Reader Tips

Reader Tips 30 Comments

Sixty nine years ago animator/producer/director Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker, produced a animated short film set in a fictional place called Lazytown, in America’s deep south, where the weather is hot and humid, and the denizens’ thought processes – and reaction times – are sluggish. Everything seems to happen in slow motion – until, that is, a stylish, lighter-skinned woman from the north shows up to liven things up. Centered around an eponymous song by The Andrews Sisters, here’s the 1941 Universal release Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat.
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30 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Not so much a reader tip, but something I thought I’d share, as I figured most folks on this blog might get a kick out of it. Quite pleased at my first attempt attempt at pumpkin carving using a real person as the carve pattern. Turned out pretty good, I think.
    I call it, “Miss me, yet?”

  2. Seriously? First attempt? That’s great!
    Keeping with the arts and crafts theme, here’s a gallery of oddly poignant – almost painterly – photos of dogs in cars waiting for their owners.
    I love dogs.
    (via Mick Hartley)

  5. Russian rules for Jew exit visas in the 1980s. ( from Paul Johnson’s A History of the Jews)
    “Soviet anti-Jewish policy, like Tsarist – and even Nazi policy in the 1930s – showed some confusions and contractions. There were conflicting desires to use and exploit the Jews, to keep them prisoners, and also to expel them, the common factor in both cases being an anxiety to humiliate. Thus in 1971 Brezhnev decided to open the gates, and during the next decade 250,000 Jews were allowed to escape. But with every increase in emigration there was a sharp rise in trials of Jews, and the actual exit visa procedure itself was made as complex, difficult and shameful as possible. The need for a character-reference from the applicant’s place of work often led to a sort of show-trail there, in which the Jew was publicly discussed, condemned and then dismissed. So he was often jobless, penniless and liable to be goaled for ‘parasitism’ long before the visa was granted.
    “The exit procedure became more onerous in the 1980s, recalling the labyrinthine complexities of the Tsarist legislation. Few visas were granted and it became common for a family to wait five or ten years for permission to leave.”
    Oy! [my exclamation]
    “The procedure could be summarized as follows. The applicant had first to get a visov, a legally attested invitation from a near-relative living in Israel, with an Israeli government guarantee to issue an entry visa. The visov entitled him to go to the Emigration Office and be issued with two questionnaires for each adult member of the family. The applicant filled these in, then added the following: an autobiography, six photographs, copies of university or other diplomas, a birth certificate for each member of the family, a marriage certificate if married, and, where parents, wife or husband were dead, the appropriate death certificates; a certificate showing possession of a legal residence; an officially certificated letter from any member of the family being left behind; a certificate from their place of work or, if not working, from the House Management Office of their place of residence; a fee of 40 rubles (about $60). When all these had been handed in, the decision whether or not to grant a visa took several months. If a visa were granted (but not yet issued), the applicant had then to resign from work (if not already dismissed); get an official estimate of the cost of repairing his flat; pay the estimate; pay 500 rubles ($750) as a penalty for giving up Soviet citizenship; surrender his passport, Army Registration Card, employment record book and his flat-clearance certificate; and pay a further 200 rubles ($300) for the visa itself. Applicants refused a visa had the right to apply again at the six-month intervals.”

  6. Pink Floyd’s first album was The Piper at the Gates of Dawn who’s title is from a short story by Kenneth Graham. Ummagumma (old slang for having sex) was their 4th album.

  9. Heh, thanks for the kind words, EBD and Robert. Robert, feel free. I’d be honoured to have you post that over on your blog. 🙂

  12. EBD- Sorry, that was a message meant for Vίtruvius in regards to his post. He just forgot to put up a comment section so I just posted it here the next one down. So no worry’s, shop as usual and avoid panic buying :o)

  14. Interesting cartoon. The light-skinned woman, sort of a Lena Horne type, is apparently from Harlem.
    We’d never see a cartoon like that nowadays. The physical depiction of Negroes was fairly grotesque. A caricature to be sure. As for the laziness, the fish, dogs, cats, and chickens were all lazy too. I could only hope to live in such a town some day!
    I remember Walter Lantz’ name at the end of Woody’s cartoons. It showed Woody dressed as a knight in armor, astride a horse, holding a lance.

  15. Misogyny: hatred of women.
    Muslim misogyny/left-liberal misogyny.
    …-
    “al-Qaida Executes Two Young Women Before Hundreds of Onlookers
    With a cry of “there is no God but Allah!” two young Somali girls ages 18 and 15 were executed before hundreds of witnesses in a spray of bullets in Mogadishu, Somalia, yesterday.
    The girls were sent to their deaths by Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim …
    These executions come amongst a string of Al Shabab- sponsored whippings, amputations and executions such as those suffered by the two young women — – all in the name of Islam and overseen by judges whose only qualifications are that they are men who claim to know the Koran.
    (Excerpt) Read more at reporterslive.com …”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2617974/posts
    …-
    “The assault on the ladies of the right
    NY Post ^ | October 29, 2010 | Michelle Malkin
    My military friends have a favorite saying: “If you’re not catching flak, you’re not over the target.” This campaign season, conservative women in politics have caught more flak than WWII Lancaster bombers over Berlin. Despite daily assaults from the Democratic machine, liberal media and Hollywood, the ladies of the right have maintained their dignity, grace and wit. Voters will remember in November.
    When “comedian” and “The View” co-host Joy Behar lambasted GOP Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle this week as a “b-tch” who would be “going to hell” for using images of illegal-alien gang members in a campaign ad, Angle responded by sending a lovely bouquet of flowers and a good-humored note: “Joy, Raised $150,000 online yesterday. Thanks for your help. Sincerely, Sharron Angle.”
    Outgunned in the comedy department, Behar sputtered nonsensically and with bitter, clingy vulgarity: “I would like to point out that those flowers were picked by illegal immigrants and they’re not voting for you, b-tch.” Illegals aren’t supposed to vote at all, Miss B. But why let such pesky details get in the way of a foul-mouthed daytime TV diatribe?
    Just a week earlier, Behar delivered a hysterical rant against GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, accusing the mother of five and foster mother of 23 of being “against children” for opposing the expansion of federal health-care entitlements for middle-class families and children (the SCHIP program) and for opposing the costly Obama takeover of health care. Behar merely parrots the demagoguery of Democratic leaders in Washington, who have ducked behind kiddie human shields to avoid substantive debate about the dire consequences of their policies.
    (Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com …”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2618094/posts

  16. Colin, I detect a “Reagan-esque” style to your GWB carving. Can you see the resemblance, too?
    Very nice carving, BTW.

  20. “If you spend anytime at all perusing the blogosphere, you will find a common theme coming from self-described liberal or progressive bloggers, and that is that those on the political right are ignoramuses.
    The argument is that they are just too stupid to know what’s what – they are even anti-science, rejecting knowledge itself — and consequently they support dumb candidates advocating ignorant policies. Such arguments are particularly evident in the corner of the blogosphere that discusses the climate change issue. This line of argument of course is a variant of the thinking that if only people shared a common understanding of scientific facts they would also share a common political orientation (typically the political orientation of whomever is expressing these views).”
    Roger Pielke Jr.
    (via Watts up with that)
    http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2010/10/simple-math-and-simple-politics.html

  24. Sorry, not a reader tip, but I had to share – I am arguing with people on HuffPost – a lost cause – I said we can tolerate a bit of drug use, but it’s bad for society to have 50% of people smoking dope and laying on the couch eating pizza all day. Here’s an honest to God response:
    “Actually, the country would survive just fine if 95% of people laid on the couch all day, smoking dope and eating pizza. The other 5% could build the few items that we need for a high standard of living, take care of the roads and bridges, drive trucks moving goods around, and growing healthy food.
    This myth that we all need to “be productive” is blatantly oppressive.
    We need food, water, electricity, fuel for our vehicles, clothes, a roof over our heads, and the ability to protect ourselves from tyrannical authorities. All the rest is just the result of for-profit banking with interest, and the need to repay personal and sovereign debt.”

  30. Thanks Black Mamba and Me No Dhimmi!
    It is a real eye opener for me. The thing is – I have no idea whether this represents 5% of the US populace, or 20% of those under 21.
    In any case, it really is mind-boggling for me to read some of the stuff there. Yikes.

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