RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON OF A ...

Home again, home again, jig-a-de-jig.

     The Friday before Christmas my wife said, "Let's go to Massachusetts."  Not having done any Christmas shopping yet, I said, "Okay."  And we had a very nice time, thank you very much.

     We decided to leave on Christmas morning because Christmas Eve meant my making up a batch of chili and Kitty mixing up her peppermint brownies and the two us heading over to my daughter's house.  Walt fried up a turkey and grilled some veggies and a good time was had by all.  However, Kitty had left her camera there so we had to stop at Christina's Christmas morning before we headed off.  Christina was working over the holiday and Walt had taken the kids to his parents' house in Fredericksburg for the day.  Things started to go downhill then.  Literally downhill.

     Christina lives in a glass, octagonal house situated high on a hill.  Her driveway is long and narrow and winding and steep, with a ravine kissing the side of the driveway.  Somebody -- I won't mention Kitty's name -- drove up the driveway so I could get her camera.  Then that same somebody decided to back down the driveway without adjusting her rear-view mirrors.  Did I mention the driveway was steep?  Did I mention the ravine?  So we slid off the driveway and would have rolled end over end into the ravine except that certain someone who was driving managed to wedge us against a couple of trees at about a thirty degree angle.

     At that angle, our car was a strong believer in gravity.  The driver side door would slam shut every time Kitty tried to open it; my passenger door was wedged against the trees.  Any attempt to drive out of the position only dug us deeper in the dirt.  Grrr.

     There are not many garages open on Christmas.  Double grrr.

      Christina, by phone, told us not to worry.  She called a friend who had a truck and a rope and they were kind enough to come out at twelve noon on Christmas to rescue us.

     Didn't work.

     It was time to call out the big guns.  In Southern Maryland, that means Tim.  Tim has a big truck and tools and chains and loves to put them to use.  After any big storm, Tim and his trusty gang of neighbors roam the countryside looking for fallen trees to cut; two years ago, they removed nine trees that had fallen on Christina's house during a particularly vicious snowstorm.  They had us out of the ravine in no time, but I think they were disappointed that it didn't take longer.  At least they also used the opportunity to cut down a few trees.

     So, three hours after we started for Massachusetts, we started for Massachusetts.  Thank you Tim and Dale and the other half dozen people who helped us.  I hope you had a very good Christmas; you deserve it.

     Jessamyn and her daughters live near the New Hampshire state line, and it was great to see them.  She works as the controller of a large hotel in Nashua, New Hampshire, which is where we settled for the week.
Evidently the previous owners of the hotel had bled it dry of money and skipped town.  The new owners, who bought the hotel at auction, are beginning a complete remodelling of the facility, and Jessie has found herself as the number-two person for the hotel and (at times) its de facto manager.  This kept her pretty busy during the holiday week but allowed us some great alone time with the girls.  Because they are girls, we went shopping.  And had their hair done.  And bought make-up.  And stuff.

      We were going to head back Thursday morning, but had a chance to have dinner with my brother and his family.   It's rare that all of us can get together, so we jumped at the opportunity.  (His eldest daughter had come up from Arizona for the week and it was great to see her also.)  New England has many great things going for it, but among the best are fried clams -- whole body clams, not those puny little clam strips.  Clams and clan were the perfect combination.

     Friday we started the trip back, stopping at a number of interesting place to stretch our legs.  Our GPS system (whom we call Bob) kept trying to do us dirt, giving us wrong directions, telling us to turn too late, and sending us five or ten miles out of our way on a whim.  We managed to get a motel room for the night.  It was, as we requested, a non-smoking room.  We could tell because the ashtrays (!) in the room were labeled "No Smoking."

     We made it back about five o'clock New Years Eve, making just one stop to pick up cat food, the better to put us in Ninja's good graces.  I went to bed about nine o'clock.  Happy New Year!

HYMN TIME

Wishing everyone a joyous and properous New Year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW1ILAVHtis&feature=related

OVERLOOKED STUFF: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SYDNEY GREENSTREET!

Today happens to be the 132nd birthday of character actor Sydney Greenstreet.  Born in England, Greenstreet was a failed tea planter in Ceylon who turned to acting out of boredom.  From 1902 on he made his living on the stage, traveling back and forth across the Atlantic.  It wasn't until 1941, when he was 62, that Greenstreet finally agreed to make films.  His debut film couldn't have been better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMm1ewxA0nU

Another movie he did with Bogie is a classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyJIJgoQRPs

And then there was this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN1WDJXSYCA

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkO0NZmvVcI

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MioYuhkhUyw

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTXM5rvC5lM

And was there a more slimy villain than Count Fosco?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXmej1Lgxhc

In 1948, Greenstreet retired from films, but in 1951 he returned as everyboody's favorite corpulent detective: 

http://www.archive.org/details/Nero_Wolfe

He died in 1954, but his spirit lives on.  He was in part the inspiration for Jabba the Hut and for the Marvel Comics villain The Kingpin.  The Nagasaki atomic bomb was nicknamed "The Fat Man", a nod to Greenstreet's Caspar Gutman character in The Maltese Falcon.

He's been immortalized in poetry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U0_twT1m10

And in theater:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDM5L0okEP0

And there has even been a sideways musical tribute to the man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5mzwWM5JE

So, happy birthday, Sydney!  You made good movies even better.

**********

For more Overlooked stuff this week, go to Sweet Freedom, where Todd will have all the links.

INCOMING

Another good week with more interesting items.  A lot of horror and thrillers here, but The Moon Conquerors was a special find.

• Peter Abresch, Bloody Bonsai and Killing Time.  The first two novels in the Elderhostel mystery series.  Both signed.
• Robert Crais, Hostage.  Thriller.  This copy was published as a tie-in to the Bruce Willis movie.
• L. P. Davies, The Paper Dolls.  Mystery/horror/SF hybrid.
• Charles de Lint, Tapping the Dream Tree:  New Tales of Newford.  Fantasy collection of 18 stories, four of which were originally published as limited edition chapbooks and another of which was published published as a limited edition book. 
• Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major, The New Lifetime Reading Plan (Fourth Edition).  Yeah, like I needed this.
• Tom Fassbender & Jim Pascoe, Buffy the Vampire Slayer:  Creatures of Habit.  An "illustated novel", with art by Brian Horton & Paul Lee.
• Christopher Golden, The Boys Are Back in Town.  Dark fantasy.
• Brian Hodge, Nightlife.  Horror.
• [Charles D. Hornig, uncredited editor], The Moon Conquerors.  This is a reprint of the first issue of the U.S. magazine Science Fiction Quarterly,  (Summer, 1940) re-paginated from 148 pages to 176 pages by British publisher Gerald Swan in 1943.  This one is printed on blue paper and has had its cover replaced by blue cardboard stock with the title hand printed.  Contains the title novel (by R. H. Romans, reprinted from Science Wonder Quarterly, Winter, 1930) and five original short stories by Eando Binder, Raymond Z. Gallun, Harl Vincent, and others.
• James Herbert, Domain.  Apocalyptic horror with rats. 
• Richard Laymon,  Island.  Horror.  This edition has a special introduction by Dean Koontz.
• John le Carre, Absolute Friends.  Spy novel.
• Brian Lumley, Necroscope, Necroscope IV:  Deadspeak, Necroscope:  The Lost Years, and Necroscope:  The Lost Years, Volume Two:  Resurgence.  Four horror novels.  Harry Keogh talks to the dead and kills vampires.
• John Lutz, The Night Watcher.  Thriller.
• Graham Masterton, Tengu.  Horror, or (as the cover blurb has it) "a novel of demonic nuclear terror."
• Thomas F. Monteleone, The Blood of the Lamb.  Apocalyptic thriller.
• Philip Nutman, Wet Work.  Apocalyptic zombie novel.
• Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, Dance of Death, The Ice Limit, and Reliquary.  Thrillers three, with the first and the last featuring FBI agent Pendergast.
• [various writers], Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, Volumes 1 & 2.  These volumes collect various stories from the Buffy comic book.  These are note presented in the order of their appearance, but in chronological order with in the television shows time.  Thus, in the first volume, the first story takes Spike and Dru from China in the Boxer Rebellion to the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.  The second story adapts the original movie and gives us Buffy's origin.  Buffy and Pike then travel to Las Vegas, and then Buffy returns alone to LA, slaying all the way.  The stories in the first volume were published in 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003.  Scripts were by Christopher Golden, Dan Brereton, Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, and Paul Lee; artwork was by Eric Powell, Joe Bennett, Cliff Richards, Paul Lee, Ryan Sook, Guy Major, Hector Gomez, Jeremy Cox, and Brian Horton.   Volume 2 continues the chronological timeline with the breakup of Buffy's parents and her move to Sunnydale, then leaps forward to the the end of the show's first season, then to the second and third seasons.  The stories were originally published in 1998 to 2003.  Writers in Volume 2 are Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, Jen Van Meter, Christopher Golden, Doug Petrie, and James Marsters (Spike!); artists include Jeff Matsuda, David McCaig, Hakjoon Kang, Nolan Obena, Cliff Richards, Brian Horton, Luke Ross, Rick Ketcham, Guy Major, Ryran Sook, and Hector Gomez.  Phew.

Update, 12/24

     A few more came on Christmas while doing the annual chili feast at my daughter's.  I'll be on the road Christmas Day, so this post is going in Monday's queue.  Any way, these make me smile:

•  Anna Dewdney, Llama Lama Holiday Drama.  I love llamas, alpacas, and vicunas, so naturally I ususally receive something llama oriented.
• Jamie Frater, Listverse.com's Ultimate Book of Bizarre Lists.  With this in my hands, I may not have to go to Bill Crider's blog everyday.  (Actually, I still will -- if only to find out the many spurious events wherein Texas leads the way.)   My eleven-year-old grandson told me I'll really like this book -- it has fifteen little-known facts about toilets!  "Hey, Pop, did you know the King George II died from falling off the toilet?"  "Hmm.  What were his last words, Mark?  'Oh, crap!'?"

I also think Mark had something to do with one of Kitty's gifts:

•  Rick Smith & Bruce Lourie, Slow Death by Rubber Duck:  The Secret Danger of Everyday Things.  (Mark has my thirteen-year-old mental and emotional maturity two years ahead of schedule.)

HOLIDAY SONG: BONUS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJi41RWaTCs

HYMN TIME

Old time gospel, old time religion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk1jTZw2tOs

And because today is today, my Christmas wish for all of you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2lUdwbK8sk&feature=related

HOLIDAY SONG #31

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2k2_CovikU