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  1. Inkstainedwretch

    Film Noir...in Color?

    Interestingly, the "Cyberpunk" SF novelists of the '80s were heavily influenced by film noir. William Gibson's "New Rose Hotel" was a perfect example. It's told in a frame. Open frame: Schmuck loser protagonist checks into cheap hotel, waiting for the killers to arrive. Flashback: Schmuck...
  2. Inkstainedwretch

    Terms Which Have Disappeared

    In one of the Sherlock Holmes stories (not sure which one or the date), a servant girl is described as " teen-aged." This is probably the earliest use of the term of which I am aware.
  3. Inkstainedwretch

    DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

    Jerry Lewis is literally among my earliest memories, from back in the Martin & Lewis days. One of the last of the 50s comics.
  4. Inkstainedwretch

    Terms Which Have Disappeared

    Does anything "come on like Gangbusters" any more?
  5. Inkstainedwretch

    Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

    My father told me when he was in China in WWII they would give their D-ration bars to Chinese kids, who loved them. This mystified the Americans, who couldn't stand them.
  6. Inkstainedwretch

    You Know You Live in a Small(ish) Town When...

    But not in Scotland. There, it's called "whiskey."
  7. Inkstainedwretch

    Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

    My grandmother, born in late 19th century Texas, brushed with a mixture of baking soda and salt. I will still do this occasionally when I feel the need to give my teeth and gums a good scouring. Probably bad for my blood pressure, though.
  8. Inkstainedwretch

    Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

    As far as I know, the Hudson's Bay blanket has been unchanged for centuries. Many Native American ( First Nations, in Canada) people still use it as a unit of currency. It's neither a replica nor a reproduction, it's the original product.
  9. Inkstainedwretch

    Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

    As an old G.I., I'm always amused when some new piece of soldier's gear is lauded for its light weight, "reducing the soldier's burden." All that happens is that he (or she these days) is simply given more to carry. When we went from the old M-14 rifle to the then-futuristic M-16, which was half...
  10. Inkstainedwretch

    The Real Reason Malls Are Closing

    Another reason the enclosed mall is fading is that it can only operate at a profit if it is fully occupied. Whether occupancy is 100% or 50%, the whole mall has to be heated or air-conditioned. New malls are being built, but they are open-plan, really just shopping districts with limited motor...
  11. Inkstainedwretch

    Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

    Yes, I've inflicted many of them on myself.
  12. Inkstainedwretch

    Colorized photos of war in the Pacific

    Great picture. Note the asbestos glove hanging from the belt of the machinegunner n the foreground. This was conspicuously absent during the action on Guadalcanal where John Basilone won his CMOH. In the chaotic scene you hear him yelling "Where the hell's my glove?" meaning the asbestos glove...
  13. Inkstainedwretch

    Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

    Note that throughout the heyday of the cowboy boot, the cavalry wore high-topped but round-toed and low-heeled boots, and those guys lived their entire lives in the saddle. They wore nubbed instead of rowel spurs, too.
  14. Inkstainedwretch

    Vintage Things That Will NOT Disappear In Your Lifetime

    Where I live there are genuine working cowboys. Not guys who wear the hats and boots but ranch workers who tend cattle from horseback. Also, the Colt 1911 automatic pistol. More than 100 years old and still made, with variations, by countless gun makers.
  15. Inkstainedwretch

    in old movies they always dress up for dinner at home?

    Not at all a superhero, but Mike Hammer represented adolescent power fantasy to a generation of Americans. What Mike had was not super powers, he was just plenty strong and tough. What he had was a total lack of the restraint that keeps us from exercising our most primitive instincts, for good...
  16. Inkstainedwretch

    in old movies they always dress up for dinner at home?

    Since the sandwich was the mainstay of the workingman's lunch pail and the kids' school lunch boxes, I can understand the outrage at no more sliced loaves. If you don't have a proper bread knife and good technique with it, it is all but impossible to make even slices from a whole loaf. Often as...
  17. Inkstainedwretch

    What's your favorite, most psychologial-impressive movie scene??

    Early on in "L.A. Confidential" there is an almost throwaway scene which is one of the finest, most compact examples of psychological exposition that I have ever seen. Young, super-ambitious cop Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) takes the night watch. The other detectives leave for the night, not bothering...
  18. Inkstainedwretch

    You know you are getting old when:

    I took basic at Polk in fall of '67 ( Bravo Blackhawks, B-4-1!) I probably would have hated you. But the training was invaluable and I did stuff I would not have thought myself capable of.
  19. Inkstainedwretch

    RIP Roger Moore

    I first remember him as Beau Maverick. He has been around for most of my (remembered) lifetime. We're losing a lot of the old-timers.
  20. Inkstainedwretch

    You know you are getting old when:

    When you turn on an "oldies" station and it's playing songs from the '80s and '90s.

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