Saturday, February 15, 2014
John Henson, R. I. P.
Deadline.com: John Henson, son of the late Muppets creator Jim Henson, died Friday after suffering a sudden heart attack. He was 48.
Chris Barry, R. I. P.
Telegraph: Doctor Who director dies after escalator fall
Chris Barry, 88, who worked on the BBC show for 16 years, fell in the shopping centre in Banbury, Oxon.
Chris Barry, 88, who worked on the BBC show for 16 years, fell in the shopping centre in Banbury, Oxon.
Free for Kindle For a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Felony Fists (Fight Card) eBook: Jack Tunney, Paul Bishop, Mel Odom: Kindle Store: Los Angeles 1954 Patrick “Felony” Flynn has been fighting all his life. Learning the “sweet science” from Father Tim the fighting priest at St. Vincent’s, the Chicago orphanage where Pat and his older brother Mickey were raised, Pat has battled his way around the world – first with the Navy and now with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Legendary LAPD chief William Parker is on a rampage to clean up both the department and the city. His elite crew of detectives known as The Hat Squad is his blunt instrument – dedicated, honest, and fearless. Promotion from patrol to detective is Pat’s goal, but he also yearns to be one of the elite.
And his fists are going to give him the chance. Gangster Mickey Cohen runs LA’s rackets, and murderous heavyweight Solomon King is Cohen’s key to taking over the fight game.
Chief Parker wants wants Patrick “Felony” Flynn to stop him – a tall order for middleweight ship’s champion with no professional record. Leading with his chin, and with his partner, LA’s first black detective Tombstone Jones, covering his back, Patrick Flynn and his Felony Fists are about to fight for his future, the future of the department, and the future of Los Angeles.
Uh-Oh
BBC America Developing Robin Hood Drama Series 'Nottingham': What if Robin Hood and his traditional nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham, were the same person? That is the premise of Nottingham, a Game Of Thrones reinvention of the classic mythology in the works at BBC America. . . .
Described as a soapy class drama, Nottingham centers on the Sheriff of Nottingham whose wife is killed by King John’s men. When nobody is brought to justice, the Sheriff launches a one-man war against the Crown. By day, he remains the reviled Sheriff, loyal servant of the King, but by night he puts on a hood and, using the intelligence he gains from his office, attacks the King where it hurts the most — his coffers.
Described as a soapy class drama, Nottingham centers on the Sheriff of Nottingham whose wife is killed by King John’s men. When nobody is brought to justice, the Sheriff launches a one-man war against the Crown. By day, he remains the reviled Sheriff, loyal servant of the King, but by night he puts on a hood and, using the intelligence he gains from his office, attacks the King where it hurts the most — his coffers.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
This is why you don't buy burritos at a gas station: Texas woman finds piece of latex glove inside a burrito she bought at a gas station for 86 cents
And Keep Off His Lawn!
911 call from 76-year-old: "I just shot a man" A 76-year-old Lincolnville man, who shot and killed a robbery suspect outside of his home this past weekend, said this incident was not the first time he was victimized.
Just Rudyard Kipling
AbeBooks: Just Rudyard Kipling: Rudyard Kipling, (1865-1936) had a tremendous impact on the literary world with his short stories, poetry and novels. Kipling is most well known for his fantastically imaginative tales for children including the classic Just So Stories and the Jungle Book, but he was a prolific author and his works covered a broad range of subjects.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Click the link for the rest of the story.
FFB: Amazing Stories, June, 1958
Growing up in the 1950s, I loved the SF digest magazines. As I'm sure I've said before, I liked them all, even those that others looked down on, like Imagination, Imaginative Tales, Fantastic, and Amazing Stories. Sure, I read and liked Galaxy, F&SF, and Astounding, and I enjoyed them. F&SF was probably my favorite of them all. But I still loved the others, including Amazing. I'm not alone here. Ed Gorman was another fan, and so was Roger Ebert. If you look through the letter columns of the back issues of the magazines I mentioned above, you can read some of the letters they wrote to them. Anyway, when I was feeling nostalgic the other day, I pulled down this magazine from the shelves and settled down to read a few stories. Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that one of the stories was a Johnny Mayhem adventure! This one was published as by C. H. Thames, but the author was really Milton Lesser, better known as Stephen Marlowe. I really loved the Mayhem stories when I was a kid, and for just a second or two I was transported back to 1958 when stories like this could be printed and read without irony. I've written about Johnny Mayhem before, so let me just quote what I said then. He began life as Johnny Marlow, "a pariah, a criminal, . . . who had been mortally wounded on a wild planet deep within the Saggitarian Swarm, whose life had been saved, after a fashion, by the white magic of that planet. Mayhem, doomed now to possible immortality as a bodiless sentience, an elan, which could occupy and activate a corpse if it had been frozen properly." Being an elan has reformed Marlow/Mayhem, "who had dedicated his life to the service of the Galactic League because a normal life and normal social relationships were not possible for him." See, that's because an elan can't "remain in one body for more than a month without body and elan perishing." Since you never know when you'll need a guy (or an elan) like Johnny Mayhem, "Every world which had an Earthman population and a Galactic League post, however small, had a body waiting in cold storage, waiting for Johnny Mayhem if his services were required." How could any teenager living in a little East Texas town resist a story with a hook like that?
The title of the story in this issue of Amazing is "Mayhem Enslaved," and Mayhem's elan is put into a body that's sent to kidnap a man from a planet where humans are enslaved by creatures that look like lobsters. With the help of some incredible coincidences and any number of instances when things go exactly right for him, Mayhem grabs the guy, aids the overthrow of the lobster creatures, and completes his mission. It's hard to believe that anybody could cram so much plot into so few pages, and it's all highly unlikely and even unbelievable, though in 1958 I believed it all. And there's a part of me that still does.
Robert Bloch's "Red Moon Rising" is clearly a reaction to the big event of 1957: Sputnik. In Bloch's story a gigantic satellite (estimated weight: 50 tons) appears in the sky, and American panics. I figured out where this one was going in the first couple of pages, or maybe I just remembered it. Who can say? It was still fun.
"Daddy Fix" by Al Sevcik is SF only because it's set in the future. It could've been set in any era. The editor says "you'll remember it for a long, long time." I don't know if I remembered it or not, but I knew exactly what the shocker ending was, so maybe I did remember it. Just for fun, I looked up Sevcik on the Internet. Apparently he lives in League City, Texas, only a few miles from Alvin. Maybe I'll give him a call.
The other big Sputnik-related item in the magazine is noted on the cover: "Science Courses open in 50 Uncrowded Colleges." Sadly, this is a misleading title, as the actual article shows that many of the colleges listed can't accept any more students into most of their science programs. There's a related item, too. It's "Class of 2008: A Prediction of Things to Come in the Educational Pattern." It's hilariously off the mark.
I haven't read the other stuff in the magazine yet, but what I did read was great fun. Not for everyone, I'm sure, but highly enjoyable for me.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Ralph Waite, R. I. P.
Deadline.com: The man who played the patriarch on CBS’ long-running series The Waltons has died. Ralph Waite was 86. He starred for nine seasons on the Depression-era drama as John Walton Sr., who eked out a living at the family lumber mill on Walton’s Mountain.
Hey, It's Worth a Shot
Let Ernest Hemingway edit your writing — with an algorithm
Sadly the app thinks that "Billy" is an adverb.
Sadly the app thinks that "Billy" is an adverb.
Maggie Estep, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Maggie Estep, a novelist and spoken-word poet who helped popularize slam poetry on MTV, HBO and PBS in the 1990s, died on Wednesday in Albany. She was 50.
Hat tip to Todd Mason.
Hat tip to Todd Mason.
Mainly for Seepy Benton
'Math Bites' show with Danica McKellar makes numbers hip: Get weekly tips on how to incorporate math into your daily life using catchy tunes, puppets, and surprising celebrity cameos thanks to actress Danica McKellar's new show on the Nerdist Channel.
There is excellent video about pi at the link.
There is excellent video about pi at the link.
Native American Update
Ancient native boy's genome reignites debate over first Americans: A new analysis challenges the out-of-Europe hypothesis, which has figured in a political debate over the rights of present-day Native American tribes. Scientists announced on Wednesday that they had, for the first time, determined the full genome sequence of an ancient American, a toddler who lived some 12,600 years ago and was buried in western Montana. His DNA, they report, links today's Native Americans to ancient migrants from easternmost Asia.
Alvin, Texas, Inexplicably Not Included
Washington ranked as the USA's most literate city: The rankings for the top 10 cities in 2013, with comparisons to 2012
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
'Charlemagne Update
'Charlemagne's Bones' Are Likely Authentic, Scientists Say: After 1,200 years, researchers have confirmed that a collection of bones, long interred in Germany, are those of eighth-century ruler Charlemagne.
Sid Caesar, R. I. P.
The Raw Story: Comic showman Sid Caesar, a pioneer of American television sketch comedy as the star and creative force of “Your Show of Shows,” during the 1950s, died on Wednesday at age 91, according to his friend and former collaborator, Carl Reiner.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee
And now it's the bloody tirade!
azfamily.com Phoenix: A Glendale woman has been released from jail after allegedly going on a naked, bloody tirade when her boyfriend refused to have sex.
azfamily.com Phoenix: A Glendale woman has been released from jail after allegedly going on a naked, bloody tirade when her boyfriend refused to have sex.
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Hunter cancels Bigfoot tour stops in Phoenix - ktar.com: "Due to a better opportunity, (which) arose down in Texas, we had to make that sacrifice," he said in the video.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
We're From the Government, and We're Here to Help You
Wired.com: FBI agent Kevin Kelley was investigating Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 when he checked the wrong box on a terrorism form, erroneously placing Rahinah Ibrahim on the no-fly list.
What happened next was the real shame. Instead of admitting to the error, high-ranking President Barack Obama administration officials spent years covering it up. Attorney General Eric Holder, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and a litany of other government officials claimed repeatedly that disclosing the reason Ibrahim was detained, or even acknowledging that she’d been placed on a watch list, would cause serious damage to the U.S. national security. Again and again they asserted the so-called “state secrets privilege” to block the 48-year-old woman’s lawsuit, which sought only to clear her name.
What happened next was the real shame. Instead of admitting to the error, high-ranking President Barack Obama administration officials spent years covering it up. Attorney General Eric Holder, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and a litany of other government officials claimed repeatedly that disclosing the reason Ibrahim was detained, or even acknowledging that she’d been placed on a watch list, would cause serious damage to the U.S. national security. Again and again they asserted the so-called “state secrets privilege” to block the 48-year-old woman’s lawsuit, which sought only to clear her name.
They'll Never Replace Abba
Band Plays Some Chill Tunes On Instruments Made Of Ice: Swedish musical group Ice Music really knows how to heat up a crowd. Working with instruments made almost entirely of ice — except for strings, fret boards and other parts — the band performs energetic songs with classical, rock and world music influences.
Link via mental_floss.
Link via mental_floss.
Samantha Juste, R. I. P.
Samantha Juste - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Samantha Juste (born Sandra Slater; 31 May 1944 – 5 February 2014)[1] became known on British television in the mid-1960s as the "disc girl" on the BBC’s Top of the Pops. In 1968 she married Micky Dolenz of the Monkees. Their daughter is the actress Ami Dolenz.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson, and here's a link to the article that Jeff mentions in the comments.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson, and here's a link to the article that Jeff mentions in the comments.
Gabriel Axel, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Gabriel Axel, director of the film “Babette’s Feast” which made him the first Dane to win an Oscar for best foreign film, has died. He was 95.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Shirley Temple Black, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Shirley Temple Black, who as a dimpled, precocious and determined little girl in the 1930s sang and tap-danced her way to a height of Hollywood stardom and worldwide fame that no other child has reached, died on Monday night at her home in Woodside, Calif. She was 85.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
It's a Buyer's Market!
For Sale: Al Capone's Miami Beach Mansion - Gangster died at $8.45M Palm Island estate: Got $8.45 million kicking around? You could buy the Miami Beach mansion where Al Capone died—and from which he supposedly plotted the infamous 1929 Valentine's Day Massacre.
Overlooked Movies: O. Henry's Full House
Another memorable thing about the movie is that it's the first anthology movie I ever saw. It has five O. Henry stories, each one directed by a different director.
And a third memorable thing, though you wouldn't know it from the poster, is that John Steinbeck introduces the film and does a little narration. Even as a kid I was impressed by writers, and this was the first time I'd ever seen one in a movie.
For me, the two most memorable segments of the film are "The Last Leaf" (I can still remember the final scene in that one) and "The Gift of the Magi." Since I hadn't read anything by O. Henry at the time I saw the movie, the surprise endings really surprised me. I also got a kick out of "The Ransom of Red Chief." Later on in my life, I read "The Cop and the Anthem" in high school and a few years later found myself teaching it to my own classes, but I remember that one only vaguely. I don't remember the fifth story, "The Clarion Call," at all.
This is a very old-fashioned movie, with sentimentality and humor of a kind you don't see these days. You can see the various parts on YouTube if you're so inclined. Watch one when you're in a nostalgic mood.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Free Book! Last Day!
This time it's for real!And if you're so inclined, please post a short review on Amazon after you read the book.
Amazon.com: Outrage at Blanco (Ellie Taine) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Western action thriller in the tradition of Elmer Kelton and Louis L'Amour. The bank robbers killed Ellie Taine's husband. They didn't kill Ellie. That was their mistake. Now Ellie's going to make them pay.
Wanna Play a Theremin?
Likely to drive everyone in the house bonkers, but it's a lot of fun.
Theremin - A Playable Touch Synthesizer Using Web Audio API
Link via Neatorama.
Theremin - A Playable Touch Synthesizer Using Web Audio API
Link via Neatorama.
Tony Douglas, R. I. P.
Athens, Texas: In 1961, he gained national attention with his song “SHRIMPIN,” and his band became known as Tony Douglas and the Shrimpers. Another great single, “THANK YOU FOR TOUCHING MY LIFE,” was released in 1972. For over three decades, Tony Douglas and The Shrimpers criss-crossed the nation, bringing enjoyment to multitudes of people.
Free Book! Last Day! Get Your Copy Now!
This time it's for real!And if you're so inclined, please post a short review on Amazon after you read the book.
Amazon.com: Outrage at Blanco (Ellie Taine) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Western action thriller in the tradition of Elmer Kelton and Louis L'Amour. The bank robbers killed Ellie Taine's husband. They didn't kill Ellie. That was their mistake. Now Ellie's going to make them pay.
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Archaeology Update
900-Year Old Viking Code Broken: Archaeologists have succeeded in breaking a Norse code that dates back to the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.
Trees
Judy and I went for a short walk yesterday, and I took a picture of these trees that are just down the street from our house.
New Poem at the 5-2
The 5-2 | Crime Poetry Weekly, Annual Ebooks - Gerald So, Editor: Scott T. Hutchison
GLOSSY
Sunday, February 09, 2014
Still Free Tonight and Tomorrow!
This time it's for real!Amazon.com: Outrage at Blanco (Ellie Taine) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Western action thriller in the tradition of Elmer Kelton and Louis L'Amour. The bank robbers killed Ellie Taine's husband. They didn't kill Ellie. That was their mistake. Now Ellie's going to make them pay.
Here's the Plot for Your Next Narco Vigilante Thriller
In fact, it would make a great '80s men's adventure series.
Mexico’s vigilantes versus the Knights Templar: Inside Guerrero state’s bizarre drug war.
Mexico’s vigilantes versus the Knights Templar: Inside Guerrero state’s bizarre drug war.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee
Crime | ADN.com: An argument sparked by a spilled honey bucket ended in the beating death of a Mountain Village man earlier this week, according to an affidavit in the case.
Free for Kindle Today and Monday -- Two Days Only! -- Spread the Word
This time it's for real!
Amazon.com: Outrage at Blanco (Ellie Taine) eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: Western action thriller in the tradition of Elmer Kelton and Louis L'Amour. The bank robbers killed Ellie Taine's husband. They didn't kill Ellie. That was their mistake. Now Ellie's going to make them pay.
Stay Classy, AMC!
Ratings | TVbytheNumbers: AMC today announced that it had greenlit a docu-series focused on the inaugural season of the LA KISS arena football league team. The show, which will follow dedicated players and coaches trying to turn LA’s first professional football team in years into a winning franchise, will also feature owners Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, of KISS fame, along with long-time manager, Doc McGhee.
Big on Biggles - The Adventures Continue
Big on Biggles - The Adventures Continue on AbeBooks: Biggles has been fighting off bandits at 2 o’clock since 1932. He’s legend of children’s literature and one of the great adventure heroes. James Bigglesworth, created by W.E. Johns, starred in almost 100 novels beginning with The Camels are Coming. Johns died while writing Biggles Does Some Homework in 1968 but his hero continues to fascinate readers and collectors more than 40 years after his creator’s death.
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