Year: 2008

Signing Off On Exactly

I just heard a story on the radio where the news anchor and a reporter said “sign off on” back and forth half a dozen times. Where did this, and saying “EX-actly”, come from? They’re everywhere today.

Instead of saying “he signed off on the agreement” why not just say “he signed the agreement”? And is there no word other than “exactly” that springs to mind when agreeing with someone?

At least these two turns of phrase came into the vernacular spontaneously. Others are manufactured — for example, the Rovian “boots on the ground”. I really dislike the use of that expression. Will Rovian become a descriptive term like Machiavellian?

P.S. One current expression I like, and enjoy using is, “What’s up with that?”

Tech Trouble Quiz

I’m still, can you believe it, pulling stuff from my old tower PC onto my new mini-tower PC. We’ve been having lots of thunderstorms lately, so I’ve been good about turning off my computer before leaving the house or going to bed, because the battery in my uninterruptable power supply is just about played out.

Tonight I couldn’t start my PC. Dead battery in UPS, but that’s OK because I paid only $12 for the thing (thanks, tastewar, how long ago was that?), and it’s worked well until recently. The UPS wouldn’t turn back on, so I moved the PC plug over to the surge protector side of the unit.

I powered up the PC and logged onto my account. Within moments the computer shut itself down. Huh. Did it again and it powered itself off again. Ah. Of course. I powered it up again but got into safe mode. I ran a Windows utility program and changed something. Then I restarted Windows, logged onto my account and it was fine.

What did I change to fix the problem? tastewar will know the answer, I’m sure.

2002 Honda CRV A/C Black Death Compromise

A compromise has been reached with Honda. My position is that I can understand the compressor going on a car with 95,000 miles on it. But this Black Death thing, where the A/C is completely destroyed to the tune of $4000, indicates a product defect. I have agreed to pay $1300 for a compressor replacement job, and they will replace the entire system. The car goes into the shop on Thursday.

“GI Jo” Stafford

\"GI\" Jo Stafford

With Jo Stafford gone, World War II and the Big Band era slip further away from living memory. But Jo’s recordings remain. Thanks go to D.F. Rogers for helping me compile this collection.

This Jo Stafford record is from Christmas ’42, a year after Pearl Harbor…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/ManhattanSerenade.mp3]

The year 1944 was a big one for Jo Stafford. She started it with the Pied Pipers, who recorded one version of the popular novelty tune “Mairzy Doats.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/MairzyDoats.mp3]

Jo left the Pied Pipers to join Johnny Mercer, one of the principals behind Capitol Records, and she sang “Candy” with him.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/Candy.mp3]

Hey, I’m getting better at this. I can tell this is Mercer and not Tex Beneke. Mercer didn’t have the control that Tex, let alone Jo, had.

On D-Day Jo had a song on the charts from the movie “Cover Girl,” called “Long Ago (And Far Away)”…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/LongAgoAndFarAway.mp3]

In September she could be heard on the radio singing “It Could Happen To You”…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/ItCouldHappenToYou.mp3]

After the war, Christmas ’45, when the Baby Boom started, there was “Symphony”…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/Symphony.mp3]

And in September ’46, while those babies were being born, Jo sang “There Is Always”.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/ThisIsAlways.mp3]