Long before she was the Black Dahlia, she was an average girl who coughed through Massachusetts winters and dreamily stared at the sky as if it could grant her a special wish. She was always a girl who wanted something more, something bigger, something better.  Elizabeth Short was born in 1924 outside of Boston, the third of five daughters in a house filled with tension and disappointment. Her father’s business, building miniature golf courses, collapsed during the Great Depression. And then one morning, his car was found by a bridge, and the police thought it was suicide: Phoebe Short, Elizabeth’s mother, knew otherwise. What she was left with were five mouths to feed and no money to do it. Elizabeth was a delicate child.  Pale, thin, with a weak immune system that had a broken filter. Every night, she slept propped on pillows, so her inflamed lungs wouldn’t become filled with fluid, cutting off her airways, making it impossible for her to breathe. Her mother religiously rubb...

Podcast recommendations are often the best ones, and we Peckers always have excellent taste. Comfort listens, deep dives on certain topics, or even just background noise: what's in your podcast rotation right now? Photo Credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock

  Wayne Coyne - American musician; member of The Flaming Lips - 65 Lori Harvey - American model - 29 Tyler Henry - American reality show personality - 30 Natalia Dyer - American actress - 31 Liam Hemsworth - Australian actor - 36 Beau Mirchoff - Canadian-American actor - 37 Julian Morris - English actor - 43 William Hung - Hong-Kong-born American motivational speaker and former singer - 43 Ruth Wilson - English actress - 44 Ginger Zee - American tv personality - 45 Jill Wagner - American actress and tv personality - 47 Orlando Bloom - English actor - 49 Ross McCall - Scottish actor - 50 Michael Peña - American actor - 50 Andrew Yang - American businessman, attorney and lobbyist - 51 Nicole Eggert - American actress - 54 Atoosa Rubenstein - Iranian-American former magazine editor - 54 Shonda Rhimes - American tv producer and screenwriter - 56 Traci Bingham - American actress, model and tv personality - 58 Suzanne Cryer - American actress - 59 Patrick Dempsey - American actor...

    ► Now that her stint on Stranger Things has come to an end. Millie Bobby Brown's (21) next career stop (besides being a young mom and trad wife to Mr. Bon Jovi Jr.) is launching a fashion line. The line will be called, "Mills" and is being  created exclusively for Walmart. BTW, "Mills" should not be confused with MBB other venture, "Florence by Mills". That business includes fashion, cosmetics, perfume, and coffee. Wait..no auto parts or toilet seat covers? Boo-hoo!  Anyway, the "Mills" fashion line (if you can call it that) is aimed at young women who have Fireball Whiskey taste but a Red Bull budget. MBB spewed this out when asked why she selected Walmart:  Read More  and  Here's The Line Up "Her new line for Walmart was designed as a love letter to her younger self, and the girls she continues to meet today, with more trend-geared, flirty and feminine styles priced $10.50 to $26.50, with sizes ranging from XS to XXXL. She saw ...

For decades, the United Kingdom has presented itself as a model of democratic maturity. Procedural. Measured. Governance by pragmatic norms rather than overblown theatrics. Even its scandals arrive packaged and presented with a polite veneer.  However, now that reputation functions less as an admirable virtue than as subterfuge and camouflage. The UK has become a case study in how a liberal democracy can fracture silently, outsource devastating cruelty to the mostly tabloid press, and erode minority protections while smugly congratulating itself on restraint. It is a mistake to view Brexit as merely a referendum outcome. It was a cataclysmic structural event that rewired British politics, possibly forever. It normalized grievance as a governing force, degraded public trust in expertise, and created an unyielding state of cultural agitation. The economic damage is no mystery. It has unfolded exactly as the critics predicted: reduced growth, trade friction, labor shortages, and a con...

Welcome, music sloots to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today by way of a San Francisco gal with incredible talent and understated class, a combo we don't see much in performers these days of any ilk, if at all. Better still, she's still truckin' at age 86. And though it's wintertime, her music will bring back summer. Just listen and you'll feel the heat, the light humidity, a chill band and her freshly reviving voice. Also, San Francisco must have something in the water, because so many terrific jazz vocalists seem to hail from there. It can't be a coincidence. Case in point, Mary Stallings, born in 1939 in the city, the middle child of 11 siblings. Get this: she's also the niece of saxophonist Orlando Stallings, who introduced her to jazz when she was just a wee one after overhearing her scatting to Dizzy Gillespie's "Oop-Bop-Sh'bam." She performed briefly with Uncle Orlando's band and with her church, and while she was still...

  Naya Rivera - American actress, singer and model - (1987-2020) Nathan Gamble - American actor - 28 Zayn Malik - British singer - 33 Georgia May Jagger - British model and designer - 34 Pixie Lott - English singer-songwriter, actress and former ballet dancer - 35 Andrew Lawrence - American actor, singer, podcaster and filmmaker - 38 Deena Nicole Cortese - American media personality - 39 Issa Rae - American actress, writer and producer - 41 Sam Richardson - American actor, comedian, writer and producer - 42 Shawn Desman - Canadian singer-songwriter, dancer and choreographer - 44 Amerie - American singer-songwriter - 46 Jeremy Camp - American singer-songwriter - 48 Hannah Gadsby - Australian comedian, writer and actor - 48 Melanie C - English singer-songwriter and DJ - 52 Raekwon - American rapper - 56 Rachael Harris - American actress and comedian - 58 Raf Simons - Belgian fashion designer - 58 Vendela Thomessen - Norwegian-Swedish model, tv host and actress - 59 Alexandra ...

Loud logo overload and aggressive “dupe” flexing, turning people into ambulatory billboards for sweatshop fast fashion that trashes the planet while pretending it’s ironic Endless Y2K necromancy: ultra low-rise jeans, visible thongs, unbuttoned pants, micro shorts — dragged back from the dead despite most bodies, climates, and basic dignity declining the invitation.  TikTok stunt cycles that gamify injury, poisoning, and arrest (NyQuil chicken, aerosol inhaling, car theft) and then act shocked when hospitals get involved “Blackout” and Benadryl challenges, where teens choke or overdose for clout, rebranding actual danger as engagement Cold plunges, IV drips, bone broth bars, and hyper-aesthetic wellness clubs mutating into luxury status symbols that cost more than actual medical care  Colostrum powders and animal-derived “liquid gold” supplements marketed as gut and skin miracles, with a marketing budget vastly outpacing the science Wellness influencers hawking extreme biohack...

  Denny Greene - American singer, member of Sha Na Na - (1949-2015) Cody Simpson - Australian singer, actor and swimmer - 29 Lil Twist - American rapper - 33 Jason Wahler - American tv personality - 39 Rachel Riley - British tv presenter - 40 Aja Naomi King - American actress - 41 Jamelia - British singer, actor and tv personality - 45 Devin Ratray - American actor - 49 Nadia Turner - American singer-songwriter, actress and media personality - 49 Rockmond Dunbar - American actor - 53 Amanda Peet - American actress - 54 Marc Blucas - American actor - 54 Mary J. Blige - American singer-songwriter and actress - 55 Tom Rowlands - English musician, member of The Chemical Brothers - 55 Kyle Richards - American actress, socialite and tv personality - 57 Tom Dumont - American musician and producer - 58 Kim Coles - American actress and comedian - 64 Vicki Peterson - American musician and songwriter - 68 Robert Earl Keen - American singer-songwriter and entertainer - 70 Phyllis Logan...

Credit: NBC via Getty images Our first Shitbag of December is Quentin Tarantino. The foot-lovin' director sure put his foot in his mouth earlier this month when he decided to rag on Paul Dano for seemingly no reason. Tarantino was interviewed on Bret Easton Ellis's podcast where he shared his top 20 films of the 21st century. He discussed Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood , whereby he said that the film was ruined by Paul Dano's performance in the role of Eli Sunday. The director said that Dano is "the weakest male actor in SAG" and "the limpest dick in the world." Yeesh! Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard also caught strays, with Tarantino saying that he "doesn't care for" them. Many celebrities came out to defend Dano, including Ben Stiller, Colleen Foy, Joh Gad and even Alec Baldwin. Tarantino has not made any further comments. Credit: Jimmy Fontaine/New York Times Next up is Judi Dench. The 91-year old actress recently did an ...