PD and former BJ pop culture critic Mark Dawidziak, who seems to write a book every 12 days, has another one coming out in February.

This time Mark’s topic is “The Twilight Zone,” Rod Serling’s remarkable anthology TV series that scared the beejeebers out of viewers which teaching morality.

“Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone” has been edited by Brendan Deneen. Serling was the New York state born and New York state died genius.

Serling's most striking admonition, I think, is “There is nothing in the dark that isn't there when the lights are on.”

As if that will keep us from crapping our pants watching Serling’s scintillating safari’s into “the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination.”

If I’m counting right, this will be Mark’s 13^th book. They include:

Mark’s other books, all of them gems, include “Mark Twain's Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness,”  "Mark Twain in Ohio," "Mark My Words," "Mark Twain on Writing,"  the 1994 horror novel, “Grave Secrets,” “The Columbo Phile: A Casebook,” “The Night Stalker Companion” and “The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula.”

I'm sure I missed a few, but who can keep up with such a prolific, and talented, writer. I taught him well when I was BJ TV Editor.

Mark’s household includes a cat named Poe (as in Edgar Allan Poe), a daughter named Becky and a wife named Sara, who joins Mark as they tour the area and the country performing plays tied to Poe, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and the Civil War, which wasn’t very civil at all if you know your history of Andersonville, Salisbury, Alton, Point Lookout, Camp Douglas, Belle Isle and Elmira, dubbed “Hellmira” by Confederate POWs.

 Both sides were guilty of abominable conditions in their prisoner of war camps.