I have seen four of the five Torrente films

There are five Torrente films all directed, starring and written by Santiago Segura. I first saw Segura in excellent films by Alex de la Iglesia. I was especially impressed by his performance in Dying of Laughter and decided to find more films of his.

Torrente is a disgusting bigot, coward, and liar. He is racist, anti-Asian, and anti-gay but I don’t recall any antisemitism. I think the character could be established as a bad guy without all of the bigotry but overall the films are very amusing in a tasteless way. Torrente reminds me of Billy Bob Thornton’s Bad Santa and the films of W. C. Fields. Look at the Tip #1 video below to get an idea of what he is like.

The firsts four films were released on DVD and I have seen them all.

The New York Times article linked to below is well worth reading.

The Edsel: Ford’s 1950s car failure

Old folks like me remember the Edsel. I don’t recall a car from a major company that was such a flop.

November 19, 1959, Ford ends the Edsel program. The last Edsel ad appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on November 21, 1959.

On February 3, 1969, the Edsel Owners Club was incorporated as a non-profit organization for the promotion and restoration of the Edsel automobile. pic.twitter.com/9ECegh2SoE
— Bill Lucey (@wplucey) November 19, 2022

#OTD in 1959, Ford Motor Co. announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel.

Job number 344, the last Edsel to be built, a tan station wagon, rolls off the Ford Motor Company assembly line with no fanfare in Louisville, Ky., Nov. 20, 1959. | Photo H.B. Littell pic.twitter.com/Qv3Qiy7z1J
— AP Images (@AP_Images) November 19, 2022

Old video of CBS Television City

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On its fiftieth anniversary, CBS airs roll call of its past and then-present news and entertainment stars, one after another, in front of Television City in Hollywood–forty-five years ago this week–watch (3 mins.):https://t.co/oV1UVrelQK pic.twitter.com/kTHwXduq6r
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) March 24, 2023

Light rail car theft in Maryland

The most amazing part of the story:

McDonnell, a Severna Park resident, told officers that he drove the train out of the light rail shop located at Cromwell Station in Glen Burnie using a manual from the internet to get the 44-ton locomotive operational…

Why would you put the manual online where bad guys could read it?

Maryland Transit Administration Police are investigating how a 21-year-old Severna Park man was able to take control of a light rail car and drive it until ultimately crashing into another locomotive. https://t.co/dMidqJyhKv
— Capital Gazette (@capgaznews) November 8, 2022

Rat chews $19,000 in Indian rupees and dies

Rat chews through $19,000 worth of Indian rupee notes inside State Bank of India ATMhttps://t.co/HbKLR0mSb7 pic.twitter.com/70wlwYi2lL
— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) June 22, 2018

Bonus rat story:

Cat vs rat. No contest right? Think again. pic.twitter.com/HxRf8VqHWQ
— The Freaky (@TheFreakynews) November 19, 2022

Mississippi Republicans block Medicaid expansion

Dispatches from Mississippi, the state with the worst outcomes, the poorest state, and the Blackest state.

Mississippi's largely white GOP leadership yearly refuses over $1 billion to expand Medicaid, provide care for 200k-300k working poor residents, and save rural hospitals. https://t.co/vMgR3D8pO4
— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) November 21, 2022

Voters in Mississippi, where hospitals are shutting down due to lack of expansion, would have been able to vote to expand Medicaid last Tuesday.

But two days after the campaign to put it on the ballot began, the MS Supreme Court struck down our entire ballot initiative process. https://t.co/MxAetVLehg
— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) November 15, 2022

Half of all the rural hospitals in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas are at risk of closing. Not expanding Medicaid has consequences. https://t.co/0NOdoNIoA0
— David States MD PhD (@statesdj) November 21, 2022

Top economists have forecasted Mississippi would receive $1.61 billion in federal funds for the first year of Medicaid expansion, which would have immense economic growth for the state of Mississippi. But state leaders continue to reject expansion. https://t.co/aPEQHy08BO
— Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) November 19, 2022

The highest infant mortality rates (death under 1 yo).

Above average maternal mortality rates (& the average is already too high).

1 of 12 states that never expanded Medicaid.

Lowest healthcare provider-to-resident ratio.

Highest percentage of Black residents.

Mississippi.
— uché blackstock, md (@uche_blackstock) June 25, 2022

“The only hospital we’ve got is on its deathbed.”

A rural hospital in the Mississippi Delta is struggling to keep its doors open as cash reserves plummet and patient traffic slows. https://t.co/aPomZwTwRk
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 20, 2022

Real-time animation of the Titanic sinking

Watch the Titanic Sink in Real Time in a New 2-Hour, 40 Minute Animation https://t.co/0PKUJfnTGE pic.twitter.com/Bwaz1FqOiU
— Open Culture (@openculture) November 19, 2022

Planning on watching Titanic to mark the 25th anniversary? The Nazis made their own version back in 1943: it cost millions and led to more fatalities than the real ship. I watched it so you don’t have to. https://t.co/Rpd2P4oRip
— George Bass (@GeorgeBas5) December 18, 2022

The video shows “rare, uncut, and unnarrated footage" of the first time man set eyes on the sunken ship.

Robert Ballard, who led the team that first discovered the wreckage, said the footage helped inspire the 1997 film “Titanic.” https://t.co/u9onBhjP1j
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 16, 2023

An ambitious digital imaging project has produced what researchers describe as a “digital twin” of the Titanic, showing the wreckage of the doomed ocean liner with a level of detail that has never been captured before. https://t.co/z78uOWfVpX
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 18, 2023

What happened to the Titanic in 1912 is not in question. But a far different story — one full of doubts, skepticism and conspiracy theories — is now circulating online.

Meet the Titanic Truthers of TikTok. https://t.co/HKPrtkbOv0
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 17, 2023

If The Titanic Sank Today: pic.twitter.com/22JTxEwmKN
— Out of Context Human Race (@NoContextHumans) January 11, 2024

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Top and bottom states for COVID and flu vaccinations

In general, blue states at the top and red states at the bottom

What distinguishes the top 10 states for COVID vaccination from the bottom 10 states? Conservative media has played a huge role in this public health fiasco. pic.twitter.com/SFTyeNXjwK
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) November 19, 2022