50 Horror Movies for Halloween (Part 5)

Tomorrow is October, so here's the grand finale.

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50 Horror Movies for Halloween (Part 4)

One of the challenges involved with creating a project like a list is writing from distant memories rather than from fresh impressions. I rarely write about films I haven't seen in a while. In the case of some of the films I'm listing here, my impressions are decades old. It would be completely impractical to rewatch all of these films, though I imagine that most of them stand up to rewatching. The only film I've rewatched for these posts is The Queen of Spades, listed below. Others? I haven't seen The Serpent and the Rainbow since it was in theaters, nor have I seen The Other since it creeped me out of me when I was a kid, watching it on late night television. I've never forgotten any of these films, though, which it a testament to their quality.

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50 Horror Movies for Halloween (Part 3)

October is coming up fast, so here's the next installment of this series. I've been trying to cast a wide net across the history of horror movies, but there are some periods when the genre was in serious remission (I'm looking at you, early to mid 1990s). I'm fascinated at how great horror movies cluster around certain times: the early 1930s, the 1970s, the 2000s. I'm tempted to pontificate on the sociology of these groupings, but I'll spare you that. In any event here's the next ten films for your perusal:

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50 Horror Movies for Halloween (part 2)

Here's part two of this series. These are not in any kind of order. They are unranked. These are all films I've enjoyed to one degree or another. The only common thread running through them is that few, if any, of these films has the broad recognition of general audiences or the kinds of people who make "best of" lists. And, hopefully they'll provide ideas for October.

One more word about this project, though: I'm not writing this for horror fans. I had a conversation with a friend of mine about the first installment of this series who complained--well, commented is probably more like it--that he had seen almost everything I wrote about. That's fine. If you're a student of the genre, you've probably got a list of your own "deep cuts." My friend, Aaron Christensen, ran into the same thing when he was putting together Hidden Horror. Horror fans--myself included--tend to be obsessive.

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Everybody Dance Now

Longtime readers probably realize that my movie writing usually follows a formula: introductory paragraph, synopsis, bulk of the review. I'm going to skip a synopsis of Living Stars (2014, directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat), because it's not a narrative film in any meaning of the word. I mean, technically, it's a documentary, but even that seems to impose certain expectations. What this is is 63 minutes of people dancing to a variety of pop songs. That's it. In spite of its utter simplicity, Living Stars is one of the most joyful and hilarious film experiences I've had in a good long while.

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50 Films For Halloween (part 1)

I got into an argument over the weekend over the usefulness of all those top whatever lists of horror movies you see show up every year. You know the ones, I'm sure: they always have some combination of The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead, The Shining, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, Alien, etc at the top? Yeah. Those. You don't even need an advanced degree in horror movie-ology to know about those films. They're in the culture. I mean, Night of the Living Dead's influence is so all-pervasive that it shows up on sitcoms and commercials. Seriously, you don't need my voice added to the din.

Lately, though, I've been thinking about the role of the critic. In a world where movies proliferate faster than ever, the critic is a cartographer. The critic has an obligation to wander into the parts of cinema that are labeled terra incognito on the map and bring back their findings. I've been a hardcore student of horror since I was very young, so here are some of my findings. Here are some films that DON'T show up on those annual lists of great horror movies even though they're certainly worthy films. This is in no order. There is no ranking, no hierarchy. Think of this as a kind of high-altitude mapping expedition. I'll be posting ten of these a day for the next week, so hang on to your seat. It might get bumpy.

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Mothers and Sons

Club Sandwich (2013, directed by Fernando Eimbcke) is a coming of age story with an unusual point of view. Its young protagonist is a bundle of sexual confusion, as most such protagonists are. You've seen countless boys like him fumbling their way toward adulthood. In a male-dominated industry, these kinds of stories proliferate. What you generally don't see is the effect this has on the protagonist's parent(s). This film's primary insight is to look at what a mother might feel while watching her son discover his sexuality. That the film is quietly funny is a bonus. It's not glib, though, and it's doesn't take shortcuts. The slow accumulation of awkward moments becomes heavy over the course of the film and its ultimate disposition is more bittersweet than comedic. It's a good comedy that can reveal its characters without mocking or humiliating them. This manages to do exactly that.

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Shameless Self-promotion: Kickstarter Edition

I normally keep my art projects off my movie blog, but I have a financial stake in this, so here we go: I have a Kickstarter. I'm trying to fund a collection of my transgender-themed comics (some of which you can read here). If it seems like I'm trying my level best to avoid doing nine-to-five work between Patreon and this, well, you would be correct. Ideally, I'll never have to go back to the capitalist employment model ever again. In the mean time, I have to sell myself to you, dear potential patron. Anyway, I've put a lot of work and love into this comic. I don't think you need to be trans to enjoy it (I have it on the authority of my cis friends that it reads pretty well). It IS pretty sexually explicit, but hopefully not exploitative. Anyway, check it out and back it if you like what you see.

Shameless Self-Promotion: Hidden Horror

Because I'm lousy at self-promotion, I don't think I've touted this book I was in at the start of the year. It's Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks and it was put together by all-around good guy Aaron Christensen. My piece for the book was about X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes, which you can read at Filmmaker Magazine's web site. I know that one criticism of the book so far has been that a lot of the films discussed aren't nearly that "underrated" or "overlooked," but that sniping comes from inside horror fandom itself, so it shouldn't be taken too seriously. If May was well-known for example, it would have been a much bigger hit and Lucky McKee wouldn't have had so many problems getting films made ever since.  And, you know? There's stuff in the book that even I haven't seen and I'm an obsessive, so you get no qualms from me about the films my colleagues selected. More than that, though, I'm shocked at how few of the films in the book that I have seen are films that I've written about. A lot of those are films that I saw pre-internet. I may have written about them in the spiral notebooks I used as film diaries when I was a teen, but I'll be damned if I'll let any of that writing onto the web. Be that as it may, I recognize a challenge when I see it.

This is the full list of films in the book. The ones with links are films I've written about. The ones in italics are films I haven't seen:

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The October Challenge--2014 Edition

There's a snap of autumn in the air this week and here at Stately Krell Laboratories, that can only mean one thing: it's horror movie season. Yes, boils and ghouls, The October Challenge will soon be upon us once more. To recap the rules, in case you've forgotten: the goal is to watch 31 horror movies during the month of October, with at least 16 of those films being completely new to you. There are plenty of side games you can play with the challenge, but the one I usually pursue for myself is to write a substantial blog post about every movie I see for the Challenge. This is not, strictly speaking, necessary. My friend, the inestimable Dr. AC over at Horror 101 usually runs his challenge as a fundraiser for charity--something I've done in the past and may do again.

If you're blogging the challenge, I'll be doing link round-ups again, so leave me comments when your content appears. I'll add you to the (hopefully) daily link dump.

In any event, I hope you've stockpiled some movies and laid in a supply of cider and pumpkin pie. Here's a new set of banners for the challenge, if you want them, but any of the banners from past years are fair game. Tally ho!

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I'm trying out Patreon as a means of funding my blogs. They don't have a widget yet, so this link will just have to do. If you like my writing and art and if you'd like to support Krell Laboratories and Christianne's Art and Comics, please come on over and pledge. Thanks.

Flowers in the Wreckage

My local arthouse runs a series of recent international cinema every fall. They call it "The Passport Series" and the conceit is that they hand out a punch card with your ticket and if you attend at least six of the eight films in the series, they throw your card in a hopper and give you a chance to win passes for the St. Louis Film Festival later in the year. They also theme the series around wine, but I don't imbibe, so that's never something I notice. I do like the idea of a passport, though, as a kind of tally of cinematic destinations (in lieu of actual travel, which I usually can't afford). I often approach this series with the attitude of a collector: Do I have this country yet? I've seen films from an impressive number of countries. In any event, this year's series kicks off with a Georgian film, and I can check that country off the list now.

In Bloom (2013, directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß), finds neo-realism alive and well in Georgia. Set in the immediate aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet empire, this details the coming of age of two teenage girls, Eka and Natia, who are best friends. They live in the wreckage of Tblisi, where they stand in line for bread, are terrorized by autocratic teachers, and where they fend off the aggressions of boys. It would be easy for the filmmakers to use their story as some kind of grand historical gesture, but this is too smart for that. This finds itself following the path of other neo-realists who find in the lives of their characters broad possibilities for melodrama. In Bloom is also a withering critique of patriarchy.

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Begin the Beguine

John Carney's Begin Again (2014) is an indie version of a musical romantic drama. In truth, I didn't know I had an itch for such a thing until that itch was scratched. Musicals are always hit or miss with me, particularly contemporary musicals, so when one of them hits the spot, I'm always delighted and a bit surprised. In this case, I'm especially taken in because I had no faith in Kiera Knightley as a singer, never having heard that she can sing. She acquits herself well. If the story seems a little over-familiar, well, that's fine. It's the execution that counts.

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The Mundane Spider-Man

As I was watching The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014, directed by Marc Webb), I was imagining Shailene Woodley sitting in a theater somewhere this spring breathing a sigh of profoundest relief. She was famously cast as Mary Jane Watson in this film and even shot some scenes for it before being cut, ostensibly to move her to this film's inevitable sequel. That sequel is now in some doubt. This film is the least successful film in the franchise, both commercially and aesthetically. If Woodley is smart--and it appears that she is--she'll find some other movie to clog her schedule if Sony decides to pick her up again for the role.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is awful. There's not any getting around it. It lurches from set piece to set piece without any coherent connective tissue. Its scenes veer from the romantically heartfelt to day-glow camp and back again. It squanders actor after actor in scenes that aren't worthy of them. It's busy and ugly and not really much fun. Spider-Man needs to be fun. The world has enough grimdark Batman wannabes. This doesn't need to be one.

Here there be spoylers...

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Star Time

In spite of its similarity to other recent musical biopics, Get On Up (2014, directed by Tate Taylor), a biography of James Brown, stands apart both for the intensity of its musical scenes and its cinematic invention. This is not a dry recitation of facts, nor is it any kind of redemptive narrative. This is a portrait of the artist as an egotistical asshole, one that skips around in time and breaks the fourth wall and generally throbs with a kind of staccato cinematic life. It's a film that lives and breathes as film, something that has eluded other projects of its type. As such, it's energizing, a quality augmented by an absolutely killer soundtrack. James Brown in life was a braggart and egotist who variously claimed to have invented funk and rap as new musical forms. Musicologists of late have come to think that Brown was entirely too modest. Brown was a musical titan, but, man, the Brown in this film decidedly has feet of clay.

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You Know How To Whistle, Don't You?

According to legend, To Have and Have Not (1944, directed by Howard Hawks) was made on a bet. Howard Hawks and Ernest Hemingway were hunting (and drinking) buddies. Hawks was a fan of the writer but not of To Have and Have Not. "A bunch of junk," he called it. He bet Hemingway that he could make a good movie out of it, or so the legend goes. Whether this is true or not doesn't really matter, I guess. It's Hollywood, after all, and when the legend becomes fact and all that. What we do know is that Hawks bought the rights from Howard Hughes and sold them to Warner Brothers, hired an out of work and out of print writer named William Faulkner to write the movie with Jules Furthman (a move that surely rankled Hemingway, given the rivalry between Faulkner and Hemingway), and discarded most of the second half of the book. He also cast an unknown actress in the lead. Her name was Lauren Bacall.

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Dancing Among the Stars

After I saw the film, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, directed by James Gunn) that went something like this:

Me: I have no idea of how I'm going to write about this film. There's nothing there to write about!

Friend: Yeah...it's pretty lightweight.

Me: I suppose I could cobble something together about how it's got a queer subtext and it's about how people who are cast out of their own families are forced to form families of choice.

Friend: Hmm...I could see that.

Me: Man, this movie is shallow.

Upon reflection, I think that the formation of families of choice is exactly what the film is about, only in a painfully heterosexual way. I might even be offended by the appropriation if the movie were more interested in that theme rather than in blowing shit up real good. As it is, the pleasures of Guardians of the Galaxy are all on the surface. There's not really anything wrong with that, I guess.

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Endangered Species

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014, directed by Matt Reeves) is probably the best film in the franchise since the original item back in 1968. That it's made something from the leavings of Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the last and least regarded of the original series, is something completely unlooked-for. Dawn has formidable technical bona fides, including another astonishing mocap performance by Andy Serkis (who is top-billed!). It's a thoughtful sci fi apocalypse; yet another post-human speculation, no less. It's also not very much fun.

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Beyond Human Ken

The truth of the matter is this: I didn't particularly want to go see Lucy (2014, directed by Luc Besson). I'm not fond of Luc Besson's films. He's not quite on my black list because his films usually strike me as stupid rather than malign, but his films can be so very, very profoundly stupid. More, he tends to fetishize his heroines in a way that makes me uncomfortable. But here's the train of thought that put my butt in a theater seat on the first day it was in theaters. I've been bitching about the sorry lot of superhero women for a while. It galls me that a talking raccoon with a machine gun is going to get a movie before Wonder Woman. It galls me that they fobbed off the Catwoman movie on "talent" that had nothing invested in the character nor any respect for it either. It galls me that mealy-mouthed movie executives bleat prejudice as truth when they say that women can't open a tentpole movie while counting all that money from The Hunger Games and Maleficent. It galls me that I don't have a Black Widow movie yet. I want my damned Black Widow movie. And so: Lucy is a superhero movie of sorts starring the Black Widow her ownself, Scarlett Johannson. I better put my money where my mouth is if I want my Black Widow movie. So I ponied up to see Lucy.

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Mere Anarchy

I was in the wrong headspace for The Rover (2014, directed by David Michôd), a bleak, more naturalistic version of a Mad Max movie. The movie turns out to be a shaggy dog story, but the punchline of the film had a particular meaning to me when I saw it. I sat in my car for a few minutes after the film trying to process what I'd just seen. Films affect people differently, depending on all sorts of personal factors that vary from viewer to viewer. Some films are more personally relevant than others. For me, this was such a film. Your mileage, of course, will vary. The why of this requires me to reveal elements of the plot that likely should be surprises, so go watch the movie and come back later. I'll still be here.

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Mystery Train

When I first heard the premise of Snowpiercer (2014, directed by Bong Joon-ho), I thought it sounded ridiculous. I thought, actually, that it sounded like something that would show up on the SyFi channel. Still, the director gave me pause. This is the man who made Memories of Murder and Mother, after all, to say nothing of The Host. He's proven his chops both as a gifted director and as a gifted purveyor of genre entertainments.  And when you get right down to it, it's not a more ridiculous premise than, say, anything by Park Chan-Wook or Kim Ji-Woon. And then I heard that Harvey Weinstein wanted to slash twenty minutes out of it. Bong actually won that power struggle, but it limited the film's horizons. Seeing it at the earliest opportunity became for me a moral imperative. It turns out that my initial impression of the whole thing was correct: it's utterly ridiculous. It's also kind of awesome.

Note: here there be spoilers.

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Death on the Installment Plan

It would be a mistake to think of Edge of Tomorrow (2014, directed by Doug Liman) as a mere rip-off of Groundhog Day filtered through Starship Troopers. I mean, sure. It is exactly that. Its just not only that. I'm probably going to regret saying this, but it seems to me that director Doug Liman is an auteur in the classic sense of the word, and that this film, one that plays around with both identity and cinematic chronology is very much of a piece with films like The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Go. Oh, Liman is an entertainer first and foremost, but like other "entertainers" I could name, he seems drawn back to the same themes again and again, much like the hero in this film is drawn back to the start of his sojourn as an unwilling soldier over and over and over. Edge of Tomorrow might be Liman's magnum opus. Whatever it is, it's a lot of fun to watch, and not only for the dubious pleasure of watching Tom Cruise being horribly killed on repeat. Though that's fun, too.

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A Death in the Family

I'm at something of a disadvantage when it comes to writing about the British crime film, Honour (2014, directed by Shan Khan), because I don't want to step into the landmine of racial politics it engenders. It would be easy--poisonously easy--to deplore the cultural norms that give rise to honor killings in the Muslim world in a way that crosses into outright racism. The last thing I want to do is turn myself into Richard Dawkins, railing about the awfulness of Islam. The world isn't that simple and Islam is not monolithic. The film itself is intensely aware of its racial politics, but charges ahead with its story anyway.

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The John Ford Blogathon Day 7

And we're almost to the end. There's been a lot of fabulous writing this week. The blogathon will be open for business for a while, though this is the last day I'll be posting updates, so if you're writing something that isn't quite finished, send me the link when you're done and I'll add it to this last post. Thanks to everyone who participated.

This morning brings us Lee Price's final essay on Wagon Master. Lee is an old friend and we're happy to have him. He concludes with a piece entitled "Portait of the Artist as a Hoochie Coochie Artist," and it's a doozy.

Girls Do Film get in under the wire with a sterling look at The Grapes of Wrath.

Longtime friend of the blog, Ivan at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear comes through with a clear-eyed look at The Prisoner of Shark Island.

Willow at Curtsies and Hand Grenades sees Young Mr. Lincoln as a superhero origin story.

Mayerson on Animation has a series on The Grapes of Wrath that breaks things down into its storytelling components.

Kellee at the marvelously named Outspoken and Freckled is roused to a fiery passion for The Quiet Man..

Stacia at She Blogged by Night looks at Fort Apache, a film that smuggles its politics past HUAC.

Mildred's Fatburgers chimes in with a look at The Lost Patrol, the only film Ford made with the great Boris Karloff.

Anna at Bemused and Non-plussed delves deeper into the Ford at Fox box and comes up with 3 Bad Men and Up the River, the latter being the screen debuts of both Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart.

Finally and belatedly, The Girl with the White Parasol delves into the enigmatic Henry Fonda and the cold thoughtfulness he brings to Young Mr. Lincoln.

Your humble bloginatrix offers a gushing assessment of her own favorite John Ford film, How Green Was My Valley.

Check back throughout the day and beyond as more posts are added.

The John Ford Blogathon: How Green Was My Valley

This is my principle entry into The John Ford Blogathon. I sometimes spill out my entire head when writing about my favorite films. I hope you'll indulge me.

How Green Was My Valley (1941, directed by John Ford) is a film that one should not approach with a cynical eye. It's far, far too earnest a film to reward such a viewer. It's a film so drenched in nostalgia and sentiment that the fact that it's a really dark, really disillusioned film isn't immediately obvious. But it is. It's a film about loss: lost innocence, lost loves, lost loved ones, a lost place, a lost era. It appeared at a point in time where the hinges of history were turning, and it's very much of its zeitgeist.

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The John Ford Blogathon Day 6

The air conditioning here at Stately Krell Laboratories had crapped out for the weekend, so your humble bloginatrix is going to be spending the day in the comforting coolness of a movie house. Meanwhile, the Blogathon rolls on.

Michaël the Cinephiliaque looks at Ford's last film, 7 Women, and finds it enjoyable and intriguing.

My partner in crime, Anna, over at Bemused and Non-Plussed looks at the role of children in Ford, particularly in Just Pals, Wee Willie Winkie, and How Green Was My Valley.

Aurora at Once Upon a Screen takes a close look at Rio Grande, the price Ford paid in order to make The Quiet Man. All such compromises should come out so well.

Jon over at Contemplations on Classic Movies expands on his piece on Donovan's Reef today.

The Vintage Cameo looks at the legend of Wyatt Earp--who Ford actually met once upon a time--as filmed in My Darling Clementine.

Check back throughout the day for more entries.

The John Ford Blogathon Day 5

We're entering the home stretch now. Hopefully the weekend will bring the fireworks.

We start off again with Lee Price at 21 Essays, who speculates about how his grandmother would have received Wagon Master before looking at some of the animal stars of the film.

Anna at Bemused and Non-plussed takes on the collaboration between Ford and Will Rogers in Judge Priest and Steamboat Round the Bend as she continues to mine the Ford at Fox box.

Your humble bloginatrix wrote a long essay about Stagecoach some years ago that seems appropriate here. Taking you "Along the Scenic Route."

Portaits by Jenni has a terrific look at Sergeant Rutledge, in which Woody Strode steps into the starring role.

Marilyn Ferdinand of the excellent Ferdy on Films sends us an older piece on The Quiet Man that's so thorough that it drops the mic.

Check back throughout the day as new entries roll in.

The John Ford Blogathon Day 4

We're rounding the bend today. I hope you've been reading along, because the quality of work being posted by everyone is outstanding. I'll post my own entries near the end. In the meantime, here are today's offerings.

Lee Price at 21 Essays continues his examination of Ford by way of Wagon Master, this time looking at the role of Native Americans--particularly Ford's stock company of Navajo--in both the film and in Ford's life. As usual, it's a complex relationship.

W. B. Kelso at Micro-brewed Reviews takes a long look at The Searchers--a film that deserves a long look I might add--and puts it into context with both Ford's career as a filmmaker and with the Western itself.

The Public Transportation Snob includes some gorgeous screen caps in his write-up of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

The wonderfully named Cary Grant Won't Eat You chimes in with an assessment of the debacle that is Mister Roberts, a film whose ills are largely the result of John Ford.

Make sure to check back later as new posts roll in.

The John Ford Blogathon Day 3

Day three of the blogathon sees your humble bloginatrix procrastinating her own entries, but fear not! I'll get a couple of somethings up by the week's end.

Meanwhile, groove on the work of our other excellent participants:

Lee Price at 21 Essays kicks things off again today with the third entry of his epic examination of Wagon Master. Today, he looks at the geography of "The Promised Land," and the film's view of Mormonism.

Caftan Woman joins us this morning, too, with an excellent piece of Ford biography through the lens of The Informer.

Movies Silently goes all the way back to "Jack" Ford's first year of directing for a look at Bucking Broadway and a portrait of Ford's early career in silents. Lots of stills!

Christy Putnam looks at Maureen O'Hara and Ford's way with women in a post that spans their entire collaboration.

Jon at Contemplations on Classic Film and Music sends us a piece on Donovan's Reef and his lovely Ford gallery.

Be sure to check back as other entries roll in. I have a feeling this event is going to end with a bang.

The John Ford Blogathon Day 2

A quiet morning here at Stately Krell Labs, but we're just getting warmed up.

We start off with another piece by the inestimable Lee Price at 21 Essays about Wagon Master (the second of six). This time out, he casts his eye at Ben Johnson.

It's John Ford all the time at Directed by John Ford, so if you're looking for that perfect still or a list of resources, stop by.

The Round Place in the Middle turns their gaze toward Lana Martin, Claudette Colbert's character in Ford's technicolor epic, Drums Along the Mohawk.

Dan over at The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog looks at The Horse Soldiers and comes to the conclusion that even "minor" Ford is better than the best of a lot of other directors.

My lovely co-host, Anna, over at Bemused and Non-Plussed kicks off her blogathon entries with a look at Four Sons and Pilgrimage from the Ford at Fox box.

Crítica Retrô joins us with a look at The Iron Horse and its place among Ford's Westerns in a post in Portugese (but with an English translation button).

The John Ford Blogathon: Day 1

Annnnd....we're off. Welcome to the John Ford Blogathon, in which folks from around the movie-o-sphere write about the great, the bad, and the ugly of one of the cinema's central figures. Love him or hate him, Ford is one of the foundational filmmakers of the American film industry, and we're here to pay tribute to his greatness, grouse about his shortcomings, and raise a glass in his honor.

Today's posts:

David Meuel kicks things off with a look at Six Under-appreciated Roles For Women in the Films of John Ford, which looks beyond Maureen O'Hara and Jane Darwell.

Meanwhile, Silver Screenings takes on Ford's own favorite among his films, The Sun Shines Bright, and finds it lacking. Her response is blistering. (Silver was hesitant to post this, but I'm down with negative reviews. Ford had some serious shortcomings and ignoring them in favor hagiography seems dishonest to me).

Jon at Contemplations of Classic Movies and Music sends us an older piece on My Darling Clementine.

Lee Price gives us the first of six essays on Wagon Master at his wonderful 21 Essays blog.

Meanwhile, Mike Mayerson takes a break from animation to join us with a piece on Submarine Patrol, a film mysteriously omitted from the Ford at Fox box.

Over at The Stop Button, we have The Whole Town's Talking, which features the rare pleasure of Edward G. Robinson playing opposite Edward G. Robinson.

Sean at The Joy and Agony of Movies takes on They Were Expendable, putting into context with Ford's service as a documentarian during World War II.

Rod over at Ferdy on Film trains his usual meticulous analysis at Ford's 7 Women.

Blogathon participants: If you've posted something today (Monday the 7th), let me know in the comments and I'll add you to the roll, or send me an email at archaeopterxy_wtw (at) yahoo (dot) com.