.

BenBarnes photo NewYorkTimes 2023 1200 crop

why the hell wasn’t this october surprise story followed for years?

by

SOMEONE IN THE REAGAN CAMP ap­proached the Iranian hostage takers in 1980 about not making a deal with Pres­i­dent Carter until after the US elec­tions of that year. Why wasn’t this story fol­lowed by the media and others for years ex­cept for a few people? And you know what they called us, right? [Read more] “why the hell wasn’t this october surprise story followed for years?”

JulieLondon Gold gown 1500 crop

the sexiest slow dancing in the dark album ever made?

by

IMAGINE A DARK­ENED ROOM. Per­haps it’s your apart­ment which, with the lights on, is unim­pres­sive. But it’s night­time and all the lights are out. In the dark­ness, it’s . . . dif­ferent. There is a single candle burning, giving off an il­lu­mi­na­tion that softens every­thing. Little can be seen but a lot can be felt. [Read more] “the sexiest slow dancing in the dark album ever made?”

DonaldTrump NFT 1 three images 1500

the first-ever donald trump nft trading card collectors convention

by

I’M CALLING LOCAL VENUES to rent a hall so that I can put on the first-ever Donald Trump NFT Col­lec­tors Con­ven­tion. It doesn’t have to be a yuge hall be­cause, un­like with comic books or records, I don’t need room for deal­er’s ta­bles be­cause NFTs don’t take up any room be­cause they’re not re­ally real. [Read more] “the first-ever donald trump nft trading card collectors convention”

MOVIE ToDieFor NicoleKidman Weathergirl 1500

a bell, book, and candle to die for

by

MY WIFE LOVES STO­RIES ABOUT WITCHES, whether novels by Alice Hoffman and Katherine Howe or movies that are scary or funny. For Hal­loween, I or­dered sev­eral witch movies from the li­brary, in­cluding the comedy classic Bell, Book And Candle. Among the DVDs were two with Nicole Kidman: Prac­tical Magic and the non-witchy To Die For. [Read more] “a bell, book, and candle to die for”

Elvis TrueStrange magazine June1957 1500 crop2

fantastic prescience of the 21st century in a ’50s men’s magazine?

by

SEARCHING FOR IM­AGES ON THE IN­TERNET for one project often leads to some very un­ex­pected dis­cov­eries. In this case, I was looking for some sharp photos of a couple of rather rare Elvis Presley records from the ’50s when I came across True Strange mag­a­zine. There I saw what looked like a hint of prescience. [Read more] “fantastic prescience of the 21st century in a ’50s men’s magazine?”

Nope movie poster 1500 crop

“nope” the movie (a review in thirty words)

by

A DOLLAR TO SEE A MOVIE? NOPE—NO WAY! Okay, it’s been a long time since I thought that way but having grown up paying a quarter for the Sat­urday mati­nees, a buck seemed like a bit much. Decades later and in­fla­tion has boosted the cost of a movie ticket into the stratos­phere, rel­a­tively speaking. [Read more] ““nope” the movie (a review in thirty words)”

Cartoon HunterBidenLaptop Giuliani 1500 crop

is google grooming me to love donald trump?

by

TOP-LEVEL FBI AGENT RE­SIGNS! The head­line in this morn­ing’s newsletter reads, “Top-level FBI agent under fire for his role in Hunter Biden in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­signs.” It should have added “em­bat­tled” as the ar­ticle ad­dresses the res­ig­na­tion of agent Tim­othy Thibault, who has been re­peat­edly ac­cused by Sen­ator Chuck Grassley of mis­han­dling the in­ves­ti­ga­tions into Hunter Biden. [Read more] “is google grooming me to love donald trump?”

important: do you receive email notifications from this blog?

by

IF YOU ARE A SUB­SCRIBER TO THIS BLOG (Neal Umphred Dot Com) and you do not re­ceive up­dates and other no­ti­fi­ca­tions via email from this blog, listen up! It ap­pears that I ini­tially mis­un­der­stood quite a few things in set­ting this blog up, in­cluding the sub­scrip­tion process and how emails are sent to subscribers. [Read more] “important: do you receive email notifications from this blog?”

Cartoon ThoughtsAndPrayers header 1500 copy 1

maybe we should call them the “thoughts and prayers squad”

by

YOU’RE IN MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS is fairly common con­do­lence, al­though for many it sounds like a plat­i­tude. Merriam-Webster de­fines plat­i­tude as “a banal, trite, or stale re­mark” while Google de­fines it as “a re­mark or state­ment, es­pe­cially one with a moral con­tent, that has been used too often to be in­ter­esting or thoughtful.”

[Read more] “maybe we should call them the “thoughts and prayers squad””
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 56