Saturday, August 17, 2013

PRO-FILE: DAVE ZELTSERMAN

Ed Gorman's blog: PRO-FILE: DAVE ZELTSERMAN
Max Allan Collins (along with Matthew V. Clemens, his able collaborator) ventures into serial killer territory with What Doesn't Kill Her.  It's set in Cleveland, which gives Collins a chance to make a reference to the Cleveland Torso Murderer, about whom Collins wrote in one of his Eliot Ness novels. But this isn't a torso murderer at work.  It's a very clever killer who's managed to avoid detection for many years.  

Collins takes a different approach to the hunt for the killer.  A young woman who survived his attack on her family because he wanted her to tell his story hasn't spoken for many years and has been institutionalized.  When she sees a story of murders similar to those of her family, she knows that the killer is still at work, and she's determined to find him.  She breaks her silence and starts to work, with the help of the members of a Victims of Violent Crimes support group.  At the same time, a young cop who knew her in high school is also investigating the crime.  He believes he has evidence that a serial killer is at work, though it's not easy to convince his superiors that the evidence is valid.

This is a fast-moving story with attractive lead characters that you'll be rooting for all the way.  The members of the support group are also a very likable crew, bound together by a common goal and their separate violent pasts.  All this, and Collins has a real shocker in store for you at the end.  Check it out.

Gator Update (Acupuncture Edition)

Video: Albino alligator in Brazil receives acupuncture treatment

Song of the Day

▶ Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper 1976 [Studio Version]cowbell link in description - YouTube:

Quicksand!

Busted: These myths about life are all nonsense 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Historic mugshots reveal the cunning faces of England�s Nineteenth Century bad girls

The wanted Victorian women: Historic mugshots reveal the cunning faces of England�s Nineteenth Century bad girls 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

khou.com Houston: French Fry Heaven serves fries, a whole menu of fries, nothing but fries.

Today's Vintage Ad


This Is Not from The Onion

Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops

Donald Wollheim and the Ace Double Novel

Donald Wollheim and the Ace Double Novel

PaperBack



Don Tracy, Fun & Deadly Games, Pocket Books, 1968

17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand

17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

CouchBunker: Charles Alan invents world's first bulletproof sofa with 30-rifle vault underneath couch cushions

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

10 Fantasy Authors Who Fight The Patriarchy, Gender-Stereotypes, And Possibly Dragons

10 Fantasy Authors Who Fight The Patriarchy, Gender-Stereotypes, And Possibly Dragons

50 Science Fiction/Fantasy Films That Everyone Should See

50 Science Fiction/Fantasy Films That Everyone Should See

17 Heart-Stopping Foods At The Iowa State Fair

17 Heart-Stopping Foods At The Iowa State Fair

Cartoon of the Day

link

Petroglyph Update

Ancient rock etchings found in Nevada could be oldest in North America 

California Conquest

1952 CALIFORNIA CONQUEST TRAILER CORNEL WILDE - YouTube:

Friday, August 16, 2013

Dancing With Dead Men - James Reasoner (My 300th Novel)

Rough Edges: Now Available: Dancing With Dead Men - James Reasoner (My 300th Novel)

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Drunk Woman Goes on Rampage and Destroys 80 Wedding Gowns

Archaeology Update

Discovery News: Small carved stones unearthed in a nearly 5,000-year-old burial could represent the earliest gaming tokens ever found, according to Turkish archaeologists who are excavating early Bronze Age graves.

Link via Boing Boing.

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

Amazon.com: Fight Card: Barefoot Bones (Fight Card Series) eBook: Jack Tunney, Paul Bishop, Mel Odom, Bobby Nash: Kindle Store: Korea, 1951 

Mentored in the hollows of hardscrabble Georgia by mysterious loner Old Man Winter, then in a Chicago orphanage by ex-fighter Father Tim Brophy, James ‘Barefoot Bones’ Mason has relied on his fists to make his mark. But it’s a long way from St. Vincent’s Asylum For Boys to the battlefields of Korea where Bones’ fists may not be enough. 

Entered in an inter-camp boxing tournament by his commanding officer, Bones finds himself in a war within a war. When a tenuous cease fire is explosively shattered, Bone’s is fighting against the highest odds of all – staying alive. 

Can a skinny kid from the north Georgia mountains survive the hell of Korea and still have the guts to climb back into the ring one more time? The one constant in Bones’ life has been fighting – Lucky for him, he’s good at it. 

Song of the Day

▶ Dean Martin - Powder Your Face With Sunshine - YouTube:

5 Mind-Blowing True Stories Behind Famous Movie Locations

5 Mind-Blowing True Stories Behind Famous Movie Locations

Today's Vintage Ads

When Copywriters Tried Harder

Michael Swanwick on Why He Doesn't Slam Other Writers' Work

Flogging Babel: On My Refusal To Mock My Brothers And Sisters

Link via Boing Boing.

Cartoon of the Day

Link

PaperBack



Maurice LeBlanc, Wanton Venus, Novel Library, 1948

Richard III Update

Descendants of Richard III win right to bury exhumed remains in York cathedral

PRO-FILE: LIBBY FISCHER HELLMAN

Ed Gorman's blog: PRO-FILE: LIBBY FISCHER HELLMAN

Book Review: Ironside by Jim Thompson

Book Dirt: Book Review: Ironside by Jim Thompson

7 fiction authors whose careers were extended by ghostwriters

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain: 7 fiction authors whose careers were extended by ghostwriters

Archaeology Update (Badger Edition)

NBC News.com: A badger living in the countryside near the town of Stolpe recently uncovered a remarkable site: the 12th-century burial ground of eight people, two of whom were apparently Slavic warlords.

Some More Forgotten SF

Vintage Treasures: The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum

Another Forgotten SF Book

Book Review: 'Her Smoke Rose Up Forever,' By James Tiptree Jr. | Author, Feminist, Pioneer

Another Forgotten Book

Vintage Treasures: The Best of Edmond Hamilton

Paris Hilton Update

Paris Hilton shows off her super svelte figure in two bikinis... before getting covered in foam during Ibiza DJ set 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Book Giveaway!

FREE STRIPPERS! | Eric Beetner

50 More Forgotten Books

50 of the Best Books You Haven’t Read by Authors You Already Love 

Frontlist Features: HAVANA LOST by Libby Hellmann

Top Suspense Group: Frontlist Features: HAVANA LOST by Libby Hellmann

Forgotten Books: Stranger at Home -- George Sanders (Leigh Brackett)

When Ed Gorman did a post on this novel a year or so ago, I thought that I'd like to read it.  The other day I ran across another reference to it and decided that it was time.  

Although George Sanders is listed as the author, most sources credit it to Leigh Brackett.  After reading the book, I believe them.  (Sanders' other crime novel was supposedly written by Craig Rice; I haven't read that one.)

Micheal Vickers returns home after having been missing for four years.  While on a trip with three of his buddies, he disappeared in Mexico.  One of the three drugged his drink, slugged him in the head, and left him for dead.  Vickers survived, and what happened in Mexico is only hinted at, though it was probably something like what happened to Lloyd Wescott in John D. MacDonald's The Empty Trap, which has a little in common with Stranger at Home.  Whereas the MacDonald book concentrates on Wescott's time in Mexico, Vickers' experiences there are merely hinted at.  The concern here is his unexpected return and his interest in finding out which of the three men tried to kill him.  Another concern is how Vickers has changed.  He's come to realize that he was a pretty terrible person.  He's different now, but he's still ruthless.  

Besides the three friends, there are questions about Vickers' wife.  Was the loyal to him?  All three of the friends were in love with her, and it's pretty certain that was one reason for the attempted murder.  And then there's the wife's companion, Joan.  She's hated Vickers ever since she met him.

There's not a lot of action in the book.  It's all atmosphere and psychological suspense told in a terse, hardboiled style, with some great local color with Los Angeles in the late '40s, too.  It all works very well.  Check it out.

Cry Danger

1951 CRY DANGER TRAILER NOIR DICK POWELL - YouTube:

Thursday, August 15, 2013

BOBBY NASH ON WRITING FIGHT CARD: BAREFOOT BONES

BISH'S BEAT: AND IN THIS CORNER … BOBBY NASH ON WRITING FIGHT CARD: BAREFOOT BONES

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

This is a massive anthology, over 700 pages, and if you're interested in the history of fantastic literature you'll want a copy of this one. A few of the authors are noted on the cover, but there are a lot more. Most readers of this blog will have read at least some of the stories, but I suspect that there are several that will be new to many of you.  The introduction by Peter S. Beagle is only 3 pages long, but it's wonderful.

The Treasury of the Fantastic: David Sandner, Jacob Weisman, Peter S. Beagle: 9781616960964: Amazon.com: Books: The fantastic, the supernatural, the poetic, and the macabre entwine in this incomparable culmination of storytelling. Imaginative stories of wit and intelligence weave through vivid landscapes that are alternately wondrous and terrifying. Bringing together major literary figures from the 19th and 20th centuries—from Alfred Lord Tennyson and Edith Wharton to Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde—these masters of English and American literature created unforgettable tales where goblins and imps comingle with humans from all walks of life. This deftly curated assemblage of notable classics and unexpected gems from the pre-Tolkien era will captivate and enchant readers. Forerunners of today's speculative fiction, these are the authors that changed the fantasy genre, forever.

13 stars (and one director) who refused to promote their own movies

13 stars (and one director) who refused to promote their own movies

10 Miniature Books We Covet

10 Miniature Books We Covet

Song of the Day

▶ GONE GIRL-TOMPALL AND THE GLASER BROTHERS.wmv - YouTube:

Ron Burgundy Update

Ron Burgundy's Autobiography On The Way

Today's Vintage Ads

Times were different… 

40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World

40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World 

Hat tip to Doc Quatermass.

Some of You Will Want to Check out the Paperback Collection

This Book Publisher Didn't Let Hurricane Sandy Sink Her

PaperBack



Jack Woodford, The Passionate Princess, Novel Library, 1948

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

And keep off her lawn!

Woman opens fire on group of robbers at Denny's

10 Weird Historical Coincidences

10 Weird Historical Coincidences

Stephen King Update

How Stephen King’s Joyland Broke a Decade-Long Dry Spell and Dominated the Summer

Harlan Ellison Interviews Robert Silverberg

Harlan Ellison Interviews Robert Silverberg (1986 Audio Interview) (It takes a while to get to the interview, but it's all fun.)

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Sam Horowitz's Bar Mitzvah: Boy's incredible performance complete with dancers goes viral 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Allen Lanier, R. I. P.

Blue Oyster Cult Founder Allen Lanier Dead at 66: Founding Blue Oyster Cult keyboardist and guitarist Allen Lanier has died at the age of 66 after being hospitalized with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, according to the band’s official Facebook page. “DFTR sweet man,” the post reads, in apparent reference to their hit ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper.’ “We love you and miss you.”

80 Years of Drive-in Theaters

80 Years of Drive-in Theaters

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Yogo truck driver pulls knife on Mister Softee rival in midtown ice cream turf war

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Mr. Winkle Goes to War

1944 MR. WINKLE GOES TO WAR TRAILER EDW. G. ROBINSON - YouTube:

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Happy Birthday, Steve Martin!

10 Steve Martin Facts in Honor of His Birthday

Israel Keyes, serial killer

Israel Keyes, serial killer: The most meticulous serial killer of modern times is taunting the FBI from beyond the grave.

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

Amazon.com: Roman Dalton - Werewolf PI eBook: Paul D. Brazill: Kindle Store: When a full moon fills the night sky, Private Investigator Roman Dalton becomes a werewolf and prowls The City's neon and blood soaked streets. 

Roman Dalton - Werewolf PI is a short, sharp collection of vivid and violent noir horror stories. 

Drunk On The Moon 
The Missionary
Black Moon Rising
The Brain Salad Murders
She's My Witch
Before The Moon Falls

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Texas cops raid farm commune when mistaking tomato plants for marijuana

I Want to Believe!

Is this a UFO flying across Texas? Mysterious video shows low-flying 'orb' travelling across skyline?

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Cops: Man allegedly bit off piece of best bud's ear ... "just a small piece" 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Why Do They Call Grandfather Clocks by That Name?

Why Do They Call Grandfather Clocks by That Name?

Song of the Day

▶ Johnny Cash - My Grandfather's Clock - YouTube:

Don't Forget to Buy Your Copies

I'll be signing at Murder by the Book in Houston on Saturday at 4:30.  Come by and see me, or order your signed copy from the efficient folks who handle the mail and phone orders.

Today's Vintage Ad


Before They Were Stars:

Before They Were Stars: 7 Early Films Featuring Hollywood Royalty 

Tompall Glaser, R. I. P.

Tompall Glaser, outlaw country artist, dies at 79: Thomas Paul "Tompall" Glaser — a staunchly independent singer, songwriter, studio owner, publisher and recording artist and a central figure in country music's much-vaunted "Outlaw Movement" of the 1970s — died Tuesday at his Nashville home after a long illness. Glaser, who was featured on Wanted! The Outlaws, country music's first million-selling album, was 79.

PaperBack



Jack Woodford, Three Gorgeous Hussies, Novel Library, 1948.

Naaturally You'll Want to Read This

Ed Gorman's blog: PRO-FILE: BILL CRIDER

I Miss the Old Days

Yearbook Portraits, Saint Joseph’s College, Brooklyn

Doing the Climb

theCHIVE: Some of the world’s most brilliantly decorated stairs

Link via mental_floss.

Yet Another List I'm Not On

Top 10 Writers Who Disowned Their Own Work

Don't Worry, Be Happy

10 Simple, Science-Backed Ways To Be Happier Today 

Beware My Lovely

Beware My Lovely (1952) trailer - YouTube:

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

10 Hitchcock Quotes for His Birthday

10 Hitchcock Quotes for His Birthday

PRO-FILE: MAX ALLAN COLLINS

Ed Gorman's blog: PRO-FILE: MAX ALLAN COLLINS

In Case You Missed It . . .

Here's a nice review: Compound Murder by Bill Crider

20 Adorably Awkward Yearbook Photos Of Pop Stars

20 Adorably Awkward Yearbook Photos Of Pop Stars

Song of the Day

▶ The Rolling Stones- Play With Fire -HQ - YouTube:

The 10 Most Impressive Beards In Literature

The 10 Most Impressive Beards In Literature

Today's Vintage Ad


Top Suspense Group: Frontlist Features: COMPOUND MURDER by Bill Crider

Top Suspense Group: Frontlist Features: COMPOUND MURDER by Bill Crider

Today's the Day! Buy a Copy and Make an Old Man Happy.

Amazon.com: Compound Murder: A Dan Rhodes Mystery (Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mysteries) (9780312641658): Bill Crider: Books: Before classes start one morning, the body of English instructor Earl Wellington is found outside the building of the community college. Wellington was clearly involved in a struggle with someone and has died as a result. Sheriff Dan Rhodes pursues and arrests Ike Terrell, a student who was fleeing the campus. Ike's father is Able Terrell, a survivalist who has withdrawn from society and lives in a gated compound.  He’s not happy that his son has chosen to attend the college, and he's even less happy with the arrest. 

Rhodes discovers that Wellington and Ike had had a confrontation over a paper that Wellington insisted Ike plagiarized. Wellington also had had a confrontation with the dean and was generally disliked by the students. As the number of suspects increases, it’s up to Rhodes to solve the murder while also dealing with an amusing but frustrating staff, a professor who wants to be a cop, and all the other normal occurrences that can wreak havoc in a small town.

Paris Hilton Update

Paris Hilton soaks up the sun in a daring cut-out crochet monokini as she ditches wild Ibiza for chilled Formentera

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

PaperBack



Freeman Wills Crofts, Wilful and Premeditated, Avon, 1941

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

The Bellingham Herald: A Sudden Valley man must serve 20 days of jail time for threatening a pregnant woman because she was smoking a cigarette.

Charles Bukowski Reads His "Friendly Advice to a Lot of Young Men"

Charles Bukowski Reads His "Friendly Advice to a Lot of Young Men"

Books Set in Libraries

Books Set in Libraries

Texas BBQ Posse

Texas BBQ Posse: Kirby's BBQ in my old hometown.  Great stuff!

4 Insane Things People Just Found Underground

Why is everything on the Internet "insane" or "awesome"?

4 Insane Things People Just Found Underground

Douglas R. Mason, R. I. P.

Locus Online News: Douglas R. Mason, 94, who also wrote as John Rankine, died in early August 2013. 

Mason was a prolific writer from 1964 until the early ’80s. His first story, as Rankine, was “Two’s Company” (1964). He published numerous SF books under that name, notably the Dag Fletcher space opera series, beginning with collection The Blockage of Sinitron: Four Adventures of Dag Fletcher (1966). He also wrote the Space Corporation series, several standalone space operas, and numerous Space: 1999 tie-in novels. As Mason he wrote nearly 20 novels, including From Carthage then I Came (1966; as Eight Against Utopia, 1967), Matrix (1970), The Phaeton Condition (1973), and Pitman’s Progress (1976). Some of his stories from the ’60s and ’70s were collected in Tuo Yaw (2003) and BAZOZZ ZZ DZZ: And Other Short Stories (2003), including some unpublished work.

ink via SF Signal.

New York Leads the Way

Study: Best Cities to Make Friends: Top 10 Cities to Meet People and Make Friends

Overlooked Movies: Cocoon

I was already starting to feel my age a bit when I first saw this movie nearly 30 years ago, but I loved it.  I've always found the ideas of rejuvenation and immortality fascinating in SF stories, so I was primed for this one.

Ancient astronauts had an earth outpost on the island of Atlantis, and when it was destroyed, twenty of the aliens had to stay behind.  The aliens are on cocoons.  The ones who return to pick them up can assume human form, and the water that gives the cocoons life force is in a swimming pool in a swanky house.  Naturally some older human folks get into the pool and suddenly find their youthful vigor returning.  This causes some problems, especially when the word gets out about the pool and an entire nursing home takes advantage.

This screws up the life force in the water, but the cocoons can survive in sea water.  When the aliens leave, they offer the nursing home residents a ride to their home planet where they'll life happily forever, free of disease and pain.  This has even more appeal to me now than it did in 1985.  Not everyone takes advantage of the opportunity.  One major character, played by Jack Guilford, chooses to remain here to age and die.  I know what choice I'd make.

Great cast. Don Ameche, Hume Cronyn, Wilford Brimley, Brian Dennehy, Jessica Tandy, Maureen Stapelton, and, yes, Steve Gutenberg.  All doing a swell job.

Cocoon

Cocoon (1985) - Trailer - YouTube:

Monday, August 12, 2013

You Could Be Livin' on Tulsa Time!

10 Affordable Cities Where Luxury Apartments Are Within Your Reach

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Hard Case Crime Update from Charles Ardai

Eight years ago, I reached out to Michael Crichton – author of JURASSIC PARK and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, scripter of WESTWORLD and TWISTER, creator of the TV show ER --  to see whether he might let us reprint some of the wonderful paperback thrillers he wrote under  the top-secret pen name “John Lange” back when he was a student at Harvard Medical School.

I knew the odds weren’t good, since he hadn’t acknowledged those books publicly or let anyone reprint them (at least in this country – I think he may have given the nod to a foreign edition or two). But…nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I wrote to him. And to my delight and surprise he said yes – provided that we keep his secret.  That is, he wanted our John Lange books to be published as by John Lange, sort of the way J.K. Rowling recently published her new crime novel as by “Robert Galbraith.” We weren’t to breathe a word of his real identity.  Well, of course we said yes, and he and we had a lot of fun working together, first on a reissue of the Edgar Award-nominated GRAVE DESCEND and then on one of ZERO COOL (for which Michael even penned two new chapters set in the present day to open and close the book…the first new writing he’d done as John Lange in more than 30 years!).  He enjoyed the new covers Greg Manchess painted for the books and the old-fashioned paperback feel, and we were talking with him about which Lange book to reissue next – ODDS ON or DRUG OF CHOICE? – when he was suddenly taken from us by cancer at the age of 66.

Working with Michael (even if we had to keep it secret) was one of the great pleasures and privileges of my career, and ever since, I’ve wished we could have completed what we began. I’ve also wondered whether Michael might eventually have given in to temptation and written a whole new Lange novel for us -- no less persuasive a figure than Stephen King was encouraging him to do so! Alas, a new Lange novel will never be…but we’re very pleased to announce that five years later we finally will get to finish what we started.  We’re going to be bringing all eight John Lange novels back to bookstores for the first time in more than four decades – and with the blessing of Michael’s family, the first time ever under the his real name.

The books are terrific reads, really delicious examples of Michael experimenting with the genres he would become famous for in later life – you’ll find sinister consequences of bioengineering (on a secret island vacation resort, no less!), you’ll find a race-against-the-clock political thriller penned long before the TV series “24,” you’ll find an archaeology professor hunting for a lost tomb in the Egyptian desert decades before Harrison Ford ever donned a fedora…plus a heist of a luxury hotel planned with the aid of a computer, a case of mistaken identity that pits an innocent man against a league of assassins, and more, all presented behind the gorgeous painted cover art of Greg Manchess and Glen Orbik. 

If you’re curious to learn more about the books, all eight of them are now up on our website, www.hardcasecrime.com, and you can see the attached announcement we’re issuing later this morning.  You should also, of course, feel free to email or call me with questions.  If you’d like images of the cover art, feel free to grab them from our site, or let me know if you want higher-resolution copies.

And please, if you think your readers might be excited by this news, share it with them.  The first four Lange books hit stores at the end of October, the second four in early November – just in time to be a perfect holiday treat for a Crichton fan, a Hard Case Crime fan, or just a fan of great storytelling.

Hope you’ll help us spread the word.

Defending our Precious Freedoms

Woman Drives Around Pro-Smoking Van

Hat tip to John Duke.

Neanderthal Update

GlobalPost: Sophisticated leather-working equipment found in a cave in France offer the first evidence that Neanderthals had more advanced bone tools than early modern humans, researchers said Monday.

Comic Strip of the Day


Interview: Anthony Neil Smith

The Coping With Sanity Interview: Anthony Neil Smith | Bryon Quertermous

Robert E. Howard Update

UT’s Ransom Center Gets Glenn Lord’s Robert E. Howard Manuscripts

5 Cars That Defined the Woodie

5 Cars That Defined the Woodie and the 5 Worst Woodies Ever Made

Song of the Day

▶ The Mamas & The Papas - Monday Monday - YouTube:

Yet Another List I'm Not On

Top 10 Youngest Billionaires in the World

Today's Vintage Ad


A Review of Interest (To Me, Anyway)

Compound Murder by Bill Crider: If you are not familiar with these books, I guarantee if you read one, you will be on the hunt for every Sheriff Dan Rhodes book and not be satisfied until you have completed the series.

Read the whole thing.  That might convince you to buy the book.  August 13 is the release date.

Gator Update (A Capella Edition)

A Cappella Alligator would be a great name for a rock band, but it also works for a one-man harmony group.

PaperBack



Hall Bennett, Manhandled, Century Books, 1947

12 Best Fictional Libraries (Movies & TV Only)

12 Best Fictional Libraries

9 Incredibly Reckless Classic Cartoons We'd Never Let Our Kids Watch Now

9 Incredibly Reckless Classic Cartoons We'd Never Let Our Kids Watch Now 

16 Bookstores You Have To See Before You Die

16 Bookstores You Have To See Before You Die

New Poem at The 5-2

The 5-2 | Crime Poetry Weekly, Gerald So, Editor: Elisa Albo STEALING POETRY

I Found a Penny Last Week

12-year-old unearths 5.16 carat diamond

Or Maybe You Have

10 Creepy Historical Vampires You've Never Heard Of 

ABBA Update

Limited edition ABBA maxi-single sells for $6,400 at Swedish auction

Hellgate

Hellgate 1952 Trailer - YouTube:

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Finally, a Crime Novelist Gets Some Respect

Pope blesses plans to make writer of Father Brown stories G.K. Chesterton a saint

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Jody Payne, R. I. P.

NY Daily News: Jody Payne, a guitarist who toured with Willie Nelson for more than three decades, has died. He was 77.

I Miss the Old Days

New York City, 1980 - How New Yorkers beat the heat: Summer in the Big Apple through the years 

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson. 

Annoying slideshow alert. 

Ella Clah – the CBS Pilot Aimee and David Thurlo

Ella Clah – the CBS Pilot  Aimee and David Thurlo

7 Modern Conveniences That Are Way Older Than You Think

7 Modern Conveniences That Are Way Older Than You Think

Song of the Day

▶ Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing | NOT LIVE !!! | CD version !!! | Original w/ lyrics in description - YouTube:

Marilyn King, R. I. P.

Marilyn King, last and youngest of King Sisters, dies: Marilyn King, the youngest and last surviving member of the popular jazz-vocal group the King Sisters, has died at 82 after battling cancer.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Texas boy mows lawns, raises $16K for Moore, OK 

The Rise and Fall of Katharine Hepburn's Fake Accent

The Atlantic: When Hollywood turned to talkies, it created a not-quite-British, not-quite-American style of speaking that has all but disappeared.

Today's Vintage Ad


Songs About Prison

Songs About Prison

Soviet Space Propaganda Posters

Retronaut - Soviet Space Propaganda Posters

PaperBack



Saul Levinson, Murder is Dangerous, Handi-Book, 1951

Cartoon of the Day

http://www.gocomics.com/zackhill/2013/08/11/

World’s Loudest Animals

World’s Loudest Animals

Slideshow warning.

Is It Duck Tape or Duct Tape?

Is It Duck Tape or Duct Tape?

This Day in History

Rockabilly N Blues Records: Elvis releases Don't Be Cruel in 1956

Hemingway's Ideas of Heaven and Hell

Hemingway's Ideas of Heaven and Hell: The 26-Year-Old Author's Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald

10 Creepy Tales About Clowns

10 Creepy Tales About Clowns

Frontier Phantom

1952 FRONTIER PHANTOM TRAILER LASH LA RUE - YouTube: