A Crummy Commercial

 I actually laughed out loud when I saw this 1939 photo on Shorpy: source:  https://www.shorpy.com/node/22776 Here is a recent look at that hotel courtesy of Google: You can see those Nazi appropriated symbols embedded in the facade of the building near the top. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I saw this picture on Shorpy: source:  https://www.shorpy.com/node/25972 Although it's not fully visible, that's a can of Crisco shortening that this lady is using to bake with.  The Crisco is on the right side of that interesting egg-beater with the 2 eggs on the left.  Here is a zoomed in view:   Anyway, this picture reminded me of the Vic and Sade radio show which was sponsored by Crisco at this time.  I'd like to think that this lady might have listened to Vic and Sade during the day.  Here is a sample episode from April 1940, both with and without a Crisco commercial by Mel Allen: with Crisco commercial:   https://archive.org/details/vicandsadeotr/Vic_and_Sade_40_0415_x_Miltons_Dirt_in_Fruit_Jars.mp3 no commercial:   https://archive.org/details/vic-and-sade-1946-10-10-xx-mr.-zee-moves-in/Vic+and+Sade+1940-04-15+(xx)+Milton's+Dirt+in+Fruit+Jars.mp3 The weird thing is just how effective these commercials are on me, here in the 21st century who knows that transfat C

 This article by Linus Akesson (from IEEE Spectrum magazine) is amazing: https://spectrum.ieee.org/two-commodore-64s-one-accordion Using the microphone to sense the air flow out of the bellows is clever and making the bellows itself out of floppy disks is a craft miracle. Here is the video featured in the article: Now when I think accordian I think Lady of Spain.  And when I think Lady of Spain I think of this scene from Slap Shot: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A65QFlXHyBw Incidentally The Sting (which also featured the Scott Joplin ragtime music that Linus played in the video) and Slapshot were both directed by George Roy Hill and both starred Paul Newman :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I bought a "new" pair of over the shoe boots, 4 buckle, just like the ones I had in grade school:   Only these have some spikes on the bottom for icy surfaces: walk around a little and the snow looks like white cube steak They are LaCrosse boots but of course in the 25 years since I bought the last pair LaCrosse moved production to China.  And while they are nice boots I found this somewhat cryptic sticker inside: I'm not sure what is being conveyed here:  leave room for your toes ?  I can't even guess the second one  shoes with heels ?   And then the diamond / weave pattern / diamond ? I remember when I was a kid seeing the dash board of an Opel Kadette.  No writing on the controls, just pictograms.  Good thing I was too young to drive at the time. Of course the internet with picture search revealed the answer: source: https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001HD Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm                

It's been quite a while since the 1950 census was put online (2022-04-01), see the previous post: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-1950-census-records-are-now-online.html The wonderful volunteers at familysearch.org have been busy organizing and have a search page setup for most of the states: https://www.familysearch.org/1950census/ I retried looking for Fred Allen and Portland Hoffa but still no luck - and I know where they lived in NYC. yes Fred, I am an idiot But 60 year old Alfred P. Morgan, his wife Ruth and 2 of their 3 sons (Charles and Thomas) were fairly easy to find (line 3): https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F9Y-BMQR Here is the actual census page: Perhaps the oldest son (21 in 1950), Alfred Jr. was away at school or working. The family also still lives at 69 Brookfield road in Upper Montclair NJ.  But the brother-in-law, Bruce Shackelford (an airplane mechanic in 1940 ?) no longer lives with the Morgans. BTW here is the 1940 census page for Alfred Mor

 I saw this on ebay: Three swings and no sales apparently :) This is the original version with the International Rectifier PVI chip and the 500 Volt rated cap and IRF820 transistors. But it has been relisted:   https://www.ebay.com/itm/325475620652 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I've posted this before both on the website and here as well but I think it's worth repeating. Here are a couple of recordings made with this crystal set: of WTMJ, 620 kHz in Milwaukee, WI  during the 1970s.  The post-war version of the Fred Allen Christmas show with the sketch: Santa Claus goes on Strike:   http://wb9kzy.com/grams_intro.mp3 This intro was done by John Grams I *think* during the holiday season of 1974.  It's from his Saturday night program: Grams on Jazz.  It was recorded with my Magnavox 5" reel-to-reel recorder - you can hear at about 30 seconds into this clip where I flipped the speed from 1 7/8 to 3 3/4 inches per second :)  BTW, the verse of Jingle Bells sung in Polish was from this record by Joe Gumin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54zwSmNfgzg Billie the Brownie was probably voiced here by Carol Cotter: http://archive.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/carol-cotter-voiced-character-of-billie-the-brownie-c72v7fn-133503158.html   a well known radio/T

 I got an email reporting that W9EVT, George was now a Silent Key.  I haven't confirmed it yet (evening of 2022-12-22) but it is always sad to lose another ham radio operator. saw this confirming tweet the evening of 2022-12-23: https://twitter.com/LASELKI/status/1606428202452537345   I only met George in person once in 2017 along with K9MMS, Gary and an islander: Merrill Lundberg.  I used to call W9EVT once in a while to report when his mic was stuck or to ask a question.  Always meant to go over but after Covid-19 struck I didn't want to either transmit or receive the virus. Here are a couple of pictures of George taken by K9MMS: George's friend, Dave is in the back George in his Collins room I tried searching on W9EVT and found a couple of interesting items, first a QSL card from the previous holder of W9EVT: from ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265527809647 Second, a blurb from March 1966 Popular Electronics: That mentions this airplane crash: from the wiki I know that a

I happened to see this tweet: https://twitter.com/AaronNagler/status/1606009164735647763 And since it is nearly Christmas it reminded me of when I was a kid.  My Mom did clothing alterations, I *think* most customers saw a classified ad in the local newspaper.  Anyway one Christmas we get a big parcel delivered and it is a Usinger's gift collection of all kinds of sausage and stuff.  I remember two of the items in particular, first the Mortadella, basically fancy bologna with fat globules and green Pistachio nuts (strange to my eyes since the Pistachios were normally colored red in those days).  Second was some kind of liverwurst, natural casing tied with the greasy string and weirdly grainy texture (Braunschweiger ?).  Both of these were unlike anything that you'd get at the local supermarkets. The assortment also included the usual liverwurst, summer sausage, salami and so on. It also came with this knife: The Usingers box was from one of my Mom's alteration customers, d

 I saw this post on the Face Radio Premiums group by Larry Zdeb: And of course had to try decoding the messsage: But whoever had owned the ring left it on the correct combination so the decode wasn't hard: 00000000011111111112222222 12345678901234567890123456 ========================== hfkxdpoejbtnqzguyrcaslwimv   no kid can resist the taste of rich chocolate ovaltine fkxdpoejbtnqzguyrcaslwimvh kxdpoejbtnqzguyrcaslwimvhf xdpoejbtnqzguyrcaslwimvhfk dpoejbtnqzguyrcaslwimvhfkx poejbtnqzguyrcaslwimvhfkxd oejbtnqzguyrcaslwimvhfkxdp ejbtnqzguyrcaslwimvhfkxdpo jbtnqzguyrcaslwimvhfkxdpoe btnqzguyrcaslwimvhfkxdpoej tnqzguyrcaslwimvhfkxdpoejb nqzguyrcaslwimvhfkxdpoejbt qzguyrcaslwimvhfkxdpoejbtn zguyrcaslwimvhfkxdpoejbtnq guyrcaslwimvhfkxdpoejbtnqz uyrcaslwimvhfkxdpoejbtnqzg yrcaslwimvhfkxdpoejbtnqzgu rcaslwimvhfkxdpoejbtnqzguy caslwimvhfkxdpoejbtnqzguyr aslwimvhfkxdpoejbtnqzguyrc slwimvhfkxdpoejbtnqzguyrca lwimvhfkxdpoejbtnqzguyrcas wimvhfkxdpoejbtnqzguyrcasl imvhfkxdpoejbtnqzguyrcaslw mvhf

. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/nasas-insight-lander-has-probably-phoned-home-for-the-last-time/ https://twitter.com/NASAInSight/status/1604955574659035136 I mentioned this before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/06/dust.html But all we need is one of these: No one at NASA has ever watched: The Jetsons ? Marina Koren mentioned a different NASA Mars probe: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/12/perseverance-captures-mars-dust-devil-sound/672495/ The bottom line for Insight is that it didn't get a visit from a dust devil. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm    

 I saw several pictures online of the Wisconsin avenue bridges that spanned the Milwaukee river:   In some of them the electric streetcars are visible: The earlier bridge (shown about 1900) pivoted or turned to let ships through.  But what happened with the  wires (both the overhead DC wires and the rails used as the ground connection) when the bridge opened ?  Unfortunately none of the pictures has the detail to show these connections. My hope was that the streetcar driver had to gun it and coast over the bridge but I doubt that that would have been tolerated :) The later bridge (built in the 1900-1909 period) got rid of the pivot/island to open up in the middle: But there again the wires aren't visible, however there are two inverted "U" supports which appear to be for the streetcar wires. It must have been a hassle for all involved when a ship had to pass. I was at the dedication of the current bridge in the 1975 (I will have to dig up the pictures I have and post them

. . source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuDsX8atSUk This was a really neat video pairing the actual voice transmissions of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and capcom: Charles Duke with an animated rendering of the Lunar Module Eagle landing on the Moon.  Even though I knew the ending the video gave me the chills ! One question: Neil and Buzz are standing in the Lunar Module but when they were in free fall were there stirrups or magnets on the soles of their boots to hold them in place ?  I've never thought of that before - in the command module about the only time they would stand would be before launch or after splashdown - otherwise they'd either be floating or strapped down. Shortly after the landing I bought a 45 RPM record of the audio from the Apollo 11 landing.  I remember hearing:   "4 forward . . .  4 forward, drifting to the right a little"   I also bought a photo of the Lunar Module Eagle on the moon from WTMJ-TV channel 4 in Milwaukee.  And later bought

 Maybe it's because I was Moon crazy as a kid in the 1960s but Moonrise, Hernandez New Mexico was always my favorite Ansel Adams photo: source: https://blog.madame.lefigaro.fr/stehli/M2008_40_56.jpg There's even a wiki page about it, about a single photograph !  : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonrise,_Hernandez,_New_Mexico I remember going to a photo exhibition as a young person, it was at the Riverview school on the Milwaukee river in Glendale, WI.  I think by then Riverview had closed and the Layton School of Art had moved in.  Anyway, the exhibition had a lot of photographs, the only two I remember now were Moonrise and also a pepper still life by Edward Weston: source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Pepper_No._30.jpg I'm telling you folks, resist colorization:  black and white is elemental: just paper, silver and gelatin - no dyes or pigments required ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I usually listen to Chapter a Day on M-F when I exercise.  On Friday I was going to listen to the last chapter of a whodunit: Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod. the first book of a series But at 8:03 AM all I get is dead air, there is a carrier because 90.1 MHz, WNMU is in the UP of Michigan (Marquette) so the signal is marginal (noisy) here.   I leave it on and finally at 8:16 AM the story comes on but in progress !   So I shut it off - I'll get the last chapter from Wisconsin Public Radio and listen tomorrow. But it reminded me of the recent Masterpiece Mystery:  Magpie Murders https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/get-ready-for-magpie-murders/ The heroine is a book editor, Susan Ryeland.  One of her mystery authors has died and the manuscript for his last book: Magpie Murders is missing the last chapter.  So the story follows Susan as she finds out what happened to the last chapter. It's an entertaining story and maybe best of all:  no sequel season 2 :) I

. source:  https://www.shorpy.com/node/3167 I remember going to see my Grandmother once.  After my Grandfather, Charles A. Olson, had died, Catherine Olson moved to Oshkosh WI to a Methodist run old folks home.  Her family ran mostly to sisters and two of them lived at this Methodist place. These gals were originally from a town in northern Wisconsin, Mattoon.  The Lightbody family had a farm and lumberyard ?  I may have that wrong but I suspect they worked pretty hard. Anyway on this visit to see Catherine (she wasn't my actual grandmother, she was my grandfather's second wife after my Dad's Mom died) we met her sister Jean.  Jean was the oldest of the Lightbodys, born in 1901 (?) so she would have been in her 80s when I met her. source: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YB9-9RHK?i=8&cc=1727033 Two things I remember about Jean, she was always mentioned in conversation as:  "Jean and John", part of that married duo, never just as Jean :)  Secon

 If you happen to sell brick mush door to door be sure to check your shoelaces BEFORE entering one of these: https://archive.org/details/vic-and-sade-1946-10-10-xx-mr.-zee-moves-in/Vic+and+Sade+1940-11-19+(xx)+Man+Caught+in+a+Revolving+Door.mp3 Art Van Harvey, Bernardine Flynn, Bill Idelson Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm          

 I saw this interesting post by Larry Zdeb on the Radio Premiums group on face: It occurred to me that if someone was to find a huge cache of shake up mugs in the 21st century (maybe in an abandoned storage locker?) instead of using them to promote Ovaltine, pivot as the Wander folks did when they used Orphan Annie mugs as Captain Midnight premiums.  Since the old time radio fans are mostly older folks, promote the shake up mug for Metamucil or maybe a competing brand of dietary fiber.   Just spoon the fiber into the mug, add water, shake  it and chug it down (because if you wait too long, yikes !) - then chase the fiber by adding more water to the mug and shaking and chugging that. I'm still the idea man !   source:      https://youtu.be/4tT3rAo2s4s?t=69 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm               

. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

. Billions of dollars spent but the can with no spam came back A-OK on 2022-12-12.  Although some parts of the mission didn't work (some of the cubesat batteries may have aged out over the delays ?) or were weird (phantom breaker trips) the overall mission hit almost all of their goals ! Here is an overview and comment on Artemis 1 by Eric Berger at Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/after-decades-of-false-starts-nasa-really-is-returning-to-the-moon-this-time/ And another article about the heat shield test and the skipping stone landing trajectory by Marina Koren in the Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/12/nasa-orion-spacecraft-returns-from-moon/672433/ I managed to see the last view seconds of the splashdown looking up at the parachutes and then boosh into the water. Now to wait until 2025 before the Artemis 2 mission which will be similar to this mission except with astronauts.  But when they do go back I bet we see lots of pictures li

 His name is Brian Teta and here is a compilation of his favorite moments from the Letterman show: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XxS-TnVxGY I mentioned the Harrison and Dave on horses previously when the trailer for the new Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny movie came out: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/12/trailer-for-indiana-jones-and-dial-of.html I was a fairly regular viewer of Letterman on CBS, for one thing the other networks (other than PBS) basically disappeared after digital TV.  Before DTV we could watch NBC, Fox with a little "snow" but ABC was always tough.  Now in 2022 they are all gone except for PBS Wisconsin. Anyhow, I actually remember a lot of the segments that Brian was involved with including the one where Tina Fey stripped down to her Spanxs !  But also the ones where Brian would run out of the studio, he has a fast first step for a big fellow :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

. source:  https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/2682973/b-21-raider/ Recently the US Air Force and Northrup-Grumman revealed (sorta) the new B21 Raider airplane.  Basically not much was really revealed about the plane (for one thing it was getting dark) other than it will be the bomber of the future and will be capable of unmanned operations. Put in baseball terms I think the DOD went from trying to hit .400 in the 20th centurey to trying to hit for 755 (or 714 or whatever the record for homers is now) in the 21st century.  They used to develop planes with incrementally better capabilities rather than trying to (as with th F-35) do everything everywhere all at once.  Limiting  the degree of design impossibility freedom to 1 item (like with the F-117) would seem to be the prudent course to me.  The F-117 had stealth - it wasn't super speedy or large, just stealthy.  The F-35 had 3 versions (including vertical take off and landing), was stealthy, fast, Air Force/N