Here at the Mudd we’re all about pirates. Today’s New York Times has an article of great interest to all Mudd swabbies: an online pirate role-playing game. Pirates of the Burning Sea takes you back to those thrilling days of yesteryear, namely 1720 in the Caribbean. It’s just like being there, except without the slavery and disease. The website promises “blistering naval combat” and “savage swashbuckling.” You can choose your own “hair, faces, footwear, hands, coats, hats, belts, jewelry…eyepatches, hook hands, and peg legs…” You can be English, French or Spanish. This game was six years in development and, according to the Times, it’s just right. If you’ve a hankering to pillage and plunder, but aren’t crazy about the real-life consequences, figuratively weigh anchor for the virtual briny deep.
Author: Antoinette Powell
More CDs
Among today’s new CDs we have the largest multi-disc CD set in existence: Jacqueline Du Pré and everything she ever recorded on EMI. And, to cleanse your palate after all that cello music, an opera that’s really not and a little live jazz.
Global What?
This just in: In a cruel ironic twist, today is the day for a world-wide webcast on global warming solutions. At 8 p.m. Eastern time, Focus the Nation will stream this discussion on Earth Day TV. And tomorrow is “Focus the Nation” day here at LU and elsewhere. Thaw yourselves out and attend your local event.
Our new Wisconsin state motto: “We’ve Got Your Solution to Global Warming Right Here.”
Be Happy It’s Only Snowing
Sure, it’s -15 with 30 mph winds, but it could be worse. Visit the U. S. Geological Survey’s web site, Today in Earthquake History and see if your area experienced an earthquake on this date.
The USGS also has information on Wisconsin earthquake history. It’s a one-pager.
Boy, Was He Strict
Dateline, Appleton, Wis., January 28, 1908.
A “daily news special” reported out of Milwaukee stated that “at the close of the present semester this week” Lawrence University students “will have to sign an agreement not to frequent billiard or pool rooms or they will not be allowed to re-enter.”
President Plantz got the names of a number of boys “who for some time have visited local billiard rooms.” These boys received letters “advising them to desist from the practice or take expulsion from the college as a penalty.” He then went on to say any student who refused to abide by this rule and wished to attend a college with less stringent rules would receive a letter of recommendation from him. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
You can find out a lot more about LU and Samuel Plantz in the University Archives.
New CDs
Silver discs, silver discs. It’s CD time in the city. Today we have recorder chamber music, some Dylan, some Flying Pizzarellis, more jazz, music for strings, plus a lot more.
Here’s Pie in Your Eye
Today is National Pie Day, not to be confused with National Pi Day which is celebrated in March. Or January 25 which is the day “National Velvet” was released in 1945.
The American Pie Council counsels us to use pies only for the most wholesome purposes today. Give your sweetie or your co-workers a pie. Make a pie with your kids. Buy a pie and give it to the person behind you in the grocery check-out line. Hand out slices to strangers and encourage them to do the same, sort of “pie it forward.”
While we’re at it, don’t even think of using any other pie crust recipe than this one:
1 1/3 c. sifted all purpose flour (sift before measuring)
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 t. salt
Put all ingredients into a metal bowl. Put the bowl and your pastry blender into the freezer for about 10 minutes.
Cut shortening into flour until the mixture is uniformly crumbly looking. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of very cold water (unflavored, unsweetened sparkling water works best) over the dough and lightly toss with a fork. Add another tablespoon, toss. Add one more tablespoon and toss. If the dough still looks very dry, add small amounts of water and toss until the dough slightly clumps together as you toss it.
Use you hands to very gently form the dough into a loose ball. Pat it so it just holds together. Place on a floured surface and roll out to the desired size and thickness. Makes a single pie crust.
Here are more fine pastry-related activities: number 1, number 2, and number 3.
They Race! They Dance! They Retain Water!
They’re the ships of the desert. They make lovely suit coats. They entice children to smoke. They’re camels! And today and tomorrow they have their own festival in Bikaner, India. The Bikaner Camel Festival is a tribute paid to these animals upon whom the people of Bikaner depend for their existence. This region even formed an “elite camel corps,” active during the first and second World Wars.
The Mudd has a book about, you guessed it, camels in the U.S. army.
Honest, Mr. Dithers, It’s For Your Own Good
Got some travel funds left over? How about suggesting a little trip for your boss/supervisor/overlord? The World Congress on Neck Pain is going on today and tomorrow in Los Angeles. For light entertainment read some of the program topics and substitute “a pain in the neck” for “neck pain.” Example: “The Burden and Determinants of Neck Pain in the General Population.”
We are stunned to report that we have books on neck pain in the Mudd.
Jazz at the Met
On January 18, 1944 the “All American Jazz Band” played the first jazz concert ever presented at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The players were chosen as a result of a poll conducted by Esquire Magazine. This jam session was held in conjunction with the awarding of $10,000 in war bonds to these poll winners:
trumpet: Louis Armstrong (first), Cootie William (second)
clarinet: Benny Goodman, Barney Bigard
trombone: Jack Teagarden, Lawrence Brown
saxophone: Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges
bass: Oscar Pettiford, Milton Hinton and Al Morgan (tied for second)
guitar: Al Casey, Oscar Moore
drums: Sidney Catlett, Cozy Cole
piano: Art Tatum, Earl Hines
odd instruments: Red Norvo and Lionel Hampton, tied
Armed Forces favorites: Artie Shaw, Willie Smith and Dave Tough (tied for second)
female vocalists: Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey
male vocalists: Louis Armstrong, Leo Watson
The Mudd has Esquire Magazine’s Jazz Book from 1944, 1945 and 1946 containing information on the All-American Jazz Band plus articles on jazz, jazz players and jazz records.