12 Crispy Facts About Pringles
The first one features Gene Wolfe and Lawrence Person.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Murder by the Book 8-29-15
A look at the excellent group of folks who turned out for the signing by me and my daughter, Angela Crider Neary, at Murder by the Book this afternoon.
In That Case, Ma'm, You Are Free to Go
Tampa Bay Times: TAMPA — A woman explained in court records this week why she robbed three Brandon banks within 30 minutes in May, netting more than $6,000.
Hat top to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat top to Jeff Meyerson.
Friday, August 28, 2015
I Thought Guy Townsend Had Already Done This
A 500-Year-Old Royal Murder Mystery May Soon Be Solved: A murder case that’s gone unsolved for more than 500 years has just been opened back up. Historian and screenwriter Philippa Langley is launching a fresh investigation into the deaths of the “princes in the tower,” one of the most infamous crime mysteries in British history.
Gratuitous Guy M. Townsend reference explained.
Gratuitous Guy M. Townsend reference explained.
Hard Case Crime Reinvents Pulp
Hard Case Crime Reinvents Pulp: Crime novels are still a staple of many readers’ libraries to this day, but they really saw their heyday in the 1940s, 50s and 60s when the paperback pulp took off with names like Mickey Spillane, Jim Thompson, Erle Stanley Gardner (creator of Perry Mason) and Ross MacDonald, to name a few. The language was different than previous spy or detective novels – it was grittier, hardboiled and raw, full of dames and guns, and heavy with metaphor around every dark corner.
FFB: Clea's Moon -- Edward Wright
I was saddened to read of the death of Edward Wright in the latest PWA newletter. I enjoyed Wright's books, and I'm glad I was able to congratulate him when he won the Shamus award. This review originally appeared on April 21, 2007. My reviews of three of Wright's other novels can be found here, here, and here.It's L.A. in the late 1940s. At one time John Ray Horn starred in B westerns. That was before he went to prison for assault. Now he collects debts for Joseph Mad Crow, formerly his faithful Indian sidekick. An old friend calls John Ray about a problem he'd like some help with, but he dies in an apparent suicide before John Ray can really get a handle on things. Naturally John Ray suspects murder (and of course he's right). This leads him to discover, among other things, a box of pornographic photos of young girls, one of whom just happens to be the daughter of Horn's ex-wife. There are real estate scandals, buried secrets, and great post-war period details. David Thompson at Murder by the Book recommended this one to me, and I'm glad he did. I've already bought the sequel. Check it out.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
I'm Sure You'll All Agree
The best and worst series finales, charted: The Most Disappointing and the Most Satisfying Series Finales of All Time, in One Chart
Pop Culture Syllabus: CDs
Pop Culture Syllabus: CDs: You don't have to be a Gen Xer to appreciate the glory days of the compact disc. We've burned a playlist just for you.
Nikki Finke’s Surprisingly Fun New Fiction Site
Nikki Finke’s Hollywood Dementia: A Guide: “#BOOM”: A Deep Dive Into Nikki Finke’s Surprisingly Fun New Fiction Site
Amelia Boynton Robinson, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was called the matriarch of the voting rights movement — and whose photograph, showing her beaten, gassed and left for dead in the epochal civil rights march known as Bloody Sunday, appeared in newspapers and magazines round the world in 1965 — died on Wednesday in Montgomery, Ala. She was 104.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Anna Kashfi, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Anna Kashfi, an actress who appeared in several Hollywood films in parts calling for, in the parlance of the day, an exotic beauty, but who became better known for playing a continuing role in a real-life soap opera as Marlon Brando’s first wife, died on Aug. 16 in Woodland, Wash. She was 80.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
First It was the Thin Mints Melee
2 Women Arrested After Fight On JetBlue Flight At JFK Airport: The older woman used an eyebrow razor to slash the 52-year-old woman and a man who tried to intervene, officials said. The younger woman then used pepper spray on the knife-wielding passenger, Pentangelo said.
Dell Map Back Mysteries
Mystery Scene: Dell Map Back Mysteries: They Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore!
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Dr. James 'Red' Duke, R. I. P.
Famed Houston surgeon Dr. James 'Red' Duke dies at 86: HOUSTON – In the city that’s home to the world’s largest medical complex, one doctor was arguably the most famous of them all.
Dr. James “Red” Duke was an emergency room doctor with the presence of a cowboy movie star—a self-described outlaw known far and wide.
Overlooked TV: Tales of the Gold Monkey
This is a rerun from September 16, 2014. I usually don't rerun such recent posts, but I was reminded of it by this post on Boing Boing yesterday. It will get thousands of hits, whereas this one won't. But I wanted you to know that I got there first.Tales of the Gold Monkey was on for only one season, but it was a good one. Maybe. The thing is, you give me a show set in the South Seas in the late '30s, a seedy bar, some slow-turning ceiling fans, spies, plenty of action, a one-eyed Jack Russell terrier wearing an eye patch, a hero who flies a Grumman Goose, a Dragon Lady clone, and several other choice ingredients -- well, I'm pretty much guaranteed to like it.
The episode I remember best is the pilot, which is sort of the origin story sinced it explains where the title of the show came from. Jake Cutter (Stephen Collins) and others are looking for the mythical gold monkey. Jake's helped out by his pal Corky, an alcoholic mechanic, and Jack, the aforementioned one-eyed dog. Jack once had a false eye, a valuable opal that Jake lost in a poker game. (Jack is still resentful.) Roddy McDowell seems to be having a great time playing "Bon Chance" Louie, the owner of the Gold Monkey bar, and there really is a monkey sitting in the place. It's found at the end of the pilot episode, but as with the Maltese Falcon, it's not what it was thought to be.
The series wasn't shot on location, and some of the sets are a little cheesy, but it was a lot of fun. Most people must not have gotten the same kick from it that I did, since it lasted only one season.
Monday, August 24, 2015
The Darkest Hour -- Tom Wood
Victor is a professional assassin, working in this instance for the CIA. While in the process of carrying out an assignment, he finds that he's become the target, which wasn't in the plans at all. He escapes, barely, and it turns out that another assassin, is a woman code-named Raven. Victor believes that he has to kill her before she kills him. As it turns out, things are even more complicated that Victor had thought, but to tell more about the plot would spoil things.So I'll just say that if you like chase scenes, hand-to-hand combat, shootouts, explosions, tradecraft, and an interesting anti-hero, you'll find plenty of all of that here. One extended chase scene (40 pages!) through a totally blacked-out New York City is the center piece of the book.
Wood tells his story is straightforward prose that moves things along very quickly. I hadn't read any of the previous books in the series, but that was no barrier to enjoying this one. I read tons of spy fiction back in the early to middle '60s, and this book reminded me of some of the best of those stories. It gets a high recommendation from me. Check it out.
Pinkos!
FBi kept files on Ray Bradbury: "Definitely slanted against the United States": "The general aim of these science fiction writers is to frighten the people into a state of paralysis or psychological incompetence bordering on hysteria," the informant warned. "Which would make it very possible to conduct a Third World War in which the American people would believe could not be won since their morale had seriously been destroyed."
O the Times They Are a-Changin'
Youngsters won't join Royal Navy because they can't go on Facebook: Youngsters don't want to serve on Royal Navy submarines because they can't log on to Facebook while under the waves
Submariners spend up to 90 days under water on tours lasting up to a year
It's a problem for the Navy which saw 1,740 sailors quit early in 12 months
Consultants helping recruit says people now want better work life balance
Submariner role asks too big a lifestyle change for social media generation
Submariners spend up to 90 days under water on tours lasting up to a year
It's a problem for the Navy which saw 1,740 sailors quit early in 12 months
Consultants helping recruit says people now want better work life balance
Submariner role asks too big a lifestyle change for social media generation
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Honeymoon
Judy and I went to Colorado Springs on our honeymoon. We were without a clue about travel. I'd been out of the state only once, when I was about ten years old. My aunt and grandmother took me and my sister to Port Isabel, Texas, for a vacation trip for some reason. One thing I remember is that there was a sign outside town that read, "One Road In, the Same Road Out." That's no longer true, as you can see on this map. There's a road to South Padre Island, now, a prime Spring Break location, and the town has undergone a lot of development.There wasn't a lot to do in Port Isabel at the time I was there, however. When we left, we spent part of the day across the border in Matamoros. It was quite exotic to a little guy like me. I bought a small dagger in a leather scabbard at the market there. I thought I still had the knife, but maybe not. I couldn't find it when I looked for it a while back.
Judy had never been to Mexico, but her high school class went to New Orleans for several days for the senior trip. My senior trip was one day in Austin, Texas.
But I have digressed, as usual. What I was going to say what that we had no idea about trips. I thought, and maybe I got this from my father, that you started out, drove until you ran out of gas, and then stopped. I learned pretty quickly that Judy needed to stop more frequently than once a day, but that was okay. I could do that.
My cluelessness extended to the fact that I didn't know about making reservations. I thought you just found a motel and checked in. That was no problem the first and second nights of the trip. It became a problem in Colorado Springs, however, because the weekend of our wedding also turned out to be the weekend of the Air Force Academy graduation. The first two places I stopped were full. At the second one, the desk clerk said, "You're not going to find anything along here. You might find something at the other end of town." So off we went to the other end of town, not quite panicky, and eventually we found something. It was The Dravo Manor, which was pretty upscale for a motel, it seemed to me. There was a vacancy, though, so naturally I took it. Judy always claimed that I almost had a stroke when I discovered the price of the room -- eighteen dollars a day. That was a considerable sum in 1965, but somehow I survived the shock.
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