S6E4 The Death That Jack Died

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. Some episodes are original stories, others will be classics that helped shape the mystery genre we know today. All are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes (unless it's really bad)For Season 6, Jack and I have again decided to go ad-free. I do this because I love mysteries, Jack does it because he loves me. Jack maybe a starving college student but it’s because… We do ask you support the writers of our show. This week it’s Ed Teja. Check him out on his website and social, buy and read his stories, help other readers find him. Make writing for Mysteries to Die For the best decision he could have made. In your review, tell him Tina and Jack said ‘Hi’. https://edteja.com/This is Season 6, Things that Go Jack in the Night. This season contains truly imaginative mysteries around one of the most common words in the English language. From the brandy distilled from hard cider known as applejack to that nefarious one-eyed jack, to the animals, vegetables, fruits, tools, weapons, and slang, the way the word “jack” is used in the English language is truly unique, inventive, and too numerous for me to count. And yes, it is also the name of my piano player and producer. For Episode 4, Jack Be Nimble is the featured jack. This is The Death That Jack Died by Ed TejaFor More Ed TejaFrom author Ed Teja, if you like salty adventure, with crimes as varied as the people on the waterfront, check out Martin Billings. The ex-Seal runs a Caribbean freighter with Ugly Bill, managing to get himself dragged into mysteries, conspiracies, and an ocean full of trouble. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H1YVB59If you like lighter mysteries, check out Matt Cramer in the Surreal Southwest. He’s a private investigator in the little town of Silver City, New Mexico. As one reviewer said about AN IMPOSSIBLE ABDUCTION: “Missing people, aliens, witches, shaman and ravens … all rolled into one weirdly comical fast moving novel.” https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GMPYQX7ABOUT Jack Be NimbleThe rhyme is first recorded in a manuscript of around 1815. The song was recorded in a collection by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century called English Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales.[1] It seems the rhyme had two inspirations. One was an English pirate from the late 1500s named Black Jack Smatt, who lived in Jamaica in Port Royal. He was an infamous pirates of the Caribbean who was notoriously smart, quick and nimble to escape from authorities. Which was a good thing as those authorities wanted to capture and hang him.The Jumping candlesticks, as it turns out, was a form of fortune telling and a sport in England. Good luck was said to be signaled by clearing a candle without extinguishing the flame. https://www.firstcry.com/intelli/articles/jack-be-nimble-nursery-rhyme/#:~:text=This%20famous%20rhyme%20refers%20to,to%20capture%20and%20hang%20him.https://allnurseryrhymes.com/jack-be-nimble/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Be_NimbleABOUT The House that Jack BuiltAlso an English nursery rhyme. The first known printing was in the 1755 book Nurse Truelove's New-Year's-Gift, or the Book of Books for Children. It is suspected the rhyme goes back much farther. James Orchard Halliwell suggested the reference in the rhyme could date it back another 200 years. There are several variations on the poem. Here’s on with the last, fully built stanza This is the horse and the hound and the hornThat belonged to the farmer sowing his cornThat kept the cock that crowed in the mornThat woke the priest all shaven and shornThat married the man all tattered and tornThat kissed the maiden all forlornThat milked the cow with the crumpled hornThat tossed the dog that worried the catThat killed the rat that ate the maltThat lay in the house that Jack built.With a rhyme as classic as this, it’s still being been drawn into modern culture. The late, great Aretha Franklin put her spin on Jack and his house in 1968. Metallica took it a different direction in 1996. Three films borrowed from the rhyme, the most recent was the 2018 psychological horror film by Lars von Trier. It had 60 rotten tomatoes with a consensus that said the movie is hard to ignore and, for many, just as difficult to digest.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_the_House_That_Jack_Builthttps://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_house_that_jack_built_2018https://www.metallica.com/releases/albums/load-album.htmlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMmda5FA8NA (Aretha Franklin)ABOUT Ed TejaFind Ed at https://edteja.com/Ed Teja is a writer, a poet, a musician, and world traveler. His stories and poems are about the people and places he knows, odd corners of the world that often disappear into the margins, and the amazing, often strange, people he meets while moving between the cracks.Living as a boat bum in the Caribbean and on the Spanish Main, he earned his living playing blues in waterfront bars, working as a deckhand for charter skippers, and freelance writing. The life brought him in contact with quirky characters and developed his appreciation for twisted stories.MysteryRat’s MazeMystery lovers, have you heard of Mysteryrat’s Maze podcast. Lorie Lewis Ham and Kings River Life Magazine bring you mystery short stories, and first chapters of mystery novels, read and brought to life by local actors. To listen to the episodes, and subscribe to the podcast, you can go to mysteryratsmaze.podbean.comWRAP UPThat wraps this episode of Mysteries to Die For. Please do support our show by subscribing, telling a mystery lover about us, and giving us a five-star review. Check out our website TGWolff.com/Podcast for links to this season’s authors.Mysteries to Die For is hosted by TG Wolff and Jack Wolff. The Death That Jack Died was written by Ed Teja. Music and production are by Jack Wolff. Episode art is by TG Wolff. Join us next week for a Toe Tag, the first chapter of a fresh release in the mystery, thriller or crime genres. And be back in 2 weeks for Episode 5 One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King by Erica Obey