George Aar

Sharon, After several minutes of intensive research (clicking on a few eBay auctions) it appears that the really valuable "Butcher" album is any one in Stereo. There are several "peeled" mono albums (album covers that were papered over with the "trunk" cover and have had that secondary cover removed) that go from a few dollars to a few hundred, depending on how well the peeling operation was performed. But the stereo version is, for whatever reason, quite rare - peeled or otherwise - with the the butcher photo. I can't imagine why anyone would pay that much more for an album, just to get the stereo version, but collectors can be a really strange lot...

I remember seeing one in an antique/curio shop, oh 15 or 20 years ago. It had a hefty price tag, but not in the thousands (maybe a few hundred). Did I screw up by not buying that one?

Gorcey did make it till '69, though. I think his father passed away in '56. The odd thing I remember about him was his demanding royalties from The Beatles for their use of his picture on the cover of the "Sargent Pepper" album. I always thought that was kinda petty. I wonder now, are the early albums with Gorcey's picture worth a whole bunch of money now? Oh, and re: the other straight man. Could this be him? " former East Sider Stanley Clements joined the series as Stanislaus Coveleske, aka 'Duke'"

I get the impression that the "Dead End" boys were in this one? Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, et al? Could it be "Angels with Dirty Faces"?

The smell of Ohio eggwater. Ugh! (and we were supposed to drink more of that crap?) Yeah, lots of pleasant memories that invokes...

Hey! Watch it! Sushi yoku o tabimasu! Totemo oishi desu,yo! (other than that you took the words right out of my mouth)

I remember Ronny from several "Rah, Rah" wartime propoganda flicks, and a western or two, but geeze, even in the stills you posted, I look at them and think "Look, it's the president of the Kiwanis Club, having a bad day." It wasn't his acting ability, it was him. Who he was, what he projected. He may have been able to act with the best of them, but he'd just never fit the part for "Rick". Anymore than Rodney Dangerfield could have played the romantic lead in "South Pacific". Even if he could sing and act as well or better than Rossano Brazzi, his personna just wouldn't sell. Sorry...

Well, pardon me but, DUH! I mean, what conman isn't? It's all part of the game. That was his job.

No, Sudo, I can't agree with you on that one. Ronny might have been the consummate politician, but I think he was a tad too much of a lightweight to have been a good "Rick". He just didn't have the gravitas. He had way too much of the "squeaky clean" personna. He could play the Air Force Cadet or Eagle Scout, but not the street-wise anti-hero that Rick was. IMHO anyway...

Anybody who wants to dress up in those bizarre outfits and spend all his time acting holy has got to be suspect from the git go. Religion is such a great scam. You can do what you damn well please behind closed doors, bilk millions out of the guilt-laden masses to do with as you will, and when all is said and done, lay an even bigger guilt trip on everybody - and do it all with absolute impunity. But he loves God soooo much. Yeah, I'm impressed...

Yikes! You've got a point there, Hammeroni! Geeze Pete, won't some kind-hearted soul do the right thing and put the old girl down? You think it's the year or the mileage?

Well, having joined the over 50 club a couple of years ago now, I find I'm much more acquainted with where the pharmacies are in town and that I now have a favorite flavor of Metamucil. Yeah, getting old is bull****, but the alternative really sucks...

And "nos" are easy to come by too, IMHO. I often hear the echo of my H.S. shop teacher's voice in my head, "There's a big demand for a good man in any field." It sounds like you've got the stuff for it, but you'll know that better than any of us. If you're really qualified for such a venture and see a need in the marketplace, I say go for it. Of course, that's easy for me to say, but what have you really got to lose? There's far more I regret not doing than there is having done (with the one exception of getting involved with WayWorld, but there was never any "logic" of any kind involved in that whole debacle).

Well hush my mouth wide open. I just read the "trivia" section of the "Casablanca" entry on "The internet movie data base" and it says that Ronald Reagan never was seriously considered for the role. It was just a publicist ploy to keep his name in the news. I guess I'm not the only one to have been taken in by the ploy, cause I got my info from a 60 Minutes special. BTW, here's a tidbit from the trivia section that I found interesting: "In the famous scene where the "Marseillaise" is sung over the German song "Watch on the Rhine", many of the extras had real tears in their eyes; a large number of them were actual refugees from Nazi persecution in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and were overcome by the emotions the scene brought out." Maybe that's partly why we all found the scene so moving?

Just a quick aside, but do you know they had originally planned to have Ronald Reagan play the part of "Rick"? (!) Somehow I can't imagine anybody still talking about the show had that happened. I mean, I liked Ronny and all, but compared to Bogey?

I have never had my own consulting firm, but I have subcontracted from one (in the roofing industry). I'm not sure if you'd have the same exposure in your field, but a BIG consideration - especially when it comes to figuring your hourly rate and basic fee schedule - is the cost of E & O insurance (errors and omissions). In the roofing consulting field the average cost of that is somewhere in the range of 25k/year and up, depending on your volume. Obviously a major cost - if you're going to carry any - lots of guys don't (for obvious reasons). I don't know if E. & O. insurance is even necessary in your field, but I thought it was worth mentioning...

Isn't this just a video version of Berne's "Ain't it awful" game? (GAMES PEOPLE PLAY - 1960 something) As with the Schiavo case, we're fed a carefully edited video, complete with hand-wringing, leg-wetting commentary on how terrible things have become in our day and time. Gosh, it's just awful! Isn't it? No, I don't think so...

Sudo, That scene is one of the alltime greats. I don't care what your political persuasion, everybody wants to join in singing "Le Marseilliese" and drown out the nazi scum. Hell, I wanted to run off and join "La Resistance". Fortunately, I was about 20 years late. You never saw it until '87 though?(!) I can't imagine how you managed to avoid it that long. I could pretty much recite the entire dialogue by that time (as well as Joey's taxicab soliloquy in "On the Waterfront", most of the good lines from "High Noon", and large portions of "Gone with the Wind" - O.K. so I'm a nerd). I think Casablanca has got to be Bogey's best. But he did make some clunkers too. While "The Maltese Falcon", "The Caine Mutiny", and "The Harder they Fall" are all top-notch IMHO, there's plenty that fall short. "Key Largo" is just plain bad and "African Queen", though it has it's moments, the special effects are dreadful and the storyline's pretty weak. Likewise with a lot of the lesser-known "Sam Spade" movies. Did you know that in "The Big Sleep" there's no explanation for who killed the guy that Sam finds dead in the beginning of the movie? Bogart was confused as to who had done it, asked the screenwriter (I think it was William Faulkner) and he didn't even know. A plot detail that got seriously overlooked. Oh, and re: "Citizen Kane". Another alltime great, fer sure. My favorite aspect of the movie is the camera angles. At times the camera must have been set directly on the floor, other times hanging from the ceiling. The lighting, the brooding, "film noir" feeling to it. What a great show. Too bad Wells didn't make more of them while he was still in his prime. I guess he ....ed off one too many of the Hollywood moguls and had a really tough time doing anything for years after...

Sorry, MOS = "More of the same"

I guess I'm a soulless a-hole again. I saw FN last week as an in-flight movie, and despite my desparation to find something entertaining to do, I couldn't get too excited about it. The movie never seems to even try to answer the obvious question "Why is this guy doing this?" Why would someone desert his own wife to spend all of his time with strangers and eventually adopt the entire remnant of that family? I could never indentify with Depp's character at all. What the hell was the guy's motivation? Why would somebody act so peculiarly? I guess if you want to keep the movie in the realm of fantasy, it works. But there really was such a guy and he really did do those things. I just kept wondering why. The whole concept just gave me the creeps. Maybe I ran into one too many perverts with a bag of candy when I was a kid?

I just got back from another long plane flight and sat through several of their movie offerings (like I had a choice?). It seems like the only place I see movies anymore, I just can't get excited enough about them to actually go to a theatre. Anyway, on a recent Northwest AL flight, these were the picks (the ones I watched, anyway): 1. "Meet the Fockers" - Absolutely dreadful. Truly an embarassing piece of crap. I'm amazed that De Niro and Hoffman BOTH could be talked into doing such a pathetic POS. 2. "Being Julia" - Uh, well, I can't think of a thing to say about it, good or bad. It took up two hours of time, that's something. Definitely "Chic-Flick" material... 3. "House of Flying Daggers" - MOS If you've seen "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" you know the drill. Beautiful cinematography, but a vapid storyline. And I have a difficult time suspending my disbelief that long or that far. Geeze guys, could we make them just a tad bit more believable?

And, of course, if one steps back even a little further from the situation he could ask himself "Just what is it that ALMIGHTY GOD - creator of EVERTHING, needs with me?" Imagine that the ants out in the anthill in your backyard have decided that you are their savior (though the disparity between ourselves and The Almighty is certainly greater than that). They've started dedicating huge portions of their lives to having meetings to talk about you and pray and beseech you for continued favor. Some have even given up everything they liked to do to attend those meetings and have worked out some other forms of self-denial in order to stay in your good graces. Uh, just how big of an impact is that going to have on you? Personally, I think I'd still soak the anthill down with gas and set it on fire.

Mine's "Krister Antigua". Kool!

Stayed too long, Well, I'm back from Japan (I think you say that something like "Uchi ni haerimasu"). If you're honestly trying to find answers for how these apparently spooky things happen, you might try perusing this site: http://skepdic.com/ It's really a wealth of information. The "ideomotor effect" is pretty well covered as well as numerous "devilish" activities that we all learned about in WayWorld. "psychic surgery" and the like. It really boils down to a pretty simple concept. Do you believe in the Laws of Physics or not? If there really are such things as physical laws then there's got to be a physical explanation for those supposed paranormal happenings. And certainly for anything I've experienced, or even seen on T.V. or the like, the explanation is usually quite simple.

No, Honey, the clothes don't make you look fat, the fat does... Yeah, honesty has done wonders for my sex life. (fortunately I have a skinny wife)