What can I say? I can't wait for this. RED was one of my favorite movies, and this one looks like a perfect follow-up. Helen Mirren rocks the world. And they've added Anthony Hopkins to the cast! Did you see the first one? Will you see the next? I'll be in the theater on July 19!

Doesn’t that just make your heart sing? On April 29, Sotheby’s will be auctioning off “The Rouchomovsky Skeleton.” According to the catalog, this fully articulated gold skeleton is c. 1900 and

in a velvet-lined coffin chased around on each side with three panels showing the course of life, one end with attributes of the arts, the other with attributes of war, the removable cover with the journey in the footsteps of the Angel of Death, surrounded by the faces of infants alternately laughing and crying.
Skeleton signed in Cyrillic, on the right splint-bone: Mozyr [18]92 Odessa [18]96 and on the left splint-bone Rouchomovsky;
Sarcophagus signed on lid: Israel Rouchomovsky and in Cyrillic on base Israel Rouchomovsky Odessa 1901.
length of skeleton 3 1/2 in., length of coffin 4 3/8 in.

I can’t afford the estimated sales price, but my birthday was just last month and I’d be more than happy to have it as a belated present.

I like Nutella as much as the next person. In fact, I probably like Nutella more than the the next person. Maybe more than the next two people combined. There is nothing in life more perfect than a Nutella and banana crepe, in my mind. But still, I find the fact that thieves in Germany made off with five metric tons of Nutella a bit hard to fathom. That’s 176,370 ounces; more than 13,500 standard size jars, or 6,500 of the larger containers.

In reading about this particular heist, I ran across The Atlantic’s speculations on the possible uses for 11,000 pounds of Nutella, of which I found this the most amusing:

...if there’s a major heist of 10,000 pounds of toast/waffles/bananas in the coming days, then that probably points to someone—or a group of people—with serious Nutella addictions. 

And then there are speculations about hoarding and black markets. I would just love to see a crime story written about Nutella smuggling. Mmmmm... think it’s time for breakfast.

A Long Day at the End of the World: A Story of Desecration and Revelation in the Deep South by Brent Hendricks is a memoir by a man whose father's remains were discovered during the scandal at the Tri-State Crematory in 2002 (available March 12, 2013).

In February 2002, hundreds of abandoned and decayed bodies were discovered at the Tri-State Crematory in rural Georgia, making it the largest mass desecration in modern American history. The perpetrator—a well-respected family man and a former hometown football star—had managed to conceal the horror for five years. Among the bodies found at the Tri-State Crematory was that of Brent Hendricks’s father. To quell the psychic disturbance surrounding the desecration, Hendricks embarked on a pilgrimage to the crematory site in Georgia.

This is a small book with a large impact. There's not a lot of plot—in fact, the really major plot point is one readers probably already know quite a bit about, given the amount of press the Tri-State Crematory scandal generated.

[But narrative is so much more than plot]

In 1959, a foreign service memo (you can see the entire thing at Blastr) listed the three regulations for hunting Yeti in Nepal:

1. Royalty of Rs. 5000/- Indian Currency will have to be paid to His Majesty's Government of Nepal for a permit to carry out an expedition in search of 'Yeti'.

2. In case 'Yeti' is traced it can be photographed or caught alive but it must not be killed or shot at except in an emergency arising out of self defence. All photographs taken of the animal, the creature itself if captured alive or dead, must be surrended to the Government of Nepal at the earliest time. 

3. News and reports throwing light on the actual existence of the creature must be submitted to the Government of Nepal as soon as they are available and must not in any way be given out to the Press or Reporters for publicity without the permission of the Government of Nepal.

Are these regulations still in force? We have no idea...who's up for a Yeti hunt to find out?

When I first heard about the Catacombo on The Colbert Report, I was sure it was a joke. I mean, it couldn’t be serious, right? Little did I know... this is about as creepy as it gets, IMHO! Can you imagine what kind of hell your enemies could make of your afterlife by hacking in and programming muzak to play at you day and night?

No, it’s not another mash-up, it’s two stories from the same city in England. To whit, Leicester, where under a seemingly innocuous parking lot were found the bones of the hated King Richard III. According to the New York Times,

Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist on a project to identify the bones, told reporters that tests and research since the remains were discovered last September proved “beyond reasonable doubt” that the “individual exhumed” from a makeshift grave under the parking lot was “indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England.”

But what if Richard had come back as a zombie once he had been disinterred? Would he have been smacked down quickly, or could he have taken over the city? Well, according to one concerned citizen who sent a letter to the city council, Leicester is singularly unprepared for zombie attacks. The letter reads:

Dear Leicester City Council,

Can you please let us know what provisions you have in place in the event of a zombie invasion? Having watched several films it is clear that preparation for such an event is poor and one that councils throughout the kingdom must prepare for.

Please provide any information you may have.

Yours faithfully,
Concerned Citizen

Hat tip: Hypervocal

As you may or may not remember, back in November, I had a chance to watch the pilot of The Following with eye candy (and, not incidentally, excellent actors) James Purefoy and Kevin Bacon. I had mixed feelings about the pilot (put on your psychic hat and read my thoughts), but at the time so few people had seen it that I had no one to discuss it with.

I imagine that many of you in our audience did catch the pilot last night, however, so I am anxious to hear your thoughts. Let’s talk!

I absolutely adore Poynter’s annual list of media flubs, corrections, hoaxes, and all-around drama. Most of the time they are simply hilarious and often juvenile (see picture), but sometimes they are truly awful, like this one from The Australian:

Due to a production error, a quote attributed to Lieutenant Colonel Ghulam Jehlani Shafiq in a report in The Weekend Australian on Saturday (“Afghanistan battles scourge of corruption”, page 16) was altered to change its meaning. Colonel Jehlani did not say: “It’s not like 25 years ago. I was killing everybody.” In fact, he said: “It’s not like 25 years ago I was killing everybody. At that time too we tried not to have civilian casualties.” The Australian apologises for the error.

Umm...yeah. Punctuation makes all the difference.

The Wrath of Angels is the eleventh Charlie Parker thriller by John Connolly (available January 1, 2013).

In the depths of the Maine woods, the wreckage of a plane is discovered. There are no bodies, and no such plane has ever been reported missing, but men both good and evil have been seeking it for a long, long time. For the wreckage conceals a list of names, a record of those who have struck a deal with the devil. Now a battle is about to commence between those who want the list to remain secret and those for whom it represents a crucial weapon in the struggle against the forces of darkness.

The race to secure the prize draws in private detective Charlie Parker, a man who knows more than most about the nature of the terrible evil that seeks to impose itself on the world, and who fears that his own name may be on the list.

Never doubt that Evil exists. Not the little evils of the world, like the teenager selling dope on the corner, or the thief who breaks into your apartment to steal your television so he can buy the dope from corner guy. Not even the classroom bully who assuages his own insecurities at the expense of others. No, the Evil of John Connolly’s world, the world that will become yours from the very first page of The Wrath of Angels, is pervasive and permeating, a deep current running beneath the world and rising in the mist of the dark woods surrounding the fallen plane.

[Here be monsters]

What happens to the guns collected in buybacks? To the shell casings collected at crime scenes after their use as evidence has expired? If you’re Jewelry for a Cause’s Jessica Mindich, you turn them into bracelets. According to the website of The Caliber Collection:

The Caliber Collection is made up of metal from 250 guns and bullet casings seized by the Newark Police Department. The result is a series of pieces that embody the gun’s transformation from a destructive weapon to a powerful symbol of renewal. Jewelry for a Cause proudly donates a portion of the proceeds from each sale to the Gun Buyback Amnesty program in Newark.

There are steel and brass bracelets. The steel bracelets are made from guns, the brass are made from shell casings collected at crime scenes.

At New York Comic Con last month, I watched the premiere of The Following, Fox’s serial killer drama starring Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy, which will premiere January 21st. It’s taken this long for me to make sense of how I felt about it.

There’s no question, it’s daring. It absolutely pushes the boundaries. My question is, do those boundaries really need pushing? And if they do, do they need pushing on network television in a weekly series?

[Well? Do they?]

If you, like me, are of a certain age, you probably remember the original Red Dawn quite well. As most things from that era, it’s getting a reboot. That leaves me a bit perplexed. I mean, back when the Russians were our biggest enemies, the idea of a “Red” Dawn made sense. Of course, the Russian element isn’t the only thing that looks to have been revamped for this new incarnation...

That’s the first teaser for the upcoming season of Justified on FX. Not much to it. They won’t even release an exact start date, though we’re betting it will be sometime in late January or maybe February. But here’s one thing I can tell you: Patton Oswalt, a man I’ve been known to call among the funniest in the world, will have a recurring role this coming season. Oswalt has rocked some serious dramatic roles, too, but I am betting they’ll give him plenty of the black humor that seems to accompany Raylan Givens in his travels through both text and television.

If you’re ever looking for a treasure trove of truly dreadful books (and, come on, who isn’t?), may I recommend Awful Library Books? The site is maintained by a pair of hilarious librarians from Michigan and contains books they feel should probably be weeded from collections in public libraries across the country for various reasons. Old, outdated, just plain awful, these books are guaranteed to make you giggle and/or groan. It’s a mystery why they’re still on the shelves!

Oh, Hollywood (or wherever ridiculously bad movies are made), why can you never leave well enough alone? I must admit to having a soft spot in my heart for the original Universal Soldier, but even I wouldn’t have called it sequel-worthy. And while two had its moments, three was hilariously bad. So what possessed anyone to make a fourth? But they did, and Universal Soldier 4, Day of Reckoning, arrives in theaters November 30.

Ever since BBC America started advertising its “Mugshot Yourself” app on Copper, I’ve been meaning to go over and do it. Well, I finally got around to it. What do you think? Back in the 1800s, as we can see from Buzzfeed, mugshots were way cooler.

So why not share yours? Go over to the Mugshot Yourself page and get yourself done up 19th century style. Then come on back and share it with us! (You can post pictures in the comments nowadays, or use your mugshot as your avatar here on CE!)

Love, love, LOVE the mashups of famous authors with their most famous work by graphic artist Selin Arisoy. He has other great stuff on his Tumblr, as well, but nothing quite as approprate as Edgar, here, from September 4, 2012. He’s so . . . ghoulish. (Head over and check out the Mary Shelley one, too. Excellent.)

For several years, Wolfmont Press produced an annual holiday crime fiction anthology that benefited Toys for Tots.  2009 marked the last of these, with the 2010 charity anthology—called Murder to Mil-Spec—benefiting Homes for Our Troops, instead. These were fabulous anthologies, and if you can find a copy you should grab one; they were limited in distribution.

I’m not saying authors from other genres don’t do charitable work, too, but crime fiction authors seem particularly dedicated to the idea. I’ve seen crime anthologies benefiting everything from animal shelters and vet centers in the name of personal pets to tsunami relief for Haiti, from individual cancer victims who need care and people about to lose their homes in foreclosure to earthquake relief in Japan.

It doesn’t seem to matter how big or how small the cause is, crime fiction writers are willing to pony up their talents to contribute.

[Bloody good people . . .]