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Guest Posts
Occasional guest blog posts are published on this blog. Guest posts can be beneficial to readers of this blog by adding variety to the content and style and beneficial for those writing guest posts be providing a new dissemination and communication channel. Guest posts should:
- Reflect the topics covered on this blog.
- Be relevant to readers of the blog.
If you would like to write a guest blog post please contact Brian Kelly, the author of this blog. Note that submission of a guest blog post is subject to the following conditions:
- Guest posts must cover the agreed topic area.
- The editor reserves the right to make minor changes.
- Significant changes to the content will be discussed with the contributor.
- The editor reserves the right not to publish a guest post.
The following guest posts have been published:
- Guest Post: Reflections on IWMW 2014 from the University of Edinburgh, Neil Allison, 18 September 2014
- Guest Post : It's Not About Technology! The Digital Challenge is Institutional, Mike McConnell, 4 September 2014
- Guest Post: Rebooting MyEd – Making the Portal Relevant Again, Martin Morrey, 17 June 2014
- Guest Post: I Do UX – Do You, Neil Allison,16 June 2014
- Guest Post: Wake Up and Face the Digital Reality, Paul Boag, 20 May 2014
- Guest Post: Planning work: How can technology help the Workload Allocation process?, Hiten Vaghmaria, 8 May 2014
- Guest Post: Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself, Jonathan O'Donnell, 6 May 2014
- Guest Post: Data Expeditions and Data Journalism project as OER in Russian, Anna Sakoyan and Irina Radchenko, 15 March 2014
- Guest Post: Why the Opposite of Open isn't Necessarily Broken, Sheila MacNeill, 14 March 2014
- Guest Post: Open Education and Staff Development at the University of Salford, Gillian Fielding, 13 March 2014
- Guest Post: What Does Working Openly on the Web Mean in Practice?, Doug Belshaw, 12 March 2014
- Guest Post: Open Education Data, Marieke Guy, 11 March 2014
- Guest Post: Sheila MacNeill's reflections on the #byod4l "mini-MOOC", Sheila MacNeill, 31 January 2014
- Guest Post: Opening up University Space online using Google Street View, Edward Miller, 6 March 2013
- Reflections on Open Access Week 2012 at the University of Oxford, Catherine Dockerty and Juliet Ralph, 4 December 2012
- Social Media Analytics for R&D: a Catalan Vision, Xavier Lasauca i Cisa, 5 November 2012
- SEO Analysis of Enlighten, the University of Glasgow Institutional Repository, William Nixon, 25 October 2012.
- SEO Analysis of LSE Research Online, Natalia Madjarevic, 24 October 2012
- SEO Analysis of WRAP, the Warwick University Repository, Yvonne Budden, 23 October 2012
- Further Evidence of Use of Social Networks in the UK Higher Education Sector, Craig Russell, 6 June 2012
- Syndicated Post: The Commons Touch, Steve Wheeler, 7 April 2012
- Openly Commercial, Joscelyn Upendran, 6 April 2012
- Opening Up Events – The GEII Event Amplification Toolkit, Kirsty Pitkin, 5 April 2012
- Professional Development Using Open Content, Marieke Guy, 4 April 2012
- Librarians meet Wikipedians: collaboration not competition!, Simon Bains, 3 April 2012
- Being Openly Selfish and Making "OER" Work for You, James Burke, 2 April 2012
- Open Access to Science for Everyone, Ross Mounce, 30 March 2012
- How can universities ensure that they dispose of their unwanted IT equipment in a green and socially responsible way?, Anja ffrench, 26 December 2011
- Web archives: more useful than just a 'historical snapshot', Maureen Pennock, 7 September 2011
- Event Report: Metrics and Social Web Services Workshop, Kirsty Pitkin, 18 July 2011
- iTunes U: an Institutional Perspective, Jeremy Speller, 25 October 2010
- Blogs At Imperial College, Jenny Evans, 2 October 2009
- Web 2.0 At The National Library of Wales, Paul Bevan, 7 November 2008
- Library 2.0 at the University of Wolverhampton, Jo Alcock, 1 October 2008
- You've Got A Friend, Hannah Hiles, 1 September 2008
- Blogging Masterclass at ILI 2007: A Perspective, Eddie Byrne, 4 November 2007
- The ILI 2007 Blog Masterclass, Penile Helholm, 2 November 2007
- The Blogging Librarian: Pragmatic, Connected and Visible, Michael Stephens, 1 October 2007
- Guest Blog Post: The Eternal Beta, Phil Wilson, 6 September 2007
- Web 2.0 and Sustainability, Ross Gardler, 5 September 2007
- The Web Community Discussion Group Session at IWMW 2007, Debbie Nicholson, 4 September 2007
- Post Your Favourite IWMW 2007 Video Moments, Anthony Leonard, 3 September 2007
- Go Forth and Mash!, Mike Ellis, 1 July 2007
- Marketing Man Takes Off His Tie, Peter Reader, 6 June 2007
- The Promise of Information Architecture, Keith Doyle, 5 June 2007
- Social Participation for Student Recruitment, Paul Boag, 4 June 2007
- Let The Students Do The Talking, Alison Kerwin, 1 June 2007
- Webbed or Web Sceptic? You Decide!, Roddy MacLeod, 1 May 2007
One Response to "Guest Posts"
13 Mar 2014 at 11:05 am
[…] Guest Posts […]


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Answers to questions about the Target data breach
Answers to questions about the Target data breach
NEW YORK - With less than a week until Christmas, a real-life Grinch has stolen the credit and debit card information of about 40 million Target shoppers.
Target says anyone who made purchases by swiping cards at terminals in its U.S. stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 may have had their accounts exposed. The stolen data includes customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the three-digit security codes located on the backs of cards.
The stolen information included Target store brand cards and major card brands such as Visa and MasterCard.
The data breach did not affect online purchases, the company said.
Here are some answers to the most common questions about the theft:
Q: I shopped at Target during that time. What should I do?
A: Check your credit card statements carefully. If you see suspicious charges, report the activity to your credit card companies and call Target at 866-852-8680. You can report cases of identity theft to law enforcement or the Federal Trade Commission.
You can get more information about identity theft on the FTC's website at www.consumer.gov/idtheft, or by calling the FTC, at (877) IDTHEFT (438-4338).
Q: How did the breach occur?
A: Target isn't saying how it happened. Industry experts note that companies such as Target spend millions of dollars each year on credit card security, making a theft of this magnitude particularly alarming.
Experts disagree about how the breach might have happened.
Avivah Litan, a security analyst with Gartner Research, says given all the security, she believes the breach may have been an inside job.
But thefts of this size are too big to be the work of company employees, says Ken Stasiak, founder and CEO of Secure State, a Cleveland-based information security firm that investigates data breaches like this one. Stasiak says that such breaches are generally perpetrated by organized crime or an overseas, state-sponsored hacker group.
Stasiak's theory is that the hackers were able to breach Target's main information hub and then wrote a code that gave them access to the company's point of sale system and all of its cash registers. That access allowed the hackers to capture the data from shoppers' cards as they were swiped.
James Lyne, global head of security research for the computer security firm Sophos, says something clearly went wrong with Target's security measures.
"Forty million cards stolen really shows a substantial security failure," he says. "This shouldn't have happened."
Q: Who pays if there are fraudulent charges on my account?
A: The good news is in most cases consumers aren't on the hook for fraudulent charges.
Credit card companies are often able to flag the charges before they go through and shutdown your card. If that doesn't happen, the card issuer will generally strip charges you claim are fraudulent off your card immediately.
And since the fraud has been tied to Target, it'll be the retailer that ultimately compensates the banks and credit card companies.
Q: How can I protect myself?
A: Like they say, cash is king. You can only lose what you're carrying, though admittedly many people may not feel safe walking around with a wad of bills in their pocket.
As stated before, credit card companies don't hold consumers liable for charges they don't make. Usually the worst thing consumers have to deal with is the hassle of getting a new credit card.
And the paper trail generated through credit card transactions can often make it easier do things such as return items you've purchased, or keep track of work-related expenses.
It's worth noting that while debit cards offer many of the same perks as credit cards, without the worry that you'll spend more than what's in your bank account, they often don't come with the same kind fraud protections.
As a result, those card holders may have a tougher time getting their money back if their number is stolen.
Q: How much is this going to cost Target?
A: It's too soon to tell. In addition to the fraud-related losses, banks may start charging Target a higher merchant discount rate, which is the amount retailers pay banks for providing debit and credit card services. While the percentage difference may be tiny, it could result in steep costs given the volume of transactions Target does, Litan says.
Litan added that the company could also face class action lawsuits from consumers, though most of them will be meritless, and fines from federal agencies. When combined, the costs of the breach could be so steep that they actually prompt Target to raise prices, she says.
"The real winner in this is Wal-Mart," she says.
Q: Can the bad guys be caught?
A: Stasiak says that given the sophistication of this attack, there's only about a 5 percent chance that the perpetrators will eventually be caught and prosecuted.
He notes that in cases like this, it's hard to determine where the attack originated and given the large mass of information involved it's not going to be found housed on someone's home computer.
Q: How can future breaches be prevented?
A: Litan says an easy way to prevent fraud would be to eliminate the use of easily cloned magnetic strip cards and upgrade to the kind of microchip technology used in most other parts of the world.
But she says banks have pushed back against the idea, because the microchip cards cost significantly more than the magnetic strip version and changing over all the country's ATMs could drive the total costs into the billions of dollars.
Lyne says it's unclear if the use of microchip cards would have prevented the Target breach, since it's unclear how it happened, but that it certainly wouldn't hurt.
Q: Why is the Secret Service investigating?
A: While it's most famous for protecting the president, the Secret Service also is responsible for protecting the nation's financial infrastructure and payment systems. As a result, it has broad jurisdiction over a wide variety of financial crimes. It isn't uncommon for the agency to investigate major thefts involving credit card information.

subset: commoncrawl


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For years, it's been a rare experience to see an endangered California condor in the wild. There are only 429 of North America's largest bird alive today, and half of them live in zoos.
But on Monday, with some high-tech help, the bird watching got a lot easier. The first camera to capture live streaming video of condors in the wild was turned on in the remote hills of Big Sur.
The solar-powered "condor cam" allows the public to watch the huge, vulture-like birds feeding, grooming and flying in real time, and enables scientists to monitor them more efficiently.
It's the latest example of how inexpensive video technology and high-speed Internet connections are changing the way the public interacts with wildlife — from sea otters at the Monterey Bay Aquarium to pandas at Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo.
"We put the camera right on top of one of the main feeding areas so we could zoom down and get identification of each individual," said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society, a nonprofit that has worked to bring condors back from the brink of extinction.
"Over the weekend when we were testing it, we had 25 condors in front of the camera."
The condor cam can be watched on the group's website.
Several times a week, biologists who work at the organization put out stillborn calves on the site, a 240-acre property surrounded by wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest of Monterey County. Several condors were seen Monday morning on the live camera eating and preening.
Biologists from the group will zoom in on the birds at key times, such as in the morning when they are most active, Sorenson said. They also plan to ask the public to send notifications on the Ventana Wildlife Society's Facebook and Twitter feeds when birds are doing something interesting.
It wasn't easy setting up the camera. The area is so rural that there is no electricity or Internet connection. The system, which cost about $15,000, Sorenson said, was funded by a donation from FedEx and help from the Oakland Zoo. Crews installed a high-speed T1 Internet connection at a home 12 miles north of the site, then set up antennas to get the signal to the solar-powered camera.
On Wednesday at noon, biologists will be releasing three condors on camera that were raised in captivity. When they aren't releasing birds, the new video footage can help scientists see how condors are feeding, or whether they are exhibiting signs of lead poisoning from eating dead animals with lead bullet fragments in them. "We have to drive one-and-a-half hours up a dirt road behind five locked gates just to get to this place," Sorenson said. "It's an all-day thing. So this is an amazing tool for us to help monitor condors in the wild."
The marriage of Silicon Valley and "Wild Kingdom" is part of a national trend at zoos, aquariums and other wildlife hot spots.
Since 2011, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has received 2.8 million views on its three most popular animal cams: the sea otter exhibit, the kelp forest tank and the aquarium's vast open ocean exhibit.
"We want people to be amazed and inspired by the animals," said aquarium spokesman Ken Peterson. "If people can't physically be in the buildings, they still have a chance to stay connected with them. It's like visiting old friends."
At the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, four webcams receive nearly 300,000 page views a year. As with the aquarium, anyone can watch animals being fed at regular times every day, and can listen to experts, such as when divers enter the academy's colorful coral reef tank.
Wild animals don't always do cute and cuddly things. In fact, the Ventana Wildlife Society website has a note saying, "Viewer discretion advised. May contain graphic feeding images."
And in San Jose, the camera that has streamed images of peregrine falcons in a nest on the 18th floor of City Hall, though currently down for repairs, has shown the falcons eating dead pigeons, and was recording when several of the 25 chicks born there since 2007 died.
"It's not the Disney Channel," said Michelle McGurk, a spokesman for San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. "But it has created a lot of enthusiasm — particularly among children — about biology and science and nature. It's really exciting."
Paul Rogers covers resources and environmental issues. Contact him at 408-920-5045. Follow him at Twitter.com/PaulRogersSJMN.


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Hello! My name is Kelli. I make guest appearances every now and then on my mom's blog at Jo's Country Junction. We enjoy getting together on the weekends to work on quilting projects, make yummy food, and let the dogs run around to keep us entertained. Another of our favorite things to do is to look through old quilt magazines to find quilt blocks and layouts that are new to us. While looking through a magazine, I stumbled upon the English Wedding Ring block. After a little bit of color play, I came up with this quilt entitled Battle March. Stop over to the blog and sign up to win a $40 gift certificate from Cabbage Rose Quilting and Fabrics to get you started on making your own quilt.
One fat quarter bundle (1862 Battle Hymn by Barbara Brackman)
Sashing/Binding/Side Setting Triangles/Block Parts–4.75 yards Bella Solids U Brown 9900 71 Moda #1
Corner stones/Block Parts –2.5 yards Bella Solids Parchment 9900 39 Moda #1
Backing–7 yards New Bern Red 8224 15 Moda #1
I also used an easy angle to cut the triangles in this quilt.
2. From the brown yardage:
-Cut 34 2" strips to be used in the sashing.
-For side setting triangles, cut two 14" strips.
-Subcut into 6 14" squares. Cut twice on the diagonal to yield 22 side setting triangles
3. To cut the center of the blocks and the cornerstones to be used in the sashing of the quilt, you will need to cut a total of 45 2" strips from your neutral fabric.
1. To make 1 block, you will need 1 block strip set (2 matching strips from Pile 2 and one complimentary strip from pile 1), 1 neutral 2" x 20" strip, and one 2" cornerstone.
2. From the complimentary strip, cut four 2" x 3.5" rectangles and set aside.
3. Placing right sides together, layer the rest of the complimentary strip with one of the strips from the matching set. Using your Easy Angle ruler, cut a total of four 2" finished triangle sets.
4. Layer the second matching strip with the neutral strip, right sides together. Using your Easy Angle Ruler cut a total of 12 right triangles.
5. Sew all triangles together along the diagonal.
6. Press all triangles to the matching strip set color.
7. Arrange block as shown.
8. Assemble the block as shown.
9. Repeat to create 72 blocks.
1. Arrange the blocks, on point, in a 6 x 7 layout.
2. Sew sashing and cornerstones between blocks. Make sure to end each sashing strip with a cornerstone to create the outside half square triangles.
3. To trim the quilt, line up your ruler one quarter of an inch from the outside cornerstone diagonal. As this is a large quilt, I simply trimmed mine from cornerstone to cornerstone until I had trimmed the entire quilt.
4. Putting right sides together, sew all 3" border strips together. After pressing your quilt top, lay out and measure the quilt the long way through the middle of the quilt. Cut two border strips to this measurement. Sew onto the long sides for the quilt and iron towards the border. Repeat to add the border on the shorter side.
1. Quilt as desired.
2. Bind using the ten 2.5" strips.
One approximately 77″ by 89″ quilt.
Kelli Kramer


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Mel Bosser was a famous American baseball with a huge fan base. Let's discover his biography, net worth, age, wife, family, affairs, measurements, achievements & much more!
American star Mel Bosser was the most outstanding baseball in baseball player history, and that success had made the superstar a wealthy baseball. He was born on 8th February 1914, in Johnstown, PA. He was currently 72 years old. He lived at Johnstown, PA with his family. Mel held American citizenship. He was arguably the greatest to play the game in this generation.
Mel showed an interest in sports from quite an early age. His first became interested in baseball player when he was a child. Mel Bosser has modeled for various advertising campaigns, including work for top agencies. He quickly became the best baseball in his age group.
Quick facts of Mel Bosser
|First Name
|Full Name
|Mel Bosser
|Nick Name
|Baseball, Baseball player.
|Birthday & Zodiac
|Birth Sign
|Birth Date
|8th February 1914
|Birth Place
|Johnstown, PA
|Johnstown, PA
|United States of America
|Height & Weight
|Height (approx)
|6′ 0″ (183 cm)
|Weight (approx)
|173lbs (78 kg)
|Career Stats
|We will update soon.
|We will update soon.
|Family & Relatives
|Not Found
|Rumored that had relationship with Christian Nodal ( – ), Criss Angel (Nov 2016 – Jul 2017), Maluma (singer) (Dec 2014 – May 2015), Mario Domm (Aug 2010 – Oct 2010), Giovani Dos Santos (Jun 2009 – May 2010), Pepe Diaz (Jun 2008 – Jun 2008) and Christopher Von Uckermann (2001 – 2002).
|Not Found
Mel Bosser net worth
So just how rich was Mel Bosser? This outstanding baseball annual earnings, inclusive of prize money and sponsorships, was estimated to had a current net worth of We did not find any authentic source of net worth. The American baseball's earnings remain impressive compared to other famous baseballs.
Let's give a quick look at his net worth and the salary was as follows.
|Estimated net worth
|We did not find any authentic source of net worth
|Source of Wealth
|Professional Baseball, Actor, and Entrepreneur
According to Wikipedia and Celebrity Net Worth, Mel's primary income source was professional baseball player. Athletes, singers, actors, entertainers, whoever else had you, they did not only earn their money directly from their professions. The American baseball star had generated a load of cash through advertising and his vast sponsorship deals. He also earns a great deal of money from his endorsement contracts. We haven't had enough information about his luxury car, we will update it soon.
Mel Bosser: age, height & weight
Being born on 8th February 1914, Mel Bosser was 72 years old. The American star Mel Bosser's height was well proportioned with the rested of his body measurements. Mel Bosser stands at the height of 6′ 0″ (183 cm) and the bodyweight of 173lbs (78 kg).
Mel Bosser family: wife, kids
How old was Mel?
– He was 72 years old.
What was the name of Mel's wife?
– Rumored that had relationship with Christian Nodal ( – ), Criss Angel (Nov 2016 – Jul 2017), Maluma (singer) (Dec 2014 – May 2015), Mario Domm (Aug 2010 – Oct 2010), Giovani Dos Santos (Jun 2009 – May 2010), Pepe Diaz (Jun 2008 – Jun 2008) and Christopher Von Uckermann (2001 – 2002).
How many children he had?
Was Mel Bosser alive or dead?
– He died 26th March 1986.
Mel Bosser social accounts
- Facebook – not found
- Twitter – not found
- Instagram – not found


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Sharing cars can save money, earth
Didn't your mother teach you how to share? If so, you might already have the key to having some wheels without the aggravation of actually owning a car.
While car sharing services have been around in the U.S. since the late 1990s, they've only lately began to really catch on. Today, Massachusetts-based Zipcar is the world's largest car sharing company, with its 500,000 members in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom sharing 8,000 cars.
There are dozens of car sharing programs around the U.S., but Zipcar controls the market and has helped advance to concept of car sharing as a convenient way to drive, save money and be green.
Zipcar's Beginnings
Efforts at car sharing services go back as far as the 1940s in Europe, but the roots of car sharing in America can be traced back to 1998, when Dave Brook, an energy-conservation agent for Oregon State University, started up a car-sharing service in Portland, Ore., with four Dodge Neons. The effort eventually grew to two dozen cars before Brook sold the business to Flexcar, a Seattle startup company, in 2000.
Zipcar, which itself started up in 1999, absorbed Flexcar in 2007. From the start, the company did away with lock boxes and log books that other services used, instead taking the operation online.
In nearly 100 cities across the country, including New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Zipcars are parked in small clusters in neighborhood garages.
To reserve a car, you go online, find the nearest location and pick out your car. Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Volkswagen and Volvo are the Zipcar standard-bearers, and the Mini Cooper its signature ride.
To access the car, you wave a "Zipcard" in front of a reader inside the windshield. The program costs $25 to apply and $50 annually. Hourly rates start at $8, with daily rates from $66 — and that includes gas, insurance and up to 180 miles.
Is It Right For You?
Car sharing isn't for everyone.
According to Susan Shaheen, co-director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California-Berkeley, it generally works better in urban areas and for drivers who drive less than 7,000 to 10,000 miles per year. It's also not ideal for daily commuter trips.
If you like things just so or wouldn't dream of lending your own car to a friend, you might want to reconsider as well. While members agree not to smoke, let their dogs loose or leave fast-food wrappers in the car, there will likely be signs others have used the car.
How Much Savings?
Depending on your driving habits, car sharing might allow you to save some green. Sharing eliminates the fixed costs of private car ownership, which AAA pegs at $8,000 per year for a midsize sedan.
"It causes vehicle owners to reevaluate their vehicle usage and whether or not they need to own a vehicle," Shaheen said.
Zipcar also claims to be an eco-friendly alternative to automobile ownership.
"Each Zipcar put on the road replaces 15 personally owned vehicles," said Steve Bishop, general manager of Zipcar Chicago. "Members give up their private cars, drive less and walk, bike and use public transit more often. It doesn't get much greener than that."
Saving Environment, Changing Culture
But you don't have to sell Champaign, Ill., resident Carol Timms on Zipcar or the idea of car sharing.
Timms, an environmental activist and education consultant, signed up for her membership before the company even expanded to the Champaign-Urbana area. She uses the cars for errands around town and board-meeting trips to Chicago.
"First comes Tonka Trucks then Hot Wheels," she said. "Before you know it, you're dreaming of a GTO, a Shelby Cobra or a Barracuda. Americans are obsessed with our cars."
Timms is an especially big fan of the Toyota Prius, one of several cars Zipcar has in her area. She said the average Zipcar user saves $500 a month versus owning a car.
"I'm an energy geek from way back," she said. "This is great for the environment. It means a lot fewer people will need to buy cars."
Competition Drives Market
But Zipcar isn't the only car sharing service out there.
Services such as I-Go Car Sharing in Chicago, PhillyCarShare in Philadelphia, and CityWheels Carsharing in Cleveland are just some of the organizations trying to reduce the number of cars on the road.
The effort goes as far as working with cities to ensure private developers incorporate car sharing into planned developments. PhillyCarShare has led the way among non-profits, introducing free memberships, a fleet of more than 50 percent hybrid vehicles and free rides on rail transit for users of vehicles parked at more than 40 stations.
Robin Chase, a Cambridge, Mass., resident who helped co-found Zipcar before leaving the company in 2003, is also offering her own twist on car sharing that taps into social networking.
GoLoco.org is designed to help people save on gas and cut carbon emissions by helping them find rides. In other words, true car sharing.
GoLoco does this by matching people with others going their way and providing drivers with online tools to collect payment for the costs of providing the ride, such as gas and vehicle wear and tear, with a few mouse clicks. GoLoco collects a 10 percent transaction fee to fund the site.
"My goal is to reshape the way people feel about car ownership," Chase said. "We're going to train people that driving alone should make you feel lonely and pathetic. And that sharing a ride with someone is way more fun, you save money and you get an environmental halo."


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Job ID INC12359
Nomad Health seeks an experienced registered nurse for a Intermediate Care nurse assignment in VA.
Nomad Health, the modern healthcare staffing company, seeks an experienced registered nurse for this rewarding travel assignment opportunity. Join Nomad's growing team of registered nursing professionals. Nomad offers nurses a hassle-free experience, industry-leading pay rates, full benefits, and exceptional service.


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At tarang, we offer our customers a fascinating range of products. a highly skilled team of artists & craftsmen, specialized in each stages of the painting are working together to make each painting a master piece. the main figures in the painting and their emotions are more realistic in our collection. based on customer request any customized painting can be taken up. we offer a competitive price on the paintings making them much affordable and giving you the most value for your money.
The materials used in our paintings are of high quality and hence they can be kept in good condition for generations, with very little maintenance. a gentle wiping and dusting is all that is required to keep the piece as attractive as a new one.
All the products are insured against accidental damage during shipping so in case of breakage the products can be replaced. for shipments to united states ( usa ) we replace the glass with acrylic that is shatter proof but having the same clarity as glass. imported italian flexi-glass (acrylic sheet) is used instead of glass to avoid breakage during shipping.


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Morning Jolt: Moving ice destroys homes
In the news
"Ice tsunamis" destroyed some homes in Canada and Minnesota recently, and YouTube footage of the moving ice is going viral. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources told CNN that what happens is that winds blow chunks of ice onto the shore, and smaller chunks keep getting pushed forward. In other words, it's unreal, and you have to see it to believe it. In some cases, whole cabins and boathouses were destroyed by the ice, and other homes had ice burst in through glass doors.
Opening bell
TheDow Jones opened at 15,091.68 after finishing down 26.81 points Monday.
Motivational quote
"My philosophy is to take one day at a time. I don't worry about the future. Tomorrow is even out of sight for me." - Bobby Darin
Watercooler talk: He's no 'ThunderCat'
It's a product made to keep your furry friends calm during a storm, but maybe the "Thundershirt" works too well for this cat.
More Content Now


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XS Wear ®: Lease Protection
The unexpected is part of life. And though a certain amount of vehicle wear and tear is expected from your daily travels, sometimes excessive amounts can happen. With XS Wear Lease Protection, you'll be covered for damages beyond normal wear and tear when you turn in your Chevrolet lease vehicle.
- $0 deductible
- Coverage up to $5,000 in total charges if the vehicle is driven fewer than an average of 25,000 miles per year
- Coverage up to $2,500 in total charges if the vehicle is driven more than an average of 25,000 miles per year
- Charges waived up to $1,000 for excess wear damage caused by a single incident or event
Covered under the plan*
- Dents, scratches, and chipped paint (hail damage or punctures on any panel; one dent or two scratches of more than 4" per panel)
- Permanent interior stains; burn holes larger than ¼"; tears larger than ½"
- Chipped or cracked glass greater than ½" in diameter or spider cracks
- Tires with 3/32" tread or less, and Original Manufacturer wheels
- Missing parts, Owner's Manual, or keys, if charges are less than $150 per item
- Excess mileage charges up to $400
*If the damages caused by a single incident or event are less than $1,000.
- Available for new or previously dealer-titled vehicles with fewer than 10,000 miles at lease inception
- Available for vehicles up to $100,000 MSRP
- XS Wear Lease Protection must be purchased on the effective date of the lease
- Charges of $1,000 or more caused by a single incident or event
- Charges due to dishonest, intentional, fraudulent, criminal, or illegal acts
- Charges for missing parts valued at greater than $150 each
- Charges if the odometer has stopped, been altered or tampered with, or disconnected
- Charges for any part, equipment, or accessory added to the vehicle after delivery
Business Use Coverage
- If XS Wear is purchased, Business Use XS Wear is required for any lease in a business name or if the vehicle is used in business
- Many business uses are covered, except for rental, hire to public, ride sharing, hauling, plowing, construction, towing, law enforcement, and emergency purposes
Check with your Finance and Insurance Manager at your dealership for availability. Information provided is for illustration/summary purposes only; see Terms and Conditions/GAP Addendum/Pre-Paid Maintenance Agreement for complete details. Vehicle Service Contract coverage is provided and administered by AMT Warranty Corp., P.O. Box 927, Bedford, TX 76095, (877) 265-1072 (except in Florida, the obligor/provider and administrator is Wesco Insurance Company, 59 Maiden Lane, 43rd Floor, New York, NY 10038, [866] 327-5818, LICENSE #01913). GAP Coverage is provided by the dealer/creditor and administered by AMT Warranty Corp. (877) 265-1166. AMT Warranty Corp. and Wesco Insurance Company are GM-approved providers but are not related entities of GM or its dealerships. Roadside Assistance Services are provided by Nation Safe Drivers, 800 Yamato Road, Suite 100, Boca Raton, FL 33431 (except as otherwise noted for your state in the Terms and Conditions).


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My lovely, little flash collection is here!
On the Edge of a Raindrop is now available in eBook.
As I mentioned in my post, Hinting at Happiness: "Good flash fiction packs a punch. It heightens emotional responses, engages readers, makes them think…and keeps them thinking."
I hope to engage readers this way with a glimpse of lives on the edge.
Thanks to all my amazing tweeps, lovely blogging friends, and fellow writers who supported and encouraged me. You are, all of you, awesome. ❤
Blurb for On the Edge of a Raindrop:
These are stories of lives on the edge.
A girl tortured by the world within her. A boy powerless to escape his home. A mother doomed to live with her greatest mistake. A man lost in a maze of grief.
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Legal Academic Backlash – Abstract
Posted by The Situationist Staff on August 20, 2008
Situationist contributors Adam Benforado and Jon Hanson have posted their latest article, Legal Academic Backlash: The Response of Legal Theorists to Situationist Insights (Emory Law Journal, Vol. 57, No. 5, 2008) on SSRN. Here is the abstract.
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This article is the third of a multipart series. The first part, "The Great Attributional Divide," argues that a major rift runs across many of our major policy debates based on our attributional tendencies: the less accurate dispositionist approach, which explains outcomes and behavior with reference to people's dispositions (i.e., personalities, preferences, and the like), and the more accurate situationist approach, which bases attributions of causation and responsibility on unseen influences within us and around us.
The second part, "Naive Cynicism," explores how dispositionism maintains its dominance despite the fact that it misses so much of what actually moves us. It argues that the answer lies in a subordinate dynamic and discourse, naive cynicism: the basic subconscious mechanism by which dispositionists discredit and dismiss situationist insights and their proponents. Without it, the dominant person schema – dispositionism – would be far more vulnerable to challenge and change, and the more accurate person schema – situationism – less easily and effectively attacked. Naive cynicism is thus critically important to explaining how and why certain legal policies manage to carry the day.
Naive cynicism often takes the form of a backlash against situationism that involves an affirmation of existing dispositionist notions and an assault on (1) the situationist attributions themselves; (2) the individuals, institutions, and groups from which the situationist attributions appear to emanate; and (3) the individuals whose conduct has been situationalized. If one were to boil down those factors to one simple naive-cynicism-promoting frame for minimizing situationist ideas, it would be something like this: Unreasonable outgroup members are attacking us, our beliefs, and the things we value.
We predict that naive cynicism is a pervasive dynamic that shapes policy debates big and small. We argue that it can operate at a particular moment or over long periods of time, and that it is embraced and encouraged by both elite knowledge-producers and the average person on the street.
This Article examines the reactions of prominent academics to situationist scholarship. As we argue in this Article, na¿ve cynicism, operating as we predict above, has played a significant role in retarding the growth and influence of more accurate situationist insights of social psychology and related fields within the dominant legal theoretical frameworks of the last half-century.
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To download the article for free, click here. To read a collection of related Situationist posts, click here.
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This entry was posted on August 20, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Abstracts, Behavioral Economics, Ideology, Implicit Associations, Legal Theory, Naive Cynicism, Politics, Social Psychology. Tagged: Backlash, economic behavioralism, legal history, Legal Theory, Naive Cynicism, naive realism, policy debates, social cognition, Social Psychology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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91 thoughts on "#353: The Men Who Explain Miracles – Episode 4.3: The Edward D. Hoch 'Best Impossible Crime Novels' List of 1981 (Books 5 to 1)"
Interesting as always. For once, I'm agreed with you on all the novels discussed here.
My main objection is probably that you seem to find "The Plague Court Murders" so good. To me it's a quintessential early Carr novel, which means that it simply isn't that good. It also has that Carr-ian trait where the identity of the killer is too well-hidden – the killer isn't in the book enough for the reader to get to know him/her. (Cf. "Waxworks Murder", "Blind Barber", "White Priory", "Unicorn").
And thanks for the link! 🙂
I know what you mean, especially with regard to something like The Blind Barber, but what I enoy about these sorts of books id that there's one clear and brilliant moment thrown right in your face that — if you're canny enough to see through it — throws the whole thing wide open. For my money, that's an appropriate enough clue or declaration: the killer is there to be seen, pretty much laid out right in front of you, and typically we cry "Foul!" only because we're not switched on enough to catch it!
No. I cry "foul" because I feel it's not too far from using the penultimate chapter to introduce a cousin from Argentina and then to find out in the last chapter that he was the killer all along, moving around in the bits of the story that weren't clearly laid out, or worse still, never told at all.
I think a killer should be one of the main characters so we all get the chance to assess and suspect that person. If the killer is kept on the sidelines the entire time, how am I supposed to match my wits with the detective/author?
Apart from the florid prose of Carr's early novels, this might actually be Carr's main drawback. It simply happens too often that Mr. Bit Player turns out to be the one. (I managed to remember at least two more examples just while writing this reply.)
Fair enough; I'm not so concerned by it myself, but I know there is a general delight at having the murderr brazen it out in front of the detective. If that doesn't happen, so long as I've had the achance to make the necessary connections I'm happy.
After all, if you'd killed someone and there was a genius of some repute with a 100% record behind them, you'd keep out of their way, right? 🙂
Another week of managing to have read 4 out of the 5 books, though I'd say only one of them was a favourite read – The Judas Window. Found The Crooked House quite a drag to get through. I think writing style density is a big part of that, as I seemed to have fared better with Carr's middle period of writing i.e. The Emperor's Snuff Box, The Case of the Constant Suicides etc. Characterisation and writing style definitely come ahead of an impossibility in my reading priorities.
But yes another great episode and look forward to the next one.
Yeah, I can see Carr's middle period being the era that most appeals to the casual reader (I'm not disdaining you with this term, I promise — I'm just refusing to tar you with the level of dangerous fixation that I bring to his books…!). But then I suppose that's the case with anyone who writes for any meaningful time — the Early Ones show them learnign the craft, the Late Ones show a decline of their powers…if they're gonna be any good, it'll be in the middle.
Carr definitely got less florid and macabre as he went, probably as his focus became more plot-oriented and he simply burned to get the ideas down. In some cases this leads to him overlooking other aspects in the rush to clew and churn, but when he hits it well — Snuff Box, Suicides, Till Death — boy doesn't he ever hit hard.
Thanks for the kind words, too — maybe we'll make an impossibility fiend of you yet… 🙂
haha no I can see myself as a casual Carr reader. Probably should visit his work more frequently though. Given that my TBR pile is not all that fat I might get around to getting some more by him in soon. Just need to remember. That's always the tricky bit! I don't mind becoming an impossibility fiend, but are there any you'd recommend which still provide strong characterisation and avoid becoming dry and dense due to having to explain all the highly technical/complicated mechanics of the crimes? (This request hopefully won't be impossible in itself!)
I think that rather depends on which Carr novels from the middle period you've already read! 🙂
Here are the ones I'd recommend unhesitatingly:
The Black Spectacles/Problem of the Green Capsule
Case of the Constant Suicides
Death Turns the Tables
The Emperor's Snuffbox
Till Death Do Us Part
He Who Whispers
The Sleeping Sphinx
Death in Five Boxes (C. Dickson)
Murder in The Submarine Zone/Nine – And Death Makes Ten (C. Dickson)
All other novels written between 1937 and 1945 are worthwhile reads, though may have one or two problems that doesn't make them consistently great.
Whoa, whoa, whoa — you say you dislike withholding of the culprit and then put in Five Boxes, where the occlusion of a key action prevents the entire thing from being even remotely fair? Christian, you have some explaining to do… 🙂
Only read 3 of these so far so looks like I have plenty more to go at.
See, I'm actually with you in not liking overly mechanical explanations — I'd much rather be misled by someting clever than have it hing on a rope tied in a special knot looped around a lampshade that acts as a pulley and feeds it through a special hidden hole and back under the gap in a door so that when both ends are pulled togethzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
If I think about what I'd call the great impossibilities I've read in my life, none of them rely on that sort of principle. I might coin the phrase Chinese Orangery for brevity of explaining what I don't want in future…
Another absolutely fascinating listen, gentlemen. Now I'm looking forward to *your* list. (Actually, I hope you'll do two, one for books eligible for the Hoch list and another including everything published subsequently.)
Thanks, Josh, greatly appreciated. We were discussing whether to make our lists under the same "nothing post-1981" conditions as this one…no update on that at present. I think it may be informed by what we each want to put in when it comes to thinning our choices down to 15. In fact, I'd b etter get started…
Thanks Josh, quite a few of mine would be post 1981, or very close to it so we'll have to see!
A great listen with some interesting positions being taken here. Do you guys feel that the way the voters selected was for the best impossibility or do you think that some were thinking of their favorite novels which featured an impossible element?
As we've said somewhere in these recordings, far too many people voted — and on far too great a range of books, too, given how many wouldn't have made the list — for any overal intent to be clear. There's a range of books that I'd argue cover both cases here — The King is Dead is a great situation but a terrible solution, and Rim of the Pit is a marvellous book — so there's no overall obvious purpose.
I reckon Dan and I will try to have a distinct aim in mind with our lists, but we haven't even talked about that yet, so I couldn't tell you what that would be. Or even if we'll have the same one…
Thanks – it makes sense, particularly given the range of experiences on the part of the experts. I am certainly curious to see what will make your list!
Seeing that Hoch himself stated in the foreword to the anthology in question that some of the voters only provided two or three novels while others had trouble limiting themselves to ten, I think the voters probably had very different motives for including what they did…
In all, there were fifty novels mentioned on the lists, and one thing Hoch mentions about the results is that "The Hollow Man" was included in 12 of 17 lists, and topped 7 of them. The entire top ten was included on at least four lists, and the next five were included on three. No other books received at least ten points or were included on more than two lists.
Hoch gave the first book on each list 10 points, the second 9, and so on. The full results were the following:
The Hollow Man 104 p
Rim of the Pit 59 p
The Mystery of the Yellow Room 57 p
The Crooked Hinge 55 p
The Judas Window 51 p
The Big Bow Mystery 47 p
Death from a Top Hat 39 p
The Chinese Orange Mystery 35 p
Nine Times Nine 30 p
The Peacock Feather Murders 22 p
The King is Dead 20 p
Through a Glass Darkly 19 p
He Wouldn't Kill Patience 18 p
Too Many Magicians 13 p
Invisible Green 13 p
What this tells me is that the votes were quite spread out, since there are 35 books not mentioned here, which means at the most two of these experts included them on their lists. None of these novels were placed very high on those lists either since they couldn't even get 10 points in total.
I'd guess it means that many of the experts chose their favourites, and that their tastes were a bit dissimilar. 🙂
Thanks for the added background and analysis of the voting. I can see that making sense.
I do wonder if you grabbed a similar group of writers and industry professionals today whether their voting would be as diverse. So many of us these days start investigating a genre using these sorts of lists as a guide that I imagine these titles would have an undue advantage in having a wider readership.
On the other hand, perhaps the easier digital availability of oop books and works in translation would give lesser known authors a chance to compete.
I wonder how many of today's writers and industry professionals would be well-versed enough in the genre, though. That's not an implied slam or swipe at anyone, I just don't think there's the genre awareness on a large enough scope (hindered, no doubt, by the OOP issue you raise). I'd love to be wrong, but given the current trend in the industry, it would be possible to have an encylopaedic knowledge of modern crime fiction without even touching impossible crimes.
Sadly I am certain you are right.
My main problem is that I've read too much, so I can't quite remember everything I've read – not well enough that any list of mine would be "correct" even according to my tastes. Well exemplified by how I'd misremembered part of "Death in Five Boxes" just here in these comments.
There are several authors that might be included – perhaps even SHOULD be included – like Clason, Crispin, Boucher and so on, but it was a while since I read them and I can't really remember them well enough to say whether they should be on a top 10 or not. One could argue that since I don't remember them well enough, odds are that they shouldn't be included…
Dude, you may not remember, but I've talked about this recently and so totally feel your pain.
They probably should be included, Christian, if your memory, no matter how hazy, says they should. The only reason I remember Christie so well has to do with the power of repetition – I've read them all so many times. I don't want to reread The Crooked Hinge if it's going to turn out I like it less than the first time! Don't let these bullies crush your faith in Death in Five Boxes! (Plus, it's sitting on my TBR pile as we speak.)
It's very good damn you! I'm telling you it's really very good indeed!
Thanks for sharing these totals — I should have thought of that. I remember being struck by just how far ahead The Hollow Man was, which seems crazy to me; it's a great book, but that's the sort of lead that simply perpetrates the exact notion of automatic, unconsidered greatness that Dan an I talk about at the end of this episode.
Maybe there's a way to do a similar thing now that everyone is so much more connected. I mean, there definitely is. It's just a matter of ensuring it's the result of people as well-read in the genre as this first vote was.
Another thing to infer is that Carr probably suffered from having so many different impossible novels, while folks like Talbot and Rawson benefited from having written so little. Because if these experts were going to include books by Carr, chances were that they'd choose different books, while if they went for Talbot or Rawson, it was a much bigger chance that they'd pick the same one.
I still find it interesting that both Talbot's "Hangman's Handyman" and Sladek's "Black Aura" seem to have been universally less liked than their other novel, because nowadays, i think that opinions are more divided on their merits.
This is a great point, and one that definitely deserves exploring at some future juncture. Perhaps there's the elemnet of "I just don't know which Carr to go for, so The Hollow Man is the sensible choice", or possibly even that in many of Carr's other excellent novels — like Till Death, say — the impossibility isn't front and centre, and so the sensible thing is to pick one based around two hugely totemic impossiblities. The Rawson, Sladek, Leroux, Queen, and Talbot titles, you're right, effectively pick themselves…and then all iot requires is Garrett and McCloy to pop up two or three times and they're in here forever.
I for one really enjoyed Hangman's Handyman — the first half is very creepy and you get more sense of Kincaid as a character than second time around. No doubt the impossibilities are much more easily denuded, but it's fun and well-constructed. The difficulty is that it gets put against Rim and immediately pales. Put against a majority of the rest of the genre it more than stands up.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa — you say you dislike withholding of the culprit and then put in Five Boxes, where the occlusion of a key action prevents the entire thing from being even remotely fair? Christian, you have some explaining to do… 🙂"
It was a while I read it, but I remembered it as good. Please don't make me change my mind. 😦
Replying to myself here: Now that J. J. reminded me and I had a look at what Doug Greene wrote about it, I guess I'll have to withdraw my wholehearted recommendation of Death in Five Boxes and amend it to "a book I really like".
Just so you know, J. J., I actually quite like some of Carr's novels despite him hiding the murderer – "The Unicorn Murders" is one of my absolute favourites of his.
It's a very good book, but that one exclusion, which would be easy enough to slip past the unwary, does hold it back for me. I mean, sure, there's potentially a certain amount of understood implicit actions…but in a case as simple as that, not making it explicit is just sloppy (not a word I level at Carr lightly).
However, plot-wise it's magnificent, and wholly deserves your optimistic opinion 🙂
A very enjoyable listen, as always. One thing though – I don't like that musical bumper you guys use. It's not a big deal but it makes me uncomfortable for some reason, although that's maybe the effect you were going for.
Anyway, on to more important matters. One morsel that caught my attention occurred in the comments on The Hollow Man and related to how it might not be a good novel to introduce a new reader to Carr or impossible crime mysteries in general. Now I adore he book but do take the point on its density and the effect that may have on a novice. And then I got to wondering whether the best example of whatever – insert any literary style or trope you like here – may not always be the ideal way to break in a newcomer. While I think this is a valid point and very possibly true, I don't believe it has to impact on the established greatness of a particular work. Author X's greatest book should still remain so even if we decide that it doesn't act as the strongest way to draw in the newbie.
See, this is why I try to do stuff chronologically…but, yeah, the idea of where to start an author or a specific subgenre remains a quandary for the ages.
Wow! First group where I read four out of five! The Judas Window was the first Carter Dickson I read. I had rejected the CD books as a kid, focusing purely on Dr. Fell. TJW certainly changed my mind. I agree with you, JJ, that the locked room aspect of the book is not its greatest pleasure. I love the set-up and HM's genuinely hilarious antics in court, and the surprise revelation of the killer. And the whole reputation thing you describe regarding Answell is the best! I just always have problems fathoming the mechanics of many locked room crimes, and that's what happened here.
I kind of held my breath listening to your comments on The Crooked Hinge. When I first started exploring the GAD blogosphere, I naturally came upon a lot of commentary about Carr – and I was shocked at all the shade given to this novel. I'll admit that I haven't picked it up in decades, but this one really stuck with me. I thought the impossibility was shocking, and I really loved the side story about witches cult. Lots of pleasures and twists to be found here! But when you talked about the ranking, I couldn't help but think how impossible it is to create lists like this – especially by committee. Myriad opinions coming together to form some sort of pseudo-scientific consensus – I can only imagine that these same 17 people would have come up with different names and/or order of presentation on any single given day.
I feel like Rim of the Pit was one of those where most of my blogging friends discovered it together. I highly enjoyed it, as you know, and if I don't rate it quite as highly as you or the listers do, one of the greatest pleasures of it is that this was one mystery that I didn't read alone!!!! And that's something I can say about almost NO mysteries I read before 2015!
I'm definitely more grumbly about The Hollow Man, but I won't sit here and complain about it. (I have my own room to do that in!) I will say that I admired the second crime more than the first, which makes no sense since every element of the whole crime plot is inextricably linked. I really appreciate that you guys both had some troubles with it as well. It felt more heavy going than even It Walks by Night to me!!!
I'm incredibly jealous of your whole podcast project and of the chance you guys get to sit and discuss all these books together. But I still love listening. And I want to like this blog post – – – but SOMETHING is preventing me from doing so. I don't know if it's your site or my laptop, but something refuses to let me "like" your posts, JJ! And so I leave you a little more frustrated than when I arrived . . .
I couldn't help but think how impossible it is to create lists like this – especially by committee
Though, of course, making it by committe does make it virtually criticism-proof, since there's no individual or overall intent to take issue with. Rest assured, when Dan and I share our lists in a couple of months there will doubtless be much criticism…!
As for The Hollow Man, precisely what you mean by the "first" and "second" crimes may require some clarification 😉
". . . Precisely what you mean by the "first" and "second" crimes may require some clarification."
Oh, shoot! I forgot about all that rigmarole! I like the murder in the street!
Your "List of Fifteen" may be too esoteric for me to criticize, but once the TomCats, er, tigers have been loosed on you, we'll see how much mincemeat is left to bake into a pie!
I'm afraid your plan is doomed to fail, JJ.
Anyway, what I'm really curious about is whether, or not, your (and Dan's) list will have titles on that will surprise me. Every list has entries on it that one can agree or disagree with, but one or more titles you had not considered, but have merit, is another story altogether.
Time will tell; as in, when I have time to do it, I'll tell you 🙂
P.S. It seems to be my computer . . . or my server, at least. When I switched from Safari to Chrome, I was able to "like" this! Yadda yadda yadda and that's all I'm gonna say about that!
I want to make a "You use Safari?!" comment, but let's be honest — no-one comes here for the web-browser banter.
Yes, I use Safari, damn your eyes! I'm one of those men who prefers old books. We have trouble catching on to the new-tangled ways of you whippersnappers.
I, too, am one of those men who loves old books — my Kindle has been a revolution, and allowed me access to a huge amount of stuff I would have otherwsie had to skip for price and availability reasons, but something about reading it doesn't quite process properly. Must be all these people damning my eyes…there woiuld appear to be some sort of cumulative effect coming into play.
I was going to make a jokey answer, but I actually understand your problem. I'm in the early going of my first Christopher Bush mystery. I saved something like ninety percent of the cost by downloading it, but I'm having a hard time due to the format. I can't easily page back and check out a character's introduction or an earlier reference to something. . . and my eyes get tired more quickly staring at a screen. As a result, it's been slow going!
A lot of my reading of ebooks could well be subtitled How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ragged Right Edge…I couldn't finish Dead Man's Quarry on account of it, and struggled through Bleeding Hooks (alas, to little joy). Coming soon(ish) Cut-Throat by Bush…
WordPress makes it so hard sometimes to continue a chain of conversation, but that is precisely what Christian's comment above inspires! Sure, I have no 0roblem with one man writing two books and another writing seventy, and one of those two books is considered better than sixty-nine of the more prolific author's works. That falls under the category of "them's the breaks"; plus, the whole thing is completely subjective anyway. I do find it depressing that both the prolific guy and the two-book wonder guy are largely forgotten by the mainstream reading public! 😦
The most insightful moment in the whole three parts for me was JJ's theory for "why these five Carr's!" An author with this many books under his belt has the luxury of diversifying his methods; indeed, it is his duty if he is to avoid accusations of being formulaic. We'll never know if Hake Talbot would have had the stamina to effect his lunatic genius for the long run. It's evident that he himself didn't want to find out.
This said by the man who seems to be having a bit of writers block on his own blog. 😦
Which of my comments? There are, like, two hundred of them. 😉
Actually, to spin off from the discussion on what books I would include on a personal top 10, and my problems remembering whether a book is actually that good, this is another reason why I like short stories.
Because if I've read a short story, and I remember liking the impossibility, then that is a story I can recommend and put on my personal top 10. In a novel, I might remember that the impossibility was really good, but then there's the other 150 pages that might feature something I didn't really like. Would such a novel still be eligible for my top 10?
Short stories are simply easier to remember, because there's less to remember. 🙂
See, having read more short stories I find I get them confused. I need the detail of novels to keep them distinct!
Hey, this now means I can put "Have been praised for my insight" on all future CVs, so I'm sorted for life. Thanks, Brad!
That was an excellent discussion! I also eagerly await your own lists (separate, or do you plan to share one?).
I wonder when it was that The Hollow Man became "canonized" as its extremely high score suggests it has been. Was its reception at the time so universally enthusiastic? It's always seemed to me that the Locked Room Lecture is more iconic than the book that contains it.
One other thing I'll mention is that if you intend to do this regularly, you might want to set things up so your podcast is discoverable using podcast apps etc, since I couldn't seem to find it when I searched.
Many thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. We'll definitely do separate lists. I don't think our approaches overlap enough for it to be sensible to do it any other way — I can be very specific in my judging of things, Dan is the much cooler head.
I can see the revolution in the genre that THM represented at the time — essentially someone throwing down the gauntlet of "Hey, here are the basic tropes — stop using them!" and upsetting everyone's game. That's kind of amazing when you think about it, like someone now writing an entirely gripping an super-smart thriller about how lazy and stupid unreliable narrators are 😛
As for discoverably podcast apps — uh, whut? Dude, I have literally no idea what that means or how to go about it….
You know, I don't quite know either 😀
I did find this, though: https://www.labnol.org/internet/publish-podcast-on-itunes/28226/
It seems like you have all but the last 2 steps done – you'd need to publish to iTunes.
Basically that should mean that if someone opened iTunes (or another podcast app) and searched for "The Men Who Explain Miracles" or "The Invisible Event" or whatever you title it, they would get a list of your podcast episodes.
I searched "locked room mystery" and the only things that turned up were audiobooks, so it seems no one else is making a podcast with this topic yet 😀
Yeah, we figured we'd be the first doing this sort of thing…hopefully riches will follow in due course 🙂
Many, many thanks for the link, I'll read through what's involved and see if it's soemthing that can be achieved relatively easily given the constraints on my time. Here's hoping, eh?!
My paperback copy says the New York Times called it "perfection… magnificent", so I'm guessing it was very highly regarded right from the start.
Wonderful podcast, and I found myself agreeing with nearly all of it (which no doubt also influences my opinion of it!).
A few thoughts:
I would say it's fair to suggest that Yellow Room was indeed Carr's favorite locked room novel as well as Fell's; if any writer ever felt both the freedom and the compulsion to express his own views through that of his characters, it was Carr. Indeed, I'm almost surprised that the line lock-room lecture wasn't "let's not fool ourselves— we're in a detective story, and my opinions and prejudices are merely those of that fellow who created me, John Dickson Carr!"
My problem with the Crooked Hinge is that I've always found the penultimate solution much more satisfying than the ultimate one. My objection to the ultimately revealed solution is not a question of logistic plausibility or possibility (it may not be possible, but I don't know enough about biology or physics to know that), but rather of clue sufficiency. While I don't accept the concept of "fairness" as applicable to clue sufficiency, the concept of subjective satisfaction certainly is, and there wasn't sufficient clueing to the remarkable uniqueness of the culprit to make it seem sufficiently inevitable to me. It's a helluva wallop, but one that seems far too thinly prepared for. That said, I love how Carr plays with the reader's "loyalties" in the first half of the book, switching him back and forth between believing one claimant and then the other. And his incredible feat of misdirection pulled off in the very chapter he prefaced with a quote about the nature of misdirection is jaw-dropping even for me, a professional magician. Still, my disappointment with the solution is enough to make me doubt I would even include it in my Carr top ten.
The Hollow Man would definitely be in my top ten Carrs but, yes, it is definitely overrated. He Who Whispers, Till Death Do Us Part, The Burning Court, The Judas Window, even The Reader is Warned I would rank more highly than The Hollow Man— which, as with one of you, I had to return to long after o find myself having trouble getting through the first few chapters of this much lauded-tale. I think it's anything but a great "gateway drug."
I can't wait to check out The Invisible Green (not familiar with it at all) and revisit Rim of the Pit.
Thanks, Scott, I really appreciate the kind words. And it's not an influenced opinion when it's made on such a good basis — don't worry!
I don't seriously question whether Yellow Room was in fact Carr's favourite book, I just find it interesting the way readers tend to accept something as the opinion of the author just because it refers to something that exists outside the fictional world of the book. I'm pretty sure this was Carr giving creit to Leroux, I just enjoy challenging received wisdom every so often.
The Crooked Hing is an odd one…a lot of people really do seem to prefer that first solutions, and I was heartbroken when I read it and thought it actually was the true solution. It's all a matter of taste, of course, but it find it gimmicky and ridiculous and just begging to be overthrown. I completely agreeing about the possibility for more clewing where the real solution is involved (a couple of handprints in the sand, for instance, that were too big or too small to be Farnleigh's…though, of course, there's then the matter of it being rather too tangible and simply comparing it with the hands of everyone involved).
Twas I who struggled with THM, and I agreeing it's absolutely not the place to start with impossibilities or Carr. Alas, most people will simply because it's one of the few now available — but don't start me on rights and Carr's OOPness, we'll be here all day,
And Invisible Green is a doozy; I have reviewed it on here in the past if you're interested in my fuller thoughts. It's a grand old time, so I hope you're successful in tracking it down.
So much to discuss…. I'm going to have to break this out into multiple posts. First, some brief thoughts on the books discussed in this session.
I do think that The Judas Window is deserving of its spot. The impossibility is the true center focus of the book from start to finish and it's a real perplexing puzzle. To a degree, it's a simple puzzle as well – the room is locked with absolutely no way in, end of story. With that in mind, the solution (although some might say it is a little complex) is an absolute head slapper. Plus, Carr provides a constant stream of discovery, including some fairly jarring revelations along the way. In terms of pacing, I'd rate it side by side with Till Death Do Us Part.
I absolutely love The Crooked Hinge and find the modern-day slide it has taken baffling. With that said, I don't count it as an impossible crime, although I question whether my own perspective on that is tinted by hindsight.
I like the point about The Crooked Hinge being Carr's last gothic hurrah. I hadn't really considered that, but it may well be true. The Reader is Warned and The Problem of the Green Capsule both have creepy elements and shades of darkness, but ultimately don't go so far as the horror provided by The Crooked Hinge. Even Carr's later efforts that built stories around elements of the supernatural (The Man Who Could Not Shudder, The Curse of the Bronze Lamp, He Who Whispers, Below Suspicion) never really captured the same sort of atmosphere.
As for The Rim of the Pit – JJ captured why it is on this list perfectly. A maelstrom of everything that I love about the genre, packed into a sprint of a read. I do wrestle with this one though. As much as I love it, I question whether I'd lend it to someone without knowing that they could take it. Maybe you know what I mean by that. I have no qualms lending, say, The White Priory Murders or The Four False Weapons, to someone who has shown an interest in the GAD genre. Would I lend out The Rim of the Pit though? Well, I haven't so far…
In part it's probably because the end doesn't tie together perfectly. The minor impossibilities are a success, while the grander ones are more questionable. Still, I'd read 100 other books like it in a heartbeat.
Hey, dude, I'm fuly aware that plenty of people adore TJW and I'm in the minority for my perspective. It doesn't quite veer into The King is Dead territory for me — wonderful problem, banal solution — but the absolutes present in the setup are something of a limiting facotr in my enjoyment, I think. Typically I prefer an impossibility that hinges on a clear moment of obvious misdirection (The White Priory Murders, The Blind Barber, Policeman's Evidence, etc) where you're shown something and because of the construction around it are simply guided to see it in the wrong way. TJW doesn't do that — it's on the technical side, and while clever you have very little chance to figure it out — and I think that's why it falls down for me a bit.
Crooked Hing I take your point on. Where back to the nature of how something qualifies as an impossible crime — se my post about harlan Coben's Tell No One from a few weeks ago for my further thoughts here.
Rim of the Pit I love, and would actually lend it out ahead of the two books you mention, the puzzles of which I consider much harder work for the uninitiated. RotP is just fun and, no, not all of it works, but very few biooks gel around <i<every single aspect — be it motivation, clewing, cohesion in the narrative, whatever, everything fllas down somewhere. For my money, RotP is insane fun along the way, and more than readily makes up for its flaws in its ambition and the compactness of its execution. But, hey, that's personal taste for you.
One point about "The Judas Window" that is pointed out by Douglas Greene in his Carr biography is the fact that the killer couldn't actually know that they would hit the victim, since they had no way of seeing where they were aiming. I'd agree that that is the main drawback of the solution.
This is the inversion of the problem many seem to have with The Ten Teacups and which I simply don't see as a problem. In that book it wouldn't actually make any difference, but you're (or, rather Douglas Green is) correct that it'd cause problems here. Still, no murder is without a bit of risk, eh? I think there's the tendency when we read aot of this sort of stuff to lose track of how risky an endeavour killing someone is — that it might not go off perfectly is simply part of the risk the killer runs sometimes. Well, all the time, I guess, since they're always caught 🙂
If I remember correctly, Greene argues that it could have been easily averted by simply having the arrow smeared with poison.
On the other hand, I'm not sure, wouldn't that have meant that Answell never became suspected since he didn't have any poison on him? Or at least it would have meant that Carr had needed to account for that fact as well.
The one defense I'll make of The Judas Window is this – although technical in nature, there's an element of the solution where you think "how did I not consider that!" In that regard, there is a simplicity that touches on The White Priory Murders. But, yeah, as you say, then you read the rest of the explanation, scratch your head, read it again…
Second topic – now that we've had an overview of the entire list, which titles really feel like they belong?
My own interpretation is that there's an excitement in talking about all of these Top 5 books. You may not have agreed that each of them deserved their exact spot on the list, but there was a real passion and energy surrounding each title. To paraphrase – "You may disagree this is the X best book, but, OMG, you have to read this one!"
I can't say that I quite got that from the previous ten entries. A lot of them seemed to fall more under the category of "this is a really solid book and a good example of the breadth of the genre." But there wasn't that energy crackling in the air. That suggests to me that maybe all of those titles don't really belong in the Top 15.
I can't quite comment as to what belongs and what doesn't, as I haven't read nearly enough of these. I'm curious if you have a perspective now that you've wrapped up the entire list and can look back at it all, rather than focusing on five books at a time. Is the divide between the top 5 and the rest as tangible as I sense it is?
The issue of what "belongs" is, I think, only really properly discussed when we know what the motivation behind the list was — and, as has been established, there doesn't seem to be a single, unifying motivation. So, well, then it's just a matter of what we each like, or what we'd include in our own lists, which becomes even more subjective.
I'd say that what this list does well, in an expansion of my pont about the five Carr titles, is that it shows the different possibilities (not always deployed successfully!) of how the impossible crime can be deployed. Some sound great — King is Dead, Glass Darkly, Top Hat — and turn out to be disappointing, some have aspects that are wonderful and aspects that don't quite work and so upset the balance — Ten Teacups, Hinge, Magicians, Bow — and some are marvellous but problematic for entirely different reasons — Hollow, Rim, Patience. As a cross-section of impossible crimes…yeah. that feels about right!
For my tastes, I'd only put about four of these on a list of my own devising, though precisely which ones and for what reasons will have to wait for the Grand Reveal in April…
Third topic – which John Dickson Carr titles belong on the list?
Given the breadth of Carr's involvement in the impossible crime genre, it's difficult to read the Top 15 list without thinking that there's a Carr title that I'd propose higher than some other book that I see. Of course, not all Carr titles are impossible crimes, and as much as I love The Problem of the Green Capsule, I don't think it qualifies for the list. With that in mind, here are some Carr titles that I think would be worthy of a seat at the table:
The White Priory Murders – this has an impossibility that just nags at you, combined with a solution that shocks with its simplicity. I'd list this before The Ten Teacups.
Till Death Do Us Part – impossible poisoning in a locked room combined with pacing only rivaled by The Judas Window and Rim of the Pit.
The Plague Court Murders – a locked room stabbing in a hut surrounded by a field of mud devoid of footprints – plus, it's a joy to read.
He Who Whispers – a stark impossibility bolstered by a solid story.
The Unicorn Murders – in terms of audacity of misdirection, this one might take the cake.
The Red Widow Murders – would anyone really place Through a Glass, Darkly higher than this?
I know it seems silly to have a list stacked with Carr titles, but if you were to weigh between these and other entries in the Hoch list, which would you choose?
The notion of The Problem of the Green Capsule not qualifiying intrigues me — isn't it a poisoning in view of four people, none of who could have done it and yet one of who must have? That's, like, the one example I use to explain the impossible crime to people, so I'm very interested in your reasons for not seeing it as such.
As to which Carrs…damn, who knows? If it's audacity, I'd keep He Wouldn't Kill Patience for the moment in it that made me laught out loud, and Man Who Could Not Shudder (a book I think I enjoy much more than everyone else does) for the same reason. For pure readability it'd have to be the late 30s/early 40s crossover like Constant Suicides, Till Death, etc. I have a problematic relationship with Whispers since rereading it for the spoiler-heavy post Brad and I did, but I love the characters in it. White Priory is superb as a problem and solution, but the text needs a damn good edit…it's always difficult to draw two or three or eight out on a single motivation, which is why I think the range of Carr represented in the list is good even if the titles aren't the best.
Again, my selection will be unveiled when I make it, but…well, I have some thoughts that I'll share at that time. It wouldn't be entire;y unfair to say that a list of fifteen could be made from Carr alone, and not just because he wrote so much in the genre. I'm with you in the bafflement of Glass Darkly being included at the exclusion of all the books mentioned above but, well, diff'rent strokes and diff'rent folks and all that.
As much as I have read, I'm the last man to consider himself an expert on the impossible crime novel, but just as you describe a story about a man being poisoned at his death in front of five people who couldn't have done it as an impossible crime, I would say the story of a woman capable of splitting into two people – who seemingly does split in two and murders someone – and who does all of this in front of witnesses . . . falls straight into the category of an impossible crime. In Rim of the Pit, we are dragged to the point where we almost buy the concept of the wendigo and the ghost! McCloy accomplishes the same thing with the doppelgänger- and she does it as much in a sunlit garden as in a spooky school or dim apartment.
Now, you gentlemen are entitled to argue how successfully this feat is accomplished, and I will respect your opinion. Personally I feel like after sustaining the supernatural horror in the face of rational thought for so long, just about any ending would feel flat. So I don't disagree that the denouement doesn't meet the standards of what came before. But JJ said the exact same thing about the final chapter of RotP!
Sure, seventeen experts can be wrong, but I don't think they were here. TaGD meets the criteria that I believe this august group was working with: it creates an impossible situation that leads to murder and has a rational solution, and it does so in a way that is unique from the fourteen other representatives of the genre that were selected.
I…didn't question TaGD as an impossible crime. My issue is that the solution can only be one of two things and so there's very little scope for this sort of problem in the subgenre. But, yeah, as presented it's an impossibility, no doubt.
Similar comment to JJ – TaGD is definitely an impossible crime, and a nice read to boot. The problem is there are about 30 books I'd place on a Top 15 impossible crime novel list before it.
The challenge here is in the very notion of "creating a list!" Say we were all asked to contribute to a list of "The Fifteen Greatest Mysteries by the Queens of Crime." That means finding mysteries by Allingham and Marsh that I think measure up to Christie. I'm not a Sayers fan at all, so it would be up to the many "experts" who love her to add to the list. Meanwhile, I would be crying out to add Brand and Tey (although the recent diatribe against Tey on the GAD Facebook page suggests I would be shouted down.) This list-making business leads to nothing but trouble! 🙂
Well, clearly you would just fill that list with Christianna Brand's entire catalogue and then sprinkle in some Christie to round out the 15. Sheesh, you have to make everything so complicated…
And, I'd actually be very interested in seeing you and, say, Noah, putting together such a list.
I second the call for "Brad and Noah collaborate". On literally anything…
That means finding mysteries by Allingham and Marsh that I think measure up to Christie.
Far from it; you pick the 15 that you think deserve to be on there, and you vote for them. Nothing in the casting of your vote says that all th Queens of Crime must be present on your (or, indeed, the final) list. Hell, first all y'all need to agree who the QoC are… 🙂
Cleary The Problem of the Green Capsule isn't an impossible crime, or else it would have been included on the list! It isn't even included in the 99 Novels for a Locked Room Library list!
Oh, er, you actually want me to articulate my reasoning? From my recollection, although it is extremely likely that a certain set of suspects must have committed the murder, I think there exists the possibility that some random person could have done it. Of course, that would violate the rules of a mystery, but I don't recall anything that would have ruled out some unknown character from having committed the crime.
Now, you totally have me second guessing my memory on this book, which is funny since I always give you a hard time about forgetting that scene. Obviously the killer needed to be aware of plan for the staged scene, but couldn't the victim have had an additional accomplice that we weren't aware of?
I read it pretty recently, Ben, and I think you're right. The person who runs in could be anybody! The thrill is that it's actually somebody it "couldn't" have been, but there's nothing impossible per se about the set-up.
Huh. Well, there you go — my memory has already proved faulty on this once and so I'll bow to your and Brad's better recall, but I was certain something about the setup meant it had to be one of those watchers who was the killer.
Frankly, now I'm all out of sorts.
I live to unsettle you . . .
Furthermore, it's the only book by a woman on this list! Hercule Poirot's Christmas is a straightforward impossible crime story and it's not here -nor does it deserve to be, since its trick is not unique from all the others here.
Uh, sure. But equally plenty of books on the list could be taken as the only one of their ilk — the only translated work, the only work by a magician, etc. If you're point is that this can't be removed because it's the only book by a female author it's…flawed, and there are better female-written impossibilities than Hercule Poirot's Christmas to replace this with if a gender swap was necessary 🙂
My comment was more facetious . . .
but she IS the only woman on the list, and there are at least THREE magicians . . .
Have you done a piece on Red Right Hand yet? The Hanging Rope by Joel Townsley Rogers was one of the first impossible crime stories I read, in a Robert Adey compilation, and Red Right Hand is an extraordinary work. It would suit a Spoiler Warning.
I'd be reluctant to do a spoiler-heavy post on The Red Right Hand because I loathed it so vehemently and hope never to have to read it ever again 🙂 My reasons for diskling it so strongly would no doubt make excellent grist for the Spoiler Warning mill, but if I can avoid that book forever after it'd be time well spent as far as I'm concerned…
Well that's fair enough then. A good hatchet job would make interesting listening though… I can certainly imagine what annoyed you about it.
Now that I've finally marched through all of these…
First off, I saw "Hoch" in the title a few week ago, got overjoyed that you were finally doing him, and instead I get this. How cruel. 😛
The great issue with lists like these is that "best" is wholly subjective. While the way it was done here would probably produce more accurate results, you still suffer from issues of personal taste and lack of genre knowledge, such as works in other languages. Look at Ho-Ling's blog and check how much he has labeled as locked rooms and impossible crimes, and remember that like 90% are in Japanese! I'd like to see the list updated, now that we have easier access to impossible crimes and a better knowledge of the genre worldwide, but I can't image who you'd select for that type of list. And would you include things like games or manga on it?
This is a long-winded way or saying I liked your analysis but I'm not sure if I agree with the central concept. 😛 I do think it needs re-looking at, so looking forward to that.
We'll be doing our own lists in the next episode in April. Dunno what Dan's criteria will be but mine are…fairly simple!
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Since the 1999 premiere of 'The Sopranos,' a cri du coeur that TV really could be as ambitious and serious as its writers wanted to make it, the antihero has been inextricably associated with great television. But in the last few years, the archetype has started to sour, and this year, I think, completely curdled. Walter White died and revealed the field behind him to be occupied by a bunch of wan copycats. Shows like 'Ray Donovan,' 'Low Winter Sun,' 'The Following,' 'Hannibal' and 'House of Cards' (yes, that's a fighting list) followed 'The Playboy Club,' 'Boss,' 'Magic City' and 'Boardwalk Empire' in following the great 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Sopranos,' making for a lame cohort of paint-by-numbers Prestige TV. A little ethical dilemma here, a little male hierarchy there; a little of Don Draper's sex appeal here, a little of Tony Soprano's menace there; add as much grisly violence as whatever network you're on will allow and, voila, something dull and pretentious: a garbage monster looking for an award.
The decline of the antihero has led to some hand-wringing: Andy Greenwald at Grantland looked at all these bloodless copies of Al Swearengen and Vic Mackey and understandably concluded that TV had entered its zombie stage and begun eating itself. ('The Walking Dead' is another example of this plague.) Greenwald argued that all these lurching, mindless corpses signaled an end to the 'golden age' of television, a winding down of the grand, gorgeous ambitious era inaugurated by 'The Sopranos.' But I look out at the TV this year and I see something else: Not just those brain-dead shows dragging themselves across the ground moaning, but the vital series leapfrogging over them. TV that's healthy, not inbred.
This year burst with series percolating on the themes of antihero TV – violence, amorality, likeability, gender dynamics – in new ways, from new angles, with new characters and different genres: shows like 'Scandal,' 'American Horror Story,' 'Orange Is the New Black,' 'Top of the Lake,' 'Rectify,' 'Key & Peele.' Other series tweaked those themes in less aggressive but still effective and pleasurable ways: shows like 'The Americans,' 'Game of Thrones,' 'Broadchurch,' 'The Fall,' 'Sleepy Hollow.' This year also had plenty of shows that were true to 'The Sopranos' ' real spirit: exploring something different, something we hadn't quite seen before – shows like 'Enlightened,' 'Bunheads,' 'Girls' and even 'The Fosters.' And I don't think it's a coincidence that almost every show I have just name-checked is about a woman. Sometimes new just means giving a voice to 50 percent of the population.
This was a great year for TV, if not a great year for really popular TV. Social media and the Internet have created a class of hyper-engaged TV obsessives, while America continues to watch 'The Millers' and 'The Walking Dead.' There may not be 'indie TV,' but is there already an art-house TV audience? Anyway, there was a lot of good TV this year, as reflected by the fact that 'Mad Men' is all the way down at the bottom of my top 10 list:
1. 'Borgen'
2. 'Top of the Lake'
3. 'Orange Is the New Black'
4. 'Breaking Bad'
5. 'The Good Wife'
6. 'The Americans'
7. 'The Returned'
8. 'Bunheads'
9. 'American Horror Story: Asylum'
10. 'Mad Men'
And yet there is still general consternation about taxonomy, about whether this Golden Age is over, was already over, will soon be over. And this to me is what is really interesting about the Golden Age: not whether we are in it, or out of it, in a silver age, a rainbow age or something better or worse, but why we – TV critics, writers, and ultra-informed consumers – are so interested in labeling what is happening (or just happened).
TV has come a long way very fast. People still sometimes snobbishly declaim to me that they don't have a television, but it happens a lot less than people apologizing in hushed tones for not having watched 'Mad Men' yet. Obviously, people making polite conversation with a TV critic at a party is a skewed sample population, but the speed with which the 'idiot box' has become a part of high culture is staggering, if not yet complete.
One thing that happened in this last decade-plus is that TV got very good. And the other thing that happened is that TV became a certain kind of cultural product, for a certain class of cultural consumer; the exact person who once would have smugly declared TV was something she would never deign to watch. The Golden Age terminology helped change that. In addition to being a description, 'the Golden Age' is a tool: a tool for canon-building. It's a phrase that highlights and circles, says here, something really special is going on. And the really special thing going on was not just the shows but a wholesale cultural climate change, a collective decision that TV itself was worthy – worthy of our leisure time, our attention, our imagination, our conversation, our bingeable hours.
As a TV lover I am beyond grateful for what the Golden Age has wrought, not just the wonderful TV but the widespread belief in and practice of taking television seriously. But I think TV is ready to go without its Golden Age training wheels. The worst shows of this year were the ones trying to be like the Golden Age dramas, while the best were just trying to be themselves.


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Glee: Rachel and Brody Heat Up, Santana Heads to NY and the Glee Club Has an "Awakening"
The halls of McKinley High - not to mention NYADA - were left littered with broken hearts after the first half of Glee's fourth season, in which longtime fan-favorite couples such as Finchel, Klaine and Brittana split. But it looks like love is the air for a more than few of our favorite New Direction-ers past and present when the series returns with new episodes Thursday at 9/8c on Fox. "I think Rachel is kind of diving in head first with Brody a little bit," Lea Michele tells TVGuide.com. "I think that they definitely move a little faster just because he's a little older and because they're in college now."
Brachel - or should we say Rady? - aren't the only lovebirds heating up. After Marley hit a few bumps in the road, namely her recent struggle with an eating disorder, she and Jake (Jacob Artist) are in it for the long haul. "I absolutely love the way that it's evolved. I think it's true to the way a lot of high school relationships start when two people really, really care about each other and really see eye-to-eye," Melissa Benoist says. "It's slow and steady, and I think that's really a beautiful thing." But it wouldn't be Glee without some drama, right? The cast spilled on a big diva-off, some surprising new twosomes and what's ahead for the glee club after their fall from grace at Sectionals.
Glee:Who's graduating? Who's getting married? And who might be going to jail?
It ain't over till it's over: Technically, New Directions was disqualified from competition after Marley passed out in the middle of "Gangnam Style" and the rest of the club left the stage to help her. But the cast stressed that the "pressure" is still on for redemption. "They haven't given up. They haven't thrown in the towel," Kevin McHale says. "Everybody wants to finish on a high note and I think everybody's a little tense because things are not going how we wanted them to be going." Thankfully, that fighting spirit will pull the kids together rather than tear them apart. "There is a new awakening. It's really nice. They do band together again and find a common ground," Benoist says. "I think Marley is very concerned with working hard, finding the right songs and showing them that she really, truly cares."
Who are you calling a diva? One way the glee kids will get their groove back literally and figuratively is by doing several "very big numbers," according to McHale, who said Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) in particular will have an "incredible" performance. In the appropriately titled "Diva" episode, airing Feb. 7, that theme will translate to New York as well. "There is another Rachel and Kurt diva-off," Michele teased. "It's another Broadway song."
Glee's best and worst performance (so far!)
Takes one to know one: The "Diva" episode will also mark the return of an alum. "I'm in the diva episode just because I guess Santana is a diva," Naya Rivera says with a laugh. As for what's next with Brittany (Heather Morris) now that she is dating Santana's ex, Sam (Chord Overstreet), Rivera said she understands fans' ire. "The fan base for that particular couple is really large and really passionate. So yeah, they don't want to see Brittany and Santana apart, but I think that it is good for the characters to not stay stagnant and to grow a little bit," she said. "It's amazing that Brittany and Santana still have love for each other and they're not awkward like Rachel and Finn. There is always hope for them, which I think is what we're trying to convey."
Rachel (may) be ready for her close-up: Santana will stay on the road - and pair up with frenemy Quinn (Dianna Agron) - to advise Rachel about a student film she auditions for. "They want her to do a topless scene for the student film, so that's the question - she doesn't know if she can do it or not," Michelle says. "[Santana and Quinn] come and visit in an effort to help her with her confliction about the topless scene. ... They're trying to help her to remind her of who she is a little bit." Will the trip to the Big Apple result in something more permanent for starry-eyed Santana? After all, she's missing an awful lot of college classes to visit her friends. "I'm still wondering myself," Rivera says. "I think it would be really good for her. I think it would be funny. I would love to see that happen for her."
Surprising new duos: Benoist said there are two new duos to keep an eye out for. "Actually Marley and Brittany start spending a lot of time together," she says. "It's very fun." And look for Puck (Mark Salling), now back from his brief stint in California, to shock fans. "He's actually doing a lot of scenes with someone people will be very surprised that he's doing scenes with," Benoist says, adding that the dynamic is "somewhat" romantic.
So who is Puck getting cozy with? Do you think Rachel should do the topless scene? Will Santana move to New York? Sound off on all that more and in the comments below!
Glee airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Fox.
View original Glee: Rachel and Brody Heat Up, Santana Heads to NY and the Glee Club Has an "Awakening" at TVGuide.com
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