After a long, dry spell, here’s the latest batch of new-to-us CDs. We have dipped into our treasure trove of gifts and extracted a pile of what we like to call the good ol’ M1505’s. For you browsers, M1505 is excerpts from operas. To get the whole deal, go to M1500. This batch even has a few selections from musicals.
Author: Antoinette Powell
SHTOINK!
Today would have been Don Martin’s 77th birthday. And he was not a lounge singer, half of a comedy duo, or a manufacturer of British luxury cars. No, children, Don Martin was a brilliant cartoonist, best known for his work in Mad magazine back when it was funny. His comic strips, according to Wikipedia, “featured outrageous events and sometimes outright violations of the laws of space-time.” Who else would picture a man who, after inserting a dollar bill into a change machine, was changed into a woman?
One cannot think of Don Martin without remembering his great use of onomatopoeia. In his honor, and in the hopes that our gentle readers will make appropriate use of it, we give you The Don Martin Dictionary, an alphabetical archive of all his sound effects.
Numbers and Charts and Columns, Oh My
You know how things work. In order to prove anything to some people, you have to have data. And that means numbers. One of our favorite sources of data is the Statistical Abstract of the United States. We just received the 2008 edition, which, in reality, gives you stats for 2005 or 2006 and sometimes several years earlier.
There’s an electronic version on the U.S. Census Bureau’s web site that goes all the way back beyond 1878. Compare and contrast the number of post offices (1878: 39,258 – 2006: 36,826) or coal production (1878: 49,130,584 tons – 2005: 1,133,000,000 tons.) Astonish your friends with your storehouse of scintillating factoids.
Le Plus Se Change…
On May 14, 1881 Harper’s Weekly featured a cartoon about the high cost of gas. If this family had waited just over a year and moved to Appleton, they could have had the benefit of lighting their home with hydroelectric power.
Read all about the world’s first hydroelectric power station.
It’s Not Just For Academics Anymore
Appleton. England. Not the same. This was proven by a little item in Monday’s New York Times. The main reading room of the British Library, formerly a stodgy bastion of serious researchers, relaxed its admission policy in 1998 when it moved into a new building. Now the tweedy, suede-patched-elbows set must rub shoulders with “anyone who has a relevant research need,” which includes college undergraduates. Here, we LOVE college undergraduates.
One regular user complained of the raucous behavior he witnessed:
“The worst is that they actually answer their phones…The phone vibrates and they go, ‘Hold on a minute, Nigel,’ and then they run out of the reading room and take the call.”
For the record:
1. Setting you phone to vibrate is a lovely and wondrous thing
2. Answering it and saying only “hold on” will endear you to us forever
3. And finally, walking outside to carry on a conversation makes our hearts go pitter-patter with delight
The Mudd: We’re Not the British Library
What’s In a Name?
Everyone knows and loves Click & Clack, who are, thankfully, alive and well. But one of those who may have been an inspiration for their names is no longer with us. It was announced today that Werner Groebli, “Frick” of the comedy ice-skating team, Frick & Frack passed away on April 14 at the age of 92. The original Frack died in 1979, so the current Frack made the announcement.
The Mudd can help you repair your pre-1974 engine or learn how to figure skate, 1939-style.
Shakey, Sergei and Shirley
Members of the unlikely trio of William Shakespeare, Sergei Prokofiev and Shirley Temple are celebrating a birth anniversary today. Of course the Mudd has the first two, but did you know we have a recording of “On the good ship Lollypop?”
Neither Shaken Nor Stirred
After surviving a flood that ravaged the 4th floor, the Mudd narrowly escaped being flattened into heaping piles of concrete and fine Corinthian leather bindings by an earthquake that hit the Midwest early this morning . The Mudd’s solid 1974 construction made it impervious to Mother Nature’s puny swaggering, plus the fact that we’re approximately 475 miles from the epicenter may have been a contributing factor.
We can hardly wait until locust season.
New CDs!
After a long, dry spell, here is an interesting batch of CDs. Today’s CD pile is heavy on the Stockhausen and light on the C.P.E. Bach. Ballet by Stockhausen? Songs by C.P.E.? You guessed it.
Go Out For a Long, Cold One
If it hadn’t been for the guy born 110 years ago today, the town 25 miles to our northeast would be a port, a paper making hub and a gateway to Door County. But because Curly Lambeau and his friend George Calhoun casually struck up a conversation about football one day, Green Bay is a lot more. Thank him, thank the Indian Packing Company, and thank the citizens of Green Bay (the team owners) for sticking with the team through the tough years. Here’s to a new era.
We’ve got all kinds of books about the Packers in the Mudd.