Saturday, December 06, 2014

Uh-Oh

TVWeek: A drama series that aired for four years in the 1960s is the latest classic show to get the reboot treatment. Deadline.com reports that “Route 66,” a CBS action show that aired from 1960-1964, is in development by David Ellender’s Slingshot Global Media.

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest

Sherlock Holmes: Blood to the Bone (Fight Card) - Kindle edition by Jack Tunney, Andrew Salmon, Paul Bishop, Mike Fyles. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: Deptford, England, 1888 … Richard Stokes – one half of a tag-team carnival boxing duo – has vanished, leaving his loving wife, pugilist Eby Stokes, homeless and penniless with only questions and no answers. A mutual friend asks Holmes to look into the disappearance. Watson believes the matter to be a common case of abandonment, and Holmes’ interest merely an excuse to try his hand in the boxing booths of a visiting circus. However, when they are almost killed, Holmes and Watson’s only remaining clue to Stokes disappearance harkens back to a boxing club disbanded in shame more than sixty years earlier. 

Why did Stokes abandon his wife? What possible significance could the long extinct Pugilistic Club have in the matter? Who is behind the fire that almost took the lives of Holmes and Watson? Joining forces with Eby Stokes, Holmes and Watson are determined to find the answers. 

The kaleidoscope lights of the carnival hide many secrets, including a threat to the foundation of the British Empire. The game's afoot and, this time, it's a matter of life and death in and out of the ring…

The Best Sandwich From Each State

The Best Sandwich From Each State 

Song of the Day

Do You Believe In Magic - The Lovin' Spoonful - YouTube:

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes – Holmes for Christmas

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes – Holmes for Christmas

Today's Vintage Ad


Forgotten Hits: The Saturday Surveys ( 12 - 6 - 14 )

Forgotten Hits: The Saturday Surveys ( 12 - 6 - 14 )

Latest Getting Away with Murder Now Online

GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER #97 December 2014

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Ian Seedy, Alley of the Dolls, Bee-Line, 1964

Brooklyn Leads the Way

American mortgage payments now cost 98% of average income in Brooklyn   

Hat tip to Brooklynite Jeff Meyerson.

I Miss the Old Days

The 10 best adventure novels from 1965

9 Celebrity #TBT Photos You May Have Missed This Week

9 Celebrity #TBT Photos You May Have Missed This Week

Rock On

Brenda Lee was Just 13 Years Old When She Recorded the Christmas Staple "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"

Vintage Treasures: The Compleat Werewolf, by Anthony Boucher

Vintage Treasures: The Compleat Werewolf, by Anthony Boucher

Friday, December 05, 2014

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Customers, employees, cat pepper sprayed at First Hill McDonald’s

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Woman 'threatens' fast food restaurant staff with a muffin for getting her order wrong

Yet Another List I'm Not On

100 Notable Books of 2014 

J.K. Rowling Update

J.K. Rowling Is Releasing New Harry Potter Writing For Christmas: In the 12 days leading up to Christmas Eve, new Harry Potter content will be released daily on Pottermore, including brand new writing from J.K. Rowling.

The Best and Worst Run States in America

The Best and Worst Run States in America: A Survey of All 50

Song of the Day

Freddy Cannon Abigail Beecher - YouTube:

Yet Another List I'm Not On

Genre Novels That Should be Classics

Today's Vintage Ad


BOLO

Kentucky Cops Searching For Fugitive John Wayne  

Hat tip to Art Scott.

Forgotten Hits: 50 Years Ago This Weekend ( December 5 - 6 - 7 )

Forgotten Hits: 50 Years Ago This Weekend ( December 5 - 6 - 7 )

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Joe Weiss, Fiery Redhead, Midwood, 1966

Guess Which One of These I Suggest

Christmas Movies to Stream Online 

41 James Bond villains from worst to best

41 James Bond villains from worst to best 

Sign Just Outside Alvin, Texas


Vintage Treasures: Revelations in Black by Carl Jacobi

Vintage Treasures: Revelations in Black by Carl Jacobi

Vintage Treasures: Zacherley’s Midnight Snacks

Vintage Treasures: Zacherley’s Midnight Snacks

Astounding Science Fiction, February and March 1953: A Retro-Review

Astounding Science Fiction, February and March 1953: A Retro-Review

FFB: 13 Above the Night -- Groff Conklin, Editor

I don't know how Groff Conklin came up with the title for this anthology.  It does have 13 stories in it, but as far as the "above the night" part, your guess is as good as mine.  It must have impressed somebody, however, because a group called My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult used it as the title of an album.  You can listen to it here.

As for the collection (you can see the ToC below), it's a pretty good one, with some authors I like and a good many stories that I remember from the old days.  "Prone" by Mack Reynolds is one of those.  It's just sort of a joke, but it's still amusing.  In fact, several of these stories are humorous.  "The Education of Tigress McCardle" is, but in a dark way.  In it, C. M. Kornbluth presents an answer to the overpopulation problem that would likely work very well.  "Now Inhale" is one of Eric Frank Russell's "one man against a planet" stories in a way.  A Terran is captured and accused of being a spy.  The sentence is death.  He can prolong his life by playing a game of his own choosing, but whether he wins or loses, he'll still be executed.  So he has to choose very carefully.  "The Kappa Nu Nexus" by Avram Davidson and Morton Klass is another humorous story, but I have a feeling it would have been considered a lot more humorous in 1961 than it will in 2014.  Sexism runs rampant.  Gordon R. Dickson's "Idiot Solvant" is a kind of "superman" story, also humorous, and in this one the humor still works very well.  Not that some of the humor in the Davidson/Klass story doesn't work.  Just not all of it.

Overall this is a solid anthology, and I plan to read, or in most cases reread, some more of the stories.  They're the "old-fashioned" kind of SF that nobody writes anymore and is only read by geezers like me.  If you like that kind of thing, cheap copies of the book abound on the Internet.  

Table of Contents:
9 · Introduction · Groff Conklin · in
11 · Founding Father · J. F. Bone · na Galaxy Apr ’62
65 · Mating Call · Frank Herbert · ss Galaxy Oct ’61
82 · Nice Girl with Five Husbands · Fritz Leiber · ss Galaxy Apr ’51
96 · Prone · Mack Reynolds · ss F&SF Sep ’54
104 · The Education of Tigress McCardle · C. M. Kornbluth · ss Venture Jul ’57
116 · Now Inhale · Eric Frank Russell · nv Astounding Apr ’59
145 · The Back of Our Heads · Stephen Barr · nv Galaxy Jul ’58
189 · Button, Button · Isaac Asimov · ss Startling Stories Jan ’53
205 · The Deep Down Dragon · Judith Merril · ss Galaxy Aug ’61
218 · The Kappa Nu Nexus · Avram Davidson & Morton Klass · ss F&SF Aug ’61
236 · Idiot Solvant · Gordon R. Dickson · ss Analog Jan ’62
256 · Counter Security · James White · nv F&SF Feb ’63
282 · The Dreistein Case · J. Lincoln Paine · ss Washington Star; F&SF Jun ’58
Source: Glactic Central.

Thursday, December 04, 2014

Soon We'll Have No Personal Freedoms Left at All

Pet Alligator Confiscated From Galveston Back Yard

So Tell Me Again Why I Should Get a Flu Shot

CDC: Flu shot less effective; virus has mutated

If The United States Retires The Penny, Where Will All The Old Ones Go?

If The United States Retires The Penny, Where Will All The Old Ones Go?

Song of the Day

Tom Jones - Whats New Pussycat - Lyrics - YouTube:

Famous First Lines Re-Written For The 21st Century

Famous First Lines Re-Written For The 21st Century

Today's Vintage Ad


Megan Fox Wants to Believe!

And there is nothing paranormal about Bigfoot!

5 Seemingly Sane Celebrities With Bizarre Paranormal Beliefs 

Best?

The 11 Best New Words Added to Oxford Dictionaries

PaperBack



Gil Herbert, The Moonlighters, Midwood, 1966

Writing Advice from Kurt Vonnegut and 3 Other Writers

Writing Advice from Kurt Vonnegut and 3 Other Writers 

How To Write a Book Review

JOAN REEVES aka SlingWords: Readers: How To Write a Book Review

Unpublished Raymond Chandler work discovered in Library of Congress

Unpublished Raymond Chandler work discovered in Library of Congress  

Hat tip to The Rap Sheet.

41 Things You Will Naturally Understand If You're From Texas

41 Things You Will Naturally Understand If You're From Texas

I Want to Believe!

Ghosts to blame? Backhoe found in Lake Michigan 

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Ian McLagan, R. I. P.

Ian McLagan Dies at Age 69: Ian McLagan, the legendary keyboardist who was a member of the Small Faces and the Faces, has died. He was 69 years old.

Yet Another List I'm Not On

But McKenna Jordan is (#26): Houston's 50 Most Fascinating People of 2014

Hiint: They Were Not Found among the Legislators

100 missing brains found in Texas! Really 

PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest

By Blood Bound: (The Smith & Sons Saga) - Kindle edition by Wayne D. Dundee. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.  By Blood Bound: (The Smith & Sons Saga) - Kindle edition by Wayne D. Dundee. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.: Silas Smith had been estranged from his two sons for over a dozen years. His wife hated him for donning the blue and going off to fight on "the wrong side" in the Civil War. When he returned home after the conflict finally ended, he found that not only had her hatred deepened even more with the fall of the Confederacy but she and her family had very effectively poisoned the minds of his young boys against him, too. Bitter and discouraged, he rode away again, too war weary to try and buck the odds and fight another battle, no matter the stakes … 

Now, after more than a decade, Silas is leading a decent life as the sheriff of a small town in western Nebraska, when he receives word through an unlikely source that his sons have grown into young men headed down the wrong path. Lured on by a no-account uncle, their jump to the wrong side of the law seems inevitable … unless Silas is willing and able to intervene in time.

The Meaning of 35 Brand Names, From Etsy to Reddit

The Meaning of 35 Brand Names, From Etsy to Reddit

Song of the Day

Joy Layne - Your Wild Heart (1957) - YouTube:

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

WDRB 41 Louisville News: Confrontation over phone use in Louisville movie theater leads to tazing, court documents state

Today's Vintage Ad

Hat tip to Art Scott.

Once Again Texas Leads the Way

Teachers with Guns

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Police: Man used McChicken as a weapon

PaperBack



Greg Hamilton, Free and Easy, Midwood, 1966

“What’s a Dead Poet Got to Do With It?” by Nancy Pickard

“What’s a Dead Poet Got to Do With It?” by Nancy Pickard | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN

Watch 100 Years Of Makeup In Less Than A Minute

Watch 100 Years Of Makeup In Less Than A Minute

I Miss the Old Days

1989: America's Malls

Richard III Update

DNA analysis suggests King Richard III was a blond, blue-eyed boy

7 Obscure Literary Devices

7 Obscure Literary Devices 

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

The Aggies Will Never Believe there Were That Many There in the First Place

About 100 brains missing from University of Texas 

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

New York road rage driver attacks man with bayonet  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Bobby Keys, R. I. P.

Rolling Stones Saxophonist Bobby Keys Dies at 70: Bobby Keys, the saxophonist who played on some of the Rolling Stones‘ biggest and best songs, has died. He was 70 years old. He had been fighting cirrhosis, according to the Nashville Scene.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Portland Police arrest 35 in Black Friday vegan strip club riot 

Hat tip to Jayme Blaschke.

Classic Authors' American Houses on Google

Classic Authors' American Houses on Google

Song of the Day

Raising Arizona - YouTube:

Nonfiction Rarities by Fiction Writers

Nonfiction Rarities by Fiction Writers 

Today's Vintage Ad


10 Outrageous Murder-For-Hire Plots

10 Outrageous Murder-For-Hire Plots 

PaperBack



Christopher Storm, The Sex Rebels, Beacon, 1964



The Regular Jobs of 10 Legendary Game Show Champions

The Regular Jobs of 10 Legendary Game Show Champions

Billion-dollar Babies: The Story of Beanie Babies

Billion-dollar Babies: The Story of Beanie Babies

I Miss the Old Days

What The World Was Like The Year That "Star Wars" Came Out

New Poem at the Five-Two

The Five-Two: Brenton Booth: "Robbed"

A Bunch of Lists I'm Not On

Goodreads | Best Books 2014 — Goodreads Choice Awards

Overlooked Movie: Anaconda

The title pretty much tells you all you need to know.  Jaws with snakes is what this is.  Okay, not exactly, but you get the idea.  An expedition travelling up the Amazon to film a lost tribe for National Geographic makes the blunder of saving Jon Voight, a Paraguayan snake hunter, and he promises to lead them to the tribe.  What he's really after is a giant anaconda from the Planet of Cheap Special Effects or maybe an escapee from a SyFy Channel movie.    After that it's mostly a "who's going to die next?" movie.  Owen Wilson?  Ice Cube?  Eric Stoltz?  Jennifer Lopez?  Jon Voight?   One of the others?

Shamefully denied an Oscar nomination for his performance, Voight goes all out with the wacky accent and wild looks.  Jennifer Lopez looks great, and is of course totally believable as a movie director for National Geographic.  She doesn't look bad in a wet t-shirt, either.  Eric Stoltz is in a coma for most of the movie, and he does very well in the role.  The others are all okay, but it's the snake that's the star.  [Spoiler Alert]  A snake like this is never dead until it's dead. [End Spoiler Alert]

If you like bad movies with a fine hammy performance at the center, you might get a kick out of Anaconda.  Someone did because there are several sequels, none of which I've seen.  I know they couldn't top this one.

Anaconda

Anaconda (1997) Official Trailer #1 - Jennifer Lopez Movie HD - YouTube:

Monday, December 01, 2014

Frank Yablans, R. I. P.

NYTimes.com: Frank Yablans, a blunt-spoken filmmaker and studio executive who oversaw the release of the first two “Godfather” films while president of Paramount Pictures and later was both a producer and a writer of “Mommie Dearest” and “North Dallas Forty,” died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 79.

Free for Kindle for One Day Only

My Gun Has Bullets (Charlie Willis Book 1) - Kindle edition by Lee Goldberg. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Urination incident at Thanksgiving gathering leads to arrest   

Link via Boing Boing.

Now Available: McKenna's House - Robert J. Randisi

Rough Edges: Now Available: McKenna's House - Robert J. Randisi

Kent Haruf, R. I. P.

The Washington Post: Novelist Kent Haruf has died, his editor at Knopf, Gary Fisketjon, confirmed Sunday evening.

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Hot Tub Frolic Ends In Arrest Of Gay Threesome: Assault prompted by argument over who was higher paid escort

Song of the Day

Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys Good Old Rock N Roll - YouTube:

12 Classic Toys That Are a Bargain All Year Round

12 Classic Toys That Are a Bargain All Year Round

Today's Vintage Ad


Podcast of "Merciless" by David Cranmer, writing as Edward A. Grainger

Episode 17: Merciless | Title18: “Merciless” by David Cranmer, writing as Edward A. Grainger, is available in FURTHER ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES, a collection of nine short stories. It was originally featured in PULP MODERN Issue #4. Read by Scott Detrow.

PaperBack



John Dexter, The Secret Sharer, Ember Library, 1966

So It's Come to This

Girl, 9, arrested for punching sister: Police arrested a nine-year-old girl in the US after her mother reported her for punching her six-year-old sister. 

The youngster was charged with battery following the incident, in which the younger girl was punched in the head, in Indianapolis.

BookEnds Literary Agency Blog

The BookEnds Literary Agency has an interesting blog, especially if you're interested in the writing game.  Today's post is on query letters.

Archaeology Upate

Ancient coins which may feature Alexander the Great found in Greece’s mystery tomb

“When I Was Your Age”

“When I Was Your Age” – Tweets of Awesomeness from Neil deGrasse Tyson 

Lost Masterpiece Found in the Background of a 90s Children's Movie

Lost Masterpiece Found in the Background of a 90s Children's Movie

First It Was the Thin Mints Melee

Man attacked neighbor with bear-deterrent spray, prosecutors say

Lucy’s 40th ‘Birthday’

Lucy’s 40th ‘Birthday’: Looking Back On The Impact of The Australopithecus

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Look Back At The Biggest Christmas Toy Crazes

Look Back At The Biggest Christmas Toy Crazes 

Song of the Day

DON GIBSON - "TOUCH THE MORNING" (1973) - YouTube:

World's First Computer Rescued From the Scrap Heap

How the World's First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

Today's Vintage Ad


19 Things Every Baby Boomer Will Immediately Remember

19 Things Every Baby Boomer Will Immediately Remember

PaperBack



Rose Franken, Claudia, Pocket Books, 1945

Tombstone: The Greatest Western Ever

Tombstone: The Greatest Western Ever

Yet Another List I'm Not On

But you might be surprised at who's the Texas pickThe Most Famous Author From Each State