Founded in 2017, Strange Times is a twice-monthly newsletter that explores the weirdest news of 1921, one day at a time. To get free games and the original PDFs of every article that runs in Strange Times—plus stories that didn’t make the cut—back me on Patreon.

To Kill a Cook

I’m currently going hell for leather finishing the third draft of the sequel to TO KILL A COOK, which is tentatively titled DEAD AS DIRT. Without giving anything away, I just wrote a description of a stained sweatshirt that felt really sharp. Make sure you’re all caught up by preordering TO KILL A COOK today.

Things I Like

1. The Lancaster Stormers! We spent a few days last month in Lancaster, PA, and my favorite part of the trip was going to watch the local independent minor league team with my 7.5 year old son. The Stormers’ ballpark is gorgeous, right in downtown, easy to park at and easy to navigate. They have a carousel to keep kids entertained, plus a berm for them to roll down when things get slow. Also we split an excellent milkshake. These are experiences you could have at many minor league ballparks around the country and since the season isn’t quite finished, you should probably try to get to a game before it’s too late.

2. Promise Mascot Agency! An intensely goofy video game about a Yakuza enforcer trying to pay off a ¥12 billion debt by running an agency that rents out mascots for corporate events…set in a universe where mascots aren’t people in suits but their own distinct species. Strange and funny and surprisingly moreish, it’s the most fun new game I’ve played in months.

3. Late Summer Mornings! My kids are back in school now and I’ve been relishing cool, bright morning air, when the low humidity makes the whole world feel like it has crisp edges. Good for running or walking or taking pictures or just sitting outside and breathing deep. Those of you in the northern hemisphere should take advantage of it while you can.

Today we have a severed nose and more tomato drama. Blame the children on…

August 16, 1921

• President Harding goes nearly unnoticed as he slips out for a jewelry shopping expedition in Washington’s downtown.

• H.G. Wells places the blame for the Soviet famine on the Western powers whose armies destroyed the Russian rail network during the recent Civil War, saying that “the vacillating cruelties of transatlantic policy are largely responsible.”

• Johns Hopkins English professor Dr. John C. French declares his support for jazz, saying that the popular style has sparked a general interest in music among the student body.

• The Weather: Fair today; tomorrow, increasing cloudiness, probably followed by showers.

Hell of a lede! I’m instinctively in favor of renters when it comes to disputes with the landlord but, at the risk of sounding reactionary, you can’t go around biting off noses.

PARIS, Aug. 15.—When a landlord at Lille called for his rent his tenant, Jean Batiste Caillaux, bit off his nose. For doing so Caillaux was yesterday sent to prison for three months and fined 100 francs.

Accord to the landlord’s story, he had had trouble for some time past about collecting the rent from his tenant, and the agent having failed, he went himself to do it. From words the two passed to blows and from blows to a wrestling match , in the course of which Caillaux got his teeth well into the other’s nose and bit off a considerable piece. That stopped the fight.

Caillaux was considerably embarrassed by his mouthful and spat it out on the ground, whereupon the owner of the nose made a grab for it. Carrying it in his hands, he ran to a doctor and got it successfully sewn on again. Then he went to the police station and lodged the complaint against his tenant that caused him to be sent to prison.

More on the tomato-tossing that tore Astoria apart!

All Astoria society is divided in two parts, those who think Mrs. Madeline Le Compte Roose threw the tomato at Adele Campbell and those who say she didn’t. The faction headed by Mrs. Roose, who is the wife of Charles Roose, a metal broker, and who lives at 109 Woolsey Street, declare that a shower of tomatoes descended promiscuously over Woolsey Street one day last week, the result of a battle between neighborhood boys, and that a particularly ripe one disintegrated near Miss Campbell.

The friends of Miss Campbell, who is the daughter of Peter P. Campbell, Secretary of the Queens Republican Executive Committee, and who lives at 105 Woolsey Street, insist that the vegetable was thrown by Mrs. Roose and not by bad boys. When testimony was taken in the case before Magistrate Miller last Friday he found Mrs. Roose guilty of throwing the tomato, but withheld sentence until yesterday, instructing Probation Officer Hammil to make an investigation.

Mrs. Roose came to court yesterday strikingly garbed in black silk with white polka dots, accompanied by her husband and many friends. She was represented by William J. Morris, a partner of ex-District Attorney Denis O’Leary, who appeared for her on her previous examination.

“We ask that passing of sentence in this case be postponed,” said Mr. Morris when Magistrate Miller called the case yesterday in the Long Island City Police Court. “We desire to ask later for a reopening of the case in order that we can present newly discovered evidence. I desire to state to Your Honor that a number of the leading residents of Astoria have been communicating with me since this case was decided and they desire to give evidence in this case. Mrs. Roose did not throw that tomato and we can show it by further evidence to the satisfaction of Your Honor.” Attorneys representing Miss Campbell did not object and Magistrate Miller set Sept. 21 as the date for passing sentence.

“I have been kept busy answering telephone calls in reference to this tomato throwing,” said Mr. Morris as he was leaving court. “A well known society leader of Astoria was driving through Woolsey Street about the time that Miss Campbell says a tomato dropped near her, and this woman has made affidavit that one of the ripe tomatoes struck the windshield of her automobile and splashed all over it. She saw the tomato thrown by a boy and she stopped her car and ran after the boy.

“Another well known woman was walking along the street and she was hit in the eye. She says she saw the boys throwing before she was hit, but, of course, she didn’t see anything for some time after she was struck. We are going to produce all this testimony.

Mrs. Roose left court with her husband, and as she did so a photographer attempted to get her picture. She started a game of hide and seek with the photographer in and out among the automobiles parked in front of the Court House. Finally she reached her own limousine, jumped into it and pulled down the shades.

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