Blast from the past

It's funny what you think of during the course of a day. Today I happened to remember an old public service announcement that I used to see every so often on television back in the 1960's and '70's. A serious warning about the dangers of...yes, that's right...

Blasting Caps!

What I recalled was that while the spokesman warned about being careful when you play outside, the camera would zoom in and someone would point out three blasting caps laid out on the ground - don't touch! Then the scene cut to a movie of an explosion. I had forgotten who the celebrity spokesman was until I checked online...well, Youtube to the rescue!

I won't make light about the safety issue, apparently those things were / are dangerous enough. But I'm curious about the background of this. Why this particular warning? And why don't we see this PSA today? Are the cleanup procedures at construction sites better now, so it's no longer an issue? Were they lax about such things 40 years ago? Was there a theft of blasting caps, with some being found in vacant lots? Or did a crew that filmed Public Service Announcements sit around one day...

"Cuthbert": "Guys, we need to make one more PSA to complete our contract, and frankly I'm stumped. Got any ideas?"

"Frank Lee": "Hmmm...what about we do one on blasting caps? Those suckers could really hurt a kid."

(Assumed names to protect the innocent.)

Found: A quote from The Lord of the Rings

I’ve been checking out the writings of Minnesota resident and master blogger James Lileks for a few years now, every since cousin Mike brought “The Bleat” to my attention. One of Mr. Lileks’ features is “100 Mysteries”, an ongoing “review” of a DVD compilation of old, mostly black-and-white mystery movies.

James describes today’s entry, “The Man on the Eiffel Tower” as the “Worst movie in the series so far”. Mr. Lileks has a great way with words, but as sometimes happens, there will be a quote from someone in the comments section that will really grab my attention.

So, check this out, and notice the blog entry begins with a photo of Burgess Meredith, who both directed and starred in the movie. Then, the first comment: “Isn’t that guy your new US Senator?”, followed five comments later by “THAT is funny. Funny, ha - ha, not funny in that, you know, Franken is really going to be a Senator. That’s just, I dunno… disappointing? Disturbing? Sumpthin.”

Then, 13 comments down from the top, “…That’s just, I dunno… disappointing? Disturbing? Sumpthin.”

“Where now the horse and the rider? where is the horn that was blowing? The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.”

That last is what really got me thinking. It’s not only a meaningful quote from “The Lord of the Rings”, but also a poetic statement on our current state of affairs. A lament, I suppose.

Now, I’m not all gloom-and-doom, I just can’t do that. But sometimes I have to wonder.

The Evening Rambler for April 27, 2009

Happy Samuel Morse birthday!

The way my computer is set up now, on my way to my Yahoo page, I first go through the Google page. I use Google sometimes, but being the creature of habit that I am, I'm used to my Yahoo setup.

Here's how the Google logo looked today.

Well I thought it was neat, anyway. I was reminded of the times I studied Morse Code with my dad. For those who don't know, he was an amateur (ham) radio operator.

So I could read "GOOGLE" right off (and if I close my eyes I can imagine hearing it at five words per minute). So, what's the occasion, the anniversary of the invention of the telegraph? A quick roll of the mouse, and the comment Samuel Morse birthday appeared.

Let's all say some "dits" and "dahs" for Mr. Morse.

Leavenworth County Tornado

The weather turned severe two counties to the west of us on Saturday afternoon. I happened to turn on the tv as one of the news helicopters was showing live video from near the storm. No luck finding that clip to link to here, unfortunately.

The rotating wall cloud was evident, and the funnel was already starting down, then it would appear to stop, raise back up, pause, and then head down again. What I'm told is that usually the funnel is twice as far down as it looks, as the condensation darkens the upper part from the top down. The funnel continued to lengthen when suddenly in the blink of an eye, there was the tornado all the way to the ground. Just that quickly.

I got excited "You oughta see this", which brought my son into the room (I'm sure he was thinking "What's with dad?"). I told him, "See, that's just how they look!".

Well, duh. Now that I think back on it, that was a bit obvious.

The tornado persisted and tracked through a rural area, damaging some houses and destroying a few barns. As a precaution, people were evacuated from the Kansas Speedway and some of the local shopping areas in Kansas City, Kansas. Thankfully, no serious injuries or deaths due to the tornado (I heard there was one lightning fatality, though).

But...the ability to watch live coverage of a tornado forming two counties away...what a world.

"To save them, we have to eat them."

A strange statement, that. While I was trying to find that tornado video, I came across this, and found it interesting. I wasn't aware there were endangered breeds of chickens.

I'm all for clean air and water, not littering, that sort of thing. But I've never been all that gung-ho for environmentalism for It's Own Sake; when it's the be all and end all of some political movement or a religion of sorts.

But it would be a shame for some of those breeds of chickens to go extinct. Another quote:

"At least 19 heritage breeds, such as the white Delaware with the mottled neck, the white-egg laying Holland and black mottled Houdan, have been designated as critically threatened, which means there are fewer than 500 left. Dozens of others are in danger of disappearing without a market to sustain them." (italics mine)

That reminds me of something I heard of Rush Limbaugh's radio show once. Something to the effect that if you want to protect an endangered species, the best way to do that would be to allow the endangered animal to be raised for food. The market would make sure there was a plentiful supply.

Finally...

Hats off to cousin Dolores, who had the correct answer for the latest music lyric game challenge. Check back on The Porch soon for a new challenge!

Someone could tell

The name of the song from the Lyrics Game is indeed, as my sister said, "You Never Can Tell". It is, like most songs I favor, a happy little tune and it was composed by Chuck Berry.

A recurring line in the song is - "C'est la vie," say the old folks, "It goes to show you never can tell". Now here's what happens. I was googling like mad to find "C'est la vie" but that's not the name of the tune, though I think I've seen it as the title to the Bob Seger version, which is excellent, by the way. I love Chuck Berry, but Seger's take is better in some ways.

Anyway, it's not "C'est la vie" and so, I don't know if you know this, it's hard to find what you are looking for when you ask for the wrong thing. Eventually, I discovered my error and found lyrics, but no video of Berry doing it, except some very recent stuff and frankly, though Chuck has aged well, he has, nevertheless, aged. It's not the same. Couldn't find Seger, either.

The reason for the mention of lyrics is that the first clue I gave had the word 'jammed' in it, referring to the coolerator relative to the TV dinners and ginger ale. I think that's the way Seger sang it, though I might be wrong. Berry wrote and sang 'crammed'.

I did find video of Emmylou Harris' version, which my sister (no surprise) was aware of. I have now watched it three times and it's a very fine version, in my opinion. She also says 'crammed'.

You can watch it here. As I said, it's a happy little tune and Emmylou's version may convey joy better than them all.

As you wish

We've been asked to provide another clue to the song title suggested by the lyrics in the previous post. And so we will.

It's a song about a young couple and the very early days of their marriage. It was written by a rock'n'roll ground-breaker and covered very well by Bob Seger.

Here's something else the young couple did:

"They bought a souped-up jitney, 'twas a cherry red '53,
They drove it down New Orleans to celebrate their anniversary"

Enjoy!

Another round of Lyrics Game

This one may not be hard and, really, I don't intend them to be terribly hard: I mean them to be fun. And these lyrics are fun -

“The coolerator was jammed with TV dinners and ginger ale”

Name the tune. Put your guess in 'Comments'.

Robert Duvall said it

After I wrote this post I went to sleep. It was the next morning, in the shower, when I remembered that the Athletics had moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1955, so the Cardinals were the westernmost Major League team only until then, not when the Giants and Dodgers moved west in '58, as I had intimated. It was a small mistake, but I had plans to update my post.

But cousin was Bobby on the Spot and got it corrected yesterday. Well, he lives in KC after all.

Allow me a few more words about the placement of baseball fans. Obviously, they can be anywhere and it would be nice to have some accounting for it, but a map is probably not the solution for that.

Take Boston, for example. I recently read an article about a group of Braves fans living in Boston who are passionate and go to great lengths to display their allegiance. The Braves, as you probably know, began in Boston as one of the 'Original 8' National League teams.* The Braves were the older team in Boston compared to the Red Sox and as such, had a large following. In fact, many people were convinced the wrong team left Boston when the Braves went to Milwaukee in 1953.

Of course, this isn't necessarily universal. I cannot recall meeting anyone from St. Louis or even in the Show-Me state who is a Baltimore Orioles fan, even though the Orioles are the old St. Louis Browns. But I do hear about Browns fan clubs.

The mention I made about the Yankees having fans in Tampa has to do with a few factors, not the least of which is that they have had spring training in St. Petersburg or Tampa for decades. Also the huge number of New York transplants in Florida as well as the numerous championships and star players the Yankees have produced.

Well, I've blathered on long enough. But there is one more bit of housekeeping. In the previous post I referred to a movie quote in the title. Today's title tells you the actor who said it. The character he played was Hub McCann. He says it to his nephew, Walter. And the movie was 'Second Hand Lions'. I tried to google this scene, but I can't find it. It's a pivotal scene in a terrific movie.

*The National League began in 1876 and the cities represented then were much different than the ones I refer to as the 'Original 8'. The '8' I am referring to were the League as it was constituted in 1903 when the Western League established itself as another Major League and changed it's name to the American League. It also consisted of 8 members. That 1903 season was a signal year that ushered in more 'modern' baseball.