Snap. Crackle.

About a month ago I had one of those "found" moments. That is to say, I found something real cool. The apartment I live in has, in its foyer, a bench on which the newspapers get piled up and where tenants leave free stuff. Usually its romance paperbacks, once there was a real weird light up clock. But . . . . . to my delight someone left a Califone 1450K, and an old colour TV.

I already have a colour TV, so I scored the Califone. For the uninitiated, its a super cool portable record player, but built for the schools as language lab devices. Made in Canada, they are tanks. But they made them in awesome colours like teal, white and cream and brown tolex. Mine's the blue one.

So I plugged it and she was dead. So sad. But tonight I popped the hood and had a good look. I'm pretty good with electronics and can read a circuit. So to my delight it was just the on board fuse. It's soldered on to the circuit board but that's an easy fix. I'll let you know how it sounds. Got my Archie's record ready. Hehe.

On the box, Wednesday March 12

Not to miss tonight at 7pm on PBS: American Masters, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

Feeling science-y? Knowledge Network has100 Greatest Discoveries of Physics on at 8pm. I believe it's hosted by Bill Nye. What value: you get 100 of them in just 1 hour.

Over on OLC they have two back to back Pilot Guides: South Africa and Lesotho at 7:30pm and American Civil War at 8pm. Nice little 30 minute shots.

At 10pm the Knowledge Network has For King and Country Passing the Torch: Canadians Go to War 1939 - 1941

Also at 10 is Turning Points of History Great Atlantic Air Race on History Television.

Doesn't seem to be anything on for the night owls, unless the Osmonds 5oth is for you.

Hello Tostig

Bartholomew of Farne was born in England of Scandinavian parents. He quickly changed his real name, Tostig, to William to keep from being made fun of. As a youth he travelled to Norway to study to become a priest. After 3 years he showed up back in England. He decided the monk life was for him, so sporting a new name, Bartholomew he went off to his studies.

It was during this time he had a vision of Christ with arms outstretched and head facing him. After his profession he got his papers and he decided to move to Inner Farne island. This island had sported another famous recluse, St. Cuthbert, who inspired even another saint, that being St. Godric of Finchale. They kept pretty tight these saints did. I believe somewhere on this blog is a post about him.

Being of the eremitical stripe, he did not need to or feel quite up to spending much time with others. A hermit already living there when he arrived left. Many years later another arrived and he moved away for a short time over a tiff about meals. He later returned and seemed to work out an agreeable schedule.

You can celebrate Saint Bartholomew of Farne day June 24.

Televisual feasts for Tuesday, March 11

If you like historical docs, tune to History Television at 10pm for Turning Points of History-
War in the Woods: Building of the Alaska Highway. Good doc about this amazing project. It will amaze you how little regard there was for any environmental impact or employee safety.

If your up for some classic hay burners AMC has Paul Newman and George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke on at 9:30pm. If you have the jam stay up for The Grapes of Wrath at 1am.

Check out the wheels on American Hot Rod, Boyd Coddington's Top 10 at 1am. Boyd passed away just last week.

That's all that I can see for tonight.

What's on Monday, March 10, 2008

OK, here's my picks for history-ish viewing tonight:

Hamlet, 1948, Laurence Olivier on TCM, at 7pm, followed by Romeo and Juliet if you've got the jam. This is not the best remake out there. For sheer fun try and find the Leonardo DiCaprio musical version. If you haven't had a seizure yet a Midsummer's Night Dream comes on at 12:30am starring James Cagney, Mickey Rooney and Olivia de Havilland. Oh my.

Bugs Bunny and Tweety Hour on Teletoon at 8pm, nothing but the old ones, devilish.

Also at 8 on History Television, the superb Rome series.

Gotta go, I'm extra tired tonight and I have to plan my next assault on the recluses of the world.

And it's absolutely a shame that Jeff Healy died last week. What a musician. Try and find some video of his jazz band, the music is amazing.

Mayor.

Noah John Rondeau was a hermit living in the Adirondack mountains in upper New York state. He left home in his teens with little education but didn't take up the life of a recluse for a while yet. He travelled around the Adirondacks working fixing things, doing odd jobs, local guide and serving as handyman for more than one hotel. He learned his wood lore from several Canadian Natives of the Abenaki Tribe: Daniel Emmett, Sabael Benedict and Lewis Elijah.

Well versed in hunting and trapping he took to the woods full time around 1946. He chose a favourite spot, Cold River for his hermitage. Although known by the locals as the Cold River Hermit, he did receive visitors and seemed quite to enjoy occasional company.

An avid reader, despite little formal schooling, he had a collection of books. His special subject was astronomy. He played the violin and kept many journals. The vast majority of them were written in code. He developed letter substitution ciphers and constantly revised them. The end result of course is much of his writings were a blank book.

Because of his secrecy it was suspected, wrongfully, that he was a draft dodger. In actual fact he was near 60 when he could have been drafted. I think he just pissed off the local conservation officers with his hunting and trapping.

As self proclaimed mayor of Cold River City he set up a town hall building, (his house), a Hall of Records (where the ciphered journals were kept) and a small "city" of numerous tee pee shaped buildings used for fire wood to burn during the winter months. He cleverly notched the longer pieces so he could simply rap them on the ground and break off a fireplace sized log.

In an irony great enough to rival any, he gained his only fame outside of the Adirondacks by being invited by the Conservation Department to the National Sportsman Show in New York City. They actually flew him there where he was an instant hit.

I'm watching you.

On this day in 1949, the Tucker Corporation went out of business. Preston Thomas Tucker founded the company in 1935 with race car legend Harry Miller, known for his high powered racing engines. As Miller and Tucker they built a pile of Indy race cars using a Ford framework. Miller and Tucker moved to Indianapolis and continued in the race car biz until Miller died in1943.

Tucker moved back to Michigan and began working on military projects but it took until 1948 and the founding of the Tucker Corporation that his true inspiration came out. The result was The 1948 Tucker Sedan, or Tucker Torpedo (I like that name way better).

This amazing vehicle featured among other things: true aerodynamic stying by Duesenburg designer Alex Tremulis. He was given all of 6 days to figure it out. It also featured disc brakes, fuel injection and a rear mounted engine. All of this made the car very nimble, and because of Tuckers practice with high powered engines (he developed an armoured combat vehicle for the US Army that could go 185kmh) the thing could go like snot.

He was also ahead of his time in his attention to safety features such as padded dashes, instruments and knob clustered around the steering column, so you wouldn't crack yourself on the ciggy lighter, and his most famous safety feature of all, the centre mounted headlight attached to the steering that peered around corners.

Tucker was also a marketing innovator, developing and selling a line of Tucker "Accessories" that included men's and ladies suitcases and travel bags.