The Omen.  Carrie.  The Exorcist.  Jaws, Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters, Suspiria.  Quite a spate of genre films in a narrow frame.  Not putting in there with the Universal Horror (which spread pretty much from 1931 through 1941)

Our two for tonigh (sorry - I get behind during the week and need to multi-post to get caught up) will do two VERY good examples, The Omen and Carrie.

I HATE Carrie.  And I love it.  Never liked Sissy Spacek.  Travolta glorified stupidity.  But.  This movie was shown at the GREAT "Midnight Movie Marathon" back in 1980 @ ONU.  A very memorable weekend.  So it has that.  I could stop watching after the credits.  Amy Irving in the locker room is enough.  But it gets better. There's Nancy Allen.  Should be enough, right?  Nope.  Top it off with P.J. Soles who gets killed by Michael Myers.  Gym class.  Working out.  Short 70's shorts.  To HELL with the prom.  Bonus points for Betty Buckley who doubled as the mom in Eight is Enough.  MILF.  I shorts.  And knee socks.  With a 'tude.  Not QUITE making the cut is the very caable Piper Laurie.  Never liked her, even though she was SOLID in The Hustler.  

And there was a Prom.  With Pig Blood.  And at the end we're supposed to sympathize with Amy Irving??  Never got that.  But it belongs in October.

The Omen.  The original, although the remake wasn't bad.   Lee Remick was ALWAYS gorgeous but NEVER sexy.  David Warner loses his head in the BEST decapitation scene on film.  Jack Palance's daughter hangs herself shouting "it's all for you, Damien."  And little Damien.  Three movie cresits.  This one, the part of Emil in Gaugin the Savage, and a walk on as a reporter in the '06 remake.  

from IMDB: On a grand scale the film was efficiently catered with well established cinematography and polished set-pieces that had penetrating might, which director Richard Donner handled with precise skill. Even when there wasn't much happening he knew how to keep things compellingly tight with good pacing and impressible imagery. Though, when it came to the essential thrills, he caps off some remotely tense (dogs' attack) and macabre moments (infamous decapitation) that display bite and flair. The climax is great and the ending is a fitting imprint too. The plot is filled with shocking revelations, interesting characters and it emits a glorious amount of excitement and dread from it mysterious outset.

See them both

from Arizona, the media this morning is seizing on a new poll showing Obama up 2 in generally safe Republican Arizona, 44-42, among likely voters. 

Get out your pencils.  Hispanics make up about 30% of the population in Arizona. But, only 20% of registered voters in the state are Hispanic. In 2008, a record year for Hispanic turnout, they made up just 16% of the overall electorate. The poll being hyped by the media, from Behavior Research Center, does a shifty thing, its weights its sample of interviews based on each demographic's share of the population. In the polling memo, they even admit this may alter the actual results:

If Latinos turn out in numbers proportionate to their population, which has never been the case in the past, they could help send a Democrat to the U.S. Senate and revitalize the once long tradition of Arizona having one Democrat and one Republican in the Senate. But if the Latino vote is disproportionately low, the Arizona Senate delegation will almost certainly stay in the GOP column.

So, yes, if the Hispanic community does something it has never done in the past, then, yes, Arizona might be competitive this year. But, this poll also begs a large question. If it is weighting Hispanics proportionate to their share of the population, then why is Obama only in the low 40s?

There are several small conferences out there with a batch of interesting nicknames.  How they ended up lumped together is anybodies guess but I find it interesting that that they all play each other.  No schedule full of Eagles and Bulldogs and  Tgiers for them, nosir.

My old HS conference had eight schools.  There were the mundane Braves, Bobcats, Vikings and Falcons.  But we also had Monarchs, RoughRiders, Rangers,  and Shamrocks.

So this week I'm celebrating the Division III Centennial Conference (from the South Region.)  Mundane?

Juniata Eagles, Ursinus Bears

Boarderline: Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, Dickenson Red Devils, Susquehanna Crusaders, Moravian Grayhouns.

the kickers:  Gettysburg Bullets,  Franklin & Marshall Diplomats, McDanial Green Terror, and the Muhlenberg Mules

Will start with the off-list oldie.  One of the earliest haunted house movies: The Old Dark House.  Let's start with the director, James Whale.  One of the big three of early horror (FW Murnow and Tod Browning being the other two and if you're following my list you've already seen thier stuff).  Casat:  Boris Karloff fast on the heels of his portrayal of The Monster, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton and the scene opening creepy looking Raymond Massey.  The rest of the cast is stellar if not memorable.  An IMDB reviewer sez it best :

Truly one of Universal greatest unsung horror films, The Old Dark House is a unique blend of gothic setting, quirky characterizations, wicked black and dry humour, a great ensemble cast, and the workings of the mind of James Whale. Whale made the film the year after Frankenstein. He was again paired with Karloff. But unlike their first association, Karloff's star is far less brighter in this film as his performance, although good and servicable, is over-shadowed by atmosphere, Whale's direction, witty dialogue, and a cast of scene stealers.   The story is based on a novel by J. B. Priestly. The plot is somewhat antiquated now, but Whale's direction puts a lot of life into it. And let's not forget Karloff, however small his part, still turns in a great menacing performance as a lecherous, drunken servant named Morgan ogling Gloria Stuart from the moment he sees her. The Old Dark House is a great film, and it should be more highly touted by Universal!

 Y'all know I like my old stuff.  THIS is old stuff.  And fun.

Thirty six years later, 1968, we get Rosemary's Baby.  Never liked it.  Haven't seen it in years.  HATED Mia Farrow.  Still do.  Dropped it in my rankings after this.  But it IS notable.  From a novel by Ira Levin, directed by the baby raper (Roman Polanski).  Starring Ms. Farrow-Previn-Allen, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon (before she worked with Clyde) Maurice Evans (of Bewitched "fame"), my favorite gunsale Elisha Cook Jr. (see Maltese Falcon) and a small appearence by Charles Grodin.  Critics rave.  It's 215 on IMDB's top 250.  But to me it's dated.  If you haven't seen it you should.   If you have seen it, once is enough.

Occasionally an oldie pops up that I haven't seen in a while that I get to revisit and re-evaluate.  Ghost of Frankenstein meets that catagory.  GREAT cast (forthe era/genre): Lon Chaney Jr. as the Monster, Cedric Hardwicke as the Doc, Bela Lugosi as Igor, Evelyn Ankers as Elsa.  Also wandering throug the scenery is Ralph Bellamy, Lionel Atwill and a flashback shot of Colin Clive.

This was the fourth in the series and it was starting to show its age.  "Bride" rocks and "Son" was the most literate.  This one still has that great Universal touch, it's light (as in deft) and watchable.  Dropped in my rankings but still worth a look.

As an aside, I also watched Dario Argento's Phenomena.  Not bad.  Typical Argento.  Jennifer Connelly in her first lead and Donald Pleasence with a Scottish accent, being waited on by a monkey.  Can't recommend it but watchable.

before we get to the good stuff.

Grave Robbers from Outer Space.  Never heard of it?  Criswell?  Tor Johnson?  Dudley Manlove??  How about Vampira and Bela Lugosi?  Sounding familiar yet?  Better known as Plan Nine From Outer Space.  It really doesn't get anymore Halloweenie fun than this Ed Wood craptacular.  And if you don't agree it's because of "Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid"

And follow that up with a slightly younger Bela ... cavorting with the Bowery Boys in Spooks Run Wild.  Bobby Jordan as the black Dead end kid.  Dorothy Short is barely serviceable as the girl.  Slip and Satch go by Muggs and Glimpy (!!)  Just a silly haunted house flick, great if you love the period, silly if you don't.  A fun way to warm up for the serious stuff as we approach mid-month.

How big a lead in the polls will be big enough?

Obama Supporter Brags About Illegal Foreign Donations on President's Own Website

Is America Becoming a Banana Republic?

Voter Rolls Very ‘Dirty’ in Colorado

Back in 2008, Obama said that, “if you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things.” Now that the election has entered the homestretch, he is employing the very tactics he once denounced.

And on Bengazi:

The Washington Times is reporting that at the same time State Department officials were cutting security for our diplomatic stations in Libya, they were increasing the budget for our embassy in Austria in order to purchase Chevrolet's electric powered Volt.  Disgusting

and Who Needs the Marines When You've Got 'Same-Sex Domestic Partners' of Government Employees For Security?

Debates matter.

The good news in today's ARG poll of Ohio is not that Romney's leading 48-47%, it's that the party ID breakdown doesn't reflect anything nearing reality. There's just no way Democrats will enjoy a nine-point turnout advantage over Romney in Ohio. But in order to believe Romney's only up by one, that's exactly what you have to assume. Here's the ARG sample:

Democrats (42%)

Republicans (33%)  

Independents (25%)

The poll also shows Romney is also winning Independents by a full 20 points, 57-37%.

On the other hand is the Marist poll. 

Marist's latest survey of OH finds Obama with a comfortable 6-point lead, 51-45, among likely voters. Among independents, however, Romney is leading Obama by 8 points, 49-41. If you reread those two sentences you'll see that something odd is going on. 

In Marist's previous survey of OH, conducted before the presidential debate, Obama had an 8 point lead, 51-43 and was leading among independents by 4 points, 47-43. According, then, to Marist's own polling, Romney picked up 12 points among independents, but only picked up 2 points in the overall match-up. 

How did Marist achieve this odd result? They packed a lot more Democrats into their poll. 

Pre-debate, Marist's poll of OH was D+5, 36% Democrat, 31% Republican. Post-debate, their poll is D+11, 40% Democrat, 29% Republican. Marist would have us believe that, in the immediate wake of Obama's widely panned debate performance, the electorate in OH had a 6-point swing towards the Democrats. Really?

It applies to political poling.

It applies to the BCS.

And it applies to "Environmental Science"

 read the article

And then there's this:

Environmentalists have promoted the theory that human civilization is the main cause of global warming. They argue that Governments worldwide must take immediate drastic action to prevent a catastrophe. The chain of proof in their human-caused climate catastrophe theory is broken in at least six places.

Environmental fallacy #1: Scientists have an accurate measure of warming since 1880.

Environmental fallacy #2: Human activities, primarily fossil fuels, are the main cause.

Environmental fallacy #3: Scientists can accurately predict future warming scenarios.

Environmental fallacy #4: Human-caused warming will lead to an environmental disaster.

Environmental fallacy #5: “Green” energy and conservation can replace most fossil fuel.

Environmental fallacy #6: Therefore, the Government must mandate and subsidize “green” energy to save our Planet.

Each of the above statements has a germ of truth that gives a patina of scientific validity to the argument, but none of them can stand close examination.

Go read the whole thing.