Leap Day? Leap Year Day? Notice that it is February 29 on the masthead, the first time you've seen that at Out Of The Blue. It's suitable for framing.

Today, grab your digital camera and take one picture an hour and submit it to A Day In The Life today. You'll feel better.

Getting ready for church, and music filling the home is Tchaikovsky's "Romeo And Juliet." Filling is right, it is a beautiful work for a beautiful Sunday morning.

À bientôt!


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I'm trying to distill a list of songs for my reunion, basically, tunes from 1969 to 1978. I've got a four hour slot to fill, and started with about 20 hours of music. What would you take out of this list, if you were me?


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Saturday morning at the blog house, and it seemed like a bacon and eggs morning. To the sounds of Jackson Berkey at the piano, I went searching frantically for the pieces of the microwave bacon rack. This is a circular piece of plastic with protusion sticking out on three sides, to hang your bacon all over it. There are three legs, which took me 15 minutes to find, that support the gizmo over a pie place lined with paper towels. This catches 90% of the bacon fat (and yes, I know pork fat rules, but I like it crispy) and cooks most of a package of bacon in 8 minutes. I usually scramble my eggs with some dried onion and some finely chopped tomatoes, with a bit of milk and pinch of garlic powder.

The Debussy part of my Saturday morning is Berkey's "Sunken Cathedral" cd, which features three Debussy pieces plus a Vincent Persichetti sonata and an original by Chip Davis, who is the genius behind Mannheim Steamroller. Wonderful music for a beautiful Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the CD is out of print, though you might also enjoy "Cape May Preludes".

À la prochaine!

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Thanks to Stormwind, I've spent a fair time at Representative Poetry Online. Here you'll find works that showcase poets and their works, kind of an introduction to many.

While we're talking about poetry, check out my friend Celaine, who also sponsors a poetry forum online.


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I'm talking to YOU! Yes, its those loveable, madcap guys, the Firesign Theatre. What, you've never heard of them? Well, think of them as sub, stealthy, and not wealthy. Can't picture that? Well, they are sub because there is an entire subculture built around their characters. Still fuzzy?

Back in 1966, a long, long time ago, on a radio station in California named KPFK, the group of guys named Phil Proctor, Dave Ossman, Peter Bergman and Phil Austin took to the airwaves in a partly scripted radio show, in the reminiscent style of the radio programs of the 30s and 40s. But, given the time, the subject matter was irreverent, off the wall, and hilariously funny. By 1970, they had their own radio program, the Firesign Theatre Radio Hour, and in 1971, their program took to syndication and was heard on many college and alternative stations around the country as Dear Friends!

Columbia Records picked up the Firesign Theatre and began issuing record albums, with titles such as "Waiting For The Electrician Or Someone Like Him," and "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers." Their popularity grew, and the situations and characters began to infiltrate life, not normal people's lives, but geek life.

The skit from "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All," (and believe me, Firesign aficionados will be able to sing that title,) a send up of those Raymond Chandler mysteries called "Nick Danger, Third Eye," had the character Rocky Roccoco speaking to Nick Danger. (Rocky is the bad guy.) Rocky was trying to tell Nick about a woman in their past who seemed to have a lot of different names. "Not to Melanie Haber! You may remember her as Audrey Farber! Or Susan Underhill! What about Betty Jo Bialowski!? (sound of rising organ sting.) I knew her as Nancy."

Now for the geek stuff. Those characters, as well as the lines from Firesign's many audio skits have been incorporated into tech documentation in the oddest places. My first run in with this was with a Frecom Fax board I bought back in 1994. The sample address book had the names "Audrey Farber, Melanie Haber, etc." Even today, a search on any of these names are found on sites such as Audrey on Sun's documentation site and a whole list of them at InformIT.com's site. In an interesting twist, a real Susan Underhill works for HP. And, I also saw a restaurant in Texas named "Rocky Rococos."

The humor was subtle at times, slapstick at others. Here's a few lines from "Nick Danger," Betty Jo/Nancy talking to Nick Danger: "I can't, I can't, I'm so confused." Nick: "Well, why don't you hold your thumb next to your lines, see like this. This way I don't get confused, I never lose my place." Nancy: "I-I feel faint, the whole world is spinning." Nick: "Why that's lucky for us, if it were flat, all the Chinese would fall off."

They parodied themselves, making reference to other skits, and even their own records: "Wait a minute, didn't I say that line on the other side of the record? I'd better check." (sound effect of record played backwards.) Nick: "It's ok, they're speaking Chinese."

In a twist of reality, some Firesign Theatre bits have become "reality". Weird.

So the next time you hear about Second City, Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon or another comedy troupe of the seventies, remember it all started with The Firesign Theatre.



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Well, maybe not. Manic might suggest that I have been frightfully busy, where, in reality, I haven't posted much because there was not too much to post on. All the major news subjects, which I won't mention here because I don't need the Google traffic, are well represented on other blogs.

So what have I been doing? Visiting friends, shopping, reunion business, wrapping up my son's school vacation and working with my church's participation in the 40 Days of Purpose campaign. My class reunion, the 30th of such gatherings, will be very special due to the combined talents of some of my classmates. I am proud to be working with them all! The reunion kicks off on March 13.

I did read an interesting article over at MSNBC about the common myths surrounding proper diet for women (and why not for men?) First shown on the Today show, in the Woman's Health segment, Dr. Judith Reichman examines the health facts surrounding water and coffee as well as other medical maxims. My key findings: coffee good/bad, chocolate good/too much bad, eight glasses of water a day=no medical evidence to support this (if you are thirsty, you'll drink.)

When I am not perusing the news, I am continuing to find my way in my life, and know that with the help of God and prayer, I am in much better spiritual shape regarding my life than I was a year ago. There is much less stress, much more purpose to my being. My son has finally cracked the Bs on his report card and continues to amaze me with his work. I do believe I am getting closer to fine!


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This long but very funny send-up of Abbott & Costello's famous "Who's On First" routine had me laughing all the way through it.

Read it here.


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I read this article twice from the Associated Press, because buried in it was something startling to me, besides the point of the article. Quoting the article:

Many teen-rated video games contain content that is not listed on the label, including sexual themes, alcohol and profanity, a study found. Given the results, parents should be aware that popular T-rated video games might include a wide range of unexpected content that could have a negative influence on their children, said Harvard University researchers Kevin Haninger and Kimberly Thompson.

What bothered me is that in a study of 396 games rated "T" for teen, 94 percent or 373 games had a "Violence" label. Ninety-four percent? Are parents being duped into thinking that because a game is for teenagers that it is within their standards? And as the headline above stated, many of the games underestimate or underplay the amount of violence, sex, profanity or abusive behaviors (such as drug or alcohol use.)

What's needed is an overhaul of the rating system, the article points out. But the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) claims that their rating criteria is "overwhelmingly" agreed to by parents.

Are these the same parents that advise the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board? You know, the one where you take your child to a PG movie and they hear the "F" word or see part of a naked breast (oh great, now Google will send hundreds of people here to see one.) I'm disgusted. And I am accused of being overprotective. Yeah.

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I ran across an interesting online test, not of the "What shade of lipstick are you," or "What Mad Max Character are you?" It measures your intelligence in multiple areas, the Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal.

From the site: Intelligence is often considered how well you score on tests or what your grades are in school. In the 1900's, French psychologist Alfred Binet tried to come up with some kind of measure that would predict the success or failure of children in the primary grades of schools. The result was the forerunner of the standard IQ test we use today. This gave us a dimension of mental ability by which we could compare everyone. In the 1980's, Harvard University psychologist, Howard Gardner had a pluralistic view of the mind, and recognized the many discrete facets of cognition. Gardner defines intelligences as the ability to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural settings. (Gardner) He acknowledged that people have different cognitive strengths as well as different cognitive styles. Gardner bases his view in part on findings from sciences that were nonexistent in Binet's time. The first is cognitive. Out of this came Gardner's "theory of multiple intelligences." (Gardner)

More of this explanation here.

My score, I think, typified the strengths I already knew, but my musical score was a bit baffling, as I thought that someone who was proficient in musical ability would score high, but it is my deep love for music that apparently boosted the score. Anyway, here was my score:

Linguistic: 11

Logical-Mathematical: 6

Spatial: 8

Bodily-Kinesthetic: 5

Musical: 11

Interpersonal: 8

Intrapersonal: 10


And what the defininitions of my highest scores were:

A Short Definition of your Highest Score Linguistic - the ability to use language to describe events, to build trust and rapport, to develop logical arguments and use rhetoric, or to be expressive and metaphoric. Possible vocations that use linguistic intelligence include journalism, administrator, contractor, salesperson, clergy, counselors, lawyers, professor, philosopher, playwright, poet, advertising copywriter and novelist. Musical - the ability to understand and develop musical technique, to respond emotionally to music and to work together to use music to meet the needs of others, to interpret musical forms and ideas, and to create imaginative and expressive performances and compositions. Possible vocations that use the musical intelligence include technician, music teacher, instrument maker, choral, band, and orchestral performer or conductor, music critic, aficionado, music collector, composer, conductor, and individual or small group performer.

Interesting.


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There's something about Norah Jones's new album (do we even call those silver discs albums, like the old LPs? What's an LP? Ask your mother) that is so comfortable, so warm and I can listen to her all day long. "Feels Like Home" is the followup to her last album which garnered her much attention and made her a household word (right up there with refrigerator.) The first track, "Sunrise," fills me with a Deja Vu image that yeah, I've been there before, who cares if the sun rose and set while we're together. Love so deep that you don't notice the world around you when you are together. Wow.

There's more: a bluesy rendition of "Humble Me,' and oh man, I can feel the pain and that place where God has tempered me long enough. And in contrast to the cuddly feeling of "Sunrise," "Don't Miss You At All' is a "so long and don't hit the door on the way out" tune that declares her independence after the break up of a relationship. And "Creepin' In" is a bluegrass train that will keep your feet tapping long after the song is over. I know you'll want to learn the words so you can harmonize with her too! Its a fun tune.

Norah will be on David Letterman on the 23rd of February, and in Canada on Canada AM (CTV) tomorrow the 17th. Buy the CD and be happy.


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An article in Newsweek this week plows no new ground, but brings the issue of what is "family-friendly" TV to the forefront.

But the most trenchant complaint came from Rep. Charles Pickering. A father of five, Pickering said that he was just as angry about the commercials. Not the infamous spots featuring flatulent animals. He meant CBS's ad for its own show "Two and a Half Men." "A woman comes into the kitchen and reaches up, exposing her entire back end to an 8-year-old boy, who then turns and says, 'Wow'." Pickering said, glaring at (Mel) Karmazin (President of CBS). "Is that something you're proud of?"

Full story here.

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Sandra Bullock was asked how she attracts a man at the recent Harvard Hasty Pudding awards ceremony, and she replied, "This is the one that always works, whether the man is inebriated, whether he's gay or straight, married or single. I walk up like this, and I do like a little hair thing, and I say this: 'Hi. I have a more than a million dollars in my bank account and I'm single,' Bullock said to a cheering audience." Line 'em up, boys. Link

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I want to wish all my readers a happy Valentine's Day! Don't forget to send your sweetheart a Valentine's Heart from ACME Labs! The typeface for the Valentine's edition of Out Of The Blue is "kinkie" by Fontalicious.

Y

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Yes, he's my b-boy. B as in Bs on a report card! This is an awesome accomplishment for my son, who has ADHD and the unresolved grief over the death of his mom on his plate. Last year, he flunked out of 6th grade with straight Fs, essentially shutting down academically. The school system didn't recognize his needs until quite late, when an IEP (Individual Education Program) was drafted and took effect on the last day of school last year. It still took some fine tuning, and now he is doing much better. I am one proud parent!


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One year ago on February 20, a horrific blaze swept through The Station, a small nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. US News and World Report, in their issue this week, examines what has happened in the state with regard to new legislation; in the lawsuits charging blame, not all of which has even been filed yet, and in the lives of some of the survivors. Click here for the online story.

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I'm passing this along as a concerned parent. It is an email I received this morning.

Jack Samad, senior vice president for Strategic Partnerships and Internet Safety for the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, will be joining Dr. James Dobson on the "Focus on the Family" radio program on February 11. Samad will be talking about the National Coalition's latest educational initiative regarding MTV and its negative impact on teens. The organization has launched a web site, www.stopmtv.org, which gives parents some startling facts about the music channel and encourages them to make some tough choices regarding viewing it. MTV's latest production, the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXVIII, showed the nation its true colors. "If parents found that shocking, they'd really be amazed at what is on MTV 24 hours a day," noted Samad. From their around-the-clock reality shows to their amped-up music videos, MTV celebrates unrestrained heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual and group sex; glorifies violence and self-mutilation; and mindlessly mocks God, Christianity and the very idea of moral absolutes. Concerned parents can tune into Focus on the Family on February 11 to learn more. Check with your local Christian radio station to find out what time the program will air in your city. National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families 800 Compton Rd Suite 9224 Cincinnati, OH 45231 Phone: 513-521-6227 http://www.nationalcoalition.org

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Now this is a 30 minute meal I would really enjoy!



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Head over to Right Wing News for this gem from 2002. I remember receiving this in email and now know who to credit it to. I'm typing this from the floor, as I fell of my chair laughing.

P.S. Listening to Josh Groban while reading this is not recommended.


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I had the good fortune of stumbling across Yankee Fog on a blog-jumping trip, and discovered this paen to finding chocolate in Belgium. Enjoy and don't eat too much (without sharing with me.)

A la prochaine!

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Now, a show of hands. How many celebrate Leap Day (February 29 for the uninitiated) for its grandiose appearance every four years? Now you who have birthdays on that day, sit down. There is a movement afoot (or is that afeet, I forget, but I digress,) to do something on that day, and here is the proposal. If you are planning something like this on Leap Day this year and are in Southern New England, give me a call. I love pizza.

Thanks Jenn!

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My son is not feeling well this morning, apparently a chest cold and is sleeping. I woke to a flurry of email this morning, most of it spam, so before I had my coffee, I sent most of it off to Spam Cop but also sent off my friend's messages too. Sorry, D. I did cancel the reporting on that message, and hope the rest get drawn and quartered. I then proceeded downstairs to make the coffee. Ahh, Gevalia Mocha. I'm tempted to make a full pot, but then I'd be bouncing around the walls like a super ball in a bathroom.

A look out the window shows the bane of snow lovers, rain. It's February, and in New England, we should have snow, regardless. And some town have a lot of snow, and have to remove it from the streets and take it elsewhere. I know that they did that in Montreal according to my friend K, but they also do that in Massachusetts. I know the snow removal budgets are hurting, in one Massachusetts town, they will begin to remove snow from one side of the street only. What good is that? Why was it that when we were kids, and the snow fell in three foot increments all the time, that they had snow removal budgets that would last the winter?

For that story, we visit the home of a climatologist, who will show us graphs and charts that point to a little less than 1 degree average warming of our winters in New England. This is the average, and we will get snows but on average, it will be rain or freezing rain and ice (argggggh!)

A look around the blogosphere shows a lot of people complaining about the snow and cold. A closer look shows that many of those bloggers are in Canada, where you expect it to be cold. I do have to admit, though, that -33 is very, very cold.

Some random thoughts for a rainy Saturday morning.

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The desk reveals.... not much. After carefully untying the pretty hair ribbon from the bundle of letters and cards, I can conclude nothing about the card left by the secret admirer. The letters, addressed to Helen Elizabeth before 1937 and Mae afterwards (one letter from a choral society she belonged to told her that her choice of name would be reflected in the next program.) One curious letter, written on Eastern Steamship Lines stationery, was addressed to "Honey" and was signed by "your sweet-heart." Apparently a cruise with a buddy, he would see her Monday night. That letter was dated November 4, 1938. But in the same envelope, a letter written on what looks like toilet paper, from Bellevue Hospital on November 6, again with a salutation that he would see her on Monday. He did have a sense of humor, writing "How do you like the writing paper? Bellevue Hospital's best. It's non-skid." The rest of the stack of mail were delightful Christmas cards from her minister and wife, a neighbor, and a friend. There is also a post card, showing the General Post office in Philidelphia, addressed to Lizzie. Finally, there was a picture of a young woman, sitting on a daybed in the bedroom of a home in Los Angeles, California, dated 1909.

So that is the end of the line on the story. Did Helen/Mae meet the young man? Why did he (sweet-heart) go to New York (that must have been the reason for the cruise, Boston to New York.) I'm guessing, gentle readers, that this was the total of her relationship with the young man. The toilet paper note may have ended this romance.


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Some years ago, I bought a cigar box at an auction. Inside was the letters and postcards of a young woman, circa 1937 or so. I pulled the box down to dust it, and found this little card inside. It reads:

My pretty little miss: I must write to you thus because I haven't yet found out what your name is but I know where you live for I followed you home last night.
Say - if you are married tear this note up and don't tell your husband. If you are single and long for a life partner I am ready to leap without looking so long as I will find you where I land. If you want to meet me carry a newspaper under your arm tomorrow. I'll arrange it. Expectantly.

Ah the romance of it all. No indication in the box whether she met the young man, perhaps at the country club dance where he might have been one of the beaus on her dance card, or just kept it close to her heart for the rest of her life.

Update: Your comments have been very interesting! I will admit, that this could be a great plot device in a novel, in fact, maybe in the novel I am writing now. My principal character is a young woman, 19 years old, in pre-wartime Boston Massachusetts. Her father died eight years before, and she helps support her mother and 12 year old brother. She lives in a brownstone on Beacon Hill and works at the Rexall store on Arlington St. I imagine a story line like this:

She has a secret admirer but knows who it is, it is Jimmy from the Schrafft’s, a shop that sells chocolates and has a soda fountain. Somehow, whenever she visits the shop, a carefully wrapped chocolate with raspberry filling is placed into her coat pocket. But yesterday morning, when she found the card before her mother and brother woke up, thoughts began filling her mind. It couldn’t be Jimmy, she had been friends with him for all of her life, it seemed. Was it someone else she knew? Who could have followed her home? She read the note again. Then Mary heard her mother at the top of the stairs, and she quickly put the note in the pocket of her long blue skirt. She decided not to put the newspaper under arm, but would go to work and show her best friend Irene the note. Mary walked thorough the glistening dawn of a cold winter morning, moving quickly to avoid the automobiles clogging the slushy cobblestone streets. She hastened to look left and right, hoping to spy the man who wrote the card. He would surely be looking for her and the newspaper under the arm. Suddenly, she thought, “Oh no! What if he does decide I am married, because I haven’t got the newspaper!”

Hmm, readers. Thinking like its 1939, a more innocent time, did she make the right decision to wait? Is there a real romantic out there, “expectantly,” who will pine and wait for her to make the signal? Or, will he forget about her, as she didn’t have the newspaper this morning. She doesn’t want to tell her mother, who is very protective of her daughter, and “all she has” since her husband died. It will be very hard for her to detach from her family if she finds love. And readers, I know who the man is (in the story.) He is not an ax murderer, jealous lover, drinker or carouser. His secret is something the FBI will be most interested in, and make any liaison with Mary very dangerous. Does she fall for him?

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I'm asking for help here! I am in charge of music for our 30th high school reunion (actually 30 1/4, we came to the party late,) and since I have an Internet radio station (insert gratituous plug here,) I will play the music that was the soundtrack of our lives.

First pass: there are over 1000 songs in my collection that came out between 1969 and 1978. I picked these years as it covers from freshman year through college graduation. That is over 64 hours of songs. I need only four hours. So, here's the deal.

Tell me what your favorite three (or so) songs were that you remember from high school or college. Help me out here, if you were born in 1978, you are not going to be much help. You went to high school or college between 1969 and 1978, it can't get any easier. I'll post the songs I'll play when its all said and done.

Here's a start: from 1973, three songs that my class thought was most remembered: Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein," Jim Croce, "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," and Paul Simon, "Kodachrome." What was the soundtrack to your high school and college life?

And isn't this fitting. It was 44 years ago today, that it was "the day the music died." You remember the song, now check out that site. Thanks, JJ!
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We all have our heroes, and some are quite different that our own. The Internet is a place to elevate those heroes to sainthood, and here are three examples of that art.

We begin with a larger than life person, Martha Stewart, and the site that speaks outrage at such inhumane treatment of her at her trial. SaveMartha.com is a piece of work, to be sure. One headline, looking like it was ripped from the front page of the Daily News, says: "The rest of your life you'll be known as the guy that tried to take down Martha Stewart. You should have passed on this gig." Rosie O'Donnell to prosecutor Michael Schachter. The site has some moments of hilarity and satire, especially the Flash "interviews." I'm glad I don't have Rosie cheering for me.

Second is the fan sites, of which you can find fans of all kinds. Were you a fan of "Family Affair," the CBS television series in the sixties that starred Brian Keith and Sebastian Cabot? Perhaps it was a search on your boyhood crush Crissy that let you to this site, a Family Affair fan site, "Apartment 27A". But if you really want to know what Crissy is doing now, you have to go to her official site.

Finally, there are sites that deal with the real lives of people, and some of these sites are memorials to friends and family that were heroes in their eyes. Some became famous, if only for a little while. Eva Cassidy was one of those special people, a singer with an awesome voice that goes straight to your heart. Her CD, "Songbird" is one I listen to a lot. And another Krissy, this time a fashion model whose life was cut short by a heart condition at seventeen.

The internet is a wide open space, to be sure. After all, isn't that how you arrived here? And I'm awful glad you aren't here because of a Google search on the half-time incident at the SB this past Sunday.

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32 to 29!

MSNBC's unscientific polls place this game as much more exciting a win than the game two years ago against the Rams, and I agree. Vinatieri's 41-yard Field Goal was nothing short of awesome in the last 4 seconds of the game, his second pull it from behind Super Bowl win.


Ok, you can all watch Survivor now. I'm going to bed!

Update: Tom Brady grabs second MVP and the game was better than the commercials!

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Go Patriots!

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