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Mysterydawg has been kind enough to post a debut flash of mine. This is a great site and I hope everyone goes over, signs up and supports the e-zine. Other contributions for this week are from the talents of James C. Clar, Keith Rawson, and Barry Baldwin.

Friday's Forgotten Books: While The Clock Ticked by F.W. Dixon

This may be more of a personal forgotten book, the Hardy Boys are as popular as ever, but it's been 28 years since I've read a 'Hardy' story. Normally I’m not one to go back to a book I've already read, but a wave of nostalgia must have overcome me when I found a 1932 edition of While the Clock Ticked......

On the morning of my tenth Christmas, I awoke to a large white cloth ‘wrapping’ the bookshelf in the living room. When I finally got the okay from my parents to ‘open’ my gift, I pulled back the cloth and was ecstatic to find the entire set of the Hardy Boys books. I was dumbfounded at the sheer number of them and I remember childishly thinking that this must have cost my parents thousands of dollars. That collection, which I still have, was the first to spur my first interest in detective novels (this cover creeped me out when I originally read the story).

While The Clock Ticked is 11th in the series. Raymond Dalrymple, the town banker, calls to enlist the services of the boys' detective father, Fenton Hardy. With Mr. Hardy and his wife away on vacation, Dalrymple reluctantly agrees to allow the teenage sleuths to investigate after much insistence from Frank and Joe.

Dalrymple has purchased the old Purdy house on the shore road. Jason Purdy was an eccentric and he had built a secret vault with a time lock mechanism to have a safe place to count his gold. Dalrymple discovers the room along with threatening messages warning him to stay away: “Death while the clock ticks”. How the messages get into the room is quite ingenious and entertainingly demonstrated by Frank.

Revisiting the characters was like catching up with old friends. From Chief Collig and Detective Smuff to the girlfriends, Iola Morton and Callie Shaw, and the chums Tony Prito, Phil Cohen, Biff Hooper and Jerry Gilroy. And, of course, I can't forget roly-poly Chet Morton (Iola’s brother) who owns an old yellow jalopy he lovingly called Queen, and, when he’s not busy eating, he always seems to have a hobby that aids in the brothers' investigation. Also, there is everybody’s favorite Aunt Gertrude, who seems hard on the sleuths but deep down is very proud of her nephews. In this original version, Aunt Gertrude seems to play a bigger and harsher role than I remember in the revamped editions I read as a kid.

I discovered the entire series overhauled in the 1950s due to outdated phrases, like roadsters, and unflattering stereotypes, e.g., in While The Clock Ticked, reference is made to how well Indians can give a rebel yell. Check out some websites with great information on the series here and here.

I enjoyed returning to Frank and Joe after all these years. There’s plenty of action in this book for any ten-year-old to enjoy, and apparently for a grown man as well. I finished the book in nearly one sitting.

This secondhand book has a lot of character with stained pages every couple of chapters. Using my detective skills, I reasoned it must have belonged to a young kid who sat alone in the corner of the school lunchroom everyday, ravenously eating up each page along with a peanut butter sandwich while the clock ticked the minutes away.

Click here for more Friday's Forgotten Books on Patti Abbott's site...

Dorothy Parker quotes

It was Jennifer Jason Leigh’s mannerisms and mumblings in 1994’s Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle that caught my interest in writer, critic, poet Dorothy Parker. Though Parker is primarily known for biting humor in her column for The New Yorker, she was also a fine short story writer. Her best-known work of fiction (and a personal favorite), Big Blonde, won the O. Henry Award as the Best Short Story of 1929. Here are some examples of her "pointed verbal wit":

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force. [Said of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged]

If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true.

Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.

The two most beautiful words in the English language are 'cheque enclosed.'

It serves me right for keeping all my eggs in one bastard.

The only ism Hollywood believes in is plagiarism.

Ducking for apples -- change one letter and it's the story of my life.

She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I'm under the table,
After four I'm under my host.

I might repeat to myself slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound - if I can remember any of the damn things.

That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.

The Cranmer Family (1885)

A photocopy of my family ca. 1885.

My dad, like many others in the 1970s, was inspired by Alex Haley's Roots and he began tracing our genealogy. He hunted through cemeteries and archives, collecting all kinds of treasures. Among them was a tin photo of our family from the 19th century. My dad had guessed the photo was taken in 1885 because the little girl, Margaret [sitting on her mother's lap], who was born July 8, 1883 appears to be about 2 years old. I.J. [standing behind his mother to the left] is my grandfather's father. It's amazing to peer into the face of a stranger and see yourself.

I remember my father telling me that when he was a young boy, he met most of the children in this photo, but is was his great uncle Charlie [sitting between his parents behind the two children in front] who had impressed him most. He recalled Charlie being a large man with big forearms and biceps from a lifetime of cutting wood. What made this so extraordinary to my dad was that Charlie was born without the use of his legs (someone had written the now non-PC word "cripple" on the photo).

In his research, Dad came across military discharge papers of the family’s patriarch, Alfred [sitting on the right], that show he served in the American Civil War and was wounded at Antietam. The Battle of Antietam was fought on September 17, 1862 near Sharpsburg and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign. It was the first major battle in the Civil War to take place on Northern soil and came to be remembered as the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with almost 23,000 casualties. My great-great grandfather was one of fortunate soldiers to survive with, according to the records, a shot to the thigh.

A tale about Alfred's father, John, has been passed down the generations. The story goes that late one night, John was returning from a neighbor's house with an armful of venison when he suddenly encountered several wolves. Knowing that he couldn't outrun the pack, John jumped up on a stump and dispensed with the meat and then quickly left the wolves to enjoy their dinner. A small, insignificant story perhaps but it’s a piece of family history I don't want to be forgotten. And as I click on the publish button, these memories are now a part of the digital age.

Epitaph

I’m researching the oldest profession for a western short that I'm working on when I came across this epitaph from a headstone in Pioche, Nevada...

Here lies the body of Virginia Marlotte,
She was born a virgin and died a harlot.
For eighteen years she preserved her virginity
That's a damned good record for this vicinity.

It may be made up, but it certainly gave me a chuckle.

Peter Gunn

I'm a big fan of jazz, detectives and film noir, not to mention femme fatales that can drop a man with a single stare. So then how is it that I’ve never seen Peter Gunn? I remember back in the 80s watching a few minutes of the horrible Peter Strauss version. Maybe that’s what did it in for me and so I never bothered to check out the original Blake Edwards classic. Rap Sheet recently did a post on the 50th anniversary of the show and I decided it was time to catch up.

I just finished watching the first sixteen episodes. Since I am the one who’s two martinis behind on this classic, I’ll keep it short. Craig Stevens as Gunn is perfect. As they say he’s hot on the case and cool under pressure. Lola Albright is the girlfriend who, according to the back of the dvd case, can melt butter at twenty yards, and I agree. My favorite actor on the show is Herschel Bernardi who plays the role of Lt. Jacoby in such an understated performance that he steals each scene. Oh, and the jazz is ultra cool, not just the unforgettable Henry Mancini theme but every noir scene is packed with appropriate gritty jazz.

I’ve posted the first episode, "The Kill." Everything about this first set was topnotch. You probably already knew that, but for those that don’t, check out this episode. It's a shame there are so many commercials but it’s only twenty-five minutes. Give it a try. I think you will be happy you did.


Watch Peter Gunn: The Kill (Part 1 of 7) in Entertainment Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Portrait Me

 

Denise Morrow is a good friend Little d and I met in Belize a couple years ago. She’s a wonderful artist living in Arizona who’s working on a painting of yours truly. It is quite an honor to be immortalized on canvas. The picture was taken by my charmer in Cameroon in 2004. (Maybe with a few flames I could be the Ghost Rider?!)