tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.comments2023-10-30T07:10:34.610-07:00UnderbellyBucehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16452321114185736762noreply@blogger.comBlogger2872125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-70658739835503456242022-08-22T11:52:10.372-07:002022-08-22T11:52:10.372-07:00Hm, wonder what possessed me to do that.Hm, wonder what possessed me to do that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-51257213111622193322022-08-22T11:49:54.906-07:002022-08-22T11:49:54.906-07:00Still works.Still works.Ken Houghtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01440837287933536370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-38907735082687822022017-09-24T21:37:21.616-07:002017-09-24T21:37:21.616-07:00My father, Larry L. Stone (1914-1993), editor of t...My father, Larry L. Stone (1914-1993), editor of the Central City Messenger and the Times-Argus, used to sing the chorus in the 1950s. He might have picked up the song when he was a student at Western Kentucky Teachers' College in the mid to late 1930s. Anyway, his lyrics were only slightly changed from what you have posted above. My father sang:<br /> <br /><"Sad the tale of soldier Henry <br />His military record clean<br />He lies beneath the sod<br />His soul has gone to God<br />But he's buried in Bowling Green"><br /><br />Then, "Bowling Green" repeated twice (I think), followed by repeating "He's buried in Bowling Green." Then, back to lines three and four ("He lies beneath the sod, His soul has gone to God"), and then, "But he's buried in Bowling Green." <br /><br />This short version could go one for a while (depending on the quantity of Oertel's 92 beer consumed).leedurhamstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05387342562711745997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-47936713991647978252017-07-29T21:06:00.048-07:002017-07-29T21:06:00.048-07:00The piaba plant is real. My dad always had a bit s...The piaba plant is real. My dad always had a bit soaking in white rum. That thing would stop any diarrhea. A very small quantity, much less than a teaspoon. Harry Belafone would know about it. He came from the country in Jamaica where folks still practice a good bit of herbal medicine.Anansi22https://www.blogger.com/profile/03588182979793152946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-26746145956936105252017-06-16T13:29:05.028-07:002017-06-16T13:29:05.028-07:00Othello?Othello?Taxmomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11660046865765219756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-46627737578442385942016-12-02T06:48:08.333-08:002016-12-02T06:48:08.333-08:00Phillistine! Barbarian!! REPUBLICAN!!!! How co...Phillistine! Barbarian!! <b>REPUBLICAN!!!!</b> How coulld you omit the last verse and final complaint of Athaneal like that? O, read, my children, that you may complete your edjumicashun and sit astounded at the Master's Touch.<br /><br /><b><i>"Alas! His pleadings amorous, though passionate and clamorous<br />Have come too late. The courtesan has danced her final dance.<br />Said he,"Now that's a joke on me, for that there dame to croak on me,<br />I never should have passed her up the time I had a chance!"</i></b>Frayed Knot Artshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02779087165120591357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-42628633407248677512016-09-14T22:43:42.460-07:002016-09-14T22:43:42.460-07:00I wouldn't actually use that Louis-Conn coaste...I wouldn't actually use that Louis-Conn coaster as a coaster. It might be worth a few bucks.chris9059https://www.blogger.com/profile/05429250821150121973noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-78593656639229463422016-08-22T20:24:22.947-07:002016-08-22T20:24:22.947-07:00"But I kept recalling that nothing--nothing--..."But I kept recalling that nothing--nothing--in the script actually showed me that Don was a genius, advertising or otherwise. "<br /><br />Damn right. And this was in the era of great, highly memorable, breakthrough advertising. "Think Small" for Volkswagen. "We're only Number 2" for Avis. "At sixty miles an hour in your new Rolls Royce, the loudest noise comes from the ticking of the electric clock," obviously for Rolls Royce. A chimpanzee in a TV spot copying his banana on an office machine for Xerox. And on and on.<br /><br />Not only do we not see any great advertising in Madmen. We never saw anybody having real fun. The work was fun. The play was fun. Yes there was oodles of marital infidelity. But it was done with joyful, sometimes idiotically joyful abandon, and gossiped about after work with much laughter. Guys got themselves into incredible difficulties over one-night stands. One married guy woke up in the wrong bed on Christmas morning. Another got stuck paying the rent on an assignation flat that he originally leased with four other guys, but then our guy's girlfriend moved in, refused to move out, refused to pay the rent, and drove off the three other rent payers, leaving one married lothario with an annual nut he couldn't justify and no way of breaking the lease. And on and on. <br /><br />There were even tragic-comedies. Four guys from an agency called Benton & Bowles phoned their wives to say they'd be working late, then went with their dates to the roof of some secretary's apartment for a party. Several of them were sitting in a hammock swinging and canoodling at the same time when the chimney collapsed, killing one of them. It made the newspapers. Try to talk your way out of that one.<br /><br />What Madmen got right was that there was a lot of drinking, smoking and cheating, (although not of the joyless kind the show portrayed) and that if you worked with a title higher than Peon Third Class, you had a secretary sitting outside your door. The rest is all the feeble imagining of some guy who wasn't even born when it all happened and evidently can't understand that people mixed together work and play as never before and never since.<br /><br />Yours crankily,<br />The New York Crank<br />VP, Copy Group Head<br />VP Associate Creative Director<br />Sr. VP Associate Creative Director<br />Sr. VP Co-Creative Director<br />and so on and so forth....The New York Crankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04489472134701718697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-80819840348150506352016-08-22T20:21:29.928-07:002016-08-22T20:21:29.928-07:00"But I kept recalling that nothing--nothing--..."But I kept recalling that nothing--nothing--in the script actually showed me that Don was a genius, advertising or otherwise. "<br /><br />Damn right. And this was in the era of great, highly memorable, breakthrough advertising. "Think Small" for Volkswagen. "We're only Number 2" for Avis. "At sixty miles an hour in your new Rolls Royce, the loudest noise comes from the ticking of the electric clock," obviously for Rolls Royce. A chimpanzee in a TV spot copying his banana on an office machine for Xerox. And on and on.<br /><br />Not only do we not see any great advertising in Madmen. We never saw anybody having real fun. The work was fun. The play was fun. Yes there was oodles of marital infidelity. But it was done with joyful, sometimes idiotically joyful abandon, and gossiped about after work with much laughter. Guys got themselves into incredible difficulties over one-night stands. One married guy woke up in the wrong bed on Christmas morning. Another got stuck paying the rent on an assignation flat that he originally leased with four other guys, but then our guy's girlfriend moved in, refused to move out, refused to pay the rent, and drove off the three other rent payers, leaving one married lothario with an annual nut he couldn't justify and no way of breaking the lease. And on and on. <br /><br />There were even tragic-comedies. Four guys from an agency called Benton & Bowles phoned their wives to say they'd be working late, then went with their dates to the roof of some secretary's apartment for a party. Several of them were sitting in a hammock swinging and canoodling at the same time when the chimney collapsed, killing one of them. It made the newspapers. Try to talk your way out of that one.<br /><br />What Madmen got right was that there was a lot of drinking, smoking and cheating, (although not of the joyless kind the show portrayed) and that if you worked with a title higher than Peon Third Class, you had a secretary sitting outside your door. The rest is all the feeble imagining of some guy who wasn't even born when it all happened and evidently can't understanding that people mixed together work and play as never before and never since.<br /><br />Yours crankily,<br />The New York Crank<br />VP, Copy Group Head<br />VP Associate Creative Director<br />Sr. VP Associate Creative Director<br />Sr. VP Co-Creative Director<br />and so on and so forth....The New York Crankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04489472134701718697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-16238228374214450142016-08-22T20:02:28.839-07:002016-08-22T20:02:28.839-07:00Ah hah! You've touched on one of the great dil...Ah hah! You've touched on one of the great dilemmas of direct mail fund raising — how to make someone feel thanked and important and flattered without breaking the bank sending costly tchotchkes to contributors instead of putting their money to use doing good works.<br /><br />It should be noted that there are two kinds of fund raising gifts. First is the pre-contribution gift, used to stimulate your guilt. Here are a dozen precious labels with your return address on them. Surely now, you won't turn us down for a generous gift of fifty million gaboozalas.<br /><br />The other is the thank you gift.The folks at the charity or their ad agency would jump out of the mailbox and give you a big hug. <br />That would do it, but it's not scaleable, as the silicon people say. If the folks at your charity send you that Porsche, they'd certainly manage to impress you with their gratitude, but they also would go to prison. If they sent you a ball point pen, you'd probably say, "How trite." And even if you didn't, their competitors in the industry would.<br /><br />So pour yourself a beer, put your damn glass down on the damn coast, and shut up.<br /><br />Yours very crankily,<br />The New York Crank<br /><br />The New York Crankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04489472134701718697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-91100257706715439652016-08-21T15:59:46.836-07:002016-08-21T15:59:46.836-07:00Eb--never gave it any thought but my top-of-the-he...Eb--never gave it any thought but my top-of-the-head guess is that the victims in the sex cases are easier to identify and self-identify and to personalize. Also, most of these tend to be local prosecutions where an angry victim and her allies can at least make life difficult for a reluctant prosecutor.<br /><br />Both cases--sex crimes and finance--seem to be difficult to make, but for different reasons. The difficulty with sex cases is easy enough to see--usually revolves around consent (and certainly there is a lot of outright sexism involved). <br /><br />The money cases--I suppose it can be difficult to tell those intricate stories. But it seems to be tough in the individual case to persuade the jury that what was done was wrong. Also he harm is much more diffuse. I suppose a good prosecutor will try to persuade the jurors to identify with the victims--could have been me. Consider Bear Sterns I think any decent market pro would have seen the behavior as nothing worse than insane optimism in the race to make a buck. Probably a bit of "hm, looks like everybody does it," and perhaps everybody does do it.<br />Bucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16452321114185736762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-41353958609677246392016-08-21T15:18:01.475-07:002016-08-21T15:18:01.475-07:00I wonder why nonprosecution for sex crimes gets al...I wonder why nonprosecution for sex crimes gets all over the papers; nonprosecution of crimes committed in a nice suit not so much. Which is more threatening: feminism or populism?Ebenezer Scroogenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-15187823665080894572016-08-20T22:39:39.259-07:002016-08-20T22:39:39.259-07:00I've just bought this book from a local book s...I've just bought this book from a local book sale and 40 pages in I've got to say I am very impressed. I have read a number of Shakespeare biographies and 3 of James Shapiro's books on Shakespeare and I've got to say that Southworth's theory seems very convincing.This very much struck home:<br /><br />Not “a single player in the whole period is known to have been accepted into any of the companies in his early twenties without previous training or experience, as is [conventionally] supposed of Shakespeare”.<br /><br />In retrospect we can look back and see how exceptional Shakespeare was and think of course a Theatre company would have taken him on. But he would have been taken on by people completely lacking our hindsight. It makes sense that we have no evidence for what Shakespeare was doing, but that players served apprenticeships therefore in want of any better explanation Shakespeare most likely served an apprenticeship in the theatre. It seems so obvious.<br /><br />Thanks for the write up, by the way.<br />Keri Fordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14386177565660630959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-61603031980979676752016-08-18T11:54:25.026-07:002016-08-18T11:54:25.026-07:00FBI decisions, certainly during the age of Hoover ...FBI decisions, certainly during the age of Hoover (j. Edgar, not Herbert) and possibly since, have often been political decisions. <br /><br />I know of one case when a small business owner was approached by the FBI and told to dismiss an employee because that employee had once, many years earlier, allegedly belonged to the Communist Party. I also know, as do you, of a certain college campus in Ohio where the FBI maintained a student spy, whose job was to report on other students who might have red or even pink opinions. (One of those students had qualms of conscience that led him to spill the beans.) Then there was the bootlegger who got shot in the back exiting from the movies. He may have deserved it, but it certainly avoided the political friction of a trial.<br /><br />For that matter, my ex-wife got busted by the FBI, at the age of ten, for trick-or treating in a large Manhattan apartment building. <br /><br />A kitchen door flew open (the kids were told to use the back, or servant stairs) and the two little girls found themselves staring into the muzzles of FBI hardware, and then turned around, shoved against a wall, and patted down. The FeeBees next summoned their parents and let them go with a warning to "never go trick or treating again." Well,m the building happened to be the one in which Judge Kaufman, who imposed the death penalty on the Rosenbergs, lived. But two ten year old girls in witch hats carrying Trick-or-Treat shopping bags? Gimme a break!<br /><br />Yours very crankily,<br />The New York Crank<br /><br /><br /><br />The New York Crankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04489472134701718697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-75130443924469854902016-08-18T11:27:23.265-07:002016-08-18T11:27:23.265-07:00Sounds like an ambulatory version of a commercial ...Sounds like an ambulatory version of a commercial break on cable TV.Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06852071930129276235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-65327505296817108342016-08-15T18:52:47.227-07:002016-08-15T18:52:47.227-07:00the chancellor also had a PR person who might have...the chancellor also had a PR person who might have written her press release. <br /><br />As one of your colleagues said the in private industry the chancellor would have been fired for NOT trying to scrub the internet. <br /><br />One of her predecessors had an assistant whose only job seemed to be to say "we don't pay for first class tickets" Katehi's main sin in my mind is that acted like a business leader not a public university leader. <br /><br />a major audit of the president's office has just been begun by the Calif legislature. It's awfully tempting to say that the president brought it on by making a fuss that brought the spotlights on her position and by slinging mud. just saying and probably wrongAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-12348158370973440822016-08-12T07:47:39.934-07:002016-08-12T07:47:39.934-07:00Oh, Crank. Feel free to shut the damn book and th...Oh, Crank. Feel free to shut the damn book and throw it against the wall. But do pick it up later and read to the end. You will then apologize to the book.Ebenezer Scroogenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-8085709726408646952016-08-11T21:42:03.965-07:002016-08-11T21:42:03.965-07:00Never read The Executioner's Song, but I think...Never read The Executioner's Song, but I think I know what you mean. Back in early July, I began reading William Styron's Sophie's Choice. Every page is a delight, sort of like being a fly on the wall in a gossip den, but the story slowly drags on, and on, and on. I'm now roughly halfway through, and I still haven't learned what her choice was. If I don't find out in another fifty pages, I'm going to shut the damn book and throw it against the wall.<br /><br />Or as the Duke of Gloucester, patron of a certain scholar of history,told his studious protege: "Another damn'd thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh Mr. Gibbon?" <br /><br />Yours very crankily,<br />The New York CrankThe New York Crankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04489472134701718697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-40225578662234324342016-08-11T11:11:37.802-07:002016-08-11T11:11:37.802-07:00As who was it, George Bernard Shaw?, once said of ...As who was it, George Bernard Shaw?, once said of university politics, The politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small.<br /><br />Crankily,<br />The New York CrankThe New York Crankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04489472134701718697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-8666281019960548592016-08-10T17:03:15.022-07:002016-08-10T17:03:15.022-07:00Did Ike really say New-kew-lar? I didn't own ...Did Ike really say New-kew-lar? I didn't own a TV set in those days, so maybe I just never heard him. Of course i remember W.<br /><br />Totally agree re Hoover--a point a lot of people seem to miss when they tell me how good Hillary is at her job.<br /><br />Re civil rights, I don't see where we disagree.<br /><br /><br />Bucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16452321114185736762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-86738331993489925562016-08-10T17:00:33.840-07:002016-08-10T17:00:33.840-07:00I think this may be something was struggling with...I think this may be something was struggling with when I admitted I hadn't distinguished 'nation' from' state. One again, I recognize that this i s another of the many topics on which I am unencumbered by real knowledge, but some thoughts.s<br /><br />Anyway--as I wrote I wondered what I would do with the "polity" that is Tony Soprano? Is he part of a "nation"? Or is, he, perhaps, just sucking lifeblood out of a population which may or may not have identity? Saddam Husein, same question. Come to think of it, I suppose it is true that most "states" through history have existed for no worthier purpose. IN the ease, perhaps the thing to say is that the "nation" defines itself, if as and when it doe, by way of its opposition to the parasite in chief (example, 19C Europeans virus "the crown," however defined).<br /><br />Slightly closer to your tone, I guess a lot of "polities" (weasel world) present the spectacle of elites scratching and clawing at a each other while the masses gape in astonishment. I think that was Syme's point about the Roman Republic--at least, what I took away from it.<br /><br />A serious political theorist would chuckle indulgently and set me straight. Or not bother to set me straight.<br /><br />Bucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16452321114185736762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-24785587840723062132016-08-10T03:51:31.046-07:002016-08-10T03:51:31.046-07:00Three things on Ike.
- I suspect him of hiring a s...Three things on Ike.<br />- I suspect him of hiring a speech coach to learn how to mispronounce "nuclear" correctly. <br />- I'm a bit amazed that a skilled bureaucratic politician (as Ike had been in the military) turned out to be such a skilled electoral politician. Very different skill sets. Can you imagine Henry Kissinger running for even dogcatcher? Or consider the failed presidency of Herbert Hoover, maybe the best administrator to occupy the White House.<br />- I think our host lets him off a bit too easy on civil rights. Since we all agree that he was one of the smartest men to occupy that office, he was surely aware of Truman's desegregation, Jackie Robinson, and the long slow legal campaign that was about to culminate in Brown v. Board. (Or even the Hayes Code, which is designed in part as a reaction to Birth of a Nation.) I think that Ike's sin was viewing the civil rights struggle as a second-tier pain in the ass that had to be managed, rather than one of the two or three central issues of his presidency.Ebenezer Scroogenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-80556761528295032312016-08-10T03:36:31.607-07:002016-08-10T03:36:31.607-07:00It depends on what you mean by "nation."...It depends on what you mean by "nation." (I think I know what you mean by "constitution.")<br /><br />Your basic thug-ocracy does not have a constitution, in your sense. It is only bound together by the henchmen's allegiance to their warlord, and the henchmen's power to command collective fear. There is no legitimacy whatsoever, apart from whatever it is that makes a henchman a henchman: usually threats and bribes. And if you're not a henchman, all there is is fear. Apart from this, the only constitution of such places is the warlord's health and desire. Constitutions--be they written or unwritten--legitimate. No legitimacy; no constitution.<br /><br />This obviously describes some godforsaken hellholes on this planet today. (I think we can agree that meaningless written constitutions do not count.) It also, if you believe Jacob Burckhardt, described many Italian Renaissance cities, ruled by families who amused themselves by poisoning each other. The families may have had an internal constitution of sorts (families often do), but they were otherwise thugs, with no legitimacy as we would understand it today.Ebenezer Scroogenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-4363807097540040772016-08-09T13:10:26.028-07:002016-08-09T13:10:26.028-07:00Adlai was the first in a long line of emotionally ...Adlai was the first in a long line of emotionally stunted overachievers who carried the Demo banner afflicted by an utter incapacity to make contact with the mass of voters. Yes, Gore, Kerry, and remember Bill Bradley and Gary Hart? I think it is Alistair Cooke who said he knew half a dozen women who assured (Cooke) that Adlai was just about to marry them when he died.<br /><br />"We'd lay Adlai," mildly funny UMC joke, would have counted as poor taste down at the sport bar.<br /><br />White shirts--probably one reason I disliked them so much.<br /><br />Bucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16452321114185736762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31671374.post-53496653563223532532016-08-09T11:36:27.056-07:002016-08-09T11:36:27.056-07:00Eisenhower does look better sixty plus years later...Eisenhower does look better sixty plus years later. Boring compared to JFK and LBJ. Boring is starting to look better as well. One of my earliest political memories (mid 60's) was that my mom was still upset that Stevenson wasn't elected. (She is still a bit miffed.) A friend's mother explained what being an Eisenhower Republican meant; we wear white shirts and we are nice to people.Steve Reynoldsnoreply@blogger.com