Friday, October 4, 2019

Francis Valencia Ortiz

My grandfather is the subject of a piece of flash fiction that I wrote and which now appears in the October edition of Rendez-Vous Magazine. My mother also makes a guest appearance. Our family called my grandfather Gee-Gee (hard Gs). We tended to adopt pet names for extended family members. As it...

Thursday, August 29, 2019

The Best Jane Marple / The Best Hercule Poirot

Poirot and Hastings. I definitely need to start a finger puppet collection. The Best Miss Jane Marple. Miss Jane Marple, Dame Agatha Christie's matronly detective, sleuthed her way through twelve novels and twenty short stories.  A new series is in the works, set to premiere in 2020. Back...

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

The Curse of The Apprentice

I enjoy curses. I don't believe in them, that is, not in the supernatural sense. But I do find it fascinating when a statistical blip delivers karmic justice. In a previous post, I argued that Donald Trump's The Apprentice was never popular. Although it ranked in its first season among the top 10...

Thursday, June 13, 2019

What the Voters Want Vs. What They Get

The representation in Congress is rigged against the will of the voters. First: The United States Senate. The United States Senate is currently divided with 53 Republican Senators, 45 Democratic, and 2 Independents (Bernie Sanders, VT, and Angus King, ME) who caucus with the Democrats. All but one...

Mr. Swearengen Goes to Washington

My previous posts regarding newspaper accounts of Deadwood in the 1870s are available at these links. #I  Introduction. Deadwood, the Series and Contemporary News Accounts. #II Sheriff Seth Bullock in Old Deadwood Newspapers. #III Seth Bullock on the Trail of Stagecoach Robbers. #IV 1876 in...

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Starting a Graveyard in the Black Hills

Previous entries in my series regarding accounts of Deadwood in newspapers. #I  Introduction. Deadwood, the Series and Contemporary News Accounts. #II Sheriff Seth Bullock in Old Deadwood Newspapers. #III Seth Bullock on the Trail of Stagecoach Robbers. #IV 1876 in Deadwood. #V Seth Bullock and...

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Ten Surprises I Encountered When Researching Deadwood.

General George Custer, the pestilence who keeps on pesting, was the one who first discovered gold in the Black Hills.The discovery of gold lead to a huge influx of prospectors which led to the seizure of vast territories recently deeded to Native Americans in the Treaty of 1868. This in turn led...

Friday, May 31, 2019

Some correspondences and dispatches from early Deadwood.

Many issues of the first months of the Deadwood newspapers are no longer around. In this entry I will look at stories from Deadwood as related in other newspapers, some of which reprinted articles from the Deadwood Pioneer.  Previous entries in my series regarding news stories from early Deadwood: #I ...

Friday, May 24, 2019

Seth Bullock and the Stolen Election.

In response to the Deadwood movie being released on HBO on May 31, I have been posting newspaper stories from the early years of Deadwood. Here are links to parts #I, #II, #III, and #IV.  Today I will look at the disputed election of 1878.  Seth Bullock had been appointed Lawrence County...

Thursday, May 16, 2019

1876 in Deadwood

With the coming of the movie, Deadwood, I have been posting newspapers stories from the 1870s concerning the personalities who appeared in history and on the television show. Here are links to parts #I, #II, and #III.I'll continue to do this in this post, focusing now on the first monts of the Black...

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Seth Bullock on the Trail of Stagecoach Robbers.

In my prior two posts (#I and #II), I looked at the historical personae that correspond to the fictional characters who appear in the television show Deadwood and then presented  accounts of their deeds from contemporary newspapers. While saloon owner Swearengen was a tough SOB, Sheriff Bullock...