For this Memorial Day, we offer our best wishes, deepest thanks, and a commemorative bouquet of military-related links: Author Joseph Koenig's personal list of the Best Fiction of World War II. “Afghanistan: My Green Zone Symphony,” is a 4-part feature on his deployment by military veteran Weston Ochs, author of the SEAL Team 666,…
The Lady from Shanghai is a brilliant mess. It is a film that was taken away from its director, edited thoughtlessly, scored with one song endlessly repeated, and then shelved for years before it was finally dumped on the market. And yet it’s still pretty damn close to great. Before we go further, I should…
Winds above 70 mph ripped through the city [Chicago] on Halloween, causing 21-foot waves in some parts of the lakeshore. The Zombie Containment, a floating haunted house docked outside Navy Pier, was among the casualties of the rough weather… Via Huffington Post. The weather sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars of props and revenants, which…
There will be gold lust, danger, and Scottish accents in confined spaces in the upcoming Black Sea (January, 2015). Directed by Kevin Macdonald (Last King of Scotland), it stars Jude Law as a desperate submarine captain who assembles a (rag-tag) group of (misfits and) divers to retrieve sunken Nazi gold from the cold dark sea.…
Destination Unknown by Liz Strange, the third in the David Lloyd Investigations series, tackles a young woman’s disappearance from a cruise ship (available February 21, 2014). Perfection is a flaw. This is how Liz Strange views her characters. David Lloyd is no different. This ex-cop turned private investigator can take a punch, feel compassion for…
Via Huffington Post, we learned that Pancho, a sea lion who hangs around Cabo San Lucas, has discovered stealing enormous and tasty Mahi Mahi from TV people is easier than doing the hard work himself. He's a bandit, and yes, Mr. Santa-looking Fisherman, it's a crime!
This is not a joke, but an actual, edible product created as surreal art by Bompas & Parr. The ingredients of their Occult Milk Jam are “milk, cream, caster sugar, Hendrick's Gin infused with a speck of Princess Diana's hair.” But if the thought of that is unsavory, they also made Absinthe & Pineapple Jam…
This much we know: in the early hours of April 28, 1789, in the middle of the south seas a group of sailors aboard the British cutter HMS Bounty seized control of their ship. They loaded the ship’s captain—a career naval man named Lt. William Bligh—and 17 of his loyalists onto a 23-foot launch (essentially…
Most Americans have known about the superstition surrounding unlucky Friday the 13th since grade school. Some people take this superstition very seriously, refusing to fly on airplanes or even leave their houses. Others joke about it, take flashlight tours of spooky houses, or watch horror movies. But have you ever wondered how Friday the 13th…
It’s probably not surprising that so much mystery fiction is set on cruise ships and similar vessels. This form of travel used to be the only game in town for going great distances across large bodies of water. Nowadays, people are less likely to travel this way out of necessity, but there’s a thriving cruise…
