I'm in there, convexly. It's the 1960s Diorama in the Northstar Building skyway. We visited it here months ago - the living room, the kitchen. It's still there, the occupants still frozen in place, the TV playing a Lost in Space episode, the Lucky Strikes matchbook in the ashtray still from the wrong era. I told them it was a 1979 match, not a 1960s match. Does anyone listen? No.
I'm not sure I would, either, because, really, it doesn't take anyone out of the general vibe. But there's always drift on on these things, and the farther away we get, the more the items on the boundaries intermingle, and theniggling insisting dissenters trail off, muttering. It's not right, I tell you. Just isn't.
Had a cheery document review with the Willsandtruss lawyer, as I like to think of her. One word. Willsantruss. The whole thing is designed to make everything easy for your survivors, because you don't want PROBATE. In my naive state of being I assumed that having a will was enough, but no, there's PROBATE. MAYBE? Or not? Don't get it. You set out your wishes, have them signed and notarized, you kick, and then the court steps in and says now hold on there? I gather that probate determines whether the will is "valid and authentic," but that's self-evident in my case. Ah well. We now have a big fat legal document that determines the disposition of assets, providing there are any after the last two weeks.
I've had a will since Covid. First few weeks I had us work up a quick one online, and then I went ot the tax preparer's office to get it notarized. What a cheery event. Everyone masked, affixing my signature to a document whose entire presumption is that I've shuffled off this coil of clever clay, the Red Death raging outside. (Or not.)
Anyway, these are just rote life things. Boring and expensive and necessary. I was amused by the page that's supposed to list accounts and passwords. Hah! Write something down? With my encryption and offsite protocols? Nay. My other favorite part was the information about What To Do If I'm Brain Dead or Terminally Raving or other dire end-of-the-road situations. It's all in upper-case, as if shouting. I suggested putting it in italics as well, which the lawyer did immediately. Now put it in Comic Sins! Kidding. I wanted to explain that if there was anything in the will that was set in Comic Sins or Papyrus, my daughter would immediately go to the courts to invalidate it because she would know it wasn't my wishes.
I know, I know, the Dreaded Musical Bleat, but bear with me. It goes with the object above.
I’m sure it was just my mood at the time, but when it happened, I actually felt my heart leap in my chest. It’s the song, of course, its simple yearning melody given unexpected meaning by the title. A whole new world is coming.
Like most of the videos of the era, it’s all make-believe. But I will never hear it again without thinking of that move. You'll know it when you see it. And you might laugh. It's not crisp, exactly. Could be sharper. You might think it's even hokey. But the second they do that move with that song they were, for a moment, the coolest guys on the planet.
Of course the backstory spoils the mood, somewhat. The bassist, a lanky German named Heinz, had a shotgun, and the song’s producer and writer used it to kill his landlady and then himself. But before all that, Heinz - who seems to have been a Sid Vicious-type, inasmuch as he was not overly cursed with talent, played the bass, and benefited from a friendly producer - did a number with “The Wild Boys.” It was released 60 years ago. I’m going to embed it here for a good reason. They used a 21-year old studio musician for the guitar solo at 1:45.
It's Jimmy Page.
As I noted, I'm done with the Dragnet for a while. I could listen to the radio show every day, but the TV shows just grate after a while. I'm casting about for something else to discuss here, and I don't think it will be the third season of Bosch: Legacy. I just have a hard time believing that the daughter, who weights 67 pounds and looks like she's squinting from chronic constipation, is an LEO, and I'm tired of the usual "oh, they're coming after Bosch now, he's in trouble, sure he might cut a corner but he gets results!" Just give me a straight-ahead story that's 75% of the plot.
I'll finish it, because I like the character. Or rather I am used to liking the character. Apparently the next series deals with the replacement character the author invented, and I find her uninteresting. I tried watching a new show about Sam Spade, but it's Sam Spade in rural France. I am not interested in Sam Spade in the wine country. I reserve Severance for Friday, and Landman for Saturday. No new Star Trek for a while. Just remembered there as a second season of The Old Man, and I watched the first ep and thought this is just going to go on and on. Hey, how about that new Guy Ritchie mob drama? Forgot about that. Shoot, did I finish Penguin? Shoot, forgot about Daredevil. (I did finish Penguin. There's a merry, upbeat, inspirational story._
This is probably why I work late then just watch What's My Line. It feels like an anthropological study. Next week we'll return to that.
Anyway. Los Angeles: it's the town with everything: People, and Police. Stadiums! Wife beaters!
We sold a fleet of Fordsons to the Soviets. Of course they stole the design and tried to make their own.
The wikipedia entry says that the Fordson Dexta was made in the UK, and imported to the States. Seems counterintuitive for the era, but that’s what it was.
“The answer is mostly yes.” Mostly, because the Man Close to the Soil does not insure his kids at the same rate as the urban-dwelling dad.
Fix that, and you got those city-slickers beat.
Fencing chores. Because on top of every other got-danged thing to do on a farm, there’s that.
Wikipedia: "The company eventually owned 1.75 million acres of timberland, and was one of the largest family-owned landholding entities in the United States before it was sold to the Weyerhaeuser Company in 1969."
Star Trek reference:
The city of Broken Bow, Oklahoma started as a private development by a subsidiary of the Choctaw Lumber Company. The Dierks sawmill in town was one of the largest mills in the United States. The name of the town came about from Broken Bow, Nebraska, the previous home of founders Herman and Fred Dierks. The Dierks family donated land for public uses, including churches and schools and a Dierks Elementary School continues in the city to this day. The town also continues to have a Dierks Street.
Be MODERN with a Ritchie:
Still around, in the same town. The facility is large, and has no exterior signage indicating that it’s the Ritchie company.
You don’t want to get your sleeve caught in that.
I see lots of ads for used Knoedlers, but no website for the company.
Yes, the wife is going to be on you about the front room and its old tired look, and there’s no reason she can’t have a home as modern as they have in town.
Those sofas are absolutely space-age, and makes you wish tractors had been more sci-fi in their design. Streamlined! Tail fins!
These machines changed so much. Not as much as the plow, perhaps, but they certainly made things easier. The power, the stability, the ease - you could disc 50 acres a day!
Plowing is deeper and more intensive, creating furrows and inverting the soil, while disking is shallower and focuses on breaking up clods, improving soil granulation, and reducing erosion.
You wonder how many subscribers looked at this and thought “well, when everything’s in, maybe.”
But I remember my farmer uncle coming on weekend picnics. Man’s gotta take some time off. Can’t work all week. Saturday’s for town. Sunday’s for rest.
We now return to the penny-poker tables of a hundred years ago. Eddie's looking forward to seeing you.
