Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Thursday, November 30, 2017

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: JIM KWESKIN AND THE JUG BAND

A popular group at Jim Rooney's Club 47 in Harvard Square (in the days when men were men , music was music, and Maria Muldaur wore really short skirts) was Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band.  Kweskin was joined by Fritz Richmond (who actually turned a quonset hut into a musical instrument when he was in the army), Geoff Muldaur, Muldaur's wife Maria (yes, those skirts were really that short), Mel Lyman (a very unhinged man),Bill Keith,  and others who shuffled in and out of the group.  

Good, knee-thumpin' music.

Jug Band Music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFqBD-FTPt0

Ukelele Lady:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94A4lNuaPhk

The Sheik of Araby:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytUL1ZdXOoE

The Circus Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUiT4t0j5yg

Boodle Am Shake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_42Zn4dfYoo

Shrisotpher Columbus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlS4YZIKTj8

When I Was a Cowboy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y6S-u42Oco

My Gal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfDUFw20ycQ

Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arSIlfNLS8A

Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave to Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYzI6lRYuag

Rag Mama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnFG7ssfeoU

K.C. Moan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r-le5F7JUc

Washington at Valley Forge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4eCzn1v080

Borneo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w20mtFCNwzo

I'm a Woman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17R9UP-4tpk

Storybook Ball:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiUEZOpvHRQ



MUSIC FROM THE PAST: SWEET SIXTEEN

This one is not dedicated to Judge Roy Moore.


Here's B. B. King and "Lucille."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgy5ph33BRE

OLD-TIME RADIO: THE SINGING WALLS

From Suspense, September 2, 1943, an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story starring Preston Foster and Dane Clark.

Enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XlS8bbP6Bk&list=PLJm2etPj4-MZe448obwCpovv_3oi2qod4&index=92

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: NEVER BEEN TO SPAIN.

Three Dog Noight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm6qw_yeo6o

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

A man ran into a dentist's office in a panic.  "You've got to help me, Doc!  I think I'm turning into a moth!"

The dentist said, "I think you really need a psychiatrist's office.  This is s dental clinic."

The man said, "Yeah, but your light was on."

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: STARS FELL ON ALABAMA

Billie Holiday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibV3tCDvd8

OVERLOOKED FILM: $50,000 REWARD

How about a silent oater?  This rare 1925 films stars the great Ken Maynard and Tarzan ("Ken Maynard's pal"), along with "Six Famous Beauties" -- Olive Trevor, Fern Lorraine, Katherine DeForrest, Edith (Edythe) Flynn, Grace Fay, and Nancy Zann.  Mix's love interest is played by Esther Ralston, who had just come off her role as Mrs. Darling in 1924's Peter Pan and would soon be billed by Florenz Zeigfield as "The American Venus."

Claims that the dam under construction in the film was the Saint Francis Dam, which failed a few years later, are questionable.  The dam was most likely the Mulholland Dam, which still stands.

This YouTube clip has been specially restored from the original 52-minute film and logs in at about ten minutes.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyU8nHf66Sc

Monday, November 27, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: JUST MY IMAGINATION

The Temptations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNn361umypM

NO INCOMING, BUT THERE ARE NAZIS

There is no Incoming today so let me fill up this space telling you about a movie I saw last night on Hulu.

Iron Sky (2012) is a nifty little Finnish/German/Australian B-movie about Nazis on the moon.  While this is not a unique idea it has its fringe believers out here in the real world -- perhaps even as many as those who are flat earth believers.  So it's no wonder that there's (at least one) Nazis on the moon movie.

In the waning years of World War II, Germany secretly flew members of its space program to the dark side of the moon where they have been laying in wait for more than seventy years...waiting for the time when they could invade Earth and establish the fourth Reich.

Meanwhile, back on the big blue marble, the President of the United States (Stephanie Paul) is facing certain defeat in her reelection.  Except for her Southern accent, the Prez is a Sarah Palin clone:  fairly incompetent, self-centered, and naturally Republican.  Vivian Wagner (Peta Sergeant) is the President's PR person and is even more grasping than her boss; Vivian hatches a publicity stunt that should propel the President in the polls:  send some Americans to the moon.  This idea may actually work since it has been fifty year since anyone went to the moon and, to get the most oomph out of the stunt, one of the two-man crew will be black!  But who to send?  They settle on James Washington (Christopher Kirby), a male model whose only qualifications are that he is good-looking and black.  (It doesn't hurt that their secret mission is to find Helium-3, an element that could make America energy-free for millenia.)

Off they go, landing on the dark side of the moon and, as they land, banners are unfurled on the side of the ship with the President's image and her election catch-phrase, "Yes She Can."  The two astronauts immediate stumble on the secret Nazi base hidden in a crater, complete with huge towers filled with Helium-3, flying saucers, jack-booted Nazis, and a huge schloss shaped like a swastika.  In true movie fashion, the first one to die is the black white astronaut.  Washington is captured by Klaus Adler (Gotz Otto) and brought to Nazi headquarters to face soon-to-be-deposed (Adler has ambitions, you see) Moon-Feuhrer Wolfgang Kortzfleisch (Udo Klier).  When the astronaut's helmet is removed, the Nazis see their first black man ever.

Well, the Nazis can't have that!  So head mad scientist Doktor Richter (Tilo Pruckner) concocts a potion that turns Washington into a white man.  Since he is now white, the Nazis presume that he is now a full-fledged Nazi.  Since the Nazi moonbase is essentially deisel-punk heaven, their secret weapon -- the Gotterdammerung, the largest war machine ever -- is a HUGE mass of cogs, wheels, and chains.  Sadly for the Germans, their large walls of computers do not have enough power to lift the Gotterdammerung off the moon.  Washington happens to have a cell phone on him, which happens to have a thousand times more computing power than the Nazis have.  Again sadly for the Germans, when the cell phone is hooked into the German computers the Gotterdammerung begins to rise, but only for a second because the cell phone's battery died.  Adler decides to take a flying saucer to Earth so Washington can locate some cell phones to be taken back to the moon so the invasion can start.

Washington escapes, but no one listens to a former black man's warning about Nazis on the moon.  Adler meanwhile has ingratiated himself with the President and her PR maven Vivian.  Adler steers the President's campaign to embracing the Nazi philosophy (without mentioning the word Nazi, may I add); and the country and the campaign steer far to the right.  At the same time, tired of waiting for a supply of cell phones, the Moon-Feuhrer launches and attack on Earth, using space zeppelins towing meteors instead of the still dormant Gotterdammerung.  Even though the nations of Earth vowed not to militarize their space programs, every country except Finland has done so.  Enter epic space battle.

Back on the moon, Adler tries to get the Gotterdammerung aloft and Washington tries to stop him.  I wonder how that will work out?

Oh.  And Washington finds an anti-white serum that turns him back to a black man and he hooks up with the beautiful, blonde, moon-Nazi elementary school teacher Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), the daughter of the mad had scientist.

This brief description doesn't do the film justice.  It is funny, full of outrageous ideas and deadpan humor.  It is prophetic, showing how easy it is for a populace to turn to the far right.  It is visually interesting, with outstanding CGI depicting the deisel-punk sensibilities behind the Nazi war machine.  It is topical, with its playful approach to race and politics.  Iron Sky is certainly not a great movie, but it is a fun one.

A sequel is planned for 2018.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

THE SAVAGE LION

Two hundred ninety-nine years ago on (perhaps) this day, the first African lion in America went on exhibit at the home of Captain Arthur Savage on Brattle Street in Boston.  I have no idea why Savage, a sea captain, had a lion or where he had gotten it but there it was.  It would be five more years before another exotic animal, this time a camel, was exhibited in America.

About that date.  November 26 is the date most sources agree this event happened.  So why is the Boston News-Letter advertisement about the exhibit dated March 31, 1718?  Hmm.

Also, apologies for the title pun of this post.

Read about it here:

http://oldnorth.com/2016/09/26/this-old-pew-23-and-38-captain-arthur-savage-the-first-lion-in-america/

HYMN TIME

Marty Robbins, with a classic cowboy gospel song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e22cEMXganQ

Saturday, November 25, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: THE GARDEN IS OPEN

In the late Sixties you would have to work really hard to find a group more counter-culture than The Fugs.  This song is from 1968 and is one of the few that I feel comfortable posting here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C9omgNzAAU

BUZ SAWYER #1 (JUNE 1948)

As a fourteen-year-old boy in Sweetwater, Texas, Roy Crane's future career became obvious when he took a correspondence course in cartooning from Charles N. Landon. At nineteen, he studied briefly at Chicago's Academy of Fine Arts and then spent some time at sea and riding the rails before landing a newspaper cartooning job at the New York World when he was twenty-one.  Crane was twenty-three in 1924 when he began a humorous comic strip -- Wash Tubbs -- which soon took grocery store employee Washington Tubbs II hunting for treasure in the South Pacific.  Wash Tubbs soon morphed into an pioneering adventure strip and, with the addition of the character Captain Easy ( a soldier of fortune with a mysterious past) in 1929, comic strip history was made.  Tubbs was eventually relagated to a minor character and the strip officially changed its name to Captain Easy in 1949 and ran until 1988.  Crane left the popular pair behind in 1943 to start a new adventure strip, Buz Sawyer, which ran until 1989 -- a dozen years after Crane's death, although the panel was signed by Crane until 1979.

John Singer Sawyer, better known as "Buz," was a young Navy pilot during World War II.  The air ace and his sidekick Rosco Sweeney had many exciting adventures in the exotic areas of the Pacific, but when the war ended Buz returned home to civilian life after a special peacetime mission, only to find life has changed.  The girl he's sweet on is now at university, another girl has moved to New York, a younger crowd has taken over the old hangout, people he knew have moved on, and life is boring, boring, boring.  Buz moved to New York in search of a job, finally landing one as a trouble-shooter for an international oil company.

Buz Sawyer #1 reprints some of the strips from 1945 and 1946, when Buz was a civilian and before he found the job with the oil company.  During this interregnum, there were still adventures to be had.  Buz meets up once again with two women from his past:  old girlfriend Tot Winters, now engaged to opera singer Count Franco Confetti, and Sultry, the Maharani of Batu, who has ong held a torch for Buz.  Added to the mix is Skagg, sultry's thuggish assistant, and Taboo, Sulty's pet tiger.  And, of course, Buz is reunited with Sweeny, as well as with old friend Chili Harrison.

Buz finds himself arrested for murder, which culminates in a life or death battle on an ocean-going yacht.  Who said civilian life was easy?

Enjoy.

http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=70067

Friday, November 24, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: DOWN AT MARY'S OLD-TIME BAR

For those who think Rod McKuen could not record and entertaining, non-schmaltzy song, I offer this in proof.

"I know a man who married a dump truck'...I have hummed that line for years.


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

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE SHORT LIFE AND HAPPY TIMES OF THE SCHMOO

The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo by All Capp (2002)


I have some vague memories of Al Capp appearing on Boston television in the 1960s, where he struck me as a bitter, old, one-legged man.  This was a time when the cartoonist was getting more and more acerbic and when stories of his sexual misconduct were beginning to rise.  But Capp was a man of contrasts:  even during his time as a right-wing iconoclast, Capp remained a strong and generous supporter of a number of liberal causes.  No matter what sort of person Capp had become in his later life, he remained the genius who helped shape American culture in the mid-twentieth century -- this he did through his brilliant comic strip L'il Abner.

Abner Yokum, a simple, muscle-bound innocent, along with the other denizens of Dogpatch, Kentucky, captured the hearts and imaginations of America from 1934 to the nineteen seventies.  Abner, Daisie Mae, Mammy and Pappy Yokum, Marryin' Sam, the hapless Joe Btfsplk (whose name, according to Capp, was pronounced by blowing a raspberry), and others were welcome guests in homes throughout the world -- even Queen Elizabeth was a fan.  Capp and Li'l Abner also gave two more wonderful characters:  the Dick Tracy lookalike fearless Fosdick (one of my favs) and the incredible Shmoo.  Of those two, the Shmoo (plural, Shmoon or Shmoos) was certainly the most popular. 

From Wikipedia:

"Schmoo dolls, clocks, watches, jewelry, earmuffs, wallpaper, fishing lures, air fresheners, soap, ice cream, balloons, ash trays, toys, games, Halloween masks, salt and pepper shakers, decals, pinbacks, tumblers, coin banks, greeting cards, planters, neckties, suspenders, belts, curtains, fountain pens and other shmoo paraphernalia...Close to a hundred licensed shmoo products from 75 different manufacturers were produced in less than one years, some of which sold five million units each."

In 1949, the Shmoo replaced Mickey Mouse as the face of Children;'s Savings Bonds, backed by a $16 million advertising campaign.

The have been Shmoo books and comic books, Shmoo-themed records, and animated television shows (including Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo).

So who/what are the Shmoo/Shmoon?  The Shmoo is a fast-breeding animal that looks a bit like a bowling pin (or, perhaps, male genetalia; potato, potahto).  They are happy, cheerful critters who exist only to make people happy.  They require only air.  And they are a perfect food source.  They lay eggs, bottles of milk, butter; when cooked they can taste like chicken, steak, pork, or catfish, depending on how the are cooked; raw they taste like raw oysters on the shell.  Their pelts make perfect leather or house timbers (depending on how thick you cut them).  Their whiskers make wonderful toothpicks and their eyes can be used as suspender buttons.  They have no bones so 100% of the Shmoo can be used; there is no waste.  If a Shmoo senses that you are are hungry, they happily drop dead so you can eat them.

I wonder what PETA thinks of the Shmoo?

Capp claimed there was no hidden message behind the Shmoo, but many have felt it was a stinging jab on capitalism; others felt it was a swipe at socialism.  For millions of readers, it didn't matter; after the first story arc with the Shmoo appeared, L'il Abner's circulation doubled.

The original sequence was published in 1948 as The Life and Times of the Shmoo sold 700,000 copies that year alone.  The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo includes both the original story and its sequel, "the Return of the Shmoo."  As a bonus, there's an introduction/appreciation from Harlan Ellison that is worth the price of the book in itself.

Li'l Abner happens to stumble on the Valley of the Shmoon, where he is warned that the Shmoo is the "greatest menace to mankind that's ever existed."  There are billions of them in the valley, and more are born every second.  These cute creatures take a shine to Abner and follow him back to Dogpatch, where Abner gives the quickly-multiplying animals to every family in Dogpatch.  The Shmoo provide for every need.  Now no one needs to buy food any longer and, thus, do not need to work.  As the Shmoos spread throughout the country, America's economy tanks.  While some businessmen see this as an opportunity, others -- including J. Roaringham Fatback -- are determined to solve the crisis.  D. D. Teasdale, professional pest exterminator, is hired to eliminate the Shmoon.  Teasdale's ace employee, Dan'l Shmoone, who with his Shmooicide Squad, is dispatched to Dogpatch, where the Shmooicide Squad (the SS?) riddle the animals with Fosdick-like bullet holes.

Li'l Abner, however, has managed to save two Shmoon.  He thinks they are both males but Daisie Mae informs him the one is a female Abner is a simple-minded soul).  She wants the Shmoos to marry and have billions of little Shmoos.  Abner, long a proponent of bachelorhood, is opposed.  Daisie Mae and the female Shmoo have their chance at the upcoming Sadie Hawkins Day race.  To complicate things, The Wolf Girl makes a surprise appearance, hoping to land Abner for herself.

The Shmoo go back to their isolated valley.  Abner remains a bachelor for the time being.  Eventually he does marry Daisie Mae and they have a son, Honest Abe.  The Shmoo have long been forgotten but one day Honest Abe finds one and soon there's another national Shmoo emergency.  Nothing the government and the army does can stop the Shmoon, so it's up to Abner to save the day.  He does, but there's always the possibility that the Shmoo might return...

(They don't, at least in the comic strip.)

Broad humor, subtle humor, marvelous artwork, and a deus ex Yokum combine to make this book a true delight.

Thursday, November 23, 2017

CORNUCOPIA


  • How Jon Stewart celebrated Thanksgiving:
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/jon_stewart_169431
  • Here's a little bit of history from Stan Freberg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88ixyp1l1hw
  • And no thanksgiving can be complete without this clip from WKRP in Cincinnatti:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3mgmEdfwg
  • Unlike many, I like Brussel sprouts.  Like many, I like bacon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hhQ-ax5rCY
  • To show you how to cook a turkey, here's the Swedish chef (with an assist from Danny Kaye):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvuh-5tHYNc
  • For some, Thanksgiving can be a bit disturbing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXpEcuBvZ-w
  • For our Thursday old-time radio selection, here's the Thanksgiving program from The Burns and Allen Show, November 18, 1940  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD-fRfbHrAQ
  • In yesterday's "Something Is going To Happen," the EQMM blog, editor Janet Hutchings reprints Edward D. Hoch's "The Thanksgiving Chicken" from the mid-December 1995 issue of EQMM
https://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/2017/11/22/the-thanksgiving-chicken-by-edward-d-hoch/
  • A couple of songs from John McCutcheon.  First, "Thanksgiving Day," then "Calling All the Children Home," which was inspired by the way McCutcheon's mother would call him and his siblings to dinner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqxZz9o8kXk&list=PLBwAsTkfxLIQqJ_c9v-xh3T9tNhP8DS2T&pbjreload=10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ia4q-pGNnA
  • William Bell Scott's poem "End of Harvest," with eight different narrators -- take your pick:
https://archive.org/details/endofharvest_1411.poem_librivox
  • And Ernest Vincent Wright's poem "When Father Carves the Duck," this time with eleven different readers to choose from.
https://archive.org/details/when_father_carves_the_duck_1612.poem_librivox
  • Ten comic strips with their take on the holiday:
https://archive.org/details/when_father_carves_the_duck_1612.poem_librivox
  • Irish people taste test Thanksgiving food:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUyqH-BE9lk
  • Two years ago, the stars of Bones offered this holiday greeting from the Old West:
http://tvline.com/2015/11/26/bones-thanksgiving-video-deschanel-boreanaz/
  • How to avoid political arguments over the dinner table:
http://fortune.com/2016/11/23/thanksgiving-donald-trump-manners-etiquette/
  • A brief history of Thanksgiving:
http://mayflowerhistory.com/thanksgiving/
  • This I Believe:  Gratitude:
https://thisibelieve.org/feature/gratitude/
  • And, for a bit of music from the past, here's Mary Chapin Carpenter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e1s9R2IHIQ



ENJOY THE DAY!

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: THANKSGIVING SONG

Adam Sandler.


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

GROSS THANKSGIVING JOKE WEDNESDAY

The farm couple had been married for years and were very happy, but there was one thing that irked the wife greatly -- her husband would pass mass amounts of gas, especially at night while they slept.

She complained about this constantly but there was nothing her husband could do to stop this.  "One day you're going to fart your guts out and then you'll be sorry!" she would tell him.

The day before Thanksgiving she was preparing the turkey for the next day's dinner and as she was pulling out its guts she had an idea.  She hid the turkey guts and that night, as her husband was sleeping, she quietly slipped them under the covers by her husband.  "That'll fix him," she thought, chuckling to herself.

The next morning her husband was late coming down to breakfast.  When he did come he had a pained look on his face and was walking a little strangely.

"By golly, Reba," he said, "you were right about my passing gas.  Last night I actually farted my guts out!  But with the help of God and these two fingers, everything was right again!"


----------

Bonus joke -- and not a gross one:

How many chefs does it take to stuff a turkey?

Usually just one, and then it's a pretty tight fit.

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: THANKS FOR THE MEMORY

Ol' Blue Eyes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhD9e2SzytY

OVERLOOKED FILM: A DAY OF THANKSGIVING

From 1951, a short, 12-minute film in which a typical middle class family reflect on their many blessings on Thanksgiving.  Dad (a garage mechanic) is balding, Mom knits, the three youngest kids play peacefully on the living room floor, teenager (actually he may be a preteen, I can't tell, but he's sulky enough to be a teenager) Bill is pissed because the family may not be able to afford a turkey this year, and the living wallpaper is hideous.

At least Dad doesn't smoke a pipe.  

The film was produced in Lawrence, Kansas.  No surprise there.

Enjoy, and count your blessings.


https://archive.org/details/0234_Day_of_Thanksgiving_A_E00194_05_46_02_00 

Monday, November 20, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: THANK YOU

Led Zeppelin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1z4vkPWkLQ

INCOMING


  • Richard S. Wheeler, Eclipse:  A Novel of Lewis and Clark.  Historical novel/western.  "Lewis and Clark:  two great but very different men.  Plainspoken William Clark enjoys the triumph and acclaim of the expedition, marries his childhood sweetheart, and settles in St. Louis as superintendent of the nation's Indian affairs.  His black manservanr, York, who accompanied the expedition, forces Clark to confront the nature of slavery and question the society that condones it.  Meriwether Lewis, a man of fierce courage and brilliant intellect, returns from the pacific a changed man.  Something terrible has happened to him.  A disease with no name erodes his health and threatens to destroy his mind -- and his honor.  In Eclipse, Richard S. Wheeler has written an exploration of triumph and tragedy told in authentically rendered voices of the two greatest American explorers.  Moreover, Wheeler provides a solution -- dark in its ramifications, stinging in its potential for the truth -- to the greatest mystery in American history:  the terrible and unexplained death of Meriwether Lewis in the wilderness of the Natchez Trace of Tennessee in October 1809."  Greatest mystery?  Probably not, not a very intriguing one.  Wheeler is always worth reading.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

TED TALK: ACCELERATING INNOVATION IN EDUCATION

Adam Frankel, former Obama speechwriter and founding Executive director of Digital Promise, a bipartisan group chartered by Congress to advance innovation in education, offers some ideas that might help us respond to the challenges of 21st century education.

Think, consider, enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr44FxWrn-c

HYMN TIME

Paul Robeson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okl2XbTM7xM

Saturday, November 18, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: A PLACE IN THE CHOIR

Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy with a lively animal song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ytzaV95HZU

MY PERSONAL PROBLEM #2 (FEBRUARY 1956)

Back (too) many years ago when I was in college I was friends with a stoner named Willie.  I had bought a cheap television for ten bucks for my dorm room to watch late night horror films and Willie thought that was a great idea and so he bought one for his room.  Now, if you're a stoner, television takes on a whole new dimension.  The only station Willie could get on his set (because he didn't spring for cable) was the local one out of Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  Willie's favorite was The Lawrence Welk Show because he was fascinated with how many weeks Welk could go without changing the set (the record, I believe, was five weeks).  This local station ran on a shoestring and aired mainly syndicated shows and old black and white educational videos.  And so it was that one day Willie came to me all excited because he had seen this remarkably cheesy show about Susie and her grandmother.  As Willie told me, the show ran thusly:

Susie was a beautiful, personable, intelligent high school girl who went to Grandma with a problem -- she couldn't seem to attract the attention of any boys.  Grandma said, let's see if we can figure out the reason why.  She asked Susie how long it takes for her to decide on her wardrobe each morning.  About fifteen minutes, Grandma, Susie said.  And how long does it take you to get washed up each morning?  Again Susie said, about fifteen minutes.  Then Grandma asked, and how long does it take you to get your hair done each morning?  About fifteen minutes, Grandma.  And how much time do you spend putting on make-up?  About fifteen minutes.  Then Grandma's voice changed and got a bit sharper:  And how long do you spend brushing your teeth each morning?  I'd guess about five minutes, Grandma.  AHA! said Grandma triumphantly (and perhaps wagging her finger -- Willie didn't specify), "Equal time for equal jobs!"  Problem then presumably resolved.

I mention all of the above because Susie's Grandma reminds me of Mrs. Rock, the advice specialist who manages to solve the personal romantic problems of young girls who seek her out.  (Mrs. Rock, a plump older woman with glasses*, has an office from which she spews out her advice, although I'll be damned if I know her job title.)  In addition to the illustrated stories, this issue of My Personal Problem has several pages of letters supposed from young people seeking help for their personal problems. (I'm fat, I'm ugly, my ex-boyfriend still has my class ring, how do I know what the right perfume for me is, am I coming on too hard with this girl I like, my boyfriend likes sports more than he likes me, my boyfriend is going into the Air Force and I wonder if I should stay true to him -- So many personal problems!)

In "Date-Breaker," Jim is a selfish creep who keeps breaking dates with trusting and not very bright Anne; usually Jim breaks a date to go dogging after other girls.  Mrs. Rock suggests that Anne keep out of Jim's life until he shows he can change his ways.  Dog in the manger Jim shows what a cad he is so Anne settles happily for Peter.  Take that, Jim!

Mrs. Rock doesn't appear in the next story, "Bewildered Rival."  Beautiful Betty has fallen in love with Freddie (who in the first panel looks grotesquely evil and/or grotesquely constipated...and why is he shown with such a grotesquely large head!).  Freddie, however, is also in love with his Mom and Mom is in love with Freddie.  Can this triangle be resolved?  And can Freddie and Betty live happily with Freddie's father who shows up after having walked out on Freddie and his mother when Freddie was just a baby?  This family takes the fun out of dysfunctional.

Mrs. Rock returns to help Judy Peal in "What's Happened to Us?"  Judy is a selfish bitch (Mrs. Rocjk would say a misguided soul who had misapplied her energies) who has brought her marriage to the brink by wasteful spending, ignoring her husband, and unfounded jealousy.  But Judy has now discovered her own failings and Mrs. Rock suggests that she re-adjust herself so that she doesn't repeat her mistakes and that she try to show her husband how much she loves him.  Judy, however is a slow (I would say blundering) learner and it takes a while for Mrs. Rock's advice to bear fruit.

Finally, in "Two for Company, Three for Love," seventeen-year-old Joan's problem is that she loves two boys equally and both have asked her to the graduation dance.  This is not just a first world personal problem, it's a high school first world personal problem.  Mrs. Rock's solution?  Don't see either boy for a week.  By then Joan will have a clearer idea of her decision.  The advice works.  Joan drops both boys and begins seeing a post-grad student (remember, she's still in high school; this isn't Roy Moore territory, but it's getting close) because she let her heart make up her mind for her.  Joan and Mrs. Rock are both pleased, but I fear for Joan's future.

Yes, I fear the road to romance is fraught with dangers.  And personal problems.

Enjoy.

http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=70064&b=i


*None of the beautiful young and troubled girls who seek out Mrs. Rock wear glasses.  And, unlike Mrs. Rock, they all (with the exception of Betty in whose tale Mrs. Rock is absent) have long hair.

Friday, November 17, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: TWO FINE FRIENDS

A beautiful children's song from Ann Mayo Muir, accompanied by Ensemble Galilei and Hot Soup!

Ann Mayo Muir is perhaps best known for her recordings with Gordon Bok and Ed Trickett but her haunting voice has also made for a very impressive solo career.  Ensemble Galilei is a Celtic music group with numerous albums to its credit.  The popular Hot Soup! folk trio is Susan Trainor, Christina Muir -- Ann Mayo Muir's daughter -- and Jennie Avila.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU4KxGJ8pNg&list=PLDtw2SsV4Kvjt2HSvwf9r6V0B_O2Ic9wu&index=98

FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE MAGIC MIRROR

The Magic Mirror:  Lost Supernatural and Mystery Stories by Algernon Blackwood edited by Mike Ashley (1989)


Algernon Blackwood  (1869-1951) has long been considered, along with J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Arthuir Machen, and M. R. James, one of the major players in the field of the supernatural tale.  His stories "The Willows," "The Wendigo," and "Ancient Sorceries" are oft-reprinted classics.  H. P. Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgson, H. Russell Wakefield, Ramsay Campbell, and Clark Ashton Smith were influenced by Blackwood.  Henry Miller, in his The Books in My Life, called Blackwood's The Bright Messenger "the most extraordinary novel on psychoanalysis, one that dwarfs the subject."

Blackwood lived an extraordinary life.  As a young man he had an interest in Eastern philosophy and occultism (his parents were hellfire and damnation fundamentalists) and at the close of the nineteenth century joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, whose members were to include (or were rumored to include Arnold Bennett, Alister Crowley, Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Machen,Gustav Meyrink, Sax Rohmer, William Sharp ("Fiona McLeod"), Bram Stoker, and A. W. Waite.  Blackwood rose in the ranks of the order, eventually abandoning much of its reliance on magic in favor of mysticism and the type of pantheistic approach to nature that has infused much of his writings.

Blackwood's writings found a ready audience in the early part of the twentieth century but, as his writing career began to flag after the First World War (in which he worked as an undercover agent in Switzerland), he found new opportunities as a broadcast narrator on both radio and television.  At parties and gatherings, he had always been in demand for telling stories and beginning in 1934, instead of being interviewed for a radio program he chose instead to tell a story, his talent at narration proved to be great success.  On November 2, 1936, Blackwood appeared in the very first television broadcast from London -- narrating on of his stories, of course.   It is a radio and television narrator that many people in Britain during the middle of the century knew him best.

As the title of this collection suggest, Blackwood wrote many stories that are (for the moment) lost in time.  His records and many of his manuscripts were destroyed in the Blitz.  (And he was probably not the best of record keepers, also.)  Ashley spent ten years uncovering many of the stories reprinted here and, he feels, that there are other stories still to be uncovered in the crumbling yellow pages of old magazines and newspapers to be uncovered.  Then, too, a lot of his radio stories are lost; Blackwood would often ad-lib stories rather than read from a prepared script.

The Magic Mirror contains 25 stories, most of which have been previously unavailable, and excerpts from four of his novels.

The contents:

     The Early Years:

  • A Mysterious House (possibly Blackwood's first published story)
  • The Kit-Bag
  • The Laying of a Red-Haired Ghost
  • The Message of the Clock
  • The Singular Death of Morton
  • The Mauvaise Riche
  • The Soldier's Visitor
  • The Memory of Beauty
  • Onanonanon


     The Novels:

  • The First Flight (excerpt from Jimbo)
  • The Vision of the Winds (excerpt from The Education of Uncle Paul)
  • The Call of the Urwelt (excerpt from The Centaur)
  • The Summoning (excerpt from Julius LeVallon)


     Radio Talks:

  • The Blackmailers
  • The Wig
  • King's Evidence
  • Lock Your Door
  • Five Strange Stories
              - The Texas Farm Disappearance
              - The Holy Man
              - Pistol Against a Ghost
              - Japanese Literary Cocktail (similar to E. F. Benson's story "The Step;" there is no evidence                  of plagiarism, however)
              - The Curate and the Stockbroker

     Later Stories:

  • At a Mayfair Luncheon
  • The Man-Eater
  • By Proxy
  • The Voice
  • The Magic Mirror
  • Roman Remains
  • Wishful Thinking

This is admittedly a mixed bag.  Many of the stories are minor.  Some are mere anecdotes; others employ well-worn tropes.  But there is enough good writing here to satisfy even the most jaded enthusiast of the horror story.  Sprinkled throughout the book are splashes of humor and irony that often are fundamental to a good horror story.  Blackwood's mystical view of nature as a type of awareness or force is also present here, most notably in the excerpt from The Education of Uncle Paul (Blackwood's one book that I found difficult to read; it came across as Arthur Machen on steroids).  Two of the other excepts (from The Centaur and Julius LeVallon) are enough to make one dive into those novels immediately.

The Magic Mirror provides a decent sampling of Blackwood's work.  Almost all of his other collections, as well as many of his novels, are available for free online.  If you aren't familiar with the genius of Algernon Blackwood, what are you waiting for?

Monday, November 13, 2017

INCOMING


  • Douglas Adams, The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts.  As the title suggests, these are the original scripts for The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  The book covers the first two series (a total of twelve episodes, or "fits") aired by the BBC in 1978 and 1980.  Did you know that mystery writer Simon Brett produced the first episode of the series?  I did, but then I'm a genius fanboy.
  • Marion Zimmer Bradley, Survey Ship.  Stand-alone science fiction novel.  "Six of Earth's finest young people, perfect in mind and body, have been trained from cradle for one task -- to brave the infinite dangers of space, to find new homes for Man.  But once alone in the pitiless universe, they are betrayed by their ship and plagued by space hazards; their voyage becomes a grim test of survival..To survive they must tame their wild talents.  to survive, they must turn their training into skill, with no margin for error.  To survive, they must conquer their fears, longings and nightmares.  They must become a team.  they must learn how to love.  Or they die."
  • Natsuo Kirino, Out.  Crime novel.  'this mesmerizing novel tells the story of a brutal murder in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works the night shift making boxed lunches strangles her abusive husband and then seeks the help of her coworkers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime.  The coolly intelligent Masako emerges as the plot's ringleader but quickly discovers that this killing is merely the beginning, as it leads to a terrifying foray into the violent underbelly of Japanese society."  Winner of Japan's Grand Prix for Crime Fiction and an Edgar Award finalist.  Translated by Stephen Snyder.
  • Richard Laymon, Into the Fire and Island.  Both horror novels.  About Into the Fire:  "Pretty, young Pamela was a very happy newlywed, with a loving husband and a beautiful home.  But all that changed the night Rodney broke in.  He's been obsessed with Pamela since high school, and now he intends to make her his slave for life.  He thinks they'll be alone when he drives her out to the blazing desert.  But someone else is out there too -- someone with a gun.  Pamela hoped her nightmare was over when Rodney was shot, but something about her rescuer isn't quite right."  In Island, when "Rupert Conway set out on a cruise with seven other people, he planned to swim a little, get some sun and relax.  He certainly didn't plan to get shipwrecked.  but after the yacht blew up, that's what happened -- he and his shipmates were stranded on a desert island.  Luckily for them, the island has plenty of fresh water and enough food to last until they get rescued.  And luckily for Rupert, most of his fellow castaways are attractive women.  But that's where his luck ran out -- because the castaways aren't alone on the island.  In the dense jungle beyond the beach there's a maniac on the loose, a killer with a murderous heart, a clever mind, and a taste for blood.  He doesn't like his new neighbors and he plans to slaughter them all...one by one."  For some reason I can't fathom, Laymon was always more popular in England than in his native U.S.  An author always worth reading.
  • Andre Norton & Lyn McConchie, Beast Master's Ark.  SF novel, third in the series about Hosteen Storm, the Beast Master, and the first in series written with (and most likely, by) McConchie.  "Best Master Hosteen Storm has endured great perils to carve out a life for himself on Arzor, the colony planet he's called home since th destruction of Earth by the alien Xik.  On a planet with alien life forms and untold secrets from its pre-human past, there are always dangers in the world, especially in the vast desert and mountain region known as Big Blue.  but nobody has ever experiences a threat like the devastating scourge the natives call Death-Which-Comes-in-the Night.  Something is killing grazing animals...and has begun to attack humans as well, leaving nothing behind but the bones of its victims.  Hosteen, aided by his telepathically linked animals, knows that if he can't stop the killings Arzor will be decimated.  his only ally is a young woman who has beast master ability, but was raised to mistrust others with such a power.  At stake is the safety of ll those on Arzor, and on other colony planets as well.  Because Death-Which-Comes-in-the-Night is a scourge that if not stopped, could spread..."  Norton published the first Beast Master book in 1959, followed by the second in 1962.  It took forty years the next book in the series to appear, followed by a fourth in 2004 and a fifth in 2006; these three were all co-authored by McConchie, who won the Sir Julius Vogel award of Best Novel for New Zealand science fiction and fantasy for Beast Master's Ark.  (This was the first of six Vogel Awards that she has won.)  

Sunday, November 12, 2017

HYMN TIME.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzr_GBa8qk

Saturday, November 11, 2017

VETERAN'S DAY

Let us honor our veterans today, and every day.  Not by mouthing words like "Thank you for your service" or by displaying a "Support Our Troops" sticker on your car.

Let's honor them by treating them they way they deserve to be treated.

Let's honor them by providing them needed services.

Like quality health care from an efficient, accessible, and not overburdened VA system.

Like suicide prevention programs and support and proven mental health services.

Like more educational and job opportunities.

Like volunteering to assist disabled veterans.

And for our military, let's provide them with the right equipment, the right training, and the right support.

And, most of all, let us ensure our veterans and our serving military that, if war must be fought, it is fought for the right reasons and not for political expediency or corporate profit.

Mouthing platitudes is fine, but actions can speak volumes.



Here's my go-to song for this day:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0BtHNwqXjY

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: BLACK SHEEP

Sham the Sham & the Pharaohs.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3hv4GnZQmw

SPACE WESTERN #44 (JUNE 1953)

Cowboys!  (Spurs Jackson and his gand of sharpshooters!)

Nazis!  (And communists and Stone Men, oh my!)

Martians!  (And Venusians and Moon Men, too!)

Walter B. Gibson!  (He of The Shadow fame!)

In "The Madmen of Mars," Spurs Jackson and his buddies travel to Mars in 1953 to defeat Nazis who have been hiding there since 1935.

Then in "Spurs Sees Red," Russians are using a flying saucer-like aircraft to spread fear of an alien invasion.  Their big mistake was in attacking a nearby ranch and shooting his Spurs' friend Pops McLean.  (It should be noted that Spurs had yellow hair in the previous story and now has dark hair for the remainder of this issue.  The first tale was illustrated by Stan Campbell; the rest of the issue by John Belfi.)

In a one-page filler, Spurs introduces us to the Jovian bandersnatch and its unique abilities.

We move to a two-page text story (because we need to meet the postal regulations).  It's moon creatures versus Spurs in "Spurs Jackson and the Selenites!"  The story ends with this warning from our cowpoke hero, "And even in this age we must all be on our guard to preserve the liberties of all people in the Galaxy."

In "The Stone Men from Space," the Queen of Mars gives Spurs and his buddies, Strong Bow and Rapid Fox, a flower that would bloom in the desert.  It worked but somehow petrified wood is also  transformed into Stone Men, led by Ag.  They are easy enough to defeat if, like Spurs, you have an atomic bomb.

Finally, "The Menace of Comet 'X"' has the titluar body heading for Earth.  Once Earth is destroyed, the comet's next victim will be Mars.  It's all a plot by Spurs' enemies Korok of Mars and Vodor of Venus.  Can Spurs and his Space Vigilantes save both planets?  Can the villains control the comet's orbit enough to complete their planetary two-fer?  Read it and see, rannies!

Saddle up your rocket ships, boys and girls!


http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=70044&b=i




Friday, November 10, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: TIME IN A BOTTLE

Jim Croce.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO1rMeYnOmM

FORGOTTEN BOOK: ALL OUR YESTERDAYS

All Our Yesterdays by Robert B. Parker (1994)


Parker's most famous creation is Boston PI and lovesick tough guy Spenser.  He has written four other series, all of which have risen to one degree or another of popularity:  the Jesse Stone series, about an alcoholic and lovesick small town police chief; the Sunny Randall series, originally written as a vehicle for actress Helen Hunt, about a female Boston PI and lovesick tough girl (who, for a while, knocked boots with Jesse Stone); and the Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch western series, about a lovesick marshal and his deputy.  He's also written several young adult novels and four stand-alones.  The stand-alones include the dog-ugly Love and Honor (about which the less said the better), a fairly decent novel about Wyatt Earp, a suspense novel featuring Jackie Robinson, and this book.

All Our Yesterdays may have been intended as Parker's BIG book.  It's almost twice as long as his other books and the relative lack of white space and wide margins seem to indicate that this is something special for Parker.  Plus, it's a multi-generational saga involving a family of Boston cops.

We start off with Conn Sheridan, a brave and dedicated member of the IRA in 1920 Ireland.  Conn's service to the cause allows him to rise quickly among the ranks and soon brings him close to the IRA's top leadership.  Conn soon begins an affair with the young wife of a Boston Brahmin in Ireland to oversee a family business.  The affair soon turns to an obsession and Conn begs the woman to run off with him; he's even willing to abandon the IRA to be with her.  She, however, cannot leave her position of wealth and rebukes him.  When Conn persists, she informs on him with the British police, and so Conn is jailed and will soon hang.

The betrayal has changed Conn.  He's lost his soul and now has nothing to live for.  When the IRA breaks him out of jail, he goes to America -- to Boston -- and joins the police force to become a cop who doesn't care whether he lives or dies.  Eventually he meets his former lover and discovers that her now-adult son is a pederast and murderer.  Using this information as a lever, he blackmails the woman to have a long-term and degrading affair with him.

Conn's son Gus also becomes a Boston cop.  Following his father's death, he discovers his father's evidence against the child molester-murderer.  Blackmail evidently is embedded in the Sheridan genes because Gus uses this information to extort money on a regular basis.

Gus' son Chris has no desire to become a cop.  Instead, he gets a law degree and later becomes a criminal psychiatrist.  He also hooks up with Grace, the pederast's daughter.  Some cogs slip in Grace's father's brain and he begins molesting and killing children again.  Grace's brother is beginning a run for a US senate seat; his biggest opponent is Boston's mayor.  In a political move, the mayor appoints Chris to lead the investigation into the recent murders. 

Did I mention that Chris is lovesick?  No?  Well, you knew that anyway because that's a common theme of Parker's -- love and the compromises one has to make in its name.

So, three generations of two families tied together by fate and an ungodly amount of coincidence.  If this was to be Parker's magnum opus, he should have made it even longer.  I lost count of the major plot points that were glossed over from one chapter to the next -- we just skip right over them and continue as if they had happened.  There is some decent action, a few plot twists, and some interesting characterization.  Overall, it's a pretty good read if one ignores the lovesick relationships (especially of Chris and Grace) and the all-over-the-place plot jumpiness.

All Our Yesterdays highlights Parker's faults as a writer.  Luckily, it also highlights his virtues.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

BONUS MUSIC FROM THE PAST: WHO NEEDS WINGS TO FLY?

Today would have been the 100th birthday of Tere Rios, the author of The Fifteenth Pelican, the book that became the basis of the Sally Field television show The Flying Nun.  In honor of Ms. Rios, here's the main theme from that show.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jcx1xWE8qQ

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: RIKKI DON'T LOSE THAT NUMBER

Steely Dan.


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

TWO EPISODES FROM SKY KING -- 1947

Robert Burtt and Wilfred Moore, the duo who had come up with Captain Midnight, created Sky King in 1946 for the radio, basing it on a story by Roy Winsor.  Sky King was an Arizona rancher and airplane pilot who stopped the bad people and rescued the lost people into 1954, when the radio episodes began playing concurrently with the television show.  Sky's Cessna airplane was called The Songbird.  His niece Penny (actress Beryl Vaughan) and nephew Clipper lived with him, both of whom were budding pilots.

(I never heard the radio show but I was a big fan of the television version when I was a kid.  Like so many others, I was totally smitten with the cute, blonde Penny -- played by Gloria Winters; and I was saddened when the actress died seven years ago at the age of 78.)

To give you a taste of the radio show, here's two ten-minute episodes:  "Prince Aron Zibi" from June 30, 1947, and "Army of Blue Men" from July 14, 1947.  The announcer is a young Mike Wallace.

Enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZf3M0Ipafs


Wednesday, November 8, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: RAMBLIN' MAN

From 1973, The Allman Brothers Band


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VxoXn-0Ezs

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

Taking a little trip into the past, here's a joke from 1922's Jokes for All Occasion, published by Edward J. Clode.  These jokes were designed for public speakers in a day when public speakers had no idea how to be funny.  The jokes are very weak; many of them are offensively racist to today's reader.  As such, these jokes are really bad and are fair game for today's post.  Here's a pretty bland one:


A thriving baseball club is one of the features of a boy's organization connected with a prominent church.  The team was recently challenged by a rival club.  The pastor gave a special contribution of five dollars to the captain, with the direction that the money should be used to buy bats, balls, gloves, or anything else that might help to win the game.  On the day of the game, the pastor was somewhat surprised to observe nothing new in the club's paraphernalia.  He called the captain to him.

"I don't see any new bats, or ball, or gloves," he said.

"We haven't anything like that," the captain admitted.

"But I gave you five dollars to buy them," the pastor exclaimed.

"Well, you see," came the explanation, "you told us to spend it on bats, or ball, or gloves, or anything that we thought might help us to win the game, so we gave it to the umpire."


[insert rim shot here.]

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: DO BEARS

Sometimes you need just a bit of funny.  Here's Rowan Atkinson with the great Kate Bush.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un5UKqwTLHg

VIDEO COMPILATION: WHEN SPORTS MEETS HUMANITY

As one person said in the comments, "Told her not to chop onions when I am watching this."

Enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJBLEPMcX2s&list=PLRQ2Nji4wVtov_e3kUH8AoT_dvm_xH4u-&index=62


A side note:  When my grandson Mark was five, he was in a sports center wrestling program.  His very first match was against a boy who had no arms and no legs.  Mark lost.  I don't think it was because he was surprised to have such an opponent, but because Mark couldn't figure where to grab the boy.  Plus, his opponent was really good!

Monday, November 6, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: ITSY BITSY TEENY WEENY YELLOW POLKA DOT BIKINI

Brian Hyland.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge9Ou3-YyqU

INCOMING


  • "Jack Buchanan" (Stephen Mertz), Stone:  M.I.A. Hunter:  Invasion U.S.S.R.  Men's action adventure novel, the ninth in the series.  "MISSING:  Lee Daniels, american journalist stationed in Moscow.  The Soviets deny any involvement -- but the U.S. government knows better.  there's only one way to get Daniels out of Russia:  brute force.  And ex-Green Beret Mark Stone is just the man for the job."  Three novels in the series were co-written by Bill Crider and three were co-written by Joe Lansdale.  Evidently, Mike Newton also contributed to the series but I don't know which books he worked on.  I've enjoyed the books in the series that I have read.
  • Algis Budrys, editor, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XVII.  SF anthology with eighteen stories by winners and finalists in the annual writing contest, as well as illustrations by winners and finalists in the accompanying art contest.  Several essays are also included.  Traditionally, most of the stories printed in this series are (IMHO) range from so-so to moderately good, but the contest has given a number of respected writers their first opportunities to develop their craft.  This volume, from 2001, has no names that I recognized.  Oh, well.
  • Lee Child, Persuader.  A Jack Reacher thriller.  "Jack Reacher is the persuader.  An ex-military cop and the ultimate loner.  No family, no possessions.  No commitments, no fear.  Nothing -- except a strong sense of justice.  Which is why Reacher agrees to help a female agent caught in a death trap.  Why Reacher must outwit and outfight a criminal army.  Because once Reacher finds trouble, he cannot quit.  Not once.  Not ever."  Like so many others, I am a fan of Lee Child's books.  This one happens to be the only Jack Reacher novel I have not yet read.  After this, there be a long wait for me until a new Reacher is published.  Is that fair, I ask you?
  • Edmund Cooper, Sea-Horse in the Sky.  SF novel.  "Kidnapped!  Eight men and eight women, with curious bumps on the backs of their heads, and no memory of anything but an uninterrupted journey, a flight that never landed.  They emerged from their green plastic coffins one by one. into the sunlight of an endless alien plain.  Standing alone on either side of a short road that ended abruptly in grass and shrubs were a supermarket and a hotel...and nothing else.  Fortunately, the hotel had a limitless bar -- they were going to need it, because, although no one ever saw who stocked the groceries or changed the sheets, they did see other things.  Shocking things...frightening things...unbelievable things.  Some would die of it.  Some would go mad.  And some would find the truth."  Cooper, a fairly popular British writer, had a quarter of a century career that started in the mid-fifties, but is pretty much forgotten today.
  • Gordon R. Dickson, The Earth Lords.   Fantasy.  "Some call it Hell...A hidden labyrinth beneath the Canadian wilderness, where dwarfish Lords and Ladies ride humans like horses -- and plot the final downfall of mankind.  Bart Dyberg is a 'steed.' but one gifted with mental and physical abilities unsuspected by those who have enslaved him.  Soon, he vows, he will surprise the Lords and escape to the world above...If there's a world to go back to."  Dickson has always been a favorite.
  • Tom Godwin, The Space Barbarians.  SF novel, a sequel to Space Prison.  "In three bloody years of spacewar, the 'barbarians' of the hell-world Ragnarok had destroyed the Gem Empire. -- and freed the 'civilized' planets of Earth and Athena from their alien domination.  But the Earthenians feared and hated the men of Ragnarok and resented the superhuman strength and speed which had won their bloody victory.  And when a new threat from beyond the stars struck at Ragnarok and left it desolate, the 'barbarians' were strictly on their own -- abandoned to certain destruction by the rest of mankind!" 
  • Mick Herron, Dead Lions.  Crime/spy novel, winner of CWA's Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime novel of the Year.  ""London's Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what's left of their careers.  The 'slow horses,' as they are called, have ll disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here.  Maybe they messed up an op badly, or got in the way of an ambitious colleague.  Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle -- not unusual in this line of work.  One thing these failed spies have in common, though, is they all want to be back in the action.  Now the slow horses have a chance at redemption.  An old cold war-era spy is found dead on a bus outside Oxford, far from his usual haunts.  As the agents dig into their fallen comrade's circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of ancient Cold War secrets.  How many more people will have to die to keep those secrets buried?"
  • Patricia Moyes, Johnny UndergroundTwice in a Blue Moon, and Who Saw Her Die?  All Inspector Henry Tibbett mysteries.  In the first, "Emmy Tibbett goes to her RAF reunion with an inexplicable sense of foreboding.  As a naive nineteen-year-old auxiliary officer she had fallen in love with handsome pilot 'Beau' Guest.  After the reunion Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett suspects that his wife is on the brink of uncovering a dangerous secret but he can't prevent her from delving into a past that is dark with menace."  In the second, "When Susan Gardiner unexpectedly inherits an old country in outside London, she inherited a long-lost distant cousin.  A few years her senior and very attractive, Cousin James is also very attractive.  Soon love blooms.  But just as soon, murder enters the picture as customers of the inn's posh restaurant begin to die one by one."  And in the third, "An extravagantly iced cake, two dozen dark red roses and a case of vintage champagne, all gifts to celebrate Crystal Balaclava's seventieth birthday.  Strange that she should feel it necessary to invite Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett to join the party as her bodyguard.  Henry's scepticism turns to horror when Lady Balaclava drops dead in his arms, apparently poisoned."
  • Don Pendleton, Copp in Deep.  The third (of six) novels featuring PI Joe Copp.  "Joe Copp is hired by old buddy ex-cop Tom Chase to protect him from the FBI.  Chase is security chief for a defense contractor, and Uncle Sam is following him and setting up his executives for a sting.  Sure enough, two of them are stung.  Permanently.  And Chase is arrested as a spy.  Copp?  He's only running from the feds, busting KGB skulls, schmoozing with sexy women, rubbing elbows with traitors, and tripping over corpses while running for his life.  With his client under wraps, Copp is out in the cold, in deep, and getting deeper."  Pendleton was the creator of Mack Bolan, the Executioner, a men's action adventure hero whose adventures grew into a huge franchise, as below:
  • {"Don Pendleton"], Don Pendleton's The Executioner #226:  Red Horse (written by Will Murray) and #373:  Code of Honor (written by Keith A. R. DeCandido).  In the first, a series of firebombings in Boston are suspected to be the result of a gang turf war, but Bolan thinks differently -- the attacks are too professional, done with military precision.  In the second, an elite secret group of mercenaries begin targeting retired American servicemen, Stony Man, the secret group of commandos sanctioned by the President, sends Mack Bolan to deal with the problem.  Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan:  Moscow Massacre (The Executioner #92) (written by Stephen Mertz) has Bolan penetrating Russia to help an imperiled CIA mole in Moscow, and ending in a bloodbath in the heart of KGB high command.  Lastly, in Don Pendleton's Mack bola:  Stony Man II (written by Mel Odom), Stony Man must try to stop a war that could set world peace back generations when a Palestinian madman unleashes "the ultimate terror sweep."
  • Donald J. Pfeil, Voyage to a Forgotten Sun.  SF novel.  "'May you rot forever in your seventh hell!'  Trader Zim heard the sentence, but he didn't believe it -- 20 years in isolation on some god-forsaken Class IV planet.  Hadn't he been warned about the strict laws on Standra?  Didn't he know an underground smuggling operation was sure to be discovered?  Now he was doomed to rot in jail...unless he agreed to accompany the President of Earth back to his home planet.  The mission was fraught with unknown dangers, but a wily Trader could always think of something..."  Pfeil was the editor of of Vertex, "the slick science fiction magazine" that ran from 1973 to 1975.  Vertex evidently had enough money to attract name writers, but went from a "slick" magazine to a newspaper tabloid for its final three issues.
  • Jerry Pournelle, creator, War World, Volume IV:  Invasion.  SF anthology in the shared CoDominium universe.  This one has eight short stories with linking material.  This volume (and others in the series) was produced "with the editorial assistance of John F. Carr."  The War World anthologies ran to nine volumes, with ISFDb crediting Pournelle as editor of six of them; Carr edited an additional four volumes in the offshoot War World Central series.
  • John Maddox Roberts, Space Angel.  Sf novel.  "For Kelly, it was an impossible dream come true when he shipped out on the Space Angel.  Ship's boy was the most menial jog aboard, but it was excitement enough just to be in space.  Things became more exciting than even Kelly wanted when an unimaginably old and powerful entity commandeered the Space Angel and sent the freighter on an incredible mission to the center of the galaxy -- with two hereditary killers and a poetic crab added to the crew for extra interest!  Kelly knew that he would finish the trip as a seasoned spacer -- or a very dead one."  Besides science fiction, Roberts has written Conan pastiches and a well-regarded series of mysteries set in ancient Rome.
  • Fred Saberhagan, The White Bull.  SF novel.  "In the reign of Minos, King of the Cretans, the gods gave proof of their existence:  a bull-headed man accompanied by his bronze servitor strode forth from Neptune's realm.  At last the gods had removed the veil that separated them from their worshipers...or had they?  Strangely enough, the Minotaur forswears all claims to divinity -- and his metallic servant cannot speak at all.  Instead, he comes to the Greeks bearing gifts of alien knowledge.  But Daedelus at least will have cause to beware the teachings of...The White Bull."
  • Kathleen Sky, Ice Prison.  SF novel.  ''Mithras had been set up as a penal colony -- no one would have gone to such a frozen hell voluntarily.  Even five genertions later, no inhabitant could escape from Mithras alive.  And now, Howell discovered to his horror, the Confederation Colonial Service was using it as a dumping ground for its own troublemakers.  He was marroned on Mithras -- its new commandant, yet as much a prisoner as any convict.  And to add to his tribulations, the entire colony was being terrorized by a fourteen-year-old girl."  This one was published by Laser Books, a short-lived SF imprint of Harlequin (the romance people); the series was edited by Roger Elwood who, at one time, was thought to be the man who would ruin science fiction.
  • Richard S. Wheeler, An Obituary for Major Reno.  Biographical western.  "Marcus Reno is a pariah, a controversial figure accused of being responsible for the worst disaster ever to befall the army of the United States.  Thirteen years past, he was one of George Armstrong Custer's senior officers when Custer and over 200 men in his command were annihilated by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors above the Little Big Horn River in Montana Territory.  Now, in the spring of 1889, Major Reno is dying and wants to tell the real story of the Custer battle and wants his honor -- the most precious word in his vocabulary -- restored."  Few people can match Wheeler in the western field.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

STEREOTYPES -- FUNNY BECAUSE THEY ARE TRUE?

Katerina Vrana, a Greek-born, London stand-up comedian, reveals her plan for global domination in this TED talk.  global domination is just the tip of the iceberg.

Enjoy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0q9hn8hebw

HYMN TIME

Wayne Raney.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro96cWTQdnw

Saturday, November 4, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: PERHAPS LOVE

There are some songs that are just about perfect.  This is one of them.  John Denver and Placido Domingo.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDra-5DG3JE

THE AVENGERS #1 (SEPTEMBER 1963)

The roster may have changed over the years but this is how it all started, courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.  The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Antman, the Wasp, and the Incredible Hulk join forces against Loki, the god of evil!

Enjoy.

https://archive.org/stream/avengers-001#page/n0/mode/2up

Friday, November 3, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: AS TEARS GO BY

Paul Anka introduces Brian Epstein who introduces Marianne Faithfull at her most stiff, stoic, and nervous best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of21WYW5t5g

FORGOTTEN BOOK: TWO FABLES

Two Fables by Roald Dahl (1986)


This thin book containing two original stories was published by Viking UK, then by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, in honor of the author's seventieth birthday.  Neither Viking nor Farrar, Straus have reprinted the book.  To my knowledge, neither story has ever been reprinted in an anthology or in another collection of Dahl's short stories.  The stories were only two of three Dahl stories not included in the author's massive Collected Stories.  (The third was a very short deleted scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I covered it here earlier this year.)

The first story, "The Princess and the Poacher," tells a tale of a remarkably ugly, remarkably strong young man named Hengist who refuses to follow his father's trade of basket-weaving.  Hengist was lonely and (being eighteen) horny:

"He was a pleasant enough fellow, there was no doubt about that, but there is a limit to the degree of ugliness any woman can tolerate in a man.  Hengist was well beyond that limit."

Hengist often roamed the wood alone and soon discovered that he had a talent for "moving so silently through the forest that he could come within arm's length of a timid creature like a hare or a deer before it was aware of his presence."  A talent, he discovered, that fit well with the trade of poacher.  But Hengist also grew cocky.  He began to poach in the daylight and he began to poach near the very walls of the king's castle.  So it was that one day when he was near the castle he came across the most beautiful girl in the kingdom while the king and his court were out chasing wild boar.  Suddenly the boar came racing out of the woods, chased by the king and his hunters.  The panicked animal with its razor sharp horns headed straight toward the girl.  Hengist leaped on the boar just before it could gore the girl, who happened to be the king's only daughter.

The king, so impressed with Hengist's valor in saving the princess, made him a count and showered riches upon him.  The king also noted the poacher's very ugly visage and took pity on him:  this poor guy would probably die a virgin with a mug like that.  So, with a typical (if that can be the word) Roald Dahl twist, the king made a very unusual proclamation -- from that day forward, Hengist has royal permission to ravish any women in the kingdom, with no caveats, and, yes, that even included the princess.

From there, the story continues along paths you may not expect.

The second tale, "The Princess Mammalia,"  features an ordinary princess who, on her seventeenth birthday, underwent a miraculous change:

"A magical transformation had taken place overnight and the dumpy little Princess had become a dazzling beauty.  I use the word 'dazzling' in its purest and most literal sense, for such a blaze of glory, such a scintillation of stars, such a blinding beauty shone forth from her countenance that when she went downstairs to open her presents an hour later, those who gazed upon her at close quarters had to screw up their eyes for fear the brilliance of it all might damages their retinas."

Such overwhelming beauty has its drawbacks, as Dahl gleefully goes on to show.  And isn't Mammalia a delightfully sexist name for such a beauty?

Two tales that only Roald Dahl could tell, full of wit and weirdness and joy.  For fans of this wonderful author, this book is a must.

Thursday, November 2, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: I WALK THE LINE

Johnny Cash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq0fUa0vW_E

THE LIFE OF RILEY: A SPICY BOOK

From June 9, 1950, Chester A. Riley reacts to My Lady Jezebel, a best-selling novel that is described as salacious and meretricious, when he discovers his seventeen-year-old daughter is reading it.  What Riley doesn't know is that his daughter has switched the book jacket with that of Lucy Lawrence, Campfire Girl to be sure that her younger brother doesn't read it.  When Riley invade's his daughter's room to inspect the book, he reads parts of the Lucy Lawrence book and decides the book was not spicy at all.  In fact, Riley is so impressed with the "clean" book, he decides to donate copies to a Sunday school, a local Catholic boys' club, and a Jewish youth center.  And things begin to go downhill.

This episode was adapted from one that first appeared on The Life of Riley television series in March of that year, with Jackie Gleason in the role of Riley.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDW5hm-hZsA

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

MUSIC FROM THE PAST: IT'S ALL OVER NOW

From the TAMI show, back when the Rolling Sones were young.

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

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

What if soy milk is just regular milk introducing itself in Spanish?