A FAMILY SKELETON (1885) – This short story was written by one of Balladeer’s Blog’s favorite neglected sci-fi authors – Robert Duncan Milne. This time around, Milne’s tale deals with a French nobleman and his wife, who has proven to be sterile.
Experimental fertility treatments at last result in the wife becoming pregnant. On the day that she gives birth, she and her husband are horrified by the resulting offspring. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
HEADLINES
NAIA OVER NCAA DIV TWO – Yet another of the 2026 season’s Upsets by an NAIA football team – the WARNER UNIVERSITY ROYALS – over a D2 team – the CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY PANTHERS. The Royals led their hosts 10-0, 17-3 and 25-10 in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Quarters, respectively. In the 4th Warner U. consummated the Upset 32-10.
SPIRIT OF EIGHTY-TWO – Staying with the NAIA for a moment, the SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE MOUNDBUILDERS took it on the road against the BETHANY COLLEGE SWEDES. The Moundbuilders folded, spindled and mutilated Bethany College, converting their 28-0 1st Quarter lead into a 55-0 advantage at the Half. In the end, Southwestern College won EIGHTY-TWO to SIXTEEN! Continue reading
Filed under college football
This weekend’s escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the Golden Age superheroine Moon Girl from E.C. Comics.
MOON GIRL
First Appearance: Moon Girl #1 (Fall 1947). Her origin story was also printed in The Happy Houlihans #1 (Fall 1947) and Animal Fables #7 (Nov 1947).
Secret Identity: Clare Lune, high school teacher
Origin: Moon Girl was a princess of Samarkand, but not the real Samarkand in Uzbekistan, but rather the mythic Samarkand of ancient legends. Women ruled in our heroine’s Samarkand, and once she reached marriageable age in 1947, Prince Mengu from a land 1,000 miles away came to woo her.
Her mother the Queen of Samarkand gave her a family heirloom – the Magic Moonstone which the first princess of Samarkand – a woman warrior – took on the battlefield from the evil wizard Ka-Zhan in the 1200s A.D.. The moonstone granted her super-powers, but even before she possessed the stone she had been able to defeat all men who desired her in combat. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog is here with a Friday current events roundup.
I.C.E. RAIDS DEMOCRAT “SANCTUARY” LOCALES TO ARREST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONVICTED OF MURDER, CHILD RAPE AND CHILD PORN. Democrat policies are the only reason they were still at large.
PREVIOUSLY DEPORTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN LOUISIANA CHARGED WITH FIVE COUNTS OF CHILD RAPE. Someone should ask privileged white one percenter Bruce Springsteen about this.
CLUELESS ANTI-TRUMP LOONS FORGET THAT HAMBURGER AND GASOLINE WERE MORE EXPENSIVE WHEN OBAMA WAS IN OFFICE. Their TDS clouds their minds.
FLORIDA A.G. HAS TO STEP IN TO STOP TEACHER FROM HARASSING EIGHTH GRADE STUDENT BASED ON THEIR POLITICAL AFFILIATION. Democrats have thoroughly politicized every level of “education.”
BUSINESS DIGEST: HIGHEST EMPLOYMENT SUMMER FOR YOUNG MEN IN FIVE YEARS.
MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATS OUTRAGED AT A LESBIAN BAR FOR – HERE IN 2026 – FINALLY DROPPING THEIR COVID-ERA MASK REQUIREMENTS. See above. There is something seriously wrong with 2026 Democrats. Continue reading
FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. PART TWO HERE. PART THREE HERE. PART FOUR HERE. PART FIVE HERE. PART SIX HERE. PART SEVEN HERE. PART EIGHT HERE. PART NINE HERE. PART TEN HERE.
PART ELEVEN – Back at the home of his unfit uncle King Temugedege, Ozidi took Odogu’s Wife to bed with him that night. Though she seemed to willingly leave Odogu’s home, and in fact had led Ozidi by the hand as they fled, it became clear that the woman was playing a game of her own.
She and the eager Ozidi would kiss and cuddle and a bit more, but when our main character tried to enter her, Odogu’s Wife would go all coy again and try to get Ozidi to tell her the secret of his strength and his supernatural weapons. Our hero stubbornly refused.
So it went the next night, too, with Odogu’s Wife also inquiring about the magic powers of Ozidi’s sorceress grandmother Oreame. Over the next few nights, Ozidi, much shrewder than he had been before, pretended to go and get an object which would reveal all his and Oreame’s secrets to Odogu’s Wife. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
ANNE OF THE INDIES (1951) – Jean Peters stars as female pirate Captain Anne Providence, commander of the ship Sheba Queen. One day she and her crew seize a British ship in the West Indies.
French Captain Pierre LaRochelle (THE Louis Jourdan), himself a pirate, is imprisoned on the vessel. Anne takes a shine to Captain LaRochelle and gives him a choice – walk the plank like the other captives or join her crew and serve under her.
Pierre sensibly joins Captain Providence’s crew and takes part in the Sheba Queen‘s further plundering. The two buccaneers fall in love. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
TV’s DRACULA aka Jake Esau, hosted his Bad Movie shows in the old-school “vampire with a campy Bela Lugosi as Dracula accent” manner. His schtick involved the well-worn plays on words to emphasize anything that came close to “scary” or “bloody” during his Host Segments or his in-character gigs doing television commercials.
All of Esau’s Movie Hosting shows aired in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area. Those shows:
COUNT DRACULA PRESENTS (May 12th, 1984- ?, 1986) – Aired at 10:30pm on Saturdays on KITN-TV. Was a Double Feature for most of its run.
COUNT DRACULA PRESENTS (Sept 19th, 1987- Dec 26th, 1989) – Aired weekly on Saturdays on CCO Cable (also called KXLI-TV) AND syndicated on KPOL in Tucson, AZ.
COUNT DRACULA PRESENTS (?, 1996- ?, 1998) – Aired weekly on an undetermined day and time on KMWB.
HORROR INCORPORATED (Sept 16th, 2000- Sept 7th, 2002) – Aired on Saturday nights at Midnight on KSTC. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts
Time for a mid-week current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.
TWO MORE OF US FORMER DEMOCRATS CALL OUT THE PARTY’S INTOLERANT AND CORRUPT BEHAVIOR.
THREE-TIME DEPORTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS IN PRISON ON CHILD PORN CHARGES. But Democrats consider the people who arrest perps like this to be the bad guys.
AND YET ANOTHER BIDEN-RELEASED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED WITH KILLING TWO PEOPLE IN DEMOCRAT “SANCTUARY” STATE CALIFORNIA. As always, no sanctuary for victims under Democrats, only for perpetrators.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SENTENCED OVER SCAM THAT STOLE THIRTY-ONE MILLION DOLLARS FROM VICTIMS.
YORK ON TRUMP REDUCING POVERTY TO HISTORIC LOW. Continue reading
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.
PART 77 – As always, it’s fascinating to read the over 100-year-old opinions of James Larkin Pearson (and by extension his Fool Killer), including the opinions that one doesn’t agree with. Here are the Fool Killer’s targets in September 1915. There was no August issue that year.
*** Former President Theodore Roosevelt for his repeated calls to current President Woodrow Wilson that America should enter the ongoing World War.
*** Uber-wealthy J.P. Morgan for pompously proclaiming that the war would be over within a year. (As we all know, it actually lasted until November 11th, 1918.)
*** The Chicago Evening Post for supporting U.S. entry to the war.
*** Thomas Edison, but only with a good-natured joke about his recent remark “I owe everything to my wife.” He said she should take Thomas for everything he was worth. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
U.S. STEEL HOUR: SEASON FOUR (1956-1957) – “The Broadway of Television” was back for another season. Some standout episodes from this season:
WE MUST KILL TONI – The Oberon Brothers (Fritz Weaver and Norman Lloyd) need money desperately. They were counting on inheriting, but when it looks like the inheritance will instead go to Toni (Lisa Daniels) the brothers try to kill her in this dark comedy.
BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY – PAUL NEWMAN, George Peppard, Albert Salmi, Barbara Babcock and Clu Gulager star in the TV version of this classic story. A major league pitcher (Paul Newman) learns his catcher (George Peppard in his television debut) is dying from a rare disease. He honors the catcher’s request to keep the situation a secret from the rest of the team. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television
