New Year’s Eve, the night when all the amateur drunks are out on the road. These seem fitting. (We’ll do Travel Thursday on Friday again this week.)
Shot: From the Laphroaig Whisky channel, a tour of the Laphroaig distillery.
Chaser: “Space Driving Tactics”. This has nothing to do with Star Wars (though if you want that, I assume you’ve seen Ian’s video) but is instead a 1971 driver’s ed film about the importance of allowing space so you can react to the drivers around you. This seems especially important on a night like tonight.
I’m sure it is documented somewhere – I can’t remember if it was discussed at all in the supplement for “Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues” (which she does not appear in) but I’d really like to know how Ms. Wells got involved with Charles B. Pierce. (Noted: he also got Jessica “Suspiria” Harper to star in one of his films, alongside Vic Morrow. I don’t know: maybe people held Pierce in higher regard back then.)
Joe Clark, the principal with the baseball bat who inspired “Lean On Me”.
Another thing I’m trying to avoid using too much is the “Timeline – World History Documentaries” channel. But this popped up in the feed, and is relevant to my interests:
“How The Germanic Barbarians Annihilated Rome’s Legions”, a semi-short (49 minutes) documentary about the Battle of the Teutoberg Forest.
Bonus: To give folks a little variety, here’s a documentary about “The Black Ghost”, a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T SE with a 426 Hemi that was a street racing legend in Detroit.
I’m not a huge gearhead, and definitely not a big Mopar guy, but I have to say: that is one nice car, with a great story behind it.
Short: a 15 minute documentary about Ruark from the Robert Ruark Society.
Long: “Safari Hunting”, a 1954 documentary about an African safari, featuring Robert Ruark (and Harry Selby) and narrated by Ruark.
It’s kind of cool, for someone as Ruark obsessed as I am, to see and hear the man himself, instead of just reading him. It’s also kind of cool to see what a safari was like in the 1950s.
And speaking of that, one of my Christmas presents from my beloved and indulgent sister and her family was a swell book: White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris by Brian Herne (affiliate link). I’m about 3/4ths of the way through it, and I feel comfortable in recommending this book.
I remember trying to roast chestnuts on an open fire in our fireplace when I was really young. Frankly, I didn’t care for the taste: I remember finding them really bitter and unpleasant. But: I have also found that my tastes have changed a great deal as I have aged.
(On a side note, I strongly suspect that is one thing many parents do not understand about children. I firmly believe that things parents like the taste of now, actually taste acutely unpleasant to their children. I suspect there is scientific research that will back me up on this. Main point being, back off on micro-managing your children’s eating. As long as they aren’t developing scurvy, I don’t think you need to worry. Nor do I think you need to cook second meals just for your children, to be clear.)
Bonus: I have a doctor’s appointment today, so you’re getting a sampler platter. Hope that’s okay.
“Neuschwanstein: Secrets of a Castle”, a documentary from Deutsche Welle. (Don’t worry, this is in English.)
Just going to add here: this is one of my desktop backgrounds when I’m using multiple monitors.
An air-to-air formation of four fighters participating in REFORGER ’82 fly over the cloud shrouded Neuschwanstein Castle on the German/Austrian border. The flight of three F-15 Eagles from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida is lead by a German Air Force F-104 Starfighter. Exact Date Shot Unknown
“Einstein on Light; Light on Einstein”, a lecture by Douglas Hofstadter at Uppsala University in 2017. This is about 52 minutes, with a short introduction.
Bonus #1: A bit shorter: Douglas Hofstadter at Stanford on “Trying to Muse Rationally About the Singularity Scenario”.
Bonus #2, which is also kind of a bookmark: Someone at MIT taught a course on Gödel, Escher, Bach, and the lectures are posted on the ‘Tube. Here’s the first one, which should enable you to find the rest of them.
Seriously, do you ever feel like the days are just an oncoming freight train, constantly bearing down on us?
(I am obligated, of course, to point out that, as all people of goodwill know, the Christmas season actually runs through January 6th, and anyone who nags you about leaving your lights and decorations up is a Philistine and not a serious person.)
This is an odd one that didn’t pop up at random: someone on The Drive linked to it in the comments section. I have to apologize that it isn’t in English and doesn’t have subtitles, but I think there’s enough interesting imagery in this to overcome that.
According to the commenter, “Wehrhafte Schweiz / La Suisse vigilante / La Svizzera vigilante” is a 1960s Swiss military propaganda film, originally shot in Cinerama. I think this is a surprisingly good transfer: you might want to watch it on the ‘Tube in full screen mode. You might also want to fast forward past the opening, which is kind of trippy, but (again) does not have English subtitles.
English translation of the YouTube description from Google Translate:
The official doctrine is communicated after a lengthy prologue, which allows different positions on national defense to be heard. A large-scale, combined combat exercise demonstrates the interaction of various branches of weapon.
‘
Bonus: Since that was kind of short (especially if you skip over the tripping beginning), here’s something I didn’t know about previously: Wilson Combat has a YouTube channel.
What makes this interesting is that, starting in October, they started a new series: “Critical Mas(s)” with Massad Ayoob.
I’ve been thinking about my friends in the Austin Citizen’s Police Academy Alumni Association, how much I miss them, and how much I miss the CPA classes (which have been suspended due to the Chinese rabies). So I thought I’d highlight this first one, since it is relevant both to current events and to stuff we discuss in CPA: “Police Use of Deadly Force: Reasonable or Necessary?”
No snark this time: I think this is kind of neat (both the art and the tweet):
Have I ever mentioned how much I love the Meat-Shaped Stone? I think about it often.
Made during the Qing dynasty from banded jasper, the naturally occuring layers in the stone have been exploited to create the illusion of braised pork belly. pic.twitter.com/LEADCma2R7
I always apologize when the videos I post run long, but today’s videos may require a particular apology.
Or they may not: these are really more something you can put on in the background and stream while the family is gathered for Christmas. Or while you sit alone pining for the fjords today. Either way. (That’s also why I am posting them early.)
“The World War II News and Old Time Radio Channel” has posted a series of videos, each about 12 hours long, containing vintage Christmas radio programs from various years, in chronological order.
“Part 1 – 1930 – 1942”.
If you go to the ‘Tube directly, the descriptions contain links to the start of individual programs. So, for example, you can jump to December of 1941 and listen to Jack Benny promote bonds.
“Part 2 – 1942 – 1946”.
“Part 3 – 1947 – 1950”.
This starts off with the Lux Radio Theater adaptation of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, so you might want to skip ahead to the one hour mark.
It isn’t “I Saw Three Ships”, but I stumbled across this on the ‘Tube and knew I had to use it.
Werner Klemperer and John Banner sing. Plus Robert Clary.
Yes, you read that right. Colonel Klink and Sargent Schultz sing “Silent Night”. In German. And then Corporal LeBeau sings, too.
I would make fun of this, but I think all three of them are actually pretty good.
(I don’t think that part about the organ is true.)
Because it is a tradition, and because I really like this:
I like this, too:
This isn’t “I Saw Three Ships”, either, but it is a Christmas song that I like (and haven’t used before) from a totally unexpected source: Annie Lennox sings “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”.
