Author: DOuG pRATt

Fright Gallery

As pleased as I am that my Logitech Squeezebox hardware is back in full service, there’s another Logitech product from their most innovative period that’s dead, never to return to service — the Revue. It was Google’s first attempt at Google TV, only to be dropped when Chromecast was introduced. Such is progress. The Revue is seen in this picture from thirteen years ago, when the porch’s Samsung 40″ TV was new.

Also note the Magnavox DVD player. Lacking HDMI, it was connected to the Samsung via component video, having originally been on an S-Video cable going to the old Sony 32XBR100. The Sony is in the basement and it continues to be used, not by me, for classic video games.

The DVD player, made by Funai, was swapped out long ago for a Samsung Blu-ray deck, and put into storage. Funai is in liquidation. Sony and Panasonic are the only major manufacturers continuing to sell Blu-ray players. Such is progress.

The Magnavox was recently pulled out of storage and put back into service for the Samsung 32″ bedroom TV. Being almost fifteen years old, the set has component inputs.

I’m using the DVD player to watch some of Night Gallery before going to bed. Last night I watched one of the most memorable Night Gallery stories, “The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes,” with Clint Howard.

Now That’s What I Call Art!

I used this painting for a post last December, so of course the artist died weeks later.

Painting by Mort Künstler

Mort Künstler, Renowned Painter of Epic Historical Scenes, Dies at 97

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/arts/mort-kunstler-dead.html

As the NYTimes obituary points out, the renowned painter of historical scenes got his start with lurid illustrations for men’s magazines. What the obit doesn’t say is that one of Künstler’s earliest clients was Martin Goodman, publisher of Atlas Comics, later rebranded as Marvel Comics.

https://www.menspulpmags.com/an-interview-with-artist-mort-kunstler-part-1/

Painting by Mort Kunstler

It’s perhaps a stretch labeling Künstler as the “Godfather of Pulp Fiction Illustration,” as there were quite a few pulp magazine artists before him. The godfather of men’s magazines would probably be more accurate.

Künstler passed away less than a week from the 80th anniversary of the death of the outstanding pulp artist H.J. Ward at age 36. Ward’s wife was the model for all of the women in his paintings.

Painting by H.J. Ward

Tom is a Doug, Paul is a Sir

I’ve been picking through some of the clips from the 50th anniversary SNL show. Yeah, I know they include a Lawrence Welk parody with “three of the four” singing sisters. That was why I posted a pure, perfect hit of the real thing, from after Dee Dee’s return to the show. Nobody disses Dee Dee!

A tip o’ the Dog Rat toupee to Tom Hanks for reprising his unforgettable Black Jeopardy! character.

Paul’s voice is sounding its age, but who would want to not hear Paul?

Trying to Beat a Bad Backbeat

Friday will be cardiac ablation day for me at Mass General. I’m wondering if I’m a candidate for a new procedure from Boston Scientific, approved by the FDA just last April.

The director of the afib program at Harvard Medical School conducted clinical trials. He will be leading the team performing my procedure.

https://advances.massgeneral.org/cardiovascular/journal.aspx?id=2611

The Probate Process

Probationary workers are, by definition, new hires. Doesn’t that make Musk’s kiddie brigade a bunch of probationary workers?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

https://apnews.com/article/doge-faa-air-traffic-firings-safety-67981aec33b6ee72cbad8dcee31f3437