The attack occurred in a busy entertainment district in the Texas capital early Saturday, authorities said. Investigators were looking into what sparked the shooting.
Do you know where you were 20 years ago this morning? I was slowly walking north along T C Jester Boulevard, waist deep in water from an overflowing White Oak Bayou. Tropical Storm Allison had returned the night before, deluging the city, particularly central regions near the Texas Medical Center, and east Houston. I had been caught unawares, with some friends at a Bob Schneider concert on Washington Avenue. The rains were so loud we heard them pounding on the roof, over the rock and roll music. After leaving the concert early I’d been unable to get home, across the raging river that was Interstate 10. So I parked my car on a high median and tromped around Montrose all night. The next morning as the waters receded a bit, I retrieved my vehicle and drove to Interstate 610 North. But again, I had to park my car outside my neighborhood as Oak Forest was flooded. So I slogged up T C Jester toward my street, looking at flooded homes, marveling but dismayed at what had happened. It all seemed otherworldly. This was my introduction to flooding in Houston, and I vowed to never be surprised by such an event again. I began writing about weather more for the Houston Chronicle, and eventually became a meteorologist. The rest is history—but I will never forget Allison and I suspect, if you live in Houston, neither will you.
12-hour rainfall totals for the night of June 8 to morning of June 9, 2001. (NOAA)
Wednesday
We need not worry ourselves about flooding this week. A few very light showers will be possible this morning, but anything that forms will be scattered and fleeting. Winds will be light, out of the south. Some sunshine will break through the clouds this afternoon as temperatures rise into the low 90s. Tonight will be warm and muggy. Those dewpoints in the upper 70s are why your glasses are fogging up, or why even a short walk through the parking garage is pretty miserable.
Thursday and Friday
Both of these days will be warm, with highs in the low- to mid-90s. Thursday will be partly if not mostly cloudy, but Friday should be mostly sunny.
High temperatures could be solidly in the mid-90s by Sunday. (Weather Bell)
Saturday and Sunday
The weekend should see more sunny skies and highs in the mid-90s. It’s gonna be warm, y’all, so take care outside during the warmest part of the day. Some very slight rain chances return Sunday afternoon and evening as the high pressure system retreats, but for now I’m anticipating that we’re all going to stay dry.
Next week
The start of next week looks to be partly sunny, with at least some slight to moderate rain chances. The bigger question is what happens after that due to unsettled weather. A dying front may bring some rain chances southward, or we may see the influence of tropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. More on that below.
Tropics
The main global models are continuing to suggest that a low pressure system may form in the southern Gulf of Mexico next week, perhaps in the Tuesday to Thursday time frame. There is now modest agreement that something tropical is going to happen. The European model’s ensemble system, for example, says there is at least a 25 percent chance of a tropical storm forming in the western Gulf of Mexico during the second half of next week.
European model forecast for “probability of a tropical storm” developing from June 16-June 19. (Weather Bell)
As for what develops after this, or whether the system tracks into Mexico, Texas, or further eastward into the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, it’s really difficult to say anything. Most, but not all, of the model guidance keeps this system at tropical storm strength or below. For now, this is something to keep an eye on because forecast models are going to be all over the place. When we can say more, we will.
France is sending a mini Statue of Liberty to the U.S. It will stand across from the original Lady Liberty through the Independence Day holiday before being transported to the French Embassy in D.C.
We love the 11-foot-8 bridge. If you were to ask us what the best bridge in the world is, we'd tell you it's 11-foot-8. We love it for its steadfastness, its loyalty to purpose, and its stalwart refusal to stand down to bullies. — Read the rest
Microwave Miracles from Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Company
1974
Submitter: The smell of this book makes me think someone tried some of those fish soup recipes back in 1974. Unless that is what the 70’s smelled like?
Holly: Oh good, fish in the microwave. Your coworkers will love you when you heat up your leftovers for lunch.
The issue at Fastly meant internet users couldn't connect to a host of popular websites early Tuesday including The New York Times, the Guardian, Twitch, Reddit and the British government's homepage.
This is a Danish Road Safety Council commercial promoting bike helmet safety using Vikings. It plays like a Monty Python sketch which is the highest of compliments. I don't know if it's particularly effective at getting people to wear bike helmets, but it made me laugh and isn't that really what public safety is all about?
Keep going for the full video.
I work in marketing as a creative director for a large brokerage firm in a very religious/conservative state. The past couple of years have been difficult with the previous White House administration — it’s affected our business substantially and has created a lot of volatility within our office. With political tensions still running high, it’s left our department in a delicate position as we’re supposed to remain neutral to all facets of our company (of which, there are many). The past four years have put a palpable strain on a lot of working relationships and we’ve found it can be especially difficult to work with some people, especially after you realize they’re not who you thought they were.
Having said that, I have an incredible team of three creatives who are very politically opinionated and don’t hold back when it comes to expressing how they feel. They’re usually pretty good about keeping those types of discussions quiet and within our department, so I’ve not had to worry about confrontation or offending anyone. Additionally, we have excellent personal and working relationships with one another, probably because we all share similar viewpoints on many (if not most) political issues, and have supported each other during the darkest of times.
For the past two months, we’ve been desperately searching for a new graphic designer that can handle the pressure, workload, and conservative environment. We’ve finally interviewed a young man who I think would be a great candidate. However … looking over his Facebook page, I am concerned he may not fit in with my team’s outspoken liberal-democratic, agnostic, feminist, anti-capitalist (and the list goes on) views. I’m especially worried about my editor. With the past four years being what they were, she is still on fire and would rather die on whatever hill she’s battling that day than let someone (especially a new guy) get away with saying something she doesn’t agree with. It’s exhausting, to be honest. And despite our many attempts at talking with her about this issue, she just can’t help herself. I know that whoever we hire will, at some point, say something to light her fuse and it will be hellfire for everyone.
I am concerned about how to appropriately broach the topic with my team and/or the new hire. I know we all agree on the same issues, and up until now, it’s not been a problem to speak openly. But times are changing and we need to be more open/welcoming to those who differ from ourselves, especially in our department. Is there a way to ask my team to keep their opinions to themselves, at least long enough to let the new guy settle in? What can I do to make the new person more comfortable when they start? Can I warn him, or my team, in some way without planting negative, pre-conceived notions? I am so overwhelmed with projects right now and am desperate for a new employee. We’ve been looking for a qualified person for a long time and we finally have a promising lead; I don’t want to scare him off before he even starts. I also don’t want to give my team the impression that the new hire “doesn’t think like us” and it becomes an awkward team dynamic where people feel like they can’t say what they think, or our work and inter-departmental relationships suffer. Can you help me?!
I think you needed to warn this guy before he accepted the job.
Put yourself in his shoes: How would you feel if you ended up in a job surrounded by highly vocal, opinionated people with politics opposite to yours and who would “rather die” than keep quiet about their views? You’d presumably be pretty miserable, right? You might end up quickly looking to leave. You definitely wouldn’t be happy you’d taken the job.
For that matter, I think you’d need to warn any new hire even if they were politically identical to you. A lot of people who share your politics would still find the environment you describe exhausting and wouldn’t want to work in it. (I wouldn’t want to.)
I know the horse is already out of the barn but: It was a mistake to allow your team’s culture to develop this way. It means you’re going to have trouble incorporating anyone new who doesn’t share your politics, as well as anyone who does but still doesn’t want to work in an environment where people are talking about politics all day … which covers the vast, vast majority of people.
You’ve created a very specific culture that will be an active turn-off for most people … and which sounds like it might not be working for your current staff either, given that you describe one person’s behavior as “exhausting” and you’re worried about hellfire. I’d be curious to know whether either of your other two staffers are privately fed up with this but don’t feel they can do anything about it.
And to be clear, teams develop specific cultures all the time. You can’t avoid having some sort of culture. But when it’s one that will drive off large numbers of people and doesn’t have anything to do with supporting the actual work you’re doing (if anything, it’s likely distracting from the work), you’ve got to step back and ask if it’s justifiable or not.
There might be times that it is! If you work in a field where you have no trouble attracting qualified applicants and where the intense politics talk is a draw to enough of the people you want to hire, rather than a turn-off, and if the management above you has no problem with you screening for hires who will be happy in that culture … then it’s more your call to make. I’d still predict it would come back to bite you at some point, although companies develop unusual cultures that work for them all the time. But none of that sounds like the case here — you are having trouble finding hires, the behavior has been enough of a problem that you’ve had to have multiple conversations about stopping it, and since you note that your team is “supposed to remain neutral,” I’m betting your management wouldn’t be thrilled about what’s going on.
You wrote that you don’t want a dynamic where people feel like they can’t say what they think … but most people do some self-editing while they’re at work because they’re there to get a job done, not to express every political thought they have. I don’t want to ignore that what’s “political” can be in the eye of the beholder, and blanket bans on political talk can end up feeling like an endorsement of the status quo … but your work environment has gone far, far beyond that. It’s reasonable to expect people to focus primarily on work.
This also isn’t just about your team needing to be more open to different opinions. Most people don’t want to be around regular political rants, even if the ranter is “open” to different views. Most people just don’t want that at work, period. (And also — how open do you want to be really? What if it turns out the new guy loves an aggressive debate and his viewpoints are deeply repugnant to the rest of you? You can’t silence one person while letting the others continue, you team dynamics will be a disaster, and everyone will go home with headaches every day.)
So where does that leave you, in practical terms? I’m worried the answer is: in a really bad spot. You can tell your team that things have gotten out of control and the political talk needs to stop, especially now that a new person is coming in. You can share that it’s exhausting and distracting. And you can be deliberate about shutting it down every time it starts. Maybe that’ll work. It’s your best option so if it does work, great. But given what you’ve said about the editor who “would rather die on whatever hill she’s battling that day than let someone get away with saying something she doesn’t agree with” and how she’s already ignored multiple attempts to contain her, I’m not sure it will. And if it doesn’t, you’ll have to decide how far you’re willing to go. If the choice is between keeping her versus being able to hire anyone new (or having new hires be miserable), which will you pick? Because it sounds really likely that it’s going to come down to that.
Submitter: When I pulled this sad book off the shelf and read the title – I thought “Bankruptcy : do it yourself? Honey, us Millennials have been doing that for years…” This book comes with a disclaimer that it will be old, out of date, and should no longer be consulted at some point. Bankruptcy laws change frequently enough that this book is well past its shelf life.
Holly: It has that “typed on a typewriter in 1980” font, too. And look! A form copyrighted 1979. That oughta hold up in court.
Matt and I are thrilled to share with you that Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has proclaimed today, June 8, 2021, as Space City Weather Day in Houston, Texas. We’re grateful to Houston City Council Member Abbie Kamin for nominating the site for this recognition, and we thank the mayor and entire city council for this honor.
Why do we care about this? Well, neither Matt nor myself were born in Houston. I arrived here in 1997, and Matt about a decade later. Both of us have made our homes here, begun to raise our families here, and consider Houston our home. We are just so happy to be able give something back to this community that has given so much to us.
Tuesday
With the departure of last week’s rain showers, Houston’s weather is turning warmer and more humid, with dewpoints in the mid- to upper 70s. This means that sticky summer conditions are here to stay. Perhaps it is appropriate, then, that Space City Weather Day will be hot and humid.
Mostly cloudy skies this morning should give way to partly sunny conditions this afternoon, with highs in the low 90s. There is a slight chance, perhaps about 20 percent, of rain for areas north of Interstate 10. But yeah, probably not. Winds will be out of the south at 10 to 15 mph, and lows tonight will not drop below 80 degrees for some areas.
Temperatures on Wednesday will be several degrees warmer than normal across Texas. (Weather Bell)
Wednesday
With high pressure building and a capping inversion in place, rain chances should end completely on Wednesday, with partly to mostly sunny skies and highs likely in the low- to mid-90s. This will herald the arrival of summer proper in Houston. Overnight conditions will again provide little relief.
Thursday and Friday
The story remains the same. As you probably know, summer in Houston beneath a ridge of high pressure means warm weather, sunny skies, and ample humidity. Highs probably will settle somewhere in the low- to mid-90s.
Saturday and Sunday
We will likely see more of the same this weekend. Saturday, almost certainly, will be sunny and hot. That seems the probable outcome for Sunday as well, although the forecast is made a little uncertain with the potential disruption of our high pressure system and slight chance of showers. However, when we fall under these kinds of sunny and hot summertime patterns they tend to stick around for awhile.
Tropics
The National Hurricane Center is continuing to highlight the possibility of a tropical depression forming in the southwestern Caribbean Sea, and it seems that some fragment of this tropical energy will eventually track toward the Gulf of Mexico next week. This may spin something up in the Bay of Campeche about a week or 10 days from now, perhaps a tropical depression, but it’s not something we’re overly concerned with for now. Although it may eventually lead to higher rain chances next week, in forecasting terms, this is a long way off and we just can’t say anything more.
Welcome to the start of a special “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager, with daily updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. To kick us off…
Your advice and reading the comments under your blog post really helped me to understand that what I was feeling in the moment was valid. I ended taking your advice and communicated my concerns with my manager. In my opinion the situation became better, but I think my manager lost her marbles in the end.
At first, my manger, Ashley, understood that I was not comfortable working with my coworker who enjoyed hexing others. Ashley took my concerns seriously and never scheduled me with her after that initial conversation, which I was very grateful for. Over the next few weeks, one of my other coworkers started to notice similar unstable behavior/patterns where our coworker would go around talking to herself and saying things like “i have a demon in me” or “on the 21st, all people doing bad things will be sacrificed,” telling customers that they have “evil spirits,” etc.
Eventually she started taping hidden “spells” around the store, we found a few one morning and I was in utter confusion because they insinuated questionable actions. A few days later, there was an incident where she threw something at a customer’s car out of rage. Most of these incidents were brought to my manager, who decided not to do anything about it. She said it was because “I am scared that she’ll do something to me if I confront her.” A day or so later, she stole money from the cash register and a few days later the store was robbed during the pm shift, coincidentally by someone she knew. This person had been constantly visiting her during her shifts and on camera you could see them clocking the store. Yet Ashley said a day later, “I think she is going to work out here.” In that moment, I looked at her in complete disbelief. I was shocked at the complacency and poor management and judgment.
I had to take some time to see if this was really an environment that I could work in until I graduate university. I don’t have anything against witchcraft but when it comes to openly threatening others, purposely trying to make people uncomfortable, and stealing, those are not values I stand for and I no longer wanted to compromise myself for a job that was putting others at risk. In my opinion she was emotionally and mentally unstable, we never knew what she was going to do or say next. Due to the nature of the relationship I had with Ashley, I thought it would be best to discuss why I wanted to part ways. I explained that I had found a new job at an animal hospital as a receptionist (which turned out to be the best thing for me), and that I wouldn’t be putting in my two weeks notice because I felt as if my well-being had been compromised. Ashley was not understanding at all. (Alison interjection: She would have been understanding if you were hexing people though!) I think she was disappointed that I did not want to put in my two weeks but my concern wasn’t about who was going to cover my shifts. She had already made a choice not to address the situation on multiple occasions, even after many of my other coworkers expressed their concerns. This was no longer a safe working environment. Normally I have always put in two weeks notice but my instincts were telling me to head in the opposite direction.
I want to thank you and everyone in the comments who asked for an update. I am doing better than expected and this experience has taught me that sometimes jobs no longer have your best interests and your safety always comes first.
1. My manager is annoyed that I keep getting Saturdays off
I work on a production line. It is difficult for me to work Saturdays as my wife works a weekend shift and childcare is hard to find on the weekends. My job is supposed to be (and was when I was hired 10 years ago) Monday through Friday, but over several years they have added 10-15 Saturdays a year.
I discovered three years ago that if I look at our company’s warehouse shipping/receiving database, which I have access to through the intranet to order parts for my line, I can see what Saturdays we are working weeks in advance. If I see an outbound shipment for the item my line makes on a Saturday, it means we will be scheduled for production that Saturday.
We are required to request vacation at least two weeks in advance of the day(s) we want off. So when I see a Saturday work day, two weeks and one day ahead of it I request that Friday off (then you also get Saturday off as it isn’t a normal scheduled work day) and have always gotten it off. The production schedule our team sees is only one week out, too late to request a vacation day if you see we are working a Saturday and want it off.
My supervisor discovered that I haven’t worked a Saturday in three years and has been tracking my vacation requests and put it together that if I request a Friday off, two weeks later we are working a Saturday. She asked (several times) how I know when we are working a Saturday and I say “lucky guess.” I can tell that this REALLY irritates her.
I found out through my brother-in-law, who works in IT for the same company, that my supervisor put in a request for them to review my computer history as she felt I was accessing “inappropriate“ content. Of course they found nothing and my brother-in-law’s boss was somewhat pissed when he found out why my supervisor wanted this done and wasted a bunch of their hours going through my computer files.
My supervisor is now hanging around my work station a whole lot more; she is always walking by and stopping to “check in.” I caught her hiding behind another machine near mine so she could see what was up on my computer screen. She has also asked me to stay logged in under my name to save time when she occasionally covers for me for my breaks (to check my search history?) and of course I don’t as it is against company policy. I now access the outbound page when I know she is at a staff meeting.
It has become frustrating with her constantly hovering over/around me. She is my supervisor so I guess she can but it is making me very nervous being constantly watched. I really don’t want to give up my “secret” as then everybody will do what I am doing and I will start working Saturdays. Can I file a harassment claim against my boss for her actions? Other thoughts?
No, this isn’t harassment in the legal sense (that would need to be based on your race, sex, religion, disability, or other protected class). But it is bad management. If she wants to require you to work some Saturdays, she just needs to tell you that you need to work some Saturdays. If she doesn’t trust you to do that without oversight, she could stop approving your Friday-off requests, since she’s figured out that they’re tied to the Saturdays you want off. I’m not sure why she’s not doing that and instead is spending all this time lurking around you.
On your side, though, wouldn’t it make sense to just talk to her about the Saturday work requirement? Ideally from the start you would have explained that you were hired to work weekdays, have child care commitments on the weekends, and aren’t available to work on Saturdays. It’s going to be harder to do that now because it sounds like it’s turned into a battle of wills between the two of you, but at some point she’s going to figure out a way to block what you’ve been doing, and then you’ll have to have that conversation anyway (or find an alternative for weekend child care).
2. New employee missed fourth day of work, saying “something came up”
I had a new employee start on a Tuesday. That Friday, I woke up to a text from my new hire from the night before, saying that she would not be in on Friday, that something had come up and she would see me on Monday.
This is an in-person job in a corporate environment. It is my first time managing within a corporate environment; my previous management stints were in an environment with labor conditions and expectations that would not fly in a well-run corporate setting. But in my former life, to call off meant you were literally dying or in jail and you would divulge that when you called (I don’t like or agree with this). I fully respect a person’s right to take a sick day and I feel nobody is obligated to share personal details, but I also don’t feel like “something came up” quite cuts it. Especially on what would be your fourth day on the job.
I’m looking for some guidance on where to set my expectations (regardless of this person working out or not). Am I out of line to feel “something came up” feels inadequate when calling out?
You’re not wrong! “Something came up” is strangely cavalier. “I’m sick” or “I have a family emergency” (without giving details beyond that) would both be fine, but “something came up” sounds like it could be “my sister called and I feel like talking to her” or “someone invited me to play tetherball.” It also sounds like she doesn’t think calling out on her fourth day of work is a big deal, when that’s normally something people would really try to avoid unless they truly couldn’t.
“Something came up” might be fine from a longer-time employee who had a track record of reliability (although it would still be kind of weird), but it’s pretty alarming from someone in their first week.
3. Other managers say I should answer calls on my days off
I am a new supervisor (one year) with my state government (but have over 25 years of service with them). The other supervisors in my department feel the need to coach me and told me that even on my days off, I should let my employees know that I am available to them. When I attempted to set boundaries by saying that when I am off, I am usually with my grandchildren, one supervisor responded that she has 10 grandchildren and still makes herself available when she is with them. Well, good for her. I earned every minute of my vacation time and have a full, rich life outside of work. I feel that I am entitled to time off as anyone else is. Am I really expected to answer emails and my phone on my day off? We are not a health care facility and not first responders. We are office workers.
In theory, no, you shouldn’t be expected to answer emails and calls on your days off unless something is genuinely an emergency (in which case, dealing with that is indeed part of many management jobs). But in reality, the expectations around this can vary greatly from office to office. If your office culture is that supervisors are expected to do that, there might be a price for refusing (in terms of perception, promotions, etc.). You might decide you don’t care about that price, which is your prerogative! Or you might look around and realize there won’t be much of a price to be paid at all.
But if you’re unsure, talking to your own manager about it is a good place to start. She’ll be able to give you a better sense of how against-the-grain it would be there to protect your days off, and how it might affect you if you hold firm. (For the record, I support you in holding firm! But your office culture is what will dictate how much of an issue it might be.)
4. I didn’t correct people’s mispronunciation of my name while interviewing
I’ve been through a multi-stage interview process consisting of short one-on-one interviews with various people from the organisation and I’m expecting to hear a final decision next week. I have a fairly common (or at least not rare) first name but it’s pronounced in an uncommon way. Each interviewer I’ve talked to pronounced my name the standard way and because of a mix of my own nerves, fast-paced interviews and the interviewers not pausing to ask if they’re pronouncing it right (which makes sense since my pronunciation of my name isn’t common), I never corrected them. Obviously if I don’t get the position it won’t be a problem, but in case I do, what’s the best way to bring it up? I don’t want to look like I assumed I wouldn’t be working with them or like I’m not proactive. To be fair, in this case I wasn’t proactive about this and that’s something I’ll bear in mind for future interviews and just correct the pronunciation up-front — but in this case how could I bring it up as with as little awkwardness as possible?
It won’t be a big deal at all. On your first day as you’re introducing yourself/being introduced, you’ll just say, “Actually, it’s ‘Lu-CHEE-a,’ not ‘Lu-SEE-a.’” No one is likely to read anything into the fact that you didn’t correct them while you were interviewing. They probably won’t even remember if they used your name with you and if they do, they’ll just figure you don’t bother to correct people every time in every situation, if they even think about it at all (which they likely won’t!). They’re not going to think, “Wow, she must have assumed she wouldn’t end up working with us” or “what a slacker approach to her own name.” No one will think about any of this as much as yourself are!
But if anyone does say something like, “Oh, you should have told us earlier,” you can always say, “It’s mispronounced so often that sometimes I don’t even bother to correct it, but since we’re working together now I wanted to make sure you knew how to say it.”
5. I had a great interview — but they’re still “actively recruiting”
I just finished a final round interview, and I thought it went well (they even asked me about my hobbies, which I saw as a good sign). However, the day after my final interview, I was looking through my email and received a “LinkedIn Job Alerts” notification. I saw the company on the list and that they were still “actively recruiting.” Does this mean that I messed up the last round and will not be hired? In the same vein, if a company reposts a job on a job board after a interview, is it safe to assume that they’re not considering me?
Nope, it means nothing at all. It’s very normal for a company to keep their job postings active until they’ve made an offer and had it accepted. Plus, this was only the day after your interview! It’s very likely that they haven’t made a hiring decision yet and they might still have other candidates to interview. But even if they left the meeting with you thinking, “Wow, that’s the one for sure, cancel all the other interviews,” they’re still not going to have taken down the listing within a day. There are references to check, decisions to finalize, paperwork to do, offers to put together — and then they need to wait to see if you even accept it. It’s very normal to keep ads active during that time.
Crew: Jon Jafari - Director/Editor/Writer Sergio Torres - Director of Photography/Line Producer/Creative Andrew Reynoso - Key Grip/Creative Lewis Bown - Editor/Writer
There have been rumors that Rob Zombie would direct a Munstersmovie for years – and now, it’s official. Mr. Zombie confirmed this himself on social media, promising more “exciting details as things progress.” While this may seem like a weird choice to some, Zombie is a full-fledged Munsters fanboy. His son “Dragula” references the car the Munsters owned, and he even did a commentary track for a Blu-ray release of the film Munster, Go Home!
It’s official: Rob Zombie is directing The Munsters. We know very little about the project, but Zombie confirmed the news on Instagram. “Attention Boils and Ghouls! The rumors are true! My next film project will be the one I’ve been chasing for 20 years! THE MUNSTERS! Stay tuned for exciting details as things progress!” the musician and filmmaker wrote.
What Does a Rob Zombie Munsters Movie Even Look Like?
As Zombie mentioned, he’s been trying to get his Munsters movie made for 20 years. The Munsters will be based on the classic TV series about a family of monsters. The original show ran from 1964 to 1966 and resulted in a movie (Munster, Go Home!) and several different reboots and revivals. Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller even tried to make a reboot called Mockingbird Lane, but the show never made it beyond the pilot stage. The series followed Herman Munster, a Frankenstein-like creature, and his vampire wife Lily, along with their Eddie, who is a werewolf, and their teenage niece Marilyn, who is just a normal human. Lily’s father, Grandpa (who is actually Dracula himself), resides in the house, too.
Of course, now we have to wonder what a Rob Zombie-directed Munsters will look like. Zombie is a self-professed fan of the series, so I doubt he’s going to drastically alter things. Then again, he might. Will all the Munsters be hillbillies who say “fuck” all the time like the characters in all of Zombie’s other movies? Maybe! I’m often at odds with Zombie as a filmmaker. I think he’s a great visual stylist, and he can create some truly fantastic images (his Lords of Salem is a particularly great example of this). However, when it comes to screenwriting, he’s often incredibly lackluster. Ideally, I’d love to see him direct a film written by someone else – but maybe he’s just not interested in making a movie that he didn’t pen himself. Still, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in a Rob Zombie Munsters movie.
I don't know about you, but I always enter a retail establishment and then stand completely still in the lobby while beeping sounds come out of my head. It isn't suspicious at all, actually, please don't kick me out of this Wendy's.
Microwave Miracles from Sears
This is a Danish Road Safety Council commercial promoting bike helmet safety using Vikings. It plays like a Monty Python sketch which is the highest of compliments. I don't know if it's particularly effective at getting people to wear bike helmets, but it made me laugh and isn't that really what public safety is all about?
Keep going for the full video.
Bankruptcy: Do it Yourself
