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Home » Open thread 10/10/22

Open thread 10/10/22

The New Neo Posted on by

This is the original version of the song, one I’ve known from childhood. It’s by Irving Berlin:

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Open thread 10/10/22 — 33 Comments

  2. I will be so so glad when this election is over. My spam folder gets at least 2 dozen spam emails a day from pols asking for money. Now, I personally have not given money via credit card or email to any pol so not sure how they got my email account. And, 2 yrs ago my Wife and I changed our registration from Rep to Indie.

  5. SHIREHOME,
    I’m sick of all the emails too. Plus I get other stupid stuff like Clarence Thomas has been impeached. What will all these emailers do after the election? I sure wouldn’t give them a job.

  7. I used to think the political spam would settle down after elections. But wait! On November 9, the presidential race begins. There’s no end to it. I’ve tried identifying the emails as spam, with little effect. If it comes from a campaign to which I’ve contributed, I’ll try unsubscribing a couple of times. Otherwise I just delete all the emails unread.

    What annoys me even more is getting political spam texts on my phone. Some of them seem to come from Republican campaigns, but oddly I also get them from Dems. I’ve been getting texts from Dems claiming that Republican extremists are going to cause women with ectopic pregnancies and spontaneous miscarriages to die from lack of treatment. The Dem candidate for Senate here, Cheri Beasley, said that in the televised debate last Friday. I can handle policy disagreement, but this is just plain ignorance, or maybe malicious falsehood.

  8. We’ve been getting political spam texts from CT. LOL… we have our original phone numbers with 860 area code, so they must be just wholesale texting all numbers within a certain area code.

  9. CT isn’t exactly a state where one would expect a competitive race. It’s a good sign for the R team that somebody thinks there is one there.

  10. What a neat little tune. I’d never heard it before.

    Has a definite, klezmer sound to it, except when it resolves into a major chord on the, “Let yourself go” lyric. Israel Baline was definitely channeling his roots on this one.

    Fun dance number. Fred definitely comes across like a kid from Omaha, Nebraska. I’d only seen him in more sophisticated roles.

    It was a fun twist that two other couples in the competition gave them a run for their money. I didn’t expect that. And I like how the other couples made it seem nonchalant.

  11. I have two favorite music/dance scenes;

    1) The Glenn Miller Band doing Chattanooga Choo Choo on Sun Valley Serenade. About 7-8 minutes long and riveting. Highly energetic.
    2) Almost anything with Ann Margaret in Bye Bye Birdie. Why? Because, well, Ann Margaret of course.

  13. I get MoveOn spam, not sure how I got on their list. But often the titles are a bit interesting, and sometimes even the first paragraph on what the Democrats is afraid of.
    (we should always include “Democrat” in criticism – they’re on the ballot, and those who voted that way voted for the result. Maybe Democrat Leftists?)

    I’m having more evening fun with Karaoke, like in Kosice, with better sound tech that last decade.

    This was the 5th Fred Astaire – Ginger Rogers movie. But when I looked up Rita Heyworth, who was only in 2 movies with Fred: “Shortly before his death in 1987, Fred Astaire told interviewers that Rita Hayworth was categorically his favorite dance partner.”
    Both had magic with Fred Astaire.

    : https://www.grunge.com/812987/what-fred-astaire-had-to-say-about-rita-hayworth/?utm_campaign=clip

    Hey Neo, when was the last time you went dancing? This was the second year with no ball season, so my wife and I haven’t been; plus my knee was injured (in a March ski accident). But we’re looking forward to the Slovak Ball season after Christmas, for the more normal dancing.

  15. @ Kate > “White House reportedly putting on staff @$265,000 (so far) to deflect expected probes into Hunter Biden. Is this legal?”

    “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal” said Nixon, setting a bad precedent, except that no one believed him then, after Watergate.

    Now — the Democrats obviously agree (post is from 2015, but can be easily updated for Biden).
    https://investortimes.com/freedomoutpost/nixons-claim-president-means-legal-finally-vindicated-current-politicians/

    Michael Ramirez has thoughts about the Son of Joe — and cartoons.
    This one will particularly appeal to Neo’s Salon.

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/10/self-portrait-with-laptop.php

  16. Re: The Glenn Miller Band doing Chattanooga Choo Choo…

    Jefferson’s Revenge:

    A bit of insomnia last night…I revisited “Young Frankenstein.” I finally got the Glen Miller allusion.

    Look, someone on YouTube has conveniently bracketed the scene:

    –“Best Line From Young Frankenstein”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZLPJuy9oyQ

    YF really holds up!

  18. Rufus T. Firefly:

    Good for you! But you kinda had to know Glen Miller to get it. Nicht wahr?

    My background in all respects is … checkered. I learn more, I connect more.

  19. This is the original version of the song, one I’ve known from childhood.

    –neo

    A case in point.

    neo and I must have gone to different schools together. Even at the age of 70 I had never heard this song, original or otherwise, or even heard of it.

    Which isn’t a big deal. It just makes us all different people with different backgrounds.

    It’s a fun song, classic Americana.

    I was surprised when I did some spelunking on Firesign Theatre that their albums were rife with direct references to old radio shows and movies, from “The Aldrich Family” to “The 39 Steps” to “The Maltese Falcon” to “The Goon Show.”

    I do enjoy seeing how things connect up and there’s a whole lotta connectin’ goin’ on.

  20. huxley,

    “Chattanooga Choo Choo” was ubiquitous in the America I grew up in. It seemed like every variety show on TV had some guest or host sing it. I’m pretty sure it was part of an ad campaign for Lionel trains that played on Saturday morning cartoons. Wikipedia says cover versions of it charted in the U.S. and U.K. in the ’40s, ’60s and ’70s. A disco version hit #18 on the Easy Listening charts in ’78. A cover by Harpers Bizarre hit #1 on the Easy Listening charts in ’68. I even remember this joke making the playground in grade school, so it seems like most kids were familiar with the song: https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/3gvln6/roy_rogers_and_the_mountain_lion/

    I’ll bet you did know the song when you were a child, you just never thought about it. I find that with songs. I’ll hear a song that has been around, on the periphery, my whole life, but I’ll stop and notice it and hear the lyrics and often find something I hadn’t realized was there all along.

  21. Rewatching Whit Stillman’s “Love & Friendship,” it’s much more clear. Lady Susan is a tricksy woman and that’s what the story is about.

    What I initially thought were holes in her character — I must have misunderstood her dialog indicating she was deeply selfish and machiavellian — were indeed what I thought.

    It was Austen’s and/or Stillman’s device to pass over those lines without emphasis, seemingly taking Lady S. at her word as a gentlewoman, then let the audience come later to its own aha! experiences.

    Stillman did that in “The Last Days of Disco” without Austen’s help. I’ll be watching more Austen adaptations to see if that’s an arrow in her quiver. Or maybe even read “Lady Susan.”

  22. Two other Glenn Miller songs in a similar vein. They make use of wordplay or word sounds in the lyric:

    This one is almost a duplicate of the scene Jefferson’s Revenge referenced to the Chattanooga Choo Choo number. Tex Beneke does the same, whistling open, the Nicholas Brothers do a dance number… amazingly similar: “I’ve got a gal in Kalamazoo.” https://youtu.be/fFv_PoZ2iP0

    And “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” https://youtu.be/xynDtjITYR4

  23. I’ll bet you did know the song when you were a child, you just never thought about it.

    Rufus:

    Perhaps the bare line “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”, but I don’t think I even knew that as a child. Certainly not, “Pardon me boy…”

    I didn’t even get to it during the 1999 Swing Revival. I knew “Take the A-Train” and “Pennsylvania 6-5000.”

    To the extent I thought about the “Young Frankenstein” line I assumed it was a reference to “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” which is also Glenn Miller, though not in the vicinity of Chattanooga.

    Circling back to Whit Stillman, there’s an amusing scene in “Barcelona” of one character swing-dancing to “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” while reading the Bible:

    https://www.tcm.com/video/1036164/barcelona-1994-movie-clip-pennsylvania-6-5000/

  24. huxley:

    No, they didn’t teach us “Let Yourself Go” in school. I learned it from old Astaire and Rogers movies on TV. I was a big fan.

  25. @ Tom Grey > “But when I looked up Rita Heyworth, who was only in 2 movies with Fred”

    Great story! Thanks for the link.
    Best wishes for your dancing renaissance, and good healing to you.
    AesopSon #2 is a big ballroom / swing dance fan, and was very glad his local club was able to get back together this year after the Covid hiatus.
    Hard to social distance 6 feet on a dance floor, and the masking really is a trial in those fast numbers.

  26. @ huxley > “I finally got the Glen Miller allusion.”

    Mark me down as one who laughed at the parody — my folks had lots of Big Band records, and I learned a lot of Miller and Pete Fountains standards growing up.

    @ Rufus > “I even remember this joke making the playground in grade school, so it seems like most kids were familiar with the song:”

    That brought back memories – although I actually never heard the joke until a few years ago! I’ve used it in Cub Scout programs, and it doesn’t matter that the kids no longer know who Roy and Dale are — it’s still funny.

    Sadly, the Roy Rogers Museum closed in 2009 after providing over 50 years of nostalgic entertainment for his fans. Wikipedia has an article, and there are lots of posts available online, this one has some nice pictures and a back-story not in the Wiki version, FWIW.
    https://dustyoldthing.com/roy-rogers-museum-closed-down/

  28. Yes thats a classic one, now all the time the fed focuses on dangerous person at school boards and amall towns like the vaughts mean they arent doing actual crime fighting.

  29. Rufus,
    Hope your posting means that things are looking up….
    – – – – – – – – – –
    And just another astounding “oddity” from the “Heh” dossier…
    “Capitol Police Officer Told Agents That Oath Keepers Shielded Him, Sealed FBI Record Shows”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/capitol-police-officer-told-agents-oath-keepers-shielded-him-sealed-fbi-record-shows

    Lying liars still lying! (Who could ever’ve imagined THAT??)

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