From Dan Baum’s interview on Booknotes:
“[Joe Coors] also started a television network way before its time. I mean, what he did, he started a news operation to deliver to television stations film reels--in those days film reels--of premade news stories to air all with a conservative bent. It failed; he spent a lot of money on it. It failed for a lot of reasons but it was a visionary thing to do … [the man he hired to run his news operation was Roger Ailes.]“
From Neil Baldwin’s interview on Booknotes:
“… when you start to look at the structure of Edison's work, you find out that the other root of his genius was his ability to hire the best people, people who stayed with him for decades: Charles Batchelor, John Kruesi, William Kennedy Dixon, Jonas Aylsworth, Francis Robbins Upton. These are people that I would bet that those names don't ring true with too many people watching this program right now, whereas Thomas Edison has become a household name.“
From Jane Alexander’s interview on Booknotes:
“I grew up in a totally Republican environment. My father, my brother, all my parents' friends. I have no beef against Republicans, per se, except I don't like special interests telling them only what to do and that they don't have any sense of noblesse oblige anymore. I mean, that was what the Republicans were wonderful at when I grew up. You know, even my own father--if somebody needed a helping hand or a hand up, he was the first to give it. So the Republicans, per se, have never been against the National Endowment for the Arts and have supported it. It was just a new breed of politician that seemed to come in with the 104th Congress.“
120 minute running time so at least 20 to 30 minutes too long. Avoided this one for a long time and wanted to hate it, but Constance Wu is so lovable that you have to find it silly fun, even if you don’t want to. I don’t know why it wasn’t titled Crazy Rich Chinese, because all the rich people in Singapore (and the rest of southeast Asia) are Chinese, but it probably wouldn’t go over as well, esp. in neighboring Indonesia, where the Chinese have regularly been massacred for being too rich. Anyway, it’s a silly, cute romcom that a mainstream audience can embrace, way too long, but I didn’t hate it. Yellow rating, er, yeah, yellow at best.
Who wears the pants?
115 minute running time, so at least 15 to 20 minutes too long. I’m on a Grace Kelly kick after seeing Rear Window again … this is a weird one. 52-year-old Clark Gable is a safari guide in Africa … Ava Gardner shows up out of nowhere … street-smart glamour girl looks fabulous in the wild, tiny waist big boobs, she falls for Clark (she’s 37 then) … later on Grace Kelly (age 30?) and her British husband show up and she falls for Clark too. Grace Kelly has a phony posh British accent … she ends up shooting Gable, but don’t worry, it’s only a flesh wound. Strange early-50s studio movie about a love/sex triangle … seems pretty out of date now. The footage taken of the natives and the wildlife is sort of interesting, but there’s not much redeeming beyond that. You can give this one a miss.
Princess Grace being held by the two-legged boa constrictor
From Nichola Basbanes interview on Booknotes:
“… there are some humorous aspects to this [Stephen Blumberg’s book stealing spree]. During the trial, one expert testified about a book they called the bishop's Bible, and they believe--because when he acquired books, he also removed all traces of prior ownership, making identification difficult. Where do the books belong? Where should they go back to? But on this bishop's Bible case, they said, `Well, he took this from Rice University.' Well, I mean, when that was reported in the AP the next morning, that's the first that those people knew that--that was the first time they knew that book was missing. Fully 95 percent of the books that he stole were not known to be missing until these people were notified by the FBI.“
From Liva Baker’s interview on Booknotes:
“I thought [Oliver Wendell Holmes] was shouting all the time civil liberties, but he wasn't. There were only a few -- the famous one that the Constitution allows freedom of thought, not only for the thought that we agree with, but for the thought that we hate. For me, that's a rallying cry. I think that's wonderful. But he didn't say many things like that -- not as many as he was thought to have.“
She’s paraphrasing there… I can’t find the text of the dissent but found these (more paraphrases?):
“The most essential constitutional protection is not free thought for those who agree with us, but freedom for the thoughts we hate.”
“The Constitution protects not only the freedom for the thought and expression we agree with, but freedom for the thought we hate, the conduct and action we seriously dislike.”
From David Aikman’s interview on Booknotes:
“I was a militant atheist as an undergraduate, and I used to argue with a very gentle Anglican clergyman, trying to persuade him to be an atheist. And he wasn't very impressed with that. But he was very gracious and he would never argue back. He would always agree with me. And I was kind of frustrated.
And one day, after I graduated from college, he was in his study, just saying, `May I read some passages from Scripture?' And I said, `Well, I'm safe here. He's not going to preach at me.' And he read some of the passages from the Gospels, where Jesus is talking very intimately to his disciples, like, you know, `I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.' And I'd heard this stuff before, but somehow at that point it seemed as though Jesus was alive and he was real to me, in a way that I could no more deny than I could deny the existence of my parents. And I knew something had changed within me and I never looked back.“
From A. Scott Berg’s interview on Booknotes:
“I think most Jews in America grow up knowing there are two evil people in the century, Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford. Those are the two famous anti-Semites one grows up hearing about.”
From Lindbergh’s unpublished diary: “Stewart tells me that most of the Jewish passengers are sick. Imagine the United States taking these Jews in, in addition to those we already have. There are too many in places like New York already. A few Jews add strength and character to a country, but too many create chaos and we are getting too many. This present emigration will have its reaction.“
Never heard of the Starland Vocal Band before… my buddy Darren sent me a link to their big hit (Afternoon Delight), but I found this song featuring Margot Chapman that I like. She’s beautiful and can sing… the Google says she was born in 1957 in Hawaii, but nothing else. Is she “native” Hawaiian? Stunning and talented, wow.
Note the bell bottoms and arrival by groovy van. Was this song written by Chapman herself? I can’t find any reference to it.
UPDATE: A reader sent in the following details: “Margot Chapman Kunkel did not write Fly Away, it was written by her friend and former Band member when both were in the band Breakfast Again prior to Starland Vocal Band. Jack Williams wrote it , she originally performed this with BA; she is native Hawaiian and Chapman is her former husband's name; she returned to her maiden name Kunkel in 1978, she is first cousin to drummer Russell Kunkel,all of her work can be found on our StarlandAndMore YouTube channel.“
Your friends will try and make you stay
They'll say you've made your move now
You ought to make it pay
But when the sky is always cloudy
Seems to turn my spirit gray
Well like a little bird
I will fly away
Now the papers you've been signing
Will expire in the spring
And you've never been one for lace and grace
And golden wedding rings
But when you've found the one who loves you
And he's given you everything
Well you know you'll take him with you
When you fly
Fly away, fly away
You know you'll take him with you when you fly
Have you ever given up
When you still had something left
Have you ever played with fantasies
And given them your best
You've been winning, losing
Laughing, cruising
Changing every day
Well you've got to take the time
You've got to ease your troubled mind
Got to take the time to fly away
Fly away, fly away
You've got to make the time to fly away
It's that same old house
And that same old job that you loved just yesterday
When you got it in your head to fly away
