The Sunday Boston Globe magazine celebrated the paper’s 150th anniversary. Two pages were devoted to a bit of comic page history. I was amused to see the Globe had a local comic strip drawn by a William J. Sinnott.
Floridaze
Yesterday a friend was telling me about retirement living in Florida. From my extensive exposure to Arizona, I learned that neither its sun nor the politics are good for me. I’m certain Florida would be the same. Today I read a piece in The New York Times about Florida’s largest retirement community, The Villages, that further cements my feeling about Florida.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/opinion/florida-the-villages.html
The article mentions a documentary the Times co-produced, called Some Kind of Heaven. Being made sufficiently curious by the article, for a couple of bucks I have rented it on Amazon Prime.
Where Elvis Met Trek
Laurel Goodwin has passed away. A couple of years after appearing in Girls! Girls! Girls! with Elvis, Laurel was Yeoman Colt in “The Cage”, the first Star Trek pilot. I saw it as part of “The Menagerie” when it first aired.
Laurel’s character was the subject of a memorably embarrassing revelation made by a telepathic alien. I was just old enough to have an inkling of what was implied by, “The factors in her favor are youth and strength, plus… unusually strong female drives.”
Laurel was one of quite a few crossovers between Elvis and Trek.
In the Icy Deep
With progress on the Webb Space Telescope continuing, a million miles from Earth, there’s a discovery here on Earth, 10,000 feet below Antarctic ice.
Looking Back on the Bag
A few posts ago, “Little Green Bag” is in stereo. My copy of the recording, on a CD, is in mono, like the original single.
That very nifty record player looks like a Voice of Music A1272, from 1972. I had one, very briefly. Voice of Music record changers were everywhere on house brand stereos, but five years after the A1272 the company went out of business.
This video has a good view of the complete unit. Not an audiophile quality turntable, but good enough for all practical purposes.
Romantic Critters
When I happen to hear a less frequently played record from the 60’s, I check to see where it peaked on the Billboard Hit chart. This one is from ’66, the ultimate year for Pop music. The opening bass notes seem to have been borrowed from “Blue Bayou”.
Surely this perfectly romantic, swoony delight must have been a #1 hit. Boys liked it, girls loved it, and their moms undoubtedly did too. And yet “Mr. Dieingly Sad” only reached #17! Why? The answer is that it faced some very tough competition.
https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1966-10-05/
I suppose mothers may have been wary of the possibility their kids would go to the library to find out what “Kama-Sutra” on the record label meant. 😉