Take a look at this: On eNotes.com are the end notes for Blood Relations by Sharon Pollock. It is a fee site, but you can have a 90 day access to the Pollock play for only $7.95. There are other options for accessing the contents of eNotes here.

Includes:
Blood Relations: Introduction
Sharon Pollock Biography
Summary
Characters
Themes
Style
Historical Context
Critical Overview
Essays and Criticism
Compare and Contrast
Topics for Further Study
What Do I Read Next?
Pictures
Bibliography and Further Reading
Copyright

Blood Relations was first produced in 1980 at Theatre 3 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This was not the play’s first appearance on stage, however, as Sharon Pollock often extensively revises her plays, even after the first couple of productions. The previous version was produced as My Name Is Lisabeth in 1976 at Douglas College with Pollock herself playing the role of Lizzie Borden. After significant revision, she renamed the play Blood Relations and staged it as a new work in 1980.

The play is based on historical fact: die 1892 double murder of Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother, a crime for which Lizzie herself was charged. The crime shocked the Massachusetts community of Fall River, as well as the whole nation, and citizens read with fascination reports of the trial. Lizzie was acquitted but the crime was never solved, and her innocence was questioned by the public. In contemporary times, the figure of Lizzie Borden has achieved iconic status. Many perceive her as an early feminist who did not shy from acting and thinking as an individual. It has often been theorized that, if Lizzie did in fact commit the murders, her actions were based on self-preservation, an attempt to escape from an abusive family situation.

Some reviewers of Blood Relations challenged Pollock for writing a work that failed to adequately confront feminist concerns, instead choosing to direct the play towards a more general political agenda. Pollock’s work appears to be “more involved with studies of oppression in general and political processes in particular than … in specific struggles of women,” said S. R Gilbert in Contemporary Dramatists.

Blood Relations was the first full-length play Pollock produced. A published version of it, released in 1981, won her the Governor General’s Award, the first time such an award was made for a piece of dramatic literature.

Controversy often followed Blood Relations, specifically in 1982 and 1983, when Pollock sued a television station for damage to her literary reputation when it decided to drop her play and develop its own script. The case was settled out of court.

On a site dedicated to exposing Internet scams called Scam o Rama, is a unique piece of creative expression.

The site’s description states:

The letters posted here illustrate (hilariously unsuccessful) attempts at ADVANCE FEE FRAUD. The sender claims to be a bureaucrat, banker or royal toadie, who wants to cut you, and only you, in on the financial deal of a lifetime.

In plain English, the writer claims to be in a position to skim public accounts or in other ways move vast amounts of cash, ethically obtained or not, into your hands. Hint: There is no money to be laundered – except yours. Palms must be greased. With your money. Generally in the form of a Western Union money order. A few K here, a few K there… eventually you get wise, and retire to lick your wounds. Dead soldier, dead farmer, dead bank customer, reformed murderer, lotto prize, phony job offer, phony request for bid, different pot of money, different countries… same scam.

The scammer may send you pictures of “money” – see example on this page, or visit the Show Me The Money gallery. Same scam.

Setting aside the writer’s attempt to rob you and (going through the mental contortions necessary to take the letter at face value) to steal from his own country, the letters are funny. Read them out loud at parties and see. The 100+ letters below introduce the literary genre of the Lads from Lagos. Some people write the scammers back. Welcome to the Scamology.

Most readers say “what an obvious scam!”. Some say “I was almost fooled till I saw this site.” A handful say “couldn’t mine be ‘real’?” Stay safe out there!

Notes:
1 When not playing on your generosity or naivete, the Lads are asking you to steal. There is nothing to be stolen, except from you.
2 It is NOT suggested that there are no scam artists in other countries, or that fraud started in Nigeria. There sure are and it sure didn’t.
3 So why “Lads from Lagos” ? Because most such e-mails come from thereabouts, or from expatriates. It’s just like that. Africans hate getting them too.

I bring you Lizzie Borden Meets the Lads. Enjoy!

Thanks to “intrepid reporter” for this link. However, if you can tell me what Mr. Stubb is singing, you win a duck.

The artist is Peter Stubb and the song is “Lizzie Borden.”

Deluth News Tribune published an interesting piece on the problems owners of crime scene houses have in selling their properties. The article was inspired by the recent listing of the JonBenet Ramsey house in Boulder, Co.

A 2000 study by a professor of finance at Wright State University in Ohio found that stigmatized properties do sell for less, though not by a lot. Typically they fetch 3 percent less, said James Larsen, who conducted the study. But they do take about 45 percent longer to sell, he concluded.

There is another article in USATODAY about the same subject.

Did you know?:

A house in which a murder or other bloody crime took place typically will stay on the market from two to seven years longer than it would otherwise.

About half of the states require sellers to disclose a home’s traumatic history to buyers but some regulations mandate disclosure for only a short period of time.

The California Civil Code decrees that a death on a property need not be disclosed if it occurred three years before a sale.

In South Dakota, sellers must disclose a “human death by homicide or suicide” only if it occurred within 12 months of the sale, according to state statutes.

I know that many of the most grisly crime scene houses have been demolished instead of sold to new owners. The Sharon Tate/Roman Polanski house on Cielo drive is no longer standing, as are John Wayne Gacy house, Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment building, and the Heaven’s Gate House.

Thank goodness that nobody tore down 92 Second Street. It was lucky that there was a business attached to the premises and it was a family home until turning into a B&B in 1996.