Saturday, April 23, 2016
Lonnie Mack, R. I. P.
Lonnie Mack, Singer and Guitarist Who Pioneered Blues-Rock, Dies at 74 - The New York Times: Lonnie Mack, a guitarist and singer whose impassioned, fast-picking style on the early 1960s instrumentals “Memphis” and “Wham!” became a model for the blues-rock lead-guitar style and a seminal influence on a long list of British and American artists, died on Thursday in Nashville. He was 74.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
AbeBooks' Most Expensive Sales in January, February & March 2016
AbeBooks' Most Expensive Sales in January, February & March 2016: round-breaking botany, the works of two famous English writers, golf from the days of plus fours and stiff cocktails, racy fashion photography, classic fantasy fiction with a touch of Dracula thrown in, an iconic novel about mental illness, and some illustrated poetry make up our top 10 list of expensive sales from the first three months of 2016.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Michelle McNamara, R. I. P.
Hollywood Reporter: NEW YORK (AP) — Michelle McNamara, a crime writer and wife of comedian and actor Patton Oswalt, has died at her home in Los Angeles, according to Oswalt's publicist. McNamara was 46.
50 Essential Travel Books
AbeBooks: 50 Essential Travel Books: A good author should always suffer for his or her art. Well, the best travel writers suffer more than most, so perhaps that’s why their books are so memorable. A journey without problems is a dull one and this selection of essential travel writing details obstacles like a boat sinking in 60 seconds in the middle of the ocean and a country on the brink of civil war. When a book is called In the Land of White Death then you know the author faced more problems than missing a bus.
FFB: Wiped Out -- John D. Newsome
What with all the material provided by Dell, any comments I might make are almost superfluous. I'll add a couple of things, though. John D. Newsom, who also wrote as J. D. Newsom, was really good. He appears to have specialized in writing Foreign Legion stories for the pulps, and he had the experience for it. Here's a bit from his obit in the New York Times: "Mr. Newsom was born in Shanghai of American descent. He was reared in France and attended Cambridge University, England. For a time he was an anthropologist in Melanesia and later he lived in Morocco. He served as a captain in the British Army in France in World War I and as a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy in World War II. In the Navy he served in the Pacific and as a liaison officer with our armies In Northern Africa and Southern France."
I don't know if he wrote anything after the 1930s, but if he didn't it's a shame. These stories are all colorful and exciting, especially the battle scenes, at which Newsom excelled. I'm tempted to buy one of his novels to see if it's as good as the short stories. Highly recommended.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Murder by the Book Flood Update!
Flood Update! What You Can Do To Help!: Hello Friends of Murder By The Book, For those who don't know, the store flooded last Sunday night (along with much of Houston). The carpet has been removed, but everyone has been working very hard just to get the store put back together and keep the massive amounts of rug glue dust, and moisture at bay. Our landlord has told us that because of the serious repairs needed to the building itself before we install new flooring, we will be in this state for 3-6 months.
Read the rest at the link
Read the rest at the link
Prince, R. I. P.
TMZ.com: The artist known as Prince has died ... TMZ has learned. He was 57. Prince's body was discovered at his Paisley Park compound in Minnesota early Thursday morning.
Libraries and Me
Lesa of Lesa's Book Critiques is to blame for this post, since she was talking about libraries a while back. I've posted little bits and pieces about libraries here and there, but I hadn't thought about devoting a whole post to them. Now's the time, though.
My first experience in the library, at least that I remember, is one from when I was very young, so young that my mother had to hold me up so that I could reach the shelves. She let me pick out a book, and I probably just grabbed one at random. The book was Clementina the Flying Pig, and I thought it was wonderful. I don't know how many times my mother read it to me, but I do know that I checked it out of the library more than once after that so she could read it to me again and again.
The library in Mexia, Texas, at that time was a small building, but it seemed like a big one to me. This was in the days when you took the book to the desk, wrote your name on the library card that was in the holder glued to the first page inside the book, and got the return date stamped on the card. I was far too young to write my name on the card for Clementina, though.
The librarian was Mrs. Armstrong, and she had red hair. She seemed old to me, but she probably wasn't. I know that she had some kind of non-library problems because my parents sometimes talked about her in hushed voices when I wasn't supposed to be listening, and this was the first time I ever heard of "shock treatments." There were other librarians after Mrs. Armstrong, but she's the one I'll always remember best.
In the 1949 Mexia got a new public library, a nice air-conditioned building that was named the Gibbs Memorial Library, thanks to a nice monetary contribution, I suppose. The old library building is still there, though. It's now an Episcopal church, which I think is appropriate.
I loved the Gibbs Memorial Library, and not just because it was air-conditioned. It had a periodicals room where I was able to go and sit in a big red leather chair and read The New Yorker and Time and Newsweek, Boy's Life, The Atlantic, The Saturday Evening Post and a lot of others. I spent hours there. I read just about everything in the children's section of the library, going through all the Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Bomba books. Ellery Queen, Jr. was there. The Swiss Family Robinson. Ben and Me. The Twenty-One Balloons. Great stuff everywhere. I remember very well the first time I went into the adult room. The first book I checked out from it was a mystery novel, Samuel Grafton's A Most Contagious Game, and I later bought the paperback just to have it around. I thought it was very exciting and sexy, and it was to a kid who was still not in his teens. Not so much now, though.
And speaking of the children's room, I remember going there with a friend one weekend when we were in college. We sat in little chairs at a tiny table with our knees sticking above the tabletop while we read Dr. Seuss books and laughed so much that the librarian came in and told us to pipe down.
In the summers, the library would have a reading contest. Needless to say, this was right up my alley. I might not win the home-run contest, but I could do okay when it came to reading books. I was right up there with the best of them. The winners in the summer of '54 are there on the right. I don't know the girl on the left, but my sister, Francelle, is next to her, and Melinda Mansell is beside her. The good-looking young chap on the right with the cool shoes and rolled up jeans is, of course, your humble blogger.
That library building is gone now. The gumbo soil in Mexia shifted around so much that it cracked the foundation and the building itself, I think. Now there's a newer library on the same lot where the old one stood. I've been in that one only a couple of times, but I hope some kid is having as much fun there as I did in the older ones.
There were libraries in the schools, too, except for a couple of years when the schools were housed in the First Methodist Church Sunday School building and the First Baptist Church. Those were interesting times, but that's another story. After a couple of years in the churches (my second- and third-grade years), a new school opened. It was in the library there that I made two big discoveries. One was Greek and Roman mythology, and I read every book the library had on those topics. That might sound impressive, but I think there were only two books. The other discovery was one that at the time didn't seem like a big one, but it turned out to be. That was where I found Rocket Ship Galileo, the first book by Robert A. Heinlein that I ever read. The librarian was Mrs. Whitehead, who was the wife of the high-school band director. That's her on the left, I think. I don't have a picture of the high-school library, but it was there that I found Groff Conklin's anthologies The Big Book of Science Fiction and Science Fiction Omnibus which contained stories that have remained with me to this day. Looking at the copyright page, I found out that the stories had originally appeared in magazines, so I went to the local bookstore (yes, we had one in Mexia) and found the first copies of the digest magazines that I ever bought. The bookstore also had two big spinning paperback racks. Wow. It was even better than the library in a way. But I digress.
When I went to college, I found the main library at The University of Texas at Austin to be a wonderful place. I wish I had a photo of the card catalog, which took up two long walls. It's probably gone now, more's the pity. Undergraduates weren't allowed in "the stacks," so we had to check out books at the big front desk. We'd fill out a slip of paper, give it to the person behind the desk, and a flunky would be sent for the book. I spent a lot of time in what was then called the "periodicals reading room," a place that had an almost infinite number of magazines. I liked to read the ceiling beams almost as much as I did reading the magazines.
I got my M.A. at the University of North Texas, which was still North Texas State University at that time, and I had my first carrel there. I spent a lot of time in the carrel reading paperback spy novels when I should've been working on my thesis.
After a year at NTSU, I returned to Austin to work on my doctorate, and now I had a carrel and access to the stacks in the main library there. That was a great time. I found the bound copies of the New York Times Book Review and read every issue that had the "Criminals at Large" column of book reviews by Anthony Boucher. I wrote down the title of every paperback original that Boucher reviewed and tried to track down the book in used bookstores. I located the mystery section of the library, which was quite well maintained. Someone was a fan, and the new books were shelved almost immediately after they arrived. I went through everything there by a good many writers.
I also had a library card at the Austin Public Library, which is where I also found a lot of mystery novels. My best find there, however, was on the table where they tossed magazines that they were giving away. They dumped a huge stack of Life magazines from the 1940s one day, and I took them all.
When I got a job at Howard Payne University, I had an office in the library building. Perfect. And of course I got a card at the Brownwood public library. When I moved to Alvin, I got a public library card here, and I was in the college library every week. Someone there gathered up the paperback books that used bookstores in area didn't want and brought them to the library, which sold them for 10 cents. I was their best customer.
So do I like libraries? You bet I do. I've spent more happy hours in them than I can count. I suspect that some of you have, too. Long may they thrive.
My first experience in the library, at least that I remember, is one from when I was very young, so young that my mother had to hold me up so that I could reach the shelves. She let me pick out a book, and I probably just grabbed one at random. The book was Clementina the Flying Pig, and I thought it was wonderful. I don't know how many times my mother read it to me, but I do know that I checked it out of the library more than once after that so she could read it to me again and again.
The library in Mexia, Texas, at that time was a small building, but it seemed like a big one to me. This was in the days when you took the book to the desk, wrote your name on the library card that was in the holder glued to the first page inside the book, and got the return date stamped on the card. I was far too young to write my name on the card for Clementina, though.The librarian was Mrs. Armstrong, and she had red hair. She seemed old to me, but she probably wasn't. I know that she had some kind of non-library problems because my parents sometimes talked about her in hushed voices when I wasn't supposed to be listening, and this was the first time I ever heard of "shock treatments." There were other librarians after Mrs. Armstrong, but she's the one I'll always remember best.
In the 1949 Mexia got a new public library, a nice air-conditioned building that was named the Gibbs Memorial Library, thanks to a nice monetary contribution, I suppose. The old library building is still there, though. It's now an Episcopal church, which I think is appropriate.
I loved the Gibbs Memorial Library, and not just because it was air-conditioned. It had a periodicals room where I was able to go and sit in a big red leather chair and read The New Yorker and Time and Newsweek, Boy's Life, The Atlantic, The Saturday Evening Post and a lot of others. I spent hours there. I read just about everything in the children's section of the library, going through all the Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Bomba books. Ellery Queen, Jr. was there. The Swiss Family Robinson. Ben and Me. The Twenty-One Balloons. Great stuff everywhere. I remember very well the first time I went into the adult room. The first book I checked out from it was a mystery novel, Samuel Grafton's A Most Contagious Game, and I later bought the paperback just to have it around. I thought it was very exciting and sexy, and it was to a kid who was still not in his teens. Not so much now, though.And speaking of the children's room, I remember going there with a friend one weekend when we were in college. We sat in little chairs at a tiny table with our knees sticking above the tabletop while we read Dr. Seuss books and laughed so much that the librarian came in and told us to pipe down.
In the summers, the library would have a reading contest. Needless to say, this was right up my alley. I might not win the home-run contest, but I could do okay when it came to reading books. I was right up there with the best of them. The winners in the summer of '54 are there on the right. I don't know the girl on the left, but my sister, Francelle, is next to her, and Melinda Mansell is beside her. The good-looking young chap on the right with the cool shoes and rolled up jeans is, of course, your humble blogger.
That library building is gone now. The gumbo soil in Mexia shifted around so much that it cracked the foundation and the building itself, I think. Now there's a newer library on the same lot where the old one stood. I've been in that one only a couple of times, but I hope some kid is having as much fun there as I did in the older ones.
There were libraries in the schools, too, except for a couple of years when the schools were housed in the First Methodist Church Sunday School building and the First Baptist Church. Those were interesting times, but that's another story. After a couple of years in the churches (my second- and third-grade years), a new school opened. It was in the library there that I made two big discoveries. One was Greek and Roman mythology, and I read every book the library had on those topics. That might sound impressive, but I think there were only two books. The other discovery was one that at the time didn't seem like a big one, but it turned out to be. That was where I found Rocket Ship Galileo, the first book by Robert A. Heinlein that I ever read. The librarian was Mrs. Whitehead, who was the wife of the high-school band director. That's her on the left, I think. I don't have a picture of the high-school library, but it was there that I found Groff Conklin's anthologies The Big Book of Science Fiction and Science Fiction Omnibus which contained stories that have remained with me to this day. Looking at the copyright page, I found out that the stories had originally appeared in magazines, so I went to the local bookstore (yes, we had one in Mexia) and found the first copies of the digest magazines that I ever bought. The bookstore also had two big spinning paperback racks. Wow. It was even better than the library in a way. But I digress. 
When I went to college, I found the main library at The University of Texas at Austin to be a wonderful place. I wish I had a photo of the card catalog, which took up two long walls. It's probably gone now, more's the pity. Undergraduates weren't allowed in "the stacks," so we had to check out books at the big front desk. We'd fill out a slip of paper, give it to the person behind the desk, and a flunky would be sent for the book. I spent a lot of time in what was then called the "periodicals reading room," a place that had an almost infinite number of magazines. I liked to read the ceiling beams almost as much as I did reading the magazines.
I got my M.A. at the University of North Texas, which was still North Texas State University at that time, and I had my first carrel there. I spent a lot of time in the carrel reading paperback spy novels when I should've been working on my thesis.
After a year at NTSU, I returned to Austin to work on my doctorate, and now I had a carrel and access to the stacks in the main library there. That was a great time. I found the bound copies of the New York Times Book Review and read every issue that had the "Criminals at Large" column of book reviews by Anthony Boucher. I wrote down the title of every paperback original that Boucher reviewed and tried to track down the book in used bookstores. I located the mystery section of the library, which was quite well maintained. Someone was a fan, and the new books were shelved almost immediately after they arrived. I went through everything there by a good many writers.
I also had a library card at the Austin Public Library, which is where I also found a lot of mystery novels. My best find there, however, was on the table where they tossed magazines that they were giving away. They dumped a huge stack of Life magazines from the 1940s one day, and I took them all.
When I got a job at Howard Payne University, I had an office in the library building. Perfect. And of course I got a card at the Brownwood public library. When I moved to Alvin, I got a public library card here, and I was in the college library every week. Someone there gathered up the paperback books that used bookstores in area didn't want and brought them to the library, which sold them for 10 cents. I was their best customer.
So do I like libraries? You bet I do. I've spent more happy hours in them than I can count. I suspect that some of you have, too. Long may they thrive.
Guy Hamilton, R. I. P.
EW.com: Guy Hamilton, British film director who helmed multiple entries in the James Bond series, including Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever, has died at the age of 93.
Chyna, R. I. P.
WWE legend Chyna is found dead at home aged 45 of a 'possible overdose' after a career as the most dominant female wrestler of all time
WWE wrestling legend Chyna has died aged 45 due to a 'possible overdose', it has been claimed.
Chyna - real name Joan Marie Laurer - is believed to have been found in her bedroom at her home in Redondo Beach, California on Wednesday.
Police are investigating suspicions the champion fighter died of a drug overdose, TMZ claimed.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
WWE wrestling legend Chyna has died aged 45 due to a 'possible overdose', it has been claimed.
Chyna - real name Joan Marie Laurer - is believed to have been found in her bedroom at her home in Redondo Beach, California on Wednesday.
Police are investigating suspicions the champion fighter died of a drug overdose, TMZ claimed.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
It's San Jacinto Day!
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Uh-Oh
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo sequel 'will be written like Raymond Chandler or Ibrahimovic biography: wedish author David Lagercrantz, who took over the Millennium crime series from the late Stieg Larsson, made the remarkable announcement that the fifth book will be written in a new style: like Raymond Chandler or even Lagercrantz's own ghosted biography of footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Hat tip to Fred Zackel.
Hat tip to Fred Zackel.
“The Hawthornden Castle Fellowship Experience” (by William Burton McCormick)
“The Hawthornden Castle Fellowship Experience” (by William Burton McCormick) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: William Burton McCormick’s fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, and elsewhere. A four-time Derringer Award finalist for the year’s best short mystery fiction, he is also a novelist whose historical work set in the Baltic States, Lenin’s Harem, was published in both English and Latvian and became the first work of fiction ever added to the permanent library at the Latvian War Museum in Rīga. William’s first story for EQMM, the Derringer-nominated “Pompo’s Disguise,” appeared in March/April 2015. It starred the ancient Roman thief Quintus the Clever. Quintus appears again in his new EQMM story “Voices in the Cistern,” coming up in August of this year. He is also cowriting the financial thriller KGB Banker with businessman and author John Christmas. A native of Nevada, William has lived in seven countries including Latvia, Estonia, Russia, and Ukraine. As you will see, he was elected a Hawthornden Writing Fellow in Scotland in 2013.—Janet Hutchings
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
herald-review.com: DECATUR – Police say a Decatur woman, furious at her two-timing boyfriend and his other girlfriend, covered both of their cars completely in a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise.
In That Case, Sir, You Are Free to Go
Man arrested for stealing Arby's meat, says he's from future
Hat tips to Jeff Meyerson and Art Scott.
Hat tips to Jeff Meyerson and Art Scott.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
The Smoking Gun: A Florida woman allegedly punched a convenience store employee in the eye after the worker demanded the return of a bag of Cheetos Puffs that the suspect had stashed “under her sundress in her groin area,” according to cops.
Milt Pappas, R. I. P.
Houston Chronicle: CHICAGO (AP) — Milt Pappas, who came within a disputed pitch of throwing a perfect game for the Chicago Cubs in 1972 and was part of the lopsided trade that brought Frank Robinson to Baltimore, died Tuesday. He was 76.
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee . . .
. . . and now it's the plate-smashing, egg-throwing rampage that sent a 34-year-old woman to jail
New Blog of Interest
Larque Press, which publishes The Digest Enthusiast, has a blog that would probably be of interest to many of you. Check it out.
The Librarian Who Saved Timbuktu’s Cultural Treasures From al Qaeda
The Librarian Who Saved Timbuktu’s Cultural Treasures From al Qaeda: A middle-aged book collector in Mali helped keep the fabled city’s libraries, books and manuscripts safe from occupying jihadists
I Miss the Old Days
Trippy Blacklight Posters From the Psychedelic Heyday: Whoa man. Is this poster glowing? Wait. Is that a centaur?
Why Humans Start Collections of Specific Items
An Insightful History and Explanation Regarding Why Humans Start Collections of Specific Items: Just as eating food provides temporary hunger fulfillment, so does obtaining a new object. …For a collector, the satisfaction from attaining a new piece quickly subsides… and the hunt resumes. Collecting as a form of preserving the past confirms our belief that there must be an infinite truth. Life existed before me and it will exist after me, and “Here’s the proof.” …And collecting as a form of establishing one’s identity is a celebration of individuality because no two collections are the same. Your button, coin or card collection creates a conceptual circle of magic that wards off uncertainty and chaos, helps define you, and proves not only that you exist, but that you are unique. A collection is a secure micro world of order entirely controlled by you in a macro world of chaos… but that becomes a problem when the toy trains control the conductor.
Overlooked Movies: Little Miss Sunshine
A repeat from 2006, when this was a new movie.
This is a funny movie about a dysfunctional family that makes mine seem almost normal. It's essentially a road-trip movie that reminded me a lot of National Lampoon's Vacation in certain ways that it's probably best not to discuss; otherwise, I'd spoil some of the fun.
The trip ends not at Wally World but at the Little Miss Sunshine competition, an event as horrifying as anything I've seen in a movie in a long time. How Olive, the young girl in the family, ever got into such a competition in the first place is never explained. Oh, we know she won second prize in a previous competition, and that's not explained, either. I'd kind of like to know, given the way her Little Miss Sunshine bit goes.
A lot's not explained about the family, for that matter. It's more like they were assembled out of central casting and put together for the picture. Not that I cared. Every one of them is great. I especially liked Alan Arkin who talks a lot, and Paul Dano, who talks very little; but Toni Collette as the mother who tries to hold the crazy bunch together is fine, as is Greg Kinnear, the loser father who wants so much to be a winner. Steve Carell as the uncle is super. The real star of the picture, however, is Abigail Breslin, who deserves an Oscar nomination. She's just great. (Update: She's recently appeared in the Scream Queens TV series and will be playing the role of Baby in the unnecessary remake of Dirty Dancing.)
Some of the scenes go on too long, especially the climactic one, but what the heck. I got a lot of laughs. If you haven't seen this movie, check it out. Highly recommended.
Monday, April 18, 2016
Doris Roberts, R. I. P.
TMZ.com: Doris Roberts, the beloved mom from "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died ... TMZ has learned. She won 5 Emmy awards, 4 of them for 'Raymond.' She's also starred in tons of other TV shows and movies, like "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "Grandma's Boy."
Will the Persecution Never End?
AOL: Paris Hilton, in typical Paris Hilton fashion, turned heads this week when she paired a leopard print jacket with leopard print booties that looked tacky and costume-ish. Leather leggings, a floppy hat and oversized sunnies didn't help the socialite-turned-DJ's case.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Rain, Rain, Go Away
It's raining in Alvin, too, but we're not flooded like Houston. Yet.
I Miss the Old Days
The goofy 1930s serials that inspired 'Star Wars': 1936-1940
Flash Gordon
An Olympic swimmer conquers the universe.
80 years of Alfred
80 years of Alfred: In this video, we get to see the various incarnations of Alfred Pennyworth through the various versions of Batman.
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee . . .
. . . and Texans lead the way!
Daily Mail Online: Shocking moment security guard fights three women at a bachelorette party - and punches the bride-to-be to the GROUND
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Daily Mail Online: Shocking moment security guard fights three women at a bachelorette party - and punches the bride-to-be to the GROUND
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Hemingway's Alternate Endings to 'A Farewell to Arms'
Hemingway's Alternate Endings to 'A Farewell to Arms' Are Now on Display: In 1958, Ernest Hemingway told the Paris Review that he’d written 39 different endings to his classic World War I novel, A Farewell to Arms. As it turns out, the famed writer had either misremembered or was being modest; historians have since determined that he actually wrote 47 endings to the book, eight of which are now on display at a new exhibit about the author at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
John Ferrone, R. I. P.
The New York Times: John Ferrone, an editor who shepherded Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Color Purple” into print, encouraged Anaïs Nin to publish her erotic fiction, and served as James Beard’s dining and cooking companion and literary executor, died in Old Bridge, N.J., on April 10. He was 91.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
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