Archive for February, 2009
Tales From the Judges’ Crypt
Thursday, February 26th, 2009In the early 1950s, few comic books offered more thrills than Tales From the Crypt. The series’ horror stories eventually came under attack from parents, clergy, schoolteachers and others concerned for children’s spiritual and emotional welfare. Congressional subcommittee hearings in 1954 led to the establishment of a national Comics Code. The original Crypt issues are […]
The ‘Alan Smithee’ Option
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009From 1969 to 2000, if you were a Hollywood director who believed the creative control of your film had been wrested from your creative little hands, you could beg the Directors Guild of America to replace your name with a pseudonym. If the guild agreed, “Alan Smithee” was the allowed name.
“Smithee” was first applied to […]
Bedtime Prayers
Friday, February 13th, 2009Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake …
Whoa … hold on a minute.
Who in the world came up with a prayer like that? I got curious enough to Google the question, and it looks like “Now I Lay Me …” can be […]
‘That Printer of Udell’s’
Monday, February 9th, 2009Branson, Mo., is a 45-minute drive south of Springfield, where I live. One of the biggest attractions in that Midwest entertainment Mecca is an outdoor performance of The Shepherd of the Hills, a play dramatizing the 1907 novel of the same name by Harold Bell Wright. (I’ve never seen the play, but that’s no mark […]
Reflections
Friday, February 6th, 2009Dad played a baritone horn all my growing up years. He had studied in high school under euphonium master Harold Brasch (the euphonium being a V-8 baritone, or the baritone being an economy euphonium, depending on how you want to look at it).
My parents were pastors and missionaries, and our family lived in Virginia and […]
Going Solo
Monday, February 2nd, 2009A brief news item online today caught my attention. Daniel Pharr, a first-time skydiver, discovered his instructor, to whom he was strapped, was unconscious during their tandem trip to the ground. Pharr managed to land them safely and performed CPR, but to no avail. The instructor had died.
Imagine, jumping out of a plane for the […]
