Saturday, December 03, 2016
Alice Drummond, R. I. P.
Deadline: Alice Drummond, a prolific character actress nominated for a Best Featured Actress Tony in 1970 and known for appearances in films like Awakenings, Synecdoche, New York, and Ghostbusters among many others died on November 30 from complications following a fall in her home. She was 88. The news was confirmed by Drummond’s friend, June Gable, to The New York Times.
Steampunk 101
Steampunk 101: From Sci-Fi Sub-genre to Cultural Phenomenon: The creation of the ‘steampunk’ term is usually attributed to the science fiction author K.W. Jeter, who used it in a letter to Locus Magazine. He was trying to find a way to describe Victorian fantasy novels like those written by himself (Morlock Night and Infernal Devices), Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates) and James Blaylock (Homunculus).
Friday, December 02, 2016
Don Calfa, R. I. P.
The A.V. Club: Don Calfa, perhaps best known for his role as mortician Ernie Kaltenbrunner in 1985’s Return Of The Living Dead, has died. The news was made public on the actor’s Facebook page. He was 76.
The Knife Slipped -- Erle Stanley Gardner
Hard Case Crime has found a really lost book, this time an A. A. Fair novel by Erle Stanley Gardner. As Russell Atwood explains in his Afterword, the book was to be the second in the Cool and Lam series but was rejected by Morrow because Bertha Cool was too hard-boiled for them. She tended to "talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people." Instead of of reworking the book, Gardner wrote an entirely different novel and put The Knife Slipped in the trunk. Now, 75 years later, we can read it for the first time.The case appears to be a divorce job, but it soon develops into something much more complicated, as you'd expect from Gardner, though not as complicated as some of the later books in the series. Lam still has a lot to learn about the detective biz, and Bertha's an enthusiastic teacher. Atwood speculates that the series might have developed differently had this book been published. As it is, Lam makes some crucial errors along the way and gets the crap beaten out of him more than once, but things work out in the end.
A lot of the fun here isn't the case itself but in the characters, especially Bertha Cool. She's cheap (if you ever want someone to sell your old used car, get her on the job), but she's generous when she gets a big slice of the cake. This book's a lot of fun. Check it out.
Peng Chang-kuei, R. I. P.
General Tso's chicken inventor dies after giving the world one of its favorite dishes: It's been a rough week for food pioneers. First the creator of the Big Mac passed away, and now General Tso's chicken inventor Peng Chang-kuei died at age 98, reports Taiwan News.
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