The Strange Case of the Shrinking Packages

For my wife and me, it started out with the Chobani Greek Yogurt we bought in the 6-ounce plastic cups. Remember those? Then one day I happened to notice how the yogurt cups appeared to be a wee bit smaller as I was putting them into the shopping cart.

So, I read the label's fine print (luckily, I was wearing my bifocals) and discovered it was now 5.3(!) ounces of yogurt packaged in the plastic cup. The price hadn't changed, but the proportion size had decreased. Instead of raising the price, we got 0.7 ounce less of yogurt.

Our young checker paused while he was swiping the yogurt cups over the price scanner. He scratched his head and wondered out loud when the yogurt cup size had shrunk, and we filled him in.

So, I checked around. Peter McGuinness, Chobani’s chief marketing and brand officer, said: “It is the established category norm; everyone is at 5.3 ounces. Many of our consumers were confused at the shelf when comparing nutritional information. Many have sent messages clearly to us saying, ‘Why do you have more sugar and calories?’ We wanted to level the playing field so they were comparing apples to apples, yogurt to yogurt.” (Source: Boston Globe, 2/14/14)

Tuesday's Forgotten Movies: Blonde Ice

Oh, those poor guys who fall for the gorgeous but dangerous femme fatales. Will the guys ever learn? Apparently not, given all the films noir where they get burned and often burned badly. This 1948 crime film takes the femme fatale character to the extreme by calling her "blonde ice." For the most part, the film succeeds, but the last fifteen minutes are a bit confusing to me. The ending was a bit of a head-scratcher, but that's all I'll say about it. Anyway, Leslie Brooks stars as Claire Cummings Hanneman who has just gotten married when she steps out on the terrace to reassure her old lover he remains the object of her enduring love. Robert Paige is the poor sap who believes her, but to his credit, he's enough of skeptic to not totally fall for her glib line. She goes on her honeymoon and murders her new filthy rich husband, making it appear as a suicide. Brooks plays the "blonde ice" femme fatale with a frightening ease, and she only made a handful of movies before she retired from the motion picture business. The scheming airplane pilot (Russ Vincent) who blackmails her is her future real-life husband. All in all, I enjoyed watching the familiar dynamics play out Blonde Ice. You might, too, if you're a film noir fan.

How I'll Spend My Own Groundhog Day

Today is the celebration of that peculiar day known as Groundhog Day. If Punxsutawney Phil, our favorite groundhog residing in Pennsylvania, doesn't see his shadow when he comes out of his burrow, then we're suppose to get an early spring. But if Phil, no dummy, sees his shadow, he returns to hole back up in his burrow since spring will come late. However, Groundhog Day is also a 1993 fantasy movie where comedian Bill Murray plays a Pittsburgh TV weatherman who repeats the same day over and over. It's a cute and humorous film if you haven't seen it. The lovely Andie MacDowell is Murray's co-star.

It struck me as ironic this morning when I put out my first tweet of the day and mentioned that today is Groundhog Day. Coincidentally or not, I'm also repeating the process of starting my new novel. This book is the second title in my new Piper & Bill Robins Cozy Mystery Series. The first title The Corpse Wore Gingham came out in January. My plan is to bring out the second book in 2016. My sleuths are a retired married couple who decide to take up playing detective. I'm having a lot fun with the Robinses, and the books capture it.

So, we'll have a good Groundhog Day, and the best to Punxsutawney Phil when he makes his grand appearance.

Tuesday's Forgotten Movies: DEAD RECKONING Starring Humphrey Bogart

This fine 1947 film noir stars Humphrey Bogart as a grizzled World War Two paratrooper veteran and Lizabeth Scott as the blonde bombshell femme fatale. The last scene is fabulous, which is all I'll say about it. The plot left me scratching my head in a few places, but I thought the movie was well-acted, and it satisfies all of the things you expect from a film noir. There is lots of cigarette smoking, and a safecracker pal even smokes a pipe. Scott sings a torch song at a club that captures Bogie's heart, well, sort of, anyway. The setting is a small Southern city called Gulf City where it's hot. New Orleans is mentioned once, and I saw lots of Spanish moss on the trees. I read where Rita Hayworth was supposed to play the femme, but she was in the top brass's doghouse. Bogie is always watchable, and he has some great lines (pulp author Steve Fisher wrote the screenplay). All in all, Dead Reckoning is a worthwhile crime drama.

Current Movie Review: SELMA

We got up early and caught the matinee show of the new American historical drama film, SELMA. It recounts the actual events surrounding Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights protest march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in 1965, and, later, his march to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery to end the third march from Selma. There's been controversy raised about the film's historical accuracy, which I haven't been really following. I wanted to watch a good movie, and that's what I got for my ticket money. I haven't seen American Sniper playing in the next theater, so I don't have a basis of comparison, but I have to wonder about David Oyelowo getting passed over for the Academy Award nominations. Though SELMA carries a PG-13 rating, some of the protest scenes are a little brutal and bloody. I remember the events taking place, though I was a kid, at the time. The movie grabbed my attention from the start, and I was never unengaged during its 2 hours, 7 minutes runtime.

Book One Release To My New Cozy Mystery Series: THE CORPSE WORE GINGHAM

As I mentioned on my blog, this year I worked on developing and establishing a second and new cozy mystery series. This one is set in the Northern Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, D.C., where a retired couple decide to take up amateur sleuthing. They help a neighbor friend to solve a murder. I've had a lot of fun writing the first book, and the early sales and reader comments have been encouraging. 

NOTE: If you'd like to get a copy of my books newsletter for my next release late this spring, send me your email, and I'll gladly add you to my mailing list. I offer subscribers discounts before my general book release.          

The Corpse Wore Gingham. Piper and Bill Robins, a retired married couple, are enjoying their leisure years spent in the tranquil, leafy Washington, D.C. suburb of Beverly Park, Virginia. One sunny June afternoon, Emily Davenport, who lives in California, telephones Bill and asks if he’ll check on her elderly mother Anna living next door to the Robinses. She hasn’t answered Emily’s repeated attempts to call. After Bill and Piper go over, they discover Anna is murdered. The only found clue is her bloodstained gingham bathrobe. Appalled and even more outraged, Piper persuades Bill to become wife-and-husband amateur sleuths, and they set out to identify Anna’s killer. Meantime, Bill’s younger sister Noreen, a retired CPA, joins the Robinses. She taps her retired cop boyfriend Rick Novak and her mysterious, very opinionated tuxedo tomcat Snoozy Q for help. Besides a clean read and fair play modern “whodunit” mystery, The Corpse Wore Gingham offers readers likeable protagonists, good-natured humor, and a lively pace. Fans of my Isabel and Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series should also like reading about Piper & Bill's adventures. 

Kindle: http://bookShow.me/B00S1QRSKU

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-corpse-wore-gingham-ed-lynskey/1121021684?ean=2940150178540  

American Soldiers And Their War Brides

 Recently, I watched the 1951 war romance film titled "Teresa" directed by Fred Zinnemann (High Noon) and starring Pier Angeli and John Ericson. Ralph Meeker, Rod Steiger (debut), and James Coburn (uncredited) also starred in it. The premise was straightforward enough. Ericson played an American G.I. stationed in World War Two-Italy where he falls in love with the village young lady Angeli. Of course, they want to get married, and that's where I was surprised. The village priest marries them, and Ericson marches off to fight the war with his unit while Angeli waits for him. At the war's end, he ships home with the other American G.I.s, and she arrives later, after the official paperwork clears, with a bunch of other war brides. They are reunited. I knew the America G.I.s married the foreign women they met while in uniform and fighting, but I didn't realize it happened while the war still went going on. I'll have to do a little more reading on the point when I get a chance. Anyway, the movie "Teresa" was entertaining enough. Review to follow.

Who Gets An Exercise Bike For Christmas?

Apparently, several of my neighbors did this year from what I've observed. During my daily walks over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed the different packing boxes left with the other recycled material out at the curbstones. One of the things I've seen at least three times has been exercise bikes or other such workout equipment. I guess it has taken this long since Christmas for the folks to figure out how to build the equipment from the parts that come in the boxes. That by itself was probably a good workout for them. It would be for me since I'm not mechanically inclined. At any rate, I'm imagining the folks making their New Year's Resolutions probably included keeping some type of an exercise regimen. Good intentions and all that are good stuff. I'm not a big fan of using exercise bikes or treadmills or whatever. I like getting out of the house, even on the cold, snowy days. On the other hand, I also do a lot of silent cursing and doubting my sanity on the worst days I walk outdoors. I only hope I don't see all the exercise bikes and such given as gifts this Christmas put out at the curbstone next year for junk pickup.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: They Made Me A Killer

This 1946 film noir/crime drama is one of the B-movies produced by Paramount Studios at their Pine-Thomas unit. The best thing going for the movie is Daniel Mainwaring (Build My Gallows High/Out of the Past) was one of the script writers. Robert Lowery plays a tough-talking mechanic who blows Chicago after his brother dies and head for California to find his fortunes. He drives a big car with a powerful engine which he wants to sell to raise some money. He manages to get himself involved in a bank robbery and is forced at gunpoint to be the wheelman. After the cops grab him up, he escapes and goes on the run to prove his innocence and clear his good name. The attractive Barbara Britton plays the love interest who assists Lowery. Things step right along over the hour-long movie. One of the interesting minor characters is the Ma Barker-type older lady who hides out the bank robbers in the cellar of her restaurant. The copy I watched streamed to my laptop was bad quality. Not a terrific crime noir but enjoyable enough.

Tuesday's Forgotten Films: Foxcatcher (Current Movie)

This 2014 sports thriller movie is a long (134 minutes) and rather flat film, at least to this disappointed viewer. Super rich John du Pont (Steve Carell) invites Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) to live on his big country manor estate and form a wrestling team to compete in the 1988 Olympics. Mark's older brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo), despite some misgivings, supports his kid brother's move. Dave, also an Olympic wrestler, is also Mark's coach and mentor. The problem is John wants to take over that role in Mark's life and career. Carell does a good job with the du Pont character (based on a true story), but du Pont is too wooden, humorless, and restrained. (Plus, Carell has a ridiculously huge nose as part of his makeup.) He interacts with his mother Jean played by Vanessa Redgrave, but maybe their distant and loveless relationship should've been further explored. We see that she likes the thoroughbred horses, and he doesn't. But something else sure needed to happen to generate tension and suspense. Anyway, the talented Ruffalo was fine as he always is in any picture I've watched him act in. Foxcatcher isn't a terrible movie, by any stretch, but maybe I'll enjoy the next movie I see more. I hope so.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: Unbroken (Current Movie)

I read the 2010 nonfiction [book:Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption|8664353] by Laura Hillenbrand, and liked it enough to want to go see the movie version playing in  theaters around the nation.  Actress Angelina Jolie directed and produced the movie which centers around the eventful if not inspiring life of American Olympian and athlete Louis "Louie" Zamperini who is portrayed by actor Jack O'Connell. Zamperini died recently in 2014. The movie is mostly about his experiences during World War Two as first a bombardier stationed in the Pacific and later as a POW at different Japanese war camps. As far as I can remember, the movie is pretty faithful to the book. The movie is a long one, and it could stand a bit more of humor. The book had some humor, especially during the grim, brutal POW life. This movie isn't film noir, but it's easy to see what the war vets had gone through before they returned home. It's little wonder such gritty, dark film noir had its emergence. Anyway, Unbroken is entertaining and even uplifting. Some of the violence is a bit heavy, but you know how it's going to end.

This Year Our Neigborhood Broke With Its Holidays Tradition

                                 
Every year for as long as I have lived in my Northern Virginia suburb, we have set out the luminaries on a scheduled day. But this year, the homeowners voted to discontinue the holidays tradition. We voted to keep it, but the majority ruled. I'm not sure what the argument was against the luminaries. I know the weather isn't the greatest when folks put out the white paper bags with sand and candles. It's tricky trying to light them and keeping them lit. But the soft, reflective glow effect is nice to look at when everybody does it. Maybe there will be future community traditions established, but this one looks to be a no-go now.

I Found A Nice Way To Catch The Holiday Spirit

Last night we did the Meadowlark's Winter Walk of Lights located out in the Northern Virginia suburbs. The outdoors temperature was 49 degrees before we left, so it was nice enough to be out and not shivering from the cold throughout the walk. It's about one mile long. Naturally, there's lots of bright, cheerful lights. You might need to wear sunglasses. Just kidding. Some lights are shaped like woodland creatures like owls and woodpeckers. A creek is simulated with fish and frogs. The strawberry field display is my favorite. There's a bunch of stuff to take in, so we go through twice. Every year there seems to be more cell phone cameras. Everybody wants to stop and frame a snapshot. Some of the grumpy old men grumble about it, but everybody is generally patient with a sense of humor. There's no rush to finish the walk. It's not a race unless you want to get to the hot chocolate and marshmallows served at the end. The holiday walk might become a yearly tradition. At least it's a way to get out and enjoy the holiday lights up close instead of viewing them from a passing vehicle. I hope your holidays are going well.

One Writer's Post-Christmas Blog

The mild weather for Christmas 2014 was a nice change from the frigid temperatures we'd been getting in December. Travel is less stressful in good weather, isn't it? Except the radio station I was listening to stopped playing their holiday songs and returned to their regular format. Well, I needed to get back to my writing, anyway. I have two Isabel & Alma Trumbo cozy mysteries I'm finishing up for publication in 2015. The series has been a lot of fun over the past few years for me to write. Readers have liked them, and the sales have been high enough for me to continue writing the books. I didn't realize how much I miss about living in a small town until I undertook writing the series. So, it's been a homecoming of a sort for me. Quiet Anchorage is a nice place to visit and also live. The only bad thing is all of the murders that keep cropping up. Luckily, the sheriff has a couple of sister sleuths he can call on for their assistance. He begrudgingly admits he's grateful they're on his side. Books 4 and 5 will carry on their adventures. Be looking here for further updates.

Happy Holidays For 2014

I've been lax in posting my blogs this month, even my film noir reviews, with my trying to get a couple of new books ready for release in 2015. The good news is I've made fairly rapid progress, so I'll be posting announcements about them later. Meantime, I'll take this opportunity to wish everybody a happy and safe holidays. I'd also like to thank my readers for their continued support in 2014. It has meant a lot to me.

Update On My New Cozy Mystery Series

Shortly after the holidays in 2015, I'm going to release the first title, The Corpse Wore Gingham, in my new cozy mystery series featuring Piper and Bill Robins, a wife and husband sleuthing duo.

The Robins live in the suburbs of Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C. I've been working hard on The Corpse Wore Gingham throughout much of 2014. It includes lots of humor, fun characters, and a traditional whodunit fair-play murder mystery plot.

The Corpse Wore Gingham complements my established Isabel & Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series, my pair of sisters who sleuth away in their small town of Quiet Anchorage, Virginia. Isabel and Alma will also be back next year in one or two new books. More on that later.

I've also been keeping a board at Pinterest for each of my cozy mystery series if you hang out at Pinterest.

Piper & Bill Robins' Pinterest board link: http://www.pinterest.com/edlynskey/my...

Isabel & Alma Trumbo's Pinterest board link:http://www.pinterest.com/edlynskey/my...

Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: The Limping Man Starring Lloyd Bridges

NOTE: I'm posting my weekly blog early this week due to the holidays.
REVIEW: I got a big kick out of watching this nifty 1953 crime drama starring Lloyd Bridges, Moira Lister, and Leslie Phillips. Since it was filmed in the U.K., I didn't recognize any of the actors except for the Yank, Mr. Bridges who was lent out to the British film company. The marketing idea was to help the movie gain a U.S. audience if Bridges was one of the marquee stars. I know he starred in High Noon, but I didn't think he had that much public fame. Lloyd plays Frank Prior, a construction engineer, flying overseas to London to see his wartime girlfriend when he was stationed there as a G.I. I like the premise from the get-go. Of course, when he arrives in London, he discovers all is not as it was six years before when he left his girlfriend. The South African actress Moira Lister (died 2007) playing his girlfriend is something of a daredevil driving fast cars and boats. I like how Bridges is drawn into her web of intrigue, and we're never sure about her sincerity. The 76-minute movie is fast-paced and well-acted. IMDb.com rates it 5.9 but I give it a solid 7.0 because I like Lloyd Bridges, and there is a neat surprise ending. Great postwar stuff.

Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: The 49th Man Starring John Ireland

This 1953 espionage drama is a fun and watchable movie. Where else can you see Peter "Hollywood Squares" Marshall play a gun-toting, nasty bad guy? I'm a big fan of John Ireland who plays the U.S. agent who is charged with tracking down nuclear devices getting smuggled into the U.S. Richard Denning plays his square-jawed boss who is just as determined as Ireland is to stop the bad guys from building of a nuclear bomb to be detonated in a big U.S. city. Their investigation eventually leads Ireland to France where he runs into Marshall and his wife played by Suzanne Dalbert who are "working" in a jazz band. There are a couple of neat twists dropped in as the film closes in San Francisco. Good to see Mike (credited as "Touch") Connors in an early, small role. It isn't a great film, but still offered enough action to hold my attention until the end.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: The Island of Doomed Men Starring Peter Lorre

This 1940 above-average crime melodrama stars Peter Lorre as the villain, a role he usually relished and performed with panache. However, this film just didn't give him a lot to work with, I'm afraid. The plot is a straightforward if not familiar one. Robert Wilcox stars as Agent 64, a secret operative of Uncle Sam. Wilcox intentionally goes to prison and is later paroled into the care of Lorre who is running a diamond mining operation on a remote, forgotten island found within the United States's jurisdiction (somewhere in Key West?). The trouble is Lorre is actually a slave driver, and nobody can get off his private prison of an island, including his young, attractive wife played by Rochelle Hudson. I have to give Lorre credit for trying to infuse his bad guy character with evil madness. His shooting his wife's pet monkey convinced me he was off his rocker. Perhaps the 68-minute run time could have been extended to work in a couple of more plot twists. Or it may have been the subject of a good horror novel. Interestingly, both Wilcox and Hudson later died prematurely of heart attacks. IMDb.com gives The Island of Doomed Men a 5.9 rating, and that might be a bit low. At least watching Peter Lorre is always a treat.

"Doc Martin" And Me

Last night, I stayed up late to watch another episode of "Doc Martin," a British medical comedy television show starring Martin Clunes as the title character. I've been watching the series out of order, and it's been a challenge to keep up on who is doing what. But that's not what makes the show great fun for me. Doc Martin is a clueless middle-aged curmudgeon who tries to make sense of his world, but it still baffles him. His bedside manner is terrible, but his gruff bluntness always gets the patients's diagnosis right. I get a laugh out of watching him, but I also empathize with his struggles. Martin Clunes makes the doc an interesting fellow. Plus, the setting of the sleepy Cornish village of Portwenn is the type of gorgeous spot where I'd like to spend my vacation. One of these days, I'll sit down and watch the episodes in the right order. Until then, I'll fit them into my writing schedule as time allows. It's a great TV series.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: Harry In Your Pocket Starring James Coburn (1973)

I was in the mood to see a James Coburn flick, so I settled on this 1973 crime drama where Coburn/Harry plays a master pickpocket who runs a team and turns a pretty nifty profit. Michael Sarrazin and the foxy Trish Van Devere (actor George C. Scott's wife) play a young couple Harry decides to train in the illegal craft. Walter Pidgeon is a geezer who plays Harry's oily partner, but who also has a bad coke habit. I got to see all sorts of tricks and stunts where the pickpockets make their scores on the different unsuspecting marks. In 1973, there was still enough paper money carried out there to make stealing it a lucrative enterprise. Harry mostly keeps the young couple around so he can get Trish into bed with him. Meantime, Sarrazin believes he is accomplished enough to strike out on his own without Harry's constant oversight. It's debatable if Sarrazin is as good as he thinks he is, but Harry manages to keep him in line for a while anyway. I liked the jargon and techniques, but I had to wonder about the ending. Anyway, a solid film for crime fans.

Shiver Me Timbers!

We got our first blast of Arctic cold temperatures this week. Winter is here. Resistance is futile. Ironically, or perhaps not, I like to work on my novels set in the summertime during the winter. The time slot between the American holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year's Day is a favorite of mine to be writing. Between dodging the Fed Ex delivery vans whipping around the streets in my neighborhood, I'll typically be working on the draft of a new book. This year I have a couple of ideas, and I'll have to decide soon which one I want to tackle. No doubt it will be a cozy mystery title, the next one in one of my two cozy series. I have the drafts of a few crime noirs waiting for me to get back and polish them for publication. I can go between working on my hard-boiled and soft-boiled fiction without too much trouble. My books newsletter will be hitting the streets next month. If you'd like to receive a copy of it, send me your email, and I'll add you to the mailing list. Meantime, throw another log on the fire and stay warm.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: Shield For Murder Starring Edmond O'Brien

I was in the mood for watching a gritty film noir, and this 1954 dirty cop drama was spot-on. Based on crime novelist's William P. McGivern's novel of the same name, the fine movie stars O'Brien (who also directed) in a tight, restrained performance as a cynical, crooked police detective. Making a greedy and ill-advised move, he rips off a bag man's 25 grand stake intended to go to the local crime boss, and the trouble begins as O'Brien tries to cover up his crimes, his including murders. There's a surprising amount of rough stuff by 1954's standards. Carolyn Jones (later "Morticia" on The Addams Family) plays a vampy bar floozy who keeps the sweaty O'Brien company for a while. Look for Richard Deacon (later "Mel" on The Dick Van Dyke Show) in a minor and uncredited role. Claude Atkins playing a gun-toting thug has a rousing climatic scene with O'Brien. IMDb.com rates Shield for Murder with 6.8, but I enjoyed it more than their viewers evidently did. Now I'll have to read the William P. McGivern book! He must have liked the crooked cops theme because I read his Rogue Cop similar to this plot.

Peyton Place? Where Is That?

While I was growing up in a small town, I heard it sometimes compared to "Peyton Place," often leaving me to wonder where exactly it was located, and what it represented. I'm not sure how or where along the line I learned about Peyton Place, and it wasn't in complimentary terms either about the small town or its residents. Wikipedia tells me the bestselling novel Peyton Place was published in 1956, making the event before my time, at least my time for remembering it. I've never read the novel, and I probably never will.

Which brings me to the present time as I was revising one of my novels-in-progress. My editor's eye caught my use of "Peyton Place," and I wondered if my readers would know what I was referring to. Given the context, they probably could reasonably guess at the meaning I was trying to convey. Of course, there is always Google easily accessed on web-enabled smart phones to look up Peyton Place. I'm the curious sort who is always looking stuff up online. Anyway, I decided to leave the Peyton Place reference in my novel because my readers group is in the age 50+ category, and they would probably know what it means.

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: SHOCK CORRIDOR Directed by Sam Fuller

This harrowing 1963 movie directed and written by Sam Fuller is about an ambitious journalist (Peter Breck) who wants in the worst way to land a Pulitzer Prize and catapult his career into the big leagues. He convinces his reluctant stripper girlfriend (Constance Towers) to pose as his sister and uses their trumped up incestuous relationship as his ticket to get committed to the mental hospital where a lurid murder has occurred. Of course, once he's locked inside the booby hatch, he becomes institutionalized, and things go downhill from that point. I can see how raw the material was in 1963, and even today it's unsettling to watch. Breck does a good job playing the journalist. One of the more unforgettable inmates is James Best, later to become the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the Dukes of Hazzard ("You dipstick!"). But this bleak movie is anything but humorous. Since it was made so late in 1963, I suppose it qualifies as neo-noir. At any rate, IMDb.com rates it 7.6/10.0 which is a high mark, and I'd agree with it.