Saturday, June 04, 2016
Muhammad Ali, R. I. P.
NBC News: Muhammad Ali, the silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and then spent a lifetime living up to the billing, is dead.
Friday, June 03, 2016
Glare of the Gorgon -- Will Murray
Will Murray is back with another Wild Adventure of Doc Savage. With the announcement that Shane Black will be writing the screenplay for Doc Savage movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, we might be seeing a resurgence of interest in the character that Murray's been doing so much to keep alive in this new series. This time around Doc, Monk, Ham, and Long Tom are involved with a modern Medusa, one who communicates in a disembodied voice, kills, and leaves behind a mysterious symbol much like the one on the book's cover. The killing doesn't result of people being turned to stone. Well, not entirely. Their brains are turned to stone almost instantly, though, and that's a pretty effective way to kill someone.
There are plenty of mysteries in the story. How can a brain be turned to stone? Who's behind the deaths? How can a man whose brain is turned to stone be brought back to life? And of course the big one: Who is the gorgon? Even Doc seems baffled.
The narrative this time is about four times the length of an old Lester Dent tale. There's action galore, with gunfights, kidnappings, car chases, and general mayhem. Long Tom alone is tied up, beaten up, and whacked in the head enough times to give even the toughest hardboiled private-eye pause. If you're a Doc Savage fan or a fan of fiction in the style of the old pulps in general, Glare of the Gorgon will give you a lot of reading satisfaction.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee
Miami Herald: Florida man nicknamed Pork Chop tries to bury boss with front-end loader, cops say
I'm Sure You'll All Agree
The 10 Funniest Books
To be fair, the headline is misleading. The writer just says, "Here are ten funny books."
To be fair, the headline is misleading. The writer just says, "Here are ten funny books."
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Law enforcement groups train by looking at works of art: SAN ANTONIO - Members of San Antonio law enforcement agencies spent Tuesday training at the McNay Art Museum.
The training is called the Art of Perception, and by looking at works of art, participants learn to broaden their vision to think outside the box.
FFB: Chuck Berry: The Autobiography
Chuck Berry says at the beginning of the book that there is no ghost writer involved. These are his words, and he typed them himself. Read the book, and you'll believe it. It's full of alliteration, rhymes, and rhythm. It's not polished, but that's fine. It's like good rock 'n' roll, a little rough around the edges, and even in the middle.It's also frank and open about Berry's times in prison, all three of them. Maybe a little slanted in his favor, but he doesn't try to cover anything up. There was less here about his music than I wanted to know, but there's plenty about his sex life. Not enough to satisfy Berry, though. At the end of the book, he promises that he's going to write another one that's about nothing else except his sex life. Since this one was published in 1987 and there's been nothing since, I guess the rest of his sex life will remain a secret. That's okay. He tells plenty here, and the story that interested me most was the one about his affair with Candace Mossler, who was involved in a famous Texas murder trial that I read a book or two about years ago. I sure didn't know that she and Berry had been an item, or at least a hookup.
It was during his third stint in prison that Berry started writing this book, and he tells a good bit about improving his typing and about the word processors he used to finish the book with once he got out.
While I found the book really interesting for its information of Berry the man, I would've liked a little more about his touring, about his recording, about his early work with Chess records. Still, I'd recommend the book if you're interested in Berry's work. It's fascinating and entertaining, and you can't ask for much more than that.
Thursday, June 02, 2016
New EQMM Podcast
http://eqmm.podomatic.com/entry/2016-06-02T06_40_22-07_00 In this month's podcast, Russell W. Johnson reads his Department of First Stories tale "Chung Ling Soo's Greatest Trick," which won the Mystery Writers of America's Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story by an American author.
What is it about me?
Many and many a year ago when we were living in Brownwood, Texas, one of our cars was giving some transmission trouble, so I took it to Chubby's Transmission Repair. I figured I couldn't go wrong with a guy named Chubby, but several days later I hadn't heard a word about the repair. So I gave Chubby a call. The guy who answered said, "Chubby hasn't been able to work. He cut a couple of his fingers off while he was repairing your transmission." I did eventually get the car back, and it worked okay. I don't know if there were any fingers in the transmission, however.
Not so many years ago, we decided to get storm windows installed on our house here in Alvin. It was to be a one-day job, and a husband-and-wife team came early in the morning to get started. Before half the windows were installed, the wife rang the doorbell. I went to see what she wanted, and she said, "My husband just almost cut his finger off. I'm going to take him to the E.R. We'll be back tomorrow and finish the job." Sure enough, they did come back and finish. Did a good job, too, but I felt bad about the guy's finger.
Today I'm having a new washing machine delivered and installed. I was given a four-hour window, from 10:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. At 12:30 I got a call from the installation people. The woman who called said, "Your delivery might be a little late. The installer cut the top of his finger off while making an earlier delivery. He's leaving the E.R. now to start catching up."
If there's a lesson in all of this, it's not for me, I suppose. However, anybody thinking about doing some work for me might want to think twice.
Not so many years ago, we decided to get storm windows installed on our house here in Alvin. It was to be a one-day job, and a husband-and-wife team came early in the morning to get started. Before half the windows were installed, the wife rang the doorbell. I went to see what she wanted, and she said, "My husband just almost cut his finger off. I'm going to take him to the E.R. We'll be back tomorrow and finish the job." Sure enough, they did come back and finish. Did a good job, too, but I felt bad about the guy's finger.
Today I'm having a new washing machine delivered and installed. I was given a four-hour window, from 10:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. At 12:30 I got a call from the installation people. The woman who called said, "Your delivery might be a little late. The installer cut the top of his finger off while making an earlier delivery. He's leaving the E.R. now to start catching up."
If there's a lesson in all of this, it's not for me, I suppose. However, anybody thinking about doing some work for me might want to think twice.
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
Memphis man charged with trying to kill former coworker with forklift: A 27-year-old Memphis man faces charges of attempted second-degree murder and vandalism after he allegedly tried to run over a former co-worker with a forklift and, after failing at that, used the vehicle to flip the victim's SUV.
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
“In Defense of Dan Brown and Bad Sentences” (by Michael Noll)
“In Defense of Dan Brown and Bad Sentences” (by Michael Noll) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: Michael Noll debuted in EQMM in the July 2015 issue with “The Tank Yard,” a story that was subsequently selected for the 2016 volume of Best American Mystery Stories. He is the program director at the Writers’ League of Texas and the editor of the craft-of-writing blog Read to Write Stories. His short fiction has also appeared or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, Chattahoochee Review, Indiana Review, and The New Territory. His book In the Beginning, Middle, and End: A Field Guide for Writing Fiction is due out next year. In this post he takes a critical look at the work of one of the most popular thriller writers of our time and shares some of the advice he gives his writing students.—Janet Hutchings
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
Daily Mail Online: Vicious brawl erupts between two middle-aged couples outside Costco after a fight over a parking spot spills out of control
Jan Crouch, R. I. P.
Fox News: Televangelist Jan Crouch, who co-founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network with her husband more than four decades ago, died Tuesday just days after she suffered a stroke, her family said on the network's website
Free for Kindle for a Limited Time
Amazon.com: Devlin And Johnny Forever eBook: Peter Brandvold: Kindle Store Devlin had retreated to her family’s cabin in the Georgia woods to be alone with her thoughts. She’d had a tough time of it, breaking up with Johnny Bascomb after enduring his verbal and physical abuse, after losing their baby.But when Devlin hears screams of bloody murder originating from the woods across the pond, she heads out to investigate and finds herself being hunted by the ghost of a Confederate soldier, freshly home from the Civil War...
Michael Dann, R. I. P.
The New York Times: Michael Dann, one of the most powerful and effective programmers in network television in the 1950s and 1960s, who brought “The Defenders,” “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “60 Minutes” to the screen, as well as less prestigious but enormously popular shows like “Hee Haw” and “The Beverly Hillbillies,” died on Friday at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 94.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Overlooked Movies -- Vibes
Here we go again with another of those movies that nobody likes but me. Judy and I went to see this one in the theater because of the stars. We figured we couldn't go wrong with Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Goldblum, and Peter Falk, and we were right. At least for us. Not for the critics, and probably not for anybody else. We loved it, though.One reason was Cyndi Lauper, who plays a psychic who has a spirit guide named Louise. Another reason was Goldblum, who's also a psychic, but of a different kind. He can touch an object and its whole history will be revealed to him. A third reason was Falk, who's great as a duplicitous adventurer, a role that echoes his work in The In-Laws He comes up with some lies that are almost as good here, or maybe they're even better. He hires Lauper and Goldblum to accompany him to the Ecuadorean Andes to search for his missing son, but his real purpose is quite different. He's looking for a lost city of gold. I can't resist lost cities of gold, but that's not what they find. I can't tell what that is, though.
There was a twist in this movie that I didn't expect and didn't like until the end, when it all turned out all right. I can say no more about that, either.
I checked out the Rotten Tomatoes rating for Vibes. It's sitting at 6%. This tells you a lot about my taste in movies.
Monday, May 30, 2016
First It Was the Thin Mint Melee
Gang armed with gun, machetes and baseball bats attack barber shop over 'bad haircut': Six yobs smashed windows before trashing an Alpha Romeo parked outside following a year-long feud sparked by a haircut one of them didn't like
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
Great art is timeless:
City of Sugar Land criticized for newly erected statue: One of the most recent statues installed is a guitar player sitting on the ledge of a fountain. The other statue is of two girls taking a selfie with City Hall in the background.
City of Sugar Land criticized for newly erected statue: One of the most recent statues installed is a guitar player sitting on the ledge of a fountain. The other statue is of two girls taking a selfie with City Hall in the background.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Meet ‘Deadshot Mary’
Meet ‘Deadshot Mary,’ a 1930s Undercover Cop Superstar: How one NYC policewoman became a media sensation.
I Want to Believe!
Dayton couple capture video footage of 'UFO' close to US military base in Ohio
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
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