A Casebook of Curious Cases

"Fact is stranger than fiction" is a common American maxim. It ought to be true as it has been repeated innumerable times for at least six generations. As with so many things written down, Adam Dumphy does not agree. He feels that if this is true writers of fiction should be ashamed. They are not doing their job. Adam much prefers Mark Twain's "First get the facts then you can scramble them any way you like." Mark was probably talking about politics but it could be applied to writers also. Best of all Adam prefers a scramble of fact by fiction. That is what he does. And after thirty years of medical practice he is certain there are many "facts" not true and much "fiction" learned subsequently to be fact. In his medical practice his motto was "Primum non nocere." (Firstly do no harm.) He still believes that. And after all what is the harm in writing something that is not widely read if it might cheer up at least a few someones who do read. Logan Pearsoll Smith once wrote "A best seller is a gilded temple of mediocrity." He likes that. Here is Adam's latest harmless presentation. Ishi Revisited, Remains Tell the Story of a Recluse, a Phoenician Goddess in Modern California, A Look at that Awful Drug Scene, A Genuine Custer Survivor, Amelia Earhart returned, Shambu and his Friends Perform, Polka Dot Teeth are Revealing, the Clarence Pendelton Tremor explained, A Genuine Forgery or was it? Curious cases all. And each solved for the reader in this offering.