‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Five Film Facts

Leatherface is a Poet with Two Graduate Degrees
1. Before Jason Voorhees and Michael Meyers helped solidify the slasher film as a bona fide genre, Leatherface was making his bones as the original masked madman. We know enough about Leatherface to fill seven films, but what about the original man behind the leather mask, Gunnar Hansen? Back in 1973, when he was earning his first graduate degree in Scandinavian Studies, Hansen found out writer/director Tobe Hooper still needed someone to play the killer in his low budget horror film. “I had been in some plays in college, so I tried out and got the part, figuring it would be a much better summer job than tending bar or pounding nails,” Hansen writes on his website. But the 6’4” Hansen never really wanted to be a movie star in the first place, he wanted to be a writer. Hansen turned down a role in Wes Craven’s “The Hills Have Eyes” (1977) to concentrate on his craft. He also returned to school to get another graduate degree in English. Over the years, Hansen realized he could accomplish both acting and writing, banging out screenplays, books, and poetry while appearing in over 20 films including a role in “Texas Chainsaw 3D,” the latest iteration of the franchise he helped make famous.

The Whole Truth
2. Though the opening of the movie states it’s based on true events, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” never actually happened, certainly not in Texas, and technically, not anywhere. Hooper has said the film is loosely based on the horrific deeds of real-life murderer Ed Gein (who also reportedly influenced Norman Bates in “Psycho” and Jame Gumb in “Silence of the Lambs”). By “loosely,” Hooper was apparently referring to the Hollywood definition of the word, as the real story is that Gein lived in Wisconsin, had a penchant for pilfering graves then making odd household items out of human remains (including masks), and admitted to killing two people, though he never used a chainsaw to do his dirty work. Hooper has also stated that he was inspired by a stand-up display of chainsaws he saw at Montgomery Ward while doing some Christmas shopping, which caused him to fantasize about the best way to drive off the throngs of people in line.

Nearly 40 years after Leatherface first buzzed onto the scene, the “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974) franchise returns with “Texas Chainsaw 3D” opening wide this week. This new sequel to the original marks the seventh slasher film in the infamous franchise, and like the rest, it involves a power tool wielding psychopath with a fashion sense that hankers for masks made of human skin. We all know the new film will be a scream, but here are five facts about the film that started it all, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”.
Thirst for Blood
3. Despite being banned in several countries due to its violent content, the seminal slasher flick earned over $30 million at the box office on an estimated budget of just over $83 thousand. With that kind of return on investment, it’s no wonder producers kept trying to repeat the success with remakes and sequels, all with varying degrees of success. As of now, the franchise has made more than $160 million domestically. That’s over $300 million when adjusted for inflation, with the original still reigning as the top earner, beating the 2003 remake by more than $20 grand. Whether or not the new version will be a hit or not is yet to be seen, but you can get a sense of "Texas Chainsaw 3D" from the trailer above.

Vegetarian Inducing

4. The story of road-tripping Texans who make a regrettable pit-stop at a house occupied by inbred, cannibalistic, grave-robbing serial killers is apparently more than it would appear at first bloody glance. “In a way I thought the heart of the film was about meat; it’s about the chain of life and killing sentient beings, and it has cannibalism in it, although you have to come to that conclusion by yourself because it’s only implied,” Hooper told Bizarre Magazine, while also mentioning that both he and director Guillermo Del Toro (“Hell Boy,” “Pans Labyrinth”) stopped eating meat because of the movie.
Movie Magic
5. Having such a small budget forced Hooper to film for up to 18 hours a day. Add to that a south Texas location in the middle of the summer with temperatures frequently hitting triple digits, and the filmmakers found themselves with less than ideal conditions to keep a cast happy, or sane for that matter. All of which might explain why Hansen purposely cut cast mate Marilyn Burns (Sally Hardesty) while filming the scene where Leatherface feeds Grandpa. Since it obviously doesn’t explain such a violent action nearly enough, we’ll let Hansen try to sell the tale himself: “The tube on the backside of the knife blade that was supposed to deposit fake blood on Marilyn's finger knife kept clogging. After a few takes I got tired of it and stripped off the tape that covered the blade. You gotta understand, I was tired, it had been a long day, and I just wanted it over with! Marilyn screamed, and it looked very good, so we moved on to the next shot.” You can see the scene, along with Hansen’s DVD commentary in the YouTube clip above.

Want to Make the Perfect Cup of Coffee? It's Simple, Kind Of

Up until today, I was proud of my coffee-brewing abilities. I'd splurge on the Starbucks espresso roast at the grocery store and store it in the freezer for maximum freshness. I scoffed at the suggested measurement on the back of the bag, and heaped twice the amount of grinds in the filter, for what I always imagined was the strongest, most Rotorooting cup of hot, homemade, over-the-counter drugs a girl could ask for.
Now I know I was doing it all wrong. Ask a real coffee-brewing professional (and I did), and you'll find there are some things you just have to do when brewing coffee—none of which were part of my morning regimen. The crazy reason your coffee tastes better hot
The good news is there are also some "don'ts": You don't need to buy a $15,000 brewing system, the kind now found in "third wave" coffee shops and select Starbucks around the country, for a solid cup. You don't even need to buy the fanciest grinds in the grocery store.
According to the pros, all you need for the perfect morning coffee are a few low-cost tools and some guidelines on the basics of brewing.
Do: Read the Labels
I'll admit, I'm a sucker for coffee art. Show me an exotic looking logo or the words "espresso blend" and the bag is going in my shopping cart. But according to Matthew Marks, co-owner of Forty Weight Coffee Roasters in Brooklyn, I've been looking in all the wrong places. "I would steer clear of an espresso blend if you're not brewing espresso," Marks tells Yahoo! Shine. Just because the word is Italian, it doesn't mean it's going to make the best cup of drip coffee. He recommends spending more time reading the fine print. "Look for signs of single-origin brewing from one particular region or farm," suggests Marks. "A lot of companies will have generic blends, and you don't know what's in them. More specific information on the bag is a sign of higher quality."
Another tip: Fair Trade isn't always the best fare. The New York Times' Matt Richtel learned this at coffee boot camp with Verve Coffee Roaster's Chris Baca. "Just because the bag says "fair trade" or "locally roasted" does not mean the highest-grade beans have been selected and put through meticulous roasting," writes Richtel.
Don't: Buy pre-ground beans My fellow lazy coffee-brewers, it's time we face the facts. Freshly ground beans make for better coffee. "Your best bet for coffee longevity is always whole beans," says Marks. It doesn't matter if you grind the beans in the grocery store, the minute you've mashed your java it's already losing its flavor. Blame oxidization or the cruelty of nature, but the fact is a cheap grinder is a better investment than a pricey bag of pre-ground coffee.
Don't: Store your beans in the freezer Shoot. For a few dollars, Marks suggests purchasing an airtight container at any home-goods store. That's your best bet for storing beans. Keep the tin on a shelf, away from sunlight, and definitely don't let it near the fridge. Both freezer and fridge add moisture to your beans, cutting down the flavor and replacing it with remnants of that stale Chinese food from last week.
How to make Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte at home Don't: Eyeball your measurements. Get a scale. The best tool for a perfect cup of joe, aside from a coffeemaker, is a scale. “A $10 scale is the best investment you can make for your coffee game,” Baca told the New York Times. 
It may seem like an oddly scientific step between getting grinds into a filter, but Marks agrees, you've got to weigh your key ingredient. "Scoops are not very accurate, so you need to weigh things out," Forty Weight's Marks says. A ratio of 16 to 1 water to coffee creates the maximum rounded, full-body flavor. That translates to 11.25 grams of coffee (about 2 tablespoons) to 3/4 cup of water, creating 6oz of coffee, a standard small cup in the industry. And adding more grounds won't make your coffee taste better. “If you use too much ground coffee relative to water, everything tastes bitter and over-extracted,” explains Marks. “If you use too little, it’s going to taste weak and underdeveloped.” If your measurements are accurate, and you’re still not satisfied, try adjusting the settings on your grinder. “If your coffee tastes too weak, try grinding the beans on a finer setting,” suggests Marks, “and if it’s too strong and bitter, try a coarser setting."
Don't: Use tap water Got a Britta? Use it. The Specialty Coffee Association of America found that minerals in tap water taint an otherwise decent cup. Filtering your water (which should be brewed at a temperature of 195 to 205 degrees if you want to get really technical) makes all the difference.
Don't: Add milk If you've just put all that hard work into making the perfect coffee, why not show it off? "I don't think milk helps coffee," says Marks. "I think people are used to dumping tons of milk and sugar because they're used to bad coffee, but if you're brewing good coffee, you're basically covering up all the nuances with milk." If you're a latte lover, however, milk is part of the show. Just don't make it skim. "The more milk fat the better the coffee steams," says Marks. "Whole milk, not skim, is industry standard." 
Do: Make coffee before you make coffee
This is just my suggestion. I don't know about you, but before I take measurements or listen to loud bean-grinding noises, I usually need an average cup of coffee coursing through my veins. It doesn't need to be perfect. 

Reagan’s swanky midcentury house goes on the market

The odds of you living in the White House are rather slim, especially if your last name isn't Bush, Clinton or Obama. But that doesn't mean you can't live in the home of a former president -- provided you have around $5 million to spare.
A "Mad Men"-style midcentury California home that once belonged to Ronald and Nancy Reagan has gone on the market. The four-bedroom ranch house in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades area has plenty of swanky features: a beautiful swimming pool, midcentury-modern design, and amazing views of Southern California. And don’t forget that the guy who stood toe-to-toe with Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Bonzo the monkey used to call the place home.
The home was given to Ronald Reagan by General Electric, according to CNN Money. Reagan hosted "The General Electric Theater" anthology TV series in the 1950s, and it was such a success that the good folks at GE gave the Gipper a swanky pad as a way of saying thanks.
ABC News reports that this is the residence where Reagan received Carter's concession phone call after the 1980 election. We're guessing the phone number has since been changed.

Cities with the most break-ins

According to the FBI, burglaries accounted for approximately $4.8 billion in lost property in the U.S. last year. With almost 2.2 million burglaries committed, this means that the average loss per burglary was $2,185.

Some cities see more burglaries than others, and Yahoo! Homes is listing the top five here, reported by CNBC. Go to CNBC.com for the rest of the top 10:
All of the information here is based on recently released data from the FBI Uniform Crime Report. The FBI defines a burglary as the unlawful entry of a structure (such as a home or an office, but not a car) to commit a felony or theft. About 60 percent of burglaries in this report were forcible entry. The most recent report is based on 2011 data. 5. New York
Number of burglaries: 18,159
New York is the most populous city in the U.S. and one of the main cultural centers of the world. During the 1970s and 1980s the city was considered more afflicted by crime than many others, but it has been dropping steadily since the 1990s for reasons The New York Times said had baffled the experts as recently as 2011. Still, no city is immune, and New York was the site of 18,159 burglaries in 2011.
4. Phoenix
Number of burglaries: 18,666
According to the Census Bureau, the 2011 estimated population of Phoenix was approximately 1.5 million. Mirroring the trend across the nation, the city has seen a decline in its crime rate, particularly with respect to its once-epidemic rate of car theft. It experienced 18,666 burglaries in 2011.
3. Dallas
Number of burglaries: 18,727
Dallas is the center of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area, an area which had a gross metropolitan product of $374 billion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Of the 61,859 property offenses committed there in 2011, 18,727 were burglaries.
2. Chicago
Number of burglaries: 26,420
Chicago is the third most populous city in the U.S. Known as "Chi-Town" and "The Windy City," it has had a world-famous criminal element since the days of Al Capone, but like the rest of the country, the crime rate has been on the decline since the 1990s. Still, the city saw a whopping 118,239 property offenses in 2011, of which 26,420 were burglaries.
1. Houston
Number of burglaries: 27,459
Houston is best known as the location of NASA's Johnson Space Center and Mission Control Center. It also saw 108,336 property offenses in 2011, of which 68,596 were categorized as "larceny-theft" and 12,281 were motor vehicle thefts. The remaining 27,459 were burglaries, which puts the city at the top of the list. So if you live there, lock your doors when you go out at night.

Aloha, Mr. Hand! Sean Penn still looks Spicoli-ish at 52

Hey Bud, let's party!

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High," the classic high school comedy from director Amy Heckerling and screenwriter Cameron Crowe, turns 30 this year. But it might as well have been released a mere half a decade ago for all that star Sean Penn has appeared to age.
Penn skyrocketed to stardom for his unforgettable portrayal of Jeff Spicoli, an endlessly quotable teenage slacker who's often credited as the first "surfer stoner" to appear on film (as opposed to just "regular" stoners like Cheech and Chong, Carl Spackler in "Caddyshack" and Dennis Hopper in, well, just about anything). The good-natured Shakespearean fool of Ridgemont High, Spicoli often clashes with his history teacher, Mr. Hand (Ray Walston), as he looks to live a life consisting of little more than "tasty waves and a cool buzz" -- though a surfing trip to Hawaii would be pretty awesome, too.
30 years later, Spicoli appears to have made it to the Aloha State, as Sean Penn was recently spotted walking the beaches of Maui wearing nothing but a pair of blue swim trunks. After losing a ton of weight to play San Francisco politician Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant's "Milk," Penn now looks to be in better shape than he's ever been in his life, though his ripped physique doesn't appear to be for any upcoming film role -- apparently, the single life just agrees with this dude, as he's done some deep soul searching since his 2010 divorce from Robin Wright:
"When you get divorced, all the truths that come out, you sit there and you go, 'What the f**k was I doing? What was I doing believing that this person was invested in this way?' Which is a fantastically strong humiliation in the best sense," he said in an interview with Esquire. "It can make somebody very bitter and very hard and closed off, but I find it does the opposite to me."
The once and always Spicoli has certainly been keeping busy with both his much-publicized political activism and, of course, his film career. He recently returned from Bolivia, where he successfully convinced President Evo Morales to release a jailed American businessman Jacob Ostreicher. And he's already receiving raves for his turn as temperamental mobster Mickey Cohen in "Gangster Squad," opening January 11.
Penn also has two directing gigs lined up: "Crazy For the Storm," a survival drama starring his "Gangster Squad" pal Josh Brolin, and "The Comedian," a dark comedy featuring his "We're No Angels" (remember that one?) co-star Robert De Niro and Kristen Wiig.