Reader Tips

Reader Tips 58 Comments
 

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our ongoing celebration of various forms of Pulp Fiction, here is Jack Webb (before his Dragnet days) as Jeff Regan, in The Man With The Key episode of International Detective Bureau, in 1948 (30:18, Real Player). Here are some of Jeff’s notable lines from tonight’s show:

  • It had a tired look, like an old lady who had been moving furniture.
  • He looked as happy as a sword swallower with the hiccups.
  • I put the key in my pocket, but it felt hot, like a dynamite stick with a short fuse.
  • I felt about as popular as a bald-headed chorus girl: nobody made a play.
  • I began to feel kind of relieved, like a flag-pole sitter when the wind died down.
  • I began to get an uneasy feeling, like a bubble-dancer with a slow leak.
  • They found him full of bullet holes: I guess he finally got a cure for that cough.
  • I had about as much chance as a violin player with no chin.
  • I got kind of nervous, like a hula dancer in a forest fire.
  • She was taking everything in, like a Hoover vacuum cleaner on a dirty rug.

Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.

58 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. What has anyone heard about Torstar about to take over the National Post next week?

  4. Look, this isn’t rocket science. Google News: Canwest Torstar National Post. If you think a story is interesting and you want to bring it up in SDA Reader Tips, you’re supposed to make it into a reader’s tip. Duh. Otherwise this becomes a chat room, and Kate doesn’t want that. So, “what d’y’all think about …” is not a Reader Tip.

  8. Western Canadian – I found your comment very interesting (even if some purists don’t) and I hope someone knows and shares with us anything they may have found.

  9. It’s Reader Tips, Larben, not Interesting Comments. Why, why, why, Vitruvius do you behave like this? Hello? We’ve all seen what happens on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night when Reader Tips becomes a free for all. But Kate says we’re not supposed to do that. So, not on my watch. Your reader tips are welcome in the comments.

  11. They’re actually the same, Snagglepusski. The serif font here uses
    old-style numerals ~ 0123456789 ~ so the zero looks like an oh.

  12. So I suppose this would be a bad time to say: “She took in the piano player and the bartender and me; I won.”
    I’d give that a hardboiled B-.

  14. Not at all, Black Mamba, comments on Reader Tips, of which the Late Nite Radio show is simply the seed tip, are welcome too, as long as they don’t become “extended debates and/or flamewars”, as explained below. So I can say that I agree that “She took in the piano player and the bartender and me; I won,” is another of Jeff’s notable lines, while at the same time arguing that I’d give it more a hard-boiled-caricature A-. That’s a caricature of a caricature, sweetheart 😉

  15. Jeff seems to go a litle overboard on the clever quips.
    All the same, by his last comment, he apparently met my Grade 12 grad date. ;~D)

  16. If you listen to them in the show, Snagglepuss (I’m not trying to be difficult here, but you can’t judge an old-time radio show only by a list of it’s clever quips ~ the dialogue is even better), you will I think find that the clever quips are to some degree overboard with a purpose: with intent, as it were. As Black Mamba and I allude to, there’s a whole caricature genre at play under the hood here, which naturally invites the caricature of the caricature parlay.

  17. Something about aliens, the kind from another place in the universe.
    It is an interesting abstract. As Hawking explains, life can exist anywhere, not necessarily of human variety, nonetheless a life.
    “Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking”
    “http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7107207.ece”

  18. Actually, Vitruvius, I’ve been working my way through those, thanks for putting them up there.
    Chandler’s my man though. He never sounds camp (as I would put it). I like noiry camp very much, but I prefer Chandler.
    (James Lileks does brilliant neat little hardboiled vignettes – go to his website and look up “Lance Lawson” – and he says it’s the easiest genre to knock off in a hurry. “When in doubt, have someone light a cigarette.”)

  19. I talk to aliens every day at work, hawking or not hawking.
    Okay, Vitruvius, no tips for YOU. Not even via PayPal.
    [ Why would you need a tip when you’re commenting on Lev’s tip, already? ~Vitruvius ]

  20. I still consider Chandler to be derivitave of Hammett, Black Mamba, much as I love them both, but who cares: de gustibus non disputandum est. I’d like to add, though, in the spirit of your Lileks reference, one of my favourite modern versions thereto: Iowahawk’s ca. September, 2004, My Teleprompter is Deadly (Excerpts from the new Inspector Dan Rather Mystery), which opens with the infamous line, “My name is Rather. And I’m a dick.” When the written word alone can make one laugh so hard that one has to leave the room to catch one’s breath: I think that’s notable.

  23. Vit- Your admonishment was well deserved. I had only perused the text and ajudged that as somewhat cheesy. I made a point of listening to the complete episode, and enjoyed it.
    That dialogue would never work in the modern tv genre, but was quite effective in an audio only context.
    But still thinking of that Hoover…

  24. Vit, are you trying real hard to be an ass hole or does it just come naturally? My tip was, from the limited info I could find, that Torstar is about to take over the National Post next week, does anyone else know anything more? Simple, a tip, but I couldn’t find out much, add to it. That is making SDA a chat line? Goodnight.

  25. It just comes naturally. You?
    By the way, it’s spelt asshole, without
    a space between the ass and the hole.
    But seriously, Western Canadian, in that case please say so: say something like “I tried to find out more about … but I couldn’t”, and the good folks here at SDA will likely help you out. It’s just that “What has anyone heard about” are among the last five words I need to hear at the beginning of the first comment of a Saturday night readers tips.

  26. I fail to see how any of this SDA late night radio discussion is a readers’ tip, ;))) hmmmmmmmmmm
    [ See 11:12 above. ~Vitruvius ]

  27. Here’s a tip.
    Instead of positing a question, offer some enlightenment.
    That’s my tip for the night.

  28. Western Canadian,
    The story of Torstar being the leading contender for the former assets of Canwest Newspapers, currently being held by a short list of Canadian banks that would like mostly to finally have their debt paid, and for that payment to be in cash or at least readily convertible to cash, is at least a month old.
    Others were seen as being leading contenders for these assets, but because nothing buys things like cash does, the Torstar bid seems to be leading.
    This is distressing to many, though not all. The National Post is amongst the assets, and it is the leading conservative type newspaper in the land.
    Torstar is the publisher of The Toronto Star, which is the leading left leaning newspaper in Toronto. So for some of us, it’s a bit off putting, that the leading right leaning newspaper may be bought by the leading left leaning newspaper, and possibly the demise of what is seen as a near independent voice of conservatism in Canada.
    They many not get the prize, or they may, others are still in the hunt. They are not “taking over”, it is a purchase. It has been in the msm almost every day since it became “breaking news worthy / reader tip material”.
    I don’t like it, but that’s a personal view. As well, the coverage of this has seemed to be of an even handed and not terribly biased view, so my opinion is that most people here are aware of this issue.
    about 400,000 results here…
    http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=torstar+to+buy+national+post
    and no, I am not trying to pile on or be an asshole.

  29. Hey Western Canadian – what? You’re only finding out now what many of us have known for some time now? Read this fast – I don’t expect it will be up for long.

  31. Not exactly a baseball story… posted also at http://www.babalublog.com today.
    “In August 2000, during the Sydney Olympics, the U.S. baseball team played the Cubans for the gold medal. Mr. Hernández Nodar watched on television with the other prisoners. When the U.S. won, he cheered wildly, waving a small paper American flag he’d made.
    A guard asked him what he was doing. “That’s my team—I’m American!” he recalls replying.
    The next day he was thrown into solitary confinement, he says. He remained there—in a windowless cell about 5 feet by 8 feet—for 15 months. He drank water and washed himself from a faucet over the same hole in the floor where he relieved himself.”
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303828304575179684284148258.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

  32. Some of the wildest tips here lately revolve around your Ontario controller Mcguinty. Is he nuts?
    Huge wind Farm with Samsung as boss?
    or is he crafty?
    Paying 80cents incentive for your home made solar power when rates are at 5 to 7 cents.
    Crafty because in the case of Loblaw’s 136 rooftops alone, how many towers, transformers and staff will Ontario not have to pay for. Loblaws is equipping all 136 rooftops.
    See Macleans, April 19th…page 40
    If Mcguinty cancelled the Samsung wind farm, he would be batting 100.
    It’s up to you in Ontario to protest.
    My hands are full with trying get BC’s Gordon Campbell to stop ego trippin’ with the useless site C dam project.
    When German aluminium left Kitimat, the power of their huge dam was added to the grid. How much over capacity do we need?

  33. Tip
    Heard of the Bloom Box? Sits in your basement or lawn. Similar in size to a heat exchanger but could cost around 3K.
    Here is a ’60 minutes’ pgm video.
    engadget.com/2010/02/22/the-bloom-box-a-power-plant-for-the-home-video/
    Presently in use by; Walmart, Google, Staples, Fedex and EBay. Saved $100.000 in energy costs for EBay last year.
    There are 100 other similar products in R&D in California.
    See the folly of McGuinty’s wind farm by Samsung?
    See the stupid thinking from BC premier Campbell for pushing ahead with the site C dam?

  34. “Leave Vitruvius Alone!” he sobs like a teenaged girl.
    Folks, here are the facts: This is KATE’S site. SHE sets the rules. The rules ARE as Vitruvius states. Kate has granted Vitruvius leave to manage the Reader’s Tips and Vitruvius does his best to enforce the rules. Kate is monitoring and if she disagreed with Vitruvius, she would let him know…ergo, we have to assume she agrees with his enforcement.
    I’m no more fond of Vitruvius’ (at times, seemingly) arbitrary snarkiness and overbearing attitude that many of you, but he generally means well and his opinions are well thought out. Overall, he is an asset to SDA, though annoying. Not unlike many of you (us).
    Now, for my tip. Looks like the SDA concensus was correct again:
    Food vs. fuel: Scientists say growing grain for food is more energy efficient
    http://www.physorg.com/news190917428.html
    “Using productive farmland to grow crops for food instead of fuel is more energy efficient, Michigan State University scientists concluded, after analyzing 17 years’ worth of data to help settle the food versus fuel debate.”

  35. Please forgive me for being an old bat and a school marm:
    BUT, Vitruvius, you give people hell for chit chat and not leaving tips (I tried to help Western Canadian out at 10:42 — BTW, your link, posted at 10:34, hadn’t shown up yet; I must have been writing mine and posting while you were posting) and then YOU get into an extended chat with Snagglepuss and Black Mamba.
    Do I care? Nope.
    Chit chat’s fun.
    But, c’mon:
    Practise what you preach, my son,
    otherwise you don’t have a leg to stand on.
    Being a scold, Vitruvius, is unbecoming.
    [ Reader tips go here. Also, comments on said tips, that aren’t
    “extended debates and/or flamewars” go here. This has been
    explained before. The rules have not changed. ~Vitruvius     ]

  36. BTW, as for the possible TorStar takeover of the National Post being old news, I hadn’t heard it.
    We don’t all read the same stuff at the same time.

  37. Liberal Iffy strums his ukelele.
    …-
    “Ignatieff hates Saskatchewan for a lot of reasons.
    Most obviously, it has only a single Liberal MP.
    But more deeply, it’s exactly the kind of place he detests on a personal level: rural; conservative; Christian; gun-owning; Ukrainian.
    It’s not cosmopolitan enough for an elitist like him. It’s not the sort of place that would call him “Count”.
    “Michael Ignatieff tests out the Graves Strategy of marginalizing the West”
    http://ezralevant.com/

  39. My thanks to those that spoke up and like batb, I simply hadn’t heard what was old news and known, nor was it to pick a fight or break Kate’s rules.
    I work 10 to 14 hours almost every day trying to get a new product off the ground so I do not have the time to fully research everything. I found the info given very interesting, thanks.
    By the way Vit, my apologies for the name calling, it was late and I was tired.

  40. No offence taken, Western Canadian. In the future, in order to try to help maximize the value we all receive from the resources Kate allocates for Small Dead Animals’ Reader Tips, please try looking up news via a search engine before commenting here, and then either let us know what you find, or let us know that you did look and didn’t find anything, in which case an extended query becomes understandable.

  41. WOW less than 3 minutes and my post taken down.
    [ It wasn’t a Reader Tip or a comment on an extant reader tip. ~Vitruvius ]

  45. Vitruvius, I’m trying to be compliant, but in this instance, I’m just not sure. It’s not a Reader’s Tip in the sense of, ‘please read this’ but it is a one in the sense, of ‘here’s a tip on what this Reader has experienced vis a vis high tech costs.
    Hard disk storage cost 1984 vs. 2010
    My small company just upgraded its image backup system to Raid5, 4 Terabytes for $750. That’s 4,000,000 Megabytes, I believe.
    We bought our first 40 MB hard disk in 1984 for, gulp, $5,000. Note the symmetry of the two figures, 40 and 40 million.
    My IT guy (who’s been with me since 1984) and I often joke about that long ago hard disk cum boat anchor, which has become our benchmark for the awesome collapse of technology prices.
    I’ve been toying with how to express the magnitude of this change. One way, was to observe that the unit cost has dropped by 99.9999% (decimals not exact), but that just sounds like a cliche, a number out of a hat, and is therefore suspect and ineffective. Yunno like Dove Soap, being 99 and 44/100s pure.
    SO — especially for the younger SDA set — here’s a better presentation:
    In 1984, the cost was $125 / MB. Based on 1984 costs per unit, my new 4,000,000 MBs would have cost $500,000,000. $500 million! HALF A BILLION.
    Snark Remark: Shouldn’t disgraced former Fed Maestro Alan Greenspan have intervened in this disastrous price scenario, in the interest of “price stability”.

  47. Being there , seen that from the early days of the Internet when a person is consumed by an obsessive presence in a specific virtual space. Acting superior to others , casting rules, overestimating importance of moderating, just to become a troll magnet and sooner or later to burn itself. Oh, and they all believed that Internet is just like broadcasting.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation