Ray Tracy, Ham Radio Detective

[Jeff K1NSS]

Mea Culpa, I'm a very junior partner in this crime novelette -- Zone of Iniquity --written by ARRL editor Ward Silver, N0AX. I designed ZOI's cover and provided sundry graphic adornments to Ward's first Ray Tracy Adventure, hopefully the beginning of a beautiful relationship akin to that of mystery writer Dick Francis and the genius who decided what color to print the covers during Francis' thirty year run of whodunnit best sellers. I met N0AX a couple of Dayton Hamfests ago and we've since played catch with the notion of some kinda collaboration until this materialized. Zone of Iniquity is a regular old time non-graphic novel, but cover aside, I added my visual 2 cents and had a ball. I must say though, Dash!-Free Zone as it is, Zone of Iniquity is something OM Dashiell Hammett himself couldn't have pulled off without a code test. So if any of you hams cotton to crime stories on wry, you might enjoy Ward's new book. Check it out now at Lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/shop/ward-silver/ray-tracy-zone-of-iniquity/paperback/product-20053981.html).

PS The map is a circa 50s ARRL Azimuthal DX map from a private collection. The title page shows a bit more, darkly, in the manner of noir cartography.
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[KG4CGC]

Nice graphic.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Tnx L.King!

[kb2vxa]

A crystal skull... hmmm. What frequency does it resonate at?

[NQ6U]

A crystal skull... hmmm. What frequency does it resonate at?

And can we change it with a elbow grease?

[Jeff K1NSS]

And can we change it with a elbow grease?
Yes, an elbow grease pencil.

[NQ6U]

Hey Jeff! Apropos of nothing but your avatar, I was at the Mingei Museum in San Diego last week and saw something that made me think of you, so took a couple of photos. All I had with me was my cell phone so the quality is so-so, but I thought you might like them.

56705671

[Jeff K1NSS]

A crystal skull... hmmm. What frequency does it resonate at?

Yo Warren, GE, ever with the "answer graphic", bravo!

A brain pan doesn't resonate, it reasonates, from DC to Daylight, with sole exception of the amateur radio spectrum.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Hey Carl, GE, yep that's "The Maneki Neko (招き猫? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Installing_Japanese_character_sets), literally "Beckoning Cat"; also known as Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money cat, or Fortune Cat) is a common Japanese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan) sculpture, often made of ceramic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic), which is believed to bring good luck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_luck) to the owner. I came across it while looking up lucky symbols for the lucky contest mugs and thought it was a nice change from Dash! and maybe might make a cool Japanese cousin character for the boy. Funny, a new Japanese Facebook friend posted a picture he took of Maneki Neko and Tanuki figurines at his local garden center. Maybe I can find it .

[NQ6U]

There was a whole boatload of them there, some pretty cool, but I was worried about getting busted taking photos—museums are fussy about that sometimes. Naturally, on the way out, I saw a sign that said photos were okay as long as you didn't use a flash.

[kb2vxa]

Lucky kitteh bring you mouse every day.

[Jeff K1NSS]

The Louvre you can take pictures without flash, and last time I was there some years ago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. In the Louvre, you can copy pictures with paint! Tradition goes back centuries I learned this January, but incredble to see woman with big easel copying a rennaisance painting dead-on in oil, pretty close to the original canvas. Perhaps they pass a splatter test beforehand. The copyist, BTW, had a sign nixing photos of HER, which I missed until I already took a picture, but jeeze, come on lady.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Lucky kitteh bring you mouse every day.

That's fantastic, i should put it up on Twitter and all the JAs go nuts.

[WØTKX]

I used to dig this cat...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Y8m29ZLX5ag/Sr0R-ErTBSI/AAAAAAAAD6g/rzEl1SUhvaA/s400/TOP+CAT+BLACK+BKGD.jpg

[n2ize]

The Louvre you can take pictures without flash, and last time I was there some years ago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. In the Louvre, you can copy pictures with paint! Tradition goes back centuries I learned this January, but incredble to see woman with big easel copying a rennaisance painting dead-on in oil, pretty close to the original canvas. Perhaps they pass a splatter test beforehand. The copyist, BTW, had a sign nixing photos of HER, which I missed until I already took a picture, but jeeze, come on lady.

My flash is invisible,

[kb2vxa]

Ah yes, Top Cat, the cartoon Sgt. Bilko. When The Honeymooners were done up as The Flintstones great cartoons were born.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Did not realize until a few months ago that Arnold Stang was the voice of Top Cat.
http://forums.hamisland.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=5675&stc=1&d=1334647586What a chunka choawwwwklet. I repeated that far too many times in the day.

Also, Maurice Gosfield, who played Pvt Duane Doberman on Phil Silvers' "You'll Never Get Rich" pgm was the voice of Top Cat's Bennie The Ball.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Sgt_bilko_1956.JPG/220px-Sgt_bilko_1956.JPG

Along with Top Cat/Stang, my favorite voice of the show was Choo-Choo's, Marvin Kaplan.

What a wonderful program that was, I think HB's creme de la...and that's coming from a 500% Jay Ward fan.

[kb2vxa]

"Also, Maurice Gosfield, who played Pvt Duane Doberman on Phil Silvers' "You'll Never Get Rich" pgm was the voice of Top Cat's Bennie The Ball."

Makes ultimate sense, Bennie was the cartoon Doberman and NOBODY could duplicate Mo's voice and ever hope to get it right. On the other hand Arnold only had to use his natural voice (not that nasal twang he was noted for) and use Phil's voice inflections and instant T. C. BTW, You'll Never Get Rich was the original title but was changed to The Phil Silvers Show shortly after its debut. An interesting note, they wore the shoulder insignia of the 69th Division, then a training division at Fort Dix, New Jersey just a spit and a toss from here. Silvers co-starred in the 1941 movie You're In The Army Now and if you know the song it's a good guess how they came up with the original title of the show in 1955.