I seem to recall from my 70s-era Omni magazine reading and scare-science bookmobile purchases that the Killer! Bees! would rise from Texas. And so it begins.
I'm pretty sure you should head to the gym and turn off the heating. That's what Hollywood told me.
2: Oooh! That one works for the Blob, too. If Heebie U. ever gets one of those.
How does being in the gym stop bees? Or the Blob? (I get the help from lack of heat.)
This is Texas, right? Aren't there barbecue pits like every 10 feet? Smoke those little fuckers into laconic bliss. Plus: lunch.
Call Nicolas Cage and Neil LaBute?
Also, I am amused that the text message didn't provide any actual useful suggestions about what to, you know, do. Just...be scared? "Something is happening! EVERYBODY PANIC!" seems like a poor use of a University-wide text.
When the G-20 was in Pittsburgh, they texted everyone at the unversity with a message that basically said, "Don't go check out the possibly super cool riots and may be starting near the plaza. Use caution and stay shut away because the riot police don't have enough tear gas for everybody."
There's no getting through to you young lady, is there?
Advice: if Vada asks you to help her find her mood ring in the woods DON'T DO IT.
So do the bees look more like John Belushi or Elliot Gould ?
I had to Google the name line in 10. I would try at an Obama joke to the OP, but it seems too obvious to be worth the bother.
You'll catch more bees with vaseline than with butter.
have to assume one of you all scaredy-cats desired that these bees would visit my campus, but I haven't yet divined your ulterior motive.
Look, we all knew it was a bad idea to piss Megan off. And we went and did it, and she left, and now we see what happens.
Basically what I'm saying is: Don't fuck with people who can control swarms of bees.
1: and scare-science bookmobile purchases that the Killer! Bees! would rise from Texas.
Didn't the really bad movie with Michael Caine that might have been titled The Killer Bees have the killer bees invading Houston?
OK, the movie was called The Swarm.
max
['Is that what you're thinking of?']
The time to get scared is when that swarm takes the form of a Nazi made of bees.
(I think I've linked this here before, but who cares? It's a Nazi made of bees!)
22: Haha. Yes, I remember The Swarm, but I was thinking about those little paperback anthologies about "unexplained phenomena," which were a major part of my reading in 1978. The chapters could be about ESP/telekinesis/past lives type stuff or nature turning against us type stuff, like killer bees, and the coming Ice Age. (I don't know where the plants hooked up to lie detectors and catching murderers fit in.)
23 to 21, it appears. Is that book on "the coming Ice Age" where all these right-wing propagandists get their anti-climate-science material?
22: The Deadly Bees was always the biggest grosser in my HS's lunchtime movie series (aka nerds showing movies to nerds).
25: Stormcrow! Do you remember! What was it that made the return of the Ice Age a "thing" in the 70s? It was peddled in my lurid pop not-even-science kiddie books, but was there some actual adult book pushing it, too?
Wasn't The Swarm based loosely on fear-mongering news reports of the era?
The chapters could be about ESP/telekinesis/past lives type stuff or nature turning against us type stuff, like killer bees, and the coming Ice Age.
I think one of my classrooms had a complete set of Time Life Books of mysterious phenomenon or something. Somehow all the same topics.
The pyramids! Easter Island! Killer bees! A lady fell out of a helicopter with no parachute, bounced twice, and lived to tell about it!
The Swarm, which I've never seen, appears to have one of the greatest, or possibly most bizarre, casts ever assembled. Ahhhhh, 1970s disaster movies:
Michael Caine ... Brad Crane
Katharine Ross ... Helena
Richard Widmark ... Gen. Slater
Richard Chamberlain ... Dr. Hubbard
Olivia de Havilland ... Maureen
Ben Johnson ... Felix
Lee Grant ... Anne MacGregor
José Ferrer ... Dr. Andrews (as Jose Ferrer)
Patty Duke ... Rita (as Patty Duke Astin)
Slim Pickens ... Jud Hawkins
Bradford Dillman ... Maj. Baker
Fred MacMurray ... Clarence
Henry Fonda ... Dr. Walter Krim
28: Edgar Cayce! Bridey Murphy! The Bermuda Triangle!
29: Holy crap. I just downloaded Mega-Shark Versus Giant Octopus, but that may have to wait.
30 continued: Erich von Däniken!
Keira Knightley ... Domino Harvey
Mickey Rourke ... Ed Moseby
Delroy Lindo ... Claremont Williams
Mo'Nique ... Lateesha Rodriguez
Mena Suvari ... Kimmie
Macy Gray ... Lashandra Davis
Jacqueline Bisset ... Sophie Wynn
Dabney Coleman ... Drake Bishop
Brian Austin Green ... Himself
Lucy Liu ... Taryn Mills
Christopher Walken ... Mark Heiss
Tom Waits ... Wanderer
Erich von Däniken ... Hiccuping waiter
26: What was it that made the return of the Ice Age a "thing" in the 70s?
Well, from about WWII through the 70s there seemed to be a minor global cooling trend based on some relatively early attempts to really put together global temperature data and there was some sloppy and sensationalistic media pickup on that. Plus there were some brutal snowy winters in the Eastern US around then. I think the book that pushed it the most was The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of the New Ice Age but it looks like that only came out in 1977. There is good discussion of the whole thing on the Global Cooling Wikipedia page. It has been controversial recently with some of the climate hacks claiming that it was the scientific consensus at the time, which it wasn't.
33: My biology teacher in Junior High was an advocate of the crazy lost continent of Mu theories. I think He got me to buy three or four of the nutty James Churchward books.
I showed The Muppet Movie to my two little ones this past weekend. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid myself, but that was quite a cast.
Unrelatedly, all Tom Bosley-related self-pleasuring should cease immediately.
That title clearly belongs to the Transformers animated movie:
Peter Cullen
Judd Nelson
Orson Welles
Leonard Nimoy
Robert Stack
Neil Ross
Susan Blu
Frank Welker
Lionel Stander
Gregg Berger
Michael Bell
Paul Eiding
Eric Idle
David Mendenhall
Edgar Bergen was alive when they made The Muppet Movie?!? That's more astonishing than The Old Gringo, starring Gregory Peck and Jimmy Smits.
THE LOST CONTINENT OF MU PPET IS REAL.
Erich von Däniken -- wow! I looked him up and he's still alive and apparently still promoting his aliens built the pyramids, etc. theories. In seventh grade one kid in my class very seriously believed in von Däniken's theories. I chanced upon him a few years ago commenting on a blog -- now he's an economics professor, a big defender of the Austrian school, one of those guys that gets in furious arguments with the Berkeley economist. Maybe he still believes in von Däniken too.
Although it would have been more astonishing if Jimmy Smits played the old gringo.
There was a paper providing strong support for existence of Milankovic cycles that was published in the late 70s. Ice cores. Before that, people did not know much about prehistoric temperature variation and theories about causes were even wackier, since there was so little data.
Caligula had a great cast, but I can't look it up because it's too depressing. John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole, Helen Mirren, WTF were you thinking?
41: A favorite Sagan quote: Von Däniken sees the intervention of extraterrestrials in everything he doesn't understand, and he seems to understand nothing so everywhere he looks he sees evidence of extraterrestrials.
44 is so true. I assume that Peter O'Toole was thinking "I am really, really drunk" but the motivations of others are mysterious.
44: Curious about seeing other cast members naked?
44. 46. Malcolm McDowell said they were making an epic, then Guccione added the porn. I think that epics are harder to pull off than people realize, and Guccione added the porn to get his money back.
44: Curious about seeing other cast members naked?
If they all were, they could have made some kind of arrangement that didn't require making a movie. Probably would have had more fun that way.
49; Sure, but they might have been too shy to do that on their own.
there is an active swarm of Africanized bees on campus.
Let's see the birth certificates.
26: Are you thinking of nuclear winter? That mananged to scare me as a child, even though I never really understood the giant nuclear war prerequisite, which would have scared me even more.
Biorhythms! Pyramid Power! Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln!
Oak Island! The Lizard King lives! Paul is dead!
Does anybody else remember the Burt Reynolds telephone card urban legend /fiasco? It was so stupid, maybe I made it up.
55: I heard of the rest, but not that one.
55: The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends remembers it.
57: What it doesn't say is that people were circulating a number that was supposed to be the credit card number that you could use to make free long distance calls. This may seem strange to the young 'uns but in 1981 for kids starting college free long distance phone calls was a big deal. A bunch of kids in my dorm bought the whole crazy story and used the number to make supposedly free long distance phone calls. Eventually they were caught and had to pay for the calls.
I can remember when you had to pay for local calls, unless you were Burt Reynolds or were calling somebody else on campus.
Actually, I can't. Unlimited local calling happened when I was in high school.
My teenage shenanigans involving payphones was limited to calling that number you could dial that made the payphone ring, like, 30 seconds after you called it. Then you watched some dope answer the phone—but there was no one calling! Ho-ho!
I assume that Peter O'Toole was thinking "I am really, really drunk"....
"I drink now. But not like before. Christ, who could?"
19: Wait -- is Megan gone because one of you lot drove her off?
Per LB, she decided after the last Bob fracas to give Unfogged a rest. Thus making many of us sad.
after the last Bob fracas
That's the 2nd time this week it was described this way.
Was this Fight Club, Unfogged edition? Did I have a fracas with myself?
Lurking has not made the heart grow fonder.
Lurking has not made the heart grow fonder.
Huh. I wonder why they always say that then.
Skulking makes the heart grow fonder? Stalking? Sneaking? Something.
Alfalfa seed makes the heartland grow fodder.
Not about me.
Why, Halford, was "Megan found the atmosphere at Unfogged uncongenial" not possible?
Did your phrasing give you some kind of particular physical or emotional pleasure?
67:Stop talking about me, sadists. Cease the gratuitous insults and defamation.
65: Awww! This makes me very sad. Especially when I have active grudges to nurture. No one understood that kind of thing the way Megan understood.
(To be clear, none of these active grudges relate in any manner to bob or to any other unfogged fracas past, present or contemplated.)
69: Stop talking about me, sadists. Cease the gratuitous insults and defamation.
I've actually founded a McManus Discussion Group out in my neck of the woods where we speculate about your medications and whether or not you rape squirrels. You saying you're not okay with that?
Bob, just referring to the event that seemed to be the triggering point. Personally, I hate it when people leave, including both Megan and you.
I wonder if any human has ever in fact successfully raped a squirrel. Sure doesn't seem easy.
Bob, Whenever you delurk it's like the return of the Unf'ed repressed.
I'm sure some people miss you, btw. I certainly do.
I think you'd have to use tools.
74: They probably wiggle around something fierce, it's true. Of course, I'm not saying Bob's found a way around that. I'm just not denying it, either.
(Like, when someone comes up and asks me, "Does that McManus guy rape squirrels?" I'm all like: "Meh. *shrug* Maybe, maybe not. Hard to say.")
You're assuming that the squirrels are unwilling, DS. You may be right, but there is one near my office that keeps giving me the eye.
They probably wiggle around something fierce, it's true.
Not if you lace their acorns with Rohypnol. Or, uh, so I've heard.
79: I think we've all been there. Truly the temptress of the northern woodland, the squirrel. So one possible theory is that Bob succumbed to just such blandishments, one thing led to another, et voila.
80: That's the other possible theory.
Hey! Megan wanted moderation around here! I mean. Snort.
Just doing my part to spread the aspersions around .... And hi, Bob.
Sorry, folks I'm trolling Kotsko this month.
He has a Monday Movie thread that he usually starts with Godard and gets two comments about True Blood and one about Bruce Willis. So I'm filling it up with a daily Yasujiro Ozu review. (Tokyo No Koruso 1931, is the key film. Explains everything.)
Japanese Cinema, and me, seems to have brought read back to Kotsko's place.
Just, you know, LB's "Have Mercy on Foreclosure Mills" post made my brain explode and broke my resolve.
Thor Heyerdahl! Zener cards! Uri Geller!
Oh, sorry about the italics up there.
If the thoughts in the To-1000! thread are going to turn somewhat political, I'd like to threadjack this one in a political direction. The 1000 thread is long and creaky. Sorry.
Massachusettsians! Apparently Barney Frank is having trouble? Can anyone who is able, not just those in Mass., contribute to him? We need this guy.
You can help via Act Blue, if you're able. I trust we can all click through from there. It's very straightforward -- you can target your donation to selected candidates if you wish. Or just give directly to Frank's campaign without going through Act Blue.
We do, all, need Barney Frank to retain his seat over his challenger.
Addendum: Maybe Frank's okay. I became alarmed. My home state! Barney Frank! Massachusetts turned weird over Scott Brown. But maybe it's okay.
What if he wins, but gets swarmed by Africanized bees?
If Barney Frank loses that race, I'll wrestle a bear or eat glass or whatever all else you want. And really, if you want to give money to an endangered Democratic congressmen outside of your home district (unless you're Stanley), give it to Tom Periello.
I'm all freaked out about the midterm elections here, Moby. Buying gold bullion and attacks by killer bees aren't really on the radar. Harrumph.
89: Word is nobody should bother giving money (outside their state) to endangered congresspeople anyway: focus on the Senate. There's a point there.
Huh? The Republicans could, but are unlikely to turn the Senate, and your dollar goes further and is generally needed more in house races. Nate Silver has a good list.
Any Congressional election is unlikely to be close enough that your vote matters. But having an EpiPen when the swarm hits, that might save a life.
89: Perriello (ahem) was feisty in the debate tonight, and he seems to have a fighting chance. (For starters, his GOP opponent actually shows up at the debates now, realizing it's not going to be a walk.)
You can also give money directly to me, and I promise to host a really great victory and/or commiseration party for people in Virginia's Fifth District.
That said, I'm not sure I could jab myself with a needle while I've nearly mastered the new touch screen voting.
I was trying to talk to myself here.
Oh, I, um. Oh, man. Geez. Sorry. I should have knocked, Moby.
This morning, I saw the city work crew in the park pulling down Pat Toomey signs. If they bothered, it must be close.
92: It's not really a question of turning the Senate, is it? More a question of how much of a Senate majority the Dems retain.
You noticed while doing a front page post. Alertness.
I thought "killer bees!!!" were some sort of Reaganite myth? The death panels of 1985?
No, the freakout about the Killer Bees happened during the middle and late 70's IIRC. It was enough of a freakout that they took about a book about killer bees and made a movie about it (The Swarm above), which was possibly one of the worst movies ever made. I know, I saw the thing in the theatres when I was like 10 and boy, was that a really bad movie.
Apparently you can't get the 114 minute version I saw at the movies and instead you can get the 156 minute version which, conceivably, might actually be an improvement. Doesn't seem like likely. It might be worth watching for its awesome badness but I doubt it.
Ooo! I found The Swarm trailer on Youtube. It sounds like something out of the 50's except they're all wearing leisure suits! (Oh, hey, they've also got an Orca trailer (man, that was bad) and Empire of the Ants.)
54: Nuclear winter, on the other hand, was a big thing starting in 1983 or 1984 (I think) when someone published a paper. The Union of Concerned Scientists publicized the hell out of it, and that became part of the background zeitgeist in which we were all doomed. It was supposed to be scary because the Russians could get into it with the Chinese with nukes and we'd all freeze even if we weren't at war. They had a lot of trouble getting that point across so nuclear winter sort of blended together with the general horrors of nuclear war.
35: Well, from about WWII through the 70s there seemed to be a minor global cooling trend based on some relatively early attempts to really put together global temperature data and there was some sloppy and sensationalistic media pickup on that.
Asimov wrote an essay on the science of climate in the 50's (I think it was the 50's might have been published in the early 60's) predicting that we'd have a couple decades of cooler weather based on I forget what exactly. (I remember the essay pretty clearly because I read it in the 70's when it appeared to have come true, but good luck finding the thing.) The meteorologists really did find a short-term cooling trend but they blew that all out of proportion.
Plus there were some brutal snowy winters in the Eastern US around then.
There were some brutal winters in Texas right about then. Six inches of ice on the ground in the winter of '79. I remember newspaper and TV people kept wondering if were entering a new ice age. That's probably what the denialists remember.
max
['I wonder if we're going to have another really nasty winter this year?']
92: Huh? The Republicans could, but are unlikely to turn the Senate, and your dollar goes further and is generally needed more in house races.
I think that's generally true but I bet Harry Reid, Jack Conway, and Sestak could use the money. I'm sure reps in house races could ALL use the money though.
Bleh. We're outnumbered by the swarm of mulitnational cash this time kids.
max
['Give til you bleed sting.']
I was trying to talk to myself here.
Oh, I, um. Oh, man. Geez. Sorry. I should have knocked, Moby.
Now I've got
I don't want anybody else,
When I think about you I talk to myself...
going through my head. I'm thinking it's about a platonic relationship where the conversation is really great.
But, you know, she's far away from him, so what's a girl to do...
This just in. Apparently you can kill the killer bees right back with a clear conscience. So there's that.
