I'm pretty sure I've ranted about this before but, I swear, every time it happens it keeps getting worse. And by it, of course, I mean the never-ending expansion of the fucking baby boom generation. I don't remember where I saw this but somewhere today I saw an off-hand reference to boomers as "between 40 and 62." Jigga-WTF-now?!? Someone who's 40 now was born in 1972. That's 12 years (or more) past where the boom used to end. By that standard, Kurt Cobain was a boomer. I swear to FSM, the frikkin' boomers will not be satisfied until everyone in the damn country is classified as a boomer on some survey somewhere. And even aside from my conceptual revulsion or the problematic fact that even previous expansions of boomer-ness into the 60s meant that Henry Rollins got classified as a boomer, I just have a serious problem with any definition of a "generation" that would count a parent and their child as part of the same generation. It's insidious, when you think about it. Their day is past. The POTUS is post-boomer. They're aging and dying and they just are not the demographic hotness any more. Solution? Change the rules so that ever more people count as boomers. It's like the ever-expanding middle class. Well, I once again say "hell, no." People born in the Nixon administration as not boomers.
Follow-up: looks like wherever I saw that is probably an outlier (or a flatout mistake) as the first couple of references I just checked have the boom ending anywhere from 60 to 64.

Pretty good week, I guess. Too busy by half but a bit of all right overall. We had a bit o' snow. Sarah did another live DJ gig and it went well. I was too wiped out to go but I tried to catch some of it streaming (it was a between-sets thing for a local swing band and they were live-streaming the whole evening). Alas, the stream was... well, to say it was sporadic would be over-stating. A lot. I don't think I saw more then 2-3 minutes w/o interruption and more often you could measure the time in seconds. Still, it was nice to be there virtually even just a little bit. And it was a good week at work too. Even a few minor triumphs in the oft-revolting world o' politics.
So, here's some randomness to get us into the weekend.
Chad Orzel has a few thoughts on the latest developments in faster-than-light neutrinos. In general (and I think I've mentioned this before here), I find his blog a good intro to science topics, especially for a non-scientist like me. I need to get around to reading his books.
Expand your vocabulary with this 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
Also this

Learned today (via boing²) that yesterday was the 75th anniversary of Raymond Scott's recording of "Powerhouse". Apparently on the same day he also recorded "the Toy Trumpet" and 2 other tracks. Which even if he'd been rehearsing the Quintette for 8 months is still a pretty impressive day at the studio. Also learned that one of Scott's earliest compositions was "Christmas Night in Harlem." Which surprised me about as much as when I found out that Harold Arlen was the house composer for the Cotton Club. As much as I've learned that, on the professional side, the music biz in the 1930s was less segregated than society as a whole it was still true that musicians had to go to after-hours, not-really-open-to-the-public clubs if they wanted to jam with players from across "the color line."
Anyway, here's a clip of the Scott Quintette doing "Powerhouse" on TV (they were the band on Your Hit Parade, something else I didn't know before today) in 1955

Frozen White Death from Above(tm) was pretty much a total non-event. Maybe an inch here. Less in other parts of town and it was all gone by mid-morning. Oh well. In other news, I'm taking a hiatus from writing about politics cos things have gone so far around the bend that I've lost the ability to do anything other than swear and (metaphorically now but for how long I can't say) break things.
When all else fails, there's always beer. This hall of beer heroes post by James Fallows actually is revisiting an earlier post on Jim Koch (of Boston Brewing). I kind of agree with some of the comments that Fallows may have overstated Koch's importance a bit. The article above has a link back to the Jim Koch post and that has a link to a HuffPo slideshow (yes, I know... slideshows suck and are a ridiculously obvious way to pad page-views) on the top-selling craft beers in the US. Of that top 20, there's only two I haven't tried. Clearly, I need to work on that...

Hey, we got snow. What you got? Yes indeed it's the One Day Winter(tm) 'round here. It started sleeting around 4.30 and it switched over to snow around 8. They're only forecasting about an inch total (for an hour or so this morning they were saying 3-5 inches but that got revised so fast I wonder if it was a mistake) and it's supposed to get up to 50 tomorrow. Like I said, one day winter. Slight exaggeration, I know. We haven't had even the threat of snow until now this winter but there have been a couple of stretches when it was getting down to 20 overnight and not even breaking 40 during the day. Still it's nice to see some actual snow, even if it's not gonna last past noon tomorrow. And hopefully the holiday tomorrow will hold down the number of idjits on the road who don't know how to drive in snowy conditions.
If you're one of the fortunate not-having-to-work-tomorrow folks, you can kill some of your day off with this list of all 288 Bart Simpson chalkboard quotes.
Non-flammable is not a challenge.

So I was sorting thru some old stuff last weekend and I found a stack of apa zines I wrote back in the early 90s. Not feeling up for the full-on nostalgia wallow, I just skimmed a few. And in one of them I ran across the quote which titles this blog post here. Of course, it wasn't sourced. What, after all, is the fun of an obscure reference if you explain it? And, yes, I realize this is not an opinion shared by all. Once, way back in the day, I spent a long-ass time on the phone with a semi-enraged fellow apa member who insisted I explain all the references in something I'd written. And if you think my writing style is willfully obscure NOW... well, let's just say I've calmed down a bit in the last 20 years and no longer take confusing the audience as a mission statement.
Anyway.
So there's this uncited reference. Being a current resident of the 21st century, I did the only sensible thing and googled it. Nothing. Well, almost nothing. One hit, to be exact. A sig file in a thread on alt.fan.power-rangers which didn't source the quote fully but did attribute it to Bill Murray. A lead, then. But I looked on imdb at all the movies Murray had been in by the early 90s. None of them, obviously, had that line in the quotes section of their imdb entry (or else they'd have showed up in the initial google search). I tried seaching some of the screenplays but no leads there. I was about ready to crowd-source it to facebook but I first asked my brother. He also thought it sounded familiar but didn't have any specific recollections. But when I mentioned imdb, he checked Murray's credits and noticed he'd been on an episode of Square Pegs. Which, sure enough, had been clipped onto youtube. And there the quote was. Mystery solved (mostly). I'm still not sure how I would've come across that quote in the early 90s, ten-plus years out from when I'd probably last seen the show. Someone must have been re-running it is my only guess.
So, big ups, sir. Well played indeed and thanks for the research.

Here's an interesting article about limburger. There were a few things that I already knew -- mostly the stuff about how it was mostly eaten in bars, w/ crackers and onions. But lots of other stuff about the ways in which limburger arrived in the US and the reasons for its decline in popularity. Gotta say that, as many food geek sites as i read, I have never seen any indication that limburger was about to become the next hipster craze. Doesn't mean it couldn't still happen. But given the number of odd, old food styles that have been resurrected the last few years, you'd think if it was going to catch on, it'd have happened by now.
...why don't you dance with me?!?

I was reading thru some political blogs and sites this evening when I saw (on TPM, of all places) this amazing story about snow leopards. Nice article -- nothing super in-depth but good introductory stuff. Or updates on the current situation if, like me, your knowledge base mostly comes from a book published in 1978. But, really, it's footage of snow leopards!! In Bhutan, taken by a camera trap. Amazing. Also, how cool are camera traps?

From the dept. of cool things I didn't know about until today, there's the Elfstedentocht. Which only takes place when the ice is thick enough in all parts of the Netherlands, which apparentl doesn't happen all that often (last race was held in 1997). They're not definite on go time yet but it's looking good for this year.
Meanwhile, there's geeks and there's beer geeks. And this is what happens when those worlds collide. I've only had one of those, the Python-themed beer. It's not bad but it's nothing special, I didn't think.

Crowd sourcing!
Turns out there is french horn in jazz. Apparently it's known (in some circles, at least) as jazz horn. Most notably on Miles' album Birth of the Cool. But here's a whole jazz horn discography. Looking over that list, I'm sure I've heard some of those and not realized there was french horn in there. In fact, I may have even seen a band with jazz horn since the David Murray Big Band has two rekkids on the list and I saw them back around 99 or so. I don't remember seeing a french horn but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
(Thanks for the info, D.)

Here's a brief write-up and some pics of the abandoned Enchanted Forest in Maryland. Altho I never went to the park when it was open (not having grown up in the area), I have seen the site. Or as much as you can see from the edge of the strip mall parking lot. Which is not much. I was sure I had some photos I'd shot the last time we were there (which I think was a couple of years ago when we all went up for Kinetic Sculpture Race) but I guess not -- probably they didn't come out cos you really can barely see anything unless you trespass or somehow get permission to go inside. Anyway, I have sorta mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it's sad to see it abandoned and it's wonderful when cool bits of roadside Americana like that actually get maintained and kept up so that people can come and see them and enjoy. On the other, there's a part of me that thinks it's much more interesting as a decaying ruin.

Speaking of "too much fail for just one pail" -- Really? Rick Santorum?
I'm not sure what to make of His Frothiness winning three primaries (albeit largely meaningless ones) on the same day that Prop 8 was ruled unconstitutional. I'm sure there's something pithy to be said about it but I'm too tired to think what it would be just now.

More Komen-tastrophe news today as the first person got shoved overboard. Handel, the failed GA governor candidate and likely driving force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood has either been fired or quit. Depending on which version you believe. Which is one of the running themes of the last week. For an organization with so much experience focusing their message, Komen seems largely unable to get their stories straight. Of course, it's no surprise Handel's talking (apparently she declined a severance package which surely would have come w/ some sort of confidentiality agreement). She's the one being thrown under the bus. And of course she doesn't need the money -- there's always Fox News and other sources of wingnut welfare out there for aggrieved victims of reality's well-known liberal bias. You and I might consider the fact that Handel can't even keep her own version logically consistent but, hell, since when does anyone talking to the 27% have to make sense?
Rant rant rant...
And I'm still trying to figure out why Human Ham Rove and el Rushbo (among many others, I'm sure) decided they needed to pick a fight over the Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad that ran during the Super Bowl. The short explanation (that they just can't stop themselves from being dicks) has the virtue of brevity but it's not really satisfying. My only guess is that they've gotten so knee-jerk about the need to deny any economic improvement that they missed the specifics that the ad they were attacking was mostly just garden variety corporate American patriotic platitudes. Oh, and that they were picking a fight with Clint Eastwood. Yeah, no, I still don't get it.

One of those weeks...
Not that there was anything I really wanted to rant about much other than the Epic Komen-tastrophe(tm). And that was changing so fast that by the time I'd sit down to write something, I'd find things had changed (that is, gotten even stupider). By the time it all shook out (and I'm w/ Scalzi on this; I don't think we can say they caved -- they blinked, which is still better than nothing) pretty much everything I could think of to say had already been said somewhere and better. In the random chance that you haven't read all up on what's been going down, here's the excellent Jezebel overview.
Meanwhile, the Super Bowl has come and gone. It was a close, exciting game. Congrats to the Giants and I'm glad I'm not in NYC this week. I have nothing against the Giants but I'm also not a fan and there are few things more annoying than being surrounded by fans all jazzed up about something you really don't care that much about.
Madonna's halftime show was big and flashy (I think the "big electric stage" thing started with the Who a couple or so years ago). It did have a demented excess about it -- marching bands, breakdancers, Nicki Minaj, acrobats, MIA, choirs, Cee-Lo Green and what I think was a touring production of Aida. Also LMFAO (or "those guys I didn't recognize"). And while I was googling that up just now I read that apparently MIA flipped the bird. You go, girl. Best line of the day, tho, to Ru Paul who tweeted this afternoon: "#Madonna. The time has come for U to lipsynch for your life! Good luck & don't f%k it up!"
Commercial sign! Seemed to me there were fewer gross-out and/or lowbrow ads this year. One guy attacked by a cheetah, a kid peeing in the pool and of course Go Daddy pandering to that massive crowd of teenage boys who need web hosting. Which reminds me that I need to move this site to a host that's slightly less of an embarrassment. Seinfeld, Matthew Broderick and the Mayan apocalypse ads were fun enough. The only ad I really liked a lot was the Audi LED headlights ad w/ exploding vampires and "the Killing Moon." I'll be interested in seeing what the internets think. In past years I've found that the conventional wisdom often disagrees quite a bit with my impressions.

Today (or maybe it was yesterday) in exciting musical news, the Alan Lomax archives are being digitized. Music, film, photos and manuscripts will be available online. And that is pretty amazing. There have been CD releases of some of the material. Maybe even a lot of the material. I'm not sure -- it's not like I'm a Lomax scholar or anything. But I know I've played stuff from CDs that said they were Alan Lomax recordings and I even reviewed a couple of Caribbean collections. Anyway, well looking forward to being able to check more of it out. Coming online later this month, according to that link.
Driving home the other night, listening to the radio and they cut to a commercial break. I was about to switch to another station when I hear "this is Mal Sharpe for U.S. Cellular." My first thought was that I recognized the voice. Then I realized what he'd said and realized that, yes, it was Mal Sharpe of Coyle and Sharpe. I was gonna say fame but I'm not sure if they count as famous. But they should be famous. Early 60s street interview prank humorist. I'm cracking myself just thinking about their stuff. Oh look, here's a transcript of Airport Fishing Rod. Brilliancy! So anyway I had no idea that Mal Sharpe was still alive. Sorry to see he's doing radio spots but on the other hand, glad he's getting work. Also, the spot was formatted as a street interview even though I can't imagine anyone much listening to the ad would actually get why. I guess someone at the ad agency is a fan.
"Be the second clerical personality to try this. Please."