Monday, September 29, 2025

Monday, Monday



 

I didn't go to DC because as I pulled my suitcase from my too high bed, I dropped it on my foot and within a few hours it was swollen and hurting. I couldn't imagine getting myself across two large airports and it was too late to order a wheelchair. So instead I watched six plus seasons of THE OFFICE. It was a terrific show until Steve Carrell left and then it felt like the writing room left too. They just didn't know what to do with it and characters that had seemed rich and lovable became flat and boring. 

Saw Eleanor, the Great, which was okay but it really had significant plot problems. Saving the Paul Thomas Anderson movie until I am recovered. 

What about you? 

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Short Story Wednesday: "League of the Grateful Dead and Other Stories" Day Keene

 (from Cullen Gallagher) 

"League of the Grateful Dead and Other Stories" by Day Keene (2010) - Short Story Wednesday

Editor John Pelan and publisher Ramble House have set out to restore the long obscured history of Day Keene in the pulps, embarking on a multi-volume series inspired by Dennis McMillan's amazing Fredric Brown pulp series. The first volume in their Day Keene in the Detective Pulps series is League of the Grateful Dead and Other Stories. Released in 2010, it gathers eight tales and an insightful introduction by Pelan.

The eight stories in League of the Grateful Dead show classic crime pulp at its finest. Tough-as-nails private eyes navigating twisty (and twisted) capers, engaging in blazing shootouts with ruthless gangsters, and trying to keep their necks out of jail—all while making it home for supper without compromising their wedding vows. They're paced so quickly that it's nearly impossible to keep up or follow all the clues—but it's sure fun trying. While the private eye cases are fabulous and most indicative of Keene's characteristic style, my favorite was actually "Nothing to Worry About," a vicious quickie tale about a husband's plot to murder his wife that features a wicked twist ending.



Fans of Keene will be especially interested in this volume for several reasons. Two of the stories were later expanded into novels. "Marry the Sixth for Murder!" was later turned into the novel Love Me—and Die! (1951, Phantom Books), and "Dance with the Death-House Doll" became half of an Ace double called Death House Doll (1954, Ace). This collection also features two of Keene's series characters: Private Eye Tom Doyle appears in three stories, while another P.I., Matt Mercer, appears in one.

The adaptation of "Marry the Sixth for Murder!" to Love Me—and Die! is a mystery of its own. James Reasoner writes on his blog that, "According to Gil Brewer’s stepdaughter, Brewer ghosted this novel for Keene, expanding one of Keene’s pulp stories to book length. . . . This seems pretty feasible to me. Keene and Brewer were friends, and since Keene was already an established writer as the Fifties began, with more than ten years as a popular pulp author under his belt, I can easily see him farming out this expansion to Brewer." I've yet to read the novel, but I'm looking forward to doing so now that I've read the original story.

Here's a run-down of the stories.

"League of the Grateful Dead" (Dime Mystery Magazine, February 1941) — Mummified corpses are popping up all over Chicago—and some of them had already been dead for weeks! After seeing a B-girl turn into a mummy right before his eyes, journalist Tim Murphy follows her tip and heads to a cemetery to watch a performance by a local con artist calling himself Satan and who claims he can raise the dead.

(And, yes, according to Pelan this is the story that inspired the name of Jerry Garcia's band.)

"As Deep as the Grave" (Detective Tales, January 1946) - Chicago Private Eye Tom Doyle gets a call from a woman offering him $10,000 to kill a man that deserves it. She hangs up before he can find out who. Then he gets held up and taken to notorious gangster Red Faber who offers him $2000 to track down his wife and daughter, whom he abandoned years ago before they could find out about his true identity, in order to leave his daughter a piece of land before he is caught and executed by the state.

"Fry Away Kentucky Babe!" (Detective Tales, December 1947) - Private investigator Tom Doyle has a soft spot for veterans in a jam, seeing as he's a vet himself. So when Larry Reagan's wife pleads with him to look into her husband's case, he agrees. Larry is a journalist accused of murdering his editor, Ernie Jackson, over a dispute about a young woman named Ruby Thiels. As soon as Doyle arrives in Larry's hometown, however, someone takes a shot at him at the train depot, and then a "Mr. Big" calls his hotel and warns him to get out of town. Before he knows it, Doyle is knee-deep in a local organized crime racket.

"Crawl Out of That Coffin!" (Detective Tales, September 1947) - Private Eye Matt Mercer and his wife, Sherry, are grabbing drinks after a performance of Hamlet when a drunken young woman falls into Matt's lap—and with her comes a $10,000 contract to keep her alive for seventeen days until she turns 21 and can collect her multi-million dollar inheritance.

"Marry the Sixth for Murder!" (Detective Tales, May 1948) -- Johnny Slagle is a troubleshooter for Consolidated, a Hollywood studio. He gets a call in the middle of the night from Steve Millet, one of their contract stars, who thinks he killed someone in a hit and run on the night before he is supposed to marry a young actress named Cherry Gamble. When Slagle goes to investigate, there's only a dead dog. Millet thinks he dodged a bullet—but soon enough a body is found, Laura Jean Jones, another aspiring actress who moved to Hollywood hoping to be discovered. It looks like a cut-and-dried case, but when gambler Paul Glade offers $10,000 for Slagle and his wife, Sally, to skip town for a few weeks, Slagle knows there's more to the story.

"Nothing to Worry About" (Detective Tales, August 1945) - Assistant State's Attorney Brad Sorrel has a fool-proof plan to murder his wife: witnesses to prove he's somewhere else, and a planted car so he can sneak away to commit the murder and be back before his alibi is broken. He'll be a free man in half an hour—if only everything goes according to plan.

"Dance with the Death-House Doll" (Detective Tales, May 1945) - Sgt. Mike Duval on vacation leave from military goes to Chicago to visit the widow and child of his brother, who died in WWII. He finds that Mona is in prison and due to be executed in five days, accused of murdering a jeweler, but no jewels were ever recovered, and no mention was ever made of any child. First the cops pick him up and work him over, and then Mona's alleged gangster boyfriend, LaFanti, picks him up and works him over again, and both the cops and LaFanti want to know the same thing: where are the diamonds?

"Dead—as in Mackerel!" (Detective Tales, February 1945) - Private eye Tom Doyle's wife is expected to go into labor at any minute, when into his office walks burlesque dancer Dolly Adoree wearing a mink coat and not much underneath. She offers him $500 to listen to her story, and $20,000 if he takes the case. Mr. X, a wealthy 83-year-old man has offered to leave her $200,000 because she reminds him of his deceased daughter, only Dolly expects that his heirs will challenge this in court, if they don't try to kill her before. But before she can reveal who Mr. X is, Dolly drops dead in Tom's office.

***
George Kelley
TracyK 

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

What are your five desert island movies? -Five movies you would take with you for eternity on an island.


Any over five get discarded. 

Three Days of the Condor

Remains of the Day

Rear Window

It Happened One Night 

The Apartment 

I am seeing an issue with my list, These are male-centric movies. The women in them are in secondary roles. They are not the POV. Also where are the black actors? 

A friend said my movies would depress him and chose: HIGH SOCIETY, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, GIGI and MEET ME IN S. LOUIS 

What would you choose?  

Monday, September 22, 2025

Monday, Monday

 


Still watching DAY OF THE JACKAL, TASK, DR BLAKE MYSTERIES, PLATONIC.

I saw SPLITSVILLE with one other patron. It had the funniest, longest fight scene in memory. I came home and watched THE CLIMB, which the two writers/actors had done earlier and although it was funny, too, SPLITSVILLE was much better.

I am going to see MAN OF LA MANCHA today. From Friday to Monday I will be in D.C. so I will just leave a place to post on Monday. (It was an excellent production for community theater)

Reading DREAM HOTEL by Laila Lalami for one book group and BLACK CAKE (Wilkerson) for the other.  

What about you? 

Friday, September 19, 2025

FFB-THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR, Yoko Ogawa


 I may have FFBed this book before because I read it a few years ago first, after I read Ogawa's MEMORY POLICE. They are very different books as it MINA'S MATCHBOXES, which I read a few months ago. This is my favorite of the three. The housekeeper (unnamed) is hired to care for a older math professor who has a brain injury leaving him with a memory of only the last eighty minutes. She and her son, named Root by the professor due to his head shape and it's likeness to the sign for square root, are enriched by this relationship, and he with them. There is a lot of math in this book, which I got very little of, but it didn't really matter because this is a story about how a family can be people related to each other or people who enjoy each other even if for only eighty minutes at a time. A wonderful book, uplifting in a time we need it. 

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Short Story Wednesday: "THE POOL" T.C. Boyle


 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/22/the-pool-fiction-t-coraghessan-boyle

We once considered a house with a swimming pool, but Phil, having had one as a child, nixed it, saying it was too much responsibility and insurance, and this story tackles that. The protagonist, a rather dyspeptic man for someone in his early thirties, allows his house to become party central for his friends and family and several issues arise over the pool. This feels like a story John Updike might have written forty years ago. Perhaps Boyle did or perhaps he's remembering such a house and pool. 

I am pretty sure I read one or two Boyle novels back in the day but they were much less upper middle class than this one. I will have to investigate.  

George Kelley 

TracyK 

Todd Mason

Jerry House 

Monday, September 15, 2025

Monday, Monday

 

Just started THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (Peacock). I have never seen the movie so I am new to the story. Also watching the new Lynley on PBS, THE PAPER, on Peacock, which I liked moderately. And still making my way through the DOCTOR BLAKE MYSTERIES. I really like that each episode is complete in itself. Nothing to remember the next time. 

Went to a great chamber music concert Saturday night. The Zukerman Trio played piano trios by Mendelssohn and Dvorak. We can get very good seats for $30 at a lovely venue. I also spent a beautiful afternoon walking the riverfront in Detroit, which now extends for more than five miles. Windsor, Canada is on the other side and two bridges and a tunnel connect the two.

It is astounding to compare many areas of Detroit to the way they were twenty years ago. Of course, other areas are still in need of help.  

And what about you?  

Friday, September 12, 2025

FFB: KARNAK CAFE Naguib Mahfouz

( From Ron Scheer on Buddies in the Saddle in 2015) It has a frightening resonance for today, here. 

Naguib Mahfouz, Karnak Café (1974)

Bit of a change today at BITS, from West to Middle East. This short novel by Nobel-winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz is a sadly melancholy story of the crushing of youthful hope. Set in the 1960s around the time of the 1967 war with Israel, it describes how a generation of young Egyptians, the children of the revolution of 1954, were betrayed and lied to by their government, while being subjected to interrogation and imprisonment by secret police.

Their story is told by an older man (and stand-in for the author), who befriends a gathering of them who are regulars at a Cairo café, Al-Karnak. There they talk of politics and express their idealistic aspirations, both for themselves and their country. Abruptly disappearing for periods of time, they return shaken and demoralized. While in police custody, kept in windowless cells, they have endured harsh treatment and false accusations.

Eventually it’s revealed that they have been coerced into becoming informants, which corrodes their trust in each other and eventually leads to the death of one of them. Two, a loving couple at the story’s start, are driven apart by their guilt and shame.

Karnak Café is a troubling vision of life in a modern police state, and it sheds light for Westerners on the recent struggles in Egypt for freedom and justice. Novella-length, it takes a stand somewhat distant from political events, while clearly throwing its sympathies to the young people who speak on its pages. 

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Short Story Wednesday, "How to Make Love to A Physicist"

 

I put this aside some time ago and just ran across it yesterday. I think I have only read half of the stories. This one is about a couple that meet at a STEAM conference. She is in the arts and only there to oversee. He is a physicist and this story documents the relationship that follows. She does everything she can to put him off but he hangs in there. I am not sure all men would allow this latitude but lucky for her. Deesha Philyaw won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her debut short story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.

 

Todd Mason 

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Monday, September 08, 2025

Monday, Monday

This weather is something to behold. I can't remember a better stretch of weather in many years. Saw LOVE, BROOKLYN, which was way too ordinary to be on a big screen. On Criterion I saw, MISERICORDIA which was funny but so very odd. Also rewatched ANATOMY OF A FALL, and came to a different conclusion on the fall. 

On TV watching THE PAPER on Peacock and ready to begin the new LYNLEY and TASK (HBO) Enjoying revisiting CHINA BEACH. 

Still working on ANTIDOTE, which is wonderfully researched and written but too long. We go over the same sort of ground too many times. Have to finish it by tomorrow though. Ugh. 

I did another protest on Saturday. A lot of support from passing cars. Much more than six months ago. Does it mean anything? 

We are all missing Kevin. I got a text from him today saying he has watched SINNERS and did I see it. He liked it. I am impressed that he did. Hope he gets to take a film course in college. It really makes a difference to be able to watch films critically, I think.  I only took one film class and it was on vampire films and taught by a Romanian professor. How fitting. 

What are you up to?  

 

Friday, September 05, 2025

FFB: A LOSS FOR WORDS, Lou Ann Walker

 


I was working on a piece for my writing group and looking through photos and saw a boy in my confirmation class who was deaf. I googled him and found out despite his deficit, he had an amazing career, beginning with taking the University of Texas to the Supreme Court for refusing to provide him with language assistance. And then I remembered a book I read years ago (1988) that really captured the hearing person in a deaf family (A LOSS FOR WORDS). Now that I have a moderate hearing loss, this subject interests me. The recent series CODE OF SILENCE on Britbox did a great job with this and of course, CODA, which won an Oscar. 

From the time she was a toddler, Lou Ann Walker acted as the ears and voice for her parents, who had lost their hearing at a young age. As soon as she was old enough to speak, her childhood ended, and she immediately assumed the responsibility of interpreter—translating doctors’ appointments and managing her parents’ business transactions. Their family life was warm and loving, but outside the home, they faced a world that misunderstood and often rejected them. 

In this deeply moving memoir, Walker offers us a glimpse of a different world, bringing with it a broader reflection on how parents grow alongside their children and how children learn to navigate the world through the eyes of their parents.

Wednesday, September 03, 2025

Short Story Wednesday: "The Wife On Ambien," Ed Park

 https://www.newyorker.com/books/flash-fiction/the-wife-on-ambien

As someone who takes Ambien, I can attest to some unusual things that happen under the influence. Although usually it's Amazon orders that I remember considering but not ordering. For instance, I considered making my NYT subscription digital rather than print and apparently I did do that because no paper was here today but a change in billing email was. Also I sometimes find cracker crumbs on my chest in the morning. I also have had deliveries of clothing in the wrong size so I am not as careful under Ambien.

A bit worrisome. I have been advised to powder the hall in front of my door to make sure I don't leave the apartment at night.  As a child I walked in my sleep so it may not be the Ambien at all. 

Fun story anyway.  

Jerry House 

George Kelley 

TracyK 

Kevin Tipple 

Casual Debris 

Todd Mason 

Monday, September 01, 2025

Monday, Monday

 It looks like CHINA BEACH is streaming on a new streaming channel called HOWDY, which is $1.99 a month. Some of the original music has been replaced. 


Three great movies. Third was It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley. Who I'd never heard of. Have you? 

Finished the latest season of UNFORGOTTEN, which was good although the third plotline may have been unnecessary. Also finished FISK, which is very funny. 

Still slogging through ANTIDOTE by Karen Russell. Just too long but well-written. Rereading THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR for my other book group. 

Beautiful weather here. Can't remember better weather over this weekend. There are a lot of festivals in Detroit area. A huge jazz festival down on the waterfront and and art festival nearby but crowds don't please me anymore. 

Kevin's classes don't start for another few days. Why get them there eight days before when there's nothing to do? And the WI kids probably went home for the holiday weekend.  

What are you up to?