REMEMBER: CLICKING IMAGES ENLARGES...USUALLY.



As good a way as any I think to start off another tour of vintage advertising that says in very few words and pictures just about all you need to know about the general zeitgeist of a particular moment in time. This was run by The Office of War Information and it's amazing to think that not so long ago our economic model was still simple enough to be reduced to such easy math. Supply side running low? No problem, reduce demand. Class dismissed.






Subtle ain't it? Wonder if it just blended in with everything else at the time or kinda, sorta, maybe just a little bit bothered some sensibilities? Mad men indeed.






Well, as long as we're in the ballpark, might as well follow a few more pitches. I see nothing disturbing here, except that maybe the illustrator overdid the burning pan a bit. But he certainly captured our pretty homemaker...that perfect combination of "Oh, silly me" and " will you ever forgive me?"



And three's a charm. Rounding out our trio of true love stories is this romance brought to you by the Corn Flakes folk.
I find it confusing though. What's the guy's angle? The inset panel almost suggests that he's either jealous or just a big fat liar.










What's not to love? Honest, clear, benefit driven advertising. Wonder if you can find it on E-Bay.










Oooh...I'll bet burping this kid was a snap! Dig the little doggie behind the bottle...you just can't keep a good art director down.



















Dr. Batty alright.














Now meybes dere was a time wen folks jus dint know no bettah-- and wasn meanin no harm.
Or den agin meybe's dey did know bettah-- but jus dinnt care one ways or de otha bout nobody cept
they own dum ignorant cold blooded black hearted venal and evil as the devil selves.





Whaaaaa?



Huhhhhhh?



Holy Delusional Dingbats Batman!



Clearly a campaign with a strong ideological foundation. Like a cross between Ayn Rand and Jules Verne.
Maybe the CEO of Motorola thought everyone lives like this. And "hey you kids, don't let me catch you running down those stairs or it's no movie in the basement amphitheater tonight."





Including this only cause I really like the bike. Never saw one like it before. Wonder why you never see them at antique shops--guess the good ones are too valuable? And always nice to remember that before photography completely took over, there were people who could really draw ...and earn a living.









And you thought it was " you can't be too thin".














...and nothin gets the appetite going like knowing your meat is fresh and came to you of its own free will.











Feel free to provide your own caption. I'm speechless














Fascinating.
Gotta dig for more info on this one.
I'll let you know what I find out.











And finally...can't believe I found this.
If you know the routine he did about it, it's even funnier.

If you don't...





here it is...

THEY DIDN'T TELL US THIS STORY IN SCHOOL

Meticulously researched historical account while also a moving and heartbreaking narrative. Unsentimental, unbiased, and as even handed as one could imagine possible —leaving it to the reader to draw conclusions based on substantiated fact, documented records and first person accounts. An impressive scholarly achievement that occasionally reads like dramatic fiction simply by virtue of the intensity of the actual human drama it depicts.


Quanah Parker was the son of Cynthia Ann Parker who was captured by Comanches in a raid when she was 9 yrs. old. She spent next 25 years living as a Comanche, marrying the tribal chief and raising three children. She was then recaptured and returned to her family where she resisted reintegration with anglo life and died after starving herself. Her story was the basis of John Ford's classic western The Searchers.




Quanah was about 12 when his mother was recaptured and taken away from the tribe, and he grew up to be one of the last of the great Comanche warrior chiefs to escape capture while leading an ever dwindling population of resisters into ever more ill-fated battles until U.S. military might ultimately prevailed. And then, (most amazingly) he shrewdly adapted by becoming a respected (by white establishment including Teddy Roosevelt) leader and champion of indian rights within the new world of the reservation. But the book is primarily the story of the expansion of anglo settlements and the hundreds of battles, raids, counter-raids and outright slaughters that led to the total demise of free native american tribes throughout the entire region.


About halfway through reading, it started to dawn on me that this was the same story that has played out over and over again throughout history. A clash of civilizations with no chance or possibility of resolution other than complete and total dominance by one over the other. Treaties made, treaties broken. Peace policies introduced, policies abandoned. And the critical role that technology often plays in such sagas. In this case that initially included the Horse ( The introduction of which by the Spaniards made the Comanche (and dozens of other tribes) way of life possible. The Comanches were Buffalo Hunters and warriors--and the greatest horsemen. On the anglo side, it was the gun. The Colt repeating pistol and the long range rifle. And in the end the Railroad was the ultimate game changer. The writing was on the wall from the outset--and only the date of the endgame was ever in doubt.

“Manifest Destiny” (a term coined in the 1840s by John O'Sullivan) repelled me the moment I first understood it’s meaning. Most of us learned it in school and as I recall, no one ever pointed out or made mention of the fact that in essence it was simply a self-righteous rationale for slavery, conquest and genocide. 'This is our destiny (because it is God’s will) and we will make it manifest by whatever means necessary.' And reading David Remnick’s piece on Israel in this week’s New Yorker--

(http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2012/03/12/120312taco_talk_remnick)-

- it resonated again. Remnick talks about the rising tide of extreme fundamentalism taking hold as a similar dynamic plays out in the middle east –and it gave me chills. Two sides. Both convinced of their religious, spiritual, geographic, historical and immutable right to a particular piece of the planet. Neither genuinely interested in co-existence anymore--only retribution and conquest. Like any Hatfield and McCoy scenario, the initial causes and events fade into distant memory and all that remains is the fear and anger rising from each new confrontation. Emotional fervor rises as tragic and senseless death tolls mount and one begets the other in an endless cycle. I thought I generally understood the hard core hawks over there, but the article cites things that sound like the zealous Zionists are turning into fanatical fascists. Maybe Space exploration is a good thing…never thought so before.


I’ve been foolin around with “Over the Rainbow” for months now and havin fun playing with voicings and chord substitutions.

(Interesting document here: Piano/Accordian solo from British Edition of original film score)

The song is so pretty and the changes allow for enough variation for me to find the tune a challenging little puzzle.




And everything Harold Arlen wrote was great (my son's guitar teacher turned me on to Arlen when he led the Westchester Jazz Orchestra in a concert of his work. Arlen was one of the few "Broadway" composers whose style was steeped in jazz and blues influences--Stormy Weather, Come Rain or Come Shine, Blues in the Night) and E.Y. (Yip) Harburg is one of my favorite lyricists--(Brother Can You Spare a Dime?, It's Only a Paper Moon, Lydia the Tattooed Lady) I think what keeps me going with it is that the melody comes through so strongly even when you just concentrate on the changes—but I suspect that has something to do with how familiar it is and how locked into our psyche it’s been all our lives.

Anyhow…I’m slowly making progress trying to find new ways to treat it...and it’s given me a new appreciation for how great the tune is. And how it lends itself to so many interpretations.

I've posted Per-Olav Kindgren before. His old homemade website was full of great (and free!) stuff--but he's wised up and now it's all high-tech and slick (http://www.per-olovkindgren.com/ipnmonitor/index.php) and not free. But good for him...and I hope he's making a go of it. I found him while looking for easy Bach transcriptions and he had a few I could tackle. I like what he's done with this tune here too.



And maybe because I'm so handicapped by my limited knowledge and technique, I'm that much more amazed when a wizard like Art Tatum takes a crack at it.
Tatum isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (though his “Tea for Two” rarely fails to blow minds) cause he’s almost too good. Listening to him is almost like watching the workings of some kind of complex high speed machinery with so many moving parts you can't ever quite see how they all fit together. There’s almost too much going on to take it all in and after a while it doesn’t even sound like music anymore. But here he sticks to the tune most of the time…and displays the technique (those arpeggios!) and the imagination that even made Oscar Peterson want to throw in the towel.


OVER THE RAINBOW




Great music scenes in the movies continues

...with Tatum taking a back seat to an all star front line.

This is a Jam Session From The 1947 Film "Fabulous Dorseys"

 with:

Art Tatum : Piano

Tommy Dorsey : Trombone

Jimmie Dorsey : Clarinet

Charlie Barnet : Sax

George Van Eps : Guitar

Ray Bauduc : Drums

Ziggy Elman : Trumpet

Stuart Foster : Bass




I’m in the restaurant at SeaWorld and halfway through my fishburger I realize, I could be eating a slow learner.

Lynda Montgomery

"...And if you don't finish your vegetables, Daddy's gonna take you to a Knicks game. "


After last night's loss to Dallas, Carmelo ( after going 2 for 12) said:

“I think anytime you go from the early part of the season, just having the ball and me just having the ball and being the distributor, and now just running the wings and waiting for the ball to come to me, that’s quite an adjustment for myself.”

Sad. So much talent, so little understanding of the game. He's like a guitar player who only cares about his solo with no concept of the song.


NOT A WHOLE LOT TO SAY TODAY...

SO HERE'S A WHOLE LOT OF NUMBERS THAT PROBABLY SAY SOMETHING...



The world population = 7 billion (give or take a few)

Total annual births 134 million

Total annual deaths 56 million
(but expected to increase to 80 million per year by 2040)

Population by continent

Asia
4.1 Billion

Africa
994 Million

Europe
738 Million

North America
528 Million

South America
385 Million

Oceania
36 Million

Antarctica
4.5 Thousand


Ok. Now that we have our points of reference...


◦ 107 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2010
.
◦ 294 billion – Average number of email messages per day.

◦ 1.88 billion – The number of email users worldwide.

◦ 480 million – New email users since the year before.

◦ 2.9 billion – The number of email accounts worldwide.




• 255 million – The number of websites as of December 2010.

• 21.4 million – Added websites in 2010.




• 88.8 million – .COM domain names at the end of 2010.

• 13.2 million – .NET domain names at the end of 2010.

• 8.6 million – .ORG domain names at the end of 2010.


• 1.97 billion – Internet users worldwide (June 2010).

• 14% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.

• 825.1 million – Internet users in Asia.

• 475.1 million – Internet users in Europe.

• 266.2 million – Internet users in North America.



• 204.7 million – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.

• 110.9 million – Internet users in Africa.

• 63.2 million – Internet users in the Middle East.

• 21.3 million – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.



• 152 million –
The number of blogs on the Internet

• 25 billion – Number of sent tweets on Twitter in 2010

• 100 million – New accounts added on Twitter in 2010

• 175 million – People on Twitter as of September 2010

• 7.7 million – People following @ladygaga (Lady Gaga

• 600 million – People on Facebook at the end of 2010.

• 250 million – New people on Facebook in 2010.

• 30 billion – Pieces of content (links, notes, photos, etc.) shared on Facebook per month.

• 70% – Share of Facebook’s user base located outside the United States.

• 20 million – The number of Facebook apps installed each day.

• 2 billion – The number of videos watched per day on YouTube.

• 35 – Hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

• 186 – The number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (USA).

• 84% – Share of Internet users that view videos online (USA).

• 14% – Share of Internet users that have uploaded videos online (USA).

• 2+ billion – The number of videos watched per month on Facebook.

• 20 million – Videos uploaded to Facebook per month.

• 5 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (September 2010).

• 3000+ – Photos uploaded per minute to Flickr.

• 3+ billion – Photos uploaded per month to Facebook.





LUDDITES OF THE WORLD UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR PENCILS.

Every time I go away on vacation to some warm, slow, friendly, quiet, nature soaked land, I always return home with the same thought (as I ride along the Van Wyck Expressway on the way home from the airport) –“What am I doing back here?” It’s not the cold and it’s not the concrete and asphalt and it’s not the crowds and it’s not the dearth of trees and grass and sea and sand and clean fresh air. It’s the endless hum of all the engines of commerce and consumption …which just so happen to be the very engines that drive the vehicle that provides me with a living. Which begs the question: “ You call that living?”


Okay…I’m breaking my silence. My blogging mentor at teddyvegas.blogspot.com is the gold standard in sports analysis ( you can just go there now if you want a more advanced POV) so I’ve thus far kept off his turf, but I gotta say a few words about the Knick resurgence and the man who lit the fire that continues to burn bright for Big Apple hoop fans--and for the first time in a long time I'm paying attention and watching more than a few 4th quarters here and there.

I’m glad Jeremy Lin has settled down into the player he’s probably destined to be— a smart, selfless, skilled, quick and consistently effective point guard who makes everyone else on the court better by virtue of his general court sense, anticipatory decision making (those turnovers will abate) and energy. Those high scoring outbursts were clearly anomalies (partly due to opposing teams who were taken by surprise by his unexpected aggressiveness and determination) and unlikely to be the standard he maintains…but that’s all to the good since his real value is in energizing the rest of the team, directing traffic, dishing off the drive, and perhaps doing what would be the greatest miracle of all—turning Carmelo into a true team oriented star.

And seems like N. Djokovic, Lin has some mimicry talent--displayed here when he was a 15 yr. old high-schooler.




I felt from the beginning of Lin's heroic streak, that as good as he is, he looked that much better cause the rest of the guys on the court were just going through the motions. And watching D'Antoni in pre and post game interviews, he always looked and sounded like a high school principal trying to avoid admitting that the kids are just too spoiled and entitled to respond to any kind of outside authority or discipline. Lin plays hard every second he’s out there (and takes a beating too) and there aren’t many NBA players you can say that about. It’s why I still have a high regard for Kobe. And KG, Pierce and Ray Allen are always exciting to watch up in Beantown cause tho past their primes they may be (all in their mid 30’s), they never let up. Carmelo is 8 or 9 years younger than any of those guys…so no excuses. Carmelo—are you listening? Also got high hopes that Baron Davis still has something left in his tank. He can be as good as anyone when he’s on…and he’s had moments that remind you how amazing he was in his best and healthiest days.

POST KNICK CELTIC CLASH YESTERDAY: Well, it was close and it was fierce (or is that Pierce?) but somehow even when it seemed it coulda gone either way, I didn’t think the Knicks would do it. Part perennial pessimism but also part practically obvious. With a DVR that can replay and super slo-mo every play, we can all be courtside surgeons now and that’s what I found myself doing on many plays yesterday. What I saw was that when Lin drove to the hole still looking to dish off—no one was open and no one was even moving! At least that's how it appeared on the half dozen or so plays I reviewed. But gotta credit Celtic D too...they were mad dogs all game long. Lin is a bit more reckless than judicious right now, but comparing his drives with Rondo’s forays to the hoop, you can see the difference in how his teammates react and anticipate.

Rondo (18-20-17 ... Only two other point guards have had 15-15-15 games in the past 25 years. Jason Kidd and Magic Johnson-though Rondo did it with an overtime period---but still did it in 47 minutes. ) is undoubtedly the more seasoned and skilled player despite his shooting woes, and it helps that he’s also a bit more durable physically—but if the Knicks had someone like Ray Allen (or the revelation to me since I don't follow the Celtics --Brandon Bass!) tirelessly working to get open and running off screens, Lin would have more success (read: options) and fewer turnovers. I think Shumpert, Fields, Jeffries and Novak and even Davis are better in touch with the flow and more in sync with Lin's rhythms than Amare and Carmelo...Chandler is going to adapt no matter what though, and without his defensive intensity it's all a moot point...but hope springs eternal and now with 10 strong and healthy bodies to play with it should be fun for the rest of the way.

And I don’t care how many points Carmelo puts up…he’s still the 600 lb elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge is taking up too much space. The guy is a scoring magician at times…but like many a magician, he specializes in making those around him disappear. But he played some defense yesterday, so I’ll cut him some slack and hope for the best.

My son, Eli, sent me the revised draft of the sit-com pilot he wrote with my other son Will. I thought the last one was great. This one’s even better. I wish I had “green light” power, I’d switch it on in a heartbeat.

Mentioned Matt Munisteri (Thanks to Dave Shapiro) a few posts back and found this online. Kind of a cool video, and a taste of what he does…but just a taste. You’ll find a more varied and eclectic mix of him in various settings if you search a little.



Don’t have much else today, except some leftover table scraps (mostly Jewish/Yiddish quotes) that I had considered using in previous posts but for some reason or another didn’t make the cut.


My father never lived to see his dream come true of an all-Yiddish-speaking Canada.
David Steinberg

I'm not really a Jew; just Jew-ish.
And the only time I feel like a full jew is around Anti-Semites.
Jonathan Miller

I was raised in the Jewish tradition, taught never to marry a Gentile, women shave on Saturday and most especially never to shave a Gentile woman on Saturday.
Woody Allen

Look at Jewish history. Unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable. So, for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast-beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one.
Mel Brooks

Some Yiddish expressions (in translation)

If you want your dreams to come true, don't sleep.

A man is not honest simply because he never had a chance to steal

Man plans and God laughs.

The girl who can't dance says the band can't play.

That which is practiced in youth will be pursued in old age.

It never rose and it never flew
Figurative translation: It is bullshit!

When a fool is silent, he too is counted among the wise.

Troubles and soup is better than just troubles alone.

And this leftover from marriage post many months ago…

A man and a woman cannot live together without having against each other a kind of everlasting joke. Each has discovered that the other is a fool, but a great fool. This largeness, this grossness and gorgeousness of folly is the thing which we all find about those with whom we are in intimate contact; and it is the one enduring basis of affection, and even of respect. G.K. Chesterton.

Assorted One Liners

I'm not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain.

Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.

Please, if you ever see me getting beaten up by the police, please put your video camera down and help me
 --Bobcat Goldthwait

From very young ages, my nephews Brian and Gabe (my sister Debby and her husband Bill’s sons) were gifted musicians while their sister Heidi was an equally gifted fine artist and dancer. Brian went from guitar to bass and still plays (I hope) for fun, and now works as an independent Digital Guru in internet marketing doing stuff too advanced for me to understand let alone describe, and after a successful run as a Google Ad and Marketing maven, Heidi has returned to her artistic roots and is doing Graduate work in preparation for a career in Art Curating.



Left to right: Brother Dan, Brian, Debby, Bill, me, Gabe (in boat), Heidi.

CLICKING ON PIC SHOULD ENLARGE THEN CLICK X UPPER RIGHT TO RETURN.

In hindsight, the talent in the latest generation should come as no surprise. Bill is a brilliant and innovative landscape architect. Debby is a potter,craftsperson, flutist, and singer (current member of a local choir) And the larger gene pool includes my brother Dan who is both musical and artistic and is now a dedicated classical piano student, my twin sister Naomi who is a painter (as was my father--both highly gifted) and former dancer, and her daughters; one of whom is a Theatre Director, another a former dancer and yet another who was a basketball phenom in high school and even played cello for a while. Plus, my mother sang beautifully and played piano better than any of us. Then there's my wife Ellen who is a much better artist (particularly in Watercolors) than she believes...my sons Eli and Will who both write and play piano and guitar respectively... and of course, me, amateur musician who is also (drum roll please) the blogger who (with the help of over 250 mysterious Russians, Germans and Brits) has just passed the 2000 page view milestone. I believe that equals the number of twitter views that Jeremy Lin gets every four seconds.

But of all the musicians in the family, Gabe was the one who pursued music as a career... and as a hobbyist musician who has a pretty good ear but has had to put in long hard hours of practice and study to develop what little technique I have, I am in awe of Gabe’s gifts. Seemingly overnight he went from noodling on the piano to being able to swing, stomp, rock, boogie, shuffle and funk it up with the melodic, harmonic and syncopated sophistication of a seasoned pro. Damned if I can figure out how he did it (without formal training--though I believe his brother gave him a few valuable lessons early on)—but did it he did, and do it he does, as a master drummer, guitarist, keyboard player and now (so I hear) mandolin player.

So no big surprise that at the same age as I was when wandering the streets of Greenwich Village checking out (and merely admiring) the talent at clubs like The Vanguard and 7th Ave. South—Gabe is, and has been for a few years now, the drummer (and more) in the Bill Medley Band (Bill is the righteous survivor of what was once the powerhouse duo of The Righteous Brothers)and proud uncle that I am…I just gotta get him up here for all to see and hear.

Here he is tickling the ivories accompanying Bill's daughter McKenna, plucking the strings and singing (on a song he wrote with her: note to cameraman: more guitar player please) and a short clip hitting the skins…and if you’re so inclined you can find assorted other stuff from Medley and Gabe on YouTube… enjoy.










There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.
Louis Armstrong

LOVE A CLOSE COMFORTABLE SHAVE?
BUT HATE THE HIGH COST OF REPLACEMENT BLADES?

THEN GET SMARTER..
GET SHARPER...
AND GO TO:

preciseshave.com


Full Disclosure: My friends' son started the company and I'm pre-inclined to offer support. However, if there were no such friendly connection I'd still be touting this product. Just got my razor in the mail and slap me silly if I'm lying, but it's the best shave I've ever had and I'm saving a bundle to boot. It's all by mail and you get replacement blades (with nifty trim attachment mounted on back) in the amount and time interval that you choose. Shipping is free. I make advertising for a living, but I'd push this product pro-bono if asked...it's that good. I get no commission, but tell em Ricky sent you--cause I love getting pats on the back.

So much for the sharper stuff, now on to the duller.




Most looked-up and most misspelled Words

PARADIGM was the word most frequently looked up in 1998 in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.

I’ll bet it’s fallen down the list since then cause I don’t hear it around the office much anymore, but about 10 years ago every so-called expert in everything from marketing to metaphysics was talking about paradigm shifts.


Some other words frequently looked up, besides obscene words, were UBIQUITOUS, ESOTERIC, OXYMORON, SERENDIPITY, HUBRIS, OBSEQUIOUS, and ECLECTIC.

Not a single one of the above would get me searching…but just offhand I can think of two that generally do: entrepreneur and commitment (or any word where I know that there’s a double letter set but not sure which it is or whether there’s more than one)

In 2001, the ten most frequently looked up words in the Cambridge Dictionaries Online were SERENDIPITY, IDIOM, PARADIGM, UBIQUITOUS, DICTIONARY, PRAGMATIC, EFFECT, GRY, JINGOISM, and FOIBLE. The most frequently looked up article in the World Book Encyclopedia is said to be SNAKE.

Snake is funny. Must be folks just before going on a camping trip or just after returning from one.

The words most likely to be misspelled (ratio of incorrect to correct spelling) according to a study of Usenet traffic some years ago were DUMBELL, OCCURRENCE, MEMENTO, FRUSTUM, COLLECTIBLE, AMATEUR, DAIQUIRI, PASTIME, ACCIDENTALLY, PLAYWRIGHT, EMBARRASS, ACQUIT, HARASS, and PRONUNCIATION.


Frustum?

In geometry, a frustum[1] (plural: frusta or frustums) is the portion of a solid (normally a cone or pyramid) that lies between two parallel planes cutting it.




The same study showed the words most frequently misspelled (by gross count) to be: RECEIVE, A LOT, AMATEUR, SEPARATE, REALIZE, THEIR, DEFINITE, INDEPENDENT, WEIRD, EMBARRASS, ARGUMENT, NO ONE, ACQUIRE, ACCIDENTALLY, OCCURRENCE, COLLECTIBLE, RIDICULOUS, MANEUVER, LIAISON, GAUGE, ATHEIST, GRAMMAR, SUPERSEDE, KERNEL, and CONSENSUS.

Interesting that it’s usually a question of:
Is it one word or two?
Is it e before i or vice versa?
Which letter is doubled?
Is it s, or c, or z?
Does it have a u ?
Does it have a silent or redundant (or is that redundent) letter?


Mondegreens

Mondegreens are opposite of malapropisms; they’re something being misheard rather than missaid. Generally applied to song lyric confusion as per:

"Excuse me while I kiss this guy."

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky."

Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix

"There's a bathroom on the right."

"There's a bad moon on the rise."

Bad Moon Rising, Creedence Clearwater

"The girl with colitis goes by."

"The girl with kaleidoscope eyes."

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, The Beatles

"Bring me an iron lung."

"Bring me a higher love."

Higher Love, Steve Winwood

"Mama don't take my clothes 'n' throw 'em away."

"Mama don't take my Kodachrome away."

Kodachrome, Paul Simon

"You make the best homemade stew around."

"You make the best of what's still around."

When The World Is Running Down, The Police


The word boycott comes from Charles C. Boycott. He was hired by an Irish earl to collect high rents from tenant farmers who completely ignored him.

The quark, a building block of the proton, got its name from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, from the line "Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he hasn't got much of a bark".


Antagonyms

Words that can have opposite (or nearly opposite) meaning.

Apparent: Not clear or certain (For now, he is the apparent winner of the contest.) vs. Obvious (The solution to the problem was apparent to all.)

Assume: To actually have (To assume office) vs. To hope to have ("He assumed he would be elected.")

Bad: Bad vs. Good.

Bound: Moving ("I was bound for Chicago") vs. Unable to move ("I was bound to a post", or less literally, "I was bound to my desk")

Buckle: to hold together (e.g. buckle your belt) vs. to fall apart (e.g., buckle under pressure)

Cite: For doing good (such as military gallantry) vs. for doing bad (such as from a traffic cop)

Cleave: To adhere tightly vs. To cut apart

Clip: to attach vs. to cut off

Dust: To remove dust vs. To apply dust (as in fingerprinting)

Effectively: in effect (doing the equivalent of the action but not the real thing) vs. with effect (doing the action and doing it well) [Contrast "he is effectively lying" (colloquial?) with "he is lying effectively"]

Enjoin: To order someone to do something vs. To stop someone from doing something [such as in law by an injunction]

Fast: Moving rapidly vs. Unable to move ("I was held fast to my bed.")

Fix: to restore to function (fixing the refrigerator) vs. to make non-functional (fixing the dog)

Goods: [Slang] good things vs. bad things ("I have the goods from the warehouse robbery, but I'm worried the cops have the goods on me.")

Hysterical: Being overwhelmed with fear [in some cases] vs. Being funny

Incorporate: When a village is incorporated, it is formed, but when it is incorporated into a city, the village is subsumed.

Lease, Let, Rent: [in essence] To loan out for money vs. To "borrow" for money

Left: To remain vs. to have gone (Of all who came, only Fred's left. Does it mean he's the only one who still remains or that he's the first to depart? )

Mad: carried away by enthusiasm or desire vs. carried away by hatred or anger

Oversight: Watchful and responsible care vs. An omission or error due to carelessness

Practiced: Experienced, expert (I am practiced in my work) vs. Inexperienced effort (The child practiced coloring.)

Presently: Now vs. after some time

Quite: Completely vs. Not completely (e.g., quite empty [totally empty]; quite full [not completely full, just nearly so)

Ravel: to disentangle or unravel vs. to tangle or entangle

Refrain: In song, meaning to repeat a certain part vs. To stop (Please refrain from using bad language)

Reservation: what you make when you know where you want to go vs. what you have when you're not sure if you want to go

Root: To establish (The seed took root.) vs. To remove entirely (usually used with "out", e.g., to root out dissenters)

Sanction: Support for an action (They sanctioned our efforts.) vs. A penalty for an action (The Congressman was sanctioned for inappropriate behavior.)

Shop: To search with the intent to buy ("I shopped for a book at several stores.") vs. To search with the intent to sell ("I shopped my manuscript to several publishers.")

Skin: to cover with a skin vs. to remove outer covering or skin

Strike out: An ending, as in "The batter struck out." vs. A beginning, as in "I thought it was time to strike out on my own."

Transparent: Easily seen ("His motives were transparent.") vs. invisible

Trim: To add things to (trim a Christmas tree) vs. or take pieces off (trim hair)


Ten most misunderstood words in America…

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”

Apparently the bewigged boys in Philly had more pressing business to attend to-- so rather spend time over-thinking this thorny issue, so they kept it short and sweet and doomed us forever after to suss out their intent.

I’ve heard the fundamentalists parse the thing to death and claim that the word “establishment” is a clear indication that the founders were deliberately narrow in their proscription because they assumed the preeminence of religion in the fabric of society and law. They argue that “establishment” refers solely to the issue of a declaration promoting one branch of Christianity over another. In short, they are saying that the founders had absolutely no intention of separating church and state, but rather were simply stating their intention to not interfere with religious institutions and leave them free to do as they wished without government involvement. Funny though, when you read the founders individual writings on the matter
almost to a man (Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Washington, Morris (both of em) Livingston…and others) they couldn’t be more specific and clear about their intent to do nothing of the sort. These guys were inheritors of a legacy of oppressive religious power and corruption and ill-fated encroachments on the body politic and of all the issues debated over the many years leading up to and following the constitutional convention, this is the one that probably enjoyed the most unanimity of opinion and agreement. Can you imagine any of those guys listening to some of the debate today and wondering how anyone could get them so wrong? Poor saps prided themselves on their powers of eloquent and precise argument and articulation and here we are almost a quarter of a millennium later trampling on the pristine perfection of their meticulous masterpiece.

These guys had fun with words too…

The Blues in the White House

Caught some of the Blues show at the White House on TV last night. On hand among others: BB King, Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, Shemekia Copeland, Keb Mo, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi Warren Haynes, Booker T. Jones, and a somewhat uncomfortable and seemingly out of place Mick Jagger. There were some compelling performances (under such circumstances one imagines there's a great deal of P.C. TLC going on not to mention the sense of propriety and formality that permeates the atmosphere and mindset of the performers) but it would be foolish to expect much more than a kind of all-star love fest featuring more in the way of cheerful celebration than heartfelt passion. But what kept me tuned in was the sheer enormity and gravity of the fact that I was watching a U.S. President of African American descent with his African american wife grooving to the music born of the African American experience in America played by a group of predominantly african american musicians and broadcast to millions of viewers around the nation (world?) who I can only hope had a similar reaction to mine. There was Barack and Michelle nodding, grinning, closing their eyes and letting their shoulders swing and sway to the depth and beauty of all that blue suffering and bliss. It occurred to me that some of their most rabid foes and critics were cringing at the sight. To many people in this country, I can imagine that it was a sight that reflected their own worst fears carried over from hundreds of years of inherited ignorance and prejudice.

I have always thought that much of the intensity, anger and resentment fueling the Tea Party movement as well as resistance to Obama's initiatives in HealthCare and other domestic agenda issues are in large part fueled by nothing more complicated than racism. The anger toward him is so great and the tone is so shrill and it's all coming from those who I'm willing to bet have little or no understanding of the issues themselves. ObamaCare ( A term they created to feed the frenzy) is a perfect example. It's been misrepresented and misunderstood to the point of absurdity...and yet rational voices and clear heads have no chance to quiet the din.

I've had arguments with friends about this. And I think what's hard for some enlightened and decent people to accept is that their enlightened attitudes and sense of human decency, justice and fairness is not shared by as many as they think. Obama won the election--so how can he suddenly be so bereft of support? Well, it doesn't always take a big crowd to start trouble. And add to the fuel the fact that most people can't connect our current economic woes with their root causes which occurred before anyone even knew who Obama was. " We got problems today, so whoever's in charge today is responsible".

It's also easy to forget that though we've come a long way (as the saying goes...) we also had a long way to come. And where we've arrived ain't exactly the promised land. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball less than a generation ago. Augusta National golf club took in a token black member only about a decade ago. And who are we fooling if we think either of those breakthroughs mean all that much when we're still debating the pros and cons of racial profiling by law enforcement.
Progress is slower than it seems when you take the advancements off the history book timelines and drop them into the day to day world we all live in where old habits die hard and old attitudes die even harder. And my jewish brothers and sisters should be the first to understand since it wasn't so long ago that anti-semitism was so prevalent and part of mainstream thinking that some of the most prominent and public figures in society didn't hesitate to express it in no uncertain terms.



Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) Third President of the United States



“I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.”



Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 1882) Transcendentalist essayist, poet, and lecturer



“I think it cannot be maintained by any candid person that the African race have ever occupied or do promise ever to occupy any very high place in the human family. Their present condition is the strongest proof that they cannot. The Irish cannot; the American Indian cannot; the Chinese cannot. Before the energy of the Caucasian race all the other races have quailed and done obeisance.”



Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States



“I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into post commanders, the special regulations of the Treasury Department have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied have I been of this that I instructed the commanding officers at Columbus to refuse all permits to Jews to come South, and I have frequently had them expelled from the department, but they come in with their carpet-sacks in spite of all that can be done to prevent it.



Henry Adams (1838–1918)Historian, novelist, grandson of John Quincy Adams



“I detest [the Jews] and everything connected with them, and I live only and solely with the hope of seeing their demise, with all their accursed Judaism. I want to see all the lenders at interest taken out and executed.”





Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)26th President of the United States



“It is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races.”



Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)28th president of the United States



“Segregation is not humiliating but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen. If your organization goes out and tells the colored people of the country that it is a humiliation, they will so regard it, but if you do not tell them so, and regard it rather as a benefit, they will regard it the same. The only harm that will come will be if you cause them to think it is a humiliation.”


Robert C. Byrd (1917–2010) U.S. Senator (D–W.Va.)



"I am loyal to my country and I know but reverence to her flag. BUT I shall never submit to fight beneath that banner with a Negro by my side … Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”


AND LET’S PUT A CHERRY ON TOP WITH…

“I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children.”

George W. Bush

Mea Culpa



I neglected to mention Rod Hicks in the Butterfield Band lineup on Keep on Moving. Beckmeier is listed too...and hence my error.

Hicks also played Cello and sang on the album.

And for years I've been practicing his bass line on Walking by Myself.

Sorry Jeremy...

In my last post I prematurely promised to return this week with more post-mugging musings as well as some discussion about Lawrence Block and Paul Butterfield. But I now regret saying that since I’m not sure I even know why I promised that trio* of topics in the first place. The mugging stuff is obvious, but Block and Butterfield was an impulse that simply arose from the fact that I was reading Block and listening to Butterfield recently and so assumed I would be inclined to write about them. And now I’m not. So I’ll start with Post Muggery.

While in P.R. we got a call from our bank. Seems my assailant tried to pass a check from my account (I had one blank check in my wallet) for $6900.00 with a notation “ For Funeral”. Bank was wise enough to stop payment—but the fiction writer in me wants to know more. Did he mug me to raise dough for a funeral? Whose? An intimation of his own mortality? Why put the notation there? Is it a cover for him or someone else? In the mortuary business? You almost have all you need for a pretty good story here, with metaphysical implications no less, but I doubt I’ll be writing it.

Meantime, been calling the detective in charge of the “investigation” just about every day for a week trying to get him to follow up on his promise of returning the contents of my bag so I can use my favorite reading glasses , open my bike lock, listen to my iPod, continue reading V.S. Pritchett and practice my Tom Jobim songs. I finally took matters into my own hands and on the way to the train this morning dropped into the police station to see if I could catch him in. He was, and without apologizing for not returning my calls, allowed me to take most of what was left of my stuff. The iPod doesn’t work, and is badly dented. The reading glasses are ok (but the hard case is ruined), and the sunglasses are missing the lenses. What's with that? My wallet was in there, but no contents of value except my Stop and Shop discount card, and my dental plan card. The guy took my Health insurance I.D. Guess in his line of work you never know when you might end up in the emergency room. But the V.S. Pritchett is unscathed and bookmarked right where I left it. My mugger obviously prefers Thackeray.

The detective watched me as I went through the pile…and it suddenly occurred to me that I had one more thing in there that had slipped my mind. It was a mini plastic baggie with the equivalent of about 2 joints worth of pot and some rolling papers. I didn’t see them, and I didn’t bother to ask: “ What happened to my weed?” If the mugger was thorough, I can’t imagine he’d leave that behind, but he didn’t take the iPod…so maybe he wasn’t so thorough and there’s a Mamaroneck cop somewhere digging into a pint of chocolate Haagen Dazs as I speak.

Okay…a little Lawrence Block. He’s a solid, dependable, sharp and witty storyteller. And creating a hero (in the Bernie Rhodenbarr series) who is a used books seller by day and compulsive cat burglar by night provides almost limitless possibilities for provocative offbeat situations and action. And he’s got a fine flair for plotting, which is a rare quality these days. He doesn’t have Elmore Leonard’s genius for compressed dialogue, but he’s funny and easy-going and certainly prolific. I like writers who just let the narrative flow without too much fanfare, self-consciousness or pretensions to the "literary". I think its funny that there is such a category as The "Literary" novel--as if it's important to distinguish it from other genres. Isn't " Literary" just another genre? It's like "Serious" music. You mean Stevie Wonder and Prince aren't serious about what they do? Ah...whatever. Back to Block... as I read him, I imagine he’d be fun to have some beers with while shooting the breeze about everything and nothing in particular just for the fun of the banter. Some random quotes:

“People don't get to change things. Things change people once in a while, but people don't change things.”

“Man, I so sick of dinosaurs. They wasn't extinct, I'd go out an' kill 'em myself.”

“Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for. ”

“Take advantage of the ambiguity in the world. Look at something and think what else it might be.”

And as for Butterfield…well, I could go on at length, but won’t except that listening to his best stuff with his best bands is Blues heaven. My friend Jeremy turned me on to “Keep on Moving” back in the early 70’s and it blew me away. Still does. I know some people like the earlier stuff with Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop—but the band with Wilson, Feiten, Dinwiddie, Beckmeier, Sanborn and the rest of the horn section playing those killer charts…whew!


Speaking of hot bands…my son Will sent me this the other day. Told me he watched it about 10 times. Prince just knocks me out. All he can do is write, play, sing and dance. And how bout Sheila E !!! And there she was playing alongside Pharrell Williams in the band on the Oscars the other night. Probably the best thing about the show and all the viewer gets is about four bars before they go to commercial. Just like when I went to a Letterman taping years ago, and the best thing was the band playing during the breaks that the home viewer never hears. Among this clip’s other virtues, it reminds me of that old Butterfield Band—the thrill of watching and listening to skilled and soulful masters (hard) at work.





Life is Long

In youth
Dreams were so vivid
They overwhelmed
And crowded out the day to day
In a heavy mist
I witnessed the daily evaporation of
My father’s dreams
My mother’s dreams
As they did their mother’s and father’s dreams.
But in youth there were no dreams but my own.
My gaze turned ever upward to follow
not an evaporation
but a mysterious rising
of an all consuming Cumulus.
Years passed
And the day to day
(day by day)
Became the vivid
Yet on some days still
I look up and I see that same cloud
And tell myself that
now
it follows me.

* Just realized it was a quartet that included Louis L'amour. I read some short stories down in P.R. and was disappointed. Possibly stimulating for a 9 year old boy, but otherwise pretty lame. Zane Grey and he are often mentioned together as the great "Western" masters, but Grey deserves better than that.