Saturday, April 21, 2012
Time To Ban Rugby?
Welsh Rugby Out To Kill All Kinds Of Popes, Not Just The Catholic Ones: This story is strange on a number of levels. In 2008, two Welsh doctors discovered that going back to 1883, five roman Catholic Popes had died whenever Wales rugby won the Grand Slam.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
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San Jacinto Day
Houston History Voices: San Jacinto Day is the celebration of the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.
It was the final battle of the Texas Revolution where Texas won its independence from Mexico. It is an official holiday in the State of Texas. On this field on April 21, 1836 the Army of Texas commanded by General Sam Houston, and accompanied by the Secretary of War, Thomas J. Rusk, attacked the larger invading army of Mexicans under General Santa Anna. The battle line from left to right was formed by Sidney Sherman’s regiment, Edward Burleson’s regiment, the artillery commanded by George W. Hockley, Henry Millard’s infantry and the cavalry under Mirabeau B. Lamar. Sam Houston led the infantry charge.
It was the final battle of the Texas Revolution where Texas won its independence from Mexico. It is an official holiday in the State of Texas. On this field on April 21, 1836 the Army of Texas commanded by General Sam Houston, and accompanied by the Secretary of War, Thomas J. Rusk, attacked the larger invading army of Mexicans under General Santa Anna. The battle line from left to right was formed by Sidney Sherman’s regiment, Edward Burleson’s regiment, the artillery commanded by George W. Hockley, Henry Millard’s infantry and the cavalry under Mirabeau B. Lamar. Sam Houston led the infantry charge.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Yahoo! News Canada: Researchers at a Texas university have designed a chip that could give smartphones the long-envied ability of comic book hero Superman to see through walls, clothes or other objects.
Ganja Granny
Houston News: The case of Darlene Mayes is an easy one: Weeds meets Breaking Bad meets Golden Girls, with a Shakespearean betrayal to close Season One.
GoneReading's "Month of Mom" Giveaway
GoneReading's "Month of Mom" Giveaway | Gift Ideas for Mother's Day | Gone Reading: Win $100 in Gifts from GoneReading, plus $25 from Amazon!
The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace
Salon.com: To which a million language nerds replied, Noooo!
Forgotten Books: The Dead Line -- Philip McCutchan
As you'd expect, Commander Shaw is pretty much a Bond clone, except even more suave and attractive to women. He's a magnificent physical specimen, and he has a great car. He smokes, too. Everybody did, back in the old days. The book opens (as a lot of spy novels did) with Shaw recovering from wounds received on his previous assignment. He's doing some surfing to tone up, and of course all the young women on the beach swoon over him. Also of course in only a short time he's become one the best surfers around. Now, however, it's time to get back to work, so he gets put through some tough exercises by his handlers and proves that he's aces.
Then he learns about his assignment. This is a very '60s novel, with the commies stirring up "the Coloured elements" and doing a bang-up job of it. Shaw's sent to Harlem, where a woman falls for him at once and gets involved in some really serious action that even includes a tiger. In an apartment. Things get even more bizarre later on. (Spy novel plots got more and more outrageous as the years went on for writers not following the Le Carre model.) It's kind of hard to get past the racial elements of the plot here. It might have been good fun in 1966, but it's not so much now. Still, McCutchan had a flair for this kind of thing, and the book zips right along. Maybe I'll read another one someday.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Levon Helm, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Levon Helm, who helped to forge a deep-rooted American music as the drummer and singer for the Band, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71 and lived in Woodstock, N.Y.
Archaeology Update
The Raw Story: Nearly 60 archeological sites dating back 6,000 years have been unearthed during construction of a road near Rio, an archaeologist said Thursday.
Now To See Why It Wants to Cross the Road
BBC News: A Sri Lanka hen has given birth to a chick without an egg, in a new twist on the age-old question of whether the chicken or the egg came first.
Jonathan Frid, R. I. P.
Dark Shadows’ Jonathan Frid has Passed | Daily Dead: We are sad to report on the passing of Jonathan Frid, who many horror fans will always remember as Barnabas Collins in the original Dark Shadows. Although it was only made known today, it appears that he passed away on April 13th at the age of 87. He is said to have died of natural causes at Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. Our thoughts our with Jonathan’s family and friends.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Point Out Books of Interest
Amazon.com: Robbers Roost eBook: James Reasoner: Kindle Store: Originally published as Powell's Army: #4 by Terence DuncanThree-fingered Jack and his gang of road agents had a craving for money and a place to spend it. After hijacking an rmy payroll wagon and killing the troopers riding guard, they hightailed it into Virginia City, where anything could be had for the asking by a hardcase with a fat poke. But hot on their trail was hard-hitting trio of undercover agents known as Powell's Army. They knew Montana lived by the law of the gun. And that meant bracing Jack's killer gang before the vigilantes did---to make sure they stretched hemp the legal way!
Thundering out of the past. A trio of deadly enforcers ride the range to adventure with one military misfit. Three men and one red-headed woman unchained lightning in a savage, lawless land, the U.S. army's secret weapon, dispensing their own fiery brand of frontier justice throughout the American west, Violent, untamed, and unpredictable--nothing can stop them.
K. D. Wentworth, R. I. P.
I just heard from Scott Cupp that K. D. Wentworth has passed away. She was a fine writer and a good person, one I enjoyed talking to at numerous SF conventions. She'll be very much missed.
K. D. Wentworth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Kathy Diane Wentworth (January 27, 1951-April 18, 2012[1]), known as K. D. Wentworth, was an American science fiction author.[2][3] She got her start winning the Writers of the Future Contest in 1988, and then later won Field Publications' "Teachers as Writers" Award in 1991. She served as the editor for the Writers of the Future Contest until his death.[4] One of her novelettes, "Kaleidoscope" (2008), and three of her short stories, "Burning Bright" (1997). "Tall One" (1998), and "Born Again" (2005) have been Nebula award finalists.[5][6]
K. D. Wentworth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Kathy Diane Wentworth (January 27, 1951-April 18, 2012[1]), known as K. D. Wentworth, was an American science fiction author.[2][3] She got her start winning the Writers of the Future Contest in 1988, and then later won Field Publications' "Teachers as Writers" Award in 1991. She served as the editor for the Writers of the Future Contest until his death.[4] One of her novelettes, "Kaleidoscope" (2008), and three of her short stories, "Burning Bright" (1997). "Tall One" (1998), and "Born Again" (2005) have been Nebula award finalists.[5][6]
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Dick Clark,R. I. P.
TMZ.com: Dick Clark -- famed TV producer, and "New Year's Rockin' Eve" host -- died from a massive heart attack this morning ... TMZ has learned.
I was too shocked when I blogged the link earlier to say much more. I'm still a little weirded out, but here are links to my previous posts about Dick Clark, whom I've mentioned here, here, here, here, here, and probably elsewhere. He was a huge influence in my life, probably bigger than I know.
I was too shocked when I blogged the link earlier to say much more. I'm still a little weirded out, but here are links to my previous posts about Dick Clark, whom I've mentioned here, here, here, here, here, and probably elsewhere. He was a huge influence in my life, probably bigger than I know.
A Match Made in Literary Heaven?
A Match Made in Literary Heaven: But a London publisher has nonetheless found a way to get their names onto the same project, in the form of a collaboration between descendants of Tolkien and Dickens, BBC News reported. The publisher Thames River Press said it would release two fantasy novels written by Michael Tolkien, aimed at younger readers and based on stories told to him by his grandfather, the “Lord of the Rings” author J. R. R. Tolkien. Gerald Dickens, a great-great grandson of Dickens, will narrate the audiobook releases.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
A massive volume, packed with facts and photos. And the price is right, a tremendous bargain. You can't go wrong with this one. Highly recommended.
Amazon.com: Film Noir, The Directors (9780879103941): Alain Silver, James Ursini: Books: Noted film noir historians Alain Silver and James Ursini, acting as editors, concentrate in this work on the thirty key directors of the classic noir period. These include well-known luminaries, such as Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Nicholas Ray, and Joseph Losey as well as lesser-known lights of noir, such as Gerd Oswald, Felix E. Feist, Ida Lupino, and John Brahm. Each article will include a short biography of the director, a list of their major noir films, as well as a deep analysis of the films themselves. The book boasts over two dozen collaborators from the world of film history and criticism. Lavishly illustrated with high-resolution photos illustrating the points made by the authors, this book is a must for any aficionado of the American style of film noir.
Amazon.com: Film Noir, The Directors (9780879103941): Alain Silver, James Ursini: Books: Noted film noir historians Alain Silver and James Ursini, acting as editors, concentrate in this work on the thirty key directors of the classic noir period. These include well-known luminaries, such as Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Nicholas Ray, and Joseph Losey as well as lesser-known lights of noir, such as Gerd Oswald, Felix E. Feist, Ida Lupino, and John Brahm. Each article will include a short biography of the director, a list of their major noir films, as well as a deep analysis of the films themselves. The book boasts over two dozen collaborators from the world of film history and criticism. Lavishly illustrated with high-resolution photos illustrating the points made by the authors, this book is a must for any aficionado of the American style of film noir.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
If you missed Gar Anthony Haywood's Aaron Gunner books on their first appearance, you'll be glad to know they're back in e-book format. Good tough stuff.
Amazon.com: Fear of the Dark: An Aaron Gunner Mystery eBook: Gar Anthony Haywood: Kindle Store: A failed private eye searches Los Angeles for a murderous white supremacist.
Aaron Gunner made a lousy private detective. After a year’s carnage in Vietnam and a quick exit from the police academy, private work was the only avenue he saw to be a hero. But the seediness, tedium, and lack of real power crushed his hopes, and he quit the job after inadvertently setting a pregnant woman up for a violent death. But after a savage racial murder, it may be time to come out of retirement.
The white man comes to the Acey Deuce, a bar in South Central Los Angeles, to blow the head off a young black militant. The dead radical’s sister pays Gunner a visit with a .22 revolver, and convinces him to find her brother’s killer. As Gunner draws closer to answers, prejudice and rage threaten to tear Los Angeles apart. To save the city—and himself—Aaron Gunner must finally find his calling.
R. A. Lafferty Update
U.Va. Grad Student's Focus on Science Fiction Author Leads to Book-Collecting Prize: A doctoral student's dogged efforts to find and preserve the works of an obscure science fiction writer helped him take the top prize in the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia's 49th Book Collecting Contest.
Hmmmmmmm
Fortune Tech: Be careful when you select a bestseller to purchase on Amazon, where knock-offs are prevalent -- copycats that come with Amazon's stamp of approval.
10 Things I Hate About Tax Day
10 Things I Hate About Tax Day
Hat tip to Seepy Benton, who hates paying taxes but loves doing the math part.
Hat tip to Seepy Benton, who hates paying taxes but loves doing the math part.
Ancient Texts Update
1.5 million pages of ancient texts to be made accessible online: This week the University of Oxford and the Vatican announced a plan to collaborate in digitizing 1.5 million pages of rare and ancient texts, most dating from the 16th century or earlier. The project is expected to span about 4 years and was made possible by a donation of £2 million (approximately $3.1 million) from the Polonsky Foundation—a charitable organization that supports higher education, medical research, and other general matters in the arts and sciences.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's Turkey Recipes
Lists of Note: During his lifetime, the great F. Scott Fitzgerald filled numerous notebooks with ideas, letters, jokes and essays. My favourite of these items, and the most amusing by quite a margin, is the following — a brilliant list of 13 ways to use leftover turkey.
James Thurber's Writing Rules
Lists of Note: In his 1949 book, Thurber Country, celebrated author, cartoonist and satirist James Thurber offers some amusing rules for comedy writers, "established [...] after receiving dozens of humorous essays and stories from strangers over a period of twenty years."
Collectible & Classic - Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books: If you think about the books you read as a child, or have read to a child, Little Golden Books will pop into your head. These books were first published in 1942 and have become a staple on children's bookshelves. Little has changed with the books over the years, they still have the iconic gold spine, the brightly illustrated covers and educational and moral stories. Although they no longer sell for 25 cents - first edition copies easily go for over $100 - Little Golden Books are a sweet little piece of the literary pie.
Photoplay Editions: Rudolph Valentino to Jean Harlow
AbeBooks: Photoplay Editions: Rudolph Valentino to Jean Harlow: You are all familiar with movie tie-in editions released to coincide with a major film, but photoplay editions were the forerunners of these books. Photoplay editions were editions produced to accompany silent films and the early motion pictures of the sound era when movies were known as photoplays.Popular with many book collectors, these books were published mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. Grosset & Dunlap or A.L. Burt were particularly prolific in publishing photoplays and the most collectible of all photoplay editions is probably King Kong from 1932.
Uh-Oh
Is Johnny Depp 'The Night Stalker'? - FEARnet: It seems that Johnny Depp has traded in his love of Victorian children's literature for a hankering for '70s television. Currently working on a big-budget movie remake of Dan Curtis' Dark Shadows with longtime collaborator Tim Burton, Depp is no poised to essay the title role in another Curtis production -- the fondly remembered Night Stalker.
Hat tip to Randy Johnson.
Hat tip to Randy Johnson.
Overlooked Movies -- Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
This is the most recent movie I've talked about here, but I think it's a fair choice. It hardly screened in U. S. theaters, and it disappeared quickly from the screens it did appear on. George Kelley reviewed it a few months ago, and some of his commenters weren't thrilled with the subtitles. I turned them off and went for the dubbed version, which worked out fine.
There's very little connection between this movie and the novels about Judge Dee by Robert van Gulik. They're both based on the same historical character, and they're both keen detectives, but that's about it. This novel has a lot more fantasy and action than the Judge Dee novels as I remember them.
In China in the 7th century, the first (and only) woman emperor in China's history is about to be crowned. Someone doesn't want that to happen. There are bizarre murders involving spontaneous combustion, tons of great action scenes (directed by Sammo Hung), characters who can transfigure themselves, masked assassins, thousands of arrows and logs flying through the air, a giant statue of the Buddha, mysteries to solve, red herrings, and more. All beautifully photographed, too. I got a big kick out of this one.
Monday, April 16, 2012
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention
It was several years after I started reading the Modesty Blaise novels in their U. S. paperback editions that I learned of the comic strip. It's as outrageously entertaining as the books, and this is a fine collection of some of them, printed in a nice readable size . Good stuff.Amazon.com: Modesty Blaise: Live Bait (9780857686688): Peter O'Donnell, Enric Badia Romero: Books: Modesty Blaise, the cult bad girl and spy created by best-selling author Peter O'Donnell, is back!
Stories from the classic newspaper strip Modesty Blaise are collected here in the latest in Titan's deluxe library series, including Samantha and the Cherub, Milord and Live Bait! The inimitable tag-team of Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin do battle with the darkest elements of the underworld once again, beautifully illustrated by Enric Badia Romero!
With story introductions that take the reader behind the scenes of Modesty's world, this outstanding collection is not to be missed.
No Fiction Winner Among This Year’s Pulitzers
No Fiction Winner Among This Year’s Pulitzers: The 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners were just announced, and there were two big surprises in the bunch. First, David Wood of The Huffington Post took home the company’s first-ever award for national reporting. But you’re never going to believe who nabbed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. No one. As Sarah Weinmann points out, the last time the Pulitzers failed to award a prize in fiction was back in 1977, . . .
And Keep Off Her Lawn!
The world's oldest supermodel | Mail Online: At 83, Daphne Selfe appears in Vogue and struts along the Paris catwalks. Her secret? Long hair, no Botox and a dollop of Boots facecream
Link.
Garry Walberg, R. I. P.
latimes.com: Garry Walberg, 90, a character actor best known for playing Lt. Frank Monahan on the NBC crime drama "Quincy, M.E." from 1976 to 1983, died March 27 at an assisted-living facility in Northridge of chronic pulmonary obstructive disease and congestive heart failure, his family said. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Walberg had dozens of TV appearances from the early 1950s to the '90s on such series as "Rawhide," "Star Trek," "The Fugitive," "Peyton Place," "Lassie," "Gunsmoke" and "The Odd Couple."
Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.
Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.
Murray Rose, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Murray Rose, who won four Olympic gold medals in swimming for Australia, becoming one of his nation’s most celebrated athletes before going to Hollywood to try his hand in the movies, died Sunday in Sydney, Australia. He was 73.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Andrew Love, R. I. P.
MSN Music News: Tenor saxophonist Andrew Love, who formed the award-winning Memphis Horns duo with trumpeter Wayne Jackson and played unforgettable lines behind the royalty of soul, rock, pop and R&B, has died at age 70, his wife said Thursday.
Free Today for Kindle
Bargain of the day!
Amazon.com: The Red Scarf eBook: Gil Brewer: Kindle Store: From one of the masters of noir comes perhaps his most compelling novel. Roy Nichols is trying to make a go of running a motel with his wife, but forces are conspiring against them. The highway that was supposed to run past their motel may never get built, and their business is drying up. When Roy stumbles upon a briefcase loaded with cash, his problems seem to have miraculously disappeared. But in Gil Brewer's world, good fortune is never free and greed inevitably leads to destruction.
30 Days of the 5-2
What we're doing here is celebrating National Poetry Month, which is a great idea, even though I didn't think of it. It was Gerald So, editor of The 5-2 Poetry Weekly who asked me if I'd be part of a blog tour by choosing a favorite poem from the site and writing about it. It's never easy for me to choose a favorite, so I just decided I'd pick one of the many that I like quite a bit and write about that one. Which brings me to one called "Suspect Has a History" by Jack Bates.It's a two- (or three-) character poem, and I have to admit from the start that one reason I chose this one was because of the performance of it by Alison Dasho, Thomas Pluck, and Gerald So. You can read the poem and listen to the performance here. I highly recommend that you do that. When you do, you'll see that the poem's a dialogue between a police dispatcher and a cop. The third voice is either a narrator's reflection or the cop's thoughts about what's happening. The whole conversation seems purely mundane until you get to the reflections, and then one simple word, part of the everyday vocabulary in a radio call, takes on a new meaning. The word echoes throughout the rest of the poem, with the meaning shifting just a bit each time until the final lines, when another line from the poem's beginning gets echoed in the chilling and effective close. So if you haven't read it as I suggested earlier, do that now. You'll be glad you did.
If you like reading reactions to poetry, here's the rest of the blog tour schedule. And if you write crime-related poems, editor So is always on the lookout for a good one to run in the weekly slot.
Here's the Plot for Your Next Paranoid CIA Thriller
The Bizarre Death - and Life - of Publicist/CIA Operative Michael Sands (Exclusive) | The Wrap Movies: Michael Sands, an effusive Hollywood publicist, has died after a bizarre accident in the deli section of an upscale supermarket in Century City, where he choked to death on a sample of meat.
Best known as the brains behind Mr. Blackwell’s annual Worst Dressed List, Sands also was an inveterate self-promoter who claimed to be an undercover CIA operative who may have helped in the capture of Abu Abbas, the terrorist behind the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985.
Best known as the brains behind Mr. Blackwell’s annual Worst Dressed List, Sands also was an inveterate self-promoter who claimed to be an undercover CIA operative who may have helped in the capture of Abu Abbas, the terrorist behind the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985.
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
CBS Houston: The evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigations gathered against an alleged Galveston hacker didn’t come from a techno-chase through the expansive Internet. Instead, the FBI used the information embedded in a photograph of his girlfriend’s breasts.
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