Weird

Perry Mason, the 1950s ethos and the advantages of being a man with no nuts

2008-07-12
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Some, but by no means all, contributors to this website have a pronounced nostalgia for earlier historical periods. The 1950s in particular are an era many recall fondly. Some would like to see us return to prevailing mores and ideals of that period. I myself have a special liking for some TV shows that...

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Now and On Earth: A gritty novel reviewed by Denise Noe

2008-06-30
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Now and On Earth: A gritty slice-of-life novel Reviewed by Denise Noe Jim Thompson is probably best known for his hard-boiled crime stories. “Now and On Earth,” a semi-autobiographical novel, is not a crime story. It is a gritty and realistic slice-of-life novel in which he unflinchingly conveys the bleak lives of a financially...

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The Museum of Dr. Moses reviewed: Spooooooky!

2008-06-22
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Author’s Note: I want to encourage my readers to go to http://www.epinions.com/content_432280931972 if they have an opinion about this review and rate it there. I’d like comments both here on the blog and at epinions.com The Museum of Dr. Moses This volume of short stories by the extraordinarily gifted Joyce Carol Oates is subtitled...

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Romanian fighter jet hit by UFOs

2008-06-13
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Officials from the Romanian Defense Military confirmed that one of their MiG-21 Lancer fighter planes was struck by four Unidentified Flying Objects on October 31, 2007, which shattered the plane’s cockpit. The military also released a video captured by the plane’s on-board camera as it was flying above Transylvania. The recording shows solid bodies,...

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Silent Partners By Eugene Linden, Reviewed by Denise Noe

2008-02-23
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The third book written by Eugene Linden about the ape-language experiments, Silent Partners tells the rather depressing story of a scientific era that began with the highest of hopes and ended in a dismal snarl of ambiguity and recrimination. The book takes a special look at the fluctuating fates of the simian “partners” and...

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Moderate Muslims turning radical? by William J. Federer

2008-02-19
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Moderate Muslims turning radical? by William J. Federer

Britain’s Daily Mail, Jan. 29, 2007, reported in the article “Multiculturalism drives young Muslims to shun British values”: Multiculturalism has alienated an entire generation of young Muslims and made them increasingly radical, a report has found. In stark contrast with their parents, growing numbers sympathize with extreme teachings of Islam, with almost four in...

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Does anyone know why Lucy Grantham of Last House On The Left did not continue her acting career?

2008-02-16
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I finally saw the 1972 film that has become a cult classic and did much to launch the popularity of the slasher film, Wes Craven’s notorious Last House on the Left. The DVD I watched had a special feature that included interviews with several of the principals from this movie. Lucy Grantham’s performance as...

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Republican Jaundice by BJ Dickerson

2008-02-10
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I believe that it is likely that many MND readers are GOP members. Therefore, I am posting this poem by BJ Dickerson that may express feelings that are common to readers of this website. Her poem was previously published in Time for Rhyme. Republican Jaundice By BJ Dickerson I despise snakes and rats and...

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Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker: A novel through the eyes of a dinosaur

2008-02-06
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Reviewed by Denise Noe Set 120 million years ago, Robert T. Bakker’s Raptor Red is science fiction of a special sort: fiction with a completely scientific base. There are no time-traveling humans or Disneyfied “talking” critters. It is about life as it might actually have been lived in the early Cretaceous period. Raptor Red...

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Was there a conspiracy in the infamous murder mystery of Andrew and Abby Borden?

2008-02-02
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Author’s Note: This was originally published in The Hatchet: The Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies. The Borden case continues to intrigue over a century after the fact because there is so much that seems to point unmistakably to Lizzie Borden’s guilt – and important facts that appear to make that guilt utterly impossible. Behavior...

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International manhunt for alleged kidney harvester

2008-01-31
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While the involuntary harvesting of human kidneys may have been relegated to urban legend in the Western world, a raid in India has shown the practice is real and has triggered an international manhunt. On January 24, police raided a clinic in Gurgaon, a satellite city of Delhi with two million inhabitants, and found...

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Texas UFOs were actually jets, Air Force says

2008-01-23
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The strange lights seen by dozens of Stephenville, Texas residents on the night of January 8 are now believed to have been F-16 fighter jets, according to a statement released by the Air Force Reserve. The press release states that ten F-16s from the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth were...

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UFO sightings reported in Texas town

2008-01-15
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Dozens of people in the Texas town of Stephenville have reported seeing strange objects in the night sky last week, which many believe to be a UFO. The eyewitnesses, who include a pilot, business owners, and the county constable, all claim to have seen a large, silent object with bright, flashing lights flying low...

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2007 Darwin Award winners announced

2008-01-13
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Recipients of 2007′s Darwin Awards were announced last week, representing the stories of people who are killed or otherwise rendered sterile after committing an “astounding misapplication of judgment.” One of this year’s top winners was “What Goes Up Must Come Down” which received an 8.0 rating and 8929 votes. The tale concerns a couple...

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How Snow White inspired me

2008-01-10
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When I checked a collection of fairy tales out from Bookears, I had a sense that something in there would provoke thought. Sure enough, the story of Snow White did. I heard once again about the Queen looking into the magic mirror and asking, Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of...

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Texas man arrested for murder after preparing cannibal feast

2008-01-07
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Christopher Lee McCuin, 25, from Tyler, Texas in the United States has been arrested after police found him possibly preparing to eat the body parts of his dead girlfriend, Jana Shearer aged 21. He was also charged with stabbing his ex-wife’s boyfriend, William Veasley, 42. According to reports, Shearer’s mother was told by McCuin...

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What WAS that Forbidden Fruit that Eve found so irresistible?

2008-01-05
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The Bible never tells us what the Forbidden Fruit was. We only know that, after some prodding by the infamous serpent, Eve gave into the temptation to eat it even though she had been told that the consequences of doing so would be death. Despite the Biblical silence on the question of what the...

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Vixen! The soft porn film that created an unforgettable character

2008-01-04
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Made in 1968 by “King of the Nudies” Russ Meyer, Vixen! is a soft porn film that can stick in the mind afterward not just for its hot sex scenes but for the extraordinary qualities of its protagonist Vixen (yes, it’s her name) Palmer. The movie opens with breathtakingly beautiful film of what a...

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Echoes of Lizzie in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte

2007-12-12
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An earlier version of this essay was published in The Lizzie Borden Quarterly, a magazine that is no longer publishing. I saw Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte and I was struck at the similarities between the film’s story and the Lizzie Borden case. 1. The wealthy family. 2. The central position of the father (as...

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Sex tape starring former ‘American Idol’ finalist Jessica Sierra leaked to porn company

2007-12-08
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A celebrity sex tape starring former American Idol finalist Jessica Sierra has been leaked to an internet pornography company, who is reportedly planning to release it. Sierra made her fame as a finalist on the 2005 season of American Idol, in which she finished fourth. The new tape is reported to show her in...

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