tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14947339361235812772024-03-13T02:27:54.694-07:00Murphy Bros. Private InvestigatorsDavid Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-73261634396106727522014-03-05T13:56:00.000-08:002014-03-06T11:49:22.523-08:00Murphy on the Meaning of Belief<style>
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Murphy and Solly, Murphy’s longtime friend and
pawnbroker<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- the faithful
custodian of his toaster, for lo these many years -- sat at meat, in that
temple of philosophical discourse,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Joe’s Bar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now
Solly -- a Jewish guy, and faithful to the faith of his fathers, though you’d
never know it to look at him<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- he
and Murphy agreed on a lot of things;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and disagreed on a lot of things;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and on some things, they agreed that they had no way to either agree or
disagree -- just like there are some things that a dame knows, and a guy’s just
gotta take her word for it;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
some things a joe knows, and a dame just gotta put up with it:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>eternal mysteries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like, Murphy, who had no head
for money -- no pockets for it, even -- just had to concede that Solly, who was
a whiz at that stuff, was the only one who could come up with a fair loan on a
pawn, and keep the total running in his head, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and adjust when an item was (finally) redeemed, and add on
interest where applicable, or deduct the right discount on the Yom Kippur Day
Specials:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Murphy simply held
forth the teevee, or the hotplate, or his last pair of shoes, and accepted in
complete confidence whatever Solly offered;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it always felt fair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Solly had to concede that, when it came to
things like One God oh no I actually meant Three;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or water turning into wine, and wine into blood;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and things acknowledged to be
completely incomprehensible even to priests, yet just as certainly true --
well, Solly would have to leave all that to Murphy;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Solly, he was out of his league.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So
they’re washing down hot-dogs with the local stuff on draft, and settling
mighty questions of history and philosophy, of theology and of science, and
whether dames look best in tight sweaters -- which emphasize certain features
-- or in the most modest of costumes -- which emphasizes the eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then when they had come to
the third round, both enjoying the combat, yet mellowed by the brew, Solly
ventured onto delicate territory:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>for with these two, nothing was taboo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So
Murphy, tell me -- tell me true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Right:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t do divorce
cases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not saying you ought
to --- Oh, don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">remind</i> me of my own divorce!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- Agreed agreed, they’re
unpleasant:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but so is almost
everything we do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
think I like taking some dame’s wedding ring in pawn?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she needs the money;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what can you do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I mean -- you do some stuff -- well I mean… <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murphy</i>…. You’re a grown man, you know
about Mine and Thine, and yet -- you keep helping yourself to other people’s
cars.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Well,
I don’t help myself when other people’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in</i>
‘em -- I don’t jack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus it’s
just on a loan, Solly -- like the toaster.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeh
like that toaster;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what I got on
and off in inventory these past fifteen years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A toaster what
don’t even work.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeh
okay okay;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a weakness for
abandoned cars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They been
sitting there alone for an hour, they get to feeling lonesome, and
unappreciated, so I come along and appreciate them, and speak to them, and drive
them around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your point.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">point</i> is, Murphy, the point is that
you do a lot of sketchy stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Stuff on the edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stuff
that wouldn’t go down so good at the Country Club.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus some…some really rough stuff, if what I hear around is
true.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeh
well, sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This one time --
really really bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I repented
of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never did the same thing
again.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So
okay, with variations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
the thing is:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is it with you
and divorce cases?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeh they
stink, no argument;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but are they really
worse than some stuff that you did -- and some stuff you did laughing -- like
playing at crime boss and heisting that truck full of heroin and using it to
run a patrol car into a ditch?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
mean -- Murphy!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Murphy
was silent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What could he say?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Y’see,
Murphy, me, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got this
theory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think you
stay away from divorce cases just because they’re dirty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure they’re dirty;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it’s a dirty world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This part of town especially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But you -- no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With you it’s more than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You steer clear of divorce
cases -- steer clear like the plague -- not for practical reasons, or aesthetic
reasons, or even… even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">moral</i> reasons,
exactly…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With you it’s…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s
for mystical reasons.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Without inflection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sipping slowly;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>looking out
over the rim of the glass.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Solly
waited, letting that hang in the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“For… mysterious -- no:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mystical</i> reasons.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“For
mystical reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Murphy took a chug and swallowed
hard -- for now swallowing was hard -- and looked stubbornly over at the
pinball machines.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Okay,
fine:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>mystical reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- help me out here, wouldja?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t get all…<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mystical</i>…
about loving your country; or telling the truth;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or taking your lumps as they come; though you’re about all
those things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when it
comes to divorce -- you get mystical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it like, some kinda <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">childhood</i> thing, like that thing with your Pop and your Mom?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What
-- you mean, that Pop skipped out?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sure, bad move;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but me, I
never even met the guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
all I know, they never did divorce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fact -- for all I know, they were never even properly married.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, that ain’t it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sorry Mr. Freud -- you
don’t win that kewpie doll.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So
what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> it?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Murphy
mumbling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hard t’explain…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now
Solly got thoughtful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Y’know… Just indulge me here, okay?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because I heard a rumor there’s this, some kind of Church
doctrine, in this general area -- I won’t even try to quote it, I’d just screw
it up:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but something along
the lines of, like, a woman and a man, yadda yadda, and they get hitched up by
God, in just the right way:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
from then on,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it’s like trying to
yank a horseshoe loose from the hoof -- or no:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>more like, trying to yank the blue right out of the sky.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Murphy
raised a respectful eyebrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“That’s pretty much it, Solly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s very well put.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He nodded again, and savored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The blue, right out of the sky.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So
like -- Murphy -- that belief, I get it:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>it’s a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mystical</i> belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My people also understand what
that might mean, by the way, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>believe it or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, God spoke to Moses, right out of a burning
bush.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Guess
you had to be there,” Murphy said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yeh
-- right.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Solly wasn’t sure
if Murphy was making blasphemous fun of the Torah, or whether he meant it
literally:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as a fact, or even as a
wish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyhow he hurried on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“So this -- this doctrine, or
this dogma, or this whatever you guys call it -- phrase it however you like,
this mystical Thing:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>do you -- do
you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">believe</i> it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Honest Injun?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For real?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Murphy
frowned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Look, Solly -- I
don’t want to squirrel out, here; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but it’s kind of the wrong question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- No I mean, it’s a perfectly
okay question, just on a friendly level, like Do you think Amanda’s hot, and
Whadaya think about the chances for Brooklyn this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But nothing eternal depends upon your fluttering,
or my flickering, moods of belief or unbelief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And thank God for that!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus even, let’s say, believing:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we can believe
true things for wrong reasons;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or
slightly off-kilter things for good reasons;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or believe true things for what passes for sound reasons,
only fact is we don’t know what the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">heck</i>
we’re talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just
like what most everybody believes and ever has believed, about stuff in
science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may
believe the planet Earth goes round and round the sun;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and that your sandwich is made up of
atoms, and that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the atoms are all stuck
together out of these little eentsy bits can’t nobody see ‘em;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and that might be true; but brother, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>
ain’t got a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">clue</i>.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Murphy
then took a long, and slow, reflective sip, of the splendid beverage in his
tall glass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
shaped like a long and slender cone;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and he eyed with discerning pleasure, how the level of the sparkling gold
went down, with each refreshing draught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Tell
you one thing, though -- I believe a lot more drunk, than I do sober.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that doesn’t mean I’m misbelieving
then, either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Give
you an example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve heard of
Dutch Courage -- the bravery or bravado, of a man in his cups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, it’s not the best kind of courage
around:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">better than nothing</i>;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and it’s one helluva lot better than
cowardice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“And
when I’m in my cups -- in my shot-glasses, in my beer-mugs -- then I have a
kind of courage that I might not have at other times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I believe things that, at other times, I…I might still
believe… but am ashamed to believe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Like
-- You ask me if I literally believe what the Church teaches:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that he and she who are united, in the
name of the Ghost, become indeed One Flesh -- yet of a flesh, a flesh more
fiery and more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fleshly</i> than this
sagging paunch and these dried-out wrinkles here -- a flesh such as that very
bread becomes, when it ignites and catches fire -- no, catches light…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
then, alarmingly,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>his eyes grew
red, like a mean drunk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
suddenly he lunged across the table, grabbing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Solly by his necktie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yes</i>, I believe it,
dammit!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">utterly</i>, I believe it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">savagely</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stunned by his own sudden violence, he relaxed his grip, and
settled back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But when I’m in a
roomful of exquisitely educated reserved people, with their langorous manners
and their tight Princetonian smiles -- well, then, it sort of sucks to sound
like an idiot, or a caveman, or a…or a Christian.. so then I mumble something
and make excuses and they all nod and agree and say Well-spoken (for a working
man), and add On the one hand this and On the other hand that, sigh sigh, we’ll
never know, but isn’t it swell that in this great country of ours, each one is
free to celebrate his or her own unique and individual independent completely
made-up beliefs,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>all of them so
delightfully quaint, which none of us should ever criticize, since after all,
What is truth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll never know.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Again
the savage growl;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Solly prudently
moved his chair back, as Murphy was again looking dangerous:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>though this time, for a broader and
absent enemy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“’Cept
-- guess what -- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You’ll know</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You - will -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>know
-- we’ll all know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may know by
Fire, or you might know by Light:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>but you’ll know -- oh, trust me<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you’ll know</i>.”<br />
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~</div>
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<br /></div>
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For the further
adventures of Solly and Murphy,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>try this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Murphy and the Magic Pawnshop</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
[<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CISOAI/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=keitmassintea-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B005CISOAI" target="_blank">Kindle</a>] [<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murphy-makes-a-mitzvah-david-justice/1104279825?ean=2940012865038" target="_blank">Nook</a>]</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .05pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .05pt; text-align: center;">
~</div>
<br />
. David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-22300597476847702652014-03-01T16:40:00.004-08:002014-03-01T16:40:52.379-08:00A most particular mystery
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
A recurring theme in the Murphy
stories, is that of a client who is not what he seems, getting the best of the
detective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here we find a
similar hoax being put-over on Mr Sherlock Holmes:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<a href="http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2014/03/from-case-files.html">http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2014/03/from-case-files.html</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Note:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This piece will best be appreciated by those familiar with
<u>Die Traumdeutung</u> (1900).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is a Transference-based thriller, much like this one:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Murphy-Calls-Specialist-ebook/dp/B004S7EQ2E/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364144975&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><u>Murphy Calls-in a Specialist</u></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-53355519868664914142013-10-27T09:47:00.001-07:002013-10-27T09:47:24.716-07:00Pugilist and PhilologianNow, me, in my day, I slugged some mugs what needed slugging. But I never knew that my old smoking-buddy Doctor J -- he’s mostly a word man -- never knew he could use his dukes when he needed to. Check out the action from your ringside seat:<br /><br /><a href="http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/10/tales-from-my-boxing-career.html">http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/10/tales-from-my-boxing-career.html</a>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-60082855650101829482013-09-14T05:53:00.004-07:002013-09-14T05:53:54.883-07:00Old Testament Detective Tale
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Things have been slow around
here of late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While you’re
waiting, you might check out this strange story, over at old Doctor J’s place:</div>
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<a href="http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/09/detective-special-case-of-potiphars-wife.html" target="_blank">The Locomotive of Doom</a></div>
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He starts out with a famous tale
of sleuthing back in Pharaoh’s time … and segues into an unsolved case of
possible sabotage and government cover-up, currently playing itself out in
France:</div>
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<br /></div>
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He then serves up some
speculations -- some of them true, some of them might be -- aiming to connect
the whole thing to the so-called “Riemann Conspiracy” (which he probably just
made it up).</div>
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So anyhow, enjoy; but, with a
grain of salt (and a side of fries).</div>
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David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-19646608885266198852013-08-31T21:08:00.002-07:002013-09-14T05:52:33.585-07:00Murphy: "The Long Spoon".[There are quite a number of unpublished Murphy stories, and even a novel.<br />
Sales so far of the published titles, do not justify proceeding with these.<br />
But in an effort to spark interest, we now begin a series of teasers.<br />
Should reader response warrant, these might be published.]<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Long Spoon</b></div>
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Swooning in a circle<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>around the groaning board,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>now littered with the detritus of a
feast<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- crumbs scattered like the
aftermath of a bunfight, now sodden in spilt drink, and bones gnawed bloody, half
draping off porcelain plates --<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mr. S. Guile, the host, and his guest, Senator Swill,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>along with sundry liegemen and
attendants,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sank back<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in a sort of stupor of pleasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conversation, which had been
animated, though saltatory, subsided, as belts expanded a notch over paunch,
and napkin patted pout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
monogrammed linens were of smoothest silk, so that, rather<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>than abrading or absorbing the grease,
they merely smeared it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All
observed a respectful silent as the guest of honor, grease purling from his
fatflesh<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in rich glinting globs,
expanded slowly, like a meat balloon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Senator at last let out a satisfied sigh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“What’d’ye call that dish again?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Long
pork, ”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>said Guile with a smile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Long
pork!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gotta get my mistress the
recipe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s it made of?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Long
pig, spiced and sweetened, then simmered in its mother’s milk.”</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
sated Senator closed his eyes, and seemed about to drift off.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Guile
-- completely alert -- snapped his fingers, as his manservants,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gammon and Mammon, rushed forth to
clear the board.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At
length the Senator, now even more porkly-portly than before, heaved himself
onto his gaitered pegs, and, puffing, signaled for his cloak:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which was swiftly and richly wrapped
around his ample shoulders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
wordlessly held out his hand; his opera hat appeared, and then his
walking-stick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, swaggering
and staggering, he made for the butler, who bowed and swept open the door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It is difficult to swagger when you
stagger;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but he tried.)</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“A
capital chow-down, Sam old chap,” said the Senator, over his shoulder.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll remember you, at appropriations
time.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
I… shall well remember <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thee</i>… at -- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appropriation</i> time, thought Guile to
himself.<br />
<br />
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~</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
For a selection of
individual detective stories,</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
available for your
Nook or Kindle,</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
visit this site:</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justice.html">http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justice.html</a></div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">~</span>
<br />
. David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-1213799806088714492013-02-25T15:44:00.000-08:002013-02-25T15:44:01.910-08:00Free on Kindle for a Limited Time: I Don't Do Divorce Cases, by David Justice<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Do-Divorce-Cases-ebook/dp/B003FMV5XQ/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1361623876&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Click here to download I Don't Do Divorce Cases. It's free on Kindle through Wednesday, February 27.</span></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Do-Divorce-Cases-ebook/dp/B003FMV5XQ/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1361623876&sr=1-1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1_OOTE6NUY8Lo5Nf04Is_C_WG235Hr6dKtoTVkRM_IEG3nZS4kT1jIgDdpJu9Oh0IqrotAgr3bhh1Gp5va9q_-EunkG5vVjx9x-bFisw96JBTxsnWIK0l8Q0eNpnTxoG9dooHU_vSfgWl/s320/idddccover2.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Michael Xavier Murphy, with his brother Joey, run Murphy Bros Private Investigators. But they won't take divorce cases, which are supposed to be the meat and potatoes of any PI firm! Find out why by reading several stories previously published in Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as several never before published stories appearing for the first time in this volume. As a special bonus, the book closes with the first chapter of Murphy on the Mount, the first novel length detective story featuring the Murphy Brothers.</span></span><br />
<br />David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-82842840075318611372013-01-07T19:56:00.002-08:002013-01-12T17:41:33.374-08:00The Mystery of “Memento”<style>
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Ever watch “Memento”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ever watch it fifteen, sixteen times --
sometimes with the sound off, searching for subtle visual clues that the noise
might distract you from, like a magician’s patter?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, we did, me’n Joey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that was one tough case to crack.</div>
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Only now, Doctor J may have a
lead that could bust the thing wide open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Check out the investigation here:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<a href="http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2011/01/redismembering-memento.html">http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2011/01/redismembering-memento.html</a></div>
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[Dr J<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in statu proprio</i>]:There
is, in fact, a similarity between the Leonard of “Memento” and the Murphy of
“<a href="http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptmound.html" target="_blank">Murphy on the Mount</a>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both are
engaged in a dogged, almost frenzied quest, in a case with almost no evidence
-- and with absolutely nothing in it for them personally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both Leonard’s wife, and Murphy’s
client (who wasn’t going to pay him anyway) are dead:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but the case has its own momentum, and they pursue its
improbable solution,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>like a
knight<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the grail.</div>
</div>
David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-70313714455263999042013-01-05T11:54:00.001-08:002013-01-05T11:54:02.310-08:00Murphy: in Memoriam
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Murphy was Catholic to the very
core of him;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>yet this fact had
somehow managed to escape his knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was like a small bright afterimage, off-center from the fovea,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which the eyeball swivels in an attempt
to catch -- but ever it flees the field of vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here it was not his faith that was off-center, but his
sweating, striving conscious mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For any time he asked himself the question point-blank:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you a Christian? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the answer was uncertain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I wish I knew. -- I’m a letch
and a drunkard, more concerned about where my next beer is coming from, and
what might lie under that interesting skirt, than about what our Lord might
require of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I am not
about to change that, either!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Stubbornly, chin out;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>insides turned to porridge.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
times when it was nevertheless brought home to him, that he was indeed a
Christian, was when his consciousness was caught off-guard:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an unanticipated answering smile;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an act of kindness, flowing from him or -- through him;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or, wandering down by the pond,
spotting a pair of married ducks.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
how did he wind up, finally?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Did he eventually formally return to the Church?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was he saved?</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Fie,
for even asking that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let
us<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>each of us<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>attend to our own mission, and
care for our loved-ones,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>seeking
to understand the Lord’s will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As for old Murphy -- well, to be sure, I pray for his salvation;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but as you know,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I pray for the salvation of the Devil
himself.</div>
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David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-90142268298228522392012-12-27T13:15:00.001-08:002012-12-28T10:53:19.648-08:00Got a Nook for Christmas?<span style="font-size: large;">Quick, stock it with the amazing adventures of your favorite two-fisted pistol-packing wise-cracking Private Eye -- visit our Nook nook, here:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://murphybros.blogspot.com/p/read-murphy-on-your-nook.html">http://murphybros.blogspot.com/p/read-murphy-on-your-nook.html</a></span>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-13827394735628546132012-07-07T11:19:00.002-07:002012-07-07T11:19:24.207-07:00The Riemann Conspiracy: Fact or Fantasy?<style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Since my retirement, some of the boys down at the station-house have asked me if I ever had a case that was in any was involved with the so-called “Riemann Conspiracy”.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Nope; not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too deep for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too rich for my blood.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">‘Course, we all heard <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rumors</i>, from time to time, vague hints generally met with evasion;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but the person who had last passed on whispers of the rumor<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>generally disappeared shortly thereafter, and that was the last you’d hear of it for quite a while.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Don’t even know if there ever was anything to it -- maybe the whole thing was a hoax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr J seems to think otherwise:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><a href="http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/03/riemann-conspiracy.html">http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/03/riemann-conspiracy.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">But then, maybe he’s lying;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or maybe you need to take what he says with a grain of strychnine, and read between the lines …</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div></div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-79253081153928862472012-07-02T16:08:00.000-07:002012-07-02T16:08:40.481-07:00Murphy monostich I“Did I <i>say</i> dat? Did I <i>say</i> dat? I didn’t <i>say</i> dat. All I <i>said</i> was: We’ve had some ups & downs.”David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-13883412042972595702012-07-02T14:06:00.000-07:002012-07-02T14:06:38.021-07:00A Very Personal note from Murphy about his sexual orientation (X-clusively 4 U)<style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">We happened across <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/i-think-were-not-in-aspen-anymore/2012/07/02/gJQA3DOLIW_blog.html"><u>this</u></a> in a <u>Washington Post</u> column today:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“There’s much to love about this personal note from Anderson Cooper about his sexual orientation, but most of all I love his attitude<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>…”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">What a nifty grift!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You just dish about your personal sex stuff in front of the whole world and, instead of everyone going Ewwww!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>TMI!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you get applause and recognition.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">So we asked our favorite two-fisted pre-Conciliar private detective, what-all gets him jazzed <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the down-there, inside-the-trou department.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What,” we inquired in a deferential tone, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as the great shamus patiently<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>heard us out, “most sharpens your pencil?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was gracious enough to reply as follows.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like dames.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dames!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blonde, brunette -- you name it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Skinny ones, plump ones, the kind-you-just-gotta-jump ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Babes -- broads -- call ‘em what you like:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there ain’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothin’</i> like a dame!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div></div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-78656581164320685312012-04-09T15:13:00.000-07:002015-03-02T05:23:07.332-08:00A Mystery -- the Church -- and *Murder*<style>
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Now -- me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve had some pretty tough cases in my time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But few have reached the complexity of the assassination/heist documented by my trusty drinking-buddy Dr Justice, here:</div>
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<a href="http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/paschal-scandal-up-to-date.html" target="_blank">Paschal scandal!</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Dr J isn’t really as dumb as he looks, but he does seem to have missed the key point here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why</i> photoshop-off the picture of the wristwatch?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously so that those investigating the assassination, having access only to the photoshopped version of the fatal session in the locked room, would not realize that the patriarch had been wearing a wristwatch before his demise -- and which, afterwards, was not found on the corpse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that the assumption would be that the motive was personal, or for religious rivalry, or perhaps just some atheist that hated the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No-one would ever guess that the crime was committed to make away with the hidden contents of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">watch</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Pretty neat, in theory:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but the criminal’s failure to shop-off the tabletop reflection of the stolen item<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>provided the key to the whole case.</div>
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David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-218140931854433432012-04-05T20:28:00.000-07:002012-04-05T20:28:53.354-07:00Murphy’s Dream<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;">Once Murphy dreamt the strangest dream.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i>A stranger came up to him in a bar, and said:<span> </span>“<b>You will have three daughters</b>.”</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i>And Murphy replied:<span> </span>“That is beautiful to hear;<span> </span>but how could that be?<span> </span>I am not married to any wedded wife.<span> </span>Nor can that ever come about;<span> </span>for I am a detective, and in no wise permitted to marry.”<span> </span>And Murphy went sorrowing away.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i>Yet the next day -- There there were!<span> </span>His daughters three:<span> </span><span class="il">Poverty</span>, <span class="il">Chastity</span>, and <span class="il">Obedience</span>.<span> </span>And Murphy loved his daughters, with his whole heart.<span> </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i><span class="il">Poverty</span>, <span class="il">Chastity</span>, and <span class="il">Obedience</span> were their names;<span> </span>and they were</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i> => as lovely as the day is long;</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i> => as high as the moon in the sky;</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i> => as deep as the fish in the sea.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i>Life with them was not always easy; being a parent seldom is, and he had little enough of his own that he might share.<span> </span>But he loved them, and served them, till he grew old in their service, and ancient of days.<span> </span>His hair grew very white, and his mind grew very tired.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><i>Then when his time came to depart this life, his daughters laid him tenderly in his shroud, and wrapped him with their gentle hands.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;">Murphy told this dream to his brother, Joey;<span> </span>and Joey did not know what that dream might mean.<span> </span>But he did know one thing:<span> </span>“That is a very good dream, Murphy,”<span> </span>Joey said.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;">And so they gave thanks for that nice strange dream.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;">They give thanks for many, many things.</div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-38213950830775519882012-02-22T15:26:00.000-08:002012-02-22T15:26:04.477-08:00Lenten reflectionsMurphy is observing Lent; and for now, has nothing to say.<br />
<br />
For a review of last season's reflections, click <a href="http://murphybros.blogspot.com/search/label/Lent">here</a>.David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-72840245905624640142012-02-09T18:21:00.002-08:002012-03-04T16:17:20.401-08:00Murphy: On Liberty<style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Don’t get me wrong -- it’s not like I’m knocking freedom; in America, that’s like knocking apple pie. But half the time it’s really a weasel word.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Look -- you got Free Will, no matter what. Even if you’re in prison. It’s a gift from God, flat out, and can’t be cancelled. But half the time, if a guy or often a gal starts using that word “free”, it’s cause there’s some responsibility they don’t want to live up to. But they don’t got the guts or the decency to just say, I’m too lazy, or, I’m too bored -- instead they run the old Freedom flag up the flagpole.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">“I’ve got to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">free</i> -- I’ve got to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i>!” No -- wrong; you don’t got to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>, whatever that means. If you’re married, you got to be a good husband or a good wife, period. If you’re in the Army, you got to be a good soldier. If you’re in prison -- well, you gotta do your time. Even if you’re a yegg -- you got to crack that safe and crack it fast and nice ‘n’ silent, you don’t got to express your very own special personality doing it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Hey, free is okay -- not knocking it. Sure beats the machines. Only, free to do what. You really are free -- free to kill, free to poison the well…. plain freedom doesn’t get you very far. If this “free” is going to be anything better than getting comped on a room in Vegas, you better use it for something that matters. Like, you marry a woman and get her with child, who you guard with your life, without question. Or you work long late hours in a laboratory, doing what is needed, while people laugh at your pocket protector. Or -- God forbid, but it happens -- you deploy, and face the bombs and the bullets, when they have to be faced.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Yeh, free. Thank our God, I’m free <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to be me -- not to be just plain small me-me-me-Murphy; puling whining Murphy, dreaming scheming grinning sinning Murphy. I’m free to try to be something more than that. Free to stand with my comrades, blocking the pass; to stand for what our fathers knew is best about this country; to stand with my bride at the altar; to stand and then kneel, making offering of my will, before the gaze of our Savior -- kneeling, head bowed, like any serf or any slave -- the freedom to yield, and to accept amazing Grace.<br />
<br />
I have free will and I am free. But sometimes, our prayer must be:<br />
<i>Thy will, not my will, be done</i>.<br />
<br />
</div></div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-67386412597244530122012-02-04T12:46:00.001-08:002012-02-04T12:46:58.551-08:00Murphy on Absolution<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">They sat amazed amid the litter left from last night’s excess.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> “Y’know Joey, it’d be really neat, you & me were each priests. Cause then, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> did stuff like what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> did, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> could say: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Te absolvo</i>. And, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> did stuff like what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> did, then you could say: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Te absolvo</i>.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"> And Joey, innocent of Latin, but catching the drift, said:</div><div class="MsoNormal"> “But I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i>, Murphy; I already do.”</div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-80534625696071966252012-01-28T10:59:00.000-08:002012-01-28T10:59:45.662-08:00Murphy on horticulture<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>“…But what baffles me is, how you can <i>live</i> in a place like this-- nothing but dust and desolation,<span> </span>surrounded by tenements, so far from gardens.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>Murphy is quick to react.<span> </span>“Gardens what?<span> </span>Gardens nothing!<span> </span>Sure we got ‘em!<span> </span>We got an urban garden!”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>Her reposeful face carefully registers a puzzled expression.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>“Just look outa the window!<span> </span>Whaddaya see?”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>She peers.<span> </span>“No gardens.<span> </span>No foliage, even.<span> </span>Just flat asphalt and cracked sidewalks.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>“Egg-<i><span class="il">zack</span></i>-ly!<span> </span>Cracked sidewalks!<span> </span>And whaddaya see growin up through the cracks?”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>“Just … weeds….”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>“’Weeds’… Look, I know, you got your garden, got your azaleas, whatever, then these uninvited guys start dropping by, crowding your ‘zaleas out, you call them ‘weeds’.<span> </span>That’s fine;<span> </span>I get that.<span> </span>But when all you got is cracked sidewalks, and asphalt baking in the heat, then whatever can push its funky head up outa that crack, and grow green -- that’s no weed, sister, that’s a <i>miracle</i>.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><span> </span>Murphy glared, and stared out the window.<span> </span>And the blessings he poured down upon those weeds, were like a fierce firehose of love.</div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-10157703823717756642012-01-07T18:59:00.001-08:002012-06-19T14:49:08.695-07:00In Praise of Camels<style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Time was, time was -- and that time is not now -- when any farmer or laborer, for less than the price of a stack of flapjacks, could buy a deck of smokes that’d do you proud. You plunk down your two bits, they fork over two packs. Crisp and fresh from the fields.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">And the best of them all, was original, unfiltered <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Camels</b> -- a unique and brawny blend of fine domestic and Turkish tobaccos. You’d carry the pack in the rolled-up sleeve of your T-shirt; and when the sun was high in the sky, and it was time for a break, you might set down the plow, or find a place to sit on the embankments flanking the tracks, and you’d mop your brow with your bandanna, and knock back a Coke --</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">and then pull out a smoke.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">The wooden lucifer you’d light with a flick of the fingernail,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">and you’d sigh as the flame leapt to life,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">then draw it in -- come to me ! --</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">as you inhaled through the tube of expectant tobacco,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">awakening from its long slumber</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">now alive and alight -- :</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">and like a dancer whirling and twirling her veils,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">instantly began to release (sweet relief)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">the waves and wafts of sweet frankincense,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">that had lain fast in their caskets of teak, </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">awaiting the touch of the groom.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">And you sigh and give thanks,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">sweetly sucking down the golden smoke,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">down deep into the lungs where it belongs;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">then blowing it out in wreaths of rings,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">which float off, expanding, till they rise to the skies,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">and delight the choirs of angels.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">It doesn’t come like that anymore.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">First they stuck on filters, made of, I don’t know, asbestos or something --</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">something God never intended to touch our lips.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">So everyone sickened and died.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Next they started spritzing the growing leaves</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">with ever-deadlier pesticides,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">till it all became a byword for death.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Roasting and toasting,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">slowly turning in Hell,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">are the souls of the tobacco-magnates.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Yet sweet and pure as on the Seventh Day</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">is the unspoilt blossom</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">of God’s green earth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">And when He on that Day</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">shall call Christians from the grave,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">then the plowboys and gandy-dancers,<br />
<style>
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wainwrights and boiler-makers,<br />
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</style> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">will rise from the mold,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">and ascend like smoke</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">unto Him.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gratias agimus tibi, Domine.</i></div></div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-33836636706572867602011-12-29T17:30:00.001-08:002012-06-19T14:50:05.634-07:00Paleo Diet: the Murphy version<style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Most of you mugs probly heard about old Doc Massey’s revolutionary improvement on the Paleo Diet. Me and Joey we been paleo from way back; but now the Doc says it’s okay to add red wine to your haunch of venison:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><a href="http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/masseyexcerptoriginal.html">http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/masseyexcerptoriginal.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">So me, Murphy, retired now, got time on my hands to get into the act; so here’s my new <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> improved version of Doc Massey’s fine diet.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div></div><div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">(1) For the meat part -- AOK as it stands.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">(2) Red wine -- You may substitute Mickey’s Big Mouth.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">(3) Finish up your dining experience with some long deep drags on original paleo unfiltered <a href="http://murphybros.blogspot.com/2012/01/in-praise-of-camels.html">Camels</a> -- a richly unique blend of domestic and Turkish tobaccos !</div></div><div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div></div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-16040963714250478222011-12-26T09:37:00.000-08:002011-12-26T09:37:17.592-08:00You Can’t Tell a Man by his Mug<style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">As a private eye, I dealt with some plug-uglies in my time;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>heck, I’m not much to look at<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But take it from Murphy -- you can’t tell a man by his mug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the smoothest operators have cheeks as smooth as a baby’s rump.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Take Michael Douglas -- good-looking guy -- but as Gordon Gecko, he played Satan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And right now, there’s a fellow running for President, might almost be Gecko’s twin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Handsome man, gorgeous wife, photogenic kids … and deadly poison for the working-man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr Justice has got his number <a href="http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/search/label/Mitt%20Romney"><u>here</u></a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
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</div></div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-14843472627841485402011-11-26T10:34:00.000-08:002011-11-26T11:10:10.565-08:00Free Stuff<style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">You want to go take a gander at my drinking buddy Dr J -- who is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by the way<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Designated Linguist for this very site, and not nearly as dumb as he looks -- plus read some free Murphy stuff <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>plus other goodies, just click here:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><a href="http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justice.html">http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justice.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
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</div></div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-19593600385009841322011-10-30T15:11:00.000-07:002011-11-04T14:45:41.284-07:00Cash On Deliverance[A brand-new Murphy story -- Read it for free -- Then buy some of the items on offer]<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Cash On Deliverance</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">Getting late-on in the morning; sunlight slanting through the blinds. Murphy’s hands tremble as he lights his first Camel of the day, cupping the match in his hand. They often do that until he’s had a couple of smokes, a cuppa java, and maybe a beer, and a prayer.</div><div class="MsoNormal">He freezes as he hears a light knock at the door -- the one that says “Murphy Brothers -- Private Investigators -- Discretion Assured”. Still says that even though Joey died a while ago. He hasn’t the heart to take it down.</div><div class="MsoNormal">He pauses and listens, the cigarette still in his mouth but unlit, and mouths around it, gruffly (needing that smoke) “C’mon in”; then finishes lighting up and breathes in a deep and soothing plume.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Standing on the threshold, in bobby sox and Mary Janes, is an unaccompanied young girl. Murphy raises an eyebrow.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I have come to you,” she says, gravely, with hornbook correction of articulation, “about an important case.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy nods: Go on.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I need you to find a missing person.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy shrugs. Him & Joey, only kinda case they used to get. “And that missing person would be … ?”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">She stood up a little straighter, her voice precise and clear: “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Me</b> !”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy took another drag and cast his eyes Lordward. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why</i> do you keep sending me cases like this?” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Unfortunately I can’t pay you,” the little girl went on. “I don’t have a dime to my name.” Illustratively, she turned out the large patch-pockets on her pretty gingham dress: they were empty but for some tissues and a tiny teddy-bear.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy mumbled, “I know, I know,” and waved her narrative on.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“But I am fully prepared,” a bit primly, “to write you an I.O.U.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Hm, right; backed by your full faith and credit. -- Okay, so you’re a missing person. Tell me about it.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Well as you can see for yourself, I am all alone, and of tender age --“</div><div class="MsoNormal">“How tender?”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Twelve. -- … of tender age, and left entirely to my own devices, thrown upon the mercy of an unfeeling world. Free to roam the streets at will, to take up with bad companions, exposed to all the vices of a modern metropolis, to the rude stares of men who are no gentlemen --“</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Yeh, yeh, write a novel,” Murphy cut her off. Sheesh, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everybody</i> wants to be a writer these days. “Do your parents know where you are?”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“They do not; nor do they seem to care. But more to the point -- “ here becoming rather pert-- “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> don’t know where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they</i> are; and it rather seems I ought to.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now Murphy was perplexed. “So -- in what sense are you missing?”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I am missing from my parents’ lives.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">They sat down together at the kitchen table -- Murphy reluctantly snubbing out his smoke, after taking one long final drag -- and discussed particulars. Lisa -- for that was the young girl’s name -- had brought with her one photograph each of her mother and her father, a bit grainy but sufficient for identification. She knew their names including their middle names, what brand of car both of them drove, and a few of their favorite haunts -- though these, only by hearsay. Murphy said he’d get right on it, and Lisa said to meet her back, so soon as he should have new developments, at the soda shoppe in the next street over.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And then -- well, why bore you with the details. All of these missing-persons deals are sort of the same. You do some looking-up in the files, and some legwork, and pretty soon -- unless your quarry is both trying to hide and very skilled at doing so -- not the case in either of the present instances -- you find your man. Heck, most of you reading this are probably private eyes yourselves, just like me -- done your share of chases down alleyways, and dodging the slugs from a .45 as they ricochet off the bricks -- you all know the drill.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And so, after a bit of nosing around and calling-in a couple of markers, Murphy found the address he wanted: Jezebel’s Pinkynails, between the hairdresser’s and the boutique for ladies’ shoes.</div><div class="MsoNormal">He recognized her immediately from the photograph, despite the mudpack and the curlers. She was being fawned-over by creatures neither woman nor man as she held out her hand like Cleopatra, asp and all; it was enough to make any normal man sick.</div><div class="MsoNormal">He walked up to her without preamble. “I am here on behalf of your daughter.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">She scowled and glared over at him. “What -- you gonna ask for her hand? Prevert! She’s only eleven. I’m calling the cops.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Twelve,” murmured Murphy, to no-one in particular. This did not look promising, and he started to leave; then turned at the door. “Can you tell me where I might find your husband?”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“How the hell should I know -- am I my husband’s keeper? Probably out drinking somewhere.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Hmm, thought Murphy; I would be too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Discouraged, Murphy nonetheless kept his date with his client, whom he found at the shoppe, sipping a chocolate malted.</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I thought you didn’t have a dime.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I didn’t, and don’t.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“So who bought that for you?”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Michael.” No further information being volunteered, Murphy plowed on.</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I… found your Mom. She’s -- all right. She didn’t ask about you; I’ll tell you about it later. Right now I’ve got a lead on your dad.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Good luck.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">He finally found the guy at one of those bricked-in saloons where it looks like four in the morning any time of the night or day, lit mostly by illuminated beer-signs. The man was sitting alone at one end of the bar, boring a bartender with his maudlin stories.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy came right out with it. “Your daughter --“</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Daughter? I have no daughter. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth! -- Barkeep, another one.” And he stared into his glass, looking very sorry for himself.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Grimly, Murphy went back to the shoppe and did what had to be done.</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Sister, I’m gonna lay it on you straight. Your parents have both drowned -- in vats of their own narcissism. There’s nobody there for you, kid.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">She nodded, with a little frown, that only involved the space between the eyes, and briefly pursed her lips. “I know.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I wish I knew what to do, I really do,” he went on, helplessly. “Anybody you need me to shoot for you? I’m better at that. Some gangster type, extorting your lunch money, I could scare him off? Or -- some love somebody left in a dumpster somewhere: I could find that dumpster, I could seek it out. I could dive in and swim and dive deep till I found the buried love, and bring it up, wrapped in a blue blanket, and bring it to you, and lay it at your feet …”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lisa was silent.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Just then an angel walked into the room.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lisa did not seem surprised.</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Oh, hi Michael. This is Murphy, by the way, the man I mentioned. Murphy, meet Michael; Michael, meet Murphy. I have him working for me on a little case.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy stared at the newcomer. “You’re not…<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> Michael?”</div><div class="MsoNormal">A modest nod. “In the flesh -- so to speak.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy could not believe the evidence of his senses. “The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">angel</i> ? ! ?”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Archangel, actually, but let’s not stand on ceremony. You may call me Mike.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Not quite knowing what to say, Murphy just stammered. “I guess I’m just .. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a</i> Michael, myself. Michael’s my name too.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“I know; you’re my namesake. -- Parents should be aware, by the way, that it actually helps to give their children good Christian names. We can’t help being influenced -- we’re only angelic. I intervened in this case when I heard you were involved. Been watching your work, some, there, over the years.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy just did not know what to say.</div><div class="MsoNormal">“You know,” the angel continued, on a more serious note, “this case, and a million others like it in this country today, is among the toughest you have ever had or ever will. In fact, it’s time to break it to you: This one is utterly beyond your powers. This one can’t be settled by a gat, or a sockdolager to the midsection. The moral desertification that has parched this land, has spread so far, not even all your tears could water it back to life. Nothing, in fact, short of divine intervention, can avail at this point. So, as the FBI says when they move in on a scene: Thanks for your help; we’ll handle this case from here on out.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Murphy knew not what to think. Without knowing what to say, still he said it, spluttering: “This is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nuts</i> ! No but -- how’m I s’poseta -- What self-respecting P.I. winds up a case this way?! This is worse than those trick endings out of Agatha Christie. It’s a freakin’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deus ex machina</i>!”</div><div class="MsoNormal">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Angelus ex paradiso</i>,” Michael corrected.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Then he and the girl left together, forever out of Murphy’s life.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">~</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Back at his walkup -- dim and undusted ever since his brother had died -- he found waiting for him, in the center of the kitchen table, an envelope stamped SPECIAL DELIVERY, though without postage. Inside it were a pair of twenty-dollar bills, in appreciation for his time and shoeleather. Which, Murphy reflected, understanding it all at last, made it one of the most profitable cases he had ever had.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-4212660565571609612011-10-17T17:20:00.000-07:002011-10-17T17:55:14.774-07:008-8-89-9-9 ? -- For reactionaries.<br />
6-6-6 ? -- For Satanists.<br />
<br />
8-8-8 ? -- Check *this* out:<br />
<a href="http://aplaceofbrightness.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-need-my-eight-hours.html#comment-form">http://aplaceofbrightness.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-need-my-eight-hours.html#comment-form</a><br />
<br />
You rock, doc !David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1494733936123581277.post-560120631355405322011-10-08T18:39:00.000-07:002011-10-08T18:40:39.170-07:00Murphy on Hitler and Huey Long<style>
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<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;">Bums, both of ‘em, but in a lot of ways with similar styles.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">Heard the Kingfish orate once, and it was plain how a fellow might be taken in -- specially if he had mush for brains. Hitler he just sounded like a maniac to me, but if you grew up German -- probably sounded a lot like Huey Long.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">… Now take Bob LaFollette. Now, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">there</i> was a man …</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
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</style> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lKwXwU5iWs&feature=related">workingclass hero</a>]</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: medium none; padding: 0in;"><br />
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</div></div>David Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04270108239272844956noreply@blogger.com0