This is a rare occasion when I’m using something I first saw on Mark Evanier’s News from ME. It’s the Comic Book Burnings Project. You can scroll through the entire site within this embedded window.
Hardcover for the Hardcore
It’s BIG! It’s HEAVY! It’s TL:DR for all but HARDCORE fans of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5NZ14WQ
There’s a Kindle e-book edition, but how much fun would that be? I’ve read reports of copies being delivered in damaged condition, but mine arrived in perfect shape.
Hollywood loves movies about itself. Not being a fan myself of any edition of A Star is Born, OUATIH is, for me, the best Hollywood love letter since Singin’ in the Rain.
If the book has more than you’d ever want to know about the movie, this interview with author Jay Glennie has more than you’d ever want to know about the book.
https://www.thewrap.com/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-making-of-book-interview/
The very last page of the massive tome has a picture of Brandy’s favorite DOG food. The RAT flavor. What else could it be, but a sly nod to this blog? 😉
Coke’s Haddon for AI
Despite complaints last year over the use of AI for its Christmas season TV commercials, Coca-Cola, the Real Thing, is doubling down on the Un-Real Thing.
The AI-generated depiction of Santa fails to capture the charm of the classic Coke paintings by Haddon Sundblom that defined the look of the character.
Sundblom also painted the second Mrs. Claus.
Return to Downtown and Back to Mono
Andrew at Parlogram talks about one of the most significant Pop records of all time. Petula Clark’s “Downtown”.
It was a record that everyone of all ages loved hearing. This video of “Downtown” was made by somebody who knows his Sixties-era mono-mix 45 rpm singles. He played it with a mono Ortofon cartridge.
Andrew demonstrates the difference a quality, lateral-tracking mono cartridge can make for purists of original, mono-mix Sixties records.
Rats ‘n’ Bats
Here’s something very scary to see. A rat catching and biting into a bat! Mr. Rat carries it off, presumably to have Mr. Bat for dinner.
YIKES! What are the implications of that nightmare?
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/11/08/g-s1-96931/rat-bat-virus-video
Last night, sitting at my drawing table, I heard something I’ve come to expect this time of year, when the weather gets cold. What I heard was the sound of a mouse crawling around in the wall between my office and what I’ll call the media room.
I set a non-lethal mouse trap that has worked for me in the past. This morning it hadn’t been disturbed. I decided to finally take more decisive action and go under the porch to see if I could find a likely point of entry, where the inside wall is located along the foundation. This gap looked like it. There’s even a crack there.
I’d heard that steel wool works as a mouse block. I have a supply on hand that’s used to polish the rim of my Thorens turntable platter. I stretched out half a dozen wads of it then packed it good and tight into the run of that gap.
Either the mouse is still in the wall and has been napping all day, or he left to take advantage of today’s 62 degree weather. If the former, is he stuck inside and will he find his way to the trap? If the latter, will he be prevented from getting back inside?
Political Medicine
On the Media has a series that, “explores what has unfolded at Harvard University since Donald Trump’s inauguration.” Part 2 covers the medical angle. This is of interest to me because, thanks to Harvard Medical School, I no longer have atrial fibrillation.
Jay Bhattacharya, an M.D. with a PhD in Economics, lost his intellectual way, and with it his credibility. He’s now NIH Director.
Bhattacharya opposed the Covid lockdown. His view was, “there wasn’t enough evidence of the virus’s lethality to justify stay at home orders.” The illogic of this highly educated man is appalling. Whenever has ignorance of a new disease been a good reason to not take preventive measures, until more is known about it?