Month: August 2008

Biden His Time

After a delay in making his announcement, moments ago CNN claims it has confirmed that Obama has picked Biden to be his running mate. I don’t know what led him to make that choice, but I think having two senators on the ticket isn’t a great idea. I would be saying the same thing if Hillary were his pick.

At this moment, the Wikipedia entry for Biden says nothing about him having survived a brain tumor, which is an odd omission. I don’t recall if it was malignant. I know two people who had non-cancerous brain tumors and they have both been fine for over twenty years.

Warning! Ice Cream

Bismo’s son has a humor book of warning labels that has some stickers in it. He put one of them on a carton of ice cream in our fridge.

Ice Cream Carton

Not a bad idea, actually, warning against “brain freeze.” Some people call it an “ice cream headache.” When I was growing up our family called it a “cold fever,” and I still prefer that description.

You Can’t Do That With The Beatles

Another Beatles video that I can do better than what’s on YouTube is “You Can’t Do That,” an outtake from A Hard Day’s Night that was assembled for a documentary about the movie on its 30th anniversary. I have it in stereo. The brief scratchy sounds in the right channel are in the source material.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/AUG/YouCantDoThat.flv 440 330]

Petula Catch-Up

Let’s get caught up a bit with some of Petula Clark’s doings.

  • Petula’s interviews on radio and TV tend to be diplomatic about personal matters, but in print she can be quite frank and open about herself. What she reveals at this link is one such example.
  • Coming up on September 13 on PBS is “The 60’s Live!” Petula’s appearance can’t be truly live, as she will be performing in Manila that day.
  • On September 22 Pet will be back in New York, for the delayed appearance with Harry Belafonte at the Paley Center at the Museum of Television and Radio. Click here for more background about that.

For complete up-to-date information, check the American site PetulaClark.net, and in the UK, the Petula Blog.

The Beatles Shout!

Back in ’81 a biography of The Beatles by Phillip Norman, called Shout!, was released. If I ever knew why it was given that title, I’ve long since forgotten.

“Shout!” is also the name of a song by the Isley Brothers that the Beatles performed once on the English TV show Ready, Steady, Go!. With all of the Beatles-related sites, and the many videos posted on YouTube, I’m surprised that I can’t find a good transfer of that appearance. So I’ll provide one here, taken from an 8-inch Laserdisc.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/AUG/BeatlesShout.flv 448 336]

Another Beatles bit of information is that they had some of the first Philips-Norelco Compact Cassette decks in England. Fifteen years later, John Lennon was holding cassettes when he was shot.

Maytag Doesn’t Suck After All

It’s always something. Our washing machine has suddenly started to leak. I was hoping it was one of the hoses, but when I popped open the back I could see it’s leaking where the transmission couples with the tub. It’s only seven years old. So much for Maytag reliability! But at least it picked a good time to die. This weekend there’s no sales tax in Massachusetts. See you at Sears.

And oh, by the way, we still don’t have our replacement Bose Wave. It’s in transit from Arizona, and according to the UPS tracking number will be here mid-week.

2023 Update: The replacement Bose Wave is still working well, as are the Maytag washer and dryer that were purchased when this blog post was written.