Stephan55

Thanks Andy, "We have exactly what you want, although you may not know it." I also find that TCM is much better appreciated as a long range endeavor than as immediate gratification on any given day." My sentiments, exactly.

What makes TCM a classy & classic station for me is that it often expands my horizons, shows me films that I may not have ever seen before, and gives me reasons to appreciate the different, regardless of the decade, or national origin. The Story Of Film Series has done that for me as well. it was like when I used to occassionally frequent my favorite theater on art house nights... I'd go in not knowing what to expect, and often came away with an appreciation for something different that I'd likely never have seen otherwise. I also owe TCM for growing me into a person who appreciates different directors, as well as actors, producers and other creative persons from countries that I'd never given much thought of even having a film industry. I now enjoy watching different films of directors, producers, choreographers & actors through-out their various careers; how they adapted & grew, or at what stage they experienced that great, shooting star moment burst of light & creative genious that they may be best known for. TCM is like a great family restaurant that not only offers a childs menu along with a buffet of staple family favorites but also has a seasonally changing portion of the menu that offers something old, from a different time, & exotic, from a different place, where one can sample something other than their traditional fair or favorite meatloaf. Sometimes it is a plate that one may only want a single bite from, but sometimes one discovers a whole new enjoyable flavor that they may want to order a full course of. The old movies & stars that I grew up with are like comfort food to me, I will likely always enjoy them most of all, but just as I find that different spices enhance my palatal experience, I find the same is true for me & my ecclectic taste in film. I may not want a steady stream of the exotic, the distant, or the "new," but I'm sure glad that TCM offers it to me every now & then. TCM has made me a better, more accepting person. Allowing me an opportunity to see things from anothers viewpoint, and gain an appreciation for the different places that we all come from. I hesitate to use the word love, but i sometimes hear myself saying "I love TCM" in the context of a conversation with someone who has no idea of the wonder that can be found in watching an "ancient" silent film, or attempting to explain that B&W, as in still photography, has so many subtle shades that can be appreciated, or that one can find a great deal of common humanity in watching a "foreign" film. Often they look at me dumbfounded, and I then realize how far that TCM has taken me on my own personal journey in the story of film. I owe TCM much. And am greatful that they have the intuitive vision & guts to carry it through, that even though I too have sometimes questioned as to where they were taking me, but in retrospect am so very glad that I went along the journey with them. Yes, there are times I find some things mildly annoying with TCM, et al, but I'm willing to overlook most of these issues, hopefully without sharing too many negative comments for the greater good of the overall TCM experience. I too, have a wish list of films that I'd like TCM to air or re-air for my own personal enjoyment, And TCM used to have a singular place on these boards for viewers to post their requests, that for a time they may have actually taken into consideration when making program choices. But I do not begrudge TCM when they show a film that I may have already seen half a dozen times or more. I understand that TCM has a big & growing family of viewers and it may be someone elses favorite that I'm watching, or not.... After all, it is unhealthy to stay glued to a television monitor 24/7 and If TCM is showing something that I may not want to watch, or may have already recorded, No need to **** & moan about it, It simply means it is time for me to do something else with my time for awhile. And others have posted comments numerous times in past threads explaing the demographic proportions of TCM's programing history, the percentage of silents, foreign films, & period films from the 30's, 40's & 50's, on up to the miniscule minority of contemporary films that TCM occassionaly airs, usually in the context of an actor, director or producer they are honoring or a theme they are illustrating. I recognize that TCM is part of a personal journey for all of its viewers, and not everyone is at the same place along that journey. I often see myself at different stages within the ramblings of others. who post on these boards. And when I stop & think that I've come about as far as I can, TCM will expand on something that I thought I already knew much about, or show me something that I never knew before, and stimulate me to seek further using additional resources. Or I'll read someone's insightful post and realize that there are those so much further traveled that I have much to look forward to and perhaps my journey will never end as long as I am allowed another breath. What I very much appreciate is that for the most part, TCM appears to make every effort to show the most complete, uncut version of whatever film they show, and do so without commercial interruptions. TCM shows films from every period and sometimes these are films that cannot be seen, rented or purchased from from any other venue. TCM aggressively supports film preservation & restoration, and in their programing offer film as both entertainment & an art form. A wise sage said that "you can please some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time." With this truism in mind, I believe that TCM treads closer than anything else on air today to achieving the best of that delicate balance. And for that I am grateful. Anyway, i can sometimes ramble on & on, as is obvious, but I just felt moved to endorse, in too many words, what some of you have already posted in these regards.

Hi Musikone & Andy108 Thanks guys, for your reply. I sure hope that one of you can help me out. Yes, it is COX Cable.... How did you guess? Musikone To send a PM you must first be signed in to your account so that you can post. Then just click on the name of the person you wish to communicate with from the side bar. When that screen pops up, you can look at their last few posts, and if they are accepting PMs on the upper left side of the screen you should see a small icon that states that. If you click on that icon a screen opens up so that you can type in your msg. Whenever you are signed in you can see if your in-box has any msgs and click on it to read & respond to them. I have been recording movies from TCM for the convenience of my own repeat viewing quite a few years, began with VHS and now have numerous DVDs. I generally like to capture the pre & post commentary whenever I can. I began using quality Taiyo Yuden blanks in April of 2010, and so far have maybe produced 5 or 6 coasters, usually my fault, out of a few 1000 recordings. Anyway, if you have some movie in mind that has been broadcast over the last few years, I may have recorded it. I have also collected many of the travelogues, mini documentaries, previews, public service & variety shorts, for the oddballs, such as myself, that find those features interesting. Although the best of any of these DVDs is only 480p, with analogue, for the last 3 years I have consistently recorded using HQ for many single features that are 60 min or less, SP for any feature that is up to 125 min, or I double-up on two 1 hr long related features (i.e. same key actor or director, etc.), and generally reserve SPP for features that are from >125 up to 160 min. If longer than that I have been using multiple Discs recorded at SP (i.e. BEN HUR, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, GONE WITH THE WIND, GANDHI, etc.). Although they do not compare with an HD quality commercial DVD, if you have not been spoilt by BlueRay, I think they hold up pretty well on screens up to 32" and are passable (for me anyway) on screens that are much larger, especially if you have an upscaler DVD player. The bane of recording for me has been the lack of consistent signal quality from the cable provider, no matter what part of the country I may be in, and sometimes, on a late night program when all else seems to be fine there will be a routine ALERT interruption that will ruin the recording for me. If you want to trade for a feature that i have recorded I will preview it to make sure it is a good copy before I send it to you. Just let me know what you have in mind. I sure hope one of you has a good recording with Ben's intro & exit commentary. Thanks for your help. Oh, BTW, if the recording is not region 1 or region-free, as long as I know what region the recorder records I can rerecord it and make it region-free, even if it is PAL, I can convert it. It just requires a few extra steps that I'm willing to take to get a good copy. So long as Ben is speaking English, I don't mind reading the captions. It is after all an Italian import. Edited by: Stephan55 on Jun 20, 2013 6:55 PM

I was out-of-town but had my DVR set up. Unfortunetly my cable provider failed me again with a poor, frequently pixilated signal & some long freezes. A couple of years ago, while traveling through Europe, I visited a few of the concentration camp ruins that were on the way. From what I could see of KAPO (1960) it put flesh on some of those old bones and I would like to add it to my collection. If GreatMoviesFan, AndyM108, ValentineXavier, or anyone else who recorded KAPO when it last aired, if one of you folks also captured the intro & post commentary by Ben Mankiewicz, and would be willing, I would very much like to swap a copy of any of my TCM recordings for a good copy of KAPO with the TCM commentary included. If you are interested please PM me & we can make arrangements.

Hedy Lamarr...... :x exotic beauty and brains..... what more could one ask for? And when the conversation hits a pregnant pause, I could just read the loveliness of her.... Had a hard crush on Hedy when I was a kid and bemoaned that there were so many years between us. I remember my mom saying, "well, maybe she's got a look alike daughter that you'll meet someday..." That may have been enough for me then, but today she'd have to have Hedy's brilliant mind to go with that exterior beauty. Instead of meeting a Hedy look-a-like, my ex entranced me with a resemblance to a young Susan Hayward. Oh well, as long as I'm dreaming

Thanks folks, for the info & advice. I don't post a lot, but I'd still like to retain my original id & info. The WebAdmin finally replied to my question and said the same thing that Izcutter wrote, in option #2 but neglected to provide the alternate advice in option #1. I think that I will also go with option 1. It is unlikely that I will forget my original email address of 17+ years, so as long as all my reminders, etc. pop up in my new email address, I'll just go that route. Thanks again for your information & advice. For better or worse, and especially when it comes to the internet, I am a creature of habit and once I am comfortable with a routine I dislike changing it. Recently hotmail automatically changed all of the old member accounts to OUTLOOK, without asking its members, or allowing an opt-out option. Sort-of-like when TCM made it's dramatic "upgrade" to the boards a couple of years ago that caused all the rukus. Whereas, I chose to hope for the best & wait out the latter, because, quite frankly, there are no other TCM's out there... On the flip side there are several email providers and I really didn't appreciate the heavy handed attitude of Microsoft, so even if OUTLOOK becomes everything they hope it will be sometime in the distant future, I am not happy with it now and refuse to wait for it to improve. I was savy & comfortable with what I once had, and if a change is forced upon me I will go someplace else, and, more than likely, once I have become savy with that new interface, I will not switch back to hotmail/Outlook, even if it is much better than it is now, because I will have once again become comfortable with where I am, and unless another change is forced upon me I will likely remain there.

Hi I'm switching email accounts and would like to change my email address here but the control panel doesn't seem to allow it. Can anyone share how to do it?

Thanks lavender, I kinda figured that if it wasn't on my end that there was a discussion going on somewhere, but I only looked at the first page of the general discussion forum. So this is both good & bad news. I am always curious when something that has been working well for so long all of a sudden falls flat... what might have caused the problem. Thanks for the work-around links. Regarding the accessing user's link, I know that has been caput for a very long time now, but the *HTTP Status 404* error msg has not come up before, so that made me wonder. Anyway, good to know that my end is okay, this time. Thanks again for your reply.

Hi, All week, whenever I have tried to access the *Full TCM Schedule* to check on any changes/updates from the Month schedule, I've received the following: *HTTP Status 404 - /schedule/* *-------------------------------------------------------------------------------* *type Status report* *message /schedule/* *description The requested resource (/schedule/) is not available.* *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------* *Apache Tomcat/6.0.26* ____________________________________________ Is this just at my end or is this a TCM issue? Anybody else experiencing this? I routinely check the *Full TCM Schedule* and this is the first time that I can recall having this problem. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I just noticed receiveing a similar msg when I just now attempted attempted to access the *More info* link below? *Online Users:* 460 guest(s), 6 user(s). [More info »|http://www.tcm.com/online.jspa] Edited by: Stephan55 on Mar 28, 2013 2:18 PM

I love "Born Free" for a variety of reasons, the theme song of course being one of them. Another memorable reason was I picked up on, er, hooked up with, er, met, one of my high school sweethearts at the local theatre during a showing of that wonderful film.... However, whenever I watch it anymore I can't help but also think about the tragedy of the real Adamson's... and the microcosm of what they, and this film represented. From the age of British imperialism, to independence, to dwindling space for wild life in a world overpopulated with more and more people on the marginal edge of existence... The flip side postscript to the romanticism of BORN FREE is TO WALK WITH LIONS (1999). Oh yeah, RING OF BRIGHT WATER is another very sweet/bittersweet family film, especially if one enjoys watching the late Bill Travers and his real-life wife Virginia McKenna acting together.

I love good biopics, and i think that Paul Muni delivered some of the best ever. He was an actor I admired very much as a kid in such roles as Louis Pasteur, Emile Zola, Juarez, and such. I've always thought of him as an actor's actor. And one of the greatest character actors that ever reached star status. i can't say that I haven't looked forward to seeing him in any film that he's been in. Yeah, I can see where some have called him a serious actor, perhaps he took himself too seriously, I don't know. I know very little of the man or his personal life, I only know that I like his style and versatility on the screen, always have and probably always will. To me he is one of the greatest. I place very few in that category, Bette Davis & Meryl Streep, Robert di Niro, and a few others. Each of these greats could be almost unrecognizable from one character role to another. But unlike Muni, if you watched enough of their films you could maybe get a small sense of the person inside the actor. A Davis, or di Niro personna. But Muni was always a different guy, from one role to another... I saw the characters he played, but never Muni. Unless it was Muni the ham, as some have called him. Maybe that is why few people may remember him today, nobody, or too few of us ever got a sense of Muni outside of, or rather inside of, the characters he played. Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Spencer Tracy, and others are great actors, and played great characters, but they each had a familiar & recognizable screen personna from film to film. Douglas had the Douglas persona, Lancaster the Lancaster persona, and so on. But not Muni. Other great character actors that I really enjoy, and that come close to Muni are Fredric March, and someone else mentioned George Arliss, who I grew to appreciate only as an adult. Most great character actors never make it to star status, but those that have, like Walter Brennan, had enough personna that we could recognize them in their different roles as, hey, that's Walter Brennan. But I always had to look hard to see Muni... from the Good Earth, to Juarez, yeah, he wasn't Chinese, or a Mexican Indian, and maybe those roles should have gone to ethnic actors, but Muni transformed himself into his characters, he became Juarez, He became Pasteur, He became Zola... I felt like I was watching history on screen!. I love the guy for that. I think that all of his films are winners. yeah I do like some better than others, but I'd watch them all again, just because he is in them. Oh and one of my favorite "fun" Paul Muni characters is the rascally rogue Pierre-Esprit Radisson in Hudson's Bay. I love that movie! So relax and enjoy Paul Muni whenever he is on. He may not be everybody's cup of tea, but you'll never know if you'll enjoy the flavor unless you try a cup or two!

I suppose if you want to really generalize, practically everything that someone talks about can be termed "political" of sorts... Whether it's the "bedroom politics" that some have referred to in these threads, that allow one actor to have the opportunity to become a star, and another not... Or a thread & posts that alludes to the the sexual preferences of our favorite subject matter on the TCM bullitin boards: the actors, actresses, directors, writers, et al, and anyone associated with this industry, as that may be termed "politically incorrect" by some readers/posters. Or a thread about which presidents have had movies made about them while they were in office. Or a slurr about Jane Fonda during the Vietnam era. Since that war was so heavily politicized perhaps any reference to it could be termed "political." And since this thread, stray comments and all, is about the threat of nuclear war that the parents and grandparents of the initial WW2 - forward Baby Boom generation ushered in, well I suppose that we could say that this entire thread is about the "politics" of nuclear war... something which still threatens each and every one of us. Or any reference to the Blacklisting period of Hollywood, which certainly coincides with the time period ofthe Boomers, and is/was highly political in nature. If we want to nit pick I'm afraid that it would be quite difficult for anyone here, or anywhere, to have a message board conversation about anything that didn't hint in some way, in the minds of some readers, of politics or religion, or some other perhaps "politically incorrect" reference. Perhaps we should denie ourselves any "adult" dialogue here, for fear that it may be "politically incorrect" and offend some one who has the ability to NOT read anything that they deem offensive, for whatever reason, and simply "avert their eyes" while allowing the rest of us who are not so offended to exercise our god given right of free thought and in this country, for awhile yet... freedom of speech. Of course that can also be deemed as "political" and offensive to some.... So what exactly is your point? Is Michael (the moderator, I presume) supposed to delete or lock all such threads? If that is the policy, then perhaps he hasn't seen this thread yet, and others which have been alluded to... perhaps someone should report them to him so that he can do his job and delete our posts and lock up our threads, then I'm sure that all of us would get the message of what kind of conversing is too politically hot to handle here. For me, one of the few things that I find truly personally offensive is when people, either in public, in person or on a phone, or in a letter, or on a message board, etc. behave unnecesarily rudely to each other. And I have seen threads that have gone too far in that direction become locked, and some individual posts deleted. So far in this thread and others that you have deemed as too "political" yours is the only voice that that appears to be offended by the subject matter, at least to the degree that you have felt the need to infer as such. If others agree with you and let it be known on in this particular thread, I will delete all my posts here. And perhaps not write another for fear of your, or someone elses offense. But if you are just looking for someplace to vent some personal frustration, and this thread in general, or my posts in particular are offensive to you, for whatever reason, may I suggest that you *block me out* so that anything that I may post for or to someone else won't accidently be seen by you and cause you such mental anguish.

SansFin wrote: I am a great believer in cheap learning curves. I agree, and I am generally not the first kid on the block to adopt the "latest" technology... I'd rather someone else do the "beta-testing" and if the product has a good track record I may eventually adopt it. It took me awhile to get my first VHS player/recorder, but if I'd gotten one too soon I may have gone the way of Beta Max. Their technology was superior to VHS, but didn't have the marketing behind them for the variety of titles... sorta like MacIntosh vs generic PCs. Mac used to be undeniable superior in many ways to the early IBM type PCs, but there were far more PCs than Macs and the software became far more diverse and less expensive, so they eventually captured the lion's share of the market. Then my huge collection of VHS tapes became "absolete" and I eventually bought one of those VHS/DVD player/recorders in an effort to transfer my collection to DVD. Now I have an even larger DVD collection, but very few of them are HD, and one day I will likely have to jump another tehno hurdle. But in the meantime I've transferred much of what I have to large hard drives while still maintaining the original DVDs as a second back-up, or vice versa. So my learning curve has been a long one, and likely many may not choose to go that route anyway. But for those of us such as you and I, who have already made the jump to the DVR HD/DVD recorder/players, and we know the advantage of having the built-in tuner. And someone who may not yet be that tehno savvy but has an inkling that that is the way that they will eventually go, I think that our posts will prove to be somewhat helpful, if they happen upon them.

I hate giving China imports, err, Walmart the business, but so far the the only place I've seen these units offered is from their online store. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-HDD-and-DVD-Recorder-with-Digital-Tuner-Choose-Your-Capacity./20710260 They are DVRs with digital tuners and a DVD burner/recorder/player and now they come with Hard drives from 320 gb - 500 gb - 1 tb, as options. I still have a couple I bought years ago with the relatively miniscule 160 gb drives, but they still work great. Recorded 1000's of dvds from them, and they're still holding up. (I only use high quality Taiyo Yuden or genuine Verbatim DVDs for burning and so far I've only averaged one coaster per 200-300 Dvds, far less than 1 percent defect rate, and likely some of those were my fault. And those DVD manufacturers still use the best, longest lived dyes, for maximum lifespan of the DVDs) I like these DVRs because with the built-in tuner and a cable or satellite provider I can program what I want, when I want for as long as the HD capacity allows, then edit and burn what I want to keep, and erase what I don't, when I need back some HD space. For myself and others, they have proven themselves as quite reliable. (one of the bummers with my cable providers is when they interrupt the broadcast with tests, and sometimes there will be provider signal failures or pixilations & freezeups, really frustrating when I play back a recording that I've been looking forward to. But i can always delete it and re-record it if & when it plays again, hopefully with a better signal. Then, if its a keeper, I can always burn it from the HD to a disk for an additional back-up) Also these units belong to me so I don't "rent it" from the cable provider, and so far I haven't encountered any blocks to my televised recordings. But then I usually only record from TCM & PBS (both commercial free), sometimes the History channel, discovery channel & animal planet, but those networks are a bummer editing out the commercials when I find something I really want, but I can & have done it, just takes more time to do so. I strongly recommend one of these units over a simple dvd recorder without a hard drive or a tuner.

Is nothing sacred..... *Hyde Park on Hudson*, the new film starring *Bill Murray* as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, opens in theaters Friday in limited release... Thanks hlywdkjk, i wasn't aware of this one... It looks like a "gots to see" for me.

Recorder's on.... I'm going home to watch it in a few minutes... Going to be a great movie night, tonight!

Thanks Clore, yep, the two do look as if they could be, well, if not exactly twins, close brothers in appearance.

{font:Calibri}It seems like the world has barely missed it so many times by simply having the right person in the right place during a very, very bad, wrong time…. and decisions that may have gone one way at another time, went in an opposite direction, by virtue of that critical individual having learned from a past bad experience. {font}{font:Calibri} *Case in point*, had not a former navy lieutenant JG, turned young president elect been cow towed by his heavily lauded military advisers (generals & admirals who were once his superiors) into acquiescing to a failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, would that same president have had the gumption to go with his gut and defy the almost overwhelming advice to invade Cuba in October 1962, by those same military advisers, thus, amidst a host of mounting, harrowing events, narrowly avoiding WW3? {font}{font:Calibri} *Likewise*, had not a young executive officer *Vasili Arkhipov* been aboard the soviet ballistic nuclear submarine K-19 in July 1961, and experienced the horror of radiation poisoning first hand when that sub barely averted a reactor meltdown at the cost of several heroic crewmen, and exposed others, including Vasili, to levels of radiation that would later be their cause of death… would that same Vasili Arkhipov, aboard another nuclear-armed Soviet submarine B-59 ordered to Cuba in October 1962, had a similar gumption that allowed him to defy and counter the order of the sub's captain to launch nuclear-tipped torpedos, when he believed that a war had already begun…??? {font}{font:Calibri}*Had he not*, that action would also have set off a cascade of irreversible events leading to WW3… {font}{font:Calibri} And as others have mentioned, there have been, many, many, more, almost too close to call incidents, both before and even more since that dark time, that could have easily tipped the second hand of the doomsday clock past the midnight hour…. It is almost miraculous that it hasn’t happened… yet. {font}{font:Calibri} Here are a few of those close-call links {font}*NOVA False Alarms in the Nuclear Age* http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/nuclear-false-alarms.html *Boston Globe SOVIETS CLOSE TO USING A-BOMB IN 1962 CRISIS, FORUM IS TOLD* http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cold-war/sovietsbomb.htm *Wikipedia Stanislav Petrov* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov *New York Times Same Cuba Crisis, Different Angles: 50 Years LaterCuban Missile Crisis Revisited on PBS* http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/arts/television/cuban-missile-crisis-revisited-on-pbs.html?_r=0 *PBS Secrets of the Dead The Man Who Saved the World: Program Transcript* http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/transcripts/the-who-saved-the-world-program-transcript/907/ *Wikipedia Vasili Arkhipov* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov *Mail Online The man who saved the world* http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2208342/Soviet-submariner-single-handedly-averted-WWIII-height-Cuban-Missile-Crisis.html *THE MIRACLE OF OCTOBER: Lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis* http://www.watsoninstitute.org/cuba/OctMiracle.pdf *Truth Addict Cuba: Menace or Victim?* http://truth_addict.blogspot.com/2004/08/cuba-menace-or-victim.html Edited by: Stephan55 on Dec 7, 2012 8:43 PM

Great thread! A little Googling yielded the following, several of which i was aware of, some i was not: *Forrest Gump*: had dub-ins of Kennedy & Johnson & *Gary Sinese* won a Golden Globe Award for his role as *Truman* in 1996. portrayals of Nixon on film: *Anthony Hopkins: Nixon* *Lane Smith: The Final Days* *Jason Robards: Washington: Behind Closed Doors* *Frank Langella:* *Frost/Nixon* *Dan Hedaya: Dick* *Elvis Meets Nixon* *Randy Quaid: LBJ: The Early Years* Didn't *James Cromwell* play Johnson in *The Right Stuff* *G.D. Spradlin*: Andrew Jackson in the 1986 television movie *Houston: The Legend of Texas* and President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1985 mini-series *Robert Kennedy and His Times* *Liev Schreiber* is reportedly cast as Lyndon B. Johnson in the yet to be released historical drama *The Butler*, which is also to include *Alan Rickman* as Reagan, *John Cusack* as Nixon, *Robin Williams* as Eisenhower and *James Marsden* as JFK. portrayals of Kennedy on film: *Cliff Robertson* (the aforementioned) *PT 109* *William Devane* in *The Missiles of October* *Bruce Greenwood* in *Thirteen Days* *Martin Sheen* in *Kennedy* *Cliff De Young* in *Robert F. Kennedy & His Times* *Martin Donovan* in *RFK* *Patrick Dempsey* in *JFK: Reckless Youth* *Paul Rudd* in *Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye* *Charles Frank* in *LBJ: The Early Years* *Sam Chew Jr.* in *Young Joe: The Forgotten Kennedy* *Daniel Day-Lewis*: *Lincoln* I stopped there, for awhile, but I sure we can find a host of others that have yet to be mentioned, along with all those that already have. Looking forward to seeing *Woodrow Wilson* again in Feb, haven't seen that one since i was a kid.

Dargo2 asked: So, CAN a .44 magnum slug actually penetrate an engine block? "Go ahead, make my day" and answer that if ya would, 'cause "I gots'ta know!" BTW, I got a kick out of your Dirty Harry... :^0 In my personal experience, Dargo, no. At least not the heavy iron of that old ford engine block. it had no problem going through everything else in a vehicle though, from one end to the other, through all the heavy sheet metal, but the block stopped the bullet cold and flattened it. To qualify my answer though, I should share that I was using handloaded hard cast semi wadcutter lead bullets, and they would not penetrate 1/4" thick heavy iron plating, let alone an iron engine block. They would either bounce off or flatten against it. Whether a fully jacketed round would have had better luck, don't know, but unless it was AP ammo I'd say no. A GI jacketed 230 grain ball round of .45 acp from a standard 5" barrel would only flatten as well. Even my hand loaded 200 grain semi wadcutters hotloaded with unique at about 1000 fps. My .44s were 240 grain hard cast lead with my standard loads of 2400 powder at over 1200 fps from a 6" tube, but even a few hot loads at close to 1500 fps wouldn't dent the heavy iron so long as the bullets were lead. Different story entirely with a rifle though. my .308 (7.62mm) would send an armor piercing round through that same iron plating, smooth as a hot knife slices butter, and straight through the entire diameter an 18" thick tree it was resting against, and off to disappear in the brush, so I couldn't recover it. Kinda surprized me as I certainly didn't mean to shoot into, let alone all the way through that tree. And secondly: You mentioned Chalome Creek Ranch, and so I suppose you know the significance of that area in regard to how it played a hand in altering a small bit of Hollywood history, right?! if you're talking about James Dean killing himself in his Porshe in 1955 along hwy 46, then yeah, I'm aware of that. I'd take the I5 north and exit east at the Lost Hills hwy 46 exit. Take the 46 (Paso Robles hwy) all the way up to where hwy 41 joins it from the north, then cross over to Cholame Valley Road, and continue north to the ranch. It was at that 41/46 hwy junction that Dean crashed. The land around there is pretty rugged and was quite gamey when I was there. Bobcats, cougars, black bear, badgers, coyotes, deer, and all manner of smaller game and fowl native to California, as well as snakes, lizards and other creepy crawlys. i was there during a dusky fall evening once, when I saw literally thousands of big, black, hairy tarantulas migrating across a road. Not sure where they started from or where they were all headed to, but they were moving in the same direction as if they had a definite purpose, and i wasn't about to stand in their way. kinda erie. :0 I find it ironic how the state animal is the California grizzly bear (Ursus arctos californicus), a subspecies of the great brown bear. Very large, some perhaps as big as its huge Alaskan cousin. In 1866, a grizzly weighing 2,200 pounds was killed in Valley Center, California. And the last one was shot in 1922 in Tulare County. Been extinct in California ever since. Left room for plenty of black bears, though. Then in 1953, 31 years after its extermination, in an act of belated pretentious homage, the same state that once put a bounty upon them decided to honor them and made the extinct California grizzly bear their official State Animal. ?:| The family that owned the Chalome Creek ranch when I was there in the early 70s were very genial. The old man told me about a time when he and his wife were newly weds and they bought a bunch of hogs they were going to raise. Somehow they got into the barn where all the grain and feed was stored and just ate and ate, ... so much grain that it swelled up in their guts before they could digest it and literallty busted them wide open, right there in the barn. He said it was a pretty large barn and was full of bloated, ruptured pigs. Made quite a sickening mess in the summer heat for him and his new bride to see and smell. But she hung in there with him and helped clean the place up. That's when he said he knew that he'd made the right choice in a wife and had a keeper. They'd been married well over twenty-five years when I knew them. Had a couple of sons and a daughter, if i recall correctly. I lost touch with them decades ago, so I have no idea if it's still a working cattle ranch and in the same family or not. i'd like to think so, but if I checked and found out it was sold out and all developed i'd be disappointed... I'd rather remember it the way it was when I had some good times there.

I used to go boar & deer hunting on a ranch near Paso Robles. Chalome Creek Ranch. I'd either go by myself or with a friend or two. The ranch was around 20,000 acres or so. I'd rent a couple of horses, one to pack & one to ride, and be gone for a week. It was great because the only people there were people that the rancher allowed on his land, very few of us. In fact I'd never schedule a visit unless i would be there without other hunters around. So anybody else out there with a rifle was likely a poacher, and my logic was a poacher would be more careful at what he shot at so he wouldn't get caught and I'd be less likely to get shot by another "hunter" on that ranch than I would on public land closer to LA. I really liked the country around there. There were feral & wild hogs, sometimes a big old, almost purebred, Russian boar, descended from imports to the country from long ago... black coarse hair and large tusks, 300-400 pounds. Pretty exciting, especially with a bow or a pistol. Big jack rabbits and small black tail deer, but they were pretty cagey. Sitting around a camp fire at night and stirring up the coyotes with a rabbit call.... I once barely dodged a big ole' owl swooping down at my head from out of a pitch black sky playin' tricks like that! Took off with my hat, and thankfully nothing more... Sometimes I'd spend a week out there and not bag a thing, i'd just commune. Let'n the horses and the land transport me back in time about a hundred years or so. Great times. Closer to LA I used to hike up in the Las Padres National Forest, way above lake Piru. The old California Condor refuge. I remember this abandoned cabin in the forest. I used to check it out, and think about the people that used to live there way back when. Old oil lamp smoke stains on the walls and ceiling. wood burning stove. It was actually more of a small house than a cabin, had a couple of bedrooms and a parlar-like living room. Some old furniture and beds still in there, but it looked like it hadn't been lived in it permanent for a long time, many years, I'd guessed. Campers had since messed the inside up and somebody had shot up the place, and used the old truck there for target practice too. It was already full of holes, so I figured it wouldn't matter much if I added one more. I wanted to see if a .44 mag would really penetrate an engine block as I'd heard it could.... One day I was up there and met this old timer hang'n out at the cabin. i began talk'n to him about the place, turned out that it belonged to him. His family had owned it as a small ranch when he was a kid, before the National Forest moved in. The government bought out the ranches around him and eventually he was surrounded by National Forest. I asked how long it'd been since he'd lived there. He said just last year. He and his wife had left the place for a month to travel and visit his extended and far flung family, when they came back home intruders had vandalized his place to the point it was practically uninhabitable. It broke his heart. His wife couldn't bear to look at it the way it was, and was staying down off the mountain, with a sister I think. Every time he left to get some material to bring back to try and fix the place back up there'd be more man-made damage when he returned. He couldn't bear to leave the place for fear of what he'd find when he got back. He said it was "like try'n to swat at a swarm of bees, you may smack down one or two, but you'd still end up gettin' stung all to hell." I really liked that old guy. I liked him so much that I told him that one of those holes in his truck came from me. I said I wouldn't have done it if there hadn't already been several shots in it already. He said "That's how it happens. There's always somebody that goes first, and then others think it's okay to follow. Just too close to LA, I guess. People get up into the hills and just go wild. They have no respect for the people and critters that live out there... They just go wild." I never dreamt that anybody had just lived there, or still did. I've always felt bad about that. I've carried his memory with me from California, throughout the states, to Canada, Alaska, and beyond. To this day whenever I'm out in the boondocks and come accross some old place that may look abandoned I think about him, and his little house in the woods. During my survivalist days I'd always cross out Las Padres as a place to retreat to... Too damn close to LA. I wonder if the Chalome creek Ranch is still there??? Or is that land developed now with little ranchettes all over the hills? I love the mountains in Arizona, especially around Flagstaff. Like an alpine island in a sea of desert. I once thought that would be a great place to live, except for the difficulty of getting water. Funny too because of all the winter snow, one would never think of water being a problem, except maybe having too much of it in the spring. But the cost of sinking a well is practically prohibitive there. I have a friend from Alaska who bought a "cheap" condo near Scottsdale. She spends her summers in AK and her winters in AZ. Seems to work for her. Fred mentioned Californians retiring to other states: "This type of thing has ruined a lot of nice little towns in the West, by becoming overcrowded and over priced because of LA money suddenly being poured into them" i used to live in the quaint little town of Grants Pass, OR. Some neighbors from Southern Cali "discovered it," sold their LA homes and moved up. Last time I was there Grants Pass wasn't quaint anymore! Thomas Wolfe was right when he wrote, "*You can't go home again*" (his last novel, 1940). Somebody mentioned Italy. Beautiful country, especially northern Italy and the hills of Tuscany. And god, so much history, everywhere. I love Italy. All except maybe walking the streets of Naples. There was a sanitation strike when I was there last... garbage piled high from the sidewalk out into the street, in large piles, on practically every street.. on both sides. People briskly walking around it, covering their noses because of the smell. Some of the streetside shop owners setting it on fire out of frustration. Crazy. And crossing the streets down there was nuts too! Traffic rushing in front and behind, trying to gauge your pedestrian speed and trajectory. No crosswalks that anybody paid attention too! Very chaotic. Never stop walking once you begin to cross a street in Naples. what a contrast from the regimentation of countries further north. It amazed me that I never saw a street fatality while I was there. But aside from that beautiful... and tasty. I first fell inlove with gelato there! I'd buy some of the largest, juciest and sweetest oranges I'd ever tasted from fruit peddlers near Vesuvius. The size of large grapefruits. Whatever fruit and vegetables one wanted, if it was grown there, was some of the most delicious in the world. Sepiatone wrote: But interestingly, the Inuit don't HAVE a word for the act of sex. THEY refer to it as "laughing". And they certainly do "laugh" a lot. There is a rural "village" population explosion that's been taking place in Alaska... among the indigenous peoples. But then there isn't much else to do during the long winter night, I suppose.

To quote Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," (A Tale of Two Cities, 1859) growing up as a member of the "baby boom" generation in the 50s & 60s. I spent much of my early youth in the South Bay Area of Southern Cali. Grandview & Ladera in Manhattan Beach were my elementary schools, and Aviation was the newest addition of a triad of South Bay High schools that also included Mira Costa & Redondo High. It was a fearfully wonderful time to be born! Jonas Salk had developed a vaccine against the dreaded polio virus in 1952, and in a practically unheard of today gesture of humanity refused to patent his vaccine. His sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit. When he was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" The successful vaccine was made public on April 12, 1955, Later oral polio vaccines were developed by several groups, including one led by Albert Sabin. While at the same time as Dr. Salk was being hailed as a "miracle worker," for the good of mankind, in 1952 the duality of a schizophrenic and bipolar human nature again revealed itself. On November 1, 1952, the United States successfully detonated the world's first hydrogen bomb, on the Elugelab Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands, near Bikini Atoll. With a giant leap, in a few short years mankind had propelled itself from the atomic age to the thermonuclear atomic age. Three years later, on November 22, 1955, the Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb, and the world jumped from living under the mere threat of nuclear war (since the first Soviet atomic bomb detonation in August 1949) to living under the even greater threat of thermonuclear war for the first time in history. As one agent of debilitating destruction was being overcome, another was being created. Like the letters of Love & Hate on the knuckles of a twisted psychopathic Reverend Harry Powell in NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, it appears to be human nature to outdo its capacity for good with a propensity for evil. And if nuclear weapons were not bad enough, we also include in our arsenal of self destruction an array of devastating biologic & chemical agents as well. While we eradicated the scourge of smallpox in the wild in the 1970s, we stockpiled and mutated it in the lab, weaponizing it to even greater strains of viralence. And hold mankind hostage with the threat of it's release... As in the past, in the 1950s - 1960s and beyond, it seemed like the biggest, most imminent threat to mankind was and is man himself, and our pervasive obsession with the weapons and indulgence in war. *Duck and Cover* (the 1951-52 public service animated short film) was mandatory viewing at my elementary school, where we would practice crawling under our wooden desks to protect us from a nuclear fireball. The irony of the act did not entirely escape many of us at the time as we tried with all our might to believe the adult gibberish that this simple act would save us when the alarm went off and the blinding light flashed. I guess most of us wished we had an impervious armor shell to carry around with us like Bert the turtle (tortoise). Of course by the time I viewed the film with any cognition we had already advanced to the age of thermonuclear megatonage hydrogen bombs, that made the earlier 20 plus kiloton bombs appear like pipsqueak firecrackers by contrast. I'd watch the 1939 animated feature "*Peace on Earth*," A cartoon short by Hugh Harman - where animals rebuild a post-apocalyptic world after humanity has fought wars to the point of extinction, which seemed quaintly antiquated, even to my preadolescent eyes, as the last two animated human soldiers, adorned with WW1 gas masks and bolt-action rifles, shot at each other from opposing trenches. And yet those gas masks they wore hinted at another invisible agent, as deadly and even more frightening perhaps than a bullet. And the concept of invisible but deadly residual radioactivity was equally difficult for most of us to grasp at that tender age, but knowing that it existed and what it could do scared the bedickens out of most of us. *Walk Home Drills*, where once a month, on a friday, when the alarms went off, we kids would hold hands and gather in long lines shepherded by teachers and parent volunteers, down the the diverging roads to our various homes, breaking off in ever smaller and smaller groups, until we were finally escorted to our individual doors. There to be greeted by our stay-at-home moms, where we hoped we would be safe. Of course the reality of the act was to bring us all home so we could die with our parents, as a family unit. In my case, being a latch-key kid, I awaited for my atypical single parent mother to get off work while I played with my toy army men and tried to anticipate the meaning of the end of the world. Public, backyard & basement *fallout shelters* were the rage, for those who could afford or gain access to one. I found the thought comforting that no matter how bad it may become...above ground, for those who could stay deep enough and long enough under ground, could be found the solace of safety. Then a college aged babysitter forever shattered that illusion for me when she said that no matter how well sheltered one could be, if they resided in a target zone they would not survive, not with the then current weapons of the day. And for those that were far enough away to dig themselves out, the world that awaited them would be an unsustainable toxic hell. New acronymes became part of our childish vernacular such as *MIRV* (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles or warheads, and *MAD* (the doctrine of mutually assured destruction) as the two leading adversarial nuclear powers of the day continually escalated the cost of armageddon folly. The world had barely escaped the real-time penalty for the consequences of our joint actions in Oct 1962, when, by the grace of providence, two sane hands (in a sea of militaristic jingoism) relented in "pulling the ends of a nuclear knot so tightly that it could not forever be undone." The concept of *Detente* (easing of tensions or strained relations) was implemented... The result was a hotline established so that the leadership of these two nations could communicate more directly, and less encumbered by the easily misconstrued language of miltary gesticulations. In 1963 a *Partial Test Ban Treaty* was signed and above ground atmospheric nuclear testing was finally banned, allowing the air to become somewhat easier to breathe, though the scent of strontium still permeated. But alas, another proxy war soon evolved and the chant of "Better Dead than Red," and "Blast'em back to the stone age" could be heard echoing down the long halls of the pentagon, and by some influential and vociferous persons in practically every community. Eisenhower's lame duck warning against a too powerful *military–industrial–congressional complex* went unheeded ( http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html ) as we throttled ourselves headlong, with ever accelerating break-neck speed, to oblivion. Although a *Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)* was signed in 1968, it only succeeded in an agreement among the then world nuclear powers (and coincidentally? 5 permanent members of the UN) the United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and, the then new-kid on the block, Red China that only they would be allowed to wield the nuclear stick, but NPT did not limit the number of how many sticks each of them could carry in their nuclear basket. However, once released, the nuclear genie was not likely to voluntarily contain himself again, and one by one, future non-NPT signatory nations would crash the exclusivity of the nuclear party. But at least, in theory, the door was cracked alittle further to allow future negotiations to enter. Eventually, as the South/East Asian fiasco eventually toned down, or perhaps as a sideline to it, *SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)* began... Round one in 1972... Could the two super powers agree that there was no need to further increase their respective nuclear arsenals after all tactical & strategic military and industrial primary targets could be blown to smitherines multiple times, and the excuse to gather ever more arms to cover secondary and tertiary, ad infinitum, population centers, likewise, could no longer be justified... I mean how many times did we really need to destroy each other, wasn't once enough? SALT II was finally agreed to in 1979, then the US used the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as an excuse not to ratify their end.... By god, we'd show them Ruskies and the rest of the world that what was good for Paul did not apply to Peter... And in a childish display of cutting-off our own nose to spite our face... we eventually withdrew from SALT alltogether in 1986. We had a president who said that *Star Wars* was no longer just a movie... at least that was the propaganda spewed. The *Doomsday clock* was poised at 1 minute to midnite when, Fortunately for the world (including us), the other side had a younger and even saner sounding president. His administration had inherited an un-win-able war that was draining the manpower, morale and economy of his country, with no end in sight... They were broke, facing economic collapse and ruin, and despite their nuclear parity with the west, they couldn't find the funds to combat this fantastical Star Wars innovation that threatened to totally undo the hitherto restraining logic of the MAD doctrine. As result the term *"Perestroika"* (restructuring) and *"glasnost"* (openness) eased into the common vernacular in 1986, eventually leading to *START I & II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties)* in 1991 and 1992 respectively, which was, if not a 180 degree turnaround, at least a pause, and stopped the second hand of the doomsday clock from inching ever closer to zero hour... at least for a moment, by placing specific caps on each side's number of nuclear weapons. Since then, the world and its leaders have taken steps both forward and backward to reversing the movement of the big hand of the doomsday clock. Proponents of nuclear disarmament say that it would lessen the probability of nuclear war occurring, especially accidentally. Critics of nuclear disarmament say that it would undermine deterrence, and if nuclear weapons were completely eliminated, it would destroy the current *Nuclear peace* the world is experiencing and would make the large *Conventional wars*, common before the Nuclear age, far more likely. Of course this says nothing of the growing myriad of other *WMDs* that are available to practically any nation or well financed or insidiously creative group that seeks to acquire them. At least in the late 80s, for a brief moment, we had the elusive whiff of a possibility of world peace... However for persons such as myself, who became the first generation of the world to be born under the spectre of nuclear holocaust, the "damage" was already done. For some peculiar reason, I, and others like me, gravitated to the very thing we feared most. I watched & then read whatever apocalyptic movies and books were accessible to me. Granted, I did watch and read many other things as well, but I had a special, perhaps morbid, fascination with what a post-apocalyptical world might be like. As i began my commentary to Dargo2's thread, I compiled a partial list of these types of books and movies, and books that became movies, that I exposed myself to during those formative and turbulent 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond, and I've come to the realize that they have become an influential part of me, and my pragmatic, some would say cynical, and maybe even pessimistic nature. But I think that there are many of us still around who perhaps have seen and read the same, and perhaps share a kindred outlook as result of the times and the media that made us. *Sci-Fi Films:* *Five* (1951) *When Worlds Collide* (1951) *The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms* (1953) suggested by a Ray Bradbury short story "The Fog Horn" *Them!* (1954) *Godzilla* (Gojira) 1954 Japanese *Animal Farm* (1954) animated film based on the 1945 allegorical book by George Orwell. *Day the World Ended* (1955) *1984* (1956 film) written by George Orwell in 1948 (Big Brother, and endless, mindless wars to maintain a perpetual state of martial law and populace obedience.) *Invasion of the Body Snatchers* (1956) Based on the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney *The World, the Flesh and the Devil* (1959) adapted from the 1901 Novel "The Purple Cloud" by M.P. Shiel *On the Beach* (1959 film) based on the 1957 novel by Nevil Shute *THE TIME MACHINE* (1960) 1895 novel by H. G. Wells, among a host of other Wells' doom & gloom apocalyptic & post apocalyptic novels later turned to celluloid: The War of the Worlds (1898), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), among many others *The Last Woman on Earth* (1960) *The Final War* (1960) Japanese *The Last War* (1961) Japanese *Mondo Cane* (A Dog's World) (1962) *Panic in the Year Zero!* (1962) *This Is Not a Test* (1962) *The Day of the Triffids* (1962 film) Based on a novel by John Wyndham (in the novel, the Triffids seem to have been bioengineered on Earth, while in the film they were aliens who arrived as spores in a meteor shower). *The Birds* (1963 film) (1952 story by Daphne du Maurier) *Fail-Safe* (1964) (1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler) *Dr. Strangelove* (1964) based on the 1958 novel "Red Alert" by Peter George *The Last Man on Earth* (1964) based on the 1954 novel "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson also adapted as *The Omega Man* (1971 film) and *I Am Legend* (2007 film) *Twilight Zone episodes* like "Time Enough at Last" (1959); "Two" (1961); and "The Old Man in the Cave" (1963) *Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea* (1961 movie) *The Day the Earth Caught Fire* (1964 film) *The War Game* (1965) BBC *Planet of the Apes* (1968 film) based on the 1963 French novel "La Planète des singes," known in English as "Planet of the Apes" or "Monkey Planet," by Pierre Boulle *The Bed Sitting Room* (1969 film) *No Blade of Grass* (1970 film) based on the 1956 novel by John Christopher *The Omega Man* (1971) *Silent Running* (1972) *Soylent Green* (1973 film) based on the 1966 novel "Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry Harrison *Where Have All The People Gone?* (1974 film) *A Boy and His Dog* (1975 film) based on the 1969 novella by Harlan Ellison *Logan's Run* (1975 film) *Survivors* (1975–1977 BBC series) *Meteor* (1979 film) *Quintet* (1979 film) *Mad Max* (1979 film) *Blade Runner* (1982) based on the 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' by Philip K. Dick *The Day After* (1983) *Testament* (1983 film) *War Games* (1983 film) *Threads* (1984 film) BBC *The Terminator* (1984 film) *The Quiet Earth* (1985 film) adapted from the 1981 novel by Craig Harrison *Cherry 2000* (1987 film) *Millennium* (1989 film) *Deep Impact* (1998 film) *Armageddon* (1998 film) *The Handmaid's Tale* (1990 film) based on the 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood *Waterworld* (1995 film) *The Postman* (1997 film) based on the 1985 novel by David Brin *Life After People* (2008 film) ___________________________________________________________________ Some additional *Sci-Fi Fiction* novels that I have been drawn to, some which seem almost prophetic in retrospect, and others, perhaps just wishful thinking: *The Last Man* (1826) novel by Mary Shelley *The Purple Cloud* (1901) novel by M.P. Shiel *The Machine Stops* (1909) short story by E. M. Forster *The Scarlet Plague* (1912) novel by Jack London *The Night Land* (1912) novel by William Hope Hodgson *Mr. Adam* (1946) novel by Pat Frank - a nuclear power plant explosion renders the entire male population infertile. *Earth Abides* (1949) novel by George R. Stewart *War The Chrysalids* (1955) novel by John Wyndham - U.S. title: "Re-Birth" about the aftermath of a nuclear war in a rural Canadian community. *The Death of Grass* (1956) novel by John Christopher - A virus that destroys plants causes massive famine and the breakdown of society. Made into the 1970 film "No Blade of Grass" *Level Seven* (1959) novel by Mordecai Roshwald *The Wind from Nowhere* (1961) novel by J.G. Ballard - The World is progressively destroyed by increasingly powerful winds *The Drowned World* (1962) novel by J.G. Ballard - Climate change causes world flooding. *The Wanting Seed* (1962) novel by Anthony Burgess - Global over-population and famine leads to mass chaos. *The Drought* (1964) novel by J.G. Ballard - A super drought eventually evaporates all water on earth. *Greybeard* (1964) novel by Brian Aldiss - The human race becomes sterile. *Time of the Great Freeze* (1964) novel by Robert Silverberg - Another ice-age has engulfed the earth. *Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb* (1965) novel by Philip K. Dick *The Genocides* (1965) novel by Thomas Disch - Alien flora is seeded on Earth, and quickly comes to dominate all landmasses, threatening Human extinction. *A Wrinkle in the Skin* (1965) novel (US title: The Ragged Edge) by John Christopher - Civilization is destroyed by massive worldwide earthquakes *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream* (1967) short story by Harlan Ellison *The God Machine* (1968) and *Cyborg*, novels by Martin Caidin which were adapted into the 1970s television series, "The Six Million Dollar Man." *Stand on Zanzibar* (1968) novel by John Brunner - Set in a future of extreme over-population. *Incredible Tide* (1970) novel by Alexander Key *Inconstant Moon* (1971) novel by Larry Niven *Malevil* (1972) novel by French writer Robert Merle *There Will Be Time* (1972) novel by Poul Anderson *The Sheep Look Up* (1972) novel by John Brunner - The United States is overwhelmed by environmental irresponsibility. *The End Of The Dream* (1972) novel by Philip Wylie *The Last Canadian* (1974) novel by William C. Heine *The Stand* (1978) novel by Stephen King *The Zone* (1980) novel series by James Rouch *Trinity's Child* (1983) novel by William Prochnau *The Fourth Horseman* (1985) novel by Alan E. Nourse *Nature's End* (1986) novel by Whitley Strieber *A Gift Upon the Shore* (1990) novel by M. K. Wren *The Children of Men* (1992) novel by P. D. James *The Hot Zone* (1994) non-fiction by Richard Preston *Resurrection Day* (1999) novel by Brendan DuBois *The World Without Us* (2005) non-fiction book by Alan Weisman *The Road* (2006) novel by Cormac McCarthy *World Made By Hand* (2008) novel by James Kunstler Plus a host of intriguing books by Kurt Vonnegut, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, Isaac Asimov, and many others. As for the future, well I'm not making any serious plans until after December 21, 2012 (the end of the Mayan calendar)

THE LOVED ONE is a real satirical hoot... Great cameo's and even had me embarrassed for mama's little joy boy... Amazing range for Steiger. thinking of him in such dramatic roles as OTWF, et al, and contrast that with TLO. Then Brando was really out there in MISSOURI BREAKS & his rendition of Dr. Moreau, as well.... And some of the stuff he came up with in MUTINY was off the wall. Real tongue-in-cheek Great offbeat characters.. all! Reminded me of Stacy Keach, Jr. in BREWSTER McCLOUD... "bird doo-doo, Brewster, that's bird doo-doo..." I used to watch the Jonathan Winters Show on TV when I was a kid, the guy was such a quick wit, he was amazing... Ever see him and Robin Williams trade spontaneous banter? Robin & Jonathan are two of a kind and really feed off each other... literally crazy stuff! Happy belated B Day Johnny! & thanks for the memories & many smiles!

That's it, UNTAMED. Great film. I just checked out Amazon where I've been on their notification list for ages waiting for the DVD to become available, then I saw the rent/buy section with UNTAMED, as well as AMERICAN GUERILLA IN THE PHILIPPINES & KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES, 2 other Ty films I haven't seen for way to long. I've downloaded MP3 music from Amazon, but not a movie. Is it the same principal? what format is it in? Would it allow me to burn a DVD from it later, or would I be restricted to watching it from a computer or (god forbid) a kindle screen? Update... I've read what Amazon says about downloading their videos, it does not specify the format other than AMAZON INSTANT VIDEO (whatever that is) and it sounds like you must have the AMAZON VIDEO PLAYER software installed to view what ever one downloads to buy or streams. I wonder if it would even allow me to convert to a DVD TS file or not???? Has anybody downloaded a video from Amazon and burned a DVD player compatible DVD from it? Or would it be better to just buy the Spanish/English region 2 PAL DVD version then convert the file to region free NSTC then burn a standard DVD TS format and watch it from any dvD player I wish? A lot of steps, but if tcm won't play these movies for us without waiting for ages, then I guess that's another, albeit inferior option...

Okay Mate, I signed yer petition. Gave my AK address, but I'll be down in the lower 48 for a while yet, so if they send me any info by snail mail it'll be awhile in forwarding it to me. In the northland I've never been further east than Alberta, but spent time in BC, NW Territory, & the Yukon. Quality TV has always been a treat wherever I've been. Hopefully if/when I get back north again, on the east side, SNATM will still be around to enjoy. Aaaaayyyy!