--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400014 Date: 07/01/96 From: HELEN FLEISCHER Time: 02:23pm \/To: SUZZE TIERNAN (Read 3 times) Subj: Test, again ST> I just got back from 6 days at the cottage. Read 6 books. ST> 3 mysteries - "Tis the season to be Murdered" by Valerie Wolzien ( I ST> LOVE Susan Henshaw!); "Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth" by Tamar ST> Myers. (My first by her - very very funny), and "New Orleans ST> Requiem" by D.J. Donaldson. Betty sent me a signed copy of that one ST> - it involves Scrabble! It was very good. I also read a book that ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Oh my, then I HAVE to find it! ST> involved a murder, "Miami Purity" by Vicki Hendricks. I wouldn't ST> call it a mystery though, more of an excuse to write about sex. There's a place for that to, I think. ;) ST> EXCELLRNT. Amy Tan is one heck of a writer. I read all 500+ ST> pages in about 10 hours, I couldn't out it down!!! I guess it was a ST> lucky vacation too - no duds! Woof! I don't think I've read anything quite that quickly. Sounds like a great vacation! I'm nearing the end of _The Case of the Hook-Billed Kites_ by JS Borthwick. I won't tell you how late it kept me up last night. ;) ... If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done. * Q-Blue 1.0 * Helen Fleischer is helen@mbbs.com in Fairland, MD --- GEcho/2-PCB/2 * Origin: * MetroNet * Columbia, MD * (410) 720-5506 * (1:261/1137) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400015 Date: 07/01/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 06:49pm \/To: DOROTHY REYNOLDS (Read 3 times) Subj: Mysteries -=> While in the White Hart, Dorothy Reynolds insisted to Fred Runk that <=- DR> You are probably right. From what I've read and heard, there DR> aren't too many original ideas for a story. Just different slants DR> and approaches by each author. If he/she is skilled at their DR> craft, can make each plot seem a new story. I heard somewhere that there are only six basic plots in all of fiction--the rest are variants. Unfortunately, I've never found out what those six plots were. One of them probably is that the butler did it. DR> Well, today was a windfall day. One of the contributors to our DR> private library brought 3 large cardboard boxes full of books. DR> Yippee. There's quite a few mysteries in the bunch. Ah, buried treasure! DR> Thank you. I hope so too. Have two or three publishers in mind DR> to submit it too. Sent it out once and got a rejection, "it didn't DR> meet their requirements, but good luck with your writing," kind. Have many of those also. DR> Have been doing lots of re write and it seems to be shaping up DR> better. Then I'll try again and keep trying. something's bound DR> to click one of these light years. That's what I hear--keep trying. DR> Well my friend, will let you know what treasures I find in the new DR> books. Picked out one that caught my eye. Ritual Murder, by DR> S.T. Haymon. Are you familiar with her works? This will be my Nope, don't know her at all. Let me know what you think. I visited some used book stores over the weekend and came away with a few books, both by authors I hadn't read before, but were recommended here. One is Howard Engel--THE SUICIDE MURDERS. The other is Batya Gur's LITERARY MURDER. Hmmm, just realized a trend has begun. Engel's book features Benny Cooperman, a Jewish PI while Gur's book features Michael Ohayon, Supt. of Criminal Investigations in Jerusalem. FR> ... Yellow gold...Plentiful compared to white-haired friends. DR> This is great. And I hope you consider me one of your DR> "white-haired friends." (G). Definitely, now that I know the color of your hair. DR> ... You know you're getting older when the happy hour is a nap. ... All my anachronisms are out of date. ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400016 Date: 07/01/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 06:59pm \/To: DOROTHY REYNOLDS (Read 3 times) Subj: Various... -=> While in the White Hart, Dorothy Reynolds insisted to Fred Runk that <=- DR> So I've heard. Whatever happened to the days when people hung out DR> around the cracker barrel and swapped tall tales? Wonder if that DR> still happens in the small towns? When I was a kid living in Long DR> Beach, Ca. the old fellows used to sit on the bench in the park DR> and exchange dialogue. My grandfather called it the "Spit and DR> Argue Club." Possibly in very small towns, ones that lack shopping malls. I know of one or two around here, and I see people congregating now in the parking lot of convenience stores, such as 7-11 or Circle K. Somehow that just doesn't seem to possess the same flavor as the General Store or the Blind Owl Pub. DR> The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for DR> curiosity. DR> This really says it all doesn't it? Definitely FR> ... New clothes and old friends are best. Old Chinese Proverb DR> And I have both, which makes me rich. (g). What else could one ask for? Probably a basic male-female difference here as I like old clothes and old friends--but new clothes and new friends also are enjoyable. ... You can lead people to knowledge, but you cannot make them think. ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400017 Date: 07/01/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 07:07pm \/To: DELORES E ROWE (Read 3 times) Subj: reading matter... -=> While in the White Hart, Delores E Rowe insisted to Fred Runk that <=- DER> IMO, the books aren't much better than the movies. The only James DER> Bond movies that were worth watching were the early ones with Sean DER> Connery. :) Read one or two, but never felt interested enough to read the entire series. The early ones with Connery were the most fun. Definitely NOT serious, heavy, thoughtful, meditative stuff. FR>My two summer courses that just finished today (still FR>have to grade finals) FR>consisted mostly of high school students--jrs. and snrs. No comment. DER> DER> Your silence is deafening! :) Yes, and you will need to keep the ear plugs in for a bit longer. FR>I also read the collection of short stories with Morse--MORSE'S GREATEST FR>MYSTERY. FR>Didn't work for me. Very weak stuff overall. A real disappointment. Have FR>you read it? DER> DER> No, I haven't and I heard somewhere else that it gotpoor reviews. DER> The publishers must have been pushing too hard! :) I hadn't heard about the reviews as I found an British pb, published by Pan Books. I was excited as I hadn't known there were a short "Morse" books. My excitement, unfortunately, dwindled as I read through the book. ... Two most common elements in the universe: Hydrogen & Stupidity. ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400018 Date: 07/01/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 08:10pm \/To: MYRL PARDEE (Read 3 times) Subj: Gail Godwin -=> While in the White Hart, Myrl Pardee insisted to Marilyn Pribus that <=- MP> Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! And I apologize MP> greatly. My beloved Godwin author, who I recommend highly MP> is a gentleman named Parke Godwin. And at midnight, my Interesting. I have enjoyed several science fiction novels by Parke Godwin. I wasn't aware that he had also written mysteries. ... Mondays are the potholes in the road of life. ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400019 Date: 07/02/96 From: DENNIS MCCUNNEY Time: 02:25am \/To: PIERRE AMADIO (Read 4 times) Subj: Holmes 's addiction ** From pierre amadio to All on 27 Jun 96 13:37:02 ** Holmes 's addiction pa> I have read that Sherlock Holmes (hope the spelling is good) usually pa> takes drugs beetween two periods of works in order to have something to pa> do with his mind. I read it a long time ago, and i dont remember pa> where. pa> Does any of you know if he takes morphin or cocaine ? Cocaine, against Watson's horrified advice. holmes needs to work, with a knotty problem to solve. It he doesn't have a problem to exercise his mind upon, he turns to cocaine to provide a similar stimulus. --- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 * Origin: * BlueDog BBS * (212) 594-4425 * NYC FileBone Hub (1:278/304) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400020 Date: 07/02/96 From: DENNIS MCCUNNEY Time: 02:25am \/To: DELORES E ROWE (Read 3 times) Subj: reading matter... ** From Delores E Rowe to Fred Runk on 28 Jun 96 10:34:00 ** reading matter... FR> FR>Err...You seem to have forgotten James Bond! FR> DER> Sorry...IMO, James Bond is kiddie fare to anything that LeCarre FR> DER> writes! FR>Yeah, closer to comic book hero stuff, actually. No, merely the first of the genre. LeCarre has more depth than Fleming, but there are *much* worse examples of the spy novel than Fleming's work. (Incidentally, someone is doing a Bond revival, offering reproductions of the British First Editions of all the Bond novels.) FR>That's what spell checkers are for. >g< I really wonder what's going to happen to future generations that DER> cannot add or subtract without a calculator or spell without a spell DER> checker. A major power outage and they are brain dead! Isaac Asimov did an SF story along those lines. The premise what that computers handled all calculations, and had for so long that no one knew how to do them manually any longer. The story revolves around a future conflict in which one side discovers a secret weapon: a computer repairman who has been studying the machines as a hobby, and has "reverse engineered" what the computers must be doing, re-discovering some of the basic principles of mathematics in the process. On a more practical level, a former co-worker who was an MBA candidate once got excused from a finance exam because his calculator died. There was good reason for it: he knew how to do the calculations manually, but it would have taken far longer than the test allowed to do so. My boss at the time marveled at the financial modelling software we used to do analysis. He used to do it on green ledger paper with pencil and HP calculator. It would take him 5 hours to do a typical job. He'd take it to his boos, and his boss would say "That's good, John. Now, what happens id the prime interest rate changes by one percent upwards?" and John would go back to his office for another 5 hours. With the computer, the same job took 5 minutes, once the analysis desired had been programmed. DER> I worked in an office in the 70's that decided to become a "paperl DER> pioneer. The employees were dragged to their new computers, kicking DER> and screaming, and it took close to a year before everyone had all of DER> their files entered. Wasn't too long after that there was a power DER> outage, and everyone was wondering around like zombies because they DER> "didn't have anything to do"! They had forgotton how to process things DER> manually! It was pretty sad. :( Sometimes there isn't a manual alternative. I knew a guy workign for a bank some years ago that had that happen. They *couldn't* do it manually: they didn't have the staff or the time, even though they knew how. (The systems failure was the result of a stupid blunder by a senior official at the bank who didn't listen when his tech staff told him what would and would not work.) --- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 * Origin: * BlueDog BBS * (212) 594-4425 * NYC FileBone Hub (1:278/304) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400021 Date: 07/01/96 From: PHIL POCOCK Time: 09:54pm \/To: PIERRE AMADIO (Read 4 times) Subj: Holmes's Addiction -=> Quoting Pierre Amadio to All <=- PA> Hi. PA> I have read that Sherlock Holmes (hope the spelling is good) usually PA> takes drugs between two periods of works in order to have PA> something to do with his mind. I read it a long time ago, PA> and i don't remember where. PA> Does any of you know if he takes morphine or cocaine ? Hi, Pierre! Let me just quote something from the "In Memoriam" portion of the volume entitled, "The Complete Sherlock Holmes:" "If that is not possible, then I prefer to find Holmes scraping on the violin, or bemoaning the dearth of imaginative crime and reaching for the cocaine (a habit he evidently outgrew, for we hear little of it in the later adventures)." ... "At last I'm organized", he sighed, and died. ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: The Rock BBS--Religion, Debate, Literature. (1:387/31) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400022 Date: 07/02/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 07:11pm \/To: SAM WARING (Read 3 times) Subj: Messaging and authors -=> While in the White Hart, Sam Waring insisted to Fred Runk that <=- SW> The only thing publishers get to tell us about is what kinda SW> dreck they're intending to publish *this* season, and how much Sounds somewhat cynical or disgusted. >g< SW> discount or co-op advertising they'll allow us (it's never enough, of SW> course). Many publishers will put category suggestions against the My thoughts exactly as my wallet flattens noticeably everytime I buy a book. SW> Sure; you want to make certain that your customers don't miss SW> their favorite author's new title simply because sie decided to write SW> something outside hir usual range. That's what I figured. PD James' THE CHILDREN OF MEN, for example, showed up both in the SF section and the Mystery section of most bookstores I visited. Just beginning to read Colin Dexter's THE DAUGHTERS OF CAIN, an "Inspector Morse" mystery. ... Psychic Wanted: Qualified person will know where to apply. ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 244 MYSTERY Ref: DB400023 Date: 07/02/96 From: FRED RUNK Time: 06:24pm \/To: LARRY HORTON (Read 4 times) Subj: Holmes 's addiction -=> While in the White Hart, Larry Horton insisted to Pierre Amadio that <=- LH> Pierre, LH> Some have said that Holmes took cocaine but I don't recall LH> that drug usage ever appeared in the orginal Doyle works. It was mentioned briefly in one or two of the stories, at the very beginning and usually disapprovingly noted by Dr. Watson. Invariably these were "slow times" for Holmes. ... An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it. ___ X Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 X --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: Fred's Place (1:300/6.2)