ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: TO JUPITER VIA HELL (1908)

Full title: THE REV. JOHN SMITH DIED – AND WENT TO JUPITER VIA HELL (1908) – This bizarre but memorable work was published by the Juno Society of the time and was written by an anonymous author. The title clergyman passes away and finds himself in Hell – not forever, but as an ambassador to Jupiter.

Before he can be sent to that interplanetary posting Smith must witness the horrors of Hell. In this odd tale the ruler of Hell is a woman named Satinita the Sexless Queen. She first shows him how many fellow clergymen are in Hell for eternal punishment.

After that, Satinita takes Rev. Smith on a tour of New York City’s Red Light District, bars, illegal casinos … and the Stock Market. Following this ham-fisted attempt at satire, Smith is dropped off on Jupiter as a guest of the planet’s Omu Family.

The family members become his guide to life on Jupiter, where everyone is ruled by a being called the Entity. There is one planet-wide language, and that’s just the beginning. Continue reading

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AUGUST TWENTY-FIRST NEWS ROUNDUP

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog is here with a current events roundup from an America where Democrats spent over a decade claiming “wokeness” wasn’t a thing – and even pretended that people who used the word couldn’t define it because, they claimed, “it didn’t exist.” Now Democrat loon AOC openly admits “Woke One was crazy and is over” and that “Woke Two” is here.

           NEVER believe Democrats when they claim something they’re guilty of isn’t real or isn’t happening. Inevitably, they will be forced to admit that it exists and is happening. (Same with Vote Fraud, Political Bias in Education, etc.)

DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE ROY COOPER SCANDAL OVER PAY-TO-PLAY SCAM WHEN HE WAS GOVERNOR. He became a wealthy man while in office.

DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE PLEADS GUILTY TO WIRE FRAUD. The R.I.C.O. party strikes again.

IRAN’S MAD-DOG REGIME CAUSES UNITED ARAB EMIRATES TO SUSPEND ALL TRADE WITH IRAN OVER THEIR LATEST VIOLENCE. Fighting Iran’s current rulers is as necessary as fighting war criminal Vlad Putin.

DON SURBER ON WHO WAS UNCONSTITUTIONALLY RUNNING THE COUNTRY WHILE UNFIT JOE BIDEN WAS BEING PARADED BEFORE THE CAMERAS.

LATEST EXPOSE: THE BIDEN REGIME FBI MISCLASSIFIED INFO TO HIDE BIDEN FAMILY CRIMES. Took a while to find, but here it is.

FLASHBACK: DANIEL CAMERON TELLS DEMOCRATS “IT’S TIME TO STOP TELLING BLACK AMERICANS WHAT WE’RE ALLOWED TO BELIEVE.

PRESIDENT TRUMP IS STILL LOWERING HEALTH CARE COSTS AND HAS LOWERED MEDICAID PRICES BY THREE POINT FIVE PERCENT. Continue reading

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SUPREME COURT JUSTICE WILLIAM PATERSON

Previously, Balladeer’s Blog examined the first six Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court when six was the full roster on that court. For subsequent Justices click HERE.

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE WILLIAM PATERSON

Served: March 11th, 1793 – September 9th, 1806 (Died)

Brethren on the Court: Chief Justices: John Jay, John Rutledge, Oliver Ellsworth and John Marshall. Associate Justices: William Cushing, James Wilson, John Blair, James Iredell, Samuel Chase, Bushrod Washington, Alfred Moore and William Johnson.

Some Highlights: Paterson helped write the U.S. Constitution in 1787. This made him one of the very few Supreme Court Justices qualified to weigh in on the “original intent” of the framers.

      While riding his Circuit, William presided over the trials of the people indicted for treason for participating in the Whiskey Rebellion. He wrote the Court’s decision in Penhall v Doane’s Administrators (1795), which ruled that America’s current federal courts had jurisdiction over Prize Cases, not any of the American courts which preceded the U.S. Constitution. Continue reading

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MONSIEUR LECOQ (1865-1868) A NEGLECTED PRE-SHERLOCK HOLMES DETECTIVE

MONSIEUR LECOQ – This French detective, who worked for the Surete, was created by France’s Emile Gaboriau, a former secretary of THE Paul Feval, the famed writer. The Gaboriau novels featuring Lecoq (whose first name was never revealed, like Columbo) all came out in the 1860s, making him one of the western world’s Big Three fictional detectives who came BEFORE Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in 1887.

The other two, of course, are Auguste Dupin (1841) and Nick Carter (1886). Like Monsieur Lecoq, Dupin and Carter were among the figures depicted in individual episodes of Les Grands Detectives (1975) on French television. Here are the novels that Emile Gaboriau wrote featuring this brilliant procedural detective.

L’AFFAIRE LEROUGE (serialized in 1865, novelized in 1866) – This novel, set in 1862, depicted Lecoq as an assistant detective who was refining his trade with the help of another Gaboriau detective named Tabaret. In this story alone, Lecoq is a figurative Archie Goodwin to the less mobile Tabaret’s Nero Wolfe.  

The widow Claudine Lerouge is found murdered in her home but the killer is not known. Tabaret and his supporting detective Lecoq investigate and must sift through clues regarding Lerouge’s mysterious past involving false identities and illegal child swapping. Continue reading

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BURT LANCASTER’S SWASHBUCKLER MOVIES

Hollywood legend Burt Lancaster starred in several big-name films. Early in his career he played the hero in a few swashbuckler movies.

THE FLAME AND THE ARROW (1950) – In 1100s Lombardy, evil Count Ulrich (Frank Allenby) rules on behalf of Emperor Frederick the First. Ulrich abuses his power and even takes the unfaithful wife of Dardo Bartoli (Burt Lancaster) into his own court as one of his mistresses. This drives archer and swordsman Dardo into opposition against him.   

One day Dardo shows off by shooting Count Ulrich’s prized hunting hawk out of the sky with an arrow. The Count has his men try capturing our hero, but his son Rudi helps him escape only to wind up a prisoner in Ulrich’s household where he is reunited with his mother.

Dardo now goes all out against the Count, leading rebels both high born and low in Robin Hood style banditry against Ulrich from an old Roman fortress in the hills. At one point Dardo and his allies abduct Count Ulrich’s niece Anne (Virginia Mayo) in hopes of exchanging her for Rudi. The Count instead captures Dardo’s father and several other villagers, threatening to kill them all unless the rebel and outlaw surrenders. Continue reading

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NEWS ROUNDUP FOR AUGUST NINETEENTH

It’s a Wednesday current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

TRUMP-ENDORSED BYRON DONALDS WINS FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY

GROTESQUE ALEXANDER VINDMAN, ONE OF THE INSTIGATORS OF TRYING TO REMOVE TRUMP JUST SO DEMOCRATS COULD COVER UP THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY’S UKRAINE CORRUPTION, GOT ANNIHILATED IN YESTERDAY’S VOTING. More HERE. Trump enjoyed getting the last laugh on this pathetic little toad of a human being.

ANTHONY FAUCI ALLY DAVID MORENS PLEADS GUILTY IN COVID SCANDAL COVERUP AND DEFRAUDING THE U.S. More HERE. Another member of the “Covid Cartel” goes down.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S POLICIES USHER IN THE BIGGEST YEAR-TO-YEAR DECLINE IN VIOLENT CRIME EVER. More HERE.

DEMOCRAT SENATORIAL CANDIDATE ABDULRAHMAN MOHAMED EL-SAYED’S MOTHER WORKED FOR TERRORIST GROUP THAT HELPED 9-11 PLOT’S BIN LADEN. It should be no surprise that his mother works as an instructor at the University of Chicago and opened an October 7th anniversary CELEBRATION talk with “I wanna start by saying Allahu Akbar.” This is what the Democrat Party is in 2026. More HERE.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING CRACKDOWN IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST RESULTS IN FIFTY-SIX ARRESTS

LATEST: AT LEAST TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND NON-CITIZENS VOTED IN THE 2020 ELECTION. And I think we all know which political party they voted for. The 2020 presidential election was at least as tainted and corrupt as the 1876 and 2000 elections were.

MORE ABOUT VOTE FRAUD IN DEMOCRAT-HELD MINNESOTA. Much more HERE from a former Minnesota election official.  Continue reading

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B-MOVIE HOSTESS: THE OLD LADY OF NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1957-1958)

THE OLD LADY OF NIGHTMARE ALLEY was the character who hosted the film show Nightmare! on KTLA in Los Angeles. She was played by the elderly actress Ottola Nesmith, who started in Silent Films in 1915 and appeared in over 100 movies, including Invisible Ghost with Bela Lugosi.

Nightmare! ran from October 1st, 1957 to October 7th, 1958. KTLA aired the program Tuesday nights at 9:30pm and produced 53 episodes. The show’s director was Loring d’Usseau, one of Nesmith’s sons, who was surprised to learn he would be directing his own mother (see below right).

Ottola’s Movie Hostess character The Old Lady eschewed the sex appeal approach of predecessors like Vampira and instead employed a memorable gimmick, albeit one which once got herself and KTLA in legal trouble.

The Old Lady was a deranged woman who claimed to be a fallen movie starlet living in a tiny apartment on Nightmare Alley with only her victrola and doll Boris to keep her company. She was like Sunset Boulevard‘s Norma Desmond on steroids and also had qualities of the Arsenic and Old Lace murderesses as well as the future Baby Jane.

(Yet the Los Angeles Times called her “pixielike.”) Continue reading

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OZIDI EPIC OF NIGERIA: PART SIX

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. FOR PART TWO CLICK HERE. FOR PART THREE CLICK HERE. FOR PART FOUR CLICK HERE. FOR PART FIVE CLICK HERE.

PART SIX – Corresponding with the one-day hiatus from the story tellers and singers performing the Ozidi Epic, our hero has been sleeping after slaying Badoba. Tall Badoba was the latest of his father’s killers to meet their end at the hands of Ozidi the Younger. Only the leader of the murderers remained – Ofe.

At the end of the previous installment, cowardly and treacherous Ofe had fled Orua in hopes of escaping Ozidi’s wrath. Overnight, however, he realized that Ozidi would never abandon his revenge quest because he had to slay every single one of his father’s killers in order to free Ozidi the Elder’s spirit from the deadlands limbo in which it was imprisoned.

Ofe glumly returned to Orua and sought shelter in his home. Meanwhile, at the home of Ozidi’s uncle King Temugedege, the mentally unfit ruler installed as a puppet by the murderers of Ozidi the Elder, it was time for Ozidi the Younger to wake up.

Our hero’s mother Orea and his sorceress grandmother Oreame fed him breakfast until he was full. Then it was time once again to go into action, so Ozidi reached down his throat and pulled out of his mouth his sword made of lightning, his battle clothing, his musicians and attendants plus his spear and other weapons. He pulled out his monkey and lizard, too.

As Ozidi walked Ado, the capitol of Orua, the people all grabbed their children and fled into the jungle to avoid being caught in the fallout of the battle between Ozidi and Ofe. Continue reading

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FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: THE NEW ODD COUPLE (1982-1983)

THE NEW ODD COUPLE (1982-1983) – This sitcom was a reboot of the 1970-1975 series, now starring former Barney Miller co-star Ron Glass as obsessively tidy photographer Felix Unger and former Sanford & Son co-star Demond Wilson as pathologically sloppy sports reporter Oscar Madison. Coincidentally, Glass had made guest appearances on two Sanford & Son episodes in the 1970s.

John Schuck played Murray the Cop, Bart Braverman was Roy and Christopher Joy was Speed. The Pigeon Sisters were portrayed by Sheila Anderson and Ronalda Douglas.

Due to a writer’s strike at the time, eight episodes of The New Odd Couple were flat-out remakes of original Odd Couple installments. That prevented the new series from developing its own way and contributed to falling ratings and the show’s cancellation after just 18 episodes.

THOSE EPISODES:

THE IDES OF APRIL (Oct 29th, 1982) – Felix must go down to the IRS office to correct a computer error. While there, he accidentally lets slip Oscar’s tax cheating. Oscar gets audited, but Felix manages to get his roommate through the ordeal successfully. ESTHER ROLLE guest starred.

THE HUSTLER (Nov 5th) – Oscar helps Felix raise money for his amateur theater troupe via a Casino Night party. It’s a success, but then Oscar risks losing all the winnings playing pool against a hustler. It was Trivia Heaven for viewers as guest stars included Al Molinaro (the original Murray the Cop), Florida Friebus playing her Bob Newhart Show character Mrs. Bakerman, Ian Wolfe as Mr. Bakerman and Ben Powers from The Jeffersons as Side Pocket Sidney. Continue reading

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AUGUST SEVENTEENTH NEWS ROUNDUP

 Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog is here with another current events roundup.

FEMALE ROLE MODEL KELLYANNE CONWAY, THE FIRST WOMAN TO MANAGE A WINNING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, POINTS OUT OCASIO-CORTEZ’s MANY FAILURES. AOC (“Always On Camera” as Conway jokes) only passed ONE bill during the years Biden was in the White House. And one-percenter AOC still hasn’t paid her student loans HERE.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY ON LYSENKOIST AND ANIMAL TORTURER ANTHONY FAUCI “He knew that he was lying, and there was something about his character that made him feel that that was okay.”

EXPERT AND FDA COMMISSIONER FLAGGED LYSENKOIST FAUCI AS EARLY AS MAY 2021 ABOUT THE ADVERSE EFFECTS THE COVID SHOTS HAD ON PREGNANT WOMEN. See also Fauci’s wife’s connections with the FDA and more.

WITH IMPEACHMENT HANGING OVER HER HEAD THANKS TO ANDY OGLES, OBAMA-APPOINTED JUDGE REVERSES HER OWN UNCONSTITUTIONAL RULING THAT SHE MADE IGNORING THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION. Luckily, Ogles learned to fight back like President Trump does.  

DEMOCRAT HAKEEM JEFFRIES DISCUSSES HOW HIS POLITICAL PARTY WILL PACK THE SUPREME COURT AND MORE IF THEY TAKE BACK CONGRESS IN NOVEMBER.

DEMOCRAT PARTY

DEMOCRAT SENATE CANDIDATE EL-SAYED DOES AN EVENT WITH AN IMAM WHO FORCED A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD NIECE INTO A MARRIAGE AND VIEWS NINE-YEAR-OLDS AS SEX OBJECTS. Democrats, can you please leave children alone?

COTTO WITH A REMINDER ABOUT HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP ENDED AMERICA GETTING UNFAIR TREATMENT IN TRADE DEALS.

NORTH CAROLINA SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF PARENTS WHO FOUGHT THE OUTRAGEOUS DEMOCRAT BIAS AT THEIR CHILDREN’S SCHOOL. Among the school’s bigoted teachings was “Republicans are white supremacists.” Thankfully, these parents fought back, unlike so many other parents in the same situation. You can’t win if you don’t fight, Republicans. Continue reading

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