Saturday, September 28, 2013
Philip Roth Update
Expatica France: France has awarded the US writer Philip Roth its highest decoration, the Legion d'honneur (Legion of Honor), with the country's foreign minister bestowing the award in New York.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Alvin, Texas, Not Included
Social Experiment Reveals The World's Most Honest Cities
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Annoying slideshow alert.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Annoying slideshow alert.
Whac-A-Mole Update
The Guy Who Invented the Whac-A-Mole Accidentally Blew Up A Florida Warehouse: No humans were hurt in the explosion, but robotic limbs smoldered among the wreckage. . . . "It was weird," Tim Roth, an office workers who rushed into the building, tells the Orlando Sentinel, which described the interior as the "Joker's Lair."
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Another Day, Another Jack the Ripper Update
Mail Online: Has this locket finally unmasked Jack the Ripper? Descendant of fifth victim claims tiny photo proves serial killer was Queen Victoria's surgeon
Forgotten Books: Master of Life and Death -- Robert Silverberg
Sorry, folks, no Patricia Highsmith here today. One reason is that I just can't leave a book in the store. The other day I was in a thrift shop and saw the Avon reprint of Robert Silverberg's Master of Life and Death, which I read first as half of an Ace Double 'way back in the '50s. I probably thought it was pretty cool then. Now, it seems I've changed, and the book is a bit worrisome.
Roy Walton is the title character, since within a few pages of the novel's opening he's become the head of Population Equalization (or Popeek) and is charged with being sure that Earth's population is equally distributed, a process that involved euthanizing children who might be disease carriers or otherwise bad for the gene pool and distributing people from heavily populated areas to places where there's more room. He seems to have unlimited power to execute people (give them the Happy Sleep) or imprison them, and eventually he adopts the motto that "the end justifies the means," something he repeats a number of times. The means include some pretty rough things. Let's just say that being his brother doesn't exclude you from punishment if you stand in his way.
Things happen fast in this short novel: bang, bang, bang. Some of the plot threads seem to go nowhere, but most of them are resolved in the end, at least a couple of them by space aliens ex machina. Walton is ruthless, but then he claims that he has to be. After all, the end justifies the means.
Here's something interesting. The world of the novel is hugely overpopulated, so much so that things are falling apart and that Popeek is the only salvation. Silverberg uses a specific figure: Seven billion. Just out of curiosity, I looked at the current world population figure. You can see it here. Notice the figure? We're well past the seven billion and climbing.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Paris Hilton Update
He Said/She Said: Nick Carter Vs. Paris Hilton: After the Backstreet Boy called the heiress “the worst person in the world for me to hook up with” due to his struggles with drugs and alcohol, Paris has now responded.
Robotic Donkey WBAGNFARB
The U.S. Military's New Robotic Donkey Will Be More Bulletproof
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson, who saw Robotic Donkey open for Moby Grape.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson, who saw Robotic Donkey open for Moby Grape.
Free Museum Tickets for Museum Day Live!
Museum Day Ticket | Museum Day Live! | Smithsonian Magazine: Free Ticket for Two
To receive your free Museum Day Live! Ticket for two people only, please enter your information into the fields below. Your Ticket will be emailed to you after you submit your information. You must print your ticket and present it to receive your free admission.
New Poem at The 5-2
The 5-2 | Crime Poetry Weekly, Annual Ebooks - Gerald So, Editor: H.B. Ussach
THE SALTED CORPSE
Jane Connell, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Jane Connell, a character actress best known for her portrayal of Agnes Gooch, the mousy secretary to the title character in the musical “Mame,” died on Sunday in Englewood, N.J. She was 87.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Forgotten Music: Jim Reeves
Forgotten in the U. S., maybe, but not everywhere.
Not Elvis, Sinatra, Nor Beatles: Jim Reeves Is The Biggest Western Singer In South India And Sri Lanka
Not Elvis, Sinatra, Nor Beatles: Jim Reeves Is The Biggest Western Singer In South India And Sri Lanka
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: DMQZ eBook: Quinn Fleming: Kindle Store: In the wake of the global pandemic known as the "little dormouse," the line between the Safe Zone and the Quarantine Zone divides New York City. The shores and waters of the East River are the "DMQZ," the uninhabited area that separates uninfected Manhattan from the slowly dying borough of Brooklyn.
Jacob Hale is a Manhattan police officer rising in the ranks of the Safe Zone military government until a bank heist gone wrong lands him on suspension and under suspicion. On a quest to clear his good name, Hale finds himself drawn into a web of conspiracy, terrorism, and revolt - and into the orbit of a mysterious woman who may be the key to it all.
Jacob Hale is a Manhattan police officer rising in the ranks of the Safe Zone military government until a bank heist gone wrong lands him on suspension and under suspicion. On a quest to clear his good name, Hale finds himself drawn into a web of conspiracy, terrorism, and revolt - and into the orbit of a mysterious woman who may be the key to it all.
The Dog and the Novel: Loyal Companions
The Dog and the Novel: Loyal Companions on AbeBooks: Literature has long had a love affair with dogs. Granted, we do see the occasional literary cat, such as Vicki Myron's Dewey, a tale about a library cat, or Crookshanks, Hermione's cantankerous orange companion in the Harry Potter novels, but by and large, dogs in literature must outnumber their feline counterparts 10 to one. Take John Grogan's Marley & Me for example. The book is actually a memoir, but using the family pet, a handful of a Yellow Labrador Retriever named Marley, as the key theme throughout. Marley became a top bestselling book, then a major motion picture starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. Readers and film-goers alike had their hearts touched by the pooch.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Texas woman makes bizarre 911 call after two goats run amok in her backyard
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
As many of you will recall, Sheriff Dan Rhodes has had to deal with goats run amok several times.
And of course Goats Run Amok WBAGNFARB.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
As many of you will recall, Sheriff Dan Rhodes has had to deal with goats run amok several times.
And of course Goats Run Amok WBAGNFARB.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
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Pimpage: An Occasional Feature in Which I call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: The Dark Need (Dead Man #20) eBook: Stant Litore, Lee Goldberg, William Rabkin: Kindle Store: Matt Cahill was an ordinary man leading a simple life until a shocking accident changed everything. Now he can see a nightmarish netherworld that exists within our own. Now he's on a dangerous quest for the answers to who he is and what he has become…and engaged in an epic battle to save us, and his soul, from the clutches of pure evil. Matt is tracking a blood-sucking, shape-shifting killer through the icyCascade Mountains when he encounters a mysterious woman who is on the same corpse-strewn trail…but who has a terrifying secret of her own.
Interview with Richard Prosch
Write Better Stories | Tom Rizzo: StoryTeller’s 7: Richard Prosch, Big Stories in Few Words
Bigfoot Update
Bigfoot lives out west and prefers Missouri to Kansas: All reported Sasquatch sightings since 1921 are plotted on just one map Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
This is probably a repeat of an earlier post, but you can never have too much Bigfoot news.
Mushrooms
Carolyn Cassady, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Carolyn Cassady, a writer who entered the American consciousness in 1957 as a character in Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road,” and decades later chronicled her life as a member of the Beat Generation, died on Friday near her home in Bracknell, England. She was 90.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Overlooked Movies: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
The thing that I like best about the movie isn't the plot or the goofiness (though a lot of the goofiness is pretty funny to me). What I like is the way the movie (filmed in black and white) intercuts scenes from a lot of famous old movies so that Martin appears to be acting opposite Alan Ladd, Humphrey Bogart, Veronica Lake, Cary Grant, and a lot of others. An affectionate parody and the writers (Carl Reiner, who directed, George Gipe, and Martin) obviously know and care about the movies they're having fun with here. I think I'll be watching this one again Real Soon Now.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Richard Sarafian, R. I. P.
Richard Sarafian Dead: Film Director Dies At 83: LOS ANGELES -- Richard Sarafian, an influential film director whose 1971 countercultural car-chase thriller "Vanishing Point" brought him a decades-long cult following, has died in Southern California, his son said Saturday night.
The Thicket -- Joe R. Lansdale
The narrator is Jack Parker, whose sister is the one who's kidnapped after the death of their parents. They're on the way to Kansas with their grandfather when they meet up with some very bad men, including the seemingly indestructible Fatty. When they kill his grandfather and take his sister, Jack vows to get her back, and he enlists the help of a bounty hunter named Eustace, his hog named Hog, and the dwarf, Shorty. They pick up three others along the way, including Jimmie Sue, a prostitute with whom Jack falls in love.
If you're a fan of Lansdale's work, you already own this book. If you're not a fan, this book will make you one. Check it out.
Boss of Hampton Beach -- Jed Power
The first book in the series is Boss of Hampton Beach, and it finds Marlowe working behind the bar at the restaurant he used to own. His addiction to cocaine has cost him not only his restaurant but his family. He's clean now, but he's not through with cocaine because a local crime boss is importing a big shipment. Things go wrong, the cocaine disappears, and everyone wants it (except Marlowe). In the mix are the crime boss, his top gun, a bent DEA agent, the feds, and the local cops. Crosses and double crosses abound, and of course Marlowe gets pulled into the action.
Boss of Hampton Beach is a fast-moving hard-boiled story and a fine start to the Dan Marlowe series.
I Must Be Really Creative and Indomitable
Chaos loosens norms and neatness tightens them.: Your Messy Desk Is Evidence of the Indomitable Creativity of Your Soul
Mac Curtis, R. I. P.
Dallas Morning News: Fort Worth-born rockabilly great Mac Curtis, an early-days inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, died Monday night in a Weatherford nursing home. His ex-wife and sister say it was sudden: Curtis, born Wesley Erwin Curtis Jr. on January 16, 1939, was injured in a car accident in Weatherford last month, and over the weekend he took a turn for the worse.
Marvin Rainwater, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Marvin Rainwater, who became one of early rock 'n' roll's one-hit wonders with his 1957 record "Gonna Find Me a Bluebird," died Tuesday in Aitken, Minn. He was 88.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Mail Online: An upset multi-millionaire from Texas claimed that Ferrari drivers are being discriminated against and unfairly profiled by police when he appeared in a court in Aspen for a speeding ticket.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
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