Thank you! Sorry to have misquoted you.

Not a problem. Just a moderator's tic, of no real importance.

Ed Wysocki (08/23/10):

Page 347:

Three days later, Mussolini was torn to pieces by a mob in Rome and his broken body hung from a lamppost.

= = = = =

Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were actually shot in the small town of Mezzegra, which is on the shore of Lake Como, up near Switzerland. Nowhere near Rome. Their bodies were then strung up in Milan.

I would suggest looking it up on wikipedia

Me again: I told Ed Wikipedia is probably where I got it in the first place! This would have been written, probably in 2003 or early 2004. I don't doubt Ed's facts, but I'm going to try to develop a different online source for this documentation.

What you said.

There is a very curious phenomenon about blog comments same as usenet, where something like "feeding frenzy" starts up and people who othewise have some degree of common sense suddenly abandon it. That started to happen here.

Check your inbox for "Last Days of Mussolini", NY Times Apr 24, 1955.

Thank you very much -- exactly what I needed.

This was a newspaper account written by Milton Bracker for The NY Times, 4/24/1955, which gives a nearly moment-by-moment account of BM's last few days. Apparently Mussolini and his mistress Claretta Petacci were taken to an address in Giulino di Messegra where they were shot/executed on Saturday 4/28/45 at 4:10 p.m. with a submachine gun, along with fifteen other fascists. That night day the bodies were trucked to Milan, where Mussolini was autopsied. Mussolini's body was dumped in the Milan Piazzale Loreto, at the end of Corso Buenos Aires, shortly before 4 am. Partisan guards tried to keep the crowds away from the bodies, but were not ultimately successful. After random abuse from the crowd, the bodies were hanged by the heels "from the girder of an unfinished gas station"

On page 23, you mention the references to the "'tramp" in the end sequences of "Gulf" and Starship Troopers. The tramp is also explicitly worked into "Water is for Washing."

I am thoroughly impressed! Here's to vol. 2!

Thanks, and good point.

Bill, I would strongly urge you to include errata for the first volume in the second volume, to address these concerns. I would also suggest a thorough review of the secondary contextual references, since this seems to be where the boo-boos are.

I will happily help, as always.

Good idea. Let's discuss further.