Zatoichi (Stickers Bruce Wayne Wolverine) Smith-Northrup 2005-2018

I don't know why the only thing I continue to update on this blog is when our cats pass away, but here we are again. In the summer of 2005, we brought home two cats after visiting Melinda's sister in Houston. One gray and white long-haired male kitten along with his mother, a short-haired calico. The vet estimated he was born in March. By this point, I had settled on the idea that you brainstorm several names for a cat, pick one prominent name, then you keep all the other ideas as middle names.

So Melinda's grand-nephew had been calling him "Stickers" because of his tiny claws. I tried out but quickly passed over "Bruce Wayne" and "Wolverine" because the shape of gray on his face seemed like a superhero mask. The name that stuck was "Zatoichi," which you probably know is a series of Japanese films about a blind swordsman who was also a masseuse, because you're the kind of person who reads my blog.

I think he had a stroke this morning because he fell over and started spinning himself in circles. (I assume he was paralyzed on one side and started pushing with his feet on the side that still worked.) He was gone within minutes.

He's survived by his step-sister Lozie. The second picture on this page is the two of them hanging out together:

Below is another pic of Z that I got made into a fake bus driver ID, as a joke for Melinda.

“Two Can Play the Game”: Recalculating the Minimum Number of Players in Stevie Wonder’s “Part Time Lover”

It’s five. Stevie says two, but it has to be five lovers playing this game. Here’s how I arrive at that conclusion.

The song is in first and second person perspective, narrating his own experience while addressing “you, my part time lover.” The first verses indicate that his committed lover is female. 

First, the genders of the players and their sexual orientations matter in so far as they help us deduce how many lovers are involved in the song. Stevie presents as male. I guess we could argue that claim at length, but the song was released in 1985. There were other pop stars treading the androgynous line or leaping over it by then. Even a few out bisexual or homosexual artists. If Stevie was trying to give cues of non-male identity, he was doing it too subtly for me to recognize.

If she’s with me, I’ll blink the lights
to let you know tonight’s the night.

So far we have a narrator, his committed lover and his part time lover.

We have to consider that the part time lover could be a man. How can we tell the narrator’s sexual orientation? Because in another verse he says, 

but if there’s some emergency
have a male friend to ask for me
So then she won’t peek [?] it’s really you,
my part time lover.

His wife or committed lover would be suspicious if a woman was calling or asking for him. If the part time lover were male, there would be no point getting another male friend to ask for the narrator.

The final verse admits that someone “rang our doorbell” who wasn’t his part time lover. Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t usually that suspicious, but in the context of this song, that’s enough to indicate he’s stepping out with someone else, a third lover. Could he be stepping out with his wife or original committed lover? I don’t think so. If a person is sneaking around with a part time lover in order to deceive a spouse or original lover, we wouldn’t expect that they stopped making love to the original committed lover. This brings the total to four players.

Enter the final player:

And then a man called our exchange
But didn’t want to leave his name.
I guess two can play the game
of part time lovers.

Again, in the context of this song, that’s enough to indicate infidelity. I was confused about whether this man on the phone is having an affair with the narrator’s original committed lover or with his first part time lover. “Our exchange” could mean the phone he shares at his home with his original committed lover. But “you” in the song is his part time lover, so “our” could mean the phone he shares at another residence with her. The final lines make it clear. 

You and me, part time lovers.
But she and he, part time lovers.

He wouldn’t say “she” if he meant the person he was addressing as “you” throughout the rest of the song. It must be his wife or original committed lover.

Lastly, I wanted to explore the possibility that the original committed lover was sneaking around behind the narrator’s back with part time lover number one. That could bring the number of players back down to four. Their genders and sexual orientations seem to argue against it. If the man calling the narrator’s phone number indicates one of his lovers is unfaithful to him, and if it’s two women having an affair with each other behind his back, why would they get a male friend to call? Unless the narrator already suspects one or both of them are bi? Is she doing the trick HE recommended by getting a male friend to ask for her? No, too convoluted, not enough context to assume they’re bi. I mean, more power to them if they’re bi or want open relationships, although they all should have been upfront about having open relationships if that's what they wanted. In which case the whole song would be pointless.

So I’m settling on five players. Five can play the game, consisting of one narrator, his committed lover, his part time lover, his second part time lover, and some guy who calls and won’t leave his name.


If gun restrictions are totally ineffective, why didn't the LV shooter's collection include a machine gun?

Follow my line of reasoning here and let me know if my premises or conclusions are wrong.

1. The LV shooter had 47 guns between the hotel room where he perched and his two homes.

2. No outlets are reporting that any of the weapons were illegal. They included semi-automatic weapons and at least a dozen "bump stocks," which can turn semi-auto into fully automatic or nearly fully automatic. No illegal purchases of weapons by the shooter have been reported from what I've heard or read, but they haven't vetted all his purchases.

3. Investigators haven't determined exactly which weapons were used in the shooting. Witnesses and people who listened to audio of the event said it sounded like fully automatic gun fire, so they were probably hearing semi-automatic weapons with bump stocks attached.

4. The LV shooter was a multi-millionaire.

5. It is possible to own fully automatic weapons, but they are more heavily restricted than semi-automatic or other types.

6. No one has reported that any of the LV shooter's 47 weapons were built as fully automatic.

7. The purpose of a bump stock is to effectively turn a legal semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic weapon. It's an end-run around the laws that restrict fully auto weapons. Bump stocks are generally legal, but banned in a few states (see article below). They may make parts of the weapon wear out sooner. They're also cheaper than all the registration and fees and cost of a fully automatic weapon.
Conclusion: Fully automatic weapons aren't even banned, they're just more difficult to get because of restrictions. Yet this rich, retired gun enthusiast did not get one. Maybe he just wanted a cheaper alternative. Come on, really? Do you know people who own guns? Did you grow up with guns? Do you currently own guns? We're supposed to be exempt from discussing gun regulations if we haven't spent at least 10,000 hours at a range and field dressed 500 pounds of game with our dads or moms.

Anyway, can you imagine someone who owned 47 weapons and had plenty of money but wouldn't own a machine gun if he had the chance? Someone who would be satisfied with a device stuck on the back of a rifle to make it nearly equivalent to a machine gun? If you haven't fired one yourself (which you can do legally at various gun ranges), you've probably seen videos of people using real machine guns. Everybody says they're fun. Seems implausible that this guy wouldn't have bought a fully automatic weapon if he had been able to.

This makes me think the current restrictions on fully automatic weapons prevented him from getting one, or were enough of an obstacle that he wanted to get around them. Sounds like some gun regulations are effective obstacles to some people. So don't let people tell you gun regulations are useless or that anyone who's committed will find a way around them. (By the way, no laws are 100% effective, so anyone who tells you gun laws are useless because they're less than 100% effective is arguing against all laws. They may be surprised if you point out that their argument is anarchist.)

But wait! Aha! The shooter got around this gun regulation by using a bump stock. So this proves anyone who's sufficiently committed will find a way around them, right? No. The reason he was able to purchase a bump stock legally and easily was because NRA lobbies against almost all restrictions, and because ATF and other government agencies have been stocked full of gun maximalists over the years. Here's a page from the NRA's website explaining how wrong it was to restrict fully automatic weapons over the years, and how they're obviously itching to remove restrictions as soon as they can.

So you can't give a person an easy way around the law and then say, "See, gun laws don't work!"

I'm running out of energy. The other question I wanted to explore was whether the NRA was culpable for the number of casualties. I haven't been able to find if there have been legal battles or discussions about bump stocks since they've been available, or whether the NRA defended their legality. If they did, would it be impossible for them to foresee that this could be the result? Would it be a stretch to say the actions of the NRA allowed the LV shooter to kill or wound more people, even if he would have killed some with semi-automatic weapons? Sorry, that's a statement cloaked as a question. Let me put it plainly. I think there were more casualties in Las Vegas because of the actions of the NRA. I think there are more casualties around the country, every day of every year, because of the actions of the NRA. Hell, around the world, because weapons are manufactured in the US and the NRA fights to help them sell everywhere around the world. Even though they have a large body of grassroots supporters, you'd almost get the impression that the NRA is mainly fighting for manufacturers instead of citizens. You could almost follow the money.

Supporting webpages were accessed Oct 4, 2017.


Jonny Quest Body Count

I watched 13 hours of cartoons and wrote all these notes, and you just want the number, don't you? Fine. My estimate is that 145 people were killed in the original series that aired from 1964-1965. Don't leave yet. You still want to hear about Team Quest's search for better hallucinogens? Their brush with the war in Indochina? Dr. Zin's fickle grooming habits? The delight that Jonny and Hadji and two grown-ass men take in Bandit's constant injuries? Read on.

*Spoilers* for a cartoon that first aired fifty years ago.

Methodology: We see a lot of bad guys taken out of the picture without being tied up or brought to jail afterwards. For instance, they crash cars or get buried in an avalanche, and that's the last we see of them. You could assume there's some Scooby-Doo moment after the end of the episode where Race hands the bad guys over to cops or Hadji gives the wounded minions CPR, but we don't see it onscreen very much. In a few cases, our heroes clearly comment on the deaths of bad guys. Race warns, "Don't look, Jonny," as screaming bad guys are overtaken by crocodiles. Or Jonny says, "That's the last mistake he'll ever make."

If bad guys or bystanders seem to be badly harmed but are not explicitly shown walking away later, I assume they died. If you don't share that assumption, the body count should be lower. I'm also taking a guess at how many bad guys it takes to operate a submarine (at least ten?), or to staff a smuggling base in an underwater cavern (25?), or a secret factory manufacturing nerve gas (20?). I think these are conservative estimates. Realistically a sub might have required thirty or fifty sailors, and a smuggling operation slightly less ambitious than a Bond villain's might have required fifty guards and stevedores.

While making notes about the number of people killed in each episode, I expanded to include the number of animals killed, then tracking these other common threads throughout the series:
  • Jonny and the gang have adventures at sea or on water in 58% of episodes, in boats or ships or canoes. 
  • Six of the 26 episodes are partly set underwater. In all but one of those episodes, the bad guys have some kind of submarine. 
  • Bandit gets comically injured in 42% of episodes.
  • The writers of the show might have tried to minimize the carnage our heroes inflicted by having the bad guys often foiled or injured by their own weapons or actions. Whatever the motivation, their grenades or lasers or attacks end up bouncing back on bad guys in 38% of episodes.
Below are details of how many people I thought died in each episode.

0. Credits
Opening credits: Mummy and bad guy killed in cave-in. Ship full of bad guys destroyed by reflected laser (10?). See notes in episode one below.
Closing credits: Race jumps speedboat and lands on two frogmen.
Total body count: 14 if you count the mummy.

R.I.P. - Two unnamed "lizardmen" crushed in the end credits of every episode.

1. Mystery of the Lizard Men
One ship destroyed (5 crew?) and one fisherman killed by bad guys' laser.
Race jumps speedboat and lands on two frogmen.
Ship full of bad guys destroyed by reflected laser. Since the decrepit ship disguises the exit of an enemy sub and Team Quest never has to chase the sub after this explosion, I'm estimating at least ten crewmen required to operate the sub were killed.
Total body count: 18

Bandit comically injured: as a judo demonstration for Jonny, Race uses one finger to flip Bandit on his back.

On water? yes
Under water? yes
Bad guys have sub? yes
Ricochet? yes

2. Arctic Splashdown
One frogman victim of his own bomb.
Missile explodes with three bad guys trying to steal missile parts.
Total body count: 4

Bandit comically injured: skis down stairs and crashes into ship's captain.

On water? Yes
Under water? Yes
Bad guys have sub? Yes
Ricochet? Yes

3. Curse of Anubis
One guard pulled offscreen by bad guys.
One scorpion whipped to pieces by Race.
Two bad guys fall off bridge during chase.
Mummy and bad guy killed in cave-in.
Total body count: 5 humans (counting the mummy), 1 scorpion

Ricochet effect: bad guy boss killed by the mummy he was responsible for unleashing.

4. Pursuit of the Po-Ho
Zero fatalities, although it looks like 3 indigenous people can't swim when their canoe sinks.

Bandit comically injured: crab pinches his nose. Bandit smacks into porch while riding armadillo.

On water? Yes

5. Riddle of the Gold
Maharajah assassinated.
Assassin mauled by tiger.
Bad guy mauled by leopard.
Total body count: 3

Bandit comically injured: when Bandit plays snake-charming flute to a coil of rope, the end of rope rises like a cobra and whips him. Nose bitten by parrot. Burns his butt by sitting on bomb fuse to put it out.

6. Treasure of the Temple
Four bad guys eaten by crocodiles.
Total body count: 4

On water? Yes

7. Calcutta Adventure
One fighter pilot crashes into trees.
Three bad guys dowsed by hot chemicals.
Three bad guys buried in avalanche.
How many bad guys does it take to keep a secret nerve gas lab operational? 20 inside when it explodes?
Total body count: 27

Injury to Bandit's nose: caught in lid of mongoose's basket.

8. The Robot Spy
Zero fatalities.

Dr. Zin grows a mustache between the fifth and eighth episodes.

9. Double Danger
Bad guy killed by his own bomb.
Total body count: 1

Bandit comically injured: tripped by monkey, falls on face and skids.

Ricochet? Yes

Fun fact: This episode aired 13 November 1964 and was set in Thailand. Given Dr. Quest's work for the US government, his team probably landed at one of the bases from which the US Air Force was already launching bombing missions into Laos and Vietnam.

Race: It's hard to believe that this vine grows only in Thailand.
Dr. Quest: It's true. From that vine comes the answer to one of the problems facing future space expeditions.
Race: You mean the threat of mental deterioration.
Dr. Quest: Right. However, with this formula... Picture the crew of this spaceship, locked in their metal prison, surrounded by billions of miles of nothing for as long as 16 years at a stretch. . . The human mind is not prepared for such a test of solitude. 
Race: So what you're after is a sort of giant tranquilizer?
Dr. Quest: Exactly. We know now that man has always found ways to alter his emotions by consuming various plants. It's called "hallucinogenics." . . . By synthesizing this plant into pills, a crew could keep mentally alert for as long as 20 years. ... 

And you thought Scooby Doo was all about dope.

10. Shadow of the Condor
One owl killed by a condor.
Bad guy crashes biplane into condor, then mountain.
Total body count: 1

11. Skull and Double Crossbones
British Coast Guard blows up ship with four bad guys. They announce that they'll search for survivors, but no survivors are shown or discussed later.
Total body count: 4

On water? Yes
Under water? Yes

12. The Dreadful Doll
In a hijacked sub, Race blows up tunnel that leads to secret base in underwater cavern. No mention of what happened to the dozens of workers in the base when their only exit was permanently sealed.
Total body count: 25

Bandit comically injured: bound and gagged by bad guy.

On water? Yes
Under water? Yes
Bad guys have sub? Yes

13. A Small Matter of Pygmies
Zero fatalities, although indigenous people are again depicted as bad swimmers or great at holding their breath underwater for a long time.

Squeamish bonus: After shooting a panther from a distance, Race warns Jonny not to go near it because it could still be alive. Race puts his rifle close to the panther's head. Cut to Jonny grimacing as we hear Race deliver the coup de grâce.

On water? Yes

14. Dragons of Ashida
Race kills two dragons. Bad henchman feeds Dr. Ashida to his dragons.
Total body count: 1 human, 2 dragons.

On water? Yes
Ricochet? Yes

15. Turu the Terrible
Pteranodon and his trainer fall into tar pit.
Total body count: 1 human, 1 pteranodon.

Bandit comically injured: fish bites Bandit's tail after Jonny warns him to keep away.

On water? Yes

16. The Fraudulent Volcano
Hadji smashes tarantula in pitcher.
Six bad guys in flying platforms crash into mountainside.
Total body count: 6

17. Werewolf of the Timberland
Zero fatalities.

Bandit comically injured: sprayed by skunk.

18. Pirates from Below
Three bad guys blown up by their own mine.
Dr. Quest uses robot arm pinchers on undersea tank to capture two enemy mini-subs and snip them in half. Bad guys might have escaped.
Total body count: 3

On water? Yes
Under water? Yes
Bad guys have sub: Yes
Ricochet? Yes

19. Attack of the Tree People
No fatalities.

On water? Yes

20. The Invisible Monster
Two killed by monster.
Dr. Quest dissolves the monster.
Total body count: 2

21. The Devil's Tower
Nazi killed by his own grenade.
Total body count: 1

Ricochet? Yes

Bandit comically injured: hit in face with stones & fruit thrown by primate.

22. The Quetong Missile Mystery
Two local government investigators killed by remotely detonated mines as they approach bad guys' missile area.
Although they have knock-out darts to incapacitate a few sentries, Race sneaks up and puts one bad guy in sleeper hold, then drops his unconscious body in water. I'm ruling that a fatality.
General Fong shoots ones of his guards as punishment. The guard falls on detonator and sets off mine under Fong's boat, killing two.
Total body count: 6

On water: Yes
Ricochet? Yes

23. The House of Seven Gargoyles
One bad guy shot and killed another after quarreling.
Three bad guys killed by falling glacier, triggered by their own gunshots.
Total body count: 4

On water? Yes
Under water? Yes
Bad guys have sub? Yes
Ricochet? Yes

24. Terror Island
Giant crab picks up guard and carries him off screen (presumably killed).
Race shoots leg of water tower which falls on four bad guys (presumably killing them). He banks a few shots off the blade of a bulldozer to kill a bad guy, then kills four more with a grenade.
Jonny drives bulldozer through wall, killing giant spider.
Four bad guys killed by giant lizard. Giant lizard electrocuted.
Giant crab is apparently still out there.
Total body count: 14 humans, 2 giant monsters.

Bandit comically injured: frightened by firecrackers exploding all around him.

On water? Yes

25. Monster in the Monastery
Yeti throws man off cliff.
Yeti leader slips on oil spilled by Jonny, falls off mountain.
Another yeti crushed by his own boulder when it bounces back.
Hadji kicks yeti off castle ledge, apparently to his death.
Dude in yeti suit nabbed by actual yeti.
When Dr. Quest and Race arrive to survey the scene, they see nine dudes in yeti suits sprawled around the castle courtyard. Dr. Quest says, "Looks like they've all been wiped out by some tremendous force." I'm generously assuming the handful of bad guys that Jonny and Hadji knocked out with vases or crates survived and were not among the nine in the courtyard.
Total body count: 14

Ricochet? Yes

26. The Sea Haunt
According to the ship's log, the creature killed second mate and tossed three sailors overboard. I assume the crew was able to rescue the three sailors. The captain ends his log entry in the middle of a sentence, but he may have escaped on a lifeboat. By the end of the episode, we never hear if the lifeboats made it, so the entire crew might have been picked off by the creature as they tried to flee.
Total body count: one confirmed

On water? Yes


Creatures killed: Owl, condor, scorpion, mummy, panther, 2 dragons, pteranodon, tarantula, invisible electrical monster, giant lizard, giant spider.

Monsters who got away: yeti, giant crab, sea haunt creature.

Percent of episodes on water (involving sail boats, ships or canoes): 57%
Percent of episodes under water: 23%
Percent of episodes in which bad guys have sub: 19%
Percent of episodes in which bad guys hide in underwater cavern: 8% (2 episodes)
Percent of episodes in which Bandit is comically injured: 42%
Percent of episodes with at least one fatality: 81%
Ricochet effect (percent of episodes in which bad guys were killed by their own weapons): 38%

Click on table above for larger view.

Songlian Smith-Northrup, 2004-2016

Another cat passed away on December 15, 2016. We picked up Songlian in Houston in June 2005, along with her tiny son Zatoichi. I was afraid the kitten wouldn't survive a hot, three day road trip from Houston back to Michigan, but he made it, and he's huge now.

Songlian had tumors removed twice in the past, but the latest batch was inoperable, already growing between or through her organs when we discovered they had come back. We had to keep her swaddled with an ace bandage to prevent her from licking wounds open on her chest, but she looked awesome in a series of infant shirts and dresses. They're not tailored for cats. I imagine she preferred those to the cone of shame.

When naming our cats, I started a tradition of brainstorming several names, settling on one as the first name, and keeping all the rejected ones as middle names. By that convention, her full name was Songlian Kikujiro Sonatine Anh Mrs. Cheng the Pirate Queen Tampopo Florida Darth Mama Smith-Northrup (formerly Snow Angel Princess, aka Baby Cat).

A few years ago, we started a Twitter account for Melinda's puns and stories about the cats and other anthropomorphic critters @SongliansCafe. In the storyline, Zatoichi inherited the cafe after Songlian passed on. We'll continue posting there.


Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) Body Count

Three porters killed by crocodiles.
Porters whipped by overseer.
Two lions killed by Tarzan.
One cheetah killed by Tarzan.
One ape shot by ivory hunter.
Two porters killed by Tarzan.
"Dwarves" in blackface.
Four porters thrown to killer gorilla in pit.
One gorilla killed by Tarzan.
One elephant killed by "dwarves."
One "dwarf" trampled by elephant.
Jane's father dies of heart attack or stroke?

Total Body Count: 23
Animals killed: 13
Humans killed: 10


Aslan: More Messy Than Messiah

Okay, he has some power, Narnians look up to him, he sometimes goes away without explaining why, doesn't always show up when people call him, and he sacrifices himself for the good of others. That sounds familiar.

Narnians don't directly call Aslan a god, so he comes off as just a powerful, magical figure like Gandalf. People can ask him for help. He may or may not give it to them. But they don't bill him as creator of the universe. He's playing along with certain rules that he has to work with, not like he's the Maker of all rules and laws of physics.

Like when he sacrifices his life, knowing that he'll come back a few days later. Actually this is a lot like that other guy who comes back after three days. If he's really confident that it'll happen, then why is it a big deal?

In Prince Caspian, Lucy asks Aslan one of those questions skeptics ask in our world: "Why didn't you come to save us like last time?" If you're a good guy and you have the power to help people, why do you go away sometimes?* Why do you only appear to some people? Why did we have to wait for half the army of good guys to get killed in battle before you'd come out of hiding and use your powers to help? You only do good if a little girl rides through the woods a long way and asks you to come out? You won't show yourself unless she has the sincerest pumpkin patch?

Aslan's response to Lucy is, "Things never happen the same way twice." Not a very satisfying answer. It sounds like he's saying that he doesn't make the rules. He does the best that he can within his limitations. That makes some sense if he's a magical creature in a world created by someone else, but not if he's the one God who created everything and who can do anything.

At least we don't have to hear Aslan talking down to us like, "You humans couldn't understand how the universe works, so you won't be able to understand why I do the things I do. I know things that you don't and I can't explain it to you. You have to take my word for it that I'm good." That wouldn't fly in a fairy tale like this. I'm not using "fairy tale" as an insult, but it's how Lewis classified the story.

C.S. Lewis used the fairy tale genre as an attempt to simplify and explain Christianity in a way that kids and some adults would be able to follow. If it all comes down to secret knowledge of the universe that Aslan/Christ can't explain to humans, then it's trying to explain the unexplainable.

I suppose "Things never happen the same way twice" is intended as some kind of explanation. It just doesn't work very well.

There's at least one other way that the stories about Aslan are a bad analogy for Christ. The child heroes meet Aslan in person only a few days after first hearing about him. They see him, touch him, hear him, maybe smell him. He works magic and they see the results for themselves. This is not like believing in Aslan's magic based only on reading a book of 1500-2000 year old stories, or based on the testimony and peer pressure of people who say they believe in him or felt his presence. Narnian believers have a naturalistic world view. They rely on their senses. If there are stories about other magical creatures or gods in Narnia, they might exercise a healthy skepticism until they have personal experience or some evidence that the stories are true. That's not how Christians generally ask us to form our beliefs about the Bible.

It's the same kind of failure when Horton Hears a Who is supposed to convince us to have faith in unlikely things, but in the end, it shows everyone directly experiencing the unbelievable events. None of the characters rely on faith. They're skeptical, materialist, naturalist, secular Whovians or secular Narnianists.

[I haven't read the books yet, just watched the first three films. So this critique only applies to the movies. Maybe the books are better. But I've read some C.S. Lewis including The Great Divorce, and I doubt the Narnia books explain how a good creator would let bad things happen.]

* Same question applies to Superman ReturnsThe Dark Knight Rises, and Luke in The Force Awakens. But those are fallible humans, not perfect gods.


Lucky Smith-Northrup, 1996-2015


A Ballad of Ice and Fire

(sung to the tune of "Ballad of Serenity,"
the theme song to "Firefly")

Take my wolf, take my dad
Take the family that I had
I don't care, I'm still hungry
You can't take Hot Pie from me.

Take me North to wear the Black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Scorch the land and churn the sea
You can't take Hot Pie from me.

Iron coin, bowl of brown,
I don't trust a god that's drowned.
No king or queen will let us be
And you can't take Hot Pie from me.

Before I freeze upon the Wall
A crow will feast on my eyeball.
Incest, rape, controversy,
You can't take Hot Pie from me.







A Catalog of Idiocies in Prometheus







5. Parallels with the plot of Aliens:













Dramatis Personae for Melinda's Stories


Waltraud: Human. Lived in our garage for a while.

Bosun Chubris*: Fairy Munchkin, husband of Freida. Wrote one or two pieces for The Basketcase zine.

Dolores: Hamquatch.



Through a process that is much nicer than you imagine, Flicka and Jethro had twin babies, Flickthro and Jethicka. They look like ladybug sized marmosets.


Anita the aphid

Eniko: another aphid

Arika: another aphid

Patrick: Ladybug with black-spotted blue shell and long, wispy blue beard. Work history includes tossing pepperoni slices onto pizzas, tossing elderly people into bed, other tossing positions.

Raphael: ladybug who has panic attacks.

Skippy Carcetti*: Groundhog. Landscaping contractor.

Our cats




Zatoichi: White and gray long-hair. Son of Songlian. Zatoichi attends kindergarten, college, middle school, works hundreds of jobs, and is constantly applying to new jobs. [Mar(?) 2005-Dec 1, 2018]



Glossary / Background






[Updated 2 Dec 2018]


A Canticle For Leibowitz




Which warrior?



Lockout. You'll wish you had been.


















I just want to know about your different lives
On this is here people farm.
I heard some of you got your families
Living in cages tall and cold
And some just stay there and dust away
Past the age of old.
Is this true?
Please let me talk to you.

I just wanna know about
The rooms behind your minds.

Do I see a vacuum there
Or am I going blind?
Or is it just remains of vibrations
And echoes long ago?

Things like "Love the world" and
"Let your fancy flow."
Is this true?
Please let me talk to you.
Let me talk to you.

I have lived here before
The days of ice
And of course this is why
I'm so concerned.
And I come back to find
The stars misplaced
And the smell of a world
That has burned.

Yeah well, maybe, hmm...
Maybe it's just a... change of climate
Hmm, hmm...
Well I can dig it
I can dig it baby
I just want to see.

So where do I purchase my ticket ?
I'd just like to have a ringside seat
I want to know about the new Mother Earth
I want to hear and see everything
I want to hear and see everything
I want to hear and see everything.



about me

Critiques of Trailer of the Temptress by Zoetrope workshop members


    it you could change to make it more affective. dialogue was
    the main problem. you need more dialogue between you and
    the first two characters. without it, they weren`t
    believable. you observed a lot about them (physical traits,
    characters affective. actions do. 
    i enjoyed the incorporataton of fairy tales into the
    encounters with the characters. it put a refreshing twist
    incorporation, like the kind you did in your story, is
    to you would be to work on clarity and fluidity. 
    your puncuation was pretty good overall, but watch how you
    use those commas. one problem i saw was with placement in
    between adjectives describing a noun. if the adjective

    Victor Z -- Very interesting and
    entertaining story. I specially enjoyed how you mingled the
    magical characters in our more mundane world. 
    Just a couple of observations. There are a few sentences
    sentence that I`ve reprinted below that needs to be
    reworked. You`ve linked to many things together with too
    many "ands". 

    And the shelves were covered with German cuckoo clocks and
    kissing Dutch tots and glass kittens cleaning themselves
    and ceramic figurines of anorexic faeries holding flowers
    and golden angels blowing trumpets and purple plastic Happy
    Meal gorillas and three issues of Popular Mechanics and a
    and more ceramic figurines and glass hearts and fake orange
    flowers and wooden clothespins. 

    You`ve got an imaginative and entertaining style, good luck
    with your story. 

    Betty A -- I like it! However, I do
    noticed many tense shifts as "pull" should have been

    Overall a delightful story. 

    David E -- Rob, the writing is
    definitely of professional standard. The idea is terrific. 

    But the criterion that matters in any fantasy is the reader
    is able to suspend disbelief during the course of the

    Too much weirdness, too quickly, spoils the taste. Somebody
    clever once told authors that they should be content with
    "one big lie" in each story. 

    by the time I got to the temptress. 

    think that any one of your favourite weirdos would make a
    better story than the whole lot put together. 


    Michael F -- I enjoyed this story
    because of its satisfactory blending of the mundane and the
    fantastic (meals on wheels being delivered to goblins,
    supernatural when you really look at it in a certain way,
    so there was something pleasing about the way the author
    skills. Northrup is obviously a very experienced writer or
    a very talented beginner, because the prose flowed smoothly
    and never felt over or under-written. There were no
    howlers, groaners or reaching for effect. It takes either a
    lot of practice or a tremendous amout of raw talent to
    write prose that seems so effortless. What I found wanting
    author set the scene I waited for something to happen that
    would engage me or make me care what was going to happen
    next. I know that many writers are mood or language
    oriented and disdain plot, but I find that the best mood
    pieces have some kind of dramatic tension underpinning
    writing and engaging, imaginative locale described, I found
    appreciate the talent and skill that went into this work,
    is saying something. 

    Larry S -- 

    Things of note: 
    >this wide flowering shrub 
    flat (I do it often myself). 

    >And the shelves were covered ... 
    better had it been broken up a bit. 

    >Strong girl if you carry goats for me 
    I guess I hadn`t guessed the narrator was a girl 
    up to now. Was that intentional? 

    >The trailers near the front of Sunshine Court 
    This paragraph contained what I thought was well 
    done description. 

    General Impression: 
    You have some passages that give very good description. 

    existence was dropped on the reader almost immediately. 
    He/she would then have known right away that this story 
    held something unusual. 

    I didn`t see enough dialog to comment much. The 
    characters could have been described more. I was 
    well into the story before I had any vision of the 
    main character, and only received scant details of 
    most other characters. 

    Thanks for the excursion into the land of imagination. 

    gina F B -- I thought this was a
    great story. Very imaginative with the right abmount of
    reality mixed in to make it totally believable. I thought
    the voice of the narrator was great, the language used was
    perfect. I really liked all the imagery and dialogue. The
    part where you used the run-on sentance to describe the
    trolls nik-naks was perfect, really gave the impression of

Criticism of "godfella"







Weird, but it made me smile.









Buckaroo Banzai in the Lesterverse

Wreck of the S.S. Neglected

My Terrifying, Dry Warrior

Chapter One: Francis Gives Gus the Finger

Chapter Two: Kidding the Buddha

Chapter Three: Crushed Gus

Chapter Four: Dry Ice

Chapter Five: Live and Let Dry



Grunyon (unfinished, rated T for Teen)

The Myth of the Mountain Tree

Vampire in the Mountain Tree

Suburban Lanes (novella)

Trailer of the Temptress

Trapping Beaver (unfinished)


Yet Another Creation Myth

"Dismal bookstore event under Livonia"

radio plays:
Brazen Hearts, Fresh, On Sticks
bloody goblin love story podcast

The Radcliffe Project by Robert Levi

Pat Benatar Interviews Rainbow Brite

One-Upsmanship Mates!

critiques of my stories:
Trailer of the Temptress