Waterloo Bridge

I watched the 1931 "pre-code" version of Waterloo Bridge on TCM the other night. (The movie was remade around 1940 with Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh; it was made again 1956 with Leslie Caron and John Kerr. I've never seen those versions.) I thought that because the movie was pre-code, it might be pretty racy. I was wrong. Sure Mae Clark plays a prostitute, and the movie is pretty frank, for the time, about her profession. But that's it. No nudity, no actual immoral acts, and *SPOILER ALERT* Mae certainly gets punished for her sins. In fact, to me, at least, the punishment came more or less abruptly out of left field, just as it would have in a movie after the Production Code was created *END SPOILER ALERT*.

Mae Clark's performance is wonderful. I've seen her in is the famous "grapefruit scene" with Cagney in The Public Enemy and in Frankenstein but she later was doing things like the great Republic serial King of the Rocketmen. She proves here that she could've been a contender. Hell, she was a contender. I guess she never got another role like this one.

Kent Douglass plays the naive young soldier who falls for Mae without ever figuring out her profession, and he's also good. He's believable in a role that's hard to believe in, in these more enlightened times. I enjoyed the performance of Frederick Kerr as Douglass' hearing-impaired stepfather, and seeing Bette Davis in a small role was a treat.

The movie was directed by James Whale, who's better known as the director of a couple of Universal horror classics. The B&W photography is beautiful. I don't usually watch movies like this one, but I'm glad I took the time for Waterloo Bridge.

Bette Midler Slams 'wild and woolly slut' Britney

Wild? Maybe. Woolly? Obviously Bette hasn't seen the photos.

Bette Midler slams 'wild and woolly slut' Britney | the Daily Mail: "After fifty years in showbusiness, Bette Midler probably felt that she had seen and done it all.

Until, that is, she was confronted with the brazenly obscene antics of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.

So, in a scathing, no holds barred attack, the 61-year-old actress has branded the pair 'wild and woolly sluts'."

Ramble House Update from Fender Tucker

The Ramble House Rambler #50
December 6, 2006

Newsletter of Ramble House, publisher of Harry Stephen Keeler and other loons, produced by Fender Tucker (fendertucker@sport.rr.com), mailed whenever something happens. To be removed from this list, please respond to this message and ask, or go to the RH website and unsubscribe. Fender Tucker, 443 Gladstone Blvd. Shreveport LA 71104, 318-868-8727.

The headlines:

~ Gwine to Colorado

~ Many New Titles at Lulu.com

~ Marblehead: A Novel of H.P. Lovecraft by Richard A. Lupoff

~ The Ramble House Lulu Store is Open

And now, the details:

~ I am planning on driving this Saturday to Pagosa Springs Colorado where I'll visit some friends and my brother, John, who is in the States for a while. He lives in Thailand and I haven't seen him in years. I'll have access to a computer so I can check e-mail and process orders for books with Lulu.com -- but then, so can anyone. I'll be back in Shreveport the following weekend.

~ Many New Titles from Ramble House Available at www.lulu.com/ramblehouse

THE SKULL IN THE BOX by Harry Stephen Keeler. Our best deal yet. All four novels of the series in one volume. THE MAN WITH THE MAGIC EARDRUMS, THE MAN WITH THE CRIMSON BOX, THE MAN WITH THE WOODEN SPECTACLES, and THE CASE OF THE LAVENDER GRIPSACK. $25 in trade paperback. A huge collection of Keeler words and one of the most amazing courtroom trials ever.

GREY SHAPES by Jack Mann. The werewolf novel of the Gees series.

DR. SCARLETT by Alexander Laing. A terrific medical adventure thriller set in the Tibetan jungles.

BLOOD ON HIS HANDS by Australia's Max Afford. Classic locked room mystery.

NIGHT OF HORROR a collection of short stories by Joel Townsley Rogers, edited and introduced by Barry Warren. This is the first collection of stories by the author of THE RED RIGHT HAND ever published.

DOPE TALES #1 the first in a new series by Ramble House. It's a double book with two classic tales of drugs and murder from the 30s: DOPE RUNNERS by Gerald Grantham and DEATH TAKES THE JOYSTICK by Phillip Conde. As often as we can we plan to bring back two enjoyable dope novels from the days when our grandparents were doing all the snorting and puffing -- and I'm not talking about the 60s. Both novels are available separately, but you'll like the price and cover of the exciting new DOPE TALES series.

~ But the piece de resistance of 2006 is the brand new mainstream novel by Richard A. Lupoff, whom we are privileged to publish -- MARBLEHEAD: A Novel of H.P. Lovecraft. It's a huge chronicle of the year 1927 in the life of the budding author, H.P. Lovecraft, as he tries to get published and is both aided and thwarted by proto-Nazis, mafiosa, other authors of the day, anarchists and his lovely wife, Sonia. Lupoff has done extensive research into the Providence/Boston area of the time and into Lovecraft's life and has written previously about him. This is a major new novel and you can place an order for it with me immediately. If you catch me before I leave this Saturday, you may even get it by Christmas. It has a mapback cover by Gavin O'Keefe. $24

~ The best way to keep up with our new titles is to bookmark the Ramble House Lulu store and visit often. I always put new books on the first page of the store, near the top of the page. It's easy to find the store; just click here.

No Comment Department

There are some stories about Paris Hilton that this blog just won't link to. This is one of them.

Happy Birthday, Tom Waits!

Tom Waits: Biographical Details
Thomas Alan Waits was born on the eighth anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was born on December 7, 1949 in Pomona, California. He and his two sisters grew up moving around from city to city in California. His parents who are both school teachers divorced when he was 10. They then moved to National City. Tom's grandfather was christened Jesse Frank Waits and his father Frank Waits. Tom is Scottish and Irish from his father's side of the family and Norwegian from his mother's side.

I've been a fan of Tom Waits since the days of Fernwood2Nite. Hard to believe that was 30 years ago. Anyway, if you haven't heard any of Waits' work, you're missing something different from pretty much anything else out there. There's a new box set called Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards. Check it out.

Top 5 Werewolf Movies?

Check the list here and see if you agree.

This Is What the World Has Been Waiting For!

Popcorn Junkies: Another 80s Classic Gets The Remake Treatment: "If there was any doubt that the 80s were back in vogue, look no further than the news that Short Circuit will soon be remade. After years of trying to get Short Circuit 3 made, it looks as if the folks with the rights to Johnny 5 will instead do a remake. It also looks as if some of the original group involved in the first film will be involved in the remake as well. One person who definitely will not be involved in the remake is the film's director, John Badham."

Badham directed last night's episode of Heroes, I believe.

Only Number Four?

Photos at link.

The Sun Online: YAHOO! It's time to gaze at the celeb girls who put the "ogle" into Google.

A list of the babes who web users most often searched for in 2006 has been released.

And the internet's most popular honey is… Britney Spears.

Remarkably, it's the fifth time in six years that the pants-spurning star has topped the list by Yahoo.

Runner-up was Hips Don't Lie singer Shakira, followed in the top five by Jessica Simpson, Britney's new partner-in-crime Paris Hilton and Beyoncé Knowles.

Croc Update

Human body parts found inside croc - CNN.com: "JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Villagers discovered two human hands, a leg and a T-shirt inside a 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) crocodile they trapped and killed in eastern Indonesia, a media report said Wednesday.

The five-meter long reptile, suspected of eating a 59-year-old fisherman last seen a week ago near a river in East Nusa Tenggara province, was hacked open by residents after it got caught Monday in a nylon snare, The Jakarta Post said.

When the villagers got over the shock of finding human body parts inside its abdomen -- together with skull fragments, strands of hair and a pair of shorts -- they cut the beast into pieces and divided up the meat.

It was unclear how many people the crocodile had eaten, but the paper said at least three have disappeared in recent months, all while fishing at the mouth of the Dusan II River."

Your Tax Dollars at Work

It's things like this that make me look forward to April 15.

Audit Says FEMA Squanders Katrina Aid | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited: "WASHINGTON (AP) - One year after Katrina, the government is still squandering tens of millions of dollars in wasted disaster aid, including $17 million in bogus rental payments to people who had already received free trailers and apartments, federal investigators said Wednesday.

At the same time, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has recovered less than 1 percent of the $1 billion it wasted on fraudulent hurricane assistance after the August 2005 storm, highlighting a need for stronger controls the next time a major hurricane strikes.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, set to be released later Wednesday, paints a picture of an agency still struggling - at substantial taxpayer expense - to find the balance between distributing quick aid to those in need while guarding against substantial abuse."

Happy Birthday, Dave Brubeck!

Dave Brubeck, 86 today. I saw his quartet in concert long, long ago, when he had a song called "Take Five" on the charts. That was the first jazz recording to sell a million copies, I think, and the melody's still haunting today.

No Comment Department

E Canada Now - Breaking News ? Paris Hilton Wants To Be A Mom: "Los Angeles (eCanadaNow) - Paris Hilton is desperate to have a baby after befriending young mum Britney Spears.

The hotel heiress - who has been introducing Britney to the Los Angeles party circuit since she split from husband Kevin Federline - has become broody after helping look after the singer’s two sons, 15-month-old Sean Preston and three-month-old Jayden James.

Paris is convinced she would be a good mother because she has so many pets.

Paris told Life and Style Weekly magazine: “It’s been my dream to have four babies by 30. I look after animals, so I’d have a lot to give my kids.”"

New Horror Film from Disney

Experiment #214

The Diet Coke and Mentos guys are at it again. This one is their masterpiece (so far), and if you watch the video all the way through and wait a second, they issue a challenge to anyone wanting to create a video fountain. It's a contest you might want to consider.

Thanks to Neatorama for the link.

Otto Penzler Reviews Mystery Muses

And of course I'm linking to this because my contribution is mentioned in the review.

Small Treasures - December 6, 2006 - The New York Sun: "A bit of an oddity is 'Mystery Muses' (Crum Creek Press, 212 pages, $15.00), edited by Jim Huang and Austin Lugar. The entire book is devoted to the ubiquitous question asked in every interview with a mystery writer: Was there a mystery story that influenced you to become a writer or to write the way you do today? One hundred crime writers answer in these pages."

Last Minute Shopping?

Stark House has you covered with their December release from Peter Rabe. Check it out.

New Issue of Crime and Suspense Now On-Line

There are a lot of e-zines that have new issues lately. Here's another one to check out. There's even a download of "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar."

Our authors this month are Charles Schaeffer, Steve Haberlin, Jan Christensen, Nicole Alexander, Peggy Ehrhart, Stephen D. Rogers, Dan Devine and Jeremy Schneider. You can read more about all these authors in the Rogues' Gallery on the Crime and Suspense website. Almost everyone in the list is making their Crime and Suspense ezine debut in this issue, too!

Tony Burton tells his readers about the enjoyable Death Comes Too Soon by Patricia Harrington and Diane Grace delivers the deadly news about C.V. Herst's Dead Certain. And a new feature by Sunny Frazier starts this month, Coming Attractions!

As an added fillip to the mix this month, there is a radio episode of "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" available for download.

Quote of the Day

From the google homepage:

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.
- Robertson Davies

Happy Birthday, James Lee Burke!

My sentiments from last year still apply.

James Lee Burke - About the Author: "James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute and later received a B. A. Degree in English and an M. A. from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U. S. Job Corps."

A Special Welcome!

Will the Persecution Never End?

Top 10 Most Annoying Pop Songs 2006: "Successful pop music is not always good pop music. Many of us know that intuitively, but it doesn't really sink in until there is a particular song we wish would go away. Here are 10 that I have chosen (with the indispensable assistance of Daniel Wolfe) as the songs I think we've heard enough times already. Without further adieu...the 10 most annoying pop songs of 2006:
1) Paris Hilton - Stars Are Blind

The only justification for this song's presence on pop radio in the summer of 2006 that I heard was that it didn't turn out as badly as expected. That is no reason to turn a song into a hit. Thankfully, it seems that Paris Hilton has moved on from her dreams of being a pop star. She has moved on to befriending the post-K-Fed Britney Spears."

David Goodis Update

From Aaron Finestone:

I have updated my David Goodis webpages with an interview of Len Cobrin,
long time friend of David Goodis. Parts of the interview appear at the
following pages:

Death of David Goodis
Mystery of David Goodis
Len Cobrin remembers David Goodis

Good stuff. Check it out.

Great Moments in American Civilization

MSNBC: The panty-eschewing singer [Britney Spears] has been pole-dancing with her new best friend, Paris Hilton, who has been giving her private striptease lessons, according to U.K. reports. The two have reportedly been practicing on a stripper pole in Hilton’s Hollywood house.

“Paris took Britney upstairs where she fitted her in a blue tutu, and then Paris put on a matching tutu,” a source told the London Star. “They then went downstairs and danced at Paris’ in-house stripper pole. Britney loves her new moves and can’t wait to get a fella and test them out.”

Reviewing Books for Fun and Profit

The Secret Life Of An Online Book Reviewer - Forbes.com: "Over the last seven years, Donald Mitchell, a 60-year-old strategy consultant in Boston, has made $20,000 writing book reviews on Amazon.com. He's so good, and so prolific--with 2,923 reviews to date--that Amazon customers have consistently voted him among the top five reviewers on the site. (The top reviewer, a former librarian from Pennsylvania named Harriet Klausner, has reviewed 12,753 books. Skeptics doubt that she actually exists.)

Mitchell is part of an online subculture that has helped democratize the reviewing process and cemented Amazon's (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) significance in the publishing world. Oprah Winfrey and the New York Times can elevate an obscure debut novelist to a best seller, but Amazon provides the shortest path between a good review and an actual sale: The two are just a click away."

Greywalker -- Kat Richardson

Kat Richardson was on a panel I moderated at the Bouchercon. Greywalker, her first novel, had just been published, and there were only a few copies available at the convention. I bought one of them just before they sold out.

Greywalker is the story of a private-eye named Harper Blaine. When she's assaulted, she suffers a severe head injury and "dies" for two minutes. After she recovers, she finds that she has the ability to enter "the grey," a sort of half-world between life and death. There are lots of strange things in there, and the adjustment isn't an easy one, which is one of the things I liked about the book. Unlike a lot of fictional characters in similar situations, Blaine doesn't immediately figure out what's going on and make the most of it. She fights it, and she's still fighting it when the book ends (though you can bet she'll be back and have a lot more to do with the grey before the intended series runs its course).

This first novel involves a missing person, vampires, an antique parlor organ, an Irish witch, and of course "the grey." There's enough action to satisfy just about anybody, along with some humor, and Blaine's first-person narration moves the story along at a good clip. Sure, Richardson is mining some of the same territory staked out by the likes of Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Charlaine Harris, to name a few, but she has her own original take, and it's worth a look. Check it out.

Quote of the Day

On the google homepage today:

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel

The 10 Hottest Alien Babes of Film and TV

Photos and list at the link.

YesButNoButYes: The Hottest Alien Babes of Film and TV: "There’s nothing like a good sci-fi flick to really capture a guy’s attention. The spaceships…the laser guns…. the distant worlds full of adventure…and those saucy alien chicks in miniskirts whose morals seem looser than William Shatner’s toupee.

But golly gee, there’s so much alien hotness to choose from. How do you decide which babe with green skin is worth your time? Well rest easy fellow space traveler, I’ve done the hard work for you. Allow me to present you with a list guaranteed to appeal to the Buck Rogers in all of us."

The Dude Rules!

CULT OF THE DUDE By TAL PINCHEVSKY - New York Post Online Edition: Seven: "December 3, 2006 -- IN film circles, the term 'cult classic' often gets thrown around liberally. Maybe a movie inspires a generous online message board or even a drinking game. Then there's 'The Big Lebowski.'

The 1998 Coen brothers film has such a rabid underground following that it's managed to inspire an online Church of the Latter-Day Dude, a speaking tour featuring Jeff 'the Dude' Dowd (the independent film consultant credited with inspiring the film's main character), an online petition calling for Jeff Bridges (the film's star) to run for president in 2008, and, oh yeah, a drinking game.

But perhaps the greatest display of obsessive behavior from Lebowski lovers is Lebowski Fest. A multiple-day event where fans come together across the country to pay homage to the object of their cinematic affection."

College Hasn't Changed a Bit Since I Graduated

S&M, nude parties rule at Columbia University: "NEW YORK - Famed as a hotbed of debate over academic freedom, New York's most elite school is also a playpen for sexual high jinks.

While their parents shell out $33,246 a year in tuition, Columbia University students attend naked parties, flock to sex-toys workshops, broadcast porn on campus TV, bake anatomically correct pies for the 'Erotic Cake-Baking Contest' and heat up the library steps in a mass makeout session.

And, of course, there's always the stimulating game Guess the Number of Condoms in the Jelly-Bean Jar.

Others volunteer for the bullwhip at Conversio Virium, the university-sanctioned S&M club. It calls itself a 'discussion group' that provides 'education and peer support' and promotes 'safe, sane and consensual play.' But the club doesn't just talk.

Late on the night of Nov. 13, a Daily News reporter sat in Room 303 of Hamilton Hall, a venerable classroom building where Columbia students have studied Poe, Plato and Plutarch for nearly 100 years.

As a female student volunteer stood facing the blackboard, and 24 Columbians watched, a lecturer who identified himself only as Dov flogged her with whips, rubber hoses and a cat-o'-nine-tails. "

Will the Persecution Never End?

People News: A source told the New York Post newspaper: "Britney and Brandon were getting along really well. They even went to the bathroom together."

The two 25-year-olds were first seen on a dinner date together in Los Angeles last Thursday (30.11.06).

Oil heir Brandon was close friends with Britney's new best friend Paris Hilton.
However, Paris and Brandon are no longer on speaking terms after their friendship and rumoured romance came to a bitter end earlier this year.

Brandon recently branded Paris a racist, saying she was forever referring to black people as "n*****s".

He said: "She is a racist, plus an idiot. I don't want anything to do with her. I don't need anything from her. She is no longer my friend. She is just not a nice person."

Monday on "It's a Mystery"

From Beth Foxwell: In honor of Cornell Woolrich's 103rd birthday on Dec 4th, I'll be airing "Deadline at Dawn," an episode of the Molle Mystery Theater, on Monday's "It's a Mystery."

For those who love culinary mysteries, I'll also be interviewing Nancy Fairbanks, author of _Crime Brulee_, _Bon Bon Voyage_, and other titles featuring food columnist Carolyn Blue.

"It's a Mystery" is Webcast at 11 AM ET on Mondays at http://www.fcac.org/webr.

Interesting Richard Stark Review/Essay by James Wolcott

Lots more at the link. This is the New York Times, so you have to be registered to read it.

Ask the Parrot By Richard Stark - Books - Review - New York Times: "In 1997, Donald E. Westlake — whose prodigious versatility in crime fiction makes the competition look like plow hands — dusted off his literary pseudonym Richard Stark and defrosted his antihero Parker for a knuckle sandwich aptly titled “Comeback.” It had been nearly a quarter-century since the last Parker outing (“Butcher’s Moon,” published back when Gerald Ford was president), but if any hood could survive literary limbo that long in the meat locker, it was this ageless, unnervable, packed-solid, viciously adaptable commando, whose presence is stamped on the page with an abstract force."

New Issue of Mysterical-E is Up and Ready

One one the longer-lasting mystery e-zines. Here's the link and the short-story line-up. Check it out.

Mysterical-E:
"Sometimes Boring is Good by Jan Christensen
Easy Mark J. Alan Brown
Bones of Contention by Charles Schaeffer
In The Garden of the Gods by Fleur Bradley
Krung Thep by Scott Robinson
Majestic-12 by Gay Toltl Kinman
Poochie's Progress by Luc Beaubois
The Perfect Gift by Suzanne Berube Rorhus
Repaid Debts by Sandra Seamans
The Root of the Matter by Bob Liter
A Signature in Blood by Annette Dashofy
Small Town Secrets by Pam Skochinski
Stranger in Town by Jonette Stabbert
Criminal Conundrum by Daniel B. Young
When It Went Wrong by Patrick Reed"

Hard Case Crime Update

Here's the latest cover. Robert Terrall is 92 and still with us. I have this book in the old Dell printing, but you can be sure I'll bet the Hard Case edition. After all, I'm a subscriber. You can see a lot of the new covers here. Check 'em out.

Will the Persecution Never End?

MSN - News - Hilton Spurns Billboard Awards Because of Jokes: "Paris Hilton won't joke about her peeps. The hotel heiress canceled an appearance at next week's Billboard Music Awards because she didn't like the jokes written for her, according to a spokesman.

'It is my understanding that some satirical references ridiculed some of her peers,' her spokesman, Elliot Mintz, said in a statement. 'Paris did not want to say anything that could appear hurtful or embarassing about people she knows.'

Mintz said Hilton received a script Friday that contained material she found 'objectionable.' Representatives for Hilton and the awards show could not come to an agreement about the script's content so she decided to scrap the appearance, he said."

Good News for Movie Fans!

Just when you thought life couldn't possibly get any better:

Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan in Witches of Eastwick: "HOLLYWOOD - Viacom chairman, Sumner Redstone, is expected to announce early next week that Viacom subsidiary Paramount Pictures has signed Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan to star in a remake of the 1987 comedy-thriller The Witches of Eastwick."

CNN.com - Health - The write stuff: Hospitals resort to penmanship classes for doctors - October 4, 2000

We've talked handwriting before. Here, for example, and here. Now there's this:

CNN.com - Health - The write stuff: Hospitals resort to penmanship classes for doctors - October 4, 2000: "He's a veteran physician who works as a trauma surgeon. Just don't ask Dr. Sheldon Brotman to write a legible prescription.

That's why he's here, sitting in a handwriting class at Atlantic City Medical Center, learning how to hold his pen, position his paper and put a sharp angle on his 'z' so it doesn't look like an 's.'"

A List for all You Metalheads

BLABBERMOUTH.NET - ROB HALFORD, ROBERT PLANT, BON SCOTT, OZZY Are Among 'Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists': "Rob Halford (JUDAS PRIEST), Robert Plant (LED ZEPPELIN) and Ronnie James Dio (DIO, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW) are among the singers who appear on Hit Parader magazine's (cover) list of 'Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists' (published in the November 2006 issue)."

Dewey 's Gone

Dewey the cat dies in librarian's arms - Yahoo! News: "SPENCER, Iowa - The final chapter is closed on Dewey Readmore Books. The 19-year-old cat, who became a mascot for the city's library after being found in a book drop, died Wednesday in the arms of librarian Vicki Myron.

The temperature was minus 10 when Myron and another librarian found Dewey under a pile of books in the library's book drop when they came to work one morning in January 1988.

'We didn't know if someone abandoned him or if a Good Samaritan found him on the street and shoved him in the book drop to get him out of the cold,' she said. 'His paws were frozen. We warmed him up and fed him and he just purred and cuddled. From day one, we felt he'd be the right personality for the public.'

Since then, Dewey became famous, with television crews coming from as far away as Japan to do stories about him, Myron said."

So Long, PWG.

Crimedog One: "When the gang and I started Plots with Guns back in '99, we didn't have much in the way of expectations, just a little website to give a home to tough, no-holds-barred fiction that seemed to have a hard time landing in other journals. In the end we were all just exhausted, but very proud to have published five years of stunning noir that exposed us to new writers, strong stories, and the thirst out there for what some call 'High Pulp'. We made a lot of friends during those years, and a few mortal enemies (well, maybe not, but that would be cool if we had), and we just kept pushing our vision of crime fiction, hoping it would catch on. Crimedogs forever. These guys and gals wrote some very brutal stuff.

The corpse of PWG is still up, but it's come time to pull it down. While we will keep the domain name (just in case...), the archives will no longer be online as of December 11th, 2006. So take a trip down memory lane and explore our evolution."

I highly recommend that you check it out if you haven't already read the stories. And even if you have.

My Wife Is Crazy

Judy is in the other room watching Ishtar. She watches it whenever it's on. She says, "I don't see why people don't like this movie. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen."

I Suspect Some of You Knew all 70 of These

70 things you didn't know about James Bond - Entertainment news, gossip & music, movie & book reviews on Stuff.co.nz: "Where did Ian Fleming get the idea for James Bond, how did he choose Sean Connery as the first man to play him in the films, who was the one woman to get Bond down the aisle and how did the famous catchphrases we all know so well come into existence?

Here are 0070 things you never new about the super spy."

Sounds Like Something That Would Happen to Me

The Sun Online - News: Salesman is a Lott worse off: "SALESMAN Chris Tibbetts pulled out of his works’ lottery syndicate just HOURS before they scooped a ?5.2million share of the jackpot.

Last week he told colleagues he believed his ?1.50 could be better spent elsewhere.

And he even joked with the 18-strong syndicate that their luck would change now he was not in it any more.

That night, they each scooped ?288,000 on EuroMillions.

Chris, 56, who works at Arcelor Auto Processing factory in Willenhall, West Midlands, said: “I was the only one in the office who had not won. It is hard but not the end of the world. Nobody died.”"

So That's How They Did It

More info at the link.

timesonline.co.uk: The Ancient Egyptians built their great Pyramids by pouring concrete into blocks high on the site rather than hauling up giant stones, according to a new Franco-American study.

The research, by materials scientists from national institutions, adds fuel to a theory that the pharaohs’ craftsmen had enough skill and materials at hand to cast the two-tonne limestone blocks that dress the Cheops and other Pyramids.

Will the Persecution Never End? (Anna NIcole Smith Edition)

Ace reporter Jeff Meyerson files this update.

Court Orders Anna Nicole To Scram - TMZ.com: "A court in the Bahamas has ordered Anna Nicole Smith to vacate the house she's living in -- STAT.
Smith docs

TMZ has obtained a default judgment issued yesterday against Smith (aka Vickie Lynn Marshall). G. Ben Thompson, the owner of the home in which Smith has been living, recently filed papers to evict her. Smith was required to respond to Thompson's filing by Monday, November 27, but failed to do so.

Yesterday, the court entered a default judgment, which means Thompson can now force Smith out of the house.

TMZ obtained a letter that Thompson's lawyer sent to Smith after the default judgment was entered, demanding that she vacate within 48 hours.

Thompson was once romantically involved with Smith and claims she told him he was the father of her baby. Thompson says he put a quick end to Smith's claim when he informed her that he had a vasectomy several years ago."

Will the Persecution Never End? (Anna NIcole Smith Edition)

Jeff Meyerson checks in with this bulletin.

New flash: Anna Nicole Smith is a mess. Again. And pregnant. Again. - Blogging Baby: "New flash: Anna Nicole Smith is a mess. Again. And pregnant. Again.

Posted Nov 30th 2006 2:35PM by Jonathon Morgan
Filed under: Pregnant celebrities, Rumors, Celebrity parents

'I might be pregnant again...Did that just come out?'

Yes, Anna. It did.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles judge ordered that Smith submit her daughter for a paternity test. Larry Birkhead, her ex-boyfriend is still insisting that he's the father -- not Howard K. Stern, Smith's current beau. This means that Smith either a) was having sex with both at the same time, or b) is knowingly denying Mr. Birkhead his paternal rights because she's shacking up with someone new. Classy Anna, real classy.

But wait, Smith apparently told a Mr. G Ben Thompson, her landlord, that he was the father of her baby. After informing Smith that he'd long ago had a vasectomy, Thompson evicted Smith from the home he currently rents to her. She's got 48 hours to pack."

But I Thought Juri Nummelin Was Finland's Sexiest Man

"Finland's sexiest man" ends romance with txt msg - Yahoo! News: "HELSINKI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, dubbed Finland's sexiest man, broke up by text message with the girlfriend he had met on the Internet, she said in a magazine interview.

'Matti dumped me in a text message, where he said 'that's it',' Susan Kuronen told the magazine Me Naiset (Us Women) in an interview published on Friday.

Her relationship with Vanhanen, a divorced 51-year-old father of two, ended a few weeks ago, but continues to make headlines as Susan, 36, pours her heart out in local media.

Vanhanen, who declines to comment on the relationship, was cited as Finland's sexiest man by French
President Jacques Chirac earlier this year, when Finnish tabloids were running daily front-page details of the romance."

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Modbee.com | The Modesto Bee: "FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - A fired CIA employee has admitted breaking into 10 homes near the agency's headquarters and stealing jewelry including Camp David cufflinks, Cartier earrings, a Tiffany ring and a sapphire-diamond necklace.

George C. Dalmas III, 48, pleaded guilty Wednesday to the burglaries, which each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Dalmas, a mid-level administrator who joined the CIA in 1986, was suspended in February, when the charges were filed, and fired in August. He admitted to robberies beginning in October 2005.

Sentencing was set for Feb. 9. The plea agreement did not recommend a specific range of penalties, and Dalmas did not explain his actions during his guilty plea.

No one at Wednesday's hearing mentioned the most curious objects listed in court documents as being seized from Dalmas' home: 1,074 pairs of women's underwear."

Serials Issue of Blazing Adventures Magazine Now On-Line

Blazing Adventrues Magazine HomePage: "Welcome to the Serials issue of Blazing Adventures!

In this issue we see the origin of 'The Granite Man' by T.J. Glenn-

In Runaway Visions, 'Big Steak' Frank Dillon & Precog Scientist Miles Go against a power no two men can ever defy, 'The Government'! by Matt Casey-

And in 'Guns' Moses Gunn, in his second adventure, runs into the man behind his problems, meets a woman of mystery, and meets his brother for the first time in 10 years. Which isn't always a good thing! by Xavier Treadwell"

New Thug Lit Now On-Line

In other news, ThugLit will be going monthly in January. Check it out.

Thug Lit - Todd Robinson, Writing About Wrongs: "You better not shout, you better not cry
You better watch out, we know where you live

Santa Thug is coming to town.

Your pal Johnny Kneecap back to brighten up your bleak holiday season and bring you some yuletide cheer.

Yeah, right.

I’m thinking more of a real, traditional holiday, you know - Santa with a leather mask, razor wire strung with twinkling lights and bright, shiny, new stilettos (heels, or otherwise) under the tree. You know, Ralphie gets a Sig Sauer SG550 5.56 mm. with a Nikon Laser Scope. Put Skut’s eye out (well pretty much mince his whole toboggan) at 300 yards. Ho Ho Ho.

Anyway – sit back (or up, or across the nice furniture) and check out these hairy chestnuts, they’ll be hot, but they ain’t gonna be cozy.

Oh, and leave a few slugs out for Santa."

The line-up:
Division of the Spoils - by James Williams
Contingencies - by Kevin McCarthy
A Goat, A Jaguar and Some Yams or The Aesop Of The Bronx - by
Cristobal Camaras
Maxwell's Demon Strikes Again - by Miles Archer
The Memory of My Legs - by Hana K. Lee
BTS - by Ann Androla
First Day Back - by Patrick J Lambe
Mom's Money, Dad's Gun - by Hugh Lessig
Like Riding a Moped - by Jordan Harper
What Was He Thinking? - by Marianne Rogoff
Gladiator - by Mark Bowen
Blood - by Peter J Hogenson

Killer Fairies

Thanks to Scott Cupp for the link.

thesun.co.uk: FOUR people buried 450 years ago in an English parish had been scared to death by FAIRIES, a historic document has revealed.

Seven were “bewitched” and one was led to a pond to drown by a will o’ the wisp — a ghostly light.

They are among the causes of death in the burial register for the parish of Lamplugh in Cumbria between the years 1656 to 1663 — which even recorded that “Mrs Lamplugh’s cordial water” claimed two lives.

Details were revealed yesterday after it was found in the county’s archives — showing that 17th-century England was a deeply superstitious and often brutal place.

Brits Take Reality TV to a New Level

C4 to film oldest virgin's first time sex | the Mail on Sunday: "A new Channel 4 reality show will feature a real-life 40-year-old virgin - and audiences will see his introduction to the joys of sex.

Producers plan to film a retired vicar - who has not yet been named - being taught how to have sex and cameras will be there to capture the moment when he puts what he has practised into action.

Producers have sent him, along with three other virgins, to an Amsterdam sex school. The four novices will spend two months learning 'the art of intimacy' in the sin city. They will be coached by a series of sex therapists who, at the end of the teaching period, will deflower the foursome.

Cameras will follow the entire process - including filming the final act.

The contestants are aged from 20 upwards and the retired vicar has been dubbed by producers as 'the real 40-year-old virgin' after the character played by Steve Carell in the hit movie.

An insider on the Zig Zag Productions' programme, titled Virgin School, said: 'We will show as much as we're allowed.'"

More about Out of the Gutter

My original post is here. There's an interview with the editor at the link.

The Rap Sheet: "Following on last month’s debut of the semi-annual magazine-cum-book Murdaland: Crime Fiction for the 21st Century comes news that Out of the Gutter (OOTG), another genre print periodical--this one from southern Oregon writer-editor Matthew Louis--will make its premiere appearance on February 1 of next year. Subsequent issues will be published thrice-annually, every four months."

The 10 Best Books of 2006?

The 10 Best Books of 2006 - New York Times: Once again I failed to make the list.

Thanks again to Jeff Meyerson.

Will the Persecution Never End? (Anna NIcole Smith Edition)

iWonNews: NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - A former boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith has obtained a court judgment ordering the reality TV star out of her oceanfront residence and he plans to seek her forcible eviction, his lawyer said Thursday.

But an attorney for Smith, Wayne Munroe, said he secured a temporary stay of the order and his client has no intention of leaving.

Emerick Knowles, the attorney for South Carolina businessman G. Ben Thompson, entered the default judgment on Tuesday after Smith missed a deadline to respond to a suit declaring his client the rightful owner of the gated mansion known as "Horizons."

Thanks to Anna fan Jeff Meyerson for the link.

Find the Feathered Serpent -- Evan Hunter

I've mentioned this book more than once on the blog. (Here, here, here, here, and here.) Obviously it impressed me a lot back there in 1952. When I saw a copy at the World Fantasy Con for a mere $165, I was tempted to buy it, but Scott Cupp said, "Hey, don't do that. I'll send you a copy of the Gregg Press edition." I couldn't turn down such a generous offer, and it turned out to be even more generous that I'd suspected. When the book arrived I discovered that it was signed. Thanks again, Scott!

Naturally I read it almost immediately. It's a time-travel story, about Neil Falsen. whose father builds a time machine thanks to a "temporium crystal." The plan is to go back to the Yucatan and discover who or what inspired the story of Kukulkan. Not the second one. The first one. Among the many things that never occurred to me when I first read the book is why anybody would make that particular trip the very first one for a time machine.

Neil, who's 16, gets to make the trip because his father's laid up with a bum leg. Things like that happened in the '50s. It's like the fact that there's no publicity about the time machine. Nobody knows about it, and it's guarded by only one guy. Anyway, the time machine takes off (it has rotors like a helicopter and is powered by gasoline), and things go wrong. The machine gets out of control Two of the four crew members are killed on landing, and Neil and the pilot don't know where or when they are.

Turns out they're near the Yucatan, though, where they're rescued by Vikings, blown off course in a storm. The Viking captain is Eric, a red-bearded man with a winged helmet, so you can probably guess who Kukulkan will turn out to be.

There's a lot of action in the novel and two big scenes of fierce fighting. The violence is surprisingly graphic, or it surprised me on this reading. There's blood all over the place, and heads roll. Literally. No wonder I loved this book. Hunter slows it down for some teaching scenes about the importance of crop rotation and such, but not enough to have bothered me much, I guess.

The big surprise was the ball-playing scene. It's very short, only a page or so, but there's a much longer scene in an unpublished book called The Heart of Ahriman that Charlotte Laughlin and I wrote. I wrote the scene entirely on my own, and I had no idea that I'd ever read one before. I thought I'd come up with a unique idea, all on my own, with the help of National Geographic. The unconscious is a scary thing sometimes. (Two chapters from the novel are contained in Cross Plains Universe, by the way.)

It was a real pleasure to re-read Find the Feathered Serpent after so many years and to find that it was still fun. Unsophisticated? Sure. Dumb? Maybe. But fun. And the last scene between Eric and Neil still managed to get me choked up. This may have been Hunter's first novel, but he knew what he was doing.

Gator Update

The 911 call about this guy is here. Click on "Video Story" under the photos at the right. A window will open. Click on the first item under "Headlines" on the right. This is an incredible call. You have to hear it to believe it.

Jim Winter Discovers the 87th Precinct

It's always fun to me when someone starts reading a series that I've enjoyed for many years (more than 40 in this case) and finds out how good it is. Jim Winter has a post about the first three books in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series that's worth checking out. So have a look right here.

The Top 10 Hottest Animated Disney Women

The Being a Man Spot - The Top 10 Hottest Animated Disney Women - Fanpop: "So it's the day after the long Thanksgiving weekend and I'm sitting at my desk at work thinking 'Oh man, I wish I was still on vacation' when I hear two of my coworkers discussing Disney women. Or, more specifically, discussing which Disney cartoon female is the hottest of them all: . . .

"And that got me thinking, 'you know, there are a lot of hot animated Disney babes! Surely someone has made a list of them!' But alas, there was no list to be found on the internets. So yours truly decided to spin some precious cycles trying to crunch the numbers and come up with a list of the finest Disney women of all-time. The only real requirements for consideration:
1. She must be a cartoon
2. She must be, mostly, human (no cats, mice, etc.)
3. She cannot be evil (only heroines)

So without further ado, here they are. The all-time hottest Disney babes."

Antikythera Mechanism Update

Back in August I posted about the Antikythera Mechanism. The article said that scientists were "very close" to discovering how it worked. Now it seems that they have. There's more at the link.

LiveScience.com: Scientists have finally demystified the incredible workings of a 2,000-year-old astronomical calculator built by ancient Greeks.

A new analysis of the Antikythera Mechanism [image], a clock-like machine consisting of more than 30 precise, hand-cut bronze gears, show [sic] it to be more advanced than previously thought—so much so that nothing comparable was built for another thousand years.

"This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind," said study leader Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University in the UK. "The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right…In terms of historical and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa."

The researchers used three-dimensional X-ray scanners to reconstruct the workings of the device's gears and high-resolution surface imaging to enhance faded inscriptions on its surface.

Gator Update

metro.co.uk: In further news of the misadventures of people who are naked, a naked man on crack was pulled from the jaws of an alligator in Florida on Wednesday.

He was only saved when sheriff's deputies jumped into the lake where he was being eaten, and wrestled with the alligator until it let go of the man, before pulling the man about 40m back to the shore.

Stock photo of naked guy in water at link.

Happy Birthday, Dick Clark!

I couldn't let the day to by without wishing Dick Clark a happy birthday. My comments of last year still apply.

Another music guy having a birthday today is Jimmy Bowen, a legendary music producer, but I remember him mainly from his days with Buddy Knox and the Rhythm Orchids. Bowen had one great single hit, "I'm Sticking with You."

And then there's Jeannie Kendall of The Kendalls. "Heaven's Just a Sin Away." Great stuff.

Lots of other music-related birthdays today, but these are the ones that matter to me.

Kirkus Reviews MURDER AMONG THE OWLS

Kirkus hasn't always been kind to my books, but this time someone slipped up. There are a couple of snide remarks, but overall this is a pretty positive review.

As Sheriff Dan Rhodes of Blacklin County, Texas, prepares to crack his 14th case (A Mammoth Murder, 2006, etc.), he confronts a cat he'd prefer on someone else's hot tin roof.

Dan Rhodes and Sam, the feline he instantly dislikes, are brothers under the fur. They're both laid back to the point of somnolence, but they're deceptively smart. Dan grudgingly acknowledges the intelligence of the unwanted guest who's taken up residence on his back porch, a place he probably wouldn't have been if his rightful owner hadn't just met the grisliest of ends. Now elderly Helen Harris is stretched out on her kitchen floor, her white curls battered and bloody. As Dan, Sam in hand, stares down at her, that perennial sleuth's question is uppermost: Who would have wanted to harm her? In the days that follow, a surprising variety of candidates put themselves forward, beginning with the ladies of OWLS (Older Women's Literary Society), a group that belies the surface gentility Dan at first takes for granted. As he wises up, he discovers that owlish ladies can have smoldering passions. And, oh yes, that a clever cat can have his ways.

Laconic, wryly amusing Sheriff Dan is in top form in his best excursion in a long time.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

80(R) HCR 15 - Introduced version - Bill Text: "WHEREAS, Athens, Texas, boasts a strong claim to being the original home of one of the nation's favorite foods, the hamburger; and

WHEREAS, Although accounts differ as to the origins of this American classic, the staff at McDonald's management training center has traced its beginnings back to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, where it was sold by a vendor on the midway; a reporter for the New York , writing about the fair, made note of the new sandwich in an article and commented that it was the vendor's own creation; and

WHEREAS, The vendor, Fletcher Davis, had moved from Missouri to Athens in the 1880s to take a job at the Miller pottery works; Mr. Davis had a flair for preparing food and usually served as chef at his employer's picnics; when the business slowed down in the late 1800s, he opened a lunch counter on the courthouse square, where he sold the sandwich that would become such a staple of the U.S. diet; and

WHEREAS, Although it was served with slices of fresh-baked bread instead of a bun, this early version of the hamburger was then much like it is today and contained ground beef, ground mustard mixed with mayonnaise, a large slice of Bermuda onion, and sliced cucumber pickles; customers could also enjoy fried potatoes, served with a thick tomato sauce; when the journalist from the was told that Mr. Davis had learned to fix potatoes in that manner from a friend in Paris, Texas, he misunderstood and described the item to his readers as french-fried potatoes; and . . . ."

There are some more "Whereases" at the link.

Is This a Great Country or What?

Thanks, as ever, to Jeff Meyerson (photos at link):

3 BIMBOS OF THE APOCALYPSE By MAUREEN CALLAHAN - New York Post Online Edition: Seven: "November 29, 2006 -- THEY have already been dubbed 'The Brit Pack': three girls, increasingly famous for making spectacularly bad choices, marshaling their collective brain power to navigate the booths and banquettes at Hyde or Spider Club or wherever it is they're drinking it off on any given night.

Paris Hilton, her frenemy Lindsay Lohan, and newly separated Britney Spears: three party girls without a care (babies? what babies?), a high tolerance for alcohol, or a good publicist."

Caiman Update

From Jeff Meyerson (legend "origin story" at link):

iWon News - NYC Police Capture 'Caiman-In-The-Box': "NEW YORK (AP) - See you later, alligator. After while, crocodile. What rhymes with caiman? Well, nothing, really. But that doesn't keep the scaly critters from turning up in New York City, far from their native habitats in the tropical Americas, and replenishing one of the city's most enduring urban legends.

The last time it happened was in June, 2001, when a small caiman was discovered in the Harlem Meer, a lake in the northeast corner of Central Park. After it eluded capture for five days, a self-described alligator expert flew in from a Florida game park to save the city. After some posturing, he used a canoe and a flashlight to retrieve the reptile in minutes.

On Tuesday, police responding to a 911 call in Starrett City, a public housing complex in Brooklyn, found a two-foot caiman (Spanish for anything 'crocodilian,' according to one Internet site) in a cardboard box, with a shoelace firmly tied around its jaw.

Not requiring outside help, the 75th Precinct cops gathered up the croc-in-the-box and turned it over to Animal Care & Control, a privately funded organization that handles all manner of animals, wild or domestic, that are lost, injured or in distress."

The Ice Harvest

Being in the mood for a little holiday cheer, Judy and I decided to watch a Christmas movie. The Ice Harvest figured to be just what we needed.

It's Christmas in Wichita, and Charlie (John Cusak) and Vic (Billy Bob Thornton) have just stolen a couple million bucks from Guerrard (Randy Quaid). They figure it's a perfect crime. All they have to do is behave normally for one night, and the next morning they leave town with the money.

Who's to hold the money until they leave? They haven't discussed that. Vic makes it clear that he's the guy. Charlie leaves and tries to act normally. Doesn't work. First thing you know, he's ordering drinks with umbrellas in them at his topless bar. Then he sees Guerrard's best boy looking for him, and that's bad news. He goes to a restaurant to talk to Vic and meets up with Pete (Oliver Platt), who's married to Charlie's ex-wife and living Charlie's ex-life, a life he's desperate to get out of.

Things hum along with everybody double-crossing everybody else until there's a last man standing. The movie doesn't end like the book, and whether that's good or bad is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

I found the movie very funny and entertaining, if a little slow at the start. It's also plenty violent. The movie's comedy is all of the dark kind. Cusak is great, and he makes you believe a guy who owns a topless bar and is a mob lawyer can be a good guy at heart. This isn't easy, considering some of the things he does in the course of the movie, but Cusak pulls it off. Thornton plays one of his patented roles, rotten to the core but covering it up very well until the chips are down. Oliver Platt is hilarious and nearly steals the movie. And then there's Renata (Connie Nielsen). Did I mention her? She looks like a cross between Jessica Rabbit and Lauren Bacall.

If you're looking for a different kind of holiday movie, this one should do just fine. Check it out.

I Knew All Along that Paris was Innocent

New York Daily News - Daily Dish & Gossip - Rush & Molloy: Nets hot for juicy interview with O.J.: "Lindsay Lohan is mad at whoever spread the story that Paris Hilton hit her over the weekend in L.A. Too bad it's herself. Sunday night, as she got into the world's scariest carpool with Hilton and Britney Spears, the 'Mean Girls' star told digirazzi, 'Paris never hit me. She's my friend. Everyone lies about everything. ... Please, stop trying to make us hate each other.'"

Time to Begin Planning my Vacation to Sweden

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson, who's off the P.H. Patrol for the day.

iWon News - Plans for ABBA Museum Unveiled in Sweden: "STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - An ABBA museum dedicated to the music, clothing and history of the legendary Swedish pop group and its four members will open in Stockholm in 2008, organizers said Tuesday.

The interactive museum will feature original outfits and instruments used by the group, handwritten song lyrics, a display of different awards, and 'all other things we can think of and find,' said Ulf Westman, an event consultant who is spearheading the project with his wife Ewa Wigenheim-Westman.

The museum will also feature a studio where visitors can record their own ABBA songs, and an interactive experience that 'will recreate the feeling of being at Wembley stadium and seeing ABBA live with 50,000 others,' Westman said.

Organizers are still searching for a suitable location for the museum, but said it will open somewhere in central Stockholm during 2008."

Will the Persecution Never End? (Anna NIcole Smith Edition)

Fametastic ? Anna Nicole Smith moves out of contested Bahamian home: "Anna Nicole Smith and partner Howard K Stern have been granted a restraining order to keep an unnamed person (presumably G Ben Thompson or someone working for him) away from her Bahamian home.

Thompson claims the property belongs to him and sought to evict Anna Nicole and her family from $1million home as well as cutting off the power to the house.

Smith and Stern played down reports at the time but now Stern has admitted: “Somebody did try and shut the power off but we have a court order against this person so he can’t come on the property or try and shut the power off, or the water.”

However, Anna Nicole has decided to move out of the contested property to avoid further disruption: “I’ve actually bought a new house and it’s really nice. It’s on a dock and it’s a big house, lots of bedrooms and I’m really excited about the house.”"

Happy Birthday to my Homie, Anna Nicole Smith!

Anna Nicole Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Anna Nicole Smith (born November 28, 1967) is an American model, actress and buxom blonde celebrity, who first gained popularity as Playboy magazine's 1993 Playmate of the Year."

PKD, Great American Writer

Hat tip to Ed Gorman.

mediabistro.com: GalleyCat: "Buried at the tail end of Mark Sarvas's interview with Jonathan Lethem comes news of one project on the novelist's plate: 'I'm helping preside over the utter and irreversible canonization of one of my (formerly outsider) heroes, Philip K. Dick: I'm writing endnotes for The Library of America, which is doing a volume of four of his novels from the sixties, which I also helped select.' Unless I'm overlooking somebody, that would make Dick the Library's first science fiction writer—unless you count H.P. Lovecraft, but I'm filing him under fantasy/horror.

So which novels are they? Sure, we could always email Lethem and ask, but it's much more fun to guess! Three of the four slots are no-brainers: The Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and Ubik. But that fourth...there's a few good candidates, but I'm going to go with The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. And then I'm going to cross my fingers that this all works out, so that the Library will then go back and publish an omnibus edition of the VALIS trilogy, the three mind-blowing novels Dick wrote at the end of his career."

No Comment Department

Top 5 Undeserving Rock & Roll Hall of Famers.

100 Greatest TV Catchphrases

Complete list at the link. And yes, this one is on the list: "That's hot" (Paris Hilton, "The Simple Life")

AP Wire | 11/27/2006 | Dyn-O-Mite! TV Land lists catchphrases: "NEW YORK - Sometimes it takes only a word, or just a few, to become immortalized in television history. The TV Land cable network has compiled a list of the 100 greatest catchphrases in TV, from the serious - Walter Cronkite's nightly signoff 'And that's the way it is' - to the silly: 'We are two wild and crazy guys!'

The network will air a countdown special, 'The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catch Phrases,' over five days starting Dec. 11.

'We have found that television is such a huge part of baby boomers' DNA that it makes sense that so much of America's pop culture jargon has come from TV,' said Larry Jones, TV Land president.

The greatest number of moments, 26, come from the 1970s. TV Land identified nine moments from this decade. Ten are from commercials, and 28 from comedies, including six from 'Saturday Night Live.'"

Power to the Geezers!

Age no bar as baby boomers rock the music industry | News | Guardian Unlimited Music: "Rod Stewart knows about it. So does Elton John. And Barry Manilow. Tony Bennett, to his joy and surprise, is just finding out about it. And next year Earth, Wind and Fire will get in on the act.

The chart-topping but ageing artists have all been on the receiving end of help from their peers. The latest US research shows baby boomers and beyond now account for the largest share of music buyers. Figures compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America show that consumers over 45 accounted for 25% of music sales last year, more than twice the share of any other age group, and up from 15% a decade ago. Perhaps most surprisingly, the over-50s were responsible for 24% of the music industry's online sales."

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

MySA.com: Metro | State: "AUSTIN — A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as 'currency' without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday."

The 10 Best Teachers in Movie History : filmcritic.com

The 10 Best Teachers in Movie History : filmcritic.com: "One of the great things about adulthood is that we don't have to go to school anymore, and yet we keep returning by way of the movies. Why do we keep going back? To imagine what it would have been like to have good teachers rather than the sadists who tormented us in Algebra I and European History? To remember the moments when we really connected with a teacher and felt a wave of knowledge washing over us? Whatever the reason, we know as the lights dim that the best big-screen teachers will help their cinematic students learn plenty of small lessons and maybe some big life lessons too. How many of these memorable educators have you met?"

This Doesn't Surprise Me at All

Study: Money-happiness link is complex - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK - Does money buy happiness? It's sometimes said that scientists have found no relationship between money and happiness, but that's a myth, says University of Illinois psychologist Ed Diener.

The connection is complex, he says. But in fact, very rich people rate substantially higher in satisfaction with life than very poor people do, even within wealthy nations, he says.

'There is overwhelming evidence that money buys happiness,' said economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. The main debate, he said, is how strong the effect is."

I'm Sure U.S. Teachers Would Do Much Better

Half of teachers make simple apostrophe mistake | the Daily Mail: "Teachers' shaky grasp of grammar and punctuation has been exposed in a survey of the nation's literacy skills.

Two-thirds made a basic apostrophe mistake in a test administered to more than 2,000 workers from key professions. Eight per cent even muddled the use of I and me.

Test yourself - would you get it right?

Teachers made a string of blunders despite being responsible for drumming correct English into the next generation.

Their less-than-polished performance left them lagging behind employees in the creative and arts sectors."

I'm Sure that U.S. Teachers Would do Much Better

Half of teachers make simple apostrophe mistake | the Daily Mail: "Teachers' shaky grasp of grammar and punctuation has been exposed in a survey of the nation's literacy skills.

Two-thirds made a basic apostrophe mistake in a test administered to more than 2,000 workers from key professions. Eight per cent even muddled the use of I and me.

Test yourself - would you get it right?

Teachers made a string of blunders despite being responsible for drumming correct English into the next generation.

Their less-than-polished performance left them lagging behind employees in the creative and arts sectors.

They managed only to match financial workers, who are hardly known for their strong literacy skills."

Bigfoot Update (and a Shameless Plug)

'Bear-Wolf' Stalks Southern Wisconsin - News - TheMilwaukeeChannel.com | WISN: "MILWAUKEE -- Bizarre local sightings evoked a nationwide fascination with Big Foot.

In Washington County there have been several reports of a 7-foot hairy creature with pointy ears.

Steve Krueger was doing his job on Nov. 9 -- removing road-side deer carcasses overnight for the Department of Natural Resources.

Krueger said he had just made a pick-up along a remote road near Holy Hill about 1:30 a.m., and he was in the cab doing some paperwork. When his parked truck started shaking, he looked in the rear view mirror and got the scare of his life.

He said his flashing lights illuminated a huge hairy beast standing on its hind legs -- dragging a deer off the open tailgate.

'All I saw was the creature. One paw -- or whatever was on it -- reaching over to grab the deer. The head looked like a cross between a bear and a wolf,' said Krueger. 'It had big pointy ears like a wolf. It scared the living heck out of me. I threw it into drive and off I went.'

He said the creature was the color of a bear and had a snout like a bear."

Oh, Paris! How Could You?

All Headline News - Lindsay Lohan Says Paris Hilton Hit Her - November 27, 2006: "Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - Sometimes it's hard to tell whether Lindsay Lohan is keeping it real or just likes to trash talk her friend Paris Hilton.

In the wee hours of Monday morning, LinLo revealed exclusively to X17.com that her best friend had simply lost her mind and hit her - yes, hit her. Obviously, there are two sides to every story and whether the 'Mean Girl' was just feeding us a lot of you-know-what, or is jealous that Paris is now sharing stockings with Britney Spears, who knows.

However, after leaving a friend's house and calling it a night, LinLo told the snapping paparazzi that she would give them a video if they would back off and quit taking pictures.

Once they miraculously agreed, the fiery red-head approached the photographers and said, 'This is a video to Paris Hilton - and I'm saying this on tape - she hit me last night, for no reason apparently at my friend's house and I didn't know she'd be there and she hit me. She hit me with a drink and poured it all over me and it hurts and it's not okay.'"

William Diehl, R. I. P.

'Primal Fear' Author Diehl Dies at 81 - washingtonpost.com: "ATLANTA -- William Diehl, best-selling author of 'Primal Fear' and other novels, has died at Emory University Hospital. He was 81.

Diehl died Friday, said Sarah Carter of H.M. Patterson & Son funeral home in Atlanta. Two longtime friends, Michael Parver and Don Smith, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Diehl died of an aortal aneurysm.

He started on his first novel, 'Sharky's Machine,' while serving as a juror. Diehl, then 50, was bored by the trial and started writing fiction on a notepad. The book, published in 1978, became a best-seller and _ later _ a movie starring Burt Reynolds.

Diehl was unemployed when he got the news that the book was going to be published, Parver said. When his agent first called to tell him, the phone line went dead. Diehl hadn't paid the bill, Parver told the Journal-Constitution."

Will the Persecution Never End? (A Continuing Series)

Thanks, as is often the case, to Jeff Meyerson.

MiamiHerald.com | 11/26/2006 | Custom-Printed Toilet paper: "Whether you like it or not, your toilet paper makes a statement about you. If you purchase ordinary supermarket toilet paper, it is making the statement that you don't care if you or your guests have a commode experience that lacks individuality and -- yes -- class.

This is why more and more celebrity entertainers such as Martha Stewart and the late Duke of Windsor have their toilet paper custom-printed. And now, thanks to the Internet, you can do the same thing. Here at the Gift Guide we ordered a set of rolls imprinted with a photograph of multitalented international superstar Paris Hilton, and we can state in all honesty that we have not been contacted by her attorney so far that we are aware of. And if that is not the true meaning of the holiday season, we don't know what is."

Happy Birthday, Charles Schulz!

I was a "Peanuts" reader from very early in the strip's history. There were times back then when I thought Charles Schulz was an authentic genius. There are still times when I think that. I bought the first hardback collection of "Peanuts" strips, and I still have it. I am, of course, buying the Fantagraphics reprints as they come out. I can read the strips from the middle to late 1950s over and over with great pleasure. If I didn't say on Thanksgiving that I was thankful for Charles Schulz, I should have.

There's Bound to be a Moral Here Somewhere

Missing woman found dead behind bookcase - Boston.com: "NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. --A woman's body was found wedged upside-down behind a bookcase in the home she shared with relatives who had spent nearly two weeks looking for her.

A spokesman for the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said Mariesa Weber's death was not suspicious. Family members said they believe she fell over as she tried to adjust the plug of a television behind the bookshelf.

Weber, 38, returned home Oct. 28 and greeted her mother, then wasn't seen again. Her family thought she had been kidnapped and contacted authorities. Family members scoured her room for clues but found nothing, though they did notice a strange smell."

I Miss the Old Days

News from The Associated Press: ". . . child development experts say that physical and behavioral changes that would have been typical of teenagers decades ago are now common among 'tweens' - kids ages 8 to 12.

Some of them are going on 'dates' and talking on their own cell phones. They listen to sexually charged pop music, play mature-rated video games and spend time gossiping on MySpace. And more girls are wearing makeup and clothing that some consider beyond their years."

Rachael Ray: A Uniter, not a Divider

Hatred of Rachael Ray can be a powerful uniting force - The Boston Globe: "Consumer culture and indeed popular culture revolve in large part around shared admiration, shared likes: Fandom, in a word, is a thing that can bring us together.

But what about shared dislikes? Can a community form around that? What is the opposite of a fan club? The answer is the Rachael Ray Sucks Community."