Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) was an incredibly prolific writer of novels, short stories and nonfiction works. Even people who think they’ve never heard of him may well be familiar with the movie versions of some of his writings: Captain Blood, Scaramouche, The Sea Hawk and The Black Swan.
THE SEA HAWK (1915) – In the late 16th Century, English gentleman Sir Oliver Tressilian is betrayed into galley slavery by his jealous half-brother Lionel. After a time, the galley on which Oliver has been condemned to serve as an oarsman is raided by Barbary Corsairs in the Mediterranean Sea.
Our main character and other survivors of the pirate attack are given the usual “convert or die” ultimatum by their Muslim captors, and the embittered Sir Oliver is content to embrace Islam and serve as a corsair himself. His leadership abilities and seafaring savvy let him rise to command of his own pirate ship and he becomes infamous as Sakr-el-Bahr, the Hawk of the Sea. Continue reading
GOLDEN STATE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The OTTAWA UNIVERSITY (AZ) SPIRIT took on the HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS for the GSAC title. By Halftime the Spirit held a 37-33 edge over the Royals, and a hard-fought 2nd Half ended with OUAZ winning the game by a final score of 71-69. Keshawn Bruner led the Spirit with 20 points as they moved on to the NAIA National Tournament. * THE SPIRIT ARE GSAC CHAMPIONS * 
GREAT PLAINS ATHLETIC CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS – First up, the top seeded UNIVERSITY OF JAMESTOWN JIMMIES downed the 5 seeds – the CONCORDIA (NE) BULLDOGS – 95-77 ### In the 2nd Semifinal, the 3 seeds – the DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS – edged the MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS in an 83-82 thriller. 
This weekend’s escapist, lighthearted superhero blog post from Balladeer’s Blog will present the 1970s clash between Marvel’s Adam Warlock, who is coming up in the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and the Magus, evil head of a thousand-planet empire. 
PART ONE 
FANTASTIC FOUR #66-67 (Sept & Oct 1967) – Featuring Warlock’s first appearance, albeit under the name “Him.” The Fantastic 4’s mad scientist foes in the Beehive, later called the Enclave, created Him, an immensely powerful life-form, to serve them in their mad schemes. Him, emerging from his cocoon for the first of what will be many times, refuses to be their pawn. The FF survive the encounter with Him, who slaughters some of the scientists and disappears. 
THOR #165-166 (June & July 1969) – Him had been floating in space in his cocoon since leaving the Earth. The cocoon was found by an Earth space probe which brought the cocoon back to a research center on Earth. Him emerged from the cocoon, met and fell in “love” with Thor’s romantic partner Sif and abducted her. Thor furiously fought Him to rescue Sif and defeated Him, who again retreated into his cocoon and floated off into space. 
MARVEL PREMIERE #1-2 (Apr & May 1972), WARLOCK #1-8 (Aug 1972 – October 1973), HULK #176-178 (Jun 1974 – Aug 1974) – This time Him’s cocoon was discovered floating in space by the godlike being called the High Evolutionary. This sometimes hero and sometimes villain added to our hero’s already massive powers by endowing him with a Soul Gem, later ret-conned as one of the Infinity Stones. This was its very FIRST appearance. 
THUNDER WARRIOR aka Thunder (1983) – Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve reviewed plenty of Spaghetti Westerns and Spaghetti-pocalypse movies, but in this item I examine what could be called Spaghetti Rambo flicks. Mark Gregory, famous as the post-apocalypse action hero Trash 
The story features Mark Gregory’s character Thunder as a modern-day (1980s) Apache who lives on a reservation in Arizona. Assorted corrupt cops and bigoted construction workers are verbally and physically abusing the men and women of Thunder’s tribe.
THE KE WHONKUS PEOPLE aka A Tale of the North Pole Country (1890) – The author John O. Greene was American, but the main character in this story is a Canadian named Sampson De Lilly. Sampson survives a shipwreck and is picked up by a steamship headed for the North Pole. 
NORTH STAR ATHLETIC CONFERENCE – It was all chalk in the opening round of the NSAC Tournament. The top-seeded MAYVILLE STATE COMETS swatted the (8) PRESENTATION COLLEGE SAINTS 91-63 ### Meanwhile, the 4 seeds – the VALLEY CITY STATE VIKINGS – eliminated the (5) BELLEVUE (NE) BRUINS 72-54 ### And the (3) DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS won 72-60 over the (6) DAKOTA STATE TROJANS. 
RELIC OF FORT TEJON (November 3rd, 1957) – Here’s something a little different from the usual for Balladeer’s Blog’s Forgotten Television category. The 1950s James Garner series Maverick was an all-time classic, but this particular episode is often overlooked. 
Previously, I’ve examined the 
In the past, Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog has posted items regarding all the presidents, all the vice presidents, overlooked secretaries of state, etc. This year I’m going with something different, because there is always something so intriguing about contemporary coverage of presidents. 
Balladeer's Blog 