Hey, y'all, this week's This American Life has a segment at the Romance Writers of America conference.

I've been rereading all the Narnia books. Sometimes it nice to go back to the classics. Plus, how often do you get to read a seven-book series in a week?

I just started reading Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, and it's so fun! I'm not sure this is the right word, but it feels baroque to me, the amount of time he takes with everything -- I mean, it took four pages to park and get out of the car, practically! So evocative and detailed. And it actually kind of reminds me of this Pelecanos I just read, Shoedog. The first forty pages just talk about the main character's life up until now -- little bits of him traveling the world, jobs he had, women he slept with. Totally unnecessary for the story per se, but just fabulous. It's not about any of Pelecanos's other characters, but someone does go by Derek Strange's office, and of course the "good guys" are big tippers. Good stuff.

Wrod.(Who knew shoe salesmen got so much play? What was wrong with Al Bundy then?) I kind of like following the same people, though.(And Strange and my mom? Same albums. So I can usually place the "jams"...I just bought "Soul Circus" and "Hard Revolution" this very morning...my Evil Corporate bookstore seems to prefer StrangeNQuinn to the Greeks.) "The Long Goodbye" was my favorite Chandler so far. His language is so beautiful. Fucked-up too. Jesse, have you read Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn"? It's like Chandler meets Oliver Sacks. Very awesome. But somebody got to "crip noir" a little ahead of me.

I've been rereading all the Narnia books.

I just re-read all of those, too. I must have read them all at least half a dozen times, but this time they were funnier than they had been during past readings.

Yeah, I liked Motherless Brooklyn a LOT.

my Evil Corporate bookstore seems to prefer StrangeNQuinn to the Greeks.)

America seems to, apparently. I can see it -- that's a much more straightforward series.

In other book news, I am currently deciding if I should take with me tonight the purse a friend gave me (who I'm seeing) or a purse that can hold my book. It's a toss-up, but I think the friend-gift will win, leading to near-death of boredom on the train ride.

I think they're both FG. But, hey, I'm a Buffista and a Wirehead. Swimming against cultural tides r me. Half. com will help me find the rest of the Stefanos books.

But somebody got to "crip noir" a little ahead of me.

Doll, I hate to break it to you but "the defective detective" has been a sub-genre forever.

Look there's a whole book on the phenomenon: The Defective Detective in the Pulps Edited by Gary Hoppenstand & Ray B. Browne

Here's another one: Calvin Kane

CALVIN KANE was a pulp-era private eye whose "severely deformed body made him look like a refugee from a side-show attraction," according to Don hutchison, pulp historian. This "defective detective," with his withered and useless right leg, and twisted and deformed body, was forced to crawl along the floor, using his extremely powerful arms, thus earning him the nickname of "The Crab Detective."

And...

Quest, Peter. Peter Quest was created by John Kobler and debuted in the October 1938 issue of Detective Mystery Magazine. Quest was a "defective detective," one of those crime-solving characters (like Seekay, the first of the breed) who had some extreme form of physical deformity. In Quest's case it was glaucoma. "He was heading inescapably for etenal darkness...nothing could save him." The attacks of blindness came at the worst possible time for Quest, leading him to have a death wish; he feared blindness above all else, and "the reckless, world-weary, embittered man whose name is already a legend among the annals of New York crime," faced with encroaching blindness, acted recklessly, solving crimes and emerging unscathed despite his approach.

And, perhaps weirdest...

Seekay. Seekay was created by Paul Ernst and debuted in Strange Detective in October 1937. Seekay was the first deformed/”defective” detective characters--that is, those crime-solvers who had some form of physical defect or deformity. The most notable thing about Seekay is that he "had no face. Where a face should have been there was a blank curve of something pink and softly shining, like celluloid, extending from the hairline down to a point just under where a chin should be…through this half cylinder of plastic substance that shielded Seekay, stared black eyes that were like jet with little fires in them. Over the gruesome shield was thick, virile black hair shot with gray streaks. Under it was a tall, powerful body immaculately clad in gray spring flannels."

But let's not forget...

Perry, Nat. Nat Perry was created by Edith & Ejler Jacobson and debuted in the January 1939 issue of Dime Mystery Magazine. Perry, like Seekay and a few other characters on this site, was a "defective detective." Perry's defect was that he was a hemophiliac, so that "the slightest scratch could bring death." He was well-known as "the Bleeder," a detective par excellance, but few knew that Nat Perry was The Bleeder, and Perry was assiduous in avoiding publicity for that reason.

Look! A sequel, More Tales of Defective Detectives

Is today's Micole's birthday? If so - very happy birthday to Micole.

Huh. Well, mine will still be different..."overcoming" being sort of out of fashion for hip crips nowadays.(It's a lot to carry, you know. Having all of the responsibililty for your level of accomplishment. Reminds me of "ownership society", kinda.) Wow, Hec, do you like, hope for me to happen by to spring these cool-but-exotic links on me?