15+ hour, 45+ min ago (364+ words) Michael J. Fox was not the original Marty McFly. Filming started with a talented actor who is not known for comedic acting, Eric Stoltz. Stoltz himself wondered why he had been cast; after filming for a month, Fox was hired and Stoltz was dumped " though Stoltz received his full salary. It would be difficult to imagine anyone but Michael J. Fox as the time traveling teenager. With that support, eventually the film went into production, with a budget of $19 million; it went on to earn a box office gross of approximately $388.8 million. It was nominated for four Academy awards and won one. It spawned two sequels, video games, amusement park rides, a Broadway musical, and an animated series. A surprising detail is that Bill Nye was part of this animated series. Michael J. Fox was still filming Family Ties during the first four…...

2+ week, 15+ hour ago (328+ words) The 1960s was a great decade for fans of science fiction. Movieweb ranks Fantastic Voyage at number six on their top 13 list of best sci-fi from the decade that also brought psychedelics, great rock & roll, and civil upheaval. Science fiction is often reflective of the times as the "50s saw quite a number of foreign invasions from interplanetary beings, mirroring the red scare and fear of nuclear war the nation found itself gripped in. Many of these films were male-centric with a pretty woman thrown in the mix as eye candy, someone to be rescued and for the men to fight over for her affections. Fantastic Voyage is no different in that aspect. It showcases the amazing Raquel Welch in a tight scuba suit, shrinking her with a group of men who must help the United States beat the Russians in a…...

1+ day, 4+ hour ago (303+ words) That's right. It's morning happy hour, re-ran from last year. Greetings, Wonketteers! I'm Hooper, your bartender, and here is your SPECIAL BLACK FRIDAY cocktail! Let's toss in one more morning or after-dinner drink to get you past the leftovers. Have some Irish Coffee with me. Here's the recipe. 2 oz Irish whiskey 1/2 oz brown sugar syrup (1: 1 brown sugar/water) 4-5 oz fresh coffee 1 oz heavy cream, lightly whipped Fill a glass coffee cup to the rim with hot water. In a separate tumbler, add the Irish whiskey and brown sugar syrup. Stir until combined. Discard the hot water, add the whiskey/syrup mixture, and top with hot coffee. Float the cream on top of the coffee using the back of a bar spoon. When I look at Joe's original recipe, though, I see some interesting details that separate it from the quick…...

4+ day, 2+ hour ago (298+ words) Good morning, we love you, and we hope you are with people you love. Oh, that's right, YOU'RE WITH US! All the years since I bought this joint in 2012 (!), we've rolled out the Thanksgiving recipes all morning, mostly so you'd have something to comment around. Well fuck that noise, you can all comment here all day till we bring you a 3 p.m. cocktail for a job well done. Hop in Obama's time machine (whoosh whoosh wavy lines) and let's revisit " Nancy Reagan! I can't remember if we took out the references to her oral sex skills or not, and I don't have time to check, but we are nicer and less sexist now so please no references to her blowjobs in the comments! Juli Weiner has a grownup job now, last I heard! That's so fun! As I recall, this one…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago (382+ words) x grams lemon peels x grams citric acid 2 oz Luskoya vodka 1 oz lemon super juice 1 oz simple syrup 1 t powdered sugar Let's make a drink to celebrate saving the earth and talk ingredients while we're at it: Luskoya Vodka: Luskoya is the rail vodka at Hemingway's; it's an earthy Polish potato vodka that's easy to balance with citrus and syrup. Use your favorite brand. Tito's is fine. Super Juice: In the interests of science, you could make two of these cocktails, one with fresh juice and one with superjuice, and see if you can taste the difference. But I doubt that you can; I certainly can't. Simple Syrup: 2:1 sugar to water, heated until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is clear. Tilt this cocktail a little sweeter than usual to play into the "meringue" aspect of it. Egg White:…...

4+ week, 1+ day ago (315+ words) How can you say no to subscribing to THAT? 750 ml Malort (1 bottle) 6 oz sliced Hormel pepperoni 2 oz malt vinegar 1 " oz toasted sesame oil 1 T Maxwell House ground coffee 12 shakes Angostura bitters Malort: Pumpkin spice for sadists. Malort: When you need to unfriend someone in person. Malort: The champagne of pain. It tastes of pencil shavings and existential dread. It has a long, lingering, bitter aftertaste that will not go away, no matter how much you try to wash it down, no matter how much you scrape your tongue, no matter what gods you pray to. Q: Why the hell? Let's talk ingredients. I know, I know, but it's a tradition and we can't skip it now: Malort: There is no substitute. Be grateful. Pepperoni: I used the cheapest pepperoni I could find; anything more expensive wouldn't be true to the dive-bar…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (275+ words) Greetings, Wonketeers! I'm Hooper, your bartender. The official Christmas lighting ceremony for my hometown happens tonight. The Christmas museum in town is three doors down from the bar. As you read this, I am insanely busy and need the alcoholic equivalent of comfort food. Let's make a nice, easy Maple Old Fashioned to celebrate fall while it lasts. Here's the recipe. Have a drink with Wonkette! 2 " oz 1776 Bourbon " oz Grade A maple syrup 2-3 dropperfuls Cherry Maple Smoked Bitters Add maple syrup, bitters, and ice cubes to a large old-fashioned glass. Add bourbon and stir. Garnish with a Luxardo cherry. Maple Syrup: The real stuff, Grade A, accept no substitutes. I might play with Grade B here, but I don't want the maple to overrun the cocktail completely. Garnish: Never, ever put a maraschino cherry in an Old Fashioned. They're bright…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago (488+ words) Good morning good morning, it's time for tabs! I bet Todd Blanche didn't intend to admit that these current emails prove he just gave minimum security and a puppy to a convicted sex trafficker who " very much sex-trafficked, actually. Perhaps the deputy attorney general isn't much of a lawyer. Republican leadership expects as many as 100 House Republicans to vote to compel the DOJ to release the Epstein Files. Now we just need 20ish Senate Republicans, as they'll need 67 to override Trump's assured veto. (Politico) Matt Gaetz, Trump's first pick for attorney general of the United States, denies that he had sex with the then-17-year-old homeless girl who was saving up for braces. (Gift link New York Times) Jesse Watters is calling the release of all the emails the "Schumer shutdown coverup" because what do words even mean? NOTHING, SAY IT…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (557+ words) Democrats (and California's big voter initiative to defend against Texas's GOP gerrymander) romped through the off-season elections Tuesday, and by Crom, it was good to see. As usual, there's a lot of day-after "four-to-seven takeaways from the election" punditry about what it all means and where to go from here, and some of it is quite good, especially this Perry Bacon piece at New Republic. There's going to be lot of shit to slog through between now and the midterms, and the Trump machine has made very clear it will do all it can to restrict voting wherever it can. That's why we need to remind ourselves of how fucking good it feels to see our fellow Americans rejecting the politics of nastiness and hypocrisy that MAGA revels in. Do you know what it's called when a politician stands tall…...

2+ day, 19+ hour ago (499+ words) I bring you a bunch of surroundings before we get to the main meal of Alice's Restaurant. I have a little bit of everything to satisfy everyone's holiday specials cravings. First we have the funniest Thanksgiving TV special ever, it's WKRP In Cincinnati with Turkey's Away. Full version available for free on the Internet Archive. This is the first TV special that comes to mind when it comes to turkey TV. A promotional stunt goes very wrong when the station owner, Mr. Carlson, drops live turkeys from a helicopter. "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" The forerunner to Friends was the fantastically funny Living Single; here is a selection of clips from their Thanksgiving episodes, Things To Be Thankful For. I found the entire series on the Internet Archive, I may have discovered my holiday marathon…...