August 31, 2006

The September issue is up at the Wet Noodle Posse ezine, featuring a column by yours truly about The Top Ten Grammar Mistakes for Writers. (As if I’m an expert; but Trish let me write it anyway. She only had to make two edits!)

Since I’ve got nothing else to say, let’s try another Name That Hunk.

This one’s probably too easy (heck, I thought my Deadliest Animal trivia was hard…), but it’s nice eye candy anyway.

August 31, 2006

I saw the news story that the fossil of a vicious prehistoric whale has been discovered. Apparently, the whale grew only to about eleven feet, but had teeth one and a half inches long. Sounds like he was a nasty little thing–little meaning relative to average whale-size.

When I was reading about that, I found a list of the Top 10 Deadliest Animals and started reading through it.

Number Ten surprised me: the poison-dart frog, which has enough venom to kill 10 humans. And I thought frogs were cute!

But rest of the list wasn’t too surprising:

9. The Cape Buffalo, which charges its prey and predators head-on with over 1500 pounds. Yeah.

8. Polar Bear

7. Elephant

6. Australian Saltwater Crocodile

5. African Lion

4. Great White Shark

3. Australian Box Jellyfish (enough toxins to kill 60 humans)

2. Asian Cobra (50,000 deaths a year)

Until I got to number one.

The Number One Deadliest Creature is responsible for over 2 million deaths a year. A tiny, tiny thing.

Any guesses?

August 30, 2006

It’s come to light that a recent “professional” photo of Katie Couric, which is printed in CBS’s WATCH! magazine, has been airbrushed to make her look 20 lbs thinner. (Good grief, where’s an airbrush when you need one!)

Katie claims she didn’t know about the airbrushed picture until she saw it, and says she likes the original better. “Because there’s more of me to love.”

Yeah. Right. I’m guessing she’s just bummed they got caught making such an obvious change.

August 30, 2006

The witty and talented Megan Frampton (no relation to Peter…she claims) mentioned her opinion of the sexiest song the other day (amidst several other items).

That got me to thinking. It’s about time I made a new mix on my Rhapsody playlist, and I’d like to make one of se-exxy songs because I’m getting ready to start a new project. I need to be in the mood, you see.

So, name one I should put on there. Just one. C’mon, you can do it!

I’ve already got “Use Me” by Bill Withers, courtesy of Megan. And my favorite sexy song, “Everybody Here Wants You” by the late great Jeff B.

So what else do I need on there if I want to get in the mood?

August 29, 2006

When I was doing my poll about classic stories a few weeks ago, I got to thinking about The Scarlet Pimpernel, and the movie version I’d seen back in the Glory Days (the ’80s), and so I put it near the top of my Netflix queue.

My Music Man and I watched it the other night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. While he was admiring the young Jane Seymour (who, of course, played Marguerite), I was getting an eyeful of Anthony Andrews.

Anyone remember him? He did a fabulous job as Sir Percy Blakeney, but his most famous role was that of Sebastian in Brideshead Revisited. He also went on to play Ivanhoe in the TV movie version of that classic.

Mr. Andrews is still tapped for TV movies. In 2000, he played Mr. Murdstone in David Copperfield (I believe it was a BBC or A&E version), and he was cast as Dr. Moriarty in a version of Sherlock Holmes in the 90s.

That got me to thinking of other TV-movie heartthrobs. They seem to be breed of their own, don’t they? They don’t usually get very far beyond their television movies, at least as far as acting goes.

There was Andrew Stevens, too, who at the time I liked better than Anthony Andrews. Stevens played Philip Kent in the TV versions of The Bastard and The Rebel.

Speaking of which, weren’t those great books? I read them first in 8th grade, but reread them again when I was in high school and taking American History…and wow, did they all make so much sense at that point!

I reread them again in college, and I think I’m about due to read them again. I loved those family sagas (Belva Plain, John Jakes, the Wagons West series, and of course, my all-time favorite: Roberta Gellis’s Roselynde Chronicles). I wish they’d come back. My favorite character in the whole Kent Family Chronicles was Gideon Kent in The Americans. I would have liked to see a movie of that one!

Anyway, as far as TV movie heartthrobs go, I can only think of one who made it beyond the small screen flick to the big screen. There may be others, but the one who comes to mind for me is Orry Main, from North & South–Patrick Swayze.

Any others you can think of? Who do you remember as one of those ’80s TV movie stars?

(and, sink me! if there isn’t a bit of a discussion going on over at Dance Chica’s about The Scarlet Pimpernel book, which I haven’t read, yet, but enjoyed lurking on the discussion anyway…)