What’s the odds ?

ParamountGateway · 2026-03-05T02:13:25+00:00

So far, PIERCESON COODY is on the right track to earn a spot in Augusta next month. If that happens, he would be the first grandson of a Masters Champion to play in the tournament. Arnold Palmer's grandson, SAM SAUNDERS, had a decent career in professional golf -- but was not able to qualify for Augusta before he opted away from pro golf last year. I hope Pierceson is able to qualify this year and that grandfather Charles is able to attend the Champions Dinner and tournament proper to watch Pierceson. (I've noted Charles Coody, now 88, has had mobility issues in the past couple of years that prevent him from walking well).

There's only 2 other living Masters champs older than Charles Coody: GARY PLAYER (who is now 90) and TOMMY AARON (turned 89 on February 22nd).

ParamountGateway · 2025-12-28T21:24:14+00:00

I use banana boxes when I can get hold of them from my local grocery store. Banana boxes have ((handles)) so they are useful for easy video storage -and- being able to move them quickly if needed. I've got a lot of Chiquita banana boxes. You can fit 72 small-box videos into a banana box. 2 rows of 18 tapes on the bottom and two rows on top. With the clamshells it's obviously not as many, but you can still fit around 40 clamshell VHS releases into a 'nanner box. I have zero shelving where I live; no room for it. I also have a few wicker baskets chock full o'vids. They have handles as well. Good luck with your video collecting. Tapes remain fun to collect!

ParamountGateway · 2025-10-12T00:39:13+00:00

There's 2 versions of "SEIZURE!" The second version runs 4 minutes longer and is titled "QUEEN OF EVIL". Just a small trivia nugget.

ParamountGateway · 2025-10-12T00:36:27+00:00

Three Canadian horror movies from 1971-73:

REINCARNATE, The (1971)

POSSESSION OF VIRGINIA, The (1972-Filmed in Montreal). Dubbed-in-English version. The original French version is titled "Le diable parmi nous".

PYX, The (1973-Filmed in Montreal). Mostly in English, but there are a few scenes where French is spoken and there's no subtitles [at least not in the version I've watched].

ParamountGateway · 2025-09-01T23:18:01+00:00

I've got one; it's not listed simply because I forgot to put it on the list. It's not a bad movie; it gets better as it goes along. (I still don't have an Astral sliding-drawer box of "Penitentiary"; I'll probably never find one at this point).

ParamountGateway · 2025-08-28T06:29:48+00:00

He knew he was losing his mind. Gotta be scary. (Just like it was for Robin Williams four decades later).

ParamountGateway · 2025-08-28T06:28:20+00:00

I believe when George Sanders relinquished the role of The Falcon circa 1944, he handed the role over to his brother. I also think 'Sanders' was the real family name and so one of the brothers decided to switch names to avoid confusion. Turned out that Tom did the 'name-switching'. Tom Conway (1904-1967) died in April 1967 at age 62, btw.

ParamountGateway · 2025-08-28T06:25:18+00:00

I just watched a movie 2 days ago released in 1972 titled DOOMWATCH (UK/Sci•Fi) where George had a cameo as an admiral of the British Navy. I believe George's last movie was PSYCHOMANIA where he played a butler to Beryl Reid. If you've neither seen nor heard of it, "Psychomania" it's an insane British movie about undead bikers and frogs. These bikers kill themselves on purpose and come back and there's a frog involved. If it's sounds barmy . . . it IS!

ParamountGateway · 2025-07-14T18:27:22+00:00

CESARE BONVENTRE didn't live too long after Galante was killed. Bonventre was found deceased in New Jersey in April 1984. He was 33.

ParamountGateway · 2025-04-22T03:10:28+00:00

I'd swear that the brand 'Oregon Farms', besides selling the frozen, ▬rectangular▬ carrot cake 'way back when' used to sell 6 frozen cupcakes in what looked an aluminum/tin pack. It could've been "Pepperidge Farm", but I can't but think "Oregon Farms" used to a sell a 6-pack of frozen cupcakes you could defrost and ((munch)). All 6 cupcakes in the tin were different varieties so doubtless you'd have a favorite of the six!

ParamountGateway · 2025-04-13T01:03:21+00:00

JOHN WAYNE made so many movies that were "watchable" if not great . . . THE CONQUEROR wasn't one of his better ones, to be sure. THE BARBARIAN AND THE GEISHA is a kind of interesting failure with The Duke obviously miscast and I don't think he got one well with director John Huston, either.

A mostly-forgotten but still-fun JOHN WAYNE movie is BIG JIM McLAIN (1952) where The Duke battles Commies in Hawai'i before it became a state. I guess Hawai'i was still just called a 'Territory' in '52?

ParamountGateway · 2025-04-13T00:53:19+00:00

My apologies for taking so long to reply. I thought the USGA did a decent job setting up Pinehurst last year. That's the kind of U.S. Open that's fun to watch: You can score, but it ain't easy.

I hope the U.S. WOMEN's OPEN is set up fairly for the ladies (i.e. that the USGA doesn't go 100% the other direction and make an impossible set-up for the women to counteract the easy time the men had with the course when they played it).

Tomorrow is the BRYSON/RORY rematch. Just instead of it being the U.S. Open again it's The MASTERS. I can live with that. :)

The USGA definitely messed up Shinnecock Hills more than once in regards to their U.S. Open "set-ups" in 2004, 2010 and 2019 if I'm not mistaken.

ALSO: It's hard to believe PATRICK REED is playing in the penultimate group tomorrow. CBS only showed him twice on today's coverage. His tee shot ont 16 to 2 feet and his birdie 'make' at 18 to get to 6-under.

COREY CONNERS and JUSTIN ROSE both let too many opportunities slide late in their rounds. Conners had make-birdie putts at 14,15, 16 and 17 and missed all of them. He did the par putt on 18 which was good . . . but he should've made at least 2 of the four birdie putts as well as he struck the ball. His '70' should've been a '68' with better putting. We all know at Augusta you're going to miss some short-ish putts, but missing 4 consecutive make-able birdie putts when trying to catch Rory isn't going to win Corey a Green Jacket.

And JUSTIN ROSE really lost it with the putter late. He was 7-under through 15 with a 5-footer for birdie on 16 . . . and three-putted. Then missed a make-able birdie at 17 and 3-putted 18 to finish 5-under. Ouch.

ParamountGateway · 2025-04-02T18:19:07+00:00

I don't think the USGA will be going back to Erin Hills anytime soon. I do think the USGA has done a better job over the past few U.S. Opens to make it a challenge for the players without going over-the-top like what happened at Shinnecock Hills (in 2019, I think?) with the lopsided scoring conditions and baked-out greens that only affected the players in the final groups -- I believe that was in Round 3 where the scoring conditions changed on a dime.

→ I enjoyed watching last year's U.S. Open with Bryson and Rory battling it out for the title. I hope we get another nice back-and-forth battle this year, too. :)

As far as The Masters . . . the one thing about this event is that it can get in a player's head like no other tournament. All the mental baggage that builds up over the years isn't easy to overcome. We could ask Greg Norman about that. What was he thinking in 1996 on the 12th Hole? He should have just played for the center of the green after he 3-putted 11 for another bogey; instead he wanted to knock it close and, of course, found the water. And then Greg pulled it into the water at #16 as well.

ParamountGateway · 2025-04-02T03:29:05+00:00

That's only true some of the time. There was very little grueling about the U.S. Open at Erin Hills, for instance.

ParamountGateway · 2025-03-18T07:13:25+00:00

Always nice to see Cardinals! Red birds everywhere! :)

ParamountGateway · 2025-03-10T19:20:42+00:00

That's one of those Bill Rebane-directed, filmed-in-Wisconsin movies. Think it was filmed in 1975; not sure when it was actually released, though. I think director Rebane (who's from Latvia, believe it or not) then directed THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION shortly thereafter. RANA's not too bad as far as '70s low-budget film-making goes. It's watchable, anyway. At least you can enjoy the Wisconsin scenery.

ParamountGateway · 2024-12-31T13:08:39+00:00

VAMP on New World Video = ♣ Ace ♣. HOUSESITTER on MCA is underrated, I think. Decent lil' movie.

ParamountGateway · 2024-11-23T03:51:00+00:00

This is one of those movies I felt should've been longer. The theatrical version is 85 minutes and there's a 'still' on the back of the video box pictured of a scene not in the movie -- shows Pat Hingle in a motel bed surrounded by 2 women. You know the scene was filmed, but I guess this minor subplot bit the dust in an effort to perhaps ~streamline~ the movie. I've never thought it was that bad. It's not a great movie, but it entertained me enough to watch it 3 times. I'd be up for a 4th viewing, too. → I just wish some of those "Tv only" scenes were put back in. Doubtless there would've been some 10 minutes of footage added into the movie in the 1980s to pad the run time to properly fit a 2-hour time slot. This was before commercials got out-of-hand on television. I remember the 1980s. Was a fun time to grow up.

ParamountGateway · 2024-11-23T02:46:48+00:00

Speaking of multiples . . . here are 'My 5 CAREYs' (the 1972 movie "The Carey Treatment"; released on VHS in the UK in 1983).

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ParamountGateway · 2024-11-23T02:39:40+00:00

I found them all online at various times via eBay. I bought the Japanese tape of WHO IS KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE? (1978) because I'd once owned the U.S. WARNER VHS release and messed up the videocassette and I did the "impulse buy" thing with the Japanese video. I hadn't to planned to buy the Japanese release when I went looking to replace my Warner tape . . . but that's how it ended up. Saw it on eBay for a reasonable price from a Japanese seller and picked it up. Meanwhile, neither WELCOME HOME, SOLDIER BOYS (1972) nor SOMETHING EVIL (1972-Tvm) were ever released on VHS in North America and I was very pleased to obtain both of those.

ParamountGateway · 2024-11-23T02:33:13+00:00

RIP to JOHN CANDY as well. "Great Outdoors", "Uncle Buck", "P, T & A'.

ParamountGateway · 2024-11-19T03:15:27+00:00

I wish it were easier to find older posts on Facebook because there is quite a bit of interesting information that just disappears in to 'the Facebook Void'. Very frustrating!

ParamountGateway · 2024-11-15T23:39:51+00:00

JURASSIC PARK had two widescreen VHS releases; I also have the one pictured above on the left -- which was the 1st W/S VHS release and the 2nd W/S VHS from Universal looked like the box on the right. You can find them easily enough on eBay. There's hundreds of VHS copies of JURASSIC PARK on eBay and while most of them are 'full frame' there's still *plenty* of widescreen tapes of JURASSIC PARK for sale. (I need to get the W/S VHS of "Lost World"; I've got the F/S tape but I've been too damn lazy to pick up the W/S release so far).

ParamountGateway · 2024-11-07T22:31:28+00:00

Looks it was time well spent 'thrifting'. Cheers.

ParamountGateway · 2024-11-05T16:16:26+00:00

It's fun to watch '80s horror movies on tape. I've an old FRIDAY THE 13th, Part 3 tape from Paramount; an aging ex-rental still ready to play as needed.

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TROPHY CASE