Click to see the picture at full size.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Month: July 2007
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You’re Bummin’ Me Out, Man
Photo by Will Pate. Click to see the original.
When I got onto the elevator in my building this morning, an older man and woman were already in the car, discussing the repair work being done on the building, which is showing its age. When the woman left at the ground floor, the man turned to me.
“Young man, when you’ve lived in this building for a while, you see the same people, year after year. They get older, and you see it — they’re going down, down, down.”
As he said “Down, down, down,” he pantomimed a falling leaf with his hand.
“Well,” I said as I shrugged, “it eventually happens to everyone.”
“That,” he said as he left, “is the only good thing about it.”
You know how to bring down a room, big guy.
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Jakob Nielsen Doesn’t Read “Global Nerdy”
Over at my tech blog Global Nerdy, I’ve got all sorts of articles that explain why:
The movie Deliverance has so infused its way into North American pop culture that most people are aware of its “Squeal like a pig!” scene. Back when I played background music for improv comedy shows here in Accordion City, I’d play the opening notes from Dueling Banjos whenever an actor would make some reference to butt-sex (a staple of comedy) and everyone would get the little musical joke.
In case you haven’t seen the movie, here’s the Dueling Banjos scene:
I had to laugh out loud when Miss Fipi Lele sent me this poster for a hypothetical Dreamworks-animated version of Deliverance:
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Erin Judge Live!
I met Erin Judge through the Ginger Ninja, back when they both worked at Harvard. Erin’s very funny, a trait that comes in handy in her calling as a stand-up comedian. Being based in Boston, it’s hard for us to catch her gigs, but we lucked out this weekend because she was booked for a couple of gigs at The House of Comedy at Niagara Falls. It takes just over an hour to get there by car, so Wendy and I, along with Rannie and Jay motorbootied for the Falls on Saturday afternoon, did a quick walk up and down cheese-a-riffic Clifton Hill and then went to the House of Comedy to catch her show.
Even though the first act was at 9:00 p.m., Erin told us to make sure that we were there by 7:30. It was good advice — when we arrived at 7:25, the place was already packed. The House of Comedy is a “dinner and a show” kind of place; the cover charge includes a salad-and-pasta dinner. We got to hang out with Erin and her fiance Jesse on the patio before and after the show, which was nice, and the show itself was quite good. Erin’s was one of the opening acts and she was quite funny and in top form.
If you’re in the Boston area, you can catch Erin at a big gig tomorrow (Tuesday, July 10th): she’ll be in Comedy Central’s Open Mic Fight Contest, competing with other Boston comedians for a shot at the next round in Los Angeles. She says “No matter who wins, this will be a FANTASTIC comedy show. Get there early or buy tickets in advance!” The Open Mic Fight Contest takes place at the Comedy Connection, and the fun starts at 8:00 p.m.
In response to the article Where I Slept Tuesday Night,, my article about my night at the sleep lab at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, a “goatchowder” commented:
If you’d been living in the USA, that test would have cost you US$6000.
An anonymous commenter replied:
The flipside in Canada is that it takes about 6 months to get an appointment with a sleep specialist (and you need to see your GP first to get a referral) who can prescribe the sleep study.
That wasn’t the case for me.
So How Long Did I Have to Wait?
I had an appointment with my GP on June 5th. She said she could book me into the sleep lab on the week of Monday, June 18th, a mere two weeks later. I told her that I couldn’t make it then, as I would be in Boston all that week. I asked for a later date, and the booking people at the lab suggested July 3rd, the Tuesday after the long weekend. So I took it.
Simply put, I could’ve had the sleep lab appointment in 2 weeks, but since my schedule didn’t allow me, I got it in 4 weeks. And with a referral from my GP, not a sleep specialist, with a single phone call and for no direct charge (universal health care comes from taxes).
Sleep Lab and Auto-CPAP Costs in the U.S.
While I’m on the topic, can anyone in the U.S. who’s had a sleep study done on them tell me how much it costs, and whether or not it was covered by your insurance?
The anonymous commenter also included quite a bit about auto-CPAP machines. Here’s an excerpt:
Once you’ve figured out what you need, the big expense is buying the machine. I’m not sure about the States but in Canada the government pays for half, and often your work insurance pays for the other half. If you don’t have insurance, you pay for it yourself (about $1000).
So the Canadian system stills finds a way to screw the under-privileged.
My belief is that the deal’s about the same in the U.S., especially if you’re living below the median. Can anyone with experience or data confirm or counter this belief?
The Evening News, 35 Years Ago
Here’s something that many (but not all) of you regular Accordion Guy readers might not find familiar — it’s five minutes from an NBC News broadcast from July 4th, 1972:
Some interesting differences between the nightly news 35 years ago and today:
- There were far fewer superimposed graphics, and no “crawlers” at the bottom of the screen
- No network logo in the lower right-hand corner
- Different camera style — note how there’s more of a focus on the anchor (John Chancellor) and reporter, with long shots, starting with a wide shot at the start of their spoken segment, and then zooming in for a close-up as their segment continues
- A more formal, less sensationalistic style of news delivery. Someone commented on this video saying “It’s funny how this shlock is like Pericles speaking to the Athenian assembly compared to contemporary ‘journalism’. “Another commented “This is like Canadian News from last night.” (I’m going to as the Ginger Ninja about her opinions on the different between American and Canadian TV news.)
- When they go to clips of the 4th of July celebrations at the National Mall and Attica Prison, there’s no voice-over commentary. They rely solely on the clips to tell the story.
- In today’s world of digital video and network communications, it’s easy to shoot news segments all over the world and get them back to the studio in time for the evening news. Back in 1972, those segments must’ve still been shot on good ol’ film and then rushed to some place to be processed and manually edited.
- They gave more time for each news segment — even the credits at the end, which are about a minute long, take more time than a lot of today’s news channel stories.
- That’s one fine jazzy theme song at the end.
No Democratic Candidate Yet?
Here’s another difference between then and now that has less to do with the newscast and more about politics back then. Listen carefully to the report from San Clemente by reporter Richard Valeriani: he says that the Democrats are meeting in Miami Beach to choose a candidate for the elections.
What’s so weird about that? It’s that 1972 was an election year. American elections take place near the beginning of November. It’s the start of July at the time of the broadcast. That means that the campaigning would last no longer than four months. That’s quite unlike the current situation.
In case you’re not up to speed on your recent U.S. history, the 1972 presidential elections were a disaster for the Democrats. Ted Kennedy would’ve been a contender, but as I like to say, “that’s water under the bridge”. Ed Muskie was the was mainstream democratic favourite until he cried like a chick during the primaries. Grassroots-boosted George McGovern got the nomination and in the end, they lost by over 23% in the popular vote.
1972 U.S. Presidential Election results by state. Click the map to see it at full size on its original page.
(Check out the pie charts on the map above — note the difference between the electoral vote and the popular vote.)
I must admit that my earliest introduction to that particular election was in the late seventies, from reading back issues of MAD magazine.