ZAP!

I'm reading a book right now - 'American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century' about a series of bombings that took place in the good old days of 1910, when you could buy a stick of dynamite at the grocery store.

I've read a lot about history, watched many years of programming on The History Channel, and surprisingly, I had no idea any of these goings on had - er, gone on.

The thing that impressed me most is how the detectives go about their investigation, mostly by going door to door and talking to people, and piecing together a description of the bombers. I mean, think about this for a minute - they do not have a photo.

Imagine walking into a bar, ambling up to the barkeep and saying "Good evening, my good sir! I am searching for a cadre of mad bombers. Our prime suspect is a white male in his early 30's. He wears a black suit of clothes, wears a black derby, has mutton chops and a manly mustache. Have you seen this man?"

The barkeep blinks at the detective, then runs his fingers through his manly mustache, his mutton chops aquiver with laughter. "Every time I look in the mirror!" He spins in place, laughing. "Watch out, boys! I'm a mad bomber!"

The bar full of white, mustacheoed, mutton-chopped, 30'ish men wearing black suits and black derbys laugh uproariously.

It's easy to forget how much easier our modern investigative teams have it, in comparison. When you can pull DNA out of used chewing gum and match it against thousands of known suspects in a matter of hours, it changes the game quite a bit.

The book is slow-paced but interesting - a good library read, I'd say.