For Balladeer’s Blog’s review of the first episode of this 1971-1973 series about non-Holmes detectives of the Victorian and Edwardian Ages click HERE
Episode: THE HORSE OF THE INVISIBLE (October 18th, 1971)
Detective: Thomas Carnacki, created by William Hope Hodgson. The first Carnacki story was published in 1910.
Review: Thomas Carnacki was an Edwardian detective who investigated the paranormal in 9 stories written by William Hope Hodgson, famous for the horror tale The House on the Borderlands. The fun of the Carnacki mysteries came from the way that sometimes the supernatural elements were being faked by human malefactors. The hero would solve the case either way.
In a fortuitous bit of casting which helps make this episode timeless, Donald Pleasence starred as Thomas Carnacki. Pleasence’s role of Doctor Loomis in the Halloween series of slasher films makes him a familiar face even to viewers unfamiliar with his loooong body of work.
Given that this program is titled The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes the best way to describe The Horse of the Invisible would be as a hybrid of The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Speckled Band crossed with the John Silence series of occult mysteries.
Renowned “Ghost Detective” Thomas Carnacki is hired by the patriarch of the Hisgins family to safeguard his soon-to-be-wed daughter Mary from a spectre which has haunted the family for centuries. That spectre is the titular horse, a ghostly mare which has murdered the first-born child of each successive lord of Hisgins Hall … when that first-born child has been female. Continue reading
MAY ??, 1800: The Adams defeated and captured the French ship Grinder. 
Memorial Day Weekend is fast upon us with this topical post from Balladeer’s Blog. This one covers some naval actions from America’s undeclared, neither fish nor fowl, quasi-Naval War with France. Often called Stoddert’s War in reference to Benjamin Stoddert, America’s first Secretary of the Navy, this conflict was waged largely in the West Indies. 
PART FORTY-THREE: The targets of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the Fool Killer in the January of 1911 issue: 
Balladeer’s Blog previously examined the thoroughly bizarre suspicions regarding two terrible U.S. Presidents – Barack Obama and George W Bush. Yes, I always made it clear that I despised them both but I also did blog posts about the ridiculously overstated accusations made against them. Examples include Obama supposedly being “a Muslim sleeper agent” and George W Bush supposedly having a hand in the death of John F Kennedy Jr. 
Trump and his supporters are often called Nazis by cowardly hypocrites who would wet their pants in terror if they ever encountered REAL Nazis. The nauseating anti-Trumpers even pretended to care about “kids in cages” until they learned that Obama and Bush pursued that policy before Trump came along. 
Even the pro-Obama clowns at Snopes admit Obama incredibly erred by turning over illegal immigrant children to CHILD TRAFFICKERS! Links below. 
Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog are familiar with my odd sense of humor and my in-depth looks at off-beat and/ or obscure items. GEEK CHORUS (channel logo at right) nicely covers all of that and more. 
An example of the former would be Peg Me Too, sung to the tune of Peggy Sue, about the ridiculous Preston Poulter situation. (That song features adult humor) An example of the latter would be Anna’s Crazy, sung to the tune of She’s A Lady, ribbing Anna That Star Wars Girl about her lovable eccentricities. 
POLEIS – In this post I’m looking at Poleis (Cities), written by Eupolis, one of the Big Three of Ancient Greek Comedy along with Aristophanes and Cratinus. This satirical comedy is dated from approximately 422 B.C. to 419 B.C. Like so many other such comedies it has survived only in fragmentary form. 
As for how people can be “costumed” as cities, picture how it would be done with American cities. The chorus member representing New York might be depicted as the Statue of Liberty, Saint Louis as the Arch, Pittsburgh as a steel worker, Los Angeles as a brain-dead movie star and so on. 
THE CHANCELLOR MANUSCRIPT (1977) – With the latest revelations about blatant abuses by the FBI and other politicized agencies here’s Robert Ludlum’s novel about the dangers of such abuses by both the left and the right. There are Deep State operatives and an ugly “we know best” mentality like in today’s headlines. (Think of fascist garbage like the CIA’s John Brennan.) 
From 1971 to 1973 The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes was a British television series which dramatized non-Holmes mystery stories by Victorian and Edwardian authors. For Balladeer’s Blog’s review of the first episode click 
Episode: MADAME SARA (November 1st, 1971) 
Review: Years before the insidious Doctor Fu Manchu and his dogged adversary Sir Denis Nayland-Smith came this detective and the female criminal genius he clashed with. In the case of Dixon Druce and Madame Sara, there was always an air of attraction and sexual tension between them. 
As the episode opens, Druce is in his laboratory engaging in a game of forensic one-upmanship with his Scotland Yard friend Inspector Vandeleur (George Murcell). Their verbal fencing over poisons is interrupted by Dixon’s old school friend Jack Selby (William Corderoy). 
Their fortune of 2 million Pounds will be left to whichever of their children is ultimately left alive among Beatrice, her unmarried sister Edith (Caroline John of Doctor Who fame) and their elusive, enigmatic half-brother Henry Joachim Silva (THE Roger Delgado for another Doctor Who connection). 
WE NEED THIRD PARTIES! And we need for even more of us former Democrats to #WALKAWAY from that divisive and destructive organization. Balladeer’s Blog remains the only site that equally criticizes both Republicans and Democrats.
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