Scholastic book cover: "The Ghost Rock Mystery"

• Title: The Ghost Rock Mystery
• Author: Mary C. Jane (1909-1991)
• About the author: I included her biographical information in this 2014 post about Mystery by Moonlight. One of the author's relatives wrote to Papergreat in 2017, which I included in this 2017 post. And, on Goodreads, check out one person's wonderful tale of actually meeting Mary C. Jane.
• Cover illustrator: Gerald McCann (1916-1995)
• Publisher: Scholastic Book Services (TX 334)
• Cover price: 35 cents
• Year: First printing, August 1962 (first published in 1956)
• Pages: 122
• Format: Paperback
• Provenance/destination: Much like the last book I featured, I'm fairly certain I picked this up at a used book sale. After this post is finished, it will be donated to a Little Free Library or book sale.
• Excerpt from back cover: "If Janice and Tommy are to help Aunt Annabelle, they must prove that Mountain View House is not really haunted. And there is no time to lose."
• Some chapter titles: "Trouble for the Border Patrol," "But Not After Midnight!" and "The Pride of the Border Patrol"
• Dedication: "To my favorite Vermonters Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Jessie Wheeler Freeman"
• First sentence: "When Janice saw the pink envelope in the mailbox her heart leaped joyfully."
• Last sentence: [Omitted because it's a spoiler.]
• Random sentence from the middle: "They ate their gingerbread and cream in a silence that was disturbed only by the swish of the rain against the windows."
• Rating on Goodreads: 4.02 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review excerpt #1: In 2017, Tania wrote: "There are a few topics that might be considered hot button issues today, such as illegal border crossings, but I felt they were handled in a way that children would understand both then and now."
• Goodreads review excerpt #2: In 2012, Holly wrote: "I just want to make mention of how much this book confused me as a child with the description of aliens. I didn't understand this meant people illegally in a country. I was imagining them carrying little green men across the countryside on horses, which was completely out of sync with the rest of the story."
• Unrelated personal recommendation of modern novel about border crossings: Signs Preceding the End of the World, by Yuri Herrera (translated by Lisa Dillman)
• Rating on Amazon: 4.8 stars (out of 5)
• Amazon review: In 2014, GJ wrote: "I first read this book as a child in the early 70s. I would love to curl up with it in my bed on a stormy night, and usually stayed up all night until I finished reading the entire book. Having long since lost my copy, I was delighted to find it again on Amazon. Reading it again brought back wonderful memories. I still love this little book, and highly recommend it to children."
• And a great link: For a deep dive into Mary C. Jane and a look at some wonderful book covers, check out this 2005 post by Shawn Purcell on The Journal of the Independent Online Booksellers Association.

Keys to surviving nuclear war: Caves, laxatives and tobacco

When I wrote about the Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices two years ago, discussing an, ahem, interesting "spaghetti" recipe, I noted that a writer in The New York Times had once called the book "one of the greatest oddball masterpieces in this or any other language."

Oddball might have been an understatement.

The Herters, George and Berthe, had a lot of opinions. Most of them were about food and recipes. But they also chimed in on whatever they felt was right and wrong with the world in the 1960s. And, like many folks living in the midst of the Cold War, they had themselves some notions about what to do in the event of nuclear war. Of course, everyone thought about that topic to some extent. Many even had plans, perhaps. But the Herters had thought about it a lot. And they published those thoughts in the book, in the form of telling readers what they believed was the best approach to Surviving the Nuclear Apocalypse.

It is, in fact, one possible approach.

Here are some excerpts from the unforgettable two pages that conclude their book:

• "In reading some of the official rot put out about survival in case of a bombing attack it shows that people putting it out have no first hand knowledge of what they are talking about. I am just going to take the time to say a few words about it here as if an attack comes I do not want my friends dying needlessly. I have been through bombings and have talked to people all over Europe who have been bombed out and what I say here are the true facts of the matter not political dribble."
• "The would-be authorities tell you to go into your basement and put up a wood lean-to against one wall and get under it. This is the surest way to get killed in a bombing attack and is the thing you must not do."
• "Get in any kind of cave, ditch or valley as far away from buildings as you can and lie on the ground face down. If at all possible get in a cave."
• "If the weather is cold all canned goods will freeze and spoil."
• "If the weather is cold have a reserve of lots of blankets."
• "Have a reserve of food consisting of dried beans, dried peas, dried potatoes, dried milk, bacon, canned shortening, sugar, peanut butter, powdered coffee, and tea, chocolate, salt, pepper, macaroni, flour and baking powder."
• "Have at least 1,000 matches in a waterproof container. In World War II matches in some countries were $25.00 a box on the black market when available."
• "Have a small .22 caliber rifle and at least 1,000 rounds of ammunition. It will kill small game and birds and can be used to protect your home."
• "Have a pint of iodine, a year's supply of laxative and 100 bufferin tablets. If you live in an area where biting flies and mosquitos abound have a year's supply of bug dope and ten yards of a bug net."
• "Have 5 one pound cans of tobacco. This is your fortune. If there is any food or material available that you need, the tobacco will get it for you when money will not."
• "When you get away from buildings stay in a cave for 3 days to avoid radiation fall out."

I'm not sure where to start. Obviously, basing nuclear war survival plans on World War II air-raid survival tactics is folly. There wouldn't be a black market. No one would care about money. It is unlikely anyone would trade food for tobacco. And I'm not sure how long that carefully stashed bacon is supposed to last.

Of course, whether you're on the Herter Plan or the one once provided by the State of Delaware, the likelihood of long-term survival in a nuclear winter is not good. So maybe sitting in a cave with some chocolate and laxatives is as good a way to go as any.

I'll close with some excerpts from Goodreads reader reviews of Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices:

• "This is possibly the most incoherent, bizarre, misinformed, misanthropic, and unintentionally hilarious cookbook ever written . . . insofar as it can be called a cookbook at all."
• "Whether you want the Virgin Mary’s favorite spinach recipe or how to prepare for a cobalt bomb, Herter covers it."
• "Half of this book is utter bulls--t. The other half is useful tips that made my cooking better. ... I actually found many of his ideas had some merit and tried them, finding some surprisingly good outcomes."
• "One of my favorite things about Herter's books is that so many of them feature pictures of toddlers holding shotguns posing by dead animals."

Why didn't MegaForce win all of the Oscars?

This advertisement for MegaForce appears on the back cover of the September 1982 issue of the comic book "Marvel Two-in-One."¹

What the heckfire was MegaForce?

Seriously. I was smack-dab in the target market when this movie came out — 11½ years old in the summer of 1982, but I had never heard of it until stumbling upon it in 2020. When I saw this advertisement, I was sure that was Chuck Norris. Or perhaps a time-traveling Bryce Harper. Nope. It was Barry Bostwick (!!), the old guy from that 1990s sitcom Spin City.

Yep, Barry Bostwick starred in an epic action movie from the summer of 1982 and, folks, it was an epic failure.

In fact, its level of failure was so immense, you might have figured that I would have heard about it for that reason. Nope. It wasn't even good at being a failure. In his review for The Washington Post, Gary Arnold wrote: "It's difficult for Bostwick to impose a plausible semblance of battle-ready authority when he's expected to strike commanding poses in form-fitting gold or silver jumpsuits with his fluffy coiffure tied off by a baby-blue scarf." Ouch.²

In addition to being a MegaBlunder, MegaForce also had incredibly bad timing. It came out during the fabled Movie Summer of 1982, finding itself competing for attention with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Poltergeist and Tron (all of which I did see in theaters that summer) and also Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian and Rocky III.

I should also point out that Barry Bostwick's character's name was "Ace Hunter," and there were other characters named Dallas, Zara, Professor Eggstrum and Sixkiller. (After MegaForce bombed, it's kind of amazing that The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, which was not dissimilar, was released two summers later. It also bombed. But that fact that Buckaroo was clearly in on its own joke has given it a lasting spot as a cult movie. No such luck for MegaForce.)

This advertisement at least tried to stir up some interest in MegaForce with the target audience. It offered, for just $1, an official MegaForce membership kit, which included a patch, a membership card and a reflective bike decal. I guess kids were on their own if they wanted Ace's iconic headband. The ad copy states:

"JOIN TODAY. Saving the world for freedom is a full-time job. So if you think you're hot we'll give you a shot. Blast your way into history. Join the fighting men of MegaForce today."

The fighting men...

MegaForce seemed to have a bit of a misogyny problem, on top of everything else.

According to Wikipedia, Bostwick did everything he could to sell the movie. "You know what's good about this film?" he said. "It's plausible. We need an international force like this to keep the peace. I wouldn't mind betting that one day there's a real MegaForce operating somewhere in the world."

Or maybe even somewhere out of this world...

Speaking of movies...

Adding to the list of films I shared the past two months (1, 2), here's what I watched in January:

• Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
• The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow, 1964)³
• La Pointe Courte (Agnès Varda, 1955)
• Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)

Footnotes
1. Here's a whole series of posts about groovy stuff inside an old issue of "Marvel Two-in-One":

• Episode I: Advertisement from comic-book dealer Robert Bell
• Episode II: 100 little dolls for $3
• Episode III: Twinkie advertisement "Thor Meets a Glutton for Gold"
• Episode IV: Marvel's Pizzazz magazine
• Episode V: Free one million cash
• Episode VI: Munich: A Tale of Two Myths, by Thomas Brooks Jones
• Episode VII: The Adventures of Gritboy
• Episode VIII: Louisville Slugger autographed pens
• Episode IX: Careers in law enforcement and conservation
• Episode X: Star Wars
• Episode XI: All Good Things...

2. Arnold, who retired in late 2005 after 36 reviewing films for The Washington Post and The Washington Times, among other gigs, also included this line in his MegaForce review: "Barry Bostwick is obliged to cut the silliest martial capers since Captain America retired his tights and cape." I suspect a lot of critics who had to watch silly superhero flicks in late 20th century never saw the Marvel Cinematic Universe coming.
3. This is one of my and Ashar's favorite films, so we watched it again. We find something new each time. And we have a lot of questions.

Acme Motor Car Company advertisement

This is a circa 1909 advertisement for cars produced by The Acme Motor Car Company of Reading, Pennsylvania. The company was in business from 1903 to 1911, so this was getting toward the end of its run. According to Wikipedia, some of Acme's production infrastructure survived with SGV and then Phianna for about a decade after its 1911 demise.

Acme, vying for its continuing existence in a burgeoning but competitive market, touted itself as "a Real Motor Car for discriminating automobilists" in this advertisement, adding that "Every car made by this Company is still running in the hands of its owners."

The cars touted, along with a "perpetual guarantee," were:

• The Acme "Sextuplet": Price of $4,500, or about $129,668 today
• The Fairmount "Sextuplet": Price of $4,500
• The Standard "Quad": Price of $3,750, or about $108,056 today

This was about a year after Ford brought affordability into the American car market with the $850 Model T, which was the equivalent of about $24,500 today. So you can see where higher-priced automakers like Acme were on the way to the dustbin of history.

Some thoughtful words

I just felt like gathering these in one place, and gathering them for posterity.

"Declaration of Conscience" (excerpts)
U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, June 1, 1950

"I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear. It is a condition that comes from the lack of effective leadership in either the Legislative Branch or the Executive Branch of our Government.

"That leadership is so lacking that serious and responsible proposals are being made that national advisory commissions be appointed to provide such critically needed leadership.

"I speak as briefly as possible because too much harm has already been done with irresponsible words of bitterness and selfish political opportunism. I speak as briefly as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by eloquence. I speak simply and briefly in the hope that my words will be taken to heart.

"I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States Senator. I speak as an American.

"The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body in the world. But recently that deliberative character has too often been debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity. ...

"Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism:

• "The right to criticize;
• "The right to hold unpopular beliefs;
• "The right to protest;
• "The right of independent thought.

"The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us doesn’t? Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own. Otherwise thought control would have set in."

"Think Little" (excerpts)
Wendell Berry, 1969

"But the environmental crisis rises closer to home. Every time we draw a breath, every time we drink a glass of water, every time we eat a bite of food we are suffering from it. And more important, every time we indulge in, or depend on, the wastefulness of our economy — and our economy’s first principle is waste — we are causing the crisis. Nearly every one of us, nearly every day of his life, is contributing directly to the ruin of this planet. A protest meeting on the issue of environmental abuse is not a convocation of accusers, it is a convocation of the guilty. That realization ought to clear the smog of self-righteousness that has almost conventionally hovered over these occasions, and let us see the work that is to be done. In this crisis it is certain that every one of us has a public responsibility. We must not cease to bother the government and the other institutions to see that they never become comfortable with easy promises. ...

"What we are up against in this country, in any attempt to invoke private responsibility, is that we have nearly destroyed private life. Our people have given up their independence in return for the cheap seductions and the shoddy merchandise of so-called 'affluence.' We have delegated all our vital functions and responsibilities to salesmen and agents and bureaus and experts of all sorts. We cannot feed or clothe ourselves, or entertain ourselves, or communicate with each other, or be charitable or neighborly or loving, or even respect ourselves, without recourse to a merchant or a corporation or a public-service organization or an agency of the government or a style-setter or an expert. Most of us cannot think of dissenting from the opinions or the actions of one organization without first forming a new organization. Individualism is going around these days in uniform, handing out the party line on individualism. Dissenters want to publish their personal opinions over a thousand signatures. ..."

"For most of the history of this country our motto, implied or spoken, has been Think Big. I have come to believe that a better motto, and an essential one now, is Think Little. That implies the necessary change of thinking and feeling, and suggests the necessary work. Thinking Big has led us to the two biggest and cheapest political dodges of our time: plan-making and law-making. ...

"If you are concerned about the proliferation of trash, then by all means start an organization in your community to do something about it. But before — and while you organize, pick up some cans and bottles yourself. That way, at least, you will assure yourself and others that you mean what you say. If you are concerned about air pollution, help push for government controls, but drive your car less, use less fuel in your home. If you are worried about the damming of wilderness rivers, join the Sierra Club, write to the government, but turn off the lights you’re not using, don’t install an air conditioner, don’t be a sucker for electrical gadgets, don’t waste water. In other words, if you are fearful of the destruction of the environment, then learn to quit being an environmental parasite."

Academy Award acceptance speech
Joaquin Phoenix, February 9, 2020

"I’m full of so much gratitude now. I do not feel elevated above any of my fellow nominees or anyone in this room, because we share the same love — that’s the love of film. And this form of expression has given me the most extraordinary life. I don’t know where I’d be without it.

"But I think the greatest gift that it’s given me, and many people in [this industry] is the opportunity to use our voice for the voiceless. I’ve been thinking about some of the distressing issues that we’ve been facing collectively.

"I think at times we feel or are made to feel that we champion different causes. But for me, I see commonality. I think, whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice.

"We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, one species, has the right to dominate, use and control another with impunity.

"I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we’re the centre of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.

"We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something; to give something up. But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment.

"I have been a scoundrel all my life, I’ve been selfish. I’ve been cruel at times, hard to work with, and I’m grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance. I think that’s when we’re at our best: when we support each other. Not when we cancel each other out for our past mistakes, but when we help each other to grow. When we educate each other; when we guide each other to redemption.

"When he was 17, my brother [River] wrote this lyric. He said: 'run to the rescue with love and peace will follow.'"

"The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" (excerpt)
Carl Sagan, 1995

"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness."

"Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space" (excerpt)
Carl Sagan, 1994

"Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Vintage postcard: "Saw the bears"

The "Bears in Postcards" series (see Feb. 9, Jan. 29, Jan. 23) continues. This is a Dexter Press postcard published, again, by Eric J. Seaich Co. of Salt Lake City. I wrote about him on one of the previous postcards. I guess he had a knack for catching those bears approaching cars.

This one is labeled ES-534. The caption states: "Mother bear and 2 cubs begging for food along the highway — a familiar site in Yellowstone Park, Wyo."

The card was postmarked on August 22, 1962, in West Yellowstone, Montana, and mailed to an address here in York, Pennsylvania. The note is written in cursive, diagonally, on the card and it states:

"Toured Yellowstone to-day. Weather swell only one warm day so far. 50° this morning. Saw the bears.
Helen M. Knox
Lillie M. Spangler"

A "Reassessment Supplement" published in the Gazette and Daily of York on August 25, 1970, shows both of those women having property in the York City 1st Ward. Helen M. Knox on East South Street, and Lillie M. Spangler on South George Street.

The cat bookends Mom gave me

Facebook reminded me this week that I posted this photograph there 3 years ago, on February 10, 2017.

It had the caption, "The cat bookends have been deployed, Mary Ingham Otto!"

I wanted her to know that one of her gifts had gone to excellent use.

I'm glad I posted it when I did, because she died suddenly less than three weeks later. It's crazy to think that was three years ago. It's a cliche, but in some ways it seems like it was yesterday and in other ways I feel like she's been gone for a decade. It's been a long three years.

We've also moved during that time. We no longer have that bookshelf. And I no longer have some of those books. I liked the three-volume The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night, translated and annotated by Richard F. Burton, which was published in 1934 by Heritage Press. It had been my grandmother's. But it took up a lot of shelf space, and I knew I was never going to read it, so I sent it off to find a new Forever Home. No sense keeping books on shelves when others can enjoy them. I still have the cat bookends, of course. They are deployed in a couple different spots now, doing fine work.

Scholastic book cover: "Mystery of the Piper's Ghost"

• Title: Mystery of the Piper's Ghost
• Author: Zillah K. MacDonald (1885-1979)
• Illustrator: Charles Beck
• Publisher: Scholastic Book Services (TX 102)
• Cover price: 50 cents
• Year: Fourth printing, 1965.
• Pages: 156
• Format: Paperback
• Provenance/destination: Pretty sure I picked this up at a used book sale. I'm always perusing the 1960s and 1970s Scholastic titles. After this post is finished, the book is headed for a Little Free Library.
• Exclamation mark-filled back-cover blurb: "From the pool near an old mine emerged the Piper's Ghost, moaning dreadfully! Michael Cunningham, an orphaned boy, stared at the glowing creature with horns on its head, a bagpipe under its arm, and webbed feet. Who or what was this weird creature? What was it doing in the mine? The unmasking of the Piper's Ghost and a daring rescue from the blazing mine climax this story of suspense!"
• There are some proto-Scooby Doo vibes there. Yes. There's even, coincidentally, a character named Velma.
• First sentences: "Hi, Michael! Lend a hand!"
• Last sentence: He was sure of that now.
• Random sentence from middle: Cy Sullivan's Band was marching bravely forward through the dark underground passages of old Kejimakujee.
• Kejimakujee? It's possibly an alternate spelling of Kejimkujik, a park and lake in Nova Scotia.
• Notable names and phrases: One character is called a "mincing minikin" and there's a dog named Beelzebub. The dog's owner calls Beelzebub an "old mumbudget." The phrase "old mazards" is also used, with its usage implying that it's an insult or even a mild vulgarity. Finally, there's a talking crow named Desdemona.
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.4 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review excerpt: In 2015, "C" wrote: "There is also friendship forged with a hermit, away from whom most parents have steered their youngsters. He is so bizarre, anyone would find him enthralling, including me! A flurry of events with him and at the sinister lagoons are exciting, whether it is otherworldly or not."
• Rating on Amazon: 3.8 stars (out of 5)
• Amazon review excerpt: In 2011, The Grey Piper wrote: "The particular gripes I would level at this story are first, that it just seems very long, drawn-out, and a bit haphazard. Second, quite a bit covers Michael's misadventures with the older bad boys; he is involved with lobster poaching, vandalism, and theft. Some of this seems a bit intense for the target audience. The final chapters, with a bunch of the kids trapped in the burning mine, seems especially graphic. But further, Michael's own continuing participation in these shenanigans seems a bit far-fetched. How many times does the local Mountie have to come and grill you before you quit the nonsense?"
• About the author: Her full name was Zillah Katherine MacDonald, and she was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the late 19th century. Her Goodreads biography includes this interesting note: "Eileen's Adventures In Wordland (1920) is her first novel, a real delight for lovers of wordplay. Eileen's companion, X, leads her to encounters ranging from meeting Blighty, a word born during the first World War, to Grandmother Indo-European, who introduces Eileen to a number of her language children."