AOL: Rose Siggins, who appeared as Legless Suzi on "American Horror Story: Freak Show," has died in a Denver hospital. She was 43.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Marjorie Lord, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Marjorie Lord, an actress who achieved success as the comedian Danny Thomas’s wife on the Emmy-winning comedy series “The Danny Thomas Show,” but to her frustration found herself being typecast as a housewife for years afterward, died on Nov. 28. She was 97.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
This Sounds Perfectly Legit to Me
For Your Attention
I know you will be skeptical to reply my email base on what is happening in the internet world today. One have to be very careful as scam has taken over the internet today to defraud innocent citizens, this has made it very difficult for people to believe anything that comes through the internet.
I got your contact from your Email domain hence the desire to contact you is for partner with me. If you are honest and can be trusted, I think we can work together on this project. I am an American and you should be rest assured that I cannot be involved in scam in any way.
I am Gen.Raymond Odierno, from the U.S. Army; Among those deployed from Iraq in the beginning of the war in 2003.I really need your help in assisting me with the safe keeping of my funds which was moved to a private Security Company from Iraq. I hope you can be trusted?
Though, I would like to hold back some information for security reasons for now until you have found time to visit the BBC website stated below to enable you have an insight of what I intend sharing with you, believing that it would be of your desired interest one-way or the other.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
I wait to hear from you having visited the above website to enable us discuss on a more clarifying manner to the best of your understanding. I must say that I am very uncomfortable sending this message to you without knowing truly if you would misconstrue the importance and decides to go public. In this regards, I will not hold back to say that the essence of this message is strictly for mutual benefit between you and I and nothing more.
I will be vivid and coherent in my next message. meanwhile, could you send me an email confirming that you have visited the site.
Best Regards
Gen.Ray.
I know you will be skeptical to reply my email base on what is happening in the internet world today. One have to be very careful as scam has taken over the internet today to defraud innocent citizens, this has made it very difficult for people to believe anything that comes through the internet.
I got your contact from your Email domain hence the desire to contact you is for partner with me. If you are honest and can be trusted, I think we can work together on this project. I am an American and you should be rest assured that I cannot be involved in scam in any way.
I am Gen.Raymond Odierno, from the U.S. Army; Among those deployed from Iraq in the beginning of the war in 2003.I really need your help in assisting me with the safe keeping of my funds which was moved to a private Security Company from Iraq. I hope you can be trusted?
Though, I would like to hold back some information for security reasons for now until you have found time to visit the BBC website stated below to enable you have an insight of what I intend sharing with you, believing that it would be of your desired interest one-way or the other.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
I wait to hear from you having visited the above website to enable us discuss on a more clarifying manner to the best of your understanding. I must say that I am very uncomfortable sending this message to you without knowing truly if you would misconstrue the importance and decides to go public. In this regards, I will not hold back to say that the essence of this message is strictly for mutual benefit between you and I and nothing more.
I will be vivid and coherent in my next message. meanwhile, could you send me an email confirming that you have visited the site.
Best Regards
Gen.Ray.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Jon Arfstrom, R. I. P.
StarTribune.com: [I]t was as a pioneering illustrator of fantasy, science fiction and horror stories in the 1940s and ’50s that he won his most lasting acclaim. His early surrealistic drawings of ghoulish figures and cover illustrations for the magazine Weird Tales are considered classics.
I'm Sure You'll All Agree
The New York Times: The film critics of The New York Times — Manohla Dargis, A. O. Scott and Stephen Holden — share their picks for the best movies of the year.
Soon We'll Have No Rights Left at All
The News Tribune: A former soldier suspected of storing a tank-piercing rocket on the roof of his East Tacoma house was criminally charged Thursday, a day after discovery of the explosive prompted partial evacuation of the neighborhood, including an elementary school.
FFB: Cut Me In -- Ed McBain
Back in the middle '50s, Evan Hunter hit the Big Time with The Blackboard Jungle. By that time he'd written a lot of stories and other novels under various names. In his introduction to Learning to Kill, a collection of his early short stories, Hunter mentions Cut Me In, an "as-yet-unpurchased novel" that his agent submitted to Pocket Books. Pocket didn't buy the novel, but it eventually sold to Abelard-Schuman and was reprinted by Pryamid books. The pen name Hunt Collins was used in both cases. And that was the end of it.Until now. Hard Case Crime has brought back Cut Me In after it's languished in obscurity for nearly 60 years. Hard Case will be releasing the novel under the Ed McBain byline, which is more marketable than Hunt Collins, I suppose. And it also allows them to use the "McBain is a master" blurb from Newsweek.
The book's narrator is Josh Blake, a literary agent. Right there, I'm hooked. I'm ready for some inside scoop on literary agencies in New York in the '50s, since Collins/McBain/Hunter would know plenty. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more of that kind of thing in the book, but what is included is both amusing and interesting.
The book is a mystery novel, though, so publishing info wasn't the main reason for its existence. Sometimes, when the info does come, it feels almost as if it's being shoehorned in. Blake's partner in the literary agency is murdered, and while the cops are perfectly capable of solving the crime, Blake gets involved, not necessarily because he wants to but because of the McGuffin in the case, a copy of a contract with a writer.
Cut Me In is a long way from an Evan Hunter novel of the middle '50s. It's more like a paperback original by Richard Marsten, with beautiful women seducing or trying to seduce Blake every time he meets them. Lots of fisticuffs, too. Even some shooting. I think most readers will be way ahead of both the cops and Blake as far as the mystery goes, but I still had a lot of fun reading the book. It's fast and smooth, and it's even funny in parts. When I read about the book in Learning to Kill, I immediately went on the Internet to search for copies. I found some, too, but they were priced at a lot more than I was willing to pay. I'm glad Hard Case has reprinted it so I can read it at last.
But wait. There's more. Also included in this edition of Cut Me In is "Now Die in It," a long-lost novelette about alcoholic p.i. Matt Cordell. You can't go wrong, so order your copy now.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
I'm Sure You'll All Agree
The 24 Best Science Fiction Books Of 2015
I didn't expect to have read any of the books on this list, but by coincidence I'm just about to finish the one that's #2 on the list. I'll probably finish it tonight, in fact.
I didn't expect to have read any of the books on this list, but by coincidence I'm just about to finish the one that's #2 on the list. I'll probably finish it tonight, in fact.
Steve Shagan, R. I. P.
Hollywood Reporter: Steve Shagan, a novelist and screenwriter who earned Oscar nominations for his work on Save the Tiger and Voyage of the Damned, has died. He was 88.
Dolph Schayes, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Dolph Schayes, a Hall of Fame center with the Syracuse Nationals and Philadelphia 76ers, died Thursday. He was 87.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
A Dead Red Alibi (The Dead Red Mystery Series, Book 4) - Kindle edition by RP Dahlke. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. When Lalla and her dad take a trip to Arizona to inspect her new property, Dad disappears. Panicked that he's lost in the desert, Lalla enlists the help of a local tracker and finds him unharmed−in the bottom of a mine pit. And he's got company−a very dead local police chief. Oddly, a young artist from a local art colony has also been strangled in her own bed. What're the chances that these two murders are going to be related? Well, if you're Lalla Bains, you don't guess, you start looking for the killer!
Wednesday, December 09, 2015
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
The Haunted Bookshop - Kindle edition by Christopher Morley. Romance Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. This classic story of romance and intrigue in a Brooklyn bookstore is one of the most beloved mysteries of all timeOnce Again Texas Leads the Way
What could possibly to wrong?
www.statesman.com: Gun rights groups say they will conduct a mock mass shooting this weekend at the University of Texas campus as they try to end gun-free zones.
Update: Change of venue.
www.statesman.com: Gun rights groups say they will conduct a mock mass shooting this weekend at the University of Texas campus as they try to end gun-free zones.
Update: Change of venue.
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Nightwalker: A POST APOCALYPTIC SERIES eBook: Frank Roderus: Kindle Store The inconceivable has happened. America has been ravaged by nuclear war. James Wolfe, a trucker driving on a isolated highway in the Northwest, sees the mushroom clouds in the distance and hides out in an abandoned mine. Now, months later, Wolfe emerges to a world he hardly recognizes. Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Bonnie Lou, R. I. P.
Chicago Tribune: Bonnie Lou, a pioneering country music artist and rock 'n' roll singer and who later became a TV host, has died. She was 91.
“A Great Book, but Please Don’t Read It” (by W. Edward Blain)
“A Great Book, but Please Don’t Read It” (by W. Edward Blain) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: Ted Blain (whose fiction byline is W. Edward Blain) has been a contributor to EQMM for twenty years this month, having debuted for our magazine with December 1995’s “The Director’s Notes.” “The All-Nighter,” his latest EQMM tale and his first locked-room story, will appear in our March/April 2016 double issue. Though Ted is primarily a short-story writer, he is the author of two mystery novels, the first of which, Passion Play (Putnam, 1990) was nominated for a best first novel Edgar Allan Poe Award in a year when the competition included the first novels of Walter Mosley and Patricia Cornwell. For twenty-five years Ted has been the chairman of the English department at Woodberry Forest School, in Madison County, Virginia. When he isn’t teaching or writing fiction, he’s often directing plays. His post paints a vivid picture of how literature first got hold of him.—Janet Hutchings
PaperBack
Alcott, Louisa May; Jean Francis Webb, Little Women, the Story of the MGM Picture, Dell, 1949
In that case, Granny, you are free to go
Calgary sun: Granny who smuggled drugs in vagina for son in Edmonton Max says gangsters forced her to do it
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time --Today Only!
Amazon.com: Hail Storme: A Wyatt Storme Thriller eBook: W.L. Ripley: Kindle Store Vietnam vet and former pro football player Wyatt Storme is bow-hunting in Missouri when he stumbles upon a hidden field of marijuana…and is attacked by a vicious dog and shot at by a sniper. He reports violent incident confidentially to the local Sheriff…who is murdered the next day. Storme believes there’s a connection and starts asking questions, unraveling a deadly conspiracy of corruption, drug-trafficking and organized crime… and making himself someone that just about everybody wants dead. 
Martin E. Brooks, R. I. P.
NY Daily News: Martin E. Brooks, whose acting career stretched from Broadway dramas to TV series including "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "Dallas," died Monday. He was 90.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
I Want to Believe!
Huge Entrance To Massive Underground Alien UFO Base Found On Mars In Google Map, Says UFO Hunters: “Every time an amazing discovery is made on Mars, they quickly tell the sheep it is a rock or shadow! Time and time again. They try to make excuses for the objects being discovered all over Mars.”
Gator Update (Law Enforcement Edition)
11-foot alligator killed accused burglar hiding in pond
Update: They should've pinned a badge on the gator, but nooooooo.
Update: They should've pinned a badge on the gator, but nooooooo.
Overlooked Movies: Dick
You thought you knew all about the Watergate scandal because you'd seen or read All the President's Men, right? Well, you were wrong. The true story is revealed in Dick, and it's a lot wilder than the "official" one.Let's start with Deep Throat. Some old guy with inside info? Nope. Two teenage girls, Arlene and Betsy, played by Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst (whose performance as the dim but stabby wife in Fargo I'm currently enjoying). As it turns out, they also save the world from nuclear destruction, just by baking cookies with a secret ingredient. Not to mention having other amusing and exciting adventures, all because they wanted to mail a fan letter to Bobby Sherman. (Handy link provided for younger readers.)
Woodward and Bernstein, two top professional reporters? Nope. They were pretty much two doofuses (Will Ferrell and Will McCulloch) who don't much like each other and who are a lot more lucky than good.
And that's the way it goes pretty much down the line. Kissinger, Haldeman, Liddy, and John Dean all come along, and we're shown their true selves.
The exception is Richard Nixon (Dan Heydaya in a superb performance), who turns out to be exactly like you thought he was. Arlene crushes hard on him until she finds out the truth about him, that he's a potty- mouth and that he isn't a nice man.
Betsy and Arlene find out all this stuff because they're witnesses to the Watergate break-in, and through a series of events they become Nixon's dog walkers, which allows them to witness many other things.
I found this movie hilarious. Maybe now, 15 or so years later, more and more people won't remember Watergate or Nixon or any of the rest of it, and they might not find the movie as funny as I did. But I think it's great.
Personal note: Judy and I saw this in the theater, and the only two other people in the audience were two girls about the age of Betsy and Arlene. Maybe they'd come because they thought the movie would be another teen comedy. They obviously didn't get it at all, and about ten minutes before the movie was over, they pulled out their phones and called their friends, maybe to warn them away. It's one of the very few times I've gotten up and spoken to people in a theater and asked them to be quiet. They were amazed that I'd be so rude.
Bonus: Nine things you really never knew about Dick.
Monday, December 07, 2015
Nicholas Smith, R. I. P.
BBC News: Nicholas Smith, the actor who played store manager Mr Rumbold in the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served?, has died aged 81.
He had been the last surviving member of the original cast.
Are You Ready for 10 Hours Of Marching Cats?
The Presurfer: 10 hours of marching cats? Yes, 10 hours of marching cats!
Sunday, December 06, 2015
Holly Woodlawn, R. I. P.
Flavorwire: Holly Woodlawn, the transgender trailblazer who starred in such iconic underground films as Women in Revolt and Trash, and whose story opens Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” died on Sunday at the age of 69.
Happy Hanukkah!
HISTORY.com: The eight-day Jewish celebration known as Hanukkah or Chanukah commemorates the rededication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, where according to legend Jews had risen up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt. Hanukkah, which means “dedication” in Hebrew, begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar and usually falls in November or December. Often called the Festival of Lights, the holiday is celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional foods, games and gifts.
Fiery Words: Charles Dickens and Spontaneous Combustion
Neatorama: How Charles Dickens fueled a world of spontaneous combustion truthers.
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