Brownian Motion

Howard Lotsof was 19, addicted to heroin and searching for a new high in 1962 when he swallowed a bitter-tasting white powder taken from an exotic West African shrub. “The next thing I knew,” he told The New York Times in 1994, “I was straight.” The substance was ibogaine, an extract of Tabernanthe iboga, a perennial rain-forest plant found primarily in Gabon. In the Bwiti religion it is used in puberty initiation rites, inducing a powerful altered state for at least 48 hours during which young people are said to come into contact with a universal ancestor. By Mr. Lotsof’s account, when he and six friends who were also addicted tried ibogaine, five of them immediately quit, saying their desire for heroin had been extinguished. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/us/17lotsof.html?ref=obituaries

Cannon Ironsides Francis Scott Key

War Admiral Megan McCain Francis the Talking Mule

Tinkerbell Robert Manry Man o' War

The Eel The Eel's Nephew A Monkey's Uncle

The Lost Generation The Bobby Soxers E.J. Korvette

Erskine Caldwell Lump Jack Aker

Ellen Terry Ralph Terry Terry and the Pirates

David Stone Martin Stefan Martin Paloma Picasso

The man who invented the Frisbee, one of the world's most popular toys, has died at his home in Utah aged 90. Walter Frederick Morrison conceived and developed his aerodynamic plastic disc in the 1950s, and hundreds of millions have been sold worldwide since. MORE

February 7, 2010 Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord By NORIMITSU ONISHI GENERAL SANTOS, the Philippines — After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitué’s self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters’ “My Prayer.” Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. But Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.” “I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.” The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.” More

Franz Kline Robert Motherwell Father Christmas

I love those old Victor sides. My dad had a few of them on Blue Bird 78s--High Society, Snowball, Sweet Sue, A Got a Right to Sing the Blues. The first jazz LP I ever bought was "A Rare Batch of Satch" which featured Louis' output from this era. Is there anything more lovely than "When it's Sleepy Time Down South" on Victor?

Lou Gehrig Hank Greenberg Ed Kranepool

Oona O'Neill Geraldine Chaplin Prescott Chaplin

LaGuardia Dulles O'Hare

Graf Zeppelin Zeppo Marx Zippy

Mack the Knife Christian Bernard Cutty Cutshall

Checkers Bobby Fischer Charles Goren

David, thanks for posting this. I have to confess that this is the first Salinger I've ever read. I thought it was terrific. Quirky, off plumb, whatever. The sort of piece where you can lose track of the narrative in deference to style and nuance. More than once, I laughed out loud, just like I used to when I'd read David Sedaris in the New Yorker. On the basis of this limited exposure, I must make it a point to do Catcher, and soon. It's interesting that you had that reaction, Dave. In all the appreciations of Salinger I've read over the last three days there is little or no mention of his comic gift. His writings always made me laugh out loud.

I've read that the pianist was based on Art Tatum. If I remember correctly it wasn't that he had lost his touch--it was that he was all flash and no substance.

Jane Jarvis, who brought a jazz sensibility to unlikely places as an organist for the New York Mets and a programmer for Muzak, died on Monday at the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home in Englewood, N.J. She was 94. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/arts/31jarvis.html?ref=obituaries

Ugly Child Black Beauty My Friend Flicka

Red Grooms Bridey Murphy Mary Mary Quite Contrary

I grew up listening to Ed Beach on the radio--the FM signal for WRVR could just barely make it to where I lived. Ed knew jazz. He was a good, irascible old cat. RIP.