Seventy-six Years Ago: Claire Lui, editorial assistant at American Heritage magazine, has written an overview of the launch of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's Nancy Drew seventy-six years ago on April 28, 1930.

Nancy Drew, the linchpin of the Stratemeyer Syndicate for the next 54 years, would be Edward Stratemeyer’s last hurrah. Twelve days after the first Nancy Drew book was published, he died of pneumonia. Nancy now became the work of two separate women: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, the new head of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and Mildred Wirt Benson, the ghostwriter behind most of the early mysteries. Together, Adams and Benson were Carolyn Keene, the author listed in the Library of Congress as Nancy Drew's author. Their differing visions of Nancy would eventually be reflected in two versions of the series.

Lui believes that Nancy, who has never gone out of print, and who is now appearing in new stories will last for at least another 76 years. Read article ...

Nancy Prew: Huh? This blurb from westender.com in Vancouver tells you everything you need to know.

All-American teenage sleuth Nancy Prew (not to be confused with all-American teenage sleuth Nancy Drew, for obvious potentially litigious reasons) is transported from the 1950s to 2006, only to be faced with a dastardly group of conservative evil-doers that plans to turn back the hands of time to Prew's era of chasteness and "family values." Mmmm... that's good satire! The always disrespectful and irreverent Screaming Weenie Productions presents Clue in the Fast Lane, presented as a three-episode series April 11-29 at Odyssey Nightclub (1251 Howe), 7:30 p.m. Tickets $10 from ScreamingWeenie.com, Little Sister's and Tech Direct PC, or $12 at the door ($25 for all three episodes).

Wonder if this show will ever come east where I might have a chance to see it. I suppose I'll just have to settle for Lucy Liu in "Lucky Number Slevin" ... movie also stars Josh Hartnett and Bruce Willis ... hmmmm. Read more ...

Teen Spirit: Nancy Drew and others are used by author Ilana Nash in her book, "American Sweethearts: Teenage Girls in Twentieth-Century Popular Culture", from Indiana University Press to show, by "illuminating oppressive patterns of representation of teenage girls in American movies, plays, novels and TV and radio shows from 1930 to 1965", a mass culture campaign intent on maintaining "patriarchal hegemony" ... sounds like serious stuff ... might be too much for me but maybe you want to learn more ... and you can in this review ... or if you buy and read the book ...

The "Lost" Outlines of Carolyn Keene are revealed by Cleolinda Jones - self proclaimed "writer, grad student, webmistress (whp-chaaaa!), editor, ersatz entertainment journalist, erstwhile translator, feminist, dragonslayer, heroine addict, space cadet, and former CIA operative to Cuba" with the web product to back these claims - at her Occupation Girl Livejournal site. Good stuff with heavy comments from Cleolinda's peeps. Read the outline ...

Hollywood Update: Filming is apparently underway for The Mystery in Hollywood Hills which I stumbled across and mentioned some time early last month. Cinematical seems to have the most comprehensive scoop on this and as of 17 Feb is reporting:

It's on. Starring Eric Roberts-spawn (and Aquamarine's girl-who-finds-the-mermaid) Emma Roberts, the Nancy Drew movie has had a lot of people (many of whom totally won't admit it) in a nostalgic frenzy since news of its existence was announced way too long ago. Now, finally, there's some good news: production has begun. Woo hoo! Not only that, but we've got a plot (the news of which is possibly slightly less good).In order to get her somewhere with lots of pretty people and parties ...

Hey, I'm not gonna cut and paste the whole piece. If you really need to know more (some will, some won't ) you can read all about ND MHH and more directly at Cinematical. Do it now ...

So Dire, So Dangerous, and then Poof: The 2006 Buffalo News Short Story contest, which this year focused on mystery/suspense writing, attracted over 130 writers and Nancy makes an appearance in the First Place winner's story:

The roar of the water was a reminder of childhood, summer days flirting with summer flings, and the bittersweet promise of freedom implicit in every Senior Skip Day.

"The Bills make me want to SHOUT -" Angela hunted for the source of the song, clambering up the statue of Nikolai Tesla like so many Goat Island tourists before her, the bronze of the statue polished by their passing.

The cell phone in Tesla's lap was Michael's, of course. And as she reached for it, she remembered mocking his fanboy devotion when he played her the ring tone, that song.

"I see you were smart enough to listen, and come alone," the caller hissed, in a French accent as fake as Groucho glasses. "Now we shall see whether you are smart enough to save your brother's life."

You will want to read the rest of this story ...

Pardeeville Science Fair: Eh? What does a Science Fair have to do with Nancy Drew? And Pardeeville? Well ... a series of clues ... boot prints, tool marks, finger prints ... apperently were left by the person behind the theft of "The Secret of the Old Clock" ... a first edition printed in 1930, which was stolen from the library on the eve of the fictitious "Nancy Drew First Edition Library Tour" and students have to solve the case. Hmmmm ... wonder if it had a dust jacket? Read more about this strange case ... and, since I know you want to, you may as well learn more about Pardeeville too ...

Being the Detective: Admit it ... you always wanted to be just like Nancy ... without getting your shoes muddy of course ... and now you can by reading reports from Steve Huff on Huff's Crime Blog, doing some research then sending Huff your findings and tips. This recent piece on Neil Entwistle by Huff is a great place to start regarding some techniques for doing internet research. Do it now ...

Watching the Detectives: What would Nancy have done here? A state police detective said Tuesday that a dominatrix told investigators she spent two hours trying to decide what to do with the body of a client who authorities believe died of a heart attack during a bondage session. Barbara Asher, who is on trial for manslaughter in the death of former North Hampton resident Michael Lord, told police that she and her boyfriend settled on a plan to chop up the body and dump it because it was too big to carry out of Asher's condominium, said the detective, Sgt. Dermot Moriarty. Read more ...

Discussion Groups: There are quite a few groups at Yahoo for ND fans to meet and discuss ND with others. Among these, more or less in order of size and activity, the top 10 currently are NancyDrewSleuths, TheNancyDrewGroup, nancydrew2, DetectivesClub, nancydrewmysteryclub, NancyDrewDiscussionGroup, nancydrewfanklub, Nancy_Drew_Trailblazers, Nancydrew, and SleuthsCHAT. I've added a link to Yahoo Directory entry for Nancy Drew to the menu at the right. You can use that link to do some investigating and decide which of these groups best meets your needs.