Here\u2019s the part with the music and the movies. You\u2019re free to join us.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019ve got one sorta Halloween jazz song left to go. This is one of those \u201cLive from Emmet\u2019s Place\u201d videos with pianist Emmet Cohen. Joining him tonight is Seamus Blake and Troy Roberts, both on tenor saxophone, Russell Hall on bass and Jonathan Barber on drums.<\/p>\n
This is \u201cOld Devil Moon\u201d from 2025.<\/p>\n
For lack of a better option, I have one last Halloween movie for you, which is 1948\u2019s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The film was directed by Charles Barton and starred, naturally enough, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. But it also had Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and unfortunately, no Boris Karloff, as Frankenstein\u2019s Monster was played by Glenn Strange.<\/p>\n
I feel like I should listen to the commentary track on this film before writing about it and yes, I couldn\u2019t believe that Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein has a commentary track either. I suppose there could be a lot of great stories about the actors. That would be more productive than analyzing the mise-en-sc\u00e8ne of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. But I haven\u2019t listened to the commentary because I don\u2019t think the film is really worth watching more than once. It\u2019s a disposable slapstick comedy that misuses its characters, both Abbott and Costello and the Universal Monsters.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have a problem with horror comedy. Young Frankenstein and Army of Darkness are great films. You should be watching Widow\u2019s Bay on Apple TV. But sticking the Universal Monsters in a silly slapstick film with a couple of comedians whose strength wasn\u2019t slapstick was a dumb idea. Except the film made money, so I guess it wasn\u2019t that dumb to the studio execs.<\/p>\n
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello obvious hold a dear space in the hearts of baseball fans for their \u201cWho\u2019s on First?\u201d routine. That\u2019s a terrific example of the wordplay that the two of them could pull off. But while Abbott and Costello got their start in Vaudeville, they really cut their teeth on radio, where their clever routines and vocal patter were terrific. But here, most of the humor is slapstick, with the monsters chasing around Costello while straight man Abbott insists that nothing wrong is going on. The wordplay that was their strength is mostly absent.<\/p>\n
The plot is that a guy with a wax museum has bought Dracula\u2019s coffin and the remains of Frankenstein and has them shipped to the US. Larry Talbot, aka The Wolf Man, calls Costello (called \u201cWilbur\u201d in this film, but there\u2019s no reason to refer to him as that) to warn them not to deliver the the crates. But of course, Talbot turns into the Wolf Man before he can finish his warning.<\/p>\n
Abbott and Costello are working for a shipping firm, so they get tasked with delivering the crates to the wax museum. Of course, the issue is that neither Dracula nor Frankenstein are dead and the contents of the crates go missing when the monsters wake up.<\/p>\n
The plot of the film is that Dracula, with the help of a mad scientist who looks like a fashion model (because she was, Lenore Aubert) is trying to control the Monster by replacing his current brain with a dumber and more compliant one\u2014i.e. Lou Costello\u2019s. So the model\/scientist seduces Costello to keep him close until the operation. There\u2019s another plot about an attractive insurance investigator (Jane Randolph) trying to seduce Costello because there\u2019s an insurance claim on the two missing crates that contained Dracula and the Monster. So there\u2019s two hot babes going after the frumpy Costello, which doesn\u2019t make Abbott very happy.<\/p>\n
Larry Talbot finally gets to America to help Abbott and Costello stop Dracula and Frankenstein, but a full moon comes out everytime he does and he turns into the Wolf Man and goes crazy.<\/p>\n
As someone who re-watched the original 1931 Dracula right before this, I found it infuriating that Dracula shows up clearly in mirrors that he passes by. That vampires don\u2019t show up in mirrors is a major plot point in that film. No one cares here. Not just about mirrors, but about everything.<\/p>\n
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was a big hit in 1948, so of course it spawned several sequels\u2014Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). The internet tells me that Abbott and Costello fans don\u2019t have a very high opinion of any of these films.<\/p>\n
One point of note. There\u2019s an uncredited voice-only cameo featuring Vincent Price as the Invisible Man in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. As far as I can tell, it was the first time Vincent Price ever appeared in a \u201chorror\u201d film. Or at least his unmistakable voice appeared.<\/p>\n
You can see Universal\u2019s thinking on this movie. Abbott and Costello are two of our biggest stars. Our monster films are popular. Let\u2019s put them together! But ice cream is great. Ahi tuna sushi is great. That doesn\u2019t mean I want to eat sushi ice cream.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the trailer for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.<\/p>\n
Welcome back to everyone who skipped the culture stuff.<\/p>\n
Today was the deadline for teams to issue qualifying offers to their free agents. As a quick reminder, a qualifying offer is a one-year, $23.15 million (this year) contract offer to a team\u2019s free agent player. Players can either accept the offer and return to their current team for one year (as Sh\u014dta Imanaga did last winter) or they can opt for free agency. If they do become a free agent and they sign with a different team, the team that signs them loses a draft pick and the team that loses the player gains a draft pick according to a formula too convoluted to go into here.<\/p>\n
Some free agents are ineligible to get a qualifying offer. Any player that changed teams mid-season is ineligible to get a QO. Players may also only be given an QO once in their career.<\/p>\n
In the history of qualifying offers, only 18 of 157 players have accepted the offer.<\/p>\n
The Cubs only gave out one qualifying offer today. Right fielder Seiya Suzuki was given the QO.<\/a> Left fielder Ian Happ and lefty Matthew Boyd were also eligible for a QO but did not receive one.<\/p>\n It was a foregone conclusion that the 32-year-old Suzuki would get a qualifying offer. Suzuki signed a five-year, $85 million deal of of Japan\u2019s NPB before the 2022 season. After a somewhat \u201cmeh\u201d 2022 as he adjusted the the American game, Suzuki has been a very productive hitter in the final four years of the deal. This past season, he hit .270\/.368\/.473 with 26 home runs. He also struggled to adapt to the MLB game defensively in right field initially, but this year he had, according to the metrics, his best defensive season yet. Suzuki was one of three \u201cfinalists\u201d for the National League Gold Glove in right field this past season.<\/p>\n It was considered possible, but unlikely, that Happ and Boyd would receive qualifying offers. Happ, 32, is the Cubs\u2019 longest-tenured player, joining the team as a rookie in the 2017 season. He\u2019s been a steady, good but unspectacular, performer over the past ten seasons, but this past year was one of his worst as a Cub. It wasn\u2019t terrible\u2014.218\/.326\/.412 with 24 home runs, but his OPS+ of 103 just barely beat his career low of 102 in his sophomore season (after which he was sent back down to the minors).<\/p>\n Boyd signed a two-year deal with the Cubs before the 2025 season. He was strong that year with a record of 14-8 and an ERA of 3.21. But he battled injuries and inconsistency in his age-35 season this year. His traditional numbers of 10-5 and an ERA of 3.91 in 2026 weren\u2019t bad, but they weren\u2019t \u201c$23 million a year\u201d numbers eitehr.<\/p>\n
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