Halloween: Day 14

Etchika Choureau, Halloween Witch, 1958

Monday with Hayley Mills: Street Art

The Parent Trap street art via Brooklyn Bridge Baby's photostream.

Halloween: Day 13

Halloween: Day 12

Halloween: Day 11

"Hoay, Maties!"

Halloween: Day 10

Radioactive Pumpkin.

Design by Michael Renouf

Halloween: Day 9

Halloween: Day 8

Monday with Hayley Mills: School Days

School Days

Halloween: Day 7

Halloween: Day 6

Madge Merideth

The broom as a witch's hat pin accessory was once quite common. I speculate it was a way of having a complete witches costume without the bother of having to actually carry a large prop around.

Halloween: Day 5

Halloween: Day 4

Not the greatest film as it is a bit thin on the story.

Halloween: Day 3

Halloween: Day 2

Halloween: Day 1

Monday with Hayley Mills: Sitting Pretty

Sitting Pretty

Monday with Hayley Mills: Why I Quit Chemotherapy After Surgery To Remove Cancer

Hayley Mills: Why I Quit Chemotherapy After Surgery To Remove Cancer

Monday With Hayley Mills: 3 Covers

A tale of 3 Covers

PAPERCRAFT: Bully the Little Stuffed Bull

Enjoy this papercraft  
Doctor Who Universe - Cassandra Variant of 
Bully the Little Stuffed Bull!

Back to School: Drive Safe

It's okay for the kids in class to let their minds wander but not you if you are driving.

Pay attention.

Don't worry about what song comes up next on the mp3 player, unless you are into 70's live stadium rock then the song will be over in about 3 minutes and move to the next. Deal with it.

Put down the phone.

STFU.

Nothing you could text, tweet or update is so important you can't keep your eyes where they belong, on the road in front of you.

I Remember School Days by Peter Whalley from Maclean’s (March 19, 1955).

Papercraft: Explore the Spaceways!

From Science Comics #7 (August 1940) is this 2-page text story about space exploration and claiming a moon of Jupiter in the name of the United States and the One World Government. A few pages of text were often added to comic books in order to qualify for a less expensive postal rate and on occasion were interesting and worth a read. DC Comics was the master of this practice in the late 1950s and through the 1960s with their educational features and "Flash Facts".

This Golden Age feature is noteworthy if not for the expansionist creed then the arts and crafts page that is featured earlier in the book. Readers can build their own papercraft rocket ship that is representative of that throughout the different drawn tales in this issue including the text story! Readers can explore the galaxy for themselves! Pretty keen and gorgeously retro to today's sensibilities.  

Unfortunately while the story is credited to Fox Comics house author Nathaniel Nitkin (a.k.a. N. N. Nathaniel) the text and rocket art could be from any or none of the illustrators who worked on the book itself. The perceived disposable nature of work-for-hire pop entertainment was one of many factors that had the sad result of creators not being properly credited for years. A practice that stretched from the beginning of the pulps that persists in many formats to present day.

Any papercrafters that make their own rocket and send me a link I'll post your work. By the way, the instructions don't say you have to make rocket motor noises when playing with your finished model but, come on, don't pretend you won't.

Show your work.

Monday with Hayley Mills: Arts & Crafts

Hayley Mills trying some arts and crafts from The Trouble With Angels (1966).

HEY, Y'ALL! STFU AND READ!

READ THEN LISTEN

February 26, 2012

Dispatcher: Sanford Police Department.

Zimmerman: Hey we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there’s a real suspicious guy, uh, Retreat View Circle, um, the best address I can give you is 111 Retreat View Circle. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

Dispatcher: OK, and this guy is he white, black, or Hispanic?

Zimmerman: He looks black.

Dispatcher: Did you see what he was wearing?

Zimmerman: Yeah. A dark hoodie, like a grey hoodie, and either jeans or sweatpants and white tennis shoes. He’s [unintelligible], he was just staring…

Dispatcher: OK, he’s just walking around the area…

Zimmerman: …looking at all the houses.

Dispatcher: OK…

Zimmerman: Now he’s just staring at me.

Dispatcher: OK, you said it’s 1111 Retreat View? Or 111?

Zimmerman: That’s the clubhouse…

Dispatcher: That’s the clubhouse, do you know what the–he’s near the clubhouse right now?

Zimmerman: Yeah, now he’s coming towards me.

Dispatcher: OK.

Zimmerman: He’s got his hand in his waistband. And he’s a black male.

Dispatcher: How old would you say he looks?

Zimmerman: He’s got button on his shirt, late teens.

Dispatcher: Late teens ok.

Zimmerman: Somethings wrong with him. Yup, he’s coming to check me out, he’s got something in his hands, I don’t know what his deal is.

Dispatcher: Just let me know if he does anything ok

Zimmerman: How long until you get an officer over here?

Dispatcher: Yeah we’ve got someone on the way, just let me know if this guy does anything else.

Zimmerman: Okay. These assholes they always get away. When you come to the clubhouse you come straight in and make a left. Actually you would go past the clubhouse.

Dispatcher: So it’s on the left hand side from the clubhouse?

Zimmerman: No you go in straight through the entrance and then you make a left…uh you go straight in, don’t turn, and make a left. Shit he’s running.

Dispatcher: He’s running? Which way is he running?

(Sound of Truck Door Opening/Closing)

Zimmerman: Down towards the other entrance to the neighborhood.

Dispatcher: Which entrance is that that he’s heading towards?

Zimmerman: The back entrance…fucking [unintelligible]

Dispatcher: Are you following him?

Zimmerman: Yeah.

Dispatcher: Ok, we don’t need you to do that.

Zimmerman: Ok.

A few minutes later...

Independence Day PSA for 2013

Hey, while you are all out and about this July 4th and adjacent days the holiday is being observed I would really appreciate if this Independence Day I could have independence from bonehead drivers. My wife is driving to work during the evening. So if any of you want to watch the pretty sparkles in the sky pull over, don't abruptly slow down to a crawl or stop on the highway every year, like so many of you idiots do.

You know who you are so no, I'm not going to be nice about it. If having spouse almost die in a wreck because you really shouldn't be driving anything more dangerous than a Radio Flyer prompts me to be impolite so be it and screw you.

Monday with Hayley Mills: 20 to LIFE

Photo of actor Hayley Mills for a multi-page feature of celebrities by veteran LIFE photographer Gjon Mili.

Cover photo for the 2nd part of the story Communism by Ralph Morse. The cover price of this slickly-printed high-quality magazine in 1961 was 20 cents which, coincidentally enough, was what a human life in Vietnam was worth in that same year.

New, Improved Star Trek Into Darkness

Energize the hyperlink for a description of the new and improved Uhura vs Klingon scene from Star Trek Into Darkness.

Possible Site Move

Today I received one of those emails warning me that this blog is designated as an adult site and I may have it shuttered by the end of the month. A three day notice. If it happens I will appeal on obvious grounds. But the last time blog was locked (I suspect it was from one of those kindly, WWJD Godly Christian trolls I was dealing with at the time who made a spurious revenge complaint) I lost about 20-30 posts when it came back.

Absurdly there is almost no direct way to correct Blogger that a mainly comic book and Hayley Mills-centric website is hardly full of adult themes. Apparently many, many people have received the same warning. Some users that received the emails are whiners about to lose their years of pornography and associated advertisements, some have what Blogger terms as "adult" that are actually mature only in that they are about such topics as breast cancer, other diseases and aspects of human and civil rights such as LGBT, DOMA and some various politics. Someone needs to parse the difference between "Adult" and "ADULT".

The "improvements" over the last couple years to Blogger has incrementally pushed me away from the service. The GUI has gradually become more of a pain to use, where it was once a few clicks. Now, everything is multiple drop downs, saving, opening again to access a menu that doesn't show until after saved and other annoyances. The big irritant for me was the limitations to formatting and pictures. Loyalty, for the most part, along with some inertia has kept me here. If indeed this site is shuttered then I will probably make the full leap to WordPress and also Tumblr, which is where about 80% of my posts have been going anyways. I have about 20 posts in the queue waiting to go so at least I'll stick around here until those are live. They'll export to WordPress at any rate so if you change feed overe there you won't miss anything.

You can find me here also:
Wordpress: http://ladythatsmyskull.wordpress.com/

Tumblr: http://ladythatsmyskull.tumblr.com/

Twitter: @Sleestak

FB (as reposting platform only. No real use for it)

Monday with Hayley Mills: More like Incredible Table

From The Parent Trap (1961)

True Life Secrets: Short Story

I don't know if it was intentional but these two separate covers for True Life Secrets tells a story of wanton betrayal, jealousy and revenge. Neither book contains a story with a scene resembling the cover action. The first is a pretty iconic cover, having been used on a few books and as examples of the genre.

True Life Secrets #23 (November-December 1954) is a recycled cover, initially published in My Desire Intimate Confessions #4 (April 1950).  The second cover, with the angry gent wanting to know just what the lady did to get the pricey necklace is from True Life Secrets #25 (March 1955). So while the story presented by the covers is coincidental it is pretty neat to have turned out that way.

If I saw issue #25 on the rack back in the 1950s I would have picked it up based on my memory of cover #23. I would have been disappointed but cover disconnect was the way the comic book  game was played back then. The budget, deadlines, disposable nature of comic books back then and people not giving a darn about the craft contributed to the practice. Covers were uncomplicated sales gimmicks and rarely represented the contents.

The art for the issue #23 is credited to Leon Winink and Ray Osrin. The second book is uncredited.

Monday with Hayley Mills: Camp Inch Army Base, South of Cam Ranh Bay, 1969

Let's Get Together: A story of Vietnam featuring an hallucination of Hayley Mills. Hey, I know the feeling.

The Monroe Doctrine As A Memory-Restorer

The Monroe Doctrine As A Memory-Restorer

A short article from the science section of The Literary Digest (January 5, 1907) on psychological therapy and the effectiveness of the reading of a 1823 U.S. Government policy declaration as a remedy for alcohol-induced amnesia may be a parody but it's hard to tell. I'd definitely declare it is for laughs except it is in a section of the periodical devoted to otherwise serious medicine and science. The British Medical Journal definitely did not take the study very seriously.

I don't know enough about medicine to determine if the "experimental distraction method" will restore memories. It appears to be, if not quaint junk science, then the testing of hypotheses during an age of discovery and scientific expansion to find out what is effective and what is not. From reading the article it occurs to me that several factors contributed to any successes from the experiment, the primary of which may be an alcoholic patient who suffered a blackout sitting in a dark room drying out, relaxing and recovering from over his hangover. 

Pull quote on the Distraction Method: "With a scientific candor which transcends patriotism he admits that it is less stimulative than the ticking of a stop-watch."

Science marches on.
 

 

Another Tiger Bustin' Hero

 

Malikar and Vekyra ride the Golden Tiger. From Weird Tales (April 1933). Art by J. Allen St. John. 

A part of Tiger Bustin' Heroes.

Monday with Hayley Mills: Camp Inch insignia

 Here is my recreation of the Camp Inch summer camp uniform insignia featured in the 1961 magnum effing opus The Parent Trap starring Hayley Effing Mills. The closest leaf I could find that represented the camp logo was the Red Maple. Close but not exact. I may re-do it later to make it more faithful to the film like a high quality Star Wars prop. As it stands it is as faithful as the off-model Space Enforcer Wars prop you find for sale in a dollar store. Don't be surprised if it gets updated.

The camp insignia was presumably created by or under legendary costume designer Bill Thomas. I'd kill for a peek at some original sketches from the Disney vault. I would. I really would. The transformation of the twin's mother Margaret via fashion throughout the movie is often a point of discussion about The Parent Trap (though why you'd not discuss only Hayley is anyone's guess). You'd think with all the Parent Trap-mania over the last 5 decades someone else would have made this insignia by now.  

You'd think.


Many shirts, hats, underwears will soon have this embroidered onto my wardrobe.

A bit more on the real world Camp Inch. One of the places that was the basis for Camp Inch is the religious stronghold Camp Crestridge for Girls. Wikipedia deleted the page about the camp for being "not notable" which is stupid because of the very notable eternal connection to Parent Trap. I blame the diseased abomination which is the remake poisoning the Parent Trap legacy.

 Yes, I do own this and by extension, you.

Monday with Hayley Mills: Statuesque

Actress Hayley Mills posing with some Disney statues circa 1960s.

No Jelly

Vintage candy bar ad by surrealist illustrator and graphic designer Roger Hane from 1972.

WANTED

Wanted poster that was plastered up all over my neighborhood in Songtan City, Korea circa 1986. If memory serves this was about a stabbing or something pretty serious. My wife is uncomfortable translating it (hopefully she isn't described on this anywhere and she's not a fugitive) so I'm not sure what it is all about. Pretty unique souvenir of Korea for the collection though.

Monday with Hayley Mills: The Girl from Tiger Bay

Hayley Mills as Gillie hiding from the bill in Tiger Bay (1959).

Tiger Bay was a rough and tumble place: Creation of Tiger Bay.

Talented performer and legend Shirley Bassey was born there and she sings about it in 2009.

But as far as I'm concerned Hayley Mills is the only Girl from Tiger Bay for me.

Kimchi, America's Favorite Side Dish

Kimchi is a spicy, fermented cabbage side dish that I became acquainted with during my time in Korea and has remained a part of my diet ever since. There are a quite a few varieties of Kimchi. The types of kimchi were created as a practical matter in the time before effective refrigeration and food storage and is based partly on the availability of seasonal vegetables and the weather. Kimchi is a popular and traditional side dish in Asia but for those outside of that region it can be an acquired taste.


Relax. You don't have to be a "foodie" to enjoy kimchi. It isn't some odd, esoteric concoction that you eat only because it is hip, unique or have to endure once or twice because everyone is talking about it. One of the worst things to happen to kimchi was it being "discovered" by yuppies in America during the late 1980s. The costs of the ingredients skyrocketed, quality suffered and making it from scratch became more of a luxury than a must have condiment in our refrigerator. A few years ago crop failures of the main ingredient caused a crisis that required the Korean Government to take action.

Glass jars are best for storage in refrigerator

Like many foods foreign to the American experience there are a lot of unsubstantiated, unscientific claims attributed to eating kimchi. These are mostly cultural in origin, perpetuated today as selling points and continuing traditions. Plenty of  the restaurants not owned by large chains commonly have signs posted declaring the unrealistic and miraculous health benefits of various dishes.

Disappointingly, this is endemic among much of the advertising for consumer products also. Online you can find even more information claiming all sorts of woo-woo magical powers attributed to all sorts of foods so don't get excited. Cabbage and red pepper are not parts of the formula for the ancient Asian mystic secret of good health, virility and long life. It does not "clean the blood", "revitalize the spirits", "strengthen the kidneys" or anything else beyond the basic nutritional value of the ingredients which are not insubstantial.

As example of the questionable common knowledge attributed to some foods: An ingredient used for more than a century as a flavoring in drinks touted as a natural health miracle with wondrous properties eventually was discovered to be a very  powerful natural carcinogen. The deleterious effects where ignored or unknown for years because of the power of superstition, folk remedies and the criminal carelessness of homeopathy. Only trust peer reviewed science, kids. 

The Wall of Kimchi at a local market. One of them.

There can be a lot of salt found in the recipe for kimchi. If you have special dietary needs make sure you never trust the hip, word-of-mouth promotion or self-serving public relations and hard sell of any food stuffs.

Do some research, read up and be informed. While I can't grant any special health properties to kimchi I've eaten it when congested. From anecdotal experience, the spiciness make me feel better, drains and opens up the sinuses. But so will chomping on a jalapeno,  gnawing on a lozenge or rubbing Mentholatum grease on my chest. Nothing magic there, just the body's normal and natural responses.

If you have wanted to try kimchi or Korean food then as a start I suggest visiting the Korean restaurants in your city. The All-You-Can-Eat BBQ is enjoying increasingly popularity but that may be over-whelming for the uninitiated. You can cook Korean meals yourself but if unfamiliar with the style rather than going through a trial and error stage find out what the authentic dish tastes like first.

As a way of easing into a world of foreign cuisine try the lunch menus during the day at Korean restaurants. They are simpler, priced reasonably and you won't have to deal with the crowds, wait time and hassle of the evening dinner rush and cooking the meal yourself at the table, though that can be a fun experience.

Most places serve a large spread of side dishes with even the smallest lunch menu item so don't be surprised by the amounts you receive. If you don't like wasting food get a to-go tray when done (if the establishment supports that, some don't because of people that take a yard when given an inch).

One of those side dishes will usually contain at least one variety of kimchi. Keep in mind that a lot of these dishes are not created from frozen, processed food that is microwaved and slapped on a plate following some corporate franchise photo-template of what a perfect and homogenized dish will look like. Quality of supplies change daily as expected with fresh items so don't be discouraged if something isn't up to your expectations or doesn't look like you think it should from your experiences in the freezer aisle of the local market. Asian meals have a lot of vegetables in them but eating an authentically prepared dish will very much remind you that meat is made from animals. Expect bone, gristle where you are not used to it.

Babimbap and side dishes

If you want kimchi regularly at home there are a lot of good cook books available and even recipes for it online. You can eat it as is out of the jar or use it in cooking. Heck, make up your own ideas. Browse a market that carries a variety and decide what size and type of kimchi you want. Many Asian and American markets sell kimchi but it is a Korean specialty so try Korean markets first. I prefer the cabbage that is pre-cut in the jar because it is more convenient to use and less messy. I also enjoy the large radish kimchi. The type you get is based on what you are going to use it for. FYI, when cooked kimchi often gets spicier, via reduction.

Most modern American grocery stores keep a brand or two of small jars of kimchi in the cold aisle, usually by the tofu. These brands are okay but not what I prefer. I personally find the most typical brand found in a regular grocery store to be pale, watery, lacking in heat and tasting strongly of salt and vinegar. A trip to a Korean or Asian market is your best bet for quality kimchi. Just compare the rich colors of the kimchi made for a knowledgeable and particular customer base and the kind you find in a American chain grocery. You can easily see the difference. Unlike many food products in this instance the color is an indicator of manufacture and quality. I also appreciate kimchi in a glass jar over plastic for storage purposes.

Kimchi prep at home:
You've bought a jar of kimchi, now what do you do? Like most people you are probably just going to put in the refrigerator to keep it cold. Sure, you want to do that, eventually. But first you might want to prepare your kimchi by letting it ferment a while before putting it away. Don't worry, it's easy to do though this will be a process that should take overnight. You can eat the kimchi right away after you buy it but letting the contents ferment a bit will improve even the taste of the grocery store brands. I recommend tasting some for a before and after comparison.

Leaving food out overnight is something you have to decide for yourself if you want to do. My wife is a native Korean and we have both prepped kimchi this way for nearly 25 years without ill effects. Some of the ingredients are stored for months without turning. This is how she learned to prepare it growing up in Korea. She is from a generation that still makes almost everything from scratch. Again, up to you.

1. Before retiring for the day place your kimchi jar in a plastic bag and place it in a sink. If your sink is the type that stains then you will want to ensure any liquids (a brine which will be red in color) go directly into the drain.  
2. Loosen lid. Loosely tie up bag. Kimchi is very aromatic so be prepared for that to permeate the area.
3. Leave in sink overnight.
4. In the morning you may notice bubbles in the jar and swelling of the contents. Some juice will probably have overflowed. This is from the contents fermenting. Tip a bit of the juice out.
5. Tighten lid firmly.
6. Rinse exterior of jar thoroughly and dry off.  
7. Put in refrigerator (I suggest on a paper towel or plate to catch any future drips).

If you sampled the kimchi yesterday when you got home do it again today. You should definitely notice a difference in taste and texture. Kimchi has a very strong presence but keeping the lid tight and exterior of the jar clean should prevent any odors being absorbed by the other contents of the refrigerator.

If you don't want the kimchi to ferment in the manner I described then make sure you drain some of the liquid from the jar before you put it away. Even kept cold right from the store the contents will ferment a bit over time and the fluid may leak out into the refrigerator

The uses for kimchi in cooking is varied. Other than the many Asian recipes it is traditionally used for I put it on almost anything. Burgers, grilled cheese, hot dogs, burritos, pizza (after I remove the pie from the oven, some like it baked into the pizza) and anything I can think of to spice up the meal. There is a place in San Diego that makes a butt-kicking bulgogi with kimchi burrito and some serious kimchi fries.

Read more about Korea's side dish online here: Kimchi at Wikipedia.

Monday with Hayley Mills: Murder Burger

Hayley Mills from an article in Vegetarian Times (November 1985). Photograph by Roger Whitaker.

Happy Mother's Day!

Back in the day: Widowed mom going to school, working full time, with 2 kids and getting ready for a new career! Thanks for everything!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Not liking my cat statue

My Lucky Cat has been waving the magic money spell in it's paw non-stop for 5 months now so
  WHERE ARE MY F*****G RICHES?!?!?!?

Monday with Hayley Mills: Visit Beautiful HAYLEYANNA

That dress again!

I'd live in Hayleyanna in a minute if it existed anywhere but in our hearts! But since Hayleyanna is a state of mind the next best thing is to visit fansite Hayleyanna.net!

Plenty of nice pics and stories from a big fan (almost as big as I am) of actress Hayley Mills from which to get your Hayley fix. Enjoy!

Your feets too big

How great does it feel to have your feet hang of the edge of the bed? I wish I could bottle that feeling and sell it.