Baseball Digest, September 1946:
Things I found while scanning the a little more than one month of the New York Times in Times Machine:
Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted
President Coolidge announced he did not choose to run again in 1928
Henry Ford claimed all this talk of him hating Jews was nonsense, and he renounced the Dearborn Independent's anti-Semitic stories as having been published without his knowledge. And The Protocols of the Elders of Zion? Total bushwa!
The Times also had a photo of 15-month-old Princess Elizabeth and her mother.
The BG News, February 18, 1983. The writer is a 26-year-old who'd been reading Doonesbury since Day 1.
Watched some of Harold Lloyd's "Speedy" this evening. Not surprisingly, there are a few websites that research the baseball events in the movie. What I couldn't find was a reference to the scene when Lloyd's character buys a newspaper after yet another job blows up on him. This is at about the 11-minute mark. On our large flatscreen, it's possible to read parts of some headlines from page 1 of the New York Times: "Subway Blast", "Baltimore Mayor".
Narrowing it down, filming took place in summer 1927, and a few other occurrences are placed in the July-August timeframe.
So I called up the Times Machine and started looking at Page 1 on July 1. My hunch was right, and I found the headline on the issue of August 7, 1927.
There, a contribution to cinema history. <Bows deeply>
There's a Twitter feed that posts screen shots from old TV Guides and Chicago-area television listings, and yesterday, they put up three pages that they said were from April 24, 1955.
Except I looked at them and saw listings for Maverick and a color episode of Dinah Shore, and I know good and well they weren't around that year.
Another listing was for GE Theatre, airing a pilot for a show about a flinty old Yankee and the younger city slicker he had to work with. That premise sounded like Ichabod and Me, which went on and failed in 1961 or so. IMDB had the rest: Let the record show, Adams' Apples was on GE Theatre on April 24, 1960.
Eyes are blurry and I have to get up for work tomorrow morning, but before I shut down, there's this I want to remember...
Somebody else mowed the lawn today. Actually there were two riding mowers out there, and two guys sharing the trimming and loose-grass blowing duties. Taking away a chore I dislike is a sure way to get on my good side.
Found a reference to the 1953 Ford 50th anniversary show, and how about that, there's a kinescope on YouTube. Two hours of big stars, some more long-lasting (Ethel Merman, Mary Martin) than others (Wally Cox, Kukla and Ollie without Fran Allison). And hey, the show that the New York Times reviewer called "Terrific!" still holds up today. Forty-five minutes in, and I haven't once felt like forwarding to something else.
Let's see, what else? The first episode of the new season of Cocaine and Rhinestones, focusing on Starday Records, where George Jones got his start. I like this history podcast as much as You Must Remember This.
Wally Cox again: a 1953 Mr. Peepers. That was one of those shows I knew only after it went off the air, and due to its reputation I've tried watching it more than once, but the Reynolds Aluminum commercials hold my attention more than the show.
The motion-detector light went on once this evening. Not a cat, not even a raccoon. For the first time, a fox. Not very red, though, and I didn't get much of a look at it before it turned tail and ran, so if someone else were to tell me it was actually a coyote, I couldn't swear they were wrong.
Saw a clip from Groucho's Bell Telephone Hour version of The Mikado on YouTube. That's NBC saying thanks for all those seasons of You Bet Your Life. Later, found the original videotape of Of Thee I Sing, shown once on CBS in 1972. That's CBS saying thanks to Carroll O'Connor for All in the Family.
So anyway, I cannot say my current feelings can be described as "languishing."
On a Friday of PTO, BB and I ran some errands in her Subaru Outback. Yard waste to the township dumping grounds, signed tax documents to the accountant's office, and getting groceries at Wegmans.
At that last stop, I pulled into a parking spot, turned off the engine, and tried to pull the key from the ignition, unsuccessfully. This is a problem BB has had before, but she couldn't remember what the Subaru dealership told her about working around it. I considered driving to that dealership, then realized there had to be some information out there already, so I pulled out my phone and Googled the symptoms.
The first result didn't help much (it involved a Phillips screwdriver and unplugging something under the cover), but the second result was what we needed. Put it in Auxiliary, put your foot on the brake, and move the shifter from Park to Drive and back again.
Then I took the key out of the ignition and Pat and I went into Wegmans.
Activity: 1 lap around the development in the late afternoon, a few hundred yards with BB in the early afternoon, and moseying around Walmart in search of bird seed and lemonade.
Visitor cats who set off the motion detector: today, it was first Blott, then the gray tom, then Blott, who polished off the half-can of Friskies set out on the plate just outside the back door. I put the other half on the same plate, and moments ago Blott finished that, too.
Blott took off when he saw me, but for the first time, the gray tom did not run for his life.
Yesterday, a raccoon visited, and I chased him away from the cats' food with a few shakes of the can of coins we keep next to the television.
Over the weekend, I watched the last few minutes of an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies. Something good was coming on at the top of the hour, and I had some time to kill before then.
Today, I was sniffing around the virtual rabbit hole online, which led me to a website devoted to old time TV. The posts stopped in 2015, but the Google link was still live, and on a screen full of TV Guide listings, there was one page from December 1963 that included the listing for that same episode of the Beverly Hillbillies. Coincidence? I think so.
English can be so funny sometimes, you know? But after riffling through some possible follow-ups, I believe I'll leave the jokes to you.
I would like to know, though: Was it before or after the family passed around the bier?
"...and a Happy Heart." Here I am, days away from being able to apply for Medicare (3 months before the age 65 birthday in July) and I'm walking around the block just like I did when we moved here in 1998. Legs are strong climbing the incline, not even breathing hard. Gee, I'm a lucky stiff.
To help me stay that way, my 1st Covid-19 shot is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 1:30. Had to schedule it a half-hour drive from here because everything else related to the hospital was booked solid.
My employer gives us four paid hours off for a Covid-19 vaccination, so BB and I are going to take some of that time post-Fauci Ouchi and shop at the ShopRite right down the highway.
During the walk, I listened to "Cocaine and Rhinestones" a sort of "You Must Remember This," Nashville edition.
Also during the walk, spotted four cottontails, nibbling at sunset.
Across the street, in the "Mayor's" yard, walking around like he was evaluating the property, was Blott. He strode down the driveway until he reached the sidewalk, and followed that until he was out of sight behind some landscaping.
Maybe it's the spring weather, maybe it's something else, but I feel more like plowing into some tasks that have been out there for awhile. You've been told already about photo tagging using Adobe Bridge.
Yesterday and today, I went through a half-dozen hard drives that had been used for data backup prior to Dropbox. At the end of the day, I had two re-formatted 1 TB hard drives and two Apricorn external enclosures holding them.
The third Apricorn enclosure that only worked with ATA drives and FireWire output is in the trash, as is a Macally enclosure that held a couple of 250 GB drives and didn't power up. There was no market for either enclosure on eBay.
Knowing obsolete when I see it, joining the enclosures soon to be taken to the road are a small pile of hard drives to be drilled, hammered, and generally ruined beyond repair, then placed in a bag of used kitty litter and dropped in the trash. I've already done that to one of them, and damn if it didn't feel good. Even remembering how much they cost doesn't faze me -- they served their purpose, and now there's something else in that role.
Never thought of it this way until now: the first season of a TV show tells its story across the episodes. If the show continues, subsequent seasons are sequels, and how many sequels are as good as the original? Having Netflix has given me an opportunity to watch some shows that I ignored the first time around, such as Bojack Horseman, 30 Rock, and The Good Place. It might have been Mark Evanier or Ken Levine who wrote it, but the way I remember it, the way they put it was that after the first season, the team responsible for a show looks at each other and said, "What do we do now?" And it shows.
Today from Pop Cultch Gulch:
- More tagging photos with Adobe Bridge
- A half-hour of A Hard Day's Night
- A few minutes of Trading Places (Ralph Bellamy, 40-plus years after The Awful Truth, which I also watched this week)
- Put on Sparks' Balls and Li'l Beethoven while at work
- Figuratively thumbed through the entries in my Feedly feed
- Listened to chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby while playing Fishdom 2
Friday, and a payday, so I've got that much going for me...
After the little black pooshka began hanging around, there were a few other cats who stopped by. One of them, the big ol' creampuff with orange and white fur, seemed to win the pooshka's paw in mate-ship. We saw the two of them together regularly on the deck, and occasionally elsewhere. Once he sat at the rear of the property after eating to wait for her to finish a meal and clean up afterward, and then she walked to him and they left together.
Another time I followed him with my eyes after he walked away, and he crossed the street onto another family's property. Then from his right, the pooshka ran up to him and they walked together out of my sight.
This doesn't have a happy ending, though. He would appear some evenings, battered and bloody. Eventually, he stopped appearing at all. For a couple of days, neither did the pooshka, and I'd like to think she stayed with him until he didn't need her anymore.
So now the pooshka comes to us alone. But that doesn't mean she's the only cat who visits now. There's the shy gray guy who sprints away if he detects the presence of any human.
And recent days, there's another tom. This one has a mostly orange head and a completely orange tail, and in between is a white body with a few small blotches of orange. I've broken the rule against naming visitor cats and dubbed him Blott, after the Tom Sharpe novel.
The first couple of times Blott visited, he was as wary as either of the other two toms, the creampuff and the shy gray guy, but last night was different. He saw me through the back door and turned to walk away, but after a few steps, he stopped, regarded me with greater distance, and walked back to eat some more of the little black pooshka's food.
Tonight, it was warm enough to keep the back door open, and so the fresh-air loving pooshkateers were all gathered at the screen when Blott arrived. Meows came from outside and were countered with low growls from Kit and Nelson. Blott sized up the situation and decided to follow his stomach instead of his instincts.
When he finished the leftovers we'd set out for the pooshka, he turned to her freshly-opened can of tuna Fancy Feast, and that's when I stood up so he could see me. Blott stared, then turned and dashed down the steps and into the darkness.
For now, anyway.
Accessed audio books for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and I Would Be Doing This Anyway. Planning on canceling Kindle Unlimited before the 2-month free trial is up. There may be audio books, but not much I'm interested in, and what there is is mighty hard to find. Now, if I'm willing to shell out $15 a month, Audible promises the earth, moon, and stars. I'm not yet persuaded.
A sunny spring day, warm enough that I walked around the entire oval of the development, a few hundred yards. Nice to be able to do it without pain or fatigue. Times like this, I forget that I was born during the 1st Eisenhower Administration, when the U.S. flag still had only 48 stars.
Began watching The Awful Truth, but paused it 20 minutes in and didn't get back to it. But I have the day off tomorrow.
All that, and the usual news reading, the Post, the Times, and Le Monde.
Good day to grill pork chops. I know, because that's what I did.
Whole Foods, Wegmans, home. Baked cookies. Washed the dishes. Watched some Minnesota-Iowa. Made pizza. Made the bed. Loved on Good Queen Swirly. Fed the little black pooshka.
