Category Archives: Tour

Tour: Inquiries Welcome

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Don

For the Dashiell Hammett Tour I have drifted over largely into doing Tours by Appointment. Kind of inevitable. Easier. Better money. After 45 years, bound to happen. And I still meet people who ask me how many times a day … Continue reading →

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Hammett: More Dashiells

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Don

I did a quick Dashiell Hammett Tour by appointment on Saturday the 18th. Initially the guy had Monday the 13th in mind — you know, the day one of those atmospheric rivers unloaded the agua on the mean streets all … Continue reading →

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Frisco Beat: Up in Spade’s Room

Posted on October 6, 2021 by Don

Thomas Burchfield just put up an article on the late great Bill Arney — especially useful because it first appeared in 2009 and contains lots of info on Bill’s movements in San Francisco. I’d almost forgotten the breakup with a … Continue reading →

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Mort: Bill Arney

Posted on September 29, 2021 by Don

It’s a sad day in Sam Spade’s San Francisco. Got a note from Mike Humbert last night to inform me that Bill Arney died yesterday morning, September 28 2021. As of now, I don’t know what got him. I’m kicking … Continue reading →

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Tour: By Appointment with Drake

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Don

The walk I did years ago for science fiction and fantasy writer David Drake, in town to do a signing in Borderlands Books, came up the other day in a blog from Deuce Richardson. Deuce liked the anecdote Drake told … Continue reading →

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Rediscovered: Sidney-Fryer to Sabato

Posted on June 29, 2021 by Don

The month kicked off with talk about Donald Sidney-Fryer’s book Songs and Sonnets Atlantean and we may as well whip out a Worm Ouroborus move by going out with yet more DSF and S&SA to sign off June. Martin Stever … Continue reading →

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Hammett: The Jeopardy! Roundup

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Don

For fun I’ve been keeping track of the times Hammett or something to do with Hammett (i.e. Sam Spade or Lillian Hellman) popped up on the game show Jeopardy! Kind of a marker of the cultural zeitgeist. Now that the … Continue reading →

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Frisco Beat: A Slice of Life 1979-90

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Don

Our man on the street, Nathan Ward — keeping his eye on the New York scene — sends along his latest find: “I liked this evocation of San Francisco from 79-90 by the novelist Rachel Kushner in the current New … Continue reading →

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Tour: Journal of the Plague Year

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Don

2020, without question, a great year for binge-watching — but taking a moment to think about it, I don’t believe I did any more bingeing than usual (which is to say I am a binge-master, the only trick is tracking … Continue reading →

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Tour: Feeling a Trifle Bookish

Posted on May 18, 2020 by Don

Ah. The Angela Hill article on the Dashiell Hammett Tour I mentioned yesterday turns out to be only one of several articles in a new supplement to the Mercury News titled Bookish. Bookish. I like it. Couldn’t be more apt … Continue reading →

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