A Crummy Commercial

Yet another fun historical bio by the Young Indy people at Lucasfilm: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-czOkfbV9I Edward Stratemeyer's most famous characters ?  Not sure but for me the Hardy Boys would be the ones I'm familiar with. He only lived to 68 ?  Yikes ! I've mentioned needing the help of 21st century Hardy brothers before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/02/mystery-parcel.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/06/cats.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-21st-century-hardy-boys-adventure.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/10/book-report-hardy-boys-shortwave-mystery.html Luckily I have a poor memory so it might be fun to re-read: The Hardy Boys - The Shortwave Mystery (update, Thursday 2025-02-13): it was fun to read the book again, just like the action serials of old, every chapter ends with a cliffhanger - also verified that boys/girls all love food :) I couldn't verify that Edward Stratemeyer is the editor who mentioned that his authors sh...

In this post: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/12/life-sorta-imitates-art.html I mentioned that there wouldn't be a sequel to the PBS murder show: Magpie Murders.  But then I saw this trailer: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWf1mMWpzUU   Looking at the above still, of course there would be a sequel, the fictional author, Alan Conway, wrote a whole series of books about the character, Atticus Pund all edited by Susan Ryeland.  So Conway, Ryeland and Pund  can appear in new shows virtually forever, as long as the ratings hold out.   I've mostly given up on murder shows, even on PBS, but I'll probably watch this one.  Susan Ryeland does drive a cool car: While thinking about murder stories I came across this article from a 1944 issue of The Atlantic by Raymond Chandler: https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/archives/1944/12/174-6/132330934.pdf The Simple Art of Murder is an interesting essay - I suspect that Chandler wouldn't have much use for the PBS Mys...

Watching this 20th century educational film: UPI teleprinter at Channel 2 in Chicago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUohgquIDfE the question arose: do current newsrooms have something like a Teletype ?  And another question is: does whatever has replaced the teleprinters of the past have a bell or alarm ? That reminded me of a plot point in The Andromeda Strain: https://archive.org/details/the-andromeda-strain-1971   The story is presented somewhat non-linearly with flashback scenes.  As the four protagonists are admitted to a secure underground facility they hear this from the sergeant on duty: I listen for a little bell in here This is a foreshadowing of the bell as a plot device, like Dr. Leavitt's aversion to the flashing red lights at the entrance to the USDA Ag Station.  Of course they both pay off eventually.   And the use of the Teletype is a continuing part of the movie. Checking the electronics: shoulda checked the mechanical stuff first . There ...

I saw this article on the IEEE site: https://spectrum.ieee.org/space-based-solar-power-2668422542 There are always complaints that when the sea is calm, the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow there is no natural power - that was at least part of the rationale for orbiting satellites that could turn solar energy into microwaves around the clock and beam it to earth.  I remember that Dr. Ishii at Marquette was studying satellite solar power way back in the 20th century.  But the IEEE article points out that Isaac Asimov had incorporated the idea into one of his robot stories from 1941: source:  https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v27n02_1941-04_dtsg0318 Very cool, although satellite solar power is just a background item for this story of a robot prototype gone bad.  And it also reminded me of that magical year of Astounding SF for 1941.  In this issue there were stories from L. Sprague De Camp, Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon and A.E. Van Vogt, quite a ...

It was windy all day here Monday (10-17-22) and it continued into the evening -  the power went out about 9 PM so decided to read a Hardy Boys novel: The book was posted by Worldradiohistory.com :   https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Bookshelf_Enjoyment_of_Radio.htm https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Novels/Novel-The-Hardy-Boys-Shortwave-Mystery-Dixon-1966_21-08-30.pdf Can't remember reading any of the books as a kid.  I kinda remember Tim Considine and Tommy Kirk on the Mickey Mouse Club reruns as the Hardy Boys Here's the summary of the plot from the book: The book was ham radio assisted detection, no murder, just a little violence and  of course as with any "boys book" plenty of descriptions of food and hungry kids enjoying meals - eating food is the favorite things of any kid, even more than fooling with radio. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I finished listening to the Librivox audio book of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.  I did enjoy the book and thought that the twists and turns of the plot were probably one of the reasons why many modern mystery stories have unexpected twist endings.   original blog post:  https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-moonstone.html It is a long listen, 47 chapters.  And the Librivox recording itself is somewhat entertaining as the story was read by a number of readers.  Also in chapter 12 there were in the background the screams of kids at play :)  One of the narrators was a non-native English speaker but it's the story that makes for compelling listening not the voices. Unfortunately I've forgotten the name of the professor who recommended The Moonstone but thanks to modern technology I finally finished "reading" it.  I found the book a very enjoyable listen with interesting characters, a unique first person structure with multiple narrators (which were...

 Most hams would know Tommy Rockford as the hero of a series of Ham Radio based stories for young adults written by Walker Tompkins.  They are fun stories, full of action and Ham Radio plays an important part in each one.  Author Tomkins (K6ATX) wrote the first 3 books featuring Tommy Rockford during the amazing solar cycle 19 of the 1950s/60s.  You can find two of them on Archive.org: SOS at Midnight (1957)           https://archive.org/details/sosatmidnight00tomp CQ Ghost Ship (1960)             https://archive.org/details/cqghostship00tomp DX Brings Danger (1962)          I couldn't find a 1962 version Later Tomkins revised the first 3 books for the ARRL in the 1980s and added 3 new titles: https://archive.org/details/sosat-midnight-walker-atomkins-ed-3-1985 https://archive.org/details/cqghost-ship-walker-atompk...

I know: "don't judge a book by the cover" but I seem to remember books if they have distinctive covers I remember buying a copy of this book when I was in grade school.  I don't know what I did with it - it must be another item that is right next to my grade school class pictures.  But I read the three stories within more than once: The Problem of Cell 13 The Case of the Flaming Phantom The Mystery of the Silver Box The main character, Prof. Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, was as unforgettable as Sherlock Holmes.  He was a smartie, held numerous degrees including being a medical doctor, and unlike Holmes, the Professor did his investigations as a sideline, leaving a lot of the leg work to his friend, Hutchinson Hatch, a newsman.  I wonder if this might have influenced later writers like Rex Stout with his Nero Wolfe character where Archie Griffin does the outside work ?  Anyway, I suspect if "the Thinking Machine" ever gets popular again he will undoubtedly be te...