The Poison Kitchen

Sci-Fi Monday: Tales of Tomorrow presents "Frankenstein"

All 5 parts of the live production of Frankenstein (featuring a slightly sloshed Lon Chaney Jr.)

90 years ago

Remembrance Day 2008.

Billy Bragg - Between the Wars

Update: Wikipedia: List of surviving veterans of WW1

Also: President Sarkozy pays tribute to French soldiers who were executed for disobeying orders.

More than 600 French soldiers were executed by their own side during World War One, many for refusing to obey orders to continue to fight after a bloody and failed series of offensives in northeastern France in 1917. "France will never forget its children who died for it," Sarkozy said in a speech paying tribute to the French and allied war dead that explicitly included those shot for cowardice or acts of mutiny.

"I think of these men of whom too much was asked, who were too exposed, who were sometimes sent to be massacred through mistakes by their commanders, of those men who, one day, no longer had the strength to fight," he said.

The 1917 mutinies, in which many regiments refused to move from their own lines, raised fears among French leaders that the army could collapse and led to harsh reprisals against soldiers who disobeyed orders to fight.

World War One, fought out in large part on French soil between 1914and 1918, cost some 1.4 million French lives and remains firmly anchored in French memories but there has been growing debate about the best way to mark the event.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good: Numbers look close to my prediction:

My prediction: Obama 370 McCain 168

The current is Obama 349, McCain 162 with North Carolina (15), Missouri (11) and Omaha, NE (1) being too close to call.

I figured Obama would lose Indiana and North Carolina but pick up Missouri, but he won Indiana instead and the other two are too close to call. I had thought Montana would go Obama, but that was a longshot.

Allowing Stem Cell research in Minnesota passed. Bans on Abortion failed. The Colorado proposition defining conception as the beginning of life also failed.

MA decriminalized small amounts of pot. MI permits Medical Marijuana use and growing.

The Bad and The Ugly: Gay marriage was banned in Arizona and Florida, Adoption by Gay Parents was banned in Arkansas. Looks like Prop 8 in California might go through as well. Nebraska banned Affirmative Action.

I'm uncertain about how to categorize Michelle Bachmann's likely re-election. Maybe having a token nutbar is important to preserve democracy.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue

I'm gonna be so glad when the election is over. I'm not an American so I don't have a part of the franchise, can't vote for or against, and after 8 years of Bushismo, I don't think I can handle another 4 of Palinismo, so I can only watch in fascination/horror as the polls trickle in.

---

In the meantime, it's music-time so I'd like to dedicate this to the Religious Right:

This one to the MSM:

And Pops gets some Ray Conniff:

My prediction: Obama 370 McCain 168

Speak & Spell

There's a Speak & Spell simulator online! via Wilson Miner

And another one

Made you look

So many people going on about McCain not shaking Obama's hand (they actually did earlier), but what I haven't heard anyone mention is that in this clip, when McCain was on Obama's right side, he tapped Obama's left shoulder.

In my day, we did that to make the other person look stupid as they spun around looking for someone who wasn't there.

Another thought I had while watching the clip: McCain is starting to fidget and gesture just like Nixon used to.

Themes on a Mirror | rorriM a no semehT

Perhaps the best known Mirror gag was in Duck Soup

Marx Brothers - Duck Soup (The Mirror Scene)

Later re-enacted in I Love Lucy ...

I Love Lucy (Mirror Scene with Harpo)

And less famously but more recently in the X-Files ...

X-Files (Dreamland "Mirror Scene") [dubbed]

But it was older than Duck Soup. Charlie Chaplin used the gag in The Floorwalker (no Youtube version) and so did Max Linder in a very similar scene in 7 Years Bad Luck

Max Linder - 7 Years of Bad Luck

And since everything good in comedy appeared at least once in Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, here's the whole reel of Hare Tonic (1945) which includes its own Mirror Scene:

Looney Tunes - Hare Tonic

And dat's de end!

Got a whole lot of money that's ready to burn

Seems to fit the current Zeitgeist ...

Dead Kennedys - Viva Las Vegas

Update: Maybe Ralph Shaw playing the Banjo Uke will be more Vegas for you ...

Or maybe Dread Zeppelin ...