DrW
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Posts posted by DrW
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3 hours ago, Dr. Who said:
That's a great movie with many terrific performances: Charles Laughton and Elsa Lancaster in addition to Dietrich in particular. It's an adaptation of an Agatha Christie play. Femme fatale usually is an element in the noir genre, which I generally dislike. Two of the more classic roles are Lana Turner in The Postman Always rings Twice and Jane Greer in Out of the Past.
I do not want to side-track this thread, but your post reminded me of the brilliance of Charles Laughton. While his accomplishments as actor are well-known, he also worked as director in theater, and in a single movie, "The Night of the Hunter", starring Robert Mitchum and featuring silent movie star Lilian Gish. It is one of the most imaginative movies I have ever seen (especially the kids' boat ride pursued by the Mitchum character), and it is a shame that Laughton did not direct any more movies because of bad contemporary reception the movie received.
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The Black Angels, Austin's best, in their home turf...
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Although she is not really trying to seduce anybody in this movie, I nominate Marlene Dietrich in "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957).
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9 minutes ago, ArdmoreRyno said:
Finland was a founding member of the EU. Ukraine was not.
This is incorrect. The EU was officially established in 1992 with the Maastricht Treaty. Finland joined in 1995.
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5 hours ago, redtail hawk said:
I've been thinking about your comment. If those students didn't have the gumption to learn basic math skills before entering a pre professional program, do you think they are likely to be successful in their profession? No one is likely to offer them remedial help in the professional world nor should they, imo. For competitive spots, the goal should be to choose the best, brightest and most motivated. The unknowing public deserves that.
In an ideal world, you were certainly correct. However, the world is not perfect. We have already a dramatic shortage of doctors and nurses in rural areas, especially here in the wide and dry expanses of West Texas. Here I prefer a doctor who has learned some math after finishing high school to no doctor at all.
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1 hour ago, redtail hawk said:
This is not new. I was on a grad school teaching assistantship for a year at a public state university with open enrollment in the 80s. Taught General Chemistry lab. These were mostly middle class kids and not many from the inner city. About 1/4 of them didn’t understand fractions or exponentials. And some were pre med! This is a problem with priorities imo. High school sports proficiency is more valued than academic achievement in many places as is social standing. It’s a societal problem and parents are sometimes to blame. No doubt many schools are lacking too.
Question: Did the university something to improve this situation? It would be easy to say "That is not our job" - which is true but not helpful. We were facing the same dilemma in Biochemistry I which is a junior level course for BS/BA Biochemistry majors (most pre-med or some other pre-...) that contains a lot of pretty simple math, which a significant fraction of the students could not master. Thus, we added a mandatory one-semester-hour course in "Biochemical Calculations", and it clearly helped - not as much as we would have liked, but there was definite improvement.
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Steam-powered Giraffe - "Captain Albert Alexander"
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An amazing "wall of sound" from a two-person band, "Ceremony East Coast", consisting of John and Sandra Fedowitz.
John and Sandra Fedowitz recently joined Oliver Ackermann's "A Place to Bury Strangers". Her drumming is masterful (we had a discussion about female drummers a while ago in this thread).
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13 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:
Anytime the Bills draft the grandchild of a USA Olympian, they'll get no grief from me! 🇺🇸
Are you sure his grandfather was Frank and not Wayne? He could be involved in playing the National Anthem.
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From "Red Dwarf", IMHO one of the best British sitcoms:
Rimmer: I never agreed with my parents’ religion but I wouldn’t dream of knocking it.
Lister: What were they?
Rimmer: Seventh Day Advent Hoppists. They believed that every Sunday should be spent hopping. They would hop to church, hop through the service and hop back home again.
Lister: What’s the idea behind that then?
Rimmer: Well, they took the Bible literally. Adam and Eve, the snake and the apple, everything. Took it word for word. Unfortunately their version had a misprint. It was all based on 1 Corinthians 13, where it says “faith, hop and charity, and the greatest of these is hop.” So that’s what they did every seventh day. I tell you, Sunday lunchtimes were a nightmare. Hopping around the table serving soup. We all had to wear sou’esters and asbestos underwear. -
The Birds.
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If you have a septic tank that has to be pumped out frequently, consider extending the drain field.
We have a septic tank for our 2500 sq ft house with originally three ~ 30 ft drain lines, and we had to get it pumped out every 18 months or so. During renovations in our backyard 5 years ago, we added three more 60 ft drain lines, and since then the system worked flawlessly.
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2 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:
Yeah that's great for trimmers. An electric mower would be dead by the time I am 1/3 done. Highest cost of batteries vs. cheap fuel.
Same here. We have a 1 acre lot, 60% of it lawn. For a long time (~ 15 years), we mowed it with a John Deere ride-on. Two or three times during this period it would not start immediately in spring, although we had stored it with a full tank. However, using a syringe and parafilm from my lab, it was always easy to get the gas flowing again. Two years ago we bought a JD zero-turn mower, and so far it has performed flawlessly, reducing the time needed for mowing by 50%.
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Claypool Lennon Delirium - Amethyst Realm (AR is a British woman who claims she is engaged to a ghost)
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9 minutes ago, T&C said:
One thing I've noticed is that people from CT. call carts carriages....
Here is Texas they are called "baskets".
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The Band - The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show
The Beatles - Dear Prudence - Here covered by Siouxsie and the Banshees
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On 4/21/2023 at 1:22 PM, T&C said:
I really like it, because I like this genre of music. However, there is nothing that makes Camel stand out compared with other bands in this musical style (which is not necessarily a bad thing if you like this type of music, as I do).
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For the thread on "Song titles that include the name of a man or a woman", I had been looking for a live version of Country Joe's "Tricky Dicky" song about Richard Nixon, and I actually found one.
Looking at the clip, I thought I had seen the girl on piano and back-up vocals before. And indeed, it is Dorothy Moskowitz, who had been the main vocalist of the band "The United States of America", who had made just one critically-acclaimed album in 1968, using very primitive electronic devices, but no guitars. It is still one of my favorite (if you are impatient, you might want to skip the first minute of the two following clips).
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Country Joe McDonalds "homage" to Richard Nixon: "Tricky Dicky" ... He's the genuine plastic man...
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Well, the right Josh is an obvious choice. However, as a fan of the Texas Tech Red Raiders (well, I am on TTU's faculty), my entry is Michael Crabtree. His college career was stellar. As TTU was the permanent underdog, no TTU sports fan will ever forget his catch to beat our arch rivals UT in 2008.
Crabtree's NFL career was not a bust. However, "meh" is a precise description. In TTU's underdog mentality (this goes way beyond athletics; of all the state universities in Texas, the vast majority of funds goes to UT and Texas A&M; our share is a pittance), we favor TTU college athletes who did better than expected as professional, such as Zach Thomas, Wes Welker, and perhaps even Patrick Mahomes.
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1 hour ago, JaCrispy said:
Then you get into the situation where there are so many different cultures here, that have so many different standards of living…That’s why the Founders wanted local governments, not centralized authority, to determine the will of the people…👍
That is a very interesting point. As a German, my knowledge of American History is limited (but good enough to pass the citizenship test with flying colors). I have two questions/comments. First, isn't it possible that the apparent preference of the Founders for local governments has, at least partially, to do with the speed of communication at that time? Sending a rider on horseback back and forth is just not very effective in resolving an imminent crisis.
Second, the Founders are often treated as monolithic entity. What do you think of the quote by Georgia State historian David Sehat:
"Everyone cites the Founders. Constitutional originalists consult the Founders’ papers to decide original meaning. Proponents of a living and evolving Constitution turn to the Founders as the font of ideas that have grown over time. Conservatives view the Founders as architects of a free enterprise system that built American greatness. The more liberal-leaning, following their sixties parents, claim the Founders as egalitarians, suspicious of concentrations of wealth. Independents look to the Founders to break the logjam of partisan brinksmanship. Across the political spectrum, Americans ground their views in a supposed set of ideas that emerged in the eighteenth century. But, in fact, the Founders disagreed with each other....they had vast and profound differences. They argued over federal intervention in the economy and about foreign policy. They fought bitterly over how much authority rested with the executive branch, about the relationship and prerogatives of federal and state government. The Constitution provided a nearly limitless theater of argument. The founding era was, in reality, one of the most partisan periods of American history."
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7 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:
Lasers... 😏
Or more stylized: Lazers
Yes, you caught me here. They both would have been acceptable alternatives for my hypothesis. My, admittedly rather lame, excuse is that "lasers" or "lazers" could also be a name representing ophthalmologists doing LASIK surgery.
Completely independent of this discussion, but inspired by mentioning "ophthalmologists". I always thought I had good or at least acceptable vision, until last August when the ophthalmologist found cataracts in both eyes, more pronounced in the right. I had surgery on the right eye at the end of January, and the difference is like night and day. My vision is so much clearer now. And the surgery did not even interrupt my work schedule. I was able to give my biochemistry class the day after the surgery. The left eye will follow in June, after the classes for this semester are over.
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5 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:
Why is LA still The Lakers?
That is easy. They wanted LA in the name, but LAers is too difficult to pronounce. Thus, they tried all possible consonants between the A and the E. "Lacers" sounds like a company producing ladies' underwear, "Lagers" would be a beer. The exclusion of "Lamers" or "Laters" is self-explanatory, "Laxers" is a good name for constipation remedy. Thus, "Lakers" was the best choice left. And nature seems to help them, if some of the results of the recent torrential rains in California stay permanently.
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13 minutes ago, Augie said:
I just looked, and they are 3-19. Maybe they should be the “Not Very Athletics”?
How is the NBA team in Utah still the Jazz? Utah is more like Anti-Jazz.
Because the name "Utah Tabernacle Choir" is too difficult to spell.
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Song titles which include the name of a man or woman (One per response. No repeats. )
in Off the Wall
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Les Claypool - David Mackalaster
A weird instrumental set-up: Les on "lead bass", a cello, and two percussionists...