Category: Varia
Islamic Bias at Wikipedia?
A post by our favorite logical sparring partner. Wikipedia is a helpful resource if used cautiously and skeptically.
’60’s Era Noxzema Commercial: Take It All Off . . .
I well remember this one. Is there a blade in that razor? Would like to know the exact year. The theme music is David Rose, The Stripper. The tune in question became a hit in 1962, though it was composed earlier in '58, so I'd guess the commercial is from '63 or thereabouts.
Superannuated Pussy Terrifies Leeds Letter Carriers
As a former mailman, I can tell you that if a pussycat keeps you from your appointed rounds, then you are one. "Postmen are refusing to deliver letters to a house because they are terrified of one of the residents – an elderly cat." Story here.
Brew 102
I asked an old friend if he remembered the huge Brew 102 sign visible from a Los Angeles freeway back in the '50s and '60s. (See photo below.) His response:
'Deed I do remember Brew 102.
Over the Hollywood Freeway.
My arm 'round a cutie in a '55 Buick
Goin' long 'ol Highway 101.
Here is my verse response which is not meant autobiographically:
'Twas Brew 102 that did me in
And got me to drownin' in liquid sin
Soon I was a rollin' down that lost highway
Where many a boy has been known to stray
On 66 I got my kicks
And on 101 I had my fun.
But now I'm here to tell you true
We ain't on this earth to booze and screw
The female ass and the whisky glass
Have brought many a man to a sorry pass.
That's my wisdom take it straight
And head while there's time for the narrow gate
It's not too late and it's not too far
As long's you don't stop at the next whisky bar.
LaLaLand in the 1950s, Hollywood Freeway, and Brew 102 sign (left-click to enlarge):
The Hog Ridin’ Foolosophers M. C. (Mesa, Arizona)
Here's what they fly when they fly the colors. The top rocker reads: "Death on Wheels." The bottom rocker : "Death is the muse of philosophy." (Schopenhauer)
Oscar the Cat, Harbinger of Death
If this dude jumps into your bed, you know you're a goner. A strange but touching tail tale from The New England Journal of Medicine.
Merry Scroogemas!
In this season especially we ought to find a kind word to say about the much maligned Ebeneezer Scrooge. Here's mine: Without Scrooge, the sexually prolific Cratchit wouldn't have a job and be able to support his brood! This thought is developed by Michael Levin in In Defense of Scrooge.
And is there not something preternaturally knuckleheaded about the calls from some liberals that the presentation of Dicken's masterpiece be banned? They ought to consider that there is more anti-Capitalism in it than Christianity — an irony that no doubt escapes their shallow pates.
Minimalist and Maximalist Modes of Holiday Impersonality
'Tis the season for the letter carriers of the world to groan under their useless burdens of impersonal greetings.
Impersonality in the minimalist style may take the form of a store-bought card with a pre-fabricated message to which is appended an embossed name. A step up from this is a handwritten name. Slightly better still is the nowadays common family picture with handwritten name but no message.
The maximalist style is far worse. Now we are in for a lengthy litany of the manifold accomplishments of the sender and his family which litany may run to a page or two of single-spaced text.
One size fits all. No attempt to address any one person as a person.
"It's humbug, I tell you, humbug!"
Nihilist T-Shirt
On the front: Nothing matters!
On the back: And what if it did?
Joe Pyne Remembered
The other day I happened to think of the confrontational talk show host from the 1960's, Joe Pyne. He was perhaps the original angry white guy. A little search revealed that chainsmoker Pyne died in 1970, at age 44, of lung cancer.
He once said to Frank Zappa, "I see you have long hair. You must be a girl." Zappa: "I see you have a wooden leg. You must be a table."
Addendum: David Gordon e-mails: " I used to enjoy Joe Pyne too. Two favorite phrases of his that come to mind are 'Go shinny up a tree' and 'Go gargle with razor blades.' "
And now I recall a segment he did on marijuana. He insisted that one drank alcohol to relax, but smoked weed to get stoned. My 16 year-old self thought that a bogus distinction: you can relax with either and get stoned with either.
Why Are Actors and Actresses Held in Such Low Esteem?
According to an August 4, 2009 Harris poll, the most prestigious occupation is that of firefighter, while near the bottom of the ranking falls that of actor. 62% of the Americans polled voted for firefighters while only 15% voted for actors. At the very bottom of the ranking, however, were realtors, who garnered a measly 5% of the vote.
I don't understand why acting should be held in such low esteem. After all, acting is is not easy to do well, and most of those likely to be polled are familiar with only the very best. Good acting is not only difficult, but also very enriching to all our lives. Consider Martin Landau's work in Woody Allen's masterpiece Crimes and Misdemeanors or Meryl Streep's performance in Sophie's Choice. Those are great movies and the actors in such movies make a profound contribution to the quality of our lives. This is not to deny that most movies are worthless and that many great actors such as Robert De Niro waste their talents on worthless roles in worthless movies.
So why should acting be held in low esteem? But perhaps it is not acting but actors who are held in low esteem. Perhaps it is not actors qua actors who are held in low esteem, but the people who act. What I am suggesting, as a possible explanation of the fact of acting's low rating relative to other professions, is that the people polled conflate actors qua actors with the people who are actors, and project their dislike for these people onto their occupational role.
And why should the people likely to be polled dislike the people who are actors? Because they are most of them flaming liberals who maintain views that are deeply offensive to ordinary Americans. To take an example from a while back, Mike Farrell defended the the vicious murderer 'Tookie' Williams. A very recent example is provided by that profound intellect, Janeane Garofalo, who maintains that the 'tea-baggers,' led by Limbaugh, are a white power movement motivated by 'racism.' Read the the whole of her screed to get a sense of the level of lunacy to which HollyWeird liberals are ever inclined to succumb. I shall not sully my site by quoting it.
Should one take polls seriously? I rather doubt it. Much depends on how exactly the questions are formulated. The Harris 'result' that acting is held in low esteem may reflect only the low esteem in which average Americans hold the people who fill the occupational role.
Burning Man
Haven't been there, haven't done that. Have you? Would you want to?
Extended Service Warranties
Conversation in the frigidarium one morning drifted onto the weighty topic of extended service warranties. A poolmate explained how a zealous salesman tried to sell her such a warranty on a filing cabinet! It occurred to me that even more absurd would be extended warranties on ball peen hammers and anvils. Or how about coffins?
"If in the first one hundred years of your subterranean repose you should ever experience any moisture or other intrusion due to a failure of the seals, just call our toll-free number conveniently stamped on the underside of the coffin lid, and a repairman will come to your gravesite, exhume your coffin, make necessary repairs, and restore everything to its original condition. All at no additional expense."
World Philosophy Day
Seldom Seen Slim apprised me of the fact that today is World Philosophy Day. BBC story here. I got a kick out of this:
As Princeton philosopher David Lewis once said: "When philosophers follow where argument leads, too often they are led to doctrines indistinguishable from sheer lunacy."
This from a philosopher whose mad dog modal realism is itself hard by the boundary of lunacy. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!