Post 3203 - A Nice Meal at Fredies Fish and Chips

So.

After work we were hungry. We didn't feel like cooking. So, we decided we hadn't had fish and chips for a while, and that a "feed" of it would go down right some nice.

We decided to check out Fredie's Fantastic Fishhouse on Oland Crescent in Bayer's Lake. We had been there before, but had not been overly impressed.

We sure were, tonight.

I had the two piece with fries and gravy. Patricia had the two piece with sweet potato fries and curry. Absolutely to die for. The fish was tasty. The batter was there but not overly so. It wasn't greasy. It was cooked to perfection.

And, it turns out that Henry Winkler was in Halifax in 2014. He happened to read an article in the Huffington Post regarding places to eat in Halifax. He decided he had a hankering for fish and chips. So he instructed his limo driver to go to Fredie's. He enjoyed his meal and posed with the staff.

The staff were so taken with him that they christened the place where he sat. And I sat there this evening. Here's proof. That is Patricia's thumb, by the way. I was too busy taking the damn picture.

And, it turns out that the guy who co-wrote the "Happy Days" theme song, also ate at Fredie's, somewhat later than Winkler.

If you follow Winkler on twitter, he tweeted about his experience at Fredie's. Let me see if I can find that tweet and I will run it here.

If you are in a mood for fish and chips, and are in Halifax, get ur arse over to Fredie's in Bayer's Lake. It has the Bevboy seal of approval. And that doesn't come easily, folks.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3202 - Sunday

Hi. I'm back in the city. I left the Valley around lunch time.

When I got back here, Patricia and Newbie greeted me with the usual degree of warmth one would expect from a jail guard in a maximum security prison, only not quite as much. Nice to be back home.

Tonight, I am showered and shaven, and about to sit down to see what Chris Rock has to say as part of his opening monologue at the Oscars. Then, I will turn on Netflix or something and watch the email updates as the major awards are presented. Is there any need to watch that show at all? Seriously? Is there any need to watch it at all?

Been a productive weekend. Got the hoses replaced on the washing machine in the Valley.  Got a new non-programmable thermostat installed down there. Replaced the fuse in the fuse box that runs the furnace. Got rid of some old tv's and computer equipment. Watched 6 episodes of "Love" on Netflix. Drank half a bottle of beer Friday night, and finished it Saturday night. What could be better?

You guys have a good night. See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3201 - Saturday

Hi. 11pm.

The highlight of the day was this morning when I dropped off some old televisions and computer equipment at the recycling depot in New Minas.

That sounds pathetic, doesn't it?

How about, the highlight of my day was this evening, when I drank the other half of  a bottle of beer I started Friday night, while watching the first six episodes of "Love", a Judd Apatow-produced series on Netflix, which is taking its sweet time to get to its point, that two social outcasts are meant for one another, but they keep denying it. There are four more episodes in this season. Let's hope that they at least hang out before it's over.

That still sounds pathetic.

How about, the highlight of my day was the two hour nap I took this afternoon while I was trying to watch a documentary on Youtube that's about the 1950's?

Ah! The most pathetic one of them all.

I like it.

Been a quiet day. Back to the city tomorrow. Back to Patricia and Newbie, and then back to work on Monday. Where do weekends go, anyway?

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3200 - Valley Bloggin'

Hi. Past 9pm.

I write these humble, sub-par, slightly pathetic words, from the family homestead in the Valley. I drove up this morning.

The plumber got here when I did. He told me that he had only just arrived. I told him I was late because I was picking up cash for him. He was happy to hear that.

The problem was, the last time I was here and turned on the water, the hoses attached to the washing machine split, and water was going everywhere. I turned off the water, and kept it off until the plumber got here. He replaced the very old rubber hoses with brand-new (and expensive-ish) stainless steel ones that will last for a very long time. I should do the same thing for the washing machine in the city.

Because I fear electricity, I also got him to install a freshly-purchased non-programmable thermostat. I had read a horror story about programmable ones, which is that if the power goes out, and comes back on, and the battery backup fails, some thermostats do not go to their default programming. They just don't boot up at all. Not good. Not good at all. So, now, there is an old-fashioned analog non-programmable thermostat. If the power goes out for any length of time during a cold snap, upon the power's coming back on, because the thermostat is physically set to a particular temperature, the furnace will come back on and heat up to that temperature. Plus, to show an abundance of caution, I put a fresh fuse in the fusebox that governs the furnace.

Peace of mind. I love it.

I gave the old, programmable thermostat to the plumber, who said he could find a use for it. It is likely in his living room now, which is fine by me. I would have thrown it out if he hadn't taken it.

I treated myself to lunch, because I was so happy. And I spent the afternoon washing some towels. Tonight, I am watching an old Columbo movie, from 1976, where the killer is William Shatner. I am now ruining things for you in case you want to see it. For those who don't know, Columbo is an example of what is known as an inverted mystery story, where the bad guy is revealed to the audience up front, and the detective has to figure out who the bad guy is. I had forgotten how much fun these old Columbo movies are. "Just one more question, sir, if you don't mind!"

I am still working my way through my collection of Jas. R. Petrin stories, as published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine over the course of 25 years. I am trying to track down Mr. Petrin. He is not registered with the Writer's Federation of Nova Scotia. I can't find an entry for him in the online yellow pages. I have written AHMM to see if they would mind forwarding an email to him requesting an interview, but haven't heard.

It is a damn shame that Petrin is developing a serious reputation as a crime fiction writer, but he is nearly unknown in the province. Meanwhile, many of his stories take place in and around Halifax. In one story, the main character tails someone to her home, following her from Robie Street to Clayton Park to off Dunbrack. The denouement takes place in a house along the Purcell's Cove Road. That is one series character. Another one is about a bartender in Halifax, and his various adventures. He's been writing stories for AHMM since 1986, and other than a few paragraphs in a Chronicle Herald article a few years ago, I have seen nothing about the man in local media. Like I said, it's a damn shame.

I guess I will get back to that Columbo movie.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3199 - Radio News

Goodbye, Radio 965. Hello, Mix 96.5. The music of the 1990's to today, minus hip hop and hair bands. Here's a link to the website.

I like it already, two minutes into it.

Good luck with this format, folks.

Bevboy

Post 3198 - Radio News

I feel like the anti-Panasonic. Just slightly behind our time.

1. News 95.7 is looking for two reporters/anchors. One of them is particularly interesting as it is for a part-time weekend reporter/anchor. Does this mean that the station is going to have more local content on weekends, going forward? Is Richard Zurawski's science show a beachhead for more local programming on that station? I hope so.

(Update at 9pm. These are new positions. New hires. In other words, if there are X people working at News 95.7 now, there will soon be X + 2, where X is a positive integer greater than 0, of course.)

2. Wayne Harrett is reporting that Zach Bedford has put in his notice as mid-day guy/Music Director at C100 and will be the new Program Director at AMP Radio in Calgary. He leaves C100 after April 1st. This is a great move for Zach. I know he will do well there.

3. And Wayne is also reporting that Radio 965 will go bye-bye Thursday at 4pm, and will become The Flow FM, which is the same name as a Newcap station in Toronto. That station's focus is on more urban and hip hop and blues music than one is used to hearing on Halifax radio stations.

I was a little more dubious about this one. Radio 965 is much improved from when it first went on the air in September of 2013. Back then, they played the kind of crap you hear in a coffeehouse while you discuss e e cummings' use of iambic pentameter. "Was a format change really necessary?", I asked myself. But according to a note I saw on someone's Facebook, regarding Radio 965: "Things start flowing tomorrow at 4!".

Whatever could that mean?

I contacted a source in town, who tells me that this is not a format change, but more of a tweaking, a rebrand. Time will tell.

So, let me go out on a limb. Radio 965's name may change. That name tells us nothing about the station, anyway. The name will change, but the music will not change much. Maybe they will use the "Flow" name, but not slavishly adopt the music that the Flow FM station in Toronto flogs.

Hmm.

Flog FM.

I like that.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3197 - Sigh

11pm.

Didn't get much done on the PC front tonight. Phone kept ringing.

Managed to get the solid state drive installed in the computer. Had to run installation disk because Windows could not see it. Ubuntu can't see it either. Right now I'm running an application that came with the drive to clone the contents of the primary drive to the ssd even though Windows still can't see it in the explorer window. I'm hoping that will let me use that new drive as the primary one. If not I'll take the damned thing back to the store and get my money back. Driving me crazy. It should just be visible as another drive. Why isn't it?

Tomorrow, if this crap works, I'll try adding a couple of the media drives I had in the other computer.

Why is this so frustrating and time consuming?

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3196 - I'm Back

Hi, everyone. How have you been?

I haven't written in six days. That is because I have been sick. I was beginning to feel sick last Tuesday. I worked Wednesday, but I wasn't feeling well at all. It would appear that I caught Patricia's cold. She had been ill since the week before.

I left work a few minutes early. I got home by 4:30. And I was in bed a few minutes later, not really getting up until Thursday afternoon. I took a sick day on Thursday, which triggered the no-blog-post rule I have written about before. I took a second sick day on Friday, as I continue to fight the cold.

By Saturday I began to feel human again. I was able to go out for a little while Saturday afternoon to obtain some provisions. And by Sunday we were both feeling well enough to go out to brunch, and then to go see "Deadpool". You have to see "Deadpool", unless hard R rated films are not your thing, in which case you should not go see "Deadpool", because the F word is nearly a character in that film.

I returned to work today. Yay.

Over the weekend, as my ability to remain awake improved, I began to tinker with my home server again. I could once get 6 hard drives working in it. The best I could hope for by Saturday was 4. And installing Plex on that server sans a solid state drive that was up and running meant that the server was running that much slower. Every library update would take an inordinate amount of time, and tax the server/computer so much that it was nearly unusable.

I had to do something.

A friend had speculated that the power supply was on its way out. That made sense as the computer had been given to me, and I had not updated the power supply. An upgrade would be appropriate.

But I thought more and more.

The computer itself was very old. Two GB of ram. Running Plex and any other application would tax the computer like crazy. One of the usb cards stopped working over the weekend. What else would fail?

The computer didn't owe me anything. Perhaps it was time to look around for something else.

During my lunch hour, I went to Brilliance Computers on Kempt Road, about a 5 minute car drive from my work. I asked what cases they had. They showed me a lovely case for $95, but, of course, it lacked both a power supply and a mother board. Oh, and there was no processor or ram either. Just the case. That case could accommodate 8 hard drives or so, plus a lot of other stuff, assuming that I got a good enough power supply and motherboard, and ram and processor to go along with it. Pricey.

They were selling a used desktop computer for $350, which came with a 350W power supply, 8gb of ram, a good processor, a 500GB hard drive, and enough room was in it to hold the hard drives I wanted it to, I think. It even came with a legal version of Windows 7, with the COA sticker on top of the case.

I decided to get it.

I told them to swap out that power supply for something better. For 40 dollars I got a previously-enjoyed 625W ps. For another 60 dollars I got another 8gbs of ram. And now you know what I had to pay for the thing, once you factor in taxes and environmental fees.

When we got home tonight, I powered down the old computer. I took out the ram and the hard drives and the sata data cables and the cards I had bought for it, and even some of the screws, which are now on my mouse pad, twinkling up at me. Once I had cannibalized it for all the pieces out of it that I could find useful, I showed the aftermath to Patricia, who pretended to care. I then showed her the new computer, and she remarked how clean it was inside. I showed her where the new hard drives would go, and once again she faked caring.

After we watched this week's "Billions", I brought the new-to-me computer downstairs, hooked up the mouse and keyboard and the printer and Ethernet cable, plugged in the power cord, and started it up. It roared to life. And I am using it to write this blog post, while the anti-virus software does its thing.

I am not sure if I will keep the Windows on it, or revert to Linux Mint. I have to think about that a bit. Perhaps I will get Plex running on it and see how it compares with the Linux version. I have a Samsung laser printer hooked up to it. If I can't get it working under Windows, then I guess Linux Mint it is.

I am guessing that Windows is far more friendly to having multiple hard drives hanging around than Linux can be. With the old machine, drives would unmount after a period of time, and I would have to turn the air blue with invective to get everything hooked up and running again, usually after a reboot or two. But was it because the old computer just couldn't accommodate all those peripherals? Or was it because of Linux? I don't know.

Anyway, so far, so good.

I think I will have my shower and turn in. Been a long day. And tomorrow night I will have to start adding in peripherals to this machine. Sounds like fun!

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3195 - Hmm

A day later. I think I have found out what was wrong with this computer.

It seems I may have fried two hard drives in this machine. The one that contained the Linux Mint OS, and the 500GB drive I use for downloads.

Consistently booting were the main 320GB drive that came with this computer 5 years ago when I got it used, and the 3 drives that contained movies and tv shows. It would appear that the 500GB drive is toast, as well.

I have a back up solid state drive, and I may end up using it. But to get this out the door, I decided to re-install Linux Mint, this time on the 320GB drive that is 8 years old and still runs like a top. Funny how the older drives are often more hardy than the newer ones. But I digress.

I have successfully reinstalled Linux Mint. Now, I have to go through the effort, in the coming days, to reinstall all the apps I like, like dropbox, and Abiword, and Gnumeric, and another browser or two. Oh, yes. And let's not forget Plex.

After I finish this blog post, I will take the SSD out of the computer and see if I can find an enclosure for it. If I can get it working after all, then I will be flummoxed as to why the machine won't boot with it any more.

But, hey, at least the computer is up and running again. That should count for something, eh?

The Flash starts in a few minutes. See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3194 - Sigh

24 hours later, and I still can only claim partial victory in getting this desktop computer up and running again.

I am using it now, but not in a way that is satisfactory to me. I have 6 hard drives installed in it, but only 4 are recognized. The solid state drive, which contains the Plex Media Server library and my linux mint distro, is not being recognized, along with another drive. I booted the computer using a version of Puppy Linux run from a thumb drive.

It is probably something stupid. When I realize what I am doing wrong, I will feel like a dumb dumb, a know-nothing, a dodo. The boys at work will make fun of me for not knowing.  But until then, I will just call it a night, lest I throw this computer out the window and drive my car over it for an hour.

I know what the problem isn't.

The fact that I am able to use the computer at all tells me that it is not the power supply.

Four of the six drives in the unit are up and running. Is there some commonality regarding the other two, other than they are not being recognized? I did have linux mint up and running this afternoon, but it was another two hard drives that were not working. Is there some clue there?

Perhaps I should remove two of the drives and put them in enclosures, and cut my losses?

Maybe I should look on kijiji and see if there is some empty computer tower that I can start from the ground up on. This desktop is pretty aged. It came with a multi drive and I removed it. There was an empty bay. I filled that with another hard drive, and the space where the multi drive was accommodated another hard drive.

I don't know. It's late. I'm frustrated. And I want to get Plex working again.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3193 - Weekend

Hi. Sunday night.

I have spent the last 3 hours fiddling and farting around with an old desktop computer. It is my media server, so I need it to run things like Plex. What happened was, an external hard drive failed this weekend, so I took out the actual hard drive from the enclosure and installed it in the computer in question. After much effort I got it installed and fired it up, only to discover that the hard drive that I swapped out contains the master boot record for the computer, and the grub menu, so it no longer boots. Sigh. Meanwhile, the "new" hard drive I stuck in there cannot be found, meaning it really is toast, or maybe I didn't put it in correctly. Too late tonight to fart around with it any more. In the morning I will re-install linux mint on the solid state drive. That drive I swapped out should be reformatted, anyway.

I didn't write on Saturday because I was worn out from a whirlwind trip to the Valley. I was there a scant 6 hours and didn't have time to catch my breath the whole time I was there. When I got back here late Saturday afternoon, I had a ton of dishes to wash, and to make dinner.

This morning I cooked Valentine's Day meals for us. I am a sweetie.

And tonight, because of the b.s. I put up with in the second paragraph, I have a headache. I am going to turn in, and figure out what I am doing wrong, tomorrow.

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 3192 - Radio News

Dan Barton announced today that he is the new Program Director at Radio 965. He has been out of radio for a few years now, working for the Halifax Metro newspaper.

That station has improved a lot over the last year or so. Where it would put me to sleep before, it now rewards listening. I know that Dan will take the station further. To get a taste for what he is capable of, read my interview with him.

Congratulations, Dan Barton.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3191 - Thursday..

Hello.

I'm watching "DC's Legends of Tomorrow". I think I'm done with the show. They seem to be making it up as they go along. It gets more boring every week.

Heading into a long weekend.  This time I plan to be in the valley after not being there a week ago.  I have to pay the snow plow guy. I have a few things to take care at the house.  But fear not,  effendi. I will still be able to produce a new blog post every day. I know you will worry about me if I don't write something every day.

Guess I'll turn in. Long day tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3190 - Radio News

I'm sorry to announce the death of Kentucky radio legend Mark Justice. He was taken from us at age 56.

I can't say that I knew him to any real extent. We exchanged some emails over the years. He told me he'd like to check out some of my blog interviews with local radio people, back when I was doing that stuff. When I published an interview, I would sometimes message him to let him know it was up. Whether he read any of them, I do not know. My ego likes to think he did.

On Sunday, he went to the hospital, thinking that there was a problem with his gall bladder. Instead, the doctor told him he had had a heart attack. On Tuesday, he updated his facebook to say he was still in the hospital, had just enjoyed a meal, and was watching the New Hampshire primary results on television. Then, he was gone. Just. Like. That.

I am more familiar with Justice through his work in the horror field. He wrote numerous short stories, edited some anthologies, and published at least one short story in one of those anthologies written by Nova Scotia author Steve Vernon, whose books are easy to find in the "local interest" section of Chapters.

Mark Justice was also the host of "Pod of Horror", the first horror-related podcast I ever discovered, and still the one I enjoy the most. He continued to put out these podcasts, but on an increasingly-infrequent basis in recent years. In it, he would interview horror authors and feature horror and thriller related news. It was tremendously entertaining. He even interviewed Steve Vernon once for the podcast. Vernon mentioned the local delicacy of fiddleheads, which amused Justice to no end.

If there is anything to be learned from this it is that if you have any symptoms of a heart attack, or even think you do, get your damn ass to the doctor. There's no evidence that Mark Justice did anything wrong here, but that is cold comfort to his wife, their cats, and his many fans in radio and in the horror field.

My condolences to Mark Justice's family.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3189 - A Bayer's Lake Mystery

I awoke this morning to the news of the impending storm, likely what would be the worst of the season so far.

What did we do?

We decided to take a vacation day and go back to bed. Yep. We're chickens.

Turns out that work was shut down at 1pm anyway, even though the storm had not hit Halifax yet. It really didn't hit until 3pm or so, by the time we finished watching this week's "Billions". Now, just about 10:45, the worst of the snow seems to be over. It is just blowing around like crazy. I suspect work will go forward in the morning, as it should, unless it gets wacky again over night.

We went into Bayer's Lake this morning. However, so did an awful lot of other people who went to the Superstore, like we did. The lines to pay for our victuals were very long. We didn't even get storm chips.

The thing of it is, though, when you walk out of Superstore, the horizon no longer has trees in it. It has all been cleared, as part of some kind of massive Bayer's Lake expansion. Expanded for... what? Nobody knows, who's talking about it at least. We know what it won't be. It won't be for the Ikea, which is going in Dartmouth Crossing, that wonderful place over in the Dartmouth side which is apparently easier to get to, but isn't, because it is in Dartmouth, the place with the most counter intuitive driving in the world.

So much land has been cleared behind where some existing stores are that I'm guessing they could double the size of Bayer's Lake. Once again, I haven't clue one for what. I am putting it out there tonight that if you have any rumours as to what will go in this newly-cleared space, that I will entertain them here. Let me know. I want to know. And if I can't have facts, then I will deal with hearsay. Lemme have it.

I do hope that they don't remove these though, as part of the land clearing. I am not sure where they are, so I don't know if they will be part of the clearing. It is big enough a deal for them to have their own Wikipedia page.


If you like youtube videos, here's one about the walls.







Anyway, if you know of any rumours or hearsay about the land being cleared in Bayer's Lake, let me know. I will not give out your name. Best bet is to email me here.

I guess I should turn in. Likely going to work tomorrow.

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 3188 - Sunday

Very short post this time. There is nothing to report. I am fighting some kind of a bug. I slept the day away. I only got up at 7pm to eat something and shower. I feel a bit better now, but only a bit.

I hate Winter colds, or flu's, or whatever this is.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3187 - Saturday

Hi. Midnight. Turning in shortly.

I didn't go to the Valley on Friday. The weather forecast wasn't very good in the Valley. Schools were cancelled. And I didn't feel like driving up in the alleged crap. But as it turns out there wasn't enough snow for the guy who cleans out the driveway up there, to justify doing so.

I ended up remaining in the city. I drove Patricia to her physio class Friday morning. Afterward, we went to the Coastal diner across the street. It has won numerous awards, and now, at long last, I understand why. My huevos rancheros were terrific. Patricia had some kind of poached eggs and liked them, too. We will return.

We went to Value Village after that, and then to Chapters, before returning home. We stayed up late, which threw off our sleep pattern. Paid the price by sleeping in this morning.

I awoke in time to listen to Richard Zurawski's new radio show on News 95.7. It is all about science, and his enthusiasm for science tried hard to overcome the shortcomings in the program, but didn't quite succeed. It didn't flow very well. He would invite people to call in, and then keep them on hold while he discussed other issues. He had Rick Howe on as a caller. Rick rebuked Richard for making Rick shovel the "rain" that Richard had predicted.

He had other guests on, including one scientist who succinctly refuted the claim of the "Roman" sword that had been found by the Oak Island dig, the one that has been mentioned on the History channel lately. Bottom line is that this sword is less than 150 years old. That was the best part of the show, by far.

I think, given some time, and a few turns of the screwdriver, Richard Zurawski's program can become very compelling. He has a year long contract to do the program. In a couple of months, it will be something I will not want to miss. Neither will you.

A few minutes after Richard's show was over, Tim Bousquet announced that part three of "Dead Wrong" was available to read, so I fired up my tablet and read it. Compelling as always. I don't know how he does it, week after week. He spent over a year researching and writing the thing. He has amassed piles of notes, and spends many hours during the week taking those notes and producing 10 000 words or so of content, to be published every Saturday. Next week, part four comes out, in which he will discuss other Halifax murders, and perhaps speculate on who may have been responsible for them.

This is the longest investigative piece I think I have ever read in my life,  at least with Halifax as its location. Three parts so far, and likely at least as many more to come, if not more. If you are not reading it, I strongly suggest you check it out. Ten bucks a month for a subscription, which lets you read all this content plus a lot more, is a great deal.

After I read it, I spent the rest of the day just goofing off. Need days like that from time to time.

I think I will turn in. Been a long day.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3186 - Friday

Hi. Very late. Very long day. Very complete change of plans from this time last night.

Let me tell you about it... tomorrow! Do we have a deal? K?

Bevboy

Post 3185 - Thursday

My weekend is here.

I am off work until Monday. Friday, I don't have to go to work. I can play the "clock radio shuffle", where every 7 minutes I can reach over, bat the snooze button, and go back to sleep. Ah!

But fear not, effendi. Even though I will be out of town, I will continue to produce bloggy goodness for you, each and every day. I am well aware of my awesome responsibility to you, my 4.7 readers. I love you, and I know you love me. Right?

I think I will watch The Blacklist and turn in. Been a long day.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3184 - Wednesday

Another satisfying Toastmasters meeting tonight. We had ten members and four guests. I am not sure how many members we have in the club, but this was a fine, fine turn out.

We had two new members give their ice breaker speeches. I evaluated one of them, and ended up winning the award for best evaluator. I never win that award, but somehow, I did tonight.

And, the best part of the meeting, I got my water bottle back. I had left it at the meeting 4 weeks ago. It got put in the prize bag and socked away for the next meeting. I asked about it, and would have had it two weeks ago at the last meeting, but I forgot all about it. Tonight, I got it back. And it is mine forever. You can't have it. It has my spit and corruption all over it. Get your own damn drinking bottle.

After TM, I drove home. We watched last night's "Flash" episode. The show gets better and better. I keep wondering, though, if they might end up overdoing it with the so-called speedsters. We have the Flash Barry Allen; the Earth-Two Flash Jay Garrick; Wally West, who will become a protege to Barry Allen and be known as Kid Flash (even though he's like 2 years younger than Barry Allen); Jesse Quick has already been introduced; Zoom; Reverse Flash; and I read last week that they have hired a young actress to play Trajectory in a future episode. That's a lot of running around by a lot of people. I hope it doesn't come down to what happened on the Six Million Dollar Man all those years ago, when they had a Bionic Boy, and even a bionic dog at one point.

We are caught up with my day. Tomorrow is Thursday, and I am off on Friday. We will see what my plans are for the weekend. Patricia hasn't told me yet.

You guys have a good evening. See you tomorrow. Keep smiling. Rub your tummy for good luck.

Bevboy

Post 3183 - Tuesday

Hi. Past 9pm.

Sorry I didn't write more last night. I was zonked.

If I had written more last night I would surely have mentioned that Tim Bousquet took the time to quote liberally from the Saturday post, in which I wrote about the Halifax Examiner and his "Dead Wrong" series. I called it a saga, and I think that's a good word. Like the Norse sagas of old, "Dead Wrong" will be an ongoing, long, luxuriant piece that will finish when it's damn well ready, likely many weekly instalments from now.

I checked out the "letters" at the end of Monday's Examiner. Some guy wrote that having read this blog, he won't read it again. In fact, since Tim is charging for this content, and my blog is free, this jive turkey feels that I owe him some money. Ha. Try to collect, you jive turkey you.

Thanks for posting to this blog, again, Tim. Much appreciated, sir.

Say, I discovered a local writer in the last week or so. I think I will discuss him for a couple paragraphs.

I am not certain as to his real name, but his pseudonym is "Jas R. Petrin", and for the last 20 years, he has had stories published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine", which like EQMM, I started reading when I was 12, 40 years ago now.

In 1996, they bought their first story from him. They did him the great honour of making it their cover story. It was called "Skin Deep", and was published in the August 1996 issue. It's about a woman who runs a beauty salon that is struggling. Meanwhile, a short distance away, another woman opens up a competing salon that offers far more services than the first one can. Add a murder, fraudulent activity, a hard-of-hearing cleaning lady, and you got yourselves a 20 page story that I enjoyed a great deal.

The good news is that last year someone gave me a whole bunch of back issues of AHMM, to fill in for the many years I did not buy the magazine. Quite a few of those issues have Petrin stories in them. And there are some other issues containing Petrin stories that I do not have.

The cool thing is that many of Petrin's stories take place here in Halifax. He fictionalizes it enough so he can have fun with things. There is no "Rob Roy" tavern on Agricola Street, or anywhere else in these parts, for example. But in one story I looked at, a character is reading The Chronicle Herald. Halifax seems to be a character in some of these stories, and I want to read them.

In case you were wondering, and you aren't, here are all the stories by "Jas R. Petrin" that have appeared in AHMM so far, at least according to the online index I found:

• Skin Deep (August 1996)
• The Snawfus (June 1997)
• True Confession (May 1998)
• The Net (July 1998)
• Second Sight (March 1999)
• Missing Persons (July 1999)
• The Secret of Life (November 1999)
• The Piano (January 2001)
• Black's Point (March 2001)
• The White Penguin (July 2001)
• Death by Numbers (January 2002)
• The Cruise (July 2002)
• Fine Business (December 2002)
• Egon Roy (November 2003)
• What Happened to Beansy (March 2005)
• The Lilja Sigurdson (November 2005)
• Peewee and the Gewgaw (May 2006)
• Twenty-Five Large (September 2006)
• Easy Money (January 2007)
• A Piece of Work (May 2007)
• The Golden Rule (October 2007)
• Car Trouble (December 2007)
• Gang of Three (May 2008)
• Law and Order (July 2008)
• Nothing Is Easy (January 2009)
• Heavy Lifting (May 2009)
• In It Up to My Neck (March 2010)
• Money (May 2010)
• A New Pair of Pants (September 2011)
• Mad Dog (October 2012)
• The Greedster (May 2013)
• Under Cap Ste. Clare (October 2013)
• A Knock on the Door (April 2014)
• The Devil You Know (March, 2016)

I have about two thirds of those stories. As I read them I will let you know what I thought of them.

Think I will read one of those stories before I turn in.

You guys have a good night. See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 3182 - Monday

Very short post tonight.

Been feeling crappy most of the day. Slept the night away. Thank goodness for the PVR recording my favorite shows.

Busy work day tomorrow. Turning in for the night.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy