The Presidential Election was held on Tuesday of this week here in the U. S. and strangely enough as I am writing this post we still don't have an official winner. At least we can take solace that the campaign is over and the votes have been cast. Now it's just a matter of making sure the votes are counted and the winner determined. I have seen lots of folks publicly expressing anxiety over not knowing the winner. Since I didn't vote for either of the major candidates I don't feel that same sort of investment in having one person win over another. As long as the process of counting the votes has been fair I am satisfied.
It's probably fair to say that it is "so 2020" for the election to take so long to decide. This whole year has been weird. I have been prone to wander around the house muttering this line from one of the Harry Potter films:
In the meantime I will continue to assemble links of interest to take our minds off these mad times. Here's what caught my eye this week.
The inside story of the "crime of the century". It's interesting to me all the different ways that the authorities bungled the investigation in the early days. It's also interesting to note that this case would serve as a major inspiration for Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express.
Speaking of Agatha Christie, some criticize her works as being stuck in a time that no longer exists. Laura Thompson, author of Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life, respectfully disagrees.
The curious history of the dust jacket.
Talk about disaster planning: an Oreo vault built in the event an asteroid collides with Earth.
Strange, but true: in the early 1900's the U. S. Postal Service allowed you to mail a child. The weird part is some parents actually did.
Music to your ears: why certain songs send your brain into pleasure overload.
How the introduction of the cheap ballpoint pen changed writing forever.
Podcast of the week: I thoroughly enjoyed this episode of All About Agatha which features an interview with Anthony Horowitz. His new book, Moonflower Murders, will be published in the U. S. next week. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an advance copy and it is a terrific read. I especially enjoyed the discussion on how he writes his books. I also discovered his favorite mystery writer which is someone I had never heard of before.
I love these rules for writing from Frank Cottrell Boyce. Especially #8.
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