Tom McMahon

Clutch Cargo on DVD!

Clutch Cargo on DVD!

From the essential TVShowsOnDVD.com:

This cleverly written and beautifully drawn series is fondly remembered by many of its original fans and is mostly remembered for "the entirely new patented television cartoon production technique" SYNCHRO-VOX, where real lips speaking the lines would be filmed and then superimposed on the drawings. This technique is still used today, most notably on The Late Show with Conan O'Brien and in the opening credits of Spongebob Squarepants. Nobody who saw Clutch Cargo will ever forget the bizarre juxtaposition of still drawings with real, moving human lips. ...

Clutch Cargo is also famous for its bare-bones animation techniques. Characters are cut off at the waist to simplify animation while they walk, and other motion is simulated by simply agitating the cells. Smoke is blown into the camera lens to simulate explosions. Individual cells are used more than once during a story. But not all details are ignored: Clutch's plane is a rare 1929 Bellanca C-27 Airbus, recognizable by its distinctive wing struts and wheel covers. There are only a few dozen of these planes in existence. Clips from Clutch Cargo appeared in the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction, and also on an episode of television's Futurama.

(via the equally essential Cartoon Brew)

The Death Sentence of Terri Schiavo

An excerpt of an excellent piece in USA Today by Florida State Senator Daniel Webster:

Florida citizens were justifiably concerned that an innocent, disabled Florida woman was being put to death by court order under extremely questionable and horrific circumstances. If the proceedings that led up to the execution of serial-killer Ted Bundy had been handled in the same way, Bundy's conviction would have been overturned.

Capital felons on trial for their lives in Florida are entitled to independent counsel, competent representation, trial by jury and automatic review of their death-penalty case by the Florida Supreme Court. Yet Terri, utterly innocent of any wrongdoing, received none of these protections.

The Really Talented Tom McMahon

The Really Talented Tom McMahon

That would be Canadian musician Tom McMahon. He plays the Baliset, an instrument that is played by tapping the strings against the frets. The name comes from the Frank Herbert novel 'Dune', in which it is an instrument played by the character Gurney Halleck.

You should immediately go over to his website, listen to his music, and buy his CD.

Drink Up, Drink Up Chuck And Di!

Remember that great song from Prince Charles first wedding? I gotta recycle the old material when I get the chance . . .

Army Chaplain To German War Criminals At Nuremburg

Chaplain Henry F. Gerecke
Army Chaplain To German War Criminals At Nuremburg

From William J. Hourihan, Ph.D. :

Chaplain Gerecke was a 53-year-old pastor from Missouri, who had also entered the Army in 1943. A hospital chaplain, he was serving in Munich with the 98th General Hospital Unit, when he was ordered to report to the 6850th Internal Security Detachment at Nuremberg. He had not seen his wife in two-and-a-half years, and two of his sons had been severely wounded in the war, one during the Battle of the Bulge. Prior to coming to Munich, he had spent “15 melancholy months in English hospitals, sitting at the bedsides of the wounded and dying.” Chaplain Gerecke had many doubts about this new assignment. The Office of the Chief of Chaplains told him that the decision to accept or reject it was up to him. Colonel Andrus wrote that Gerecke told him: “How can a humble preacher from a Missouri farm make any impression on the disciples of Adolph Hitler?” Despite his doubts, Gerecke accepted the assignment. ...

After 216 court sessions, on 1 October 1946, the verdict was handed down. Twelve of the defendants (including the absent Bormann) were sentenced to death by hanging. Seven were given prison sentences — Hess, Funk, and Raeder for life. Three — Schacht, von Papen, and Fritzche — were acquitted. The time for the executions was set for midnight, 15 October 1946.

As the final hour approached, Colonel Andrus reported that “Father O’Connor and Chaplain Gerecke were untiringly moving from condemned cell to condemned cell. Prayers were now taking on a new meaning, a new urgency.” As the ten remaining condemned prisoners walked the “last mile” that night the chaplains went with them. “I put my trust in Christ,” von Ribbentrop confided to Gerecke. As the hood was pulled over his head he turned to him and said: “I’ll see you again.” Field Marshall Keitel said: “I thank you and those who sent you, with all my heart.”

The place of execution was located in the gymnasium of the prison. Brightly lit, the room contained three wooden scaffolds painted black. Thirteen steps led up to the platforms on which the gallows were erected. The lower part of the gallows was draped with a curtain. Hands tied behind their backs, a black hood pulled over their heads, one by one each man went to his death. Master Sergeant John C. Woods of San Antonio, Texas, and his two assistants conducted the executions. By 2:45 a.m. it was over.

Real Efficiency

An excerpt from the terrific new blog Varifrank:

Once while watching TV and seeing a Dodge Ram pickup commercial, my brother-in-law began to opine about the obvious fuel inefficiency of Dodge pickups and what a fool anyone would be to buy one. He offered that anyone who didn’t buy a Honda was an idiot, as only Hondas could get decent gas mileage, and thus were the only cars “good for the environment”. I then reminded him of something he knew, that I owned a Dodge pickup and that he had parked right next to it in the driveway. After he acknowledged that I then told him something he didn’t want to hear.

“My Dakota is more efficient than you Honda”, I said.

He laughed back and said to me in mid guffaw that there was no way that could possibly be true. The poor bastard didn’t know he was being set up.

“When was the last time you bought gas?” I asked him. He said he bought gas on a weekly basis, and a tank of gas is 12 gallons. I told him I had not bought gas in 8 weeks, and my tank held 18 gallons and as a result, it was clear that My V-8, 5 speed manual transmission Dodge Dakota was more efficient than was his Honda. .

You see, My Brother-in-law used his Honda to go to work. His work was 40 miles from home and it took him 90 minutes and two bridge crossings to get from where he lived to where he worked.

He traveled all that way to sit in a standard office cubicle farm, where he would have a networked company PC and telephone. He worked with no one at that office, as most of his contacts were actually other companies and other employees around the globe. His management team was actually in London.

My manager is based on the east coast. His manager is in another state. The Vice President of our division is not an American. Our customer base is globally and in every country except North Korea, Libya and Iran. I work at home. My commute is exactly 14 steps down my stairs into my office. I rarely drive a car for work, unless I’m going to the airport for a trip out of town, which is becoming more and more rare as remote access technology advances with the times.

Am I Efficient? You bet your a**, and I don’t need a Honda or a big expensive public transportation system to be that way.

Necco

Necco

I pass by their plant in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, every day on my way to work.

Update: Brian Kane has a nice photo of the original Necco water tower in Cambridge, Mass. that is right near his house!

Sexy Albanian Singles!

Find Your Albanian Soul Mate Today! Call Albania for 13 cents a minute! Just a couple of the targeted ads you'll see on this encyclopedia article on Scanderbeg, the National Hero of . . . you guessed it, Albania!

Surf Ballroom Neon Clock

Surf Ballroom Neon Clock

From the fabled Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, the location of the last show by Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper on February 2, 1959. They have lots of other merchandise too.

An Ever-Shrinking Minority Party

From Noemie Emery:

For mysterious reasons best known to themselves, a small diehard clique of old-line insurgents hiding out in the depths of the U.S. Senate decided to make confirmation hearings for Condoleezza Rice the venue of a bomb-throwing session, on the basis of two cherished liberal theories: one, that the war in Iraq is an utter catastrophe; and two, that while criticism of liberal nonwhites and women is always racist and sexist in nature, nonwhites and women who are right-wing or centrist are less than "authentic," and therefore deserve what they get. Thus, Margaret Carlson in the Los Angeles Times found nothing amiss in Boxer's calling Rice a liar and a lackey,

but insisted Boxer's critics were somehow attacking all women.

This followed by weeks an unprecedented onslaught from liberal cartoonists and columnists, who compared Rice to a parrot, a house slave, Aunt Jemima (with one hell of a weight loss), and Prissy in Gone With the Wind. It did not help that one of Boxer's main allies was Robert A. Byrd of West Virginia, who in a prior life had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan. As a method of expanding the vote of an ever-shrinking minority party, this tactic stunned some observers, who concluded the scheme had been cooked up by Karl Rove.