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Welcome and General Discussion / NOTES ON THE WORD HENCHMEN
« on: August 02, 2020, 09:13:43 am »
HENCHMEN


Henchmen. What a shivering producing word, as in the following  paragraph from Time Magazine (April  14, 2003):

 “Even if the U.S. manages to kill or imprison Saddam and neutralize his henchmen, including sons Uday and Qusay, the allied faces with a tough task uprooting the rest of the regime.”

In a letter to The New York Times Book Review
(Sunday, August 2, 2020), Paul Einstein wrote
that “Andrei Zhdanov was one of Stalin’s most
notorious henchmen.”

Aha! You might think that henchman or henchmen might crop up more than once in Shakespeare’s plays, but  there are no henchmen to be found, not even in Macbeth or Julius Caesar.but in fact  the word  henchman occurs only one time in all of his plays, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, Scene 1, line 487:

    Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.


        As for the origin of the term or at least its backstory, I turned to the Reverend A. Smythe
Palm, a scholar at Trinity College in the latter part of the 19th Century. The Reverend’s study
Of Folk Etymology (published as a book in 1882)
deals with verbal corruption (a rich phrase that!) or words perverted in form or meaning by false derivation or mistaken analogy. Reverend Palm asserts that henchman is possibly or probably from hens’ta-ma, a horseman or groom, from Old English hengst, a horse.

 Eric Partridge in his book –Origins: A Short
Etymological Dictionary of Modern English—
corroborates the relationship of the term
to horse. Hengst plus Man.

 Thus,  a henchman was a person
you would trust to groom your horses, then
perhaps a person to ride with you.

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Top Ten Lists / (MYSTERY SCENE RELIEVE STRESS QUIZ
« on: May 20, 2020, 08:16:11 am »
MYSTERY SCENE'S RELIEVE STRESS QUIZ
by Louis Phillips

THIS IS IN NO WAY A TEST OF REAL KNOWLEDGE. IT IS SIMPLY A FUN (I HOPE) WAY TO SHARE
SOME MYSTERY THEME TRIVIA AND A FEW LITTLE KNOWN FACTS. YES, IT'S DIFFICULT, BUT GO FOR IT.
WE CAN'T ALL BE VERY STABLE GENIUSES.


Many mystery writers fantasize about going on a quiz show and winning thousands of dollars demonstrating their knowledge of writings about crime. Well, here is
Your chance to prove your mettle.  We offer you so many points per question . See how you fare.

______6,500  points or more and you can you open
          your own Detective Agency

______5,000  points and you are a Prince or Princess among Mystery Scene  readers

______ 3,500 points and you are an honorary gumshoe or shamus  in Mystery Scene’s kingdom

______2,500 points or less and you have one more reason to subscribe or to renew your subscription to this Magazine:

(Sorry. We offer few clues.)









l. Dick Francis, as most mystery readers know, was a jockey for the Queen Mother and, for the 1953-54 season, he was named England’s Top Jockey. During
His lifetime, Dick Francis rode in 2,305 races. Can you
Guess how many of those races he won?  (1,000 points)


_

___A. 345

____B. 402

____C.  475

____D. 503

____E. 545


2. Fans of Walt Disney’s feature length animated film –BAMBI – are  certainly familiar with  a rabbit named Thumper, but in what James Bond film are two SPECTRE martial arts experts named Bambi and Thumper? (300 points)




3.  The Garden of Earthly Delights and The Concert in the Egg should bring to mind what popular novelist?
(200 points)

4.   In 1956, the St. Louis Globe Democrat dropped this comic strip for showing too many “muggings, switchblade knives, and language that we think does not fit into this type of Newspaper.” What comic strip?
(better know decades later in its film and musical versions) was being described?  (500 points)


5.   In what l976 comedy/murder film (written by Neil Simon) does  the American author Truman Capote
play a character named Lionel Twain (is that word play on the phrase Lionel Train?)  (700 points)



6.  The American Detective Travis McGee, created by John D. MacDonald, lives on a houseboat moored   at Bahia Mar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. What is the name of the houseboat?  (300 points)

7. Who is the only mystery writer to win the very prestigious Agatha Christie Award  four years in a row?
     (1,200 points)



8. Characters with strange names certainly populate  many novels. In what novel does a character named
Orfamay Quest appear? (800 points)

9. On what street in Manhattan does Nero Wolfe reside?  (200 points)

10.  Who was the first mystery writer to receive  the Grand Master  Award from  the Mystery Writers of America? (400 points)

11.   Peter James  once wrote“I was hooked by the first line, surely one of the most attention-grabbing opening sentences ever, ‘Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.’ I defy anyone, having read that, to put the book down! It made me realize just how important the first sentence of a book is.”

    What novel was he discussing? Who is the author?
(400 points)


12.  This mystery novel, dedicated to the great 20th century poet Philip Larkin, has a table of contents
consisting of 14 episodes. Among the episodes are:

   l. The episode of the Prowling Poet
   2. The episode of the Dubious Don
   3.  The episode of the Candid Solicitor

Can you identify the novel and its author? (800 points)



13. This noted mystery created the detective Piet Van des Valk  and published an autobiography titled The Kitchen: A Delicious Account of the Author’s Year as a Grand Hotel Cook? Can you identify him? (400 points)

A.   Nicolas Freeling
B.   Edmund Crispin
C.   Dorothy Sayers
D.    S.S. Van Dine



14.  Gina MacDonald of New Orleans’ Loyola University, writing about this spy novelist, said “In fact, Assignment in Brittany so brilliantly evokes the difficulties of undercover work that the military used it to train allied personnel to help the French Resistance. Who wrote  Assignment in Brittany? (350 points)


15.  Every true mystery fan knows the name P.D. James.
But the initials P.D. do not stand for Police Department.
What do they stand for?  (300 points)





16. What contemporary mystery writer (and a CWA
Silver Dagger Award Winner) sets her mysteries in Italy
But does not allow her books to be translated into Italian?  (400 points)


17.  If you are trying to solve the mystey –Who murdered Mr. Boddy (sometimes known as Dr. Black)
what most likely are you doing? (150 points)?


18.   There have been a number of writing teams that
have made their mark upon the mystery field (the creators of Ellery Queen instantly spring to mind), but
mothers and sons who collaborate on books might be
a bit more rare. Charles and Caroline Todd are son and mother who write mysteries under the name Charles Todd. What is the name of their well-known Inspector?  (800 points)


19. Charles Higham and Roy Moseley, in a
biography about a movie star, discuss a noted Hollywood film,. They write: “ In one scene, Roger
Thornnhill produces a matchbox bearing the initials
R.O.T.” Asked by Miss Saint’s Eve Kendall what the “O”
Stands for, Thornhill replies, “Nothing.” This was a dig
At David O. Selznick.” What is the film?  (300 points)


20. Craig Sisterton, in the pages of Mystery Scene,  started his article with his very own pop quiz:
“Who wrote the bestselling novel of the l9th century?”
The author was Fergus Hume.  O.K. but without going
back to the Mr. Sisterton’s article – What was the name
of that bestselling novel? (600 points)

extra credit: (400 bonus points)


What well-known British-American actor
  who starred as Robin Hood  The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952 for the Disney Corporation was Ian Fleming’s first
choice to play James Bond in Dr. No?






ANSWERS:

1. A (345 races)

2. Diamonds Are Forever

3. Michael Connolly

4.   Little Orphan Annie

5. Murder by Death

6.  The Busted Flush

7. Louise Penny

8.  The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler

9. West 35th Street

10. Agatha Christie

11. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

12. The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin

13. Nicolas Freelin

14. Helen MacInnes

15. Phyllis Dorothy

16. Donna Leon

17. You are most likely playing the board game CLUE. In
l985, Jonathan Lynn directed a film version of CLUE. The
film starred Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, and Christopher Lloyd.


18.  Inspector Rutledge

19. North by Northwest. The biography in which the anecdote is recorded is “ Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart.”
In fact, the O in David O. Selznick’s name did not stand
for any middle name at all. Mr. Selznick thought the added initial added a touch of class.


20. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (l886).  The horse-drawn carriage  was named for Joseph Hansom who  designed and patented he cab in 1834. 


21. Richard Todd, who appeared in a number of mystery
    films and was also  true World War II hero.

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Welcome and General Discussion / Wisecracks & aphorisms & Raymond Chandler
« on: December 21, 2019, 06:58:16 pm »

   
For all MYSTERY SCENE readers who do not read THE NEW YORKER (December 23, 2019). Here is what art critic Peter Schjeldahl in his memoir "77 Sunset Me" says about Raymond Chandler:

                  "Sleeping the big sleep." Raymond Chandler proved that
                  the American form of Montaigne-grade aphorism is the
                  wisecrack.
                      Wisecracks in Chandler are existential rescues of imperilled
                 self-possession. Worth the risk to the detective of a punch in
                 the gut. And conserving calm for noticing the world.
                       "A slanting gray rain like a swung curtain of crystal beads."
                      " A few windows were lit and radios were bleating at the dusk."

**

  We can try finishing the simile ..'A slanting gray rain like _______________"




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Welcome and General Discussion / MYSTERY TITLES THAT ASK QUESTIONS
« on: July 06, 2019, 02:43:20 pm »


Not all mystery titles are single words or short phrases, Some titles are complete sentences (THE BUTLER DID IT)
while others ask questions. A fun game (?) may be to ask readers to name authentic mystery novels that ask
questions & then answer them. Oh well, couldn't do this without consulting and ransacking Allen J. Hubin's
indispensable Bibliographies of Crime Fiction. Mystery readers cannot thank Mr. Hubin enough.

 DO YOU LIKE TAHITI?
 Don't know. Never been.

   WHO CRIES FOR A LOSER?
  This season, ask NY METS fans.

 WHO'D WANT TO KILL
 GEORGE?
Ask George's wife.

   CAN A MERMAID KILL?
That question never gets asked enough.

 WHO'S ON FIRST?
I don't know -- but isn't he the 3rd baseman?


WHY CALL IT HOMICIDE?
 Well, the corpse has 5 bullet holes in his chest.

   

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Welcome and General Discussion / GENDER IN MYSTERY NOVELS
« on: June 22, 2019, 05:35:55 am »


   In 1931, mystery writer Edgar Wallace, expressing his views on Robinson Crusoe showed himself to be
   a true male chauvinist when he stated that Robinson Crusoe  was a great book "because there are no
  women in it.'
     Now here is a pleasant parlour game (do we have parlours anymore??) -- Can you think of mystery novels
that contain characters of one gender, i,.e. casts only men or only women?  I have no answers for this one, but
I'd be happy to hear from readers who wish to contribute to a bibliography. is there a transgender detective?


  HOW ABOUT A FAMOUS MYSTERY THAT CONTAINS NO MEN AND NO WOMEN IN IT??

    Answer: The famous nursery rhyme -- "Who killed Cock Robin?"

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