Good morning. My name is Eduardo. Again, I work for PsyLabs. And I'm here to give a quick update on what's new on singularity since last year. So we had Michael Bauer last year here at Poser and at the HPC track. So I'm here to talk more about what's changed since that day. So a quick brief history for the people that doesn't know about singularity. It was invented by Greg Corsair in the National Laboratories back in 2015. In October, around something about October. People asking really how can they take their own environment from their desktops, their workstations to the infrastructure cluster. The first really released like the 1.0 was some point around April of 2016. And thanks to user feedback and open source contribution. And that's kind of when I started to contribute to singularity also. It got into 2.0 in June of 2016. But after that things are going pretty, pretty fast. And Greg founded PsyLabs last year in January. And we are now around 28 engineers. And working day by day making singularity better. And trying to get user feedback on how can singularity help them do their work faster. And this talk is going to be focused around a release 3.0 that was released in October last year. And comes with a lot of new features, more stability for users. And a new language update so open source contributions can jump in easily than it was before 3.0. So a quick thank you to all the open source supporters for singularity. Last year we won three HPC wire users and a little choice award at super computing. And we know that it's thanks to all you guys. So really thanks for the support. And this is all the people and institutions right now using singularity on production systems. And giving back contributions to the open source singularity. So once again thanks to you for these awards. So this is a gear update on singularity. And the next slide is going to hit half or more of half of the people here. And it's go. So singularity last year was a monster that was like bash, Python, C. And they kind of talk each other. It was really hard for a new open source contributor to jump in and start contributing to singularity from the user's point of view. From the stability point of view, Python was giving us a lot of dependency issues when trying to move singularity in between systems. And also the third reason was people were asking to integrate singularity with all the cloud tools out there that HPC people are really trying to leverage. Things like Q&A, things like cloud native tools. So in order to interact easier and more natively with those tools, we start to consider moving to go to the point on which some point around February last year. We started a whole rewire of the code. And now singularity is Python free. And it's a cgo project. So it's mostly go code. We are only using ccode for the security bits like doing the system calls and interacting with the kernel. But all the rest is made in go. So I always try to get new people into singularity. And I think go is a language for new people. There is really easy to just jump in, read some lines of code, understand the language, of course, and start helping with open source contributions. What do we like? A part of the integration with the cloud native tools out there is the concurrency model go as a developer. It's really easy to track threads and it's really easy to know what's happening with your code at runtime. And the last line I'm going to show you in our next slide. What is CNI? It's the container networking interface. So with the 3.0 version of singularity, you can start doing poor mapping and network visualization. We've faced some challenges. So if you are following the singularity open source, it was quite of a year moving a code from bash and Python and taking that to see. So the first main point was choosing cgo interface. I know in the go world a cgo is still opinionated, but it's really needed when you're trying to do security bits and system calls and you need to control them from a cpoint of view. Because all the ccolors here know that c gives you the entire control of the system. We are following the go standards on packaging.  We are using rendering. So this third line is when we say we are Python free, because right now if you do a clean git clone, you can start making stuff without bothering or having all the Python dependencies. And if you have Python 2 or Python 3 and the failure that we were having with some users already in a newer person of Python trying to compile singularity some point around two years from now. So this is really nice now that you can just do a clean git clone and start building singularity because everything, the rendering folder is there. So all the dependencies are already in the repo. Packaging. Building a cgo project that complex as singularity took us to overthink how autotools work because autotools is too complicated for things too much complicated but not as complicated as a go project. Go is kind of easy to build. So one of the engineers designed make it. So if a homemade tool for building RPM and depth packages, the depth is still under work, but you can right now jump into the singularity project and start building your RPM and distributing the RPM package. Differences that we are already seeing against Python is we have a lot of APIs and ecosystems out there that we can start leveraging out of the box. So one of the main releases this year is that singularity right now can interact with Kubernetes. So if you go to the side lab git group, you can see a CRI repo and that CRI repo is really how singularity can integrate with Kubernetes. So thanks to go because it gave us just the native API for Kubernetes and we can just start talking to Kubernetes. Go test. So I'm part of the QA team of singularity and this is really nice. And we were talking about test and doing just batch test. We are moving our simple batch test from the 2.x version into a more complex and a more robust way of testing singularity. So if you see singularity right now on the test portion, we are doing unit testing and integration testing, things that were not happening in the 2.x version. 2.x version was only doing integration testing and not testing at the level of unit testing. So by leveraging Go, singularity is more robust project now because it has a bigger and robust test suite. It's very easy and productive as a developer to write in Go. So rather than trying to understand how the batches script raises some environment variables, Python rate it, and code C, which was the 2.x version, but right now you can just understand everything by reading the Go code. So it's a single file of Go versus trying to open a batch, Python and C file and understand what's happening between those three files. Go is very opinionated. I know I told you that that slide was going to choke some of the people here, but we are already seeing people trying the 3.0 version of singularity and production and it's very stable and I encourage you to try it. One of the big changes a part of moving from Python C to Go is the image format. So right now singularity is using its own image format called SIF, Singularity Image Format versus 2.x, people familiar with 2.x, it was you could use EXT-3 images or SquashFS images. So for 3.0 we are using a homemade image format and that gives us a lot of new features. So you can store metadata in the headers. So you can see it as a tar file but optimized for container usage. So you can store your SquashFS image in the big object in the middle. So it's a read-only image. But rather than just storing the SquashFS image you can also store metadata in the headers that you can see here. And upcoming maybe in 3.2 or 3.3 version of singularity we are going to have a writable overlay that is going to be apart from the signature block. So on the next slide I'm going to show that also in 3.0 you can sign with PGP protocols your containers. So you can sign your containers and send those keys and the container to a friend, to a peer reviewer and they can check that the image is immutable and hasn't changed during the sending or maybe someone switched it for another image on the way. So we are very proud of our new image format and as a developer also if you are maybe like an ECBU or tools like that you can start leveraging the metadata in the headers to tell the scheduler to tell your runtime how to use that root file system that is in the middle in the SquashFS format. So what's new in 3.0 on the cloud side? So right now users can have a container library so this is apart from Singularity Hub so people familiar with Singularity Hub which is supported and maintained by Stanford and I guess you all know Vanessa. SILAPS right now has a container library which is optimized for SIF. So you can only pull and push SIF images because it's just for the 3.0 and above you cannot push images from 2.x versions. We have our remote build service so a lot of users were telling us yeah Singularity is good, I want to jump into Singularity but my university, my institution doesn't allow me to have pseudo even in my workstation in my laptop so how can I start building my own images and testing my own images before giving them to the system admin? So if you are running into this issue you can go into the SILAPS white page and give us your definition file and we are going to give you back your SIF file without a pseudo need. And last but not least the key store service so you can now sign your containers as I was telling you but when you want to move those keys between hosts you can use the SILAPS key store service for free and that way you can sign your container, let's say in your workstation tell your system admin about your keys and he's going to be able to verify that that container comes from XYG user. So I'm going to show it here how it looks. So this is the SILAPS web page and you can see up there sorry I'm facing you. This is the library, the remote builder and the key store so this is how the library looks I'm signing a SILAPS ad, this is my login and we have some statistics here from different users and how are they pulling and pushing their containers and this is the remote builder so I was telling you you can drag and drop your definition file into this black and to this white box or you can start writing your definition file here and you build it and we are going to build it for you here with a light output from the cloud infrastructure where this is happening and after all this we're going to give users direct download so you can just click and download your singularity image and start using it or if you don't want to click that link we are going to give you a library link so your image is going to be stored here so you cannot download it because you just want to build the image and then pull it from the cluster or pull it from another host so this is how an image looks when stored in the container library and this is the key store as you can see here I have two keys stored and I can use these keys to sign containers on my host and then share those containers with partners, peer reviewers and they can verify that that container comes from me with a PGP based key ok I was showing you this this is how interacting with the library looks so it's really easy, singularity 2.x had the pull CLI but not the push so 3.0 introduced push command so you can push your container into the cloud you can create tokens that this is via web UNI and you can also from the CLI search containers public available in the library so we have private images and public images as github as other so this search command is only going to work for public available images so let's say you are interested in pulling a quick OVUN to a quick Fedora image and you don't want to type library that does slash slash something something Fedora you just go in singularity search for me a Fedora image singularity search for me a OVUN2 image and we are going to retrieve to you all the public available images that are OVUN2 or Fedora a base image this is how users can interact with the remote builder also from the CLI so rather than changing all the CLI we just added a small flag is does-remote so if you know that you don't have pseudo-privileges in your post you just run singularity build does-remote and the rest is the same and you can just point to your definition file and we are going to build that for you in the cloud from the CLI so there's no need on going into the web page to use the remote builder you can use the remote builder from the CLI for doing this you do need one GUI step which is the create token so you need to go to the web page and create your token that's hard to do from the CLI the key store this is how users can interact with the key store from the CLI so it's really easy if you don't have a keeper already in your host singularity is going to talk with the PGP protocol already in your hosting create some keys for you you can list keys you can have several keys not just one key but several keys storing the singularity a key folder you can push them and you can also search keys as you can search for images so I have three minutes moving away from cloud functionalities users can now do network virtualization so you can now do poor mapping set hostname, DNS, create bridges for a while with network virtualization with singularity containers so we are seeing users back in super computing I see some really nice use cases on deploying web services through singularity and doing poor mapping to do remote visualization of our GPO clusters so this is a pretty powerful tool for users security, this is mostly for system admin, singularity is always trying to give more power to the system admin to control the users system admin can now add capabilities or remove capabilities depending on the user allowed or not allowed set UID for users and keep privilege so this dash privilege can make users run singularity inside, singularity crazy things like that and a security bid that encourage you to read the documentation on how system admin can enhance singularity documentation from the CLI also we have CGRU support this feature requires running by pseudo but you can now block or limit the CPU, the memory the IO, everything that you can block using CGRU you can now block your singularity processes out of the box and one minute sign and verify, so I was telling you showing you the key store that you can now sign and verify what the CLI looks like when running a sign and verification on your singularity images okay, I was going to show them but I'm, okay and the last thing that I'm going to show which is something I really like is this file so this file is mostly for system admins so you can now create whitelist or blacklist for keys so you can say in this cluster all the singularity images must run sign it and you can create whitelist and blacklist so you can say in this cluster all images sign it with this and this and this you can create list keys are going to run and let's say you fire some user, you fire some student from the infrastructure, you can add them to the blacklist and just say okay this student key will not run even if he is trying with pseudo-privileges singularity is going to block that image from running via this configuration file, so this configuration file is really powerful for system admins on blocking and leveraging the sign and verify feature of the 3.0 version and with one minute questions and we are hiring, we are really interested in getting more developers, people with HPC knowledge, with system related knowledge so if you are interested in being a container person talk to me after this, oh no yeah I switched them, yeah because we already had a singularity one-on-one here at FOSM so the committee really asked me to be more an update than just a one-on-one so that's why, not yet so a question here is that if you can install the cloud services of singularity on premise, like in your own cluster that feature is coming some point around let's say after August, September so we are working on that, keep an eye on the singularity report, that feature is coming we are working on that, so you can install the library, the builder the key store in your host, not depending on your infrastructure


Well, Matt, see some people grow up and they change. Others send their colleagues in Congress nude photos of women that they've slept with today. You just listened to a snippet of Cenk Yugar and Annika Sperian of the Young Turks interview with Congressman Matt Gaetz, and the whole interview was very contentious, but things really went off the rails when they began to press him on his election denialism and he didn't have good responses, which is when he resorted to insulting them and it just deteriorated from there. So let's listen to a little bit more. What I care about is if your friend Donald Trump wins in 2024, we might never have another election because he's an obvious pathological liar, doesn't believe in democracy, didn't want to leave even though he lost the election, and you know it. Cenk, the last time you were on the ballot, you got 4% of the votes. So what, what does that have to do with anything that we're talking about right now? Okay, Matt, if we're going in that direction, listen, you had sex with a 17-year-old reporting to allegations and you asked for a pardon. Hold on. You asked for a pardon. You asked for a pardon. Why did you ask for the pardon? Yeah, why did you ask Trump for a pardon if you didn't break any laws? I've been overwhelmingly reelected.  Cenk, you're getting to see what a congressional victory party looks like and that's something that might be a novel experience for you. Why did you ask for a pardon for having sex with a 17-year-old? That isn't something that even happened. You're like reading into an anonymous internet conspiracy and it's really sad because in my district, the voters saw through that and my state were overbooked. Did you ask for the pardon? That has all been debunked. I've addressed it. President Trump has addressed it. And by the way, you should look at your own comments about women that cause Bernie Sanders to unendorse you. Imagine being so aligned with Bernie Sanders that he would endorse you. But he has to pull his endorsement because the things that you said were so... Yeah. Well, Matt, see, some people grow up and they change. Others send their colleagues in Congress nude photos of women that they've slept with today and were hated by members of their own party, which their first You know, but I appreciate you coming on to answer our questions. People who told those lies are going to be... They were not lies, Matt, and you know it.  We're going to focus on inflation. We're going to focus on the border. We're going to focus on investigations and the result is we're going to win in 2024. Democracy will be fine and you guys will still be crying on the young You never answered the question. Did you sleep with the seven to you? Absolutely not. That has been totally debunked. And by the way, more women have made accusations against Joe Biden that have made accusations against me. We've talked about them. You should be really proud of that. Well, if my number is zero, you can't even keep Bernie Sanders endorsement and Joe Biden doesn't exactly have a clean record himself. So we're pretty happy here in the Sunshine State, one Miami-Dade County, one my district. Looks like the House and Senate will flip and eager to get to Washington to get to work. That was something.  And this is my genuine reaction the first time seeing this. Okay, Matt, if we're going in that direction, listen, you had sex with a 17-year-old from your allegations and you asked for a pardon. Hold on. You asked for a pardon. You asked for a pardon. Why did you ask for a pardon? Yeah, why did you ask Trump for a pardon? Why did you ask for a pardon? You didn't break any laws. Damn.  I've watched a lot of TYT interviews and they always hold their guests feet to the fire. But I didn't actually expect it to just straight up devolve into an argument. And I've got to say it was really entertaining and it was nice to watch Matt Gaetz squirm because he was desperate to try to find some way to insult Cenk and he kept bringing up the election laws. But you lose.  When they're talking about your alleged sex trafficking of a minor, bringing up his election laws, that's nowhere near as embarrassing as what they're blasting you for. But he doesn't quit, which leads to them bringing up that investigation again. And he just doesn't get it.  So he says the last time you were on the ballot, you got 4% of the vote as if that disqualifies Cenk from speaking about the election conspiracy theories by Donald Trump. You want to know what Cenk did when he lost? He conceded the race. That's what you're supposed to do when you lose this election, when you lose elections in general. But Trump didn't do that in 2020. And that's what he's asking you about. But since you don't have a justifiable reason to doubt the election, you just result to insulting so that way the topic changes. But it got worse for Matt Gaetz because they didn't just continue to press about the election. They started to talk about the sex trafficking. So that was a bad move for him to begin insulting them. Also, he called the allegation an anonymous internet conspiracy. The allegation is not an anonymous internet conspiracy theory. The Justice Department under Trump started to investigate Matt Gaetz. Joel Greenberg, his wingman and friend, was convicted. So you can't with a straight face claim that that's just an internet conspiracy theory when every single person knows that that's false. It's just really embarrassing. He also brought up how Bernie Sanders unendorsed Cenk. Okay, still not as embarrassing at all as what you're dealing with currently. And that was a bad move for Bernie Sanders. I was against Bernie Sanders doing that. But Cenk Uger, in this next clip that we're going to see, I think that he hits back with a pretty devastating point about why the Democratic Party establishment rejected Cenk, but the Republican establishment is accepting Matt Gaetz. By the way, there was one difference between us. The Democratic Party did not support me because I am against their corruption.  You couldn't even hold Bernie. He endorsed you and had to unendorse you. Like, do you think Bernie is on the establishment of the Democratic Party? He's not even a Democrat and he left you on the side of the road with your 4% of the vote. Matt, I don't care about my personal career at all. I told Bernie to do that. I actually wanted Bernie to win that election really badly and I didn't want to get in his way because I care about policies. I care about higher wages. I care about everybody in the country getting health insurance. I care about them getting paid family leave. I care about them getting child tax credit. What I heard from you tonight is, when you guys win, you're not going to do anything about wages. You're going to make sure that people do not get any help in other categories that I just mentioned. No, wait, just one note for me. The real evil is Medicaid. Be fair. Which is what you guys say. The real evil in the country is Medicaid. We're talking about the American people. We're going to get some for the Republican majority. All right. Matt Gaetz, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. This is fun. Yikes. Now, I made this point on Twitch and I'll make it again here. Ask yourself this question. What would you rather be made fun of for? Losing an election or being accused of sex trafficking a minor? I think it's no contest. I'd rather take the L on the election. So this was such a bad look for Matt Gaetz. And I'm glad that this interview took place because it was very embarrassing for him. And I've got to address the controversy surrounding this whole interview. There were a lot of people who were angry that TYT decided to platform Matt Gaetz. And I disagree with that. If they were going to give a softball interview, then I would disagree with them platforming him.  And without TYT's contentious interviews, we wouldn't have the notorious pastor in like 2008, circa 2009 of TYT, where they talked to him because he claimed that they were putting gay semen in Starbucks coffees. And that's why people were addicted to drinking Starbucks.  I kid you not. So Pastor Manning, how many cents for overall from your descriptions here? You think that being gay is a lifestyle choice was a choice that a lot of people would want to make. You think that semen is delicious to a lot of people. And these are choices that people make. So it seems like perhaps if it wasn't for the Bible and the teachings of Moses, et cetera, that you might have been tempted by those choices as well. Is that the case? Have you been tempted? Oh, absolutely. No, no, no, not about it.  So their interviews are fantastic. So I had no problems with their interview. Now I do get the criticism of TYT as of late with regard to their tough on crime stance. I vociferously disagree with that. Crime is one of these issues that Republicans trot out every single election cycle to fear monger and try to galvanize voters. And even if there has been a slight uptick in crime, well, it's down significantly from the 90s overall. So even if crime was up here, but then it dropped and then it went up a little bit, I don't think that's justification for all of the hysteria. Right. I think that there are other issues before crime that affect the American people in a more concrete way. So, you know, I understand the criticism of TYT with regard to that issue. I vociferously disagree with Jank. You're voting for Rick Caruso. That is something that I view as really hurtful considering his whole ethos has been money in politics is a problem. And that's a billionaire who's spending millions of dollars to buy that race. But just because I have these disagreements with TYT doesn't negate all of the good things that they've done throughout the years just because they've said some things that I disagree with as of late doesn't necessarily mean that I expect them to do propaganda at the behest of the right and Matt Gaetz. I think that you can put aside those disagreements. And, you know, you can see that this interview very clearly was going to be contentious. That's what I expected. And that's what we got. So, you know, criticize criticisms of TYT stands on crime aside. We can have those disagreements. I think that it's a little bit bizarre that people were angry that they platformed Matt Gaetz because, again, if this were a softball interview, I hear you with the criticism there, but this was not that. And I think that they've proven that, you know, if they platform somebody who's a really egregious figure, it's not going to go well for them. So I thought that this interview was entertaining and great. And I would encourage you to watch the full interview. I'll link to that down below. Because Matt Gaetz effectively argues for austerity. So there's a lot of substance here. I just kind of showed you the more sensationalist element of this interview. But there's a lot of substance there where they press him on cutting Social Security Medicare. And he essentially argues for austerity. And that is something that Republicans are arguing for while trying to hide the ball and claim that that's not what they want. So the interview itself is very substantive. And I think that it really shows how you can easily dismantle right wing propaganda because when you strip away their talking points, they're kind of left with no other moves than to insult the person who they're talking to. So I think that this interview was very, very good and effective. And I just, I had to share it with you because it was entertaining and it was great all around.


Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Retro Radio Sunday on Weird Darkness. Each week I bring you a show from the golden age of radio, but still in the genre of Weird Darkness. I'll have stories of the macabre and horror, mysteries and crime, and even some dark science fiction. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you. And please, leave a rating and review in the podcast app you're listening from. Doing these things helps the show to keep growing. And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter to connect with me on social media and more. Coming up, it's an episode from Screen Directors Playhouse. The show brought leading Hollywood actors to the NBC microphones beginning in 1949 and recreated radio versions of films that the actors were famous for starring in, with the original directors of the films also sometimes involved in the radio productions, although their participation was usually limited to introducing the radio adaptations and taking a brief curtain call with the cast and host at the end of the program. The show had both a radio and television version. The radio version, which ran for 122 episodes, went through numerous name changes. When it launched January 9, 1949, it was named Screen Directors Guild Assignment, then just Screen Directors Assignment. Then it was changed to NBC Theater, and then it finally landed upon Screen Directors Playhouse before the radio show ended September 28, 1952. Tonight, it's an episode from November 25, 1949. The spiral staircase, with Dorothy McGuire who also starred in the film version in 1946, from which this radio adaptation is based. In a small village, the mute Helen attends a silent film screening in the parlor of a local inn. During the screening, a woman staying at the inn is murdered in her room, the latest in a string of killings in the community, and that's just how the story begins.  Directors Playhouse. Screen Directors, Spiral Staircase. Director, Robert C. Ockman. Directors, present a play on silent words. The motion picture drama, Spiral Staircase, starring Dorothy McGuire in her original role of Helen. Sunday school is all right, but I wish they'd treat us like women, like gollum. They make us skip the book of Ruth and the song of songs, which is Solomon. Especially that. My golly, it's in the Bible. Oh, it's beautiful. My beloved spoke and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Below the winter has passed, the rain is over and gone. What's wrong with that? I'd like to know. Oh, it's beautiful. And St. Elmo. What's wrong reading St. Elmo? Now, if you ask me, I think that the... My golly, a fire on Sunday? Yes. Don't speak. There's no need to speak now. It's all over my daughter. So hush. Whenever I tried, I'd hear my mother's voice again. My mother, who had died in the fire, said, I could make people understand me. Are the shape of my head, pad and pencil? Later, I left my hometown to take domestic work with the Warren family. Professor Albert Warren, his half-brother Stephen, and his stepmother, Mrs. Warren. It was all I wanted. One Friday evening, I was coming home from the village where I'd gone to see that new fangled amusement motion pictures. It was a bleak November dusk, and there had been some mysterious excitement in town. Something quite terrible. I didn't know what. It's the young doctor who likes me, I think. Helen? Oh, what is you? Nod and smile, Helen, as though you could speak, but choose to nod and smile as ladies do, by choice. It's good to see you smile. Well, hop in, and I'll drive you right onto the Warren's gatehouse. Here, here's a hand. Yep, you go. There. Yep, Gillen. I've missed you, Helen. How have you been, Helen? Smile and nod. Good. Good. He missed me, he said. It wasn't a very nice thing happened in town on your day off. Oh, what was it I wanted? Young woman, rather pretty young cripple, was murdered. You know that? Another one. And I'm telling you because I want you to be very careful about going out after nightfall, that's all. Could he really like me? Now, now tell me, how much longer are you going to stay on at the Warren's? I know what he means. You know, you've got to make an effort to get back your voice, Helen. Oh, he mustn't. Oh, I know. Much rather I wouldn't talk about it. I would rather. Not that there isn't a certain beauty and grace in your stillness. You're not mute. You're still, but somehow eloquent. Oh, I'm loving so. And everything you think is in your eyes, Helen. Good night, Helen. Be careful. Only a few more yards to the house. Radle a stick on the picket fence. My kind of whistling in the dark. Cripple girl, murdered. Why? I don't know if she'll go up to see my stepmother. She's feeling worse again. Thank you, Helen. Thank you. There have you been, Helen. It's late. She never remembers. My night out. Oh, put that eternal pencil and pad away. Never mind. Oh, she's ill. She doesn't mean to hurt. I hoped you were never coming back tonight. Why? What can she mean? Helen, run away. If you know what's good for you, run away. What's she saying? Leave this house tonight. Helen, mother. Oh, don't call me mother, Albert. Oh, shocking thing has happened in town. There's been another murder. Why, how would you know? Yes, how? How do you know, Albert? Well, the constable is just here. Very curious. I'm mentioning this in Helen's presence for good reasons. Every one of those murdered girls had some kind of affliction. Affliction? Yes, the servant girl had a bad scar. Second one was wrong in the head. This one limped. Albert, where is Stephen? Stephen? I... Has Stephen come in yet? Why? Answer me. No. Why? Because there's the rain. He'll be drenched. That's why. I want Helen to be especially careful for the next few days. He's good too. Kind and thoughtful and good. Helen, if you see anything at all outside this house that makes you suspicious, I want you to tell me. Yes, not yes. Thank you. I have some dictation to give Blanche on my book. But remember what I told you, Helen. And don't trust anyone. Helen, pack your things and leave. Leave? No. Why? Where? No.  Meanwhile, there's a gun in my dresser. No. I'm afraid of guns.  Stop contradicting me. You're in danger here. Do you want... It's an attack. Dr. Perry, get me Dr. Perry. Hurry. Stephen. Yes, Mother? I just got in. Branched. His shoes coated with mud. Where's Dr. Perry? On the way, Mother. There's been another murder. Oh, has there? Oh, why didn't you stay in Paris?  Where were you tonight? If you must know... I must know. Yes. She knows something. I, um... I was out walking with Blanche. Blanche, Professor Warren's secretary. They both love her. I think the professor will want to talk to you, Stephen. About the murder? I know, Stephen. About Blanche, his secretary. Very well, Mother. We're waiting for Dr. Perry to arrive. Quiet now. But the professor and Stephen have had a dreadful quarrel about Blanche. She's very pretty and no afflictions. And so men quarrel over her. Stephen and the professor hate each other. And it's so terrible. Both, after all, have the same father. Dr. Perry!  Oh, really, Mrs. Warren? Yes. Was he kind to her husband? He has been gentle and kind to girls with afflictions. Good eye. Well, I'm flattered. Thank you. He always told me I wasn't as beautiful as his first wife, but that I was a much better shot. He has a gun in this very room. Yes. The beauty my husband admired was the beauty of strength and of character. And both of his sons were weaklings. Stephen and the professor. I'm weak, too. Afflicted. Dr. Perry, you love Helen. Mrs. Warren. If you love her, and I know you do, get her out of this house. Now you're upsetting yourself again. Get her out of this house while there's still time. Do you hear me? Do you? Do you? Do you? Helen. Helen, Brandy, quickly. Brandy, Brandy. I've looked everywhere. None. None in the pantry, none in the closet. I'll run into the study to find Professor Warren. Brandy, Brandy. Write it out, Helen. Will you? Yes. B-R-A-N-D. Brandy. Yes, Brandy. Yes. I'll have to fetch a bottle from the cellar. Get Mrs. Oates out of the kitchen. Tell her to come with me and bring a candle. Hurry, girl. Mrs. Warren is resting again. Mrs. Oates is back in the kitchen in a stupor. From the brandy she managed to steal when she went down into the wine cellar with Professor Warren. Blanche stays in her room. I wait in the parlour while Dr. Perry gives Professor Warren some instructions. Helen. Oh, Dr. Perry, looking so very tired. I want to talk to you, Helen. Oh, he mustn't apologize. Here. Here. Sit next to me. Oh, he mustn't try to explain that it was Mrs. Warren and not he who said he loves me. I understand. I've been thinking things over, Helen. Mrs. Warren is right. He says Mrs. Warren is right. You should come away with me tonight. Oh, he does love me. You can stay at my mother's house until I take you to Boston to see a specialist. Oh, afflicted. Uh, Helen, the favors on Pepper Street have an out-of-town guest, Betty Lindstrom. Betty Lindstrom. She went to Sunday School with you years ago. Sunday School. Betty Lindstrom. She tells a story about a young girl walking home through Sunday School one day. When she wasn't far from home, she heard a fire engine rushing down the street. It was her own home, wrapped in flames. Her mother and father trapped inside. She tried to scream. Scream, Helen. I can't. Scream. I can't. I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm trying. You can speak. Speak. Helen, I was trying to help you. I know he's so good. Oh, that must be for me, Helen. I left this number with the Wilson's there. Boy, he's very sick. Here, I'll write the Wilson telephone number on your note card. 1-8-9. 1-8-9. Yes, and have Mrs. Oates call me there if you need me. Now, if you'll go to the door with me, I'll take it as a sign that you forgive me. It's a wretched night, but the rain's over. Nod, yes. Smile, Helen, please. Smile. That's better. Thank you. Thank me. Now, be sure and lock the door, won't you? And don't open it for anybody. Open it for anyone but me. But before he went. Good night. Helen. He kissed me. He kissed me. He wants me to come away with him. He kissed me. How was it long ago, in the Bible, in the song of songs which is Solomon's? My beloved spoke and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away with me. For lo, the winter is past. A wretched night, but the rain's over. The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, and the time of singing has come. Rise, my love, and let me see thy countenance. He loves me. Let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice. Boys. For sweet, sweet is thy voice. And thy countenance is comely. Boys. Let me hear thy voice. Let me hear thy voice. Let me hear thy voice. Hush, daughter. Hush. You are listening to the Screen Director's Playhouse presentation of the Spiral Staircase, starring Dorothy McGuire in her original role of Helen, the mute girl. And John Daener is Dr. Farron. If you love old-time radio, you'll want to visit our friends at ClassicRadioStore.com, who provide all the shows for me to wear. At ClassicRadioStore.com, you'll find thousands of episodes available in pristine, digitally remastered sound. Every episode they offer at ClassicRadioStore.com has been transferred from the master recordings and digitally remastered for superior sound quality. That's why the episodes that you hear on Weird Darkness sound so clean. And the shows at ClassicRadioStore.com are all uncut, unedited, and are delivered to you as they were originally broadcast, including the classic commercials. You can download great shows that'll chill you and thrill you, such as Suspense, The Whistler, Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, and more. There are mystery and crime shows like Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Dragnet, and Sam Spade. They got a great collection of old-time science fiction radio shows like X-1 or Dimension X. Plus, there is a ton of comedy and westerns there too, if you want to relive the shows of yesteryear. All the shows are available to instantly digitally download, and the links never expire, so you can order them now and listen to them anytime you'd like. And because you're a listener of Weird Darkness, you can save 20% on any and all radio shows on the website by using the promo code Weird at checkout. Just visit ClassicRadioStore.com, select all the radio show packages you want, then at checkout use the promo code Weird and save 20% on your whole purchase. That's ClassicRadioStore.com, promo code Weird at checkout. I don't have any feelings in the professor any longer. And just why should we hide our feelings from my step-brother? Oh, I forget you did have a certain interest in him.  How, Blanche?  I'm leaving tonight. The better to wash my hands of you. As you wish, Blanche. But you'll regret this. I honestly think you're going to regret this most seriously. Blanche has left her room and gone down to get her suitcases out of the cellar. I'm afraid to go down there alone. It's very dark in the cellar. There's a spiral staircase that goes round and round into the dust and the damp and the darkness, round and round into darkness. Oh, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, Helen. Do you know where Blanche is? Blanche. Isn't she up from the cellar yet? Helen, I'm speaking to you. Please find Blanche. I wanted to take some dictation in my study. At once. The spiral staircase going round and round down into darkness, into the dark, the damp. It's been almost an hour. Yes, yes, not yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! All right, all right. Here, let me handle this, Helen. Do you understand what I mean? I could dash for the door. Helen, answer me. Do you understand what I say? Dash for the door, open it, slam it, boat it outside. Helen, you're terrifying. Pencil, lost pencil, pencil. Are you trying to pencil? You're right. Right, yes, right. Blanche? Yes, M-U-R-D-E-R. Helen and Heaven's name, are you... Do you know who did it? S-D-E-P-A-G-E, yes. Of course. Why does he say of course? Helen, where is Stephen now? Locked in cellar. Why does he look at me like that? Helen. Mirror. Go on, look at yourself, Helen. Why does he do this? You see, Helen, you have no mouth. I know what he means, but why should he say it so cruelly? No mouth, Helen. And in all this world, there's no room for imperfection. He's so strange. We're alone, Helen. Mrs. Oates is very drunk because I purposely let her steal a bottle of brandy when we went downstairs before. My stepmother is helpless in her bed. And you have just locked Stephen in the cellar. Blanche is dead. He is the killer. Blanche, whom I loved and who betrayed me with Stephen is dead. Or I killed her. He's mad. What a pity. Father didn't live to see me become strong, to see me dispose of the weak and the imperfect in this world. Escape. I put on these leather gloves. Escape. Where? Father would admire me for what I'm about to do. I know. The gun. The gun in Mrs. Warren's room. Escape. Not so imperfect as he thinks. I run, run like the wind. Climb the stairs to Mrs. Warren's room like a cat. Slam the door and bolt it in his face. Gun, cat and pencil. Run, Mrs. Warren. Wake up. Horizon opening. Now, read. What gun? She knows where the gun is. She must know. Oh, it's no use. It's no use. She's drugged her. Downstairs. Someone's outside. The professor will have to answer. And then I can steal downstairs again. Down the spiral staircase. Free Stephen. Get Stephen to help me. Yes. Into the darkness. I saw a shoe draw back into the shadows. Into the last spiral. Mrs. Warren at the top of the stairs. She has the gun. Why does she point it at both of us? Stepmother. Whom your father always taught never to waste a single shot.  I thought it was Stephen. You always waited until Stephen came home to cast suspicion on him. Never waste a shot. Your father taught me. Never a shot. Helen girl. Better get me Dr. Perry. Husch daughter. Number please. You see Helen, you have no mouth. You must leave this house Helen. Let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice. Number please. I'll have no mouth. Let me hear thy voice. Number please. Thy voice no mouth. Thy voice no mouth. Thy voice no mouth. Thy voice no mouth. Number please. Number please. Doctor. This is Dr. Perry. Who is this? He said, darling, and said unto me, arise my love, my fair one, and come away with me. Arise, and let me hear thy voice. Dorothy McGuire will return in just a moment. Next week, as always, another great star repeats a brilliant performance on Screen Directors Playhouse. Our story is All My Sons and recreating his original role will be Edward G. Robinson with Screen Director Irving Reese. Now, here again is tonight's star, Dorothy McGuire. Thank you so much. The part of the mute girl in the picture spiral staircase was a pretty frightening assignment until I found out my director was to be Robert Siadmak. Robert is a kind of super talented elf who directs his pictures with a magnificent mixture of skill and gaiety. As a result, he says he has only one regret about spiral staircase. The studio wouldn't let him slide down the banister.  Thank you, Dorothy. But I was listening to his spiral staircase tonight. I must make a confession. About what, Robert? Well, I thought it would be impossible to do a radio drama in which the central character was a girl without a voice. But it was done beautifully. Well, thank you. My part was a little larger than the three or four lines I had in the picture. This picture business. You know, before spiral staircase, a producer said to me, Robert, what do you think of Dorothy McGuire? She's wonderful, I told him. She has the most magnificent voice. And he said, that's fine. We put on a picture with nothing to say. Well, you know how producer behaves sometimes. And Robert, I loved every minute of it. Well, next time they ask me about Dorothy McGuire, I won't mention your voice. I say she's so beautiful and a great dramatic actress. Well, then they probably tell me to direct you into Invisible Woman. Just so you don't play the part of an invisible director, Robert, and seeing you behind those cameras again is something I'm looking forward to. Well, I know I'm a beauty. Thank you, Dorothy. Thank you, Robert. Good night. Good night, everyone. Good night. And good night to you, Dorothy McGuire and Robert Ziadnak. Remember, next week, Edward G. Robinson and Irving Reese with Jeff Chandler. Spiral staircase was presented through the courtesy of RKO Radio Pictures, producers of that hilarious comedy, Bride for Sale, starring Claudette Colbert, Robert Young, and George Brett. Dorothy McGuire will soon be seen as the star of the 20th century Fox production, Old Doctor. Robert Ziadnak's latest production for Universal International Pictures is Deported, starring Marta Toran and Jeff Chandler. Included in tonight's cast were John Daener, Stephen Dunn, Georgia Backus, David Ellis, Jane Webb, Betty Moran, Jane Morgan, and Dan Riss. Spiral staircase, based on a novel by Ethelina White, was adapted for radio by Milton Geiger, and original music was composed and conducted by Henry Russell. Screen Directors Playhouse is produced by Howard Wiley with Dramatic Direction by Bill Karn. This is Jimmy Wallington speaking and inviting you to listen again next week when we present Screen Directors Playhouse star Edward G. Robinson, production All My Sons, director Irving Reese. What's on NBC Sunday? Sunday on Hollywood Calling. You may be called by motion picture stars June Haver and Richard Widmark to win a wonderful prize and crack the film of Fortune Jackpot. Make a note to stick close to your radio on your telephone Sunday for a Hollywood Calling. It might be your lucky day. So listen to Hollywood Calling Sunday on NBC. Stay tuned for Bill Stern on the Sports News Rail on NBC. Thanks for listening to this week's Retro Radio episode of Weird Darkness. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves old time radio and leave a rating and review in the podcast app you listen from to help spread the word about Weird Darkness and Retro Radio Sunday. And a huge thanks to our friends at ClassicRadiosTour.com for generously providing the old time radio shows you hear on Weird Darkness Retro Radio Sunday. Remember, you can save 20% on all of the ClassicRadiosTour.com shows by using the promo code Weird at Checkout. The rest of the week, I narrate new stories of the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters and mysteries. So be sure to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already done so. I upload episodes seven days a week. You can email me anytime and find all of my social media links on the contact page at WeirdDarkness.com. Also on the website, you can listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes and more. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright, Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.


My name is Medea Benjamin. I'm honored to be here today to represent a peace group called Co-Pink, but I also come as a US citizen, as somebody of Jewish faith, as a mother, a grandmother, and as a human being who hears the cries of the people of Gaza. I must say in the United States, the media and most of the politicians give the view of this situation almost exclusively from the point of view of Israel. They continue to give $3.5 billion of our tax money every year to the Israeli military. And they are now asking for another $14 billion to send war bombs to kill the people of Gaza. And they also refuse to call for a ceasefire. We have to ask, where is their humanity? And yet, on the other hand, you have the American people who are waking up right now and understanding that this is a catastrophe that the US is supporting and that we have blood on our hands. And more and more American people are saying, no, we don't want to keep sending bombs to Israel to use against the people of Gaza. We want to be supporting this initiative to send humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. That's what we want. A phenomenon right now of enormous protests throughout the United States. Every day in cities throughout the United States, many of them organized by Jewish and Muslim groups working together. We are with you 100% as you call for not only a ceasefire and massive humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza, but most importantly, as we call for freedom for the people of Palestine. Thank you.


Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup present Inner Sanctum Mysteries, starring Boris Karloff. Inner Sanctum, this is your host. Welcome again through the squeaking door to another session of mystery, murder and madness. Oh, excuse me if I don't get up, but I'm all worn out. Yes, I've had a hectic few days with an old friend who just blew into town. He's one of those earnest souls who insists on doing everything for himself. Consultations with the monument makers, the grave diggers, fittings of the coffin maker. Yeah, it's quite a busy body, but then we only die once, you know. Oh, these friends of yours, they're such unhappy people. They never seem to enjoy life. Never seem interested in any of the quiet, peaceful, good things of life. For instance, what's the use of telling one of your spooky characters about Lipton Tea? They wouldn't like it. But other people enjoy that brisk Lipton flavor. They settle back in an easy chair and say to themselves, hmm, Lipton certainly has a rich, hearty flavor. Never the least bit wishy-washy. No sirree. But would a ghost appreciate Lipton's? Indeed, he would not.  Or else it wouldn't be the world's largest selling brand of tea. Mary, you've been very hard on my friends. Very. And they won't like it. But then most live folks don't enjoy being scared to death. And that's just what's going to happen to you tonight. Our story is called The Corridor of Doom. It's an original radio play written by Robert Newman. And our star tonight is a man who gives even me the shakes. The famous star of stage, screen and radio, Boris Karloff.  Not the fact that it's inevitable that it must come to all of us someday. But rather how it will come. Do you think of it as a sleep and a waking? Of a sudden transition from one state of being to another? Or to a state of non-being? John Clay was one of those people who never thought about it at all. Until he found himself walking down that dim and endless passage which... What was supposed to be that Boris Karloff and the role of John Clay tell you about it himself?  When I woke up, I had no idea of where I was or how I'd gotten there. I was lying on a hard white bed in a clean white room. There was a dull pain in my abdomen. Touching it tentatively, I felt a bandage. So that was it. An operation. But for what? And where was I? At that moment the door opened. And she came in. Good afternoon. Or is it evening? Whichever you prefer. It doesn't matter. My name's Clay. John Clay. Yes. And yours? You can call me Nadar. Exactly. Where am I? In what hospital? It has no name. What? But that's ridiculous. I'd like to speak to Dr. Rogers. If you'll get him for me, please. There is no Dr. Rogers. At least not here. Then who operated on me? And for what? Listen, I'm not a well man. I have a very bad heart. Will you get someone who can talk to me? If you wish. I'll call Dr. Stone. Chill crept through my bones. It wasn't cold. It was fear. Unreasoning and abysmal fear. The door opened again. And there stood a heavy set man. His hair flaked with gray. And with him, my son-in-law, Alex Bartlett. Alex, I can't tell you how glad I am to see you. Hello, Father. But why are you standing out there? Why don't you come in? No, no. I shouldn't advise it, Mr. Clay. And why not? And why... Or was it you who operated on me? Yes. I'm Dr. Stone. Why wasn't Dr. Rogers called in? He's taken care of me for years. There wasn't time. It happened during the night. Acute appendicitis. And even as it was. Even as it was? What? And why are you dressed that way, Alex? All in black? Well, it's customary. After all, you are my father-in-law. Of course I am, but... Now, look, Alex. You've got to stop being so mysterious. You know about my heart. What any sudden shock will do. I don't think you need to worry about it any more, Mr. Clay. And as far as the mystery is concerned, this initial period of adjustment is always a little difficult. Difficult? Do you realize what it's like lying here, helpless, completely isolated, as if I were all alone in the world, or... Isn't there someone I can talk to? Some of the other patients? Not just yet. When the time comes, you'll meet them. But... Look, Doctor. I can't stand much more of this. I can't. If I don't find someone who really cares about me, who treat me like a normal human being... My dog. How about my dog? What do you think, Doctor? Yes, that's possible. We'll see what we can do, Mr. Clay. Come along, Bartlett. Goodbye, Father.  I don't know. I'll try, but it's difficult. Very difficult. Then don't go, Alex. Don't leave me here all alone. Come back. Come back! I waited and watched. Watched and waited. Then the door opened, and there was the Doctor again.  My dog! You brought my dog! All right, Martin. Give it to him. Yes, sir. Now it leaves. Come on, Kerry.   Wake up. Why, what's the matter? Kerry! He's not asleep. He's dead. You wanted him, Mr. Clay, but... But why didn't you tell me? When did he die? How old was he? Eleven and a half. Maybe twelve. Pretty old for a dog. That's probably why he could come. What do you mean? What are you trying to do to me?  Easy, easy, Mr. Clay. I won't take it easy. I won't stay here another minute. I'm leaving right now. Sorry, but I don't think we can permit it. Oh, well, we'll see about that. You're getting yourself all upset for no reason, Mr. Clay. Making it very difficult for the rest of us. Martin, you'd better let me have some of that bottle there. About 10 cc's. The red medicine? Yes. I don't want any medicine. I won't take it. Now please, Mr. Clay. I won't, I tell you now. I don't want the... Oh, it's awful. Salty. It tastes like... Yes. But I think you'll find that it will make things much easier for you. Very much easier.  That's what you're doing. Putting me to sleep. You... You think that when I wake up, I'll forget about everything. Yes, Mr. Clay. You'll forget about everything. Everything. I was somewhere deep down under the earth. It was a passageway, stone flagged, and with stone walls. And I was walking slowly down it in my bare feet. I could feel the chill of the cold stones through the thick layer of dust. The passageway stretched ahead of me, endlessly. And suddenly, I noticed that there were doors set into the walls on either side, closed doors. And on each door, there was a name. Abel. Orcrombie. Abington. Where was I? What was this place? What was behind those awful, ominously closed doors? Something seemed to be drawing me on. On down the terrible passageway. Addison. Agar. Allen. I could feel the cold creeping up my legs and higher, my heart pounding faster and faster. And suddenly I knew. Knew where I was and where I was going. Knew what was waiting for me there ahead of me down the passage. No, it's hurting all my will. I turn, cry to go back. With a worried in my ears, I was falling through the darkness. Falling, falling. When I opened my eyes, I was in that cold, white room again, clutching the blankets with trembling hands. How do you feel now, Mr. Clay? You cried out, sir, as if a dream, the most awful, horrible nightmare I ever had. A dream? The doctor will be very interested. Would you care to tell me all about it? Oh, I don't even want to think about it. It was about your former life? Former life? Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that I meant. Here, where are you going? Get my clothes to get out of here. I won't stay here. But you can't go. You can't. Martin, help me. Oh, don't you realize that if I do stay here, if I dream that dream again... Listen. I was in a passageway, an endless, eternal passageway like a corridor of doom. It stretched on and on to infinity with doors, closed doors on either side. And on each one of the doors in alphabetical order, there was a name. A name of all those who had died since the beginning of time. I was walking down that corridor with my bare feet and... Why? Why are you looking at me that way? You mustn't talk about that. You mustn't, do you hear? But you ask... You didn't dream that dream. You couldn't have. And you've got to get it out of your mind. We will help you. We'll give you a massage. That should make you relax. The alcohol, Martin, right over there. A massage? You think that'll help? If it doesn't, we'll call Dr. Stone. Try something else. I see. Now what? What are you staring at? Your... Your feet. And the soles. Dust. Gray dust. Dust. Like the dust in the passage. The corridor of doom. And that means... It wasn't a dream. It means... I was really there. Big feet on those nice clean sheets. No wonder our friend the nurse seems so upset. Or was that the reason? Maybe she was just disappointed that he still hadn't told her about his operation. That always has them in stitches. Great big stitches. Like the ones they take in a shroud. Mr. Host, I'm afraid I just can't believe this story. I can't believe that it really happened. Is that so, Mary? You think Mr. Clay got that gray dust in his feet because he has feet of clay? There you go again. Always looking on the discouraging side of things. I really do believe I'd rather talk to cheerful folk. Like those nice young men and women who sang that new Lipton Tea song when I was at the studio. Sing a song of Lipton's. Yes, that's the way people ought to feel about tea.  Yes, brisk means that Lipton's is never wishy-washy. No, no, no, sirree as they say in the song. So when you've had a busy afternoon, or maybe when friends drop in for a little talk, pour yourself a cup of cheer with brisk flavored Lipton Tea. It's got a special flavor that always tastes like home. And it always tastes like more too. Well, now I think it's about time to take another little walk. Yes, down the corridor of doom. Well, I'll starve Boris Karlov.  That's the nice part of a trip like that. You don't have to worry about coming back. I lay there staring down at my feet. No, it had not been a dream. But there on my feet was the thick, heavy dust from the corridor of doom I had been there. Walking down its awful silence, not in my mind, but in the flesh. My heart clenched like an icy fist that I threw the blankets aside, started to get up. Mr Clay, what are you doing? Where are you going? Can we go?  You can't leave. Oh, let me go. I can quick help me. Please, Mr Clay. Oh, I haven't said let me go. Don't you realize what this means? If it wasn't a dream and if I stay here, go down to that horrible place again. We've got to make it quiet down. Some more of that medicine, Morton. Another 10 cc. Right, darling. Oh, no. No more of that. It's here, Mr Clay. You must take it. You must. It will make you sleep. Sleep so soundly that you won't be able to go down there again. No. All right. You stay here, Morton. I'll go get Dr Stone and tell him. Dark red, the taste. It's like... Yes, I know. And it makes me sleepy. My eyes get heavy and... Have you been here for a long time, Morton? No, not long. What is it like outside of this room? It's strange. Like no place else. And the other patients. What are they like? They're strange, too. Listen, Morton. I'm a rich man. You're the only friend I've got here. You've got to help me. Whether you're rich or poor doesn't matter. As for helping you, that's what I'm here for. You've got to stay here. Every minute. My heart... I don't think it'll stand like that. My first sensation was one of cold, numbing cold, creeping up my limbs. I reached for the blankets, couldn't find them. Then I opened my eyes and I was there again, back there in that awful endless passage, that corridor of doom. The same stone walls, stone floor, covered with a thick layer of dust. The same doors for the name on each one on both sides of me. But now... Now I was up to the bees, that one there, Barbara next to it, Babbit, and then Backer. I tried to cry out, but I couldn't utter a sound. I tried to stop, check myself. My muscles didn't respond. Slowly and heavily I continued walking on down that endless passage, past Badger, Baffin, Bagley, past the bees and towards the seas, towards a door with my name on it. My heart pulsed, pounding with terror. My breath rusted, my throat convulsed me. I clutched on the walls, forced myself completely around. Then, as if I were fighting against a roaring gale, I drove myself back. One step I took, two, three, with my standard word. I was falling again, falling through darkness, complete, absolute unending. Before I opened my eyes, I knew what I was. Back in my room, the sheets crumpled in my sweating hand. There for a moment, I knew that this was my last chance. I can design you what I was. Back in my room, the sheets crumpled in my sweating hand. Slipped out a bed, dipped over to the door of the room, opened it a crack and peered out to hospital corridor. And sitting at a desk half way down at the nurse, could I slip past her? Then on a table next to the door, I saw the telephone. A telephone! Someone would save me, take me out of this place. Luckily, I dialed my daughter's number. Alec Bartlett's wife. Oh, thank you. Jane, it's your father. Listen, you've got to help me. You've got to come and get me. I'm at the hospital. Alec knows where... Hello, is anyone there? Yes, can't you hear me? Didn't you hear what I said? It's your father. Jane, Jane! I heard her, but she couldn't hear me. Something wrong with the phone, her phone. I've got to get hold of somebody, somebody, but who? Dr. Rogers? I don't know. If they come in while I'm phoning... Oh, I know, of course. Hello, police? This is John Clay of Riverside Road. I'm at the hospital. I don't know where... No! Can't you hear me, officer? For heaven's sake, listen. It's a matter of life and death. John Clay at a hospital. By son-in-law, Alec Bartlett can tell you where... No! Officer, officer! Listen, don't hang up! Oh, nuts! Officer, officer! Hello! Anything the matter, Mr. Clay? Huh? Justone, I... Your telephone is... There's something wrong with it. No, Mr. Clay. There's nothing wrong. Not with the telephone. But I tried to make two calls. Two different numbers and... I know. And you should have known. Nurse, all of them... You should have known what? Why couldn't they hear me when I could hear them? Why? Yes, Dr. Stone. Well, you put Mr. Clay back into bed. I'm awfully sorry, sir. I only went out for a minute. Come on, Mr. Clay. No, no, leave me alone, please. Mr. Clay, please. No, you're struggling. Yes, I know. Doctor, I won't have to go back down there again, will I? Down to the corridor? That's not up to me. All right, nurse. I think we're ready for another dose. The final one. Yes, doctor. No, Dr. Stone. No, not that red medicine. Not again. I'm sorry, but you've had a lot of time. All the time we can give you. All right, Mr. Clay. No, I won't take it. You know what it means, doctor. I'll go back down there again to the corridor. It'll be to the letter C, to the place where my name is. If he won't take it by himself, perhaps you'd better help her, Martin. Yes, sir. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Again, I knew where I was before I opened my eyes. I could feel the dust under my bare feet and through the dust, the biting chill of the coals stones. I was there, back in the corridor, walking down its silent length past the blank closed doors. But the names on the doors now they were all seas, Cabot, Caddon, Cajun. On I walked, the beating in my heart, the pounding in my pulse, loud in my ears, on down the passage. No longer even trying to fight against what I knew was a bit. One past Cameron, Chelsea, Chiswick, and then, suddenly, terribly, one door. A door with my name on it, gaping, waiting for me. I tried to stop to turn, but my legs carried me forward. I was but two doors away. I could see into it now, see that it contained nothing. Absolutely nothing, not even a coffin. Just stone walls and a flat stone stab. I was turning, turning to step over the threshold. I made a last, good, bouncy, baffled, merciless help me. All right, Martin, pick them up. Yes, sir. Is it all over? Hello, Bartlett. In at the death, eh? I don't see if there's any pulse, of course, but I should think it is all over. It is stone, but not the way you think. Well, Clay, he's not dead. No thanks to you. All right, get them up, both of you. Here, Mr. Clay, let me help you. All right, Martin, I'll be fine from now on. But how? Don't look so surprised, Alec. Mr. Martin is a detective. I hired him some time ago. You see, I had a feeling that something was wrong when that railing broke accidentally, and I took that bad fall, so I decided I should investigate. You can't prove it. You can't prove anything. The first results of Martin's investigation showed me what bad financial shape you were in, and it was then that I realized that you had actually been trying to murder me to get hold of my money, so I faked that story of having a very bad heart. You mean that... I thought it would give you the idea of trying something more subtle and less dangerous, and it certainly did. But you still can't prove anything, not a thing. No, don't you worry about that. Don't forget... Come back here, Bartlett. I have a chance to prove it. Come back, Bartlett. You shot him, killed him. Well, I couldn't have. I fired up in the air to get him to stop. Come on. I don't understand it. I've got a mark on him. But he is dead. He was the one who had the bad heart. That's what gave me the idea of pretending good heavens look at what? This hallway was supposed to be the corridor of doom. When I reached the door with my name on it, I was supposed to die. Look. Look at the name on that door there. The one right next to him. Bartlett. His name. So what? Nothing, Martin. Nothing at all. Now, where do you think old Dr. Stern got the idea for that little alphabetical graveyard? That's right, for me. You don't believe me? Then come on home with me tonight, and I'll show you the one in the cellar of my house. What's more, I'll show you a door and a neat stone slab with your name on it. Nonsense, Mr. Host. Mr. Clay just explained that the whole thing was a hoax, and I'm not going to sit here and hear you say otherwise. Well, then don't sit. Stand up and we'll take a walk, Mary Bennett. Yes, back to your name. Back to the bees. Baker Bartlett Bennett. You don't scare me. Yeah? Well, how would you like it if we went to the Elves and found a door marked Lipton? Oh, well, that's fine. Inside, we'd find a wonderful, friendly beverage, Lipton's, the tea with the brisk flavor, the tea that's welcome at all hours of the day. Yes, the largest selling brand of tea in the whole world, Lipton tea. And now a word of advice. If you should wake up tonight with a sudden chill, find yourself walking barefoot down a dusty stone corridor with doors on both sides of it. Don't get excited. Just insist on a doom with a view. By the way, this one's in a sanctum mystery novel, is The Whistling Legs by Roman McDougal. Yes, and next week's in a sanctum story directed by Hyman Brown and brought to you by Lipton Tea and Lipton Soup. Next week's story is about women.  They'll love you for it. And who do you think is going to be their boyfriend? Hmm? Yeah, that's right. Boris Karlov. Boris Karlov will be with us again next week because who else could love such women? Oh, if you're in a tender mood, tune in next Tuesday. Until then, good night. Pleasant dream? Folks, it's wonderful how quick and easy cooking can be these days. I guess some of you remember when it used to take half a day for a pot of chicken noodle soup, but now we have Lipton's noodle soup mix. You might say Lipton's takes no time at all to prepare, and yet it has a fresh cooked chickeny taste, a real old-fashioned homemade flavor. Yes, and it's brimful of tender, golden-aid noodles. Lipton's is grand for quick meals, and it's also a perfect beginning for the most elaborate dinner. So don't forget to serve Lipton's noodle soup. And don't forget to tune in next Tuesday night for another Inner Sanctum Mystery.


Back to teens on topic. I'm your host, Cedric Hughes, and today I'm joined by three special guests. Hi, I'm Joseph Hendricks. I'm Zoe Poffingay. I'm Daniel Ostrom. Today we'll be discussing the Electoral College. So now let's turn to members of the Davis community to see what they think. So with the 2020 election coming just right up, what are your thoughts on the Electoral College and do you think it's a fair system? So I don't think that the Electoral College is a fair system. So it tends to transmit power from bigger states to smaller states and it has a lot of ripple effects through our current electoral process. So obviously it's been the determining factor in the 2000 election. It was the determining factor in the 2016 election. It was the determining factor in the 2004 election. And it's very likely, at least that's how it appears to be shaping up to be a major factor in the 2020 election. And when the Electoral College goes in the opposite direction of the popular vote, it's hard to continue to justify it. This would be the fourth election that we've had where the Electoral College is in opposition to the popular vote. And to me, that doesn't seem like that's acceptable. So do you think as a country we should switch to a more fair system such as the popular vote, just as being the deciding factor? Yes. So there are costs and benefits to either system. So a popular vote does mean that states with large urban populations are likely to get precedence. But as we stand now, what are the four largest states in the country in terms of population? So California, then Texas, then Florida, and then New York. And so those states as of now have split pretty readily between red and blue. And so I don't think that you would be in the long term steering toward a particular party if you went to the popular vote. Demographics may steer things a little bit more toward Democrats. But I don't think the system by itself would steer the process toward one party or another. It's frustrating knowing that my vote doesn't count as much as somebody from Vermont or Iowa. So now I think a popular vote would make the presidential elections feel more legitimate. For sure. I get why states that are from less populous areas, they don't want to be overlooked. But at the same time, the Senate also functions to kind of give them more say than they would deserve proportionally. Not should we get rid of it. And it's clear we need to get rid of it. It was created for a different structure of government at a different time. And the question is how to get rid of it, because it's obviously benefiting a lot of people who obviously want to keep it. But it's similar to other systems like here in the city of Davis.  They can vote in the county or a state and national elections and so on. And a lot of people never register because they're just here for a couple of years and they don't feel they belong in the city like my roommates. One of them is even a pre-law program and she hasn't registered to vote locally and it's just strange. So it's like pervasive thing about keeping people not aware of and participating in the best mechanism to really make democracy work in the least imperfect way it can. Well, I mean there's popular vote and then of course there's the issue of representatives from different states. And senators for the whole senator system and that's also a problem. And then of course money in politics. I mean so it seems like it's a good idea to look at the specific little parts of it, but the whole system is just rotten. And I'm not sure if it's how much possible reform there could be in changing the little pieces of it. It's such a bad deal from what we have experienced in recent history that so many of the states are going to the extreme length of by legislation saying that they will donate all of their delegates to the biggest vote-getter in the nation in country-wide elections. Well thank you to everyone in the community that contributed. So what do you guys think about some of the responses that we heard today? I have to say I wasn't trans by the one man who talked for a while. He mentioned something about sort of being an old system for an old system of government. I have to disagree. I don't think our governmental system has changed that much. Yes we've grown significantly and it's grown across the country and it's grown millions of people. I think to say that it's a broken system for an old system of government, I think that's wrong. I mean I don't disagree that the electoral college should be different. I think it is definitely difficult for being in California. It's difficult for me knowing that if I do, well when I vote, it's not really going to have much of a say. I mean I am going to contribute to that 55 that California gets, but it's just going to be 55. And I don't, that's not as fair as say someone from Wyoming getting a larger vote. But I think a lot of people, especially the people in there, they, I think definitely sort of overlooked how once you get into a popular vote it just becomes mob mentality. I mean is that really what you want? I think it's really difficult because there's a lot of people who, like someone mentioned in there, they feel overlooked. You go over them, you have populations who are really small. And yes, popular vote would reflect the majority of the country, that is true. But I think that it does look over people who still should be addressed within the country. Zoe, what do you think about some of the responses that we heard today? I feel like when I heard that man say a different structure for maybe a different, older government, I interpreted it more as like the society that we live in. That sounds a bit cheesy, but we have definitely changed the society in terms of numbers and social media, news coverage, media, all of that has changed so much. And so I feel like I agree in the sense that we have changed very significantly for an electoral college to have that much of an equal sort of balance in between all the states. Like if we told one of the founding fathers that they were going to be 40 million in California, they'd be like, there's how many in the where? Like they would not be able to, that's not what they had in mind when they had the electoral college. So I feel like in that sense of the word, it's outdated, but I agree with Daniel in the sense that it's not the government that needs that much changing, that much repairing. It's not the government that has changed that much. And about mob mentality, like you mentioned, with social media and with news coverage, that means everyone knows everything at the top of the finger almost instantaneously. And so I appreciate that spread level of education. However, with that instantaneous finding information as quickly as you so secret, there's also that idea that you see the very surface of an argument, you see the very surface of an article, and then that stir of passion sends you to the majority. Yeah, definitely. Joseph, what do you think? I agree with Zoe that, you know, when the founding fathers, they created the electoral college. I don't think they predicted how many people lived in America, you know, when at the most there was a couple million living in, you know, 13 states or whatever. So yeah, I definitely agree that they had no way of knowing. So I think it's an outdated system. Yeah, I think one thing that's really interesting is that we're talking here about what the founders intentions were with the electoral college and how that would play into our political system. And now this was touched on in the interviews is the disproportion between large states and big states. And Daniel, you brought this up with the number of votes that we get versus say a state like Wyoming. Now, I think that on one hand, you know, I see what you guys are saying, but I think many members of America would say what about those small states as was brought up in the interviews with the community. If we did do, for example, a popular vote as a counter, then what happens to states like Iowa or like Wyoming? Do they get overlooked and is that fair in our political process? No, I definitely think with a popular vote, they would get pretty shut down with a popular vote like California and Texas would rule. And yet they are opposing sides. They are theoretically opposing sides of the party. They would still kind of stomp on everyone else. And so I don't think a popular vote is the right way to go. Unfortunately, I'd have to think about it a little bit more to think of a more viable solution because I feel like both Electoral College and Directive Makarshi, such as a popular vote, are both outdated methods that would not work in a society as complex as we live in today. And I think it's really easy for us in California to say, yeah, no, popular vote's the way to go. Because I think it's really, especially within the community of Davis, and I think you run into this issue, especially when you talk to people in Davis. Most people in Davis hold, especially of a certain type and especially those at the farmer's market, will typically hold a certain belief much more liberal. So it can be difficult to say, yes, I think that popular vote is the way because I don't, even though I live in California, I don't believe it is the way because I think you do overlook people who may hold different views than you and to just say, well, popular vote because my idea is the popular one and I think that's the way it should be. I think that's a little difficult and I think that's not really the way to go. Daniel, I think that that's a really great point is that would we have seen those responses differ if, say, we shot this show in Wyoming? Would people at a Wyoming fair say something different? And I think that they would. They want to have their representation too. So when we're talking about proportional vote, and you brought this up, was that people who live in these small states, they wouldn't be getting the representation nearly at all, so you talked about how California and Texas, how the ideological ideals that come from our states would really trample. So just looking back in the past few elections, like in 2016, we saw Trump really appeal to farmers in America and to the agricultural vote. Even though that is a relatively small percentage of the popular vote. So if we were to go off of a popular vote system, do we think that those votes would get represented? Do we think that farmers benefits would be represented and others in those small states? Joseph, what do you think? Yeah, I think so because I think there's always going to be politicians who represent those sorts of people. Like, I mean, obviously Trump did not win the popular vote, but he was going for agriculture people and stuff like that. So I do think that they're going to be represented in some way. I think it's just not through the electoral college. I think that idea of that they still get representation, we saw that brought up in the interviews, is that there still are safeguards within the system like the Senate. So no matter big or small, your state will still get to senators. So we still see representation of people in there. So I think moving away from just the popular vote versus the electoral college system, are there any other systems of electing that you guys think would be better? I think someone, when discussing this, they mentioned, not in that interview, but they mentioned taking into account demographic parties rather than like state population. Like focusing on demographics, not racial or economic or just social beliefs. And so I thought that was really interesting. It seems like a lot more complicated of an idea to really work, especially with such a large population in America, but I just thought that was a really interesting concept to look at the demographics and then take that demographics with universal vote and then move to the next one. They were pretty vague on it, but yeah, I just thought that was an interesting perspective. I think it could be possible to maybe split. You could probably split America into different regions based off of population and do it from there, and I think that might be more reflective of a more popular vote while still giving people in different areas more of a say. But I think one of the problems is once you run into going into anything other than electoral college and popular vote, you start going out of democracy. And while America is not a strict democracy, it's not, I know the word and it slipped my mind, but we're more of a republic than a democracy, a democratic republic, there we go. But you start moving into different forms that I think, I don't know, can be difficult. We do see other forms in other countries, for example Britain and Europe. They have a parliamentary system whereas we operate off of a pluralist winner-take-all system where you don't need to win over 50%, you don't need to win that popular vote in order to be represented and with that winner-take-all, even if your party wins 10% of the seats, they will get no representation whereas we see in other countries like Britain where if a party wins 10%, they're going to still have a 10% representation in Parliament. So do you think that that would be a more fair system for Americans to adopt a parliamentary measure? I'm not sure because that's just, you know, we left Britain to get away from that. So it's honestly, I'm not exactly sure what system we should replace with it, but I don't think it should be similar to a parliamentary system because that's what we left. I feel like with that, sorry, I feel like with that kind of system, it's just, there would be too much argument, there would be too much argument, too much deliberation and I know that was the design of the government, so we wouldn't be thrown into pits of passion here and there, but I feel like that would be, there would just be too much argument for any real progress to get done. Yeah. Yeah. Daniel? I actually believe that a parliamentary system would work better. I don't necessarily agree with Britain's parliamentary system with the House of Lords and House of Commons. I don't agree with the House of Lords. I think it's a little ridiculous. It is definitely an outdated system, but definitely more parliamentary system of having it based more on percentages. I think that's definitely better for the population because we're better reflected and I don't think that that's really the reason that America left Britain. I think it's more based off of other issues that happened at the time. I think it was less about the parliamentary system and more about the monarchy. Britain now, it's basically just a democracy, it's a parliament. So I think a parliamentary system would work fine. Again, yeah, you don't want to end up with arguments, you don't want to end up in issues and like Zoe said, I'm not an expert on the topic and we probably have to research it more before I made a true decision. Yeah. That was just my thoughts. Well, I think that, you know, even discussions like these are very telling and we know that the political system that we deal with now is, isn't perfect and that no political system will ever be perfect but going forward we need to, you know, we look at what can be the most fair and what can represent Americans best. So I think that that is going to be a question for our government moving forward and it will be interesting to see what comes out in the next few generations of America. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.


The Labour Party LP presidential running mate Yusuf Dati, Baba Med has won other presidential candidates against underestimating his party's candidates, Peter Obie. Baba Med won third presidential candidates on estimating Obie, while doing so, Adya Peril, dismissing those saying Obie has no structure and experienced the win of the 2023 presidential election, and that Obie is not welcomed in the northern part of the country. Baba Med said he had no problem being underestimated by the so-called master politicians, owners of resources and masters of structure, as according to him, it rather works in the favour of the Labour Party.