MetaFilter posts tagged with Hustler

Confused about the cosmos? Can't tell a planet from a star? Then give us just five minutes, and we'll show you what they are.

not_on_display — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:36:17 -0800

"Some people hustle pool; some people hustle cars. Then there's that man you've heard about, the one who hustles stars!" Greetings, greetings, fellow stargazers! Looking toward your computer screen today, you'll find Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer, a five-minute show that has been in weekly production for over thirty years, airing in-betweensies on many PBS stations. Contrary to the cheeky bio on Jack's website, it wasn't always easy for Jack to "keep looking up!" This 9/19/1982 Miami Herald article reveals that he grew up as a sickly boy, eventually meandering to Florida to stumble into his avocation and vocation as Director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, only to watch his life's work almost crumble due to a PR nightmare. Since then, however, things have been much better: Star Gazer (originally called Star Hustler, then changed in 1997 due to internet search engines leading people to Hustler Magazine's website) has been nationally syndicated since 1985 (and internationally since 1989), chalking up over 1500 episodes. A book of his monthly cartoons has been published. The Astronomical League sponsors The Jack Horkheimer Award for Exceptional Service by a Young Astronomer. (2008's winner.) So whether you find Jack avuncular or creepy, Jack Horkheimer is, to many, the face of popular backyard astronomy. Here's a link to a year's worth of Star Gazer episodes, in both 1-minute and 5-minute varieties. Also from his bio: 'Asteroid 1999 FD9' was renamed 'Asteroid Horkheimer' by the International Astronomical Union, Cambridge, Mass. in recognition of his lifelong contributions to popularizing astronomy. ('Asteroid Horkheimer' orbits between the planets Mars and Jupiter and Horkheimer suspects that it has "Earth Or Bust" etched across its surface.) This RetroThing post has a couple of pictures of Jack without his trademark toupee and Members-Only jacket. Star Gazer's theme song is Claude Debussy's Arabesque No. 1, re-imagined by Isao Tomita. The 4/9/1997 Onion article. BBC's backyard astronomy show, The Sky at Night, has been running even longer. Previously on MetaFilter: Great Science Presenters and their TV Shows Horkheimer, Horkheimer, Horkheimer.

"Flynt is arguably the greatest student of the American underbelly since J. Edgar Hoover."

amberglow — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:28:48 -0800

Vanity Fair sits down with Larry Flynt --his history and hits and misses, how much he pays for scandals involving hypocritical public figures, and a new (and limp) Nixon anecdote -- and tons of other juicy tidbits, of course).

Trent Lott Fallout: The Gay Escort Who Knew Too Much?

ericb — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:52:14 -0800

Trent Lott announced today that he will be resigning from the U.S. Senate at the end of the year. His swift and unexpected decision to retire just one year after a re-election that many saw as a comeback from his much disgraced comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party in 2002 has puzzled many folks. Rumor is spreading that his resignation is due to an alleged scandal: his involvement with a gay escort. The "source" of the reporting has had credibility problems in the past. Nonetheless, the "story" is gaining "legs."

"The boy happens to be real, and his 'stage name' is Benjamin Nicholas. One of the politicos Big Head DC has learned he’s alleged to have been involved with is the married Sen. Trent Lott, 66, who unexpectedly announced his retirement on Monday. Lott is well-known to have been against a plethora of gay rights issues throughout his terms in Congress. He was also good friends with Sen. Larry Craig throughout his time in Congress. Nicholas told Big Head DC today via e-mail that he didn’t want to go on the record to talk about his dealings with Lott, because, said Nicholas, 'Trent is going through his fair share of scrutiny right now and I don’t want to add to it.' However, e-mail and other records confirm that the two have met on at least two occasions. 'All I can say at this point is no comment,' Nicholas told us. 'It’s the professional thing for me to do.' In a subsequent e-mail message, Nicholas confirmed that another publication is working on a story about a 'possible relationship' between Lott and himself, but Nicholas also 'politely declined' an interview for that story. 'As I said before, Lott has quite a bit on his plate right now and I don’t really want to add fuel to the embers,' Nicholas told Big Head DC."

Regarding the "other" publication -- could it be Hustler? Larry Flynt told Fox Business Network that he's "hoping to expose a bombshell" within the next week or two.

the life and death of a lying snitch

nickyskye — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 19:32:08 -0800

The strange saga of Harvey Matusow, "most hated man in America". Said to be the most notorious of the paid perjurious snitches for the Communist witch-hunters, married 12 times, gave LSD to Robert F. Kennedy, tangled with Roy Cohn, was prison buddies with Wilhelm Reich, recorded a psychedelic Jews Harp record, started the rumor that smoking dried banana peels gets you high (as an act of revenge against Chiquita Banana), wrote one of the first how-to books on computer hacking. [via]

"The Beaver Trap"

bardic — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 11:50:58 -0800

"Even though everything we did, we made sure was always legal, it still had a sort of illicit quality to it." An interview with Allan MacDonell, author of Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine.

Hustler, the SFW kind

cosmicbandito — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 10:22:26 -0800

The Pool Hustler. Long an American icon, pool hustlers have all but disappeared. They enjoyed a brief resurgence in the 60’s when pool became popular again, thanks to “The Hustler”. Interest waned through the 70’s, until Newman and Cruise made hustling cool again in “The Color of Money”. Is pool, and by extension hustling, due for a new renaissance?

pool tricks

jonson — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 21:39:37 -0800

"These are 20 of the most awesome trick shots I have created and learned over this summer." Warning: embedded wmv

Gay and Ashamed

ericb — Fri, 03 Dec 2004 10:20:53 -0800

Hustler's magazine's anticipated expose of closeted congressman David Dreier (R – California) hits newsstands today. Raw Story reports that the article “offers a handful of new details not previously reported, including a charge that high-level California Republicans have been aware of (and sanctioned) Dreier’s gay lifestyle for many years.” The article recounts how Dreier’s gay life was exposed earlier this summer by blogACTIVE.com, RAW STORY, and then picked up by L.A. Weekly (previously discussed here, here, and here). Dreier was targeted because he had repeatedly voted against gay rights measures – all the while keeping his alleged partner on his office payroll. Hustler gave permission to blogACTIVE and RAW STORY to excerpt parts of the article. The full article is only available in the print edition of the magazine.

From the William Tecumseh Sherman Department

piedrasyluz — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 14:47:03 -0800

War is Hell: Generation Kill

Torn by War Porn*? Just can't get enough?

For those of you who stopped reading Rolling Stone some time in the 80's, and therefore most likely missed Evan Wright's war dispatches from Humvee Number One last summer, we bring you: Generation Kill:Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War

Reviewed here,and here ("reprint" of NYT review).

*Oddly enough, Evan Wright's journalistic career began as a porn critic for Hustler. True story.