Wednesday, January 31, 2018

In Circulation -- Dedicated to All Lovers of Life -- January 31, 2018


The San Francisco Arts Commission (http://www.sfartscommission.org/) has set up a series of posters by artist Sarah Hotchkiss called In Circulation, showing what was going on in local newspapers and other publications during the Summer of Love.

"Dedicated to All Lovers of Life" shows how papers large and small reported on matters of love and sex.  "Love thy neighbor -- but be discreet" sounds like something from Herb Caen.

Monday, January 29, 2018

1952 Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale -- January 29, 2018


We visited the Blackhawk Museum in June, 2013 to drool over their collection of classic autos.

The 1952 Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale had a body by Carrozzeria Alfredo Vignale. "Inter" indicated that the car was meant primarily for road use rather than racing.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Catholic Schools Week, 2018 -- January 28, 2018


Today is the start of Catholic Schools Week.

I'm grateful that my parents put me in Catholic schools for 12 years. I'm also grateful to my teachers.

Good Shepherd in Pacifica gave our daughter a great education and continues to do the same for many other children. They are having an open house today from 11am to 1:30pm. The school is worth considering if you live in or near Pacifica:
http://goodshepherdschool.us/

Mort Walker, RIP -- January 28, 2018

www.coverbrowser.com
Mort Walker has died.  He was a World War II veteran.  Beetle Bailey started as a teenage comic strip and became a military comic.  The Chronicle did not carry it, but I read the Sunday version when the Chronicle and Examiner printed a joint edition.  I didn't buy the comic books, but I received a few copies from someone.

www.coverbrowser.com
Lois of Hi and Lois was supposed to be Beetle Bailey's sister.

I saw only a few examples of Sam's Strip, but it looked wonderful, with lots of references to older comic strips.

Walker founded a comic museum that wound up in Florida.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Elmore James 100 -- January 27, 2018

www.listal.com
Elmore James, King of the Slide Guitar, was born 100 years ago today, on 27-January-1918.  He served in the Navy during World War II.  He began recording after the war and had his first hit with "Dust my Broom."  He influenced many electric slide guitar players.




Thursday, January 25, 2018

New Cat #50 -- January 25, 2018


I took the photo on 15-January-2018.  She is enjoying her Christmas present, a hammock.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Hugh Masekela, RIP -- January 24, 2018

www.listal.com
I was sad to learn that South African musician and activist Hugh Masekela has died. He played the trumpet, flugelhorn and cornet. He was inspired to take up the trumpet when he saw Young Man With a Horn, which was loosely based on the life of Bix Biederbecke.  Masekela played with pioneering jazz groups in South Aftica, but left the country after the Sharpeville Massacre.  He worked against apartheid around the world.  I think I first learned about him when he had his big US hit, "Grazing in the Grass." 

The photo of Hugh Masekela and the album  cover are from www.listal.com.

www.listal.com

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

For Special Rates for Ball Clubs -- January 23, 2018

Spaulding Official Baseball Guide, 1879
The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad offered its services to baseball clubs.  The list of special rates includes many of the cities that made up the early National League:
Chicago White Stockings -- now the Cubs
Cincinnati Red Stockings -- not the same franchise as the current Reds
Indianapolis Blues
Saint Louis Brown Stockings

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Abner Dalrymple -- January 21, 2018

Spalding's Base Ball Guide and Official League Book for 1879
Abner Dalrymple was one of the great hitters in the early National League.  He played for the Chicago White Stockings from 1879 to 1886.  He played left field.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Pacifica Sunset -- January 20, 2018


As we left 5 o'clock mass at Good Shepherd, I had to stop to take a photo of the sunset.  Then we bought sandwiches and parked at Rockaway Beach to watch the waves.  It was very cold.

Edwin Hawkins, RIP -- January 20, 2017

www.famousfix.com
Edwin Hawkins died.  He was born in Oakland. Everyone remembers him and the Singers for "Oh Happy Day."



Friday, January 19, 2018

Janis Joplin 75 -- January 19, 2018

www.listal.com
Janis Joplin would have been 75 years old today.  She was born on 19-January-1943.  I remember when she died in 1970.  I always looked forward to hearing her music on the radio.

Years later I read an article that said she had auditioned for San Francisco traditional jazz band leader Turk Murphy.  He liked her voice but he didn't want to hire a "beatnik."  It would have been interesting.  This is not the original article, but it has some nice details about Janis singing some songs with Dick Oxtot.  Oxtot recommended her to Turk Murphy: http://jazzhotbigstep.com/428723.html



Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Who Gets To Be An American? -- January 17, 2018

Time, 10-April-2006
This 2006 issue of Time featured a stern Statue of Liberty and the question "Who Gets To Be An American?"  This question seems right in light of our so-called president's reference to many countries as "s*t holes."  When my ancestors came here from Ireland and Italy, some Americans considered those countries to be "s*t holes."

Monday, January 15, 2018

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison -- January 13, 2018

www.listal.com
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me."  (Matthew 35:36)

Fifty years ago today, on 13-January-1968, Johnny Cash and his band visited Folsom Prison in California and recorded one of the greatest live albums.

www.listal.com
When Cash was in the Air Force, he saw the 1951 film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, directed by Crane Wilbur. He was inspired to write "Folsom Prison Blues," which combined two great genres of folk song, railroad songs and prison songs.  He recorded it for Sun Records in 1955 and had a hit.

After his career took a dive because of drug use, Cash cleaned up and made a comeback.  In 1968, he played two shows at the prison.  The album was a hit.

www.listal.com
In 2008, Bestor Cram and Michael Streissguth produced a documentary about the recording.


Thursday, January 11, 2018

The Sphinx -- January 11, 2018

Magic, Ellis Stanyon, Ed.
The Sphinx, an Independent Magazine for Magicians was an American magazine "Devoted Exclusively to Magic and Magicians."  It was published from 1903 to 1952.


Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Famous Funnies -- Happy New Year -- January 9, 2018

www.coverbrowser.com
Famous Funnies, which ran from 1934 to 1955, was the first long-running American comic book.  It mostly published reprints of newspaper comic strips, like Clifford McBride's Napoleon and Uncle Elby.  Napoleon is the dog on the cover and Uncle Elby is hiding in the doghouse.

Monday, January 8, 2018

Fourteen Points -- January 8, 2018

Rock Island Argus, 08-January-1918
US President Woodrow Wilson delivered a speech to Congress on 08-January-1918 about US war aims and peace terms.  Many people saw the Fourteen Points as a good basis for peace.  


PEACE PLAN GIVEN
WILSON OUTLINES DEFINITE PROGRAM TO HALT WAR AND TO PREVENT OTHERS
President Lays Down Laws to Govern Peace of World

Washington, Jan. 8. -- With a new statement of war aims, approving the recent declarations of the premier, Lloyd George, President Wilson presented to congress and the world a specific declaration of the terms on which it would be possible to make peace with the German military autocracy.

The president's program for world peace is composed of 14 separate articles and provides for restoration and reparation, guarantees for territory and national life, freedom of the seas and access to them, reductions of armaments and guarantees for the sanctity of agreements between nations.

The president presented the following as necessary elements of world peace:

"1 Open covenants of peace without private international understandings.
"2 Absolute freedom of the seas in peace or war except as they may be closed by international action.
"3 Removal of all economic barriers and establishment of equality of trade conditions among nations consenting to peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.
"4 Guarantees for the reduction of national armaments to the lowest point possible with domestic safety.
"5 Impartial adjustment of all colonial claims based upon the principle that the people concerned have equal weight with the interest of the government.
"6 Evacuation of all Russian territory and opportunity for Russia's political development.

Freedom of Belgium.

"7 Evacuation of Belgium without any attempt to limit her sovereignty.
"8 All French territory to be freed and restored and reparation for the taking of Alsace-Lorraine.
"9 Readjustment of Italy's frontiers along clearly recognized lines of nationality.
"10 Freest opportunity for autonomous development of peoples of Austria-Hungary.
"11 Evacuation of Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro, with access to the sea for Serbia, and international guarantees of economic and political Independence and territory integrity of the Balkan states.
"12 Secure sovereignty for Turkey's portion of the Ottoman empire, but with other nationalities under Turkish rule assured security of life and opportunity for autonomous development with the Dardanelles permanently opened to all nations.
"13 Establishment of an independent Polish state, including territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, with free access to the sea and political and economic independence and territorial integrity guaranteed by international covenant
"14 General association of nations under specific covenants for mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to large and small states alike.

Willing to Fight.

"For such arrangements and covenants," said the president, in conclusion, "we are willing to fight and continue to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace."

Such a program, he said, removed chief provocations for war.

"The moral climax of this, the culminating and final war for human liberty, has come," said the president in ending his address, "and they (people of the United States) are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test"

The practical agreement of fundamentals in the president's program with those expressed by the British premier made an immediate and profound impression upon all who heard him.

Coming at a moment when Germany faces the demands of her Socialists for an abandonment of any program of annexations and indemnities and also faces the failure of the peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, the president's pronouncement developed its tremendous importance as he spoke it word by word to a crowded chamber of legislators, diplomats and officials, who gave him the closest attention. Although the address was punctuated liberally by applause, there was one great demonstration when the president declared France must have right for the wrong in Alsace-Lorraine. At that, the entire assembly rose, applauded and cheered loudly.

Delivered in Silence.

Otherwise, the president's address was delivered in the silence which denotes the rapt attention of an audience which realized that it was passing through a great quarter of an hour in the life of the world.

To the German people the president gave a reassurance that there was no aim to impair their peaceful greatness.

Not Jealous of  Germans.

"We have no jealousy of German greatness," he said, "and there is nothing in this program that impairs it. We grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to fight her, either with arms or hostile arrangements of trade, if she is willing to associate herself with us and the other peace-loving nations of the world in covenants of justice and law and fair dealings. Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alteration or modification of her institutions. But it is necessary, we must frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary to any intelligent dealings with her on our part, that we should know who the spokesmen speak for when they speak to us, whether for the German reichstag majority or for the military party and the men whose creed is imperial domination."

Responds With Candor.

The president made clear at the outset that the German statesmen have again challenged their adversaries to a restatement of war aims, he undertook to respond to it with the utmost candor. The British premier's declaration, the president referred to as having been spoken with "admirable candor and in admirable spirit for the people and government of Great Britain."

"The only secrecy of counsel," he added, "the only lack of fearless frankness, the only failure to make statement of the objects of the war, lies with Germany and her allies."

The voice of the Russian people, prostrate and all but helpless, with power shattered, but souls not subservient,1 called for a statement of aims and, the president added, he responded, "with utter simplicity and frankness."

All Join In Approval.

The president occupied just 23 minutes in delivering his address. Each statement of the program was greeted with some applause as the president read it, and there was no division of approval apparent between the parties.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Pulp -- Air Stories -- January 7, 2018

www.coverbrowser.com
The May, 1928 issue of Air Stories featured The War Eagle, a "complete war-air novelet by George Bruce a war ACE who found on three fronts."  I don't know if that was true, but he wrote a lot of stories about aviation in the war.  Some of his stories were dramatized on the radio.

The War Eagle appears to be about a Native American pilot.  I don't think I would have flown an open cockpit airplane over the Western Front.  Besides, the slipstream would have blown all the feathers out of his war bonnet.

Several squadrons used Indian Head logos, but I can't associate this one with a real squadron.  It is cruder than the one used by the Lafayette Escadrille and later the US 103rd Aero Squadron.

Friday, January 5, 2018

The Austrian Fleet off Mersina -- January 5, 2018

San Francisco Call, 18-November-1897
The drawing is from the 18-November-1897 San Francisco Call. William A Coulter did many maritime drawings for the newspaper.  Most of his drawings that I have found have shown San Francisco Bay Area subjects, but this one shows ships involved in blockading the southern Turkish port of Mersin after the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.   Austria-Hungary felt that one of their nationals had been mistreated, so they threatened to bombard the port.  

YIELDS TO AUSTRIA'S DEMANDS
Turkey Now Willing to Accord Complete Satisfaction.
MERSINA TO ESCAPE BOMBARDMENT.
Indignities to Brazzafelli for Which Amends Will Be Made.
THE SULTAN ANXIOUS TO SETTLE.
Complaints Made by Officials of the Oriental Railroads Will Also Be Attended to.

Special Dispatch to The Call.

LONDON, Nov. 17.— A special dispatch from Vienna says a telegram has been received there from Baron de Calice. the Austrian Embassador (sic - JT) at Constantinople, saying that the Sultan has declared his willingness to give Austria full satisfaction for the Mersina incidents and in regard to the disputes in connection with the Oriental Railroad growing out of the transportation of Turkish troops during the recent war between Turkey and Greece.

A dispatch to the Times from Constantinople confirms the special dispatch from Vienna, which says that the Sultan has declared his willingness to give Austria-Hungary full satisfaction for the Mersina incident and the claim of the Oriental Railway Company.

VIENNA, Nov. 17.— Austria demands that the Turkish Government order a salute to the Austrian flag; that the Vali of Adana, in which district Mersina is situated, be dismissed from his post, and that the Mutossarotof, as Lieutenant-Governor of Mersina, be removed.

Brazzafelli, who was the agent at Mersina, the port of Adana, of the Austria-Lloyd Steamship Company, was expelled from Mersina last month because he was suspected by the Turkish authorities of having intrigued against the Government of tbe Sultan. He appealed to the Austrian Government. The latter made representations on the subject to the Porte, and eventually Brazzafelli was allowed to return to Mersina. But when, the Austrian merchant attempted to land the local minor officials, with the knowledge of the Vali of Atlana and the Mutossarotof of Mersina, it is claimed, allowed Brazzafelli to be so grossly maltreated that he was compelled to appeal to the Austrian Consul for protection. The latter promptly interfered in behalf of his compatriot and was himself repeatedly insulted.

In reply to the strong note of the Austrian Government demanding an explanation of the outrages it developed that Brazzafelli had incurred the suspicions of the Turkish authorities by befriending fugitive Armenians and by giving the most deserving cheap passages from Mersina on board the vessels of the Austrian-Lloyd Steamship Company.

Austria, in addition to the demands mentioned, will insist upon the Porte furnishing her with definite assurances respecting other matters, notably the complaints made by the officials of the Austrian company operating the Oriental Railroad, which have frequently been brought to the attention of the Turkish Government.



PORT OF MERSINA.
Importance of the Place That the Austrians Threatened to Bombard.

Mersina is the chief seaport of the former province of Cilicia, and is now included in the Vilayet of Adana. It is admirably situated near the western edge of the Sihun and Jihun rivers, and the greater part of the trade of those fertile valleys passes through it.

It is connected by a railroad thirty-six miles long with the ancient city of Loesus and with Adana. the capital of the Vilayet and the principal city of the whole section.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

A Sergeant in the US Aviation Service "Rolling His Own" -- January 3, 2018

Ogden Standard, 25-December-1917
This ad for Bull Durham Tobacco mentions that it will be included in Red Cross packages sent to Americans who wind up in German POW camps.  Is that a Curtiss Jenny?

Monday, January 1, 2018

How Will 1918 Answer These Questions? -- January 1, 2018

Grand Forks Herald, 01-January-1918
The Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald asked how 1918 was going to answer some questions.  Starting from the bottom and going clockwise, I think they are:
1.  The war
2.  The Cost of Living
3.  Taxes
4.  Women's Suffrage
5.  Prohibition
6.  Unrest in Mexico
7.  Something about the coal industry
8.  The railroads, which were being operated by the government
9.  The Russian Revolution