Spoof

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It has been said that any man of mature age could write at least one interesting book, if he confined himself to relating his own experiences. Well, that is what I have done. This is primarily the story of my life, interspersed with various anecdotes, "wheezes," and "gags," pertaining to a profession concerning the real inside of which the public is mostly ignorant. Like Topsy, the book "growed." An incident recalled here, a story remembered there, has been jotted down at haphazard as the mood seized me. I may add that the incidents recorded in Chapters XIV. and XV., as also the human telescope story in Chapter XIII., first saw the light in the Strand Magazine, to the Editor of which periodical I am indebted for permission to reproduce them here.

While Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are more famously known for their straight comedy routines, they did make a number of films in which horror played a crucial role. The first part of this critical reference examines the Abbott and Costello "Meet the Monsters" spoof films (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Mummy). The second sections deals with Abbott and Costello's films with horror elements that do not follow this formula: Hold That Ghost, The Time of Their Lives and Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. The plot of each film is examined in detail with special attention paid to the comedians' styles of comedy, the effect of the horror scenes, and the place of the film in the Abbott and Costello canon. The reactions of critics (then and now) and the influences the films have had on the horror and comedy genres and on pop culture are also discussed. A lengthy introduction provides background on the lives of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and the development of Universal Studios as the premier horror factory.

Presenting the first definitive study of the subject, this Handbook of Biometric Anti-Spoofing reviews the state of the art in covert attacks against biometric systems and in deriving countermeasures to these attacks. Topics and features: provides a detailed introduction to the field of biometric anti-spoofing and a thorough review of the associated literature; examines spoofing attacks against five biometric modalities, namely, fingerprints, face, iris, speaker and gait; discusses anti-spoofing measures for multi-model biometric systems; reviews evaluation methodologies, international standards and legal and ethical issues; describes current challenges and suggests directions for future research; presents the latest work from a global selection of experts in the field, including members of the TABULA RASA project.

Spoof is the story of the lives of two men who are identical twins. Terry Lickliter and his brother Tom were minor characters in Illusive Innocence, my first novel. In Spoof both men are in their late fortys. Terry worked in Silicon Valley until the mid-nineties and made a fortune when his company sold out to a high tech giant. He moved to Grand Haven Michigan and built two large houses on Lake Michigan, a Victorian with an attached lighthouse and a Tudor. Tom Lickliter resided in Florida and worked as an Electrician and moved back to Michigan to join his brother. The two brothers had been living twenty-eight hundred miles apart. Terry and his wife Kristine (a true San Franciscan) are rich and Tom and his wife Monique (a southern belle born in Savannah, Georgia) are middle class citizens. The gift of a quarter-million dollar Tudor on lake Michigan is a lot for Tom and his wife Monique to accept. Tom is sterile but Terry fathers his children. Together the men open a small business but work to create a very successful international business. Sudden wealth changes their lives. From Sailing Lake Michigan and the Pacific to the power of a corporate boardroom lives become entrapped into secrets and hysteria. Spoof is an adventurous story of couples, friends and business associates but also describes the secretive loving relationships of a charismatic man.

People are used to seeing “fake physics” in science fiction – concepts like faster-than-light travel, antigravity and time travel to name a few. The fiction label ought to be a giveaway, but some SF writers – especially those with a background in professional science – are so adept at “technobabble” that it can be difficult to work out what is fake and what is real. To confuse matters further, Isaac Asimov’s 1948 piece about the fictitious time-travelling substance thiotimoline was written, not as a short story, but in the form of a spoof research paper. The boundaries between fact and fiction can also be blurred by physicists themselves - sometimes unintentionally, sometimes with tongue-in-cheek, sometimes to satirize perceived weaknesses in research practices. Examples range from hoaxes aimed at exposing poor editorial standards in academic publications, through “thought experiments” that sound like the plot of a sci-fi movie to April Fools’ jokes. Even the latter may carry a serious message, whether about the sociology of science or poking fun at legitimate but far-out scientific hypotheses. This entertaining book is a joyous romp exploring the whole spectrum of fake physics – from science to fiction and back again.

Famous for being deathly serious, the vampire genre has a consistent yet often critically overlooked subgenre--the comedic spoof and satire. This is the first book dedicated entirely to documenting and analyzing the vampire comedy on film and television. Various types of comedy are discussed, outlining the important differences between spoofing, serious-spoofing, parody and satire. Seminal films such as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Love at First Bite, Vampire in Brooklyn, Dracula: Dead and Loving It and What We Do In the Shadows are featured. More importantly, this book demonstrates how comedy is central to both the common perception of the vampire and the genre's ever-evolving character, making it an essential read for those interested in the laughing undead and creatures that guffaw in the night.