Friday, October 20, 2006

 
OK, no more on the "O.C."

......because a drive today on University Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota(en route to "The Needle Doctor" to pick up a cartridge and head shell for an unused Technics SL-D2 direct drive turntable purchased at a GoodWill Store) confirmed that "The Cromwell" bar is, alas, no more. To add insult to [the benefit of those with an]injury, it's been replaced by "Handi Medical Supply." Maybe it's "handi" as in "capped", but the name sounds suspiciously "Middle Eastern" to my ear. To be truthy, I had never ventured into the "Cromwell" but I had liked knowing that something with that name was around. Also, while it could be a false memory, I think that my eldest Tochter once told me, when asked, that her email address which incorporated "Crom," was derived from "Cromwell".(not Conan's god)

These Shoes Rule! These Shoes Suck!

http://liamshow.com/movies/shoes_video.wmv

I haven't the London foggiest if the citizens of your Northampton are stamping their shoes to the beat of the above video, but my 19 year old son(who sent it to us), 18 year old daughter and I (the Frau and 12 year old hate it)have been convulsed by it and have incorporated into the family argot. It starts slowly and is a little artsy-fartsy and I doubt it has the appeal of a fat kid singing a Romanian tune, but it may be worth a listen. [off topic: From what I've -er -cobbled together from bits of family lore, factors leading to my great-grandfather's decision to drive off to the next life by keeping the garage door closed with the motor running included the bankruptcy of the family's chain of shoe stores(said to be the result of the Great Depression and embezzlement by an accountant and a civil judgment against him as the result of some accident involving an automobile and a streetcar-based not upon any fault of his other than one of appearing to have deep pockets.]

NPR Passes The "Sniff Test"/
Putting A Burr Under A Brokeback Mountain Saddle/
Keeping Your Pecker Up To Snuff/
"If All That Land Were Occupied By [Han]..."/

About the only the time I listen to NPR(or any FM for that matter)is on my brief, late night commutes. While I quickly push another radio pre-set button if say, hearing a BBC broadcast of cricket scores, my fingers didn't touch that- well, I guess "dial" is dated-during an account of Tibetans arrested and gunned down trying to escape over a 19,000 foot mountain pass. Like you in your Corner post of a couple days later, I was a little perplexed by this behaviour, considering that the ol' Marxist universal slave labor ethos is supposed to be kaput and that it would seem logical for the Chinese, with their desire for more er "Rebenslaum"(sorry, but that's no more "racist" than "Ronery")to say, "Good liddance!" or "Don't let the Dali Lama hit you on the butt on your way out!" to those fleeing their republics or autonomous regions.
And though the listening was interrupted by a stop at a convenience store, I was transphenoidally transfixed by an interview with your old chum**, Chandler Burr. What I heard seemed to be part of a rather long program and unfortunately a search of NPR's website yielded only what seem to be short interviews- which may be worth your while if you haven't heard them already. -I caught some snippets advocating a Nobel Prize for olfaction, proboscian paens to the scents of cardboard, Playdough and sweaty horses and that the French have long known that truly great perfumes contain at least one truly repulsive nasal note. And that some perfumes are "works of art." While I haven't read "The Emperor of Scent", the prospect of entering a world other than those of politics, literature, mathematics etc. might seem appealing to some. (Yeah, maybe this is "CTN' here -and, say, "Coals To Newcastle" might be a swell name for a "manly scent."-well, at least a good as "Irish Spring"(soap))

XX

*See "Oliver Cromwell," the ship mentioned by you and like the Bolshevik's planned "sister ship," "Potemkin Village", never built, although a crew of country-pushkin idiots was conscripted. See also: "The Orange[men] County", a short-lived series about the "beautiful people" of Northern Ireland.

**"Chum" an exciting new fragrance to er, depew on next year's "Talk & Smell Like A Pirate Day." -crafted by world-class chemists and Master Baiters.
And I suppose that both you and your Chandler have heard the oldie but gouda one about the blind guy who boasted of his ability to identify any sort of wood by its odor. He correctly names "pine," "oak," "Pecky Cypress" and so forth. Ticked off by the guy's arrogance, a sailor has his girlfriend sit on plank from a an old ship before presenting it. -blind guy sez, [hard to clean this one up] "This one's a toughie, but I think it's a privy door from a tuna boat." Ahem- so maybe there's just a whiff of misogyny in that one...