On Thursday - December 25^th, 2014 - Hour 25 will be a part of your Christmas celebrations by bringing you some Christmas ghost stories. So grab some eggnog, kick back and relax while we bring you three imaginative holiday fantasies.

Our stories tonight were all written by John Kendrick Bangs, an author and editor who worked on the most popular magazines of the 19th century. When not being the humor editor of Puck or other magazines he wrote supernatural fiction that was well loved for its whimsy and wit, especially when he set his ghost stories in the Christmas season.

Many of his stories feel like Twilight Zone episodes written by a 19th century Rod Serling. So tonight we bring you...

A triplet of the imaginative.

A triptych of the mysterious.

A serving of a quarter dozen holiday treats.

Brought to you by The Hour that Stretches.

christmas tree

The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall by John Kendrick Bangs

There's a ghost haunting Harrowby Hall but only on Christmas Eve. The owner is fed up with having his holidays ruined by this ghostly visitation but what is he to do? How can he make this ghost leave and never come back? I think you'll agree with me that his solution to this problem is both logical and imaginative.

boy with boxes

The Child Who Had Everything But - by John Kendrick Bangs

We all too often get too focused on material goods and forget about the simple joys of life. We sometimes fear the things that could hurt us so much that we miss the things that bring joy to our lives. That's a simple truth that can best be seen though the magic window of fantasy.

Come with us as we visit a boy who has everything a boy could want but who does not have the one thing it takes to make it all worthwhile.

candle

Thurlow's Christmas Story by John Kendrick Bangs

Henry Thurlow is a man with a problem. He's accepted a contract to provide a story for the Christmas issue of a magazine that regularly publishes his work. The story has been announced, the publicity gone out, a place is being held for his carefully crafted words but he is unable to actually write the story and it is due tomorrow.

To make matters worse Mr. Thurlow is getting visited by a ghostly presence and has nightmares of the life of an evil alter ego that he can't distinguish from reality. But then a mysterious stranger offers to solve his writing problems with an unanticipated gift.

Mr. Thurlow should know better than to accept gifts from strangers. Good thing there's magic in the Christmas season.

2001: A Christmas Odyssey

And from all of us at Hour 25, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years.

Listen to this show

Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:47:59} Or

Click here for the show's intro music. {0:41}
Click here for the show's opening. {4:02}
Click here for Warren's reading of The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall by John Kendrick Bangs. {23:56}
Click here for Suzanne's reading of The Boy Who Had Everything But - by John Kendrick Bangs. {34:00}
Click here for Warren's reading of Thurlow's Christmas Story by John Kendrick Bangs. {39:32}
Click here for a Christmas greeting from the Moon. {3:04}
Click here for the show's closing. {2:44}
For more Christmas readings you can listen to our shows from 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002 and 2001.
And to add some music to your holiday season you might want to listen to our show featuring holiday carols with a Lovecraftian twist.
Click here for links to all of our previous Shows that you can listen to on the Hour 25 Website.

If you enjoyed this show and would like to know when other interviews are uploaded to the Hour 25 Website, then send an email to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I will add your name to the free Hour 25 Newsletter mailing list. That way you'll get a brief notice in your email every time a new show gets uploaded to the web.

A note for our listeners who are Mac users - I have discovered what appears to be an incompatibility between our audio feed, which uses standard internet audio formats and protocols, and Safari running under OSX Mavericks.

However there do not appear to be any problems under OSX Mavericks when using the latest version of the Firefox browser. If you want to download the free Firefox browser you can find it here.

Useful Space Related Links

Space news - Asteroids

More information about the first asteroid to be discovered in 2014 can be found in this article from Space Daily, this article from Sky and Telescope, this report from the Minor Planet Center, or this report from NASA's Near Earth Object Program.

The homepage for JPL's Near Earth Object Program contains a great deal of news and other information about asteroids and includes an interactive orbit display program that can show the orbit of any known asteroid.

The Minor Planet Center is a clearinghouse for information about asteroid orbits and keeps track of newly discovered asteroids as well as objects that have been tracked for decades or even centuries. Their blog is an on-going source of news for all things relating to asteroids.

Space News - Dawn - A Mission to the Asteroids

Updates and additional information about the mission of the Dawn spacecraft can be found at the project's Home Page at JPL or at this NASA Web Site.

Additional information about asteroids can be found at the NASA Near Earth Asteroid (NEO) Web Site.

Dawn is a part of the Discovery Program of deep space missions. Information about Dawn and other missions can be found at the Discovery Program Web Site.

Space News - Mars

Much information about the Phoenix mission to Mars can be found at this JPL Web Site or at this Web Site from the University of Arizona or this NASA Web Site. Additional information about various past NASA missions can be found here.

For more information about the Mars Exploration Rovers be sure to check out the MER Web Site at JPL or this Mars Rover site at Cornell University. You can also get information about the MER mission by reading the News Updates posted by Dr. Steve Squyres, the project's Principal Investigator.

To learn more about the Mars Express mission you can go to this ESA Mars Express Web Site, this Mars Express Web Page from JPL, this NSSDC Mars Express Web Page, or this Web Page from Mars News.Com.

For more information about the Exploration of Mars be sure to go to the JPL Mars Exploration Site, the Center for Mars Exploration at NASA Ames, or the Mars Missions Web Site at the Planetary Society.

Information about the data returned by previous Mars missions can be found at this Mars Web Page at the NSSDC.

Information about the Phoenix Mission to Mars can be found at this Press Release from the University of Arizona. You can view a 3D picture of the Mars Phoenix spacecraft here.

For more Mars news be sure to check out the Mars News.Com Web Site.

Percival Lowell did much to shape our ideas about Mars in the early years of the 20th Century. You can learn more about his work by reading this on-line copy of his 1895 book Mars.

Space News - The Cassini Mission to Saturn

Much information about the Cassini mission can be found at the Project's Official Web Site at JPL.

JPL is constantly releasing pictures from Cassini. You can find them by going to this JPL Web Page.

Additional information about the Cassini mission can be found at this ESA Web Site.

The University of Arizona Web Site for the imaging system used to take the Huygens pictures of Titan has much information about how they were obtained and processed as well as a collection of processed and unprocessed images.

The Huygens probe carried a microphone and recorded the various sounds that it heard while descending to the surface of Titan. You can listen to those sounds at this Web Page sponsored by the Planetary Society.

For On-Going Updates on Space News

Links relating to the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia can be found here.

The Reusable Launch & Space Vehicle News Web Site Web Page that is part of the Hobby Space Web Site is a really good place to watch for news about, well... Reusable Launch Vehicles and related subjects. I check it out just about every day and often find news there that doesn't show up anywhere else. Give it a look. {And while you're there be sure to check out some of the site's other pages. Wow! Is there a lot of information there.}

The Space Today Web Site is a great place to find space news from all over the 'net.

The Spaceflight Now Web Site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?

The NASA Watch Web Site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.

ISS News

The Florida Today Web Site has a very interesting report about the causes of the ISS budget problems and their impact on the space program. It makes very interesting reading.

Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.

Check out the NASA International Space Station Web Page or the Boeing Web Page to learn more about this project.

A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.

Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link Web Site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.

You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA Web Page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.

Space Related Organizations
If you are interested in learning more about current space activities there are many local and national organizations you might want to know about. Joining these organizations and taking part in their activities is a good way to stay abreast of things going on in space as well as a way to show your support for those activities. Listed below are some of those organizations.

The Organization for the Advancement of Space Industrialization and Settlement has long been place for persons living in the Los Angeles area to gather and discuss the promise of space. Be sure to check out their Web Site for information about their meetings and other activities.

The Orange County Space Society is another Los Angeles area organization that provides a focal point for persons who are interested in space developments to get together and share their ideas. They have created a number of displays explaining the history and importance of space exploration that have appeared at various public events. Be sure to check their Web Site for information about their meetings and other events.

The National Space Society has a long history of being an advocate for a vigorous space program and provides much information to its members through their magazine and Web Site.

The Space Frontier Foundation is a strong advocate for a non-governmental space program and serves as a focal point for much activity in that arena. Their annual conference in Los Angeles during the Fall is a great way to find out what is happening in the non-government space arena.

The Space Access Society is focused on reducing the cost of going into space by promoting non-governmental launch vehicle programs. Their annual conference in the spring is a major source of information on non-traditional launch vehicle activities.

The Planetary Society is focused on the exploration of the Solar System and has a wealth of information for its members and others.

Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.

Please note Web Pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.

Halloween Readings - 2014

Listen to this show

On Friday - October 31^st, 2014 - Hour 25 will read you some stories to accompany your Halloween revels. So close the shutters, lock the doors and try not to think about those rustling noises you hear just outside your windows.

Ancient Lights by Algernon Blackwood

Humans like to think that they're the masters of our world. We like to think we're in charge and that we can bend nature to our will. But this illusion, like so many others, can be dangerous and deadly - as a surveyor's clerk discovers when he tries to take a shortcut through a dark and tangled forest.

Algernon Blackwood is widely acknowledged to be one of the major figures in the world of fantastic fiction and was described by H.P. Lovecraft as "the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere". His works are often based on experiences from his extensive travels and reflect his love and appreciation for nature. He often puts his horrors 'off-stage' so that the reader is forced to fill in the details from his or her imagination. And as we all know, the frights that come from within us are always so much more scary than anything an author can put on paper or film.

Here are links to some of Algernon Blackwood's stories that are available online at Project Gutenberg.

Incredible Adventures {S.T. Joshi called this book "the premier weird collection of this or any other century".}

The Willows {This story, with its use of suggestions of strange entities and horrors happening off-stage, was called "the single finest weird tale in literature" by H.P. Lovecraft.}

The Wendigo {This story, from 1910, has a supernatural killer stalking a bunch of hunters who are out in the North woods of Canada. Think of it as a Gothic Horror version of the movie Predator.}

Three John Silence Stories and Three More John Silence Stories {These will introduce you to Blackwood's own 'Investigator of the supernatural and uncanny'. The popularity of these stories showed Blackwood that he could make a living as an author and encouraged him to make that his lifelong career.}

The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories {These very traditional ghost stories may not break new ground in the weird fiction genre but they'll give you a good scare.}

The spooky woods

The Goblin's Collection by Algernon Blackwood

It's an experience we all have shared... You put something down and a few minutes later you can't find it where you left it or anywhere else for that matter. And then a few hours later it shows up back where you left it. You could attribute this to forgetfulness or inattention but perhaps there is, as Algernon Blackwood suggests, a different answer.

goblins and fairies

The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells

Most ghost stories assume that the ghosts know what they're doing when they haunt a house. But why should they? Do people always know what they're doing as they move through life? So why should ghosts be any different?

That seems like a natural question but it takes a writer with the wit and insight of H.G. Wells to ask that question and, more importantly, to answer it.

When you think of H.G. Wells you likely think of his scientific romances where the supernatural never appears. However he wrote many other kinds of fiction, to say nothing of his non-fiction, and even ghost stories. And when H.G. Wells ventures into the realm of the supernatural he does it with his own unique perspective that brings new life to stories about the afterlife.

The Inexperienced Ghost

Listen to this show

Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:21:18} Or

Click here for the show's intro music. {0:41}
Click here for the show's opening. {1:36}
Click here for Warren's reading of Ancient Lights by Algernon Blackwood. {18:36}
Click here for Suzanne's reading of The Goblin's Collection by Algernon Blackwood. {22:15}
Click here for Warren's reading of The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells. {35:49}
Click here for the show's closing. {2:21}
For more Halloween readings and interviews you can listen to our shows from 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2001 and 2000.
And to add some music to your holiday season you might want to listen to our show featuring holiday carols with a Lovecraftian twist.
Click here for links to all of our previous Shows that you can listen to on the Hour 25 Website.