Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead returns! This time the shoutout goes to Heart with their song Nothin’ At All.
Tag Archives: blogging
BOONE MAY: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER
BOONE MAY – We ring down the curtain on another Frontierado holiday with this look at neglected gunslinger Daniel Boone May, better known as just Boone May.
Daniel Boone May was born in Missouri in 1852 and raised on the family farm in Kansas following a move around 1860. In the early 1870s Boone headed west with his brothers Jim and Bill. By some accounts Boone drifted into bounty hunting as a way of making a living while his brothers were into more sedate and settled livelihoods.
With the Black Hills Gold Rush raging in 1876 the three May Brothers headed to Deadwood, SD to seek their fortunes. Bill tried his hand at prospecting while Boone and Jim invested some of Boone’s bounty money in a series of horse-team changing stations between the gold fields and the railroad in Cheyenne, WY.
Boone earned a solid reputation for being able to use his guns to keep the changing stations safe from bandits AND from bands of Sioux warriors. Before long he had made enough money to buy a home and land near the Platte River outside Deadwood. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
BOOT HILL – A MINOR VALHALLA
IT’S THE FIRST FRIDAY OF AUGUST, MEANING IT’S FRONTIERADO! NOW CELEBRATED ON SIX CONTINENTS!
The joyous day is here at last so let’s enjoy our meals of buffalo meat, Tumbleweed Pizzas, Southwest Fried Rice, corn on the cob, Cactus Salad, mashed potatoes and Western Spaghetti ! Later we can wash down some Deuces Wilds (Red or Black) and Cactus Jacks while playing Frontierado Poker or watching Silverado.
BOOT HILL: The name has survived in much western lore as THE name for graveyards filled with gunslingers, outlaws and other stock figures of the Wild West. Today it serves as a blog post in which I focus on the causes of death for many of the men and women who have shown up in my Frontierado items over the years.
TEXAS BEN THOMPSON – Shot to death by multiple gunmen at Jack Harris’ Vaudeville Theater in San Antonio, TX on March 11th, 1884. It was a revenge killing that also claimed Thompson’s friend and fellow gunslinger John “King” Fisher.
DOC HOLLIDAY – Died of natural causes on November 8th, 1887 in Glenwood Springs, CO.
SAM SIXKILLER – Shot to death while unarmed on Christmas Eve of 1886 in Muskogee, OK (still called Indian Territory at the time).
“QUEEN” KITTY LEROY – Shot to death by her own husband in Deadwood, SD’s Lone Star Saloon on December 6th, 1877. Her husband then took his own life. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
SUPERHERO PANTHEON OF ACE PERIODICALS
Readers cannot get enough items on superheroes! Whenever I go too long without a blog post on this topic the reminders to do another one start rolling in. Here is a look at the neglected Golden Age superhero pantheon from Ace Periodicals.
CAPTAIN VICTORY
Secret Identity: Jack Wilson, Diplomatic Attache
Origin: Jack Wilson was serving as a Diplomatic Attache at the American Embassy in the fictional Central American nation of Centralvo. While there he gained superpowers but Ace Periodicals’ writers never got around to explaining how during this character’s brief run.
First Appearance: Our Flag Comics #1 (August 1941). His final Golden Age appearance came that same year.
Powers: Captain Victory (No relation to the Jack Kirby character of that name) could fly and had massive super strength. The upper limits of his flying abilities and his strength were never established before the character disappeared.
Comment: Since America had not yet entered World War Two, Captain Victory’s adventures had to walk a fine line. The hero thwarted an Axis Powers attempt to trick Centralvo into entering the war on their side, stopped a Nazi sub from secretly sabotaging the Panama Canal and – in a prescient bit – defeated a Japanese sneak attack on the American Navy.
LIGHTNING GIRL
Secret Identity: Isabel Blake
Origin: When Isabel’s Naval Officer father John was brainwashed by Lash Lightning’s supervillain foe the Teacher and forced to help the Japanese forces against the U.S. When Lash Lightning was in one of the Teacher’s death traps he transferred some of his power to Isabel so she could help him.
Her father was freed from his brainwashing and died a hero. Isabel vowed to continue fighting the Axis nations to avenge her father and became Lightning Girl, Lash Lightning’s partner.
First Appearance: Lightning Comics Volume 3 #1 (June 1942). Her final Golden Age appearance came in 1946.
Powers: Lightning Girl could fly at lightning speed, shoot lightning bolts from her hands, generate lightning-heat and track Lash Lightning through their shared electrical impulses.
This superheroine could recharge herself with any electrical outlet. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
GUNPLAY MAXWELL – NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER
The Frontierado holiday is Friday, August 3rd!
GUNPLAY MAXWELL – This neglected gunslinger was born in Boston, MA as James Otis Bliss circa 1860. When he was 15 years old he got into a fight with a friend at a Boston tavern and shot him to death. Fleeing authorities the young man headed west and began a life of using various false names, including Charles L Maxwell or “Gunplay” Maxwell as he is best remembered.
Life on the run was bringing out both the dark violence AND the shrewd manipulative streak that would characterize the young man for the rest of his life. By late 1876 he was in Texas staying alive through assorted robberies, con games and increasingly frequent gunplay. Texas eventually became too hot for Gunplay Maxwell and by the late 1870s or early 1880s he moved north to Montana. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: BALLADEER’S BLOG’S PRESEASON NAIA RANKINGS
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) – 1. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS ### 2. UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS (Defending Champions) ### 3. REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES ### 4. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS ### 5. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS ###
6. SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY FIRE ### 7. DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS ### 8. ARIZONA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FIRESTORM ### 9. MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS ### 10. CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY PHOENIX ### Continue reading
Filed under college football
“MAVERICK DIDN’T COME HERE TO LOSE” – FRONTIERADO SONG
Frontierado will be here this Friday and who DOESN’T love a 3-day weekend with Friday off instead of Monday! Two days to recover from all your Frontierado parties and cook-outs and late-night movie marathons!
Here’s another song for the season. It’s the extended version of Maverick Didn’t Come Here To Lose from the telefilm Bret Maverick: The Lazy Ace. That tv movie served to launch the brief 1980s revival of Garner’s character from the 1950s Maverick series. Co-star Ed Bruce sang the song, a shortened version of which served as the new series’ theme song.
Filed under FRONTIERADO
TRANSGRESS WITH ME: JULY 30th
Time for another round of Transgress With Me.
*** POMPOUS, FINANCIALLY COMFORTABLE DEMOCRAT SNOBS WANT WORLD EVENTS TO GO A CERTAIN WAY SO THEY CAN SELFISHLY GLOAT THAT THEY MAY HAVE BEEN RIGHT. IN CONTRAST, THE WORKING CLASS AND THE POOR WANT WORLD EVENTS TO GO A CERTAIN WAY BECAUSE IT IMPACTS THEIR ACTUAL LIVES.
*** REMEMBER THE LYRICS TO THE 1960s SONG THAT WENT “HATE YOUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR/ BUT DON’T FORGET TO SAY GRACE” AS A POKE AT MIDDLE-CLASS CHRISTIAN HYPOCRISY? … THESE DAYS THE HYPOCRISY OF LEFT-WING ARCHIE BUNKERS FROM THE 1960s GENERATION COULD BE CRITICIZED WITH LYRICS LIKE “HATE AND THREATEN VIOLENCE AGAINST YOUR NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR FOR SUPPORTING TRUMP/ BUT DON’T FORGET TO TELL YOURSELF HOW TOLERANT YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE”
*** NO MATTER HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT PRESIDENT TRUMP, IT’S BECOME CLEAR THAT THE COUNTRY COULD EASILY SURVIVE AT LEAST TWO MORE YEARS OF HIS ADMINISTRATION … BUT I’M NOT SO SURE WE CAN SURVIVE TWO MORE YEARS OF THE FASCISTIC DEMOCRATS TURNING EVERY WEEK INTO THE APOCALYPSE AND CALLING FOR VIOLENCE. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
3 GUNSLINGERS: HAVE NICKNAME, WILL TRAVEL
Frontierado is coming up this Friday, August 3rd. The holiday celebrates the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality. With just a few days remaining until the big day I’ll be squeezing in some last seasonal posts.
Part of the appeal of old west gunslingers lies in their catchy nicknames. I’ve covered all of the big names over the years, so here are a few more who don’t get the attention they deserve.
CASH HOLLISTER – Cassius M “Cash” Hollister was born in Cleveland, OH on December 7th of 1845. Cash was a two-fisted and fiery man who felt too constrained living in the citified East. In 1877 he traveled to Kansas, where he did hotel work in Wichita before moving on to Caldwell.
Hollister married Sadia Rhodes in 1878 and in late October of 1879 was elected Mayor of Caldwell following the violent death of the town’s previous Mayor. High office did nothing to diminish Cash’s high spirits and he continued to participate in frequent barroom brawls and street fights.
Choosing not to stand for reelection in 1880, Hollister held no further official position until very early 1883, when he was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal by Marshal B.S. Simpson. Within months Cash was involved in a series of gunfights against horse thieves and cattle rustlers in the sprawling criminal organization headed by Jay Wilkinson. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
BLUE DRAGONS FOOTBALL PICKED FOURTH IN THE JAYHAWK CONFERENCE
WICHITA – There was one overriding theme on Friday at the 2018 Jayhawk Conference Football Media Day at Newman University.
“The Jayhawk Conference is an elite conference. There are eight great teams,” Hutchinson College head coach Rion Rhoades said during his turn at the podium.
“The conference is a grind. You have to be on your A-game,” Butler coach Tim Schaffner said.
The other six coaches had similar feelings about the 2018 football season. With the new scholarship rules in place for one full recruiting cycle, all eight coaches agreed that the KJCCC has more talent on all eight teams top to bottom than at any time in the league’s storied history. Continue reading
Filed under college football
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