Monday, December 31, 2012

A "Lost" Story by Bram Stoker

Read Bram Stoker Lost Story

Oxford American Dictionary names GIF word of the year

Oxford American Dictionary names GIF word of the year

I Got Yer New Year's Resolution Right Here

New Year’s resolutions: Reading a book every day.

Richard Rodney Bennett, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Richard Rodney Bennett, the British composer who in a long, distinguished career moved with ease among classical concert music, jazz and film, died on Dec. 24 in New York, where he had lived since 1979. He was 76.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The 10 Most Overrated Movies of 2012

The 10 Most Overrated Movies of 2012 

Song of the Day

Orioles - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve (original version) - YouTube:

The Hundred Best Lists of All Time

The Hundred Best Lists of All Time 

The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace

Or maybe this is just a bad joke.

The 50 Shades Of Grey Effect: Jane Eyre, Pride And Prejudice And Sherlock Holmes To Be Republished With 'Explosive Sex Scenes'

Today's Vintage Ad


Close Out The Year With Some Best-Selling Last Words

Close Out The Year With Some Best-Selling Last Words

Viking Update

The Raw Story: When the sleek, beautiful silhouette of Roskilde 6 appeared on the horizon, 1,000 years ago, it was very bad news. The ship was part of a fleet carrying an army of hungry, thirsty warriors, muscles toned by rowing and sailing across the North Sea; a war machine like nothing else in 11th-century Europe, its arrival meant disaster was imminent. 

Now the ship’s timbers are slowly drying out in giant steel tanks at the Danish national museum’s conservation centre at Brede outside Copenhagen, and will soon again head across the North Sea – to be a star attraction at an exhibition in the British Museum.

The 11 most fascinating scientific discoveries of 2012

The 11 most fascinating scientific discoveries of 2012 

PaperBack



Peter McCurtin, The Assassin #1: Manhattan Massacre, Dell, 1973

Worth It For the Crocodiles Alone

Mail Online: It's a real animal house! The $15million Texas mansion filled with dozens of stuffed polar bears, crocodiles and lions

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Or Maybe Not

Books That Will Inspire You to Be a Better Person in 2013

The year's 9 most hilarious New York Times corrections

The year's 9 most hilarious New York Times corrections

The Strange Story of William Faulkner’s Only Children’s Book

Brain Pickings: The Strange Story of William Faulkner’s Only Children’s Book

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Jersey woman charged at boyfriend with hammer after he refuses to pay for laundry, reports say

10 American Female Serial Killers

10 American Female Serial Killers

New Poem at The 5-2

The 5-2 : Crime Poetry Weekly: Kimberlee Smith

Times Square New Year's Eve: Black and white photos show history of holiday

Times Square New Year's Eve: Black and white photos show history of holiday

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The Desert Rats

The Desert Rats (1953) trailer - YouTube:

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Song of the Day

Status Quo: Pictures Of Matchstick Men ( 1968 ) - YouTube:

Libby Hellman Profile in Chicago Tribune

Libby Hellman profile.

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest

Modesty Blaise: Lady in the Dark (Modesty Blaise (Graphic Novels))
Another great comic strip collection from Titan Books.  Not to be missed by Modesty fans.  The large format makes this one especially enticing.

Modesty Blaise: Lady in the Dark (Modesty Blaise (Graphic Novels)): Peter O'Donnell: 9780857686930: Amazon.com: Books: Stories from the classic newspaper strip Modesty Blaise are collected here in the latest in Titan's deluxe library series.

This volume includes the classic stories The Girl from the Future, The Big Mole and Lady in the Dark! 


With story introductions that take the reader behind the scenes of Modesty's world, this outstanding collection is not to be missed.

The American Scholar: In Praise of Small Presses

The American Scholar: In Praise of Small Presses 

Today's Vintage Ad


First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

OrlandoSentinel.com: Woman stabbed drunken joker 9 times during holiday party for teasing, cops say

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Looking for Work?

The 8 Craziest Job Openings in the Military-Industrial Complex

PaperBack



Stuart James, Jack the Ripper, Monarch, 1960

No, It's Not Your Neighbor's Leaf Blower

What is the Most Annoying Sound in the World?

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Feud over Frankie the cat leaves family with £20,000 legal bill after 'foster owner' refuses to hand him back 

Monocles: How did they become a symbol of wealth?

Monocles: How did they become a symbol of wealth? 

Texas Crimes of the Year, 2012

Texas Crimes of the Year, 2012 

This is, as you can imagine, long.  Very long.

The 5 Most Hilariously Insane Rulers of All Time

The 5 Most Hilariously Insane Rulers of All Time

Tarzan and the Amazons

TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS (1945) trailer - YouTube:

Saturday, December 29, 2012

The Story Behind the Story: “A Bitter Veil,” by Libby Fischer Hellmann

The Rap Sheet: The Story Behind the Story: “A Bitter Veil,” by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Song of the Day

Jack Scott - Leroy - 1958 - YouTube:

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest

The James Bond Omnibus Volume 004
These comic strip reprints are a lot of fun.  Titan Books is doing a real service by saving books and comic strips from obscurity.

Amazon.com: The James Bond Omnibus Volume 004 (9780857685896): Ian Fleming: Books: The daring James Bond is back in a definitive bumper edition collecting the second period of Jim Lawrence's celebrated run in comic strip form! 

Includes nine of Bond's most thrilling and dangerous missions: Trouble Spot, Isle of Condors, The League of Vampires, Die With My Boots On, The Girl Machine, Beware of Butterflies, The Nevsky Nude, The Phoenix Project and The Black Ruby Caper.

Today's Vintage Ad


Will the Persecution Never End?

7 Celebs Who Literally Make The Same Face In Every Picture

Harry Carey Jr., R. I. P.

The Hollywood Reporter: Harry Carey Jr., who was a member of John Ford's stock company of actors and played in a number of the director's classic Westerns, has died of natural causes in Santa Barbara, the Associated Press reported Friday. He was 91.

PaperBack


Jon Messman, The Revenger #2: Fire in the Streets, Signet, 1973

Movie Monster High 1986 Yearbook

Movie Monster High 1986 Yearbook 

Link via Neatorama.

The Times They Are a-Changing

Majority Of U.S. Households Either Don’t Have Or Don’t Use Landline Phones 

I Feel Better Already

No worries: Neuroticism may have a healthy upside

I Beat the Average

Daily News Talks: Start Boasting How Well-Read You Are If You Finished Six Books In 2012: Start Boasting How Well-Read You Are If You Finished Six Books In 2012, The Pew Research Center has unveiled its stats on the United States’ reading habits in 2012, revealing that 75 percent of Americans aged 16 and above read at least one book this year. That figure includes printed books, audio books and e-books, an increasingly popular medium. 

Readers polished off an average 15 books apiece, a number that was clearly bumped up by voracious bookworms because the median number of books consumed was six. (In other words, half of all readers finished more than six books, and the other half read fewer than six). There’s still time left in the year to squeeze in a few more tomes and bump up your tally – we just hope you’re a fast reader.

Hat tip to Beth Feyden.

I Report, You Decide

10 Reasons the Moon Landings Could Be a Hoax

6 Places You'll Recognize from the Background of Every Movie

6 Places You'll Recognize from the Background of Every Movie

Yet Another List I'm Not On

Top 10 Most Read Books in the World

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Monroe County Sheriff's Office - Florida Keys: A Homestead woman was arrested Wednesday, charged with setting fire to a mattress as her ex-boyfriend and another woman slept on it.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Whitney Houston Update

Hollywood Private Investigator Claims To Have Proof That Whitney Houston's Death Was A Murder

Dark Intruder

DARK INTRUDER (1965) trailer - YouTube:

Friday, December 28, 2012

First It Was The Thin Mints Melee . . . .

Cops: Woman, 50, Battered Boyfriend, 32, Because Six Came Before Nine 

Not That Any of This Applies to Me or You

Why do some men get grouchier as they age? 

Hat tip to Michael Bracken.

Jean S. Harris, R. I. P.

Jean S. Harris, Killer of Scarsdale Diet Doctor, Dies at 89 - NYTimes.com: Jean S. Harris, the private-school headmistress whose 1981 trial for the murder of a prominent Scarsdale, N.Y., physician galvanized a nation mulling feminist perspectives with its story of vengeance by an aging woman scorned, died on Sunday at an assisted-living center in New Haven. She was 89.
[. . . .]
Mrs. Harris was sentenced to 15 years to life, and spent 12 of those years at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, N.Y. But she managed to salvage that seemingly wasted period through a remarkable second act. She counseled fellow female prisoners on how to take care of their children, and she set up a center where infants born to inmates can spend a year near their mothers. Then, after her release in 1993 following a grant of clemency by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, she set up a foundation that raised millions of dollars for scholarships for children of women in prison in New York State.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Cliff Osmond, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Cliff Osmond, a prolific character actor on film and television and an instructor who estimated that he had taught more than 10,000 actors, died on Saturday at his home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. He was 75.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Now It's the Hotel Melee . . . .

More than 100 people involved in Somerville hotel melee

Comic Book Legend Stan Lee Turns 90: A Life In Photos

Comic Book Legend Stan Lee Turns 90: A Life In Photos

19 Greatest TV Bartenders Of All Time

19 Greatest TV Bartenders Of All Time

Song of the Day

Duane Eddy - Bonnie Came Back.wmv - YouTube:

Shake It One Time for Me

La Crosse: Asked if he knew why the officer was there, he said, “No, not really.”

Today's Vintage Ad


The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace

“Twilight” stars are Hollywood’s top investment

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

CBS News: A cattle ranch in Texas swears by a secret ingredient that makes its beef juicer: Beer. 

Texas T Kobe ranch in Wallis pours beer into the hay its cows eat, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reports. The ranch says the yeast in the double IPA helps promote digestion and improves the flavor and texture of the herd's meat.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

PaperBack


John Messman, The Revenger, Signet, 1973

Ray Collins, R. I. P.

CBS News: Ray Collins, who invited guitarist Frank Zappa to join the band that eventually became the Mothers of Invention, has died at age 75. 

Collins' friend Patrick Brayer tells the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin that the musician from Claremont, Calif., died Monday, five days after a heart attack. 

Collins brought Zappa to R&B cover band the Soul Giants in 1964. By 1966, they had become the Mothers of Invention, releasing their first album, "Freak Out," on Verve Records.

Marva Whitney, R. I. P.

"Soul Sister #1": Marva Whitney – the woman James Brown dubbed “Soul Sister #1″ – has passed away aged 68. 

Whitney was a featured vocalist with the James Brown Revue in the late ‘60s, performing with Brown on tour in America, Europe, North Africa and in Vietnam during the war. She recorded several songs for Brown’s King Records including her biggest hit, a rewrite of the Isley Brothers track ‘It’s My Thing (You Can’t Tell Me Who to Sock It To)’. She’s also known for her song ‘Unwind Yourself’, which has been sampled numerous times, most notably by DJ Mark the 45 King on his 1987 track ‘The 900 Number’ and on DJ Kool’s 1996 hit ‘Let Me Clear My Throat’. In 2006, Whitney collaborated with DJ Pari and the James Brown inspired Japanese funk orchestra Osaka Monaurail to produce a new album, I Am What I Am. The success of this revival saw Whitney return to the touring circuit to play shows in Japan, Europe and Australia.

Archaeology Update

Cosmic Log: Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,750-year-old temple near Jerusalem, along with pottery and clay figurines that suggest the site was the home base for a ritual cult, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said Wednesday.

AbeBooks’ Most Expensive Sales in 2012

Casino Royale by Ian FlemingAbeBooks: AbeBooks’ Most Expensive Sales in 2012: Our top 25 sales from 2012 illustrate the broad nature of rare books. There are modern first editions of iconic books, significant religious and theological works,and pioneering books of science and discovery. Our most expensive sale was a copy of Johann Bayer’s 1603 celestial atlas with 48 lavishly illustrated tables portraying the constellations identified by the Greeks and a 49th table showing 12 newly discovered constellations – it sold for $47,729.  This was the first star atlas to cover the entire celestial sphere, and introduced a new system of star designation known as the ‘Bayer Designation.’

Houston McCoy, R. I. P.

 www.statesman.com: Houston McCoy, the Austin police officer who stopped University of Texas Tower sniper Charles Whitman more than 46 years ago, died early Thursday afternoon in a rest home in his hometown of Menard. He was 72.

13 Awesome Photos That Will Make You Happy to Be Alive

13 Awesome Photos That Will Make You Happy to Be Alive

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . . .

Calif. mall fight sends fearful shoppers running, rumors of gunman prove false 

The 10 sports stories that defined 2012

The 10 sports stories that defined 2012 

I Thought They Were from France

Ancient Conehead-Like ‘Alien’ Skulls Unearthed In Mexico

Year in Weird: Strange Incidents From Each State

Year in Weird: Strange Incidents From Each State

Warning: Annoying slideshow

Forgotten Books: Passage by NIght -- Hugh Marlowe

Harry Patterson has written under his own and several other names, the most famous of which is Jack Higgins.  The others include James Graham and Hugh Marlowe.  I've mentioned several times over the years that the first book I read by him was one of the Marlowe books, but a good many years passed before I learned that it was by Patterson.

Like a lot of Patterson's early books, this one's a thriller, it involves boats, and it's full of action: chases, torture, gunfights, escapes, twists, and turns.  It's set at about the time of its publication (1964), and Castro's taken over in Cuba, ruining Harry Manning's business and causing him and many others to flee.  Manning hangs around the Caribbean and takes tourists on his boat for spearfishing expeditions, but when a plane is sabotaged to kill a specific passenger and winds up killing a number of others, Manning gets involved.  He agrees to help the CIA find the culprit, and complications ensue.

I sometimes think that Patterson does everything wrong.  He uses adverbs.  He embraces cliches.   And it doesn't matter a bit.  Somehow it all works (at least for me), and I much prefer his early to middle-period books to the later ones that made him a zillionaire.  The early ones, like Passage by Night, are tough and fast and fun.  Some of the bad guys are really evil, while others turn out to be almost sympathetic.  Some characters you might think would be villainous turn out to be right guys.  I always get a kick out of these books.

Just as an aside, here's a wager Harry Manning would have lost:  "I'll have a small bet with you.  A hundred dollars American.  A year from today, Castro will no longer rule Cuba?"

Beau James

BEAU JAMES (1957) trailer - YouTube:

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, R. I. P.

Fox News: A U.S. official says retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. He was 78.

Free Today for Kindle

The Hunted (The Hunted Series)The Hunted (The Hunted Series): Dave Zeltserman: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Will you be able to figure out the mind-blowing secret of THE HUNTED? 

 From the author of the groundbreaking 'man out of prison' noir trilogy (Small Crimes, Pariah, Killer) comes an exciting new novella series mixing hardboiled crime with government conspiracy. In this first explosive novella, THE HUNTED, Dan Willis is unemployed and desperate when he is recruited by The Factory. Trained to hunt down and kill insurgents hellbent on destroying the country, Willis methodically and efficiently performs his job. But there's a dark secret behind The Factory, and when Willis discovers it no one is safe...

Song of the Day

RESCUE ME/FONTELLA BASS - YouTube:

Comic Strip of the Day

Link.

Today's Vintage Ad


The Most Beautiful Buildings in New York That No Longer Exist

The Most Beautiful Buildings in New York That No Longer Exist 

The 54 Best Animated GIFs Of 2012

The 54 Best Animated GIFs Of 2012

Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.

PaperBack



Lin Carter, editor, Weird Tales #4, Zebra Books, 1983

Gerald So Interview

Belly Up to the Bar with Gerald So

Where Aren't They Now? 13 Overlooked Deaths of 2012

Where Aren't They Now? 13 Overlooked Deaths of 2012

Top 10 Unexplained Disappearances

Top 10 Unexplained Disappearances

Big Earl Rides Again

Now that James Reasoner's written a new Big Earl tale, I thought it would be a good time to rerun this photo that was taken the day that the idea for Big Earl was born.  This photo was the inspiration for the character (and for some other characters in the first Big Earl adventure, most of whom were cruelly killed off instead of becoming essential sidekicks).  Maybe James will tell the story over on his blog one of these days, or maybe he already has.  My memory is hazy today.  Anyway, you can see Big Earl right there in front on the left, with other assorted characters beside and behind him.  Quite an interesting crew, I must say.

Archaeology Update

Archeologists complete ‘most important’ excavation in 80 years: 900-seat Roman arts center

Now Available for Your New E-Reader!

Dying Voices (The Carl Burns Mystery Series)Dying Voices (The Carl Burns Mystery Series): Bill Crider: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Pecan City, Texas, is a quiet, uneventful town. Hartley Gorman is a sedate, fundamentalist college (although a dean was murdered there once—in Bill Crider's One Dead Dean). English professor Carl Burns is about to begin yet another year in such a place, with only the eccentricities of his fellow teachers to entertain him. 

Even Burns, perpetual worrier that he is, envisions the worst of his problems to be the pigeons that have roosted in the attic above his office and the uninspired students that have enrolled for his classes.  

But what Burns hasn't counted on is the Edward Street Seminar, a conference that Burns has been assigned to run, which honors one Edward Street, former HGC professor and, lately, Hollywood celebrity. When Street comes back to Hartley Gorman and proceeds to offend everyone in town, and then turns up dead in his motel room, there is no shortage of suspects and Burns really begins to worry!

Fontella Bass, R. I. P.

FOX2: The music world lost a great voice overnight Wednesday.  St. Louis born R&B and Gospel great, Fontella Bass, passed away Wednesday night. 

According to Bass` daughter, Neuka Michell, the singer suffered a heart attack on December 2nd, 2012.  Bass tried to hold on, but died of complications around 9:45 p.m. 

Fans most fondly remembered live performances of ‘Rescue Me’.  Bass co-wrote and sang the 1965 hit.  That single sold more than a million copies and stayed at #1 for four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 R&B Chart.  The hit has been covered by such music goddesses as Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Melissa Manchester and Pat Benatar.

I For One Welcome Our New Metal Masters

Advanced humanoid Roboy to be ‘born’ in nine months | KurzweilAI: Meet Roboy, “one of the most advanced humanoid robots,” say researchers at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich. 

Their 15 project partners and over 40 engineers and scientists are constructing Roboy as a tendon-driven robot modeled on human beings (robots usually have their motors in their joints, giving them that “robot” break-dance look), so it will move almost as elegantly as a human.

Weird News Top 10 Stories Of 2012

Weird News Top 10 Stories Of 2012

Warning: Annoying slideshow.

Forgotten Music -- Obscure Christmas Songs

I've been putting some on the blog for a good while now, and some of you might think it's time I stopped.  So I will.  But not before I link to this list where you can here some others I didn't include.  I like many of these (and the ones I've been posting) more than the standards, and it's always good to hear something a bit different.

15 Obscure Christmas Songs That You Need To Hear

Rock Rock Rock!

Rock Rock Rock! (1956) trailer - YouTube:

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Gerry Anderson, R. I. P.

Arts & Entertainment - CBC News: Gerry Anderson, puppetry pioneer and British creator of the sci-fi hit Thunderbirds TV show, has died. He was 83.

Dennis Lehane Update

www.accessatlanta.com: Author Dennis Lehane is offering an unusual reward for the person who finds his family's beloved missing beagle.

Lehane says he'll name a character in his next book after whoever finds Tessa, who disappeared from the family's home in Brookline, Mass., this week.

Creeping Terror! - A 4-Pack of Thrills from Black Dog Books

Creeping Terror! - A 4-Pack of Thrills from Black Dog Books

O the times, they are a-changing

Stacks of books are history at Benilde library

Hat tip to Steve Stilwell.

Song of the Day

The Crystals - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - YouTube:

Good Thing It Doesn't Affect Geezers

Inventor warns 'Google generation who spend life in front of screens are losing creativity and skills' 

Free Today for Kindle

Lady in the MistLady in the Mist: Winter Frost: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Upon her arrival in Shoal Harbor, Maine, Lily Jackson hears eerie moans that the locals claim are the ghostly cries of the unfortunate Breckenridge women. Running from loss and setback in Cincinnati, Lily needs the job as semi-psychiatric caregiver for Andrew Breckenridge, but the storm she has to weather from the oldest Breckenridge brother is severe. Clinton Breckenridge is a brooding man used to getting his own way, and he’s not convinced Lily is the right person to help his troubled younger brother. Even as Lily starts picking up the pieces of Andrew’s tortured psyche and finding out his dark secrets, another mystery looms before her. Andrew’s lover has gone missing in recent months and no one knows what has happened to her, or if her voice has joined those of the other Breckenridge women. Before she knows it, Lily finds herself in danger—thrust directly into the eye of the raging storm.

Today's Vintage Ad


A Few Vintage Ads

"Give her a hoover and you give her the best"

Texas BBQ!

Finding the world's best local food

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

PaperBack



Jon Messman, The Game of Terror (Jefferson Boone, Handyman #2), Pyramid, 1973

Happy Boxing Day . . .

. . . even if nobody knows what it is or why it exists.

What Is Boxing Day? — FactMonster.com: Despite its name, Boxing Day, which is celebrated on December 26 in Great Britain, has nothing to do with pugilistic competition. Nor is it a day for people to return unwanted Christmas presents. While the exact origins of the holiday are obscure, it is likely that Boxing Day began in England during the Middle Ages.

Most Exciting Glacier Tour Ever?

If not, it would have to be in the Top Ten.

The top 10 most commonly mispronounced English words

The top 10 most commonly mispronounced English words 

Top Ten Worst Movie Sequels Ever

Top Ten Worst Movie Sequels Ever

The history of Santa Claus

The history of Santa Claus: 7 interesting facts 

Free Today Only for Kindle

Three from Blasted Heath:  The Vanity Game, Hot Wire, and The Unburied Dead.

The Eggheaded, Noggin-Filling Story of Eggnog

The Eggheaded, Noggin-Filling Story of Eggnog

My Favorite Spy

MY FAVORITE SPY (1951) trailer - YouTube:

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Swag


Definitive Proof That The Dallas Cowboys Are No Longer "America's Team"

Definitive Proof That The Dallas Cowboys Are No Longer "America's Team"

A Crider Christmas



Santa Smokes 10 Different Brands Of Cigarettes

Santa Smokes 10 Different Brands Of Cigarettes

Keiji Nakazawa, R. I. P.

The Japan Times Online: HIROSHIMA — Keiji Nakazawa, author of "Hadashi no Gen" ("Barefoot Gen"), an iconic comic about the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing, has died of lung cancer at a hospital in the city, sources said Tuesday. He was 73.

Song of the Day

Los Straitjackets - We Three Kings (2009) - YouTube:

The 5 Most Unintentionally Creepy Christmas Albums

The 5 Most Unintentionally Creepy Christmas Albums

Today's Vintage Ad


Digital transfer saves oldest ever Christmas sound recordings from 1902

Digital transfer saves oldest ever Christmas sound recordings from 1902 

Bela Lugosi as Santa Claus

Bela Lugosi as Santa Claus 

PaperBack



Jon Messman, The Monetta Papers (Jefferson Boone, Handyman), Pyramid, 1973

A Christmas Story: The cast members then and now

A Christmas Story: The cast members then and now

Hat tip to Art Scott.

12 Festive Facts About Christmas Traditions

12 Festive Facts About Christmas Traditions

Christmas Past: 32 Weird and Wonderful Vintage Christmas Photos

Christmas Past: 32 Weird and Wonderful Vintage Christmas Photos 

I Miss the Old Days

20 Very Interesting Photos From The '30s

Charles Durning, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Charles Durning, who overcame poverty, battlefield trauma and nagging self-doubt to become an acclaimed character actor, whether on stage as Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” or in film as the lonely widower smitten with a cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie,” died Monday in New York. He was 89. He died of natural causes, The Associated Press reported, citing Judith Moss, his agent and friend. Charles Durning may not have been a household name, but with his pugnacious features and imposing bulk he was a familiar presence in American movies, television and theater, even if often overshadowed by the headliners.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

How Many Have You Read?

A Required Reading List For the End of the World

Merry Christmas, Everybody

 

 

Overlooked Movies: Being There

Once again I'm pretty sure I'm cheating.  Most of you are likely to have seen this one and remembered it.  But I was thinking about it the other day, and it seemed like a good one to say a few words about.  I was surprised when I took a look around and discovered that it came out in 1979.  I remember it so vividly that I thought it must have been much later than that.

Sometime in the late '60s I picked up a paperback copy of The Painted Bird and was bowled over by it. Later I read Steps and Being There and thought they were both great.  For some reason I didn't read any of his other works, and when I saw this movie I was unaware of the plagiarism accusations that are still controversial and unresolved.  I don't know or care who wrote the books I read.  They're fine works, no matter who wrote them, and this is a very funny (and frightening) movie.

Peter Sellers plays Chance the Gardener.  Chance has spent most of his life gardening for a very rich man and watching TV.  He has no other life, which is okay with him, as he's a man of very limited intellect.  When his employer dies, Chance is loosed on the world wearing a rich man's clothes and carrying his TV remote control.  By chance (ha!) he's taken in by another rich man and his wife (Melvyn Douglas and Shirley Maclaine, who misunderstand his name as Chauncey Gardner.  Before long, his simple conversation (all he can talk about is gardening) is being taken as metaphorical wisdom.  He never pretends to be any more than he is, but people see what they want to see, and by the end of the movie he's being considered as a candidate for president.  

That's the bare outline, but it's also pretty much the whole movie.  Sellers is great, and so is the supporting cast.  If you haven't seen it, you really should.

The final scene, one of the most memorable and most discussed in the movie, isn't in the novel, by the way.

Being There

Being There (1979) - Peter Sellers - Trailer - YouTube:

Monday, December 24, 2012

Jack Klugman, R. I. P.

News from The Associated Press: Jack Klugman, the prolific, craggy-faced character actor and regular guy who was loved by millions as the messy one in TV's "The Odd Couple" and the crime-fighting coroner in "Quincy, M.E.," died Monday, a son said. He was 90.

25 Facts About Your Favorite Christmas Movies

25 Facts About Your Favorite Christmas Movies

15 Aliases Santa Will Answer To

15 Aliases Santa Will Answer To

Song of the Day

Foghat - All I Want For Christmas Is You - YouTube:

Today's Vintage Ad


I Miss the Old Days

Christmas with Elvis

I Report, You Decide

Study Determines This Is the Most Relaxing Song Ever

The 12 Best Paranormal Sightings Of 2012

The 12 Best Paranormal Sightings Of 2012

PaperBack



Ralph Hayes, Check Force: Seeds of Doom, Manor, 1976

It Might Be too Late to Order for Christmas

The Robert E. Howard Foundation: Now available: Back to School by Robert E. Howard. This volume presents, in black and white facsimile, all of the known, surviving school work of the author from Cross Plains, most of it never before published. Includes work from English, History, Biology, Geometry, Physics, and more. This soft cover book measures 8.5 X 11 and has 450 pages, with introduction by Rob Roehm.

9 Amazing Facts About The Earth

9 Amazing Facts About The Earth

Serpico Update

Despite distance and decades, whistleblower Frank Serpico is never too far from his NYPD past

The 10 worst predictions of 2012

The 10 worst predictions of 2012

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Riot police called as hundreds of parents join in mass brawl at California youth football game

Alias Jesse James

ALIAS JESSE JAMES TRAILER 1959 BOB HOPE - YouTube:

Sunday, December 23, 2012

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest

The Silver Alibi (A Big Earl Stark Western): James Reasoner: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Big Earl rides again! 

The Silver Alibi (A Big Earl Stark Western)Earl Stark was once a fast-shooting stagecoach guard in Texas before taking up the study of law, becoming an attorney, and eventually being appointed a federal district court judge. Now he combines a keen legal mind with a frontiersman's gun-handy toughness to bring justice to the Old West. 

One of New York Times bestselling author James Reasoner's most popular characters, Judge Earl Stark is back in a brand-new 27,000 word short novel full of action and mystery. THE SILVER ALIBI finds him dealing with feuding mine owners, bushwhackers, cold-blooded murder, and a wild ruckus that lands Judge Stark himself behind bars before he can nab a ruthless killer.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Bellagio Hotel: Blackjack dealer, 50, arrested after she stabbed female croupier in the FACE

Song of the Day

Frosty The Snowman-Leon Redbone And Dr John - YouTube:

I Miss the Old Days

15 Hottest Food Trends Of 1912

Today's Vintage Ad


How To Write Letters

How To Write Letters: A Guide to the Lost Art of Epistolary Etiquette circa 1896 

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

25 Reasons Lady Bird Johnson Was The Best First Lady Of All Time

PaperBack


Carl Stevens (Ray Obstfeld), Dagger: The Centaur Conspiracy, Gold Eagle, 1983

The 6 Most Needlessly Overcomplicated Crimes Ever Planned

The 6 Most Needlessly Overcomplicated Crimes Ever Planned

10 Greatest Enemies of Godzilla

10 Greatest Enemies of Godzilla 

10 Facts About Your Favorite Christmas Carols

10 Facts About Your Favorite Christmas Carols

'Cat Island' is a feline's purrfect paradise

'Cat Island' is a feline's purrfect paradise

Top 10 Countries That Disappeared In The 20th Century

Top 10 Countries That Disappeared In The 20th Century 

The Paleface

THE PALEFACE (1948) trailer - YouTube:

Saturday, December 22, 2012

And He Wasn't Even a Plumber

Deputies find crack in suspect's underpants

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Lee Dorman, R. I. P.

Rolling Stone: Lee Dorman, bassist for Iron Butterfly, died on Friday at the age of 70, the Associated Press reports. According to a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, Dorman was found dead in a vehicle on Friday morning and may have been on his way to a doctor's appointment.

Jimmy McCracklin, R. I. P.

SFGate: Jimmy McCracklin, one of the most prolific blues singers and songwriters of all time, with a recording career that spanned 1945 to 2010, died Thursday at Creekside Healthcare Center in San Pablo after a long convalescence.

Song of the Day

"Let's Make Christmas Merry, Baby" - Amos Milburn - YouTube:

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Couple Accused Of Slapping Elderly Best Buy Employee 

So 61 is elderly now, eh?  Get off my lawn!

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Just getting in the Christmas spirit!

Frenzied Crowd Rushes Hulen Mall for New Air Jordans

Or Maybe Not

10 Songs That Make You Cry 

Today's Vintage Ad


First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Pennsylvania woman arrested for biting off mom's thumb in case of 'domestic cannibalism' 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Larry L. King, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Larry L. King, a journalist, essayist and playwright with a swaggering prose style and a rollicking personal one, who left Texas as a young man but never abandoned it in his work — turning out profiles of politicians, articles on the flaws and foibles of American culture, searching autobiographical essays and, most famously, the book for the Broadway musical “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” — died on Thursday in Washington. He was 83.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Unusual Christmas Traditions Around the World

Unusual Christmas Traditions Around the World

8 Incredible Sunken Treasures Discovered

8 Incredible Sunken Treasures Discovered: Scattered across the ocean floor, there are more than 300 million shipwrecks, containing billions of dollars worth of cargo. These are some of the best treasures that have been found.

PaperBack



















Andrew J. Offutt, The Undying Wizard, Zebra Books, 1976

Six Film Musicals Featuring Actors Who Can’t Sing

Six Film Musicals Featuring Actors Who Can’t Sing

Hat tip to Jeff Segal.

I Miss the Old Days

First Wave of Underground Comix

Santa Claus Builds A Flying Machine

Santa Claus Builds A Flying Machine

10 Famous Shipwrecks

10 Famous Shipwrecks in the World

25 of the Happiest Words in English

25 of the Happiest Words in English

Snake Woman

SNAKE WOMAN 1961 trailer - YouTube:

Friday, December 21, 2012

So It's Come to This

Formal Reprimand Issued To Flatulent Federal Worker 

A Kickstarter Project of Interest

There's an Alamo connection.  Check it out.

PHIL COLLINS AND THE WILD FRONTIER by Ben Powell — Kickstarter

Hat tip to Tina Karelson.

This Is the Sort of Thing Up With Which We Texans Will Not Put

Illinois Man Sentenced for Illegally Transporting East Texas Deer Semen

Song of the Day

Merry Christmas Baby - Charles Brown - YouTube:

Seduction of the Innocent -- Max Allan Collins

Seduction of the Innocent (Hard Case Crime)This book is set in the year 1954.  I was around then.  I was 12, and I was reading EC Comics.  Lots of others, too, but some of the stories I saw in EC Comics have stuck with me to this very day.  I can remember the panels as plainly as if I'd seen them last week.  They were potent stuff, for sure.  

I read the newspapers in those days, too, mostly the sports pages (not much has changed with me in the last 60 years), but I was vaguely aware of the activities of Dr. Fredrick Wertham, who wrote a book with the same title as this one, and of the congressional hearings on comic books, in which America learned that comic books (especially EC Comics) were to blame for juvenile delinquency and many other assorted ills.

I was even more aware of the results of this hearing a bit later, when the "Approved by the Comics Code" seal started to appear on the comics (we never called them comics, by the way; they were "funny books" even when they weren't funny).  Not long after that, I lost interest in comics.  The guts had gone out of them.  I moved on to the SF digests and never looked back.  I was vaguely aware of the Marvel revolution in the '60s, but it was too late for me by then.  My interest was finally revived the the Underground Comix in the late '60s and early '70s, but I never read comics again the way I once had.

One comic I did keep reading was Mad.  Gaines quickly turned it from a comic book into a black-and-white "magazine" so he didn't have to deal with the Comics Code stuff, and somehow, although my mother tossed all my funny books, the old issues of Mad survived.  I don't have issue #1, but I do have a nice little run starting with #2.  I bought the paperback collections, too, and I still have the first three or four of those.

Which is all by way of introduction to this thoroughly entertaining novel by Max Allan Collins, in which Dr. Werner Fredrick appears before a congressional committee made up of the same people who questioned Wertham.  So does Bob Price, whose testimony is remarkably similar to  the words spoken by William Gaines when he testified before the committee in '54.  

Not long afterward, Fredrick is murdered (this didn't happen to Wertham).  Jack Starr gets involved because he and Maggie Starr (his stepmother) deal with comic strips through their syndication company.  There are plenty of suspects, including Price.  There's a comic book artist, a comics reader, a publisher, and some other social critics.  All have their reasons to want Fredrick out of the way.  You can play the guessing game about which real people the characters are based on, or you can go to the "Tip of the Fedora" at the end of the book, where Collins spells it out.  I think many of you won't need to do that.  And if you don't think this book is relevant now, you haven't been following the news lately.

Besides the dandy storytelling here, there's the Glen Orbik cover, which replicates one of the more famous EC covers, plus a lot of illustrations by Terry Beatty in the good old EC style.  Lots of bang for your buck here.  The book comes out in February.  Be on the lookout; you don't want to miss it.