Saturday, May 24, 2014

16 Amazing Facts About Sea-Monkeys

16 Amazing Facts About Sea-Monkeys 

Song of the Day

The Beach Boys - Fun Fun Fun - YouTube:

Mel Brooks on Blazing New Comedic Trails in 'Blazing Saddles'

Mel Brooks on Blazing New Comedic Trails in 'Blazing Saddles': With a new 40th anniversary Blu-ray edition dropping this week, we got Brooks on the horn to talk all things "Blazing Saddles." In his inimitably frenetic style, Brooks recounted how Richard Pryor gave the filmmaker license to use the N-word, even though he couldn't get Pryor cast; how Gene Wilder stepped in to save the film; and why "Blazing Saddles" should be considered the single greatest comedy of all-time.

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Threatening cartel billboards warning police to choose 'silver over lead' come complete with hanging mannequins appearing in Texas

I Miss the Old Days

Forgotten Hits: The Saturday Surveys (May 24th)

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Robert A. Heinlein, The Menace from Earth, Signet, 1962

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

News from The Associated Press: TEEN KILLED CABBIE FOR REJECTING HIS ROUTE

Kid Curry’s Last Gunfight

Kid Curry’s Last Gunfight

I Want to Believe!

The '60s at 50: Saturday, May 23, 1964: Solway Spaceman

J.R.R. Tolkien Update

J.R.R. Tolkien Reveals TRUE Meaning Of 'The Lord Of The Rings' In Unearthed Audio Recording

9 Fun Facts About the Schwa

9 Fun Facts About the Schwa 

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Georgia man will spend rest of his life behind bars for killing cellmate over chocolate candy  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Unfaithfully Yours

▶ 1948 UNFAITHFULLY YOURS TRAILER PRESTON STURGES - YouTube:

Friday, May 23, 2014

A Gator Just Wouldn't Fit In

Lion, Tiger, and Bear Are Best Friends Forever: Thirteen years ago, a lion, tiger, and bear were rescued from the basement of an Atlanta drug dealer's home. Now living in Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary, the three are now the biggest BFFs in the animal kingdom.  

Hat tip to Art Scott.

Allan Folsom, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Allan Folsom, a struggling screenwriter whose first novel, an intricate thriller called “The Day After Tomorrow,” was by some accounts the highest-priced fiction debut in publishing history when its rights sold for $2 million in 1993, died on May 16 in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 72.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Woman attacks boyfriend with family cat, deputies say

May 23, 1934: Bonnie and Clyde Shot to Pieces in Police Ambush!

May 23, 1934: Bonnie and Clyde Shot to Pieces in Police Ambush! 

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Florida woman shoots at bar pick-up as he tries to leave because ‘things were getting weird’

I Miss the Old Days

Voxmobile, the guitar car: “Originally designed to star alongside Jack Nicholson in a 1968 counter-culture, acid-themed road movie called Psych-Out in which Jack’s character was called Stoney”

Best Author Biographies

Best Author Biographies 

Song of the Day

Wildfire - Here Comes Summer (1977) - YouTube:

10 Shockingly Daring Prison Escapes

10 Shockingly Daring Prison Escapes 

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott

I Wish I Owned all of These

The Golden Age: Pop-Up Books ~ Circa 1930's

A Visual History of Typewriter Art from 1893 to Today

A Visual History of Typewriter Art from 1893 to Today

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Robert A. Heinlein, The Green Hills of Earth, Signet, 1958

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Police looking for man who allegedly used fudge bar in attack on ice cream man 

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Man jailed for playing 'demolition derby' in Madera County 

Bob Dylan on Sacrifice

Bob Dylan on Sacrifice, the Unconscious Mind, and How to Cultivate the Perfect Environment for Creative Work

Beautifully Illustrated Family Records of Revolutionary War Soldiers

Family records included in applications from Revolutionary War veterans: The Beautifully Illustrated Family Records of Revolutionary War Soldiers

Uh-Oh

The Not-So-Perfect Kilogram and Why the Metric System Might Be Screwed: The world’s most perfect weight isn’t so perfect anymore. And that has scientists scared.

The Sickest Poker Hands in Movie History

The Sickest Poker Hands in Movie History and the Odds Against Them 

Link via Neatorama.

Vintage Treasures: The Book of Skaith: The Adventures of Eric John Stark by Leigh Brackett

Vintage Treasures: The Book of Skaith: The Adventures of Eric John Stark by Leigh Brackett

FFB: The Vizier's Second Daughter -- Robert F. Young

A while back I liked to this article on The Vizier's Second Daughter by Robert F. Young.  I have fond memories of Murray Leinster's Gateway to Elsewhere, and the summary of this book reminded me a little of that one.  I like Arabian Nights adventures, so I thought I'd read Young's book.

In the future, time travel is simple enough.  Not everybody can visit the past, so Animanikins sends its agents into the past to kidnap famous people and bring them back to have animanikins made of them.  Then the people are returned to their own times with no memory of what's happened.  Mark Billings is sent back for Sheherazade, but he mistakenly grabs her younger sister, Dunyzad.  Then he messes up his time-traveling hovercraft (which Dunyzad naturally believes is a magic carpet) and winds up -- elsewhere.  Ali Baba shows up, as do the forty thieves, but the real complications are the other things, like rocs, afreets, and djinn.  It's all fast-moving and inconsequential fun, but I did have one major reservation.  It's the same one I had when I re-read The Door into Summer.  Dunyzad is fifteen, and it's clear from the start that she and Billings are falling for one another.  It's probably not a major SPOILER to say that things work out in the end, but it's still kind of uncomfortable to read, or it was for me.  Otherwise, though, entertaining.

Damn Citizen

1958 DAMN CITIZEN TRAILER KEITH ANDERS - YouTube:

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Cartoon of the Day

Link.

The British Soldier Who Killed Nazis with a Sword and a Longbow

The British Soldier Who Killed Nazis with a Sword and a Longbow  

Link via mental_floss.

Song of the Day

The Records - Starry Eyes - YouTube:

7 Creative Ways Modern Horror Films Get Rid of Cell Phones

7 Creative Ways Modern Horror Films Get Rid of Cell Phones 

I Miss the Old Days

The '60s at 50: 1964: Blue-eyed soul

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott.

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Robert A. Heinlein, The Green Hills of Earth, Signet, 1952

Top 10 Newly-Discovered Species

Top 10 Newly-Discovered Species

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Burger King wrong order 'caused Brandon Hawkins to shoot two people' 

Short Stories to Read for Short Story Month

Short Stories to Read for Short Story Month 

Marvel Science Stories 1938-1941

The Golden Age: Marvel Science Stories 1938-1941 ~ Norman Saunders, Wesso, Jack Kirby, Frank R. Paul, Alex Schomburg

Fairy Circles Update

African ‘fairy circles’ back in the mystery books after termite theory turned on its head

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Mail Online: Woman, 39, and her boyfriend, 40, 'attack their friend because SHE paid their tab' starting mass bar brawl  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

I Want to Believe!

Mail Online: Have aliens already visited Earth? Nasa book suggests that ancient rock art could have been created by extraterrestrials

Jackass Mail

1942 JACKASS MAIL TRAILER WALLACE BEERY - YouTube:

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Why women are hooked on violent crime fiction

Why women are hooked on violent crime fiction 

Priorities Matter

'Price Is Right' viewers rip President Obama for interrupting show with speech

Sam Greenlee, R. I. P.

The Washington Post: Sam Greenlee, a onetime Foreign Service officer whose 1969 novel and a subsequent film, both called “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” became underground sensations during the black nationalist movement, died May 19 at his home in Chicago. He was 83.

Caution: Falling Accountants

Crocodile Injured by Falling Accountant

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

4 Playing Card FAQs Answered

4 Playing Card FAQs Answered 

Song of the Day

Feargal Sharkey - A Good Heart (Full Music Video) - YouTube:

David Lynch on Where Ideas Come From

David Lynch on Where Ideas Come From and the Fragmentary Nature of Creativity

Today's Vintage Ad


Hat tip to Art Scott.

I Miss the Old Days

Huffy Radio Bike

Link via The Presurfer.

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Robert A Heinlein, The Door into Summer, Signet, 1959

True -- All True

29 Struggles People Who Grew Up In The Texas Heat Can All Relate To

Beware of the Blobs

Intriguing Lime Green Blobs Appear In The Andes Mountains

Best Weddings in Literature

Best Weddings in Literature 

Seepy Benton does These All the Time

5 Amazing Wizard Tricks You Can Do With Basic Math

Forgotten Heroes Who Changed the Course of American History

Forgotten Heroes Who Changed the Course of American History

Arthur Gelb, R. I. P.

 NYTimes.com: Arthur Gelb, who by sheer force of personality was a dominant figure at The New York Times for decades, lifting its metropolitan and arts coverage to new heights and helping to shape the paper in its modern era, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

The Fabulous Senorita

1952 THE FABULOUS SENORITA TRAILER ESTELITA - YouTube:

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

And Keep Off His Lawn!

Aldi's Security Guard Shoots Meat Thief After Pepper-Spraying Himself in the Face: When his pepper spray backfired right into his own face, the 72-year-old security guard at the north Kingshighway Aldi's shot a shoplifting suspect in the ankle and turned him over to police.

Anthony Nominees

Via Kaye Wilkinson Barley on Facebook: 

Best Novel
• Robert Crais, Suspect
• Sara J. Henry, A Cold and Lonely Place
• William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace
• Hank Phillippi Ryan, The Wrong Girl
• Julia Spencer-Fleming, Through the Evil Days
Best First Novel 
• Matt Coyle, Yesterday’s Echo
• Roger Hobbs, Ghostman
• Becky Masterman, Rage Against the Dying
• Kimberly McCreight, Reconstructing Amelia
• Todd Robinson, The Hard Bounce
Best Paperback Original Novel
• Chris F. Holm, The Big Reap
• Darrell James, Purgatory Key
• Stephen King, Joyland
• Alex Marwood, The Wicked Girls
• Catriona McPherson, As She Left It
Best Short Story 
• Craig Faustus Buck, “Dead Ends”
• John Connolly, “The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository”
• Deni Dietz, “Annie and the Grateful Dead” 
• Travis Richardson, “Incident on the 405” 
• Art Taylor, “The Care and Feeding of Houseplants”
Best Critical or Non-Fiction Work 
• Maria Konnikova, Mastermind: How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes
• Cate Lineberry, The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines
• Josh Stallings, All the Wild Children
• Daniel Stashower, The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War
• Sarah Weinman (ed.), Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives
Best Children’s or Young Adult Novel
• Joelle Charbonneau, The Testing
• Margaux Froley, Escape Theory)
• Chris Grabenstein, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library
• Elizabeth Keim, Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy
• Penny Warner, The Code Busters Club: Mystery of the Pirate’s Treasure
Best Television Episode Teleplay First Aired in 2013
• Jon Bokenkamp, The Blacklist, Pilot
• Allan Cubitt, The Fall, “Dark Descent” 
• Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad, “Felina”
• Kevin Williamson, The Following, Pilot 
• Graham Yost, Justified, “Hole in the Wall”
Best Audio Book
• Christina Cox, reading Crescendo by Deborah J Ledford
• Robert Glenister, reading The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
• Mauro Hantman, reading Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell
• Davina Porter, reading Death and the Lit Chick by G.M. Malliet
• Tracy Sallows, reading Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Crazed naked man dives through woman’s sunroof in bizarre attack   

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

And You Think You're Tough?

Virginia man shoots brother in the face; brother spits out bullet while talking to police

Another Must-Have Double from Stark House

STARK HOUSE PRESS: Available for pre-order at the link.

Two erotic crime classics from science fictionmaster, Robert Silverberg, including a revamped introduction which discusses the two Lust books, originally published by Midnight Reader in the 1960s. Both books are highly readable stories, one examining the price of vanity and fame, and the other showing how a rape can destroy a marriage. Publication date: August 2014.

Song of the Day

"Charlie Rich ~ Lonely Weekends" - 1960 - YouTube:

I Swear I've Never Searched for that Phrase

You Can Learn A Lot About America From Each State’s Internet Search History 

This Year’s New Dictionary Words

# Selfie, Steampunk, Catfish: See This Year’s New Dictionary Words

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott.

Suspicions Confirmed

6 Disturbing Things I Learned Writing Your Textbooks

Book Giveaway

Livia J. Washburn: Lassoing a Bride -- The Perfect Cover Image --Book Giveaway

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Rufus King, Design in Evil, Popular Library, 1948

Dropout Genius of the Day

College Student Calls In Bomb Threat to Graduation So Parents Wouldn’t Discover She Dropped Out

I Miss the Old Days

Rockabilly N Blues Records: Who says The Beach Boys don't surf?

I Want to Believe!

3-Year-Old Remembers Past Life, Identifies Murderer and Location of Body: A 3-year-old boy in the Golan Heights region near the border of Syria and Israel said he was murdered with an axe in his previous life. He showed village elders where the murderer buried his body, and sure enough they found a man’s skeleton there. He also showed the elders where the murder weapon was found, and upon digging, they did indeed find an axe there.

25 Collectible Classic Car Books

King of the Speedway by Zip Saunders
25 Collectible Classic Car Books: Few subjects garner more passionate aficionados than classic cars. Both book collectors and automotive enthusiasts recognize the cultural and historical significance of vintage maintenance manuals, promotional pamphlets, serious analyses of the automotive industry in its infancy, and riveting biographies of early race car drivers and the cars they drove.

Will the Persecution Never End?

Paris Hilton in legal battle over her shoe line  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Who Says TV Is Out of Ideas?

Evil Damien Heading To TV: Now, don't act so surprised. With the small screen Rosemary's Baby remake having just landed in the states and with Scream and Friday the 13th adaptations on the way, other classic horror movies are also being examined for their potential on TV.

Gordon Willis, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Gordon Willis, a master cinematographer whose work on “The Godfather,” “Manhattan,” “Annie Hall,” “Klute,” “All the President’s Men” and other seminal movies of the 1970s made his name synonymous with that pathbreaking decade in American moviemaking, died on Sunday at his home in North Falmouth, Mass. He was 82.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Overlooked Movies: Where's Poppa?

When I first saw this movie, I was still in my 20s.  Old age was so far distant that I couldn't even catch a glimpse of it, not even for my parents.  So I thought this was the funniest movie I'd ever seen.  I laughed so much that I thought I might strangle.  Now?  I don't know.  Dementia as a subject for comedy?  And that's just the start.  Nothing is sacred in Where's Poppa? It's so politically incorrect that I doubt it could even be made today.  And if it were made, it would probably be reviled.  

Okay, having considered it, I think I'd still find it funny.  George Segal is great as the fellow whose life is being destroyed because he has to care for his senile mom (a great performance by Ruth Gordon).  He's so desperate that he hires a nurse, played by Trish Van Devere, to take care of her, mainly because all of Van Devere's patients die.  And of course he falls in love with Van Devere.  This only begins to hint at the complications.  The scenes with the muggers in Central Park are great, and the gorilla suit scenes, well, I won't go into it, but forget everything you ever heard about Political Correctness and you might laugh at them as much as I did 40-something years ago.  Or not.  I'm a bad person, and you probably aren't.

Carl Reiner directed Where's Poppa?,  and he must have been totally without fear.  Check it out one of these days when you're feeling unPC and see what you think.

Where's Poppa?

WHERE'S POPPA? [1970 TRAILER] - YouTube:

Monday, May 19, 2014

Brash Books Update (And a Free Book Offer)

We are pleased to announce that our Brash Books website is now LIVE. Now you can check out all of our authors (including Dick Lochte, Noreen Ayres, Bob Forward, Bill Crider to name a few), pre-order our books, read our blogs, check out our videos....and get a free copy of Dick Lochte's RAPPIN DOG for signing up for our newsletter. http://www.brash-books.com/

Max Allan Collins Discusses The Case of the Aging Sleuths and the Dying Detectives

The Case of the Aging Sleuths and the Dying Detectives -- Max Allan Collins

Henry Melton Podcast Interview

S2E24, Henry Melton, author, Staple! The Independent Media Expo, Austin, Tx., 2014 

Not that There's Anything Wrong with That

Man Busted For Trying To Have Sex With ATM 

Texas, My Texas

Dozens of Texas communities with less than 90 days of water

Hand Me Down My Walking Cane

Mick Jagger is GREAT granddad of rock 'n' roll

I Miss the Old Days

You're Strongly Advised To Look At These Awesome Vintage Pictures Of London

Scroll down for the great shot of the 1947 comic book stall.  You'll wish you were there right now.

The Strange, Secret History of Isaac Newton’s Papers

The Strange, Secret History of Isaac Newton’s Papers 

10 Real-Life Inspirations For Mythical Things

10 Real-Life Inspirations For Mythical Things

Song of the Day

Everly Brothers - On The Wings Of A Nightingale - YouTube:

Carson McCullers’s Little-Known 1964 Illustrated Children’s Book

Carson McCullers’s Little-Known 1964 Illustrated Children’s Book

Seepy Benton Does

40 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Rubik's Cube

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott.

The Times They Are a-Changin'

Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students Squirm: Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as “trigger warnings,” explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans.

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Ross Macdonald, The Three Roads, Bantam, 1960

Nic Cage Made The Best Talk Show Entrance Of All Time

Nic Cage Made The Best Talk Show Entrance Of All Time Back In 1992

A Brief History of Book Vending Machines

Great photos: A Brief History of Book Vending Machines

New Poem at the 5-2

The Five-Two: Ann Clark: CONCERNED ABOUT THE "HOW"

16 Hilarious Negative Amazon Reviews For Classic Books

16 Hilarious Negative Amazon Reviews For Classic Books

Why Libraries Matter

Why Libraries Matter

Croc Updaate (Real Tears Edition)

TIME.com: It might sound gross, not to mention dangerous (landing on a croc’s face can’t be easy), but both bees and butterflies are known to drink the tears of the caiman crocodile in Costa Rica. In fact, the tears are like “sports drinks” for the insects.

Jerry Vale, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Jerry Vale, the pop crooner known for his velvety voice and the classic love songs he recorded in the 1950s and early 1960s, died Sunday at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 83.  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

It Should Happen to You

1954 IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU TRAILER JUDY HOLLIDAY - YouTube:

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Why Do We Sometimes Call Aluminum Foil "Tin Foil”?

Why Do We Sometimes Call Aluminum Foil "Tin Foil”?

10 Lakes That Are Disappearing or Already Gone

10 Lakes That Are Disappearing or Already Gone 

Song of the Day

You Don't Knock By The Kingston Trio - YouTube:

Dino Update

Largest ever: Paleontologists find 90-million-year-old fossil that belonged to 80 ton dinosaur

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott

Clown and Monkey Rob Bank

Clown and Monkey Rob Bank 

'The Brady Bunch': Where are they now?

'The Brady Bunch': Where are they now?  

Slideshow alert.

Nebula Award Winners for 2013

Nebula Award Winners for 2013

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John Barlow Martin, Butcher's Dozen, Signet, 1952

Top 10 Mythical Places

Top 10 Mythical Places

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Dallas man charged with smuggling dead hummingbirds from Mexico

Groovy

The Groove Reader: The ability to identify a piece of music by examining the grooves of an LP is perhaps unique, and equally useless in the real world, but it has provided many enjoyable moments.

Secrets of the Stacks

Secrets of the Stacks: How libraries decide which books to keep—and which don’t stand the test of time

Here's the Plot for Your Next Internet-Themed Thriller

Nobody Knows What These Mysterious YouTube Videos Are: Everyone has theories, of course. Some are even outlandish: maybe the videos are someone's attempts to communicate with aliens? It doesn't help that among the 77,000 videos uploaded by Webdriver Torso, there will occasionally be abnormalities. For example, there is one video of the Eiffel Tower amidst the thousands of videos of random blue and red shapes. The YouTube channel has even commented once: "Matei is highly intelligent."

A Girl in Every Port

▶ 1952 A GIRL IN EVERY PORT TRAILER GROUCHO MARX - YouTube: