Mom's Taxi #1

Lindsay Baird crammed the duffel bag into the back of the hatchback of her car. She then went back in the house and came back out carrying a yellow and red cooler of lemonade. She closed the hatchback and, again, went back into the house. Four girls sat at the kitchen table, all of them had a bowl of cereal, glass of orange juice, and a plate of toast.

“Girls, the game is in 20 minutes. Eat faster,” Lindsay said.

“Thanks for letting me sleep over last night, Ms. Baird,” one of the girls said.

“You’re welcome, Maddie, but ‘eat faster’ did not mean to stop eating and talk to me.”

“Sorry,” Maddie jammed a massive spoonful of cereal into her mouth, milk dripping down her chin.

“She got to spend the night?”

“Georgia…” Lindsay sighed.

“Why couldn’t I spend the night?”

“You night fart too much,” one of the twins said.

“I do not, Brooklyn,” Georgia whined.

“Girls. Come on, we have to go,” Lindsay said in a loud voice.

In the car, Brooklyn sat in the passenger seat while the other three girls sat in the back. Georgia was sitting behind Lindsay. A few blocks from the house, Georgia began kicking Lindsay’s seat. She giggled as she did it then started saying “Kick.”

After a minute or so, Lindsay looked in the rearview mirror. “Can you stop kicking my seat?”

“It’s not us, Mom,” Karmen said.

“I know, Karmen. I’m talking to Georgia.”

“It’s not me, Mrs. B,” Georgia said. “Kick,” she kicked the seat.

“Well, you’re sitting right behind me and saying ‘kick’,” Lindsay said.

“No, I’m not,” Georgia responded. “Kick.”

Lindsay sighed. As she approached 32nd Street, she saw the orange and white of construction blocking the road. She sighed again, angrily this time. “Eff,” she muttered.

“I know what you wanted to say,” Georgia piped up.

“We all know, Georgia,” Lindsay said as she made a right turn.

“Fu--”

“Georgia!” Lindsay snapped. Lindsay drove a couple blocks until she came to Alexandria Street. She turned left and kept driving. Over the course of the next mile, the scenery changed and the pavement ended.

“Mom, what’s going on?” Karmen asked, looking at the odd trees that suddenly lined the deteriorating road.

“I don’t know. The road was fine a few seconds ago. There’s no room to turn around,” Lindsay looked around and stopped the van. “What is going on?” she echoed her daughter.

She got out of the van and looked around. Something was different and it wasn’t just the odd-looking plants and trees. The air smelled different and felt different as she breathed. The sky was also different--a darker blue than she normally saw.

Georgia opened the door and got out of the van. “Are we lost, Mrs. Baird?”

“We’re not lost, Georgia. You girls stay in the…” the van door slammed closed and all four girls were now outside the van “...van…” Lindsay sighed.




“We can’t hold the game anymore,” one of the referees shouted at Christine Hetrick, Georgia’s mom, at the soccer field. “Either put in four of your benched players or forfeit.”

“But there’s a reason we keep them on the bench,” Christine said. She turned around and looked at the girls sitting down. “Get on in there. Go ahead and have fun because we definitely aren’t going to win this game.”

“That’s inspiring,” one of the girls sarcastically said.

The game began and while it wasn’t completely a slaughter, they were beaten 7 to 4. All through the game, Christine tried to call Lindsay but each call went directly to voicemail. Even the calls she made to Georgia . Toward the end of the game, she called another number.

“Christine?” a man answered.

“Hi, Andrew.”

“Hey. How you doing?”

“I’m good. I have an odd question. Have you seen Lindsay?”

“Not since our last custody trade-off with the girls last month. I’m not exactly Lindsay’s favorite person right now.”

“So you haven’t seen Brooklyn or Karmen either?”

“A week or so ago, but not today,” Andrew started to sound worried. “Is something wrong?”

“They were supposed to be here for a soccer game.She had Brooklyn, Karmen, Georgia, and Maddie with her. She hasn’t shown up and the game is almost over.”

“What field are you at? I’m on my way.”




Lindsay drove down the deteriorated path a bit until it virtually disappeared. It became little more than a footpath skirting the edge of a forest. On the other side of the road was a large plain of grass. Lindsay parked, turned off the van and got out which caused the four girls to get out as well.

“What do you say, girls? Do we keep driving? Do we turn around? There’s room to do that now.”

“Turn around,” Karmen said, her voice shaking.

“I say we drive up that hill,” Brooklyn pointed at a pointed hill in the plains. “See where we are.”

There was a sudden rustling in the forest next to them. Everyone turned and looked. It rustled again.

“I say we just get away from here,” Maddie said.

“Those birds are weird,” Georgia pointed to the sky.

“Those are bats,” Brooklyn corrected.

“They’re birds. They have beaks,” Georgia scoffed.

“Something’s not right,” Lindsay whispered to herself.

The trees rustled again and parted. A light blue creature appeared. It was a blue like a blue jay with small wispy feathers but very reptile-like.

“No…” Lindsay breathed. The creature was slightly taller than her and seemingly just as curious about her and the kids as she was about it. “It can’t be. This can’t be real.”

“What is it?” Brooklyn asked. Karmen had gotten back in the van.

“I know this sounds weird but,” Lindsay swallowed hard and stuttered. “I...I think it’s a dinosaur.”

Sidekicks

Wichita Eagle article, Dec. 28, 1887.

The Kelly family owned a ranch about ten miles from the town of Oak City in Seward County, Kansas. From all accounts, they were a respectable family--father William, mother Kate, and their children Bill, age 20, and Kit, age 18. Being along the main road, travelers through the No Man's Land area of Kansas would often stop at their ranch for some food and a place to stay. In December 1887, the Kellys suddenly disappeared, abandoning their ranch and left for parts unknown.

Shortly after leaving, a group of men searched the ranch and found in the cellar ten bodies in various states of decomposition. Modeling their mode of killing off of the Bloody Benders of Labette County, the either William or Kit, a fairly attractive daughter, would engage the traveler while Kate would fix dinner. At the appropriate time, a spring would be released to a trap door sending the man into the cellar where the family could rob and then kill him, if the fall hadn't done that already. It was believed that the Kellys were heading for Mexico with their riches and a posse was quickly formed.

Unlike the Benders, the Kellys were caught up to. A skirmish occurred about 50 miles south of Oak City. Kate, Bill, and Kit were killed there--either shot or hanged depending on the account--but William was able to get away. Three hours later, the posse caught up with William and, after a quick gun fight, was strung up in a tree. He confessed to his and his family's crimes of robbing and killing nine men and two women. The posse strung William Kelly up in the tree again and then waited until he was dead.

Like Abbott and Costello

Like Sonny and Cher

Like Martin and Lewis

They're the perfect pair

Like Laurel and Hardy

Like Fontaine and Lunt

They're perfectly mismatched

They're Veeblefester and Brutus

Why did Brutus immediately go to a crime-fighting superhero duo? It's bad enough he mentioned those other duos. Honestly, if I had to choose from this list, Brutus and Veeblefester are definitely Frodo and Sam and which is which depends on where in the movie you are.

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The Sword In the Ceiling

My wife got a Rocketbook Everlast notebook at work earlier this week. It's something that you can write in, scan the pages to upload somewhere and then erase the page with water and a towel. I decided to try it out so I wrote a quick one-page story and then scanned it to my Google Drive. It worked pretty well.

Not an actual scan.

I would like to use it more because I like being able to hand write my stories and then I can just dual-screen from Google Drive or Evernote in order to type it. We'll see what happens but so far, the Rocketbook does what it's supposed and wiped clean like it says. No complaints so far. And now, The Sword In the Ceiling. Except for spelling, this has not been edited.

The door was open when I got home, which was odd. I know I closed and locked it this morning when I went to work. I walked inside and saw everything as I left it with one exception.

A sword was sticking out of the ceiling. The handle, a gold bejeweled thing, glimmered in the sunlight coming through the window. It looked like a real sword--a valuable sword which made its presecence in my home even stranger.

I went through the house just making sure everything was as I left it and that the sword and the door were it.

I grabbed the handle of the sword and pulled it out of my ceiling. I looked at it and how new but yet antique it looked. During my search of the house, I never found a sheath so where was I going to put this thing? I guess I could hang it over a doorway or something.

Why would someone break into a house and jam a sword into the ceiling? That's a question I don't really want to know the answer to.

I took the sword and placed it in a chair. I sat down and turned on the TV. I flipped around the channels until I saw the sword on a local news channel. "...Anyone with information on the missing medieval sword should contact law enforcement."

Tank N Tummy #5

Ryan and Aaron were working when Harvey came into the store. Harvey was the manager of the Tank N Tummy but was otherwise absent in its day-to-day operations and opted to let his two assistant managers do all the work.

“Hey, Harvey, it’s been awhile,” Ryan welcomed.

“Hello, new guy,” Harvey said to Aaron. “Hello, idiot,” he said to Ryan. “Where is moron?”

“Dominic has off today,” Ryan answered.

Harvey grumbled something. “I’m cleaning out the back room. You never know when you will need a place to hide out or to sleep when one of your wives discovers one of your other families.”

“What?”

“Have this cleaned out by the end of the day,” Harvey instructed.

“I thought you were going to clean it out,” Ryan said.

“Why? I’m a big picture person. You are little picture--teeny-tiny picture. Cleaning out the back room is little picture work. Just throw everything out by the end of the day. I will be at the motel if you need anything. Don’t bother me.”

Ryan glanced in the room and his eyes went wide. “Uh, Harvey, can we keep whatever’s in here?”

“Sure, sure. Just don’t bother me.”

“Why would you want to keep anything in this junk room?” Aaron asked.

“Not just anything. That,” he pointed at an arcade machine collecting dust in the corner. “I loved playing that when I first started working here.”

“Polybius,” Aaron read the game marquee. “Never heard of it.”

“It’s a very rare game,” Ryan began. “Only a few were made. Last I knew, only three. This is worth a fortune. Harvey probably doesn’t know what he has here and even if he did his brain is probably riddled with syphillis. I wonder if it still works.” Ryan noticed it was still plugged in. He reached around back and flicked a switch and the game came to life.

In the middle of the screen was big yellow bubble letters that read POLYBIUS. In the top corners were the scores. Hi-Score: 535530 and Score: 000000. Underneath the logo was ‘Player 1 Start’ and then the high score again with REC next to it.

“Well, it still works.”

“I still have the high score,” Ryan gasped.

“What’s the E stand for?”

“Everett.”

Aaron held in a laugh.

“Shut up. Help me get this thing to my apartment.”

“That’ll take all day. We’re supposed to be cleaning this room out.”

“Pfft. Harvey probably won’t even remember that he asked us to do this when we see him again. Now help me.”

Aaron grabbed the side of the arcade case and began trying to shuffle it away from the wall. He gave up after a minute. “Ugh. It’s like dancing with my cousin. We need to unplug it,” he started bending down to pull out the power cord.

“Wait. Won’t unplugging it delete my high score?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out,” Aaron pulled the cord out of the wall.

“Wait!” Ryan screamed.




Dominic walked by a brick wall where two kids were standing with their heads in their hands. As he walked by, the bald kid in the baseball cap sighed loudly.

“What’s wrong, kid?” Dominic asked.

“We have a baseball game today but we need a grown-up coach or we can’t play.”

“That’s too bad. I’m not doing anything right now so I can help you. Where’s your team?”

“At the ball field. Come on,” the kid in the baseball cap led the way. The other with messy hair was dragging a blue blanket behind him. When they got to the field, the other players of the team were waiting. “Gather round everyone. We got ourselves a coach.”

The kids all clamored in agreement. Dominic looked at his team. The bald-headed kid, the kid with the blanket, three girls, a boy covered in dirt and dust, and a dog. There were also a couple other non-descript kids that Dominic felt were just as strange. “Uh, why don’t we introduce each other…?” Dominic began. “I’m Dominic Hall and I guess I’ll be your coach today.”

“Great to have you. I’m Charlie Brown. I’m the pitcher and manager. This is Linus, Lucy, Schroder, my dog Snoopy, Shermy, Pig-Pen, Frieda, and Violet,” Charlie Brown introduced, going down the line of players.

“You have a dog on your team. And apparently the inside of a used vacuum bag?”

“Snoopy is possibly the best player we have and Pig-Pen just is what he is,” Charlie Brown explained.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter what you look like as long as you can play. Let’s get into position and we’ll see what you can do.”

It was the weirdest sight Dominic had ever seen. Linus could catch the ball with his blanket, Pig-Pen usually lost his way in a cloud of dust, Lucy couldn’t hold onto the ball if her life depended on it, and Snoopy, definitely the best player on the team, caught the ball in his mouth.

“Charlie, this is the strangest thing. Half of you are really good but the other half is just god-awful. Do you have any secrets to motivate the more bad players? Charlie?”

Charlie Brown was silent.

“Charlie. Charlie?”

“Who are you talking to?” Charlie Brown asked.

“You.”

“Oh! You kept saying ‘Charlie’ and I was like ‘Who’s Charlie? I’m Charlie Brown.’”

Other kids and parents began arriving. “I guess we’ll just have to do the best we can,” Dominic said.

“Mr. Hall, can we forfeit?” Frieda, a red-headed, curly-haired girl who played right field came up to Dominic.

“Why?”

“I’m afraid that the sun will take the curl out of my naturally curly hair,” Frieda lightly touched her hair.

“Oh my God,” Dominic sighed, closing his eyes.




“See? The score is still there,” Aaron said after he plugged the machine back in. “It probably has a battery back-up to save some info.”

“That’s good. Let’s call Joey and have him bring over a truck and handcart,” Ryan said.

Joey arrived less than 15 minutes later. “That was fast,” Aaron said.

“I’m kind of surprised they let you leave work so early,” Ryan commented, leading Joey to the back room with the game.

“I just left. What’s the worst they can do? Fire me?”

“Yes,” Aaron answered.

“So what are you doing?”

“We’re trying to get this arcade game back to my apartment.”

“Should be pretty easy,” Joey shrugged. “Get it onto the handcart, load it into the truck and then we’re up.”

“It will not be that easy. Moving stuff like this is never just an up and out job. Mark my words. We’ll be here forever.”

About an hour later, Ryan plugged in Polybius in his apartment. The marquee lit up and Ryan’s high score flashed on the screen. Ryan started playing. It was a simple game where you are in space trying to catch indescribable things in a basket that was on a circular track.

“Well slap my face and call me Kate,” Aaron said. “I can’t believe we got that game on the handcart, in the truck, across town, and up three flights of stairs within an hour.”

“Anything is possible as long as you have friends,” Ryan said. “Now get the hell out of my apartment.”




Back at the ball field, Charlie Brown’s team was up to bat. “I can’t believe the score is 12 to 13 and our best batter is up,” Violet said.

“But Charlie Brown is on third and we have two outs,” Lucy fretted. “You don’t think Charlie Brown will try to steal home do you?”

“Not even Charlie Brown would be that stupid,” Violet said.

I wonder if I should try to steal home, Charlie Brown thought while standing on third base. I could be a hero. I could tie the game and be the hero. Here I go, Charlie Brown leaned off the base. Here I stay.

“What’s Charlie doing?” Dominic asked.

“Who?” Linus asked.

Dominic rolled his eyes. “Charlie Brown. It looks like he’s going to steal home.”

“That blockhead better not,” Frieda said.

“No, he’s seriously considering it,” Dominic stood up.

Here I go. Don’t be a coward. Just go. Zoom. Here I go, Charlie Brown thought then paused. “Here I stay…”

“Stay there,” Dominic shouted at Charlie Brown.

I just gotta go. I’m going to be the hero. Just dance around the base for a bit to confuse the pitcher and then… “Take off!”

Charlie Brown took off down the baseline, headed to home plate. “Charlie is trying to steal home,” the kids all stood and shouted. “Slide, Charlie Brown! Slide!”

Charlie Brown took a dive and a cloud of dust erupted around him. When the dust cleared, Charlie Brown was on his back. Lucy was looking down at him. “You blockhead,” she said.

“Was I out?” Charlie Brown asked.

“Out? You didn’t even get halfway home,” Lucy yelled at him.

“We lost the game because of Charlie Brown,” the other kids cried. They all walked away leaving Charlie Brown alone on the field.

“Seriously though,” Dominic looked down at Charlie Brown, “you should’ve stayed on third like I shouted to you. Blockhead.”




Night had fallen. Charlie Brown was still on his back at the baseball field. “Rats,” he said.

Rock of Love With Brutus Thornapple

I finally went by my local comic shop and picked up the new The Man of Steel miniseries. I've been caught up on everything Superman that's happened over the last couple of years. It's been really good and I'm glad that the Superman that dozens of people worked so hard on over the course of 20 years is back. I made the goal of starting back up reading Superman with Action Comics #1000. That led into Brian Michael Bendis' miniseries The Man of Steel.

Even casual readers of Superman may remember the title The Man of Steel as the name of the 1986 miniseries by John Byrne reinventing Superman for the modern age. While this The Man of Steel doesn't quite do that, it still sets up a lot of storylines that will continue in the regular series Action Comics and Superman. So what happens? Not a lot but yet, quite a bit. So let's go over it and see what happens. This review will have spoilers but I will try to be as vague as I can. Also, there are some things I have not gotten to in the collected editions so if I seem like I don't know what's happening, that's probably the reason.

We open on Rogol Zaar saying that Kryptonians need to be eradicated, that they are a virus. I'm not a huge fan of being retold Superman's origin and this doesn't necessarily go back over but adds the additional detail of Rogol Zaar being the reason Krypton exploded. I understand that you are writing Superman but it's getting a little tiring seeing these over-muscled creatures try their hand at defeating the Man of Steel. Since Lois and Jon aren't even around, it doesn't even create the drama of them being in Zaar's path. What happened to Lois and Jon? We'll get to that in minute.

Superman is also dealing with a string of arsons that have been happening around Metropolis. It's dealing with one of these fires that Superman meets the new deputy fire chief, Melody Moore. It's one letter more than LL so I'm guessing Bendis is trying to make this new character more important in Superman's now family-less life. Melody, who I like as a character, is helped by Superman and Batman in figuring out who is starting the fires. It's revealed at the end of miniseries, at least through a witness, a young boy, that Superman has been setting the fires. This may seem a bit strange but we've seen before that Superman can't handle extreme stress as well as one would think. Shortly after Superman executed the Kryptonian criminals, he suffered a mental breakdown where he took the name Gangbuster and fought crime and after that exiled himself from Earth. After the battle with Rogol Zaar, the death of all the Kandorians, the destruction of his Fortress of Solitude, the possible shut-down of the Daily Planet, and the loss of Lois and Jon could be taking its toll on old Clarky making him act differently. Maybe Deputy Fire Chief Melody Moore can help comfort him.

Rogol Zaar wants to rid the universe of anything Kryptonian. As I mentioned, Zaar has destroyed the Fortress of Solitude and murdered everyone in the bottle city of Kandor. His next target is Superman, Supergirl, and the Earth itself. The Supers are able to distract Zaar just enough to send him into the Phantom Zone but we don't actually get any answers as to why Zaar hates the Kryptonians so much or how he is responsible for Krypton's destruction. Supergirl is going to find out but for now, we'll have to wait until the regular series. But what happened to Lois and Jon?

Lois and Clark got married way back in 1996 and, despite all odds, remained married that whole time. Sure, the New 52 Superman wasn't married or even dating Lois Lane, but somewhere out there they were still married. They even had a son together, Jonathan Samuel, after Clark and Lois' fathers, who is now exhibiting powers of his own and fighting crime as Superboy. Going through the past issues, I really love how Jon is written. Both Dan Jurgens and Peter Tomasi did an excellent job with this character and I do think that Bendis also did a good job, what little we see of him. Mr. Oz, Jor-El, Superman's father, has returned and wants to take Jon in order to educate him on the universe. While Lois and Clark, rightfully, say no, Jon speaks up and says that he needs to learn about the universe, himself, and his powers because of a future he saw where he killed millions of people. Lois and Clark acquiesce and Lois even goes with Jor-El and Jon. The three of them leave and Clark is left all alone. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal but fans of the supermarriage are worried this is Bendis' way of getting rid of the marriage and Lois and Clark's child. Numerous writers are on the record saying that the marriage between Lois and Clark doesn't work. Maybe Bendis just doesn't want to deal with that aspect of Superman which is fine but surely Bendis understands that lots of people are invested in these three characters and want them back together. I'm sure it will pay off in the end and I'm excited to continue reading because The Man of Steel did leave me wanting more.

Brian Michael Bendis was originally a Marvel boy. He had runs on Daredevil and Alias (you may know it as Jessica Jones) and both of his runs on those series were amazing and both I consider my favorite runs on a series. I'm hoping that Action Comics and Superman continue the page-turning stories that I felt The Man of Steel did wonderfully and that we see Lois, Clark, and Jon reunited soon.

The six-part miniseries The Man of Steel, is by Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, Jay Fabok, Joe Prado, Doc Shaner, Steve Rude, Ryan Sook, Wade Von Grawbadger, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, and Alex Sinclair and is on sale now. Superman #1, by Bendis, Reis, and Prado is on sale July 11th. Action Comics #1001, by Bendis and Patrick Gleason is on sale July 25th. Published by DC Comics. To locate a local comic book shop, call 1-888-COMIC-BOOK (1-888-266-4226).

I don't know what modern TVs are like. The TV I have I bought back in 2010 or 2011 and it still has buttons to manually change the channel. Is that something that TVs don't have anymore? If Brutus' TV has buttons then keep the remote and change it to something you want to watch because I get that Mother Gargle is a guest in your home but it is still your home.
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You may have noticed a bit more content this week. I was bringing attention to Ko-Fi and that there are no longer ads but also giving just a bit more than just the comics and stories. If you contributed to Ko-Fi then thank you very much. If you would like to contribute and support my writing and research then you can still and always buy me a cup of coffee on Ko-Fi. Feel free to Like the Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram and Twitter. I'm taking next week off to focus on some writing. So until next Sunday, I remain...
~Brian

Running Man

Heathcliff

Heathcliff likes to inflict psychological torture on his victims before he eats them. "Yes, I will eat you. The bib says so. But you won't know where and you won't know when."

Crock

Speaking of psychological torture, Crock here is writing a letter to his beloved mother who is apparently imprisoned in a nursing home and is practically daring her to try to escape her prison.

I wonder how many kids saw today's Crock and couldn't read it because it's in cursive. Who am I kidding? Kids don't read Crock. Only middle-aged Internet writers do.

Arlo and Janis

Is this a poop joke? Yeah, it's a poop joke. Hey, Arlo and Janis, leave the poop jokes to Marvin.

Seriously? Over 25 years?

Hagar the Horrible

Why is Lucky Eddie carrying the dog?

Six Chix

Hmm. She came to life. Good for her.

It appears that the artwork is coming alive. This happens from time to time. I, for one, welcome our classical masterpiece overlords.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not

WHY WOULD ANYBODY WANT TO TRAIN A SPIDER TO JUMP??!!

The Born Loser

"Actually, it's taken me years. Oop! That reminds me, I have to do the next lap today."

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The Report

On April 26, 1856, an advertisement appeared in the Kansas Weekly Herald, a newspaper out of Leavenworth.

Wyoming, is the name of a new town recently laid out on the Great Military Road, leading from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Fort Riley and other Government Ports at the crossing of Ogden creek, in the midst of a rich country abundantly supplied with water, timber of all kinds, and a superior article of Stone Coal.

It is 45 miles west of Leavenworth City, within ten miles of Ozawkee, ten of Indianola and six miles north of Kansas River.

The Lots, Streets and Alleys have been laid out on the most liberal scale, with a view to the conveniences and comfort of settlers.

Many valuable lot have been set apart for public buildings, churches, school-houses, &c. The enterprising Merchant, Mechanic and business man will find it to his interest to visit Wyoming before locating elsewhere, as to such men the most liberal offers will be extended.

The Stockholders are determined to spare neither trouble or expense in making this an important inland point, and with their energy and means they confidently hope that Wyoming will soon become a town worthy of their united efforts and the beautiful region that surrounds it.

A Public Sale of Lots will be made during the Spring, of which the public shall be duly advised, until then but few shares will be disposed of.

Persons desiring further information can obtain the same by applying to the undersigned, Trustees of the Wyoming Association, or to Eastin & Adams, of the Kansas Herald.

Wyoming appeared on early maps, pictured above on a map from 1857, but never made it to the kind of town the advertisement hoping it would become. It's listed in the ad as being in Jefferson County but the map above shows Wyoming in Calhoun County, which is now northern Shawnee County. It was probably named for the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania and was out of existence by 1861.

Today, Wyoming would be located along 70th Street between Kincaid and Sherman Roads along Muddy Creek on the Shawnee/Jefferson county line. If anything existed in Wyoming, nothing remains of it now.

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On the plus side, it's only a one page report so it can't be too important or terrible. But really, let's talk about Veeblefester's picture of himself on his desk. It's been awhile since we've seen it. I'm glad to see it back.

Because of Cupid

In August of 1857, an ad appeared in the Lecompton newspaper The Kansas National Democrat detailing a scheduled auction of 400 lots in the town of Wheatland. According to the ad, Wheatland was located along the Santa Fe Trail where the roads from Leavenworth through Lawrence to Fort Scott via Paola and Osawatomie met. The biggest clue for where the town of Wheatland was to be located is that it was where Henry Pate fought John Brown, Black Jack Battlefield.

1857 map of Douglas County showing Palmyra, Prairie City, and the Battle of Black Jack

Following Brown's Pottawatomie Massacre, two of his sons were taken captive. The Battle of Black Jack was an effort to get them back. Brown's men were able to overpower Pate and his men and Brown assured their release if his sons were also released.

The town of Black Jack was incorporated in 1857 which makes one wonder if Wheatland was an early name for Black Jack. The auction for the 400 lots was postponed twice in September and then there were no more mentions of Wheatland. Did it become Black Jack or did the town fail before it even began and Black Jack is a wholly separate town? A post office was in Wheatland from July 1856 until November. Black Jack would get its post office in March 1858.

First advertisement for the Wheatland lot auction from the
August 5, 1857 issue of the Kansas National Democrat.

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I have a problem with it, too. I'd rather see Brutus and Gladys get divorced and Brutus move into the basement and then slowly go crazy and then become close friends with a stuffed rabbit that Wilberforce gives him. Who here gets this reference?