Archive for May, 2021

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Continuing adventures in hoplobibliophilia.

Monday, May 31st, 2021

I’ve actually bought a fair number of used gun books over the past few months. I didn’t bother writing about them here because they were pretty much all semi-crappy copies of books that I bought for reading purposes, not really worthy of a blog entry.

This is something I ran across today at Half-Price Books that I found interesting for more than one reason.

Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa by Arthur H. Neumann. This is a reprint of the original 1898 edition, and volume 3 in the “Library of African Adventure” series from St. Martin’s Press. It has a little wear to the top and bottom of the dust jacket, but not too bad, and was purchased for about half of what “good” copies are going for on Amazon.

The other reason I found this interesting: you know who edited the “Library of African Adventure” series?

No, not that guy: he had his own series. The “Library of African Adventure” was edited by…noted SF writer Mike Resnick. Which is no great shock, as Resnick wrote extensively about Africa: it was simply an unexpected find.

Now I want to find the other volumes, especially since I’ve completed my Capstick set.

There is also something called “Resnick’s Library of African Adventure” that comes up when you search Amazon. I’m not 100% sure it is the same series – I suspect it is, but the bibliographical information on Amazon is scant, and the covers seem…less subdued.

Posted in Books, Guns, Hoplobibilophilia | Comments Closed

Historical note, suitable for use in schools.

Monday, May 31st, 2021

You know who was a Marine?

If you’re one of my readers who was a Marine, the answer is probably “Yes”. I figure the list of famous Marines is drilled into folks at boot camp.

But for everyone else: Don Adams.

I kid you not. Before he was “Maxwell Smart”, he served in the Marines during WWII. He fought (and was wounded) in the battle of Guadalcanal. He also came down with “blackwater fever”, and was medically evacuated to New Zealand, where he was hospitalized for over a year. After that, he served as a drill instructor until 1945.

As a side note, I went down a rabbit hole about “blackwater fever” a few months ago when I was reading White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris (affiliate link). It also comes up in “The Bridge on the River Kwai“, which I did finally watch Saturday.

Blackwater fever is a complication of malaria. From what I’ve picked up, red blood cells burst and release hemoglobin, which enters the kidneys and can cause them to fail. I’ve seen suggestions that quinine either caused it, or was a contributing factor: now that we have other anti-malarial drugs, the incidence of blackwater fever has decreased.

A lot of those old-time African hunters came down with blackwater fever at one time or another: the folk remedy (which seems to have worked for many of them) was…massive consumption of champagne. I would think that would overload the kidneys and make things worse, but enough of those guys seem to have survived (the mortality rate is claimed to be 90%) that maybe there was something to it…?

Posted in Heroism, History, TV | 1 Comment »

Father Joseph Timothy O’Callahan.

Monday, May 31st, 2021

Father O’Callahan was a good Boston boy. Shortly after he graduated from high school in 1922, he signed up with the Jesuits.

He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1934. Along the way, he picked up a BA and a MA from St. Andrew’s College, “specializing in mathematics and physics”. He was a professor of math, physics, and philosophy at Boston College for 10 years (1927-1937), then he went over to Weston Jesuit School of Theology for a year. From 1938 to 1940 he served as the director of the math department at the College of the Holy Cross.

When World War II began, O’Callahan was 36 and nearsighted, with a bad case of claustrophobia and high blood pressure—an unlikely candidate for military service, much less for heroic valor.

He enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve Chaplain Corps in August of 1940 as a lieutenant junior grade. But I gather he was pretty good at his job: by July of 1945 he had reached the rank of commander. He participated in Operation Torch and Operation Leader.

On March 2, 1945, Commander O’Callahan reported to the aircraft carrier USS Franklin.

On March 19, 1945, the Franklin was hit by two bombs from a Japanese aircraft. The bombs started a massive fire on the carrier deck.

A valiant and forceful leader, calmly braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, Lt. Comdr. O’Callahan groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets, and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever-increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led firefighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts, despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them. Serving with courage, fortitude, and deep spiritual strength, Lt. Comdr. O’Callahan inspired the gallant officers and men of the Franklin to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their stricken ship to port.

While leading the men through this inferno, he gave the Sacrament of Last Rites to the men dying around him, all while battling his claustrophobia.

Official Navy casualty figures for the 19 March 1945 fire totaled 724 killed and 265 wounded. Nevertheless, casualty numbers have been updated as new records are discovered. A recent count by Franklin historian and researcher Joseph A. Springer brings total 19 March 1945 casualty figures to 807 killed and more than 487 wounded. Franklin had suffered the most severe damage and highest casualties experienced by any U.S. fleet carrier that survived World War II.

There is a short documentary, “The Saga of the Franklin“, that you can find on the Internet Archive.

Commander O’Callahan was offered the Navy Cross, but refused it. There is speculation that his refusal had to do with “his heroic actions on USS Franklin highlighted perceived lapses in leadership by the ship’s commanding officer, Captain Leslie E. Gehres, which reflected poorly on the Navy”. Wikipedia claims there was a controversy at the time, Harry Truman stepped in…

…and Commander O’Callahan was awarded the Medal of Honor on January 23, 1946. (Another officer, Lieutenant junior grade Donald Arthur Gary, also received the Medal of Honor for his actions: “Lieutenant Gary discovered 300 men trapped in a blackened mess compartment and, finding an exit, returned repeatedly to lead groups to safety. Gary later organized and led firefighting parties to battle the inferno on the hangar deck and entered number three fireroom to raise steam in one boiler, braving extreme hazards in so doing.“)

Father O’Callahan retired from the Navy in 1948 and headed the math department at The College of the Holy Cross. He also wrote a book, I Was Chaplain on the Franklin (affiliate link).

He died in 1964 at the age of 58, and is buried in the Jesuit cemetery at The College of the Holy Cross. The destroyer USS O’Callahan was named after him.

One of Father O’Callahan’s students at Holy Cross before the war was John V. Power, who also received the Medal of Honor (posthumously).

A few months later, when awards were presented on the battered flight deck of the USS Franklin, O’Callahan’s mother came aboard the ship, and The New England Historical Society reports this telling conversation:

The ship’s captain, Les Gehres, went over to his mother and said, “I’m not a religious man. But I watched your son that day and I thought if faith can do this for man, there must be something to it. Your son is the bravest man I have ever seen.”

(Previously. Previously.)

Posted in Books, Heroism, History, Planes, Ships | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 30, 2021.

Sunday, May 30th, 2021

Gavin MacLeod. THR. Variety.

As he told the story, one night he was driving, while drunk, on Mulholland Drive in the hills above Los Angeles when he impulsively decided to kill himself by driving off the road. But he stopped himself, jamming on the brakes at the last moment. Shaken, he recalled, he made his way to the nearby house of a friend, the actor Robert Blake, who persuaded him to see a psychiatrist.

…

After his divorce, Mr. MacLeod married Patti Kendig, a dancer, in 1974. They also divorced, in early 1982, but remarried in 1985, by which time they had both become born-again Christians. Mr. MacLeod documented their story, as well as his decades-long struggle with alcoholism, in a 1987 book, “Back on Course: The Remarkable Story of a Divorce That Ended in Remarriage.”

B.J. Thomas.

Mr. Thomas placed 15 singles in the pop Top 40 from 1966 to 1977. “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” a monument to heartache sung in a bruised, melodic baritone, reached No. 1 on both the country and pop charts in 1975. “Hooked on a Feeling,” an exultant expression of newfound love from 1968, also reached the pop Top 10. (Augmented by an atavistic chant of “Ooga-chaka-ooga-ooga,” the song became a No. 1 pop hit as recorded by the Swedish rock band Blue Swede in 1974.)

Faye Schulman.

The Germans enlisted her to take commemorative photographs of them and, in some cases, their newly acquired mistresses. (“It better be good, or else you’ll be kaput,” she recalled a Gestapo commander warning her before, trembling, she asked him to smile.) They thus spared her from the firing squad because of their vanity and their obsession with bureaucratic record-keeping — two weaknesses that she would ultimately wield against them.
At one point the Germans witlessly gave her film to develop that contained pictures they had taken of the three trenches into which they, their Lithuanian collaborators and the local Polish police had machine-gunned Lenin’s remaining Jews, including her parents, sisters and younger brother.
She kept a copy of the photos as evidence of the atrocity, then later joined a band of Russian guerrilla Resistance fighters. As one of the only known Jewish partisan photographers, Mrs. Schulman, thanks to her own graphic record-keeping, debunked the common narrative that most Eastern European Jews had gone quietly to their deaths.
“I want people to know that there was resistance,” she was quoted as saying by the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. “Jews did not go like sheep to the slaughter. I was a photographer. I have pictures. I have proof.”

Rusty Warren.

In the wholesome era of “Our Miss Brooks” and “Father Knows Best” on television, Ms. Warren, who died at 91 on Tuesday in Orange County, Calif., developed a scandalous comedy routine that was full of barely veiled innuendo about sex, outrageous references to breasts and more, much of it delivered in a husky shout.
With that new risqué routine, she began packing larger clubs all over the country. The release in 1960 of her second comedy album, the brazenly titled “Knockers Up!,” only increased her fame.
It was a booming time for live comedy and comedy records — “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” Mr. Newhart’s Grammy-winning breakthrough, was released the same year — and Ms. Warren emerged as a star in an out-of-the-mainstream sort of way.

…

She released more than a dozen albums, including “Rusty Warren Bounces Back” (1961), “Banned in Boston” (1963), “Bottoms Up” (1968) and “Sexplosion” (1977), selling hundreds of thousands of copies (“Knockers Up!” was a longtime resident of the Billboard 200 chart) even though for much of her career some retailers wouldn’t display them prominently and television producers wouldn’t give her the bookings that more mainstream comics got.

If it hasn’t already been written, somebody could get a good book out of the history of comedy records roughly mid-century (I’m guessing 1950-1975, maybe slightly later). Especially if they went into the history of “blue” or “party” records: not just Ms. Warren, but Redd Foxx, Moms Mabley, Rudy Ray Moore, and lots of other now mostly forgotten folks.

Lawrence sent over two: Shane Briant, British actor. (“Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell”, “Cassandra”, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”)

Paul Robert Soles.

Best known today for portraying Hermey the Elf in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and Peter Parker and his crime-fighting alter ego in the 1967 cartoon Spider-Man he worked extensively in every medium, his favourites being radio drama and live theatre.

…

Among his many memorable dramatic performances three stand out: the lead in the Canadian premiere in 1987 of ‘I’m Not Rappaport’; the first Jewish Canadian to play Shylock in the 2001 production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at the Stratford Festival and the Dora-nominated role in the 2005 two-hander ‘Trying’.

…

Beyond work and family he had three life-long passions: sports cars, music and flying. A racing nut he drove the winning foreign entry in the American International Rally (1959) speaking only German and passing himself off as a factory driver from Mercedes in a zero-mileage model W120. A bigtime jazz fan, particularly of the big-bands, he was a fixture at clubs on both sides of the border and he forged friendships with a number of performers. An aviation enthusiast and pilot he owned two RCAF primary trainers, first a Fleet 16-B Finch open cockpit biplane acquired to barnstorm across the continent as part of The Great Belvedere Air Dash of 1973 and later a DeHavilland DHC-1 Chipmunk. He was a performing member of the Great War Flying Museum (Brampton), an air show participant for 20 years and a perennial volunteer for the Canadian International Air Show.

Posted in 1970s, History, Music, Nazis, Obits, Planes, Theatre, TV | 2 Comments »

Cahiers du Cinéma: on war movies.

Friday, May 28th, 2021

The Art of Manliness posted a list of “The 10 Best War Movies of All-Time”.

Aesop over at the Raconteur Report posted a response.

Borepatch posted a response to Aesop’s response.

My turn. Readers should be aware up front that I have never served with any branch of any military anywhere in the world: my opinions about war movies basically come down to “Did I enjoy it? Did I think it was a good story, well told?” Not necessarily “Were they using a period correct AR platform? Were the missile launch scenes accurate?”

If you think I’m ignorant and want to skip to the next entry, go right ahead. Something else will be coming along soon.

With my lack of qualifications out of the way, my takes on the list. The Art of Manliness first:

  • “Saving Private Ryan”: I’ll get this out of the way up front. Never seen it. I guess I wouldn’t mind seeing it, but I feel like it was one of those movies that was so overhyped at the time, it triggered my rejection gland. (See also: “E.T.”)
  • “The Great Escape”: Also have not seen it. Do have the DVD, it is on our list, and I do want to watch it soon.
  • “Das Boot”. Saw the director’s cut in a theater with Lawrence, loved it.
  • “Glory”: Never seen it. Unlike Lawrence, I am not a big Civil War buff, so this movie has little appeal for me.
  • “Apocalypse Now”: I liked it, but I need to watch it again. Is it a good war movie? I don’t know: Aesop and others don’t seem to think so. Is it a good movie? I thought so.
  • “The Thin Red Line”: Have not seen it. Primarily because I have some friends who went to see it in a theater and walked out.
  • “Patton”: one of my favorite movies of all time.
  • “1917”: Didn’t get around to seeing it in theaters, would not mind seeing it. But putting a movie from 2019 on the best list? Really? Could we get some historical distance here? Perhaps a five or ten year gap before we start calling movies “best”? (Also, I have seen “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “They Shall Not Grow Old”, both of which are excellent films. Frankly, I am shocked that neither Borepatch or Aesop mentioned the latter.)
  • “The Longest Day”: saw large parts of it on TV when I was younger, would not mind seeing the whole thing again. But it strikes me as one of those relics of the old Hollywood system where everybody is in it, and it may be just a little overstuffed.
  • “The Bridge on the River Kwai”: haven’t seen it, believe it or not. Very much want to, and it is on the list.

Aesop’s list:

  • “Zulu”: Heck to the yes!
  • “The Great Escape”: See above.
  • “Patton”: See above.
  • “Lawrence of Arabia”: also heck to the yes!
  • “Blackhawk Down”: Saw that in a theater with Lawrence as well. Am a huge fan of the book. Another damn fine movie.
  • “Hamburger Hill”: have not seen it, would be interested in seeing it.
  • “Das Boot”: see above.
  • “Gettysburg”: have not seen it, see my comments above on “Glory”.
  • “Braveheart”: have not seen it. I believe it is on our list as an Oscar winner.
  • “A Bridge Too Far”: watched it recently with Lawrence and the gang. It’s…okay. But to my taste, it was way too long.

Borepatch:

  • “Glory”: see above.
  • “Stripes”: it has been a long damn time since I’ve seen that, and I need to watch it again. I do agree with Borepatch’s comments that comedy doesn’t get any respect.
  • “Band of Brothers”: haven’t seen anything but clips on YouTube, but those make me want to watch the series. Once Lawrence and I get some of our other TV series out of the way, that may be next on the list.
  • “Hogan’s Heroes”: also been a long damn time since I’ve seen an episode of that, even though it is on MeTV.

Things that I’m surprised are missing from all three lists:

  • “12 O’Clock High”. The movie, though what I have seen of the TV series is also good. But I think “12 O’Clock High”, like “Patton”, would go on my top ten list.
  • “The Hunt For Red October”: yes, I think this qualifies as a war film.
  • “They Shall Not Grow Old”: see above.
  • “All Quiet on the Western Front”: see above.
  • “300”: I’m more just surprised that nobody mentioned it, rather than being willing to argue that it’s actually great. (I enjoyed it, but I’m not sure I would call it “great”.) I’d be happy to have a discussion with Aesop and Borepatch about this one.
  • “Paths of Glory”: you didn’t like “Full Metal Jacket”? How about this one? (I think “FMJ” is about half of a good movie.)
  • “Kelly’s Heroes”: I think I didn’t see “Great Escape” because this one was the one that was all over late-night TV when I was growing up. I have fond memories of it, but need to re-watch it.
  • “The Wind and the Lion”: I think it counts.
  • “Run Slient, Run Deep”
  • “The Alamo”: the good one, with John Wayne.
  • “Mister Roberts”: speaking of comedy not getting any respect…also, I think there’s a good leadership lesson in this one. (Don’t be like James Cagney.)

Posted in Bagatelle, Leadership, Movies | 3 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 422

Thursday, May 27th, 2021

This is the last entry in the series.

I feel we’ve reached the point where we are, more or less, out of jail: restrictions are being relaxed, I am fully vaccinated, and I’m seeing many businesses doing away with mask requirements.

I originally started this as a diversion while we were all on home confinement. If you were locked in, what did you have that was better to do than watch weird old videos that popped up in my YouTube recommendations? Now, it seems like this…feature? recurring trope?…has gone beyond what originally motivated it. This seems like a good time to wrap it up.

Mostly. I’m holding a couple of things in reserve for days in the future. And if we’re hit by a new variant and have to lock ourselves in again, I reserve the right to restart this.

I have something special I want to post, as the final entry, and also as a tribute.

Gardner Dozois passed away three years ago today. To the best of my knowledge, the NYT still has not published an obituary for him.

(more…)

Posted in Guns, History, Safety, TV | 4 Comments »

Obit watch: May 27, 2021.

Thursday, May 27th, 2021

Eric Carle, children’s book author. He was perhaps most famous for “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.

Noted:

But, as Mr. Carle told The New York Times in 2007, disaster struck when his father was drafted into the German army and soon became a prisoner of war in Russia. Eric, who was then 15, managed to avoid the draft but was conscripted by the Nazi government to dig trenches on the Siegfried line, a 400-mile defensive line in western Germany.
“In Stuttgart, our hometown, our house was the only one standing,” Mr. Carle told The Guardian in 2009. “When I say standing, I mean the roof and windows are gone, and the doors. And … well, there you are.”

Kevin Clark. He was the drummer in “School of Rock”. According to reports, he was hit and killed while riding his bicycle home.

Samuel Wright. He voiced “Sebastian” in “The Little Mermaid”, and also did a lot of Broadway work. He also played “Mufasa” in the original cast of “The Lion King” on Broadway.

Posted in Books, Movies, Music, Nazis, Obits, Theatre | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 421

Wednesday, May 26th, 2021

The penultimate entry seems like a good time for some randomness.

Let’s start with a final entry from the AT&T Archives: “Telezonia”.

It’s also plainly one of the most psychedelic in the AT&T catalog. How to grab kid’s attentions in the middle of the 1970s? If you thought you could learn about dialing and using the phone book from talking foam letters, numbers, and a guy in a skirt, you came to the right place. It starts off like a typical short film cautionary tale, but once they take a trip inside the telephone, things go terribly weird. This film is a cult classic.

Lawrence, this is for you:

Robert Towers, who plays the halfway-creepy guide “Telly”, has had an illustrious — if bizarre — career, including being inside the Snorky costume on the Banana Splits, as one of the Benjamin Buttons in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and the singing voice of Snoopy in the TV version of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Though for much of his career he did voices for animation, in the 2000s, he has done more acting in television comedies.

The weird starts about two minutes in.

Bonus #1: As long as we’re talking about “psychedelic”: “Narcotics: Pit of Despair”.

This 1967 color film dramatizes the dangers of casual drug use by telling the story of a young student who tries marijuana at a party and later becomes addicted to heroin.

Bonus #2: Couldn’t get away without one more bit of random gun crankery. This is part of an episode of “Wild West Tech” (an old History Channel show) talking about holsters.

Posted in Guns, History, Holsters | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 26, 2021.

Wednesday, May 26th, 2021

Somewhat breaking news: John Warner, former Senator from Virginia and Elizabeth Taylor’s sixth husband.

Though a popular figure in his state, Mr. Warner was often at odds with Virginia conservatives. He became the Republican nominee in his first campaign only after the man who had defeated him at a state party convention was killed in a plane crash.
He angered the National Rifle Association with his backing of an assault weapons ban. He infuriated some state Republicans in 1994 when he refused to support Oliver L. North, the former White House aide at the center of the Iran-contra scandal during the Reagan administration, in Mr. North’s bid for the Senate. And he opposed Reagan’s ultimately unsuccessful Supreme Court nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork.

Edited to add: My mother and stepfather lived in Virginia during part of the time John Warner was a senator. My mother is kind of upset at the press coverage: she feels it focuses too much on Sen. Warner being Number Six in the long line of Liz’s husbands, and not enough on his accomplishments as a Senator. One of the things she mentioned to me: there was a time when they were having trouble getting money out of SSI for my stepfather. She called Senator Warner’s office and spoke to one of his people, who said, “Oh, I know somebody over there. Let me make some calls.”

They had their check two days later.

Roger Hawkins, noted drummer.

An innately soulful musician, Mr. Hawkins initially distinguished himself in the mid-’60s as a member of the house band at the producer Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. (The initials stand for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises.) His colleagues were the keyboardist Barry Beckett, the guitarist Jimmy Johnson and Mr. Hood, who played bass. Mr. Hood is the last surviving member of that rhythm section.
Mr. Hawkins’s less-is-more approach to drumming at FAME — often little more than a cymbal and a snare — can be heard on Percy Sledge’s gospel-steeped “When a Man Loves a Woman,” a No. 1 pop single in 1966. He was also a driving force behind Aretha Franklin’s imperious “Respect,” a No. 1 pop hit the next year, as well as her Top 10 singles “Chain of Fools” (1967) and “Think” (1968).

…

In 1969 Mr. Hawkins and the other members of the FAME rhythm section parted ways with Mr. Hall over a financial dispute. They soon opened their own studio, Muscle Shoals Sound, in a former coffin warehouse in nearby Sheffield.
Renaming themselves the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the four men appeared on many other hits over the next decade, including the Staple Singers’ chart-topping pop-gospel single “I’ll Take You There,” a 1972 recording galvanized by Mr. Hawkins’s skittering Caribbean-style drum figure. They also appeared, along with the gospel quartet the Dixie Hummingbirds, on Paul Simon’s “Loves Me Like a Rock,” a Top 10 single in 1973.
Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Hood worked briefly with the British rock band Traffic as well; they are on the band’s 1973 album, “Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory.”
Mr. Hawkins and his colleagues became known as the Swampers after the producer Denny Cordell heard the pianist Leon Russell commend them for their “funky, soulful Southern swamp sound.” The Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd mentioned them, by that name, in their 1974 pop hit “Sweet Home Alabama.”

Posted in Guns, Music, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 420

Tuesday, May 25th, 2021

I’m moving Travel Thursday to Tuesday this week, for reasons. I have something else coming up for Thursday.

Today: “New Horizons: Argentina” from our friends at Pan Am. We’ve done South America in general previously, but we haven’t focused specifically on Argentina.

This apparently dates to 1965, so I can’t really make any “Evita” jokes here, alas.

Bonus #1: But I can put up something relevant to Lawrence’s interests, and maybe Andrew’s as well: “MOUTH-WATERING STEAK at an Argentine Steakhouse in Mar del Plata, Argentina”.

This restaurant is called “El Palacio del Bife”, which literally translates to “The Palace of Beef” and they sure know how to prepare a delicious steak.

Bonus #2: We’ve been to South America. Why not Central America on our way back?

Also by way of Pan Am, circa 1968: “Fiesta! A Central American Holiday”.

Posted in Beef, Food, History, Travel | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 419

Monday, May 24th, 2021

Military History Monday!

This is also the last entry in MilHisMon. Sort of. It’s complicated.

Somewhere in my collection of books on leadership, I have a thin little pamphlet that I picked up at the National Museum of the Pacific War: “Arleigh Burke on Leadership”.

Who was Arleigh Burke, other than being a guy who has a whole class of destroyers named after him?

“Saluting Admiral Arleigh Burke”, circa about 1961 (around the time he retired, after three terms as Chief of Naval Operations).

Bonus #1: This might be the last chance I get to do one of these. Plus: CanCon!

“Canadair CF-104 Starfighter”.

Bonus #2: And as long as I’m taking last chances…”Secrets of the F-14 Tomcat: Inflight Refueling” from Ward Carroll.

As a side note, which I learned from Mr. Carroll this past weekend, did not know previously, and don’t really have a good place to stick it: one of Donald Trump’s final pardons was granted to Randall “Duke” Cunningham.

Bonus #3: A documentary about “Operation Blowdown”.

“Operation Blowdown”? Yes: back in 1963, the Australian military decided to simulate a nuclear blast in a rain forest, just to see what conditions would be like afterwards. Because, you know, why the heck not?

A device containing was detonated to partially simulate a ten kiloton air burst in the Iron Range jungle. The explosives were sourced from obsolete artillery shells and placed in a tower 42 metres (138 ft) above ground level and 21 metres (69 ft) above the rainforest canopy. After the explosion, troops were moved through the area (which was now covered in up to a metre of leaf litter), to test their ability to transit across the debris. In addition, obsolete vehicles and equipment left near the centre of the explosion were destroyed.

Posted in Books, Explosives, History, Law, Leadership, Planes, Politics | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 418

Sunday, May 23rd, 2021

Science Sunday!

For the final Science Sunday, I thought I’d go back to one of my favorite topics – computing history and computer science – and cover two companies whose machines I find fascinating.

“Cray Research at Chippewa Falls – A Story of the Supercomputer”.

I apologize for the quality on this one: it is from 1976, but I think it is worthwhile because…Seymour Cray introduces the Cray-1.

Bonus: During this week’s episode of one of the podcasts I listen to, one of the hosts made a reference to the Connection Machine. The other two hosts had never heard of the Connection Machine, so they were part of that day’s lucky 10,000.

For those of you who fall into the same boat, this is a fairly recent (so higher quality) talk by a guy named Dan Bentley about the Connection Machine and the concept of “Data Parallel Algorithms”.

Posted in Geek, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 417

Saturday, May 22nd, 2021

There’s someone on the ‘Tube who has a channel, “Demolition Dave Drilling and Blasting”. I think he’s ‘stralian, mate.

In this video, Dave reviews a Chinese generator.

How do you say “Harbor Freight” in Australian?

Mike the Musicologist sent me this: it is a little more recent than I’d like, and I think I’ve seen it linked on Hacker News, but I still think it’s worth highlighting here.

“What Really Happened at the Oroville Dam Spillway?” from Practical Engineering.

Finally, here’s something that’s just about 25 minutes long, and that I think some folks will enjoy: “The Unfortunate History of the AMC Pacer”.

“There’s a fine line between uniqueness and strange.”

Dick Teague on Wikipedia.

Posted in Cars, Explosives, Guns, History | 1 Comment »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 416

Friday, May 21st, 2021

I’m going to serve up another platter of random today.

The other day, The Drive ran a mildly interesting article: “The 1970s Trucking Craze Can Be Traced Back to a Regional TV Commercial for Bread“.

Inspired by that: “Wheels of Progress”, a 1950 propaganda film for truckers and the trucking industry.

Bonus #1: This is another video from the AT&T Archives, but I’m not really doing Phone Phriday today. “A Model for Living”.

This film centers around the “House of Ideas”, which was profiled in the April, 1968 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. Through the eyes of a young couple looking for a house, we meet the builder, watch telephone cable for the house being laid underground, and then return to tour the finished home at an Open House.

Content warning/spoiler: The kitchen has everything. Even carpeting on the floor. I repeat, the kitchen is carpeted.

Bonus #2: I really don’t have a good category to stick this under, so I’ll just leave it here: “Boys Town: A Place Called Home”, from about 1951.

As far as I’ve been able to determine, Father Flanagan has been named a “Servant of God”, but has not been canonized yet, and it’s not clear to me that the process has advanced in the past nine years.

Posted in History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 415

Thursday, May 20th, 2021

Travel Thursday!

Continuing in our tour of the United States: “The Secrets of St. Louis”, a documentary from the 1960s about St. Louis history.

Bonus #1: I’m posting this less to tease certain commenters, and more for the scenery: “America For Me”. Yes, this a Greyhound promo film, but there’s a lot of spectacular scenery. And a love story, but you can skip over that and just watch the scenery go by.

Bonus #2: “Pan Am: Giant of the Skies”.

Posted in History, Planes, Travel | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 414

Wednesday, May 19th, 2021

Tonight is my happy hour night, so I thought I’d do some food and drink today.

Why don’t we start with gin, which I am nearly out of at the moment. I know, I should not have let my stock get this low…

“The London Gin Craze and Beyond”.

Bonus #1: I’m trolling a little here. I have a close family member who hates onions as much as I hate tomatoes. So…

“Why are sweet onions sweet? Can you really eat Vidalia onions like apples?”

Bonus #2: I touched on Tiki history recently, but only from the Donn the Beachcomber perspective. Here’s one from a different source that also covers Trader Vic and Mariano Licudine.

Thinking about it, I may have just enough gin to mix a Suffering Bastard tonight. I believe we have everything else. Except perhaps limes.

Posted in Food, History, Mixology | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 19, 2021.

Wednesday, May 19th, 2021

Charles Grodin. THR. Variety.

Paul Mooney.

After discovering he had a knack for comedy and writing, Moody moved to Hollywood where he would flourish as a writer for such classic TV programs as Sanford and Son and Good Times. Mooney also wrote a number of routines Pryor performed for his iconic albums, including Live on the Sunset Strip and Is It Something I Said. Mooney was also the head writer on the short-lived, cult classic, The Richard Pryor Show. He also had a short stint as a writer on In Living Color.

He also did some acting work (he appeared on “Chappelle’s Show” and as Sam Cooke in “The Buddy Holly Story”) and did stand-up comedy.

Posted in 1970s, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Memo from the police beat.

Tuesday, May 18th, 2021

There have been a few mildly interesting police stories in recent days. Here’s a round-up.

1. The police chief of the Manor ISD Police (yeah, the school district police, not the city police) has been “placed on administrative leave“.

The accusations against him seem to amount to two things: “falsifying timesheets”, and “improperly donating used cellphones to a local domestic violence shelter”.

The defense attorney representing Chief Shane Sexton and three other officers in the force, said credible evidence has been submitted to the district to show that all timesheets have been accurate.
Sexton’s attorney Brad Heilman said Verizon Wireless donated the cellphones to the department, came at no cost to the district and were no longer being used.

Manor is about 34 miles down the road from here, and has an estimated population (as of 2019) of about 13,000 people. Small town politics…but I’ll come back to that in a bit. (I also have some questions about why small school districts need their own police departments, but that gets into other issues: how big does a school district have to be to justify their own police force? Does not having a police force for a small school district divert resources from a small city police force? Is it just a question of which pocket the money comes out of? I haven’t though through all of this yet.)

2. Lorenzo Hernandez used to be a deputy with the Williamson County sheriff’s department. He also appeared on “Live TV”, back when they were in WillCo and “Live PD” was a thing.

And now he’s been charged with “assault and official oppression”.

In the arrest affidavit, a Williamson County detective wrote that the woman Hernandez is accused of assaulting “did not pose a threat.”
“Defendant Hernandez escalates the event through an intentional, unreasonable use of force against [the victim] by placing his hand on her throat directly below her chin,” the affidavit said, adding that Hernandez then squeezed her throat and pushed her back into the apartment wall.
“The intentional use of force by Defendant Hernandez by placing his hand on the throat of [the victim] is unlawful, as no exception provides Defendant Hernandez the justification for the use of said force.”

3. This one is in my own backyard, but I’ve avoided writing about it. The story broke late Friday afternoon, and I’ve been trying to get a little more clarity about what’s happening.

The Lakeway police chief, Todd Radford, resigned on Friday. His resignation was not voluntary.

“I stand before you tonight more than likely for the last time as your chief of police, regrettably so. Upon request I am submitting my resignation,” Radford told the council. “Over the last 14 years, I have been every other week in this chamber with multiple volunteers who have sat in your seats as council members and I have served honorably, in my opinion, for three mayors and felt like I have done above and beyond what has been asked of me. And I believe the agency has done so as well. To receive the number of accolades we have has not been easy and I feel like it should be better recognized.”

There is a lot of speculation on NextDoor about what’s going on. Most of it I find unreliable. The theory that I do find compelling is: this is related to a move by the council to eliminate contracts for all city employees and convert them to at-will status. This is something I can get behind for most city employees, but not for the police chief and police officers. I think law enforcement people should be on a contract basis – one which allows termination for clearly defined reasons. I don’t think a cop who murders or rapes someone should keep their job, but I don’t want them being fired because they didn’t fix a ticket for the mayor’s brother-in-law.

Posted in Cops, Law, Politics, Texas, Travis County, WillCo | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 413

Tuesday, May 18th, 2021

Did you know that Chrysler built turbine powered cars?

I’m not talking about the one that raced at Indy: Chrysler had an active program from (roughly) the 1950s to 1979 developing turbine powered passenger cars. Between 1963 and 1964, they produced 55 cars.

“Here’s why the government made Chrysler destroy its 46 jet cars.”

(I know the numbers don’t quite match: Chrysler kept two, five are in museums, and two are privately owned.)

Bonus #1: “The Mazda RX-8 Is a Fun Car You Probably Shouldn’t Buy”.

Bonus #2: Breaking slightly from the car theme, but…”Evel Knievel: The True Story” from 1998.

Posted in Cars, History | 1 Comment »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 412

Monday, May 17th, 2021

Military History Monday!

But I’m going to start off with an exception. Today is Tax Day in much of the United States. (In parts of the country that were impacted by winter storms, tax day falls on June 15th this year.)

So here’s something thematically appropriate for today: “Helping the Taxpayer” from…

…I’m sorry, I can’t keep a straight face…

…I’m laughing too hard…

…Okay, better now. Those wonderful folks at the IRS (in cooperation with the American Institute of Accountants).

With that out of the way: Ward Carroll has a YouTube channel!

That name may not ring any bells with some of you: Mr. Carroll is a former Navy pilot who has written several books. I liked Punk’s War quite a bit, and need to pick up the other Punk novels (when I see them at reasonable prices: cheese louise, Mr. Carroll, time for Kindle editions of those.)

“Dogfighting 101”. Bending a rule here, but I’m obsessed with dogfighting (in the aviation context, not in the Ron Mexico context). Have been since I was a little kid reading WWI and WWII histories and wondering, “Okay, so Dick Bong shot down a bunch of planes. How?” Textbooks on dogfighting were not readily available in elementary and middle school libraries: I didn’t actually pick one up until I was in my mid-30s.

(Affiliate link.)

Bonus: I feel like I don’t do enough from the British perspective, so let me fix that. “1400 Zulu”, a 1965 propaganda film for the Royal Navy.

Posted in Books, History, Planes | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 17, 2021.

Monday, May 17th, 2021

Sometimes I want to put up an obit just because the writer clearly had fun writing it.

In Canada, it’s possible to find a man lounging on a chesterfield in his rented bachelor wearing only his gotchies while fortifying his Molson muscle with a jambuster washed down with slugs from a stubby.

That’s the lead from the obit for Katherine Barber, founding editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. She was 61.

Chuck Hicks. He has 197 credits in IMDB as an actor…and 110 as a stunt person. He worked a lot with Clint Eastwood, was in “Cool Hand Luke”, “Dick Tracy”, and played the robot boxer in the “Steel” episode of “The Twilight Zone”…

…and among all of his other movie and TV credits, he appeared seven times on “Mannix”.

Posted in 1970s, Books, History, Mannix, Obits, TV, Wordplay | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 411

Sunday, May 16th, 2021

Science Sunday!

I thought I’d do a sampler platter today. Roughly from short to long:

“The Creation and Behavior of Radio Waves”. This is a 1942 Army Signal Corps film: I guess technically this could be MilHisMonday, but it is more about the theory of radio than specific military radio usage, so I feel like it qualifies here.

“The Nuclear Look”, a pro-nuclear power propaganda film from Westinghouse.

And speaking of nukes, “Medical Aspects of Nuclear Radiation”.

In the light of more current science, the film seems woefully incomplete and misleading.

Finally: I know this was just posted recently, and I’m trying to avoid using anything that’s not older than at least a month. But I haven’t done any space science recently, I haven’t done anything from the Soviet perspective, and we’re moving towards closure here, so: “Conquerors Of the Universe”, a documentary about the Soviet space program. Don’t worry, it’s narrated in English.

Posted in Geek, History, Radio | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 410

Saturday, May 15th, 2021

I said I wasn’t going to make Safety Saturday a thing, and I’m still not. However, I do have a couple of videos I can’t pass up.

“Handling Explosives in Underground Mines”. There’s some good information in here, if you are a miner.

The most important safety tip, which is not covered in this video, is: do not try to cross Boyd Crowder.

Bonus #1: How about something different? Like trains?

One of the craziest railroad films of all time, “Escape from Limbo” is part Twilight Zone episode, part safety film that is just as entertaining as any half-hour TV show from the 1950’s. The film tells the bizarre tale of Pennsylvania Railroad fireman Henry who apparently gets killed in a hunting accident. He ends up in Limbo where a Devil explains that he is now required to cause accidents on the railroad line — in an attempt to gather other souls for his patron. This unique premise allows the filmmakers to show nearly all types of accidents, from switch weights dropped on feet to maiming and — death.

Bonus #2: This could have gone in Military History Monday, but it is short and amused me. The Marines remind you: “Safety First”.

Don’t forget to hydrate.

Posted in Explosives, History, Safety, Trains | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 409

Friday, May 14th, 2021

Today, a handful of random.

“Skallagrim” discusses “End Him Rightly”, a fighting technique from the Gladiatoria.

Bonus #1: Here’s another video from the good folks at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC): “Integrity in the Workplace”. Or, things you shouldn’t do as a Federal employee.

Bonus #2: A little something for FotB RoadRich again. Guy picks up a 1973 Piper Cherokee Cruiser for $9,000 (it needs an overhaul and the owner couldn’t afford it) and does a restoration and rebuild.

Besides putting this up as RoadRich bait, I’m posting this because that’s a really nice looking airplane. I could see myself flying something like that.

Bonus #3: And speaking of the Cherokee, “50th Anniversary of the Piper Cherokee” from the good folks at Piper.

Posted in Cops, History, Knives, Law, Planes, Swords | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 14, 2021.

Friday, May 14th, 2021

Lawrence sent over an obit from one of the Indianapolis TV stations for Edgar Harrell and James W. Smith, both of whom passed away this week. They were 96 years old.

Both men were survivors of the USS Indianapolis sinking.

Harrell was the last surviving Marine. The Facebook page’s tribute to Harrell said, “During his time aboard ship, he helped guard components of the atomic bomb. After the torpedoing, he was a hero amongst his shipmates.”
Smith had served the longest aboard the ship, beginning in December 1943. The Facebook page’s tribute to Smith said, “During weekly zoom calls, James would regale the group with tales of wartime as a young sailor… tales filled with mischief, adventure, fear, heroism, and brotherhood… and of course girls and a few stashed bottles of moonshine that got him into trouble.”

I’ve been meaning to note this one for a couple of days now: Colt Brennan. He was a star quarterback at the University of Hawaii.

In 2006, he set what was then an N.C.A.A. record for touchdown passes — 58 — in a single season, raising the possibility that he would be recruited by the N.F.L. after his junior year.
Instead, he stayed on for his final year. The Rainbow Warriors finished the season 12-0 and made their only football bowl series appearance, in the Sugar Bowl, against Georgia on Jan. 1, 2008. Mr. Brennan was a Heisman Trophy finalist that season.

He was drafted by Washington in 2008 as a backup, was cut two years later, went to the Raiders, and was cut again.

According to his family, he was in a car crash in 2010 and was never the same: “…broke his collarbone and ribs, caused head trauma, and resulted in blood clots that would plague him the rest of his life”. He descended into addiction. Recently, he had spent four months in a rehab center.

Mr. Brennan tried to enroll in a detox facility over the weekend but was turned away because it was full, his father said.

Instead, he met up with some people at a hotel and (according to his family) overdosed on fentanyl. He was 37.

NYT obit for Billie Hayes.

Posted in 1970s, History, Movies, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

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