Book: Eyeing the Flash, by Peter Fenton (2005)

Step right up, step right up, folks, and learn the ancient secrets of the carnival midway! Find –

Don’t crowd me, son, there’s room enough for everyone.

Find out what happens when a tender youth flees a family fraught with dysfunction only to find freedom amidst freaks and felons! Yes, in this memoir our hero, young Fenton, slips the bonds of a suburban Michigan childhood in the 1960s and hits the road with a traveling carnival.

Journey back to a more innocent era, when entertainment came from Fattest Wife/Skinniest Husband contests and a brand-new outboard motor was awarded to the person who correctly guessed how many catfish would float to the surface after a stick of dynamite was thrown into a swamp.

Follow young Fenton as the boy becomes a man! Learn the three types of carnival games – Hanky Panks, Alibis and Flat Stores – and discover for yourself why you shouldn’t play any of them! Feel the marrow in your bones chill as it is revealed why the only way to eat anything bought at a midway “grab joint” is locked inside a Port-A-John! Look on in awe and disbelief as young Fenton, schooled in the tools of his trade, dupes dentists and rooks Rotarians! Thrill to the heart-stopping climax as our hero tries to out-con his con man mentor in a genuine Indiana Bust-Out!

As for the fate of feckless Fenton, fear not! The lad learns his lessons and sets out on a truer path: journalism! Holding high the flaming sword that is the freedom of the press!

He grows up to become a reporter for the National Enquirer.

DVD: Catwoman (2004)

Seven Razzie nominations and every one of them deserved. Except for Sharon Stone’s. She’s a hoot in this movie. Love those red fighting pajamas.

Miscellaneous: Link

John Pultorak reconstructs the computer used by the Apollo astronauts, with its awesome 1K of RAM. They used it to go to the moon. I use a machine many times more powerful to look up information on former hostesses of THE PRICE IS RIGHT. More proof that something somewhere has gone horribly awry.