Monthly Archives: December 2014

Star Trek Ears (No, Not Those Star Trek Ears), Sell At Auction For $6 Million

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The 6 Million Dollar Ear

We could get you a real ear for much less than six million dollars.

New York—In front of a packed Manhattan sales room at Bonhams auction house, the fake ear showing a Ceti Eel crawl in and out of Pavel Chekov after he was captured by Ricardo Montalban from the classic 1982 movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”—the second most recognizable fake ear in the history of the franchise—sold on Monday for $6.1 million.

The ear, which was fabricated from actual studio intern ears, had languished in a back-lot warehouse at Paramount Pictures for years before being sold in an industrial auction in 2001. The seller at Bonhams, Reed Cameron, said he acquired it when someone answered an ad he put out that read, “Wanted: Star Trek ears.” That person brought the costume to him in a sealed sandwich bag.

Ceti Eel Lifecycle

Ceti Eel Lifecycle

Last week, it attracted hundreds of bidders, including more than two dozen on the phone and scores in the room, said a spokeswoman for Bonhams.

Bidding started at $1.6 million and quickly escalated to $5.6 million, where it was hammered to a telephone bidder to a burst of applause. The final price of $6.1 million includes the buyer’s premium.

“From a Zip-loc bag to $5.6 million, it was a magical journey,” said Mr. Cameron, who said the ear was believed to have been the only one worn by actor Walter Koenig during the shooting of the film. It was movie magic to make it appear that a mind-altering worm was entering and leaving the character’s ear.

Mr. Cameron, who was parting with the artifact to help raise money for a Beanie Baby museum he hopes to build, said he was happy with the outcome. “I feel like we got it done. This buys us time to fully realize the museum’s terribly important mission.”

Cameron also said he might use some of the money to buy the Blu-Ray version of the Star Trek film, which he reportedly called, “way, way better than that JJ Abrams drivel.” Continue reading →

Former Basketball Competitor Robert “Showboat” Hall Dies At

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Robert Hall

Robert Hall, right, in a publicity photo with short term team mate and The Daily Quarterly editor Brian DiMaio, left. DiMaio parted ways with the team when it was determined that he was unable to keep the minimum of three basketballs in continuous motion for the minimum amount of time.

Detroit—Robert “Showboat” Hall, who played for a mind-blowing 25 seasons with the Harlem Globetrotters professional basketball squad, died on Christmas Eve. His age has not been released publicly, so we’ll just act like CNN and guess that he was 90 or so.

Hall joined the Globetrotters in 1949, and became player-coach in 1968. According to the team (and we double-checked this, since it seems unbelievable), he played more than 5000 games in nearly 90 countries around the world. He retired from the team in 1974.

Alas, even though one of the Scooby-Doo episodes that the Globetrotters appeared in was titled, “The Haunted Showboat,” it doesn’t appear that Showboat Hall himself was in that episode. And he had already retired when the Globetrotters made their way to Gilligan’s Island in 1981.

Services are pending. Scooby-Doo has not yet commented on Hall’s death. Continue reading →

Source: Taylor Swift’s Representatives “Crazy Livid” That Some Magazines Didn’t Put Her On The Cover Of Their December Issue

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National Geographic

If Taylor Swift can’t make people care about rising sea levels caused by melting polar ice then no one can.

New York—It seems that not everything is going as great as we thought for former country star-turned pop queen Taylor Swift, if reports coming out of her camp are true. You may have noticed that Swift’s face has graced just about every magazine cover in every checkout lane in the country this month, but not every major publication felt the need to plaster the songstresses face on their mag. And that’s not sitting so well with some of her people.

“They better understand the magnitude of this situation,” an unnamed source close to Swift told TDQ. “If National Geographic ever wants a sit down with Tay-tay ever in this or the next lifetime, they need to yank off those pics of Aborigines spear-fishing in Uganda or where the hell ever and get with the program.”

Field & Stream

Taylor knows all about catch and release, and how there are other fish in the sea.

In keeping with her tradition of only putting herself on the cover of her monthly magazine, O, Oprah Winfrey is also under fire for not putting Swift “somewhere on there, for God’s sake. Oprah’s lost weight, you can fit a photo of both of them on there, am I right?”

Field & Stream is also apparently on the naughty list in Swift’s camp, preferring to show, rather than the singer-songwriter, “some damn hunting knife or a dead deer or some stupid thing. I mean, really?”

Swift’s latest record, 1989, is the first and, so far, only album to go platinum in 2014, which some in the record industry is a reflection of the new reality of internet music and pirating of songs. “It is for this very reason,” said magazine and journalism expert Eugene McLarty, “that we may never see Ms. Swift on the cover of a National Geographic or a Popular Mechanics ever again.”

O Magazine

O say can you see…Taylor Swift with her own magazine T?

Not that that sits well with Swift’s camp. “It’s Taylor f—ing Swift. Get her on your magazine cover or get ready to fold up shop.”

“It’s nothing against her, truly. It’s the nature of the beast now,” McLarty said. “And speaking of beasts, it’s also unlikely she’ll ever be on the cover of Fangoria, either. Sorry.” Continue reading →

TDQ Investigates: The Recent Spate Of TDQ-Inspired Tattoos

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Selena Gomez's new TDQ Tattoo

Selena Gomez’s sporting her new TDQ Tattoo at the 2014 AMAs.

Look, we aren’t prudes here at The Daily Quarterly. Especially about tattoos. We have a couple of our own ourselves. I have one on each arm, one of my fave president, Howard Taft, and another of that drawing of Heisenberg from “Breaking Bad.” And Karl has one on his chest of his wife’s name (horribly misspelled, unfortunately), as well as “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” on his right forearm.

And we are truly flattered to see people all over the country, including celebrities, who have begun getting The Daily Quarterly tats, some with our trademark pipe, some of our slogan, and still others of “TDQ.” But we have to caution the few of you who are getting TDQ face tattoos.

Forget the amount of pain associated with getting a face tattoo. And forget the cost. We just don’t want people thinking that a TDQ face tat’ is something we can condone or encourage.

We were thrilled a few weeks ago when Selena Gomez sported her new TDQ tattoo while performing on the AMAs. But our thrills soon turned to tremendous anxiety when Garth Brooks took the stage a short time later with a TDQ tattoo on his famous Country face.

We appreciate it, Garth, we really do. But not all of the nation finds face tattoos appealing, especially on the faces of Country greats. We just worry about what a TDQ face tattoo will do to your record sales. Not everybody who is cool with L’il Wayne’s face ink feels the same about other recording artists.

The bottom line is, just be careful about where you want to show your love for TDQ. You can always buy a TDQ shirt or mug, or a couple dozen copies of our books if you’re not into body art. And there are plenty of other parts on your body to show off that you’re a hardcore TDQ fan, just be careful about stuff above the neck.

You are now informed. Go and do likewise. Continue reading →