This post is set to appear at the scheduled start of my cardiac ablation. If there are no delays or complications, I should be discharged later today.
Please be seated in the waiting room.
Here’s some waiting room music.
Follow-up: Thank you for waiting. I am home, “resting comfortably,” and, significantly, free of afib. At least for now.
I’m staying at a hotel near Mass General Hospital. Having almost no clue about professional sports, I’m glad Samjay told me there’s a big hockey game at Boston TD Garden, and that I shouldn’t be surprised if the hotel has a lot of Canadian fans. They’re here, and I’m not surprised. Good thing I made my reservation a month ago, eh?
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.
I used this painting for a post last December, so of course the artist died weeks later.
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/
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.
Jack Kirby at home, 1993.
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?
