In memoriam

Studs Terkel has died.

(Edited to add:  Roger Ebert reposted the article he'd done on the occasion of Studs's 95th birthday and also has up a memory.) 

P.S.

Phillies won the Series.

What'd I tell you?

Space Oddity

Hullabaloo's Tristero spots funny business at A.I.G.

You betcha.

(I'm getting too terse for my own good.)

References for "Nostalgia"

As I said, research.  First, of course, the Wikipedia article on Stan Freberg.  Then Radio Hall of Fame.  A 1995 column by Mark Evanier.  Some samples of the work.

Yup.

I Googled, and Wowwwweeeee!

When Radio Was, by the way, went off in 2006.  Oh, well...

Nostalgia

This morning I got up with a powerful urge to hear Stan Freberg, who I last heard doing a show called When Radio Was on a radio station whose call letters I have totally forgotten.  

Probably because I saw a couple of YouTube videos  that bore the hallmarks of extensive seminars with Freberg the Ad Man.  And because in childhood, I heard a lot of Freberg the Funny Radio Guy.

Research time!

Roosting Chickens Redux

Lower Manhattanite puts Ashley Todd into historical perspective and drops her hoax at the feet of Sen. McCain.

Oh, Well

I was going to link to Feministing's Samhita's essay, Ten Things I Absolutely Hate About Heteronormative Dating, but got hijacked by Robin Hood:  Men in Tights.  (Tight tights.)

And The Angels High-Five

Shakesville has posted this inspirational story.  (Original in Austin American-Statesman; link from Shakesville.)

Silliness

Presumably for the week, Live Journal is Undead Journal.

It's Too Early for Football Metaphors!

Avedon gets the touchdown.

A taste:

"What the last eight years have taught us is that when wealthy oligarchs and corporations have too much power, they pull the strings on an increasingly authoritarian government, and thus we have neither equality nor liberty - only the Malefactors of Great Wealth have liberty, and they detest the very idea of equality with the masses. Thus we have seen decreasing economic freedom, limited upward mobility and increasing downward mobility, and the imposition of the laws of a police state overwhelming our country at the hands of the patrician and corporate elite."

(Found my Harper's, which has a chewy review of books on the blues and blues masters.)

All Right, Then

Too much politics.  Not enough opera.

This must change.

Remember

Ilyka of Off Our Pedestals with a little historical perspective on conservatism.  And a dance video.  

Because the rot didn't begin with Ronald Reagan.  A brief excerpt:

"What was missing from Nixon’s populism, of course, were all the regular ordinary average American Joes and Janes who didn’t look like Nixon. It was the same thing missing from Ronald Reagan’s populism and the same thing that is missing now from Sarah Palin’s populism.

So when I write things like this, I am not saying, “Democrats, you need to talk lots more dumberer and speak to the very real and pressing needs of Joe the Plumber.” I am saying that for over fifty years now–really quite a lot longer than that, but let’s keep things manageable–conservatives have left a vacuum in their pseudopopulism, and there are times I grow impatient with the reluctance of Democrats to fill it by speaking to people who are eager, able, and committed to change–to fixing what’s broken instead of tantrumming like a Buckley. Only, whoops!–They don’t consider their lives and their work an academic aside or an elective course. They think that they matter. They are right."

The new Harper's is in here somewhere...

"I'm Just a Singer in a Rock & Roll Band"

My, that old stock market is bouncing around a lot, isn't it?  (But still above 8300.  I'll give it that.)

Grump

Via Skippy, this letter to the editors at Time from which I'm exhibiting 2 sentences:

Thanks for letting me know that you feel women are incapable of forming opinions about candidates based on their positions and public behavior rather than how they wear their hair. Were I to continue to read your magazine, I'd look forward to the follow-up article opining that men who vote against Obama are just jealous of his adorable ears.

Because lazy journalism and/or editing at organs of the Mainstream Media?  Does. Not. Help.

I love Jon Carroll.

A taste:

So I need to ask you: Can you help? Do you have an opinion lying around the house that you're not using, perhaps one that you used to believe but no longer have faith in? At this point, no one is even paying attention. The opinion should contain phrases like "potentially" or "if current trends continue." And, if possible, it should be contrarian. 

Only you can prevent an opinion shortage.

Ah-Hah Moment

"Nobis" is the dative case!

(No, I never studied Latin.  Why?)

Minus 514

Time to dust off those Thirties musicals.  And King Kong.  The real one.

Oh, Well

Hairspray and Spamalot are closing.

"I deeply resent..."

"...the way this administration makes me feel like a nutbar conspiracy theorist." 

--Teresa Nielsen Hayden

You might try reading this.  Because Teresa Nielsen Hayden is usually right.

Money shot quote:

"I find it offensive that Alexander Bolton is equating potential voter protests with fans being upset over a lost football game. I likewise find it offensive that he dismisses that potential reaction “taking the loss badly.” We’re talking about people protesting the abrogation of their most basic political rights."

Seriously.

Illustration of Today's Lesson

Lifted from Whatever, the sort of respectful discourse that goes on in Richmond, Virginia.

I doubt Christ would have any trouble recognizing the Christian in this story.

Today's Lesson

Karma-wise, it doesn't matter what the other guy would do to you, given a chance;  it matters what you do.

World Series

It's Tampa Bay v. Philadelphia.

No particular rooting interest.  Lenny Dykstra is long retired, and the ex-A's (Joe Blanton--remember Joe Blanton?--and Carlos Peña are the ones I know about) balance each other out.

ETA:  How did I forget Matt Stairs?  Now I'll have to research ex-Mets.  At this late date, only the coaches would have played on championship teams, but last time the Phils were in it, the ex-Met, ex-Athletic, extra-points-for-championship-teams factor came down to the Blue Jays' coach Galen Cisco. 

Probable incomplete list:

1. Cliff Floyd, ex-Met
   
2. Steve Henderson, ex-Met and ex-A (coach)
   
3. Chad Bradford, ex-A
   
4. Davey Lopes, ex-A (coach)
5. Milt Thompson (coach) was on the '93 Phillies
   

6 ex-As.  2 ex-Mets.  3 with the Rays.  4 with the Phils.  Oh, well.

By Labyrinthine Means

As a side note:  I have the occasional quirk of randomly clicking on a link in somebody else's blogroll and seeing where it takes me. (This used to be more common back in the previous century.)  Sometimes I end up four or five links away from the originating site, with no idea how I got there and no way to find it again.  I pretty much have to bookmark it then and there.  So it is that years later, I am croggled by old bookmarks I don't remember saving and don't know why ever I thought that was funny or insightful.

I know why I have CBC.ca.  I don't really remember latching on to "The Sith Explained."

That said:  This is way too much fun.  It is Not Safe For Work, not for nudity, language, or adult concepts, but because one can spend a lot of time teasing out the little gags, some of which only work once.  (Some things you mouse over.  Some you click.)

Found via Just An Earth-Bound Misfit, which was, so to speak, a random hit on the roll at Brilliant At Breakfast, which I discovered early last year? via either The Sideshow or The News Blog.  I think.

Levi Stubbs has died.

With The Four Tops:

And, of course, as Audrey II...

Saying

There is no occasion so arcane that a reference to Edgar Allan Poe cannot be teased out.

October 16 is...

Oscar Wilde's birthday.

Drop a well-honed epigram on your friends in his honor today.

Oddity

I keep finding that my soul, in the gradual finding my way to God, does better with poetry.  That is, it translates the search for the Divine into fragments of verse.

Giblets This Time

...on Barack Obama!

And saved the best for last, too!

Musical Obit

So Neal Hefti died, and they list him as being famous for the Batman theme, and I said, I distinctly remember he composed lots of stuff, so I looked it up.

The Odd Couple theme.  I think I hum that more.

Falsch

I loathe and despise the mindset which declares that marketing (the art of, because it's no science) has anything to say to me.  That "Survey Says" is the only criterion of something's value.  That only people in the desired demographic of the product are allowed to consume it.  And that goods and services must be marketed to specific groups, as determined by fitting questionnaire data into "appropriate" stereotypes.

Rant elicited by two different blogs today.

In other news, can I assume that GoldenAgeStories dot com is a Bridge Publications front?  There's advertising on buses, but there appears to be only one author...