Solid Gold

HUGE congratulations to the men's and women's USA hockey teams on their gold medals at Milano Cortina! Hard earned and well-deserved. And because Blogger in their infinite wisdom has apparently just made it impossible to choose a video on YouTube to link to and now we have to choose from their suggestions (which, oddly, don't even begin to match up with what I'm looking for) I can't post the vids I want. So here are some lame links to the awesome game winners. 

 

First up - da ladeez: Megan Keller's game-winning goal.

 

And the gents: Jack Hughes pots it for the win. 

 

Props to Keller and Hughes for the winning goals we'll all be watching for years to come. 

 

Also kudos to the inclusion of Johnny Hockey and his kids. He probably would have been on the ice as a member of the team.

 

And because Blogger made this post boringly image-free, here's a thing of beauty to pretty things up:

 

Team USA, heading to the ice.

 CUE FREE BIRD!!!

I do like this take on it

I'm fond of saying that I don't believe in karma, but I know it when I see it, and yes it can be a real (and often well-deserved) biatch. But I do think this is an interesting concept of karma:

 

 

This one hurts: RIP Robert Duvall

Prolific Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall has died at the age of 95. 

 

The man's resume is just staggering. Here's just a few:

• To Kill a Mockingbird (as Boo Radley) 
• M*A*S*H (as Frank Burns)
• THX 1138 (pre-American Graffiti and pre-Star Wars George Lucas film)
• The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (as Tom Hagen)
• The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (as Dr. Watson)
• Network (as ruthless executive Frank Hackett)
• Apocalypse Now (as Lt. Colonel Kilgore, who brought us the famous line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning.")
• The Great Santini (Oscar nominated)
• Tender Mercies (for which he won the Best Actor Oscar)
• Lonesome Dove (miniseries, as aging Texas Ranger Gus McCrae) 
• Sling Blade (Karl's father)
• The Apostle (Oscar nominated for the title role)
• A number of television guest spots early in his career, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Naked City (4 episodes), The Untouchables, Route 66, The Outer Limits (3 episodes), The Wild Wild West, Mod Squad, and one of the more popular episodes of The Twilight Zone ("Miniature")  

To Kill a Mockingbird

Duvall was nominated for the Academy Award seven times (winning once), three BAFTA's (winning once), five Emmys (winning twice) and seven Golden Globes (winning four times).  

 

The Twilight Zone

One one hand when someone has had such full life and lives to such a ripe old age passes, it's hard to feel like we should ask for more. But Duvall was gifted and unique, and both the entertainment industry and the world has suffered a great loss. A great life and a great body of work. RIP, sir.

 

Lonesome Dove

RIP Bud Cort, and a rough couple of weeks for Hollywood

Bud Cort, immortalized as the death-obsessed Harold Chasen in the classic Harold and Maude, passed away today at the age of 77. This longtime cult classic has been a favorite of mine forever. Cort wasn't the last remaining of the three main stars: the wonderful Ruth Gordon (Maude) passed away in 1985, but the hilarious Vivian Pickles (Harold's deadpan mother) is still with us at 94.

 

 

According to imdb's trivia page, Cort ad-libbed both this fourth wall-breaking side eye, as well as the ferocious middle finger he gave his mother after her reaction to his hybrid Jaguar/hearse.

 

Earlier today the death of Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek was announced. Van Der Beek, only 48, had been battling colorectal cancer.

 

In addition, beloved comedy star Catherine O'Hara passed away on January 30. She had also been suffering from rectal cancer, although the primary cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.

 

There's the idea that in Hollywood they die in threes, and after O'Hara, I wondered who was going to be numbers two and three. Today brought that sad answer.

 

RIP everyone. 

 

Recent reading: EQMM and AHMM

The new publisher is still behind (I don't have the Jan/Feb issues yet) but I'm also behind on reading, so I guess that makes us even.

 

 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (September/October 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue:

• "The Corpse Collector" by David Morrell: A dental assistant moonlights as a pickup driver for a funeral director for extra money and uses her day job skills to determine that the seemingly accidental death of an old man was actually murder.
• "Where the Good Dogs Go" by Kai Lovelace: A dog's sickness pits his owners against each other - Rose, who wants to sink money they don't have into his treatment, and Brad, the husband she feels increasingly distant from and who she suspects of having the dog euthanized. Rose gets a rude surprise when she decides to take revenge on Brad. Great twist ending.
• "The Book of Dead Cats" by Sue Parman: A mysterious death of a professor at a prep school, eccentric characters, family drama, and cats.  

 

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (November/December 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue:

• "Doctor Morbilius" by Gary Phillips: Set in the 1960's, this story sees a Los Angeles PI and his estranged father caught up in a scam perpetrated by a charismatic conman.
• "Fursona Non Grata" by Richard Helms: A fun story about a supposedly psychic eccentric who assists a detective in solving a murder of a furry (a guy in a dog costume). 
• "Halloween Party" by David Dean: A young woman wants to get to know her new neighbors and neighborhood, only to get more information than she bargained for in this tale of infidelity, scandal, and murder. 

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (November/December 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue:

• "Circumstantial Evidence" by Eric B. Ruark: A bicyclist discovers a murder victim in a small town and is pressed to stick around because he's a potential suspect. When local troublemakers are arrested for the crime, the cyclist is free to leave...only to reveal that he's a contract killer and the murder was, in fact, his doing. Terrific use of an unreliable narrator. I did not see that ending coming AT ALL.
• "Take Me for a Ride" by Michael Mallory: Set in post-WWII Los Angeles, this is the story of a private eye who takes on the case of a valuable stolen car for an old war buddy, only to have it turn into an increasingly complicated murder case.
• "The Other Side of the Window" by Adrian McKinty: One of my favorite stories of the year. It's Hitchcock's Rear Window from the POV of Lars Thorwald, the killer played by Raymond Burr in the film. We learn how he reached the point of killing his wife (accidentally) after meeting another woman, who wants them to run off to California, and who enthusiastically helps Thorwald dispose of the wife's body and establish his alibi. An interesting aspect is how much the characters of Jefferies (James Stewart) and Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) were minimalized. The character of Helen, Thorwald's paramour, doesn't appear in the film and is a device created to explain how and why Thorwald's wife ended up dead. Just a really great alternative take on a classic.
• "A New Life" by LaToya Jovena: A man seeks sole ownership of his late mother's twenty acre property with plans to turn it into a multi-million dollar development scheme, but his estranged daughter has other ideas. Great double-cross at the end.  

Not gonna lie, this sounds tempting

 

I remember reading something where the question of why not convert abandoned malls into housing, and a lot of it had to do with plumbing not being in place, because the places were set up as stores, not homes with sinks, showers, and toilets.

 

Having said that, I still think this is a cool idea, especially with the classic films and food courts. I'd consider it.

 

Via Remembering the Goold Ole Days on FB.