The Sudden Curve

Haaaappy New Yeeear!

:: Ultimate Blogg Nog ::

You need;

1 quart cream
1 quart whole milk
1 dozen eggs
1 dozen tablespoons sugar
---------------------------------------

1 pint brandy
1 cup Rye Whisky (we use Old Overholt)
1 cup Jamaica Rum (everyone uses Myers)
1/2 cup sherry

Mix the liquor first.
Then separate your eggs
add the sugar to the yolks while beating them.
Mix well.
Then add the liquor mixture drop by drop at first while slowly beating (this takes a while, you have to do it slowly at first to keep from "burning" the egg yolks. Once you get a color change you can dump it in faster)
Add the milk and cream as you continue to slowly beat the mixture.

Beat the eggwhites separately  until stiff and then fold slowly into the liquor mixture.

Chill before serving (with freshly ground nutmeg),

taste frequently.

Those Scary Flute-Playing Goat-Men

I wasn't too thrilled about this guy, either.

Barbara Eden appeared to be having a pretty good time, though. Still, I'll pass on people wearing horns, especially when the bottom half of them has four legs and hooves.

Posted by Baaab Wallace, WHO FINALLY FOUND HIS COPY OF THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO.

 

Tsunami happens,

We say, "Bah, save your money."  Our experience is that almost none of that 'aid' will get past the corrupt indigenous government officials parasites anyway.  Instead we propose just sending TSC editor at large, Tortuga Tommy   over on a good will junket to show the folks  how to tread water (and shoot straight and use computers). After all, it's better to teach a man to fish once than to feed lamprys forever.

The Circus of Dr. Lao

A few years ago I learned that the Seven Faces of Dr. Lao,  a movie that had scared the charlesdickens out of me when I saw it as a kid (it wasn't that snake) was a famous old book.  And not only was it famous,  it was right up there famous with The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Poo as one of the classic children's stories. Waddya know?  For all those years I'd just thought they'd made it all up for the movies.  Why Tony Randall didn't win an Oscar for the movie I'll never know.  What an acting job he delivered.  Anyway the book is called The Circus of Dr. Lao, and it's always in print somewhere.

posted by Tom Novak, who's still afraid of uncomfortable around  flute-playing goatmen.

One of the Greatest Films

It's The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, starring Tony Randall, with SFX by Ray Harryhausen.

"Mike, the whole world is a circus if you look at it the right way. Every time you pick up a handful of dust, and see not the dust, but a mystery, a marvel, there in your hand - every time you stop and think, 'I'm alive, and being alive is fantastic!' - every time such a thing happens, Mike, you are part of the Circus of Dr. Lao."

I can't really add anything else to this description of this truly wonderful and magical movie--except that I can't imagine why it wouldn't become one of your favorite films--and dig that talking snake!

Posted by Bob Wallace, WHO'D LIKE TO BE DR. LAO, EVEN WITH THE MONSTER IN THE GOLDFISH BOWL CHASING HIM AND TRYING TO EAT HIM.

It's a holly-jolly TMNS.net Sudden Christmas Curvecast

We were  stuck on the siding earlier, but we channeled Benito Mussolini and he managed to get the TMNS.net Sudden Curvecasts running on time.  So get ready to highball it down the tracks  for one last ride in Oh Four with this final super long playing session from :

Railroad Earth

Empire of the East

Okay, I admit it.  I never finished The Disposessed either.  And I can't remember what The Left Hand of Darkness is about - but I did read all of that one and I have them both.  Maybe Ursula K. Le Guin's oddball politics  is what keeps her sci-fi popular.  I don't know.

However, speaking of previously highly recommended but now mostly overlooked books  (like the Earthsea Trilogy )  the best one of that bunch that really does rank up there with Lord of the Rings and Narnia is Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East.  It is an excellent read.  It's  post-apocalyptic instead of being mythic or high fantasy.   Don't seem to hear anything much about Empire of the East ever.   I guess Saberhagen is too successful as a prolific, genre-bending,  pulp-writer in the Burrough's Tradition to get any credit from snobby, cobble-potted, book-critics.  The kind who only review arty, progressive sci-fi-shinola and refuse to read books about Heroic Terrans and Bug-Eyed-Monsters and Death Rays and Rocket Ships  (and beautiful Martian Princesses). 

posted by tom novak, who still wants to drive Elephant

A Wizard of Earthsea

I have never been a fan of the fiction of Usula K. Le Guin, although she has a way-cool name.

I couldn't even finish The Dispossessed. However, her 1968 novel, A Wizard of Earthsea is high, serious fantasy, as compared to the low, broad fantasy of the Harry Potter books, the first one of which I liked, but not the rest. I wouldn't quite rank it with Tolkien or C.S. Lewis, but this novel is right up there. Maybe it's just a little too serious, with its Jungian influence. Still, for all its seriouslness, it has a magical touch, and a pretty cool battle with dragons. It's not only for the kid in the kid, but the kid in the adult.

Posted by Bob Wallace, WHO USED TO TELL KIDS HE HAD A DRAGON.

Unstuffed this from the stocking

... we've been  Blue Toothed! teethed?

A Logitech MX900.

Weeeeee!  Now we can post annoying things to here from farther out than where no man has ever gone before ...

(BTW, check out the price drop for these babies right now over in the TSC.Amazon Moola Box in the left hand margin )

Look What I Got for Christmas!

I have two watches, a Seiko which I wear most of the time and an old Bulova which I rarely wear.

Santa Claus got me a Fossil. Oooh, I like this! Got a stainless steel case and bracelet with chronograph and three hand quartz movements on the degrade dial. Comes with an 11-year warranty and is water resistant up to 50 meters, so I can wear it in the bathtub and the Mister Bubble won't hurt it.

Posted by Bob Wallace, WHO'LL FIGURE OUT HOW TO USE ALL THE FUNCTIONS ON THE WATCH SOMEHOW.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire...

Mel Torme is one of my main men.

But listen up. So is Nat King Cole. Originally I couldn't stand Cole, the reason being my mother had a .45 of his biggest hit, "Rambling Rose." She played it over and over, to the point I was driven nuts. To save my sanity I "accidentally" left the record in the sun, which melted it. Years later, though, I picked up his Greatest Hits, and after all those years realized what I was missing. Lawdy, he ranks up there with the top five singers of the 20th Century.

Posted by Bob Wallace, WHO BELIEVES, GEE IT'S GREAT AFTER STAYING OUT LATE, WALKIN' HIS BABY BACK HOME

Looks like we'll just have to put the whole list of TSC required Christmas albums up.  P.S., Kingfans -one of the best forgotten songs {it's not a Christmas song though} of all times is - Mr. Cole Won't Rock & Roll (but he could if he wanted to!)

 

Holiday Weather Report :: we got us A Velvet Fog for Christmas

Coincidentally, that's also The  Sudden Curve Christmas Album Pick for 2004.      If listening to some Mel-Tones won't snap you S.A.D., A-List -Nihilists out of your pathetic anti-Christmas misery ... well, nothing will.  So quit roasting your chestnuts and grab Mel Torme; Christmas Songs now!  Before it's too late for you forever ~~  You'll be glad you did.

And be sure to at least listen to the the incredible Christmas arrangement on Glow Worm.   Yeah, we got  retro- Christmas flairing through the Underground Parking and Publishing offices this Christmas Day.  Pass that  BlogNogg !

A Catechismic Christmas Eve Curvecast

Nope, not music. It's a slideshow.  A very cool Christmas eCOMIC featuring everyone's  favorite,  paranormal investigator and Key of the Apocalypse.   

Created by Mike Mignola and published by Darkhorse:

A Christmas Underground

From all of us at The Sudden Curve, to all thirty-three-and-a- third of you out there who  indulge us,   

Merry Christmas !!!

So, now, that you know why... get on over to High Latin Midnight Mass and ring them bells like ya' mean it.  Some things require bumping back!

Note to Self--Throw Away .38

This is the biggest Grizzly bear ever found.

It stood 14 feet tall and weighed over 1600 pounds. It charged a man carrying a hunting rifle, who emptied it into the bear, then reloaded and shot it in the head since it was still alive. The bear had killed at least two people, including one guy who emptied his .38 revolver at it, hitting it four times. Those four slugs only made the bear mad, since it ate half the guy. I've never thought .38s were acceptable handguns (or 9mms, which are essentially .38s). They're certainly no good for defending yourself against wildlife!

P.S. Hey, PETA doofi, here's the site (click HERE) from which I pulled the photo. That one on the lower right is not for the faint of heart; it's what's left of one guy after the bear what et most of him. But, anyway, let's not forget animals are our friends.

Posted by Bob "Hawkeye" Wallace, WHO BELIEVES IN HIS .357 SIG SAUER, LOADED WITH MAGSAFES.

 

The Way-Coolest Fighter of All Time

I have exactly one model to my name.

The P-38 Lightning, of course--the way-coolest fighter plane of all time. The Germans used to call it "the fork-tailed devil." There were six machine-guns in the nose, and the two propellors spun in different directions to reduce the torque. One burst out of those guns could drop an enemy plane right out of the air.

Posted by Bob Wallace, WHO KNOWS WHO DICK "ACE OF ACES" BONG WAS.

Bong Books and Gifts

 

Sorry about this, Lib Jacks ~

Okay, okay, we admit it.  We're deliberately annoying you left-wingers who will see this in your aggregators ::

Yayhoo! Today is the Winter Solstice

So we'd like to wish all you on-line paganites  a ~

Happy Festivus!

Now, put your clothes back on and get the heck out of our oak grove.

Post script  ~~  yeah, yeah, yeah -  we know we got this holiday mixed up with Saturnalia, but, hey -  YOU try finding a picture of Ken Curtis dressed in a toga.   

Hey, Moe! It's time for a *new* TMNS.net Sudden Curvecast

Is it a dream come true?  Or is it this weeks TMNS.net Sudden Curvecast featuring:

MOE.

We don't know if they do the Curly Shuffle but we are soitenly enjoying this electric, extended-play live session of moe. provided by the jambandaleros of  themusicneverstopped.

Those burned-out TMNS.net yippies' ability to produce these great podcasts is just proof that you can be a productive member of society even after having melted into a puddle of psychodelic goo on the floorboards of your Tioga while following that last Dead tour...  and if you are looking for even moe.  information ,  here is where you can get some MOE.   

Those Cheapo but Wonderful ACE Doubles

That image below of The Weapon Shops of Isher is from an ACE Double, those wonderful, and wonderfully cheap, two-novels-in-one books. One novel on one side; turn it end-over-end, and there was another novel. They were upside-down in relation to each other. I had a bunch when I was a teenager, but got rid of them. Darn. Even though, I still have some ACEs, even though they're not Doubles. One of them is the 1963 F-190 E.R. Burrough's A Fighting Man of Mars.

I've found two great places to get them--Rudy's Books (run not by Rudy but Joe Roth) and FANTASTIC COLLECTIBLES, run by--I swear--a rocket scientist. Of course, I may buy all of them, leaving none for anyone else! Oh, I almost forgot--you can even find them at AMAZON.

Posted by Bob Wallace, A FIGHTING SECRET AGENT FOR THE WEAPON SHOPS OF T.E.R.R.A.

"The right to own weapons is the right to be free"

That quote is from A.E. van Vogt's The Weapon Shops of Isher.

It's the book that introduced me to the Second Amendment and its importance, when I was 12, maybe 13 years old. I've still got a copy of it, in Anthony Boucher's A Treasury of Great Science Fiction.

I do wish I had one of the handheld energy weapons in the book. Hey, cool! BZZZTTT!! Maybe someday.

 

If you want to buy one of these way-cool Space Blasters, then click on THIS BLUE THINGIE.

 

Or you could use the TSC Amazon Search over in the left margin :: just type "cosmic space gun" into the bar,  click "go"  and VOILA!

Posted by Rocket Man Wallace WHO OWNS A COUPLE OF SQUIRT-GUNS HISSELF