Whodathunkit?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the romantic poet who wrote {{popup mariner_ancient.jpg mariner_ancient 121×107}}Rime of the Ancient Mariner and inspiration for Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, along with Alfred Nobel, father of both mass destruction and the modern Peace movement, along with Dizzy Gillespie, father of bebop, all share the same birthday. I defy any horoscopist to find a thread there.

And I defy myself to lay off the almanac Schtick for a while. The semester has begun, and these entries should be once again a little less sporadic and a tad more pertinent.

Summer’s over, fritters.

Until further notice, we will continue to hold class in D?R 247 and not meet in BZW every other week.

Why did I even bother upgrading Netscape this time. It drives me crazy. It takes forever to load on my ol’ computer and has a penchant for flipping out over meaningless discrepancies in html tags by making everything look misaligned and goofy.
So why did I do it? Because I realized it was one of the privilleges of living in the free world. Here is the very first disclaimer on the download page:

Netscape Browser software contains encryption technology that is subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations and other U.S. law, and may not be exported or re-exported to certain countries (currently Afghanistan (Taliban-controlled areas), Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) or to persons or entities prohibited from receiving U.S. exports (including Denied Parties, entities on the Bureau of Export Administration Entity List, and Specially Designated Nationals).

I was listening to All things considered today and learned–as always–something very interesting. This week Satchmo’s house has been opened as a museum. And –I did not know this– he pretty much recorded everything that went on in that house. The house was hardwired with mics and tape recorders. There are literally thousands of reels of Louis Armstrong at home, jamming, at the dinner table, having spats with the missus. This precludes Nixon’s ill-advised move to tap the whitehouse, and more significantly on the cultural scale, makes him the original Big Brother.
Unfortunately at this time the article is not yet available on the internet, so enjoy this link
About Yogi Bear.

English Club Music Nite Party!

Showing up to class is all well and good, but perhaps the most rewarding part of foreign language fluency is the abilty to not make an ass of yourself in social situations, like going out and tying one on. That’s where the English Club comes in. Click on the contact button to enquire, or come to our next party.
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“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

–Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th president, born on this day.

New textbook.
This only for the new (L1) students. My students who started with me in the Summer semester (then L1, now L2) get to stick with the old book.

It’s hard to imagine the realm of modern standup comedy without the influence of Lenny Bruce. Before Lenny, all standup was basically a sequence of setup-and-punchline jokes, vaudeville Jimmy Durante style. Lenny was the first cat who was able to really string his act together in a conversationalistic, flowing style. He told tales and gave opinions about things like race, politics, religion, and he pulled no punches.
His style was oft likened to bebop.
He was in trouble with the law numerous times for obscenity and drug abuse, and eventually died on the john due to OD.

Here is the toast of the century, but I am no huge fan.
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Kung Fu is for twerps. These monks have lasers.

Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian woman, wins the Nobel peace prize. Apparently, she is not very well known in her own country.

And another thing: those fizzy pills–you know, Brausetabletten–do not go well with buttermilk. In fact, they don’t even dissolve in buttermilk. Perhaps it is because of the acidity.

I’m going to see Jello Biafra speak tonight at the newly relocated Titty Twister.