Today I learned my dad does NOT have prostate cancer

It's been a tough week for me, as I've been dealing with health scares from both of my parents - but a rougher week for them, obviously. But now all is joy. My mom got some kind of food poisoning and was sicker than a dog for 3 days. She refused to go to the hospital and so we didn't force her, but it was very worrisome. Yesterday she perked up, and today's she fine. My dad, meantime, had had a biopsy done last week. He was sure he had prostate cancer, but according to the doctor today, he doesn't have it. So I haven't posted anything in the last 5 days, and that's why. My regular posting schedule should begin again tomorrow.

Today I learned that there's a Swiss town named Duffel

I'm annotating a Clive Cussler book, and he had a character hand up a duffel bag to another character. I decided to try to find out the history of the duffel bag, and thanks to Wikipedia, it took no time at all. A duffel bag (or duffle bag, kit bag, gym bag) is a large cylindrical bag made of cloth (or other fabric) with a drawstring closure at the top. The name comes from Duffel,[1] a town in Belgium where the thick cloth used to make the bag originated. More recently, a duffel bag typically refers to the specific style of bag, though the phrase may also be used to refer to any large generic holdall or a bag made of thick fabric. It is often used to carry luggage or sports equipment by people who travel in the outdoors. Duffel bags are also often used by military personnel. When used by sailors or Marines they are sometimes called seabags or "ditty" bags. Now, why do sailors call them "ditty" bags? Wikipedia didn't say. I'll save that research for another day.

Today I learned tha tI might have been precipitate...

While I don't care for some of what blogger has done...there is one sweet feature - I can now see Page views for all my blogs. In a way it's sad - I get a lot of page views for these blogs but not a one has bought any books from my Amazon ads... - the main purpose for the blogs! I've stopped posting in a few of them, as my Amazon subscribers dwindled down to 0 - but page views from folks on their computers was actually pretty good. But again - no Amazon purchases, so no income for me. And I dont really have the time to post in these blogs unless i'm making money from them... even just a few coins here and there! Ah, well.

Today I learned that: Atom Bomb Girls were used to popularize the atomic age

While surfing the web, I came across a blog called http://missatomicbomb.blogspot.com/, which had a link to a PDF entitled: Nevada National Security Site History. On Dec 18, 1950, President Truman authorized the establishment of a continental testing site for nuclear weapons, in Nevada. Tests began in 1951. When new tests were held in 1952, TVs across America covered the blasts live. "Designers of everything from clocks to lamps to corporate logos soon adopted what became known as 'Atomic Style' into their work. It was a form of design that commonly included rays and spheres simulating a path of electrons around the nucleus of an atom." In Las Vegas, the first known photo of an atomic pin-up girl appeared on May 9, 1952, in the Dixon Illinois Evening Telegraph as well as the Statesville, North Carolina Daily REcord. It depicted Miss Atoic Blast, otherwise known as Las Vegas dancer Candyce King.. The captaion stated 'radiating loveliness instead of deadly atomic particles, Candyce King, actress appearing at Last Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, dazzled US marines who participated in recent atomin maneuvers at Yucca Flats.' The last Miss Atomic Bomb appeared in the news on May 24, 1957. Lee A Merlin wore a cotton mushroom cloud affixed to the front of her swimsuit.

Today I learned that: there's a name for people who study Mars

I'm going through my Scrabble dictionary. The scientific name for people who study Mars is Areology. Or rather - that's the study of the planet Mars. According to the dictionary, there's no such word as Areologist.

Today I learned that: blogger.com is an idiot

I have a lot of blogs. And I like to be able to see each blog, and look at my posts. And I can no longer do that, thanks to blogger's new "sleek" interface that they've saddle me with - without warning. Two hours ago everything was normal, now I've got a list of my blogs, and no options but to post. No way to look at past posts. God this is so damn annoying!

Today I learned that: Mitt Romney only payed $3 million in taxes last year

According to Yahoo news, which always refers to Republicans in pejorative terms in their news headlines.

To the news I say, so what?

Apparently he also gave a lot to charity - that charity probably being the Mormon Temple.

I don't actually know anything about the Mormon Religion, except of course that it was originally founded by polygamists - guys who wanted 40 wives or more, nice work if you can get it.

Also one of two founders was given tablets or something by an angel named Moroni. Don't ask me how I know that.

I'm an atheist. My interest in religion is based on...who creates it, and what it's used for, and why do people believe it.

It's these cults that interest me - like that James Jones cult in Guyana where they left family and friends all to be with Jones, and if I remember correctly he had his way with all the women... why why why would people abandon a normal life in order to go into a compound to be the literal slave of the "prophet."?

I'll be doing research on this as the days go by.

Today I learned that: you should always carry your cellphone

I don't have my cellphone attached to my ear like so many people today. I have a cellphone for emergency purposes only, and if I have an emergency the only person I'd call would be my dad.

So today, since my dad and I were together, I didn't bring my cellphone. And neither did he.

So of course I needed it.

He was having a biopsy done at the local hospital, and would be given anesthesia so I needed to be there to bring him home. My mom is deaf as a post and mobility impaired. She walks with a walker and if she falls down it takes two of us to get her up...so we don't like to leave her alone for more than a couple hours at a time.

So after two hours at the hospital my dad's biopsy had yet to even begin, and I was informed that there would be another half hour weight before it started, and then it'd be a half hour, then another hour before he regained consciousness, etc.

He wanted me to call my sister - who lives in town - to drive out to our house to check on my mom.

But I couldn't because I didn't have my cellphone.

In Hampton Roads, VA a couple of years ago, when he'd had cataract surgery, I'd had to stick around and absolutely could not leave...but at this hospital they were a bit looser. As long as i was back in an hour it was fine.

So I zoomed home - a 15 minute drive, checked on my mom who was just fine, busily cooking chili - pocketed my cellphone and returned to the hospital.

Alls well that ends well, but that taught me a lesson - no matter where you go or who you're with, always bring your cell phone!

Today I learned how to pronounce Boyardee

I have seen the Chef Boyardee food on my supermarket shelves for as long as I can remember. Surely I must have seen commercials for it too.

I have always pronounced it in three evenly accented syllables: BOY AR DEE.

However, watching Tool Time today on TV land at 6.15 pm Mountain time, they showed an old Chef Boyardee commercial that actually had someone who claimed to be Chef Boyardee himself. And he pronounced his name:

Boy- yarrrrrdeee

Who knew?

(Except folks who understand Italian, I suppose.)

Today I learned that: Edgar Allan Poe was born on this day

Farley Granger and Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train

Dipping into my Mystery Book of Days book, I see that:


19 January 1809
The father of the detective story, Edgar Allan Poe, was born in Boston. The book calls him a "notorious gambler, drunkard and opium addict," but this wasn't really true. He certainly had a weakness for alcohol, but all the bad things said about him..well, most of the bad things... were said by his literary executor - whom Poe didn't realize hated him when he made the appointment. After his death - some suspect of rabies, not of alcohol poisoning, this executor did his best to ruin Poe's reputation.

19 January 1921
Patricia Highsmith is born in Texas. She's the author of the book Strangers on a Train (1950), that Alfred Hitchcock made into a movie in 1951 with Farley Granger and Robert Walker. It was her first book. Two men meet on a train. Each wants someone they know, dead. They agree to swap murders, so that they can provide themselves with an alibi for "their" murder, and no one will suspect the other person. (This plot has been used many times since then.)

Today I learned: the location of the color code for a car

I had to write an article for someone on where to find the color code for a car's paint job. I'd never ever given this thought before - although my poor 1998 Toyota Camry is getting a bit of rush on the rear panel and I do need to excise that rust and touch it up.

Every car manufacturer has a small "data plate" on which they put information about the car - tire pressure, ya da ya da... and at the bottom - usually, but not always! - is a 3 number or letter code which is the code for the paint color. Some of the data plates identify this code with another code, C/T. (That means color of the trim). Others come straight out and id by the word Color:

When you open the front door of your car, look at the door jamb and there is the data plate. On my Dad's Toyota Echo, the code is right there, id'd by the C/T:

On my Toyota Camry - the data plate is there but there's no color code.

However, all is not lost. All anyone really has to do is a websearch. Put in the make and model of their car, and there will be some website that will tell you what the colors were for that year.

Today I learned that: I Love A Mystery radio show debuted today

Dipping into The Mystery Book of Days for today, I learned that:

16 January 1939
I Love A Mystery - a radio mystery program featuring Doc Long, Reggie York and Jack Packard premieres on the NBC radio network

16 January 1911
I Wake Up Screaming is released on this day. The movie stars Victor Mature, Betty Grable, Carole Landis, and Laird Cregar. It's based on a novel by pulp writer Steve Fisher, which features an inside view of Hollywood, but producer Darryl F. Zanuck forces a change to New York City.


I Love a Mystery cast (l to r): Russell Thorson (who portrayed Jack Packard) watches Athena Lord (as Jerri Booker) and Jim Boles (Doc). In real life, Lord and Boles were married.
I Love A Mystery
As an old-time radio fan, I had heard of I Love a Mystery before and indeed I have a few tapes of it (Bury Your Dead, Arizona). I didn't know that bit about Walter Paterson having committed suicide (which is said in the Wikipedia article about it). I know Tony Randall had played Reggie York - to my regret I later learned that he actually didn't care much for radio acting.
I Love a Mystery was a radio drama series about three friends who ran a detective agency and traveled the world in search of adventure. Distinguished by the high octane scripting of Carlton E. Morse, the program was the polar opposite of Morse's other success, the long-running One Man's Family.

The central characters, Jack Packard, Doc Long and Reggie York, met as mercenary soldiers fighting the Japanese in China. Later, they met again in San Francisco, where they decided to form the A-1 Detective Agency. Their motto was "No job too tough, no adventure too baffling." The agency served as a plot device to involve the trio in a wide variety of stories. These straddled the genres of mystery, adventure and supernatural horror, and the plotlines often took them to exotic locales. Over the years, Jack was played by Michael Raffetto, Russell Thorson, Jay Novello, Jim Bannon and John McIntire. Doc was played by Barton Yarborough and Jim Boles. Reggie was portrayed by Walter Paterson and Tony Randall. The agency's secretary, Jerry Booker, was played by Gloria Blondell. After Paterson committed suicide in 1942, his friend Morse could not bear to recast the role and Reggie was written out of the series. In later shows, Jerry's role was increased, and she replaced Reggie.


I Wake Up Screaming
A film I've never seen but would like to, as I like actor Laird Cregar.
I Wake Up Screaming (originally titled Hot Spot) is a 1941 film noir.[1] It is based on the novel of the same name by Steve Fisher, who co-wrote the screenplay with Dwight Taylor. The film stars Betty Grable, Victor Mature and Carole Landis, and features one of Grables's few dramatic roles.

Plot
A young promoter, Frankie Christopher (Mature), is accused of the murder of Vicky Lynn (Landis), a young actress he "discovered" as a waitress while out with ex-actor Robin Ray and gossip columnist Larry Evans.

Frankie hides out with Vicky's sister Jill (Grable), with whom he is falling in love, but is eventually captured and interrogated by the cops. An obsessive police officer, Cornell, knows that Frankie is innocent but because the evidence is completely incriminating, he tries to put the suspect behind bars anyway. Frankie escapes and eventually finds the murderer's true identity.

Today I learned that: the Man From Uncle aired its last ep on this date

I've been watching football all day - and all yesterday - so haven't learned anything new in these two days.

I decided to dip into The Mystery Book of Days (William Malloy, Mysterious Press, 1990) to see what happened today, mysteriously speaking.

15 January 1947
The body of Elizabeth Short, viciously mutilated, was found in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. I think that her nickname of The Black Dahlia was actually made up by the newspapers and not something she was actually called - I'd look that up if I cared but it's such a gruesome story that I don't want to do so. (Some years ago, I'd tried to read Who Killed the Black Dahlia by Max Collins, but couldn't get through it.)

15 January 1968
The Man From Uncle aired its final episode on NBC. It starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo, David McCallum as Ilya Kuryakin (who looks surprising like Dr. Donald Mallard on NCIS today) and Leo G. Carroll as Alexander Waverly.

The show is replaced by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

Today I learned that: No Word Rhymes With Angel

I visit http://dictionary.com often. The front page of the site always has a quiz question or something to stimulate thought.

Today, the question was, "This common word does not have a rhyme."

And the answer is ANGEL.

There are words that come close...like wrangle... wrangle. (As in, to wrangle a horse.)

Yes, angel has a soft g and wrangle has a hard g, but it still comes close enough, I would think for lyricists or limerick writers.