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Friday, October 12, 2012

Death Of A Soap Opera - The "Loving" Murders


Television can be a rather fickle industry. One year, the show could get everyone gathered around the water cooler having in-depth discussion on it, and the next, people use it as a method to cure their insomnia.

Certainly, the television industry is such that producers sometimes have to work overtime to keep their shows fresh and current. Sometimes that may involve a new style of filming, it could involve adding some new cast members (or in some cases, re-casting characters that just don't work), and sometimes it could involve moving the show from one location to another.

Depending on the type of show, and the number of years that the program has been on the air, the changes can range from being minor, to a complete overhaul.

For today's blog topic, we're going to look at a television show that falls under the heading of “Extreme Makeover”. And what is interesting about this case is that this show happened to be a daytime soap opera.



Have any of you ever heard of a daytime drama known as “Loving”? It's okay if you haven't. It wasn't exactly a show that garnered high ratings. But despite this fact, “Loving” ended up running for twelve years.

Loving” was quite unique in the sense that it debuted as a two-hour Sunday night movie, on June 26, 1983. At first I thought it was the only one to begin in such a fashion until I did a little research and found that the “General Hospital” spinoff show “Port Charles” debuted the same way in the summer of 1997.

Loving” was set in the fictional college town of Corinth, Pennsylvania, and the show's first storylines revolved around the college campus, Alden University, as well as the daily lives of the rich, privileged Alden family, and the blue-collar Donovan family. The show also featured some strong, powerful storylines that focused on incest, post-traumatic stress, business, adultery, and of course, murder...which made sense, given that the show creators were two key figures in daytime drama, Agnes Nixon and Douglas Marland. Many actors and actresses got their big breaks on “Loving”. Bryan Cranston, Patricia Kalember, Luke Perry, Noelle Beck, Michael Weatherly, Elise Neal, Rebecca Gayheart, and Kirsten Dunst all had roles of varying degree in this soap opera serial, and already established actors like Randolph Mantooth and Catherine Hickland also starred in the serial.

That's about all that I have to say about “Loving”...but you may have noticed that I bolded the word “murder” in the above paragraph. There is a reason why I did this. It's related to today's topic, and it's also a fitting topic for Halloween.

Loving” did its best to get noticed, and certainly many fans dubbed it “the little show that could”. But by 1995, “Loving” was at a distant last place in the ratings, and the decision was made to completely revamp the entire show. It was an ambitious project that then showrunners James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten were given.

That project was to change everything. The show would relocate from the sleepy Corinth, Pennsylvania to the hustle and bustle of New York City's SoHo district. The style of filming would change as well, going from videotape to a more processed film look. Even the name of the show would change, from “Loving” to “The City” (although initially it was to be called LOV*NYC).

Of course, the producers faced another challenge as well when the plans to take “Loving” and transform it into “The City”. When the announcement was made, “Loving” had twenty-four actors and actresses in regular contracts...and part of the change meant included hiring brand new cast members specifically for “The City” (which included high-profile actress Morgan Fairchild). Therefore, it would cost a lot of money to bring all twenty-four cast members over to “The City”.

So, what would be the best way to go about leaving “Loving” behind and moving ahead to “The City”? According to Brown and Esensten, the way to go was simple.

Kill off the “Loving” characters who wouldn't make the trip.

Thus began one of the most chilling, exciting, head-scratching murder mysteries during the summer of 1995.



The “Loving Murders” began airing in July 1995, and it was, ironically enough, one of the show's most well-received storylines. I should know...I'll be the first to admit that I got hooked on it while I was on summer vacation that year (it wasn't like there was anything else to watch, and besides, I love a good murder mystery). Over a period of four months, a serial killer ended up in the city of Corinth, and by the end of their reign of terror, six people would lose their lives. Many more left town, never to come back again, due to fear of the serial killer going after them. By the end of the mystery, only half of the 24 regular cast members of “Loving” would cross over to “The City”.  Talk about cleaning house, eh?



So, how did it all begin?

Well, first you need to have a little bit of background information (this part I had to research, as I didn't know). Apparently, a couple of years before the storyline kicked off, the heiress of the Alden family fortune, Trisha Alden McKenzie (Noelle Beck) was carjacked and presumed dead. But in 1995, evidence proved that she was actually alive, and living in Rome. The unfortunate part about it was that Trisha had amnesia, and couldn't remember anything about her life in Corinth. Her family tried their best to reach out to her, but in early 1995, she wrote them a letter, telling them that she didn't remember them, and that they should leave her alone so she could finally be happy. This devastated the entire family, particularly the Alden matriarch, Gwyneth (Christine Tudor-Newman). Little did the audience know that this plot point would be the catalyst towards the Corinth Serial Killer making their first move.



In July 1995, the first victim was targeted. When Stacey Forbes (Lauren-Marie Taylor) received a package outside her door with an unsigned card attached to it, she automatically assumed that the package was from her boyfriend, Buck Huston (Philip Brown), and wasted no time in letting everyone know it. Big mistake on her part. Inside the box was a container of scented body powder which she immediately dabbed all over herself.

A few hours later, Stacey was dead. And when the body powder was tested and revealed to be poisoned, Buck was arrested for the murder (Stacey had recently changed her will so that Buck would inherit everything). It seemed to be one of those cases where the case was closed, and that was that. But while all this was going on other suspects seemed to emerge as well including Tess Wilder (Catherine Hickland), who had been humiliated by Stacey and who tried to steal Buck away from her, and Curtis Alden (Christopher Marcantel), the Alden son who was recovering from a mental breakdown, who had deep hatred for his father, and who developed an unhealthy obsession with Stacey.

TRIVIA: When the order was to get rid of “Loving”'s past was made, the producers handed Lauren-Marie Taylor the first pink slip...which was shocking, as Lauren-Marie was the only person to last the whole 12-year-run on the series. Although, playing a murder victim was no stretch for her...she did get killed off in the second movie of the “Friday the 13th” series.



Two weeks after Stacey died, the Alden patriarch, Clayton Alden (Dennis Parlato) ended up victim number two when he died of a heart attack while...ahem...making love to Tess. The cause of death was linked to poisoned brandy, and Tess and Curtis soon moved up in the suspect list, as did Deborah Brewster (Nancy Addison-Altman), who hated Clay for messing with her daughter, Stephanie (Amelia Heinle). Another clue was left behind at the murder scene...a piece of a photo. Since a similar piece of the photo was left behind at Stacey's murder scene as well, detective Alex Masters (Randolph Mantooth) deduced that Stacey and Clay were killed by the same person, clearing Buck as a suspect.

TRIVIA: The viewing audience would know when the killer was around from the very beginning. Although we never saw the killer's face, we would hear a clicking sound, and the screen would fade into black and white. Remember that clicking sound for later.

Alex launched an investigation, and soon discovered a clue from his wife Ava (Lisa Peluso). Apparently the jar that Stacey's powder was in was purchased from a department store that Ava worked at, and that only two had been purchased, one of which was allegedly purchased by Curtis.  Curtis also worked at his family's cosmetics company as the head of product development, so he had access to the product base, which was where the body powder was manufactured.  As well, the brandy that was used to poison Clay was recently purchased by Curtis as a peace offering.



With Curtis being suspect number one, he sustained another nervous breakdown and almost ended up killing Tess and later Gwyneth in a standoff at the department store...but in the end, Curtis was taken to a mental hospital where many people believed that the killer was off the streets.

At least they believed that until Curtis was found floating on the surface of a small pool inside the mental institution. (clicking on the links will take you to the episode where Curtis is killed.)



The cause of death? Someone turned on the gas pipe while Curtis was relaxing in the pool, and the gas knocked him out enough for him to sink under the surface of the water and drown. Floating next to Curtis' body was the third photo fragment, indicating that the killer had struck again. Also, a new clue was found...a long black hair.

In this case, more suspects began to emerge. With the mental institution having a strict visitation policy of only family members being allowed to visit them, pretty much everyone with the last name of Alden became a suspect, including Gwyneth, Cabot (Wesley Addy) and Isabelle Alden (Augusta Dabney). Cabot and Isabelle were quickly excluded as suspects, and Gwyneth was too emotionally disturbed for anyone to really suspect her at the time. But to Alex's horror, Ava found herself on the suspect list after she revealed that she went into the mental institution to visit Curtis by telling the staff that she was Trisha. This would eventually cause a lot of problems between Alex and Ava.



Just two weeks later, before the lab technicians could do forensic tests on the hair and look at the photo fragments in greater detail, a shocking double murder would occur. Cabot and Isabelle Alden were killed in their bed after celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. The cause of death were poisoned candles that when melted down revealed two more photo fragments. At this point, Gwyneth was inconsolable despite efforts from her friend Stephanie, her boyfriend Jeremy Hunter (Jean LeClerc, who crossed over to “Loving” from “All My Children”, and the kindly, elderly diner owner Neal Warren (Larry Haines), and she wondered if she would be next. One more haunting clue...the candles were supposedly mailed from Rome...which was the location that the amnesiac Trisha was supposedly living in, making HER a suspect.



Be careful what you wish for, Gwyneth.

The following week, the Corinth Killer attempted to strike again, this time locking Gwyneth and Ava's niece Ally Rescott Bowman (Laura Wright) inside a sabotaged car that was filling up with carbon monoxide. Luckily, the two women's lives were spared, but the discovery of another photo fragment inside the tail pipe soon sent chills down Ava's back. The good news was that Ava was cleared as a suspect...the bad news was that if the killer was killing or attempted to kill everyone that was associated with the Alden family (Stacey was once married to an Alden cousin, as was Ally), she feared being the next victim (Ava was once married to Curtis), and she made plans to leave town.

But not before Ava discovered a clue that would bust the investigation open.

When Ava was going through Jeremy's belongings (not sure why she was doing that unless she suspected Jeremy as being the killer), she discovered a photograph that was taken in 1975. On the surface, it looked like an ordinary vacation photo...but because Ava had lived in Corinth her whole life, she immediately recognized the kids in the photo as a young Trisha and Curtis Alden.

The discovery may just as well have been a neon sign that flashed “ALDEN” over and over.

But with most of the Alden family killed off, who were left as suspects? Gwyneth? Trisha?  Neal Warren was added to the suspect list as well after it was revealed that he was Gwyneth's biological father. There was also the possibility that the killer could have known the Alden family for years, and somehow they did this person wrong, and they could have been seeking their revenge.



Now, here's where things got very interesting. At some point before the mystery wrapped up, Trisha ended up making a surprise appearance to Gwyneth outside of Jeremy's art studio. Gwyneth later learned some rather sad news. Trisha still didn't remember anything about who she was. She thought that by coming to Corinth, it would help jog her memory, but instead it confused her even more. Gwyneth tried to get her to remember, but Trisha was not in the mood. Gwyneth was also shocked by the revelation that Trisha had been in Corinth since the early summer...right around the time that Stacey was killed.



That same day, Alex ended up getting another shock when Jeremy Hunter became the sixth victim of the Corinth Killer, finding him smothered to death by - believe it or not - a bucket of plastic modelling clay.

(Now, I've heard of death by statue before...but death by BECOMING a statue? That was a creative one, I'll grant you that one.)

The strange thing about Jeremy's murder was that the method of death didn't match the others. The previous five seemed to be planned meticulously, whereas Jeremy's seemed more impulsive. And there was also no photo fragment present at Jeremy's murder scene. But Alex also remembered that Jeremy had tried to alert him of a huge discovery that he had come across at the Alden mansion the very day that Jeremy died, so Alex took that information and ran with it.

He started by attending Jeremy's memorial service (he felt that the killer would likely show their face there). The only major thing that happened was that Trisha ended up crashing the service, but other than that, not much. Someone actually posted the link to the episode that showed Jeremy's memorial, and you can watch it HERE if you like. See if you can figure out the murderer before you read on.

Anyway, after the service was over, Alex and his partner, Tony Soleito (George Palermo) arrived at the Alden mansion following Jeremy's final message, and soon found themselves inside the servant's quarters, where they made a stunning discovery. Inside were enough bottles of poison to kill the entire town of Corinth, as well as numbers of photo fragments on a desk, and the photographs of the first five victims hanging up on the wall.

It was painfully obvious that the killer was someone who had clearance to enter the Alden mansion. And, Alex was thinking that the poor, amnesiac Trisha was the killer. Tony also discovered that Jeremy's photo wasn't up there, nor were photos of Ally and Gwyneth, but Alex deduced that Ally and Gwyneth survived, and that Jeremy was likely killed because he likely knew who the killer was and he tried to warn them before he was killed, so there were no need for photographs. But with Alex thinking that Trisha was the killer, he knew he had to work quickly to stop her, as Trisha had a LOT of connections in Corinth.

But there were two problems. One, Trisha had left town the day after Jeremy's memorial and was no longer in Corinth. And two, remember the hair that was found at Curtis' murder scene? Lab tests showed that the hair came from a synthetic wig, meaning that the dark hair was just a cover-up! And while the Corinth Police Department were figuring out what was happening, the Corinth Killer had broken into the ad agency that Tess owned and made plans to kill her the same way they killed everyone else!

But then Stephanie Brewster entered the agency, and stumbled upon the truth.



The Corinth Serial Killer was Gwyneth Alden! Her long, black wig covered her short red hair perfectly, and the clicking noise that the audience heard came from a locket that Clay had given her as a present.

TRIVIA: The big reveal aired appropriately enough on the day before Halloween, 1995.



Tess wasn't dead yet, but Gwyneth was armed with a syringe filled with poison, and Stephanie tried to tread with caution so that Gwyneth wouldn't use the syringe on Tess...or herself. Stephanie calmed Gwyneth down enough for her to explain what had happened, and Gwyneth made the surprising revelation that Trisha was the killer. Trisha knew how to hurt people just like the day that she wrote that letter to the Alden family six months earlier. Stephanie recoiled in horror as Gwyneth explained that she switched back and forth between being Gwyneth, and being Trisha, because only Trisha could kill everyone she loved. Gwyneth ended up developing split personalities over the amount of pain she was suffering from as a result of her daughter's rejection. The Gwyneth side of her didn't want Stacey, Clay, Curtis, Isabelle, and Cabot to feel pain any longer...so she brought Trisha out to hurt them until they could hurt no more. It was quite complex, but I think the complexity of the storyline made it work.



While Gwyneth was babbling on, basically confessing to killing the first five people, Ally happened to come across the scene and also heard the conversation unfold. She managed to alert Alex and Tony of what was happening, but ran back inside to watch over the situation in an effort to protect Stephanie. At the same time, Tess was regaining consciousness unbeknownst to Gwyneth. And as Gwyneth was telling Stephanie about the photo fragments (Gwyneth claimed that the photos were symbolic as they were visual proof of Trisha taking happy memories and ripping them to pieces), Tess attacked Gwyneth with a stapler, rendering her hands useless and escaped. But Tess was so concerned for her own safety that she left Stephanie behind with the deranged Gwyneth. Ally and Tess were forced outside as Stephanie and Gwyneth remained in Tess' office. But then Stephanie asked Gwyneth why she killed Jeremy, and when Gwyneth tried to reason why Trisha would want Jeremy dead, she couldn't, and she ended up coming back to reality...coming upon the grim conclusion that she killed everyone she cared about herself.

She completely shut down, and she soon decided that she couldn't live with the pain of being along. She instructed Stephanie to pick up the poison filled syringe and inject her with it. At first Stephanie refused to do it, but Gwyneth begged her to do it because the very reason that she killed her loved ones was because she couldn't deal with her own pain over losing Trisha, and that if she went to prison, she would forever be tortured with the memories of murdering everyone she loved. Stephanie realized that Gwyneth was right...and so with one final goodbye hug, Stephanie administered the lethal dose of poison into Gwyneth, ending the run of the Corinth Serial Killer. Oh, and as for Stephanie, although Ally and Tess ended up witnessing Stephanie sticking in the syringe, both of them covered for Stephanie, so Stephanie ended up not getting charged.



So, with the Alden family basically eradicated from the “Loving” canvas that Halloween, the remaining cast members headed off to “The City”...which only ended up running for sixteen months, ending its run in March 1997.

So, the “Loving”/”The City” experiment ended up being a huge failure anyway...perhaps being the real final casualty of the Corinth Serial Killer storyline.

But for a soap opera to end its run, killing off its core cast members and taking off to a brand new life in New York City...well, what a way to go! Luckily, the murder mystery worked for the show's favour, and ironically enough, ratings were climbing while the storyline aired! Go figure.

Coincidentally, the way “Loving” ended transitioned nicely to “The City”. “Loving”'s final episode aired November 10, 1995, and here was the final scene as well as the last closing credit crawl.



Three days later, Angie (Debbi Morgan) and Jacob (Darnell Williams) had the first scene in “The City”.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Getting Something Off My Chest...


You know, there was a time a couple of months ago that I believed that I had confessed everything there is to know about me, so as a result, I decided to drop the Thursday Confession section of this blog.  At the time I made this decision, I was fairly confident that I had gotten all of my sins and demons out there in the open, made peace with them, and decided to progress onto the next phase in my life.

But wouldn’t you know it?  I have one more confession to make.  Isn’t it funny how life works out sometimes?

And here’s the strange part about this confession.  I’m not entirely sure if this confession is 100% truthful! 

I see you raising an eyebrow, or rolling your eyes, or wondering to yourselves how that could be possible.  How can it be considered a confession if it’s not completely the truth?

Well, here’s the thing.  I honestly don’t know if this confession is true.  It very well could be the truth, and it very well could be false, or it could be that I might be misinterpreting the truth, or have come to a misunderstanding about what the actual conclusion is. 

So, why would I even confess to something that may not be true?  Because I’m hoping that once I get it out there, I’ll understand myself a little bit better.  And the reason why I want to share this with all of you is not to get sympathy or warm fuzzies.  The only reason why I want to share this with all of you is because I want all of you to understand what I’ve been going through the last few years, and it’s only until now that I have come up with an explanation that seemingly makes sense.

All right...no sense beating around the bush.  I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I’m going to come out with it. 



You know, I was watching the six o’clock news tonight and there was an interesting feature on how some people would rather wish cancer upon themselves instead of admitting to themselves that they are suffering from depression.  I found that to be a rather alarming statistic myself.  I can’t quite remember what the exact percentage is, but it’s estimated that quite a few people would have an easier time admitting to someone that they were battling cancer than they would telling someone else that they have depression.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realize that I understand why people would feel this way.  Depression is a difficult thing for anyone to have, and I think it’s even harder to try and convince others that they have it. 

I did a little bit of research on depression, and came up with some statistics.  Did you know that 1 in 20 adults in the United States have experienced at least one instance of feeling debilitating depression in their lives?  Did you know that 44% of all college students report feeling depression at some point in their lives?  I’ll readily admit that I was shocked at those numbers because I really didn’t believe that they were so high.  It blew me away.

What also blew me away were some of the symptoms of chronic depression.  Did you know that some of the signs to watch out for in terms of diagnosing depression include the following?

- being unable to sleep, or sleeping too much

- having difficulty concentrating, or finding the simplest tasks difficult to do
- feeling hopeless and helpless
- being unable to control negative thoughts
- losing your appetite, or being unable to stop eating
- being much more irritable or short-tempered than usual
- consuming more alcohol than before, or engaging in reckless behaviour
- having thoughts of suicide on a semi-regular or regular basis

Again, I will be the first one to admit that I was completely blown away by these symptoms.  I was aware of some of them, as some of them seemed quite obvious (particularly the last one), but some of them as well shocked even me.  

So, I imagine that you're all wondering why I have decided to talk about the subject of depression in this blog entry today.  Well, it's because I have something personal to share that is related to this subject.

I just want to make things crystal clear though.  I have not been officially diagnosed by a doctor or specialist.  That's what I meant about my confession not being 100% accurate, because for all I know, I could be talking out of my hat here.

However, the more that I thought about it, especially after looking at the various symptoms that can be associated with it, the more I think I should just admit to it because I think once I do, everything will make sense.




I think that I have been suffering from depression for a number of years now...and it's only now that I see that this might be the case.

Wow...that sentence that I just typed out...I never thought that I would actually admit to it because I always saw admitting to something like that as being incredibly counter-productive.  At the same time though, I realize that it's nothing that I really should be ashamed of, especially since so many have been in the same position that I have.

Again, I haven't been diagnosed as having it...and over the last couple of years, I haven't had many symptoms of depression aside from having the occasional off day, and having the occasional migraine headache.  However, in my teenage years, those symptoms were my entire life.

I can honestly say with clarity and confidence that I have hit rock bottom twice in my life.  Once when I was seventeen, and again at age twenty-two.  And in both cases, I know I had every symptom of depression.  Back in those days, it wasn't uncommon for me to sleep for fourteen hours straight.  There were some weekends in which I didn't even want to get out of bed, I felt so stiff and tired.  I had difficulty concentrating in school, and my grades in high school suffered as a result of it.  My mind was switched to all negativity, all the time, and I realize that I probably pushed a lot of people away as a result of that, but I couldn't change the record no matter how hard I tried.  

My appetite really went out of control during my rock bottom periods.  It wasn't uncommon for me to come home from school and drink a whole bottle of Pepsi and eat an entire bag of potato chips, followed by a couple of Twinkies for "dessert".  No wonder I ended up ballooning up to 300 pounds in high school!  I got into a lot of wars of words with my family members and closest friends because I was so frustrated over how things were going.  And, yes, I even admit to planning my own suicide at the age of 17.

I used to think that it was because I was being bullied, and that's why I was feeling this way.  I convinced myself that if I could get out of that school, I would be better off.  But, it wouldn't have mattered because even if I dropped out of school, the depression would have still remained.  

I think that when I was in school, my depression was so bad that I avoided all social contact with people.  The 17-year-old me was convinced that nobody would ever have anything to do with him because he wore the wrong clothes, or had the wrong hair, or was too fat, or too tall, or too uncool.  It didn't dawn on me back then that there may have been something that was seriously wrong, and that required me to seek additional therapy.

But here's where the frustrating thing was.  At the school that I went to, there were absolutely no resources available for teenagers who were suffering with depression.  For one, I attended high school in the late 1990s, when the Internet was made up of basic HTML pages, and when Google was a newborn babe in the World Wide Web.  There weren't any online resources or discussion groups that I could join to get some comfort.  And as far as getting any help from the guidance counselors at school, forget it.  I don't think any of them were trained in trying to give students the steps needed to overcome their depression.  Besides, by the eleventh grade, I was so disenchanted with the school and how they handled my bullying that trying to talk to anyone there would be similar to talking to a pet rock.  

And, while there were options like the Kids Help Phone available for kids and teenagers to call for advice, the two times I did get the courage to dial the number, I ended up getting a busy signal both times.  Granted, the phone lines were likely jammed up with other teenagers calling about their problems, but still...for someone like me who had limited options, the fact that I couldn't get through on Kids Help Phone was almost like a sick joke.

I couldn't even talk to those who were closest to me about how I was feeling, because all I would get were messages telling me to "suck it up", or "deal with it", or "get over it".  Did they not understand that I wished that I could do all those things?  I would have given anything to have smiled a genuine smile.  The fact that I was unable to was frustrating...and the fact that I felt like I had nobody that I could talk to about it made me feel even more alone.

To be honest, I don't know how I ended up getting over the depression that I suffered from in high school.  If I had to make a guess, I would say it was around the time I graduated, knowing that I would never have to set foot inside that school ever again that perked me up.  But I will say this...I wish that I could have seen it back when I was a teenager.  If only I could have realized that I was likely suffering from depression back then and sought out help for it when it was at its worst, I likely would not have had nearly the hellish school experience that I had.

So, what happens now that I have admitted to my teenage depression?  Do I feel better?  I admit that I do now that it's out in the open.  At the same time, am I worried that I will end up hitting rock bottom once again?  I'd be lying if I said I was.  My depression in my teen years kept me prisoner inside my home for years, and I think that is the reason why I am struggling to develop my social circles.  I know that this is something that I need to work on, and I might need to get some outside help for me to expand on those social circles...but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.  Right now, I'm going with the flow, as everyone else is.

The reason why I wanted to get this issue out in the open is because I want people to understand that there are many different faces of depression out there, and I think it's important to know that if you are going through it, you know one person who has been through it and survived.

That said, I still have periods of feeling self-doubt, and I still have some minor symptoms of depression left over from my teen years...and while I am doing a good job controlling it on my own...I have to tell myself at the same time that it is perfectly okay to ask for help once in a while.  And I will continue to hold on to that if ever I start feeling low again.  That there is help out there for depression, and that it doesn't have to be the white elephant in the room any longer.

To close this blog entry off, I would like to post a couple of links that might help someone who is experiencing the symptoms of depression, and hopefully by clicking on this links, things will click for you.  I realize that most of these links are Canadian sources, but they really do apply to everyone worldwide.  I hope that these links can help you out, and know that you are not alone.

http://www.cmha.ca/mental-health/understanding-mental-illness/depression/

http://www.depressionhurts.ca/en/

http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/health_information/a_z_mental_health_and_addiction_information/depression/Pages/depression_mhfs.aspx

http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_depression&gclid=CIK2g8aM-LICFQVgMgod8jEAVg

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Goosebumps!!!


Who doesn’t love a good ghost story?  I am hoping that all of you do, because today’s blog subject is about a man who made a fantastic living writing a complete collection of ghost stories. 

In fact, this man has written well over two hundred books in his whole career thus far.  And not all of them are scary books either.  He worked for a children’s magazine for a number of years, helped create a children’s television show on Nickelodeon, penned several anthologies and short stories, and he’s even been credited with writing at least seventeen joke books, and a few novel adaptations of popular movies.

Of course, if one were to pick out what this man’s specialty is in terms of books...well, let’s just say that the answer will leave you with “goosebumps”.

I’ll explain that comment a little bit later.

So, what do you say?  Should I introduce you to the author in the spotlight for this week?

Now, how many of you recognize this man?


I imagine that a few of you already know who he is, but I can see some of you scratching your heads right now, unsure.  And yes, I can see you through my computer screen.  I have the power to do that, you know.  J

Okay, I’ll elaborate a little bit further.  His name is Robert Lawrence Stine.  He was born on October 8, 1943 in Columbus, Ohio (making him 69 years young as of just two days ago).  He grew up with his mother Anne, a homemaker, and his father Lewis, a shipping clerk.

Robert Lawrence Stein is definitely a man after my own heart.  When I was nine years old, I was already illustrating and writing incredibly basic stories on notebook paper for my third and fourth grade classrooms.  When Robert was nine, he also began writing.  After discovering a typewriter stashed away in his parents attic, he frequently used it to type out joke books and stories.


TRUE CONFESSION:  Ironically enough, my first experience with typing also involved a typewriter!  The only difference was that the typewriter was stashed in our basement, not the attic.  In fact, I’ll be the first one to admit that when I was in high school, I typed out all my essays and book reports on a typewriter.  Keep in mind that I started high school in 1995!!!  But hey, whatever worked, right?  For whatever reason, I still have this desire to type on a typewriter.  I loved those things!

Oh, wait...I’m getting off track.  You should know by now that sometimes this happens. 

Anyway, getting back to the life and times of Robert Stine...Robert graduated from Ohio State University in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.  While he was a student at Ohio State, he kept his writing skills tuned up by writing for and editing the campus humour magazine “The Sundial” for the majority of his time as a student.  Four years later, he would marry Jane Waldhorn, and together they would have one child, Matthew, born in 1980.

It wasn’t until he moved to New York City that Stine’s writing career really started to take off, but not in the genre that most people would associate his name with.  Going under the pen name of “Jovial Bob Stine”, Robert ended up penning several humour and joke books with such titles as “101 Vacation Jokes”, “101 Wacky Kid Jokes”, and “101 Silly Monster Jokes”.

Apparently Stine loved the number 101 for whatever reason.


He also ended up not only contributing to the long-running Dynamite Magazine under his original pen name of “Jovial Bob Stine”, but he was also a key player in the creation of another magazine, “Bananas”, which was in publication between 1975 and 1984.

Believe it or not, this already busy man was also responsible for the creation of the Nickelodeon television series “Eureeka’s Castle” in 1989! 

Now while all of these were fantastic achievements for Stine, it only skims the top of the iceberg compared to what was about to come for Stine.


It was during the mid-1980s that Stine decided to switch from writing joke books and began creating stories that were a bit scarier.  In 1986, Stine published his first horror themed novel, “Blind Date”, this time going under his real name, R.L. Stine.  Other books soon followed including “The Babysitter” (and its three sequels), “The Beach House”, “The Girlfriend”, and “Hit and Run”.  By 1989, Stine had begun work on the first of the many series of books that he would end up writing, the “Fear Street” series.  But while he was working on the “Fear Street” books (which included such titles as “The New Girl”, “The Wrong Number”, and “The Cheater”), he penned three humour books based on the subject of science-fiction, creating the “Space Cadets” series.

All the while, he continued to write scary stories which were published in Dynamite Magazine, and which seemed to get a generally positive reaction from kids who read the magazine.  But when Dynamite printed its last issue in early 1992, Stine contemplated the idea of beginning a series of horror novels for children.  The tales would be scary, but not nearly as gory as the standard horror novels written by Stephen King, or Dean Koontz.  He figured that he could pen a series of books that put children and teenagers in scary situations and by using plotlines that combined suspense, humour, and the supernatural, he could expand on his short stories that used to run in Dynamite Magazine to create brand new book-length adventures.


With a publishing deal with Scholastic Publishing (who also published “Bananas” and “Dynamite”, R.L. Stine released the first of 62 books in the original “Goosebumps” series.

(You saw where that introduction was leading, right?)

TRIVIA:  The source for the name “Goosebumps” came from an unlikely source.  R.L. Stine was leafing through an issue of TV Guide when he stumbled upon an ad that proclaimed that it was “goosebumps week on Channel 11”.  And initially, when Stine signed on with Scholastic Publishing, the contract was good for half a dozen books.  Stine inevitably ended up writing ten times that amount!

I will be the first one to admit that I read a few of the Goosebumps books that were available in our school library.  There were some books that didn’t really make me afraid, but there were others that made me want to require some sort of light source nearby if I were reading the story in a dimly-lit place.  And I think that was part of the appeal of the Goosebumps series.  Each book focused on, or exploited a fear that many of us had as kids.  Whether it was the dark, the “monsters” hiding in the bedroom closet, or ghosts haunting a house, I don’t think there was one kid I knew who didn’t get frightened by at least one of the books in the series.

And that was really the goal that R.L. Stine had when creating the series.  He was quoted in an article that had been published on Kidsreads.com, where Stine stated the following:  “I think everyone loves a good scare --- especially when you know you’re safe at the same time.  I like to think of Goosebumps as safe scares.  You know everything is going to turn out okay in the end.  Or maybe not...”

I think that was part of the reason why “Goosebumps” did so well initially.  Stine really knew how to write plot twists and surprise developments that kept millions of kids glued to the books.


Goosebumps began in July 1992 with the first book, “Welcome To Dead House” which tells the tale of siblings Amanda and Josh Benson, who are haunted by a group of ghosts who previously lived in the house that their family just moved into.  Within one month, the book had already sold one million copies, even landing the coveted spot on the New York Times Best Seller List for Children’s books!  It also topped the lists of USA Today and Publishers Weekly, with the first few books in the series appearing on the USA Today list for 115 consecutive weeks during a period in the mid-1990s!

During the original run of the series, R.L. Stine kept audiences salivating for more stories, and over the next five years, he kept churning out books every month.  Some of the most memorable Goosebumps books include the following;


BOOK #3 – MONSTER BLOOD (September 1992)

In this book, Evan and Andy discover a can of novelty slime known as “Monster Blood”, which ends up consuming everything in its path, and causes dogs to become giant-sized.  And, this book isn’t the only one that contains the substance known as “Monster Slime”.  It makes returns in books #18, #29, and the final book in the series, #62.


BOOK #7 – NIGHT OF THE LIVING DUMMY (May 1993)

The idea behind this book was inspired by the classic tale of “Pinocchio”, which features a pair of twin sisters who are horrified to witness destructive pranks after they both find a pair of ventriloquist dummies.  One of the dummies, Slappy the Dummy, makes a reappearance in book #31 and book #40.


BOOK #11 – THE HAUNTED MASK (September 1993)

Poor Carly Beth.  She just can’t get any respect...especially after wearing a duck costume for Halloween that makes her the butt of everyone else’s jokes.  She ends up finding an enchanted mask at a costume shop and immediately puts it on...but the longer she keeps wearing it, the more warped her personality becomes...and the longer she wears the mask, the harder it gets for her to take it off.  It was inspired by a real-life event in which Stine’s son, Matthew, ended up having difficulty getting a Halloween mask off his face one year, and inspired the sequel in book #36.


BOOK #19 – DEEP TROUBLE (May 1994)

In this book, Billy Deep is on vacation in the Caribbean when he almost gets eaten by a shark.  He is saved by a mermaid, but Billy must decides where his loyalties lie when he finds out that the mermaid is the target of one of his uncle’s scientific experiments.  The sequel to this tale can be found in book #58.


BOOK #28 – THE CUCKOO CLOCK OF DOOM (February 1995)

Think the movie “Groundhog Day” only with horror elements mixed in.  After Michael vandalizes his father’s cuckoo clock and blames it on his sister in revenge for her ruining his birthday party, Michael’s guilt causes him to become stuck in a parallel universe where he is forced to relive his horrible birthday over and over again.


BOOK #52 – HOW I LEARNED TO FLY (February 1997)

This is the only Goosebumps book that does NOT contain any supernatural elements within it.  Instead, the book bases its fears on human nature, which is proved by the plot in which two boys end up becoming celebrities after learning how to fly.

The original book series wrapped up in December 1997, after sales began to dip, but despite the dip, fans were still in love with the Goosebumps books.  By 1997, the official Goosebumps Fan Club had approximately 75,000 members, and by 2008, an estimated 350 million copies had been sold through bookstores, Scholastic book fairs, and Scholastic book orders.  At one point, the Goosebumps series accounted for 15% of Scholastic’s annual revenue, and it remains Scholastic’s bestselling children’s book series of all time fifteen years after the original series wrapped up.

This was in spite of the fact that the Goosebumps series was one of the most frequently challenged books by the American Library Association, which believed the books were too frightening for young children.  I mean, I certainly wouldn’t read a Goosebumps book to a three year old child as a bedtime story, but I don’t really seem them being all that bad.  Of course, maybe it’s just me.

But don’t think that you have heard the last of the name “Goosebumps”.  The series has since been revived a few times.  In 2000, Stine created the “Goosebumps Series 2000” series which ran for 25 books.  The 2000 books were a lot like the original series...only scarier.  As well, the “Goosebumps HorrorLand” series kicked off in 2008, and the “Goosebumps Most Wanted” series debuted earlier this year!  There was even a television show based on the television series that ran from 1995-1998!


And that is all that I have to say about “Goosebumps”.  Now I turn the floor over to you.

BONUS QUESTION:  Did you read Goosebumps?  And what was your favourite book?

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

October 9, 1919


This week’s Tuesday Timeline feature deals with a subject that I have to admit is one that I haven’t brought up a lot in this blog.  I’ll explain what the subject of the blog is, and why I rarely bring it up here a little bit later in this blog.

Before we do that though, why don’t we do what we do every Tuesday, and take a look at some of the other events that have occurred on this date in history.

So, let us have a look back through history to see what has happened on October 9.

1514 – Louis XII of France marries Mary Tudor

1558 – Merida is founded in Venezuela

1582 – Nothing happened on this day in Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain because this date didn’t exist...the reason being the switch to the Gregorian calendar

1604 – The occurrence of Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova observed in the Milky Way

1701 – Yale University is chartered in Old Saybrooke, Connecticut (under its original name of The Collegiate School of Connecticut)

1760 – Russia occupies Berlin during the Seven Years War

1771 – Dutch merchant ship “Vrouw Maria” sinks near Finland coast

1799 – HMS Lutine sinks, killing 240 men

1804 – Hobart, Tasmania is founded

1812 – American forces capture British ships HMS Caledonia and HMS Detroit during the War of 1812

1824 – Slavery is abolished in Costa Rica

1834 – Ireland’s first public railway, “Dublin and Kingstown Railway” opens

1873 – Establishment of the U.S. Naval Institute

1874 – The Treaty of Berne results in the creation of the General Postal Union

1888 – The Washington Monument is opened to the public

1907 – Las Cruces, New Mexico is incorporated

1940 – John Lennon, of the Beatles, is born in Liverpool, England

1944 – John Entwistle of the Who, is born in Chiswick, London, England

1962 – Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm

1963 – A major landslide in Italy kills 2,000 people when the Vajont Dam overflows as a direct result of it

1966 – The Binh Tai and Dien Nien-Phuoc Binh massacres both occur on the same day during the Vietnam War

1967 – Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is executed after his attempts to incite a revolution in Bolivia

1981 – Capital punishment is abolished in France

1986 – The musical “The Phantom of the Opera” has its first performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London

1992 – A 13kg fragment of the Peekskill meteorite lands in Peekskill, New York, destroying a family’s car in the driveway

1995 – An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs in Arizona

2001 – Second mailing of anthrax laced letters from Trenton, New Jersey following 9/11 attacks

2006 – North Korea allegedly tests its first nuclear device

There are also quite a few celebrity birthdays today as well.  You know about the late John Lennon and the late John Entwistle, but other celebrities who were born on October 9 include Fyvush Finkel, Donald Sinden, Daniele Delorme, Tony Booth, Peter Mansfield, Joe Pepitone, Jackson Browne, Sharon Osbourne, Tony Shalhoub, Scott Bakula, James Fearnley (The Pogues), John O’Hurley, Linwood Boomer, Don Garber, Ini Kamoze, Michael Pare, Kenny Garrett, Julian Bailey, John Ralston, Guillermo del Toro, Jimbo Fisher, British Prime Minister David Cameron, P.J. Harvey, Christine Hough, Giles Martin, Kenny Anderson, Annika Sorenstam, Steven Burns, Erin Daniels, Sean Lennon, Sam Riegel, Nicky Byrne (Westlife), Brandon Routh, Zachery Ty Bryan, Spencer Grammer, and Scotty McCreery.

Today in this blog, we’re going to be going back in time almost one hundred years!  It’s actually the second oldest date that we have ever gone back in time with this Tuesday Timeline feature.


Today, we are travelling back in time ninety-three years to October 9, 1919.

And here lies the challenge for me.  This date has to do with the subject of sports.  And sports are probably the one subject that I don’t really have much knowledge in.  I cringe every single time I try to answer a Sports question in Trivial Pursuit.  So for me to take on the challenge of doing a sports themed blog entry, I’ll either do really well, or really terrible.  I’ll leave it up to you.


So, as I type this, the World Series is set to happen within the next couple of weeks.  Don’t ask me what teams are playing this year, as I don’t know.  I don’t really follow baseball or many other sports these days.  But, the World Series has been known to have some interesting events linked to it.  The 1989 World Series was postponed because of the Lorna Prieta earthquake, and the 1994 World Series was cancelled outright following a strike.


And then there’s the 1919 World Series.  On October 9, 1919, the Cincinnati Reds ended up winning the series that year, which clearly delighted their fans and supporters.  However, their win was sort of clouded in controversy, and the scandal made their celebrated win seem more like a farce.


But in this case, it wasn’t because of any actions by the players and coaches of the Cincinnati Reds.  The team that they were playing against...well, they couldn’t say the same.  In fact, part of the reason why the Cincinnati Reds ended up winning was due to a scandal so serious that several players were handed serious punishments as a result of it.

Yes, today we’re going to look back at the “Black Sox Scandal of 1919”, as well as the team that was linked to the scandal, the Chicago White Sox.


The 1919 World Series was set to begin on October 2, 1919.  The two teams playing were the White Sox and the Reds.  Right off the bat the Chicago White Sox were the obvious favourites to win.  They had beaten the New York Giants (now based in San Francisco) in the 1917 World Series, and still managed to place sixth in the 1918 World Series despite losing their star player, “Shoeless Joe Jackson” temporarily when he went to serve in World War I.  By the time the 1919 World Series arrived, the team had a win-loss record of 88-52, and Jackson was set to have another stellar run.  1919 was the year that there were some changes in management, as team owner Charlie Comiskey fired manager Pants Rowley and replaced him with Kid Gleason.  It was also the year that a lot of tension between Comiskey and the players were evident, largely due to his cheapskate ways.  In fact, one urban legend stated that 1919 was the year that fans began referring to the team as the “Black Sox”, due to the fact that their uniforms were always dirty due to Comiskey refusing to wash them on a regular basis.

(Can I just say that if that urban legend were true...yuck?  At any rate, remember this point for later...)

Now, you compare the White Sox to the Cincinnati Reds.  Comparing the two teams, the Reds were considered to be sort of an underdog team.  The team only managed to place in the Top 3 teams only twice since the turn of the 20th century, but had one of their best years ever with the 1919 season.  Under the leadership of new manager Pat Moran, the team ended up with a record of 96-44, which left every other team in the league at least twenty games behind.  Their star player was center fielder Edd Roush, and the trio of pitchers (Hod Eller, Dutch Ruether, and Slim Sallee) helped steer the team to the World Series finals.

However, there was talk about the games being fixed as early as the first game of the World Series, on October 2.  Gamblers and bookies were betting large sums of money against the White Sox, claiming that the Reds would win the World Series.  Of course, most fans seemed completely oblivious to the rumours despite the constant betting.  Therefore, it seemed rather ironic that in the October 2, 1919 edition of the Philadelphia Bulletin, this poem appeared.

Still, it doesn’t really matter, after all, who wins the flag
Good clean sport is what we’re after, and we aim to make our brag
To each near or distant nation, whereon shines the sporting sun
That of all our games gymnastic, base ball is the cleanest one!

Oh, sweet, sweet irony...how you mock this scandal so.


And with the second pitch of the World Series, when White Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte struck Cincinnati leadoff hitter Morrie Rath in the back...that was the signal that set forth one of the biggest scandals in the history of baseball.

Have you figured it out yet?  The clues involve a team favoured to win going against an underdog team, gamblers putting unusually large sums of money on Cincinnati to win the series, and several players on the White Sox beginning to feud with the team owner over charges of being stingy with money.


If you guessed that the White Sox purposely lost games in order to stick it to the highly-disliked Comiskey, you’re absolutely right on the money!

But why would the team go to such drastic lengths to throw the World Series?  And, who came up with the idea in the first place?

Well, you can thank White Sox first baseman Arnold “Chick” Gandil for the “brilliant” idea.  It was bad enough that he had been linked to petty underworld figures while he was a player on the team (which could explain the surge in bets against the White Sox as the 1919 World Series began).  He enlisted the help of his friend, professional gambler Joseph “Sport” Sullivan to pull off the fix.

He then went to work getting other players to go along with the plan to throw the World Series, and managed to convince a few to join him in the plan right away.  These included starting pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude “Lefty” Williams, as well as outfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch and infielder Charles “Swede” Risberg.  All four men also wanted to see Comiskey go down as well, while getting rich in the process.  Shortstop Buck Weaver was also asked to participate in the fix, but he decided that he wanted no part of it.  Although Weaver never blew the whistle, which caused a lot of problems for him down the line.  Eventually, utility infielder Fred McMullin was brought into the fix after he threated to blow the story out of the water unless he was in on the payoff.  There still remains a bit of a question about the involvement of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson in the fix.  Although the players denied his involvement years after the scandal broke, others remain unconvinced of his innocence.

Anyway, long story short, the White Sox lost the World Series, and Cincinnati won.  But the rumours of a possible fix in the 1919 World Series continued to haunt the team well into the play-offs for the 1920 World Series as the team battled the Cleveland Indians for the American League pennant that year.  By September 1920, a grand jury was called in to investigate the claims after hearing stories that other teams were linked to the corruption as well.

It didn’t take long after the grand jury was issued for the players involved in the scandal to start singing like canaries.  Cicotte and Jackson confessed their involvement in the scheme on September 28, 1920, which lead team owner Charles Comiskey to suspend seven players from the team still in the majors (excluding “Chick” Gandil, who left the team to play pro-ball earlier that year), which caused the team to lose the necessary games needed to earn a spot in the 1920 World Series.

Not only did the Chicago White Sox lose their chance at winning a legitimate “World Series”, but the scandal caused serious damage to the team’s reputation.  As a result of the 1919 World Series fix, federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis made the ruling that all eight baseball players who were connected to the scandal would be banned from playing the sport of championship baseball for the rest of their lives.

Of the eight players named, seven were still under contract with the Chicago White Sox, and Comiskey let them go as a result of Landis’ ruling.  With seven of the team’s best players no longer eligible to play baseball, the team ended up sinking to seventh place.


The eight men that found themselves without a team to play on included Cicotte, Felsch, Gandil, Jackson, McMullin, Risberg, Weaver, and Williams.  That’s right...Buck Weaver was also banned from playing the game.  Even though he didn’t take part in the scandal, he knew all about it and didn’t do anything to stop it, making him an accomplice.

As far as the Chicago White Sox goes, their name was dragged through the mud, and their reputation remained sullied as a result of the scandal.  The team ended up not winning an American League championship until 40 years after the scandal took place, and wouldn’t end up seeing a World Series win until the year 2005!  That’s an eighty-eight year drought, folks!  No wonder people still believe that the team was cursed since the scandal broke.  Though, I will say that I certainly don’t believe in any such curse.  Chicago still has some decent players, and any fans of the White Sox that I have spoken to seem like fantastic folks.  Clearly, the events of 1919 are nothing more than an unfortunate memory in Chi-Town.

The ones that I feel really bad for are the players on the 1919 Chicago White Sox team who had no knowledge of the fix.  I can only imagine them trying their hardest to win the title not even aware of the fact that their own teammates were betraying them.  But at least after the scandal broke and the players involved were banned, they ended up getting a bonus check for $1,500 (huge money in 1919) from Charles Comiskey.  Talk about a reward for being honest!

And then there’s the Cincinnati Reds.  Their win forever marred by the scandal.  I think they were the ones who really ended up cheated.  They may have won the game, but it was a cheap victory given that they only won because their opponents threw the World Series.  They never got to know whether they could have legitimately beaten the White Sox because they were never given the chance to play a fair game.  Maybe the outcome would have stayed the same, and maybe it wouldn’t have...but the bottom line is, they should have had the chance to play a clean game, and that opportunity was denied.  That is the real tragedy of it all.

None of the key figures of the 1919 World Series scandal are still alive.  The last surviving player, Charles “Swede” Risberg passed away in 1975.  I often wonder how they would have reacted to some of the other baseball scandals that have taken place since the 1919 World Series.  What their opinions would have been on players who have fallen from grace such as Pete Rose, Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGuire.  Would they sympathize with them?  Look at them in disgust?  Feel the same desperation they had felt?  It’s hard to say, really.

I always saw baseball as being an all-American game where you sat in a huge stadium chomping down on hot dogs in the hopes of catching a ball in the stands, and hoping to get it autographed by your favourite players.  And for a lot of people, baseball is still that innocent pastime that millions absolutely love, and for every Gandil, Cicotte, and Felsch, there are a Gehrig, Ryan, and Ripken who know and love the game regardless.

And that is our look back on October 9, 1919.




For more information and a more detailed look at this scandal, read Eliot Asinof's book "Eight Men Out".