“He Would Be Elbowed Aside In 1980 By Bill Gates’ Knockoff Version Of CP/M Called MS-DOS”

April 20, 2010 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Star-crossed computer pioneer Gary Kildall spent years trying to dissuade people from feeling sorry for him, but he eventually came to see their point. The Seattle native was a genius who was toting around a portable PC of his own creation as far back as the early 1970s. He understood the power of the microprocessor before pretty much anyone else and created CP/M, the first modern operating system, also in the ’70s.

But even though Kildall’s company DRI (Digital Research, Inc.) made him a good deal of money, he would be elbowed aside in 1980 by Bill Gates’ knockoff version of CP/M called MS-DOS. And Kildall’s time at the center of the computer business was over just like that, though he tried to take it in stride.

The computer scientist was eventually worn down by years of being compared unfavorably to Gates and wrote his memoirs to try to correct his footnote status in an industry that owed him much better. Kildall’s life went from tortured to tragic in 1994, when he died at 52 from a blood clot in his brain after being the victim of some sort of shadowy violence in a biker bar in Monterrey.

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From 1995:

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Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Electra Glide In Blue (1973)

April 19, 2010 in Film | Permalink

In an anti-authoritarian age of Easy Riders, Billy Jacks and Serpicos, there weren’t a lot of films sympathetic to a man with a badge, but 1973’s Electra Glide in Blue was an exception. A none-too-subtle riposte to the seminal Hopper-Fonda motorcycle movie, director James William Guercio’s drama looks at various degrees of justice before speeding headlong into a paranoid nightmare of a conclusion.

John Wintergreen (Robert Blake) is an Arizona motorcycle cop who wants to trade the dusty desert highways for the respectability of a suit, a desk and a beat in Homicide. “Big John” is no bleeding heart—he isn’t asking for hand-outs and he isn’t offering an—but he doesn’t make arrests based on length of hair or width of bell bottoms. He may get his wish for career advancement when he happens upon an apparent suicide that doesn’t look so apparent after a little investigating. Trouble is, Detective Harve Poole (Mitchell Ryan), who is in charge of the case, twists love beads into nooses until he gets confessions, and he expects Wintergreen to behave in kind.

Even though Electra Glide in Blue was a low-budget affair and Guercio’s first (and only) feature, it isn’t a cheap-looking exploitation flick, thanks in good part to outstanding work by legendary cinematographer Conrad Hall. The film has some plot points that don’t really convince, but at its center is Blake in a perfectly restrained performance as a man with a code in a world that either can’t or won’t decipher it.•

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

April 17, 2010 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

A fine example of the Persian Cat breed. To see Antoinette Letterman's painting of a Persian, click on her name in the post. (Image by Chosovi.)

Large Signed Letterman Oil on Canvas Persian Cat – $2000 (Edison, NJ)

This is a wonderful large oil on canvas of a Persian cat by Letterman.

About the Artist Antoinette Letterman:

Born in New York City, Antoinette has traveled extensively, from Canada to Mexico, and throughout the United States, to the Caribbean, and to Jamaica, where she spent time with some of the tigers, panthers and leopards she has painted.

Antoinette has always had a love of the earth and animals of all kinds. When only six years old, she followed a horse and a carnival out of town and had to ask someone to help her get back home! Since that grand adventure, Antoinette has made many, many trips to zoos, wildlife centers and national parks, always using mental photography when there was no camera available. She is self-taught and draws on that memory of pictures from which to paint, as well as still visiting zoos and wildlife refuges, such as Fossil Rim, a wildlife center about two hours from her residence, in order to obtain accurate reference material for her work. Antoinette has relocated from Pennsylvania to the Sunny Southwest, and now resides in Texas where she and her granddaughter, Michelle, who lives with her, write and illustrate books and paint animals to their heart’s content. Michelle shares Antoinette’s love of animals, and especially loves wolves and dogs. For the last three years they have resided in a waterfront home in Denton, Texas.

Antoinette’s work has been purchased locally, nationally and internationally.

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“Highlights” From Another Miserably Disappointing Week Of Afflictor

April 17, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

Afflictor: A cure for Marilyn's insomnia.

Decoder: Sarah Palin’s Comments During April

April 17, 2010 in Humor, Politics | Permalink

Intelligence at historically low levels. (Photo by Tricia Ward.)

Sarah Palin: Is this what their “change” is all about? I want to tell ’em, nah, we’ll keep clinging to our Constitution and our guns and religion.

Decoder: Because Jesus loved guns, especially assault rifles. He would shoot you in the head and use your skin to fashion a rucksack.

Sarah Palin: How’s that hopey, changey stuff working out?

Decoder: Oh, pretty good? You mean you like middle-class tax cuts, health-care reform, stem-cell research, the Lilly Ledbetter Act and a President who can pronounce the word “nuclear”? I didn’t realize those things would be popular.

Sarah Palin: We need to cut taxes so that our families can keep more of what they earn and produce, and our mom-and-pops, then, our small businesses, can reinvest according to our own priorities, and hire more people and let the private sector grow and thrive and prosper.

Decoder: Middle-class tax rates are near historically low levels.

Sarah Palin: Do you love your freedom?

Decoder: The freedom to ignore me. The freedom to realize that incoherent resentment has no purchase on leadership. The freedom to know that I will never, ever be President because I’m wholly unqualified.

Sarah Palin: Now, the President, with all the vast nuclear experience that he acquired as a community organizer, as a part-time senator, and as a full-time candidate, all that experience, still no accomplishment to date with North Korea and Iran.

Decoder: I love making fun of community organizers. Remember when I stood up at the Republican National Convention and ridiculed Obama for being a 22-year-old who dedicated three years of his life to working for Catholic charities? I want to make sure that young people who want to help others will be ashamed of themselves.

Sarah Palin: Don’t retreat, reload!

Decoder: Freud was really wrong about women having penis envy, except when it comes to me.

More Decoders:


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Old Print Ad: Vacutex Blackhead Face Vacuum (1952)

April 17, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

Let's vacuum your face.

You’d be invited to a lot more proms and parties if you’re face wasn’t so very disgusting! That was the message being sent with no subtlety in this 1952 advertisement for a Vacutex contraption that purported to suck blackheads right out of teens’ heads and faces.

The pitch communicated that all that stood in the way of a young person’s amazing popularity was clearer skin. The product cost a buck. An excerpt from from the ad copy:

“So can you blame the fellow who says, ‘Sure I meet a lot of girls who look cute at first glance. But if, on that second glance, I see dingy blackheads, it’s good night!’

Or can you blame the girl who confesses, ‘I hate to go out with a fellow who has blackheads. If he’s careless about that you’re sure he’ll embarrass you in other ways, too.’

But you–are YOUR ears burning? Well, you’ve company and, sad to say, good company. There are otherwise lots of attractive fellows and girls who could date anyone they like if only they’d realize how offensive blackheads are…and how easily and quickly they could get rid of them..if they want to!”

Old Print Article: “A ‘Kidnapped’ Monkey,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1899)

April 17, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Some bad man has kidnapped him."

As an Italian-American, I can confirm that there is simply nothing more humorous than an 1890’s Italian organ grinder who treats his monkey like a member of the family. And it’s not just a matter of opinion–science has proven this to be true. I came across this star-crossed tale of Giovanni and his disappeared simian in the October 11, 1899 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“Somewhere in the city to-day is a kidnapped monkey and a stolen hand organ, says the Philadelphia Bulletin. Giovanni Luirgi will not allow the word ‘stolen’ to be applied to the monk. In telling of his loss to the police at the Germantown station house the Italian said: ‘He was my child, my brother, my only friend. He was more than a monkey. I could understand his speech. Some bad man has kidnapped him.’ Giovanni lives in East Chelten avenue, in a neighborhood known as Sicily. He locked up his monkey and organ in a shed at night, and in the morning they had disappeared, together with his dream of showers of dimes. The Italian does not know whom to suspect, but he feels sure that the monkey did not run away with the organ on his own account.”

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Miscellaneous Media: Official Guide Of The 1964 World’s Fair

April 15, 2010 in Books, Excerpts, Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

The guide cost an even dollar in 1964.

When I briefly got my tough but tender hands on a copy of the Official Guidebook of the 1939 World’s Fair, I managed to also have a peek at the 1964 Guide. Like the 1939 World’s Fair, the later version took place in Flushing Queens, the neighborhood where both I and the 12-story-high Unisphere were born.

The 1964 World’s Fair had “Peace Through Understanding” as its theme and featured many exhibits that revolved around technology and space travel, unsurprising during the space-race decade. But it also presented Michelangelo’s Pieta, was responsible for popularizing the Belgian waffle in America and unveiled Disney’s animatronic “It’s A Small World” ride.

In addition to info about the prehistoric creatures on display in “Sinclair Dinoland” and the rockets in “Space Park,” the guide has an entry about a curious Cold War-esque subterranean structure prototype called “Underground World Home,” one of which still exists today. An excerpt:

“Something really different in housing is displayed here: a three-bedroom house, completely below ground level. It is presented as the forerunner of dwellings that the builder says have marked advantages for today’s living. Guides explain during the 20-minute tour why underground homes can provide more control over air, climate and noise than conventional houses–as well as protection from such hazards as fire and radiation fallout. The house occupies most of the area inside a rectangular concrete shell, the top of which is two and a half feet underground; a wide staircase brings visitors down to the front door. Windows of the house face scenic murals placed on walls of the shell.”

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Urban Studies: The Hockey Jerseys Of Liberia

April 15, 2010 in Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

All of Liberia cried when the Rangers missed the playoffs after losing a shootout on the final day of the season.

Those delightful dismal scientists over at the always intriguing Marginal Revolution pointed me in the direction of an intriguing article entitled “Hockey Night in Liberia: NHL Jerseys Everywhere in War-Torn Nation.” It’s an article by Bonnie Allen in the National Post about the puzzling preponderance of ice hockey uniform shirts in the impoverished African nation.

The brightly colored hockey jerseys make their way to Africa via used-clothing donations from North America. They never reach Liberian citizens free as intended, but they are still a hot item. The tough material allows for long use and is a better long-tern buy for Liberians than cheaper T-shirts which can quickly become tattered. An excerpt:

“In the remote city of Ganta, located about 240 kilometres north of Liberia’s coastline, near the Guinea border, there is a daily parade of Canada’s favorite pastime as peddlers rove the potholed streets.

A ‘Chelios’ sells plastic flip-flops out of a rusty wheelbarrow while wearing his red Blackhawks jersey. A ‘Gretzky’ hawks Chinese knock-off cellphones under the sweltering sun.

Seven years out of war, many former combatants hustle money by giving taxi rides on beat-up motorcycles with broken mufflers. On their chests: a Penguin, Maple Leaf, Red Wing or Lightning Bolt.”

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Decoder: Jon Voight’s Letter To President Obama

April 14, 2010 in Humor, Politics | Permalink

Angelina is starting to seem relatively well-adjusted. (Photo by Kristin Dos Santos.)

Jon Voight: Every loving American for peace and truth and the security of our nation must come out and join the Tea Parties in their states.

Decoder: Or they could stay home and watch the 2004 family comedy Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 on DVD. I play “Kane” and Scott Baio does some of his finest work yet.

Jon Voight: President Obama uses his aggression and arrogance for his own agenda, against the will of the American people when he should be using his will and aggression against our enemies.

Decoder: Al Qaeda and the Taliban might disagree.

Jon Voight: To think that this once great nation will be a third world country.

Decoder: A third-world country with iPads, frappacinos and high-speed internet access.

Jon Voight: Now the lie goes very deep and President Obama has been cleverly trained in the Alinsky method and it would be very important that every American knows what that method is. It is a socialistic, Marxist teaching and with it, little by little, he rapes this nation.

Decoder: Though I might be confusing him with Ben Roethlisberger. I know the charges were dropped, but when two different women have accused you of rape, wow, what’s going on there, Ben?

Jon Voight: The world looked up to us as a symbol of hope and prosperity now wonders what will become of the entire world if America is losing its power.

Decoder: Actually, people around the world have a much higher opinion of America since Obama became President. And applications for citizenship don’t seem to be down.

Jon Voight: The American people who understand exactly what is taking place have come together in the thousands, vowing to try to stay together as a unit of love and freedom for all men and women, from all walks of life.

Decoder: But really only some white people with a shaky grasp of history and the innate ability to blame their problems and insecurities on others.

Jon Voight: The opposition will continue their tactics.

Decoder: Running for office in free elections, thinking they should be able to govern if they get the most votes.

Jon Voight: They will lie and plant their own bullies amongst us.

Decoder: Strangely, those bullies will fit in seamlessly with many actual Tea Party members.

Jon Voight: Let us all stay in God’s light.

Decoder: Though you should remember to wear sunblock and a hat if you’re going to stay in God’s light for longer than 20 minutes. Sure, your body needs to produce Vitamin D, but you don’t want skin cancer, either.

More Decoders:

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

April 14, 2010 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"Trust me, if I like the woman, I can get the number."

Do You Have a Knack for Connecting with Strangers? (Manhattan/Brooklyn)

Thirty-something white guy, decent looking, cleans up nicely, can string a sentence together without using the words “duh,” “dude” or “hooters” excessively, looking for a cool woman to hang out with some evenings and weekend days, who can be my “wingwoman” — i.e., “break the ice” with other women and facilitate an introduction.

If you make friends easily and are always striking up conversations with strangers, then this would be a great part-time gig for you!

You must be outgoing and charming, but you will NOT have to do all the talking or all the work.

If you’re interested, please tell me about yourself (more rather than less, please!) and include a photo.

Compensation: $10 per phone number I get. (Once you make the introduction, trust me, if I like the woman, I can get the number.) I figure that, depending on the venue, in an hour you can make $40 or more – no limit!!!

NOTE: I’m not looking for you to be my girlfriend OR my sexual partner. This is strictly on the “up and up.” And we’ll only meet in public places. Thanks!

Miscellaneous Media: Official Guidebook Of The 1939 World’s Fair

April 14, 2010 in Books, Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

The Guidebook cost just a quarter back then.

I linked to some fun home movies of the 1939 New York World’s Fair a while back, and now I got my coarse yet practiced hands on a copy of that event’s official guidebook.

The book (which is the shape and thickness of an old-school TV Guide) is pretty straightforward, touting the highlights that drew 4.4 million visitors, with info on exhibits about technology, medicine, science and government in addition to amusements.

One oddity from the “Amusement Area” that jumped off the page is called “Little Miracle Town.” An excerpt:

“Morris Gest’s Little Miracle Town, occupying 36,000 square feet was brought over from Europe by a specially chartered ship. A miniature community, complete in every detail even to the diminutive organ in the church, its one hundred and twenty-five midget inhabitants have their own tiny restaurant, their city hall, their own theatre, art gallery and railroad station.

Other features include a midget circus, motion picture studio, garage, radio station, ballroom, guard barracks, Punch and Judy show and toy and doll factory. Never in the history of any exposition has there been a Midget Village as spectacular as this one. Morris Gest, famous producer of Chauve Souris and other successful shows, toured all Europe to secure the greatest ‘little people’ for Little Miracle Town.”

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“The Story Of The Crystal Palace Is A Fascinating One That Bears Repeating”

April 13, 2010 in Books, Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

The Crystal Palace was built in under six months.

Engineer Henry Petroski, always a provocative thinker and writer, did some of his best work in the 1985 collection known as To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design. Petroski examined a wide array of design disasters and explained how engineering is more of an educated guess than an exact science. And to add context, he singled out some daring engineering feats that succeeded despite their high degree of difficulty.

One such example is the 750,000-square-foot cast iron, wood and glass Crystal Palace in Hyde Park that Joseph Paxton built quickly in the mid-nineteenth century. The edifice was used to house the Great Exhibition, the first World’s Fair. Paxton was a gardener who used innovations in the Crystal Palace that had worked in his greenhouse designs. There were plenty of naysayers who didn’t think it would work, but the building outlived them all. An excerpt:

“One of the most ambitious and innovative structures of the Victorian era was not a bridge or a tower but the vast building constructed to house the Great Exhibition of London in 1851. The story of the Crystal Palace is a fascinating one that bears repeating, for it shows that no matter how innovative an engineering structure might be and no matter how many opponents it may have, the proof is in the putting up and in the testing of it….

Although the true skyscraper did not come into its own until the twentieth century, the Crystal Palace prefigured it in many important ways. The way the light, modular construction ingeniously stiffened against the wind is the essence of modern tall buildings. And the innovative means by which the walls of the Crystal Palace hung like curtains from discrete fastenings, rather than functioning as integral load-bearing parts of the structure, is the principle behind the so-called curtain wall of many modern facades.”

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Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Prime Cut (1972)

April 13, 2010 in Film | Permalink

Michael Ritchie’s insane 1972 crime thriller, Prime Cut, presents its most ridiculously evil moments with a deadpan seriousness, because the director really wasn’t kidding around. For a period in the ’70s, Ritchie had a sharp-eyed view of the dark side of striving in America, turning out not only this film but also cutting satires Smile and The Candidate.

Lee Marvin is a grizzled but decent collections agent hired by a Chicago crime boss to secure past-due payments from Kansas City underworld underling Mary Ann (Gene Hackman), who’s gone rogue and stopped sending a cut of the ill-gotten gains to his big-city superiors. Mary Ann zestfully sells beef, drugged young prostitutes (Sissy Spacek makes her film debut) and narcotics as if they were just so many commodities.

In the piece de resistance, Marvin and Spacek are chased across a farm by a thresher. The fields are golden and bountiful, and soon they may be awash in blood.•

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Decoder: Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Comments On Fox News Sunday

April 13, 2010 in Humor, Politics | Permalink

Michele Bachmann: The second professional wrestler to be elected in Minnesota.

Michele Bachmann: This is the most radical President, and the most radical Speaker, and the most radical Senate leader we have ever seen in the history of the country.

Decoder: I know nothing about the history of the country.

Michele Bachmann: I mean, clearly, the country has never gone this far in taking over this much of the private economy. And it is changing the way that we’re doing business in the United States forever.

Decoder: I like to speak in paranoid extremes. It distracts from my inarticulateness and incoherence.

Michele Bachmann: If you look at the approval numbers for President Obama, he’s fallen faster and farther than any previous President in the polling.

Decoder: Obama’s approval ratings are pretty much even with Ronald Reagan’s at the same point in their first term.

Michele Bachmann: Well, I think [the Republicans] are going to have a full bench of great candidates coming into 2012.

Decoder: There’s the resentful lady who can’t pronounce “nuclear,” the human woodblock Bobby Jindal, serial groom Newt Gingrich and bat-shit crazy Ron Paul.

Away from me, you vampiress!

Michele Bachmann: And I don’t know that we fully yet know who our frontrunner will be, although the results that came out yesterday point to Mitt Romney.

Decoder: He’s the one who spearheaded socialized health care in Massachusetts and was pro-choice until it wasn’t politically expedient anymore. But his hair is very Reaganesque.

Michele Bachmann: Well, I think part of [the reason I’m a lightning rod] may be because when I talk about what is happening in Washington, D.C., I use the actual statements or comments or the data that Nancy Pelosi or President Obama or Harry Reid refer to.

Decoder: Or it could be because in 2008 I suggested that members of Congress should be investigated to determine if they’re “anti-American.”

Michele Bachmann: I’m really more about making sure that our nation follows our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence.

Decoder: Unlike my political opponents, who want to tear up the Declaration of Independence and have the British rule America again. Wow, even by my low standards that statement was incredibly stupid.

Michele Bachmann: I see that our nation has strayed.

Decoder: Although I might be confusing our nation with Tiger Woods.

Michele Bachmann: I want to make sure that going forward we get back to our constitutional roots.

Decoder: Which allowed slavery and excluded women from having the vote. Those damned Amendments ruined everything!

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Old Print Article: “A Human Vampire And A Murderer,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1892)

April 12, 2010 in Misc., Old Print Articles | Permalink

Away from me, you vampire!

In the November 4, 1892 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle it was reported that James Brown, a vampiric murderer imprisoned in Ohio, had behaved like a one-man riot while being removed from his cell to be transported to a psychiatric facility. Brown had been arrested for vampire murders while working as a cook aboard the Atlantic in 1866. Brown was originally sentenced to be hanged for killing a fellow crew member who had insulted him, but that judgement was commuted to a life sentence by President Andrew Johnson.

A quarter-century later, the New York Times added reportage about his alleged blood-sucking exploits. Others followed up on this sensational angle. An excerpt from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle piece:

“Deputy United States Marshal Williams of Cincinnati has removed James Brown, a deranged United States prisoner, from the Ohio penitentiary to the National Asylum at Washington D.C. The prisoner fought like a tiger at being removed.

Twenty-five years ago he was charged with being a vampire and living on human blood. He was a Portuguese sailor and shipped on a fishing smack from Boston up the coast in 1867. During the trip two of the crew were missing and an investigation made. Brown was found one day in the hold of the ship, sucking blood from the body of one of the sailors. The other body was found in the same place and had been served in a similar manner. Brown was returned to Boston and convicted of murder and sentenced to be hanged. President Johnson commuted the sentence to imprisonment for life.

After serving fifteen years in Massachusetts he was transferred to the Ohio prison. He has committed two murders since his confinement. When being taken from the prison, he believed that he was on the way to execution and resisted accordingly.”

More Old Print Articles:

  • Hunger artist breaks his long fast. (1890)
  • Girl Lured to Opium Den Now a Raving Maniac (1900)
  • Muscular Woman Pummels Husband (1887)
  • Professional Clown Confronted By His Wife in New York (1887)
  • Women Rioters Raise Hell (1899)
  • The Matrimonial Experiences of Colonel Ruth Goshen (1879)

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    Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

    April 12, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

    Someone wants to look like me, Mavis.

    Jay Leno Costume! – $500 (Bohemia,NY)

    Jay Leno Costume!
    $500.00
    Includes Jay Leno Head,and Suit

    Great for children party’s,plays,carnivals,etc.

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    Miscellaneous Media: Buffalo Braves 1972-73 Yearbook

    April 12, 2010 in Misc., Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

    Buffalo Braves center Elmore Smith skies above Wilt Chamberlain.

    When I wrapped my greasy, grimy, greedy paws around a 1976-77 New York Nets yearbook not too long ago, I also managed to get a grip on a 1972-73 yearbook for the then-NBA franchise Buffalo Braves. One dollar could buy you a copy in those days. The most famous basketball icons associated with the team (which went 21-61 in the ’72-’73 season) were future Hall of Famers Bob McAdoo and Coach Jack Ramsey, he of the adventurous taste in slacks.

    The 1970-71 season was the Braves inaugural campaign in the NBA (that was the year the Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trailblazers also entered the league.) The team showed off their colors (black, white, orange and Colombia blue) at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, which closed in 1996. They made three playoff appearances (1974-’75-’76) and Bob McAdoo won an MVP Award (1975) while playing for Buffalo. The Braves spent eight seasons in the now-struggling city before moving to the warmer climes of San Diego, where they were rechristened the Clippers. (They moved again to Los Angeles for the 1985-86 season).

    The most interesting part of the yearbook is the player page notes about the team captain. During the offseason, Walt Hazard had converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul Rahman. The notes announce his conversion in a straightforward, respectful manner. An excerpt:

    “Known throughout most of his NBA career as Walt Hazzard, he has in the past year taken the Islamic name Abdul Rahman (pronounced ‘Rock-maan’), which means merciful. Abdul and his wife, Jalees, reside in Williamsville in the off-season with their two sons, Yakub, 7, and Abdul Jalal, 2.”

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    Featured Video: “Coney Island” (1940)

    April 11, 2010 in Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

    A 1913 postcard shows the grandeur of Luna Park.

    Coney Island was nearing the end of its greatness as an amusement mecca in 1940 when this fun short film was made. Fires would soon destroy Luna Park and nothing would ever be the same again. But Coney’s decline would have occurred anyway. It became such a big deal because its blend of entertainment, science and social experiment was ahead of its time, as it began to grow into its amazing self in the years after the Civil War through the early twentieth-century.

    Coney continued as the largest amusement-park area in America until the end of WWII. Then the rise of automobiles, air conditioning and the aggressive development of entertainments in Manhattan and other parts of the country diminished its efficacy. Large parts of the area are being redeveloped now, but it will just be a fun amusement park (not a bad thing) rather than its former visionary self.

    For a tremendous look at its grand past, get your hands on Ric Burn’s wonderful documentary, Coney Island. For a quick look at the resort in the final stages of its glory days, watch this nine-minute video.

    Other recent Videos:

    • Balloon failure at Chicago’s World Fair. (1933)
    • The hippie craft of “marbling.” (1970s)
    • Fifteen-year-old guru tries to levitate the Astrodome. (1974)
    • Edward Kienholz’s controversial L.A. art show. (1969)
    • Timothy Leary interviewed at Folsom Prison. (1970s)

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    Old Print Ad: P.T. Barnum’s Greatest Show On Earth (1876)

    April 11, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

    "Wonderful tattooed Greek noblemen."

    It cost folks just 50 cents (25 cents for children) in 1872 to see what that braggart P.T. Barnum called the “Greatest Show on Earth.” It probably was the best of all shows of its time, but still! This was the first time that Barnum began billing his circus as such. He had only entered the full-fledged circus business a year earlier.

    In addition to his late-career circus greatness, Barnum was a newspaper publisher, museum owner and curator, politician, hoaxer, philanthropist, concert and theater promoter, temperance speaker, abolitionist and the proprietor of America’s first aquarium. He also made some ridiculously bad business investments and drove himself into financial disrepair in the 1850s.

    By the time he entered the circus business at age 61 his financial well-being had been restored and all his myriad of experiences served him incredibly well. He became America’s preeminent showman, though he never really uttered the phrase “there’s a sucker born very minute.” An excerpt from the ad copy:

    “Occupies many acres with its vast tents and possesses more New and Imported Features, more Marine Monsters, more and rarer Wild Beasts, Birds and Reptiles, more marvelous Human Phenomena–including Huge Giants, Tiny Dwarfs and the wonderful Tattooed Greek Noblemen, more Curious and Costly Mechanical Wonders, more Distinguished Equestrians and Athletes, more Funny Clowns and more Educated Animals and Magnificent Trick Horses, than were ever before presented at any one time in any age or place and More than Ten Times the Price of Admission Returned to Everybody.

    I will give $10,000 to anybody who can show that, during the past five years, the daily expenses of my vast establishment have not been larger than the entire gross receipts of any traveling show in this or any other country.”

    More Old Print Ads:

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    “Highlights” From Another Terrible, Awful Week Of Afflictor Nonsense

    April 10, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

    Afflictor: Boring America one nana at a time.

    Decoder: Newt Gingrich’s Comments At The Southern Republican Leadership Conference

    April 10, 2010 in Humor, Politics | Permalink

    Like a human duffel bag. (Photo by Pete Souza.)

    Newt Gingrich: Obama is the most radical President in American history.

    Decoder: Obama is actually a lot less radical than Ronald Reagan, but I’m not of the same political persuasion as Obama, so I will label him an extremist, whereas Reagan’s radicalism made him a “great leader.”

    Newt Gingrich: Elections have consequences.

    Decoder: It turns out that the person who garners the majority of the votes has the ability to govern in a way that is not afforded to the losing candidate. I must make a note of this fact on parchment with my quill pen and the blood of a small child.

    Newt Gingrich: What we need is a President, not an athlete. Shooting three-point shots may be clever, but it doesn’t put anybody to work.

    Decoder: Except for that guy Wayne who polishes the court. He’s the one with the small scar on his right cheek. You’ve probably seen him. He’s always around the Rec. Center somewhere. You go, Wayne!

    Newt Gingrich: The longer Obama talks, the less the American people believe him.

    Decoder: I speak from experience. America’s been tuning out my bullshit since 1996.

    Newt Gingrich: Quite frankly, I’m tired of finding new ways to help [Americans] who aren’t working,

    Decoder: These unemployed pigs should die in the streets. We can use their entrails as jump ropes. Maybe Wayne can paint the Rec. Center with their blood. Just thinking out loud, people.

    Newt Gingrich: We will have a Republican Congress in January which will refuse to fund any of the radical efforts.

    Decoder: Except that a large number of Americans don’t think Obama’s efforts are so radical. And if we stall funding based on partisanship, it will make us even less popular than we already are. If you recall, that time I shut down the government in 1995 didn’t turn out so well for us.

    Newt Gingrich: Stage two of the end of Obamaism is that we must be prepared to offer in a positive way positive solutions that fit the values of the American people.

    Decoder: Hypocritically judging the morality of others during my three marriages and numerous extramarital affairs has taught me a great deal about values.

    Newt Gingrich: A Republican President and a Republican Congress in 2012 and 2013 will repeal every radical bill passed by this machine.

    Decoder: Except for the ones that turn out to be popular. We’ll leave those alone to ensure our own careers. Just like we did with Medicare.

    Newt Gingrich: Obama has now thrown down the gauntlet to the American people. He has said, “I run a machine, I own Washington and there’s nothing that you can do about it.”

    Decoder: Though he might have just been talking to me. People talk to me that way sometimes because I am such a lying, hypocritical sack of shit.

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    Urban Studies: Asinine Airports And Ridiculous Runways

    April 9, 2010 in Photography, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

    The runway at the Saba, Netherlands Antilles' Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is just 1,300 feet long, surrounded by lots of water.

    Why did the people of Thailand build an 18-hole golf course in between the two runways at the Don Mueang International Airport? Why do a thousand flights a year use a beach on the Scottish isle of Barra as an airport when the tide recedes? Why is the Qamdo Banga Airport in Tibet built 14,000 feet above sea level and have an airstrip the length of 61 football fields? In its photo-friendly feature, “The World’s 18 Strangest Airports,” the propeller-heads at Popular Mechanics answer these and other questions. An excerpt from the passage about the teeny Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport in Saba, Netherlands Antilles:

    “Background:
    Getting to this paradise-like island can be a bit distressing thanks to a 1300-foot-long runway, slightly longer than most aircraft carrier runways.

    Why It’s Unique:
    Large planes aren’t landing here, but the small runway is difficult even for Cessnas and similar aircraft. ‘The little X means don’t land there,’ says Wayne Schreckengast, a former Navy pilot who is no stranger to landing on less than lengthy runways. ‘It’s challenging, but if you don’t have something like that, the people here don’t get things they routinely need, like mail.’ Given the limited amount of land and rolling topography of the island, not many other options exist.”

    Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

    April 9, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

    I've been spirited away by North Bergen burglars.

    REWARD FOR STOLEN ITEMS – $500

    THE Following is a list of items that were stolen from me as my house was broken into TWICE IN ONE DAY SECOND TIME WHILE I WAS SLEEPING.

    2 bottles of Colonge Aramis (bottles are square)
    one laptop acer
    one portable dvd player (has BLUE BUNNY stamped on it, from ice cream co.)
    2 girls gone wild dvd’s
    box of silver quarters and half dollars
    morgan stanley coin sets sealed and mint
    over 30 bottles of liquor, vodka, chivas regal, etc, some opened and some never opened.
    100’s of cd’s
    10 sealed new plister packs shaving razors with teal color handles
    nail clipper
    one open speed stick deorderant gel
    one tool box loaded with tools,, tool box is gray plastic with red metal drawers
    one tool box, loaded with tools in briefcase style case
    astorted cell phones
    44 brand new in the box hess trucks
    12 pool sticks
    large new portable stereo phillips with cd burner
    I WILL UPDATE THE LIST ASAP AS THEY RANSACKED THE HOUSE

    THE THIEVES LEFT BEHIND CRACK BAGS ( I THINK ITS CRACK, DONT NO FOR SURE IM NOT A DRUGGIE) toilet bowl filled of cigar tobacco
    2 VERY LARGE DUFFLE BAGS LEFT OUTSIDE MY DOOR THE SECOND TIME THEY BROKE IN WHILE I WAS SLEEPING

    REWARD GIVEN FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE ARREST OF THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE

    BELIEVE ME WE ARE NOT SAFE IN THIS TOWN CALLED NORTH BERGEN, NO FINGER PRINTS WERE TAKEN BY THE NORTH BERGEN POLICE BUT WE ARE DOING OUT OWN FINGERPRINT DUSTING OURSELVES. THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE WILL BE CAUGHT
    IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING PLEASE EMAIL ME, YOU CAN REMAIN NAMELESS, PLEASE HELP

    SECOND REVOLUTION IS HERE

    New DVD: Beeswax

    April 9, 2010 in Film | Permalink

    Non-professional actors Tilly and Maggie Hatcher are the twin leads of "Beeswax." In real life, Tilly is a teacher and Maggie an ER doctor.

    Although it’s languid even compared to the unhurried pace of most Mumblecore offerings, Beeswax, Andrew Bujalski’s latest comedy of manners, is served well by its studied progression.

    Twin sisters Lauren (Maggie Hatcher) and Jeannie (Tilly Hatcher) share an Austin apartment and the same cheekbones but not similar temperaments. Lauren is floating aimlessly but cheerfully enough through life, while Jeannie, who is paralyzed from the waist down, tools around anxiously in her wheelchair, intensely managing the thrift shop she co-owns. Lauren is trying to decide if she wants to teach in Kenya, while Jeannie waits for her difficult business partner to file a lawsuit against her. To help her prepare, she invites former boyfriend and current law student Merrill (Alex Karpovsky) back into her life–and maybe back into her heart.

    The actors are non-professionals and even their occasional verbal stumbles serve the picture well. No one ever really hollers in a Bujalski film, including these repressed folks. They live in a world where people bite their tongues, keep the peace and don’t throw tantrums, let along a punch. The writer-director may eventually do his best work when he allows his characters to lose control and break something valuable. But until then, we have finely observed films like Beeswax.

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