Vampires Are Indeed Taking over the Earth

Phoenix Takes Flight With Lost Boys Sequel: "South African pin-up Tanit Phoenix will lead the cast of the upcoming second Lost Boys sequel after signing on to play a romance novelist who hires Corey Feldman's character, Edgar Frog, to track down a missing family."

Which One Did You Have for Breakfast Today?

Ten Worst Breakfast Cereals: "According to Cereal FACTS (Food Advertising to Children and Teens Score), which was developed based on the best available science, in consultation with a steering committee of experts in nutrition, marketing, and public health, the 10 worst breakfast cereals based on nutrition score are:

1. Kellogg - Corn Pops (or Pops) - Chocolate Peanut Butter
2. Quaker - Cap'n Crunch - w/ Crunchberries
3. Kellogg - Special K - Chocolatey Delight
4. Kellogg - Special K - Blueberry
5. General Mills - Reese's Puffs
6. General Mills - Fiber One - Caramel Delight
7. Kellogg - Cocoa Krispies - Choconilla
8. General Mills - Golden Grahams
9. General Mills - Cinnamon Toast Crunch
10. Kellogg - Corn Pops"

Across the Pacific

A Review

� A Review by Bill Crider: JIM THOMPSON - The Killer Inside Me.

From 1001 Midnights.

Crossroad Blues Gets a Foreword

Busted Flush Press: CROSSROAD BLUES foreword by Greil Marcus!: "Busted Flush Press's reprint of Ace Atkins's first Nick Travers crime novel, Crossroad Blues (978-1-935415-03-9; paperback; $15) -- which will ship from Consortium to booksellers beginning December 11th -- features not only an original, never-before-published Nick Travers short story ('Last Fair Deal Gone Down'), it also offers the following new foreword by renowned music journalist Greil Marcus."

Marcus is a writer whose work on music I've long enjoyed. His Mystery Train is a favorite of mine. Check out his foreword at the link.

Reading and Writing podcast – Tarquin Hall

018 Reading and Writing podcast – Tarquin Hall interview

The TV Show I Love(d) -- The Andy Griffith Show

I liked Andy Griffith a lot before I ever saw his TV show. First I heard his recordings.

What It Was, Was Football (Part 1 And 2) (Digitally Remastered 93) - Andy Griffith
After that, I saw him in A Face in the Crowd, Onionhead and No Time for Sergeants (the movie), where he was first teamed up with Don Knotts. And then came the TV series. I was sold.

No doubt the easy-going Andy is partially responsible for Sheriff Dan Rhodes, but my favorite part of the show was always the supporting cast, especially Don Knotts as Deputy Barney Fife (Barney Fife, c'est moi!). And Gomer and Goober and Otis Campbell, the Darlings, Ernest T. Bass, Opie, Aunt Bee, Miss Crump, Thelma Lou, Floyd the barber, and on and on. I admit without shame (though I might lose all your respect) that I can still watch the episodes I've seen dozens of times and laugh as much as ever. When Knotts left the show, I gave Jack Burns a chance, but after a few episodes, I stopped watching. He wasn't terrible, but he wasn't Knotts.

If I had to take one TV show with me to a desert island, this would probably be the one. I know that might disappoint those of you who thought I'd chose Nova or maybe the entire run of Masterpiece Theater, but I've always admitted that I low taste. Give me Gomer making a citizen's arrest, and I'm a happy man.

Goin' Rogue

AFP: Rogue kangaroo tries to drown dog: "A rogue kangaroo tried to drown a dog and then viciously attacked its owner when he launched a rescue bid, paramedics said on Monday.

The kangaroo held the dog under water at a dam near Melbourne and left deep lacerations across the 49-year-old owner's face and body when he dived in to save his pet."

Fake Movies in Real Movies

Top 14 Fake Movies from Real Movies - Filmcritic.com: "You love movies? So do the people who make movies. Sometimes, they love movies so much, they make other movies within the movies. And sometimes those faux movies look so great, you wish they were real.

Well, get your fake popcorn popped, because below the staff of Filmcritic.com 'reviews' 14 of our favorite fake films from real films (and one sitcom). They don't exist, but that makes them all the better."

Sometimes It Might Be Best Not to Know

Adopted son traced biological parent to be Charles Manson: "Like many adopted children, Matthew embarked on a mission to find his biological parents. He wanted to know, most especially, his father and see if there is any identity of him in what the son has become today."

eBay Purchase of the Year (But Not by Me)

Mondo Tees Blog � Blog Archive � ALLIGATOR (1980) GAME FOUND! EBAY PURCHASE OF THE YEAR!: "I am obsessed with ALLIGATOR and Robert Forster and a few years ago when I saw a YouTube video for this game, I thought it was a myth. I didn’t think I’d ever find it, but today while I was typing in random searches on eBay it came up for a super low price! I declare this my eBay purchase of the year for 2009!"

Great photos at the link. I didn't know this game existed.

Yikes!

Patient trapped in a 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along | Mail Online: "A man thought by doctors to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it was revealed last night.

Student Rom Houben was misdiagnosed after a car crash left him totally paralysed.

He had no way of letting experts, family or friends know he could hear every word they said."

Taste the Blood of Dracula

My Mom

My mother, Frances Antoinette Brodnax Crider, was born on this day in 1916.

Light Reading for the Bathroom

Rare Charles Darwin book found on toilet bookshelf: "An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' found in a family's guest lavatory in southern England.

Christie's auction house said Sunday the book — one of around 1,250 copies first printed in 1859 — had been on a toilet bookshelf at a family's home in Oxford."

Hat tip to Art Scott.

I'll Bet You Can Hardly Wait

‘300′ Producer Brings Superhero Treatment To ‘American Gladiators’: "As long as Hollywood is turning board games into movies, why not also mine game shows? [. . . .] [N]ow a producer of '300' is bringing 'American Gladiators' to the big screen."

Good-Bye to All That

Ten things mobiles have made, or will make, obsolete - Recombu :: read > compare > buy: "As Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez would say, 'In the end, there can be only one'."

Hey, Why Not?

Billy Carter gas station historic? -- chicagotribune.com: "In the age of the $787 billion stimulus package, it is, perhaps, a modest question:

Should American taxpayers foot the bill to enshrine the gas station run by the late Billy Carter -- the beer-swilling, wisecracking, self-professed redneck brother of the 39th president?"

I Remember

The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor | Head Cheerleader by Jack Ridl: "It was about 12:30 p.m. on this day in 1963 that President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. It was the first successful assassination of an American president since 1901, and the only presidential assassination ever caught on film. Almost every American alive at the time remembers where they were when they heard the news."

Fat Chance

Brain boffin calls for schools to get back to books: "A brain expert says that concentration on computers in schools is a waste of time and money and has called for a return to books."

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Odds of wearing skinny pants in Mesquite ISD: slim to none | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | News: Education: "Move over, baggy pants. Saggy pants? Old news.

“Skinny pants” are the newest rage, and at least one area school district is aiming to keep them off school campuses.

Seth Chamlee, a student at Kimbrough Middle School in Mesquite, found that out the hard way on Tuesday. School administrators gave him a choice: Go home, or trade his skin-tight skinny pants for slacks provided by the school."

Hat tip to Doc Quatermass.

Mark of the Vampire