These were powered by a single AA battery, and made little boys everywhere quite happy on early 80’s Christmas mornings. I always thought that the nearly identical “Stompers” were a ripoff of Rough Riders. But, as it turns out, Stompers came first, in 1980.
Do NOT play the commercial below unless you want the Rough Riders jingle stuck in your head. It’s a hell of an earworm, especially if you remember it from childhood.
Tonight’s frightening poem was found and shared by our resident expert in all things scary, Blog Correspondent Pete Harrison.
The Man of Double Deed
By Anonymous
There was a man of double deed,
Who sowed his garden full of seed;
When the seed began to grow,
‘Twas like a garden full of snow;
When the snow began to melt,
‘Twas like a ship without a belt;
When the ship began to sail,
‘Twas like a bird without a tail;
When the bird began to fly,
‘Twas like an eagle in the sky;
When the sky began to roar,
‘Twas like a lion at my door;
When my door began to crack,
‘Twas like a stick across my back;
When my back began to smart,
‘Twas like a penknife in my heart;
And when my heart began to bleed,
‘Twas death, and death, and death indeed.
Photo credit: By Marcus Quigmire from Florida, USA (Scary Branches) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
I love this photo. I don’t know why.
Photo credit: By Megalithicguy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
I can’t say I fully understand the zeal of “The Boondock Saints'” (1999) cult following, but I had fun with it — I’d give it an 8 out of 10 for being unusual and unexpectedly diverting.
I don’t really see it as a crime thriller — it’s more like an absurdly violent situation-comedy. It borrows its tone and style from 1994’s “Pulp Fiction,” not to mention its own shock-comedy throwaway scene involving an accidentally discharged sidearm.
Like its superior inspiration, its formula is creating quirky, likable characters with some funny dialogue, and then raising the tension by placing them in the midst of graphic violence. It mostly succeeds — Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus’ characters are endearing, cool and easy to root for. I laughed out loud a few times, and I can see how their telegenic antiheroes would attract a devoted fandom.
The directing seemed choppy and even amateurish. I noticed this right from the opening credits, which are awkwardly spliced with the onscreen introduction of the main characters.
The screenwriting is a little spotty, too — we’re never told, for example, how its two protagonists come to be such proficient assassins. (Are they former military? Is there a joke here I’m missing about them being “blessed,” consistent with the “saints” motif and all the references to Catholicism?) Nor do we get much meaningful information about their motivations. (Their bloody crusade begins only when they kill several gangsters in self-defense, then they seem to pursue a life of vigilantism as an afterthought.) Finally, our antiheroes seem refreshingly real and identifiable, while other characters (Willem Dafoe’s detective and Billy Connolly’s mafia hitman) seem cartoonish enough to populate a farce like “The Naked Gun” series).
Again, though — this was fun. I’d recommend it.
Oil on canvas.
Attributes of Chos-Skyon Dam-can rDo-rje Legs-pa (Vajrasadhu) in a Tibetan “rgyan tshogs” banner.
I wish my cellphone camera were a little better — it just can’t do justice to those snow clouds among the peaks in the distance.
Credit for the name of the mountain where we live goes to my girlfriend; I named the house — “Winterfell.” I’m naming a lot of things after “Game of Thrones” this winter. (Because it is “Coming.”) Remember I shared a picture of the vestigial remains of shack, in which only a strewn roof was still intact? That I dubbed “Craster’s Keep.” And I am starting to think of Lynchburg as “King’s Landing.”
This was only the initial powdering last Friday — of course the snow became much heavier that night.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 