Saturday, March 23, 2013

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Police: Teen stabs dad over request to pull up pants 

Joe Weider, R. I. P.

latimes.com: Joe Weider, who made millions from a fitness empire and mentored a young Austrian bodybuilder who went on to become a major movie star and governor of California, has died. 

Weider, 93, passed away Saturday of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, according to a news release. The multimillion-dollar publishing empire he built included Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Shape, and Men’s Fitness magazines.

Derek Watkins, R. I. P.

BBC News: Derek Watkins, the British trumpet player who played on every James Bond film soundtrack from Dr No to Skyfall, has died aged 68.

Song of the Day

GENE PITNEY "IF I DIDN'T HAVE A DIME" ( W / LYRICS) - YouTube:

Yes, This Would Be a Perfect World

What If Nic Cage Was Every Single One Of The Original 151 Pokemon

And Keep Off My Lawn!

The 14 Most Irritating Questions People Born In The 2000s Ask

Today's Vintage Ads

Retrospace: Catalogs #31: Irresponsible 1938 Novelty Catalog

Free Today for Kindle

Amazon.com: Glimpses: The Best Short Stories of Rick Hautala eBook: Rick Hautala, Joe Morey, Glenn Chadbourne: Kindle Store: One of 2012’s HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Winners, Rick Hautala has a writing career that spans more than three decades. From Moondeath, his first novel published in 1980, to the republication of his best-selling novel The White Room (DRP, 2012) and his forthcoming “Little Brothers” novella Indian Summer (CD Publications, 2012), his novels and short stories have entertained millions of readers around the world. 

Now comes Glimpses, a career-spanning “best of” collection that brings together twenty-four stories, including eight from each of Rick’s critically-acclaimed collections Bedbugs and Occasional Demons, and eight previously uncollected stories.

Famous Author Reads His Work

I was reminded of this yesterday.

Episode 30 - Bill Crider's Cranked | CrimeWAV.com

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Art Bourgeau, The Most Likely Suspects, Charter, 1981

Fascinating Photos of Great Musicians’ Earliest Musical Endeavors

Fascinating Photos of Great Musicians’ Earliest Musical Endeavors 

Croc Update (Lana Del Rey Edition)

Lana Del Rey cool with crocodile clips

Top 10 Medieval Scientists Smarter Than Einstein

Top 10 Medieval Scientists Smarter Than Einstein

Gator Update (Wrestling Edition)

Mom wrestles 7-foot alligator away from school yard just as students are dismissed for the day

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Top 10 Famous Shipwrecks

Top 10 Famous Shipwrecks

Star 80

Movie Trailer - 1983 - Star 80 - YouTube:

Friday, March 22, 2013

Song of the Day

Johnny And The Hurricanes - Down Yonder - YouTube:

Chupacabra vs. the Alamo

 Saturday on the SyFy channel.

10 Iconic Professions That Have Almost Vanished

10 Iconic Professions That Have Almost Vanished 

Today's Vintage Ads

35 Deliciously Fun Vintage Guinness Ads

Chinua Achebe, R. I. P.

Agent: Author Chinua Achebe dies at 82: Chinua Achebe, the internationally celebrated Nigerian author, statesman and dissident who gave literary birth to modern Africa with Things Fall Apart and continued for decades to rewrite and reclaim the history of his native country, has died. He was 82.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

7 movies that are cleverly disguised Shakespeare adaptations

7 movies that are cleverly disguised Shakespeare adaptations

The Pastries That Cost Santa Anna His Leg

The Pastries That Cost Santa Anna His Leg

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Texas takes step toward secession with Rick Perry’s plan to hoard gold

I Don't Need to Take This. I'm Just Fine. Fine, I Tell You! Just Fine!

Internet Addiction Test

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

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Art Bourgeau, A Lonely Way to Die, Charter, 1980

The Artist Who Helped Invent Space Travel

The Artist Who Helped Invent Space Travel

Hat tip to Jeff Segal.

Unarmed Self-Defense from the Mad Men Era

Unarmed Self-Defense from the Mad Men Era

The 10 Best Movies About Lovers on the Run

The 10 Best Movies About Lovers on the Run 

Mitchell Hooks, R. I. P.

Killer Covers: Oh No, Mitchell Hooks Is Gone

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Girl, 7, brought into pepper-spray fight: "You know what to do, baby. Spray it!", Delaina Garling allegedly told her daughter.

But Don't Worry. He Wasn't Carrying Any Liquids in Bottles that Held More than an Ounce

Man impersonating pilot reached plane's cockpit at Philly airport, police say 

I Found a Penny the Other Day

Bought for $3 at yard sale, bowl sells for $2.2 million

40 Movies Turning 20

40 Movies Turning 20

Forgotten Book: I'll Find You -- Richard Himmel

 Not many Gold Medal writers are forgotten, but Richard Himmel seems to be.  A brief Google search turned up next to nothing about him or his books.  I'm partially at fault here, since I've had a good many of them on my selves for well over 30 years and never read a one of them.  Why? Well, you can't read everything.  Anyway, I decided it was time to take a look at one.  Himmel, after all, sold millions of books.  His first one for Gold Medal was I'll Find You, and it was the second novel GM published. (The first was John Flagg's The Persian Cat, and Flagg is another GM writer whose work I've never read.  So many books, so little time.)

What did I learn? For one thing, the Gold Medal pattern was set from the very beginning. I'll Find You has just about everything that the later books from this publisher had.  The first-person narrator, Johnny Maguire, is a self-proclaimed punk, a night-school lawyer whose attitudes toward women are primitive at best: "OK, so she might have fought. It would have been good that way. Maybe that's what she wanted.  Maybe she wanted to get messed up a little bit. Maybe that's the way it was good for her." He says this about a woman he's fallen for, hard.  She's the first woman he's ever loved, though of course he's had plenty of sex.  Sex is big in the GM line.

As soon as Maguire falls for the woman, she disappears, an apparent suicide. Maguire doesn't think she's dead and decides to find her.  Hence the book's title.  And he does find her.  That's when things get complicated.  Gangsters are involved, and there's a murder, but this isn't really a crime novel. In its own twisted way, it's a love story in the Gold Medal vein, with the emphasis on speed, with lots of raw emotion, with plenty of melodrama.  And a really great final scene and line, very much in keeping with the character of Johnny Maguire.

Himmel had something going for him, and it's not a big surprise that the book was such a hit.  My guess is that he didn't plan to make Maguire a series character.  He wasn't cut out to be one.  The book sold so many millions, however, that bringing him back must have proved irresistible. In one of the sequels, Maguire is even an investigator for the State Department.  I guess I'll have to read another one to see how this came about.

Angel, Angel, Down We Go

Angel, Angel, Down We Go (1969) trailer - YouTube:

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Dilys Award Winner 2013

Mystery Fanfare: Dilys Award Winner 2013

Rick Hautala, R. I. P.

RIP Rick Hautala | Rick Hautala: It is with heavy heart that I post the news that Rick died earlier this afternoon at age 64 from an apparent heart attack. I have no details at this time, as I just found out via postings on Facebook. I will provide more information as soon as I have it.

Hat tip to Todd Mason.

Say It Ain't So!

Andy Griffith's Widow Gets Permit To Demolish Actor's Longtime Home

Hat tip to John Duke.

Life Is Good

Flick it.

Free Today for Kindle

That Damned Coyote Hill: Heath Lowrance: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: He came to set vengeance down upon the heads of the wicked--but the strange town of Coyote Hill had its own kind of unearthly retribution. From Heath Lowrance, author of the cult novel The Bastard Hand, comes a weird Western tale of revenge, violence, and supernatural evil.

Books aren’t dead yet

Books aren’t dead yet

From Minotaur Books and PWA

We are accepting submissions for the Minotaur Books/PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition. To be eligible you must have never published a private eye novel before. Spread the word!

For guidelines and an entry form, send an SASE to:
PWA Competition
Thomas Dunne Books
St. Martin’s Press 
175 5th Avenue 
New York, NY 10010

The deadline to send your manuscript to a judge is July 1st.

Uh-Oh

H. P. Lovecraft Kid’s Book Series on Kickstarter

Hat tip to Mike Stamm.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Snake possibly burns down home

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Saber-Toothed Cat Update

Fossil of new saber-toothed cat species is 5 million years old

Wouldn't They Have to Fire all the Cats?

Fired! Backup cat actor in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' canned for not caring

Hat tip to Angela Neary.

Once Again Texas leads the Way

Clueless Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert can't get how Gmail ads work through his thick skull 

And Keep Off His Lawn!

Pennsylvania Man, 90, Jailed On Charges He Punched Trooper

Song of the Day

TOMMY JAMES- " DRAGGIN' THE LINE " ( W / LYRICS) - YouTube:

Rogue Lawman Kickstarter Project!

WRITING FOR THE BRAND: Rogue Lawman Kickstarter Project!

Today's Vintage Ad

Give Him Your Lips

I Miss the Old Days

I'm well aware that the world I grew up in wasn't the idyllic place I sometimes remember it as, but at least we never to worry about things like this:  Maryland school district outlaws hugging, homemade food, pushing kids on swings

A matter of trust: Will Google Keep stick around?

A matter of trust: Will Google Keep stick around?

Short, Sharp Interview: Charlie Williams

Short, Sharp Interview: Charlie Williams 

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Marvin H. Albert, The Law and Jake Wade, Gold Medal, 1956

Lynn Munroe Has a New Paul Rader Checklist

And you can find it here: Lynn Munroe Books

10 More Little-Known Weird Mysteries

10 More Little-Known Weird Mysteries

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

. . . and now it's the penis-biting attack!

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

9 Quentin Tarantino Screenplays Reimagined With Penguin-Styled Book Covers

9 Quentin Tarantino Screenplays Reimagined With Penguin-Styled Book Covers

Soon to Be a SyFy Movie of the Week (The Croc Will Be 70ft, However)

'Costa Croc' goes on the run: Police hunt 7ft alligator terrorising popular Spanish tourist destination: 'Costa Croc' goes on the run: Police hunt 7ft alligator terrorising popular Spanish tourist destination 

Police erect sign warning tourists of 'grave danger' from fugitive crocodile

Creature has been spotted close to lake in Mijas near Marbella 

Tourists - including Brits - ignore police warnings to avoid reptile

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

20 Embarrassingly Bad Book Covers for Classic Novels

20 Embarrassingly Bad Book Covers for Classic Novels

30 Things Turning 30 This Year

30 Things Turning 30 This Year

Their Long National Nightmare is Over

'Marmageddon' over as New Zealand spread returns: Supermarkets began selling Marmite again Wednesday for the first time since March 2012, when supplies ran out.

Hat tip to Art Scott.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

. . . and now it's the Brazilian booze bonking.

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The Madness of Mental Illness, Explored Through Books

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken KeseyThe Madness of Mental Illness, Explored Through Books: There’s a line I love from the short story Eleonora by Edgar Allan Poe. It’s about madness. And who better than the macabre mind who brought us such gibbering, eye-shivering tales of horror as The Telltale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum to weigh in on the subject of insanity? The quote goes like this: 

“Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.” 

I take that to mean, coarsely translated – “maybe the reason so many brilliant people go a bit off their heads is because insanity is only one step past genius.”

Head

Head Trailer - YouTube:

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Fran Warren, R. I. P.

Variety: Fran Warren, the singer and thesp who appeared in 1952’s “Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd” and whose 1947 recording of “A Sunday Kind of Love” became one of the biggest hits of the Big Band Era, died of natural causes at her Brookfield, Conn., home on March 4. She was 87.

Harry Reems, R. I. P.

Variety: Harry Reems, adult film star famous for his role in “Deep Throat,” died Tuesday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer at a Salt Lake City Veterans hospital. He was 65.

James Herbert, R. I. P.

James Herbert Dead: Horror Author Dies At 69: He was a "Grand Master" of horror and rats were one of his specialties. 

British horror writer James Herbert, whose best-selling spine-tinglers included "The Rats" and "The Fog," has died at age 69. 

Herbert's publisher, Pan Macmillan, said he died Wednesday at his home in Sussex, southern England. It did not disclose the cause.

“Truth or Point of View?”

“Truth or Point of View?” (by V.S. Kemanis) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN

“Where Sleaze Meets Artistry”: 12 Great Crime Novel Covers

“Where Sleaze Meets Artistry”: 12 Great Crime Novel Covers

And the runners-up are here.

Henry Bromell, R. I. P.

'Homeland' writer-producer Bromell dies at 66: The 66-year-old Bromell was "an immensely talented and prolific" writer and producer, Showtime said in a statement. His other TV credits included "Northern Exposure," ''Chicago Hope," ''Rubicon" and "Brotherhood."

I Miss the Old Days

Mae West In Bat Costume 

Fangs Out -- David Freed

In spite of the title, this is not a vampire book.  Cordell Logan is a retired government assassin who's now a flying instructor.  When he saves Hub Walker and his wife from what would have been a fatal plane crash, war-hero Walker hires him to find out the truth about the comments of a prisoner just before his execution.  The prisoner, about to die for the murder of Walker's daughter, claims that the real killer is Walker's long-time friend, who's also a defense contractor.  Walker claims he just wants to clear his friend's name, and Logan thinks the assignment will be easy and profitable.

You don't have to have read too many crime novels to know that things aren't going to be so easy.  Almost as soon as Logan starts poking around, things get rough and complicated.  The complications include Logan's personal life, as he's trying to get back together with his ex-wife.  And they include Logan himself, as he appears to be his own worst enemy, unable to resist being a smartass with everyone involved in the case.  And his ex-wife, too.  This isn't something that anyone finds to be an endearing quality.  Logan is trying to the teachings of the Buddha, but it seems to be a losing battle.

Freed has a smooth and readable style, and he handles the flying and action scenes well.  There's a cat, too.  Check it out.

Song of the Day

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Down On The Corner - YouTube:

Today's Vintage Ads

These were in mainstream magazines in the '50s.  Now they're barely safe for work.

The Racy, Creepy Microsheen Shoe Polish Ads

18 Academic Papers About '90s TV Shows

18 Academic Papers About '90s TV Shows 

Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.

Joy Williams's Daily Writing Routine

Joy Williams's Daily Writing Routine 

It's the birthday of dime novelist Ned Buntline

The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor: It's the birthday of dime novelist Ned Buntline (books by this author), born Edward Zane Carroll Judson in Stamford, New York (1813) — probably, but not certainly, on this day. As a boy, he got in a fight with his father and ran away to sea. He started out as a cabin boy, but as a teenager he rescued the drowning crew of a boat, and President Van Buren was so impressed that he appointed the young man a midshipman, a low rank of officer. 

After a few years at sea, he decided to take up writing sensational adventure stories. He took his pseudonym, Ned Buntline, from the "buntline" knot that went at the foot of a square sail. He started out writing about gangs and violence in New York, then he took a trip out West, and realized that it was the ideal setting for the type of stories he wanted to tell.

PaperBack


Mayo Simon, George Schenck, John Ryder Hall, Futureworld, Ballantine,  1976

10 Unsolved Mysteries of Science

10 Unsolved Mysteries of Science 

I Expect George Kelley to Weigh In on This

The 25 Greatest Essay Collections of All Time

Cartoon of the Day


Hilarious Notes on Modern Classics From Clueless Studio Executives

Hilarious Notes on Modern Classics From Clueless Studio Executives

Western Fictioneers: Western Awards Galore

Western Fictioneers: Western Awards Galore

Great Story

Israel Weighs Whether to Honor Brother of Leading Nazi Hermann Göring 

Very Creepy

10 Baffling Wives of Serial Killers

Skidoo

Skidoo (1968 - Trailer) - YouTube:

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Uh-oh

Silver Pictures to Remake 1981 Post-Apocalyptic Classic 'Escape From New York' 

Hat tip to Jeff Segal. 

Them that Refuse it are Few

FOX16.com: Deputies with the Pike County Sheriff's Office have three suspects in custody accused of running an illegal moonshine operation.

Hat tip to John Duke.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

. . . and once again Texas leads the way.  The mug shot's worth a look, too.

khou.com Houston: Police have arrested a woman for digging another woman's eye out of the socket during an altercation.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Massive brawl breaks out at child's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese ending in three arrests and one person shot

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The Strand Magazine 2012 Critics Awards Nominees

The Rap Sheet: The Strand Magazine today announced the nominees for its 2012 Critics Awards, in two categories.

Check Out Libby Hellman's Spiffy New Website

Welcome to the website of best-selling US crime writer Libby Fischer Hellmann

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Teen: School Told Me I Was Going to Hell, So I Urinated on Doors

Croc Update (Hitchhike Edition)

Australia: Huge hitchhiking crocodile needs a bigger ride

Photo at the link.
And Hitchhiking Crocodile WBAGNFARB.

Just a Gentle Reminder

Amazon.com: The Texas Capitol Murders eBook: Bill Crider: Kindle Store: The classic novel of Texas politics and murder, available for the first time in more than 20 years! 

It's the end of the '80s. The Texas capitol building is being remodeled, and there's a body dumped in the trash. There's a witness who needs to be eliminated, and there's a slightly strange governor who wants the Texas Rangers called in. Political intrigue, murder, romance, and humor with a Texas twang.

Song of the Day

TOM JONES - DELILAH - YouTube:

What Was It Like to Be an Executioner?

What Was It Like to Be an Executioner?

The Other Custer

Western Fictioneers: COURAGE CLOSE-UP: THE OTHER CUSTER by Tom Rizzo

Today's Vintage Ads

11 Crazy Old Whiskey Ads That Are Clearly Drunk

This Is Cool

The Walls Have Eyes: Abandoned Spaces Given Graffiti Facelifts

Tolstoy Reads from 'A Calendar of Wisdom': Rare 1909 Recording

Tolstoy Reads from 'A Calendar of Wisdom': Rare 1909 Recording

PaperBack



Doris Vallejo, Windsound, Berkley, 1981

35 Bookplates Belonging To Famous People

35 Bookplates Belonging To Famous People

5 Shockingly Advanced Ancient Buildings That Shouldn't Exist

5 Shockingly Advanced Ancient Buildings That Shouldn't Exist

Yikes!

17,616 Men Went to the ER for Zipper-Related Penis Injuries Between 2002 and 2010

10 Illuminating Fan Letters From Famous Authors, To Famous Authors

10 Illuminating Fan Letters From Famous Authors, To Famous Authors

11 Classic Nicknames and The People Who Hated Them

11 Classic Nicknames and The People Who Hated Them 

Bobbie Smith, R. I. P.

Bobbie Smith dies at 76; singer with the Spinners - latimes.com: Along with Henry Fambrough, Smith was one of the group's two remaining original members still performing with the band. His tenor voice was out in front on a number of the Spinners' biggest Atlantic Records hits in the '70s, including "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," "I'll Be Around," "Games People Play" and the 1974 Dionne Warwick duet "Then Came You."

More Like Charles Bronson

'It was a James Bond moment': Quebec prisoners on the run after daring helicopter escape 

Uh-Oh

Tom Cruise Eyeing 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' With Guy Ritchie At Warner Bros 

Hat tip to Randy Johnson.

Overlooked Movies: Big Jim McLain

When I was a kid, one of my favorite short stories was Stephen Vincent Benet's The Devil and Daniel Webster.  So naturally I'm prone to be favorable toward a movie that opens with a quotation from that story.  While it's not a very good movie, it's still fun.

Big Jim McLain was made in 1952, back when Joe McCarthy was stirring things up.  There were, he said, dirty commies hiding under every bed.  It was a time of paranoia and fear.  Luckily we've moved way beyond that kind of thing. 

Anyway, John Wayne and his partner, played by James Arness, are FBI guys investigating commie activity in Hawaii for the House UnAmerican Activities Committee.  The commies are led by Alan Napier, and they're bad clean through.  Arness is the real commie-hater in the movie. They make him really angry, and he loves to pound them to a pulp.  [SPOILER ALERT]  When they kill him (accidentally), Wayne vows revenge.  He gets it, too, rounding up all the commies and getting them arrested. Here's the clincher. They escape prison by pleading the Fifth.  I guess Napier reformed, since he went on to become Batman's butler. [END OF SPOILER ALERT]

Since the movie was filmed in Hawaii, it's too bad that it's in black and white, though the photography's great.  There's some romance, naturally, with John Wayne and Nancy Olson.  While there's one big brawl of the kind that we expect in a John Wayne movie, but there's not as much action as you might think.

I've read that in some countries the movie was re-titled Marijuana, and that the commies, with artful dubbing, were turned into drug dealers.  I'll bet that movie would be as much fun as the original, if not more.

Big Jim McLain

Big Jim McLain (1952) trailer - YouTube:

Monday, March 18, 2013

Great Cover Mashups

Retrospace: Vintage Reads #47: The Classics Remastered

Uh-Oh

'Hogan's Heroes' Movie In Works After Rights Won Back By Creators: After a three-year battle waged to determine ownership of sequel and separated rights on the CBS sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, creators Albert S. Ruddy and the late Bernard Fein have been granted all rights. Ruddy will work with Fein’s estate to develop a feature film ensemble comedy using the show’s clever WWII German POW camp premise.

Frank Thornton, R. I. P.

seattlepi.com: British actor Frank Thornton — best known as Captain Peacock in the long-running television comedy "Are You Being Served?" — has died at age 92, his agent said Monday. 

The actor is best remembered by British audiences for his comic role in the innuendo-laden hit sitcom, which ran from the 1970s to 1985. He played a mustachioed, pompous floor manager who oversaw his fellow shop workers in a department store.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Facebook Posts May Have Caused Fight At Annapolis High School; 7 Arrested

Famous Author Makes Appearance

ACC Campus News: ACC Retiree Speaks with ACCESS

Sometimes You Get Away with It

FBI: Thieves Identified in 1990 Art Heist From Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - ABC News: The statute of limitations has since run out on the theft and officials have said naming the suspects would be "imprudent," given the continuing effort to recover the art work. DesLauriers said the announcement today, on the 23rd anniversary of the heist, was intended to increase public awareness, possibly leading to the artwork being found.

Free Today for Kindle

Amazon.com: The Wildman eBook: Rick Hautala: Kindle Store: From New York Times bestselling author, Rick Hautala, comes a taut suspense thriller set in the dark woods of Maine. 


Jeff Cameron is going back to Camp Tapiola on Lake Onwego to meet several old friends and reminisce about their childhood experiences at camp. But not all of their childhood memories are good. For thirty-five years lingering images of their friend Jimmy Foster’s lifeless body being pulled from the lake has disturbed Jeff’s peace of mind. Was Jimmy Foster's death an accident or murder? The authorities had said Jimmy’s death was an accidental drowning, but Jeff had always believed there was more to the story. Why after all these years did his old friend arrange this reunion? And why can’t Jeff escape the feeling that his friend has a hidden agenda. What is this reunion is really about? And another question remains... who is The Wildman?

You Know You Can't Resist

Your Monday Morning Explosion Fix: Watch This Bridge Blow Up in Glorious Slow Motion

Hat tip to Art Scott.

10 Omnipotent Beings Who Are also Jerks

10 Omnipotent Beings Who Are also Jerks

Hat tip to Toby O'Brien.

Skynet Is Here. . .

. . . Sarah Connor in hiding.

RoboEarth Cloud Engine ready for use: For the past few years, a consortium of six European research institutes has been collaborating on a project known as RoboEarth. Essentially a “worldwide web for robots,” the idea is that it will allow robots to access a shared online database of each others’ software, thus allowing them to learn how to perform new tasks from one another. The first phase of the project, Rapyuta: The RoboEarth Cloud Engine, is now up and running.

Hat tip to Walter Satterthwait.

Chicago Leads the Way (But Texas Is in the Running)

Travelers rank America's most stressful airports with Chicago's O'Hare leading the pack

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Top 10 Movies Made For Less Than $100,000

Top 10 Movies Made For Less Than $100,000

Song of the Day

Claude King........The Comancheros - YouTube:

Was the Death Star an Inside Job?

Death Star an Inside Job: Was the Death Star an Inside Job?

Hat tip to Michael Bracken.

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest

The Drifter Detective (A Jack Laramie Beat): Garnett Elliott: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: Jack Laramie, grandson of the legendary US Marshal Cash Laramie, is a tough-as-nails WWII vet roaming the modern West. He lives out of a horse trailer hitched to the back of a DeSoto, searching out PI gigs to keep him afloat. 

With his car limping along, Jack barely makes it to the sleepy town of Clyde, Texas, where he stops at a garage. While waiting for repairs, he accepts a job from the sheriff, pulling surveillance on a local oilman allegedly running liquor to Indian reservations in Oklahoma. When Jack runs afoul of several locals and becomes dangerously close to the oilman’s hot-to-trot wife, he wonders if the money is worth his life. 

Garnett Elliott writes in the best hardboiled tradition of the masters and turns out a tour-de-force novelette, clocking in at a trim, fighting 9k words. Take a chance on this new series ... and experience a Jack Laramie beat.

Today's Vintage Ad


I Have a Nice Picture of Some Poker-Playing Dogs in My Stately Home

AFP: A painting hanging in a British stately home has been confirmed as a self-portrait by Rembrandt worth tens of millions of dollars, the National Trust heritage body announced on Friday.

What Did 1988 Los Angeles Think 2013 Los Angeles Would Look Like?

What Did 1988 Los Angeles Think 2013 Los Angeles Would Look Like?

Link via SF Signal.

Or Maybe You Will

7 Amazing Movie Special Effects You Won't Believe Aren't CGI

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P. G. Wodehouse, Leave it to Psmith, Dell, 1949


What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Australia Scientists Bring Extinct Frog Species Back to Life - for a Few Days 

A Brief Survey of Famous Authors’ Unpublished Books

A Brief Survey of Famous Authors’ Unpublished Books

7 musicians kicked out of the band they helped start

7 musicians kicked out of the band they helped start 

The novel resurgence of independent bookstores

The novel resurgence of independent bookstores 

Top 10 Movie Scenes That Took Forever To Film

Top 10 Movie Scenes That Took Forever To Film

New Poem at The 5-2

The 5-2 : Crime Poetry Weekly: Nancy Scott

Bigfoot Update

Bigfoot hunters will be gathering in Fort Worth

Wild In The Streets

Wild In The Streets (1968) Trailer - YouTube:

Sunday, March 17, 2013

BOLO for Mongo

Key West police dog, horse punched out

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest

ADELINE: Wayne D. Dundee: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: For over half a century, the Orphan Train program took abandoned children from the squalor and dangers of overcrowded eastern cities and transported them to new lives in the rural West. Some went to loving, welcoming homes the way it was meant to be. Others ended up as little more than slave labor to the hard demands of farm or ranch life. And then there was the fate that awaited Adeline …

Song of the Day

John McCormack The Wearing of the Green - YouTube:

The Ridiculously Happy Gecko Test

The Ridiculously Happy Gecko Test

Today's Vintage Ad


Free for Kindle for Two Days Only

Shooter's Cross (Rancho Diablo): Colby Jackson, Bill Crider, Mel Odom, James Reasoner: Amazon.com: Kindle Store: CURSED LAND 

Army Scout Sam Blaylock rode into the small Texas town of Shooter's Cross looking for deserters, not trouble. 

While up in the mountains, he discovered a wilderness plagued by nature and haunted by superstition, but one that he thought he could tame with his experience and strong back. 

He didn't know he was going to have to kill to keep the home he planned for his family, but he didn't let that stop him. Sam had been looking for a home for his family for years. That search had been interrupted by the Civil War. 

Now Sam is putting down roots, and not even the Devil himself can stand in the way.

The Miracle Pine

The Miracle Pine

PaperBack



Rex Stout, Bad for Business, Dell, 1949

The End of the Hangup

The Atlantic: Why the physical form of smartphones and the unreliable operation of cellular networks has made hanging up the telephone impossible.

Gator Update (Travel Edition)

LiveScience: Ancient Seaways Carried Alligators to South America

10 Interesting Facts About the Irish

10 Interesting Facts About the Irish

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Man in motorized cart shoots Walmart employee in dispute over dog, police say

The Adventures of St. Patrick

The Adventures of St. Patrick: Slave, traveler, evangelist, abolitionist, and saint. A scant 400 years after Jesus' birth, the priest known as Patrick took the Great Commission seriously, to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth by converting the frightening barbarians of that scary outpost known as Ireland. Dates and details of Patrick's life are somewhat ambiguous since written records from fifth-century Ireland are scarce. A lot of what we know comes from what little Patrick himself wrote, or from biographies written long after his time.

Stephen King on Simplicity of Style

The Adverb Is Not Your Friend: Stephen King on Simplicity of Style

The Real St. Patrick

The Real St. Patrick

The Sea Chase

The Sea Chase (1955) - Trailer - YouTube: