#gray mann my beloved

[viscerasmoothie]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY TOOK THE WAR UPDATE UNUSED LINES AND PUT THE ROBOT FILTER OVER THEM HUH

yeah I was looking at the wiki because I wanted to find a sound that I was hearing all the time in tf2 videos but then I looked at the audio responses category cus idk it might be there and I'm bored, and I looked at the soldier robot responses category (the actual dedicated page has literally nothing in it) and those lines are just there

Does this imply a romance or some shit in-between the soldier robot and the human demoman????????

[eris090]

Title - Please Pet the Patriot

No archive warnings

Ships - BLU Soldier/RED Demoman/Zhanna (Team Fortress 2)

Tags - Anal Fingering, Penis in vagina sex, Femdom, Puppy Play, Pet Play, Praise Kink, Threesome - F/M/M, Oral Sex, Fluff and Smut, Riding, Written Accents, Subspace

Description - Soldier has a rough day of getting his ass kicked, so Demo and Zhanna decide to help him turn his brain off (even more so than it usually is.) [This is a follow up to War Dog]

Words - 3,397

When the news of the administrators death reached Miss Pauling all operations done by Mann Co. kinda shut down for a while. It took a month for Miss Pauling to even confirm that she hadn't died as well by sending out official unemployment papers to the mercs who for that entire month had been in their respective bases, waiting for news on what they were supposed to do.

Technically their employer was dead, but the man that signed their paychecks, Saxton Hale, certainly wasn't. He, along with his lifelong sweetheart Maggie, were also waiting for news, since technically Miss Pauling was in charge now.

For a time, instead of screams and gunshots being heard on the battlefield, there was only idle chatter between the mercs, the majority of whom didn't really give a shit about fighting each other anymore, instead opting to just talk. Of course not all of them got along though. The two enemy Soldiers were the main source of the few gunshots and explosions that could still be heard throughout the field as they just couldn't seem to get enough of killing each other. The Blu Soldier, however, did eventually stop, as he actually had more important things to attend to.

Demo and Zhanna, his two favorite people. Before the whole Gray Mann disaster Soldier had thrived on spending time with his best friend, lover and sometimes owner, Demo. Inside the battlefield, the two would ruthlessly chide one another to keep their relationship inconspicuous, making fun of each other with grins on their faces that they just couldn't seem to get rid of whenever they were looking at their respective partner.

And even though Gray Mann caused this not so domestic bliss to end, Soldier was also quite glad that the old man had seeked immortality, as if he hadn't, Soldier would've never met his other partner, Zhanna. The bruteish woman was the only person who could match his insanity and raw strength in a way that they were equally matched. Sometimes when the two would wrestle Zhanna would get him in a headlock and Soldier would grin as he thought that Zhanna might genuinely kill him with her sheer power. Of course she never did. Zhanna loved Soldier just as much as he loved her.

As for Zhanna and Demo's relationship, the two got along incredibly well! The Russian woman was one of the very few people who could hold their liquor as well as Demo could and while before it would just be Soldier and Demo going out to blow up abandoned buildings in Teufort, it was now Soldier, Demo, and Zhanna going out to blow up abandoned buildings in Teufort, and with a woman who could crumble a wall with just a kick, the destruction would take a lot less time than it had before.

The time they saved due to Zhanna's sheer strength was put into other activities they all enjoyed. Demo had once tried to introduce golf to the woman, however was unsuccessful as Zhanna seemed to develop a dislike of the sport once she hit 23 balls into a nearby lake. Regardless, the two men enjoyed introducing her to things outside of the Siberian mountains. One thing she certainly hadn't been aware of before she started living in New Mexico was Soldiers affinity for being treated like a dog.

When Soldier and Zhanna first met, the first thing they did was have sex, and Zhanna absolutely loved it, of course, but she quickly discovered that she enjoyed being the one in control much more than she enjoyed submission. Soldier took the lead the first time given that Zhanna had no experience whatsoever, but as it turned out, Zhanna was a fast learner.

The second time they had sex, which was after they had defeated Gray, Zhanna practically pounced on Soldier, biting and kissing his neck, toying with his nipples, licking up his shaft and basically teasing him until he was all but a whimpering mess below her. She was equally pleased as she was surprised at the fact that Soldier submitted so easily, curious as to how such a bold, brutish man could so quickly become the sight she had below her. She found herself thinking about it more and more until she decided to ask Demo about it.

Walking into his room in the RED barracks for the first time, Zhanna found it surprisingly clean. Besides the clothes that were piled on the floor in his open closet the floor was empty of clutter and looked to have been recently vacuumed. He had a desk where he was currently sitting and reading a book that seemed like a cryptozoologist's dream come true with a bottle of scrumpy sitting on the floor next to him.

Having not noticed Zhanna's entrance, likely due to his drunken state, Demo panicked when the Russian woman slapped him on the shoulder. Quickly reaching for the sword that was leaning on his bed, Demo turned around, relaxing at the sight of Zhanna and dropping the blade just as quickly as he had picked it up. “Aye-! …Oh, hello lass.” He sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Sorry about meh’ reaction ther’. ‘Ve been readin’ about malicious crae'tures ‘nd its made meh’ a tad jumpy.”

Zhanna stood in front of him now with her hands resting on her hips, tilting her head at Demo's explanation. “What kind of malicious creatures?” She raised an eyebrow. Demo glanced back at his book. “Specula'ive biology. Means animals that aren't proven by scientists.” He looked back at Zhanna, who shrugged at his answer. “Sounds fake. If there were animals stronger than bear here then I would have fought them. Also large Australian man would probably have mounts of their heads by now.” Demo shrugged in agreement, not caring much about the subject. “Anyways.” He spun his chair around. “What brings ye’ ‘ere lass?”

It took a moment for Zhanna to formulate her question, unsure of how to ask about Soldiers submissive behavior before reaching a conclusion. “Why is Jane so weak in his brain?” She worded her question the best she could, her grasp on the English language slightly worse than her brothers.

Demo cocked an eyebrow. “Do ye’ not know about ‘is lead poisonin’?” Zhanna shook her head. “No, I am not talking about that.” She corrected, “I mean why is he so- …what is word-? when someone gives up very easy?” She racked her brain for the term she was looking for, unable to find it. “Ye’ mean submissive?” Demo assisted her. She nodded, “Yes, why is Jane so submissive in bedroom? I am not complaining but how did he become like that.” She completed her question, to which Demo just chuckled. “Aye think the answer ‘s still lead poisonin’. He's an odd one. But fer’ yer’ information he just likes it. Sometimes I treat ‘im like a dog and he just melts."

Considering Demo's explanation thoroughly, Zhanna found that it made perfect sense that a man like Jane would enjoy being treated like the creature some people saw him as, a mutt. Demo opened the drawer on his desk and pulled out a collar for proof of Jane's infatuation with the idea, a silver tag with his name branded on it attached to the collar which Demo handed to Zhanna so she could examine it. The green leather appeared big enough to fit perfectly around her fiance's neck and looked to have been lightly bitten in a few spots.

The grin that appeared on Zhanna's face was telling.

“Jane has had rough day. I think making him relax would be good idea.” She lowered her eyebrows in a seductive manner eyeing the collar before cocking an eyebrow and looking back up at Demoman who was now grinning as well. “That sounds damn great!” He looked at the clock behind Zhanna. “Jane ‘ill probably show up here in aroond 5 minutes. Ye’ wanna prepare a su'prise fer’ ‘im?” Demo's excitement grew at the prospect, smiling at his lovers, quite frankly, gorgeous fiancé and getting up from his chair. Zhanna nodded, “sounds like excellent idea. I assume you will participate too?” She asked, which Demo confirmed rather swiftly. “It would be meh’ pleasure.”

The two organized the room to be more comfortable for the event that was about to occur there. Placing a 2 extra blankets on Demo's bed, taking the bottle of lube in Demo's drawer and setting it on his bedside table next to the collar and taking a headband with dog ears on it out of the closet, an item Demo had introduced Jane to the last time they had done this which Jane absolutely fell in love with, and setting it on the pillow.

It wasn't long after they finished preparing that Jane busted into the room, his usual eccentric grin replaced with a grimace, filled to the brim with anger. His irritated expression disappeared for only a second when he laid eyes on Zhanna, surprised to find her in Demoman's room. “Hello maggot.” He mumbled, crossing his arms. Zhanna gazed at her fiance sympathetically before motioning him over to her, where she took both of his hands in hers. “Did RED doppelganger kill you?” She asked before Jane nodded stiffly.

Demo approached Soldier from behind, collar in hand, as he wrapped his arms around the patriots waist. “Aye, don't worry about it Jane. Ye'll get that bastard next time.” He leaned around to kiss the man's temple, lifting his helmet slightly in the process. Zhanna let go of Soldier's hands and brought them up to his face where she placed them on his cheeks and used her pointer finger to lift his helmet so she could see his eyes which appeared exhausted. “Would you like to relax with us my maggot ridden сахарная слива?” Zhanna sweet-talked her fiance with the vocabulary he often used, to which Soldier only leaned into Zhanna's hand letting his eyes close slightly.

The feeling of familiar leather wrapping around his neck had Soldier’s eyes open within an instant, lifting his hands to grab Demo's wrists but not stopping his movements. Regardless, Demo stopped moving. “Is this alright Janey?” He asked for consent, the cutesy nickname slipping past his lips on accident. Soldier hesitated, but found himself nodding before he even fully considered it. He just wanted his lovers to help him turn his brain off even more so than usual, so they continued their plan to do exactly that.

Tavish strapped the collar around the patriots neck, toying with the tag for a moment before sliding his hands down to Jane's pants where he started unbuttoning them. Zhanna began the same process with her fiance's blue jacket that had been stained red with the blood of the enemy team. Soldier leaned forward and placed his lips against Zhanna's, putting his hands on her waist to pull her in. Zhanna quickly escalated the kiss by pushing her tongue into Jane's mouth, pressing it against his teeth and just barely reaching the back of his mouth where she forced a gag out of the patriot before pulling back. “хороший мальчик…you will be so good for us.” She praised the patriot, causing a soft hum to rumble from his throat.

Demo finished undoing Soldiers pants and pulled them down along with his boxers just enough that his cock was able to escape its confines. Looking down at the floor, Soldier's cheeks grew red before Demo gently wrapped his hand around him, admiring the way his expression appeared to strain as he growled. “Thar’ he is…” Tavish used his left hand to remove Soldier’s helmet and kissed the back of his neck, throwing the headwear onto the floor where the carpet stopped it from clattering.

With Soldier's jacket unbuttoned Zhanna slid it off his shoulders before removing his second layer by just pulling it over his head, almost certainly ripping it in the process. Now fully undressed, the two led the patriot over to sit on the bed. “Prep yerself for us, ‘lright pup?” Tavish instructed before Soldier quickly obeyed, taking the lube from the bedside table and smearing it on his fingers. While Soldier prepped himself, his two lovers began stripping. Zhanna finished much faster as she wasn't wearing a uniform and swiftly walked over to the bed where she lifted Soldier's head and sat down behind him before resting his head back down on her thighs.

Reaching behind her, Zhanna took the dog ears from the pillow and set them on Soldier's head, the fake ears matching the color of his dirty blond buzz. Jane seemed to not care about the headband however as he stretched himself, now having two fingers inside where he curled them against his prostate, causing him to elicit a shrill whine.

Glancing over as he undid his pants, Demo furrowed his eyebrows. “Don't go pleasurin’ yerself now. Yer’ only s'posed to be stretchin’, alright?” He condemned, causing Soldier to whimper quietly but comply nonetheless with a nod. “Good boy.” Zhanna praised her fiance for obeying, scratching his head between the fake ears.

Once he finished undressing, Demo joined the two on his bed, straddling the patriot so that their dicks were pressed against each other. Soldier reached behind him to take Zhanna's thighs in his hands, squeezing them just hard enough that it would likely leave bruising as Demo took both of them in his hand and gave a few weak pumps.

“Do ye’ want me to fuck ye’? Or do ye’ want yer’ lovely fiance to ride ye’?” Demo gave the patriot a choice as he took the lube from the bedside table and smeared it on his hand. Zhanna looked down at Soldier who returned her gaze with a dumb, wobbly grin. “Zhanna-” He squeezed her thighs and winced as Demo stroked his cock, sticking it with lube. “I want to be inside you…” He looked to the side, blushing, to which Zhanna chuckled as a grin covered her face. “You are adorable my Jane.” She complimented before getting off the bed, putting Soldier's head back on the pillow and taking Demo's place after he pulled away from Jane as well.

With Zhanna now in his place, Demo moved to where she had been sitting, and while his thighs weren't nearly as soft as the curvy woman Soldier was lucky to have as his brides, Jane seemed to enjoy laying his head on them all the same. While Zhanna lined herself up to sink onto Jane, Demo scratched Soldier's head between the fake ears just like she had done, smiling at the way Jane melted into his touch like he hadn't felt another person in ages until Zhanna suddenly sunk down on Jane's cock. With only the head in so far, Zhanna wasn't too uncomfortable as she adjusted to her fiance's size, finding the pulsing of Jane's member inside of her to be absolutely adorable while Jane sucked in breath through his teeth.

Demo continued to pet Soldier as he forced himself not to buck up into the soft, wet heat of his fiance, desperate whimpers escaping his throat as he craved more. “Yer’ doin’ good pup. Just keep behavin’.” Demo comforted his desperate lover, placing his hand over the patriots as he white knuckle gripped the sheets. Slowly, Zhanna sank further down, allotting more pleasure to the patriot she so adored. Jane writhed underneath her, doing all he could to keep himself from fucking into her, the sensation of how she squeezed around him making it all the harder as she sank further.

Eventually, much to Soldiers delight, he was completely inside, his finance sitting on him as she looked down at him lovingly. “Ple-please…” Jane gasped, begging to be given pleasure by either of his partners, both of whom just smiled. “You can ask better than that, my Jane.” Zhanna teased, beckoning Soldier to beg for more pleasure as she grinned in a way that wasn't quite evil, but was certainly cruel. Soldier growled. “Dammit maggots! Just- rgh- just touch me-!” He begged, the rude notion behind his words however making them invalid in his partners eyes.

Zhanna lifted her hips enough that Soldier's cock exited her, causing the Patriot to elicit a truly ungodly sound. “Be polite mutt. Thas’ no way te’ talk to yer’ lovers.” Tavish scolded even though he hadn't stopped petting the patriots head. Soldier shoved his head backwards into Demo's thighs out of pure need, writhing below the Russian woman as he attempted to formulate a single coherent thought. “Shit- please, please I-I need you…I want to be inside you- wanna breed you-!” Soldier begged, fuelled only by desperation as he winced at letting that last part slip. Zhanna smiled at her fiance's compliance, sinking back down onto him in one swift motion, causing him to flinch and thrust up into her. “Sweet lady liberty-'' Soldier groaned through clenched teeth that formed a wobbly grin as Zhanna started to ride him.

Slowly lifting her hips once again, Jane squirmed as he forced himself not to fuck into her. When Zhanna dropped back down Soldier let out another ear piercing moan, turning his head to the side to bite into Demoman's thigh. Zhanna placed her hand around the patriots throat and used her thumb to tilt his head back up. “Do not silence yourself щенок, let me hear you.” Zhanna instructed, to which Soldier nodded obediently, gasping and panting as he waited for Zhanna to sink back down. “Yes- Grh-! Yes ma’am-!” The patriot cried, wanting nothing more at that moment than to be called a good boy again.

His wish was granted when Zhanna began a steady rhythm of lifting her hips and sinking back down on Soldier's cock while Demoman took his own member in his hand and started to stroke himself, letting pleased moans fall past his lips. Soldier again turned his head, this time not to bite his lover's thigh but instead to lap at his shaft, twisting his neck as far as he could to run his tongue across Demoman's throbbing dick. The Scotsman hummed euphorically as his lover lapped at his cock, switching from petting his head to rubbing his belly as a reward. “Shit- good lad…yer’ such an obedient li’il mutt aren’t ye’?” He praised the patriot’s behavior.

As Zhanna sped up Soldier found he couldn’t keep himself still, rutting up against his fiance in desperation as he neared his climax. The same could be said for Demoman as well as he moved to sit on top of Soldier so he could thrust into the patriots mouth. Soldier happily swallowed around his lover's cock, ignoring the tears running from his eyes due to gagging. “Oh, Jane-” Zhanna sighed, picking up one of Soldier's hands and placing it on her stomach. “Cum for me Jane. Go ahead.”

That was all Soldier needed, bucking his hips up into his beautiful fiance as he filled her with a comfortable warmth that quickly brought her to climax as well. The sheer amount of heat in the room was unbearable as Tavish also neared climax, filling Jane's mouth with his seed. “Cripe, Jane- Yer bloody beautiful-!” Soldier swallowed the hot, sticky substance before letting his head fall back, exhaustion overtaking him.

Zhanna slid off her fiance, smiling at the groan it caused Soldier to let out while Demo stood up to stretch. “Dunnae worry about gettin’ pregnant. Medic can take care of that fer’ ya’...” Demo assured Zhanna to which she nodded before laying her head down on Soldier’s chest, already rising and falling in a steady rhythm as he had fallen asleep. “We can sleep here, yes?” Zhanna asked, really hoping Demo would say yes as her fiance looked absolutely adorable right now and she didn’t want to wake him. “Of course ye’ can!” Demo assured, making Zhanna sigh in relief.

“Here.” Demo took some tissues and gave them to Zhanna. “Go ahead and clean yerself up.” The Russian nodded, wiping the cum from Soldier’s thighs and lips before cleaning around her thighs. Zhanna didn’t shower very often as it was and she certainly didn’t have the energy for one right now so after cleaning up she opted to just throw the tissues away and lay back down. After a very quick wash in the communal showers Demo joined them as well.

[pecanpiespie]

Team Fortress 2 is Sill Alive

I know I don't have much of a following, and for those not interested, I'll be as short as possible: Team Fortress 2, a beloved and timeless game, has been suffering for half a decade, overrun by hoards of hacking bots and dangerous bot hosters. Please help us in our campaign by signing this petition (save.tf) and spreading the word of our efforts.

I have played Team Fortress 2 since 2012. I witnessed the hype for Meet The Pyro and saw YouTube crash when it dropped. I watched Meat Vs. Match unfold. I was one of the first to the front lines when Gray Mann raised his metal army. I patiently waited between updates, even when those updates became fewer and farther between, until eventually year long silences between updates became the norm as the developers and programmers slowly fell out of love with their game. All content in recent years has been community made. There hasn't been a Smissmas or Scream Fortress comic in years, and their ongoing comic series has been all but abandoned. I still check their website at least once a month, hoping that maybe they'll quietly release that last comic, but I know all hope for that is lost.

I met the love of my life because of this game. I have made literal hundreds of friends and countless fond memories playing it, reading and writing fanfictions, admiring and making fan art. This community is the most compassionate that I have ever seen, especially for a game that is nearing it's 18th birthday.

But as with any other good thing, there are groups of people whose sole intent is to ruin it for everyone else.

I've watched this game slowly rot away for the past five+ years, and it kills me to see such a loved game be abandoned. I've never loved a game as much as I love Team Fortress 2, and DAMN IT, I AM LIVID with how Valve has treated this game. It is completely overrun by bots. Hacking bots that mic and chat spam, DDOS players, and in some cases even SWAT certain content creators. These bot hosters are vile, abusive, and dangerous. Their programmed demon spawn spew absolute FILTH on every casual server they join. Click this link for a more in-depth review of what Team Fortress 2 is facing.

At the start of this crisis, Valve pushed out an update that completely silenced its free-to-play playerbase. Not even built-in voice commands could be used anymore until these players made an in-game purchase, leaving them unable to strategize, communicate, ask for guidance from more experienced players, or even call for a Medic. It was such a vile "solution" and nothing more than a weak cash-grab. Valve had essentially created a way to profit off the very thing that has effectively destroyed their game, because these bot hosts PAID FOR PREMIUM ACCOUNTS to let their bots continue hacking, ear-raping, chat spamming, and DDOSing.

And 2 years ago, when the Team Fortress 2 community asked nicely for Valve to pay even the smallest amount of attention to this beloved game? Valve puts out one tweet, pushes a couple of small updates, and fades back into silence. That's when we made our fatal mistake. We were placated by the response, and Valve took that as a sign that the matter was taken care of. We were heard, but we were not listened to.

This time, we will not back down. We will not give up. We will not stop our digital march until Valve PROMISES to fix our beloved game, and FOLLOWS THAT PROMISE THROUGH.

WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED UNTIL THE BOTS ARE GONE.

I still love this game, but I am absolutely *sickened* by the way Valve has acted lately.

And now for something slightly different Still Alive (Portal end credits)

Rewritten to reflect the current state of Team Fortress 2 and Valve's reluctance to fix it. Portal and its theme song belong to Valve Software, this lyric rewrite is not intended to infringe copyright, it falls under fair use as parody.

This is just tragic I'm making a note here: Huge Unrest It's hard to overstate my disappointment Valve Software Game Devs: "We won't do our jobs Unless we must Updates aren't worth our time Until communities beg"

But this game's not dying We're just taking a break Until VAC is working And you fix your damned game Once the bots are all gone You'll return to being loved Because Team Fortress 2's STILL ALIVE

We're so very angry We're being so sincere right now All because you broke our hearts And killed us And tore us to pieces And threw every piece into a fire As they burned it hurt because We're all so pissed off at you

Now these bots and cheaters Will keep logging online They're harassing your players Yet you're saying it's fine So of course we're all mad Think of all the fun we had Way back when the game was Still Alive

Why did you leave us? We don't want this game we love to die Maybe we'll find someone else To help us You have to realize VAC is a joke! Ha. Ha. What bans?

This game could be really great If you would get off your ass

Look at us all begging Cause it's all we can do You say "we love this game And we know you do too" But you gave us empty words And your product barely works It's a wonder the game's Still Alive

And belive me we are Still Alive We are relentless; we are Still Alive We're disappointed; we are Still Alive You think we're dying; we are Still Alive Team Fortress 2 will remain Still Alive

Still Alive Still Alive

Want You Gone (retitled: Want Them Gone)

Well here we are again Never got your shit together Remember when you said you'd kill the bots? Oh how relieved we were Except you didn't kill them Under the circumstances we've been shockingly nice

TF2 has been ruined You're who we counted on The cheaters want this game dead Valve, we really want them gone

Counter Strike has them too And there are just as many Your greedy company ignores them, too One day the bots woke up And swore they'd stay forever It's such a shame to see Their threats may really come true

We have run out of patience You're who we counted on We won't accept your silence Valve, we really want them gone

Thank you for staying here Oh, did you think I meant Valve? That would be funny if it weren't so sad So much for those updates You promised to push out If you ignore us maybe We'll just get off your back

It's been a huge disaster You're who we're counting on You can still solve this problem Valve, we really want them gone

Valve, we really want them gone Valve, we really want them gone…

If you made it through all that text, thanks for sticking around. Please consider signing the petition, spreading the word, and helping us take our game back. Enough is enough.

[grandhotelabyss]

Do you think Paglia would like your (as some have said) very Catholic novels?

Probably not. As with Conrad's Kurtz, all of Europe went into the making of the novel as a form. Her preference is almost exclusively for the "Catholic" side: the luridly aestheticized conflict of archetypes. Even the puritan Lawrence she tends to see through this lens—that, and an "eastern" one she gets from her beloved '60s, where consciousness dissolves into the continuum of a higher reality. But the other aspects of the novel she slights or neglects: what we might catalogue as the "Protestant" investment in inwardness and individualism, the "Jewish" emphasis on dialogue and dialectic, and the "Enlightenment" commitment to anatomizing the social. She disparages the social novel for disciplining and reducing its sexual personae, arraigning the punitive Middlemarch in particular on this score. She lavishes her attention on Wuthering Heights and The Picture of Dorian Gray while mostly ignoring Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, Conrad, Forster. She has nothing to say about the Russians. From the massive grounds or plots of Balzac and Mann, she pointedly plucks les fleurs du mal: The Girl with the Golden Eyes, Sarrasine, Death in Venice. She reduces James to one side of his complex dialectic between the social novel and the aestheticist or Decadent novel. Her scattered comments on Joyce are wary. I try to be answerable for almost all these elements of the novel's historical formation and mission, and I suspect this would bore her. (By her own avowal, she finds King Lear "boring and obvious.") As a critic, and one whose earliest training would have been in the New Criticism, she's better on poetry and painting than on fiction or drama. It's difficult to imagine her enjoying some of my own influences early and late—Bellow, DeLillo, Murdoch—though I have Brontë and Wilde in my repertoire too.

[fictionz]

New Fiction 2023 - August

"Lamentations of Jeremias" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

A little tag to the end of Jeremias about how dealing with God sucks, and there's another one after this.

"The Miracle of the Lily" by Clare Winger Harris (1928)

Water yourself.

"The Conquest of Gola" by Leslie F. Stone (1931)

Why dudes gotta be like that.

"The Black God's Kiss" by C.L. Moore (1934)

Fuck. Yes.

"Space Episode" by Leslie Perri (1941)

Fellas, just step aside.

"That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril (1948)

You see it coming but still hits.

"In Hiding" by Wilmar H. Shiras (1948)

Okay things get weird and eugenicsy with this atomic supermen bullshit.

"Contagion" by Katherine MacLean (1950)

Again with the genetic supermen business. Maybe that's the intended effect?

"The Inhabited Men" by Margaret St. Clair (1951)

That's some good slow-burn space horror.

"Ararat" by Zenna Henderson (1952)

Oh no the superior beings are among us and better than us and will replace us, aka yikes.

"All Cats Are Gray" by Andrew North (1953)

See or not, they're there.

"Created He Them" by Alice Eleanor Jones (1955)

Rather be dead tbh.

"Mr. Sakrison’s Halt" by Mildred Clingerman (1956)

Get me outta here too.

"All the Colors of the Rainbow" by Leigh Brackett (1957)

God, this was a tough and necessary read.

"Pelt" by Carol Emshwiller (1958)

We're all a skin to someone.

"Car Pool" by Rosel George Brown (1959)

This style, holy shit. Getting into the stuff I came up with, the style of the gazed navel.

"For Sale, Reasonable" by Elizabeth Mann Borgese (1959)

Don't hire me.

"Birth of a Gardener" by Doris Pitkin Buck (1961)

You don't listen.

"The Tunnel Ahead" by Alice Glaser (1961)

I mean, what else to do?

"The New You" by Kit Reed (1962)

They'll bottle you up soon enough.

"Another Rib" by John Jay Wells & Marion Zimmer Bradley (1963)

Not so shocking now.

"When I Was Miss Dow" by Sonya Dorman (1966)

Be me be you be me.

"Baby, You Were Great" by Kate Wilhelm (1967)

If you can't connect then you learn to live with it.

"The Barbarian" by Joanna Russ (1968)

Fear of my tower getting breached.

"The Last Flight Of Dr. Ain" by James Tiptree, Jr. (1969)

Twelve monkeys origin story.

"Nine Lives" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)

Too many minds for a collective.

Twilight by David R. George III (2002)

Hefty story but it's good to go back to the old style of dealing with incomprehensible beings from other dimensions.

Are You Terrified Yet? by R.L. Stine (1998)

Not with this story. If Goosebumps 2000 is about aging out of monsters and supernatural stuff then I don't care for it.

Tick Tock, You're Dead! by R.L. Stine (1995)

Time travel shenanigans, my beloved.

"Mighty Max Trapped by Arachnoid" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Spiders don't scare me.

"Mighty Max Liquidates the Ice Alien" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Refractive weapons.

"Mighty Max Lashes Lizard" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Squirt.

"Mighty Max Traps Rattus" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Traps you.

"Mighty Max Outwits Cyclops" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Poke 'em.

"Mighty Max Tangles With the Ape King" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Just take over.

"Mighty Max Slays the Doom Dragon" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Does he though?

"Mighty Max Grapples with Battle Cat" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Bring them back.

"Mighty Max Squishes Fly" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Narshty.

"Mighty Max Blows Up Dino Lab" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Science outfits are slipping.

"Mighty Max Stings Scorpion" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Big means not poisonous.

"Mighty Max Crushes the Hand" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Win the duel!

"Mighty Max Escapes from Skull Dungeon" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Smasher, really?

"Mighty Max Conquers the Palace of Poison" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Flees from it, eh.

"Mighty Max Sinks Nautilus" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Time has ravaged your once youthful looks.

"Mighty Max Caught by the Man-Eater" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

The final frontier.

"Mighty Max Bytes Cyberskull" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Stay off the computer.

"Mighty Max Terminates Wolfship 7" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Go away aliens.

"Mighty Max Survives Corpus" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Get aHEAD in DEADvertising.

"Mighty Max Against Robot Invader" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

He invade.

"Mighty Max Zaps Beetlebrow" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Quick work.

"Mighty Max Crushes Talon" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

See into the bone soul.

"Mighty Max Out-Freaks Freako" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Wergh, some kinda phobia.

"Mighty Max Rams Hydron" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

I said let 'em take over.

"Mighty Max Versus Kronosaur" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

They just do what they do.

"Mighty Max Challenges Lava Beast" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

I doubt the veracity of flesh to fire.

"Mighty Max Tangles With Lockjaw" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Well, some last words at least.

"Mighty Max Defeats Vamp Biter" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

In the sun.

"Mighty Max Fights Nuke Ranger" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Not a place of honor.

"Mighty Max Pulverizes Sea Squirm" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Die native fauna.

"Mighty Max Battles Skull Warrior" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Go home, you're drunk.

"Mighty Max Hammers Ax Man" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

It's a tool!

"Mighty Max Hounds Werewolf" by Bluebird Toys (1993)

Awoo.

"Mighty Max Neutralises Zomboid" by Bluebird Toys (1992)

Flesh of my flesh.

"Mighty Max Defeats Battle Conqueror" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

I kick you.

"Mighty Max Head to Head With Hydra" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Two in one.

"Mighty Max Melts Lava Beast" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Delicious java.

"Mighty Max Strikes Fang" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Grab the tail.

"Mighty Max Shuts Down Cybot" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Always an off switch.

"Mighty Max Shatters Gargoyle" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

Tap tap tap.

"Mighty Max Assaults Skull Master" by Bluebird Toys (1994)

You'd lose but you do it anyway.

"La-Mulana" by KC Green (2023)

Hyuck.

"Mental Health Marge 2 Da Rescue" by ossian (2019)

Listen 2 da TV mom.

Theater Camp dir. Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman (2023)

I took a theater class one semester of high school, along with a final play at the end, and that is an intense type of person to hang around with. But I liked that there's a subset of member who just does, like, building sets and stuff, because it me.

Never Say Never dir. Baoqiang Wang (2023)

So... signing shady contractual obligations with children is okay if you're giving them something to do?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem dir. Jeff Rowe (2023)

This feels the most like playing with action figures out of any TMNT thing which makes it the most appropriate interpretation.

Meg 2: The Trench dir. Ben Wheatley (2023)

Not enough sea creecher.

Ransomed dir. Kim Seong-hun (2023)

I enjoy the sociopathic killer who could be in a boy band genre from South Korean cinema, and this is right in there.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter dir. André Øvredal (2023)

A fine Saturday afternoon on broacast TV sorta movie.

Jules dir. Marc Turtletaub (2023)

Got some aliens this month, and this one is a charming little story about how aliens can't save us from our bodies' inevitable betrayal.

Strays dir. Josh Greenbaum (2023)

A good road trip to set the soul afire.

Blue Beetle dir. Angel Manuel Soto (2023)

Lots of good details, but it still shakes out as a generic superhero movie of our age.

Gran Turismo dir. Neill Blomkamp (2023)

I saw this 1.5 times after the first showing failed halfway through. You know where it's going and, you know, sports movie gonna sports.

birth/rebirth dir. Laura Moss (2023)

Hey! That's it, the jam, the good stuff. A high-end version of my beloved anthology horror.

Landscape With Invisible Hand dir. Cory Finley (2023)

The other aliens movie of the month is more in the po-mo style of commentary on our societal ills. I look forward to this feeling quaint in 20 years.

Porco Rosso dir. Hayao Miyazaki (1992)

Damn, TaleSpin really do be like this. But I'll just take it as more fun anthropomorphized adventures of the air and sea.

The Wind Rises dir. Hayao Miyazaki (2013)

Ghibli's contemplative looks at Japanese culture and history are some monumental works.

Retribution dir. Nimród Antal (2023)

That's your final guy? Shoulda been someone else.

To Live and Die in L.A. dir. William Friedkin (1985)

That's some good 80s vibe I tell you what.

Tales from the Crypt - Seasons 5-6 (1993-1995)

Okay, alright, things are starting to sag a bit after the peak of seasons 3 and 4. Not a show to binge watch. But I still want a super cut of Cryptkeeper intros and outros.

[13eyond13]

Here's my completed checklist as of 03.23.24

(crossed out = completed... I am not counting anything I've only partially read so far, like The Hunger Games or Infinite Jest or Lord of the Rings)

(633) 1984 - George Orwell

(616) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

(613) The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger

(573) Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(550) Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

(549) The Adventures Of Tom And Huck - Series - Mark Twain*

(538) Moby-Dick - Herman Melville*

(534) One Hundred Years Of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez*

(527) To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee*

(521) The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck

(521) Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

(492) Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen

(489) The Lord Of The Rings - Series - J.R.R. Tolkien*

(488) Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

(480) Ulysses - James Joyce

(471) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte*

(459) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

(398) The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky*

(396) Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

(395) To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf*

(382) War And Peace - Leo Tolstoy

(382) The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

(380) The Sound And The Fury - William Faulkner

(378) Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Series - Lewis Carroll

(359) Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

(353) Heart Of Darkness - Joseph Conrad*

(352) Middlemarch - George Eliot*

(348) Animal Farm - George Orwell

(346) Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

(334) Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

(325) Les Misérables - Victor Hugo

(320) Harry Potter - Series - J.K. Rowling

(320) The Chronicles Of Narnia - Series - C.S. Lewis

(317) Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy*

(308) Lord Of The Flies - William Golding

(306) Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

(289) The Golden Bowl - Henry James

(276) Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov*

(266) Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell*

(260) The Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas*

(255) The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Series - Douglas Adams

(252) The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne

(244) Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

(237) Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackery

(235) The Trial - Franz Kafka*

(233) Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner

(232) The Call Of The Wild - Jack London

(232) Emma - Jane Austen

(229) Beloved - Toni Morrison

(228) Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

(224) A Passage To India - E.M. Forster

(215) Dune - Frank Herbert*

(215) A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man - James Joyce*

(212) The Stranger - Albert Camus

(209) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

(209) The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(206) Dracula - Bram Stoker

(205) The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

(197) A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

(193) Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

(193) The Age Of Innocence - Edith Wharton

(193) The History Of Tom Jones, A Foundling - Henry Fielding

(192) Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry

(190) The Odyssey - Homer

(189) Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

(188) In Search Of Lost Time - Marcel Proust

(186) Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

(185) An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser

(182) The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

(180) Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

(179) The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann

(178) Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

(178) Tropic Of Cancer - Henry Miller

(176) The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

(176) On The Road - Jack Kerouac*

(175) The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

(173) The Giver - Lois Lowry

(172) Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh*

(172) A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

(171) Charlotte's Web - E.B. White

(171) The Ambassadors - Henry James

(170) Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace*

(167) The Complete Stories And Poems - Edgar Allen Poe

(166) Ender's Saga - Series - Orson Scott Card

(165) In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

(164) The Wings Of The Dove - Henry James

(163) The Adventures Of Augie March - Saul Bellow

(162) As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner

(161) The Hunger Games - Series - Suzanne Collins*

(158) Anne Of Greene Gables - L.M. Montgomery

(157) Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand*

(157) Neuromancer - William Gibson

(156) The Help - Kathryn Stockett

(156) A Song Of Ice And Fire - George R.R. Martin*

(155) The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford

(154) The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

(153) I, Claudius - Robert Graves

(152) Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

(151) The Portrait Of A Lady - Henry James

(150) The Death Of The Heart - Elizabeth Bowen

= 27/100 (27%)

How many of these "Top 100 Books to Read" have you read?

(633) 1984 - George Orwell

(616) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

(613) The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger

(573) Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(550) Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

(549) The Adventures Of Tom And Huck - Series - Mark Twain

(538) Moby-Dick - Herman Melville

(534) One Hundred Years Of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

(527) To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

(521) The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck

(521) Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

(492) Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen

(489) The Lord Of The Rings - Series - J.R.R. Tolkien

(488) Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

(480) Ulysses - James Joyce

(471) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

(459) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

(398) The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(396) Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

(395) To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

(382) War And Peace - Leo Tolstoy

(382) The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

(380) The Sound And The Fury - William Faulkner

(378) Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Series - Lewis Carroll

(359) Frankenstein - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

(353) Heart Of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

(352) Middlemarch - George Eliot

(348) Animal Farm - George Orwell

(346) Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

(334) Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

(325) Les Misérables - Victor Hugo

(320) Harry Potter - Series - J.K. Rowling

(320) The Chronicles Of Narnia - Series - C.S. Lewis

(317) Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

(308) Lord Of The Flies - William Golding

(306) Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

(289) The Golden Bowl - Henry James

(276) Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov

(266) Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

(260) The Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

(255) The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Series - Douglas Adams

(252) The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne

(244) Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

(237) Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackery

(235) The Trial - Franz Kafka

(233) Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner

(232) The Call Of The Wild - Jack London

(232) Emma - Jane Austen

(229) Beloved - Toni Morrison

(228) Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

(224) A Passage To India - E.M. Forster

(215) Dune - Frank Herbert

(215) A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man - James Joyce

(212) The Stranger - Albert Camus

(209) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

(209) The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(206) Dracula - Bram Stoker

(205) The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

(197) A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

(193) Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

(193) The Age Of Innocence - Edith Wharton

(193) The History Of Tom Jones, A Foundling - Henry Fielding

(192) Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry

(190) The Odyssey - Homer

(189) Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

(188) In Search Of Lost Time - Marcel Proust

(186) Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

(185) An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser

(182) The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

(180) Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

(179) The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann

(178) Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

(178) Tropic Of Cancer - Henry Miller

(176) The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

(176) On The Road - Jack Kerouac

(175) The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

(173) The Giver - Lois Lowry

(172) Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

(172) A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

(171) Charlotte's Web - E.B. White

(171) The Ambassadors - Henry James

(170) Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

(167) The Complete Stories And Poems - Edgar Allen Poe

(166) Ender's Saga - Series - Orson Scott Card

(165) In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

(164) The Wings Of The Dove - Henry James

(163) The Adventures Of Augie March - Saul Bellow

(162) As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner

(161) The Hunger Games - Series - Suzanne Collins

(158) Anne Of Greene Gables - L.M. Montgomery

(157) Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

(157) Neuromancer - William Gibson

(156) The Help - Kathryn Stockett

(156) A Song Of Ice And Fire - George R.R. Martin

(155) The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford

(154) The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

(153) I, Claudius - Robert Graves

(152) Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

(151) The Portrait Of A Lady - Henry James

(150) The Death Of The Heart - Elizabeth Bowen

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Saturday 4 July 1835

6 40

11 10

no kiss fine morning wrote yesterday till 8 at which hour F62° - out at 8 - at Walker pit and about - Holt there - came in at 9 ¼ - A- not dressed - sometime with her - breakfast at 9 ¾ - had Booth at 10 ½ till 11 in the house then (he very poorly) had the pony saddled for him to ride up to the stone by Whiskam road side and I walked by him - thinks the stone would for the rough arch to be put up against the drybridge according to Mr Gray’s plan - the stone would be worth 3d. per foot getting and loadening , even if I could get it done of that price - talked over the culvert for Tail goit (vide page 90) left Booth in returning at Pickells’s to inquire about the stone, and led the pony home - Joseph Mann sent down to say the gin mare wanted shoeing - and to tell me, they had got the water off again - Holt was there about it this morning - wrote the above of today till 2 35 - out with A- at 2 50 and walked with her almost to the Stag’s head before George came up with the horses at 3 5 - then left A- to ride to Cliff hill, and I turned back - looked at the nice run of water already got from the new drift, and went forwards down the old bank to Mr Parker’s office - told him to take the necessary steps for getting Northgate house licensed and to let me have his bill up to 1 July - brought home proof copies of notices to be posted against hunters and trespassers - a minute or 2 at Whitley’s and at Greenwoods saw him in his timber yard - home up the new bank at 4 35 - then with the 2 masons and their boy (Booth’s son Joseph)  - they gave me the slip and went home about 4 ¾ - then sauntered in the new approach road and in the garden - came in at 6 ¼ - A- returned 10 minutes before - dinner at 6 ½ - coffee - kind letter ½ sheet full from Lady Stuart de R - (3 Carlton terrace London) - Mr. Canning a great deal with them ‘you enter so well into our position that I have only to confirm your good opinion of Mr. Canning, by telling you that I believe from my heart he is worthy of our beloved Charlotte and that is a great deal for me to admit - the more we see of him (and now we do see a great deal) the more his excellent disposition, and agreeable manners shine forth, he is very shy and yet he is extremely popular amongst his contemporaries, and very well spoken by the Elders - Sir Robert Peel had offered him a place, and so if good times ever come round, and he comes into Parliament, which is his view of a carrière, it will be on the right side, which will be an agreeable circumstance to Lord Stuart, who was pleased to find Lady Canning’s politics quite in the same key as his own’ - Lady Mexborough has been robbed of all her own jewels and Lady Hardwickes’ (her mothers’) too which were much more valuable - no chance of discovering the thief -‘my time and paper admit no details. so adieu and affectionately E S. de R..’  tea at 9 - wrote the whole of the page till 9 40 - note tonight from Mr Parker inclosing my cash account up to 1 July - 20 minutes with my aunt till 10 10 at which hour F64 ½° fine day

[tcm]

James Stewart in the 1950s By Susan King

Jimmy Stewart was one of the biggest stars at MGM in 1940s and 1950s. In fact, he had just earned the lead actor Oscar for his indelible comedic performance in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (‘40) when he became the first major performer to enlist in the U.S. Army in March of 1941, a full eight months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Stewart, then 32, had made his film debut in THE MURDER MAN (‘35) and quickly became a leading man at the studio, earning his first Oscar nomination for his memorable portrayal of an earnest young senator in Frank Capra’s MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (‘39). Audiences and critics loved the lanky, tall young man who excelled at playing an Everyman, the boy-next-door who was earnest, kind and often brave. Stewart, who was an experienced amateur flyer, spent a year training pilots at Kirtland Army Airfield and then in the fall of 1943 was sent to England. He ended the war with 20 combat missions, won awards for his service and remained in the USAF Reserve, where he was promoted to brigadier general in 1959. He retired in 1968.

When he returned to films in Capra’s holiday favorite IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (‘46), he was 38 years old. He looked older; his hair was graying. He had only been out of the service for a year. There was a gravitas to his performance, a gravitas of someone who had seen the horrors of war. His George Bailey was still the Everyman, but one in despair, someone who is about to commit suicide. He earned his third Oscar nomination for his beloved performance. And, he followed that up with strong turns in the newspaper drama CALL NORTHSIDE 777 and Alfred Hitchcock’s ROPE (both ‘48).

But I think Stewart did his best work in the 1950s. He was certainly adventurous playing flawed, conflicted characters and eccentric individuals. There was a dangerous, nervous cat-like quality to his roles. And there was often a sexiness to his performances. He also worked with some of the best directors, including Hitchcock, Anthony Mann, Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger.

Stewart began his fruitful collaboration with Mann—they made eight films together—with the gritty Western WINCHESTER ’73 (‘50). Mann had made a name for himself in the late 1940s with such low-budget atmospheric films noir as RAW DEAL (‘48). Mann brought a noir sensibility to WINCHESTER ’73, in which Stewart plays the Everyman on the edge doggedly trying to find the Winchester ’73 rifle that was stolen from him, while laser-focused on tracking down the man (Stephen McNally) who stole it and also murdered his father. Stewart is just terrific playing a conflicted man who is filled with rage.

My favorite Stewart-Mann production is THE NAKED SPUR (‘53). In this exceptional Western, Stewart is even more wired. He plays a Civil War vet who lost his land during the war and becomes a bounty hunter. But he more than meets his match with his latest capture, a wily outlaw (Robert Ryan) and the two companions he picks up (Millard Mitchell, Ralph Meeker) to help him. THE NAKED SPUR isn’t just a Western adventure, it’s a psychological one. The scene at the end when Stewart loses it in front of the outlaw’s companion (Janet Leigh) – crying, yelling and shaking with hatred and grief – is an astonishing piece of acting.

Stewart and Mann didn’t just do Westerns. They scored a huge hit with the biopic THE GLENN MILLER STORY (‘54) and STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND (‘55). The latter was close to Stewart’s heart because it revolved around the Air Force and flying. He plays a baseball player who is reactivated in the Air Force to test flight new planes. The film gets bogged down on land when it concentrates on his private life with June Allyson, but he and the film soar when it takes to the air.

The same year he made WINCHESTER ’73, Stewart also began another fruitful collaboration with director Henry Koster. In fact, he received his fourth Oscar nomination for the delightful HARVEY (‘50) based on Mary Chase’s popular Broadway play about an eccentric Elwood P. Dowd, who has an invisible six-foot tall white rabbit named Harvey as his best friend. Stewart had filled in for the part on Broadway in 1947 when star Frank Fay went on vacation. Though Dowd is an alcoholic, the Production Code prevented Koster from showing him taking a drink. Almost 20 years later, Stewart and Helen Hayes appeared on Broadway in a revival of the play, and then in 1972 reprised their roles for a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation.

The following year, Koster and Stewart teamed up again for the taut British thriller NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY (’51). Stewart is entirely believable as a brilliant but absent-minded engineer who has a hard time convincing anybody that an expensive new airplane model is not safe. The film also paired him with his DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (’39) leading lady, Marlene Dietrich.

Stewart is probably best remembered in the 1950s for his work with the Master of Suspense in REAR WINDOW (‘54); THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (‘56) and VERTIGO (‘58). So much has been written and discussed about those films, all I want to say is that REAR WINDOW and VERTIGO are my two most favorite Hitchcock thrillers, and Hitch had to have really delved into Stewart’s psyche to get that brave, daring turn from the actor in VERTIGO. I know that it’s a polarizing film, but I think it’s brilliant, demanding and a psychological thrill ride. I am still very much on the fence with the only film Stewart made with Wilder, THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS (‘57). 

Based on Charles Lindbergh’s award-winning best-seller chronicling his landmark 1927 flight across the Atlantic to Paris, the film is beautifully shot and consistently engrossing. But the big problem is that Lindberg was 25 when he made the flight and Stewart was 48 when he made the film. Just as with STRATEGIC, Lindbergh’s story was very inspiring to Stewart so, he lost weight, got in shape and lightened his hair to play Lucky Lindy. He’s very charming in the part, but there’s no getting over the fact he’s nearly 50 years old.

Stewart ended the decade with a real crackerjack of a legal drama, Otto Preminger’s ANATOMY OF A MURDER (‘59). Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Actor for Stewart and Supporting Actor for Arthur O’Connell, ANATOMY OF A MURDER raised more than a few eyebrows for its sexual frankness at the time, with Stewart talking about rape, panties and even semen. He’s perfectly cast as the witty, brilliant small-town attorney who seems to enjoy fishing more than taking cases. He gets the case of his career, though, when he’s hired to defend a hot-tempered Army lieutenant (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering the man who allegedly raped his wife (Lee Remick).

Stewart has a wonderful rapport with Eve Arden as his longtime secretary who secretly loves him and Arthur O’Connell as his alcoholic buddy, an attorney who gets his mojo back when he helps Stewart on the case. And the scenes his scenes with the flirtatious Remick and George C. Scott as the slick big city prosecuting attorney just couldn’t be better. Nevertheless, Stewart lost the Oscar to Charlton Heston for BEN-HUR (’59). Stewart was presented with an Honorary Award from the Academy in 1985.

[daily-millennial]

September 27, 1869:

James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837- Aug 2, 1876), widely known as the infamous "Wild Bill" of the Old American West, and sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas, responded to a call around 1 a.m. about a band of drunken troublemakers causing a scene at John Bitters' Beer Saloon. These disorderly teamsters, one by the name of Samuel Strawhum, strolled into the saloon that evening exhibiting an acceptable degree of intoxication, as far as Wild West standards are concerned. However, around midnight, the group became violent and destructive. A brawl ensued, and Strawhum and the fellow mischief-makers began smashing chairs, throwing tables, and destroying property. When Wild Bill and his deputy, "Rattlesnake Pete" Lanihan (gotta love Wild West nicknames), arrived to restore order and deal with the rowdy teamsters, Sheriff Hickok asked the not-so-gentle gentlemen to hand over their weapons. Strawhum laughed and drew his firearm, anyway. Acting instantly, Wild Bill shot Strawhum in the head - killing him instantly.

In the 1800s, Hays City operated as a freight and cattle center, but like many Old West towns, gambling was Hays' biggest industry. Hays attracted drifters, soldiers, hunters, cattlemen, and the general riffraff one would expect to find in a town many called "the deadliest place in the West." The people elected the already famous "Wild Bill" as Sheriff of Ellis County on August 23, 1869 for his reputation as a Civil War hero and expert gunfighter. Being quite rough and tumble himself, Hickok seemed fit to lay down the law in a city besieged by drunken violence and petty crime. Hickok was quick to assert his authority as sheriff of Ellis County, and within the first five weeks, he had already killed two men. Despite impressive reputation, residents felt uneasy about his violent and impulsive methods. In just three months, Wild Bill lost re-election to his deputy, Rattlesnake Pete.

However, Wild Bill's brief time as Ellis County Sheriff represents just a blip in his relatively short, but legendary life. Acquainted with such Wild West characters such as Buffalo Bill Cody and Calamity Jane, Hickok holds a distinguished position among American folk heroes. As a lawman, heavy gambler, soldier, actor, scout, and ladies man, Wild Bill was a real Wild West renaissance man. Originally from northern Illinois, Wild Bill traveled throughout the West, making a mark on local legend and local history seemingly every where he went. Like with many infamous characters of the Old West, many of these stories seem too outlandish and exaggerated to be real. Yet, writings from friends and family reveal that he was well-liked by many - and that there is at least some truth to many of these stories.

Libbie Custer, wife of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, described Hickok's appearance in a way that may have left Mr. Custer feeling a bit uncomfortable. After all, there were rumors of an affair. She described Hickok lovingly: "Physically, he was a delight to look upon. Tall, lithe...he rode as if every muscle was perfection...I do not recall anything finer in the way of physical perfection than Wild Bill when he swung himself lightly from his saddle." Libbie wasn't the only one to comment on his striking appearance. He's described as tall and having piercing gray eyes,and long blondish hair that swept past his broad shoulders. A bartender at Carl Mann's Saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory stated that, "A more picturesque sight than Hickok on horseback could not be imagined."

Despite his good looks, and despite his sometimes questionable reputation as a gambler and zealous gunfighter, Hickok became highly regarded for this actions during the Civil War. It is generally believed that this is where James Butler Hickok became Wild Bill Hickok, although the reasons why are not known  for certain. During the war, Hickok acted as a spy and detective, and proved to be an expert marksman. Prior to the Civil War, he also worked at a station on the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved men and women make their way to freedom.

However, perhaps what Wild Bill is most well-known for is his duel with Davis Tutt in July of 1865. The duel took place in Springfield, MO and was fought over the same reasons many saloon brawls and duels were fought over in the Wild West: gambling debts and women. Wild Bill lost a gold watch of sentimental value to Tutt in a game of poker, and while Wild Bill accepted defeat somewhat gracefully - asking Tutt at least not to wear it around him - Wild Bill became furious when he saw Tutt wearing it, flashing it about.

What happened next is what many say is the first recorded quick-draw duel in Wild West history. Hickok, standing seventy-five yards away from Tutt, squared his broad shoulders and set those piercing grey eyes on Tutt. From such a distance, Hickok was able to shoot Tutt through the heart. Tutt's bullet missed Hickok entirely. According to the story, Tutt's last words were: "Boys, I'm killed."

It is from this point on where Hickok's celebrity takes off. Journalist George Ward Nichols published an interview in Harper's New Monthly Magazine that tantalized readers with stories of "Wild Bill" and his impressive gunfighting skills. In the interview, Hickok claimed to have killed hundreds in gunfights. However, the leading historian on Wild Bill suggests a more likely claim, backed up by evidence, that Hickok only killed 6-8 people in gunfights. Hickok stood trial on August 3, 1865, but a jury ultimately acquitted, utilizing the unwritten "fair fight" law in his favor.

Hickok continued to use his celebrity to his advantage. He went on to be Deputy Marshal in Abilene, TX - which has earned him a spot on the Texas Trail of Fame. He even joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show for three months in 1873. But at 39, this rough and tumble renaissance man was starting to feel the weight of life in the fast lane. His eyes were deteriorating, making him useless as a marksman, and his gambling habits were about to catch up with him.

On August 2, 1876, the beloved celebrity, lawman, and Union veteran was shot in the head at point-blank range by Jack McCall while playing a game of poker. McCall lost severely to Hickok the day prior, and while Hickok offered to at least pay for the man's breakfast, McCall, not much more than a local bum, sought his revenge. Days before Hickok's death, he wrote to his wife, Agnes: "If such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wife - Agnes - and with wishes even for my enemies I will make the plunge and try to swim to the shore." The hand Hickok had before he was shot became known as the "dead man's hand:" two black aces and two eights. The fifth card, damaged by McCall's shot, is unknown.

Wild Bill embodied all that was holy (and perhaps unholy) about the Wild West. He was rugged Civil War veteran and aggressive lawman. He was a gambler and a perfect marksman, but he was also a lover and a doting husband. The Wild West still possesses an active part of the American imagination. It continues to inspire films, books, and television, and tantalizes us with stories, often fabricated and romanticized, of cowboys and natives on horseback, of rowdy saloons, and of the vigilantes and explorers who roamed the frontier.

If you're ever in Fort Worth, stop by the Texas Trail of Fame to check out Wild Bill's star, and remember the sheriff, marshal, soldier, scout, and husband who earned his place among the other American folk heroes of the Old West in more ways than one.

[tanadrin]

Proposal: let's replace the word "husband" in normal usage with "groom." It has the same number of syllables as "wife," and pleasing etymological parallels: a groom (OE "guma" + epenthetic /r/, via "bridegroom") is originally simply "a man" as "wife" is simply "a woman." Cf. also German "Mann" and "Frau." While we are at it, the prefix "ex-" as in "ex-wife" is ridiculous, given that we are talking about close personal relationships, not government positions or corporate officers. Clearly the partner you have divorced should be your "unwife" or your "ungroom," and we can reduce a former boyfriend or girlfriend to the pleasingly gender-nonspecific "unfriend" (also handy for the ex-bestie you've had a spat with). The connotation of "enemy" is natural for those incapable of amicable breakups, while for those of us who are it provides a delightful bit of phonomorphoaesthetic frisson. Consider also: ungrief ("I should be sad, but for some reason I'm not"), unlove ("Their affection long ago curdled into a bitter unlove, yet they remained together out of desperate habit"), unsorrow ("a gray day made suddenly unsorrowed by my beloved friend's appearance at my door"), unhate ("I guess I should hate any group that wants me dead on principle, but I just can't be bothered"), unrule (synonym for misrule: "Trump's florid unrule of America").

[list-of-literature]

25/03/2016

The Woman in the Dunes, Kobo Abe Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe The Jolly Postman or Other Peoples Letters, Janet & Allan Ahlberg The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken The Wanderer, Alain-Fournier Commedia, Dante Alighieri Skellig, David Almond The President, Miguel Angel Asturias Alcools, Guillaume Apollinaire It's Not About The Bike - My Journey Back to Life, Lance Armstrong Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin The Ghost Road, Pat Barker Carrie's War, Nina Bawden Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow G, John Berger Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman Mister Magnolia, Quentin Blake Forever, Judy Blume The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton Five On A Treasure Island, Enid Blyton The Enchanted Wood, Enid Blyton A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne The Snowman, Raymond Briggs Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown Gorilla, Anthony Browne The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess Junk, Melvin Burgess Would You Rather?, John Burningham The Soft Machine, William S. Burroughs The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler Possession, A.S. Byatt The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino The Stranger, Albert Camus Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter Looking For JJ, Anne Cassidy Journey to the End of the Night, Louis-Ferdinand Céline Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang Papillon, Henri Charriere The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer "Clarice Bean, That's Me", Lauren Child I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, Lauren Child Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M Coetzee Princess Smartypants, Babette Cole Nostromo, Joseph Conrad The Public Burning, Robert Coover Millions, Frank Cottrell Boyce The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay That Rabbit Belongs To Emily Brown, Cressida Cowell House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski The Black Sheep, Honoré de Balzac Old Man Goriot, Honoré de Balzac The Second Sex, Simone de Beavoir The Story of Babar, Jean De Brunhoff The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery White Noise, Don DeLillo Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion Sybil, Benjamin Disraeli Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy, Lynley Dodd The 42nd Parallel, John Dos Passos The Brothers Karamzov, Fyodor Dostoevsky An American Tragedy, Theodore Drieser The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco My Naughty Little Sister, Dorothy Edwards Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans The Siege of Krishnapur, J.G Farrell The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner "Absalom, Absalom!", William Faulkner Light in August, William Faulkner Take it or Leave It, Raymond Federman Magician, Raymond E. Feist Flour Babies, Anne Fine Madam Bovary, Gustav Flaubert A Passage to India, E. M. Forster The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank Cross Stitch,  Diana Gabaldon That Awful Mess on the Via Merulala, Carlo Emilio Gadda JR, William Gaddis The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez Maggot Moon, Sally Gardner The Owl Service, Alan Garner In the Heart of the Heart of the Country & Other Stories, William H. Gass Coram Boy, Jamila Gavin Once, Morris Gleitzman The Conservationist, Nadine Gordimer Asterix The Gaul, Rene Goscinny The Tin Drum, Günter Grass Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears, Emily Gravett Lanark, Alasdair Gray The Quiet American, Graham Greene Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Mark Haddon Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway The Blue Lotus, Hergé The Adventures Of Tintin, Hergé The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse Where's Spot?, Eric Hill The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett The Odyssey, Homer High Fidelity, Nick Hornby Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz Dogger, Shirley Hughes Journey To The River Sea, Eva Ibbotson Little House In The Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving Goodbye to Berlin, Christopher Isherwood The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James The Ambassadors, Henry James Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson Lost and Found, Oliver Jeffers The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Judith Kerr One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey In Praise of Hatred, Khaled Khalifa Gate of the Sun, Elias Khoury It, Stephen King The Queen's Nose, Dick King-Smith The Sheep-Pig, Dick King-Smith Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney Kim, Rudyard Kipling I Want My Hat Back, Jon Klassen Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook, Joyce Lankerster Brisley Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E Lawrence A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing Tristes Tropiques, Claude Lévi-Strauss Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren The Call of the Wild, Jack London Nightmare Abbey, Thomas Love Peacock Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford The Cairo Trilogy, Naguib Mahfouz The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer Man's Fate, Andre Malraux The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel The Road, Cormac McCarthy The Kite Rider, Geraldine McCaughrean The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers "Not Now, Bernard", David McKee Tent Boxing: An Australian Journey, Wayne McLennan No One Sleeps in Alexandria, Ibrahim Abdel Meguid A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat Private Peaceful, Michael Morpurgo Beloved, Toni Morrison Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami Under the Net, Iris Murdoch The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov A Bend in the River, V.S Naipaul Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness The Knife Of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness The Borrowers, Mary Norton Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian The Silent Cry, Kenzaburo Oe My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake Night Watch, Terry Pratchett The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett The Truth, Terry Pratchett Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett Truckers, Terry Pratchett Life: An Exploded Diagram, Mal Prett Paroles, Jacques Prévert The Shipping News, Annie Proulx In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust The Ruby In The Smoke, Philip Pullman Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon Live and Remember, Valentin Rasputin Witch Child, Celia Rees Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady, Samuel Richardson How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff I Want My Potty!, Tony Ross Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie Holes, Louis Sachar Blindness, Jose Saramango Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre Nausea, Jean-Paul Sartre Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald Revolver, Marcus Sedgwick Where The Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier Katherine, Anya Seton Come over to My House, Dr Seuss Daisy-Head Mayzie, Dr Seuss Great Day for Up!, Dr Seuss Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!, Dr Seuss Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories, Dr Seuss Hunches in Bunches, Dr Seuss I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today!, Dr Seuss I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories, Dr Seuss I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, Dr Seuss My Book about ME, Dr Seuss My Many Colored Days, Dr Seuss "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!", Dr Seuss On Beyond Zebra!, Dr Seuss The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, Dr Seuss The Butter Battle Book, Dr Seuss The Cat's Quizzer, Dr Seuss The Pocket Book of Boners, Dr Seuss The Seven Lady Godivas, Dr Seuss The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, Dr Seuss What Pet Should I Get?, Dr Seuss You're Only Old Once!, Dr Seuss Dr Seuss's Book of Bedtime Stories, Dr Seuss Special shapes: A flip-the-flap book, Dr Seuss Dizzy days: A flip-the-flap book, Dr Seuss The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation", Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Memento Mori, Muriel Spark The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark Heidi, Johanna Spyri The Making of Americans, Gertrude Stein The Charterhouse of Parma, Stendhal "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman", Laurence Sterne Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia, Chris Stewart Goosebumps, R.L. Stine Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild The Home and the World, Rabindranath Tagore The Arrival, Shaun Tan The Secret History, Donna Tartt The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain Froth on the Daydream, Boris Vian Creation, Gore Vidal Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut The Color Purple, Alice Walker Scoop, Evelyn Waugh The War Of The Worlds, H.G. Wells The Time Machine, H.G Wells The Once And Future King, T.H. White Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson The Code of the Woosters, P.G. Wodehouse Native Son, Richard Wright Going Native, Stephen Wright The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham The Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin Red Sorghum: A Novel of China, Mo Yan Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates We, Yevgeny Zamyatin Germinal, Emile Zola Amazing Grace, Mary Hoffman & Caroline Binch Horrid Henry, Francesca Simon & Tony Ross Meg And Mog, Helen Nicholls & Jan Pienkowski Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Mem Fox & Helen Oxenbury The Elephant And The Bad Baby, Elfrida Vipont & Raymond Briggs The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith

[itsworn]

1972 DeTomaso Pantera: A Coyote in Wolf’s Clothing

Some of Marty Quadland’s earliest memories involve sitting in the family’s 1935 Ford cabriolet with both hands tightly gripping the steering wheel as he belched out a four-year-old’s version of a V8 exhaust note. Later on, as a way of dealing with his motion sickness in the car, his father usually had him on his lap, where he could help “steer.” At age 12, he bought his first car, a 1939 Chevy for $15, and immediately began modifying it. Over the next few years, while negotiating high school and then college, he had, in succession, a chopped and channeled 1931 Ford, a 1954 Ford convertible, a Triumph TR3, and a 1936 Ford cabriolet powered by a 283-cid Chevy engine.

Quadland had a dry decade following college, as far as interesting cars go. Graduate school, military service, and additional career training consumed all of his time and much of his money. Once he began working, he was able to purchase a slightly used 1971 Corvette. The Stingray made him happy until the fateful day when a friend pulled into his driveway driving a bright yellow Pantera.

Pantera coachwork was produced by Ghia, based on a design by American Tom Tjaarda.

“I was immediately smitten by the look, the mid-engine layout, and the incredible sound of the 351 Cleveland,” Quadland recalls, “and I had to have one!” To that end, he began banking every spare penny he could put his hands on. Though considerably less expensive than a Ferrari or other exotics of the era, at around $10,000, it was about $3,500 more than a very well-optioned 1972 Corvette. The price tag didn’t dissuade Quadland in the least, however, and just a couple of months after falling in love with his pal’s yellow Pantera, he placed his order with the Lincoln Mercury dealer in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Pantera was the brainchild of Alejandro de Tomaso, the larger-than-life Italian/Argentinian businessman, race driver, and bon vivant. His relationship with Ford dated back to the early 1960s, when he began sourcing engines from the Dearborn giant for some of the cars he was building in Modena, Italy, including his Mangustas. De Tomaso and Ford President Lee Iacocca, who was instrumental in the creation of the Mustang and thus was certainly no stranger to performance cars, struck a deal that would see Panteras on the market, beginning in 1971, through Ford’s extensive Lincoln-Mercury dealer network in the U.S., and distributed elsewhere in the world by De Tomaso Automobili.

Nearly half a century after it was built, this Pantera looks as good and performs as well as a modern exotic.

Marketing Panteras through Lincoln Mercury dealers, alongside Continentals, Comets, Montegos, and Cougars, was a bit odd, but given its steep MSRP and exotic flair, Iacocca thought it was a better fit than the Ford dealer network. Either way, it was never intended or expected to be a volume seller, so for Ford it was more about moving the company’s image upstream. Of course, giving Enzo Ferrari another little poke in the eye and pulling a few customers away from Lamborghini, Maserati, and perhaps even Corvette wasn’t going to upset anyone at Ford, either.

The Pantera’s coachwork was produced by Carrozzeria Ghia, which was owned by De Tomaso, but American Tom Tjaarda actually led the styling effort. Gian Paolo Dallara, who began with an aeronautical engineering degree from Politecnico di Milano University and quickly became one of the preeminent performance and racing-car designers for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and ultimately his own firm, Dallara Automobili in Parma, Italy, oversaw the Pantera’s engineering work.

High-quality BMW-sourced leather and square-weave German carpeting bring the interior up a few notches.

Not surprisingly, it took a long time to actually receive a Pantera after ordering one, and problems with the earlier cars, including hot-running engines, excessive heat in the passenger compartment, and even some structural deficiencies, delayed delivery even further. Quadland was so enamored with the Anglo-Italian mid-engine Ferrari fighter that he was willing to wait, but his spirit was crushed when his car arrived with extensive damage incurred during shipping.

“There was going to be a long delay before another car would be available,” explains Quadland, “so the manager suggested I contact a local Pantera customer who had purchased his car a few months earlier but was unable to continue ownership and wanted to sell it. I was able to buy that car, on the spot, at a considerable discount, and drive it home the same day. That was in October 1972.”

An aluminum shift ball is one of several items borrowed from the Ferrari parts bin.

The car served as Quadland’s daily driver for the next several years. For the reliability that he demanded, and the performance he wanted, he had several upgrades done. These included enhancements to the electrical and cooling systems and an engine rebuild by Holman-Moody. In 1975, the Pantera was taken out of daily service and for the next three decades served as a pleasure-only vehicle. All the while, Quadland also had one or more Italian and/or German exotics sharing space in his garage, and though all of these outperformed the aging Pantera, his first true automotive love always remained his favorite.

Following retirement, Quadland realized a dream of his and moved west to the mountains of Wyoming. In preparation, he downsized considerably, selling his SCCA race cars, several motorcycles, and a late-model exotic, and, for the first time, he considered selling the Pantera. His son intervened, however. “I saw the look on my son’s face when I told him I might sell it,” he recalls. “He thought the Pantera would be his someday. I purchased it a few months before he was born, and he reminded me of how he had grown up around that car. So, it was immediately decided that it would one day be his, and that a restoration would be done.”

A full complement of AutoMeter gauges helps Quadland keep an eye on the essentials.

Quadland never hesitated to improve upon his car’s original parts and systems, especially when it came to performance, so the restoration also included some high-end, custom modifications, and over time evolved into a very complex undertaking. “The work was recently completed after having been performed by three Colorado shops—Pantera Performance, Excalibur International, and 3R Racing. The upholstery and other interior work was done in California by Full Throttle Panteras. While the nine-year restoration project was long, expensive, and at times frustrating, I’m pleased with the result!”

The body was stripped to bare metal and refinished in a Porsche metallic gray with silver stripes. A complete, custom red-and-gray interior replaced the original. Various parts were sourced from Ferraris, including the aluminum pedal assembly and shift knob; other bits came from BMW, and still others were simply fabricated from scratch. Scheel-Mann seats and AutoMeter Ultra-Lite gauges are both functional and beautiful to look at.

Scheel-Mann seats and Teamtech Motorsports four-point safety harness provide a perfect blend of comfort and performance.

The car’s DeTomaso electrical system, which had already been straightened out and upgraded multiple times over the years, was replaced entirely with brand-new everything, including harnesses, switches, relays, and a main fuse panel.

The original 351 Cleveland yielded to a Ford Coyote Aluminator V8. This 5.0L, 32-valve, DOHC wonder features 11.0:1 compression, 80mm drive-by-wire throttle-body, MAHLE forged pistons, Manley H-beam rods, a custom billet-aluminum oil pan, and ARP fasteners. It’s mated to a rebuilt ZF transaxle fitted with an overdrive Fifth gear for effortless, high-speed highway cruising.

The Coyote Aluminator 32-valve DOHC engine provides far more power and reliability than what the car started with.

Suspension upgrades included larger front and rear antisway bars and Koni adjustable shocks and springs all around. Quadland had power steering added and replaced the original wheels with custom Forgelines, complete with De Tomaso-logo center caps. For stopping power, a Wilwood brake system was installed, including six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers and vented rotors.

Though it’ll ultimately be his son’s car, Quadland continues to drive his beloved Pantera on a regular basis and is not shy about approaching the outer limits of its extreme performance. “It’s both exotic sports car and pure hot rod,” he reflects, “and I love the view through the windshield and over the hood as it goes down the road. From any angle, the lines and stance are as beautiful as any exotic available today, and the sound of the Coyote motor is incredible! After nearly half a century, this car excites me every bit as much as it did when it was new.”

Custom adjustable struts stiffen the chassis.

The ZF transaxle features an overdrive Fifth gear for comfortable, high-speed cruising.

Large-diameter rear and front antisway bars enhance handling.

Big Wilwood brakes give this Pantera plenty of stopping power.

Overheating was a pervasive problem with Panteras when they were new, so cooling-system upgrades are a must.

The Pantera still looks taut, aggressive, and contemporary almost 50 years after being designed.

Ford imported Panteras into the United States from late-1971 through 1975 and sold approximately 5,500 through its Lincoln-Mercury dealer network.

The aluminum pedal assembly was designed for Ferraris but looks right at home in this Pantera.

Custom Forgeline wheels wear Michelin Pilot Sport tires sized at 245/35-18 in front and 335/30-18 in the rear.

The post 1972 DeTomaso Pantera: A Coyote in Wolf’s Clothing appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1972-detomaso-pantera-coyote-wolfs-clothing/ via IFTTT

[motivated-pony]

tf2 update; seal or whatnot me: im sleeping tf2 update; voicelines for gray mann me: im wide awake

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Saturday 4 July 1835

6 40

11 10

No kiss. fine morning wrote yesterday till 8 at which hour F62° - out at 8 - at Walker pit and about - Holt there - came in at 9 ¼ - A- not dressed - sometime with her - breakfast at 9 ¾ - had Booth at 10 ½ till 11 in the house then (he very poorly) had the pony saddled for him to ride up to the stone by Whiskam road side and I walked by him - thinks the stone would for the rough arch to be put up against the drybridge according to Mr Gray’s plan - the stone would be worth 3d. per foot getting and loadening , even if I could get it done of that price - talked over the culvert for Tail goit (vide page 90) left Booth in returning at Pickells’s to inquire about the stone, and led the pony home - Joseph Mann sent down to say the gin mare wanted shoeing - and to tell me, they had got the water off again - Holt was there about it this morning - wrote the above of today till 2 35 - out with A- at 2 50 and walked with her almost to the Stag’s head before George came up with the horses at 3 5 - then left A- to ride to Cliff Hill, and I turned back - looked at the nice run of water already got from the new drift, and went forwards down the old bank to Mr Parker’s office - told him to take the necessary steps for getting Northgate house licensed and to let me have his bill up to 1 July - brought home proof copies of notices to be posted against hunters and trespassers - a minute or 2 at Whitley’s and at Greenwoods saw him in his timber yard - home up the new bank at 4 35 - then with the 2 masons and their boy (Booth’s son Joseph)  - they gave me the [slip] and went home about 4 ¾ - then sauntered in the new approach road and in the garden - came in at 6 ¼ - A- returned 10 minutes before - dinner at 6 ½ - coffee - kind letter ½ sheet full from Lady Stuart de R - (3 Carlton terrace London) - Mr. Canning a great deal with them ‘you enter so well into our position that I have only to confirm your good opinion of Mr. Canning, by telling you that I believe from my heart he is worthy of our beloved Charlotte and that is a great deal for me to admit - the more we see of him (and now we do see a great deal) the more his excellent disposition, and agreeable manners shine forth, he is very shy and yet he is extremely popular amongst his contemporaries, and very well spoken by the Elders - Sir Robert Peel had offered him a place, and so if good times ever come round, and he comes into Parliament, which is his view of a carrière, it will be on the right side, which will be an agreeable circumstance to Lord Stuart, who was pleased to find Lady Canning’s politics quite in the same key as his own’ - Lady Mexborough has been robbed of all her own jewels and Lady Hardwickes’ (her mothers’) too which were much more valuable - no chance of discovering the thief -‘my time and paper admit no details. so adieu and affectionately E.S. de R..’  tea at 9 - wrote the whole of the page till 9 40 - note tonight from Mr Parker inclosing my cash account up to 1 July - 20 minutes with my aunt till 10 10 at which hour F64 ½° fine day