October 2015 - Ramblin' with Roger

October rambling #2: absquatulate

I have a stuffed lion with a wild mane which I named Lenny.

The office move is mostly complete, but the inner offices are chaos. The recovery goes well, so now I’m trying to catch up on everything that got put on hold.

How Propaganda Works.

The Rise and Impact of Digital Amnesia.

Re: Hassan v. City of New York lawsuit against the NYPD over its surveillance program targeting Muslims. Plus the dreadful Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Greenland Is Melting Away.

MIT Technology Review: Why Self-Driving Cars Must Be Programmed to Kill.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

There are No Innocent Black People.

Buck Rogers and the Copyright Trolls.

Plus The Orwell estate is cracking down on people who dare to use the number “1984” without permission.

Pope Francis has NOT endorsed Bernie Sanders for President.

The 1,657 TV shows that spent less time on the air than the Hillary Clinton Benghazi hearing.

Pastor, former Arkansas governor, and current Republican candidate Mike Huckabee Suggests Poor People Should Be Sold Into Slavery For Stealing.

The Atlantic has a LOT of interesting videos on various topics, among them ‘Don’t Sneak’: A Father’s Command to His Gay Son in the 1950s.

Say “no” more often. You’ll be happier and healthier.

6 Phrases With Surprisingly Racist Origins.

Jim Crow-Era Travel Guides for Black Families Now Online Through Schomburg. Hey, I wrote about this.

Arthur does some Internet Wading: Truth and facts. I almost picked items 2 and 3 myself for this feature in my blog.

There’s an online petition to Congress to end Daylight Saving Time, which I signed, because DST makes no sense.

Happy 600th Anniversary of The Battle of Agincourt.

Cole slaw killed Ogden Nash.

I still need to see more films with Maureen O’Hara, the lovely actress who died recently at the age of 95.

Albany basketball legend Luther “Ticky” Burden died.

Marty Ingels, R.I.P. I watched I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster the year it was on. And Al Molinaro died, who I watched on The Odd Couple and Happy Days.

‘First Lady of Jazz,’ Lee Shaw, dies at 89. I talked with her a couple times during breaks in her sets. She was a wonderfully gracious, and an amazingly talented musician.

This month marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the passing of Leonard Bernstein. True: I have a stuffed lion with a wild mane which I named Lenny, in honor of the composer and conductor.

The Beatles “Revolution” Original Video, Remastered, New Audio Mix. My FAVORITE iteration of this song. Also, A Day In The Life.

LISTEN NOW, before it disappears. First Listen: Bob Dylan, ‘The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12’.

There’s a reason so many people love ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’

K-Chuck Radio: The Rocshire Memories. Featuring a song by Eddie Munster.

The three times Nasreddin was called upon to speak in public.

The word absquatulate came out of an odd fad in America in the 1830s for making playful words that sounded vaguely Latin. My spell checker recognizes it, too, Dan!

Now I Know: The Epidemic That Saved Lives and Winnie the Pooh-Poohed and Cattaxtrophy.

Advice From the Creator of Calvin and Hobbes; Comic by Zen Pencils. Words by Bill Watterson, art by Gavin Aung Than.

About comic book inking.

Ken Levine mentions Oscar Levant, confuses readers, comes up with a list of some people you might want to know.

Bob and Ray, and Dave Garroway, plugging the new show called TODAY.

GOOGLE ALERT (me)

The TWCQT gang reflects on which penciler/inker teams have had the most impact on them.

Alan David Doane Remembering His Mom on Her 90th Birthday.

GOOGLE ALERT (not me)

Would-be Bond: The naked truth. “Enter New Zealander Roger Green – ex-All Blacks rugby union player, ex-sheep farmer, and party animal.”

Colonial Heights (VA) mourns loss of Roger Green of the Chamber of Commerce. “Green had been battling Urachal cancer, a rare form of bladder cancer, for several months. He was 64 years old.”

Halloween 2015

There’s only one thing you’ve never done but are guaranteed to do.

From JEOPARDY! Show #7149 – Thursday, October 15, 2015. HALLOWEEN COSTUME IDEAS
*Dye some gauze in black tea for an aged look & wrap yourself up as this guy whom Abbott & Costello met in a 1955 film
*Why not dress up as this Barrie character, the boy who would not grow up
*Roll up the sleeves of a blue denim workshirt, put a red bandana in your hair & you can be this feminist WWII icon
*A costume for 2: this double-crossing pair from Mad magazine, one in black & one in white, created by Antonio Prohias
*If the guys are gangsters, wear fringed dresses & be these ’20s gals found in a Fitzgerald title

Answers below

Arthur’s Halloween stuff, some crossover with Stuff you may not have known about Halloween.

JibJab Halloween cards.

Some seasonal GIFs

Pumpkin recipes.

Zombie pancake.

Vegan Halloween Candy List.

Calvin and Hobbes’ tips for trick-or-treating.

You should just read about 90% of the October posts from SamuraiFrog.

Halloween, by the numbers. For you Census geeks.

Jaquandor’s musical Something for Thursday (Halloween edition).

Steve Bissette: How To Design The Perfect Horror Cover.

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe – Read by Christopher Walken.

5 Great Outdoor Halloween Ideas.

There’s only one thing you’ve never done but are guaranteed to do.

JEOPARDY! responses
The Mummy
Peter Pan
Rosie the Riveter
Spy vs. Spy
Flappers

Music Throwback Saturday: Sweet Inspiration

The song Sweet Inspiration was the biggest hit for the group The Sweet Inspirations.

“The Sweet Inspirations were an American R&B girl group founded by Emily “Cissy” Houston (née Drinkard), mother of Whitney Houston, and sister of Lee Warrick (herself the mother of well-known sisters Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick).

“The group sang backup for many stars, including Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and Esther Phillips… [They] provided the backup vocals for Van Morrison on his classic hit ‘Brown Eyed Girl’…In 1967, the group did backing vocals for the Jimi Hendrix single “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” which was later featured on the album Electric Ladyland in 1968. They also backed Dusty Springfield on her album Dusty in Memphis.

“In 1969… The Sweet Inspirations also began recording and touring with Elvis Presley as both background singers and his warm-up act, as well as doing occasional ‘live’ dates with Aretha Franklin.”

In the midst of this work for others, the group managed to put out some albums in their own right. The song Sweet Inspiration was the biggest hit for the group, going to #18 on the pop charts and #5 on the soul charts.

Cissy Houston left the group in 1969, but various iterations of the group are still performing.

LISTEN to Sweet Inspiration by the Sweet Inspirations, and by the New Zealand group The Yandell Sisters.

Baseball by the (uniform) numbers

Only three players each have worn numbers 78, 79, 81, 91 and 94.

This is a picture of Ed Glynn. You probably never heard of him, and I barely remember him myself. He was a journeyman pitcher, for the New York Mets in 1979-1980, and other teams over a ten-year career.

I mention him only because my friend Walter is Glynn’s cousin, and he mentioned that the current #48 for the Mets is the great young pitcher Jacob deGrom. If one goes to the page about the Mets at baseball-reference.com, one finds all sorts of information about the team’s history, including the fact that they’ve retired the number of only one Mets player in its history, Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, #41.

Further into the minutia hole, one can discover the name of every single player who ever donned a Mets uniform. I’m using the Mets as an example here, but this is true of every team in Major League Baseball, past, and present, though some of those very early teams didn’t use numbered uniforms.

And, one can find out how many people in all of MLB have worn a particular uniform number. 862 players have worn #22 over the years, and 839 have had #27. Glynn and deGrom are two of 506 players to wear #48.

The higher numbers are not as well regarded. Only three players each have worn numbers 78, 79, 81, 91, and 94. Two each have donned 83, 84, 85, and 96. There has only been one person to have worn, as a regular player, not just spring training, the numbers 80, 82, 87, 95, 97, and 98. And NO one has had 86, 89, 90, 92, or 93.

This means that, if you’re going to be a Major League Baseball player, pick a high uniform number. You’ll have a better chance at being the best #89 ever!
***
For the First Time in History, the World Series Is Between 2 Teams That Were Never Segregated.

Twenty-Five Fun Facts About the 2015 Mets.

P is for popularity of names

“Roger” was the 31st most popular boy’s name in 1953.

My friend Arthur did this some time back, based on this TIME magazine article, which, not incidentally, is US-centric.

“The popularity of your name is likely far different today than it was the year you were born. Maybe you’re one of those men born in 1983 and named Michael, the most popular name of the year.

“Today, if you were given the most popular boy’s name, you’d be named Noah. The following interactive shows you which name had the same popularity in the past year and every decade since 1890 as yours did the year you were born, using [then] newly released baby name data for 2014.”

The premise is slightly misleading in that, early on, there was a paucity in the diversity of names. For boys, John and William were heavily used in the 1880s (89,951 and 84,881, respectively), well ahead of James (54,058). For girls, Mary (91,669) was even more dominant; Anna (38,159) and Emma (25,404) were far behind.

Still: “Roger” was the 31st most popular boy’s name in 1953. It was MOST popular in 1945, hitting its peak of #22, I dare say, because of World War II: “Roger that. Roger over and out.”

My name today would be Oliver, a name I associate with the TV show Green Acres, Charles Dickens, and Elvis Costello.

My 2000s name is Isaac, a good biblical name, son of Abraham (nearly sacrificed) and Sarah, and father of Jacob and Esau.
My 1990s name is Mark, my brother-in-law’s name, and the shortest of the Gospels in the Bible.
My 1980s name is Edward, my great uncle’s name on my maternal grandmother’s side.
My 1970s name is Terry. I knew a guy named Terry in the 1970s at college and worked with a woman named Terry in the 1990s.
My 1960s name is Alan. Not incidentally, the Social Security list does not combine spellings, such as Allan and Allen.
My 1950s name is Henry, the VIII, and Aldrich.
My 1940s name is Ernest, another great uncle’s name on my maternal grandmother’s side.
My 1930s name is Leonard, as in Bernstein, and Nimoy.
My 1920s name is Elmer, as in Bernstein, and Fudd.
My 1910s name is Eddie, as in the Renaissance Geek, though that’s not his given name.
My 1900s name is Alfred, as in Tennyson or Batman’s butler.
My 1890s name is Sam, promoter of Green Eggs and Ham, or the Sham.

“Name trends are provided by the Social Security Administration… This tool only searches for names of the same gender as what you entered at the top. Many names have drifted from being associated with boys to being associated with girls over the years, so it can appear as though female names are showing up in the male results.”

ABC Wednesday – Round 17