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‘Body by Jake’ Steinfeld stars in Thanksgiving-themed Video Nasty, ‘Home Sweet Home,’ 1981
11.24.2016
10:31 am
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Home Sweet Home VHS box cover
 
Last year at this time, I told DM readers about the impending limited Blu-ray release of a slasher film set during the Thanksgiving holiday, Blood Rage (which, incidentally, will soon be reissued in a standard edition). In that post, I also mentioned another Thanksgiving-themed horror picture, Home Sweet Home (1981).

Home Sweet Home stars Jake Steinfeld as homicidal maniac Jay Jones, an escaped mental patient, convicted for killing his parents. Steinfeld will be familiar to many as the fitness guru behind the “Body by Jake” brand of books, TV shows, etc. He even has his own catchphrase: “Don’t quit!”
 
Body by Jake
 
Like so many other horror movies from the era, Home Sweet Home incorporates elements from John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), the most obvious aspect being the holiday setting. As far as I can tell (and I know our dear readers will correct me if I’m wrong), this is the first horror picture to take place during Thanksgiving. It’s also one of the few slasher films directed by a woman; in this case, one Nettie Peña.
 
Home Sweet Home title card
 
When we first lay eyes on Steinfeld/Jones he’s about to strangle a guy sitting in his station wagon. After he kills the dude, Jones steals the wagon, and we then watch him inject PCP into his tongue—! Moments later, he’s running over an elderly woman. We’re now but four minutes into Home Sweet Home.
 
Jake Steinfeld as Jay Jones
 
Tongue!
 
Blood on the windshield
 
You’d think with this beginning you’d be in for a wild ride, but as is often the case with exploitation cinema, what’s initially implied isn’t always the way things go. Instead, the picture settles into a more stable pace, with Jones periodically killing innocent people and laughing maniacally every time he offs someone. Eventually, Jones focuses on terrorizing a group of friends and family who have assembled for Thanksgiving dinner. You might presume he targets them as part of some jealous rage because he has no family of his own (he’s got “Home Sweet Home” tattooed on his hand), but who knows—his motive is never even mentioned in the film.
 
Huh
 
Aside from Steinfeld, the one to watch in this cast of characters is a young man that lives at the house where the party is taking place. You can’t miss him; for the entire movie, he walks around playing guitar with a portable amplifier strapped to his back, merrily annoying everyone within earshot. And he has the greatest name: “Mistake.” It’s not even apparent that’s his name until the closing credits, as everyone calls him “Stake,” for short. Oh, and he’s wearing whiteface the whole time. I guess he likes KISS?
 
Mistake in action
 
Home Sweet Home largely alternates between goofy and scary, though the mood isn’t always predictable. One aspect of B-movies I love is the established tone can flip on a dime—anything is possible. The film does not disappoint in that regard. Take the scene in which Jones holds a knife to the throat of one of the female guests and Stake pleads with the madman to “take me instead.” The moment is surprisingly touching, but it’s also unnerving, as we know by now that Jones is probably going to kill them both anyway. As Stake whimpers while awaiting certain death, there is actual sadness for the dumb kid in whiteface. Home Sweet Home also has its share of striking images, which at times appear for seemingly no other reason than to shock the viewer.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Bart Bealmear
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11.24.2016
10:31 am
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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 13 recipes for turkey leftovers (probably penned while quite drunk)
12.04.2013
06:38 pm
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F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald do not care for the quiet domestic life.
 
Ah, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the patron Saint of Jazz Age hedonism! I never really related to Scott and Zelda’s impulse to infiltrate high society, but man do I love their derision of mundane domesticity; I’m the sort of girl who requires hard liquor to muster up the motivation to do dishes, and one of my greatest lazy dreams is to own one of those robots that cleans the floor for you. Below is an excerpt from one of Fitzgerald’s posthumously published notebooks, an absurdist take on a Good Housekeeping article.

Martha Stewart, he was not.

TURKEY REMAINS AND HOW TO INTER THEM WITH NUMEROUS SCARCE RECIPES

At this post holiday season, the refrigerators of the nation are overstuffed with large masses of turkey, the sight of which is calculated to give an adult an attack of dizziness. It seems, therefore, an appropriate time to give the owners the benefit of my experience as an old gourmet, in using this surplus material. Some of the recipes have been in my family for generations. (This usually occurs when rigor mortis sets in.) They were collected over years, from old cook books, yellowed diaries of the Pilgrim Fathers, mail order catalogues, golf-bags and trash cans. Not one but has been tried and proven—there are headstones all over America to testify to the fact.

Very well then. Here goes:

1) Turkey Cocktail: To one large turkey add one gallon of vermouth and a demijohn of angostura bitters. Shake.

2) Turkey à la Francais: Take a large ripe turkey, prepare as for basting and stuff with old watches and chains and monkey meat. Proceed as with cottage pudding.

3) Turkey and Water: Take one turkey and one pan of water. Heat the latter to the boiling point and then put in the refrigerator. When it has jelled, drown the turkey in it. Eat. In preparing this recipe it is best to have a few ham sandwiches around in case things go wrong.

4) Turkey Mongole: Take three butts of salami and a large turkey skeleton, from which the feathers and natural stuffing have been removed. Lay them out on the table and call up some Mongole in the neighborhood to tell you how to proceed from there.

5) Turkey Mousse: Seed a large prone turkey, being careful to remove the bones, flesh, fins, gravy, etc. Blow up with a bicycle pump. Mount in becoming style and hang in the front hall.

6) Stolen Turkey: Walk quickly from the market, and, if accosted, remark with a laugh that it had just flown into your arms and you hadn’t noticed it. Then drop the turkey with the white of one egg—well, anyhow, beat it.

7) Turkey à la Crême: Prepare the crême a day in advance. Deluge the turkey with it and cook for six days over a blast furnace. Wrap in fly paper and serve.

8) Turkey Hash: This is the delight of all connoisseurs of the holiday beast, but few understand how really to prepare it. Like a lobster, it must be plunged alive into boiling water, until it becomes bright red or purple or something, and then before the color fades, placed quickly in a washing machine and allowed to stew in its own gore as it is whirled around. Only then is it ready for hash. To hash, take a large sharp tool like a nail-file or, if none is handy, a bayonet will serve the purpose—and then get at it! Hash it well! Bind the remains with dental floss and serve.

9) Feathered Turkey: To prepare this, a turkey is necessary and a one pounder cannon to compel anyone to eat it. Broil the feathers and stuff with sage-brush, old clothes, almost anything you can dig up. Then sit down and simmer. The feathers are to be eaten like artichokes (and this is not to be confused with the old Roman custom of tickling the throat.)

10) Turkey à la Maryland: Take a plump turkey to a barber’s and have him shaved, or if a female bird, given a facial and a water wave. Then, before killing him, stuff with old newspapers and put him to roost. He can then be served hot or raw, usually with a thick gravy of mineral oil and rubbing alcohol. (Note: This recipe was given me by an old black mammy.)

11) Turkey Remnant: This is one of the most useful recipes for, though not, “chic,” it tells what to do with the turkey after the holiday, and how to extract the most value from it. Take the remants, or, if they have been consumed, take the various plates on which the turkey or its parts have rested and stew them for two hours in milk of magnesia. Stuff with moth-balls.

12) Turkey with Whiskey Sauce: This recipe is for a party of four. Obtain a gallon of whiskey, and allow it to age for several hours. Then serve, allowing one quart for each guest. The next day the turkey should be added, little by little, constantly stirring and basting.

13) For Weddings or Funerals: Obtain a gross of small white boxes such as are used for bride’s cake. Cut the turkey into small squares, roast, stuff, kill, boil, bake and allow to skewer. Now we are ready to begin. Fill each box with a quantity of soup stock and pile in a handy place. As the liquid elapses, the prepared turkey is added until the guests arrive. The boxes delicately tied with white ribbons are then placed in the handbags of the ladies, or in the men’s side pockets.

There I guess that’s enough turkey talk. I hope I’ll never see or hear of another until—well, until next year.

 
Via Lists of Note

Posted by Amber Frost
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12.04.2013
06:38 pm
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