Anecdote for the Day

I have previously mentioned . . . 

One who echoed that sentiment was Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), pronounced “Peeps”.

A digression: Benny Hill wrote a song called Pepys’s Diary, which contained the verse and chorus:

A shy young maid has took a room down at the Village Inn.
Her bedside light is oh so bright and the curtains oh so thin.
At nine o'clock, she enters her room, at half past nine, she sleeps.
Lord Clarendon walks quickly on, but naughty Samuel Pepys. 

Oh we know it's right.
It's in black and white.
And it's all written down in his diary!

But back to Samuel, who recorded so much in his diary that it would have put Facebook to shame.

On 2 September 1666 Pepys was awakened by his servant who told him of a great fire she had seen in the city. This was the beginning of the Great Fire of London which subsequently wiped out much the city. Pepys' house was in the path of the fire and on the 3rd he borrowed a cart to "to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things". More items were taken away the next day, to be taken away on a Thames barge. Later that evening:

Sir W. Batten not knowing how to remove his wine, did dig a pit in the garden, and laid it in there; and I took the opportunity of laying all the papers of my office that I could not otherwise dispose of. And in the evening Sir W. Pen and I did dig another, and put our wine in it; and I my Parmazan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things.

Today, parmesan cheese wheels weigh about 38 kilos/84 pounds; in Pepys’s time, wheels of Parmesan cheese could weigh up to 90 kilos/200 pounds. Matured for at least 2 years, the cheese becomes more valuable the longer it is matured. Therefore Pepys’s cheese was quite valuable. Indeed, the cheeses were in the past used as gifts in diplomacy. In 1511 the Pope made a gift to Henry VIII of one hundred Parmesan cheeses, and in 1556 the Pope made gifts of "eight great Parmesan cheeses" to Queen Mary of England

Sao what happened to Samuel’s parmesan? He did not record it but his house escaped the fire.  Hope he wrapped it in Gladwrap before he buried it. 

Readers Write

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Some comments from readers this week:

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An email from Graham E in response to the item on The Highwayman, where I posted a pic of the cover for the album of the same name by The Highwaymen:

Hi Mr O, 

Thought of Mount Rushmore when I read your article today. . . . .

Thanks Graham.

Now that Graham has drawn attention to it, it is hard to understand why I hadn’t seen it straight away.

The back of the Mt Rushmore sculpture is not often seen:

Also topical . . .

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An email from Wayne B:

More please - both the anecdote and the historical item - just wonderful .

Are there any matters about our own aboriginals before European settlement

Wayne B

Thanks Wayne.

I will do an item on pre-European indigenous Australia in the future. As regards more anecdotes, your request is granted – see above.

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From Brett B in response to the Thought for the day by Popeye, that I am what I am and that’s all that I am:

Here's the first appearance of that sentiment, April 17, 1931

Thanks, Brett.

Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip, Thimble Theatre, on January 17, 1929 where he was just a side character to the adventures of Olive Oyl and her brother Castor Oyl. Later the character of Popeye became so popular that the entire comic strip started to revolve around him. ‘Thimble Theater’ changed into the comics of Popeye where Olive Oyl became Popeye‘s sweetheart. After Segar’s death in 1938, a number of writers continued the comic strips of Popeye.

Thought for the Day

The Highwayman

This post, like Topsy, just growed whilst it was being written.  A good Sunday read if you have the time.

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I watched Walk the Line again last week. This is the Johnny Cash biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix as the man in black and Reese Witherspoon as his second wife, June Carter.

The rewatch came about when Kate and I had heard Johnny Cash’s vocals as a backing behind something else we were watching, I can’t recall what, and Kate expressed a desire to see Walk the Line again. 

An amazing part of the performance of Phoenix and Witherspoon is that they do their own singing in the film. They had vocal training for six months with music producer T Bone Burnett. Not only that, they also learned to play their instruments (guitar and auto-harp, respectively) from scratch.

Another couple of interesting facts:

• Waylon Payne originally auditioned for the role of Waylon Jennings. The director was so impressed by Payne's audition that he cast Payne as Jerry Lee Lewis. The actor who got the role of Waylon Jennings was Waylon's own son, Shooter Jennings.

• That’s Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash's actual home, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, that appears in the movie. It burned to the ground on 10 April 2007 (the film was made in 2005) while under renovation by its new owner, Barry Gibb, of The Bee Gees.

June Carter passed away on May 15, 2003. Johnny Cash followed 4 months later.

Which is all by way of introduction to my subsequently looking into Johnny Cash performing as one of The Highwaymen, and looking into their famous song, The Highwayman.  It's a pity that wasn't included in the movie.

Comments:

• In the mid-1980s, Cash recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen, making three hit albums which were released beginning with the originally titled "Highwaymen" in 1985, followed by "Highwaymen 2" in 1990, and concluding with "Highwaymen – The Road Goes on forever" in 1995.

• The Highwayman is a 1977 song written by Jimmy Webb which became the most famous of the songs of The Highwaymen. It has nothing to do with the Alfred Noyes poem of the same name and is a haunting, thought provoking song, certainly one that goes a lot deeper than usual C & W fare.

(Old joke:

What do you get when you play a country music backwards?

Your wife comes back, your dog comes alive again, your crops start growing and you get out of prison.)

• Jimmy Webb, a songwriter, composer, and singer, has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "The Worst That Could Happen", "All I Know", and "MacArthur Park". He has had successful collaborations with Glen Campbell, Michael Feinstein, Linda Ronstadt, The 5th Dimension, Art Garfunkel, and Richard Harris. The Highwaymen’s version of The Highwayman earned Webb a Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1986.

• Hear the song and see the official video that goes with it by clicking on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFkcAH-m9W0

• A live version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf0BGdmmtAI&index=1&list=RDcf0BGdmmtAI

• The lyrics:

[Willie Nelson's Verse]

I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride

With sword and pistol by my side

Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade

Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade

The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five

But I am still alive

[Kris Kristofferson's Verse]

I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide

And with the sea I did abide

I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico

I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow 

And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed

But I am living still

[Waylon Jennings's Verse]

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide

Where steel and water did collide

A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado

I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below

They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound

But I am still around, I'll always be around and around and around and

Around and around

[Johnny Cash's Verse]

I fly a star-ship across the Universe divide

And when I reach the other side

I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can

Perhaps I may become a highwayman again

Or I may simply be a single drop of rain

But I will remain

And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again

• The song is about a soul with incarnations in four different places in time and history: as a highwayman, a sailor, a construction worker on the Hoover Dam, and finally as a captain of a starship. The song was influenced by the real-life hanged highwayman Jonathan Wild. The dam builder verse alludes to the deaths of over one hundred men during the construction of Hoover Dam near Boulder City, Nevada.

• Webb wrote the song in London while working on his album El Mirage with producer George martin. According to Webb, after a night of heavy drinking with friend Harry Nilsson, he went to sleep and had "an incredibly vivid dream":

"I remember that I wrote it in England, I was staying over there and I had a piano in my suite. I had dreamed about this highwayman being chased by these horses, like this kind of classical English scene, like they're folk heroes. Dick Turpin - I don't know whether Dick Turpin was a real man like Jesse James or whether he was like Paul Bunyan. But he's like the highwayman. There's a couple of famous English poems about highwaymen. They were definitely folk heroes of the Jesse James variety. And I had dreamed about this and it was a very vivid dream, came on to me very strong. I woke up kind of sweating and thinking, God, that was so real that was almost like a past life or something. And I went almost directly to the piano and started writing. I went from the highwaymen to the sailor to the dam builder. And a couple of hours went by and I was done, I was finished with it."

• Webb included the song on his 1977 album El Mirage and it was subsequently recorded by Glen Campbell, whose clash with Capitol Records over his wanting to release it as a single saw him leave Capitol Records. Campbell had been with Capitol since 1962 but it wanted him to release “My Sharona” as a single.  He disagreed and wanted The Highwayman.

• From Wikipedia:

In 1984, Glen Campbell played the song "Highwayman" for Johnny Cash, who was making a quartet album with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. A few years earlier, Webb brought the song to Jennings, but Jennings, having heard the Campbell version, said "I just couldn't see it then". The four were all together in Switzerland doing a television special and decided that they should do a project together. While the four were recording their first album, Marty Stuart again played the song for Cash, saying it would be perfect for them—four verses, four souls, and four of them. Campbell then played the song again, this time to all four of them, and the quartet had the name for their new supergroup, The Highwaymen, the name of their first album, Highwayman, and the name of their first single. The four thought it was a perfect name for them because they were always on the road and all four had the image of being outlaws in country music.

• According to Jimmy Webb:

“They did a beautiful Highwaymen album cover where they had portraits of all four of them and then they had a highwayman with a desert, Monument Valley look to it, which was very cool. And then they had it painted on the side of their bus, 'The Highwaymen.' And they travelled that way for a long time. They had ten years or so . . “

• More Jimmy Webb comment:

Nilsson hated that line, “Along the coach roads I did ride.” He said, “You mean, ‘Along the coach roads you rode?’” In that particular case, I felt it was justified because it was kind of an antique way of speaking.

I didn’t know where the song was going. Then I realized that this guy doesn’t really die in the first verse. He’s reincarnated. I thought, “Where does this soul go?” The verses started to evolve. He becomes a sailor, then a dambuilder. Then the best idea for me was switching the tense into the future and say, “I’ll fly a starship across the universe divide until I reach the other side.”

• I love Waylon Jennings’ voice on the song, powerful, rich.

• Whether your take is that the song is about reincarnation, that death is not the end but the beginning of another journey, or about the human spirit and will to endure, it’s a great song by some great artists.

"I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'" 

-- Bob Newhart

Anecdote for the Day

After a concert, Arthur Rubenstein was approached by a woman who was dragging a nine-year-old boy. “Please, Mr Rubenstein,” she said, “I want you to hear my son play the piano.” “Madam,” the pianist said, “I’m very busy. I don’t have time to hear every child play the piano.”

But the mother persisted until Rubenstein finally agreed to an audition the next day. The little boy, his legs barely touching the pedals, played a Chopin waltz. When it was over, Rubenstein said, “That is undoubtedly the worst playing I’ve ever heard.”

The mother nodded and said to her son, “You see? So now will you give up your piano lessons and try out for Little League?”

The Griffin Warrior

Archaeologists and historians were excited when, in 2015, a Bronze Age warrior’s tomb was discovered in an olive grove in Pylos, Greece. But that was nothing compared to what followed.

Some comments:

• The tomb had a well preserved, 3,500 year old skeleton of its owner, a man dubbed the Griffin Warrior because of the ivory plaque, carved with a griffin, placed between his legs. The griffin was a mythical animal believed to protect goddesses and kings.

• His face has been reconstructed:

• Buried with the Griffin Warrior were over 3,000 items to make his journey to the afterlife easier, weapons to the left of him and jewellery to the right. The items included:

       cups, pitchers, and basins made of metal: bronze, silver, and gold;

       a metre long sword with its hilt coated with gold;

       a gold-hilted dagger;

       hundreds of carnelian, amethyst, amber, and gold beads;

       a gold chain and a pendent;

       dozens of seal-stones carved with intricate designs;

       four gold rings

       6 ivory combs;

       a bronze mirror with ivory handle.

Mirror with ivory handle

Ivory comb

A bronze sword with a gold-coated hilt

The Griffin Warrior wearing gold jewellery

The Griffin Warrior wearing gold jewellery

• What really blew the archaeologists and restorers away was something that initially hadn’t even attracted a second look: a limestone encrusted bead, only 3.6cm across, that was inside hardened grime. It was put to one side as the archaeologists concentrated on more dramatic objects found in the grave.

The object, as discovered,

• When they finally got around to cleaning the item, which was an agate seal, they found it to be on par with the greatest artworks of the ancient world. It has been described as the single best example of engraved art ever discovered from prehistoric Greece.

• Now known as the Pylos Combat Agate, it depicts a near naked, long-haired warrior plunging his sword into the neck of his heavily shielded, spear-wielding foe. The body of a second opponent lays crumpled at his feet. It is believed that the hero shown in the carving was identified with the Griffin Warrior.

A drawing of what is depicted in the carving. Some of the details are invisible to the naked eye.

• The craftsmanship is far beyond what archaeologists believed Bronze Age Myceneans and Minoans were capable of. In fact, the level of detail is so high it needed modern photomicroscope technology to reveal it all. The researchers say they believe it must have been carved by an artist using a magnifying glass.

• The gem was designed to be worn on the wrist, like a watch, the researchers say. In fact, the hero on the gem is wearing one just like it.

• Some photographs of the gem:

Due to the seal's small size and veining on the stone, many of the miniature details are only clearly visible via photomicroscopy.

The seal artist's attention to detail and use of stylized faces make the Pylos Combat Agate one of the finest works of prehistoric Greek art ever discovered.

Many of the seal’s details, such as the intricate weaponry ornamentation, become clear only when viewed via photomicroscopy.

• According to the excavators, not all items extracted from the tomb have been cleaned. They have suggested that there will be more surprises to come.

Thought for the Day

Funny Friday

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Byters

I am replacing my laptop.  Everything that is on it is to be transferred by our computer geek Andrew to the new laptop, so I will not be able to post a Bytes after midnight, as I usually do.  I am therefore posting it earlier, which will mean that some people will get it sooner than they normally do.

Because of not having my laptop available, I am also repeating a past Funny Friday.  Still, it's as good as a new one if you don't remember it from before.  

And for the readers in the US, happy Thanksgiving Day.

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A witch doctor, and related, theme this Funny Friday.  It includes an item previously posted but as with some others in recent months, too good not to include.  Enjoy Friday and the funnies . . .

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After being married for a few years, a man finds that he is no longer able to perform. He goes to his doctor who suggests a few things for him to try, but nothing works. Finally, the doctor tells him it's all in his mind and refers him to a psychiatrist.

After a few visits to the psychiatrist, the shrink confesses, "I'm at a total loss as to how you can possibly be cured." 

In desperation, he goes to a witch doctor.

The witch doctor tells him, "Certainly, I can cure this," and throws some powder on a flame. Suddenly there is a flash of billowing blue smoke. "This is very powerful healing," says the witch doctor, "but I must warn you, you will only be able to use it once a year. All you must do is say '1-2-3' and it shall rise for as long as you wish."

"What happens when it's over?" he asks the witch doctor.

"Then, your partner must say '1-2-3-4' and it will go down. Do be warned though, it will not work again for another year."

That night the man is ready to surprise his wife with his good news. As he's laying next to her in bed, he says "1-2-3" and immediately gets an erection.

Turning over towards him, his wife asks, "What did you say '1-2-3 for?"

And THAT my friends, is why we should NEVER end a sentence with a preposition.

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A witch doctor from a tribe in deepest, darkest Africa is sent by his chief to visit Britain in order to sample a different culture.

On his return the chief asks him how it was and what new things he did.

The witch doctor tells him about this building he went into one night. He says, "There were loads of guys with big bellies drinking something called beer and throwing minature spears at a circular board with a small circle in the middle and numbers all round the outside. The men asked me if I wanted a shot and I told them yes."

"And how did you get on?" asked the chief.

"Brilliant," replied the witch doctor. "Every time I threw a spear, I got it to land dead centre of the board and everybody in the place started cheering me and slapping me on the back."

"Really", says the chief, "and what was this game called?"

"Jammy black bastard," says the witch doctor.

* * * * * * * * * *

I was shocked when my adopted daughter told me she was going to marry a witch doctor. 

"Why do you want to do that?" I asked. 

"Pwobabwy for financial secuwity," she replied.

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A man found himself lost and wandering in a forest. After a few hours trying to find his way, he came upon a small house. He knocked on the door and was greeted by an old Chinese man with a long, grey beard. 

"I'm lost," said the man, "can you put me up for the night?" 

"Certainly," the Chinese old man said, "but on one condition. If you so much as lay a finger on my daughter, I will inflict upon you the three worst Chinese tortures known to man". 

"Ok," said the man, thinking that the daughter must be pretty old as well, and entered the house. Before dinner, the daughter came down the stairs. She was young, beautiful, and had a nice shape. She was obviously attracted to the man since she couldn't keep her eyes off him during the meal. Remembering the old man's warning, he ignored her and went up to bed alone. 

During the night, he could no longer bear it and sneaked into her room for a night of passion. He was careful to keep everything quiet so the old man wouldn't hear. Near dawn, he crept back to his room exhausted, but happy. 

He woke to feel a pressure on his chest. Opening his eyes, he saw a large rock on his chest with a note on it that read "Chinese Torture 1: Large rock on chest". 

"Well that's pretty crappy," he thought, "If that's the best the old man can do then I don't have much to worry about". He picked the rock up, walked over to the window and threw the rock out. 

As he did, so he noticed another note on it that read "Chinese Torture 2: Rock tied to left testicle". In panic, he glanced down and saw the rope that was already getting close to the end. Figuring that a few broken bones were better than castration, he jumped out of the window after the rock. 

As he plummeted downward, he saw a large sign on the ground that read "Chinese Torture 3: Right testicle tied to bedpost". 

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One day there was an Indian chief who was constipated. he sent one of his warriors to the witch doctor to get some medicine. The warrior says "Big Chief, no shit". The doctor gave him a pill and told him that the chief should be fine tomorrow.

The warrior went back to the chief and gave him the pill. the next morning the warrior was sent back to the witch doctor and says "big chief, no shit". The doctor gives him five pills and tells him to give them to the chief.

The next day the warrior appears at the witch doctor's house yet again saying "big chief, no shit". The witch doctor gets annoyed and so gives the warrior the whole bottle of pills to give to the chief.

The next day the warrior goes back to the witch doctor:

"Big shit, no chief". 

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In the greatest days of the British Empire, a new commanding officer was sent to a jungle outpost to relieve the retiring colonel. 

After welcoming his replacement and showing the courtesies (gin and tonic, cucumber sandwiches) that protocol decrees, the retiring colonel said "You must meet Captain Smithers, my right-hand man. God, he's really the strength of this office. His talent is simply boundless."

Smithers was summoned and introduced to the new CO, who was surprised to meet a toothless, hairless, scabbed and pockmarked specimen of humanity, a particularly unattractive man less than three foot tall.

"Smithers, old man, tell your new CO about yourself."

"Well, sir, I graduated with honours from Sandhurst, joined the regiment and won the Military Cross and Bar after three expeditions behind enemy lines. I've represented Great Britain in equestrian events and won a Silver Medal in the middleweight division of the Olympics.

I have researched the history of ...."

Here the colonel interrupted, "Yes, yes, never mind that Smithers, the CO can find all that in your file.

Tell him about the day you told the witch doctor to get fucked."

Corn Corner:

An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk hide and gave it to the chief, instructing him to bite off, chew and swallow one inch of the leather every day. 

After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling. 

The chief shrugged and said, "The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on."

Thought for the Day

(Ponder what it is about you that would cause "Syndrome" to be added after your name.)

Bygone Sydney, from the air . . .

Circular Quay, Sydney, 1920s, 1962, 2013 

Sydney and Hyde Park, 1928 

Queens Square, Sydney, 1930 

Milsons Point, Sydney, 1928 and 2015 

Taylor Square, Sydney, 1959 

Queens Square, Sydney, 1950 

Pyrmont Incinerator, Sydney, 1976 

Circular Quay, Sydney with Opera House under construction, 1960 

Bennelong Point, Sydney, 1952 and 2015. 

The Spit at Middle Harbour in the 1920s before the Spit Bridge was built. 

Men in a dole queue during the Great Depression at No. 7 Wharf, Circular Quay, Sydney, 11 June 1931 

Luna Park, Sydney. 1935 

Btw, the changing faces of the entry to Luna Park 

Central Station, Sydney, 1939 

Sydney Town Hall as it appeared in the early 1900s facing north with St. Andrew's Cathedral to the left 

David Jones, George St. Sydney, cnr. Barrack St. Tram to Dulwich Hill, c. 1900-1910 

Moore Park, corner Anzac Parade and South Dowling Street, Sydney 1881 

Circular Quay, Sydney, 1881 

Toll Gate at Victoria Barracks in 1871.It was the toll gate for Old South Head Rd, now Oxford St Paddington. 

Rushcutter's Bay, Sydney, 1874