Saturday, May 18, 2013
Ken Venturi, R. I. P.
Yahoo! Sports: Ken Venturi, winner of the 1964 U.S. Open and a longtime commentator for CBS, has died at the age of 82.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: To Beat the Devil - A Mick Murphy Key West Mystery eBook: Michael Haskins: Kindle Store: With Mick Murphy recovering from near death, his black-ops friend Norm Burke assists him on his quest to kill Russian mobster Alexei, the man Murphy holds responsible for Tita's death. Almost close to goat, Murphy gets Alexei's journal from a Mexican drug lord and it leads him back to Key West where he must choose between his quest and savings the lives of innocent people caught up in a terrorist plot.A plot that involves terrorists, Iranians, government agents and makes Murphy, Norm and all involved question their ideas on conspiracy theories.
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Albert Seedman, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Albert Seedman, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives in the early 1970s who became something of a celebrity as the savvy, cigar-chomping personification of the tough-guy cop while modernizing a tradition-bound force, died on Friday in Delray Beach, Fla. He was 94.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Beatles Update
Paul McCartney: Yoko Ono didn’t break up the Beatles: Despite decades of feuding, Sir Paul McCartney has recently come to Ono’s defense to set the record straight.
I Found a Penny the Other Day
Danish teenager makes rare Viking-era find with metal detector: Danish museum officials say that an archaeological dig last year has revealed 365 items from the Viking era, including 60 rare coins.
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Mystery of the Immaculately Conceived Baby Anteater
Yahoo! News: Staffers at a zoological conservation center in Greenwich, Conn., are very confused — as are the rest of us — because their female giant anteater, Armani, has managed to conceive a baby, apparently without the presence of a male anteater.
Hat tip to Art Scott, who says that Immaculately Conceived Anteater WBAGNFARB.
Hat tip to Art Scott, who says that Immaculately Conceived Anteater WBAGNFARB.
Forgotten Books: The Yggyssey -- Daniel Pinkwater
Go ahead, say it: "He's cheating again. The Iggyssey isn't forgotten by any means." You're right, of course, but the question is, have you read it? It's a sequel to The Neddiad, which I discussed here, and it's more of the same, Daniel Pinkwater doing whatever it is that he does and making it look easy. It's like watching Ricky Jay. What he does looks easy, but could you do it? How is it possible? Best not to try to figure it out. Just enjoy it.The plot? Well, you can see it there in the subtitle: "How Iggy Wondered What Happened to all the Ghosts and Where They Went, and Went There." See, Iggy, whose name is Yggdrasil, lives in a haunted hotel in Hollywood in the early '50s. (You'd know all this if you'd read The Neddiad, which you certainly should have.) All the top ghosts are there. As the book drifts along, the ghosts begin to drift away, and Yggy and her friends Neddy and Seamus go to an alternate reality to find them in the city of Old New Hackensack. The second half of the book is a road trip, in the course of which the trio makes a new friend and encounters witches and other odd folks. Okay, let's face it. It's not so much a plot as a series of incidents, but they're great incidents. In what other book are kids going to run into Fats Waller and sing along to "Your Feet's Too Big"?
This is supposedly a kids' book. How many kids are going to get the W. C. Fields reference in the name of the city where the ghosts are going? How many of them are going to get the Fats Waller reference? Yggy's favorite ghost is the ghost of a rabbit. In Old New Hackensack, the rabbit has become six feet tall and is walking around with a man named Elwood. Would any kid you know that that one? The book is full of things like that, which means that even a guy my age is going to get most of the jokes.
Here's a warning for you. Many, many loving descriptions of food and eating are scattered throughout the book. Don't read it when you're hungry. But do read it, or read any of Daniel Pinkwater's books if you want to see a real magician at work (or play).
Thursday, May 16, 2013
PaperBack
Hugh Greene, editor, Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Crooked Counties, Penguin, 1974
Paging Josh Randall
Armed Bounty Hunters Storm Fancy Miami Beach Gym (Video): Amazingly, it was all legal under Florida law where bounty hunters have more legal rights than the police.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
An Anniversary
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee. . . .
Star Wars convention opts for the force of the fist: Rival science-fiction clubs had to be separated by the force last weekend as the Norwich Star Wars Convention descended into a daft brawl.
Sure You Do
Personality Quiz: Etiquette for secretaries in the Mad Men era: Do You Have the Right Personality to Become a Secretary in 1959?
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
UPI.com: Police in North Carolina said they arrested a woman whose alleged Bible-thumping left a woman with bruises and abrasions.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Billie Sol Estes. R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Billie Sol Estes, a flamboyant Texas huckster who became one of the most notorious men in America in 1962 when he was accused of looting a federal crop subsidy program, has died. He was 88.
Seepy Benton Knows all this Stuff
Twin Primes Conjecture: 'Weak' Version Of Famed Math Problem Possibly Proven: It’s a result only a mathematician could love. Researchers hoping to get ‘2’ as the answer for a long-sought proof involving pairs of prime numbers are celebrating the fact that a mathematician has wrestled the value down from infinity to 70 million.
Hat tip to Seepy Benton.
Hat tip to Seepy Benton.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
College of Communication: The University of Texas at Austin has partnered with video game industry leaders Warren Spector and Paul Sams to create the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy, the first video game program in the United States led and taught by gaming industry executives.
So Be Careful Out There
Times LIVE: Witches flying broomsticks in Swaziland above 150 metres will be subject to arrest and a hefty fine of R500 000, civil aviation authorities said, according to a report.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?
Metro News: Brighton resident ‘discovers vortex to another dimension, complete with giant snake’
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
A Book Collection in One Click
A Book Collection in One Click by Richard Davies: Whether they are sets arranged by a publisher or a collection crafted by hand, there are some books that were always meant to be kept together. AbeBooks offers hundreds of these 'instant collections' – some covering a specific series of books, or a subject or genre, or the works of a certain author. It's usually taken years to put these collections together but you could buy one in seconds.Or if you're George Kelley, you don't have to click. You just go to a library sale.
Overlooked Movies: Congo
The plot? Well, it's complicated. A team looking for a great blue diamond joins up with a team led by a primatologist who's trying to figure out what his gorilla is dreaming about. Great White Hunter Ernie Hudson (who just happens to be black) leads them into the jungle. Getting into the jungle isn't easy, believe me, and when they get there, their troubles are just getting started.
As I said, I liked this movie. It's funny and thrilling and pretty much everything I'm looking for in an old-fashioned adventure. I should also mention that I liked the book it's based on (by Michael Crichton) quite a bit, too, but the movie's very different from the book. You probably have to be as goofy as I am to enjoy them, so I can't really say you should try them unless you're in just the right mood. If you are, you can't miss.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Popular psychologist Joyce Brothers, R. I. P.
I remember when she was on The $64,000 Question, and he category was boxing.
Popular psychologist Joyce Brothers has died in New York at age 85.
Popular psychologist Joyce Brothers has died in New York at age 85.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Jacqueline Brookes, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Jacqueline Brookes, an actress who appeared in films and on television but who won her widest acclaim on the stage in New York and around the country, performing the work of Shakespeare, Moliere, Pirandello, Edward Albee and other dramatists over a 60-year career, died on April 26 in Manhattan. She was 82.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
News-JournalOnline.com: New Orleans police say that a dozen people have been shot during a Mother's Day second-line parade.
Daoma Winston Strasberg, R. I. P.
The Washington Post: Daoma Winston Strasberg, a Washington author who produced almost 70 mystery and romance novels in a writing career that spanned more than four decades, died April 1 at her home in Washington. She was 90.
Happy Mother's Day!
A Brief History of Mother’s Day
My mother, Frances Antoinette Brodnax Crider, with her granddaughter Angela Antoinette Crider, 1969.
My mother, Frances Antoinette Brodnax Crider, with her granddaughter Angela Antoinette Crider, 1969.
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