Alice Parent

NDG: Mystery Writer Barbara Parker RIP

2009-03-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Barbara Parker
Died March 7, 2009
RIP
Barbara Parker (died March 7, 2009) was an American mystery writer. She wrote 12 novels, the first of which Suspicion of Innocence was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first mystery novel by an American author. Parker was on the national board of the Mystery Writers of America and was the chair of its membership committee for two years. She died on March 7, 2009 at the Hospice By The Sea in Boca Raton, Florida. She was 62.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Suspicion Series:
Suspicion of Innocence (1994)
Suspicion of Guilt (1995)
Suspicion of Deceit (1998)
Suspicion of Betrayal (1999)
Suspicion of Malice (2000)
Suspicion of Vengeance (2001)
Suspicion of Madness (2003)
Suspicion of Rage (2005)
Other:
Blood Relations (1994)
Criminal Justice (1997)
The Perfect Fake (2006)
The Dark of Day (2008)
The Reckoning (2009) (unfinished)
--- wiki

BarbaraParker.com

Barbara Parker - Fantastic Fiction

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2009

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

Update on Chandra Levy Case

2009-03-05T00:03:00.000-08:00

Warrant Issued in Chandra Levy Killing

WASHINGTON (March 3) - Witness after witness told authorities the same thing: In the nearly eight years since federal intern Chandra Levy was attacked and killed in a Washington park, a Salvadoran immigrant boasted in letters and jailhouse conversations that he stalked, maimed and killed women he picked out randomly. While behind bars for two other attacks in the same park where Levy was killed, police say, Ingmar Guandique slowly revealed that one of those women was Levy, explaining over time how with the help of two teenagers, he grabbed her by the neck and choked her so other joggers wouldn’t hear her screams.
Authorities issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for Guandique, 27, and said he would be charged with first-degree murder in Levy’s death. He is expected to be brought back to Washington from the federal prison in Adelanto, Calif., where he is serving time for attacking the other two women, sometime in the next two months.
One witness interviewed last month told police that Guandique said over time that he and two male teenagers were sitting on a bench in a park smoking marijuana and cocaine when he saw Levy jogging. The witness said Guandique thought Levy “looked good” and told the two teenagers that he was going to “get her.” Guandique said the three followed her along a path and at one point grabbed her and took her into the bushes, the witness said. When she started screaming, he grabbed her by the neck and choked her to death, so that people nearby would not hear the struggle.
Where she was attacked, police said, clothing was strewn from the path, down a steep hill toward the bottom of a ravine. Her shoes were unlaced. Her clothing was turned inside out. Her tights were knotted into restraints.
During the attack, Levy scratched him, the affidavit says. To hide that evidence, the witness said Guandique instructed his family to tell police the scratches came from a fight with his girlfriend if he was ever questioned. FULL ARTICLE

PoeForward Missing Persons: Chandra Levy

PoeForward Missing Persons

NDG: Kathleen Byron 1921 - 2009 RIP

2009-01-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Kathleen Byron

January 11, 1921 - January 18, 2009

RIP

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Black Narcissus (1947)

The Elephant Man (1980)

Les Miserables (1998)

Kathleen Byron - wiki

Kathleen Byron - imdb

British Film Institute - Screenonline

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2009

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Scream Queen Susanna Foster 1924 - 2009 RIP

2009-01-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Susanna Foster

December 6, 1924 - January 17, 2009

RIP

Susanna Foster - wiki

Susanna Foster - imdb

The Phantom of the Opera (1943) with Claude Rains - wiki

Poe Forward's Scream Queens

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2009

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Raven Feeder Jean Keene 1923 - 2009 RIP

2009-01-16T21:12:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Jean Keene

October 20, 1923 - January 13, 2009

RIP

Jean Keene - wiki

Poe's "The Raven" - wiki

Ravens - wiki

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2009

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Cheryl Holdridge 1944 - 2009 RIP

2009-01-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Cheryl Holdridge

June 20, 1944 - January 6, 2009

RIP

Cheryl Holdridge - wiki

Cheryl Holdridge - imdb

Mickey Mouse Club Cast: Cheryl Holdridge

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2009

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Ann Savage 1921 - 2008 RIP

2008-12-27T22:39:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Ann Savage

February 19, 1921 - December 25, 2008

RIP

Ann Savage - wiki

Ann Savage - imdb

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2008

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Eartha Kitt 1927 - 2008 RIP

2008-12-27T00:10:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Eartha Kitt

January 17, 1927 - December 25, 2008

RIP

Earth Kitt - wiki

Eartha Kitt - imdb

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2008

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Bettie Page 1923 - 2008 RIP

2008-12-13T20:27:00.000-08:00

NEW DEAD GIRL:

BETTIE PAGE

April 22, 1923 - December 11, 2008

RIP

Bettie Page - wiki

Bettie Page - imdb

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2008

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Sunny von Bulow 1932 - 2008 RIP

2008-12-08T23:13:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Sunny Von Bulow

September 1, 1932 - December 6, 2008

RIP

Sunny Von Bulow - wiki

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2008

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Nina Foch 1924 - 2008 RIP

2008-12-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Nina Foch

April 20, 1924 - December 5, 2008

RIP

Nina Foch - wiki

Nina Foch - imdb

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2008

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Edie Adams 1927 - 2008 RIP

2008-11-25T20:11:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl:

Edie Adams

April 16, 1927 - October 15, 2008

RIP

Edie Adams - imdb

Edie Adams - wiki

NDG: Anita Page 1910 - 2008 RIP

2008-09-12T22:35:00.000-07:00

New Dead Girl:

Anita Page

August 4, 1910 - September 6, 2008

RIP

Anita Page - imdb

Anita Page - wiki

NDG: Evelyn Keyes 1916-2008 RIP

2008-08-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

New Dead Girl:

Evelyn Keyes

November 20, 1916 - July 4, 2008

RIP

Evelyn Keyes - imdb

Evelyn Keyes - wiki

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2008

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Cyd Charisse 1922 - 2008 RIP

2008-06-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

New Dead Girl:

Cyd Charisse

March 8, 1922 - June 17, 2008

RIP

Cyd Charisse - imdb

Cyd Charisse - wiki

Singing in the Rain (1952) - imdb

Singing in the Rain (1952) - wiki

Poe Forward New Dead Girls

Poe Forward Dead Girls

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG: Model Heather Stohler Dies in Fire

2008-05-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

Heather Stohler

November 29, 1979 - May 11, 2008

RIP

Heather Stohler - wiki

Heather Stohler - Fashion Model Directory

Heather Stohler - zimbio

Calvin Klein Model Dies in Fire - tmz

RIP Danny 5/14/08 - you tube

Poe Forward New Dead Girls

Poe Forward Dead Girls

D.C. Madam Leaves Suicide Notes

2008-05-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- Convicted "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey railed against what she called a "modern-day lynching" in notes to her mother and sister before hanging herself at her mother's Florida home, police disclosed Monday.

Police in Tarpon Springs, Florida, released Palfrey's suicide notes Monday, along with autopsy results confirming her cause of death as a suicide. Her mother and sister confirmed the notes' authenticity, police said.

"I cannot live the next 6 to 8 years behind bars for what you and I have both come to regard as this 'modern-day lynching' only to come out of prison in my late 50s a broken, penniless and very much alone woman," she wrote.

The front of the note was marked "Do not revive (DNR). Do not feed under any circumstance."

Palfrey, 52, was convicted of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud in April. She had been staying at her mother's Tarpon Springs home while awaiting sentencing in July and told ABC News last year she would never return to prison after serving time in the 1990s for other prostitution-related charges.

"You must comprehend there was no way out, I.E. 'exit strategy,' for me other than the one I have chosen here," Palfrey wrote in the note to her sister.

Palfrey released the telephone records of her business, Pamela Martin & Associates, to reporters as she awaited trial. Those records linked two high-profile officials to her firm -- State Department official Randall Tobias, who resigned in May 2007 after confirming he patronized Palfrey's business, and Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, who apologized last July for "a very serious sin in my past."

Neither Tobias nor Vitter have faced charges in the case.

During her trial, Palfrey insisted she ran only a legal escort service -- "Basically a bunch of benign women who want to make a living," she told CNN in March. "This is not racketeering by any means -- this is running a business."

Palfrey was convicted April 15 in connection with a high-end prostitution ring catering to Washington's elite. She was found guilty of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud and faced a maximum 55-year prison term at her sentencing, scheduled for July 24.

She had said in interviews that she would kill herself before going to prison.

"I'm looking at 55 years in a federal penitentiary, and at my age, that is virtually a life sentence," Palfrey told CNN Radio's Ninette Sosa in March. "Realistically, we estimate between eight and 15 years. I'm also looking at the complete forfeiture of my entire life savings and work."

She said in the interview that the government "went after me. They found out that I'm not who they thought I was, and instead of dropping the whole matter, they decided to press forward and -- what the heck -- she's a woman, she's weak. We'll intimidate her, we'll humiliate her, we'll pounce on this poor lady and she'll give in."

Palfrey also told writer Dan Moldea, who was helping her write a book, that she would commit suicide rather than return to jail, according to Time magazine.

Note to Palfrey's Mother - pdf

"Mom, I want you to know how very much I love and appreciate you. I sincerely apologize for any pain which I have caused you in this lifetime. Additionally, I can't sufficiently express to you how badly I feel for this burden I am leaving you with here.“

Note to Palfrey's Sister - pdf

"You need to be strong for Mom. Help her in any way possible. Also you must comprehend there was no way out i.e. 'exit strategy' for me other than the one I have chosen here. As you read this letter (probably repeatedly in time), know I am in peace, with complete certainty, I believe Dad is standing watch, prepared to guide me into the light."

Deborah Jeane Palfrey - wiki

D.C. Madam: "There was no way out" - CNN

Palfrey Described "Exit Strategy" - Washington Post

Poe Forward's New Dead Girls 2008

The Original Dead Girl: Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

Canadian American Feist

2008-04-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

I'd seen her back in November on Saturday Night Live and recently on the Colbert Show. I thought her to be reminiscent of my longtime favorite Liz Phair, yet unique in style and presentation, relative to her education and personality. Her parents are artists, a painter and a potter. Calgary, Alberta is home, but she has dual Canadian-American citizenship. On the Colbert Report, she joked that obtaining American citizenship was part of her deal with Apple.

I find her work fresh -- especially so due to these repetitious corporate popsicle times. Beneath her prettiest sounds, her voice betrays a subtle constant streak of discontent; her music's configured discordances promise clarity, if not truth, to the confusion.

1234

Sally Seltmann and Leslie Feist

One Two Three Four
Tell me that you love me more
Sleepless long nights
That is what my youth was for

Old teenage hopes are alive at your door
Left you with nothing but they want some more

Oh, you're changing your heart
Oh, You know who you are

Sweetheart bitterheart now I can tell you apart
Cosy and cold, put the horse before the cart

Those teenage hopes who have tears in their eyes
Too scared to own up to one little lie

Oh, you're changing your heart
Oh, you know who you are

One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, or ten
Money can't buy you back the love that you had then
One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, or ten
Money can't buy you back the love that you had then

Oh, you're changing your heart
Oh, you know who you are
Oh, you're changing your heart
Oh, you know who you are
Oh, who you are

For the teenage boys
They're breaking your heart
For the teenage boys
They're breaking your heart

Leslie Feist - wiki

Leslie Feist Home Page - Listen to Feist

Poe Actress Hazel Court Dead at 82

2008-04-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

Hazel Court

February 10, 1926 - April 15, 2008

RIP

Hazel Court - imdb - wiki

The Premature Burial (1962) - imdb - wiki

The Raven (1963) - imdb - wiki

The Masque of the Red Death (1964) - imdb - wiki

Hazel Court - Corman's Babes - Poe Forward

Poe Forward Scream Queens - Poe Forward

Poe Forward Dead Girls - Poe Forward

Jenny McCarthy on Autism - Cognitve Shift?

2008-04-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

“Her story, her son’s journey with autism and her efforts to advocate and reach out to help families affected by autism should be commended,” said TACA Executive Director Lisa Ackerman. “We are extremely thankful and blessed to have such an outspoken friend to TACA and families affected by autism. Her efforts will help the autism community in so many ways.” - TACA

Fabulous Jenny McCarthy has taken on a worthy cause. She is using her celebrity as well as her personal experience to further the fight against autism. She claims her autisic son has "recovered" from his encounter with autism, but not exactly "cured." On Larry King's show, Jenny described the process, using the vivid analogy: "One is never cured of a car accident, but one can recover." Her son, once damaged by autism, has "recovered" his abilities and shows no more symptoms of the disorder.

So, is this an example of a cognitive shift? Being ignorant of autism (medicine not being my field), I've always thought of it as some kind of birth defect that proves permanent. But the disorder is much more complicated than that. Jenny and her son's experience shows that autism can be treated with education, not simply pharmacy (to oversimplify).

I've always admired Jenny McCarthy for her Madonna-like genius with reinvention as well as her multi-faceted talents. I'm one of those who adored her short-lived MTV series. I particularly remember one Grand Guignol sequence with a mess of rats being hysterical and gory. Now that she has taken up this righteous cause, I am doubly impressed with her as a human being. Not only did she take care of her son instead of sending him off to some expensive institution, but she was the active agent in his therapy and recovery. (This can be considered the pro-active and responsible act of a human being. Bravo!) Further, her success and affluence allows her to be the aggressive, pugnacious, belligerent bitch and bastard that a crusader needs to be.

I praise her personhood, her motherhood, and her cause. Her kid's got a good mom.

Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey CALL TO FAMILIES to come to the Washington D.C. RALLY on June 4th, 2008.

A Note for the Misinformed: Jenny is not anti-vaccine. She is anti-toxins. She proposes better vaccines - vaccines with healthier contents. The propagandists will dismiss her simply as anti-vaccine.

Jenny McCarthy: My son's recovery from autism - CNN.com

Generation Rescue - autism is reversible - generationrescue.org

Talk About Curing Autism - TACA

Autism- wiki

Jenny McCarthy - wiki

Jenny on Oprah:

Autism - The Denial of Harm:

Jenny McCarthy Speaking on Autism 3/14/2008 - City TV:

Yael Naim - New Soul Video & Lyrics

2008-03-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

Yael Naim - New Soul Video & Lyrics

2008-03-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

I do not believe in the Mac religious movement. I'm not into pop music. But I found this portion of poetry sublime. Yael Naim is Israeli and French. She's beautiful. Her voice is unique. She is an ontological poet.

I'm a new soul,
I came to this strange world,
Hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take.
But since I came here,
Felt the joy and the fear,
Finding myself making every possible mistake.

La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...

I'm a young soul,
In this very strange world,
Hoping I could learn a bit about what is true and fake.
But why all this hate?
Try to communicate.
Finding trust and love is not always easy to make.

La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...

This is a happy end,
'Cause you don't understand,
Everything you have done.
Why's everything so wrong?
This is a happy end,
Come and give me your hand,
I'll take your far away.

I'm a new soul,
I came to this strange world,
Hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take.
But since I came here,
Felt the joy and the fear,
Finding myself making every possible mistake.

The new soul,
In this very strange world,
Possible mistakes, possible mistakes,
Every possible mistakes,
Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes,
Mistakes.

Yael Naim Web Site

Yael Naim - wiki

Yael Naim - New Soul Lyrics - LyricsMode.com

Apple Macbook air - Yael Haim - Technology/Madness

Ontological - wiki

Born Again Christian Jane Fonda Uses the C-Word

2008-02-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

Relevant to our ongoing discussion about the use of the "C-Word," here is an example of a public figure using the word on a network morning television program. Now, I could simply point out that actress and born again christian Jane Fonda used the word on the Today program and complain that her action constitutes hypocrisy. However, I understand that Jane was using the word in the context of the title of a monologue within the larger context of the play "The Vagina Monologues." I don't have a problem with this. Personally, I hope Jane's radical impulses kicked in and she made a choice to demonstrate against censorship.

What I do have a problem with is the hypocrisy of Bush's FCC that targets freethinkers like Howard Stern, but allows General Electric and NBC's Today program to get away with this. That's hypocrisy.

But I don't blame any of the players in this situation. I don't want anyone fined or publicly castigated. Censorship leads to hypocrisy. I blame censorship itself. Stopping the flow of communication is more harmful than any public use of a "vulgar" word. Censorship IS vulgarity in action.

Jane Fonda Drops The C-Bomb - You Tube

Diane Keaton Uses the F-Word - You Tube

Missing Person: Brianna Denison

2008-02-03T18:47:00.000-08:00

FIND BRIANNA DENISON

Missing Person:

Brianna Denison - Reno, Nevada

New Info - Reno police have linked the abduction last week of Brianna Denison to a December kidnap and rape of a University of Nevada, Reno student. Police announced Sunday that DNA analysis by the Washoe County crime lab established the link.

Denison, 19, and a Reno High graduate, hasn’t been seen since 4 a.m. Jan. 20, when she was sleeping on a couch near an unlocked door.

The victim in the Dec. 17 case also was the victim of an attempted burglary Jan. 19 at her residence in the 1400 block of N. Virginia St., about five blocks from where Denison was taken.

Police are trying to establish a link from the Nov. 13 sexual assault on the female UNR student to the attempted burglary at her home in the same neighborhood.

Police described the suspect and his vehicle: A white male, 28 to 40 years old, long face with a square chin, taller than 5 feet 6 inches but not much, very strong but not with a significantly muscular build. He had a belly that was described as not excessively large and firm but not flabby, an “innie” belly button, shaved pubic region, a light covering of hair on his arms.

The man had no jewelry or wristwatch, facial hair about a quarter to a half an inch long below his chin and was soft and not prickly as stubble normally is.

It was unknown if he had a mustache. He had brown hair of undetermined style, normal speech with no accent or regional dialect, no smoker’s breath, no alcohol, no bad breath, no cologne or after-shave.

The vehicle was an extended cab pick-up truck or SUV, with dome light above the windshield and tall enough that it requires a step up to gain entry. The floor-mounted console was described as “fairly skinny” that opens in front. The radio had a blue and red LED read-out on the radio. The vehicle had cloth seats, automatic transmission.

There was a baby shoe on the front seat floor board and 8 ½” x 11” white pieces of paper with typing on the floor board of the front seat.

The suspect wore a red short-sleeve shirt described as being made of material similar to a jersey-type shirt with a medium blue neckline, short printed (possibly embroidered) word on the upper left breast area. He wore another shirt underneath with wrist-length sleeves and unknown color pants, not jeans. The pants reminded the victim of basketball pants as the material was smooth but they made no noise when he moved and they had an elastic waist band and no zipper.

People who know the suspect may not believe that he is capable of committing this type of crime and he may not necessary have a violent criminal history.

RENO, Nev. — A 19-year-old college student mysteriously vanished from a Reno, Nev., home early Sunday morning, and cops fear she may have been kidnapped.

Brianna Denison, a student at Santa Barbara City College who is from Reno, was staying with friends near the University of Nevada, Reno. She was last seen at about 4 a.m. Sunday, when she returned home from a party and went to sleep on the couch wearing sweat pants and a T-shirt.

"We're treating this as an abduction case right now," Lt. Robert McDonald of the Reno Police Department told FOX News. "A small amount of blood on her pillow is of interest to us.

"Cops are looking for a tan-colored, later-model GMC or Chevy Suburban and a white male, about 45 years old, who might be of Latin descent.

"He's certainly a person of interest. We're treating him as a person of interest, not a suspect," McDonald said.

The man driving the vehicle had picked up a friend of Denison's earlier that evening from the party both were attending when the friend was trying to hail a cab and dropped her off without incident at Mackay Court, the residence where she lived and Denison was staying, McDonald told FOXNews.com. "We don't know who he is," McDonald said. "We know he was outside the residence, but he could have come back. ... Maybe he saw something or knows something that might be of interest."

Denison, who is from Reno, is described as white, 5-feet tall, 98 pounds, with long dark brown hair and blue eyes.

Investigators say she may have been wearing light blue or pink sweat pants, a T-shirt and no socks or shoes when she disappeared. Her purse and cell phone were found in the house, but a brown stuffed bear that belonged to Denison is also missing, police said.

The Reno Police Department said this morning the FBI has joined the investigation into the disappearance of a missing 19-year-old Reno woman. Reno police detectives have been in contact with local Federal Bureau of Investigation agents since Brianna Denison’s disappearance Sunday and said the FBI has opened its own criminal case and assigned an agent to work with the Reno Police Department.

Denison was reported missing Sunday by a friend with whom she was spending the night. Denison is described as white, about 5 feet tall with long dark brown hair and blue eyes and weighing about 98 pounds. She was last seen wearing pink sweatpants and a white tank-top shirt. While a brown stuff bear with white and multi-colored balloons on the belly and about 24-inches tall was missing from the area where she was sleeping, her cell phone, purse and clothing, including two pairs of shoes had not been disturbed.

Reno police officers today continued to canvas the neighborhood and areas adjacent to the residence at 1395 Mackay Court where Denison was spending the night with friends on the morning of her disappearance. Reno police have worked has with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies since her disappearance and conducted searches of the area, including an extensive search of nearby Rancho San Rafael Park including the use of helicopters and police canine units.

Monday, the Reno Police Department established a 24-hour tip line to gather information to assist in the investigation and detectives are following up on information provided on the tip line. Monday evening, members of Brianna Denison’s family made an appeal for her return and for anyone with information about her disappearance to call the tip line at 745-3521. Information can also be called into the Secret Witness Program at 322-4900 or the Reno Police Department detective division at 334-2115.

Contact Info
Office: 775- 334-2121 RENO POLICE DEPT.

Text Taken From Brianna Denison's Facebook Page:

FIND BRI - Facebook

Brianna Denison - RGJ

Santa Barbara City College Student Brianna Denison Missing in Reno, NV - Scared Monkeys Missing Persons Site

Face of Serial Rapist Has Reno on Edge - ABC News

Brianna's Friends Set Up Facebook Site - RGJ

Missing Persons - Poe Forward Future Dead Girls

The Original Dead Girl - Mary Rogers/Marie Roget - Poe Forward Dead Girls

Towards Understanding Anger

2008-02-01T00:58:00.000-08:00

The excellent blog site AIN'T CHRISTIAN informed me about GRETA CHRISTINA's new essay about ATHEISTS AND ANGER. Considering our current editorial debates, I thought this might be helpful to the discussion.

One of the most common criticisms lobbed at the newly-vocal atheist community is, "Why do you have to be so angry?" So I want to talk about:
1. Why atheists are angry;
2. Why our anger is valid, valuable, and necessary;
And 3. Why it's completely fucked-up to try to take our anger away from us.

One of her lamentations:

I'm angry that the 41st President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, said of atheists, in my lifetime, "No, I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God." My President. No, I didn't vote for him, but he was still my President, and he still said that my lack of religious belief meant that I shouldn't be regarded as a citizen.

One of her reasons:

Because anger has driven every major movement for social change in this country, and probably in the world. The labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, the modern feminist movement, the gay rights movement, the anti-war movement in the Sixties, the anti-war movement today, you name it... all of them have had, as a major driving force, a tremendous amount of anger. Anger over injustice, anger over mistreatment and brutality, anger over helplessness.

Atheists and Anger - Great Christina's Blog

Atheists and Anger - Good Reasons - Ain't Christian

Poe Called Her His "Little Wifey" RIP

2008-01-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe

August 22, 1822 - January 30, 1847

Poe's Wife & Cousin

RIP

VIRGINIA'S OBITUARY
"On Saturday, the 30th ult, of pulmonary consumption, in the 25th year of her age, VIRGINIA ELIZA, wife of EDGAR A. POE. Her friends are invited to attend her funeral at Fordham, Westchester county, on Tuesday next, (tomorrow,) at 2 P.M. The cars leave New-York for Fordham, from the City Hall, at 12 P.M., returning at 4 P.M."

Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe - wiki

Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe - Poe Forward

Poe's Women - Poe Forward

ANNABEL LEE

IT was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea :
But we loved with a love that was more than love —
I and my ANNABEL LEE ;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful ANNABEL LEE;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me —
Yes ! — that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my ANNABEL LEE.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we —
Of many far wiser than we —
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE :
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE ;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE ;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling — my darling — my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

NDG: Lois Nettleton 1927-2008 RIP

2008-01-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl

Lois Nettleton

August 6, 1927 - January 18, 2008

RIP

Lois Nettleton - imdb

Lois Nettleton - wiki

New Dead Girls 2008 - Poe Forward

Scream Queens - Poe Forward

Declaration to Aldrich & Marlowe

2008-01-22T00:19:00.000-08:00

Why don’t you guys just shut the fuck up?

Marlowe: One, you are a whiny fuck, still going on about some romantic tragedy that happened to you 25 years ago even though you are crazy mad in love with your wife of 22 years? Are you out of your fucking mind? Two, okay, you think god fucked you big time. Get in line and get over it. Three, if anyone can use the word cunt on this blog, it will be me as I have one.

Aldrich: You are also a whiny fuck. Don’t engage Marlowe in these arguments and don’t apologize for him. Let him shit out all the bad stuff, so the good stuff can slide in. And yes, that’s my chosen meta-narrative.

Readers: Don’t pay attention to these assholes when they start sharing their intimate feelings about their own lives. Just pay attention to the shit they say about everybody else. Except me.

NDG: Suzanne Pleshette 1937-2008 RIP

2008-01-20T19:44:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl

Suzanne Pleshette

January 31, 1937 - January 19, 2008

RIP

My mother taught me a lot about movies when I was a child. When A RAGE TO LIVE (1965) finally made it to television, she couldn't wait to see it. Just before the movie started, I asked her what the story was about. She told me the female main character was a "slut." Suzanne dominated the film. Then she appeared as a tough prison wench in NEVADA SMITH (1966). Her performances in both these films felt so truthful that I had to adjust to her playing the sweet and sensitive wife on television's NEWHART show. But she proved herself capable of playing the femme fatale once again when she played Leona Helmsley in a 1990 film. She was always compelling, always charming, and always a pro.

Suzanne Pleshette appeared in Hitchcock's THE BIRDS (1963) as the sympathetic school teacher who sacrifices herself to save a child. While she doesn't fit the profile of "Hitch's Bitches" (her character has dark hair and is an authentic soul), she could deserve to be recognized as a Scream Queen?

Suzanne Pleshette - imdb

Suzanne Pleshette - wiki

New Poe Forward Dead Girls - Dead Girls

Poe Forward Scream Queens - Scream Queens

Poe Forward Scream Queens - Hitch's Bitches

Elizabeth Short/Black Dahlia Corpse Found Today 1947

2008-01-15T23:55:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Short/Black Dahlia Corpse Found Today 1947

2008-01-15T22:58:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Short

aka The Black Dahlia

July 29, 1924 - January (15?), 1947

RIP

Rumors and popular misconceptions - (wiki)

According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Short received the nickname "Black Dahlia" at a Long Beach drugstore in the summer of 1946, as a play on the then-current movie The Blue Dahlia. However, Los Angeles County district attorney investigators' reports state the nickname was invented by newspaper reporters covering the murder. In either case, Short was not generally known as the "Black Dahlia" during her lifetime.

A number of people, none of whom knew Short in life, contacted police and the newspapers, claiming to have seen her during her so-called "missing week" between the time of her disappearance January 9 and the time her body was found on January 15. Police and district attorney investigators ruled out each of these alleged sightings, sometimes identifying other women that witnesses had mistaken for Short.

Many "true crime" books and other allegedly factual accounts claim that Short lived in or visited Los Angeles at various times in the mid-1940s; but these claims have never been substantiated, and are refuted by the findings of law enforcement officers who investigated the case. A document in the Los Angeles County district attorney's files titled "Movements of Elizabeth Short Prior to June 1, 1946" states that Short was in Florida and Massachusetts from September 1943 through the early months of 1946, and gives a detailed account of her living and working arrangements during this period.

Although popular belief as well as many "true" crime books portrayed Short as a call girl, a report by the district attorney's (D.A.) office for the Los Angeles County grand jury states that she was not a prostitute.

Another widely circulated rumor holds that Short was unable to have sexual intercourse because of some genetic defect that left her with "infantile genitalia." Los Angeles County district attorney's files state the investigators had questioned three men with whom Short had sexual intercourse, including a Chicago police officer who was a suspect in the case. The FBI files on the case also contain a statement from a man with whom Short had sexual intercourse. According to the LAPD summary of the case, in the district attorney's files, the autopsy describes Short's reproductive organs as anatomically normal. The autopsy also states that Short was not and had never been pregnant, contrary to what is sometimes claimed.

While the "infantile genitalia" story must be regarded as suspect, the D.A.'s files do contain the following:—

"Doctor Schwartz last stated that he studied surgery and that victim was on the make for him but that she was the patient of Doctor Arthur McGinnis Faught who was treating victim for trouble with her bartholin gland and that he wanted nothing to do with her. He stated that the bartholin gland was the lubricating gland in the vagina and that Doctor Faught had lanced it on several occasions and it could account for the fact that she had not been having intercourse with
men."

Black Dahlia - wiki

Dahlia Noir - LAist

The Unsolved Murder of Elizabeth Short - The Crime Library

The Story As It Was Originally Reported - L.A. Times

The Life and Death of Elizabeth Short - The Black Dahlia Web Site

The Black Dahlia Murder Riddle - The Black Dahlia Solution

Poe Forward Dead Girls - Poe Forward

The Original Poe Forward Dead Girl - Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

The Undead is Dead - Vampira RIP

2008-01-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

Vampira

Maila Numi - born Maila Elizabeth Syrjaniemi

December 21, 1921 - January 10, 2008

RIP

Vampira - imdb

Vampira - wiki

Vampira Goes to the Great Beyond - LAist

A Fan's Tribute to Vampira - LAist

Poe Forward Scream Queens - Ed Wood's Bimbos

Missing Person: Meredith Emerson

2008-01-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

Blood-stained clothes, missing hiker's ID found - CNN

Missing GA hiker now believed to be dead - MSNBC

Police charge Hilton with Kidnapping Hiker - WSBTV Atlanta

Poe Forward Future Dead Girls - Missing Persons

The Original Dead Girl - Mary Rogers/Marie Roget

NDG & Scream Queen - Jeanne Carmen 1930-2007 RIP

2007-12-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

New Dead Girl & Scream Queen

Jeanne Carmen

August 4, 1930 - December 20, 2007

RIP

Jeanne Carmen - imdb

Jeanne Carmen - wiki

Poe Forward Dead Girls

Poe Forward Scream Queens

The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) - imdb

The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) - wiki

Best & Worst Women of the Year 2007

2007-12-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

Best: Comedian Kathy Griffin

Listen to Kathy Griffin Telling Jesus to Suck It!!! - LAist

Christian Thespians Scold "Vulgar" Comic - AOL News

Kathy Griffin's Jesus Remark Cut From Emmy Show - Reuters

Kathy Griffin Censorship Petition - SuckItJesus.com

"Dorothy Snarker" - Kathy Griffin's Love-Hate Relationship with Hollywood - New York Magazine

Kathy Griffin - wiki

Worst: Polemicist Ann Coulter

"I Love To Pick Fights With Liberals" - UK Telegraph

Ann Coulter Once Again Defines A New Low In America's Political Debate - Spinsanity

Coulter Called Gore a "total fag," while Matthews said "we'd love to have her back" - Media Matters

Coulter Under Fire For Anti-Gay Slur - CNN

Ann Coulter Uses Slur To Describe John Edwards @ CPAC - Metacafe

ADL Condemns Ann Coulter's Comment That Jews Need "To Be Perfected" - ADL

Jewish Groups Condemn, Boycott Ann Coulter: Conservative Pundit Draws Ire For Comment That Jews Need To Be "Perfected" - CBS News

Ann Coulter Wants Jews to Become Christian -- So What? - Dennis Prager

Ann Coulter - wiki

Missing Student/Model Found Dead

2007-11-30T23:41:00.000-08:00

Emily Sander aka Zoey Zane

1989-2007

RIP

Eighteen year old Emily Sander attended community college in El Dorado, Kansas and worked as an Adult Internet model under the pseudonym Zoey Zane. She went missing on November 23, having been last seen exiting a bar with suspect 24 year old Isreal Mireles. According to police, blood was discovered in Mireles' motel room. A floral print bedsheet is missing. Sander's car was still parked at the bar. Mireles' rental car was found abandoned in Texas and he has not shown up for work at the restaurant next to the motel. Victoria's grandmother Sue reported that Mireles showed up and took Victoria with him. According to her, they left behind a knife, blood-stained clothing, and car keys in a trash can outside her house. The authorities believe Mireles and his 16 year old pregnant girlfriend Victoria Martens are headed to Mexico. On Thursday, a body matching Sander's description was found along U.S. 54 about 50 miles east of El Dorado.

Help Bring this Man in for Questioning - ZoeyZane.com

Missing 18-year-old teen model Zoey Zane murdered in Kansas - NNGalleries.com

The Latest on the Emily Sander Homicide Investigation - KWCH

Victoria Martens Speaks to Grandmother about Mireles - KWCH

Emily Sanders' Body May Have Been Found - The Loveshade Family Blog

Mary Rogers/Marie Roget, the Original Poe Forward Dead Girl - Poe Forward

Happy 45th Birthday Naomi Wolf!

2007-11-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

Naomi Wolf, THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT, Won't Back Down - FireDogLake

"It is clear from this inundation of personal stories of abuse and retribution against ordinary Americans that a network of criminal behavior and intention is catching up more and more mainstream citizens in its grasp. It is clear that this is not democracy as usual — or even the corruption of democracy as usual. It is clear that we will need more drastic action than emails to Congress."

THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT - wiki

Naomi Wolf (born November 12, 1962) - wiki

NDG: Laraine Day 1917-2007 RIP

2007-11-11T18:54:00.000-08:00

New Poe Forward Dead Girl:

Laraine Day

October 13, 1917 - November 11, 2007

RIP

Poe Forward Dead Girls 2007

Poe Forward Dead Girls

Laraine Day - imdb

Laraine Day - wiki

Rebecca Schaeffer - She'd Be 40 If She'd Lived

2007-11-06T00:04:00.000-08:00

Rebecca Schaeffer

November 6, 1967 - July 18, 1989

RIP

About 10:15 a.m., Bardo returned to Rebecca's apartment building. Rebecca answered the doorbell once again. When she opened the front door, Bardo held out his gun and shot her in the chest.
"Why? Why?"
- Rebecca's last words
Bardo left. Thirty minutes later, Rebecca was declared dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Bardo boarded a bus and returned to Tucson.
"I have an obsession with the unattainable.
I have to eliminate what I cannot attain."
- Robert Bardo, letter to his sister

Rebecca Schaeffer - Poe Forward Dead Girls

Rebecca Schaeffer - wiki

Rebecca Schaeffer - imdb

Dominique Dunne - Dead 25 Years Today

2007-11-04T21:55:00.000-08:00

Dominique Dunne

November 23, 1959 - November 4, 1982

RIP

"On the night of October 30, 1982, Sweeney arrived at their formerly shared residence and pleaded with her to take him back. When she refused, he strangled her for 4 to 5 minutes, until she lapsed into a coma. He thought she was dead and left her lying in her driveway. Five days later on November 4, 1982, Dominque was removed from life support and died. She was buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California."
--- Poe Forward

Dominique Dunne - Poe Forward Dead Girls

Dominique Dunne - imdb

Dominique Dunne - wiki

Happy Birthday Poe Forward Scream Queen Elsa Lanchester!

2007-10-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Elsa Lanchester

October 28, 1902 - December 26, 1986

RIP

Elsa Lanchester Scream Queen - Poe Forward

Elsa Lanchester - imdb

Elsa Lanchester - wiki

Happy Birthday Mrs. President!

2007-10-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

"That's what Americans have been doing for over 200 years. It wasn't by accident that the first meeting ever held in the world to talk about and write down what rights women were entitled to happened in America. We have to keep faith with the work, the struggle and the sacrifice of those who have come before. We have to be reminded from time to time that freedom isn't free and equality cannot be taken for granted. Every generation faces new challenges and every generation has to step up and be heard and exercise their constitutional rights to make a difference.

That's what we do when we're at our best in America. I want Americans to start acting like Americans again. We face a lot of challenges here at home and around the world. We need to set big goals, goals that will bring out the best in our country, goals that will unite us, goals that will respect each and every one of us and cherish the contribution that we can make to this great nation. I know that there's a lot of work to be done but I relish the opportunity to be part of making history with all of you because this country deserves the very best that each and every one of us can offer."

Hillary Clinton Website - HillaryClinton.com

Hillary Clinton - wiki

Hillary Clinton: My Life At 60 - Heidi Evans - NY Daily News

Edna St. Vincent Millay 57 Years Dead

2007-10-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

Edna St. Vincent Millay

February 22, 1892 - October 19, 1950

RIP

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet and playwright and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was also known for her unconventional, bohemian lifestyle and her many love affairs with men and women. Her biography and some samples of her poetry appear in the Poe Forward Modern Poetry section.

Poe Forward's Edna St. Vincent Millay - biography page

Poe Forward's Edna St. Vincent Millay - poetry page

ELEGY BEFORE DEATH

Edna St. Vincent Millay

There will be rose and rhododendron
When you are dead and under ground;
Still will be heard from white syringas
Heavy with bees, a sunny sound;
Still will the tamaracks be raining
After the rain has ceased, and still
Will there be robins in the stubble,
Brown sheep upon the warm green hill.
Spring will not ail nor autumn falter;
Nothing will know that you are gone,
Saving alone some sullen plough-land
None but yourself sets foot upon;
Saving the may-weed and the pig-weed
Nothing will know that you are dead,--
These, and perhaps a useless wagon
Standing beside some tumbled shed.
Oh, there will pass with your great passing
Little of beauty not your own,--
Only the light from common water,
Only the grace from simple stone!

NDG: Deborah Kerr 1921-2007 RIP

2007-10-19T02:11:00.000-07:00

New Poe Forward Dead Girl:

Deborah Kerr

September 30, 1921 - October 16, 2007

RIP

Deborah Kerr - wiki

Deborah Kerr - imdb

"Deborah Kerr has died aged 86." - Telegraph

Tribute to Deborah Kerr - Lasting Tribute

Deborah Kerr - TCM

Happy 81st Birthday Scream Queen Julie Adams!

2007-10-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

If you would like to see what a well-lived life truly is, take a look at actress Julie Adams' credits on her imdb page. Then, realize she is still working at the age of 81 on the TV show LOST. What a human being! Of course, it helps doing what you love. There aren't many 81 year olds breaking rocks with a sledge hammer these days (unless it's in their backyards).

Julie Adams appears on a Poe Forward Scream Queens page. We added her to our group in recognition of her work in 1954's THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. But her long list of diverse credits and characters dwarf the accomplishment of this cult horror classic.

However, adding to her Scream Queen credentials (besides TCFBL) Julie Adams appeared in three ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS episodes and a NIGHT GALLERY with her husband RAY DANTON, "The Miracle at Camafeo". She also appeared in an episode of SLIDERS as the older version of Kari Wuhrer's character "Maggie Beckett." Then came LOST. Happy Birthday, Julie.

Julie Adams - wiki

Julie Adams - imdb

Poe Forward's Julie Adams Scream Queen page

Poe Forward's Scream Queens page

Two Gals Named Naomi

2007-10-14T00:15:00.000-07:00

Naomi Klein's THE SHOCK DOCTRINE: THE RISE OF DISASTER CAPITALISM - NaomiKlein.org

"It's a brilliant dissection of what Naomi Klein calls 'disaster capitalism,' an economic philosophy born half a century ago at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman. It holds that the best time to institute radical free-market policies is in the aftermath of a massive social crisis, such as a terrorist attack, a war, or a natural disaster like Katrina.
Klein shows how the crony capitalists running the Bush administration saw post-invasion Iraq as the perfect proving ground for all their pet free-market policies. The fantasy was that a privitazied and corporatized Iraq would become a free-market utopia that would spread the gospel of the market throughout the Middle East. Democracy would reign, and Halliburton and Bechtel would stand supreme.
And we know how well that turned out."
--- Ariana Huffington

Bleakonomics - The New York Times

THE SHOCK DOCTRINE - wiki

Naomi Klein - wiki

Naomi Wolf, THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT, Won't Back Down - FireDogLake

"It is clear from this inundation of personal stories of abuse and retribution against ordinary Americans that a network of criminal behavior and intention is catching up more and more mainstream citizens in its grasp. It is clear that this is not democracy as usual — or even the corruption of democracy as usual. It is clear that we will need more drastic action than emails to Congress."

THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT - wiki

Naomi Wolf - wiki

Happy 100th Birthday Fay Wray!

2007-09-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Fay Wray
September 15, 1907 - August 8, 2004

"My scream was a product of pure imagination. I had to imagine what was happening to me, and I imagined that the nearest help was far away. When I first saw the picture I thought the screams were overdone. But they were an important part of the picture and I was delighted with how it all looked. My scenes with King were exactly the way I imagined them." --- Fay Wray
Poe Forward's Fay Wray Scream Queen page

Affectations Can Be Dangerous - Isadora Duncan, Dead 80 Years

2007-09-14T02:02:00.000-07:00

"If I could tell you what it meant,
there would be no point in dancing it."
--- Isadora Duncan
May 27, 1877 - September 14, 1927

An American, born in San Francisco, Isadora Duncan revolutionized dance. She's considered to be the mother of MODERN DANCE. She lost her husband to suicide and her two children were drowned in a car accident. Isadora died in a freak accident herself. She was known for wearing long flowing scarves. While a passenger in an automobile, her scarf became tangled in the wheels and she was strangled to death.

"Affectations can be dangerous."
--- Gertrude Stein

Isadora Duncan - wiki

Isadora: A Sensational Life - Peter Kurth

Isadora's Roses: Search for Isadora's Grave - Orato

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) Memorial - Find A Grave

Isadora Duncan 1877-1927 RIP 80 Years Dead

2007-09-14T00:42:00.000-07:00

"If I could tell you what it meant,
there would be no point in dancing it."
--- Isadora Duncan
May 27, 1877 - September 14, 1927

"Affectations can be dangerous."
--- Gertrude Stein

Isadora Duncan - wiki

Isadora: A Sensational Life - Peter Kurth

Isadora's Roses: Search for Isadora's Grave - Orato

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) Memorial - Find A Grave

NDG: Jane Wyman 1914-2007 RIP

2007-09-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Poe Forward's New Dead Girl Jane Wyman (January 5, 1914 - September 10, 2007) received an Academy Award for her role in JOHNNY BELINDA (1948), playing a deaf-mute rape victim forced to kill her assailant. When she accepted her statue, she said, "I won this by keeping my mouth shut, and that's what I'm going to do now."

Jane Wyman - wiki

Jane Wyman - imdb

Missing Persons: Camille Cleverley

2007-09-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

Legal, Political & Religious News

2007-09-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

Macho Catholic League President Bill Donohue asks Cocky Atheist Christopher Hitchens to Step Outside (with You Tube video) - Fresh Intelligence/Radar Online

ABC's Resident Conservative John "20/20" Stossel Gets Sued by Wealthy Pastor - Daily Breeze

Belgium Charges Scientologists with Extortion - The Sydney Morning Herald

Not Related: Tom Cruise Wins Extortion Case - SF Gate/Daily Dish

Read the Transcript from the Man who says He Had Sex with Senator Craig (with audio) - Idaho Statesman

Big Surprise #1: Britain's Own BIG BROTHER Spied on Orwell - Yahoo News

Big Surprise #2: FBI Spied on Coretta Scott King for Years - The Independent

Actress Geena Davis Suing Charity for Stealing Her Idea - E News

Latest Corporate Efforts to Depersonalize, Isolate, and Turn Workers into Cogs in the Machine - Firedoglake

Nuclear Weapons Flown by Air Force from North Dakota to Louisiana - CNN

Women in the U.S. Military Assaulted and Raped by Fellow Soldiers - Crooks and Liars

Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice, Anti-Free Speech, Anti-Evolution, Anti-Global Warming, "fiercely conservative" Megachurch Pastor Rev. D. James Kennedy Succumbs to the Human Condition - AOL News

Pro-war, Pro-Caesar, "throne and altar theology" Bibles Published For Military - Front Page Magazine

Research Shows Human Beings Prefer Myths to Truth - Scholars and Rogues

Crimes of Christianity: Suppression of Science - Nothing is Sacred

Princess Diana 1961-1997 RIP

2007-08-31T15:58:00.000-07:00

Diana Frances Spencer (July 1, 1961 - August 31, 1997) has been dead for 10 years today. Her fans continue to adore her. Many hold up her memory as an example for us all. However, the true tragedy of Diana's passing is not simply our loss of an enchanting humanitarian "peoples' princess," but her childrens' loss of their mother. Her sons, wealthy royals they may be, are living through the best years of their lives without their mother's support and guidance. How they must miss her. When we cry for Diana, we must relegate a few of those tears for her sons.

Princess Diana 1961-1997 RIP

2007-08-31T15:52:00.000-07:00

Maria "Muddy" Clemm - Poe's Aunt and Mother-in-Law

2007-08-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

Maria "Muddy" Clemm (1790-1871) at PoeForward.com

Wackiness Not Just For Christians

2007-08-26T02:03:00.000-07:00

Camp for Those Who See Dead People - CNN.com
Former Satanist Convicted of Human Sacrifice - WPLG Miami
Man Cuts Off Hand for Hindu Goddess Offering - Yahoo! News

NDG: Leona Helmsley 1920-2007 RIP

2007-08-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

New Dead Girl: "The Queen of Mean" Leona Helmsley (July 4, 1920 - August 20, 2007) has died. She had a reputation for tyranny. Apparently, she truly was the "boss from hell." Her name at birth was Leona Mindy Rosenthal and she was the daughter of a hatmaker, which I think is pretty cool. She was a model and appeared in billboard ads for Chesterfield cigarettes. She and her third husband, Harry, the multi-millionaire real estate investor, worked together to create an empire. Then, her arrogance as well as her greed led her to be convicted of federal income tax evasion and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Without a sympathetic President to provide special dispensation, she spent 19 months in prison and two more months on house arrest. Her community service time was extended when it was learned she was sending her employees to do her work. After Harry died in 1997, she spent the rest of her life alone with a dog. Her money couldn't buy her any more friends and she was estranged from her family. She died at 87 of congestive heart failure. What's happens to the dog?

Poe Toaster Revealed?

2007-08-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

The mystery endured for decades. Whom was the cloaked figure in black that each January 19th slipped into the Baltimore cemetery and laid three roses and a bottle of cognac on Poe's grave? On August 15, 2007, the Baltimore Sun reported that 92 year old Sam Porpora confessed to being the "Poe Toaster."

Although the dates Porpora has offered as evidence have garnered some skepticism, he claims the tradition dates back to 1949 on the one hundredth anniversary of Poe's birth, but newspaper accounts differ. Sometime in the sixties, Porpora had been given the title of historian for the Westminister Church and cemetery. Porpora says he started the tradition "to reinvigorate the church and its congregation."

Due to the confusion regarding the dates of Porpora's story, Jeff Jerome and Jeff Savoye, both officers in the Edgar Allan Poe Society, refuse to believe Porpora is the "Poe Toaster." While Porpora's own daughter said she had never heard of her father's actions, she pointed out that it "fit in with his mischievous nature."

For more information regarding the dates controversy, go to:

"92-year-old man claims to be creator of mysterious 'Poe Toaster.'" - Canada East Online

"Who knows who started Poe toast?" - Baltimore Sun

"Poe Fan Says Tribute Began As Gimmick." - SF Gate

New Dead Girl: Boitumelo "Tumi" McCallum RIP

2007-08-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

After neighbors reported smelling a foul odor, NYC police discovered the body of 20-year-old Boitumelo “Tumi” McCallum “wrapped in a sheet and wedged between the bed and the wall” at her mother’s Greenwich Village apartment on Sunday. Condom wrappers and empty malt liquor bottles were also found in the bedroom. Her bed was splattered with blood. While the official autopsy report hasn’t been concluded, the police suspect she died from blunt force trauma.

Both of her parents are NYU professors. McCallum moved to New York from her native South Africa with her parents when she was very young and grew up in Manhattan. Her mother, Teboho Moja, was overseas, traveling with a foreign study group. Her father, Robert McCallum, had gotten remarried last Wednesday and she had thrown a party after the wedding. Detectives turned their suspicions towards her boyfriend, Michael Cordero, 23, who was allegedly upset that he wasn’t invited to the party. Apparently, he is known to be jealous and possessive, and has a criminal record that includes assault. The Daily News reported a source who said, “Everyone is calling, asking for information about this young woman – except her boyfriend. The sense is that he’s not calling because he knows what happened.”

On Tuesday, Cordero tried to commit suicide. He was found bleeding with slits across his wrists, and was hospitalized at Roosevelt Hospital in stable condition. While being treated, Cordero made statements implicating himself in McCallum’s murder. On Wednesday, the NYPD arrested and charged Cordero with murder.

McCallum was a sophomore at Mills College in Oakland. She attended the Beacon School for high school and participated in the American Museum of Natural History’s after school program.

Hoax: Where is Amy Pressman?

2007-08-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

A viral marketing hoax for an upcoming film.

Rumors Daily: Where is Amy Pressman"

LAist: Where is My Mom?

My Space: Where is Amy Pressman?

Fourth Floor Productions

Hoax: Where is Amy Pressman?

2007-08-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

A viral marketing hoax for an upcoming film.

Rumors Daily: Where is Amy Pressman"

LAist: Where is My Mom?

My Space: Where is Amy Pressman?

Fourth Floor Productions

Cartoonist Dwane Powell - Raleigh News and Observer

2007-08-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

"If we don't comply with subpoenas
Congress threatens to sic the Attorney General on us."

History Repeats Again and Again

2007-08-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

"President Wilson Is Deceiving The World
When He Appears As The Prophet of Democracy
President Wilson Has Opposed Those Who
Demand Democracy For This Country
He Is Responsible For The Disfranchisement
Of Millions Of Americans
We In America Know This
The World Will Find Him Out."

New Dead Girl: Cheryl Kosewicz 1971-2007 RIP

2007-08-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

Cheryl Kosewicz, Pirate Master Hopeful, Takes Own Life - News.com.au

Perhaps more tragic than the death of Mary Rogers (either the result of a homicide or a botched illegal abortion), the suicide of a young woman must be the ultimate in Poe's notions about the sublime in death. Although in his history, he was the only character in his real-life drama to attempt suicide for the sake of romance, the important women in his life died of tuberculosis. But Poe did not take enough poison, laudenum actually, which is the only recorded incident of Poe taking drugs. Some of his characters, Usher the most obvious, took opium, but Poe, nor any of his critics, save Griswold, his arch enemy who made veiled implications, mentioned Poe taking drugs. He was a drunk, a bad drunk, but not a druggie.

So, why did this young woman with everything to live for kill herself? Celebrity? Loss of celebrity? Shame? An unfulfilled meta-narrative? A fantasy lost forever and facing only reality to return to?

"Cheryl Kosewicz was born and raised on a 22-acre farm in Grand Couler, WA, where she and her family literally lived off the land-their only store purchases were paper products. Growing up, she would fish, hunt, garden, sew her own clothes, work with animals and make things for the farm. She began participating in rodeo at a young age, competing in barrel-racing, pole-bending, goat-tying, roping and calf-riding. Her father then turned her on to basketball and she discovered her true love. During high school, she played basketball, and ran in track and cross-country. She was also class president and graduated as a valedictorian. Cheryl received her bachelor's degree in English from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she was on the dean's list, on a basketball scholarship and continued on for her master's degree. She then attended law school at Northwestern School of Law in Portland, where she received her Doctorate of Law. She worked as a deputy district attorney in Las Vegas for six and a half years. She is currently a Deputy District Attorney in Reno, NV, focusing on the prosecution of sexual abuse cases. Cheryl regularly goes to the gym, runs, skis and swims. She also enjoys reading, horseback riding and athletic events. She describes herself as confident, athletic, competitive and loud. She currently resides in Sparks, NV. Her birth date is Nov. 11, 1971."
- from the Pirate Master on CBS - Cheryl Kosewicz page

Jabberwocky - the Bandersnatch and Nonsense Verse

2007-08-01T02:42:00.000-07:00

Before the Addams Family and Green Acres, before Laugh-In and Saturday Night Live, before The Prisoner and Twin Peaks, before dada and surrealism, there were the works of Lewis Carroll. Nothing makes my heart soar more free than reading ALICE IN WONDERLAND. I suppose having the same first name tipped me off in the right direction early on, but I would've enjoyed Alice's adventures even if her name were different. I enjoy the absurdity of Lewis's work, obviously. Reading his work, his word experiments, the reader can imagine, if not feel the mental improvisations that worked within his mind to produce such prose and poetry. Just remember my friends, "nonsense" is not nothing and "absurdity" is not incomprehensible. Better than Ionesco's THE BALD SOPRANO, better than the verbal improvisations of a jazz soprano, better than the manic outbursts of Robin Williams, better only because it's more pure, the JABBERWOCKY is pure nonsense, "my son."

THE POEM

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

(I cannot read this poem without remembering the scene in INDIANA JONES when the swordsman approaches the hero and makes a big, threatening display of his prowess. However, Jones appears non-plussed and simply takes out his revolver and shoots him.)

Memorializing the My Space dead - a new website

2007-07-31T03:02:00.000-07:00

CNN reported the birth of http://www.mydeathspace.com/, a website that archives the pages of deceased MySpace members. I've visited the site and found it as addictive as we all know celebrity magazines can be. But is the intoxication of "peering into" these "stranger's lives" any different from unearthing a mummy's tomb? I endorse cemetery archeology and, for the sake of history and knowledge, I have no problem with digging up our ancestors, even our more recent relatives.

I love cemeteries for their architecture and serenity, but a corpse is a piece of rotting flesh and the sacred tomb is a tool for the living to mourn their immediate dead. I'd love to dig up one of my Civil War ancestors and see what he wore to his grave. Maybe dig out the bullet that killed him (or pick it up from the bottom of the casket) and have it enshrined at the Library of Congress. I wouldn't mind if someone dug me up 150 years from now. Well, a girl can dream.

SHAMBO is dead

2007-07-29T22:21:00.001-07:00

I thought it rather sweet that wikipedia acknowledged the death of "Shambo," the sacred Hindu bull in Wales, among its list of the dead for 7/26/07. Shambo's bovine tuberculosis had been diagnosed in April and, despite religious objections and despite the offer of a home for the bull from a sanctuary in India, the Welsh government decided the six year old had to be "destroyed."

After the slaughter of the bull, Skanda Vale community leader Brother Alex said that a "nightmare" was just beginning for the Welsh assembly. Secretary General Ramesh Kallidai said "Ignorant people have chosen to desecrate our temple and have chosen to destroy life unnecessarily," and he wanted "to check how agricultural law can cater to the needs of sacred animals in Hindu temples in Britain." - wikipedia

This is another situation where I can understand all sides of this situation including the bull. I understand the fears the government felt about infection spreading. I understand the people's love for the bull, for whatever reason. And I understand that "sentient beings" have their value besides food and even friendship. But I'm not a vegetarian and I'm certainly not going to worship a bull anymore than any other animal. So, what do we do? Do we do nothing? Do we just wait till the bull dies of natural causes even though its continued existence may lead to an epidemic? Do we ship the bull off to India to plague their country? Do we carve around the TB lesions the autopsy found and barbecue the rest? That sounds tasty.

SHAMBO at wikipedia

New Dead Girls - Connecticut Tragedy, another horror show

2007-07-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

Doctor's Family Killed in Home Invasion

Poe Forward's Mission Statement

2007-07-25T17:59:00.001-07:00

The primary mission of Poe Forward is to showcase the work of artists who have been influenced by the mind and work of Edgar Allan Poe. We believe that Edgar Poe, through his editorial criticism as well as his poetry and his multi-genre fiction, created the foundations of all American literature. In addition to performance, we interview contemporary artists, recording their mutual history with Poe. Poe Forward combines the past with the present--for tomorrow. Our secondary mission, but just as important, is to present the true character of Edgar Poe, the uncompromising, hard-working, virulent critic and writer, instead of the melodramatic, "tortured artist" of 19th century romantic mythology. This falsehood has haunted Poe since his arch rival and chief enemy, the Reverend Rufus Griswold, lied about Poe and maligned his reputation in an libelous obituary subsequent to the poet’s death. In the years since, his friends and associates, as well as scholars and historians through to today, have sought to clear his name. Certainly, like each of us, Poe had his demons as well as his troubles with women and alcohol, but rather than dwell on his mortal shortcomings, we endeavor to illuminate his eternal genius.

- Brian Aldrich & David Delgado, Co-Founders of Poe Forward, October 31, 1999

Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) RIP

2007-07-12T00:41:00.001-07:00

NEW DEAD GIRL: Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) RIP

wiki

Cartoonist Doug Marlette (1949-2007) RIP

2007-07-11T00:42:00.000-07:00

Doug Marlette(December 6, 1949 - July 10, 2007) was an award-winning American editorial cartoonist and writer. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and graduated from Florida State University. He and his wife, Melinda, maintained residences in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Hillsborough, North Carolina. He died in an automobile accident in Marshall County, Mississippi. (wiki)
Doug Marlette Website

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2007-07-08T14:50:00.001-07:00

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