Thanks to Scott Cupp, I finally got around to reading C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne’s The Lost Continent, one of the best stories of Atlantis you’ll ever read. The Lost Continent was published in 1899. Lin Carter reprinted the book in his famous
Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in 1972. I, of course, bought an original copy. But that now resides at SUNY at Buffalo. The tale of death and destruction is narrated by Deucalion, a warrior-priest of ancient Atlantis. He’s about the only honorable character in the book. Atlantis is engaged in a civil war. The ruler of Atlantis, the beautiful Phorenice, launches her kingdom on a doomed course. If you enjoy High Adventure in the classic style, you’ll love The Lost Continent.

Imagine: all 60 works of Henry James now reside on our iPad. Patrick is upgrading to the iPad2 so he gave us his “old” iPad. The first thing I wanted to do with the iPad was download a book from AMAZON. As Patti Abbott has pointed out on her blog, some of the ebooks are pricey. It took me a few minutes, but I finally found a bargain: The Complete Henry James for a mere $2.99. That’s about 4 million words. Patrick’s iPad has an app that converts Kindle files so the iPad can read them. My next step will be to actually read one of Henry James’ works on the iPad to see how that experience feels. But, I’m in the ebook world officially now.

In our patriotic quest to save the U. S. economy, Diane and I went to our local Nissan dealership and took a Rogue for a test-drive. The Rogue is built on the same platform as the Altima so it handles like a car. Diane wanted heated seats so we had to buy the SL package which includes:
18″ 5-split-spoke aluminum-alloy wheels
High Intensity Discharge (HID) xenon headlights with manual headlight levelizer
Automatic on/off headlights
Fog lights
Leather-appointed seats
Leather-wrapped steering wheel
Heated front seats
Heated outside mirrors with timer
Digital Bose® audio system with AM/FM/CD
Eight speakers, including Nd® Richbass® woofer
Nissan Navigation System with 5″ color touch-screen monitor
XM® NavTraffic® [*]
Power sliding glass moonroof with sliding shade and one-touch open/close and tilt feature
Auto-dimming rearview mirror
Automatic Temperature Control (ATC)
All that just to get heated seats! Any way, we traded in our 2004 Nissan Quest (they gave us $6100) and because the Rogue comes with all the electronic goodies we bought the Extended Warranty (good for seven years). Diane allowed me to pick the color: silver!

William Goldman’s novel The Princess Bride delighted me when I read it decades ago. It was a sly framed story of swashbuckling adventures that made fun of storytelling conventions. Then, years later the movie version of The Princess Bride arrived and it was as good as the incredible book. Director Rob Reiner translated Goldman’s screenplay into something magical. Grandpa (Peter Falk) reads The Princess Bride to his jaded grandson (Fred Savage). Slowly, the young boy is drawn into the story of a stable boy, Westley (Cary Elwes), who pledges his love to the beautiful Buttercup (Robin Wright). But then Wesley is abducted and allegedly killed by pirates while Buttercup is betrothed to the evil Prince Humperdinck. And then Buttercup is kidnapped by a giant, a criminal genius, and a master Spanish swordsman. A masked pirate follows in pursuit. The plot sparkles with surprises and reversals. In my quest to upgrade my movie collection to Blu-rays, this movie went near the top of the list. If you haven’t seen The Princess Bride, I envy you what you will see when you finally view it. For those of you who have seen The Princess Bride on ordinary DVD, you’ll want to view it again in Blu-ray format. It’s dazzling! GRADE: A

As a diabetic, I’m always on the lookout for low-carb food that tastes good. I stumbled onto Midnight Reverie by Ghirardelli Chocolates by chance. Much of Ghiradelli’s line has too much sugar in it for a diabetic to eat it regularly. But Ghirardelli has a line of chocolates with less sugar, but more cocoa. Midnight Reverie has 86% cocoa, Twilight Delight has 72% cocoa, and Evening Dream has 60% cocoa. It all depends on your taste. Obviously, the more cocoa, the more intense the chocolate sensation. Midnight Reverie has 14 grams of carbohydrates but 5 grams of fiber so the net carb load is only 9 grams. That’s a third of the carbs of most chocolate candy. If you’re a chocoholic like I am, give the Ghirardelli dark chocolate line a try. You won’t be sorry.

Tonight on PBS Masterpiece Theater the story of Upstairs, Downstairs continues. The original classic series was broadcast in the U.S. from 1971 to 1975 in 68 episodes. Set in England from 1903 to the mid-1930s, Upstairs, Downstairs depicts the class differences between the servants who live “downstairs” and their masters who live “upstairs.” This new series is set in 1936, the Year of Three Kings (George V died, Edward VIII abdicated, and George VI–of The King’s Speech fame–comes to power). Change is in the air. PBS plans to broadcast three 1-hour episodes: the first one tonight, then April 17, and the last one April 24. BBC1 has ordered 12 more episodes for 2012. If you’ve seen this series, you know the quality of performances and the drama of the historical setting. Check your local listings for times and stations.

If you’re a fan of Golden Age comics, you’re going to want to check out this eye-popping collection of stories from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Most of these adventures are reprinted from 1940s comics. The Simon and Kirby Superheroes include the complete Simon & Kirby runs of characters like Fighting American, Stuntman, the Black Owl, the Vagabond Prince, Captain 3-D, the Shield (Pvt. Strong), and the Fly. Many of the stories have mystery aspects with clever solutions. Who knows how long this wonderful volume will be in print. Don’t hesitate or it will be too late! GRADE: A

Planet Stories just published Battle in the Dawn: The Complete Hok the Mighty, a collection of Manly Wade Wellman’s stories about a hero at the beginnings of civilization. Fans of Clan of the Cave Bear will find enjoyment in reading about Hok and the early humans as they struggle against the savage bands of Neanderthals. Wellman wrote these low-tech tales for AMAZING STORIES in the 1930s, but these adventures are timeless. In David Drake’s “Introduction,” Drake explains that the background of these stories is based on Wellman’s experience growing up in Angola, Africa. Vivid exploits and intense action blend together in these wonderful, mythic tales.

Diane and I finally caught up with this frothy concoction based on the Brothers Grimm Rapunzel. In Tangled, Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is a princess (although she doesn’t know she is). Rapunzel has been kidnapped as a baby and now she is locked in an isolated tower. Rapunzel has very long hair with magical properties that can heal the injured and generate youth. Mother Gothel, an elderly crone, stole Rapunzel from her royal parents in order to stay young forever. But when Rapunzel turns 18, a thief, Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi), climbs Rapunzel’s tower to escape his pursuers, Rapunzel decides to trust the rogue and convinces Flynn to help her escape. Tangled is Disney’s 50th full-length, animated film. Like most contemporary animated films, this movie operates on two levels: one for the kids and another for adults. With music by Alan Menken, Tangled is one of the best of Disney’s musical confections. GRADE: A

Alan Bradley’s clever mystery involves secrets from the past and rare stamps in post-WWII England. Set in 1950, the story is narrated by a young girl named Flavia. Her passion is chemistry. “Once I had taught myself to make sense of the chemical equations such as K4FeC6N6 +3K = 6KCN +Fe (which describes what happens when the yellow prussiate of potash is heated with potassium to produce potassium cyanide), the universe was laid open before me.” (p. 9-10) Flavia has a flare for poisons. When a stranger is found murdered in the family cucumber garden, Flavia’s father is held as a suspect. Flavia takes a dim view of the ineffectual investigations of the police and conducts her own search for clues. In the dead man’s luggage, Flavia finds two incredibly rare stamps. And that leads to further complications. My only quibble with Bradley’s book is that sustaining the fiction that a young girl, no matter how precocious, could outwit both the police and the killer. Charles Portis manages to pull this off with Maggie Ross in True Grit, but Bradley is no Portis. GRADE: B