September Words of Wisdom

Rough month.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. --Isaac Asimov

You can kill a man but you can't kill an idea. --Sophocles

When a hero stumbles, well, the cowards rejoice. Nothing feels better to a coward than to watch a brave guy fall. These cowards rejoice, for they don't know what greatness looks like. --Dave Chappelle

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad. --Aldous Huxley

 

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. --Epictetus

 

Life did its best to break you, now didn't it? But all it did was awaken a beast it should have left sleeping. --Lisa M. Lilith 

 

Nope...not today. No one is fucking with her positive vibes. She's vibrating on a higher frequency. --Rosalyn (Her Soul Unraveled on FB) 

  

Memorieeeeesss...

Pictures from Kona, when I was there in 2011 when my Dad died. Gorgeous place. Doesn't seem that long ago. The years have really flown by.

 

 

Recent reading: Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (July/August 2025)

 

My favorite stories in this issue:

• "Advantage: Lily" by Sara Paretsky: According to the introduction and author's notes this story introduces a new series character whose first novel is in-progress. Lily Arima is a seventy-something retired CIA agent, and here she uses her professional skills to straighten out an insurance company that is rejecting massive medical bills incurred by a neighbor who suffered a stroke. Based on this reading, Lily's further adventures are something to look forward to.
• "How It Happened" by Billie Kay Fern: A beautifully told tale of justice served on abusive and cheating spouses, as told by a sweet but knowing young farmgirl. Really fantastic job on the girl's voice. 4/30/26: This story just won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for best first mystery short story by an American author at the Edgars last night.
• "Me and Extra and Those Piercing Green Eyes" by Peter Turnbull: Its cumbersome title notwithstanding (Extra is a dog and the green eyes belong to a detective) this is a terrific story told by a serial killer as to how he's gotten away with it for so long, and how he's finally tripped up by a crooked cop and the cop's equally vicious wife.
•  "The Tower at Coffin Rock" by Dennis McFadden: A sheriff investigates the suspicious death of a young woman who had accused his estranged brother of rape. A nice twist at the end indicating that the victim may not have been the victimized.
• "Cold" by Robin Castle: Another fun twist ending for the story of a young woman who discovers the body of a murder victim while jogging on the beach. 
• "Cur Non" by Shelly Eisenhautchen: A ruthless, ambitious literary agent hires a young woman who seems to be the perfect assistant, not realizing the new hire has a tie to a writer the agent once publicly humiliated.

 

Never forget

Twenty-four years.

Pics snicked from around the nets. Let me know if I need to give credit where credit is due.

Who's 20 years old today? That would be Sophie!!!

She made it! The big TWO-OH.

Her Highness on her throne.

Sophie, Day 1, Aged 1:

Recent reading: Alfred Hitchcock's and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines

Trying to catch up on my short story reading. Not doing very well - I'm still a couple issues behind. Add in the fact that I'm working my way through the new short story anthology inspired by Stephen King's The Stand and I'll probably fall even further behind on the magazines. Me and my first world problems.

   

 Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (March/April 2025)

Favorites from this issue: 

• "Bent, Bent & Duckworth" by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson: A well-plotted story with a put-upon PI protagonist whose mother and step-father attempt to take over his business.
  
• "I Ain't Got No Home" by Steve Liskow: A missing homeless man prompts an investigation that leads to the exposure of human trafficking and political corruption.
• "Admissions" by Ken Linn: High-level academic shenanigans. 
• "Quick Turnaround" by Gabriela Stiteler: A professional downsizer gets involved in a local mystery that doesn't concern him.
  
• "Boogie Shoes" by Jeff Marks: A locked-room mystery set in a mall shoe store circa late 1970's - bonus points for the Waldenbooks shoutout.
  

 

 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (May/June 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue (one of the best overall I've seen in recent memory):

• "The Portrait of Adrian Whyte" by David Dead: My favorite short story so far this year,  an imaginative tale that suggests the inspiration for Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray might have involved a real-life murder.
  
•  "The Witch's Ball" by Elizabeth Elwood: A lively story of a celebrity murder during Halloween festivities at a witch museum in Salem.
• "Tarzan Must Die!" by Loren D. Estleman: A UCLA film archivist gets mixed up in the murder of an actor whose career has seen better days.
• "Nighthawks" by James Hazelton: A terrific flash fiction story inspired by Edward Hopper's famous painting, in which the author gives his take on the patrons at the counter. Spoiler alert - no one is innocent. You'll see this painting a whole different way after reading this story.
  

• "Blues in the Night" by Persia Walker: In 1940's New Orleans, a young nightclub singer takes on corruption in the police force and local politics to clear her name in the murder of her boyfriend. This read like something that could be expanded into a novel. The fact that I should have been in NOLA for Bouchercon this week just added to the reading experience.
  
• "Shamus and Buster" by Paul Ryan O'Connor: A P.I. is murdered and the investigation is told from the point of view of his aged cat.
  
• "A Short Madness" by Josh Pachter: The story of how a psychologist solves a "locked-cell" murder mystery set in an 1850's era mental institution, as told years later by his assistant.
  

 

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (May/June 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue:

• "The Twenty-Fourth Canterbury" by Richard Helms: A successful author wants to end his hit series but is being pressured for just one more installment of his legendary sleuth.
• "Shane on the Scene" by James A. Hearn: A fun story about a young mystery fan who gets to help his detective uncle solve a case and thwart his mother's marriage to a crook at the same time.
  
• "Buds" by Kevin Egan: A play on words title and a fun story about a trial between a star and her former manager, and how a trio of court guards are drawn into the case.
• "Nobody Cares" by Michael A. Black: A dead homeless guy who is more than he seems leads a pair of detectives into local politics and corruption.
• "The Tell-Tale Hearts" by S. Frederic Liss: Detective Poe relates to the mysterious case of how he channeled Sherlock Holmes to solve the case of involuntary heart donors/murder victims.

 

"It was love at first ride!" RIP Ron Turcotte

Ron Turcotte, the jockey for Secretariat, has passed away. He was 84.

In addition to his success in racing, most famously as the jockey who piloted The Big Red Machine to his astounding Triple Crown success, Turcotte was a class act on and off the track. In recent years he had been not only active on social media, but gracious and friendly in his interaction with fans, who never tired of asking him what it was like to ride one of the greatest racehorses that ever lived.

Turcotte was the last surviving member of Secretariat's team. Owner Penny Chenery passed away in  2017, trainer Lucien Lauren in 2000, and groom Eddie Sweat in 1998. Secretariat himself died in 1989 at the age of 19.

 

Ride in heavenly pastures, Ron, and thanks for your role in one of this horse-crazy girl's favorite childhood memories.

Updated 8/23/25: A lovely tribute to Turcotte from the the president of Secretariat.com.

 

Countdown to 20

One month from today Sophie will turn twenty years old (God willing). I never thought she'd still be around at this point and I'm truly grateful to still have her. Someday she will be gone and I will miss her terribly.

 

The key thing I've always focused on in terms of keeping her going is quality of life, and except for being thinner than she used to be (due to aging) not much has changed. She's still the same Sophie, she can still jump onto and off the bed, my desk, the bathroom counter, and her favorite chair.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

(These are her most recent pics).

July Words of Wisdom

The monthly quotes, they are dwindling...

 

Victory is not won in miles, but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more. (Louis L'Amour)

The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage. (Thucydides)

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. (Henry David Thoreau)

Oh. My. GAWD!!!

In-N-Out does it again. Seriously, I hope whoever designed this got a big, fat bonus. Knowing In-N-Out, they're already really well paid.

 

Now we can all get the Double Double Mug!!!

 

I don't need more mugs, but damn this is tempting! On the other hand, since I don't eat cheeseburgers, this one might be more my style:

 

Recent reading: "Devil's Advocates: Nosferatu A Symphony of Horror"

Devil's Advocates: Nosferatu A Symphony of Horror 

by Cristina Massaccesi

 

Cristina Massacessi, a professor at University College London, takes an academic look at the creation of F.W. Murnau's horror classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, starting with the Expressionist movement during the Weimar Republic, through the film's production, release, and the suits brought by Florence Stoker, widow of Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, Nosferatu's unauthorized source material. She then applies the Complex Discovery Plot template (from Noel Carroll's The Philosophy of Horror) to Nosferatu.

The book features a forward by E. Elias Merhige, director of Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional retelling of the making of Nosferatu that was inspired by the urban legend that Max Schreck's uncanny performance as Count Orlok (renamed from Dracula) was due to him being a real-life vampire. The book also ends with an interview with Merhige, who was apparently very helpful to Massaccesi, who had been a fan of Nosferatu since she first saw it as a teen.

 

As stated in the book, "The Devil's Advocates is a series devoted to exploring the classics of horror cinema." Other titles include Halloween, Let the Right One In, The Curse of Frankenstein, Saw, The Silence of the Lambs, The Thing, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Based on how much I learned from this volume, I've already added The Silence of the Lambs to my Amazon wish list.

Happy 4th of July America!!!

Have a great fireworks day!

 

 

Remember this little gem?

 

Images snicked from around the internets.