M*A*S*H*E*D

Robert Altman has died. His filmography is here.

I can't say I was a big fan of his -- another Hollywood leftist whose work followed his politics. His most famous work, M*A*S*H is often cited among top-100 lists and so forth, but only because (1) it resulted in a wildly successful television series (with which Altman had no involvement) and (2) it reinforced the left's mealy-mouthed antiwar sentiments.

Altman was said to have joked that Johnny Mandel made more profit from M*A*S*H simply by writing the theme song, thus gaining exponential royalties when it moved to TV.

While the movie has its moments, I found it rather uneven -- kind of an attempt to stretch a half-hour sitcom into a feature-length picture, which in itself is odd since of course the movie came first, but, again, Altman and Ring Lardner Jr. had an agenda.

Politics and inaccuracies aside, M*A*S*H is palatable and at times even enjoyable until the completely incongruous football sequence at the end, at which point the entire picture degenerates from a comedic yet at least somewhat thoughtful antiwar commentary into an almost unwatchable slapstick. "Hotlips" O'Houlihan goes from Nurse Ratchet to Britney Spears with one cut -- again, completely in contradiction to the first 3/4 of the movie. I've never figured out what Altman et al were trying to do with that.

For its part, the TV series -- although a different breed of humor than Hogan's Heroes -- is very well done if you can accept the underlying anti-war / anti-establishment tone and you can handle Alan Alda in small doses. Perhaps the only case where the spinoff TV show was better -- and (much) more successful -- than the movie which inspired it.

Veteran's Day

Here's a Veteran's Day tribute worth a pittance of your time.


We were at the WWII Memorial on Veteran's Day. They were indeed the greatest generation.

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The Greatest Pumpkin

It's the 40th Anniversary of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," which needs no further introduction. Here are some celebrity stories, trivia and related fun stuff.

Hard to believe that there was a time in our nation's history that the term "Great Pumpkin" was unknown.

Game Show Mania

Long-time game show authority JB brought this site to my attention:

http://www.pageoclips.com/

Comments Welcome

I've changed the settings on Salad Days to allow for comments from "anyone" subject to word verification (you'll see what that means if you leave a comment). So you don't have to be a registered user if you want to harass me. We'll see if this works...

Earl Weaver Forever

From a fan:

You still play "Earl Weaver Baseball"? What is this - 1985???

Mike

I play it on my old 386SX machine I have from college. I can play a full game in about 12 minutes -- 5 if I speed it up.

Hard as it may be to believe, I've tried various programs over the past twenty years or so, and none has been able to emulate the features that I get with EWB -- obviously, the newer stuff has better graphics and more bells & whistles, but I still prefer EWB. It also has several bugs that I wish I was smart enough to fix (it can't be that hard, considering it's an old DOS program).

Have a Coke and a...

There really are too many people out there with too much time on their hands. You have to see this.

halp us jon carry

Many of you may have seen this. The story is here (I couldn't post the photograph here for some reason).

Kerrying On

I interviewed John Kerry many years ago when I was a (very) fledgling radio reporter in Pittsfield MA. Politics aside, I came away with the unshakable impression that he was the classic "empty suit" -- an aristocratic bearing, a haughty delivery, and the repitition of boilerplate liberal platitudes seemed all that he was capable of (albeit, characteristics not entirely unwelcomed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). His only sliver of credibility seemed to depend on the fact that his speech pattern was so unbearably heavy-handed that many were apparently convinced that he actually knew what he was talking about (and, heaven forbid, many have even believed it). His Senior partner in the US Senate -- not exactly a favorite of this reporter, either -- has at least compiled a substantial legislative record through combination of hard work, his family name, and 40 years of influence. Kerry, it would seem, had none of this. Even his initials -- JFK -- seemed at least a semi-intentional grasping at credibility. I've seen very little in the past three years that would disabuse this notion.

So earlier this week JFK-2 was at a political rally and wanted to take a cheap shot at the president. Okay, that's politics. The problem, however, is something his handlers -- and, of course, Kerry himself -- should know by now: People who have no sense of humor should not be given the additional burden of trying to be funny.

Granted, even if he'd said "get us stuck" instead of "get stuck," it wouldn't exactly have been worth inclusion in a Jay Leno monologue, but beyond that, this guy has the delivery of a walrus and the timing of an epileptic kitten. John Kerry trying to tell jokes is like me trying to wire a ceiling fan, except that I know I can't do it. He really should know better.

Rob Long must be loving this. I'm surprised he hasn't weighed in on it (to my knowledge). Others have said this is (was) the "Dean Scream" of the 2008 Kerry Campaign. He's done.

One final note -- President GWB once said to a group of graduating seniors (I believe at Yale, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now and I'll paraphrase the quote) -- "To all you A-students, congratulations. You've done great! To you C-students -- just think, you, too can become president of the United States." Can we get Kerry for plagiarism, too? (Maybe we could, if he'd actually deliver his material correctly.

Big Red's Machine

That Red Auerbach (1917-2006) was the greatest coach in NBA history is so far beyond question that it seems frivilous to even raise the point. Phil Jackson may have the same number of titles (as a coach) and Lenny Wilkens might have more career wins, but neither of them would have jobs in professional basketball if it hadn't been for Red. A true legend that it's hard to imagine the Celtics -- or the NBA -- without him.

There are, of course, media reports everywhere on Red. All I have to add is:

1. Len Bias. Red -- and, consequently, the entire organization, never recovered from this one.

2. The 16 championships are nice, but Red also needs to be remembered as an early crusader against racial and ethnic prejudices in a relatively hostile city.

3. Every NBA team needs to do something to honor Red. He built the NBA in its early days from a afterthought to the highly profitable enterprise it is today.

4. The Celtics, too, should honor Red -- by putting a winner on the floor! It would take a magical move or two, but zero banners in twenty years (after 16 out of 30) is ridiculous.

Comings and Goings

I've removed the Sons of Sam Horn link; I've tried for a year to get privileges on their site with no response, and they've made it more difficult to get to the other threads on the site even as a lurker. Enough of their elitism; I'll find intelligent sports discussion elsewhere.

In the meantime, welcome RudyBaga's blog for some intelligent commentary on current events.

In The News

Blogger has finally (albeit perhaps temporarily) resolved my account & password issues, so I can finally start getting caught up on all the wonderful postings I had been formulating in my mind.

First, some recent deaths worth noticing:

Christopher Glenn (10/17/06) -- Growing up on Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970's, Christopher Glenn is most remembered by my generation for his "In the News" segments.

Joe Niekro (10/27/06) -- Phil's little brother. I didn't even know he was sick.

Trevor Berbick (10/28/06) -- Jamaican legend and the last boxer to face Mohammad Ali.

P.W. Botha (10/31/06) -- Last of the Apartheid hard-liners has finally crossed the Rubicon.