Next week an important conference is taking place for people who stick cameras on wild animals. We think it’s called SCOWA. Scientists currently have a mania for seeing what wild animals REALLY do when we’re not looking: crows using tools, coyotes playing poker, that sort of thing. National Geographic has gotten into it with its Crittercam. NPR has a feature on the crows who, honest to gosh, use tools. As cameras get smaller, look for The Secret Life of Bacteria.
Category: Fun
TV For Old People
Return with us again to the 1950’s and a most momentous day: on this day in 1955 both Captain Kangaroo AND The Mickey Mouse Club premiered on TV, the first on CBS, the second on ABC. This must have presented quite a problem for children with no DVR or TiVo®.
Those of you of a certain age will certainly remember:
Monday – Fun With Music Day
Tuesday – Guest Star Day
Wednesday – Anything Can Happen Day
Thursday – Circus Day
Friday – Talent Round-Up Day
And we must revisit SCTV for “Captain Combat”
Also premiering on Oct. 3:
“Father Knows Best” (1954, CBS)
“The Andy Griffith Show” (1960, CBS)
“The Dick Van Dyke Show” (1961, CBS)
Give Peas a Chance
After winding up the month of September celebrating the yummy goodness of protein on the claw and hoof, we must give equal time to those who eschew such comestibles and chew other digestibles. It’s World Vegetarian Day.
Symphony of a Thousand + One Guitar Player
An ocean away on Sept. 12, 1910, “Antonio Martello pleads guilty…to playing a guitar and singing Neapolitan ballads to a woman in the Bronx and is sentenced to serve 20 days in the workhouse as a common nuisance.” — <a href="http://carol.lib.lawrence.edu/F/?func=item-global&doc_library=LAW01&doc_number=000326728&year=&volume=&sub_library=LUCIA"Music Since 1910.
The Mudd has numerous recordings of the Mahler and even one of Neapolitan songs.
We’re So Glad We Had That Time Together
On September 11, 1967 The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS. It was the first hour-long comedy-variety show to be hosted by a woman. When you think about it, the show produced theater (skits,) production numbers and musical numbers with all the trappings every week: choreography, sets, costumes by Bob Mackie, the works. Today the costs would be prohibitive and TV audiences probably would have no interest. But back then people stayed home to watch the show. Imagine doing this for a weekly TV show today.
The Paley Center for Media, formerly The Museum of Television & Radio, has an informative profile on Carol Burnett for you young folk who missed this golden age. You can also hear Carol Burnett on the original cast recording of Once Upon a Mattress.
Don’t Fly Your Learjet® to Nova Scotia
If you’re in South America or Antarctica, quick, run outside, but don’t look up. You are experiencing a partial eclipse of the sun.
Read the chapter “The Eclipse” from Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
Always Dress Your Carcass in the Best From Neiman Marcus
On September 10, 1907 a new department store, Neiman Marcus, (that’s a big store in Big D) opened its doors. Also on this day 75 years ago at one minute past midnight the A Train started running on the IND 8th Avenue Line in New York.
There’s a Neiman Marcus in Manhattan at 41st. and Broadway. The A Train doesn’t run over there, but you can take it to 42nd St. (the Port Authority Bus Terminal) and then take the IRT Times Square-Grand Central Shuttle. It’ll get you pretty close. And listen to Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the A Train” while you’re traveling.
Working 3-5
The day’s half over, but you can still benefit from National Employee/Boss Exchange Day. Of course, it’s likely that you don’t work in a place that actually use the terms “boss” and “employee” anymore. So if you’re the “employee,” swap tasks with your “team builder,” “ring master,” or “zoo keeper.” You can’t really wreck anything in just one day. And if you’re normally the one “in charge,” try living stress-free: check out youtube, read the paper, play some computer games.
Domes of Chrome
Hair. Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen. Knotted, polka-dotted. Twisted, beaded, braided. Some of us got it, some of us don’t. This weekend the Bald-Headed Men of America are gathering for their annual “Bald Is Beautiful” convention in Morehead City, N.C. Get it? More head?
Are You Feeling Lucky?
Nine years ago it wasn’t a verb. It wasn’t even a noun. It was a fledging business working out of a garage in Menlo Park, California. And the only Google most people had ever heard of was Barney.
Google itself doesn’t officially state the date the company started, but Web lore has it that it was incorporated on Sept. 7, 1998.