Saturday, May 28, 2011

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Naples Daily News: "A 25-year-old Naples woman was arrested Friday morning after biting her roommate when the two were arguing about a dog, police reported."

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Oil in Shale Sets Off a Boom in Texas - NYTimes.com

Something to Look Forward To

Telegraph: "Happiness comes with a 75th birthday card

People become less lonely and more happy with their local neighbourhood as they grow older, government research has suggested."

New Story at BEAT to a PULP

BEAT to a PULP :: LoVINg the Alien :: Paul D. Brazill

Today's Vintage Ad

The best science fiction books

The best science fiction books

Readers choose and give their reasons. Interesting stuff.

Link via SF Signal.

PaperBack



Shep Shepard (copyright page says Harry Whittington), Naked Lust, Bedside Books, 1959




H.P. Lovecraft’s Favorite Artists

H.P. Lovecraft’s Favorite Artists

Today's Western Movie Poster

Pyramid Update

NYTimes.com: "The Obama administration is about to ditch the food pyramid, that symbol of healthy eating for the last two decades. In its place officials are dishing up a simple, plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for the basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables."

5 Reasons You Can't Concentrate

5 Reasons You Can't Concentrate

As Opposed to the Legal Kind

Iowa bar owners ticketed over illegal mouse racing

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Grandma Bandit Update

ajc.com: "Authorities were however able to make another determination about the bandit later Friday. In a tersely worded statement, DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish wrote

Greetings,

Positive identification has been made on the person involved in todays incident on North Druid Hills. After further investigation detectives have determined the person believed to be a female suspect in fact is a male.

His name is Roxanne Taylor, a 57 year old man.

No additional information is available."

Hat tip to MP.

The Witches

Friday, May 27, 2011

Gil Scott-Heron, R. I. P.

Gil Scott-Heron, Poet And Musician, Has Died : The Record : NPR: "Gil Scott-Heron died Friday afternoon in New York, his book publisher reported. He was 62. The influential poet and musician is often credited with being one of the progenitors of hip-hop, and is best known for the spoken-word piece 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.'"

Another Old Review I Wrote

A 1001 MIDNIGHTS review: JIM THOMPSON – Savage Night.

Leonora Carrington, R. I. P.

Leonora Carrington obituary: Artist Leonora Carrington dies at 94 - chicagotribune.com: "Leonora Carrington painted, drew, made sculptures, and wrote fiction and plays over a career that spanned much of the 20th century. She was part of the vibrant artist community of Mexico City in the 1940s and 1950s."

Hat tip to Scott Cupp.

People Of Walmart Song

People Of Walmart Song -- Video

Hat tip to Tom Neary.

Jeff Conaway, R. I. P.

'Grease' actor Jeff Conaway has died - CNN.com: "Actor Jeff Conaway, who was in the TV series 'Taxi' and the movie 'Grease,' died Friday morning from pneumonia, his manager said.

Conaway, 60, suffered from pneumonia and sepsis in recent weeks and had been in a medically-induced coma in an Encino, California, hospital for two weeks, manager Phil Brock said."

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

‘Grandma Bandit' Update

ajc.com: "An Atlanta woman suspected of being the 'Grandma Bandit' died Friday morning after being shot multiple times at the end of a police chase on North Druid Hill Road, DeKalb police said.

The woman, identified in an arrest warrant as Roxanne Taylor, 58, of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Atlanta, was spotted in the drive-through at a Wendy's on Piedmont Road by someone who noticed that she matched the description of the bandit who has robbed several metro area drugstores in the past two weeks."

Arrrrrrrr......

Blackbeard's anchor recovered off NC coast - Yahoo! News: "An anchor from what's believed to be the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship has been raised from the ocean floor off the North Carolina coast.

Archaeologists believe the anchor recovered Friday is from the Queen Anne's Revenge, which sank in 1718. That was five months before Blackbeard was killed in a battle."

this letter to Norman Court Update

Sorry, but my vainglory dicated I had to send out an e-mail buggin everyone that the new section of this letter to Norman Court is live today and along with the text features an audio recording of me reading it. Brad at Indiebook man also just has a great site all aroud, figured I could pretend this note isn't just vainglory but is also me letting people know to check him out, generally...but it's pretty much the vainglory thing.

Today's Vintage Ad

PaperBack


Shep Shepard (aka Harry Whittington[?]), Naked Lust, Macfadden, no date.

James Reasoner and I were talking about this book, which I'd never seen in this edition, and he was kind enough to send me these scans.



New York Leads the Way

Video: Man Strips Down To Black Briefs, Stilettos And Pole Dances On NYC Subway Train

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Northeast Tarrant | News from ...: "TinValencic, a seventh-grader at Colleyville Middle School, won the 2011 National Geographic Bee on Wednesday.

The 13-year-old beat 53 other contestants -- representing each state, plus the District of Columbia, Defense Department schools and U.S. territories -- to win the grand prize: a $25,000 scholarship, lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and a trip to the Galapagos Islands."

The 15 Biggest Box Office Bombs

The 15 Biggest Box Office Bombs - CNBC

#1 happens to be a personal favorite. I like the others I've seen, too.

Top Ten Worst Movie Sequels Ever

Top Ten Worst Movie Sequels Ever

Today's Western Movie Poster

13 Actors Hit With The Oscar Curse

13 Actors Hit With The Oscar Curse - CNBC

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Dawn Elizabeth Rhash Attacks Roommate With Butter, Cops Say

50 Craziest B-Movies

50 Craziest B-Movies

Jeff Meyerson has seen at least 49 of these.

Forgotten Books: Eternal Fire -- Calder Willingham

In 1964 I picked this off the spinner rack for some reason or other. Maybe I liked the title. Anyway, I'm sure I didn't know what a treat I was in for.

It's a long and complicated tale of murder, love, sex, and treachery in the deep south. Randolph Sudderland Shepherdson III is rich, happy, and engaged to Laurie Mae Lytle, a beautiful schoolteacher. Well, Randy isn't really rich. He hasn't yet come into his full inheritance, which is due on his marriage. Unfortunately, his guardian, Judge Ball, has already spent most of the money, so he has to come up with a way to prevent the marriage.

The way he decides upon involves a man named Harry Diadem. Harry is 25 years old and has had his way with (so far) 603 women (Harry keeps good records). The judge wants him to make Laurie number 604.

Throw into this mix a religious, alcoholic, incestuous cop, a dwarf with super strength, a blackmailer, a woman named Sugar Dolly, and a great courtroom scene. The result is a hilarious send-up of Southern Gothic fiction by a masterly writer. Willingham might be better known for his Oscar nominations as a scriptwriter (The Graduate, Little Big Man), but nobody interested in good fiction should pass up his novels.

Splendor in the Grass

"

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Paging Josh Randall

Rossi USA

Paging Steve Martin

Researchers Grow a Brain In a Dish - Slashdot: "'Dr. Jeffrey H. Toney writes that a team of biomedical engineers at the University of Pittsburgh led by Henry Zeringue have managed to grow an active brain in a dish, complete with memories by culturing brain cells capable of forming networks, complete with biological signals."

Here's the Plot for Your Next Professional Thief Story

FOX41.com : "Police have arrested a man they say had his shoplifting technique so down pat, he actually had customers placing orders for various items via text message."

The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace

Deadline.com: "After exploring pot-dealing in suburbia in its dark comedy Weeds, Lionsgate Television is taking on another suburban taboo in a new reality series. Certain to create controversy, Bedroom Community revolves around a group of swingers - suburban couples who swap partners. Lionsgate shot a presentation for the project, which is now being shopped to cable networks."

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

msnbc.com: "A Florida Keys man was arrested for attacking his roommate with a machete when he was asked to leave the mobile home they shared, authorities said Wednesday."

A Review of Interest (to Me, Anyway)

Spinetingler | Piano Man by Bill Crider from On Dangerous Ground: Stories of Western Noir

30 Worst U.S. Cities For Allergies

30 Worst U.S. Cities For Allergies

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Yahoo! News: "Authorities in Washington state say they're arrested a teenage girl for allegedly shooting her dad with an arrow after he took her cell phone away."

Buy My Book!


Amazon.com: Goodnight MooM eBook: Jack MacLane, Neil Jackson: Kindle Store

It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

MiamiHerald.com: "Florida wildlife officials say a 10-year-old boy dragged a nearly 6-foot alligator home from a nearby canal."

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

MUG SHOT: Man accused of attacking woman with swim noodle over watermelon dispute at Lowdermilk Park

Today's Vintage Ad

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn Report Shows Taxpayer Money Spent on Robots That Fold Laundry, Shrimp on Treadmills

Not to mention gelatin wrestling in Antarctica.

PaperBack


Manly Wade Wellman, Fort Sun Dance, Dell, 1955





10 TV Cop Shows That Changed the Medium

10 TV Cop Shows That Changed the Medium

14 Facts You Might Not Know about The Addams Family

14 Facts You Might Not Know about The Addams Family

A Whiter Shade of Pale: White Vellum & Cream Boards

AbeBooks: A Whiter Shade of Pale: White Vellum & Cream Boards

England Cracks Down on Crime

swns.com: "A schoolboy faces a lifelong criminal record after a police helicopter and riot van were scrambled to hunt him down – when he accidentally kicked a football at a greenhouse."

Today's Western Movie Poster

Shocker of the Day

Scientists report that dogs slobber all over the place when drinking water

Hawkman Wants His Own Movie

Definitely NSFW, but very funny.

YouTube - A Toast To Green Lantern

Paging Cordwainer Smith

TIME: In his new book Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities, Cardiff University historian Jan Bondeson mines obscure German periodicals to reveal the Nazis' failed attempt to
breed an army of educated dogs that could read, write and talk.

Hat tip to Jeff Segal and David Cranmer.

Gator Update (Faraday Waves Edition)

Wired.com: "Alligators flirt with physics. When males attract attention by quivering their spiky backs underwater, they create Faraday waves, researchers reported May 23 in Seattle at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. These sophisticated patterns are usually seen only in man-made devices.

“Faraday waves haven’t really been seen in nature before,” says John Allen, an acoustician at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who was not involved with the research."

Video at the link.

Forgotten Music -- Jimmie Rodgers

Jimmie Rodgers, the pop singer, is no relation to Jimmie Rodgers, the Singin' Brakeman. The pop Rodgers hit the top of the Billboard charts in 1957 with his recording of "Honeycomb," a neat bit of folk-pop that I found very appealing.
I liked Rodgers' voice, and I enjoyed any number of his follow-up hits in the same vein, songs like "Kisses Sweeter than Wine."
But the song that really endeared Rodgers to me is this one, which comes from an album and was never released as a single:
Rodgers had a TV show in the late '50s, and I tuned in just about every week. He continued having hits into the '60s when a curious incident occurred. It would, in fact, make a good plot for a crime novel. Nobody, not even Rodgers knows for sure what happened. He says he was pulled over for speeding, and the next thing he knew, he awakened from a savage beating. He didn't perform for a long time afterward, but he eventually began recording again, never reaching his former level of success. As far as I know, he hasn't performed in many years, but I still listen to his songs now and then.


Father's Little Dividend

"

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

No Comment Department

USDA fines Missouri family $90k for selling a few rabbits without a license

It's Here

Robots, Not Humans, Retrieve Your Books at $81 Million “Library of the Future”

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

The Smoking Gun: "A Florida dentist is facing assault and battery charges after he allegedly tussled yesterday with an 85-year-old patient over her dentures, police report."

Arrrrrrrr......

The Real Pirates of the Caribbean: What the Movies Got Wrong

Hat tip to Art Scott.

Today's Vintage Ad

AKA "Mant!"

Police seek 'Big Ant,' suspected in bar slaying

Headline of the Day

New Zealand truck driver Steven McCormack nearly pops after getting air hose lodged in buttocks

Hat tip to Art Scott.

PaperBack


Calder Willingham, End as a Man, Avon, 1950




Paging Pvt. Will Stockdale

NBC Connecticut: "A Hartford teacher accused of forcing students to clean the classroom toilet with paper towels and a cleaner with bleach is on administrative leave."

Pyramid Update

BBC News: "Seventeen lost pyramids are among the buildings identified in a new satellite survey of Egypt.

More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements were also revealed by looking at infra-red images which show up underground buildings."

Today's Western Movie Poster

No Comment Department

BBC News: "Tests given to an Amazonian tribe called the Mundurucu suggest that our intuitions about geometry are innate.

Researchers examined how the Mundurucu think about lines, points and angles, comparing the results with equivalent tests on French and US schoolchildren.

The Mundurucu showed comparable understanding, and even outperformed the students on tasks that asked about forms on spherical surfaces."

Hey, the Airlines Don't Serve Meals Anymore, so a Guy Has to Do Something

The Washington Post: "Nearly 90 pounds of cooked sheep’s meat was seized from an Ethiopian traveler at Dulles International Airport last week, according to customs officials.

The passenger had 15 bags of the meat, which was cooked in a red gravy, stuffed in his six suitcases, officials said. The man was en route to Seattle."

Top 10 William Castle Film Gimmicks

Top 10 William Castle Film Gimmicks

50 Books Every Child Should Read

"50 Books Every Child Should Read"

Father of the Bride

"

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

New Western Story at Meridian Bridge

Eli’s Cannon

Ishtar!

TCM's Classic Movie Blog: "An Evening with Elaine May (and ISHTAR)"

Hat tip to Todd Mason.

Blogger Problems

I've heard from several people that they've been unable to post comments on the blog. I checked the Known Issues blog, and blogger's aware of the problem. They say it'll be fixed "shortly," whatever that means.

Block/Silverberg Conversation

The first of a series of videos of a recent conversation between Lawrence Block and Robert Silverberg has been posted on YouTube.

It was Only 51 Miles

CBS San Francisco: "A San Joaquin County man who drove 51 miles with his wife clinging to the hood of his minivan has pleaded guilty and agreed to be sentenced to five years in prison."

Hat tip to Kevin Tipple.




Here's the Plot for Groundhog Day II

Stowaway groundhog creates a mess inside Pennsylvania man's car

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Where the Wind Comes Sweepin' Down the Plain

Tornado States - Galleries - The Daily Beast

70 Dylan Covers

Bob Dylan Turns 70: Celebrate With 70 Dylan Covers: "As an artist so often replicated but never duplicated, Dylan's catalogue will certainly win the hearts of many for years to come. To celebrate more than five decades of timeless Dylan tunes, here are 70 cover tracks of some Dylan classics."

Hat tip to George Kelley.

Because I Care about My Readers . . .


. . . I'm posting the inside of the front cover of The Stone of Chastity. Now Deb won't have to worry about it anymore.

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention

I'm a fan of Gail Fashingbauer's blog, so I'm happy that she and her coauthor have published this book. I'll be getting a copy for myself, and I thought some of you might be interested.


Generation X has been called an alienated and lonely generation, but if there’s one thing that brings them together, it’s a shared love of the pop culture memories of their childhood. In that nostalgic spirit, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PUDDING POPS? takes a look back at the iconic events and products that shaped their unique generation. Authors Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont, college friends and adamant pop culture enthusiasts, have mined the battlefields of discarded paraphernalia to provide the ultimate trip down memory lane from the days when MTV played music videos and Quisp and Quake duked it out for cereal supremacy.


Covering everything from after school specials to Benji, Pepsi Light to “Hugo, Man of a Thousand Faces,” WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PUDDING POPS? lovingly and wistfully revisits the past, offering facts and “x-tinction ratings” for those lost gems highlighted by Cooper and Bellmont.


You might have seen it featured in the June Issue of Real Simple, but if not, check out this trailer which gives you a taste of POPS(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_yzvsXpTJc&feature=player_embedded), as well as their website (www.whateverhappenedtopuddingpops.com)

Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan!

Interesting reading and listening for today.

Battle of the Titans:The Bob Dylan-A.J. Weberman Tapes

New Stuff at Criminal Element

Today's Vintage Ad

The Decline of Western Civilization Continues Apace

Kim Kardashian and Snooki stop the haters in new reality-comedy H8R

Couldn't They Have Just Left Them Undiscovered?

Yahoo! News: "A jumping cockroach, a glow-in-the-dark fungus, a rust-eating bacterium and a leech named 'T-rex' were among the top 10 new species discovered in the world last year, US scientists said Monday."

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

Now the west coast donut shops are getting in on the action.

ktla.com: "Two men are in police custody Monday evening after a man was stabbed at a donut shop."

Vampires!

New Zealand Casino Staff Forced To Wear Flea Collars to Keep Blood Suckers At Bay

New York Leads the Way

Panhandling Pooch Probed | NBC New York: "An animal welfare group is investigating the treatment of a panhandling dog often seen holding a pipe in its mouth for hours outside New York City's professional baseball stadiums. "

I'm glad it's not my job to probe him.

PaperBack


A. Merritt, The Ship of Ishtar, Avon, 1951



First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .

NYPD searching for suspects caught on video trashing Dunkin' Donuts

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Today's Western Movie Poster

Hollywood's most interesting blockbuster failures of the past 25 years

Hollywood's most interesting blockbuster failures of the past 25 years - Den of Geek

People Who Are Crazier than I Am?

You be the judge.

8 People Who Are Seriously Obsessed - Oddee.com (collections, collectors...)

Top 20 Bigfoot Sightings

Top 20 Bigfoot Sightings

No Wonder I'm Still Here

Harold Camping Calls May 21 An 'Invisible Judgment Day,' Says October 21 Is Real End-Of-World Date

Forgotten Films: Maniac

I first saw Maniac as part of a double bill (remember those?) nearly 50 years ago. I probably went because one of the stars was Kerwin Mathews, a guy I liked because of his work in several Ray Harryhausen films I'd seen and also because he was a high school English teacher (as I was at the time) before he'd found fame as an actor. I don't know what I expected when I went to see this movie, but it was a far cry from the swashbuckling Harryhausen films.

Mathews plays Paul Farrell, who's going out with a young woman whose father is in an asylum, having killed the man who tried to rape her. He used an acetylene torch in the murder. Then Farrell falls for the girl's mother, and they hatch a plan to help her husband escape. Things go wrong.

Maniac was filmed in atmospheric black and white and written by Jimmy Sangster, who throws in any number of good twists. Even though I'm telling you right now that there's a twist ending, you might not figure it out while you watch the movie. Back in 1963, it was a real stunner.

Maniac

Monday, May 23, 2011

Who Says Texting Isn't Useful?

Mail Online: "A Missouri man was pulled from the rubble of the deadly tornado after he sent a text message to his best friend calling for help."

Too Good to be True?

Car that runs on nothing but water unveiled in Japan. No gasoline, no battery recharging and no emissions.

Today's Vintage Ad

The Original Spiderman

Now I Know: Spider in the Attic

If you want to subscribe to the Now I Know newsletter, by the way, here's the handy link.

PaperBack


Margery Sharp, The Stone of Chastity, Avon, 1948



Innocents Lost

In my previous post I forgot to mention something that I should have. If you came to this movie without having seen the commercials for it, you'd probably have figured out where it was going pretty quickly. If you'd seen the commercials, you wouldn't have to. The commercials were the movie. They showed every crucial scene, including the two final ones. No wonder I don't watch much TV these days.

The 50 Best Science Writers of All Time

The 50 Best Science Writers of All Time

Today's Western Movie Poster

NY Public Library turns 100

msnbc.com: "At 100, the New York Public Library's landmark Fifth Avenue building has nurtured generations of scholars and boasts treasures like a Gutenberg Bible and an early copy of the Declaration of Independence."

O. K. Corral Update

Slain from famous shootout getting new epitaphs

Science-fiction classics that have rewired your brain

Science-fiction classics that have rewired your brain

Hat tip to Rick Klaw.

No Comment Department

Michigan teen missing after jumping off bridge to celebrate world didn't end

Hat tip to Art Scott.

The Gator Was on His Lawn

FoxNews.com: "A Florida dog owner launched a daring attack on a 6-foot alligator that had the man's canine companion between its jaws, The Palm Beach Post reports.

Gary Murphy, 72, was at his home in Palm City, about 80 miles north of Miami, on Thursday evening when he heard his West Highland terrier named 'Doogie' making noise in the backyard.

Murphy found his beloved pet in the mouth of an alligator that had entered the yard from marshland behind the property, and launched a rescue bid by jumping on the reptile's backing and hitting it on the head."

The Snorkel

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Innocents Lost

Just watched the new Jesse Stone movie, Innocents Lost. Lots of brooding. Then mulling. Then more brooding. Even the dog gets some brooding in. More shots of coffee cups than I've ever seen in a movie. More brooding. This is what happens when you have 30 minutes of plot and two hours to fill. Well, not two hours. Maybe only an hour when you figure in all the commercials. I used to like these movies. This one, not so much.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

Corpus Christi Caller-Times: "Annette Escamilla says a miracle happened overnight Thursday in her kitchen.

Her 23-year-old son woke her about 4:15 a.m. after finding an image of Jesus in one of her homemade flour tortillas."

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

At Least It Wasn't a Gator

BBC News: "Police are trying to trace the owner of a life-sized tiger toy which sparked a major police alert in Hampshire over fears a real animal was on the loose."

Hat tip to Jim Cameron.

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Interesting Books to Your Attention

Rough Edges: Another Spur Finalist Now Available for the Kindle: "[James Reasoner's] historical novel COSSACK THREE PONIES, which was a finalist for the Spur Award the year before UNDER OUTLAW FLAGS was also a finalist, is now available on Amazon for the Kindle."

Mr. Monk on the Couch -- Lee Goldberg

Last Thursday Judy had a full day of miserable tests at M. D. Anderson (no results yet), and I had a long day of waiting rooms. I knew exactly what to take with me: the new Monk book by Lee Goldberg. Based on past experience with the novels in this series, I knew it would be funny, well written, and well researched. I knew it would have a clever plot and interesting characters. And I hoped I'd find some interesting developments in Natalie Teeger's life. I wasn't disappointed. It had all this and more. As a bonus, there's also a quite interesting change in the life of Monk's brother, Ambrose, one that added a good many laughs to the book.

The plot? It appears that a serial killer is on the loose in San Francisco, and as the victims pile up, it turns out that they're all in Natalie's neighborhood. There's a mcguffin, too, giving the title a double meaning. While that's going on, Natalie's making an investigation of her own, into the life of a man who's died of natural causes in a seedy hotel. Who was he? Why was he there. Natalie wants to know.

That's enough said. If you like the other Monk books, you'll like this one. If you've never read the other Monk books, what are you waiting for? This is one of the most entertaining series around. Highly recommended.

Today's Vintage Ad

this letter to Norman Court Update

After the serialization of this letter to Norman Court is complete, there will be an e-book made available (for free) as well as a print edition (4.25x6.75--pocketbook size, high quality paperback) available for $3.95.

Additional, the second novella in the series of five featuring this protagonist called Mister Trot from Tin Street (each novella is fully self contained, but they are also part of a larger arc, for those of you I haven't mentioned this to) will also be made available as an e-book (for free) as well as a print edition for $3.95.

For those of you who'd like to read the sections of the book published so far, here's the link to the hub site.

PaperBack


Ray Cummings, The Princess of the Atom, Avon, 1950




Hard Bargain -- Emmylou Harris

Back in 1975 when I bought an LP called Elite Hotel, I fell for Emmylou Harris's voice. I never imagined that all these years later I'd be listening to a new album by her, but here I am, and believe me, the voice is still just as wonderful to hear as ever. One of the striking things about Harris's career is how consistent she's been. She knows how to pick a song, she knows how to sing it, she knows how to put it across.

Harris is known as a interpreter of other people's songs, but on this album, most of the songs are her own, which is a good thing because she's also a fine songwriter. I can't pick a favorite yet. They're all too good. I'm looking forward to many more.

Headline of the Day

Disgrace of the six drinking, pole-dancing primary school teachers who published the pictures on Facebook

Today's Western Movie Poster

Wait, They Left Off Freelance Writer

America's 10 Best-Paying Professions: Bureau Of Labor Statistics

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

10 biggest money wasters

10 biggest money wasters

The worst sequels of all time

The worst sequels of all time

Courage of Lassie

"