Prepare yourself for ghost stories, Mulligan, haunted house hazards, Poe, pumpkins, and police drones.
Read the full show notes at http://flashpulp.com
The Skinner Co. Network
FC041 - My Arm Wound
[Music] Hello, and welcome to Flashcast 41. Prepare yourself for ghost stories, mulligan, haunted house hazards, po, pumpkins, and police drones. [Music] Tonight, we have myself, oh, pooping ex, narration. Jessica May, hello. Projection, yes, and JRD. Hello. Suction. [Laughter] Uh, I just wanted to talk briefly before we get on a popular press. Did you guys have any ghost stories that stuck out from your childhood? Yes, I do, actually, very much so. There was one that used to scare me when I was a kid. About a china doll, and it particularly scared me because my mom had a really creepy china doll at the top of the stairs, that actually my brother had had smashed when he was a child, and so my mother had glued its face back together in this hideous mockery of its original beauty. So yeah, there was this ghost story basically about a kid getting a china doll when she was little, obviously, because I was just a kid. And she would, like, somebody in her family died horribly, and then the china doll was missing a finger, and then every time somebody would die, the china doll would be missing a finger. So it was part of the yakuza, and I kept messing up. Yeah, that's right. It was the yakuza. It wasn't really a china doll at all. It was a 90-year-old woman. Oh, wait, that's that movie. That's a lot of orphan. Yeah, that's right. Which is another movie that we actually watched for the October 31. It is. How about you, Jessica May? Many ghost stories from you? I know one particular tale that terrified you, but it's not really a ghost story. There's been movies that have, like, changed my life for six months where I couldn't sleep without the lights on and stuff that give me nightmares, but not particularly like stories. Which one are you thinking of? The Little Tribal figure. Oh, yes, yes. And what is it? Tales of Terror or something? Oh, God. I don't know. It was like this foot-tall little tribal man. He had a pointy stick, and he chased this lady around her apartment, and then eventually died in the oven and possessed her soul. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. But he was little and creepy and scary, and yeah, it really affected me. That's rough. Yeah. I remember a mom giving a little bit of crap to the person who let me watch it. But yeah. The one that always bothered me as a kid for some reason was the, and this was more of a classic style one, I guess, but the tale of, and I heard it told, over the years I've heard it told many times in different settings, but the first time I heard it, it was like this guy, and he was giving this girl, this hippie girl to ride home, she was hitchhiking, and he wasn't trippy. He was going to pick her up, but then he does, and they get to talking and they get friendly and it's all fine, whatever, and he drives her home. But then she forgets some item in her car in the car. Yes, sweater or something. Yeah, the sweater or the purse or whatever. So he goes back the next day to the place he had dropped her off, and he's like, "I blew by." He knocks at the door, but this old lady usually answers, or like an old guy, and he goes to give the item to them, and they essentially say that the girl's been dead for 10 years, and she died on the spot that he picked her up or whatever. On the bridge or whatever it is, the crossroads, yeah, it's a, I remember that one, my youth as well. It was somehow the after effect payoff that really bothered me when I was a kid. Anyway. Like you didn't know when you were in danger or how much danger you were in until. Yeah. Until I was a teenager. Until I was a teenager. Until it had already passed. Wow. So, birthday episode. Yeah. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. And also Halloween. Yes, that too. Which is integral to my birthday. I don't think of the two as separate items anymore. Now, it's funny because our three-year-old will say, "What are we going to wear for daddy's birthday?" It's not even just a question of what's our Halloween costume. Yeah, we altered all of the Halloween costumes for daddy's birthday. Yeah. Exactly. I was spending some time yesterday sewing parts of a Halloween costume for our little dog. Yes. Yeah. The Yoda costume was a lot larger than I anticipated. I even measured the dogs. Yeah. Well, it was a small, but our dog is a small dog. Super, super small. But yeah. So, she's all ready to go, the bigger dog. She looked a little weirded out by it, but she's going to be good. I don't know how long we'll have the Darth Vader helmet on the bigger dog, but the Yoda ears fit great. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm going to be fun. Pictures are going to be awesome. Yeah. I just, I can't wait to see them fight. Yeah. We'll take video of that too. And we'll have our customary FaceTime call with dragantor. Mm-hmm. That's right. So, he can see our costumes. Also in October tradition, the October 31, moving right along. We actually mentioned Orphan, which we watched, which I kind of, well, I knew going in. I'd seen it already. Knew I did not like it. Yeah. I sat through it a second time for some reason. I was actually the only one in the group that had never seen the movie. But I was like, "Is it a, is it like an old midget, an old Russian midget?" And everybody was like, "Yeah, that's really stupid." I'm like, "Oh." And they're like, "Oh, you haven't seen it?" But I was like, "Yeah, it's just so silly." The problem I had so much with it was the husband in it just ignored all the discussion that his wife had, all of her problems with it, with the none that came by. He's just like, "I know her, I can help her." And he's known her for like five seconds. And he's just ignoring his loved ones who have been married to him for years. It just seemed so unrealistic. Yeah. Now anybody crying spoilers, too bad, Orphan is a terrible film, and we're really saving you from yourself. Yeah. If it was worth watching, we would tell you, and we wouldn't tell you all the parts of it. But... We watched Cry of the Werewolf, which was more of a classic film, like 1940. Gypsy Queen, who is also a werewolf. Actually, I thought this film had some undertones of the later like underworld, like in throat versus vampire movies in a weird way. But it was neat to see these like, gypsy, well not gypsy gangs, but like Norleans gangs of werewolves in a 40s film. Yeah, it was cool. Although the effects were very simple, the werewolf transformation was a werewolf, it was an actual wolf, I mean. It was actually a wolf with a rubber band around its muzzle. Yeah, so it would try to take the rubber band off by opening and closing its mouth. Yeah, it was looking really fierce because it kept like snapping. But it was so funny. It was such a wide band. But seriously, is that like, is that a wolf with a rubber band? Well, they have a rubber band on its face. Yeah. Yeah. Fun though. But it was kind of cool. Like they took risks. I find movies these days are pretty generic and nobody tries anything balls out. You know what I loved about that movie? Remember the secret passageway? Oh, in the fireplace like Mantle? Oh, yes. You had to like turn the candle-lapper thing twice in the right direction and they went open and it closed behind. That was awesome. Yeah. I won't win it. Yeah. Well, we are going to include it in our, yeah. I vote for the. When we build the Chateau. I vote for more secret passages in general. Mm-hmm. Films don't have enough secret passages these days. Yeah, we need more whimsy in our lives, ladies and gentlemen. Absolutely. I want a revolving bookcase door. I want, yeah, lots of revolving things. People just sit on things and then they'll realize they're in a different room. If you remember in Batman, when he had that like bust of, it was like Shakespeare or something like that, that his head bent over the back and press the button. That was awesome. I need to be one of those. We need one of those too. Yep. Mm-hmm. So there must be some company somewhere that will do that kind of stuff for you. Of course. There's a company for all kinds if you have money. Also watched The Grudge 2. Yes. I wondered if Sarah Michelle Geller was actually going to be in it or not. I actually was. I didn't see it because I was unconscious. Yeah, I was pretty surprised by what happened to her, but it was pretty cool. Well, they pulled a little bit of a Jew very more and scream, right? Mm-hmm. Which I'll leave at that point. Oh, they had enough in there. Yeah. Yeah, I guess she was in it more than you had it. But then it did seem to, there was another movie within the movie and it got so confusing and it almost made us mad. We're like, what? What? The movie? What's going on? There were essentially three plot threads that had very little to do with each other and sort of interacted by the end of the film, but... Not enough that you're like, why am I switching continents? Who are these people now? Me people? Yeah. Jumping from Japan to the US between the scenes out like almost every scene is a little jarring unless there's good reason for it and when it's entirely unexplained from the majority of the film. Yeah, at first we were just trying to figure it out and then we weren't so much anymore. It's just like, I don't even know. We have been with this series, we've set, like we watched the original Juwan and they were quite quality films, but they were obviously low budget efforts made with a lot of love and a lot of effort and I think these new ones, they got a hold of a budget and they just didn't necessarily have the heart. Yeah, the love wasn't in it anymore. There's some scenes that are just ridiculous and the ending. One of it is that I think ghost stories are really more effective when they're vague, when you don't really know what's going on. Ghosts work best when they're just knocks and bumps and yells, as opposed to knowing exactly every motive and in the end of this film I really felt they were like, okay here it is. We're going to explain the entire mythology of this entire series in this two-minute scene and it was like, he's going to break the necks, that's why they make the weird sound. She used to have to swallow ghosts and he had to watch her getting broken and then he broke his neck too and they just really bowed it right at the end for some reason and it just didn't work for me. The whole film didn't really work for me. It wasn't like a whole bunch of, oh yes, I see like puzzle pieces. Well the other thing too is that- Just a big dump at the end. This was one of those sequels where they lay out a mythology in the first film and they realize they don't have any room to wiggle for the second one so they just make up a bunch of extra crap and add it on top. Yeah, I remember when we were talking about this, well I forgot to mention. Yeah, I forgot to mention the crazy psychic mother who used to feed ghosts to her daughter. We just left that part out. Yeah, that's interesting. You didn't need to know that the first time around. Anyway, also saw the seventh victim. Yes, yeah that was um, was Jacqueline, right? Yeah, yeah Jacqueline and- Everybody is looking for Jacqueline. Yeah, it was an interesting film. I was actually surprised by how good it was. Jacqueline had a terrible wig, my goodness. But her sister, the lead lady, I thought she was fantastic. It's a, the film is essentially a tale of two parted sisters and one has to go in search of the other after she falls in as we find out with Satanists. Yeah, every time it's always the Satanists. I recall you telling us another something that that leading lady was in and being really surprised and being like, oh that was her, but I can't remember what it was now. The lady, the leading lady in this film is also Zira from Planet of the Apes. Oh yes, that's right. Bright eyes. I loved her. She was great. In this movie, I thought she had a lot of little minute details that really made a difference to each scene. I thought she really was quite thoughtful. My favorite scene has got to be one with her and the private detective August in the hall. Yeah, there's a dark door at the end of the hallway. They're not sure what's in it and they're trying to convince each other to go inside. It's so good. Now here's, you bring up an interesting point with this detective August fellow because this guy gets introduced maybe a quarter of the way through the film or a third of the way through the film. And he is great. He is just a personality man. He works that scene and he is just chewing it up as like, hey, what you're going to do, pal? Yeah, but he knows how to, like he's seasoned, he knows where to go to get information. He's smarmy, but he's on her side. Yeah, he's a fun private dick character and then he genuinely wants to help her. Ten minutes later, he dies. Yeah. Which was hilarious. Like, I mean, great, but. And his last scene is just so great. The whole trying to convince him to go in there. Well, we could go in there or not or you could go in there, you know? Okay. I guess. So then he goes in and it's very quiet and she slowly backs up and she sees some things going on. But then when he comes out and he's all, anyways, when he comes out, I think it lingers a little long. So you guys will understand if you see it, but it's a little too. You know old movies where everyone dies a little more theatrically and they cry a little more with their hands. Final film we got in this week because it was a very busy week. Frankenstein created woman, hammer production. And what a fantastic title. Just what's my appetite? Say it again. Frankenstein created woman, magic even the second time. Peter Cushing. Yeah. Peter Cushing is Frankenstein is always awesome. I'm a large fan of Peter Cushing in the hammer films. I find his series maybe even more interesting than the universal ones because although I love the Frankenstein monster, I kind of enjoy just following crazy evil scientist around. Yeah. Like you don't see the mad scientist character played on in the universal films as much. Mm hmm. Like they have the ability to create so many things but their mind is wrong so you don't know what they're going to do. Yeah. Yeah. It's a neat idea. Mm hmm. This is a fun one that kind of messed a little bit with, you know, it was getting known towards the 70s I believe when this one was made so it gets a little hippie-dippy here and there with metaphysics. There is a disco ball that comes out about 15 minutes during the guillotine scene. Yeah. So. That was a good movie though. I like the sort of romantic angle and it was a solid hammer production. Yeah. Yeah. Totally watchable. Okay. So did we make 31? We still have time tonight. We'll get down. We'll get back to the count next episode. Let's put a Halloween news. Our fellow Jell-O shared a link with me. He was mentioning all hollows read. Have you guys heard about this? No. Um, the video that he provided was led by Neil Gaiman. I don't know how much Neil Gaiman is behind the whole thing but essentially the concept is on Halloween, if you're a big fan of Halloween, why not give somebody a scary book? Hey, that's nice. Hey. That's a great idea. Yeah. Mm hmm. I thought that was pretty brilliant. Mm hmm. I get children's books every year because I want to have a collection so the kids are always big into it. You got to like indoctrinate them really. Yeah. Halloween is important. You like Halloween. It is fun for you. Yeah. Candy is sweet. Did you guys see that massive pumpkin from, uh, you know, it's being carved in New York? No, it didn't. No, it didn't. Now I realize this is a little visual but it really, this was the one to go to the show notes for you this year. Do you know where the pumpkin's from? The pumpkin is actually from Quebec because for some reason I don't know if you've noticed but we grow giant pumpkins here a lot. Good. It's true. Good, good. Yeah. Good for pumpkins. The guy who does the carving is amazing and I realize that I can't really describe this too well but there's two zombies essentially coming out of this massive pumpkin with like entrails hanging out and it's just- It'll be in the show notes which will be up tomorrow because Jared is not doing show notes on his birthday. Yeah. But we carved pumpkins yesterday or rather you carved pumpkins for again. I was unconscious. And Jared is like, I'll just roll out of the time. I'm like if we don't do it right now it's not going to happen and we're carving pumpkins. That's right. So we did a whole bunch of them and I'm going to take a picture of them. It was a beautiful display when I got up. But yeah I really got like epically picky. I was using different utensils to make like the lines smoother. Fairness. I try. You do indeed. Post cottage in the Bronx, Edgar Allan Poe, his cottage in the Bronx is nearly done being repaired. They're going to open it up for tourism. Wow. Because I actually read that in the show notes and I can't picture Poe's cottage in New York. I know. All I can picture is, I don't know, I mean I'm sure a lot of people that listen to our podcasts probably have kids and well I don't know that's maybe an overstatement. A lot of them have probably been kids at one point and seen the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. All I can picture as post cottage in New York is like that little cottage in the woods. Somehow right in the middle of a bunch of skyscrapers, there's a little thatch. Yeah. That's a little roof cottage. Same here. There's some deer and birds flying around. That's actually not that far off. I mean as Barry mentioned in his red hook New York minute, New York used to be very rural and it was possible to maintain a you know backwater cottage. It's a very small cottage. It doesn't have many rooms. The interior looks pretty empty. I'm not really sure what tourism is going to be like there but. And it's in the middle, I believe it's on the edge of a park on the edge of the city. So repaired, do you know why? I believe it had just been getting run down. They changed the thatch. Although frankly, I don't have the exact figure in front of me but the amount of money they spent in restoring this cottage is a little ridiculous given that they could have just built another cottage. Well, that's not the same. I understand that it's not the same. It's not Poe's inspired house. Yeah. Shut your mouth. It's po-ish. Speaking of Halloween fiction, Bram Stoker's journal has been rediscovered. Now I think this is one of those stories that's probably been kicking around for a while but CNN just hauled out because it was so close to Halloween and it sounds so good. Yeah. There was some interesting notes in there, stuff relating to Dracula. That's pretty cool. You're going to buy it for me. Oh yeah, that's incredibly likely. That's not very nice at all. You should be talking about gifts, incredibly expensive gifts for me on your birthday. Now to jump forward with the news a little bit. Have you guys seen the takethiswallypop.com thing? No. Now, do you remember that arcade fire song that was patrolling around a little while ago where you would insert where your childhood home was and they sort of integrated into the video? The suburbs. Yes. The suburbs, yes. Really? Yeah. Although it was, it had varying success, right? Because if your appearance, all it would really do is- No, some suburbs, sorry, sorry. It would grab your, it would grab imagery from Google Maps, like the street view. Yeah. It would have integrated into the video, but if your childhood home had changed since you were a kid, that might mean that it's like showing you a tire store or something. But it's not just your home though, like it- Because your neighborhood and the whole thing. Yeah, like you're going down the street and they add some filters to it so it looks really cool. I did it and I didn't have my old address so I just did, you know, the highway that was next to the river next to my house. Right. No idea what you're talking about. Okay. Well, we'll set two. Well, yeah. But this new thing, take this lollipop.com, is interesting because it's more of a horror slash Halloween related item. Okay. And it's this guy, without getting too detailed, you punch in your Facebook or you allow it to connect up with your Facebook page and then it grabs a bunch of your Facebook details. Okay. And integrates them into this video where this creepy dude is creeping out. Cool. Yes. It's not active, but the thing is, I did, again, it's not perfect because if you've seen my Facebook profile picture, it's a very fuzzy kind of vague photo and it looks pretty hilarious throughout when he's like raging against this barely visible beat. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely worth checking out Joe sent in a little item. Thanks, Joe. Relating to Free Alaska, which I believe was item episode 210. Right? I knew Joe would love that, that episode. Oh, but guess what? Guess what? As soon as you wrote it. Read it. As soon as I read it. There we go. Guess what? What? Houston Area Law Enforcement Agency is preparing to launch an unmanned drone that could carry weapons. Mm hmm. Yeah. It's a $300,000 drone called the Shadow Off. RoboCop. It's called the Shadowhawk unmanned helicopter made by vanguard defense industries. It's gross. I don't like that at all. There's no connection. Like if you at least have to kill somebody, I think you should have to be there. There should be some risk involved. Yeah. Like we're flying. Well, I shouldn't say we because we are in Canada, thankfully, but I know offense states, but when you're flying drones over your own people, let alone other people, but your own people? Wow. Listen, this is a quote from the head police officer on the scene or whatever. We're not going to use it to be invading somebody's privacy. It'll be used for situations we have with criminals. Situations we have with criminals. How do you like decide anyway, anyway, I find that a very interesting question actually. And then do you stop? Like let's say he enters a home. Does your drone stop? No, apparently. Apparently the Houston Police Department head and these are not the Houston Police Department. This is a someone near Houston. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Conroy. But the actual proper Houston Police Department in 2007 had suggested that they were going to use drones to write speeding tickets. And that everyone got in a big tizzy, apparently, and they had to drop the idea. Because they've been weaponized and it's like, you need to stop or I'm going to kill you. Well, no, no, it would just be already tickets, but people like to speed and they don't like having... the drone is watching him. The future is here and the future is scary. Okay. So Michael Bush, your chief exec from Vanguard, okay. The aircraft has the capability to have a number of different systems on board, mostly for law enforcement. We focus on what we can call less lethal systems, including tasers that can send a jolt to a criminal on the ground or a gun that fires beanbags known as a stun baton. You have a stun baton where you can actually engage somebody at altitude with the aircraft. A stun baton would essentially disable the suspect, he said. Gage has no... It'll stop them. They won't even describe how they're stopped, they'll just be like, "Oh, you don't have a worry about that." It'll essentially stop them. Gage, the cop says that he has no immediate plans to outfit the drone with weapons and he's also ruled out using the chopper for catching speeders, but... Yeah, it's actually going to be used as one of those local ice cream selling drones. Here, give us this stuff that's totally capable of doing something, but I won't do it for that. I won't use it. It's just going to be the office ice maker for law enforcement. Exactly. Just to note, although I do try to be careful with my chronology and flashpuff, I was kind of hoping for Alaska was going to be further, further in time than... Jeez. Anyway. You're right, it'll be free Texas first. Yeah. Rick Perry. In more personal news, we had a, uh, we had a quitter. Oh, quitters. I'm kind of wondering if we've had a few quitters over the casting thing, but I mean, unfortunately, the colors, uh, necessary. You know, I understand some people don't want to listen to that kind of language and just... I, you know, I appreciate this choice on the internet and they can go do what they want to do and I just keep running my little show over here. You know what I think is kind of funny? I guess, I guess he wanted to make a point, but he had to email J.R.D. and be like, "You know what? I am not going to listen and eat more." Oh, I can't. Yeah. There it is. And you figure, how often do we really swear? And it's kind of like on purpose. Well, every word's here. Every swear word in the episodes are, you know, all thought out and with their own purpose. Yes. Like, this is clearly like a thinking man show over here, but we're not going to nay-say words because, you know, it makes you feel funny. That's your problem. To clean the aftertaste from our pallet, one last mention before we go into the fish. Movie related item. Have you guys seen the trailer for Chronicle yet? No. What's that? Why do you see all these things that I don't, jeez. What hole am I in under a rock somewhere? Chronicle. So there's these teenagers and they find this hole while they're carrying video cameras around all the time because it's a found footage movie. And they gain superpowers. From the hole? Yeah. And then they're, they go back to their normal teenage lives, but their powers are becoming increasingly strong and they end up, I don't want to give away the punch of the trailer because I really found, I don't, I hope that they didn't give away too much in the trailer that it ruins the film and I suspect they didn't because I actually felt like even though we're dealing with high school characters, which usually annoy the crap out of me, these guys sold it well enough and they, when the turn, when the twist of the trailer is that they end up accidentally killing a guy. Ooh. And sorry. By shaking hands. You got to see it. I'll, I'll, all of a sudden you go from, you know, maybe potential superhero to potential superhero. Yeah, maybe he's not, maybe he's not dead. Maybe he was just injured, but there's a scene where they essentially run a guy off the road. They're not really, it's almost like this. The way they portrayed it, it's one of those stupid teenage acts. The guy's not really thinking about it. The guy behind them in the truck is being annoying and he just kind of swipes, but he has the power to like, I don't know, throw kinetic force or something and he accidentally runs the guy, well, he runs the guy off the road, but there's like a cliff right at the edge of the road and he essentially goes down this large hill and into a river. And it's all sold very convincingly because of the found footage style, but there's a lot of special effects and that sounds fun. Yeah. I'm under the impression that the film only ratchets up from there, so I would definitely be interested in seeing it. Chronicle, you said, right? Chronicle. Sounds good. But, you know, who's always got an eye for news and an ear for flash bulb? A fish eye for news? Fresh fish, a new batch of cinematic pulp with the always listening, three day fish. Hello, flash cast, three day fish here, a bit under the weather. I believe the Canadian Plague has somehow gone south to bother me, but the fish bravely goes on. I am here to review the movie In Time. Now I'm going to reveal as much of the plot that you see in the commercials for this movie. Okay, so the premise of this movie is time is your currency, so like how long you live is actually your currency. So you spend like so many minutes buying a cup of coffee, that's how many minutes out of your life that is. And so going back to Justin, so he's a poor guy, he literally like, he literally lives day to day like he wakes up with enough time to live throughout the day and he works to earn that much. Then he meets Amanda Seafried after gaining time from a man who just wants to die. So he gets like a hundred years and he goes to the rich part of town and then he and Amanda Seafried hit it off and they run off together and they start taking back time and giving it away to people, yeah! Now this is what you see in the previous and this is pretty much the plot. This in and of itself isn't really a remarkable plot, but what is impressive about this movie is how it sells that this world could happen. The lacking plot is just so overshadowed by the world it creates that you can still really enjoy this movie. Because they do so many things like I said he lives day to day, they use phrases like that, then there's time zones which no longer determine whether or not you're ahead or back an hour relative to one country or another, instead they determine where the rich and the poor and the middle class live and then there are minute men who are thugs and there are time keepers who are police. They do so much to like just build this whole world where everything is just based on trying to earn enough to live, literally. It's just so fun to watch and just let yourself get pulled into this kind of reality and that's where the movie is really strong is just this whole concept it sells, and it's a really fun movie. This is probably the first movie in a long time where I was just like wow this is a fun watch you know, but it's kind of a movie you can see with a bunch of friends. Now I will say this though, there's one really noticeable bad goof in this movie, and this is how it goes down, so it's the first time a man is seen for you and Justin Timberlake are alone together and they visit the ocean which is in her backyard, or she has a beach in her backyard because she's rich, and he's like well let's go swimming, and she's like we can't go swimming, that's dangerous because all rich people are afraid that if they're too reckless they'll lose their time or whatever, and this is how it goes down. He's like trying to convince her while he's convincing her he's like taking his clothes off for all the ladies, and he's just like you know getting closer and closer towards the ocean, and then suddenly there's this bad cut, and like he still had his pants on last time you saw him, and then all of a sudden he's like waist deep in the ocean going hey come on in, like it's hilarious, like I laughed out loud, got some shushes, but that was the only like major goof I saw, and this was tough, I really don't know what to give this movie because I enjoyed it so much, but I just know that the plot is lacking, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna be fair and just say it's a yellow light, because there are reasons to not like this movie, but I have to say this is probably one of the coolest sci-fi movies I've seen come out in a long time, and then it turns very like the since they're stealing time it turns very bonny and glide, so there's like even a crime aspect to it, it's just I really, I can really recommend this movie if you like action and sci-fi, it's well done, and I'm gonna stop gushing now, always listening. I do like that although fish had a lot of enthusiasm for this film, he tempered it and knew that it wouldn't be for everybody. It sounds very cool to me, I have to point out that when time is out loud only the time bandits will time bandits, yeah thanks a lot fish, I actually might check this film out now, the truth is I'm not quite sure how time perfectly translates as a replacement for money, I would be interested to see how they handle that, and I love world building, so I'd probably sit through the film just to see how they handle the background details that fish was gone about, but uh... I think you're apprehensive about the Justin Timberlake, he bites his lip. The JT aspect of the film, you don't want to be a judger, but I can see that you have some JT apprehensions. He has done a funny SNL sketch, but not much else in acting wise that I would necessarily call for him. You haven't even seen the social network and everyone's like, you're too good. That's true, we haven't seen him. It's essentially just playing Justin Timberlake in the social network though, like isn't that his role? No. Okay well maybe he'll be fantastic. Now I'm very excited to hear what Mr. Jeffrey Lynch has to offer on this Halloween edition of "The Spot of Butter." As of this reading, it's Friday, October 28th, and Halloween is of course right around the corner. A dark rainy cold front is rolling over the southern Appalachians and our wolfdog shade is outside howling in the wind for no apparent reason other than to welcome Jack Frost into her pen. We're a bit behind this year with our usual Halloween activities. Since the actual holiday falls this year on a Monday, which is a work night for us, we'll have to pack everything into the next two days. I don't mind, I like riding the spooky train at full tilt over the mountains through the woods and into the tunnels of terror. One stop that our Halloween train makes each year is a creepy desolate patch of woods out in the county, fondly known of as Pinhead's graveyard. It's a haunted wood, replete with screaming women, maniacs with chainsaws, and just about every other trope that can be milled from the last three decades of pop culture horror flicks. Funny thing is, I've always been too unnerved about the tab below to actually think about the working conditions of the average Halloween spook. Turns out, it's quite a challenging job. Here's a bit more on the subject from this week's Huffington Post. People pay good money to be scared in a haunted house, but what customers do to the employees who spook them can be even more frightening. According to former and current professionals in the haunted house industry, it's common for customers to freak out from fear and bust noses, bite arms, and throw punches at the people they've paid scare them. It's quite common, absolutely said Alan Hopps, who trains actors to work in haunted houses. The problem isn't the haunted houses or the actors, but the customers. They forget that people are actors and have a fight or flight reaction towards the person scaring them, not realizing one might be a 16 year old girl. Hopps said that busted noses are the most common customer-inflicted injuries. Someone might throw a punch when they get scared, or if someone scares them from behind, they will raise the elbow quickly, he said. Other injuries that are common include haunted house throat from excessive screaming and cleaver elbow. A repetitive stress injury similar to tennis elbow that comes from raising your arm too many times each night. "You can also get muscle burns using a chainsaw," Hopps said. "It happens in the line of duty, but haunted house acting is a sport. If you twist an ankle, you can still work in the graveyard as a zombie." Edward Terrebus, who owns a haunted house in Pontiac, Michigan, is another pro who looks at the injury risk as part of the cost of doing business. He once had a customer who was so scared by the house that she passed out three times inside before he was able to get her out so she could be treated by paramedics. After the last fainting spell she got up and had to do her car, since she was still at risk of fainting, Terrebus tried to prevent an accident by pulling the keys out of her ignition. "This woman grabs my arm like a chicken's leg and takes a big bite out of my arm," he laughed. "I'm screaming, she's screaming, and for an ironic twist, the fire department ended up holding me longer than her, tending to my bite wound." Not everybody gets the same thrill that Hopps does from risking injury in order to scare up money. Lynette Kittle, a publicist for Random House who lives in Colorado, is still haunted by her experience as a teenager when she volunteered to work in a haunted house. "I thought they wanted me to take tickets, but they asked me to lay in a casket and pop up and scare people," she told Huff Post Weird News. "It was too much for one teenage girl. When I set up, she screamed in terror and started punching me in the stomach, three guys behind the movable wall in the room where I was stationed, soon caught on, and started to push her and her friends into the next room. Needless to say, I asked to be moved to another spot after that experience." Not all customer inflicted injuries happen to humans, according to Amber Arnett Bequith, who runs The Edge of Hell in Kansas City. One attraction at the House of Horrors is an actor known as The Ratman, who pretends to eat rats and offers each guest a bite. One woman was so freaked out that she smacked the rat out of his hand and flew across the room and hit a brick wall where it died. Wendy Zodrowski, a former haunted house employee in Chicago, said the customers are scarier than anything she did to frighten them. "My first season, someone tried to set me on fire, and I know of one day when a patron came in with a taser," she told Huff Post Weird News. "The third season, someone also tried to set me on fire." Zodrowski, who now performs at Renaissance Fair, says "most employees are independent contractors and therefore responsible for their own injuries." "There are people who target performers, such as bored kids who will throw pennies at the performers. Those hurt, by the way," she said. "I was told not to warn new employees because they said it was bad for morale. It got so bad, I brought my own security." "There is some hope," she says. Some houses are beefing up security and using metal detectors, but she recommends any would-be haunted house performers ask questions about what they do to stress employees' safety. Some former haunted house employees say the job actually helped them physically, like Erica Holloway, who worked in a haunted house in Flint, Michigan while taking vocal lessons. I had to do this blood-curdling scream 30 times a night over and over, said Holloway, who now works in public relations in San Diego. "My voice would be dead by Halloween, but as a side effect, it ended up improving my range." Hopps trains his spooky students to watch out for potential dangers. "How you scare someone five feet away is different than 15 feet away," he said. "You can go bigger when you're further away. If someone looks mortified, back off, because they're not having any fun." But even so, he admits accidents happen. "I know one actress who scared a guy and he forced his way through a back door so he could hit her in the face," Hopps said. "Even so, she came back the next year." "The thrill of scaring customers outweighs the occupational hazards," he said. "A lion never feels more alive than when chasing an antelope." "I'm Jeffrey Lynch, and that's this week's spot of bother, bother, bother." That was a great one. That was a lot of fun, dear thanks. Yeah, nice job. Who knew it was so dangerous? You'd figure, though. It makes me more excited to try it. Well, I'm thinking about the haunted houses that we went through at Canada's Wonderland recently. Yeah, a lot of people go through there. Yeah. I have to admit, I do recall in my youth at one point accidentally elbowing a fellow out of startlement. He came up sort of behind me and over my right shoulder, and I wasn't expecting that terribly much. I actually ran into somebody in one of those houses, remember? And I was like, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," and he kind of just laughed at me. Yeah. I would have guessed you, man. Oh, yeah, no, no. You were in a line, and I told you to keep going or something, and you were looking away. Yeah, I was in the jet, the ripper went. Yeah, you plowed into the guy, or whatever, and he was like, "Whoo!" Yeah, that was great. Also, quick apologies to our fellow Jell-O and Miss Kitty for the rat trauma. We know that one made her put your head a little bit. You can find everything Jeff puts out at bothersomethings.com. He does a great job of posting up links and items for his bothersome spots. And I loved the howls, Jeff. That was great. Yeah, great work as always. Very professional, such a great job. Okay, well, let's keep this ghost train rolling right into New York. Hey, I'm Barry, back with your New York Minute. Have any of you seen the movie Arthur? I don't mean the one with Russell Brand. I mean, the funny one with Dr. Moore. It's a really good film with a good cast, and though it came out 30 years ago, it stands up well if it's the fiction of Arthur, a rich drunken New Yorker. But that's really all I have to say about it. What interests me this week is not the movie, but its theme song by Christopher Cross. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and is still a staple of light FM stations. Alvin and the Chipmunks covered it in 1982, so it had to be good. That Dave Seville had a real ear for music. Anyway, the most famous lyric, and don't worry, I'm not going to sing it, the most famous lyric is when you get caught between the mood in New York City, the best that you can do is fall in love. Romantic, isn't it? [Music] Yes, New York really is a city of romance, of love and imagination. If you have never been to New York, you have a mental image of the city. Part of it is formed by the crime drama of television, part of it is formed by the glitz of Broadway, thanks to me a small part of it is formed by invisible bridges and blind mutant albino sewer gators, and a large part of it is formed by the allure of mystery, the unknown. Caught between the moon and New York City. The moon is on average around 300,000 miles away from the earth, so I'm pretty sure that isn't meant literally, or would only apply to whoever is left on the International Space Station, but it is a great line. One New Yorker who got caught between the moon and New York City, and simply disappeared was Judge Crater. Legend has it that in 1930, he simply turned a corner and vanished on his way home. It really was almost that simple. Judge Joseph Crater is one of the most famous missing persons in American history, and the term pulling a crater has come into the lexicon as slang for disappearing. The story includes links to organized crime, Judge Crater's mistress, thousands of dollars in cash, and a pair of suitcases. Judge Crater was on vacation with his wife when he received the phone call. After hanging up, he told his wife he had to get back to New York to straighten those fellows out. It isn't clear who those fellows were, or even if they existed, because Crater's next stop wasn't New York, it was Atlantic City, where he stayed a few days with his girlfriend, a show girl named Sally Lou Ritz, and I dare you to find a better pulp name. He eventually got to New York City where he met up with his wife again, went through his files in the courthouse, and cash checks for over $5,000, which may not sound like much, but it was equal to over $60,000 back then. He later returned to his apartment with a pair of locked suitcases. That night, Judge Crater had dinner with Sally Lou Ritz and left to see a show for which he had bought only one ticket. The last anyone saw of him, he was walking down the street on his way to the theater, and he was never seen again. Investigators have pieced together some of his activities. His safe deposit box was empty, and the two suitcases gone. And what about the money, and his files from the courthouse? Unknown. All I can tell you is that he didn't run off with Sally Lou Ritz. She left town to be with her sick father, and believe it or not, that cliché alibi happened to be true. As you can imagine, there was a ton of speculation about what happened to the judge, but my favorite story comes from 1995. A 91-year-old woman contacted police and told her that she knew where Judge Crater was buried. According to her, Judge Crater was buried under the boardwalk in Coney Island at what is now the site of the New York Aquarium. While many crackpot theories have been put forth over the decades, this one was taken a little more seriously because she claimed that one of the judge's killers was her deceased husband, NYPD Officer Robert Goode. Goode, along with his partner Charles Burns, were very plausible suspects. Now I know you all remember the very first New York minute about Henry Hudson, the Half Moon Hotel, and Kid Twist? Well, it was officers Goode and Burns who were the Kid Twist bodyguards that night. That was the night that he took a Brody out the window and it splatted on the boardwalk. And I'm sure you remember taking a Brody from New York minute number three, the one about the Brooklyn Bridge. So you've got a fantastic and famous New York City disappearance linked to a fantastic and famous New York City mob rub-out, and both took place on the fantastic and famous Coney Island Boardwalk, and sadly, it's probably not true. When that part of the boardwalk was dug up in the 1950s to build the aquarium, no remains are found. Although Judge Crater was declared legally dead in 1939, I like to think that he's still out there, somewhere caught between the moon and New York City. I'm Barry, and this has been your semi-romantic and self-referential New York minute. [Music] Thanks Barry, that was fantastic. Very nice. I'd like to see a lot of links back to the older minutes. It's all coming together. I hope that we're going to get to a point with some modern art where we see a new portrait of New York because I really feel like things have changed in the last, let's say 20 years. Well, weren't we talking recently about their plans to sort of change up Times Square to be a little bit more new old New York? Yeah, but even then it feels a little bit like they're looking back. You know what I mean? Like New York has always been the forward cusp of, I don't want to say the forward cusp of western civilization because that's not fair, like there's a lot of cities that, you know, London, New York, but they're certainly up in that echelon, that pantheon of the cities. Yeah, but maybe they're going to bring, you know, a little new flair to the old style and kind of create a new style. I'm just interested to see what's going to happen next because I have to say that I think the most modern popular portrayal of New York has come from sex in the city. Does that seem right? Can you think of anything else that would be really heavily New York related? Now, okay, you know what, here's a side issue and this is something I was thinking about earlier while I was watching Ghostbusters 2 with the kids. Do you think that they could set a modern Ghostbusters film or even do the original Ghostbusters film over again in modern New York and still have it be as convincing? Wasn't there a certain feeling of grittiness and a little bit of anything could happen in New York that maybe has been deflated a little bit? Well, I mean New York has changed a lot over the last decade, you know, they've had some pretty major events there. Yeah. I'm not sure that it's even necessarily related to that though because even beforehand, I think they get us a lot to do with like cleaning up the crime and gentrification. That's what I'm saying, they've gotten and their image. Yeah, their whole image has changed, you know, since it's a couple of them. It's more bright lights, big city opportunity and a little less. We should do a study based on the changing trends in law and order, tracking how New York has portrayed via law and order over the last 25 years or whatever it's been. Anyway, thanks a lot Barry, that was fantastic. Very nice job. I'm definitely, we should work up a small lexicon and the wiki for items related to the New York Minute. Like the Brodies. Yeah, I'm gonna have to start working some of those in the stories. I've been trying to write little hooks related to the mob and little items throughout the tales recently, but I'll have to start grabbing some stuff from the New York Minute. You can find all of Barry's fantastic work over at bmj2k.com. I'm happy to once again be able to cite the return of a legend. This legend is based on a superstition, which many Viennese believed in over many centuries. The Hecktala. York von Rohenstein was a drunkard and a gambler. He lived so long in the lap of luxury until the fortune he had inherited from his father was gone. Without a coin in his pocket, he moved to Vienna, together with his wife and their child. Rovoli, he gave up his lovely life, he found a job as armorer, and soon the little family lived in modest prosperity. But after a couple of years, he succumbed to the temptation to drink and to roll the dice again. Finally, he lost his job, and when his child got sick, he even wasn't able to pay a doctor. The kid died, and soon after the child's death, his wife passed away, due broken heart. Both found the two early graves at St. Louis Cemetery. But even that death couldn't keep him away from his voice. As beggar, York strolled through Vienna and asked for food and some coins. One day, he met the maid's servant, Porgy. She felt mercy with the poor guy, and so she asked, "Have you ever tried to find the Hecktala?" "What is a Hecktala?" York replied interested. "It's a very special coin," the maid explained. The one who owns a Hecktala is never in financial need. This magical coin comes back to you, every time you spend it. "What do I have to do to find such a coin?" York inquired. Boring ordered to make clear she would give him the details. In a night to a Sunday, at midnight, you have to run around since Stephen's Church, three times. You have to start your run exactly with the first strike of the tower clock, and the run has to be finished with the last, the twelfth strike. Then you will find a brand new coin in your pocket. A Hecktala. This sounded very inviting to York, and so he decided to try his luck. Long before midnight, York arrived at the cemetery, which surrounded since Stephen's Church. It was an eerie night. The wind heard around the spire, and the pale moonlight drew strange shadows on the ground. But despite the scary situation, the fellow remained at the graveyard. When the clock struck at water to midnight, he made himself ready for his run. He didn't even want to miss a second of the time. At twelve, the wheels of the clock creaked, and the first stroke of the clock occurred through the night. At that moment, York started into his fateful run. Frantically, he ran between the graves and tried to find the shortest way. Suddenly, the first round was almost completed. He saw a figure of his third father with a sorrowful and even alerting expression on his face. But although he was scared, he continued his running. At the end of the second round, he noticed his deceased wife beckoning him to stop. But York ignored her warning and started into the third round. He still had two visions on his mind when he stumbled upon a little grave. He fell. At this moment, two little arms reached out of the grave, grabbed him by his gioth, and held him so tightly that he couldn't move anymore. He tried hard to break away, but all in vain. As the clock struck the twelfth time, the unreachenerate lost his life on the grave of his child. Thanks, Ingrid. That was great. This may actually be my favorite one so far. I wonder if the issue of coins came up because of our discussion of touch pieces last episode. That was very interesting. And this one reminded me a little bit of the sort of classic tale of the fellow who goes. This might have actually been even a Twilight Zone episode, possibly. The fellow goes out on a bet to a graveyard, says he can say just get to the grave and then go home or whatever, and they say to prove that he made it. He has to sink a dagger into the ground. But when he gets there, he accidentally pins himself, like his cloak or coat or whatever, to the grave, and then panics because he thinks he turns to leave some pulls off. He thinks he's been caught in the panics and has a heart attack and dies. Yeah, that was a great episode, by the way. But a great story. Yeah, thanks a lot, Ingrid. That was fantastic. Anyway, it's nice to hear it's so many little peripheral tales around St. Stephen's such a history. Yeah, okay. So what do we have next? Think this is a good opportunity to move into the mailbag. Hey guys, it's Ray. I've had a little movie tidbit that I've been meaning to call in with for weeks now, but I kept forgetting. Yeah, I dropped the ball a bit. Anyway, did you know Lance Henriksen was supposed to have a much bigger role in Terminator than just detective Hal Vukovich? Vukovich? Vukovich. Anyway, instead of being one of the cops who gets killed by the Terminator, he was actually supposed to be the Terminator. Originally, they were running with the idea that the Terminator's were to be designed to meld in a crowd without problems. That's why they were using Mr. Henriksen. He looked like a normal guy in normal size who could blend in perfectly until it's time to take out his target. I'm a little fuzzy on the details of how Arnie got the role. I'd like to imagine that he walked into the studio and just demanded the role. But what I do know is the audition and possibly his imposing size and appearance caught everybody off guard, even Lance Henriksen, who voluntarily gave up his role as the Terminator to Schwarzenegger. Ah, there you go. I finally remembered long enough to submit it. Also, I'd like to add a quick note that Appopenax's voice work with Black Call and Coffin's crossover was fantastic. I'm also a big fan of the return of the old Wolverine. Keep up the great work everybody. Talk to you guys soon. But that was really nice, right? I'm glad that you remember to send it in. Yeah, it was very smooth. But interesting that you mentioned that because Lance Henriksen and Paul Winfield as the two sort of cops in the film are part of what really sells me on the Terminator. That one, despite Arnold having a lot of star power, I feel like between Michael Bines/Bean/Howevers name is pronounced, Linda Hamilton, and then the cops. There's a lot of B-grade star power that adds up to an A film. It's a fun sort of event. But anyway, great call. I didn't know that. And I could definitely see Lance Henriksen as an interesting sort of Terminator. That would definitely be an interesting take on the film. I would like to see that turn. Also, while I was listening to your consideration and just sort of thinking about Henriksen in that role, I realized, you know what, he would also probably make it decent. Maybe he's a little too old for it now, but there's certainly a time when he would have made a decent Roland for the Dark Tower. Oh yeah, absolutely. If you think of him around the same era as Near Dark. Yeah, yeah, I would definitely say of that period. Pumpkin Heady. Anyway, thanks for the call, Giganto. We're fantastic work. Absolutely. So, we also got a call from Rich. Hello, I'm a relatively new listener. I started a few months ago when Flashpulp was promoted on film sack. I started from the beginning of the archives, been working my way slowly through. I've embargoed myself from your blog and wiki so I can stay spoiler free until I reach the end and I catch up with you guys in real time. I was listening to Flashcast episode 15, which is a bit old, I guess, from April. I'm not sure who else has expressed this same sentiment, but you guys were talking about car work stories and should they be labeled and what we thought about them. First of all, since I usually listen to them in my car as I'm driving, I don't really pay into the labels and I just get the clues from the intro music to know kind of what's going on as a sort of a little mystery and what's coming up to recognize that music bit, which storyline is it. So, I keep them unlabeled and keep it kind of a surprise. And then you had another question about the abrupt ending of them and how it just kind of all gets crashed down by car work at the end. I was going to say, I love that. To me, that's like the elaborate domino setups you see and then someone has to come along and flick it to knock it down otherwise what's the fun in it. So, just keep up the good work. I look forward to catching up with you guys in real time soon and I appreciate all you guys too. Thanks. That was really nice. Thanks. Mm-hmm. Thanks, new fan Rich. Yeah, it's definitely nice to get that sort of encouragement. Yeah, I like getting props. I don't know about you. But I found his note about listening to it in his car and just having the hint of the theme song very interesting because that's exactly what I wanted to go with to be. So, that's really nice to hear that it's coming across like that. Mm-hmm. I do have to admit, without getting in two specific details, I messed with this convention a little bit this week. I poked around the edges of it with a story called Slow Pokes. Mm-hmm. So, there was temptation to throw some curveballs in there but I try to keep true to the rules I have laid down. Yes. Glad to hear you came from Film Sack. I'm a big fan of that show. I must admit most of my support there is just because I'm actually a huge fan of Scott Johnson's work. Film Sack is like my weekly brain vacation when I'm sort of done all of my scripting and I know that I've put in my hours. I'll throw on the earbuds and just do something with my hands while I'm listening to the Film Sackers tackle often many of my favorite films from the past. Yeah, you know what I'm really happy about is we've actually had some some ads of ours on some pretty awesome Film Sack episodes. Yeah, it's always nice to hear like the thing that was on a special point of pride for me because the thing is one of my favorite films. Mm-hmm. Of all time, yeah. So, that was a big deal. Hearing Scott Johnson talk about Flashpull. I'd also like to give a quick shout out since Rich mentioned that he's coming, he's working his way through the archives. I wanted to give a quick shout out to Doc_Blue on Twitter and he's actually a member of the mob and a few other of my social media outlets but he says he's getting to the end of the archives and he's a little bit sad about it. It is weird when you don't have extra waiting in the wings. But there's definitely more to come, always more to come, while until 500. Have an end. But it'll always be in our hearts. Now, we had continued the superstitions shout out from last week and possibly the week previous to that. Mm-hmm. And boy howdy did we get some response. So, Jack Antor. Hey guys, it's Ray. I'm calling in with a more personal superstition. It's a work superstition. I'm an ambulance communications officer is my official title. I'm either taking calls for people that need an ambulance. Providing them with first aid or possibly CPR depending on the situation or the severity of the call. Or I'm doing the opposite or the other side of the job which is dispatching the ambulance and guiding them to where the patient is in need of help. One of the few things we really frown upon at work is when people ask is it busy or is it quiet? The key word is not welcome in dispatch. We also have islands that we dispatch to. We have a lot of lakes in the north that have people that have small societies on the islands. Indian reserves and such and when they call in for help. Well, we don't name those islands. We refuse to talk about them unless for training purposes or teaching purposes. We try to avoid dropping those those names mostly because it just the calls will eventually come in if that happens and then we have to send boats and helicopters and you know we got to worry about getting them there and especially if it's a serious call. It's always like just takes all our focus. Yeah, so I just thought I'd share a personal superstition that we get here at work in the north. That's all I really got for now. Hope you guys are having a good weekend and talk to you guys soon. Bye. That's very interesting. I'm not surprised I suppose that there's a lot of superstition in that sort of area because when you're dealing with life and death that's when these things tend to crop up where... Yeah, you don't want to declare what any sort of night is because it could affect your night. I don't personally believe in any of those superstitions but I can understand respecting the environment and that's how people do it. It is serious business. Well, this is one of those things where as a superstition it probably almost rises out of just people's anxiety training. You probably get to a point where you've heard... You only have bad references with this island or this whatever and so you just don't want anybody to mention it. It's the name that you show my speech. It's the name that you think it'll be a bad luck. It's just shut up. I don't want to talk about that place and eventually morphs into a superstition. Yeah, very good though. I really appreciate the call. Yeah, fantastic call. And if it's not invading anybody's privacy too much always feel free to get into it. A call in with an interesting paramedic call because... Yeah, because I'm sure they're varied. Yeah, we're all morbid people like that. That was pulpy. Yeah, just no baby deaths. Pulp people. Because that'll make us worse. We're austerity. Another call in from a regular regarding superstitions. I'm excited to hear what fish I have to say. Hey, Flashcast. Just thought I'd contribute to the mailbag for once. I haven't done that in a while. A couple things I wanted to add as far as superstitions go. I remember when J.R.D. asked, I was just like, "I don't know any superstitions that I hold or well things like that." But then I remembered when I was driving one night. There's a little leg thing that I've always heard in my family when you drive by a graveyard. You're supposed to hold your breath. The reason being it's rude to breathe around those who don't breathe anymore. So I thought you might enjoy that. Another thing I wanted to add was when you guys mentioned the house of wax within the price. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe, I saw this in a documentary once. There's a scene where the cops come in and they shoot Vincent Price's character if I remember right. I found out that in those old movies, they didn't shoot blanks, they shot legitimate bullets, and the old timer on the documentary was like, laugh about that. I was like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey." I was there like, "Oh my God, you used to have to be a badass to be an actor. Holy crap." So yeah, just thought I'd contribute that. The way I heard it when I was a kid was that if very much in the same sense as when you sneezed, you gave the devil an opportunity to possess your soul unless somebody said, "Bless you." If you drove by or went by a cemetery and you took a breath, then you were allowing the spirits to enter and possess you. Yeah, no, that's exactly what I recalled. Yeah, exactly. So many reasons why you can't breathe around the dead. That actually reminds me of another one where the old ghost story where you whistle past the graveyard or whatever to keep the ghosts away. But then there's always that counter-ghost story where somebody's whistling and then they hear somebody else whistling, but there's no one there. Oh, creepy. They keep hearing it and turning around, but there's never anyone there. Anyway, great call fish. Yes, thank you very much. Yeah, I enjoyed that one. I'm really happy with the response for these superstitions. Yeah, it's so many of the small variances on each one. We actually got an interesting post in the mob from our friend Joe in Colorado and he says, "Okay, so you said you're still looking for superstitions. Talk to my mom this evening and got the scoop on more of my grandpa's superstitions." Worth noting, he was a first-generation American. His mother was Welsh. Hmm, that's interesting. And stepfather English immigrants. So he got most of this from them. One of them was putting a hat on a bed, his bad luck. We'd heard that already, right? See, now, is that just, I think this one's one that comes out of messiness. Just get your hat off. Beds don't wear hats. That's a cultural thing. Another one was, if you get the largest part of a wishbone when you pull it, you'll have good luck. Now, I'd actually heard that one when I was a child, too, and whenever my grandmother made any kind of foul for dinner, we would always save the wishbone. We actually still do this for the kids, too, but it was always you make the wish and then you pull it and whoever gets the bigger end, their wish is going to be granted. But it's bad luck if you tell anybody what the wish is because then it won't come true. Another one that Joe said was, "Never sit cross-legged when playing cards." Now, I haven't heard that one before, and I played a lot of cards in my youth, but in my youth, I said. Yeah, I'm such an old lady now. I was around the poker circuit, that one I was 10. Yeah. Now, I think we'd, maybe it's just that I read this earlier, but eating black-eyed peas on New Year's with a knife, a fork or spoon, and listening to black-eyed peas. I hope we'll bring good luck to the entire year. Oh, good luck. I guess that depends how much of a black-eyed peas. Yeah. Never open an umbrella in a house because it brings bad luck. I've definitely heard that one before. And you poke eyeballs and knock over lamps. Again, this is one that comes out of practicality where you just don't want to break stuff, so it's bad luck. And here's one that I actually heard a lot when I was a kid from my grandmother because she had a pair of crutches in her basement that we used to play with, but never play with crutches or you will wind up needing them for real. Unfortunately, I never did end up winding, like wind up needing them for real, but yeah. I think this one also falls into my mom's stop making that face or it's going to stay that way. Well, I don't know. It's a pretty good thing to avoid too because I did end up hurting myself a bunch, but never breaking anything bad enough to. Yeah. If you give a purse or a wallet as a gift, unless you put a penny in it or some money, it will always be empty. But don't try to run around in the graveyard in St. Stephen's. That's right. It's not going to come back. That penny is not coming back. Just let it go. Now, I have received again from my grandmother wallets before and she would put a penny in it, but it was all as for her. It was for good luck. It would bring more money. It wasn't the case of it, it would always be empty if it wasn't there, but it would bring more money to start it off. If you give a gift of knives or something sharp, the person receiving the gifts should give you a penny in return or you'll cut them, or they will have bad luck with the gift and you don't want bad luck with knives. Yeah. That's interesting. That's a good one. I like that. It's good luck particularly on New Year's to have a toe-headed person cross your threshold first. Now, what the heck is a toe-headed person? Somebody with very fair hair. Okay. Like straw hair, what you might call straw hair. All right. Okay. Like Mr. Three. I was just picturing somebody with a toe shaped head. It was really not pleasant at all. Not cool. No, not cool. It'll haunt my nightmares forever, or at least for two weeks and you'll have to keep the lights on. Yeah, that's right. Thanks, Joe. Jeez. So it's always bad luck to have a red head cross the threshold first as noted by Nick, and it was mentioned because apparently Joe's grandpa was a ginger. Ginger. We're sorry to hear that, Joe. She's kidding, of course. Um, some, some others his mom thought of, um, carrying a rabbit's foot for good luck. Yes. I've definitely heard that. Naturally. Now, again, I wonder if this comes out of the fact that we have to kill animals for food. Yeah, it's definitely not good luck for the rabbit. And you always have leftover feet lying around. Well, it's not just the leftover feet. It's always just, it's not the stacks. It's not the stacks and stacks of leftover feet. It's the, uh, trying to deal with the fact that you're giving death to provide life. Yeah, you know, I find it interesting because you can think of it as sort of like a totem thing, right? Like, you're carrying around this magical symbol of some sort. But as far as I'm aware in most like, well, I'd say North American lore, rabbits were considered cowardly and, and fearful. So I don't understand. Well, in, in the lore that I've read, they were considered lunch. And I think that's a good point. You wouldn't think lunch would bring you luck. I don't know. Um, finding a four leaf clover brings good luck. We've definitely heard of that too. I always seem to associate the rabbits foot and the clover as Irish. I know you had mentioned you associate the clover with, with Ireland, but I always heard the same thing, but rabbits foot. Hmm, that's interesting. I don't know. Uh, telling it. They should put, they should put rabbits foot in lucky charms. Yeah, that'd be great. I'm telling an actor to break a leg rather than saying good luck. I've definitely heard that. I'm constantly telling you a little break something. Yeah. Um, and the other one I've heard related to actors is you're not supposed to say Macbeth. No, yeah. The Scottish play. Yeah, that's, uh, one that we held to very dearly in high school. Mm hmm. What's another one, which was really difficult too, because we were all studying Macbeth at the same time. Right. Well, that's, they do that to be a smartest. Yeah, those bastards. Um, a cricket in your house is good luck and killing it is bad luck. Again, I think this is one that comes out of practicality. I think that imagine, I imagine the origin, origin of this one is a late June night and a woman named Elma is going. Herbert, just stop looking for that effing cricket and sit down. Mm hmm. You're not going to find it. It's good luck, man. If you kill his bad luck, just sit down. Yeah, yeah. You know what though? I, I have noticed in, um, Chinese lore as well that, uh, cricket seconds. Well, there was a cricket cult for a long time, but that was more related to the fact that they became almost like Pokemon. They became the collectible item and you wanted cricket songs and you would carry a little, you would have little cages that you would actually carry on you that would, and you would bring them over to other people's houses and like trades. This is my cricket. Wow, awesome. That's so cool. That's how it started. And then it just got more and more like cricket warship and it became a larger. Wow. Yeah, it's a very interesting story. I should touch on that sometime. Uh, so another one we heard of Friday the 13th is bad luck. Um, I would assume, especially if you're a Knight Templar. Right, because isn't that when the king decided that they were going to give up their goods? Yeah, that's when they got all murdered. Murderized, murderized, murderfied, turned into the Da Vinci Code. Um, if you're pawn itches, you will be coming into money. I've heard that. Um, if your nose itches, you'll have company soon. I've heard, uh, if your nose itches, or no one thinking of, if your ears are burning, somebody's talking about you. Right. If you shiver a rabbit or a shadow has passed over your grave. I always heard it was a duck walking over your grave. Really? Yeah, that's what I heard too. Um, I find that a rabbit interesting. That's interesting. A shadow, I could definitely see that. Or somebody just walking over your grave. Yeah. Some people, this seems a little unfair though, because some people must be buried in more high traffic areas than just constantly shivering, or as others are like, probably not even on developed land yet, but just relaxed. Um, and this last one, I can totally see where it came from. If you see a rat leave a ship, it's going to have bad luck. And I can totally picture where that comes from. If a rat's ditching a ship? Yeah, well the whole, then that ship is not in a good way. Yeah. Yeah, pig heart knows something about rats and ships. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, what else? We got some mentions from Amy. Amy have to say. She said, uh, if your nose itches, speaking of itchy noses, if your nose itches, my mother would say have a fight or kiss a fool. Now I definitely have heard the kiss a fool thing. Hmm. I guess have a fight, punch somebody punches in the nose and you're no longer itching. I kiss whoever's on hand, including myself. Uh, another one she's heard, tie ribbon around a baby's stroller or bassinet. So the devil will be attracted to the ribbon and not harm a steely infant. Now I heard the same thing with coral from, um, like some Lebanese friends that I had back in high school. I always noticed they're, they're younger sisters or siblings or whatever they would be wearing some kind of coral charm, red coral charm. What kind of, what kind of like OCD fellow is the devil, that he's going around playing films and just being distracted by ribbons and yeah, easily put off by all of these. Man, poor guy, tension deficit disorders. What really does that guy in? Yeah, that's right. Uh, whistling will make the blessed mother cry. That's another one of those. You're making baby Jesus cry. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I can see where that one came from. And she also, she actually referenced the Nick's mention of uh, Ginger's saying that since she's kind of ginger, he does that mean that she brings bad luck to her house all the time. Yes, she does. My grandmother constantly reminded me that she was thankful I was not a ginger because then she would have to kill me. And we have another superstition from Amanda from the mob. And she said, I dealt this will be in in time. It's always in time. There's always another flash guest. Yes. Always the next one. But you are supposed to say white rabbit three times on the first day of every month to the first person you see. I've never heard that one again with the rabbits though. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent time. And throwing salt over your shoulder. If you if you spill it. Now listen, I understand having to do something about a mess and maybe coming out of that angle. But to my mind, salt has always been up until relatively recently, a fairly expensive commodity, hasn't it? Mm hmm. So you know what, though? It's it's salt is very much a part of a lot of superstition and lore and magical rituals. It is. It really it's a it's a purifying thing. And I can understand if it's wasted, like if it's been spoiled, that at least you don't waste it. You at least make a wish or throw over your shoulder and make some use. Mm hmm. She also said, I always heard an itchy right hand meant that you would meet somebody new. And itchy left hand if it meant that you were coming into money. And I can't remember what itchy feet means, though. My babysitter also used to tell me that staying at the dinner table was bad luck. But I had always heard itchy feet are a sign of going on a long journey. I thought it was like a sign of like athlete's foot. Yeah, that too. It's interesting that people put so much stuck into itching being in premonition. Yeah, you're like, dude, just gonna check it out. Yeah, you just got a nice ointment. A powerful one. You're like, no, no, no, it's premonition. That's a problem. So let's round up the mailbag with my favorite method of doing so. A little call from Colorado Joe. He's a cup of Joe. Four mobsters at home. It's Colorado Joe. Hello, Flashcast crew and fellow mobsters. First, want to jump on the bandwagon and say how happy I was to have Ingrid and her stories back. Really enjoyed it. It was interesting to hear what I think of as bowling referred to as Skittles. Not only are Ingrid's stories entertaining, they're educational. And while romance is not my genre of choice, props to Nettie for a very entertaining story. It turns out romance is Linda's favorite literature, so I had her listen and she loved it as well. We just never know what we're going to hear when we push play on a Flashcast. Regarding the power of words, I recently read a very interesting book called The Shallows. The central thesis, which I'm skeptical of, is that the internet is dumbing us down. An interesting anecdote presented in the book was that folks in the time of Socrates were critical of these new fangled things called scrolls, in which stories could be recorded. It was believed that by not memorizing said stories, the brain would atrophy. So at that time, the power of words were those in your mind, not on paper. It progressed from there. Sorry about your sticker order problems. Playing devil's abdicate, I think their significant benefit to voicing complaints about a company on the internet. At a minimum, it serves as a warning to others that they may not be getting the product and service they desire from the company. I believe it also serves as an incentive for the company to address said criticism in a quick and public way. Sort of related, I have a Google+ account, but don't use it much. Mostly because of some of the problems I've heard about. The problem Nutty's brother experiences just one example of many out there. In one case, a person who committed to using Google services essentially lost their online property due to a capricious decision by the company. Google really has a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on at times with how it operates, and I'm sort of waiting to see if they get it. Couple of quick questions. Where did you watch the Stephen King documentary? In regarding the new battle star Galactica, wondering if you ever watched any episodes of Caprica. They killed it after season, which was annoying. The thing I liked most about it was the exploration of the different cultures in the 12 worlds. Definitely some social commentary mixed into the plot. Not amazing, but would have liked to see where they could have taken it. My author spotlight this week is Greg Baer, a very prolific writer. I will recommend Darwin's radio as a good one to consider as movie fodder. The plot focuses on an evolutionary jump occurring in the human genome, and how society might react when they know they are about to be superseded by human 2.0. One really cool thing about hard sci-fi like this is beyond a great story. I learned a lot about genetics and evolution as well. Enjoyed the black hulk-off and crossover. I agree there was room for a bridge story, but I sort of like that some of the detail is left to the imagination. I really enjoyed the ending. Also caught up on the last mulligan and slow-pokes. Fun stuff. Turns out my son's fiance does not want him to see her wedding dress until the day of the wedding. I think this is an extension of a superstition that it is bad luck to see the bride on the wedding day until she arrives at the altar. I don't think my daughter-in-law is superstitious, just following custom. That got me thinking that over time, many one-time superstitions become cultural quirks that we give the learner a thought to. People are funny. As I sign off, I want to wish Jared a happy birthday a couple of days early, and a happy Halloween to all of the mobsters. Take care. Joe had also mentioned that he and Linda had been listening to the latest Flashcast together, and I think it's kind of awesome that they find time to do that together. One of the first things that we did together was a Pope would read us novels, and then we had lots of more children, so we don't have time for that anymore, but it's a dorms that you guys do it together. And it's also nice to know that one day we'll have the time to do that too. I think Jell-O and Kitty were mentioning they do it together too. - That's really cool. - Guys, that's so nice. And thanks again for your story, Nadi. Apparently Linda liked it. - Oh yeah, that was fantastic. - Yeah. Interesting mention of the shallows. I have to admit, I've also got a little skeptical about the theory. I kind of have to think of it like, I think of human progress like the fly. Do you remember the fly? - The remake. - The remake. Yes, the remake with Jeff Goldbloom, and there's the scene at the start where she asks, "How could you have possibly built this?" And because he's smart, but he doesn't strike you as a ridiculous genius. - Yeah. - And he says, "Well, you know, it's mostly a little this and that from other people, and I've just been the first one to put it all together." - It's like it all together. - And I think that's all human knowledge, right? Like, we build these columns of information and we think to ourselves, "Yeah, there's no way those filthy buggers 100 years ago could have understood genetics." But like, our children understand the basics of genetics almost right out of the gate now. - Mm-hmm. - Just the fact that the internet is making that knowledge more accessible, somehow we're going to learn less, that seems ridiculous. - Mm-hmm. And I think the issue with Goldbloom, with Jeff Goldbloom, was that maybe he didn't know how all the parts were placed together. So that, you know, I think that you do need to have a base knowledge in how things work before you just, you know, shove them all together and make a pie. - Yeah, but I just mean more that that's how we always get poop done. Shoving things together, maybe not knowing how it's going to work. - Yeah, how it's going to happen. - It's always going to happen. - Yeah, like, let's break it and see how we fix it. - Yeah, we try to fix it. - We never understand the fallout of all of our behaviors as we go forward, and that can be dangerous. - Yes. - Nuclear technology can be problems in the wrong hands. - Yeah. - But at the same time... - There you go. - Yeah, progress is made not by going backwards. - Mm-hmm. - Uh, interesting mention of Google Plus. I have to admit, I'm also still on the fence about it. The fact that I maintain not entirely my proper identity, like, I've quite a bit invested in the quote unquote "JRD" Skinner property. I don't really maintain a personal Facebook page all that much anymore. At the same time, if Google were to turn around and kick me off, I've really been holding back. Like, I wouldn't mind that much, but it's because I've been holding back. I only really post episodes and fun little clip snippet things. I've seen a lot more... I've seen people like Scott Johnson, for example, to bring the man back up again, be able to do a lot more interactive items on Google Plus, but I'm worried to get that invested only to be booted because I'm not using my proper name. So, I definitely understand that situation, and Google does have that tendency to make these weird decisions that seem counter to their quote unquote "don't be evil" claim. You know, "JRD" Skinner is your proper name. Yeah, but they could make, they could complain. They don't allow me to put periods in to make it obvious that it's my initials or to capitalize anything. They basically force it into this weird first name, which is the same thing they do on Facebook. Those jerks. Caprica, yeah. I have to admit, we love VSD, but we never really got into Caprica. I really enjoyed VSD, but I have to admit, I was waiting for Caprica to incubate a little bit, and it never seemed to get that chance. I love the idea of an ongoing, another ongoing sci-fi show on television, and it sucks that I got canned before they could work out the bugs. Just another firefly. Yeah, and yeah, Greg Baer, fantastic selection. Darwin's Radio is actually the first book I ever read by him. I somehow stumbled across in one of those, you're trying stanza, and here's a free book from, I don't know who it is, Tor, HarperCollins, or whoever publishes it. Yeah, great read. I was actually a big fan of his book, The Infinity Concerto, and the follow-up to that, The Serpent Age, and I think they were actually put together as one book, but called something else. I can't remember what that is, but it was a really good series, and I, my brother read it when he was very young, so I remember playing around, make, believe. You've mentioned those books before, but I haven't actually read them yet. It has a lot to do with the fairy world and stuff. Interesting. It's really cool. Kind of crossovers, you meet Mozart and stuff like that, you find that a lot of really intelligent, gifted people have been stolen away over the years by the fairy realms, because they're, oh, I don't want to give away the series, but yeah, it's really interesting. That's interesting, though, that he swings from, because Darwin's radio was pretty hard sci-fi. It's interesting that he swings from that to fairies, but I like that. I mean, that's a man after my own heart right there. Speaking of my own heart... Backroom plots. Just to quickly run through some of our previous work this week, Mulligan Smith in resolution, finally tied up sort of the background three-parter that was going on with Mulligan. Yeah, it was like a resolution. Yeah, got to bring my Walmart mic again. Still have some Walmart mic stuff that I haven't used up yet, but it's sitting on the back burner, so he's definitely going to show up at least one more time, but probably a few more. He's an interesting guy. Slowpokes. We've discussed it a little bit, don't want to mention it too much more, but it definitely, for those who've listened to it and have some questions, it fits directly into the Flashpelp universe. Everything there is pertinent. Some of things may be more obvious than others. I think I definitely race in eyebrows with the people who tend the lore, those kind of folk. So I appreciate that. Glad they're paying attention. Homegrown. That one came out of... Another Mulligan Smith Dale, that one came out of... Yeah, speaking of haunted houses, right? Yeah, Wonderland. Yep. There was a little hat tip to Jellow's rats in there, Jellow and Kitty's rats. There was a lot of inspiration that night. The Cuss Hader. The Cuss Hader made it in there. That's right. I was going to say his name, but I shouldn't do that. Well, it wasn't so much that the Cuss Hader himself made it in. It was that... Yeah, I know, he just got a silly name, so I was going to say it, but I shouldn't. That was a fun one to write. It was intended as a bit of a lighter Mulligan tail. Kind of nice to just do a Rockford episode every now and then. Plus a nice little appearance from Billie Winnipeg. Oh, it's fun to have. Love Billie Winnipeg. He was very intense. I love Toronto, Billie. Yeah. Like a big pony. On more personal note. Note. I finally retired my most recent notebook. It was coming to the end. It was in that phase where you're still using it, but the last few pages are becoming dangerously loose, and it's best just to put it down. So I replaced it with a book of the exact same type. Mull skin, or Mull skin, or however you're supposed to pronounce it. I know some folks have some issues with their recent design contests. There's a lot of backlash recently. I don't know if you're aware, but there's a lot of backlash recently. It's a notebook backlash. Having these contests where you essentially farm out creative work. Oh, yes, yes. And say, you know. Do I work for us for free? Design a logo, and we'll give you 100 dollars. And use the logo. You know, 1,000 people sink 10 hours into whatever. It's actually a pretty good idea. Well, it's terrible for creatives, though. Yeah, like if you're not giving them credit. Yeah. Yeah, you're just basically asking for free stuff. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. But at the same time, I love the notebook. And I'm not going to get involved in this sort of spec design issue, but I'm also interested to see what comes out of it. Yeah. Yeah. Hoping it will be just as good. If not better. Well, I hope that they come around and realize the problem with their approach. The R-O-Neracial. So I don't have a lot of art to speak of recently. I had a lot of chance to be very artistic. But I did really enjoy doing some of my more recent niracial work. I got a lot of props from that episode with Sarah Thistle. Yeah. It was kind of gross. Yeah, well, I don't know. She's an animal. I thought it was perfect. Yeah, no, it was great. I added in a couple of snuffles and snorts that I thought were appropriate. I did a couple of takes for my nashing of teeth because I wanted to get the snapping just right. So you pictured her massive jaws. But it was a little tricky in some areas because I know I've mentioned before when I picture Will Coffin. I always think of Lance Henriksen to loop back to Lance again. And so when I'm speaking in Will Coffin's voice, it's always kind of gravelly. And I don't know if you've ever heard Sarah Thistle. Yeah. But she has quite a little harsh toned her voice as well. So it was a little bit difficult to go from one sort of raspy voice to the other. And sometimes we would take a minute. Yeah, I would start one sentence and be like, "Oh, wait, that was Coffin speaking. Not Sarah Thistle, I gotta change that." Uh, it sounded a little more than Sarah Thistle. But I really enjoyed recording that episode. And it was lots of fun. "Are you a dassy?" "Oh, ho!" I don't have anything. Thanks to Jim for hosting wiki.flashpulp.com and flashpulp.com. You can find everything that's fantastic by Fantastic Jim at Relic Radio. Thank you, Jim! If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, you can find us at flashpulp.com. Call our voicemail line at 206-338-2719 or email us text her MP3 to come as at flashpulp.com. Jessica May's vocal talents and musical stylists can be found at metunes.com. That is 100% accurate. The entire run of flashpulp can be found at flashpulp.com or via the search bar on iTunes. Any last words? Banana. Lose on my lap. And I'm enjoying it. We've got to do this to every episode. She was actually on Jamie's shoulders a little earlier, but it was awkward. I don't think it'll be good. Bye! Flashcance has really stoned into the Canadian grade of government's attribution and non-commercial, too much. That's really nice. ♪ One day it will be my hour ♪ ♪ That's number left ♪ ♪ Here is the shadow that is with our number left ♪ ♪ Little as flowers will never awake when you worry ♪ ♪ Not where the flag holds up ♪ ♪ Although I've taken you ♪ ♪ In those who have no thought ♪ ♪ Of ever returning you ♪ ♪ To a day behind me ♪ ♪ If I'm of joining you ♪ ♪ Through me, on the day ♪ ♪ On the day to me ♪ ♪ I'm weary of bending in ♪ ♪ This is the last song ♪ ♪ And then I am bending in ♪ ♪ Through meldy time goes ♪ ♪ And says that I know ♪ ♪ Why should they cry ♪ ♪ When they know that I'm glad to go ♪ ♪ If the dead dreams ♪ ♪ Then I'll dream I'm threatening you ♪ ♪ On the long journey ♪ ♪ I know I'll be blessing you ♪ ♪ Through me, on the day ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (music) (chimes)