Make of this what you will.

Ooh, I read the Zombie Survival Guide! (Via.)

Board games are a great way to spend family time.

Usually!

Bad Dog

Ooh, and I have the first line from the forthcoming Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:

“It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

Daily Lane Closures Due to Zombies

Yesterday's zombie posting seems to have set off a viral infection across three states. Yep, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas have all fallen prey to traffic sign hackers who warn of, respectively:

“Daily lane closures due to zombies.”
“Raptors ahead — Caution.”
“Caution! Zombies! Ahead!!”

Of these, I prefer the first. The matter-of-fact tone (this happens daily) is perfect. Also priceless: Finding a classic car hidden in your backyard. According to this Daily Mail story, an overgrown yard in Slough was recently cleared, and to the astonishment of neighbors, a Ford Escort was found beneath the fronds and vines. Sca-ry!*

What if you opened the car's front door only to find a zombie? I have the perfect solution to a Ford zombie infestation: The funk pollinations of Midnight Star.

*Note: Only a British newspaper would include a related poem about the news story. In this case, it's Sir John Betmeman's "Slough," which concludes:

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

Tender Is the Night...of the Living Dead

There's only one way to say this: One of Jane Austen's most beloved novels will be re-titled, adapted, and released soon as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. From the publisher:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton— and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy.

What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers— and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this... edition will introduce Jane Austen’s classic novel to new legions of fans.

One wonders how the copy writer avoided ending with “…new legions of undead fans.” While the Guardian is skeptical about this enterprise, many readers responded enthusiastically, and came up with their own ideas for similar reinterpretations:

—Pride and Putrefaction, Jane Austen
—Great Eviscerations, Charles Dickens
—To the Lighthouse...for BRAIIIIIINS, Virginia Woolf
—Zom Bixote, Cervantes
—Voyage of the Dawn-of-the-Undeader, C.S. Lewis
—Portrait of the Artist as a Young Zombie, Proust
—The Naked and the Undead, Norman Mailer
—Breakfast on Tiffany's Brains, Truman Capote
—The Brains of Wrath, John Steinbeck
—Les Zombies Miserables, Victor Hugo
—Are You There, God? It's Me, Zombie Margaret, Judy Blume

Zombie Movies as an Index of Societal Upheaval

Who knew? io9.com editor Annalee Newitz has established a connection between troubled times and the number of zombie movies produced.
A reader comments that there also seems to be a connection between the political party in power and undead film production. (Could be; how many zombie flicks were churned out under the Whigs or Federalists?)