The other day we mentioned our laundry room is getting a make-over (below "One
Thing Leads To Another").
"A total gut job," as Christina Haack would say on
Flip-or-Flop.
As the nation is learning, it's best to tackle infrastructure
first. So, our plumber
replaced the water and drain lines - out went the old utility tub and in
it's place sits a new hard maple cabinet that we built to hold the new
utility sink ... we patched the
wall
(right) and connected our new laundry appliances.
Then we went to work building some new upper cabinets which got hung over
the weekend. Louise finished the doors which were hung on Tuesday.
Don't the simple, round knobs look swell? (Mike just
loves the photo Louise captured!) Meanwhile, Mike is now building the remaining 3 cabinets and L-shaped counter-top. Ripley's a bit confused ...
he thought for sure the project was coming to a conclusion. Sorry,
kitty, you're getting a new linoleum floor too.
posted originally 07.14.21, updated 08.09.21 & again 08.11.21
 News Story
Confounds Bible Thumpers
"Michigan's Lake Huron sinkhole is a window into how Earth's earliest forms of life diversified". The
headline caught my eye ... two aspects to a news story that I spotted online today appealed to my brain: 1)
a sink hole in Lake Huron (just a few hundred feet North of Middle Island,
which is just East of Alpena, Michigan) and 2) the quote:
"cyanobacteria evolved more than 2.4 billion years ago" ... I know reference to life beginning on planet Earth more than 6,000 years ago just drives the radical right-wing Bible thumpers just absolutely MAD.
As a kid I grew up on the shore of Lake Huron, about 45 minutes South
of the red balloon on the map. CNN picked up the story [link]
published in the Nature Geoscience journal.
posted 08.03.21 |
|
Happy 97th, Mom!
 Celebrating
(last week) what would have been Mom's 97th birthday ...
years back I posted a cute little movie clip on YouTube of Mom recalling one of her fav childhood tunes:
Mares Eat Oats - but the account changed and I seem to have misplaced the file. While I continue to search for it on some back-up discs, here's another fun little tune Mom liked to repeat..."Show Me The Way To Go Home" captured 11.08.12.
Show me the way to go
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed
I had a little drink
About an hour ago
And it's gone straight
To my head
Where ever I may roam
On land or sea or form
You can always hear me
Singing a song: Show me the way to your home!
posted 07.28.21 |
|
This Is Only A Test ...
 ...
a test of a new hinge solution for the new cabinets Louise & Mike are
building for their laundry room (continuation of the article below "One
Thing Leads To Another"). With sawdust flying in the workshop,
Louise is wisely finishing the maple doors in the dining room as Mike tries
to figure out how to install the "Euro-style" concealed soft-closure
cabinet hinges shown in the photo inset. What began as a short-stack
of maple 1x3" boards and some maple veneer plywood is now being
transformed into new fully functioning cabinets. At least that's the
plan. These first two doors will go on the new utility sink cabinet
next to a gleaming pair of American-assembled GE washer/dryer
appliances. The new "old-timey" style linoleum tiles are due to arrive
any day ... and with the colorful tiles in hand, Louise will pick out some
paint that will not be white. Shocking news, I know. Stay tuned.
(Mike has 5 more cabinets to build - this may take a little while.)
posted 07.18.21 |
 Wooded
property & clogged gutters
It seems that most folks who live near a bunch of trees generally battle
with leaves, gutters, and ice-dams. Keeping gutters clean along the
front side of house is never a problem - it's a single story. But out back
we're talking "two-stories" as our property slopes rapidly toward the pond
at the Northwest corner of our property. Mike is not a guy who does
well on ladders.
So, after studying the array of gutter systems available today we've opted
for a "non-branded" system featuring a perforated aluminum screen built into
our new gutters. So far, so good ... installed late fall last year
after most leaves had already fallen. That mean this autumn will be
it's first big test.
I'd like to find one of those sewer cleaner guys with a camera on a "snake"
to inspect the sealed gutters to see if any debris is accumulating (inside
the gutter). Last summer, Mike replaced the buried gutter drains that
divert rain water away from our foundation.
project completed 11.12.21
|
|
time that has gone so fast
 In 2007 Paul McCartney (of Beetles fame for those under age 50) released a tune,
Ever
Present Past, that I've always liked - nice tempo ... creative & catchy. But this morning I was pondering the
lyrics - especially the part about "it went by, in a flash":
I've got too much on my plate
Don't have no time to be a decent lover
I hope it isn't too late
Searching for the time that has gone so fast
The time that I thought would last
My ever present past
I've got too much on my mind
I think of everything to be discovered
I hope there's something to find
Searching for the time that has gone so fast
The time that I thought would last
My ever present past
The things I think I did
I did, I did, I did
The things I think I did
When I was a kid
I couldn't understand a word that they were saying
But, still, I hung around and took it all in
I wouldn't join in with the games that they were playing
It went by, it went by, in a flash
It flew by, it flew by, in a flash
There's far too much on my plate
Don't have no time to be a decent lover
I hope it's never too late
Searching for the time that has gone so fast
The time that I thought would last
My ever present past
The things I think I did
I did, I did, I did
The things I think I did
When I was a kid
When I was a ...
The things I think I did
I did, I did, I did
The things I think I did
When I was a kid
When I was a kid
link
posted 07.11.21
|
 One Thing Leads To Another ...
Our washing machine died, and as it often happens, the solution couldn't
be a simple repair call to a repair shoppe. The unit was nearing the
end of it's projected useful life - so why toss good money - yada, yada.
Nope. Replacing the appliance simply became the launching point for a
total laundry room makeover: new utility sink to replace the 60's era
DuraTub is about to be installed in
a new cabinet that is being crafted in the freshly painted, reorganized,
casterized workshop*. A companion gas dryer with fresh new venting &
gas lines will be coming along too. 'tis an opportunity too, Mike
surmised, to justify replacing the pedestrian 1985 Black-n-Decker
circular saw with a new DeWalt. "Need crisp, clean cuts," Mike says
with a straight face. "Minimal tear-out is the goal." The B&D
saw's been a workhorse - a pretty decent saw, Mike says as he visualizes
thirty-plus years of household projects - but not a tool for fine cabinetry.
That's the goal: to craft the sorta' laundry room space she's always wanted.
"Three decades in the making," Mike says, speaking of dreams. It'll be
a furious weekend with saw dust flying ... already fetched some lumber the
other day, new LED ceiling lights too ... even ordered new/old style
linoleum tile floor to give the space a fresh, springy vibe. The Shed
project mentioned below continues to limp along: roof freshly shingled,
garage door arrived and hopefully will get installed in the coming week,
along with electric service. (Photo gallery continues to be updated.)
posted 07.10.21
* casterized workshop = moveable shelves, tools. Note to self:
might be nice if one were to capture photographically what we're talking
about here just to illustrate. |
|
It's happening ... and you,
too, can watch our progress.
We're building a shed. The picture above was captured on Day One of
framing ... today "up on the roof"
we have some tar-paper on top of the sheathing they put up yesterday before
the rain began falling. The
garage/shed project
was only an idea ... a concept, for years ... but it's finally a reality.
The shed will be our handy storage structure for lawn & snow removal equipment.
We had planned to build it in 2020 then the pandemic happened. And
now we have the Gator utility vehicle which also needs shelter.
So we're thrilled: after getting vaccinated in March/April
our situation & outlook, as many folks have discovered, has improved
dramatically. We found a quality
builder: Tri-City Construction,
based in Flint the past 38-years, and even with labor & material shortages
we're feeling fortunate to have some good guys who do good work. The
cement was poured last week and framing has begun - it could be finished in
a few days if the weatherman would cooperate. The
green/blue tint on inside of OSB means nothing ... and Mike's still thinking
he'll paint the interior before moving stuff inside. The slot (8" x
8') on that back wall is for a thin transom window facing South to let some
light into the shed.
updated: 02.26.24 ... photo-album removed |
|
With much of the country facing drought this summer, including Northern
Michigan, we're fortunate it's wet & green here in Genesee County.
The soggy NOAA 7-day outlook for our
community:
|
|
There's Always A Chance We Can
Learn Something ...
 ...
learn something new. In this case: how to operate a simple log
splitter. Our neighbor, Hank, was kind to offer the use of his
Huskee Log Splitter. Not the fastest log splitting device known
to man but simple to operate, and powerful. We had to drop two good
sized oak trees in preparation for building our shed and as reported below
one of the trees got "slabbed" by our portable sawmill guy, but there was
plenty of oak that got cut into fireplace length. Rather than
splitting it by hand it was sure handy to have this mechanical assist to
tackle the remainder of the log pile. I'll check moisture content
later this fall - by winter it should be dry enough to burn.
Louise even captured a short action-packed video [link].
posted 06.02.21
|
 Schwinn Monogram Saddle
...
... instantly recognized. Mike's brother John sent the big guy an
early bday gift: a vintage 1962 Schwinn Racer bicycle that Mike had when he
was just 9-yrs old. Memories that took root nearly 59-years ago,
deeply imbedded - it was, after all, a really BIG DEAL for a 9-year old kid
to get a brand new bike and became an all-time fav.
While opening the shipping carton Mike first spotted the seat
and the flood-gates of memories began to surface. "This is exactly as
I remember it," Mike says as he's holding the black-n-white seat he now
knows vintage bicycle collectors refer to as the Schwinn Monogram Saddle
with a big S.
Natch, Mike did some light "research" and found that many of the parts on
Schwinn bikes were made by a variety of vendors from around the globe.
This was made by the Mesinger Bicycle Saddle Company, a New York
firm that has made seats for bikes since 1896. "... with extra cushioning!
for a smooth ride." The 3-speed shifter was made by Sturmey-Archer
in England - to this day they're a dependable maker of quality internal gear
hubs. Well, you get the idea ... old guy reliving a small chunk of his
youth. Louise captured the day with photos. [Link]
posted 05.17.21 |
 So
Now We Wait
...
... for the oak to dry. It's all stacked in garage where our
snow plow normally rests in the summer. With new garage/shed being
built, the Meyer snow plow will move into that new space - meanwhile it's
being stored at the repair shop, it's mounting connection to Whitey
requiring a quick fix. So the long oak planks mentioned in the
"sawmill" tale below have a nice dry, flat storage space.
Oh, by the way, while stacking the planks we recomputed the volume of
wood pile ... the estimate of 181 board feet has grown to 207. Two more steps before closing this chapter: 1. seal end grain with
a product called Anchorseal, an oil/wax concoction Mike has on order
(to reduce cracking and checking); and 2. place some weight, evenly on
the pile to encourage boards to remain flat. Several people have asked: "Whatcha-gonna
do with it?" Not sure. The vast quantity of Red Oak
likely exceeds the volume of oak hardwood purchased over the past 42-yrs.
Most of the bird houses and products I made for Louise's store was built
with cedar. But a few projects have come to mind: like a new workshop
workbench replacing the slightly wobbly surface built in '79 ... one of my
early projects after marrying Louise and moving into our home in Mott Park.
[note to audio crew: cue audio file
Streisand and "The Way We Were"]
Posted 05.11.21
|
|
Portable Sawmill Creates Mountain
of Sawdust
...
... and about 181 board feet of lumber*. (board foot defined: 1"
thick x 12" square) As mentioned last month we're planning to
construct a small garage (or as Mike likes to call it: a Gator
shed with room for lawnmowers, snow-throwers and other equipment).
We cleared a small hunk of our property East of the house, north of the
great bog, which included dropping one large red oak tree, which saddened
both of us a bit. But we figured if we did something special with the
wood, perhaps we'll be partially forgiven by the neighboring trees who
likely view such destruction by humans with the same distain as Native
Americans may have about invasive Caucasian settlers hundreds of years ago.
So, we hired a really nice guy with a portable sawmill to
visit the site and quickly turned 3 large sections of the oak trunk into
dimensional lumber. That's how we came up with the estimate: about 181
board feet of red oak which is now neatly stacked in our main garage, drying
out ... which could take a year.
To reduce checking and cracking in our precious lumber we have a wax
based sealer product to "paint" on the end grain of each board, as well as
new tools to monitor moisture content. We're thinking it might be neat
to have a mini-stack in our basement right next to our deluxe dehumidifier
that keeps our "lower-level" from smelling like a basement, to see if that
may speed up the process.
So ... how shall we use our red oak lumber? So chatter has been
picked-up that perhaps a new workbench could be in preliminary planning
stages, or maybe some shelving in the laundry room which is about to get an
extreme makeover. Stay tuned. But for now, here's a brief
one-minute "little movie by Louise" of the sawmill, its sawyer in action as
Mike gathers and stacks the freshly cut boards in a "tiny trailer" attached
to the Gator: link to mp4 file (be sure to turn on your audio).
Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to all ... none of us would be here without 'em!
posted 05.09.21
update: 05.10.12 - took the time today to more accurately measure our stack
of oak boards and figure we have more like
207 board feet of oak.
Thursday I'll seal the ends of boards with a special oily wax substance
designed to reduce cracking & checking. Yesterday I hauled the
mini-mountain of sawdust generated by the sawmill ... filled my rusty "tiny
trailer" - then spread it along my newly blazed nature trails. |
|
NPR: Making Sense Of Complex News &
Events The Past 50-Years
...
This week, as National Public Radio celebrates their 50th anniversary
and I'm experiencing a variety of flashbacks. As a young-pup college
student, and then rookie sales guy traveling throughout nooks & crannies of
Northern Michigan ... I discovered NPR stations scattered all about the
state providing curious minds with a connection to the news of the day/week.
Mt. Pleasant, Traverse City, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Lansing, Flint, Port Huron,
Bay City, Sault Ste. Marie, Marquette. And it was essentially non-commercial - no
annoying jingles or local DJ personalities to decipher. (Apologies to my brother
who's worked successfully in radio for over 40 yrs.)
NPR was a great way to start most any day with Morning Edition and
then All Things Considered would guide my way home or off to the next
town. Today ... there are 27
affiliate NPR stations in Michigan. No matter where I was, it seemed,
there was almost always a clear NPR signal to keep me company, and help me understand the news
of the day.
Broadcasts on NPR this week will be
peppered with vintage recordings of the early days and recollections by
founding journalists from NPR. Susan Stamberg, Nina Totenberg, Bob
Edwards, Cokie Roberts, Linda Wertheimer. Goodness how I miss
thoughtful programs like The Diane Rehm Show!
Here are some links to podcasts for those interested in the early days at
our nation's finest radio information venue: National Public Radio:
- Terry Gross - likely the best interviewer anywhere speaks with
founding NPR staff [listen]
- Author Lisa Napoli discusses her new book: Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie:
The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR [listen
&/or read about]
- A flashback from ten-yrs ago: "First Person: When Bob Edwards Met Susan Stamberg"
[read]
- A brief history of NPR [read or
listen]
To this day NPR programming provides much of my
weekend entertainment as well - a companion in my workshop or out working around
the yard: Car Talk, This American Life, ATC Weekend Edition, Radiolab,
Wait/Wait, TED Radio Hour, The Moth and more. posted 05.03.21
|
|
Four Trees Down In Minutes ...
Clean-up Takes A Little Longer Thirty-plus years ago Louise & I
planted a slew of little blue spruce trees around our 'new home' in Grand
Blanc. A friendly neighbor had referred us to a tree farm north toward
Saginaw ... we hitched up a utility trailer to our car and proceeded to the
farm which had potted 3-foot spruce trees - we filled the wagon - maybe 20
trees?
 Can't
recall for sure, but we came home and began planting 'em all around the
house, and most of the trees survived.
We planted two side-by-side near the garage with a nice clearing to the
South West - they grew like crazy and because of their proximity to each
other we made the mistake of naming them: 'Mike-n-Louise'.
Lovely sentiment as the branches appeared to be reaching out to each other,
and then eventually holding hands ... but naming a living thing after
ourselves became a problem when it was time to remove them. "You
wanna' butcher Mike-n-Louise?!?" we'd ask ourselves
incredulously. Well, no, but they were blocking sunlight needed to grow some
grass behind the tree and now they'd grown tall enough to be competing with
a nearby oak tree for sunlight.
Spruce trees in our area have a lifespan of about 25-30 yrs a wise
farming friend of ours told us, as if to lessen our guilt for killing our 'Mike-n-Louise'
spruces. The spruces began losing lower limps and were thinning out ... they
were entering the back-nine of their expected lifespan. Time to let
them go and replace 'em with one unified conifer nearby and rework the
lawn/yard where 'Mike-n-Louise' had previously thrived. A
third spruce twenty-five feet west was even more sparse ... so Mike fired up the
trusty chainsaw and in minutes the spruce tress were flat on the ground ...
then cut up into moveable hunks to haul to our private "city dump".
Chainsaw Massacre part 2 involved removal of an oak tree
that was growing right in the middle of our new, soon to be built garage
(shed) to store our array of outdoor tools: mowers, snow throwers & snowplow, and now a
handy John Deere 4-wheel drive utility vehicle. Louise tells the
story best on her Facebook page, which you may have already seen:
"I hugged the tree and told it I was so sorry. We had to cut down a huge oak today. I counted 81 rings! It was healthy and vibrant but would be directly in the middle of a new shed we are building. Not to worry, the wood is being milled and what cannot be used will be split for firewood. I then spoke to its tree neighbors because we now know the woodlands are all connected and made sure they knew we cared.
(Pictured) the vascular layer of the tree's cambium. It was glistening and healthy."
Both of us feel badly about killing a healthy tree, but we look around
the homestead and can point to a thousand or more that continue to thrive.
If you're curious there's a 'little movie by Louise' on FB of Mike cutting
down the oak ... the oak wanted to fall South while Mike was trying to guide it
the other way, North. Mother Nature and general laws of physics won
out. Now we're thinking strongly about salvaging the oak (20"
dia x
19' long) thru a local
sawmill and building something special out of our lumber - estimated at 160 board
feet ... plus a face-cord of firewood when it's dry. Time to
quickly learn more about sawmills, and drying/storing lumber ... and
figuring out what to build with it. posted 04.28.21 |
|
 Recent
Project: relocate & repair mailbox post
It's been buried some 29-yrs ... I wanted to move the mailbox forward a foot or two so the mailman would stop driving on the edge of my yard ('tis a muddy mess every spring & without fail I would utter the pledge:
"I oughta' move that mailbox someday"). Well
someday arrived - last week I yanked the pole (after considerable digging) and found the portion closest to the surface had the most decay/rot
but likely was not in jeopardy of breaking/falling for many years as about half of the wood
remained solid. However, I figured since I dug the sucker out of the ground, why not repair it? I
used a This Old House lesson/tip and cut off the old post at ground level and attached the healthy top portion to a hunk of 6x6 pressure treated wood using a
"scarf joint" ala' Tommy Silva.
I concealed much of the joint with a 1x4 band of pine, combined with a series of assorted molding scraps I had on hand, remnants of many past projects. Louise stained the assembly before we "replanted" the post … looks kinda' dark now compared to the grey oxidized cedar, but I'm sure it'll lighten over time. I trimmed the top of the post which I had cut at 45° angle … the end grain had absorbed quite a bit of moisture over time and was getting sorta' punky. The trim job looks ok, but I decided to actually spend a buck on a new copper cap.
posted 04.10.21 |
|
Bringing This Chapter To A
Successful End?
We're slated to receive "dose №2" of the vaccine this week ... knock-on-wood,
and we sincerely hope you and those you care for either have or will soon get
your shot(s). The rationale for vax-resistance has been effectively
neutralized now that millions of doses have been administered safely but
there will always be wing-nuts who don't follow the science.
 So what
does a nation do with so many regions prematurely relaxing mitigation
measures and refusing to wear masks, or ignoring CDC Guidelines by flying on airplanes (because they are
just so sick of "big-government over-reach" or other such silliness)?
Thank goodness there are effective treatments for those who become infected
that can potentially save lives.
Monoclonal antibody treatments - " ... new drugs that successfully treat COVID. So if you get COVID, you
won't get sick and die from it. These treatments have been around, for a
while now; some started getting approval from the FDA late last year.
President Trump, himself, got treated with one of these drugs when he was in
the hospital ... a lot of studies already showing that they are effective," said
Rachel Maddow on her show last week.
Rachel's guest on Thursday 3/25/21 was Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, chairperson of the Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force: "The positive impact of these treatments has become pretty clear. These treatments can make a huge difference. Eli
Lilly's newest monoclonal antibody combination therapy has shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by up to 87 percent."
"This is not some snake-oil thing. This is proven stuff. And these treatments are a potential-exit door from the worst of the COVID nightmare. We're just not taking it. We're just not using these treatments, as a country, broadly speaking. And that's because people don't know to ask for them, or how to get them,"
Dr. Nunez-Smith told Rachel. "The patient needs to be infused,"
Maddow explained, "it's a shot that you have to sit there and take for an hour ... while the drug is infused into you."
Inconvenient, you say? Spending 2-months on a ventilator is
inconvenient.
So, exactly what are the "monoclonal antibody" treatments that are effective
with this virus? There are a variety of drugs being tested and used to
treat a host of ailments (cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease
- link to more info if you wish to delve
deeper). Treatments for the virus include:
- Regeneron and Roche's antibody cocktail -
link to article written March 23,
2021.
- Bamlanivimab/etesevimab - 02/25/21 Eli Lilly & Co. received "emergency
use authorization" from FDA for the investigational monoclonal antibody treatment bamlanivimab/etesevimab.
[article]
You can also read the FDA news release.
- Veklury (remdesivir) - One of the first FDA approved the antiviral drugs, October 22, 2020, Veklury (remdesivir) for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.
If you care to go even deeper: Rachel discussed some of these treatments with Dr. David Kessler chief science officer for the Biden administration's Covid response, about these treatments.
[YouTube video clip]
posted 03.30.21 |
|
... Evolving bits of Americana ... sitting right in our pantry!
Preparing a grocery order … lately we're using Meijer's website & curbside pick-up instead of InstaCart
to keep our pantry well-stocked. We figure we're saving on average $50 per order compared to the fees & tip we were paying InstaCart. Anyway, while formulating
said shopping list Louise & I got to talking about how several national brands are reacting to the 2020 "Lives Matter" marches and protests of various sorts … and businesses dropping ethnic or heritage images.
Case in point: NFL's Washington team drops Redskins … General Mills retires
Aunt Jemima - even changing the name of the pancake mix and syrup. Same with
Uncle Ben's rice and the black chef is leaving the Cream of Wheat box, as is our Native American Princess from
Land-O-Lakes products.
 Each of these products have undergone a series of packaging design changes over the past century.
Take, for
example, the aforementioned Aunt Jemima pancake mix
products, soon to be known as "Pearl Milling Company" says parent
company PepsiCo (owner of Quaker Oats division). Yep,
you read that right: cola giant Pepsi owns Quaker Oats, which
owns Aunt Jemima ... er, now Pearl Milling Co. For
years the face of Aunt Jemima brand, named after a catchy song "Aunt
Jemima", was Nancy Green, a 56-yr old model often called
"the
pancake queen" who had a lifetime contract to promote the products
emblazoned with her likeness (left). If you were to
Google the
brand name: Aunt Jemima
you would find multiple images in the evolution of the famous pancake mix's
brand.
Same is true with Land-O-Lakes butter and assorted dairy products as
Mia, the indigenous woman who, for decades, was featured prominently
on all Land-O-Lakes packaging. In 1924
Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association, representing some 320 dairy
farms, sponsored a contest to find a name to help promote the Co-Op's sweet
cream butter. Legend has it two winners each received $500 in gold for
submitting the Land-O-Lakes name ... and shortly after that Mia's
likeness began to appear on packaging and advertising.
In the mid 1920's a Chicago waiter, Frank White, was asked to pose in a
chef's hat and become the face of Cream of Wheat products. White
reportedly received no royalties for his modeling gig, but did pocket $5.
Soon, White's smiling image will be gone as parent company B&G Foods re-evaluates
its marketing strategy. Consumers will find similar changes that some
critics say perpetuated a racist caricature that stereotypes
African-American people in subservient forms of employment. Bye, bye
Uncle Ben's rice, Eskimo Pies. Can Mrs. Butterworth's
products expect the same fate? posted with a smile 02.28.21 |
|
 ...carrying
out duties that cannot be left undone... We just completed
watching a TV series that Louise
recently recorded on PBS "All Creatures Great and Small" ... she
said the Gignac girls had read the books
back in the 70's ... and we thoroughly enjoyed the series.
Salon magazine says the show will return for a second season and maybe
beyond ... but will be missing one quirky character: Mrs. Pumphrey played by
Dame Diana Rigg who passed away in September 2020.
Apparently we are not the only viewers who enjoyed the show ... Salon
magazine
says "All Creatures Great & Small" was the 2nd most watched TV show
on Super Bowl Sunday: "PBS' reboot of "All Creatures Great and Small" premiered just days after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots that shocked the nation and those watching news reports overseas. In the wake of that crisis, it was difficult to predict what appetite Americans would have for a series set in the 1930s Yorkshire Dales about a veterinary surgeon."
"With the riots in the Capitol that was unfolding . . . I think that was the thing that struck me was how many people felt that sort of gentle peril was needed at the time,"
said series writer Ben Vanstone.  Ah
... there's the secret: gentle peril instead of a steady diet of
Donald Trump's Big Lie, or life in America during a pandemic.
One interesting connection for Louise & I was the
season finale closing scene where lead characters sat around their living room on
Christmas night listening to a radio broadcast of King George VI's 1937 Christmas Day speech,
which we first learned about from the celebrated 2010 Best Picture: "The
King's Speech."
Let us turn to the message that Christmas brings, of peace and goodwill. Let us see to it that this spirit shall in the end prevail, and every one of us can help by making that immortal message a keystone of our daily lives. And so to all of you, whether at home among your families, as we are, or in hospital or at your posts
carrying out duties that cannot be left undone, we send our Christmas greetings and wish you under god's blessing, health and prosperity in the year that lies ahead.
--
King George VI.
[mp3 audio file - edited]
[YouTube - complete Christmas 1937
speech by King George VI]
Carrying out duties ... that's the line that registers in
my brain. Carrying out duties - doing a job well - completing a task
like shoveling snow on the front sidewalk "edge-to-edge." And
shoveled "down-to-the-wood" so-to-speak, to keep visitors safe.
Not a wimpy, half-hearted job that some sloven slob might render.
Carrying out duties with a sense of urgency, getting the job done right with
attention paid to details.
posted 02.26.21 |
|
We're easily delighted:
snow-days, vaccines & internet connections!
 As
kids there were few things that delighted us more than a "snow day" ... no
school, but tons of things to do &/or mischief to get into. But first,
there was snow to shovel ... after that, perhaps sledding and maybe tossing
a few snow balls. Mike bought his 1st snow-thrower back in the early
70's at a garage sale on Cedar Lake Drive up North in Greenbush [action
photo].
'twas a narrow machine (perhaps 16" wide) a semi-self propelled
Craftsman. I say semi self propelled 'cuz the wheels would
mostly just
spin - not getting much traction and we'd end up having to push it, but the auger
held up to it's end of the bargain and tossed even wet, heavy snow into the
woods or in whatever direction it was pointed. Mike bought it to
use with his lawn maintenance business (Blister Industries) and
expand - offering services virtually year-round!
So the die was cast at an early age and Mike would forever ensure
sidewalks and driveways were clear at any home he owned or rented.
Heck, he even went in to his office at Ameritech early on snow days
to make sure sidewalks were clear for the staff. Years later when Louise
bought a Jeep, we attached a snow plow ... and Mike once again provided snow
removal services to help keep the world just a little bit safer.
So when we got dumped-on the other day with 6 or 8 inches of snow we did
feel a bit like kids again: SNOW DAY! In this year of the pandemic
(that did not have to be this deadly) we wondered how kids reacted to the
"snow day" news during our current "lockdown" status. It's just one
more example of how life has changed by virus. We adapt. We
putz, and tackle chores, enjoying our hobbies. Louise has connected
with her sisters via Zoom and other internet-connected tools ... even
Louise's older technically challenged sister up in the U.P. has stepped-up
to the plate and taught herself a few new skills. Louise posted a short
video clip on her Facebook page
showing a rafter of wild turkeys waddling up-hill from the Hollow
behind our home. Yep, Turkey Hollow. Thank
goodness for the internet ... this morning the service was out for a few
minutes as Comcast was repairing something ... and we realized how dependent
we are to having instant access to cyberspace.
Hopefully the country, heck, the whole world, will continue efforts to
mitigate covid spread as vaccines are rolling out. Louise & I
received good news the other day: we're tentatively scheduled to receive our
shots in a few weeks.
Until the vaccine is in my arm I'll worry that something could screw up our
plans, like the weather or maybe a supply issue ... who
knows? But for now we are delighted to be heading in a positive
direction. Feels good to have
hope.
posted 02.16.21 |
|
former President
Trump's image found on vintage sports card collections One of my brothers mentioned he had bought some reprints of a few vintage
era baseball cards for his grandkids ... and one of the cards turns out to be the
1933 Goudey Gum Company card #144 - Babe Ruth, swinging for the fences. "Hey
... I own that card," I exclaimed ... then proceeded to the eBay website to look
at some of the current auctions. [link
to Mike's previous article on his bargain Babe Ruth card.]
And it surprised me to see several parody cards ... former President
Donald Trump inserted in several classic, vintage formats. I've
studied and own several authentic cards from this era so I couldn't help but
capture the pix and assemble the above illustration. (natch) The
cards are designed to mimic several legendary collectable card styles
popular during the "Golden Age of Sport".
- Above/Far left: "Boxer Trump" is patterned after the 1948
Leaf
Gum Co. style card popularized by their bright colored backgrounds.
(Mike has several football and baseball cards from the
same series.)
Naturally I notice the small fists on the illustration and think of
Marco Rubio's comments about Mr.
Trump.
- Middle two images are designed to look like the legendary
1933 Goudey Gum Co. series ... the yellow background card showing Trump
taking a mighty swing looking much like the
Babe
on card #144 mentioned above. Notice - the outfield wall resembles the infamous
Southern border wall that Mexico was s'posedly going to pay for ... and
the gas mask inserted in the green background Trump catcher image.
- Above/Far right: "stoic Trump" replicates the classic "T206" card
from the American Tobacco Co. circulated from 1909 to 1911 in packages
of cigarettes and loose tobacco pouches.
posted 02.11.21 |
 Legendary
Slugger: "Hammering" Hank Aaron passesLouise spotted the news
story over the weekend before I read/heard about: major league baseball Hall
of Fame power hitter Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron died at age 86.
Originally the news shared here indicated there were complications related
to the virus but Factcheck.org says that's not true. Mr. Aaron died "from natural causes, according to the medical examiner’s office in Fulton County, Georgia. There’s no evidence that his death was a result of being vaccinated against COVID-19 in early January, as multiple posts and articles shared on social media have suggested."
Over the past few years I've written about some of my sports
memorabilia (below)
focused mainly on the "vintage golden age of sport" (1920's thru '40's) but
I did have several hundred cards from my childhood era ('60's) ... though
most of those cards were "well-loved" and worn. Great memories, but
not worth all that much.
One exception however is my 1964 Topps #300: Hank Aaron ...
the card is in amazing, pristine condition. The edges so sharp & crisp,
nicely centered, no wrinkles or creases ... awesome color - no printing
flaws ... professional grading services would likely rate my Hank Aaron
card rather high (PSA 7 or 8?) ... worth a few hundred dollars.
I recall watching Aaron on TV in 1974 when I was in college as he hit his
715th career home run, eclipsing Babe
Ruth's long standing-mark of 714 homers. Aaron went on to play a few
more years and ended with 755 career HRs ... 21-yrs with the
Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (played his last season '75-'76 with the
Milwaukee Brewers). Only steroid abusing Barry Bonds has hit more
home runs (762) ... but most observers discount Bonds' stats because of his
use of performance enhancing drugs.
posted 01.25.21 -
revised/corrected 02.01.21 |
|
Oscoda High School Football -
Record Season Comes To End Recently I wrote to my brothers about the 2020 pandemic challenged high school
football season at Oscoda High. They just went 9-0
this past year, but had to cancel the remaining playoffs. Why? … not enough players
to field a team.
"Oscoda
opts out of high school football playoffs, ending historic season"
MLive News
reported.
"OSCODA, MI – The greatest season in Oscoda football history won’t extend into January.
Oscoda coach Mark Whitley confirmed Monday that his team is opting out of the high school football playoffs, which are scheduled to resume with the regional championship round on Jan. 9. “We are going to shut it down,” Whitley said. “The No. 1 thing is keeping everybody safe. When we came together and talked about it as a team, we just won’t have the numbers – for many different reasons. It is not safe to continue on and play with 11 or 12 players."
[link to news story]
What a great season, indeed, especially considering it took place during a freaking pandemic!
But there's one point made in the story that requires clarification: the 2020 team's wonderful 9 win, zero loss season may have set a school record, but to say (as the complete story does) that it's the 1st "district championship in the program's history" is
technically true but slightly misleading.
Currently, Michigan's high school football championship program has 8 divisions
in which teams compete and it can be great fun. In previous years, the state finals were played at
the Detroit Lions home turf: Ford Field & televised … which Louise & I made a point to watch.
When my brothers & I attended OHS as kids we didn't have a "playoff" system
for football ... it's relatively new in MI beginning in 1974 [source].
So the current claim "best in history" really means "best since 1974" as
teams prior to that date never had the chance to compete in a playoff
system. In my senior year the Oscoda Owls football team won 8 games, lost 1 … and
were "conference champions" several years in a row. There was no "district, or regional" competition
at that time in Michigan high school football. The "state champ" was typically recognized by
polls. The Associated Press rated
Oscoda 6th in the state, while Detroit Free Press famed high school sports "swami" Hal Schram
said in 1970 that Oscoda rated #4 in the state for "class B" schools.
There's an awesome sports data website
that you may want to bookmark if the topic interests you ... they captured
virtually all high school results (football and other sports) from 1950 to
the present, and links to similar data sources in 13 other states. Glad I kept scrapbooks & mementos … I'm pictured
in the above Oscoda Press article circled in red just above Athletic
Director Pat Tate. (The "district champ" badge above is for '69-'70 OHS wrestling … which DID have district, regional & state finals, as did other sports like basketball…but not football.)
Last year I spent quite a bit of
time on this website talking about sports and baseball cards my brothers
and I collected when we were kids ... and my father's boyhood collection.
As a kid I was the original game-boy, I played most all sports at
some point with the exception of ice hockey. I enjoyed little league
baseball and at school (junior & senior high) I played baseball, basketball,
football, and even one season of track. Likely our baseball coach
would dispute that. And, when our family moved north I became
an Oscoda Owl ... 3 seasons of football, 2 seasons of wrestling ... and
enjoyed it all. Fortunately I saved quite a bit of memorabilia, and
enjoy digging into the scrapbooks to reminisce.
posted 01.03.21 |
 |
|
Why
Do We Throw Stuff Like This Away ... Shouldn't It Get A 2nd Life?
 In an attempt to conserve a bit of water, rather than
individually washing or rinsing jars and plastic tubs that
packaged assorted food products we just consumed, we figured: "why not just put
'em in
the dishwasher and clean it along with the rest of our normal load of
plates, glasses and silverware?" Brilliant, my dear Watson! we
said to ourselves figuring it was also a good way to save a smidgeon of energy (less water to be pumped
from our water-well).
While the conservation concept
may be sound I have discovered that once the sparkling clean container is unloaded
along with the clean dishes I am having difficultly throwing them away.
Case in point: this clear jar brought us some tasty
blueberry jam made in Baraga,
in Northern Michigan. And now that it's all clean and like one of
Trump's shiny objects that captures attention, my normal instinct to toss is
shattered. After donning my trusty thinking cap I decide it's the
ideal vehicle to hold assorted fasteners and
thing-a-ma-jigs in Mike's workshop. Perhaps the next one could hold
spare buttons in the utility room? Hmmm. Previously I have cut slots in the
lid and used these as a terrific "coin bank" ... after all, t'was our first
postmaster general Ben who taught us a penny saved is a ....
yeah, you got it.
So while I'm marveling over the clear jar with its plain white lid - and
keep in mind it's the holidays - so when my brain says "see it glisten"
naturally my brain's playlist automatically kicks-in: "Sleigh bells ring,
Are you listening?
In the lane,
Snow is glistening.
A beautiful sight,
we're happy tonight ... walking in a winter wonderland." Okay,
so it glistens ... is it really all that valuable to clutter one's home
with empty (but sparkling clean) glass jars? Good point ... how much
did it cost the maker or packer of foods to buy this little item, and is it
another example of mass-importing of merchandise that once was made in
America, but we're not capable of making stuff like this any longer?
The
Google tells me more than
we need to know (but I find it interesting anyway): "A16-8 AGC 38" stamped right in the glass ...
could cost about 50¢ apiece when purchased in dinky
quantities ... or half that when buying 10's of thousands. AGC =
Arkansas Glass Container Corporation*. But get
this: the lids are extra. Huh? Well, there could be a variety of
styles depending on contents of jar. Lids add 20¢ to 30¢ each to the equation ... or 70¢ per
unit to have your favorite spaghetti or barbecue sauce conveniently packaged
and stacked high at your neighborhood grocery
... but now we're getting a bit deep in the woods.
The point is: why have we become such idiots, throwing
away perfectly good containers? And at the same time dashing out to
some big-boxy store to buy more plastic tubs to store the Christmas tree
ornaments? Folks, it's insane.
posted 12.27.20
(*Note to radical rightwing extremists: No, AGC was not part of the
Whitewater investigation into the Clintons.) |
 Fun
Time To Look Back ...
Louise posted some pictures on her Facebook page with a few captions that only told 1/2 of the story: "Mike just found a pack of slides and he scanned them for us so I could share them with you! Washington DC, 1966."
What she didn't say is that after years of digging thru family collections
of pictures and photographic slides from the Dawsons it turns out the newly
found little-box-o-slides was 100% Gignac. And as Louise says, these
were taken in 1966. Here's a sneak-peek ... Louise looking all
grown-up at age 12. (Whata' cutie!)
See my Scan-a-Slide "photo" page
for the link to the new 1966 Gignac collection as well as 2 other "albums"
of Gignac Family pictures (album one -
album two). posted
12.22.20
|
 Mike's Bookshelf ...
As
the Presidential Election drew near I enjoyed reading the frank assessment
of our disgraceful President from his personal attorney Michael Cohen ...
Disloyal: A Memoir.
Sure, I heard him testify before Congress and followed his appearances
on various news talk shows over the past few years. He seems like an
opportunist and thug. I'm only partially sympathetic for the guy
... he made his choices in life and he's paid for his mistakes.
That's something I hope Donald Trump will begin to experience after January
20th. My fantasy still has Trump being arrested seconds after Joe
Biden repeats his oath of office. But hey, this posting is
supposed to be about books, not politics!
 Just
finished:
The Greatest Game Ever Played.
Astute readers of this webpage will note that I previously mentioned reading
Francis Ouimet's autobiography
... as well as biographies of other legendary golfers from the golden age
in sport: Byron Nelson, Walter
Hagen and "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias. The Greatest Game book was
the basis for a 2005 movie of the same name which I've seen several times.
Over the years I've heard people say they "liked the book more than the
movie" and now I can say I relate. While Mark Frost's book was the
basis for the film, for the movie to be an accurate historical record
the film would have to be produced in serial form
- because sadly with limited time some actual events had to be modified.
Example: in the movie (spoiler alert) the margin for Ouimet's 18-hole
playoff victory was just one shot when in truth Francis won by 5 strokes.
Overall, Frost's book weaves a lovely story
that chronicles and connections of Ouimet's early career, America's first
amateur champion of the US Open golf tournament, and that of Harry Vardon,
winner of 7 majors including 6 British Open titles, and Ted Ray who
won two major championships, the (British) Open Championship in 1912 and the U.S. Open in 1920.
It is now a
personal favorite - perhaps the best sports-related book I have read.
Louise has been kind to humor me as I related some of the rich detail the
author uncovered & wrote about in the book which was not highlighted in
the movie. Overall, its a fabulous true story, and a book I know I'll
read again as my memory of the details begin to fade over time.
[posted 12.06.20, updated 01.01.21] |
|
Louise's "fixer" of
broken things has a new nickname ...
[Since Louise posted the photo shown to the left Mike figured
he'd tell the rest of the story,
strudel-style ...
a tasty treat in layers.]
 When
a niece spotted one of Mike's recent frugal-guy repair projects she exclaimed: "it's
a genuine MIKE-Gyver!" A what? You may be
asking yourself ... (this story
may make more sense if you play the following audio file ... sort of like
accessing the sound track stuck in Mike's mind). A
MikeGyver ... in honor of the 1990's
era television series "MacGyver" which follows the adventures of Angus MacGyver, a secret agent
famous for his remarkable resourcefulness as he solves problems encountered
in the field using whatever materials he may have on hand. MacGyver it
seems still lives in the land of cable TV re-runs, but for those unfamiliar
with the show: Google it.
 So,
this week's MIKEGyver episode has a little Martha Stewart cooking flair that
we'll call: "Fixing A Wisk". Some
40-yrs ago Louise got this handy kitchen gadget and it had a wooden
handle, but the handle came off and was lost many moons ago. Recently,
on a cool summer day while
marveling over some other home-handy-fellow projects mentioned below, Louise
turns to her fixer and says: "my wisk could use a handle!"
 That
is all it took for her fellow to spring into action,
especially since the fixer has become quite partial to Louise's baking and cooking.
But wait, there's more justification for this strudel-story, since Louise's birthday
was approaching. Mike donned his imaginary
mullet hair piece and pondered: what would Angus do? ... how does one craft a missing handle
that he's never seen on a tool he rarely uses? Hmmm.
The snapshot to the left illustrates of "the making of a wisk handle". 1.) cut hunk of dowel, split in half and 2.) carve out inside of dowel to accommodate wire wisk
"handle", then glue and 3.) clamp assembly. After allowing the
glue to dry
and a bit of sanding Mike plunged the wooden handle into a can of
Plasti Dip ... a soft plastic coating like you might find on a screwdriver handle.
Presto: one brilliant red handle & another delicious strudel-story.
posted 10.19.20 |
 Our
Time Flies ... How About You?
Not
certain when it began but for as long as we can remember significant
milestones in our lives (birthdays, family holiday gatherings) are
celebrated with a treat from Oliver T's
in Grand Blanc. "sinful desserts -- in moderation" of course.
This cake is our celebration for 41-wonderful years of marriage. The
rich chocolate cake is concealed by smooth (and not too sweet) white
chocolate butter cream frosting ... & white chocolate mousse separating
layers.
 Oh, goodness ... it took more than an ounce of self-control to
NOT devour the entire small cake in one sitting.
Political notions are typically stashed on the "issues
& thoughts" page of this website. But, with Michigan's new "any
reason" vote-by-mail option starting this year (after voter referendum
passed by an overwhelming margin in 2018), we are thrilled to say:
"put a sock in it Donald ... we already voted."
posted ... joyfully on 10.01.20 |
|
Is It Frugal To
Place A Value On Longevity & Quality?
Some of our favorite tools are stamped: "made in the USA" which
always brings a smile to my face ... especially after this past Friday's
"jobs report" which estimates nearly 1.4 million Americans went back to work
last month. Most of these are not "new jobs" like the Donald is trying
to make you believe, but rather, existing positions that had to temporarily
shut-down as the country learned how to live with the virus safely.
 Had
the Trump administration implemented a comprehensive plan for testing,
contract tracing, and isolating those infected with the virus, not only
would America have experienced fewer deaths, but less destruction to the
economy as well. But the jobs that are coming back now are not the
manufacturing jobs lost over the past 2 or 3 decades.
Our Swingline stapler in the home office is one of those products
that was made here - in Saginaw, MI. Same with several of my trusty
tape-measures, and several other tools in my workshop. Until this
country finds a way to bring manufacturing jobs back to America it will be a
struggle for America's middle class. The other part of the equation is
the consumer ... will they be willing to pay a few dollars more to ensure we
have jobs for everyone? I have my doubts.
Louise & I are buying less "stuff" than we did 30-40-yrs ago when
we were active buying properties, fixing up homes, & learning new skills to
maintain 'em. We're buying less partly because we have most of the
things we need. It cracks me up when TV news broadcasters post annual
"first snow storm of the season" report with the obligatory film footage
showing lines
of consumers buying-out the hardware store's supply of snow shovels and
sidewalk salt ... I keep wondering: "what happened to the shovel they used
last winter?" Until we recently sold Red, our beloved utility
pick-up truck, the American-made snow plow was 15-yrs old and everything was
still functioning. Our trusty snow shovel collection includes tools at
least 10-yrs old, most of which were made in USA; same with our walk-behind
snow-thrower. Or, how about several wide-fan leaf rakes that we've had
our entire married lives? We have 3 of 'em ... with over 40 years of
faithful service. Ok, I don't know where the snow thrower or leaf
rakes were manufactured
but the snow thrower still working more than 11-yrs after buying it. Knock-on-wood.
It's been said that we've become a disposable society, which is not good for
the economy or the environment. Because when you buy quality stuff and
basically take care of it, things oughta' "last" ... less junk tossed in
landfills.
So as I dumped a load of laundry this morning I noticed the basket has a
well worn, hand-written note on bottom that reads: "this basket has
been faithfully serving since Aug 2000". Yikes, a landmark
service-anniversary just passed, un-noticed until now. Twenty years.
[Note: this would be a good place to insert a short audio file of spectators
& fans clapping, much like the crowd does at a golf tournament.] Buy
quality, folks & insist on "made in USA' merchandise!
posted with patriotic pride 09.06.20 (minor updates 02.27.21) |
|
Bringing New
Meaning To Our Goal: Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose
 There were two
supply items at our store that never seemed to last very long and I am not
sure why: vacuum cleaners and scissors. Since we sold millions of
pounds of birdseed at J.J. Cardinal's it made sense we'd have some seed
spillage to clean-up on a regular basis ... but why the lot of vacuum cleaners took
such a beating, I never figured out. We seemed to go thru a machine every
other year. And since we offered gift wrapping we always had several
pair of scissors in the shop, but never enough it seemed, and keeping 'em
sharp was another story. There was one pair of scissors that Louise
purposely hung onto even when it got badly damaged - there were 4 breaks in
the finger side and 2 on the thumb side ... wrapped in tape and they barley
functioned.
Equally curious, after selling the shop, this broken pair of scissors
found their way to our home in one of our utility drawers along with cellophane tape,
glue sticks, and grocery store coupons. Well, this week I decided to
give it a go and repair the broken scissors via
a make-over that resembled the film set on the 1985 classic movie:
Brazil ... a
quirky, unique "dystopian
satire". In the event I failed, I figured it wouldn't be a huge
loss to toss 'em. But, armed with assorted tools, gadgets, a scrap of
sheet metal and a thin steel rod I cobbled together several repairs that are
not exactly pretty ... but very functional. In fact, with freshly
sharpened titanium blades, this pair of scissors cuts like it has never cut
before. (Somehow that sentence sounds rather Trumpian.)
First I made a clean cut thru the plastic on the larger "finger side" ...
drilled holes into the blue plastic base near the pivot screw and inserted
the steel rod, bending it in the same basic shape as the original plastic
part. I then cut a groove on the broken plastic parts that I had
removed & glued them back in place along the new supporting rod [see
illustration]. The "thumb side" of the scissor was more challenging.
I opted to cut a "splint" out of a piece of steel sheet metal and screwed it
in place. Presto: one really ugly pair of scissors ... saved from the
landfill and back in service, functional, and hopefully happy to still be
useful.
posted 08.05.20 (wishing I'd captured a "before" image) |
|
Another repair job - in a pinch, it
works
 My
brother and a niece have referred my little repair projects as Mike's
MacGyver Moments.
Don't know about that! No explosives were involved, no timer about to
display 00:00:00. No duct tape. Unlike the 11.03.20 general election,
no lives were on the line with this fix.
The home-handy guy's quick household repair task of the week: fix a broken
toilet paper roll holder. Recently the bathroom toilet paper holder got
knocked to the floor and broke. Can I epoxy the broken end?
Nope. Too many little plastic pieces broke away - not a 'clean break'.
Hmmm…
After sorting thru my "handy-guy" stash of mix-matched parts &
thing-a-ma-jigs I surveyed various cylinder-shaped pieces of stuff (metal, plastic, wood),
and I settle on a bunch of wood dowels salvaged from countless projects &/or
dismantled store fixtures, etc. I found one oak dowel that was just a hair wider in diameter than I needed
... which is a good thing … easier making the piece smaller vs. larger.
Then off to the bench sander, carefully down-sizing the diameter so it'd fit snuggly inside the part that still held the spring … then I use a grinder to fashion the little nub that holds the holder in place. Presto.
I'll still go to hardware today to get a replacement part to have on hand in
case this patch-job fails.
posted 08.22.20 |
|
Stairway To Another Strudel Treat
№ 4 It's happened again. And yes,
it's almost involuntary ... when a yummy
Piece of Strudel presents itself I just have to let it run it's
course. Natch. I refer of course to "my shorthand to describe a tasty treat in layers ... like a fine pastry."
"A" leads to "B" and then "C", and so-on, and on, & on.
Strudel.
And once again that crazy clown Puddles (Mike Geier) led the
charge with a creative mash-up: the theme song to Gilligan's Island
with Led Zeppelin's legendary Stairway To Heaven. I loved it
and sought to find more which is how this whole Strudel thing really transforms
the exploration (and is also a grand way to blow a few hours). In
short order I found there were more layers! The mash-up was
actually created by a group known as Little Roger and the Goosebumps
in the early 2000's, who got sued by owners of the Led Zeppelin's
original rendition for copyright infringement. The irony here though
is that Led Zep had been sued previously by a group "Spirit" who said their
tune Taurus was the basis for Stairway's melody ... but once again,
I'm getting diverted to another tasty layer best preserved for another day.
(For context purposes, here are links to renditions by
Led Zeppelin and by
Spirit.)
Those interested in the recipe for today's taste treat, let's get back on
point: so, Puddles sings this tune and creates a video with some neat
video recollections of the Gilligan's Island story ... and I liked it a
lot. We'll call that layer
04-01, the fourth piece of strudel
described on this webpage, layer one. The next layer,
04-02, is the original
mash-up by
Little Roger and the Goosebumps, which really was pressed into vinyl
and sold in record shops (back in the day when there actually was such a
thing ... a store devoted to music & recordings ... not just a short aisle
that is slowly vanishing from the aisles of big-box stores).
As they say in those late-night infomercials on TV: but wait - there's more.
Some guy named Rikk Wolf made his version: Stairway to Wisconsin with some
creative lyrics ("There's a cheese head who's sure ... that the beers
are all cold...") Slice #3: 04-03. Not to be out-done, someone produced our 4th creative version (04-04)
Stairway to 7|11. "There's a lady who goes ... to the store
that won't close..." Great fun. But, time now to dash &
hop on my treadmill.
Previous slices of strudel: 1 |
2
| 3 (a non-musical
fat-free treat)
posted 07.20.20 |
 "Someday"
Finally Arrives
Weather throughout Central Michigan has been so warm & humid that we've
limited our time playing outdoors. A week ago I was playing in the
woods: cutting trees that had died into firewood ...
splitting most of it
by hand ... even though we rarely burn wood (which is
strudel story of a different flavor).
Anyway, it's too hot this week.
So we are watering plants & lawn and making sure
critters and winged life have access to water, giving us plenty of
time to tackle "in-door" activities including some projects that fall into
that massive category known as: "someday I'll get around to it."
At times it seems as if "someday" may never arrive, but yesterday my
personal list of pending tasks shrunk by a count of one. I fixed a
stool.
Yep. And if Roy Underhill, the
Woodwright on PBS, was over for a visit he'd be impressed that I
used a hunk of wood salvaged from a dead tree in my woods to repair the
broken stool stretcher ... even if I don't have a froe to split the
log, just like Roy.
There's some dispute here over the variety of wood
Mike pulled off the tidy stack of firewood to craft the new part ... Louise
says the orange colored heartwood may be Osage
Orange while Mike suspects its something less exotic like common
Buckthorn ...
straight, tight grain. "Easy to cut, plane and cut out the tenons ...
and since the piece has a rustic appearance it was a piece of cake to make."
A bit of stain and polyurethane, a dollop of glue, and presto: one repaired
keepsake seat that's not being tossed into the landfill.
The rustic stool is among the few tangible things I still have that came
from Drop Anchor, my family's home in Greenbush from the mid-60's to early
'80's. One of the lower stretchers broke decades ago ... snapped
right off at the tenons. 'bout time it got fixed, don'tcha think?
07.09.20 |
|
Happy 4th of July to all ... Mike's political thoughts on "issues &
thoughts" page. |
|
Mike's Bookshelf:
the latest "find"
 With
all that's been written about Thomas Edison, I was eager to see what new
perspectives I can find about the man through a fairly new biography by the
late Edmund Morris best known for his take on history of two US Presidents: Theodore
 Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
Morris' work on Edison did not disappoint - as I've learned a great deal
about the World's № 1 inventor. I can't say I
liked the approach Morris took organizing his work in reverse
... beginning with the end of Edison's life and then working backwards
through time. Certainly there was far more source material for the
author to work with in the later half of Edison's life (which would be true
for most of us).
Next
up /"on-deck": another sporting book ... a biography Louise got for
me about the famed
baseball slugger Jimmie Foxx who played 20-yrs among the stars of the golden
age of sport. I mentioned below that I'm lucky to have a really swell
Jimmie Foxx "Heads-Up" baseball card from my Dad's collection which came out in 1938.
posted 07.03.20 [previous
"bookshelf" article];
updated 09.16.20 |
|
"Clean Cole" &
"A Case For Red" ... Miscellaneous Car Talk
 No,
it's not another shameless assault on Republicans and the "clean coal"
advocates ... it's simply a play on words. You see, we enjoy naming
things around our home (High Pointe). Louise named her Beetle "Cole" short-hand for
Coleoptera. Huh?
 Well, Louise loves her bugs … as explained on
her Facebook page: "Beetles are a group of insects that form the order
Coleoptera." So that's my long-winded explanation for the photo-caption:
"Clean Cole" ...
Louise & I washed her car by hand and took care to remove some stubborn tar
stains.
Our other transportation option for
the past 15-years has been
"Red"
our hard working Chevy pick-up. Regular cab, short bed. It was
the most compact Chevy truck available at the time, unlike these behemoths
rolling down the roads today. I told Louise at the time (2005), that
Red would pay for itself ... and it's a fact.
 The
first 10-yrs Red plowed a lot of snow - in addition to our driveway, and
that of several neighbor's, and private road that the township never
touches, Red plowed. And plowed. Just the snowplowing revenue
alone paid for Red, and it's bright yellow Meyer plow, maintenance,
insurance and fuel with a ton left over. Red also hauled a
lot-o-things: dirt, rocks, furniture, even Louise's new loom! Red also
hauled tons of birdseed ... literally. J.J. Cardinal's was among the
first Michigan retail stores to sell NutraSaff, a protein rich
organic strain of safflower that our birds at High Pointe continue to enjoy.
We met with the owner of the company that developed the strain and purchased
NutraSaff wholesale requiring a jaunt to Lansing area every 3 or 4
weeks ... in eleven yrs Red & I fetched over 240,000 pounds of the stuff.
It's quite a legacy Red leaves
behind, but its now retired and we welcome another slightly smaller Chevy
Colorado pick-up that was just screaming to be called:
"Whitey"
for obvious reasons. We'll add a snowplow later this fall. The
"other Whiteys" in photo? Whitey's Fish & Chips in Davison, Mickey
Rooney tough-guy played Whitey Marsh in the 1938 classic Boys Town with
Spencer Tracy; Whitey Ford, Hall of Fame NY Yankee pitcher; and
James "Whitey" Bulger Jr., the notorious American organized crime boss.
posted 06.19.20 |
|
Mike's Bookshelf: We Can Learn From The
Past If We Study It
 There
are plenty of reasons for me to enjoy bits of history. To those
familiar with this website you know well that I tend to dwell on politics
and business a great deal - typically on my "Issues & Thoughts" page.
Many of the our current political stories and issues can be put into context
through history: take the competitive fire that legendary golfer Byron
Nelson displayed during his career. In 1945, the last full season that
he participated in the PGA tour Nelson won
18 tournaments, eleven of his wins were consecutive. Today, our
competitive sports have been benched by the pandemic, so vintage telecasts
and books offer sports fans a way to stay connected.
During his
intentionally shortened career ('32 - '46) Byron Nelson won 52 tournaments,
including 5 majors - keep in mind this included a period when most major golf
events were put on hold during WW2. Nelson opted to go out on top in
'46 when he bought a 630 acre ranch in Texas, and retire from the tour.
 The biography was a holiday gift from Louise and nicely chronicles
Nelson's amazing string of 11-consecutive wins in '45 with plenty of rich
detail about his playing partners, venues & foes. This was a much less
glamorous life on the tour compared to the modern day jet-set millionaires
we have today. Winning prize money was meager, transportation
was challenging, and even the tools of the trade: balls & clubs were scarce - affected by
war-time rationing.
Just finished this selection on Mike's Bookshelf: "D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II"
by Sarah Rose. Momma always told me not to judge a book by it's cover
... but in this case, the attractive post-art deco dust jacket caught my
eye, and the content convinced me to buy it. "The spies who armed the
resistance, sabotaged the Nazis, and helped win World War 2,"
screams the sub-header on the cover & provided ample justification ... and the
fact it's based on true stories ... made the appeal that much greater to me.
Given our current political climate and our nation's embarrassingly weak
leadership I felt I needed to consume something that was honest, real,
and
noble. During a period when Donald Trump is destroying our
relationship with our European allies, and when Republican Senators haven't
the courage to stand up to a criminal president, I needed an "inspiring story for our own moment of
resistance: a reminder of what courage—and the energy of politically animated women—can accomplish when the stakes seem incalculably high."
And the book provided that and more. It also corrected many mis-conceptions
I had on the history (like the speed of the Allies advance following the
Normandy beach landing ... took months not days like Hollywood lead me to
believe.)
posted 06.03.20 updated 07.02.20 |
|
 Stuck
In Our Pandemic Lock-down
Staying home is something that comes naturally for us during this coronavirus
pandemic ... we're home-bodies, Louise & I. But yesterday we
got seriously stuck right in our own backyard - photos to right and
below capture the terrain that caused us trouble (trouble right here in
river city .. hang on Big Guy, that's a tune that goes with a different
story).
Anyway, since mid-March we can
count on one hand how many times we've been to a grocery or drug store.
Just before the "stay home" request was issued by our highly effective Governor (That
Woman) Gretchen Whitmer we had the good sense to pick up some grass
seed & fertilizer, anticipating a few springtime yard projects. Mike
also picked up a new lawn-mower (as repairs on little red our
faithful garden
tractor, exceeds its value). Trouble is, our dealer no longer sells "garden tractors"
favoring instead a cast of "zero-turn" models
that landscapers use. "Heck, I used to be in the landscaping bid-ness,"
Mike likes to reminisce about his Blister Industries lawn care
operation in the '70's ... (but again, that's another story).
So, as grass began to sprout Mike was all set to put the new mower to work
... and it does a swell job on flat surfaces. Not so much on wet,
soggy turf. In a matter of weeks Mike's gotten "stuck" 3 times ...
right in his own yard. Embarrassing, to say the least. The
biggest problem is "turkey hollow" where all rainwater from around the house
& yard flows ... and typically is a muddy mess until late June. One
would think with that knowledge, one would avoid driving a freaking lawn
mower down into "the hollow". But nooooo. A week or so
ago Mike got stuck and needed to use a hand-cranked winch ("come-along") to
get it free.
 Given
that bit of history, how can one explain why Mike drove the mower once more
down the slippery slope? It took a couple hours to set the zero-turn
mower free. And when the yard dries up a bit, Mike will invest more
time fixing the series of ruts carved in the turf West of the solar panel
array. Says Mike: "its like quicksand - and it sucks you
in ... " but he realizes its sounding like another lame excuse.
Today, Mike began researching small power winches like his buddy Joe has
attached to the front bumper his off-road, trail-blazing Jeep. "Heck,
I was a Boy Scout for a few months as a kid ... about the best thing that
experience taught me was: be prepared". Yeah ... likely a good
idea - as is Louise's advice: "Maybe we should avoid Turkey Hollow until
July." Smart gal, that Louise.
posted 05.23.20 |
|
A panoramic view of the devastation:
 |
|
Water, water ...
Everywhere
Just heard on the news that the famous Smelt Dipping City of Omer is
submerged - and US-23 is closed temporarily. The news prompted Louise
to request that I dust off my archives of web-stories...this one from 2003.
 a town that has no H in it's name
sunflowers
Changing seasons is certainly nothing new, nor is my appreciation for the beauty around us. One day recently while driving north on US-23, roughly a mile or two north of the tiny but cute city of Omer, Michigan, I spotted this field of sunflowers. The hardy stalks swayed in the breeze. Some flower heads were past their prime, while others continued to soak up rays, determined to dazzle anyone or anything that might notice. The nearly cloudless clear blue sky contributed to the lovely scene.
fun factoids about Omer
It's one of Michigan's smallest cities, and was originally going to be named Homer but the founders discovered the name was already in use.
After learning that bit of trivia, I imagined some poor chap who hand-carved a lovely sign that read "Homer - thriving on the Rifle River" or something like that. No one wanted to waste a perfectly good board, and being justifiably proud of their work they opted to simply cut off the "H". Now, before you start scolding me for making disparaging remarks about wood carvers, or the founding citizens of Omer, remember, I said "I imagined" … it's just a tale. I do however think that is exactly how much of our "history" is generated. Regardless, it's a mighty fine sunflower field (of dreams), near a town that has no H in it's name.
"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew." - Marshall McLuhan
posted 05.19.20
[Flashback: I captured the above sunflower pix with our 1st digital
camera ... & thought we were so "high tech."] |
|
In
These Tough Economic Times ...
During the previous economic downturn '07 - '09 often referred to as the
"financial crisis" the media created a phrase that was repeated so often
it's stamped in my memory bank:
"...in these tough economic times..." And then
we'd see a news story about mindless consumer spending, or perhaps a TV
commercial promoting a fabulous new automobile - with the price tag equal to
or greater than the cost of my first home in Mott Park. I'd
shake my head at the many ways people find to drop cash ... and not plan
for the future or save for an emergency. What seems now like just an
instant ... mere months ago ... the news was filled with a story:
"Why 4 in 10 adults can't cover a $400 emergency expense."
Ouch.
The financial crisis of '07 - '09 was largely man-made ... caused by greedy
people. Just a year before the meltdown Louise & I were pondering a
chunk of property in Michigan's U.P. so we explored the prevailing mortgage
rates with our local bank. They offered us a bonus exceeding a
thousand dollars just for the privilege of taking their cash. We opted
to not acquire the property so the loan and "bonus" never materialized, but
I do recall thinking: "this is pretty stupid" (for the bank to be making
such an offer).
What we're experiencing today with this pandemic is something that is out of
every one's control ... like a natural disaster on steroids. Since
this Coronavirus story is still being written its hard to assign a title or
designation, but it's looking to be every bit as serious as the "great
depression" that began in 1929. Which is why I am glad Louise & I are
such a great match (in many ways) including basic frugality. We have
always embraced the concept of living below our means ... and take pleasure
finding ways to repair, repurpose, recycle. So, I had to chuckle when
an ad popped up on my computer screen tempting me to spend money that I
don't need to spend. A new $75 "wallet"? Laughable. My
wallet is a nice, fat rubber band and I get a new one just about every month
from the grocery store from a bunch of broccoli or asparagus! And,
much like my nerves, they tend to snap under pressure ... temporary fix: tie
a knot. |
|
 |
|
A Very Stable Genius
- highly recommended reading for every voter in America
 One
writer called it a "terrifying book". And, "among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s
shambolic tenure in office." After a steady diet of
biographies read over the past few years I confess I worried slightly that I'd
have trouble getting into a political synopsis given how much time I already devote to
the news. I tend to watch little else on television, my radio dial is
set for NPR, but I do have WJR preset for those occasions I can
stomach a few minutes of elRushbo. (That's Rush Limbaugh for
his listeners in Rio Linda.)
I read less prodigiously than Louise, but so do 99.99% of the people on this
planet. I have several biographies on my stack of must read books
like one about golfing legend Byron Nelson ... and had thought maybe I'd
alternate between 2 books: a biography & a political summary.
But when I got into A Very Stable Genius I was quickly captivated by the
detail and the way it supplemented details I was already familiar with.
The format follows Trump's occupation of the White House
chronologically so it's easy to follow and quite compelling.
And with Trump feeling more embolden & empowered now after Republicans were
afraid to remove him from office when they had a chance, the President has
embarked on a dangerous course of action: firing several Inspectors General,
turning the WH's Brady Press Room into the Trump Re-election Daily
Dump of his insane & illogical chaotic ramblings and ill-advised
policies. He's attacked the travelers, democrats, the media, Obama,
China, the US Postal Service, the WHO (world health org), the Voice of
America (seriously - in the midst of a global pandemic, he's attacking a
radio network for being too liberal). True to form the Donald has
attacked virtually all women he's had to deal with the past few months (MI
Gov Whitmer, GM's Mary Bara, PBS's Yamiche Alcindor, CBS's Paula Reid &
Weija Jiang). One minute he seems to be unhinged & losing it; then the next
day he flip-flops & reverses himself. He claims to care mostly about
the nation's economy, yet signals nothing but uncertainty to investors on
Wall Street who clamor for stability & certainty.
Other than partially restricting travel (after it was too late to have any
positive impact) the Donald has done nothing to help constrain the
Coronavirus outbreak in the US of
A. We have no national testing strategy or national testing
program, no coordination of material & equipment supply chain issues, nor a
national plan regarding medical & emergency staffing. He's attempted
to take credit (for what?) while he's refusing to take responsibility.
Then he claims "the President, not the governors & mayors" have absolute
power ... "the authority is total." A day later he reverses himself
when he realizes that the power he wanted to assume opens himself and his
administration to attack and blame if things do not go well. "He
doesn't really want to assume responsibility for anything," WH observers
say.
So all, in all, given the crazy stuff happening in Washington, voters have
to be prepared with fact and remain highly motivated to ensure we don't have
to put up with this guy for the next 4-yrs.
Too busy to read? Try the
audio book link: PRH Audio on
SoundCloud
© Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, Penguin Press, New York, 2020
posted 04.19.20 |
|
Groping for
positives during Pandemic? Next to the phone there's nothing better.
 Noticeable
decline in robo-calls and unwanted telephone solicitations
Knock-on-wood, our home phone hasn't been ringing anywhere near as often as
it was 2-months ago. It was typical to receive 6-8 calls daily from
scam-artists trying to extract cash from my wallet. Or, those trying
to get us to sign-up for their Medicare plan ... or, a low-low interest
credit card. How about someone from Microsoft (or Apple)
struggling to communicate in their broken-English:
"may I speak to Louis?"
Sorry, sport, no Louis here. Then a chemical lawn application firm
offers to rid our home
of unsightly weeds, bugs, critters & wildlife [your pick].
Or, perhaps we need to show our appreciation for our nation's wounded
warriors, fire fighters, police [again, your choice].
All this
silence got me thinking back ... sort of a flashback when phone calls were
far more rare and far more exciting! We'd all come a running
to the phone strategically located in my parent's house. The vintage
Bell System ad (right) reminded me of this delightful phenomenon.
Likely this will be just a brief pause from telemarketing calls that always
seem to come during meal-time ...
likely call centers had to shut down in hotbed communities due to the spreading virus. After all, these
robo-callers have to be
chomping at the bit with all of their prospects staying home. "It's like shooting fish in a barrel!"
The ad copy below the headline:
"Is it
for ME?" You kind of hope it is - for good news and good times often come
your way by telephone. Maybe it's a date for sister Sue. Or a business
call for Dad. Or Bill asking if Jimmie can go to the movies. Or
Grandma calling Mother to find out if things are all right. And
everything is more likely to be all right when there's a telephone in the
home. In many, many ways, the telephone is a real friend of the
family. And the cost is small - just pennies a call.
Aw,
reminds me of those swell Hallmark card ads from that Leave It To
Beaver world ... "when you care enough to send the very best". posted
04.10.20 by a retired "Bell-head"
updated 09.22.20 - yes, a few months into the pandemic & telemarketing calls
are once again interrupting dinner hour.
|
|
Slices
of Strudel Turn Up In The Craziest Places
Strudel? Yep. This is actually my 3rd slice! And if you're
unfamiliar with the term here's a fat-free
HOT LINK to slices
#1 & #2.
"A piece of strudel" ... my shorthand to describe a tasty treat in
layers ... like a fine pastry." As Haley Reinhart says in
my strudel slice #2: It's A Mad World. Well, this
little journey is courtesy from brother John who had recently spotted a photo below/left of the "Mich-a-Gander" resort hotel in Oscoda, MI from the '40s:
"Looks like the Pack House; could it be?" I thought John was
spot-on correct but I did a quick plunge into the internet machine to see
for myself ... and sure enough: "you nailed it ... windows are in the same place, the dormer on the front has the same structural detail … same roof … even the bump-out on north side (likely a window to illuminate the stairway since it's located between 1st & 2nd floor) … I'd say your photo captured the
Pack House before the handicap ramp was built … before the parking
lot was paved … before the tree was cut down." The Pack House (and it's Rathskeller
subterranean pub) was a popular dining destination when we lived in
nearby Greenbush ('70's). I can not recall ever knowing if the
place had ever been a
"hotel" But that was indeed the case. Fifteen charming rooms
said one historical website for the Huron Shores Genealogical Society (HSGS).
Naturally, the joy of discovery didn't end there ... 'cuz there was another article
that said the mansion was
built in 1878 by a local lumber baron named Pack and his lumber mill was
located directly across the street. Lumbering was big throughout
Northern Michigan and quickly became the #1 business
in Iosco County in 1865. Some sources said the "most valuable pine timber was gone
by 1870" particularly along the AuSable River basin. Another source reported it wasn't until 1890
when the
region hit it's "peak production: AuSable & Oscoda produced 324,503,531 feet of lumber."
That was 25-years after Henry Loud was the managing partner at Loud,
Priest & Shepard - one of the largest employers of lumbermen in Oscoda.
These hard working guys made 75¢ a day ... a 12-hour
day ... likely 6-days a week. Ouch.
Just as the forest was largely depleted a massive fire
broke-out in 1911 and wiped out the entire community (colorized image
below/center). It took decades for the area to recover, financially.
 |
"... I
say, old chap. This lie calls for a mashie niblick!"
As mentioned below, after reading a swell book about Red Grange,
1930's era football star, I set out to tackle an autobiography by Francis
Ouimet, U.S. Golf Open Champion. I'm about half-way thru it
and enjoying the book tremendously, but it's taking a bit longer than I
thought - mainly 'cuz I find myself translating quite a bit of the content.
Example ... Ouimet writes:
The thirteenth hole at Flossmoor was a very short one, calling for a
mashie niblick pitch. The green sloped abruptly from right to left,
ordinarily the player tries to place his ball on the upper part,
allowing for the slope to turn his ball toward the center of the green.
A mashie niblick? Louise gave me a link to a great
website: "Golf Clubs?
Mashies and Niblicks, Baffies and Spoons — Sorting Them All Out" They
say: "back in the early days ... golf clubs in a set were not identified by
number (e.g., 5-iron), but by name. There were clubs called mashies, niblicks and mashie-niblicks, among others ...
[which] had the role of the 7-iron". Ok, a 7-iron ... now I can relate.
We saw the movie: The Greatest Game Ever Played based on the true story of
20-yr old Ouimet's victory over reigning champion Harry Vardon at the 1913
US Open. What I did not know was Ouimet would enjoy a long, successful
amateur career winning 28 tournaments including the US Amateur title (twice)
and the French Amateur championship.
posted 03.09.20 |
|
 Another
star from the "golden era of sport": Red Grange
That's the topic of the latest book I've had the pleasure reading:
'Red'
Grange - The life & legacy of the NFL's first Superstar. The book was
a gift from Louise and part of my deep dive into the characters who gave
Americans something to cheer about in the 1920's & 30's.
My current
interest stems from my father's childhood sports card collection that
Louise & I
dove into in 2018. Dad's cards stashed away for decades in a green
metal tackle box didn't include 'Red' Grange's football card so Mike bought it
... 1933 Sport Kings from the Goudey Gum Co. [link
to Mike's collection].
The Grange card from this landmark series tend to be rare & expensive so initially I
was just gonna' get a budget minded "reprint"
... but then found a nice one for a price I was willing to pay, and have it
framed with 13 other legends from the golden era of sport. Grange
is a 3-time All-American running back/defensive back from the University of
Illinois ... who signed with the Chicago Bears in 1925. Harold Grange teamed
with Hall-of-Famers like George Halas and Bronko Nagurski
to win 2 NFL titles in '32 &
'33. After Grange's playing days were over he coached a few
years and then got into writing & broadcasting - both radio & TV - and in
his free-time: sold insurance.
I'm debating which book on my stack of "must read" volumes will be next: an
autobiography from Francis Ouimet, America's 1st US Open golf champion ...
or A Very Stable Genius - Donald J. Trump's testing of America by
Phil Rucker & Carol Leonnig. Given that this week is Super Tuesday
(primary elections for 1/3 of the country) it may be wise to tackle the
book that addresses our current problem: a White House occupant unfit &
unsuited for the job. I know, I know ... politics are s'posed to be
banned on this page and discussed only on my "issues &
thoughts" page. Well, that's the nice thing about being self-employed
and the master of my own universe: I get to flip-flop and not feel the
slightest bit of remorse ... after all, the majority of Americans agree:
the Donald needs to be removed from office even if the GOP hasn't the
spine to do it. If you disagree, read the book mentioned and let me know
where it's factually inaccurate.
 posted 03.01.20 [hard to believe it's March already!]
update 03.02.20 - watched President Trump addressing conservative
whack-a-doodle CPAC convention where the Donald called the corona virus
a "hoax" and blamed Democrats ... naturally I nearly vomited. With
"super Tuesday" primary elections looming I suspect I'll have my fill of
factually challenged "news" & will welcome an escape hatch. Yep, I
opted to read Francis Ouimet autobiography and will
tackle A Very Stable Genius next week. Besides, the Ouimet book is
short: under 300 small pages featuring large type ... published in 1932.
There just so many elements & rich detail to the Ouimet story and his
unexpected victory at the 1913 US Golf Open ... defeating legendary Harry
Varden ... living literally across the street from the course ... the ages
of the winning team: a 20-yr old amateur & his 10-yr old caddie!
Should be swell. |
|
 Say
It Ain't So: Oblio Turns 50?? Yikes.
Friends of ours posted a note on Facebook about an
NPR story
celebrating the fiftieth birthday of The
Point. Scott Simon says:
"Harry Nilsson's concept album The Point turns fifty this year; to celebrate, the 1971 animated film adapted from the music will be released digitally and on BluRay for the first time. Nilsson, a beloved if occasionally overlooked writer of late 1960s pop hits, died in 1994, but his strange and endearing fairy tale album still resonates with those that remember it."
Digital? Cool, where do I sign up?
I do take exception however, with depicting the musical as "strange" and I just don't
quite understand why Harry is so often overlooked given the volume of work
that he produced ... but I am thrilled to finally figure out how to get
"Simon says"
into a sentence posted above.
I've been a huge fan of The Point ever since it was released as an album
(still own it) and as a TV special and then finally: as a movie! RCA wanted to beef-up the credits
on the film so they hired Ringo Starr of Beatles fame to handle the narration,
but I actually prefer the original story telling on the album by Harry himself,
who wrote and produced the songs and the story. (I don't recall if I
ever heard the Dustin Hoffman narration on the TV special.)
So what's the story, you ask? It's a fun one: The Point is a fable that tells the story of a boy named
Oblio, the only round-headed person in the Pointed Village, where by law everyone
and everything must have a point. Everyone has one ... that's the way
they wanted it, and that's the way it's gonna' stay! In the land of
Point ... every thing and every one had a point. Oblio's
best friend is his handsome and empathetic dog, Arrow, and the round-headed
Oblio wears a pointed hat to conceal his "pointless" condition from his pointy-headed peers.
It's a rich story about acceptance and resisting authoritarian
pointlessness!
 The
album is rich with information about the Land of Point and it's residents
... including a rich illustrated storyboard depicting Nilsson's stories.
Artists even put a point on Nipper, the famous RCA Master's Voice logo
(shown left).
Plenty of music fans consider Nilsson to be the most important musician to
NOT be in our Rock-n-Roll Hall Of Fame ... a wrong that needs
to be righted.
posted 02.16.20 [minor tweaking 02.17.20] |
CDC study
identifies the laziest states in America
To remain focused on my personal weight loss efforts I find it helpful to
view myself much like the blockbuster movie
WALL·E depicted most all human
life forms who trashed planet Earth. Not familiar with the movie?
Likely you can find a copy at your local library, or, like the fellow eating
lunch on the sofa (left) you can stream it at home.
Quick-plot-summary: rampant consumerism and environmental neglect have turned Earth into a garbage-strewn wasteland
in the 29th century. Humanity is nowhere to be found, having been evacuated by the megacorporation
Buy-N-Large (BnL) on giant
star liners 7 centuries earlier. The couple wearing red suits (below left)
illustrate the affect their sedentary lifestyle has had on Earthling
descendants who made the giant star liners "home". Of the robotic trash compactors left by BnL to clean up
Earth, only one remains operational: a Waste Allocation Load-Lifter
- Earth Class ... hence, WALL·E.
Not real happy with this story line? Blame
FOX News who recently reported: "The Centers for Disease Control
& Prevention (CDC) this month released its findings from a recent study on physical inactivity levels across the U.S. The study, which combined data from 2015 through 2018
... overall, all states and territories had more than 15 percent of adults who were considered physically inactive. Physical inactivity was determined if they responded “no” to the question: “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?” In particular, seven
MAGA states: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee
& Kentucky – reported the highest levels of inactivity. In these states, 30 percent or more of adults were physically inactive.
Colorado, Washington, Utah, Oregon and the District of Columbia were the most active areas in the nation."
(Not sure if it's significant but all 'cept UT are considered to be "blue
states".) Time for me to hop back on the treadmill ... then, I'll need to
carve-out some time to watch impeachment proceedings which begin today.
posted 01.21.20 |
 New
Feature Added By Popular DemandOkay, that's a stretch, but
last month I mentioned discovering
some music that was new to my ears using that technique most of us have
encountered but did not have an official name ... so I called the process:
"A piece of strudel" ... my shorthand to describe a tasty treat in
layers ... like a fine pastry." You find one thing of interest
on the internet and next thing you know you find a dozen more things, and
well, there goes a perfectly good morning. "A" leads to "B" and then
"C", and so-on, and on, & on.
In last month's Strudel I mentioned finding a cute little tune ... a duet
sung by that creepy clown, Puddles (Mike Geier) & Haley Reinhart. The song,
"Mad World" was written Roland Orzabal in 1982 & performed by the British band
Tears for Fears, sung by bassist Curt Smith back when MTV was the rage. Well, I liked the
original version, and especially liked what Puddles & Reinhart did with the
song ... so following the natural progression of things, I wondered: who else
has recorded the tune? Enter layer #2:
Janet Devlin a singer / songwriter from
Northern Ireland who has an excellent but rather sad version ... and that lead
to layer #3: Gary
Jules who sings a slightly more upbeat, positive rendition. But
wait! There's more, as I stumble upon layer #4 ... Gary's version of "Mad World" was incorporated into
a creative movie-short: "Mad World Remix of Moby Video" an absolutely amazing animation by Steve Cutts which "tells a powerful story, with or without the music."
Well worth viewing ... just love the way Cutts depicts all the mindless
souls walking about with their faces buried deep into their "smart phones"
almost trance-like. If, however, all of this talk about strudel has awakened other
parts of your brain and made your tummy growl, here's a fun little apple strudel
recipe you may wish to try at home. (Or dash out and buy a box of
Pop-Tarts, America's mass-produced version of fine French pastry.) posted 01.15.20 |
 |
Mike's book shelf ...
rich with history
“I’ve always wanted to write a book about people we never heard of,” said McCullough,
two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author. McCullough checked that
bucket-list item with the publication of his latest historical book: "The
Pioneers" which Louise got for me last year. She knows I'm a huge
McCullough fan having read just about all he's written. The Johnstown
Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas,
Mornings on Horseback, Truman, John Adams, The Wright
Brothers. She also gave me a copy of 1776 which I struggled
at the time to develop an interest and never finished. The Pioneers
may provide the context to help me try once again. McCullough's books
were a great companion back in the 80's & 90's when I was a young-pup
salesman out on the road ... they gave me a bit of inspiration & knowledge
as well as purpose (vs. doing stupid stuff some traveling sales folks do
when "on the road again").
McCullough's Pioneers chronicled the
migration of Americans into the "Northwest Territory" (Ohio) beginning in
1787 which expanded West into what is now known as Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan & Wisconsin. The massive chunk of land was ceded by the
British in 1783, and McCullough follows the creation of the "Ohio Company"
to populate America's new Western regions including the courageous quest of
America's pioneering settlers & surveyors. It's a worthy read.
On deck: a biography on Red Grange -
America's first pro-football superstar. (Two other biographies were
found under the Christmas tree this year, so this is no time to dawdle ...
both books chronicle lives of some of American golfers: Byron Nelson &
Francis Ouimet.)
posted 01.11.20
|
|
 Mike
Wins Championship Game - Not Enough; Louise Wins High Pointe Bowl Pickers
Contest
So Mike picks LSU to win the big game while Louise
was rooting for Clemson. The final score (42 - 25)
overwhelming favored Mike, but the rest of the contest belonged completely to
Louise. She owned it this year. If you're totally in the dark
we'll try to 'splain: each year around this time Mike & Louise watch
excessive amounts of football at all levels: high school, college &
professional ... and then if we're not totally brain-dead we attempt to
select the winning teams participating in the major college bowl games.
We call it the High Pointe Bowl Pickers contest. And this year Louise's
12 game margin of victory established a new household record. Mike picked
losers more often than winners (19-22). In the nine years we've
done this - the largest margin of victory was 6 wins ... in 2013, Louise won
22 to 16. The national championship game was a fun finale to our
household contest but in reality, Louise secured her victory after the
infamous Belk Bowl way back in 2019.
(Above photo:
Ohio Univ. celebrates it's 30-21 Famous Idaho Potato
Bowl win over Nevada by dumping
French Fried potatoes on coach Frank Solich.)
How did this get started? Well,
decades of ineptitude by the Detroit Lions tends to drive
fans crazy - it stands to reason that we would move on ... namely
to high school & college football. We started our annual contest in 2011 ... you may have read about it
in Mike's article: "He
Lacked" (story archived here). And, it's no wonder
Louise has dominated the event in recent years. She does her homework.
And we're not talking
about simply reading headlines off some
Twitter-feed! "Every bowl season, Mike prints out an
official
High Pointe Pickers
sheet so we can
keep track which team we pick & game results," Louise says. "I read articles
like: which team has a rookie quarterback or which key players are injured ... coaches retiring
or fired … teams with awesome defense or offence, etc. I also take into consideration their travel time to the bowl game and it may affect the team, etc."
updated 01.15.20
|
historical:
2020-21: pandemic - no contest here.
2019-20: Louise won! 31-19 (new record)
2018-19: Louise won! 16-15
2017-18: Louise won! 22-20
2016-17:
Louise won! 24-22
|
2015-16: Mike won 25 to 20
2014-15: Mike won 19 to 16
2013-14: Louise won 22 to 16
2012-13: Mike won 24 to 17
2011-12: Louise won 18 to 14. |
|
  Like
A Kid ... Again
Sort of like "show-n-tell" when you were a kid ... here are some of
Mike's favorite Christmas presents ... an official vintage Walter Hagen
golf ball from brother John, and neat display case from Louise ... the ball
goes with the Hagen Sport Kings card and biography mentioned a few months
ago [link]. Louise also got
us the cute model of the 1940's GM Futurliner
... one of 12 rolling exhibition vehicles that took information and science
"to the people" at state fairs and other venues back in the day.
So where did Louise get this brilliant idea to buy Mike a model of the GM
Futurliner (above)? Well, as many of us are prone to do, Mike was
surfing the web one day and spotted these photos below of the 1941
Western Flyer vintage RV designed by
a guy named Clifford Brooks Stevens ...
who as it turns out, designed all sorts of amazingly cool stuff. All
sorts of vehicles, including the famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!
Boats, motorcycles, household appliances. In researching the Western
Flyer, Mike stumbled upon the GM's Parade of Progress and their
Futurliners. If you're thinking: "hey, this sounds a bit like
the strudel story below, you would be right.
The point is: we used to actually build neat stuff
like this in America. With a bit of courage, we can again.
[more pix of the
Western Flyer, inside &
out]
posted 12.31.19 - updated 01.02.20 |
  Mom
was a fairly crafty LadyThis time of year as I open the box of
holiday ornaments & decorations I find examples of my mother's
arts-n-crafts like this cute little Jack-In-The-Box
figure. Mom captured the picture to the right of Grandma posing with
some of her crafts back in 1980 when she was making tons of these types of
things to sell in church fund raisers and little gifts for grand kids.
We affectionately call it "Mom's Plastic Canvass Era" ... she'd cut out
pieces of a flat plastic grid material and using colorful scraps of yarn
she'd create hundreds of various objects ... bookmarks, 3-D statue-like
figures, Santa & Mrs. Claus dolls, snowmen, clowns, Raggedy Andy
and Raggedy Ann dolls.
[link to a YouTube clip showing the
process of making this sort of stuff] |
|
A Piece of Strudel in just 3 clicks: Mike
Geier to Jeff Goldblum |
 |
|
Huh? "A piece of strudel"? It's my shorthand to
describe a tasty treat
in layers ... like a fine pastry. This morning on YouTube I was
checking out that emotional singing talent of Mike Geier. Some folks may
be more familiar with his Puddles persona (as in Puddles Pity Party).
Geier is a giant ... a menacing character at 6'-8" ... has enjoyed modest
success as a solo act cabaret singer and member of musical groups like Kingsized.
Don't recall where I first heard or saw that creepy clown, Puddles ...
matters not. But I'll confess I've become quite a fan - love his
renditions of Nature Boy, Under Pressure, Blue Moon, and that mash-up of
Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison & Pinball Wizard by the Who. Very
creative. So today I was listening to straight Geier, sans grease paint.
You know the time-wasting cyber routine: YouTube doesn't want
one-and-done listeners ... they make $$$ by keeping users exposed to the
ads they sell. At the song's conclusion YouTube programmers
offer-up more temptations to keep me connected. So, the music video of
Geier led to Puddles which then led to a duet Puddles & Haley Reinhart, a
talented & perky jazz singer I had previously not heard of ... [click] ...
which leads to a duet of Reinhart and actor Jeff Goldblum of Independence
Day / Jurassic Park fame. I had no idea Goldblum had aspirations of
being a lounge lizard. Very nice.
Here's the string:
Geier
to Puddles to
Puddles/Reinhart to
Reinhart/Goldblum ... or, you can always create your own tasty strudel.
Happy holidays.
posted 12.17.19 |
 Ripley's
Room Is Home For The Holidays
We opted for a smaller Christmas tree this year & decided to set it up in the den. Why? Well, smaller trees are dwarfed in the living room and it's cathedral ceiling. Also, we figured the newly framed sports cards hanging out in the den
(see articles below) would really get into the holiday spirit & the festivities around High Pointe this Christmas.
Yep, that includes the
Sport Kings groups and the Ruth/Cochran/Gehringer group and the other six card '30s era
framed cards shown below. After all, Paul Richard, Heinie Manush and the rest of the gang have spent much of the last 86-years stuffed in old cigar boxes stashed away in attics and basements all over the globe. They are having an absolute
riot bein' on display as is Ripley who is certain we put up this yr's tree just for him
... his heated bed is located in the den … or rather, Ripley's Room as he prefers to call it.
ho, ho.
posted 12.14.19 |
|
Movie files for family to download
Louise & Mike hosted Thanksgiving this year and besides showing the pathetic
Lions football game as is customary, we also played "Gignac family movies".
Several of our nephews acted as if it was the 1st time they saw Mike's
Scan-A-Slide project compiled earlier in the year turning a box filled
with family photos. So, we promised to give 'em the following links to
replay & copy & save the files once they got home:
gignac-family-album--the-movie.mp4
gignac family photos - part two.mp4
Don't dawdle, fellas ... these files will be removed in early 2020 from my
web-server. [posted 11.28.19] |
 |
|
|
|
Mission Accomplished: vintage baseball cards -
framed at last!
 Okay, so it took nearly a year ... I kept picking up new additions to the
collection but held off pulling the trigger before
getting 'em framed. I figured, what's the rush? Some of the
'new
cards' are 105-yrs old ... somehow I suspect these guys are used to waiting.
But thru the year I've posted pictures of some of these new acquisitions
[links connect previous articles, below] and I figured you may be curious to
see how they turned-out.
New additions - Babe Ruth,
flanked by fellow Hall of Famers: Cochran & Gehringer ... as described
earlier in the year, these classic baseball cards
are from 1933 & 1934. [enlarged view of unframed
cards]
|
 Golden
era of sport - 14 cards from what has become my favorite group of 1933
Goudey cards: Sport Kings ... the 1st multi-sport collection that
featured both male and female athletic stars.[enlarged view of unframed cards
& more info]
 |
The World Seemed Somewhat
Brighter, More Vibrant & Cheerful In 1948 - something radically different from Leaf Gum Co.
Meet my newly framed collection of brilliantly designed Leaf sports cards.
Two baseball players. Four football players. While they were not
part of my Dad's collection, I've learned a fair amount about sports
collectibles during the "golden age of sport". And over time I fell
for these in a big way - they were so different from everything else
available at the time. When I first acquired these good looking cards
earlier this summer I posted a brief article introducing the players ...
take a peak [here]. |
|
 |
|
It's always fun when I find the source image/photo used to create these vintage cards
from '33 and '34-'35. My new framed group of mostly "commoners"
features HOF outfielder: Heinie Manush, lower right. As a kid I
played catcher in our local Little League baseball squads, which may be why
I appreciate the catcher, Paul Richards (bottom row, center). His
pose reminds me of "Field of Dreams" character John Kinsella (father of Ray…Kevin Costner's character). Rounding out this
hard-working squad: Jim Elliott, Bob O'Farrell, Flint Rhem, & Baxter Byerly
"Buck" Jordan.
 Jordan
played in the majors 10-yrs ... 8-yrs for the Boston Bees. (I just
love that team name ... the Bees!) The cereal makers of
Wheaties produced some of the greatest looking cards of the era ...
including this high-impact card featuring "Buck" - click the link on the card thumbnail
to see & learn more. No, it's not in my collection, but you've
gotta' admit: it is pretty jazzy!
I don't know a lot about the top-row fellows (Elliott,
O'Farrell, Rhem) but hopefully I'll learn something about their careers ... I
bought 'em largely 'cuz I like the "look" of the trio as if they're in the midst
of gettin' warmed-up before their next game. Play ball!
posted 11.25.19 |
 40-Years Flashing Before Our
Eyes...
Literally.
Louise & I just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary and part of
the shared joy that we've experienced is being relived by way of one of our
more beloved TV programs: This Old House on PBS. Thanks to
video streaming services we just finished watching the only episode we did
not see completely when it first aired in 1979. We bought our first
home together in late summer of '79 and proceeded to tackle a few household
projects [link to photos].
There was no shower in the bathroom but with some help from my buddy Ed, we
added one. College pal Terry even drove up from Adrian, MI to do the
plumbing, which we have always been extremely grateful and appreciative.
Humbling.
We were in the Flint house just about 3-yrs before moving to something far
larger than we needed in Grand Blanc where we tackled still more challenging
home improvement and repair projects inspired by This
 Old
House. We got rather good at it.
The program has continued thru the years and now begins their 41st season.
While they're on their 3rd host many of the building pros (Norm, master
carpenter, and Rich, plumbing & heating) have been on the show since the
first episode ... and I think we've watched 'em all. And now, thanks
to the streaming service, we're going to replay some of the early projects
and reminisce a bit. Some of the early design choices
are a crack-up in retrospect. The Dorchester House above
featured a complete gut & total renovation of the kitchen & bathroom; upon
seeing the show some 40-yrs after the original airing we laughed rather hard
seeing the pumpkin orange kitchen counter-top laminate (right) that was
selected. Even the early PBS logo is cute.
posted 10.07.19
update-1: 12.15.19 Mike just discovered that the original theme
music for TOH is a song performed by Fats
Waller called Louisiana Fairytale ... used to greet viewers from
1979 to 2002. Since then producers of the PBS program have burned thru
four alternate theme songs which tells me they shouldn't have messed with
the original! Oh,
and I learned that the late-great Leon Redbone also recorded another sweet
rendition of Louisiana Fairytale ... [worthy listening].
update-2: 03.10.20 Finally completed an inventory of TOH
episodes - we continue to watch a half-dozen original shows each week ...
1,036 total. At our current "view rate" it'll take nearly 3½
years to watch 'em all. Then we can move on to Norm Abram's "New
Yankee Workshop"! Joy. |
 Learning
More About Some Legends of Pro-football
Earlier this summer I mentioned acquiring a small group of neat-looking
sports cards created in 1948 by the Leaf Gum Co.
shown below. I got 2 baseball and 4
football cards which caught my eye largely because of their design
and the colorization technique used to produce these post-WW2 beauties.
The fabulous expression on a card for George Taliaferro was the 1st
purchase, followed by Clyde "Bulldog" Turner. I had read about
Turner in the Bronko Nagurski biography mentioned below ... he was a rough &
tumble Texan who played center & linebacker for the Chicago Bears 1940-52,
back when it was common for players to play on both sides of the ball,
offense & defense.
But I knew next to nothing about Taliaferro.
I know a bit more today, though, thanks to a biography Louise got for me
written by Dawn Knight: Taliaferro - Breaking Barriers From The NFL Draft
To The Ivory Tower. When the card was printed and distributed,
Taliaferro was still playing college ball at Indiana University - an
All-American triple threat player who excelled at quarterback, halfback, and
record setting punter!
As a freshman Taliaferro lead the Hoosier to their only undefeated season in
1945 and champions of the Big Ten. Some thought it may have been
premature for Leaf to produce the card so early in Taliaferro's career but
when he was selected in the 1949 NFL draft, he became the 1st
African-American football player in the modern era. While there were
several Black pro-football players decades earlier, the league had become
segregated thru much of the 1920's into the 40's. Another book Louise gave
me, Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football by Robert W. Peterson, has a great chapter identifying other early African-American
players prior to the formation of the NFL.
One nagging question I had has also been settled. I spent way too
much time pondering the
jersey number #79 shown above on the cover of the book and the '48 Leaf
football card ... my research showed Taliaferro wore #44 during his college
days at IU and never wore #79 during his professional career (LA Dons: #93; NY Yanks #20; Dallas Texans #20; Baltimore Colts #20; Philadelphia Eagles #24).
I wrote to the author and to the college and one of the assistant athletic
directors, Mark Deal, kindly responded: "Pictures taken before the season and in practice often in those days had players wearing either a jersey number from practice, or a jersey that was either with no number or a number randomly chosen. This is what happened in this case."
Since Mark's father was an All-American tackle and captain on the same 1945
Big Ten Champion Hoosier team (and former IU player himself) I feel
confident that now I know "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used
to say. Thanks Mark! And thank you Ms. Knight for writing this great book. posted 09.15.19,
updated 09.16.19 |
 This
Is Not What Real News Looks Like
We've all seen articles like this that appear quite literally in pop-up
messages online. And while I hate to be the one to "break it to you"
... this is not real news. Here I was reading a report from
CBS News:
Mattis takes swipe at Trump in new book:
"I did as well as I could for as long as I could"
... sub-headline: "Ex-Defense
Secretary Mattis breaks silence."
Then up pops the eggs and pseudo investment advice which I tend to be a
sucker for; if there's a story about savings, retirement, 401K or IRA plans,
compound interest, Treasury Bonds ... typically, I gravitate along that path
& I read 'em. The Google and other cookies my PC has captured knows
this and finds ways to deliver just the sort of time-wasting material for me
to notice, and hopefully click-thru-n-read.
As folks have seen on my other
webpage "issues
& thoughts" I tend to read quite a few government reports and
serious political news about local, state & Federal government issues.
Not that I read anywhere near as much as Louise (my Kindle lovin' bud), but
I do delve into things. Example: this year there have been quite
a few reports of contaminated drinking water - beyond those
Flint's Got Lead in it's
Drinking Water stories that perhaps you're tired of hearing
about. (Though you have to admit ... it's not every day that folks find metallic elements flowing from their faucets.) Some
people simply tune-out when they've reached a saturation point. The
new reports about contaminated drinking water I'm referring to are those
involving PFAS ... Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances manufactured and used
in a variety of industries around the globe, including in the US
of A
since the 1940s. [source for mo-info]
And each month, on the first Friday of the month, around 8:30 a.m., EDT,
you'll find me hanging out at the Bureau Of
Labor Statistics waiting for the jobs report. I know, I know, it's
been going up every month, consecutively ... month in & month out ... for
over 10-years. Has been since the Obama/Biden administration cleaned
up the last mess Republicans left behind. But I'll leave raw political
discussions on the "issues
& thoughts" page ... it's just that there can be quite a
bit of over-lap in my bald but beautiful head.
The point intended here is more cultural. With so many people
obsessed with social media and their eyes constantly glued to various
Smart devices I worry that people look at the eggs above and consider
that to be news. Join me in saying the next line really fast:
"it's not."
posted 08.29.19 |
 Decluttering
Can Be Fun (and rewarding!)
As mentioned previously we're having a great deal of fun decluttering our
home and selling stuff we really don't need through eBay online. We
joke about all the items we either threw away or donated to outfits like
Goodwill Industries years
ago ... today we sell things online that I hadn't perceived to be of value.
Both Louise & I scour thru cabinets, boxes and closets to locate the items -
Louise handles the listings & we both haul stuff to the P.O. for shipping.
We joke with each other that the proceeds affords us a Senior Dinner every
once-in-awhile.
Case in point, these discs for America Online upgrades used to be
handed out for free at the post office or included free with just about
every personal computer sold in the 1990's. We had one unopened
package that contained a compact disc that just sold on eBay for $9.80 +
postage. We sold an old "Dexter No. 3" steel pencil sharpener from the
late 1930's that was missing it's cover: $6 + s/h. The pencil
sharpener was in a box of miscellaneous tools I got from my Grandfather over
30-yrs ago. (An old, empty Chock full o'Nuts coffee can ... "♪♪♪
that Heavenly coffee ♪♪..." that we
found in the same box also sold!) What a great
country! |
|
No swimming rule debunked...
 This
past Sunday woulda' been Mom's 95th birthday. A story on NPR reminded
me of her, not that I needed the reminder, but it still put a smile on my
face. I grew up on one of Michigan's Great Lakes ... Lake Huron was
essentially our front yard up in Greenbush. Gads, what a time we had
there as kids! But I heard a radio story the other day that debunked one of the rules that defined
our childhood: "No swimming for 30-minutes after eating" ... or was it an hour we
had to wait? The fear was: full tummy - we'd get cramps and be unable
to get to shore. "You'll get a cramp because you haven't digested your
lunch. And then you'll drown," or so went the scare tactic. And so we
waited — I mean, was it 100 percent? Of course not, but still, no one
took the chance to find out. Still clinging to the myth? Here's
a handy [link] so you too can update
yourself. I don't swim much these days, but I do enjoy these
recollections.
posted 07.30.19 |
 ...love
and be loved in return...♪♪
Ok, I'll confess. I'm driving Louise a little bit nuts this morning as I play countless renditions of
Nature
Boy - an early hit for Nat King Cole in 1948. We've heard
versions performed by Frank
Sinatra, Cher, Shirley Bassey, Sarah Vaughn, Radka Toneff, Jose Feliciano,
Demis Roussos, Bobby Darin, Stephane Grappeli, Etta Jones, Bobby Scott, Natalie Cole,
George Benson, Johnny Mathis, Celine Dion (can't believe I now have one of
her recordings). Even found one version by a Swedish acapella singing troupe:
the Real Group, and another by Mike Geier who performs these days as
Puddles Pity Party in full creepy clown regalia (personally, I like
the YouTube version from Sandra Sherman
who's mash-up includes her classic guitar accompaniment to Geier's original
video). Here's a soulful jazz version by Abbey Lincoln recorded in 1995 on her album "A Turtle's Dream".
The writer of the song,
George McGrew changed his name to "eden ahbez" (yes, intentional lower case). Reportedly he was one of America's first "hippies" and lived
in a cave near Palm Springs, CA where he wrote Nature Boy - he gave a copy
to Nat King Cole's manager & asked that the singer take a look at it.
King loved it and began playing the song in his live performances.
However, before recording the tune King sought permission from it's
writer & had a challenging time tracking down the long-haired
vagabond. [read more]
The song was also used in several feature films including The Boy With
Green Hair.
Nature Boy
There was a boy
A very strange, enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far
Very far, over land and sea
A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise was he And then one day
One magic day he passed my way
While we spoke of many things
Fools and Kings
This he said to me:
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return"
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return"
[Instrumental Interlude]
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return"
Written By eden ahbez 1947; 1st recorded by Nat King Cole 1948.
Posted by Mike 07.25.19 |
 Every
Picture Tells A Story (or fourteen)
While pondering a few of the vintage baseball cards I have framed I had a
thought. Viewing these cards isn't like seeing some artistic
masterpiece ... like Da Vinci's Mona Lisa or
The Creation Of Adam by Michelangelo. The illustrations on the
sports cards are quite lovely. But to me it's more than the artwork;
the cards tell a story about the subject and some of these characters have a great deal
to say!
(Some don't.)
It may be a story about a feat or accomplishment like Ty Cobb's 24-year
cumulative batting average (.366). Some of these athletes lead
amazingly rich lives and experienced so much ... entire books have been written
about 'em. Guess that's one of the reasons I like 'em. They
speak to me. Louise knows how much fun I have learning more about
these folks. I've acquired 3 golfers from the
1933 Sport Kings series:
Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, and Walter Hagen - and Louise found a book on
Hagen that she thought I may enjoy. (She was right ... loved the book,
but as often happens with biographies, the ending is kinda' sad - Walter
Hagen died.)
posted 06.22.19
Note: you too can see all 14 Goudey Sport Kings
cards in Mike's collection [here]. |
|
Did baseball's Babe Ruth Actually Hit More Than 714 Career Home Runs?
 Having finished reading "Wonder Girl" the Babe Didrikson biography
brother John kindly gifted earlier this year (see below) I'm now cracking
open
the book Louise got for me, "Big Fella",
mentioned below. Wonder Girl was a beautifully written book - I
highly recommend it ... whereas Big Fella', the Babe Ruth biography,
has a completely different style - rich with detail which is requiring a
minor adjustment on my part. Already I am finding myself doing simple
research to verify several of the many fun-facts offered by author
Jane Leavy.
One section of the book got me second-guessing my memory about records, stats & facts ... specifically about Ruth's single
season home run record. I had to confirm that
post-season homers (World Series) did not count toward records established
by "the Sultan of Swat" ... single season (60) or career (714). Along the way in verifying that
piece of minutia I found a great
article written last year at the Major League Baseball website regarding all
sorts of questions, like: "Did Babe Ruth
actually hit 715 homers?" It seems a couple of historians found
that over the years there were plenty of rule changes which affected how we
kept track of various achievements & records. Such was the case back in 1918
...
"when Ruth was still with the Red Sox, he came to the plate in the 10th inning of a scoreless tie against Cleveland. He faced future Hall of Fame pitcher Stan Coveleski. Ruth's teammate, Amos Strunk, was on first base. Ruth crushed the ball over the right-field wall to win the game. This is now called a
'walk-off' home run.
Ah, but in 1918 … it was ruled a triple, and the final score of the game was 1-0. The thinking then was the game ended the instant Strunk touched home plate. As umpire Hank O'Day
said, "There is no way you can score a run after a game is over."
The historians dug deeper and found some 37 similar examples of
"fence-clearing hits" that were not counted as "home-runs". They
also found that back-in-the-day a fly ball to the outfield that bounced over
the fence used to be considered a "home run" (today, it's called a "ground
rule double"). And, fly balls that hit the foul pole in the outfield were
awarded a "double" - today they are
considered to be in fair territory and counted as a "home run".
posted 05.16.19 ~ edited 07.02.19 |
|
New Additions...
Meanwhile, another 3-card group of baseball mega-stars is about to get
framed. Recently I purchased one of Babe Ruth's 1933
cards displaying his legendary batting stance / pose ... the card is in very good condition - colorful and not too badly worn
except for one price-busting flaw (which made it affordable for me to
purchase) ... the card was torn in half!
Ouch. I was telling brother John about it and he said: "I can almost hear
a squabble among 2 kids now: "hey that's MY card!"
-- "No it's MY MINE!" --
"Give it BACK!
[rip] Oops. Sorry."
Actually, it's the upper left corner - torn completely off and taped
in-place from the backside. The rest of the card is really swell and
likely would warrant a rating of "PSA 4 or 5". I waffled
for weeks: to fix or not fix the Babe, then decided to let
professionals restore it. I realize
restoration will not improve it's monetary value with other vintage
collectors (though I think it should).
My original thought was to put the injured Babe in a frame with two of his
Hall of
Fame contemporaries: Mickey Cochrane and Charley Gehringer (below).
Who among us does not have issues or flaws? To my newly found vintage
sports cards, I say: I like 'em!
[enlarged view]
posted 03.24.19 ... revised 06.24.19 |
 Mike's Bookshelf...
...is
filled with selections that were gifts from Louise, who tends to read about
a hundred books to my one. But that may be 'cuz I'm busy reading
news, government reports - especially anything to do with the investigation
of Donald J. Trump and his staff of criminals.
But, once again I'm swerving off-topic ... this posting is s'posed to
be a book review. For the holidays Louise dug up this little
gem: Hack's 191 - Hack Wilson and his incredible 1930 season which I've
just finished & thoroughly enjoyed. Until recently I had no idea who
this Hall of Fame baseball player was or the impact he had on the game. As mentioned
below, 2018 was the year of discovery when it came to learning more about my
father's collection of baseball cards ... and through the course of a
little bit of research & reading I stumbled upon a quirky
baseball card from 1933 for a player named
Lewis "Hack" Wilson.
Louise enjoyed the stories I discovered and just knew I'd love still more
vignettes about the ballplayer and the era ... the golden age of sport in
America. She was right. About half of Bill Chastain's book
introduces Wilson, his teammates and Chicago's rich sporting & gambling
history ... the second half of the book summarizes the Cub's 1930 season. The number 191 in the title refers to Wilson's single season major league
baseball record of 191 "runs batted in" (RBI) a record which still stands today!
So what's on-deck for my reading pleasure? Well after
hearing me quote endlessly from a book my older brother got for me about the
life & times of Bronco Nagurski Louise knew she'd score big by
following the same theme. Under the Christmas tree I found another
cool book covering pro-football from the same
era: Pigskin - The Early Years of Pro Football. Sports fans may
have seen it - the dustcover shows Washington Redskins Hall of Fame quarterback
slinging Sammy Baugh. It oughta' be swell.
After that
I will tackle another book Louise found for me: Jane Leavy's biography of
Babe Ruth: The Big Fella' - and the world he created.
I've taken a sneak-peek and it looks like an awesome book, rich with
details. For example, an appendix at the back of the book provides
comprehensive stats of Ruth's on-field performance, and tons of details of
his financial deals off the field like his endorsement contracts and
investment earnings. Did you know the fine folks at Quaker Oats paid
the Great Bambino over $62,000 for his product endorsements?
(That'd be worth $1,189,041 today.) True story.
posted 02.18.19 updated 03.24.19 |
|
 Sign,
sign. Everywhere a sign.
While the declutter project here at High Pointe continues I stumbled upon
this nameplate that used to display the entry to my office at Ameritech in
Troyland. It brought back fond memories and reminded me of projects
that used to take up my time & energy and people I used to work with.
Ah, the projects, and multiple drafts of PowerPoint presentations. The
endless string of initiatives and plans ... committees, consultants,
boarding passes, hiring & firing decisions, promotions & stock options.
I'll never forget a co-worker's comment / observation: "there's nothing
wrong with taking a profit" when it came to selling our stock options.
We used one such grant to pay off our mortgage, and another to buy a condo
for Mom-in-law to reside near us in comfort. It sure was fun seeing
the value of our stock soar when SBC offered to buy us
out ... though they preferred to call it a "merger". Funny.
I was part of the merger integration team and there was nothing co-equal
about the parties ... it was clear who bought whom and who was in-charge.
While I miss many of the people I used to work with, it's fun pondering &
thinking back. Glad I kept the nameplate. |
The day I "beat" Arnold Palmer...
 It
was Christmas Eve, not a creature was stirring ... not even a Ripley! Mike
was feeling a bit nervous after 9-holes of computer golf - he was leading
Arnold Palmer by 2-strokes. When Louise relayed the story the next day
by phone to her sister Cindy in Bergland...hubby Bill in the background
observed: "I think Arnie's dead." We know. Mike was playing a
beloved golf simulation program called Links LS which includes computer
generated games by popular professional golfers of the era when the game was
introduced in the '90's...Palmer, Fuzzy Zeller, Davis Love III, & Sergio
Garcia. The game does not function with modern operating systems like
Windows 10 so it's not been played in nearly a decade. Another
example of planned obsolescence, Mike says. But while cleaning
out a closet this summer he stumbled upon the original program discs for
some of the most famed golf venues in the world...realistic renditions of
Pebble Beach, Oakland Hills, St. Andrews, Pinehurst, Banff, Riviera and more
than 30 additional courses. Mike loaded the programs (folks call 'em
"apps" today but that's a whole 'nuther story for another time) on an older PC in
the lower level which is still limping along with Windows XP. Yes, the
internet connection is disconnected. Result: instant joy. In short order
Mike was "clicking away" like a mad man getting reacquainted with
the game.Louise loves it, hearing Mike
hacking away. He golfs as she weaves in the
adjacent room. The first couple of rounds Mike was struggling to get
the ball in the hole...but being the persistent sort that he is, scores
slowly came down. Mike's Links golfing persona is Shot Shaper
a fictitious character he created back in the day when he played other
'puter golfers on the internet. Younger readers should know, in
the early era of the internet it was frowned upon to use real names for
security reasons. And, BTW: Mike says "Shot" is obviously a nickname; his real
name is Walter Shaper...famed PC golf bum.
So, back to the match play between Arnold Palmer's computer character vs.
Shot Shaper...the contest was taking place at Valhalla Golf Club in
Louisville, KY. Mike...'er...Shot went out in 29, Arnold scored 31 for
the front-9. By the 10th hole the lead was 3 strokes...by the 13th it was up
to 4...and computer commentator David Feherty was going bonkers. ("...who
are you and what have you done with the other guy who was playing?") Mike took a break from the game to share the news with Louise
and take a little walk...trying to shake off the tension. It didn't help. When play resumed Shot bogied 16 & 17...(ouch)...but
managed to par #18 for a final score of 63. Palmer birdie #18 for a 64.
Sweet! A
legendary round of golf on an old game. posted 12.27.18 update: 01.30.19
In multiple rematches Shot Shaper has beaten Mr. Palmer (and other
computer animations) many times by as many as 4 strokes. |
|
 Framed!
Our sports memorabilia project continues. As you may have read in the
articles below, my Dad collected baseball cards starting in 1933. The
cards he saved from that first year were pretty worn...only one card rated
PSA-3 by a professional sports authentication service; the rest were rather beat
up, so we sold 'em. I did want to preserve a sample however of the
cards from 1933 produced by the Goudey Gum Company and I found some bargains on
eBay. Thru the process, I learned more about some really neat players like
Hack Wilson shown to right in the middle. When I first spotted
the card and this odd looking character I found that Wilson was the
leading National League power hitter during the era when Ruth & Gehrig were
tearing up the American League. "Wilson, who still holds the seemingly
unbreakable single-season record for RBI with 191 in 1930, was a compact
5’6" tall and weighed close to 200 pounds. At the plate, he was an explosion
waiting to happen," says PSA. Wilson is a Hall of Famer. [see
more about Hack Wilson...]
I made this frame some 30-yrs ago out of cherry using a neat hand plane
Louise got me called a Stanley Combination Plane. The cheap prints
that the frame held had faded long ago and it sat all alone in a dark
closet. We figured it needed a 2nd chance at spreading joy, so we teamed-up
2 other cards from the same series of cards from Goudey: pitchers George
("Rube") Walberg &
Richard Coffman...not Hall of Famers, but two very talented pitchers.
I liked the Coffman card because it was in really great condition (PSA 4.5),
and 'cuz he had a long career (15 seasons largely as a relief
pitcher)...and because the blue background is just so striking.
Attractive.
Walberg, shown right/top, also played 15-seasons in the big leagues and
had several World Series appearances during the Depression era with Connie
Mack's Philadelphia Athletics. Walberg was the winning pitcher in
game #5 when the Athletics beat Hack Wilson's Cubs in the 1929 World Series. He was traded to Boston in '34 and
retired after the '37 season with a lifetime record of 155 wins vs. 141
loses. Welcome to the High Pointe collection, fellas! |
|
The Guy Was A Stud!
Up until this past spring I had only the most basic familiarity with the
football player named Bronko Nagurski. I knew he was a Hall of
Fame football player often called "the greatest football
player of all-time" but I knew few details. Then, in April ('18)
Louise & I opened the box containing my Dad's collection of sports cards -
mostly baseball but a few football cards including one featuring Nagurski.
The process of learning something new began. For example, we learned Bronko
was a two-way player - typically he played
both offense (fullback) and defense (linebacker or tackle) for the Chicago
Bears during a period often called "the fat ball era" as the shape of a
football was quite bulbous ... lots of running and very rarely did teams use
the forward pass ... in the mid-30's the shape of the ball was changed (from
fifteen inches in circumference to eleven inches) making it easier grip &
throw ... thus improving the passing game and increasing the action for
fans. Bronko was a powerful runner & major offensive threat.
On defense he was a bruising tackler disruptive force.
It took minimal research to determine Bronko's card (above - right) was likely the most
valuable card in the cigar box. As with most collectables several factors influence "value":
1. condition of card & the player's "star power" are vital in determining
value. 2. pro football was in its infancy & this series of cards was among the
first football cards introduced nationally. 3. the series initially did not sell
well
so production was cut ... only 36 of 240 cards planned were ever produced by
the National Chicle Co. 4.
timing - not good - these came out right in the midst of the depression. My
Dad's cards were in remarkable condition considering that we never did
anything special to preserve them. In the case of the "pre-WW2" era of
sports cards - baseball & football - many collectors are attracted to the
Art Deco-style prevalent in the mid-30's. Rather than using photographs the player likenesses
were artistically rendered. Also, my Dad had a significant collection;
we were thrilled to discover 35 of the 36
card set called simply "football stars".
My family has humored my interest in the card and
the player. Brother Pat gave me the book Monster of the Midway
about Nagurski and I've learned a great deal about his life & sporting
exploits. Louise gave me an autographed reprint from the Bronk's
early pro-career in 1934. Care to know more, too? I found a cute clip from a movie Hearts
in Atlantis starring Anthony Hopkins based on a Stephen King novel,
where the character played by Hopkins recalls seeing Nagurski play in the
final regular season game in 1943. [link
to video clip] Four weeks later the Bears defeated Washington's
Redskins for the NFL Championship. |
|
Perfection
can be fleeting...
 Sixty-three
years ago Don Larsen experienced a degree of
perfection on the baseball diamond. The NY Yankee pitcher faced 27
batters in game 5 of the 1956 MLB World Series and none of 'em could get on
base...27 consecutive "outs". No runs, no hits, no errors. The
Brooklyn
Trolley Dodgers had a team loaded with talent including Jackie Robinson, Pee
Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, & Gil Hodges ... but none of 'em could get a hit
that autumn day. "I had great control. I never had that kind of
control in my life," admitted Larsen after the game. The stats support
that assessment; Larsen pitched 14-yrs in the big leagues for 7 different
teams winning 81 games, losing 91. Lifetime earned-run-average (ERA)
of 3.78 ... respectable for a journeyman who played for many teams that
often didn't produce enough runs to secure victory. And
though I was but 3-yrs old at the time, and did not witness the game "live", I have grown-up reading about
the feat and
hearing the story ... I've listened to broadcaster Vin Scully's rendition a
few hundred times, and always enjoyed the pure joy captured in the photo (right)
showing Yankee
catcher Yogi Berra leaping into Larsen's arms after the final out.
Louise got the autographed photo for me as a birthday gift. It's
authenticated by Beckett's no less!
Isn't it swell? She's a national treasure that spouse of mine.
click here-to-hear Scully's broadcast
-
video clip of Larsen's post-game celebration
update: 01.04.20 Sadly Don Larsen passed away earlier in the
week at age 90. [obituary] |
|
 Collection
of Baseball Cards...
We sold most of 'em as highlighted below. Took us about 6-months.
The last batch was among our most valuable (authenticated and graded by
professionals); they also netted my brothers and I with a sizeable pile of
dough. Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Bob Feller, Hank
Greenberg, Bill Terry. Even some football greats from the National
Chicle "Football Stars" series from 1935: Bronko Nagurski, Bull Tosi, Luke
Johnsos, Clark Hinkle.
Brother John was the one who found our eBay seller, Mark - great guy and
an honest fellow. Our final sales figures were even greater than Mark
had originally estimated, but there were a few cards that did not doing as
well as most others. So I bought a bunch for peanuts rather than seeing 'em go
for considerably less than they were worth like John "Blondy" Ryan
who played shortstop for the NY Giants. |
|
See Ryan's "frame-mates" > |
1934 Goudey Big League
baseball card #32 - rated "EXCELLENT 5"
by PSA. |
Oldest Living MLB Player Passes
11.30.18
Fred Caligiuri...who had just turned 100 on October 22, 2018, has
passed away. The autographed
picture to the left was a gift from brother John and will join the growing
cast of characters celebrating sport during the era of my father's youth.
I had mentioned to John what I'd uncovered about Fred while researching a
question posed (below) about Lloyd Johnson, the major league pitcher who
appeared in just one game back in 1934. I told John that the oldest
living major league ball player was about to celebrate a birthday, and that
his story was a bit different from Johnson. Fred pitched for the
Philadelphia Athletics for two years before WW2, and then returned from his
military service to our country to resume his career but lasted just a
couple of seasons…then "retired" and got into the auto business.
Earlier this summer the Charlotte Observer newspaper posted a
short video interview with Fred where he recalls his early baseball career
and pitching to the late-great
Ted Williams in 1941. It's fun hearing how sharp Fred was in his
99th year &
his recollections of William's quest to end the season with a batting average over .400.
RIP, Fred & many thanks, John for the autographed treat. (Link) revised/updated
12.19.18 |
 "Hey
four-eyes!"Fathers teach their kids all sorts of things...big
& small. My Dad had plenty of experience wearing eyeglasses...shown in
photo to the right, Dad's with his scout troop demonstrating some of the
skills they've learned operating a drill press & other tools...and if you
didn't guess: he's the handsome fellow in the middle wearing glasses!
So when my eye doctor said I needed to wear 'em too at 5-yrs of age, my Dad could
relate. He knew glasses could be a pain in the butt, knew all about
kids teasing, and could recall when he'd catch hell from his father if he
lost or broke his glasses. My Dad never gave me a hard time when that
happened to me...the same can't be said for Grace who went bonkers when my
specs were broken or misplaced.
There are plenty of reasons I opted to hang onto some of his
boyhood baseball cards he'd collected during the mid-1930's and
eyeglasses like "Chick" Hafey, right, was just one of 'em. Reportedly
Hafey one of the few big leaguers to wear glasses while playing.
The Hall of Famer Hafey was a fine hitter - sporting a .317 career batting average
through 13 seasons with St. Louis and Cincinnati.
I recall talking with Dad about these players but can't recall specifics.
I just know he cherished his card collection and took good care of them.
Now I get to enjoy 'em.
More photos of Young Ralph in our
Scan-A-Slide collection, and more baseball
card stories below. See how nicely Hafey & Hubbell look with 4 other
players in a new picture frame > |
| There Was More Than One
Moonlight Graham You know the story - from Field of Dreams ... Burt
Lancaster played Archibald W. Graham, or Moonlight
Graham as he was known back in 1905 ... he made one appearance in the
major leagues. Yep, Archie played outfield for half an inning. The next year he enrolled in medical school.
His story is likely not completely unique but it did make great theatre in
Kevin Costner's movie. [Link to YouTube
- several clips from Field of Dreams, the movie.]
As we sort thru my Dad's
boyhood collection of baseball cards ... and learn ... the 1934 Goudey Big League
baseball card to the right represents a bit of a mystery. The first mystery:
why did some '34 cards have this red border along bottom with thumbnail
picture "Chuck" Klein says; what's that all about? Turns out National
league players had the Klein notes, American league players had notes from
Lou Gehrig ... like the card above for
Blondy Ryan.
The other mystery: why did the Goudey Gum Co. put Lloyd
William Johnson on a card in the first place? Much like Moonlight
Graham - Johnson got to play in one game - one inning
in the Major Leagues. Johnson spent 12-yrs in the Cincinnati Reds and
Pittsburgh Pirates minor league organizations, and his only Major
League appearance was with the Pirates in 1934: he threw one inning, allowed one
hit on three batters he faced, retired the side and finished the game.
But that was in
April ... what happened to the rest of the season? Not quite sure
why ... just one inning. Yet, maybe these one-game wonders are not
as rare as I thought. |
 |
|
1934 Goudey Big League
baseball card #86 - rated VG-EX 4
(very good) by PSA. |
|
According to the
Baseball Almanac
there have been 948 players who, like Moonlight Graham & Lloyd Johnson, played just one game in their entire
major league career. At least Johnson had a big league ball card
to prove it. Another sad example: Larry Yount, relief pitcher for the Houston Astros
and brother of Hall of Famer Robin Yount, was summoned to pitch late in a
game in 1971, but he hurt his elbow warming up and never threw a pitch
to a batter un a major league game.
Ouch. Another odd fun-fact I discovered: there have been 21 major league pitchers who appeared in one game with zero innings pitched; that is, they did not retire a batter. Double ouch.
So as I continue looking for info about Lloyd Johnson ... and why he pitched just one inning ...
but meanwhile I'll
enjoy the mystery ...
I'm keeping the card. |
 She
Comes From A Long Line of Cuties...My brother John commented when
he saw some vintage photos of Louise's mother:
"Marie was really
beautiful! She has that famous model/actress look...sure am glad I asked her
to dance with me at your wedding! I was one lucky kid!"
John had spotted some of Louise's family photos that we've posted at Mike's Scan-a-Slide project.
Initially the images were integrated with Dawson/Barrett family pix but when the list
of Gignac/Brown pictures grew to over 200 vintage snapshots we decided
Louise needed a home
of their own on GooglePhotos - two fun-packed albums:
#1
Gignac
Family Album - historical view back to Marie & Richard's childhood....
#2
The Next Generation - Dick &
Marie's daughters grow-up
Shown to right is one of my new fav's...Louise
pictured in 1960. Whada' cutie!
Web-guy note:
when we
created new albums on Louise's Google account and deleted the pictures
posted on
Mike's Google account, any comments that had been left also got wiped-out.
Unintended consequences. So, the combined family albums are now
"shared" just as brother Tom has done with his "Dawsons of Hawkinsville"
pictures.
Take Me Out To The Ball-game...
The tune has become our theme song for 2018 & we've been humming it
while sorting through our various
collections of vintage sports cards. Baseball, football, even a
handful of non-sports collector cards, many from my father's youth (1930's)
as well as my collections from the '50's and '60s. So we
decided to have a few cards framed to preserve as keepsakes and memories of
my Dad, and sell the remainder. Its hard to let go of many of these because so many of the
vintage cards are really quite cool. The wide frame below with 7 small
baseball cards are from a limited series created by the Goudey Gum Co. in
1938 affectionately referred to as "Heads-Up" cards. To
learn more,
click on one of the frames below: |
|
 |
|
 
Above (L) the famed 1935 National Chicle Co. football stars series; (R)
Topps 1959 Detroit Lions team card. |
 I've learned a lot through the process of researching these sports cards. Example: as a youth I was definitely into sports as a participant and a
fan. I'd fall asleep listening to Ernie Harwell broadcasting Tiger
games...but I do not recall ever hearing about The Boston Bees.
Turns out, the Bees of Boston played on a field called The Bee Hive.
I'm not making this stuff up. Originally the team was known as the
Red Stockings in 1871 - sometimes called the
Red Caps not to be confused with the Cincinnati Red Stockings (and
not to be confused with the American League Boston Red Sox founded in
1901 but not named Sox until 1908). The NL Boston squad was known as the
Beaneaters ... then became the Boston Doves (named after new owners George
& John Dovey).
In 1911 the team was named the Boston Rustlers...who finally became the Boston Braves...they
moved to Milwaukee in 1953 and then off to Atlanta in '66. Whew.
Talk about an identity crisis! Bet those who think native Americans
are disrespected by "the Braves" nickname wish it were still The Bees! |
|
 The '38 Goudey Heads-Up card above features Hall of Fame catcher
Al Lopez who played then for the Boston Bees and featured
2nd from left in 7-card collection at the top of this page. After his playing career Lopez became
manager of the Cleveland Indians & Chicago White Sox in the
'50s & '60's.
While getting an education on current trends of collecting &
selling vintage baseball cards I'll admit to getting the collector's bug
just a little bit.
There are tons of various collections of baseball cards dating back to the
late 1800's...most were available to the public as a premium for
buying a particular product. Tobacco companies were some of the early
producers of ball cards, and a series known to collectors as the "T206"
has caught my eye. T206 cards produced 1909-1911 by the American Tobacco Co. to
promote a number of their brands with ads on the back for: American Beauty Cigarettes, Carolina Brights, Polar Bear, Cycle, Sovereign, Drum, Sweet Caporal,
Tolstoi, Uzit Mouth-Piece, Ty Cobb Smoking Tobacco and more. A
player's image appeared in color on the front with name & team affiliation.
I just love the simplicity of the design. The cards are quite small (1-7/16"
x 2-5/8") about the size of 6 postage stamps. Cards in pristine
condition fetch thousands of dollars, or more, by serious collectors, which
I am not. One Honus Wagner T206 card sold for $3.12 million in 2016.
(Gulp.) |
 I
did purchase nine well-worn, well-loved cards to assemble the GoodPlanet
squad (less than $40 a card) and framed 'em for my personal enjoyment. Louise keeps asking which is my favorite and I tell her the name of a different player/card each time she asks…but
I've selected the player with the distinctive red background to serve as
captain for my personal all-star team...Johnny Kling of the Cubs. In
addition to being a pretty swell catcher he was also quite a pool-shark….won the
World Pocket Billiards championship in '08. Kling even took a year off from baseball to compete in pool tourneys across the country.
When he returned to baseball he was a player/manager for Boston - a common practice back in those days. After his ball career he made his fortune in real estate, and was a popular owner of a Kansas City minor league ball club in part because he had the courage to ban segregated seating in the stadium.
Perhaps the stories & player biographies are nearly as much fun as having
this tiny collection of vintage cards. In the group of seven below the
center card, Ed Killian, is the only card that was "graded" (PSA-3).
Naturally, for diversity, I had to have some of the landscape oriented cards
- hence the duo shown left. |
|
added above 1909-11 "tobacco" cards 07.21.18; below 1914-15 "Cracker Jack"
cards 08.16.18 |
|
The Card That Never Was
Three
Cracker Jack
cards in the framed group to right are from 1914 & 1915. Are
they in pristine condition? Hardly. But keep in mind these
thick pieces of paper are well over a hundred years old ... and likely were
the prized possession of some kid from that era. Babe Ruth, lower right,
is an out outlier ... was a promotional card
for a national card collectors show in 2013 labeled "the card that never
was" ... the Babe was a rookie in 1915 and was not originally included in this series of
144 cards. More info about Cracker Jack cards.
Click image for more info and a larger view of all four cards. >
As kids we
sure had plenty to cheer about with our Detroit pro sports
teams over the years. We lucked-out getting tickets for the Tigers world series games
in '68 & '84. The Pistons were exciting through championships '89, '90 &
'04 ... after decades of mediocrity. But the football Lions have been a
different story ... no championships since '57. Quite a drought.
Still, we watch and hope. I know my friends in cities like Cleveland
can relate. While something tells me the situation is about to change
(and improve) I admit, I've had that same sense of optimism about our Lions
for over a half-century.
|
|
Rediscovered: we've found plenty of gems like the picture below as
we've sorted thru family photo albums and slides taken largely by my father.
We call our collection the Scan-A-Slide photo project and
it continues to grow.
above: Mike & Pat practice in Dearborn ('57). |
|
|
As a youngster our family lived in
a very nice community within walking distance to elementary school.
Quarton Elementary was just 701 yards (.4 miles) from my back door.
From the 1st grade onward I viewed the taller, older "safety boys"
with great admiration, respect & a touch of envy. They were posted at each intersection on
the streets surrounding the school...from my house to the school
there were 4 such crossings where "safety boys" stood, arms extended,
protecting kids from any traffic or danger. "I wanna' grow up and be
one of those guys!" I likely said to myself thousands of times. It
must have one of the many goals my parents urged me to set for myself & it
paid off...by the time I was a 6th grader I was doing my part to keep kids
safe. The badge they gave me has been a cherished keepsake in that
shoebox filled with memories that included some of my favorite Match Box
die-cast little toy cars & ticket stubs to the '68 World Series, among other
treasures. Not familiar with the Safety Patrol? Here's a vintage public service
announcement that may help explain on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRw-cJ0RXcQ |
SOLD! J.J. Cardinal's Wild Bird & Nature
Store...the fun little shop that Louise launched in 1991 now has a new
owner (eff. Oct. 2017). Our beloved Little Red wagon that hauled over 4.7 million
pounds of the birdseed has such rich patina we couldn't give it up.
Brother John was kind enough to get us a new little red wagon for JJ's
new owner
Gretchen Giles so that our original little red can enjoy retirement, too.
Little Red is now Louise's "Chuck Wagon" ...helping with the daily
task filling bird feeders at High Point! |
|
|
  best friends
while in college Mike had a roommate who nixed the standard issue dormitory bed in favor
of a hammock. Yep, he strung it up with lag bolts secured in concrete walls. Quirky guy
that boy we called "2-shirt Tanis" (because he always employed the layered look:
shirt on shirt). Anyway, this isn't a shirt-tale, but rather, a hammock story. Louise
has bought a couple of 'em for our little utopia in the woods - strung between two sturdy
oaks with the bolts slowly being absorbed by the growing trees. It's a peaceful way to
spend some quality time with a good friend: swinging in a hammock. We made a design note
to ourselves recently that when it comes time to build a Superior home we'd be wise to
incorporate a hammock to be placed indoors so that we could use it year-round (ala'
2-shirt)! See? There was some linkage after all, to these tales.
|
|
| What happened to the "blog"? Too
much spam. Given the political landscape in this country, one more ranting voice is
certainly not going to make a difference. I'll continue to write an occasional piece
under the heading above: "issues & thoughts". |
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It's really not a shock ... something on this page was revised on 04.22.24 |
nings
of what shall be a "shower seat" ... see photo below - a month ago we
completed a make-over of our master bedroom walk-in shower ... and Louise
says she loves it so much she just wants to "take a seat" and enjoy.
Mike sketched out the concept a few days ago - did some research - and then
finalized a simple "seat" which will sit just 18" tall ... the seat is 10"
deep x 17" wide and made from the red oak from that tree M&L cut down 3-yrs
ago while building Shed. Mike realizes red oak is likely not the ideal
species of wood (vs. teak or mahogany) for a damp, wet shower. It'll
get multiple coats of topcoat finish and 4 anti-skid pads affixed to legs.
Mike will resume building & finishing this afternoon - stay tuned in a few
days for the final, "another project completed" photograph. (BTW: the
seat above hasn't been glued together yet ... so fear not, the spacing of
slats will be uniform.)
The
internet machine had a lot of info, and old pictures about snow removable
efforts, back in the day. I learned a great deal thanks to the folks in Monson, Maine who celebrate
"Snow Roller Day" each
February ... and naturally have a
Here's a snapshot .
Oh, and get this: we also made a 50-second "movie" - like a quickie tour:
So
that's where Louise found herself yesterday afternoon while Mike was
manufacturing sawdust in his shop. 
completed:
The All Americans by Lars Anderson. The basic storyline appears
right on the cover:
"On November 29, 1941
Army played Navy. Eight days later Pearl Harbor was attacked.
This is the players' journey from football field to battlefield."
I'm happy to say I just finished reading the book, another holiday gift from Louise. I liked it a great deal. She knew it might well be a
fine book, right up my alley of recent sports books, and assorted historical
topics from the 1930's and 40's. The "golden age".
The author, Lars Anderson, has been a writer for Sports Illustrated and
co-authored
Pickup Artists: Street Basketball in America. The central
heroic characters in this historical summary all survived WW2 and lived rich, full
lives. When Anderson interviewed the men they were in their 80's and eager
to share their experiences.
of good, old-fashioned American extremism getting supercharged by proximity to power. When extremist elected officials get caught plotting against America with the
violent ultra right, this is the story of the lengths they will go to… to cover their tracks."
I'll repeat with emphasis: this is a TRUE STORY. Many of us
recognize the similarities with the this story and today's fractured MAGA
right-wing. 
butterfly.
Our latest stool creation. Finally got all four of it's slightly curved legs cut out
and attached, mortise & tenon
style, and than placed her next to "
situation:
those game loving folks at HighPoint are experiencing a bit of a "pause" ...
their
table top 700-piece jigsaw-style puzzle from Buffalo Games is missing
a few pieces. Obviously that means the puzzle can not be completed as
it now stands. Louise contacted the manufacturer, and they said they
do not offer replacement parts (unlike our favorite brand: Liberty
Puzzles, who does offer such customer service). In their defense, the
Buffalo Games cardboard puzzles retail for about $10 ... while the
deluxe laser-cut wooden pieces from Liberty run 10 to 15 times more
... giving them the resources to support their replacement warranty.
one
good read often leads to another
read. And I have Louise
to thank for keeping my selections of reading material "well-stocked"!
She gave me an early holiday gift last month so that I'd have something to
read after polishing-off Liz Cheney's excellent book: "Oath and
Honor" ... in which she provides specific, ample evidence that Donald J.
Trump is unfit for office and should be blocked by American voters from
inflicting more harm and danger to the country. So, to lighten-up a
tad for the holidays, I turned to one of my favorite sports authors, Jim
Dent, former sports reporter who covered the Dallas Cowboys for years.
The first book by Dent that I recall reading was Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever
... since reading that I've tackled six of Dent's books and have a few
more on the "must read" stack.
Tracking HighPoint Projects and Goings-On
...
project watch.
(... the latest from HighPoint) Back in the 50's and 60's the
architectural style known as 'mid-century modern' often featured car ports
instead of garages. Besides saving the prospective homeowner a bit of
cash upfront, the open and airy mid-century modern home emphasized function
and simplicity. And there is little that can be simpler than a
car-port for protecting the family sedan from the elements. Sort of.
It's gotta' roof held up by a couple of posts, and no walls. Wide
open, baby. I recall back in the 80's helping my buddy Ed close off the open walls of
his car port to stop blowing winter snow from piling up around his van in
his car port. Ed eventually added a garage door and the walls we built
were soon filled with cabinets and shelving to increase storage lacking inside
the home designed for the minimalist resident.
and the past week
a building plan was completed, the materials were secured, and the dust was
flying and the critters around HighPointe were alerted by the sounds of
hammers hammering, and saws cutting. Louise stained all the wood surfaces to match the house,
natch. On top of the rafters: 4 steel panels, painted red in a factory
setting. The two unstained horizontal pieces connecting the two 4x4 posts is
Mike's latest handiwork repurposing invasive Buckthorn tree stock. The
guy built a shave-horse and look what happens! (It'll be
a great place for Ben and Hoss and Little Joe to tie up their horses when
they visit.)
Reading, building, renovating 
to drink wine more than I used to. Anyway, I'm drinking more,” the ailing don says wistfully.
So, I'm reading more than I used to. 
shave
horse. As mentioned earlier, I finally completed building
the 
and
The Little Engine That Could. There was even a copy of one of Mom's childhood books that she got in 1933:
Hot Cross Buns ... which I forwarded to brother Tom and his household
filled with grandkids. 
Our
engine has broken down and the good boys and girls on the other side (of
said mountain) won't have any toys to play with or good food to eat ..."
It's fitting that author Watty Piper identified the Little Blue Engine
to be female because, wouldn't you know it, Piper says: "she
tugged and pulled and pulled and tugged ... puff, puff, chug, chug went
Little Blue Engine. "I think I can, I think I can" soon
became: "I thought I could, I thought I could". Positive reinforcement.
If the book were being made into a Hollywood action adventure, this is the
point in the story when the birds would be chirping and a-singin', the sun
would come out shinin', and all the kids and toys on the train being hauled
to the other side of the mountain would be hootin' & hollerin' & cheerin'
(to beat the ban, as Grandma used to say when she read the book with Mikey). Goal
setting, and tackling projects. All of
this being instilled in a 5-1/2 yr old lil' Mike ... circa 1959. I
mentioned to my brother John: "I think I'll write about the books on my
webpage one day soon." Check, another task completed.
The
project began last October. Mike & Louise have wanted to build a
"shave horse" for years after seeing all the neat things it could
help us do on the
Students
of Latin are likely familiar with Roman statesman and scholar, Marcus Cicero.
For the rest of us, we rely on popular culture to aid our process of
self-education. In
Sherman, fellow history buffs may
recall, was the brave Northern General who delivered the sort of hell on
Earth campaign during his conquest of Atlanta & Savannah ... giving the
rebels a dose of their own treatment of slaves. 
One
of Louise's pictures captured a view of sweaty Mike after cutting down a few
spruce trees ... Louise caught me holding a tool called a mattock
which many of us often misidentify as a "pickaxe".
It's a great tool for hacking
out roots or otherwise loosening the compacted, heavy clay soil found here
at HighPoint. But, as I've learned, a dull mattock is rather
inefficient and requires the user to deploy far more effort & energy than
needed - like when I'm cutting out soft spruce
roots protruding from the ground
where trees once stood. So - flash forward to the present - Mike's
mattock got a "tune-up" - sharpening both cutting edges with a steel file
just like your Grand-Pappy may have done it! 
njoys - her focused subject
matter changes nearly as frequently our weather here in Michigan. Often.
Louise calls
these pictures of interesting working stiffs "Men At Work" but it's not a
collection devoted exclusively to the sweaty male species. Men At
Work is just her catchy name for the collection of pictures, which she
likes to produce in Black & White photographs.
If
your brain is having trouble grasping the basic concept of "strudel
time" perhaps a quick review may help.
Strudel Time is my shorthand to describe a tasty treat in layers ... like a fine pastry.
In this case, we're talking: tunes. Music, Daddy-O!
In
2008 Louise & I were captivated by a fun little movie called Wall-E
that made fun of so many aspects of human life - our wasteful habits, human
laziness. 
Simple
pleasures are plentiful here in Grand Blanc. We don't get out much;
really have no need or burning desire (to get out/go out). The virus
has certainly changed us and how we interact with others. This week
Louise had a good friend stop for a nice socially distanced visit & hike
down our trails thru the woods and around the ponds ... first time in
2-years that we had company at our home.
Ever since he was a kid, influenced perhaps by his Dad's coin collections,
Mike has been fascinated by coins. So much so that even at a young age
(7 or 8?) Mike instantly identified the rare Indian-head penny a gas
station mechanic had just given to him (change for a nickel, Mister?) so he
could buy a penny-gumball.
The
plans were most likely covered in a bit of dust ... the idea for the newly
built Spring House in Tallahassee, FL was to feature furniture designed by
the architect who designed the home ... but those plans sat and ripened for
sixty-nine years. The architect mentioned would be Frank Lloyd Wright,
and the house would be just a 1/3 of a mile from brother John's home, as
the crow flies.
John has participated in several projects and
fund-raisers to help restore and maintain the unique house - the only
private residence in Florida designed by Wright, and in April John asked if
I may be interested in helping build a table or Pod ... that never was.
In June Louise & I decided to take a mini-pause from painting to tackle this
Pod and other projects that were screaming for attention (like landscaping
chores with spring in full bloom). Well, in a bit over 3-weeks our
version of the Pod was carefully packaged and shipped.
The picture above/right was captured in Michigan ... prior to transport to
Florida.
Happy
Father's Day
Today's 'Rabbit-Hole'?
Ever since writing that the notion has stuck in my mind like a jelly bean
sticks to my dental work - so much so that now every time I glance at the
newly framed pictures in our remodeled den I see the pose and think: hood
ornaments.
So
the parade of projects continues - this year the focus has been paint ... as
you may have read below we tackled the laundry & workshop last year. This
spring we continued marching South thru the back hall, ½
bath,
morning room, kitchen & dining areas ... in our den we decided to be
daring
with a wall of red. As Louise puts it on her
The Daring Diver - have no idea what her name is ... or where
the picture was taken. Do you? I just liked the picture, and
think she adds a great deal to the display. She looks as if she's
modeling to be the next hood ornament on a big old Packard hauling Ms.
Hollins around scenic Monterey Peninsula.
(Roughly 117 projects in
the past 12-months, says Mike, the keeper of lists - while
repeating the mantra learned from Janet Disbrow: "can't
manage what you don't measure.")
stage
stamps from bygone days had glue on back that one would moisten to affix to
a letter or package ... so the anti-stick quality of the glassine envelope
was a nice attribute. And why would someone have a collection of old
stamps? Well, Bucko, prior to the creation of the "forever stamp" most
anytime the USPS raised prices we'd get 1¢ and 2¢
stamps to combine with our stash of older first class stamps. (For those of
you who no longer mail much of anything in this high-tech world, I realize
you may need a moment here to scan through your memory bank to recall: 'what
the heck is a forever stamp?')
Building & remodeling projects keep us busy and help bring order to our lives in this crazy, often mad, world. This fixture was originally designed to hold seven cigar boxes containing small parts and materials like hinges, or, router bits, and plenty of assorted nails: finishing, common, roofing + an array of brads & tacks! The Tower of Thinga-ma-bobs & Whatcha-ma-call-its brought order to the stuff that often fills old empty coffee cans and dusty toolboxes thanks to a steady supply of cigar boxes from Perry Harding, family friend and cigar loving fellow from in Greenbush, MI. It was just what was needed to organize “stuff” in 1982 when Mike & Louise moved to Westover Pass, Gr. Blanc. All materials for the “tower” were salvaged from assorted projects, like the sides ... made from 1x8 pine boards that had supported curtains & valance in the living & dining rooms that Jerry Foutch former homeowner had assembled. The pegboard back panel came from some workbench project in the basement.
Ten years ago we began making energy from sunlight.
February 1st, 2012 our solar array was switched "on". Why did we become
"early adopters"? Good question - especially during an era
when the anti-science deplorable radical-right-wing-extremists continue to be
climate-change deniers ... calling it a hoax. The rest
of us are moving on (and leaving them behind).
Update: the Mike-Gyver Files
Louise's
Baby Just Turned 30
How
is it possible? 
but
it allows us to connect
the trails along the North side with the South side of HighPointe.
Men At Work
We're
tired of screaming at the TV every time the news media produces another one
of those human interest segments of well-intentioned people advocating how we
"gotta' meet people where they are at". Without being
judgmental, they say, we must answer the questions these hesitant folks may
have and
allow them to decide to do the right thing." Well, some are - too many
aren't. And the radical right-wing nuts are now attacking our public
school systems as they resist the one mitigation effort that has proven to
be effective: WEARING A FREAKING MASK. Enough!
hank goodness for the
many projects mentioned below like building our
A
few years ago Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press wrote a nice
