The Evil

Paging Steve McQueen

Giant Blob Found Deep Beneath Nevada - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News - FOXNews.com: "Hidden beneath the U.S. West's Great Basin, scientists have spied a giant blob of rocky material dripping like honey."

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Houston blogger jailed for contempt in Anna Nicole case | Front page | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "A Houstonian who’s being sued by the mother of the late Anna Nicole Smith spent the holiday weekend in jail, making her the latest gossip blogger to pay a steep price for her hobby."

Happy Birthday, Kingston Trio!

Kingston Trio Blog: "Happy birthday, Kingston Trio! 52 years old today, May 27th, 1957"

Tom Dooley - Kingston Trio

Popular Culture Periodicals -- Jeff Canja

This is one of those reference books that I love looking through.  It's a price guide that covers just about everything: digests, men's sweat mags, pulps.  It's full of B&W and color illustrations.  And it even has a short history of pop fiction periodicals.  I can spend hours browsing in books like this, so for me it's an essential book.  It probably is for others, too.  Highly recommended.

The Nose Knows

Revealed: How sense of smell helps us find a potential mate - The Daily Record: "MEN sniff out potential partners ... it's official. In fact, scientists have discovered that both sexes use smell as a way of finding a mate.

Researchers compared the genetic profile of 90 married couples with those of 152 random pairs of people."

Don't Crush that Gator, Hand me the Pliers

Officials say a 47-year-old man is recovering after he was attacked by an alligator at Lake Okeechobee. | Gainesville.com | The Gainesville Sun | Gainesville, FL: "Officials say a 47-year-old man is recovering after he was attacked by an alligator at Lake Okeechobee.

According to a news release from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Antonio Prado was using a net to catch fish at Nubbin Slough in Lake Okeechobee on Monday afternoon when he was attacked by the alligator.

Prado was dragged under the water by the alligator, which bit him on his arm and chest. The alligator released Prado after the man's 24-year-old son threw a pair of pliers at it."

Brimstone -- Robert B. Parker

If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you know I'm a hopeless fan of Robert B. Parker.  I don't think anybody bothers to edit his books these days, though.  On page 2 of Brimstone, there's this exchange:

"Railroad station," Cole said.

"Why?" I said.

"No idea," I said.

Either a lines been dropped, or Cole's the one who said "No idea." 

But that doesn't bother me.  I still enjoyed the story.  It's pretty slight.  Cole and Hitch find Allie, the woman Cole loves, after a year's search.  She's pretty much hit bottom, working as a cheap whore, but Cole takes her back.  He just has to kill one man to get her.  Cole, Allie, and Hitch ride into another where Cole and Hitch work as lawmen.   There's a preacher and a saloon owner who get crossways.  An Indian's riding around killing people and horses.  Cole and Hitch take care of business.  

Cole's pretty much Spenser, though not exactly.  In these westerns, he doesn't tell his own story.  Hitch is the first-person narrator, so we get to see Cole through his eyes.  Hitch knows him pretty well, but we rarely get below the surface.  Now and then Hitch and Cole talk about manly things, though not as much as in the earlier two books in the series.

By now, people are pretty evenly divided on Parker.  They've either quit reading him or they'll read whatever he puts out there.  I'm in the latter category.  If you're not, Brimstone's not the place to begin catching up.  If you are, you'll probably have as much fun reading it as I did.  It won't take you long.

Satan's Cheerleaders

Conflict of Interest

The third and final chapter has been posted.

Will the Persecution Never End?

Paris Hilton and boyfriend thrown off David Furnish yacht party | Herald Sun: "PARIS Hilton has been giving Cannes the benefit of her singular style - being evicted from a private yacht party after being caught in a toilet entanglement.

Hilton and her boyfriend were kicked off the private yacht party at the Cannes Film Festival after they were caught toilet pashing."

Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom -- Tim Byrd

Looking for a Doc Savage pastiche and a Lovecraftian adventure all in one?  Look no further.  Tim Byrd has it for you right here.  Doctor Spartacus Wilde and his two kids, Brian and Wren, are plunged into action almost from page one when they learn of the disappearance of Grandpa Wilde.  They go from the top of what's obviously the Empire State Building to the South American jungle, tangling with all kinds of weird frogs, not to mention frog-men, along the way.

Wilde is so much like Savage that I expected to him to start trilling on any page.  He never did, but his shirt is always ripped.  So is Grandpa Wilde's, for that matter.  Like their dad, the kids are fluent in many languages, know more science than a college prof, know more literature than your average English teacher, and are as agile as monkeys.  Doc's other companions are the ape-like Declan mac Coul and the cultivated Phineas Bartlett (he's "good with quotations").  The whole crew speeds from one cliffhanger to the next so fast that you'll hardly be able to keep up.

Byrd is clearly out to hook both the youngsters and the older folks who've read Doc Savage.  Who else would he expect to get this joke: "The impact rattled the man of brawn's skeleton, . . ."  I'll bet Byrd's been waiting years to get the one into print.

It's all in good fun, and you should know by now if this is your kind of thing.  If it is, you're probably already waiting for the sequels, which should come along very soon.

Abba: Is there Anything They Can't Do?

Ananova - Coma girl sings Abba hit: "A toddler who was gravely ill shocked her family when she woke from a coma singing Abba song Mamma Mia."

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Kansas City Bomber

New Story on CrimeWAV

Episode 38: Gary Dobbs - Rhonda Noir | CrimeWAV.com: "This week we've got another story from the other side of the pond. I hope you'll enjoy by Gary Dobbs with 'Rhonda Noir.' This one will make you think of Guy Ritchie, Tarantino, and all the goods! Enjoy!"

Damn Near Dead

Some kind words for the book in general and "Cranked" in particular over at Pulp Serenade.

The Last Soldier

ABC News

You have to sit through an ad to see him, the last living veteran of WWI.

Who Does the Stunts for James Bond?

The family who do stunts for James Bond - Times Online: "Nearly every James Bond actor has shared a secret. At some point during filming they have been introduced to a man called Powell. And each time that man has made sure that 007 drives faster, fights better and shoots straighter.

The Powell family is among the best-kept secrets in film, having performed Bond’s stunts for more than 40 years. In 20 films, Fred “Nosher” Powell, 80, and Dennis “Dinny” Powell, 76, or Nosher’s sons Greg, 54, and Gary, 45, have helped successive Bonds from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig do the dirty business of making Bond look good."

Strange Bargain

Jeff Pierce has a nice post about Harry Whittington over on The Rap Sheet.  Maybe one of you can help him identify the cover artist he's wondering about.

Hogdoggin' Virtual Motorcycle Rally

If you haven't been keeping up with the Hogdoggin' Virtual Motorcycle Rally at the Crimedog One website, you'd better check it out.  Why?  Well, because it'll crack you up and because this week Sheriff Dan Rhodes's occasional biker pests, Rapper and Nellie, will show up.  Maybe even today.  You wouldn't want to miss that, and there might be a special treat here on this blog, too.  BOLO.