I have the Pennsylvania Polka, which was “popularized” in Groundhog Day and performed by Frankie Yankovic, still as my wake-up alarm ringtone. Jankovic was, you won’t believe it, born to Slovene immigrant parents! It all comes around…
He was considered the premier artist to play and rarely strayed from Slovenian-style polka. At his peak, Yankovic traveled extensively and performed 325 shows a year. He sold 30 million records during his lifetime and won the first Grammy awarded for a polka album in 1986!
I’m reminded of an interview I saw, where the head of Fender pointed out that the best-selling musical instrument in America was, until the 1960s, not the guitar, but the accordion.
Speaking of, while Americans watch paint dry on public TV to relax (Bob Ross), we here in my neck of the woods have Alpenpanorama. Every morning, two hours of live web-cam footage from the alps accompanied by light instrumental polka music, very relaxing. The alps are the highest and most extensive mountain range that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately 750 miles across eight countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. There is nothing better to have playing in the background, white noise indeed! Here is a massive 100 item YouTube playlist with that.
And it gets better! Frankie the polka king enlisted in the armed forces in 1943, and cut numerous records while on leave prior to his departure for Europe. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge where a severe case of frostbite nearly required the amputation of his hands and feet. Fortunately, he was able to beat the gangrene before that became necessary, and was awarded a Purple Heart. The doctors urged him to have his fingers amputated, but he refused, as that would have ended his music career. After getting out of the hospital, he and four other musicians were assigned to special services to entertain the troops, including General George Patton and his Third United States Army.
bruce: Bought ‘The Vampire’ on T. Beholder’s recommendation. WWI agitprop is wildly better than any political stuff since. I recommend Ford Maddox Ford’s ‘Between St Denis and St George’ to anyone.
T. Beholder: Bruce says, “The British Navy was a side effect of the British merchant fleet, which was huge.” Count Ernst Reventlow had the opposite notion, and he backed it with a whole book, The Vampire of the Continent.
Phileas Frogg: Jim, Yes indeed, which is why the present pantheon of ideological state religions is so deadly to humanity. Each and every one makes some horrific assumption about human nature, to the (apparent) temporal benefit of it’s adherents and the detriment of everyone else (particularly the weak and easily manipulated). Usually insisting upon man’s self-propelled apotheosis, by various means. They cajole and build up the masses, feeding them lies, before ripping away the guard rails...
Jim: Honestly, how long do we intend to pretend that Project Apollo was a real thing?
Bruce: Yes, we need to build 60 million volt shields and use them for drives. An engineering detail, like we’d have time travel if we built an infinitely long rotating cylinder of neutronium rotating at relativistic speeds.
Bruce: The British Navy was a side effect of the British merchant fleet, which was huge. And half the British merchant fleet 1750 was built in the American colonies. After we seceded, a lot of British ships of the line were built in India. Just getting across the Atlantic, or back from India, gave a good shakedown cruise. These were pros. The French spent the Napoleonic wasrs putting out from port to face pros.
Doc Love: I meant overkill punishment for something you did wrong in the previous comment. My mistake. Sorry for the confusion.
Doc Love: What I mean to say is that Rob Henderson may have gotten better out of the Air Force than the Marine Corps. because of the type of person he was or is, and another person may have gotten better out of the Marine Corps. depending on the kind of person he is. In any branch of military service, your leadership can make you into a better or worse person. If the leadership especially in the military gives you good mentorship the that helps, but that does not always happen. Sometimes the leadership...
Doc Love: Like I said on a previous post about Rob Henderson, he hit escape velocity because he tests in the top 1% for IQ. However, it is a combination of factors that save, help or ruin someone. He chose the American Air Force which was a good and lucky move for him. The American Air Force does things more by the book of regulations than the other branches of military service although the Navy comes close but the Army is further away and the Marine Corps. furthest away. The best to worst discharges are...
Doc Love: The comments that both Bruce and I said on this article thread are true. It reads like Bruce was in the military. If Bruce was in the military then he wrote an excellent observation, and if he was not in the military then I am twice as amazed that he made that observation and statement.
Bruce: The military grows you up to age 21 right away. 24 is an exaggeration, but close. But lots of guys join at 18, do their 20 and get out at 38 going on 22. Henderson deserves credit for doing better.
Doc Love: I like the quote from the American Air Force Instructor: “You either don’t know what is expected of you or you don’t care to do it…” I was in the American Army and served over in both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. My Army leadership said similar things to Rob Henderson’s American Air Force Leadership, and I heard all branches of the American military’s leadership say the same, whether Army, Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps. Sometimes a person doesn’t have the aptitude to develop the skills to...
Fred the Gator: I’m reminded of John Taylor Gatto’s comment about school reform, that it would cost too little to be practical. The livelihood of too many people is invested in the status quo. Zuckerman proved this when he tried to reform the Newark school district. Many of his reforms ended up taking money out of the local community (an unintended consequence) because the school district was a major employer. And that gets us to the point: you can’t reform the military procurement...
David Foster: Norm Augustine also said that the reason military aircraft speeds need to be so high is so that they can complete the mission before the electronics fail.
Gaikokumaniakku: Perhaps we could persuade Cody Wilson to invent a disruptive CNC machining tech that would allow US states to build simple, functional weapons with short supply chains. Okay, I am half joking, but only half joking. The US needs shorter supply chains, simpler weapons, greater emphasis on reliability and maintainability. American inventors used to inspire technicians outside America. Some Americans (e.g. Gordon Dahle) still invent useful, reliable tools that inspire emulation....
Moira Hay: These are the VERY best illustrations for Dune — strong, enigmatic, fabulous compositions. I first saw them in Omni, but sadly lost my copy. Although I very much enjoyed the recent Villeneuve film, I can’t help wishing the worms had been more like Schoenherr’s. Images which have stayed with me all these years.
Phileas Frogg: Design by committee strikes again. In my experience committees are good at three things, and only three: 1) Hindering progress 2) Inflating cost 3) Deferring accountability While a wonderful design choice for those looking to cripple a large national government or parent company from meddling in the affairs of it’s subsidiaries, this is only ever a temporary solution until the committee is railroaded by it’s own neurotic vacillations into irrelevancy, before it’s powers...
Roo_ster: And the F22 is so expensive we could not buy enough to replace all the F15 fighters it was supposed to replace. I suspect a similor replacement ratio for the next-generation fighter. And for the generation after that, we will be able to afford maybe two or three.
Michael van der Riet: I am a cynic. In my not so humble opinion very few innocents are unjustly executed for murder. The police got the right man for the wrong crime, that’s all.
I have the Pennsylvania Polka, which was “popularized” in Groundhog Day and performed by Frankie Yankovic, still as my wake-up alarm ringtone. Jankovic was, you won’t believe it, born to Slovene immigrant parents! It all comes around…
He was considered the premier artist to play and rarely strayed from Slovenian-style polka. At his peak, Yankovic traveled extensively and performed 325 shows a year. He sold 30 million records during his lifetime and won the first Grammy awarded for a polka album in 1986!
I’m reminded of an interview I saw, where the head of Fender pointed out that the best-selling musical instrument in America was, until the 1960s, not the guitar, but the accordion.
Speaking of, while Americans watch paint dry on public TV to relax (Bob Ross), we here in my neck of the woods have Alpenpanorama. Every morning, two hours of live web-cam footage from the alps accompanied by light instrumental polka music, very relaxing. The alps are the highest and most extensive mountain range that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately 750 miles across eight countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. There is nothing better to have playing in the background, white noise indeed! Here is a massive 100 item YouTube playlist with that.
And it gets better! Frankie the polka king enlisted in the armed forces in 1943, and cut numerous records while on leave prior to his departure for Europe. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge where a severe case of frostbite nearly required the amputation of his hands and feet. Fortunately, he was able to beat the gangrene before that became necessary, and was awarded a Purple Heart. The doctors urged him to have his fingers amputated, but he refused, as that would have ended his music career. After getting out of the hospital, he and four other musicians were assigned to special services to entertain the troops, including General George Patton and his Third United States Army.