If a thousand monkeys typed on a thousand typewriters for a thousand years, they’d eventually write the collected works of Shakespeare—or they might produce this. R. John Smythe’s fantasy-erotica has very little going for it in the prose department, although we’ll credit him for conceptual creativity. But a bizarre story about swinging spouses—even one populated by mythical creatures, as this one is—is not a reason to buy the book. No, it’s made purchaseworthy by two things. The first is the Robert Bonfils cover art, and the second is the title—Dr. Swapus. Pure. Unadulterated. Genius.
1945—Laval Executed
Pierre Laval, who was the premier of Vichy, France, which had collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, is shot by a firing squad for treason. In subsequent years it emerges that Laval may have considered himself a patriot whose goal was to publicly submit to the Germans while doing everything possible behind the scenes to thwart them. In at least one respect he may have succeeded: fifty percent of French Jews survived the war, whereas in other territories about ninety percent perished.