Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (May 2012) 3Stars

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
Series: May 2012
Editor: Linda Landrigan
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 115
Words: 41K

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Having finished up the collections of old Hitchcock anthologies that I had on hand, I found a couple of the “new” Mystery Magazines and decided to try them out. This was touted (on the cover) as the “humor issue” and I’m afraid the writers took that to mean “light and whimsical” instead of as funny.

The stories themselves barely passed muster and if I’d had to read a whole book, instead of a magazine, of them, I think I can safely say this would have gotten 2.5stars. These were the kind of stories that get salted between good stories in the old collections; that way you didn’t notice their mediocrity as much. You just forgot about them. But here, all you had was mediocre and so while I have already forgotten them, I can’t collectively forget them.

I have several issues of this magazine to try out. What does give me hope is that you can still get subscriptions (paper or digital) to AHMM, so they must have done something correct to keep on going this long. I just hope I find out what, because this issue was not very good.

What I am afraid of is that people are so undiscriminating in their reading tastes that anything with Hitchcock’s name will draw them in and they will accept any old sock as a “good story” when it really isn’t.

I’m just being really negative right now though. So here’s to a brighter future in later issues!

★★★☆☆

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Table of Contents – click to open

Department: EDITOR’S NOTE: UNEXPECTED by Linda Landrigan

Department: THE LINEUP

Fiction: SHANKS COMMENCES by Robert Lopresti

Fiction: LEWIS AND CLARK by John M. Floyd

Fiction: SPRING BREAK by R.T. Lawton

Department: MYSTERIOUS PHOTOGRAPH: DOGWATCH

Fiction: WIND POWER by Eve Fisher

Department: BOOKED & PRINTED by Robert C. Hahn

Fiction: FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY by Ron Goulart

Fiction: FASHIONED FOR MURDER by Shauna Washington

Fiction: MR. CROCKETT AND THE BEAR by Evan Lewis

Fiction: CARRY-ON by Wayne J. Gardiner

Department: THE STORY THAT WON

Department: COMING IN JUNE 2012

• All of My “Alfred Hitchcock” Reviews

9/11 - Remembering the Heroes

My memories of 9/11 are specifically tied to the Twin Towers, as I saw them fall on tv. But that was not all that happened that day and I think it is time for me to start remembering that.

Three planes were hijacked that day. In one of them, the brave men and women who were the passengers fought back against the hijackers, causing the plane to crash into the ground, causing no additional harm, unlike what happened to the Twin Towers. They sacrificed themselves so that no others would come to harm. That is the true definition of a Hero. Heroes don’t always get happy endings in real life. Those men and women all died, just like the people in the other two planes. Don’t get me wrong, I am not denigrating the passengers in the other planes. While I would like to think I would have stood up and fought back, I know myself well enough that I am sure I would have frozen up. And things happened FAST.

Today I choose to remember the brave men and women who sacrificed themselves so that no one else had to die. I Will Never Forget!

Doctor Syn on the High Seas (Doctor Syn #2) 3Stars

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Doctor Syn on the High Seas
Series: Doctor Syn #2
Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 182
Words: 66K

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In the first book, which was the last book chronologically and sees Doctor Syn killed (oh, wait, did I just spoil that for you? Oh boo hoo, I am sooooooo sorry. Get over it, pansy), I wondered how someone who was a man of the cloth could preach what he did and still do the things that Doctor Syn did. Well, from this book it is obvious that his theology never went more than skin deep, if even that. To be blunt, Syn was a hypocrite was the start.

He is not a hero or an anti-hero, Syn is a straight up villain. He pillages, plunders and kills with nary a thought or regret and is the very definition of an Evil Pirate Captain. His revenge is the consuming fire in his life, over ruling every other thought and feeling in his head.

From a purely storywise angle, this was good stuff. Syn is talented, skilled, well off and implacable. Nothing stops him and his adventures here are many. When the local lord kidnapped Imogene and her mother near the beginning, I almost put the book down because Thorndike really had me wondering just how far he was going to go with the situation. Thankfully, while the end goal was stated, it never got there.

I’m really up in the air about continuing this series. It is grand adventure, but Syn is a scoundrel and hypocrite and I find that abominable. I will read the next book and if I still feel this way, I’ll be stopping. There is no need to read about or promote scoundrels and villains.

★★★☆☆

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From Bookstooge.blog

Synopsis – click to open

Doctor Syn (a Doctor of Theology), a young man at seminary college, meets and falls in love with a beautiful spanish girl. He and his close friend save her and her mother from falling into the financial clutches of a local lord with the worst of reputations. Imogene in turn falls in love with Dr Syn. Stymied, the local lord decides to get his revenge by kidnapping Imogene and her mother and forcing Imogene to marry him. They are rescued by Dr Syn and friend and the local lord is killed, to nobody’s regret, not even his nephew, who now inherits and was a one time suitor to Imogene.

Dr Syn and Imogene marry and move to Romney Marsh. But it is too gloomy for Imogene and she goes back to one of the big towns to “help her mother”. She meets her former suitor and they seduce each other and run away to Spain together. Dr Syn gives up the cloth and vows revenge. He begins to chase them down.

He is then captured by pirates but because of his brains and skill at sword play, kills the pirate captain and takes over the crew. He loots the sea to fuel his fortune to hunt down Imogene and the Seducer. He blows up the pirate ship he is on, killing all the pirates and takes the treasure for himself. He continues his chase but each time, never quite catches them. He goes pirating again and repeats the same formula as before.

Eventually, Imogene and the Seducer drop out of sight and Dr Syn makes his way back to Romney Marsh to settle down to what unsettled peace he can have. The book ends with the ship he is on crashing on the shores of Romney Marsh and Dr Syn swimming for shore.

Fellwar Stone - MTG 4E

There were times you needed some mana of a color that your opponent had. I can’t remember exactly what those circumstances were, but they existed and Fellwar Stone was there to provide it. Plus, the quote was tailor made for the stone. It probably was actually.

Friends Forever (Cardcaptor Sakura #3) (1998 Anime)

Title: Friends Forever

Series: Cardcaptor Sakura #3

Episodes: 9-12

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My Thoughts:

In the last episode, we were introduced to Li Syaoran and boy, was he a real jerk. He also comes from a family of magicians that gives him the ability to capture, and thus use, Clow cards. Unfortunately for Sakura, Li thinks his family is the ONLY one “good enough” to do so.

Each episode is a Clow Card of the week and follows the predictable pattern of Sakura and/or Li discovering a Clow Card and then having to capture it. But we begin to see Li more as a person and he begins to understand that not everything is quite as cut and dried as he declared when we first met him.

Being a Magical Girl anime, there’s romance here, albeit from a 10/11 year old’s viewpoint. From a schoolgirl crush on her teacher to Sakura’s dad fighting with his dead wife’s cousin, there is no lack of relational drama. Throw in that this was created by CLAMP and there’s the almost obligatory boyslove that those perverted women just love.

We also get adults acting like how 10year olds must imagine they do. Which is some real writing, as most of CLAMP were in their 30’s (I believe. It’s hard to tell as the members have changed throughout the years). But adults play a VERY small part and thus are relegated to almost non-beings. It does keep the show focused on Sakura and forces her to solve her own problems, with the help of various friends of course. Kids need that.

Another quite enjoyable foray into a wonderful shojo anime. Only the utterly curmudgeonly and cantankerous wouldn’t love this.

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Episodes & Summaries

Click to Open

Episode 9 – Sakura and the Mysterious Brooch

Tomoyo and Rika try to cheer Sakura up by taking her shopping after Syaoran upsets her, but Rika suddenly attacks Sakura when she puts on a new brooch.

Episode 10 – Sakura and the Sport’s Day of Flowers

It’s Sports Day at Sakura’s school. Tomoyo’s mother seems to know Sakura’s father, but her glares say that it’s not a friendly reunion.

Episode 11 – Sakura, Tomoyo, and a Mansion

Tomoyo asks Sakura over to get her help opening a special box full of mementos. Kero senses the presence of a Clow Card.

Episode 12 – Sakura’s Never-Ending Day

Sakura messes up during her music test; the next day at school everything repeats in exactly the same way. Syaoran and Sakura realize it’s a Clow Card

A Serious Post About A Serious Subject...

….that I will take VERY seriously and so should you. This post will explain why you should take it seriously and why, if you don’t, you are a filthy commie and not even worthy to be devoured with bbq sauce by starving Chilean soccer players.

Cheesecake. Yes, cheesecake. That delicious confection that will leave you dying in delight!

Mrs B and I happened to recently celebrate our 16th Wedding Anniversary. As is our wont each year, we travelled to the bowels of Hell itself to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We always eat well, we have plenty of time to talk about the past year and the upcoming year and then we order 4 slices of cheesecake to go.

Banana Cream Cheesecake

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Each slice averages between 1100-1300 calories. So we eat our meal at the restaurant, eat one slice the next evening and then eat the final slice the following day. One visit lasts us 3 days. It’s a Miracle 😀

And that’s why you should take it so seriously, like me.
*cracks fist
or else.

[Art] Entropymancer Unleashed

With his plans frustrated by his inability to find the Hidden King due to the Soul Guardian’s protection, the Chartreuse Emperor began constructing his most powerful, yet most dangerous, weapon, an Entropymancer.

Taking the last of the mythical Lord of the Poppies, and subjecting him to untold Suffering, the Mad Emperor brought forth an Entropymancer. Unstoppable. Unkillable. Consumed by a lust to destroy. An Entropymancer was released like an arrow, speeding towards his target, and only death could be the final result.

This was the blasphemous act that the Hidden King could not bring himself to commit. If he had sacrificed his beloved Elf Mage and subjected her to the Ultimate Pain, he could have created an Entropymancer of his own, to aim at the heart of the Chartreuse Emperor. But better the world to burn than for him to taint his soul with such a rite or sacrifice the one he held most dear.

And now, dear reader, what shall be the fate of this world? Roll your Dice. Play your Magic Cards. Consult the Codex. Is the destiny of this world written stone? Or, as John Connor once said “The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.” Let me know your thoughts.