THE LOG OF THE FLYING FISH: A STORY OF AERIAL AND SUBMARINE PERIL AND ADVENTURE (1887) – Written by Harry Collingwood (William J.C. Lancaster).
Professor Heinrich von Schalckenburg, a brilliant German scientist, is speaking at the Migrants’ Club, an organization of explorers and scientific pioneers. Von Schalckenburg dismisses lighter than air vessels and claims he will prove the success of heavier than air vessels with two of his most recent inventions.
One of those inventions is a crystal powder which can be used as an explosive and as a source of electricity and gas. The other is a new metal alloy that the professor has dubbed “aethereum”, a light but strong substance.
Von Schalckenburg says he is 100,000 British pounds short of being able to construct a craft capable of flying AND serving as a submarine. Mighty Jack, eat your heart out! Sir Reginald Elphinstone, a member of the Migrants’ Club, finances the professor’s project. Continue reading
Balladeer’s Blog will be featuring plenty of Top 20 lists in honor of the year 2020. Here’s one featuring 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans yet you know partisans will accuse me of favoring one or the other party in this list. What can ya do? Anyway, in no particular order:
JAMES M COX (Lost to Harding)
WENDELL WILKIE (Lost to FDR in 1940) 
NUMBER TWO TAKES A FALL – The MENLO COLLEGE OAKS welcomed the number 2 team in the nation – THE MASTER’S UNIVERSITY MUSTANGS. The Oaks put the Mustangs on Upset Alert by Halftime with a 45-37 lead, then consummated the Upset by a final score of 87-76. Ross Williams led Menlo College with 20 points. 
OTHER UPSETS IN THE RANKINGS – The (19) LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS struck down the visiting (4) UNIVERSITY OF PIKEVILLE BEARS 80-69 ### The HUSTON-TILLOTSON RAMS won 84-67 against the (6) LSU-SHREVEPORT PILOTS ### Meanwhile the UNIVERSITY OF MOBILE RAMS toppled the (8) LOYOLA (LA) WOLFPACK 84-82 ### And the ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BATTLIN’ BEARS totaled the (13) LEWIS-CLARK STATE WARRIORS 87-57. 
CENTURY CLUB – Teams scoring 100 points or more in Regulation: Just one this time around – the (15) HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS played host to the WESTCLIFF UNIVERSITY WARRIORS. The Royals were on top 48-32 by the Half on their way to a 100-68 blowout win. Josh Powell-Davis led HIU with a Double-Double of 28 points and 12 rebounds. 
SOLO (1980) – Written by Jack Higgins. Solo is not exactly one of my favorite espionage novels but it is definitely my favorite by Jack Higgins. It’s the story of efforts to catch an international assassin code-named the Cretan Lover. Luckily that ludicrous codename is often shortened to just “The Cretan” throughout the novel. I’ll use the same review format that I used for my look at The Top Seven Robert Ludlum Novels. 
With that whole Paul Krugman/ child pornography story it’s been a weird week, so how about another listicle to start the weekend? Balladeer’s Blog will be posting plenty of Top 20 lists in 2020. Here are 20 Quotes from playwright, gold-miner, gambler and businessman Wilson Mizner. 
“If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.”
It’s no secret that when the original 1973-1976 run of the Killraven series was canceled, writer Don McGregor transferred many of the story elements he had set up for Killraven over to his independent post-apocalypse comic book Sabre. 
The original Sabre graphic novel was in black & white to accommodate its graphic violence, sexual themes and its female toplessness. When McGregor brought back the character Sabre in a continuing, full-color comic book series at Eclipse Comics in late 1982 the original Sabre tale became more popularly known by its subtitle Slow Fade of an Endangered Species. Human beings were that endangered species, of course. 
*** Killraven wielded a sword, a photo-nuclear pistol and explosive throwing-stars along with his possession of The Power, a pre-Star Wars (as in 1973) version of The Force. 
NAIA Division Two – 1. OREGON TECH HUSTLIN’ OWLS ### 2. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 3. BETHEL (IN) UNIVERSITY PILOTS (Riverboat Pilots) ### 4. OTTAWA (KS) UNIVERSITY BRAVES ### 5. INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY WILDCATS ### 
6. WASHINGTON ADVENTIST UNIVERSITY SHOCK ### 7. COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES ### 8. MOUNT VERNON NAZARENE UNIVERSITY COUGARS ### 9. MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS ### 10. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS ### 
America’s Democrats took time out from telling us that U.S. troops “are the REAL terrorists” to pretend they care about what may happen to American troops in the field after the slaying of atrocity-master Qassem Soleimani. Islamic expert Maajid Nawaz weighed in on social media and elsewhere with his 10 tips on what to look for in anti-western demagogues “who know nothing about the Middle East but will now talk as if they do:
CHANGE OF HABIT (1969) – This review is in honor of Elvis Presley’s birthday. Change of Habit is a movie that was practically MADE to be ridiculed. You’ve got Elvis Presley, never exactly a master thespian, his sideburns, which out-perform him in this flick and Mary Tyler Moore as a nun torn between her vows and her growing attraction to The King.
January 8th is the combined marking of Elvis Presley’s birthday and the Battle of New Orleans, in which General Andrew Jackson and French Pirate Jean Lafitte defeated the British in the final battle of the War of 1812. 
LOVE ME TENDER (1956) – Elvis was the latest reason that the saga of the Reno Gang/ Reno Brothers got distorted on the big screen. The need to turn the Reno story into a vehicle for Elvis Presley made this attempt the most unintentionally funny of them all. 
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