I do not think that word means what you think it means...

The word is FREE.
I keep seeing posts on FB with links to a Kindle book that's FREE only to find out that it's  not actually free to anyone but people who belong to Amazon's PRIME program. In other words...it isn't FREE.
And while we're on the subject of Kindle books, what's the deal with Kindle books being ... out of stock?  Seriously? 

The Difference between a Scary Movie and a Horror Movie

One of the scariest movies I ever saw was The Bedford Incident. It came out in 1965, at the height of the Cold War (only three years after the Cuban missile crisis of 50 years ago this month) and it really reflected the era. It's about an American Naval officer determined to confront a Soviet submarine that has violated territorial waters. It does not end well. It's told in an almost documentary style, as I recall and though I haven't seen it since college, when it was part of the curriculum of a dorm course in political cinema, I still remember how shaken I was by the ending.

When I took Driver's Ed in high school,  I was shown all those gory scare-fests that were so disturbing in some cases they were counter-productive. (I had a friend who was so put off by them that she didn't get her license until she was in her 20s. And a month after she got her license, she died in a car accident. I know, define irony.) I think that's why today I really hate the gory horror movies. I'm fine with "jump out at me" scary moments but I don't want to see blood and guts. Even if they are special effects.
The scariest movie I think I ever saw, though, was Jaws. I saw it the summer it came out and have seen it a couple of time since and since 1975, I have never, ever gone into the ocean past my knees.  I know the chances of being eaten by a Great White Shark are pretty unlikely--although they regularly cruise between the beaches of Santa Monica and Catalina Island--but in the lizard part of my brain, I know that it's still possible. Jaws literally altered my behavior. I'd been an avid body-surfer up to the point where I'd seen the movie. (Or as much of a body-surfer as you can be at Virginia Beach where a really high wave is three feet tall.)  I don't body-surf any more.  I am very, very aware that in the ocean, humans are just visiting.
Jaws made me jump more than any horror movie I've ever seen.

Separated at Birth--Paul Ryan and Dr. Oz?

Dr. Oz

Paul Ryan

They say "politics makes strange bedfellows." I saw a photo of Dr. Oz on a back issue of Prevention magazine and found myself wondering who he reminded me of. What do you think--Dr. Oz and Paul Ryan, twin sons of different mothers?

G. M. Malliet's A Fatal Winter

I just read G.M. Malliet's A Fatal Winter, and will be doing a full review soon. You can read the post I did for Criminal Element's Fresh Meat here.  A Fatal Winter is the second in Malliet's series about Max Tudor, a former MI5 operative-turned-vicar of a small English village called Nether Monkslip where the biggest problems facing the populace are who'll house the cat that runs around the hisoric church where Max preaches and whether poinsettias and holly are toxic.
After reading so much dark matter lately, reading Fatal Winter was like sinking into a warm bath scented with lavender.  I loved the characters. I loved the village. (I want to move there.) And I loved the description of the food at the Yuletide party at the end.  A Fatal Winter is highly recommended for those of you who love "traditional" mysteries.

Feminist at Fourteen--Malala Yousufzai

There's an indiegogo campaign that's been started to provide funds to Malala and her family as she continues what will be a long convalescence. Here's the link.

This year's Oscar for best picture goes to...

The movie to beat is Argo.
The year the American embassy in Tehran was overrun, I was living in my parents' house taking care of my dying mother. Desperate for distraction, I watched hours of news, and rarely missed Ted Koppel on Nightline.
I can't say that overdosing on reality made me feel better but it did take my mind off my personal problems.
Day after day the chanting mobs from Iran filled the television screen, the hate in the faces of the men and women so visceral that it radiated in an almost palpable wave.
So many people, day after day after day.
"Don't any of these people have jobs?" my mother and I wondered.
I don't know when it became known that the Canadian ambassador had risked his life to shelter six American diplomats but I do remember the news stories at the time. His actions were so honorable and so brave. The Ambassador's name is Kenneth Taylor.
Several years ago I was paid to read the Argo script for one of my clients. It came to me cold, the only information attached was that Ben Affleck was going to direct it. At the time he'd directed Gone, Baby, Gone, so I didn't roll my eyes the way I sometimes do when I'm told an actor has a passion project he/she wants to direct. (I know, that's not very nice of me, but I've read scripts that actors have chosen for their directorial debuts and at lot of them are truly dreadful.  Tai-Chi Man?  Really?)
Argo was so good it made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle.
The movie is even better.
Go see it.

Halloween Movie Marathon: Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte

When I talk about "horror movies," I'm usually talking about something with a supernatural elements--ghosts or demons or witches or vampires or something. But there's a whole level of movies without that element, movies that are terrible in a wholly human way. Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte is a movie like that, an over-the-top melodramatic version of a psychological horror story starring two great actresses in the sunset of their careers. On IMDB, the movie is tagged as a drama/horror/thriller and it is all three of those.veryone remembers that Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis starred in this movie about a southern belle gone looney, but most people don't remember that the movie was chock full of fabulous supporting actors including Agnes Moorehead, Bruce Dern, Cecil Kellaway, VictoBuono, and  Joseph Cotton.You can watch the full movie on IMDB.

I always associate this movie with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. I've always seen them together and my memory of them is so entwined that I can't remember which one had the moment where a boiled rat is served up for dinner. (I'm pretty sure that's Baby Jane). Baby Jane came out in 1962; Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte came out in 1964. Both were directed by Robert Aldrich, who went on to direct The Dirty Dozen three years later. (Victor Buono co-starred in both movies, which was another connection between them.) Buono was only 43 when he died in 1982, and he was all over the landscape of the television shows I watched as a kid.