Well, I hope to be posting more often again. My laptop issue has been resolved!
Archive for the 'Other Stuff' Category
Ever since Brad Delp, lead singer of the band Boston, died in 2007, the band has struggled with how to continue preforming. Boston has been Tommy DeCarlo’s favorite band since he was 13. He had always dreamed of being a rock star. But to pay the bills, he was working as a credit manager at Home Depot in Charlotte, North Carolina.
DeCarlo’s daughter posted a My Space page of him singing karaoke to Boston songs. Boston founder Tom Scholz’s wife found the post and played it for Tom. He couldn’t believe what he heard. The band hired DeCarlo as their new lead singer!
He made his debut onstage at a tribute concert to Brad Delp last August. It was the first time in his life he had sung with a band.
DeCarlo and the rest of Boston will begin their summer tour on June 6, 2008, in Thunber Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Obviously I haven’t written a new post lately. My laptop is dying. After being on for about 10 minutes, it shuts itself off. I think it is overheating. The fan runs constantly. Good times.
So, it hasn’t been as convenient for me to blog. I hope to be back soon though!
According to a Danish researcher, if you have blue eyes, you’re related to a common ancestor. He found that every blue-eyed person descended from one person whose genes mutated some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Before that, everyone had brown eyes. Geneticist Hans Eiberg says that blue eyes occur when the human default - brown eyes - is turned off.
Brown eyes are caused by the pigment melanin, which also gives color to hair and skin, and builds up in the eyes. The blue-eye mutation shuts off the gene that produces melanin in the eyes. That one mutation now exists in 300 million people!
Eiberg says that the mutation is extremely specific: All people with blue eyes have the exact same genetic variation, and anyone with brown or green eyes do not. As a result, the mutation must have been passed down from a single person.
A few days ago, I came across a posting on Autoblog about a 1939 GM Futurliner that is up for sale on eBay. I remember seeing one of these once but, for the life of me, I can’t remember where it was!
So, what is a Futurliner?
Futurliners are a group of 12 stylized buses designed by Harley Earl. They were used in General Motors’ “Parade of Progress” tours which traveled to cities and towns across North America in the 1940’s and 50’s, showcasing new cars and technologies.
The Futurliners were identical with a bright red, white and silver color scheme. They measure 11′ 7″ tall by 8 ft. wide by 33 ft. long and weigh 27,000 pounds. Each displayed modern advances in science and technology such as jet engines, stereophonic sound, microwave ovens, television and many other modern marvels of the time.
After the “Parade of Progress” tours ended in 1956, GM held on to the Futurliners for a few years and then sold them to free up storage space. They ended up in various roles; working for a brewery, a tool company, a touring vaudeville company and to the Michigan State Police educating the public on traffic safety. Some were left in a farmer’s field in Illinois. Others found a future in Southern California junkyards. At least one found its way into the hands of the popular Oral Roberts crusade of the sixties. It was dubbed the “Cathedral Cruiser”.
Of the twelve original Futurliners, nine have been located. The bus listed on eBay was converted into a customized motor home. You can join in on the bidding that started at $ 1,000,000!
This image below is of Futurliner #10.
It was restored by a group of some 30 volunteers, led by Don Mayton at his Zeeland, MI home. With support from GM divisions, and about two dozen other businesses that donated parts and services, the restoration project took seven years to complete. #10 is the most accurately restored Futurliner. It’s owned by the National Automotive & Truck Museum in Auburn, IN. There are many more images of it available here and here.
Less than two weeks ago, I wrote how warm it was and how it felt like Spring. Well, that’s just a faded memory now! It was 2°F when I woke up this morning and has warmed all the way up to 10°F at 4 pm. I guess it’s a good day to sit home and stay warm and watch football. The below picture is of our Rhododendron. Look how cold and sad it looks! It’s leaves are tucked down just trying to stay warm…
The last couple of days have felt wonderful. The temperatures have been in the low 60’s - 30 degrees above normal! We had 7″ of snow on the ground a week ago, and it’s all gone now. It felt nice to go outside without a coat on! But alas, it’s only January. Spring around here is still several months away. Freezing temperatures will be back by the weekend. Oh well, it was a great break from the cold.
Disney’s The Jungle Book has always been my favorite. (The DVD was a great Christmas gift!) I never saw it as a kid, but was introduced to the 1967 classic with my own children. I think its my favorite Disney movie because of the music and the character voices and the memories of enjoying it with my kids.
The part of King Louie, the orangutan, was voiced by the entertainer Louis Prima. His performance of “I Wanna Be like You” is great. In it he’s joined by Phil Harris, the voice of Baloo the Bear. That whole sequence makes me laugh! It interested me in finding out more about him and hearing more of his music.
Prima was an incredible entertainer. His distinctive sound encompassed swing, New Orleans-style jazz, boogie-woogie, jump blues, R&B, early rock & roll, and even the occasional Italian tarantella. One of his most popular hits was “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody”. Part of the song is featured in the video below:
Prima’s wife, Keely Smith, is also featured on the video. His greatest period of popularity coincided with his marriage to her. Smith’s coolly sophisticated vocals and detached stage manner made a perfect counterpoint to Prima’s boisterousness. Their on-stage interactions, the happy-go-lucky husband squelched by a tart remark from the unamused wife, later influenced Sonny & Cher.
Louis Prima entertained and recorded from the mid 1930’s until the the 1970’s, passing away in 1978. I recommend the CD “Capital Collector’s Series: Louis Prima”. It is also available on iTunes.
In the UK, 200 year old maps are being used to locate ancient trees. These maps show how the landscape use to look before deforestation, and also help to show where the ancient survivors are located.
Ordnance Survey/Landmark have compiled a digital archive from more than 1000 maps which will be used to build the first interactive map of Britain’s ancient trees.
Because of its legacy of hunting forests established at the time of the Norman Conquest, Britain has more ancient trees than any other country in Europe. Many can be found in these old forests. Scattered groups of trees can also be found in historic parkland, wood pasture and ancient wooded commons. Small groups and individual ancient trees reside in housing estates, urban parks, farmland, village greens, churchyards and within the grounds of old historic buildings.
One of the oldest found so far is a Shropshire Yew. It was found in a churchyard in Norbury, Shropshire, in the West Midland region of England. It could be 2700 years old!
The Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, launched the Ancient Tree Hunt last summer to find, record and preserve their oldest trees. Over the last six months, more than 4000 have been located. Their goal is to locate at least 100,000 ancient trees by the year 2011. They’ll also need the help of the public to find candidates in their home areas.
Have you ever wondered about the history of some of the Christmas items we are so familiar with? Here are a few examples:
Christmas Lights - The use of small candles to light a Christmas tree dates back to the middle 17th century. The candles were glued with melted wax to a branch or attached with pins. Candle holders appeared around 1890. The first Christmas tree lit by use of electricity was in New York City in 1882. By 1900, department stores began using bulbs to light up their Christmas displays. Safe Christmas lights for trees were developed around 1917.
Christmas Cards - The first commercial Christmas Card appeared in London in 1843 and featured an illustration by John Callcott Horsley depicting a family with a small child drinking wine together!
Early English cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. In 1875, Louis Prang became the first printer to offer cards in America.
Artificial Christmas Trees - Artificial trees first appeared in Germany in the late 1800’s when deforestation was a problem. They were metal wires covered with goose feathers and often died green to simulate the look of pine needles. The trees first appeared in the United States in 1913, and were offered for sale in the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog, ranging in size from 17″ to 55″.
In the 1930’s, the Addis Brush Company developed an artificial tree using the same machinery it used to create toilet brushes! The branches were made using pig bristles dyed green. These branches were color-coded for ease of assembly.
Santa Claus - The history and evolvement of Old Saint Nick is much too long to fit on these pages. You can read more about it here.
Have a very Merry Christmas!!
The U.S. Census Bureau has released a new report analyzing the most common surnames. Smith remains on top, followed by Johnson, Williams, Brown and Jones. What’s interesting is that, for the first time, two Hispanic names have cracked the top 10. Garcia comes in at number 8, and Rodriguez at number 9.
You can search a list of the 5000 most common surnames to see where yours fits in.
We went to pick out our Christmas tree tonight. We’ve been getting Fraser Firs for many years. This year we decided to try something different. The first tree we came to was called a Grand Fir. We had never heard of it before. They told us it’s common in the Pacific Northwest. It’s much softer looking than the Fraser, and is very fragrant - citrusy. We decided to give it a try (we live on the edge!).
The branches aren’t as strong as we’re use to, so some of our real heavy ornaments may have to stay in their boxes this year.
Evel Knievel passed away today. He made quite an impact on us kids in the 70’s. Soon after we moved from California, we were eating dinner at Topinka’s, a long-closed restaurant at Seven Mile & Telegraph roads. It was September 8th, 1974, and Evel was attempting to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. I just remember asking the waiter if he made it or not. I’ll never forget that.
As Oklahoma celebrated its 50th anniversary of statehood in 1957, the city of Tulsa commemorated the occasion by sealing a gold and white 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe in a watertight concrete vault under the lawn of the Tulsa County Courthouse. The car would be unearthed 5o years later, in 2007.
Among the items included with the car were 10 gallons of gas, motor oil, a case of beer. A metal time capsule contained an American flag, savings account passbook, a bumper sticker, and other documents. Also, the Belvedere’s glove compartment was stocked with the contents of a typical woman’s handbag including, a bottle of tranquilizers, 14 bobby pins, a compact, a package of cigarettes, matches, two combs, and unpaid parking ticket, a tube of lipstick, a package of gum, a plastic rain hat, facial tissues and $2.73.
Townspeople were asked to submit guesses as to what the population of Tulsa would be in 2007. The winner would receive the mint condition 1957 Plymouth Belvedere!
Well, the day of the unearthing arrived on June 15th, 2007. The crowd anxiously gathered in anticipation. As workers removed the huge concrete cover of the vault (it was built to withstand a nuclear attack), they found about 2 feet of standing water and indications that, at times, it may have been filled to the rim. The Belvedere remained encased in its supposedly water-tight material. But the material was no longer sealed well, and what showed of the car was a hint of what was to come. It was lifted out of the vault with a crane, loaded on a trailer and driven to the Tulsa Convention Center to be unveiled that evening.
Instead of a pristine car, what the townspeople saw was a lot of rust. After 50 years of sitting in various levels of water, some of the tires were flat, the upholstery disintegrated and the engine a very large doorstop. Unfortunately, many of the artifacts were unrecoverable except for two glass jugs of gasoline, a cigarette lighter and some thickly encrusted cans of Schlitz beer.
But, the story didn’t end there. The winner of the guessing contest, Raymond Humbertson, passed away in 1979, and his wife in 1988. The couple had no children. After some debate, the car was awarded to his sister. And what about the Belvedere? It’s headed for New Jersey, to a rust remover company. The company says it can remove the corrosion while leaving the metal unharmed. It also leaves rubber, plastic, seals, and most paints untouched. So, stay tuned for further updates!
Flickr user milesj has a large gallery that chronicles the unearthing of the Belvedere.
For those of you who haven’t seen Oscar in a while, here he is. I bought him last year around Labor Day. He was only about an inch long at the time, but now he’s close to 9″. I feed him mostly commercial pellet food, but he also nibbles on raw fish, lettuce, earthworms, beefheart and brine shrimp. He always seems to be hungry.
He also has quite a personality. If I’m rearranging things in his tank, he’ll lay on his side on the bottom. I think he’s sulking! He recognizes us when we come near, but cowers when strangers come close. At feeding time, if he’s really hungry, he jumps up to my hand above the water. His head comes about 3″ out of the water. Of course, when he comes down, he splashes on the couch, the wall, the window…
Oscar’s latin name is Astronotus ocellatus. He is a South American Cichlid and is native to Peru, Colombia, Brazil and French Guiana, living in the Amazon river basin. In the wild they can grow up to 18″! They are often found for sale as a food fish in the local markets.
