#philip kerr

[justforbooks]

Δεν είναι τυχαίο ότι ο Φίλιπ Κερ, που έφυγε πρόωρα από τη ζωή, έχει φανατικούς αναγνώστες που διαβάζουν τα βιβλία του ξανά και ξανά, προσπαθώντας να καταλάβουν τι είναι αυτό που συνδέει τις πιο αλλόκοτες καθημερινές ιστορίες με την πιο σκοτεινή ιστορική πραγματικότητα. Οι μεγάλοι πόλεμοι που συγκλόνισαν τον κόσμο, η Γερμανία του Χίτλερ, τα παράνομα κυκλώματα που έθρεψαν τον ακροδεξιό υπόκοσμο, η βιτρίνα της διπλωματίας και των διεθνών οργανώσεων, ακόμα και του ποδοσφαίρου, όλα φάνηκαν να μπαίνουν με τρόπο μοναδικό στο μικροσκόπιο του Σκοτσέζου συγγραφέα, που στήνει υποδειγματικά το ιστορικό φόντο στο οποίο κινούνται και από το οποίο καθορίζονται οι πρωταγωνιστές του.

Ο πιο γνωστός είναι ο θρυλικός Μπέρνι Γκούντερ, ένας πρώην αστυνομικός που τον γνωρίσαμε ως ιδιωτικό ντετέκτιβ στην «Τριλογία του Βερολίνου». Σε αυτό το μεταπολεμικό μυθιστόρημα επανέρχεται σε μεγαλύτερη ηλικία, κοντά στα εξήντα, στην Αβάνα του Μπατίστα, με ψεύτικη ταυτότητα. Εκεί τίποτα δεν δείχνει ικανό να τον απειλήσει∙ είναι ένα μέρος όπου βρίσκει την ηρεμία του, έχει χρήματα και σκάφος, ακόμα και αιθέριες παρουσίες που φροντίζουν να διώχνουν μακριά τους παλιούς εφιάλτες. Μια από αυτές, μια εικοσάχρονη καλλονή, τον πείθει να την πάει με το σκάφος του στην Αϊτή, μόνο που ένα περιπολικό του αμερικανικού ναυτικού τούς σταματά και τους συλλαμβάνει.

Ο Μπέρνι τίθεται υπό την επιτήρηση της CIA, ανακρίνεται και θεωρείται εγκληματίας πολέμου. Αυτό δίνει αφορμή στον Κερ να μας γυρίσει στο παλιό, γνώριμο σε αυτόν τοπίο του Β΄ Παγκοσμίου και να ξαναθυμηθούμε τις παλιές αμαρτίες της ευρωπαϊκής ηπείρου και των ναζί. Όσο για τον ίδιο τον πρωταγωνιστή του, θα του κάνουν μια προσφορά που μάλλον δεν μπορεί να αρνηθεί: αν δεν δουλέψει για τη γαλλική αντικατασκοπεία, κινδυνεύει να κατηγορηθεί για φόνο που διέπραξε στη Γερμανία.

Αποστολή του είναι να έρθει σε επαφή με τους αιχμαλώτους που επιστρέφουν στη Γερμανία ώστε να εντοπίσει ανάμεσά τους έναν Γάλλο εγκληματία πολέμου, που ανήκε στα Ες Ες και παριστάνει τον αξιωματικό της Βέρμαχτ. Η συνέχεια προμηνύεται, όπως σε όλα τα μυθιστορήματα του Κερ, συναρπαστική, συνδέοντας τη μυστηριώδη αναζήτηση με τα φαντάσματα της Ιστορίας.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[lastofthelovesongs]

If you're looking for a book about the Przewalski horses during the war, I highly recommend The Winter Horses by Philip Kerr

From the introduction:

"Much of this old story has been gathered together like the many fragments of a broken case. The pieces do not always fit as best they might... ...there are times when history must take second place to legend."

Also:

Watching Przewalski's horses run free on the Kazakhstan steppe for the first time in 200 years

[amor-barato]

Gosto de tomates quando estão um pouco verdes. Assim eles são doces e firmes, com a pele lisa e fresca, do tipo que se escolhe para saladas. Mas quando o tomate já circulou por algum tempo, ele fica muito mole para manipular, adquire algumas rugas e até começa a ficar um pouco azedo.

Acontece o mesmo com as mulheres. Só que esta talvez fosse um pouco verde demais para mim e, possivelmente, muito fresca para o seu próprio bem. Ela estava parada na porta de meu apartamento e me olhava de cima a baixo repetidas vezes, como se estivesse avaliando meus poderes, ou a falta deles, como amante.

- Pois não? O que deseja? - perguntei.

- Estou fazendo uma coleta para o Reich - explicou ela, revirando os olhos. E mostrou-me um saco de material descartável, como que para corroborar sua história. - É para o Programa de Economia do Partido. Ah, o porteiro me deixou entrar.

- Estou vendo. O que você quer, exatamente?

Ela levantou uma das sobrancelhas e fiquei imaginando se o pai dela não achava que ainda tinha idade suficiente para apanhar.

- Bom, o que você tem? - Havia um tom de gozação na voz dela.

Ela era bonita, de um modo um tanto quanto irritante. Com roupas civis ela poderia ter passado por uma moça de vinte anos, mas com as marias-chiquinhas, botas pesadas, saia longa azul-marinho, blusa branca e jaqueta marrom com o emblema da BM, a Liga das Moças Alemãs, achei que ela não tivesse mais de dezesseis anos.

- Vou dar uma olhada e ver o que posso conseguir - disse eu, meio divertido com seus modos de adulto, que pareciam confirmar o que às vezes se ouve sobre as garotas da BM: que eram sexualmente promíscuas e tão aptas a engravidar no acampamento para a Juventude Hitlerista como para aprender bordado, primeiros socorros e história da Alemanha.

- É melhor você entrar.

A garota entrou como se estivesse pisando sobre um casaco de visom e examinou superficialmente o hall de entrada. Não pareceu estar muito impressionada.

- Legal - murmurou.

Fechei a porta e coloquei o cigarro no cinzeiro na mesa do hall.

- Espere aqui - disse a ela.

Fui até o quarto e procurei embaixo da cama a mala onde guardava camisas velhas e toalhas puídas, sem mencionar a poeira sobressalente e a penugem do tapete. Quando me levantei, limpando-me da poeira, ela estava encostada no vão da porta, fumando o meu cigarro. Insolentemente, soprou um perfeito anel de fumaça em minha direção.

- Pensei que vocês, garotas de Fé-e-Beleza, não devessem fumar - disse eu, tentando controlar minha irritação.

- É mesmo? - zombou ela. - Há uma porção de coisas que não devemos fazer. Não devemos fazer isso, não devemos fazer aquilo.

Hoje em dia quase tudo parece ser perigoso, não é mesmo? Mas o que sempre digo é: se você não pode fazer as coisas perigosas enquanto ainda está jovem o bastante para apreciá-las, por que motivo fazê-las então? - Ela desencostou-se da parede com um impulso e saiu a passos largos.

Uma perfeita putinha, pensei, seguindo-a até a sala ao lado.

Ela aspirou a fumaça ruidosamente, como se estivesse sugando uma colher cheia de sopa, e soprou outro anel de fumaça na minha cara. Se pudesse pegá-lo, eu o teria enrolado no lindo pescocinho dela.

- De qualquer modo - continuou ela -, não acho que a porcaria de um cigarrinho vá me fazer mal, concorda?

Sorri.

- Pareço alguém que fuma cigarros baratos?

- Não, acho que não - admitiu ela. - O seu nome é?...

- Platão.

- Platão. Condiz com você. Bem, Platão, pode me beijar se quiser.

- Você não perde tempo, não é?

-Você ainda não conhece os apelidos dados à BM? "A Liga dos Colchões Alemães." "Acomodações para Homens Alemães." - Ela colocou os braços em volta do meu pescoço e fez uma variedade de gestos coquetes que provavelmente praticou na frente do espelho.

O hálito jovem e quente dela não era fresco, mas retribuí o beijo com a mesma intensidade, apenas para ser cortês, minhas mãos apertando seus jovens seios, massageando os bicos com os dedos.

Depois encaixei suas nádegas redondas nas palmas de minhas mãos, já umedecidas, e a puxei para junto do que estava crescendo em minha mente. Seus olhos insolentes ficaram redondos quando ela se encostou contra mim. Não posso dizer com sinceridade que não fiquei tentado.

- Conhece alguma boa história para dormir, Platão? - disse ela com uma risadinha.

- Não - respondi, apertando-a com mais força. - Mas conheço muitas histórias ruins. Do tipo que a bela mas decadente princesa é cozida viva e comida pelo gigante malvado.

Um brilho vago de dúvida começou a crescer na íris azul de cada olho corrupto, e o seu sorriso não era mais totalmente confiante quando puxei a saia dela para cima e comecei a arriar a cal-cinha.

- Ah, eu poderia lhe contar muitas histórias como esta - disse-he eu, sombrio. - O tipo de histórias que os policiais contam a suas filhas. Histórias horríveis e escabrosas que dão às garotas o tipo de pesadelos que deixam seus pais satisfeitos.

- Pare! - disse ela, com um riso nervoso. - Você está me assustando.

Consciente agora de que as coisas não estavam saindo como planejara, ela tentou desesperadamente segurar a calcinha que eu, com um puxão, desci até o meio das pernas, expondo a avezinha que se aninhava entre as virilhas.

- Eles ficam satisfeitos porque com esses pesadelos suas lindas filhinhas ficarão muito amedrontadas para entrarem na casa de um homem estranho, pois ele pode se transformar em um gigante malvado.

- Por favor, senhor, não faça isso - pediu ela.

Dei uma palmada em sua bunda e a soltei.

- Você tem sorte, princesa, de que eu seja um detetive e não um gigante, caso contrário você seria ketchup agora.

- Você é um policial? - perguntou ela, engolindo em seco, lágrimas chegando aos olhos.

- Isso mesmo, sou um policial. E se alguma vez a encontrar bancando a espertinha de novo, farei com que seu pai lhe dê uma boa surra, entendeu?

- Entendi - murmurou ela, subindo rapidamente a calcinha.

Peguei a pilha de camisas e toalhas do chão onde a jogara e a empurrei nos braços dela.

- Agora saia daqui antes que eu mesmo faça o serviço.

Ela correu pelo hall e para fora do apartamento, apavorada, como se eu fosse o próprio Nibelungo.

Depois que fechei a porta atrás dela, o cheiro e o toque de seu corpo jovem e delicioso, e o desejo frustrado por ele, ficou comigo durante o tempo em que me servi de um drinque e tomei um banho frio.

Naquele setembro parecia que a paixão, já entrando em combustão como uma caixa enferrujada de fusíveis, era facilmente acesa em toda parte, e desejei que o sangue quente dos alemães da região dos Sudetos na checoslováquia pudesse ter sido tão facilmente aplacado como foi minha excitação.

Philip Kerr, in: Assassino Branco

[atevegter]

2902 Lezen en bijten

Volkomen uitgeblust na alle feestelijkheden rond 5 mei en de kroning van het Britse vorstenpaar is het nu weer tijd om te lezen. Ik heb het eerste deel van de Berlijnse Trilogie, Een Berlijnse kwestie, van Philip Kerr uit en het eindigt dan ook zo dat je denkt dat er nog wel een vervolg komt. Dit verhaal is nog niet af zolang zij nog vermist is. En inderdaad gaat het tweede deel, Het handwerk van…

[alexbkrieger13]

[letterboxd-loggd]

From Here to Eternity (1953) Fred Zinnemann

January 18th 2023

[moviemosaics]

From Here to Eternity

directed by Fred Zinnemann, 1953

[systematic-and-somehow-tragic]

1 Actor, 2 Characters - Due South : Pilot

Inspired by my realization that RCMP Officer 2 (Pilot) and Jocelyn Kerr (The Ladies' Man) are both played by Jennifer (Jen) Parsons, I decided to check the cast list from IMDb and see if there were any other actors who appear as 2 (or more) different characters in the due South universe. To my surprise, there are several from the pilot alone! Many of these characters lack readily available screenshots (and some I couldn't identify by name alone) so I went through the episodes to compile this side-by-side list.

I may continue this search through the rest of the episodes, mainly relying on cast information from IMDb, the credits of the episodes themselves, and these wonderful annotated transcripts. And since some characters are unnamed and/or uncredited, maybe I'll even spot some new ones! Also, I am 100% open to contributions and/or corrections, so if anyone has anything they'd like to add, I'm all ears!

Without further ado, listed by actor and mostly in order of appearance...

Paul Gross - I almost skipped PG before remembering that he has indeed played another character on dS! So here's PG as Benton Fraser (Pilot) and as Frannie's German fiancé (Dead Men Don't Throw Rice, S4E5)

2. Kimberly Ange - RCMP Officer 1 and also appears in Victoria's Secret Part 2 (S1E21) as an attorney named Boswell (credited as Kim Ange)

and

3. Jennifer Parsons, the one who started it all - RCMP Officer 2 and also appears in The Ladies' Man (S4E3) as Jocelyn Kerr, who wants to have bark tea with Fraser (credited as Jen Parsons)

4. Scot Dentor/Denton - RCMP Officer 4 (credited as Scot Dentor in the pilot but listed on IMDb as Scot Denton). IMDb also identifies Scot Denton as the uncredited actor who plays Pierce (the ambassador targeted in The Edge, S2E9)

5. Barry Kennedy *** - This one I'm not so sure on. Barry Kennedy plays a character called Bert Jenkins in the Pilot but as far as I could tell, no character is called this aloud in the episode itself. Working backwards from Kennedy's other dS credit (Sgt Eddie Polito in The Ladies' Man, S4E3, uncredited, per IMDb), I still struggled with a definitive ID. Based on the annotated transcript of TLM, I believe the man on the right in TLM screenshot below is Kennedy's character Polito. Based on this, and the fact that the supporting characters seem to be credited roughly in order of appearance in the Pilot, my best guess is that Kennedy's dS Pilot character is the pilot who talks to Fraser about the lack of geese and beavers. They look like they could possibly be the same guy?? Maybe?

6. Philip Williams - Herb Lantrell, the pilot who gives Fraser the list of American dentists who'd been hunting in the Pilot, also appears as the arms dealer Lloyd P Nash (the P does not stand for pertinent) in Bird in the Hand (S2E4).

7. JD/Jack Nicholsen - the unnamed Airport Hustler (credited as such even though he does return the money to Fraser at the end of the Pilot) is also 2 other characters: Caulfield (one of the bad guys stealing pets in The Wild Bunch, S1E15) and Joey (Denny Scarpa/Lady Shoes' trigger man in Odds, S4E6)

8. Gene Mack - the Chicago Desk Sergeant in the Pilot is also credited as Mason Dixon, the associate of Devlin (the boxing trainer in Mountie & Soul S3E7). Mack is credited as Chicago Desk Sergeant but does have a name tag in the Pilot, although it is quite blurry.

9. Dan Lett - Dr. Weingarten (the dentist in the Pilot) is also Carver Dunn (the creepy fan who uses blackmail to barter for the singer Tracy's stockings in Mountie Sings the Blues, S4E7)

10. Ramona Milano - Francesca Vecchio! And also appears as Deputy Bernie in Dr. Longball (S4E1).

Dr. Longball of course has other main cast members playing different characters, but I plan to cover those as I make my way through the episodes chronologically in the hopes that it'll help me keep track of which actors/episodes I've checked.

11. Sandi Stahlbrand - TV Reporter Shelley Perry from Channel 6 News in the Pilot and TV Reporter Tracy Wightman (apparently from Channel 7) in Red, White, or Blue (S2E17)

12. Kevin Rushton - an honorable mention! I didn't think to include Rushton until I saw the IMDb trivia point him out in the bar scene in the Pilot. Rushton does stunts on the show and presumably appears in several episodes, which I think thereby technically meets the brief of playing multiple characters (unless there is a case to be made that Rushton plays a recurring character role? which could be an interesting take). But either way, shout out to all the dS stunt folks!

IMDb specifically credits Rushton for appearances in Diefenbaker's Day Off (S1E2), A Cop, a Mountie and a Baby (S1E9), You Must Remember This (S1E11), and One Good Man(S2E8).

[cleolinda]

Weekend Links, March 17, 2024

My posts

We have had another Trespasser Weirdness Incident at my house, so. Suffice it to say that the Hot & Vintage Movie Women tournament is my primary coping mechanism at this point, and bless @hotvintagepoll for all their work. All 257 polls are up, although many of them have already closed on a rolling basis these last two weeks. Hedy Lamarr vs Sonja Henie was the very last one, and it is a blowout like I have not seen since the time I asked if people throw away their movie theater trash. I think round 2 starts a week from Monday? I would like to apologize for reblogging every single poll, except that I’m not the least bit sorry. 

I posted propaganda several times--sometimes just because a contestant didn’t have much and I wanted to chip in (still in play: Juanita Moore and Martha Sleeper). But I also showed up specifically for Norma Shearer, Claire Bloom, Tallulah Bankhead, Deborah Kerr, a little bit for Joan Fontaine (poll here), Julie Christie (on my mom’s behalf), Gene Tierney, Paulette Goddard, and Ava Gardner. My loyalties will shift as we see who progresses, but I'm wearing the Ava jersey at this point.

Reblogs of interest

A couple of serious links:

The Jewish filmmakers who won an Oscar for The Zone of Interest, a Holocaust film, used their speech time to condemn what’s happening in Gaza. (It helps to read the quote as “as men who refute {their Jewishness and the Holocaust} being used as justification.” “Refute their Jewishness” jumps out weirdly at first glance and confused people.)

I can’t tell if the JKR defender/Holocaust denier in this ask knows they’re lying or just really didn’t know that transgender health books and surgery did, in fact, exist, and that the Nazis targeted them. If you need photographic evidence for future discussions, here you are. Side note: Don't believe everything your favorite childhood author tells you.

Posts that are not serious links or hot lady polls:

Of course, this week we celebrated the Ides of March. (Happy birthday to... Chocolate Guy Amaury Guichon??) Featuring:

Southern Mark Antony

If Mark Antony was Gen Z

“Oh not you as well, Brutus!”

Also, happy birthday this fine St. Patrick’s Day to Hozier, who was on the Wiggles once, and has a new EP coming out this Friday. Please join me in not being the least bit normal about it. 

The bredlik that the Fairy vs. Walrus debate needed

“Started tone matching my Iraqi corner store guy,” bless everyone involved

A fanfic summary that will hit you like a brick to the face

“Intrigue, Ink, and Drama Grip the Fountain Pen Community”

The Arthur Conan Doyle approach to fic comments

The Kate Middleton Mysteries (”The extent to which this is not Philip Marlowe’s problem is unbelievable”)

Noted power couple/chaos elementals Merchant Ivory

Help improving color in your art

Doggust 2023: the art of Jonathan Wesslund  

Video

Honestly the best part of “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars for me is Margot Robbie fighting for her life not to laugh

This domino project is honestly really upsetting to me, lmao (THE TIME IT MUST HAVE TAKEN!!)

Death: the bees told her

Puma chirps

A seal’s relaxing ice bath

The sacred texts

The reason we celebrate the Ides of March on Tumblr

Happy birthday to the Old as Balls gifset

A cat’s dating profile

Personal tag of the week

pixel art, because there are some incredible artists on here.

[tedhead]

Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in THE GYPSY MOTHS (1969) — dir. john frankenheimer, cin. philip h. lathrop

[principiumindividuationis777]

Curtains Fall Lightly (Historical Noir)

Chapter I

At a leading manufacturer of aircraft, especially military aircraft, in the Summer and Autumn of 1963, events unfolded as described.

Philip Morris was a dying man, having received a dire prognosis from his physician. A leading contact between the firm and United States government agencies, he attempted to teach the much younger George Blythe to replace him, briefing Blythe on a situation as grim as Morris's own.

"Young man, you must understand that this company is under attack from within. It's not the Soviets primarily, but a woman named Rosalind Kerr, ostensibly a consulting advisor. Even I don't know who she works for, but she uses blackmail of our board and our employees to advance her own position, and what she wants, as far as I can tell, is an escalation of warfare, in any and all parts of the world, to increase sales of our aircraft, receiving a generous percentage in her own accounts of the resulting profits and cash flow."

"The compromising data is seldom obtained by Mrs. Kerr personally, you understand," continued Morris, "But by her mousy little male secretary, Joseph Wheedle, aptly named if ever anyone was. I have never seen anyone so good at a show of false humility, and he gains trust, and thereby ruins lives."

"Why does he share this information with Mrs. Kerr?" asked Blythe.

"Ah, that's the key. I have rumor and conjecture. I believe that Wheedle, some fifty years old and unmarried, may have homosexual tendencies, taboo to many, even illegal, and that most likely Mrs. Kerr knows this and compels him to share in her goals, and to share his ill-gotten gains with her."

Morris added a hint that perhaps Blythe should uncover proof of Wheedle's secret life, to leverage against him, and continued to explain the company's sinister cabal.

"Now, as you can see, Kerr is a woman, and not a young one, and Wheedle is a small man of little physical prowess. When blackmail is not an option, they have a man, Michael Pocius, though I am one of the few who knows Michael's real name. Nearly everyone calls him 'Clawboy'. He was born elsewhere, but by age fourteen, was a student in America, and at that age, did something so gruesome to the Principal of his school that the papers would not describe it, but the nickname Clawboy has been with him since. Do you remember the Cleveland murders of the 1930's? The ones even Eliot Ness couldn't solve? No? Well, such is your youth. I have every reason to believe Pocius was the culprit, though he deflected blame on to some mental hospital patient. Six foot three and never gave man or woman a quick death, he is as dangerous as they come, and he works for Kerr, who pays him well, though he will still hurt most anyone for sport."

"Why isn't he arrested?"

"Because Wheedle has compromising information on policemen and judges too."

"Surely, not all of this company is part of Mrs. Kerr's plot?"

"No, just those three, as far as I know. In this wing you will find Ramon Germanos, as he is legally known. It may be a poor translation of his Spanish name- he's from Mexico- but that is beside the point. He is a bitter bureaucrat who obstructs everyone in his path. His father died in a riot, I hear, and he hates the system for failing him."

"If he hates the system, isn't this company the essence of, well, the system?"

"Exactly, and from this very vantage point he can make life miserable for the people he quietly and, technically, law-abidingly hates, which is all of us."

"A job much like mine is done by the less experienced Leonard Collins. He is loyal, but much too impulsive for such secretive work, I believe. The one other person you'll need to know of is someone I know only as Three Eyes- never knew his real name. He's from India, I think, and every now and then you'll have to meet him at a planned location so he can give you the latest on Soviet aircraft, giving us, and the USA, a great advantage. Three Eyes is a spy, though I don't know who he works for- some say Britain, but I'm unsure, and now, if you'll excuse me, I am rather tired, so I'm going to rest in my office."

Chapter II

Morris had not considered Ramon Germanos's wife, Jayne (maiden name unknown), important enough to mention, and this is understandable. As far as the world knew, she was a bleach blonde imitation of Marilyn Monroe, but without the talent. Relying on Ramon's money, she had a résumé of only a few unprofitable films of the lowest quality, such as "Snake Women of Acapulco"… or so she wished the world to believe.

Morris also failed to mention Trenchcoat, often just called Trench. His existence was considered something of a legend. From the aeronautics firm up to governments around the world, many had heard the legend of Trenchcoat, but most disbelieved in it. The stories went that he was supposed to live in an abandoned building somewhere near this airplane manufacturer, and though some CIA agents initially took the stories seriously enough to search abandoned buildings around the city, no trace of this semi-mythical being was found.

No one had ever seen Trench's face, though some claimed to have heard his voice, either by telephone, or in person, in his pitch black lair, they said, though these supposed witnesses were often less than credible. No one knew Trench's agenda or loyalties, or if he even existed, at least not until Mrs. Kerr's schemes brought matters to a head.

Finally, in my attempts to keep the stranger than fiction nature of this report comprehensive, there is Linda Aeons (real name unknown), the only person in America who could openly assert being a Soviet agent and remain at liberty, because no one believed her. Supposedly a Romanian immigrant, she would hang around important government and corporate buildings, point her fingers like a hypnotist, believing that she was hexing passersby, mainly the employees, go into strange dances, have conversations with spirits (or so she claimed)… aside from several stays in mental hospitals, which generally found her to be harmless, as she never became violent, no institution took Linda seriously.

Having apprised the reader of those involved, the reader can now understand what transpired that fateful year. (Excuse the poetic touch, dear reader.)

Chapter III

George Blythe quickly became acquainted with the ways of Ramon Germanos. Blythe filed a report comparing American and Soviet aircraft, only to have Germanos interfere and claim it was "written unprofessionally". When Blythe asked how he should change it, Germanos replied, "You are supposed to be a professional. You should know." Thus, a report he could have finished in two days took four rewrites and three weeks to meet with Germanos's grudging approval.

Blythe once sneaked into Germanos's office, and found a treatise on anarchism. Confronting Germanos with it, Ramon explained it away as "understanding subversives- to defeat them, we must understand them." With what Morris had told him, however, Blythe doubted this explanation.

This soon became moot, however, as Germanos overplayed his hand attempting such obstructive tactics against Rosalind Kerr. Soon after this, photographs of a most graphic nature, proving what many already knew, became widely available within the firm, and to law enforcement, and to anyone else who wanted the information that they contained.

Ramon Germanos had married Jayne to keep up appearances, but much preferred men. His face was very recognizable in the photographs, but the other man's face could not be seen. Philip Morris, however, though by now like a walking cadaver, and straining to speak, insisted that the other man was Joseph Wheedle, and told Blythe that, to undermine Mrs. Kerr's schemes, Blythe needed to prove this.

"How could I prove it? We can't see his face."

"W-we [here a coughing fit interrupted Morris's speech]… we can see a scar on his ribs, near his left elbow… here. Prove Wheedle has this."

Blythe could think of only two ways of proving this: One would be to find some reason to have Wheedle throughly searched, but no such reason could be found. The other was far more distasteful to the very heterosexual, as some might later say, George Blythe, but he went through with it.

Not an unattractive young man from Wheedle's point of view, Blythe saw enough of Wheedle one night to be certain that yes, Joseph was the other man in the photo.

In the meanwhile, however, Ramon Germanos had done in himself, and Blythe, himself more than a little shaken over how he had to obtain the information on Wheedle, went off drinking at various bars during work hours, rather against regulations, and at one such bar, met with, it seemed, a grieving Jayne, but it was there and then that we would find that the sad-eyed blonde was a myth, and a cold heart and head lived beneath that façade.

Chapter IV

A less than sober Blythe had mentioned to Leonard Collins his encounter with Wheedle, and Collins thought that he might try the same, but with the more drastic aim of ending Wheedle's life, hoping this would put an end to Mrs. Kerr's hold over the corporation. Ransacking Wheedle's place to make it look like a robbery, Collins reported to an abandoned building, an old warehouse, devoid of any lighting, proudly boasting of what he had done.

"I did it Trench. Got that little scoundrel once and for all, and even if Mrs. Kerr has his info, she'll be too scared now to act."

An eerie, quavering voice replied out of the darkness, none too pleased.

"You foolish whelp. Kerr has ten times the physical courage of Wheedle. You should have killed her to frighten him. Employing you was my biggest mistake. This is an easier death than Clawboy would give you."

A dim shadow in the room's darkness flung a knife at Collins, hitting his target, and Collins was never found.

Chapter V

At the bar, Jayne, red eyes and running makeup, seemed to be the most pitiable sight Blythe had ever seen, until his vision began to blur, and over he fell, dead. Jayne looked confused and frightened. The bartender assumed that George had just been drinking too much, and would soon recover.

Jayne kept up her dumb blonde act for about three blocks, then her face set to stone, and she got in a car with an up-to-date telephone, calling the man Collins would refer to as Trench.

"Blythe was drinking on the job. I made the drink his last."

"You always were one for drastic action, but I suppose weak wills have no place in our line," replied the same strange, quavering voice, though distorted a bit by the phone.

"Say, Trench, aren't you concerned someone might bug our phones?"

"No, because the man they send to do that had a car accident, Jayne. They don't make brake lines so reliably in those foreign makes."

Needless to say, even when coroners found the poison, no one suspected the grieving, not overbright widow, as they reckoned her, but authorities were out looking for someone who fit their idea of a dangerous spy or criminal.

"One more thing before you hang up, Jayne: You must act against Mrs. Kerr now. Wheedle swore revenge if anyone got him, and something terrible is coming. Kerr would take full advantage of it. No time to explain. Take care of her. You know how."

Chapter VI

Jayne, seemingly an intoxicated mess, sobbing for "Ramon", went to Kerr's home, as if to seek a maternal figure. Kerr disdained the girl utterly, considering her, as she had once said to Wheedle, "a waste of hair dye", but did not want Jayne to make a scene outside her home, a home always watched by agents of more than one country.

Inviting Jayne, who acted as if she could barely stand, into her home, Mrs. Kerr sent Carlos, her servant, to get coffee for Jayne. By the time Carlos returned, Jayne had already dispatched with Mrs. Kerr, using Dim Mak, I am told. As an unfortunate witness, a petrified Carlos discovered that Jayne, like Trench, was an adept thrower of knives.

Rosalind Kerr being gone, Clawboy had no loyalties, but would continue to be the most physically dangerous criminal on the streets, for profit and sport, beginning with an armored car robbery in early November, 1963, an incident that left two guards dead.

What Trench said about Joseph Wheedle's threats was, according to the best sources, true. He had threatened more than once that if anything happened to him, he had a "Communist cell" that would "remove" the most important man on Wheedle's long list of compromised individuals, and the "cell" did so, on November 22, 1963.

Chapter VII

By the end of November, several more robberies and deaths, some too terrible to describe, marked wherever Clawboy had traveled, hitting several cities so that a pattern would not, by most, be noticed.

Some took notice, however, including Jayne. She was back on the car phone.

"I know Clawboy has no agenda anymore, but in a way, he is off his leash. Enough more of this, especially if he did too much in one city, and it would worsen the crisis in public trust that is already inevitable, after what happened to the President, and given what the new President is."

"You are correct, Jayne," said the by now familiar, quavering voice, "And I intend to act."

"You know better than anyone where he is, Trench. Just tell me and I'll do it."

"Jayne, have you ever read of Clawboy's idea of amusement back in Cleveland? You are a deadly woman, but if you and Clawboy ever met, you would go that way. I must insist. The only person alive better at violence than Clawboy is me, and I must do this one personally."

Chapter VIII

A limping, elderly hobo hobbled down a rural road not far from Baltimore. A blue Bel Air drove up behind him, driven by a grinning Michael Pocius, who thought he would play some games with the old man.

Clawboy drove the car directly at the hobo. There were no witnesses in sight, so it was just the two of them. The old man managed to throw himself to one side, but could not return to his feet. Pocius parked his car on a dime, and got out, strutting triumpantly and chuckling, pulling out a knife in his gloved hands, one with a finely carved handle.

The transient seemed resigned to his fate, smoking one last cigarette, as Clawboy, like Trench and Jayne, was about to practice his knife throwing skills, but suddenly, Pocius fell over, and was obviously no longer living when he hit the ground.

The "cigarette" had been a blowgun, and one assumes, the "elderly hobo" was an elaborate disguise of Trenchcoat.

Philip Morris passed away in 1964, and last I heard, Three Eyes and Linda Aeons had joined a commune in the vicinity of San Francisco, California.

Sincerely,

Trenchcoat

[royalsofwindshire]

⚜️ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT💍‼️: It Looks Like There Will Be Two Royal Weddings This Year His Majesty King William III Has Announced That His Eldest And Only Daughter Her Royal Highness Irene , Princess Royal Is Engaged To Her Secret Long Time Partner The Most Honorable Lord Edmund Kerr , Marquees Of Lansdowne . His Parents Are The Most Honorable Lord Philip Kerr , 11Th Duke Of Rutland And Lady Beth Kerr , Duchess Of Rutland The Marquees Of Lansdowne Is The Heir Apparent To The Dukedom Of Rutland . Lord Edmund Ask His Majesty The King Last Night If He Could Have The Princess Royal Hand In Marriage His Majesty Give Him His Blessing There Will Be A Engagement Party Later And Details Of The Royal Wedding Of The Princess Royal And Lord Edmund Will Be Announced Soon.⚜️

[libraryleopard]

April reads

asterisk designates a read

Thieves by Lucie Bryon

Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston by Esme Symes-Smith

Xenocultivars: Stories of Queer Growth edited by Isabela Oliveira and Jed Sabin

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Kimiko Does Cancer by Kimiko Tobimatsu and Keet Geniza

Among Others by Jo Walton

If You Still Recognise Me by Cynthia So

Manywhere: Stories by Morgan Thomas

Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve*

High Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Sensible Footwear by Kate Charlesworth

Please Don’t Hug Me by Kay Kerr

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

We Had No Rules by Corinne Manning

The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado, Dani, and Tamra Bonvillain

The Queen of Air and Darkness by T.H. White

Homie by Danez Smith

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood*

[coraleethroughthelookingglass]

Which book, what you ever read, had the biggest effect on you? And why?

I was the kid who read everything I could get my hands on for a while so this is really quite hard to pinpoint… can I cheat and give a couple of answers?

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr taught me that there is evil in this world (I read it when I was very young and still very sheltered from the wider world)

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman made me realise that the death of a beloved fictional character can really hurt - and no one should be able to tell you those feelings aren’t valid

Thank you so much for this - it really made me think!

[catie-does-things]

3, 73, 100

3. One - Johnny Cash

73. Cruel Mother - Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr

100. Unpack Your Heart - Philip Philips

[greaterstokesawareness]

Stokes Song Spotlight: “This Nearly Was Mine”

this third song spotlight is brought to you by a teenage Lindsey Buckingham obsession and a lifelong curiosity about the everything of it all (✦ ‿ ✦)

I spend a ton of time just coming across a song I really like and finding every single version of it and just like studying for however long I feel like it. This is how I carried the song "This Nearly Was Mine" in my soul for years and this is how I discovered Brian Stokes Mitchell. I first heard "This Nearly Was Mine" in the year of our lord Fleetwood Mac reunion 1997, I was 13 years old and I thought Lindsey Buckingham was just the coolest, weirdest guitar player and performer ever. He was out there on MTV just shaking his entire upper body to get the right vibration of the song. It was the kind of performance that gets you to devote your entire remaining existence to an artist, and that's what I started to do and how I found the masterpiece that is his 1992 Out of the Cradle album. The whole thing is no skips for me and it ends with an instrumental version of "This Nearly Was Mine" that runs into the last track "Say We'll Meet Again" which is really dreamlike and these two tracks are inseparable in my mind; when I think of one I think of the other to this day.

A few years later when I got around to studying movie musicals (just in a nerdy way and not like officially, wait can you do that officially I should really look into that) and I finally watched South Pacific, I heard "This Nearly Was Mine" again and just lost it, I knew this song. It's a really funny feeling that I chase constantly, to find references to things I love in other things I love. Anyway, that's the first time I ever heard the words to it and I fell in love some more. And I don't even know how to explain why I love it, it's not like it's some autobiographical story or that I particularly identify with lost love or anything like that, it just hits me in the center of my chest every time I hear it.

“This Nearly Was Mine” is the 11 o’clock number from the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. There’s also a grand-scale 1958 movie musical version. Don’t get me started on movie musicals and their weird tendency to cast dramatic actors and then dub their singing voices. I have thoughts. The song is performed by the male lead Emile de Becque in a climactic moment of sadness and desperation. He eventually signs up for a suicide mission because his love has rejected him (Emile, sir, you still have two children, respectfully wtf).

My nerdy journey that led me to discover Stokes’s version one dark February in the middle of Covid lockdown times goes like this: Christopher Plummer died so I rewatched The Sound of Music for like a week straight, then because I was enjoying Bill Lee’s voice (dubbed for Plummer) I rewatched South Pacific (he dubs John Kerr’s voice), [also Rossano Brazzi you are very pretty, but lip-syncing is not your strong suit] then the nerd journey took me to a YouTube search of all the performances of “This Nearly Was Mine” Philip Quast you are a star ⭐️ And that’s how I found Brian Stokes Mitchell singing the song and the rest is nerd history.

The other wonderful thing about Stokes singing this particular song is that when he sings it in concert he turns off his microphone and creeps to the edge of the stage to sing it out to the last row like they used to do before the technology for personal microphones became a thing in theater. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Stokes sing this song three times and all three of those times I was in the front row. And I swear to you with all the might of my nerdy heart and soul it is one of the most special experiences of all time every time ♥️

Links:

Stokes performance of the song at the Carnegie Hall South Pacific concert, 2006 (x)

My video of Stokes singing the song at 54 Below, 2022 (x)

Song facts, playlists, and lyrics from the Rodgers and Hammerstein official site (x)

Lindsey Buckingham’s instrumental version from Out of the Cradle, 1992 (x) (x) and a live version of “TNWM” paired with the mournful “Street of Dreams” from the same album (x)