BANACEK (1972-1974) – George Peppard starred as insurance investigator Thomas Banacek solving seemingly impossible thefts in this rotating series from NBC’s Wednesday Night Mystery Movie. NBC launched the Wednesday Night Mystery series in an attempt to duplicate the success of its Sunday Night Mystery Movie which had launched iconic detective shows like Columbo, McMillan and Wife & McCloud.
After its 2-hour pilot movie, Banacek settled into rotating with other 90-minute Wednesday night NBC detectives like Tenafly, The Snoop Sisters and others. Thomas Banacek was a Polish American insurance investigator at the top of his profession. For newbies to the concept of insurance investigators, the independent detectives among them would work to recover stolen objects which the insurance companies hiring them were on the hook for.
An insurance detective recovering the stolen item would save the parent company from having to pay the entire insurance policy amount. They would only have to pay a certain percentage to the detective solving the theft and recovering the insured object.
Banacek had become so successful and wealthy that he could afford to take on only those cases where the stolen items were worth at least a million dollars, meaning his 10 percent recovery fee would be at least $100,000. A minor pet peeve of mine is the way some descriptions of Banacek claim his fee is always 100 grand, but that’s not so. If the stolen object was worth 2 million dollars his 10 percent fee was $200,000 and so on. Continue reading
Labor Day is the appropriate time to post this look at neglected working-class folk hero Joe Magarac. This figure was the Steel Mill equivalent of Paul Bunyan and John Henry. 
As a lame play on words since this is Labor Day season I’ll present Joe Magarac’s origin and then depict his tales as “Labors” like in The Labors of Hercules. 
Here’s a Monday current events roundup from 
NAIA OVER NCAA DIVISION TWO – The NAIA’s FLORIDA MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY LIONS traveled to face the higher NCAA Division Two team the ALLEN UNIVERSITY YELLOWJACKETS. Allen University parlayed their 10-7 1st Quarter edge into a 31-21 advantage by Halftime. From there the Lions shut out their opponents and came from behind for a 38-31 Upset. 
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER THREE – Down in NCAA Division Three, the 5th ranked team in the nation – the WHEATON COLLEGE THUNDER – played host to the number 3 UNIVERSITY OF MOUNT UNION PURPLE RAIDERS. The Thunder put Mount Union on Upset Alert with their 17-7 lead at the Half only for the Purple Raiders to tie things up at 17-17 in the 3rd Quarter. In the 4th, Wheaton College managed a 24-23 victory. 
It’s no secret that Sharyl Attkisson – the Ida Tarbell of the 21st Century – is one of the few actual journalists left in America. She broke with her unethical colleagues over their refusal to cover the Obama Administration’s many scandals and found herself targeted by Obama’s FBI and NSA thugs. 
Our heroes don their costumes and as Captain America and Bucky they find Mara’s lair and defeat all her Nazi troops and her booby-traps. Then Cap defeats the countess and her purse’s weaponry – grenades, a gas-gun and a regular gun. 
VIKING TOUGH – The VALLEY CITY STATE VIKINGS welcomed the DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS last night. A 3-0 Blue Hawks lead in the 1st Quarter turned into a 10-7 edge at Halftime. A big 3rd Quarter for the Vikings put them up 21-10, but they had to hold on against Dickinson State in the 4th for a 28-25 win. 
UPSETS IN THE RANKINGS – The INDIANA UNIVERSITY (PA) CRIMSON HAWKS took it on the road against the number 12 team in the nation – the ASHLAND UNIVERSITY EAGLES and notched a 34-24 victory over them ### And the 24th ranked UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA AT DULUTH BULLDOGS toppled the visiting number 13 AUGUSTANA (SD) UNIVERSITY VIKINGS 30-23. 
Full Title: ORRIN LINDSAY’S PLAN OF AERIAL NAVIGATION WITH A NARRATIVE OF HIS EXPLORATIONS IN THE HIGHER REGIONS OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND HIS WONDERFUL VOYAGE ROUND THE MOON (1847) – This work was written by J.L. Riddell.
PART 75 – Regular readers may notice that picking up in June of 1915 is quite a jump from last week’s Fool Killer installment, which left off in Fall 1914. That’s because I can honestly say that James Pearson’s version of The Fool-Killer hit a decided creative dry patch for several months. 
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