For the Weekend Warriors, Weirdos & Whackjobs - Issue #115
Hoping your coffee was decent, your week was manageable, and your weekend is brighter than the dark hole we’re crawling out of to write this. Not because anything bad is happening. We’re just well-suited for troll holes.
This week, hitting all inboxes was Soft Launching a Lie, in which Kennedy breaks down a recent trend in social media communications from some of our favourite grifters and conspiracy peddlers. Give this one a read to help you navigate online commentary.
Paid subscribers got early access to Bringing the Blue Screen of Death to Court, a new article from Justin that explores a connection between his days of hacking and his process for reviewing discovery materials in criminal cases. How reverse-engineering security patches teaches you how to find holes in criminal cases, line by line.
Also out to paid subscribers was Volume 7 of High Spirits. This week, we ditch the ghosts and delve into the unsolved death of Cindy James. For years, Cindy reported a harrowing and violent stalking that could never be proved. No traceable phone calls, no physical evidence left at the scenes. But over and over again, reports of horrifying incidents that would eventually lead to an “undetermined” death. Join Justin and Kennedy as they chronicle this case that spanned several years in the 80s.
Justins Recommendation
In our Weirdies #93, I recommended Dan Simmons' Summer of Night - arguably one of my favourite kids vs. evil stories since The King's “IT.” Those are big words around these parts, and I still stand by them. The second book that follows is A Winter Haunting, which follows one of the original story's protagonist who - big shocker - is now grown, and is a tormented writer. We follow him, and the ghost of his old friend, as he picks through the past, the Summer of Night. Simmons has a powerful way of making you think of "that time" in your own life that can make you tense up with fear, or well with tears. A different speed, a different tone, but with ample continuity to its previous instalment, A Winter Haunting is an amazing read for a knee-deep winter day.
Crack a cold one—a Diet Coke, a seltzer water, a freezie (Americans, do you even have freezies?), whatever.
We’ll see you on the flip.
Take care,
Your Bullshit Hunting Crew