Category: True Stories

Happy Columbo Day!

henricus_martellus_-_map_of_the_world_-_1489_-_yale_archive

The feat was both amazing and dangerous, especially given the limited technology of the time. The world was much larger than anyone had previously imagined, and relatively little had been recorded by seagoing cartographers. Much of what they compiled was inaccurate, but they were not completely in the dark.

They had the Martellus Map of 1489 [pictured above].

Cristoforo Colombo changed all that, and for that he should be remembered. He had big cojones, as did every sailor who joined him on his voyages into the unknown. I doubt that his financial supporters (including Queen Isabella of Spain) expected him to ever return from the first exploration, but he did, and he made several round-trip voyages after that, relying on seasonal trade winds.

Here’s to one of the greatest explorers in history.

They kicked the crap out of her over a lawn sign.

this-happened-and-they-laughedAnd the animals laughed about it.

 

 

 
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Saturday Matinee – The Reverend Horton Heat, Beverly Watkins & Buckwheat Zydeco,

I don’t listen to food shows on the radio, at least not intentionally, but sometimes I do by accident.

KFIAM640 features “The Fork Report” on Saturdays, featuring Neil Saavedra, and his themesong is pretty cool. Lordy, lordy. Last night I suddenly realized that he’s been playing The Reverend Horton Heat all this time. If you’re offended by Rockabilly cheesecake videos, click on it, turn away and just listen. The song is fun. The video is funner.

Yeah, I found that mildly amusing, but then I’m easily amused. So let’s go visit Beverly Watkins instead.

From the UToobage description:

Beverly Watkins plays a mean blues guitar, and that’s putting it mildly. Over six decades of performing, the 77-year-old has opened for Ray Charles, James Brown, BB King and other legendary musicians. She’s one of the greatest female blues guitarists, and still plays local gigs in Atlanta.

Not convinced? Try this.

Here’s some bad news.

Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. passed away Saturday, 24 September 2016 at the age of 68. The vid features Lenny Kravitz and Ry Cooder. Rock on, Buck [via].

We all move on, despite what we would like to believe. Have a great weekend, folks, and let’s all have fun while we still can.

Living Breathing Hot Links

How The Whale Became

25 September has been designated “National One Hit Wonder Day,” a tribute to the artists and bands that made it into the Top 40 only once. Here’s a list.

Here’s one of my favorite One Hit Wonders. Too retro? Try this one.

Astounding: The real story behind The Sound of Music and The Von Trapp Family.

Interactive Street View map of 1850-2000 San Francisico has some cool photos of historic buildings and streetscapes [via].

The Dancing Straw Hats [via].

Armadillo messes with a dog.

A friend posted this elsewhere:

Found a cool website the other day. Shortwave radio stations from around the world. You can dial in the frequency you want on any of the radios. I found a station called UVB-76 otherwise known as “The Buzzer”. It sends out a buzz tone repeatedly 24/7. Once in a while numbers are spoken in Russian. It’s been broadcasting since 1982 and no one knows why. (frequency 4625 kHz)
http://www.websdr.org/

Ted Hughes’ “How the Whale Became” is a children’s book I never read, but it was made into an opera, and the opera had an official trailer. [Top image from here. More info here.]

BONUS STUFF BELOW THE BREAK Continue reading “Living Breathing Hot Links”

Almost Squeeky Clean Hot Links

McFootwear

Van’s Shoes made them for Squeeky The Clown and others. Here’s a Short history of Clown Shoes.

This would have scared the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks out of me at that age. I’m guessing Squeeky was a friend of the family.

Clown Shoes Beer. Barista Breakfast Brown Ale is now on my bucket list.

“Dude, your car is total clown shoes.”
Example of usage of the slang pejorative “Clown Shoes” via Urban Dictionary.

The Eight Commandments of Clowning.

Joseph “Joey” Grimaldi was possibly the most influential clown you never heard of.

Krinkles The Clown is just a tad bizarre [via].

Puddles Pity Party is awesome.

Then there’s Wavy Gravy. There’s a movie about him, too.

[Top image of McFootwear found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Dancing In The Street

Martha & The Vandellas‘ 1964 hit “Dancing In The Street” has staying power, and was covered by many, including The Mamas & The Papas (1966):

Gah! See how long you can stand it. (At least Mama Cass did the Mash Potato.) Sixteen years later, it was covered by Van Halen (1982):

Holy crap. That was actually worse than the Mamas & Papas’ version. It wasn’t until David Bowie and Mick Jagger got together to do a halfway decent video cover (1985):

You don’t need to watch that full video either – it’s only posted for those who have never seen it and to restore faded memories for the rest of us. All that preening and prancing takes away from the original, but finally there’s an excellent stripped-down studio cut version, vocals only (2016):

Martha Reeves is laughing her JaggerBowie off about now.

Tip ‘o the Tam to Octopus for the heads-up on the strip-down. Have a great weekend folks. See you back here tomorrow for more suffrage.

On the border.

U.S. Mexico Border Fence at Morelia St.2

View of Calexico from Mexicali on the US/Mexico border.

Found via Google Maps.

James Dean’s Last Stop

Maggie at James Dean's Last Stop Ofer Wolbeger

James Dean’s Last Stop in Lost Hills, California, was where he and his mechanic stopped to gas up his Porsche 550 Spyder and get something to eat before heading off to Salinas for a road race. Most of you know the rest of the story.

Why did I post this? The Missus and Bunkarina went on a roadtrip to see Bunkessa, stopped in Lost Hills, so I axed Mr. Google for a map. The James Dean mural came up and it led me to photographer Ofer Wolberger‘s quirky collection entitled “Life With Maggie.” [More about Wolberger here.]

Hot Links with Extra Sour Cream

Humpty Doo Big_Boxing_Croc

The US Naval Institute released the results of their informal poll “Who Was The Greatest Woman In Military History?”
The results are both surprising and unsurprising. I voted for Boadicea. She gave the military a spine to fight the Romans.

We posted a photo of Stanley The Great in April 2014 without really knowing who he was. Check out the update.

Bravo Land is now on my bucket list, if only to re-install erased history removed by evil people on The Slab o’ Time:

Inside the chain of stores, we immediately spotted the Bravo Land Slab o’ Time, an impressively massive tree cross-section propped against a wall. It’s from a Giant Sequoia blasted down in the 1950s, over 2,000 years old. It features a scattering of little metal labels nailed to it. A plaque explained: “The tags on the log denote growth rings that grew in the same year as various significant world events.”

“214 BC – Great Wall of China”…”197 BC – Roman Empire Begins.” There’s a 1,284 year gap, though, and the sign noted the “conspicuous absence of tagged growth rings from the 5th to the 15th centuries…. That period of time produced few significant events in world history.”

We’re not totally buying that. Closer inspection revealed missing tags radiating out from the slab center, two small holes indicating where each notable achievement used to be. We asked about it, and were told that “some political people” had come in and pointed out which milestone labels should be removed (you know, to fix world history).

We’ve seen timelines ravaged by tourism slab deniers before — but always on public land, at national and state parks. Complainers raise a stink, form a committee, and voila, adjusted! Bravo Land is a private enterprise. But once a slab is called out for being on the wrong side of history, there’s little choice but to get out the pliers and pry off the “Magna Carta,” and Columbus and Ponce de Leon “discovers” tags (we’re just guessing about the discards, since they’re gone).

Petey was a seal, but his real name was Shag. TRUE.

Stupid joke from a long time ago:

Okay, so a penguin is driving through the Mojave to Las Vegas when his A/C breaks down. He pulls into a repair garage in Pahrump and tells the mechanic that he needs air conditioning to survive the heat. Mechanic says, “There’s an ice cream shop a block away, cool down and be back in an hour.”

The penguin hits the ice cream shop, hangs out in the freezer eating ice cream, but since he only has flippers to hold the cones he makes a mess. An hour later he pays for the ice cream, cleans up the mess and returns to the mechanic and asks, “So what did you find?”

Mechanic says, “Looks like you blew a seal.”

Penguin wipes his beak and says, “Nah. It’s just ice cream.”

Trouble at Taminmin Humpty Doo.

Yeah, I said Humpty Doo.

[Top image is a tourist attraction at Humpty Doo and it cost $137,000 in 1983 bucks.]

Daniil Sihastrul’s Contribution To The World

Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 3Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 1Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 2

From Wiki:

Daniil Sihastrul (Romanian for “Daniel the Hesychast“) was a renowned Romanian Orthodox spiritual guide, advisor of Stephen the Great, and hegumen of Voroneț Monastery. Canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1992.
[…]
Daniil Sihastrul ignited a hermit movement in northern Moldova, having many novices in the woods surrounding Voroneț, as well as at the hermitages and monasteries in its surroundings. He encouraged Stephen the Great to fight for the defense of Christendom and to build holy places.

He has been considered a saint ever since his life time, being credited with healing the sick, exorcising demons, and removing suffering.

On first glance, it appears that St. Daniil was an eccentric loner who spent his life exorcising his mind from all thought in pursuit of purity of spirit for personal enlightenment, as that was apparently the aim of the Hesychasts. On the other hand, he was not a hermit full time, and used his stone temple as a place of refuge and contemplation. Given that he advised military strategist Stephen The Great, Daniil was well respected at the time (late 1400s AD).

Now what did Stephen The Great do? He stopped the Ottoman Empire warlords from overrunning Moldova, killing Christians and others indiscriminately, and from instituting islam and shari’ia law.

St. Stephen defeated Mehmet at a famous and decisive battle in a place called Vaslui (not far south of Iaṣi in the province of Moldova). Had he not done so, little would have stood between Mehmet and the Ukraine—and the obliteration of the rest of the Orthodox world. Mehmet met his match shortly after having sacked Constantinople. With the rest of the Balkan peninsula falling to Islam’s sword, Mehmet must have seemed unstoppable to Christians everywhere, yet none of the Western powers nor the Western Church would lift a finger against the Ottomans. Thus, Stephen stood more or less alone in defense of Christianity and his homeland [via].

Interesting times, indeed.

Oh, and here’s a photo of Deniis hawking his CDs. I’m not an historian, but it amazes me what one may find just by searching for the origin of an image.

[Images found here and via here.]