Reading: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Music: IFC podcasts
TV/Movie: Taxi Driver
Link o' the Day: IFC.com

The Rumor Monger is back now that the hiatus has ended. As usual, I make no claims to the veracity of anything printed here. Some of it might be true, but who knows for sure? They sure sound reasonable... I guess.



Rumor has it... The popular comic strip Dilbert was originally to be titled "The Office" until Scott Adams, the comic's creator, got into an argument with a co-worker about dill pickles. The word "dill" tickled him so much during the argument that he changed the original name of his main character from Herbert to Dilbert and then decided to name the entire comic after the one character. (Side note: this story often claims the co-worker's name was "Burt" and it was the combination of "dill" and "Burt" that spawned the final name. In truth, Adams doesn't remember the co-worker's name, but is pretty sure he'd have remembered if the "Burt" part of the story were true.)

Rumor has it... Every Twitter sent since 2007 is being stored in a central location where they will all be transferred to a high-storage media and be part of a payload for a deep space probe scheduled to launch in late 2010.



Rumor has it... Famed film director Akira Kurosawa, known for such classics as Rashomon, Yojimbo, and Ran, did not like the color green and tended to distrust those who wore too much of it. His battle sequences were often prefaced with green, as was the death scene of Kikuchiyu in Seven Samurai

Rumor has it... The German-owned supermarket chain Aldi's, known for its cheap prices, imitation brands, low overhead, low maintenance, and practice of "renting" shopping carts and charging for bags also owns the Trader Joe's chain of specialty food stores which are known for their Trader Joe branding, gourmet food selections, excellent staffing, and brightly decorated stores.

Rumor has it... British brands of chocolate use half the cocoa, but nearly twice the sugar as American brands. Their chocolate is also more likely to be whipped to the point where an average bar of chocolate in the UK weighs only two-thirds of its American counterpart.



Rumor has it... Actor James Urbaniak lost his left hand in a childhood accident. He wears a prosthetic hand with pose-able wrist and fingers designed by his uncle that is so lifelike that he makes no attempt to disguise or hide the false hand when on stage or in front of the camera.

-=-=-=-=-

My most recent post to Charge of the Write Brigade is up now... also returning following my hiatus. I talk about artifact and context in writing. Today's work will feature covers for Barbara Payton and a book on becoming a radio personality. I'll be continuing work on a book on Gregorii Aleksandrov, making some edits to the Sondra Lee book, and plowing through the photographs for the Dead End Kids and Bowery Boys.

All this and more! Comin' atcha!



Today's link takes you to IFC.com, all the best news and commentary for fans of independent film. Lots of video stuff here to enjoy, plus blogs, schedules, podcasts, and more.

Enjoy!