109/2679. Caught Stealing (2025)
I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would. It's essentially a neo noir disguised as an action thriller. There's plenty of comedy and style. Honesty, it's worth a watch for the closing credits alone.

110/2680. Hoppers (2026)
I also really enjoyed this. The critical reviews I'd read seemed to have a problem with the second half, when, yes, the tone rather abruptly changes from sentimental environmental message movie to body horror. But its heart is always in the right place, and it's always a lot of fun.

111/2681. Stop the World: I Want to Get Off (1966)
This is a filmed British play with overt 60s counter-culture leanings. The songs are pretty good, but I struggled with the weak and generally unlikable characters slow to learn any lessons. (That's the point, yes, but I lack patience for nitwits.)

112/2682. Non-Stop New York (1937)
Mistaken identity leads to suspense on an utterly ridiculous flying boat over the Atlantic in this British production akin to the RKO B-picture murder mysteries of the era. The highlight is the attempted murder on the plane's external observation deck!

113/2683. Charles Grodin: Rebel with a Cause (2025)
TCM kicked off its new Friday night concept of movies themed around a film-related documentary with this, which wants you to believe that Grodin wasn't the curmudgeon he played convincingly for so many years on the set of late night talk shows. He must have been a pretty good actor.

More to come.

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UPDATE: 9:03PM. FYI: My power is out again.

This time it's my fault. After voting, Mom and I went to Culver's to celebrate democracy in action. I decided to buy four pints of custard to take home and put in the freezer for later. Mom said, "Now I know the power is going to go out again." And it did! Mothers always know.

For the record, Georgia Power's estimated time until restoration to clear this latest downed pine tree is... about three hours.

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FYI: My power is out again.

The remnants of Hurricane Isaias rolled through town four days ago, and the power never flickered. But just now, at 2:45 in the morning, after days of nothing but cloudless sunshine, still air, and record heat, the power is out again for the same 69 customers in my neighborhood as always. (Do we have the most fragile trees, or the worst line placement? You decide!) The current estimate for restoration is at least three hours from now, which means I definitely won't be finishing the Google Sheet I was working on.

If you're keeping score at home, this is the fifth significant outage (three hours or more) in the past four months.

They say you shouldn't go to bed angry, but it seems I don't have much choice. Better that than stewing in the dark until dawn.

UPDATE: Dawn has come and gone, so I can now stew into the afternoon. Apparently some of my neighbors have been posting on Nextdoor.com that no one even came to look into it until after a school bus got stuck and the fire department had to be called to clear the road. (I assume all the linemen are still out on loan to clean up Florida /Alabama?) So these "estimated time of restoration" alerts from Georgia Power are starting to seem pretty suspect. It's now 9:30 and the current estimated time of restoration? Still at least three hours from now.

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Mom sent me a link to the front page of The Atlanta Constitution on October 13, 1940, because it celebrated the debut of female cheer leaders at University of Georgia football games. But what caught my attention was this article:

Tom Mix Dies With His Boots On
By the United Press.

FLORENCE, Ariz, Oct. 12.—Tom Mix, the rootin'est, tootin'est, shootin'est cowboy there ever was, died today as spectacularly as he lived, in an auto wreck, when his green speedster turned over on an Arizona desert Highway at 80 miles an hour.

He was dead when passersby hauled him from the wreckage near here. His neck was broken.

Mix, who never was as good behind the wheel as he was at the bridle of his horse, Tony, tangled with a bridge construction job. There was a detour sign, but the 60-year-old cowboy—the originator of Hollywood's multi-million-dollar horse opera industry—failed to see it.

He died with his high-heeled boots on and his 10-gallon white sombrero still jammed on his brow.

(Other details on Page 10-A)

It sure sounds like Tom Mix hurt someone's feelings in Atlanta. Here's how the New York Times front page ran the story:

Tom Mix Dies With His Boots On
By the United Press.

FLORENCE, Ariz, Oct. 12.—Tom Mix, 60, cowboy-actor and hero of Western thrillers of the films, was killed eighteen miles south of here today as he was pinned under his overturned automobile on a highway detour.

Mr. Mix, whose colorful career as a circus performer, soldier, law enforcement officer and motion picture star make him the idol of millions the world over, was traveling alone from Tucson, Ariz., to Florence and Phoenix.

Serving as advance agent for a circus scheduled to show soon in Phoenix, he was carrying $6,000 in cash, $1,500 in travelers' checks and several valuable jewels.

Two highway employes [sic] discovered the upset car and called State patrolmen, who extricated the body. Coroner E.O. Devine said that Mr. Mix apparently died instantly after losing control of his car. There will be no inquest. The body was brought here.

The Times story continues for about another thousand words but none of them confirm Constitution's gorier details. So of course I had to go looking for more. The United Press-credited story on the front page of The Arizona Daily Star follows pretty much the same template as the Associated Press story in The Constitution and The Times but adds some additional facts.

Tom Mix Dies in Auto Crash Near Florence

FLORENCE, Ariz, Oct. 12.—(AP)—Tom Mix, 60, cowboy-actor and hero of scores of western thrillers of the silent film era, was killed 18 miles south of here today when he was pinned under his overturned automobile on a highway detour.

Mix, whose colorful career as a circus Performer, soldier, law enforcement officer and motion picture star made him the idol of millions the world over, was traveling alone from Tucson to Florence and Phoenix.

Coroner E. O. Devine said Mix apparently died instantly after losing control of his car. The body was brought here.

Body Is Found

Two highway employes [sic], John Adams of Oracle, Ariz., and E. A. Armenta of Casa Grande, discovered the overturned vehicle.

Martin Younkers, Beloit, Wis., and Anthony Monts, Rockford, Ill., who said Mix had passed them on the highway north of Tucson, helped pull the actor's body from under his racing model car.

Younkers and Monts said a heavy suit case had fallen against Mix's head, burying his face in the soft ground. A physician reported later the blow broke his neck.

Local investigators said Mix, who left Tucson at 1 p.m., was serving as advance agent for a circus scheduled to show in Phoenix shortly. The cowboy star was carrying $6,000 in cash, $1,500 in travelers' checks and several valuable jewels.

One of the things I was taught in high school journalism was to get people's names in the paper to encourage local interest. I wonder how Mr. Younkers and Mr. Monts felt about that tactic.

For the record, The Constitution was wrong about the color. The car was not green. It was a bright yellow 1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Phaeton (with California license plate 6C 90 61). It's since been restored. The same cannot be said for Mr. Mix.

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Since 2007 I've have a tag for "six flags" that is mostly notes about the gruesome ways people have been dismembered and killed at Six Flags amusement parks across the country. I hadn't mentioned that just last month Six Flags Magic Mountain was accused in court of causing "sustained brain injuries" to over 100 people, leaving several with long-term debilitating injuries. But I think the parks have finally reached a new low today after a death on the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia.

Per WXIA News:

Witnesses who were on the ride were emotional as they described a gruesome scene, saying the man hit the ride several times after he was ejected. One witness told [reporter] Cody Alcorn that the falling man was captured on their souvenir picture taken while on the ride.

How would they even know that? Other reports indicated riders were kept on the train in the station for up to five minutes after the accident. You'd think that'd be plenty of time for the teenage park attendants to block any traumatizing pictures from reaching the already traumatized riders. Six Flags has been treating people badly for years; I can't believe they still don't have a protocol for this sort of thing.

If there's one thing I would hope everyone could agree on in 2026, it's stay as far away as possible from Six Flags parks. Your life may very well depend on it.

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