Posted in Regular Features, tagged Miscellaneous, People, Society on May 31, 2019| Leave a Comment »
The United States has become a place where entertainers and professional athletes are mistaken for people of importance.
— Robert A. Heinlein
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It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
— George Carlin
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The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
— Mark Twain
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Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
— Sholem Aleichem
Heinlein
Aleichem (Solomon Rabinovich)
Posted in Regular Features, tagged Humor, Miscellaneous, Opinion on May 23, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Regular Features, tagged Humor, Miscellaneous, Society on May 19, 2019| Leave a Comment »
NAMIB DESERT, AFRICA — A Namibian-German artist has installed a sound system in the Namib, the world’s oldest desert, that will play the 1982 soft rock classic Africa by the band Toto in a perpetual loop “for all eternity.”
The installation by artist Max Siedentopf consists of six speakers attached to an MP3 player powered by solar batteries. Mr. Siedentopf said he wanted to pay tribute to “probably the most popular song in the last four decades.”
Africa has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years and was one of the most-streamed songs of 2017.
BOSCAWEN, NEW HAMPSHIRE — When police responded to reports of a shooting at a local residence, a man at the house was arrested for biting a police dog.
When police arrived at the scene, they encountered two men who they found were wanted on outstanding warrants. The men attempted to flee. In the ensuing scuffle, one of the men bit a police dog, K9 Veda. Veda bit him back.
The unidentified man was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police dog.
One of the arresting officers observed that getting into a biting contest with a police dog is ill-advised.
WESLEY CHAPEL, FLORIDA — Last fall, local resident Don Swartz modified his Smart mini-car into a replica of Fred Flintstone’s “footmobile.”
Swartz then dressed up as Fred Flintstone and arranged to have the local police cite him for speeding as he drove around town.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office obliged. An officer stopped Swartz, gave him a faux citation, and took photos that were posted on the department’s Facebook page. “Yabba Daaba Doo!” the post concluded.
Swartz did not offer a rationale for the elaborate stunt.
Posted in Regular Features, tagged Music, People, Society on May 7, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Bob Dylan said he wrote ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ in ten minutes. “Just put words to an old spiritual, probably something I learned from Carter Family records. That’s the folk tradition. You use what’s been handed down.”
I read somewhere that “Blowin’ in the Wind” succeeds because it’s ambiguous enough to have meaning for everyone. Fair enough, but the song has plenty more going for it.
It had the chops to became an anthem of the anti-war movement, to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and to place no. 14 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The “old spiritual” to which Dylan put words is “No More Auction Block,” a marching song of black soldiers during the Civil War, origin unknown. Dylan performed that, too.
Dylan also said this about “Blowin’ in the Wind”:
“It’s critical and it’s hard, this litany of questions about what’s wrong with the world. If one had to choose one subject to label the song, it would be a song asking ‘why.’ In other words, it asks why we have the issues we do in our world. The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
By Bob Dylan, 1963
Written by Bob Dylan
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Posted in Regular Features, tagged Miscellaneous, People, Society on April 29, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company.
— Benjamin Franklin Wade
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Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favors you have received.
— Seneca the Younger
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I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too big a burden to bear.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Wisdom is the reward for surviving your own stupidity.
— Brian Rathbone
Wade
Rathbone
Posted in Regular Features, tagged Humor, Miscellaneous, Society on April 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Regular Features, tagged History, Miscellaneous, People, Society on April 9, 2019| Leave a Comment »
The Questions…
1. Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper gave rise to two well-known superstitions. One is never seating 13 people at the dinner table. What is the other?
2. Bank of America was founded in 1904. Under what name was it established?
3. What British-born movie producer/director/actor/puppeteer is the voice of Miss Piggy and other Muppet characters, plus the voice of Cookie Monster and other Sesame Street characters, plus the voice of Yoda in the Star Wars films?
4. In 2001, pro football inducted a non-player, George Toma, into the Hall of Fame. Who is Toma?
5. What and where is Null Island?
The Answers…
1. In the painting, Judas is knocking over a container of salt with his arm, which led to the superstition that spilling salt is a bad omen.
2. BofA began as the Bank of Italy in San Francisco’s Little Italy neighborhood. The founder was the son of Italian immigrants who said other banks were freezing out Italians. In 1922, it was renamed the Bank of America and Italy. The Italy part was dropped in 1930.
3. Frank Oz, real name Frank Oznowicz. His parents were Dutch puppeteers who fought the Nazis during WWII before fleeing to England. They came to America when Frank was five.
4. George Toma was the longtime head groundskeeper of the NFL as well as numerous MLB stadiums. He prepared the field for every Super Bowl from the first one in 1967 until he retired in 1999. Now age 90, he is still active as a consultant.
5. Null Island is the fanciful name of the spot on Earth where the Equator (latitude 0°) intersects the Prime Meridian (longitude 0°) off the east coast of Africa. Nothing is there except a NOAA weather buoy.
