Disposing of a wife

While watching a woman being electrocuted on one of our favorite BBC programs last evening I was reminded of a story I wrote twenty or more years ago called BYPASS FOR MURDER. It reminded me, too, how dangerous any electrical appliance can be.
The story was written for a Private Eye Writers of America anthology titled JUSTICE FOR HIRE. Being somewhat honest at times, after receiving a check I returned it to Bob Randisi, founder of PWA, with a note saying I had never written a story named JUSTICE FOR HIRE. He sent it back with a rather caustic reminder that it was the name of the book, not my story.
Anyway, a man felt he wanted to dispose of his wife - something many men feel prone to do at times - so he decided to electrocute her. For him to do so I called upon my days as a radio and TV repairman in the 1950s. As a murder weapon the evil brute used an AC-DC table model radio his wife kept in the basement by her washer.
Those old tube radios were potential killers so manufacturers used a 25 cent part called a line bypass condenser (people call them capacitors now) to keep the 110 line voltage from reaching the chassis. If that condenser shorted out it had no effect at all on the quality of reception so the user was unaware that the full line voltage was now on the chassis. There were two more safeguards, however: cabinets were plastic or wood and there were plastic knobs on the metal shafts used to tune in a station and control the volume.
To proceed with his dastardly plot the husband bought a cheap condenser of the proper size at a radio parts supplier and shorted it out by stabbing it a number of times with a pin. He then replaced the perfectly good line bypass condenser with the one whose effectiveness he had destroyed. Next he replaced the plastic knobs with ones of metal. Finally he punched a tiny hole in a hose by the washer so a small amount of water leaked onto the concrete basement floor.
He was miles away working at his office on wash day when his wife turned on the radio and provided the line voltage with an easy path to ground. The nasty man failed to do one thing, remove a sticker from a nearby radio repair shop.
Everyone was satisfied it was an accident except a suspicious private eye investigating for an insurance company. He took the radio to the shop, where its horrified owner found the cheap bypass condenser, a brand no respectable shop would use. Furthermore, the radio man said, no shop would ever allow an AC-DC radio to leave the premises with metal knobs. Case solved.
The moral of the story is this: beware of any appliance that plugs into an electrical outlet. Somewhere inside that line voltage is lurking. Electricity is something we use every day. It can be our best friend - or our deadliest enemy.

Quote :

While watching a woman being electrocuted on one of our favorite BBC programs

Now THAT'S entertainment! No wonder people like British television.

I like the story line, Dick. There have been many plots of putting electric appliances into one's bath, but the washing machine and radio is a nice twist.

lin wrote:

Quote :

While watching a woman being electrocuted on one of our favorite BBC programs

Now THAT'S entertainment! No wonder people like British television.

I love the BBC!!!

My husband and I love:

Are You Being Served?

Mr. Bean

Keeping Up Appearances

Dr. Who

Torchwood

Sarah Jane Adventures

Father Ted

..... and on goes the list

Lin, that was carefully edited. I removed "enjoyed" watching a woman being electrocuted. And you thought I wasn't sensitive and lacked good taste.

Like Elf, we love many of the BBC productions. I wish the American producers would study their way of doing things. Hugh Laurie, who plays the role of Dr. House, does an amazing bit of acting to sound like a Yank. I heard an interview with him about the program and he had reverted back to his British accent. It's hard to imagine how much effort that would take.

Thanks everyone you got me humming, Rule Brittania, Brittania Rules The
Waves, except now it's TV signal waves, no matter, Rule Brittania,
Brittania Rules The Air Waves

Yes, British television is far superior to the American airings. Better acting and better writing, too, I think. We, on this side of the pond seem to be much more the prude than our British cousins.

I find Hugh Laurie an excellent actor and saw the interview as well. He seemed like someone else!

The USA does have some great TV in the way of SciFi; don't get me wrong Dr Who is brill but Stargate, Startrek, etc, etc shows great TV does come out of the states.

I think better has mostly to do with personal preference/taste.
I'm a fan of the British comedies as mentioned by Forest Elf. But I'm also a fan of the old American comedies as with "I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith, Newhardt," etc. Those were family-type comedies that could give a good belly laugh. The foul-mouthed comedies of today turn me off so I turn them off.

I agree with you Abe and Hairy Mob that it's about the quality of the show as much as anything. I love some of the Brit comedy, but then my parents are British and so I watched a lot of it growing up but honestly I don't go looking for it most of the time. My favourite approach is to watch the recorded stuff I love that we can buy series of favourite shows) that I do like and that way miss commercials as well as the junk, but everyone's opinion of what they love - as well as what is junk is different.

Abe, I think the difference between the American comedies you mentioned is the old vs. the new.

I liked Cheers the one about the bar in Chigago and then there was Married with Children both brilliant American comedies of the nineties. And then there is My Name Is Erol which I have heard is great but unfortunately I keep missing so I'm not able to say for myself, though from the trailers it does look good. Don't give up on American comedy its like comedy everywhere it comes in cycles.

I haven't heard about My Name Is Erol, but I did enjoy Cheers and Married With Children. Also Mash and All In The Family, but there is very little in the way of new offerings on American TV that shows merit.

And many of the newer programming seems to be aimed specifically at the teen to twenty age groups. I really seldom watch tv anymore, as most of the programs appear to be stupid in my opinion. Maybe I am just getting old and set in my ways!

I really like My Name is Earl, have only seen a couple. It's Jason Lee.

My hit on TV comedy is a little different. what I see is there have ALWAYS been a couple of really well-written shows on at all times. They change, but there are always at least two. The rest are often dreck.

I look back and see stuff like News Radio, Wings, WKRP, Barney Miller, Designing Women, Cheers, Frasier... there is always some good stuff with top flight writing.

Go further back and you see there were things like Dick Van Dyke, I Love Lucy, etc. with great writing.

I think the writing is getting better, actually.

Another thing you sort of spot is that often the same people are involved with the best shows, moving on to other ones as the old ones go off the air. Frasier and Wings had some of the same people involved.

Two of my favorite novelists, Joe Keenan and Thomas Perry, wrote extensively for Frasier and Simon and Simon respectively.
Guys like Conan O'Brien were originally writers for shows.

We're seeing the last of a generation of writers who came out of the old National Lampoon (and many through Saturday Night Live) then moved into shows.

zadaconnaway wrote:

Yes, British television is far superior to the American airings. Better acting and better writing, too, I think. We, on this side of the pond seem to be much more the prude than our British cousins.

I find Hugh Laurie an excellent actor and saw the interview as well. He seemed like someone else!

I think Bob Hoskins is brilliant.

I couldn't believe the perfect Brooklyn accent he pulled off in "Mario Brothers". He was Mario Mario.

lin wrote:

I look back and see stuff like News Radio, Wings, WKRP, Barney Miller, Designing Women, Cheers, Frasier... there is always some good stuff with top flight writing.

I think you and I must be pretty close in age Lin, we recall the same shows! I have often thought it was the writers that really make a show too. It often seems that a show will start out really strong and then the writers move on to a new project and the old show fades away. One of my all time favourites is MASH, and I still love those old re-runs.

If you're up for something really fun, this is a riot; a sing-along-blog with Dr. Horrible and the talents of Joss Whedon. It's not expected to be on-line long but I am really hoping that they do some more episodes. http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog