Saturday, June 29, 2013
Gator Update (Connecticut Edition)
WFSB 3 Connecticut: New London police were called to a home in New London Saturday afternoon, after the homeowner spotted an alligator.
Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.
Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.
You're Doing It Wrong
The Raw Story: A meeting intended to improve police-community relations in Pittsburgh ended on Wednesday with a black teacher being arrested by a white officer.
Friday, June 28, 2013
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
abc27 WHTM: Two real estate agents in a wealthy Philadelphia suburb are accused of tossing dead mice and snakes onto the lawn of their neighbor's house, which is up for sale.
Forgotten Books: The Tall T -- Elmore Leonard
You can tell by looking at the covers and spine of the paperback edition of The Tall T that when this Avon book was published, nobody knew who Elmore Leonard was. His name is nowhere on it. If you looked at the spine, you might even think that Randolph Scott had written the book. And if you look at the tiny print under the title, you'll see "And Other Western Adventures" because instead of publishing a novelization of the movie, which was based on a novelette called "The Captives" from Argosy, Avon just published the novelette and padded out the book with some still photos from the movie and two other stories, one by Steve Frazee ("The Man at Gantt's Place") and one by Noel M. Loomis ("The Twilighters").
If you've seen the movie, as I'm sure many of you have (and if you haven't, you can watch it right here), you might want to know how it's different from the book. The opening 15 minutes of the movie aren't really in the story. A couple of the events are alluded to, but others have just been added. And the ending is changed. In the story, Chink (Henry Silva in the movie) is the of the killers that Brennan (Randolph Scott) has to deal with. In the movie, it's Frank Usher (Richard Boone). Not that it makes a lot of difference.
Most everything in between comes directly from the story. Leonard's dialogue is hardly altered. It's as if he were already writing directly for the screen. It's fun to see the movie shortly after reading the book to see how the actors handled the dialogue. As I read the story, I could hear Scott saying some of the lines, and in the movie he spoke a few of them pretty much as I thought he would. Not nearly all of them, however. It was a pleasure to watch him work. He was a much better actor than he sometimes gets credit for.The question of the day is, "Why is this movie called The Tall T?" Nobody in the movie mentions it. Nobody is named anything that begins with the letter T. It's not the name of a ranch. Anybody know?
I recommend both the story and the movie. Great stuff.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Alan Myers, R. I. P.
Alan Myers, Devo drummer, dead at 58.: Alan Myers, one of the foremost drumming talents of the punk and new wave era, died on Monday from cancer. Myers is best known as the drummer for Devo; he was featured on six albums and live tours during the height of their creative and commercial success, from 1976 to 1986. Their iconic 1980 single, “Whip It,” is marked by Myers’ shuffling high-hats and metronomic kick-snare combo.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: It's a Dog's Life, Snoopy! eBook: Charles M. Schulz: Kindle Store: FRIENDS FOREVER!Charlie Brown and his friends . . . Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, Marcy, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, and Franklin! Life is about good friends, those you’ve come to know and love through the years. Now, for the first time in book form, It's A Dog's Life, Snoopy presents a brand-new collection of your old favorites, bringing all your familiar friends from Peanuts together again for more great times and hilarious fun!
From Anatomy to Phrenology: Collectible Medical Books
Elliott Reid, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Elliott Reid, a character actor familiar to television and movie audiences and probably best remembered as Jane Russell’s love interest in the 1953 film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” died on Friday in Studio City, Calif. He was 93.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Until one of the local girls—cute little Drew, bassist for a psychobilly band—asks Billy for help with her boyfriend. Something about the drugs Ian’s been selling, some product he may have lost, and the men who are threatening him because of it. Billy agrees to look into it, and before long he’s speeding down a snowy road, tracking a cell of terrorists, with a severed head in his truck’s cab. And that’s only the start.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Billy Lafitte, former Deputy-Sheriff and motorcycle gang enforcer, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For some of his enemies, that's still not enough punishment. Agents Colleen Hartle and Franklin Rome want Lafitte dead so bad, they've put a price on his head--eighteen grand to the first prisoner who takes him out.
When This Guy Says, "Keep off my lawn, " . . .
. . . he means it.
Mail Online: 'He wanted them off': 72-year-old California man faces death penalty after 'shooting and killing two teens and a mother when they wouldn't get off his property and then burning their bodies in a car'
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Mail Online: 'He wanted them off': 72-year-old California man faces death penalty after 'shooting and killing two teens and a mother when they wouldn't get off his property and then burning their bodies in a car'
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Overlooked Movies -- Barefoot in the Park
The plot is a pretty familiar one. Free-spirited woman (Jane Fonda) marries stodgy guy (Robert Redford), and decides they aren't a good match. The audience knows better, of course, and it's fun to see what happens before Fonda and Redford know better, too. Or it was fun for me and Judy. It's a very '60s movie, and maybe today it wouldn't play at all for a young couple the way it did for us.
Fonda and Redford are young and beautiful, while Charles Boyer and Mildred Natwick are older and maybe a little faded, but it's Boyer and Natwick who very nearly steal the show with their romance. Boyer was terrific, and so was Natwick, even though she's playing a variation on a role she played many times. Or maybe because she's playing a role she played many times.
It frightens me to realize that I'm now a good bit older than either Boyer or Natwick was when they made this movie. When I saw it, I never dreamed I'd be any older than I was that night in the theater. Better not pursue that line of thought. Anyway, this movie will always remind me of a time when I was a lot younger and the world was a different place.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Steve plans a mysterious boat trip in the short story "Solomon & Lord Sink or Swim." He claims he's going fishing with Manuel Cruz, but Victoria isn't buying it. She knows that Cruz stole a bundle from Steve's favorite client. Victoria hops aboard to find out just what Steve has planned. The answer could get them both killed.
So It Affects Only the Young, Right?
Telegraph: Doctors in South Korea are reporting a surge in "digital dementia" among young people who have become so reliant on electronic devices that they can no longer remember everyday details like their phone numbers.
Gary David Goldberg, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Gary David Goldberg, a writer and producer who created warmhearted television shows, most notably “Family Ties,” a leading comedy of the 1980s that propelled Michael J. Fox to stardom, died Saturday at his home in Montecito, Calif. He was 68.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Richard Matheson, R. I. P.
R.I.P. Richard Matheson, Author of I Am Legend and Many Other Classics: Beloved author Richard Matheson passed yesterday at the age of 87, after a long illness. Best known for his seminal work I Am Legend, he leaves not just a legacy of great science fiction, but an indelible mark on American pop culture.
Gator and Croc Update: Plymouth professor reveals prehistoric origins of sex
Plymouth Herald: "A clue to why the ancestors of alligators and crocodiles quickly adapted to the vast Pangaean desert lies in the way they have sex."
Bobby 'Blue' Bland, R. I. P.
Bobby 'Blue' Bland Dead: Blues Legend Dies At 83: Bobby "Blue" Bland, a distinguished singer who blended Southern blues and soul in songs such as "Turn on Your Love Light" and "Further On Up the Road," died Sunday. He was 83.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Invite Your Friends to Dinner!
Whole Alligator From Frontier Restaurant Tastes Like Chicken (VIDEO): In the below video, editor James Mulcahy and Frontier's executive chef Brian Jupiter walk us through the process of preparing and serving the reptile, which feeds between 12 and 15 people and must be ordered five days in advance at the bare minimum.
Hat tip to Jeff Segal.
Hat tip to Jeff Segal.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Headaches and Bad Dreams (A Story From the Dark Side) eBook: Lawrence Block: Kindle Store: All I can remember about the origin of “Headaches and Bad Dreams” is that I was on a train when I got the idea for it. It seems to me I was on my way home from Connecticut, though I couldn’t tell you what I was doing there. Whatever it was, my wife was there doing it with me, and this idea came to me in a sentence or two and I recounted it to her in a sentence or two. “There’s this psychic,” I said, and she heard me out, and said it sounded good to her. I wrote the story at the request of Elaine Koster, who was running Dutton and New American Library at the time, and who wanted a kick-ass anthology in celebration of NAL’s 50th anniversary in 1998. She decided to call it The Best of the Best, which strikes me in retrospect as strikingly presumptuous, because all the stories were to be written for the collection, and who could say ahead of time that they’d even be competent, let alone the best of anything?
Best, schmest. I think this one came out pretty well, and I hope you enjoy it.
Paging Imhotep
The Sun |News: AN Egyptian relic has mysteriously started MOVING in a museum — prompting fears an ancient angry spirit could be fighting to get out.
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