I’ve always had occasional bouts of adult acne. Thus, I attached no special significance to what looked like a whitehead. It was in an unusual place: the soft area on the skin underneath the lower eyelid. But I did not make much of that. I squeezed gently on it. The squeezing hurt. It hurt sharply, [...]
Over the past few years, I have watched the area from 1410 to 1442 Dresden Dr. in the Brookhaven community of Atlanta, Georgia where I live go from the eyesore of a vacant lot dotted with a laundromat and some shotgun houses in disrepair to the eye-pleasingly beautiful brick building called Village Place Brookhaven.
This transformation [...]
Author’s note: Previously published in “The Hatchet: Lizzie Borden’s Journal of Murder, Mystery, and Victorian History.”
Denise Noe’s Lizzie Whittlings: Elizabeth Montgomery
Actress Elizabeth Montgomery won a permanent place in the hearts of Borden buffs when she took on the part of Lizzie Borden in the made-for-TV movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden. For a movie-of-the-week, it [...]
As regular readers of this blog know, I am severely disabled and, as a result, have never been able to support myself. My principal source of support is alimony. However, I do engage in paid labor to the extent that I am able to do so.
I have quite a few reviews up at epinions.com. My [...]
Revelations about the mother who recently gave birth to octuplets have occasioned a great deal of public consternation. There was a natural and laudable concern for the welfare of the eight babies who were, of course, underweight and premature when delivered.
Concern became more acute as more [...]
Denise Noe’s Lizzie Whittlings: The Extraordinary Career of William Moody
Author’s Note: This was original published in “The Hatchet: Lizzie Borden’s Journal of Murder, Mystery, and Victorian History”
Borden buffs know William Henry Moody as one of the prosecutors of Lizzie Borden. Less well known are the facts that after the trial he went on to become [...]
I was fifteen years old. It was 1972. Mom had two coupons for free hair stylings at a local beauty college. She let me make use of both coupons. I don’t recall much about the first styling.
I will never forget the second.
The student hairdresser who would perform that styling introduced himself to me [...]
Ann Rule is best known as an excellent writer of true crime books with her most famous work being The Stranger Beside Me about her experiences with serial killer Ted Bundy.
In Possession, she takes a foray into fiction but sticks to the world of cops and pathological murderers with which she is so familiar. [...]
Christmas is a season for counting our blessings so I thought I’d share with my readers how recent experiences led me to appreciate mine.
Recently I watched, and very much enjoyed, a silent movie. This reminded me that there are many people who would not be able to enjoy a silent movie. For some this is [...]
I happened to see an old movie recently that was about a man searching for a wife. His proposals are repeatedly rejected. As I watched this character and felt for him in his embarrassment and disappointment, I couldn’t help but reflect on a truth about romantic and sexual relationships as it regards the genders: men [...]
The Computer Crash, a Crushed Denise Noe — and what kind of Christmas?
I didn’t expect it to happen. My computer was operating as usual and then — a gray screen and a little icon in the middle switching from one thing to another. I called in a computer repair service.
My computer had crashed. The machine [...]
Joyce Carol Oates’ “Expensive People” is a flamboyantly and deliberately perverse comic novel born (!) of a an extraordinary premise. According to Greg Johnson in “Understanding Joyce Carol Oates,” the author wondered if it would be possible to write from the viewpoint of “one’s own unborn, unconceived child, giving grotesque albeit comic reasons for [...]
The title of this essay is taken from the opening statement in the chapter on rape in war in Susan Brownmiller’s book, “Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape.”
Her sentence in turn follows an excerpt from “War As I Knew It,” the memoirs of General George S. Patton (“Old Blood and Guts). Patton writes, “I [...]
In the epigram to “them,” Joyce Carol Oates quotes John Webster from “The White Devil,” as saying, “. . . because we are poor/Shall we be vicious?” The question echoes through this complicated, impassioned, and masterful novel.
“them” focuses on Loretta, her son Jules and daughter Maureen. They are impoverished white people. They survive poverty [...]
I think the feminists were right to point out the problem of sexual harassment. However, one barrier to effectively addressing this problem may be a common perception – and perhaps misperception — that men are always those making crude sexual remarks or gestures and women are always those embarrassed or offended.
The Kellie Pickler song, “Things [...]
Take the spirit of an old-time women’s prison picture, a lot of HOT babes whose boobs often get exposed, lesbian sex scenes both nasty and nice, a creepy Catholic “home” for at-risk young ladies, a priest who loves to punish with a paddle, mix in H.P. Lovecraft and a one-eyed, many-tentacled monster, add a dash [...]
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945) keeps close to the brilliant novel that inspired it except for a few innovations that usually work to the film’s benefit. It departs from the book in giving an otherworldly explanation for the granting of Dorian’s wish that the portrait painted of him will grow old while he himself [...]
The film opens with what appears to be a 17th Century New England scene. Women in bonnets in big black hats are gathered around a dirty, disheveled woman being tied to a stake. She is identified as Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel) who has been convicted of witchcraft. The angry villagers shout, “Burn, witch, burn” as [...]
Author’s note: In honor of Halloween, I’m putting up reviews of horror films. Trick or treat, my friends!
Black Sabbath (1963) is a trilogy of macabre tales given brief, blackly humorous introductions by the inimitable Boris Karloff, who stars in one of them. Each tale is intensely atmospheric. The best segment by far is “A Drop [...]
Awhile back, when the Do Not Call list was first in the news, I was deeply in debt and did not plan to buy anything from a telemarketer. I put myself on that list – before it actually went into effect.
However, I was also concerned about the tendency of many in the media and elsewhere [...]
The horror of serial murderer Jeff Dahmer which is most often mentioned is his cannibalism. But if we are to understand the reasons for his crimes, we must remember that it was only late in his serial murdering career that he began devouring body parts.
On the other hand, he was consistently necrophiliac. The [...]
Author’s Note: This was originally published in “The Hatchet: Lizzie Borden’s Journal of Murder, Mystery & Victorian History.”
There appears to have been a special relationship between Lizzie Borden and a poetic work entitled “My Ain Countrie.” The words ‘At Hame In My Ain Countrie’ are inscribed in an oak mantle in Maplecroft.
Vida Turner was asked [...]
In the United States, and throughout much of the world, our population is aging. There are multiple reasons for this. The urbanization of most societies has led to a desire for smaller families on the part of most people. Modern, effective contraceptives have made penile-vaginal intercourse without conception a reality. Better nutrition, sanitation, and health [...]
Author’s note: This was published 30 days ago in the Bolivar Herald-Free Press.
Aug. 26 has been National Dog Day since 2006. According to Holiday Insights, this special day “has two goals: to honor dogs, and to rescue dogs from homelessness and abuse.” Colleen Paige originated National Dog Day. She told Urban Dog that she hopes [...]
The Decatur Library is the largest library building in the DeKalb System of Atlanta, Georgia. Located at 215 Sycamore St. in Decatur, the library is right across from the Decatur MARTA Station. It has four floors and “is really two buildings put together,” according to Matt Montgomery, Public Information Officer of the Dekalb Library [...]
Sen. Larry Craig is appealing to take back his guilty plea to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. The appeal has been rejected by one court and has recently been put to an appeals panel. The arresting officer, Dave Karsnia, claimed that Craig repeatedly looked into Karsnia’s stall and that when Craig took a seat in the next [...]
Regular readers of this blog well know that I’m a fan of Koko, the gorilla who has been taught sign language. I think that the reaction of people at the Gorilla Foundation to the horrors of 9/11 is quite interesting and worthy of discussion.
As soon as Gorilla Foundation officials heard of the 9/11 attacks, they [...]
We are approaching another anniversary of the infamous 9/11/ attack on the United States of America. I remember a sense of unreality on that dreadful and grim day. The horror brought home in the most painful way how much some people – a group rightly designated by the term “Islamo-fascists” – hated my country.
This initial [...]
I haunt libraries with considerable frequency. At one particular library, I noticed that a man seemed to always be looking at me. I think I first noticed him when I was at the shelves containing videos and DVDs and he was in the lounge in which magazines in plastic cases were placed on racks. Our [...]
Despite its well-known anti-pornography stand, Cincinnati is hardly a city without sin. The Cincinnati Crime Book by George Stimson consists of thirteen true stories arranged in chronological order, beginning in the late nineteenth century and ending in the late twentieth century. In this collection of murder cases from his native city, Stimson introduces us to [...]
