Bad Medicine

According to Sonoran Indian legend, a diablero is a brujo (sorcerer) who by way of black magic can transform himself into a variety of wild creatures, such as birds of prey, dogs, wolves, coyotes and more.

Last week we had a threat who was human - imbued with Satanic powers, yes, but human. Robert Palmer in The Devil's Platform was human in his ambition, in his cunning, and in his deliberation. Sorcerers likewise are human beings, but for all the characterization the diablero gets in Bad Medicine it had me wondering whether Richard Kiel was playing a man who could appear as an animal or an animal who could appear as a man.

Wealthy women in Chicago are beginning to die off. At first it looked like suicide, until a chauffer also adds his body to the count via a broken neck. He was clutching a black feather. Kolchak also witnesses firsthand a robbery in which a police dog is killed apparently by another dog (or coyote) and two guards turn their own guns on themselves. A man is seen in Native American garb, is chased to the roof from which he leaps, and vanishes into thin air*.

It's got the INS staff abuzz. Tony isn't convinced there's a story to be had. Were the early deaths suicides? His staff can't see eye to eye with him on that, or that it's reasonable that the wealthy have wanted to keep a low profile. Ron Updyke is sent to cover the funeral but is too sensitive to do the job. Miss Cowles thinks Carl is on to something with the deaths being suspicious. Meanwhile, Carl is chasing tangents about coyotes and some nut dressing up like an Indian. Vincenzo's having a hard time drawing it into coherence.

If Vincenzo thinks the story is a mess, I too think the story is a mixed bag. Medicine bag maybe. There's a useful pun somewhere but I can't make it work.

A friend recently commented that the INS gang reminds him of Barney Miller: a motley ensemble of well-drawn, distinct, quirky personalities that bounce lines off each other with delicious timing. He's absolutely right. For the third week in a row the writing feels organic to the characters, and perhaps even more confident as it handles the entire newsroom at once in multiple scenes. If only Monique had still been around, it would have been a full house and a full episode. Even a sarcastic young photo lab tech gets a good scene. Never mind the spooky stuff - If K:TNS were a sitcom that never strayed from this single set, I'd watch it loyally.

Since my friend pointed this out, it becomes obvious that the guest cast fits the comparison as well. barney Miller thrived by its regular cast, but were fed material through an endless stream of colorful strangers who filed through the precinct case by case - vivid and hilarious people fully rounded and played by veteran character actors of the era. Every week you'd see actors you'd seen a dozen times before. Alice Ghostley, for example, who shows up on TNS this week as the curator of a museum on Native American folklore. She plays the part straight, yet her reaction bubbles with humor beneath when the details turn too preposterous. Another amusing scene is Kolchak dealing with a strict dog owner and trying to soothe his own nerves by speaking German to a well-disciplined canine. This parade of eclectic irregulars for comic relief is part of K:TNS' niche. When it delivers on this score, applying the comedy with the lightest touch and emphasizing character over humor, it's worth seeing.

I wish I could say the rest of this episode holds up its end. Give credit for an interesting choice of villain, at least, and for looking outside the West's dominant faith for inspiration. How it's handled, on the other hand...

Purely on a surface level, the attacks by the sorcerer are eerie in their details but not conducive to a traditionally spooky atmosphere. Richard Kiel plays the diablero, and his stony face and malevolent glare are plenty menacing. The spookiness comes from the use of sound: first an animal of one form or another trespasses on a scene, and it's vocalizations are treated with an electronic distortion that remains in the air; then when the brujo appears the score goes breathy over a relentless percussion. The victims are under a spell. This works for me, though I've seen the episode so many times that altogether it fails to make me feel a pervading chill and I'm not sure anymore how much it ever did. It does lead to an appreciably tense finale when Kolchak tries to put an end to the sorcerer but loses the one weapon that could render the sorcerer powerless. Even that, though is hobbled by unintended absurdity. Kolchak creeps up on the brujo who is intoning (in an electronically altered voice) an incantation that is surely meant to sound otherworldly. "EE-eye-ee-eye-ohhh, ee-eye-ee-eye-ohhh, OOOOH ee-eye-ee-eye-oh." Pretty much takes the piss out of the scene.

So too is the investigation aspect weak this week, as first Carl leaps to a number of conclusions that are dubious. Saving a great deal of time, Victor Jory appears unbidden as a Native American holy man who not only knows everything Kolchak needs to learn about diableros but even miraculously happens to know the very one terrorizing Chicago. That ought to be a good story, right? But we don't get it, and Carl hasn't the wit to ask. Diableros are a Southern legend, this one is pretty far afield. These are the beliefs of the people of the pueblos, the communities that lived in apartment-like multi-lever housing of adobe, often along cliffsides. Kolchak lights on a story Ron is working, conveniently dropped earlier in the script, of an unfinished highrise.

Here is where the greatest disappointment Bad Medicine lies. I'm reminded of a scene in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent in which another journalist, played by Joel McCrae learns that he is being sent to Europe to discover whether war is going to break out. He asks his astonished editor whether it might be a good idea to interview Hitler. "He must have something on his mind." Don't you think this diablero must have something on his mind? That's a conversation I would love to have heard. Instead, Kolchak - and the script - treat him as a creature to be hunted down and killed. It's a fine line walked by the script, as the holy man informs us that this diablero is under a curse to "wander the centuries" seeking treasure, and only after amassing a magnificent fortune may he pass into the next world. So...is he or is he not still human? No, never mind that, is he or is he not still interesting as a character? And, troublingly, is Kolchak guilty of forgetting that a human being is owed the right to trial? When he confronted Robert Palmer, it was to thwart him not kill him. The metaphysical state of the diablero (human or spirit) is left purposely vague so that we won't raise that objection. I think it's a dodgy kinda dodge.

More than one opportunity is lost here. I imagine the producers felt that The Night Stalker was not a property they wanted to get political with, though by the Seventies most television was dealing with prejudice and resentments, and injustice toward the Native American population well acknowledged - meaning, not an issue likely to rile viewers. Never mind, I wouldn't have expected much on that count anyway...but there's a more damning loss here, and that's the dramatic one. Let the diablero speak for himself. Let the conflict challenge us. There's a story here! Or, to quote Kolchak from one of the movies, "This is news, Vincenzo, nyyeewwws!"

5 "pyoo--webb-loes", give or take wiring and ductwork.

Asides:

Edith Cowles, last week referred to as "Miss Emily" (whom we know is the INS advice columnist) officially announces herself as Emily Cowles when she answers the phone. Gaffe: she drops the 's' from her own name.

*Where does that phrase come from, 'into thin air'? I guess vanishing into thick air is pretty mundane, isn't it? Like losing someone in a fog.

Here we have another Kolchak episode that just follows the established formula, only the specifics are changed. This time we have an Indian (native American) entity that can appear in the shape of a man (a medicine man) and an assortment of animals typical of Southern US. The fact that a Native American folk legend is chosen as the "monster of the week" doesn't bring any contemplation of the fate of native populations in America; the villain's origin, in turn, is just an element to make the so-called monster more colorful and mysterious, that's all.

As usual, ancient ethnic magic is no match for Kolchak's white man's cunning. Specifically, Kolchak's "magic" is the camera flash + a great deal of luck. Coincidentally, this is not the first time Kolchak's camera saves his skin; another time it was the noise of the flash charger that worked as the monster's kryptonite. What will the next monster be vulnerable to? Undeveloped film? The clicking noise of a camera? Perhaps Kolchak's camera will actually steal the monster's soul, as ancient natives were rumored to believe?

Anyway, the participation of other native elements and characters in the story is scarce; at least Kolchak got some precious advice from one "Charles Rolling Thunder", but I'm disappointed that the curator of the Native American Folklore Museum was a white woman, because that was a wasted opportunity to add an active Native character integrated in mainstream society, and not just a "civilized Indian" like Mr. Rolling Thunder. And for the honor of Jeronimo and Sitting Bull, why did this Indian legend have a Spanish name like Diablero?

As usual, since we never get an insight on what makes the supernatural entity tick, we don't know anything about his motives and even how sentient he or it was. Even though it appeared as a man most of the time, it acted more like a force of nature and seemed to be pure instinct.

Kolchak's relationship with the police remains the same. This time was a captain, but police chief, captain, lieutenant or sergeant, they all act the same way: they want Kolchak as far as possible from their crime scenes and offer trivial explanations for obviously supernatural phenomena. I liked the part in which the captain left Kolchak with no answer, when he asked the reporter if this so-called Indian spirit wanted the gems' value to buy himself a ticket on a cruise. I was expecting Kolchak to retort: oh, no, the Werewolf wouldn't allow it. Also, when Kolchak showed Vicenzo the picture of the dead dog, I expected the editor to say something like, "there you go with the dog angle again, Kolchak. As usual, you're barking at the wrong tree."

The office banter was perhaps the best part of the entire episode. Mrs. Emily is a great addition to the team of odd characters. She offered some insightful observations saying that the victims were not likely to have committed suicide, and she was very useful to Kolchak to fool Updyke and get the information Kolchak wanted, while misleading their uptight workmate. However, Kolchak, whom we're supposed to like has the very nasty habit of tearing up the phone book page that has the address he needs, and in the 1970s when people did that on TV shows, I always wondered what the next person who needed a phone number from that page would do. That's a big no-no in my phone book, I mean, playbook. At least we got some good laughs at Kolchak's expense when the lab tech said he would take better pictures with a cardboard box and a pinhole, which is probably true. Vicenzo should at least make sure Kolchak leaves with a professional camera. Which i admit doesn't help much, because he always drops his equipment when the monster starts chasing him.

The dog that only followed commands in German reminded me of Bear, from Person of Interest, who only obeyed commands in Dutch. Sadly, this episode had not only one, but two dog victims.

"Bad Medicine" gets 💎💎💎💎💎5 glass diamonds worn by 👑 pompous 👒 high-society ladies whose 🐩🐶 dogs went to 🐕 dog 🗻 heaven, but you can't find their funeral 💒 homes because the ☎ phone 📖 book page with the ☎ phone number has been 📃ripped out.

Jeff Larsen said -
Last week we had a threat who was human - imbued with Satanic powers, yes, but human. Robert Palmer in The Devil's Platform was human in his ambition, in his cunning, and in his deliberation. Sorcerers likewise are human beings, but for all the characterisation the diablero gets in Bad Medicine it had me wondering whether Richard Kiel was playing a man who could appear as an animal or an animal who could appear as a man.

Yep we are back on familiar ground for Kolchak a mute antagonist.

Richard Kiel is very imposing as the ethereal Diablero. He's the master at the lofty lean, slightly overhanging people baring down on them.
He could have been just a physical threat so it is interesting that he also has the ability to impose his will, inducing suicide and can shape change. At first this plays well as it adds mystery similar to Firefall as victims appear to kill themselves with no clear access for a third party. It is understandable why the police would assume suicide and not need to consider the fantastical. Then after this opening the Diablero becomes a much more direct killer, the only mystery to the police is how he accesses the scenes, which they put down to him being gymnastic. The mind control is almost forgotten till near the end. This aside the attacks by the Diablero are creepy. I especially like the reveal of his face in the ascending car window in the death of Miss Van Piet.
In regards to having a white man play a native american, it does seem awkward today. For about half the episode they always referred to him as "dressing up in native american clothing" so I thought they were accepting he wasn't an actual native american. Then Kolchak makes his speech about maybe he actually is and then leads to seeking out experts in this field so that idea is lost.

Mad-Pac said -
Perhaps Kolchak's camera will actually steal the monster's soul, as ancient natives were rumored to believe?

When I first saw the scene on the stairs I thought that would be what Kolchak had done. That maybe he had been weakened, or causing him to break cover seeking out Kolchak to reclaim his soul, but nope it's the flash.

The office scenes are very enjoyable and continue to be a highlight of each episode. Ms Emily is a great addition, far less abrasive than poor Monique. She shows great knowledge weighing in on the plausibility of suicide, including referencing studies. It made me laugh how Kolchak storms out to buy himself new clothes only to get distracted and forget that "The clothes maketh the reporter". The 3 way phone conversation with Kolchak, Ms Emily and Ron was also very clever and very funny.

Mad-pac said -
However, Kolchak, whom we're supposed to like has the very nasty habit of tearing up the phone book page that has the address he needs, and in the 1970s when people did that on TV shows, I always wondered what the next person who needed a >phone number from that page would do.

I agree, I remember Marty McFly doing it in Back to the Future. It looks cool and they do print it on that very thin, very ripable paper. I imagine there were many half shredded phone directories back in the day.

Overall there were some interesting ideas but this was the weakest episode so far but still enjoyable.
5 generous tips from the heart out of 10

The DVD description for this episode said Kolchak faces “a gem of a case.” Actually, this was a gem of an episode.

This week mysterious creature comes from Indian lore – a diablero. We’re given a legend to go with it, giving him motivation for stealing expensive jewels which brings him out into the open and puts him in Kolchak’s radar.

Kolchak is drawn into the case because the police initially try to pass the first two deaths off as suicides and he thinks it’s murder. Tony objects but Miss Emily, of all people, jumps to his defense with a good analysis of the situation. It’s one of many pleasant surprises in the show.

The creature – as played by Richard Kiel, he is very imposing without ever speaking (except for some chanting at the very end). The look of terror in his eyes as Carl forces his to look into his own gaze is just perfect. You could also feel sorry for him except that he’s killed over a dozen people and two dogs.

The stereotypical portrayal of the rich – almost non-existent, thankfully. The first rich woman he described was one who designed a bra in the 40’s and went on to make a fortune in the business. Clearly she found a need and made money fulfilling that need – an American success story. My only critique is the second victim “the Steel Butterfly” who sounds like she married into wealth more than a few times. Actually, the most stereotypical exhibit of rich behavior was Kolchak trying to pose as a rich man, complete with a stuffy, condescending tone. I particularly loved when he called himself Kolworth and the auctioneer asked him if he was related to the Woolworths. “Yes,” he replies “they worked in wool, we worked in coal.” Hilarious. But in general, they were played as good people and not heartless or stuck-up, as they are often portrayed.

Respect – for once, Kolchak gets respect from a couple of people. First there’s Dr. Agnes Temple from whom he first learns about the diablero when he recognizes a museum exhibit of one. Later, she brings him Charles Rolling Thunder who heard Carl’s claims and asks to see him. Agnes admits she doesn’t believe any of it but respected them both enough to arrange the meeting. Charles Rolling Thunder is played by the wonderful Victor Jory, who’s always funs to listen to – I just caught him last week playing a pirate while I was watching THE TIME TUNNEL. Charles relays the legend of the diablero to Mr. K, including the only way to kill him - force him to look into his own eyes. Even though Victory Jory has no Indian ancestry that I know of, the whole scene was respectful to both Indian culture and to Carl as well.

The telephone scene – this wasn’t really a “surprise.” I remembered this scene from its original run and even once stayed up late to watch this episode when CBS was running them on its late night movie because I wanted to see that scene again. Carl wants to get an address for an auction from Updyke but knows he won’t give it to him personally so he talks Miss Emily into help weasel it out of him using two different phone lines with clever bouncing around from person to person for comic effects. I just loved it. I also appreciated Carl’s narrative that Emily “confessed her crime” afterward so that Updyke wouldn’t end up waiting to meet someone who didn’t exist to get into an auction he wasn’t invited to. That would have been carrying the joke too far.

For once, Carl's photos help his investigation - his picture of the dead dog is clear enough to help a dog trainer I.D. the footprints in the photo as belonging to a coyote. Not bad. (Too bad the photo had to be developed by that snarky assistant, whom Carl wisely told to try to “develop a personality.”) Also, his flash photography saves his life and some policemen's lives as well because it disables the Indian’s power temporarily.

The directing – top notch sets up, like zooming in on the crow’s eyes and then turning them into the Diablero’s eyes, reflecting him in a rising car window, using creative camera angles to make the Indian look even taller. The scene where Kolchak climbs 34 flights of stairs effectively shows his weariness not only from the tired way he looks but by making the number to the 30th floor loom huge in front of his face. Great job.

What can I say? The pacing was great, the research seemed plausible, brilliant casting, snappy dialogue. Great from start to finish. I have to give this one 10 hand-held circular mirrors, which are much more useful if you don’t clumsily drop them.

Random thoughts:
I did a little quick research and found that there is such a legend among the American Indians of diableros - people who can transform themselves into animals. The bit about stealing the jewels was likely invented but done effectively so.

How could Carl mistake a coyote for a dog, especially after researching dog breeds last week? I at least mistook it for a wolf, but knew it wasn’t a dog.

When Carl took his picture of the dead dog, it moved a little – in reality, the dog was probably spooked by the flash.

Unbelievable! The offending phrase that prevented my submission from posting was apparently that "Kolchak's photography efforts... (see first word in each sentence)

Net is used to catch fish. Him is a pronoun. Some people have all the luck. Rewards are good incentives.

Apparently, they thought I was pitching some rewards program. Sheesh!

Brim, you'd best ask Travis Bell in the general section or under K:TNS "issues". A lot of people are having problems with different browsers doing odd things with the programming. Definitely not length, I asked about word-count limits and the mods said there isn't one.

@brimfin said:

This is not my full review. It's keeps rejecting some of my paragraphs. Overall, it's shorter than jeff's so length shouldn't be the problem. What is?

Perhaps you might try splitting ✂ your review into parts and observe if the problems persist.

@Simian Jack said:

Bad Medicine

According to Sonoran Indian legend, a diablero is a brujo (sorcerer) who by way of black magic can transform himself into a variety of wild creatures, such as birds of prey, dogs, wolves, coyotes and more.

Why Spanish? OK, I'm aware of the Spanish/Hispanic colonization in the area, but that makes it seem the Indians didn't have a language of their own.

I wish I could say the rest of this episode holds up its end. Give credit for an interesting choice of villain, at least, and for looking outside the West's dominant faith for inspiration. How it's handled, on the other hand...

Yes, they tried something similar in the zombie episode. I guess just mentioning a different culture was already an achievement back in the 1970s. Now the other culture would be treated more respectfully, and the native characters would have more of a voice, but nowadays everything tends to degenerate into a forced social manifesto.

Purely on a surface level, the attacks by the sorcerer are eerie in their details but not conducive to a traditionally spooky atmosphere. Richard Kiel plays the diablero, and his stony face and malevolent glare are plenty menacing. The spookiness comes from the use of sound: first an animal of one form or another trespasses on a scene, and it's vocalizations are treated with an electronic distortion that remains in the air; then when the brujo appears the score goes breathy over a relentless percussion. (...) Kolchak creeps up on the brujo who is intoning (in an electronically altered voice) an incantation that is surely meant to sound otherworldly. "EE-eye-ee-eye-ohhh, ee-eye-ee-eye-ohhh, OOOOH ee-eye-ee-eye-oh." Pretty much takes the piss out of the scene.

That felt innovative for the time and now electronic voice distortion is a cliché. Its use in the episode reminded me of the sound Australian aborigines make with a didgeridoo.

Here is where the greatest disappointment Bad Medicine lies. I'm reminded of a scene in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent in which another journalist, played by Joel McCrae learns that he is being sent to Europe to discover whether war is going to break out. He asks his astonished editor whether it might be a good idea to interview Hitler. "He must have something on his mind." Don't you think this diablero must have something on his mind? That's a conversation I would love to have heard.

The diablero seemed to me more like a force of nature (or "supernature") instead of a living, rational being.

@cloister56 said:

Jeff Larsen said -

Mad-Pac said -
Perhaps Kolchak's camera will actually steal the monster's soul, as ancient natives were rumored to believe?

When I first saw the scene on the stairs I thought that would be what Kolchak had done. That maybe he had been weakened, or causing him to break cover seeking out Kolchak to reclaim his soul, but nope it's the flash.

Well, I wasn't being serious. In fact I used that image as an example of all the ways the writers might have exploited the possible deleterious effects of an Instamatic camera on supernatural creatures. But in my opinion, more than one is already too much.

Mad-pac said -
However, Kolchak, whom we're supposed to like has the very nasty habit of tearing up the phone book page that has the address he needs, and in the 1970s when people did that on TV shows, I always wondered what the next person who needed a >phone number from that page would do.

I agree, I remember Marty McFly doing it in Back to the Future. It looks cool and they do print it on that very thin, very ripable paper. I imagine there were many half shredded phone directories back in the day.

They try to make Updyke look like an uptight bore who ca't see the big picture and that Kolchak has more important things to do than pay attention to the integrity of Updyke's phone directory, but I never like when characters do things like that. Another thing is drinking orange juice from the carton, and they do that a lot in movies.

@brimfin said:

How could Carl mistake a coyote for a dog, especially after researching dog breeds last week? I at least mistook it for a wolf, but knew it wasn’t a dog.

Yes, I thought wolf too. At least I have the excuse coyotes are not native from my country. But I would've recognized it had it been a maned wolf.

Unbelievable! The offending phrase that prevented my submission from posting was apparently that "Kolchak's photography efforts... (see first word in each sentence)

Net is used to catch fish. Him is a pronoun. Some people have all the luck. Rewards are good incentives.

Apparently, they thought I was pitching some rewards program. Sheesh!

Let me try that. Make millions! Select a friend and your efforts will net him some rewards!

Har, har.

@mad-pac said: Let me try that. Make millions! Select a friend and your efforts will net him some rewards!

Har, har.

(I got an error message when I tried to type that in on my own, but not when I copied it as your quote!!!) Clearly they like you better.

Other thoughts on the episode: I use the term “Indian” or “American Indian” in my description instead of “Native American” deliberately. Years ago I read a newspaper column by Charles Trimble, himself a Native of the Lakota tribe where he stated that he and Indians he knew personally preferred the Indian term to Native American. They felt Native American was too generic – after all, anyone born in the United States is a Native American. He put to rest the bogus claim that American Indians were called Indians because Columbus thought he had landed in India when he came to the New World and called the natives Indians. Not true, he said, Columbus and others knew better than that. The term actually came from missionaries who called the natives “Indios” or “Children of God” which later became “Indians.” That’s why I don’t personally use the Native American term. I have no objections to anyone else using the term; I know it was coined out of respect and meant to say that the Indians were native to our country before we were. And Mr. Trimble never claimed to speak for all Indians; I’m sure some of them do prefer the Native American term.

I would have preferred that the Indian character was played by someone who was an American Indian or at least had American Indian in his ancestry. But I accepted that it was SOP in the 60’s and 70’s to have “White men” portray Indians by using Indian dress and speech mannerism. As long as they do it in earnest and with respect, I accept it. And I found Victory Jory’s performance to be dignified and respectful.

I enjoyed when Carl flashed his ID and said INS meant Intercity Neon Service. I should keep track and see it he does that again and keep a running list. In “The Vampire” he flashed it but just said “INS” making it sound like an important government function but not specifying what. Anyone remember any other time earlier where he gave a phony name for INS? (I think in "The Zombie" he called it something to make it sound non-news related.)

I also agree Kolchak should not be ripping pages out of phone books. Even Miss Emily shrieked when he tore the page out of Updyke's book. He shouldn't be parking so close to police cars either. But I notice the cop who couldn't open his door because of Carl was parked equally as close to the car to his right. So that cop to his right would have had the same problem with his door as he was having. Maybe a little Karmic justice there.

@brimfin said:

@mad-pac said: Let me try that. Make millions! Select a friend and your efforts will net him some rewards!

Har, har.

(I got an error message when I tried to type that in on my own, but not when I copied it as your quote!!!) Clearly they like you better.

I think they know my scheme works.

Other thoughts on the episode: I use the term “Indian” or “American Indian” in my description instead of “Native American” deliberately. Years ago I read a newspaper column by Charles Trimble, himself a Native of the Lakota tribe where he stated that he and Indians he knew personally preferred the Indian term to Native American. They felt Native American was too generic – after all, anyone born in the United States is a Native American. He put to rest the bogus claim that American Indians were called Indians because Columbus thought he had landed in India when he came to the New World and called the natives Indians. Not true, he said, Columbus and others knew better than that. The term actually came from missionaries who called the natives “Indios” or “Children of God” which later became “Indians.”

Well, it's true the word índio is used in Spanish and Portuguese. Here índio is the only word used, even by them. If someone is from India, he's "indiano" and she, "indiana". But not Jones.

Curiously, the roots of South American Indians relate to that of Native Hawaiians, Samoans, etc. So we would say they have Indian roots, though, Americans wouldn't. And there's more, that "Hispanic" look associated with non-white and non-African people also comes from the Indigenous ethnicity of many countries in Latin America. So they have "índio" roots. That would be the case of the actress that stars Jane the Virgin, for example. This is why to us, generalizing everyone who comes from Spanish-speaking America as simply "Hispanic" as a single ethnic group sounds greatly inaccurate.

I would have preferred that the Indian character was played by someone who was an American Indian or at least had American Indian in his ancestry. But I accepted that it was SOP in the 60’s and 70’s to have “White men” portray Indians by using Indian dress and speech mannerism. As long as they do it in earnest and with respect, I accept it. And I found Victory Jory’s performance to be dignified and respectful.

And to think that that kind of situation would be over now. But then I think of Johnny Depp playing Tonto in The Lonely Ranger, and he justified it saying that he's 1/16 native American or something... Please, give me a break!

I enjoyed when Carl flashed his ID and said INS meant Intercity Neon Service. I should keep track and see it he does that again and keep a running list. In “The Vampire” he flashed it but just said “INS” making it sound like an important government function but not specifying what. Anyone remember any other time earlier where he gave a phony name for INS? (I think in "The Zombie" he called it something to make it sound non-news related.)

Indeed, INS does have an air of officialdom. Internal Naval Service? Intelligence Normative Syndicate? Israeli Necromantic Society? I think the best made-up government organ I've heard of is from Person of Interest, "International Homeland Department."

I also agree Kolchak should not be ripping pages out of phone books. Even Miss Emily shrieked when he tore the page out of Updyke's book. He shouldn't be parking so close to police cars either. But I notice the cop who couldn't open his door because of Carl was parked equally as close to the car to his right. So that cop to his right would have had the same problem with his door as he was having. Maybe a little Karmic justice there.

Yes, I noticed that as well. I wonder how he got out of the car.

Hi gang! You knew me on "that other board" as dtmuller, but just about everywhere else, I'm DTM, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to make it all consistent. Still not in a position to rejoin you, but I'll lurk for a while and who knows?

@DTM said:

Hi gang! You knew me on "that other board" as dtmuller, but just about everywhere else, I'm DTM, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to make it all consistent. Still not in a position to rejoin you, but I'll lurk for a while and who knows?

Hey, dtmuller. It's you! DTM? For a moment I thought we were being observed by the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, or perhaps simply by Dennis the Menace. I bet you're a Distinguished Toastmaster in your free time.

Ha, ha! Apparently we moved to another house, but are still being haunted by the same ghost.

Laugh all you want about my new moniker, but you need to know that in this country, a MAD-PAC would be a political action committee for lunatics!

@DTM said:

Laugh all you want about my new moniker, but you need to know that in this country, a MAD-PAC would be a political action committee for lunatics!

Good one, DT! Actually I checked and there's a thing called MADPAC Golf Outing sponsored by the Michigan Automobile Dealers Association. Or perhaps I should go back to MADP, (Mobile App Development Platform).

Well, at least I'm not mistaken for a member of the Detroit Techno Militia!