This Banjo on My Knee - Episode 134

Why have the abandoned farm houses outside of town filled up and why are the squatters shooting at each other? Are they even human? What is a “mam-mama” or a “goomah?” What state is Parabellum City in? Listen to find out!

This Banjo on My Knee, episode 134 of This Gun in My Hand, was farmed and worked 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 musical instrument accompanies my lyrical exposition? This Gun in My Hand!

Show Notes:
1. When I moved from Michigan to Houston for a year, courting my pen-pal Melinda, I heard one of her teen-aged nieces use the term “Mam-mama” for her grandmother. I developed a theory that across the South, they keep adding the sound “mam” for every generation of a matriarch. My theory was wrong. It was just one kid who had trouble pronouncing “grandmama.”

2. “Goomah” is an Americanized pronunciation of the Italian word “comare,” informally used to mean mistress.

3. A great aunt or second cousin in my mother’s father’s family published a book of genealogy and stories about the family, including a poem by somebody way back which included the down-homey line “Now Pa, you’re fabricatin’.”

4. Another mistake I found after recording and editing which I didn’t feel like fixing: the word “this” is a demonstrative pronoun or demonstrative determiner, not a personal pronoun.

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. Interstitial music from the public domain radio show Mystery House, “Dagger in the Dark” broadcast July 5, 1946. Most of the music and sound effects used in the episode are modified or incomplete versions of the originals.

Sound Effect Title: Park ambience - mostly birds
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/Mafon2/sounds/274175/#

Sound Effect Title: Shoe polishing - tripple wipe stroke - 221098_AshtiHari_SD100_Term4.wav by 221098HariPotter
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/people/221098HariPotter/sounds/655571/?

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

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

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

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

Sound Effect Title: gavel-double.flac
By zerolagtime (Sen. John Kerry recorded from C-Span)
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
https://freesound.org/people/zerolagtime/sounds/70069/

Sound Effect Title: typewriter18.ogg by tams_kp
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/s/43558/ 

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 the cover of Hillbilly Comics, Volume 1, Number 4, October 1955, by Art Gates, public domain. Full issue available at:
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/preview/index.php?did=12739

Alt Image Text: Comic book line art of six stereotypical hillbillies in a sleek yellow convertible, speeding away from the silhouette of a man jumping in the distance, a word balloon saying “Stop” pointing to him. A man with black beard, no mustache and ragged hat is smiling as he leans over the steering wheel. A beautiful young black-haired woman in a patched and ragged blouse sits in the middle of the front seat with her arm behind the driver. A scowling man with a bowl haircut and grey cap (possibly a Confederate kepi) is in the passenger side of the front seat, his bare feet dangling out the side of the car with a black boar held in his lap. In the back seat are an older, heavy woman laughing widely with one tooth missing, a distressed looking young man sprawled in her lap with his feet out the side of the car, and an excited young man in a coonskin cap with a long-barrelled musket that is firing. A word balloon pointing to the man with musket says, “THIS BANJO ON MY KNEE comics.” A word balloon pointing to the driver says “SOLD TO THE AMERICAN!”

No Accounting for Taste - Episode 129

Can Falk bring down an accounting firm with ties to organized crime? Can math lead to redemption? What’s the Croatian equivalent of “bada boom, bada bing”? Listen to find out!

No Accounting for Taste, episode 129 of This Gun in My Hand, was put in the red and written off 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 move data from temporary accounts on an income statement to permanent accounts on a balance sheet? With This Gun in My Hand!

Show Notes:
1. The absurd street names and Mr. Bellechek’s convoluted plan were inspired by/in homage to/ripped off from the public domain January 31, 1949 episode of Lux Radio Theatre titled “The Street With No Name.” A section of dialog with the boss and mugs repeating his plan were taken almost verbatim from there.
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Lux_Radio_Theatre_Season_15_Singles/Lux_Radio_Theatre_49-01-31_643_Street_with_No_Name.mp3

2. I have no opinion about the efficacy or personality of any sport team manager ever and intend no satirical commentary on them in this story. It’s up to consumers of stories how to interpret them anyway. Don’t get me started on “The Death of the Author” theory because I will go off. The audio and text of This Gun in My Hand are works of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons or organized crime families, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No managers were harmed in the making of this story.

3. Most of the absurd street names are taken from titles of actual noir films or old songs.

4. Here’s the wikipedia entry on the Five Families who run the Mafia in NYC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Families

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.

Music Title (background for commercial): Clarinet Squawk
Composed by Anton Lada, Yellow Nuņez and Joe Cawley
Performed by Louisiana Five
Recorded 12 September 1919, Edison 50609-R
License: Public Domain
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Louisiana_Five/Edison_Blue_Amberol_3896/Clarinet_squawk/ 

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

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

The image accompanying this episode is a modified detail of the paperback cover of Down and Out by Les Masters, painted by Victor Olson, thought to be public domain.

Image Alt text: Painting of a man in blue suit, white shirt, light blue striped tie, seated behind a desk. He’s smiling slightly with his elbows on the desktop, his hands together in front of him with a lit cigarette. He has dark hair. The desk has a pencil cup and only one paper on it. Beside him is a sliver of window with a view of the nighttime cityscape and a vertical sign just outside the window that reads “ACCOUNT”. Presumably the rest of the word is cut off. Caption in upper right reads “NO ACCOUNTING FOR TASTE.”

The Three Stugots - Episode 68

Three familiar wiseguys lead the Howard crime family. How will Falk counter their unique fighting style? Why would you bring a slapstick to a gunfight? Listen to find out!

The Three Stugots, episode 68 of This Gun in My Hand, was clamped in a vise as it was crafted 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, information on how to subscribe, and to buy my books, such as Little Heist in the Big Woods and Other Revisionist Atrocities. What will I deliver to you by French airmail? This Gun in My Hand!

Show Notes:
1. “With the electric rifle, Tom and friends bring down elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffalo, and save their lives several times in pitched battle with the red pygmies,” according to the Wikipedia entry on the 1911 novel Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift_and_His_Electric_Rifle

2. I try to restrain myself from explaining all the allusions and inside jokes, but not today. This Gun in My Hand is set in 1939 or thereabouts, so Jerome is accurate when he guesses he might live another 12-13 years. He passed away 13 years later in 1952. In real life, his role was later filled by his brother Samuel, Joe Besser and Joe Wardell (real name, Joe DeRita).

3. Anna May Wong became a big star around 1924, earlier than mentioned here. According to Wikipedia, “...Wong's career would continue to be limited by American anti-miscegenation laws, which prevented her from sharing an on-screen kiss with any person of another race, even if the character was Asian, but being portrayed by a white actor.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_May_Wong

4. The vise attached to Jerome’s desk was a gift from the judge in Disorder in the Court (1936).

5. Their pie delivery boy was a costumed hero who could leap over tall buildings. He got a better offer and went “National” – as in National Allied Publications, which later became DC Comics.

6. Falk is confusing the Howard crew with those other guys, Abbott & Costello, whose “Bagel Street/Floogle Street/Susquehanna Hat Company” Vaudeville routine was similar to the Howards’ “Niagara Falls!”

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.

Music before and after the commercial was from the public domain film serial Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938).
https://archive.org/details/flash-gordons-trip-to-mars-chapter-10

Sound Effect Title: House Front Door Inside 3.wav
License: Public domain
https://freesound.org/people/saturdaysoundguy/sounds/388027/#

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

Sound Effect Title: ice grinding cracking freezing designed.wav
License: Public Domain
https://freesound.org/people/kyles/sounds/452645/

The image accompanying this episode is a modified detail from the novel cover of The Judas Goat (1953), painted by Rafael Desoto.