October Rambling

Stan Lee becomes a Jeopardy! category

A sure sign of madness: I’m now participating on the Times Union Getting There blog. Here’s my introductory piece, and you’ll find more along the way.

A Graveyard Of Commerce: Albany’s walled-off waterfront offers a boat launch, some casual tourism, and raw sewage

W. enters a local school board race – in Colorado

For mixed family, old racial tensions remain a part of life

The REAL Way to Get Wall Street’s Attention:

GO to OccupyWishList.org to provide some necessary supplies to various Occupy groups.

Bad Lip Reading – I enjoy this more in concept than in actuality

U.S. Skater Nailed First ‘Quadruple Lutz’. No, I don’t know what it is either, but my wife does.

25 Words You Might Not Know Are Trademarked -actually most of them I knew. But there were a few in comments that I did not.

A segment from Family Feud that came out eight months ago; never said I was ahead of the curve.

Ken Levine answers my question. He’s a TV writer of some note (Frasier, MASH).

And Then There’s………Maude.

The Dick Van Dyke Show Blogathon: In Praise Of Laura Petrie’s Capri Pants (or something like that); the article’s better than the title. And related to D.V.D., the Carl Reiner Tribute at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Obscure 1987 Sitcom Predicted Muammar Gaddafi’s Death Year.

A spider in the lampshade! And speaking of spiders, Spider-Man Swing dances, and Stan Lee becomes a Jeopardy! category.

From Jim Shooter, former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics: old Superman Syndicated Strips. Plus Spooky or Inexplicable Events – Directory Assistance. Quite moving.

Nursery Rhyme Comics: Great comic illustrators do Mother Goose

MAD guy Al Jaffee’s greatest fear

Paul McCartney Toasted John Lennon At His Wedding Reception

The Porkka Boys cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Folks from Finland are particularly fascinating to me. In any case, not a wretched excess version, such as William Shatner’s jaw-dropper.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced the appointment of Dr. Anne C. Beal, M.D., M.P.H., as its first chief operating officer. PCORI was created by Congress as an independent, non-profit research organization to help patients and those who care for them make informed health decisions. Anne, BTW, is my cousin.

An interview with singer, songwriter, poet and my e-friend, Amy Barlow Liberatore

Did you know of Frank Kameny, who died this month? You will after you read these pieces by Arthur at AmeriNZ and, and watching this piece from CBS News.

Patti Page recently rerecorded “Doggie in the Window” as “Doggie in the Shelter.”

Science fiction writer David Brin shared this fascinating blog post about the social and cultural meaning of Star Trek

Never say science fiction is just make-believe. We live it every day

(Thanks to JA Fludd for some of these)

June Rambling

Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. –LA Times editorial 1/12/92

Here I am with my good buddy Walter, who works at one of the SBDC centers. Shortly after this picture was taken, I started having trouble with my knee. Walter’s been having trouble with HIS leg, and I called him to tell him that, whatever he has, it’s contagious!

An ad hominem argument is any that attempts to counter another’s claims or conclusions by attacking the person, rather than addressing the argument itself.

Why Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Must Go, which, as a couple of commenters note, does not go far enough. And another article re Thomas.

Japan Earthquake Swarm Google Earth Animation. And the controversy over Surviving an Earthquake.

The Pink Triangle: Never forget.

I used Twitter more often last week than in the previous six months combined, mostly keeping track of our state legislature. Here’s my favorite tweet: “Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. –LA Times editorial 1/12/92”

My niece Rebecca is having her debut CD Release Party with her band, “The Jade Element”, Friday, July 8th, 2011 at Anthology ~ 1337 India St, San Diego, CA 92105 (in Little Italy). Doors open at 9:30 pm.
You can purchase tickets at www.AnthologySD.com or at the door. You can check out a couple of their songs on the website, www.TheJadeElement.com.

Another Kickstarter project that caught my eye: the Winsor McCay Resurrection Project.

How Books Were Made in 1947: Interesting ten-minute film on YouTube. Warning–for print lovers only.

I’m not much of a hockey fan, but I am a hockey traditionalist, I guess. Score One for the Ghosts of History: As Another ‘Original Six’ Team Vies for a Stanley Cup, Classic Franchises Are Flexing Their Muscles.

The Green with Envy movie trailer. And the REAL Muppet Movie trailer.

Schoolhouse Rock: The Next Generation? Renaissance Man.

Music video by “Weird Al” Yankovic performing Perform This Way, a parody of “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga, which in turn was a ripoff of Madonna’s Express Yourself. Also from Weird Al: Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me.

Star Trek KFC.

From the pages of LIFE magazine: MAD Magazine: A Semi-Secret History. And check out the MAD Magazine blog!

From the New York Times: Marvel Superheroes and the Fathers of Invention re “the battle now being waged between Marvel and the heirs of the legendary comic artist Jack Kirby, who breathed life into such pop culture icons as the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor and the Silver Surfer.”

Great comic book artist Gene Colan, R.I.P.

Actor Peter Falk died. He’s remembered for his role in The Princess Bride, and of course, as Columbo (I remember this!)

Actor James Arness obit.

Something from someone’s Facebook page:

The GOOGLE ALERT section

la.donna.pietra, woodendreams: (by Roger C Green Photography)

Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke, the writing and directing team… have signed to William Morris Endeavor for exclusive representation with agents Mike Esola and Roger Green heading up Team Page/Pomerenke.

Roger Green, chairman of the Friends of St Peter, said: “I had my doubts about what the effect of the new lighting might be but I must admit I am impressed.”

I’ve stopped following Roger Green Racing bets at the beginning of May. This was after what’s been a poor year for me following this service.

Roger Green, R.I.P.

Getting All Post-Racial with MLK, Jr.

Everything I’ve read, all of his speeches I’ve devoured, suggests that MLK would still be in the fight for equal justice, not convinced that we’ve already gotten there.


Since the King holiday is coming up, I thought I’d mention that noise I’ve been reading about Martin Luther King, Jr. being a Republican. This involved posters over the past couple of years and his niece declaring it to be so. Frankly, I have not come across a totally credible source proving it one way or another.

The Republican party, of course, was the party of Lincoln, while the Democratic Party, particularly in the South, where King lived, was the party of George Wallace and other segregationists. So it is quite plausible that he was a member of the GOP, at least until the 1960 election of John Kennedy. Surely he voted for Democrat Lyndon Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964, his public comments make clear.

But most of the conversations miss the greater point, which is, “Would Martin Luther King, Jr. be a Republican in the 21st Century?” Those who suggest that the answer would be “yes” generally zero in on one section of his March on Washington I Have A Dream speech in August 1963, the part that goes: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. The clear implication is that race-based remedies for past or current discrimination should be off the table.

But read the very end of the speech:

from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men, and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

So the real question becomes this: would MLK think Americans are equally free in these days? Or would he think the increasing economic disparity between the rich and the poor needed to be addressed? Would he fret over unequal access to food, shelter, health care? Would he weep over the resegregation of education?

Obviously, I don’t know for certain. But everything I’ve read, all of his speeches I’ve devoured, suggests that MLK would still be in the fight for equal justice, not convinced that we’ve already gotten there. A big issue in his latter days involved a disproportional number of black soldiers fighting and dying in a war he considered unjust. The garbage collectors fight that brought him to Memphis just before his death was as much about economic disparity as it was about race.

I’m a Census guy. Many people tell me they wish we’d stop measuring race. Why is it that the government still counts people in that way, other than the historic reasons? The government measures race and ethnicity in part to delineate equality or disparity in income, housing, and the like. Maybe we’ll stop counting race when we stop being unequal. I really do hope we get there someday.
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SamuraiFrog shares Glenn Beck taking back civil rights from MAD magazine.

I’m Walkin’, Renee

Officer Bobby Hill on Hill Street Blues should not to be confused with the kid on the animated program King of the Hill.


Walk Away Renee was clearly the biggest hit for a New York City band called The Left Banke. The lead singer is named Steve Martin, but it’s not the noted comedian. The song reached #5 on the Billboard charts in 1966, made the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame list and is #220 on the Rolling Stone top 500 list. Listen to it HERE.

It was covered by the legendary Motown group The Four Tops, with the great lead singer Levi Stubbs. The recording went to #14 on the pop charts and #15 on the rhythm & blues charts. Listen to it HERE.

When I worked at FantaCo in the 1980s, my boss Tom and I were big fans of the then-current cop drama Hill Street Blues. At one point, Officer Bobby Hill (Michael Warren, pictured) – not to be confused with the kid on the animated program King of the Hill – mentioned liking Walk Away Renee, and said that it came out in 1968. We theorized that this was not an error on the part of the writers, but that Bobby listened to the black radio stations in his youth and was familiar only with the Four Tops version, not the original.
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Love this parody of the New Titan Titans #1 in MAD magazine #507, but I wonder how many of the MAD readers know the 30-year-old comic cover well enough to truly appreciate the takeoff.

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