During a ghost-hunting party, a womanizing Midsomer furniture maker gets stabbed to death with a Victorian sword. Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby investigates with the help of his new assistant, Detective Sargent Charlie Nelson. During another paranormal party, another murder results with Nelson nearby. DCI Barnaby has plenty of suspects and motives involved in the murders.

Are you a fan of Midsomer Murders? GRADE: B+

The Buffalo Bills have lost eight Monday Night Football games in a row. The last time the Bills won on Monday Night Football was in 1999 when they beat the Miami Dolphins 23-18 (Doug Flutie was the quarterback). Early last week, the Vegas odds makers had the Bills as a 2 1/2 point favorite. As the week went on, the line changed until now the Bills are 1-point underdogs.

I’m hoping the Bills can break their Monday Night Football losing streak tonight!

The Buffalo Bills take on the San Francisco 49ers tomorrow night in Arizona. The 49ers are favored by 1 point. Meanwhile, as the Covid-19 numbers continue to rise, the NFL rejected the “bubble” strategy for the Playoffs that worked well for the NBA and MLB. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

Psychologist Susan Pinker explores new discoveries in the science of human nature. Read previous columns here.

What’s the most popular fix for the Covid-19 blues? The Italians and Spaniards who ventured out onto their balconies last March to sing and play instruments have at least part of the answer. Emerging evidence shows that the more the world gets us down, the better music feels. 

So says a new study involving 1,000 participants from the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Carried out by Pablo Ripollés and Michael McPhee of New York University in collaboration with Robert Zatorre, a professor of neuroscience at McGill University, the study looked at what people considered their most effective coping mechanisms during the shelter-in-place orders at the beginning of the pandemic last spring.

The researchers began by assessing how profoundly the pandemic affected each participant. Did that person get very sick? Did they lose a spouse, a parent, a friend or a job? How anxious did they feel? The researchers then looked at which activities worked best to lift people’s moods. Sex and drugs were among the 43 options participants could choose from, along with exercise, cooking, social media, video calls and various types of entertainment.

The participants, who were fairly representative of their countries in terms of gender, age, ethnicity and social status, also completed standardized personality tests, as well a questionnaire designed to assess their sensitivity to rewards. “The sensitivity to reward questionnaire assesses how much enjoyment you get out of certain activities. It could be eating, sex, staying in the shower or smelling the flowers,” said Prof. Zatorre. In addition, the participants completed a survey assessing their emotional expressivity, or how readily they reveal their feelings. 

‘The more pleasure you get from music, the more it reduces your depression symptoms.’ 

The study found that music, exercise and entertainment were the most potent stress relievers for the greatest number of people. But of those three activities, music—singing, dancing, playing an instrument, or just listening to a favorite playlist—was the only one that led to a reduction of depression symptoms. A fifth of all the participants reported it as the most effective way to reduce their pandemic-induced blues. Music’s palliative effects were particularly potent for people who were highly sensitive to rewards. 

“That’s super interesting,” said Prof. Zatorre, “because as a neuroscientist, I’ve known for quite some time that music provokes pleasure. When we scan your brain [while you listen to music], we can see dopamine molecules released in the striatum and the ventral striatum. Fifty years ago, when you gave a hungry rat food, you saw that response in the striatum,” Prof. Zatorre explained, inferring that humans are similarly wired to get visceral pleasure from music. “Now we find that the more pleasure you get from music, the more it reduces your depression symptoms.” 

Cooking, baking and eating also helped tamp down the blues, especially for people who find it easy to express their emotions, the study showed. Though the study didn’t address why that is, one possibility is that cooking provides a creative outlet when emotions are running high and so many external venues have been closed. “Cooking might allow you to cope with the stress that you are feeling without burying it,” wrote Prof. Ripollés, one of the paper’s authors.

This study is so new it hasn’t been published yet, so it hasn’t been peer-reviewed. Plus, it hinges on participants’ self-assessment; there’s no independent party measuring whether people’s depression symptoms did, in fact, abate. But for now, these preliminary data suggest that music and food might well cure what ails us, especially in these turbulent times.

Most people know Erle Stanley Gardner from his famous Perry Mason series. But, under the pseudonym of “A. A. Fair,” Gardner wrote another series featuring bossy Bertha Cool and clever Donald Lam, partners in a private detective agency. Hard Case Crime has reprinted three of the mysteries in the Lam/Cool series–The Count of 9, Turn on the Heat, and The Knife Slipped (you can read my reviews here, here, and here)–and now another: Shills Can’t Cash Chips.

Shills Can’t Cash Chips is the 22nd book in the series and was first published in 1961. Bertha Cool takes on a case where an insurance company wants to locate a woman who was involved in an automobile accident. Donald Lam investigates and discovers a complex scheme. When one of the principal parties to the “accident” is murdered, Lam finds himself the primary suspect and has to solve the crime in order to escape prison.

I’ve read over a dozen Lam/Cool mysteries. In general, they are lighter fare than the Perry Mason books with some humor and some screw-ball antics thrown in. If you’re looking for some entertaining mysteries, I recommend the Lam/Cool series and especially this newly reprinted volume. GRADE: B+

I stumbled over these two 18 New Wave Classics compilations while working on organizing my books and CDs in the basement. The CDs were released in the mid-1990s so they’ve been buried in a box for about 20 years. Some of these songs were familiar, but many were not. I preferred the songs on Volume 2 over the songs on Volume 1.

On Volume 1 I remembered A Flock of Seagulls’ “I Ran,” Pseudo Echo’s “Funkytown,” ABC’s “Poison Arrow,” and Howard Jones’ “New Song.” Many of the other songs I had either forgotten or were new to me.

On Volume 2, I had to laugh again at Frank Zappa’s biggest hit, “Valley Girl” with his daughter, Moon Unit, doing the narration. Loved The Smiths “Girlfriend in a Coma” and chuckled at a-ha’s ungrammatical “Take On Me.” I was always a fan of Aimee Mann’s vocal on “Voices Carry” with the group Til Tuesday. Frankie Goes To Hollywood (but only once) with “Relax.”

The best selling hit on these CDs might be The Knack’s “My Sharona.” It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart where it remained for six weeks, and was number one on Billboard‘s 1979 Top Pop Singles year-end chart. “My Sharona” was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, representing a million copies sold, and was Capitol Records‘ fastest gold status debut single since the Beatles‘ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964.

Once again, some strong songs mixed in with some weak songs. How many of these New Wave “classics” do you remember? Any favorites here? GRADE: B (for both)

Tracklist

Tracklist:

If you’re an H. P. Lovecraft fan, you’ll find plenty to like in Sam Gafford’s collection, The Dreamer in the Fire and Other Stories (2017). The book gets its title from “The Dreamer in the Fire: Notes on Robert Winslow’s ‘Sutters Corners.'” Like some of Lovecraft stories, “The Dreamer in the Fire” begins innocently enough with a scholar trying to track down documents of another, older, scholar for a publishing enterprise. And, like all Lovecraft stories, “The Dreamer in the Fire” veers into the nightmarish secret world of the Mythos.

My favorite story is “Good Morning, Innsmouth!” where an ambitious reporter for a morning news TV show finds more than she bargained for when she visits Innsmouth to film a routine feature.

The Dreamer in the Fire and Other Stories is an uneven collection, but there’s enough Good Stuff here to engage most readers. GRADE: B

Table of Contents

“Casting Fractals,” first published in Black Wings V, edited by S. T. Joshi (PS Publishing, 2016). — 7

“Showtime,” first published in Dark Corridor No. 1 (2007). — 25

“The Adventure of the Prometheus Calculation” is previously unpublished. — 31

“Homecoming,” first published in New Tales of the Old Ones, edited by Michael C. Dick (KnightWatch Press, 2013). — 39

“The Gathering Daemonica,” first published in Dark Corridor #3 (2009). — 59

“Static,” first published in Machina Mortis: Steampunk’d Tales of Terror, Volume 1, edited by Sam Gafford (KnightWatch Press, 2013). — 75

“Sunspots” is previously unpublished. — 89

“My Brother’s Keeper,” first published in Wicked Tales: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers, Volume 3 (2015). — 95

“‘How Does That Make You Feel?’” is previously unpublished. –105

“What Was That?” is previously unpublished. — 117

“‘The Dreamer in Fire’: Notes on Robert Winslow’s ‘Sutter’s Corners,’” first published in Grimoire No. 1 (1993). — 125

“He Whose Feet Trod the Lost Aeons” is previously unpublished. — 159

“‘Good Morning, Innsmouth!’” is previously unpublished. — 165

“Weltschmerz,” first published in Black Wings III, edited by S. T. Joshi (PS Publishing, 2014). — 183

“Hellhounds on the Trail,” first published in Shadows of the Past: Arkham Horror Book Club Anthology, Volume I, edited by Frederic Norton (NEHW Press, 2014). — 203

“The Land of Lonesomeness,” first published in the Weird Fiction Review No. 5 (November 2014). — 217

“Passing Spirits,” first published in Black Wings, edited by S. T. Joshi (PS Publishing, 2010). — 225

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 241

I loved this animated holiday special (only 40 minutes!) which features all the Star Wars characters from the past three movies. Rey does some Time Traveling and meets the major characters from the “old” Star Wars movies. Plenty of fun and cleverness result. Check out the trailer below. Are you a Star Wars fan? GRADE: A

I’ve been a Woody Allen fan since I first saw Bananas in 1971. It was silly and funny. I liked other Woody Allen films from that era: Sleeper and Play It Again, Sam. Later, Woody Allen would move from comedy to drama with Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters. In Apropos of Nothing Allen talks about the movies he’s made, both the “successful” ones and the clunkers like September and Shadows and Fog. He praises most of the actors he’s worked with and complains about a few who disappointed him.

The Big Disappointment is Mia Farrow. Woody Allen “dated” her for 13 years and somehow during all that time didn’t see that she was manipulating him and abusing her seven children. At least, that’s Allen’s side of the story. Allen also drops the hammer on Ronan Farrow. I found this part of the book difficult to read and comprehend. But, on the other hand, Allen admits throughout Apropos of Nothing that he’s had relationships with dozens of women with serious mental problems. Allen’s second wife, Louise Lasser, apparently suffered from a myriad of psychological disorders. I’m amazed Woody Allen could make movies while all this drama was happening in his Life.

Whether you believe Woody Allen’s version of his problems with Mia Farrow or not, Apropos of Nothing does give the reader insights into a complicated, gifted, filmmaker. Are you a Woody Allen fan? GRADE: B+

After the crushing 32-30 conclusion of the Cardinals game where a “Hail Murray” touchdown pass to DeAndre Hopkins–who was triple covered!–snatched Victory from the Jaws of Defeat, the Bills spent their Bye Week trying to recover and preparing to face Justin Herbert and the LA Chargers. The weather is benign: 50 degrees and sunny (a rarity for this time in November in Western NY). No sign of snow yet! The Bills are 5 1/2 point favorites. How will your favorite NFL team do today?