A well-respected national news publication today announced what is possibly the end of “Guitar Hero“-like games. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, with all the band programs out there, but this particular take on interactive multiplayer gaming should have been run past a few more focus groups.
Category: Fun
Send ‘Em In
It’s National Clown Week, proclaimed by Richard M. Nixon in 1971. We won’t even go there.
We think clowns are kind of scary, but not as scary as ventriloquists’ dummies. We’re talking the wooden kind with the hinged mouth. If you want to see something spooky, check out the International Ventriloquists’ Association web site. Yeesh.
National Clown Week also reminds us of a remark made by Bart Simpson to his dad when Homer expressed an urge to attend college: “Barber or clown?”
Here are our two favorite clown-related items in the Mudd: the electronic book Careers for Class Clowns & Other Engaging Types and Herb Gardner’s play A Thousand Clowns.
Ducks With Bills
It has been brought to our attention that the warm story of the rescued ducks may have had a more sinister angle. This photo taken by Donncha O Caoimh and posted on the inphotos.org website reveals the dark side of ducks. Snopes.com also has an entry on this Wild Kingdom gone bad incident.
We don’t want to encourage people to turn the other way when they see ducklings in trouble, but just keep an eye on the mom.
Dateline: Appleton
We didn’t want to report this incident until we were certain how it all turned out. Yesterday in Appleton’s Old Third Ward near downtown, 10 baby ducks were heard peeping from underneath the sidewalk. They had fallen through a sewer grate. The distraught mom was crossing a busy street, back and forth, with neighbors stopping traffic. APD was called and a Community Police van appeared along with other neighbors carrying a large net and a crowbar. After much coaxing the mom settled into a safe grassy area and after a while the babies were freed. The family was last seen disappearing between two houses heading for the Fox River.
Thanks to APD and the concerned people of the Old Third Ward for a happy outcome.
Iron Men (And Women)
Pounding nails into gigantic animals. This comes under the category of, nope, wouldn’t want to do that for a living. But plenty of people do, even though their shops aren’t on street corners anymore. They’re farriers (or ferriers) and they not only make and install horseshoes, they also care for the hooves. If you remember your science, ferrum is Latin for iron, number 26 in your periodic table of elements.
It’s National Farriers Week, so when you admire a well-shod horse with healthy hooves, thank a farrier.
The Mudd has many 18th and 19th century books and pamphlets in electronic format on farriery. Yes, that’s a word.
Only 50 Years Ago
We missed this important anniversary, but it bears relating. On July 6, 1957, a 16-year-old John Lennon and his skiffle band The Quarry Men were playing for a church function in Woolton just outside Liverpool. A mutual friend introduced Lennon to Paul McCartney, then 15 and a pretty good guitar player and singer. A few days later McCartney was invited to join the band. Then they wrote and recorded some stuff.
You Want a Cascading Style Sheet With That?
Just a heads up: Friday, July 6, is “Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day.” Make it someplace good if you value your workplace’s public face.
If you can’t think of anything to talk about, just toss around the phrases “cell padding,” “java script,” and maybe “layer side bar.”
That’s All Right
On July 5, 1954, Elvis Presley made his first commercial recording, “That’s All Right,” at Sun Studio in Memphis. He’d recorded “My Happiness” a year earlier in the same studio, but didn’t much impress Sam Phillips, Sun’s founder.
Many believe this recording ushered in the rock ‘n’ roll era, but black artists had been recording rock ‘n’ roll at Sun since 1950 and Bill Haley and his Comets were listed on Billboard charts with their song “Crazy Man Crazy” in 1953. This, however, was something new: a startling combination of country, gospel, rhythm and blues, and straight-ahead blues that was quite marketable in both the north and the south.
You can hear a little “That’s All Right” on the Sun Studio home page. And while you’re there, take the audio/video tour.
I……Forgot
Today, July 2, is I “Forgot Day.” To celebrate, we must pay tribute to Steve Martin. He is, after all, the one who explained how to be a millionaire and not pay any taxes. First, you get a million dollars. Second, you don’t pay any taxes. Then when the IRS comes after you for not paying any taxes, you simply say, “I forgot.”
Try to use this handy phrase often today, and view possibly the finest Steve Martin performance in a feature film, The Spanish Prisoner. Check it out from the Mudd, but don’t forget to return it.
Golly!
Today is the 77th birthday of Jim Nabors. After his Gomer Pyle days, he made somewhat of a career as a singer. Around 1972 a studio recording of Man of La Mancha was released, with Mr. Nabors in the leading role. The rest of the cast is (and we are not making this up) Marilyn Horne as Aldonza, Jack Gilford as Sancho Panza, Richard Tucker as the Padre, and Madeline Kahn as the niece. We are very sad that we do not have this LP in the Mudd’s collection. But we do have the original cast recording on CD.