The best show, on any media, is probably This American Life. Here in Wichita, it’s carried by NPR on Saturdays. Each week’s theme has a few true short stories that are incredibly interesting. This is difficult for me to convey. Describing something as “interesting” is like describing the color “red” to a blind person. The show’s website even admits it’s difficult to describe the show’s success. It’s funny. It’s emotional. It’s many hidden bits of information that no one else really knew much about. Last week’s episode is a great example.
Listen to it here. But definitely listen to act one. You’ll hang on every word.
Act One. Froggy Goes A-Courtin’. The story of a series of misunderstandings with very dire consequences. Shaheen was stopped by the police, who looked at what was in his car and before Shaheen knew it, he’d come to the attention of some of the highest ranking officials in the Defense Department. Gabrielle Galanek talked to Shaheen and his girlfriend Molly about what happened.
Shaheen went from being a bored artist in Santa Fe to a threat on Donald Rumsfeld’s desk.
I found the Prelinger Archives online, allowing one to few several thousand movies, advertisements, after-school specials, and other educational films made between between 1927 and 1987. It’s very humorous to watch old films, especially from the 40s and 50s, teaching duck and cover, how to properly date, and coaches teaching kids about the birds and the bees.
One information film titled, “Perversion for Profit” links pornography with communism as well as justifies homophobia.
“This moral decay weakens our resistance to the onslaught of the communist masters of deceit.”
I enjoy reviewing old stigmas from decades past, mostly for the humor that nostalgic narrowmindedness can bring. Of course, it leaves me wondering what some of these people would think about the internet, since everyone knows the internet is for porn.
Wichita is still stuck somewhere in the era of the early 50s, what with a city-wide ban on new establishments of adult stores and city leaders still being convinced that adding fluoride to drinking water must be some communist theory to spread cancer.
It’s got three leaves, so I’ve heard, but I’ve never noticed it prior to the half-dozen times I ran into it last year as well as the three times this season. But on Friday afternoon I saw a three-leaved vine so large it had covered the side of a building downtown. Then I noticed that some of the vines were as thick as tree limbs, and many of the leaves had berries. It couldn’t be poison ivy, not downtown, not growing this vast and large, and not with berries.
I was wrong. This is the worst encounter with poison ivy that I can ever recall. My arms and legs are covered, but the worst of it is on my face causing a large, uncomfortable puffiness around my eyes, cheeks and forehead.
At least I’ve got several days to recover before work.
I pre-ordered My Tank is Fight! from Amazon today. Anyone a fan of SomethingAwful.com should be ordering this book as well, and eagerly looking forward to its arrival.
From Amazon:
My Tank is Fight! is a humorous look at more than 20 unusual or insane inventions of the Second World War. Each chapter features a detailed examination of the real history and technology behind each invention. All 19 chapters are linked by a fictional narrative that explores what might have happened had the inventions been put to use during the War. The book is also lavishly illustrated, with 18 full-color illustrations and more than two dozen detailed black and white illustrations. My Tank is Fight! is not a dry analysis of the forgotten weapons of war, it brings those weapons to life.
A SomethingAwful.com Book
From the Back Cover
Soldiers that fly! Tanks that fly! Cruisers that . . . sink!
Oh, the great weather! Highs in the upper 70s has been an uplifting improvement.
My first class in graduate school has been rough. Each week a 5 page essay is due, usually comparing some great historical leader to some modern business. Queen Elizabeth to General Electric, Ghandi to BFI, etc. On top of that, two other smaller essays are due each week for class discussion. These aren’t as in depth (don’t need references) but still time consuming. A 12 page paper, a “scholarly review”, of one of the text books is due in 3 weeks on top of all this. So, yeah, rough.
Class has been really burning me out, giving me a lot of stress. So I didn’t know how to respond when I was invited to be the fourth person in a foursome of golf with some guys from work. The tee-time was 7:50am, Sunday morning. Sunday is my first day off of my 3-day weekends (12-hour work days, 4 days a week), and I wasn’t sure I wanted to wake up early on my first day off of the week. I also wasn’t confident that I was caught up enough in my classwork to be golfing on my day off instead of doing homework. I caved in, knowing I was willing to risk homework for much-needed relaxation.
It was well worth it. I got my all-time lowest score on 18-holes today, a 136! This may seem terrible, and it is, but I felt I did really well - much better than my previous norm of 160s. It was mostly putting that messed me up this time, along with the many water hazards the course offers. When I got home, I felt much more relaxed and willing to concentrate on my assignments for class.
