“Forward…into the past!”

(Second FST reference this week—Mama, don’t stop me now!) As you may have noticed by scrolling downward and glancing over to the right, I have now become one of the many, many, many, many individuals (this sounds a lot funnier if I say it in a George Gaynes–like voice) who have succumbed to joining Facebook. The…

Was that an artery I just heard slamming shut?

I was miraculously up at the crack of ice this morning (as my friend Maureen is wont to say) and found this post over at Blog d’Elisson entitled “Gastronomic Grotesquerie.” In it, Steve delineates the difference between calorie-crammed foods that deliver on their promise to be decadently tasty…and those which are just clearly created to generate a “WTF?” response. No…

Today my world slipped away

I’ve just received some devastating news from my CharredHer homepage—country legend Vern Gosdin has died at the age of 74 from the effects of a stroke he suffered a few weeks ago in Nashville, TN. A good many people who are unfamiliar with country music—including those who wouldn’t listen to it if you placed a gun beside…

“Oh…you mean Nancy!”

TCM scheduled a trio of films this past Sunday night that were all on my must-see list for a variety of reasons, but their rationale for showing the movies was that they all featured actress Nancy Carroll, a popular actress who began her career in silents around 1927 (save for a small part in Riders of the Purple…

Thank you for being a friend

Although my CharredHer homepage finally got its act together and included a nice obituary/tribute to the late Bea Arthur (well worth a read) I first learned of her passing at the age of 86 from Bill Crider, who must subscribe to some death notice service—rarely does a celebrity appointment with the Grim Reaper escape his attention. Arthur’s death is…

The Half-Assed Gourmand #6

If you’re curious as to why I continue to keep dragging my feet on this G-Men Never Forget (1948) project it’s because I was sort of out of commission yesterday, thanks to the good people at McDonald’s. Here’s the poop (and I apologize for the atrocious pun in advance): Mom and I left my house a little after ten…

DVR-TiVo-Or whatever recording device strikes your fancy-Alert!

Fans of Turner Classic Movies are no doubt aware of the fact that the contents of the channel usually start at the top of the hour or at the :30 mark—and also at the quarter hours (:15 and :45). So when a movie finishes early, they fill up the remaining time with promos, trailers, etc.—and if…

He made it do what it did, baby…

If you’ve been keeping up with the comment sections, you’ve probably learned from faustina that my esteemed blogging colleague and very good friend Sam Johnson has shuffled off this mortal coil at the age of 42. (The details surrounding his demise are sketchy at best; his brother Anthony discovered Sam in his apartment today and the family will apparently have…

Queen of the Hillbillies

TCM’s running a tribute to Funny Ladies in primetime this week, and one of the more interesting offerings was trotted out last night, the 1944 Columbia B-comedy/musical Louisiana Hayride (1944—not to be confused with the popular country music radio show of the same name, btw) starring (as one IMDb wag has dubbed her, “The Jenny Lind of…

DVR-TiVo-Or whatever recording device strikes your fancy-Alert!

Because George Burns lived to the ripe ol’ age of 100, he was afforded the opportunity to appear solo in the many films he made after the death of wife Gracie Allen in 1964—including his Oscar-winning turn in The Sunshine Boys (1975), Oh, God! (1977), Just You and Me, Kid (1979), and Going in Style (1979). By contrast, Gracie appeared in only three films…