FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE TERMINAL MAN

The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton  (1972; an abbreviated verson was first serialized in Playboy, March-May, 1972)

Harry Benson was a seemingly healthy person until he was involved in an automobile accident on the Santa Monica Freeway two years ago.  Unconscious for an uncertain amount of time, he was taken to a hospital, then released the following day.  Six months later he began to experience blackouts.  Tests showed seizure activity in the right temporal lobe of his brain, with a preliminary diagnosis of pychomotor epilepsy.  Harry was having "thought seizures," seizures of the mind and not the body, which led to violent acts, acts that Harry could not remember.  These seizures could theoretically be controlled with drugs and Harry began a series of drug trials.  But there appeared to be no improvement with the drug treatments and Harry's epilepsy was declared drug-resistant.  Several months ago, Harry severely assaulted a topless dancer while in a fugue sstate.  Doctors decided that Harry was eligible for a new, never-before-attempted surgical treatment -- implanting electrodes directly onto his brain that would short circuit his violent tendencies whenever they occurred.  Arrangements were made for the operation, although Harry was still technically awaiting arrangemnt on charges of assault and bettery.

One person who was leery about this plan was the hospital psychologist Janet Ross.  She found Harry to be a highly intelligent, sensitive man who worked as a computer scientist and was divorced with real friends. She learned that Harry was convinced that machines were conspiring to take over the world.  In Harry's private life he avoided many advanced machines, a strange behavioor for a computer scientist.  This should have raised a red flag, but the attending doctors paid no attention to Harry's private beliefs.

The operation was a success and the electrodes planted in his brain were monitored and controlled by a sophisticated computer.  The electrode themselves were charged by an implnated battery pack of nuclear material, carefully shield and impanted -- it was about the size of a cigarette pack -- under Harry's armpit.  If the nuclear pack were damaged it would not explode, but it would release lethal amounts of radiation.  When the computer indicated that Harry was about to have a seizure, it would trigger one of 42 electrodes to nullify the thought.  It felt pleasant to Harry whenever this happened -- perhaps too pleasant.  Indications were that Harry's seizures were happening about once every two hours.  Then they began happening more frequently.  In some way, Harry was able to trigger these seizure thoughts solely for the electrode rush of having them cancelled...

Then Harry escaped from his hospital room that was under police guard.  (Here. Crichton has devasting things to say about hospital security and staff.)  Harry's brain activity was increasing to the point where it would soon overload.  And Harry's violence was also increasing.  He murdered a woman and mutilated her body.  Police were unable to locate him, but soon learned that he planned a massive strike against technology, and a race against time began...

The Terminal Man is a cautionary tale about the unthinking and unintended use of cybernetics -- the merging of man and machine.  It is rooted in the world of medicine and technolgy of more than fifty years ago.  When published it read as more of a dire warning for its audience than for the modern reader of today.  Yet the novel's points are just as salient now as they were then -- with technology comes dangers and these danger should be acknowledged and reduced as much as possible.

The Terminal Man was Crichton's twelfth published novel and the second to appear under his own name, following the runaway success of The Andromeda Straic in 1969.

The book reads quickly despite the abundance of technical detail, yet underneath it all is a shallow plot, a sophomoric philosophy, and underdeveloped characters.  Whatever The Terminal Man was 53 years ago, it is a mnor entertainment today.  It just has not held up as well as many of Crichton's other works.

CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH! SONGS OF FREEDOM, FIRE AND UPLIFT

Despite the current administration, Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion are American traditions to be cherished, and there are few things that are more DEI than Juneteenth,  We don't need to come out in force in over 2100 American communities but we do need to stand up for history in the hopes that it will not repeat itself.

Here are a few things to listen to today, as suggested by WRTI, a classical and jazz radio station:

Donald Byrd, "Elijah," which evokes the sound of spirituals heard in Black churches across the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NPchdtfP0Q

Charles Mingus, "Fables of Faubus," a satiric composition directed at Governor Orville Faubus, who called on the National guard in 1957 to prevent integration at Little Rock Central High School.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2-iobVcdw

John Coltrane, "Alabama," composed in response to the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saN1BwlxJxA

Ursula Rucker, "L.O.V.E." -- a powerful poem.

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

Lionel Loueke, "Freedom Dance" 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=308425543469590

Max Roach's "We Insist!  Freedom Now Suite," with Abby Lincoln, Coleman Hawkins, and Michael Olatunji.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAzTCfZod4c

and, "We Insist! 2025," with Terri Lynn Carrington & Cjhristie Dasheill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwKS4r_geg8

And the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OkMUdi06bg&t=1s

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE PASSING OF BLACK EAGLE

 "The Passing of Black Eagle" by "O. Henry" (Willliam Sydney Porter) (first published in Ainslee's Magazine; reprinted many times, including in the author's collection Roads of Destiny, 1909;  Short Story Magazine [Australia] #11, 1945; The Second Reel West, edited by Bill Pronzinwith& Martin H. Greenberg. 1985; The Railroaders, edited by Bill Pronzini & Martin H. Greenberg, 1986; Best of the West II, edited by Bill Pronzini & Martin H. Greenberg, 1990; Sagebrush and Spurs:  Classic Western Stories, edited by Eric Tripp, 1992; and Stories of the Old West, edited by John Seelye, 2000, and is available to be read at numerous sites on the internet.  The story has also been filmed at least twice, first with the 1920 silent short The Passing of Black Eagle, directed by and starring Joe Ryan, then with 1948's Black Eagle, directed by Robert Gordon and starring William Bishop [the 1948 film disposed of most of the story's plot, changed the character's name, and added a murder mystery and a love interest]; the story was also adapted for the radio at least once -- for CBS Radio Mystery Theater, January 11, 1977)

Black Eagle..."For some months of a certain year a grim bandit infested the Texas border along the Rio Grande."  His frightening visage and his rough, loud voice terrorized the locals to the point that parents would warn their children to behave, else the Black Eagle would scoop them up with his horrible beak.  Then, as suddenly as he appeared, he vanished -- even his gang had no idea what had happened to him.

To understand the story, you would have to go back some months to St. louis and to an alcoholic hobo named Chicken Ruggles, so named because of his large bird-like nose and his fondness for chicken (whenever he could get it for free).  One cold afternoon, as winter was approaching, Chicken Ruggles spotted a young boy looking longingly at the window of a candy shop.  He also spotted the silver dollar that the lad held tightly in his fist.  The boy had been given the money by his mother to  buy some paragoric at the druggist (cost ten cents; the change was to be wrapped in papar, secured in the boy's pocket, and returned to the mother).  Chicken Ruggles had just one nickle to his name, as well as a gift for scamming.  He used the nickle he had to buy candy for the boy (chocolate creams were his favorite), and offered to accompany the lad to the pharmacy.  There, while the boy was gorging on candy, he used the silver dollar to buy the medicine, wrapped an overcoat button in paper, which he put in the boy's pocket, and saw him home, then left with the ninety cents change, which he converted to a bottle of very cheap liquor and a paper bag of bread and cheese.  Chicken Ruggles then hopped on an empty rail car, and made himself comfortable while the car began its travels south to Texas, where Chicken Ruggles expected to spend a warm winter season in San Antonio.

The journey took several days and Chicken Ruggles relaxed to enjoy the ride.  Perhaps he relaxed a bit too much, becasue when the train stopped in San Antonio, he was fast asleep, and remained so when the train pulled out and headed further south to Laredo.  When Chicken Ruggles woke up he found that his railroad car, along with two others, had been shunted to a lonely siding near a cattle pen and a chute, about one hundred miles from any town.  Chicken Ruggles had read a bit about Texas and he knew there were many dangerous and terrifying things therein -- "snakes, rats, brigands, centipedes, mirages, cowboys, fandangoes, tarantualas, tamales -- "  But then he heard the one thing he was not afraid of because he had been raised on a farm:  the whicker of a horse.  So he saddled up the horse and headed across the lonely prairie in search of a town, a farm, a house, a friendly face, shelter, or perhaps liquor, and failing that, food.

Eventually, he came across a small homestead. No one was about, but inside he found a goodly cache of liquor and some clean clothes...

Bud King ran a gang of cattle and horse thieves.  They weren't the worse gang to plague the area but they were active, often plundering small towns when there were no cattle or horses to steal.  One evening, up rode this strange fellow with a large beak, demanding loudly that he be fed.  The gang wasn't sure what to do about him, but in this part of the country, you always fed a stranger, even if you were going to shoot him later.  This stranger was loud and friendly and ate a lot and told all sorts of stories about his adventures and Bud King's gang took a liking to this bragging person.  They asked him to join them, which he did.  Chicken Ruggles was not a vicious person but his appearance was formidable.  With his roaring voice, he cowed his victims, and he soon became a legend.  The gang nicknamed hinm "Piggy," but the Mexicans in the area gave him a much beetter name -- Black Eagle.  After three months, the reputation of Bud King's gang (Bud was still the head of the gang, although the Black Eagle was the most feared member) was so great that the army was sent in to track them down.

Bud King decided that rather than risk a battle with the troops and certain injuries to his gang, they would cease operations temporarily.  This did not sit well with the gang, who wanted to continue their hell-raising ways.  Black Eagle began telling them that they were wasting their time stealing cattle and horses -- a labor and time-intensive activity -- when they could make far more money quicker by robbing trains.  The gang liked this idea and approached Bud King.  King agreed to stand aside and let Black Eagle take over the gang temporarily to see if the train robbing gambit would work.  Somehow a drunk Black Eagle devised a workable plan to rob a train.

But when it came time to rob the train, Chicken Ruggles noted it had an empty boxcar with ecelsior ("dry, springy, curly, soft, enticing") lining its floor.  Outside, a drizzle had turned to rain.  He made himself comfortable with his ever-present bottle as the train started up again, St. Louis bound, where the cold winter months were now over.  Meanwhile, the gang of would-be train robbers waited in vain for Black Eagle's signal to attack...

O. Henry, one of the most popular authors of the twentueth century, wrote over hundreds of  short stories, many of which -- "The Gift of the Magi," "The Ransom of Red Chief," "The Cop and the Anthem," "A Retrieced Reformation," The Duplicity of Hargreaves," and "The Caballero's Way" among them  --  are considered modern classics.  Along the way he gave us such enduring characteers as The Cisco Kid and Jimmy Valentine.  O. Henry's stories are noted for their deft characterization, witty narration, and surprise endings.

O. Henry died in 1910 and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina.  According to cemetery officials, since at least 1993, people had been leavin $1.87 in change on his grave -- $1.87 being the amnount of Delia's savings at the beginning of "The Gift of the Magi."  The money collected is then given to local libaries 

While not in the top tier of O. Henry stories, "The Passing of Black Eagle" is a charming, witty, and altogether engaging tale.

It would not be stetching things to say that all of  O. Henry's stories are worth reading.

OVERLOOKED OATER: THE PHANTOM EMPIRE (MOVIE SERIAL, 1935; FEATURE FILM, 1940)

Being of a certain age, it's hard for me to imagine that there are a lot of people who never enjoyed the wonders of the Mascot Pictures 1935 science fiction/western/musical serial The Phantom Empire, which featured Gene Autry's in his first starring role.  I can't claim to have seen this epic in the movie theaters (I'm not that old), Ibut I do remember watching it over and over anagain on our old black-and-white television.  Even then, I was not deterred from realizing how cheesy it was, but at the same time it sparked my imagination far more than, say, 1936's Flash Gordon.

It was directed by Otto Brower (The Santa Fe Trail, The Devil Horse, Dixie Dugan, and the army training film Sexual Hygiene) and B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason (King of the Wild, The Vanishing Legion, The Galloping Ghost).  The idea of the plot came from writer Wallace MacDonald (better known as an actor and producer; his writing credits include In Old Santa Fe, The Fighting Marines, and Hitch Hike Lady) when  he was under gas having a tooth extracted.  Other writers employed in the scripts included Gerald Geraghty, Hy Freedman, and Maurice Geraghty.

Gene Autry plays himself, running a dude "radio" ranch where produces a regular daily program.  His sidekicks are the youngsters Frankie Baxter (played by Franie Darro, at one time considered the best juvenile actor in Hollywood, but at 5 foot 3 inches, his ability as a leading actor was limited, and he switched to voice-over work) and his sister Betsy Baxter (14-year-old Betsy King Ross, a champion trick rider who in adult life became an anthropologist and author); both Darro and Ross did their own riding stunts for the serial.  Comic relief was provided by Smiley Burnette.

It just so happens that 25,000 under Autry's Radio Ranch was the hidden city of Murania, popuolated by the desendants of the lost tribe of Mu, who went undergoound 100,000 years before during the ice age.  Murania is an advanced city with towering futuristic buildings, advanced weapons (including ray-guns), an extensive elevated transportation system, television, and the cheesiest robots ever filmed.  Muranians have live underground for so long that they cannot breath surface air and must wear strange-looking helmets.  They regularly leave the city through a tunnel with a sliding door to the outside world -- I'm not sure why -- and ride their horses through the prairie, making a sound like thunder.  They are called Thunder Riders -- go figure.  Murania is run by the evil queen Tika (Dorothy Christie, (Sons of the Desert, Bright Eyes, The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine; most of her 109 IMDb credits were uncredited).  The bad guys on the surface are led by Professor Beetson (Frank Glendon, (The Texas Tornado, Sagebrush Troubadour, King of the Pecos).  Wheeler Oakman (Brenda Starr, Reporter, Hop Harrigan America's Ace of the Airways, Jack Armstrong) plays Lord Argo, who is plotting to overthrow Queen Tika.

This is one of those shows where you dang well better suspend your disbelief.

The first episode is thirty minutes,, while the remaining eleven episodes clock in at about twenty:

• Episode 1:  The Singing Clowboy
• Episode 2:  TheThunder Riders
• Episode 3:  The Lightning Chamber
• Episode 4:  Phantom Broadcast
• Episode 5:  Beneath the Earth
• Episode 6:  Disaster from the Skies
• Episode 7:  From Death to Life
• Episode 8:  Jaws of Jeopardy
• Episode 9:  Prisoners of the Ray
• Episode 10:  The Rebellion
• Episode 11:  A Queen in Chains
• Episode 12:  The End of Murania  

Needless to say, from the screening of the first episode, The Phantom Empire was a hit/

The link takes you to all twelve chapters:

https://archive.org/details/10PhantomEmpireChap10GeneAutry/1+Phantom+Empire+Chap+1+Gene+Autry.mp4

Then, in 1940, a feature film version of the serial, edited down to 69 minnutes was released.  It was pretty good, but did not have the cheesy fascination of the original.  Here's the link;

https://archive.org/details/The_Phantom_Empire_1935

 

NO BITS & NO PIECES

It happened again, dammit.  After spending more than eight hours composing today's post, Word decided to erase the whole damn thing and ask me if I needed help in writing.  No, I do not need any help in writing, thank you vert much.  Whoever included this function in Word deserves every torture of the damned.  Of course I was unable to recover what I had written, including a heart-felt homage to my father for Fathers Day, a mega-list of Incoming, a look at the writings of Philip Jose Farmer, some nasty jabs at Taco Don, a praise for Pensacola's Graffiti Bridge,  a cute Disney cartoon from 1956, and some old-fashioned country fiddling; I had not yet gotten to the antics of Florida Man or this week's poem.

**sigh**

Maybe next week.

HYMN TIME

 For Father's Day I thought I would focus on my father's favorite singer, Jim Reeves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhuAXAJCpA0

LIFE OF AUNT JEMIMA: THE MOST FAMOUS COLORED WOMAN IN THE WORLD (circa 1895)

Times were different back then and it may be well to check your modern sensitivities at the door.  

Our story begins before the Civil War, when happy, docile, uneducateed "P" words lived throughout the South in small cabins on plantations.  One such "P" word was Jemima.  "As a little ["P" word] she chased the butterflies in the field, and found a new happiness in the dawn of each coming day...[She] soon grew to be a bright young girl, untutored in the ways of worldly knowledge, buyt wise in the laws and limitations of Nature.  Health was her guide.  None knew its value better.  To her, happiness meant perfect health, and perfect cooking and infallible prescription that cured all ills."

According to this ;promotional booklet about the life of a fictional corporate mascot. at an early age Aunt Jemima was noted as a cook -- unsurpassed in the preparation of certain dishes which she prepared in a manner that showed a surprising knowledge of the properties and possiblities of their wholesome ingredients.  This resulted in the discopvry that "the three great cereals -- wheat, corn and rice -- could be so combined in pancakes that the beneficial propertiees and flavor of each could be retained."  Soon, Aunt Jemima's pancales "became a celebrity in that neighborhood."  Soon she brought her culinary skills to the Governor's Mansion, as the main house on the plantation was known, and cooked "for the most famous people of this continent and Europe."  Evidently they liked her pancakes.

Soon came the Civil War, and Aunt Jemima returned to her lowly cabin, and, "at the close of the war., when those gallant men, harassed and pursued, surrounded on all sides by the Union troops, deprived of almost the necessitiees of life, found in Aunt Jemima -- an ex-slave -- a friend indeed."  I remain amazed that her pancakes did not turn the tide of the war and that "Dixie" is not our national anthem.

Following the war, when the steamship "Robert E. Lee" passed near her canbin, ome of the passengers -- a noted ex-Confederate general, extolled Jemima's pancakes to such an extent that a group of people travelled to her cabin, where "they were welcomed with all the courtesy of the ante-bellam ["D' word]."  One of those people was a representative of the R. T. Davis Mill Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, who wentt away with a solid appreciation of Aunt Jemima's pancakes.  Aunt Jemima began selling her ancake mix locally until, in 1866, Aunt Jemima's Pancake Flour recipe was solt to the R. T. Davis Mill Company for a surprisingly large amount of money.  One of thee stipul;ations of the sale was that "the money should be paid in Gold, as Aunt Jemima and her father and mother...could not understand why united States bank notes were any better than Confedrate money, which they knew, to their sorrow, was worth very little after the war was over."  Ah, the innocence of those uneducated "P" words and "D" words!  Another stipoulation was that the R. T. Davis company employ Aunt Jemima sho that she could ensure the high quality of her flour could be maintained.  "She is now considered the most valued employee of the firm."

In 1890, the firm produced fives cases of flour a day; in 1895, that amount rose to ten carloads a day, with 36 packages to a case and 300 cases to a car.  With the equivalent of 60 pancakes to a package, that amounts to 6,480,000 pancakes, or a breakfast for 2,160,000 people!

A pretty nifty success story for a wholly imaginary and racially-inspired "P' word!

You've comea long way, baby!

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96827&comicpage=&b=i