st barbara

So...I was watching the pre-vue for Ghost Busters...when it Hit me. Doc Sav is a Girl, and so are the whole team! Yes! Something this original will win awards! Maybe that Mc Carthy lady is available...and that tall South African actress...Soon I will Rule Hollywood! Muh ha ha ha!!!

Please don't ! The world isn't ready for a female Monk Mayfair !

I have the box set of "Wild Wild West' (the T V series) and it is fun. As far as I am concerned the movie version was an absolute travesty, done by people with no taste or appreciation of the source material that they were bastardising !

If we are talking pilot/sportsmen how about the Australian test cricketer Keith Miller who served in the air force. Once when asked whether he was feeling pressure during a game he is supposed to have replied "Pressure  ? This isn't pressure. Pressure is having a Messerschmitt up your arse !"

How about Trofim D Lysenko, the Russian genetecist whose Lamarckian views coloured Russian biological thinking throughout the 1930's (and beyond).

Re: Cool Guns for your Games

 

Here are a couple. The first is the "PKD12" This was the gun used by Harrison Ford in Blade Runner. It has a normal cylinder with, more or less normal, bullets but it has a second barrel with a single big nasty bullet for delivering the coup de grace on that renegade replicant you just brought down.

 

Next is a gun I downloaded long ago from where I can't remember. The picture is called "plasma pistols" which works for me.

 

Lastly we have the Mateba semi-automatic revolver in .357. This pistol was actually inspired by the anime Ghost in the Shell. The revolver fires from the bottom of the cylinder instead of the top and has a semi-automatic action that re-cocks the hammer with each shot. These pistols are handcrafted by a small Italian gun maker and are said to be very accurate. The low barrel helps to reduce recoil making them much easier to handle that one would expect. Versions are also made in .44 Magnum and .454 Casull.

So it was a high tech update of the Le Mat ?

My impression is that a "Rupert effect" has kicked in. If Rupert Murdoch and his counterparts think you're a loser, it tends to trickle down through their employees.

 

The Murdoch media in Australia is supremely conservative - but really despises Trump. I'm getting the same vibe from its US counterparts.

If the Murdoch Media despises Trump, and the Liberal media despises Trump, who is left supporting him in the media ?

Recently saw "Watchmen" again and realised how much I enjoyed it, especially the music. (I may never be able to hear "The Hallelujah Chorus" (er I think that is what it was) again without smiling however).

Willis Lee, admiral aboard USS Washington and commanding the US force for the final stage of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, also won six medals (small arms shooting, both individual and team) in the 1924 Olympics, and has been described as "the contemporary {1942} master of radar fire control".

I can't find anything in my "Complete Book Of The Olympics" about Lee winning any individual medals, only team medals in 1924. Which event did he win an individual medal in ?

I was watching Fox News today (Yes I know that it isn't the best place to get unbiased news or opinion) and they had Trump leading in some of the "swing states" (it looked like a lot of them actually). How are most of the U S polls running at the moment ?

Just finished "The Curse of Chalion" by Lois McMaster Bujold. Not her best work in my opinion. More like a historical novel with a light dusting of fantasy.

Running off at a bit of a tangent has anyone been reading  "Rough Riders" from "Aftershock comics ? A sort of American "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" with Teddy Roosevelt forming a team with Harry Houdini, Thomas Edison, Jack Johnson, Edward Eastman and Annie Oakley to investigate well I would call them "anomalies". Looks good so far (four issues down as far as I know).

there are more unlikely actors to play Doc Savage

Reese Witherspoon for example [no disrespect intended]

But could she play his cousin Pat ?

Agents of SHIELD fans: Behold!

 

 

Get yours at http://www.meleemods.com/gallery.html

What, no bayonet ?

"The Grey Ghost": a man with ghostly/desolid powers (from the nickname give to Confederate partisan leader John C Mosby).

If you do a section of Five Weird Australian Things That Could Become Story Seeds, I hope you'll include the fossil dinosaur bones made of opal.

 

Dean Shomshak

Hey ! We don't have many dinosaur fossils in Australia, so we have made an effort to beautify them !

Another point that might be made is that Australia used to have a unique slang. This has been largely lost these days, but might still provide an Aussie character with some uniqueness. Terms like "Buckley's chance" or just "Buckley's" for a very slim chance for example or "As brave as Ned Kelly" for someone who shows courage in a desperate situation.  (Kelly was an Australian outlaw in the 19th century, although we call them "bushrangers") and Buckley was an escaped convict from the early days of settlement who managed to survive in the bush when it was thought to be impossible for a white man to do so (he had the help of the aborigines I think).

I know I shouldn't use expressions like 'dumb as a sack of hammers'. I'll fix that eventually.

Perhaps "thick as two short planks" would work better ?

Polling booths on the east coast of Australia have closed. The count has started. The result will be pretty obvious in an hour or two.

 

Facebook is going mad with Australians making jokes about sausages.

Well Jobson Growth didn't do as well as expected , but Cliff Hanger looks to be doing well !

 Another adventure comic available in collections is "Corto Maltese" by Hugo Pratt. Translated from Italian I think. Modern comics (1960's and later) but set in the pulp era.

 One Pulp era comic that is available in collections (I personally have six volumes covering the period 1934 to 1946) is Milton Caniff's classic adventure strip "Terry and The Pirates". Absolutely brilliant black and white action adventure in the far east.

 I thought that Trump was a wealthy and successful business tycoon  ? Why can't he pay for his campaign ?

We have had so many stories about a "new" "Doc Savage" movie that I am inclined to use a quote from an old movie ("The Crimson Pirate") "Your humble servant will believe it when your humble servant  sees it "t describe my attitude to this latest announcement.

Currently reading "Wearing The Cape" by Marion G Harmon. Interesting take on the superhero idea. A young woman reveals that she has super powers (strength and flight so far) and is inducted into the city's premier super team. Ilike it so far as it touches on aspects of the Superhero lifestyle frequently glossed over in comics.

Nom D'une chat rouge ! How could I forget Jules De Grandin by Seabury Quinn and, if we are allowing comivc book characters into the mix D C 's Dr Terry Thirteen.

 A couple of "old timers" to add to the mix William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki and  Algernon Blackwood's John Silence.