tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91666443825171115532024-03-12T18:43:35.474-07:00Mister Ron's Basement BlogMister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-39491679891043722372009-10-12T18:10:00.000-07:002009-11-06T21:01:55.707-08:00Episode #1500 contest!!! Prize Revealed!As you may know, Mister Ron's Basement (http://misterron.libsyn.com) has just published Episode #1500! It is actually in EIGHT parts, and will be posted over eight days.<br /><br />There is no other Podcast on iTunes that is even close to 1500 Episodes...<br /><br />Mister Ron is certainly available for interviews. Just send to the email listed below.<br /><br />While maybe not everything in the Basement may be your cup of tea, some of the humorous stories are perhaps funnier today than they were a hundred or hundred and fifty years ago. <br /><br />Most of the authors featured on the Podcast were once household names in America, and now are sadly forgotten. The mission of our program is to try to restore some of those writers to the recognition they deserve.<br /><br />We have something special planned for Episode #1500, and leading up to it, we are having a contest! <br />Somebody will win a genuine classic book of American Humor that is at least 100 years old. A true collectible! <br /><br />The prize is a 1906 hardback printing of Ellis Parker Butler's classic "Pigs is Pigs.".<br /><br />How do you enter? Simple -- send me an email (my address is revry@panix.com) with the subject line "My Favorite Episode." Then tell me which Episode of the Basement is your favorite. You don't have to tell me why, but I would love to hear it anyway. Just give me the name of the story and the author. Please send me an email. You can send me messages on Facebook all you like, but they won't count in the contest.<br /><br />All the entries will go in a hat after we release Episode #1500 (Part Eight of Eight). The winner will be announced afterward. So go visit the web site, or subscribe in iTunes, and pick out a good one! Feel free to use the Catalog and Individual Author indexes to help make your decision.<br /><br /><br />Thanks to all my listeners!<br /><br />-=-Ron-=-Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-27898116233582269912009-04-18T17:17:00.000-07:002009-04-18T17:23:03.322-07:00A Vital Message from Ron Evry<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">Many of you have enjoyed my daily podcast, “Mister Ron’s Basement” (<a href="http://slapcast.com/users/revry">http://slapcast.com/users/revry</a>) for years now. It began in March of 2005 and currently has over 1350 Episodes, more than any other Podcast on iTunes. The podcast receives anywhere from 25,000 to 35,000 downloads every single day, and uses around 200 to 250 Gigabytes of bandwidth daily.<br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">While some may not find my voice or delivery style to their tastes, there is no denying that the many humorous stories by mostly forgotten authors that I have rescued from oblivion are restoring a vital American Treasure to the world.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">Most people’s view of early American humor begins and ends with Mark Twain or O Henry. Yet authors such as Fanny Fern, Max Adeler, George Ade, Edgar Wilson (“Bill”) Nye, M. Quad, George W. Peck, Philander Doesticks, and Stanley Huntley, are highly significant in the development of the uniquely American attitude of not taking everything seriously.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">To the world at large, American humor, represented by film, television, comic books and strips, and stand-up comedians, is the pinnacle of comedy. A good portion of our entertainment exports (always in the very top ranks of our Gross National Product) is descending from the works of these mostly forgotten writers, who were once household names.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">Utilizing researching techniques that simply weren’t available a few years ago, I am uncovering the stories that our ancestors used to laugh at, and have discovered that a great deal of it is still extremely funny today. The podcasts, in recent months, have been fully indexed, and can be accessed at:</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva"><a href="http://ronevry.com/Mister_Rons_Full_Catalog.html">http://ronevry.com/Mister_Rons_Full_Catalog.html</a></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">But now Mister Ron’s Basement is facing a major hitch in its operation. Roger Strickland, the proprietor of Slapcast.com, my Podcast host for the last four years, will be closing up shop at the end of July. He has attempted over this period to make an economical platform for podcasters, charging five dollars a month for unlimited bandwidth. To accomplish this, he has needed a steady stream of new customers, and the current bad economy has reduced this figure drastically. Undoubtedly, the very success of Mister Ron’s Basement may have put a strain on his resources as well, with its ever-growing need for bandwidth.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">Looking through what is available in hosting services out in the real world, I have discovered that most of the surviving hosts out there want $300 to $400 a month from me to continue my operation. One hosting service told me that I “don’t have to be a millionaire” to use their servers. Just $50 a month and thirty cents a Gigabyte for bandwidth. Last month alone I used up Five Terabytes of bandwidth. This works out to $1500 a month. Sorry. Don’t have it.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">I have apparently negotiated a deal with a major hosting company to pay a one-time fee for archiving all my back episodes, and continuing with my daily podcasts. Essentially, this is going to work out to about a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">thousand dollars</span> for the first year. They also will split ad revenue with me, giving me the larger share if I come up with the sponsor.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">So far, I have not found any sponsor, but anyone reading this who thinks they can put me in contact with one, please write!</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">To make Mister Ron’s Basement’s valuable archive and continued podcasts available, I am asking for <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">donations</span>. Ideally, I would like to find a thousand people with a dollar each to help me carry on this work.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">If any of these stories have made you laugh, please drop a dollar into my virtual hat. You can get to the donation button at:</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva"><a href="http://ronevry.com/Mister_Ron_Donate.html">http://ronevry.com/Mister_Ron_Donate.html</a></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">This is being done through Paypal, and you don’t have to be a member of Paypal to use the service. </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">If you prefer, please drop a dollar or more (or a check) into an envelope and send it to:</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Ron Evry</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">2880 Cedar Crest Ct</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Woodbridge, VA 22192</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">Of course, I am desperately looking for any and all publicity to ensure the survival of this National Treasure. Anybody reading this from print, radio, or web media that would like a fascinating article, please contact me at revry@panix.com.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">Keep Laughing!</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva; min-height: 17.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Geneva">-=-Ron-=-</p>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-81990001233060404302009-01-15T20:03:00.000-08:002009-09-06T15:57:29.139-07:00An Edgar Allan Poe Oddity<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Listeners to the Basement might notice that we are celebrating Edgar Allan Poe's Bicentennial Birthday with readings of his funniest stories and poems. Poe is not really appreciated by the public for his humor, but he could write some knee-slappers now and then. Poe himself seemed to consider some of his horror tales a laugh riot, but even so, we have found some good stuff that is okay for the squeamish...</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">One of the stories we have read is called </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Diddling -- Considered as One of the Exact Sciences </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">from 1843. You can listen to it at </span><a href="http://misterron.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=507870"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">http://misterron.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=507870</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">. A </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">diddler</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">, in case you didn't know it, was a 19th Century term for a con artist. When I read this piece, something struck me as familiar, and then I remembered that way back in Basement Episode number 438, found at </span><a href="http://misterron.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=501884"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">http://misterron.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=501884</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">, I had read an 1830 Seba Smith story called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">My First Visit to Portland</span>. In this tale, country boy Jack Downing comes to the big town and outsmarts the city slickers.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The two stories each feature scenes which resemble each other very much. Here's the scene from the Smith 1830 story:</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Well, then, says I to myself, I have a pesky good mind to go in and have a try with one of these chaps and see if they can twist my eye- teeth out. If they can get the best end of the bargain out of me they can do what there ain't a man in our place can do; and I should just like to know what sort of stuff these ere Portland chaps are made of. So in I goes into the best-looking store among 'em. And I see some biscuit lying on the shelf, and says I:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Mister, how much do you ax apiece for them ere biscuits?"</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"A cent apiece," says he.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Well," says I, "I shan't give you that, but if you've a mind to, I'll give you two cents for three of them, for I begin to feel a little as tho' I would like to take a bite."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Well," says he, "I wouldn't sell 'em to anybody else so, but seeing it's you I don't care if you take 'em."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I knew he lied, for he never seen me before in his life. Well, he handed down the biscuits, and I took 'em, and walked round the store awhile, to see what else he had to sell. At last says I:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Mister, have you got any good cider?"</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Says he, "Yes, as good as ever you see."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Well," says I, "what do you ax a glass for it?"</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Two cents," says he.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Well," says I, "seems to me I feel more dry than I do hungry now. Ain't you a mind to take these ere biscuits again and give me a glass of cider?" and says he:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"I don't care if I do."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">So he took and laid 'em on the shelf again and poured out a glass of cider. I took the glass of cider and drinkt it down, and, to tell you the truth about it, it was capital good cider. Then says I:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"I guess it's about time for me to be a-going," and so I stept along toward the door; but he ups and says, says he:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Stop, mister, I believe you haven't paid me for the cider."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Not paid you for the cider!" says I; "what do you mean by that? Didn't the biscuits that I give you just come to the cider?"</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"Oh, ah, right!" says he.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">So I started to go again, but before I had reached the door he says, says he:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"But stop, mister, you didn't pay me for the biscuits."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">"What!" says I, "do you mean to impose upon me? Do you think I am going to pay you for the biscuits, and let you keep them, too? Ain't they there now on your shelf? What more do you want? I guess, sir, you don't whittle me in that way."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">So I turned about and marched off and left the feller staring and scratching his head as tho' he was struck with a dunderment.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Now here is the similar paragraph from Poe's piece:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rather a small, but still a scientific diddle is this. The diddler approaches the bar of a tavern, and demands a couple of twists of tobacco. These are handed to him, when, having slightly examined them, he says: </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"I don't much like this tobacco. Here, take it back, and give me a glass of brandy and water in its place."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The brandy and water is furnished and imbibed, and the diddler makes his way to the door. But the voice of the tavern-keeper arrests him. </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"I believe, sir, you have forgotten to pay for your brandy and water." </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Pay for my brandy and water! — didn't I give you the tobacco for the brandy and water? What more would you have?" </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"But, sir, if you please, I don't remember that you paid me for the tobacco." </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"What do you mean by that, you scoundrel? — Didn't I give you back your tobacco? Isn't </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> your tobacco lying </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">there?</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Do you expect me to pay for what I did not take?"</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"But, sir," says the publican, now rather at a loss what to say, "but sir —" </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"But me no buts, sir," interrupts the diddler, apparently in very high dudgeon, and slamming the door after him, as he makes his escape. — "But me no buts, sir, and none of your tricks upon travellers." </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Now there is a significant difference in the details, but the two are quite close. Investigating further, I discovered that Poe was indeed quite familiar with Seba Smith's work, and had written a scathing review of Smith's poetry, stating that the author would be better off sticking to humor.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">So what do you think? Your comments and emails are welcome...</span></span></span></div></span></span></div></span></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-15242303688811534032008-12-29T17:18:00.001-08:002008-12-29T18:13:17.627-08:00The Curious Case of Benjamin Button & other items of interestIt has been awhile since I've updated the Basement Blog, so I thought this might be an opportune time. Long time listeners to the Basement may have noticed that I have not been following my usual schedule of posting a new Episode every single day. Essentially, there are a lot of technical issues at the moment preventing this, as the Podcast Server I use, <a href="http://slapcast.com">http://slapcast.com</a>, is being updated and tweaked to handle the huge amounts of traffic the client podcasts generate (in actuality, Mister Ron's Basement has been grabbing incredible amounts of bandwidth, with an average of twenty-thousand downloads a day).<div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I did manage to get in a couple of wonderful Episodes before the uploading door shut for a while, and you are highly encouraged to download these and give a listen.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The first was posted on Christmas Eve. It was a truly rare Spoopendyke Christmas story that was apparently written for the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Washi</span>ngton Post</span>. I have not been able to find it in the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Brooklyn Eagle</span> archives at all. It's called 'Mrs. Spoopendyke's Christmas Gift.' You'll find it at:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://slapcast.com/users/revry/6975">http://slapcast.com/users/revry/6975</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">or you can directly download the audio file at:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://m2.slapcast.com/mp3/revry/revry-2008-12-24-1.mp3">http://m2.slapcast.com/mp3/revry/revry-2008-12-24-1.mp3</a><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What really makes this exceptional is that I absolutely was positive that there were no more Spoopendyke stories to be found anywhere. So far, I have read over ninety different Spoopendyke tales by Stanley Huntley on the Basement podcast, and this may be most comprehensive collection of these works anyone has ever put together. Huntley's career as a humorist was cut short by debilitating illness and an early death, and he apparently sent these stories out to a number of publications besides the<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> Brooklyn Eagle</span>.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Once we get new Basement episodes going again, I have another Spoopendyke story ready, that appeared in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Washington Post</span> late in 1884, long after Huntley was replaced at the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Eagle</span> by Robert J. Burdette.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Meanwhile here's a short, intriguing item the Post reprinted in 1882 from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">American Humor</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">It is a sad fact that American humorists, as a class, resemble precocious children, Let them do one thing at which the world laughs, and they will repeat the performance over again with a persistence and a mad hankering to please which makes justifiable homicide a relaxation as well as a duty. Stanley Huntley's "Spoopendyke Papers" were good at first, but anybody could write them now. The humor is strictly machine work, but "Mr. Spoopendyke" grinds at his comparison mill with a fresh and breezy conviction that his fund does not pall upon repetition. Mark Twain's jokes are the result of a plain, chemical formula; given a man's chair, a dark night and a tumble, and a grammar school boy could construct a witticism which Mr. Clements (sic) would swear was his own. Bill Nye has little receipt for humor just as George W. Peck has his, and Peck could write Nye's stuff just as Nye could write Eugene Field's, or Aleck Swart write Josh Billings's. What we complain of is that there is no spontaneity about recent humorous writers. These amusing gentlemen would as soon think of tampering with the Lord's prayer as altering the form made or expression of their wit. They seem to think that that when they have a good thing they should stick to it. A patented style of humor may, as the country grows older, pass as an heirloom in certain families, and it would be no surprise to us were we to revisit the pale glimpses of the moon five centuries hence, discover a descendant of Stanley Huntley writing that all "Mrs. Spoopendyke" needed to be Eve was to add a few years to her age.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">While there is certainly much that can be taken issue with in this article, at the least with its comments on Mark Twain's work, I kind of like the idea of the inheritors of Huntley's mantle on the moon, well, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">four</span> centuries from now, attempting to crank out tales of the Spoopendykes.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Anyway, the second Christmas Episode I managed to post was number 1246, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." This is complete, original, lengthy short story as published in Collier's Magazine in 1921. Christmas Day also saw the public opening of the movie somewhat based on this story featuring Brad Pitt as the title character, and Cate Blanchett in a terrific role that was not in the original tale.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">The movie is terrific, and I recommend seeing it, at the least, for the wonderful set and costume designs. But as fine as the movie is, the story is a work of genius, a rare indulgence in pure fantasy for F. Scott Fitzgerald. I had a lot of fun reading it, and attempted to make it lively and interesting to hear. It is almost an hour long and can be found at:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://slapcast.com/users/revry/6979">http://slapcast.com/users/revry/6979</a><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If you want to download the sound file directly, point your browser to:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://m2.slapcast.com/mp3/revry/revry-2008-12-25.mp3">http://m2.slapcast.com/mp3/revry/revry-2008-12-25.m</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://m2.slapcast.com/mp3/revry/revry-2008-12-25.mp3">p3<br /></a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Your comments are more than welcome.</span></span></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-18045096349360360782008-11-01T06:28:00.001-07:002008-11-01T06:45:04.665-07:001905 Ghostbusters storyBack in 1905, Gellet Burgess (most well known today for his poem <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Purple Cow</span>) published a little tale called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Ghost-Extinguisher</span>, about a scientist who discovers a Japanese technique for disabling ghosts and putting them in jars. The scientist refines the process a bit:<div><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 13px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><blockquote>Such elusive spirits are able to pass through walls and elude pursuit with ease. It became necessary for me to obtain some instrument by which their capture could be conveniently effected. The ordinary fire-extinguisher of commerce gave me the hint as to how the problem could be solved. One of these portable hand-instruments I filled with the proper chemicals. When inverted, the ingredients were commingled in vacuo and a vast volume of gas was liberated. This was collected in the reservoir provided with a rubber tube having a nozzle at the end. The whole apparatus being strapped upon my back, I was enabled to direct a stream of powerful precipitating gas in any desired direction, the flow being under control through the agency of a small stopcock. By means of this ghost-extinguisher I was enabled to pursue my experiments as far as I desired.</blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Yeah, it sure sounds like the devices Bill Murray & pals were using in the film<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> Ghostbusters</span>. There's some other interesting similarities to the movie as well, although the story is obviously different. So let's just call it <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">inspirational</span> and enjoy.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Since the story is in the public domain, I Bowlderized it just a tad -- my apologies to purists who feel this thing shouldn't be done, and to people who are sensitive to the 1905 language that wouldn't be tolerated today. In the story, Burgess uses the term "Japs" much more than the designation "Japanese," so I changed them all to Japanese (the nationality is kind of crucial to the story). He also utilized racist dialogue like:</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">“You hully up, bling me one pair bellows pletty quick!” he commanded.</span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">That I tried to change as much as possible in my reading. I hope I succeeded.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">I welcome your comments on this discovery. It is Mister Ron's Basement Episode Number 1189, and can be found at:</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 13px; "><a href="http://slapcast.com/users/revry/6834">http://slapcast.com/users/revry/6834</a></span><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "></p></span></div></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-39556930408795748862008-09-21T15:21:00.000-07:002008-09-21T15:47:58.647-07:00Counterfeit Spoopendyke Stories?Mister Ron's Basement <a href="http://slapcast.com/users/revry/6751">Episode # 1157</a> features some very funny Stanley Huntley stories and two Spoopendyke curiosities from 1882. The first one is called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Spoopendyke at the Telephone</span>, which we found in the Brooklyn Eagle, but not in the regular <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Sunday Salad</span> column, and credited to the Portland, Oregon <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Welcome</span>. This piece is obviously not a real Spoopendyke story (it doesn't even try to sound like one), and nobody back then would have confused it with the real thing.<div><br /></div><div>The second oddity is called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Spoopendyke Starts a Fire</span>, and it presents a bit of a conundrum. This tale almost sounds like an authentic Huntley piece, and the North Carolina newspaper I found it in claims to have gotten it from the Brooklyn Eagle. Yet, there is something...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">wrong</span> with it!</div><div><br /></div><div>First of all, diligent searching has not turned the piece up in the Brooklyn Eagle archives. Secondly, the story is simply too short, and really does not make any point. Mr. Spoopendyke's sarcasm is not as sharply biting (or as clever) as usual. The author calls the characters "Mr. S." and "Mrs S." which Huntley simply did not do. There is a reference to the story taking place "the morning after the sardines had been disposed of," referring to the famous <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Opening Sardines</span> story from the previous year. Yes, Huntley did sometimes refer to previous events in older stories, but this reference seems uncharacteristic.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are other parts of the story that don't quite make it either. </div><div><br /></div><div>The question, then, is why would the Raleigh News and Observer create a fake Spoopendyke tale? Well, these stories were immensely popular, and they sold newspapers. Copyright laws were not too rigidly enforced back in the 1880s, and in fact, most newspapers reprinted from each other on a widespread basis without payment. Almost every newspaper of the period had a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">scissors man</span> on staff. Huntley certainly engaged in this practice as did many other well-known writers of the 19th Century, including Mark Twain.</div><div><br /></div><div>An 1880 story, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://slapcast.com/users/revry/4683">Mr. Spoopendyke's Free Seats</a></span>, had Huntley himself as a character (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Salad Man</span>), complaining how his creations were being stolen by a long list of newspapers. So, at least IMHO, it is a good possibilty that <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Spoopendyke Starts a Fir</span>e was a fake, written by someone on staff at the Raleigh News and Observer to generate circulation during one of Huntley's many dry spells.</div><div><br /></div><div>What do you think? Your comments are welcome...</div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-65956293512928949432008-09-17T19:19:00.000-07:002008-09-17T19:22:51.535-07:00Indexing BluesYes, Mister Ron is still alive, but hasn't updated this blog for months (the podcast is still being updated daily, and the stories are as good as ever!).<div><br /></div><div>We are working on building a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">complete Index</span> of all the episodes, and it is coming slowly. Nevertheless, we are well over halfway finished, encoding the thing in raw html. Once it is done, you will be able to click on lots of individual author indexes, such as the one we have built for Stanley Huntley.</div><div><br /></div><div>So hang in there!</div><div><br /></div><div>Comments are always welcome...</div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-78920707311809070832008-07-29T03:36:00.000-07:002008-07-29T03:41:44.742-07:00The Spoopendyke Index!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">While awaiting the August switch to a new server and the resumption of new episodes of Mister Ron's Basement, we have put together a menu of ALL Stanley Huntley/Spoopendyke episodes! </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If you haven't heard these, you owe it to yourself to discover the writings of the funniest, most brilliant of 19th Century American Humorists! You can read more about Huntley in some of the earlier entries in this blog, but your best bet is to jump to the index and start listening to these stories in any order.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Through diligent research we have found over <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">eighty</span> Spoopendyke stories, and have included many other classic funny gems that appeared in newspapers and magazines around the planet in the early 1880s. The menu is easily accessible at: <a href="http://ronevry.com/Spoopendyke_Stories.html">http://ronevry.com/Spoopendyke_Stories.html</a> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Don't miss them!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-22322031261748097352008-07-13T08:11:00.000-07:002008-07-15T11:33:39.891-07:00Somewhat fixed -- taking a short vacation!Okay! The Mister Ron's Basement web page is back up, BUT p<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 4px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 4px; ">lease note -- as a temporary fix for some technical problems, only the most recent 100 episodes will appear on the web page for a while. All 1100 plus episodes are still available via iTunes using the "Subscribe" button. Also, the George Ade and Fortunate Island indexes still work. We will hold off on posting new episodes after this for just a while as we wait for the repairs... </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 4px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 4px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 4px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 4px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">UPDATE (7-15-08) -- Actually, at this point, the 100+ episodes are<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> only</span> available if you already subscribed while they were up on the web site. If you subscribe <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">now</span>, you can only get the last 100 episodes. The indexes of older episodes and links to specific episodes from, say, Wikipedia entries, still work! With a bit of luck, this will all be fixed ASAP. If there's a particular episode you need a direct link to, let me know.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 4px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 4px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 4px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 4px;">Confused yet?</span></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-33470680025367285612008-07-12T12:27:00.000-07:002008-07-12T12:58:13.741-07:00Podcast Host Down (sort of)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SHkLqhVFACI/AAAAAAAAABw/vHi9QkZf_zs/s1600-h/JoseDelbo_MisterRon_Solidline.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SHkLqhVFACI/AAAAAAAAABw/vHi9QkZf_zs/s400/JoseDelbo_MisterRon_Solidline.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222218068041990178" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br />Most of the listeners to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Mister Ron's Basement</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> know that I have performed the podcast episodes daily, as in seven days a week, for most of the last three years.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The hosting service I have used is </span><a href="http://slapcast.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">slapcast.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">, and it has been incredibly reliable for most of this time, and the most amazing bargain in all of podcasting. The owner of the service is currently dealing with some technical difficulties that are making things just a little flaky, and they probably won't be solved for a couple more weeks. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">This is understandable. Things happen. Running a podcast server is only slightly less difficult than running a national television broadcast network. maybe more so, because he is doing it without the help of hundreds of highly paid engineers.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Okay. So I am asking Basement listeners to be patient. I will post new episodes when I can, but it may take a while. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">However (this gets interesting), the server's XML feed still works like a charm. This is where the actual episodes are stored. For example, the most recent episode can still be heard by clicking </span><a href="http://m2.slapcast.com/mp3/revry/revry-2008-07-09.mp3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">The only problem is with the web site that you normally go to if you want to read about and get the episodes. That is fried right now. If you do manage to get in (sometimes it comes up for air for a few minutes), you can leave it up in your browser, and click on the "Listen" links in a new window or tab.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Also, you can go to iTunes by clicking </span><a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=73329795"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">, and you can get any of the existing episodes there. The most recent 300 episodes are on that main menu page, and all of the 1100 plus episodes are available by clicking on the "subscribe" button. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">So unless you've heard every episode so far, there's still plenty to listen to until things get back to normal.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">By the way, the above image of Mister Ron was drawn by the extraordinarily talented veteran comics artist Jose Delbo. I've been a huge fan of his for ages. Thanks Jose!</span></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-73933349652690832502008-07-09T20:00:00.000-07:002008-07-09T20:29:49.625-07:00Peck's Bad BoyWe have been featuring stories about <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Peck's Bad Boy</span> by George W. Peck in the Basement. They're pretty funny and worth a listen. Of all Peck's humorous writing, the Bad Boy stories, first appearing in the 1880s, were the most popular, staying in print for over a century. The Bad Boy wasn't the first character of that sort, and certainly not the last. Mischievous kids have been a staple of television and comic strips for a long time. But Peck's nasty kid was probably the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">nastiest</span> of them all. He played truly mean pranks on his father and others, such as the Grocery Man, but they were always clever and imaginative.<div><br /></div><div>In 1921, a feature film was made of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Peck's Bad Boy</span>, starring Jackie Coogan, fresh from his co-starring role in Charlie Chaplin's <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Kid</span>. Coogan later achieved fame as an adult, playing the role of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Uncle Fester</span> on the TV series, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Addams Family</span>. The silent film, directed by Sam Wood, who would later achieve lasting fame as the director of the Marx Bros. movie<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> A Night at the Opera,</span> was full of great gags. Coogan was marvelously full of spunk and nastiness.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ten years later, another version of the story was filmed starring young Jackie Cooper as the Bad Boy, but it was marred with too much sentimentality and toned-down pranks.</div><div><br /></div><div>No doubt, Peck's Bad Boy could easily be updated to modern times in a new movie, and if properly handled, would be extremely funny, and outrage stuffed shirts around the nation again.</div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzeDc1ncqn_65X9CoZS4kdlHvA3KqRhS7rzHasjqW7BbOEvyEe-hqjI_OQnLu6YXVQqZ8hCa6SnkcRKFe3m' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-42125067830452513922008-06-28T07:34:00.000-07:002008-06-28T08:01:55.093-07:00Stephen Leacock<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SGZRykidlUI/AAAAAAAAABo/CN3aDbX0oaY/s1600-h/LeacockFest.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SGZRykidlUI/AAAAAAAAABo/CN3aDbX0oaY/s400/LeacockFest.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216947147598828866" /></a><br />From time to time, we feature stories by Stephen Leacock in the Basement. This week, we've spotlighted four stories written very early in his career <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">(from the 1890s)</span>, including one that was not reprinted in his 1910 collection, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Literary Lapses</span>. <div><br /></div><div>While Mister Ron's Basement primarily focuses on American authors, Leacock is a great big Exception To The Rule. Much too simplistically, people refer to him as "the Canadian Mark Twain," yet there is some truth to that generalization. Even though he began his humorous writing career decades before, his fame really began to spread dramatically in 1910, right about the time of Twain's passing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much of his writing centers on Canadian culture and people, especially his 1912 masterpiece, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3533">Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town</a></span>, dealing with the inhabitants of a fictional rural place he called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Mariposa</span>. Some day we may serialize the story in the Basement. Meanwhile, there is a spoken word version of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Sunshine Sketches</span> produced by Librivox <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/sunshine_sketches_librivox">here</a>. Since 1947, the most prestigious award for Canadian humorists has been the Leacock Award. Generally speaking though, many of his humorous tales strike a Universal Chord, and hold up remarkably well, almost a century after they were written.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, Leacock was once as popular in the U.S. as any American humorist. His work appeared in American newspapers and magazines, and his books sold like hotcakes. Somehow or other, his fame in the U.S. slipped over the years. I first learned of him decades ago, when I discovered that he was a huge influence on Groucho Marx and Jack Benny. I found dusty, unread volumes of his in the public library, checked them out and became a fan. Mister Ron's Basement Episode Number One is a Leacock story. </div><div><br /></div><div>Most Canadians will talk about Leacock as an old friend when you bring him up. Most Americans today say, "Who?" when you bring up his name. This is a shame. This guy needs to be taught in American schools right along with Twain.</div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-78179326367231130912008-06-18T19:08:00.000-07:002008-06-18T19:39:05.270-07:00Rube GoldbergThe Basement is featuring some extremely short, but sometimes very funny recipes from the 1922 collection <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Stag Cook Book -- Written for Men by Men</span>. The recipe in episode number 1096 is for Hash, written by cartoonist Rube Goldberg -- if ever a Rube Goldberg contraption could be put in a recipe this is the man who could do it. Give it a listen, and if you'd like some more Goldberg, there's a copy of his 1912 sheet music for the song <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://ronevry.com/imtheguy.html">I'm the Guy</a></span><a href="http://ronevry.com/imtheguy.html"> over here</a>. You can hear the song as recorded by Billy Murray around 1913 at <a href="http://ia340909.us.archive.org/1/items/BillyMurray_part2/BillyMurray-ImtheGuy.mp3">this link.</a><div><br /></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-58592412070231880622008-05-31T18:28:00.000-07:002008-05-31T18:59:16.521-07:00Bill Nye<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SEICXXRQETI/AAAAAAAAABg/EVSDrL1oOU8/s1600-h/rockisl04.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SEICXXRQETI/AAAAAAAAABg/EVSDrL1oOU8/s400/rockisl04.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206726719600333106" /></a><br />No, not <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"Bill Nye, the Science Guy,"</span> but the original, whom I like to call <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"Bill Nye, the Nineteenth Century Guy."</span><div><br /></div><div>His real name was Edgar Wilson Nye, and he was one of America's most popular humorists until he died at the age of forty-six in 1896.</div><div><br /></div><div>His pen name was actually taken from a character in one of Bret Harte's most famous (or infamous, if you will) poems, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"Plain Language from Truthful James,"</span> published in the Overland Monthly in 1870, and later on widely reprinted for decades as<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> "The Heathen Chinee."</span> Harte himself said it was "the worst poem I ever wrote, possibly the worst poem anybody ever wrote." The poem is about a Chinese card sharp pretending to be totally ignorant of the game, and a cowboy named Bill Nye, whom he tries to trick. Here is the poem, for better or worse:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Times;"><table align="center" width="400" border="0" cellpadding="0" style="text-align: left;border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); width: 100%; font-size:100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.4em; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: middle; font-size:93%;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which I wish to remark,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And my language is plain,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">That for ways that are dark<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And for tricks that are vain,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The heathen Chinee is peculiar,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which the same I would rise to explain.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Ah Sin was his name;<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And I shall not deny,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">In regard to the same,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">What that name might imply;<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">But his smile it was pensive and childlike,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">It was August the third,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And quite soft was the skies;<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which it might be inferred<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">That Ah Sin was likewise;<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Yet he played it that day upon William<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And me in a way I despise.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which we had a small game,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And Ah Sin took a hand:<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">It was Euchre. The same<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">He did not understand;<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">But he smiled as he sat by the table,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">With the smile that was childlike and bland.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Yet the cards they were stocked<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">In a way that I grieve,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And my feelings were shocked<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">At the state of Nye's sleeve,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And the same with intent to deceive.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">But the hands that were played<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">By that heathen Chinee,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And the points that he made,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Were quite frightful to see, --<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Till at last he put down a right bower,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which the same Nye had dealt unto me.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Then I looked up at Nye,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And he gazed upon me;<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And he rose with a sigh,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And said, "Can this be?<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor," --<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And he went for that heathen Chinee.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">In the scene that ensued<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">I did not take a hand,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">But the floor it was strewed<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Like the leaves on the strand<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">In the game "he did not understand."<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">In his sleeves, which were long,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">He had twenty-four packs, --<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which was coming it strong,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Yet I state but the facts;<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And we found on his nails, which were taper,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">What is frequent in tapers, -- that's wax.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which is why I remark,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And my language is plain,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">That for ways that are dark<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">And for tricks that are vain,<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The heathen Chinee is peculiar, --<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Which the same I am free to maintain.<br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The nickname stuck to Edgar Wilson Nye like glue for the rest of his life. He was an educated man, born in Maine, who spent a good number of years in Wisconsin, and after migrating to the wilderness of Laramie, Wyoming, set up shop as postmaster and the proprietor of a weekly newspaper called<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> "The Laramie Boomerang"</span> in 1881 (which is still being published to this day).</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:16px;">The Boomerang catapulted Nye to fame. It was filled with witty stories, and rough and tumble crude frontier humor. The stories were often reprinted in other newspapers around the world. and circulation of the Boomerang rose to record levels. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:16px;">Nye went on tour, often with poet James Whitcomb Riley, and eventually moved to New York and North Carolina, where he died of meningitis (there were some contemporaries who claimed he drank himself to death after a string of disappointing stage performances).</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:16px;">We will go into more detail here regarding Nye in the future, but it really is worth going to the Basement podcast web site and searching out his many fun stories that I have read. As ever, your comments are welcome.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-49565998284895227332008-05-19T18:07:00.000-07:002008-05-19T18:21:13.081-07:00Running Out of SpoopendykesI think the count may be close to about eighty now, but it seems that we are fast running out of Stanley Huntley's <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Spoopendyke</span> stories! Huntley only did these things for the last five years of his life, and many of them did not appear in the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Brooklyn Eagle</span></span>, but in the extremely hard-to-find <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Drake's Traveller's Magazine</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> We have managed to get some <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Spoopendyke</span> stories that were reprinted from Drake's in contemporary newspapers, in New York and New Zealand, but there aren't many of those left to read.<div><br /></div><div>Still, Huntley wrote lots of funny stuff besides tales of Mr. and Mrs. Spoopendyke, and we usually try to feature some of those pieces in the Basement's <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Sunday Salad</span> feature. These include his tales of cowboys, miners, and other wild and wooly folk from out west, stories of con men, gamblers, crooked politicians and preachers, nutty inventors, and other loonies from Brooklyn. He also did a handful of stories of Mr. and Mrs. Breezy -- not as well-defined as the Spoopendykes, but generally making fun of modern life and manners. And of course, there are lots of spoofs of popular authors of his day, such as the "Jules Verne, Jr." story we read a while back.</div><div><br /></div><div>So the big question to you, the listeners of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Mister Ron's Basement</span>, is whether we should continue with Sunday Salad without the Spoopendykes (except when we stumble into an undiscovered story), or should we put the series on the shelf, and replace it with something else -- maybe the poetry of Eugene Field?</div><div><br /></div><div>Please post your reply here, or send an email to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">revry@panix.com</span>. We'd love to know what you think!</div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-1725667497729746692008-05-11T07:51:00.000-07:002008-05-11T08:03:51.396-07:00Podfinder UK!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SCcKyzNdv2I/AAAAAAAAABY/4MeS4gCR6bo/s1600-h/PodshowUK.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SCcKyzNdv2I/AAAAAAAAABY/4MeS4gCR6bo/s400/PodshowUK.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199136162678947682" /></a><br />Well, Mister Ron's Basement has become the subject of review in a fun British video podcast called Podfinder UK. It's one of five programs covered in Episode #45, which can be found at <a href="http://podfinderuk.btpodshow.com/">http://podfinderuk.btpodshow.com</a>. The program is pretty entertaining and is well worth watching lots of episodes...Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-59349833174384610222008-05-02T19:42:00.001-07:002008-05-02T19:50:28.984-07:00Once A Week is BACK!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SBvS2Kk8UDI/AAAAAAAAABI/YrL5A0nnRAc/s1600-h/OnceAWeekSquare.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SBvS2Kk8UDI/AAAAAAAAABI/YrL5A0nnRAc/s400/OnceAWeekSquare.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5195978423096070194" /></a><br />Our companion podcast,<a href="http://slapcast.com/users/ron"> Mister Ron's Once A Week</a>, after a hiatus of almost two years, is now back with a new format that ought to work! The earlier episodes each featured multiple items, reviews of books, comics, movies, television shows, music, and included fiction. This got to be too much for me, and never was practical to do on a weekly basis (especially while doing the <a href="http://slapcast.com/users/revry">Basement</a> podcast seven days a week).<div><br /></div><div>Nevertheless, the nine episodes done in 2006 remained posted, and surprisingly pulled in 200-300 downloads a day up through the present!</div><div><br /></div><div>Our new format will offer one item or so per episode. The first one with this format is episode number 10, featuring a review of the IRON MAN movie. Our next one will cover a graphic novel or two, and so on...</div><div><br /></div><div>Please drop by <a href="http://slapcast.com/users/ron">http://slapcast.com/users/ron</a> and check it out. Your comments are welcome.</div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-18446140279455596982008-04-20T17:47:00.000-07:002008-04-20T17:53:07.102-07:00Ready, Set, Start Your Research!Once in a while I like to give away secrets, and this is one of those times. To your left, you will see a bunch of links called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Research Sources for Public Domain Writi</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">ng</span>. Some of these took <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">years</span> for me to find, and here they are for you to use all wrapped up neatly like a birthday present! These are <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">not</span>, by a long shot, all of my sources for Public Domain material, but they are a real good starting point. You'll find plenty there to get you started, at least, and bit by bit, I will be adding more to this resource list.<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Enjoy!</span></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-85606824986017758342008-04-16T10:46:00.000-07:002008-04-16T10:55:18.105-07:00A Strange Coincidence in Mister Ron's BasementThis one is just plain odd. If you take a look at the Basement episode featuring the <a href="http://slapcast.com/users/revry/6351">second part</a> of Stanley Huntley's Jules Verne spoof, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">A Trip to the South Pole</span>, you might notice that was posted on the evening of April 15th, and just happens to be Episode Number 1040!<div><br /></div><div>Wow!</div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-35549946524206796902008-04-12T20:52:00.000-07:002008-04-12T21:01:07.996-07:00Another Rarity Found!Back on March 9th, I wrote about a Stanley Huntley story that I had been searching for unsuccessfully:<div><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The other rarity that has so far been beyond my reach is his science fiction story, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A Trip to the South Pole</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, which was collected in the 1973 book </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">At the Mountains of Murkiness and Other Parodies, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">edited by George Locke. The book claims the story was originally published back in 1899, fourteen years after Huntley died, so it may be something that Florence dug out of his papers and published somewhere to raise money, or it may have been reprinted in 1899 from someplace else, or may have been by someone </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">else</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> named Stanley Huntley! In any event, I have found copies of this book on some dealers lists for outrageous amounts of money, so I will probably have to wait a long time to see it.</span></span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Well, it has turned up! The Brooklyn Daily Eagle archive never showed it in a search, but I stumbled into it. Apparently, even though the story (presented over the course of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">three</span> Sunday editions in 1880) was put into Huntley's Sunday Salad feature, the author was credited as "Jules Verne, Jr." <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(41, 48, 59); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">A Trip to the South Pole</span> is a great spoof of the French Science Fiction master's works from a contemporary satirist of the first rank! Keep an eye out for it to begin on April 15th!</span></span></div></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-31688849749883836652008-04-11T18:58:00.000-07:002008-04-11T19:27:31.702-07:00Mr. Bowser<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SAAdHRxyv-I/AAAAAAAAABA/Qi1nNoUQuJc/s1600-h/BowserPants.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/SAAdHRxyv-I/AAAAAAAAABA/Qi1nNoUQuJc/s400/BowserPants.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188178781599350754" /></a><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">We</span> have been presenting stories about <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Mr. Bowser</span> since August of 2006 every Saturday, and it seems that we will continue to do so for quite a while longer. Created by Charles Bertrand Lewis for the Detroit Free Press back in 1886, Lewis, writing under the pen name of<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> 'M. Quad,'</span> continued relating the old grouch's adventures every week until his death in 1924! Afterward, his son continued writing Bowser tales (and stories about other M. Quad characters) for a while longer under the name of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"M. Quad Jr."</span> Of all the humorists we have featured on Mister Ron's Basement, Lewis's career was among the longest lived (other funny folks vying for that title include George Ade and Stephen Leacock). <div><br /></div><div>Lewis was not a genius by any account. He fell back on formula writing for much of his career. In 1903, H. L. Mencken was mystified that he had to keep running the M. Quad weekly feature due to reader demand, even though he thought it was old fashioned even then. He also noted that Lewis provided extra work for freelance ghost writers to crank out his material, much like many comic strip artists have done over the years.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can read a bit more about M. Quad in a previous post on this blog <a href="http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/2008/02/m-quad.html">here</a>. While he began his long humor writing career by barely surviving a tragic explosion, he became wealthy and admired, lived a long and happy life, and raised a family who aided his efforts into his old age.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the past few weeks, we have been featuring the very first Mr. Bowser stories ever written, starting in 1886. Many of them are actually quite funny and fresh, undoubtedly because Lewis was writing them himself, and for the first time. They began with Basement episode #1022, and get funnier every week. Check them out!</div></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-56886970288870279002008-04-06T17:35:00.000-07:002008-04-08T08:21:01.633-07:00Fan Mail from some flounder?As Bullwinkle would ask, of course. Yes indeed, we do get the occasional bit of<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> fan mail</span>, and a review here and there as well.<div><br /></div><div>For example, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Maria Lectrix</span>, whose charming podcast (not on iTunes) covering public domain novels, epic poetry, and Catholic religious books, hit the one thousand mark long before we did, wrote this on her web site:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 16px; font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;"><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><a href="http://misterronsbasement.blogspot.com/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Mr. Ron’s Basement</span></span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">, for those unlucky enough not to know it and fortunate enough to have it all before them, is one of the earliest and best literary podcasts. Its mission is simple: to read forgotten short stories. The Basement is mostly full of funny tales, but there are also a good many serious ones. Occasionally Mr. Ron branches into novels. He adorns each podcast with good public domain or podcast-safe music, and discusses his unknown authors’ biographies. Mostly, though, he appears to have a lot of fun.</span></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Maria Lectrix is not, to be honest, a podcast in what has come to be the full meaning of the word. I use podcasting as a method of distribution, not an artform; what I provide is something like a serialized audiobook service. That’s not a bad thing, but that’s all it is.</span></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Mr. Ron has been creating something quite a bit more artistic, civilized, and difficult.</span></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">My thousandth segment was a mere matter of endurance. His thousandth episode will be a milepost of rare beauty and joy. Be sure to be there.</span></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">To Mr. Ron’s Basement, and to Mr. Ron! Ars longa!</span></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Maria Lectrix's podcast can be found at </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><a href="http://marialectrix.wordpress.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://marialectrix.wordpress.com/</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Pete Anderson, known as <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Pete Lit</span>, from Chicago, writes fine fiction, and writes about fiction on his blog (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://www.petelit.com/">http://www.petelit.com</a>/), and has commented on Mister Ron's Basement a couple of times in the past. His comment on The Best of Mister Ron's Basement three CD set was music to my eyes anyway:</span></span></span></span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I was quite pleased to see that the collection includes Ade's </span></span><a href="http://www.radiotail.com/rt/cast/296/mister_ron%27s_basement_%23326.mp3" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"The Fable of the Author Who Was Sorry for What He Did to Willie"</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, which is quite possibly the most laugh-out-loud-funny story I've ever heard, in terms of both Ade's brilliant writing and Evry's impeccable delivery.</span></span></span><br /></span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Thanks Pete!</span></span></span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 19px;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Debby Applegate</span>, Pulitzer Prize winning author of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The Most Famous Man in America</span> (a gripping and remarkable book about Henry Ward Beecher -- a must read!) wrote to me:</span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 19px;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: normal; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">These people, the forgotten popular writers of the mid-century, were a centerpiece of my Ph.D. dissertation so I am, perhaps, your ideal listener. It's really neat! I wish I'd known about this when I was writing the book....</span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:medium;">Her web site is located at <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://www.themostfamousmaninamerica.com/">http://www.themostfamousmaninamerica.com/ </a></span></span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;">and you can read a sample chapter of her book there and order one afterwards if you like.</span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;">I have received many other emails from both academics and listeners who download the podcasts just to enjoy them. Last month the Basement averaged around 3500 downloads a day, seven days a week. So far this month (it's still early), we're pulling in 4000-5000 downloads a day. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Somebody</span> is listening!</span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;">Mister Ron's Basement was recently reviewed by Greg and Clea in their podcast about podcasts (and other things) called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Upon Further Review</span>. It is episode number 57, and can be found at <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://www.furtherreview.net/">http://www.furtherreview.net/</a>. They had an interesting take on the Basement, and they do make some valid points. It is true that the Mister Ron web site is something of an unorganized mess, the result of popping one episode after another on the page for over three years. This does indeed make it hard to find things a listener may be looking for without resorting to using a browser's "find" command. Sorry. I would love to fix this up and index everything. One of these days, if I get enough time, I will get around to it.</span></span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;">Meanwhile, my suggestion is for new listeners to just randomly browse around, much as they might glance through a crammed old bookstore, and see what strikes their fancy. If you're looking for, say, stories by Stephen Leacock, you will need to press "Control-F" on a Windows machine or "Command-F" on a Mac and dig up the episodes that way. Chances are good, that most casual listeners will not have heard of most of these authors, so a bit of exploration may be in order.</span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;">One thing mentioned in the Upon Further Review podcast that I may take issue with is their claim that most of these authors are not remembered today because they weren't as good as, say Charles Dickens, to use their example. This is hardly the case. In fact, all too many of Dickens's works would be met with total confusion by the average American today, and only the most persistent of academics make the effort to read everything he has written. There is no doubt in my mind that film and television versions of his stories have made it likely that more Americans are familiar with and comprehend the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Mr. Magoo</span> cartoon of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">A Christmas Carol</span> than such dialogue as:</span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><br /></span></div><div id="smartPaste" contenteditable="true" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:Times;"><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy </span></span><span class="caps" style="font-variant: small-caps; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.</span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.</span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It was a strange figure—like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child’s proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.</span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another, and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the very wonder of this, it would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever.</span></span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:'times new roman';">Still, there is no doubt that some of the language in many of the stories read in the Basement is old-fashioned, but they are, by and large, English. And it should be just as likely to find something funny in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1846 tale of women cramming below deck on a slow riverboat, or George Ade's turn of the century </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';">Fables in Slang</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:'times new roman';">, or Stanley Huntley's eminently satirical Salad pieces, as it would be to laugh at Mark Twain's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';">Tom Sawyer</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:'times new roman';">, in its original form.</span><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Many of these authors have become forgotten for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes they fall out of fashion and nobody is left alive with a financial interest to bother keeping the works in print. As an example, even though Stanley Huntley died in 1885, his <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Spoopendyke</span> stories remained in print and were quite popular until about the time his wife Florence died in 1912. She died childless, and there was nobody to handle the legacy. George Horatio Derby died in 1861, and he never received a dime for the books of his newspaper writings during his lifetime, yet they remained in print continuously to this day! The average reader may not have heard of the guy, but his writing is still funny. </span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></p><p style="text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In 1906, Ellis Parker Butler (whose <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Perkins of Portland</span> stories could have been written last week, as far as topicality goes), wrote this about Brick Pomeroy, an author we featured in the Basement last week:</span></p></span></span></div></span></span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 19px;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"In the field of pure nonsense I know nothing funnier than "Brick" Pomeroy's introduction to his book, 'Nonsense.' It is too long to quote, but the desired effect is gained by keeping up the nonsense at great length." </span></span><br /></span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So here is the introduction he mentions, from 1868. I think it's a scream:</span></span></span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;">My father determined to bind me out as an apprentice to a fine old gentleman whose daughter was in love with a young man who lived with his father down the river which in the spring time was so swollen by the rains that it was important not to cross it except in a skiff tied to a buttonwood tree by a chain which cost five dollars at the hardware store on the corner of the street in the village where each Sabbath morning the minister told his many congregation which would have been larger had it not been for the habit so many people had of staying away from all places of good instruction without which not a single person in the village would have been safe for a moment from the members of a band of desperadoes whose retreat was in the bowels of a huge mountain, on whose healthy sides the birds sang all the day long as if to remind the weary passer-by that in all well-regulated families there exists a cause for the effect be it great like the late war which was a fearful struggle on both sides for the original position held by the covered wagon of my father. <br /><br />Who can wonder at the infatuation of the youth when he saw his own true love in the power of the Indian whose scalping-knife hung suspended from a tree over the grave where a small picket fence had been erected by a boy who saw the fire burst forth devouring in an hour the fruit of a lifetime of toil which unrewarded leaves no recompense to strengthen the soul of man as he wars with evils that beset the path which led to the trysting-tree which had by this time been cut down to make room for a large hotel where the sound of revelry by night was heard booming over the still waters of the lake as the moon shone down upon the sailor-boy stood on a burning deck! <br /><br />At this moment the breeching gave way and the horse plunged over the precipice, which at this point ran nearly a thousand cubic feet into the cave where the serpent had taken refuge from the coming storm which threatened to burst forth and destroy the entire plan of the temple on which if the workmen had been employed to save the child ere it struck, the bottom of the well down which the bucket descended bringing up the purest ice-water rivalling the alabaster neck of the wounded sufferer whose death happened to plunge the entire city in mourning.<br /></span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So, yep, they don't write 'em like that anymore. To which I say (and maybe a few thousand other listeners), too bad they don't.</span></span></span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 18px;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;">Anyway, thanks for the review, Greg and Clea. I wish you success with your podcast. I found it fun to listen too, and I do appreciate the positive and negative comments you made, and I do urge all my listeners to check out their show. Greg did mention that he might want to get back to commenting about The Basement when he's heard 150 or so episodes. I hope he does get that far.</span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 18px;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Of course, comments are always welcome here in the blog, or via email at revry@panix.com.</span></span></p><p style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 19px;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal;font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><br /></span></p></span></div>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-43868002416446011172008-03-28T03:37:00.000-07:002008-03-29T07:46:51.637-07:00The Secret of Max Adeler's Name<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Regular listeners to </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mister Ron's Basement</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> are probably quite familiar now with the humorous stories of Max Adeler, who wrote some of the most outrageously funny stories of all time in the 1870s. Adeler's real name was Charles Heber Clark. In 1995, Professor David Ketterer issued a beautiful book called</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> "Charles Heber Clark; A Family Memoir,"</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> containing Clark's autobiography, which he had written for his family between 1906 and 1912, and also included various notes and annotations by Ketterer, as well as a reproduction of of the novelette </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"Fortunate Island"</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (which we have read on the Basement). The edition is well worth owning, long out-of-print, and usually costs more on the used market than original 1870s editions of Adeler's books.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When Clark first started writing humor for newspapers, he used the silly punnish pen name of<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> "Quill.</span>" Later he adopted a better pen name. In the autobiography, Clark states:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"I wrote under the name of "Max Adeler," which belonged to a character in a little story book I was fond of when I was a boy."</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the footnotes, Ketterer wrote:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"I have not been able to identify the "little story book" containing the "Max Adeler" characte</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">r."</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Well, I found it!</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The book is called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"Island Home Castaways"</span> by Christopher Romaunt, who was actually James F. Bowman. It was first published in the US in 1852 (right about the time Clark was eleven years old). A British edition of the book can be found on Google Books for free download as a pdf file at <a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=R7IBAAAAQAAJ&dq=island+home+castaways&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=CMMg4WslGZ&sig=sPa4QzvFrEh1JV2ov0NgW7_wgBE"> this site.</a></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The raw text that was used in preparation for a Gutenberg edition can be found (at least for a while) at:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://www.athelstane.co.uk/r_archer/islehome/islehome.htm">http://www.athelstane.co.uk/r_archer/islehome/islehome.htm</a></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Essentially, the story concerns six castaway youths on an island. One of them is named "Max Adeler." Here is a revealing quote from the book:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 9px/normal Verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">"That now, is positively diabolical!" exclaimed Max, from his covert among the creepers, where he was completely invisible, except his heels, which were kicking in the air; "I wouldn't have believed, Arthur, that you were such a methodical, cold-blooded creature! I suppose now, that if I had tumbled overboard during that hideous time, and been gulped down by a shark, or if Shakespeare had starved to death, you would have made a regular memorandum of the event, in business-like style, and wound up your watch as usual. I think I see the entry in your pocket-book, thus: '1839, June 3rd-Mem. Max Adeler fell overboard this day, and was devoured by a shark-an amiable and interesting youth, though too much given to levity, and not prepared, I fear, for so unexpected a summons. June 5th-Mem. My worthy and estimable friend, John Browne, late of Glasgow, Scotland, died this day, from lack of necessary food. Threw him overboard. What startling monitions of the uncertainty of life!'"</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Clark adopted the name of "an amiable and interesting youth, though too much given to levity."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Additionally, there are many instances of Clark's characters getting shipwrecked or abandoned on an island. I found three or four in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"Random Shots,"</span> for example, and of course, there is the Professor and his daughter in<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> "Fortunate Island."</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The feeling I got when I discovered this was quite strange -- it was like reaching into the mind of someone 150 years ago, and for a few minutes at least, I had the experience of probably being the only person on the planet who knew this (and one of the few that cared).</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; min-height: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;">The way I discovered this is kind of complex, but suffice it to say that a decade ago it would have been almost impossible to do. The power of the internet to find things long dormant and forgotten is amazing. In many ways, I am using twenty-first century technology to open up the lives and thoughts of people from the nineteenth in ways that are new and wonderful.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:16px;">Your comments are welcome.</span></p></span>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-7365940817874605122008-03-27T05:12:00.000-07:002008-03-27T05:23:57.710-07:00Thirty-One Years<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/R-uQXoVhQxI/AAAAAAAAAA4/G4NaDuamGI0/s1600-h/stripedpants.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_a6PyFBEDm1o/R-uQXoVhQxI/AAAAAAAAAA4/G4NaDuamGI0/s320/stripedpants.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5182394531858957074" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Thirty-one years ago today (March 27), for some strange reason I’ll never figure out, Karen said “I Do” and she’s been stuck with me ever since. As I flitter through life, doing strange and quirky things like seven-days-a-week podcasts, she’s the one who keeps me down to earth.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Nevertheless, I simply couldn’t do any of this without her. While she often claims to want routine day-to-day events that she can count on, Karen can display a sense of wonder and exhibit total enthusiasm for driving ten hours to search through 150 year old boxes of Fanny Fern memoribalia, or spending all day at Podcamps in strange cities, or scrounging around antique bookshops in small towns up and down the East Coast, or going to visit Emily Dickinson’s house in the pouring rain, or discovering someplace new and different.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Karen complains that I’m down in the Basement recording until midnight, yet she loves hearing me read fan mail to her. She has her hands full every day teaching eighth graders how to read, and comes home weary and exhausted, but is usually ready to hop up at a moment’s notice if we’ve won movie tickets, or we’re invited to an opening, or a cartoonists’ get-together, or something of that nature.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; min-height: 17px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">After all those years there’s plenty that she does that I am not involved in directly on a day-to-day basis, and vice-versa. Nevertheless, I couldn’t do anything I’ve been doing without her. We’re <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">partners</span>, after all. She’s my partner in everything I do, and vice-versa.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Geneva; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Happy Anniversary, Karen! I'm still head over heels in love with you. The best is (hopefully) yet to come...</span></span></span></p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Geneva;"> </span></div></span>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9166644382517111553.post-38751823614482848132008-03-23T14:44:00.000-07:002008-03-23T14:58:09.991-07:00Old-Time Story Censorship?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><div>On a Comics History email list I am on, there has been discussion on whether "many academics are intentionally perpetuating racism" or whether "some academics are un-intentionally perpetuating racism," by reprinting and even writing admiringly about some old comics that would be interpreted as racist by today's audiences. This is a difficult subject, because historical accuracy may demand that those hurtful images be included in scholarly studies, but common decency may require that they be left out. Well, this does not just apply to comics scholarship, to be sure.</div><div><br /></div><div>I posted this message to my email group, and present it here, more or less as it appeared:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">When I go through old stories to read in Mister Ron's Basement, there are quite a few that may have seemed harmless a hundred and fifty years ago or so, but I simply can't bring myself to present them. The odd things are stories that inadvertently include hurtful words or expressions that are not crucial to the stories. I myself feel that it really is not academically incorrect to remove or slightly change those references if it manages to bring a forgotten old storyteller to life in modern times.<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Examples might include more than one George Ade story where he used the term "c--n songs" to refer to popular music that is not "high-brow." In those cases, I simply call them "songs." Is this academically reprehensible? I don't think so; not if the alternative is to leave otherwise delightful stories dead and forgotten. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">I ran into some particularly difficult times reading stories by William Tappan Thompson, a great southern writer whose tales often featured slaves and black servants referred to with the "N" word. Usually those characters were incidental to the story, so once again, I saw no problem using the term "servant" or something like that. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">If I was reading something like "Huckleberry Finn," or perhaps "The Weeping Time" by Philander Doesticks, where the use of certain words were intrinsic to the story line and the characters were treated with absolute respect, then I would have no problem using those terms.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Do I have the right to make those judgement calls? Well, legally, yes. The stories are in the public domain, and I can do whatever I want with them. Morally and ethically, some might argue that I do not have the right, but to me, the overriding concern is to make these long buried treasures palatable to a modern audience. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">One that same note, I have so far refrained from reading M. Quad's "Lime Kiln Club" stories, and anything by Joel Chandler Harris because they may be misinterpreted. Oddly enough, some of Harris's stories, presented in what he considered "authentic southern Negro speech" at the time were actually derived from Cherokee Indian legends.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">On a cartooning note, something similar happened about twenty years ago, when a popular book of old-time cartoons of cats was published, and it featured A. B. Frost's "A Fatal Mistake," the panel showing the black butler being scared with his hair standing on end by the dying cat was left out. Was this proper? Maybe. Although I have an 1888 edition of "Stuff and Nonsense" with that picture and it doesn't seem demeaning to my sensibilities, when the Butler is compared to the other characters.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>How do you feel? Am I being "unscholarly"? Your opinions are welcome...</div></span>Mister Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02835541343943022879noreply@blogger.com0