Lesser of 2 Weevils Productions

01/12/2024

Happy December everyone. It’s the first Sunday of Advent. All 25 episodes of Yes Virginia, This is a Podcast are still available to stream for free on Soundcloud.

Listen to Yes, Virginia, This Is a Podcast by Lesser of 2 Weevils on

19/11/2024

The Box of Delights which we talk about in episode 1.09 of YVTIAP is due to be repeated this December on BBC4, as well as receive an imminent Blu-ray release.

The wolves are running again this Christmas.

31/10/2024

“The Night Wire” feels both of its time and also amazingly fresh, vibrant, and scary. Published in 1926 in Weird Tales, as noted by editor Aaron Worth (the collection is a British Library one with the eponymous title of this story), it’s a “chilling precursor to the malevolent fogs conjured up later by James Herbert, John Carpenter, and Stephen King.” Ashley should have also added “War of the Worlds” (1938) and Ghostwatch to that list, in my opinion. It’s the story of a wire services newsroom, when half-dozing human operators took down the breaking news, before they would eventually be replaced by teletype machines. A veteran wire man works solidly through the wee hours of the morning, receiving one normal news wire and one . . . not so normal one. Good night out there, whatever you are, and happy Halloween!

Original art in manip by Marjory Collins - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs divisionunder the digital ID fsa.8d22711.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34067930

30/10/2024

"They had no choice. Where would they get money? Eh? Where would they get money?"

If you want terrifying and bleak, then this is the story for you. It’s written by a Romanian writer and set in Transylvania, but don’t be expecting any vampires. What’s waiting at the bottom of the disused mine is much worse than that. It’s a very contemporary story, pitting supernatural terrors alongside the mundane ones of poverty and economic depression.

Original art by Neoclassicism Enthusiast - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131820030

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons

29/10/2024

Every year, it takes me approx. 10 hours to write reviews and make these art pieces (not including the time to search for and read the stories). It took a few seconds for Perchance.org AI art generator to make this image when I fed it some text from this short story. I think I like last year’s uncanny M.R. James image much better.

An uncharacteristic Benson story and one of his scariest, in my opinion. In Switzerland, the narrator speaks with his friend Professor Ingram who encountered on the Horror-Horn mountain horrible Yeti-like creatures. The narrator then himself encounters the creatures in a hair-raising sequence. Switzerland is a reasonably frequent setting for a Benson story, given he was an avid sportsman and many of his characters are skiers.

28/10/2024

Horror stories are sometimes argued to be conservative in their philosophy, since evil-doers get punished by supernatural means and the status quo is restored. However, there are plenty of horror stories where bad things happen to good people. And this is one of those stories, where Tara’s compassion actually becomes her undoing. It was inspired by a real-life event that happened to author Christien Boomsma . . . though let’s hope a lot of artistic license was involved. It takes place on a road outside Rotterdam on an ordinary evening . . .
Original art in manip by Julián Monge-Nájera - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107361411

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons

27/10/2024

“Now this is Christmas time—a gloomy period for all concerned. It is an unwarranted impertinence for anyone to make it yet more gloomy.”
It is well-documented that I love everything I read by Hugh Walpole, and this absolutely delightful story is no exception. It falls into the category of the cheerful and pleasant, even amusing, haunting, and it’s our last respite before we get to the really scary stuff. Set three days before Christmas in London, probably in the early 1930s, the ultra-modern Winsloe family turn up their noses at such a dreadfully old-fashioned, Victorian holiday. That is, until jilted suitor Tubby meets a very strange man at a bus stop. Although Tubby and his family don’t identify the warm-hearted, energetic man, eagle-eyed readers will put two and two together quite rapidly. But that doesn’t spoil the enjoyment and humour of this charming story.

Original art in manip by Jon Curnow, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53373748

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons

26/10/2024

After a short absence, we return to the kwaidan, Japanese ghost stories, gathered by Lafcadio Hearn in the late 19th century/early 20th century. This is a very short but satisfying story, which explains why no one liked to go up the Kii-no-kuni-zaka in Tokyo after dark. It’s one of those stories that offers false relief from terror in order to pull the rug out from under you.

Original art in manip by Tanapat user - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133402515

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons

25/10/2024

You may recall that I recommended “Thurnley Abbey” by Perceval Landon previously, a story that made such a strong impression I remember exactly where I was when I first read it (on the Overground platform at Canada Water). This story is quite different. Despite an elaborate frame story set in Rangoon (now in Myanmar), the story actually takes place in Nebraska. It’s one that’s worthy to be examined in Jeffrey Sconce’s Haunted Media book, as it takes the uncanny object of the telegraph and uses it as one half of a puzzling situation that station-master Silbermeister finds himself in when the navvies’ pay is locked up with him overnight.

Original art in manip by SMU Central University Libraries - https://www.flickr.com/photos/smu_cul_digitalcollections/15759165275/, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53273557

And by Unknown author - Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152637633

24/10/2024

“Kathy had to be fed.”

Greye La Spina, like Margaret St Clair, was publishing in "Weird Tales" at roughly the same time, though she was somewhat older than St Clair. Born F***y Greye Bragg, her third husband was Robert La Spina, Baron di Savuto, and she was his carer and the family’s sole breadwinner, taking on a variety of occupations, including bookkeeping, typing, and designing tapestries as a master weaver. It’s this final, unusual occupation that informs this original and very creepy story. Lucy, a buyer in the linen department of a Philadelphia department store, is ostensibly on vacation at Mrs Renner’s farm in Pennsylvania Dutch country. In point of fact, she is doing some unofficial investigation into the disappearance of Cora Kent, a co-worker. Think of “The Antimacassar” as J.S. LeFanu—with a decidedly female-authored, American twist. It would make a great radio drama.

Original art in manip by Internet Archive Book Images - https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14779684394/Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnee01caul/dictionaryofnee01caul /n171/mode/1up, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43420401

23/10/2024

“Mater Tenebrarum” is just a story about a girl and her dog . . . through a very dark Gothic horror lens. Apparently Pilar Pedraza’s best-known story, it had never appeared in English before it was published in The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories Vol. 1 in 2020. Ángela sleeps in open graves and does a witch’s dirty work, but she has ambitions. Most of all, she wants to learn magic and to command a Hand of Glory. With pooch Lupo by her side, she takes body parts from the executed and freshly dead. This story isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s difficult not to become invested in Ángela’s and Lupo’s fates.

Original art in manip by N O E L | F E A N S - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131038385

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons

22/10/2024

Again, it’s quite surprising that I didn’t read Dickens’ most famous ghost story (rather than novella) until last year—much anthologized, much adapted. (In case you’re interested, the two best radio adaptations are . . . Inspired, in part, by a recent train accident in which Dickens had been involved, the atmosphere and dread built up in his story are considerable.

Original art in manip by Petar Milošević - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66451413
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

21/10/2024

Benson is obsessed with characters named Hugh. I think 20% of his stories have a main character named Hugh. This is one of my favorites (the narrator gets saved by his friend Hugh), though, and I even had a dream about it. I would not be surprised if “Bagnell Terrace” had inspired “Pyramids of Mars” (there is much talk in it about walking in eternity) and possibly was influenced by Richard Marsh’s "The Beetle." There are some great images in it and a mysteriousness that is never wholly dissipated, despite the happy ending. Benson’s sister was a celebrated Egyptologist, and as we work through his “best of,” we’re going to come across several stories with elements from ancient and (then) contemporary Egypt. For all that, though, the Egyptology in this story is not particularly accurate—but it is definitely atmospheric. In common with several of Benson’s stories, the narrator covets a house in his restful backwater of Bagnell Terrace in London. But what if the current owner doesn’t want to ever leave?

Original art in manip was This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60877224
This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60930955
And by No Swan So Fine - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114333938
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

20/10/2024

“You have to be born somewhere, right?”

The narrator’s voice in this story is just amazing—the story feels far too short after we’ve been taken on a madcap ride from her privileged upbringing in Dakar to her meeting her husband in Paris to her stoned, alcohol-fueled vision of bogeyman Leuk Dawour. This is also a very scary story! It originally appeared in "Nouvelles fantastiques sénégalaises."

Original art in manip by Issiaga_Photography - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=130103384
And by Alexander.Kaplunovsky - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89057167
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

19/10/2024

I don’t honestly know how John Connolly’s "Night Music: Nocturnes Vol. 2" ended up on my Kindle. It may have been recommended to me by Amazon’s oppressively pervasive algorithms. Nevertheless, I am enjoying his stories, though many don’t necessarily fit my definition of “spooky.” However, this one certainly does, and I think it’s original in its setting and its combination of Gothic with science fiction. Two thieves, Fender and Knight, take advantage of the air raid sirens during the London Blitz to make off with belongings taken from ruins and houses left standing alike. Fender in particular has no qualms taking jewellery from the dead and dying when a bomb wends its way down the ventilation shaft into a basement ballroom in the Café de Paris. But have they met their match in Dr Lyall?

Original art by H. F. Davis - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/2015/sep/07/blitz-london-september-1940, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91614034
and Prospero Alpino - OriginalYuriNikolai - Variant - Historiæ Ægypti Naturalis, Leyde, apud Gerardum Potuliet, 1735. Pars secunda, sive, de Plantis Ægypti. Cum observationibus. at MadridVariant - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119978348

18/10/2024

“ 'It does the same,' she whispered, gulping. 'It wasn’t the machine at all. It’s the place—itself—that’s haunted.'”

I first came across Bernard Capes some 20 years ago and have read his short stories in anthologies from time to time since then. This story, from 1906, deals with the gendered work of the typewriter operator, who, like the telephone exchange operator, tended to be female. It was one of a handful of occupations for respectable women. When you start reading the story, you get the awful feeling that the narrator, a London doctor, entertains nefarious designs on the hard-working and vulnerable Phillida Gray, the orphaned typist-for-hire, and you will feel a little less queasy when you realize his son is head-over-heels in love with her, and that the narrator is only exercising his compassion. Indeed, Capes’ message in the spooky tale would have been a cautionary one, as well as a scare, to his original audience, not to exploit the at risk typists like Miss Gray—and the mysterious Miss Rivers.

Original art in manip by Anonymous - The Business Educator (https://archive.org/details/businesseducator08zane/page/n45/mode/2up?view=theater), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117029639

17/10/2024

Published in the weekly periodical "Bow Bells" in 1871, the narrator, Sydney, has just proposed to and been rejected by Florence Bradlaw, and receives a rare opportunity to find out what would happen if he was able to become independent of his uncle, Squire Orton, and marry Florence after all. Be careful what you wish for.

Original art in this manip: This file was contributed to Wikimedia Commons by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University Library as part of a cooperation project. The donation was facilitated by the Digital Public Library of America, via its partner Illinois Digital Heritage Hub.Record in source catalogDPLA identifier: 37ea4ce9e8574ee5e40bd5c48743ca12, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125014630

16/10/2024

By rights, maybe James Tiptree Jr.’s fiction doesn’t belong in spooky stories. The well-developed alter ego of the incredibly interesting Alice Sheldon, Tiptree Jr.’s prolific science fiction output was mainly a product of the early to mid-1970s. Yet, I include Tiptree because I first found out about him through PseudoPod’s production of “The Screwfly Solution,” a good story, a great adaptation, and definitely a piece of horror fiction. Tiptree’s work inescapably dealt with questions of gender, which is why this story (unfortunately, titles were not Tiptree’s strong point) can be considered horror, as its implications are utterly horrifying. To say too much more would ruin it. Tiptree is definitely worth your time.

Original art in manip by strangebiology - 138318928@N02/51549911581/," rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/138318928@N02/51549911581/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132284745
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
And by Cameron Cassan - cropped from Dancer Silhouettes. Explored, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10611704