Randy Twizzle

Anybody Interested?

I was a moody pain in the ass 13 yr old who took every opportunity to denigrate the achievement, especially in front of my father. This pissed him off to no end, which was probably why I did it.

There's more on this important story from yesterday's NY Post.

Well at least he outlived that bastard Boots Randolph.

I don't mean to make light of the situation (or maybe I do) but the vision of an enraged crowd trying to defend the honor of Jim Nabors by rushing the stage to attack Boots Randolph and his yakety sax makes me giggle like a school girl.

Two guys in J&R discussing Frank Rosolino's murder/suicide: First Guy: That was pretty crazy of him to shoot his kids like that. Second Guy: Who are we to say what's crazy?

A favorite headline from 1958:

Bingo! Most Americans don't like anything challenging or different, whether its music, literature, films, art, food, beer, wine... Land of the bland. Hey if most Americans did like "challenging music, literature, films, art food, beer, wine...." who would be left for you to feel superior to....?

Someone named Dan Nimmer. I know this because I heard a cut from Nimmer's new album on XM radio's "Real Jazz" channel today and since the name was unfamiliar to me, I looked him up on AMG and saw that his only other listed credit was on Wynton's new CD. It's really no surprise, since when an unfamiliar name pops up on "Real Jazz" it usually turns out to be someone associated with Wynton and/or the LCJO.

I think he was referring to Monica Crowley.

One of the reasons I'm philosophically opposed to shooting at tailgaters is that it's a waste of precious firepower that could be better used to pick off cell phone abusers in cars, buses, trains and in the street.

Here's the Jeter card as shown in the NY Daily News

Yes he is speaking English...

I can't tell you anything about Charlotte, NC, but I can tell you something about Charlotte Rae: She's really annoying.

It's easy to laugh at the guy, because of the way things turned out, but at least he made an attempt to do something when he believed somebody was being harmed. A few weeks ago people were aghast at the neighbors of that weird Missouri perv who held the kidnapped boy for 4 years. After the fact they reported hearing whimpering and crying sounds from the apartment but never lifted a finger to do anything at the time. This Wisconsin guy deserves some praise, but alas he's 39, still lives with his mother and looks slightly crazed, so he'll be mocked.

Somebody named Philip Dampier posted the following observations at xmfan.com. I think it's worth reproducing here, though I can't say that I understand it all.

The fact that the odious Mel Karmazin will become the chief executive of the merged companies is not a good sign. Schwartz now programs XM's channel 73 "High Standards" He's got to be feeling pretty depressed today.

By Shannon Dininny, Associated Press Writer | February 17, 2007 BOISE, Idaho --Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died. Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday. In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime. In a May 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Adler recalled being among two dozen engineers at Zenith given the mission to find a new way for television viewers to change channels without getting out of their chairs or tripping over a cable. But he downplayed his role when asked if he felt his invention helped raise a new generation of couch potatoes. "People ask me all the time -- 'Don't you feel guilty for it?' And I say that's ridiculous," he said. "It seems reasonable and rational to control the TV from where you normally sit and watch television." Various sources have credited either Polley, another Zenith engineer, or Adler as the inventor of the device. Polley created the "Flashmatic," a wireless remote introduced in 1955 that operated on photo cells. Adler introduced ultrasonics, or high-frequency sound, to make the device more efficient in 1956. Zenith credits them as co-inventors, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded both Adler and Polley an Emmy in 1997 for the landmark invention. "He was part of a project that changed the world," Polley said from his home in Lombard, Ill. Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc. During World War II, Adler specialized in military communications equipment. He later helped develop sensitive amplifiers for ultra high frequency signals used by radio astronomers and by the U.S. Air Force for long-range missile detection. Adler also was considered a pioneer in SAW technology, or surface acoustic waves, in color television sets and touch screens. The technology has also been used in cellular telephones. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, on Feb. 1. His wife, Ingrid, said Adler wouldn't have chosen the remote control as his favorite invention. In fact, he didn't even watch much television. "He was more of a reader," she said. "He was a man who would dream in the night and wake up and say, 'I just solved a problem.' He was always thinking science." Adler wished he had been recognized for more of his broad-ranging applications that were useful in the war and in space and were building blocks of other technology, she said, "but then the remote control changed the life of every man."

It was 90 minutes. Here's what you missed: Strayhorn heroically rescues Ellington by largely doing all the work on "Anatomy of a Murder" and "Paris Blues" Then Strayhorn heroically helps lead the civil rights movement with Lena Horne. Then he gets sicks, heroically fights his illness, visits Paris for the last time, writes "Blood Count" and then dies (heroically).

It could be that somebody spiked the Tang.

Here's Wilson's 12/31/1964 review of Archie Shepp And for those nostalgic for the 60s here's an excerpt from a Feb 1965 article about a panel discussion held at the Village Vanguard involving Shepp.

Thank you Scott. It could just be that I have more masturbatory experience than you.