Tales of the Shadow

I decided I'd try something a little different with my Sunday pancakes this morning. Since I had that extra can of Mandarin oranges, I made Orange-Honey Pancakes. Basically, my regular recipe with the oranges and juice replacing milk or buttermilk and a teaspoon of honey for flavor. A little sweet, but not bad. Ran George Winston's gentle Autumn jazz/New Age piano solos as I ate.

Worked on my story for an hour after breakfast. "The Leader" appears just as Holstrom tries to get fresh with the ladies. He reveals that the original orders were fakes. The Shadow Realm is attacking that night. Even as he talks, the magic explosions from the Flying Fortress can be heard in the distance. Holstrom pulls out the Fire Talisman and Flame Bow and Arrow, threatening "The Leader" and the others. Trouble is, he has no magic, and as "The Leader" points out, doesn't really know how to control the artifacts...

Did another episode of The Shadow as I prepared for work. "Society of the Living Dead" is another fun, pulp-ish tale. The ending, with the Shadow, a dying man, and an older man who isn't well trying to stay alive in a room filling with water, is one of the most memorable death traps in the entire series.

Work was busy all day. Though the Eagles were off this week, this is the beginning of the month. Many people have birthday parties or Halloween parties going on today as well. There's also church events, and the fact that many people who work regular hours don't have the time to shop any day but Sunday. It's not helping that they're doing that annoying turkey coupon that only comes in the mail again. I wish people would read them. You have to buy 100 dollars worth of food AND bring the coupon, not one or the other. At any rate, other than some obnoxious people, there were no major problems. It slowed down enough by 5 for me to leave with no fuss. I was even able to pick up toilet bowl cleaner (which I forgot on Friday) and treat myself to a bag of Acme M&M bakery cookies on clearance.

(I did watch part of the Saints-Giants game during break. Wow! I haven't seen such a high-scoring game in a while. They were 35-28, Saints ahead, when I was there during the middle of the third quarter. The Saints just barely won, 52-49.)

When I got in, I went right into taking down the Halloween decorations and putting up what little I have for Thanksgiving. Though I had fun yesterday, Halloween has never really been my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving is more my speed - family, food, parades, and football! I wish I could find more decorations for it. Most of my Thanksgiving decorations are cardboard and paper items, including four large posters of pilgrims and Indians working together and making food together. Those are so big, I suspect they may have originally been intended for classroom use (though I got them at the Acme the year I moved here).

Finished out the rest of the night with more Shadow episodes. "The League of Terror" has the Shadow rescuing a young woman from a group of counterfeiters who have so frightened their neighborhood, her father was jailed for refusing to testify against him.

"Sabotage" takes us from conventional crimes like counterfeiting into international espionage. Navy boats have been blowing up, and the Navy can't figure out who's behind it. Lamont figures out it's an inside job, but it'll take the Shadow to find out who's been setting the explosives and reveal the leader of the ring.

The later "White God" is more exotic. Lamont remains The Shadow throughout this tale, which takes him and Margo to a "Graveyard of Ships" in the South Pacific. It seems a super-powerful magnet hidden in an island volcano has been drawing these ships. It makes the plane that brings the duo to the island there go haywire as well. The Shadow and Margo discover that the "white god" is a disgruntled scientist who stole his boss' work in magnetism and wants to show it off to the world. After he has the natives kill the scientist, The Shadow and Margo do what they can to make sure he doesn't kill his daughter as well.