Archive for September, 2004
I Hate Hi
Posted by Bob in General, Musings about Life on 09/21/2004
Speaking of nasal (below), one of my petty gripes is the fact that nobody says “Hey” any more. It’s always Hi. When I complain about this, I always pronounce the “i”‘ in “Hi” through my nose, hard, to show its Yankee origin.
You see, I don’t think about world affairs all the time. I can be an opinionated old bastard about a lot of stuff.
Nasal Versus English
Posted by Bob in Musings about Life on 09/21/2004
When I was in high school, a lot of Dentsville School was made up of army brats. Watching TV, I always got the stereotype of the “Southern accent,” which sounded like nothing I had ever heard in the South, while Yankees portrayed on TV spoke perfect English.
In “the Raid” — a 1954 movie starring van Heflin about the Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vermont in 1864 — very few of the Southern Union prison escapees who wanted to be in on the raid could speak correctly like the natives of New Hampshah did. In the movie, all the New Englanders spoke Midwestern, soft English.
Meanwhile, back here on earth, I used to hurt peoples’ ears when I said, right through my nose, “A Yankee is somebody who tells me I’ve got a “southern eeeeeeeyaxkseeeeeent.”
The Yankee army brats tended to say the word that means ‘uncooked” as rooooah.
Does anybody else notice how many announcers on television seem to throw a lot of nasal “eee’s” into what they say? The state of Meeeuhsachusetts gets mentioned a lot.
You have any examples that come to mind?
Reply to Don
Posted by Bob in Musings about Life on 09/15/2004
Don made a comment on my discussion of Zell Miller’s speech at the Republican Convention:
“I missed Zell Miller. My stomach is not strong enough to handle the party conventions.
“I was, however, able to deal with a National Geographic special on exotic foods worldwide, which included rotten cheese filled with squirming maggots.
“In fact, this reminded of the party conventions.”
Comment by Don
Don, I am a political specialist. A specialist has to do some pretty foul things. For example, do you notice what a doctor has to do to check your prostate gland?
Zell Miller’s Other Point
Posted by Bob in How Things Work on 09/14/2004
After his fiery speech at the Republican Convention, Chris Matthews talked to the Georgia Democratic Senator on the Convention floor. Matthews was in his studio. Matthews made the usual comments about Miller helping out a party that was denying care to poor children.
Miller was in a fighting mood. He said, “The only reason you say that is because you’re safe in your studio and I’m here. Nobody accuses me to my face of denying care to poor children.”
He demanded that Matthews give him SPECIFIC details of that charge. As Matthews went silent, Miller said he wished he were in the days when you could challenge someone who insults you to a duel.
This is a major point of my book at
READBOB.COM
called “Why Johnny Can’t Think: America’s Professor-Priesthood.”
Zell Miller wouldn’t last a day as a professional commentator like George Will or any of the media’s pet conservatives. Try to insult Miller and he won’t stand for it.
Normally liberals casually say conservatives want to starve the poor or oppress minorities or hand out guns to children, but no respectable conservative will show the slightest outrage no matter how insulting the liberal is.
A respectable conservative makes his living by keeping that “respectable” label. And it is the media liberals who give that title to them. I make a major point of this in “Why Johnny Can’t Think.” I point out that the cowards and wimps and morons who are conservative spokesmen on television and in other media are the best friends liberals have.
It was such a relief to watch Zell Miller tear Matthews apart. It was very entertaining for everybody to see how to shut up a liberal who has said something he can’t back up.
I hope you saw it, because you won’t see it again.
What Was in the Outhouse BEFORE the Sears Catalog?
The old joke about the Sears catalog is that, when the new one came in, the old one was used in the outhouse.
Thank God for today’s bathroom tissues!
But you may wonder what was used in the outhouse BEFORE Sears catalogues came in.
Well, have you ever heard the expression, “Rough as a cob?”
Yep, that’s what they used.
Thank God for today’s bathroom tissues!
The 1897 Sears and Roebuck Catalog
When I wanted an old catalog, I went to the Internet. That 1897 Sears catalog was the Internet, or at least the e-Bay, of that age.
In this 1897 Sears catalog, the most remarkable things from our point of view are the pistols for sale, the cheapest costing 65 cents. They sold a regular Colt revolver for $3.95 and said it would cost $8 to $10 in a store.
They sold bicycles and bicycle rifles and bicycle pistols.
They sold a cure for opium addiction. They also sold laudanum, which includes a heavy dose of opium. If you wanted opium back then, you went to the local grocery store.
Paragoric was for babies. It contained codiene, for which an adult now needs a prescription. God knows why. There has never been a codiene addict, and if you ask an illegal drug dealer for codiene he will laugh at you. It’s like asking him for aspirin.
But they do manage to keep codiene away from people who are in pain by making it a prescription drug, so it makes lots of money for doctors and drug companies.
One doctor, desperate to prove to me that codiene was a deadly drug, said a lot of people were addicted to a combination of alcohol and codiene. I pointed out that I personally knew hundreds of people who were addicted to a combination of WATER and alcohol. That is the combination contained in every liquor bottle.
But if they could, doctors would make water a prescription drug.
A last remark about the 1897 Sears and Roebuck catalog as the e-Bay of its day.
You know all that spam most of us get trying to sell things to enlarge breasts and certain parts of the male anatomy. Well, 1897 was the Victorian Age, so no one would mention male parts, but sure enough, there is a breast enlargement cream in there!
I’m sure it worked as well as the ones people buy on the Internet now.
WOL Readers are Doing Nothing
Posted by Bob in Bob's Book on 09/06/2004
I am informed that after all my pleas to go to
READBOB.COM
and at least thank my book team, and after dedicating the book to them, WOL readers are doing nothing at all for it.
They don’t go to
READBOB.Com
It’s too much trouble.
Gee, thanks, gang. That really makes me feel like all this work and cost is worth while, you know?
The Hams
Posted by Bob in Law and Order on 09/04/2004
I have had my radio license for fifty years.
For many years, comercial radio networks have fought to keep down the numbers of frequencies allowed to “ham radio,” which means radio amateurs.
One of their arguments is that amateurs shouldn’t be using frequencies, just as private citizens shouldn’t have guns.
In the Florida hurricane right now, you will hear from time “amateur radio networks report…” As in every emergency, the hams have set up a network and they can communicate with a home generator and nothing else.
The media don’t like to talk about ham radio operators in emergencies, just as they don’t like to talk about how private gun owners stop looting in more cases than you could count.
But they’re all over the country, backing up the ones in Florida. The ARRL is the ham organization, and they can give you plenty of examples of what I am talking about on what ham radio does in emergencies.
My rig’s not up, but I’m still helping out a little.
See you later.
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