Paul and I were at the Goodwill on St. Andrews Road, but I was wandering about by myself. We noticed on the drive over some unbelievably threatening looking clouds and shortly after we got in the car, they let loose like crazy. This sometimes can lead to a good deal of crazy in otherwise somewhat stable people. Anyway, that's my excuse.
I was looking at the artworks when I saw a whiteboard with the words "Safety tip" at the top and a cartoon of a gopher in a toolbelt to the right. I just fell over. A couple of ladies nearby each asked me what was so funny. To tell the truth, I just think it's inherently funny. Heck, the gopher in a toolbelt is inherently funny. I did tell them what I was thinking, which was that I wanted to get a Sharpie and write, "NEVER give a toolbelt to a gopher!" (i.e., as a safety tip). I don't think they believed me; I bet they still want to hear what the REALLY funny thing I was thinking was!
I later learned that the gopher is a member of the Wonder Pets, apparently big with the preschool set. I am assured that I can hate someone forever just by following his suggestion that I look up and listen to the Wonder Pet theme, but I couldn't handle that much responsibility. Maybe a Wikipedia hunt is in order, though.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sunday, August 30, 2015
"This would help!"
My total at Aldi was $10.29. I was counting out the four pennies and handing over the quarter when I realized that I was still holding the ten in my left hand. "This would help!" I said, handing it over. Now THAT isn't senile dementia. Decades ago, whatever it was, if it went into my left hand, it disappeared. I have literally looked all over for objects I was holding (one at a time, mind you) in my left hand. It's when the stuff in my right hand goes out of sight and out of mind that I will be worried. Anyway, the checker was amused.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
The perils of virtuosity
Virtuosity may or may not have been a word as of this morning, but it is now. Floyd Cramer was a piano player, most prominent in the '50s and '60s, a father of the Nashville Sound and generally considered to be a virtuoso. I had heard of him and saw one of his Best of records at a thrift store for a dollar and decided to take the plunge. (The fact that I had him confused with Les Paul had nothing to do with this decision.) The tunes were selected (oh sorry, it's 2015; the record was curated) by Paul Williams, a fellow who took a lot of unfortunate acting gigs in the '70s, but who also wrote Evergreen and Out In The Country, so no bozo.
Still, maybe another curator might have been better. This is a pretty bad record. Or it sounds that way now. Floyd originated (I think) a lot of the little figures and effects that became popular and then run into the ground in Nashville later. Think Charlie Rich. In fact, listening to the record and since then, I can't stop thinking about Charlie Rich. Those little piano figures probably weren't twee when Floyd did them. Hell, they probably weren't twee when Charlie did them on Behind Closed Doors. It was more a problem with it getting played a few million times. One grows tired.
Anyway, if you ever come across a rockin' Floyd Cramer record, send it my way. I did like his Flip Flop and Bop. (Paul Williams did pick one good one! Oh wait, to be fair to Paul, he was the producer of the compilation. Somebody else curated. Sorry about that, Mr. Williams!) But if you come across The Essential Floyd Cramer, unless you like Muzak, pass on by. Flip Flop and Bop is one of only two cuts on the record recorded during the '50s. That's it; I'm a '50s Cramer aficionado!
Still, maybe another curator might have been better. This is a pretty bad record. Or it sounds that way now. Floyd originated (I think) a lot of the little figures and effects that became popular and then run into the ground in Nashville later. Think Charlie Rich. In fact, listening to the record and since then, I can't stop thinking about Charlie Rich. Those little piano figures probably weren't twee when Floyd did them. Hell, they probably weren't twee when Charlie did them on Behind Closed Doors. It was more a problem with it getting played a few million times. One grows tired.
Anyway, if you ever come across a rockin' Floyd Cramer record, send it my way. I did like his Flip Flop and Bop. (Paul Williams did pick one good one! Oh wait, to be fair to Paul, he was the producer of the compilation. Somebody else curated. Sorry about that, Mr. Williams!) But if you come across The Essential Floyd Cramer, unless you like Muzak, pass on by. Flip Flop and Bop is one of only two cuts on the record recorded during the '50s. That's it; I'm a '50s Cramer aficionado!
Friday, August 28, 2015
Post quick!
Ow! This morning, I was perusing Facebook, minding my own business, when Firefox announced that a new update was ready and downloaded and did I want to install it? Innocently, I chose yes, and have been away the rest of the morning. Instead of restarting like it usually does, Firefox just vanished. It was gone from the computer. I tried a System Restore, then two more but it stayed gone. The last one though was so far back that Avast wanted to be updated and wanted the computer restarted first. With that, I at least had my Firefox shortcuts back... but they still didn't work.
This not being my first rodeo, I searched the computer very thoroughly and found a Firefox download from two years (and 16 versions) ago. Then I downloaded the update and disabled Avast to be on the safe side. This time worked. So I'm back again. Miss me?
Side item (NOW): to complain to Mozilla, I had to set up a Help account at their website. To post my question, I had to give them my email and then confirm it. To do that, I needed Firefox. Hey, didn't that work great? So lucky I could figure a solution for myself!
This not being my first rodeo, I searched the computer very thoroughly and found a Firefox download from two years (and 16 versions) ago. Then I downloaded the update and disabled Avast to be on the safe side. This time worked. So I'm back again. Miss me?
Side item (NOW): to complain to Mozilla, I had to set up a Help account at their website. To post my question, I had to give them my email and then confirm it. To do that, I needed Firefox. Hey, didn't that work great? So lucky I could figure a solution for myself!
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Your pals AT&T
When Dad was still living, I went to the power company (SC E&G) and tried to change his billing address such that bills would come to me. They made it sound like such a living hell that I just said bump this, and to this day pick up the bill at Margaret's. It made me a little jaded towards utilities.
Today I set out to change his landline's billing address, since William apparently is still using it. I went to the AT&T office building where I would pay my bills back during the previous millennium, but they aren't too customer-friendly anymore. In short, it's a fortress. I found that there are AT&T stores all over, though they're mainly for wireless. However, it was the only possibility that I could see so I tried one.
Boy do I feel like a doof! AT&T doesn't care if you're living, dead or undead so long as you pay. I was expecting to have to show the will, the death certificate, my appointment as whatever I'm appointed as, etc. The guy just got on the phone and talked to the billing people and changed the address. Meaning that I could have done the same. But hell, how was I to know? It was pretty fun to tell the truth. It was also funny that I couldn't actually pay the bill there. Anyway, not with a check. I felt so darned twentieth century again!
Today I set out to change his landline's billing address, since William apparently is still using it. I went to the AT&T office building where I would pay my bills back during the previous millennium, but they aren't too customer-friendly anymore. In short, it's a fortress. I found that there are AT&T stores all over, though they're mainly for wireless. However, it was the only possibility that I could see so I tried one.
Boy do I feel like a doof! AT&T doesn't care if you're living, dead or undead so long as you pay. I was expecting to have to show the will, the death certificate, my appointment as whatever I'm appointed as, etc. The guy just got on the phone and talked to the billing people and changed the address. Meaning that I could have done the same. But hell, how was I to know? It was pretty fun to tell the truth. It was also funny that I couldn't actually pay the bill there. Anyway, not with a check. I felt so darned twentieth century again!
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
New old-time radio
So I lucked (if that's the word) into a collection of radio plays from mid-'80s Canada. I asked my old-time radio group on Facebook what they thought and they waxed enthusiastic. It was a dollar for 6 cassettes with 12 half-hour shows, so not bank breaking.
The show is called "Vanishing Point." As one might guess from the title, they were trying for a "Twilight Zone" vibe. They didn't get there. Oh nononononononononono. I've noticed as the decades pass that few movies or tv shows that I see feature what one would call a sympathetic character. This apparently was the start of that trend. "When Bad Things Happen To Uninteresting People" might have been a better title. It's just unpleasant and largely pointless. I mean, apart from the bad writing and the bad acting, the show is fine. It's amazing how quickly the skill of writing for radio went away.
Part of the problem I would guess is Canadian actors trying not to sound Canadian. So while they didn't go oot or aboot nor do they end every sentence with eh, they pretty much drain all affect from their speech, too, which makes it sound like a zombie party. Granted, I've also heard a lot of bad old-time radio shows. (Understanding that 30 years ago is pretty old-time, too, nevertheless "old-time radio" mostly refers to the period ending about 1960.) But they at least were over the top and accidentally funny. This was just stinkburger city. Any "Vanishing Point" fans out there, I definitely have some tapes for you.
The show is called "Vanishing Point." As one might guess from the title, they were trying for a "Twilight Zone" vibe. They didn't get there. Oh nononononononononono. I've noticed as the decades pass that few movies or tv shows that I see feature what one would call a sympathetic character. This apparently was the start of that trend. "When Bad Things Happen To Uninteresting People" might have been a better title. It's just unpleasant and largely pointless. I mean, apart from the bad writing and the bad acting, the show is fine. It's amazing how quickly the skill of writing for radio went away.
Part of the problem I would guess is Canadian actors trying not to sound Canadian. So while they didn't go oot or aboot nor do they end every sentence with eh, they pretty much drain all affect from their speech, too, which makes it sound like a zombie party. Granted, I've also heard a lot of bad old-time radio shows. (Understanding that 30 years ago is pretty old-time, too, nevertheless "old-time radio" mostly refers to the period ending about 1960.) But they at least were over the top and accidentally funny. This was just stinkburger city. Any "Vanishing Point" fans out there, I definitely have some tapes for you.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Further non-plagiarism, this time about plagiarism
I read through John D. MacDonald's "No Deadly Drug" about the Carl Coppolino case. I was surprised that it ended with his acquittal in New Jersey. Since I didn't look up the history until after I finished, I was even more surprised that he was then convicted in Florida. (F. Lee Bailey had considered the New Jersey case the tougher one. But the dingbat wouldn't testify in his own defense in the second trial and got 12 1/2 years in Raiford to think about that mistake.) Of course in 1968 when the book came out, this had been all over the headlines only a year or so before so any reader would have known how the case turned out. It was kind of neat not knowing, really, as was this, a commentary on network TV news of the mid-'60s:
p. 649: "One evidence of how inadequately the television news programs prepare themselves for this kind of news is their willingness to move in, with lights and camera, when a principal in one of these trial dramas is being interviewed by the press. As the TV-men do not know what questions should be asked, and the newspaper people do, they let the newspaper people ask the questions, and in that sense they hitchhike on the interview and, more often than not, are on the air before the newspapers containing the interview hit the streets.
"As the pictures and the sound are both going onto the film strip, it becomes a curious kind of plagiarism. Today one does not see anywhere near as much of this on network time as was possible a year or so ago. The reason is that the hard-nosed newspaper people, realizing that they were being unfairly used by another media (sic) in competition with theirs, came up with a curiously effective defense.
"They merely began to salt their questions here and there with a few earthy expressions, of Anglo-Saxon derivation, unsuitable for television broadcast. 'Mr. Bailey, is Dr. Sheppard -------ed off at the treatment he got in the papers this time?' 'What the ------ does Dr. Sam plan to do now that it's all over?' 'Is he going to sue the Cleveland papers, or doesn't he give a --------?'
"The roars of indignation from the television crew have been ample proof of the effectiveness of the device. Of late the television people have had to conduct their own interviews, and find out in advance what questions to ask."
See? You don't get that in "Mad Men"!:)
p. 649: "One evidence of how inadequately the television news programs prepare themselves for this kind of news is their willingness to move in, with lights and camera, when a principal in one of these trial dramas is being interviewed by the press. As the TV-men do not know what questions should be asked, and the newspaper people do, they let the newspaper people ask the questions, and in that sense they hitchhike on the interview and, more often than not, are on the air before the newspapers containing the interview hit the streets.
"As the pictures and the sound are both going onto the film strip, it becomes a curious kind of plagiarism. Today one does not see anywhere near as much of this on network time as was possible a year or so ago. The reason is that the hard-nosed newspaper people, realizing that they were being unfairly used by another media (sic) in competition with theirs, came up with a curiously effective defense.
"They merely began to salt their questions here and there with a few earthy expressions, of Anglo-Saxon derivation, unsuitable for television broadcast. 'Mr. Bailey, is Dr. Sheppard -------ed off at the treatment he got in the papers this time?' 'What the ------ does Dr. Sam plan to do now that it's all over?' 'Is he going to sue the Cleveland papers, or doesn't he give a --------?'
"The roars of indignation from the television crew have been ample proof of the effectiveness of the device. Of late the television people have had to conduct their own interviews, and find out in advance what questions to ask."
See? You don't get that in "Mad Men"!:)
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