Saturday, July 04, 2015
Ralph Lamb, R. I. P.
Daily Mail Online: Longtime Clark County Sheriff Ralph Lamb, a prominent figure credited with shaping Las Vegas' modern history, has died.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Gator Update
A Texas Man Was Attacked And Killed After Ignoring An Alligator Warning
I wasn't going to post this, but since there's a clear picture of the sign in the article, I decided to go with it. The sign plainly says NO SWIMMING ALLIGATORS. If you're a punctuation nerd, like me, you can see why the guy might have dived in. He might have thought he was perfectly safe. After all, the sign does say NO SWIMMING ALLIGATORS. They might all have been napping on the bottom or they might have been frolicking on the bank, right? Maybe his family has grounds for a lawsuit.
I wasn't going to post this, but since there's a clear picture of the sign in the article, I decided to go with it. The sign plainly says NO SWIMMING ALLIGATORS. If you're a punctuation nerd, like me, you can see why the guy might have dived in. He might have thought he was perfectly safe. After all, the sign does say NO SWIMMING ALLIGATORS. They might all have been napping on the bottom or they might have been frolicking on the bank, right? Maybe his family has grounds for a lawsuit.
Fourth of July Fireworks
Fourth of July Fireworks -- where they came from and why we like them on July 4
It's July 4!
July 4th - Holidays - HISTORY.com: Variously known as the Fourth of July and Independence Day, July 4th has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941, but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution (1775-83). In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies then fighting in the revolutionary struggle weighed a resolution that would declare their independence from Great Britain. On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later its delegates adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson. From 1776 until the present day, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence, with typical festivities ranging from fireworks, parades and concerts to more casual family gatherings and barbecues.
Friday, July 03, 2015
First It was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
. . . and now it's the Kroger brawl: Women fight outside store after car accident
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson: What many don’t know is Bat Masterson was also the model for Obadiah “The Sky” Masterson in Damon Runyon’s short story “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown,” and the popular Broadway musical “Guys and Dolls.”
FFB: The Demon Caravan -- Georges Surdez
I had high hopes for The Demon Caravan. I'd heard good things about the work of Georges Surdez, and the book appeared to be a combination of a novel about the Foreign Legion and a lost world (or at least a hidden society). What could possibly go wrong? There's a long and fascinating article about Surdez here, and I'll just quote one little bit of it for you: The Demon Caravan "avoids action for a well-observed power struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims in a remote kingdom."Okay, that doesn't sound too bad, and in fact it sounds downright contemporary. The problem is that the "well-observed power struggle" doesn't enter into things until the final third of the novel, which is really a love story rather than an action/adventure tale or a political novel. After an officer is wounded on a camel patrol near the Iron Mountains, the patrol's new commander, Captain Lartal, takes another patrol out to the spot and he and his sidekick capture two people who have come to spy on the camp. One of them turns out to be a beautiful woman. Do I have to tell you that it's love at first sight for both Lartal and the woman? Someone should have told Lartal because it takes him forever to realize it. At any rate he makes the decision to release both captives without gaining any information from them, something he would not ordinarily have done.
Later a mysterious message arrives at the fort, and Lartal finds himself once again at the Iron Mountains, where he's taken into the secret hiding spot of a hidden city. And before long, he finds himself married to the beautiful woman. This brings the aforementioned power struggle to a climax.
Surdez is great with the local color, and his descriptions of life in the Legion ring true, as do his descriptions of the life of the desert people. The writing is smooth and very readable. The book was published originally in 1927, but it hardly seems dated at all. And here's a bit of trivia for you, in case you didn't know who invented the term "Russian roulette." It was Georges Surdez, as you'll learn if you read the article at the link above.
The Demon Caravan was made into a movie called Desert Legion in 1953 with Arlene Dahl and Alan Ladd. I haven't seen it, but I'd like to.
And finally, here's a good review of the novel by someone who liked it a bit more than I did.
Thursday, July 02, 2015
Paperback Pair
Take a guy's hat off, change a woman's undergarments, and instead of a western you have a backwoods novel.
Cage of Thrones
What if Nicolas Cage played all the main characters on Game of Thrones? See it here, if you dare: Cage of Thrones
Link via Neatorama.
Link via Neatorama.
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
Free Short Story
I'm a fan of the kind of SF that "they don't write anymore." Occasionally, however, someone does write it anymore, and this time it's Lawrence Person. You can read his new story here: Galaxy's Edge Magazine: SAUL'S DIARY
by
Lawrence Person
Paul Revere's Bell by Edward D. Hoch
EDWARD D. HOCH’S “PAUL REVERE’S BELL” | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: In celebration of Independence Day, instead of posting an article this week, I’d like to direct readers to the full text of a story by Edward D. Hoch, from his Revolutionary War series starring Alexander Swift. The tale, entitled “Paul Revere’s Bell” and originally published in EQMM’s March/April 2004 issue, is made available through the generous permission of Ed’s widow, Patricia Hoch. The stories in this series are among my favorites from Ed Hoch’s large body of work. Whether this case for Alexander Swift is new to you or remembered from more than a decade ago, I hope you’ll find it an enjoyable addition to your holiday. Happy Fourth of July!—Janet Hutchings
Theodore Weesner, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Theodore Weesner, a novelist who mined his wayward youth for the stuff of his celebrated first novel, “The Car Thief,” and whose half-dozen other books earned plaudits for their patient, realistic narratives and humanely considered characters, died on Thursday at a hospital near his home in Portsmouth, N.H. He was 79.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Sherlock Holmes: 10 Offbeat Takes on the Great Detective
Sherlock Holmes: 10 Offbeat Takes on the Great Detective: From spoofs to point-and-click adventure games, here are 10 of the most memorable unusual incarnations of Sherlock Holmes...
Link via mental_floss.
Link via mental_floss.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Gator Update (Kasey Lansdale Edition)
Kasey Lansdale posted this on her Facebook page, so I stole it. How could I resist?
First It was the Thin Mints Melee
PSL woman nabbed in nipple stabbing: A 65-year-old woman accused of stabbing her son in the nipple with a pencil after he complained she bought too much stuff at Walmart got locked up, an arrest affidavit states.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Signwave -- Andrew Vachss
Dell is a former legionnaire and assassin, but now he and Dolly, a former nurse, have settled down in a small Oregon town and have begun accumulating a family of choice. Dell is entirely devoted to protecting Dolly and keeping her safe. Anyone who threatens her, even vaguely, is making a big mistake.
I'm guessing there wasn't a lot of backstory about Dell in the previous volumes because there's a lot of it here, and we find out a good bit about what made him who and what he is. The book is as much a meditation on violence as it is a crime novel. Dell is man with very particular set of skills, skills he acquired over a very long career. Skills that make him a nightmare for people who threaten anybody he cares about.
The man who makes the vague threat is a hedge fund millionaire, and he's proposing to build a magnificent tourist attraction for the town. It won't cost the town a thing, but it will bring in tourists and money. A good thing, right? Or does he have ulterior motives?
The man who makes the vague threat is a hedge fund millionaire, and he's proposing to build a magnificent tourist attraction for the town. It won't cost the town a thing, but it will bring in tourists and money. A good thing, right? Or does he have ulterior motives?
Dell investigates and finds out a number of things, but I'm not sure of how much bearing they have on the man's motives. There are, I suppose, two villains in the book, but they appear only twice, briefly. The thing is that their motives don't matter. A threat is a threat. Dell deals with threats only one way.
Vachss' writing is tight and incisive. He knows how to create and build suspense, and the characters of the family of choice are all interesting. If you're a Vachss fan, you'll want to read this one. If you're not sure, the original Dell and Dolly story can be read right here for free. Check it out and see what you think.
Joe Bennett, R. I. P.
FOX Carolina 21: The family of Joe Bennett, lead of Joe Bennett & the Sparkletones, said his legacy is one of more than just music.
The rockabilly group Joe Bennett & the Sparkletones was born in 1956 when four friends from Cowpens came together with big dreams. The band quickly rose to prominence when their first recorded song, "Black Slacks," charted Billboard at number 17. Other Sparkletones hits included "Penny Loafers and Bobby Sox" and "Boys Do Cry."
10 influential pulp novels that are criminally good
10 influential pulp novels that are criminally good (be sure to read the first comment)
Hat tip to John DeNardo.
Hat tip to John DeNardo.
From the Department of Redundancy Department
CBS San Francisco: Few things in America have lasted 150 years. San Francisco’s sewer system is a working relic but one that works
Overlooked Movies -- Southern Comfort
Deliverance on steroids? Metaphor for Vietnam? Or just an entertaining and suspenseful action movie?A disparate bunch (is there ever any other kind) of National Guardsmen on a weekend maneuver wind up lost in a Louisiana swamp. A prank with blanks goes wrong and people start to die. Apparently you don't mess around with Cajuns, or if you do, you pay the price.
It's a steep price, and so the movie is one of those "who's going to be alive at the end?" affairs along with everything else. It's also "anyone can die at any time." It's just a question of how, since the Cajuns are quite inventive.
And finally this is an "it ain't over till it's over" movie. The last act is a good one. Like last week's movie, this one was directed by Walter Hill, and while it's not in the same league with Hard Times, it's a good bit of fun on its own. The cast includes Powers Boothe, Keith Carradine, and Fred Ward, but just about everybody's good. Check it out.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Jack Carter, R. I. P.
Deadline: A comic’s comic as familiar to television audiences across the decades as he was to Vegas rollers and Broadway denizens, Jack Carter died at home in Beverly Hills on June 28 of respiratory failure, according to his publicist, Jeff Sanderson. He had turned 93 on June 24.
Vanishing Games -- Roger Hobbs
In this one, after several third-person chapters of setup, Jack takes over the storytelling when he gets a text from a woman named Angela, whom he hasn't seen in the six years since the fiasco of the failed bank robbery that occurs in Ghostman. Now she needs his help, which of course he's instantly ready to give because she was his mentor in the ghostman game.
This is one of those go-for-broke books that heads over the top at the very start and then just keeps going so far that the top is no longer visible. It's pretty much nonstop action, and if you like the kind of details that Jack Reacher tosses into the story, you'll find about 100 times that many here, as Hobbs tells you all kinds of stuff about triads, sapphire smuggling, weapons, traffic in Macau, how a ghostman lives, and a lot more. You're never sure how much of it is true and how much Hobbs is just making up, but it doesn't matter. It's all in preposterous fun.
Hobbs seems to love "the ticking clock," not to mention plenty of chases and shooting. You can either reject all this and look for a John Dickson Carr novel to read, or you can go with the flow. I chose to go with it and had a good time all the way. Check it out.
Marva Collins, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Marva Collins, a former substitute teacher whose success at educating poor black students in a private school she founded made her a candidate for secretary of education and the subject of a television movie, died on Wednesday in a hospice near her home in South Carolina. She was 78.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Chris Squire, R. I. P.
Chris Squire, Yes Bassist and Co-Founder, Dead at 67 | Rolling Stone: Chris Squire, the co-founder and longtime bassist of prog rock icons Yes and the only member of the group to feature on every studio album, has passed away just over a month after revealing that he was suffering from a rare form of leukemia. Squire was 67. Current Yes keyboardist Geoff Downes first tweeted the news, "Utterly devastated beyond words to have to report the sad news of the passing of my dear friend, bandmate and inspiration Chris Squire."
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Morgan: A Frank Roderus Western - Kindle edition by Frank Roderus. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. 15 year old Morgan finds himself alone—both brothers lost to the Civil War—both parents dead. Too young to die, too tough to care Morgan heads west chasing rumors of the Pikes Peak gold rush and grows up much too early along the way.
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