NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS fought it out with the defending champs – the KEISER UNIVERSITY SEAHAWKS. Grand View U. led 7-0 to end the 1st Quarter and 21-7 come Halftime. The Vikings shut out Keiser the rest of the way, leading 28-7 in the 3rd Quarter before winning the game 35-7. * THE VIKINGS ARE 2024 NAIA CHAMPIONS * Continue reading
Filed under college football
To mark the shortest day of the year, Balladeer’s Blog’s escapist weekend superhero post will look at even more Marvel Comics (back then called Timely Comics) 1940s heroes who made only ONE appearance.
MERZAH THE MYSTIC
Real Name: Merzah
Appeared In: Mystic Comics #4 (August 1940)
Origin: Merzah was a mutant born with his powers.
Powers: This hero could read minds, communicate telepathically and perceive people’s emotions. His psychic senses alerted him to impending dangers. In addition, Merzah could see into the future as well as the past.
Comment: Merzah’s sidekicks were his romantic partner Diana Lanford and his chauffer Jose Abejaron. In his sole adventure Merzah the Mystic defeated a Japanese spy named Satokata Matsu. Though America had not entered World War Two yet, Matsu was sabotaging U.S. infrastructure and stealing defense secrets. Merzah stopped the villain from derailing a loaded train. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
From Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog it’s time for another current events roundup.
*** QUICK NOTE FOR OVERSEAS READERS – THE INITIALS “C.R.” IN SO MANY STORIES ABOUT THE SPENDING NEGOTIATIONS STAND FOR CONTINUING RESOLUTION. Long before Trump came along, Democrats and Republicans spent decades playing games of chicken over trying to avoid “government shutdowns” ultimately blaming each other for any temporary shutdowns that resulted.
Long years ago things were always slapped together right before a shutdown while the corrupt political establishment acted like an apocalypse had been averted. But eventually, arrangements started falling through and we got “government shutdowns” (which were NEVER truly government shutdowns) that resulted in Continuing Resolutions, etc. and our white-collar criminals in office switched to hyping up the repeated “showdowns” over the C.R.s, like is going on now.
HOWEVER, THIS TIME IS EVEN MORE REPULSIVE BECAUSE MEMBERS OF THE OUTGOING, LAME-DUCK CONGRESS ARE SABOTAGING ATTEMPTS AT COMPROMISE BY INCLUDING DEAL-BREAKING ITEMS. This is setting an ugly trend for the future – Congress members who were just VOTED OUT OF OFFICE in November are free to play scorched earth games with the entire country on their way out the door. Specific members from BOTH parties are guilty.
CONFIDENCE IN TRUMP LEADS TO FIRST RISE IN LEADING ECONOMIC INDICATORS IN YEARS. He fixed the economy before, hopefully he can do it again.
Nancy Pelosi, whose policies harm the working class and the poor.
DEMOCRATS NANCY AND PAUL PELOSI CASHED IN ON FEDERAL BAILOUT MONEY. All this on top of Nancy’s insider trading scandals.
CAREER CRIMINAL JOE BIDEN FREES MEN WHOSE VICTIMS NUMBER ROUGHLY A MILLION. Those same men scammed over five billion dollars.
OREGON DEMOCRAT ELECTION OFFICIAL RESIGNS OVER SCANDAL ABOUT NON-CITIZENS BEING ALLOWED ON THE VOTER ROLLS. Ignore elected figures who say voters should stop looking into vote fraud. It’s important to keep fighting it.
AND YET ANOTHER COURAGEOUS WOMAN WALKS AWAY FROM THE INCREASINGLY DERANGED DEMOCRAT PARTY.
AND ANOTHER APPEALS COURT – AS ALL REASONABLE PEOPLE KNEW IT WOULD – SETS RIGHT YET ANOTHER DEMOCRAT LAWFARE ABOMINATION AGAINST TRUMP. More HERE. Fani Willis goes down in flames. Trump responds HERE. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Balladeer’s Blog’s annual end-of-year retrospective continues with a look at July’s best.
SHOTGUN JOHN COLLINS: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER – A look at his real-life experiences and encounters with Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Johnny Ringo, Bat Masterson and others. Click HERE.
ONE LAST RUM MAKES THE LIST OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S FAVORITES – I squeezed it in right before July 4th. Click HERE.
RIN TIN TIN: HIS SILENT FILMS – I examined the real-life original Rin Tin Tin from his adoption as a puppy by American troops during World War One. From 1918 to 1928 the canine superstar became an international sensation who had more endorsement deals than some human actors. Click HERE.
COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: SUSSEX COUNTY COLLEGE – Click HERE.
THE BLACK SOLDIERS OF THE CHASSEURS DE SAINT-DOMINGUE DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR – I examined the often overlooked soldiers of color fighting on America’s side during the war. Click HERE.
THE TOUCH OF BREEZE (2023) – Pritilata Nandi’s latest literary work. Click HERE.
SILENT FILMS ABOUT THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR – I reviewed silent films about that war made in 1914, 1916, 1917, 1922 and 1924. Plus, an infamous court ruling on one of them. Click HERE.
HAS TO BE SAID: JULY SEVENTEENTH – Daring and irreverent takes. Click HERE.
DEADWOOD DICK (1877) – The very first adventure of this gunslinging Dime Novel character. Click HERE.
PONY EXPRESS RIDERS – A look at Pony Bob, Irish Tommy, the man called Boston and others. Click HERE.
JANUARY OF 1976 STORIES FROM MARVEL COMICS – An examination of every issue published by Marvel that month. Click HERE.
JUDGE ROY BEAN: HIS REAL-LIFE SAGA – A look at the stranger than fiction adventures of this old west gunslinger and judge. Click HERE.
THE JAYBIRD-WOODPECKER WAR (1888-1889) – The real-life war of bullets and ballots in Texas. Click HERE.
THE CLOCK – The pre-Superman and pre-Batman character from 1936 and his 1939-1940 stories. Click HERE. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association)
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – Last night the HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS did battle with the IOWA WESTERN COLLEGE REIVERS. A 14-0 Reivers lead in the 1st Quarter became 17-7 by Halftime. The Blue Dragons shut out Iowa Western in the 3rd Quarter while adding 21 points for themselves. The 4th Quarter saw Hutchinson College hold on for a 28-23 victory. * THE BLUE DRAGONS ARE 2024 CHAMPIONS *
Other championships decided thus far: Continue reading
Filed under college football
Balladeer’s Blog’s Fifteenth Annual Christmas Carol-a-Thon continues with that old classic that starred George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge.
This is one of the perennial staples of Christmastime viewing for many people. Readers are often surprised that it took me so long to review this one even though it’s one of my favorites. No special reason, it’s just that so many excellent reviews have already covered this Carol that I wanted to hit the more obscure versions first.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1984) – Let me kick off this review with my old, overused joke about wanting to hear George C. Scott holler “Dickens, you magnificent bastard … I READ YER BOOOOOOOOK!”
My only complaints about this undeniable classic would be 1) the way it’s one of those Carols which unnecessarily add extra tension to the relationship between Scrooge and his father and 2) unnecessary magnification of why the poor and unemployed are sad at Christmas. Dickens put it poetically. This adaptation belabors it.
Moving on to the performances:
SCROOGE – Be thankful that George C. Scott toned down his George C. Scottishness for this role. If you’ve seen him as Fagin in the 1982 adaptation of Oliver Twist you know what a bullet this Christmas Carol dodged. (“When you put your hand into a pile of goo that a minute ago was the Artful Dodger’s face … You’ll know what to do.” That’s the last time I’ll do that. I promise.) Continue reading
Filed under A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Another current events roundup from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog.
HERSCHEL WALKER NAMED TO AN AMBASSADOR POSITION BY PRESIDENT TRUMP.
CAREER CRIMINAL JOE BIDEN MOVES TO PROTECT BIG PHARMA FROM LEGAL LIABILITY THROUGH 2029. But remember, he’s been pronounced mentally unfit to stand trial.
SOFTBANK PLEDGES ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS IN U.S. INVESMENTS AS A SHOW OF CONFIDENCE IN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. Career criminal Joe Biden would have gotten them to invest that money in China or Iraq … while getting his usual “Ten percent for the big guy” graft.
THE WHITE-COLLAR CRIMINALS OF CONGRESS SLIP A STEALTH PAYRAISE FOR THEMSELVES IN SPENDING ITEM. Have I mentioned lately what a cesspool of corruption America’s political establishment is? And it will be the usual game of slowly learning what else was snuck through in the 1,547-page spending package, like pro-censorship funding. Trump’s 2nd Term beginning on January 20th, 2025 can’t get here fast enough. *** LATEST – Another hidden item – a provision to block the investigation of the corrupt and unconstitutional J6 Committee.
PRO-HEZBOLLAH DEMOCRATS IN NEW YORK CITY VOW SUPPORT FOR THE TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Among their remarks: “Our fingers, our pens, our rifles will be pointed at the U.S. government, the Zionist entity, and nobody else.”
In response, one journalist opined “The day will come when these Palestine ‘activists’ inevitably execute a massive terror attack in NYC. And once they do, don’t say we didn’t warn you.” Dr. Victor Davis Hanson has previously pointed out how such “activism” has “fused with the leftwing DEI industry.”
REPUBLICAN LIZ CHENEY ACCUSED OF WITNESS TAMPERING. The repulsive trash from a repulsive political family back in the news.
MORE DEBUNKING OF DEMOCRAT CLAIMS THAT TULSI GABBARD IS A “RUSSIAN ASSET.” Democrats need new material.
DEMOCRAT SENATORS AGAIN SUPPORT PUSHING TRANSGENDERISM ON STUDENTS FROM KINDERGARTEN ONWARD. Democrats, can you please leave children alone? Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Balladeer’s Blog’s annual end-of-year retrospective continues with June’s best.
THE SWAMP FOX (1959-1961) – The forgotten television series about a young Leslie Nielsen portraying Francis Marion, the guerrilla leader known as the Swamp Fox during the Revolutionary War. Click HERE.
BALLADEER’S BLOG’S FAVORITE RUM BRANDS – I presented a pair of lesser-known rum brands. Click HERE.
ANNA MARIA LANE (left) AND SALLY ST. CLAIR (far left): REVOLUTIONARY WAR HEROINES – A look at two heroines from the American Revolution. Click HERE.
BLACKE’S MAGIC (1986) – A Father’s Day look at the series which featured Hal Linden and Harry Morgan as a father-son team of stage magicians who solved seemingly impossible murders and other crimes on the side. Click HERE.
BAD MOVIE REVIEW: TELEVISION SPY (1939) – I examined this forgotten sci-fi film regarding the hilariously overstated potential of television for espionage purposes. Starring Anthony Quinn and Richard Denning (The Governor from Hawaii 5-0). Click HERE.
THE BLACK COAT – My look at this comic book series about a costumed Revolutionary War hero. Click HERE.
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE FEARSOME ISLAND (1896) – The discovery of a Caribbean Island on which an exiled mad scientist from Spain enslaved the population and made them erect his castle full of futuristic devices. Click HERE.
NEGLECTED REVOLUTIONARY WAR BATTLES IN FEBRUARY 1777 – Often overlooked actions. Click HERE. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
CHRISTMAS IN THE YEAR 2000 (1895) – This was written by Edward Bellamy as one of the additions he made to the lore surrounding his look at the world of the “future” year 2000 AD in Looking Backward (1888).
In Bellamy’s year 2000 Christmas is still celebrated, but in ways that are so different that they would be unrecognizable to a person of 1895. Readers are told that many in the year 2000 are astonished to learn that people of the 1890s marked Christmas at all given how every element of society in that time seemed devoted to ignoring Christmas and all it meant. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
Balladeer’s Blog’s Fifteenth Annual Christmas Carol-a-Thon resumes with a new review. One of the few surviving silent film versions that I had not yet covered.
SCROOGE, OR MARLEY’S GHOST (1901) – This big-screen Christmas Carol adaptation was the first-ever cinematic depiction of the Charles Dickens classic. The criminally neglected British silent film pioneer R.W. Paul produced the movie and fellow trailblazer Walter R. Booth directed.
Those two Englishmen deserve to be as synonymous with the early silent film era as Melies, Lumiere and the Pathe Brothers. There’s a terrific documentary from British film historian Kevin Brownlow that covers – among others – Paul and Booth and their works. Kenneth Branagh narrated.
Back to this 1901 production. Scrooge was originally just over 6 minutes long but like so many movies from the silent era it suffered damage in the decades ahead. About 5 minutes have survived and the film bears a few similarities to the 13-minute Edison Films Christmas Carol from 1910.
Like the later Edison effort, R.W. Paul’s production is presented mostly in pantomime style and with painted backdrops but it blazed a trail with a few special effects and was the first silent movie to use intertitles during its run-time.
Taking things in order: Continue reading
Filed under A CHRISTMAS CAROL
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