Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: 9/23/12

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Free for Kindle for a Limited Time

Who Was That Lady? Craig Rice: Queen of the Screwball Mystery: Jeffrey Marks: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: What goes up must come down, and Craig Rice’s meteoric rise to the top of the mystery writing heap by 1946 was rivaled only by her rapid descent into semi-obscurity. Her face once graced the cover of Time magazine, but today her books are found in second hand stores.

The mystery surrounding Rice was almost as puzzling as her books. Where was she born? What was her given name? What novels and short stories did she publish? Who did she marry and how many times? How many children did she have? Where did the penname of Craig Rice emanate from? How did she die? In the forty years since her death, the answers to these questions were buried under piles of confusion, lies, and exaggeration. In the 20th century how could these basic questions of a person’s life be so vague?

Jeffrey Marks began a quest to learn the answers. His research took the better part of a decade. He traced Rice’s oeuvre back to original manuscripts to determine authorship. He tracked down relative, friends, and other writers to learn answers on Craig’s name, her heritage, and her descent from superstardom into drinking, mental illness, and trouble with the law.

Irving Adler, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Irving Adler, a former New York City teacher who became a prolific writer of books on math and science for young people after being forced from the classroom during the Red Scare of the early 1950s, died on Saturday in Bennington, Vt. He was 99.

Michael O'Hare, R. I. P.

Airlock Alpha: Michael O'Hare, who played Cmdr. Jeffrey Sinclair during a single season of "Babylon 5" only to reprise the character a few times in later seasons, has died. He was 60.

Song of the Day

For A Few Dollars More (Theme by Ennio Morricone) - YouTube:

Arthur O. Sulzberger, R. I. P.

- NYTimes.com: Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who guided The New York Times and its parent company through a long, sometimes turbulent period of expansion and change on a scale not seen since the newspaper’s founding in 1851, died on Saturday at his home in Southampton, N.Y. He was 86.

Looper

If you have any interest at all in seeing Looper, you probably already know the premise. It's a time-travel story. Time travel is discovered and immediately made illegal, but in 2074 gangsters use it to dispose of people they want to get rid of. The victims are cuffed, hooded, and sent to a spot in Kansas outside a cane field. Their executioners, known as Loopers, are waiting for them. The victims appear, get shot, and get disposed of. One of the Loopers, Joe, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, finds himself facing his own future self, played by Bruce Willis, who's missing the hood and cuffs. Willis avoids the killing shot, flattens Gordon Levitt, and escapes.

It seems that 2074 isn't a happy place (not that 2044 is, either). A boss called The Rainmaker is sending all the old Loopers back to die, and while capturing Bruce, the men sent to get him have killed his wife. So Bruce is going to kill The Rainmaker in 2044 to save his wife's life. Time-travel paradoxes? That's just the beginning. That's also all I'm going to say about the plot. The screenplay has some nice surprises, and it's best to let the movie spring them on you.

Gordon-Levitt has a good time playing a young Bruce Willis, and Willis has a good time playing an old Gordon-Levitt. Emily Blunt shows up for a nice turn, and there's a kid actor named Pierce Gagnon, who's really good. Jeff Daniels is great as the crime boss in 2044. If you like good SF movies or action movies or just plain good movies, give this one a try.

CSI: Mexico

Police in Mexico identify body by DNA found in maggots

Today's Vintage Ad

A Kickstarter Project of Interest

Turning Sentences Into Words by Alison Nussbaum — Kickstarter: A bit of hardboiled history will come alive in this collection of short stories by my father, bank-robber-turned-writer Al Nussbaum.

10 Literary Authors Who Illustrated Their Own Work

10 Literary Authors Who Illustrated Their Own Work

Rejected bait: 17 recent Oscar-ready films that walked away empty-handed

Rejected bait: 17 recent Oscar-ready films that walked away empty-handed

PaperBack

Nick Quarry (Marvin H. Albert), The Vendetta, Gold Medal, 1973

Chris Economaki, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Chris Economaki, whose gravelly broadcast voice and prolific pen — specifically, his manual Royal typewriter — narrated the rise of auto racing from county-fair dirt tracks to a global multibillion-dollar business, died on Friday in a nursing home in Wyckoff, N.J. He was 91.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Female teacher at elementary school 'brought meth into school to get high before class'

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Gene Autry's Cowboy Code

GeneAutry.com - Gene Autry: Gene Autry's Cowboy Code

One of the Greats

Today is the birthday of Gene Autry, born Orvon Grover Autry, near Tioga, Texas (1907). He starred in more than 40 movies, making his silver screen debut as part of a quartet in the movie In Old Santa Fe (1934) and became nationally known as the original "singing cowboy," often riding his own horse, Champion. He left Hollywood during World War II and served as a transport pilot, flying risky missions over the Himilayas near Burma. After the war, he started his own production company when the film studio wouldn't dissolve his contract for military service.

10 Famous Musicians’ Geeky Hobbies

10 Famous Musicians’ Geeky Hobbies

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Putnam man says he killed girlfriend for waking him

Scaramouche

Scaramouche trailer - YouTube:

Friday, September 28, 2012

This Day in History

This Day in History — History.com — What Happened Today in History: On this day in 1941, the Boston Red Sox's Ted Williams plays a double-header against the Philadelphia Athletics on the last day of the regular season and gets six hits in eight trips to the plate, to boost his batting average to .406 and become the first player since Bill Terry in 1930 to hit .400. Williams, who spent his entire career with the Sox, played his final game exactly 19 years later, on September 28, 1960, at Boston’s Fenway Park and hit a home run in his last time at bat, for a career total of 521 homeruns.

Croc Update (Twins Edition)

Snap! Twin baby crocodiles hatch from same egg in China