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Today’s header is a clip from “Without a Clue.” More info here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/without-a-clue

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"Without a Clue" is one of my favorite films!!! How did you know about it, MG? I strenuously recommend Wonkers to check it out immediately. Plus beautiful score from Henry Mancini

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Sep 12, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

I definitely heard that dialog in Michael Caine's voice.

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Who dat?

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Isn't he playing Sherlock?

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KInd of. He's an actor playing Sherlock, Ben Kingsley is Watson who does the detectiving...amazing performances from both Sirs :))

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Thanks! I never saw the movie, so I didn't know. Sounds fun, actually.

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This is so far above me.

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Sep 13, 2023·edited Sep 13, 2023

Try it, you'll like it. Promise!

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Sep 12, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

"Dear God, Glams, I ejaculated, how on earth do you do it!"

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(a sampling of the prose that turned one of my sons into a Sherlock Holmes fan/sn)

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Me too.

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Honey, it happens around here all the time.

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author

Elementary, my dear Menotsure!

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Sep 12, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

For the love of god- "Menotsure"?!

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Sep 12, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

Really fun movie.

And I used to think Jeffrey Jones was a great character actor is many great films (Amadeus, Beetlejuice, Ferris Bueller) until he turned out to be a pedo creep.

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I thought that jones was eventually exonerated?

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I have yet to see the movie, but it's on the lst ()

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author

Oh wow, I didn't know that about him. Gross.

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Sep 12, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador

his creeping around Bueller's house seems to fit.

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Nice!

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Keep Calm and Wonkette On!

Cheerio, then.

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WHAR BASIL RATHBONE?

WHAR BENEDICT TIMOTHY CARLTON CUMBERBATCH?

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What, nothing about Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman in "Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother"?

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Sep 13, 2023·edited Sep 13, 2023

Another favorite film, directed by Mr. Wilder. Make it a double feature

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Basil Rathbone loses a million points by being paired with the worst Watson. Not just a fat clownish moron, but one who actually damaged the perception of the character in popular culture. Watson isn't an obese bumbler, but thanks to the Rathbone movies that's the image that comes to mind for people.

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I've liked several Holmeses. One that saddens me now is Vasily Livanov, whose Russian-language TV series was seriously excellent. Now Livanov is crowding 90, and a backer of the Ukrainian invasion, alas.

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Basil has left the area. He thinks you all are cheap and stupid. Go to your dwellings now.

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Sep 12, 2023·edited Sep 12, 2023

Modern Holmeses are okay, and I loved Jeremy Brett, but later episodes are lacking. Lately I prefer the 1965 Holmes TV show starring Douglas Wilmer, then later Peter Cushing. Nigel Stock was a good Watson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(1965_TV_series) I also liked the 1954 TV show starring Ronald Howard (son of Leslie Howard) and Marion Crawford as Watson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(1954_TV_series)

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Best Holmes: Jonny Lee Miller

Best Watson: Lucy Liu

I would accept arguments about best Holmes, but NOT about best Watson.

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I loved that show. Even made me forget his brother was in British intelligence, so that felt shocking when it happened.

Last episode was bad, though. Set up all these reasons for things to change, only to throw them all away. And a damn shame they couldn't get Natalie Dormer back for even one episode that season.

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The last half dozen episodes seemed like just mailing it in. the rest of the run was pretty darn good, though.

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Freeman did a damn good Watson. Liu killed it too.

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Best Holmes: Basil Rathbone

Best Watson: James Mason

I will fight anyone who disagrees with a blunt excrement.

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I don't disagree, although I found the presentation of Watson as a woman in "Elementary," to shed a whole new light on the relationship of Holmes and Watson.

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A blunt excrement sounds like a weapon I do not care to encounter.

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I did like the Watson bot in Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxmoOUsZzOs

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Agree

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I like Nigel Bruce as Watson, but then he always played a doughy doofus.

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I'm ok with both Lucy Liu and Martin Freeman. Bruce is a classic, though.

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Basil had a most excellent name, too.

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Had his name been spelled "Wrathbone" he would be known as the original punisher.

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Sep 12, 2023·edited Sep 12, 2023Author

All great Sherlock Holmeses. I do not think they would have auditioned for this version, seeing as its premise is that Holmes is a pretender.

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deletedSep 12, 2023Liked by Martini Glambassador
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1 million percent. Sir Michael is my favorite actor, along with Buster Keaton. Sir Ben is also great in that weird hitman/AA film, umm..."You Kill Me." Well worth a look

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Sep 12, 2023·edited Sep 12, 2023

Not that it’s a competition, but I’d like to see a comparison between growing up with the fear of an impending terrorist attack and growing up with the fear of an impending nuclear holocaust.

I doubt we’ll ever see it, since that would require the media to acknowledge the existence of GenX.

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While I think it’s great that black churches are teaching black history, we shouldn’t have to depend on them to fill in the gaps while public schools are using Prager (not a)U videos to teach that slaves learned valuable skills and that the real problem with racial division in this country is that black people today just don’t love America enough*. White students and black students who aren’t affiliated with any church need to learn these facts as well.

*Actual point of the Prager (not a)U video “A Short History of Slavery” narrated by (who else) Candace Owens.

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Mr. Trump’s “rapidly evolving trial schedule” ;-)

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I suppose relevant admin people are aware that entering "wonkette" on eg my chrome browser defaults to https://wonkette.com which bombs because, quote, NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID. and who knows who might be snooping!

"Wonkett.com" and other doorways work fine.

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That's a different innocent black man than the other innocent black man that was just released? Goddamn it.

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It's almost like America is racist enough to not really care _which_ black men get sent to prison, as long as it is "lots of them".

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Whenever I hear someone talking about Kim Manners, I get so sad. He was such a great influence on two of my favoritist shows ever, The X-Files and Supernatural. No one ever has a bad thing to say about him.

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https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/12/politics/biden-impeachment-house-gop/index.html

Oh look. Kevin rolled over for the crazy caucus that holds his leash. Color me unsurprised.

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I for one am sick and tired of multi millionaire pampered athletes running their mouth about how they get no respect. GFY!

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The Portuguese distillery accident brought this to mind (Wikipedia):

"The Dublin whiskey fire took place on 18 June 1875 in the Liberties area of Dublin. It lasted a single night but killed 13 people, and resulted in €6 million worth of damage in whiskey alone (adjusted for inflation). People drank from the 6 inches (150 mm) deep river of whiskey that is said to have flowed as far as the Coombe. None of the fatalities suffered during the fire were due to smoke inhalation, burns, or any other form of direct contact with the fire itself; all of them were attributed to alcohol poisoning from drinking the undiluted whiskey that had been stored in casks; this alcohol was much more potent than whiskey offered at retail in bottles."

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Well, who can blame the blokes for wanting to drink the whiskey? I'm guessing a lot of people cried that night.

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if you've never heard about it, look up the Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

now that was a mess

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have you seen the Drunk History episode about that?

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No, but "Tasting History" did an episode on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMWrk_94L8Y

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Wasn't that throughout the North End? What a disaster.

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My favorite X Files scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyhAJEPEHk4

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The Smoking Man was by far the best character on that whole show, IMO.

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The candy thing is so dumb. The point of my workout is to get rid of the calories that are already in my body. Why would I add a bunch of empty calories before I start, thus entirely defeating the purpose?

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Whoops, there you go with facts and logic.

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Sep 12, 2023·edited Sep 12, 2023Author

Finally got an appointment for the next step in my denture fitting, on the 27th.

*Titanic elderly woman gif... it's been 84 years.*

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We’ve had some significant flooding here in central MA

I’m in easy field goal range right on the Nashua River and it’s about as high as I’ve ever seen it.

Luckily I’m in a fairly secure area and my condo’s on the second floor to boot

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I'm sorry to hear that, Renaissance. We've had rain on and off for days in the Boston area. Fortunately, my town (Arlington) has sandy soil, so no flooding here. But mushrooms are springing up on lawns, and plants are tired of being soggy. That said, some flowering plants are flowering all over again. The sun is struggling to come out as I write this. Even an hour of sunshine would be a blessing.

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I was poking around my old blog (something I started back in 2009) looking for stuff on the right wing of the time (so mild! so quaint! still harmful!). Didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find some interesting things.

Among them, on entry in which "I highly recommend this painting-and-commentary entry over at the New York Times website. Artistically and linguistically simple, it’s a moving overview of how the response of leaders to public dissent has progressed over the last few centuries."

Maira Kalman: So Moved

https://archive.nytimes.com/kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/so-moved/

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