It's Too Damn Cold

 

It's too damn cold!

Chance are wherever you are in the United States, it's too damn cold!

It's cold here at the Fortress of Ineptitude

Here in the Greensboro environs, this is not a level of cold we're used to.

And it's just getting started.

Apparently the low temperature for Tuesday is going to be 5....

No, I am not forgetting a digit, it's just gonna be 5 degrees.

That's Farenheit because I'm an American, dammit and don't need no metric system.

As I write this on Saturday afternoon, we're staring down the barrel of a major winter weather system that's going to bring us.... stuff.

What kind of stuff?

Well, apparently I will know by the time this blog posts on Sunday.

Right now this stuff may include...

• Snow
• Ice
• Freezing rain
• Sleet 
• Glaze
• Frost
• Blizzard
• Hail
• Elsa from Frozen
• The damnation of God! 
• Cold shit

Even before it arrives, I've already been dealing with this winter storm for a whole damn week now.

My wife Andrea has been living in fear of this thing with daily frantic reports of wintry anxiety with updates on the types of winter precipitation, when exactly it will get here and just how cold it's gonna get.

Back in 1993, Andrea was still living with her parents when a major snow and ice storm blustered into Greensboro and knocked out power to her home for 3 days.

I know this story well because she tells it all the time whenever there is inclement weather. 

It doesn't even have to be WINTER inclement weather. 

Even in summer time when we're in the middle of a bad thunder storm that threatens to knock out our power....

"There was that time in the winter of 1993 when the ice storm knocked out our power for 3 days!"

Legend has it that the power could've been back on sooner but her dad bitched at the power company one time too many.

Life lesson: You do not cross Duke Energy. 

So Andrea has been sharing this tale of woe from 32 years ago all week and worrying herself into a tizzy of a doozy of a panic.

What if we get snowed in and can't get out? What will we do for food?

There's enough food in the house for several days. We're even fine for milk and bread.

But what if the power goes out?

Well, we'll just have to bundle up as best we can and go somewhere else where they do have power if we have to. 

But how will we go somewhere else? The roads will be icy. 

I guess I will have to drive VERY slowly and VERY carefully. 

But what about the food in the refrigerator if we lose power?

Since the temperature is dropping to 5 degrees, I will put stuff on the front porch where it will freeze!

But what about.......

(Sigh!) 

A side note to my son Dean in case we die either by freezing to death or a crazed murder/suicide, well, I guess the Fortress of Ineptitude is now yours.

And if you're hungry, help yourself to whatever frozen food you find on the front porch.

Frozen because it's too damn cold. 

And I am so glad my suffering amuses you. 

Movie Time: Out of the Fog

It's....Movie Time! 

Today's post is about a little film from 1941 I saw sometime last year, a film noir directed by Anatole Litvak called Out of the Fog starring John Garfield and Ida Lupino.

Litvak directed the 1948 mental hospital expose The Snake Pit which I posted about in 2023.   

Today's film is about a couple of old dudes who just wanna fish. If only a certain damn gangster would leave them alone.   

Goodwin and Johnson are just a couple of old guys in Brooklyn NY who like to spend their spare time fishing. They have their eye on a sweet new fishing boat but it's hard to save up the dough. 

A gangster by the name of Harold Goff keeps hitting them up for protection money for their Brooklyn pier.  

And just to tighten the screws in Goodwin's gut a bit more, Goff is romancing his daughter, Stella.   And dang if she isn't falling in love with the conniving crooked bastard.  

Even though Goff is just using Stella to score  a little nest egg Goodwin saved up for his daughter. 

It's not like Goff is the only guy in town.  There's good ol' George, affable, amiable dock worker who keeps trying to pitch some good hearted woo in Stella's direction.  

• George wants to guide Stella down the path of righteousness.
• Goff wants to lead her down the path that rocks!

SCORE! Emperor's New Groove reference! 

Worried that Stella is being led astray by a smarmy creep who keeps squeezing every body in the neighborhood for protection money, Goodwin and Johnson come to a conclusion: Harold Goff needs to die.

These two guys are a couple of harmless, kind hearted schmucks who wouldn't hurt a fly but nonetheless, they proceed to craft a plan to lure Goff into a boat out into the harbor and kill him.  

SPOILER: things do not go exactly as planned.

BUT... Goff will get what a creep like him deserves while Goodwin and Johnson recover the money he extorted. 

The "It's That Guy Who Was In That Thing" Dept.

George is played by Eddie Albert who plays the peddler in Oklahoma! and will go on to play Oliver Douglas in the TV series Green Acres.  

Ida Lupino & John Garfield 

• John Garfield plays the completely amoral racketeer, Harold Goff, whose extortion schemes finally go too far, leaving his victims to take matters into their own hands. 
• Ida Lupino is the woman who loves him despite his criminal activity.

In 1941,  Out of the Fog was a bit ahead of it's time as a dark and gritty film noir. The source material for this movie was a play called The Gentle People by Irwin Shaw.  The play is even more pessimistic than the movie with Goff not answering for his crimes.  

Which is something the Motion Picture Production Code aka the Hays Office would not allow.  Whether it was the conniving gangster or the two old men who plot his death. 

So Goodwin and Johnson do lure Goff into their old fishing boat to kill him but it's Goff's own arrogance and temper that ultimately does him in.  

Out of the Fog has an unrelenting dark tone that sets the template for future film noirs like Double Indemnity (1944) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

Humphrey Bogart lost out on the role of Harold Goff to John Garfield because the studio thought Garfield was a much bigger name.  Which left Bogart free to make a couple of movies you may have heard of,  The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942).

Out of the Fog is an unrelentingly dark and grim film so I can't say I recommend this as a fun movie time. But it is well made for it does, elevated by stylish direction of Anatole Litvak, making this a lost Hollywood gem and a prototype of film noir. 

Your Bat-Friday Bat-Video Bat-Link: Holy Bat Blog Post!

 

Your Friday Video Link takes us back to the groovy 1960's, baby!

Our lesson today? You can solve any problem if you have the right Bat-tool for the right Bat-job.

Sometimes the right Bat-tool for the right Bat-job is to blow stuff up real good! 

Nothing like some 1960's Batman goofiness to help us escape from the real and pressing problems of today's world! 

Oh shit! Even in the middle of some 1960's Batman goofiness, we gotta still deal with ICE?

Having the right Bat-tool for the right Bat-job is not just an axiom for Batman. Even Batgirl comes prepared, even if the problem is being shot into space!

OK, look if you're gonna ask stupid questions like "Why didn't Joker just take off Batgirl's utility belt?" But just accept that the Joker has access to an interplanetary space craft, well, what the hell are we doing here anyway.

OK, we're done here for now! 

Back here tomorrow for Movie Time! 

As always, remember to be Bat-good to Bat-one another. 

Places To Eat

My friend* Mark Evanier posted this list on his blog and I thought I would take a stab it myself.

*We are legally required to telll you that Mark Evanier is not my friend. He could be but he's not. And that makes me sad. I must bury my sadness with food. Or a blog post about food.  

It's a list of chain restaruants and as the header suggests, you give yourself a point for each place you've eaten at.

(Call me old fashioned but I still hate ending a sentence with a preposition. I know the arbiters of the English language have made their peace with it but I haven't.)  

Some of these places I have not eaten AT but I did get food FROM there....

So let's give this a go!  

Yes, I know! What the hell is BASKET Robbins? Or a StarBUCK?

Let's start with Column #1. It would be easier to list the places have not eaten at or from: Chipotle, Jack In the Box and White Castle. 

Some of these are not around here in Greensboro anymore and may in fact be dead in the water nationwide, such as Quizno's and Boston Market.  Andrea and I used to like eating at Boston Market but the one here in Greensboro died a death of a thousand cuts.  

From Column #1, we've got 11 points.

Moving on to Column #2, Greensboro got a Whattaburger a few months ago but I've yet to give it a try.  And we do not have an In & Out. 

We do have a Five Guys which I found to be overpriced and overrated. No one needs that many french fries. As for Starbucks, I ponied up to the bar once for a hot chocolate and a muffin.  

So for Column #2, that's 12 points.

For a total of 23 points.

Moving on to Column #3.  

I have not eaten at a Shake Shack, Wing Stop, Dave's Hot or Popeye's.  In the case of the latter, I do hear they have Superior fried chicken.

We used to eat at TGI Friday's but we stopped when they took Dean's favorite fish dinner off the menu. We haven't been there in nearly 10 years I think so they petulantly closed their Greensboro location and tore the building down to the ground with a different restaruant being built in it's spot. 

So that's 10 points for Column #3 for a grand total of 33 points.  

Which gets me... what? 

I think this may have been a pointless exercise.  

But now I'm hungry! 

Now if I only had an idea where to get some food....

Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Justice League

 It's another edition of Dave-El's Spinner Rack as I look at some new comics I've recently purchased and read.

First of all for today's post is DC K.O.

Everybody who is anybody in the DC Universe,super heroes and super villains have come together....

...to fight each other for the privilege of saving the Earth.

The Quantum Quorum (Time Trapper, a reformed Gorilla Grodd, World Forger, and Booster Gold) have news for the Justice League: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are dead and the Earth has been destroyed.

Which given that the Earth is still here and Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are standing right there, well, that is surprising news.

Well, that's time travellers for you. You're already dead and you haven't been born yet, wobbly wobbly, time wimey, you know the drill.

The Quantum Quorum has witnessed it all come to pass:  Darkseid has returned to the Earth, killed it's last defenders and left the world a smouldering ruin. 

Here's the wind up:   Darkseid's home world Apokolips' heart runs on Omega Energy, and Darkseid has placed its heart on a different earth, creating it in his own image, becoming King Omega. 

(This is what's been going on in DC's Absolute line of titles which I understand to be quite good but I'm not getting them because I'm not made of money.) 

Darkseid is coming to the current main Earth of the DC Universe to do that again.  

Batman comes up with an idea: why not create their own "King Omega" before Darkseid gets here.

The Quantum Quorum explains that to make that work, only one person can use the King Omega energy and that person needs to be determined through combat.

Everybody has to fight everybody until only one remains to become King Omega. 

Since this plan involve everyone fighting full out balls to the wall full power to the damn death, Superman objects to this plan.

Batman and Wonder Woman convince Superman to re-consider and the game is on.

Step one is to get remove super villains from the playing field. Can you imagine if the Joker or Lex Luthor gets to King Omega?

So they get zapped to the Phantom Zone. So that part of the plan works.

Until it doesn't. Damned if Joker and Lex don't show up anyway!

While plans are made for a mass evacuation of the Earth (in case this doesn't work), our assembled heroes and villains cross through Skartaris Nexus to this center of the Earth to participate in the tournament. 

It's like the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. With super powers instead of basketballs.  

The first round whittles our forces down to 32. Batman does not make the cut, apparently killed by the Joker.

And there is another joker in the deck: Darkseid has been there the whole time, disguised as Booster Gold. 

Well, we're fucked! 

The field of 32 are challenged to secure 16 items of power such as power rings,  Blue Beetle's Scarab, the Lasso of Truth and more.   

Chaos ensues on the battlefield when Starro the Conqueror sends out multiple copies of himself to control the combatants.

(Side note to my son Dean: Please stop giggling at Starro the Conqueror just because he's a giant alien starfish! Yes, a giant alien starfish of astonishing cosmic levels of power you need to respect and....I SAID STOP LAUGHING!) 

Superman and Lex Luthor get into a throwdown which is not going Superman's way. In order to dominate the contest to win King Omega, the ultimate champion will need to be completely and ruthlessly comitted to victory at any cost. 

That's the sort of mind set that Lex is born with and Superman can't quite wrap is head around. The most powerful man in this contest may not win because he's spent a lifetime not using that power to it's maximum potential.

DC K.O. is a bold  exercise in comics universe crossover excess from writer Scott Snyder and looks good thanks to some exciting art by Javi Fernandez.  

Meanwhile, while all sort of shit is going down in DC K.O., what pray tell is going on in Justice League Unlimited?

Mr. Terrific is leading a team on a mission into Hell! 

So just another day in the Justice League, I suppose. 

Mister Terrific brings together several time-displaced superheroes to journey to Hell where there are complications afoot to hinder efforts to save the Earth, obtain King Omega and stop Darksied once and for all.  

It's quite an eclectic team that includes the Terry McGinnis Batman from Batman Beyond, the electric blue Superman and spear for a hand Aquaman. 

Writer Mark Waid and artist Dan Mora are still delivering some solid work on the title but it is inherently tied to the events of DC K.O.

_____________________________

Next week, my comic book themed post will look back 50 years to comic books I bought in January 1976.

2 Guys Named Chris Minus One

 

Yesterday brought news of a significant change to the radio landscape of Greensboro and the surrounding environs.

Chris Demm announced his retirement and his departure from Rock 92 and the 2 Guys Named Chris Show.

Chris Demm and Chris Kelly launched the show in April 1999.

It is the nature of radio to not know when your last day on the air will be. Most DJs put in their shift, get a call to meet the program director and shown the door on the same day.

Demm counts himself lucky to know when his last day will be, the end of March.

While a lot of people posted online their concerns that  Demm's retirement may not necessarily be his idea, my opinion from listening to his statement that this does seem to be on his own terms. 

Demm said, "I've known about this decision for a while, and, you know, rationally, it makes sense,  but when you add emotion into it, and you're saying goodbye to people who were such a part of your life every single day, 27 years, Chris Kelly and I worked side by side before sunrise."

Chris Demm with his dry and snarky wit was the perfect counterpoint to Chris Kelly's continually flummoxed goofball. 

Demm could do characters like his take on newsman Tom Brokaw or Junior from the Pump 'N' Munch in Montgomery County in North By God Carolina.  Junior hasn't called in for a few years now. Maybe Demm can coax him to make a quick check in.  

Demm was the star of the daily music trivia game Rock 'N' Roll Put Up Or Shut Up when listeners pitted themselves against Demm's encyclopediac knowledge of rock music, trivia and legends. At stake was whatever money Demm had in his wallet. He very rarely had to pay  up.  

For 27 years, Chris Demm and Chris Kelly teamed up to have a conversation for 4 hours a morning about whatever damn thing popped in their heads and almost always made it entertaining.

Chris Demm described his time on the show as "the best 4 hours of the day. I will miss, you know, having an outlet for anything that pops into your head. It's unbelievably gratifying, and to have people respond to it is, it makes it even better."  

The best of luck to Chris Demm for his pending retirement in 2 months. God knows how we're going to keep that knucklehead Chris Kelly in line without you

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Peacemaker

I finished up season 2 of Peacemaker and...

What the hell, James Gunn?

Chris Smith's ideal alternative Earth with a brother and father who are still both alive and the father is not a heartless prick who despises him....

Of course there's a catch.

It's an Earth where the Nazis won World War II!

Holy fuck, it's Earth X! 

Earth X was introduced in Justice League of America#107 in 1973.

And this alternate world made it's TV debut in Crisis On Earth X in the CW's Arrowverse shows in 2017.  

Chris Smith does not notice he's on an Earth ruled by Nazis?!?!

To be honest, he is pretty caught up in the joyous notion of being in a world where his father loves and respects him, his brother is alive and this world's Emilia Harcourt actually loves him.  

Meanwhile, Peacemaker's friends from his Earth, the self described 11th Street Kids, have crossed over to bring Chris back.

It takes Emilia Harcourt-1 to point out what's weird about this Earth.

• No people of color

I hate to say I didn't catch that. Which makes it the 2nd time THAT plot twist ("Dot and Bubble" from Doctor Who in 2023) has caught me off guard. 

My middle age straight white male privilege is showing.

And then Harcourt (and the camera) shows us more stuff that we hadn't seen but really, Chris should have.  

• A swaztika instead of stars on the American flag.
• Everyone has a copy of Mein Kampf 
• The big honking Hitler mural on the wall.

Jesus! Peacemaker can be so oblivious! 

Peacemaker and the gang escape Earth X and spend the final episode of season 2 dealing with A.R.G.U.S. shit led by a clearly corrupted Rick Flag Sr..

Flag has made a deal with the proverbial devil with Lex Luthor who is pulling strings from his jail cell in Belle Reve.

Flag is using Chris's dimensional doorway to seek out another Earth to use as a prison for meta-humans.   

Meta human villains, right?

Yeah, go with that if it makes you feel better.  

Flag finds one and calls this new Earth "Salvation".

Well, that's a pretty name for a prison, ain't it?

SIDE NOTE:  Salvation Run was a 2007-2008 DC Comics limited series about a group of supervillains exiled to the planet Cygnus 4019, also known as Salvation, where they are given no support to survive. This series is the basis of this plot in Peacemaker season 2.  

Meanwhile, led by Leota Adebayo, the 11th Street Kids joined by some surprising recruits from A.R.G.U.S. launch Checkmate to serve as a balance against people like Rick Flag Sr.

SIDE NOTE:   Checkmate was is a covert operations agency in the DC Universe, first appearing in Action Comics #598 (March 1988) and proceeded to have its own ongoing title in Checkmate!.

What drives this series is the strong characer development for Chris, Leota, Harcourt and John Economos. They've been through some shit for 2 seasons. These are some seriously broken people who have no one to count other than each other. 

With Leota starting Checkmate, they're finally getting the happy ending they deserve.

Well, we can't have nice things, can we?

Checkmate takes a hit when A.R.G.U.S. kidnaps Chris Smith.  

Rick Flag Sr. wants to first test his other dimensional prison world on Chris Smith. 

Rick Flag Sr. makes it cleear as the door closes on Chris that this is payback for Peacemaker killing his son, Rick Flag Jr. (as seen in The Suicide Squad movie.)  

Left with nothing but the clothes on his back, Peacemaker has to fend for himself on a savage world filled with... whatever is making that growling noise? 

Dinosaurs?

I guess we'll find out in season 3.

Except....

James Gunn says as of right now there is NO season 3 planned for Peacemaker.  

Damn that's cold! 

Peacemaker season 2 lacked the cohesion that season 1 had with the season long alien invasion story arc. It is a bit disjointed in terms of plot but it's the character work that sustains this series. 

It's a shame it ends with Chris Smith being fucked over when he just finally found a chance at a noble purpose in life and maybe, some happiness. 

Coming up next week on  the Touchbase - Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.  

And after that.....

• High Potential
• Brilliant Minds
• Fallout

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.