Saturday, February 22, 2014

Maria Franziska von Trapp, R. I. P.

Mail Online: The last surviving member of the real von Trapp family that inspired The Sound of Music has died. 

Maria Franziska, one of seven brothers and sisters from the famous family, passed away in her sleep aged 99 at home in Vermont, America.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Alvin, Texas, Inexplicably Not Included

Top 10 Mythical Places

Song of the Day

The Mixtures - "The Pushbike Song" - YouTube:

21 Anthologies Every Author Should Own

21 Anthologies Every Author Should Own

Today's Vintage Ad


Do You Have Your Copy?

My book is being featured on Saturday February 22nd 2014 at eBookSoda, a new readers' site where they'll send you ebook recommendations tailored to your taste. www.ebooksoda.com.

PaperBack



Poker According to Maverick, Dell, 1959

Uh-Oh or OK?

Peter Dinklage Eyed For Beasts of Valhalla HBO Pilot Adaptation

The 10 Best Movies That Were Never Made

The 10 Best Movies That Were Never Made

Otherworldly Books

Swords and Deviltry by Fritz LeiberAbeBooks: Otherworldly Books: Can’t afford to get away at all, let alone to another planet? Pick up a book. One of the best things about reading is the reader can experience strange and wonderful times, places and situations without leaving the comfort of their easy chair. In fiction, people and scenarios are invented, but some authors take escapism a step further and create entire cities, planets and universes. A creative and skilled writer can build geography, languages, races of people, musical instruments, regional cuisine, traditions and more, unlike anything we see in reality, and the detail can be impressive.

I Miss the Old Days

A Good Old Southern Weekend, 1951

Rise and Shine


Isn't This What 911 Was Created For?

Woman arrested after repeatedly dialing 911 while in shopping cart

The Magnetic Monster

▶ magm - YouTube:

Friday, February 21, 2014

And You Thought Hollywood Was Out of Ideas

Ebersols Aboard To Produce And Script Warner Bros' 'Space Jam 2' As A Starring Vehicle For LeBron James - Deadline.com

Movie Nation: The Numbers Behind Our Obsession

Movie Nation: The Numbers Behind Our Obsession

Garrick Utley, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Garrick Utley, a former anchor for NBC News who for many years was one of a rare breed in television news reporting, a full-time foreign correspondent, died Thursday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 74.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Why Were They Surprised?

Alligator pops out of sewers, terrifies residents  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

I Miss the Old Days

February 21, 1947: Edwin Land Presents the Polaroid Land Camera!

Incredible, Amazing, Insane Revelation about True Detective

How's that for a headline?  I've been taking lessons from Buzzfeed and Cracked.  Anyway, I started reading Nic Pizzolatto's Galveston last night, and I learned a couple of things in the first 50 pages or so.  (1) The main character's name is Roy Cady.  (2) He makes little soldiers out of beer cans.  Get it?  Roy Cady?  R. C.  Same initials as Rust Cohle in True Detective, and he makes little guys out of beer cans!  So Cohle is really Cady.  Well, except that the ages don't match up.  We Internet theorists don't let a little thing like that bother us.

An Up-to-Date Guide to Internet Theories About ‘True Detective’

An Up-to-Date Guide to Internet Theories About ‘True Detective’

Did Saul Bass Direct the Psycho Shower Scene?

Psycho shower scene directed by Saul Bass? Watch storyboards side by side with Hitchcock’s scene. (VIDEO)

'Sharknado 2 Update

'Sharknado 2: The Second One' filming takes over NYC's Times Square 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Song of the Day

Somethin' Smith and the Redheads - It's a Sin to Tell a Lie (1955) - YouTube:

Virgil Finlay -- Weird Tales, 1938

The Golden Age: VIRGIL FINLAY ~ Weird Tales 1938

Once Again Texas Leads the Way (okay, not really)

Which states have the longest and shortest sex? 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Today's Vintage Ad


Top Suspense Writers Tell You How It's Done

If you missed last night's discussion of what suspense is and how to create it in fiction, you can watch Libby Hellman, Paul Levine, and Lee Goldberg tell you all about it at this link.

PaperBack



Helen MacInnes, Assignment in Brittany, Pocket Books, 1943

Happy Anniversary to the Thin Mints Melee!

On February 21, 2011, I saw this article and posted it on the blog.  The next time I saw something about a ridiculous fight, I put up the heading "First It Was the Thin Mints Melee."  And the rest is history.

Inside The Army's Spectacular, Hidden Treasure Room

Inside The Army's Spectacular, Hidden Treasure Room

James Ellroy Interview

James Ellroy - Books - ShortList Magazine

Yet Another List I'm Not On

The New Classics: 21 Writers Tell Us Which Books They’d Add to the Canon

Which Books Should We Stop Calling Classics?

Which Books Should We Stop Calling Classics? 

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Dallas Police Have Six-Hour Standoff With an Empty Apartment

I Miss the Old Days

23 Vintage Photos of People Having Fun in the Snow

Vintage Treasures: The Spell of Seven, edited by L. Sprague de Camp

Vintage Treasures: The Spell of Seven, edited by L. Sprague de Camp

Good Article on a Forgotten Classic and its Many Covers

Lust, Women, and the Devil: Seven Decades of Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife

Vintage Treasures: The Last Planet by Andre Norton

Vintage Treasures: The Last Planet by Andre Norton

FFB: Find Eileen Hardin -- Alive! -- Andrew Frazer

Reading the Johnny Mayhem story for last week's FFB put me in the mood to read more by Milton Lesser/Stephen Marlowe, so I pulled this one off the shelf.  Yes, Marlowe, the man of many names, was also Andrew Frazer for a two-book series from Avon.  He signed my copy of this at the Bouchercon in Monterey in 1997.  

Duncan Pride is a p.i. who's called back to the college where only a few years earlier he was a football hero.  (He played pro ball for one game, but when he refused to shave points for a gambler, the gambler had him beaten and his legs broken -- end of pro career.)  The call comes from his former sweetheart, now married to his former college coach, whose daughter by his first wife has gone missing.

There's nothing new here.  Powerful forces don't want the girl found.  Pride isn't going to stop looking.  He gets beaten up.  Several times.  There are some things in the book that current readers might find bothersome, but I can't talk about the main one since it's central to the plot.  Aside from that, though, this is a slick, well-written yarn with several very good set pieces (one in a deserted oyster cannery and another in an airport). 

This book came out while Marlowe was in the midst of writing his Chester Drum series for Gold Medal.  I like the Drum books, and this one is in the same class. Check it out if you're a fan of the old-fashioned kind of p.i. novel.

Stephen Marlowe and me at the signing table at the Monterey Bouchercon.

The Night the World Exploded

▶ 1957 THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED SCI-FI - YouTube:

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Live! On the Air! Right Now!

Top Suspense is having a Google Hangout Discussion.

Beware of Texas Hookers

‘Texas hooker’ may lead to blizzard, tornadoes

10 Face-to-Face, Stand-Up Gunfights

10 Face-to-Face, Stand-Up Gunfights

Song of the Day

Big Yellow Taxi- The Neighborhood - YouTube:

Virgil Finlay -- Weird Tales, 1937

The Golden Age: VIRGIL FINLAY ~ Weird Tales 1937

Today's Vintage Ad


The 25 Best Time-Travel Movies Ever Made

The 25 Best Time-Travel Movies Ever Made 

Here's the Plot for Your Next Amnesia Thriller

NY Daily News: Kwame Seku claims he’s the former Winston Bright, a Verizon worker missing for 20 years. Wife Leslie Bright, who’s been getting widow benefits from Verizon — which Seku wants — says he just walked away: ‘He hasn’t come back to me as his wife or to have a relationship with his children … I will go at him for back child support, cat support, everything!’ (Italics mine.)  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Argument over Barry White song causes disturbance

PaperBack



Hannah Lees, The Dark Device, Dell, 1947

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Security guard shoots sword-wielding man at Miami supermarket 

This Story Might Not Be About What You Think It Is

The Raw Story: Following her arrest, Forshey told investigators that, “She only thinks what she did was wrong because she is in trouble for it. Otherwise, she does not see anything wrong with exposing a child to urine.”

The 10 Stages of the Creative Process

The 10 Stages of the Creative Process 

Why Science-Fiction Writers Are So Good at Predicting the Future

Why Science-Fiction Writers Are So Good at Predicting the Future 

I Miss the Old Days

In 1951, Children Could Buy DIY Nuclear Reactor Kit

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

The world of Las Marthas debutantes who wear 18th century-style gowns 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

10 Vengeful Ghosts In Folklore And Mythology

10 Vengeful Ghosts In Folklore And Mythology

10 truly bizarre Victorian deaths

10 truly bizarre Victorian deaths

Hullabaloo

▶ 1940 HULLABALOO TRAILER FRANK MORGAN - YouTube:

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

I Really Liked this Show

‘Pushing Daisies’ Might Become a Broadway Musical 

Max Brand: The Shakespeare of the Western Range

Max Brand: The Shakespeare of the Western Range

Free for Kindle For a Limited Time

Amazon.com: Killing Time eBook: Jack Giles: Kindle Store: Friday The Thirteenth. 

Close to midnight. 

The Government Agent Willard Dull is reading a book at the hotel bar when a man in black comes in. 

As the stranger retired to his room, Dull took a look at the register. 

The man had signed himself as 'Death' from 'Hell'. 

Before midnight chimed, two men were dead, both killed by the man in black.  
Dull suddenly realises that all his plans to trap a gang of payroll robbers are about to fall apart — unless he can stop Death from reaping a grim harvest…

5 Things No One Ever Told Me About Freelance Writing

5 Things No One Ever Told Me About Freelance Writing

Archaeology Update

Despite Iraq’s troubles, archaeologists are back

The badass girl motorcyclists of Morocco

The badass girl motorcyclists of Morocco  

Link via Neatorama.

Song of the Day

Five Americans - Western Union 45rpm - YouTube:

This Urban Adventurer Takes Pictures That Will Make Your Stomach Drop

This Urban Adventurer Takes Pictures That Will Make Your Stomach Drop

What are Pimentos, And How Do They Get Inside Olives?

What are Pimentos, And How Do They Get Inside Olives?

Today's Vintage Ad


Robert Conley, R. I. P.

The Cherokee One Feather: Noted Native American scholar and author Robert J. Conley, the Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University, died Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, at Harris Regional Hospital after a period of declining health. Conley, 73, a registered tribal member of the Cherokee Nation, was appointed to the WCU professorship in July 2008.

I Miss the Old Days

Exquisite Photos of Grandiose Movie Palaces 

“A Few Good Words About Dead People” (by Ed Gorman)

“A Few Good Words About Dead People” (by Ed Gorman) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN

PaperBack



Leslie Ford ((Zenith Jones Brown), Three Bright Pebbles, Popular Library, 1944

5 Innocent Phrases With Surprisingly Dark Origins

5 Innocent Phrases With Surprisingly Dark Origins

10 Richest Dead Celebrity Earners

10 Richest Dead Celebrity Earners  

Annoying slideshow alert.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Virgil Finlay -- Weird Tales, 1936

The Golden Age: VIRGIL FINLAY ~ Weird Tales ~ 1936

Mavis Gallant, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Mavis Gallant, an acclaimed short-story writer who was abandoned as a child and later left Canada for Europe, where she made her name writing about the dislocated and the dispossessed, died on Tuesday at her home in Paris. She was 91.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Gator Update (Amusement Park Edition)

At This Amusement Park in Vietnam, Kids Can Feed Live Alligators

Central Airport

▶ 1933 CENTRAL AIRPORT TRAILER RICHARD BARTHELMESS - YouTube:

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

How Brooklyn could look in 2028

Bizarre vision of how Brooklyn could look in 2028

Mary Grace Canfield, R. I. P.

NY Daily News: Mary Grace Canfield, a veteran character actress who played handywoman Ralph Monroe on the television show "Green Acres," has died. She was 89.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Pork pie ruins wedding day for couple after guests start a fight over buffet snack

Christopher Malcolm, R. I. P.

Blastr: Former Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back actor Christopher Malcolm, best remembered as a pilot with the rebellion, has passed away at the age of 67. 

For sci-fi fans, the actor was probably best known for playing the character Zev Senesca in the Star Wars sequel Empire Strikes Back. If you need a refresher: Senesca flew as Rogue Two during the Battle of Hoth. Along with his Star Wars role, Malcolm also showed up in a few more sci-fi classics.

Bob Casale, R. I. P.

Devo's Bob Casale dead of heart failure, brother says: "As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning," his brother and band mate Gerald Casale said in a Facebook posting. "He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got."

Virgil Finlay -- A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Golden Age: VIRGIL FINLAY ~ 1914-1971 ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Man upset with snow removal efforts shoots at snowplow driver 

The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace

VHI Greenlights New Reality Series 'Naked Dating'

Song of the Day

James Gilreath - Little Band Of Gold (1963) - YouTube:

I Miss the Old Days

Let's Pretend It's the 1950s Again - Amazing Stories  

Link via SF Signal.

Today's Vintage Ad


First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Cops: Ohio Woman Assaulted Supermarket Worker With Pair Of "Special Cut Filets" 

15 Last Photos of Famous People

15 Last Photos of Famous People

Amnesty Works

BBC News: A children's book borrowed from a library 63 years ago has been returned during an eight-day fines amnesty.

PaperBack



E. M. Hull, The Sheik, Dell, 1945

Amazing images of elite troops' camouflage techniques

Photographer's amazing images of elite troops' camouflage techniques  

Hat tip to Art Scott.

Gator Update (Pulp Cover Edition)

The Golden Alligator

The Favorite Books of All 44 Presidents of the United States

The Favorite Books of All 44 Presidents of the United States

11 Photos Taken With The First Kodak Camera

11 Photos Taken With The First Kodak Camera

Paul Colby, R. I. P.

NY Daily News: PAUL COLBY, the longtime owner of Greenwich Village’s folk music club The Bitter End, has died, the venue posted on Facebook. He was 96.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

2013 Tiptree Award Winner Announced

Welcome to the Website of the James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council: N.A. Sulway’s imaginative and highly original novel tells the story of Rupetta, an artificial intelligence created 400 years ago from cloth, leather, and metal, brought to life by the touch of her creator’s hand on her clockwork heart. Although Rupetta is a constructed being, she is not a robot. Her consciousness is neither digital nor mechanical. Nor is she an android, a creature that is, etymologically, male. (The word is not gyndroid). Rupetta’s power does not come from her brain, but from her heart. Sulway has placed her construct not in the future, but the past, and made her female, created with traditionally feminine technology: sewing and weaving. Rupetta is a woman, made by a woman in the image of a woman, and the world changes to accommodate her existence.  

Hat tip to Todd Mason.

Movie Theaters I Remember

Since I've been waxing nostalgic about movies I attended with my parents, I might as well tell you a little something about the movie theaters in my hometown when I was a kid.  The Mexia Theatre (that's the way it was usually spelled in the ads) is the one pictured on the left.  It was built around 1948 and was a wonder in our little town, being air-conditioned, unlike the older theaters, which weren't.  They were also about half the size of this  one.  Maybe less than that.  Shoeboxes. Two of them, the Palace and the National were downtown, such as the downtown was, about four square blocks at best.  The third theater, the Liberty, was across the tracks.  I wasn't allowed to go to that one.  There were some movies there I wanted to see from time to time, though probably not The Last of the Warrens with Bob Steele, which is what was playing there on this date in 1947 (year chosen at random).

The Palace was the theater where all the kids went on Saturday afternoons for the double-features of B-westerns: Alan "Rocky" Lane, Don "Red" Barry, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Charles Starrett (the Durango Kid), Rex Allen, Jimmy Wakely, Tex Ritter, Monte Hale, and many others. This was also where we saw the Tarzan movies, Bomba the Jungle Boy, Abbott and Costello, the Bowery Boys, and lots of others.  Along with the movie we got a newsreel, lots of previews, a cartoon, and a serial.  Back in 1947 on this date the featured movie was Out California Way, with Monte Hale.  The bottom of the double bill was Don't Gamble with Strangers, starring Warren Douglas.

The National was the theater where they showed the classier movies, like How Green Was my Valley and The Red Badge of Courage.  Showing there on this date in 1947, for example, was Of Human Bondage, starring Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, and Paul Henreid. I wasn't in attendance.

The Palace closed when the Mexia opened. The National closed a year or so afterward, as did the Liberty.

I went to many, many movies in the Mexia Theatre.  The photo is of the last picture show.  The theater closed after the final showing of The Golden Child, which means there hasn't been an operating movie theater in town for almost 30 years.  The building and the marquee are still there, though.  The building is now a church, or it was the last time I was in town.  Seems appropriate to me.

Overlooked Movies: The Prize

Last week I wrote about I movie that I went to with my father.  This week I'll mention one I went to with my mother.  The year was 1963, my first year of teaching, and I was visiting at home on the weekend.  I'm a sucker for books about writers.  This was during the phase when I was reading almost nothing but spy novels, so Irving Wallace's The Prize was naturally irresistible to me.  I can't remember much about the book other than that I enjoyed it and that I wanted to see the movie version.  So on Sunday afternoon before I left to return to the town where I was teaching, my mother said she'd go with me to see the movie.
  
We both liked it a lot.  It's the kind of thing that was once described as "hitchcockian," and the screenplay was in fact written by the same man who wrote North by Northwest.  Instead of Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, there were Paul Newman and Elke Sommer.  Not a bad pair.  Newman has fun playing an American writer who's won the Nobel Prize.  He's a drunk and a handful, so he's assigned a keeper -- Ms. Sommer, who's a real beauty.  Edward G. Robinson plays the prize-winner in physics, and there's something very strange about him.  The second time he meets Newman, he doesn't appear to know who he is or ever to have seen him before.  Newman knows something's wrong, so he investigates.  Romance, suspense, and hilarity ensue.  It was the height of the Cold War, so naturally the Reds are involved.  Just watch the trailer embedded below, and you'll pretty much have the whole movie.  

I wouldn't mind seeing The Prize again, just to see if it's as much fun as I remember it was.  For that matter, I wouldn't even mind reading the book again.  I probably won't, and I suspect that Irving Wallace, a huge bestseller when this movie was made, is pretty much a forgotten writer today.  Or maybe not.  I see that several of his books on Kindle are available for free (today, at least; I'm writing this well in advance of its publication).  The Prize isn't one of the freebies, though.  Drat.

Update: They're no longer free.  Double drat.

The Prize

THE PRIZE (Original Theatrical Trailer) - YouTube:

Monday, February 17, 2014

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Chicken-foot dispute leads to fatal beating 

J.K. Rowling Update

J.K. Rowling announces second novel under crime-writer pseudonym

Now Available as an E-Book!

Amazon.com: Murder Most Fowl (Dan Rhodes Mysteries) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store  Following Booked for a Hanging, Anthony Award-winner Bill Crider brings back his amiable, computer-phobic sheriff Dan Rhodes to investigate a murder that may or may not be related to a recent wave of emu-rustling. For an officer of the law, Blacklin County, Texas, used to be pretty peaceful, but now, what with the emu-rustling, cockfights, and protests at the new Wal-Mart store — not to mention murder — Sheriff Dan Rhodes has his hands full. Hit hard by the collapse of his little hardware store, Elijah ("Lige") Ward has taken to chaining himself to the Wal-Mart doors and generally making a nuisance of himself. And when Lige's dead body turns up, floating down a river in a portable toilet, Rhodes finds he has quite a case to investigate. What was the connection between Lige and chickens? Lige and the Palm Club? And was he involved in the area's emu thefts? It seems that raising emus ("taste like steak, not chicken") is a booming business, so much so that emu ("calmer than ostriches and more resistant to disease") are being stolen left, right, and center by would-be emu ranchers with little respect for the law. From theft to murder, the local crime spree seems unstoppable. But with a little help from the computer foisted on him by aging deputies Hack and Lawton, plus some good old-fashioned detective work, Rhodes just may be able to straighten out his county.

And for those who have Nooks, it's here.

Paris Hilton Update

Paris Hilton claims she feels like a 'princess' as she goes commando in bright pink birthday dress  

Who Said It?

Dance Like Nobody’s Watching

Song of the Day

THE COUNT FIVE-'PSYCHOTIC REACTION',(1966).wmv - YouTube:

Finally Available as an E-Book!

Amazon.com: Winning Can Be Murder (Dan Rhodes Mysteries) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: It's been a while since Sheriff Dan Rhodes's football days, but things haven't really changed, at least not with state playoffs coming up and excitement for the local high school team heating up to a fever pitch. But then coach Brady Meredith is found shot to death in his car, and his murder leads to troublesome rumors concerning illegal betting, black market steroids and the sheriff's old nemesis, a biker named Rapper, who has reappeared in Blacklin County. Too many coincidences for Rhodes's comfort. Especially when another corpse makes it a second down for a killer determined to lead Sheriff Rhodes into a game of sudden death.

Also here if you have a Nook.

Today's Vintage Ad


Paris Hilton Update

Paris Hilton pays tribute to her Chihuahua in a vest top featuring her doggy companion  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The 10 Richest U.S. Presidents

The 10 Richest U.S. President

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.  

Annoying slideshow alert.

The Best and Worst Fictional Presidents from TV and Film

From ‘Mars Attacks!’ to ‘The West Wing’: Watch the Best and Worst Fictional Presidents from TV and Film

PaperBack



Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow, Ace, 1965

#8 Is My Favorite

9 of Thomas Jefferson’s Head-Turning Hobbies 

And Keep Off His Lawn!

Arkansas man guns down 15-year-old girl for egging son’s car as a prank 

I Miss the Old Days

‘The Land of the Permanent Wave’ Is Bud Shrake’s Classic Take on ‘60s

8 Book Historians, Curators, Specialists, And Librarians Who Are Killing It Online

8 Book Historians, Curators, Specialists, And Librarians Who Are Killing It Online

It's #11 That Really Matters

41 Things You Need To Know Right Now, For No Reason In Particular

New Poem at the 5-2

The 5-2 | Crime Poetry Weekly, Annual Ebooks - Gerald So, Editor: Sarah Nichols SALT

Debunking the myth of Kitty Genovese

Debunking the myth of Kitty Genovese

It's Presidents’ Day!

HISTORY.com: Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government. Traditionally celebrated on February 22—Washington’s actual day of birth—the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers.

The Seventh Victim

▶ 1943 THE SEVENTH VICTIM TRAILER VAL LEWTON - YouTube:

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Free for Kindle For a Limited Time

Amazon.com: Star Soldiers eBook: Andre Norton: Kindle Store  Andre Norton-Grand Mistress of science fiction-presents a grand tapestry of the far-flung interstellar future, in which the first starships from Earth have burst out into the universe . . . only to run straight into the restraining grasp of the stagnant alien federation known as Central Control.

Only as interstellar mercenaries can humans go to the stars; the aliens who already dominate the galaxy allow no other recourse. But when Swordsman Third Class Kana Karr and his comrades-in-arms are betrayed and abandoned on a hostile world by their alien masters, the warriors from Earth begin a desperate but glorious march across a planet whose every sword is against them. Their actions may doom humanity's future . . . or lead the way to an empire of their own!

Four thousand years later, galactic civilization is collapsing, and the underfunded crew of an exploration starship is forced to set down on an uncharted planet: a mysterious, abandoned world that is achingly beautiful-and hauntingly familiar. Ranger Sergeant Kartr, telepath and stellar Patrolman, searches with his crewmates for the source of a beacon which may mean escape for them all. What he finds is far stranger: the first clue to what may become the greatest revelation in galactic history!

The defining events of future historyas only Andre Norton could tell them!

New Story at Beat to a Pulp

Cop: COP Gerald So

Who Said It?

There Are Two Classes of People in the World; Those Who Divide People into Two Classes and Those Who Do Not

Song of the Day

Brook Benton. Shadrack. - YouTube:

50 Amazing Finds on Google Earth

50 Amazing Finds on Google Earth 

Today's Vintage Ad


Chinese Diaper Pirates WBAGNFARB

Japanese diaper makers are fighting a new competitor: Chinese diaper pirates  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The story of the Nebraska cowboy who invented ranch dressing

The story of the Nebraska cowboy who invented ranch dressing

PaperBack



Poul Anderson, Trader to the Stars, Berkley, 1966

Check It Out

Kevin's Corner: Sample Sunday: Excerpt from "The Girl Who Wanted To Be Sherlock Holmes" by Bill Crider

10 Truly Weird Mysteries Of The Civil War

10 Truly Weird Mysteries Of The Civil War 

Paris Hilton Update

Mail Online: 'I feel like a princess!' Paris Hilton celebrates her birthday early in a tiara and bright pink gown with thigh high slit  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

ABBA Update

Mail Online: 'We only wore those ridiculous outfits to avoid tax': Forty years after Waterloo, Abba reveal story of their success in their own words and unseen pictures  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

I Miss the Old Days

"Second Homes for Leisure Living" 

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Sheriff Rhodes would never do this.

Lago Vista police officer kicked, farted on co-worker

Are You Hep to the Jive?

Words that should be banned for over 35s 

I Remember Them Well from my College Days

Austin’s Moon Towers

The Time of their Lives

▶ 1946 THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES TRAILER - YouTube: