Liquored-up trivia

In the 1970s, one member of the National Advisory on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholics was named Norman A. Scotch.

Apples were first grown principally for making hard cider.

A ton of potatoes will yield 28.6 gallons of absolute alcohol.

Asparagus berries make a good drink when fermented.

To keep opened cooking wine from spoiling by sitting to long on the shelves, put a few drops of olive oil in it to keep air away from the wine. (Or just drink all the rest after you opened it and used what you needed in cooking. Duh!)

Apple brandy, called "applejack", has been affectionately called "essence of lockjaw."

Amethyst, the violet or purple variety of quartz, was believed by the ancient Greeks to protect its owner from getting drunk. The name itself means "not to intoxicate." (Pffftt!)

Source: The Joy of Trivia

I'd wear one!

Comic book ad for novelty neck-wear, 1941.

Comic book ad for novelty neck-wear, 1952.

A year passes since Linda left

My friend Max the drunken severed head looks a lot like me, has a wife with the same name, and his life is remarkably like mine. But he's turning over the blog to me, Max Cheney, for today, since I want to talk about something that has no jokes, and no horror--except, that is, for the genuine horror I feel right now.

Life has the power to frighten far more than the stories and images of terror often celebrated here. Today I am forced to face the horror that my friend Linda Miller passed away exactly one year ago.

Lives are measured in years; we celebrate birthdays and usually feel joy in them. So the one year anniversary of my friend's dying is powerfully painful to me. Now, her friends and family who loved her, when thinking of her, will measure backwards from her life as it recedes in nearness. Each annual remembrance will be more poignant because each year we grow closer to old age, a season in life that was denied Linda.

Her friends and family (and she felt her friends were family) won't forget her. Sometimes, in observing someone's death, people say nice things, often in lavish terms. You can tell they are self-editing, not talking about that person's flaws, failures or sins, yet they are thinking of them.

Yet I can say with full candor that Linda was remarkable for her lack of most of the common foibles--selfishness, self-pity, keeping grudges. The friends and family she left behind were amazed at her generosity, determination in the face of tragedy and violence, and patience with others. She looked for ways to like everyone, if there were some she didn't, she kept quiet about it and focused all the more on being thoughtful to as many people as she could, keeping herself balanced with her easy sense of humor, and passion for the arts and her art.

To commemorate her loves and her talent, I am sharing for the first time some early art of Linda's, found this summer by her mother. These were all done in the early 1980's, soon after Linda left high school. The pictures are not all of the best quality, some are photos and some are scans; the scans are sometimes just of part of the art, which was larger than the scanner.

First, a drawing of Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman from the film Midnight Cowboy.


Next, Laurence Olivier from Richard III.


A portrait of Rasputin.

An illustration of Carl Sandburg's poem Grass.

And last, a self-portrait, from a time when she had long hair.

I'm am pleased her art graced the latest issue of Scarlet: The Film Magazine. I know she would be.

Finally, as her friend and favorite author Ray Bradbury just celebrated his 89th birthday, I thought I'd also share a drawing she did in 2008 for a Bradbury foreword to an upcoming book on the Chandu films. Linda would be pleased with my sharing it, I think, even though she generally was fairly modest about her talent. It's a very well designed illustration, and it's interesting to see that she uncharacteristically made a stylized rendering of the fictional Chandu. It serves to better contrast with her affectionately flattering, yet photo-realistic portrait of Bradbury.

Halloween is coming, her favorite holiday, and mine, and of many who knew her. A day for celebrating the supernatural and our shared fascination with it.

I don't pretend to know anything about the supernatural, or even whether or not it exists. Linda believed, and as her friend, I believed in her. So for today at least, I have faith that Linda is out there somewhere, happy as autumn approaches. And on what otherwise I see as a horrible date on the calendar, that thought will cheer me all through the day, and through the night.
___________________________________

Coming this week: New pictures of Linda and the full article I wrote about her for SCARLET magazine, as well as regular posts on other subjects.

Farewell, maestro: Erich Kunzel passes

Procrastinating due to my sadness at the news, I am late in mentioning the passing of Erich Kunzel, conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, who died on Sept. 1st. The CD above is one of my favorites, and always gets played during the Halloween season here at Casa Cabeza, as well as occasional other times during the year. I am saddened to hear of the maestro's demise. (As is my friend, fellow blogger Erick Bognar of
Wonderful Wonderblog. His appreciation of Kunzel is here; I recommend it.)

Kunzel-the cultural heir to Arthur Fielder--and the Cincinnati Pops made almost 90 recordings with the Telarc label, and most were successful. He embraced recording suites and themes from movie and television scores, and recorded music from many science-fiction, fantasy, and horror genre films spanning most of the twentieth century and into the early twenty-first century. He did not select good film music from popular successes only; for example, he recorded a thrilling theme from the turkey Judge Dredd, as well as the march-like main theme of the clunky, low-budget film The Beastmaster.

The following are pictures of other Kunzel and company genre recordings; each is a link to a site where you listen to preview tracks and purchase the cd. I hope you will. Typical TDSH readers have seen the shows the themes come from-- but if you buy Kunzel's versions, you can enjoy the music in a new way anytime you want, with imagery supplied from both your memories AND your imagination.

Not nameless for much longer!

Well, TDSH readers, here in the pics below is the mono-visioned monster itself, our new pet snake, soon to be named by one of our loyal blog-readin' friends. (No more further suggestions for names will be taken.)

You'll notice a 21 name poll at the top right on this page, and you'll have until midnight Saturday to vote for a name. (I'm allowing multiple choices just to make things interesting.) The top vote-getters will be used for the final selection as made by a celebrity judge, myself, and Paula Abdul. (Hey, she needed a gig.)


Here it is, ready for its closeup, Mr. DeMille:

The other day, the lid on top was not secured completely, and Jane came downstairs for her morning coffee and newspaper-reading ritual. (I was passed out upstairs.) She happened to glance at the TV, when up from behind it, like a slow periscope, popped the snake! (Swear-to-god-truth, so help me.) But my wife is a brave woman (hey, she married me, didn't she?), and she just laughed, put on a glove and grabbed that sucker, and put him/her back where it belonged.

I can always count on her to do the right thing. But sometimes I screw up. For example, I bought some dirt-cheap snake food from an old pet store in Dauphin County, here in Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg. They had some 30-year-old stock that they practically gave me. I thought I was lucky to save so much--until I saw my snake in the dark, after feeding it the stuff:

Now I know why it was so cheap--the shop was located near the site of this famous event.

Anyway, get your votes in! For those contest entrants who submitted multiple names, I chose only one of the suggested submissions. (I had to admit, it was hard to leave off the horrible but in deliciously bad-taste suggestion of "Prince Randian," as well as the euphonious "Freddy 'Boom Boom' Washington.") I like ALL the suggested names in the poll, as they range from the cute, the ironic, and the risque, to the openly insulting. (Not insulting to me, thank goodness.) I'm grateful to everyone who suggested a name.

Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!

Now win EVEN MORE cash and prizes!

We nearly have the necessary 10 entrants in the "Name My Snake" contest here at TDSH that I posted about a week ago.

Because the competition to name my new pet is doing so well, and just to get more entries from more people I'm going to UP THE ANTE, prize-wise. The winner who will be determined by a combination of judgment by me, a horror film celebrity judge and a poll among TDSH readers, just like on TV!! The winner will get not five dollars, but five dollars and two cents--because I always like to stick my "two cents" in! These will be pre-2009 Lincoln pennies, guaranteed to be worth MORE than two cents one day, as the penny's design has been changed in 2009. AND the winner will get a free dvd copy of The Drunken Severed Head Show, the only 10 minute film release complete with commentaries, deleted scenes, and a stills gallery!

And some cheap horror trinket of my choice.

HOLY SHITZU, dawg, what a deal! AND you get your picture posted here! ASTOUNDING!

One fact about the snake that I didn't mention before is...it's a one-eyed snake.

Oh, I know you think I'm just setting up a bad joke--which so often do--but, no, it's the truth. It's blind in one eye.

Okay, here are the entries so far--

1. Sassy (from Becca--Pittsburgh)

2. Tammy/Tarlsi (Pierre Fournier--Quebec)

3. Prince Randian/Comma/ Temptation/Creamette, the Living Noodle (Packy Paul--Minneapolis)

4. Fluffy/Snuggles (John Rozum--Boston)

5. Plissken (Mike Scott--Ohio)

6. Quetzelcoatl (Rob Tullo--New Jersey)

7. Janet/Denis (Irockmadpumas--Pennsylvania)

8. Geoff (Judd Clarke--England)

9. Chubby (Michael--Pittsburgh)

So if YOU haven't e-mailed me YOUR entry, or left the name in a comment here, you have a brief period to do so--so take a flying leap at enriching yourself materially and increasing your sense of self-worth today!!