{"id":15035,"date":"2023-10-29T16:54:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T20:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/?p=15035"},"modified":"2023-10-29T17:29:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T21:29:11","slug":"moar-serendipity-pleez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/moar-serendipity-pleez\/","title":{"rendered":"Moar serendipity, pleez!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the course of re-reading a novel by the best detective <em>noir<\/em> writer you never heard of\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chester_Himes\">Chester Himes<\/a>, creator of the baddest detective team\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rome2rio.com\/s\/Harlem-125th-Street-Station\/The-Bronx\">north of 125th Street and south of the Bronx<\/a>, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson\u2014I ran across mention of another all-timer you probably never heard of: blues singer <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lil_Green\">Lil Green<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oavQY5V0xpg?si=8TM9-6t5EUP2oUpm\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>Green is backed on this track by some legendary names, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Big_Bill_Broonzy\">Big Bill Broonzy<\/a> on guitar to name just one. The song was written by Kansas Joe McCoy, going on to be a pop hit for <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Peggy_Lee\">Peggy Lee<\/a> backed by the Benny Goodman Orchestra two years after the Green version was cut. Anyone familiar with the tune probably knows it for Lee&#8217;s version\u2014those few who know of it at all, that is.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Update!<\/strong><\/em> Below the fold, a little excursion into the world of Grave Digger and Coffin Ed.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Grave Digger sat back on the stool, breathing hard, struggling to control his rage. Veins stood out in his temples, growing out of his short-cropped kinky hair like strange roots climbing toward the brim of his misshapen hat. His brown eyes laced with red veins generated a steady white heat.<\/p>\n<p>The white manager, who\u2019d been working the front end of the bar, hastened down toward them with a face full of outrage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGet back,\u201d Grave Digger said thickly.<\/p>\n<p>The manager got back.<\/p>\n<p>Grave Digger stabbed at Big Smiley with his left forefinger and said in a voice so thick it was hard to understand, \u201cSmiley, all I want from you is the truth. And I ain\u2019t got long to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Big Smiley didn\u2019t look at Ready any more. He didn\u2019t smile. He didn\u2019t whine.<\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cJust ask the questions, Chief, and I\u2019ll answer \u2019em the best of my knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grave Digger looked around at the teenagers in the booth. They were listening with open mouths, staring at him with popping eyes. His breath burned from his flaring nostrils. He turned back to Big Smiley. But he sat quietly for a moment to give the blood time to recede from his head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho killed him?\u201d he finally asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know, Chief.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was killed on your street.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYas suh, but I don\u2019t know who done it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo Sissie and Sugartit come in here?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYas suh, sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Out of the corners of his eyes Grave Digger noticed Ready\u2019s shoulders begin to sag as though his spine were melting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSit up straight, God damn it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ll have plenty of time to lie down if I find out you\u2019ve been lying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ready sat up straight.<\/p>\n<p>Grave Digger addressed Big Smiley. \u201cGalen met them in here?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNaw suh, he met Sissie in here once but I never seen him with Sugartit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was she doing in here then?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe come in here twice with Sissie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Big Smiley took out a blue bandana handkerchief and mopped his sweating black face.<\/p>\n<p>The four school girls in the booth began going through the motions of leaving. Grave Digger wheeled toward them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSit down! I want to talk to you later,\u201d he ordered.<\/p>\n<p>They began a shrill protest: \u201cWe got to get home\u2026Got to be at school tomorrow at nine o\u2019clock\u2026Haven\u2019t finished homework\u00a0\u2026\u00a0Can\u2019t stay out this late\u2026Get into trouble\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He got up and went over to show them his gold badge. \u201cYou\u2019re already in trouble. Now I want you to sit down and keep quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He took hold of the two girls who were standing and forced them back into their seats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe can\u2019t hold you \u2019less he\u2019s got a warrant,\u201d the boy in the aisle seat said.<\/p>\n<p>Grave Digger slapped him out of his seat, reached down and lifted him from the floor by his coat lapels and slammed him back into his seat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow say that again,\u201d he suggested.<\/p>\n<p>The boy didn\u2019t speak.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course he didn&#8217;t. Not if he knew what was good for him, he didn&#8217;t. From <a href=\"https:\/\/oceanofpdf.com\/authors\/chester-himes\/pdf-epub-the-real-cool-killers-harlem-cycle-2-download-69161568724\/?id=001089288491\"><em>The Real Cool Killers<\/em><\/a>, part 2 of Himes\u2019s <em>Harlem Cycle<\/em> of short novels&#8211;all damned good stuff for any fan of the <em>noir<\/em> sub-genre.<\/p>\n<div class=\"remoji_bar\"><div class=\"remoji_add_container\" data-remoji-id=\"15035\" data-remoji-type=\"post\"><div class=\"remoji_add_icon\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"remoji_error_bar\" data-remoji-id=\"15035\" data-remoji-type=\"post\" style=\"display: none;\">Error happened.<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the course of re-reading a novel by the best detective noir writer you never heard of\u2014Chester Himes, creator of the baddest detective team\u00a0north of 125th Street and south of the Bronx, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson\u2014I ran across mention of another all-timer&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/moar-serendipity-pleez\/\">Would you like to know more?<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Moar serendipity, pleez!<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blues","category-guitars-and-those-who-sling","wpcat-167-id","wpcat-118-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15035"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15044,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15035\/revisions\/15044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}