My daughter's uncle's business partner of 55 nearly50 years [from when the former was a boyish Al Pacino-ish appearing CPA and the latter a raffish rogue radio personality from NYC], who became the Young Turks of the Philly Scene and the later Boy-Conquerors of the American Music Nation, died today.

He was 82.

Rock & Roll is said to have started, if the disparate charges can be hazarded to have any single ignition point, across from Philly in Gloucester City, NJ, where from 1951 Bill Haley & His Saddlemen [later rechristened the Comets] played an 18-month engagement as the Twin Bar house-band, fine-tuning their sound.  Wildwood politely disagrees, asserting priority.

Regardless, if South Jersey offered reasonable claim to be the lead torch-bearer of a national movement, its metropolitan brother Philadelphia [of all cities, Philly cannot be said to be sisterly] sealed the deal in 1957 with Dick Clark and American Bandstand.  It's early emcee forgotten, Dick was the face of vibrant youth and a youthful sound.

Farewell and thank you for bringing the music into our homes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E5xy6gjnt4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR_rYLx_2RQ

and an article quoting my daughter Kayleigh's elusive, camera-shy great-uncle:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/47100931/ns/business-us_business/

JJB

Until 1977, I had no recall of encountering the name Anatole France -- great French writer -- until a reference in Carl Sagan's Dragons of Eden where he mentions that Lord Byron possessed one of the largest brains [2200 cc] on record while Anatole France had one of the smallest [1000 cc] for a grown male, despite Byron not being twice as intelligent as France.

However, Anatole France had a profound influence on my life.

As my sixth birthday approached, experiencing my first winter in Fairbanks, Alaska, I encountered this spare, magical eight-minute cartoon, unlike anything else witnessed by me before or thereafter.  I saw it exactly once in my life until this afternoon when it struck me that on the cyber-realization of Gordon R. Dickson's Final Encyclopedia I might relive this moment of my boyhood.  Several months ago, in relating a story to my friend SF writer L. Jagi Lamplighter arhyalon about my childhood in the Great White North, I used GoogleMaps to explore the street level of the church my family attended in the forested outskirts and traveled back in time it seemed to gaze upon again the silver birches I played amongst with my brother.

So, with trepidation, that even though I have been told by a child psychologist that I had close to what is described as an eidetic memory, I feared the reality of the animation would fall short of the wonder of my experience as viewed through the eyes of the child I had been.

Because this cartoon altered the course of my life and shaped my philosophy to this day.

I was not disheartened.

Let me share this very personal epiphany with you:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8s7e2_juggler-of-our-lady_creation

Here's the story behind it, by one of its creators:

http://genedeitchcredits.com/roll-the-credits-01/29-r-o-blechman/

As a member of the Heinlein Society and a lifelong reader of Robert A. Heinlein since stumbling upon one of his Juveniles in the school library when I was eight, it came as no great surprise when revealed by Spider Robinson in his The Best of All Possible Worlds anthology that this tale was a favorite of RAH.

JJB

Cross-posted from comments on Karen Healy's LJ: http://karenhealey.livejournal.com/956059.html

Lacking a dog in this hunt -- not residing in Tucson nor even Arizona -- I'm not overly concerned about the outcome, especially as I must aim a baleful eye at the Orwellian Newspeak utilized by the protesters.

Usually, in cases such as this, I employ the goose-gander substitution of terms test.

So, if the State of Massachusetts, USA, passed a law prohibiting Massachusetts public schools, funded by taxpayers, to establish classes intended predominantly for one ethnic group -- White Anglo-Saxon Protestants [WASPs], forex -- that promoted ethnic divisiveness [by singling out blacks or immigrant Vietnamese Hmong, f'rinstance, for lost jobs and decreased property values], sedition, and overthrow of the government to oppose this other targeted ethnic group AND such ordered that any so described public, taxpayer-funded school system must desist in such practice or lose portions of critical funding for all programs as a penalty, would there be an equal outcry?

Would the shutting of the program in response to the law constitute banning when copies of the books remained available in the school library system?

I don't know enough of the on-the-ground details beyond a casual glance to judge whether my parallel suffices, yet -- from gut instinct honed over years dealing with courts and as a discivil libertarian -- my guess is the district Federal courts will apply an "equal protection" standard to the matter, upholding the law; the 9th Circuit will narrowly overturn those decisions; and SCOTUS will affirm the district court's original ruling.


JJB

Here are the books I read this year, if that's of any interest to anyone.
( Read'em & weep... )

Happy New Year,
JJB

I am recycling a cogent post made to John Scalzi's Whatever forum from a couple of years ago because the argument is worth repeating:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/01/28/reasonably-unscrewed-up-character-≠-mary-sue/
( Begin here... )

Merry Xmas everyone!

[Proud Member of the Movement to Keep the Chi in Christmas!]

http://thebiblicalworld.blogspot.com/2011/11/keep-chi-in-xmas.html

In other words, I prefer people understand what they're saying.  :>)

I made a Solstice resolution to spend more time watching movies.  I own over 400 DVDs and I never seem to make enough time to enjoy them.

After my stay in ICU, I thought I could afford to kick back and pamper myself.
( We Retun to Our Regularly Scheduled Program... )

I owe my life to this guy, Ken Grant, a man to have at one's back:

http://www.townsquaredelaware.com/keep-saturn-in-saturnalia/

You should read his op-ed pieces.  They're always thought-provoking and seeking improvement in our daily lives.  Ken walks the walk before he talks the talk.
( More People to Thank... )

  Usually, the term applies to wild horses which have been tamed.
 
  Here's another take [adapted from an email to Math's mom, my XSO Linda]:

       I'm home on blood thinners.

       A pulmonary embolism is a blood clot to the lungs.

       A saddle embolism has two heads; id est, looks like a saddle.

       In the ER each iteration of reports progressed thusly:

       "You have a PE."

       "You have a large PE."

       "You have a very large PE."

       "You have a HUGE PE."

       When I spoke to the last physician who reported this, he replied, "The technical term is 'massive PE'."
( Cliffhanger )

My mother, bored in her marriage to my step-father Jim O'Brien, decided to remedy herself of the marriage by insisting on a divorce to which Jim would not complacently accept.

My mother applied sweet reason:  "You have to sleep sometime," she told him.

Jim agreed to the divorce.

[This tale I heard repeated on numerous occasions thereafter by my mother who exalted in her "cleverness".]

The divorce proceeded, my mother sold the Belmawr house and bought a newly built one in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, where we moved in the summer of 1971.  It would prove to be the place I lived longest in my life until I was in my mid-20s.

Cinnaminson's schools also employed what later educational models vilified as "tracking", placing students in classes by ability.  This led me -- as a burgeoning young geek -- to meet and befriend some equally bright kids. 
( BFFs -- For awhile & Forever )