Category: Fans

G4BB 54: Whatchamacallits… - February 20, 2012 by tmlcentral

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Whatchamacallits…

Dear G4BB: I saw this in a recent Dear Abby column…her answer was OK, but I figured I’d submit it to you in case “Mixed Up in Wisconsin” could use a second opinion! …from Roger, in Racine

55.1 Dear Roger: Yeah, I saw it too…and don’t mind if I do! Altho the specific question Mixed Up asks…how to introduce the boyfriend to others…reminded me of a cartoon from the early 1970s, when the idea of 2 people “living together” was becoming more socially acceptable…but before we had settled on the politically correct but nonetheless goofy term “significant other.” An older woman is introducing a younger couple to another older woman, and she says: “And this is Sharon’s whatchamacallit.”

55.2 And yes, Abby Jr.’s answer is just common sense…this is my friend, my boyfriend, my fiancé… however along they are in the relationship. People today have been cowered (by that drat Media again?) into thinking you need “full disclosure” for every nook and cranny of your existence…and it simply isn’t so…too much information!, right?

55.3 On the other hand, the real point of the question…which Abby Jr. ignores, due no doubt to space limitations…is when Mixed Up’s sister says: This is my sister and her boyfriend, my nephew. After all, in the normal course of events, your sister’s nephew is also your nephew…or worse, your son…so yeah, eyebrows are raised, looks trend towards askance.

55.4 The topic of how one should act towards one’s affines…those one is related to by marriage…is a broad one, and a thoroughgoing examination of it is more than I have time for these days…yes, it’s certainly on my bucket list! Across time and space as I like to say, there are innumerable sets of rules and restrictions, customs and interpretations. And altho this really isn’t relevant, I might mention something I was reading about recently…in many kinship systems, the practice of a marriage “exchange” has been and still is followed…that is, the bride’s family gets something from the groom’s family in exchange for losing their daughter. For one tribe in Papua New Guinea, it’s traditionally a pig, called the “bride’s fat.” The parents can’t eat it, because they’d be eating their own “daughter,” but others in the family can…so it goes, nez pah?

55.5 Now strictly speaking, “-in-law” is seldom tacked onto anything beyond brother, sister, mother, father, son, and daughter. Certainly, we all understand what an “uncle-in-law” or a “cousin-in-law” would be, but you seldom hear it said that way…usually it’s just “my husband’s uncle” or “my wife’s cousin.” What’s more complicated is how a spouse thinks of his spouse’s blood relatives…cultures differ, families, differ, and even couples differ…you might consider your husband’s cousins as “your cousins,” but he might not feel the same about yours.

55.6 With respect to who can marry whom, legal limitations have usually followed religious ones. An illuminating example comes from England. In 1842, a bill was introduced in Parliament to allow a man to marry his dead wife’s sister. The the idea was that it would be beneficial for the aunt to raise the man’s children. The bill was soundly defeated, but it touched off over 60 years of social debate…needless to say, religion and morality entered into it, and there were strong opinions on both sides.

55.7 If you’re a Gilbert and Sullivan fan, you might recall in Iolanthe when the Fairy Queen sings “He shall prick that annual blister, marriage with deceased wife’s sister.” Finally, the “Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act” was passed in 1907, altho it was strictly stated that a clergyman could as we say today “opt out” from marrying a couple, if his religious beliefs prohibited it. But still, this law was very specific, and was not a blanket approval for all siblings and siblings-in-law. The “Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act” had to wait until 1921, and it was another 10 years until you could marry your dead spouse’s niece or nephew…which brings us back around to Mixed up in Wisconsin, altho that isn’t really her case…

55.8 Because strictly speaking, Jared the “nephew” isn’t Mixed Up’s in-law…your in-laws are the blood relatives of your spouse (but not your spouse’s affines…say your spouse’s sister’s husband…otherwise, it could conceivably spread to everyone!) The reason the unmarried Mixed Up has a brother-in-law at all is because her sister is married…and from her sister’s husband’s point of view, Mixed Up is his sibling-in-law, thus he is also hers. But for example, his parents are not parents-in-law to Mixed Up, only to her sister. Granted, when and if Mixed Up marries the nephew, her father-in-law will indeed be her sister’s brother-in-law, but let’s not jump the gun.

55.9 But to be honest here…Mixed Up apparently likes the drama, otherwise she wouldn’t be worrying about the whiff of “i-word.” Anyone in the family…or close to them…knows they aren’t related, and anyone else will understand that quickly enough. Which is not to say that some…her sister perhaps?…might extend the definition of “i-word” beyond what it actually is, but that’s family for you. Remember the old saying…you can’t trim the wind, you can only trim your sails.

55.10 And regardless of whether anybody actually cares who’s what, the sister is perfectly within her rights to abbreviate “my husband’s nephew” to “my nephew” for the sake of simplicity. This is the way we do things…for example, on The Andy Griffith Show, “Aunt” Bee refers to both Andy (her 1st cousin once removed) and Andy’s son Opie (her 1st cousin twice removed) as her “nephew.” That’s fine…until you start constructing a family tree, then precision is key, obviously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

55.11 In fact, this whole discussion reminds me of a puzzle I posed back in G4BB 3…and solved in G4BB 4…that of Tony Soprano’s “nephew” Christopher. (The chart below is not my work so is thus un-numbered, altho I did add in the identifying photos…can it really be only 5 years this June since The Sopranos series ended? Seems longer somehow…)

55.12 When the show took place, Tony’s wife Carmela’s 1st cousin on her father’s side, “Cousin Dickie,” was dead…and his son Christopher had been “adopted” as Tony’s right-hand man and heir apparent…altho if you recall, that’s not exactly how things turned out. She called Chris her “cousin”…as opposed to “1st cousin once removed”…fair enough. She also referred to Chris and her daughter Meadow as “the cousins”…and Chris and Meadow called each other “cousin”…altho of course here it’s 2nd cousin, not 1st.

55.13 But at the same time, Tony called Chris his “nephew”…a double “mistake” if you will, since the relationship was his wife’s, not his…and then also it’s not nephew but 1st cousin once removed, since Chris’ father was her 1st cousin, not her brother…altho remember, some cultures call that a “2nd nephew” which makes eminent sense, sez me. My challenge was to find a way, without interbreeding if you please, that one and the same person could be your nephew and your wife’s 1st cousin.

55.14 The answer hinges on the fact…and by now I hope this sprung instantly to your mind!!…that we all have 2 sides to our family, owing to the fact that we have 2 parents…and normally those 2 sides aren’t related. But what’s instructive to note is that the solution diagrammed in Chart 189 could come about via 2 different chain of events.

55.15 The way I did it was: your brother marries and has a son, your nephew. That nephew has a 1st cousin Zelda on his mother’s side…and you marry Zelda…badda-bing, badda-boom. But you could do the same thing “backwards” as follows: you marry Zelda, then your brother marries Zelda’s aunt (Zelda’s mother Alice’s sister) and has a son…again, your nephew and your wife’s 1st cousin. Next time, the mailbag still giveth…till then, peace out…

________________________________________

shameless plugs-in-law, but we love them like they were our own…

Podcasts at http://stolfpod.podbean.com and http://thewholething.podbean.com

Other Daily Blog at http://stolf.wordpress.com (the legendary Stolf’s Blog)

More bloggage at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com

and http://www.examiner.com/retro-pop-culture-in-watertown/mark-john-astolfi

Updated Resume at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com/p/resume.html

Audio samples at http://stolfspots.podbean.com

Deep-Fried Hoodsie Cups

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DFHC 2/15/2012 - February 15, 2012 by tmlcentral

>> don’t forget to check out Stolf’s Blog …and you’ll always have good luck!… <<

A Better Life Thru Asking Cool Daddy

Dear Cool Daddy: My pharmacist said that heroin was once available over the counter…that can’t be right, can it? He’s always pulling my leg about one thing or another. …from Huggy Bear, in Salt Lake City

Dear H.B.: But in this case, no legs are being pulled. Diacetylmorphine, a.k.a. Heroin…and we’ll capitalize the word since it was a trademark…was developed by the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company of Germany in the late 1800s as a cough suppressant and cure for morphine addiction. Altho also derived from the opium poppy, it was believed to be non-addictive…such was the level of study and testing in those far off days.

It was marketed in the US right alongside Aspirin, and available from 1896 thru about 1910, when it was finally realized to be indeed addictive…metabolizing into morphine in the liver…in fact, it could thus be described as a “fast-acting” form of morphine. This was, needless to say, a terrible blunder on Bayer’s part, and a major embarrassment …altho the firm survived, obviously. And by 1914, the Harrison Act came along, which immediately took morphine, opium, codeine, cocaine, and their many and varied derivatives and compounds, off the drug store shelves for good…no longer available from Sears Roebuck by mail-order either. Marijuana was added to the list in 1937.

But speaking of A Better Life Thru Chemistry, here are several ads from the 1950s you might find amusing…

WICKED BALLSY

And speaking of drugs, what were they smoking at the advertising agency…coming up with “living” blue ribbons? I mean, how could they even walk, let alone go bowling?

diethyltriptoshameless plugozine…take several daily, or as needed…

Podcasts at http://stolfpod.podbean.com and http://thewholething.podbean.com

Deep Fried Hoods Cups Daily Blog: http://deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com/

Other Daily Blog at http://stolf.wordpress.com (the legendary Stolf’s Blog)

More bloggage at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com and http://www.examiner.com/retro-pop-culture-in-watertown/mark-john-astolfi

Resume at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com/p/resume.html

Audio samples at http://stolfspots.podbean.com

Deep-Fried Hoodsie Cups

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NHL Fines and Suspensions (aka $2500 and an alligator purse) - February 12, 2012 by tmlcentral

When the NHL announced there would be no suspension, only a ,500 fine, for Dominic Moore’s hit on Fedetenko, four thoughts immediately struck me:The NHL sure seems to be moving from 1 (or 2) game suspensions to fines for many infractions (e.g. PK Subban’s slew foot);GMs and players must love this shift away from suspensions to fines;The fines are a joke of a deterrent, but since this system
Bitter Leaf Fan Page

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Trading Brian Burke - February 11, 2012 by tmlcentral

A few weeks back I was on the phone with a sports reporter talking about the MLG Time Capsule. Rather unexpectedly, he asked me the following question: Of the Canadian NHL teams, which GM would I rank 4th best.The question made me laugh. It’s a great question as the top and the bottom are pretty easily defined. But the middle? That’s fertile ground.To get to number four, I wasn’t sure if I should
Bitter Leaf Fan Page

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My Year in Sports - February 8, 2012 by tmlcentral

I turned 41 this week and it may have been my best year yet as a sports fan. Stoke City made a surprising run to the FA Cup Final. I’m relatively new to supporting this club and they play some pretty ugly football, but I’ll be damned if their Cup run didn’t sweep me right off my feet. Sure, they lost the final, but how often do you even get the thrill of seeing the team you support in a big game?
Bitter Leaf Fan Page

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DFHC 1/11/2012 - February 4, 2012 by tmlcentral

>>>>>> don’t forget to check out Stolf’s Blog <<<<<<

Ask Cool Daddy’s Fruit Stand

Dear Cool Daddy: A woman I work with says her first computer back in the 1980s was something called an Apricot. I think she’s mixing Apples and….well, you know. So is she fruity or what? …from Dagwood, in Duluth

Dear Dag: It’s discouraging, isn’t it…when the “lady at the office” is always right and you’re always wrong. But in the early days of what was called “personal computing,” Apple was a major player from the get-go, and so a natural target to be taken down…what better way to attack than with other fruits?…or at least that was the reasoning at the time. Thus the Apricot, with this in-your-face anti-Apple advertising…

Didn’t pan out that way of course, but how could it? Earlier, the Pineapple was not just a competitor, but an out-and-out clone…within months, they were forced to ditch at least the “apple” part of their name. But look at the difference a year made…48 to 64 K..no longer a kit, but assembled…and for 6 less…

Another Apple clone was the…wait for it…Orange+…and the Poppy took aim at IBM, spoofing their iconic rose…

So what else botanical begins with A?…Acorn, of course. Even printers got fruity, with the Gorilla brand Banana model. And furniture from Pearr [sic]…BTW, that Commodore is a Series 4000, successor to the original PET from 1977…it came with its own monitor and 8, 16, or 32 K of memory. The game-changing Vic-20 was still 2 years away.

Don’t forget your surge protector…and a whole “basket” of choices..Lemon, Lime, Orange, and Peach. So yeah, I guess that’s where the Blackberry came from, nez pah?

seedless plugfruits…

Podcasts at http://stolfpod.podbean.com

or try http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail?pid=67859

and http://thewholething.podbean.com

or http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail?pid=75175

Deep Fried Hoods Cups Daily Blog: http://deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com/

Other Daily Blog at http://stolf.wordpress.com (the legendary Stolf’s Blog)

More bloggage at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com and http://www.examiner.com/retro-pop-culture-in-watertown/mark-john-astolfi

Updated Resume at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com/p/resume.html

Audio samples at http://stolfspots.podbean.com

Deep-Fried Hoodsie Cups

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DFHC 2/1/2012 - February 2, 2012 by tmlcentral

>> don’t forget to check out Stolf’s Blog …I’m countin’ on y’all… <<\

Ask Cool DABBA

Dear Cool Daddy: As a monster ABBA fan, imagine my glee to see this on the net: ABBA to Release First New Song in 18 Years…I didn’t even know they were back together! What’s the skinny, Minnie? … from Yohan in Hootersburg

Dear Yohan: Hate to have to burst your bubble, my man, but they didn’t get back together, so technically there is no “new” song, despite the screaming yellow hype. Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad have resolutely declined to perform together, on stage or in the studio, since they last did so in 1982…even for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. (Yeah, I know, but it’s misnamed…think of it as the Baby Boomer Hall of Music and you’ll be OK, altho we’re not sure when…)

What you read about is the release of a remastered CD of their 8th and final album from 1981, The Visitors. It will include the requisite bonus tracks, and one will be “From a Twinkling Star to a Passing Angel.” Nobody knows exactly what this will amount to, altho the resemblance of the title to “Like an Angle Passing Through my Room,” a lackluster ballad on said LP, suggests it’s some sort of demo…or perhaps a medley of early stages of the song…was it originally about a “twinkling star”? We’ll just have to wait until April 23rd to find out.

But here’s how it all played out 30 years ago. After the release of The Visitors in November of 1981, the four assembled in the studio in May and June of 1982 to work on their next LP. They completed 3 tracks… “You Owe Me One”…“I Am the City”…and…”Just Like That”…but producers Benny & Björn weren’t happy with them, and they took a month’s break. In August, they recorded “The Day Before You Came”…“Cassandra”…and…“Under Attack”…but in their minds, the groove was gone, and they settled for a Christmas release of a double-LP The Singles: The First Ten Years. The group called it quits soon after, last performing on British TV in December of 1982.

Of these 6 final songs, 4 were put out as singles that fall…”The Day…” backed with “Cassandra”…and “Under Attack” paired with “You Owe Me One.” Neither charted in the US, and that was pretty much the writing on the wall. ABBA’s last top 10 US hit had been “The Winner Takes It All” in 1980 at #8…their last Top 40 record was “When All Is Said and Done” in 1981 at #27. “The Visitors” then tanked at #63, their last US chart entry. But all 4 of these new songs were included in the double Singles album.

“I Am the City” would not see the light of day until 1993, on another compilation album, More ABBA Gold. That’s the “18 years”…well, 19 but who can count anymore?…that the news stories are referring to. The irony in my mind is that even at this late stage, and despite B&B’s misgivings, “I Am the City” and “Under Attack” are 2 of ABBA’s finest recordings ever… and “You Owe Me One” is also quite spiffy…and this isn’t just me saying it, but the consensus of the world-wide ABBAficionado community. Click on the titles and hear for yourself. But what happened to that 6th song, “Just Like That”?

It’s also a top fan favorite, available in several versions on bootlegs for decades…the story goes a cassette was stolen from somebody’s car…or something. Why have B&B refused to release it? Because in 1985, they produced an LP for a Swedish brother and sister team known as Gemini…and “Just Like That” was one of the songs they included. Most agree ABBA’s versions are infinitely better, but the boys insist the Gemini version is the definitive one, and it would be “confusing” to release ABBA’s. Huh? After all these years? And despite all the love? Well, that’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

And actually, a chorus of “Just Like That” has been officially released…in the 1994 box set Thank you For the Music…it’s part of a 22-minute medley titled “Undeleted”…in the fashion of the Beatles’ Anthology, this was composed of a whole bunch of demos, early versions, unreleased songs, out-takes, and other loose ends…but nothing in its entirety, only brief snippets.

Thus, when the news of this “new” song first hit, it was assumed the Holy Grail of ABBAdom was about to surface…but no such luck. On the bright side, the other 5 “last songs” are included on this new The Visitors CD…all in once place, for the convenience of latecomers. Anyway, you can check out 2 ABBA versions of “Just Like That”…the “na na na ” version…and the “sax” version…and if it sounds vaguely familiar, the melody of verse, altho not the chorus, was re-used in the musical Chess…which of course was a major post-ABBA project of Benny and Björn’s.

And what the heck, here’s this edition of DFHC‘s own “bonus track”…one of my favorite ABBA songs is “Does Your Mother Know?”…and here’s where the the break comes from…the unreleased “Dream World.”

Wicked Ballsy…

For the record, “Agnetha” is not pronounced AG-netha, like Agnes……but instead anh-YET-ah. And I’m sure you have no trouble remember which is which, but I always did…so several years ago I formalized this mnemonic device: Everybody knows blondes come from Sweden. So the one who isn’t blonde can’t be Swedish…she must be Finnish!…and that’s F for Frida…done and done…

üppkaftig urtag…

Podcasts at http://stolfpod.podbean.com and http://thewholething.podbean.com

Deep Fried Hoods Cups Daily Blog: http://deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com/

Other Daily Blog at http://stolf.wordpress.com (the legendary Stolf’s Blog)

More bloggage at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com and http://www.examiner.com/retro-pop-culture-in-watertown/mark-john-astolfi

Resume at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com/p/resume.html

Audio samples at http://stolfspots.podbean.com

Deep-Fried Hoodsie Cups

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G4BB 52: Eek! The Ewings! - January 31, 2012 by tmlcentral

>> don’t forget to check out Stolf’s Blog …I’m countin’ on y’all… <<

»»»»»» Eek! The Ewings! ««««««

52.1 In case any of you Dallas fans missed the memo, there will be a new 10-episode series on TNT this summer. Their “official website” doesn’t give a specific date, so I assume it hasn’t been decided yet. The internet buzz says “June,” but maybe that’s only because that’s the earliest summer can come… At any event, it won’t be a “re-imaging” like that ludicrous Hawaii 5-0…but a continuation of the original story lines.

52.2 The basic plot will be a power (no pun intended) struggle between J.R’s son John Ross and Bobby’s adopted son Christopher over Ewing oil and the future of energy in general…so who’s green? Watch and find out. But Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, and Patrick Duffy all reprise their roles, and it’s said they have lots to do…not just eye candy to draw in viewers. Other old-timers are promised, but what’s more significant, the producers say they are going to stay true to all the established history of the story…well, maybe except for the “dream season”…lol…and with that in mind, a Dallas family tree seemed in order.

52.3 Now as is typical of the soap opera genre, there were many marriages and re-marriages…and quite a few more liaisons, to use to old-fashioned term. I decided to focus primarily on those that resulted in offspring, since those characters would be the right age to have connections to this next generation.

52.4 Chart 180 is the basic tree…since it’s large, I am also including it below, before the plugs, in a vertical format…if you care to print it out, you could make it bigger without the quality degenerating as much. And since the show also followed the “family feud” soap tradition, I did a separate Chart 181 for the Barnes clan…there was simply no way to fit it on the main chart. Blue/pink outlines for boys/girls, except those who are dead are in a black. Black lines of descent indicate the parents were married…red, not married…green, adoption.

52.5 And altho Dr. Harlan Danvers was the Ewing family doctor…I had to include him somewhere, since my hometown is also a Danvers. BTW, teal arrows on Chart 181 indicate folks who are also on Chart 180…

52.6 There is more information to relate…but first this disclaimer: these charts are only “Take One”…when the new series finally rolls around, I expect I will have dug up more details. The problem is this: to do it right, you would need to watch all 14 seasons and 357 episodes, plus the prequel and the 2 sequel movies. Time and money prevent this, alas. (And now that I think about it, all of Knots Landing as well…whew!) But what I can find on the internet for the most part concerns characters that actually appeared on the show…I am sure there are many more relations who were mentioned or referenced…and perhaps some inconsistently, as will happen when a show has this long a run. For example, the identity of Miss Ellie’s parents and brother is known, altho they never appeared. It is curious that Jock’s parents…J.R. and Bobby’s Ewing grandparents after all…have not yet turned up…but we shall see.

52.7 Others on the charts that as far as I know were never seen include: Cliff’s siblings who died in infancy, Tyler and Catherine…Uncle Jason Ewing’s wife Nancy…Cliff’s 1st cousin Jimmy Monahan…and Val’s father Jeremiah Clements…as far as I know…and as I said, there definitely will be a “Take Two.”

52.8 I am making no effort to chronicle all the childless “hook-ups”…I’m sure somebody has somewhere…but I will mention other marriages. Bobby married Michelle Stevens’ sister April, who is now dead. Ray Krebbs married Jenna Wade, and adopted her son, Lucas Wade Krebbs. Ewing black sheep Gary married Abigail “Abby” Fairgate Cunningham, daughter of neighbors Sid and Karen Fairgate. Donna Culver Krebbs was formerly married to Governor Sam Culver, who is dead, as is his son David. Cliff Barnes was briefly married to Liz Adams. Val Clements Ewing married Ben Gibson…there was a story line about the twins Bobby and Betsy being his, but they are in fact Gary’s…as well as Danny Waleska. And I’m sure there are others I missed, but that’ll get you started.

52.9 So to sum up, since it’s obviously integral to the whole premise of the new series, Jock and Miss Ellie’s grandchildren, besides John Ross, Lucy, Bobby and Betsy, are Margaret Krebbs, James Richard Beaumont, Terrance Harper, Molly Whitaker, and Lucas Wade Krebbs…plus great grandson Jimmy Beaumont. And it will certainly be interesting to see if they remember that Sue Ellen is Christopher Ewing’s biological aunt!

52.10 A couple of other notes…here at G4BB, the term I use for the “i-word” is interbreeding…for individuals whose parents are related to each other. I do this in deference to those with a sensitive nature…but it doesn’t quite sound right when used to describe a relationship where no offspring has resulted. Thing is, there is a narrative element called “accidental i-word“…the classic case of course being Œdipus marrying his mother, and getting extremely upset when he found out that’s what he’d gone and done. Other examples include Star Wars’ Luke and Leia being potential sweethearts until, in his second most dastardly act of faithless storytelling, Gary Lucas decided they were twins…and Marty McFly’s mother falling for him in Back to the Future.

52.11 What’s all this got to do with Dallas? Well, Southfork foreman Ray Krebbs kanoodling with Lucy Ewing, remember? In fact, in the pilot episode, that’s how Pam gets out of a tight jam, by threatening to counter-blackmail Ray with that information…leading to J. R.’s famous line: “I underestimated the new Mrs. Ewing…welllll, I surely won’t do THAT again!” Of course, it was later revealed that Ray was Jock’s son, and Gary’s half-brother, hence Lucy’s half-Uncle…ooops! But that plot development was so delicious, the writers couldn’t resist, and the early affair was never, but never, mentioned again. Maybe that was just a dream too…

52.12 I also ought to explain several other Ewings you might see mentioned…in the final 2-part episode “Conundrum,” the demonic Adam takes J. R. on a tour of what life would have been like without him. Among other things, Bobby is separated from his wife Annie and has 3 children: John Ross Jr, Ellie, and Bobby Jr. And the “new” 3rd son of Jock and Miss Ellie is Jason Ewing, who’s married to Bootsie. Kind of like the Bizarro World of Dallas, nez pah?

52.13 And finally…not that this is a pre-spoiler or anything…but it should be pointed out that we technically don’t know if Pam is still alive…or at least was when the series ended. She supposedly had a fatal illness, but who can say? Next week, the stuffed-to-overflowing mailbag…bursts! Till then, be good…

Wicked Ballsy

I had this on the blog last week, but I’ll repeat it here for those who missed it…the original cast lineup for the show…interesting, to say the least. Mary Frann landed on King’s Crossing, then Newhart…she died in 1998. Robert Foxworth settled for Falconcrest…

________________________________________

shameless plugs, as big as Texas itself, where you can drive all day and still be on your ranch…yeah, I had a car like that once…

Podcasts at http://stolfpod.podbean.com and http://thewholething.podbean.com

Other Daily Blog at http://stolf.wordpress.com (the legendary Stolf’s Blog)

More bloggage at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com

and http://www.examiner.com/retro-pop-culture-in-watertown/mark-john-astolfi

Updated Resume at http://travelingcyst.blogspot.com/p/resume.html

Audio samples at http://stolfspots.podbean.com

Deep-Fried Hoodsie Cups

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DFHC 1/18/2012 - January 26, 2012 by tmlcentral

>>>>>> don’t forget to check out Stolf’s Blog <<<<<<

Ask Cool Daddy
Speaks Franco-Italian

Dear Cool Daddy: Franco-American canned spaghetti was a staple on Baby Boomer lunch-tables…but am I the only one who noticed that while spaghetti is Italian, “Franco” means “French”? …from Gustav in Peru

Dear Gustav: Yeah, in fact at our house “franco-american” was a generic term for that mushy, orange-colored pasta…if Chef Boy-ar-dee was on sale and Mom fixed it for us, we’d look at our plates and say: “Oh boy, franco-american!” And I really did like it…it had a pleasant little tang to it, as I recall. We would also from time to time have real spaghetti, in a real sauce with meatballs, so we didn’t really think of franco-american as spaghet’, any more than we would noodles or macaroni.

But to answer your question, I think I was vaguely aware that Franco in English meant French, but then it also sounded Italian, so it wasn’t till much later that I noticed the international dichotomy. BTW, “French” in Italian is “Francese”…pronounced fran-chase-ay. “Franco” in Italian means frank, honest, sincere…and also refers to the Franks, who inhabited much of France, Germany, and Northern Italy…in English, the adjective is “Frankish.” But the ultimate explanation is pretty much what you’d expect…Alphonse Biardot came to America from France in 1880 and settled in Jersey City. By 1886, he was running a successful restaurant, and selling products in cans.

His most prominent line was soups, many with a decidedly French twist…green turtle, terrapin, chicken consommé, purée of game, mulligatawny, mock turtle, ox-tail, tomato, chicken gumbo, French bouillon, julienne, pea, printanier, mutton broth, vegetable, beef, pearl tapioca, clam broth, clam chowder, and others. The Franco-American Food Company also made canned sauces, patés, custards, and puddings…in fact, an early advertisement reads: English Plum Pudding made by a Frenchman! Why Not?

They were sold to Campbell’s Soup in 1915, and one can only think that accelerated the ethnic diversification. The earliest I can find Franco-American spaghetti is around 1930…and it was marketed as being in the style of Milan…“à la Milanaise”…which is of course French…in English that would traditionally be “Milanese”…today you also see “Milano”…in Italian “alla Milanese.” There seems to be no agreement as to what style that is today… sauce having cream as a key ingredient…or fennel and sardines…or ham and mushrooms…or who knows??? Back then, it was parenthetically explained as “tomato sauce with cheese”…and it became the Franco-American brand’s flagship product.

Above left is from 1950, right 1955. But as is typical of what I call “merchandising drift,” the basic recipe became “Americanized” to be point where in 1960 (below), they offered an “Italian style” version of an ostensibly Italian product…hey, that’s the Second Plateau!

Wicked Ballsy

With Star Wars and all, I suppose this was inevitable, from the early 1980s…check the TV commercial here. Calling the meatballs “meteors” seems a stretch…you mean, like rocks?