Guns, Guns, Guns: A History of Gun Violence (Lapham's Quarterly, 2018)

  Lapham’s Quarterly, A History of Gun Violence. (2018) A depressing read, with enough data to show that humans have generally expended more effort and skill on making effective weapons than any other tool. War has always been as much about the combatants’ ability to manufacture effective weaponry as about their mastery of strategy and tactics.

The perfection of the hand gun by Colt, Smith & Wesson and others has made gun violence almost as normal as bread. It has also made killing so easy that murder has become the default ingredient of many crimes that would be successful without it. The US Supreme Court’s misinterpretation of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution has encouraged a sense of personal entitlement that has spread into all other aspects of communal life, so that conflict is for many people now the prime mode of relating to others.

As usual, an excellent overview of the subject, consisting mostly of firsthand accounts and analyses based on knowledge of the history. But a melancholy read. The cover is an interpretation of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Recommended. ****

Alligators in the Sewer (and other Folk Tales)

Thomas J. Craughwell. Alligators in the Sewer (1999) Folk tales, or real stories that happened to a friend of a friend, or FOAF. The compiler serves up relevant research into older versions of the tales. The plot generally remains the same, only details of technology and lifestyle change with the times. A first class potato-chip book, which I will dip into repeatedly as time and occasion offer. 

Recommended, if you can find a copy.

BTW, there are no alligators in the sewers of New York or any other city.

****

Darwin Awards 3 (2003)

 Wendy Northcutt. The Darwin Awards III (2003) A Darwin Awards are given posthumously to people who have removed themselves from the gene pool by means less than wise, and have thereby presumably removed deleterious genes. The tales recounted here raise a mix of laughter, astonishment, and pity, but never in the same proportions.

An example: In Finland, in October 2001, a group of friends were stranded by the side of the freeway after running out of gas. No one stopped to help, so one of them lay down the middle of the roadway, expecting traffic to stop. It didn’t, and his unwise attempt to help caused his demise. Confirmed.

The editors are careful to distinguish between confirmed cases, probably true ones, and personal accounts. Mildly amusing illustrations add to the charm of the book. And it is oddly charming: The generally high level of confidence displayed by the award winners before physics and chemistry interfered with their aims is admirable.

Recommended if you can find a copy. ***

Poppies (photo)

The oriental poppies are in bloom. They are about 10-15cm (4-6 inches) across. Photo taken after rain, 19th June 2025.

Frontier Woman (L'Amour, The Cherokee Trail, 2012)

 Louis L’Amour. The Cherokee Trail (2012) A posthumous work, prepped for publication by L’Amour’s heirs. The gaps in the story show, but don’t affect the overall impression. Unusually, the protagonist is a woman, who establishes her cred by horse-whipping the incompetent operator of the stagecoach station whom she’s replacing.  Her husband was supposed to take the job, but he was killed by a renegade rebel officer. A quiet fellow-passenger signs on to help out, and of course eventually “sparks fly”, as the current cliche has it. All in all, a workaday job of entertainment. It would make a good basis for a video, assuming the makers were willing to pick up on the hints about the self-reliance of pioneer women. Not up to L’Amour’s usual standard, but I liked it.

**½

Jake and the Kid (W. O. Mitchell, 1961)

W. O Mitchell. Jake and the Kid (1961) A selection of the short stories based on the radio series that Mitchell wrote for the CBC. Mitchell’s Crocus, Saskatchewan, is very like Leacock’s Mariposa. Like Leacock, Mitchell hides a sometimes bitter satiric insight under slathers of sentiment, poetic justice, and a laid-back style of yarning. I recall listening to some of the radio series when we first came to Canada.

This collection is termed ‘A Novel’, which stretches the concept a bit. The stories do form a kind of a plot around the conflict between Jake Turner and Miss Henchbaw, the schoolteacher who persists in correcting the Kid’s understanding of history as told by Turner. There is a kind of resolution when Miss Henchbaw revises the Kid’s nomination for Golden Jubilee Citizen.

Mitchell has an excellent ear for dialogue, and understands human nature only too well. He does tend to soften his depiction of human evil into mere mischief or pardonable error. But he never glamourises virtue. Jake is the Kid’s hero, but we, who see past and through the Kid’s hero-worship, see Turner’s flaws. This use of the innocent eye also resembles Leacock. It’s a Canadian thing, I guess.

An enjoyable read. Recommended. ***

The Crime of the Century (Amis, 1975)

 Kingsley Amis. The Crime of the Century (1975) Amis wrote this as a serial for the Sunday Times. Skillful, nicely plotted, with occasional flashes of satire, but not a classic of the genre. Retired Det. Supt Barry is called in on the caser of serial killing. The unknotting of the case is wordy, and while the clues have been fairly planted, there aren’t enough of them to justify the solution.

It’s not exactly a page-turner, but I did want to know how it all turned out. Perhaps its brevity (130 pages in paperback) is the reason for the mild disappointment. There’s large cast of interesting characters, but Amis sticks strictly to procedure. I would have liked to read a more expansive narrative, with back stories and intersecting plots. Oh well, Amis wrote it to order, and he delivered as contracted. I suppose an Amis fan or student should read this. For the mystery fan, it’s passable, just. **