Saturday Matinee – Nippoless Nippleby, Dan Hicks, Leon Redbone, 80s Ragtime


Nice absurd animation from the 1980s.


Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks were mildly successful in the 70s with their 1930s hot club jazz/bluegrass style. “Crazy ‘Cause He Is” was my favorite Hicks ditty. (NSFK: flip off in the vid image, mild language warning. Fun song otherwise.)

Leon Redbone’s version of  “Polly Wolly Doodle.” According to Wiki, there’s no secret meaning to the song, but here’s a verse I’d never heard:

“Behind the barn, down on my knees,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day;
I thought I heard a chicken sneeze,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.
Oh he sneezed so hard with the whooping cough,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day;
He sneezed his head and his tail right off,
Sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.”

I suspect that the song predates The War Between The States even though the popular tune is played in ragtime. So let’s play some ragtime!

Yep. 1980s hits played in ragtime. There’s something wrong with piano players who can pull off stuff like this (actually, I think there’s something wrong with piano players in general). Must be a subconscious and deep-rooted jealousy thing just because I can’t do what they do.

And with that, we’re done. Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more fun.

The .Gif Friday Post No.170 – Plasma Bunny, Grand Theft Auto Cat, Cleese Spinner

[Found herehere and here.]

The First Jimmy Buffett Fan

[Found here.]

Miss Mary Eileen, My Second Favorite Babysitter

This is a true story.

Several times in my childhood my parents abandoned me, but they always left me with a baby sitter, a complete stranger who they paid, just to keep her honest. My favorite babysitter was Veronica. She wore velour sweaters and had a faint little mustache. I had a kindergarten-age crush on her because she was nice.

My second favorite babysitter was Miss Mary Eileen. Now SHE was a freakin’ hoot.

That’s Miss Mary Eileen on the left with her cousin Miss Bevel.

They both lived in a house that was walking distance from mine.

Miss Mary was my favorite. She was a lot of fun. Let us climb on the furniture and stuff. She liked rock n’ roll, too, and brought over 45s of songs my parents wouldn’t allow me to listen to.

Later on, Miss Eileen married a handyman named “Lefty.”  I don’t recall his real name, and they moved into a townhouse up the hill.

Mary and her husband opened up a successful restaurant/bar that was very popular, especially with the left-leaning bohemian crowd.

She and her husband raised four sons (youngest 10, eldest 20 in this pic from 1998).

Here’s her youngest son Bobby (nicknamed “Wilt the Tilt” by his classmates) in his senior year in High School, in front of his grandfather’s house.

Eventually Mary and her husband retired to this comfy little cottage in the same neighborhood she grew up in, and they lived happily ever after.

THE END.

[Images from here, here, here, here, here and here.]

Check Out This Hooker

Yeah, that post title is misleading, but stuff like that gets hits.

I don’t know why they didn’t replace the hardware instead of pulling a “I-Fixed-It” privacy hook, but it’s a nice graffito in any case. Arrrrgh!

[Found here.]

No, It’s Not An Animation

[Found here.]

Update: My fault. I missed linking this to the source where I found it, so if anyone finds the source, leave it in the comments and I’ll update the broken link. –Bunk

45 RPM Hot Links

[Click the image to see the awesome coolness of Capitol Records.]

Inflatable cow heads.

Cooking for A**holes. (Is a language warning really needed?)

A Google search for “Church of the Toad of Light” brings up this article: Milking the Toad.

NatGeo Infinite Photo is infinite.

Frog in Space.

Big ‘ol honkin’ animals in the city.

Very cool .gif artistry here.

Cold case cryptology: The FBI is asking for public help with decoding a message found in the pocket of a murder victim. It doesn’t appear to be gibberish as at least one series of characters are repeated. I suspect  it’s some kind of mnemonic. More here.

Saturday Matinee – Theft FAIL, Clarence Carter, Small Faces, The Turtles, Sam & Dave

Heh. If you’re going to steal a truck, better know how to operate a clutch. [Found here]

Clarence Carter‘s “Slip Away” was one of the prettiest R&B tunes of the 60s. Here he is in 2010 with an excellent live version.

Small Faces‘ “Hey Girl” from 1966 is fun in a trolley.

The Turtles, featuring Flo & Eddie, with “The Story of Rock and Roll.” About the only redeeming quality of this sappy song (besides the intro) is a nice move at about 01:45.

There should be no introduction needed for these guys. (Watch the dancer on the left… she’s doing a modified boogaloo.)

With that, I’m out. Have a great weekend folks – be back here tomorrow for more fun.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 169 – Baby Elephant Pool, Gerbil Bath, HypnoToad

[Found here, here and here.]

The FBI asks for help. [UPDATED – SOLVED?]

[26 JULY 2012 UPDATE – CODE BROKEN! SEE BELOW]

[29 JULY2012 UPDATE – LINKS TO THE ORIGINAL SPANISH IN COMMENTS.]

There was a murder in the summer of 1999, and it’s remained unsolved. The FBI recently released the cryptic notes found in the victim’s pocket, and asks for help to decipher them.

www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/march/cryptanalysis_032911

On June 30, 1999, sheriff’s officers in St. Louis, Missouri discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick. He had been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in the victim’s pants pockets.

Despite extensive work by our Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick’s murderer has yet to face justice.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

1. It’s not a sophisticated code.

2. There are no mysterious symbols, excepting what appear to be typos.

3. It’s a mnemonic code, so character/word frequency counts won’t work well.

4. The scribbled letter “n” stands for “and.”

5. Some of the characters that appear as the letter “R” are actually the letter “Q.”

6. I suspect that the character groups “WLD,” “SE” and “CBE” are the initials or references to people’s names.

7. The character group “on” means the same as the word, followed by a date.

8. “71” likely refers to July 1 1999; “74” refers to July 4; “75” refers to July 5.

9. Parentheses are parentheses. The “+” means “plus” as it’s clearly different from the capital “T” in the cryptogram.

10. The last line indicates Day-Week-Month-Year. MIL suggests the word “military.”

Have at it.

____________________________

UPDATE I: Apparently the FBI has received so many responses and tips that it’s set up a separate website for them:

http://forms.fbi.gov/code

____________________________

UPDATE II: José Galofré Manero. left a comment here with a link  to a site where he’s referred to as “Joseph from Spain.” (Gran obra, mi amigo.)

http://www.themorgandoctrine.com/2012/04/joseph-from-spain-nails-last-detail-in.html

That links to this:

http://www.themorgandoctrine.com/2011/11/fbis-best-brightest-blow-one-for-gipper.html?showComment=1335657942567#c5962089210631468045

That links to this:

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2012-06-14/news/ricky-mccormick-code-mysterious-death-st-louis/

And also leads you to Jose’s multi-part analysis.  Here’s Part 1 of several:

http://prophecyexperimentalzone.blogspot.com/2011/12/and-who-killed-mccormick-part-one.html

His conclusions are astounding. I suggested to Jose that he write it up in his native Spanish for clarity.

Jose contends that Ricky McCormick was NOT murdered, but someone else was, and to solve THAT homicide a briefcase/satchel/package must be unearthed in the outskirts of St. Louis MO. Based upon his decryption, Jose has a good idea where it might be found. So far the FBI doesn’t seem interested, but I think that’s about to change.

____________________________

UPDATE III: José posted links to his original analysis in his native Spanish below. More to come.

Continue reading “The FBI asks for help. [UPDATED – SOLVED?]”