Some people never change

When I was a baby, I used to entertain myself by putting my itty-bitty foot into my mouth - and I've never stopped.

(from The Adventures of Maisie radio show)

Seventeen Republican presidential candidates

Seventeen! Seventeen! Don't those guys have anything better to do? Maybe not. Maybe that is why they are running.

Skeat's Dictionary

If you love the English language and learning more about words, you would enjoy Walter William Skeat's Etymological English Dictionary. It is as handy as sliced bread if you want to get an understanding of the full breadth behind words in English. It traces words back into their derivatives from other, older languages. Interesting and handy.

Oogie Pringle - glamor man?

Well, not exactly. Just the opposite normally. He was the wishful suitor on the radio show, A Date With Judy. On one episode, however, he did manage to get a date with Dorothy Lamour, which caused Judy to second-guess having just ditched him.

"Would you stop being so fearless with my life?!"

A retort by Archie Goodwin to his boss, Nero Wolfe, when he was scolded for not pursuing a criminal under dangerous circumstances.

Decimating a generation

This from the website http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net:

Approximately 13 million Germans served in the military during the Great War; 2 million were killed, that is, roughly 15 percent. As Keegan notes, this percentage is equally shocking when the numbers of war dead are calculated as a percentage of the relevant male cohort; that is, men born between 1880 and 1899 (prime candidates for service in the war). Of German men from these year groups, approximately 13 percent were killed between 1914 and 1918. Among young French men, the percentage was even higher – 17 percent.

With only 21 years separating the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, one wonders how the European nations were able to re-stock their military-age population in time to bear the even greater losses of World War II.

Larry Dobkin - sometimes the ONLY voice

As you listen to old radio shows, you realize that there were some roles for which Larry Dobkin's voice was the only voice that would have worked.

Weariness

I understand that old age involves weariness of body. But I am finding out, as I progress (or regress?) that it also involves a weariness of soul. I just get tired of this life of constant sin and toil and sorrow.

How government works - or does not

"He had premonitions of endless delays while provincial authorities wondered, doubted, criticized, procrastinated, investigated, reported - and repeated."

(from Alias the Lone Wolf, by Louis Joseph Vance)

Thursday October Christian

This was the name of one of the sons of Fletcher Christian, the most famous of the mutineers from the ship Bounty, immortalized in the movie. Descendants of Christian are living today, with their genealogy documented. If you are interested, below is a link with some interesting reading.

LINK

Be careful when you repent

"He was to learn there is nothing more unpalatable than the repentance of the headstrong." (from Alias the Lone Wolf, by Louis Joseph Vance)

We have the old saying, "Marry in haste; repent at leisure." The line above would be more on the opposite side of the equation: "Repent in haste; repent of repentance at leisure."

Beverage of the hour

It is interesting how certain drinks have become associated with certain times of the day. Coffee in the morning. Tea in the afternoon, at least in England. Cocktails at whatever time of day people drink cocktails. You might be able to enlarge that list.

John Calvert as the Falcon

The third of the actors to play the smooth private detective, John Calvert was not as effective as his two predecessors, but the movies are enjoyable nonetheless. Incidentally, like Chester Morris as Boston Blackie, the sleight-of-hand tricks Calvert performs in these movies are the real deal.

Oscar Levant insults the Mad Russian

Russian, if we had another idiot here today, the two of you could sing a solo.

(from the Eddie Cantor radio show)

There are times to leave well enough alone

"Only foolish dog pursue flying bird."

(from Charlie Chan in Shanghai)

There are monsters in the pasture!

Osgood the Dog has reached a crisis in his young, sheltered, house-dog life. Now when he goes outside to answer nature's call and roam around a little, he frequently encounters large, four-legged beasts in the pasture who look at him out of large, sad eyes and go, "Mooooo." Quite disturbing to his emotional equilibrium.

Excellent quote from Mrs. Strom Thurmond

 "You have to give kids the time -- the most precious thing you can give to your children is time,m not money, not material possessions. To give them the moral upbringing and to guide them in developing character, you have to be around -- you can't do it in absentia."

Do you have a pilot light?

That's an old flame that stayed lit.
(from the Abbott and Costello radio show)

Shakespeare said the same thing, just with a lot more class.

"When it rains, it pours." That is what we say.

Shakespeare said, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies

But in battalions."

Ermintrude the cow

This was a remarkable bovine who took a liking to Higgins the butler on the It's Higgins, Sir radio show. He mistakenly fed her some high-powered pickles instead of cud-balm, and she seemed to like it after she got over the initial shock.