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

Publishing trade outlet Kirkus Reviews has a reputation for extremely high standards, which made it particularly gratifying to hear how much they loved To Kill a Cook. To wit: “The often comedic unexpectedness of each twist in tandem with Akers’ scrupulous attention to period detail and to the character portraits work together to create an uproarious romp of a novel that is as memorable as it is satisfying. A delectably unhinged mystery served with wit, bravado, and a generous splash of gourmet chaos.”

So if you’re looking for a delectably unhinged mystery served with wit, bravado, and a generous splash of gourmet chaos, preorder today. Or tomorrow, I guess. That would be fine too.

Things I Like

1. Mecember! This has been an extremely challenging year capped off by an extremely busy autumn. When I turned in my last assignment for my MFA last week, I decided that the rest of the month is going to be “Mecember”—an attempt to recharge before the onslaught of the holidays and the January gloom. Here’s how it works: Every day I’m trying to do some shit for me. That could be a nap, a trip to the museum, a little TV, some Europa Universalis V, a nap, some bread baking, or a nap. Basically all the stuff I normally do but 20% extra. And you can join in the fun! Here’s how it works: the next time you’re on the fence about doing a little something for yourself, just say “It’s Mecember!” and take the plunge.

2. 1812! You know who didn’t have much of a Mecember? The soldiers of Napoleon’s Grande Armée, who died by the hundreds of thousands during the Emperor’s catastrophic invasion of Russia in 1812. I just tore through Adam Zamoyski’s 1812, a history of that spectacular catastrophe that uses first person diary accounts to throw down page after page of the most horrifying shit you’ve ever read. In case you need another reminder that war is really, really dumb, it’s worth a look.

3. Frozen Paratha! And speaking of frozen stuff, if you’ve got an Indian grocery store in your neighborhood, I recommend grabbing a package of frozen paratha to leave in your freezer. Two minutes a side and you’ve got a crispy little beauty that will liven up even the saddest leftovers.

Today we’ve got four short stories of found women and lost rings, begoggled Germans and mysterious boys. Hop a ride on a taxi or a bird or a zeppelin or an ambulance on…

August 23, 1921

• Assistant Attorney General Colonel Guy D. Goff denies there is any such thing as a price-fixing “coffin trust,” saying, “There’s nothing in it. We never heard of such a thing.”

• At a Moscow conference, the Women Communists of the World outline plans to draw more women to the cause, including by “spreading intelligence on the ideas of birth control and other advanced sociological theories.”

• French bathers at Deauville introduce a new fashion, wearing artificial eyelashes whose color matches the woman’s outfit.

• The Weather: Fair today and Wednesday; moderate temperature; moderate northeast and east winds.

The last sentence really turns this one on its head!

Mrs. Antoinette La Rue Kane, whose disappearance Saturday afternoon was reported to the police and turned into a kidnapping by the tale of a scrubwoman, returned to her home at 243 West Twenty-second Street yesterday morning and said she had been spending the week end with friends. She went to work as usual.

The first Mrs. Kane knew of her reported kidnapping, Detective McGee said, was whens he read that a woman had seen her dragged into a taxicab. McGee said she told him she had left her husband.

Honestly that sounds more like crow behavior. I contend that the pigeon was framed!

A pigeon saw a sparkling object on the window sill of Miss Rebecca Bernstein’s apartment at 1807 Lexington Avenue yesterday morning, seized it and the white ribbon attached, and flew to its nest on the roof of a nearby building in 112th Street.

Patrolman Widener, directed to the nest by a neighbor after Miss Bernstein’s screams as the bird soared away with her property had attracted a crowd, climbed the fire escape to the roof and pillaged the nest, depriving the pigeon of a diamond ring Miss Bernstein had been wearing slung about her neck.

This item included mainly for the second sentence of the first paragraph, which is as good as any ever written in English. As Strange Collective member Henry Giardina says, “Walter Kron, we salute you. When they say be gay do crimes, they’re talking about you."

ROME, Aug. 22.—The German Zepelin Bodensee, sister ship of the Nordstern, ceded to Italy as a war prize, has arrived here after an air voyage from Friedrichshafen direct to Rome, a distance of 600 miles, which it covered in twelve hours. A stowaway in the form of a German tourist, begoggled and carrying the customary German camera and binoculars strapped over his shoulder, succeeded in making a cheap trip to Italy airwise.

His name was Walter Kron, and when he was discovered by the Italian crew he explained that his purpose was to get a free trip to Italy. He was placed under arrest in Rome and was handed over to the military police.

The Bodensee, before landing at the hangar at Ciampino, just outside the city, circled around Rome, where all the inhabitants could get a good glimpse of the latest Italian prize of war. It is 400 feet long and is driven by four motors of 260 horse power each. It has a lifting capacity of ten tons and can make eighty miles an hour. It was built for commercial purposes and is equipped to carry twenty-two passengers.

This is one of those that’s not nearly as amusing as the Times thinks it is. This kid sounds like he’s got a concussion, not insanity, and the description of the symptoms is so plain that I actually looked up the history of concussion diagnosis to confirm that it’s something they knew about in 1921. They did!

TRENTON, N.J., Aug. 22.—A mania for riding in ambulances is believed by physicians to account for three trips to Trenton hospitals in the last week by 15-year-old Anthony de Lapso. On Wednesday the boy was taken to the Mercer Hospital, having been found in an apparently dazed condition. He said that he had been struck by an automobile. An X-ray examination failed to discover any injuries. On Thursday, apparently only semi-conscious, the boy was taken to St. Francis Hospital and found all right. Last night he made his third trip, having been picked up in an apparently dazed condition, though no injury or evidence of illness could be found. His father, Peter de Lapso, said that he would have him committed to the State Hospital for the Insane for examination.

This is the book for you!