Category Archives: Items of interest

Happy Anniversary to me.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Wordpress

I am told that today is my 4th anniversary as a registered WordPress user, although I’ve only been keeping up this particular blog for just under a year now (I began on the 26th of April, 2012). I’ve appreciated the responses and input that I have gotten from my readers and look forward to continuing in the same vein, and perhaps even expanding my reach.

I have many  more essays percolating in the back of my mind, and will pour them out when they are ready. Actually, a lot of them are like cowboy coffee:

  1. Add 1 lb. coffee to a bucket of water.
  2. Set on the fire to boil.
  3. Toss in a horseshoe.
  4. When the horseshoe floats to the top, it’s ready.

Which reminds me of a poem that I have known for about 40 years. I will share with you here, for no other reason than that it occurred to me:

The Indispensable Man
(by Saxon White Kessinger)

Sometime when you’re feeling important;
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom;
Sometime when you take it for granted,
You’re the best qualified in the room:
Sometime when you feel that your going,
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions,
And see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining,
Is a measure of how much you’ll be missed.
You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you’ll find that in no time,
It looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example,
Is to do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

A very pleasing Logo.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Some time ago I posted about the Hitachi logo:

Hitachi Logo

 

This last week I happened across an English-based logo that pleased me just as much and for precisely the same reasons:

p-brane-ep-4fe86d84f3970

 

 

 

Others who are more savvy about modern music will recognize the logo for Plaid; It’s been about 4 years since I took a road trip with my youngest son, and that’s when I learned almost everything I know about current bands, so I have no idea who they are other than what I read. But I like their logo.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Easter Eggs of the Third Kind

Posted on by The Old Wolf

In the Udvar-Hazy extension of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, sits the model UFO that was used in filming “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

close encounters mothership

This is what it looked like in the film.

Close Encounters Model

And here is the model. This is one of my pictures – an official shot can be seen at the Smithsonian’s website.

The model was made by Columbia Pictures Corp. in 1977 from wood, plastic and metal; its dimensions are 63″ x 38″ and it weighs 400 lbs. It is a beauty to behold in its own right, but it gets even more fun when you start to pay closer attention.

The builders had a lot of fun putting this thing together; looking closely at the model, one can find tiny hidden smaller models which are not seen when the Mother Ship appears in the film. These models were added by the construction crew as internal “jokes.” They include a Volkswagen bus, a submarine, a tie fighter, the R2-D2 android, a U.S. mailbox, an aircraft, and a small cemetery plot.

I wasn’t able to get shots of all of the Easter eggs, but here are the ones I could get clean pictures of:

Close Encounters Model 2

R2-D2

Close Encounters Model 3

Airplanes

Close Encounters Model 4

Cemetery

Close Encounters Model 5

Tie Fighter

HPIM0701

VW Bus sandwiched in the gap. (This picture by Vincegamer over at the Cool Mini or Not forum)

Only R2-D2 was visible in the film itself:

1734.full

Little things like this make a film even more fun than it already is.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

1902: 1000 Kronen

Posted on by The Old Wolf

1000 Crowns 1902

1000-Crown note from the Austro-Hungarian empire, series 1902. Notice the overstamp which declares, “German Austria.”

The value of the note is printed in 8 languages in addition to German, among which are Serbian, Croatian, French, and Romanian.

The text reads, “The Austro-Hungarian bank pays promptly on demand at its headquarters in Vienna and Budapest one thousand crowns in legal metal currency, Vienna, 2 January 1902.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Child Labor

Posted on by The Old Wolf

bib_92651

 

Part of a night shift in an Indiana glass factory, August 1908. Lewis W. Hines (1874-1940). This photograph was taken as part of an assignment for the National Child Labor Committee and the original belongs to the National Child Labor Committee Collection of the Library of Congress. This print (Collection of the Rakow Research Library 92651) was obtained from the Library of Congress.

You can see some intriguing statistics about this kind of work at the Corning Museum of Glass:

“In one glass factory, the average 1912 hourly wage for a male worker was 18 cents, and that of a female worker was 11 cents. They did not perform the same work. The lowest rate for a male was 15 cents and the highest rate for a female was still 11 cents. A 1917 statistic for the same factory shows that the average yearly wage for the lowest pay-rated male was $526, well above the U.S. poverty level at the time.”

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Sal Mineo in a Barrel

Posted on by The Old Wolf

SalMineoBarrel

May 20, 1958: Actor Sal Mineo says fans stole his clothes and wallet while he was working out at a health club, but after being quoted as saying that he would rather wear a barrel than have a fan accused of stealing, he did just that. Officer Bill Grell is on the right. See more of the story at the LA Times.

Dino (Sal Mineo) faces off with his father, Mr. Minetta (Joe DeSantis – coincidentally my father) in the 1957 film Dino.

Things look grim for Mr. Minetta!

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Innsbruck: Olympic Villages (1975)

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Prior to and during the Winter Olympics of 1976,  I lived in the old Olympic Village which had been constructed for the 1964 games, and which were later converted into apartments.

Innsbruck - Old olympic village

 

1964 Olympic Village, Innsbruck

Outside the window of my apartment, one could see the final preparations being placed on the new Olympic Village; some athletes had already begun to move in.

Innsbruck - Elder Swenson at Olympic Village

 

New Olympic Village in final stages of preparation

Innsbruck - Olympic Village - Communist Flag

 

Flag of the USSR being displayed from a window

Innsbruck - February 1976 - Olympic Flames

 

While my circumstances did not allow for visiting any of the events, we were able to visit a number of venues prior to the games, and it was possible to see the ski jumping event and the Olympic flames in the stadium from the train station.

Innsbruck - Olympic Stadium from Train Station

 

The excitement in the city during the games was palpable. I felt this decades later as I volunteered during the winter Olympics of 2002 in Salt Lake City; these games are the event of a lifetime, and Innsbruck was fortunate to be able to host the games twice within 12 years.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Keep calm and carry on (even if staged)

Posted on by The Old Wolf

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What looks like an object lesson in keeping the upper lip stiff turns out to be a bit of propaganda designed to give courage to Londoners living in unimaginable conditions… but carries a powerful message just the same. The photograph from 1940 was staged; the milkman is the photographer’s assistant and posed for this photo in order to boost the morale of the brave citizens of London. However, the blitz was real, and I have no doubt that the photo represents countless acts of just such courage and endurance which were not captured on film.

The 267-day Blitz left 30,000 Londoners dead and another 50,000 wounded… without dampening British resolve or significantly damaging its ability to wage war. Without meaning disrespect to anyone or minimizing their loss, these numbers make the attacks on 9/11 look small by comparison. The high-profile nature of the target, however, and the fact that modern-day Americans have never experienced destruction of this nature on their home soil, increased the psychological impact of the event. In both cases, the forces of evil failed in their purpose, and only left their intended victims stronger in the end.

Carry on.

The Old Wolf has spoken.