Drive-By Update

Been working a lot for money, without internet, which has cut into my blogging.

Am doing some extra reading to keep the mind working for the defence, which is now less than 40 days away (see ticker). Wrote a rough draft of my defence lecture, but will do a lot of editing to it, as well as practice, over the next month. I am way behind on my question prep - please make any suggestions that come to mind.

Things are ok, the tot is fine. Been watching a lot of Due South on my off-time. Submitted my final annual progress report, but renewed my student ID. Finished my marking gig. Job interview went very well. Weather is very nice.

Exciting, huh?

Adventures with Tot

Sprout just saw some Spongebob for the first time (I have resisted, since it is so damn hyper-active, I didn't think it was a good choice for very little kids). He hid behind the bed, and just slowly shook his head at it, and was very pleased when I stopped the disk. Two years old, and already picky.

I just gave him his allowance - two one dollar coins, as every Wednesday. He is currently running around the house with it in his Hallowe'en bucket, and in a bit it will be time to "feed the piggy."

He's a constant source of amusement, that kid. :)

This Week's Life Lesson

Never, ever work at the same company as Jay Leno.

Or, if you do, make sure you have lots of knife-slice-sized bandages for your back.



(While I cannot stand that sycophantic herpes outbreak on the keyboards on Dave's show, I don't have much against Dave himself - and on this one, I have to admit, he's funny.)

(Warning: May be offensive to some.)

Feeling Blue?

OMG: KIDS IN THE HALL REUNION

... January 2010... must get TV for that month.

I Watch Stuff article.

Thought for Today

You can learn a lot about how kids think about problems by reading the comments on YouTube videos, such as this episode of Arthur, where Buster and Arthur get in trouble over a toy stolen from a drugstore.

Very useful source of info for parents-in-training, I think.

R.I.P. Mrs Slocombe

Mollie Sugden dies at 86
British comic actress starred in 'Served'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

British comic actress Mollie Sugden, who played the formidable saleswoman Mrs. Slocombe in the BBC's long running comedy series "Are You Being Served?", died July 1 in London. She was 86.

Sugden built a career playing strong-willed, overbearing women -- she played a snobbish mother in "The Liver Birds," a comedy about two women sharing an apartment in Liverpool in the 1970s -- but it was her role as Betty Slocombe that made her a household name.

As the bossy saleswoman who dominated the underwear section at the Grace Brothers department store, Sugden delivered double entendres in a perfectly outraged voice, shaking her tightly curled, dyed hair.

The show ran from 1973 to 1985 and at its height attracted audiences of over 20 million.

Sugden was born in Keighley, in northern England, and trained at London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She met her husband William Moore in 1956 while they were both acting in theater. They married two years later and their twin sons were born six years after that.

Moore died nine years ago. She is survived by two sons.

You Know What Blows My Mind?

Gordon isn't Gordon. He's really Roscoe.

WTF?

Crap

Watched my first (and hopefully last) epsiode of Kenny vs Spenny tonight.

I can't believe public money goes to that crud, but yet they withhold my child allowance.

What a snowjobbed country we do live in!

Kipper is Perhaps too Awesome

The Song Stuck in my Head

caveat emptor

Well, the good news is that I have been asked by a mag in the UK to write an article expanding on some things that I wrote about in that Jack Benny chapter I published - they want more on Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.

The bad news is that, though I got them for dirt cheap and shouldn't complain, the 3rd season of Seinfeld I bought has a disk of season 5 in it, leaving out some 3rd season episodes I was keen to see. Now I am stuck trying to talk Blockbuster into helping me out on this somehow. Or maybe I'll take the easy route and just rent the 3rd season from them and play the old switcheroo...

Sigh.

Thank You Kindly

I miss Due South. I used to love it when I was in high school; watched it every week (especially before the later-seasons' bizarre sub-plots started). I wonder to what extent, in the way that the show flattered us Canadians, images of Canadian-ness and American-ness were constructed for my generation by things like this?

A Dudley Doright who actually does do right (and who is pretty damned hot to boot), and his foul American sidekick. (What a fantasy, eh? Canada, the beaver who is anally raped by the eagle three ways from Sunday, gets to lead the Yank around...) I wonder to what extent this is the way Canada sees itself - old fashioned, corny, and wholesome, yet polite and friendly. Healthy, too.

Now, I wonder to what extent that reflects reality.

And I also wonder what it means that the show was seemingly set in a poor view of Chicago, which was reportedly 10 times worse than any place in Canada... but was filmed in Canada. The magic of the lens, I suppose.

And I laugh at the way that, back when I was watching this show, I never once suspected I'd have cause to think of what it means to be "Canadian" or "American". I guess it goes to show one never knows.

In Need of a New Look?

Have been watching a lot of Curb Your Enthusiasm these days (hey - it's research!) and it is beginning to effect my brain. In the past week, I have been more neurotic and obnoxious than I was before, if you can imagine such a horror.

But it has also had some more concrete damage. Today while waiting for the bus I realized, with my posture, gestures, schlumpy overcoat, button-shirt, etc., I dressed, acted and walked more like Richard Lewis than any woman ever wanted to. It almost made me run home and vomit in shame for my lost female magnetism (which I flatter myself that I did have... once... maybe).

On a side note, I am but a mere 5 posts or so away from the Big One-Oh-Oh-Oh (that's a thousand, in case I mistook my Ohs), and I am playing with ideas of how to revamp this old blog for the big day. Now that this thing has gone from passing fancy to full-blown hobby, I guess I should decide what direction I should take it in. Expect some meta-blogging, some anthologizing, some face-lifting and some Mission Statement creation here on W.T.H.I.A.B? sometime soon.

And if you have any suggestions for the big celebrations, you may leave in my suggestion box... errr... by which I mean the comments field.

Will They or Won’t They… Or Did They?

The Jack Benny draft is written and sent off, but the legacy of all that Old Time Radio Broadcast learning has left its mark. I have found a long-lasting love of old radio comedies, and even westerns. (That last one surprised me more than you can guess… but I can never resist Jimmy Stewart, whose stutter is even cuter over radio waves, if you can believe it.)

My Saturday and Sunday nights this weekend were spent in utter radio-fan bliss. I was nestled down with my cat, under a breezy open window, tied to a pair of radio headphones. Now, I don’t appreciate much about Hamilton, and I am not normally a fan of that city’s talk radio station, CHML – at least in terms of its reactionary daytime programming. However, over night, when they play old radio shows from the 40s and 50s, I am one of their biggest fans.



Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Nero Wolfe (starring the awesome Sydney Greenstreet), Dragnet, The Cisco Kid, Life of Riley, The Six Shooter (which I could listen to for days and days), The Lone Ranger, Fred Allen (and his Alley), The Aldrich Family, numerous playhouse radio dramas and farces (“Arsenic & Old Lace” and “Calling Northside 777” radio-adaptations, “The Girl in the Galaxy” featuring Buddy Rogers, et cetera), Fibber McGee & Molly, Andy Hardy, Gun Smoke… All these and more came to me over my little radio in the low lamp light. I was one with all those kids when these shows were first run, who sat in front of the family radio and held their breath until Cisco and Pancho saved the day, and Friday solved the crime.

I was not one of them, however, by my indecision and discomfort when the station played an episode of Amos and Andy, though, so I guess times have changed, even for old throwbacks like me.

But, by far, the greatest triumph of the weekend was my new obsession, Our Miss Brooks, which was a radio show from 1948 to 1952, when it transferred to TV for another four years. Miss Connie Brooks was a smart and snappy high school English teacher and unwilling spinster, and the show revolved around her dealings with her students, her co-workers, her landlady Mrs. Davis, and, especially, the object of her unrequited affection, Mr. Boynton, the school biology teacher, who is sadly much more interested in his frogs and mice than in the birds and the bees.




Surprisingly, this show never falls into misogynistic stereotypes of female marriage designs. It is true that Miss Brooks wants a loving husband, specifically Mr. Boynton, but the audience never really faults her for this. (Her goals are no more contemptible than all those lonely guys in 80s movies who seek true love and acceptance.) Connie Brooks, as played by the sharp, intense and talented actress Eve Arden, is strong, funny, quick, loveable, and, in short, really quite wonderful.

My only problem these days is the question as to where to find enough of this program, as it is not as available for free downloads as is the Jack Benny Show.


Oh, and my other problem was curiosity. When we are in the middle of a first-run show we are left to wonder if Mulder and Scully ever get around to consummating. But when the show ended fifty years ago, I have been uncomfortably aware of the fact that the answer to “will they, won’t they?” for Mr. Boynton and Connie is only a few small mouse clicks away. I won’t tell you how it ends up, but I got to admit that the age of the show has in no way reduced my anticipation of the next episode I can get my mitts on, and I am currently saving my pennies for the 5 CD set for sale on OTRCAT standing between me and complete Miss. Brooks satisfaction.

Anyway, I was able to find you a little something to whet your appetite. Enjoy!

(Be warned that this contains no ads, but does have the re-run station promos and an introduction attached. It has two episodes of Our Miss Brooks, and runs 59 minutes.)

powered by ODEO

You Have the Right to Remain Lazy

Well, April is pretty much over, folks, and I still don’t have the Benny piece finished. I’ve been working on it, but with the cold this week and my brand-new job hunt, it hasn’t fared too well, priority-wise. I will have to finish it Sunday, or at least close to, as May is the official start of my comp study. It’s just a good thing that I have already read six of those books, and I can short-shrift the first couple… But if I take any longer on Benny, my editor will send out a search party (meaning goons with instructions to go for the knees).

But I won’t say that the cold and the one-day-old job hunt have been the only culprits. A recent resurgence in my once-raging Law and Order addiction hasn’t helped, as John and I have spent the better part of the last three days rooted to the sofa just following the stories of the police who investigate the crimes and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders…

You are probably thinking that M*A*S*H and The Milton Berle Show seem more my speed than crime shows, when considering my personality and tastes, but keep in mind my temporary affair with criminology way back when, and you can see the allure.

But, honestly, how am I expected to resist this show?! I swear that I am not generally a TV fan (as anyone who has ever discussed movies and radio serials from the thirties with me can corroborate), and we haven’t had cable for over two years, but if all television was like this stuff, I’d turn in my badge and gun as a cinemasnob, guaranteed. Intelligent scripts, good acting, gripping plots…

Truly, for me, the real L&O (you can keep the jazzy spin-offs, thanks) is the TV equivalent to crack or charge cards, and with our one season on DVD, and over 18 six-hour bootlegged VHS tapes from the long-forgotten era when A&E was actually watchable (before it became a pseudo-respectable, upper-class version of Fox), I may never be free.

My only hope is that someone eventually hires me, and gets me off the sofa.

Other than that, there is not much to report, but I will impart some wisdom for the season. If you fall in love, make sure it is with someone who doesn’t mind doing your taxes. Hearts and roses are nice and all, but fiscal responsibility and resourcefulness last forever. I can do my own taxes. Sometimes I even like to do them. However, John is never so loveable as when he is adding and deducting, and letting me off my federally-mandated hook so I can scurry to finish a project (and immerse myself deeply in Detectives Logan and Greevey’s latest search warrant debacle).

Do I have the luck, or what?

Happy 39th (Again), Jack!

Jack Benny
(February 14, 1894- December 26, 1974)

“Gags die, humor doesn't”