The Nobel Prize’s literature committee went with a far left field candidate this year: musician Bob Dylan. The singer-songwriter is receiving world literature’s highest prize for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” according to this morning’s announcement, as reported by The New York Times.
Dylan has been floated as a potential candidate for the prize for years, but his chances have been seen as quite low, considering that it typically goes to more traditional members of the literary world, like novelists or poets, with the occasional nonfiction writer thrown in. The prize going to Dylan seemed so unlikely that in 2015, The New Republic’s Alex Shephard declared: “If Bob Dylan wins, I will eat my copy of Blood on the Tracks.” Some of this year’s more favored candidates included writers Don DeLillo and Haruki Murakami.
Widely considered the greatest songwriter in the English language, Dylan, who is still touring at 75, is the first American to win the literature prize since Toni Morrison in 1993. He’s only the 14th American to win since the prize’s inception. The prodigious artist published a book of prose poetry, Tarantula, in 1971, in addition to several books of drawings and paintings. Dylan received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his contributions to music.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is the last of the Nobels to be awarded; the scientific awards were announced last week, as was the Nobel Peace Prize. The economics prize was announced earlier this week. The awards ceremony takes place annually on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.
Egypt placed a ban on all the movies Marilyn Monroe appeared in, after she married Arthur Miller and converted to Judaism. However, Egypt lifted the ban in 1961, after the divorce was finalized. Since then, Monroe described herself as a “Jewish atheist”.
Walmart permits RV parking on their store lots as they are able and the price is free for overnight parking. In some states Walmart puts up clearance bars so people can’t pull their rv’s or tractor/trailers into the parking lot. In FL, there is an increase in no overnight parking signs at Walmart as well […]
A US submarine placed a wire tap on Russian undersea cables to monitor secret military communications during the Cold War, and only found the cable after a week of searching because of a sign on the shore saying “Cable Here. Do Not Anchor.”
If you simply want to find slang, there are plenty of places to look online, but if you want a thoroughly researched, meticulously documented view of 600 years of English slang expressions, Jonathon Green’s Green’s Dictionary of Slang is what you need. Until now, getting a look at Green’s three volume masterpiece involved a trip to the library, or shelling out hundreds of dollars. This week, with the launching of Green’s Dictionary of Slang Online, it’s become a whole lot easier to dig into the fascinating, long history of English slang.
The range of usually-not-discussed-in-polite-company human experience is covered in the dictionary, and constantly expanding with new research. As Green’s announcement states, “the dictionary breaks down into the following major themes and categories; the order is based on frequency of definition:
Crime and Criminals 5012; Drink, Drinking and Drunks 4589; Drugs 3976; Money 3342; Women (almost invariably considered negatively or at best sexually) 2968; Fools and Foolish 2403; Men (of various descriptions, not invariably, but often self-aggrandizing) 2183; Sexual Intercourse 1740; Penis: 1351; Homosexuals/-ity 1238; Prostitute/-ion 1185; Vagina 1180; Policeman / Policing 1034; Terms of Racial or National Abuse: 1000; Masturbate/-ion 945; Die, Death, Dead 831; Beat or Hit 728; Mad 776; Anus or Buttocks 634; Defecate/-ion & Urinate/-ion 540; Kill or Murder 521; Promiscuous / Promiscuity 347; Unattractive 279; Fat 247; Oral Sex 240; Vomiting 219; Anal Sex 180; STDs 65.
Now doesn’t that sound like a lexicographical good time? Check out Green’s Dictionary of Slang Online here.
Disney has had a stranglehold on animated feature films ever since Walt and friends made the first one, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. But there have been occasional challenges to Disney’s dominance over the years, none so dramatic as the one represented by Don Bluth and The Secret of NIMH. Released in the summer of 1982, at a time when Disney’s Animation Studio was struggling (these were the The Fox and the Hound/The Black Cauldron years), The Secret ofNIMH saw a group of traditional animators attempt to unseat Disney—or at the very least to rattle the company out of its complacency. It was like David and Goliath, except that David lost and motivated Goliath to try harder. Here’s a trove of information about everyone’s favorite non-Disney animated classic.
1. IT WAS MADE BY FORMER DISNEY ANIMATORS WHO WENT ROGUE.
In 1979, while Disney was in the middle of production on The Fox and the Hound, animators Don Bluth, John Pomeroy, and Gary Goldman left the company, joined by a handful of other members of the animation staff. They were frustrated by Disney’s bureaucracy and assembly-line attitude, and they believed Disney was neglecting certain animation skills and techniques that would be vital in the years ahead, especially as their veteran artists—the legendary Nine Old Men—retired or died.
2. THE FILMMAKERS WORKED FASTER AND CHEAPER THAN THEY HAD AT DISNEY.
Disney’s The Fox and the Hound cost $12 million. The Black Cauldron, released in 1985, would cost $44 million. The Secret of NIMH? A cool $7 million. Furthermore, it was produced in 30 months—half the time Disney’s ‘toon features took.
3. A TOY COMPANY MADE THEM CHANGE THE MAIN CHARACTER’S NAME.
The 1971 novel from which the book was adapted is called Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The title was shortened for the movie, and Frisby—which is pronounced like “Frisbee”—was changed to Brisby to avoid trademark problems with Wham-O, the company that makes America’s favorite flying disk.
4. DISNEY TURNED THE BOOK DOWN.
According to writer/producer Gary Goldman, animator Ken Anderson first took the book to Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, Disney’s chief animator. Reitherman’s reply: “We’ve already got a mouse.”
5. THE MOVIE ONLY TELLS US ONCE WHAT “NIMH” MEANS.
It’s the National Institute of Mental Health, the research facility where rats were being experimented upon. Characters in the movie only call it “NIMH” except for the very first time it comes up:
FARMER’S WIFE: Dear, a man came by today, from NIMH.
FARMER: NIMH?
FARMER’S WIFE: Yes, you know, the National Institute of Mental Health. He was asking if we had noticed anything strange about the rats on the farm…
Anecdotally, when we mentioned this on Twitter, we were surprised to find that many fans of the film never realized what “NIMH” meant.
6. THE MOVIE NEVER TELLS US ONE IMPORTANT CHARACTER’S NAME.
Jenner, the conniving rat who sabotages the plan to move Mrs. Brisby’s home and kills Nicodemus, is assisted by a reluctant sidekick. But this beta-rat becomes conscience-stricken, turns on Jenner, and is ultimately the one who kills him. It wasn’t until after the film was released that its makers realized the heroic rodent’s name is never mentioned. It’s Sullivan.
7. IT WAS DRAWN BY THE SAME HANDS THAT DREW XANADU‘S ANIMATED SEQUENCE.
One of the first projects that Bluth’s new company took on was the two-minute animated scene in Xanadu (1980), the famously bad Olivia Newton-John musical. The side project put The Secret of NIMH under an even tighter schedule, and animators were known to take cat naps under their desks while working long hours.
8. THERE’S HIDDEN SYMBOLISM IN TWO CHARACTERS’ SIMILARITIES.
John Pomeroy, one of the chief architects of the film, said it was intentional that the Owl and Nicodemus have the same walk, glowing eyes, and speech patterns, meant to imply they were two different physical incarnations of the same mystical character. There was even some talk of having the same actor provide the voices for both characters, but it was determined that the film needed as many different celebrity voices as it could get.
9. THERE WERE MANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES FROM THE BOOK.
Mrs. Brisby’s magical amulet isn’t in the book at all. As the three producers explained in a letter to a school class that asked about the changes, “The amulet was a device, or a symbol, to represent the internal power of Mrs. Brisby … A visual extension of an internal (and harder to show in a film) power.”
Other alterations: Nicodemus was turned from an ordinary rat into a wizard; Jenner, merely a traitor in the book who leaves the colony, was made into a full-fledged villain; and the ending was changed so that Mrs. Brisby’s children are saved by Mrs. Brisby, not the rats.
10. DOM DELUISE TURNED JEREMY THE CROW FROM A MINOR CHARACTER TO A MAJOR ONE.
The rotund, jovial comedian was one of America’s favorite funnymen at the time, thanks to his association with Mel Brooks, Burt Reynolds, and The Muppets, and his regular appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. Just as Robin Williams would do with Aladdin‘s Genie a decade later, Dom DeLuise expanded Jeremy the crow’s role by hamming it up and improvising during the recording sessions. The producers (who supposedly all chose DeLuise for the part independently of one another) responded by incorporating his ideas into the script. DeLuise would later provide voices for several other Don Bluth productions.
11. STUDIO POLITICS PROBABLY DOOMED IT.
Bluth and company made their deal with United Artists. But UA, after having its best year ever in 1979 (thanks to Rocky II, Manhattan, and Moonraker), fell apart completely in 1980, when Heaven’s Gate proved a disastrous flop. UA’s corporate owner sold the studio to another company, Tracinda, which also owned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; in 1982, Tracinda merged them into MGM/UA.
The new bosses weren’t as interested in NIMH as the old bosses had been. The release date was moved up from late August to early July, putting it in competition with E.T., Rocky III, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Poltergeist, Blade Runner, and Annie. What’s more, instead of giving the film a wide release, MGM/UA opened it on less than 100 screens and expanded very slowly—so slowly that by the time it rolled out, the advertising had come and gone and people had forgotten about it. NIMH grossed around $14 million in theaters and didn’t become truly profitable until it found an audience on home video.
12. JOHN CARRADINE DID HIS LINES IN ONE TAKE, ON PAINKILLERS.
Producer Gary Goldman told an online forum that the great John Carradine, hired to lend gravitas to the voice of the wise Owl, arrived late to the afternoon recording session and seemed to be intoxicated. Carradine’s agent confided that the 75-year-old actor suffered from near-debilitating arthritis, the medication for which made him loopy. Also, the agent said, he’d probably had a martini at lunch. Goldman, Bluth, and their cohorts used coffee and conversation to get Carradine sharp again. Once he was sober, he recorded his lines, declared each delivery to be the best performance he had in him, said he wouldn’t do retakes or alternate versions, and left. “Good thing he gave a great performance,” Goldman said.
