#1252: Pp. 43-51, A Treasury of Humorous Poetry

A Treasury of Humorous Poetry continues — with love found and pigs, love lost and murder, gobble-uns, and one embarrassed invisible man.

“Larrie O’Dee” by William W. Fink
“Tim Turpin” by Thomas Hood
“The Elf-Child” (aka “Little Orphant Annie” or “The Gobble-Uns”) by James Whitcomb Riley
“The Perils of Invisibility” by William S. Gilbert

12:59.

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#1243: Pps. 32-43, A Treasury of Humorous Poetry

A Treasury of Humorous Poetry continues, with more examples of what our forefathers thought was funny stuff.  The great Paul Laurence Dunbar also makes an appearance.

“The Twins” by Henry S. Leigh
“Little Breeches” by John Hay
“Companions” by Charles Stuart Calverley
“The Lawyer’s Invocation to Spring” by Henry Howard Brownell
“Po’ Little Lamb” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
“Three Verses by Ironquill” by Eugene F. Ware (aka Ironquill)
“My Aunt” by Oliver Wendell Holmes
“The Baby’s Debut” by James Smith

18:37.

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#1233: Pps. 21-32, A Treasury of Humorous Poetry

A Treasury of Humorous Poetry continues. I’ve heard a lot about “The Wonderful One Hoss Shay”, so it was very interesting to see it at last. Oliver Wendell Holmes used to be such a household name; and now a name to memorize is all he is, to most of us.

“The Schoolmaster Abroad with His Son” by Charles Stuart Calverley
“The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay” by Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Captain Reece” by William S. Gilbert (aka W.S. Gilbert of “Gilbert and Sullivan” fame)
“The Courtin'” by James Russell Lowell

18:55.

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#1219: Pps. 17-21, A Treasury of Humorous Poetry

A Treasury of Humorous Poetry continues, with tales of scientific etiquette, stage door Johnnies, and not-so-true love.

Pps. 17-21.

“The Society on the Stanislaus” by Bret Harte.
“An Actor” by John Wolcot.
“The Biter Bit” by William E. Aytoun.
“Ode to Tobacco” by Charles Stuart Calverley.

8:11.

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#1075: “The Adventure of the Mona Lisa” by Carolyn Wells

Return with me now to those fabled days of yesteryear, when famous writers could commit fanfic, write massive crossovers, and get paid for it!

Anyway, from the public domain pages of The Century magazine, here’s Carolyn Wells’ first tale of the Society of Infallible Detectives:

“The Adventure of the Mona Lisa“

14:26.

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#1008: Ch. 8A, Brain Twister by “Mark Phillips” (Randall Garrett and Lawrence M. Janifer)

Brain Twister continues. Malone takes stock of the telepathic project and his spy mystery, and realizes he’s been missing something very important, all along.

Chapter 8A

25:11.

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#1007: Ch. 7, Brain Twister by “Mark Phillips” (Randall Garrett and Lawrence M. Janifer)

Brain Twister continues. In our penultimate chapter, Malone finally gets his charges to Yucca Flats. For all the good that does him.

Chapter 7

22:11.

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#986: Part 2 of “Bricriu’s Feast”

The old Irish story of “Bricriu’s Feast” continues. Not content with stirring up Ulster’s greatest heroes against each other, Bricriu proceeds to put their wives at each others’ throats, too!

Chs. 3-4

15:53.

Btw, you should cast your eye on the epic space opera poem “The SkyPath Crusade” by Daniel Schilling! This is good stuff, and funny, too.

“But now I’m here, through wind and fear,

Such slaughter I’ve survived

The last of twenty Island men,

The only one alive.”

“Of course,” she said, “I knew you’d be.

When others’ luck ran out

You always were the kind of cur

To turn the odds about.”

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#977: Ch. 11B, The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco

The Girl of the Golden West continues, as Johnson/Ramerrez and the Girl continue their chat.

Did I mention the howling snowstorm? Yep, time to cry Blizzard! and let loose the Flakes of Romance. (Actually, I suspect Belasco’s snowstorm is the reason we have so many Flakes of Romance in American love stories. But feel free to take that trope as a thesis topic.)

12:35.

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#976: Ch. 4, Brain Twister by “Mark Phillips”

Brain Twister continues, with more near-future science fiction fun from the fertile brains of Randall Garrett and Lawrence M. Janifer!

Agent Malone finally has his telepath and has gotten the show on the road. But unfortunately, his telepath also has a few unusual demands…. (It should be pointed out that this novel predates the founding of the SCA by about ten years.)

Chapter 4

28:17.

(As you can see, Brain Twister is back up and has stopped doing odd things to my upload, but “Bricriu’s Feast” is still hiding in the recesses of the servers. When that’s fixed, I’ll put up all the chapters I’ve gotten done so far.)

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#963: Ch. 11A, The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco

The Girl of the Golden West continues. Johnson (aka Ramerrez) arrives at the cabin. Dinner and conversation ensues. You’ll notice that the Girl does a lot of the talking. This is logical, because this play was intended as a star vehicle for the original lead actress. (Though there’s obviously some meaty male parts.)

Chapter 11A

20:14.

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#962: Ch. 10, The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco

The Girl of the Golden West continues. This is pretty much a “comedy relief” chapter, in which the two Native American characters further their romance, and the Girl takes some pretty comical measures to get ready for her dinner guest. The Girl’s cabin is also described, which is interesting both as a description of a woman’s belongings in the Old West and as set design.

The Native American characters continue to be written in a stereotypical manner (though I’ve seen lots worse elsewhere). I continue to try to read in a way that’s a little less offensive, without actually bowdlerizing the text. Sometimes this is made easy. The setup of an unmarried mother planning a temporary marriage would have been a shocking condemnation of Native lifestyles to audiences back then, but seems depressingly normal to us today.

Chapter 10

24:22.

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#945: Ch. 3B, Brain Twister by “Mark Phillips”

Brain Twister continues. Agent Malone finally has his telepath. His batty old lady telepath. Whom he must extract from the mental hospital without offending anyone too much, especially the nurse of his dreams — or the old lady who can read his mind. All their minds. Yeesh.

Chapter 3B

37:24.

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#929: Ch. 2B, Brain Twister by “Mark Phillips”

Brain Twister continues, as Agent Malone learns that finding a telepath is going to be a little harder than he’d thought.

Chapter 2B

25:42.

UPDATE: Broken link fixed. Sorry, everybody.

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#906: Ch. 1, Brain Twister by “Mark Phillips”

Brain Twister continues. Special Agent Malone learns that his new assignment requires a mind reader.

Chapter 1

30:26.

[http://www.archive.org/download/BrainTwister/BrainTwister01.mp3]

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