Burgess Meredith

DC Comics’ super villain the Penguin was first played on screen by Burgess Meredith in the 1960’s Batman television series. His portrayal stays faithful to the original Penguin of the comic books, a short, well rounded, gentleman villain in a tuxedo with a love of birds and umbrellas. Meredith’s slightly camp performances will be most remembered for his iconic squawky laugh.

Batman Returns

After several reincarnations on screen the Penguin memorably reappears in Tim Burton’s 1992 movie Batman Returns. Burton’s vision of the Penguin was much darker and more grotesque. He imagined a repulsive and deformed figure with a sharp intellect and a rabid craving for revenge. This Penguin came into the world as a reviled and hideous blob as opposed to the DC original who was merely shunned as a child for his short stature, rounded build and beaky nose.

Believable Villain

Burton felt that the Penguin was, of all the Batman villains, the character who made the least sense. ”I mean, what is the Penguin supposed to be anyway? I felt that if somebody was going to be called ‘The Penguin’, there should be a reason for that.” He then set about creating a new history for the villain from an unfortunate birth to freak show performer carrying an enormous chip on his shoulder, seeking revenge against the glitterati of Gotham. The new characterisation retained the prominent nose, umbrellas and monocle of the original Penguin but now had webbed hands and Gothic clothing. This Penguin even had an appetite for fish !

Danny DeVito

Burton chose Danny DeVito to play his Penguin. Devito was excited by the new take on Batman’s old rival. Before he could throw himself into the role a physical transformation was required. Using concept art by Mark McCreery, Stan Winston, who had worked with Burton on Edward Scissorhands, designed the make-up to create a typically outlandish Burtonesque look. The make-up was applied by Ve Neill and Ronnie Spector, the trio winning an Oscar nomination for their work.

Still Danny

DeVito’s own features were not entirely lost under the prosthetics, crooked teeth and white skin but the overall effect was so intimidating that Burton recalled “No one would talk to Danny on the set because he scared everybody”. In fact DeVito himself recalls that when in make-up and costume, a look that included a fat-suit and webbed flippers, he could not communicate with anybody as he was so absorbed in the part that real-life conversation seemed ridiculous. DeVito altered his voice, without electronic intervention, to give the Penguin a rasping sound as if always struggling to breathe.

So Sad

In Batman Returns the Penguin is a truly sad character. A Hideous monster literally thrown away by his parents who rises from the sewers of Gotham to wreak revenge on the city that shuns him. He fails in each and every endeavour and moves inexorably towards his own demise. It is odd to think that we may be able to empathise with a character so utterly monstrous, as opposed to laughing at a comic book creation, but I think we actually do !

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•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burgess_Meredith_The_Penguin_Batman_1966.JPG

Dave F writes on a large range of subjects, from travel, music and technology to popular culture.  Dave is a fan of the original penguin as played by Burgess meredith as well as retro comics of all types.

While I realize Halloween is over, I still thought this would be an interesting post for today. I don’t know about you guys, but I now feel completely sugared out! My kids’ trick or treat candy has turned from temptation to revulsion. These statistics can easily explain why. So, if you like to learn random trivia, read on and enjoy this guest post.

As the holiday that blissfully celebrates the consumption of sugar and chocolate, Halloween remains one of the all-time favorites among both children and adults. From handing out candy to consuming each morsel, people cannot get enough of the Halloween sugar high, and the following facts back this statement. For example, did you know that the average American east 24 pounds of candy per year, with a large amount devoured around Halloween?

Anyway, let’s get right down to talking about the ever-popular act of eating Halloween candy:

• The average American household spends approximately $44 year on Halloween candy. Think about that: $44 of Halloween candy. That’s a big heaping mound of candy.
• Out of all the months of the year, October holds the record for most candy sold, which really makes sense. However, the one day of the year with the most candy sales is October 28, proving that many individuals really do wait until the last minute to make candy purchases.
• According to Google’s search data, more individuals search for “gluten-free candy” than “sugar-free candy,” the difference being approximately 20%. You can take the gluten out of candy, I suppose, but people want to keep that sweet, sweet sugar.
• Glancing at Google’s national search data, the state that searched most for “organic candy” is Colorado, while Oregon searched most for “gluten-free candy” and Kentucky ranked highest for “sugar-free candy” searches.
• Which state loves candy corn the most? Well, that’s be Alabama, the state that searched for “candy corn” more times than any of the other states.
• Speaking of candy corn, this delicious morsel is the most search-for candy phrase in Google, beating out gummy worms, candy pumpkins and even candy apples. Also, candy corn is consistently the top-selling candy in America, with over 20 million pounds sold per year.
• As for the top chocolate sellers, the crown is worn by Snickers, Reese’s, Kit Kat, and M&M’s. Moreover, of the $1.9 billion spent on Halloween candy sold each year, $1.2 billion is spent on chocolate candy.
• Approximately 10% of the year’s candy sales happen the week leading up to Halloween, translating to roughly $2 billion in sales.
• During the week leading up to Halloween, an incredible 90 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold, exceeding the 65 million pounds sold during the week of Easter and 48 million during the week preceding Valentine’s Day.
• Lastly, Americans purchase around 600 million pounds of candy per year, much of it for Halloween. That’s a ton of candy.

Obviously, these statistics change each year, the numbers growing as America’s hunger for sweets continues growing. At least now you can join a Halloween conversation with an interesting bit of information regarding the holiday.

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•  License: Image author owned

Check out Fright Catalog for more Halloween candy facts and costumes on the web!

In 1965, the UK sought to update its outdated legal system to repeal the thousands of obsolete laws that were on its books. However, many strange laws are still in existence today.

Armour Wearing

MPs are not allowed to wear suits of armour while they are in the House of Commons. This is because it hinders their ability to duel. It is also illegal for anyone to die while in the Houses of Parliament, as this entitles the individual to a state funeral.

Scots within City Walls

In the York, a city in England, you can legally murder a Scotsman within the city walls, but only if he is in possession of a crossbow. It is, however, illegal to murder a crossbow-carrying Scotsman on a Sunday.

Stranded Whales

If you discover a whale stranded on the British Coast, you must offer it to the Crown. You should offer the head to the King and the tail to the Queen.

Cow Driving

It is illegal to drive a cow after having drunk copious amounts of alcohol. The Licensing Act of 1872 states that if you are caught driving a cow while intoxicated, you could face a £200 fine or a prison sentence.

Pelican Touching

Touching a pelican is forbidden under the London, Royal and Other Parks & Gardens Regulations of 1977 (Section 23). However, you are free to perform this act if you have obtained written permission from the park.

Chelsea Pensioner Impersonating

It is illegal to dress up as a Chelsea Pensioner, due to their acclaimed status.

Stamp Sticking

If you stick a stamp featuring the British Monarch upside down or tear it, you will be committing an act of treason.

Mince Pie Eating

A law from the 17th century states that it is illegal to consume mince pies on December the 25th.

Animal Baiting

Under the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839, you cannot use a house, room or pit for the purpose of baiting lions, bears or other types of animals. If you are found to flout this law, you could face a fine.

Welshmen Outside of Wales

In Chester, a city in England, it is legal to kill a Welsh person using a crossbow, so long as the killing occurs within the city walls and is carried out after midnight. Furthermore, Welsh people are forbidden from entering into Chester’s grounds before sunrise. Once they have entered the city, they must not remain there once the sun has set.

Unlicensed Alien Invasions

According to The Outer Space Act 1986 (Section 9), magistrates are allowed to exert “reasonable force” to stop aliens from invading the UK, so long as the aliens have not been granted a licence to invade the country.

Pet Partnership Choices

When George I reigned the country, a law was passed that stated that commoners who permitted their pets to mate with pets from the Royal household would incur a severe penalty.

Hanging Washing

Under the Town Police Causes Act of 1847, you cannot hang your washing across the street, or beat or shake carpets, mats or rugs. You can beat doormats, but only after eight o’clock in the morning.

This post was written in collaberation with BlanchardsLaw.co.uk , providing expert family law advice including seperation and finicial issues.

From 1966 to 1994, the Klingons and Romulans, with their cloaking devices and disruptors, held the spot of being famous fictional weapons makers the longest. Action and science fiction movies used to be the playground for writers and directors to showcase powerful weapons that only exist in the imagination. The first famous fictional weapon in US history is the ray gun used by Flash Gordon. The interesting thing is that lasers ended up being invented. This makes one wonder what the future will hold for the other forays into the realm of weapons used in the fiction genres.

1. Weapons of Star Trek

Phasers and Photon torpedoes follow both the Captain Kirk and Captain Picard eras. The Federation had ship mounted as well as rifle and hand held Phaser weapons. They were used for everything from stunning an aggressor to completely vaporizing them. They were used in more than one episode to heat rocks for warmth or light. Klingons and Romulans used disrupter weapons. The Varon-T disruptor was banned by the Federation because of the terrible slow disintegration death it caused.

2. Empire Weapons of Star Wars

The Death Star was being made by the Empire to fight the Rebel Alliance. There were two of them. The Death Stars were supposed to be the size of some planet’s moons and were capable of completely obliterating entire planets. Even though that would be considered an ultimate weapon, it was the lowly Lightsaber that took hold of the imaginations of audience members. The Lightsaber emitted a plasma beam that was the length of a sword. It could cut a person in half with a single swipe.

3. Weapons of Halo

Halo is probably the biggest first-person shooter game in video game history. The multi-billion dollar franchise has spawned lucrative sequels. In the Halo universe, a weapon called “Halo rings” was made to protect people from the “Flood” of parasites that were consuming everything in the Milky Way galaxy. When the Halos were activated, they were designed to destroy all living things that the parasites could use as food. They were superstructures 5,000 miles in diameter with several of them making up an array.

4. Weapons of Umbrella Corp

The Umbrella Corporation is from the Resident Evil series of video games. The franchise’s real fame came when Mila Jovovich starred in the feature films based on the video game plot. Umbrella Corp is a fictional evil corporation driven by profit. Their claim to fame with weapons was using genetics to create powerful soldiers. Jovovich played the role of Alice. She was engineered by the evil corporation but turned on them to become a defender of the remnant of human beings left after a weapons experiment went bad. The T-virus made by the corporation ended up turning most of the human race into zombies.

5. The Martian Tripod

The “War of the Worlds” was written in 1898 by author H.G. Wells. Back then, speculation abounded about whether Mars was inhabited or not. The “little green men” in H.G. Wells novel turned out to be more malevolent than other forays into the genre. The Martian Tripods were large weapons that walked on three legs. They were cited in the book written by Wells as being “higher than many houses.” In the 2005 movie adaptation starring Tom Cruise, the Tripods could fire beams that could disintegrate vehicles or buildings as well as being able to emit a poison gas. The Tripods would then pick up the humans to extract their blood.

There are many famous fictional weapons. This is just one version of the Top 5 of all time. Honorable mentions go to Robocop from Omni Consumer Products, and the alien of the Alien movie franchises. Technically, the Alien was not manufactured but was implied to just be an alien species. Some versions of the back story imply it was a manufactured race of biological weapon. There are so many fictional weapons in the history of literature, TV and movies that it would take an encyclopedia to cover them all.

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•  License: Creative Commons image source

Sam Hester is a gunsmith and guest author at BecomeGunSmith.org, a site with information on how to become a gunsmith.

If you’re just joining us, you may want to click over to yesterday’s post. If you already read it, are you ready for the answers? But first, here are a few more famous authors. Can you guess who they are?

Mystery Woman #4:
This Italian-American author wrote for the New York Times and eventually won a Pulitzer Commentary award. She left journalism behind for a career as a novelist, and of her five best-sellers, three have become films. Much of her nonfiction works centered on the death of her mother when she was nineteen, and some consider her best material to be on motherhood and raising her three children. She has also written on feminist topics and materialism in America. One of her best-known quotes is, “The biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”

Mystery Woman #5:
This female author, a Pulitzer prize winner, released her nineteenth novel in 2012. She was raised among the Quaker colonies of North Carolina and Raleigh and didn’t attend school until she was eleven, which helped her view the world, in her words, “with a certain amount of distance and surprise.” She married an Iranian psychiatrist, who died in 1997, and has two children. Her stories usually involve an intriguing elderly protagonist who is looking back on life and remembering events. While her plots are considered slow, her characters are well-developed and the smaller moments ignite the suspense for which she is best known.

Mystery Woman #6:
Our final author was an English novelist in the 1800’s. Her mother was also an author, of a famous feminist social study. Though the author’s mother died when she was eleven days old, her father raised her with a strong emphasis on progressive education. She married one of her father’s political followers, ensuring ostracism from English society for the first few years of their marriage. Her first three children didn’t make it into childhood, leaving her fourth son the only survivor. Her husband drowned when his sail boat was caught in a storm. After his death, she devoted herself to raising her son and her writing career. Her work is among the first of the science fiction genre and was instantly popular. (She originally published anonymously.)

Alright, you ready? Here’s the answers:

Mystery Woman #1: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Mystery Woman #2: Danielle Steel

Mystery Woman #3: Mary Higgins Clark

Mystery Woman #4: Anna Quindlen

Mystery Woman # 5: Anne Tyler

Mystery Woman #6: Mary Shelly (most famous for Frankenstein)

I think every woman and every mother has something equally important to say, and we all do it differently. I’ve read some mommy blogs that were so powerful they brought me to tears. I’ve seen websites that lifted my spirits, and read novels that changed the way I saw the world. Fiction, nonfiction, news articles, blogs, whatever. I agree with Ms. Stowe: “I hope every woman who can write will not be silent.”
The success of these women are all inspirational, but the most inspirational part of their stories is this: they were regular women, with kids and bills and relationship problems. But they kept writing. Persistence paid off for them, and it can pay off for any aspiring or struggling author as well.
Ladies, keep writing. We have some big—and hopefully fashionable—shoes to fill.

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