Boomer's latest job

"I worked the last ninety days as an Arkansas geologist - breaking big rocks into Little Rocks."

(from Fibber McGee and Molly)

Fibber does not enjoy Uppy's visits

"She brightens my day like a total eclipse."

EXquisite or exQUISite?

According to our big thick Websters, the former is preferred (which is, of course, the way I have always pronounced it.) However, an on-line dictionary I consulted reversed the order.

Groucho visits with a hobo

LINK

On this episode of You Bet Your Life, Groucho Marx visits with a real life hobo.

Persimmon beer

Although my family pretty well stayed away from alcoholic beverage consumption, there was a persistent rumor in the clan that Grandpa had a recipe for persimmon beer. It circulated among the ten children, 32 grandchildren, and various in-laws. If he had one, he never told it to me. Certainly there is an abundance of that crop in western Arkansas had he been inclined to make the brew.

RECIPE for persimmon beer.


Persimmon beer fermenting

Side rear view mirrors

Unless your inside rear view mirror is blocked for some reason, your side mirrors should be used to see beside you, not behind you. They are designed to remove the blind spots on each side of the vehicle.

Blue Mountain, Arkansas

This is an incorporated town on the very eastern edge of Logan County on State Highway #10. Its population has inched forward over the last several decades from about 90 to about 110 people. There used to be a store on the highway, but it is no longer in business. There is a geographic feature called Blue Mountain somewhere in the state, but it is not close to the town and as far as I know has no relationship to it.

The Rock Island Railroad used to run through Blue Mountain, and my father can remember walking down the tracks in his youth from Magazine to Blue Mountain. There is a beautiful cemetery on the western edge of town, and just across the highway is the meeting house of Little Vine Primitive Baptist Church. This building used to be a two-room school house many years ago, but was purchased and converted to religious use by the church in my early youth.

The sign on the edge of town proclaims that Blue Mountain is "The Gateway to Blue Mountain Lake," which is a popular fishing spot. I am told that some of the land the lake covers was once owned by my great-grandfather Loyd.


Blue Mountain Lake

The New Adventures of Charlie Chan - beginning of each episode

At the start of each episode of the TV series, you see this screen:



which then changes to this screen:


I wonder if the Chinese figures actually do say that.

Looking for a good investment? Jason Sacran's paintings.

If you want to make a wise investment, buy a painting by Jason Sacran now. He is an up and coming young artist who will be making a name for himself very soon.

LINK

Misuse of pronouns in objective case

Perhaps the most common grammatical error in common language is the use of pronouns in the objective case with a being verb. For example, saying, "It was me," instead of, "It was I." Because of our constant misuse of this, the correct usage will sound strange in some cases. "It could not have been they." Hardly anyone would say that, but it is correct.

Want to spice up your day with a little mind game hobby? I do not advise correcting anyone, but just try to catch in your mind every misuse of this rule of proper English.

Wolfgang Soderheim

According to Charlie Chan's #1 son Barry, he was one of the leading criminologists in the world. Evidently he was entirely fictitious.

Having a good time with My Friend Irma

"I haven't had so much fun since the time you put shellac in my shampoo bottle."

TV Charlie Chan - only one son

One of the features of the Charlie Chan series of movies was his large family. Several actors (at least three that I can recall offhand) appeared as one of his progeny at different times. However, in the TV series starring J. Carrol Naish, only #1 son Barry appears. James Hong played the role.


Hong

Time Out For Murder (1938)

Jean Rogers is The Time Girl, who gives out the time every fifteen seconds. Robert Kellard is her boyfriend. He is a delivery boy who delivers some papers to Ruth Hussey. He has to break into her desk to get out the papers for her. The telephone operator hears Hussey shot over the line. Old stand-by Cliff Clark is the investigating officer. Michael Whalen and his photographer, Chick Chandler, show up to get a story. Goofy Chandler is continually exploding flash bulbs. He is continually calling for the time because he is in love with Rogers' voice. Whelan plays a very bad trombone. To pay his rent, Chandler is Whalen's valet on alternating weeks. They are behind on all their bills. Gloria Stuart is a bill collector who shows up to get the money.

Kellard is arrested for the murder. Chandler hears Rogers breaking up over the phone, and they smell a story. Stuart sticks with them. Rogers is gone, but Jane Darwell, her supervisor, gives them the details. They set out to unravel the story - with Stuart's help. Certain things do not ring true about Kellard's guilt. Whalen runs into club owner Douglas Fowley (who came out of Hussey's apartment just before Kellard arrived). They are friends from the past. Stuart interviews Rogers and sympathizes with her. She decides to see who was paying Hussey's bills, and it is Fowley. They figure out that a record must have been used to falsify the time that a phone call was made to the apartment operator requesting the time. In Hussey's apartment they find wads of gum, which points to Fowley. (Chandler gets the gum stuck to his fingers.) Stuart gets a job in Fowleys' club in order to get more evidence, but she is recognized. Fowley's hoods show up to take care of Chandler and Whalen, but Fowley won't let them because he owes Whelan a favor.

Fowley finally admits that he was in Hussey's apartment, but denies he killed her. He claims Lester Matthews was the man, and sets up a plan to prove it. Stuart stows away in the car of Fowley's hoods, who are planning an armored truck job contrary to Fowley's orders. They crash a road block and the chase is on. The hoods make Stuart throw a bomb into the road, but it misses the police. Finally they crash. Fowley, Whelan and Chandler are sweating Matthews to get him to confess. He admits he was there, but denies that he killed Hussey. Fowley's hood (Eddie Marr) shows up with Stuart. Matthews identifies him as the killer. Marr shoots Fowley as the police arrive, but he nails Marr as he is trying to climb over the yard fence. Marr had been Hussey's jailbird husband.

As the movie ends, Stuart shows up to repossess practically everything the boys own.




Chandler


Rogers


Stuart

Extremely fascinating?

Fibber McGee and Molly would say, "Well spray me with DDT, I'm crawling with interest."

Not very interesting?

Fibber McGee and Molly would say, "That has all the dramatic impact of a catsup label."

The Louis-Mauriello fight

There is a reference made to this fight between Joe Louis and Tami Mauriello in the Fibber McGee and Molly radio episode entitled "Fibber is Sick," aired on October 1, 1946. McGee is ailing because he swallowed the cigar he was smoking when he heard the post-fight comments by Mauriello. A radio announcer had climbed into the ring to interview the fighters. Mauriello made reference to the fact that he got too careless, but failed to delete the expletive.


Louis vs. Mauriello

What did far-sighted people do before spectacles?

Assuming that the progression toward far-sightedness that comes with aging came at the same rate in those days that it does today (which is not necessarily a given), how did people get along? Functional blindness must have been epidemic.

Charlie Chan - an American standard

There was a whole batch of his movies, plus the radio show, plus the TV series. An entire generation of children grew up watching Chan movies. Sure, they were corny. Sure, they were not very realistic. But Charlie was always poised and serene, and the good guy always won. I wish he could somehow make a comeback instead of the trash that is served up to children today.

LINK to one of the best sources of all things Chan.

One request before I die

I am determined that no one shall have to arrange to take off work to come to my funeral. Of course, I have no way of enforcing that after the fact,  but it will be a measure of the regard that my family had for me the degree to which they respect my wishes.

Weary

Typically the  brightness of heaven is directly proportional to my weariness of life.

Why bullies are inefficient managers

To give advice to a tyrant was to suggest his fallibility and offer oneself as a scapegoat should things go wrong.

(James D. Hornfisher in Neptune's Inferno, speaking of Howard D. Bode, the captain of the Chicago)

Our expectations need to change as we age

The problem is that our circumstances do not always permit it.

Candy Matson radio show

A little unusual because she was a beautiful (of course) private detective who was the girlfriend of a police lieutenant.

HERE is the official site.

HERE is a link to episodes of the radio show.

Natalie Masters was the star.


Natalie Masters

What memory could do when it had to

A cowhand from Texas might know the exact appearance of a town marshal in Montana, or of a rancher. A rider might see some twenty head of cattle during a morning's ride and remember each one in detail much later. Not only did such men without books develop remarkable powers of memory, but of description as well.

(from The Rustlers of West Fork, by Louis Lamour)

People who build or remodel houses

have a high tolerance for pain.

No short-staffed business enterprise will ever excel

Unless it has people with enough time to give serious thought to what is necessary in order to excel, it will not happen. Excellence does not happen by accident. Firms or facilities that are "just barely" staffed are always hustling just to stay afloat. They will never be more than just adequate.

Design for Scandal (1941)

     Walter Pigeon is a newspaper photographer. He is trapped in a mine, but has phone contact, so he calls his boss (Edward Arnold). Since he thinks he is going to die, he tells Arnold exactly what he thinks of him. Then he is rescued.  Arnold's young wife is Mary Beth Hughes, who is spending his money at a high rate of speed. They have a fight and end up in court in front of judge Rosalind Russell, who grants Hughes the divorce, with a stiff alimony. When Hughes comes to her chamber after the trial to thank her, her roses trigger Russell's allergies.
     Arnold assigns Pigeon to get next to Russell to get the judgment fixed. Pigeon enlists his girlfriend, Jean Rogers, to help him with the gag. Russell leaves on a train trip, and Pigeon contrives to go along and show attention to her nephew. He pretends to be a sculptor, which is Russell's hobby, and cons Leon Belasco out of his studio. Then he begins to court Russell, getting absolutely no where at first. But finally he touches the desire in her to be exotic. But her boyfriend, Lee Bowman, shows up and throws a wrench into the works. But he does not notice her attempt to be more glamorous, and thus Pigeon begins to make headway. He is getting pictures of all their outings for Arnold to use as blackmail. In the meantime Rogers is getting impatient and jealous. She has been charging lots of expensive items to Arnold.So is Bowman jealous.
    Pigeon begins to make progress on her insecurity due to her over-professionalism. Russell tells him she is the first man she ever met she could trust. Then Belasco comes back, and starts packing up his statues as Russell walks in. He unknowingly spills the beans, and Russell is devastated. She has Pigeon and Arnold arrested. Pigeon defends himself and calls Russell as a witness. He gets her to admit that she loved him at one point. And they all live happily ever after. Cute movie.
     



Arnold


Hughes

The Moretti Mob and Johnny Dollar

The the episode entitled "The Lake Mead Mystery Matter," Johnny encounters a member of what is called "The Moretti Mob" from Chicago. Interestingly, there was a prominent member of the Genovese crime family in New York known as Willie Moretti. He testified before a congressional committee in the early 1950s. The program may have pulled up his name for the 1959 broadcast.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE

Lazy lagoon blue

The color of Jack  Benny's eyes. Sometimes known as "blue as the waters of Lake Lucerne under a sultry summer sky." They looked like "the reflection of the evening sky in two limpid woodland pools." (All his opinions, of course.)

David Petzal on human nature

"Why are you such a curmudgeon,? a reader asked.

"Because I've had the opportunity to observe human beings for seven decades, and if you do it for  that long and don't have a foul disposition, either you're simple, or you haven't been paying attention."

(as quoted in Field and Stream)

Discretion - and a good horse

He had no illusions about himself. Nor did he have any urge to die by a gun. He had long discovered that the difference between living and dying was a fast hose - and he made sure his horses were always fast.

(from The Rustlers of West Fork, by Louis Lamour)

Mayor LaTrivia's opinion of McGee's intelligence

"Think" is a rather extravagant word for the clanking, grinding processes that go on between your  generous ears, McGee.

The Oldtimer's buddy Nelson

     Oldtimer: Well sir, speaking of Alaska, daughter, them was the days! I lived up there amongst the Eskimos with my partner, a fellow called No Nose Nelson, on account of he didn't have no nose.
     Molly: My goodness! did he lose it in a fight?
     Oldtimer: No, daughter, you kiss those Eskimo girls by rubbing your nose against theirs, and Nelson was mighty affectionate!

(from Fibber McGee and Molly radio show)

Fibber McGee's vaudeville act

     Molly: What did you do - tell her some stories?
     Fibber: I done better than that. I done the whole vaudeville act that I and Fred Nitney, the guy that me and him had an act together from Starved Rock, Illinois, done in vaudeville.
     Molly: I've heard you mention vaudeville.
     Fibber: Yes sir. I gave her the whole thing, all except the finish. I couldn't do that because I didn't have all my props. I was short a bicycle, and oil painting of President Mckinley, a Roman candle, a blow torch, two plaster of Paris models of the Statue of Liberty, a Rhode Island Red rooster, a white powder pigeon and a blue-bellied wood duck.
     Molly: What did you do with all those things in vaudeville?
     Fibber: Well . . . Fred rode out on the stage on the bicycle with me sitting on his shoulders, the oil painting of President McKinley propped on the handlebars and the Roman candle in his mouth. I lit the Roman candle with the blow torch and as it went off, I juggled the two models of the Statue of Liberty, sang "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue," opened the bird cage which was hung around my neck and let loose the Rhode Island Red rooster, the white powder pigeon and the blue-bellied wood duck. Used to cause quite a bit of comment.


Vaudeville act

McGee's opinion of Doc Gamble as a physician

Ah, Doc Gamble. A big help he'll be! That overpadded pulse pincher couldn't cure a raw ham in a smokehouse!


Doc Gamble

William Conrad on The Whisperer

Add The Whisperer to the list of radio programs on which veteran and versatile actor William Conrad appeared multiple times as a guest star.

Intelligent or thoughtful

It is a symptom of the deterioration of this modern age that we see more and more intelligent people and fewer and fewer people who can and do think.

How to be smart

The easiest way to be considered smart is to make sure the conversation never strays away from those topics about which you have some degree of knowledge.

The virtues of my spouse

It would behoove all of us to assess the sterling qualities of our spouses on a regular basis. None of us is married to a perfect individual; the best of us is a sinner and has many faults. We cannot be thankful for another's faults, but we can for that person's virtues. To fail to see beauty because of the presence of blemishes is to miss that which provides us with what little joy this sad world can provide.

My wife is not a perfect woman; she has many faults. But she is a good and gracious woman and is a tremendous asset to me. That single fact I must never forget, and that single fact will, I trust, forever burnish her character in my eyes despite whatever few faults she may have. I cannot be thankful for what she is not, but I can be constantly thankful for what she is; and she is among the best and loveliest of women.

Iterate

My dictionary gives the definition of iterate as "to utter or do again; repeat." If so, then reiterate must be to repeat again.

Division of labor in the home

Those who are frustrated by the seeming inefficiency of their home might do well to consider that one of the most basic principles of efficient industry is division of labor. God knew that long ago, and it is reflected in His commandments and examples to us.

"I wouldn't want to get my face lifted"

So says Abner Peabody. "They might lift my nose clean up on top of my head. Then every time I sneezed I would blow my hat off."

Husbands and wives

Wives are commanded to obey and love and reverence their husbands. Respect is something the husbands have to earn. However, it is worth noting that if a young woman does not respect the man she wants to marry, at least as far as her experience with him goes, she needs to put things on hold.

Perri (Walt Disney movie)

This movie was released in 1957, the year I turned four years old. It was the first movie I remember seeing. Of course, it was a completely harmless Disney nature film, but I  can remember crying in the theater because a martin or otter or some predator was about to catch Perri.

There is an important lesson in this. Never underestimate the impact that experiences may have on children.

For security, remember the US Postal Service

Protect yourself against the U. S. government. Homeland Security NSA folks cannot tap into snailmail.

"Deer should not toy with tiger."

From the Charlie Chan movie, "The Golden Eye."

The cruiser Astoria's broadside

In the Astoria, Joe James Custer, the war correspondent, lit a match, touched it to his cigarette, and looked down from the director platform at the showers of sparks shooting from the cowling of a scout plane throttling up on an amidships catapult. With a muffled blast the canvas-winged biplane was shot wobbling into the sky. It turned and headed for the island to serve as eyes for the guns. No sooner had the journalist stuffed a wad of cotton into each ear and slackened his jaw against the thunder he expected than he was lifted by a great concussion and thrown against a splinter shield that was draped with charts and posters showing Japanese aircraft silhouettes. A cruiser's broadside did things alike that.

(from Neptune's Inferno, by James D. Hornfischer)

One of the sights I shall never get to see, but wish I could have, was the broadside of a battleship.


Astoria

Action in Arabia (1944)

Our old favorite, George Sanders, stars in this one, and is at his suave best. He is an international correspondent in the Middle East at a time when it is a hotbed of intrigue from World War II. Robert Anderson is his colleague. He is approached by Gene Lockhart, who is trying to sell information about the Nazis. He meets Virginia Bruce at a casino and dances with her. She is in Damascus with a sick aunt. While they are visiting on the balcony, Sanders is called out by the police to identify Anderson's body. He goes to the American embassy, but they advise him to leave  as scheduled on his plane the next day.

Sanders goes into the city to try to trace Anderson's path. Lockhart keeps bothering him. He learns from a camel driver that Andre Chalot (Bruce's uncle) is a Nazi collaborator. He goes to their house, kisses her, and asks her why she is pretending to be Chalot's niece. She tells him she is protecting him from "certain people" who want him kept out of the way while he is in Damascus. She tries to keep him there, and as he leaves several gunmen come out of the woodwork. However, the police are watching and run them off. The police intend to take him to the airport, but he convinces them that they need to foil the Nazi plot. He and a policeman (Robert Armstrong) commandeer a plane and fly over a gathering of the Arab tribes. Something is going on, and Sanders leaves Armstrong to guard Lockhart at the plane as he investigates.

Sanders finally gets to the sheik and makes his case. The Nazis shoot down the sheik's men. Sanders shoots the head Nazi, but the Nazi shoots Armstrong. Bruce, Sanders, Lockhart and the shiek make their escape, taxing the plane just ahead of the Nazis. In the meantime the Arab tribes are rallying on the Nazi side. However, the shiek arrives at the gathering just in time to turn the tide. Sanders and Bruce fly back to the United States and presumably live happily ever after.




Bruce


Chalot

Hopalong was always trouble

"Most folks could ride through a town without anything happenin', but not you. You go into a place filled with old-maid schoolmarms an' right away trouble busts loose an' splashes all over everybody!"

(from The Rustlers of West Fork, by Louis Lamour)

Ivan Dixon - Sgt. Kinchloe on Hogan's Heroes

"Kinch" was a favorite on the Hogan's Heroes series, always with a wry sense of humor, but able to handle serious moments very successfully. He was an integral part of one of the better sit-coms in TV history (in my humble opinion). Dixon and his wife, Berlie Ray, were married for 54 years.

LINK about Sgt. Kinchloe

Nita Talbot - The White Russian on Hogan's Heroes

Her "Hogahn darrlink" line became a staple on the show. Her affected Russian accent was effective, although probably not too realistic. But given the fact that she was actually from New York, it was not too bad. The episodes that included her had some of the most hilarious complications of the entire series.

HERE is Talbot in a brief spot from the Peter Gunn TV series.

Smile! You're on Candid Camera!

This was a common phrase in my youth whenever someone would be surprised. It came from a very popular television show in which people were secretly filmed in confusing or illogical situations. Some of them were hilarious.

HERE  is a good example from the show from Youtube.

What might have been

What might have been was not, and never will be, at least under those circumstances. It is the height of foolishness for us to waste our time mourning over it. What could be may be as good or even better than what might have been, and that is what our attention needs to be focused upon.

Charlie Chan TV - "The Expatriate"

Charlie is in England. Anne Wakefield is engaged to marry Frederick Jaeger, but her father tells her he is going to force it to be stopped. They quarrel. The evening he is shot. Russell Napier is the inspector covering the case. He will not let his wife (Natalie Benesh) see him. Then Delpi Lawrence shows up, who was her father's partner. She clashes with Napier. Then Wakefield admits that she picked up the gun used in the assault, so he arrests her. But just then Alan Gifford shows up, who Charlie had arrested years ago. He admits to the shooting, saying that the father was blackmailing him. After Lawrence leaves, Benesh reveals that Lawrence was in love with her husband. Charlie receives cablegram that says that the gun had been issues to Lawrence in New York. They go to her apartment to interview her. Charlie deduces that Wakefield is not the daughter of the wounded man, but of Gifford.

Benesh is finally allowed to see her unconscious husband, and tries to smother him, but it was Barry Chan in disguise. Benesh was jealous because her husband was about to leave her for Lawrence. After wedding Jaeger and Wakefield drop by the apartment to introduce themselves to Gifford.

LINK


Wakefield


Napier

Fuel as a factor in World War II

The leading navies of the world were situated in a challenging period between the age of fighting sail and the age of nuclear propulsion when fuel was consumable and therefore a critical limit on their reach. Once the team steaming replaced sailing in the naval lexicon, the concept of an operating radius took root. "If an enemy lay beyond that radius, the fleet might as well be chained to a post," a maritime historian wrote.

(from Neptune's Inferno, by James D. Hornfischer)

This statement may give some small insight into the reason behind the attack on Pearl Harbor. In order to move forward their imperial ambitions, Japan had to have oil. To have oil, they had to conquer the oil-rich East Indies area. In order to do that, they had to remove the U. S. from the area.


Navy oiler/tanker

Yamato - the largest battleship ever built

The Japanese battleship Yamato. She was commissioned in 1941 and sunk in 1945.
Here is a very good Youtube spot on the Yamato, including some outstanding footage of her sinking.

The aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack

The men of the cruiser Astoria, at sea when Pearl Harbor was hit, had come home on December 13 to behold the Pacific battle line laid to waste and the docks of Ford Island lined with caskets. Ruined ships still burned, wreathed in a flotsam of shattered wood and human remains.

(from Neptune's Inferno, by James D. Hornfischer)


LINK

Sir Raymond Bastable in the wine cellar

There emerged an incandescent figure at the sight of which Albert Peasemarch, had he been present, would have trembled like one stricken with an ague. Lord Ickenham had spoken of men of his acquaintance who would thoroughly have enjoyed being locked up in a wine cellar. Sir Raymond Bastable did not belong to this convivial class. He was, as Gordon Carlisle had put it, when speaking of his wife Gertie, vexed.

(from Cocktail Time, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Ray Noble's humor

Noble's claim to fame was as a musician, but the more I listen to Edgar Bergen's radio shows, the more I realize just how skilled Noble was as a comedic character actor. He was really funny, portraying the giddy, nonsensical blue-blooded Britisher caricature very well.

Here is a Youtube spot that features Noble.

Sir Raymond Bastable's distressing habit

     "Raymond has been behaving so very oddly this last week or two. I don't mean so much giving me flowers and asking after my rheumatism, but I do think it was strange of him to go swimming in the lake with all his clothes on."
     "Did he do that?"
     "I saw him from my window."
     "According to Shakespeare, Julius Caesar used to swim with all his clothes on."
     "But did he gather frogs?"
     "No, you have a point there."

(from Cocktail Time by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Cosmo Wisdom's headache

   The effect of Lord Ickenham's brief resume of the position of affairs on Cosmo was to cause him to start convulsively. And as anything in the nature of a convulsive start makes a man who has recently been struck on the head by a woman's gentle cosh feel as if that head had a red-hot skewer thrust through it, he uttered a yelp of agony, like a Volga boatman stung by a wasp.
     "I know, I know," said Lord Ickenham, nodding sympathetically. 'The aftereffects of being bust one do linger, don't they? As a young man, in the course of a political argument in a Third Avenue saloon in New York, I was once struck squarely on the topknot by a pewter tankard in the capable hands of a gentleman by the name of Moriarty - no relation of the Professor's, I believe - and it was days before I was my old bright self again.

(from Cocktail Time, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

How would you like an M.D. after your name?

"Mental Deficient"

(thanks to Charlie McCarthy)

Why he moved south

I once worked with a man who had moved to Arkansas from somewhere up north. During one of our hot, humid summers I jokingly asked him if he missed living up where it was cooler. He replied, “No, I do not miss it a bit,” and proceeded to tell me this story.


During one of their blizzards, his car ran off the freeway into the medium. He hiked to the next exit to call a wrecker. The driver came back to tell him he could not find the car, so this man drove with him to show him the exact spot. When they reached it, the found that the plow had come by and buried his car under a mound of snow. He said his car stayed there until the snow thawed in the spring. So, he moved south.

International Showtime

This TV series ran four seasons 1961-1965. It was a variety show that featured performers from Europe, mainly from circuses and ice shows. I remember that I really liked it, and part of the enjoyment was the fine job done of hosting the show and announcing that was done by actor Don Ameche. He was so polished and personable, and brought a real air of dignity to a field of entertainment that probably really needed that cultured face connected with it. Part of the allure of the show was the fact that it had so many acts that I would rarely, if ever, get to see in person.

LINK to blog spot about International Showtime

The Ameche cousins

You may not know that  versatile actor Don Ameche was the cousin of Alan "The Horse" Ameche, who won the Heisman Trophy at Wisconsin.


Don



Alan