Flotsam and/or Jetsam

Moar James Doohan!

Posted on June 13, 2024June 13, 2024 by Mike

Just out of curiosity, I went poking around for more deets on Scotty’s D-Day heroism, and it really is quite a story indeed.

Remembering D-Day Hero James Doohan.
This Memorial Day we’re looking back at Doohan’s service during that fateful landing in the Second World War

Memorial Day is a most appropriate time to think about the sacrifices made on D-Day, the fateful evening in 1944 that the Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, to battle Hitler’s Nazi forces and liberate mainland Europe. One of those soldiers, on his very first combat assignment, was a young Canadian named James Doohan, who later when on to great fame as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on Star Trek: The Original Series. That bit of trivia — and the story that goes along with it — may be old news to longtime fans, but to the Star Trek newcomers out there, it’s a tale that’s well worth repeating.

“The sea was rough,” Doohan recalled of his landing on Juno Beach that day, an anecdote included in his obituary, which the Associated Press ran on June 20, 2005. “We were more afraid of drowning than [we were of] the Germans.”

The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren’t heavy enough to detonate the bombs, the AP story continued. At 11:30 that night, Doohan — a pilot and captain in the Royal Candian Artillery Regiment — was machine-gunned, taking six hits. One bullet blew off his middle right finger, four struck his leg and one hit him in the chest. A silver cigarette case stopped the bullet to the chest.

Throughout his acting career Doohan took measures to hide the missing finger, but it was occasionally visible to the camera, including in certain shots from Star Trek. He made no effort, however, to hide the missing finger during his decades of autograph signings and convention appearances.

In comments here, Aesop remembers:

I went to school with Scotty’s kids.

When Doohan showed up for our sports banquet, I noticed he was missing most of his left ring finger.

His sons thought it was from a childhood sledding accident.

I don’t think dad had shared the full truth with them.

Likely not, as tends to be the way with truly brave men. In a screen grab from one of the most popular ST-TNG eps, Scotty’s injury is clearly visible:

From that pic, it appears as if not only the middle finger but the ring finger also might have been involved—although the rest of the ring finger could be obscured by the excessive fluff of the darn troublesome Tribble. Whatever the case may be, a most humble tip of the CF chapeau to the honorable and admirable LT James M Doohan, a bona fide hero who—like all heroes—actually did instead of just talked.

Yet MOAR update! Turns out, Mr Scott’s maiming resulted from another of those all-too-common “friendly fire” incidents.

Around 11 PM that night, a jumpy Canadian sentry fired at Doohan as the lieutenant was walking back to his post. He was hit by six bullets: four times in the left knee, once in the chest, and once in the right hand.

Doohan recovered from his wounds and joined up with the Royal Canadian Artillery, where he was taught how to fly a Taylorcraft Auster Mark IV plane. He was later dubbed the “craziest pilot in the Canadian air force” after flying between two telephone poles in 1945 just to prove that he could.

Yep, that definitely sounds like the Montgomery Scott we all know and love. The tale of how Doohan came to involve himself in show biz in the first place is a mighty good ‘un as well.

At some point between Christmas 1945 and New Year’s 1946, though, Doohan turned on the radio and listened to “the worst drama I had ever heard,” which prompted him to head down to the local radio station on a whim and do a recording on his own.

The radio operator was impressed enough to recommend Doohan enroll at a Toronto drama school, where he eventually won a two-year scholarship to the esteemed Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.

He returned to Toronto in 1953 and performed in dozens of roles on radio, stage, and television, including some bit parts in famous American series such as Bonanza, Twilight Zone, and Bewitched. Then in 1966, he auditioned for a new NBC science fiction series that would change his life — and the life of sci-fi fans — forever.

The part Doohan auditioned for was one of an engineer aboard a futuristic spaceship. Since he had mastered dozens of different accents and voices from his years of radio work, the producers had him try out a few and asked which he liked best.

“I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, ‘If this character is going to be an engineer, you’d better make him a Scotsman.’” The producers were thrilled with the character who was “99% James Doohan and 1% accent” and the Canadian joined William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in the cast of Star Trek, the show that would forever cement them in pop culture history.

Indubitably so. Rest ye well, James Doohan. We shan’t see your like again.

The most well-named website EVAR

Posted on June 8, 2024June 8, 2024 by Mike

Hoo, BOY, talk about yer Intarwebz rabbit holes! This one got me, and I mean but GOOD. First, it was this:

12 Stimulating Facts About Coffee
10 _{of 12} The First Webcam Was Invented For a Coffee Pot

We can credit coffee-craving inventors for creating the first webcam. In the early 1990s, computer scientists working at the University of Cambridge grew tired of trekking to the office kitchen for a cup of joe only to find the carafe in need of a refill. The solution? They devised a makeshift digital monitor — a camera that uploaded three pictures per minute of the coffee maker to a shared computer network — to guarantee a fresh pot of coffee was waiting the moment their mugs emptied. By November 1993, the in-house camera footage made its internet debut, and viewers from around the globe tuned in to watch the grainy, real-time recording. The world’s first webcam generated so much excitement that computer enthusiasts even traveled to the U.K. lab to see the setup in real life. In 2003, the coffee pot sold at auction for nearly $5,000.

Next, I scrolled on down to…

6 Colossal Facts About the Hoover Dam
2 _{of 6} Building the Dam Meant First Building an Entire City

Constructing a large-scale dam meant hiring a massive workforce: By the end of the project, the employee roster swelled to 21,000 people. An average day had 3,500 workers reporting to the construction site, though that number rose during busy periods, like in June 1934, when as many as 5,218 men reported to the jobsite per day. Bringing in that many workers (and their families) meant the federal government had to have a plan — which is how the town of Boulder City, Nevada, came to exist.

In December 1928, President Calvin Coolidge authorized the creation of Boulder City on federal land specifically to house workers. Construction of the town’s buildings began in 1931. Families were housed in cottages, while single men slept in dormitories, and meals were provided in a jumbo-sized mess hall that served 6,000 meals per day. Boulder City was also equipped with a state-of-the-art hospital to handle jobsite accidents, a fire department, a train station, and a movie theater.

After that, there was this.

15 Geography Facts You’ve Always Wondered About
13 _{of 15} Where Does One Ocean End and Another Begin?

Despite being divided into sub-oceans, there is only one ocean in the world, which scientists refer to as the “world ocean.” Historically, cartographers and government officials found it helpful to divide the massive ocean into smaller entities, which is how the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and Indian Oceans were named. More recently, the ocean surrounding Antarctica, dubbed the Southern Ocean, has been added to the list. Despite being located in different regions, there is actually no way to tell when one ocean ends and the other begins — because the ocean is a singular continuous body of water. However, there is one exception to this rule. The Southern Ocean is radically different from the rest, with a strong current that surrounds it and notably frigid water, making it easier to recognize where this sub-ocean begins.

Cool, no? And STILL, I’m only halfway down the page. I warn you, folks: do NOT click on the link above unless you have nothing whatever to do, and all day to do it in.

Rat Rods!!!

Posted on June 1, 2024June 1, 2024 by Mike

Via WeirdDave, this may not be the entire reason why Twitter video exists, but it’s for damn sure and certain one of the best.

pic.twitter.com/HZEcoLVn8w

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf)

May 31, 2024

In case you’re unsure of exactly what you’re seeing here, what it is is real science, by and for real people (and, well, rats), not government-owned eggheads in labs coats afflicted by a grossly over-inflated sense of their own importance. I’ve watched this four times already, and I know I ain’t done watching it yet—probably never will be, in all honesty. This guy’s dad is a pure-tee genius. I just can’t stop laughing.

Talk about menaces…

Posted on May 26, 2024May 26, 2024 by Mike

So late last night curiosity got the better of this cat, prodding me into digging around for more on the vintage besoboru retaliation vid embedded here the other day, and Lord-a-MIGHTY, but this Lenny Randle fella was some piece of work. First off, a look at what the rulebook has to say.

Retro Interference – Batter-Runner Randle Tackles Pitcher
In May 1974, Rangers second baseman Lenny Randle bunted down the first-base line and then veered into fair territory to tackle Indians pitcher Bob Johnson, who had thrown behind Randle one pitch earlier. HP Umpire Dave Phillips ruled the batter-runner out despite Johnson never having actually tagged him, sparking a benches-clearing brawl leading to our latest Ask the UEFL question: What’s the right call here?

Despite articles discussing the base path or runner’s lane, the answer is fairly simple: Randle was declared out for interfering with a fielder entitled to field a batted ball. Naturally, HP Umpire Phillips or 1B Umpire Bill Deegan could have similarly ejected Randle for unsportsmanlike conduct as a result of the flagrant and intentional collision.

Two rules cover this. Official Baseball Rule 5.09(b)(3) states that a runner (including the batter-runner) is out when said runner “intentionally interferes with a thrown ball; or hinders a fielder attempting to make a play on a batted ball,” while OBR 6.01(a)(10) confirms that it is interference when a runner “fails to avoid a fielder who is attempting to field a batted ball, or intentionally interferes with a thrown ball.”

SIDEBAR: If two fielders attempt to field the same batted ball, only one of them is entitled to protection from interference (this is not the case here as only the pitcher is fielding the batted ball).

There exist other rules pertaining to interference with a fielder who has already caught a ball and for the purpose of these rules, the pitcher is considered to be in the act of fielding at the moment of interference, even though the ball is already in his possession.

For the record, this is not runner’s lane interference (OBR 5.09(a)(11)), which is a call of interference with the fielder taking the throw at first base; thus, RLI requires a throw to be made. No throw = no possibility of runner’s lane interference. Similarly, this is not an out-of-the-base-path call, since out of the base path is defined as running more than three feet away from the direct line between the runner and the base which the runner is attempting to achieve in order to avoid being tagged. Because Randle ran directly to the pitcher (the only player who could have tagged him), who had yet to make a tag attempt, he was not out of his base path.

Okay, now that we got the legal niceties of the actual at-bat all sorted out, what about Randle himself? Might he have been temperamentally inclined to overreacting over what was really a pretty ordinary, run of the mill brush-back pitch? Hmmm, could be, could be.

The pitcher fields it clean, tries to make the tag and that is exactly what Randle wanted. As the pitcher comes up with the ball, Randle lays a hit on him that John Randle would be proud of. I mean he laid him out. I love how Randle just takes off for first acting like he didn’t do anything wrong, luckily the first baseball decided to show off his form tackling as well. First baseman wraps him up and drives him into the ground. It’s an all out brawl from there wit some good punches landed.

Most of the times baseball fights are just pushing and shoving and yelling, not here. Everyone was trying to get a piece of someone else, quite an impressive fight if you ask me.

Fun Fact- I googled this guy Lenny Randle, turns out he also punched one of his managers in the face three times. Sensing a theme here….

A-yup. And then there’s this:

During spring training in 1977, first round draft choice Bump Wills earned the starting second base job over Randle. On March 28, the Rangers were in Orlando for an exhibition game with the Minnesota Twins. During batting practice an hour before the first pitch, Randle approached Rangers manager Frank Lucchesi. Randle claimed that Lucchesi called him a “punk”, which Lucchesi denies. Randle punched Lucchesi in the face three times before the altercation was stopped by bystanders.

Lucchesi was hospitalized for a week, needing plastic surgery to repair his fractured cheekbone which Randle had broken in three places.[6] He also received bruises to his kidney and back. The Rangers suspended Randle for 30 days without pay and fined him $10,000. On April 26, before the suspension was complete, Texas traded him to the New York Mets for cash and a player to be named later; Texas later received Rick Auerbach.

Randle was charged with assault, and pleaded no contest to battery charges in a Florida court, receiving a $1,050 fine. The Rangers fired Lucchesi on June 21. Lucchesi sued Randle for $200,000. They settled for $20,000.

Uhh, yeah, from all appearances this guy was hot as a two-dollar pistol, safe to say. This next Randle item I thought was pretty funny.

With the Kansas City Royals visiting the Kingdome on May 27, 1981, Royals center fielder Amos Otis hit a slow roller down the third base line in the sixth inning. Randle got on his hands and knees and blew the ball over the foul line; the umpires disallowed his action, and ruled it fair. Afterwards, Randle said that there was a “no-blow rule” implemented. He jokingly said, “They won the game, we won the protest.”

Heh. Well, give the guy points for creativity, anyhow.

The Bicycle Menace

Posted on May 26, 2024May 26, 2024 by Mike

An oldie but goldie from the late, lamented PJ O’Rourke, via Ed Driscoll.

A Cool and Logical Analysis of the Bicycle Menace
And an Examination of the Actions Necessary to License, Regulate, or Abolish Entirely This Dreadful Peril on our Roads

Our nation is afflicted with a plague of bicycles. Everywhere the public right-of-way is glutted with whirring, unbalanced contraptions of rubber, wire, and cheap steel pipe. Riders of these flimsy appliances pay no heed to stop signs or red lights. They dart from between parked cars, dash along double yellow lines, and whiz through crosswalks right over the toes of law-abiding citizens like me.

In the cities, every lamppost, tree, and street sign is disfigured by a bicycle slathered in chains and locks. And elevators must be shared with the cycling faddist so attached to his “moron’s bath-chair” that he has to take it with him everywhere he goes.

In the country, one cannot drive around a curve or over the crest of a hill without encountering a gaggle of huffing bicyclers spread across the road in suicidal phalanx.

Even the wilderness is not safe from infestation, as there is now such a thing as an off-road bicycle and a horrible sport called “bicycle-cross.”

The ungainly geometry and primitive mechanicals of the bicycle are an offense to the eye. The grimy and perspiring riders of the bicycle are an offense to the nose. And the very existence of the bicycle is an offense to reason and wisdom.

PRINCIPAL ARGUMENTS WHICH MAY BE MARSHALED AGAINST BICYCLES

1. Bicycles are childish
Bicycles have their proper place, and that place is under small boys delivering evening papers. Insofar as children are too short to see over the dashboards of cars and too small to keep motorcycles upright at intersections, bicycles are suitable vehicles for them. But what are we to make of an adult in a suit and tie pedaling his way to work? Are we to assume he still delivers newspapers for a living? If not, do we want a doctor, lawyer, or business executive who plays with toys? St. Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, 13:11, said, “When I became a man, I put away childish things.” He did not say, “When I became a man, I put away childish things and got more elaborate and expensive childish things from France and Japan.”

Considering the image projected, bicycling commuters might as well propel themselves to the office with one knee in a red Radio Flyer wagon.

2. Bicycles are undignified
A certain childishness is, no doubt, excusable. But going about in public with one’s head between one’s knees and one’s rump protruding in the air is nobody’s idea of acceptable behavior.

It is impossible for an adult to sit on a bicycle without looking the fool. There is a type of woman, in particular, who should never assume the bicycling posture. This is the woman of ample proportions. Standing on her own feet she is a figure to admire-classical in her beauty and a symbol, throughout history, of sensuality, maternal virtue, and plenty. Mounted on a bicycle, she is a laughingstock.

In a world where loss of human dignity is such a grave and all-pervading issue, what can we say about people who voluntarily relinquish all of theirs and go around looking at best like Quixote on Rosinante and more often like something in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade? Can such people be trusted? Is a person with so little self-respect likely to have any respect for you?

3. Bicycles are unsafe
Bicycles are top-heavy, have poor brakes, and provide no protection to their riders. Bicycles are also made up of many hard and sharp components which, in collision, can do grave damage to people and the paint finish on automobiles. Bicycles are dangerous things.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong, per se, with dangerous things. Speedboats, racecars, fine shotguns, whiskey, and love are all very dangerous. Bicycles, however, are dangerous without being any fun. You can’t shoot pheasants with a bicycle or water-ski behind it or go 150 miles an hour or even mix it with soda and ice. And the idea of getting romantic on top of a bicycle is alarming. All you can do with one of these ten-speed sink traps is grow tired and sore and fall off it.

Being dangerous without being fun puts bicycles in a category with open-heart surgery, the war in Vietnam, the South Bronx, and divorce. Sensible people do all that they can to avoid such things as these.

4. Bicycles are un-American
We are a nation that worships speed and power. And for good reason. Without power we would still be part of England and everybody would be out of work. And if it weren’t for speed, it would take us all months to fly to L.A., get involved in the movie business, and become rich and famous.

Bicycles are too slow and impuissant for a country like ours. They belong in Czechoslovakia…

5. I don’t like the kind of people who ride bicycles
At least I think I don’t. I don’t actually know anyone who rides a bicycle. But the people I see on bicycles look like organic-gardening zealots who advocate federal regulation of bedtime and want American foreign policy to be dictated by UNICEF. These people should be confined.

I apologize if I have the wrong impression. It may be that bicycle riders are all members of the New York Stock Exchange, Methodist bishops, retired Marine Corps drill instructors, and other solid citizens. However, the fact that they cycle around in broad daylight making themselves look like idiots indicates that they’re crazy anyway and should be confined just the same.

The list goes on from there, all perfectly true and accurate to the nth detail, finishing out with perhaps my personal favorite, Number 7 (“Bicycles are good exercise”), although Number 5 is pretty damned good too. Then PJ realizes that the Bicycle Menace is another of those felicitous problems that, eventually, solve themselves.

A bargain at ANY price

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Mike

You can’t take the skies from me.

Rocket Report: SpaceX focused on Starship reentry; Firefly may be for sale
Firefly may be up for sale. Firefly Aerospace investors are considering a sale that could value the closely held rocket and Moon lander maker at about $1.5 billion, Bloomberg reports. The rocket company’s primary owner, AE Industrial Partners, is working with an adviser on “strategic options” for Firefly. Neither AE nor Firefly commented to Bloomberg about the potential sale. AE invested $75 million into Texas-based Firefly as part of a series B financing round in 2022. The firm made a subsequent investment in its Series C round in November 2023.

Launches and landers … Now more than a decade old and with a history of financial struggles, Firefly has emerged as one of the apparent winners in the small launch race in the United States. The company’s Alpha rocket has now launched four times since its unsuccessful debut in September 2021, and it is due to fly a Venture Class Launch Services 2 mission for NASA in the coming weeks. Firefly also aims to launch its Blue Ghost spacecraft to the moon later this year and is working on an orbital transfer vehicle.

Butbutbutwait—you mean you aren’t talking about…dammit, I thought you meant…you shoulda told…oh, to hell with it.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

(Via Insty)

Now, THAT’S impressive!

Posted on May 25, 2024May 25, 2024 by Mike

I have bought weed legally in one of Amsterdam’s fabled “black” coffee shops, and smoked it therein too—again, legally. So my question about this headline is: what in the actual fuck does one have to do to be arrested for drugs in Amsterdam?

Nicki Minaj Reportedly Arrested On Drug Charges In Amsterdam [VIDEOS]

No excerpt from the article, ‘cause who the hell cares.

When baseball was by-God BASEBALL

Posted on May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by Mike

Via WeirdDave.

pic.twitter.com/o2qVlmRsLp

— ONT WTF (@OntWtf)

May 25, 2024

Now, THAT’s how ya fucking DO it! I think it entirely safe to say that that pitcher’s mellow was well and truly harshed. Hey, who says baseball isn’t a contact sport?

Good boy

Posted on May 24, 2024 by Mike

Best doggie smile EVAR.

Adopted dog can’t hide her happiness.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/COrPij7mZ6

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) May 24, 2024

That there is one happy pup. Well done all around, I say.

Kelly’s hot streak continues

Posted on May 23, 2024May 23, 2024 by Mike

Megyn Kelly looks better than ever: beautiful, unflappable, and self-assured. She’s doing her own thing her own way as host of her independent SiriusXM show, and damned if she ain’t kicking ass and taking names too. You go, girl! This time out, it’s dissembling shitlib sad-sack Bill Maher—who I freely admit does get something right once in a rare while—with his (turkey) neck on MK’s chopping block.

Megyn Kelly Brutally Fact Checks Bill Maher’s Left Wing Talking Points to His Face
For a while now, I’ve been willing to give left-wing comedian Bill Maher a lot of credit when he criticizes the radical left. He’s challenged left-wing orthodoxy enough that it’s actually newsworthy and important when he does. But at heart, he’s still a leftist who, as he proved in an appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show” on SiriusXM on Tuesday, still lets his rabid anti-Trumpism cloud his judgment.

During the show, while talking about the 2024 election and the choice between Biden and Trump, Maher argued that “you have to respect who wins an election or else you don’t have the kind of country we’ve always had before.”

To which Kelly pointed out, “Hillary Clinton, of course, is the original election denier. I’m sure you voted for her in ’16.”

“Well, she’s not an election denier,” Maher insisted.

“She absolutely was the OG election denier,” Kelly retorted.

“First of all, she came out before the sun had risen to concede the election to Trump,” Maher pushed back, as if that matters.

“And then spent the next four years saying he was illegitimate, he was an illegitimate president,” Kelly pointed out.

“Okay, well, first of all, she didn’t say he was an illegitimate,” Maher claimed.

“Yes, she did,”

“Tell me exactly what she said,” Maher challenged.

“She said those exact words repeatedly.”

Megyn Kelly, is, of course correct.

Which Miz Megyn proved without further ado, via running a video montage of Her Herness!!!™ saying/doing exactly what Kelly said she did. Maher being Maher, he continued to waffle, weasel, and worm around weakly for another few seconds, splitting any available semantic hair he thought Megyn might let him get away with while his interlocutor blandly affixed the latest scalp to her battle-belt. Poor, luckless Maher’s ordeal only got worse from there, with Megyn savagely eviscerating him on a new topic, leaving him sweaty, flushed, and plainly wishing he was anywhere else by the end of the festivities. Watch the vid; mere text just doesn’t do it justice.

I like her, I must say; like good bourbon, she only improves with age, and seems to have really come into her own of late. It’s a damned shame about her pointless (and apparently ongoing) kerfuffle with Trump in 2015, but hey, whatchagonnado, I suppose. I could be all wet, and probably am, but it looks to me as if Trump gets a kick out of baiting Kelly now and again, almost like he’s doing it for his own entertainment. Certainly, there’s no shortage of fat, juicy shitlib targets I’d prefer to see him go after, instead of burning ammo taking potshots towards the Right.

Then again, he’s done that all along; what the hey, Trump’s gonna Trump. Too, it’s not as if Kelly hasn’t gotten a few things back-asswards and wrong herself, although to the best of my knowledge she promptly acknowledges and corrects the error once the lightbulb has finally clicked on—which, as a journalist, is no more nor less than her professional obligation, any personal scruples aside. All just part of the process, I reckon. Trump would be punching far below his weight in going after a trifling anklebiter like Bill Maher, granted. But that in no way suggests that Kelly’s skillful smackdown wasn’t worthwhile.

“You married a dude?”

Posted on May 22, 2024May 22, 2024 by Mike

When a psychotic murderer makes more sense than one of the two (2, supposedly) dominant political parties, you know the country’s in one hell of a sorry state.

pic.twitter.com/HyYX503S3L

— Fight With Memes (@fightwithmemes)

May 18, 2024

Via Irish.

Update! Since Barry says he hasn’t seen it, here’s a few more simply incredible scenes from one of the greatest Hollywood movies ever made.

What a fucking movie, eh?

Updated update! A little more background info on NCFOM, for anybody else who may not have seen it yet.

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American neo-Western crime thriller film written, directed, produced and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel of the same name. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin, the film is set in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film revisits the themes of fate, conscience, and circumstance that the Coen brothers had explored in the films Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), and Fargo (1996). The film follows three main characters: Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), a Vietnam War veteran and welder who stumbles upon a large sum of money in the desert; Anton Chigurh (Bardem), a hitman who is sent to recover the money; and Ed Tom Bell (Jones), a sheriff investigating the crime. The film also stars Kelly Macdonald as Moss’s wife, Carla Jean, and Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells, a bounty hunter seeking Moss and the return of the $2 million.

No Country for Old Men premiered in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival on May 19. The film became a commercial success, grossing $171 million worldwide against the budget of $25 million. Critics praised the Coens’ direction and screenplay and Bardem’s performance, and the film won 76 awards from 109 nominations from multiple organizations; it won four awards at the 80th Academy Awards (including Best Picture), three British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), and two Golden Globes. The American Film Institute listed it as an AFI Movie of the Year, and the National Board of Review selected it as the best of 2007. It is one of only four Western films ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (the others being Cimarron in 1931, Dances with Wolves in 1990, and Unforgiven in 1992).

No Country for Old Men was considered one of the best films of 2007, and many regard it as the Coen brothers’ best film. As of December 2021, various sources had recognized it as one of the best films of the 2000s, and as one of the best films of the 21st century. The Guardian‘s John Patterson wrote: “the Coens’ technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based Western classicism reminiscent of Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are matched by few living directors”, and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said that it is “a new career peak for the Coen brothers” and “as entertaining as hell”.

No argument from me, with any of it. So what the heck are you waiting for, anyhow?

Free markets, free enterprise? No thanks, we’re Amerikans

Posted on May 21, 2024May 21, 2024 by Mike

An amusing story that illustrates perfectly how very far from anything resembling small-business-oriented laissez-faire capitalism we’ve come.

How to Murder a Popular Restaurant Chain With This 1 Weird Trick
Following the unexpected closure of dozens of locations last week, Red Lobster completely expectedly filed for bankruptcy protection this week — and how the seafood chain ended up in Chapter 11 restructuring is a fascinating story of bad decisions, spastic leadership, and shortsighted greed. It’s that last element that really tells the tale.

Reb Lobster “temporarily closed” 87 restaurants last week, but as USA Today reported, some of them have “their kitchen equipment up for auction on an online restaurant liquidator.” Temporary, eh?

CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn wrote Monday that the chain’s “misguided endless shrimp promotion drove it into bankruptcy.” If you missed the news — I knew about it but my efforts at getting back into shape couldn’t afford it — last summer, Red Lobster made their $20 all-you-can-eat shrimp special a permanent menu item.

“The plan, as far as I can tell,” Luke Winkie wrote for Slate, “was for guests to fill up on just enough shellfish to preserve Red Lobster’s profit margin. It backfired spectacularly: The restaurant’s clientele scarfed down enough shrimp to accumulate an $11 million operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2023.” But that $11 million loss was only a small fraction of the company’s overall $72 million loss last year.

There’s so much more to the story than a money-losing menu item.

Business analyst Trung Phan posted to X that “the interesting part” behind the all-you-can-eat shrimp “is that one of the chain’s owners is Thai seafood firm Thai Union… and it may have used Endless shrimp to dump its own shrimp supply through the 578 restaurants in North America.” Restaurant Business Online reported that bankruptcy court documents question “whether the control Thai Union exerted over the supply chain process drove up costs for the chain, worsening its financial condition.” Quality control was reportedly an issue, too.

“Quality”? At Red Lopster?!? The McDonalds of seafood restaurants, first-choice favorite of Neegrows nationwide and hardly anyone else?

Now you’ve heard everything, right?

Wrong.

There’s still more.

And of course there is, Stephen wouldn’t lie about a thing like that. Thankfully, down South we’ve always been blessed with enough old-school “fish camps” that no sensible person had to even think about resorting to dumps like Red Lopster *shudder* for their seafood needs anyway, so no great loss.

BREAKING: B’rer Rabbitt to be thrown into briar patch!!!

Posted on May 21, 2024May 21, 2024 by Mike

Shocking, horrifying, awful news. Whatever are we going to do without these two Great American Patriots?

JUST IN: Stormy Daniels’ porn star husband says couple will ‘vacate the country’ if Trump found not guilty
“I think if it’s not guilty, we got to decide what to do. Good chance we’ll probably vacate this country.”

In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Barrett Blade, spouse of adult film star Stormy Daniels, revealed on Tuesday that they are seriously considering relocating abroad if former President Donald Trump is found not guilty in his ongoing Manhattan criminal trial.

Not to worry, sleazebag: a jury made up entirely of Trump-hating NYC shitlibs, instructed by the most slippery-slimery crook of a presiding judge ever to befoul the bench? Yeah, the chances Trump won’t be found guilty on all counts, plus several more charges made up on the spot by court kangaroos, hover somewhere between None whatsoever and Please, please, stop, yer killin’ me ovah heah!

Blade expressed concerns about the intense scrutiny and negativity directed at his wife.

“If Trump is found not guilty, I think there’s a — I mean, either way, I don’t think he gets better for her. I think if it’s not guilty, we got to decide what to do. Good chance we’ll probably vacate this country. If he is found guilty, she’s still got to deal with all the hate that feel like she’s the reason that he’s guilty from all of his followers. So I don’t see it as a when situation either way. I know that we would like to get on with our lives. I know that she wants to move past this. We want, we just want to do what I guess we would say normal people get to do and some aspects, but I don’t know if that ever will be, you know,” Blade said.

I have only two (2) responses I can make to this bullshit whinging:

And:

Of course, like all those crybaby H-wood types who have solemnly sworn to flee the country after each and every Repugnicunt victory since George W Bush got them soiling their Underoos back in 2000, but who never bother to follow through, these two oxygen thieves aren’t going to actually leave either—which I consider to be extremely unfortunate, quite frankly.

Another one they aren’t making any more of these days

Posted on May 18, 2024May 18, 2024 by Mike

That would be gifted actor, horseman, Marine veteran, Hollywood stuntman, ranch hand, jazz singer, blacksmith, and world-champion poker player Wilford Brimley.

Anthony Wilford Brimley (September 27, 1934 – August 1, 2020) was an American actor. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and working odd jobs in the 1950s, Brimley started working as an extra and stuntman in Western films in the late 1960s. He became an established character actor in the 1970s and 1980s in films such as The China Syndrome (1979), The Thing (1982), Tender Mercies (1983), The Natural (1984), and Cocoon (1985). Brimley was known for playing characters at times much older than his age. He was the long-term face of American television advertisements for the Quaker Oats Company. He also promoted diabetes education and appeared in related television commercials for Liberty Medical, a role for which he became an Internet meme.

Brimley joined the Marines in 1953 and served in the Aleutian Islands for three years. He also worked as a bodyguard for businessman Howard Hughes as well as a ranch hand, wrangler, and blacksmith. He then began shoeing horses for film and television. At the behest of his close friend and fellow actor Robert Duvall, he began acting in the 1960s as a riding extra and stunt man in westerns. In 1979, he told the Los Angeles Times that the most he ever earned in a year as an actor was $20,000. He had no formal training as an actor, and his first experience in acting in front of a live audience was in a theater group at the Los Angeles Actors’ Theater.

His first credited feature film performance was in The China Syndrome (1979) as Ted Spindler, a friend and coworker of plant shift supervisor Jack Godell (portrayed by Jack Lemmon). That same year, he appeared in the Robert Redford/Jane Fonda feature film “The Electric Horseman” cast as simply “The Farmer” while assisting Redford and Fonda’s characters evade troopers while transporting the horse in a cattle hauler. Later, Brimley made a brief but pivotal appearance in Absence of Malice (1981) as the curmudgeonly, outspoken Assistant Attorney General James A. Wells. In the movie The Thing (1982) he played the role of Blair, a biologist among a group of men at an American research station in Antarctica who encounter a dangerous alien that can perfectly imitate other organisms.

Brimley’s close friend Robert Duvall (who also appeared in The Natural) was instrumental in securing for him the role of Harry in Tender Mercies (1983). Duvall, who had not been getting along with director Bruce Beresford, wanted “somebody down here that’s on my side, somebody that I can relate to.” Beresford felt Brimley was too old for the part but eventually agreed to the casting. Brimley, like Duvall, clashed with the director; during one instance when Beresford tried to advise Brimley on how Harry would behave, Duvall recalled Brimley responding: “Now look, let me tell you something, I’m Harry. Harry’s not over there, Harry’s not over here. Until you fire me or get another actor, I’m Harry, and whatever I do is fine ’cause I’m Harry.”

It was Brimley’s showstopper star-turn as AAG James J Wells (not James A Wells, as Wiki erroneously has it above) in Absence of Malice that sent me down the Wilford Brimley rabbit hole today, after re-watching Brimley’s riveting performance on YewToob. Interesting thing about the apparent James J/James A flub: Brimley’s character may very well have been James A in the script (don’t know, didn’t check), judging from what appears to be his momentary hesitation when giving his name as James J in the AoM final cut:

Note ye well that Mr Brimley, a relatively unknown bit-player-cum-character actor at the time, just walked in, sat down, riffled some papers, opened his mouth, and proceeded to steal the entire film from screen titans Paul Newman and Sally Field, without so much as breaking a sweat. By God, that there is what you call acting, bub. Ahh, but how very typical of Wilford Brimley: Kurt Russell, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon—running scenes with all of these fine actors and many more, he refused to be intimidated or overawed, nonchalantly holding his own with all those marquee names, making it look not just easy, but effortless.

More rich, buttery Brimley goodness from AoM:

One more time:

Over the years I must’ve seen Absence of Malice about, oh, I dunno, forty or fifty times—enough that I’ve long since had every word of Brimley’s dazzling five minutes or so of screentime towards the end down by heart, anyway—and still ain’t no way tired of the flick. If you’ve never seen the movie, I urge you with all my heart not to let another sun go down before you rectify that gap in your cinematic education. They ain’t making movies like Absence of Malice anymore, nor actors like Wilford Brimley, nor sturdy, versatile, by-God American men like him, for that matter.

Anybody else thinking, as I just was, that the AAG Wells character, in fact pretty much all the G-men in the above climactic scenes, represents another long-gone American totem: the competent, reasonable, and trustworthy public servant? Not to mention Sally Fields’ newspaper reporter, who, although she lost her way temporarily and compromised her professional ethics in pursuit of a red-hot scoop, nonetheless proves herself to be basically decent in the end, deeply regretful for betraying her integrity and resolved that she will NOT let it happen again.

As Wells says of the DA ensnared in Michael Gallagher’s clever trap: “Yeah, he’s a nice guy, he just forgot about the rules.” When the dust has settled, the wayward but basically well-meaning are chastened, the corrupt and malifecent made to face serious consequences, and AAG Wells has somebody’s ass in his briefcase, as promised.

Today, though, is there anyone left among us so naive, so unworldly, that he seriously expects such unflagging virtuousness from his “public servants,” even in a fictional movie? Yep, the past is a different country all right.

Culprit identified!

Posted on May 14, 2024 by Mike

So as y’all probably know already, Jerry Seinfeld, fresh off some disparaging words for Wokesters, Cancel Culture, and Leftards in general (to my own great surprise), was slated to give the commencement address at Duke University the other day. Whereupon a cpl-three dozen of the stunning, brave Extry Double Special Snowflake students, affronted by the comic’s White Male Jewboy Fascist violent microaggression against their tender sensibillities, walked out to convey their disgust for Seinfeld’s intolerable, Literally Genocidal Hate Speech the week before.

Questions arose: Might there have been some behind-the-scenes mastermind behind the walkout? Was it spontaneous, or planned in advance? Could such a protest have gone off so smoothly without prior coordination by some shadowy, sinister agent provocateur directing the action from offstage? If not, who might that shadowy manipulator have been?

You has questions, the Bee has answers.

Heh. NEWMAN!!! I might’ve known. The article is paywalled, so no excerpt; I figured the screen-grab pretty much says it all anyhoo. Calls for a topical embed, I do believe.

No word at this writing as to whether the student snub-cum-childish–tantrum has shown Seinfeld the error of his Reich-wing ways and persuaded him to Become Better through embracing the enlightened, sophisticated, clearly superior Smarterer Set way of thinking yet, but I have every confidence that it soon will. It always has before, see. You’ll find true happiness and fulfillment once you’ve emerged from the dark side and joined us in the Light, Jerry!

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