by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, including such favorites as "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez," is published.  

       Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls?  MARK TANSEY.  Detail from "Derrida Queries De Man" 1990.  Oil on Canvas.  Cover illustration to the exhibition catalogue of the artist's work, Los Angels County Museum of Art, 1993.

I never cease to find my fellow man a mystery.  When you realize how noble and yet how petty, how grand and yet self-obsessed, how confident and at the same time how full of uncertainty, you do wonder how we get through the day, much less do anything really.  I mean of course the ones who are conscious, not the vast majority out there.  And now that I know how deeply Mother Theresa doubted God's Love, I like her better.  That she kept going is not proof, as the Hitchen's crowd would have it, of religion's sham, but testament to the very human power of faith.  To act as if you believed, even when you feel forsaken.  That takes guts.  

However, as I rarely allow any room in these posts for sincerity, let us move on.

        Sean Lockhart, star of Cobra Video films, whose producer and owner, Bryan Kocis, was found brutally murdered and nearly decapitated in the charred wreckage of his incinerated home in Dallas Township, Pennsylvania, on January 24th of this year.

All charges except burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary have been held, after two days of initial hearings, against the suspects in the case, Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes, producers of BoyBatter films of Virginia Beach.  Prosecutors allege that the two killed Kocis because they considered him their main rival in the industry and wanted to work with Sean Lockhart who was under exclusive contract with Kocis.

The Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is providing extensive coverage of the case.  14 witnesses were called in the hearings, including an informant who cooperated with investigators, taping a meeting with the two suspects at a nude beach in San Diego.  [Where the tape recorder was hidden remains a mystery].  As Justin wisely points out, the case as it unfolds will surely challenge the very limits of the small Pennsylvania community's tolerance and broadmindedness.

And for my many English readers:

As some of you are already aware, my American cousin Ruth and I, in the course of investigating a few of the more interesting branches of our family tree, have stumbled upon a mystery concerning an English cousin, Margaret Summerton.  Margaret lived with Auntie Mabel in Sussex.  Falling in love with an RAF flyer who died in the War, Margaret turned to writing romance novels -- with compelling themes and cover illustrations -- in a gazebo in the garden behind the cottage she shared with her mother.  Mabel passed on to her reward a very long time ago, but Margaret hung on until recently, and then, upon inquiry from us, the authorities seemed distinctly reluctant to provide further details.  Cousin Ruth has hired a private investigator, but the recent floods have hampered the poor fellow's efforts, beyond offering us the highly dubious information that Margaret's father (Mabel's long forgotten partner) was a "journeyman chemist."  

As you might imagine, my cousin and I were alarmed at the prospect of our family tree sporting drug dealers, as that is the only interpretation we could give the phrase "journeyman chemist" although I remain hopeful an alternative translation may yet be found.  In the meantime, those of you familiar with Margaret's work, or with pharmaceutical sales at the turn of the last century, please don't hesitate to write me, care of 1904.   

And don't even get me started on what's happening in Cabot Cove.  Jessica, be careful out there!