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[Dan (the Man)]

Oops (spoo, spelled backwards)

And the word of the day is: TONSIL!

How many people still have theirs?  And, like Benjamin Kritzer, do you have vivid memories of having them out, if you indeed had them out?

I still have issues over how I was lied to when I had mine taken out.  I was told, repeatedly, that when I woke up, I would get to have a dish of whatever flavor ice cream I desired.  Well, when I woke up, I asked for banana ice cream.  And all I got was a small dish of vanilla that was mixed with milk!!!

Other than that truama, having my tonsils out was a snap.  Two months earlier, I had had an emergency appendectomy, which was not fun at all.

[Dan (the Man)]

Page Five Dance:

[Ben]

News about the cast for Encores production of The Apple Tree

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/92351.html

[Charles Pogue]

I think my first typewriter was a little Olivetti blue portable.  Which I had all through college and on which I wrote my first scripts until it fell apart.  I finally bought a nice used electric which I used until I finally went with computers in about 1987.

The thing about people talking on cell phones is that they seem to talk extra loud, as if wanting to share the intimate details of their life with the world.  I think it's all apart of the "lookatme, lookatme" culture we live in.  As the fabric of extended families and small community all get absorbed into a larger world community where individuality is lost more and more and anonymity becomes more pronounced, people are desperately trying to be noticed and flailing their arms, shouting, "Hey, I'm here!"  

I think it also has a great deal with our obssessing over the culture of celebrity and entitlement where everyone thinks they deserved to be noticed and should have what they want whether they have done anything to earn or merit it.

I copied an interesting article off the knight ridder news service on line last night which attributes just these issues as being behind the cause of waning personal responsibility.

I think much of it grew out of we baby boomers being over-indulged by our depression/WWII parents and I think our children will be worse.  Imagine a child who has had his whole life video-taped...how self-absorbed is he going to be?

[George]

A good rule of thumb is, if there is a sword fight, it is a swashbuckling movie.

I always thought that "swashbuckling" specifically referred to pirates, or at least sea stories...or stories that included sea action.  But I looked it up and one definition of "swashbuckler" is:  noun:  A flamboyant swordsman or adventurer.  Origin:  from the striking of bucklers in fighting.  So, swashbuckling movies that I like include (but are not limited to):

The Count of Monte Cristo
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
The Mask of Zorro (it's the first Zorro movie that I'd ever seen)
The Pirate
Pirates of Penzance
Pirates of the Carribean
The Princess Bride
Star Wars, Episode IV:  A New Hope
The Three (and Four) Musketeers (with Michael York, et. al)

One score that stood out for me was for "Pirates of the Carribean" because during the first sword fight between Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp, the score had musical accents when they hit their swords together.  I thought that that was pretty cool.

[Charles Pogue]

BK, is the Courts show the 23rd?  I just realized I have a screenwriter panel I'm sitting on that day at around 12:30.  I'll probably have to come either late Saturday or wait until Sunday.

[Jennifer]

Re: DRs JMK, JRand, MBarnum, and Stuart's comments about AMBER.

I've also heard others say that she rides Rob's coattails.  I'm not sure about how I feel.  I think Rob definitely seems like the mastermind.  But I think that is how the editing wants it to seem.  I think Amber has been very supportive (encouraring Rob when he is doing a task). And I think she has done a few tasks well (getting the woman to help her shop, milking the goat ..). I'm not sure how helpful she has been at directions (which is important). But they haven't really gotten lost (so she is probably doing something).  I'm just not convinced that rob would work as well on his own.

And as for their attitude towards others, I don't think it's wrong to want to work on their own (without being followed ...). I think that's actually admirable.  And of course they aren't that nice towards most teams (considering most teams went in acting quite hostile towards them).  I think Romber has helped teams that have helped them (like working with ron and kelly).  And they have been nice to some teams (without going out of their way to give the game away (like giving money to teams who have finished last).

I'm sorry if it seems like i'm always defending them.  There have been a few times when I thought their decisions sucked (going after that fastforward and then waiting ...).  But I guess I just love their strength and competitive edge.  Oh and btw, I definitely wanted rob to win over Amber in allstars, because i thought he was much more deserving.

[MBarnum]

Not need to be sorry Jennifer. It is always fun to hear other peoples points of view on TARs contestants.

[Sandra]

Typewriter? What's a typewriter? You can only type on computers.

Even I would not save a 25-30 page paper until the night before it was due. My record was ten pages, and I had help from my friend Philip Taylor. I also saved doing the research for that night too. That was not one of my better ideas. That paper only got a B. But that was the only thing I did for that class all semester. I had to take Government on independent study because of a scheduling problem. Independent study just means you sit in the back of the room and stare at the wall while the AP class has really in-depth discussions. Good times. The end result of that was that I know absolutely nothing about this country's government.

I wrote about half the paper last night, and then I needed to look up the date of when the show was first performed, so I signed onto the Internet to find it. That's where I went downhill. I kept getting distracted and forgetting all about the paper. Most of the all-nighter was spent Google-whacking and surfing the Internet. The really important stuff.

[Sandra]

P.S. I still have my tonsils.

[Stuart]

Even I would not save a 25-30 page paper until the night before it was due.

If the laws of hindsight applied, I would say neither would I.

[Dan (the Man)]

This is the exact make/model typewriter our family used when I was very young:



I still have it, too!

We later used a more modern Sears manual.  When I was in college, I bought myself an electric Smith-Corona (with the indispensible correction ribbon cartridge.)

[Charles Pogue]

What I liked about typewriters...you bought one and that was it!  Unlike computers, you weren't calling the technicians every few months or few weeks to resolve some problem with it.  You changed a ribbon occasionally and maybe you took it in for a cleaning every couple of years, but that was it.  No ongoing, perennial mainteance problems.

[Joey]

I went to go clean out my tent I brought back up with me yesterday because it had a bunch of sand in it from when we went camping this summer. We are going to use it for the Relay for Life. The thing is massive so the entire team could fit in it all at once!

[Joey]

I also have a cell phoneome but the only reason is because it is cheaper for my parents and siblings to call me when we need to coordinate meeting times and such. (Long distance with land lines, "free" with cell phone plan. I use mine as an alarm clock more often than not. I maybe use my phone once a day on average. Many of my friends have cell phones also but we would be much more unhappy if we were deprived of our computers. We can live without phones but we could never live without our computers. It is pretty sad really that we have become so dependent on them. What ever happened to going to visit someone to talk to them?

[Ginny]

I think my first typewriter was a little Olivetti blue portable.

So was mine!  Even after I started using a computer, I used the typewriter (and its eventual electric replacement) around for filling out forms and addressing envelopes.

The footnote technique I mentioned earlier actually involved typing an extra draft.  First time through, when you got to the text that needed to be footnoted you typed the note right there.  On the final draft, you typed all text and had just the right amount of room at the bottom of the page for the footnotes.  It was amazing how many minor revisions I was able to make during that "extra draft" phase and how what seemed at first blush to be a time-consuming step turned out to be a time-saver and writing-improver.

[William F. Orr]

But that was back before Joey was born.

[Ginny]

But that was back before Joey was born.

W-a-a-a-ay before Joey was born.  Do I owe him a dollar now?

[Matt H.]

I had my tonsils taken out at age 6. I remember while coming home from the hospital asking my mother if I could have prunes (strange, but I loved them as a kid) when we got home. I remember asking that as if it were yesterday.

[Jane]

According to TIVO the first episode of REVELATIONS is on CNBC tonight and on the SciFi channel Friday night.

I think we will watch it tonight.

[Tomovoz]

I do not have my tonsil any longer. The adenoids also came out along with the tonsils. My two older sisters and I had them out at the same time. What were doctors thinking in those days!!! My mother was then saddled with three children all under the age of 7 who needed recuperation, care and attention and ice cream.

WFO, I, too, have strong memories of the ether and of beginning to count backwards from 100. I did not get far.

Ether memories here too. No adenoids and no tonsils. It seens that DR Elmore and I shall be going to the theatre on the same day in May - the operating theatre. At least there will be no ether for ether of us. (I watched Pirates Of Penzance last night - the filmed stage version - not the film - I have the seen the film often but this orphan has only seen the filmed stage play once). The Theatrical version but is quite watchable and I do prefer Ms Routledge's version to that of Ms Lansbury.

[JMK]

The other thing I remember about my tonsillectomy is how the doctor had a little tea-strainer like thing with gauze on it and that he sprinkled a few drops of ether on that and put it over my nose, instead of the big rubber mask they used for some bigger operations I had later in life.

[Matt H.]

We had a Remington portable typewriter at home, but when I went off to college, my parents bought me a Smith-Corona which I still have in the closet of my upstairs office where I am typing this very moment. I bought a couple of electric typewriters in the years after I graduated from college and before the computer age came in and did away with needing a typewriter. I still have the last electric typewriter I ever bought packed away in another room here, too.

[Tomovoz]

I used to teach typewriting and in the early 1970's we certainly did not have even electric machines. Some of students did not like to keep typing if they had made a mistake and thus were paper wasters. I can still remember in 1970 saying in my class of 13 year old girls, "If you screw up any more paper Jillian Wiffin, I shall screw you".  Fortunately everyone laughed!!

[Tomovoz]

The other thing I remember about my tonsillectomy is how the doctor had a little tea-strainer like thing with gauze on it and that he sprinkled a few drops of ether on that and put it over my nose, instead of the big rubber mask they used for some bigger operations I had later in life.

My sister and I (A "Chicago" reference)were discussing such a mask and ether only yesterday - fear. We remember being held down, the feeling of being smothered and the smell of ether.

[Matt H.]

I, too, have a cell phone that gets very infrequent use. I do use it for long distance calls, and I carry it with me when I'm on the road at night.

But as a general rule, I don't carry it with me automatically when I leave the house. There is usually no call that's so urgent that it can't wait until I get home. And I loathe trying to talk in the car while driving and if someone calls me while I'm on the highway, I get off the phone as soon as I can. I do not know how people can drive and talk at the same time, even if you're using a headset. For me, that's too many things happening at once.

[Matt H.]

Oh, my, Jesse Martin was shot on LAW & ORDER last night. Out for the rest of the season. That has allowed him to film RENT, of course. Michael Imperioli will take his place for the remainder of this season's episodes.

[Rodzinski]

I agree with you, Charles Pogue, on cellphones. I never wanted one, but the Gal eventually insisted. I told her if she wanted me to have a cellphone so bad, she could buy me one for my birthday, which she did. It is handy, no question, and cheaper than using our landline, but the whole cellphone culture that has sprung up is dastardly. In the same way people need to video record their whole existence, now people feel the need to call others anytime they are someplace neat. "Hey, guess where I am? I'm on my cellphone at intemission of a Broadway show!!!"

[Rodzinski]

However, I do NOT agree with you, Charles Pogue, on your choice of baseball teams. The NL Central belongs to the Pirates, my good man. The team of Clemente, Stargell, Mazeroski... is poised to add another World Series to its trove! Big Red Machine look out!

(True, the Bucs last saw the title when I was a wee lad, but they are overdue!)

And speaking of pirates and swashbuckling, a good film is HERO'S ISLAND starring James Mason and, of course, Warren Oates.

[bk]

TONSIL, baby, TONSIL!

Shortly I will be on my way to rehearse with Mr. Kevin Spirtas and then to dine with La Pogue.  Keep the home fires burning until my returning, you dear, dear people out there in the dark.