BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL FOR OCT FOURTH

HEADLINES

DOWN GOES NUMBER TWO – In NCAA Division Three the 6th ranked UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT WHITEWATER WARHAWKS played host to the number 2 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT RIVER FALLS FALCONS. The Warhawks held a 17-16 edge at Halftime and following a scoreless 3rd Quarter they carried through on the Upset with a 24-16 win.

KNOCKING OFF NUMBER EIGHT – Staying in Division Three for a moment, the number 18 WASHINGTON (MO) BEARS welcomed the 8th ranked JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY BLUE STREAKS. A 7-7 1st Quarter tie became a 21-17 Bears advantage at the Half. After the break, Washington U. outscored the Blue Streaks 14-8 to win the game 35-25. Continue reading →

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THE DALTON CHANGELING

Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected American horror legend in honor of Halloween Month.

THE DALTON CHANGELING

Anne Coleman was a feared witch in Lanesboro, MA in the 1780s. She was suspected of causing storms that sank ships, bringing on diseases that killed cattle, making food go bad and other malevolent deeds.  

Eunice Dalton – a new mother – had told her husband Ezra and anyone else who would listen that she was certain that Anne Coleman had stolen their baby boy out of the crib and replaced it with a changeling. Ezra and others tried to assure her that the baby was her own but she continued regarding it with fear. Continue reading →

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SPIDER-MAN, KINGPIN AND THE ANCIENT STONE TABLET

This weekend’s escapist superhero post looks at one of the most memorable Spider-Man stories from the 60s involving the Kingpin, the Shocker, the Lizard and Marvel’s Mafia pastiche the Maggia.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #68 (Jan 1969) 

Title: Crisis on the Campus

Villain: The Kingpin

Synopsis: The Kingpin, at this point in time still strictly a Spider-Man villain, gathers his criminal underlings in a plan to steal a priceless, ancient stone Tablet that is currently on display at Empire State University, where Peter Parker is a student.

That same day, Peter, his girlfriend Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson and other students get caught up in outrage over ESU’s decision to eliminate some student housing to accommodate the number of experts around the world who are coming to ESU to try translating the mysterious Tablet.

That evening the students mount a protest about the way some of them are being thrown out of their housing to make room for the arriving archeologists. The Kingpin and his thugs take advantage of the protest as it rages out of control to break in and steal the priceless tablet.

Peter Parker sees this and slips away to become Spider-Man. He battles the Kingpin and his men but the villain gets away with the tablet. Our hero is determined to find him and retrieve the mysterious ancient relic. Continue reading →

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PETER RUGG – A GHOST STORY FROM 1824

PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN (1824) – This short story was written by author William Austin. A ghostly post-chaise horsedrawn carriage is often sighted and/or encountered up and down the East Coast. The carriage is pursued by a supernatural storm and is driven by a man named Peter Rugg with his daughter Jenny as his passenger.   

In the story, the narrator character Jonathan Dunwell and his driver meet Peter Rugg and his daughter on the road one night. Rugg asks for directions to Boston, obtains them from Dunwell’s driver and drives off, pursued by the storm.

Dunwell is puzzled, so his driver explains that Peter, his daughter, and their black horse are ghosts. Long ago they were killed in a storm while making their way to Boston. Rugg had refused to seek shelter at an inn, screaming to the heavens that he would reach Boston that night or never, and he and his child were then killed by the storm. Continue reading →

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NEWS ROUNDUP FOR OCTOBER SECOND

Here’s the latest current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

IN TIM WALZ’S FRAUD-RIDDEN MINNESOTA, TWO MORE PLEAD GUILTY, THIS TIME FOR DEFRAUDING HOUSING PROGRAM OF FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.

JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT SCANDAL REGARDING MANY OF MINNESOTA’S JUDGES.

CORRUPT JACK SMITH FACES EVEN MORE LEGAL COMEUPPANCE. More HERE.

TRUMP EFFECT: NEW MESABI STEEL PLANT BRINGS THOUSANDS OF JOBS.

JOBLESS CLAIMS FALL AGAIN IN BEST YEAR SINCE 1969.

THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND MORE VOTER FRAUD CASES.

MORENO: VOTING FOR DEMOCRATS WILL NOT BRING LOWER GAS PRICES.

PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS REFUND CHECKS MAILED OUT FOR AMERICANS OVERCHARGED BY BIDEN REGIME.

MIKE MCDANIEL HAS A MASTERFUL LOOK AT CURRENT ISSUES. Continue reading →

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THE WEIRD, WEIRD WEST – HORROR FILMS WITH A WESTERN THEME

With Halloween approaching Balladeer’s Blog is doing its usual holiday-themed posts. This time around I’ll give a brief synopsis of western-flavored horror flicks. In keeping with my blog’s theme of covering out of the way topics I won’t be examining movies that are too well known, like Billy the Kid vs Dracula, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter or The Terror of Tiny Town. Ditto for more recent movies like Sundown and Billy The Kid in Hell. As for West World and Welcome to Blood City, those are more science fiction than horror, so they aren’t included either.  

black noonBLACK NOON (1971) – Roy Thinnes stars as an old west preacher who falls in with a coven of witches in the town of Melas (Salem spelled backwards of course).

The witches tempt Thinnes into thinking he’s a prophet and healer, then use his vanity against him and his wife during their dark ritual of the Black Noon, which takes place during a mid-day eclipse.

CURSE OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN (1974) –  A medical student and his hippy friends try to renovate a dude ranch haunted by the Headless Horseman. No, it’s not the figure from the Washington Irving tale, but an old-west gunslinger who was unjustly hanged, losing his head in the process. The Horseman now roams the dude ranch by night looking for victims to frighten. SPOILER: The Continue reading →

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HALLOWEEN MONTH 2026 IS HERE!

October 1st kicks off Balladeer’s Blog’s usual mixing of horror items in with my usual topics. I review horror films from the silent movie era onward as well as obscure stories from the 1800s and earlier, like they’re Halloween counterparts to my Ancient Science Fiction reviews.

To give new readers a taste of how Halloween is done around here, take a look at some of last year’s Halloween Month highlights:

GRAND FINALE

HALLOWEEN WITH PAUL NASCHY – I capped off the horror season with a look at the 60s, 70s and 80s movies of Spain’s King of Horror – Jacinto Molina aka Paul Naschy. And I mean all of them, not just his many, many werewolf movies about tormented lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky. Naschy also starred as a mummy, as Dracula, as slashers, as an exorcist and so on.

There was Assignment: Terror, one of my all-time favorite Bad Movies featuring aliens who possess the dead bodies of scientists so they can conquer Earth with a vampire, a mummy and a werewolf. Werewolf vs the Yeti was another as was Dr. Jekyll vs the Wolfman.

Non-werewolf Naschy films I reviewed included Count Dracula’s Great Love, Horror Rises from the Tomb, The Hunchback of the Rue Morgue (yes), Vengeance of the Zombies, Return of the Witch, The Mummy’s Revenge, House of Psychotic Women, Exorcism, and The Man with the Severed Head.

FORGOTTEN HORROR STORIES

MAN-SIZE IN MARBLE (1887), about old stone statues of two knights which come to life to do evil. Classics like The King in Yellow (1895), Isabella of Egypt (1812) and several Ambrose Bierce short stories. Continue reading →

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B-MOVIE HOSTESS MISTY BREW (1982-1983)

MISTY BREW – Faye Fisher (later Faye Fisher-Ward) played Misty Brew, the witch hostess of Creature Feature. The program aired Friday nights on Green Bay, Wisconsin’s WLRE from October 29th, 1982 – September 9th, 1983. For the most part, this show started at Midnight but was moved up to 10:30pm start times on nights when Misty presented double or even triple features.

Wanting to hop on America’s renewed Movie Host mania prompted by Elvira’s Movie Macabre, WLRE launched their Bad Movie Show Creature Feature. Auditions were held and the winner was Faye Fisher, who was in her senior year at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, majoring in Visual Arts. She had hoped to name her hostess character Natasha, but the station manager had already finalized the name Misty Brew. 

Faye Fisher stated she was not a horror fan but her friends in UW-Green Bay’s Theater Department encouraged her to try out for the hostess role. Ironically, though WLRE was riding the Elvira train, they did not want Misty Brew to show a lot of skin. She wore vintage formal gowns which she selected each week from a Green Bay clothing store called Glad Rags.

When Misty presented The Bride of Frankenstein, she wore a wedding gown from Glad Rags and wore the same gown for her wedding in 1984. The Movie Hostess’s hair and makeup were done by Bananas of Green Bay. Continue reading →

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SEPTEMBER THIRTIETH NEWS ROUNDUP

 Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog is back with an end of September news roundup.

DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE IN GEORGIA WHO WON THE MAY PRIMARY JUST GOT SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS FOR CRUELTY TO AND BATTERY OF CHILDREN. Democrats, can you please leave children alone?

BOSTON’S DEMOCRAT MAYOR CAUGHT PAYING FIVE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR FEES FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO TAKE A DEMOCRAT CLASS IN BECOMING “ACTIVISTS.” Citizens not eligible – only illegals. More HERE.

CHUCK SCHUMER ADMITS THAT DEMOCRATS WILL PUSH FOR AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND OPEN THE BORDER IF THEY SEIZE CONGRESS IN NOVEMBER. EVERY pronouncement from Democrats is about what they will do for illegal immigrants. Dems claim that America is some dystopian hellscape under Trump but apparently all our citizens are doing just fine under Trump or else surely the Democrats wouldn’t devote all their energy to illegal immigrants. Apparently illegal immigrants are the only people being inconvenienced by President Trump’s administration. 

NEW JERSEY DEMOCRAT CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE CONTINUALLY AVOIDING QUESTIONS ABOUT HER NET WORTH. For hypocritical anti-Trump fanatics, Trump is STILL the only political figure they press for financial info. (Which he ultimately provided and was proven to have done nothing wrong.)

CORRUPT JACK SMITH, THE UNCONSTITUTIONALLY APPOINTED “SPECIAL PROSECUTOR” (LOL) ADMITS TO MISCONDUCT WHEN COORDINATING POLITICAL HIT JOBS WITH EQUALLY CORRUPT ANTI-TRUMP JUDGE JAMES BOASBERG.   More about the Boasberg connection HERE.

MORE JACK SMITH MALFEASANCE. His and Biden’s illegal actions in harassing Trump knew no limits.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY TEARS JACK SMITH APART. 

HAWLEY ALSO EXPOSES JACK SMITH.     A SENATOR KENNEDY QUESTION LEVELS SMITH. More HERE.    

CRUZ TOOK HIS TURN AT EXPOSING JACK SMITH, TOO. Continue reading →

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A LOOK AT TWENTY JAMES GARNER MOVIES

James Garner 2Balladeer’s Blog is here with a look at a score of James Garner films. NOTE: The Great Escape is not included, only because Garner was part of an ensemble cast in that movie. 

Best remembered for his portrayal of slick-talking gambler/ gunslinger Bret Maverick and Westlake-esque private detective Jim Rockford, Garner inspired the term “marshmallow macho”. That description perfectly captured Garner’s special appeal.

James GarnerFor many American males James Garner and the characters he brought to life represented a happy medium between psychotically macho men and unbearably femmey men. I hate the term “role model” but for lack of a better choice that’s what we’ll go with.

In addition, Garner served in the Korean War and was a Purple Heart earner.

MaverickMAVERICK (1994) – Though James Garner was technically playing a supporting role to Mel Gibson in this film, Gibson was portraying Bret Maverick, the character Garner had turned into a sensation in the 1950s. Since this movie would not exist without the cultural cache built up by James’ portrayal of both Bret AND “Pappy” Beauregard Maverick (in old age makeup) this definitely counts as a Garner film. Bret, Pappy and Jody Foster as Annabelle Bransford are among the gambler-gunslingers headed east for St. Louis and a Poker Tournament on a riverboat.

James Coburn plays the Commodore, the host of the tournament. 

NECESSARY SPOILER: The lawman character that Garner portrays in the film turns out to really be Pappy Maverick, with Mel Gibson’s Bret simply playing along with his father’s impersonation. FOR MY FULL-LENGTH REVIEW OF THIS FILM CLICK HERE   

Barbarians at the GateBARBARIANS AT THE GATE (1993) – In this telefilm based on the best-selling non-fiction book, Jim plays F. Ross Johnson, the real-life president of RJR-Nabisco who unleashed one of the most chaotic and frenzied leveraged buyouts in Wall Street history during the “greed is good” 1980s.

The real Ross Johnson was close with Warren Beatty and other major players in the entertainment industry, which may be why he gets painted in a less villainous light in the movie. (Being played by the ever-charming Garner certainly helps.) In reality FEWER jobs were lost by the ultimately triumphant Henry Kravis’ LBO plan than would have been lost if Johnson came out on top.

Teddy Forstmann, the lone Wall Street figure of the 80s who was a voice in the wilderness condemning LBOs and the damage they did to the economy, gets depicted as a virtual loon. Very odd, since Forstmann’s real-life views on LBOs were closer to the sentiments of Larry Gelbart and the others behind this flick than Johnson’s or Kravis’ were.

Ultimately Barbarians at the Gate is a dark comedy classic, it’s true, but read the book if you want the real low-down on the eventful RJR-Nabisco buyout. Continue reading →

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