Balladeer’s Blog’s month-long celebration of Halloween continues with this look at six of the neglected horror stories written by architect Ralph Adams Cram between 1894 and 1903.
NUMBER 252 RUE M LE PRINCE – A haunted house at the title address in Paris turns out to be the former home of a Spanish sorcerer. The story’s narrator makes the typically stupid decision for a horror story of spending a night in the house to get to the bottom of the supernatural phenomena.
He compounds his stupidity by sleeping in the temple room in which the sorcerer performed rituals on his Black Magic altar. Overnight the foolish narrator is attacked by a blob-like, protoplasmic monster with wide, staring eyes.
THE DEAD SMILE – Lured by shrill screaming and shrieking from the family mausoleum, Sir Gabriel Ockham seeks to quiet the dead. To that end he must creep into the tomb of his evil late father and obtain a mysterious package containing an old family secret. His father’s corpse lies there outside its coffin and with its decapitated head which moves around on its own, smiling at all who enter. Continue reading
Every day that neither Jeb Bush nor Hillary Clinton are president is a great day. Here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog I make a point every single day of taking in ten or more Democrat media outlets and ten or more Republican media outlets. 
Among the reasons I support President Trump is because he is a de facto Third Party President. Plus he’s not a career politician, which in America means “career white-collar criminal.” And he’s done more to help the working class and the poor than any other president of my lifetime. 
THE DEAD PIT (1989) – This horror film was the directorial debut of the very prolific director Brett Leonard. While not a four-star movie The Dead Pit is enjoyable enough for the Halloween Season and should certainly appeal to anyone into 1980s horror flicks. This movie’s hybrid of zombie elements and slasher elements is both its charm AND the reason behind its love-it-or-hate-it status. 
DOWN GOES NUMBER TWO – In the NAIA the 7th ranked GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS visited the number 2 team in the nation – the BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS. The 1st Half was a defensive epic with the Ravens leading 6-3 at the break. From there Grand View shut out Benedictine College while adding 14 points in the 3rd Quarter and 10 in the 4th for a 27-6 Upset. 
AND NUMBER THREE COMES TUMBLING AFTER – Elsewhere in the NAIA the number 6 MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS welcomed the country’s 3rd ranked UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS. The Knights grabbed a 7-0 1st Quarter lead which turned into a 21-10 advantage by Halftime. After the break Marian University scored the only points of the 2nd Half with a 4th Quarter Touchdown. The final score was Knights 28 Cougars 10. 
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER ONE – Meanwhile, down in the NJCAA, the 20th ranked HIGHLAND COLLEGE SCOTTIES played host to the number 1 team in the land – the storied HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS. The Scotties handed the Blue Dragons their first loss of 2019, emerging on top in a 29-27 game for the ages. 
LE DIABLE AMOUREUX (THE DEVIL IN LOVE) – Written in 1772 and translated into English in 1793. This story was penned by Jacques Cazotte and is a forerunner of the type of fantastic, oneiric horror stories that E.T.A. Hoffmann would specialize in. 
The House Democrats under Nancy Pelosi are basically admitting how unpopular their kangaroo court-level “impeachment inquiry” is by refusing to even hold a vote to proceed. Pelosi and her fellow Democrat criminals know that forcing a formal vote would endanger the reelection chances of many Democrats in the House who were elected from moderate districts, where Trump is popular. 
The House will not even allow their minority party, the Republicans, to subpoena witnesses themselves. Clearly the Democrats do not want an investigation or “inquiry” they are just hoping that this fraudulent impeachment attempt will succeed where Robert Mueller’s trumped-up “Russian Collusion” investigation failed. 
On a lighter note, deranged Democrat Rosie O’Donnell ran a poll on her social media feed regarding impeachment and 58% of her own followers voted AGAINST impeaching President Trump. Needless to say O’Donnell then took the poll down. A true Democrat! 
