Joseph Force Crater[1] (January 5, 1889 – disappeared August 6, 1930; declared legally dead June 6, 1939) was an American lawyer who served as a New York State Supreme Court Justice and mysteriously vanished shortly after the state began an investigation into corruption in New York City. Despite massive publicity, the missing personscase was never solved and was officially closed forty years after Crater was declared dead.
The books on the feature are of two varieties. One is new books by unknown authors. You can sample someones work without investing too much money into it. The other books are the earlier or more obscure work of established authors. This is what I usually download
Lawrence Block is one of my favorite authors. In fact I have to say "When the Sacred Gin-mill" closes is just about my favorite book. Block's hero Matthew Scudder writes about the drinking life. In that book he discusses the type of people you meet hanging out in a bar. It is scary how on the money he is as I recognize myself in one of his characters.
Another of his series revolves around Keller. He is a hit man and a stamp collector.. I know it seems crazy but it all seems to work. I ended up reading about eight of his novels or novellas that were on Kindle unlimited. I guess it is the Netflix effect. You just binge on something ready or watching five or six in a row. After all who wants to wait?
These books are excellent. A quick easy enjoyable read. A good introduction to Block. When I was reading it I wondered who I would get to play Keller. I do that all the time with characters. For example I always saw Paul Newman as Travis Mcgee. Tom Selleck as Spencer. Sam Elliot as Tell Sacket. Sometimes they are cast that way. Often they are not.
For Keller I see the guy who plays Pope on "Animal Kingdom." He is pretty ordinary looking and very calm with a distinct lack of effect. But I can see him being a hitman.
Check out the Keller books if you can. Or the Scudder series. It will be a great way to spend some time if you are stuck inside because of our new communist overlords.
Despite being widely known, a mystery has surrounded the masterpiece for more than 100 years – an unknown white mark beside the distinctive figure.
While it was previously thought to be a bird dropping, researchers have now analysed the painting and discovered that the white mark is in fact wax.
Scholars have spent their lives puzzling over the Voynich Manuscript, whose intriguing mix of elegant writing and drawings of strange plants and naked women has some believing it holds magical powers...
"Touching the Voynich is an experience," says Juan Jose Garcia, sitting on the top floor of a book museum in the quaint centre of Burgos where Siloe's office is, a few paved streets away from the city's famed Gothic cathedral.
"It's a book that has such an aura of mystery that when you see it for the first time... it fills you with an emotion that is very hard to describe."...
The manuscript is named after antiquarian Wilfrid Voynich who bought it around 1912 from a collection of books belonging to the Jesuits in Italy, and eventually propelled it into the public eye.
Theories abound about who wrote it and what it means...
Its content is even more mysterious...
The plants drawn have never been identified, the astronomical charts don't reveal much and neither do the women.
Does the book hold the key to eternal youth? Or is it a mere collection of herbal medicine and recipes?
Scores have tried to decode the Voynich, including top cryptologists such as William Friedman who helped break Japan's "Purple" cipher during World War II. (read the whole thing)
A family get-together was going on at the home with a number of people attending.The story called to mind a scene from one of my all time favorites. A little background... she is pregnant and was told by her doctor, in an earlier scene, not to smoke.
Police said Kathryn Flint, 49, went inside the home to ready multiple large fireworks, or mortars, that had previously been placed on top of a bed in a bedroom, and was going to take them outside to set them off.
At about 8:40 p.m., while she was inside the bedroom with two dogs also present, there was an apparent accidental ignition of at least one mortar, police said.
When the mortar exploded, it set off others inside the bedroom, resulting in the ignition of multiple other mortars. (read more)
Who stores fireworks in a bedroom? I now see why most states ban the personal sale/use of these things since you would have to administer an IQ test first.
At some point, her bank account ran dry. The bills stopped being paid.Skipping down to the good stuff all the way at the end...
After its warnings went unanswered, the bank holding the mortgage foreclosed on the house, a common occurrence in a region hit hard by economic woes.
Still, nobody noticed what had happened inside the house. Nobody wondered out loud what had become of the owner.
Not until this week, when a worker sent by the bank to repair a hole in the roof made a grisly discovery.
The woman's mummified body was sitting in the back seat of her car, parked in the garage. The key was halfway in the ignition.
Dr. Bernardino Pacris, the county deputy medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, told the Detroit Free Press that the woman's skin was still intact, but that the internal organs had decomposed.If you disappeared, would anyone miss you?
Bouchard, the country sheriff, noted that her body was inside a closed vehicle inside a closed garage -- and, thus, not exposed to outside air or other factors that might contribute to decomposition.
Pacris told the newspaper that during the mummification process, skin develops a parchment-like consistency and leathery texture. Finding a body in such a condition is unusual, he said, but "once in a while, we see this."
