Previously Balladeer’s Blog examined Cypria and Aethiopis, two of the neglected Greek epics. Cypria recounted the events leading into The Iliad while Aethiopis picked up the tale of the Trojan War after the death and funeral of Hector at the end of The Iliad. The neglected epic I’m examining today is Iliad Minor, the next in line chronologically. The author is speculated to have been either Lesches, Thestorides, Diodoros, Kinaithon or even Homer himself.
ILIAD MINOR – Also called Iliad Mikra and The Little Iliad this neglected epic opens up with the
casting of lots between Odysseus and Aias (Ajax), the two heroes who recovered the corpse of Achilles to prevent it from being desecrated by the Trojans at the end of Aethiopis. The prize they are gambling for is the armor of the late Achilles.
Odysseus wins due to the secret interference of the goddess Athena, as always an admirer of Odysseus’ shrewd and resourceful nature. Aias, in the level-headed way of people in ancient myths goes insane from losing the armor and sabotages his own people’s war effort by poisoning the cattle the Greeks have been raising to help feed the massive army besieging Troy. Next Aias kills himself and, because of his act of sabotage Agamemnon denies him the funeral honors of a hero. Therefore, he is buried instead of cremated on a pyre.
Calchas, the Greek seer, foretells that in order to win the war the Greeks must sail to Lemnos and recover Philoctetes, the archer who wields the arrows of Herakles. Continue reading
FRANK & DRAC (1987-1988) – Frank & Drac was this Movie Host show’s title, and Frank & Drac were the stars. Frankenstein’s Monster was played by Allen Christopher while Dracula was played by Robert Kokai. This show aired on WOIO in Cleveland, Ohio from October 1987 to June 1988. Kokai and Allen had the potential to be among the biggest Movie Hosts ever but clashes with station management over budget issues ended with their show getting shut down. 
Elvira’s syndicated show Movie Macabre had technically aired its final episode in November of 1986 but several channels across the U.S. continued airing reruns for years. During 1987 the ratings for the Elvira reruns were bottoming out in Cleveland, so WOIO decided to give its own home-grown Movie Host show a try in Movie Macabre’s former time slot on Saturday nights. 
And comedy was one of the strong suits of Frank & Drac. The other was the show’s conceit that the hosts were the actual Frankenstein Monster and Dracula, airing “biographical” movies about themselves and other Universal Studios monsters. 
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)
PART 67 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the January 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure: 
THE UNITED STATES STEEL HOUR (1953-1963) – Some of the finest hour-long dramas aired on American television during the 1950s and 1960s were produced for The U.S. Steel Hour. Over time the anthology program added a few comedies and children’s projects, but it made its reputation on the strength of its dramas. 
P.O.W. (Oct 27th, 1953) – David Davidson wrote and Alex Segal directed this tale of the tortuous brainwashing techniques that the Communist Chinese and their North Korean allies inflicted on Prisoners of War during the Korean War. In a way the 1950s Manchurian Candidate film trivialized the ordeals that service members were subjected to so that the reality seems to have faded into the background, replaced by pop culture melodrama. 
THE ABLEST MAN IN THE WORLD (1879) – This short story was written by American author Edward Page Mitchell. The central figure – but not the title figure – is a wealthy bespectacled man named Fisher. Because of his scholarly appearance Fisher is mistakenly addressed as “doctor” and “professor” while staying at a spa in Baden, Germany. 
If it’s Monday, it’s time for another current events roundup from 
COLLISION COURSE (1989) – Yes, it’s Pat Morita and Jay Leno as reluctant investigative partners. For starters, I owe an apology to 
Despite this Pat Morita-Jay Leno joint having a bigger budget and a supporting cast made up of real actors (Chris Sarandon, Al Waxman, Soon-Tek Oh and others), this production sucks like a Hoover vacuum. Not even some 80s street cred in the form of Randall “Tex” Cobb could save Collision Course, which was recognized as such a bomb that it didn’t get released – on video, at that – until 1992. And even then it was done solely to exploit Leno taking over The Tonight Show from Johnny Carson.
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