Now we can watch Jackie Gleason while we eat!!

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He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids....

William Powell
You scored 9% Tough, 38% Roguish, 19% Friendly, and 33% Charming!

You are the classic rogue, a stylish rake with the devil of a wit and a flair for mischief, and you shake your martinis to waltz time. You are charming and debonair, but slightly untrustworthy, and women should be on their guard. If married, you are simply a bit of a flirt, even if it's just with your own wife...but if you're single, watch out. You usually rein yourself in to concentrate on one lovely beauty at a time, but with you, we never know. You're an inviting partner, but there's a playful devil behind your eyes, and those trying to get close to you should know they're playing with fire. You're stylish and fun, but you follow your own course, which may or may not include a steady gal. Co-stars include Myrna Loy and Carole Lombard, classy ladies with an adventurous streak.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 5% on Tough

You scored higher than 95% on Roguish

You scored higher than 25% on Friendly

You scored higher than 63% on Charming

Link: The Classic Leading Man Test written by gidgetgoes on Ok Cupid

Charles Lane (1905-2007)
Charles Lane has died! He was 102!

Charles Lane at far right in the 1940 Jack Benny film "Buck Benny Rides Again."

I Still Can't Believe It!
Swing and a fly ball, leftfield, it's deep, it's way back ... the Tigers are going to the World Series! Three-run, walkoff home run! Ohhh man! Ordonez around third, he's into a mob scene at home! The Tigers have beaten the A's, 6-3, completing a four-game sweep in one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history! The Tigers, three years after losing 119 games, are going to the World Series! Magglio Ordonez with his second home run of the game. What a sight at home plate!

- Tigers radio voice Dan Dickerson, October 14, 2006

If I Were Bush's Speechwriter....
Just a fun little exercise...

( Read more... )

Drawings of Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello and More....
Knowing there are a lot of classic film lovers on my friends list, I wanted to alert everyone to the fact that my good friend Bil (a.k.a.

william_barrett) is a remarkably talented artist and concentrates on drawing classic film stars. He just posted a bunch of images of his drawings. Check them out. Buy something from him!

If You Wondered Where The President Got His Compassion From...
The former First Lady, Barbara Bush, had this to say:

"Almost everyone I’ve talked to wants to move to Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed with the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (she chuckled)--this is working very well for them."

(Source: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054719 )

Keith Olbermann Said It All
Also found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240
Keith Olbermann said:

SECAUCUS — Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."

Well there's your problem right there.

If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government's response to a crisis, this was it.

The seeming definition of our time and our leaders had been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might’ve saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could’ve brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they’re being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay.

But no. The incompetence and the ludicrous prioritization will forever be symbolized by one gaffe by of the head of what is ironically called “The Department of Homeland Security”: “Louisiana is a city…”

Politician after politician — Republican and Democrat alike — has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the "I-Me" switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were — congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.

And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded — even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural... and government-made.

But now, at least, it is has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.

No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?

I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant.

For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."

For him, it is a shame — in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have foreseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself — it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.

As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.

Somewhere, in the City of Louisiana.

Genealogy Links
I get asked sometimes what genealogy websites I use. Here, for anybody who is interested, are a list of some that I find very helpful:

http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/?o_xid=0028727949&o_lid=0028727949&o_xt=28727949
Social Security Death index. You can search for Social Security # and birth and death dates for prettymuch everybody who has died in the US since 1962.

http://www.castlegarden.org
If you have European ancestors that came to to the port of New York before 1892, this is a great place to search for their arrival. The only problem is that sometimes the record taker mis-spelled the name....and the search function does not have a way of searching for similar surnames...so you have to search for it exactly the way the record taker took down the name to get a hit here.

http://www.genealogyblog.com
A good place to keep up to date on news of new genealogy databases and books and updates on recent laws hindering the ability to research public records.

http://www.ellisisland.org
Similar to the Castle Garden site, this one has a searchable database for folks who came to the US after 1892.

http://www.deathindexes.com
Contains a list of links to death indexes from each state in the union.

http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi?o_xid=0028727949&o_lid=0028727949&o_xt=28727949
California Death Index for 1940 through 1997. In most cases it also gives mother's maiden name too!

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/GenealogyMWeb/idphdeathsrch.html
Illinois Deaths, 1916-1950

http://www.mdch.state.mi.us/pha/osr/gendisx/search2.htm
Supposed to contain complete listing of Michigan deaths 1867-1897. I think right now all they have is 1867-1884. Still useful though.

http://www.co.genesee.mi.us/vitalrec/
For the Flint, Michigan area---has a great searchable database of deaths and marriages for Genesee County, Michigan, 1930 to present.

http://obits.netsource-one.net/
The Saginaw obituary index. It doesn't give the whole text of the obituary but this site is an invaluable resource if you have relatives in the Saginaw, Michigan area.

http://www.saginawcounty.com/clerk/Search/Death.html
and
http://www.saginawcounty.com/clerk/Search/marriage.html
This is the Saginaw County clerk's website. Here you can search for Saginaw County marriages and deaths that have occured since 1995.

http://www.familysearch.org
The Mormon site. Pretty useful if you're looking for what microfilms the LDS church has for researchers.

http://www.genforum.com
Message boards for various surnames. I have been able to find other researchers working on the same line as me through this website.

http://obits.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/obit.cgi
Obituary Daily Times. Researchers from around the US enter the names of people appearing in obituaries in thousands of newspapers. It doesn't give all of the obituary info, but I've found it helpful.

http://www.cyndislist.com
Links to prettymuch EVERY genealogical topic you can imagine.

http://www.ancestry.com
Lots of good databases, but they do charge for use. Most local genealogical libraries have free access to this site--before paying for using it, I would check out your library and use it there.

There are probably others, but these are the ones that come to mind right now...

Hooray For The Red, White And Blue
This is absolutely priceless. Nat (a.k.a.

mr_effulgence ) has a great career as a country song writer ahead of him:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mr_effulgence/36855.html

FOX Sports All Star Coverage
I thought I was the only one who was disturbed by this last night...last night in the pre-game show, Jeanne Zelasko appeared to rudely interrupt Ernie Harwell.

Apparently I'm not the only one who was bothered by the rude way in which Harwell was cut off on FOX last night.

( King Kaufman from Salon.com had it dead-on--here's his take on FOX Sports' coverage of the All Star Game.... )

R.I.P. Morty Seinfeld
Barney Martin, who played Jerry Seinfeld's dad on "Seinfeld" has died. He was 82.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7286276/

Bea Wain
Tonight when I came home, there were some CDs I had ordered waiting for me.

They were all CDs featuring recordings by the wonderful vocalist Bea Wain.

I first heard of Bea Wain when I was 12. I was a weird child. I used to listen to whatever big band jazz radio shows I could tune in. There was one hosted by a guy whose name I think was Fred Hall. I think it was called "Swing Thing." He introduced a recording of Bea Wain with the Larry Clinton orchestra....a recording of the song "Martha". I remember Fred Hall commenting that it was a record that he played over and over again so much that he wore it out.

I taped Fred Hall's show that day and I think I wore out my tape recording of "Martha" eventually.

Now so many years later, I have been digging up all the Bea Wain recordings I can find.

There are a few great CDs of her late 1930s recordings with the Larry Clinton orchestra. And then there are a couple of great ones that feature her later (1939-1941) recordings she did independently.

Unfortunately, Ms. Wain's commercial recording career was cut short by the musician's strike in 1942. She still did some radio work and some V-disks for the troops.

I wish I could put into words just how superb the singing of Bea Wain is. I will leave it to others who have articulated it much better than I ever could.

In the liner notes for one of the CDs I received tonight, Joseph DiPietro writes of Ms. Wain: "What really set her apart was her versatility. She could lure bewitching sensuality from a ballad, keep an easy and energetic pace with the cadence of an up-tempo swinger, and find no end of clever ways to dig the fun out of a novelty number. This spelled more than competence. It added up to an archetype, a standard against which other vocalists would be measured."

I think producer Ted Ono, in his introduction for "Bea Wain: That's How I Love the Blues" put it best: "For me, words are never enough to describe the greatness of Bea Wain's singing....What Bea Wain has is artistry in its purest and sincerest form. It was clear that Bea was a deep thinker even when she was in her early twenties....Like a great actor, Bea Wain's performance has a layered quality. She does more than just sing the lyric convincingly. She does not simply emote or sing passionately. There is so much going on in her singing that you can easily miss the subtle, wonderful things she does by listening only once. In fact, on each listening, you will notice something that escaped you previously."

Amen.

On April 30th, Bea Wain will turn 88. She still lives in Los Angeles.

Thelma White, 1910-2005
My friend Monte just alerted me to the fact that Thelma White of "Reefer Madness" fame has died at age 94.

Story at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-white13jan13,0,5982521.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

An Era Passes
Artie Shaw died. He was 94.

World War II Ended In 1942? Whew.....So Much For D-Day
Found online.....

The Los Angeles Times tells this twisted tale:

A chain of alternative high schools accused of selling phony diplomas has taught thousands of immigrants that there are 53 states in the union, four branches of government and two houses in Congress — one for Republicans and one for Democrats.

Federal agents on Thursday raided the offices of California Alternative High School, based in Huntington Park, after Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer obtained a court order to freeze the school's assets.

Among the items seized was the school's 54-page curriculum, which taught students that the Treasury Department was part of the "administrative" branch of the government, and that the flag had not yet been updated to reflect the nation's 53 states.

According to court records, the school has given worthless diplomas to students after just 30 hours of instruction. It charges students, mostly Latinos, $450 to $1,450 for the 10-week course.

The school claims 77 locations nationwide and says 1,500 students graduate every 10 weeks, according to state officials. The victims could number in the tens of thousands, officials said.

A civil suit Lockyer filed Monday names three corporations and six people, including school Director Daniel Gossai of Rancho Palos Verdes and his wife, Janet. The couple could not be reached for comment.

The Times printed examples from the school chain's workbooks. The highlights:

• There are 53 states in the United States. In addition to the "original" 50 states, the union has added Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. But the flag has not yet been updated to reflect the addition of the last three states.

• There are four branches of government. They are the legislative, judicial, executive and "administrative" branches. Asked about the fourth branch by investigators, one teacher responded that "not much is heard about it because it works behind the scenes." The Treasury Department is part of the "administrative" branch.

• There are two houses of Congress: the Senate for Democrats and the House for Republicans.

• World War II occurred from 1938 to 1942.

• One question in the workbook says: "Read the book 'Death of a Traveling Salesman' and write a commentary."

Ron Reagan Jr. On Comparisons Between His Father And George W. Bush
"The Bush people have no right to speak for my father, particularly because of the position he's in now. Yes, some of the current policies are an extension of the '80s. But the overall thrust of this administration is not my father's -- these people are overly reaching, overly aggressive, overly secretive, and just plain corrupt. I don't trust these people.

"The gunslinging cowboy, the actor who just read his lines -- that stereotype doesn't fit who my father really was.

"My father had decades of experience in public life. He was president of his union, he campaigned for presidential candidates, he served two terms as governor of California -- and that was not a ceremonial office as it is in Texas. And he had already run for president, against Ford in '76, nearly unseating the sitting president in his own party. He knew where he was coming from, he had spent years thinking and speaking about his views. He didn't have to ask Dick Cheney what he thought.

"Sure, he wasn't a technocrat like Clinton. But my father was a man -- that's the difference between him and Bush. To paraphrase Jack Palance, my father crapped bigger ones than George Bush."

(As reported in Salon, April, 2003)

Great Horror List
My friend Matt has listed 8 of his Top Ten Horror films. It's a fascinating list and now I want to see some of the films that he discusses. Check out his list at:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ariztid/20062.html

Just Some Random Quotes
Mark Twain Quotes:

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.

It is not in the least likely that any life has ever been lived which was not a failure in the secret judgment of the person who lived it.

Of the demonstrably wise there are but two: those who commit suicide, & those who keep their reasoning faculties atrophied with drink.

Oh Death where is thy sting! It has none. But life has.

Life is at best a dream and at worst a nightmare from which you cannot escape.

Fred Allen Quotes:

Committee-a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.

California is a fine place to live--if you happen to be an orange.

You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a firefly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart.

Hollywood is a place where people wear dark glasses to Mass so that God won't recognize them and ask for an autograph.

W.C. Fields Quotes:

A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her.

A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.

I exercise self control. I never drink anything stronger than gin for breakfast.

I never drink water--fish fuck in it.

If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.