Friday, October 31, 2025

Passage to the Orient - Episode 140

Colorful line art drawing from the perspective of a pier. In the foreground is a white boat with red cabin. The sail on a single mast is lowered and furled. A man lounges in a wooden chair, tipped back behind the ship’s wheel, his feet propped on the rail of the boat with a fan in his hand. Judging by the small smokestack over the cabin, it has an engine, or maybe it’s a vent for a stove. Close to the front of the boat, we can see the aft and steering oar of a Chinese junk. Both vessels appear to be moored to the pier. A bay with distant strips of land stretches toward the horizon with two junks a short distance away, their sails yellow and green and red. Massive white clouds take up almost half of the view.
Imagine a mild-mannered white guy who takes on a non-white identity to fight crime. Wouldn’t 1939 radio producers do an amazing job with that? Listen to find out!

Passage to the Orient, episode 140 of This Gun in My Hand, was smuggled into your ears by Rob Northrup. This episode and all others are available on Youtube with automatically-generated closed captions of dialog. Visit http://ThisGuninMyHand.blogspot.com for credits, show notes, archives, and to buy my books, such as Sisyphus, Eat Your Heart Out, available in paperback and ebook from Amazon. What martial art is even more deadly than ninyutsu? This Gun in My Hand!

Show Notes:
1. “Castello” means castle in Italian, “Lupo” means wolf, and “roccia” means “rock.” In German it would be something like “Wolfenstein.”
2. Raymond Tokutaro Muramoto, the voice actor who originated Kato on the Green Hornet radio show, was a Japanese immigrant. In real life, he was sent to an internment camp during World War II. Here’s a short bio I wrote about him:
https://archive.org/details/the-first-kato
http://dayjobspodcast.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-first-kato.html 
3. Read more about the young political firebrand Nguyễn Ái Quốc after whom Harlan plans to name his radio hero:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh
4. As always, listeners should be skeptical of any claims made by characters in the show, especially if they’re trying to define a term like “code-switching” that hadn’t been coined and wasn’t in use in 1939. The opinions of these clowns do not necessarily reflect my own so I’m off the hook for any lies or mistakes they make.
5. This episode was inspired by Straight Arrow, a radio show broadcast from 1948-1951. An Apache orphan raised by a white couple maintains the identity of “Steve Adams” until it’s time to fight crime as Apache warrior “Straight Arrow.” Elements were ripped off from The Lone Ranger, like the cavern full of gold that funds his crime-fighting. Only his trusted friend “Packy” the crusty miner who sounds like Gabby Hayes knows the truth. Lots of talk about his innate Apache abilities, his keen Indian eyesight, and Straight Arrow drops his voice and speaks haltingly, although not quite in broken English like Tonto. 
https://www.radioechoes.com/?page=series&genre=OTR-Western&series=Straight%20Arrow

Credits:
The opening music clip was from The Sun Sets at Dawn (1950), and the closing music was from Killer Bait (1949), both films in the public domain. Most of the music and sound effects used in the episode are modified or incomplete versions of the originals.

Sound Effect Title: Matkustajakone / Passenger plane DC-3 (Dakota) - Sisällä / Inside by YleArkisto
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/406952/ 

Sound Effect Title: FOLEY_Footsteps_Metal_002.wav by conleec 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/149454/ 

Sound Effect Title: Wind shaking a tree, loud and muffled gust of wind recorded in Nebraska by felix.blume
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/657003/ 

Sound Effect Title: Cracking wood by JappeHallunken 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/501302/ 

Sound Effect Title: dry branches cracking.aiff by SoundCollectah 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/109357/ 

Sound Effect Title: Foley_Natural_Wood_Barks_Crush_Mono.wav by Nox_Sound 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/558380/ 

Sound Effect Title: Rustling leaves by giddster 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/437356/ 

Sound Effect Title: Walking Through Tall Grass by naturenotesuk 
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/698895/ 

Sound Effect Title: dawn_birds.wav by paul.h
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/557332/ 

Sound Effect Title: Usignolo - Nightingale by danygdanyg
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/234169/ 

Sound Effect Title: Tuscan Birdsong.wav by gazsound 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/156002/ 

Sound Effect Title: G57-05-Creature Getting Stabbed.wav by craigsmith 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/438891/ 

Sound Effect Title: G24-01-Warner Brothers Body Fall.wav by craigsmith 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/438300/ 

Sound Effect Title: School door with metal latch inside.aif by timonunderwater 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/532788/

Sound Effect Title: Footsteps Dress Shoes Wood Floor.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/allrealsound/sounds/161756/

Sound Effect Title: Dropping Body on Hard Ground.wav by jjhouse4
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/203039/ 

Sound Effect Title: footsteps cellar.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/gecop/sounds/545030/

Sound Effect Title: S16-06 Light wooden door open & close.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/675878/

Sound Effect Title: Kicking rock wall and almost falling. by Edelhanie 
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/594623/ 

Sound Effect Title: Air raid siren in Kyiv by Romaner66 
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/676589/ 

Sound Effect Title: 22lr Caliber Rifle Shots and Reloading 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/717133/ 

The image accompanying this episode is a modified detail of the back cover of Terry and the Pirates (Big Little Book #1156) released in 1935, art and text attributed to Milton Caniff, public domain.

Image Alt text: Colorful line art drawing from the perspective of a pier. In the foreground is a white boat with red cabin. The sail on a single mast is lowered and furled. A man lounges in a wooden chair, tipped back behind the ship’s wheel, his feet propped on the rail of the boat with a fan in his hand. Judging by the small smokestack over the cabin, it has an engine, or maybe it’s a vent for a stove. Close to the front of the boat, we can see the aft and steering oar of a Chinese junk. Both vessels appear to be moored to the pier. A bay with distant strips of land stretches toward the horizon with two junks a short distance away, their sails yellow and green and red. Massive white clouds take up almost half of the view.    

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Bottle Episode - Episode 139

Line art panel from a comic book. A man with red hair wearing green scrubs and holding a scalpel leans over a man on a gurney or table, covered by a white sheet. Angled skylight windows are behind the surgeon. A light hangs low over the table. Dark glass jars like you might see in a laboratory are in the foreground, connected to each other by tubes. Caption across the top reads “HOW WILL FALK AND PETRA ESCAPE – THE BOTTLE EPISODE!” A word balloon  pointing to the surgeon reads, “OH MY GOD, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT TECHNO! THE TEREMIN INFLUENCE COMES FROM PETROGRAD, BUT ANY IDIOT KNOW THAT DUBSTEP EMERGED AS A UK GARAGE OFFSHOT BLENDING 2-STEP RHYTHMS WITH SPARSE…” The font in the word balloon gets smaller and smaller toward the end.
Why did Falk follow Petra into this stupid walk-in refrigerator? Why are the shelves filled with human heads in bottles? Are you some kind of non-partisan, crime-adjacent figure? Listen to find out!

Bottle Episode, This Gun in My Hand’s 139th, was kept alive and shoved in a jar by Rob Northrup. This episode and all others are available on Youtube with automatically-generated closed captions of dialog. Visit http://ThisGuninMyHand.blogspot.com for credits, show notes, archives, and to buy my books, such as Sisyphus, Eat Your Heart Out, available in paperback and ebook from Amazon. Which is the real monster, the creator? His creation? This Gun in My Hand!

Show Notes:
1. Falk’s claim about what temperature constitutes “t-shirt weather” in Michigan is debatable. You’ll see some people not of sound minds wearing short sleeves and shorts at 30 F or less.
2. The Technocrat quotes from the Wikipedia entry on Dubstep without giving attribution. He might be a plagiarist but I’m not. This is me, Rob Northrup, giving attribution that I quoted most of a line from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubstep which “emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended two-step rhythms and sparse dub production, incorporating elements of broken beat, grime, and drum and bass.” 
3. Musical subgenres are way too arcane for me to understand so my characters don’t understand it either. I’m not vouching for any of the claims they make.

Credits:
The opening and later music clips were from The Sun Sets at Dawn (1950), and the closing music was from Killer Bait (1949), both films in the public domain. Most of the music and sound effects used in the episode are modified or incomplete versions of the originals.

Sound Effect Title: Large Refrigerator compressor hum 1 by FOSSarts 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/740110/  

Sound Effect Title: Hissing.m4a by TheScarlettWitch89 
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
https://freesound.org/s/415287/ 

Sound Effect Title: School door with metal latch inside.aif by timonunderwater 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/532788/ 

Sound Effect Title: School door with metal latch inside.aif by timonunderwater 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/532788/ 

Sound Effect Title: Heavy_door_lock.wav by beerbelly38 
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/197305/ 

Music Title: You’re Driving Me Crazy
Composed by Walter Donaldson, 1930
Performed by Lennington H. Shewell and Allan McIver.
License: Public Domain
https://archive.org/details/VictorThereminRecordingsCollection1925-1935/You're+Driving+Me+Crazy+1930+VIctor+Theremin+-+Victor+216559.mp3

Sound Effect Title: techloop7.wav by fons 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/62441/ 

Sound Effect Title: TECHNO LOOP 1.wav by adamskitek 
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/33585/ 

Sound Effect Title: TECHNO LOOP SPEEDY J STYLEE.wav by adamskitek
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/33614/ 

Sound Effect Title: Kick Bass Bassline OffBeat Loop F#1 142bpm PsyTrance Vol3 SYNDRM.wav by SYNDRM 
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
https://freesound.org/s/612061/ 

Sound Effect Title: Drum & Bass Drum Loop 02 by TheEndOfACycle 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/660537/ 

Sound Effect Title: Edm Strontium Sweep with reverb.wav by LeeNath 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/277409/ 

Sound Effect Title: bass_line_drums_jz22.mp3 by JoaoSantaCruz 
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/649209/ 

Sound Effect Title: footsteps cellar.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/gecop/sounds/545030/

The image accompanying this episode is a modified detail of a panel from the public domain comic book Forbidden Worlds, Number 33, September 1954. Pencils and inks by Lloyd Cynwald.

Image Alt text: Line art panel from a comic book. A man with red hair wearing green scrubs and holding a scalpel leans over a man on a gurney or table, covered by a white sheet. Angled skylight windows are behind the surgeon. A light hangs low over the table. Dark glass jars like you might see in a laboratory are in the foreground, connected to each other by tubes. Caption across the top reads “HOW WILL FALK AND PETRA ESCAPE – THE BOTTLE EPISODE!” A word balloon  pointing to the surgeon reads, “OH MY GOD, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT TECHNO! THE TEREMIN INFLUENCE COMES FROM PETROGRAD, BUT ANY IDIOT KNOW THAT DUBSTEP EMERGED AS A UK GARAGE OFFSHOT BLENDING 2-STEP RHYTHMS WITH SPARSE…” The font in the word balloon gets smaller and smaller toward the end.

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Black Cats and Bad Habits - Episode 138

Painting from an old greeting card by Frances Brundage shows a rosy-cheeked little blond girl in a black hat with a red ribbon and bow around it, somewhere between a witch’s hat and a Puritan’s hat. She holds up a distressed black kitten with a huge red bow and ribbon around its neck. The girl wears a white shirt with sleeves to her elbows and a red shawl.

Another day, another public brawl on the streets of Parabellum City. Will Falk quell the unrest and clean up the streets? Are there laws requiring reporters to have alliterative names and film critics to use French terms? Listen to find out!

Black Cats and Bad Habits, episode 138 of This Gun in My Hand, was Rob Northrup crossing your path. This episode and all others are available on Youtube with automatically-generated closed captions of dialog. Visit http://ThisGuninMyHand.blogspot.com for credits, show notes, archives, and to buy my books, such as Sisyphus, Eat Your Heart Out, available in paperback and ebook from Amazon. What contains several bits which can form a fragmentary story when used together? This Gun in My Hand!

Show Notes:
1. The Black Cat in this episode is NOT a rip-off of the Marvel comics character with the same name. It’s a rip-off of the public domain superhero Black Cat who first appeared in Pocket Comics #1, August 1941, and had her own title from Harvey Comics with various name changes (Black Cat Western Comics, Black Cat Mystery Comics, Black Cat Mystic) until 1963.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat_(Harvey_Comics)

2. When Wordplay took his second play “Shoot” on tour, he found it was not as popular outside of Parabellum City.

3. Lana Krang presumably uses a paper or cardstock folder for her Bits file. Mine is digital but the filename is “Bits.”

4. If I was trying to cheer up Miss Krang, I’d remind her of some artistically and monetarily successful novelists who were late bloomers: Umberto Eco wrote a lot of non-fiction before his first novel, The Name of the Rose, was published when he was 50. Alan Bradley was 71 when his excellent first novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, was published. Many such cases.

Credits:
The opening music clip was from The Sun Sets at Dawn (1950), and the transitional and closing music were from The Big Combo (1955), both films in the public domain. Most of the music and sound effects used in the episode are modified or incomplete versions of the originals.

Sound Effect Title: The cat begs for food. Meowing.wav by tosha73
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/548352/  

Sound Effect Title: HARP GLISSANDO DOWN.WAV
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/olver/sounds/505064/

Sound Effect Title: Cat Eating Dry Food by qubodup
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/218181/ 

Sound Effect Title: footsteps cellar.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/gecop/sounds/545030/

Sound Effect Title: Kicking/Forcing/Breaking Wooden Door
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/160213/

Sound Effect Title: Gun Fire by GoodSoundForYou
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
http://soundbible.com/1998-Gun-Fire.html

Sound Effect Title: Foley_Phone_Old_PickUp_HangUp_Mono.wav by Nox_Sound
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/559475/ 

Sound Effect Title: Clean phone tones.wav by FreqMan
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/24371/ 

Sound Effect Title (coin drop): Pay Phone.wav by everythingsounds
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/197141/ 

Sound Effect Title: phone rotary dial number.flac by kyles
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/637751/ 

The image accompanying this episode is a modified version of a public domain postcard painting by Frances Brundage, via Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frances_Brundage_schwarze_Katze.jpg

Image Alt text: Painting from an old greeting card by Frances Brundage shows a rosy-cheeked little blond girl in a black hat with a red ribbon and bow around it, somewhere between a witch’s hat and a Puritan’s hat. She holds up a distressed black kitten with a huge red bow and ribbon around its neck. The girl wears a white shirt with sleeves to her elbows and a red shawl.

Saturday, September 6, 2025

Gold Dentures - Episode 137

A colorful postcard labeled “Souvenir of Havana, Cuba” with a rectangle in upper right that says “PLACE STAMP HERE” and a few lines to write an address. A photo of the National Capitol Building in Havana colorized to highlight flowers, palm trees and a cloudy blue sky in the background.

How much is a set of gold dentures worth? How many people have to die before this lovable American scoundrel in Havana and his lovely, smokey-voiced ward decide “will they or won’t they?” Listen to find out!

Gold Dentures, episode 137 of This Gun in My Hand, was crafted and gilded by Rob Northrup. This episode and all others are available on Youtube with automatically-generated closed captions of dialog. Visit http://ThisGuninMyHand.blogspot.com for credits, show notes, archives, and to buy my books, such as Sisyphus, Eat Your Heart Out, available in paperback and ebook from Amazon. 

How do I sound like someone from a foreign land? This Gun in My Hand! (Wait, I don’t mean they fire guns more often. How could anyone have more guns than Americans? Never mind. This Gun in My Hand.)

Show Notes:
1. If you haven’t heard the old time radio drama Bold Venture, you should give it a try. It ran from 1951-1952, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, set in pre-Castro Cuba.
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Bold_Venture_Singles

2. The part of King Moses in Bold Venture was performed by Jester Hairston. One of the first black students to attend Tufts University, Hairston studied music at Julliard, collaborated with Russian composer Dmitri Tiomkin for 30 years, wrote the song “Amen” that became a hit for The Impressions in 1964, and acted in tv and films like The Alamo, To Kill a Mockingbird, In the Heat of the Night, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and Being John Malkovich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester_Hairston

3. Music for the Bold Venture radio show was composed by David Rose, who later wrote music for films and tv shows like Leave it to Beaver, Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven. If you think of the jazzy trombone song that has become a cliche of burlesque, you’re probably thinking of Rose’s composition “The Stripper,” which hit #1 in 1962.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rose_(songwriter)

Credits:
The opening and transitional music clips were from episodes of the public domain radio show Bold Venture. Closing music was from the public domain film Killer Bait (1949). Most of the music and sound effects used in the episode are modified or incomplete versions of the originals.

Sound Effect Title: Ocean waves white noisy BAHAMAS 180520.wav by TRP
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/573179/ 

Sound Effect Title: R28-47-Man and Woman Screaming.wav by craigsmith
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/482833/ 

Sound Effect Title: 38 Caliber Gun Shot 5x
Recorded by Mike Koenig
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
http://soundbible.com/375-38-Caliber-Gun-Shot-5x.html

Sound Effect Title: Footsteps in Sand by kessir
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/264124/ 

Sound Effect Title: 22lr Caliber Rifle Shots and Reloading
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/717133/ 

Music Title: rmr morphagene reels - latin_guitar by jjbbllkk
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/530725/ 

Sound Effect Title: 05 - Swing doors by 14GSionJ
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/419387/ 

Sound Effect Title: Footsteps Dress Shoes Wood Floor.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/allrealsound/sounds/161756/

Sound Effect Title: custom_TMNT_punch_sounds_part_2_12242024 by Artninja
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/779939/ 

Sound Effect Title: Coconuts hit together then fall onto a wood floor by JHo3000
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/693517/ 

The image accompanying this episode is a modified version of a 1940s postcard, artist unknown, presumed to be public domain.

Image Alt text: A colorful postcard labeled “Souvenir of Havana, Cuba” with a rectangle in upper right that says “PLACE STAMP HERE” and a few lines to write an address. A photo of the National Capitol Building in Havana colorized to highlight flowers, palm trees and a cloudy blue sky in the background.

Friday, August 22, 2025

The Bitter Tears of Petra Wojciehowicz - Episode 136

Colorful art nouveau style illustration of a woman in a gauzy yellow dress leaning back against a stone bench. Her right hand holds a huge brown leaf which she’s fanning over her head. Her left arm is draped along the back of the bench. Sunflowers rise behind her. We can also see a large body of water with sailboats in the background, and a small sun-dial beside her. She has brown hair and a wistful expression, maybe pleasant, maybe bored. Letters in the upper right say The Bitter Tears of Petra Wojciehowicz.

Has Petra finally given up her pursuit of Falk and found a new love? Is he man enough for her? Is he a man? Is stress a killer? Listen to find out!

The Bitter Tears of Petra Wojciehowicz, episode 136 of This Gun in My Hand, were dispensed from the coin-operated intelligence Rob Northrup. This episode and all others are available on Youtube with automatically-generated closed captions of dialog. Visit http://ThisGuninMyHand.blogspot.com for credits, show notes, archives, and to buy my books, such as Sisyphus, Eat Your Heart Out, available in paperback and ebook from Amazon. Into what mesmerizing object do I gaze to view the future? This Gun in My Hand!

Show Notes:
1. Anyone who grew up within broadcast range of Detroit tv in the 1980s will remember Ben Franklin’s unlikely proverb from the ubiquitous Highland Appliance commercials on Presidents’ Day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6waErG4Qwc

2. The commercial for Ghost Detective was inspired by “The Thing in The Tunnel,” an episode of Weird Circle radio show originally broadcast March 4th, 1945.
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Weird_Circle_Singles

3. In November-December 1997, Burger King kid’s meals contained toys promoting the animated feature film Anastasia, including the white bat Bartok who spoke three phrases. One of the phrases was “Stress, it’s a killer.” Due to the cheap mechanism that played recorded phrases, a parent claimed on tv news that this delinquent toy was telling her child, “Hey, have a tequila.”

4. I’m almost positive Falk has used the expression “love is love” in a past episode. But his memory is as bad as mine. 

Credits:
The opening music clip was from The Sun Sets at Dawn (1950), and the closing music was from Killer Bait (1949), both films in the public domain. Most of the music and sound effects used in the episode are modified or incomplete versions of the originals.

Sound Effect Title: old pinball.wav by mapleleaf
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/people/mapleleaf/sounds/34730/

Sound Effect Title: MM Project -10 Pinball by RTB45
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/368767/ 

Sound Effect Title: money_box.mp3 by Taira Komori
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/212398/ 

Sound Effect Title: Ticket machine printing a ticket by Licorne_En_Fer
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/772976/  

Sound Effect Title: Footsteps on gravel by Joozz
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/people/Joozz/sounds/531952/

Sound Effect Title: Footsteps Dress Shoes Wood Floor.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/allrealsound/sounds/161756/

Sound Effect Title: scifi_scare_b.aiff by realtheremin
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/119012/ 

Sound Effect Title: Squeaky Car Door
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/coltures/sounds/262325/#

Sound Effect Title: S37-24 Car starts; revs; skids; crashes; skids; footsteps; voices sirens.wav by craigsmith
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/675839/  

The image accompanying this episode is a modified detail of the public domain cover of The Century, Midsummer Holiday Number 1895, from a lithograph by artist Louis Rhead (1857-1926).

Image Alt text: Colorful art nouveau style illustration of a woman in a gauzy yellow dress leaning back against a stone bench. Her right hand holds a huge brown leaf which she’s fanning over her head. Her left arm is draped along the back of the bench. Sunflowers rise behind her. We can also see a large body of water with sailboats in the background, and a small sun-dial beside her. She has brown hair and a wistful expression, maybe pleasant, maybe bored. Letters in the upper right say The Bitter Tears of Petra Wojciehowicz.    

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Falk Meets Mat Ban - Episode 135

Comic book style line art depicts a skeletal grim reaper-type figure and faces of several people inside a black circle. An oversized string of pearls extends from one of the ghoul’s hands toward the bottom of the drawing and back up to his other hand. In the upper left is the head of a woman with black hair wearing a red fascinator. In the upper left is a man’s face with a blue fedora and blue coat collar. Fourteen other faces of men and women appear in and around the pearls. Across the top are the words ‘“...pretty pearls..pretty pearls..”’ Credits on the lower right show “Story by R. Northrup, Art by John Guinta.” It’s spelled wrong, should be Giunta. In lower right large letters say FALK MEETS MAT BAN.Can Falk vanquish one of the grimmest, darkest, most dangerous vigilantes to ever delight audiences in our grimmest, darkest world? How do you have more than one origin story? Listen to find out!

Falk Meets Mat Ban, episode 135 of This Gun in My Hand, was grimly darkened by Rob Northrup. This episode and all others are available on Youtube with automatically-generated closed captions of dialog. Visit http://ThisGuninMyHand.blogspot.com for credits, show notes, archives, and to buy my books, such as Little Heist in the Big Woods and Other Revisionist Atrocities. Good lord, I wrote this script so long ago, it was promoting my previous story collection. For the freshest fiction, buy my novella Sisyphus, Eat Your Heart Out, available in paperback and ebook from Amazon. How do I signal when the story is about to get gritty? This Gun in My Hand!

Show Notes:
1. Catafalque Earth Moving Equipment is not affiliated with Monback Brothers Trash Hauling. 

2. We did not hit this season’s quota with episode 131. But there’s still time.

3. The often-repeated origin story of a certain vigilante detective in long underwear begins with his parents getting killed after they saw The Mark of Zorro. The Crimson Clown mentioned in this episode was another anti-hero from Johnston McCulley, creator of Zorro. No films of The Crimson Clown were released in our universe, to the best of my knowledge.

4. How many spoonerisms did you count in this episode? I count at least three. I’m particularly proud of Mat Ban: The Narc Right Detournes.

Credits:
The opening music was from The Sun Sets at Dawn (1950), and the closing music was from Killer Bait (1949), both films in the public domain. Most of the music and sound effects used in the episode are modified or incomplete versions of the originals.

The music for “Come Listen to Mat Ban” is my poor attempt to sound like Joel Mabus’s arrangement of “Blues in a Bottle,” first recorded and released 1928 by Prince Albert Hunt’s Texas Ramblers although the original author is unknown, “traditional.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfT4cJA1n64&t=29s

Sound Effect Title: Rain.WAV by inchadney
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/123703/ 

Sound Effect Title: Downpipe2.wav by digitfishmusic
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/people/digifishmusic/sounds/71594/?

Sound Effect Title: Footsteps Dress Shoes Wood Floor.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/allrealsound/sounds/161756/

Sound Effect Title: helmutscream_short.wav by creativeheroes
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/84353/ 

Sound Effect Title: Wood_Creak_02.wav by dheming
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/177779/ 

Sound Effect Title: Real Colt 45 M1911 (shot) by Carmelomike
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
https://freesound.org/people/Carmelomike/sounds/255216/

Sound Effect Title: Bouncing Glas Marbles.wav by Cymeon
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/245402/ 

Sound Effect Title: 06-1 Shovel by 16GPanskaKomarkova_Marina
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/496725/ 

Sound Effect Title: Footsteps on gravel by Joozz
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/people/Joozz/sounds/531952/

Sound Effect Title: Beep 1 sec.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/austin1234575/sounds/213795/

Sound Effect Title: 38 Caliber Gun Shot 5x
Recorded by Mike Koenig
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
http://soundbible.com/375-38-Caliber-Gun-Shot-5x.html

Sound Effect Title: Punching with ivy by itsadequate
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
https://freesound.org/s/353676/ 

Sound Effect Title: Punches.wav by CGEffex
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
https://freesound.org/s/94679/ 

Sound Effect Title: G24-01-Warner Brothers Body Fall.wav by craigsmith
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/438300/ 

The image accompanying this episode is a modified detail of a panel from the public domain Suspense Comics Number 6, October 1944, art by John Giunta. Note that whoever lettered this page misspelled the artist’s last name. Everywhere I can find it on the web, it’s spelled “Giunta.” 

Image Alt text: Comic book style line art depicts a skeletal grim reaper-type figure and faces of several people inside a black circle. An oversized string of pearls extends from one of the ghoul’s hands toward the bottom of the drawing and back up to his other hand. In the upper left is the head of a woman with black hair wearing a red fascinator. In the upper left is a man’s face with a blue fedora and blue coat collar. Fourteen other faces of men and women appear in and around the pearls. Across the top are the words ‘“...pretty pearls..pretty pearls..”’ Credits on the lower right show “Story by R. Northrup, Art by John Guinta.” It’s spelled wrong, should be Giunta. In lower right large letters say FALK MEETS MAT BAN.

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Lyrics to The Ballad of Falk Zildjian (The Parabellum Citybillies Theme)

Come and listen to a story 'bout a fella named Falk
Careful how you say his name or people start to talk.
Well one fine day he was shootin' at some fools
who was counterfeitin' skee-ball tickets in a grade school. 

[Spoken:] Abandoned grade school, that is. Boiler room. 

Now first thing you know, Falk’s on the radio.
This Gun in My Hand is the name of his show.
Weren’t too long, he had the villains on the run.
Indomitable hero by virtue of the fact that he carries a gun.

Yer gun makes you the hero so you do the best you can.
Papers called him "menace" cuz they couldn’t spell Zildjian.
They said, "Parabellum is the place ya oughta be!"
He said, "I’m already there" and he shot 'em in the knee. 

[Spoken:] The bad guy, that is. Not the newspaper men. I wish I could write rhymin' lyrics better so’s I wouldn’t have to clarify with these spoken sections. 

Announcer: The Parabellum Citybillies! 

Come and listen to a story 'bout some poor mountain folk.
Depression and the dustbowl ain’t no joke.
We packed up our troubles and we headed west fast.
You wanna know more, read The Grapes of Wrath. 

[Spoken:] The novel, that is. Steinbeck. Hard times. Injustice. 

Announcer: The Parabellum Citybillies!