cleolinda | Quickly, between sneezes

krazykarot: "Could you put something up about the national suicide hotline in danger of being shut down? It's the largest suicide hotline in the nation and is extremely important to many people, not just those who call; it helps connect smaller hotlines and services across the country. Thanks!"

Here you go: an interview that should be on the V for Vendetta DVD but ain't. (Note: the terrifying beard was for the play Weaving was doing with Cate Blanchett at the time.) Although apparently Natalie Portman rapping is--it's an easter egg somewhere on the second disc, but I haven't looked for it yet.

Also, I forgot to mention: watching the movie the other night, I was reminded that the laugh-out-loud funniest part is right after Sutler's all like, "WE HAVE TO REMIND THEM WHY! THEY! NEED! US!," and we see a montage of news reports on things that the government has cooked up to scare people--shortages, riots, diseases, what have you. It's easy to miss if you zone out for a moment, but there's a shot of a news anchor saying something about "avian flu," and the graphic on the screen behind him is... a flaming chicken. Like, seriously. A rooster, in front of a stock clip-art fireball. I'm trying to find a screencap of it, because it makes me laugh every single time I see it.

(Although I also laugh every time Stephen Rea has his big monologue about how He Saw How Everything Fit Together--which is nifty in no small part because it shows things that haven't even happened yet as well--and Rupert Graves is like, "So you know what's going to happen?," and Stephen Rea's like, "... No.")

Chaucer hath Snakes on a Blog:

Therwithal Kyng Edichim sente thre of his knightes to Sir Seanes lodging for to slayen hym for he had sene hys foule deede. And thus cam aftir vespers Sir Stuntman Number Oon and Sir Stuntman Number Two, son of Expendable Extra who had done manye deedes in the dayes of Uther Pendragon, and wyth hem Sir Stuntman Number Thre.

And so the miscreant knightes wolde break ope the doore of Sir Seanes room and slaye him foullie, but that SIR NEVILLE DE FLYNN cam and seyde to Sir Sean, ‘Sir Knight, if thou shalt do my biddynge than thou shalt scape wyth thy lyf,’ and bad Sir Sean to hye hym from that place. And then Sir Neville made hym redy, wyth one spere he smote hem downe al thre over ther horses croups. This kynde of thynge was ful yn his style, for hys verye wallet hath ‘bad motherswyvere’ on it ywrit.

.... And Kyng Edichim bethoghte hymself how Sir Neville was a man of muche power and coud nat be bestede by knightes; and so Edichim turnede hym to trecherie and sorcerie. Withinne the hulle of the shipe he had privilye yputte manye a caske fulle of serpentes and wormes and foul addres, and therto he put aboute the boate a philtre ycleped Far-Amoun by the Arabes, the which maketh serpentes to freke the helle oute and starte juste bitinge eny oon thei see.

Not sure what today's topic of research is going to be--not that I have to have a new one each day, but generally, I've answered my question within a few hours. I may still be on legends and ghost stories--the kind that are so old that they've been told for centuries, in different guises, but they're basically the same storylines. I was surprised to find out that the Vanishing Hitchhiker story goes back to at least the 1600s, for example. D.L. Ashliman's archive of folk/myth texts is invaluable if you're looking at legends in terms of types (and an old favorite of mine), but I don't think it has a search function (other than Google or Yahoo's Search This Site), so I might be there a while. Plus, it's less ghost-oriented anyway, but I've already been through Snopes, so... I think it's one of those things where I'll only know what I'm looking for after I find it.

ETA: Speaking of Weird NJ/US: AHHHH WTF DEAD IN MAINE. Warning: picture of... thing, dead. Not that bad, just be expecting it.