Solid Sunday

West Sussex, UK: Kids compete for the Settrington Cup in pedal race. Photo by Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock, posted at theguardian.com:

Headline from newsmax.com: “Trump Outlines His ‘9 Steps’ Planned to ‘Drain The Swamp’.” Please make it so. And from foxnews.com: “UN official caught on hidden mic fretting global body may not ‘survive’ another DJT term.” At least move that worthless institution to Tehran.

Also from NM: “Biden Took 48 Years’ Worth of Vacation in 3 Years.” Because they can. In fairness, cell phones accompany leaders — even a puppet like Quid Pro Joe — everywhere.

Government in a nutshell — excerpt from an FN article by Kristine Parks regarding Massachusetts: “Public records requested by the Herald showed taxpayer-funded EBT cards were used in Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, California, Florida, Alaska, and in several other locations across the country.” Vote-buying 101.

Last night I caught up to two films I’d never seen. Svengoolie ran Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), which is not my kind of flick, but at least my curiosity has been satisfied. It was the brainchild of the Bronx-born Chiodo brothers, Charles, Stephen and Edward, who collaborated on the screenplay. Stephen directed. Most of their credits have been as puppeteers. Suzanne Snyder, the female lead, would go on to do two great Seinfeld episodes, playing Neo-Nazi Eva in The Limo, Season 3, Episode 18, and Poppie’s daughter, who adamantly refuses to taste The Pie, Season 5, Episode 15. She’s a mom of three whose last screen credit was in 2010. Also in the cast, screen vets Royal Dano and John Vernon. I abandoned it a half-hour before the end, as Offbeat Cinema was running Red Planet Mars (1952), a talky, cerebral movie about trying to send and receive signals to and from Mars. It also had a Cold War element. Peter Graves is the male lead, Andrea King his wife. There are 75 titles under the name of the latter at IMDb, career spanning 1946-’94. A mom of one, she passed away at 84 in 2003. The cast features several Hollywood mainstays: William Sande (273 credits), Marvin Miller (175), Morris Ankrum (282), Willis Bouchey (213). Herbert Berghof had the thankless role of the Commie scientist. He has only 32 screen credits but was a Broadway stalwart. Harry Horner was at the helm. He has more credits as a production designer, 24 than director, 19. John L. Balderston, Anthony Veiller and John Hoare adapted the latter’s stage play to the big screen. Balderston contributed to the scripts of several Universal monster flicks and wrote the screenplay for Gaslight (1944). He has a total of 43 writing credits. Veiller has 45 credits, many stellar, including the adaptation of the Hemingway short story The Killers (1946). All those mentioned from Red Planet Mars have gone to that big soundstage in the sky. Photo from Google Images:

It was nippy in the shade, perfect in the sun today at the Anti-Inflation Book Shop. My thanks to the gentleman who donated six large paperbacks in Russian, and to Andu, who bought CDs by Linkin Park and No Doubt; and to Marty, NYPD retired, who chose music by Neil Young and Los Lonely Boys; and to the woman who took home The Manning Grooms by Debbie Macomber; and to Steve, poet laureate of Sheepshead Bay, who selected the audio book of W Is for Wasted by Sue Grafton.

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