WA2K Radio is now on the air

Good evening, WA2K radio fans and listeners. There is nothing more beautiful than listening to our contributors well wishes and fantastic music, right folks?

Things are looking up, and I am happy to say that I felt--yes felt the kindness and concern. Good neighbors and good friends are worth more than we will ever understand. Things seem okay as of now.

Goodnight, and remember those who are unable to communicate for whatever reason.

From Letty with love

Hey, Letty! Good to hear your voice back on the radio.

Good night.

Good to hear, Letty.

A big hug to you, your husband, and family.

I selected this song only because it is one I like by Dinah Washington. No other significance. It was featured in the film about Ira Hayes.

Where are you
Where have you gone without me
I thought you cared about me
Where are you
Where's my heart
Where is the dream we started
I can't believe we're parted
Where are you
When we said good-bye love
What had we to gain
When I gave you my love
Was it all in vain
All life through
Must I go on pretending
Where is my happy ending
Where are you
When we said good-bye love
What had we to gain
When I gave you my love
Was it all in vain
All life through
Must I go on pretending
Where is that happy ending
Where are you
Where are you

It does seem that Letty has no electricity, in the literal sense.

Georges Bizet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Georges Bizet (October 25, 1838 - June 3, 1875), was a French composer of the romantic era best known for his opera Carmen.

Born Alexandre-César-Léopold, but baptized Georges, Bizet, a child prodigy, entered the prestigious Paris Conservatory of Music at the unheard-of age of nine.

In 1857 he shared a prize offered by Jacques Offenbach for a setting of the one-act operetta Le Docteur Miracle and won the Prix de Rome. As per the conditions of the scholarship, he studied in Rome for three years. There, his talent began to mature with such works as Symphony in C (Roma) and the opera Don Procopio. Besides this stay in Rome, Bizet lived in the Paris area for his entire life.

Following his stay in Rome, he returned to Paris where he dedicated himself to composition. Early into his return to Paris, Georges' mother died. In 1863 he composed the opera Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers) for the Theatre-Lyrique. During this period Bizet also wrote the opera La jolie fille de Perth, his well-known L'arlésienne (written as incidental music for a play), and the piano piece Jeux d'enfants (Children's games) He also wrote the romantic opera Djamileh, which is often seen as a percursor to Carmen.

Bizet's best-known work is his 1875 opera, Carmen, which was based on an 1846 novel of the same name by Prosper Mérimée. Influenced by Giuseppe Verdi, he composed the title role in Carmen for a mezzo-soprano. Not an immediate success, Bizet became despondent over the perceived failure, but praise came from such luminaries as Camille Saint-Saëns, Peter Tchaikovsky, and Claude Debussy, who recognized its greatness. Their views were prophetic, as the public made Carmen one of the most popular works in operatic history.

Bizet had long suffered from quinsy, a painful inflammation of the tonsils associated with angina and never got to enjoy Carmen's success. Just a few months after the opera's debut, he died on his sixth wedding anniversary at the early age of 36, the official cause of death being listed as a failed heart due to "acute articular rheumatism". He was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.

The 1954 motion picture Carmen Jones, adapted from the opera, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Musical.

Although it is not well known, Bizet was an extraordinarily fine pianist, whose playing was praised by no less a judge than Franz Liszt himself. After Bizet flawlessly sightread a complex piece, Liszt said he considered Bizet one of the three finest pianists in Europe.

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

Richard E. Byrd
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, USN (October 25, 1888 - March 11, 1957) was an pioneering American polar explorer and famous aviator.

Biography

Byrd attended the University of Virginia before financial circumstances inspired his transfer and graduation from the United States Naval Academy. He learned to fly in World War I during his tour with the United States Navy. He developed a passion for flight, and pioneered many techniques for navigating airplanes over the open ocean including drift indicators and bubble sextants. His expertise in this area resulted in his appointment to plan the flight path for the U.S. Navy's 1919 transatlantic crossing. Of the three flying boats that attempted it, only Albert Read's aircraft the NC-4 completed the trip; becoming the first ever transatlantic flight.


Attempt to fly over the North Pole, 1926

On May 9, 1926, Byrd and Floyd Bennett attempted a flight over the North Pole. They claimed to have achieved the pole, however subsequent evidence from their diaries and mechanical analysis of their plane confirmed by the Norwegian-American aviator and explorer Bernt Balchen has cast significant doubt on their claim. Nonetheless, this trip earned Byrd widespread acclaim, enabling him to secure funding for subsequent attempts on the South Pole.


Trans-Atlantic Flight, 1927


First Antarctic expedition, 1928-1930

In 1928, Byrd began his first expedition to the Antarctic involving two ships and three airplanes. A base camp was constructed on the Ross Ice Shelf and scientific expeditions by dog-sled, snowmobile, and airplane began. Photographic expeditions and geological surveys were undertaken for the duration of that summer, and constant radio communications were maintained with the outside world. After their first winter their expeditions were resumed and on November 29, 1930 the famous flight to the South Pole was launched. Byrd, along with pilot Bernt Balchen co-pilot / radioman Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinley flew the Floyd Bennet to the South Pole and back in 18 hours, 41 minutes. They had difficulty gaining altitude, and had to dump empty gas tanks as well as their emergency supplies in order to achieve the altitude of the Polar Plateau. However, the flight was successful, and entered Byrd into the history books. After a further summer of exploration, the expedition returned to America on June 18, 1930.


Byrd's later Antarctic expeditions

Byrd undertook three more expeditions to the South Pole from 1933-35, 1939-41 and 1946-47.

On the first, in 1934, he spent five winter months alone operating a meteorological station, Advance Base, from which he narrowly escaped with his life after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from a poorly-ventilated stove. Unusual radio transmissions from Byrd finally began to alarm the men at the base camp, who then attempted to go to Advance Base. The first two trips were a failure due to darkness, snow, and mechanical troubles. Finally, Dr. Thomas Poulter, E.J. Demas and Amory Waite arrived at advanced base, where they found Byrd in poor physical health. The men remained at advanced base until October 12 when an airplane from the base camp picked up Dr. Poulter and Byrd. The rest of the men returned to base camp with the tractor.

The third culminating expedition, Operation Highjump, was the largest Antarctic expedition to date.

Byrd also commanded Operation Deep Freeze, which established permanent Antarctic bases at McMurdo Sound, the Bay of Whales and the South Pole in 1955, accompanied by Andrew Van Mincey, for whom Mincey Glacier is named.


Awards and decoration

By the time Richard Byrd died on March 12, 1957, he had amassed twenty-two citations and special commendations, nine of which were for bravery and two for extraordinary heroism in saving the lives of others. As well he earned the Medal of Honor, the Congressional Life Saving Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Flying Cross, the Navy Cross and three ticker-tape parades. However, Byrd was reportedly very modest about these achievements, preferring to dwell on the substance of his adventures, and the stories of those that had gone awry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Byrd

Leo G. Carroll
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Leo G. Carroll (October 25, 1892-October 16, 1972) was a British character actor, best known for his roles in several Hitchcock films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

He was born in Weedon, Buckinghamshire to a wealthy Catholic family, who named him after the reigning pope Leo XIII. Carroll made his stage debut in 1912, and played in London and Broadway until he moved to Hollywood in 1934 to start a career in film. Once there he soon made his film debut in Sadie McKee (1934). More parts followed, often playing doctors or butlers. He made notable appearances as Marley's ghost in A Christmas Carol (1938) and as Joesph in Wuthering Heights (1939).

Carroll is perhaps most well-known for his roles in six of Alfred Hitchcock's films. As with earlier roles he was often cast as doctors or other figure of authority, such as the spymaster The Professor in North by Northwest. He was also popular on television as the befuddled banker Topper (1953-56) and later as spymaster Alexander Waverly on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68), echoing his earlier work for Hitchcock. Several U.N.C.L.E. films followed, and a spin-off The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966). He was one of the first actors to appear in two different television series as the same character.

In 1972 he died in Hollywood of pneumonia brought on by cancer and was interred in the Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_G._Carroll

Minnie Pearl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Minnie Pearl was the stage name of Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon (October 25, 1912 - March 4, 1996). She was a country comedienne who appeared frequently on the Grand Ole Opry, and on the television show Hee Haw from 1970 to 1991. She was known for wearing a big hat with a price tag ($1.98) hanging off the side.

Colley was born in Centerville, Tennessee. She graduated from what was then Nashville, Tennessee's most prestigious school for young ladies, Ward-Belmont. Her family, relatively affluent by the standards of the area and the day, was somewhat scandalized by her entry into "show business", and at first her involvement was more as a booking agent, business manager, and facilitator than as a performer.

As a performer, her comedy was always a rather gentle and loving satire of her hometown of Centerville, about fifty miles (eighty km) west of Nashville in Hickman County. Her trademark opener was always, "Howdeeee! I'm just so proud to be here!" delivered at what seemed to have been the top of her lungs. (Once she was an established star, her audience almost invariably shouted "Howdeeee!" back to her.) Her monologues almost always involved her comical relatives, notably "Uncle Nabob" and "Brother", who was somehow both slow-witted and wise in a way, simultaneously. She called her hometown in her act "Grinders Switch", a real location just outside of Centerville which consisted of little more than the eponymous railroad switch; those who knew her knew that the characters were largely based on real residents of Centerville. (So much unwarranted traffic to Grinder's Switch looking for the hometown she described was generated by tourists following the road sign that the Hickman County Highway Department was finally motivated to change the designation on the sign to "Hickman Springs Road". Attempts over the years to develop a "Grinder's Switch" theme park have proven futile.) Her character was always presented as a man-hungry spinster willing to settle for almost anything in the way of male companionship; in real life she was happily married for many years to Henry Cannon.

In the late 1960s, Mrs. Cannon and African-American Gospel Singer Mahalia Jackson were convinced to allow their names to be associated with a chain of fried-chicken restaurants in competition with Kentucky Fried Chicken by Nashville entrepreneur John Jay Hooker. At first the stock price of this venture soared; later it collapsed amid allegations of accounting irregularities and stock price manipulation. This affair was throughly investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; Miss Pearl/Mrs. Cannon and Ms. Jackson were found to have been completely uninvolved in any alleged wrongdoing, but were considerably embarrassed by the negative publicity surrounding their names. (A small number of these restaurants actually survived into the 1980s in the Middle Tennessee area.)

As noted above, Mrs. Cannon portrayed the Minnie Pearl character for many years on the perennial Saturday-night television cornfest Hee Haw, both on the original network and subsequent syndicated versions. This may have been less taxing than it would appear; the program was shot entirely in Nashville and totally out of sequence, so that each performer could record all of his or her appearances for an entire television season in a matter of a few days or parts of days.

Cannon was fairly influential in the lives of many younger country artists, taking something of a maternal interest in them, especially Hank Williams, but also many of the younger generation of female singers; she had seen many of the inequities in the treatment of women in business in general, and women in the country music industry in particular, first-hand. She was also a close friend of Paul Reubens aka Pee-Wee Herman. In her later years she lived in a prestigious Nashville neighborhood next to the Governor's Mansion, where she befriended several of the governors. After surviving breast cancer through aggressive treatments including mastectomy and radiation therapy, she became a spokeswoman for the medical center in Nashville where she had been treated and somewhat for cancer survivors in general. She took on this role as herself, Sarah Ophelia Cannon, not desiring the Minnie Pearl character to be associated with such misfortune, although a nonprofit group called the "Minnie Pearl Cancer Foundation" has been founded in her memory to help fund cancer research. The center where she was treated was later named the "Sarah Cannon Cancer Center", and has been expanded to several other hospitals in the Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky area. Her name has also been lent to the affiliated Sarah Cannon Research Institute .

Her death at the age of 83 was brought on by complications due to a stroke. During her time in the nursing home she was visited frequently by numerous country music industry figures, notably Vince Gill and Amy Grant, whose romantic relationship is alleged to have begun during joint visits to see her. She is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Franklin, Tennessee.

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

Marion Ross
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Marion Ross (born October 25, 1928) is an American actress.

Born Marian Ross in Albert Lea, Minnesota, she grew up there, and in nearby Waconia and Willmar. At the age of 13, she changed the spelling of her name from "Marian" to "Marion" because she thought it would look better on a marquee. After completing her sophomore year in high school, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and worked as an au pair while studying drama at the MacPhail Center for the Arts, and attending Southwest High School. A year later, her family moved to San Diego, California.

Ross enrolled in San Diego State College, where she was named the school's most outstanding actress. After graduation in 1950, she performed in summer theater in La Jolla, California. The director was impressed by her talent, and recommended that she try for work in cinema.

Ross made her 1953 film debut in Forever Female, starring Ginger Rogers and William Holden. She found steady work in film, appearing in The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Sabrina (1954), and Operation Petticoat (1959).

Her career on television began in 1953, when she played the Irish maid on the series Life With Father for two years. Her list of credits spans the history of classic TV, from The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Love Boat and Night Court. Ross's most famous role was in the long-running series Happy Days from 1974 to 1984, in which she played "Marion Cunningham", Ritchie and Joanie's mother, also known as "Mrs. C."

Ross has acted on Broadway and on film, but she adores doing TV. In recent years, she played recurring roles as Drew Carey's mother, on The Drew Carey Show; as evil "Grandma Forman" on That '70s Show; and as "Lorelei's grandmother" on The Gilmore Girls. She also frequently appears on Hollywood Squares and did voiceovers for "Grandma SquarePants" on SpongeBob SquarePants.

Ross lives in Los Angeles, California with actor Paul Michael. Her two adult children also work in entertainment: Jim Meskimen's acting credits include How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Ellen Plummer is a writer/producer on Friends.

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

Good morning, WA2K contributors.

First, may I welcome dear Mags to our studio. So wonderful to see her here.

Folks, it is actually COLD here in my little corner of Florida. Wow!

Believe it, my friends. I never did lose power and obviously neither did our little station.<smile>

I do so wish that I could recognize each person and the beauty of the music, but let me just say I am hopeful.

Thanks again to our Bob of Boston for his wonderful background on people that we think we know.

Song for the morning:





Good Morning Starshine - Oliver

Good morning starshine
The earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song
Good morning starshine
The earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song
Singing a song
Humming a song
Singing a song
Loving a song
Laughing a song
Singing a song
Sing the song
Song song song sing
Sing sing sing sing song
[Extra verse, London 1993]
Good morning starshine
The universe rings
With milky way music
Our blue planet sings
Good morning starshine
And someday so strong
They'll hear the song we sang
Our early morning singing song

Good Morning WA2K.

Hope all is well with our Letty.

Today's birthdays:

1102 - William Clito, Count of Flanders (d. 1128)
1330 - Louis II of Flanders (d. 1384)
1683 - Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, British politician (d. 1757)
1692 - Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Philip V of Spain (d. 1766)
1767 - Benjamin Constant, Swiss writer (d. 1830)
1806 - Max Stirner, German philosopher (d. 1856)
1811 - Evariste Galois, French mathematician (d. 1832)
1825 - Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer (d. 1899)
1838 - Georges Bizet, French composer (d. 1875)
1856 - Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (d. 1936)
1864 - Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d. 1956)
1867 - Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general (d.1937)
1869 - John Heisman, American football coach (d. 1936)
1881 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (d. 1973)
1888 - Richard E. Byrd, American explorer (d. 1957)
1889 - Abel Gance, French film writer (d. 1981)
1892 - Leo G. Carroll, English actor (d. 1972)
1895 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1969)
1902 - Eddie Lang, American jazz guitarist (d. 1933)
1908 - Edmond Pidoux, Swiss writer (d. 2004)
1910 - William Higinbotham, physicist (d. 1994)
1912 - Minnie Pearl, American comedienne and singer (d. 1996)
1913 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal (d. 1991)
1914 - John Berryman, American poet (d. 1972)
1915 - Ivan M. Niven, Canadian mathematician (d. 1999)
1924 - Billy Barty, American actor (d. 2000)
1926 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano
1927 - Barbara Cook, American singer and actress
1928 - Marion Ross, American actress
1935 - Russell Schweickart, astronaut
1940 - Bobby Knight, American basketball coach
1941 - Anne Tyler, American novelist
1942 - Helen Reddy, Australian singer
1944 - Jon Anderson, English singer (Yes)
1944 - James Carville, American political operative
1948 - Glenn Tipton, English guitarist
1948 - Dan Gable, American wrestler and coach
1948 - Marty Katz, German born engineer
1954 - Mike Eruzione, American hockey player
1955 - Robin Eubanks, American jazz trombonist
1959 - Nancy Cartwright, American voice actress
1961 - Grover Waldrop, American biochemist
1962 - Chad Smith, American drummer (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
1962 - Darlene Vogel, American actress
1964 - Nicole, German singer
1970 - Ed Robertson, Canadian guitarist and singer (Barenaked Ladies)
1970 - James Richard born, PLC Manager of World Wide Automation
1971 - Pedro Martínez, Dominican Major League Baseball player
1971 - Midori, Japanese violinist
1976 - Joshua P. Warren, American author and paranormal investigator
1977 - Birgit Prinz, German footballer
1979 - Tony Torcato, American Major League Baseball player
1981 - Shaun Wright-Phillips, English footballer
1984 - Sara Helena Lumholdt, Swedish musician (A-Teens)
1985 - Ciara Harris, American singer
1995 - Conchita Campbell, Child actress

Happy Birthday to the first (on Broadway) Marian the Librarian. 78 years young today.

And there's our Raggedy, listeners. Thanks, PA for the celeb updates.

When I have a moment, I would like to address Bizet and Piccasso.

Back later, my friends.

This is cyber space, WA2K radio.

Time for an aria, listeners. I adore this one from Bizet's Carmen:

Don José has just returned from detention, and is jealous and disappointed that Carmen seems to care so little for him, especially when she mocks him when duty calls him to the barracks. He shows her what she means to him:

La fleur que tu m'avais jetée
dans ma prison m'était restée;
flétrie et sèche, cette fleur
gardait toujours sa douce odeur,
at pendant des heures entières,
sur mes yeux fermant mes paupières,
de cette odeur je m'enivrais
et dans la nuit je te voyais!
Je me prenais à te maudire,
à te detester, à me dire:
Pourquoi faut-il que le destin
l'ait mise là sur mon chemin?
Puis je m'accusais de blasphème,
et je ne sentais en moi-même,
je ne sentais qu'un seul désir,
un seul désir, en seul espoir:
te revoir, o Carmen, oui, te revoir!

Car tu n'avais eu qu'à paraître,
qu'à jeter un regard sur moi,
pour t'emparer de tout mon être,
o ma Carmen! et j'étais une chose à toi!
Carmen, je t'aime!

The flower that you threw at me
stayed with me in my prison cell;
though withered and dried, this flower
lost none of its sweet scent,
and for hours on end
with my eyes closed
its odour intoxicated me,
and at night it was your face I saw!
I wanted to curse you,
to hate you, I asked myself:
Why has fate
put you in my path?
Then I accused myself of blasphemy,
and within me I felt
only one desire
only one desire, one hope:
to see you again, Carmen, see you again!

You only had to appear,
you only had to look at me
to take hold of my whole being,
oh my Carmen! and I was yours!
Carmen, I love you!

And, listeners we are fortunate to have on loan from the Catalunya Gallery, an original Picasso, The Tragedy



This is my very favorite:

here in the albaturkey it's 69, sunny, winds out of the west at 7 mph.

Thanks, Bob, for that weather update. Those nor'easters can be very destructive; sometimes more so than hurricanes.

Our listeners love that rain song, as do I, Boston. Thanks.

Well, folks, there are many things for us to be thankful for, even though it's not near that holiday as yet.

For me:

My car is fine; it was the driver that didn't understand all the bells and whistles.

My house is clean.

Husband is stable, although he will not be discharged today.

and, per request, a poem about the wind:




~ Wind Songs ~







A luminous glow



lay in a ribbon



across rolling surf







From far away



faint sounds float



as if trying to outrun



a storm







Wind songs drift



in on soulful moans



hanging on top of



undulating rolling mounds







Clouds drift and part



as rays of moonlight



start dripping out



touching only tops of



a mystical , haunting mist



as if anticipating



finding only tranquility







© 2005



Carole Mathys