Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Gator Update (They're Everywhere Edition)
Pa. man finds 3-foot-long alligator - U.S. news - Weird news - msnbc.com: "On Monday, around 6:45 p.m., Bethlehem Police responded to a report from the 1400 block of Schoenersville Road from a man who claimed to have caught an alligator.
When they arrived that they found the man holding the 3-foot-long, American alligator."
When they arrived that they found the man holding the 3-foot-long, American alligator."
He Should Have Stuck to Keeping Kids off His Lawn
cincinnati.com: "A 73-year-old man was arrested Monday after a patron of the city’s main library told police that the man stuck his head under the stall just as she was about to use the toilet."
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
Father, son charged with attacking man over last beer - Orlando Sentinel: "A father and son in Central Florida are accused of injuring a man in Lake County because he drank their last beer, authorities said Monday.
Lake County deputy sheriffs were called to a stabbing at an Astor home at about 6:30 p.m. Friday when they found 46-year-old Jeffrey Wilkerson with a 10-inch laceration that stretched from his abdomen to his back. Wilkerson had a towel over his stomach covered in blood when authorities arrived."
Lake County deputy sheriffs were called to a stabbing at an Astor home at about 6:30 p.m. Friday when they found 46-year-old Jeffrey Wilkerson with a 10-inch laceration that stretched from his abdomen to his back. Wilkerson had a towel over his stomach covered in blood when authorities arrived."
What Killed the Femme Fatale?
What killed the queen of film noir?: "What killed the femme fatale? There are several likely suspects — Hollywood, the moviegoing public, the changing times — but as Philip Marlowe knew, solving any murder comes down to the question of motive. The emotional core of that motive, I think, was a growing queasiness with misogyny, noxious whiffs of which have trailed the femme fatale since her creation by the male writers of hard-boiled fiction, in particular the trinity of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain."
Hat tip to George Kelley.
Amnesia Update
Now I Know: The Bourne Identity
This is also the type of amnesia suffered by the narrator of Dan J. Marlowe's Never Live Twice.
ste, Dell, 1960Saddle Up
Quentin Tarantino’s Next Project is a Spaghetti Western - Los Angeles Movie | Examiner.com: "Quentin Tarantino has had enough time off since his last work as a director for Inglourious Basterds to look at potential projects. Now The Playlist is reporting that Tarantino’s next project would be a spaghetti western with Franco Nero, Keith Carradine, Treat Williams and a whole bunch of unnamed actors."
Time Travel Update
Stephen Hawking's Time Machine : Discovery News: "In an article in the Daily Mail this week, British cosmologist Stephen Hawking outlined not one, but three, theoretically realistic ideas for traveling through time, one of which he says is even practical."
Invention of the Day
Now, a 'bum bra' for your sagging buttocks: "'The Biniki buttocks support idea came to me at a moment of personal need. One look in the mirror after some rapid weight loss showed me the unhappy truth, my bottom was sagging,' the Daily Telegraph quoted her, as saying."
Overlooked Films: Prince Valiant
First of all, what a cast: Robert Wagner, Janet Leigh, Debra Paget, James Mason, Sterling Hayden, Victor McLaglen, Brian Aherne, and Donald Crisp. Throw in Technicolor. Add a story about a young man yearning to become a knight and sit at the Round Table. What more could you want? Okay, how about some pageantry and chivalry and gallantry and romance and sword fights in which you can actually follow the action? How about a big-screen being used the way a big screen should be used? How about a wonderful musical score?
Not to mention the Black Knight!
What kid wouldn't love this movie? I don't know. Maybe some today wouldn't, but I loved it when I was a kid, and the kid in me still loves it.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Get a Rope!
Middle school student suspended for opening door | The Tidewater News: "A Southampton Middle School student was suspended Thursday for opening an exterior door for a visitor.
“Students are not allowed to open the doors, and if anyone does, they will be suspended,” said Dr. Wayne K. Smith, executive director of administration and personnel."
“Students are not allowed to open the doors, and if anyone does, they will be suspended,” said Dr. Wayne K. Smith, executive director of administration and personnel."
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Change.org News: "A Corpus Christi, TX school district has responded to a student's request to create a Gay-Straight Alliance -- by shutting down all extracurricular clubs on campus."
Jane Russell, R. I. P.
Jane Russell, Voluptuous Star of Westerns, Dies at 89 - NYTimes.com: "Jane Russell, the voluptuous actress at the center of one of the most highly publicized censorship episodes in movie history, the long-delayed release of the 1940s western “The Outlaw,” died on Monday at her home in Santa Maria, Calif. She was 89.The cause was a respiratory-related illness, her daughter-in-law, Etta Waterfield, said."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
He Was Probably Nervous. Can You Blame HIm?
Cops: Bank Robber Caught After Taking Multiple Bathroom Breaks: "Police in Florida say they were able to apprehend a bank robbery suspect when he took two bathroom breaks immediately after allegedly sticking up a Bank of America in Ocala on Feb. 25.
While responding to a call about a bank robbery, a detective spotted a man who matched the suspect's description stepping out of a portable toilet directly across the street from the scene of the crime, the Ocala Star-Banner reports."
While responding to a call about a bank robbery, a detective spotted a man who matched the suspect's description stepping out of a portable toilet directly across the street from the scene of the crime, the Ocala Star-Banner reports."
Suze Rotolo, R. I. P.
Bob Dylan's Muse and 'Freewheelin' ' Cover Star Suze Rotolo Dead at 67 - Amplifier: "Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan's longtime girlfriend during his fledgling days as a Greenwich Village folk singer and the woman who appears alongside him on the famous cover of 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan,' passed away this weekend at her home in Manhattan following a long illness, Rolling Stone reports. Rotolo was 67. In addition to forever being captured on the Don Hunstein-photographed 'Freewheelin' ' cover, Rotolo's three-year relationship with Dylan, from 1961 to 1964, also inspired him to write three of his early love songs, 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright,' 'Tomorrow is a Long Time,' and 'Boots of Spanish Leather.' (Dylan's breakup with Rotolo also influenced one of his most vitriolic tunes, 'Ballad in Plain D,' a song Dylan later regretted recording.)"
1000 No. 1s
1000 No. 1s: "A chronological listing of the first 1,000 songs to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 since the chart's inception in August 1958."
You can listen to all of them, too, if you have time.
Good News from Charlie Stella
Temporary Knucksline: Stark House and Stella are back! Rough Riders (the North Dakota novel) ... July 2012: "This week Greg Shepard and I signed for another original Stark House Press publication ... Rough Riders will be a 12-year gap sequel to my very first two novels (Eddie’s World & Jimmy Bench-Press) featuring my boxer turned Police Detective, the quick-fisted, Alex Pavlik. There are a few other characters from those novels making appearances in Rough Riders, including Alex’s former partner, Dexter Greene, but this go, Alex has been retired from the NYPD (forced out after Jimmy Bench-Press) and is now a private investigator."
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Shots ring out at Rodeo cookoff and carnival Saturday night | abc13.com: "That incident, a fight between two groups of teenage boys, resulted in two people being shot. One is wounded in the buttocks. The other was injured in the foot. Both are minors."
Frank Buckles, R. I. P.
America’s last World War I veteran dies | The Raw Story: "The last US veteran of World War I, who lied about his age to join the army in 1917, has died, ending America's living connection with the Great War. He was 110.
The indomitable Frank Buckles, who also survived three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, 'died peacefully' of natural causes early Sunday at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia, a family spokesman said.
Buckles celebrated his 110th birthday on February 1, but his family said his health had been failing since late last year."
The indomitable Frank Buckles, who also survived three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, 'died peacefully' of natural causes early Sunday at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia, a family spokesman said.
Buckles celebrated his 110th birthday on February 1, but his family said his health had been failing since late last year."
Criminal Genius of the Day
Washington D.C. - msnbc.com: "Before leaving the scene of the crime, he put on the winter coat and posed with the cash for a photo he took of himself. He then posted his “loot” photo on Fisher’s son’s Facebook page, . . ."
Huh?
Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "Some things are too important to be left to those motivated by profit.
Some services, only government should provide. Crime - and the punishment thereof - ought to be at the top of the list."
Some services, only government should provide. Crime - and the punishment thereof - ought to be at the top of the list."
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Duke Snider, R. I. P.
Another of my childhood heroes gone.
His death was announced by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In the 1950s, the golden age of New York baseball, the World Series almost always meant red, white and blue bunting at Ebbets Field, Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds. October afternoons provided a national showcase for baseball’s premier center fielders — Snider of the Dodgers, Mickey Mantle of the Yankees and Willie Mays of the Giants."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Every Shallow Cut -- Tom Piccirilli
Every Shallow Cut is new novella by Tom Piccirilli, and it's a harrowing tale of a man who's lost pretty much everything: his house, his wife, his writing career (such as it was), his self-respect. About all he has left is Churchill, his bulldog. And then things start to go downhill.In a way, this is something of a road novel, as the narrator's traveling across country to his brother's home, where he thinks he might find . . . something. But when he gets there, there's nothing. There's nothing anywhere for him and maybe not for anyone else, either. The novella is a cry of rage, anguish, and hopelessness, guaranteed to bring you down. It's blunt, compelling, and moving in a way that's hard to explain. You'll just have to experience it for yourself. You can read it quickly, but you'll remember it for a long time to come.
PaperBack
Nick Carter (Bill Crider & Jack Davis), The Coyote Connection, Jove, 1981.Notice the plot description. Jack and I were ahead of the curve.
Nostalgia Corner
Back in the olden days (1957, in this case) newspapers used to run serialized versions of crime and western novels. Here's a sample.
Finland Leads the Way
Check out Helsinki’s underground shadow city | Grist: "From the country that brought you the world's spookiest children's series, please meet the underground city. Helsinki, Finland's capital, has decided to defeat sprawl by building down instead of out. Incised into the city's bedrock are a swimming pool, a shopping area, a church, a hockey rink, and a data center, not to mention 'parking caverns' and a bunch of the city's necessary municipal doodads. An underground shadow city!"
No Comment Department
National - NZ Herald News: "A Canterbury schoolgirl has faced death threats and public loathing after publicly boasting of looting icecreams after the quake.
Amy Knowles, 16, later used her Facebook page to taunt survivors who had been left without electricity and running water."
Amy Knowles, 16, later used her Facebook page to taunt survivors who had been left without electricity and running water."
Vulgar language at the link.
And Stay off His Lawn!
RN-T.com - Report 82 year old man arrested for assaulting police officer: "A Rome man was arrested Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26, after police said he was drunk and swearing at a woman, reports stated."
No Comment Department
'The King's Speech' to get a PG-13 re-release | Inside Movies | EW.com: "The MPAA announced today that The King’s Speech will be re-released by the Weinstein Company with a PG-13 rating. The film had famously received an R rating for a scene in which Geoffrey Rush’s character encourages Colin Firth’s King George VI to curse like a commoner in order to help him get over his stutter."
Okay, wait, I do have a comment. Or a question. Suppose the film wins the Oscar for "best picture." The version that people will now pay to see won't be the picture that won, now will it?
Saturday, February 26, 2011
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
Peacefmonline.com: "For his refusal to carry out the orders of the father to cook an alligator soup for him, Osei Alex of Tanoso Camp, near Samreboi, 15, was assaulted by the father Nana Yaw Osei who inflicted cutlass wounds on him."
Monoply Update
Mail Online: "The earliest ever version of the board game Monopoly has sold for a whopping £90,000.
The set was one of 5,000 made in 1933 by Charles Darrow, the purported inventor of Monopoly, and is the only one to have survived to this day.
The dog-eared set is made out of a piece of oilcloth and is in the form of the original circular shape that is 33 inches in diameter."
The set was one of 5,000 made in 1933 by Charles Darrow, the purported inventor of Monopoly, and is the only one to have survived to this day.
The dog-eared set is made out of a piece of oilcloth and is in the form of the original circular shape that is 33 inches in diameter."
Photos at the link.
401 S. McKinney Street, Mexia, Texas
This old house still exists on Google Earth. It was built by my grandfather more than 80 years ago, and it's the house where I spent most of my growing up years. My parents continued to live there after their kids grew up and left, and my father died in the same bedroom where his own father died 50 years earlier. The rooms in the place were huge compared to those in a modern house. The bedroom my brother and I slept in had twin beds end-to-end along one wall, with room between them. Our sister's room was smaller. It had a double bed on one side of the doorway between our rooms and an upright piano with its back to the wall on the other side of the door. The other rooms were much larger. There were 12-foot ceilings.
There was a basement, too. I didn't know of another house in my hometown with a basement, and I felt quite smug about having one. I couldn't stand up in it after I was a teenager, and it wasn't very big. But it was a basement.
That's just the physical stuff, and it doesn't really matter much. What matters more are the family dinners on holidays, the times we'd sit out in the back yard in the summer, doing homework at my desk (that bedroom I mentioned had two desks, a wardrobe, and a gun cabinet in it besides those twin beds, and it wasn't crowded), deciding who got to bathe first in the only bathroom, watching TV with the family in our parents' bedroom, coming home from school to eat lunch in the kitchen with the family, washing dishes in the little sink, hearing my mother sing "Let the Lower Lights be Burning" when she worked in the kitchen, lying in my bed and reading one SF magazine after another, the collection of baseball cards I kept under my bed in the wooden box my grandfather made me, sitting in my room listening to Al Helfer call The Game of the Day in the hot summertime with a little buzz fan blowing on me, my mother sprinkling water on the sheets at night to cool them during the terrible hot drought years of the '50s, my father whistling when he came home after work, my sister practicing her piano lessons ("Shrimp Boats," "The Little White Cloud that Cried"), my brother creating his own piano compositions (the immortal "Aye-yi-yonga"), my high school graduation gifts on the dining room table (and Judy's and my wedding gifts there some years later), some mighty good dogs, some crazy cats, and so many more things.
The house still exists on Google Earth but not on this one. My brother owned it, but it had been vacant for a while. Thursday night, someone got inside and set fires in every room. The house is a total loss. The only thing my brother could save was the cast-iron door knocker that had been nailed up beside the front door. Ah, it was a beautiful door, too, let me tell you. Maybe you can see it in the picture. And I think that's all I have to say about that.
Pimp those Grillz
Gold Teeth Deflect Bullet, Save a Life, But Still Get Banned From School: "Gold is the new pearly white.
These glittering grills could become even more popular after Walter Davis, a New Orleans man allegedly shot in the mouth by his younger brother, was saved when the dental accessory stopped the bullet."
These glittering grills could become even more popular after Walter Davis, a New Orleans man allegedly shot in the mouth by his younger brother, was saved when the dental accessory stopped the bullet."
Drive Angry
Take a '70s exploitation movie (lots of gratuitous nudity, extreme violence, vulgarity, shoot-outs, car chases, many, many explosions), add 3-D and Nicolas Cage with his Con Air hair, and you have Drive Angry. Yes, that's right, that's what my pathetic "life" has come to. The only two movies I've seen in a theater in months are Season of the Witch and Drive Angry. Even sadder, I had a great time. Don't judge me.There's no way to make any sense of most of the backstory, so don't even try. Just go along for the ride (there's a great series of muscle cars involved). Billy Burke plays a guy named Jonah as if he'd just stepped out of a '70s drive-in flick, and he's dressed for the part, too. Amber Heard is great as Piper, the woman Cage takes along for the ride. David Morse and Tom Atkins provide some fine support, and William Fitchner practically steals the movie as the Accountant. Cage plays this one like he played Season of the Witch, as if his mind might be elsewhere, but it works. You can have fun in the last half hour or so by watching the amazing changing make-up job on half his face.
Judy, who, as you'll recall, hated Spamalot, went with me to this. I thought she'd never forgive me, but as we left the theater I asked her how she liked the movie. She said, "I liked it. It was funny and crazy, and it never slowed down." So there you have it. Go figure.
Eddie Serrato, R. I. P.
WNEM Saginaw: "Eddie Serrato, the original drummer on Question Mark and the Mysterians' song '96 Tears,' passed away Thursday morning."
Would It Hav e Been OK if He'd Been Sober?
Little Rock, AR: "North Little Rock Police responded to the Kroger on Pershing Blvd about complaints that there was a drunk man in the store urinating on chicken."
Hat tip to John Duke.
No Comment Department
Photographing cows or other farm scenery could land you in jail under Senate bill | The Florida Tribune: "SB 1246 by Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, would make it a first-degree felony to photograph a farm without first obtaining written permission from the owner. A farm is defined as any land 'cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production, the raising and breeding of domestic animals or the storage of a commodity.'"
Best Short Story Collections
Best Short Stories - AbeBooks: "The best short stories make every word count. These are among the finest."
Friday, February 25, 2011
And Now It's Spuds
Sandusky Register: "Who should cook the potato, and how? Those questions triggered a knock-down fight between a 30-year-old woman and her 50-year-old mother in Port Clinton."
Put Dan Stumpf on the Case!
Gahanna Police Investigate Chicken McNugget, Road Rage Assault | WBNS-10TV, Central Ohio News: "Gahanna police were investigating a suspected case of road rage on Thursday that was allegedly caused by McDonald's chicken nuggets."
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Gator Update (B.O.L.O. Edition)
The Boone Blog: "A Florence alligator is missing, and its owners are in the midst of a months-long search.
J. Gumbo’s in Florence had its mascot, Archibald, stolen. Archibald is a roughly 4-feet-long plastic alligator that owner Sara Braun would put in different areas of the restaurant.
The last time Archibald was seen, he was near the bathrooms of the restaurant, and Braun reviewed security video from around the time and didn’t see anyone sneaking out with the plastic alligator."
J. Gumbo’s in Florence had its mascot, Archibald, stolen. Archibald is a roughly 4-feet-long plastic alligator that owner Sara Braun would put in different areas of the restaurant.
The last time Archibald was seen, he was near the bathrooms of the restaurant, and Braun reviewed security video from around the time and didn’t see anyone sneaking out with the plastic alligator."
Will the Persecution Never End?
Paris Hilton's latest fashion faux pas as she nearly reveals all in low-cut top | Mail Online: "If there’s one person to prove that money can’t buy you class then Paris Hilton is the case in point.
Stepping out in L.A. yesterday the hotel heiress opted for an another unusual outfit consisting of an extremely low cut top, a waterfall cardigan, black biker jacket and strangely, finished the look off with a beanie hat."
Stepping out in L.A. yesterday the hotel heiress opted for an another unusual outfit consisting of an extremely low cut top, a waterfall cardigan, black biker jacket and strangely, finished the look off with a beanie hat."
Yes, there's a photo at the link.
Hat tip to John Duke.
Lawrence Person’s Top Ten Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films of 2000-2010
Locus Online Reviews: "Lawrence Person’s Top Ten Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films of 2000-2010"
And Keep Off His Lawn!
Strong-armed Swedish pensioner slugs two young bandits - The Local: "Two would-be thieves in central Sweden got an unexpected lesson in respecting their elders when they failed to heed a warning issued by the 62-year-old target of their crime.
Gray-haired and requiring the use of a rollator to get around, Rolf Klasson certainly didn't give the impression that he would put up a fight when two young men approached him on Tuesday in central Lidkoping."
Gray-haired and requiring the use of a rollator to get around, Rolf Klasson certainly didn't give the impression that he would put up a fight when two young men approached him on Tuesday in central Lidkoping."
Forgotten Books: Never Live Twice -- Dan J. Marlowe
I'm a sucker for amnesia stories, so this one can't miss with me. The narrator doesn't just have amnesia. He has double amnesia.The story opens when his wife and her brother are committing what they hope is the perfect murder, but he survives and disappears. For a while. When he returns, he has no idea that the two of them tried to kill him, and he begins to put his life back together.
Except not quite. He has a memory of when he was someone else entirely, and that memory gets him involved in some hanky-panky that was going on without his knowledge. It's the reason his brother-in-law wanted to kill him. And then . . . .
Well, it's complicated. Trust me. And the plot is a little muddled by things that Marlowe obviously didn't plan too well when he started
writing. I'd tell you more, but you don't want to know.
I will tell you that there's one scene that made me very uncomfortable, a scene that I might not
have noticed so much back when I first read the book, but one that's almost guaranteed to make me squirm now. It's supposedly germane to the plot, but still . . . .
That aside, the book has the kind of readability that the best of the Gold Medal writers give you. If the plotting's a little shaky, so what? They don't write 'em like this anymore, no matter how much they might like to.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Archaeology Update
Remains of 11,500-Year-Old Child Discovered in Alaskan Wilderness: "Scientists digging in the Alaskan wilderness have made an extraordinary find: the cremated remains of a child buried 11,500 years ago, just as the first humans were spreading out through the Americas.
The partial skeleton of the child, who was roughly 3 years old, was found in the remnants of an ancient house -- in itself another virtually unprecedented discovery."
The partial skeleton of the child, who was roughly 3 years old, was found in the remnants of an ancient house -- in itself another virtually unprecedented discovery."
Daphne du Maurier Update
BBC News: "Rare early work by Cornwall's Daphne du Maurier has been found by a local bookseller.
Ann Willmore who runs Bookends in Fowey has found a rare collection of short stories by the celebrated author.
Ms Willmore stumbled across some of the titles over the internet.
One of the most exciting finds for du Maurier fans is a story called The Doll. It was written when du Maurier was barely in her 20s.
Many of the stories were only featured once in magazines in the UK and USA in the 1930s."
Ann Willmore who runs Bookends in Fowey has found a rare collection of short stories by the celebrated author.
Ms Willmore stumbled across some of the titles over the internet.
One of the most exciting finds for du Maurier fans is a story called The Doll. It was written when du Maurier was barely in her 20s.
Many of the stories were only featured once in magazines in the UK and USA in the 1930s."
"Stop or I'll Fork You!"
Police: Cop Impersonator Howard Schultz Tried to Pull Over Drivers With Giant Fork: "Law enforcement officials say a police impersonator in Florida stuck a fork in his ruse when he started waving an oversized kitchen utensil at motorists.
Police in Pompano Beach say Howard Schultz, 69, forced a driver to pull over on Feb. 21 while waving a 10-inch barbecue fork, NBCMiami.com reports."
Police in Pompano Beach say Howard Schultz, 69, forced a driver to pull over on Feb. 21 while waving a 10-inch barbecue fork, NBCMiami.com reports."
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
The Smoking Gun: "[S]uspect Joshua Lee Joehlin told cops that he is a member of the “Redneck” faith.
Joehlin, a 20-year-old Texan, was busted early Sunday morning on a felony charge of engaging in a lewd and lascivious act with a minor."
Joehlin, a 20-year-old Texan, was busted early Sunday morning on a felony charge of engaging in a lewd and lascivious act with a minor."
The Texas Observer Short Story Prize
The Texas Observer Short Story Prize: "We at The Texas Observer love a good story. Of course, the stories we've published over the past half-century-mostly hard-hitting investigative pieces-have been depressingly true. Help us change that. Send us your best original short fiction for the first annual Texas Observer Short Story Prize. The winner gets a fat check and publication in the 2011 Summer Books issue.
GRAND PRIZE $1,000 and publication in 2011 Summer Books issue
GUEST JUDGE Larry McMurtry
DEADLINE May 1, 2011"
GRAND PRIZE $1,000 and publication in 2011 Summer Books issue
GUEST JUDGE Larry McMurtry
DEADLINE May 1, 2011"
Details at the link.
Sullivan's Drinking Bird
My grandfather, who died in 1947, had one of these, and I was highly impressed by it. Many years later, I bought one for myself. I don't know if my kids remember it. I even set it up again when we moved here to Alvin, but I don't remember what I did with it after that. I think I'll look for it.Drinking bird - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What's the Problem? They Were Wrapped Up, Weren't They?
Daily Journal: "Maine woman has been charged with child endangerment after police said she was spotted driving a van with two children sitting on the roof, wrapped in a blanket."
Hat tip to Matt Mayo.
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