Saturday, February 26, 2011

Funny Little Recruiting Datum -- NOT A Security Leak

 
 
 


One of my Manoogian Mansion operatives -- aka my personal staff here at HQ -- came across this scrap of hilarity in a wildly popular book called Freakanomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, copyrighted 2005 to the co-authors and put out in 2009 by Harper Perennial. There is a whole chapter in there on how Naked Apes decide to name their cubs. You guessed it, IT'S ALL ABOUT STATUS AS USUAL.


...Back to my point. On page 203, after exclaiming over the baffling meteoric rise of the name "Madison" for females, they put in a footnote to the effect that it "almost certainly" came about because of the 1984 romantic comedy Splash. I HARDLY NEED TO REMIND YOU that Daryl Hannah's interpretation of the Madison role, WHILE RATHER INSULTING, brought us in an incredible number of recruits in the mid-Eighties and continues to do so today. And once again, let me say: NICE WORK, EVERYONE.


WHAT SURPRISES ME is that these two guys would notice! Anal and overly focused on details they are, and apparently they even get paid for this, but sheesh.


And let me just pass on to you that the copy of Sirena, read and reviewed for you here at the Notes by Your Truly, was loaned to me by a Mermaid fanatic named...Madison. Born in the mid-1980s. Yep.

Says here this book has been translated into 35 languages. The information is right there on the page for all to see. BUT DO THEY EVEN SUSPECT WE HAVE THEM SURROUNDED?


 

Labels: , , ,

Friday, February 11, 2011

Yikes!




Says here that a story told over dinner was the original source of the classic film of piscatorial love, Creature From The Black Lagoon. I got this from Jennifer Osborne's book Monsters: A Celebration Of the Classics From Universal Studios. Copyright 2006, Del Rey. It looks like someone spilled the beans about our Amazon Boto operatives LONG before Sy Montgomery published Journey Of the Pink Dolphins. Someone told Wiliam Alland at Orson Welles's place, and next thing you know there's a treatment written up and THEN they find out Ricou Browning can hold his breath for five whole minutes and next thing -- cinema magic.

So we offed Sy Montgomery for nothing! I blush.
(But I hear she was quite tasty.)

Labels: ,

Quote Of The Day



Who hears the fishes when they cry?


(Thoreau)

Labels:

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Terrific New Blog!

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

EDDY DECO'S LAST CAPER: AN ILLUSTRATED MYSTERY


DROP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND READ THIS ONE!

Gahan Wilson wrote and illustrated this marvel of PISCATORIAL LOVE and published it in 1987 through Random House. It's worth owning in hardcover.

The story is a Forties noir mystery with a hard-boiled private eye, Eddy Deco, being drawn DEEPER AND DEEPER into a WEB OF INTRIGUE that involves...People with tentacles? YES, it's true, and the best part is, NO SECRET OF THE REAL CONSPIRACY WE'RE RUNNING IS REVEALED AT ANY POINT. You have to like that.

There are a lot of other things to like:

>> The illustrations don't just show you what the characters and rooms look like; they often replace dialogue and exposition.

>> The story is full of sly little references to Piscatorial Love, like the name of the flophouse Deco visits in the course of solving his case -- the Hotel Gilman.

>> The story makes clear that ALL HUMAN ACTIVITIES ARE UNDER SURVEILLANCE BY OUR OPERATIVES. On page 37, Mr. Gross says to Deco, "We've been amused, highly amused, by watching you at it through the years." Heh.

>> The Forties-style dialogue is a scream.

>> Eddy has all the information he needs RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM at all times, but he never puts it together until ALL FISHY HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE.

>> The climax of the story is SO VERY WORTH THE WAIT.

This is an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC BOOK. JUST READ IT, WILL YOU?

Labels: ,