Still Learning
RIP actor/comedian Mort Sahl, 94. Born in Montreal, he served time in the U.S. Air Force and graduated from USC in 1950. His career began in a club in San Francisco in 1953. There are 20 titles under his name at IMDb, including serious film roles, but his real forte was stand up. Casually dressed, rolled up newspaper in hand, affable, he satirized the social and political scene. He skewered Democrats as well as Republicans and was admired by the likes of JFK and Ronald Reagan. He was a frequent guest on television shows. At one time he was so popular he was featured on the cover of Time, 6/15/’60. He did not use profanity on or off stage, nor did he drink, smoke or use drugs. There are twelve albums in his name, including a compilation. In 1976 he published a memoir, Heartland. He is the subject of Last Man Standing: Mort Sahl and the Birth of Modern Comedy by James Curtis, published in 2017. Here’s a quote that might get a comedian in trouble in this era dominated by the perpetually aggrieved: “I didn’t think that anything is beyond humor — not profane humor, but a good, honest approach to humor.” Well done, sir. Thank you. (Facts also from Wiki)
As often occurs, someone left unwanted books in the lobby. I took home A Century Downtown, a terrific pictorial, text by Matt Kapp, published by Brooklyn’s powerHouse Books in 2019. Seated on the throne this morning, I thumbed through the first ten pages. Given the two terrorists attacks perpetrated in lower Manhattan, I’m surprised I’d never heard about one that happened decades earlier. On 9/16/1920, just before noon, a creep parked a horse drawn carriage covered by a tarp in front of 23 Wall Street, got off, and walked away. Minutes later it exploded, sending a fireball 20 stories high. 30 people were killed instantly, many others severely injured. The toll showed no prejudice: brokers, clerks, secretaries, telegraphers, stenographers and messengers. It’s referred to as Bloody Thursday. The scum responsible were never caught… In a related issue, former Weather Underground convict David Gilbert has been granted parole after 40 years. He participated in the infamous 1981 Brinks robbery in which two officers were murdered. This slap in the face is courtesy of disgraced governor Cuomo.
Here’s a surprising headline from nypost.com: “Hiroshima atomic bombing survivor Sunao Tsuboi dies at 96.” This prompted me to google average life expectancy of the survivors. Unfortunately, if there is such a stat, I failed to locate it. Here are two other surprising facts I learned: 130,000 people survived, including Nagasaki; there was no statistical increase in major birth defects following the bombings. Here’s what part of the city looks like today:
According to an article at newsmax.com by Jeremy Frankel, Mason, Ohio has become the second city in the state to ban abortion. It will go into effect in late November. Lebanon instituted a ban in May. Kudos.
From an article at foxnews.com by Greg Norman & Emmett Jones, edited by yours truly: The Marine veteran who disarmed a thief at an Arizona convenience store received the Citizen’s Valor Award from the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office. Note the T-shirt:
And in the never-ending Covid conflict, headline from FN: “Concerned dad, a surgeon, loses job after speaking out on masking kids.” And this: “Outrage as Gov. Whitmer goes maskless in DC bar: ‘Rules for thee, but not for Ds’.”
Couldn’t resist paraphrasing a sign at the bottom of a Branco cartoon lampooning Fauci: “No puppies were harmed in the making of this blog.” Kudos, sir.
There was an annoying wind blowing along Avenue Z today, so the floating book shop wasn’t much fun. Fortunately, I’d bundled up. My thanks to Wolf, who donated three books in Russian and insisted on paying for the ones he took home; and to Ira, who, as expected, jumped on A Century Downtown, although the book would have been flagged on Seinfeld; and to the gentleman who bought a book in Russian; and to the woman who also purchased one and Dr. Atkins’ Age-Defying Diet.
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