10 Greatest Opening Credits in Movie History

From Nerve magazine.

Thanks to Todd Mason for the link.

Paris Hilton is Vindicated

Sort of.

From hell | Features | guardian.co.uk Film: "Joe Queenan braves Paris Hilton, porcophilia and men who eat themselves to death as he goes in search of the worst movie of all time"

Moorcock Remembers Clarke

Click here.

Hat tip to Dark Forces Book Group.

Thuglit #24

Now on-line. Click here.

The YouTube Awards

Click here.

Top 10 Jackie Chan Stunts

The Paris Hilton Route to Fame

Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - WENN - 21 March 2008: "Lindsay Lohan is at the center of a sex tape scandal - after footage emerged allegedly showing the actress performing a sex act on Irish model Calum Best. The 21-year-old Just My Luck star dated the son of British soccer legend George Best last year, and, according to British tabloid The Sun, the video was leaked on the internet after Calum sent the clip to 'close friends.' Representatives for both Lohan and Best have refused to confirm or deny the existence of the tape."

Hat tip to Todd Mason for the link.

Yikes, Indeed

It may be time for me to switch to satellite.

Comcast Cameras to Start Watching You? � NewTeeVee: "If you have some tinfoil handy, now might be a good time to fashion a hat. At the Digital Living Room conference today, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast’s senior VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who’s in your living room.

The idea being that if you turn on your cable box, it recognizes you and pulls up shows already in your profile or makes recommendations. If parents are watching TV with their children, for example, parental controls could appear to block certain content from appearing on the screen. Kunkel also said this type of monitoring is the “holy grail” because it could help serve up specifically tailored ads. Yikes."

The Black Dove -- Steve Hockensmith

I've enjoyed the two earlier books in this series (see here and here) about Big Red and Old Red, the Amlingmeyer brothers, as well as the occasional story about them in EQMM (in fact, the latest story in the magazine shares the San Francisco setting of this novel and is briefly alluded to in Big Red's narration). This time the boys find themselves in Chinatown, with Gustav (Old Red) still applying the methods of Sherlock Holmes, this time to a supposed suicide that's actually a murder. (Some of the characters, including the murder victim, appeared in the previous book in the series, but you don't have to have read that one to enjoy this one. Trust me.)

Before long, the Reds are up to their necks in trouble as they try to find the elusive Black Dove while being pursued by various hatchet men, the cops, vengeful madams, crime bosses, and such. Both Reds are a bit distracted by the presence of the lovely Diana Corvus, who's sure to return in future books, and we find out a bit more about the background of Old Red, who's been harboring a secret for a long time. Check it out.

10 Most Historically Inaccurate Movies

Another one of those lists made by someone who hasn't seen any movies more than 10 years old.

The Hugo Nominees

The list is here. Check it out.

A Review of Interest to Some of You

The Austin Chronicle: Books: Review - The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America: "During the 1950s, many creative institutions came under societal and governmental scrutiny: movies, books, and especially comics. David Hajdu recounts this troubled time in The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America."

Hat tip to the Dark Forces Book Group.
Update: Dark Forces also points to this review.

Strand Magazine Critics Awards

Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind: The Strand Critics Award Takes a Bow: "I know, it's yet another award nomination list, but this time the Strand Magazine has assembled an impressive list of judges including David Montgomery, Hallie Ephron, Patrick Anderson, Dick Lochte, Larry Gandle, Oline Cogdill and myself, along with the magazine's publisher Andrew Gulli."

The list is at the link.

Finalists for the 2008 Thriller Awards!

Finalists for the 2008 Thriller Awards! - The Big Thrill: "After much arduous and painstaking labor by our three panels of esteemed judges--overseen and orchestrated by this year's Award Chair, the talented Vicki Hinze--the nominees for this year's 'Thriller' awards have been selected."

Just click the link for the list.

Talk about a Guy Whose Lawn You'd Better Keep Off . . .

. . . this would be the guy.

Thanks to Paul Bishop over at Bish's Beat for the tip.

Detroit's Best Sandwiches

Why would I blog about this topic? Because the slideshow is something you don't want to miss if you're a sandwich fan. Patti Abbott can tell us which one's really the best.

Happy Birthday, Ursula Andress!

Okay, so I'm one day late. I still want to post a photo. Nobody who saw Dr. No is likely to have forgotten Honey Rider's appearance from the sea.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Legal Battle Rages Over Whether Ankles Exist - San Antonio News Story - KSAT San Antonio: "AUSTIN -- For every foot, there's an ankle. Or not.

In Texas, that all depends on a legal battle between medical doctors and podiatrists, who both claim the ankle as their turf. The debate has raged to the point that the two sides disagree in court on whether the ankle actually exists.

A state appeals court recently sided with medical doctors when it determined that the state board that licenses podiatrists exceeded its authority in defining the ankle as part of the foot.

'You don't have an ankle,' said Mark Hanna, a lawyer for the Texas Podiatric Medical Association. 'The foot actually includes the ankle. If you took the foot off the leg, there is nothing lying there that's the ankle.'"

The Fever Kill -- Tom Piccirilli

Having read and enjoyed The Cold Spot, I thought I'd give this one a try. It's a nice homage to the old Gold Medal novels (note the pre-stressed cover) but with a contemporary sensibility. A man named Crease returns to his hometown ten years after his father's death. He's obsessed with the kidnapping of a young girl, killed by his father at the ransom site. He's also being pursued by a drug dealer whose sweetie Crease has impregnated during the time that Crease has been working as an undercover narc. A further complication is that Chase is married and has a son, and he's adopted his sister-in-law's five or six kids.

As it turns out, nothing in the old hometown is what it seems or at least what Crease thought it would be. Crease begins to question his own motives and in fact his whole life. All this zips along in a tidy 184 pages.

Chase and Crease. Does Piccirilli have a thing about guys with one-word names that begin with the letter C? And what about these issues with fathers and sons, a strong theme in both books I've read. I guess I'll have to read more to see how this plays out.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Thanks to Art Scott for the link.

FOXNews.com - Agents Seize 411 Bottles of Rattlesnake-Infused Vodka in Texas Raid - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News: "Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officials were rattled last Thursday by the discovery of over 400 bottles of illegal booze, each containing a 10-inch rattlesnake in the bottle, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

After receiving a tip several weeks ago, TABC agents raided Bayou Bob’s Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch in Palo Pinto County after the reptile-infused vodka was sold to undercover agents, the paper reported. 411 bottles of the serpent sauce were seized.

“In my 20 years with the TABC, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sgt. Charlie Cloud told the Star-Telegram."