Saturday, July 29, 2017
Chemo #1 Completed
Just got back from M.D. Anderson, and chemo treatment #1 of the new regimen is in the books. I'll find out in a few days what the side-effects will be, if any. My doctor said I wouldn't lose my hair again, but the nurse today said I would. People over there can't get their stories straight. Anyway, I'm feeling okay now, and I'm glad the first treatment is out of the way. Five more to go.
Hardboiled, Noir and Gold Medal -- Rick Ollerman
Stark House has done wonderful work by reprinting many of the great paperback writers of the '50s and '60s, not to mention original fiction, but this nonfiction work by Rick Ollerman is one of the most important books the imprint has done. It contains all the fine introductions that Ollerman has written for various Stark House volumes and some new essays as well. The one on Charles Williams is the best I've read on that author and his work (even though I don't agree 100% with everything in it; just most of it). If you didn't get the book for any other reason, that essay is worth the price. Highly recommended.
Jane Green: By the Book
Jane Green: By the Book - The New York Times: The author of “The Sunshine Sisters” is drawn to books by their covers: “There is still nothing like browsing in a bookstore with all the time in the world, allowing myself to be drawn to whatever catches my eye.”
Another Guessing Game
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee
Police: Argument over Magic the Gathering card game leads to stabbing: ST. CLOUD, Minn. (KMSP) - A 31-year-old St. Cloud man is facing assault charges after allegedly stabbing a 20-year-old man seven times over an argument during a Magic the Gathering card game early Friday morning, according to St. Cloud police.
Friday, July 28, 2017
I Miss the Old Days
The Rise and Fall of the Great American Motel: Mom and pop motels once dominated American highways. Now, they’re an endangered species
FFB: Enchanted Pilgrimage -- Clifford D. Simak
Clifford D. Simak is one of my favorite SF writers, and his City is one of my favorite books of any kind. It was the subject of my first FFB post, a long time gone. Enchanted Pilgrimage is from late in Simak's career, and it's not in the came class as City, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to read. It's a road novel, which means it's necessarily episodic, and it doesn't come to a very satisfactory conclusion, but in road novels the journey is the thing, isn't it?What we have is an alternative earth, where trolls, goblins, giants, ogres, hellhounds, and Old Ones live in The Wastelands. Mark Cornwall comes into possession of a document that mentions the secrets of this area, and he's then saved from Beckett, an inquisitor, by a rafter goblin named Oliver. Mark and Oliver set out to learn the Wastelands' secrets. Along the way they're joined by assorted pilgrims, each of whom has a reason for venturing into the danger zone. These companions include Gil, a Marshman who's not quite human; Hal and Old Coon, his raccoon companion; a gnome named Snively, a blacksmith; and Mary, a servant at an inn, who remembers having lived in the Wastelands as a child. There's plenty of danger and a good bit of graphic violence along the way, but when the pilgrims do reach their destinations, they're rewarded with answers, even if there's no definite resolution. I thought the latter part of the novel was a tad rushed, as there's a romance that comes out of nowhere and part of the resolution comes from way out in left field.
The writing is fine, though, and the low-key style is pure Simak. So while this will never be one of my favorite Simak novels, it's still fun to read and quite enjoyable on its own terms.
Thursday, July 27, 2017
What Makes Mystery Writers Ante Up for Poker?
What Makes Mystery Writers Ante Up for Poker? (by Peter Hochstein) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: Peter Hochstein is a former newspaper reporter and advertising copywriter and the author of a number of paperback original novels, most under various pseudonyms. A few years ago he began writing a series at short-story length starring P.I. Rich Hovanec. The first entry appeared in the anthology Dark City Lights, edited by Lawrence Block. The second in the series, “The Client, the Cat, the Wife, and the Autopsy,” was published in EQMM’s January/February 2017 issue and was subsequently recorded for our podcast series. In our next issue, September/October 2017, on sale August 22, Hovanec appears again, in a characteristically offbeat case. EQMM only recently learned that Peter was one of the early (and ongoing) players in the legendary poker games that include several of mystery’s best-known writers. Thanks to him, we’ve discovered how it all started—and what the appeal of the game is for mystery writers.—Janet Hutchings
30 Wartime Recruitment Posters on AbeBooks
30 Wartime Recruitment Posters on AbeBooks: Posters have advertised many things, but the images and messages used for military recruitment - where loss of life is highly probable - are among the most powerful. Honor, patriotism, guilt, fear, pretty girls, foreign travel, adventure, and bravado were (and still are) used to entice young men into enlistment stations. Almost every kind of psychological pathway to a signature on the dotted line has been explored - with the fear and guilt of accusations of cowardice being perhaps the strongest.
June Foray, R. I. P.
Variety: June Foray, the voice of “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show’s” Rocky the Flying Squirrel and his nemesis Natasha Fatale of Boris and Natasha fame in the early 1960s and a key figure in the animation industry, died Thursday. She was 99.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Lincoln Memorial Undercroft
Lincoln Memorial Undercroft: A cavernous three-story, 43,800-square-foot basement that was forgotten about for 60 years.
10 Ridiculous Feats of Literature
10 Ridiculous Feats of Literature: Instead of judging works of literature based on their artistic merit, we’ve decided to rank them by degree of difficulty. These 10 authors may not be Shakespeare, but they sure had vaulting ambitions.
In Conversation with The Digest Enthusiast’s Richard Krauss
In Conversation with The Digest Enthusiast’s Richard Krauss | Trace Evidence: Richard Krauss is the editor and designer of Larque Press’s The Digest Enthusiast, which has appeared twice yearly since 2015. In today’s post, associate editor Jackie Sherbow talks with Richard about his work and the world of digest magazines
Bonus FFB on Wednesday: The Long Haul -- Anthony Johnston (writer) & Eduardo Barreto (artist)
As you may have guessed, this is a graphic novel. And it's a nice hybrid of a western and a caper novel. All the elements of the caper are present: the main character and his antagonist, the recruitment of the team members (each one with a special skill), the pulling of the caper, and even an epilogue that lets you know what becomes of the characters after the event. What's the event, you ask? Here's the way one of the characters puts it: "So all we have to do is break into an unbreakable [train] car, open an unopenable safe, avoid fourteen Pinkertons, then hightail it out of there within fifteen minutes?" To make it even trickier than that sounds, the train the safe weights 2000 pounds and can't be blown open, the train it's on can't be stopped, and telegraphers report on the progress of the train every so often so that everyone knows it's on schedule.
I don't supposed that it's spoilery to say that things don't go exactly as planned, and I also don't think it's spoilery to say that in the end everything works out just as you'd probably want it to.
Author Johnston is the creator of the comic book on which the film Atomic Blonde is based, so he's probably much better known now than he was when he wrote The Long Haul. Reading it was a lot of fun. And so was looking at the pictures. Artist Barreto is great at doing clear, detailed work that's perfect for the story being told. If you're looking for a good western and a good caper story all in one, this is it. Check it out.
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Health Update
I don't like writing these things even when there's good news, so I'll keep this short. My most recent test results at M.D. Anderson weren't good. Those pricey pills didn't get the job done. The upshot is that I'll be having chemo by infusion again as soon as the arrangements can be made. This will be different from the first chemo, a cocktail of two different drugs. What fun. As ever, all good thoughts, prayers, and karma (not to mention cash) is appreciated. Love to all.
Overlooked Movies -- Lost Horizon
Okay, I know it's not overlooked, but I wanted to write a little about it since I'd read the novel recently and since TCM obliged by showing Frank Capra's 1937 version starring Ronald Colman. The introduction says that Capra turned in a six-hour movie. What was he thinking? I have no idea. He edited it down to three hours plus, but the previews weren't encouraging. Harry Cohn took it away from him and edited it himself. It's complicated, and I'm not sure who created the final version, which comes in at a bit over two hours. Even part of that version has been lost, but the restoration shown on TCM covers the missing few minutes with stills from the production. The entire soundtrack was preserved, so we do have the words that cover the missing scenes.The plot of the movie changes that of the book considerably, and the opening action scenes are truly impressive. So is the B&W photography throughout. So is the acting, for the most part. I've seen a good bit of Ronald Colman lately, and he's never been better than here. The only questionable player is Isabell Jewell, who seemed to be to overact egregiously in the first part of the film.
While the plot has been changed from the book, the theme is the same, and some of the ideas expressed in the book are quoted almost directly in the movie. Some of the plot changes are for the better, as they clarify points or explain some things better than the novel itself. As for the ending, well, I suppose some people will like the ending of the movie better than the one in the book, but I'm not sure it's an improvement. Anyway, a great movie, highly recommended.
Monday, July 24, 2017
Endgame -- Bill Pronzini
A couple of weeks ago I found myself in the ER at M. D. Anderson for what turned out to be a kidney infection. Since I walked in under my own power and wasn't in serious pain, the triage nurse didn't give me a very high priority. I was put on a rolling bed, taken to the area where the rooms are, and shoved up against a desk, where I remained for the next six hours. Luckily I'd had the foresight to take a book with me, and luckily it was a book that could hold my attention while people were constantly coming and going. The book was Bill Pronzini's latest Nameless novel, Endgame.The agency has two cases in this one. Jake Runyon's handling one of them, in which a man's body is found inside a locked and barred cabin. Clearly he died by accident, right? That's what everybody thinks until Runyon shows up. He thinks it's murder.
Nameless is working a case in which a woman has disappeared. Her husband says she couldn't have left on her own because of her extreme agoraphobia. When her body is found, he's arrested for murder, and Nameless is his only hope.
Over the years the personal lives of Nameless and his operatives have become as important to the stories as the cases the agency works, and it's good to see a good bit of that kind of thing included here. I found the book gripping and entertaining. It got me through an unpleasant time, and I can't think of a better recommendation than that.
The Sunken World
The Sunken World Hiding Under the Water's Surface: 27 drowned places that used to be above ground.
Cool Looking Castles In And Around Los Angeles
Cool Looking Castles In And Around Los Angeles: The castles of Los Angeles aren't limited to Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland (which is actually in Anaheim, not L.A.) or Hogwarts Castle at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter inside Universal Studios Hollywood.
I Miss the Old Days
America's Malls and Department Stores Are Dying Off: Why the Death of Malls Is About More Than Shopping
Voynich manuscript update
Author of mysterious Voynich manuscript was Italian Jew, says scholar: One of the world’s most confounding literary mysteries may finally be, in part, solved: the author of the mysterious and as-yet untranslatable Voynich manuscript has been identified as a Jewish physician based in northern Italy, an expert in medieval manuscripts has claimed.
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Illuminating the Secret Language of Lightning Bugs
Illuminating the Secret Language of Lightning Bugs: Lightning bug lamps can glow yellow, orange or, as is the case with the ghosts, even shades bordering on electric blue. They can appear as single blinks or long, glowing trails. Some fireflies will flicker when threatened by a predator or caught in a spiderweb. Others light up to compete with rivals or after they’ve been rejected by a suitor. Some females are completely dark, while others offer flickers to let males know they’re on the market.
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