Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 6: Dame Frevisse

Set in 15th century England, Dame Frevisse is a nun at St. Frideswide's, a small convent in Oxfordshire. She discovers a talent for solving crimes, many of which occur in or around the convent and the neighboring town, while later books in the series see her sleuthing farther afield, either while accompanying another nun on convent business or while abroad on her own business. The later books also delve more into current events, most notably the tensions that led to the Wars of the Roses.

Frevisse is related to Geoffrey Chaucer, and each book shares a name with one of the Canterbury Tales. She also interacts with some of her Chaucer relatives during the series, though usually as part of a subplot rather than the main mystery.

The series is attributed to Margaret Frazer, which originally was a pen name shared by collaborators Gail Brown and Mary Monica Pulver Kuhfeld. They stopped working together after the sixth novel in the series, with Brown retaining the Frazer name. 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 5: Father Anselm

Father Anselm is a lawyer turned friar of Larkwood Priory, and as with so many of the people in this series, he winds up solving mysteries on the side. Unlike many of his colleagues, the cases tend to be re-examining events that have already occurred rather than something current. The first novel in the series involves a man who may have committed war crimes during World War 2, while another has Anselm look into a death two years previous that an anonymous death claims was murder.

The character bears a strong resemblance to his creator, William Brodrick (minus the crime solving, I assume). Where Anselm is a lawyer turned priest, Brodrick is a priest turned lawyer (who then turned full time author). 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 4: Walker "Bear" Wells

Bear Wells is a minister in Sugar Land, Texas, an upscale suburb of Houston. His status among the locals is burnished by being a former University of Texas football player, and he finds his schedule jammed with commitments for both the church and the community. And, occasionally, dealing with a suspicious death.

Perhaps unusually for this genre, Wells doesn't have legal training or possess natural gifts for sleuthing. He's actually not that interested in playing detective - his focus is on his flock - but finds himself involved when the cases touch upon his family.

The series is written by Stephanie Jaye Evans, who brings significant personal experience to the page as the daughter of a Church of Christ minister and native Texan. While she appears to still be active in the Houston writing community, the series only has two books to date, the last published in 2013.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 3: Father John "Blackie" Ryan

Blackie Ryan - the nickname comes from his middle name, Blackwood - rose from being a parish priest to an auxilary bishop in Chicago, where he is the rector of the Holy Name Cathedral (which is the actual seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago). Among his less orthodox duties is solving various mysteries (almost all involving the Church somehow) at the behest of the cardinal, and often with the help of his Ryan siblings.

This series was written by Andrew Greeley, himself a priest from a large Chicago family of Irish Catholics. Rather than rise through the hierarchy of the Church, Greeley followed an academic path that saw him earn a Ph.D. in sociology and teach at the university level for many years, before transitioning into writing popular fiction and non-fiction books, almost all of which touched on religion or Ireland.

I've read a couple of his books and thought they were OK, though I've not read any of the books in this series.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 2: Sister Fidelma

Today we jump back about 500 years to the time of Sister Fidelma, an Irish princess and legal advocate who solves murders on the side.

Fidelma was born into the royal family of Munster, and studied criminal and civil aspects of the Brehon law. After completing her studies, Fidelma became a nun and joined the mixed Kildare Abbey (home to both men and women) founded by St. Brigid in the 5th century. It does seem that Fidelma joined more to further her career than to express religious devotion, as she leaves the abbey at some point and goes by "Fidelma of Cashel" rather than be addressed as a sister.

As the series moves along, Fidelma's legal work sees her traveling into various corners of the Celtic world and beyond, and getting involved in cases at the highest levels of society. She also winds up marrying the monk she often works with, Eadulf, with whom she has a son.

I've not read any books in this series, but I have to say I'm interested. 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 1: William of Baskerville

Umberto Eco apparently wanted to leave no doubt as to the deductive powers of William of Baskerville, the main character of his 1980 novel The Name of the Rose. The name comes from both William of Ockham - whose Razor says the simplest answer to a problem that accounts for all the facts is likely the right answer - and Sherlock Holmes, as a refernce to The Hound of the Baskervilles.  And in case that wasn't enough, we also learn that William had Roger Bacon as a mentor, giving him plenty of opportunity to soak up his emphasis on empirical observation.

William gets the chance to apply his skills to an unexpected death at an Italian monastery, which the abbot asks him to investigate. When the body count begins to climb, William (with the help of the novice monk Aldo of Melk) has to figure out who is behind the deaths before the local inquisitor sends innocent people to their death (something William has experience with, having previously worked in that role).

This is likely Eco's best known novel, and certainly his best-selling (an estimated 50 million copies worldwide). If you've not read anything by Eco before, you should know going in that this is going to be much denser than your typical mystery novel. It's worth the work, even if you have to go back and re-read passages (which I recall doing more than once).

Or, if you'd rather watch the movie, cue up the 1986 film which stars Sean Connery as William and Christian Slater as Aldo. 

 As I was thinking about this year's Lentorama, I decided to take a look back at past years. In doing so, I was reminded that I've been doing this since 2006. A recap of each year's theme:

2006: Saint of the Day
2007: The Non-Canonized Catholic Person of the Day 
2008: 40 Days, 40 Churches
2009: Great (?) Moments in Catholics on Television
2010: Two Millenia of Pointy Hats 
2011: Better Late than Never
2012: Know Your Dioscese
2013: There's a Name for That 
2014: We're Ready for Your Closeup, Your Holiness 
2015: looks like I took this year off
2016: #Lent
2017: Lenten Observers of Instagram
2018: Second String Saints 
2019: Resurrect My Globe! 
2020: 40 Days of Food 
2021: Take Your Holiday to Go 
2022: It Happened on Easter Day
2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Apparently I started off the 2016 Lentorama with a comment that it was almost the year where I stopped doing it. I didn't even remember not doing it the year before!

Anyway, for this year I am not going to roll into It Happened on Good Friday, as if I've learned anything over the last two years it's that hunting for things that are reasonably interesting that happened on the given day is a huge pain in the keister. So I'm going to dip back into popular culture with...

Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

A Lenten review of priests, vicars, nuns, and other religious who dabble in whodunits. Tune in tomorrow for the first of your forty frocked felon foilers.

Now that the college football season is over, it's time to address one of the new highlights of bowl season: the winning coach of the Duke's Mayo Bowl getting bathed in the game's namesake product. Thinking that all of the bowl games should get in on the fun, here are my suggestions for what their winning coaches should have to wash out of their hair. Selections are made based on bowl name, title sponsor, location, among other things.

Myrtle Beach Bowl: sand

New Orleans Bowl: gumbo

Cure Bowl: pink lapel ribbons

New Mexico Bowl: Hatch green chili salsa

LA Bowl: half caf soy latte

Independence Bowl: jambalaya

Famous Toastery Bowl: conch chowder

Frisco Bowl: Frito pie

Boca Raton Bowl: sunscreen

Gasparilla Bowl: sarsaparilla

Birmingham Bowl: Buffalo Rock ginger ale

Camelia Bowl: white barbecue sauce

Armed Forces Bowl: SOS

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: mashed potatoes

68 Ventures Bowl: Alabama Slammer

Las Vegas Bowl: Bellagio fountain water

Hawaii Bowl: crushed pineapple

Quick Lane Bowl: 10w30 motor oil

First Responder Bowl: Betadine

Guaranteed Rate Bowl: prickly pear margarita

Military Bowl: MRE chicken a la king

Holiday Bowl: egg nog

Texas Bowl: chile con carne

Fenway Bowl: wasabi

Pinstripe Bowl: Derek Jeter cologne

Pop Tarts Bowl: piping hot strawberry jam

Alamo Bowl: Lone Star beer

Gator Bowl: Gatorade

Sun Bowl: Frosted Flakes in milk

Liberty Bowl: dry rub

Music City Bowl: Goo Goo Clusters

Arizona Bowl: cactus water

ReliaQuest Bowl: Cuban coffee

Citrus Bowl: Five Alive

Cotton Bowl: dryer lint

Peach Bowl: bellinis

Orange Bowl: orange juice, with pulp

Fiesta Bowl: Tostitos salsa (medium)

Rose Bowl: rose water

Sugar Bowl: molasses

FBS Championship: $100 bills

 So the International Olympic Committee approved plans for the options sports being offered at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Before getting to those, though, let's take a look at the optional sports for next year in Paris.

Three of them were held over from Tokyo - skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing.  While I didn't see a lot of any of the competitions in these sports, what I did see varied from underwhelming (skateboarding) to meh (sport climbing) to fine (surfing). If nothing else, keeping surfing allows Paris to run the event in Tahiti,which is pretty cool.

The fourth sport, replacing baseball and softball, is breakdancing. I did see some of this when it was part of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, and I can say it was more entertaining to watch than skateboarding. I've come to think of competitive breakdancing as figure skating on cardboard. 

So what's on tap for LA?

Baseball/softball - which still have to travel together as they share an international federation. I'll be interested to see if MLB works out any allowances for its players to participate, though I don't expect they will.

Cricket - the planned venue will seat 10000, which I hope can expand to something much larger if the Indian team makes the gold medal match. The competition will be in a format called T20, which I now have just a little under five years to figure out.

Flag football - the NFL is already hyping this, to the surprise of no one. According to Al Michaels (reading from the NFL's press release during last night's Jags-Saints game, I assume), there are 20 million flag football players in over 100 countries. Who knew?

Lacrosse - which will finally make up for the lack of medal winners named Jaxxon.

Squash - of all the optional sports, this to me feels like it has the best chance of getting promoted to a core sport. It's popular internationally, and as an individual sport adds fewer athletes to the Games than the team sports (though it will require another venue, where you could play lacrosse, flag football, and rugby on the same fields).

All in all it's not a bad lineup, I think. I'd watch all of these.

For those of you looking for surfing, which seems like a no-brainer inclusion in one of the epicenters of surf culture, not to worry. It's now a core sport. What isn't a core sport for LA is boxing, as the IOC no longer recognizes the International Boxing Association as the federation for international amateur boxing. There's apparently a new federation that's trying to get recognized, so you may yet still get to see people punch each other in the face.

And while it's way too early to know what the optional sports will be for the 2032 Games in Brisbane, I could see baseball/softball, cricket, and squash making the list. I could see netball making it, but sadly not Aussie rules football. Unless there's a flag Aussie rules football that I don't know about.

 USA Today came up with a list of the 100 biggest tourist traps in the world, though I'm not a fan of their methodology. They looked specifically at Google reviews of the 500 most popular tourist attractions in 65 countries. I feel like they missed a lot of honest to God tourist traps by not looking at Yelp or TripAdvisor and not including smaller attractions.

Still, they gave us a list, so here's my two cents on the places on the list that I've been to (in reverse order, to build the suspence!).

99: Cloud Gate, Chicago. Better known as The Bean. I don't know how this rates as a tourist trap. It's a sculpture in a public park. It costs nothing to see. You can spend five minutes there, look at your funny reflections, and move on. There are souvenir places nearby, but if you want to buy stuff that's on you.

96: The Grand Old Opry, Nashville. OK, I've been by this but never inside. I'm not really a country music person so the odds of my actually attending a show is vanishingly small. So it could be a tourist trap, I guess.

95: Cliffs of Moher, Ireland. I can see this, given how the area's been tarted up.  On my first visit you could just park and walk out to the cliffs. Now, it's a much more structured (and costly) experience. I still think the view is worth the hassle, though there are equally dramatic (if not moreso) cliffs at Slieve League, though you have to hall yourself up to Donegal to see them.

83: Stonehenge, UK. Similar to the previous entry, going to see the stones is more of a pain than it used to be. They've recently opened a new visitor's center, which is nice, but it's a fair distance from the site, so you either have to walk out or take a shuttle bus.  I'm guessing people moaned about not being able to go right up to the stones.

81: Kennedy Space Center, Florida. I agree with this, and would move it up the list if I could. It's gotten very expensive and they've cut back on the actual space stuff. 

75: Cable Cars, San Francisco. I had fun riding them the one time I had the chance. I think of these as less of a tourist trap and more of an attraction that is priced above what you might normally expect to pay. 

63: Niagara Falls, Ontario. I know people say the Ontario side is better than the New York side, but there are definately more tourist trap-type attractions over there. The New York side may be depressed and a little grungy, but you can at least see the falls with fewer distractions.

57: Old Faithful Geyser, Wyoming. Bullshit. Yellowstone is great and Old Faithful is fun to see. Plus you can get the whole family into the park for seven consecutive days for $35, and see Old Faithful - and all the other natural wonders on offer - as many times as you like. 

56: Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Yeah, it kind of is. But if it's still set up the way it was when I went, you can walk around the site for free (going into things requires a pass).

52: Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. I liked the town, and what attractions I did see were worth the money. Maybe I just didn't go to the more obvious tourist traps. Or maybe people didn't like reading Shakespeare in high school and took it out on the town.

50: Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. It's pretty disappointing. The sculpture is underwhelming, and the concessions are tacky. 

48: The Alamo, San Antonio. Was fine, but I visited 15 years ago or so. Maybe it's become more tourist trappy since then. 

47: The World of Coca-Cola, Atlanta. Touristy? Yes. A trap? Maybe. But I like Coke and love getting to try drinks from around the world, so I'm willing to give it a break.

46: San Antonio River Walk, San Antonio. The entire area is designed to get you to spend money, but is at least pleasant. I probably wouldn't recommend the boat tour, not much to see other than shops and restaurants. I will say that I liked San Antonio quite a bit for the short time I visited. If you want to see something less touristy, try the San Antonio Missions.

43: Times Square, New York. Probably should be number one.

29: Hollywood Walk of Fame, Hollywood. It's in a gross part of town and isn't much to look at (they're stars set in the sidewalk), but I don't think it's much of a trap unless you get roped into taking pictures with the fake movie stars.

27: Space Needle, Seattle. Was fine, like many things on the list I feel like it was more money than that it was worth going up. But I'd go again, I think.

23: Winchester Mystery House, San Jose. It is, but I was happy to spend the money to go in as I read about the house as a kid and always wanted to see it. The house was built by the heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune, who also believed that the people killed by Winchesters were out to get her. So she never stopped building, hoping to confuse the ghosts. There are also a number of odd spiritual/occult references throughout the place. I don't think I'd go back, but I'm glad I was able to see it.

21: Blarney Castle, Ireland. Very much a tourist trap. The castle has little historic value, and is only popular for people kissing the stone (which has no real connection to what backstory the castle has). I've been a couple of times, only went in once, would probably go back if I was with people who've never been (but would more likely hang out on the grounds than go in again).

19: Skylon Tower, Niagara Falls Ontario. Went by it rather than in it, some of the people in our group did go in and said it was fine. Though they only went in to kill time while I got the car, so I think it met the minimum requirement of being a time waster.

17: Navy Pier, Chicago. I guess is a tourist trap the same way the Riverwalk or Quincy Market in Boston is a tourist trap. It's a place specifically designed to get you to spend money, and if you don't know that going in you didn't do your homework. It was fine for what it is.

15: Fisherman's Whaft, San Francisco. See the entry for Navy Pier.

13: Guinness Storehouse, Dublin. Absolutely a tourist trap. People go for the bar on the roof and to buy stuff, the "museum" or whatever it's supposed to be is crap (or at least it was 20 years ago). Save your money and go drink Guinness at a nice pub.

4: Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota. It's a fair amount of money for what it is, and I expect people are mad that the statue isn't anywhere close to being done. You do get the sense there that the infrastructure around the memorial is now more of the focus than the memorial itself. Still, there are cultural and entertainment opportunities here involving indigenous Americans that you won't get elsewhere.

2: Salem Witch Museum, Salem MA.  Funny to think I live one town over from the second biggest tourist trap in the world. But it is, in fact, a tourist trap. It also gets a ton of visitors, so I have to think it earned its spot here through volume. Problem is I think most of the witch-related stuff in Salem is tourist trappy.

I think my doubts about this list are confirmed by South of the Border not being on this at all. It is the living, breathing, anachronistic definition of a tourist trap, and somehow escaped notice.

 Apropos of a recent trip, a list of places I've been to... but only in the airport.

Denver - After attending a wedding in Santa Barbara in 1992, I flew home through Denver. Got off the plane, walked about three gates down, and got on the other plane. I have never been back to Denver (or Colorado for that matter), though I thought we might go through Denver for a family trip. Turned out it made more sense to start in Salt Lake City. Sorry, Denverinos!

Cincinnati (or Covington, Kentucky) - there were a few years where I mostly flew Delta, and these flights almost always required a change in the Cincinnati airport, which is actually in Covington, Kentucky. I've been to other places in Ohio, but not the Queen City. I don't think I've been in Kentucky since the last time I flew through this airport.

St. John's, Newfoundland - this was an unscheduled stop, as there was a medical emergency on a flight to Dublin. We spent five hours on the ground, as the baggage handlers wouldn't take the sick passenger's bags off until they didn't have any Air Canada baggage to deal with (I've often wondered how much baggage they had to deal with at 3 am). In any case, as much as I am interested in visiting Newfoundland, I am still spiteful enough that I won't do so by plane.

Frankfurt - a cheap(er) flight home from a trip to England went through Frankfurt. I can't say I got the greatest exposure to German culture during the three hours we were there, but we did get a reminder that if you order a sandwich, it's probably coming out on rye bread (the wife is not a fan). I would like to go back (to Frankfurt or Germany, doesn't matter), and at this rate may do so before I ever get back to Denver.

Istanbul - flew through here during the recent trip mentioned at the top. It's a new airport, and is massive. You can easily spend 20 minutes walking between gates, with only moving sidewalks to help you on your way. Not surprisingly, there are a multitude of shops and restaurants along the way where you can take a break. 

I feel like Long Beach should get an honorable mention here, as I flew through there for a work trip to Anaheim, but only passed through in the shuttle van. I suppose I can list Dallas/Ft. Worth here for the same reason, depending on how much you want to differentiate DFW from Grapevine.

 Book Log 2023 #24: The Man from Berlin by Luke McCallin

In the midst of World War II, military intelligence officer Gregor Reinhardt is sent to Yugoslavia to investigate the murder of a German officer. Also killed was a young female filmmaker, loved by the locals and apparently involved with the dead officer. 

Reinhardt's investigation is hampered by the involvement of other agencies, including local German military intelligence, the Sarajevo police, the fascist ruling party of Yugoslavia, and German secret police. On top of navigating the competing investigations, he also has to battle personal demons with roots in his service during World War I.

That's a lot going on for one book, but the complexities are handled well, and the novel picks up steam as Reinhardt begins to assert himself in the investigation.  The novel location and local conditions also help the book stand out.

I found this an engaging wartime mystery, and look forward to future books. 

 Book Log 2023 #23: The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Life is unusually good for Daniel Sempere, as he and his wife Bea have a new baby boy and his old friend Fermin is about to be married. That peace is shattered when a stranger with a porcelain hand visits the bookstore and purchases a rare copy of The Count of Monte Christo, and after penning an inscription leaves it as a wedding present for Fermin.  That inscription leads Fermin to reveal a 20 year old secret, and he enlists Daniel to help track down the man with the porcelain hand before things take a serious - and deadly - turn.

The book pulls together characters and plot points from the first two novels in the series, but felt less Gothic/supernatural than those books. It's also much shorter, which may come as a relief to those who've worked through the 500-plus pages of the first two books. I liked it, but am curious if this marks a shift towards less fantastical storytelling.

 Book Log 2023 #22: The Messenger by Daniel Silva

After having his cover blown in the previous book, Gabriel Allon's career as a spy for Israel looks to be over, with the future promising a desk job that is often suggested by never wanted. An unexpected escape back into the field comes in the form of old friend and papal secretary Luigi Donati, who asks Allon to help uncover a terror plot against the Vatican. This leads Allon to undertake a related mission for the US against targets who, for political reasons, the US can't take care of on their own. 

This is very much in line with previous books in the series, with one notable exception. The bad guys this time are not Palestinian, but Saudi. As this interview makes clear, Silva used this book to explore how Saudi Arabia has a foot in both terrorist and anti-terrorist camps. I'll be interested to see if the focus remains on them in future books.

 Book Log 2023 #21: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Jamie is working as a food delivery driver in New York during the Covid-19 pandemic, hating the job but making ends meet (barely).  An opportunity arises when a customer (and acquaintance) tells Jamie that the "animal rights organization" that he works for needs someone last minute for field visit. Jamie jumps at the offer.

What Jamie doesn't know is that the "animal rights organization" isn't exactly the ASPCA. It's more like Jurassic Park meets Godzilla on an Earth in an alternate dimension.

As is often the case, Scalzi writes a book that is fast paced, highly entertaining, and likely to irritate hard core sci-fi/monster movie types. I liked it quite a bit, as did my oldest son, who is into Godzilla and read this for a high school summer reading project.

 Book Log 2023 #20: Summer of the Danes by Ellis Peters

Brother Cadfael gets an opportunity to return to his home country, traveling with his former apprentice Mark (now a deacon) to visit two Welsh bishops to offer a message of good will from Mark's bishop and a reminder of the imposition of the Roman rite. Things go well with the first bishop, but then go awry when they get mixed up in a murder, the disappearance of a young woman, and a plot to overthrow a Welsh lord by his brother, who has allied with the Danes of the title.

As with many of the previous books, Cadfael does his best to correct love gone wrong and find justice - unofficial as it may be - for the murder he's investigating. We are getting close to the end of the series (only two books left), I'll be interested to see how (or if) the series gets wrapped up.

Book Log 2023 #19: Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

London cop Peter Grant gets pulled into another magic-related homicide when an American student is killed in an Underground station with a pot shard.  The murder weapon and location are no coincidence, and the investigation goes back into the history of both local pottery and the subway. All this takes place while Grant's mentor, Inspector Nightingale, remains on the hunt for the Faceless Man.

Another highly entertaining entry in the series, which is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 40: The Three Dollar League rides again

While technically not the same league, the United States Football League "returned" to action on Saturday, April 16, 2022, with the Birmingham Stallions defeating the New Jersey Generals 28-24 at home (technically all games were home games for everyone, as all games save the championship were played in Birmingham).

The league bought the rights to the USFL name and several of its original franchises, so there was a lot about the new USFL that was familiar to anyone who watched the old USFL. Less familiar was the level of play, as the new USFL wasn't looking to actually compete with the NFL for players. So the actual gameplay was more on the level of other spring leagues (like the XFL or AAF).

The Stallions would go on to win the new league's first title, defeating the Philadelphia Stars. The league also won by making it to a second season (not common for spring football), helped no doubt by being a fully owned subsidiary of Fox.

And so we wrap up another year of Lentorama. See you early in 2024!

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 39: Back to back to back to back

Early season baseball games don't often raise much interest, but the April 17, 1976 game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs was the exception that proved the rule. In that game, Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt became the first National League player to hit home runs in four consecutive at bats. 

The Phils needed every one of those home runs, as they spotted the Cubs an early 12-1 lead (future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton was chased after giving up 7 earned runs in one and two-thirds innings). Schmidt, who had been moved down to sixth in the batting order due to a slump, 

The Phillies needed every one of those home runs (and then some), as the Cubs had jumped out to a 12-1 lead (they chased future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton after he gave up seven runs in one and two-thirds innings). Schmidt didn't hit his first home run until the fifth inning (making the score 13-4, Cubs), and his last homer in the 10th gave the Phils the lead, which they held to win 18-16. 

While he was the first player to hit four consecutive home runs in the National League, he was the fourth in major league baseball, behind Bobby Lowe of the Boston Beaneaters (1894), Lou Gehrig from the Yankees (1932) and Rocky Colavito from Cleveland (1959).

Schmidt would go on to lead the NL in home runs that year, as well as earn his first Gold Glove and second trip to the All Star Game (fitting played in Philadelphia). Schmidt played his entire career with the Phillies, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1995, his first year of eligibility. 

 Book Log 2023 #18: Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda

Unlike Bart Simpson, I would not have said I was familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda before reading this volume. I'm not sure I'd say I'm familiar with his works now. But I will say that, as someone who does not often read poetry, I liked these as much as any poems I've read. It's also astonishing that he wrote these while still a teen.

Neruda's life is also fascinating (he was also a politician and diplomat, often at odds with the Pinochet regime, and may have been assassinated). At some point I need to find a good biography.