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founding

The first words out of my mouth were, “Oh, shit, this is impossible.” Now I’m thinking hard, bu also wanting to scream for Margaret and Susan!!!!!!! (Every one of those exclamation points is justified.)

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Dec 11, 2020Liked by Best Evidence

Wow. How does the student teach the sensei? I'm for real pretty stumped, but here are a couple of somewhat deep cuts that come to mind: The Bath Disaster (book recommendation is The Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing by Arnie Bernstein), the actions and trial of the Catonsville Nine (book recommendation is Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era by Shawn Francis Peters), and my pick for the unsolved mystery I'd most like solved (besides DB Cooper natch), what happened to the Sodder children? (NPR piece from 2005: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5067563). I can't wait to see what others offer up.

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Dec 12, 2020Liked by Best Evidence

Oooh, I will avoid the obvious answers (either "book token" or the secret longer cut of the Zapruder film, taken directly from the FBI vaults); what comes to mind first is a novel - Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time, which may seem like just another period cosy on the outside but has a true crime twist to it that I've never known not to intrigue people. After that, I'm looking for things that may not have appeared on streaming services:

- The Boys (1998): Bleak but astonishingly good Australian feature film, based on a play, based on a real case. Definitely one for real heads only, as it's a tough view, but brilliant

- The Night of Counting the Years (1969): Another movie based on a real story, this is a masterpiece of the Egyptian New Wave, which is set over a 24-hour period in which a crime is discovered, named, and resolved, shown as a microcosm of Egypt's entrance into modernity. Easily one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen, and I think Scorcese did a restoration version

- Incognegro by Mat Johnson, a crime comic book that never got the attention it deserves outside of the comics world (IMHO), a fictionalised version of Walter White's investigation of lynchings for the NAACP

- Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot - even if my recipient read it in school, it's always worth revisiting

- And if in doubt... Songteller, the new coffee table book of Dolly Parton lyrics. Because everyone loves Dolly, and Dolly writes a great murder ballad.

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Dec 12, 2020Liked by Best Evidence

Well, this isn’t a deep cut but I just finished it: American Predator, book on Israel Keyes. It was a very fast read. I have an interest in that case and listen to the podcast too. Recommend if you have interest. Now reading We Keep the Dead Close, got me hooked.

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Dec 12, 2020Liked by Best Evidence

Believe it or not, I spent most of last night thinking about this. I was awake with a rotten sinus infection (I realize this is a privilege during these days of COVID) so that left me with three options: first, mull over the sad state of the world; second, mull over my growing tasks at my office for the coming week; third, think of what I would gift SDB and Eve. Naturally, numbers one and two were completely off the table, which left me free to focus. I realize that we give gifts to others that we would like most to receive. With that said, both of our BE mavens will be receiving a book/film, and a fragrance. Both will also be receiving more new BE subscribers than they can count, so we can be treated to the legal crap show that will be the Theranos trial, should it come to fruition. And now, on to the gifts:

Eve: The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford - in both book and film formats. Why give a book about a Midwestern outlaw to a sophisticated Bay Area resident? Because I love this lugubrious, spare, beautiful and haunting story of how Jesse James came to a predictably bad end precisely since it doesn't end there. You don't really like Bob Ford; he is a coward (the problematic Casey Affleck, who is great). You can't really root for Jesse James even as you see he knows he's basically running out the clock (Brad Pitt not really being Brad Pitt). The closest thing I can characterize this as is a Shakespearian tragedy, with snippets of rough comedy relief from the gang members thrown in (i.e., a Shakespearian tragedy). Don't fight against the pacing, just sink into it and let the director slowly roll you along to the inevitable end. For your fragrance, I am picking from French fragrance house, Juliette Has A Gun, and I'm choosing the fragrance called, Not A Perfume. That's for the sake of Californian's who run around simultaneously stating how perfume disturbs their senses and then follow people wearing fragrance around, dying to know what it is so they can buy it. That's just silly, if you ask me. At any rate, Not a Perfume lends the wearer a certain plausible deniability.

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Dec 12, 2020Liked by Best Evidence

Now for Sarah: I've mentioned this one before, but I would definitely gift it to you, along with a backup, in case you've ready it already - The Lindbergh Kidnapping/Suspect No. 1: The Man Who Got Away by Lise Pearlman. Pearlman is a retired judge (who actually looks really like someone I went to school with) and she has a strong, effective argument to make about little Charlie's health, and reasons for close family members to want him out of the picture. I've dipped my toe into it, and since I'm an admittedly not a Hauptmann person, I'm buying it hook, line and sinker. If that book has already be read, then I am ready with my backup: Year of Wonders: A Novel of The Plague by Geraldine Brooks. But, Claire, you say, I'm already living through a plague, what could this possibly teach me and how could it help me settle my mind? This is an absolutely beautiful book (there are several crimes in it) with reminders to appreciate science and good sense at every turn. You will rejoice that you didn't live during the plague years in Britain, and you will see the light that good people doing the right things can do at any time. (Not to sound like George Bush, but a thousand points of light...) Your fragrance is a classic: Caron's Tabac Blonde, which dates from 1919, when smoking was something that nice girls definitely didn't do. Here's a little blurb: That olfactory trace of a vice-filled night out can bring great pleasure by evoking memories of living for the moment, of drawing in the heat and toasted flavor of tobacco deep into your lungs, of smoky kisses between peaty sips of scotch, and of coming back home too late to bother with removing your makeup.

It's for the Jersey girl in you. I do have a few more stocking stuffers, but it's time for a nap right now!

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