tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post2441266376727808900..comments2024-03-27T22:27:16.556-04:00Comments on It's About TV: TV Jibe: The song remains the sameMitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-55509945065597767242022-02-21T12:44:09.681-05:002022-02-21T12:44:09.681-05:00Mrs. Hadley: Greetings.
Your comments are welcome,...Mrs. Hadley: Greetings.<br />Your comments are welcome, of course, but they raise a few questions of their own:<br /><br /> - You sat that you've "looked at all the EQ stuff" I've sent you - but how closely have you read them?<br />In particular, I'm wondering about your reaction to <i>The Misadventures Of Ellery Queen</i>, with its pastiches and parodies of the characters, covering the whole 90+ years of the stories.<br />There are a few "purists" out there who are against this sort of thing, and I am curious ...<br />You are aware, by the way, that there's <i>The <b>Further</b> Misadventures of EQ</i>, which came out a year or so later?<br />(Not to mention <i>The Misadventures Of Nero Wolfe</i>, from the same editor, which came out between the two EQs?)<br /><br /> - You mentioned your EQ paperbacks, which leads me to wonder: how old might they be?<br />I've got some here at home that I bought <i>new</i>, off the spinner racks at Walgreens and Kresge's when I was a teenager, cover prices from 35c to 50c to 75c (the passage of time was starting to pick up) - that's how long <i>I've</i> been at this.<br />Lately I've been on the lookout for trade paperback reissues of the old ones, with cover prices starting out at about $15, and I wonder where the time went?<br />(Thank God for Otto Penzler, who's putting so many of these books back in circulation, but he's only one man ...)<br /><br /> - And what of EQ the Editor?<br />All those anthologies that he put out over the many years - to say nothing of <i>Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine</i>, which persists in its 81st year? <br /><br />Ellery Queen - <b>the Name</b> - is still around after all this time ...<br /> ... but for how much longer?Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-40269269479768842452022-02-19T10:20:26.725-05:002022-02-19T10:20:26.725-05:00Mike, I'm with you. Yes, we've looked at a...Mike, I'm with you. Yes, we've looked at all the EQ stuff you've sent us. We also have a couple of dozen paperbacks of his novels and stories, which I've enjoyed immensely. There is no way I would accept EQ as a woman. It would throw out the whole dynamic of Ellery and his dad, his relationship with characters like Viele, and his general personality. I love the EQ stories just as they are. Why can't they just leave well enough alone, and, as you say, re-release the original books. There are a lot I haven't read yet.<br /><br />Judith (Mrs. Mitchell)Judith Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14749511035080492422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-47234251428264149272022-02-16T14:15:45.924-05:002022-02-16T14:15:45.924-05:00Since nothing's up today, I'm going semi-i...Since nothing's up today, I'm going semi-irrelevant: please bear with me.<br /><br />Late in the previous year, there was a brief announcement involving the media future of Ellery Queen.<br />The producing entities (whose names I can't call to mind just now) struck a deal with the estates of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, with the intent of a future production earmarked for some platform or other, maybe in a year's time.<br />The Catch: in this "reimagining", Ellery Queen will be a woman.<br />My immediate visceral reaction: <b>No Effing Way.</b> (Regardless of whether the Dannay and Lee families are on board.)<br />I don't know if you've held on to those CARE packages I've been sending you over the years, but I think there's enough EQ in them to prove my <i>bona fides</i> about the character, the editor, and the men behind it all, and why I firmly believe that this is a Bad Idea.<br />As cooler heads (mine, anyway) have prevailed, I'm realizing that talk like this is still early; the likelihood of The Bad Idea coming to pass at all is on the slim side.<br />After all, Ellery Queen as a character has been around for more than ninety (90) years, in one form or another; EQ the Editor (of anthologies and the <i>EQ Mystery Magazine</i>) has existed for more than eighty (80) years; The character has evolved in many ways and shapes without the drastic move of a gender reappropriation (and I'm at a loss as to what form that would take which would satisfy old-guard EQ followers like me).<br />It could be that I'm making too much about something that most likely will never happen ...<br /> ... still, would the Dannays and the Lees willingly chuck all of that history for a big late-in-life payday?<br />I've heard tell that sometime within this new year, a man named Jeffrey Marks is finishing up a full-scale biography of Fred Dannay and Manny Lee, which I am looking forward to (and have for some time): would this "reboot" (God, I hate that word) help or hinder that work?<br />And what about <i>EQMM</i>, now in its 81st year of publication; how does this new version tie in?<br />And what about putting the EQ novels and stories, old and newer, back into print where they belong - when they're clearly about a completely different character?<br />I suppose I'm just over-worrying the whole thing (it probably won't happen anyway);<br />I've still got the books, and a big bunch of the magazines, and CDs and DVDs and such ...<br /><br />Mitchell, if you get the chance, you might want to take a second look at those EQ items I sent you, and consider what I've said about this.<br />It couldn't hurt ...Mike Doranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14427528138598549103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-17966246070295431482022-02-16T11:39:30.115-05:002022-02-16T11:39:30.115-05:00Cat Scratch Fever...almost as deadly as the Boogie...Cat Scratch Fever...almost as deadly as the Boogie Woogie Flu.James Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16778792110404353115noreply@blogger.com