Saturday, March 04, 2017
There Is Nothing Lower than a Crocnapper
Crocodiles stolen from mobile zoo in Sydney’s south west: Crocnapping: Where are Snap and Crackle?
“The Bees Knees and the Cat’s Galoshes” (by Olive-Ann Tynan)
“The Bees Knees and the Cat’s Galoshes” (by Olive-Ann Tynan) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: An Irish writer whose first work of fiction appeared in EQMM’s Department of First Stories in 2013, Olive-Ann Tynan has lived in Italy for many years. She currently works as a translator from Italian to English and was at one time editor for an Italian-language golf magazine. Despite her long immersion in another culture, she continues to find her native Ireland in the period of her childhood the most fertile soil for her fiction, something she talks about in this post. Olive-Ann’s latest EQMM story, “Alive, Alive-Oh,” is in our current issue, March/April 2017.—Janet Hutchings
Miriam Colon, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Miriam Colon, a pioneering actress in U.S. Latino New York theater who starred in films alongside Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, died Friday.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, March 03, 2017
Paula Fox, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Paula Fox, a distinguished writer for children and adults whose work illuminated lives filled with loss, dislocation and abandonment, conditions she knew firsthand from a very early age, died on Wednesday in Brooklyn. She was 93.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
It Already Has a Great Band Name
Music Matters, Listen: The music composed by slime mould: The composer Eduardo R. Miranda tells Tom Service how he uses single-cell organisms to improvise music at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research in Plymouth.
Hat tip to Michael Bracken.
Hat tip to Michael Bracken.
Some Reviews of Interest (To Me, Anyway)
Gravetapping: Bullet Reviews: A smattering of praise
The stuff covered here doesn't get reviewed often.
The stuff covered here doesn't get reviewed often.
The Will To Kill -- Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
In his intro to this posthumous collaboration with Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins explains that the more substantial Spillane manuscripts have now all been completed. The one Collins worked with to write The Will to Kill was about thirty pages rather than a hundred as in previous collaborations. He goes on to say that Spillane had set things up just fine, with a premise that brings to mind Agatha Christie. He should know, and of course he's right. There are elements of the English country-house mystery here, and having seen the movie version of And Then There Were None recently, I was immediately reminded of it as members of a prominent inventor's family, all living in the same house, are being knocked off one by one.Things are set in motion by the death of the family chauffeur, and Hammer is involved because he discovers the body (well, half of it) while out for late-night stroll. The victim is a former cop, a good friend of Pat Chambers, who hires Hammer to look into things. Many are still suspicious that the death of the inventor several years before, an apparent accident, wasn't an accident at all. and of course they're right. There's something else going on in the area, too, something even more sinister: young women are disappearing and presumed dead.
Hammer moves though this double plot in a kinder, gentler fashion. He's not personally involved, as he almost always is, and so vengeance isn't involved, and the kill music isn't singing in his head. In fact, although he beats up a few guys now and then, he kills only one of them. He helps out the members of the family, solving some of their problems for them, and and puts the pieces together like a classical detective (not that he hasn't done this in other books, as Collins points out; it's just not often remarked on because critics emphasize other parts of the novels). All this is satisfactorily resolved, with a kind of two-fer surprise ending that seems just right.
It was fun to read this book, not just because it's a bit of a different outing for Hammer that shows a side of him that's not often noticed, but because Collins pulls it off so well, with a compelling story that keeps you reading right along even though the sex and violence are downplayed. It's another hit for a great writing team.
FFB: The Pale Door -- Lee Roberts (Robert Martin)
Robert Martin wrote some fine private-eye books under his own name, but for this one he chose to use his Lee Roberts pseudonym. If you ever do pick up a copy of the paperback pictured here, you should not read the blurb on the front, which gives away too much, and you should totally avoid the one on the back, which gives away everything. Why would anyone do something like that? Obviously he (or she) was a terrible person.Having ignored the blurbs, you'll find a fast-moving and entertaining novel. Chad Proctor is the head of a regional branch of a national private-investigation firm. A friend of his, a doctor, hires him and his firm to watch over his wife, an alcoholic, for a week or so until he can get his practice in shape for him to take her on a vacation in an attempt to set things right. Then the doctor is murdered.
The are a couple of complications, including the fact that Proctor's own love life is in a mess. The woman he was planning to ask to marry him is suddenly engaged to someone else, someone who's a real lowlife and who's somehow involved with the doctor's wife.
The writing is smooth and the pacing is just right. The book's very short, only 118 pages, a nice afternoon's reading. But don't look at those blurbs.
Thursday, March 02, 2017
It's Texas Independence Day
Texas Independence Day - Wikipedia: Texas Independence Day is the celebration of the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836. With this document signed by 59 people, settlers in Mexican Texas officially declared independence from Mexico and created the Republic of Texas.
Chemo #3 Is History
In spite of some potentially bad scheduling screwups by M.D. Anderson the third chemo treatment is now history. Thanks for all the good wishes, etc. Keep it up for the side-effects, which should be setting in tomorrow. I'll be checking the mail every day for the cash. I hope you sent all used bills, small denominations, but I'll take anything I can get.
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
By the time you read this, . . .
. . . I'll be sitting at M.D. Anderson as I await the blood draw that precedes my visit with my doctor. After the visit with the doctor, if things go as planned, I'll have the third of the six chemo treatments in my little regimen. Naturally all good thoughts, prayers, karma, and cash money are greatly appreciated.
Bonus FFB on Wednesday: Red Sky at Morning -- Richard Bradford
I first read Red Sky at Morning when it came out in paperback long ago. As I've mentioned many times before, I'm a sucker for a coming-of-age novel, and this is one of my favorites. When I saw a trade paperback copy for a buck the other day, I decided it was time to read it again, and I'm glad I did. It's just as warm and funny and touching as ever.The time is the 1940s, and WWII is raging. The narrator is Josh Arnold, whose father is a ship builder in Mobile, Alabama. Afraid that Mobile might be a German target, Mr. Arnold sends Josh and his mother to their second home in a small New Mexico mountain town and joins the navy. Both Josh and his mother are familiar with the town from vacations there, but living there is different. Josh makes some friend and enemies and adjusts quickly. His mother does not; she begins drinking heavily and eventually cracks up.
The dialogue in the book is wonderfully funny all the way through, the descriptions of weather and the town and the people are all spot on, and the characters are varied and engaging. If you like coming-of-age novels at all, this one is must reading. Highly recommended.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Ned Garver, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Ned Garver, the only pitcher in American League history to win at least 20 games in a season for a ball club that lost at least 100 times, achieving the feat for the 1951 St. Louis Browns, died on Sunday in Bryan, Ohio. He was 91. i
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Nine Modern Literary Letter Collections
Nine Modern Literary Letter Collections for the Curious Reader: The emails between Natalie Portman and Jonathan Safran Foer will soon be forgotten, while other correspondence is here to stay. Let’s go back to the days where writing letters was more about cultivating confidants and friendships, and less obviously a media stunt. Reading someone’s letters give us a glimpse into their private life — that’s why we love them. If you ever wondered what some of your favorite modern writers were composing when they weren’t polishing drafts of books that would go on to change the world, check out this list.
Overlooked Movies: Blindman
Tony Anthony stars as the blind man, a guy who's promised to deliver fifty women as mail-order brides to some lonely miners. However, his fifty women have been stolen from him by his business partners and sold to a Mexican bandit, who plans to sell them to the Mexican army. Being blind is no handicap for Anthony, who goes after them along with his seeing-eye horse. The movie's origin is in the well-known Zatoichi films from Japan, but it's not really much like the only one of those I've seen.You might think that a blind man would have trouble shooting and fighting, but Anthony does a pretty good job of both. The movie has plenty of action and a really high body count, not to mention torture, rape, and nudity. It never slows down for long. There's even some humor.
And of course there's Ringo Starr. That's right, Ringo Starr as a Mexican bandit. You have to see it to believe it. He's not bad, even though he spends most of his time just scowling. He also wrote a song for the movie, but it wasn't used. It's today's "Song of the Day," so you can judge for yourself about whether that was a wise decision.
Monday, February 27, 2017
Sacred Cat Rug
Sacred Cat Rug – St. Augustine, Florida: Possibly the world's oldest rug, this Egyptian relic is woven entirely from ancient cat hair and once carried a mummified human foot.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Joseph Wapner, R. I. P.
Hollywood Reporter: Joseph Wapner, the real-life retired judge who presided over the syndicated court show The People's Court for more than a decade, died Sunday. He was 97.
Neil Fingleton, R. I. P.
The Guardian: Game of Thrones star Neil Fingleton has died at the age of 36, it has been reported.
Once named as Britain’s tallest man, the 7ft 7in star played Mag the Mighty in the fantasy series and also took on roles in X-Men: First Class and Jupiter Ascending.
Welcome to the Messy World of Jerry's Junk
Welcome to the Messy World of Jerry's Junk: Staring out at you from behind those rusty gates; thousands of tightly packed, unwanted objects from the past sit in an eerie silence, almost as if they might just come alive as soon as you turn your back. Each and every single one has been collected by Kentucky’s King of Junk, who has made a temporary home for them in his wild and tangled fortress…
Bill Paxton, R. I. P.
Bill Paxton Dead: Actor Dies of Surgery Complications: The Texas native, who won an Emmy for his work in the TV mini-series Hatfields and McCoys, began acting in the 1970s. His earliest acting credits include minor roles in blockbusters such as Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986).
Not a Bad Life
This Man Has Been Living On Cruise Ships for Twenty Years: Mario Salcedo took his first cruise almost twenty years ago—and never stopped.
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