choose Your Adventure poem...sort of 

STRAIT TALK

Pass me the booze,

Please pass me that booze;

I'm having a hard time with the Strait of Warm Ooze.

Have you heard the news?

It's not 'Merican Flag Blues;

It's green and it's slimy, that Strait of Warm Ooze

The choice he did choose

Allowed kismet to come throughs;

An ill-gotten plan was the strait of Warm Ooze.

Narcissus had an ego as big as his shoes.

A look in the pool paid the poor guy his dues.

It suspiciously sounds like...the Strait of Warm Ooze.

His cankle do swell and his hands they do bruise

With discoloration and unnatural hues,

But they can't hold a candle to Donny's Strait of Warm Ooze.

[You can complete the final verse yourself using any three of the following words:

Fool, Ghoul, Pool, Stool, Tool, Uncool.

Have fun!]

HYMN TIME

From 1951, Clara Ward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TRiikf8Cvg

UNCLE SAM QUARTERLY #5 (WINTER 1942)

America's 250th anniversary is coming up and there are many ways -- both appropriate and non-appropriate -- one can celebrate.  You could take a trip to the Reflecting Pool and count the dead ducks, but that's not appropriate at all, in addition to being very sad.  Or, could read this comic book featuring "The World's Greatest Hero,": Uncle Sam!  Uncle Sam was a superhero created by the great Will Eisner; he made his debut in Quality Comics' National Comics #1 (July 1940), and continued to 1944.  Uncle Sam was the spirit of a slain patriotic soldier from the American Revolutionary War; and would appear whenever the country needed him -- and the country needed him in the early Forties.  His sidekick is Buddy Smith.  Uncle Sam's mystical powers included superhuman strength, speed, invulnerability, some ESP, and the ability to change his size and also to transport himself and others to "the Heartland"  His powers were dependent on America's patriotism; if America loses its sense of patriotism, then...poof!

The character came under the aegis of DC comics in the 1950s and has been used sporadically in different guises and with different backstories. 

"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (Death, Pestilence, War, and Famine) "are once  more loosed upon the land!!!  The thunder of their hoofbeats is the roar of the cannon --- their mad laughter is the roar of falling bombs!!  Who can challenge their triumph?  Who -- but Uncle Sam!  The spirit of a people who will never be conquered!!"  Heeding the call, Uncle Sam and Buddy head out in their private plain to Lua Island kin the South Pacific, where a small company of marines have been holding out against a terrible force.  Uncle Sam uses his skills and ingenuity to defeat a Japanese invasion and send whatever enemies he and buddy have not killed back to Japan.  The Four Horsemen are in retreat from Uncle Sam!

"Murder!"  Uncle Sam and Buddy pit themselves aginst the fiendish "Dart Killer."  No one knows who he is or why he kills.  "Uncle Sam gives warning...clues will be many and suspects will be numerous...but think...before you name the villain!"

Now let's take a brief break from Uncle Sam's adventures for "Heroic Exploits of the War:  Attack on Dieppe," a true war story.  For six pages, British, Canadian, and American troops give what for to the Nazis.  Yay, us!

"Pottsy McGraw and Cloutin' Clammy" are two bootlegging thieves who have stolen almost all the rubber tires in the city and are expecting a jackpot price.  Of course tires are not just tiers; they are a vital part of the country's war products.  As such, Uncle Sam is determined to stop the bootleggers.  Cloutin' Clammy is a strong as a gorilla and he soon makes mince meat of a  barrage of cops and guards trying to stop the pair.  Uncle Sam knocks him out with one punch, b ut as he's doing so, Pottsy McGraw is aiming a machine gun at him.  But wait!  Buddy leaps onto Pottsy's back to spoil his aim, but a bullet hits Buddy instead.  Uncle Sam picks up Buddy's body and races him to a hospital, leaving the two villains to get away with a large supply of tires.  With Buddy recovering, Uncle Sam is back on the chase.  Pottsy and Cloutin' Clammy are selling the tires to a low-down, dirty Nazi scum hen Uncle Sam comes in with fists a-blazing.  Uncle Sam knocks out seven (by my count) Nazis, as well as Cloutin' Clammy, while Buddy (who left his hospital bed to get in on the action) clonks Pottsy of the head.  Pottsy realizes that he was a foo to fight against Uncle Sam -- no one can beat him; Pottsy decides to join the army when he gets out.

"Iron" is a brief text story in which Nazis, as usual, get the short end of the stick.

"The Secret of the Wax Museum"  Dastardly villains are out to kill and maim our troops during war games.  Japanese spies and agents have infiltrated the war games and are using our weapons against our troops.  Who is the Japanese mastermind behind this plot?  And why does Chiang Chan, special war observer for the Chinese government, look so suspicious?

A gung-ho, patriotic issue with some interesting artwork by Al Gabriele, who manages to make a caricature out of all the villains.

So celebrate our 250th with this comic book (and, perhaps, a healthy dose of Reflecting Pool memes).

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102129&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: TRUCKERS

Truckers by Terry Pratchett (first published in 1989; included in the 1993 omnibus The Bromeliad)

This is one of those young adult novels that could, and should be, enjoyed by everyone.

Nomes are a race of tiny four-inch tall creatures who resemble humans.  They are short-lived -- about ten years,  but don't tell them that; for nomes, their lifespans seem perfectly normal.

Masklin is a young nome who lives in the Outside where life can be dangerous.  There, no one ever heard of a nome dying of old age; nomes either wandered off on hunting trips and were never seen again, or, they were seen as they were eaten by predators -- usually foxes.  The rigors of life on the outside are taking a toll on Maskin's tribe.  In fact, the only young people remaining in the tribe are Masklin and the female Grimma; the few remaining members are elderly, including old Torrit (the ineffectual leader merely because he was, at ten, the oldest, and Granny Morkle, a tough old bird who is nearly as old as Torrit, and who reminds me of Abner's Mammy Yokum.  The rest of the elderly are even more  quarrelsome and demanding than these two.  Masklin is the only hunter in the group and his usual prey are rats, which are torn apart and eaten raw once Masklin is able to drag the large bodies home.

Things cannot go on are they are, so Masklin decides to move the entire tribe to someplace -- any place safer -- where food may be more abundant.  Humans are the big and rather dumb people who also inhabit this world, although whatever they do makes little sense to the nomes.  Masklin manages to get his entire tribe loaded into the back of a delivery truck, destination unknown.  It's a frightening journey for the tiny nomes, and it ends at the garage of a large department store.  The  nomes have no idea what a department store is, or how they will survive there.  They are surprised by the appearance of strange nome, Angalo, and his pet rat on a leash.

It seems there are nomes living in the department store, under the floorboard and in hidden areas...quite a lot of nomes...nomes who know of nothing other than the store, Arnold Bros. (est. 1905).  To these nomes the Outside is just a terrible myth.  The nomes at Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) are divided kinto many quarrelsome tribes, depending on where they are located.  Tribes include the Ironmongri, the Corsetri, Modes, the Millineri, the Haberdasheri, the Young Fashions, the Del Icatesson, the Stationari, and others -- all with their particular talents and odd beliefs.  The Stationari include a few nomes who are able to read (badly) and can interpret the signs throughout the store (badly).  The store itself was created and ruled  by the god-like Arnold Bros. (est. 1905), whom no one have ever seen  but know that he exists because it is his store.  Life is pretty regular at the store.  There are definite season, such as Christmas Fayre, January Sales, Back to School Week, Spring into Spring Fashions, Summer Bargains, and so on.  the store nomes know these are seasons  blessed by Arnold Bros. (est. 1905)because there are signs.  the religion of these nomes includes the acknowledgment of the blessed Bargains Galore and the evil (and totally scary) Prices Slashed!.  Lately there have been confusing signs that the nomes cannot understand:  Closure Sale, and Everything Must Go.

Old Torrit has a precious possession, the Thing -- a black rectangle that seems to do nothing that has been handed down from leader to leader over the centuries.  At one time, the Thing had helped the nomes and advised them but now it is silent.  Torri, whenever he needed to dispense some advice, would look at the blank Thing and make up whatever felt best to tell the tribe.  but  now the blank thing was beginning to light up and started speaking.  The Thing was the Flight Recording and Navigational Computer of a starship.

It seems the nomes were the survivors of a racr that once conquered the stars, or at least 94,563 that have been explored by nomes.  Some fifteen thousand years ago, the starship sent an exploratory ship out which crashed on Earth.  the surviving nomes gathered and began teaching  human about such things as metallurgy and agriculture. while they themselves slowly slipped into barbarism and ignorance.  The Thing began to be low on its power reserve and shut itself down until it could recharge.  The proximity of the store and its electrical grid allowed it to do so.  the thing was also able to access the stores computers and had some devasting news.  the store was due to be demolished kin twenty-six days to make way for luxury apartments.

The store nomes refused to believe this.  The store was their universe.  Their forever universe.  Surely Arnold Bros. (est.1905) in his benevolence would not allow the universe to be destroyed.  Besides, there was nothing outside of the store except the fabled and surely mythical Outside.

It's up to Masklin to rally the thousands of store nomes and lead them to safety.  But how?  And where?  The answer includes a wild ride in a stolen delivery truck, driven by dozens of tiny nomes who do not know what they are doing, using sticks, strings, and semaphors...and the store itself is not destroyed by Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) but by the nomes themselves who accidently blow it up, not with a loud Bang  but with a much quieter whoosh!  There is even a wild chase by a police car

Rest assured things work out, kind of.  They have to, because there were two sequels, Diggers (1989) and Wings (1990).  I'll get to them when I have a chance.

Truckers is a funny and sly satirical take on the way we think and react to the things around us when perception may not be our best ally.  I recommend the book most heartily.

Pratchett (1948-2015), of course, was the author of the popular Discworld series of fantasy novels.  For any who enjoy the skewed logic of that series, Truckers is a must.

SOUNDS OF DARKNESS (THE BLIND DETECTIVE): TRAITOR BEWARE (JULY 7, 1967)

I'm off to have cataract surgery this morning.  As many of you know I am not looking forward to it because I am extremely phobic about my eyes.  Anyway, this seems like a good time to post an episode of SOUNDS OF DARKNESS (also known as THE BLIND DETECTIVE), a South African radio show about blind FBI agent Lee Masters.  After Masters, a top agent for the Bureau, loses his sight in a gun battle, he returns to work where the FBI has assigned junior agent Jerry Bridges to be his eyes.  He has a loyal secretary in Samantha Darlington (call her "Sam," not "Darling").  Where the bad guys view his blindness as a weakness, Masters turns it into a strength.

The show aired on South Africa's Springbok Radio from 1967 through 1974.  The lead actor, Tony Jay, had no previous acting experience when he moved from London to South Arica in 1966; Jay had been George Lucas's original choice to portray Obi-Wan Kenobi during the planning stages for Star Wars -- a role which eventually went to Alec Guinness.  Ken White played Jerry Bridges, while Elaine Lee filled the role as Samantha Darlington.  Although this program was produced and recorded in South Africa. the setting was America and the actors had Yankee accents.

"Traitor Beware" was the first episode of  Sounds of Darkness, and "the stage is set for a series known for its atmosphere and suspense."

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPRqm2UnMnM

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THREE BY MICHAEL FESSIER

 "Sex Murder in Cameron" by Michael Fessier (from Manhunt, February 1953)

"Nice Bunch of Guys" by Michael Fessier (from Manhunt, May 1953)

"The Faceless Man" by Michael Fessier (from Manhunt, June 1953)

These three short stories -- the only ones by him to appear in Manhunt -- were added to/ the Stark House/Staccato Press edition of the Author's short novel Fully Dressed and in His Right Mind.  After I had read that odd and compelling novel, I put off reading these stories for a few weeks because I feared the impact they might have on the book I had just finished; I found Fully Dressed to be both compelling and sui generis, and felt the additional stories might impact the effect the novel had on me.  I think i made the right choice.

Manhunt was a hardboiled crime fiction magazine launched in late 1952 and lasted for 114 issues until May 1967.  In it's heyday, it was considered a rightful heir to the legendary pulp magazine Black Mask.  Manhunt was a joint venture between publisher Archer St. John and literary agent Scott Meredith, who served as editor under the pseudonym of John McCloud through the January 1956 issue.  Meredith used the magazine to publish authors in his client stable, but the magazine was not strictly a closed shop -- occasionally another agent would submit a story that would be accepted, and the magazine would also print stories from known crime writers who were not clients of Meredith.  I don't know if Fessier was a Meredith client, but the fact that his three stories were published in the space of five months indicates to me that he probably was a client, at least for that period in 1953.

"Sex Murder in Cameron" is the story of handsome Cass Buford, the richest, most powerful, and eligible man in a small mid-western town, and ugly duckling Linda Wells, a dull, poor girl whom Cass married, to the amazement of the entire community.  Then Linda split Cass's head with an axe.  Confessing to the murder without giving any explanation, she was tried, convicted, and hung.  Linda's autopsy revealed a surprise twist to the story, which may or may not explain her motive.  Unfortunately, the surprise ending did not truly resolve the questions raised.  The story, flawed as it is, is a brilliant character sketch that keeps the reader turning the pages.

"A Nice Bunch of Guys" refers to the local loafers who hand out in from of a pool hall and endlessly rib the mentally defective newsboy Marty.  Their jibes lead Marty to commit a crime, but they could not be to blame because of what a weirdo like Marty might do.  Besides, they are a nice  bunch of guys, just regular fellows.  An interesting tale of the results of blind and ignorant cruelty.

"The Faceless Man" also shows what dangers ignorance can reveal.  Orry Quinn, the worthless son of the worthless Pete Quinn, is fired for good reason from his job as a farm hand for Henry Rankin.  About a week later, Rankin hires Claude Warren, a distant relative who had served several months in prison.  Orry was a local boy and Claude was an outsider.  Orry began to turn the town against Claude, claiming that he was a criminal and was most likely dangerous.  Claude had made the mistake of accepting a ride from some people who had stolen a car and, when they were arrested, Claude was also arrested as an accomplice.  Pretty Linda Hannaford, who had a dangerous habit of thinking for herself, soon found herself in love with Claude and wanted to marry him -- something her parents did not approve of.  Onr day, Henry Rankin is found dead in a pool of blood at his farm house.  Both Clause and Linda are missing, as is Henry's car.  Orry began inciting the townspeople against Claude, and when the police found the pair, Claude had money on him that could not be accounted for with his wages.  A viscous deputy beat Claude before bringing his to jail, and Orry is urging the people to take justice into their own hands and lynch Claude.  Standing between Claude and he mob is Sheriff Ben Hodges, a man who career was build on "go along to get along."  An interesting tale of the power of ignorance and the madness of crowds, tempered with a plea for humanity.  How Ben Hodges resolves the situation makes for powerful reading, and -- for Ben -- the situation might never be resolved.

Al three stories are well-written and appear to be just slightly out of the boundaries of a typical Manhunt tale.  The more I read of Fessier's work, the more I like.

All of the 1953 issues of Manhunt are available to be read online.  While you are there, check out some of the other stories; the early issues of the magazine are amazing.

OVERLOOKED OATER: OKLAHOMA TERROR (1937)

Addison "Jack" Randall (1906-1945) was a singing cowboy in a number of his early western, but soon transitioned into a typical cowboy hero.  His older brother was Robert Livingston, one of the original Three Mesquiteers who had also played the Lone Ranger and Zorro.  Randall appeared in thirty-five films over a nine-year career.  In the early Forties, he changed his stage name to Alan Byron, hoping to boost his career; it did not work.  He was married to actress Barbara Bennett, sister of Constance Bennett and Joan Bennett.  He died after a fall from a horse while filming The Royal Mounted Rides Again; exactly what happened remains unclear:  some claim he fell while trying to recover a hat he had dropped, others state that he had had a heart attack before falling.

In Oklahoma Terror, a crooked land dealer has discovered the gift that just keeps on giving:  after selling a piece of property, he has his henchmen drive off the new owners, allowing him to sell the property again.  As the movie opens, they have just driven off the fourth owners of a ranch.  Well, this sort of shenanigans just will not hold, and rancher Jack Ridgley (Randall) and his buddy, "Fuzzy" Glass (Al "Fuzzy" St. John), are determined to put an end to the criminous activities. 

The featured eye candy in this flick is Virginia Carroll, who appeared in a long string of B-westerns with such actors as Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Johnny Mack Brown, Bill Elliott, and Whip Wilson; Carroll was married to Dick Tracy actor Ralph Byrd from 1936 until his death in 1957.  Also featured in the film are Davison Clark (most of whose 152 IMDb film credits were in uncredited roles) as Cartwright, the grasping land dealer; Don Rowan (Flash Gordan Conquers the Universe, Toigh Kid. Brother Orchid); Glenn Strange (although he was in hundreds of westerns, he may best be remembered for playing the Frankenstein monster in three films from Universal -- House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein); Tristram Coffin (King of the Rocket Men, Creature with the Atomic Brain, The Corpse Vanishes); and Rusty as Rusty the Wonder Horse (in thirteen Jack Randall westerns).  Filling out the bill in named roles are Warren McCollum, Ralph Peters, and Nolan Willis.

Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett (The Adventures of Sir Galahad, Captain Video:  Master of the Stratosphere, Blackhawk:  Fearless Champion of Freedom).  Written  by George Waggner as "Joseph West" (The Fighting Kentuckian, Phantom of Chinatown, Father Steps Out), from an original story by the film's producer, Lindsley Parsons (Headin' for the Rio Grande, Tex Rides with the Boy Scouts. The Utah Kid).

So, holster your six-shooter, partner, and saddle up to meet The Oklahoma Terror.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ME76Dhglw

BITS & PIECES

Openers:

Clovis cracked an almond, nibbled it, then ate a raisin.  He turned a yellow-irised, b;ck pupiled eye on his companion, August Von Lerner.  His voice was bitter.

"I," he said, "am weary of all this.  I desire to go away from it all."

"Ach," said August, "so many times this has been coming up of late."

He sighed in sorrow and gazed up out the cool veranda to the beautiful Brazilian coastline, watched the waves break upon the shore.  "Such a lovely spot," he thought.

"Why are you not happy, my little one?" he asked.

"As you know," said Clovis, "I resent being referred to as little one.  Aside from that, what is happiness?  Is it spending the hundred or so years of one's life in unceasing changeless ness, with the only hope of variety being death?"

August Von Lerner shuddered.

"Do not mention death," he pleaded.  It is far in the future for you.  For me, it is a mere handful pof tomorrows."

--  Clovis,  by Michael Fessier, 1948

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Fessier's first novel, Fully Dressed and in His Right Mind, an indescribable and inexplicable phantasmagoria that lingers long after one has read it.  Clovis -- his second and last novel -- is a horse of a different color.  Or, should I say, parrot.

For Clovis is a parrot, a most unique parrot, the result of centuries of cross-breeding by the Von Lerner family to develop a super-intelligent bird.  Clovis is a multi-lingual philosopher and pendant, the only one of its kind; and August Von Lerner is the last remaining member of his family line, and -- to Clovis's mind -- a slow thinking one.  Clovis desires for some purpose that would put his massive intellect to use; he is not getting it from August's narrow world.  The books Clovis reads are beginning to bore him and August is so easily beaten at chess...

Clovis wants to go into the world, perhaps to the jungles of Brazil where he can meet and influence those of his own kind, using his talents to raise psittacids to new heights and glories.  And so he ventures off, leaving August behind.  But Clovis soon realizes that parrots do not understand any of the human languages he speaks, and the knowledge of parrot language had been bred out of his ancestors several generations ago.  But Clovis perseveres, meeting a willing female parrot he calls Red-Head, who is more interested in mating than anything else, but Clovis has more noble pursuits in mind.  Clovis fails in his efforts to bring civilization to parrot-kind and barely manages to escape with his life.  This follows a pattern that follows Clovis throughout the book -- despite his best efforts, he fails because, despite his extreme intelligence, he really does not understand how people of animals work.

In rapid order, he is captured by a naked Brazilian Indian, whose wife wants to make a stew of him, is rescued by an unscrupulous fortune hunter who wants to put him on display and threatens to burn his feet if he resists (Clovis if deathly afraid of fire), finds himself on a freighter full of caged animals bound for America, and ends up in a pet shop where the most unsuitable people wish to buy him.

Eventually he is purchased by the ditzy Miss Caress Grobney and taken to her home, where she lives with her equally ditzy sister Lulu and Lulu's greedy and amoral husband, Sylvian Prent.  Also in the household is the niece, Honeybird, who holds the keys to a the family immense fortune, and the surly butler Beamish.  The other four members of the household are plotting to kill Hloneybird because they was all that "beautiful" money. clovis trie to stop them and is aided by Thad Campo, the fortune hunter who had captured Clovis in Brazil and then had lost him; Campo had followed Clovis to America, determined to get him back and place him on display.

Honeybird is a beautiful virgin and, although told by doctors that she is both frigid and sterile, wants nothing more than to have sex, especially with Campo.  Soon, Clovis, honeybird and Campo are on the run from the four would-be murderers.  They learn the harsh realities of attempting to profit from a leaned lecture on evolution by a talking parrot, the mundane facts of life of the film business, and the follies of a religious cult before everything is resolved, Clovis discovers his true purpose, and Honeybird learns she is a nymphomaniac.

This book had me smiling on every page, from the pedantry of Clovis to the human folly of everyone he met.  It is a short book, merely 149 pages, with not a waster word. It is both satirical and farcical, but never really whimsical.  The best word I could come up with to describe the novel is 'sly."  A true wonder of a read.  As I was happily turning the pages I kept thinking of how much fun Fessier must have had writing it.

Incoming:  I'm fairly sure I already have some of these lurking in the bowels of Mount TBR; if so, my loss will be the Salvation Army's gain.

• Peter Ackroyd, The Lambs of London.  Historical fiction.  A tale of the famous and scandalous literary family.  Charles Lamb, essayist and poet, was one of the most revered literary figures of his day, and is best remembered for Essays of Elia (1823) and , with his sister Mary, Tales from Shakespeare (1807).  Both brother and sister suffered from mental illness, and Mary killed her mother in 1796.  Ackroyd is a novelist, biographer, and critic, much of whose work focuses on the history and culture of London.  His books are always worthwhile.
• M. R. Carey, The Book of Koli.  Fantasy, the first novel in a trilogy.  "Everything that lives hates us...  Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape.  A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand.  And if they don't get you, one the shunned men will.  Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life.  He believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too fr beyond the walls.  He's wrong."  Carey, who also writes as Mike Carey, is the award winning author of eighteen novels, including the Felix Castor series and The Girl with All the Gifts, two collections, and many graphic novels and comic books, including the long-running Lucifer series based on the Neil Gaiman character.
• Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl:  The Arctic Incident.  Young adult novel, the third in a series about a 12-year-old criminal mastermind.  "The world's youngest, brightest, and most dangerous criminal mastermind is back.  Artemis Fowl receives an urgent e-mail from Russia.  In it is a plea from a man who has been kidnapped by the Russian Mafiya:  his father.  As Artemis rushes to his rescue, he is stopped by a familiar nemesis, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon unit.  Now, instead of battling the fairies, Artemis must join forces with them to save lone of the few people in the world he loves."
• Michael Fessier, Clovis.  Fantasy.  Once again I have to thank George Kelley, who sent this book along to me; in his note George described the book as "strange and weird."  Clovis is a talking, multi-language parrot just trying to get along in this world.  The New York Herald Tribune wrote, "We don't say this is the book you have been waiting for (since waiting for the incredible is inconceivable) but if you pass up this melange of mirth, it's just your own carelessness.  For new slants on sex, heredity, inebriation, motion picture production or religious cults, Me. Fessier is your man."
• Karen Joy Fowler, Booth.  Historical fiction.  "In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin sone thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the net sixteen years.  Junius Booth -- breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways that one -- is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability, given to drunken threats and directives amid a theater-born wisdom.  One by one the children arrive, and year by year, the country draws frighteningly close to the boiling point of secession and civil war.  As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their pace as one of the country's leading theatrical families.  But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.  A startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vid exploration of brother- and sisterhood, Booth is a riveting historical novel founded on the very things that bind, and break a family."  By sheer coincidence, the day before I came across this book, I had read a fascinating, detailed article from a 1924 issue of Harper's Magazine about a man who claimed to be the real John Wilkes Booth, who had avoided capture in 1865 and had lived incognito until 1903; the case for the claim seemed pretty convincing, as was the case against it -- both had specious aspects.  So, having experienced this serendipity, how could I not by this book?
• Jane Gaskell, The City.  Fantasy, the third book in the Atlan saga.  "For seventeen years she has lived in the Tower, imprisoned by her family under an ancient curse.  Now, at last, Princess Cija is free -- only to marry as her mother, the Dictatress, decrees.  She must marry the vile half-serpent Zerd, head of the conquerinfghordes.  She must travel with his army as its hostage, camp follower, scullion, slave -- or empress -- or supreme warrior.  At her mother's command, she must entice and destroy the repulsive Zerd.  But she is only seventeen, naive in the sensuous ways of a seductress."  Gaskell is the great-great-great-grand-niece of famed Victorian writer Elizabeth Gaskell.
• Tom Holt, Divine Comedies.  Omnibus of two comic fantasies, Here Comes the Sun (1993) and Odds and Gods (1995).  Here Comes the Sun:  "The sun rises late, dirty and so badly in need of a service it's a wonder it gets up at all.  The moon's going to be scrapped soon and a new one commissioned.  But they've been saying that for years.  All is not well with the universe...and ir's because the mortals are running the show.  It's time for a Higher Power to take charge."  Odds and Gods:  "It's a god's life at the Sunnyvoyde Residential home for retired deities.  Everlasting life can be a real drag when all you've got to look forward to is cauliflower cheese on Wednesdays.  But things are about to change, because those almighty duffers Thor, Odin and Frey have restored a thousand-year-old traction engine, and the thing actually works!"  Holt also writes as K. J. Parker.
• Alex Irvine, The Adventures of Tintin.  Tie-in juvenile novelization of the 201i animated film directed by Stephen Spielberg and based on the comic book character by Herge.
• Marvin Kaye, editor, The Dragon Quintet.  Fantasy anthology of five novelettes by Orson Scott Card, Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee, Elizabeth Moon, and Michael Swanwick.  Firedrakes aplenty.
• George H. Meyer, Al Capone's Devil Driver.  Autobiography (as told to Chaplain Ray and Max Call) of a mobster turned God's warrior, published by a religious press and "distributed to jail and prison inmates throughout North America by International Prison Ministry", so take it for what it is.   " 'Devil' was his nickname.  That is what the members of the Al Capone mob called George Meyer.  his boss was known as 'Scarface' Al Capone, the  most feared of the Chicago gangsters in the violent and crime-ridden decades of the twenties and thirties.  George Meyer was only nineteen years of age when he joined the  mob.  He drove the car for the weekly payoffs of crooked police and greedy politicians.  Soon Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti introduced George to Al Capone, saying, 'This is the kid I was telling you about.'  He quickly became Capone's favorite driver, for gangland killings, for assassination hits, and for any important action that involved the Capone mob.  Though assumed to have been the driver on the 'St. Valentine's Day Massacre' of the Moran gang at a garage on Clark Street, in 1929, Meyer was never charged with the crime, nor tried for it.  Today [in 1971 - JH] he looks like a distinguished U.S. Senator, and speaks like lone,  But his authority comes now from God's Word, and not from an underworld Godfather."  Sometimes books sound so bad that I have to pick them up.
• James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein, World Champions!  A Max Einstein Adventure.  Mid-grade children's book.  "From racing across glaciers in Greenland and flying a super-fancy solar-powered jet to Hawaii, to visiting the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia and hanging put with a robot named Leo, twelve-year-old genius Max and her friends live for adventure.  Whenever there's a problem to solve, the kids work better together.  So does an evil group of rich and powerful kids who will do whatever it takes to split the kids up -- even as the planet is changing before their eyes.  Max has one more surprise in her playbook, and if she's going to pull it off, she needs her team around her.  who de er said that kids can't save the world?"  Bought only because I'm a great fan of Graberstein's earlier work, the John Ceepak mystery series.  His young adult and children's books include many collaborations with Patterson, as well as the Haunted mysteries, the Riley Mack series, and the Mr. Lemoncollo series. 
• Douglas Preston & Lee Child, Cold Vengeance.  Thriller, the eleventh in the Pendergast series and the second novel in the Helen trilogy.  "Devastated by the discovery that his wife, Helen, was murdered, Special Agent Pendergast must have retribution.  But revenge is not simple.  As he stalks his wife's betrayers -- a chase that takes him to the wild moors of Scotland to the bustling streets of New York City and the darkest bayous of Louisiana -- he is also forced to dig further into Helen's past.  And he is stunned to learn that Helen may have been a collaborator in her own  murder.  Peeling h]back the layers of deception, Pendergast realizes that the conspiracy is deeper, goes back generations, and is more monstrous than he could ever have imagined -- and everything he's believed, everything he's trusted, everything he's understood -- may be a horrible lie."
• "J. D. Robb" (Nora Roberts), Passions in Death.  The 59th novel in the Eve Dallas futuristic romance-police procedural series.  I have started reading the series in order and have just finished Book Two, so I will probably get to this in 2087, or thereabouts.  "On a hot August night, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband, Rourke, speed through the streets of Manhattan to the Down and Dirty club, where a joyful, boisterous pre-weeding girls' girls night out has turned into a murder scene.  One of the brides lies in a pool of blood, garroted in a private room where she was preparing a surprise for her fiancee -- two scrimped-and-saved-for tickets to Hawaii.  Despite the dozens of people present, useful witnesses are hard to come by.  It all brings back some bad memories for Ever, who once suffered an assault in the very same room -- but she had been able to fight back and survive.  She'd gotten justice.  And  now she needs to provide some justice for poor young Erin..."
• Sharon A. Russell, Stephen King, a Critical Companion.  Nonfiction from 1996.  A look at King's work from Carrie through Rose Madder.  Part of Geenwood Press's Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers series.  Russell was a professor of communication and women's studies at Indiana State University.
• Andrzej Sapkowski, Sword of Destiny.  Fantasy collection of five stories about Geralt the Witcher -- "a man whose magic powers enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin.  Yet he is no ordinary murderer.  His targets are the monsters and vile fiends that rampage the land and attack the innocent."  Also, The Last Wish.  The book that introduced The Witcher.  Sapkowski has been called Poland's Tolkien, and his tales of the Witcher have been made into a popular television series; he won the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.  Many of his books have not yet been translated into English, and those that have have been published out of sequence.
• John Scalzi, Lock In.  Science fiction novel, the first novel kin the series.  "Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes it way across the globe.  Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever, and headaches.  But for the unlucky 1 percent -- nearly five million souls in the United States alone -- the disease causes 'lock in':  [V]ictims are fully awake and aware, but are unable to move or respond to an stimulus.  The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed.  The world changes to meet the challenge.  A quarter of a century later, in a world shaped by what is now known as 'Haden's syndrome,' rookie FBI agent Chris Shane is paired with veteran agent Leslie Vann.  They are assigned what appears to be a Haden-related murder at the Watergate hotel, with a suspect who is an 'Integrator' -- someone who can let the locked in borrow their bodies for a time.  If the integrator was carrying a Haden client, then  naming the suspect for the murder will be that much more complicated.  But 'complicated' doesn't begin to describe the puzzle that ensues.  As Shaen and Venn begin to unravel the threads of the murder, it becomes clear that the real mystery -- and the real crime -- is bigger than anyone could have imagined.  The world of the locked in is changing, and with change come opportunity that the ambitious will seize at any cost."
• John Saul.  Black Lightning.  Horror.  "For five years, Seattle has been seized in the terrifying grip of a monster as black as evil itself:  a sadistic serial killer who methodically lures his victims to grisly deaths in order to satisfy a twisted passion.  For five years journalist Anne Jeffers has pursued this horrifying story like a woman obsessed -- following the killer's capture, trial, and appeal -- crusading to keep the wheels of justice churning toward the electric chair, never believing the prisoner's steadfast denials of guilt.  Now the day of execution has come.  A convicted killer will meet his end.  Anne believes her five-year nightmare is over.  Until, within days, a similar murder stuns the city, forcing Anne to face some disturbing questions.  Was the wrong man put to death?  And is she to blame?  Or did he have an accomplice who longs to continue a bloody legacy?  Is a copycat killer at work?  But how could any imitator so uncannily re-create all the gruesome hallmarks of a murderer's modus operandi, details kept completely secret from all  but the police?"  Also, Second Child.  Horror.  'A lush, secluded Maine seaside resort.  summer playground of the superrich.  One hundred years ago, something disturbed their play.  Horror came into this village.  And though no none knows it yet, the horror has never left.  It waits for a shy young girl.  Outcast by her friends.  By her beautiful half sister.  Even by her own mother.  She knows how it feels to be unwanted.  Angry.  And the rage of blood-drenched vengeance.  Beware.  Beware the...SECLOND CHILD."  And, When the Wind Blows.  Horror.  "When the wind blows the children will cry...  The children were waiting.  Waiting for centuries.  Waiting for someone to her their cries.  Now nine-year-old Christie Lyons has come tom live in the house on the hill -- the house where no children have lived for fifty years.  Now little /Christie will sleep in the old-fashioned nursery on the third floor.  Now Christie's terror will begin.  When the wind blows the children must die!"  Saul tends to go to the children-in-danger plot well quite a bit.
• Neil Stephenson, Seveneves.  Science fiction.  "A catastrophe renders the world a ticking time bomb.  In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond out atmosphere, in outer space.  But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain...  Five thousand years later, their progeny -- seven distinct races now three billion strong -- embark on yet another industrious journey into the unknown...to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time:  Earth."  This one won both a Prometheus and a Kurt Lasswitz Prize, and was nominated for five other major science fiction awards.
• Andrew Vachss, Dead and Gone.  Thriller, the 12th novel in the Burke series.  "It's not an unusual job for Burke -- ex-con, career criminal, and ultimate urban man-for-hire -- to act as middleman in an exchange of cash for a kidnapped child.  But this time the only things exchanged are bullets.  Burke loses his beloved partner, and lies in a hospital bed close to -- or maybe even past -- death, hovering in a netherworld of nightmares and hallucinations.  When he finally escapes from the hospital, his appearance has changed radically -- and so has he.  Burke's religion is revenge, and he is eager to begin worship.  Without the slightest clue as to who ordered the hit, he goes back to his original contact.  When that meeting ends in homicide, Burke goes even deeper underground than ever before.  He vanishes off every radar screen, and starts his hunt.  In order to connect the dots, Burke enlists the aid of a pilot he worked with during the war in Biafra:  a Russian-speaking Cambodian woman named Gem, and a mystical childhood friend -- the police would call him a codefendant -- who finds patterns where others find chaos.  Burke's search starts in Chicago and ends in the Pacific Northwest -- a foreign country to the New York City-bred Burke.  When a pattern finally emerges, Burke discovers truly foreign territory -- a place where pedophiles, neo-Nazis, abortion clinic bombers, and kiddie porn producers expect immunity from prosecution, a safe harbor for predatory degenerates.  And when he learns who is running the show, Burke must call upon a lifetime of training in the dark arts to do what he does best:  survive."  I used to gobble up the Burke novels like candy, but it's been about thirty years since I last read one.  Vachss was a lawyer and a strong advocate for child protection -- something that informed much of his writing.

HPL Hears a Who?:  This is what happens when Dr. Seuss meets Lovecraft's AT THE MOUNTINS OF MADNESS...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cr3bsFUtdM

Gurder May Become a Recruit for MAGA:  

"It's a well-known fact that women can't read," said Gurder.  "It's not their fault, of course.  Apparently their heads get too hot.  With the strain, you know.  It's just one of those things." -- Truckers by Terry Pratchett, 1989

Ursine Melodies:  Here are four of my favorites songs about bears:

First, the all-time classic, "The Teddy Bear Picnic" by Henry Hall & His Orchestra (1932):

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

"Waltzing with Bears" was a favorite song to sing with our kids and grandkids; tis version is by Gordon Bok, Anne Mayo Muir, and Ed Trickett; it helped that I had an Uncle Walter and that y daughter married a Walter:

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

For pure joyous fun, it's hard to go wrong with "Simon Smith & The Amazing Dancing Bear" from the Alan Price Set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVulPluv5jo

Sometimes the best things about a bear song is that it often has an important life lesson, as in Eric von Schmidt's "Hundred Acre Wood":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaNilBh9a88

Do you have a favorite bear song that I overlooked?

Off to Bloomingdale Asylum:  Georges Melies (1861-1938) was a pioneering French filmmaker, magician, and toymaker.  His influential short films helped introduce such techniques and special effects as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color.  Almost all of his films were surreal and fantastic. often containing magical tricks and impossible events; audiences unused to this new art form were amazed.  His most famous film was A Trip to the Moon, with the moon looking very upset when a rocket ship landed in its eye. 

Here is a brief film from 1901, displaying slapstick humor and (unfortunately) racist blackface:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJWEZtz9ViU&list=PLB49B9F437E98973B&index=1

Work History:  My brother could never hold a job.  First, he worked in an orange juice factory, but he got canned because he couldn't concentrate.

Then he went to the woods and worked as a  lumberjack, but he could not hack it and he got axed.

He tried working as a tailor, but he was not suited for it, thinking it was just a sew-and-sew job.

The next job Kenny tried was in a muffler factory, but it was too exhausting.

He thought being a chef would add a little spice to his life, but he just did not have the thyme.

Never one to give up, he switched to working in a deli,  but he couldn't cut the mustard'

His efforts at being a musician were not noteworthy.

He was going to train to be a doctor, but he did not have any patience.

He couldn't fit in at the shoe factory, so he became a professional fisherman, but could not live on i=his net income.

There was a good job at a pool maintenance company, but the work was draining.

It turned out that employment at the local gym did not work out because he ws not fit for the work.

And so the years passed.  He finally got a job as a historian, but there was no future in it.

His last desperate attempt was a job art Starbucks, but, again, it was the same old grind.

Being the older and much wiser brother, I told him not to worry.  He will always have a job making me look good by comparison.

An Oldie but Not That Goodie:  A ham sandwich walks into the bar and the bartender tells him, "Sorry, we don't serve food here."

The Relaxed Wife:  An educational film from 1957.  showing this to the women I know today would be akin to standing at the rim of Mount St. Helens ten minutes before it erupted in 1980.  Life in the 1950s could have its own special set of horrors.  ...And take note of the twin beds!  the film was produced as "a public service" by a division of Chas. Pfizer & Co,, Inc. because they are good guys and only want what is best for us.  Its actual purpose was to promote the tranquilizer Atarax.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndFHAaJ7cdQ&list=PLsm57FoigDY24PkCRsfey2hH8CDCUARzU&index=37

Animal Comics #1, December 1942:  This Dell Comic marks the first time Walt Kelly's Pogo and albert the Alligator appeared in print.  It also introduced Bumbazine, the little boy who lived at the edge of the swamp.  Bumbazine disappeared by the time the Pogo comic strip first appeared on October 4, 1948, with both Pogo and Albert undergoing significant modifications in appearance.

Kelly had worked for Disney from 1935 to 1941, and contributed to such animated films as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and The Reluctant Dragon.  He then went to Dell comics and created the Pogo and Albert characters late in that year. 

This is where Pogo started.  Missing are many of the later characters -- Howland Owl, Beauregard Bugleboy, Porkypine, Miz Mamzelle Hepzibah, Churchy La Femme, Rackety Coon Chile, Bun Rab, Pup Dog, Sis Boombah, Grundoon, Simple J. Malarky, Deacon Mushrat, P. T. Bridgeport, Seminole Sam, and so many others -- readers will have to wait six years or more for these wonderful characters to appear.

Enjoy this issue.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N1eh84uz-6H3Rvr5pRWedO53rM9Cm5_p/view

Pad Kid:  According to researchers at the Massachusetts institute of Technology, the world's most difficult tongue twister is PAD KID POURED CURD PULLED COD, for reasons that are too complex to get into here.  The people at MIT insist that it is virtually impossible to say this ten times fast.

Other difficult tongue twisters include:

• IS IT HARDER TO TOOT OR TO TUTOR TWO TOOTERS TO TOOT?
• BRISK BRAVE BRIGADIERS BRANDISHED BROAD BRIGHT BLADES
• IF YOU MUST CROSS A COURSE, CROSS COW ACROSS A CROWDED COW CROSSING, CROSS THE CROSS, COURSE COW ACROSS THE CROWDED COW CROSSING CAREFULLY
• BETTY BOUGHT A BIT OF BUTTER, BUT THE BUTTER BETTY BOUGHT WAS BITTER, SO BETTY BOUGHT A BETTER BUTTER, AND IT WAS BETTER THAN THE BITTER BUTTER BETTY BOUGHT BEFORE
• HOW CAN A CLAM CRAM IN A CLEAN CREAM CAN?

Advice from Miss Manners:  "If you can't be kind, at least be vague." -- Judith Martin

  

FLORIDA MAN:

• Florida Man Edward Campuzano, 22, a former Barstow police officer has been arrested for poisoning  and killing his girlfriend's Maltese poodle while she was away on a trip.  According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Campuzano did not like the dog, and I suspect his girlfriend does like him any more, either.    The three-year-old dog's name was Milo (and I saw the picture and he was very cute).  Campuzano allegedly placed poison pellet in the dog's food dish.  The girl friend, Paula Fernadez, said that a neighbor had called her to tell that the dog was dead.  The shocked woman came home and had to clean up the vomited blood on the floor.  Later that day, Campuzana came by with flowers; "At the time I thought it was a sweet gesture, but now [...] is a pain I can't even describe."  The family brought the corpse to a veterinarian for a necropsy and learned that the dog had been poisoned.  The dog died in May of 2025, but police did not get a report until December 2025.  an investigation revealed that Campuzano had bought the poison two days earlier on his credit card at a Tractor Supply.
• Florida Man Isaac Hurley, 18, at an Englewood WalMart after live-streaming himself breaking into the store for a TikTok challenge.  He was found in the dog bed section of the store after closing hours.  Hurley had hoped to spend a full 24 hours in the store in order to get money from TikTok views. Hurley was arrested for burglary of an occupied structure and for petit theft; the theft charge came because he removed an iPhone charger from it packaging -- evidently he had not checked the battery on his phone before the stunt.
• Florida couple Tiffany Score and Stephen Mills have reached a confidential custody agreement allowing them to keep their child after a mix-up at a major Orlando fertility clinic resulting them in Score giving birth to a child of a different ethnicity.  Score and Mills are white; the child, a girl born this past December, is black.  The custody agreement was with the baby girl's biological parents.  Although a custody agreements have been finalized, the genetic parents will be meeting with Score and mills to discuss how to go on from here. DNA tracking of the March 2020 egg retrieval group allowed the biological mother to be identified.  Meanwhile, the Fertility Center of Orlando has permanently shut down as attorneys investigate the location and genetic viability of the parents' remaining missing embryos.  Despite this being a parent's nightmare, baby Shea will grow up in a loving family with the support of all four parents.
• In Polk Country, Florida Man Matthew Zaccarino, 39, of Altimonte Springs, was arrested as he was trespassing at an construction site.  Zaccarino, who was wearing a red lace bra with a gun hidden under its silicone breasts, told officers he was going to a costume party.  When asked where the party was, Zaccarino remained silent.  Sheriff Grady Judd said, "Then, we noticed he was wearing a G-string, showing off the boys.  You know what I mean?"  Judd added, "It was ugly.  It was so ugly."  Zaccarino was arrested for armed trespassing with a firearm, loitering or prowling, and resisting an officer without violence.
• Florida Man Kobe Watkins did not want to be identified, so he allegedly robbed a Lake City meat market in the nude wearing only a mask.  Surveillance video indicated that a trail of clothing and other evidence were left along his route of travel.  He has been charged with robbery with a weapon, exposure of sexual organs, grand theft and criminal mischief.  why rob a meat market in the nude, I wonder; they have meat cleavers.

Good News:

• This year's World's Cup matches have brought many heartwarming stories about the interaction between soccer fans from all over the world and the places they visited.  From Boston to Lawrence, Kansas, to New Orleans good news stories have been pouring in as many visitors begin to see the "true" America is not like what they are told on their local news and that Americans open their hearts to visitors to our country.  (One of the most interesting things is their reaction to ranch dressing -- as one Swedish influencer said, "Why did not one tell me ranch sauce is like crack?  EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP.")  And here is just one little tidbit about our international visitors:        https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/japanese-fans-cleaned-the-stadium-after-world-cup-match-while-the-players-cleaned-locker-room/
• A twelve-year-old girl from Wales saves her fiend form  both drowning and a seizure      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/a-little-hero-saves-her-friend-from-both-drowning-and-a-seizure/
• Non-surgical procedure developed to ease knee pain      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/knee-pain-suffered-by-millions-can-be-eased-using-new-non-surgical-procedure/
• Artist rewards hospital staff with portraits after surviving brain cancer       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/artist-beats-brain-cancer-and-paints-amazing-portraits-of-hospital-staff/
• New York police detective spends months locating a wedding ring stolen from a dementia patient           https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/detective-spends-months-searching-for-stolen-dementia-patients-ring-finds-it-in-a-pawnshop-miles-away/
• Six-year-old finds ancient Viking sword on a school field trip  https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/6-year-old-finds-ancient-viking-sword-on-school-field-trip-buried-for-1300-years/
• People helping others        https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/thousands-donate-to-help-nebraska-ranchers-who-couldnt-feed-their-animals-after-wildfire/
• And kindness is rewarded      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/woman-who-rescued-injured-crow-keeps-getting-thank-you-gifts-from-other-birds/

Today Is National Kissing Day, So Here's a Poem for the Occasion:

The Kiss

Before you kissed me only winds of heaven

Had kissed me, and the tenderness of rain --

Now you have come, how can I care for kisses

Like those again?

I sought the sea, she sent her winds to meet me,

They surged about me singing of the south --

I turned my head away to keep still holy

Your kiss upon my  mouth.

And swift sweet rains of shining April weather

Found not my lips where living kisses are;

I bowed my head lest they put out my glory

As rain puts out a star.

I am my love's and he is mine forever,

Sealed with a seal and safe forevermore --

Think you that I could let a beggar enter

Where a king stood before?

-- Sara Teasdale

MUSIC FOR TODAY

Dave Mallett.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6HtGghqOW4

NOW LET US PRAISE FAMOUS MEN...

 ...and our fathers that begat us -- Ecclesiasticus  44:1

It's not just on Father's Day that I think of and honor these men.  I do it every day of my life because they are part of the fabric of my being.  I have been fortunate enough to have absorbed much of the goodness they have taught me:

Ralph E. House, my father.  The man who taught me honesty, character, integrity, and charity.  The man who taught me that a handshake, freely given, was a bond that should not be broken.  The man how taught me that humor will always conquer anger, and that doing the right thing is always the right thing.  The man who taught me to respect the small things in life and in nature, and to never take them for granted.  Although he has been gone for more than four decades, I remain hopeful that one day I will be half the man he was.

Harold A. Keane, Kitty's father.  Always friendly and almost always cheerful, Harold was a feisty first-generation Irisher, and because he was Irish, he could hold a grudge.  His anger was never directed at a person, but rather to a system.   Because he remembered all too well his early days of "No Irish Need Apply."  He was fiercely opposed to bigotry.  As the proud owner of a Bronze Star, he was also fiercely patriotic and would be saddened when our leaders would put politics over people and expedience over honor.  Harold was also friendly and displayed a great sense of humor.  A child of his time, he ws also completely at sea about how to raise a daughter.  Harold was protective about his family.  He got a great kick out of his grandkids.  I main saddened that he died just weeks before his first great grandson, Mrk, was born, because I know he would have loved him beyond words, and would have been so proud of the man Mark grew up to be.  Harold loved the water and could not be far from a lake or the sea.

Michael T. Dowd, Jessie's husband, who died of a sudden heart attack at age 31 as he was preparing to go golfing.  Perhaps it is crass of me to say it,  but Mike's passing from a heart attack was appropriate because his heart was a big as all outdoors.  He loved Jessie and his two daughters more than anything.  He spent the last night of his life making soap with the girls, and loving every minute of it.  He had a quick wit and a sense of direction that was even worse than Kitty's.  You could never get mad at Mike, even if he did something that appeared bone-headed, because in the next minute, he would do something that showed his innate kindness and caring.  He would have been proud of what Jessie and the girls have done with their lives.  Wherever he is now, he knows they still carry him in his heart.

John Dowd, Michael's father.  John is a lawyer and a damned good one.  His politics are completely opposite from mine and I respect him for that.  John is a proud ex-marine and supports our men and women in service wholeheartedly.  He believes strongly in the code that the Marines had taught him.  He and wife Carol could not have children of their own, so they adopted at different five children of different races who needed a good home -- for that alone he deserves the highest praise.  As a lawyer, he firmly believes in each person's right to have a strong defense, even though much of his work was in defending persons accused of white collar crime, I have to praise his dedication to the principles of law.  He is deceptively smart and has a great sense of humor.  His legal career has brought him to the heights of law in D.C. as a partner in one of the area's most influential law firms; the list of some of his clients is impressive.  John has also been active behind the scenes in Republican politics, and served as one of Donald Trump's lawyers during his first term (his advice to Trump:  Don't ever allow yourself to testify under oath!).  As I said, I do not agree with his politics, but his proven love of family and this country, as well as his strong commitment to integrity places me solidly in his corner.

Walter R. Roof, Jr., Christina's husband.  Like many introverts, Walt is great company and has a cadre of good friends wherever he goes.  Walt is a pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of guy.  when he married Christina he was a high school graduate and she held a degree from George Washington University.  H studied night and online to gain his bachelor's, perfecting his computer skills.  soon he went from working as a cabinet maker and ambulance driver to providing technical assistance the the TSA, eventually to becoming a manager of major computer projects for the Air Force.  (Yeah, we have computers scattered all through the house.)  Walt has many interests and often combines them into small businesses; while studying for his degree and various certifications, he ran a computer consulting company on the side; he combined his skill and love for woodworking into another small business and ended up building small trebuchets; he recently closed down a fifteen-year-old soap making business because it began to interfere with his work for the government.  I don't known what kind of work Walt does for the government, nor do I want to, because if I did know, Walt might just have to kill me.  Currently, Walt has a professional photography business on the side.  Walt is also physically fit, and practices Muay Thai; two years ago he travelled to Thailand to take professional pictures of their world championship.  Through it all, Walt is devoted to Christina.  He instinctively knows exactly what gifts get her.  Often they would pack a lunch and head to the beach to watch the sunset and just spend quiet time together.  Christina has said she married Walt because he makes her laugh; he still does.  And Walt is also a fantastic father, raising three completely different children.  Mark and Erin are out of the house now (although they often come by for advice, or just because), and Walt spends a lot of time now with Jack, guiding him in his special way.  I cannot express the admiration I have for Walt and the things he has done for Christina and the kids.

Walter R. Roof, Sr., Walt's dad.  Senior is a good ol' boy.  He is a friend to everyone and will gladly talk your ear off.  He doesn't have a mean bone in his body.  He and Ellen had been living in Virginia, but  both of them begin to have health problems and we talked them into moving down here so Walt and Christina could be close to them if needed.  Nothing seems to bother Senior; he approaches each day with smile.  Sadly, Ellen's health has deteriorated to the pointed where they will probably have to move in worth us sometime over the next few months.  I know this is a difficult time because Senior is devoted to Ellen,  but I suspect when, and if, they move in Senior will be on first-name terms with neighbors whom Walt and Christina have never met, even though they has lived here for ten years.  And Walt just bought a pool table and moved into the dining room, so Senior will happy as a pig in dirt with a pool table, Ellen, the family, the animals (who he loves), a gazillion neighbors to be fri4nds with, and a weekly Bingo game.  Senior's enthusiasm and zest for life is contagious and I, for one, am happy they moved down here and that I get to spend more time with him.

And I also celebrate Your Father, living or dead.   I may know some of you personally; other I know through on-line friendships; still other I have never met either in person or via the internet.  Even if I do not now you, I am willing to bet you are one hell of a person, because that describes the vast majority of persons on this Earth.  And because you are a hell of of a person, I'm willing to bet that that is, in no small part, because of the influence of your father, and his father before him and his father before him.  We are all the products of a long chain of ancestors who have embedded themselves in our DNA and in our very being.  In honoring those who have helped make you you, I also honor you because, let's face it, you are pretty fantastic.  It is a pleasure to be in your presence as you read my words:  I am completely gobsmacked by your being here.

So, let's raise a glass "to praise famous men" -- to my father, to the fathers who have directly influenced me, and to the fathers who have made you the special person that you are today.  Skoal!

Happy Father's Day!

BEER, VOL. 1, NO. 1 (JUNE 1932)

 A nifty little propaganda magazine put out by Three Star Publishing for the WE WANT BEER ASSOCIATION, INC.  (New York Headquarters:  229 W. 28th St., New York City).

The National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, was designed to execute the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the sale of alcoholic drink, and was ratified in January 1919, and brought about the birth of major organized crime, speakeasys, and improperly made, and often poisonous, bootleg liquor.  It was, to say the least, a failed experiment and was finally repealed with the passage of the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933.  Included in the definition of "alcoholic drink" was beer. and therein lies the tale.

This magazine -- I don't know if there was a second issue -- touted the glories, wonders, and beneficial aspects of beer and urged that beer be excluded from the Volstead Act.

Articles, jokes, cartoons, and illustrated were used to hammer down the point.  There is nothing wrong with beer -- it is a healthful, relaxing beverage that should be far distanced from evil rum.  Legalizing beer would not mean a return to saloons and degradation.  It would allow a man to be legally refreshed after coming home from work and sitting in his easy chair with his newspaper.  I would increase the nation's health and economy.  It would restore a basic right.

Several of the article assert the support of various politicians for the return of beer.   Senator Millard E. Tydings is quoted on the economic need for repeal:

• The nation's deficit on June 30, 1931 was $903,000,000
• The last "beer year" indicated a consumption of 1,980,000,000 gallons of beer; a tax of 25 cents per gallon would yield the government some $500,000,000 in revenue
• Add to that coal miners would dig out the 2,990,257 tons of coal needed in the brewing process
• --- the 200,000 freight cars and several hundred locomotives needed to transport the coal to breweries
• --- the 64,000,000 pounds of sugar needed yearly (which might also lessen the likelihood of  civil war in Cuba)
• --- the 3,000,000,000 pounds of wheat need at 4 cents a bushel
• --- and the 300,000 men who would be employed by the breweries
• The deficit would be reduced, at the very least, to a manageable amount.

There is also testimonies from medical men on the positive effect on health.

And sly jabs at the crooks and politicians who have profited from Prohibition.

There is one lone article that makes the case for the entire elimination of the Volstead Act -- not just for the legalization of beer.

Let's face it:  beer is glorious!  It is America's favorite drink.   Americans do not deserve a watered down version that is tasteless and vile:

"Mary had a little Beer.

     It made her feel quite ill.

Said she, "This stuff they sell us now,

     Is rank enough to kill."

So, pull on your propaganda boots, and examine the first (and perhaps only) issue of Beer.  And, as you do so, you may wonder what the WE WANT BEER ASSOCIATION, INC. is doing today.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102126

MY JUNETEENTH CREDO

 I AM a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant male just a few months shy of my ninth decade. 

What I am NOT is ignorant or uninformed.  What biases I have are based solely on my ethical makeup, not on ill-chosen ideas of any sort of superiority. 

My belief system is simple.  Everybody deserves a chance,  An opportunity to raise one's family in peace and free from want, with the hope that each generation will have things better than the one before.  On June 19, 1865, that opportunity became closer to the grasp of all Americans.

Juneteenth is one of the most important holidays we have.  It symbolizes the hopes and dreams all Americans have as we continue to strive toward a more perfect nation.  Let us never lose sight of that.

We are all in the same boat.  If there are a few who would rock the boat, attempt to overturn or sink it, it is our sacred obligation to resist them with all our might.

FORGOTTEN BOOK: WHEN THE WIND BLOWS

When the Wind Blows by John Saul, 1981

When the Wind Blows is an early John Saul book, his fifth horror novel published under his own name.  It has the basic theme that made him an author with thirty-one best-selling novels:  children in danger.  The children may be young, or may be teenagers, but they always have some fantastic or supernatural force trying to destroy them, with innocent bystanders also suffering; at times, these children may also be the source of evil in the books.  Saul's variations on this theme have led to a long, sustained career.

The scene here is the small town of Amberton, nestled in the Colorado Rockies.  Unlike other mining towns, Amberton had no gold or silver, but it did have a large amount of coal, the  mining of which provided the lifeblood of the town.  Unique to the town was its chinook winds, heavy, blustering gusts that swam down from the mountains at frequent and unpredictable times.  And when the winds blew, the cries of children could be heard.  Supposedly these were the cries of stillborn Indian children well over a century old; the natives would take the bodies of these stillborn infants to a cave where they would await their chance to be reborn and to experience life for the first time.  Of course, this was just  a superstition; the white population of the town refused to believe it.  Nevertheless, when the winds blew, bad things happened.

The winds were blowing fifty years before the main events of the novel.  Dozens of miners. including mine owner Amos Amber, were deep in the mine when a wall let go and a torrent of water appeared, flooding the mine and killing all those below.  Supposedly the miners had heard the cries of the children above the roar of the winds.  At the same time the mine was destroyed, Amos amber's wife, Edna, went into labor with a child she never wanted.  Edna, too, heard the wind and the cries of the children.

Now fifty years have passed and Edna is a bitter, mean-spirited, cruel, and selfish woman, living on the fading Amber ranch with her only child, Diana.  Diana has been terrorized her entire life by her  mother, who views Diana as mere chattel, someone to come at her every beck and call.  in many ways Edna a has infantilized her daughter, never allowing her to grow up and mature into a full adult.  Diana has severe memory lapses, usually when the wind blows; chunks of her life are gone and Diana does  not even realize it.  And Diana has a horrific secret that she has completely blocked from her life.  Both Edna and Diana are reclusive, so the townspeople do not realize that each is insane.

Fifty years after the tragedy that closed down the mine and brought the town to financial ruin, Diana decides to reopen the mine.  She places mining engineer Elliott Lyons, a widower with a nine-year-old daughter, in charge of the project.  Lyons, a capable and careful man, never allowed anyone to go into the mine alone because of the potential danger.  Nevertheless, when the wind was blowing, Lyons entered the mine by himself, fell into a large pit, and was killed.  His daughter, Chrissie, having no other relatives, was brought to live with Diana for the time being.  Diana, never having fully matured, nevertheless desperately wanted to have a child and she decided that Chrissie was that child; in her mind, Diana became Chrissie's mother and began to infantilize her as Edna had once done to Diana.  Edna resents Diana's attention on Chrissie and begins to plot ways to get the young girl out of the house, one way or another...

What we have, in effect, is a good old-fashioned Southern Gothic, albeit set in the Rockies with supernatural elements.

Other players in this tragedy are Bill Henry, the local doctor who grew up with Diana and once was in love with her; over the year, that love morphed into mere affection and concern.  Dan Gurley, the local sheriff, dislikes the suspicious thoughts he has about the Amber women.  Esperanza Rodigues is the half-breed housekeepers for the Ambers; she is steeped in the superstitious beliefs of her people.  When Esperanza's son, Juan, was born severely defective. her people wanted her to take the baby to the cave where the stillborn children -- the water babies -- had been placed and leave him there to die; Espernza refused because her son was not stillborn, and insisted on rising him herself.  And then there were the children of the town -- Jeff, Kim, Steve, Jay-Jay, and Eddie -- all friends of Chrissie and her same age.  These children goad one another into doing risky things, and some of them will die.

There's violence, both psychological and physical, but the worst violence is strangely not described viscerally.  The unravelling of Edna and Diana and the slow display of their insanities is done well.  Some minor threads are never explained but the break-neck pace at the end of the books allows the reader to forget about  both them and various plot holes until long after the novel is put down.

There is an unexpected and horrifying coup de grace revealed in the book's final paragraph.

All in all, an effective horror novel with many unexplained parts.  An interesting but uncomfortable read because of the child abuse.  But child abuse, and the threat of child abuse, is a large part of what made Saul's books sell. I have to wonder, though, is this just a literary gimmick?  Or does Saul truly not like children.

Saul (born 1942 and still living) has not published a book since 2009.  His long-time partner of more than fifty year (and now husband) has anonymously collaborated on several of Saul's novels.  Before Suffer the Children, the first novel published under his own name, Saul had written about ten other novels published under pseudonyms.  Saul is also the author of a number of one-act plays.  In 2023, he received the Bram Stoker Ward from the Horror Writers Association for Lifetime Achievement.

MYSTERY IN THE AIR: THE BLACK CAT (SEPTEMBER 18, 1947)

Mystery in the Air was a summer replacement program for the Abbott and Costello Show  beginning in 1945.  Rather than yucks, this show went for crime and mystery, beginning with a crime series about Detective Stonewall Scott.  Then, in 1947, it switched gears and for eight episodes it became a horror anthology series hosted by Peter Lorre and announced by Harry Morgan (he of Dragnet and M.A.S.H.) fame), airing such classic stories as "The Lodger" and "The Horla."

Edgar Allan Poe got his turn with 'The Black Cat,." starring Lorre himself in an over-the-top and effective performance.

Enjoy.

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

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: SLAY RIDE TO ETERNITY

 "Slay Ride to Eternity" by Tedd Thomey  (first published in the Australian edition of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, May 1957; then reprinted in the American edition of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, June 1957, followed by the United Kingdom edition of the magazine, September 1957; reprinted in the British paperback anthology Crime Squad, 1968, purportedly edited -- as one of four such anthologies -- by "Ed McBain" [Evan Hunter] -- and perhaps it actually was)

Jim Holt is an oil rigging worker just returned from Saudi Arabia.  On the journey back to the States, he had the misfortune to get into a game of craps in which he lost all the  money he had saved.  Now broke, he ran into Bill Tropp, a man he had worked with in the oil field in nearby Signal Hill two years earlier; Tropp lent him five bucks to tide him over and, more importantly, introduced him to Vern Stickle, who then hired him to work as a pipe racker on one of his wells.  Holt remembers getting into Stickle's car, and then...nothing.

Holt woke up sore, confused, and unable to move.  Slowly he realized that he was lying on the floor of an old derrick.  Barely opening his eyes, he saw Stickle in the distance arguing with two people, a tall man and a young woman.  The tall man grabbed Stickle and dragged him to working derrick; the woman saying, "You can't back out now!  If you had been more careful two years ago..."  The tall man pinned Stickle to the floor of the derrick and held him as the derrick's heavy counterweight came don like a hammer, crushing Stickle's skull.  Holt was horrified but still unable to move.  The woman took Stickle's cracked, bloody glasses and placed them in Holt's hand; then she threw the glasses into the distance where authorities would find them.  Holt -- still immobile -- could feel the woman searching his pockets.  He was then lifted and thrown into the back seat of Stickle's car.  Holt was slowly getting control of his body back as the pair plotted to drive the car, with Holt, off a cliff.  He suddenly recognized the voice of the tall man:  Vic Emerson, who had been one of his bosses two years before.

Holt managed enough control of his body to open the car door and drop out onto the side of the road.  He began to slide down the cliff, slowly at first, then rolling uncontrollably until he slammed kinto a shed at the bottom of the cliff.  Badly damaged, again he found himself unable to move as Emerson and the girl inched their way down the mountainside toward him.  The headlights of an oncoming car stopped them and they scurried back to the top and drove off in Stickler's car.  Holt eventually got control of his body enough to get up and stumble toward a building in the distance, whose lights proclaimed it to be a bar.  There he could call the police.  Then Holt checked his pockets.  He had Stickler's wallet filled with cash, in addition to Stickler's distinctive ring and watch.  Holt was being set up.  He did not know why Stickler was murdered, why he was being framed, or who the mysterious woman was.  He did not dare call the police.  Could things get any worse.  Of course they could.  Holt decided to talk to Bill Tropp, who had also worked with Emerson to years before.  Maybe Tropp could give him some information about Emerson.  Bur when Holt got to Tropp's home, the door was open and Tropp lay dead, stabbed with a knife.  on the wall was a crimson message:  HOLT STAB M.  then Tropp's wife came, screaming...

Holt also learned that he had supposedly died two years before in an explosion that killed two other people, a blast that reduced all three bodies to jelly,  An accident supposedly caused by Holt.

A murder scheme from two years before could have unraveled merely because Jim Holt returned to the area from the Arabian oil fields.  But how to prove it?  The evidence against Holt in the murders of Stickler and Tropp was overwhelming.

A fast-paced, doom-laden story worthy of Cornell Woolrich at his pulpiest.

Tedd Thomey (1920-2008 -- "the second 'd' in Tedd was an affectation, added by a young man hoping to be noticed") published more than half a hundred crime and detective stories in the pulps and digest from the late 1940s through  the 1950s.  He wrote a  number of crime novels, mainly paperback originals, including Killer in White , And Dream of Evil, and Flight to Tokla-Ma.  His biggest-selling book appears to an "as told to" written for Mrs. Florence Addland, The Big Love, detailing her teen-age daughter Beverly's sexual relationship with actor Errol Flynn -- a huge scandal in its day.

The June 1957 issue of Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine can be read online at the Luminist Archive.

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: COLONEL MARCH OF SCOTLAND YARD: THE SORCERER (OCTOBER 1, 1955*)

 * date indicates the first London showing (ABC, London, ITV transmission) of this Biritish produced show; the program was aired earlier in the United States, with this episode appearing sometime in December 1954 -- exact date not certain; the first airing in the British Midlands was on February 29, 1956 on ATV, Midlands)

It's time to take another peek into the Department of Queer Complaints, created by renowned mystery author John Dickson Carr under the pseudonym Carter Dickson.  "The Sorcerer" was the first episode of the series and introduced viewers to the idiosyncratic Colonel Perceval March**, portrayed  by Boris Karloff.  Also featured were Ewan Roberts (as Inspector Ames), Phil Brown, Gerard Heinz, Robert Adair, Eileen Erskine, and Lily (Lilly) Kann.  The episode was directed by Bernard Knowles and scripted by Paul Monash, and was produced by Hannah Weinstein.

A man accuses his wife's psychoananlyst of being a "witch doctor" and threatened to kill him.  Later the psychoanalyst is found dead during a session behind locked doors with the wife -- stabbed with the wife's hatpin!  An intriguing locked room mystery with over-the top acting from most of the cast, remarkably well done considering the limits of the show.  Karloff's performance, of course, stands out.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GuZv31e4LY&t=31s

** In a great Huh? moment, the door to March's office is labeled "A.L. March" -- continuity was not a big thing in 1954 British television.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RUBY NASH GARNETT (born 1934)...

 ...lead vocalist and only surviving member of Ruby & the Romantics.

"Our Day Will Come"

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

"When You're Young and In Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUZbQQbO09Q

"Moonlight and Music"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yimNwJBeZA

"Hey There Lonely Boy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcfRzW8Zrsk

"Hurting Each Other"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y8PHrrHtqM

"Baby I Could Be So Good at Loving You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9A1TLAzbs

"My Summer Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0aLN-saJG0

"Time After Time"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwpH2kvX5Xc

"Our Everlasting Love"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z20DRFiDIPU

"We Can Make It"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0AM4aixog0

"This Is No Laughing Matter"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MD0vayAWWc

"Two Different Worlds"

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

"Una Bella Brazilian Melody"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td8PqJZ_fY4

"Twilight Time"

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

FLAG DAY, PLUS...

Today is Flag Day, perhaps not as much in the public eye as the Fourth of July, but still an important day for what it represents.  The flag is a symbol for what our country stands for, for both what were are and what we hope to be.  It is a symbol of what American had died for for over 250 years.  What it should not be is a prop used to gin up yahoos and so-called patriots to serve a devious and meretricious political purpose; when a flag is perverted in that manner it is merely a piece of cloth, nothing more.

Flag Day is also the birthday of our current president, a conman and grifter who likes nothing more than to use the flag for his own political purposes.  Here is a man who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender, and purported pedophile who is actively working to destroy the constitution and our protections under law for his own profit and self-aggrandizement, a man who is actively working against the betterment of most of the people who voted for him, whose inflated narcissism makes him incapable of seeing beyond his own distorted image in the mirror, who seemingly brandishes his dementia as a shield, and who callously approves the slaughter of innocents.  (In case you are late to the party, yeah, I do not care for Uncle Cankles one bit.)  Trump has illegally trashed one of the enduring symbols of this country -- the White House -- with his destruction of the East Wing to build his ego-inflated ballroom.  He has used the White House to denigrate his perceived enemies, and to festoon the  building with the tackiest of gilt.  His unnecessary redo of the Reflecting Pool is  now an algae-filled disaster that went at least 800% over budget to line the pockets of his cronies.  His proposal for a Triumphant Arch is  not lonely unneeded and tacky, but will desecrate those who lie in Arlington National Cemetery'

And now we have an Octagon on the South Lawn.

To celebrate his 80th birthday (and ostensibly to celebrate America's 250th), he will hosting a UFC mixed martial arts cage fight at the White House today.  This, of course, is a private, for profit enterprise that will in part be paid by taxpayers, although, again, Trump's cronies will profit.  Oh, dear Mother of God...  

Nothing says America more than the UFC, unless it may be the Grand Prix that Trump is planning to race through the streets of D.C. later this year for the 250th.

Today is also another scheduled No King's Day to be held throughout the country wherever there is not a wrestling mat.

Today is also the birthday of my father-in-law, Harold Keane, a proud veteran and Bronze Star recipient, who would be more than upset at what the "sonofabitch" Trump was doing.  Harold was a first generation Irishman; his father and two uncles left Ireland in the  middle of the night, one going to Canada, one to Australia, and Harold's father to America -- why they suddenly left the Auld Sod is unclear and the subject of much family speculation.  Harold's father settled in Massachusetts, began working in the shoe industry, married and had eight children that any man would be proud of.  After World War II, Harold married and went to Georgia Tech, living in a trailer, raising tow children, and working his way through to become an engineer.  Harold was a smart, kindly, and feisty man with a great sense of humor, and -- true to his County Cork roots --built like a fire plug.  When he angered, it was with a purpose, one often related to his youth in "No Irish Need Apply" America.  He loved his family and he loved his country and he loved the water.  He doted on his grandkids and they truly loved and respected him.  For over two decades now, we have celebrated his memory with an ice cream feast on his birthday -- he loved to make a full meal on Kimball's banana splits when he moved back to Massachusetts in the mid-Sixties.

So later today, we are going to Fanny Lou's in Pensacola -- which serves the very best homemade ice cream in the area -- to raise a spoon in honor of the Maker of the Feast.  We will be ignoring the UFC and "that sonofabitch Trump" because Harold, and his legacy, is now, and always will be far, more important to the America we love.

HYMN TIME

 Peter Hollens with a 200-person youth choir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13_nXuJ6dX8

OSCAR CESARE - 100 CARTOONS BY CESARE (1916)

Cesare (1883-1948) was a Swedish-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist whose grease crayon technique was used to great effect in opposing World War I.  Some of the nuances and references in this 1916 book may be lost on modern readers, but his visceral reaction to the War to End All Wars remains stunning.  As the publisher of this book said, "the caricature merely makes you laugh; the cartoon makes you think."  Sometimes art can serve a higher purpose, and sometimes (alas) that purpose is forgotten by the march of history...

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102117&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: GLORY IN DEATH

Glory in Death by "J. D. Robb" (Nora Roberts), 1995.

Okay, so here's my plan.  I am going to live forever, or at least for a very long time.  How will I accomplish that?  By reading all of J. D. Robb's ...In Death books featuring futuristic police detective Eve Dallas.  There are, or will be by September, 63 novels in the series, and growing.  Plus at least 12 novellas.  If I read one every other month or so, and if the author keeps churning them out, I will be busy far, far into the future.  And of course, the gods of reading will do nothing to prevent me from finishing this simple task.  Voila!  Instant near immortality!

So what's the hype about these novels, anyway?  All I can say is that a number of people whose judgment I truly respect go ga-ga over them, to the point that a couple of months ago I decide to rad the series in order, from start to finish.  The first book, Naked in Dead, set the groundwork.  It's New York City in the mid-21st century, and there have been a few technological and social changes, but  nothing that is explained in enough detail to get in the way of a crime thriller.  Eve Dallas, both beautiful and sensual, is one of the best homicide cops in the city.  She is passionate about her job and, as is explained more than once, stands for the victim unwaveringly.  Eve has a mysterious and lonely past -- she has no memories of her life before the age of eight and grew up with no family and no past, which allows to have very few friends or connections and allows her to concentrate on her job.   In the first novel, Eve is handed a particularly nasty murder and meets Rourke, a mysterious and powerful billionaire with with a shrouded past.  Rourke, too, has had a rough childhood and has accumulated few friends.  In that first book, Rourke becomes a main suspect, as well as -- to her great surprise -- Eve's lover.

In Glory in Death, a talented and successful prosecutor is murdered in a disreputable part of the city, her throat cut open.  What was she doing there?  Eve is upset to learn that the victim is also a business partner of Rourke, although Rourke was not involved in her murder.  Suspicion begins to fall on the victim's family:  her ex-husband, her spoiled son, her aggressive daughter and her gambling addict fiance, and her current lover, all of whom seems powerful enough to block Eve's investigation.  Things get more complicated when Eve's boss turns out to be a close friend of the family and the godfather to the victim's children.  Then a second victim gets her throat cut; this time it's a young up-and-coming actress who also happens to be previous lover of Roarke's.  The influential standing of the victims make this case a major news story, spurred on by the opportunistic reporting of an unethical newscaster who tries to make Eve's investigation look bad.

Because the victims were both well-known females, Eve decides to us herself as bait, using her connections with a television station to promote herself.  This ploy fails horribly when a third victim, an assistant to the reporter Eve is working with, is murdered in a case of obvious mistaken identity.  Coincidences keep tying the family of the first victim to the murders, leading to a false confession and bad publicity for Eve.  But the murderer still has it out for Eve, leading to a final, knife-weilding climax in a darkened corner of Central Park.

Along the way, Eve's relationship to Rourke deepens despite the fact that both are highly independent and naturally suspicious people.  The two finally acknowledge their love for each other and now they must work out the boundaries and kinks of that romance.  It's no secret that the pair eventually marry -- most likely sometime over the course of the next few books, I presume.

Glory in Death is a sensual romantic and somewhat violent mystery.  The romance is sometimes sappy and a tad unbelievable, but is true to the nature of the characters, heightened  by the fantasy and power of Rourke's immense wealth.  A good blend of futuristic police procedure, criminal psychopathy, and smart characterization.  It's easy to see why all of the books in the series have been best-sellers.  I'm actually looking forward the third book in the series, Immortal in Death.

Nora Roberts (born 1950) is the author of over 225 novels of classic contemporary romance, romantic suspense, crime, and fantasy.  She is one of the most successful novelists in the world.  Since 1999 every one of her novels has been a New York Times bestseller -- over 220 of them, many debuting in the number one spot.  Her books have sold over 500 million copies globally.  Her books have won seven Golden Medallion awards, fifteen RITA Awards, three Quill Awards, one Romantic Times Reviewer Choice Award, and has won three times in the AAR (All About Romance) Annual Reader Poll.