Printed Page Bookshop
September 2022

Spoiler alert
We'd missed this story when it happened in 2018, but our friend Taylor Kirkpatrick reminded us of it -- and we thought maybe you, too, had missed it.  So as a public service, we reprint it below.
This is a story of books, spoilers, and cold, hard revenge. 

A Russian engineer working on a research station on Antarctica’s King Island stabbed a colleague in the chest because, allegedly, the colleague kept ruining the end of books he was reading.

The attacker, 54-year-old electrical engineer Sergey Savitsky, had taken to borrowing books from the Bellingshausen Station library to pass the time. The remote outpost reportedly has access to only one television channel and shoddy internet connection.

But, according to an unnamed source quoted in The Sun, Savitsky’s enjoyment of reading was consistently ruined by a colleague who
"kept telling [him] the endings of the books before he read them."

Apparently fuelled by frustration, alcohol, and the station’s challenging living conditions, Savitsky grabbed a kitchen knife in the station’s canteen and stabbed the spoiler-slipping colleague in the chest, injuring the man’s heart.

A St. Petersburg Court heard earlier this month that the attacker had the "aim of murder." The 52-year-old victim was evacuated to Chile for treatment in a stable condition.

Savitsky has admitted to the stabbing but denied trying to kill his colleague. He is facing charges of attempted murder, possibly making this the first instance of attempted murder to have occurred on Antarctica.

The exact reasons for the attack have yet to be confirmed, but this story definitely serves as a warning to all those who are prone to letting spoilers slip…
Source:  Good Reading magazine

 



This Month's Puzzler
On September 15, 1889, this man was born in Worcester,
Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, where he served as editor
of the Harvard Lampoon for two years. Moving to New York City after
graduation, he worked for The New York Tribune, Life magazine, Vanity
Fair, and eventually The New Yorker, where he became an influential drama
critic, a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, and one of
America's great humorists. He eventually moved to Hollywood, where he made
nearly fifty short subject films (he won a 1935 Oscar for his film "How to
Sleep") and appeared in almost fifty feature films. Noted for his wry
sense of humor, he authored some of American culture's most memorable
lines:

"I do most of my work sitting down; that's where I shine."

"Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing."

"Tell us your phobias and we will tell you what you are afraid of."

"In America there are two classes of travel-- first class, and with children."

"Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed be doing at that moment."

"Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it's compounding a felony."

"It took me 15 years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous."

"There may be said to be two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not."

Our mystery man was also skilled at repartee. After lunching at the Algonquin
Hotel one day, he walked through the lobby, out the front door, and said
to the uniformed man on the sidewalk, "My good man, would you please get
me a taxi?" The man immediately took offense and replied indignantly,
"I'm not a doorman. I happen to be a rear admiral in the United States
Navy." Mystery man instantly quipped:

"All right then, get me a battleship."
Who was this man?  (Answer below)

There's a book fair coming in September --
Printed Page will be there (and we have free passes!)

For the first time in three years, a book fair will occur in the Denver area.  The Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair -- in its 38th edition -- will have a new location this year:  the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 500 Fairgrounds Rd., Castle Rock.
The fair will be held Friday, September 9, from 2pm to 7pm and Saturday, September 10, from 10am  to 5pm.
About 50 booksellers from around the country are expected to exhibit.  There will also be two programs:  Karen Jones will present information about protection, conservation and restoration of books and manuscripts, and Taylor Kirkpatrick will lead a panel discussion with some young book collectors.  
We have some free passes, so either drop by the store and ask for one, or let us know where we can mail one.  Each pass is good for two days.



Puzzler answer

Robert Benchley.  If you like our Puzzler, find more on our Facebook page.  
Thanks to Dr. Mardy Grothe for the use of his puzzler.  Visit him at drmardy.com.

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