WA2K Radio is now on the air

Well, listeners. We have a very determined dys, do we not?

Hmmmm, what, exactly, can we do to deter the man from his appointed task?

How about a little Childe Harold's Pilgrimage?

"Roll on thou deep and dark blue dys, roll.
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vane."

words altered to protect Lord Byron. <smile>

Come on, folks, we know that we can't bash him or trash him. Any suggestions?

Beautiful Dreamer in my opinion is one of the best songs ever composed. I remember hearing it used not only as a song but without lyrics as background music for countless films including a mass of old westerns. One film which featured it was Mighty Joe Young. In the gorilla's first stage appearance Terry Moore was spotlighted playing it on a darkened stage. During the song mysteriously the piano rose with her still playing. The lights came on suddenly to reveal the giant gorilla holding piano and player over his head. Very effective scene.

traditional

De colores, de colores se visten los campos en la primavera
De colores, de colores son los pajaritos que vienen de afuera
De colores, de colores es el arco iris que vemos lucir

Chorus (2X):
Y por eso los grandes amores de muchos colores me gustan a mi

Canta el gallo, canta el gallo con su quiri (5x)
La gallina la gallina con su cara (5x)
Los polluelos, los polluelos con su pio (4x) pi

Chorus

(you know, I think you can sing this with us...)

In colors, in colors the Fields bloom in spring
In colors, in colors the little birds fly from afar
In colors, in colors the rainbow arcs so clearly
And for this reason, these great loves of many colors, please be so

De colores, de colores se visten los campos en la primavera
De colores de colores son los pajaritos que vienen de afuera
De colores, de colores es el arco iris que vemos lucir

Chorus (4x)

My word, folks. How many giant monkey movies have been made, I wonder, and now we are going to have King Kong again.

Bob, It seems to me, I've heard that song before--somewhere. It has a special meaning for me, above and beyond the mighty, the Joe, and the young. <smile>

edgar, that's an unusual song. What is it about color that swells the heart when some of our most lovely moments are in black and white?

Taking a moment to reflect..................................................

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

first published on July 4, 1865


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a work of children's literature by the British mathematician and author Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy realm populated by talking creatures and anthropomorphic playing cards.

The tale is fraught with satirical allusions to Dodgson's friends and to the lessons that British schoolchildren were expected to memorize. The Wonderland described in the tale plays with logic in ways that has made the story of lasting popularity with children as well as grown-ups.

The book is often referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland. This alternate title was popularized by the numerous film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years.



History
Illustration by Arthur Rackham

first published on July 4, 1865 Alice was, exactly three years after Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat up the River Thames with three little girls:

* Lorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13) ("Prima" in the book's prefatory verse)
* Alice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10) ("Secunda" in the prefatory verse)
* Edith Mary Liddell (aged 8) ("Tertia" in the prefatory verse)

The journey had started at Folly Bridge near Oxford, England and ended five miles away in a village of Godstow. To while away time the Reverend Dodgson told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure.

The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her. He eventually did so and in February 1863 gave Alice the first manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground. This original script was probably destroyed later by Dodgson himself when he printed a more elaborate copy by hand, illustrated it, and presented it to Alice as a Christmas present on 26 November 1864 (Gardner, 1965).

He also gave a copy of Alice's Adventures Under Ground to his friend and mentor George MacDonald, whose children loved it. On MacDonald's advice, Dodgson decided to submit Alice for publication. He expanded the 18,000-word manuscript to 35,000 words, most notably adding the episodes about the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea-Party. In 1865, Dodgson's tale was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by "Lewis Carroll" with illustrations by John Tenniel. The first print run of 2,000 was shelved because Tenniell had objections over the print quality; but a new edition, released in December of the same year but carrying an 1866 date, was quickly printed.

The entire print run sold out quickly. Alice was a publishing sensation, beloved by children and adults alike, and it has never been out of print since. There have now been over a hundred editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theater and film (see below).


Publishing Highlights

* 1869: Alice has its first American printing.
* 1871: Dodgson meets another Alice during his time in London, Alice Raikes, and talks with her about her reflection in a mirror, leading to another book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, which sells even better.
* 1886: Carroll publishes a facsimile of the earlier Alice's Adventures Under Ground manuscript.
* 1890: He publishes The Nursery "Alice", a special edition "to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five."
* 1908: Alice has its first translation into Japanese.
* 1960: American writer Martin Gardner publishes a special edition, The Annotated Alice, incorporating the text of both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. It has extensive annotations explaining the hidden allusions in the books, and includes full texts of the Victorian era poems parodied in them. Later editions expand on these annotations.
* 1998: A first-edition copy of the book is sold at auction for $1.5 million USD, becoming the most expensive children's book ever traded. (Only 22 copies of the 1865 first edition are known to have survived; 17 are owned by libraries, the other five being in private hands.)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into over 50 languages, including Esperanto.



Character allusions

The members of the boating party that first heard Carroll's tale all show up in Chapter 3 ("A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale") in one form or another. There is, of course, Alice herself, while Carroll, or Charles Dodgson, is caricatured as the Dodo. The Duck refers to Rev. Robinson Duckworth, the Lory to Lorina Liddell, and the Eaglet to Edith Liddell.

Bill the Lizard may be a play on the name of Benjamin Disraeli.

The Hatter is most likely a reference to Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer known in Oxford for his unorthodox inventions. Tenniel apparently drew the Hatter to resemble Carter, on a suggestion of Carroll's.

The Dormouse tells a story about three little sisters named Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie. These are the Liddell (sounds like "little") sisters: Elsie is L.C. (Lorina Charlotte), Tillie is Edith (her family nickname is Matilda), and Lacie is an anagram of Alice.

The Mock Turtle speaks of a Drawling-master, "an old conger eel," that used to come once a week to teach "Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils." This is a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, who came once a week to the Liddell house to teach the children drawing, sketching, and painting in oils. (The children did, in fact, learn well; Alice Liddell, for one, produced a number of skilled watercolors.)


Poems and songs

* "All in the golden afternoon..." (the prefatory verse, an original poem by Carroll that recalls the rowing expedition on which he first told the story of Alice's adventures underground)
* "How doth the little crocodile..." (a parody of Isaac Watts' nursery rhyme, "How doth the little busy bee")
* The Mouse's Tale (an example of concrete poetry)
* "You are old, Father William..." (a parody of Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them")
* The Duchess' lullaby: "Speak roughly to your little boy..."(a parody of David Bates "Speak Gently")
* "Twinkle, twinkle little bat..." (a parody of Twinkle twinkle little star)
* The Lobster Quadrille (a parody of Mary Botham Howitt' "The Spider and the Fly")
* "'Tis the voice of the lobster, I heard him declare..." (a parody of "Tis the voice of the Sluggard")
* Turtle Soup (a parody of James M. Sayles' "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star")
* "The Queen of Hearts..." (an actual nursery rhyme)
* "They told me you had been to her..." (the White Rabbit's evidence)


Tenniel's illustrations

John Tenniel's illustrations of Alice do not portray the real Alice Liddell. Carroll sent Tenniel a photograph of Mary Hilton Badcock, another child-friend, but whether Tenniel actually used Badcock as his model is open to dispute.

Famous lines and expressions

The term "Wonderland," from the title, has entered the language and refers to a marvelous imaginary place, or else a real-world place that one sees as "like a dream come true!" It is widely referenced in popular culture?-in books and film (see below) and pop music. To note just one example, there is a book by the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami entitled Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

"Down the Rabbit-Hole," the Chapter 1 title, has become a popular term for going into an adventure to the unknown. In the film The Matrix, Morpheus says to Neo: "I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice. Tumbling down the rabbit hole?" He also says, "You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." In computer gaming, a "rabbit hole" may refer to the initiating element that drives the player to enter the game.

A "white rabbit" has similar connotations, as a signal to the start of an adventure. In The Matrix, Neo's adventure begins after a message on his computer urges him to "Follow the white rabbit."

In Chapter 6, the Cheshire Cat's disappearance prompts Alice to say one of her most memorable lines: "...a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!" There is a French film called A Grin Without a Cat (1977), directed by Chris Marker.

In Chapter 7, the Hatter gives his famous riddle without an answer: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Although Carroll intended the riddle to have no solution, in a new preface to the 1896 edition of Alice, he proposes several answers: "Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" Note the spelling of "never" as "nevar"?-turning it into "raven" when inverted. This spelling, however, was "corrected" in later editions to "never" and Carroll's pun was lost. Puzzle maven Sam Loyd offered these solutions: because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes; Poe wrote on both; bills and tales are among their characteristics; because they both stand on their legs, conceal their steels (steals), and ought to be made to shut up. Many other answers are listed in The Annotated Alice.

In Chapter 8, the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice. Possibly Carroll here was echoing a scene in Shakespeare's Richard III (III, iv, 76) where Richard demands the execution of Lord Hastings, crying "Off with his head!" The line as used in the 1967 Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit" has distinct hallucinogenic connotations.


Cinematic adaptations
Alice in Disney's animated version


Disney's Alice in Wonderland animated feature, released in 1951, remains the most popular cinematic adaptation of the Alice books. It popularized the iconic image of Alice as a pretty blonde little girl in a white pinafore and blue dress. Other characters made icons by the film include the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and the Caterpillar. The character designs owe much to the original Tenniel illustrations.

The Disney feature combines story elements from both Alice books. It is notable for its distinctly psychedelic visual feel.

Other cinematic adaptations of Alice include:

* Alice in Wonderland (1933 movie) - motion picture
* Alice in Wonderland in Paris (1966) - animated movie
* Alice in Wonderland (1985 movie) - motion picture
* The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland - 1987 animated adaptation from Nelvana Limited (see article for detailed information)
* Alice (1988) - animated motion picture by Jan Švankmajer
* Alice in Wonderland (1999 movie) - made for television movie



Works influenced

Alice and the rest of Wonderland continue to inspire or influence many other works of art to this day?-sometimes indirectly; via the Disney movie, for example. The character of the plucky yet proper Alice has proven immensely popular and inspired similar heroines in literature and pop culture, many also named Alice in homage.

Numerous works have borrowed the characters and incidents of the Alice books to illustrate "altered state" experiences brought about by alcohol or psychedelic drugs. It would seem unlikely that Carroll, that straitlaced Victorian clergyman, could have approved.

Literature

* Finnegans Wake by James Joyce is famously influenced by Alice. The novel is about a dream, and includes such lines as: "Alicious, twinstreams twinestraines, through alluring glass or alas in jumboland?" and "...Wonderlawn's lost us for ever. Alis, alas, she broke the glass! Liddell lokker through the leafery, ours is mistery of pain."

* Vladimir Nabokov translated Alice into his native Russian. His novels include many Carrollian allusions, such as the spoof book titles that run through Ada, or Ardor. However, Nabokov told his student and annotator Alfred Appel that the infamous Lolita, with its pedophilic protagonist, makes no conscious allusions to Carroll (despite the novel's photography theme and Carroll's interest in the art form).

* British writer Jeff Noon has inserted many Carrollian allusions into a series of cyberpunk novels, beginning with Vurt (1993), that are set in a fantasy-future Manchester. In the books, Noon applies a logical extension of the Wonderland and Looking-Glass World concepts into a virtual reality cyberverse that characters occasionally get lost in. One possible interpretation of the books is that everything happens in the dream of Alice, akin to the supposed "dream of the Red King" in Through the Looking-Glass. Noon also wrote Automated Alice, which he punningly calls a trequel to the Alice books. In this illustrated novella, Alice enters a grandfather clock and emerges in future Manchester, which has many bizarre denizens including an invisible cat named Quark and Celia, the Automated Alice.

* Alice Liddell is a character in the Riverworld series of science fiction books by Philip José Farmer.

* Sign of Chaos, written by Roger Zelazny as part of the The Chronicles of Amber features two chapters taking place in a manufactured Shadow designed to resemble Wonderland as part of a drug-induced hallucination.


Art

* Dorothea Tanning's 1943 painting Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1946) is evocative of Alice in Wonderland, though with mysterious threatening overtones.



Comics and animation

* Alice makes an appearance (in passing) in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; more significantly, she is a main character in Moore's Lost Girls, which imagines her having erotic adventures.
* Neil Gaiman has used Carollian imagery in his Sandman series. In one issue, a minor character called Zelda is depicted as Alice in a dream.
* Alice appears in a number of graphic novels, such as Haunted Knight (where Alice meets Batman).
* Nippon Animation produced anime of Alice in Wonderland in 1983 to 1984. This anime adopted an original story that Alice and her rabbit Benny take a trip to Wonderland and go home for each episode.
* Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, an anime by CLAMP, is a sexy animated parody of Alice. In Card Captor Sakura, another anime by CLAMP, the title character dresses up like Alice for an episode in which she shrinks drastically. In the third season, Sakura is sucked into a copy of "Alice in Wonderland" in which characters from the anime appear as characters in the story.
* The anime series Serial Experiments Lain tells the story of a girl who is drawn into the cyberspace "underground" of the Wired, and features a character named Arisu ("Alice") Mizuki.
* Additionally, the anime series InuYasha also follows the adventures of a young girl who is drawn into a fantasy world when she falls down an old well. Viz, the company who translated the series into English, translated the title of the third episode as, "Down the Rabbit Hole and Back Again".


Film, television and radio

* Labyrinth, a 1986 film directed by Jim Henson, counts the Alice books among its influences. It has a distinct Carrollian flavor. After all, it is the story of a young girl who must brave a strange fantasy realm populated by unusual talking creatures, in which she must solve a number of puzzles.

* The Matrix (1999) features a protagonist, Neo, who tags along with a gang after he sees one of them sporting a white rabbit tattoo. The Wachowski brothers who directed the film have stated that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a running theme in their Matrix trilogy.

* Donnie Darko (2001) recasts some Carrollian elements in a darker storyline: a state of dream or nightmare, a demonic rabbit man, a (golf) hole in the ground.

* Resident Evil (2002) has several references to the stories?-notably, the main character who is unnamed until the credits reveal that she is called Alice. Also, the T-Virus is tested on a "white rabbit", the commandos open a mirror to reach the underground train-station ("Through the looking glass") and the villain is a holographic entity controlled by a computer called the Red Queen.


Popular music

* The Beatles counted the Alice books among their many artistic influences, and this is referred to in various oblique ways. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band features a sleeve montage designed by Peter Blake that includes an image of Lewis Carroll. The third song on the record, "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," begins with a line that Carroll could have written: "Picture yourself in a boat on a river..." Other Beatles songs with Carrollian imagery include "Cry Baby Cry," "Come Together," "Glass Onion," and "I am the Walrus"?-supposedly this Walrus is the one from Through the Looking-Glass.

* Neil Sedaka took Alice into the US Top 50 in 1963 with the single "Alice In Wonderland."

* Words and images from the Alice books acquire blatant psychedelic connotations in "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane from their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. The song's lyrics refer to pills that make you larger or smaller, for example (view the lyrics here). Journalist Hunter S. Thompson incorporated "White Rabbit" in his classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, in an account of an LSD trip. "White Rabbit" has been covered by Sanctuary with Dave Mustaine on Refuge Denied (1988), and by the Blue Man Group on The Complex (2003).

* There was a rash of Alice-related material in the music industry in the 1980s, a fad mainly fueled by goth and indie rock musicians. Siouxsie & the Banshees, for instance, named their label Wonderland and cut an album called Through The Looking Glass. The former London-based Batcave Club was renamed "Alice In Wonderland." The Sisters of Mercy had a hit single, "Alice," about the image of Carroll's heroine.

* Stevie Nicks has a song titled "Alice" on her 1989 album The Other Side of the Mirror. Its lyrics mention Alice and the Mad Hatter (view the lyrics here).

* Virginia Astley has released a lot of Alice-related work, including her LP From Gardens Where We Feel Secure with sound effects recorded a few miles south of where Alice's adventures began; and songs like "Tree Top Club," "Nothing Is What It Seems," and "Over the Edge of the World".

* Tom Waits released an 2002 album entitled Alice, consisting of songs that were written for a stage adaptation of Alice.

* The video for the Tom Petty song "Don't Come Around Here No More" portrays Alice, the Mad Hatter, and other Wonderland elements.

* The music video of the Gwen Stefani song "What You Waiting For?" is clearly Alice-inspired and shows the Queen of Hearts' garden maze and a mad tea party.



Computer and video games

* American McGee's Alice is a dark and bloody computer game loosely based on the books. Alice must return to a deadlier version of Wonderland and kill the Queen of Hearts. Alice, a cinematic adaptation of the game sometimes erroneously referred to as Dark Wonderland, is currently in development.

* Thief: The Dark Project has an early level that involves breaking into a huge mansion. As one goes deeper inside, it becomes "curiouser and curiouser"?-resembling Alice more and more. The game Thief: Gold expanded this idea with an additional section to the mansion, known as "Little Big World" to fans, that involves first passing through a very small village and emerging in a gigantic kitchen. Thief was developed by Looking Glass Studios.

* The RPG Kingdom Hearts includes Alice as a character and Disney's vesion of Wonderland as one of its worlds.

* The Silent Hill series contain a few references of Wonderland, in a contrasting homage to its surreal world. The best example of this is in the first game, where a door puzzle at the Alchemilla Hospital involves coloured blocks imprinted with the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Mock Turtle and The Queen of Hearts.



Culture and collecting

Alice continues to be a cultural phenomenon today, spawning hundreds of collectors' items, websites, and works of art.

There is a vast Alice-collecting cottage industry, which has recently burgeoned due to the Internet. There are often more than 2500 items up for auction via eBay at any given time, from rare books to more recent commissioned art. Just about every kind of Alice merchandise imaginable is available, from clocks to earrings to pillow cases. They are not always easy to locate, but can often be found in so-called "Alice shops". In England, such shops include The Rabbit Hole in Llandudno and Alice's Shop in Oxford. Smaller ones can be found in Halton Cheshire and in Bournemouth where there is an Alice Theme Park. In the United States they include The White Rabbit in California. In fact, there is a lot of Alice merchandise in America that is not available elsewhere. One of these is a book called Sherlock Holmes and the Alice In Wonderland Murders.

George M. Cohan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


George Michael Cohan (July 1878-November 5, 1942) was a United States entertainer, songwriter, actor, singer, and dancer.

Cohan was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His baptismal certificate says that he was born on July 3, but Cohan himself always said the day was July 4, U.S. Independence Day. George's family were traveling Vaudeville performers, and he joined them on stage while still an infant, at first as a prop, later learing to dance and sing soon after he could walk and talk. With his parents and sister, he toured as a member of The Four Cohans.

Cohan became known as one of Vaudeville's best male dancers, and also started writing original skits and songs for the family act. Soon he was writing professionally, selling his first songs to a national publisher in 1893. Cohan had his first big Broadway hit in 1904 with the show Little Johnny Jones, which introduced his tunes "Give My Regards To Broadway" and "The Yankee Doodle Boy."

Cohan became one of the leading Tin Pan Alley songwriters, publishing several hundered original songs, noted for their catchy melodies and clever lyrics. His other major hit songs included "You're a Grand Old Flag," "The Warmest Baby In The Bunch," "Life's A Funny Proposition After All," "I Want to Hear a Yankee Doodle Tune," "You Won't Do Any Business If You Haven't Got A Band," "Mary's a Grand Old Name," "The Small Town Gal," "I'm Mighty Glad I'm Living, That's All," "That Haunting Melody," and "Over There."

He wrote numerous other Broadway plays, in addition to contributing material to shows written by others. Some of the notable Broadway shows he starred in included Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1905), The Talk of New York (1907), Broadway Jones (1912), The Song and Dance Man (1923), American Born (1925), Ah, Wilderness! (1933), and I'd Rather Be Right (1937).

In 1925, Cohan published his autobiography, Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There.

In 1932, Cohan starred in the Hollywood film The Phantom President.

In 1942, a musical film biography of Cohan, "Yankee Doodle Dandy," was released, with James Cagney playing the role of Cohan. Cohan enjoyed attending a screening of the film a few weeks before his death. George M. Cohan died of cancer in New York City and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Cohan was awarded a congressional medal in recognition of his contibution to the war effort (1917-18) through his songs "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There." In the 1960s, a statue of Cohan was erected at Broadway and 47th Street in Manhattan.

He married first in 1899 to Ethel Levey, who bore him a daughter, Georgette, in 1900. George and Ethel divorced in 1907. He married for a second time in 1907 to Agnes Mary Nolan, who was his wife until his death. They had a daughter, Helen Mary (1910-1996), and a son, George M. Cohan, Jr.

"The Yankee Doodle Boy" is a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones written by George M. Cohan. The play opened at the Liberty Theater on November 7, 1904.
[edit]

Lyrics

Verse

I'm the kid that's all the candy,
I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy,
I'm glad I am,
(So's Uncle Sam.)
I'm a real live Yankee Doodle,
Made my name and fame and boodle,
Just like Mister Doodle did, by riding on a pony.
I love to listen to the Dixie strain,
"I long to see the girl I left behind me;"
And that ain't a josh,
She's a Yankee, by gosh.
(Oh, say can you see,
Anything about a Yankee that's a phony?)

Chorus

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy,
A Yankee Doodle, do or die;
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam's,
Born on the Fourth of July.
I've got a Yankee Doodle sweetheart,
She's my Yankee Doodle joy.
Yankee Doodle came to London,
Just to ride the ponies;
I am the Yankee Doodle Boy.

Verse

Father's name was Hezikiah,
Mother's name was Ann Maria,
Yanks through and through.
(Red, White and Blue.)
Father was so Yankee-hearted,
When the Spanish war was started,
He slipped on his uniform and hopped upon a pony.
My mother's mother was a Yankee true,
My father's father was a Yankee too:
And that's going some,
For the Yankees, by gum.
(Oh, say can you see
Anything about my pedigree that's phony?)

Funny Bob mentioned that about Beautiful Dreamer because I was going to post that Beautiful Dreamer was played during the intermission of Gone with the Wind and was the song played in the background in the scenes with Lillian Gish in Duel in the Sun. But, I'd have to watch those movies to be absolutely sure - so I didn't post.

You're a Grand Old Flag
by George M. Cohan


You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

Clint Walker, of all people, sang Beautiful Dreamer in his Cheyenne television series.

AP
On Target: NASA Rocket Slams Into Comet

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer
PASADENA, Calif. - It sounded like science fiction ?-
NASA scientists used a space probe to chase down a speeding comet 83 million miles away and slammed it into the frozen ball of dirty ice and debris in a mission to learn how the solar system was formed.


The unmanned probe of the Deep Impact mission collided with Tempel 1, a pickle-shaped comet half the size of Manhattan, late Sunday as thousands of people across the country fixed their eyes to the southwestern sky for a glimpse.

The impact at 10:52 p.m. PDT was cause for celebration not only to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, but also for the more than 10,000 people camped out at Hawaii's Waikiki Beach to watch it on a giant movie screen.

"It's almost like one of those science fiction movies," said Steve Lin, a Honolulu physician.

The cosmic smash-up did not significantly alter the comet's orbit around the sun and NASA said the experiment does not pose any danger to Earth ?- unlike the scary comet headed for Earth in the 1998 movie, "Deep Impact."

Scientists at mission control erupted in applause and exchanged hugs as a voice on a speaker proclaimed, "Team, we got a confirmation."

It was a milestone for the U.S. space agency, because no other space mission has flown this close to a comet. In 2004, NASA's Stardust craft flew within 147 miles of Comet Wild 2 en route back to Earth carrying interstellar dust samples.

"A lot of people said we couldn't do this or wouldn't be able to pull it off," said Rick Grammier, the mission's project manager. "It happened like clockwork and I think that's something to be proud of on America's birthday."

Rough images by the mothership that released the probe on its suicide mission 24 hours earlier showed a bright white flash from the comet upon impact, which hurled a cloud of debris into space. When the dust settles, scientists hope to peek inside the comet's frozen core ?- a composite of ice and rock left over from the early solar system.

In Darmstadt, Germany, David Southwood of the European Space Agency congratulated NASA and controllers erupted into applause upon impact. "The Deep Impact mission brought the world together in an excellent opportunity to make a new step into the advancement of cometary science," he said.

The European agency was observing and photographing the comet collision with its Rosetta spacecraft, which will attempt to rendezvous with a comet in 2014.

"I had some doubts, quite frankly, but it was quite spectacular and a deserved success," said Manfred Warhaut, who heads ESA's Rosetta mission. "The whole thing was so flawlessly put in place and executed it deserves some respect."

The camera of the Deep Impact probe temporarily blacked out twice, probably from being sandblasted by comet debris, NASA scientists said. Still, the probe ?- on battery power and tumbling toward the comet, using thrusters to get a perfect aim ?- took pictures right up to the final moments, revealing crater-like features. The last image was taken three seconds before impact.

The energy produced from the impact was equivalent to exploding five tons of dynamite and it caused the comet to shine six times brighter than normal.

Scientists had compared the barrel-shaped probe's journey to standing in the middle of the road and being hit by a semi-truck roaring at 23,000 mph. They expect the crater left behind to be anywhere from the size of a large house to a football stadium and between two and 14 stories deep.

Soon after the crash on the comet's sunlit side, the mothership prepared to approach Tempel 1 to peer into the crater site and send more data back to Earth. The spacecraft was to fly within 310 miles of the comet before activating its dust shields to protect itself from a blizzard of debris.

Comets are frozen balls of dirty ice, rock and dust that orbit the sun. A giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed to create the sun and planets about 4.5 billion years ago and comets formed from the leftover building blocks of the solar system.

NASA's fleet of space telescopes, including the
Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope, and dozens of ground observatories recorded the impact.

Deep Impact launched Jan. 12 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its 268 million-mile voyage. Scientists say the choice of the mission name was a coincidence and not inspired by the movie.

Another Clint Walker trivia:
He made his film debut in The Ten Commandments. At first, he had a few speaking lines, but DeMille recognized that he took the viewer's interest away from the stars, so Walker ended up being in scenes in costume, silently.

Bob has certainly been busy on WA2K today. First a dreamer, then Lewis, then George M, and his flag men.<smile>

Thanks, Boston. Quite frankly, I was amazed at all the allusions to Lewis C. Incidentally, thanks for telling our listeners about the Deep Impact success. Maybe NASA is not totally wrong all the time.

Oh my, listeners. I just recalled how much my mother loved "It's a Grand Old Flag."

edgar, I had no idea that Clint sang or hummed or whatever Beautiful Dreamer, nor did I remember about in in GWTW, Raggedy.

My sister sent me this, and I think it's a good tribute for today:



To Kill an American

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is... so they would know when they found one. (Good on ya, mate!!!!)

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek.

An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.

An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.

In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.

The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need.

When the Soviet army overran Afghanistan 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least.

The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must.

Hitler did.

So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.

But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Author unknown

To correlate the previous:

Applause, Francis. What a perfect message. The statue in front and the tragedy that makes us all one, which is the diadem of tomorrow.



With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

My eyes just became misty, folks.

words and music by Arlo Guthrie

If all the doors were closed in heaven
Where would all the angels go
Would they just fly around forever
Or would they come down here below

If the pearly gates were closed this morning
Would there be angels here tonight
And would they live their lives among us
And share the darkness with their light

If all the doors were close in heaven
They'd have to close the road to hell
We'd all be stuck here with each other
There would be nowhere else to dwell

If the pearly gates were closed this morning
And everyone there had to leave
And death was nothing but a moment
Beyond the breaths you took to breathe

If all the doors were closed in heaven
Who would dare abuse a child
Or let a little kid go hungry
Or not return a simple smile

If the pearly gates were closed this morning
And the host of heaven was on the street
I wonder if they'd look much different
From the likes of you and me

So I hope they close the doors to heaven
And all the angels up above
Come and build a home among us
Remind us what it is to love

If the pearly gates were closed this morning
Would there be angels here tonight
And would they live their lives among us
And share the darkness with their light

Lovely, edgar. Thank you for playing that in its sweet simplicity.

From the new immigration period in America:


Two ?'Mericana Men

Beeg Irish cop dat walk hees beat
By den peanutta stan',
First two, t'ree week w'en we are meet
Ees call me "Dagoman."
An' w'en he see how mad I gat,
Wheech eesa pleass heem, too,
Wan day he say: "W'at's matter dat,
Ain't ?'Dago' name for you?
Dat's ?'Mericana name, you know,
For man from Eetaly;
Eet ees no harm for call you so,
Den why be mad weeth me?"
First time he talka deesa way
I am too mad for speak,
But nexta time I justa say:
"All righta Meester Meeck"

O! my, I nevva hear bayfore
Sooch langwadge like he say;
An' he don't look at me no more
For mebbe two, t'ree day.
But pretta soon agen I see
Den beeg poleecaman
Dat com' an' growl an' say to me;
"Halo, Eyetalian! Now, mebbe so you gon' deny
Dat dat'sa name for you."
I smila back an' mak' reply:
"No, Irish, dat'sa true."
"Ha! Joe," be cry, "you theenk dat we
Should call you ?'Merican ?"
"Dat's gooda ?'nough," I say, "for me,
Eef dat's w'at you are, Dan."

So now all times we speaka so
Like gooda ?'Merican:
He say to me, "Good morna, Joe,"
I say, "Good morn, Dan."

and that's how it should be, listeners. We have names and that surpasses any ethnic identification.

Ah, listeners, Setanta induced a riot on his thread about the French national Anthem.

Perhaps we ought to rectify it here one the radio.

France

Way down in the south of France all the ladies love to dance
kick their heels up in the air snap their fingers for romance

While the gentlemen compare blonde or black or auburn hair
check the motion and the style Oh, you know they take their while

Hey, to make the motion more complete, yeah, to make it more a treat
Club D'Jour is where to go come on down and see the show

When the rhythm's really right you can burn it down tonight
when the singing's really fine sweet as Spanish sherry wine

When the club can't contain the beat it just rolls out in the street
spills on down the avenue bringing dancers to their feet.

When it's good as it can be it gets better wait and see
oh, these folks don't ever sleep till they're passed out in the street

Way down in the south of France all the ladies love to dance
clap their hands and walk on air, yeah, the feeling's really there
won't you take a little taste raise it to your charming face?

When the rhythm's really right you can burn it down tonight
when the singing's really fine sweet as Spanish sherry wine

Go on take a chance, the ladies do love to dance.

It's raining, folks. There will be no fireworks tonight here in my corner of the world.

I have the irresistible urge just to walk in the rain and get totally soaked.

Goodnight. The day has not been right.

from Letty with love.

Letty, I hope tomorrow is better for you.

WHEN SUNNY GETS BLUE

When Sunny gets blue, her eyes get gray and cloudy,
Then the rain begins to fall, pitter-patter, pitter-patter,
Love is gone, what can matter,
No sweet lover man comes to call.

When Sunny gets blue, she breaths a sigh of sadness,
Like the wind that stirs the trees,
Wind that sets the leaves to swaying
Like some violin is playing strange and haunting melodies.

Bridge:

*People used to love to hear her laugh, see her smile,
That's how she got her name.
Since that sad affair, she lost her smile, changed her style,
Somehow she's not the same.

When Sunny gets blue, pretty dreams will rise up
Where her other dreams fell through,
Hurry new love, hurry here, to kiss away each lonely tear,
And hold her near when Sunny gets blue.

Goodnight, sweet dreams.