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C-Notes, Part 9
Assorted
thoughts in 100 words or less |

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 |

I
found this pair of pictures among my family's mementoes. The
only label identifies them as "Cabinet Portraits" by Miller
& Bridges of Caldwell, Ohio. My guess is that they are of
my great-grandparents, Mary E.
Curtis Buckingham (1851-1937) and J. Thomas Buckingham (1850-1908),
and that the portraits were made within ten years or so of the 1885
birth of my grandfather Harry.
In
light traffic, the aggressive driver switches from lane to lane and
rockets past everyone else.
In
moderate traffic, the aggressive driver hits his brakes several
times a minute. You can spot him by his blinking red
lights. Impatiently, he pulls up close behind the car ahead,
then has to slow down to avoid a collision.
The
safer driver leaves a little more space and rarely has to use his
brakes. An engineer has concluded
that avoiding tailgating actually results in better traffic flow not
just for the safer driver, but for his fellow travelers as well.
When
I was in college, musical synthesizers were a fairly new
development. One afternoon I attended a performance at Warner
Concert Hall of a new composition for tape recorder and string quartet.

The
entrance to the concert hall as seen from the Japanese garden.
Silk screen print, Oberlin
College Conservatory of Music,
by Kate Emlen Chamberlin. |
The
tape machine was set up on stage alongside the human musicians, and
after they had warmed up as usual, someone pressed a button and the
tape sounded an "A." The musicians tuned their
instruments to match it. This is a perfectly reasonable
extension of the usual tuning procedure, but the audience giggled at
the idea of a robot concertmaster.
Suggested
in an article by Free Inquiry's David Park Musella:
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Baseball
infielders originally stood near the three bases.
When
a fourth infielder was added, he couldn't be the "4th
baseman" there was no 4th base. Instead, he was
slotted between 2nd and 3rd and given a special title. |
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Likewise,
there are generally three full moons per season: first,
middle, last.
Approximately
every three years, a season has a fourth full moon. But it
doesn't become the new "last." It's slotted between
middle and last and called a "blue moon."
Thus,
once in a blue moon means on rare occasions. |
"I
like your aftershave," the waitress said to me at
breakfast. "It reminds me of my father."
Upon
reflection, I realized that I had been using a 30-year-old bottle of
Brut that I had found in the back of the medicine cabinet. That
explains why it brought back memories of the previous generation.
If
I want to remind the waitress of her grandfather, I have half
a bottle of Seaforth! further back in the cabinet. My father's
dealership gave away this Old Spice knockoff to introduce the new
1955 Chevrolets.
For
me, most days are too chilly. Winter, with temperatures in the
30s or below, lasts 27 weeks.
Or
they're too hot. Summer, with temperatures in the 80s or
above, lasts 11 weeks.
The
temperate seasons Spring and Fall are short, only about seven weeks each.
I
calculated these numbers today from a graph
of average temperatures for my old hometown.
"Spring"
is seven weeks long, from about April 25 (lows exceed 40°)
until June 15 (highs exceed 80°).
"Fall"
is another seven weeks, from about September 1 (highs drop below
80°) until October 20 (lows drop below 40°). |
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This
USA Today story quoted six sources. I ignored their
names; passenger "Alfred Caproni of North Adams, Mass."
means nothing to me.
But
then at the end, somebody named Brams calls the incident "the
most bizarre thing he's seen."
How
much has he seen? What are his qualifications to make that
statement? In short, who is Brams?
I
rescanned the whole story before realizing that Brams was identified
in the preceding paragraph. |
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l |
passengers
safely over the past
eight
years. They have an al-
most
unblemished safety rec-
ord,
says Mike Driscoll, editor of
Cruise
Week newsletter.
Benson says Princess is giv-
ing
passengers on this week's
cruise
full refunds and will pay
for
any out-of-pocket expenses
related
to the incident. UBS
stock
analyst Robin Farley esti-
mates
that will cost Princess'
parent
company, Carnival,
$6
million to $10 million.
Travel agencies with custom-
ers
on upcoming Princess sail-
ings
say they're being flooded
with
calls. "Nobody is looking
to
cancel," says David Brams of
World
Wide Cruises in Fort
Lauderdale.
"I think most peo-
ple
realize this is a fluke thing."
Brams says the incident is
the
most bizarre thing he's
seen
in nearly 20 years in the
business.
"It's very unusual." |
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News
articles should follow the style of some "notebook"
columns by printing people's names in boldface on first reference, to
make them easier to find again later. |
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l |
passengers
safely over the past
eight
years. They have an al-
most
unblemished safety rec-
ord,
says Mike Driscoll, editor of
Cruise
Week newsletter.
Benson says Princess is giv-
ing
passengers on this week's
cruise
full refunds and will pay
for
any out-of-pocket expenses
related
to the incident. UBS
stock
analyst Robin Farley esti-
mates
that will cost Princess'
parent
company, Carnival,
$6
million to $10 million.
Travel agencies with custom-
ers
on upcoming Princess sail-
ings
say they're being flooded
with
calls. "Nobody is looking
to
cancel," says David Brams of
World
Wide Cruises in Fort
Lauderdale.
"I think most peo-
ple
realize this is a fluke thing."
Brams says the incident is
the
most bizarre thing he's
seen
in nearly 20 years in the
business.
"It's very unusual." |
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Photo
from 1993 Pitt Football Media Guide. Pitt Stadium was razed
after the 1999 season. (That's Fitzgerald Field House in the background). |
Televising
football at Pitt was tough. TV trucks parked in the lot on the
right. We obtained electricity from a lighting pole, but we had
to stop traffic to "fly" audio and video cables above the
street to the rickety pressbox.
Once
a PSU-Pitt game had just begun. A crowd of late-arriving
spectators was still outside the nearby gate. Suddenly, our
power went out. Someone had switched it off at the pole.
I think a frustrated fan tried to turn off the lights and delay the
game long enough to get inside. All he killed was our taping.
First
we give the punch line, and afterwards we set up the situation.
Thats stupid! Once the reader figures out what we're
talking about, he has to go back and read the punch line again.
Hopefully, the second time he gets it.
Graphics operator Tom Thomas, complaining about this oft-used
"Quote of the Day" format in which the speaker and context
are not revealed until the end of the graphic
At
the end of a sports event, we telecasters seek out jubies and bummage.
Jubies
are scenes of jubilation, with the winning athletes hugging each
other and proclaiming their number oneness.
Bummage
refers to scenes of the bummed-out losers as they stare blankly or
hang their heads.
To
tell the story, we include both. But, like any good game show,
we lean towards jubies and happiness.
Incidentally,
in a women's volleyball game I can best figure out which team has
won a point by noting which team is engaging in the ritual jubies of
mutual post-point congratulation.
When
our baseball crew is on the road but not televising a day game, some
of us freed from our TV truck watch the game from the
empty booth assigned to the visiting TV announcers.
At
Wrigley Field about 1990, I found myself in the booth to the right
of Harry Caray as he rose in the middle of the seventh inning to lead
the crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
Some
38,000 people turned their faces in my general direction,
enthusiastically singing a traditional tune. |
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It
was like the biggest birthday party ever.

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