A Little Chemistry Bonding

Taught a great Intro Chem class this summer.
But office hours can get a little hectic!

Rejected Movie Plots

I’ve been pestering the Hollywood moguls with original movie scripts for years, but all my ideas have been rejected. For instance, I had a really good outline for a sequel to Hitchcock’s avian thriller, “The Birds.” But Universal Pictures didn’t like my title: “12 Angry Wren.”

I was hopeful that Orion Pictures would embrace my comedy about an aspiring hairdresser who practices on her sleeping siblings. But eventually they declined the rights to “Hannah and her Scissors.”

More of my other dazzling film outlines and their proposed titles, all of which were, for some reason, rejected, in the Hometown Journal.

Exotic Coffees

While I can embrace the invigorating morning aroma of freshly brewed coffee percolating in the kitchen, I’ve never found the taste as rewarding as the fragrance. Perhaps I should invest in fancier blends, instead of buying the local discount store’s two-for-one, past used-by date, bargain brand, “Grounds for Complaint.” Read more here.

Lenka is back with "Shadows"

UPDATE: Lenka interview in the Cambridge Chronicle
Some contemporary pop music can damage my old ears, but Lenka's is sweet and melodic. We talked recently, as she was preparing for her current US tour and release of new CD, "Shadows."  There are some really good tracks on "Shadows" and the more you listen, the more you will like. "Nothing Here but Love" and "After the Winter" have that great Lenka melody, while "Nothing" and "Top of Memory Lane" are just two of the slow ballads that grow on you with each playing.  Check out Lenkaland, and this delightful, live version of The Show below. Her live performances sound just as good as the studio recordings!

 

Best from the Correspondents' Dinner

Here are some of the best lines from this year's (and some recent year's) White House Correspondents' Dinners in the Kern Valley Sun. Conan did a pretty good job, yes?

Larry the Cable Guy

Larry the Cable Guy - extremely funny or not? My interview is in today’s Montgomery Advertiser. He does come up with some great, witty lines, but is definitely not politically correct. Larry's web site.  

Star Wars: Episode VII

Well, you could have knocked me down with a hydrospanner. It seems the original cast might be reuniting for "Star Wars: Episode VII" in 2015. But can Luke, Leia, and Han take a break from tai chi class and still save the galaxy from the dark side?

See story in the Delaware County Journal.

 

Caption: Owl vrs Mouse

This photo, from National Geographic, begs for some inventive captions. Any suggestions?

Eg....
"Sometimes you're the mouse; sometimes you're the cheese."

Hippo Tales

Think you know everything about hippos?

Here's a hippo primer in the Daily Courier.




(Photo Credit)

His father's name was Hymie

Dick Gautier is a man of many talents. Don't recognize the name? Would you believe, he's one of the characters in this photo? In addition to his many acting talents, Dick is a great caricature artist. Check out the art on his web site. I'll post a link to the story and interview with him here, when it's published shortly. Anyone remember this show? Hint - KAOS vrs CONTROL.
               Update: Story now in the Best of Times.

Hilary from the Smitten Image reminds us of the TV show Dick starred in called "When Things Were Rotten." Basically, it's Mel Brooks running amok in Sherwood Forest. The show was released on VHS but so far not on DVD. Only 13 episodes aired on ABC in 1975. The show featured some other greats. Talk about men in tights!

And Dick shared this story with me. He has a cane collection which, he says, he has developed more of an appreciation for due to a bad back:    

“My cousin came down from Canada and asked me what cane I would really like to have in my collection. I said I’ve always wanted the cane that Claude Rains used to kill Lon Chaney Jr., in the original Wolf Man (1941). It was a beautiful cane, and the top was a wolf’s head. Well about a month later [my cousin] walked into my house and handed me the cane! I said ‘Wow, how did you get that?’ He said there was a guy named Bob Burns who has all sorts of movie memorabilia, including the original cane which was made out of foam rubber and was sprayed silver – so that Claude Rains wouldn’t really kill Lon Chaney Jr.! So my cousin had someone make a mold of the original cane in brass and chrome, and made a beautiful cane for me. It’s amazing and looks just like the one in the movie.” Now that's my kind of cousin!