Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

Oscar-Worthy Movies I Have Seen: 1932-1933

Picture:
“CAVALCADE”, “A Farewell to Arms”, “42nd Street”, “I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang”, “Lady for a Day”, “Little Women”, “The Private Life of Henry VIII”, “She Done Him Wrong”, “Smilin’ Through”, “State Fair”.
Don’t think I’ve seen any of these, though I did see a later version of “State Fair”. Heck, I still remember the title song: “Our state fair is a great state fair. Don’t miss it; don’t even be late.”

This, BTW, was the last year of the midyear to midyear awards. The eligibility period for these films was August 1932-December 1933, and awarded in March 1934. From this point forward, the award covered the calendar year.

What? No nominations of the Mummy or the Invisible Man? None for King Kong?! I’ve seen all of these on TV at some point in my childhood.
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So, what did I spend my yesterday doing instead of finding exciting bloggable material for you? Mowing the lawn – does WD-40 fix gas leaks? apparently; challenging a nearly 100% increase in our property assessment since 2003; and getting a haircut. Then my wife was out during the evening, so the child and I negotiated the from-dinner-to-bed routine.
ROG

ROG

JEOPARDY! advice


A friend of mine wrote to me. Actually, a very good friend, one of my oldest, who was present at the tapings of my JEOPARDY! appearances.

Her nephew, who has a major in International Relations and Political Science, is trying out for the show! So, she sought my advice:

1) Watch JEOPARDY! A lot. Know how to play the game. (There were some who tested who obviously didn’t.) If it’s on in reruns somewhere, watch it twice a day. Not only do you get a rhythm for the game, you’ll find certain questions are often repeated in one way or another. (The painting Blue Boy by Gainsborough – seen above, or the opera Hansel and Gretel by Englebert Humperdink, e.g.) If he wants to study just the questions go here. Know what Before and After and Stupid Answers mean.

2) Read stuff. The newspaper, especially. Also, be aware of current events, both hard newsworthy stuff and the Entertainment Weekly type of stuff. (I actually started watching – ugh! – Entertainment Tonight for the cause.) It may not help with the test, but it may in the actual game.

3) He’s not gonna know everything, so he should concentrate on boning up on stuff he may already know. Based on his majors: World and State Capitals, US Presidents (the years are VERY useful), significant heads of state. Knowing roughly the times of British and French rulers (royalty and democratically elected) wouldn’t hurt. Second wave, if he has time, US Vice-Presidents (I don’t know how many times Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln’s first VP has shown up, and is often missed;, FDR’s VPs are often popular), states where the Presidents/VPs were from, First Ladies, members of the Cabinet (esp. Sec’y of State, Attorney General), US Supreme Court, esp. Chief Justices; UN Secretaries General (home country and years served). They’re not going to ask any of these questions straight out. It’ll be more like. U Thant was S-G of the UN during these three US Presidencies. (Who were JFK, LBJ, RMN?)

4) When he takes the test, answer all of the questions. If he has one on the tip of his brain, mark it on the sheet – maybe it’ll come. If he passes the written test, they’ll give him a screen test, a simulated game. Keep clicking until they call on someone – think playing with a ballpoint pen. Be upbeat without being phony. They’ll ask for an anecdote – have one.

I didn’t mention, I realize, that at least a perfunctory knowledge of award-winning films, books of the Bible, and the order in which the 50 states entered the Union wouldn’t hurt, but just trying to memorize stuff will probably just stress him out. He should go with what he knows. I’m wishing him good luck this week.
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So I wrote all that in an e-mail, then I discovered this on Ken Jennings’ blog for May 10, 2007:
From Becky, a Tuesday Trivia fan:

I’m preparing for an audition on Jeopardy! Do you have any study recommendations? Thank you!

I always hear the same recommendations when I ask this question of Jeopardy! veterans (I almost said Jeopardy! vets, but that sounds like the people that give Alex Trebek’s Chow his heartworm medicine). And I concur with their expert advice:

Don’t try to master the Jeopardy! subjects that intimidate you because you know nothing about them (opera, baseball, whatever). Forget those. Instead, look at Jeopardy! standbys you know but might be a little rusty on (world capitals, presidents, kings of England, etc.) and get them fresh in your mind.
Spend some quality time with The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, which has pithy, what-you-need-to-know capsules on thousands of Jeopardy! subjects. Mike Dupee’s How to Get on Jeopardy! . . . and Win! is also full of great lists and quizzes, but it’s sadly out of print.

So Ken and I agree: don’t try to cram in stuff you don’t already know.
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According to the Language Log, overaggressive spellchecking in Word has been dubbed The Cupertino Effect.
ROG

ROG

Would Have Been A Meme, If I Hadn’t Overthought It

So Kelly Brown had a meme about 10 things to accomplish. Should be an easy post, right? Not for me.

One one hand, at one of my recent conferences, I saw this futurist named Ed Barlow, who made me think that I ought to be be doing all sorts of technological things that I’ve had zero internal interest in, from podcasting to using an XBox, from learning Mandarin Chinese to reading more (specific) books. 10 things? How about 100? 1000?

On the other hand, I was struck by this story about how the consumption of cereal and toast have gone down, not for reasons of carb counting or the like, but because they TAKE TOO LONG. A bowl of cold cereal takes too long, and it’s (presumably) faster to get an Egg McMuffin from the drive-through. This hurts my head.

Not unrelated, there is this guy who is releasing a chapter per week of his book on the Internet, for free in order to try to stimulate sales of the book. While somewhat successful, a recent article notes that he’s “receiving some complaints from readers who felt they were being ‘teased’ by the incremental release of the book”. Oh, please. Wasn’t Dickens originally released that way?

So I’m trying to find that balance.

What DO I want to learn, right now? Just how to operate the technologies I already have to their fullest extent. I believe there is programability on our phone; I’ve never used it, but then we’ve only had it for three years. There is a way to record the DVR to VHS tape; can’t do it yet, and don’t even know what kind of cable I need. You know, stuff like that. That’ll keep ME plenty busy.
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A friend writes:
“I’d thought it was the best idea since sliced bread:
(1) No backaches from overloaded backpacks
(2) no more “I left my book in school and can’t do my homework”
(3) IT IS CURRENT TECHNOLOGY, AND OUR KIDS NEED TO LEARN TO BE TOTALLY COMFORTABLE WITH IT!!!

Well, I guess not. ROG

Shared Sorrow, Shared Joy QUESTION

A very good (white male) person I know wrote me this:
The civil rights struggle in United States. Equality of all race, gender, creed, and sexual orientation is a very good thing, and something we as Americans can have pride in as “we” march towards progress. However, personally, I feel like I’m not allowed to take ownership (perhaps a poor choice of words, I’m looking for something closing to ‘being a party to’) in the achievements of accomplishments of black leaders because of my own skin color. I want to celebrate and claim this men and women as a part of me, because while we may not share the same shade or skin, we share a common humanity. However I feel uncomfortable that it may not be welcomed by some, or I don’t want to offend folks that feel that is an experience or achievements that are special to a certain segment of humanity.

And I wrote back quickly, somewhat in a hurry, before heading off to ANOTHER conference:

It immediately occurred to me that your question re: race could be an interesting conversation on the blog [isn’t that typical of me?], not mentioning you by name. But, my short answer is, Life’s unfair. You don’t get to celebrate as much with the victories because you didn’t get to share in the pain and the humiliation. That’s not meant mean-spiritedly, I hope you recognize.

That may have been a bit glib. But I was recently reminded of this quote:
“Oh, it is sad, very sad, that once more, for the umpteenth time, the old truth is confirmed: ‘What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews.'” That was from Anne Frank’s diary in the spring of 1944. I was reminded of that again when I read about the specific grief by many people in South Korea over the killings at Virginia Tech. Why was that? Certainly, if the killer had been white, would all white people cringe with embarrassment? I suspect not. So if this is true, the specific joys can be shared only so much.

And I’m not even going to get into the ongoing stuff that still go on, such as allegations about higher auto loan rates for blacks and Hispanics, even accounting for differences in income.

Incidentally, someone sent me this link explaining a “psychological disorder”. Anyway, I don’t know that I have a question per se, or even a coherent thought, but I am soliciting your comments anyway.

You might also comment on this: I’ve long been of two minds about hate crime legislation. On one hand, there are people who do target folks because of their race or religion, and sexual orientation. As Rep. John Conyers put it, “These crimes constitute an assault not only on the victim but against our communities.”

On the other hand, I’m not insensitive to the notion that the law should be “blind to the personal traits of the victims”, even if it hasn’t always been so in the past, to the detriment of minorities.

Still, I’m leaning towards the former position because of a story I saw on ABC News regarding the growth of one particular hate group: the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan, which by most accounts, was fading in the 1990s, has had a resurgence by targeting Hispanics, seemingly assuming that their victims are all here illegally, which was 1) untrue and 2) irrelevant when it comes to assault. There was a story of an American teenager of Mexican descent beaten. So I’m hoping that hate crime legislation can be used especially against groups that practice such vulgarities.
ROG

ROG

Getting Old

The Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking Pete Townsend turns 62 today, by some measures, a senior citizen, so this seems somehow appropriate.

Link.

It’s not that easy to smash a guitar, I guess.


Learn from the master.
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The Tulip Queen And Joan Jett
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I haven’t purchased The SABR Baseball List & Record Book: Baseball’s Most Fascinating Records and Unusual Statistics – yet, but I’m seriously intrigued/sorely tempted:

“…over 700 stat-driven lists, most of them quirky and engaging enough to keep the average fan submerged in a geeked-out stupor for hours. A random sampling:
• Most Career RBI without Ever Leading League: How is it possible that Willie Mays never finished a single season atop the NL’s RBI rankings?
• Players Who Retired with Fewer Than 200 Career Home Runs but Hit 40 in a Season: You might know that Davey Johnson smacked a career-high 43 dingers in 1973. But did you know that he only hit 93 more during the rest of his career?
• Most Wins, by Pitcher’s Age, in a Season: Bob Feller holds the record for most wins by a 17-, 18-, 20-, and 21-year-old. At the other end of the spectrum, Phil Niekro is the standard-bearer for 40-, 43-, 45-, 46-, 47-, and 48-year-olds.
• Triple Crown Near-Misses: On three separate occasions, Babe Ruth led the league in two of the three triple crown categories and finished second in the remaining one. (Arguably even better: The triple crown losers list, which documents the sorry souls who managed to finish last in all three categories.)
• Pitchers Who Stole Home: Forty-six pitchers have done this since 1900 (including Fred Hutchinson and Don Newcombe, who both did it after hitting a triple!)
• Most RBI in a Season While Playing for Multiple Teams: Would you believe Goose Goslin was traded in the middle of a 138-RBI season?”
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And speaking of baseball books, Mr. Burgas’ take on Babe Ruth’s 104-HR season.
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Kool-Aid Pickles.
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Keeping Our Borders Safe.
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All you mean people who spoke ill of poor, dead Jerry Falwell, go here.
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Yesterday, I had more hits on the blog than I’ve ever experienced. It is a direct result of this post by Mike Sterling. Thanks, Mike! Maybe I won’t call you a cheater pants any more. OK, I will, but I’ll say it with affection.
ROG

ROG
Ramblin' with Roger
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