Saturday, October 15, 2016

Dennis Byrd, R. I. P.

NY Daily News: Former Jets defensive lineman Dennis Byrd was killed in a car crash Saturday on a state highway north of Claremore, Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol confirmed. He was 50.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The Coward of Little Big Horn

The Coward of Little Big Horn: Or not? Depends on which witnesses you believe in the inquiry against Marcus Reno.

Song of the Day

Jack Scott - My True Love - YouTube:

Monumental Scholarly Dictionary of Slang Is Now Online

Monumental Scholarly Dictionary of Slang Is Now Online 

Today's Vintage Ad


The Horny Toad That Wouldn't Die

The Ballad of Ol' Rip, the Horny Toad That Wouldn't Die: After 31 years entombed in a stone, this Texas icon came back to life.

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Richard Cargoe, Brave Harvest, Ballantine, 1954

The Weird Week in Review

The Weird Week in Review 

Check It Out

44 Caliber Funk Excl HC edition: Return with us now to those purple haze days of platform shoes, rhinestone studded sunglasses, the Panthers, disco and Blaxploitation- in Forty-Four Caliber Funk, an anthology of street crime prose stories. From Daddy Cool by Donald Goines, Shaft by Earnest Tidyman, and the influences of Malcolm X , Timothy Leary and William Burroughs -- with a soundtrack by Donna Summer, James Brown, and The Rolling Stones. The editors are Chester Himes award winner Gary Phillips and Robert J. Randisi, winner of the 2016 Killer Nashville John Seigenthaler Legends Award.

12 Howling Facts About ‘The Wolf Man’

12 Howling Facts About ‘The Wolf Man’

The Most Popular TV Show in Each State

The Most Popular TV Show in Each State

Friday, October 14, 2016

EQMM 75th Anniversary Video and Audio

75th ANNIVERSARY: SYMPOSIUM MEDIA AND MORE 

21 Shades of Noir: Lee Child on John D MacDonald

BBC Radio 4 - 21 Shades of Noir: Lee Child on John D MacDonald

Django Zorro -- Quentin Tarantino (Author), Matt Wagner (Author, Artist), Francesco Francavilla (Artist), Jae Lee (Artist)

I don't read a lot of graphic novels, but I couldn't resist the idea of a crossover starring Zorro and Django (the Tarantino version).  It has the added benefit of being loosely based on the story of James Reavis, the Baron of Arizona, which was made into a movie starring Vincent Price and which was the first movie I remember having seen at a drive-in.  

In this story we have the Archduke of Arizona, who's evil through and through.  He's planning to build a railroad through his territory to California and there for get beat the transcontinental to the punch.  Or something like that.  It's a scam to get a lot of money from investors like the wealthy Don Diego de la Vega.

On his way to the archduke's estate, de la Vega meets up with Django and hires him as his bodyguard.  De la Vega is older now, but he still has all his Zorro skills, and he's heard that the archduke is enslaving Indians to build his railroad.  Django takes the job, and when he finds out what's going on at the archduke's holdings, he's not happy.  Lots of gunplay ensues, along with swordplay and whipplay.  It's all good.

The story is a bit heavy-handed, but it's fun, and the art is great.  The contrast between Zorro's methods and those of Django is also interesting.  The two work together well, despite their differences.  While it's not likely I'll be reading a lot more graphic novels in the future, I enjoyed this one.

Uh-Oh

MTV is developing a sexy, teen-friendly War Of The Worlds series

Or Maybe You Do

18 Celebrity Workout Videos You Might Not Know Existed

Song of the Day

Smiley Lewis - I Hear You Knockin' - YouTube:

I Miss the Old Days

70s pop songs; for when good music simply won’t do.

Today's Vintage Ad


And now the real news

Weekly tabloid roundup

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Daphne Rooke, Ratoons, Ballantine, 1953 

Jonathan Lethem on the Lost Conversations of Ross Macdonald

Jonathan Lethem on the Lost Conversations of Ross Macdonald 

The Many Sides of Bob Dylan

The Many Sides of Bob Dylan: A Nobel Laureate in Six Songs: The shape-shifting Nobel laureate embodies the contradictions within the American dream—and his many phases and stages show why he deserves the prestigious prize.

Edwardian First Editions

The Virginian by Owen Wister (1902)Edwardian First Editions: The Edwardian era began with Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 and stretched until 1910 when Edward VII died. A mere nine years hardly constitutes anything worthwhile but it was a period of immense change and memorable literature. First editions from this era are plentiful and easy to find. First editions, complete with dust jackets, from this era are scarce and more expensive.

FFB: Winter Girl -- Harry Whittington

According to David Laurence Wilson's excellent (as usual) intro to the Stark House triple decker that contains Winter Girl, Harry Whittington wrote the novel for Gold Medal.  It was rejected, and he put the manuscript away, only to resurrect it and rework it as Taste of Desire one of the soft porn novels he did as "Curt Colman."  The Stark House version is as close to the original as we will get.  I have the Colman book, but I'm not going to do a comparison.

Winter Girl is one of Whittington's backwoods book, about a good-looking young man named Calder, who trains a bird dog that's coveted by the man (Berlinger) his father works for.  I'm not going to kid you -- bad things happen to the dog, so consider yourself warned.  Calder gets involved with Berlinger's daughter, who's rich and wild, and he can't seem to learn that true love doesn't fit in her plans.  He'd be much better off with another girl, Willi Ruth, but he's too stubborn and proud to see that.  At first, anyway, and that leads him into a lot of trouble.

Wilson says if Winter Girl isn't Whittington's best book, "he never wrote a better one."  High praise, indeed. 

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

HPD: 911 operator says “ain’t nobody got time for this” and hangs up on callers

Now Available from Rough Edges Press

The Savage Pack by [Blosser, Fred]The Savage Pack - Kindle edition by Fred Blosser:  The North Carolina wilderness is a dangerous place in 1714. Trappers and traders Axtel Fannin and Jesse Driggs rescue a beautiful young woman and her brother from kidnappers, only to find themselves entangled in a scheme that may cost them their lives. They and their friends will need every bit of their skill as woodsmen and fighters to survive a savage pack of killers driven by vengeance and greed.

Patricia Barry, R. I. P.

Fox News: Patricia Barry, a mainstay of daytime television who appeared on "Days of Our Lives," ''Guiding Light" and "All My Children," has died. She was 93.

How Ed Gein Inspired Classic Horror Movies

The Real Texas Chainsaw Massacre: How Ed Gein Inspired Classic Horror Movies 

Song of the Day

Simon & Garfunkel - America - YouTube:

Or Maybe You Did

14 Facts You May Not Have Known About Gone With The Wind

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott.

The Champagne Toasts Have Come and Gone!

The Champagne Toasts Have Come and Gone! | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: And Now Here Is the Solution to Our 75th Anniversary Contest, Our List of Winners, and Josh Pachter’s Report on “Easter Eggs” in Arthur Vidro’s Contest Story

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David Dodge, Angel's Ransom, Dell, 1959

TS Eliot Update

The Guardian: A digital trove of letters, essays and photographs disclose the Nobel laureate’s views on detective fiction, poetry publishing – and his ‘dread’ of the US

Gator Update (Texas Record Edition)

Everything is bigger in Texas! Largest alligator EVER caught in the Lone Star State is relocated to reptile facility after the 13.5ft reptile got too close to people  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
 

Dario Fo, R. I. P.

The New York Times: Dario Fo, the Italian playwright, director and performer whose scathingly satirical work earned him both praise and condemnation, as well as the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature, died on Thursday in Milan. He was 90.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

I Miss the Old Days

Halloween Then And Now

Wow

Bob Dylan Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature 

You Can't Blame Him for Leaving the Math Homework

Houston Chronicle: Police are searching for a burglary suspect who left behind a crowbar, a backpack full of tools and math homework earlier this year at a car dealership in Sugar Land. 

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Texas Cops: Husband Faked Own Kidnapping to Hang With Pals: Rogelio Andaverde apparently really wanted to get out of the house  

Hat tip to Deb.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Texas church’s anti-craft beer ad backfires, gets people cheaper beer

I Found a Penny in the Walmart Parking Lot Last Week

Dad rocks! Father, daughter find big diamond in Arkansas park  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

The 12 most controversial facts in mathematics

Lee Child: Celebrating mystery fiction master MacDonald

Lee Child: Celebrating mystery fiction master MacDonald  

Hat tip to Fred Zackel.

Song of the Day

Darling Be Home Soon - Lovin' Spoonful - YouTube:

Inside the pages of a 1981 Radio Shack catalog

Inside the pages of a 1981 Radio Shack catalog

Today's Vintage Ad


The Man Who Invented Bookselling As We Know It

The Man Who Invented Bookselling As We Know It: Today, few people are likely to remember James Lackington (1746-1815) and his once-famous London bookshop, The Temple of the Muses, but if, as a customer, you’ve ever bought a remaindered book at deep discount, or wandered thoughtfully through the over-stocked shelves of a cavernous bookstore, or spent an afternoon lounging in the reading area of a bookshop (without buying anything!) then you’ve already experienced some of the ways that Lackington revolutionized bookselling in the late 18th century.

PaperBack



Byron Preiss, Guts, Illustrated by Gray Morrow and Michael Golden, Ace, 1979

I Miss the Old Days

Retrospace: Vintage Styles #55: 50s Hats

I Found a Penny in the Walmart Parking Lot Last Week

Ancient Viking rune stone, missing for 200 years, unearthed in Sweden

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

A Clear Path to a Clear Fork Post: A Texas man’s path of exceptional stewardship over a fort that traces back to the 1850s.

Clowning Around in Arts, Photography & Literature

Not all Clowns are Scary. Clowning Around in Arts, Photography & Literature

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

CWA Dagger Awards

Mystery Fanfare: CWA Dagger Awards

The Doctor Who Designed a Cipher Wheel to Decode Shakespeare

The Doctor Who Designed a Cipher Wheel to Decode Shakespeare

Song of the Day

Mark Dinning....."Top 40, News, And Weather, And Sports". - YouTube:

Study ranks curse words’ offensiveness

Swear words: Ofcom study ranks curse words’ offensiveness  

Trigger Warning: Curse words.

Today's Vintage Ad


Joe Lansdale on Donald Trump

My Neighbors are Voting for Trump and It's Not Because They're Rednecks  

Trigger Warning: Snarky leftwing humor.

The 4 Hardest-to-Find Bookstores in the World

The 4 Hardest-to-Find Bookstores in the World


Patte Wheat Mahan, Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (Three for a Wedding), Avon, 1967

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

The Scariest Movie Monsters 

John D. MacDonald and The Taxpayers' Research Bureau

The Trap of Solid Gold: The Taxpayers' Research Bureau

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee. . . .

'Man bun' jibes spark drunken brawl on flight to Alicante

Bad Movie Night: ‘Mommie Dearest’

Bad Movie Night: The Blisteringly Overcooked Madness of ‘Mommie Dearest’

Overlooked Movies: Mr. and Mrs. Smith

No, not the Mr. and Mrs. Smith starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.  This is the comedy starring Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Yes, Alfred Hitchcock.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith discover that they aren't really married.  I think I saw an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show that had the same idea, but it was handled very differently.  Mr. and Mrs. Smith feud all the time, and it just happens that the day before they find out about the marriage, Ann (the Mrs.) asks David (the Mr.) if  he would marry her again if given the chance.  He says no.  This was, as you might have guessed already, the wrong answer.

You have to know going in that everything that happens after that depends on one person acting really illogically, and that person is Lombard.  It's kind of tough to like her and put up with it, but she almost pulls it off, being Lombard.  Robert Montgomery is very funny and gets a lot of the laughs, such as they are.  Of course you know all along how it will end.

I like the "Not suitable for general exhibition" warning label.  The double entendres and mild sex jokes wouldn't raise an eyebrow on a children's show today.

I was amused by the movie, but I didn't laugh out loud.  Montgomery has a good scene with a cat in a restaurant that almost did the trick, though.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941) - Trailer - YouTube:

Monday, October 10, 2016

The Greatest Girl Gang in History

The Greatest Girl Gang in History

Song of the Day

Chubby Checker Lovely lovely - YouTube:

Here's the Plot for Your Next Novel about the Art World

How Sotheby’s Got Hoodwinked: The Art World’s $20m Forgery Scandal

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott.

How Libraries Save Lives

How Libraries Save Lives 

PaperBack



Arkadi & Boris Strugatski, Hard to be a God, Daw, 1974

15 Farm-Fresh Facts About 'Green Acres'

15 Farm-Fresh Facts About 'Green Acres' 

Gator Update (Cuff 'im Edition)

Alligator apprehended, cuffed near Davie apartment complex   

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

Top 10 Best Supercars from the 1960s

Meet Spring-Heeled Jack

Meet Spring-Heeled Jack, the Leaping Devil That Terrorized Victorian England

Sunday, October 09, 2016

Ancient Mayan codex found to be oldest document from the Americas

Ancient Mayan codex found to be oldest document from the Americas 

Song of the Day

patsy cline life's railway to heaven - YouTube:

H.G. Wells Wasn't Happy

H.G. Wells Hid A Sick Burn Inside 'The War of The Worlds': The image of three-legged Martian attack tripods and rivers covered in strange red weeds, are now iconic symbols of alien invasion, thanks to H.G. Wells’ influential science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds. But when his story was first published, the illustrations were a far cry from the otherworldly imagery described in the text.

Today's Vintage Ad


Meet Jonathan Livingston Crab

Atlas Obscura: Meet Jonathan Livingston Crab, the world's most venerable pet hermit crab.

PaperBack



Ellery Queen, The Murderer Is a Fox, Dell, 1966

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

10 insane stunt scenes from throughout movie history  (Video)

The Weird Week in Review

The Weird Week in Review

Yes

Do commas still matter?