Galloping Gertie

Government bureaucrats are always on the job. Always.

After doing some research for work at the library, I was flipping through some old bound volumes of Time. I found some extra information on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse in a Nov. 18, 1940 Time story.

Not wanting to be haunted by the ghost of Henry Luce, I shall quote lightly from the story. The morning of the collapse, the undulations of the bridge were "no worse than usual"...but no worse than usual meant that the bridge was swaying seriously and that drivers and pedestrians got seasick as they went across the bridge "The bridge was throbbing as if it were alive". However, the problem was serious enough that scientists at the nearby University of Washington were doing wind tunnel studies in a futile effort to fix the bridge.

On the morning of the collapse, a U of W prof set up a camera that would wind up taking some of the famous movie footage that you may have seen. Also...

Soon after him came 25 year-old college student Winfield Brown who paid his 10 cent pedestrian fee and walked across for the thrill.

Today, the bridge would be shut down, but back then they collected tolls as usual! Amazing. It's a good thing that the toll collector went off the job later that day: "Sure the bridge is out, but if you hit the gap at about 90 MPH, you may be able to jump it. 25 cents please."

I'm not a fan of safety Nazis, but I draw the line at collecting tolls for a bridge that is about to collapse. I'm fussy that way, I guess.

Everyone's Gone to The Moon, and not in a Jackie Gleason sense, either

Well, Sam Harris has certainly changed in many ways since he was on Star Search, lo these many years ago.



Everyone's Gone To The Moon could only have been a hit in the 1960s. The lyrics are odd (to put it mildly), but the original is a very pretty song.

Who's tripping down the streets of the city...

After buying a used copy of the 45, I have to ask myself, which is better...

Windy, as performed by The Association...



Or the cover version of Windy, as performed by Drew Carey and Craig Ferguson on The Drew Carey Show!

Hold Tight

Those who have seen the new movie Grindhouse may be interested to know that there is a YouTube video of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich performing Hold Tight on British television. Due probably to budget constraints, the video features the group singing the song amidst playground equipment and does not include speeding death cars.

Is it a stockbroker? Is it a quantity surveyor? Is it a church warden? No! It's Bicycle Repair Man!

It's comforting to know that whenever bicycles are "threatened by International Communism" that Bicycle Repair Man will be there to save the day!

When robots play guitars

The Scopitones video of The Tornados performing their instrumental Robot while costumed in robot outfits is pretty surreal. If you think that the video is horrible, you can cheer a little when the French riot police show up at the end.

The fastest talking man on YouTube, at any rate

This fellow claims to be the fastest talking man in the world. He's pretty fast.

Do the Kangaroo!

It was a dance craze in Quebec--The Kangaroo!

Dolphins, Telepathy and Underwater Birthing? I think I have one of their LPs.

I'm sure that the author of this book is a nice person. However, when I saw the tome in the window of a New Agey bookstore close to my work, I thought to myself "That sounds like the name of a band that might have opened for The Strawberry Alarm Clock in the 1960s."

;)

The Singing Men From Glad

Les Classels, a Quebec group, started their career by dressing all in white and dyeing their hair the same colour! It sounds silly, but Ton Amour A Change Ma Vie, for one, is actually a pretty song.

The Croatian Elvis Presley

Rock music was, it would seem, somewhat tolerated in communist Yugoslavia. A Karlo Metikos, using the name Matt Collins, did a cover version of Peggy Sue, which in 1964 became Yugoslavia's first rock record.

I think that he sung it in Croatian, which would raise eyebrows in Lubbock Texas! You can hear the song in the background of this YouTube video at just after the 6 minute mark.

Tech Tags: Karlo+Metikos Matt+Collins Peggy+Sue

231% of your daily cholesterol needs

I must be hungry this morning, as I am reading this Internet wag's description of Swanson's Hungry Man Breakfast, which he dubs The Breakfast From Hell.

Good thing I have McDonald's coupons. :)

From A Window

I've been looking on YouTube, but the only video of the song From A Window that I can find is by this fellow.

Shatner in the Sky with Diamonds!

This amusing cartoon video accompanies William Shatner's definitive version of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

Tech Tags: William+Shatner+Lucy+In+the+Sky+With+Diamonds+video William+Shatner+Lucy+In+the+Sky+With+Diamonds

Done!

Oh my goodness, I know somebody who posts videos on YouTube. Follow the link to find videos starring a former colleague of mine and his cat.

They aren't are surreal as the videos done by French singer Sheila, say, but they will no doubt amuse you.

Au+H2O=1964

Inspired by my purchase of a $5 replica Barry Goldwater campaign button at a flea market, I went searching on YouTube. It's surprising to see Canadian Raymond Massey endorse Barry Goldwater on the grounds that he will end the Vietnam War. I guess that this would have happened after Goldwater blew up all the fields with little girls picking daisies in them.

I do have one question for YouTube, though. Why would a search for "Barry Goldwater" bring up the Dr. Strangelove trailer?

Tech Tags: Barry+Goldwater+ TV+ad Daisy+Girl+ad Daisy+Girl+TV+ad Dr.+Strangelove+trailer

Add ye powederrd cheesse to the boxx of Krafft Dinnyer nooddles...

I've spotted an online transcript of a cookbook (pamphlet, really) of English medieval recipes: A Book of Cookrye, published in 1591.

A sample recipe:

To bake Chickins.
Season them with cloves, mace, sinamon ginger, and some pepper, so put them into your coffin, and put therto corance dates Prunes, and sweet Butter, or els Marow, and when they be halfe baked, put in some sirup of vergious, and some sugar, shake them togither and set them into the oven again..

Hmm, sirup of vergious...won't be able to ask the neighbours for a cup of that.

Thanks to the Medieval/Renaissance Food Homepage.

Technorati:
medieval+cooking

Well, I was a mild mannered reporter, but not for a major metropolitan newspaper

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 70% Spider-Man 70% Robin 55% Catwoman 50% Green Lantern 45% Hulk 45% Iron Man 40% The Flash 35% Batman 35% Supergirl 23% Wonder Woman 13%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

I want to hold your chakras!

This odd Hindi version of I Want To Hold Your Hand must come from a Bollywood movie. Which one?

bollywood+Beatles

When Connery Met Sally

The imitable Craig Ferguson has imagined what might happen if Sean Connery starred in a remake of When Harry Met Sally.

No, I don't particularly want to have what he is having, thanks. :)

Technorati: Craig+Ferguson+Sean+Connery