Ms. Patricia

Didn't Patricia Neal do some kind of coffee commercials, back in the 1960's or something? I'm fairly sure she did. Maybe it wasn't coffee. I remember Madge 'you're soaking in it' Manicurist hawking dishwashing liquid. And I recall friendly Mrs. Olson showing up at folks' homes with a bag of grocery and Folger's coffee.

And there was Cora too, played by Margaret Hamilton, former OZ witch and allergic to water, but not coffee apparently. Maxwell House maybe?

Was also a 1960's coffee commercial where a woman privately wondered, "Hmmm. Jim never asks for a second cup of coffee at home." This was back in the era where wives stayed darn near deranged every waking moment, worrying how they could better serve their man. Little known fact? That's why Valium was invented.

I'm sure no expert on the 1960's really. I was mostly a little jug eared kid. Only thing I know for sure about the era? Was I on that island, my agenda would've been clear:
1. Kill Gilligan
B. Fix that hole in the boat

Uhm, what was I gonna type about? Oh yeah! Patricia Neal! One of the greatest actresses of Hollywood's golden era passed this week. I won't dwell on her personal life. She was an artist, and female screen artists rarely get treated appropriately.

Look here? You think Kate Hepburn was a great actress? PISH! Kate played two roles; funny Hepburn and serious Hepburn. Her entire career she played Kate. Patricia Neal was a great actress. Also Barbara Stanwyck. I could name some other women, but you wouldn't know who I was talking about.

My favorite Neal performance will always be "In Harm's Way." Back off you Cinemaniacs! Yep, Patricia was wonderful in "Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Fountainhead" and "Hud." Also great in "Face in the Crowd."

In her pairing with John Wayne for Preminger's "In Harm's Way" we get a great performance in a history hinge movie.

That film puts Wayne with a woman who's his equal in toughness. Quite a departure. Relationship between those two middle aged lovers is most interesting thing in the film. It's actually very 2010, the way those two fumble at each other, the pragmatism mingled with desire and past baggage.

I don't know of a movie where Patricia Neal didn't play a strong woman. That's very odd for the era. Lots of strong women characters, but they always come to ruin. Girls who don't worry why Jim doesn't ask for second cup of coffee at home? Well, they are asking for Karma.

Patricia Neal always played strong women. Maybe because she was a strong woman, and wouldn't take subservient roles. She was a great actress.

Wacky Week in the News

I was visiting a blog the other day doing some research on the Papin sisters (think Lizzie Borden, except two of them and more vicious) and I must admit that blog is a LOT more sophisticated than mine! Oh yeah! It had advertisements where you can donate to charity, or click something and see video, and who knows what else.

Right now, I'm kinda more interested in securing gainful employment, but in the future? I might fancy up my blog some too! Must be a 14yo kid somewhere in this subdivision could help me with that.

But to the news... "Pantless man caught with armless Mannequin" another masterpiece of evocative headline writing there, you betcha! And why are they called 'pants' while 'bra' is singular? Uhm, David? Don't be recycling George Carlin jokes? We're doing the news here!!!

Former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens went to see Jesus this week. Though not having the tenure of the late Senator Robert Byrd, Stevens was a formidable equal in delivering home state pork projects. All of Alaska's history, has only had 7 Senators. Easy to forget such things. When Alaska was made a state, "I Love Lucy" had already been on TV about eight years. Oddly? Former House mover & shaker Dan Rostenkowski passed this week too. Quite a guy with the pork too, that Dan.

So anyways? Byrd, Stevens, Rostenkowski all dead now? I expect to see a mysterious earmark slipped into 2011 budget to repave the streets of gold. Some cynics might say more like Ice machines for Hell, but? I'll continue to hope for the best of everyone.

Scientists revealed this week, they've discovered a Sponge that shares 70 percent genes in common with humans. I've found some of the sanctimonious pontificating rather amusing. Times like this (and there are many) I always privately speculate. What fascinating personal habits (if u know what I mean?) must one have, that they'll grab a Sponge and say, "See? See? This proves there is no such thing as moral absolutes!"

What in the heck are such people up to, that they must sacrifice true Scientific discipline that has given humanity so much, in favor of Voodoo logic advocacy. If a Sponge has 70 percent same genes as I do, does NOT mean there is no God.

See, I used to design Locomotive radiators. Don't talk about it much, as I don't wish to get the womenfolk riled up hormonally, if ya know what I mean? Though not considered as sexy as International jewel thieves, Radiator designers are on the scale of sexy, fer shure. Last time I checked, right between Accountants and Funeral Directors actually. Nothing to sneeze at, I know!

A locomotive radiator sits on the top. Any given moment of operation has about 50 gallons of water in it, weight of water approximately 450 lbs. Locomotive stops, water must be totally gone from system in under 120 seconds. This because sometimes locomotives stop in Canada in the winter, and no railroad line uses antifreeze.

Designing radiators is a manly trade, which explains why it's ranked slightly higher than Funeral Director on girl sexy-meter. Point is?

Good designers do 'Save as' and modify existing design for new application. A fundamental formula is understood at the very start. Works with Train radiators. Probably works about the same with Sponge DNA, I should think?

Calculated Risk

Infectious disease, fascinating subject really. Like the eradication of Smallpox for instance? Couldn't have happened without Lady Montagu, Edward Jenner, and Western Civ charity, tech and money.

But the real turning point in fighting Smallpox? It was the shift away from mass inoculation programs, to outbreak targeted quick response. That pivotal strategy came from a young Indian Health Service worker. He said, "In my village, when a house catches on fire, we don't throw water on ALL the houses." Very clear thinking there.

Yet the end wasn't known when the new strategy was proposed. Trying it meant risk.
I wasn't gonna type about Smallpox though...

Ya got this malaria thing. Kills LOTS of people in Africa, South America and Asia, even with liberal use of DDT. Oh yeah, you thought DDT was banned worldwide? Naw! They spray it on houses in rural India. Helps a lot, but not a perfect solution.

Now some scientists in AZ have engineered a mosquito that can't be infected by the malaria parasite. They think they can introduce into the wild in sufficient numbers where the old fashioned mosquito will quickly be bred out of existence.

Frankenbug to the rescue!!!

Well let's round up the usual suspects, while the giants of science are busy popping champagne corks...

I'm a product of midnight Creature Feature, so I KNOW about unintended consequences of Science. Nuke tests in the desert get you... giant ants, giant Gila Monster, giant Tarantula, and the Amazing Colossal Man. That's just in the US. You don't EVEN want to know about Nuke after effects in Japan!!! I bet homeowner's insurance rates skyrocketed in Tokyo in the 1950's.

But I also know about Kudzu, and Australian cane toads. I know the well meant intentional introduction of species can get way out of hand. And my time with Charles Fort has given me a healthy skepticism about unwarranted certainty from Scientists, who since Hiroshima have become our cultural high priests.

And one reason our culture was so outraged at the Gulf Oil leak is because
post-Apollo generations have come to believe our high priests won't let us down.

I trust the fathers & mothers of Frankenbug to insure they haven't accidentally engineered a mosquito that won't host malaria, but will carry HIV or Ebola quite well. Yet, they can't test Mosquito 3.0 for its interactions with pathogens that haven't been identified yet, huh?

Oh, I'm not sitting in the seat of the 'Cautioneer' here, just sayin' is all. Might as well get the hippie take articulated while I'm at it...

"Dude, this is SO wrong interfering with Nature! It's evil putting things where they don't belong, interfering with the beautiful, perfect balance of nature. We should just do treated nets. Mosquitos are people too you know!"

Well, it'd be dismissive to remind the hippies that marijuana ain't exactly a native species in northern California, but that's too easy. It's an entire mindset that merits honest challenge.

Nature mostly wants to kill you. That's Nature's job. Mosquito nets are wonderful. Bill & Melinda Gates, Bono, post-WH Laura & GW Bush are to be commended for their efforts. Of course personally, I wonder why they don't establish factories in affected areas, teach people tech to make their own nets.

A dirty secret about the nets? Even IF you can get primitive, superstitious cultures to accept these nets prevent Malaria? The nets always go first to the adults, because they're the producers. Many parts of the world, life is hard and life is cheap.

This is the part of the blog where I either have to smart off about Billy Jack movies or declare a position. All right then, I'm pro-Frankenbug. It's a real risk, introducing an engineered species. The biosphere, despite what hippies like to think, is never static. The tiny Malaria parasite has a speck of the Eternal in it too, and a system exists possibly enabling it to launch an assymetrical response.

Humans were given brains for a reason. To use them while walking humbly before God is about the best we can manage. Many many thousands die every year from Malaria.
Observation leads to theory leads to experiment leads to sober decision.

Was it mine to say, I say a good chance to eradicate Malaria? Turn loose the Frankenbugs. History can damn me for what I didn't know. Whatever comes can't be worse than a Billy Jack movie, right?

Art and Life

I feel sorry for that Dr. House. Every time I'm walking thru a room and his show is on? He's either suffering some dread health problem, or getting fired, or both. I bet Obamacare is somehow to blame.

Headlines are always fun. Sometimes they can be poignantly evocative, even though topic is sad. A real good one from this week? "Naked man beaten outside Bar."

But my brand new fave headline is... "Superman saves family from Foreclosure." Yeah, they were about to get evicted, packing up from home that'd been in family more than fifty years. And down in the basement they found a box full of Billy Jack movies!
Naw that's not it! They found a box of comic books. And there he was, Superman no. 1 from 1938; est. auction value $250K.

Sweet human interest yarn; authenticity already verified, should sweep the major news organs soon.
I bet this story will lead to LOTS of basements & attics getting a long overdue cleaning, I betcha!

And it kind of reminds me of George Weller. In retirement, George spent many days in his old recliner bitterly regretting loss of his greatest journalism work in post-nuke Japan. Army censors destroyed his dispatches. All that time, and eight feet above George's head was a steamer trunk up in the attic, full of the carbon papers on those dispatches.

In Engineering, one considers a system by imagining its extreme boundaries. That means in most every human life there is some form of comic books and carbon papers.

Not everybody gets to run around post-nuke Japan. But many people think they've been robbed of something, when a quite serviceable form of what was lost lies well within reach.

Not everybody has Superman no. 1 in their basement. But many people have something of wonderful usefulness nearly in hand through good times & bad, just waiting to be found.

Y'know, somebody put that comic book in that box. But some hand had to pull it out of the box. In the emotions attending losing one's home, I can easily imagine the Man of Steel could've ended up in a dumpster, huh?

So it takes a forgiving heart to look for carbon papers in the attic. Takes a hopeful heart to recognize a comic book in a basement full of junk.

Now I got to get details on "Naked Man beaten outside Bar." I sure hope it wasn't Dr. House; he's already got enough problems.

The straight Dope on Boris

Really? If you're around my age and grew up in the United States, Paul Frees is all over you. Yes, Paul was the voice of ever-frustrated spy Boris Badenov, but he was a lot more than that!

Let's put something in context here (which is SO unlike me, get right down to it) about Paul Frees? He had a vocal range of four octaves. Me, former professional musician/singer/trouble maker, I got about 75 percent of an octave here.

Paul was very gifted. But let's focus on his deliverables? Aside from being the voice of Boris Badenov... do you remember Jolly Green Giant commercials? Remember that 'Little green sprout' character? That was the voice of Paul Frees. 'Lil Sprout' never came off as a raging heterosexual to me, but I could be wrong about that.

And if you're old enuf to recall the moon landing, you've been to a theatre or a drive-in where Paul Frees narrarated the coming attractions...

"He found himself on a strange alien world where Apes are the masters, and humans are caged! Don't miss Charlton Heston in 'Planet of the Apes'! Also co-starring some really cute chick in a fur bikini."

Paul Frees did a lot more than that though. Thirty years dead, he's still the narrator at many Disney theme park attractions.

Now, in Billy Wilder's most commercially successful film "Some Like it Hot." Well, Paul Frees of the deep authoritarian coming attractions voice? He also dubbed female voice of Tony Curtis in drag. Don't ask me why Tony was in drag, just watch the movie?

Talent, that gets one admiration. But one's passion is what draws enduring love. Paul Frees single handedly tried to save the world from Beatniks. Yep, self-written, self-directed, self-financed, Paul Frees (aka Boris Badenov) made a movie considered a classic by people who don't really know what the word 'classic' actually means.

Clearly the film was made with passion, but not much ability. Mr. Frees attempted to warn unsuspected Western Civ about the dangers of poncho wearing, bongo beating, finger snapping, poetry reciting degenerates. In Mr. Frees' 1960 tour de force (that's french for load of crap) effort "The Beatniks" a sordid tale is told.

There aren't actually any Beatniks in the movie. More overgrown juvenille delinquents I'd say. The soundtrack does have lots of bongo playing in it though; quite annoyingly really.

Paul Frees tried to warn us about Beatniks. Let the beatniks in, next thing you got hippies. Know what comes after that? Yep, that's right. Billy Jack movies.

There's a reason for that

Hmmm, what was I thinking about? Well, it was probably wicked cool, and no doubt would be a life changing experience for you to read, but I don't remember right now. Could come back to me later maybe, but could be gone forever, like Mel Gibson's good reputation.

This is the 31st day of July. July has 31 days because Julius Caesar wanted his month to have more days. Augustus Caesar felt same way about his month.

I could do this all day, divulging reasons behind stuff. After all, I'm currently unemployed. But I will restrain myself, limiting the spouting of useless factoids with a self-discipline of Herculean proportions...

Monopoly the game. Everybody thinks was invented by unemployed Depression dude, and it's a lovely story of triumph in adversity. Nuh-unh. Real direct precursor to Monopoly was 'The Landlord Game' invented by a woman, who happened to be a Socialist. Ms. Phillips invented it to show people how they're being oppressed by capitalism, and it leads to a game that earns billions for the Parker Bros. company. Talk about unintended consequences.
Reason Monopoly tokens are what they are? Game rollout, a company that made charm bracelets was contracted. Near zero tooling cost. Monopoly tokens are bracelet charms without a loop.

Reason we have chewing gum is because General Santa Anna lost the Mexican War.

Reason the saxophone is called that, is because Adolphe Sax invented it. Saxophone is only well known musical instrument named for a person.

Reason we say 'lead pencil' is because when graphite was discovered in 1564, was mis-identified as form of lead.

The reason we say 'assault & battery' is because of the Norman Conquest in 1066. Both words really mean the same thing, but in two different languages.

The reason we have charcoal grilles is because Henry Ford couldn't get his wooden windshield packing cases to perfect dimensions so they could be cut up for floorboards with zero scrap.

And yeah, that's why we still use the term 'floorboard.'

Different kind of Leak

Been some great stuff in the news. I want to thank you Western Civilization, for continuing to do amazingly insane stuff, both good & bad. Looks like some French scientists have developed an ointment that heals tooth decay. Works great on mice. Could be available to Dentists, 3 to 5 years.

----Dentalis may cause unexpected explosive fecal discharge, joint pain, intense dreams of bestiality, suicidal thoughts, psychotic delusions, vampirism, hearing disembodied voices and dandruff. Talk to your perscription provider about your Jello intake as this may lead to something you don't even want to hear about.----

I typed that really fast by the way, just like the commercials. But hey? Possible side effects are better than a root canal, right?

But mostly I'm aware of the strange juxtaposition of Dan Schorr passing the same week as most massive dump of classified docs in human history. Those of you who don't know what 'juxtaposition' means, look it up and catch up later...

Dan Schorr is forever linked to the Pentagon Paper leak. Hey, wanna hear a funny? Daniel Ellsberg perhaps had some kind of 'road to Damascus' moment after working years for the RAND thinktank in support of war. I dunno; I'm nobody's judge. Just saying he switched sides about time started sleeping with a hippie chick. Could be egg/chicken I guess.

So... folks in media for some reason often eventually show up at crossroads where I've been sitting on a stump for hours, whittling a better man (or woman) out of a banana than they'll ever be. Therefore, excuse me while I get to the heart of the matter?

Yep, Wiki-leaks is being castigated. The doc dump may lead to some tortures and beheadings, no kidding. And PFC Bradley Manning has been arrested, harumph harumph!!!

So... why exactly does a PFC have access to very sensitive intel docs? Never served in the military, but think rank of PFC sort of low on the ladder.

The enemy may find some names in these documents. Mostly, the enemy will benefit from understanding our intel gathering process. And, might as well say? Many of the enemy take this for a trick. Just telling you the truth; can't help what the truth is, all right?

The enemy is at lower levels, some fairly unsophisticated folk. It's weird really. Above them, cold, calculating people with high IQ. Most levels, they think everything we do is a trick. Hey, wanna hear another funny? The ground fighter bad guys associate Democracy with homosexuality. Yep. They think our women dress in revealing clothing because attracting mates in decadent West is difficult, since most of us men are homosexuals.

WTF is a PFC doing with access to 91K classified documents?