Sunday Funnies

Fritzi Ritz was the original name (and lead character) of the strip that eventually evolved into Nancy. Creator Ernie Bushmiller had what I would describe as a gently cockeyed sense of humor, which is evident in these Sunday pages from the early 1940s.

The strip above could appear today with only minor adjustments and evoke the same kind of laugh.

Pretty clearly Bushmiller liked to draw pretty girls. It's kind of funny that he ended up enjoying greater success when he started depicting little kids.

This one's a good example of how World War II was evident in all forms of pop culture, even if it wasn't exactly the central theme.

A Quote for Sunday

I'd like to believe this statement by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) is true:

"One can know a man from his laugh, and
if you like a man's laugh before you know
anything of him, you may confidently say
that he is a good man."

Classic Pavement

Pavement were one of the great alternative rock acts of the nineties, and recently reunited for a tour. Here's one of their better known songs, as performed live on the Tonight Show:

Pictures from Pennsic

A couple weeks back I spent a few days at the Pennsic Wars in western Pennsylvania, an annual gathering of folks associated with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Over ten thousand people transformed the Cooper's Lake campsite into a temporary medieval village, complete with castles, knights, merchants, and a whole bunch of classes related to the crafts, history, and lore of the Middle Ages.

I was there as the guest of Dan and Theresa, who are veterans of the annual event. I was able to wander around and get a lot of pictures-- these few just scratch the surface. I believe the guy above was some kind of royal personage, preparing to participate in the opening ceremony.

There were also wandering musicians like the guy above. In addition there were stage plays, concerts, dances, and some pretty nice parties in the evening after the battles earlier in the day (matching armies of a thousand or so apiece against one another).

At one such party there was a troupe of fire eaters, fire jugglers, and fire dancers. The guy above did all of that stuff.

Everybody seemed to get into the spirit of the event, some moreso than others. I think the entertainers were the highlight for me, though the fighters were pretty good too.

And then you'd also just see people in interesting get-ups wandering around the campsite. I'll post more pictures as I get a chance to review all those I took.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Here's the cartoon that introduced the notorious Yosemite Sam to the world. I always felt he was a more fitting adversary for Bugs Bunny than Elmer Fudd (who, let's face it, was kind of a pushover for the "wascally wabbit"). Sam didn't fare any better, but at least it seemed like an even fight:

Saturday's Quote

This comes from the noted Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961), and is worth a few moments' consideration:

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure
of darkness, and the word happy would lose its
meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It
is far better take things as they come along
with patience and equanimity."

Cool Song

Actually two songs, from Blondie's late seventies heyday. These are from an appearance on Top of the Pops in England, where the lip-synching standards were evidently quite low-- but Debby Harry pulls it off with her usual aplomb:

Friday Family Blogging Quiz

Okay, I'm going easy on you this week, providing not just eyes but also nosed and mouth. Wh os this baby? Put your answers in the comments section.

Last week, I asked what Emma was eating, and no one got the right answer (a pretzel stick!). So better luck this time.

Soup Diary 110819

I think I forgot to write about one of the better cups I enjoyed over the past couple of months: the Vegetable Beef with Bow-Tie Pasta at a place called the Lake Effect Diner in Buffalo. Normally I would not order vegetable beef, especially if there's another option. This is primarily due to the fact that until just a few years ago, it seems like I had vegetable beef soup about once a week. That probably isn't literally true, but I'd guess that after chicken noodle, this was the kind of soup I'd eaten the most over the course of a lifetime. But on this occasion, it was all that was available, and the reference to bow-tie pasta made it just different enough to give a shot. It turned out to have a rich and beefy broth, with tender chunks of beef and a nice array of veggies. In fact, the pasta was kind of an unnecessary addition, though I guess it made the whole concoction a bit more hearty. A good soup, and worthy of mention here. I'm glad I stumbled across the photo seen above, reminding me to post some comments.

More Friday Family Blogging

It's pretty well-established that I'm really bad at identifying where old pictures were taken, so maybe Catie or Theresa will remember this shot with Dad? I don't recognize the couch at all, but I think Gramma had a lamp like the one at left.

Friday Family Blogging

Don't worry-- Nik's not in jail, just having some fun at the playground at Ellicott Creek Park.

Friday Philosophy

Today's lines come from the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831):

"Not curiosity, not vanity, not the consideration
of expediency, not duty and conscientiousness,
but an unquenchable, unhappy thirst that
brooks no compromise leads us to truth."

Classic Rock

Here's one of those things that I never expected to see, until I stumbled on it on YouTube: a live performance of the song "Tonight" by the MC5. The song originally appeared on their great album Back in the USA:

Toonerville Thursday

Here's another of the great characters created by Fontaine Fox to populate his little town of Toonerville. I'm guessing the poor guy spent a lot of time ducking.

Happy Birthday Maria!

As is becoming all too common, I'm a day late on this (see previous post), but I can't let the occasion of my niece Maria's birthday pass without sending out my best wishes. I should mention that I have lots of sharper photos than the one seen above, but I'm not sure I have another one that so nicely captures her personality. Maria, I hope you had a great day, with plenty more to come!

A Thought for Thursday

As I seem to grow ever more absent-minded, I'd really like to believe true the words of American man-of-letters Malcolm Cowley (1898-1989):

"They tell you that you'll lose your mind
when you grow older. What they don't tell
you is that you won't miss it very much."

Some Silly Stuff

This must go back to the mod or late seventies, back when Steve Martin was about the biggest thing in comedy. It starts a little slow, but gets better as it goes along, so stick with it. Sure made me laugh:

New Hal Crowther Column

Many years ago, I undertook to read Atlas Shrugged and lasted about fifty or so pages before giving up. The main reason was that I found Ayn Rand's style just too turgid, and her characters vastly unappealing. I can't say that at that time I was turned off by her philosophy, since I don't recall picking up on her message based on the portion I read. But over the years I've encountered her ideas in other contexts and mostly find them simplistically obnoxious. Anyway, it's gratifying to know that I'm not alone in drawing that conclusion, and here's Hal Crowther's latest column pretty much making the same point (and drawing some conclusions that have some bearing on contemporary politics). Check it out.

The Last Book I Read

Before reading this book I actually thought I was pretty savvy about the history of baseball. I knew, for example, that Albert Spaulding was responsible for foisting the story of Abner Doubleday's act of creation on the American public; and that likewise, Alexander Cartwright had a minimal role in the origins of the game as we know it. But John Thorn has taken those two bits of contrived information (and each man continues to receive considerable credit from those who prefer to keep the myths alive) and used them as the framework for constructing his so-called secret history-- but one that has the ring of truth, and is based on copious research. So reading his book revealed any number of nuggets about the early days of the game, including its relationship to predecessors like cricket, rounders and town ball. Among the revelations are the class dimensions of early competition (where working class participants were written out of the narrative by early chroniclers), and the significant role played by gambling in bringing about some order to the emerging professional game after the Civil War. In addition to laying out an alternative to the lingering mythology, Thorn also explores the motives and processes that led to the formulation of that mythology, and uncovers links (not conclusive, but he acknowledges as much) with Gilded Age spiritualism and capitalism (Spaulding, of course, was to sporting goods what the Rockefellers were to oil). Thorn's style is a bit idiosyncratic, but it doesn't take long to get into the rhythm of his narrative; in an odd way it seems to fit the time frame of the tale he tells. Definitely worth a look if you are interested in the history of baseball-- or sports generally-- in the age just before they moved definitively into the forefront of our culture.

Quote of the Day

Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) was one of the notorious "Hollywood Ten," persecuted for holding ideas like the one below, though I'm at a loss to understand why:

"Everybody now seems to be talking about
democracy. I don't understand this. As I think
of it, democracy isn't like a Sunday suit to be
brought out and worn only for parades. It's
the kind of a life a decent man leads, it's
something to live for and to die for."