NICK CARTER, MASTER DETECTIVE: THE CASE OF THE DEVIL'S LEFT EYE (JANUARY 4, 1948)

(DISCLAIMER:  By pure coincidence, January 4, 1948 was the day my brother was born.  Please be aware he was not responsible for this episode, though.)

The fictional Nick Carter was created by Ormond g.smith, the son of one of founders of Street & smith Publishing, well over a century ago and first appeared in the New York Weekly, September 18, 1886, in a 13-week episode, "The Old Detective's Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of Madison Square."  It was written by John R. Coryell under the pseudonym Nicholas Carter.  Coryell would continue to write the private detective's adventures until 1890, when the reins were turned over to Frederick Van Renssellaer Day, who would go on to pen 1076 novels and stories about the character until 1920.   Carter had his own magazine, Nick Carter Weekly, and those adventures were reprinted as stand-alone titles.  When Nick Carter Weekly ceased publication in 1915 (by that time it was titled Nick Carter Stories), the character was continued as part of the lineup in Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine.  With gthe success of such pulps as The Shadow and Doc Savage Magazine, the character was revived Nick Carter Magazine (later Nick Carter Detective Magazine), which ran from 1933 t0 1936; this character was reimagined to fit a new audience.  Nick Carter novels continued to appear through the 1950s.  The character was again reimagined as a "Spymaster," in a series of paperback novels which ran from 1964 until 1990.

Along the way, Nick Carter also appeared in films, television, and comic books.

Nick Carter first appeared on the radio in The Return of Nick Carter, then Nick Carter, Master Detective, with Lon Clark as Nick.  The show ran from April 11, 1943 until September 25, 1955 on the Mutual Radio Network.  Nick's assistant Patsy Bowen was portrayed by Helen choate until 1946, when the role was taken over by Charlotte Manson.  Other cast members included John Kane as reporter Scubby Wilson and Ed Latimer as police Sergeant Mathieson.

In "The Case of the Devil's Left Eye," a wealthy gun collector has taken a room directly from an old Scottish castle and reassembled it on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper, where he is found shot to death by a flintlock rifle still in its display mount.  there's an elaborate three-step process in arming and firing a flintlock -- just one of the puzzles to confront Nick.

This episode was directed by Sherman "Jock" MacGregor and was written by Jim Parsons.  Bob Martin was the announcer.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD4cuDR91II&t=58s

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: SUB-SATELLITE

 "Sub-Satellite" by Charles Cloukey  (first published in Amazing Stories, March 1928; reprinted n Amazing Stories, December 1967; in The Best of Amazing Stories:  The 1928 Anthology, edited by Steve Davidson & Jean Marie Stine, 2016; in Moonrise, edited by Mike Ashley, 2018; e-book version, (2019) available at Roy Glashan's Library; and in Charles Cloukey:  The Short Story Collection:  "If the Fates Will Have It So, So Be It", undated, probably 2023)

There are child prodigies and there are child prodigies.  In the science fiction field the first to hold claim to that title was probably Charles Cloukey.  Cloukey was born on April 15, 1912 and sold his first story, "Sub-Satellite" when he was fifteen.  When the story first appeared, the editors of Amazing wrote, "Here is a novel type of interplanetary story, with some excellent science mixed throughout.  Possibly the only practical space flyer that has come up for consideration so far, that is considered seriously by science, is the Goddard type pf rocket flyer.  This is based on sound scientific premises and sooner or later, one of these space-flyers will come into being.  The curious idea of Sub-Satellite itself , is excellent, and you will enjoy it."  [Remember, this was back in the early days of Science fiction, when Uncle Hugo was still calling it 'Scientifiction," and when "Sub-Satellite" shared space with reprints of "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid" by H. G. Wells, the final part of a two-part reprinting of "Master for the World" by Jules Verne, and two of Gernsback's own "Adventures of Baron Munchausen"; the only other stories in that issue were one by Geoffrey Hewelcke (who published a dozen stories -- some as "Hugh Jeffries" -- but none of the others were science fiction) and W. F. Hammond (who, per FictionMags Index, published only two stories, both featuring somebody named Diske Errill.  So when something new, unique, and interesting was published, readers took notice, and that was the case with "Sub-Satellite.")

When the story was reprinted in December 1967 issue of Amazing (the first issue edited by Harry Harrison), the editorial blurb read, "How large must a satellite be?  The size of a grain of sand?  Or of an orange?  Or, perhaps, as the murderous Duseau discovers,  a satellite can be of any size at all, given enough velocity and mass to orbit a given celestial body!"

Back in 1928, science fiction fandom (such as it was) sat up and took notice.  In July, Cloukey followed it up with a sequel, "Super-Radio."  Then followed six more stories through June of 1931 whose "writing and plotting were of someone ahead of their years," according to Mike Ashley.  But in 1931, young Cloukey entered Haverford College where he won first honors as a freshman in the intelligent test, studying to be a chemical engineer; just a few months later he was dead of typhoid fever.  He was nineteen.  One poem and one three-part serialized novel were published posthumously in Amazing.  A writer with tremendous potential was silenced.

{SPOILER ALERT] :  "Sub-Satellite" tells the tale of the death of Duseau.  "In the hour of his triumph, Duseau had been killed.  Consider the tremendous power of the Marvite gun.  Long ago men calculated that a bullet shot from a gun with a muzzle velocity of 6,500 feet a second would, if there were no obstacles in its path, completely encircle the moon!  And that is what happened!  One of the bullets Duseau shot from the summit of 'Mount Olympus' traveled all the way around the moon, and hit him in the back!  And that, Kornfield, is what I was thinking about when I spoke of a sub-satellite."  A plot device that has been used countless time since then, but in 1928 it was cutting-edge gosh-wow!

The story still holds up today.  you can read it here, courtesy of the ever-fascinating Roy Glashan's Library:

https://freeread.com.au/@RGLibrary/CharlesCloukey/Stories/SubSatellite.html

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET: SEEK AND DESTROY (NOVEMBER 10, 1950)

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet ran from 1950 through 1955 and was one of the few television that ran on all four major networks at that time:  CBS (October 2 through December 1950), ABC (January 1951 through September 1952), NBC (July to September 1951), and Dumont (from August 1953 to May 1954; the program then ran again on NBC (from December 1954 to June 25, 1955).  episodes were 15 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on Saturdays.

The basic idea for the series was created by Joseph Greene, who proposed it a comic strip in 1945, then as a radio series in 1946 (the hero was then named "Tom Ranger"), and again as a radio series in 1947.  In 1949, Greene worked to  turn the concept into a television show, Tom Ranger, Space Cadet.  then Robert A. Heinlein published the first of his many popular science fiction juveniles, Space Cadet, in 1950; Rockhill Studios, which was developing the television show licensed the title Space Cadet from Heinlein.  With a name change to Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, the television show was finally born.  Popular science writer Willy Ley was hire as a scientific advisor for the show.

The series starred Frankie Thomas Jr. as Tom Corbett (he played Ted Nickerson in four Nancy Drew films in 1938 and 1940; after he died at age 85 in 2008, he was buried in his Space Cadet uniform).  Al Markim played the Venusian cadet Astro, and Jan Merlin played the egotistical, condescending, but very capable cadet Russ Manning.  with 113 acting credits on IMDb, Merlin also starred in 39 episodes of The Rough Riders (1958-1959); he was also an accomplished writer, winning a Daytime Emmy Award in 1975 for his work on Another World, and receiving a further nomination in 1976; he has published a number of books -- both fiction and nonfiction -- including (with William Russo) Frankie Thomas:  The Eternal Cadet.

In this early episode, a runaway asteroid is heading toward Earth.  As Captain Steve Strong and Doctor Joan Dale join the Polaris to destroy it, Russ Manning, left in command while the others sleep, recklessly increases speed to save the Earth and be a hero.  But can the tubes handle the strain?

Directed by George Gould; writer unknown.  Also featuring Ed Bryce as Captain Strong, Margaret Garland as Dr. Dale, and John Fiedler as Alfie Higgins.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0a9uqmCrp8

BITS & PIECES

 

Openers:  You walk into the bookstore and you keep your hand on the door to make sure it doesn't slam.  You smile, embarrassed to be a nice girl, and your nails are bare and your V-neck sweater is beige and it's impossible to know if you're wearing a bra but I don't think that you are.  You're so clean that you're dirty and you murmur your first word to me --hello -- when most people would just pass by, but not you, in your loose pink jeans, a pink spun from Charlotte's Web and where did you come from?

You are classic and compact, my own little Natalie Portman circa the end of the movie Closer, when she's fresh-faced and done with the bad British guys and going home to America.  You've come home to me, delivered at last, on a Tuesday, 10:06 A.M.  Every day I commute to this shop on the Lower East side from my place in Bed-Stuy.  Every day I close up without finding anyone like you.  Look at you, born into my world today.  I'm shaking and I'd pop an Ativan but they're downstairs and I don't want to pop an Ativan.  I don't want to come down.  I want to be here, fully, watching you bite your unpainted nails and turn your head to the left, no, bite that pinky, widen those eyes to the right, no, reject biographies, self-help (thank God), and slow down when you make it to fiction.

You.

-- You by Caroline Kepnes (2014)

She's an aspiring writer and bookstore clerk Joe Goldberg googles the name on her credit card.  She's Guinivere Beck and she's on Facebook and tweets incessantly, telling joe everything he needs to know to arrange a "chance" meeting.  Insidiously, Joe begins to remove obstacles in her life that would stand in their way.  Joe has to ensure that Guinevere will end up in his waiting arms -- even if it means murder.

This chilling tale of psychological suspense and terror is a first novel, followed by three sequels and a Lifetime/Netflix television series based on the books.  In addition she has published a "romance-suspense-thriller with supernatural overtones" (think Dexter meets H. P. Lovecraft) and has been a staff writer on several television series. 

You showed up on my doorstep several months ago from Amazon.  I did not order it, nor was there any indication it was a gift from someone.  Why it was sent me, I dunno.  (the author was born and raised on Cape Cod, near where Kitty's family has a summer cottage, but I don't remember ever meeting her and I doubt a Cape Cod connection explains why the book came ti me.  It's a mystery.)

Anyway, the book sounds interesting and has garnered all sorts of praise-worthy quotes from Stephen King, People, USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, and many more of the usual suspects, so I think I'll read it sometime soon.  Maybe this year..

Incoming:

• Charles Ardai, Death Comes Too Late.  To mark the 20th anniversary of Hard Case Crime, founder Charles Ardai has assembled this collection of 20 of his most unforgettable stories.  "From Brazil at Carnival to Times Square at midnight, from Tijuana, Mexico to history's first gunshor in 11th-century China, Ardai will take you to some of the most dangerous places in the world -- and the darkest corners of the human heart."  Both Ardai and Hard Case Crime have become essential reading over the past two decades.
• "John Blaine" (Harold Leland Goodwin) - Four books in the Rick Brant Science Adventure series -- Sea Gold (#3, written with P, T. Hawkins), 100 Fathoms Under (#4), The Ruby Ray Mystery (#19), and Danger Below (#23).  The popular juvenile series ran for 23 books from 1947 to 1968; a 24th book, previously rejected because it contained supernatural elements, was published in 1990, three months after Goodwin's death.  The early books were first marketed as Rick Brant Electronic Adventures, and were then tagged "Science-Adventure Stories," before settling on "Science Adventures."  Rick is a teenaged boy living on Spindrift Island where his father runs the Spindrift Foundation, a group of scientists.  Rick's friend is Scotty, an ex-marine.  Other characters include Rick's younger sister Barby, the Indian youth Candra (who has learned everything he knows from reading the World Almanac), and Dismal, the Brant family dog.  Nostalgia, thy name is Rick Brant.
• Matt Costello & F. Paul Wilson, Faster Than Light:  The Story Behind the Sci-Fi Channel's FTL Newsfeed by Its Creators, Volumes One and Two.  Before there was Sy-Fy there was Sci-Fi and it had as its only original programming a daily one-minute newsblurb from 150 years in the future called FTL Newsfeed.  Here's the full scoop from the two creators'
• Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos, Serpent.  Thriller, a novel from the NUMA Files.  "On the bottom of the icy sea off Nantucket lie the battered remains of the Italian luxury liner, Andrea Doria.  but few know that within its bowels rests a priceless pre-Columbian antiquity -- a treasure that now holds the key to a puzzle that is costing people their lives.  For Kurt Austin, the leader os the courageous National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA) exploration team, the killing begins when he makes a daring rescue of a beautiful marine archaeologist.  The target of a powerful Texas industrialist named Halson, Nina Kirov was attacked off the coast of Morocco after her discovery of a carved stone head that may prove Christopher Columbus was not the first /European to discover America.  Soon Kurt and Nina embark on a deadly mission to uncover Halcon's masterful plan -- an insidious scheme that would have him carve out a new nation from the Southwest United States and Mexico, and ride to power on a wave of death and destruction,  With Austin's elite NUMA crew attacking the murderous conspiracy from different sides, an extraordinary truth emerges:  that Columbus may have made a fifth, unknown voyage to America in search of a magnificent treasure,  And now that silent, steel hull of the Andrea Doria not only holds the answer to what the explorer may have found -- but the fate of the Unite States itself."  I have never read any of Cussler's many novels, but I am a big fan of Kemprecos's writing.
• Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear.  A Myron Bolitar novel.  "It all begins when Myron Bolitar's ex tells him he's a father...of a dying thirteen-year-old boy.  Myron never saw it coming.  A surprise visit from an ex-girlfriend is unsettling enough.  But Emily Downing's news brings him to his knees.  Her son Jeremy is dying and needs a bone-marrow transplant -- from a donor who has vanished without a trace.  The comes the real shocker:  The boy is Myron's son, conceived the night before her wedding to another man.  Staggered by the news, Myron plunges into a search for the missing donor.  But finding him means cracking open a dark mystery that involves a broken family, a brutal kidnapping spree, and the FBI.  Somewhere in the sordid mess is the donor who disappeared.  And as doubts emerge about Jeremy's true paternity, a child vanishes, igniting a chain reaction of heartbreaking truth and chilling revelation."
• Steve Fisher, The Hell-Black Night.  Thriller.  " 'Kelly Saunders, a divorcee around whom and because of whom the murder would be committed, had climbed into her bed only an hour or so before, and for a while was unaware of the storm, of life, death, sex, her tormenting problems -- of anything.  Kelly was a beautiful blonde, not yet thirty-three years old.  She had gone to bed before midnight because it seemed despite all her recent wild telephone calls and weird longer-range scheme not a single. solitary thing was working out...' "  In this novel, "you will meet Kelly Saunders, the acquisitive and cunningly shrewd heroine who drives men beyond the edge of endurance.  You'll share 24 hours of Kelly's life, and know rather quickly that it is a terror-ridden, tense experience in fear and desperation that could very easily happen to a woman today."  Pulp writer turned novelist and screenwriter Fisher is best known for his chilling novel I Wake Up Screaming and for his screenplay of Raymond Chandler's The Lady in the Lake
• Joe Gores, Dead Man.  suspense novel.  Life is a wondrous game for twenty-eight-year-old Eddie Dain.  There's phone chess with his beautiful wife, Marie.  There's the joy of his three-year-old son.  There's his career using software to ferret out soft-core bad guys without ever leaving his computer.  But when Eddie decides that a seemingly accidental death was no accident at all, it all blows up n his face.  A new and shadowy enemy sends out two killers with shotguns.  When they are through with him, Eddie has to be reborn,  As a dead man.  He is dead to joy, dead to his past.  Loveless and obsessed, he goes by the single name Dain, lives with a cat who won't purr, and thumbs through a blood-stained copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  Building up his body and an arsenal of lethal skills that Eddie never had, Dain hires himself out as a manhunter -- because somewhere out there in an underworld of criminals and contract killers are the two men who destroyed his life."  Like Dashiell Hammett, Gore was a San Francisco private detective for a number of years, something he put to good use in his biographical thriller Hammett.  Considering the author's ties to Hammett, I wonder if it is a coincidence that the protagonist's name is Dain.  Also, Menaced Assassin.  Thriller.  "In a university auditorium a paleoanthropologist expounds on the nature of life itself: creationism, Darwinism, and human and primitive violence.  in the audience is Organized Task Force detective Dante Stagnaro.  Run ragged by a killer who calls himself Raptor, Stagnaro knows that the end  of his long hunt is here, in this auditorium.  The speaker is the last man on Raptor's hit list.  It began with the murder of the professor's beautiful, adulterous wife.  Then a corrupt cop was gunned down in a phone booth.  Thereafter, Raptor moved through a list of players, playboys, and mobsters from Palm Springs to Minnesota, killing with cheap handguns, a sniper rifle, even in-close, wetwork weapons.  And after each hit came the phone call to Stagnaro, in Raptor's disguised, taunting voice,  Stagnaro knows the Raptor's victims share a common bond.  He is sure the professor's wife died for what she knew about the others.  but as Raptor keeps killing, Stagnaro has only the jagged, broken pieces of a menacing puzzle.  Now the cop, a man of of the earth and of the hunt, listens to the professor addressing the auditorium, peering into the soul of mankind and the eye of God Himself.  And, as he listens, he wants for the Raptor to strike one last time."
• Frank Harvey, Jet.  An almost science fiction collection if you take off your glasses, and squint real hard while in a very dark room.  Seven stories originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1954 and 1955.  "With the speed-past-speed of the incredible planes he knows so well, these fine stories by Frank Harvey zoom the reader right into the middle of the Air Force.  The present-day up-to-the-minute air Force -- in which the P-38's and the P-47's of World War II are already memories...It's a book for anyone who ever craned his neck when a jet flew by overhead." A follow-up collection. Air Force!, touches ever-so-slightly more into science fiction territory, but you still have to squint.
• David H. Keller, Women Are That Way:  The "Amy Worth" Stories.  Keller (1880-1986) was a physician and psychologist who was an important science fiction and fantasy writer of the mid-2oth century.  His "Amy Worth" pseudonym was basically used for stories published in 10 Story Book, 1929-1933; he scrambled the pseudonym once as "Yma Rowth" for the January 1930 issue because it already had an "Amy Worth" story -- I doubt if readers were fooled.  This book is for Keller enthusiasts and completists only.
• Joe R. Lansdale, In the Mad Mountains:  Stories Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft.  Collection of eight stories of cosmic dread, East Texas style by hisownself.  "A sinister blues recording pressed on vinyl in blood conjures lethal shadows with its unearthly wails.  In order to rescue Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn traverse the shifting horrors of the aptly named Dread Isle.  In the Weird Wild West, Reverend Jebidiah Mercer rides into a possessed town to confront the unspeakable in the crawling sky.  Legendary detective C. Auguste Dupin uncovers the gruesome secrets of both the blue lightning bug and the Necronomicron.  Exploring the darkest corners of the human psyche, here is a lethally entertaining journey through Joe Lansdale's twisted landscape, where ancient evils lurk and sanity hangs by a rapidly fraying thread."  Pre-ordered.  Due October 15.
• John Mortimer, The First Rumpole Omnibus, The Second Rumpole Omnibus, and The Third Rumpole Omnibus.  Everybody's favorite barrister at law, Horace Rumpole, in eight collections and one novel -- Rumpole of the Bailey, The Trials of Rumpole, Rumpole's Return (the novel), Rumpole for the Defence, Rumpole and the Golden Thread, Rumpole's Last Case, Rumpole a la Carte, Rumpole on Trial, and Rumpole and the Angel of Death.  fifty-two glorious cases, one a week for a full year!
• Jonathon Santlofer, editor, Inherit the Dead.  A "serial novel," a collaboration of 20 bestselling mystery and thriller authors -- Mark Billingham, Lawrence Block, C. J. Box, Ken Bruen, Alafair Burke, Stephen L. Carter, Marcia Clark, Mary Higgins Clark, Max Allan Collins, John Connolly, James Grady, Heather Graham, Bryan Gruley, Charlaine Harris, Val McDermid, S. J. Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Dana Stabenow, Lisa Unger, and Sarah Weinman.  "Pericles 'Perry' Christo, a one-time NYPD homicide cop, has been struggling since he lost his badge -- and his marriage -- in a corruption scandal.  So when wealthy Manhattan matron Julia Dusilla needs help finding her aimless daughter Angelina, he jumps at the chance to make some easy money.  But the case is anything but easy, as Angelina's father, best friend and boyfriend all have hidden agendas that Perry is coming dangerously close to uncovering..."  Any profits in excess of editor and contributor compensation  will be donated to Safe Haven, the leading victim assistance agency in the country.  These collaborative novels seldom rise above the sum of their authors, but with so many great talents in the lineup, how could I resist?
• F. Paul Wilson, Lexie.  Horror thriller, Book Two of The Hidden; following The Upwelling.  "The survivors of what has come to be known as The Catskill Cataclysm are not out of the woods yet.  As the last known members of The Hidden, they are marked for extermination.  Their allies -- Chan and Dani, and the Troika -- are hunting them as well, but the hidden do what they do best:  hide.  Something new surfaces in the South Atlantic:  a Manhattan-size iceberg.  And embedded within is a long-lost Nazi U-boat.  Back in the day, the Third Reich claimed part of Antarctica for its own.  Was the sub on an exploratory mission?  It carried a strange artifact that it was carrying home when it was trapped in the ice.  The bodies of the crew are perfectly preserved from the subzero temperatures...but they were all murdered.  Could the appearance of the sub have any relationship with the Catskill Cataclysm?  Unlikely.  But then, there are no coincidences."  Pre-ordered.  Due September 3.

RIP, Bob Newhart:  Ladies and gentlemen, a genius has left the room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XDxAzVEbN4

Bad Analogies:  Here are some bad analogies, supposedly written by high school students; they showed up on my Facebook page nine years ago:

• Her eyes were like two brown circles with big blacks dots in the center.
• Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
• He was as tall as a 6'3" tree.
• From the attic came an unearthly howl.  The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30.
• John and Mary had never met.  They were like two hummingbirds who had never met.
• She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
• The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended on slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
• He was as lame as a duck.  Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame.  Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
• Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
• She grew on him like she was a colony of E coli and he was room temperature Canadian beef.
• The revelation that his marriage of thirty years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
• The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.

Happy Traum, 1938-2024:  Folk music legend Happy Traum died last week at the age of 86.  Self-taught on guitar and banjo,  Traum became an integral part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the 1950s and 60s.  In1963 he took part in a landmark recording session with Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, and others that resulted in the seminal folk album Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1; for that album, he recorded the antiwar "Let Me Die in My Footsteps" with Dylan (who used the pseudonym Bling boy Grunt).  Traum later joined the New World singers folk groups, who were the first to record Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind"; the group also put out the first recording of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright."  Traum and his brother, Artie Traum, performed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963 and later toured internationally; they released five albums together.

The New World Singers -- Blowin' in the Wind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXB2fc2I6qg

The New World singers - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14PNALF_aZU

Careless Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P261Gi0vtFc

With Artie Traum - Jackhammer Blues (Jackhammer John)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv7Zvap6w3M

Let Me Die in My Footsteps (I Will No Go Under the Ground)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpLKMOC3vX4

Buckets of Rain

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

With Jim Kweskin - Sitting on Top of the World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RyQ2grinfA

I Am a Pilgrim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZNtEHd9tQM

Ashokan Farewell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xICQH0Coy8

With Artie Traum -The Hungry Dogs of New Mexico

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY9XVzuGA98

Things Are Coming My Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kshPcHs3iVg

With Bob Dylan - You Ain't Going Nowhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC6Kv_Dj9Z8

He Was a Friend of Mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQimw-mOa4g

Relax Your Mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD9_ozZceXM

Rapunzel:  The passing of Shelley Duvall has left a big hole in the entertainment world.  Here she is in an episode of Fairie Tale Theatre from February 5, 1983.  Also starring Jeff Bridges and Gena Rowlands, with Roddy McDowell narrating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmPr8_VKVM

Garfield Rejoices:  Today is National Lasagna Day!  Lasagna should be treated with respect and reverence, and it should be scarfed down wolfed down shoved into your gullet eaten with an appreciation for its history.  

Speaking of the history of lasagna, here's a 14-minute introduction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJYhIWwfD0I

And a look at the lasagna family tree:

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

And here's a nifty recipe from the New York Times, with video:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9530-lasagna

Yum.

(And, as a nod to my youngest, who figures a day without chicken wings is a day without sunshine, I should also mention that today is BOTH International Chicken Wing Day and  National Chicken Wing Day.)

Longest Reigning Monarchs:  Need a topic of conversation to liven up boring get-togethers?  How about boring thrilling everyone with a list of longest ruling monarchs in history.  you will soon be able to count the people listening with rapt attention on one hand, or perhaps less.

• The Number 1 spot gores to...(drum roll)...Loius XIV of France, who ruled for 72 years, 110 days, from 1643 to 1715
• Lagging behind by just 602 days, Queen Elizabeth II of England takes second place.  She and her corgis ruled for 70 years, 214 days, from 1952 to 2022
• Thailand's little-known (look him up) Rama IX rolls into third with a reign that lasted 70 years, 126 days, from 1946 to 2016
• Liechtenstein's Johann II held the reins of that tiny country for 70 years, 91 days, from 1858-1929
• We have to dig deep into the past to round out the top five.  K'inich Janaab' Pakal I (lknown to his friends as Pacal the Great) was the awaj of the Maya city-state of Palenque (think Mexico) from 615 to 683 A.D., ruling for 68 years, 33 days (at least that's the best that modern scholars can figure).  Paleque had been sacked twice by the Mayan city-state Calakmul  and by its awaj, who is known to historians merely as "Scroll Serpent," leading to the deaths of Palenque's awaj and his heir.   That led the way for Pacal to assume the throne at the age of twelve, after an interim regency by his mother, Lady Sak K'uk.  Pacal is best known for expanding the power of Pelenque over the western Mayan states and for initiating a building program that produced some of that civilization's finest art and architecture.  After his death at age 80, he was deified as one of the ancient gods of Palenque.  In his highly imagined book Chariots of the Gods?, Erich von Daniken submitted that the carving on the lid of Pacal's sarcophagus as "proof" that ancient astronauts had visited Earth.  (**sigh**)

Today's Thought:  Middle age is the time when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he will feel as good as ever.  -- Birthday boy Don Marquis (1878-1937)

Florida Man:  Here's a brief round-up of stories from the past::

• Florida Man Robert Wilcox, 45, was arrested for pooping in a dead possum in public.  (November 2023)
• Florida Man Michael Marolla, 31, was arrested for having meth, guns, and a baby alligator in his pickup truck; he had been stopped because police recognized him from the numerous times he had been tagged for driving without a license.  (2022)
• Florida Man Carlo Guillen, 27, explained to police that he vaped THC "to get himself ready because Jesus was returning."  (2019)
• Florida Man Lonnie Maddox, 52, was arrested for breaking into a home.  Maddox tried to blame it on his horse, saying the horse broke into the house and her had to get it back.  (The house was entered through a back window that Maddox was caught on camera breaking.)  The horse, by the way, did not belong to Maddox and was returned to its owner. (2019)
• Florida Man Elijah Mills, 27, stopped paying for a rental car and began using it to give Uber rides.   The rental car company had equipped the car with a device that would stop the car from starting, but Mills had a unique workaround-- he kept the car running for three straight weeks.  (October 2023)
• Florida Man Johnny Yates, 41, discovered police were about to arrest him and posted the following message on a dry erase board on his door:  "Johnny Yates does not live here."  It didn't work (November 2023)
• Florida Man Christopher Meader, 20, was arrested for having sexual relation with a stuffed Olaf doll at Target.   It is not known whether alcohol or drugs were involved, nor is it known if the relationship was consensual.  (2019)

Good News:

• Engineering students help ease dog's medical condition      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/engineering-students-heed-call-for-a-chihuahua-in-need-tiny-helmets-for-niblet/
• Move over, Kylie and Coldplay, here comes Cowboy Jack!     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/charity-song-raises-money-for-boy-with-cancer-and-overtakes-kylie-minogue-and-coldplay-in-downloads/
• Alex Trebek postage stamps look like JEOPARDY questions     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/us-post-office-honors-alex-trebek-with-new-stamps-that-look-like-jeopardy-questions/
• The little lynx that wanted to be free      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/german-zoo-honors-little-lynxs-wishes-to-be-free-after-repeat-escape-attempts/
• A blood test that can detect sepsis in ten minutes       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/blood-test-that-detects-sepsis-in-10-minutes-by-squeezing-blood-cells-hailed-as-the-holy-grail/
• Primary cause of lupus discovered       https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/primary-cause-of-lupus-discovered-and-a-possible-way-to-reverse-it/
• 75 hard-to-adopt kids now have homes in tiny Texas town           https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/families-in-tiny-texas-town-have-adopted-77-hard-to-adopt-kids-inspired-by-their-baptist-church-leaders/

Today's Poem:

Love Lasagna

She plunks down a plate of egg rolls

Man, oh man, do these greasy [pieces of heaven take tolls

On my heart, dear Mama

Shows me love with food piled on tables that never end

Iced tea, Pho, spaghetti, rice and pork chops

Sternly setting bowls down in front of you and encouragin'

To take pieces of buttery garlic bread and mop it up

Love, bestowed upon us in showers of peppered chicken

Spending hours in the kitchen

To prove some affection

In saucers of soy sauce and dumplings that went on for miles

She'd put adoration in soup, spicy reflections

Of passionate motherly love

Mama, she never smiled

Unless someone complemented her style, the swagger

Of her intimate cooking skills, the way she swung her dagger

Of specialties, killing hunger, cravings

All her meals ended with ravings

Of the best kind

Scraped knees and broken hearts are cured with warm chocolate cake, suede

Smooth, mending them better then when they were made

Mama shows fondness through ice cream and cake

Warm dinner plates

Her "I love you" was a big portion of lasagna

Nobody says "I love you" better than my Mama

-- Bella Cardenas

HYMN TIME

The Nelons.  In memory of Kelly Nelon Clark, Jason Clark, and Amber Nelon Kistler. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRFWW6kh9iY

MIDDY MALONE AND THE LOST WORLD (1943)

It's time to sail into adventure with Middy Malone, newly appointed mate of the Falcon.

In 1933, creator Syd Nichols had an argument with the publishers of Australia's Sunday Sun, which was publishing his popular Fatty Finn comic strip, resulting in Nichols' contract being voided.  Nichols then began self-publishing his comic books, including Middy Malone, who proved to be almost as popular as Fatty Finn.   Nicholls had created Middy Malone in 1931 but found no one willing to publish the strip either in Australia or America.  

According to Wikipedia, Middy Malone and the Lost World was first published in the late 1930s; Comic Book Plus dates the book at 1943 -- so take your pick.  Middy went on to many adventures, eventually getting his own Middy Malone's Magazine.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=91030&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: UNCLE SILAS

 Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1864)

I'm cheating here because I have never read this book.  Lord knows I have tried.  Four or five times over the past decades.  This is not to knock the book, nor its writer.  I am a big fan of Le Fanu's writing and have read and enjoyed all of his shorter works.  But Uncle Silas...something has always arisen and interrupted my reading of the novel...a family emergency, a conflict in my work schedule, or merely my misplacing my copy of the book...always something.  Is the universe conspiring against me?  i don't know.  But, damn, I really want to read the book.  Some day I finally will.

The book was based on/Le Fanu's story "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" (1839; also published as "The Murdered Cousin" in Le Fanu's Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery, 1851).  The novel, which moved the setting of the story from Ireland to England, was first printed as a serial, "Maud Ruthyn and Uncle Silas," in the Dublin University Magazine in 1864; it was then published as a three-volume novel (because that's what they did back in those days) later that year.  Uncle Silas has remained Le Fanu's best-known novel, and rightly so.

From Wikipedia:  "Uncle Silas, subtitles 'A Tale of Bartram Haugh,' is an 1864 Victorian Gothic mystery-thriller novel by the Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu.  Despite Le Fanu resisting its classification as such, the novel has also been hailed as a work of sensation fiction by contemporary reviewers and modern critics alike.  It is an early example of the locked-room mystery subgenre, rather than a novel of the supernatural (despite a few creepily ambiguous touches), but does show a strong interest in the occult and in the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist, philosopher and Christian mystic...It was the source of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Firm of Girdlestone. and remains a touchstone for contemporary mystery fiction."  The influence of Uncle Silas is obvious in Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White; perhaps it's the other way around -- the Collins novel was published a few years before Uncle Silas, bit well after the Le Fanu genesis story (unsolicited plug:  Collins' best novel; don't believe the naysayers who tout for The Moonstone.)

Uncle Silas relates the tale of young Maud Ruthyn, who grows close to her uncle. Silas Ruthyn, the family black sheep who had been a noted  rake and gambler and now professes to be a reformed and devout Christian.  In the past, Silas had been suspected to be involved in the suspected suicide of a man to whom Silas owed a great deal of money, a suicide which took place in a locked room in Silas' mansion at Bartram-Haugh.  Maud's father suddenly dies and a codicil in his will places her with Uncle Silas as her guardian until she reaches her majority.  If Maud should die before them her estate would pass to Uncle Silas... 

(I am torn between who is more evil, Uncle Silas or Wilkie Collins' Count Fosco.  I'm leaning toward Fosco but will reserve full judgement until I finally read the Le Fanu book.)

Le Fanu (1814-1873) is considered a central figure in the development of the modern ghost story.  M. R. James (no slouch in the field himself) consider Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories."  Le Fanu was also a major influence in the development of the mystery novel.  Among his best-known works are the stories "Green Tea," "Schalken the Painter," "Carmilla" (which I covered in this blog yesterday), "The Familiar," "Mr. Justice Harbottle," the sensation novels Wylder's Hand, The Wyvern Mystery, The Rose and the Key, and the historical novel The House by the Churchyard.  and of course, Uncle Silas.

Uncle Silas has been filmed at least five times, and three adaptations have aired on BBC Radio.

CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER: CARMILLA (JULY 31, 1975)

Sheridan Le Fanu's claasic 1872 vampire tale besides being a thumping good tale is an early example of feminism in the horror genre, defying the Victorian view of women as being possessions of men.  It is also perhaps the first story about a lesbian vampire (told oh so tastefully, mind you).  The story became a large influence on Bram Stoker's Dracula, as well as Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.  

The popular story has remained in print for more than 150 years.  It has been filmed or adapted fourteen times since 1931,   Carmilla has appeared at least three times on television, four times on stage, and once as an opera, as well as in a web series.  The character has appeared in at least six books in recent years, has been the subject of three comic book series, and has inspired at least four rock music recordings.  Carmilla has become a character in two video games.  In Japan, Carmilla is the title of a lesbian magazine.

Carmilla hit the radio airwaves beginning in 1940 on the Columbia Workshop, starring Jeanette Nolan. Vincent Price hosted as 1979 adaptation on the Sears Radio Theater.  In 2003, a version was aired on BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Play.

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater version (linked below) starred Marian Seldes and Merccedes McCambridge, and was hosted by E. G. Marsahll.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOtnr0o7FHw&list=PLJm2etPj4-MYlykH8VeSx_9v9SlR5gGWX&index=26 

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE ROMANCE OF ROSY RIDGE

"The Romance of Rosy Ridge" by MacKinley Kantor  (first published in The Saturday Evening Post, June 5, 1937; published in book form that year, although it had only 96 pages; reprinted in Post Stories of 1937, 1938; and in The Pocket Book of American Modern Short Stories, edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, 1943)

"It was good corn growing weather that July night when the stranger first came along, making his music through the hollow all the way up to Rosy Ridge.  Old Gill MacBean and his wife and the youngsters were sitting out on the stoop when they heard the man coming."

It's post-Civil War Missouri and tensions from that conflict are still high.  People in the community appeared to be evenly divided; you'd see as many men wearing old Yankee blue trousers as you would wearing the old butternut yellow trousers of the Confederacy.  MacBean had no truck with Yankees -- he had lost two sons fighting for the South, as well as a brother at Willow Creek.  And the area had been plagued by night riders so MacBean kept his rifle handy.

The stranger was making music the like of which MacBean had never heard.  First he played Gentle Annie, then Billy Boy, then Jack o' Diamonds -- all while slowly walking up to the MacBean place.  The music had a strange humming noise, unlike any instrument MacBean had ever heard before.  It turned out that it was just a comb and a piece of paper.  The stranger introduced himself as Henry Bohun (soon to be called Comb-Humming Henry), a schoolmaster before he began wandering.  Henry played a tune that no one could dance to, "but it was a song to make you love, and perish happy in the remarkable joy of doing it."  (Henry said, "Well, maybe it hadn't ever been played before in these parts.  It comes all the way from Europe, and a man named Liszt made it up.")  MacBean was suspicious at first of Henry, (he was also a little taken aback when he introduced his two pus -- Paul and Agrippa -- to Henry, saying that he named them so because Paul came before Agrippa in the Bible; Henry responded, "You haven't got Jesus and Pontius Pilate, then, somewhere around, because I seem to have read Jesus came before Pontius Pilate too.").  Anyway, MacBean extended his hospitality to the stranger, offering him food and a place to spend the night.

And, of course, MacBean had a daughter -- Lissy, with strawberry-yellow hair and clear blue eyes and little freckles that were on her smooth round cheeks and her soft mouth smiling...

The story is not called "The Romance at Rosy Ridge" for nothing.

And then MacBean discovered that Henry had fought for the Union and he banished Henry from his home and from Lissy, fully expecting Henry to take up wandering again.  But Henry stayed in the area just to be close to Lissy, even though he could not be see her.

And then the night riders came...

A gentle, folksy, lyrical, and life-affirming story..

The author is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Andersonville.  He also wrote The Voice of Bugle Ann, Gentle Annie, Glory for Me (filmed as The Best Years of Our Life), and If the South Had Won the Civil War (an early alternate history novel).

The story was expanded slightly and made into a popular film (although it ended up losing half a million dollars -- go figure) in 1947, starring Van Johnson, Thomas Mitchell, and Janet Leigh (her first film role).  The film had an amazing cast, including Marshal Thompson (later to play Dr. Marsh Tracy in Daktari), Dean Stockwell, Guy Kibbee, Jim Davis, Paul Langton (perhaps best known as Leslie Harrington in TV's Peyton Place, and O. Z. Whitehead (one of John Ford's stock players; he was Al Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, and showed his virtuosity in The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, where at age 51, he played a lollipop licking schoolboy).   The film was also notable for its uncredited actors, including Barbara Billingsley (Beaver's Mom. June Cleaver), Gail Davis (TV's Annie Oakley), Marie Windsor (known as "the queen of the B's") Kermit Maynard (Ken's brother), Guy Stockwell (Dean's brother), I. Stanford Jolley (you'll know him when you see him; he was a very familiar western heavy in over 300 films and television shows); and Rhea Mitchell (one-time co-star of many of William S. Hart's westerns; her career faded soon after this, and she managed an apartment house in retirement until a disgruntled houseboy strangled and killed her when she was 66 -- not all Hollywood stories end prettily).

Anyway, it's a great flick and you can see it here:

https://archive.org/details/the-romance-of-rosy-ridge

OVERLOOKED TV: THE ADVENTURES Of DR. FU MANCHU: THE MASTER PLAN OF DR. FU MANCHU (NOVEMBER 12, 1956)

Weak tea, this.

If you are expecting the thrill a minute, pulse-pounding excitement of a master villain trying to take over the world, you may want to look elsewhere.

Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu has been thrilling readers since 1912 with his somewhat creaky, imaginative, jingoistic plots and his demotic scientific horrors, often involving murderous animals and dangerous dacoits.  Through thirteen novels and fix-ups, as well as a handful of stories, Rohmer blazed the trail for the "Yellow Menace" pulp stories that also weaved its way through films, radio, television, conic strips, comic books, and additions to the franchise by other authors.  For over a hundred years, the criminal genius of the Si-Fan tong has poured his vengeance on the Occidental world, often with startlingly effective results, and sometimes with results less than desired.  And -- in the case of The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu -- with a distinct and disappointing thud.

Hopes were high for the television show.  In 1955, Republic Pictures (yeah, the Poverty Row film company...so maybe hopes weren't that high) paid four million dollars to Sax Rohmer and announced they would produce 78 episodes of the projected series.  In the vaunted Hollywood tradition of placing white guys in oriental roles, Fu Manchu would be played by Glen Gordon, who played uncredited roles in You're in the Navy Now, Bright Victory, and Cell 2455, Death Row, as well as individual supporting roles in two dozen television shows, mainly in the 1950s and early 60s.  Needless to say, Gordon was not a blazing star with an energetic screen persona.  Disagreements between Rohmer and the producers led to a lawsuit, which led to the series being cancelled after filming only 13 episodes.  Less than generous critics may have viewed this kerfuffle as the universe righting itself.

Also attached to the program were Lester Matthews (The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Son of Dr. Jekyll, Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land, and a host of minor roles covering 216 IMDb credits) as Sir Dennis Nayland Smith, Fu Manchu's sterling British nemesis.  Clark Howat (he had an uncredited role as a patron in Macy's lunchroom in Miracle on 34th Street, had his scenes deleted as a disc jockey in 'Round My Shoulder, was an uncredited soldier in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and had a gazillion minor, walk-on, and uncredited roles in his 164 IMDb credits) as Nayland Smith's assistant Dr. John Petrie.  Rounding out the regular cast was Laurette Luez (Prehistoric Women, Siren of Bagdad, Jungle Gents -- her brief career basically ended with The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu following her marriage to her third husband; she had two uncredited roles in 1961, a small movie part and one episode of Ben Casey in 1964; she claimed to have been the one to suggest Marilyn Monroe as a stage name for Norma Jean Baker) as Karamenah, Fu Manchu's eye candy assistant with a two-piece outfit -- G-r-r-r.

So the cast was lest than outstanding.  The sets and the production values were even less than worthy of Republic.  The entire program was basically one big plod.  It was so bad it was camp -- or, at least, could be considered considered camp some years down the road.

"The Master Plan of Fu Manchu" was the eleventh episode of the series, directed by William Whitney and scripted by Arthur E. Orloff.  Fu Manchu has kidnapped a famous plastic surgeon to operate on a mysterious "Mr. X" (Steven Geray).  Why?  That is the question facing Nayland Smith.  the clumsily telegraphed twist is that "X" is actually Adolph Hitler, who did not die in the Berlin Fuhrerbunker in 1945.  Fu Manchu plots to use Hitler to conquer the world.

Ask me if I regret spoiling the ending for you.  I don't.

It's only 26 minutes, 26 seconds out of your life:

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

MARGARET WHITING (1924-2011)

Today marks the 100th birthday of popular singer Margaret Whiting.  she came to music naturally -- her father was the composer of such songs as "Hooray for Hollywood," "On the Good Ship Lollipop," and "Ain't We Got Fun?"; her sister and her aunt were both recorded singers.  At age seven, Margaret performed for Johnny Mercer, who later signed her as one of Capitol Records first recording artists.  She was the featured singer in a number of orchestra, including Billy Butterfield's Orchestra and Paul Weston and His Orchestra.  in 1945, she began recording under her own name, accumulating a pile of hits.  She was dubbed "The Queen of the Jukebox."  Margaret and her sister Barbara starred as themselves in the television sitcom Those Whiting Girls (1955-1957).  She was a popular guest star on television through the 1970s.  Her fourth and final husband was a former gay pornography star whom she married when she was 70 and he was 48; they were married for 15 years until his death.  She died at age 86 from natural causes.

"Moonlight in Vermont"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dRw_F3f7ZA

"That Old Black Magic"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93gaxEyNT6o

"It Might As Well Be Spring" (with The Paul Weston Orchestra)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lU_wnHUw-A

"A Tree in the Meadow"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7zn1r_bvaU

"Slipping Around" (with jimmy Wakely)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ilLmVZ9awU

"All Through the Day"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqt2QZyydGo

"In Love in Vain"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOJf50iXovQ

"Guilty"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_UNuiqOX7o

"Pretending"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxr0lU-UIXo

"Oh, But I Do"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGs69zpUYLA

"Baby It's Cold Outside" (with Johnny Mercer}

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

"Blind Date" (with Bob Hope)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UFn_2PSMmk

"far Away Places"

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

"Silver Bells" (with Jimmy Wakely)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkc6xFJC1lU

"The Wheel of Hurt"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_d4TQ_7KXY

"My Foolish Heart"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXRwPxyL3-w

"Till We Meet Again"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLlJmSOMP1s

HYMN TIME

 Hank Williams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyiGHFGCf2U

OKAIE, MASTER OF THE JUNGLE (DECEMBER-ISH 1945

 Thousands of years' [sic] in the days of the great reptiles, there existed a race of people known as the Terraboolies.  The centre of this empire was at Terr. These warlike people were ruled by a king named Naisagood, whose armies were forever terrorizing the neighbouring countries. [sic]  Con quering [sic] and enslaving them [.]  The time came when a section of Naisagood's army. [sic] which disliked him, decided to revolt.  They planned that in the event of war, those of the army who are discontented, should revolt and desert to the enemy.

The basic thing we have to unpack here is that proofreaders in 1945 Australia were in short supply.  

Okaie, Master of the Jungle was printed by the Offset Publishing Company and contained three stories, the first of which featured Okaie.  The remaining two stories featured Jimmy Weston, Ace animal Cameraman and The Outlaws.  Okaie was the only character to have any further adventures -- which is just as well, since the story ends mid-stream.  Okaie and The Outlaws were both created by Geoff Litchfield, a commercial artist who worked mainly in animated advertising and the theatre, Litchfield, who sign the Okaie story as "Golly" and The Outlaws as "Gosh," would draw only two other Okaie stories.  

The artist for Jimmy Weston was Len Lawson (1927-2003), a best-selling comic book artist who created The Lone Avenger, Diana, Queen of the Apes, and the Hooded Rider.  Lawson comic book career essentially ended in 1954 when he took five models for a remote photo shoot, bound them, sexually assaulted them and raped two.   He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to 14 years once Australia ended the death penalty; Lawson had asked to continued writing The Lone Avenger, but the publisher wisely refused.  Lawson was released from prison in 1961 after serving half his sentence.  The following year, he assaulted and killed a 16-year-old girl, then took several hostages at a girls grammar school, killing one 15-year-old girl.  For this he was sentenced to life in prison, where he attacked a female member of a dance group for inmates; the woman was severely traumatized and ended killing herself six years later.  Lawson died in prison, certainly none too soon.

AUSTRALIA...WHERE IF NATURE DOESN'T KILL YOU, THE COMIC BOOK ARTISTS MAY.

Anyway, back to Okaie.  He's one of those who is revolting against the king.  Word of the rebellion gets to Prince Karrakar of of the Wiebakkie, who decides to consult the jungle witch doctor -- the High Priest of Terr -- who, in turn, decides to employ magic.  (This is all done in a very vague and confusing manner.)  Okaie rides a zebra into battle, with the rebel army riding brontosaurs.  Did I mention that Okaie has enlisted the help of the ape men?  If can follow the plot threads and the l;ack of logic, you're a better person than I am.  The artwork is pretty nifty in areas, though.

Jimmy Weston has a pencil-thin mustache and wears a pith helmet.  Working for the Australian Imperial Film Corp., he is in Africa to get some special shots for an upcoming film.  With him is Doc Harvey, a jungle explorer, and Betty Winthrop, Jimmy's pretty new assistant.  A lion sneaks into camp and attacks Doc but Jimmy shoots it in the nick of time.  The next day, Jimmy and Betty see a giant ape being crushed by a huge python.  Since jimmy doesn't like snakes, he shoots the python,  the ape is grateful and motion Jimmy and the group to follow him into the jungle, where -- after Jimmy is almost devoured by a crocodile -- the ape leads Jimmy to the cave city of his tribe and show him a treasure of gold and gems.  Well, hot doggies!  That treasure sure can do some good for people in need.  However, a German (this is just after WWII, remember) guide decides to get the treasure for himself.  The German makes the mistake of pointing a gun at Jimmy, who is now the giant ape's best friend...  Some pretty nifty artwork from a not-so-nifty artist.

As the result of a temporary breakdown of social life which followed the Second World War, outlaws have become. [sic] active on a large scale:  [sic] and well organized.   In the farming districts of the great Out-back, certain progressive elements of society have organized themselves into peoples committees to deal with the menace.  "Jack the Officer" has been appointed chief of the secret police, and is hard on the trail of the "Kellymen", a small gang of whom, have slipped away, after a futile attempt has been made to bomb them in their hide-out on the river.

In the meantime, Sheriff Joe Donz is shot and killed and Jack the Officer is tasked with finding the killer...

This story is not quite as confusing as Okaie's, and the artwork is acceptable.

Throw a shrimp on the barbie and settle down to enjoy:   https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=90864&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: JOE GOLEM AND THE DROWNING CITY

 Joe Golem and the Drowning City by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden  (2012)

In an alternate timeline, Lower Manhattan was devastated in 1925 by an earthquake and the rising ocean.  Now New York City is divided into two parts:  The Lower end, inundated by water rising to almost three stories, and the Upper end, which survived the catastrophe and whose residents enjoy a plush and sybaritic lifestyle.  Those who survive in the Drowning City eke out a desperate living and are often prey to others.  The rising waters have also brought forth a steampunk age, filled with sorcery, magic, and supernatural happenings.

Fast forward many years. Felix Orlov the Conjurer, now incredibly old, makes his living by offering seances.  The seances are, more often than not, the real thing for Felix can actually communicate with the dead.  His assistant is Molly, a fourteen-year-old waif whom he had rescued two years before.  Felix has provided the one safe haven that Molly ever knew and she loves him like a father.  Then one day, during a seance with the Mendehlsons in which he was trying to reach their con David, Felix froze and became spasmatic; he began chanting with a phlegmy laugh, his skin began to hiss and wispy smoke came out of his body.  And then it began to get really creepy.  Suddenly the door to the room burst open.  Metal canisters were hurled onto the floor, releasing some sort of gas. Strange men in wetsuits and buglike gas masks entered.  One twisted Mrs. Mendehlson's head, snapping the bone.  Molly could not see what happened to the woman's husband, but she knew that he had been killed.  Felix shoved Molly toward safety, and she ran, pursued by one of the "gasmen."  The others took Felix with them and left.  Molly knew her way around the Drowned City from her days when she lived on the street.  she ran and dodged and tried to hide, but the gasman just kept coming for her.  Then a huge man -- a complete stranger -- appeared before her and spoke her name.  The man said his name was Joe and he placed himself between Molly and the charging gasman.  Joe's strength was enormous, and as powerful as the gas man was, he was no match for Joe, who tore the gasman's wetsuit, releasing...something.  The suit deflated and there remained only something small moving inside of it.  Joe tore the gasman's arm off.  Something escaped form the suit and slid into the water.

Molly had no idea what was going on but she knew that she could trust this giant, Joe.  Joe brought her to meet Simon Church, and elderly detective from the turn of the Twentieth Century, kept alive by various mechanical devices grafted to his body.  Church was a world-famous detective whose exploits published in the magazines of the day made him a world-renown character, like Sherlock Holmes.  Like Holmes, many thought Simon Church was fictional.  Over the years, Church had had many assistants, all of whom were now dead; the one exception was a man who had sacrificed himself in an occult manner to save Church -- that assistant vanished from the Earth, neither living or dead, doomed to spend eternity in nowhere.  For the past twenty years, Church's assistant has been Joe.

Joe remembers nothing of his life before hooking up with Church, although Joe sometimes has dreams of a time centuries ago in Poland, where Joe was a creature of stone, hunting and killing witches who preyed on the village folk.  Joe, it turns out, is a golem, whose long years of service has been rewarded by being turned into a flesh and blood man.

The ones who have captured Felix and tried to catch Molly turn out to be acolytes of Dr. Cocteau, Church's old nemesis, and a man steeped in arcane lore.  Felix, it turns out is the key to finding an powerful occult object known a Lector's Pentajulum.  The problem is no one knows exactly what the Pentajulum does or how it works, only that it is the most powerful and dangerous object in the world.  Cocteau wants the Pentajulum because he believes he can use it to open an interdimensional gateway to bring the Old Ones to Earth.  Church must stop Cocteau at any cost.  To do this, he must locate where Cocteau has brought Felix, so Molly and Joe go out on a quest...a quest that will bring them face to face with unimaginable horrors and death to many, a quest that will eventually result in the destruction of the rest of New York City, and that may mean the end of all life on Earth...

Ghosts and golems and changelings and monsters, oh my!  Mignola and Golden spin a marvelous tale of a strange and forbidden city during a strange and forbidden time.  A tale of heroism and valor and of bloody deeds.

Mike Mignola may be best known  for his comic book work and for creating Hellboy, the B.P. R.D. series, Abe Sapian, and Lobster Johnson.  For this extravaganza, he has created more than 65 woodcuts that mesh perfectly with the story.  Christopher Golden is the best-selling author of the Shadows saga, the Body of Evidence series, the Ghosts of Albion series (with Amber Benson), the Ben Walker series, the Hidden Cities series (with Tim Lebbon), the Menagerie series (with Thomas E. Sniegnoski), the Prowlers series, the Bloodstained Oz series (with James A. Moore), the Hollow series (with Ford Lytle Gilmore), and the Secret Journeys of Jack London series (with Lebbon), along with many other books.  Golden is also a noted tie-writer and has written extensively in the Marvel Universe, the Hellboy Universe, the Buffyverse, among others.  Golden is also a comic book writer and a frequent anthologist.  Mignoli and Golden wrote an earlier Joe Golem adventure, Joe Golem and the Copper Girl. 

ARCHIE ANDREWS: MR. ANDREWS WALLPAPERS A ROOM (JULY 17, 1948)

Everyone's favorite orange-haired teenager, Archie Andrews, began his radio career on May 31, 1943 on the NBC Blue Network.  The show shifted to the Mutual Network in 1944, and them to NBC Radio in 1945, where it stayed until September 5, 1953.  Archie was played by Charles Mullen (1943-44), Jack Grimes (1944), Burl Boyer (1945), and Bob Hastings (1945-1953).  Jughead was played by Hal Stone, Cameron Andrews, and Arnold Stang.  During the NBC radio run Rosemary Rice played Betty, Gloria Mann played Veronica, Alice Yourman played Archie's mother, and Art Kohl played Archie's father..  The show, of course was based on Bob Montana's comic book character, created by Montana, MLJ Comics publisher John L. Goldwater, and writer Vic Bloom; Archie first appeared in Pep Comics #22 (December 1941).  Goldwater wanted to create a character who would appeal to fans of the Mickey Rooney Andy Hardy character. Montana based many of the characters in the Archie universe on former high school friends from Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Travel with us to Riverdale, where times were much simpler and the most complicated issue was the eternal question:  Betty or Veronica?  (A question, by the way, that has never been answered.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvM2fdGeO7s

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE VILLAGE OF THE DEVIL-DEVIL DRUMS, PLUS A MURRAY LEINSTER COLLECTION I PROBABLY WILL NEVER READ

 "The Village of the Devil-Devil Drums" by "Murray Leinster" (Will F. Jenkins)  (first published in Danger Trails, June 1928; reprinted in Leinster's Guns for Achin, 1936; in Adventure Novels and Short Stories, as Will F. Jenkins, January 1938; and in Leinster's The Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure, 2017)

Guns for Achin by Murray Leinster (London:  Wright & Brown, 1936)

The island of Sualaha in the Solomons is not a safe place for any man, white or black, where any person from another village is considered fair game for the native headhunters.  Nor is it a safe place for a woman because females are considered unimportant.  Young Ntuvi had had a bit more freedom than other women, being the daughter of a former village chief; perhaps that gave her ideas she should not have had.  When the most powerful and most holy man in the village, the devil-devil doctor Old Baruti, tried to become amorous with Ntuvi, she threw a pot at him in disgust, splattering the man with food and, worse, hurting his pride.  Ntuvi fled into the jungle, knowing that Baruti would have her tortured and killed for such a blasphemous offence.  Baruti began beating on the devil;-devil drums, alerting his village to find the girl and bring her to him for punishment.  Even Kavo, the boy who wanted desperately to become a warrior and who had feeling for the lithesome Ntuvi, was afraid to go against Baruti's wrath.

Meanwhile, a wounded white man is crawling through the jungle, being chased by more than a dozen warriors from the other side of the island.  We are not given this man's name because it does not matter; all that matter's is that he has a white man's head -- something that is worth ten times more than a Black man's on this island.  He and two shipmates come ashore from s schooner where they had been attacked without warning by natives.  The white man escaped; his comrades were slaughtered; and now a large group of native are in pursuit.  The path through the jungle is dangerous.  There are traps -- lethal poisons, arrow and spear traps, deep pits filled with spears -- throughout the jungle.  the white man has proceed carefully, avoiding the main jungle paths.  His pursuers hope yo capture him -- and his head -- before he reaches the other side of the island, where they fear attack from Baruti's people, who would happily take their heads.  On the far side of the island, the white man hopes to find a dugout which he (hopefully) would be able to get out to sea away from the range of the native sling guns.  From there, he could sail to his heavily armed and guarded schooner -- and safety.

Then the white man stumbles on Ntuvi, who is shocked by his appearance.  Is she a danger?  will she reveal his whereabouts?  He hesitates to kill her, fearing noise will bring those who have been relentlessly chasing him.  He realizes that she, too, is on the run.  Before he can decide what to do, another figure approaches.  It is Kavo, whose feelings for Ntuvi overcame his fear.  But thoughts of Ntuvi vanish when he sees the white man.  Here is his chance to become a great and wealthy warrior; all he needs to do is to kill the white man and take his head.  As Kavo raises his spear, the white man knocks him out with a single punch.

What can the white man do?  Baruti now has over four dozen warriors nearing from the village.  Meanwhile, the natives chasing him are very close.  The unconscious Kavo will surely attack him when he regains consciousness.   If he uses his gun on Kavo, it will alert all the natives to his location.  His hope for reaching the shore and an unattended dugout has vanished.  He only has a few bullets left in his revolver...

All I can say is never underestimate the abilities of a Leinster hero.

A well-plotted, tense story with a vivid background and location from a master.

__________

Guns for Achin was Leinster's first short story collection, published only in England in 1936.  WorldCat lists no American libraries owning the book, and only five copies available worldwide -- in Ireland, Scotland, and England.  No copies are available on Abebooks, or on eBay, or is it listed on Amazon.  It is not available from the usual online sources.  It appears to be completely out of my reach unless some enterprising publisher decides to reissue it -- something that I find unlikely to happen.

Guns for Achin contains nine stories, some of which are readily available for today's reader:

• Kuantan, Klit (I believe this to be a retitling of the short story "Kuantan," which was first published in Adventure, February 15, 1928; reprinted in the British magazine Empire Frontier, December 1929; and in Adventure Novels and Short Stories, April 1939.  There is a possibility thi8s is the story "Khilit," first published in Everybody's, March 1929; reprinted in Short Stories {UK edition}, mid-May 1930; reprinted in Smashing Novels Magazine, September 1936.  there is also the possibility that this is neither of those stories.)
• The Eye of Black A'Wang (This is the first of three stories featuring adventurer Malay Collins; first published in Short Stories, January 10, 1930; reprinted in Short Stories [UK edition}, mid-August 1930; reprinted in Adventure Novels Magazine, February 1937 as by Will Jenkins; reprinted in Short Stories, September 1951; included in the Black Dog Press chapbook Malay Collins:  Master Thief of the East, 2000; reprinted in High Adventure #110, January, 2010.  the September 1951 issue of Short Stories can be read at Internet Archive.)
• The Emerald Buddha (the second of the three Malay Collins stories; first published in Short Stories, February 19, 1930; reprinted in Short Stories [UK edition], mid-June 1930; reprinted in Adventure Yarns, October 1938, as by Will F. Jenkins; included in the Black Dog Press chapbook Malay Collins:  Master Thief of the East, 2000; reprinted in High Adventure #110, January 2010.)
• The Black Sone of Agharti (The last of the three Malay Collins stories.  First published in Short Stories, September 10, 1930. reprinted in Empire Frontier, January 1931; reprinted in Adventure Yarns, August 1938, as by Will F. Jenkins; included in the Black Dog Press chapbook Malay Collins:  Master Thief of the East, 2000; included in High Adventure January 2015.)
• Payung (first published in Everybody's, September 1928; reprinted in Empire Frontiers, June 1930; reprinted in The Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure, 2017))
• The Dream of Sungi Gut (I can find no indication of a previous appearance.)
• Guns for Achin (from Smashing Novels Magazine, December 1936, as by Will Jenkins.)
• Tuilagi (First published in The Danger Trail, April 1927; reprinted in The Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure, 2017.)
• The Village of the Devil Drums (first published in The Danger Trail, Jun 1928; reprinted in Adventure Novels and Short Stories, January 1938, as by Will F. Jenkins; reprinted in Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure, 2017.)

Any further information, clarifications, or corrections will be greatly appreciated.

Jenkins/Leinster was a master of the exotic adventure story.  One can only hope that many of these stories will eventually become available online.

OVERLOOKED FILM: GIRL GANG (1954)

 As one commenter remarked, "This makes Ed Wood look like Orson Welles."

Gang leader Joe (Timothy Farrell, Glen or Glenda, Paris After Midnight, Test Tube Babies} has assembled a group of young people -- mostly girls women, er, thirty-year-old teenagers, actually -- to commit various crimes ranging from robbery to grand theft auto to prostitution for him.  How does he do it? Simple.  He gets them hooked on drugs; first marijuana, then heroin.  These kids will do anything for their fix.  Joe insists that they use no violence while committing their crimes, but are drug-aadles kids capable of listening to him?

This is a bottom of the barrel exploitation flick.  One bright spot, if it could be called that, is the presence of Jo Ann Arnold -- Playboy's Playmate of the Month, June 1954 -- as June; her films include Invasion of the Star Creatures, Daddy-o, and The Diary of a High School Bride.  Other actresses include Mary Lou O'Connor (her only IMDb credit), Mildred Kalke (her only IMDb credit), Thelma Montgomery (her only IMDb credit), Marie Metier (her only IMDb credit), Irene Gilmore (her only IMDb credit), and Peggy Winters (her only IMDb credit).  Does anyone else notice a trend here?

File this one under So Bad It's Gotta Be Entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qteAJcHcE0k

BITS & PIECES

EDITORIAL:  This seems appropriate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj9KVSB5Ii0

**********

Openers:  Joe Lang, squatting on his heels by the small fire with the tin cup of coffee in his hands, tensed as the sound reached him through the darkness.  Swiftly, but with a smoothness that made the motion seem unhurried, he set the cup on the ground, reached for his carbine and cocked it,  He turned his head to squint into the blackness beyond beyond the glow of the small, lingering flames, his lean, strong-boned, weathered face wary. 

The sound came again, more distinctly, nearer.  A single gorse, approaching through the night at a walk,  Catlike, Joe Lang's tall, powerful figure rose from the ground and faded back into the darkness enclosing the small pocket of firelight.  He waited, the barrel of his carbine resting in the crook of his left elbow, his right forefinger just touching the trigger guard.  This part of Montana was full of mining activity.  Riding down to Beaver Head V alley earlier, Lang had spotted a number of miners' shacks and mineshafts along the new, isolated little farms springing up.  and wherever there was gold, there's be the men who came to prey on those who struck it. 

The sound of the horse's hoofs stopped abruptly in the blackness on the other side of the cookfire.  Lang's two horses, tethered to graze on the fringe of the firelight, raised their heads in that direction, nostrils flaring as they caught the scent.

Land shifted sideways, began circling the fire soundlessly.  As he neared the other side of the fire, he swung deeper into the darkness.  When  he judged he had reached the right place, he swung back toward the fire.  The carbine was ready in his taut hands.  Crouching, he moved in till he could see the dark shape of a horse and rider silhouetted against the stars.

Lang spoke softly to the mounted man's back, "Move on into the light."

-- Rider from Wind River by Marvin Albert (1959)

Lang's caution was justified.  The stranger managed to pull a gu on him and take his two horse, leaving behind the stolen one he had come in with.  The stolen horse that Lang was left with had belonged to a miner who was killed for a bag of gold nuggets, and now Lang is accused of the murder.  The real murderer was Ed Stone, of the Stone gang, one of the most vicious, bloodthirsty gangs in the West.  To save himself, Lang must go after Ed Stone.

Marvin H. Albert was a prolific writer -- usually of paperbacks -- of mystery, crime, western, and adventure novels, and of many film novelizations. He was noted for his mystery novels featuring ex-pat Pete Sawyer.  His 1975 suspense thriller The Gargoyle Conspiracy was nominated for an Edgar Award.  He also used the pseudonyms Al (or Albert) Conroy, Ian McAlister, Nick Quarry, J. D. Christilion, and Anthony Rome.  At least eleven of his novels were adapted as films, including The Law and Jake Wade, Dual at Diablo, Bullet for a Badman, Rough Night in Jericho, Tony Rome, and Lady in Cement.  Albert was one of those rare authors who could always be counted on as being entertaining.

Incoming:

• Mike Ashley, King Arthur.  Nonfiction.  "The story of Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table has been handed on by medieval poets and mythical stories -- but what f he did indeed reign as a great king in the early years of Britain's story?  If so, who was he?  And what do the historical documents tell us about him?  This lively brief history re-examines the source material and finds clear evidence that the Arthurian legends arose from the exploits of at least three men, originating in Wales, Scotland, and Brittany.  Historian Mike Ashley, author of the best-selling Brief History of British Kings and Queens, establishes that the rue historical Arthur did exist, and is distantly related to the British royal family.  Ashley's fascinating account provides unexpected, detailed insight into an otherwise mythical figure, often dismissed as a chivalric fantasy.  Protector, war lord, legend -- the true history of King Arthur is more revealing than the fables."  Ashley is also a well-known editor; among his compilations are The Pendragon Chronicles, The Camelot Chronicles, The Merlin Chronicles, The Chronicles of the Holy Grail, The Chronicles of the Round Table, The Mammoth Book pf Arthurian Legends, and The Mammoth Book of King Arthur.
• Robert Michael "Bobb" Cotter, A History of the Doc Savage Adventures in Pulps, Paperbacks, Comics, Fanzines, Radio and Film.  Blame George the Tempter for this one.  "The adventure series is examined in relation to historical events and the changing tastes of readers, with special attention paid to the horror and science fiction elements.  The artwork features illustrations, covers, and original art.  Chapters cover Doc Savage paperbacks, pulp magazines, comic books, and fanzines, and an appendix offers biographies of all major contributors to the series."  Cotter was the author of The Mexican Masked Wrestler and Monster Filmography, Caroline Munro, First Lady of Fantasy:  A Complete Annotated Record of Film and Television Appearances, Ingrid Pitt, Queen of Horror:  The Complete Career, and The great Monster Magazines:  A Critical Study of the Black and White Publications of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
• Greg Cox, Countdown.  Tie-in novel to the Dc Comics series.  "Cosmic legend has it that when the primordial gods of antiquity perished in some bygone cataclysm, the universe gave birth to a new breed of gods who reigned from two eternally warring worlds. the heavenly New Genesis and the hellish Apokolips.  Now a vast conspiracy of evil is determined to eradicate the New Gods and steal their souls to obtain universal power that can destroy all of reality.  Jimmy Olsen, Superman's pal and redheaded photographer for the Daily Planet, exhibits powers of his own and, with them, has the opportunity to become a hero,  Meanwhile, Mary Marvel awakens from a coma to discover that she's been abandoned by her family and friends -- and her magical ability to wield the thunderbolt.  Donna Troy, Jason Todd, and Holly Robinson, once super heroes, were forced to retire and rejoin the ranks of humanity.  until the Earth calls upon Wonder Girl, Robin, and Catwoman once more to prevent a crisis beyond all imagination.  At the end of an age where time, space, and reality may bow before unseen forces, the fate of the Earth lies in the hands of five unlikely super heroes who have one destiny to fulfill:  save the world at all costs..."   DC Comics has changed since I was a kid.
• [Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine], July/August 2023.  Cost me a quarter at a thrift table.  Among the authors are Brendan DuBois, John M. Floyd, Michael Z. Lewin, Marilyn Todd, Dave Zeltserman, and Peter Turnbull, plus a newly translated story from Marcel Ayme.  How can you go wrong?
• Richard Kadrey, Kill City Blues.  A sandman Slim novel, the fifth in the series.  "James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, has managed to get out of Hell, renounce his title as the new Lucifer, and settle back into life in L.A.  But he also lost the Qomrama Om Ya, an all-powerful weapon from the banished older gods.  Older gods who are returning and searching for their lost power.  The hunt leads Stark to an abandoned shopping mall -- a global shipping paradise infested with Lurkers and wretched bottom-feeding Sub Rosa families, squatters who have formed tight tribes to guard their tiny patches of retail wasteland.  Somewhere in this kill zone is a dead man with the answers Stark needs.  All Stark has to do is find the dead man, recover the artifact,  and outwit and outrun the angry old gods -- and natural-born killers -- on his tail.  But not even Sandman Slim  is infallible, and any mistakes will cost him dearly."
• Joe R. Lansdale, Blood in the Gears, Cosmic Interruptions, and Gothic Wounds.  Three major retrospective collections from hisownself.  Blood in the Gears contains 26 crime suspense, and mystery stories; Cosmic Interruptions has 28 science fiction. offbeat fantasy, and speculative fiction tales; while Gothic Wounds gives us 20 of Lansdale's special stories of East Texas and other strange places.  Also, Moon Lake, a suspense novel.  "Daniel Russell was only thirteen years old when his father tried to kill them both by driving their /Buick into Moon Lake.  Miraculously surviving the crash, Daniel returns to the site of this traumatic incident in the hopes of recovering his father's car and remains.  But as he attempts to finally pout to rest the memories that have plagued him for years, Daniel discovers inconsistencies amid the Buick's wreckage, minor at first, and them utterly shocking.  Still reeling, he diligently follows where the mysterious trail leads, colliding head-on with a twisted web of small-town politics in the process,  And he'll need to untangle himself if he has any hope of learning the truth.  With the help of his old flame, Ronnie -- the only Black woman police officer intown and the best person to navigate the town's complicated power imbalances and racial dynamics -- Daniel gains access to their hometown's secret history, each sordid detail more surprising than the last.  As the two grapple with the consequences of their findings, they unveil the grimmest revelation of them all."
• Billee J. Stallings & Jo-An J. Evans, Murray Leinster:  The Life and Works.  A biography/memoir/appreciation of the prolific pulp writer and novelist, written by his two youngest daughters.   Leinster fans (such as I) will be grateful for this inside look.
• Charles Stross, The Apocalypse Codex and The Annihilation Score.  Two more cases for the Laundry Files, the fourth and sixth in the series, respectively.  First, "for outstanding heroism in the field (despite himself) computational demonologist Bob Howard is on the fast track for promotion to management within the Laundry, the supersecret British government agency tasked with defending the realm from occult threats.  Assigned to External Assets, Bob discovers the company (unofficially) employs freelance agents to deal with sensitive situations that may embarrass Queen and Country.  So when Ray schiller -- an American televangelist with the uncanny ability to miraculously heal the ill -- becomes uncomfortably close to the Prime Minister. External Assets dispatches the brilliant, beautiful, and extremely unpredictable Persephone Hazard to infiltrate the Golden Promise Ministries and discover why the preacher is so interested in British politics.  And it's Bob's job to make sure Persephone doesn't cause an international incident.  But it's a supernatural incident that Bob needs to worry about -- a global threat that even the Laundry my be unable to clean up..."  Then, in Annihilation, "Dominique O'Brien -- her friends call her Mo -- lives a curious double life with her husband, Bob Howard.  To the average civilian, they're boring middle-aged civil servants.  But within the labyrinthine secret circles of Her Majesty's Government, they're operatives for the nation's occult security service known as the Laundry, charged with defending Britain against dark supernatural forces threatening humanity.  Unfortunately, one of those supernatural threats has come between Mo and Bob.  An antique violin, and Erich Zahn original, made of white human bone, was designed to produce music capable of slaughtering demons.  Mo is the custodian of this unholy instrument.  It invades her dreams and yearn for the blood of her colleagues -- and he husband.  And despite Mo's proficiency as a world-class violinist, it cannot be controlled..."  This series cleverly combines Lovecraftian lore with spy-guy fantasy action.

The Anti-Climax:  Will F. Jenkins (a.k.a. Murray Leinster, began his writing career in 1915 with short pieces and poems published in The Smart Set, some of which were published as by "Jean Farquar."  Despite it's brevity, "The Anti-Climax" can be viewed as a novel in just six paragraphs.  this was Jenkins's seventh published piece and it's a wickedly sly one.

(Apropos of nothing, my wife often remarked that the name Kitty was used only to reference a harlot with a heart of gold, or the upstairs maid.  This tale proves that she was wrong.)

THE ANTI-CLIMAX

by Will F. Jenkiins

(from The Smart Set, July 1916)

Johnny is the sort of person who does physical culture exercises before he goes to bed.  Kitty is the sort of person you find being interviewed for newspaper and magazines by sob-sisters and elderly maiden ladies with Victorian sentimentality and very slight penetration.  She has a genius for a press-agent.  His name, by the way, was Bill.  She was known to the public because of the fact that she was one of the most accomplished snifflers on the American stage and from the efforts of the press-agent aforesaid.

How Johnny met her is immaterial.  He considered her interesting however, because she was doubtful how to talk to him and hit on the subject of woman suffrage.  Johnny was opposed to woman suffrage, but thought women should be interested in such things, and promptly asked if he might call to talk it over.  He was no gilded youth, though he had the gilt, and she said he might.  Kitty's interest in suffrage had led her to read two magazine articles on it and announce her conversion to the cause.  It was good for three interviews.  When Johnny did call, he had a small volume of Rabindranath Tagore in his pocket, and during the afternoon he read to her from the poem beginning, "On the slope of the desolate river among the tall grasses. ***" and so on.  It is a beautiful thing and Johnny read it well.  When he finished she strangled her fifth yawn just in time.  During the afternoon he also read her a n umber of other poems.

I decline to attempt to write a love story, and therefore I shall carefully omit an analysis of the motives which prompted her to make Johnny fall in love with her.  I shall also not describe the means.  But fall in love with her he did, and thoroughly.  He had been in love with her for quite three weeks before she remarked that as soon as her husband got his decree she intended to marry Bill, her press-agent.  The Johnny identified her with the dubious Kitty Malone, whose matrimonial and other adventures were beloved of small-town sports, revivalists, and magazine section editors.  Before, he had idealized her unmercifully and had quite decided to marry her.  But now -- Marriage with Kitty was really out of the question for him.  He had always had an abhorrence for second-hand objects, and Kitty had already had four husbands, and apparently contemplated a fifth.

He took it very much to heart.  For a while he meditated upon the dramatic charm of permitting the experience to embitter him, and becoming thenceforth a cynic.  Had he dined decently the night before and his mental attitude that morning been one of irritati0on, this is undoubtedly what would have happened.  But Johnny, like most stupid folk, was very virtuous, and had dine not well but too wisely.  The penalty of his virtue was an excellent appetite which he had sated with waffles.  Some day an enterprising psychologist will prepare a brochure upon the effect of foods on the emotions.  Not having the leisure to discuss this at length, I merely pause to point out that waffles, eaten in sufficient quantities, produce a mental attitude of noble, gentle, melancholy.  There are two sorts of melancholy.  Johnny's fastened upon his convictions and he decided that the world held nothing more for him.  Believing firmly in a future life and having incompletely having digested the waffles, he determined upon suicide.  He made his plans with care.  He had no immediate family and his business affairs were at the time under his control, and would consequently not be affected by his untimely demise, so he prepared for euthanasia.  He arranged an elaborate story and went to a drug-store to buy cyanide.  To his relief, a preparation was sold him without question.  He returned to his rooms, poured out a stiff dose, and copied out in a fair hand the Tagore poem, "I have got my leave, Bid me farewell, my brothers.  I bow to you and take my leave, **"  He sat beside the telephone, swallowed the concoction, and called up Kitty.

To my great regret I am unable to relate the conversation.  From Johnny I can learn nothing, while Kitty will not bear that subject be mentioned.  All that can be definitely said is that Kitty made him ring off, called up four newspapers, announced that she was prostrated with grief over the death of her admirer, wo had expired at her feet, swearing he could not live without her love, and the arranged for six new gowns of very subdued design.

Really, it was very careless of Johnny.  Her beautiful publicity campaign was spoiled, her six gowns rendered utterly useless, and a properly melodramatic finish to this story prevented by his lack of care.  He hung up the 'phone, leaned back in his chair, and lit a cigarette.  He felt himself turning pale, and cold sweat upon his brow.  He felt slightly ill.  He glanced at the bottle from which he had taken his fatal drink, and them he realized; that with his farewell written, Kitty's picture by his side and the evening papers notified; that he was not going to die.  The bottle was not labeled cyanide -- it was labeled germicide.  He examined hi symptoms and new what he was going to do.  He was going to be seasick.

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition:  At least not after July 15, 1834 when the Spanish Inquisition was officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.  Sorry, Monty Python.

Rosetta:  Today marks the 225th anniversary of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.  The Rosetta Stone is a stele inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy IV Euphrates of Egypt.  The decree is issued ion three languages:  Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic scripts, Ancient Egyptian using Demotic Scripts (a form of "document" writing that was used increasingly during this period for literary and religious texts; it was considered to be a higher class of writing), and Ancient Greek. The stone eventually led scholars to be able to read and translate the Ancient Egyptian texts.

The Rosetta Stone was most likely first displayed in a temple, possibly in Sais, a city in the Western Nile Delta.  It was probably then moved before or during the Mamluk period (1250-1517), and eventually was used as material by the Mamluks in the construction of Fort Julien near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Valley (around 1470, or perhaps during renovations in 1516).  The fort had fallen into disrepair by July 1799 when the French took possession it.  While working to repair the fort's defenses one of Napoleon's aides-de-camp, Lieutenant Pierre-Francois Bouchard, uncovered the stone.

Almost immediately, scholars were eager to use the Stone in an attempt to decipher this previously untranslatable hieroglyphic text.  With the defeat of the French, the British took to Stone to England in 1801, where it has been on display since 1802.  Final translations took a while and there were four major steps over the years:

Fist, recognizing the the Stone offer three versions of the same text (1799).

Second, learning that the Demotic Text used phonetic characters to spell foreign names (1802).

Third, discovering that the hieroglyphic text did so as well, and that it had striking similarities to the Domotic (1814).

Fourth, the realization that phonetic characters were also used to spell native Egyptian words (1822-1324).

In case you are wondering, the decree was meant to establish Ptolemaic rule over Egypt.

The importance of the Rosetta Stone cannot be understated.  It allowed man a glimpse into something that was long thought unobtainable, and the ingenuity used to translate it was remarkable.  Today, the term Rosetta Stone is used to describe anything that can open a door to wider study and knowledge in various fields.  In the end, the Rosetta Stone gives us hope that we can overcome burdensome obstacles on the way to greater knowledge.

 Hi Yo, Silver:   Here's an undated cartoon from the 1930s featuring the Lone Ranger and Tonto.  This may have been the very first Lone Ranger film.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto foil a band of cattle rustlers and save the life of a rancher.  As one commentator noted, after the bad guys surrendered, they were not taken into custody, and the Lone Ranger and Tonto ride off without the cattle.  Hmm.  Perhaps you should suspend your disbelief as you watch this.

https://archive.org/details/1930sLoneRangerCartoon

CelebrateAnd July 15 is also St. Swithin's Day.  Tradition has it that :

• Today is Orange Chicken Day!  To celebrate, here's a recipe for Panda Express-style Chinese orange chicken.  Yum!      https://www.cookinwithmima.com/easy-orange-chicken-recipe/
• Today is also National Tapioca Pudding Day.  Here's a recipe to get you started:      https://www.bing.com/images/searchview=detailv2&iss=sbi&FORM=recidp&sbisrc=ImgDropper&q=tapioca+pudding&imgurl=https://bing.com/thid=OSK.25943ad0327893c1308229df147082c7&idpbck=1&sim=4&pageurl=bd655ce8c4ba2a1c8c7c9dd87436e29d&idpp=recipe&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0  (Yeah, you're going top have to work to pull that one up online.)
• And it's Global Hug Your Kid Day -- presumably you ignore your kid for the rest of the year.
• Not to be outdone, it's Be a Dork Day, in honor, I believe, of those who only hug their kid only today.
• Also, it's National Respect Canada Day,  Celebrate by eating poutine, I guess.
• And July 15 is St. Swithin's Day.  Tradition has it that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin's Day, it will continue so for the next forty days.  Kind of a scary thought i this age of global warming.

Cowboy Copas:  Today would have been the 11th birthday of Lloyd Estel ("Cowboy") Copas, the legendary country singer who lost his life in the 1963 plane crash that also took Patsy Cline and Hawkshaw Hawkins.  Enjoy some of his songs:

The original "Tennessee Waltz"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XG6tlIqeYc

"A Satisfied Mind"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVE0XyBy0SA

"Sunny Tennessee"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=188eIpFdoUI

"Alabam"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7uPwrKKsGQ

"Filipino Baby"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuYYoQEBkW4

"I'm Hogtied Over You"  with Patsy Cline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fow1uJltwXs

"Circle Rock"

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

"Cope's Wildflower"

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

"Candy Kisses"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6x9_itOeCc

"South Pacific Shore"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP7WKLTIIPc

"Feelin' Low"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_esNDABJ53s

"I Dreamed of a Hillbilly heaven"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIrW5AiODAg

Ha Ha:  A musician once told me he was going to hit me with the neck of his guitar.  "Oh yeah?"  I said, "Is that a fret?"

No Florida Man This Week:  I'm just not in the mood for people doing stupid things, often with guns.

Good News:

• If you build it, they will come.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/dad-attracts-diners-from-across-the-globe-after-building-22k-greek-taverna-in-his-backyard/
• The essentials:  WD-20. duct tap[e, and now baking soda.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/woman-who-nearly-died-after-bacteria-ate-her-nose-says-baking-soda-saved-her-life/
• Eagles take parenting to heart.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/eagle-parents-spend-year-nursing-chick-who-fell-out-of-a-tree-forsaking-the-new-nesting-season/
• The importance of meadowlands.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/meadowmaker-flowers-herald-return-of-rare-bumblebee-in-england-after-scenic-meadows-restored/
• An idea whose time has come:  pick up litter and get free stuff.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/pick-up-litter-and-get-free-stuff-in-copenhagen-this-summer-through-eco-conscious-rewards-program/
• Rescuing wild  mustangs.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/she-rescues-wild-mustangs-rounded-up-across-the-west-and-reunites-their-herds-on-her-ranch/
• Double good luck, and we wish her well.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/pennsylvania-lottery-75-year-old-woman-wins-5-million-scratch-off-after-beating-breast-cancer/
• Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/free-computer-game-based-on-h-p-lovecraft-books-raises-thousands-for-polish-red-cross/

Something to Remember:  "May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right." -- Peter Marshall

Today's Poem:

Baseball's Sad Lexicon

These are the saddest of possible words:

Tinker to Evers to Chance.

Trio of Bear-cubs, fleeter than birds,

Tinker to Evers to Chance.

Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,

Making a Giant hit into a double --

:Words that are weighty with nothing but trouble:

Tinkers to Evers to Chance.

-- FPA (Franklin Pierce Adams)

who was a Giants fan