Little Omnibus battle

 Let's return to the Omnibus bill of 1850. Stephen Douglas succeeded where Daniel Webster had failed and brought the provisions through the Senate in small bites instead of at a single gulp. Getting the provisions through the House would be another battle.

The laconic and handsome Linn Boyd would spearhead the effort in the House. Howell Cobb of Georgia was Speaker of the House, which contained members who were often hot-headed and undisciplined. Cobb picked Boyd from those clamoring for attention on August 29. Boyd moved to add creation of the New Mexico and Utah Territories as an amendment to the Texas border bill. He soon dropped the Utah amendment, and argued, so that none would doubt where he stood, that he was for union and the Constitution. He proclaimed that he was for union not only as protection against foreign aggression, but "for the more important reason that it protects us from on another."

Joseph Root of Ohio wanted to add the Wilmot Proviso to the bill. McClernand rose to oppose the motion. Cobb repeatedly ruled the Southern members out of order on their attempts to delay the bill. Boyd, with Douglas' constant help, battled against the chaos that reigned in the chamber. Votes swayed back and forth. The bill's fate teetered on the edge between success and failure. 

On September 5, Boyd refused to allow any more amendments to be offered for his bill for fear that they would cause the bill's demise. He moved previous question to call for a vote on the bill, but the question failed. "Long John" Wentworth of Illinois wanted to send the bill back to committee to add selected amendments. Cobb ruled that his proposed amendments could be considered separately. After an amendment calling for the Wilmot Proviso to be implemented in the new territories was voted down, Cobb ruled against a second division of Wentworth's motion, reversing his ruling on the basis that it had applied to a new motion, which Wentworth's motion had then been, but with a number of votes having taken place since, the motion was no longer new and could no longer be divided. Thus the only vote left on the motion was whether it should go back to committee. Cobb's ruling was upheld by a vote, and Wentworth's motion and amendments were defeated. 

Robert Toombs then proposed an amendment which, although hidden in innocuous terms, would establish slavery in the New Mexico Territory, but the trickery was detected and nullified by slashing some of the language from Toombs' proposal. 

September 6, Cobb recognized Volney Howard of Texas, who moved for reconsideration of a third reading of the compromise bill, which had been voted down the day before. The vote carried. Finally, the bill itself could be voted on. The little omnibus bill passed by 108 to 97.

The next day the California Statehood bill passed. After heated debate, the Utah Territory bill also passed. The fugitive slave bill passed on September 12. 

Washington celebrated. Stephen Douglas gave an impromptu speech, declaring the nation united from shore to shore with the mighty west as the connecting link. Millard Fillmore proclaimed, "The long agony is over."

The above is summarized from Chapter 26 of Fergus Bordewich's America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen Douglas and the Compromise that Preserved the Union.  

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I finished a short story yesterday. By "finished" I mean the first draft is complete. I'll do a read through and send it to my Skirmish Team for comments and criticism before I submit it. It's tentatively titled "A Stardust Memory."

 I also finished Jed the Dead by Alan Dean Foster. I had heard good things about it, and it was on sale for a buck or two. The story is about Ross Ed who finds a dead alien in a desert cave on his way from Texas to California. He continues his journey and encounters people along the way who help or hinder him. The government definitely falls into the hindering category. He ends up on the run from the military, people who want to use the alien to attract other aliens, and those looking to make big bucks from the intergalactic corpse. I have to admit that I couldn't get attached to Ross Ed or any of the other characters, and the story, although intriguing at times, couldn't consistently hold my interest. The text of the ebook had errors on almost every page, as if the book had been scanned with faulty OCR technology. I'm a fan of Foster, but this one didn't reach me. I give it 3 out of 5 road kill rabbits.

Don't forget, the first trilogy in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series is on sale, as is Smoke. See the links at the top of the page.

See How They Run

 

See How They Run, 2022, directed by Tom George and written by Mark Chappell, stars Sam Rockwell as Detective Stoppard and Saoirse Ronan as Constable Stalker. This parody of the murder mystery genre is actually funny. We've recently watched A Haunting in Venice (2023), and Murder on the Orient Express (2017); within the past year we also saw Knives Out and its forgettable sequel. I would rather rewatch See How They Run than any of those others. It has been too long since I saw Death on the Nile (2022) (which I enjoyed tremendously) for me to include that one in my comparison.

See takes place in the 1950s with a murder after the party celebrating the 100th performance of Agatha Christie's "The Mouse Trap." All the theater people as well as those connected with the possible movie based on the play are suspects. There's a certain predictability to events and to the humor--it is a parody of a formulaic genre, after all--and the ultimate callback is all the more satisfying for it. There are sufficient twists to keep one wondering. Even though I had guessed who the murderer was near the beginning, there were enough developments along the way to make me question my confidence on the selection. My guess was based on what I know about the genre, rather than any clues given to that point. 

Rockwell, better known to me as Guy Fleegman from Galaxy Quest, plays a subdued, perhaps depressed, Inspector Stoppard in stark contrast to the excitable and overconfident Constable Stalker played by Saoirse. She's worried about the sergeant's exam. He's concerned that she jumps to conclusions. Naturally, more murders follow the first and motives multiply. The execution of reveal subverted expectations and seemed like a subtle nod to Clue without the confusing nonsense. I give it 5 out of 5 spiral notepads.

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I note that the first three books in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series are only 99 cents each through the end of the year. Get them now, or use your Christmas loot to add them to your library. It is the first trilogy of the series, forming a single fantastic story arc. The paperbacks make great gifts too.

These are my short stories published this year:

"Monica on my Mind" actually came out in 2023 in PinUp Noir 2.

"A Matter of Letters" came out this year in Wyrd West.

"Freedom on Wheels" came out in Road Trippin'.

"Letters in the Mail" came out in Wyrd West Cursed Canyon.

"Love under a Purple Sky" came out in Space Cowboys 6 Fission Chips.

"Tokens of Moonlight and Mist" is in Cirsova Magazine #21 - although it was the first short story I sold, it is the last one published this year.

Cirsova Magazine also recently purchased my short story "Drown Melancholy" for publication in the fall of 2025.

Smoke is on sale, along with many other good tales - find it in this multi-genre sale 

Merry Christmas! - Remember, 5 star reviews are great Christmas gifts for writers.  

 

There she is

 

"There she is!"

Christmas and New Years are visible through the Mutara Nebula. I'm doing my part to help you navigate the holidays without functioning sensors. Don't get caught in two-dimensional thinking.

The first three books in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series are on sale for only 99 cents through the end of the year. The three form a great story and set up the confrontations in the next three books. It's flintlock fantasy with kick -- and dragons.

Smoke is at a reduced price for Christmas too. If you enjoyed Smoke, you'll want to read "Monica on my Mind," which is a short story that takes place shortly after the events in the novel.

Here's a Christmas sale on books in a variety of genres.

 

And finally, the magazine above with my story "Tokens of Moonlight and Mist" just came out.

 

I object

 

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! -- The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene 3.

I object to the subversion of good and evil. It has become popular to retell old tales and make the evil villain a misunderstood hero or heroine. Likewise, symbols of good are subverted to malicious ends. It's one thing for a character to attempt to make use of such symbology and association for his malevolent purposes--that's exactly what we expect from a great villain, as in Richard III, Act I, Scene 3:  

But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

It's quite another to twist the story to make the villain the sympathetic hero of the story - which in turn, requires giving evil motives, self-serving aims, and other vices to the representatives of good.

We see this in the movies and stories which subvert fairy tales or other beloved stories to cast the traditional villain in the role of misunderstood and sympathetic hero. Witches, orcs, goblins, trolls, and other monsters were created specifically as representatives of profound evil. The trope is often said to "humanize" the characters. Do we really need to have evil humanized? Good must then also be "humanized." In other words, good becomes evil and evil becomes good. The proponents may call it "making things real" or mention something about bringing out the gray realism as opposed to the stark lines of black and white. Good and evil become less than opposites in favor of blended shades of gray.

Alexander Pope described that in his Essay on Man, Epistle II, and also wrote:

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

We've been in the embrace for years.

Even Christmas horror movies and Christmas themed haunted houses rise from the polluted hues of the subversion swamp to upend traditional symbols associated with joy and the love of mankind in favor of fear, terror, and horror. Must Halloween's hand grasp to restrain the glad tidings of great joy? 

I object to the subversion of good and evil and the pollution of our happiest of holidays. Perhaps the subversive movement will soon run its course, but the taint will remain. It's easy to blend the colors to form the gray; it's not so easy to return the shades to their places. The classic tales had a purpose. They taught morality and virtue through simple, easily understood stories; that's why they've endured. If today's storytellers want to deal in shades of gray, let them create their own stories and characters instead of attaching themselves like debilitating parasites to enduring tales of the past.

Dreams

 

A still from the live footage of black Friday shopping.

 

Did you put away your dreams today,

Fold them up and lock them away?

Did you put them in a drawer at the close of day,

Or consign them to the dustbin of never may?

When do the things that you hoped could be

Become the dreams you'll never see?

Do they shrivel and starve by your consent,

Or does their own weight assure their descent?

How long must they languish before they decay?

What makes their once bright bonds wither and fray?

If your dreams breathe again tomorrow,

What inspiration will they borrow?

In pursuit of my withering dreams, I've completed the first draft of my adventure book for boys. The title remains uncertain, but it's a fun story filled with action and adventure. The two boys gain some skills, use their heads, and face their fears to overcome daunting odds and thwart the evil designs of a duplicitous pirate captain while avoiding a terrible dragon and her ravenous spawn.

Quest for Air

 

Artwork by Cedar Sanderson from interior of Space Cowboys 6: Fission Chips. It may even go with my story, "Love under a Purple Sky."

There's something about the idea of the cowboy that persists in the imagination of humanity. It's a romantic notion nurtured not only in the fertile imagination but in the heart. I've often said that the western is a uniquely American genre set on the vast canvas of the the plains, prairies, deserts, canyons, and mountains of America. However, the vision of the cowhand, sheriff, drifter, and outlaw transcends the geography and lifestyle that birthed it. The dream can't be restrained and has taken to the stars. Climb aboard and touch your spurs to ride that lofty ambition. Sic itur ad astra.

Space Cowboys 6: Fission Chips is out and topping the list in new sci-fi anthologies.

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I went on a quest this week. I didn't expect to go on a quest. I expected to make a quick trip to a gas station so that I could fill the low tire on the rattlin' battle wagon. The brand new station with its fancy-shmancy air station held out the promise of pressure, but that particular position on the premises remained positively passive. In fact, it had not been activated at all. I had to mess with it for a few minutes to verify that it suffered from a lack of power and that it wasn't merely operator error to blame. Fortunately, it only took credit cards, preventing the prodigal squandering of coins in a vain attempt to prime it to life.

There were legends that lived on from the Chippewa on down of another air station at the older sister station to this one. I consulted the ancient charts in the form of my recollection of having driven by the older place on numerous occasions. After placing the location in my mind, I set the sails and got underway, arriving only minutes later. Before me stood a seasoned air station bearing the scrapes and scratches of many encounters with desperate travelers. I gave it a brief examination and loaded it up with coins. 

Nothing happened.

I couldn't hear any compressor kicking on, nor did any pressure come from the hose. No matter how many buttons I pushed or how I adjusted the mechanism, it refused to perform the service for which I had paid. It ate about two bucks without providing satisfaction.

I had heard of another place whose name was spoken in hushed tones. Those hushed tones had come from the guy who had told me about places that might have air stations. He had mentioned a third place, almost as an afterthought. Having been certain that one of the first two possibilities would answer my dilemma, I hadn't paid much attention to the third. I racked my brain and shot the cue ball into the mass, scattering thoughts in all directions. One found the pocket. I knew the place, even though I had not noticed the air station. 

A reading on the sextant of memory let me adjust my course for the new destination. A slick maneuver and a shortcut brought me precisely to where I would've been had I taken a less imaginative route. I got into traffic, got through the light, turned, and turned again to find the air oasis. My keen eye found it hidden next to a shrubbery and completely devoid of knights with a favorite word. Although it took coins, I didn't have enough left to meet the minimum requirement to make the machine dance. However, being the resourceful type, I persuaded the apparatus to perform with a perfunctory perusal of my payment plastic. 

Thus did I complete the quest for air and did slay the dragon of diminished pressure in my pneu -- or at least forced it to retreat before superior firepower so that it could creep slowly back to clash again another day.

Affair in Trinidad

 

 

I watched this 1952 black and white movie staring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford during my workout sessions on the M5 over a few days or a week. It was directed by Vincent Sherman and features Alexander Scourby as Max Fabian, Howard Wendell as Anderson, Steve Geray as Wittol, Torin Thatcher as Marplon the inspector, Juanita Moore as Dominique, and Valerie Bettis as Veronica.

Rita plays a nightclub dancer/singer who's married to Steve Emory's (Ford) brother. Except she isn't married anymore as brother Emory has turned up with pennies on his eyes. Meanwhile, Ford is on his way from the States in response to a letter his brother wrote him on the say day he allegedly committed suicide.

Ford begins his own investigation. He learns things weren't great between Rita and his brother. at one point, the gentleman in the picture above tells him something like, "When a man is married to a goddess, he must expect other men to worship her." Although he isn't getting the answers he wants, he does get to stay in his brother's house with Rita and Dominique.

That's Dominique, the domestic in the background. She's the wise woman of color, as some might be inclined to describe her. 

 Marplon The Inspector is decidedly short on answers and information for Ford/Emory, but the inspector has more going on that Ford knows.

Ford sticks around in search of his own answers and things heat up between him and Rita.

 

They have a bit of a whirlwind romance over three days or so until Max Fabian shows up to revive all of Ford's suspicions about his brother's wife.

He's loaded with cash and has the hots for the lady. He's also got some Nazi scientists in his bedroom. SPOILER ALERT. Rita and her deceased husband had been trying to get the goods on Fabian. The decedent got caught and made a hasty exit from the spy game in a permanent way thanks to Fabian. Rita ends up telling off Ford to continue her cozy up to Fabian.

While Ford stomps off mad that he's been booted from the fancy party and banished from Rita's heart, she finds an opportunity to search upstairs.

She discovers plans, blueprints, or otherwise incomprehensible drawings, but leaves a fancy chiffon hanky Fabian had just given her at the scientist's desk.

Nevertheless, she strikes gold when she overhears the bad guys and sees the low-budget map with yarn and everything showing how the missile bases in the Caribbean will be able to threaten the entire United States.

A girl may not kiss and tell, but the chiffon hanky tells. It tells Fabian that Rita's a spy. He hastens his plans to depart from the island with his evil henchmen, adding Rita to the flight list, but noting that her ticket will include takeoff but not the landing. 

Dominique talks Ford into going back to rescue Rita, convincing him that she didn't even want to go to Fabian's and really only wanted to be with Ford.

Ford shows up just in time to save the damsel from her distress and get the drop on Fabian and most of his henches--emphasis on most. That guy in the background sneaks up while Fabian keeps Ford in place. The hench gives Ford the old ka-bong on the head, which causes Ford to involuntarily ka-pull the trigger. The ka-bang puts a slug into Fabian, who tells the others to leave without him and to take care of Ford--"take care of" in the sense of without-the possibility-of-future-complications way.

As they're taking Ford out, the cavalry shows up in the form of the inspector and his constables. In the quick exchange of pleasantries in hot lead, Ford takes his captor's gun and goes back inside the mansion.

Not wishing to be rude, he remembers to bring a gift this time, delivering a series of heartfelt presents to Fabian, who receives them at the top of the stairs in the manner in which they were intended. Fabian is overwhelmed at Ford's generosity and pitches over the railing.

After that, it's all over but the cruise back to the States with Ford and Rita closing it out with a last lip lock before the credits roll.

--I thought the show started with a lot of potential. It had a noir feel at first and Ford and Rita came across as intriguing characters--Ford being especially good wearing his frustrated-man-desperate-for-answers persona. Rita's role could've been better written, in my opinion. The film tries to recapture the magic of Gilda,which starred Ford and Hayworth, but never rises to that level of intensity. What started as a noir dish morphed into a predictable conclusion to a matinee serial. I give it 3.5 out of 5 slugs - which is probably the same number Ford gave Fabian.

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My adventure book for boys sails onward with the twins and their only friend in the strange new surroundings all in constant peril. The pieces are falling into place for the race to the finish. A certain exhilaration comes with writing the characters into dangerous circumstances without any knowledge about how they're going to extricate themselves and presenting them with difficulties to solve without having planned the resolution. Letting the circumstances and the characters drive the story becomes an adventure in itself.