The Black Widowers books by Isaac Asimov

I started reading the fourth book in this series today,  which inspired me to write to my sister, who reads a bit of "detective fiction"...and who knows a bit about Isaac Asimov...to see if she had read any of these books. She wrote back and indicated that she had not and asked for more information about them. My first instinct was to pack up the books that I owned and send them to her. But then it hit me that I only owned two of them--the first and the third--so that wasn't very satisfactory. When I looked online to see about purchasing the other four books I was somewhere between surprised and astounded. All of them cost more than I usually pay for used books, and some of them were outrageously priced--$100, sometimes much more. But I had found books two and four at Internet Archive, so I thought I would give that a try. I had no luck at all. I found the two books I had already found there (including the one I am reading now), but none of the other four books seemed to be available. Then I remembered how tricky the index to Internet Archive can be at times. I started trying variations on titles and author, and eventually hit upon one that worked. I compiled a list of the titles and links to Internet Archive for the series to send to my sister. I thought someone else out there might be interested as well, so here you go. 

Oh. And as for background information, here's the short version: The Black Widowers is a group of men who meet once a month to share a dinner. They also invite a guest who is interrogated, usually beginning with the question, "How do you justify your existence?" More than a little bit corny, to be admitted, but it usually doesn't linger there. Inevitably the guest has a problem which the Black Widowers then try to solve. They prove themselves incapable of this, however, and the waiter Henry (who is an honorary Black Widower) then comes in to present the solution. There is little variation from this scheme, yet even after reading 36 of the stories (12 per book), I find myself wanting to read more. One warning, however: Asimov cannot resist allowing misogyny to creep into his stories.  Sometimes he manages to rise above himself to counter that cretinous attitude, but it's still very irritating (and completely unnecessary), to say the least. So caveat emptor.

Tales of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/talesofblackwido00asim/mode/1up

More Tales of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/moretalesofblack0000asim

Casebook of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/casebookblakwido00isaa

Banquets of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/banquetsofblackw00asim/mode/1up

Puzzles of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/puzzlesoftheblackwidowersisaacasimov/mode/1up

The Return of the Black Widowers

https://archive.org/details/returnofblackwid00isaa

DDR: Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored League of the Maritimes 1895 - 1925 by George and Darril Fosty

I heard about this book a long time ago, but the library didn't have it and I didn't want to shell out the bucks to buy it (it's a bit pricey), so it just hung in my mind, Damoclesian style. And then...finally...it occurred to me to try for an interlibrary loan. A few weeks later...

And check this out:

That's a long way for this little book to travel.

When I opened up to the title page, I was surprised to see this:

An autographed edition! Here's the cheapest autographed edition I found online:

Yowza!

So let's go. ix + 235 = 244 pages, so this shouldn't take long.

Day 1 (DDRD 3,058) March 16, 2026)

Read to page 45.

Lots of history and boxing, but not much hockey yet. Maybe mañana. 

Here's an interesting bit of history I'd never heard before*:

"...at the time of the American Revolution, there was no such thing as thirteen colonies. There were actually nineteen--six of those colonies did not agree with the Revolution. Those colonies became Canada." (12)

 * And which I've been unable to confirm elsewhere. 

Day 2 (DDRD 3,059) March 17, 2026)

Read to page 77.

Finally into some hockey. Here's a thing which caught my attention:

"It is...not surprising that aspirating Black Canadians would also see hockey as an acceptable tool for social upward mobility." (67) If you've ever looked at current American sports such as football and basketball and wondered why there were so many black players in these sports, which used to be either dominated by or exclusively White, I think this is the answer.

Day 3 (DDRD 3,060) March 18, 2026)

Read to page 113.

There have been quite a few bizarre proofreading errors in this book. Like this: "...the Sea-Sides would defeating the Eurekas by a score of 4 -2." (87)

I mean...seriously?

Another strange bit of history: "hockey was the first sport to be played at night" (92) because the locals would dig through snow and ice to expose coal lines and then ignite the coal. Very strange! This would make an excellent scene in a film, by the way. I'd better writer to Michael B. Jordan about this. (Michael B., if you're listening, 🤙.)

And then came The Cakewalk. There's a reference to two of the Black hockey players doing The Cakewalk during halftime. I had to look that up...and found some pretty interesting things. For one thing, The Cakewalk looks like THIS. So far as I can tell, it is a parody / mockery of formal White dances, but apparently the White folks didn't understand that, so they liked watching it performed. On plantations during slavery days, the masters would have a cake baked, then, hold a competition for the best cake dance. Whoever won received the cake. And thus we get the phrase, "that takes the cake."

Ta da.

Day 4 (DDRD 3,061) March 19, 2026)

Read from page 198 to 235...the nitty gritty detail stuff. Not actually worth the effort as it's mostly just a series of lists with few details, but I suppose it's for street cred. Reading it now means I don't have to end the book on such a low note. 👌

Pete Hegseth

 

Pete Hegseth just referred to "the new, so-called, not-so- supreme leader of Iran." So...the new Supreme Leader, then.

What a fucking idiot.

The World of Children

 

"...the world of children...so easily opens itself towards something other than that which exists, and which is so full of hope."

Winter by Karl Ove Knausgård 

Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone

I know, I know. I've got thousands of books...and and I've only read about half of them. And I probably only have a decade or so (at best) left on this planet. And the library has tons of books I want to read, including this one.

But in my defense, (1) I have intended to read some Wilkie Collins ever since my Dickens binge, when I found out that they were buds and even wrote stuff together, (2) it was only $4, and (3) who could resist that pulpy cover? Not me. And since I'm struggling a bit...a BIG bit...with Zombie Capitalism (my current DDR)...I thought it might be fun to make this my side hustle. (Well...ONE of my side hustles.) 

So let the games begin.

News as it happens.

Oh, by the way, I went online to see how much other people were selling this book for and was astonished at how many different covers there were. This book has been published many, many times. Check THIS out.

And oh oh...there's also a movie. And the LFPL's got it. (Soon I will, too.)

Breaking News 

I've been taking it slow (as I am also reading Zombie Capitalism, Black Ice, Winter, and five books--four of them religious--with my daughter every day), but I'm enjoying this book quite a bit...and looking forward to watching the movie (which I just picked up from the library today). There have been a few moments whuch brought me up short, though. Such as when the narrator refers to two young, buxom girls as "the Bouncers.) 😶 Or, even more inappropriately, when a group of Indians (dot, not arrow),obviously innocent (can't tell you of what as that would be a spoiler), are kept in jail for a week, Just In Case, and the narrator's only comment on this travesty of justice is, "Every human institution, Justice included, will stretch a little, if you only pull it the right way." Yowza. That's some ice cold shit, man.

And how's this for some real haha?  "The cook looked as if she could grill Mr. Superintendent alive on a furnace, and the other women looked as if they could eat him when he was done." (69) That is really 😁. 

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