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Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll)

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I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".

OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.

CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.

ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War-II— bringing together archival photography, historical artifacts, uniforms, sketches, and life-sized recreations of inflatable military equipment (using visual, sonic, and radio deception) to fool German forces during WW-II’s final year — is at the Reno, Nevada Museum of Art through July 23rd.

  Dummy M8 Greyhound armored car

YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay by American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner on having Elizabeth Warren in the US Senate, writing “There is nobody better at humiliating corporate malefactors and their chums in government. She is a faithful ally of the Biden administration, but any Biden officials who take a dive for industry … can expect no mercy”.

AUTOMOTIVE NOTES— with the rise of electric vehicles, many automakers are eliminating AM radios, as electromagnetic interference can interfere with AM radio frequencies, making it sound staticky over the airwaves.

PARODY ACCOUNT— “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” always fun.

US Workers of Personal Electronic Stores enter General Strike to support implementation of Juche Idea pic.twitter.com/Sl7kvhbaXn

— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) May 15, 2023

CHEERS to learning of the re-opening of Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey (after a nearly twenty-year hiatus) for use as a baseball stadium: famed for being one of only two surviving ball fields that hosted Negro League baseball (the other being Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama) that today are in their near-original dimensions and structures.

HAIL and FAREWELL to the poet and lyricist Pete Brown— who wrote much of the lyrics for music written (and performed by Jack Bruce) in the band Cream — whom I had the pleasure of meeting in London before the first 2005 Cream reunion concerts — who has died at the age of eighty-two.

THURSDAY's CHILD is named Mr. Mom the Cat— a Pennsylvania kitteh found caring for a litter of kittens, whose mother was nowhere to be found.

        Mr. Mom the Cat

PASSENGER RAIL NOTES— by the end of the year, planners hope to have a design ready for a new bridge across the Potomac River, doubling the capacity of rail service between Washington and Virginia (and all points further south) … plus, a private rail service hopes to offer (for the first time in fifty-five years) overnight Pullman car sleeper service between Los Angeles and San Francisco, beginning in the summer of next year.

YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay by The Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, noting that even the right-wing activist Nigel Farage has admitted that Brexit was a failure (albeit with the usual ‘politicians-screwed-it-up’ excuse). 

FRIDAY's CHILD is named Jerry the Cat— a Florida kitteh turned in to a shelter (whose story went viral) because he was deemed … “too affectionate” — and has since been adopted.

  Jerry the Affectionate Cat

BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.

THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the late 60’s mini-series from Britain, The Prisoner— and how efforts to bring it to the big screen have (so far) failed.

YOUNGER-OLDER BROTHERS?— Newsmax host Eric Bolling (fired from Fox for sexual harassment) and TV star David “Big in Germany” Hasselhoff.

      Eric Bolling (born 1963) and “The Hoff” (born 1951)

...... and finally, for a song of the week ....................… with no time for a profile this week … the song from my Top Comments post on The Prisoner  the other night.

When the UK show Danger Man came over to the US, CBS used songwriters Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan (of “Eve of Destruction” fame) to compose a 15-second theme song. This was recorded by musician Johnny Rivers for the TV show.

When the series was re-titled Secret Agent for the US market in 1965, P.F. Sloan said that lyrics flowed from that change, which he added. An extended version of Secret Agent Man was released by the kings of instrumental rock (The Ventures) in early 1966, reaching #54 … and then Johnny Rivers was coaxed into his own vocal version, reaching #3 in the US (and #4 in Canada). The line “They’ve given you a number … and taken away your name” … led many to see this as prophetic for the development of The Prisoner.


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