Buttered Pop Culture

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is an author of mostly horror stories, who has also dabbled in doing psychic readings, cartography, and musical composition. She is best known for her books about a vampire named Count Saint-Germain. She has won the Bram Stoker lifetime achievement award and the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement. She has worked with many other authors on collaborations and also published under at least 5 other pseudonyms. Signs and Portents is a collection of her short stories. Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darlin' kicks off this collection. It's about a man who begins to get newspaper clippings about his own death in an accident. At first he thinks it's just a mean spirited prank. But as it continues on it starts getting to him, keeping him from enjoying his new promotion. He goes out of his way to not be in the area of the accident during the time period involved. But of course Fate is not a mistress who can be spurned, as the gentleman finds out in the twist end

Charles Schulz is the cartoonist who became famous for introducing us to lovable characters like good old Charlie Brown, wise beyond his years Linus and the most imaginative dog ever, Snoopy. The strip, and the characters, have been known to us for decades as Peanuts. Chuck didn't choose this name though. It was foisted on him by the publisher and he said that he always disliked it, calling it perhaps the worst title for a comic strip ever. He said he would have called it Good Old Charlie Brown. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have the pull to get his way in those matters until Peanuts was well established.  Had things gone differently for Schulz, instead of getting famous for drawing a dog he might have worked in relative obscurity drawing the world's most famous mouse. Charles applied for a job at Walt Disney, but did not get the job. It may have taken him longer to get established, but he and the world became all the richer for it.

Marvel Two-In-One had the same concept as Marvel Team-Up except instead of Spider-Man this book had characters teaming up with the everlovin' blue eyed Thing. This issue catches the Thing in a desert town on his way back from a recent throw down with the Hulk. He sees a headline about the Man Thing and decides there can only be one "thing". He decides to go to the swamps Man Thing calls home to have it out with the beast. Although Ben is the one acting beastly, reducing the clerk at the bus depot to tears with his bullying.  We then go to the Molecule Man on his death bed, who passes on his knowledge and power to his son so that he can get posthumous revenge on the Fantastic Four. The new Molecule Man ends up in the swamp and has a brief encounter with the 2 Things. He decides to make them both human again so Ben can watch him kill the other members of the FF. They all end up in the nearby town, when MM inexplicably decides to put both men back into their monster forms, t

Tom Hanks is often considered to be one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. He not the kind to have beef with anyone. And if there is one person in Tinseltown who has a reputation as being nicer than Hanks, it's Henry Winkler. Who could possibly dislike either of these men? Well, for many years they did not care for each other. It apparently began in 1989 when Winkler was directing Hanks in the movie Turner and Hooch. They apparently did not work well together, and the decision was made to replace Winkler. He apparently blamed Hanks for his dismissal, and there was bad blood for a long time. Henry would take the occasional jab at Tom in interviews, saying he got along better with the dog in the movie than he did with the human star. Both men were upset enough about the state of affairs between them that they confided in mutual friend Ron Howard. They eventually mended fences, ending possibly the most unlikely feud in showbiz history. Ironically a few years before their real life spat

The 2nd episode picks up where the 1st left off, which may not seem that big a deal these days but most comedies back then (and for decades after) didn't have stories than ran through multiple episodes. We begin with Kate and the girls trying to keep Mr. Bedloe from the railroad company asleep so that the train can leave, giving them more time to convince him not to take away the train. Uncle Joe is of course confused and tries to take charge of the plans, but finds himself always two steps behind Kate. However Bedloe seems unmovable. A great meal doesn't budge him. Sentiment doesn't faze him in the slightest. In fact he goes so far to show what a jerk he is that he steals the chair from the Shady Rest hotel. There are some funny bits where they convince Bedloe he is going to Hooterville when in fact his train car has been left behind, and when he is using a hand cart to get there and meets the train headed back. Finally Kate to him in the one way he can be gotten, his pock

The Wrecking Crew is probably more famous now as the movie Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate goes to see herself in in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood than it is in it's own right. But at the time it was the fourth movie in a series that starred one of the most popular entertainers of it's era, Dean Martin. One thing that has to be said up front, the movie is a product of it's time. There are jokes that seem at least mildly offensive now. The attitudes are at times practically Neanderthal. If we're being honest, this movie was made to aim squarely at middle aged men and teenaged boys. Women constantly throw themselves at Matt Helm, and do so wearing as few clothes as the standards of the time would permit. Much of the movie consists of women suddenly showing up looking like this or this or this or this and Dean Martin reacting like this If you're looking for serious intrigue or action, this is the wrong movie. The plot seems almost incidental. Th

 Bill Haley seems like an unlikely rock star. A pudgy guy who had been in some country bands, Bill was in his 30's when he recorded Rock Around the Clock with the Comets. There is a lot of debate about the first rock song, and it definitely wasn't Rock Around the Clock. But while it wasn't first, it was the one that broke open the dam. After the song was in the movie Blackboard Jungle rock and roll was huge, and Bill Haley and the Comets were the face of rock and roll for many people. They had a string of hits, made a movie, and got so popular the Haley was beating Elvis in reader polls for best male singer in magazines well into 1956. Haley also had to put up with his fair share of racist crap. He was picketed by white supremacist groups, not only for having the audacity to play what they referred to as "jungle music". He also played on bills with black artists and bands. Sometimes The Comets were the only white people in a revue. He also insisted on only playing