Author Archives: Dazzling Erin

The Covers of Red Mask Detective Stories

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

In 1941, Red Mask Detective Stories had a brief run.

There were only three issues of Red Mask Detective Stories published and the third issue was renamed Red Hood Detective Stories, as if a hood is somehow better than a mask.  From what I’ve gathered, it sounds like it was a typical pulp detective magazine that never broke through.  Even if it had been a hit, it would probably wouldn’t have survived the paper shortages that came with the U.S. entry into World War II.

Red Mask Detective Stories may not be as well-known as some of the other pulps of the era but I like the covers.  Here are the three covers of Red Mask Detective Stories, all of which were done by an artist named Samuel Cahan.

March 1941

May 1941

July 1941

So, I Watched Girls of Summer (2008, dir. by Max Tash)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

I was looking for a baseball movie to help me get over the Losing Season Rangers Blues.

I settled for a softball movie.

I won’t make that mistake again.

Jake McBride (Tom Pilleri) makes a bet that he can turn a group of models into a championship softball team.  The only problem is that none of the models know how to play softball, except for Christine (Sasha Formoso) and Jake’s cousin, Holly (Tarah DeSpain).

Christine and Holly, I liked.  Everyone underestimated them because they were girls and they proved all of the boys wrong.  Plus, Tarah DeSpain was believable as an athlete.  Those were the only characters that I liked.  None of the other models had any personality and Jake was a jerk even when he was doing the right thing.  Who is dumb enough to bet that much money on a softball game?  The humor was frat boy humor and the movie looked like it was filmed on someone’s phone.  A League of their Own, this was not.

Girls of Summer did not make me feel better about the Rangers currently being 50-63 for the season.  In fact, it made me feel even worse because, as bad as the model were, they at least had a winning season.  But then I remembered that the Athletics were 41-73 and I felt better.  One good thing about the AL West is that, even when the Rangers aren’t having their best season, there’s usually at least one other team doing worse.  Go Rangers!