“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 243

November 28th, 2020

This could, maybe, fall under travel, but I thought I’d use these here today instead.

Great and good FotB RoadRich joined us for Thanksgiving dinner, and we spent some time afterwards sitting around, chatting, and watching a few videos on the ‘Tube. Here’s one that came up: Jimmy Stewart talks about flying planes out of LAX…before it was LAX.

In 1928, the Los Angeles City Council selected 640 acres (1.00 sq mi; 260 ha) in the southern part of Westchester for a new airport for the city. The fields of wheat, barley and lima beans were converted into dirt landing strips without any terminal buildings. It was named Mines Field for William W. Mines, the real estate agent who arranged the deal. The first structure, Hangar No. 1, was erected in 1929 and is in the National Register of Historic Places.

Bonus #1: “The Story of Modern Airline Transportation”, from American Airlines. “Modern”, in this case, being 1933.

Bonus #2: RoadRich mentioned this to me, and I couldn’t pass it up. This is actually what got us started down this path. From 1953, “Flying With Arthur Godfrey”, a vintage Eastern Airlines promo film.

Godfrey used his pervasive fame to advocate a strong anti-Communist stance and to pitch for enhanced strategic air power in the Cold War atmosphere. In addition to his advocacy for civil rights, he became a strong promoter of his middle-class fans vacationing in Hawaii and Miami Beach, Florida, formerly enclaves for the wealthy. He made a television movie in 1953, taking the controls of an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Constellation airliner and flying to Miami, thus showing how safe airline travel had become. As a reserve officer, he used his public position to cajole the Navy into qualifying him as a Naval Aviator, and played that against the United States Air Force, who later successfully recruited him into the Air Force Reserve. At one time during the 1950s, Godfrey had flown every active aircraft in the military inventory.

In addition to Godfrey actually flying a Constellation, Eddie Rickenbacker shows up as well.

“I used to sit around up there at 20,000 feet with the sun at my back waiting for the enemy Fokkers to come around.”

“No, no, no – these fokkers were Messerschmitts!”

Posted in History, Planes | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 28, 2020.

November 28th, 2020

Tony Hsieh, Zappos guy.

I’ve never bought shoes from Zappos, but as someone who tries to pay a little attention to what’s going on on the Internet, I’d heard about Mr. Hsieh, his leadership of Zappos, and his plans for downtown Las Vegas.

Also, this is shocking: he was only 46. The paper of record says that he died as a result of injuries sustained in a house fire.

If you didn’t check the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors when the time changed, you might go do that now.

Posted in Obits | 1 Comment »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 242

November 27th, 2020

Great and good FotB (and official firearms trainer of WCD) Karl Rehn sent over a fascinating page from the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum a few days ago.

There’s a whole bunch of great stuff there: much of it I haven’t had a chance to watch fully yet, but it pushes my buttons. The “Heros On Zoom” series is fairly short. I thought I’d single out “The Battle of New Orleans” for this one:

Mostly as a sleezy and transparent excuse to use this:

Bonus: I know this is long, but today is Black Friday. I hope most of you aren’t working, and it isn’t like you’re waiting in line outside Best Buy at 3 AM peeing on each other to keep warm while you wait for a PS5.

“Leadership Lessons from Fredericksburg”. I have complicated feelings about the Civil War, but (as you know, Bob) I’m a student of leadership, and Civil War leadership is one of the aspects of the war that does intrigue me. I’d really like to find good copies of Douglas Southall Freeman’s books in unabridged editions. (I have his collection of essays on leadership, but nothing else by him.)

Posted in History, Leadership | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 27, 2020.

November 27th, 2020

Geoffrey Palmer. He did a lot of film and TV work: his most famous role may have been Lionel Hardcastle in “As Time Goes By”, which shows up on PBS a lot.

Daria Nicolodi, Italian horror actress and co-author of the screenplay for the 1977 “Suspiria”. (Hattip: Lawrence.)

This is a noteworthy Twitter thread:

“Law is the manifest will of the people, the conscious rule of the community. And when the mechanics of law enforcement break down, they must be re-established.”

Posted in Movies, TV | Comments Closed

Now that we are in the Christmas season…

November 26th, 2020

…I can post this.

There’s a new Lame Excuse Books catalog out. Books from Lame Excuse Books make fine presents for the SF and/or fantasy fan in your circle of family and friends.

I feel like I got an early Christmas present this year. Maybe. I haven’t decided if I’m going to go see this in a theater, or wait for the home video release.

David Fincher has a new movie coming out. Apparently it will be released to Netflix on December 4th, but there is a theatrical run already at the Alamo Drafthouses in Austin.

I think Fincher is an interesting director. But: he has scientifically designed this movie to get me to put money on the table for it.

Director David Fincher’s MANK is a journey into the black-and-white era of Hollywood through the eyes of alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, played with droll, boozy, intense wit by Gary Oldman. The film follows the former journalist as he races to finish the screenplay for the landmark 1941 film CITIZEN KANE – leading to a battle with wunderkind director Orson Welles over the screenwriting credit.

Posted in Books, Christmas, Endorsements, Movies | 2 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 241

November 26th, 2020

Travel Thursday! And happy Thanksgiving!

I was hoping that Pan Am would have done “Wings to Turkey”, or something similar. But, alas, no. So how about a tour of a turkey farm with Temple Grandin, from the National Turkey Federation?

Bonus #1: “To Mount Lowe With Love”, a documentary about the Mount Lowe Railway. Because I feel like putting the “fun” back into “funicular”.

Bonus #2: Stretching the definition of “travel” a bit here, but I wanted to do something appropriate for Spaghetti Carbonara Day.

There are an awful lot of spaghetti carbonara videos on YouTube, many of which seem to be responses or complaints about Gordon Ramsey’s version. I thought I’d use this one, since I believe Lidia Bastianich is pretty trustworthy when it comes to Italian food. If you’re cooking for my mother, though, please leave the onions out. (She loves Lidia, but she hates onions. I actually don’t think onions are part of a traditional carbonara, but I welcome being proved wrong.)

Posted in History, Trains, Travel | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: November 26, 2020.

November 26th, 2020

Dena Dietrich.

She had a strong TV career, and an interesting theater one:

What would have been her Broadway debut — “The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake” (1967), a generation-gap comedy — closed in previews, reportedly because its Hollywood star, Jean Arthur, was ill. Ms. Dietrich’s first official Broadway appearance was also brief: “Here’s Where I Belong,” a musical based on John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden,” opened and closed on March 3, 1968.
Then her luck changed. Ms. Dietrich played a sensible older sister in Mike Nichols’s Broadway production of Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” (1971). The play, starring Peter Falk and Lee Grant as Manhattanites struggling through a bad economy, ran for almost two years and won two Tony Awards.

She was most famous, though, as “Mother Nature” in those 1970s commercials for a margarine company. (“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”)

Ian Finkel, the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest xylophonist”.

Mr. Finkel’s path took him from the borscht belt resorts in the Catskills to playing with the New York Philharmonic. He also worked as a composer and musical arranger for stars like Sid Caesar, Tito Puente and Ginger Rogers, his brother, Elliot Finkel, said.
As a percussionist, he worked in orchestras that accompanied the likes of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross and Tony Bennett.

Posted in 1970s, Music, Obits, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 240

November 25th, 2020

Today, music.

To start with, something short-ish. I think this dates to 2011, and was produced by the Oklahoma History Center as part of an exhibit: “Pickin’ and Grinnin’: Roy Clark, ‘Hee Haw’ & Country Humor”.

And a longer bonus that I think is really cool: a 1969 documentary for Granada Television, “Johnny Cash In San Quentin”.

Posted in History, Music | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 25, 2020.

November 25th, 2020

For the historical record: Diego Maradona. ESPN.

Posted in Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 239

November 24th, 2020

Techmoan is kind of a fun channel, but one that I try to avoid overusing. I’m using it today because this video popped up, and it answers a question that’s been in the back of my mind.

Whatever happened to portable televisions? Remember the Sony Watchman?

Obviously, the digital transition killed off the old analog portables. But why don’t we have portable digital televisions?

Short answer: we do, but not from any major manufacturers, and they’re pretty much crap as televisions. (Some of them may be decent portable media players, but do they do anything you can’t do with a small laptop or tablet?)

When I’m out shopping in thrift stores and other odd places, and see one of those cool looking old portable devices with a TV built in, I think about picking it up and hooking up a converter box, just for the lulz.

Bonus: “Prison Tech”. Not really the kind of thing people in prison improvise, but rather what kind of tech you’re allowed to have (and can purchase) for prison use.

(Previously on WCD.)

Posted in Geek, History, Radio, TV | Comments Closed

How do you like them Apples?

November 24th, 2020

This is another one of those weird intersections.

Apple’s head of security, Thomas Moyer, was indicted last week along with three other people. The others were Harpreet Chadha (an insurance broker), Santa Clara Undersheriff Rick Sung and Captain James Jensen.

Why is this weird? Because it is also a gun thing, and you don’t often see “Apple” and “guns” together.

Specifically:

Sung—second in rank only to Sheriff Laurie Smith in the sheriff’s office—is accused of deliberately holding back four concealed carry weapons (CCW) permits for Apple’s security team until the Cupertino-based corporation agreed to donate 200 iPads worth about $75,000 to the Sheriff’s Office, Rosen said. Sung and Jensen allegedly worked together to solicit the exchange of CCW permits for the tech donation from Apple.

…

In another incident, Sung “extracted” a promise from Chadha for $6,000 worth of luxury box suites at a San Jose Sharks game on Valentine’s Day, 2019, before issuing Chadha a CCW permit, [DA Jeff] Rosen said.
“Sheriff Laurie Smith’s family members and some of her biggest supporters held a celebration of her reelection as sheriff in Chadha’s suite,” Rosen said.

All of this is part of an ongoing investigation into Sheriff Smith’s office. Captain Jensen was previously indicted in August:

The original August conspiracy and bribery indictment alleges Jensen, political fundraiser Christopher Schumb, attorney Harpaul Nahal and local gun-maker Michael Nichols — the other three people indicted– arranged to get up to a dozen concealed-carry weapons permits to the executive security firm AS Solution, in exchange for $90,000 in donations to support Smith’s contentious re-election bid against former undersheriff John Hirokawa.

Posted in Apple, California Über Alles, Cops, Guns, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 24, 2020.

November 24th, 2020

An obit roundup, because I’m a little behind.

Jan Morris, British writer and historian. I haven’t read any of Morris’s work, yet. But John Crowley in his beautiful novella “Great Work of Time” cites Morris’s history of the British empire as a major source, and I’ve been hunting for reasonably priced copies. (Like I need three more volumes of history to read, in addition to Gibbon and the two volume history of the Canadian transcontinental railroad.)

Ken Spears, co-creator of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”. The other creator, Joe Ruby, passed away in September.

Daniel Cordier, one of the legendary figures of the French Resistance. He was 100.

David Dinkins, former mayor of New York City.

Posted in Books, History, Obits, Politics, TV | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 238

November 23rd, 2020

Since I’ve done copper mining, I thought it might be fun to do another element.

Lead. Sweet, sweet, lead.

From 1972, “The Lead Matrix”, brought to you by the Lead Industries Association.

And as a bonus: “A Story Of Lead”, from the Department of the Interior Bureau of Mines circa 1948.

Posted in Geek, History | 2 Comments »

Your loser update: week 11, 2020.

November 22nd, 2020

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

New York Jets

Next week: the 6-3 Miami Dolphins.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 237

November 22nd, 2020

Science Sunday!

It seems like it has been a while since I’ve done any computer science, so today I thought I’d focus on someone I find interesting, and who died far too young: John von Neumann.

Short: an explanation of Von Neumann architecture from Computerphile.

Long: a documentary about John von Neumann from the Mathematical Association of America.

I should probably mention that von Neumann wasn’t just an early computer scientist: he was also a brilliant mathematician and theoretical physicist, which I think comes out in this video.

Posted in Geek, History | Comments Closed

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