WA2K Radio is now on the air

Heavenly shades of night are falling, it's twilight time
Out of the mist your voice is calling, it's twilight time
When purple-colored curtains mark the end of day
I'll hear you, my dear, at twilight time

Deepening shadows gather splendor as day is done
Fingers of night will soon surrender the setting sun
I count the moments darling till you're here with me
Together at last at twilight time

AS TEARS GO BY
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)

It is the evening of the day
I sit and watch the children play
Smiling faces I can see
But not for me
I sit and watch
As tears go by

My riches can't buy everything
I want to hear the children sing
All I hear is the sound
Of rain falling on the ground
I sit and watch
As tears go by

It is the evening of the day
I sit and watch the children play
Doin' things I used to do
They think are new
I sit and watch
As tears go by

Letty, I´m not so hip on Danish proverbs.
But Neil Sedaka always makes me smile..

Good morning listeners. I looked out the window this morning and saw a large yellow ball in the sky. After a short study of the phenomena I was able to identify it as the Sun. But this is New England. That isn't supposed to happen until June. I'm going to call it an propitious omen. I wonder if on this same date in 1970 Thor Heyerdahl saw the same thing when the RaII expedition started across the Pacific.

Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914 in Larvik, Norway-April 18, 2002 in Colla Micheri, Italy) was (originally) a Norwegian marine biologist with a great interest in anthropology, who became famous for his Kon-Tiki Expedition in which he sailed by raft 4,300 miles from South America to the Tuamotu Islands.
Thor Heyerdahl

This expedition demonstrated there were no technical reasons to prevent people from South America from having settled the Polynesian Islands. Nevertheless most anthropologists continue to believe, based on physical and genetic evidence, that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland.

In the Kon-Tiki Expedition, he and a small team went to South America where they used trees and other native materials to construct a raft, which smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on August 7, 1947 after a 101 day 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America. The only modern technology they had was communications equipment. For food, they lived off the fruit of the ocean. The documentary of the expedition won an Academy Award in 1952.

"If you had asked me as a 17-year-old whether I would go to sea on a raft, I would have absolutely denied the possibility. At that time, I suffered from fear of the water," Heyerdahl once said.

In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with many other expeditions and archaeological projects. However, he remained best known for his boat-building, and for his emphasis on cultural diffusionism. He built the boats Ra and Ra II in order to demonstrate that Ancient Egyptians could have communicated with the Americas or transferred pyramid-building technology. On May 17, 1970 Heyerdahl set sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to Central America.

His next boat Tigris was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked the Indus Valley Civilisation in India with Mesopotamia. The Tigris was deliberately burnt in Djibouti, on April 3, 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. In Heyerdahl's open letter to the Secretary of the United Nations he said in part:

' Today we burn our proud ship... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilized and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbors are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.

'To the innocent masses in all industrialized countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time.... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.

'Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilization from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.'

In 1991 he studied the pyramids of Güímar on Teneriffe and discovered that they cannot be random stone heaps, but actual pyramids. He also discovered their special astronomical orientation. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean.

His last project was Jakten på Odin, the search for Odin, in which he initiated excavations in Azov, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea, to search for the possible remains of a civilizations to match the account of Snorri Sturluson in Ynglinga saga about the emigrating tribe of Aesir with their leader Odin, who Snorri said came to Saxland, Fyn and Sweden and got the reputation of being a God (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden).

Heyerdahl was also an active figure in 'Green' politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe.

Heyerdahl's expeditions were spectacular, and his heroic journeys in flimsy boats caught the public imagination. But his diffusionist theories were considered eccentric and old-fashioned by most archaeologists. His central claims that migrations linked comparable ancient civilisations have not been supported by more recent evidence. He has even been accused of an 'imperialist' mentality. However Heyerdahl undoubtedly increased public interest in ancient history and in the achievements of various cultures and peoples around the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl

"The Kon-Tiki Expedition" was my favourite book when I was growing up.

Hey anybody read the stuff i posted on p. 581 about brass bands? Anyone follow the link? Any comment? Just wondered.

I may go up there Friday.

Good morning McTag. Yes I read it. Good information for music lovers. I'm about to leave for my am infusion of that precious liquid. Thought I'd leave with a little tale of inscrutable humor. R rated of course.


A man is out in the Chinese wilderness and he's hopelessly
lost. It's been nearly three weeks since he's eaten anything
besides what he could forage and he's been reduced to sleep-
ing in caves and under trees. One afternoon he comes upon
an old mansion in the woods. It has vines covering most of
it and the man can't see any other buildings in the area.
However, he sees smoke coming out of the chimney implying
someone is home.

He knocks on the door and an old man answers, with a beard
almost down to the ground. The old man squints his eyes and
says "What do you want?"

The man says "I've been lost for the past three weeks and
haven't had a decent meal or sleep since that time. I would
be most gracious if I could have a meal and sleep in your
house for tonight."

The old Chinese man says "I'll let you come in on one
condition: You cannot mess around with my granddaughter."

The man, exhausted and hungry readily agrees, saying "I
promise I won't cause you any trouble. I'll be on my way
tomorrow morning."

The old Chinese man counters "Ok, but if I do catch you
then I'll give you the three worst Chinese torture tests
ever known to man."

"OK, OK" the man said as he entered the old house. Besides,
he thought to himself, what kind of woman would live out
in the wilderness all her life?

Well, that night, when the man came down to eat (after
showering), he saw how beautiful the granddaughter was.
She was an absolute pearl, and while he had only been
lost three weeks, it had been many, many months without
companionship. And the girl had only seen the occasional
monk besides her grandfather and well, they both couldn't
keep their eyes off each other throughout the meal.

That night, the man snuck into the girls' bedroom and
they had quite a time, but had kept the noise down to a
minimum. The man crept back to his room later that night
thinking to himself, "Any three torture tests would be
worth it after that experience."

Well, the next morning the man awoke to find a heavy
weight on his chest. He opened his eyes and there was
this huge rock on his chest. On the rock was a sign
saying "First Chinese torture test: 50 kg rock on your
chest".

"What a lame torture test" the man thought to himself
as he got up and walked over to the window. He opened
the shutter and threw the rock out. On the backside of
the rock is another sign saying, "Second worst Chinese
torture test: Rock tied to RIGHT testicle".

The man, seeing the rock was too far out the window to
be grabbed, jumps out the window after the rock. Outside
the window is a third sign saying "Third worst Chinese
torture test: LEFT testicle tied to bedpost".

Well it's the Friday of the Whitsun weekend. I looked this up:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/whitsun.html

Whitsun (Pentecost)
Whitsun is the name for the Church festival otherwise called Pentecost held on the seventh Sunday after Easter.
The word Pentecost means fiftieth day after the Sabbath of the Passover. Thus it is fifty days after Easter Sunday.
Whisuntide falls in May. It starts with Whit Sunday, which is always the seventh sunday after Easter Sunday.

G'day folks.

Today is the 17 of may and that's a special date. That was when (in 1814) Norway got it's own constitution. So today we wear traditional festivity clothing and walk around in parades singing songs.

So give it up for Norway on it's 192nd birthday!

The "Sons of Norway" (coming to you from the Norumbega Lodge
in Massachusetts) are taking requests.

lol. Looking at them I am wondering if not Norway is their child.

Among Americans of Norwegian heritage there
is a song that includes the lines:

Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds
At the Battle of Copenhagen.
Ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds,
Chased by one Norwegian!

Ever hear of it?

No I haven't heard it before, but I REALLY like it

I looks like it stems from the friendly rivalry that has always existed between swedes and norwegians. We have swede-jokes in norway, jokes like: The norwegian, the dane, and the swede went into the pigs house to see who could remain in there the longest... The swede always looses and the norwegian always win. These jokes are common around the world, just with different people in them.

Good morning, WA2K radio audience.

First let me say to hebba I was joking a wee bit about your having submitted that Danish proverb. <smile> but it was great to see you back in our studios. Glad we did the Sedaka song.

To our music makers of last night I would like to say that the melodies filtered through and gave a nice background to NBC's Hercules. (most boring thing that I have every tried to watch)

McTag, I read every word of your brass band info and recounted with the drum and bugle corps. Heh! Heh! Also, a bit about John Philip Sousa. Saki , to me, is one fabulous short story writer, and I have read almost everything that he has written, so I hope you all will take a quiet moment to read The Story Teller.

Now a review of the books and jokes.

Bob, like McTag, I read Kon Tiki when I was very young, and it was superb. He captured the world's imagination and unlike many theorists, he DID rather than postulate. I also read the RA Expeditions. More about that later.

Cyracuz, salute to your holiday, my friend, and George's "squeeze box" group is perfect for the occasion.

How very neat to wake up to laughter, Bob. Remind me to tell you how yodeling was invented.

Good Day to All.

And speaking of yodels, one of our birthday celebrants had a lot of experience in that line.

May 17 Birthdays:

1749 Edward Jenner, physician who pioneered vaccination (Berkeley, England; died 1823)
1900? Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian religious/revolutionary leader (Khomein, Iran; died 1989)
1903 James "Cool Papa" Bell, baseball player and Negro Leagues star (Starkville, MS; died 1991)
1911 Maureen O'Sullivan, actress (Ireland; died 1998)
1912 Archibald Cox 1st Watergate special prosecutor , died 2004
1918 Birgit Nilsson, opera singer (Karup, Sweden)
1936 Dennis Hopper, actor (Dodge City, KS)
1950 Christian Lacroix, fashion designer (Arles, France)
1955 Bob Saget, actor/TV personality (Philadelphia, PA)
1956 Sugar Ray Leonard, champion boxer (Washington, DC)
Bill Paxton, actor (Fort Worth, TX)
1961 Enya, singer (Gweedore, Ireland)
1965 Trent Reznor, singer and member of Nine Inch Nails (Mercer, PA)

(Before the censors got to Jane Parker)

Maureen O'Sullivan's oldest son, Michael, was killed in a plane crash while taking flying lessons, in 1958.

She was the Mother-in-law of Frank Sinatra and Andre Previn.

and mother, with director John Farrow, of the actresses Mia Farrow, Tisa Farrow and Stephanie Farrow.

My word, Raggedy. I am stunned to read about Maureen O'Sullivan's extended family. Of all the Tarzan movies that I watched as a kid, I preferred this dynamic duo to any other.

Frankly, listeners, I realize that Edgar Rice Burrough's did not intend for Tarzan to be an illiterate ape man, but rather a noble, the earl of Greystoke, (learned that much later in life); however, hollywood's version was much more exciting to a child.

If I'm not mistaken, they shot a lot of scenes in Silver Springs here and near Ocala, Florida. Also, they used Indian elephants with glued on ears to simulate the African elephant, because the African elephant was much less docile.

Thanks for that information, Raggedy. I'm still examining your celebs to find the yodler.

Another serendipity, listeners, and here it is:

Lyrics: Phil Collins



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh, the power to be strong
And the wisdom to be wise
All these things will
come to you in time
On this journey that you're making
There'll be answers that you'll seek
And it's you who'll climb the mountain
It's you who'll reach the peak

Son of Man, look to the sky
Lift your spirit, set it free
Some day you'll walk tall with pride
Son of Man, a man in time you'll be

Though there's no one there to guide you
No one to take your hand
But with faith and understanding
You will journey from boy to man

Son of Man, look to the sky
Lift your spirit, set it free
Some day you'll walk tall with pride
Son of Man, a man in time you'll be

In learning you will teach
And in teaching you will learn
You'll find your place beside the
ones you love
Oh, and all the things you dreamed of
The visions that you saw
Well, the time is drawing near now
It's yours to claim it all

Son of Man, look to the sky
Lift your spirit, set it free
Some day you'll walk tall with pride
Son of Man, a man in time you'll be

Son of Man
Son of Man's a man for all to see

That song was written and sung by Phil Collins about Tarzan. My word!

Oh, I meant Maureen O'Sullivan for the yodel. Her cry was a high gurgling soprano. Did you know that Marlon Brando sometimes used the name Lord Greystoke when signing hotel registers?

"The question of the source for the cry used in Johnny's Tarzan films has been argued at length over the past several decades. Up until the mid-60s, Johnny claimed that it was his own, derived from a yodelling contest he had won as a boy. The cry had been recorded to save his voice. A reference by the American Film Institute states that a certain J. D. Jewkes was engaged to voice double the Tarzan cry for Weissmuller. Johnny Sheffield, who did not join the Tarzan family until 1939, does not recall Weissmuller's ever mentioning yodelling to him from his boyhood. What he does remember is being on a sound stage at Metro with Fritz Steinkamp from the sound department and a piano. A note was hit on the piano and Sheffield gave it. From the voice sampling, an enhanced yell was created. He believes that both Weissmuller and O'Sullivan went through the same process, but is not certain. Yet another source claims that the cry was a combination of the voices of studio technicians.

Tom Held, an MGM film editor, claimed that the cry was a combination of things: Johnny's voice, the bleat of a camel, the growl of a dog, the howl of a hyæna, and a pick of a violin G-string. They supposedly laid four or five different sound tracks the one over the other, using these different sounds and timing it so that each of them played a fraction of a second after the preceding one. The soundmen, from these reports, did not perfect the cry until 1934. Yet, there is no appreciable difference between the cry heard in Tarzan, the Ape Man and Tarzan and His Mate. Buster Crabbe, who married Held's daughter, always supported his father-in-law's story. Others, like Maureen O'Sullivan, sided with Johnny. Lately, Brendan Fraser, star of George of the Jungle, claims to have done his own "research."

According to him, two singers voices were heard and interspersed with sundry other sounds.

Samuel Marx, in his book on Mayer and Thalberg, came closest to the truth when he wrote that the cry was contrived by Douglas Shearer, who recorded a shout that was electronically enhanced and run backwards. A little experimenting on the computer proves that the yell is palindromic, sounding identical whether played forwards or backwards, which means that the second half of the cry is the first half in reverse, thus supporting Marx's explanation.

One should also bear in mind that Johnny recorded a completely different version when he moved over to RKO, and Sheffield is certain that this yell was Weissmuller's."

I loved those Johnny Weismuller pictures. (lol)

You know, listeners, it is not only fun to be on the air in cyberspace, it's also serious, even sobering. <smile> Thanks, Raggedy. You're our no. 1 movie buff and historian, and I love it, right folks?

In checking out McTag's Whit stuff, I found this news item:



Raffarin firm on scrapping Whit Monday holiday

PARIS, April 28 (AFP) - French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Thursday stood firmly behind government plans to abolish a May bank holiday in order to raise money for the elderly, despite strike calls by trade unions.

"I ask that the law, approved by the parliament, be respected by all," Raffarin said after a government meeting on the "day of solidarity" organized for Whit Monday, which this year falls on May 16.

Last year, President Jacques Chirac's administration pushed through a law that turned Whit Monday into a normal working day in order to produce an extra EUR 2 billion (USD 2.6 billion) for a "National Solidarity Fund."

But several trade

unions have called for employees to strike on that day, an expression of social discontent that has authorities worried, as the protests would come just two weeks before a May 29 referendum on the EU constitution.

With the 'no' camp still leading in the polls, officials both in the centre-right government and in the opposition Socialist party fear that a day of strikes so close to the vote would fuel opposition to the landmark treaty.

The idea for a "day of solidarity" to raise funds for the elderly followed the 2003 heat wave in which the deaths of some 15,000 old people were shown to have been partially caused by the absence of basic care.

About two out of three French people say they are opposed to the cancellation of a bank holiday, according to the latest opinion polls, and many companies have maintained May 16 as a day off.

But Raffarin gave no ground, saying: "The day of solidarity is a call to brotherhood among all French people. It's an act of generosity by French society for itself, for its future."

The prime minister, however, did not make any mention of possible sanctions should private or public sector companies fail to adhere to the new law.

The law stipulates that companies and local administrations can choose to work days other than Whit Monday - the day after the Christian feast of Pentecost - if there is agreement with unions.

And in the words of Rhett:

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a whit, and I'm certain that Francis and McTag don't either.

When I told you going on strike is a national sport...

Frankly, I dont give a...

Ah, dear Francis. You do the most marvelous one liners.

Speaking of holidays, Memorial Day in America is to be observed this month. I was wondering if any of our European contingent have a similar observance.