Gaslight Digest Wednesday, March 24 1999 Volume 01 : Number 057


In this issue:


   Big Waters, Little Monsters
   CHAT: Review of C. Rossetti Letters, Vol 2
   A saved lighthouse
   Re: A saved lighthouse
   Re: Big Waters, Little Monsters
   Today in History - March 22
   Happy99 virus
   Find a grave
   Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"
   Today in History - March 23
   Etext avail: Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_
   Re: Find a grave (Goethe's)
   Re: Find a grave (Goethe's)
   Re: Find a grave (Goethe's)
   Horatio Hornblower on A&E in April
   Imprisoned w/the Pharaohs
   Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"
   Re: Etext avail: Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_
   Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"
   Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"
   Imprisoned with Lovecraft
   Re:  Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"
   Re: Imprisoned with Lovecraft
   Today in History - March 24
   Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"
   Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"
   Re: Etext avail: Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_

-----------------------------THE POSTS-----------------------------

Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 15:41:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Big Waters, Little Monsters

Despite the serious tone of this story, it is just a whisker away from
being broad comedy.  (Imagine what Mark Twain would have done with it!)
Even the title looks suspicious.  I first read "Lametrie" as a French
word and gave it what, for me, passes as French pronunciation.  It soon
occurred to me, however, that it could easily be a sly misspelling for
"lame try (?trie?)."  I also played with the word enough to know that it
is an anagram for "male rite."  Of course, it is hard to say whether such
ideas were floating around in Curtis?s head, but they did shore up my
feeling that this is one of those campfire legends, told in all
seriousness to frighten a group of boys, though the teller is inwardly
laughing.

Connie has already given us an example of the strange ways of water
at Yellowstone.  Here is another tale of the mysterious water in the
Wyoming wilderness that I found at a website:

<<
Back in 1921, a party of forest rangers and their families were camped at
Three Forks Park, where Wells Creek, Trail Creek and Tourist Creek unite
to form the Green River, when they witnessed a remarkable spectacle.

Though Wells Creek was running at a normal level, and there had not been
any clouds in the sky for days, the campers saw from an elevated vantage
point a great wall of water come down a nearby canyon.

So momentous was the force of the water, and so terrific the impact of
large boulders torn loose from their moorings, bumping and grinding
against each other, that the ground vibrated where the campers stood some
distance from the steep incline. The grinding of the rocks produced a
strange sulphurous smell and water in the creeks and lakes turned an odd
grayish color.

No plausible explanation for the occurrence ever came to light. It was
said that the Indians saw similar things happening in the past in that
area, and that they regard it as a haunted region . . .<<

While I was at this site, I also came across the following, which I
thought of sending along because it deals with a subject close to the
heart of Deborah NM?mummies:

<<Pygmy Demons

Indian legends of the Arapahoe, Sioux, and Cheyenne tell of "tiny people
eaters" who stand 20 inches tall. This legend was supported when an
acutal Pygmy person was found mummified in a local cave. The Pygmy mummy
was brought to town and shown to various people. Over the years the pygmy
mummy has brought bad luck and omens to those who possessed it. The
Indian people still warn others to beware of the "tiny people eater" as
they are rumored to still live a hidden life in the mountains and high
places of Wyoming. <<

Now, it impresses me that this is a tale worth a short story at least.
Maybe Athan could give it a try.

Bob C.

_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity

Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy; meditate on these things
                                 Philippians 4:8

rchamp7927(at)aol.com       robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

===0===



Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 10:05:33 -0500
From: "James E. Kearman" <jkearman(at)mindspring.com>
Subject: CHAT: Review of C. Rossetti Letters, Vol 2

Pent-up passion
The Letters of Christina Rossetti:
Volume 2 1874-1881
edited by Antony H Harrison
Virginia UP ?42.50 pp331

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

When she was 19, Christina Rossetti coined one of her most famous phrases,
"grown old before my time". She had already had the first of her serious
illnesses, but otherwise the mournful description hardly fitted her
situation. She was the youngest of four formidably talented siblings. She
was already engaged to the painter James Collinson who, with her brother
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was a founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood. Her other brother William edited The Germ, the Brotherhood's
journal, in which, a year later, six of the 20-year-old Christina's poems
appeared. Prematurely sophisticated she may have been, but not prematurely
aged.

The review from which the above was excerpted, appears on the London Sunday
Times website
(http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/Sunday-Times/frontpage.html?225445
1), in the Books section.

If you can't access the file, send me an email with '0321A' as the Subject
and my computer will email a text-only copy to you. Click here to send the
mail: mailto:jkearman(at)iname.com

Cheers,

Jim

===0===



Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 16:13:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: A saved lighthouse

There is a romance about the lighthouse that always attract me.  I would
myself love to live by the sea, so perhaps the lonely lighthouse sticking
up from a rocky precipice just moves me more than the idea of a regular
house, however fancy. Anyway, there follows an AP story about a family
in England who decided to save their lighthouse.

Btw, I recently saw a segment on the Annan Isle lighthouse mystery on
Arthur C. Clarke's program (I believe it's called "The Unknown" or
something along that line).  There was an interview with the daughter
of one of the three men who disappeared.  She is a very old woman
now and the events she described occurred when she was a girl. She
said she believes her father was aware that something odd was
going to happen that day because he treated her and her siblings with
unusual affection.

<<
English Lighthouse Moved

EASTBOURNE, England (AP) -- An old lighthouse today was saved from
tumbling into the English Channel when the 850-ton structure was moved
back from the edge of an eroding cliff. Belle Tout lighthouse, which was
built in 1834 and ended its working life in 1902, serves as the home of an
English family. The family has lived in the lighthouse since 1996 and is
paying about $400,000 for the move.<<

Bob C. (who is delighted that Piccard and Jones finally made it around
the world in their balloon. I understand that Piccard's grandfather
was the first balloonist to take a balloon into the stratosphere.)

_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity

Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy; meditate on these things
                                 Philippians 4:8

rchamp7927(at)aol.com       robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

===0===



Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 17:51:38 +0300
From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop)
Subject: Re: A saved lighthouse

Did anyone on this list ever see or hear of a play called THUNDER ROCK,
by Robert Ardrey, about a lighthouse keeper?  There was a film God knows
how far back with Michael Redgrave (I believe) as the lighthouse keeper.
I think he has spectral visitors but it's so long ago since I saw or read
it, I wouldn't guarantee that.  Ardrey was associated at one point with
the University of Chicago, my alma mom, but his plays were produced in
Britain and the U.S.  Did he not write a book called THE TERRITORIAL
IMPERATIVE or am I mixing him up with someone else?

Robert Louis Stevenson's family were in the lighthouse-building business,
of course, and that always seemed to me to be an important part of his
legacy.  The house in Bournemouth where Sargent painted him and Henry
James visited him and Fanny S. was called "Skerryvore," in honor of
one of the Stevenson lighthouses.

Come to think of it that wonderful Stevenson essay called "The Lantern
Bearers" has a certain lighthouse quality about it, as if each boy
carried his own lighthouse under his coat.  Well maybe we all do.

Thanks, Bob.

Carroll

===0===



Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 09:20:56 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Re: Big Waters, Little Monsters

 Bob C. writes:
>Despite the serious tone of this story, it is just a whisker away from
>being broad comedy.

A good support for this theory would be that the first entry in McLennegan's
journal is dated April First!

                                   Stephen D

===0===



Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 11:02:24 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - March 22

             1901
                    Japan proclaims that it is determined to keep Russia from 
encroaching on Korea.
              1904
                    The first color photograph is published in the London Daily 
Illustrated Mirror.
              1907
                    Russians troops complete the evacuation of Manchuria in the 
face of advancing
                    Japanese forces.
              1915
                    A German Zepplin makes a night raid on Paris railway 
stations.
              1919
                    The first international airline service is inaugurated on a 
weekly schedule between
                    Paris and Brussels.

     Born on March 22

             1907
                    James Gavin, U.S. Army General who commanded the 82nd 
Airborne Division on
                    D-Day, Operation Market-Garden and the Battle of the Bulge.
              1908
                    Louis L'Amour, American author who wrote western novels.

===0===



Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 02:37:30 -0500
From: "James D. Hake" <jdh(at)apk.net>
Subject: Happy99 virus

Hi.

A while back someone posted information on how to reverse the effects of
the Happy99 virus. Can they send that to me again backchannel? An associate
of mine has just been infected.

Thanks.


Regards,


Jim
jdh(at)apk.net



A Thousand Roads to Mecca - Ten Centuries of Traveler's
Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage (Library) (338)
Sixteen Short Novels [ ] (259)
Rhetoric/Poetics - Aristotle (60)
All for the Union - the Civil War Diary and Letters of
Elisha Hunt Rhodes (22)
Patriots by A.J. Langguth, (162)
Reporting World War 2 - Part 2 (Library of America), 250

Recent Acquisitions

Sewer, Gas & Electric

Note -- Most books removed from the reading list available for
barter/trade/sale

===0===



Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 14:41:49 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Find a grave

     I don't remember if this URL has been given out before, but there is a
website for tracking down the graves of the famous and infamous.  I must admit
it would never have occurred to me to go looking for this kind of thing, but I
had quite a bit of fun once I was there.  (I was sent there by a _Casablanca_
website.)

     Here's the URL for "Find a grave":

http://www.findagrave.com/

                                   Stephen D
                          mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca

===0===



Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 16:17:20 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"

(IMPPHARO.HTM) (Fiction, Chronos, Scheds)
Harry Houdini's "Imprisoned with the pharaohs" (1924)
[ghost-written by H.P. Lovecraft]

               imppharo.sht
     Lovecraft ghosted the following tale of derring-do for
     Harry Houdini, which was published in _Weird tales_
     (1924-may).  It has many of the Lovecraft trademarks.

     This will be our story for discussion this week.  Feel
     free to pick it apart.


 To retrieve the plain ASCII file send to:  ftpmail(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA

 with no subject heading and completely in lowercase:


 open aftp.mtroyal.ab.ca
 cd /gaslight
 get imppharo.sht

 or visit the Gaslight website at:

http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/imppharo.htm

                                   Stephen D
                            mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 10:20:33 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - March 23

              1848
                    Hungary proclaims its independence of Austria.
              1857
                    Elisha Otis installs the first modern passenger elevator in 
a public building, at the
                    corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City.
              1858
                    Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patents the cable street 
car, which runs on
                    overhead cables.
              1862
                    Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson faces his 
only defeat at the
                    Battle of Kernstown, Va
              1880
                    John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patents the grain crushing 
mill. This mill allows flour
                    production to increase by 70 percent.
              1901
                    A group of U.S. Army soldier led by Brig. Gen. Frederick 
Funston capture Emilio
                    Aguinaldo, the leader of the Philippine Insurrection of 
1899.
              1903
                    The Wright brothers obtain an airplane patent.
              1909
                    British Lt. Ernest Shackleton finds the magnetic South Pole.
              1909 
                    Theodore Roosevelt begins an African safari sponsored by 
the Smithsonian
                    Institution and National Geographic Society.
              1917
                    Austrian Emperor Charles I makes a peace proposal to French 
President Poincare.

       Born on March 23
              1900
                    Erich Fromm, German psychologist who wrote The Sane Society.
              1908
                    Joan Crawford, American actress best known for her role in 
Mildred Pierce
              1912
                    Wernher von Braum, German -born rocket pioneer who led the 
development of
                    the V-2 rocket during World War II [There's a wonderful Bob 
Newhart routine called
                    "The Holdout Huns" which postulates two German soldiers, 
lost in the Black Forest
                    during WWII, who don't realize the war's over until 1962, 
when they run off some
                    picnickers in a strange, beetle-shaped car ("We'd never 
build a car like that in Germany!")
                    and capture a newspaper that reads, "Wernher von Braun 
honored in Washington."
                    "Schultz - the war's over!  We won!"  And yes, I know about 
the Tom Lehrer song.  It's just
                    one of his few I haven't memorized.]

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 10:28:50 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Etext avail: Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_

(TOMMENU.HTM) (Nonfic, Chronos)
Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_ (1913)

               tomintro.non
                 ToMX01.non
                  ToMX02.non
                    ToMX03.non
                      ToMX04.non
                        ToMX05.non
                         ToMX06.non
                           ToMX07.non

     Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_ (1913) is back in
     an improved form.  This is still only the first seven chapters,
     but who knows.  I may finish the book yet, depending on the /
     response to these ones.

     I think Donna G. was asking for these recently.


 To retrieve all the plain ASCII files send to:  ftpmail(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA

 with no subject heading and completely in lowercase:


 open aftp.mtroyal.ab.ca
 cd /gaslight
 get tomintro.non
 get ToMX01.non
 get ToMX02.non
 get ToMX03.non
 get ToMX04.non
 get ToMX05.non
 get ToMX06.non
 get ToMX07.non

 or visit the Gaslight website at:

http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/tommenu.htm

                                   Stephen D
                            mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 13:55:04 +0300
From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop)
Subject: Re: Find a grave (Goethe's)

So did everyone read about the exhumation and replacing of Goethe's remains?
I think this was in either Friday's or Saturday's Toronto Globe and New
York Times.  Happened during the East German occupation.  A nice gaslit
story.  Sorry, I didn't keep the account, though I meant to -- I went to
a workshop of Goethe's FAUST Pt. 1 Saturday at the Tarragon Theatre
in Toronto.

Carroll

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 12:31:35 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Re: Find a grave (Goethe's)

Carroll,
     there's still info on the subject available at CBC Radio's InfoCulture
website:

http://www.infoculture.cbc.ca/archives/heritage/heritage_05231999_goethe.html

According to an AP Wire article repeated on Mason W.'s excellent Prufrock-L
list.  The East German's opened the tomb in 1970, with a view to preserving the
body of the poet.

>By then, some 140 years after his death, the remains were too
> fragile to consider mummification. The scientists instead opted to
> preserve the skeleton.
>
>The remaining tissue was cremated, the skeleton cleaned,
> enclosed in foam and returned to the tomb, the Frankfurter
> Allgemeine Zeitung reported.
>
>At the time of the exhumation, the scientists discovered they
> were not the first to have opened the tomb since Goethe's burial in
> 1832. One of the tomb's interior seals had been opened, and the
> lead lining had been cut, leading them to speculate that the tomb
> had been tampered with at the end of World War II.
>
>[Juergen Seifert, the head of the Weimar Classics
> Foundation], for one, reserved judgment on the scientists.
>
>"The only people qualified to judge this would be a body of
> scientists at home in this field. All the others would be
> frivolous, reckless or biased," he said.

                                   Stephen D
                          mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 15:29:23 +0300
From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop)
Subject: Re: Find a grave (Goethe's)

>Carroll,
>     there's still info on the subject available at CBC Radio's InfoCulture
>website:
>
>http://www.infoculture.cbc.ca/archives/heritage/heritage_05231999_goethe.html
>
>According to an AP Wire article repeated on Mason W.'s excellent Prufrock-L
>list.  The East German's opened the tomb in 1970, with a view to preserving the
>body of the poet.
>
>>By then, some 140 years after his death, the remains were too
>> fragile to consider mummification. The scientists instead opted to
>> preserve the skeleton.
>>
>>The remaining tissue was cremated, the skeleton cleaned,
>> enclosed in foam and returned to the tomb, the Frankfurter
>> Allgemeine Zeitung reported.
>>
   *At the time of the exhumation, the scientists discovered they
>> were not the first to have opened the tomb since Goethe's burial in
>> 1832. One of the tomb's interior seals had been opened, and the
>> lead lining had been cut, leading them to speculate that the tomb
>> had been tampered with at the end of World War II.
>>
>>[Juergen Seifert, the head of the Weimar Classics
>> Foundation], for one, reserved judgment on the scientists.
>>
>>"The only people qualified to judge this would be a body of
>> scientists at home in this field. All the others would be
>> frivolous, reckless or biased," he said.

And I suppose theres also the possibility that that isn't Goethe in
there now.  Not that it matters to me.  Still, a good Gothic story.

Carroll

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 12:30:29 -0800
From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu>
Subject: Horatio Hornblower on A&E in April

For Horatio Hornblower fans, four movies based on
C.S. Forester's _Mr. Midshipman Hornblower_ will air
on A&E each week in April; see
http://www.AandE.com/scenes/horatio/

Check out the Links as well:
http://www.AandE.com/scenes/horatio/links.html

best regards,
Patricia

Patricia A. Teter
PTeter(at)Getty.edu

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 15:21:26 -0600
From: athan chilton <ayc(at)UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Imprisoned w/the Pharaohs

Wahoo!  I don't want to say much about the plot, etc., so as to avoid
spoilers, but as a Lovecraft reader since high school, I read this one long
ago, with great glee and appropriate shivers.  Talk about atmosphere!
Whew!  I think HPL pulled out all his considerable stops here, esp. when he
takes the reader beneath the surface of 'glittering, Saracenic" Egypt to
the darker mysteries beneath.  I'm looking forward to reading others'
thoughts on this story...

athan
ayc(at)uiuc.edu

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 19:44:01 -0700 (MST)
From: "p.h.wood" <woodph(at)freenet.edmonton.ab.ca>
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"

Really, I'm not sure there's much *to* discuss with this (or indeed, any)
of the HPL stories. It is typical of what I would class as his average
stories - exotic/unusual setting, horrific/nefandous supernatural
appearance, and, of course, overuse of adjectives. That aside, there
isn't, to my eye, anything very special about this particular story.
I've read them all over the years, and have in my book collection the
latest large-size paperbacks plus S.T. Joshi's "Annotated HPL" anthology.
I understand that in France his works are rather a cult, but then, they
consider Jerry Lewis is also worthy of cultification, so anything seems
possible there.
Not what some would call a "yawner", but not one I'll read again, unlike,
say, "The Shadow over Innsmouth" or "The Music of Erich Zann".
Peter Wood
Note: I once tried removing all the adjectives from aan HPL story, and
then putting them back, one at a time, until I felt there was an adequate
number. The result was, to my mind, an improvement.

===0===



Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 23:23:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Donna Goldthwaite <dgold(at)javanet.com>
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_

Hi,

 Stephen. Much thanks. I took a quick look at the HTML version and
noticed that it was published in Springfield, Mass. - my hometown! Cool.

Donna

>(TOMMENU.HTM) (Nonfic, Chronos)
>Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_ (1913)
>
>               tomintro.non
>                 ToMX01.non
>                  ToMX02.non
>                    ToMX03.non
>                      ToMX04.non
>                        ToMX05.non
>                         ToMX06.non
>                           ToMX07.non
>
>     Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_ (1913) is back in
>     an improved form.  This is still only the first seven chapters,
>     but who knows.  I may finish the book yet, depending on the /
>     response to these ones.
>
>     I think Donna G. was asking for these recently.
>
>
> To retrieve all the plain ASCII files send to:  ftpmail(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
>
> with no subject heading and completely in lowercase:
>
>
> open aftp.mtroyal.ab.ca
> cd /gaslight
> get tomintro.non
> get ToMX01.non
> get ToMX02.non
> get ToMX03.non
> get ToMX04.non
> get ToMX05.non
> get ToMX06.non
> get ToMX07.non
>
> or visit the Gaslight website at:
>
>http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/tommenu.htm
>
>                                   Stephen D
>                            mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca

===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 09:04:43 -0500 (EST)
From: Chauncey the Bottle Imp <pinniped(at)patriot.net>
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"

On Tue, 23 Mar 1999, p.h.wood wrote:

> Note: I once tried removing all the adjectives from aan HPL story, and
> then putting them back, one at a time, until I felt there was an adequate
> number. The result was, to my mind, an improvement.

In my experience, the effectiveness of Lovecraft has remarkably little to
do with the quality of his writing.  Sometimes I even suspect his work is
more effective *because* the prose is clumsy.  It's similar to the way a
low-budget horror movie can terrify you, because your imagination is being
called upon to see beyond the rubber bats, opossums subbing as giant rats,
etc. to the inner vision of the creator.  You become an active participant
in the creation.

To extend the movie analogy, the most effective horror movies are also
those which show the least, for precisely the same reason -- your
imagination supplies a reality vastly more horrific than that produced by
the special effects department.  Lovecraft's power is partly due to his
reluctance to describe things right out.  He hints, he prevaricates, he
shows the reactions of the characters to the oncoming horror.  My favorite
example is the end of "Beyond the Mountains of Madness", where the
narrator's assistant, maddened by fear, confuses the shoggoth boiling down
the tunnel toward them with the lights of an approaching subway train.
That's all you as the reader "see" of the critter.  D.C. Metro tunnels
have seemed sinister ever since I read that passage.

- --
Barbara Weitbrecht
pinniped(at)patriot.net

===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 07:35:33 -0800
From: Robert Birchard <bbirchard(at)earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"

Chauncey the Bottle Imp wrote:

>  opossums subbing as giant rats,
> etc.

     If you're referring to Dracula, those were armadillos substituting as
ginat rats!

> --

Bob Birchard
bbirchard(at)earthlink.net
http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/Guest/birchard.htm

===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 08:17:09 -0800
From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu>
Subject: Imprisoned with Lovecraft

Through some damnable chance, my evening reading
turned into the most unutterable hideousness.  The life
and breath seemed to be crushed slowly out of me.  The
fountain of all darkness and terror, H.P. Lovecraft,
cleverly disguised by demoniac mystery, intruded upon
my blissful evening, paining me woefully in untold agony.
The Gothic verbal abundance is now only a memory of
lush hideousness, which nothing else is my life -- save
one or two things which came just this morning -- can
parallel.

But I survived... I am certain it was only a horrid dream.

with heartfelt sincerity,
Patricia    (who now remembers why Lovecraft is not on
her reading list! <grin>)

===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 12:00:43 -0500 (EST)
From: Zozie(at)aol.com
Subject: Re:  Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the 
pharoahs"

In a message dated 3/24/99 3:34:59 PM, you wrote:

<<>  opossums subbing as giant rats,
> etc.

     If you're referring to Dracula, those were armadillos substituting as
ginat rats!>>

Think it's the Island of Doc Maroux... (spelling, can't remember)... If it's
the one I'm thnking of, there are also german shepards disguised, oh-so-
funnily, as some other major predator type.

fun to remember.

phoebe

===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 10:09:32 -0700
From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com>
Subject: Re: Imprisoned with Lovecraft

>Through some damnable chance, my evening reading
>turned into the most unutterable hideousness.

I started reading Lovecraft in college.  He scared the daylights out of me
with the basic horror stuff. Never really cared as much for the Dunsanian
pieces but SHADOW OUT OF TIME remains one of my favorite stories of all
time.  And it is one I reread periodically. MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS is the
same, for the total unearthly feel it gave to our own home planet--and yes,
subways have never seemed the same.

I enjoyed some of Lovecraft's collaborations, this one with Houdini and
"Medusa's Coil" is another.  I learned many new words reading Lovecraft and
it was always fun to pepper conversation with the likes of "eldritch" and
"quicklime".  I completely agree that Lovecraft's effectiveness is not the
quality of writing--but how he draws you in to his paranoid world.  If you
don't get drawn in or see the rubber bats, well, you're going to miss the
point.  But die-hard fans of Lovecraft will always fight to the death (or
the cross over to another threshold) his place in literature.  Effusiveness
can be laid at Poe's door as well but I would never do it.

And any visit to the darker side of the pyramids is a good way to keep the
tourists down!

If you see Sebek walking down that hall....?  RUN!

Deborah

Deborah McMillion
deborah(at)gloaming.com
http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html

===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 10:34:37 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - March 24

             1862
                    Abolitionist Wendell Phillips speaks to a crowd about 
emancipation in Cincinnati,
                    Ohio and is pelted by eggs.
              1900
                    Mayor Van Wyck of New York breaks ground for the New York 
subway tunnel
                    that will link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
              1904
                    Vice Adm. Tojo sinks seven Russian ships as the Japanese 
strengthen their
                    blockade of Port Arthur.



                                       Born on March 24
              1755
                    Rufus King, framer of the U.S. Constitution.
              1834
                    William Morris, English craftsman, poet, socialist who 
revolutionized the art of
                    house decoration and furniture in England.
              1855
                    Andrew Mellon, U.S. financier and philanthropist who 
developed interests in coal,
                    railroads, steel and water power. He also donated his 
entire collection of paintings
                    to the National Gallery of Art.
              1874
                    Harry Houdini, magician, escape artist.
              1895
                    Arthur Murray, American dancer who founded dance schools.

===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 13:22:13 -0500 (EST)
From: Chauncey the Bottle Imp <pinniped(at)patriot.net>
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"

On Wed, 24 Mar 1999, Robert Birchard wrote:

> >  opossums subbing as giant rats,
> > etc.
>
>      If you're referring to Dracula, those were armadillos substituting as
> ginat rats!

I remember the armadillos, but there was another vampire film (can't
remember which one) where the "rats" were most definitely opossums.  I was
howling with laughter, to the annoyance of my viewing companions.

Noting unlikely fauna and geology and astronomy is a mental of mine.  Like
the episode in _King Solomon's Mine_ where the total eclipse of the sun
comes on the day after the full moon.  Or the live-action "101
Dalmations", where skunks were part of the wild-fauna of England.

BEW
(Chauncey's an alter ego from another list)

- --
pinniped(at)patriot.net


===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 17:57:49 -0700 (MST)
From: "p.h.wood" <woodph(at)freenet.edmonton.ab.ca>
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Houdini and Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the pharoahs"

Chauncey the Bottle Imp remarked, inter alia:
<<Noting unlikely fauna and geology and astronomy is a mental of mine.
Like the episode in "King Solomon's Mines", where the total eclipse of the
sun comes on the day after the full moon.>>
Not only that: the eclipse is total for over an hour, whereas the maximum
duration of totality (sun fully obscured) that is possible is 7.5 minutes,
and the average duration is more like 4.5 minutes, according to an
astronomy text I consulted.
Still, in a fictional world the author has the power to order things
differently. As Arthur Conan Doyle observed in a similar context "In such
matters one must be firm".
Peter Wood

===0===



Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 21:19:25 -0500
From: "S.T. Karnick" <skarnick(at)INDY.NET>
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_

I read these some time ago on this very list, and found them very
interesting and enlightening. I'd certainly welcome additional chapters.

Best w's,

S.T. Karnick

- -----Original Message-----
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA <sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA>
To: Gaslight-announce(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA <Gaslight-announce(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA>
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 1999 12:46 PM
Subject: Etext avail: Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_


>(TOMMENU.HTM) (Nonfic, Chronos)
>Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_ (1913)
>
>               tomintro.non
>                 ToMX01.non
>                  ToMX02.non
>                    ToMX03.non
>                      ToMX04.non
>                        ToMX05.non
>                         ToMX06.non
>                           ToMX07.non
>
>     Carolyn Wells' _The technique of mystery_ (1913) is back in
>     an improved form.  This is still only the first seven chapters,
>     but who knows.  I may finish the book yet, depending on the /
>     response to these ones.
>
>     I think Donna G. was asking for these recently.
>
>
> To retrieve all the plain ASCII files send to:  ftpmail(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
>
> with no subject heading and completely in lowercase:
>
>
> open aftp.mtroyal.ab.ca
> cd /gaslight
> get tomintro.non
> get ToMX01.non
> get ToMX02.non
> get ToMX03.non
> get ToMX04.non
> get ToMX05.non
> get ToMX06.non
> get ToMX07.non
>
> or visit the Gaslight website at:
>
>http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/tommenu.htm
>
>                                   Stephen D
>                            mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
>
>
>

------------------------------

End of Gaslight Digest V1 #57
*****************************