HYMN TIME

 The Chad Mitchell Trio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxyRiY3zbY0

SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES #1 (1942) AND OTHER ODDS AND ENDS

'Tis the season...

Santa Claus Funnies #1  (1942) -- includes some of the earliest work by Walt Kelly.  This issue has an illustrated "The Night Before Christmas," "Jingle Bells," Hans Christian Andersen's :"The Fir Tree," "Silent Night," "A Christmas Carol," "The First Noel," and much more.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=29465

The Night Before Christmas and Other Stories (A. L  . Burt Co., 1905)  

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96163&comicpage=&b=i

The Goblins' Christmas by Elizabeth Anderson  (Segnogram Publishing Co., 1908)

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96162&comicpage=&b=i

A Christmas Adventure -- a 6-page holiday newspaper strip from 1939

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96152&comicpage=&b=i

Christmas in Toyland -- a 26-page newspaper holiday strip from 1937, signed by "King Cole"

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96151&comicpage=&b=i

The Christmas Forest by Louise Fatio {Aladdin Books, 1950)  

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96150&comicpage=&b=i

...and may your days be merry and bright!

FORGOTTEN BOOK: HELLBOY: THE LOST ARMY

 Hellboy:  The Lost Army by Christopher Golden (1997)

Ah, Hellboiy, one of the great comic book heroes of the end of the 20th century, and beyond...

Created by Mike Mignola, Hellboy first appeared in San Diego Comics-Con Comics #2 (August 1993), and then was featured in his own title beginning March 1994 and ran through issue 57 (August 10, 2011).  There were also a number of special from 2016 through 2019.  A limited series, Hellboy in Hell, ran for ten issues from 2012 to 2016.  The Hellboy franchise soon expanded to include such spinoffs as Abe Sapian, Lobster Johnson, B.P.R.D., Sir Edwin Grey, Witchfinder, Frankenstein, Sledgehammer 44, Rise of the Black Flame, The Visitor:  How and Why He Stayed, Rasputin:  The Voice of the Dragon, and Koshchei the Deathless. In addition, Mignola produce three original graphic novels about Hellboy.  The Hellboy comics have also been collected in trade paperbacks. library editions, and omnibus editions.  The character has also appeared in a number of live action and animated films.  there are also video games, table top games, and a small batch whiskey (!) -- Hellboy Hell Water Cinnamon Whiskey.

Hellboy has also appeared in twelve  novels written by Christopher Golden, Brian Hodge, Tim Lebbon, Thomas E. Sniegoski, Tom Piccirilli, Mark Morris, and Mark Chadbourn, and in three anthologies (with stories by Joe R. Lansdale, China Mieville, Barbara Hambly, Ken Bruen, ,Amber Benson, and Tad Williams, among others.

Hellboy really gets around.

Just who (or what) is Hellboy?  Hellboy (true name Anung Un Rama) is a half-demon who was summoned from Hell to Earth as a baby by Nazi occultists in the final months of World War II.  The infant Hellboy was discovered by Allied troops and was raised by Professor Trevor Bruttenhelm, who went on to found the U.S. Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.  He has red skin, cloven hoofs, horns (which he files off), a tail, and a large right hand that appears to be made of stone.  He has a nearly bald head covered with thick bristly stubble, heavy sideburns, and a pony tail ties in a knot.  He resembles an ape more than a man.  He is massively strong, nearly invulnerable, and is able to heal rapidly.  In his heart, Hellboy is completely human with no trace of demonic malevolence.  He is gruff, brave, and has a wry sense of humor.  Hellboy has been recruited as an agent of the B.P.R.D., which was created to fight Nazis, witches, mythical creatures, and threats both supernatural and preternatural.  He works mainly with Abe Sapien (a fish-man)and Liz Sherman (a pyrotechnic).  Hellboy is the world's greatest paranormal investigator.

The Lost Armyis the first novel about Hellboy.  Mignola came up with the idea of the introductory prolog to the novel (at Golden's request), and the rest of the book is completely Golden -- including giving Hellboy a sex life ("something I'm sure Hellboy appreciates," Mignola wrote in the book's introduction.

It's the era of Reagan and Maggie Thatcher.  While the B.P.R.D. tram is being sent to Scotland on a case, Hellboy is diverted to the Egypt's Sahara desert, scant miles from the Khadafy's Libyan border, at the request of Anastasia Bransford, the head of a British search team.  It seems a group of archaeologists from the British Museum -- twenty-seven people, eight vehicles, and an enormous amount of equipment -- have vanished without a trace in the desert , and one of the people was a distant cousin to the Queen.  Even under the most dire of circumstance, some small trace of their camp should have been found.  Also with the rescue team is a very unwanted group of soldiers sent by MI5, that are led by the arrogant Captain Michael Creaghan, a man so offensive that he reminds Hellboy of the Nazis he learned to hate.  

Oh.  And Stacia Bransford is Hellboy's former lover.  They departed on good terms and, although they have not seen each other for five years, they are good friends.

The missing archaeologists has been camped at an oasis surrounded by hundreds of miles of desert.  They had been in search of a reputed contingent of 50,000 solders sent by the Persian king Cambyses to claim; legend had it that a fierce desert storm blew all traces of the army away.  The the missing archaeologist were found, freshly mutilated and dismembered, hanging from trees in the oasis.  But the archaeologists had been missing for days and the oasis had been thoroughly searched, so where had they been kept until they were slaughtered, and who -- or what -- slaughtered them, and how?  Among the body parts was the severed head of Lady Catherine Lambert, the Queen's cousin, and the head began talking to Hellboy, telling him he must defeat the sorcerer Hazred and the being who controls him, Mar-Ti-Ka, an ancient Sumerian wizard.

Three ancient Persian soldiers, now superhuman skeletal creatures, rise for the lake at the oasis to attack Hellboy, who defeats them with difficulty.  If the legend is true, that leaves only forty-one thousand, nine hundred, ninety-seven dead soldiers left.

Hellboy dives into the lake looking for clues and finds an old carving with ancient symbols buried in the sand,  he digs it out and returns to the surface.  Bad idea.  The carving was the only thing that kept a giant monster with many hundred-foot tentacles trapped in an under water cave.  In the meantime, one of Stacia's crew found a medallion on a chain buried in the sand and put it in his pocket; the medallion slowly took over his mind, inciting him with very violent thoughts.  

Hellboy  figured that the archaeologists must have been kept underground until they were killed.  Since entering by the underwater caves was out of the question (murderous tentacles, remember?), they decide to try to enter the lair through a series of above ground caves.  One member is killed by thousands (literally, thousands) of poisonous snakes dragging him to an abyss.  Another is bitten by a spider and turns into a giant spiderman (and not your Peter Parker-type).  another giant poisonous spider attacks them and Hellboy is trapped by a cocoon of acid webbing.  Then the sorcerer Hazred suddenly appears, using his magic to further ensnare out heroes.

Can things get any worse?  Of course they can.  Reagan was flexing his military muscles and dropped a few bombs on Libya, provoking  possible war between the two countries.  The united /states has sent a contingent of soldiers to the oasis to evacuate the rescue team, whether they want to or not.  This does not set well with Creaghan of MI5, and the two forces begin a pissing match.  The leader of the U.S. group may well be a CIA agent -- could he be looking for something there that he does not want anyone else to find?  Oh.  and there's a preternaturally violent sandstorm that suddenly approaches that could possibly wipe everyone out.

..in all, just your typical assignment for Hellboy.

Christopher Golden is an award-wining writer of horror, fantasy, and suspense stories, known for his Shadows Sage, begun with Of Saints and Shadows (1994), and the Ben Walker series, begun with Ararat (2017) .  He also created the Jenna Blake Bodies of Evidence series, four of which were co-written with Rick Hautala; the Ghosts of Albion series with Amber Benson; the Menagerie and Outcast/Magic Zero series with Thomas E. Sniegoski the Bloodsstined Oz series with James A. Moore; the Hidden Cities series and Secret Journeys of Jack London series with Tim Lebbon; The Hallows series with Ford Lytle Gilmore; and The Waking series, written under the pseudonym Thomas Randall.  Golden has also written tie-in novels and stories for Alien, Predator, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Justice League of America, Gen13, Sons of anarchy, King Kong, various Marvel properties (including X-Men, Daredevil, Spider-Man, The Hulk, The Silver Surfer, and Wolverine); and Star Wars.  With Mignola, he has also written books in the Joe Golem and Baltimore series, as well Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism, and titles in the Hellboy universe.  golden has also edited at latest ten anthologies and has written/edited books about horror films, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,  He has written extensively for comic books and published three graphic novels with Charlaine Harris.

In addition to his work in the Hellboy Universe and his various collaborations with Christopher golden, Mike Mignola is the author of Grim Death and Bill the electrocuted Criminal (With Thomas E. Sniegoski, 2017).

THE BURNS AND ALLEN SHOW: SANTA AND THE WICKED PIRATE (DECEMBER 22, 1942)

 George Burns and Gracie Allen began their long-running radio show in November of 1934.  Originally titled The Adventures of Gracie, the name was changed to The Burns and Allen Show in 1936.  It aired until May of 1950, moving back and forth between NBC and CBS; the couple came back later that year on television with their popular television series, running from 1950 to 1958.

In this holiday episode, Gracie dreams that she and George are flying to Santa's workshop on their per duck, Herman.  Arthur Q, Bryan plays Santa Claus.  Also included in this variety half hour are actor Akim Tamiroff and singer Jimmy Cash with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra.  The announcer is Bill Goodman.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftbxB9LzxTk&list=PLWmsEFKQyVfEamHDHzrzf72rZfqI6k1_R&index=29

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: ATTACK OF THE BANDITO HORDE

"Attack of the Bandito Horde" by "Romer Zane Grey" (house name used this time by Bill Pronzini & Jeffrey N. Wallman; first published in Zane Grey Western Magazine, August 1971; reprinted in the collection Gun Trouble in Tonto Basin, 1984?, as by Romer Zane Grey)

Romer Zane Grey (1909-1976) was the eldest son of writer Zane Grey.  He was a scenario writer for Paramount Pictures and the production of films based on his father's novels.  He evidently wrote the Big Little Book based on Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted comic strip.  Although Wikipedia credits him as the author of the stories about various characters created by his father -- Arizona Ames, Laramie Nelson, Buck Duane, Yaqui, Burn Hundell, Nevada Jim Lacy, Jim Cleve, Judkins, and Al Slingerland -- for Leo Margulies's Zane Grey Western Magazine, 1969-1974, the name was most likely licensed to the magazine and the 31stories credited to him were ghost-written by a number of authors, including Tom Curry, Clayton Matthews, and Bill Pronzini and Jeff Wallman.  Pronzini & Wallman wrote five of the seven stories about Arizona Ames for the magazine; the remaining two stories are uncredited.  They also penned the single story about Yaqui that appeared in the magazine.

(Margulies was a prolific publisher, editor and writer of pulp stories.  Among the magazines that appeared in his stable during this period were Mike (Michael) Shayne Mystery Magazine, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, Charlie Chan Mystery Magazine, Shell Scott Mystery Magazine, and Satellite Science Fiction; many of these were ostensibly edited by his wife, Sylvia Kleinman.  The Margulies magazine should not be conflated with Zane Grey's Western Magazine, a digest published by Dell and edited by Don Ward, which ran from November 1946 to January 1954 for a total of 82 issues, each of which featured a story [usually an abridged novel] by Grey; an abridged version of Arizona Ames ran in that magazine in the December 1947 issue.)

Arizona Ames was the title character in a 1932 novel (magazine serialization, 1929-1930) by Grey.  Rich Ames had his reputation as a gunfighter forced upon him when two men roughed up ( a polite phrase, I believe, for raped) his sister.  Rich reached for his gun and, when the smoke cleared, the two men were dead.  Ames had to flee the law and his home in Tonto Basin.  His reputation for his lightning-fast draw grew over the years and his name struck fear into the hearts of bad men all over the west.

For the past six months, several Mexican states had been rocked by a large bands of guerillas, lead by the charismatic Juan Valdez, in an effort to overthrow the government of Mexico.  Recently, eleven town in Arizona and New Mexico territories and Texas had been pillaged by marauders from the south, screaming, "Viva Valdez!"  At least thirty-two Americans -- men and women -- had been killed, inflaming passions along the border and causing vigilantes to attack innocent Mexicans.  It the situation continued, the United States and Mexico could be forced into another war.  Evidence pointed to the marauders setting up a base within the United States, in Arizona's Galliuro  Mountains.  To prevent the outbreak of war, a high-stakes diplomatic conference was to be held in Prescott with Carlos Mantigua, a special emissary of the President of Mexico.  Arizona Ames, after fifteen years as a wanted outlaw, and after a pardon by Arizona's governor, is now a secret agent employed by the governor.  He has been tasked to led the group of Rangers escorting Mantigua to Prescott.

Now, just forty miles from the border, half a dozen banditos have forcibly kidnapped Mantigua and slaughtered all six members of his honor guard.  Ames managed to shoot and kill one of the banditos while they made their escape, but the dead man, although dressed as a ragged Mexican peasant, appeared to be an American.  So too, another man who later attempted to kill Ames at the livery stable. The question in Ames's mind is, are these marauders truly part of Valdez's revolution, or are they a rogue band acting on their own?

Later that night, a beautiful girl claiming to be Mantigua's daughter. gets the drop on Ames and knocks him unconscious.  (Ames evidently has a thing for beautiful women.)  He wakes up, heavily bound, in a wagon heading for the secret mountain camp of the insurrectionists.  The woman who claimed to be Mantigua's daughter was actually the daughter of a truly sincere revolutionary; she and her father had been ordered to bring Ames to their secret lair.  But why?

The questions mount when Ames realizes that the hideout is not filled with idealistic revolutionaries, but with cutthroats and killers. Then Ames meets the leader of these marauders...and it is Mantigua!  The emissary is playing his own game, working to provoke an all-out war between the two countries, a war that he would be able to stop, becoming a hero to his people, and giving him more power and wealth that one could imagine.

Again, why kidnap Ames?  And how can Ames stop what seems bound to happen?  And how can this be done in the less than forty pages left in the novelette?

An interesting, fast-reading, pulpish take on a character who himself was originally pretty pulpish.  Not great literature, but a very entertaining tale.  Of interest to both Zane Grey fans and fans of Pronzini and Wallman (and count me as one).

Bill Pronzini (b. 1943) is best known as the author of the long-running acclaimed mystery series featuring the "Nameless Detective."  He is both an MWA Grand Master and the Recipient of the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award, the Eye.  He has published more than 125 books and edited over 100 anthologies.  Jeffrey N. Wallman (b. 1941) collaborated with Pronzini on many early novels, including the western Dual at Gold Buttes (which Pronzini's wife, Marcia Muller, once vowed was the only book by Pronzini she refused to read).  Early in the writing careers of both, Pronzini & Wallman collaborated on at least fifteen softcore paperback originals under such pseudonyms as "William Davis," "Elizabeth Watson,' "Agnes Williams," "Mark Townsend," "R. Van Dorne,' Roger Grayson," "Peter Jenson," "Aston Marlowe," "Grant Roberts," and "Richard Mountbatten." ; copies of these are nearly impossible to time, which is probably just as well.

The Arizona Ames stories in Zane Grey Western Magazine:

• Gun Trouble at Tonto Basin (November 1969; unconfirmed author)*
• Danger Rides the Dollar Wagon (March 1970; by Pronzini & Wallman)
• The Marauders of Gallows Valley (July 1970,; by Pronzini & Wallman)
• The Raid at Three Rapids (November 1970; by Pronzini & Wallman)*
• Attack of the Bandito Horde (August 1971; by Pronzini & Wallman)*
• Apache Massacre at Puma Junction (August 1972; by Pronzini and Wallman)
• King of the Outlaw Horde (April 1973; unconfirmed author)

* including in Gun Trouble in Tonto Basin

The Yaqui story in Zane Grey Western Magazine:

• Siege at Forlorn River (May 1970; by Pronzini & Wallman) 

  

Now, just vforty miles from the Mexicanb order

OVERLOOKED CHRISTMAS SHORT: THE CAPTAIN AND THE KIDS: THE CAPTAIN'S CHRISTMAS (1938)

Remember the Katzenjammer Kids?

In 1897, cartoonist Rudolph Dirks created a Sunday feature for the Hearst newspapers:  The Katzenjammer Kids , about a pair of incorrigible boys, Hans and Fritz Katzenjammer,  who lived to torment their victims -- Mama, the Captain, and the Inspector.  The strip proved to be very popular and was turned into a stage play in 1903.  A number of legal battles between 1912 and 1914 resulted in Dirks leaving the Hearst fold and creating a "new" strip with the same characters for the Pulitzer newspapers.  When it first appeared, the clones strip had no title, but in 1915  the new strip became Hans and Fritz, then the title changed to The Captain and the Kids when America entered World War I and anti-German sentiment was running high.  The Katzenjammer Kids strip was continued by Harold Knerr (1914-1949), then by Doc Winner (1949-1956), followed by a series of artist -- Joe Musial, Mike Senich, Angelo Dess, and Hy Eisman -- until the sit finally printed its final strip in 2006; it still continues in reprinted, masking it the longest running comic strip still in syndication.  Beginning in 1914, the two strips, The Katzenjammer Kids and The Captain and the Kids, competed with each other, until 1979 when The Captain and the Kids ended its six decade run.

Beginning in 1938, MGM began releasing a series of cartoons, under the helm of Fritz Freeling, about the rambunctious duo.  A total of sixteen cartoons were released between 1938 and 1939.  The Captain's Christmas was the thirteenth of these and was released on December 17, 1978.

The Captain decides to play Santa Claus, but he is waylaid and replaced by a false Santa who breaks all the toys slated for Hans and Fritz for Christmas.  Now he has to find a way to replace them.  Hans, Frits, Mama, and the Captain have very minor roles in this short cartoon, and, sadly for Dirks fans, the boys play no tricks here.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd28TetY-5g

BITS & PIECES

Openers:  The alarm ent off with a soft buzz, and Mark Tanner lazily reached over to turn it off.  He wasn't asleep -- hadn't been for at least ten minutes.  Rather, he'd been lying wake in bed, gazing out his window at the gulls wheeling slowly over san Francisco Bay.  Now, as the alrm fell silent but Mark still made no move to get up, the big golden retriever that lay next to the bed stretched, got to his feet, nuzzled gently at the boy's neck, lapped at his cheek.  finally, Mark threw the covers back and sat up.

"Okay, Chivas," he said softly, taking the dog's big head in his hands, and scratched him roughly behind the ears.  "I know what time it is, and I know I have to get up, and I know I have to go to school.  But just because I know it doesn't mean I have to kike it.!"

Chivas's lips seemed to twist into an almost human grin and his tail thumped heavily on the floor.  As Mark stood up, he heard his mother calling from the hall.

:Breakfast in ten minutes.  And no bathrobes at the table!"

Mark rolled his eyes at Chivas, who once more wagged his tail.  Then the boy stripped off his pajamas, tossed them into the corner of his room, and pulled on a clean pair of underwear.  He went to his closet and, ignoring the clothes his mother had purchased for him only two days earlier, fished a pair of worn jeans out of the pile of dirty clothes that covered the closet floor.  He pulled them on, and as he did almost every morning, glumly surveyed his image in the mirror inside the closet door.

And, as always, he told himself that it wasn't his fault he was so much smaller than everyone else.  the rheumatic fever that had kept him bed for almost a year when he waas seven seemed to have stopped his growth at the five-foot mark.

Sixteen years old, and barely over five feet tall.

-- Creature by John Saul (1989)

Things are about to change for Mark and his family.  His father, a manager for a large high tech multinational corporation is suddenly transferred to Silverdale, Colorado -- a small company and somewhat isolated company town.  One bright spot is that Jerry Harris and his family, all close friends with the Tanners, has moved to Silverdale three years earlier, and the families could reconnect.

Silverdale is an idyllic small town, postcard pretty.  And it had a high school football that never lost -- ever.  Jedd Harris, a close friend of Mark's before he had moved away, is a member of the team -- something that is a bit surprising since Jedd had suffered from asthma when he lived in California.  But Jedd has changed.  Previously he had been only slightly taller than Mark and now he towered over him.  Jedd's once slight body had bulked up and there was no trace of the asthma.  Jed was now on the Silverdale football tam, and every person on the team was tall and strong.  Jedd's personality was different too, more aggressive, less caring. 

On the day the Tanner's moved to Silverdale, almost the entire town was attending the high school football game..  With two minutes left to go the score was 42-0, Silverdale.  As team's star quarterback Jeff LaConnor, a massive six foot four inch behemoth, rushed down the field, a member of the opposing tackled him.  Jeff twisted and deliberately landed on the boy as hard as he could, elbowing him in the kidney as he did so.  The damage was extensive; two of the boy's neck vertebrae were broken, one kidney was ruptured, three ribs were cracked, and two of the ribs punctured a lung which had collapsed; the boy was in a coma and might not survive.

Much of the high school's sports success could be laid at the town's mysterious sports center, which seemed to be able to make superstars out of ordinary kids.  And now Mark is expected to join the team and go to the sports center...

John Saul (b. 1943) is the author of at least thirty bestselling suspense and horror novels published between 1977 and 2009.  The vast majority of his novels feature children in peril, an aspect that some readers have found off-putting and/or gratuitous.  Before writing thrillers, he had written ten books (title unknown to me) published under pen names; he has described the books as "really cheesy novels.".   In 2023 he received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, and this past April he was inducted into his high school hall of fame.

Many people find Saul to be immensely readable.  I prefer to take him in small doses.

Incoming:

• Edward S. Aarons, Assignment -- Ankara.  A Sam Durrell spy-guy novel. the 15th in the series of 42 (48 if you count the posthumously published books by "Will B. Aarons").  "His plane was doomed; his choice was grim.  He could take his chances on communist torture -- or go down slowly in the deep Black Sea."  The woman of Sam's interest this time is named Francesca, if you are keeping count.
• Marvin Albert, Apache Rising.  Western, filmed in 1966 at Dual at Diablo, with James Garner and Sidney Poitier.  "The day Jess Remsberg found the scalp of his Comanche wife was they day some part of his soul died.  But when he picked up the trail of the murderer, a new strength and certainty was born within him.  For the first time in his life, Jess has a path to follow -- until he found the white killer and made him pay.  He didn't count on the other woman -- this one very much alive, in the hands of cunning Apache captors -- her hair as flame-red as the hair of his wife had been jet-black.  his mind ran hot with an unsought but hard-set double vow:  to rescue the living, while avenging the dead." 
• Grant Allen, Miss Cayley's Adventures.  A collection of twelve linked stories originally published in The Strand Magazine in 1898 and 1899.  "When her stepfathers ides, Miss Lois Cayley finds herself alone in the world with only twopence in her pocket.  Undaunted, the intelligent, attractive and infinitely resourceful young woman decides to set off in search of adventure.  Her travels take her from London to Germany, Italy, Egypt, and India. as she faces various challenges and meets an assortment of eccentric characters.  But when her true love, Harold Tillington, finds himself accused of forging a will and faces prison, Miss Cayley will need all her ingenuity to investigate the case, solve the mystery, and save Harold from the diabolical plot."  Allen was a very popular (and controversial) Canadian novelist and science writer, many of whose writings are landmarks in both detective and science fiction literature.  He was also noted as an outspoken exponent of evolution in the last half of the 19th century.
• Theresa Mitchell Barbo, The Cape Cod Murder of 1899:  Edwin Ray Snow's Punishment & Redemption.  True crime form the former history editor at the Cape Cod Voice.  "On a crisp September morning in 1899, a seventeen-year-old petty thief named Edwin Ry Snow shot and killed a bakery deliveryman named Jimmy Whittemore outside Yarmouth.  The gunshots rang out for only a moment but the effects resounded on Cap Cod for half a century,  The idyllic atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Cape Cod was shattered in a flash,  Soon after the crime, Snow pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree, and was the first person ever to be sentenced to death by electric chair in Massachusetts history.  But his compelling story didn't end there, and his redemption -- earned through decades of hard tine -- was as dramatic and uplifting as his crime was heinous."
• "Nicholas Blake" (C. Day-Lewis), Death and Daisy Bland (original title A Tangled Web).  A stand-alone mystery from Britain's Poet Laureate and father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis.  "Daisy Bland was an innocent. which is a very dangerous thing to be when you are also particularly lovely and loving.  Hugo Chesterman wasn't in the least bit innocent.  He was, in fact, a habitual criminal.  In the past he had committed small crimes of various natures.  He was about to commit murder.  But Hugo had charm great charm, and a way with women which the innocent Daisy had never before encountered.  In the last analysis, it was Daisy's innocence which caused her violent undoing."  An author's note reads:  "This story follows in road outline a criminal cause celebre of the early years of the century.  the color, details and interpretation, however, are largely my own, and the characters are wholly imagined."  My copy is the 1960 Dell paperback with a cover painting by Armand Seguro which figures a naked Daisy wrapped in a sheet -- a very untypical cover for a Nicholas /Blake mystery, but, hey, you gotta sell paperbacks, right?  As Blake, the author wrote sixteen classic British mysteries featuring gentleman detective Nigel Strangeways, as well as four stand-alone mysteries.  The Strangeway mysteries were favorites of my wife.
• Ben Bova, Jupiter and Saturn. Science fiction, part of Bova's Grand Tour sequence of 25 novels set on various planets of the solar system.  Jupiter:  "Grant Archer only wanted to study astrophysics.  But the forces of the 'New Morality,' the coalition of censorious do-gooders who run 21st century America, have other plans for him.  To his distress, Grant is torn from his young bride and sent to a research station in orbit around Jupiter, to spy on the scientists who work there.  Their work may lead to the discovery of higher life forms in the Jovian system -- with implications the New Morality doesn't like at all.  What Grant's would-be controllers don't know is that his loyalty to science may be greater than his desire for a quiet life.  But that loyalty will be tested in a mission as dangerous as any undertaken -- a mission to the middle reaches of Jupiter's endless atmosphere, a place where hydrogen flows as a liquid and cyclones larger than planets rage for centuries at a time.  What lurks there is more than anyone has counted on...and stranger than anyone could have imagined."  Saturn:  "Earth groans under the thumb of fundamentalist political regimes.  Crisis after crisis has given authoritarians the upper hand.  Freedom and opportunity exist in space, for those with the nerve and skill to take it.  Now the government of Earth are encouraging many of their most incorrigible dissidents to join a great ark, a one-way expedition twice Jupiter's distance from the Sun, to Saturn, the ringed planet that baffled Galileo and has fascinated astronomers ever since.  But humans will be humans, on Earth of in the heavens -- so amidst the idealism permeating Space Habitat Goddard are many individuals with long-term schemes, each awaiting their moment.  And hidden from them is the greatest secret of all, the real purpose of this expedition, known only to a few..."
• John Brunner, The Tides of Time.  Science fiction.  "First there was the end.  After weeks of running from pursuers, Gene and Stacy finally found refuge on an isolated island.  Bur around them the island changed -- and so did they.  Each time they awoke from sleep, they lived in a different life in a different time.  And the farther back in time they went, the more they lost their anchor to their own world.  When at last they were found, the people they had become no longer recognized their pursuer.  And that was just the beginning."  
• Michael Cadnum, Blood Gold.  Young adult historical fiction.  "The year is 1849 and nineteen-year-old William Dwinelle faces the dangers of the trip to the gold fields of California.  He risks the less-known jungle route take takes him across the Isthmus of Panama, braving cholera, bandits, the steamy menace of Panama City, and the troubled voyage to San Francisco.  William's quest  is more than riches -- he is on the trail of the man who abandoned his friend Elizabeth, and when he reaches the western shore he encounters both murder and revenge among the desperate gold seekers in a land where friendship is the real treasure."
• Gordon R. Dickson, The Star Road.  Science fiction collection nine short stories from 1958 to 1969.  Icludes "Hilifter," a prequel story to the author's None But Man.  A good selecti0on displaying Dicksopn's versatility.
• David Drake, Lord of the Isles.  Epic fantasy, the first volume of six in the series -- nine of you count the Crown of the Isles trilogy.   ''...an adventure set in an extraordinary world where the elemental; forces that empower magic are rising to a thousand-year peak.  Into this world, survivors from the last magical peak intrude:  Tenoctris, a quiet and scholarly sorceress swept out of the past at the moment of final catastrophe as her civilization sank beneath the sea; the ghost of the greatest ruler, King Carus of the Isles; and the great magician known only as The Hooded One, who actually caused that ancient catastrophe.  In the days following an unusually severe storm in a tiny seaport town, life is disrupted.  First, young Garric rescues the castaway Tenoctris; then, amazingly, a huge galley lands, bearing a court envoy searching for the lost heir to a dukedom -- and finding her in Sharina, Garric's sister.  Immediately after the galley departs with Sharina to seek out her destiny, another party arrives by coach, led by a merchant sorcerer eager to hire Garric.  He sets out with this party, accompanied by Tenocris and by the shepherd Cashel and his sister, Ilna, both of whom are discovered to have some magical power.  Garric and Sharina, Cashel and Ilna, all travel toward romance, danger, and astonishing magic that will transform them and the world."
• "Brian Fox" (Todhunter Ballard), Return of Sabata.  Novelization of the third film in the Spaghetti western Sabata trilogy, with Lee Van Cleef reprising the title role.  (Van Cleef starred in the first movie but, because of scheduling conflicts, the role went to Yul Brynner in the second film.)  "Sabata returns as judge...jury...executioner!  A rich man; a frightened town; a gold mine; a con artist; a fortune in counterfeit money.  What was the connection?  Why did every gun in town belong to a redhead -- and what were they protecting?  Was it a million dollars in gold, hidden away?  Sabata wanted all the answers and he got them -- his way!"  Todhunter Ballard, also known as W. T. Ballard, was a respected author of westerns, mysteries, and screenplays (he was also a cousin of Rex Stout).  He wrote the novelization of the first film, Sabata, as "Brian Fox," a pseudonym he had previously used for film tie-ins.  The tie-in for the second in the series, Adios Sabata, was evidently penned by Alice Denham.  The third appeared as by "Brian Fox," and was apparently written by Ballard, although the book does not appear on many of his bibliographies.
• Brian Garfield, Arizona.  Western; a 1969 reprint had credited the book to one of Garfield's pseudonyms, "Frank O'Brien."  "They were misfits.  Cowboys with no cattle.  Ranchers with no land.  Rebels with no war.  And in 1890, Arizona was closing in on them.  so there on a piece of land fir only for misfits, they built a town.  And for that town a thousand desperate men and women, there was only one man for sheriff -- Ferris Rand.  Tough enough to keep them in line and smart enough to keep the rest of the world out.  But Ferris Rand had something to hide.  A mistake he'd made years ago.  A mistake that one day rode into town with a gun and a vengeance.  A mistake a man can pay for in only one way -- with his life."  I have a very strong suspicion that I already owned this and have it buried somewhere in a storage shed, but I bought the book anyway, based on my innate belief that one cannot own too many Garfields.
• Michael Gilbert, The Etruscan Net.  Mystery.  "At 6.50 pm two men got off the fast train from Rome at Florence station.  Both were dressed in charcoal grey suits and carried bulging suitcases.  and, although it was a warm summer evening, both men were wearing gloves...It was shortly afterwards that Robert Broke's troubles began.  He ran a small gallery on the Vis de Benci, and was an expert in Etruscan terra0cott -- so he was certainly not the ort of person to get mixed up with spies, forgers, or the Mafia.  Nor did he ever expect to find himself in prison on a charge of manslaughter.  Or was it really murder?"  The ever-inventive Gilbert was awarded a Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement from the Crime Writer's Association and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.
• Christopher Golden, ALIEN:  River of Pain.  Original tie-novel to the film franchise.  "When Ellen Ripley finally returns to Earth, she learns that the planet LV-426 -- now called Acheron -- has been colonized.  But LV-426 is where /Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo fpuind the orinal xenomorph -- the killing machine known as the Alien.  Protected by the Colonial Marines, the colonists seek to terraform the storm-swept planet.  Two such residents are Anne and Russell Jordan, seeking a fortune that eluded them on Earth.  On Acheron, Anne gives birth to the colony's first newborn, Rebecca Jordan, also known as Newt. The wildcatters discover a vast, decaying spaceship.  The horseshoe-shaped vessel is of particular interest to Weyland-Yutani, and may be the answer to their dreams.  but what Anne and Russ find on board proves to be the stuff, not of dreams, but of nightmares."  The prolific Golden always delivers.
• "Rohmer Zane Grey" (house name), Gun Trouble in Tonto Basin.  Collection of three western stories based on the Zane grey character Arizona Ames, all from Zane Grey Western Magazine, 1969-1971:  tow of the tales were written by Bill Pronzini & Jeff Wallman; a third is uncredited.  "Young Rich Ames came to lead the life of a range drifter after he participated in a gunfight that left two men dead.  Ames' skill earned him a reputation as one of the fastest guns in the West.  In these splendid stories, Arizona Ames comes home to find his range and his family haunted by the shadow of a terror they dare not name!"  (Five of the seven Arizona Ames stories in Zane Grey Western Magazine have been credited to Pronzini & Wallman; the remaining two are uncredited; the other writers who are known to have contributed stories based on Zane Grey's characters to this incarnation of the magazine are Clayton Matthews and Tom Curry.)
• Graham Greene, This Gun for Hire (British title A Gun for Sale).  The famous crime thriller, one of Greene's "entertainments."  The 1936 novel is "about a criminal called Raven, a man dedicated to ugly deeds.  when he is paid, with stolen notes, for killing the Minister of War, he becomes a man on the run.  Tracking down the agent who double-crossed him, and eluding the police simultaneously, he becomes both the hunter and the hunted."
• Donald Hamilton, The Big Country.  Western novel, a shorter version of the book was published in the Saturday Evening Post as "Ambush at Blanco Canyon" (four parts, February 2 through February 23, 1957).   "as far as Jim McKay was concerned, he had nothing to prove to himself -- or anyone else.  Yet he came to a land that had already sized him up as a dude.  Now word was out that he as the new owner of the Big Muddy.  Like it or not, McKay found himself in the middle of an old and bloody feud.  In Texas, land and water belonged to the man who could hold it with a gun.  Both the Terrills and the Hannesys wanted Big Muddy's land and water, and were willing to kill to get it.  But they hadn't bargained on a man like Jim MvKay, a quiet man who didn't know the meaning of fear -- who had never faced a fist of a gun that he couldn't beat. "  This was the basis of the 1958 film with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston.
• Brian Herbert, The Race for God.  Science fiction.  "who needs heaven?  God, it turns out, lives on the planet Tananius-Ofo in the distant galaxy 722C12009.  And now, after countless millennia, He's invited us to come visit him.  Not everybody, mind you.   Just an odd assortment of heathens, heretics, pantheists, perverts, and true believers of every sect and creed -- all crammed into a single white spaceship piloted by a slightly crazed biocomputer.  Each pilgrim is determined to be the first to reach God and learn His secrets...If they don't kill each other on the way there!"  Herbert, son of Frank, is best known for a series of novels, written with Kevin J. Anderson, expanding on his father's fictional Dune universe (nineteen novels and two collections, plus various nonfiction works -- with more to come).
• Don Herron & John D. Haefele. Arkham House Ephemera:  The Classic Years  1937-1973.  Subtitled A Pictorial History & Guide for Collectors.  Arkham House was a small publishing company founded by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve the legacy of H. P. Lovecraft after that writer's death.  In addition to being responsible for HPL's current reputation and influence, the press also issued important books by Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and William Hope Hodgson, as well as the first books by Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, and others.  Derleth later created the publishers Stanton & Lee, which published mainly books of regional interest, and the mystery house Mycroft & Moran, which published Derleth's stories of the Holmes-like Solar Pones, as well as other mysteries. {Derleth's death in 1971 severely impacted Arkham House; Wandrei served briefly as editorial director after Derleth died, but Wandrei's major interest was in publishing the five volumes of Lovecraft's Collected Letters.  With the advent of James Turner as editorial director, the "classic years" of Arkham ended.  Turner veered away from the publisher's traditional horror and weird tale roots and began spotlighting then-current science fiction and fantasy writers.  Turner was fired in 1997 by Derleth's daughter April, who took over the reins of the company until her death in 2011.   April Derleth hired Peter Ruber as consulting editor; ill health caused him to be replaced by George Vanderburgh and Robert Weinberg.  Very few new titles were published since 2000, and none have been published since 2010.  The company's website has been silenced for several years and the August Derleth/Arkham House webpage states that the company is no longer in business.]   Arkham House Ephemera covers promotional material from the publisher, as well as advertising brochures, stock lists, postcards, order blanks, and notices to the trades.  It provides a fascinating insider view of the company.  The book is certainly not for everyone, but you don't have to be a collector to enjoy it -- just someone who is a big fan of August Derleth's writing and of his various publishing efforts. 
• Richard Jessup,  Chuka, Western novel, the basis of a 1977 film starring Rod Taylor.  "Fort Hll...Fort Blood...Fort Death...all the names used by troopers assigned to Fort Clendennon -- the rebels, the guardhouse bullies, the cowards, thieves, and brawlers.  Isolated deep in a country fought over by Cheyenne, Arapaho, Apache, the Fort was set on broad, open grasslands.  into this seething hellhole rode a saloon tooty* who had sold her favors for a ticket out of Trinidad, a Spanish-Mexican lady of quality, and the pistolero -- a man with a bone-deep hardness in his face, quicksilver in his draw, and a legendary past -- they called him CHUKA."  [* yeah, that's what is said -- "tooty"]  Also, Texas Outlaw.  Another western.  " 'They call be Babe Long,' the kid said.  His hand flashed to his side and returned with unbelievable speed, the Colt up steady and cocked.  It was perfect fluid motion.  His eyes were black and moist looking, as if there might be frost on them.  His hands were as steady as a church organist's.  'That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen,' the sheriff said quietly to the deadliest killer in all of Texas."
• Elmore Kelton, Buffalo Wagons.  Western.  "For Gage Jameson, the summer of 1873 has been a poor hunt.  A year ago he felled sixty-two buffalo in one stand, but now the great Arkansas herd is gone, like the Republican herd before it.  In Dodge City, old hide-hunters speak in awe of a last great herd to the south -- but no hunter who values his scalp dares ride south of the Cimarron and into Comanche territory.  None but Gage Jameson..."  This one won a Spur Award for Best Western Novel for 1957.  Also, Eyes of the Hawk.  Another western, this time written under the pseudonym "Lee McElroy."  "Thomas Canfield's people were among the earliest settlers, carving their ranch out of a wild country around Stonehill, Texas.  He was a proud man with the fierce-eyed stare that led the Mexicans to call him gavilan -- 'The Hawk."  Branch Ison was a brash, violent newcomer who fought ruthlessly to build a fortune at Canfield's expense.  they were tow hard men hurtling toward a bloodstained clash for power with a day of reckoning that would shake a Texas town to its very roots."  This one won a Spur award for Best Western Novel in 1981.
• Tim Lebbon, Alien:  Out of the Shadows.  An original novel based on the Aliens film franchise, set between the events of Alien and Aliens.  "As a child, Chris Hooper dreamed of monsters.  But in deep space, he found only darkness and isolation.  Then on planet LV178, he and his fellow miners discovered a storm-scoured, sand-blasted hell -- and trimonite, the hardest material known to man.  When a shuttle crashes into the mining ship Marion, the miners learn that there was more than trimonite deep in the caverns.  there was evil, hibernating -- and waiting for suitable prey.  Hoop and his associates uncover a nest of Xenomorphs, and hell takes on a new meaning.  Quickly they discover that their only hope lies with the unlikeliest of saviors...Ellen Ripley, the last human survivor of the salvage ship Nostromo." 
• Jonathan Maberry, Mars One.  Science fiction.  "Tristan has known that he and his family were going to be on the first mission to colonize Mars since he was twelve years old, and he has been training ever since.  However, knowing the he would be leaving for Mars with no plan to return didn't stop him from falling in love with Izzy.  Now, at sixteen, it's time to leave Earth, and he's forced to face what he must leave behind in exchange for an uncertain future.  Not everyone is eager to colonize Mars, however, and the enemy may even be on board, ready to do anything in their power to end this mission..."
• Marie J. MacNee, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writers, Volume 2:  K-Z.  Outdated (1995) and not very useful reference book from Gale Research, Inc.  "Everyone's familiar with the names Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark*, and Isaac Asimov.  But how many know how they got their start in writing, who their favorite authors were, or what inspired their stories?  fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writers provides a wealth of information on favorite authors -- some of it common knowledge**, some not -- from the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres.  did you know that Stephen King was always the last to be picked to play baseball in school?***  Or that Christopher Pike is a pseudonym taken from an early Star Trek episode?***  Or that Andre Norton created science fiction's first heroine?*****  Or that William Golding's Lord of the Flies was rejected by 21 publishers before it was finally published?"******  [* Yeah, they went there, lumping Mary Higgins Clark in with horror writers  ** Mostly, yes  ***I had probably already assumed it  **** I'm not much of a Trekkie but even I knew that  ***** She didn't  ****** Don't know i knew the exact number, but it knew it was more than I have fingers and toes]  Each entry contains (where applicable) Vital Information (date and place of author's birth and death), Photos (of the authors, or a book jacket, or a movie still), Biographical Sketch, Best Bets (some of the author's best works as determined by the publisher), and Sources further reading).  Designed (I sincerely hope) for junior high libraries, the selections ignore many of the greater writers in these genres in favor of popular ones, with a heavy emphasis on writers of young adult books.  William Kotzwinkle, for example is included for his novelizations of E.T. and Superman III, while ignoring Doctor Rat (his World Fantasy Award-winning novel); Kotzwinkle's five books about Walter, the Farting Dog were published well after this reference book came out, but I doubt if it would have covered them anyway.  As a reference book, this volume is poorly planned, poorly executed, and unworthy of the junior high bracket is seems to be aimed for.  And get off my lawn!
• "Charles Eric Maine" (David McIlwain), High Vacuum.  Science fiction novel from 1957.  "...a tale of a grim race with time.  The Alpha rocket is the first manned expedition from Earth to get to the Moon.  It makes a crash-landing and facilities for the 'maintenance of the abnormal' are sharply cut.  There is enough oxygen to support the four survivors for five weeks -- or two for ten, or one for twenty..."
• Doug Moench. Batman:  Haunted Gotham.  Graphic novel.  "Everybody DIES.  And in Haunted Gotham, odds are it's MURDER.  Cut off from the rest of the world, the city has become a dangerous hunting ground.  In service to the darkest lords of the underworld, a patchwork Joker and a horde of supernatural monstrosities prey upon humanity.  The innocent have only one protector -- the terrifying but all-too-human Batman.  Trained from birth, Bruce Wayne must battle these demons if he's to liberate the city and save the souls of his parents.  Scorching the streets with a purifying fire, the Batman will never quit his campaign, even if he is forever haunted, and forever hunted, by all the demons of Hell."  Collects issues from the 2000 comic book series.
• [Monty Python -- Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, & Michael Palin], The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus:  All the Words, Volumes One and Two.  Because nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
• Sarah Pinborough, Bleeding Ground.  Horror.  "Life was good for Matt and Cloe.  They were in love and looking forward to their new baby.  But what Chloe gave birth to wasn't a baby.  It isn't even human.  It's an entirely new species that uses humans only for food -- and as hosts for their young.  As Matt soon learns. though, he is not alone in this terror.  Women all over town have begun to give birth to these hideous creatures, spidery nightmares that live to kill -- and feed.  As the infestation spreads and the countryside is reduced to a series of web-shrouded ghost towns, will the survivors find a way to fight back?  Or is it only a matter of time before all of mankind is reduced to a...BREEDING GROUND."
• Ian Rankin, Rather Be the Devil.  A Rebus novel.  "As he settles into an uneasy retirement, Rebus has given up his favorite vices.  There's just one habit he cannot shake:  he can't let go of an unsolved case  It's the only pastime he has left, and up until now it's the only one that wasn't threatening to kill him.  But when Rebus starts reexamining the facts behind the long-ago murder of a glamorous woman at a luxurious hotel, the past comes roaring back to life with a vengeance.  As soon as Rebus starts asking questions, a fresh body materializes.  Connecting the mysteries of the past to those of the present, Rebus learns that he's not the only one with an insatiable curiosity about what happened in that hotel room forty years ago, and that someone will stop at nothing to ensure that the crime remains ancient history."
• Barry Sadler, 17 of the 22 historical military fantasies novels about Casca. the Eternal Mercenary, who was the legionary who drove the Holy Lance into the side of Jesus Christ on Golgotha, and was then cursed to the life of an immortal soldier until the Second coming.  Sadler was the Green beret who spent five month deployed in Vietnam (where he was wounded) and is best known for his #1 song. 1966's  "The Ballad of the Green Berets".  The books I picked up were #4  The War Lord -- some place this book as #3 in the series (Casca in Imperial China), #5  The Barbarian (Casca in the Northlands beyond Germany in the days of Imperial Rome) , #6  The Persian (Casca defeats a Hunnish army in ancient Persia),  #7  The Damned  (Casca vs. Atilla the Hun), #8  Soldier of Fortune (Casca in Cambodia going against the Kmer Rouge), #9  The Sentinel (Casca in ancient North Africa), #10  The Conquistador 9Casca in 1y6th century Mexico), #11  The Legionaire  (Casca at Dien Bien Phu in Nam during the Indo-China War), #12  The African Mercenary (Casca out to topple an African dictator's regime), #13  The Assassin (Casca in the ancient mid-East), #14  The Phoenix  (Casca back in Vietnam), #15  The Pirate (Casca joins ranks with Bluebeard), #17  The Warrior (Casca shipwrecked in the south Sea among a warrior tribe), #18  The Cursed  (Casca as a British soldier in Colonial China), #19  The Samurai (Casca in Feudal Japan), #20  Soldier of Gideon (Casca in the Middle East during a 20th century religious war, and #21  The Trenchsoldier (Casca in World War I).  That Casca sure got around.   The author had a controversial and troubling life.  in 1978, he shot a country music songwriter in the head; the victim died the next day.  Sadler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 4 to 5 years in prison, which hos lawyers managed to get reduced to 30 days in the county workhouse, Sadler served 28 of those days.  1n 1984 he was shot in the head in a cab in Guatemala City in what might have been an attempted robbery.  He was flown to the US. where he remained in a coma for six weeks and became a quadriplegic with significant brain damaged.  Released in early 1989, he vanished, only to be found days before a competency hearing was scheduled for him. and died in a VA hospital on November 5, just four days after his 49th birthday.
• "Bradford Scott" (A. Leslie Scott), The Range Terror.  A Walt Slade western.  "Trouble stalked the town of Pirate...Wagon trains passing westward were pillaged, their occupants brutally murdered.  Shootings in the street were an everyday occurrence.  Nobody lifted an eyebrow at news of another stagecoach holdup.  Even the sheriff believed that Pirate was a town too tough to tame.  Into this holocaust rode Walt Slade, undercover ace of the Texas Rangers, who loaded his guns and put his badge aside to smash lawlessness and achieve justice and peace."  First published in Thrilling Western (March, 1946),then issued in paperback (probably expanded) in 1959.  Scott wrote 69 novelets about Scott for Thrilling Western, many of which were later published as paperback originals.  Scott had created the character of Texas Ranger Jim Hatfield for Texas Rangers in 1936 under the name "Jackson Cole"; when other writers began writing Jim Hatfield stories as Cole, Scott then created the character Walt Slade.  In 1956, Scott published half a dozen novels about Jim Hatfield as Jackson Cole, but the copyright holders of the original Hatfield stories objected, so he switched to writing novels about Walt Slate as Bradford Scott -- over the next seventeen years he published over a hundred Walt Slade novels, many of which I believe were rewritten and expanded from his original magazine stories.  I don't know if anyone has ever fully traced the Walt Slade novels to their magazine origins.
• Dave Van (he insisted on the capital "V") Arnam, Starmind.  Science fiction.  "Benjy Tyler:  idiot mind in a beautiful body...Jailyn Rost:  very much a female, very rich, and very clever...Joe Winslow:  multi-wave expert -- caretaker and attendant on Asteroid 770.  Whether they knew it or not, these three were linked -- and in a way no humans had ever been before them  Only time would tell whether the link destroyed them..."
• "Jonas Ward" (William R. Cox), Trap for Buchanan.  Western novel, the second in the Buchanan series.  "When Buchanan grubstaked Mousetrap Mulligan he never thought he'd see his money again.  He never thought the old man would hit paydirt.  But he did -- and that was bad news for Buchanan.  Because a lonely old desert rat with a hidden cache of nuggets and a drunkard's bragging habits was likely to end up very dead...very suddenly.  Then Mousetrap vanished.  Every thieving killer around knew the key to his treasure was his seventeen-year-old granddaughter, Nora.  Now all that stood between helpless girl and a wild band of cold-hearted murderers was one man.  Buchanan."
• Joseph A. West, Gunsmoke:  Blood, Bullets, and Buckskin.  The first of sixth original novels based on the classic western television series (from the Festus days -- not Chester).  "It's cattle season -- and for more than a thousand punchers, the bright lights, whiskey, and willing women of Dodge will make up for months of straddling half-broke ponies and driving herds across storm-swept plains.  But for Marshal Matt Dillon, this season means trouble.  Five years ago, Cage Stucker cut loose with a bullwhip and gave Sean Tyree a beating.  Now, while Cage and his father are in town to sell their herd, Tyree is there top settle a score.  Sean Tyree's gambling years paid off big.  Armed only with money, he has a special kind of vengeance in mind.  While Dodge may be hard enough to withstand the showdown, Dillon has not lived this long by charging headlong into trouble.  He'd rather see Cage sell quick, head back to Texas, and let this not so sleepy ton get some rest..."
• Richard S. Wheeler, The Fate.  Western.  "When Dragovich's gold was stolen and his daughter kidnapped in a daring train robbery, the ruthless gold king had big reasons and plenty of sharpshooters to make sure the case got solved pronto.  But sheriff and doctor Santiago Toole learned that justice was not so simple when he discovered the secret connection between Dragovich and the robber.  It became even more complicated after Dragovich kidnapped Toole's lovely wife -- and informed him that he'd never see her again if Dragovich didn't get his own brand of justice.  Dragovich was a man who always got hat hw wanted.  But if there was a man who could stop him, it was Toole..."  Also, From Hell to Midnight.  Another western.  He came to unearth a buried treasure...not to get buried alive.  "In a tweed coat and pith helmet, Hannibal Jones stands out from the hardscrabble crowd on the Nevada frontier.  But the legendary mining geologist fears no man, dead or alive -- and that includes the ghost believed to haunt the long-closed Alice Mine.  A man named Lucky Haggerty struck gold with the Alice, and then mysteriously shut it down before his death.  Now Hannibal is trying yo find out what treasure the mine still holds -- and who owns it.  After someone tries to scare him off, he starts digging into Lucky's life.  What he finds is ne beautiful woman -- and then two more after that.  Before long, Hannibal's investigation touches off an avalanche of greed, lust, and anger.  And for a man who just wanted to bring a dead mine back to life, the time has come to face down a murderous enemy, and somehow get off this mountain in one piece..."
• Zane Grey's Western Magazine, vol. 1, No.8, October 1947, edited by Don Ward; not be conflated with the later Zane Grey Western Magazine mentioned above.  This one contains Grey's Buck Duane story "The Outlaw, or The Last of the Duanes," an abridgment of the 1o915 novel The Lone Star Ranger.  Other reprints are Max Brand's much anthologized story "Wine of the Desert" (from This Week, June 7, 1936) and Bret Harte's "Found at Blazing Sun"9from The Sun, March 5, 1882).  Original stories are by Eugene Cunningham, Giff Cheshire, Frank C Robinson, and Allan Vaughn Elson; with a poem by S. Omar Barker and an article by J. Frank Dobie.  Looks like a very readable issue for any western fan.

The Republic of Fredonia:  Not be confused with Freedonia, the fictional country from the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, Fredonia was the named given to a wannabe country centered around Nacogdoches, Texas in December 0f 1826 by Benjamin W. Edwards and his brother, Empresario Hayden Edwards and their followers to declare independence from Mexico, which controlled the area at the time.   Fredonia encompassed land given to Hayden Edwards by the Mexican government the year before.  ("Empresario" was a term used to describe a for settling in the eastern areas of person who had been granted the right to settle in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for settling in the eastern portion of Coahuila y Texas [one of the constituted states of the newly formed United States of Mexico.])  The Republic of Fredonia did not last long because it alienated long-established residents of the area, leading the Mexican government to revoke Edwards' contract.   Supporters of Edwards arrested and removed municipal officials ties to the long-term residents, declaring their independence from Mexico.  A local Cherokee tribe agreed to support the new republic until they were dissuaded by another empresario, Stephen Austin, to repudiate the rebellion.  On January 31, 1827, a force of over 100 Mexican soldiers and 275 Texian militia marched into Nacogdoches and restored order.  The Edwards brothers fled to the United States.  The Republic of Fredonia had existed for just one month, one week, and three days. 

In reaction to the Fredonian revolt, the Mexican government severely curtailed immigration to the area from the United/States, and act that led to dissatisfaction and to the beginning of the Texas Revolution, resulting in the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836.

The name Fredonia, or Freedonia, or Fredon had been given to several fictional countries, even before the Marx Brothers.  In 1803, U.S. politician and member of the House of Representatives Samuel Mitchell had suggested the use of "Fredonians" as a "sonorous" name to refer to Americans, on the basis that "American" was used as a pejorative among many Englishmen.   In conjunction with this, he suggested "Fredon" to refer to the country as a whole, "Fredonia" for rhetorical and poetic use, "Frede" as a colloquial name for a citizen of the United States, and "Fredish" as a related adjective.  The proposal did not go far.  

Fredonia was also a suggested name for Liberia.

A Fredonia Lodge of Freemasons existed in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1810 to 1834.

On Candid Camera, Woody Allen asked passers-by their opinion of independence for Freedonia.  Fredonia was one of the fictional countries mentioned in the film Jabberwocky.  The game company FASA supposedly stood for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration."  Freedonia is also mentioned in the PC game Quest for Glory II:  Trial by Fire.  In the 1990s. Spy magazine successfully convinced several members of Congress that ethnic cleansing was going on in Freedonia.  The Principality of Freedonia was a micronation proposed for part of Somalia by a group of united States teenagers; their proposal was rejected; the Principality was actually based in Boston).    Freedonia (and Duck Soup) was used as an in-joke amongst characters in the third season of The West Wing.  Freedonia ha been referenced as a country in the games Democracy and Democracy !1, while Fredonia is referenced in a Nancy Drew game.  Doctor who has referenced his companion Martha Jones as being from Freedonia.  In an Australian animated series, the leader of Freedonia declares was on Australia.  In 

the Despicable Me franchise, Gru's brother lives in Freedonia.  Frank Asch's children's book The Lending Zoo takes place in Freedonia.  Freedonia has also been used as a catchall phrase in various news reports and political articles.

And so it goes...

A Somewhat Scary Cartoon:  From 1956, To Your Health, about the dangers of alcohol and alcoholism, for the World Health Organization.

https://archive.org/details/iM7a19AGCtkyz4adqUA6Oy6lEfMocN

 

From The Devil's Dictionary:

• Absurdity:  A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's opinion.
• Academe:  An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
• Academy:  A modern school where football is taught
• Accordion:  An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.
• Accountability:  The mother of caution.
• acquaintance:  A person whim we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.
• Actually:  Perhaps, possibly.
• Admiration:  The polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves

      -- Ambrose Bierce

HappyAre Days Are Here Again:  There are a number of official (and unofficial) holidays and observations being celebrated today.  Here are three of them:

• Barbie and Barney Backlash Day
• National Chocolate -Covered Anything Day
• Stupid Toy Day

If you had to pick just one, which would it be?

Happy Birthday, Noel Coward:  From Wikipedia:  "Sir Noel Pierce Coward (16 December 1899 - 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called 'a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise."  Among his works are some of the most wonderfully inventive songs of the 20th century, and that doesn't include his many plays, including one of my favorite comedies, Blithe Spirit.

"Mad Dogs and Englishmen"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lEkHonfL7E

"20th Century Blues"

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

"There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WETT6oPznq4

"I Went to a Marvelous Party"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZjVJwjbCu4

"The Party's Over Now"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFTxkKWL7l8

"Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsT1uoVi_qE

"London Pride"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnB2lewGcYc

"Mrs. Worthington"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM-JyGk8zl8

"The Stately Homes of England"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgccMOU6Xtg

"World Weary"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bd1R2X7NcI

"Alice Is at It Again"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5-vIczW9Pk

"Could You Please Oblige Us with a Bren Gun"

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

"Mad About the Boy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT_IKsE68p0

More Birthday Greetings:  Among those born under Sagittarius are Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), first wife of Henry VIII of England, the marriage was annulled after nearly 24 years, but she did manage to escape with her head; Flemish artist Hans Bol (1534-1593), here's his "Landscape with the Story of Venus and Adonis":  https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103R5E; English jurist, scholar, and polymath John Seldon (1584-1654), John Milton called him "the chief of learned men reputed in this land"; Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort (also known as Mary Seymour and Mary Capell, 1630 to 1715), English botonist and gardener, known for introducing the Pelargonium zonale, the Passaflora caerulea, and the Ageratum species to Britain (look them up; I did); George Whitefield (1714=1777), English Anglican minister who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement; Elizabeth Carter (a.k.a. "Eliza", 1717-1806), English poet and member of the Bluestocking Circle, her poem "Ode to Wisdom" (https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/ode-wisdom) was published (without attribution) in the text of Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa; Ludwig van Beethovan (1770-1829), the muse for Schroeder in Peanuts (Schroeder's address is 1770 James Street -- easy to remember because it is the birth year of Beethovan); Jane Austen (1775-1817), novelist superb; Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776-1810), German chemist and physicist, he basically discovered ultraviolet radiation, his rather early death has been attributed to his electrical self-experimentation; Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855) English author o the five-volume Our Village and of Recollections of a Literary Life, praised by some and panned by a recent critic as "trite, sentimental, long-winded, short-sighted, arch, chatty, and twee"; Leopold I of Belgium (1790-1865), he ruled from 1831 until his death, he became a British citizen in 1816, just months before marrying the only legitimate child of the man who would become Britain's George IV, in 1830 he was offered the throne of Greece but refused, even when he was offered the throne of the new state of Belgium, Leopold was reluctant to accept. although he finally did in 1831; Russian mathematician Viktor Bunyakovsky (1804-1889), among other things, he is credited with the discovery of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, something that is far beyond my knowledge and pay grade; Stuart Donaldson (1812-1867), the first Premier of New South Wales; Mary Hartwell Catherwell (1847-1902), author of popular historical romances, known for interest in American dialects and for the historical accuracy in the period details of her novels; George Santayana (1863-1952), Spanish-american philosopher and novelist, his aphorisms include "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and "Only the dead have seen the end of war"; Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Russian artist (here's his painting "The Cow" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky#/media/File:Kandinsky_-_Die_Kuh_PA291123.jpg  and his "Small worlds I"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky#/media/File:Vassily_Kandinsky,_1922_-_Kleine_Welten_I_(new_file).jpg ; Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), Irish Christian missionary who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur, serving 55 years in India and writing 35 books about her experiences; Berthe Lamme Feicht (1889-1943), the first American woman to graduate in the main discipline of engineering rather than civil engineering; Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967), Hungarian composer and the creator of the Kodaly method of music education; Walther Meissner (1882-1974), German technical physicist who discovered the Meissner effect in 1933 (damping the magnetic field in superconductors); Max Linder (1883-1925), French actor and silent film comedian, cited as "the first international film star" and "the first film star anywhere"; Alexander I of Yugoslavia (1888-1934), King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovens 1921 to 1929, and King of Yugoslavia from 1929 until his assassination, his 13-year rule  is the longest of the three monarchs of Yugoslavia; children's picture book illustrator Marie Hall Ets (1895-1984), she won the Caldecott Prize in 1960 and was runner-up for the prize another five times -- a record only surpassed by Maurice Sendak; Anna Anderson (1896-1984), would be Princess Anastasia of Russia; V. S. Pritchett (1900-1997), noted British writer and literary critic;

 Anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), author of Coming of Age in Samoa; Rafael Alberti (1902-1999), noted Spanish poet and member of the 'Generation of '27," in 1983 he was awarded the Primio Cervantes, Spain's highest literary award; Hardie Albright (1903-1975), stage and film actor (Granny Get Your Gun, Pride of the Yankees, Angel on My Shoulder), he was the voice of the young Bambi in the Disney film; Piet Hein (1905-1996), Danish polymath whose short poems known as Grooks appeared in 20 volumes from 1940to 1963, as a mathematician he invented the Soma cube and devised many board games. including Hex; Barbara Kent (1907-2011), Canadian-born American film actress, prominent in the 20s and 30s (That's My Daddy, Chinatown After Dark, Oliver Twist); Freddie Brown (1910-1991), English amateur cricketeer who played Test cricket for England from 1931 to 1953, an all-rounder, he batted right-handed and bowled either arm medium pace or leg break and googly (whatever that means), in his career he scored 713 Test runs and 13,325 First-Class runs; Ruth Johnson Colvin (1916-2024),american educator who founded ProLiteracy Worldwide, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006; Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) science fiction writer and futurist, one of the towering figures of the genre and known as the Prophet of the Space Age, he proposed the satellite communication system using geostationary orbits used today, he will be forever known for 2001; Menahem Pressler (1923-2023) German-American pianist, member of the Beaux Arts Trio (1955-2008). "his playing was described as focused on elegance, delicacy, and clarity"; James McCracken (1926-1988), American operatic tenor, a pillar of the Metropolitan Opera during the 60s and 70s; Peer Dickinson (1927-2015), Rhodesian-English author of detective and children's novels and two-time winner of the Carnegie Medal, I'm particularly fond of his mystery novels; Randall Garret (1927-1987), American science fiction author, creator of Lord Darcy, witty and rakish, he once introduced himself to Marian Zimmer Bradley, saying "Coito ergo sum" (which had to be explained to her later); Terry Carter (1928-2024), American actor best known as Sgt. Joe Broadhurst in McCloud and Colonel Tigh in Battlestar Galactica, I remember him best, though as the weekend news anchor for WBZ-TV 4 from 1965 to 1968, where he became New England's (and possibly America's) first Black television news anchor; Philip K. Dick (1928-1982), America science fiction writer concerned with the nature of reality and perception and a master of paranoid fiction, his books were the basis for Blade Runner, Minority Report, The Man in the High Castle, and Total Recall (among other films and television shows), his drug abuse led to mental problems, a suicide attempt, and paranormal experiences;   Bill Britain (1930-2011),  American author of short mystery fiction and children's books, in the mystery field he wrote stories about "The Man Who Read..." and about science teacher Mr. Strang (not to be confused with the hard-boiled, shoot-'em-up Mr. Strang created by pulpster Carrol John  Daly), his work for younger readers includes the Newberry Honor Book The Wish Giver; musician Sam Most (1930-2013), "probably the first great jazz flutist"; Florida politician Bill Young (1930-2013), who served in the House of Representatives from 1971 until his death, at the time he was the longest-serving Republican member of Congress, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee from 1995-2005, he provided many earmarks for his district, he was sometimes viewed as a moderate, I I find his views on homosexuality and global warming to be off-putting, he was instrumental in creating a national bone marrow registry, though, and it is now named in his honor;  Grace Alele-Williams (1932-2022), mathematician, the first Nigerian woman to receive a doctorate; Quentin Blake (b. 1932), illustrator of Roald Dahl children's books. he was the inaugural Britain Children's Laureate (1999-2001); Morris Dees (b. 1936), co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center; Joyce bulifant (b. 1937), American actress (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Happiest Millionaire, Airplane!) and frequent game sow panelist; Frank Deford (1938-2017), sports writer who was also a regular sports commentator on NPR's Morning Edition from 1980 until his death; Liv Ullman (b. 1938), outstanding Norwegian actress and muse of Ingmar Bergman; Lesley Stahl (b. 1941) television journalist who has been on CBS's Sixty Minutes since 1981; Steven Bochco (1943-2018), television writer and producer who developed Hill Street blues, L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, M.D., NYPD BLUE, among other shows, he also produced (**sigh**) Cop Rock; Tony Hicks (b. 1945), British guitarist and singer, member of The Hollies, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010; Ben Cross (1947-2020), English actor (Chariots of Fire, First Knight, Star Trek), he also played Barnabas Collins in the ill-fated 1991 television re-make of Dark Shadows); Martyn Poliakoff (b. 1947), British chemist known for his work on green chemistry and for being the main presenter on the popular podcast Periodic Videos; Billy Gibbons (b. 1949), guitarist and lead singer for ZZ Top, he also had a recurring as Angela's father on Bones; Aykut Barka (1951-2002), Turkish geoscientist best known for contributing to the understanding of the North Anatolian Fault Zone, one of the most dangerous faults in the world; Mike Flanagan (1951-2011), Cy Young Award-winning pitcher who spend 18 years for the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays, he later worked as a front office executive and color commentator for the Orioles; Tobben Ford (b. 1951), guitarist who was a member of the L.A. Express and the Yellowjackets, named one of the 100 Greatest guitarists of the 20th Century by Musician magazine; Xander Berkeley (b. 1955) ubiquitous American actor who had appeared in 200 film and television projects. he starred in The Booth at the End and was a series regular on 24 and Nikita, and had recurring roles on The Mentalist and The Walking Dead; Carol Browner (b. 1955), director of the White House Office of energy and Climate Change Policy under Obama (2009-2011) and EPA director under Clinton (1993=2001); Alison La Placa (b. 1959), actress who played Joanna, Rachel Green's boss who dated Chandler on Friends; Steve Mattson (b. 1959), comic book writer and colorist, he was co-creator, co-writer, and writer of DC's Superboy and the Ravens; Shane Black (b. 1961), the writer of such films as Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Last Action Hero, and The Long Kiss Goodnight, and directed such films as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys, and The Predator; Bill Hicks (1961-1994), sometime controversial stand-up comedian ("Children are smarter than any of us, cause I don't know one child with a fulltime job and children"); LaChanze (LaChanze Sapp-Gooding, b. 1962), she won a Tony for playing Celie Harris Johnson in The Color Purple, and has won three additional Tonys for co-producing other stage shows; Sam Robarts (b. 1961), actor son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall; Jon Tenney (b. 1961), actor noted for playing Special Agent Fritz Howard on TNT's The Closer and follow-up series Major Crimes; William "Refrigerator" Perry (b. 1962), former football player for the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles, he was the heaviest player to ever score a touchdown in the Super Bowl, and has the largest Super Bowl ring at size 23 or more; Benjamin Bratt (b. 1963), American actor indigenous Quechua Peruvian descent, he has 71 credits on IMDb; J. B. Smoove (born Jerry Angelo Brooks, b. 1965), American actor and comedian, known for his work on Def Comedy Jam, Saturday Night Live, and Curd Your Enthusiasm, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Mt. Vernon, New York; Miranda Otto (b. 1967), who played Eowyn in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film series, she also played Zelda Spellman on Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and was a featured actor in television's Homeland and 24:  Legacy; Greg Kovacs (1968-2013), Canadian IFBB professional bodybuilder, he was the largest pro body building in the latter half of the 1990s at 6 foot-4 inches and an off-season weight of 420 pounds, in 2010 he was charged with extortion of a supplement store owner, he died in 2013 of a heart attack; Adam Reiss (b. 1969), American astrophysicist and Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 2011 for providing evidence that the universe is expanding; Dmitri Tymoczko (b. 1969), American composer and music theorist, his article "The Geometry of Musical chords" was the first music-theory article ever to appear in the journal Science; Daniel Cosgrove (b. 1070), American actor known for his roles on soap operas All My Children, Beverly Hills, 90210, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and Days of Our Lives; Michael McCarey (b. 1971), former bass singer of Boz II Men; Paul Leyden (b. 1972) best known for his role of Simon Frasier in As the World Turns; Paul Maynard (b. 1976), Conservative member of Parliament from 2010 to 2024, he suffers from cerebral palsy and a speech defect due to being strangled by the umbilical cord at birth, and developed epilepsy when he was 22, he complained about Labour MPs mocking his disability during a debate 2010 (he received an apology and the Labour Party received a dressing down from its leaders), he was an early supporter of Brexit, his name was included in media coverage about a group of Conservative MPs with high expense accounts in 2014, and this year he was referred to the parliamentary expenses watch for alleged misuse of funds; Krysten Ritter (b. 1981)  Marvel television's Jessica Jones; Anna Sedakova (b. 1982), Ukrainian singer and actress now living in Los Angeles, in 2009 she was one of the faces on Channel One, the biggest Russian-speaking channel in the world, she hosted Project Runway Russia in 2011, she was criticized in 2014 for accepting awards in Russia during the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, and in 2022 she received sanctions from Ukraine amid the Russian invasion -- she has never publicly spoken out against the invasion but she has  criticized misogyny and sexual harassment in Russian music and sexism in Russian television; Anna Popplewell (b. 1988), English actress who stared as Susan Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia film series and played Lady Lola in Reign from 2013 to 2016; and Kai Cenat (b. 2001), American online streamer, YouTuber, and influencer (whom I have never herd of because I'm old), he is the fifth most-followed Twitch streamer (whatever that is) with 13 million followers and the most-subscribed Twitch streamer, he popularized such slang words as "rizz" and "gyat", I'm sure his mother is very proud of him.

Florida Man:

• Evidently hunting in Florida can be illegal, at least when you are hunting for drones.  72-year-old Florida Man Dennis Winn of Lake county found that out after he shot a drone that belonged to Walmart. Winn was charged with one count of shooting or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings and one count of  criminal mischief causing more than $1000 in damage and one count of discharging a firearm in public  He was ordered to pay Walmart $5000.  Police said there were children playing in the area at the time.  Winn said that he thought the drone was surveilling him (and who's to say they weren't?) and that he had previously reported similar encounters with drones to his HOA.  His attorney said that the restitution was an admission of wrongdoing, but not a guilty plea.
• Florida Man Joseph Voight, 23, of Polk County, has admitted he shot and killed his father, who (he said) had complained about Voight's constant playing of video games.  For good measure, he also shot his mother, who survived.
• Florida Man Nicholas Ortiz, 33, has been sentenced to life for the shooting of a co-worker in Rusty's Bar and Grill in Naples in 2021.  Ortiz and the victim had been arguing out side the bar, when the victim went back into the bar to talk with another co-worker.  Ortiz followed him into the bar, drew a weapon and shot the man several times.  One other person was shot during the incident and another was injured trying to break up the confrontation.
• Florida Man Gerald Radford, who is accused of a hate crime in the killing of a gay man, has asked a Tampa judge to dismiss the charges, saying that he acted in self defense.  Radford claimed that the victim, John Lay, had hit him in the face several times just before the shooting.  Prosecutors dismiss the allegations, and witnesses have testified that Radford had harassed Lay for several months before the shooting, using homophobic slurs. Arresting officers testified that Radford had used homophobic slurs at the time of his arrest.  Radford, of course, is pinning his hopes on Florida's "stand your ground" law.
• Florida Man Alexander Elliott, 21, of Riverview, was arrested weeks after a hit-and-run that injured four people.  One of the victims had photographed the car that had hit them but the police could not make out the license plate or a description of what the driver was wearing.  Over the next few days, the victims kept getting tips from anonymous tipsters, including surveillance phots of a damaged car being towed from a Zoom Zoom gas station shortly after the crash.  The tips eventually led police to Elliott, who admitted it was his car but denied being the driver.  Police said Elliott appeared nervous when speaking to them and was reluctant to answer certain questions.  Elliott was arrested and has since posted bail.

Good News:

• A cure for pre-eclampsia may be on the horizon       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/cure-for-pre-eclampsia-is-on-horizon-as-researcher-discovers-lipid-nanoparticle-to-deliver-directly-to-placenta/
• Klick Health gives its employees a very special holiday gift     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/company-surprises-workers-with-amazing-hugs-from-people-they-most-wished-to-see-for-holidays-watch/
• A Secret Santa paid back kindness showed to him       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/the-original-secret-santa-started-it-all-by-paying-back-kindness-shown-while-he-was-homeless/
• "Solar diesel" provides a cutting edge low carbon fuel      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ferries-planes-line-up-to-purchase-solar-diesel-a-cutting-edge-low-carbon-fuel-from-swiss-start-up/
• You just knew dark chocolate could be good for you, right?      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/eating-dark-chocolate-is-associated-with-lower-risk-of-diabetes-type-2-in-large-study/
• A Christmas miracle from a dying donkey      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/christmas-miracle-after-dying-donkey-is-rescued-and-given-shelter-a-surprise-birth-in-stable/

Today's Poem:

I Many Times Thought Peace Had Come

I many times thought Peace had come

When Peace was far away --

As wrecked men -- deem they sight of land --

At Centre of the Sea -- 

And struggle slacker -- but to prove

As hopelessly as I --

How many the fictitious Shores --

Before the Harbor be --

-- Emily Dickinson