J is for JEOPARDY!

For reasons I will explain later, this is my favorite Final JEOPARDY! answer- the category is SISTER CITIES: San Francisco, California is a sister city to this one in Italy.

I started watching the game show JEOPARDY! fairly early on. It started in 1964 as a noontime show on NBC-TV. Art Fleming was the host; you can see some of his 1970s work here. I would stop at the home of my maternal grandmother and great aunt Deana; Deana and I would watch the show while we ate lunch, which grandma Williams usually prepared, and then I would return to school. The show lasted for 11 years, and I probably watched it for the first four regularly, until I went to high school, and again as often as possible once I got to college in 1971.

It is the Fleming version of the show that shows up in the film Airplane 2 (about the only original bit in that movie sequel), and in the "Weird Al" Yankovic video I Lost on Jeopardy.

Then, after a short-lived version in 1978, JEOPARDY! returned in syndicated (non-network) television in 1984 with Alex Trebek as host. I recognized Trebek from a game called High Rollers, which involved answering a couple questions then using these oversized pair of dice.

The other thing that was different from the original game, is that the values of clues had increased tenfold, from $10-$50 in JEOPARDY! (and twice that in Double JEOPARDY!) to $100-$500 in JEOPARDY! (The values doubled in the beginning of Season 19, in the fall of 2002, to $200-$1000 in JEOPARDY!) Not incidentally, in the current game, "the minimum wager on a Daily Double is $5, which was half the smallest clue value on the original version of Jeopardy! that premiered in 1964 with Art Fleming as host."

I always love the story about the creation of JEOPARDY! After the game show scandals of the 1950s, where certain players were leaked the answers, rigging the results, the late entertainer Merv Griffin was having a meal with his then-wife. He was musing about how he could put together a show in that atmosphere of distrust. She suggested giving the contestants the answers. He said something equivalent to "Are you crazy? That's been the problem!" She responded, "5280"; he said, "What is the number of feet in a mile?" The ah-ha moment arrived.


Merv Griffin also wrote the Think Music that plays for thirty seconds while the contestants are writing down their Final JEOPARDY! responses.

***
Oh, that question at the top: What I loved about it is that, obviously, the JEOPARDY! folks wouldn't expect you to KNOW San Francisco's Italian sister city. So there must be some linkage between SF and one city in Italy. And I figured it out. Any guesses?
***

One of the things people occasionally ask me when they try out for the game show JEOPARDY! is what sources they should use. Sure, there's the official JEOPARDY! site. But THE most valuable tool, I think, is the JEOPARDY! archive, specifically the help function.

Some intrepid JEOPARDY! fans have gotten together to archive almost every show in the past 13 years, and have captured some earlier episodes as well. If one can't watch the show, then reading the answers and questions will help prepare you for playing. There is also information about wagering, a LOT of info I think, other than general knowledge, waging is the most important aspect in the game. The site even describes the episode on the TV show Cheers when postman Cliff Clavin was on JEOPARDY!, had an insurmountable lead and still managed to lose.

Karl Coryat, a two-day champion back in 1996, has some good tips for what to study: "...there are a few things you absolutely must know. These are, in order of importance: State and world capitals; U.S. presidents (order, years of office, and general biographies); state nicknames; and Shakespeare's plays, including basic plot lines and major characters." I might have put Presidents first, but I don't disagree with his general premise.

"Prior to a rule change that went into effect at the beginning of the 20th Season [2003-2004], a champion could win a maximum of 5 games, whereupon he/she would retire and later return for the next Tournament of Champions." It was the rule change that allowed Ken Jennings to win 74 games in a row. It was great for Jennings, but I'm still not convinced it was great for JEOPARDY! The Tournament that year, instead of having a bunch of 5-time champions, and maybe one or two 4-timers, actually had a 3-day champ, diluting the process.

One variation on JEOPARDY! you may or may not remember was called Rock & Roll Jeopardy. It ran from 1998 to 2001 on VH-1 and was hosted by Jeff Probst, who would later host a reality show called Survivor. I thought it was a lesser program, in large part because, for most of its run, one played for "points" rather than dollars, with the person with the most points getting $5,000.

You can read about my JEOPARDY appearances here; the Boston shows in 1998 were the first non-tournament games ever played outside the Los Angeles-area studio. I only discovered recently that I had the second highest one-game dollar amount in the 1998-1999 season.

***
The question: What is Assisi? San Francisco is named for Saint Francis of Assisi.


ABC Wednesday


ROG

The Lydster, Part 70: Remote Control

The daughter has learned how to use the remote control on the DVR. Neither her mother nor I showed her; she just picked it up by observation. She's particularly fond of pausing or reversing her program so we can see something on her program that amused her, and thought she should share with her parents. Sometimes, I'm truthfully not all that interested, but it's useful nonetheless to see how her mind works.

One time, I was in the kitchen, listening to, but not watching ABC News. She had wandered into the living room and was captivated by this graphic that showed how it snowed so much somewhere in the upper Midwest that it would bury a car. The graphic of the increasingly covered vehicle fascinated her. And she needed to share; it was sorta interesting.

Actually, I need to be more mindful when she's around and I have control of the remote, trying to catch up on the news. There was a recent story about a drone strike that killed 20 people; fortunately, there were no graphics. She was drawing something and I didn't think she was paying attention. Still, she asked me, "Daddy, were they all bad people?" After thinking, "Oh, crap," I said, honestly, "Well, probably not," which seemed to satiate her for the moment.

Another time, I didn't think she was paying attention was while I was watching the 11 January JEOPARDY!, almost certainly after 11 January.
FACTS & FIGURES $1200: Researchers have found more than 40,000 of the dust type of these microscopic bugs in 1 ounce of mattress.
She turns to me and says, "Dust mites!" She didn't reply in the form of a question, but she was correct. This pleased me greatly.
***
She knows I blog about her and as I was musing about what to write. She suggested that I tell that Sunday morning, she wrote notes saying "I love you", and put them on her mother's and my pillows. OK, I'll write that.

ROG

Ramblin 'z Rogerem

My friend Daniel discovered that that a person, for some unexplainable reason, had translated my March 22, 2009 post into Polish. It's rather interesting, and fun. The AmeriNZ post Truth is the real victim is translated as Prawda jest prawdziwą ofiarą. Gordon's post, partially about me, is Moja nagroda dla osiągnięcia Post # 1285. Johnny Bacardi, whose birthday was yesterday (oops) recently wrote Spójrz na moje prace, o wy, potężny i chichot. Część 37, which, of course means, Gaze upon my works, o ye mighty, and snicker. Part 37.
***
I told some of you that my 19-year-old niece was getting married and that I first learned about it by reading her Facebook page. Well, she isn't getting married; she's just in LOVE, and got too exuberant. Which just goes to show that you can't believe everything on the Internet, even from someone's Facebook page.
***
Some woman called our house looking for someone. No big deal - a wrong number. No big deal except it was 1:30 a.m. I wasn't asleep, but my wife was, and the phone is in the bedroom. So I ran in there.
WOMAN: Is this the Toyota center.
ME: No, ma'm, it's not. You've got...
WOMAN: I'm looking for Ted. You know him?
ME: No, there's no Ted here. You've...
WOMAN: He's a tall man.
ME: Lady, you've got the wrong number.
WOMAN: Ted's not there right now? OK.
And she hung up.

It occurred to me that I have her phone number and sometime at 1:30 a.m., I could call...nah, I wouldn't do that. I can THINK about it though, can't I?
***
Weird thing happened a couple weeks ago with our front door lock. Our contractor was putting needed insulation in our attic. He locked the door, but apparently in such a way that when my wife and daughter got home from the grocery store, they couldn't unlock the front door. The daughter was playing outside in the snow without gloves, against her mother's wishes, and the wife was afraid that the child was going to get frostbite. Her cellphone had run down, so she just drove over to my office and called me from the lobby , about a half hour before I would have taken the bus home for the day. I went home, had to both squeeze the door handle and turn the lock simultaneously to get inside.

So I'm telling this story to a guy I knew, and he bristled. He wouldn't want his wife just showing up at his place of work. But I knew that my wife is quite self-sufficient and if she thought she really needed my help, of course I'd give it to her. I thought the guy's reaction was rather peculiar, actually, or else it spoke of the nature of his relationship with his wife.
***
Oh, and speaking of cell phones, which I sorta was, I got an e-mail message from my provider - let's call it Virgin Mobile - with an e-mail on December 27 that I needed to "top up" my cell phones. OK, so I do, and I get confirmation on December 29. On January 2 and again on the 3rd, I get a message that I need to top up my cell phone. Apparently, they had topped up one but not the other, though the messages had indicated that I topped up neither. Don't know why this peeved me so. I think it's the happy, recorded speech on their phone lines, and a phone menu that simply did not address my particular problem. (Dial 8 for We Screwed up.)
***
As a business librarian, I often have the need to call the NYS Department of State, Division of Corporations. They're a fine group of citizens. However, twice during the phone menu before I can reach a person, I get details about their impending move from 41 State Street to 99 Washington Avenue...in 2008. PLEASE change the menus of your phones.
***
I was watching JEOPARDY! at the end of 2009, and he wondered aloud whether the champion at the end of 2009, and continuing in 2010, would have his income taxed under each year. Well, unless they change their procedures, unless he stuck arounde like Ken Jennings, it would be for the latter year. When I was on, the show was taped in September 1998, the show aired in November 1998, but the check didn't arrive until March 1999, so it was taxable for 1999. You'd think the host of the show for a quarter century would know that. Or maybe he was just making conversation.


ROG

Reeling in the Years

I know historians banter about the most significant years in a given period, as do others. I'd have to pick 1917 (Russian revolution), 1945 (end of WW II), 1968 (unrest in US, Mexico, Czechoslovakia), 1989 (fall of Berlin Wall), among others, for the 20th Century.

But did you ever rank the years in your life? 1977, when I lived in three cities in two states, was pretty awful, but 1978, when, not coincidentally, I moved to Schenectady, NY, was pretty good. I was up in the attic this week, sorting stuff, and I came across a 1998 calendar, 100 Years of American Comics from the International Cartoon Art.

My, that was a good year.

I went to the movies. A lot.
Jan 16-Jackie Brown
Jan 19-Good Will Hunting
Jan 25-Titanic
Jan 31-Fast, Cheap and Out of Control
Feb 1-Amistad
Feb 10-The Tango Lesson
Feb 14-Mrs Brown; L.A. Confidential
Feb 15-Afterglow; Ma vie en Rose
Feb 16-The Apostle
And that was just the first two months.

I took JEOPARDY! test #1 on April 29.

I went on a two-week vacation in May. I don't know that I've been on a two-week vacation since. I went to the Motown museum and a Tigers game in Detroit; and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on one train trip. I visited the Capitol and other landmarks and took JEOPARDY! test #2 in Washington, DC on a second train trip. I love the train.

Saw LOTS of music in the summer. Many are local band (Burners UK, Hair of the Dog), but I also saw Maddy Prior, Cyril Neville, the Glenn Miller group, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Rickie Lee Jones. Then on August 9, I went to SPAC for the Newport Folk Festival, featuring Lyle Lovett, Joan Baez, Nanci Griffith, Bela Fleck, Bruce Cockburn, Alison Krauss, Marc Cohn, Lucinda Williams, and others; a great day.

I had two conferences in September. At the ASBDC conference in Savannah, GA, my father drove down from Charlotte, NC and hung out with me and a couple of my friends the first two days. THE best time I ever had with my father. Then the SBDC conference was in Niagara Falls; I love the falls. And I walked to NF, Ontario.

The JEOPARDY! broadcast party was November 9. Later that month, my attempts to re-woo Carol, which began in earnest in August, proved successful, and we got married the following May.

Music, movies, travel, love. Even a modicum of fame. That was a great year.

May your 2010, and mine, be as fruitful.


ROG

Roger Answers Your Question, Scott

Our next contestant is Scott, husband of Marcia (no, not my sister), father of Nigel and, since September 22 of Ian:

Who's going to win the NL pennant, the AL pennant, and eventually the World Series?

I thought in the beginning of the season the Red Sox would be the AL wild card but would get to the Series. Not feeling it any more. While the Angels COULD beat them, I got to think that the Yankees just seem too solid to lose.

Did you happen to read that cover story about Detroit in Sports Illustrated this week? I REALLY will be rooting for the Tigers, but I'm not seeing it happening. If it did, I'd be happy - shades of 1968. (Off topic: BREAK UP THE LIONS!)

I don't see the NL wild card (probably Colorado, though I'd prefer the Giants) winning the pennant. The Phillies have an unreliable closer and leave too many on base. Certainly can make the case for the Dodgers, but I'll go with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Want to say Cards win the Series - shades of 1964 - but I think the Yankees, shut out of the postseason last year, are ticked off enough to win it all - shades of 1928 and 1943.

Is there an entertainer (singer, musician, actor, all, etc.) that you first couldn't understand why they were even in the business, but now admire their work?

Yeah. Almost any singer-songwriter whose singing voice isn't pretty; the first is Bob Dylan, who I first knew as a singer, long before I heard that he wrote all of those songs that other people performed. Then I thought that he should ONLY be a songwriter. But given the number of Dylan albums in my collection, evidently I've changed my mind.

To a lesser degree, Neil Young: his voice wasn't as harsh as Dylan's so I did not have as far to travel to get to owning well over a dozen Neil albums, just as I own numerous Dylan discs.

Given how the media has access to so much information and gets to see so much of a famous person's life, do you think it's best to always steer clear of them being accepted as role models?

I think young actors and athletes and musicians are ill-served. If there was some sort of mechanism that said that when you reach a certain level of the profession you seek, you need some sort of counseling to make sure your head is on straight. I'm thinking of folks like the Mets' Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, who had too much money too quickly and screwed themselves up.

But everybody is a role model for someone. One can refuse to accept it - was it Charles Barkley who said that he wasn't role model for anyone? - but it doesn't alter the fact that he is. I'm a role model, you're a role model, even if we're unaware. And you don't even know when one's going to become a role model. The Phillies fan who catches a foul ball, hands the ball to his daughter who throws it back, then hugs his daughter; he's a role model. Now if he chewed out his daughter instead, he'd STILL be a role model, albeit not a very good one.

On the other side of this, who that is famous do you think is a good example of a good role model?

There are lots of athletes and performers who work for their various charities, sometimes with limited publicity nationally. That said, I've always been impressed with Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Milwaukee Bucks, LA Lakers) for the way they carry themselves. Kareem is also a JEOPARDY! winner - actually the week before I won - so that's also a plus. BTW, he's going to be on JEOPARDY! this season in a million-dollar celebrity invitational; someone's favorite charity will receive one million dollars at the end of the season.

What is your favorite show that is not shown on one of the big four networks (and Jeopardy!, though syndicated, counts as a big network show, since it's always found on one of their local affiliates)?

Scott, with that caveat, you know me too well. Actually, don't mind watching some of the daughter's shows such as Jack's Big Music Show (Noggin). But I suppose I'll pick The Closer on TNT; once you realize it's not a whodunit, but rather how the team discerns it, it's much more interesting. There were a couple particularly moving episodes this summer.

That said, there are SO many shows out there that I might be interested in watching, I pretty much say "no" more often than "yes" lately. Even in this new season, I've taped only three new network shows (Glee; The Good Wife - strong cast; and Modern Family) and I haven't watched ANY of them yet. My wife started watching Glee with Lydia - she mistakenly thought it was child-friendly.

You might have posted this already and I missed it, but had Lydia been a boy, what were your choices for a name?

Had to ask the wife. She claims we agreed on Micah, but I'm not convinced. Sounds too much like the ever-popular Michael. In all likelihood, the child would still be called Male Child Green.


ROG

Problems, problems

What a pain in the neck. I mean this literally. Somehow during sleeping Friday night, I pulled something in my neck. It's OK when I sit, but it hurts to lie down. I can sit in brief spurts. Heat and pain relievers are not helping.
**
My printer has a paper jam. It's a Brother MFC-240C. I bought it at Staples last fall. The problem is that, apparently, whatever is jammed is too small to see, let alone reach. Staples told me to call Brother. After the Brother technician went through all the steps that I had already tried, she had me get the error code. #51 - ah, area 51 - no wonder it's a problem. Then she referred me to a local repair shop, which DOESN'T ANSWER ITS PHONE. Meh.
***
I've been having trouble with Firefox. About once every other day, it freezes up and I have to CTRL/ALT/DEL my way out. Then I get this sheepish message:

Well, this is embarrassing.
Firefox is having trouble recovering your windows and tabs. This is usually caused by a recently opened web page.
You can try:
* Removing one or more tabs that you think may be causing the problem
* Starting an entirely new browsing session

Well, I think I will start a new browsing session. whether it will be in Firefox is another issue entirely.
***
Somehow, our household has two different CVS codes so the coupons earned on one card are not transferable to the other, I discovered yestersday. I swear I had addressed this question months ago.
***
Our intern-turned-temp-librarian Amy left my office's employ Friday. She really helped keep our turnarounf=-d time down. And I like her personally as well.
***
The good thing about feeling lousy is that it gave me an opportunity to see some TV. Watched some of the EMK funeral.I was re-reading his 1972 book In Critical Condition. On pp. 74-75: "guarantee comprehensive health insurance to all Americans and to assure that health care is available at a cost any American can afford." pp. 220-221: "We can no longer afford the health insurance industry in America...the insurance industry still could not bring about change in the health care system to control costs, improve quality, and offer health care services in a way most acceptable to y=the people. The industry would remain a moneychanger taking a percentage of our dollars for a dubious service."
***
I also finally watched the last prime episode of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire that aired last Sunday. If you get a chance to watch it on abc.com, I recommend it. JEOPARDY! champion Pam Mueller was in the audience as her significant other, also a JEOPARDY! winner, played - don't want to reveal name in case you watch. Whether or not you view it, find her S.O.'s J bio off her page, then read the blog post that explains the motivation.
***
I may have to work on this: ever since I learned that Amazing Grace can be sung to The House of the Rising Sun, I've been singing it around the house. (AG can also be sung to The Lion Sleeps Tonight, but it lacks the proper pathos.


ROG

#1- the Beatles. #2 - the Beatles...

On the Billboard charts of April 4, 1964, 45 years ago this week, a phenomenal thing took place. Not only was the #1 single by the Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love, which would stay on the top of the charts for five weeks - but the whole top five was dominated by the Fab Four. The week before, the Beatles had 10 singles on the Top 100 charts, 12 the following week and 14 the week after, crushing Elvis Presley's record of nine on December 19, 1956. and it was facilitated by this one fact: the Beatles were a bust when they were first released in the United States.

For instance, She Loves You was a reissue of a failed September 1963 release on Swan Records. From Me To You managed to get all the way up to #116 in 1963 on VeeJay. My Bonnie, a 1962 Decca release, originally failed to chart at all.

But when the Beatles, now on Capitol Records, hit #1 with I Want To Hold Your Hand the week of February 1, 1964, followed by their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, those records on those other labels began to chart as well. No label would have put out more than a couple songs by an artist at once - Can't Buy Me Love ascended to the top as I Want To Hold Your Hand descended for Capitol, but the other companies wanted to take full advantage of Beatlemania.

I was always a little bothered by the Beatles' #1 as a collection, for it fails to register the quality and quantity of Beatles hits in that first period. Please Please Me (likely) and Twist and Shout (almost definitely) were blocked from getting to #1 only by another Beatles song.
***
MIT DEN BEATLES Whole Category on JEOPARDY!, Show #5644 - Thursday, March 5, 2009

$200 The Beatles honed their chops playing clubs in the Reeperbahn, a red-light district in this German port city
$400 One of 2 official Beatles German-language releases, "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" was the lads' take on this 1964 smash
$600 Astrid Kirchherr & Klaus Voormann are characters in this movie dramatization of the Beatles' time in Germany
$800 To please their rabid German fans, the boys re-recorded this hit as "Sie Liebt Dich" in 1964
$1000 While making "Let It Be", the Beatles recorded "Geh Raus", a German-language spoof of this No. 1 hit
***
The Beatles Complete on Ukulele.

Math Professor Figures Formula for Beatles Success
***
JEOPARDY! Questions
Hamburg
I Want To Hold Your Hand [on Past Masters #1]
BackBeat [which no one on the show got; I saw the movie and own the soundtrack]
She Loves You [on Past Masters #1]
Get Back [which I've never heard! Anyone out there own this? Anyone even HEARD this?]

ROG

G is for Green

When I give out my name on the phone, I usually spell out R-O-G-E-R and say, "Green, like the color". As often as not, the reply is, "Is that with an E?" I thought, since my last name is Green (not Greene), that I'd reflect on the color green. Of course, no analysis is more clear than the late Joe Raposo's meditation, Bein' green.

It's not that easy bein' green

Green is a secondary color, comprised of blue and yellow

Having to spend each day
The color of the leaves
JEOPARDY! clue, 5 Feb 09 in Basic Science: "The name of this green pigment found in plants is partly from the Greek for 'green'

When I think it could be nicer
Bein' red or yellow or gold
Or something much more colorful like that

Of course, autumn leaves ARE those colors; they are also dying.

It's not easy bein' green
One of the most popular children's songs in MY neighborhood was "Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts"; heard THAT a lot.

It seems you blend in
With so many other ordinary things

Of course, kids tease, as they do. the one name I was called the most, which actually didn't much bother me, is Mr. Green Jeans, the sidekick on the long-running, CBS-TV weekday morning show, Captain Kangaroo. He was played by the late Hugh "Lumpy" Brannum.

And people tend to pass you over
One of the definitions of green is inexperienced, like a greenhorn rookie

'Cause you're not standing out
Like flashy sparkles in the water
Or stars in the sky
Though in fact, many animals either are green or can turn green as protection from predators, using it as camouflage.

But green's the color of spring
(Will spring ever arrive?)

And green can be cool
Green Tambourine - the Lemon Pipers

(and here's a cover version)

and friendly like
The persistent Sam I Am in Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss' birthday was Monday)



And green can be big like an ocean
Or important like a mountain
Green means go. And speaking of which, Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963) developed several commercial products, many of which are still in use today. Morgan is probably best known for inventing the gas mask and the traffic light.

Or tall like a tree
I must admit unwarranted joy when the conversation comes around to going green, meaning being environmental.

When green is all there is to be

When i was in college, I'd occasionally hear the punchline to the movie Soylent Green,, starring Charlton Heston, directed at me, long before I got around actually seeing the film; talk about a spoiler!

It could make you wonder why
But why wonder, why wonder?
About the only time I ever read either Green Lantern or Green Arrow comic books is when they appeared together in that Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams series

I am green and it'll do fine
It's beautiful and I think it's what I want to be

The song has been performed by a number of folks including Frank Sinatra, and that guy born on the Emerald Isle, Van Morrison. still the best version starts off like this from the star of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show:

Greetings, Kermit the Frog here
And today I'd like to tell you a little bit
About the color green
Do you know what's green?
Well I am for one thing
You see frogs are green, and I'm a frog
And that means I'm green, you see



JEOPARDY! question: What is chlorophyll?
ROG

Beatlemania

The 45th anniversary of the Beatles' appearance on Ed Sullivan cannot go unmentioned here. Still working on my comprehensive list of songs, but in the meanwhist, as they in "Life of Brian" (George Harrison was a big Monty Python fan):

On episode #5602 of JEOPARDY!, which aired 6 January 2009, there was a whole category of BEATLES LYRICS
$200: "Sont les mots gui vont tres bien ensemble tres bien ensemble"
$400: "Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door, who is it for?"
$600: "You say yes I say no you say stop and I say go go go"
$800: "Beep beep mm, beep beep, yeh!"
$1000: "I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me"
Answers below.
***
One of those music memes that was circulating a few years ago:
Artist/Band: The Beatles
Are you male or female: Rocky Raccoon; Mr. Moonlight
Describe yourself: Fixing a Hole; Fool on a Hill
How do some people feel about you: Come Together; Day Tripper
How do you feel about yourself: Long and Winding Road; Getting Better
Describe what you want to be: Something; Bad Boy
Describe how you live: Twist and Shout; Searchin'
Describe how you love: Ain't She Sweet; A Taste of Honey; All My Loving; All You Need Is Love
Share a few words of wisdom: Tomorrow Never Knows; Wait; Get Back
***
The Beatles (1963-70)

***
Cryptoquip:
Beatles hit about a street on which people congregate and create plays on words: Punny Lane
***
Any Time At All "a unique musical blend of The Beatles and Traditional Irish and American Flatpicking tunes"
***
JEOPARDY responses: "Michelle", "Eleanor Rigby", "Hello Goodbye", "Drive My Car", "Norwegian Wood"; all ultimately answered correctly, though "hello Goodbye" was muffed by two contestants before the third got it right.
ROG

S is for San Francisco

Long before I ever went there, I loved San Francisco. From the Golden Gate Bridge to the cable cars, I adored the place.

It may have started in 1962, when I was nine. The San Francisco Giants, my favorite team in the National League was playing the New York Yankees, my favorite team in the American League; we're talking Major League Baseball here, BTW. While my support for the Yankees was regional (I'd been to Yankee Stadium, e.g.), my love for the Giants was more emotional. I loved Orlando Cepeda at 1B - I love the way Danny Kaye sang "Or-lan-do Ce-pe-da" in a baseball song. I loved the Alou brothers, Matty and Felipe, who would one day be joined by brother Jesus; at least once, a few years later, all three patrolled the outfield at the same time. I loved Willie "Stretch" McCovey, who would eventually become the Hall of Fame 1B. P Juan Marchical! But most of all I loved CF Willie Mays, one of the three or four best players EVER, whose statue I had purchased at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY around that time, only to have a foot chomped off by our dog.

Then there was JEOPARDY!, the daytime quiz show hosted by Art Fleming, which I used to watch with my aunt at lunchtime almost every day. One sponsor was Rice-A-Roni, "the San Francisco treat". I LIKED Rice-A-Roni when I was 11.

I listened to Bill Cosby a lot in those days, and this riff made me want to go there and see Lombard Street:
or here.

A few years later, it was Haight-Asbury. The Summer of Love may have ultimately been a failed social experiment, but to a 14-year old, it was just cool. From it came the music of the Jefferson Airplane, Rolling Stone magazine and other wondrous inventions.

So, I felt as though SF was my second hometown, even though I had never been west of the Mississippi until considerably later.

Therefore, the events of November 1978 felt terrible to me, as though it had happened in my own hometown of Binghamton, NY. First I saw the raw footage of Congressman Leo Ryan and his associates being attacked in Guyana. I remember an ashen Mayor George Moscone announce Rep. Ryan's death. A couple days later, we learned of the Jonestown Massacre with Jim Jones leading the drinking of the Kool-Aid; most of the folks were from the Bay Area. Not two weeks later, I watched acting mayor Diane Feinstein weep as she announced the murders of Moscone and city council member Harvey Milk, almost certainly the most prominent gay politician of that time. Subsequently, I followed the trial of Dan White and his infamous "Twinkie defense". Some feel the two events - Jonestown and the Moscone/Milk murders - were connected. In any case, it's all created ambivalence about whether I want to go see the upcoming movie Milk with Sean Penn.

I finally got to actually go to San Francisco in 1987. I flew to San Diego, and then my sister, who lives there, and I flew to the Bay area. We went to the fish market, rode the cable cars, saw the Bridge, and yes, we found Lombard Street, which is as beautiful and curvy as Cosby described. Unfortunately, the San Francisco Giants were out of town, but we did see the Oakland A's play.

San Francisco was everything I knew it would be.

ABC Wednesday.


ROG

The TV Season

I must admit that it was my intention not to add any new shows to my list of programs to record on my DVR and (presumably) eventually watch. From a DVR at 0% on Labor Day, the machine got filled up to about 77% on Halloween weekend, and currently is is the mid 50% range.

As always, we have shows that are hers, hers, theirs, mine and ours.

HERS (the wife):
Skating. Unfortunately, the ISU series, save for Skate America, is not airing on any TV network, broadcast or cable. Apparently, this is a particularly big deal since we're leading into an Olympic year and it'll be easier to handicap the skaters once you've seen them on the Grand Prix circuit.
Also one of those home improvement shows on HGTV.

HERS (the daughter):
Little Bear. A nice show on Noggin co-created by Maurice Sendak.

THEIRS:
Dancing with the Stars. Even I know that 82-year-old Cloris Leachman stuck around longer than her talent would suggest based on her bawdy charm.

MINE:
This Week/Meet the Press/ABC World News - current.
Everything else is at least a week behind, including JEOPARDY!, CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes. Also watching:
Boston Legal: yes, I know, but it's the last season. There was actually a pretty good episode, one lacking with most of the supporting cast, in which Kyle Secor (Homicide) played the accused murderer and husband of Alan Shore's former loves.
Pushing Daisies: frankly, I thought this show was too whimsical last season to survive, but ABC brought back virtually everything except Men in Trees. I expect it to get canceled THIS season. BTW, some kind person sent me this link to video content they had received directly from ABC, a new “Inside with the Stars” of Pushing Daisies
or here.
Dirty Sexy Money: my unapologetic soap opera trash, and I liked Peter Krause from Sports Night and Donald Sutherland from so many things, most recently, Commander in Chief.
Grey's Anatomy: more tolerable since Grey and McDreamy have decided to actually have their damn relationship.
Life on Mars: One of the adds to the list. Jason O'Mara has intrigued me going back to a short-lived show called In Justice in 2006. Since then he was a love interest in Men in Trees and an arsonist on The Closer. Additionally, I lived in NYC albeit in 1977, not 1973, but it feels right. Interestingly, this is a short-lived British show that moved to a Los Angeles setting with the cast above to a disastrous result. It now has the cast pictured here and a different venue.
Brothers and Sisters: if you've ever had siblings...

OURS:
With the exception of one Earl and one Office, we've watched NOTHING on this list- My Name Is Earl, The Office, and at the suggestion of my wife, an add, 30 Rock.

So I never complain about TV shows being pre-empted. There's always something in the queue. Frankly, I looked forward to November 12, when the CMA Music Awards scuttled the entire ABC lineup for Wednesday.

And no, I'm not adding anything else. I'm sure there are perfectly good shows out there, like How I Met Your Mother (saw once) or Eli Stone or those geeky guys on that CBS Monday sitcom. I'm not going to get invested in Lost or Heroes or Desperate Housewives at this point. Hey, I added 30 Rock.

ROG

The JEOPARDY Anniversary

It's been 10 years this week since the episodes of JEOPARDY! on which I appeared aired. I'm not going to do a play-by-play of that time, which you can find here, but to make some observations about what it's meant to me. Oh, and give my Alex Trebek rant.

I should note that I wasn't the first JEOPARDY! winner from the Capital District, or even the first champion in 1998. That honor goes to Linda Zusman, an Albany teacher.

Nor was I the most successful JEOPARDY! player, even in my own neighborhood. That honor goes to Paul Glaser, who won five games and made it to the Tournament of Champions in 2007. (Say, wasn't that his wife Amanda who as on in October 2008?)

I did, however, have one advantage that added to my local notoriety, and it's that old real estate credo: location, location, location. My shows were taped in September in Boston, rather than in southern California. This meant that WTEN-TV, Channel 10 in Albany, sent a reporter and crew to interview me. Some of the piece was shown in September, the rest in November when the JEOPARDY! show actually aired. The reporter, by the way, was Bianca de la Garza, who, perhaps not coincidentally, is a reporter in Boston.

After I was interviewed by Bianca before I taped my episodes, I figured I was done. But no, Sharman Saccetti of Channel 18 in Elmira also wanted to talk with me. That station showed JEOPARDY! in Binghamton, my hometown. Sharman, who played a mock game of JEOPARDY! with Bianca and another reporter and appeared to be winning, subsequently had a stint at WTEN in Albany as well. I ALSO spoke to a reporter from Plattsburgh.

JEOPARDY! in Boston was also a big deal for both the program and Boston. The program set up a special area on its webpage, now partially defunct. Meanwhile, the Boston papers, including the Christian Science Monitor, all did stories. The September 19, 1998 Boston Globe story by M. R. Montgomery, "A Chance At Fame For $100, Alex: N.H. Woman Finds It's Not Easy Being In 'jeopardy!'" noted that 3,200 citizens roared for the new "Jeopardy!" set, for the assistant producer". It also featured two photographs of me, one with two of my competitors, including the New Hampshire woman, Amy Roeder, and one with Amy, me and a JEOPARDY! staffer.

JEOPARDY! out of the house was so much a big deal that I discovered shells of Internet Movie Database posts about it in English and Italian.

After the shows aired - I'll say this: I started a round thrice in my two games - I got mentioned in the paper along with Linda Zusman. then I got mention AGAIN as a run of Capital District residents succeed at the game. I even called a few of them.

Then I got quoted in the local paper a couple times. Once was during the Ken Jennings run. I said it at the time, and I haven't changed my mind - the abolition of the five-day rule, while great for Ken Jennings and a few others, had a deleterious effect on the game. The season Jennings won most of this games, there was a three-game winner in the Tournament of Champions, and that was just WRONG. I also got quoted in a story about American Idol when a local contestant had to keep a secret about the results for over a month; I LOVED keeping the secret for seven weeks. But I wish that they had doubled the values of the clues a few seasons earlier.

Anyway, I'll never say the word "charisma" ever again. Oh, yes: I work for the New York State Small Business Development Center. I've taken 10 years of grief for not mentioning THAT on the show.

My Trebek complaint: most contestants have pictures of themselves with Alex Trebek; my pic is a solo. And the reason is this; for reasons known only to him, he did the rabbit-ears thing with his fingers behind me! I know his only because I caught us in a monitor. I think it annoys me more now than it did then.

One of the perks is that people now think that I know stuff, whereas when I was merely a librarian with a Masters in Library Science, not so much. I wish future contestants well, especially a couple from the Albany area I know who have tried out; you know who you are.



Photo of the Wang theater in Boston used with permission of Brian C. Dominy.

ROG

Buy Dave's Comic Books

"I am helping Dave Cockrum's widow sell Dave's personal collection of comics--from his X-Men file copies to his Silver Age and Golden Age books. Dave was an important creator, a wonderful man, and his widow can use the money... Would you help me spread the word?" -- Clifford Meth. Well, since I have met Dave and Paty Cockrum once or twice, as explained here, absolutely, I will. Go here.
***
I was reading about a group called Empire State Troopers, who were featured on the cover of Metroland, the local news/arts weekly. I'm not familiar with the group, but the members, from Saratoga Springs and the Buffalo area, commissioned a friend of theirs to come up with this declaration:
"We are the Empire State because we alone have all the makings of a great empire. Coal. Grain. Timber. Iron. Granite and Slate. Livestock. Game. Fresh Water. Our per-acre agricultural output far exceeds that of any other state. We are too far inland to be hurt by hurricanes, yet too coastal and hilly to see tornadoes of any significance. Long after the world’s oil is gone, and the deserts once again are parched, we will still have our canals, our rivers and our lakes. This is our birthright, and from all this—from the hardcore squats of mid-1990s Buffalo to the North Country metal parties in July, from the explosives, the grease fires, the dog fights and homemade tattoos—Empire State Troopers make their rock." The part about the topography IS particularly why I do like being where I am.
***
Someone asked me last week: If twice something is double, three is triple, four is quadruple, etc., what is it for nine and ten? I had no idea. "Nonuple and decuple?" I guessed. Turns out I was right, and those terms are known as tuples; that I did not know .
***
I think the thing that bothered me most about Chris Matthews' remarks about Hillary Clinton was how utterly wrong his bluster was. She went to 62 of 62 New York State counties and convinced conservative Republican men and women that she could bring home the bacon to her state.
***
JEOPARDY! fans: The Online Test is back! These tests are for adults 18 and over only to qualify for the regional auditions. Eligible adults must register before taking the test.
TEST DATES & TIMES
EAST COAST Tuesday, January 29th at 8PM EST
CENTRAL/MOUNTAIN Wednesday, January 30th at 8PM CST/7PM MST
PACIFIC COAST (Including Alaska and Hawaii) Thursday, January 31st at 8PM PST
Registration will close at 7:30PST on Thursday, January 31st. Visit jeopardy.com now to register, take the online test tutorial, and read through all instructions and information.

ROG

Follow Up

Since today is my fifth semianniversary (or is demi, or maybe hemi?), but in any case, 2.5 years, I thought I'd write a little about things I've written about in the (usually recent) past.
***
If you listen to Gordon's podcast where he answers questions, you'll hear me asking him some irreverent question about Raymond Burr, inspired, no doubt by a picture of Burr as Ironside on Gordon's blog a couple weeks back. It made sense at the time.
***
The scariest Halloween costume I saw was this woman dressed up as a baby, all in pink, smoking a cigarette. Truly frightening.

Ken Levine wrote: "We had a dentist who gave out toothbrushes [for Halloween]. Thank goodness he wasn't a proctologist."
***
In the Supreme Court stay of execution this week, the lawyers for the defendant said, "It is clear that irreparable harm will result if no stay is granted." Well, yeah. If a lawyer says it, it's legalese; if anyone else had said it, it'd be d'oh-worthy.
***
I've mentioned more than once about why I left the Methodist church I had been attending for over 17 years, of which I was a member for most of that time. Now, it's come out that the pastor, who was at least in the center of my departure, has retired, and not willingly; here's a letter from an apologist of his. My wife and I had to at least briefly think about what this meant to us. We're happy where we are, but we do miss some of the folks at the old place. What made it easy for me, though, was hearing about some internecine fight over whether someone who opposed the pastor should now chair the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee. And I realize that I don't miss the grief.
***
My sister Leslie wrote to me: "San Diego has been hit hard, thousands of homes lost, I could see the fire from outside my front door, so we were packed up and ready to go in the event of an evacuation, but thank God, we were spared."

***
Yeah, I'm happy that the Red Sox won; I picked them to win in six. The TV grid for the FOX network said the game was in a three-hour slot, but the games didn't even start until 8:30 Eastern Time, and they all ran more than 3 hours. I'm thrilled by the sweep, because it means more sleep. I'd watch the game as long as I could stay alert, then record on the DVR programing up through 1:30 a.m., then wake up and watch in the morning. The key to watching the playback is to make sure that when I turn off the TV, to set it first to some non-sports station that does not have morning news; I recommend the Home & Garden Network.
I'm still in shock that Boston College beat Virginia Tech last week; I tuned in with five minutes to go, and BC was losing 0-10, so I figured the curse of the 2nd place BCS team was holding. I couldn't believe it when the FOX baseball announcer said that they had won 14-10.
But my Boston rooting does not extend to the NFL Patriots, though I can't explain why; it predates the Bellicheck cheating incident. I'm rooting for the 7-0 Colts to beat the 8-0 Pats this weekend. Can we have a 16-0 team and a 0-16 team (Miami) in the same season?

Confirmation of my feelings about the Cleveland Indians mascot.
***
Yes, I know that an Albany guy appeared on Jeopardy! last week; I haven't seen it, I haven't read about it, so please don't tell me about it.
***
Smashing pumpkins on the ground
Makes bicycling difficult, I've found.

All of the US State Laws Concerning Bicycling.

Info about Critical Mass bike rides in Tucson (several posts) and here in Albany (October 29).


Cranksgiving! Race start: 9pm, Nov 17; registration/sign-up starts 8:30pm
A charity race where ALL the $$ goes to direct action. The Homeless Action Committee is on the streets doing work night after night. You WILL NEED a lock and a bag for this one. Ride any uni or bike or trike you like; as long as it's got wheels and pedals and is you-powered, it's all good. You will not be turned away for excess spandex or your lack of white belts.
Pre-registration via email to soze@fork-bomb.com is encouraged for planning purposes.
***
Re: me feeling autumnal - The Stress Pig - Open the link, turn on the sound (but not too high) then, JUST CLICK ON HER NOSE. She may come in handy when you are having one of those days.
***
My prayers/good wishes go out to ADD and to Gordon's mom.

ROG

Peace

I'm sure that you heard about that Academy-Award winning guy receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. But do you know who got this year's Ig Nobel Peace Prize? Why, it was the Air Force Wright Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio, USA, for instigating research & development on a chemical weapon -- the so-called "gay bomb" -- that will make enemy soldiers become sexually irresistible to each other. In 2004, the Ig Nobel Prize in this category was won by Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo, Japan, for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.

The Ig Nobel Prize: you can waste the whole afternoon reading this stuff.
***
Local kid on JEOPARDY! tonight.



ROG

JEOPARDY! advice

A friend of mine wrote to me. Actually, a very good friend, one of my oldest, who was present at the tapings of my JEOPARDY! appearances.

Her nephew, who has a major in International Relations and Political Science, is trying out for the show! So, she sought my advice:

1) Watch JEOPARDY! A lot. Know how to play the game. (There were some who tested who obviously didn't.) If it’s on in reruns somewhere, watch it twice a day. Not only do you get a rhythm for the game, you’ll find certain questions are often repeated in one way or another. (The painting Blue Boy by Gainsborough - seen above, or the opera Hansel and Gretel by Englebert Humperdink, e.g.) If he wants to study just the questions go here. Know what Before and After and Stupid Answers mean.

2) Read stuff. The newspaper, especially. Also, be aware of current events, both hard newsworthy stuff and the Entertainment Weekly type of stuff. (I actually started watching – ugh! – Entertainment Tonight for the cause.) It may not help with the test, but it may in the actual game.

3) He's not gonna know everything, so he should concentrate on boning up on stuff he may already know. Based on his majors: World and State Capitals, US Presidents (the years are VERY useful), significant heads of state. Knowing roughly the times of British and French rulers (royalty and democratically elected) wouldn't hurt. Second wave, if he has time, US Vice-Presidents (I don't know how many times Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln's first VP has shown up, and is often missed;, FDR’s VPs are often popular), states where the Presidents/VPs were from, First Ladies, members of the Cabinet (esp. Sec’y of State, Attorney General), US Supreme Court, esp. Chief Justices; UN Secretaries General (home country and years served). They’re not going to ask any of these questions straight out. It'll be more like. U Thant was S-G of the UN during these three US Presidencies. (Who were JFK, LBJ, RMN?)

4) When he takes the test, answer all of the questions. If he has one on the tip of his brain, mark it on the sheet – maybe it’ll come. If he passes the written test, they’ll give him a screen test, a simulated game. Keep clicking until they call on someone – think playing with a ballpoint pen. Be upbeat without being phony. They'll ask for an anecdote – have one.

I didn't mention, I realize, that at least a perfunctory knowledge of award-winning films, books of the Bible, and the order in which the 50 states entered the Union wouldn't hurt, but just trying to memorize stuff will probably just stress him out. He should go with what he knows. I'm wishing him good luck this week.
***
So I wrote all that in an e-mail, then I discovered this on Ken Jennings' blog for May 10, 2007:
From Becky, a Tuesday Trivia fan:

I’m preparing for an audition on Jeopardy! Do you have any study recommendations? Thank you!

I always hear the same recommendations when I ask this question of Jeopardy! veterans (I almost said Jeopardy! vets, but that sounds like the people that give Alex Trebek’s Chow his heartworm medicine). And I concur with their expert advice:

Don't try to master the Jeopardy! subjects that intimidate you because you know nothing about them (opera, baseball, whatever). Forget those. Instead, look at Jeopardy! standbys you know but might be a little rusty on (world capitals, presidents, kings of England, etc.) and get them fresh in your mind.
Spend some quality time with The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, which has pithy, what-you-need-to-know capsules on thousands of Jeopardy! subjects. Mike Dupee's How to Get on Jeopardy! . . . and Win! is also full of great lists and quizzes, but it's sadly out of print.

So Ken and I agree: don't try to cram in stuff you don't already know.
***
According to the Language Log, overaggressive spellchecking in Word has been dubbed The Cupertino Effect.
ROG

Roger (Finally) Answers Your Questions, Scott

On the top of your web site, under the title, there reads: "B1 d- t- k+ s-- u-- f+ i o x- e- l c--" What does that mean?

Why thanks for pointing it out! It now reads B6 d- t k+ s+ u- f+ i o+ x- e+ l c-- Good catch!

What is your favorite baseball memory?

I had a hard time with this. Certainly, the 1962, 1977, or 1995 Yankees, or the 1969 or 1986 Mets winning the Series, or the 10-inning Jack Morris win in 1991 or the game I saw on 6/14/91 between the Red Sox and Angels. But the first thing that actually came to mind was Sid Bream sliding into home in the 1992 NLCS. Maybe it was because I hadn't gotten sick of the Braves yet, since they'd been so bad for so long. But I think it was just such a terrible slide against his old team, and how Barry Bonds' throw beat him to the plate but was just a little off line. The unlikely hero.

What is the last good book of fiction that you read?

Seldom read fiction at all at this point. Probably A Handmaid's Tale.

Do you think that finding an alternative fuel will become a government priority in the next ten years?

Yes, if some palpable disaster strikes. Don't know what that is yet.

Name something that you like that others think is uncharacteristic of you.

I don't think it's true across the board, but there are lots of people who think of me as a sweet, laid back, easy-going kind of guy. These people have never played cards with me. Or racquetball. Or softball. Or volleyball.
To that end, I seem to be in the minority of people who thought that the guy on JEOPARDY who had the lead, then initially bet to finish in a historic three-way tie bugged me. To use a sports example, it'd be like someone coming up in the 9th inning of a baseball game, already having hit a double, triple and home run, therefore needing only a single for the cycle, hitting the ball into the gap so that he'd surely get a stand-up double, but instead stopping at first.

What former (dead or alive) US President would you like to sit down and talk with?

Well, I've answered this before, and picked Jefferson and/or Lincoln. I think this time, I'll pick Teddy Roosevelt. He was an environmentalist. Maybe he has some ideas about how to create the political will in this country to actually fight global warming. I'm not sure Al "He's A Movie Star" Gore's recent visit to Capitol Hill will do the trick.

If Lydia had been a boy, what name did you and your wife have picked out?

Well, we had a bear of a time with boy's names. I think the only one that one of us hadn't yet vetoed was Micah. Not so incidentally, the snowperson is one she and Carol did after the Valentine's Day that resided in our front lawn. It was gone, though, by the time of the St. Patrick Day's storm.

I'll bite, but am interested since you brought it up) What is your favorite verse from the Bible?

We sang last week in church Stainer's God So Loved the World, which is based on John 3:16, what one former pastor described as "the Bible in a nutshell". I've been more partial to the next verse, also in the Stainer piece: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." It speaks to me about those finger-pointing "gotcha" people.


***
Since you're a sports guy, I'll note it here:
All four of my teams are in the Final Four. Can't remember that happening, ever. I'm in first place in my pool, and only the commissioner (who picked Florida) or I (who picked Georgetown) can win. If Florida wins the championship, I lose. If Florida wins and Georgetown loses on Saturday, I can still win if Ohio State beats Florida on Monday, because we both picked Florida to beat UCLA. If both Florida and Georgetown lose on Saturday, I win. So, I'm still in it.

Oh, you wanted to know the MEANING of the code. You don't remember that I described it in July 2005? I don't either. Anyway, here's the translation.

ROG

The Lydster, Part 36: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today's Lydia's 3rd birthday! Yet I have pictures from 2005. The best-laid plans...

Friend TFox says:
She's a tall drink of water, as my mom would have said. You'll have to start screening boyfriends before you know it! :)
What about a link to other famous folks born on her B-Day?

OK, here it is Who do we find?Poets, such as A. E. Housman (1859) and Robert Frost (1874)Other writers such as Joseph Campbell (1904), Tennessee Williams (1911), Erica Jong, (1942), and Bob Woodward (1943)Musical folks such as Rufus Thomas (1917), Diana Ross (1944), Steven Tyler of Aerosmith (1948), and Teddy Pendergrass (1950)
Performers such as Strother Martin (1919), Bob Elliott of Bob & Ray (1923), Leonard Nimoy (1931), Alan Arkin (1934), James Caan (1940), Vicki Lawrence (1949), Martin Short and Ernest Thomas (both 1950, same as Teddy Pendergrass), Jennifer Gray (1960), and T.R. Knight of Grey's Anatomy (1973)Athletes such as Marcus Allen, football (1960, same as Jennifer Gray) and John Stockton, basketball (1962)But I was most interested to note that her birthday coincided with women of note:
Sandra Day O'Connor, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1930)
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House (1940, exactly the same age as James Caan!)
Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor (1953)So, what does she want to do when she gets older? I'll be fascinated to find out.
***
Final JEOPARDY!, 3/13/07:
According to the Mayo Clinic, allergies to these are the USA's most common cause of life-threatening allergic reaction.
All three contestants got it right.
The correct response: What are peanuts? I knew that, actually.

ROG

(1) Foster Dulles; (2) and George Michael; (3) and Bernie Taupin

In honor of someone's 60th birthday today, I found these clues on the J-Archive for whom the answer is "Who is..." and the birthday person in question, except for the last three, for which the answer is this person, added to the footnoted person in the title of this piece.

HOT TUNES $600: He's recorded "Burn Down the Mission", "Flames of Paradise" & a big hit about a candle.
RAY CHARLES & FRIENDS $600: (Hi, I'm Larry King.) In 2005 I talked to this pop legend about his duet of "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" with Ray Charles
THE 1970s MUSIC SCENE $800: He sang "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" about a suicide he attempted when engaged to an onion heiress
DUETS $200: In 1994 he charted a new version of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", this time with RuPaul
POP STARS A.K.A. $200: "Rocket Man" Reginald Dwight
THE OSCARS $200: Though he's acted on screen, as in "Tommy", his first nomination & win was for a song in "The Lion King"
ROCK MUSIC $100: Although his 1974 hit "Bennie And The Jets" hit No. 1 in the U.S., it only reached No. 37 in the U.K.
NICKNAMES $800: This rock star, nicknamed "Captain Fantastic", has over $50,000 worth of eyeglasses
PEOPLE $400: When he auctioned off his wacky wardrobe, his Pinball Wizard boots sold for over $20,000
(1) BEFORE & AFTER $800: He sang "Can You Feel The Love Tonight?" when negotiating a peace treaty with Japan & as Ike's Secretary of State
(2) POP MUSIC $400: These 2 singers, with 4 first names between them, had the 1991 No. 1 hit "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me"
(3) THEY WROTE THE SONGS $300: "Honky Cat" & "Crocodile Rock"

This doesn't count the clues where the person's name is in the clue, including a whole category on 4/11/2006.

Unfortunately, the J-Archive doesn't have out yet my favorite Final JEOPARDY! clue, about a musician who has had a Top 40 song every year from 1971 to 1995. Interestingly, this person didn't have one in 1996, but had his biggest hit in 1997.

And if you don't know who he is, then write to me. Privately.

ROG

Myths, Hoaxes, and Misinformation

So what IS that holiday we just celebrated on the third Monday in February? Presidents Day? Presidents' Day? President's Day? The answer, technically, is none of the above.
***
From an-e-mail, which cites Tom Joyner's Morning Show as the source of information about NUD (Non Urban Dictate), "the acronym for a very subtle and little-known marketing term specifically directed toward people of color. 'Non Urban Dictate' - These three words essentially mean that a company is not interested in the Black consumer. A NUD label means that a company does not want their marketing and advertising materials placed in media that claim an urban audience (black folks) as their main target.

My reply: I doubt it. I could find no mention on Tom Joyner's website and this company has to waste its time refuting its involvement with the claim. This group, breakthechain.org, busts the myth:
"BreakTheChain.or recommends against participating in boycott campaigns organized via e-mail chain letters. As you can see, this letter has failed to keep up with developments in the issue, has acquired incorrect information (and caused a great deal of hardship for the Urban Institute) and is even recommended against by former supporters. Break this chain."
***
From friend Dan:

The "Pharisee Jew Big-Bang Conspiracy". The last line is the best:
"I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie, why teach anything?"
***
From friend Don:

Masterpieces Or Fakes? The Joyce Hatto Scandal February 15 2007

"It was already one of the strangest stories the classical music world had witnessed. But the discovery of the late English pianist Joyce Hatto as the greatest instrumentalist almost nobody had heard of, appears to have taken a bizarre, even potentially sinister turn.

It was around a year ago that Gramophone’s critics began to champion this little-known lady, whose discs – miraculous performances, released by her husband William Barrington-Coupe on the tiny label Concert Artist – were notoriously difficult to get hold of. Such was the brilliance of this pianist across Liszt, Schubert, Rachmaninov, Dukas and more in a dizzying range – that it was worth making the effort to seek out Concert Artist to get these discs, and they became much sought-after. By the time she died in June 2006, Joyce Hatto was not only a sudden widespread success, she was a cause célèbre. To love Hatto recordings was to be in the know, a true piano aficionado who didn't need the hype of a major label's marketing spend to recognise a good, a great, thing when they heard it.

See and hear for yourself the incontrovertible evidence of an audacious recording hoax. Here we examine a track from [a CD], released under the name of 'Joyce Hatto', but containing 10 tracks originally released in 1987 and played by Simon Laszlo on a BIS CD.

The fourth Hatto track has been quite subtlely doctored: digitally shrunk in time by 0.02% - just enough to alter overall timings, and with no shift in pitch; re-equalised to alter the piano tone slightly; panned slightly to the left, where the original piano was central.
***
In response to an e-mail I received:

There is no deadline to register cell phones to the Do Not Call List, despite what you might have heard. Here's some info.

You can also register by phone (1-888-382-1222) or online.

Read more about this.
***
Mark Evanier disputes whether Wile E. Coyote's middle name is Ethelbert, even though it was the Final JEOPARDY! question last month.
***
Even the Wall Street Journal needs to comment on Anna Nicole Smith (by Tunku Varadarajan. Feb 13, 2007. pg. A.24)

"Anna Nicole Smith was also a lowbrow (or really, a narcissistic) version of the American dream -- the American dream of only bravado and guile, bereft of character or principles or talent. She was proof that the dream applies even to people with nothing to offer but themselves. If she is a tragic and cautionary tale to Americans, evidence that the American Dream requires substance and character, she may be evidence of the opposite to outsiders who see only the magic of wealth and fame won through the mere presentation of self. She inflates the reputation of American possibility abroad, making it seem like anything is possible in America -- even reward without merit."

Ouch.
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Finally, this bugs me, too.