tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58862444051645670702024-02-06T19:19:40.611-08:00Words & MusicOccasional comments on what I'm reading and listening toDon Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.comBlogger479125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-67493993077306193452022-08-04T11:42:00.003-07:002022-08-04T11:42:41.274-07:00Ransom & Sutch, One Kind of Freedom (1977)<p><span style="font-size: large;"> Roger
L. Ransom and Richard Sutch, <i>One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of
Emancipation</i><br />(C) 1977 Columbia University Press</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">A
thorough dissection of the slow movement from slavery to repression to
something more likely to be described as freedom. Their conclusions are still a bit optimistic
by the extent to which economic and political equality have been achieved. They conclude: "Today, little remains to
remind Americans of pose-emancipation economic institutions [legal restrictions
on property ownership; explicit refusal to provide educational opportunities;”etc.—DAC]. But they do conclude as of the 1970s that
"The promise of freedom and equality that accompanies Emancipation remains
as yet unfulfilled despite the apse of more than a century. Surely the time has finally come to make good
on this promise'</span><o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h1><p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-21988703150457313292022-07-29T07:30:00.005-07:002022-07-29T07:32:10.360-07:00<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Robert Goldsborough, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trouble
At The Brownstone: A Nero Wolfe Mystery</i><br />
Open Road Integrated Media<br />
© 2021 Robert Goldsborough<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Goldsborough means well, and his love of Rex Stout's world
is apparent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this installment (his
16th), he takes on a real issue--the sureptious entry of Nazis into the US
after WW2 ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I did in fact learn
something, unrelated to the post-war issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He referred a couple of times to someone getting a public defender--and
I thought that public defenders were a somewhat more recent developments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I googled--New York City has had a public
defender office since the 1880s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the
rest of the book doesn't help much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
when Wolfe reveals all--asserts all, actually, as he has, or at least provides,
no evidence--I was disappointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Granted
that he actually did identify the villains, I could see no basis for h is
conclusions, no real reason for Inspector Cramer to arrest anyone, and no
reason to expect, on the strength of the available evidence, no hope for a
conviction.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-74904674709439731262022-06-24T11:22:00.003-07:002022-06-24T11:23:28.880-07:00Steve Liskow, Before You Accuse Me<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Steve Liskow, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Before
You Accuse Me<br />
</i>© 2018 Stephen Liskow<br />
ISBN 978-198351-6092<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Chris Guthrie, who was a Detroit cop before a horrible
injury forced him out of the PD, is now a PI.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And he receives a phone call from a lawyer in Connecticut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His ex-wife Sarah (they divorced a decade
prior; a photographer, is now the director of the fine arts department at
Wesleyan University.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has remarried
to a high-priced surgeon, Sam Henderson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The lawyer tells Guthrie that the Hendersons have asked him to ask Guthrie
to come to Connecticut to investigate the death—the murder—of Frederika ,(Rika)
Holmstadt a financial adviser (with whom Sam has been getting investment advice
and with whom he had been an affair—making him a suspect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And,, as it transpires, Holmstadt had been
stealing from her clients. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t
help that the gun the Hendersons had has, uh, disappeared Guthrie and Megan
Traine (a computer wizard, talented keyboard player, and Guthrie’s long-time companion
have come to Connecticut to see if they can find evidence exonerating Sam.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The Hendersons have 3 kids—Clara and Ike from Sam’s first
first marriage and Max together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">That’s the setup, and the relationships between the adults
are strained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids(Max, the
youngest; Ike, just entering high school and very much wanting to make the
basketball team; and Clara, a budding pianist who really bonds with Meg are a
delight (although a sub-plot, it’s fairly important to the story).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The interactions between the local cops and
Chris & Meg work effectively. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
that’s all I’m going to say about the plot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">I will say this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Before You Accuse Me </i>is the best mystery
I have read this year—and the best one I read last year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to being a stellar mystery, it is
a fine study of the relationships between the adults and also the kids. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ very glad I have more opportunities<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to soend time with Guthrie and Traine.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-31147884821274107782022-06-16T17:40:00.008-07:002022-06-16T17:48:09.726-07:00<p> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;">Frederic Brown, <i>Night of the Japperwock</i></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">I just finished re-reading Frederic Brown's masterpiece <span style="font-style: italic;">Night of the Jabberwock</span> (a masterpiece in my opinion, anyway)</span><span style="color: #285151;">. Of course, almost any tale that makes good use of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" is likely to be worth your time. If you aren't familiar with the plot, the potted version is that the owner (Doc Stroger) of a small Illinois town newspaper receives a late-night visitor, Yehudi Smith. Smith claims to be a member of an exclusive society, the Vorpal Blades*. And he's there to engage Stroger in a midnight incursion into a house on the outskirts of town. He wants Stroger to accompany him, and Stroger, who is a devotee of the "Alice" stories agrees. Surrounding that, we have the tribulations of running a small-town newspaper and ruthless bank robbers. Also dead bodies in the trunk of a car. A poisoning. And much more. Despite the centrality of the "Alice" stories, I would not call this a cozy mystery--the body count is somewhat too high for that. I don't know how, exactly, to categorize it. (I will say that I don't understand how Stroger can function, given the quantity of whisky he ingests over the course of the night--the ability of anyone to function after drinking that much whisky would be beyond me, anyway. I will also suggest that, if you come across a tiny bottle with a label "Drink Me" on it, you abstain.)<br /><br />I would strongly recommend that, if you have not read <i>Night of the Jabberwock</i>, you do so. And if you have read it, re-reading it would be a treat. </span><span style="background-color: white;">This might be a good time.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">*I would join the Vorpal Blades instantly if I had the chance.</span></span></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-41624585350671046402022-05-12T13:57:00.001-07:002022-05-12T13:57:13.764-07:00<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Steve Liskow, <b><i>Nowhere Man</i></b> </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I have a bad habit of buying things for my Kindle & then forgetting about them. But in the last couple of days I read Steve Liskow's "Nowhere Man" and read it in two sittings. The main character is a PI (ex cop) Zack Barnes) who gets hired by the widow of a wealthy (and deceased) businessman. She wants him to check out the man who seems to be cyber-stalking (which may be too strong a description of the events). In some ways it's not something I usually get caught up in--I tend to shy away from stories which have too much to do with the PI's personal life--but this one incorporates the personal with the investigation nicely. And the conclusion is explosive. On of the best I've read so far this year.</span></span></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-73135111915800787912022-04-20T18:14:00.001-07:002022-04-20T18:14:39.755-07:00Dolores Gorden-Smith, A Hundred Thousand Dragone<p> </p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dolores Gordon-Smith, <b style="font-style: italic;">A Hundred Thousand Dragons</b><br />Severn House (c) 2010</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">This is the fourth mystery featuring Jack Haldean. He's a writer in 1920s England who finds himself investigating murders, generally in cooperation with a Scotland Yard detective (</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: times;">Bill Rackham , who does appear, somewhat tangentially, here). Haldean becomes involved in the death that occurs on the night of a fancy dress ball in rural England. The dead man has been burned to a crisp. which makes identifying him difficult, and raises the question of whether it was an accident or murder. It was murder, of course. And it was a murder that had its origin in wartime Europe. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">As Haldean and the local police superintendent investigate, it becomes (slowly) apparent that the murder had its origins in the war, and likely somehow tied to archeological explorations in the middle east. And that large sums of gold (a thousand pounds or more) are likely involved. (An ounce of gold in the early 1920s would have been worth about $20 --or, nearly <span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">£</span>5 per English Pounds. A thousand pounds of gold would be 16,000 ounces--just over $1 million (<span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">£</span><span style="background-color: white;">80,000). (</span>The equivalent of over $20 million today)</span>. And Haldean's treatment in captivity (told in a fairly lengthy flashback) during the War plays a significant role.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">By a little over half way through, Haldean decides that he has to return to the Middle East to confront the murderer and deal with his own prior encounters with him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This is not the best book in what is (for me, at any rate) a marginal series. The identity of the murder/gold thief is clear by around half-way through; the rest of the story of getting Haldean (and a newly-married couple, whoa re friends of his) to the "lost" city of Petra and confronting the bad guy. There are some good moments--the best ones revolve around Haldean's interpretation of some fairly obscure documents. Gordon-Smith does an excellent job of depicting the desert. But by the time we get to the desert there's little suspense remaining.</span></p><p><br /></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-43264310467153882182022-04-06T12:30:00.002-07:002022-04-06T12:48:54.218-07:00Seven Rex Stout novels, in dust jackets<p>After I finished my previous post, I decided to focus on Rex Stouts. So here are images of 7 Nero Wolde novels (written, of course, by Rex Stout). He wrote 32 Nero Wolfe novels (if I counted correctly), and at this point finding the books with dust jackets has become difficult--and pricey. Therse are the ones I have.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTrbc5XUwuVaHpOUX84qUkeL846vGb3z6u8i-24zW4vRNL-CzEU-E_QEdOEruNbXcqZFuqq4YhEAjqfCXd8PFBAVdRNkW67LURQIppnYc7uipdZk4gYf56ZNa3_Mmf6ydVJf5GEYuHqp46TmGVkRP9a2m-MY6GZT6kCVDfljIN_9KcqGf9pso7-IGZJA/s5400/AFerdeLanceSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5400" data-original-width="3425" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTrbc5XUwuVaHpOUX84qUkeL846vGb3z6u8i-24zW4vRNL-CzEU-E_QEdOEruNbXcqZFuqq4YhEAjqfCXd8PFBAVdRNkW67LURQIppnYc7uipdZk4gYf56ZNa3_Mmf6ydVJf5GEYuHqp46TmGVkRP9a2m-MY6GZT6kCVDfljIN_9KcqGf9pso7-IGZJA/s320/AFerdeLanceSmall.jpg" width="203" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7dElXm3b80MP5nO1_fEq2fYzUbwkzNpUzk1wo39huBWY3m3ddRX6q3IuZAgBUl93oscjT1F3QgxNEq2lQKpZefpyxZ-b4UoqKVTPqyAVyOCFO7mrGuJ3aQSjJ30p7nVBdsLoetfAyQ-JOq5ltvaQcyRZTNd87p11qvcz87AhUF83LKiA6Yl4TAMMf4g/s5400/BSomeBuriesCaesarSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5400" data-original-width="3510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7dElXm3b80MP5nO1_fEq2fYzUbwkzNpUzk1wo39huBWY3m3ddRX6q3IuZAgBUl93oscjT1F3QgxNEq2lQKpZefpyxZ-b4UoqKVTPqyAVyOCFO7mrGuJ3aQSjJ30p7nVBdsLoetfAyQ-JOq5ltvaQcyRZTNd87p11qvcz87AhUF83LKiA6Yl4TAMMf4g/s320/BSomeBuriesCaesarSmall.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlBCEABvnAgDEBZ19xX9RndIJFyk3ykO1iuFThgmcDBAiyGs-WZaIY5iw2CF8vqzCuaH-Ga-JIUNDAxTxiwAiRVx9pRcFT_puejKUf8dOmhNQ_saqoX4Psyh1sTl6V8B3sccXLfltwOAGGfjTasWFliOHSTYWz3VwYHlaU9ffFaTXAKaGg3iCnDWQRg/s5400/CPrisonersBaseSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5400" data-original-width="3600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlBCEABvnAgDEBZ19xX9RndIJFyk3ykO1iuFThgmcDBAiyGs-WZaIY5iw2CF8vqzCuaH-Ga-JIUNDAxTxiwAiRVx9pRcFT_puejKUf8dOmhNQ_saqoX4Psyh1sTl6V8B3sccXLfltwOAGGfjTasWFliOHSTYWz3VwYHlaU9ffFaTXAKaGg3iCnDWQRg/s320/CPrisonersBaseSmall.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZelgP0h7NHrQ8j4W6mPoL26x3lN97pZoLW5UmdWTeNVN4StQsnwS3ELrkcZ-l-iPykPoQVXbge8ILhf2bdZcd3D0FSlbwc-Gz5FBWA11mHxzSTGkD-hYEPeT2UKaoUg2xgETfknhtdLl2plJfhF8dvKgKLLzQkWkadbkN4v9TqZ1-A_m1CM0Jc4BaKg/s6000/DMotherHuntSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZelgP0h7NHrQ8j4W6mPoL26x3lN97pZoLW5UmdWTeNVN4StQsnwS3ELrkcZ-l-iPykPoQVXbge8ILhf2bdZcd3D0FSlbwc-Gz5FBWA11mHxzSTGkD-hYEPeT2UKaoUg2xgETfknhtdLl2plJfhF8dvKgKLLzQkWkadbkN4v9TqZ1-A_m1CM0Jc4BaKg/s320/DMotherHuntSmall.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-od8PEXA26XN8KU2S1lkLEvDnYWlQW9ELsTbs7TON0mcWvK6EPj5RpBGyAk3qaAPcDWBdg5Q1mYMWYaPdGXwqWsbjTpGN3rjl5azIc1iotF7ONZbXGsHHGjhSmj3ba2Is6_HFfQPu-wOXBjbv_HR8MTSkNxroccXVoTSUYOEF2gsK1lfagyN41HqcUg/s5400/DRightToDieSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5400" data-original-width="3532" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-od8PEXA26XN8KU2S1lkLEvDnYWlQW9ELsTbs7TON0mcWvK6EPj5RpBGyAk3qaAPcDWBdg5Q1mYMWYaPdGXwqWsbjTpGN3rjl5azIc1iotF7ONZbXGsHHGjhSmj3ba2Is6_HFfQPu-wOXBjbv_HR8MTSkNxroccXVoTSUYOEF2gsK1lfagyN41HqcUg/s320/DRightToDieSmall.jpg" width="209" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSxqJSIAgKN8XpAcxubly5PsTRqGRYg6kbyFFOG2UJuJQE3qt537QEY7SYAGqjEVEdj5ue-oVVKAjvq4w9qYWfr46ywH3AW0CVu1W395cs0GHzcWvUkcTGZgDu_BltXyULIVrrKydYy9hPhK69xydXlhxavloVycI7zC_PagJrjgIhP5phgvfPAZzEjg/s5400/EPleasePassQuiltSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5400" data-original-width="3505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSxqJSIAgKN8XpAcxubly5PsTRqGRYg6kbyFFOG2UJuJQE3qt537QEY7SYAGqjEVEdj5ue-oVVKAjvq4w9qYWfr46ywH3AW0CVu1W395cs0GHzcWvUkcTGZgDu_BltXyULIVrrKydYy9hPhK69xydXlhxavloVycI7zC_PagJrjgIhP5phgvfPAZzEjg/s320/EPleasePassQuiltSmall.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ-emIGOvUrLZH3R66btKbS6D0cOuNu5JPwfgw06DVpF_vVaDj6qTH5n6rofZswVumFY17kZXOtpqQr1scBT7emX4tT4n1eN631GCIgRPfgJ0dNY8X3T1Y2ErL_puwd5DBwhXn_SCASzhJRaY86MZmzzARvdSWiU9HGlULnk5BCku3HsZkZ1R0KiwTuA/s5400/FFamilyAffairSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5400" data-original-width="3454" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ-emIGOvUrLZH3R66btKbS6D0cOuNu5JPwfgw06DVpF_vVaDj6qTH5n6rofZswVumFY17kZXOtpqQr1scBT7emX4tT4n1eN631GCIgRPfgJ0dNY8X3T1Y2ErL_puwd5DBwhXn_SCASzhJRaY86MZmzzARvdSWiU9HGlULnk5BCku3HsZkZ1R0KiwTuA/s320/FFamilyAffairSmall.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-31044550825440905692022-04-05T17:28:00.000-07:002022-04-05T17:28:01.896-07:0010 images<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the photography class I'm taking at the Indianapolis Art Center, our most recent assignment is to create a series of images which are shot using the same lighting, the same exposure choices, and the same image sizes, but with different, but related images. What I chose to do was to shoot the dustjackets of a number of mystery novels. Why that choice? No particular reason. Anyway, here they are.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQC7TOz5DeXScaKitaJq-El_OPbHk1Va-NQ1V5QhWvebEwMCom6YBqNhcgaCdOLRuZu4mFwSokooUO1B_48jJ2DjsS_GXX5uqdz5N55Mpomof7PHLxOWYeu0e0iyuuTFHvjkvU9zqL6t5I10luUqcsbucgqFgQwZk1U98q7e3r90DtJsc_5RVieeJ-w/s4071/BlockSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4071" data-original-width="3431" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQC7TOz5DeXScaKitaJq-El_OPbHk1Va-NQ1V5QhWvebEwMCom6YBqNhcgaCdOLRuZu4mFwSokooUO1B_48jJ2DjsS_GXX5uqdz5N55Mpomof7PHLxOWYeu0e0iyuuTFHvjkvU9zqL6t5I10luUqcsbucgqFgQwZk1U98q7e3r90DtJsc_5RVieeJ-w/s320/BlockSmall.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEZDAmBHHTtnleGmN0vM7bt661-lQSGsFhwkvjrQp_9AYcvZsLuA9v8JUFcgKatDasMmzfAZIQQXEE5xJl_5-SMAxB_Zr7WwCyiS7P89-cGvkDMGthLF-faVErCnuPxccfpVw6nZZClgbcdtI9emW_cWsuahpCOWITMTSXImie2BHckxMwCDNY2PC2XA/s3950/ChandlerSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3950" data-original-width="3459" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEZDAmBHHTtnleGmN0vM7bt661-lQSGsFhwkvjrQp_9AYcvZsLuA9v8JUFcgKatDasMmzfAZIQQXEE5xJl_5-SMAxB_Zr7WwCyiS7P89-cGvkDMGthLF-faVErCnuPxccfpVw6nZZClgbcdtI9emW_cWsuahpCOWITMTSXImie2BHckxMwCDNY2PC2XA/s320/ChandlerSmall.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCT6BBbanpDBRaY9ZsWFndS1_tavxdVCNqD_xFKPtb-NMvqX_AXtJd6xZ-LhDxsRCEdVqJMX7RApnUk25UTivcQbEI0rgopKybSCSPs_Y-P5fKswoslZOy-A-Htaz9nhN5TNXOeyBS0csFkqUzWN4h0kKuB7rEijhMelOBejkwu02UNo31n8rpfQR8Cg/s5400/DeightonSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5400" data-original-width="3600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCT6BBbanpDBRaY9ZsWFndS1_tavxdVCNqD_xFKPtb-NMvqX_AXtJd6xZ-LhDxsRCEdVqJMX7RApnUk25UTivcQbEI0rgopKybSCSPs_Y-P5fKswoslZOy-A-Htaz9nhN5TNXOeyBS0csFkqUzWN4h0kKuB7rEijhMelOBejkwu02UNo31n8rpfQR8Cg/s320/DeightonSmall.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiej1Jvom3EPFd_ARYeVN4euKwIThXFKoR355elKEE-YrBmehou8353N5a4K-6A8BGJVn9uNuhSMxmnYtxu1wXy-VDVREERqHtyWpHFH4j7B_fNQ3LOXyxUH-hSxkhc77RWdjSkvxRAul-gyAHOMpjaK0-BdtUzYA27K1rXC4jnPWusHlqgiyfd7Xwflg/s4159/FrancisSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4159" data-original-width="3690" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiej1Jvom3EPFd_ARYeVN4euKwIThXFKoR355elKEE-YrBmehou8353N5a4K-6A8BGJVn9uNuhSMxmnYtxu1wXy-VDVREERqHtyWpHFH4j7B_fNQ3LOXyxUH-hSxkhc77RWdjSkvxRAul-gyAHOMpjaK0-BdtUzYA27K1rXC4jnPWusHlqgiyfd7Xwflg/s320/FrancisSmall.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDBe3XhkE9S80z7k-dydN3rnluv54nknSYaMonGrcNyhNpTqsb6ZDXGRNkfi6RpM-j-o8d8Oi9fyjS3BnrfelPBOnRpwZDynw9kUnWxjJtbBBtLod1xL9WWGxCPy6EzSK0jScNZ8Y1CrYB0ilhISX1WeBwFBTOoOQP6iplhO942dOs08WxRGI2Gcf7g/s3935/GordonSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3935" data-original-width="3600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDBe3XhkE9S80z7k-dydN3rnluv54nknSYaMonGrcNyhNpTqsb6ZDXGRNkfi6RpM-j-o8d8Oi9fyjS3BnrfelPBOnRpwZDynw9kUnWxjJtbBBtLod1xL9WWGxCPy6EzSK0jScNZ8Y1CrYB0ilhISX1WeBwFBTOoOQP6iplhO942dOs08WxRGI2Gcf7g/s320/GordonSmall.jpg" width="293" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5OYk5Qspdzi-f45QUMUqhVmxBqalKqa85W22b_sb2RXEbU6VHDiJeb6xHSII93zPHi7H9_mm52UloWdM9rTa3nnHRofwvNeRZM17a-gQ31rMT2SxiPn_v48qMMH1SHwaNH6IpWvuzfjnn0G9A16ORJUHmOS5R4BX_9Lubs3-iB7nYERu5l5ZTdpR8iQ/s4479/HallSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4479" data-original-width="3455" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5OYk5Qspdzi-f45QUMUqhVmxBqalKqa85W22b_sb2RXEbU6VHDiJeb6xHSII93zPHi7H9_mm52UloWdM9rTa3nnHRofwvNeRZM17a-gQ31rMT2SxiPn_v48qMMH1SHwaNH6IpWvuzfjnn0G9A16ORJUHmOS5R4BX_9Lubs3-iB7nYERu5l5ZTdpR8iQ/s320/HallSmall.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuvDgEsW3QqnsirbuMhKRvbCdYH13FiYHIubQ4ChQnL0nMc9KoJNN1_uLPnUGt_vjX5fykLG5qK-CrrtxEWp5KfHBqa0fVxjkFxDMfPxVVumz_11x8_Hq4-5ZYCYWG8dh0mVln3nGhQdEtqGPgYZLNnThrVpCgh1_JSpcdJwNiZ1TqQd5ToNYRkrMrjA/s4495/HammetBSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4495" data-original-width="3682" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuvDgEsW3QqnsirbuMhKRvbCdYH13FiYHIubQ4ChQnL0nMc9KoJNN1_uLPnUGt_vjX5fykLG5qK-CrrtxEWp5KfHBqa0fVxjkFxDMfPxVVumz_11x8_Hq4-5ZYCYWG8dh0mVln3nGhQdEtqGPgYZLNnThrVpCgh1_JSpcdJwNiZ1TqQd5ToNYRkrMrjA/s320/HammetBSmall.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghX6_eKqYaE5ByS8FpQEh6Vcumx-It2ST_qomQyMCoKDttZW_lOpwCBgHdnAt7dXvYlsmPtzteUsbrhoppiiIEsdcXoEEtKmKqxJzrCGytgfA0kxk5866S8Lhx27mFnk_wRaWhp0Q1c_lAVY0t5RcJGkkQlbmXptmXllYqDAaytxBRnKXNb5NTEAnl1A/s5400/HillermanBSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5400" data-original-width="3600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghX6_eKqYaE5ByS8FpQEh6Vcumx-It2ST_qomQyMCoKDttZW_lOpwCBgHdnAt7dXvYlsmPtzteUsbrhoppiiIEsdcXoEEtKmKqxJzrCGytgfA0kxk5866S8Lhx27mFnk_wRaWhp0Q1c_lAVY0t5RcJGkkQlbmXptmXllYqDAaytxBRnKXNb5NTEAnl1A/s320/HillermanBSmall.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj22cVilMiT7BaRw0Gvi5_EiVAkQCGZq65NZOnKdmPIPjyaVgkZ8O2zOD3hH8UmiF4I2aWN5XYqlOkBU6JZtcmrr-P0FblsQR0MvYVCna49YOWKvx0SCTywPbqAdj1hk2sHpiXlpWy2xJxsPP-avRiMfncxosdrb1AgDayjhXPL3bRBKNBcxu2aHeibaw/s5241/SatterthwaiteSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5241" data-original-width="3479" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj22cVilMiT7BaRw0Gvi5_EiVAkQCGZq65NZOnKdmPIPjyaVgkZ8O2zOD3hH8UmiF4I2aWN5XYqlOkBU6JZtcmrr-P0FblsQR0MvYVCna49YOWKvx0SCTywPbqAdj1hk2sHpiXlpWy2xJxsPP-avRiMfncxosdrb1AgDayjhXPL3bRBKNBcxu2aHeibaw/s320/SatterthwaiteSmall.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV2DZIj6I9X_N6EeORzWSUxJ2RRE5ui7ebQxiwPuNezLTmAUSsoLIerOQtdwbd81S6wtzoRfbZe9yk5vMd7VtFL8wMXJCgvGO148pfje8-Jeo56V7njx1bxjhWRMq12VNEcxzA6dbRl3-SdtTMRQAIv27pnHu78l72GL_xVv6pfgGhcdzy_JJgARw5Xg/s3793/StoutSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3793" data-original-width="3412" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV2DZIj6I9X_N6EeORzWSUxJ2RRE5ui7ebQxiwPuNezLTmAUSsoLIerOQtdwbd81S6wtzoRfbZe9yk5vMd7VtFL8wMXJCgvGO148pfje8-Jeo56V7njx1bxjhWRMq12VNEcxzA6dbRl3-SdtTMRQAIv27pnHu78l72GL_xVv6pfgGhcdzy_JJgARw5Xg/s320/StoutSmall.jpg" width="288" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-72682455429850715852022-03-23T18:01:00.000-07:002022-03-23T18:01:04.285-07:00Rex Stout, Bad For Business: A Tecumseh Fox Mystery<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large;">Bad For Business: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large;">A Tecumseh mystery (1 of 3)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Rex Stout, (c) 1940. <br />
<br />
I think all three of the Fox booksare better than they are generally considered
to be. Fox is a nicely conceived
character (even if his name is fairly obviously borrowed from Nero Wolfe. The owner a gourmet food company, Arthur
Tingley, is murdered in his office, and his niece is assaulted. His adopted son (but there’s a surprise
coming about him), a financier with an interest in a rival food company, and a
VP in yet another food company have been on the premises. Fox, a PI whose home base is in upstate New
York (but all the of his recorded cases—the others are Double For Death and The
Broken Vase—take place in New York City.
I think all three of the Fox books are well above average. [As are the
other non-Wolfe bools--The Hand in the Glove (Dol Bonner—who appears sporadically
in the Wolfe bools); The Red Threads (Inspector Cramer, and The Sound of Murder
(Alphabet Hicks). The crucial clue takes a while for Fox to recognize, but
overall the story is taut and moves right along</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-71875280264001857642022-03-03T18:53:00.002-08:002022-03-03T18:53:35.197-08:00Victory Field, Indianapolis, in the 1950s<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUhhjrcahYTl3Tp-v5dzUQZt2jCu1BIm9UIIFN4VEs38ML8BVfrdUrP_0cON5pdb-ukU5tn0wT2hipkkuk8wxxuB_FE98XXnh1lq35sqLCHVkwWcb--IjXl4U_WPsdYoCXcHcolyleG1pjs_1f8a_m_m5FtWQogmWI43Z6rdytqyue7QQJ0e2SH41Qtg=s5400" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="5400" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUhhjrcahYTl3Tp-v5dzUQZt2jCu1BIm9UIIFN4VEs38ML8BVfrdUrP_0cON5pdb-ukU5tn0wT2hipkkuk8wxxuB_FE98XXnh1lq35sqLCHVkwWcb--IjXl4U_WPsdYoCXcHcolyleG1pjs_1f8a_m_m5FtWQogmWI43Z6rdytqyue7QQJ0e2SH41Qtg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-67794513836663336882021-12-02T11:57:00.005-08:002021-12-02T12:04:27.848-08:00S. J. Rozan, The Art of Violence<p> </p><h1 class="a-spacing-none a-text-normal" id="title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; font-weight: 400; line-height: 36px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="a-size-extra-large" id="productTitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 36px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-family: times;">S. J. Rozan, The Art of Violence: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Novel<br />Copyrigight (C) 2020<br />Pegasus Crime <br /></span></span>ISBN 9781643135311</span></h1><p><br /></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: times; font-size: large;">As I read this book--which is totally excellent--I had an experience that I have had occasionally. A little less than half-way through, I said to myself "I know who did it." Not "I think I know." But "I know." Usually, when I have that reaction, I'm wrong. This time, I was right. And *knowing* that I knew whodunit made no difference to me in terms of wanting--needing--to get to the end of the book. </span></p><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">It is set, obviously, in the world of avante garde are in NYC. Leaving aside Smith and Chin, the principal character is Sam Tabor, a convicted murder (of a young woman) who has made it out of prison to become the darling of the art scene. Other young women die, in ways that are very similar to the murder for which he was convicted. He hires Smith to find out if he is guilty. Complicating things is Tabor's severe ADHD issues. And, following a gala at the Whitney celebrating Tabor's art, a young woman is killed, who was part of a protest against Tabor's celebrity., in a way very similar to his victim.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">From what I know of the NYC art scene (not a lot, but enough), the settings and the characters are remarkably depicted. And the resolution is worthy of everything that goes before. Even if you think you know whodunit. The best mystery I have read this year.</span></div>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-40063134112379025092021-10-24T15:46:00.000-07:002021-10-24T15:46:08.874-07:00Is Faking A Kidnapping Worth It: Althea and Jimmy Vail in The Final Deduction, by Rex Stout<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Is Faking A Kidnapping
Worth It:<br />
Althea and Jimmy Vail in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />
The Final Deduction,</i> by Rex Stout<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I must begin
by warning you that this essay contains serious “spoilers,” so if you are not
familiar with the plot of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Final
Deduction</i>, you should stop reading now and do something more useful than
read a deconstruction of the plot of a mystery novel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nero Wolfe’s
involvement begins when Althea Vale hires him to assure the safe return of her
husband, Jimmy Vail, who has been kidnapped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Both of them have had very puplic lives prior to their marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Althea Purcell was an actor in a major hit on
Broadway; she walked away from the theatre to marry a wealthy man, Harold
Tedder (presumably in the late 1930s, as, at the time this episode begin
(around 1960), she had a son and daughter, both in their early 20s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harold Tedder had died, apparently sometime
in the early to mid 1950s, leaving his considerable wealth solely to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jimmy Vail had been a nightclub comedian—highly
successful—in NYC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They married, and he
walked away from his career, much as she had walked away from hers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
kidnapping has been orchestrated by a Mr. Knapp, and his arrangements are
thorough and fairly ingenious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the
ransom demand is $500,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It’s worth
knowing, I think, that, adjusted for general inflation, such a ransom today
would be around <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">$6 million</i></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep in mind
that Althea has hired Wolfe to recover her husband, not to identify and bring
to justice the kidnapper(s).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He asks
for, and receives, a retained of $50,000.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">From this point on, I will be
discussing aspects of this affair that will be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spoilers</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So if you have not
read this mystery, or if you have read it and expect to read it again, please
stop reading now.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As Wolfe
begins to earn his fee, he becomes convinced that the kidnapping might be less
than it seems, that the Vails have staged the kidnapping, and anticipate claiming
a $500,000 deduction from their taxable income.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We never actually learn what their income is, but, as both have walked
away from their careers, their income is based on the fortune inherited by
Althea when her first husband died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
has always seemed to me to be a fairly tricky, and risky, scheme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I have thought about this, I began to look
at the potential rewards of pulling this fraud off successfully (spoiler: they
do not pull it off).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are the potential rewards?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put simply, it’s the anticipated tax
saving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That saving will depend on the
(marginal) income tax rates and on whether ransom payments are, in fact, are
deductible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But against that is the risk
of being charged with and convicted of tax fraud, a risk that extends to Althea’s
personal secretary, Dinah Utley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I do
not recall, and, during my most recent re-reading of the book, I could not find
any indication of what share of the loot Utley would receive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Presumably it would have to me a significant
percentage of the take.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
following table [<a href="https://www.tax-brackets.org/federaltaxtable/1960">Federal
Income Tax Brackets for Tax Year 1959 (Filed April 1960) (tax-brackets.org)</a>]
shows the income tax rates, by income range, for 1960.*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The amount of the (fraudulent) tax saving
follows directly by looking at the tax brackets and rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not told what the household income is,
but the maximum tax saving would accrue only if the family taxable income is
greater than $1 million (roughly the equivalent of $12 million accounting for
inflation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">maximum</i> tax saving (ignoring state and local income taxes, which
would have been negligible in 1969) would be 91% of $500,000--$455,000 (the
equivalent of $5.5 million at today’s general price level), minus Utley’s share.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, at most, about half of one year’s income.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Federal Income Tax Brackets, 1960<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Income
Bracket<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>Marginal Tax
Rate<br />
</span></u><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">$0 - $3,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span>20%<br />
$4,000 -$ 7,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>22%<br />
$8,000 -$11,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>22%
<br />
$12,000 – 15,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>26%<br />
$16,000 - $23,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>34%<br />
$24,000 - $27,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>43%<br />
$28,000 - $31,000<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>47%<br />
$32,000 - $35,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>50%<br />
$36,000 - $39,000<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>53%<br />
$40,000 - $43.000<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>56%<br />
$44,000 - $51,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>59%<br />
$52,000 - $63,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>62%<br />
$64,000 - $75,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>65%<br />
$76,000 - $79,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>69%<br />
$80,000 - $99,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>72%<br />
$100,000 – $119,000<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>75%<br />
$120,000 – $139,999<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>78%<br />
$140,000 - $159,000<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>81%<br />
$160,000 - $179,000<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>84%<br />
$180,000 - $199.000<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>89%<br />
$200,000 -$299,000<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span>90%<br />
$500,000 +<span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span>91%<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But there is
a second consideration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would the ransom
be an allowable deduction from their taxable income?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My take on this is that it might not be
deductible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two factors matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first is whether proven ransom payment
constitutes a deductible a expenditure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have found this very difficult to establish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I have been able to find pertains to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">business</i> ransom payments (e.g., payments
to get “ransom wear” cleaned from computer systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, in some cases, documentable kidnapping
and safe return of a business’s employee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is clear in these cases is that the relevant law enforcement agency
(or agencies) be able to document the denial of service that makes up the
ransom demand or the captivity of an employee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This entails, at the least, law enforcement agencies being informed of
the event and being able to monitor the amount of the payment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been unable to determine** whether
what we might call <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">private</i> kidnapping
and ransom payment constitutes a deductible event under current law and
practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the implication of what I
have been able to discover about current practice does not present a clear case
for the deductibility of ransom paid for private kidnapping.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In addition,
I would suggest that that if ransom payments are deductible, the taxing
authority would require <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">proof</i> that
the kidnapping had occurred and that the payment had been made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of the kidnapping of Jimmy Vail,
no attempt was made to inform the police that a kidnapping had occurred. In the
absence of some sort of proof that a kidnapping and ransom payment had actually
occurred, I seriously doubt that any taxing authority accept a claim of
deductibility of a ransom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, if the “ransom
payment” is not deductible, the Vails would have undertaken a risk for no
reward<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let me make
this clear:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rex Stout is my favorite
author of mystery novels,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I own copies
of all of them; I have read all of them multiple times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, if one can ignore the technical issues
surrounding the kidnapping and subsequent murder, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Final Deduction</i> is at the very least engrossing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am not sure that the premise of the
story really holds up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">*A
digression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two things are striking
about the tax table for 1960 and the current tax table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First of all, there were 22 tax bracket in
1960— compared with7 tax brackets in 2020.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Second, the maximum tax <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rate</i>
in 2020 was only 37%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly, the
risk-reward ratio for a fraudulent kidnapping would be a lot less enticing
today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">**I spent
about 3 hours trying to determine either the state of current tax law and practice
or the state of law practice as it was in 1960, without success.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-38426668338529820892021-09-28T17:16:00.004-07:002021-09-28T17:26:59.835-07:00Fritz Gets Paid<p><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Life—and Pa<b>y—as Fritz
Brenner</b></span></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">While the focus of the books is inevitably on the case and
the investigation, and, of course, on the relationship between Nero Wolfe and
Archie Goodwin), life in the old brownstone on West 35<sup>th</sup> St. centers
on The Meals. And in giving
consideration to them, we need to give consideration to the life—and especially
to the working schedule—and compensation—of Fritz Brenner. In particular, I asked myself, was Fritz
compensated as well as it appears he should have been—what would a chef as good
and as experienced as Fritz reasonably have expected to earn?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s try to answer that question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Briefly, anticipating the answer, Fritz was
doing all right.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">What can we say with certainty?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That Wolfe and Fritz have known each other
from long before Archie began working for Wolfe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That Fritz is (according to Wolfe, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Too Many Cooks</i>), competent, if not
inspired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That, at the time of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In the Best Families </i>(published in
1950), Fritz was making $1,000 per month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That Fritz does the shopping for the household.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That Fritz is strongly opposed to having a
woman in the place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And probably
more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can also infer what his
working schedule must look like.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Wolfe breakfasts at 8:00 (or 8:15); lunch is at 1:00 (or
1:15), and dinner is at 7:15 (or 7:30).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Archie eats breakfast at somewhat irregular times, but usually around 8,
and usually lunches with Wolfe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t
know when, where, or if Theodore eats.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">If Fritz is going to prepare the food for that schedule, here’s
what it seems to me that his day must look like:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .3in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.3in 12pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">7:00 – 9:30:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
kitchen to prepare breakfast for Wolfe and for Archie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At about 9 (after Wolfe heads for the plant
rooms), he retrieves the tray from Wolfe’s room and finishes any
after-breakfast clean-up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(At some time
in this interval, he fixes and eats his own breakfast, and fixes breakfast for
Archie.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .3in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.3in 12pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">11:30 – 2:30:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
kitchen to prepare lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Wolfe and
Archie finish their meal (by about 2:00), he clears the remaining dishes from the
dining room and finishes cleaning up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(At some time in this interval, he eats his own lunch.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .3in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.3in 12pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">5:30 – 9:00:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
kitchen to prepare dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He finishes
clearing in the dining room after Wolfe and Archie are done, and finishes up in
the kitchen by 9:00.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Again, he finds
time to heat his own meal.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">That’s nine hours per day to prepare and clean up after the
three meals served.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re not told when
he shops, but my guess is that he spends two hours on Monday morning shopping,
probably at multiple stores (in the European fashion).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, for Monday through Friday, we have a
47-hour work week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also know that
Fritz has Sundays off (or mostly off; sometimes it appears that he prepares
breakfast, as is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hinted at by Archie’s
reference to his “Sunday morning crescents”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We don’t know about Saturday, but my suspicion is that he prepares
breakfast, and leaves things ready for lunch and dinner, but also has most of
Saturday off.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">If all this is correct, then Fritz has a roughly 50-hour
work week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How would this compare with the
work week of an executive chef in a restaurant, on the assumption that the
restaurant does lunch and dinner (as, for example, it seems Rusterman’s
does).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suppose the restaurant opens at
11, serves lunch from noon until 2 and dinner from 5:30 until 10, Monday
through Saturday (or, perhaps, Tuesday through Sunday—a fair number of
restaurants in Chicago seem to be closed on Monday).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The executive chef may not do all that much
line cooking, but must determine the menu (especially weekly specials),
order<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the food and supplies and attend
to its delivery, schedule the rest of the staff, supervise the kitchen, and so
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This looks like a 12-hour day, 6
days a week, or 72 hours a week.<a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, in that respect, Fritz’s work week was
perhaps somewhat shorter than that of an executive chef in a first-class
restaurant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But Fritz’s working day was longer, from 7 AM until 9 PM
(with occasional later duties if Wolfe had clients and others in after
dinner)—14 hours a day in which he would have, at best, 2 hours off between
breakfast and lunch and 3 off between lunch and dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having worked, long ago, the occasional split
shift, I would argue that those 5 hours would not provide much time for
personal activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And for this, let’s assume that the $1,500 per month figure
noted above represented his compensation (adjusted, of course, for changes in
the general level of prices).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In current
terms, this translates to about $15,000 per month, or $180,000 per year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we need to take account of the fact that
his compensation included two major pieces of in-kind pay:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Housing and food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we need to take account of the value he
received from that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">For most of the time, Fritz had a large room in the basement
(let’s call it the equivalent of a studio apartment, or a small one-bedroom
apartment; it’s clearly more space than, for example, Archie had<a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on some speculation about the floor
plans of the brownstone<a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>,
I would put Fritz’s space at about 500 square feet, perhaps 25% to 30% larger
than Archie’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I’m finding<a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
is current rents of about $2,500 per month for that sort of space in midtown
Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the value of his living
space would be about $30,000 per year (that would be taxable income today, and
was, according to the tax code, taxable income then—but it was basically
ignored).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And then there’s the food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Bureau of Labor Statistics<a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
estimates that average household expenditures on food (both at home and away)
in 2014 was about $6,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, that’s
for the entire household.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the
quality of food served in the brownstone would clearly be higher than that of
the average household in the U.S., so I’m going to count the entire amount in
estimating the value of meals-at-home for Fritz--$6,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Again, this would be now, and was then,
taxable income, but it was generally ignored until sometime in the 1990s.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">So my estimate of the value of Fritz’s annual compensation,
including the value of housing and food, would be about $216,000, or about
$18,000 per month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, based on my estimate
of a 50-hour work-week, and assuming that Fritz got 4 weeks of paid vacation,
$90 per hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was Fritz well-paid, or
was he underpaid?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, we know that at the time of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Too Many Cooks</i>, Philip Lazio was making $60,000 per year, and Jerome
Berin was offered as much as $40,000 per year to replace him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In today’s terms, that would be about $1
million per year for Lazio and about $675,000 for Berin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That seems fairly reasonable for world-class
chefs; one estimate<a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
suggests that Mario Batali makes about $3 million a year, and Bobby Flay makes
$1.5 million (for both of them, that includes their earnings from
television).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(At least Lazio and Berin
were being paid close to what one would expect.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">But cooking for 2 people (or 3, counting himself, or 4 if
Theodore eats in the kitchen with Fritz) is not as demanding as running a large
restaurant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So a comparison with private
chefs is perhaps more relevant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A quick
check<a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
suggests that the average annual pay for a private chef in the top 10% of private
chefs in the U.S. is about $150,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So,
as I am rather pleased to discover, it appears that Fritz is being paid what he
deserves—as much as the best and most experienced private chefs in America.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-size: large;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> We knew fairly well a
couple who ran a restaurant in Chicago for about 15 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did not do lunches, but their work day
was generally from about 2 PM until about 11 PM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She ran the kitchen and he ran the front of
the house; she ordered the food and planned the menu and specials; he ordered
all the beverages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She supervised the
kitchen staff; he supervised the table servers, bartenders, and other
front-of-the house personnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
kitchen staff was usually 3-4 line chefs; the front was staffed, on weekends,
with 5 wait staff, 5 bus, 2 bartenders, and 1 hostess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were closed on Sundays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So their typical work week was 54 hours a
week, and that was without lunch service.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="font-size: x-large; mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I will note, though, that
the bedrooms were quite generously sized.</span><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">There were 2 bedrooms on each of the second and third floors, each with
its own bathroom.</span><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Those appear to have
been front-and-back, with a hallway running also front-to-back.</span><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">The first floor had 4 rooms—the front room,
the office, the dining room, and the kitchen; of these, only the front room was
described as small.</span><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">The office could
accommodate a crown of 16 or so in a pinch, and we know—from </span><i style="font-size: x-large; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder By the Book</i><span style="font-size: x-large;">—that the dining room
could seat more than a dozen.</span><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">And Fritz
had, obviously, a fair amount of space to work in.</span><span style="font-size: x-large; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p></div><div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="font-size: x-large; mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> See http://www.nerowolfe.org/htm/tidbits/Brownstone_Floor_Plans.htm.</span></p></div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> http://www.nakedapartments.com/nyc/studio-apartments-manhattan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cesan.nr0.htm">http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cesan.nr0.htm</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="font-size: x-large; mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/08/top-10-celebrity-chef-earners-salary.html">http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/08/top-10-celebrity-chef-earners-salary.html</a></span></p></div><div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><a href="file:///G:/Documents/Documents0714/BookStuff/NeroWolfe/FritzGetsPaid2.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="font-size: x-large;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">[7]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Private_Chef/Salary">http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Private_Chef/Salary</a></span></p></div><div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-51885752877976058452021-08-28T13:03:00.005-07:002021-08-28T13:06:20.948-07:00Rex Stout, Champagne For One<p> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Rex Stout, <i>Chamoagne
For One<br /></i>© Copyright 1958 Rex Stout<br />Bantam reprint 1996</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This is one of my favorite, maybe in my top 10, of Rex Stout’s
Nero Wolfe books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is, however, one
big issue (that I will get to).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Louise Robilloti, re-married after the death of her very
wealthy husband Alfred Grantham, does not exactly carry on with his
philanthropic endeavors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she does
host, annually, a very special dinner. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of his charities was Grantham House, a
home for unmarried, pregnant young women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They receive very good pre-natal and post-natal care, and assistance in
finding work after the event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Archie gets
roped in (by Mrs. Robilloti’s nephew Austin Byne) to serve as a guest—4 unmarried
men, 4 unwed mothers, and 4 members of the family (the Robillotis and Louise’s
2 children, Cecil and Celia Grantham).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Following a lavish dinner, the host, hostess, family members, and guests
adjourn to the ballroom for champagne and dancing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And one of the mothers, Rose Tuttle, decides to tell Archie
that another of the mothers, Faith Usher, has with her a bottle of cyanide, and
Rose is afraid that she plans to use it to end her life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Archie promises to watch over her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, of course, Faith Usher dies of cyanide
poisoning, presumably in a glass of champagne delivered to her by Cecil
Grantham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone (well, almost
everyone) is prepared to accept suicide as a verdict, but Archie is adamant
that Usher did bot drop anything into the glass of champagne, or put anything
into her mouth (except champagne).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he’s
in for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the hosts and guests can’t
just write it off because Archie refuses to accept the conclusion that Usher
committed suicide, and the police are reluctant just to ignore Archie’s
insistence that it was not suicide.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And one of the guests, Edwin Laidlaw (a wealthy, reformed
rake) hires Wolfe to find out what really happened. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has several reasons for seeking Wolfe’s
services, but high on his list is to prevent it coming out that he is the
father of Faith Usher’s child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he
has enough money to make the job worthwhile to Wolfe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, from Archie’s point of view, to prove
that he’s right, that Usher was murdered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Although, initially, it seems likely to be impossible, or next to it,
to prove that it was murder and to identify the murderer</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">One of the reasons I am drawn to this book is that it is, in
my opinion, the best depiction of women in the entire series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the women are largely shown as more or
less dependent in one way or another, only Louise Robilloti is depicted
negatively (and much of that stems from her physical appearance on the one hand
and her snobery on the other).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only
are all four of the young women/mothers depicted in a generally positive way,
Celia </span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;">Grantham is also treated positively.</span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But…as the investigation unfolds, we learn that Faith Usher’s
mother, Elaine Usher, had an affair with Alfred Grantham, and that Faith is one
of the outcomes on that affair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And here
I had a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assuming that someone
has a motive for murder, I have always thought that the more likely subject
would have been Elaine Usher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While it
would, obviously, have been impossible to get Elaine Usher into the dinner
party, she seems to me to have been the most likely murderee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The denouement is handled well, however, and
the discovery of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> the murder was
committed is very well handled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In my opinion, well worth reading—and re-reading.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-32556546645197081452021-07-09T08:58:00.003-07:002021-07-09T08:58:40.034-07:00Raymond Postgate, "Somebody At the Door"<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Just in case you thought I only read books that turn out to be good:</span></span></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3736164288180738559" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7jmok" data-offset-key="66kkm-0-0" style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="66kkm-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Raymond Postgate, "Somebody At the Door"</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7jmok" data-offset-key="8buc4-0-0" style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8buc4-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="8buc4-0-0"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Originally published 1943</span></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7jmok" data-offset-key="16v6m-0-0" style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="16v6m-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="16v6m-0-0"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Reprint in the British Library Crime Classics series2017</span></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7jmok" data-offset-key="5q7am-0-0" style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5q7am-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="5q7am-0-0"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7jmok" data-offset-key="a1voo-0-0" style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a1voo-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="a1voo-0-0"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I have been a fan of the British Library Crime Classic series from its inception; I've bought and read with pleasure a large number of them (20+, I'm estimating). Bit I have begun to wonder whether the series is running out of high quality material.</span></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7jmok" data-offset-key="6p0o4-0-0" style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6p0o4-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="6p0o4-0-0"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br data-text="true" /></span></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7jmok" data-offset-key="7i1jm-0-0" style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="7i1jm-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="7i1jm-0-0"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The last half dozen or so that I've read have been pedestrian at best, and the one I just finished--Raymond Postgate's "Somebody At the Door" (originally published in 1943)--was at best mediocre (starting with the title which actually doesn't even make sense, given the story). There is a 70+ page section (30% of the book) that provides unnecessary--irrelevant, really--backstory, for example. And the ending seems tacked on just to come up with a conclusion. One oft he least rewarding books I have ever read.</span></span></div></div></div>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-85624345008110808432021-06-21T10:58:00.000-07:002021-06-21T10:58:07.230-07:00Rex Stout, Prisoner's Base<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Rex Stout, <i>Prisoner’s
Base<br /></i>Copyright © 1952 Rex Stout<br />Bantam Books reprint 1992<br />ISBN0-553-24269-5</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A young and attractive young woman shows up at Nero Wolfe’s house,
carrying luggage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wolfe is not available—he’s
tending to his orchids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The young woman,
Pricilla Eads (as we late discover when her guardian, Perry Helmar, shows up,
seeking to hire Wolfe to find her) wishes to remain secluded until her 25<sup>th</sup>
birthday has passed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, as we learn from
Helmar when he is seeking to hire Wolfe to(for $10,000—roughly $150,000 in
inflation-adjusted terms), on her 25<sup>th</sup> birthday his guardianship
will terminate and she will come into control of a fortune, including a
majority ownership of a textile design and manufacturing firm (SoftDown).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Wolfe chooses not to reveal her presence in his house, and
persuades Helmar to let him consider whether to take the case until the next
morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then confronts Eads, saying
that she has a choice:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pay him $10,000 keep
her hidden until her 25<sup>th</sup> birthday, or leave the brownstone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should she leave, he tells her, he will call
Helmar the next morning to accept the job he has been offered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(He also points out that all she has to do is
go home and phone Helmar.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">She leaves, and is found the next morning in her apartment,
dead—strangled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And her long-time maid,
Margaret Fomos (who does not live in) has been found, also strangled, with her
key to Eads’ apartment missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not
hard to reach the conclusion that Fomos was killed ti get the key, and that the
same person has killed them both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Archie
tries to convince Wolfe to investigate the Eads’ murder; Wolfe refuses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Archie takes it upon himself to find the
killer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Complications ensue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Archie crashes a board of directors meeting (identifying himself as a
detective); before he has accomplished much, the cops show up and arrest him of
a charge of impersonating a police officer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After some back-and-forth, Archie overhears Wolfe—who was also arrested—describing
the events to the police higher-ups, and announces that he does have a client—Archie
Goodwin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like it or not, Wolfe will
investigate the murders.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">One of the complications has to do with Eads’ marriage, to
Eric Hagh, several years earlier, in Caracas, Venezuela.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has apparently signed an agreement to
share equally any assets she inherits with Hagh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which means millions, as of her 25<sup>th</sup>
birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Hagh has hired a lawyer
who has informed Helmar that 50% of Eads’ SoftDown stock should be, as of her
25<sup>th</sup> birthday, when she formally inherits it, should be transferred
to him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So we have a tangle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
there is one of Stout’s best-ever scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wolfe manages to Helmar get the four highest executives of SoftDown to
come to his office to discuss the situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He asks them to—no, let me quote Wolfe:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I say to you…there is a
suspicion current that you had something to do with the murder of Pricilla Eads,
and also of Margaret Fomos, and even that you may have actually committed those
crimes with your own hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What have
you to say to remove or discredit that suspicion?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The responses of three of the four executives (Jay Brucker,
president; Viola Duday, assistant secretary to the corporation; Oliver Pitkin,
corporate treasurer; and Bernard Quest, VP) are among the best set pieces I
have ever read in a mystery novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Only
Brucker’s is uninteresting.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And all
four of their “voices are distinct and captivating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are at the very least among the best
conceived characters in any of the books.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Saul Panzer also plays a pivotal role in identifying the
murderer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As is generally the case with
the continuing PI characters (excluding Archie) in the saga, we hear what Saul
has discovered, but we don’t see or hear him actually doing the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’ll admit to wishing that Stoup had gotten
around to writing a book about Saul as a detective.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The narrative (the plot, if you will) is among the best
Stout ever wrote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people involved in
this particular situation are well, eve, brilliantly conceived and presented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the best conceived and presented cast of
characters, I think, in the entire body of work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The events leading up to the murders, and the
detective work leading to the climax, are as good as anything Stout ever
wrote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not the book that has moved
me most (that would be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Family Affair</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not the book that deals with the
weightiest issued (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Doorbell Rang</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is very nearly the best thing Stout
wrote.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-69232571633454100692021-06-17T11:46:00.001-07:002021-06-17T11:57:01.938-07:00Rex Stout, Too Many Clients<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Rex Stout, <i>Too Many
Clients<br /></i></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;">© Copyright 1960 (and probably renewed by the Estate of Rex Stout)<br /></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;">Bantam Books reprint 1994<br /></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;">ISBN 0-553-25423-5<br /><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I’ve read <i>Too Many
Clients </i>many times, and have written about it more tan once. Having just re-read it, I feel obliged (to
myself; everyone else in the world should feel free to ignore this) to write
about it again. So here I go.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Thomas Yeager, (one of?) the VPs of the Continental Plastics
corporation has been murdered, his body found underneath a tarp at street
construction site, n a relatively undesirable part of Manhattan. Wolfe winds up with three clients: The Perez family (property managers living in
the basement apartment of a residential building near the where the body was
found); Yeager’s wife (who knew about his extramarital activities); and the
corporation at which Yeager had worked.
The first discovery is that Yeager had owned the building in which the
Perez family lived and worked. He had
constructed, on the top floor, what can best be described as the setting for
serial extramarital activities. (There’s
some evidence that the activities involved Yeager and a fairly large number of
women,) Keep in mind that this is in
what would generally be referred to as a slum.
And Yeager was killed there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Wolfe and Goodwin manage to discover the murderer. But what I want to discuss is something
entirely different.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Yeager, one would think, would be at pains to keep both the
place and the activities. But consider: The top floor had to be essentially rebuilt
(walls removed; windows as well; an expensive, unpickable lock installed on the
basement level. And an expensive elevator
with only 2 stops—the basement and the bower.
Leave aside the cost. This would
have taken a fair amount of time and a fairly large number of constructions. The residents of the building, and of the
surrounding neighborhood, might not know exactly what was being done. But they would certainly know that something
was in the works. This would certainly
attract the attention of the residents and, I would think, of the neighborhood
as a whole. They would wonder who had
done this, and why. They would be
curious about the people entering and leaving.
So it is likely that people would be watching, and, if any of t hem had
cameras (Kodak Brownies were relatively cheap, it’s likely that someone would
be taking photos. One source (<a href="https://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Kodak-Eastman/Brownie-Flashmite-20.html">Kodak
Eastman: Brownie Flashmite 20 Price Guide: estimate a camera value
(collectiblend.com)</a>) puts the price at $15 in the early 1950s, so maybe not
so cheap. But, still, it only takes one…)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now, to be sure, Yeager might not have been all that
concerned about people in the neighborhood knowing something was going on, or
even the highly likely knowledge about what was going on. And the women who made the trip to this
apartment building in a slum might not have felt all that insecure (although I
would suspect that they would have called for a cab prior to leaving, rather
than hailing a cab at the curb.) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">After the Yeager’s murder, things might have changed. His picture would have appeared in the
papers. Some people in the neighborhood might
have recognized this visitor (Yeager).
While most of Yeager’s guests would be anonymous, at least one (Meg
Duncan, a well-known actress) might well have been noticed and identified by
someone. Among those recognizing Yeager
as the murdered man, someone would likely have called the police. And then everything would have played out
differently. The police would have
discovered Yeager’s ownership of the building, and of the nature of the top
floor (and, by the way, how is it that Sgt. Stebbins managed to overlook the presence
of an elevator?). Yet there is not even
a suggestion that anyone in the neighborhood noticed or cared. No suggestion that any of the residents—except
the Perez family, and Stebbins came to see them because their daughter had been
murdered, not because the bower was discovered—had even been asked if they had
seen the body being dumped in the hole. (I
would have thought that canvassing the neighborhood would have been automatic
in any event, in an effort to determine if anyone had seen Yeager’s body being
dumped.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">A secondary issue is the choice of a slum to begin with, so
I’m going to touch on that as well.
Yeager bought the entire building (if memory serves, a 3 or 4 story building, likely with 4 apartments
to a floor, so probably 12 apartments (excluding the Perez family’s quarters in
the basement). Yeager’s alternative, it
seems to me, would have been to purchase a single co-op (or condo) unit and
have it remodeled to suit his needs. I
can’t believe that such a choice would have been more expensive than buying an
entire apartment building and remodeling as we know it was. Furthermore, his guests would not face the
same (perhaps small) risks to their personal safety were they to visit him in a
mid-town residence (even buying a small single family house in the Village
couldn’t have been that much more expensive, even if it needed to be
remodeled). Remodeling a co-op unit
wouldn’t attract as much attention as would remodeling a unit in a slum. The attention that might be paid to his
visitors would also probably not have attracted as much neighborhood attention. So the risk associated with the slum location
must, for Yeager, and possibly for his guests as well, have been part of the
attraction. To me, that seems to be a
stretch, but I still always find myself why selecting a more obviously unusual
site is something that Yeager would have chosen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I have two additional bones to pick, about the motive of the
murderer and about Archie’s reaction to the fate of Dinah Hough, but I’ll leave
that for another day. And that
discussion will involve revealing the identity of the murderer, and the murder’s
motive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Having said all that,
I will say that, if one accepts the premise, both Goodwin’s actions (with one
exception) and Wolfe’s deductions make <i>Too
Many Clients</i> a fairly compelling read.</span></span>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-13854013275003415752021-06-03T18:38:00.002-07:002021-06-03T18:38:34.946-07:00Josh Pachter (ed.), The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Josh Pachter (ed.), <i>The
Misadventures of Nero Wolfe<br /></i>Copyright © 202 Rex Stout Literary
Properties<br />Open Road Integrated Media<br />ISBN 978-1504-059-862</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I have found that, generally, compilations like this tend to
be disappointing, either because the concept doesn’t work or because the
individual stories don’t measure up. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And,
being something of a Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe devotee, I was inclined to be skeptical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, I am happy to be able to say, this was,
as Mr. Wolfe would have said, satisfactory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The book is divided into four sections:<br />
“Tribute in Triplicate: Introductions” (3 introductions)<br />
“Part I: Pastiches” (6 shorter pieces in which Wolfe appears explicitly or implicitly
as a character))<br />
“Part II: Parodies” (7 longer pieces whose main characters are more-or-less
homages to Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe)<br />
“Part III: Potpourri” (5 shorter, unclassifiable pieces)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Speaking solely for myself, I found the stories in Part II
to be the most interesting and best realized, with the material in Parts I and
III being interesting and readable, but not as interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I’m going to focus mostly on Part II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The seven parodies are, as I have already suggested, really
homages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all seven, there is a
detective whose adventure is chronicled by his employee/assistant in the
detective business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In several of them,
Wolfe (and Archie) are off-stage presences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of the seven, a few really stand out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For example, “The Case of the Disposable Jalop, (by Mack Reynolds)” in
which three scientists (Clarke, Aldiss, and Brunner—and if you have read much
SF, you’ll know where those guys came from)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>need is assistance in recovering a rather remarkable motor vehicle in a
world that reminded me of Frederik Pohl’s story “The Midas Plague.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a world in which work as we know it<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>has more-or-less been eliminated, but greed
continues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want to hire him to find
yet another scientist, named Azimov and another guy named Asimov(hint, hint).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And a secretary named Mata Hari Le Guin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And there’s Lawrence Block’s story of a Christmas party (“As
Dark As Christmas Gets)” in Wolfe is hired to recover a stolen manuscript
written by Cornell Wolrich that appears to have been stolen from a mystery bookstore
in Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our narrator is Chip
Harrison, and our detective is Leo Haig (formerly a breeder of tropical fish
for a living, but, as a result of a large legacy, a detective—who wants to be
so successful that Wolfe invites him to dinner).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(They also appear in novels by Block)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course you know exactly which mystery
bookstore in Manhattan this is based on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Right?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Loren Estleman’s contribution features Claudius Lyon
(chronicled by a small-time con man trying to go straight, Arnie Woodbine),a
detective (unlicensed) who works for free, to avoid having to get a license.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lyon is “hired” to find a past winner (Noah
Ward) of a prestigious poetry award, in order to be able to include the poet’s
prize-winning poem in an anthology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the course of things, they run afoul of one of the nastier members of the NYPD’s
finest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The solution is what one might
call poetic justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Or maybe not.()<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Dave Zeltserman [who is, for some reason, not indexed on
SYKM, but can be found at a Wikipedia entry (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Zeltserman">Dave Zeltserman -
Wikipedia</a>)] has written a series of stories featuring a wealthy sometime PI
named Julius Katz and his virtual assistant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is considerably darker (and with higher stakes) than the others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Katz is in imminent danger of being killed,
as his Boston townhouse has been bombed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And that is aa consequence of his being paid being paid a $20 K retained
by the dog food king, Allen Luther.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone
is apparently trying to kill him, and he wants Katz to make sure that, should
he be killed, the perp is caught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Michael Bracken presents us with what might be termed the
last days of his take on the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>duo in “The
Possibly Last Case of Tiberius Dingo.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dingo is old, in failing health (the office has been turned into a
bedroom), and, basically, waiting to die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His aging assistant (Jughead, which is a nice touch) has arranged for
Ruth Entemann to seem Dingo (he declines to take her case (she thinks she’s
being stalked, but Jughead has his ways).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dingo winds up in the hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jughead
pursues the stalking case, and something in Ruth Entemann’s past seems to be
involved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The final section had, for me, somewhat less interest—except
for Robert Lopresti’s take on what it might have been like to live next door to
Wolfe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What with one thing (machine gunners
destroying the greenhouse) and another (J. Edgar Hoover turning up at the wrong
brownstone), I could see that Wolfe might be less than the perfect neighbor,
even if it could also lead to Interesting times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I enjoyed this book a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I think that any fan of Nero Wolfe (or Archie Goodwin) would also.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-78333575470384399892021-05-13T18:23:00.005-07:002021-05-13T18:23:52.227-07:0013 May 2021<p><span style="font-size: large;">As sunset draws near,<br />I look up and see a tree<br />Beginning to bud</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">13 May 2021</span></p></blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhen56oRsciyfDSKF9D4Lgw3wXLipSCWR8CntpvCKvGg_apfVtAUSlugbRTKilTsKysHlk9p6C7sFdxwlSvVnG8reWvqs2gAHl55khhmT3GLW1nC-NeVZOBwrgsLIns-9gHoxLMv5PuspyU/s2048/TreetopBMay012021Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhen56oRsciyfDSKF9D4Lgw3wXLipSCWR8CntpvCKvGg_apfVtAUSlugbRTKilTsKysHlk9p6C7sFdxwlSvVnG8reWvqs2gAHl55khhmT3GLW1nC-NeVZOBwrgsLIns-9gHoxLMv5PuspyU/s320/TreetopBMay012021Small.jpg" width="320" /></a></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p></blockquote><p></p></blockquote>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-51692043987085203872021-05-10T18:06:00.005-07:002021-05-10T18:06:36.889-07:00Mark Kurlansky, Ready for a Brand New Beat<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Mark Kurlansky. <i>Ready
for a Brand Ne Beat: How “Dancing in the Street” became the Anthem for a
Changing America<br /></i>Copyright © 2031 M rk Kurlansky<br /> Riverhead Books/Penguin Books<br />ISBN 978-59448-722-4</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I finished reading Mark Kurlansky’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ready for a Brand New Beat</i>, his attempt to convince us (and,
perhaps,, himself)of the cultural <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i>
political importance of a pop-rock song, “Dancing in the Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Composed by a team of Motown songwriters
(Marvin Gays, Willian “Mickey” Stevenson, and Ivy Jo Hunter) and initially
released by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Clocking in at 2:46, it peaked at #4 on the pop charts and was #17 on
the 1964 year-end rankings according to Billboard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking at the 1964 year-end list, I think
there is a case to be made for it (although I personally would pick The
Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk,” which Billboard has at #20.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It’s clearly a better song than any of the
top 100 from 1963, although Sam Cooke’s “It’s Another Saturday Night” is terrific.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d put two songs from 1965 ahead of it-The
Rolling Stones, “Satisfaction (#3 for the year) and Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling
Stone” (#41). Still, “Dancing in the Street” is a remarkable song and deserves
the praise it gets. <br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1964">Billboard
Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1964 - Wikipedia</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdvITn5cAVc">Martha & The
Vandellas "Dancing in the Streets" - YouTube</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1963">Billboard
Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1963 - Wikipedia</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O8m0mMDpHw">Sam Cooke - Another
Saturday Night (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube</a><br />
<br />
<br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1965">Billboard
Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1965 - Wikipedia</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSSxnv1_J2g">[I Can't Get No]
Satisfaction - YouTube</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwOfCgkyEj0">Bob Dylan - Like a
Rolling Stone (Audio) - YouTube</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But Kurlansky wants to do much more than assert the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">musical </i>merits of “Dancing in the
Street.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His thesis is that “Dancing…” is
much more than a great rock song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is,
he argues, a song whose origins (consciously or not) come out of the political
and civic unrest that marked the summer of 1964 and that it continued to
resonate in the summers that follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An
important part of this part of the story is white flight generally and the very
real destruction of Detroit as a major American city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also, I think, wants to make a case for
the importance of Motown (and by extension Berry Gordy) in changing the musical
world and providing the soundtrack to the social and political changes that
became clear in 1964 and shaped a narrative that helped define the ‘60s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Detroit got its nickname (The Motor City) because the growth
of the population, and the wealth (largely of whites) were driven by the
automobile industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IN 1880, the population
of Detroit was about 116,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It nearly
triples—to 285,000—in 1900, nearly doubled between 1900 and 1910, doubled again
by 1920 (now over 900,000), and, although the city’s growth slowed, it doubled
again by 1950 (reaching 1,8 million,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>.That,
again, is the city of Detroit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
1950, the city has shrunk,, almost as fast as it grew; the 2020 Census puts the
city’s population at 670,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Detroit metropolitan area has continued to grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 3 million (about 1.1 million outside the
city limits) in 1950 (the earliest official data), it’s now at 5.3 million (about
4.6 million outside the city limits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
city is majority Black, while the suburbs are mostly white.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br />Kurlansky doesn’t treat this population changes in much
detail, although he does sketch the outlines.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Motown story is actually pretty amazing on its own,
without any of the political weight that Kurlansky adds to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The incredible blossoming of talent, and the
ability of that talent to break out of being only a niche of the music business—the
breakthrough of Black music and performers into the pop charts is an important
story, and he tells it well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And telling
it requires making it clear that Gordy made household names out of an
extraordinary group of talented men and women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here, he makes it clear than Gordy did not treat his talent very well,
leaving some of the most talented basically in poverty while he got rich (at
least for a while).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br />But Kurlansky wants to do much more than tell the story of
Motown and the story of a song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wants
to convince us that the song was a catalyst for the rise of a political
movement—a galvanizing force behind at least part of the civil rights
movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially of the Freedom
Rides and the struggle to force states in the south to allow Blacks to register
and vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The outlines of the events
themselves are pretty well handled, and, if that part of the struggle obviously
continues (with 30or more states now trying to make voter registration and
actual voting harder—and not just in the south).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think he makes his case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The argument is that “Dancing in the Street”
was heard as (whether it was intended to be heard this way is a much harder
case) a call to activism, even to violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That “dancing in the street” was not—was not thought to be by political
activists in 1964 and later to be a nice dance song, but was, indeed, a call to
revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He cites a few activists who
claim (if only in hindsight) to see it that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it reads as a stretch, not as an evident
truth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The strangest part of the book is his discussion of the huge
number of recorded versions of the song (including, somewhat weirdly, David
Bowie and Mick Jagger doing a duet).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think he’s trying to make a claim for the continued vitality of the song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it has been covered and recorded over and
over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Including a number of weird
attempts (the Mamas and Papas?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
recommend it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Van Halen?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t recommend that either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Grateful Dead?).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t find even an estimate of the number
of recorded versions, but it seems to be in the hundreds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I was absorbed by the book, even as I argued with it
frequently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Dancing in the Street” is a
seminal achievement in rock literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bu in the end it’s just a great song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It did not change the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
did not even, really, change the music business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It probably did not make the singers and
players rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it was an important
moment for Motown, making the label ubiquitous and helping to make Berry Gordy
rich.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-76568859381346261542021-04-17T12:22:00.002-07:002021-04-17T12:23:43.580-07:00Dolores Gordon-Smith, As If By Magic<p><span style="font-size: large;"> Dolores Gordon-Smith, <i>As
If By Magic<br /></i>Copyright © 2009<br />Constable & Robinson Ltd.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The 3rd of (so far) 10 mysteries featuring Jack Haldean,
who, following his service in the Great War, is making a (surprisingly good)
living as a writer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He becomes involved
in actual mysteries, working with his friend Chief Detective Inspector Bill
Rackham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this case, George Lassiter,
whom Haldean met during the War, is the catalyst for his involvement.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Lassiter has come to England to find out what has happened
to a legacy he should have received—but appears to have been stolen. Broke, suffering from malnutrition and recurrent
bouts of malaria and shell-shock, he breaks into a home after watching the
servants leave to see a play. And he
falls asleep/passes out in the warmth of the kitchen. He awakens, but, hearing voiced, he hides
until he can leave without being discovered.
As he prepares to leave, he sees a young woman on the floor of the
kitchen—apparently dead. As he hurries
out of the house, he encounters the police, tries to convince them that there’s
a death in the house. But there is no
body.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">And, instead of arresting him, he winds up in the hospital,
suffering from malnutrition and malaria and (so they thing) hallucinations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is released into the custody of Haldean
until he has recovered sufficiently to be on his own.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The home he invaded is, as it turns out, owned by his
grandfather and occupied by the old man, two of his sons, and the widow of a
third son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family is involved in the
nascent airplane business, and is in the process of building a large plane
capable of long distance fights (the project is building up to a flight (not
non-stop) to India,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also involved in the
business—indeed, its chief executive, is Alexander Culverton, who has
disappeared—until reappearing as a corpse in the Thames.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rackham is on the case (which he thinks might
be linked to a series of “Jack the Ripper” slayings of young women, also found
in the Thames.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Rackham makes little progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And much of the narrative revolves around preparations
for the test flight of the airplane (aeroplane?), including a lavish dinner and
test flight for the press.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Rackham
deals with both the “Ripper” killings and Culverton’s death, Haldean’s role is
to keep George out of trouble, while trying to do his own writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is, unsurprisingly, swept into the investigations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The story moves briskly enough, but I found myself less
interested than I had expected to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The theft of George’s legacy is resolved, and in a not very startling
coincidence, ties into the machinations over control of the airplane business. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lengthy “adventure” sequence that ties a
number of things up seemed to me to be unnecessary, and, essentially, an excuse
for the inclusion of some not very interesting sex scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And hypnotism plays a significant role in the
denouement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than anything else,
reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As If By Magic </i>reminded me
why I had not picked it up before (I have also read, some years ago, the first
two books in the series).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-68778686601559723872021-04-04T18:05:00.003-07:002021-04-04T18:05:35.997-07:00Iain Pears, Death and Restoration<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> Iain Pears, <i>Death and
Restoration<br /></i>Copyright © 1996 Iain Pears<br />Berkley Prime Crime Books (reprint)<br />ISBN0-425-19042-0</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I’ve been re-reading, and in some cases reading for the
first time, Iain Pears’ series of art world mysteries, of which there are, regrettably,
only seven (<a href="http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/P_Authors/Pears_Iain.html">Iain Pears
(stopyourekillingme.com)</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have, I
think, only two more to read:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Last Judgment</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Immaculate Deception</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are three principal characters:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jonathon Argyll, an art historian and
occasional dealer; Flavia Di Stefano, an officer in Rome’s art crimes division;
and Taddeo Bottano, the head of the art squad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bottano has only a fleeting role in this story, as he is involved in the
possible creation of a continent-wide art theft bureau (Di Stefano is the
acting head of the Rome operation).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This is, I think, the longest of these art mysteries, and
perhaps the best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Early one morning, one of the priests of the monastery San
Giovanni has been assaulted and a 15<sup>th</sup> century icon has vanished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Di Stefano, in place of Bottano, has to deal
with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, as old icons are a hot
item on the art market (licit and illicit), this icon could have great monetary
value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It already has great religious
significance to many of the people in the area, who view the icon (of St. Teresa
and the baby Jesus) as the protector of their part of Rome.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And, recently arrived from England, is Mary Verney, whom
Argyll and Di Stefano encountered in an earlier adventure set in the English
countryside (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Giotto’s Hand</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Verny has something of a checkered past, and
her presence in Rome poses some issues for Di Stefano.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I I must not overlook the organized crime
family from Greece, the Charanis clan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Argyll has given up his “career” as a dealer and has become an academic,
teaching art history to a class of less than enthusiastic students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he and Di Stefano have too little time
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I should not overlook the
art scholar and restoration guy, Dan Menzies, who is restoring some works at
San Giovanni, and becomes enmeshed with the theft and recovery of the icon/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Early on, an art dealer (whose business ethics might be all
they should be) is murdered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Verney’s
granddaughter has been kidnapped, and she is being coerced into stealing the
icon from San Giovanni.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The monastery
faces a financial (and spiritual) crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Di Stefano feels over-worked and perhaps in over her head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Argyll takes on the task of tracing (with the
assistance of an elderly monk whose mental state is unsteady) the history of
the icon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rome itself is a character,
focusing mostly—not exclusively--on the neighborhood around the monastery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[I have spent some time in Rome, mostly not
in the lower income parts of the city; it is my favorite city, and, if I spoke
Italian—and had a somewhat larger income (the cost of living in Rome is, well,
maybe less than New York, but not by much), I think we’d be living there.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I love the characters, and I love the setting,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Pears’ ability to weave contemporary Rome
with the collapse of the Constantinople is a key element of what happened in
the 15<sup>th</sup> century and what has just happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-21466828797141572712021-03-01T18:39:00.003-08:002021-03-01T18:46:01.148-08:00Walter Mosley, Blood Grove<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Walter Mosley, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blood
Grove</i><br />
Copyright © 2021 The Thing Itself, Inc.<br />
Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company<br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">ISBN978-0-316-</span><span style="font-family: times;">49118-1</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Ezekiel (Easy) Rawlins is, in 1969, a success, running his
own investigations firm (with a handful of employees), driving in a Rolls Royce
(not his but collateral for payment), and with a teenage step-daughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it happens, everyone else in the agency is
out of the office when Craig Killian, a veteran of the war in Viet Nam and suffering
the after-effects of his time there, comes in, to ask for Rawlins’ help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s afraid that he may have killed a man in
a blood orange grove and he needs to know. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rawlins, who had served in World War II, in
the ETO, and who knows what traumas can linger, takes the case.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Rawlins narrates the events, from what might be years after
the events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is a complicated
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to this
investigation, he’s responsible for his adopted teenage daughter Feather, and
has to cope with her (early 20s uncle Milo showing up).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s not the end of the complications,
which include the LAPD (which does not come off well—and, from everything I
have read about the LAPD in the 1960s and later, is deserved).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And “complicated” is perhaps an understatement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cast of characters is large and varied,
and Mosley handles it well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
investigation itself—which turns out to involve an armored-car heist (and, it
seems, the murder of the guards) of something around a half a million dollars
(about $4 million, these days, adjusted for inflation).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His client dies, but he feels an obligation
to continue the investigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is
threatened by a…well, I guess psychotic mob boss is perhaps the best
description, for one thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even
finding a thread to begin his investigation seems all but impossible.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Maybe not a masterpiece, but a book I found hard to put
down, and people who will, for good or evil, remain in my memory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This pretty well sums things up:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Every now and then I think that the closest
I ever came to death was at the hands of that woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was a nearly perfect predator in a world
that scared the shit out of me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-68892363821383128902021-01-05T12:02:00.006-08:002021-01-05T12:02:47.892-08:00Rex Stout, Too Many Women (not for the first time)<p> <span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">Rex Stout, </span><i>Too Many Women<br /></i><span style="background-color: white;">© 1947 Estate of Rex Stout<br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">ASIN
: B004SOQ0A8Some</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #111111; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Rex Stout is
without question my favorite writer of mysteries; I have read all of the novels
and novellas multiple times, and, with few exceptions, find re-reading them a
pleasurable experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some months ago
I began a chronological re-reading of the novels, and have reached, and read, the
8<sup>th</sup> novel in the series, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Too
Many Women</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basic plot is perfectly
acceptable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I always find the
treatment of many of the characters difficult at best for a modern audience; I
would not be surprised if it was also difficult for many readers on its initial
publication (in 1947<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #111111; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">An employee (Waldo Moore) of a civil engineering company (Naylor-
Kerr, Inc.) has been killed (nearly four months prior to Wolfe’s becoming
involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wolfe is hired by the firm’s
president, Jasper Pine, to investigate an allegation that Moore was murdered,
not simply killed in a hit-and-rum auto accident, because rumors that it was
murder are rampant and are disrupting the corporation.(Left unsaid is the
implication that his murder, if such it was, is somehow related to his
employment.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to pursue the
investigation, Archie Goodwin is “hired,” as a personnel expert, to look into the
corporation’s excessive turnover rate, especially among the clerical
workforce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Pine, Moore’s
presence—he seems to be extremely attractive to the women in the place
(although Archie’s description of him does not help the reader understand why
that should be the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is there
using an alias (Peter Truett).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Archie seems inordinately struck by the physical
attractiveness of the clerical staff (especially three of them, Rosa Bendini,
Gwen Ferris, and Hester Livsey (who had been engaged to marry Moore).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he also learns fairly quickly that Moore
was disliked by many of the professional staff and considered redundant by his
supervisor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also has to cope with Mr.
Kerr Naylor (the son of one of the firm’s founders and named for the other—and the
source of the murder allegation) and Jasper Pine’s wife Cecily (sister of Kerr
Naylor).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, much of his
investigation seems to consist of dining and dancing with two of the women (Bendini
and Ferris).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">And the investigation seems to be getting nowhere, until
Kerr Naylor tells Archie, in circumstances that preclude his following it up,
that, in addition to knowing that Moore was murdered, he knows who the murderer
is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An additional complication is that
Cecily Pine is (as she is referred to in the book) a “chronic befriender” of
young men, and that Moore, after his stint as a befriendee has ended, gets
hired by the firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has, as we learn,
a motive for this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things heat up when
there is a second death, obviously murder, and in a fashion that makes it clear
that Moore’s death was emphatically not an accident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The conclusion is not exactly surprising, and “justice,” of
a sort, prevails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is, however, an
instance of it being extremely unlikely that anyone could be convicted of the
murders, given what we know and the police would be able to prove.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So why do I find the book so difficult?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the first time I read it—in the early
1970s (this was not an easy book to find, even in libraries, then, and it has
remained hard to find since)…Well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let
me put it this way:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Archie’s attitude
toward and behavior with the three women at Naylor-Kerr with whom Archie
becomes involved is barely short of deplorable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He presents them to us basically as sex objects, beings in whom he can
only be interested because they arouse him sexually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he treats them, essentially, that way,
and none of them seem to mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
result, this is the book I have read least often of any of them (although there
is another one…but I’ll get to that in a couple of months).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my opinion—and a lot of people do disagree
with me—the one glaring weakness in Stout’s writing is his attitude toward the
women in his books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is the book
in which that attitude is most clearly on display.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886244405164567070.post-8478410836948178452021-01-01T19:10:00.006-08:002021-01-01T19:10:55.735-08:00Marbury v. Madison and Stuart V Laird<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Cliff Sloan and David
McKean, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Decision: Jefferson,
Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court</i><br />
Copyright © Cliff Sloan and David McKean 2019<br />
Public Affairs/Perseus Books<br />
ISBN 9-781-586-4842-262<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I have finished <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams,
Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court</i>, which focuses on the
lead-up to the decision by the Supreme Court in the case of Marbury v. Madison
(the Madison in question was James Madison) and its aftermath. Theauthors case
is this (at least as I read it):<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Congress enacts laws.
The presumption is that those laws are both Constitutional and good policy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The President either
signs into law or vetoes legislation passed by Congress. The presumption is
that legislation signed into law is both Constitutional and good policy. If the
President vetoes legislation passed be Congress, the President is asserting
that the legislation is EITHER un-Constitutional, OR bad policy, or both. The
veto message should make clear which.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Congress may vote to
override the veto (which requires a supermajority), which is telling the
President, again, that the legislation is both Constitutional and good policy.
And it becomes law. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Note that, at least
formally, Congress has the ultimate power.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;">There is nothing in the Constitution explicitly assigning any
regarding the legitimacy of laws—constitutional? unconstitutional?)--role to
the Supreme Court.</span></i><span style="color: #050505;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">But, in what was in
reality a very minor legal issue--M<i>arbury v. Madison</i>, the Court concluded that
a law governing appointments to executive branch offices <i>violated the
Constitution and the law was therefore void</i>. (The case involved appointments
of four men to the position of justices of the peace.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">(Just to be clear, this
is my understanding of what I have read so far. As I reach the end, I have to retract much of that comment on the power of the Court of that. What the Court did was make explicit that the laws of the United States apply to the president as much as they do to the rest of us. It's still the case tha <i>Marbury v. Madison</i> was a relatively minor matter.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Now I first knew
anything about Marbury v. Madison was probably in U.S. history in high school.
But the underlying issue as never actually mentioned, nor was the controversy
over the Constitutional action of the Court. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This sort of stuff
keeps me awake at night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The book, by the way,
takes its time getting around to the legal issues. More than the first half of
the book is introducing the characters and providing background. (Which gets us
to p. 103 of 191, at which point the Court has rendered its decision.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So what is the background, and what can we
conclude about a Supreme Court decision that has, for over 200 years, been seen
as one of the defining moments in U.S, Constitutional jurisprudence and
history?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This is, actually, the story of two cases, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marbury v. Madison</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stuart v. Laird</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">At issue in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marbury v.
Madison</i> was the question of whether, and to what extent, the President is
bound by the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The background,
briefly, is this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Adams has been
defeated for re-election (in 1800), and Thomas Jefferson is to be inaugurate on
4 March 1801.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This leaves a fairly large
gap between the election and the transfer of presidential authority to the
incoming President.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adams took advantage
of this time lag to appoint scores of people to positions which it was the president’s
responsibility to fill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The making of
these appointments continued until lite in the night of 3 March.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among the appointments were a number of
appointments to the position of justice of the peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of those appointees was William Marbury
(the other three men who were to receive appointments somehow have had their
names dropped from history).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were,
essentially four steps to the appointment:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The president makes the appointment; the appointment is confirmed by the
Senate; the president signs the appointment and affixes the Great Seal of the
United States; and the letter of appointment (signed and sealed) is delivered
to the appointee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adams completed the
first three of these steps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James
Madison (as Secretary oi State, and acting on Jefferson’s instructions) did not
deliver the appointment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marbury filed
an action (a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">writ of mandamus</i>) with
the Supreme Court to compel the delivery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The case was finally argued and a decision rendered more than two years
later.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">(A writ of mandamus is a court order requiring that a
specific action be taken—in this case, the delivery of Marbury’s appointment,)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The second case, also argued and decided in1803, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stuart v. Laird</i>, arose from the
controversy surrounding the enactment in 1801 and the repeal in 1803 of the
Judiciary Act of 1801.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(A good enough
discussion is here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_v._Laird">Stuart
v. Laird - Wikipedia</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Briefly, the
Act created a number of new judgeships (which Adams filled as promptly as he
could before Jefferson was inaugurated) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i>
allowed the Justices of the Supreme Court to cease “circuit riding.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When, in 1803, Congress repealed the Judiciary
Act of 1801, it abolished those juddgeships and required tha the Justices
resume circuit riding (which they all loathed, unsurprisingly).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stuart</i>,
who had been appointed to one of the new positions, filed suit asking that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">repeal</i> be set aside, because federal
judgeships conferred lifetime appointments, that repealing the act and allowing
the cancellation of the judgeships unconstitutionally deprived the
newly-appointed judges of positions to which they had been lawfully appointed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">So, what happened?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marbury v. Madison</i>,
the Court agreed that the letter of appointment was illegally withheld (i.e.,
that the President of the United States was subject to the laws of the United
States) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">but</i> that Marbury had erred by
bringing an action directly to the Supreme Court rather than to the Federal
district court which would have jurisdiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Simply, the Court dismissed Marbury’s action—and it was, apparently,
never refined in a federal district court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But Marshall, in his decision made it quite clear that the president had
violated the law, that the law was constitutional, and, had Marbury’s case been
brought as an appeal from a district court, the Supreme Court would have sided
with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Court did not directly a
constitutional issue, but made it clear that the president is as much a subject
under the law as anyone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In short, the president is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> above the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, as a
side issue, the Supreme Court indicated that (despite there being no explicit
language in the Constitution saying so) that the Curt was an equal partner
(with the Congress and the President) in determining what is and is not
constitutional.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stuart v.</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Laird</i>, the Court ruled that, as the
Constitution gave Congress the power to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">create</i>
judicial positions (including, as had already happed, changing the number of
Justices on the Supreme Court, as stated in Article III, Section 1:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .3in; margin-top: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .3in; margin-top: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">The judicial Power of the United
States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as
the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of
the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good
Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a
Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: .3in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">(Interestingly, the Constitution does not explicitly say the
appointments are lifetime; that is an inference from there being no fixed term
of service stated.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">What the Court made clear was that, if Congress could <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">create</i> judgeships, it could also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">eliminate =</i> them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, if the judgeship was eliminated, there
was no explicit or implicit grant of continued employment for judges whose
positions might be eliminated—no judgeship, no <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right</i> to a position (or salary).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Again, but implicitly, the Court was claiming the right ti interpret the
Constitution, and, in fact, that its interpretation was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">binding </i>on the other two branches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Also, by making clear the authority of Congress both to create and to
eliminate judgeships, it also made clear that Congress, which had eliminated circuit-riding
in the 1801 Actt could, and did, in repealing the act, reinstate circuit-riding
as a part of the Justices’ job.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">I think the authors were right in linking these two
cases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By addressing these issues pretty
much simultaneously, the Court made a fairly expansive assertion of authority,
an authority that has not been challenged seriously since.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Don Coffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07198988872512792834noreply@blogger.com0