ISAIAH

We are battening down the hatches in preparation for Hurricane Isaiah to land here tomorrow.  Everything has been moved indoors; I have all the potted plants from the front yard in my bedroom; Christina and Walt have the front porch swing in theirs.  Plywood has been placed over all the windows.  Cars have full tanks of gas.  Gallons and gallons of water have been set aside and we have plenty of pet food.  We are ready, and praying that the storm will be a big nothing burger.

It's at a Cat 2 now and, depending on which news source you go to, may increase to a Cat 3 or shrink to a Cat 1.  [UPDATE:  As of 7:45 Friday morning it is now a Cat 3.]  Thank you, Donald Trump, for slashing the budget of NOAA.  Also, it appears that the center of the storm will be in the middle of out driveway.  A three- to five- to seven- to nine-foot storm surge, again depending on who you listen to.  Winds from 85 to over 110 mph, who knows?  The Three-Mile Bridge over Pensacola Bay will be closed once winds hit 35 mph.  [UPDATE:  the bridge was closed early Friday afternoon.]  School has been cancelled for the past two days.  Christina will be working at the police station on 12-hour shifts through the weekend (there appears there will be a problem in getting overtime for the storm); she packed a cot and sleeping bag in her car on the way in today.  Local police shifts are teaming up, but once the storm hits a certain size, they will not be responding immediately to emergencies; anyone kin trouble will have wo wait until it is safe for the police to respond.  The rumors at the police station are that ALL Waffle Houses in the area will be closed, so you know it's going to be bad.  [UPDATE:  1:37 pm Friday:  they have officially closed the local Waffle House.]  Amy, who works in the County traffic department. is expected to work from 7 to 7 over the next three days, doing technician and admin work not in her job description.  Kaylee and Ivory, who work at the County jail are expected to report in early so a shift can leave early; whether they will be able to leave when their shift is over is up in the air.  Okaloosa County has declared a mandatory evacuation, but Mark, who works at the Gulfarium on Okaloosa Island directly on the shore of the Gulf, can't evacuate because he is one of the few guys tagged to remain at the Gulfarium during the hurricane to keep an eye on the animals -- so we are concerned about his safety.  Casey's, a local chain gas station, has had several of its location run out of gasoline.  Walmart is out of both bottled water and Chef Boyardee.

Evacuation orders for many parts of Escambia County (Pensacola) and Santa Rosa County (us) went into effect this noontime.  [UPDATE:  The evacuation order for Santa Rosa County has been expanded to include "Zone C."  Christina checked the map before heading into work three hours early and "Zone C" literally ends JUST ONE HOUSE before ours.]

And Jim Cantore is having a jolly fine time reporting from Pensacola Beach.

It's going to be an interesting time.

See you on the other side.

BBC RADIO 4's SATURDAY NIGHT THEATRE: CHARLIE MUFFIN (JULY 5, 1986)

Brian Freemantle's Charlie Muffin, who appeared in sixteen novels over a forty-year period,  has been called on of the most underrated characters in spy fiction.  That should not stand!  "Most Muffin books follow a 'heist' story pattern.  Muffin has a mission, it appears he doesn't know what's going on, typically with higher ups plotting against him, until at the end it's revealed that he's figured out a way to flip the entire situation on its head while pulling one over on his betters,"  [Jeff @ Spywrite.com]  the books are fast, breezy, and entertaining, with the first in the series, Charlie Muffin (U.S. title Charlie M.), being consider a classic of the genre.  It was filmed in 1979 as Charlie Muffin (U.S. title A Deadly Game) by Jack Gold, with David Hemmings as Muffin, and featuring Ian Richardson, Sam Wanamaker, Clive Revill, and Sir Ralph Richardson.

The book was adapted for radio and appeared on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Night Theatre on July 5, 1986, with Philip Jackson (perhaps best recognized as Poirot's Inspector Japp) in the title role.  Also featured were Sandor Eles, Peter Howell, David Learner, Andrew Branch, Stephen Rashbrook, Peter Wood thorpe, Marcia King, Manning Wilson, Barrie Cookson, Don Fellows, John Church, Richard Durden, and Jennifer Piercey.  Directed by Matthew Waters.

Charlie's own Department is out to get him, but so is the KGB.  But Charlie Muffin is a survivor and he's determined to come out of it alive and rich.

Enjoy.

https://archive.org/details/brian-freemantle-charlie-muffin

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: ARREST

"Arrest" by Donald E. Westlake (from Manhunt, January 1958; reprinted in Giant Manhunt, 1958; in Opening Shots, edited by Lawrence Block, 2000; and in The Best of Manhunt 2, edited by Jeff Vorzimmer, 2020)

Let's face it, first published stories are not necessarily good stories; they are the ones, usually, that finally made it across and editor's desk and happened to fill a need that may or may not have required good writing.  As a rule, first stories are passable fiction.

Donald E. Westlake's "Arrest" was actually his third published story, but it was his first published crime story; it followed a brief six-page science fiction story published two years earlier and another brief sory in the early men's magazine Rogue in 1957.  At the time Westlake was working for famed (or, perhaps, infamous) literary agent Scott Meredith while at the same time submitting his own stories to Meredith.  One of the stories finally hit and was accepted for Manhunt, the hardboiled crime digest secretly edited by Meredith under another name; Manhunt, it turns out, was a virtual closed shop for Meredith's clients, although it would occasionally range further (and pay a bit  more more money) to get "big-name" writers to promote on its covers.  (Meredith was noted for being penny-pinching, the literary agent equivalent of Hugo Gernsback, perhaps.)

William Winthrop, 24, comes home to his apartment, gets a gun from the bureau drawer and puts it to his head.  He can't pull the trigger.  He throws the gun at a mirror, breaking it, has a few drinks, smokes a few cigarettes, then dresses in a conservative gray suit.  And waits.  Soon the police arrive.  He calls a friend -- a lawyer -- who says he wants nothing to do with him.  He offers the cop a drink, which is refused, and then they head off together to where he will be booked for his mother's murder.

A mood piece, nothing special, but fairly evocative.  Even with this rude beginning, there are hints of Westlake's future talent,

Westlake, of course, would go on to become one of the most honored and respected mystery writers of the last half of the twentieth century, the creator of violent thief Parker and of bumbling thief John Dortmunder -- both highly popular and influential characters.  He was a three-time Edgar winner, one of the few to win in three different categories -- best novel, best short story, and best motion picture screenplay.  He was named a MWA Grand Master in 1993.  All of his books are highly recommended.

OVERLOOKED FILM: THANK YOU, JEEVES! (1936)

If you are a P. G. Wodehouse purist you might not fully appreciate this adaptation of the master's 1934 novel -- actually, the very first full-length novel following a successful series of short stories.

Bertie Wooster is here and Jeeves is here and the book title is here, but that's about it.  The plot and characters have been changed almost unrecognizably.  In the  novel, Sir Roderick Glossip, the famous nerve specialist, hopes to marry the aunt of Bertie's friend Lord "Chuffy" Chuffnell, while Chuffy has fallen in love with one of Bertie's ex-fiances, Pauline Stoker, whose father Chuffy hopes to sell his falling-down manor.  Bertie, eager to please his old pal, plans to make Chuffy so jealous that he will propose to Pauline.  Things get out of hand, everyone displays their stupidity, and Jeeves is left to sort out the mess.

For the film, say goodbye to Chuffy, his aunt, Roderick Glossip, Pauline and her father.

From IMDb:  "Erudite manservant Jeeves hopes to keep his frivolous employer Bertie out of new harrowing adventures, but a damsel in distress, carrying half of some mysterious plans, intrudes on their London flat one rainy night.  Bertie follows her to the country hotel Mooring Manor, prepared to do slapstick battle with crooks posing as Scotland Yard men."  

Featuring David Niven as Bertie, Arthur Treacher as Jeeves, and Virginia Field as the mysterious woman.  Buried down in the cast is Willie Best as Drowsy, a hitchhiking saxophonist who helps them catch the crooks.  

Niven makes a good Bertie and Treacher made his bones playing Hollywood's idea of the perfect butler in the 1930s.  Treacher went on to lend his name to the fast food franchise Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips, beginning in 1969; it had 826 stores in the 1970s, but has dwindled down to just four stand-alone stores in northeastern Ohio today.  Sic transit gloria mundi.  Wodehouse, BTW, did not care for Treacher's performance"  "Awful. The supercilious ,manner of his is all wrong for Jeeves."   Complaining about the film adaptation, Wodehouse said, "They didn't use a word of my story, substituting another written by some studio hack."

That studio hack was actually two people, Joseph Hoffman (The Officer and the Lady, Against All Flags, Has Anybody Seen My Gal) and Stephen Gross (his only screenplay).  Directed  by Arthur Greville Collins (Paradise Isle, Seven Little Australians, Strong Is the Seed).  

Despite the butchery to the source material, Thank You, Jeeves! can be a pleasant and amusing way to spend your 57 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7yk3lSER9I&t=6s

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS, MRS. MILLER AND BILLY LEE RILEY!

October 5th was a monumental day in current culture.  On this day in 1921, the World Series (the New York Giants vs. the New York Yankees, with the Giants taking the series five games to three in a nest of nine contest)was broadcast on radio for the first time; in 1947, President Harry Truman made the first televised Oval Office address; in 1962, the first of the James Bond film series, Dr. No, had its premiere; on the same day in 1962, the Beatles released their first single, "Love Me Do"; and in 1982, Tylenol recalled products in Chicago after seven people who shown to have died from bottles tampered with cyanide, leading to stricter nation-wide safety packaging.

October 5 was also the birthday of both Larry Fine of The Three Stooges and Roy Kroc of McDonald's in 1902; Bil Keane of The Family Circus in 1922; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steve Miller in 1943; and British authors Peter Ackroyd (1949) and Clive Barker (1952).

But a couple of musical Libras may have flown under your radar.  But, fear not, I am here to correct that possible oversight.

I hesitate to call Elva Ruby Miller (1907-1997) musical, but she did have an astonishing career as a novelty singer in the 1960s.  She was a poorly trained mezzo-soprano with a torturous vibrato and a willingness to ignore both standard pitch and tempo.  Think three stray cats, a lovesick peacock, and a dyspeptic screech owl being forced through a meat grinder at the same time.  At age twenty-seven, she began studying music and voice at Pomona College, eventually recording several self-financed projects, while describing singing as a hobby.  In 1960, radio disc jockey Gary Owens featured her on his program, which led to music arranger Fred Bock encouraging her to perform contemporary popular songs.  She was signed to Capitol Records in 1965, which promoted her amateurish style.  During recording sessions, she was often ahead of or behind the beat; she complained that the studio released the worst of her takes.  Her first album, Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits (1966) sold 250,000 copies ion its first three weeks.  She was a frequent guest on talk shows, inclulding The Merv Griffith Show, where I would occasionally watch her.

"Downtown"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw07CDid0JM

"Green Tambourine"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBmR1skSQKg

"A Hard Day's Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2wheSpxL94

"These Boots Are Made for Walkin' "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgoGq6PTXZ4

"Strangers in the Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV0MtVWIN8Y

"A Lover's Concerto"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqlX88H4_Cg

Billy Lee Riley (1933-2009) was signed  by Sam Phillips for Sun Records in 1955, but was unhappy when Phillips kept diverting to promote Jerry Lee Lewis's career instead of his.  As with many other artists on Sun Records, chart success eluded him.  His talent far outshone his recording success, although he was a strong influence on following artists.  One of the great rockabilly artists

"Red Hot"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxt_7sD9znM

"Flyin' Saucer rock and Roll"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxt_7sD9znM

"Speed Lovers" the title song from a bottom of the barrel 1966 stock car racing flick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOP2WqNqD8c

"Rock with Me Baby"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhvbHH9ah58

"Baby Please Don't go"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btt6-naL9XU

"Trouble Bound"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv5ZJ8LP5M0

"Open the Door Richard"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-7cmbcRlHk&list=PLAA2DD72376EBE0EC&index=18

"I Hear You Knockin' "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQYo7QWQN0&list=PLAA2DD72376EBE0EC&index=21

"Mountain of Love"  NOT by Billy Lee Riley, but he and Roland James produced this hit on their Rita Records for Harold Dorman; Riley can be heard here on bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y72SaV8al5k

HYMN TIME

The Carter Family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrIM9U4mfpY

MAXIMO THE AMAZING SUPERMAN (1940)

 "The hero of this story, Maximo Miller, is a new kind of superman.  He is gifted with a superbrain which he learns how to use to do things which no other man can do.  And that is what makes the tale."

Writer Russell R. Winterbotham (1904-1971), who also penned mysteries as "J. Harvey Bond", is perhaps best known for his western and science fiction stories, although for a period in the forties he wrote some sixty Big Little Books -- including three about Maximo.  Big Little Books were a popular juvenile series of cheaply made novels, measuring about 3 5/8 inches wide, 4 1/2 inches high, and were about one  inch thick, and featured text on the left hand page and a line drawing illustration on the right.  Issued by Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, they typically featured popular comic strip, radio, television, or movie heroes, and were sold for dime (later 15 cents) through such retail outlets as Woolworth's.  The first Big Little Book -- The Adventures of Dick Tracy -- went on sale in December 1932; the series. with a later name change to Better Little Books, continued into the 1960s; more than 1300 titles were published. with some 508 core titles issued between 1932 and 1949 by Whitman.  The Big Little Books were quick, easy reading, well-suited to their core audience.  Topday, they are very popular in the collector's market.

As Maximo watches a speeding roadster approach a railroad intersection, he knows the young female driver does not see the approaching train.  A fatal crash seems imminent, but then:

"Some powerful new force surged through his muscles, seeming to leap from his body toward the speeding motor car.

"The young man's nerves tingled as if some unseen magnetic force were whipping energy through the ir around him."

Then, by golly, the car rises through the air and avoids the on-rushing train.  The girl is saved, and Maximo is left wondering exactly what happened.  The girl, Ella Arvid, is the daughter of a professor at Curfman College.  she said, "He'd be greatly interested in what you did just now.  You see he's a physicist and he has always said that science has never been able to plumb the depths of human brain power."

So off they go to plumb the depths of Maximo's brain power.  Along the way they meet danger, a vicious gang, and spies out to do dirt to America.

Not great literature perhaps, but a serviceable story to entertain a young kid in the 1940s -- and perhaps to also entertain you.  Let's see.  All three Maximo books are available online at Comic Book Plus; here's the link to the first:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102552