Saturday, September 30, 2017

Hammett: Prepare Yourself for the Complete Op

Hammett: Prepare Yourself for the Complete Op, In Time for Xmas 

Monty Hall, R. I. P.

The New York Times: Monty Hall, the genial host and co-creator of “Let’s Make a Deal,” the game show on which contestants in outlandish costumes shriek and leap at the chance to see if they will win the big prize or the booby prize behind door No. 3, died at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday. He was 96.

Who Says Hollywood Is Out of Ideas?

‘The Nice Guys’ Female Series Reboot ‘The Nice Girls’ Set At Fox: Rebooting familiar titles with a gender twist is a popular tactic. There are a couple of such projects this development season, including Great American Hero and Kung Fu remakes with female leads.

Song of the Day

Read 10 of the Best Stories Ever Published in Playboy

Read 10 of the Best Stories Ever Published in Playboy

Today's Vintage Ad


I Miss the Old Days

45 Fascinating Photos That Show Students of the George Washington University in the Late 1950s

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Dorothy L. Sayers, In the Teeth of the Evidence, Avon, 1951

The Paris of the Mississippi

How New Orleans Became the Paris of the Mississippi 

5 Writing Tips: Harlan Coben

5 Writing Tips: Harlan Coben

Dollhouses of Death that trained America's Detectives

Dollhouses of Death that trained America's Detectives

Friday, September 29, 2017

Hugh Hefner's Final Resting Place

Hugh Hefner's Final Resting Place? The Plot He Bought Next To Marilyn Monroe   

Hat tip to John Duke.

Song of the Day

Today's Vintage Ad


Guy Villari, R. I. P.

Guy Villari, Original ‘Barbara Ann’ Singer, Dies at 75: Most classic rock fans are familiar with “Barbara Ann,” a #2 hit for the Beach Boys in 1966. And most are aware that the California group’s version was a cover of an earlier doo-wop hit. Guy Villari, the lead singer of the original on Gee Records, recorded with his group The Regents in 1958—and which became a hit in 1961—passed away in Middletown, N.Y., on Sept. 21. He was 75. 

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Ben Ames Williams, Valley Vixen (Hostile Valley), Avon, 1948

FFB: The Book that I Forgot

I was cleaning off a hard-to-get-to shelf when I ran across this book that had been stuck back there for years.  When I saw it, nostalgia hit me in the head like a hammer.

We didn't have a lot of books when I was a kid, but this was one of them.  My parents read it to me (and probably to my sister and brother) over and over.  After I learned to read, I read the stories dozens of times.  

We were hard on books, and the cover and copyright page are missing on this one, so I don't even know the title of the book.  What I do know is that the illustrations are as familiar to me as the backs of my hands.  It was a real treat to see them again and to read a couple of the stores.  My favorites when I was a kid were "The Brave Little Tailor," "Thumbelina," "Tom Thumb," and "Jack and the Beanstalk."  There's no question in my mind that these stories are a part of what made me who I am.  How could they not be.  I'll probably read all the stories again before I put the book back on a shelf.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Man wields machete, makes off with $17 worth of potato chips  

Hat tip to Lawrence Person.

Barry Dennen, R. I. P.

Deadline: Barry Dennen, who played Pontius Pilate in the original stage and film versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and earlier played a key role in Barbra Streisand’s emergence from cabaret unknown to superstar diva, died Tuesday morning in Burbank, where he was in hospice care. He was 79. Dennen had suffered a brain injury after a fall at home in June, according to Lucy Chase Williams, a close friend who confirmed the death to Deadline.

Anne Jeffreys, R. I. P.

Variety: Anne Jeffreys, the actress and singer known for her roles in the 1950s sitcom “Topper” and long-running daytime soap opera “General Hospital,” has died. She was 94.

The Long, Strange Story of Buffalo Bill's Corpse

The Long, Strange Story of Buffalo Bill's Corpse

Song of the Day

20 Facts About Your Favorite Coen Brothers Movies

20 Facts About Your Favorite Coen Brothers Movies

Today's Vintage Ad


I'm Sure You'll All Agree

Every Star Trek TV Show, Ranked From Worst to Best

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Edgar Saltus, The Imperial Orgy, Avon, 1947

I Miss the Old Days

19 Fascinating Vintage Studio Photos of Women in Their Super Sexy '50s Swimsuits

Paperbacks From Hell: An Interview with Author Grady Hendrix

Paperbacks From Hell: An Interview with Author Grady Hendrix

Albert Innaurato, R. I. P.

The New York Times: Albert Innaurato, a playwright who enjoyed spectacular success for a time in the late 1970s, including having a play run on Broadway for more than four years, has died in Philadelphia. He was 70.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Forgotten Hits: September 28th

Forgotten Hits: September 28th: A brand new '60's classic debuts at #57 this week as Aretha Franklin hits the chart with her latest, the Carole King tune "A Natural Woman".  

Includes quite a few songs you can listen to today.

Forgotten Music: Marty Robbins

Big Iron On His Hip: A personal account, by Arizona's official historian, of the singing drifter [Marty Robbins] whose most famous album was inducted this year into the National Recording Registry.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Hugh Hefner, R. I. P.

Hugh Hefner dead at 91. 

Slow Bullet -- John L. Lansdale

John L. Lansdale is the older brother of Joe Lansdale, and they've collaborated on a couple of books.  Most of John's work has been in comics, however.  He's only recently started writing, and he had quite an interesting and varied career before getting into the fiction game, a good bit of it in show business.

Slow Bullet is a straight-ahead thriller.  When Vietnam vet Clark McKay is notified of the "suicide" of a friend, he knows it's murder, and he sets out to find the killer.  The macguffin is a CIA file that the friend supposedly sent to McKay, although McKay doesn't have it and doesn't know where it is.  Not that it matters.  He becomes the target of everybody from the CIA to the mob.  

Lansdale tells the story in a stripped-down, bare-bones style, and it's almost all action with a high body count.  I lost count of the bodies, in fact,  and I even lost count of the number of times McKay is ambushed or attacked.  Things never slow down.  If there was ever a book where the protagonist faced one damned thing after another in rapid succession, this is the book.  If you're looking for character development, you've come to the wrong place.  This isn't about character; it's about action, and there's plenty of that.  Check it out.

“Thoughts on Noir and Story” (Robert Rivers)

“Thoughts on Noir and Story” (Robert Rivers) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: Pseudonymous new writer Robert Rivers appears in the Department of First Stories of EQMM’s current issue, September/October 2017. By day the Bostonian works for a Danish company that makes health-care products, making time to write in the early morning and on weekends. He earned an MFA from the writing program at Pine Manor College that was founded by Dennis Lehane, and he is well read in the field of crime fiction. His debut story, “Femme Fatale,” could be classified as “noir” fiction, and in this post he offers his thoughts on the defining qualities of that category. He tells EQMM he is currently working on a collection of stories. —Janet Hutchings

Song of the Day

A visual history of lunchboxes

Back to school time with a visual history of lunchboxes

Today's Vintage Ad


Man-Eating Space Lizards

Man-Eating Space Lizards: When V Was a TV Smash

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Agatha Christie, Death in the Air, Avon, 1946

The Marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio

The Marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio: He was the most famous and beloved baseball player in the world. She was the movies' most glamorous sex goddess. But our story begins not with Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, but with Marilyn and a much less famous ballplayer named Gus Zernial.

I Miss the Old Days

23 Fascinating Vintage Photos of Diana Ross in the 1970s 

Bonus FFB on Wednesday: Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express -- Christopher Corbett

I grew up hearing stories about the Pony Express and seeing movies about it.  There probably wasn't a lick of truth in any of them.  One reason is that people just wanted to tell a good story, and the truth didn't matter. Another reason is that after 150 years or so, it's hard to separate fact from fiction about something that's been so romanticized almost from the beginning.  Christopher Corbett tries to do some of the separation in this book, and one of the disappointing things he's discovered is that the famous "Orphans Preferred" ad is probably not genuine.  Darn.

Also most likely not true is the story that Buffalo Bill was a pony rider, although his Wild West Show did much to perpetuate the legends.  Mark Twain's famous account of the pony rider in Roughing It also contributed to the legends, but Corbett, who devotes a whole chapter to Twain, finds that the account is mostly true.  At least one of the best stories about the pony riders is all true, according to Corbett, and that's the one about Robert Haslam, known as "Pony Bob," whose 40-hour round-trip ride during the Paiute War, was as thrilling and full of danger as any ride ever depicted in movies or books.

The Pony Express lasted about 18 months before the telegraph made it obsolete, and it was a financial failure, but its place in the lore and legend of the West is secure.  Corbett's meticulously researched book is probably the definitive account of "the Pony" and its history.  Check it out.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

I Found a Penny in the Walmart Parking Lot Last Week

Paul Revere’s Outhouse? North End Dig May Have Found Colonial Privy 

Just Like Me

Even Without a Brain, Jellyfish Still Need to Sleep

Song of the Day

I Miss the Old Days

Joi Lansing: American Blonde Bombshell of Hollywood From the 1950s 

Today's Vintage Ad


'Howard Days' Honors the Most Influential Texas Writer You've Never Heard Of

In Cross Plains, 'Howard Days' Honors the Most Influential Texas Writer You've Never Heard Of: In Cross Plains, a literary festival honors Robert E. Howard, the most influential Texas writer you’ve never heard of.  

Hat tip to Mike Stamm.
Somehow this post got lost in my files, but here it is, a little late.

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Jack Woodford, The Abortive Hussy, Avon, 1948

5 Amazing Things Invented by Donald Duck (Seriously)

5 Amazing Things Invented by Donald Duck (Seriously)  

Link via Neatorama.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Casa Neverlandia – Austin, Texas: The whimsical and inspiring “Casa Neverlandia” in Austin looks like something Salvador Dali would have designed if he had grown up in Morocco and spent his summers studying eastern philosophy at a Tahitian safari camp. In fact, it is the amazing residence and creation of one James Talbot, drawing on his 40 years of remarkable life experiences.

Overlooked TV: Harlan Coben's The Five

Okay, I know it's brand new to the U.S., but how many of you have seen it?  I don't see a lot of mentions of it, so I thought maybe you'd overlooked it.  You shouldn't because we should all support struggling young writers like Harlan Coben.

Okay, so that was a joke.  Harlan's doing just fine, as indicated by the fact that he gets his name above the title.  How often does that happen to a writer?

I'm not sure just how this series of ten episodes came to be written.  I know that Harlan didn't write the individual episodes, but maybe he wrote the overall plan for the series.  The premise is certainly typical Coben.  A child disappears in 1995.  In 2015 his DNA turns up at a murder scene.  The child, Jesse, was out with four others, his brother, Mark, Pru, Slade, and Danny.  Danny's now a police detective, and he's the one who learns about the DNA match.  He calls the others, and the hunt for Jesse is on.  

That's all I have to say about the plot because I don't want to spoil the fun.  It's full of twists, at least two per episode, and I enjoyed every bit of it.  The cast, all British and none of whom I knew, is uniformly excellent, right down to the smallest bits.  There's a hotel keeper whose hilarious overplaying made me wish he'd been in more scenes.  The British accents were no problem at all for me. I didn't even have to turn on the closed-caption feature.

Maybe Harlan Coben's The Five won't be your cuppa, but I highly recommend that you give it a try.  I was hooked from the start.

Harlan Coben’s The Five

Monday, September 25, 2017

‘Hap & Leonard’ Update

Deadline: ‘Hap & Leonard’: Louis Gossett Jr., Corbin Bernsen & Andrew Dice Clay Set To Recur In Season 3 Of SundanceTV Series

The Man Who Invented Billy the Kid

The Man Who Invented Billy the Kid 

Song of the Day

I Miss the Old Days

Raquel Welch: The Classic Beauty of the 1960s

Today's Vintage Ad


Or Maybe You Do

10 Things You May Not Know About the Pinkertons

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Viña Delmar, The Marriage Racket, Avon, 1946

16 Epic Facts About 'Spartacus'

16 Epic Facts About 'Spartacus'

I'm Sure You'll All Agree

The Most Interesting Bugs in the World

Forgotten Hits: September 25th

Forgotten Hits: September 25th: "The Letter" by The Box Tops holds on to the #1 spot on the chart as "Never My Love" by The Association jumps from #6 to #2.  The rest of the Top Five hold steady from the week before.  "Higher And Higher" by Jackie Wilson is up from #9 to #6 and "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison and "I Dig Rock And Roll Music" by Peter, Paul and Mary enter The Top Ten for the first time at numbers 9 and 10 respectively. 

SuperChart included.

25 Books About Teachers & Schools

Up the Down Staircase by Bel KaufmanHigher Learning: 25 Books About Teachers & Schools in Literature: For most of us, schools and teachers have played a big role in our lives. Discover a wide selection of books about schools, the students that attend them, and the teachers that dedicate their lives to educating young people. Touching, amusing and enlightening - you're bound to be educated by this reading list.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Kit Reed, R. I. P.

Kit Reed, June 7, 1932 — September 24, 2017: Reed was the author of 16 novels and 10 collections, including the Campbell nominee Where (2016), Tiptree Award nominee Little Sisters of the Apocalypse (1994), and Shirley Jackson Award nominee The Story Until Now: A Great Big Book of Stories (2013).

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

There's an evil clown donut delivery service in Texas

It's National Punctuation Day!

NPD logoNational Punctuation Day

The Bizarre Story of Piggly Wiggly

The Bizarre Story of Piggly Wiggly, the First Self-Service Grocery Store

Song of the Day

The Spy Museum

More Than 5,000 Objects of Espionage Are Coming to the Spy Museum: The trove of cool artifacts comes from the world’s largest private collection of spycraft

Today's Vintage Ad


I Miss the Old Days

24 Color Snapshots of Women Posing with Flowers in the 1960s

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Viña Delmar, Loose Ladies, Avon, 1946

Winners of the Honey & Wax Women's Book-Collecting Prize

Winners of the Honey & Wax Women's Book-Collecting Prize

How English Was Made

How English Was Made

Celeste Ng: By the Book

Celeste Ng: By the Book: The author of, most recently, “Little Fires Everywhere,” often returns to “The Count of Monte Cristo”: “Right now, I see it as an exploration of the complexities of good and evil and how easily one shifts into the other.”