Monthly Archives: October 2025

BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM OCT 4th

HEADLINES

NUMBER FOUR TAKES A FALL – In NCAA Division 3, the number 12 BETHEL (MN) ROYALS welcomed the nation’s 4th ranked ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY JOHNNIES in this game. A 3-0 Royals edge to end the 1st Quarter became a 10-10 tie at the midpoint. After a scoreless 3rd Quarter, the 4th saw Bethel University dispatch the Johnnies 17-10. 

KNOCKING OFF NUMBER SIX – NCAA Division 2’s 7th ranked UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT THE PERMIAN BASIN FALCONS were on the road against the number 6 team in the nation – the ANGELO STATE RAMS. By Halftime the Falcons were on top 21-7 before Angelo State cut that to 21-14 in the 3rd Quarter. UT-Permian Basin consummated the mild Upset 28-14 in the 4th. 

DOWN GOES NUMBER TEN – In the NAIA, the FLORIDA MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY LIONS paid a visit to the 10th ranked team in the country – the SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY FIRE. A 10-0 1st Quarter lead for the Fire was cut to a mere 17-14 edge over their opponents by the Half. The 3rd Quarter ended with the Lions up 21-20 and the 4th in a 28-23 FMU win. Continue reading

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MAN-SIZE IN MARBLE (1887) HALLOWEEN STORY

MAN-SIZE IN MARBLE (1887) – One of the iconic Edith Nesbit’s short horror stories. This was first published in the December of 1887 issue of the magazine Home Chimes. Nesbit later included it in her collection of short stories titled Grim Tales (1893). For modern readers – and possibly Victorian Age readers, too – it’s always clear where the story is headed but it’s still worth checking out.

A pair of newlyweds – Laura and her husband, the story’s narrator – have moved down to the south of England. The loving and devoted pair are self-styled bohemians and can afford to spend their days writing (in Laura’s case) and painting (in her husband’s case). 

Considering the conventional houses of the region to be unfit for a couple of such artistic temperaments they instead choose to live in a very old stone house. Continue reading

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MYSTIC COMICS (1940): MARVEL/ TIMELY SERIES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the 1940 issues of Mystic Comics from Marvel back when the company was known as Timely Comics.

MYSTIC COMICS Vol 1 #1 (Mar 1940)

A. The Origin of the Blue Blaze – In 1852, 20-something Spencer Keen is seemingly killed in a tragic accident caused by a Blue Energy experiment his father is conducting. He is buried, but in 1940 some grave robbers dig up his coffin and we see that he has really just been in suspended animation all this time. The fresh air revives him.

        Now endowed with Blue Energy powers that enhance his physical abilities, our hero adopts the costumed identity Blue Blaze and thwarts the grave robbers’ evil employer, Professor Drake Maluski. That villain has been experimenting on a ray that can turn dead bodies into a zombie army for world conquest. Blue Blaze isn’t having it.

B. Dynamic Man – Scientist Dr. Simon Goettler creates a super-powered android who can pass as human. (Timely Comics had created the original android called the Human Torch the previous year, too.) Gottlieb has a heart attack and dies after activating this Dynamic Man android but the incredibly intelligent creation uses its Superman-level strength and ability to shoot energy blasts from its hands to fight evildoers.

        Dynamic Man battles evil millionaire Daniel “King” Bascom and his army. Bascom has financed the invention of a machine which lets him weaponize storms in all kinds of ways. Dynamic Man defeats Bascom’s forces and turns him over to the authorities.  Continue reading

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HUMPHREY BOGART AS AN UNDEAD MAD SCIENTIST: THE RETURN OF DR. X (1939)

Here’s a Balladeer’s Blog Halloween Season classic from 2011. 

Return of Dr X

THE RETURN OF DR. X (1939) – Category: Enjoyably campy bad movie elevated by kitsch-value in the casting. (Wow! I forgot I used to use categories for my Bad Movie Reviews.) 

Yes, it’s the famous “Humphrey Bogart as a zombie mad scientist” movie. The tale goes that Jack Warner inflicted this role on gangster-flick star Bogart as punishment for resisting being cast in too many formulaic crime films. This was, of course, before The Maltese Falcon made Bogie a big-time star and long before actors had the kind of contracts that they have these days.

Bogart plays the titular Dr. X, but not the same Dr. X that Lionel Atwill played in a movie of that name earlier in the decade. This Dr. X is Dr. Maurice Xavier, a mad scientist executed in the electric chair for, among other things, bizarre experiments on infants (a pretty ballsy story element in those pre- Auschwitz awareness days).

The “return” mentioned in the title refers to the fact that Bogart’s Dr. X has been brought back from the dead by the film’s secondary menace, Dr. Flegg. But let’s face it, The Return of Dr. Flegg just doesn’t have the same sinister appeal. Continue reading

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AMERICA HAS HAD TWENTY-ONE PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT “SHUTDOWNS” – PLUS FRIDAY’S CURRENT EVENTS ROUNDUP

Yes, those government “shutdowns” that aren’t technically shutdowns have happened TWENTY-ONE TIMES before since 1976. (Hint for uninformed Trump-haters – he wasn’t president in 1976.) Another “continuing resolution” will eventually be done. Anyway, here’s an October 3rd current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

GALLUP POLL: ONLY TWENTY-EIGHT PERCENT STILL TRUST THE CORPORATE MEDIA, A NEW RECORD LOW. Down from 31% last year. Our corporate media do not deserve anyone’s trust. They shill for specific political parties and for their corporate owners.

Nancy Pelosi, whose policies harm the working class and the poor.

PRIVILEGED WHITE ONE PERCENTER DEMOCRAT NANCY “ASK HER ABOUT HER INSIDER TRADING SCANDALS” PELOSI RESENTS ANOTHER REMINDER THAT AOC HAS ECLIPSED HER IN PARTY INFLUENCE. Well, Pelosi’s failed time as Speaker of the House resulted in the Democrats losing their majority TWICE. 

STOCKS RISE TO NEW RECORD HIGHS. “Shutdown” histrionics have become so routine over the past five decades. Plus if someone wasn’t upset about shutdowns under Biden or Obama why act like they care now?

RABID WAR CRIMINAL VLAD PUTIN STATES HE WILL IGNORE INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS AGAINST FELLOW MAD-DOGS IN IRAN. Continue reading

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CEMETERY OF TERROR (1985) FILM REVIEW

CEMETERY OF TERROR (1985) – HALLOWEEN MONTH CONTINUES! Released in Mexico as Cementerio del terror, this overlooked movie makes for some nice Halloween season viewing and is even set on October 31st. Cemetery of Terror is not as campy as Mexican Wrestling Horror flicks or notorious works like The Brainiac, The Curse of the Crying Woman, The Man and the Monster, etc. Instead, its many flaws work to its benefit for that 1980s VHS feel.

Psychotronic Hall of Fame figures like Hugo Stiglitz, Ruben Galindo Jr. and Rene Cardona III were in the creative team of this laughably bad but grim and downbeat movie. Cemetery of Terror is ideal for Bad Movie Fans with strong stomachs because some of the gore reaches Lucio Fulci levels. 

Sure, you’ve seen everything in this flick before, but you’ve rarely seen it done with such élan. The energetic camera work overcomes the poor acting, idiotic character decisions and frequent repetition. Let’s dive into the smorgasbord of horror elements jam-packed into this project and ask ourselves “Just how much money did the makers of Pepsi Free pay for the wall-to-wall product placements they got?” Continue reading

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PHILYLLIUS: ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES

Once again, Balladeer’s Blog looks at the fragmentary remains of one of the lesser-known ancient Greek comedy playwrights, in this case Philyllius. This comic poet’s career seems to have spanned approximately from the 410s BC to 390 BC. One of his comedies won 1st prize at a Lenaea festival in the 390s and he won 1st prize at an unknown Dionysia. His fellow comedian Strattis credited him with being the first Attic Old Comic to use real torches on stage.

My favorite random line from his fragments: “The most important element of health is to breathe clean and unsullied air.”

I. HERAKLES – This comedy by Philyllius combined mythological burlesque with a comical look at the institution of phratries in ancient Greece. Phratries were the forerunner of and partial inspiration for college fraternities and sororities as well as some lodges. That’s one of the reasons why fraternities and sororities are known by Greek letters.   Continue reading

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OCTOBER FIRST ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Here’s a midweek current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog here in an America where Democrats will now assassinate a person bodily and then assassinate their late victim’s character to try justifying the killing they committed. 

PRESIDENT TRUMP NEGOTIATES WITH PFIZER TO LOWER U.S. PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES BY FORTY PERCENT TO EIGHTY PERCENT. Have I mentioned lately that Donald Trump is the greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime? And he stated ANOTHER drug company’s participation in such a deal will be announced next week.

TRUMP ACTION WILL HELP FIGHT DEMOCRAT POLICIES THAT INCREASED HEALTH CARE COSTS FOR SENIOR CITIZENS. Great timing by President Trump.

ANOTHER COMMON POLICY BETWEEN TRUMP AND FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT. Two of the greatest presidents for the working class and the poor.

UKRAINE LAWMAKERS JOIN THE WORLD LEADERS OF SEVERAL OTHER NATIONS IN NOMINATING PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. He’s ended five wars and counting.

EUROPEAN LEADERS RALLY AROUND PRESIDENT TRUMP’S GAZA PEACE PLAN. So do the Arab and Muslim world HERE. Even the Palestinian Authority is in, but the terrorist animals of Hamas will likely kill it.

PRO-TRUMP CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR WINSOME SEARS RELEASES VIDEO HIGHLIGHTING LEFTIST VIOLENCE. Violence which even far left Axios admits is at its highest in thirty years.

DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO MOCK PUBLIC PRAYER, YET THEY CONTINUE WITH THEIR IMBECILIC, NURSERY RHYME LEVEL CHANTS DURING THEIR (YAAAWWN) PROTESTS. Hey Democrats, how about if you just let people pray and you can just go on with your brainless, child-minded chanting?

SINALOA DRUG CARTEL LEADER COMPLAINS THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP IS MAKING THE CARTEL’S ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES HARDER.

Everything Democrats hate.

BOMB SQUAD CALLED IN TO DEAL WITH LATEST LIKELY DEMOCRAT STRIKE AIMED AT CHARLIE KIRK’S ORGANIZATION TURNING POINT USA. Device detonated to spare harm to the innocent. 

OBAMA’S ICE DIRECTOR STATES ILLINOIS POLICE NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB HELPING TO SAFEGUARD THE ICE FACILITY. Courageous non-partisanship given Democrat violence. Continue reading

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HALLOWEEN MONTH BEGINS FOR 2025

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 get in the mood, here’s a sampling of very old horror stories that have been all but forgotten. I’ll rotate new ones in throughout the month.

THE MONSTER-MAKER (1897) – Set in San Francisco, this W.C. Morrow tale was praised by the one and only Ambrose Bierce. A truly unique monster gets cobbled together by a mad scientist but instead of a castle in Europe the action takes place in Frisco. Experimenting on a suicidal young man, our insane Dr. X turns the lad’s body into a globe-headed, lobster-limbed abomination. The scientist’s courageous wife and a police detective work to bring down the madman. Continue reading

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