Reading: Cemetery Dance
Music: The Dillards
TV/Movie: Terror In a Texas Town
Link o' the Day: Ansible

Welcome to this Friday's mailbag. There is a Tarzana, CA postmark on the first envelope dated Jan 8 1987, but no return address. Inside was this folded letter:

Dear Mr. Orange,

We regret to inform you that as of this Friday, we will be closing our doors to all business. After Friday, we will not respond to any business requests or items and, in fact, all correspondence will be disposed of without review. There will be no forwarding address.

That said, in view of your past business with us and your assistance in the locations of matters obscure, we would like to give you, as a parting gift, these few clues in our possession regarding items on your "want list":

An complete and uncut print of The Magnificent Ambersons (complete with extended nude scene) is rumored to have been once shown in the basement of the science library at Indiana University. This is its only known appearance after the incident with Orson Welles and the parish council.

One hears whispers of a living pair of dodo birds, one male and one female, living on a deserted island in the South Atlantic. The island appears on no maps, but is fiercely protected by a brace of black submarines.

The last page of the diary of President John F. Kennedy is said to be hidden somewhere around the Lincoln Memorial. That is all we know regarding this item.

There are twelve confirmed fragments of the Tunguska meteorite--all of which reside in private collections under heavy guard and absolutely unattainable. The rumored thirteenth is said to be in the posession of retired Russian army officer living under an assumed identity on Kodiak Island. Some rumors say he is posing as a priest. Some rumors say he is posing as a nun.

The unpublished hand-written manuscript for "Teenage Lust" by Walt Whitman is thought to have been destroyed in a suspicious house fire in Cornwall during the late 1970s. Recent rumors suggest that prior to the mysterious fire, the manuscript was sold to a French biochemical research collective.

The jade carving of Noah's Ark that you have repeatedly underlined in your requests does not exist.

After twenty-five years, we have still found no buyers for the bag of Cicero's marbles. We suspect it is due to the difficulty in establishing its bona fides despite your personal reputation. We return these to you with regret.

Finally, after careful examination of the photographic evidence, you are quite correct in identifying Babbage's prototype for his "automatic man" in the background of the sandcrawler scene in the movie Star Wars: A New Hope. It is not clear whether or not Mr. Lucas was aware of its significance, or if to him it was merely a piece of background prop. In either case, the place to start looking would be Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California.

It was nice doing business with you. Please do not reply.

Yrs sinc

Sheriff Psalter
Psalter's Curiousity, Esoterica and Miscellania (closed)

Things seem to be moving along for my mysterious friends with the rag paper and crimson ink. I doubt one could say it was moving in a positive direction, but then again I don't know who I should be rooting for.

Sirs,

The adversary has been routed, but we cannot claim a total victory. In battle, agents of the adversary took note of our number and summoned aid. While their aid ended up consuming them rather than saving them, that same aid has now taken up their cause and we find ourselves with a new adversary much like our previous one...but hungrier and more wild.

Please review the situation and get back to us.

(unsigned)

-=-=-=-=-=-

It's been a busy week, but a productive one. A number of projects hit completion and hit the printers. A few others have gotten that much closer to the printer. And new jobs get started. It's all good. The weekend doth approach, and all in all I'm hoping for a relaxing one. Maybe even take an opportunity to sleep late here or there. I think I have it coming.

So straight on to today's link so I can finish up today's work nice and early.



Today's link takes you to the infamous, Hugo-award winning fanzine site Ansible by David Langford. All the news that's fit to print... or unfit even...regarding the world of science fiction and fantasy literature and fandom. Look for features such as "As Others See Us" which gives often infuriating insight into how our fandom is perceived by people who should really know better; Thog's Masterclass with examples of some of the more amusing turns of phrase to appear in works of fiction, outraged letters, changes of address, and other news.

And it's free!

Check it out.