Various...

* Stirring around on a Saturday morning in lovely Toronto, where the Winter chill is careening in on us at meteorological speed.  At the same time, something called "Frankenstorm" is barreling down on the East Coast.  But the on-going production of a little thing called "Hemlock Grove" continues nonetheless.  Because neither rain nor sleet nor... well, actually, we're not the U.S. Postal Service, so nevermind.  Actually, one of the more exciting nights production-wise) on "Hemlock" was spent at a remote graveyard location where the skies opened up around 1AM with torrential rain and one of the most impressive (some would say scary) lightning storms I've ever experienced.  And yes, we did pack it up...

* AMC is running a "Fest Fest" this weekend in honor of Halloween and this morning featured the George Pal "War of the Worlds" from the early 1950's.  This was one of the seminal movies that fried your author's youthful brain pan in adolescence (in a good way) and damn if it still doesn't work.  Ruthless, more or less faceless invaders, check!  Ineffectual military, check!  Determined pastor trying to win over the aliens with a message of peace getting blasted, check!  Earnest scientists trying to find a defense being beaten by enraged mobs, check!  Why, over at Falling Skies, I/we even doffed our chapeau to the scene in W of the W where a hapless gent with a briefcase full of cash laments that he can't buy a ride "for the love of money." On Falling Skies, we had our hero Tom Mason warm himself over a bonfire of now useless bank notes.

But besides all that, the Martian death machines are among the most iconic "space invasion" designs ever, and that crazy sound they make when blasting away at pathetic humans remains unnerving.

* Some noisy person named Ann Coulter called President Obama a "retard" in a tweet.  When she received a bit of push-back, she disingenuously said that everyone knows "retard" means "loser."  I guess that makes her a miserable hose-bag, which, according to my own alternate world dictionary, means "lovely, lovely lady."

* Some harsh looking fellow named John Sununu went on the teevee after African American General Colin Powell announced his endorsement of African American Barack Obama and asserted that Powell was not actually backing Barack's policies (though during his announcement, Powell ran down those policies at length and why he supported them), but was simply backing up a brother.  I suspect someone is the Romney campaign is thanking God or their lucky stars and/or the on-going and utterly ignored issue of global warming for the upcoming Frankenstorm, which will hopefully distract attention from some of the outright racism being spewed by his campaign surrogates...