Happy Chinese New Year 2018!
Friday, February 16 is the Beginning of the Lunar New Year & Spring Festival
2018 is the Year of the Yang Brown Earth Dog!
The Lantern Festival is on March 2nd and is the climax of the new year celebration.
Over 2000 years old, the Lantern Festival is a time for Moon watching, Lion dances, lantern lighting, social interaction and a celebration of freedom.
2018 is time to overcome obstacles and will be a challenge year for many people.
Take extra effort to reach your destination and use your wisdom to find a better way.
Consider necessity before spending money.
2018 will be a good year to save and increase your wealth.
READ OUR PREVIOUS CHINESE NEW YEAR BLOG POSTS!
Happy Year of the Brown Male Yang Earth Dog! He’s such a good boy!
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“Kilroy Was Here” engraved on the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C.
“Maybe you’ve bumped into Kilroy. He’s a bald (or balding) gentleman with a big nose, drawn peeking over a wall. Next to him is usually the phrase “Kilroy was here.” He can be found all over the world, and went viral long before social media or the Internet were around, finding his way through the theaters of war with American troops during World War II. (One of his most daring appearances may have been at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. During the summit, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin had exclusive use of a VIP bathroom. One day, Stalin reportedly used the facilities, and came out demanding to know from one of his aides who Kilroy was, having found the drawing on one of the walls.)”
“Kilroy Was Here” is a WWII slogan and graffiti by the American Army, the drawing based on the British “Mr Chad”, and sometimes coupled with images of pregnant women.
“Kilroy doesn’t appear to have originated entirely with U.S. servicemen, though. A similar doodle, known as Mr. Chad, was scrawled throughout Britain as a comment on shortages and rations during the war. Chad was similar in appearance to Kilroy, but was accompanied by a different message: “Wot? No tea?” (or whatever other goods were in short supply at the moment). Chad predates Kilroy by a few years, and may have been the created by British cartoonist George Chatterton in the late 1930s. As best as anyone can tell, at some point during the war, American soldiers borrowed Mr. Chad’s image and married it to their own name and phrase, ‘Kilroy was here.'”
Kilroy became the U.S. super-GI who had already been wherever American soldiers went. It became a challenge for the troops to place the logo in the most unlikely places imaginable (on top of Mt. Everest and the Statue of Liberty, on the underside of the Arch De Triumphe and even scrawled in the dust on the moon)
Wisconsin Historical Markers: The Highground WWII Tribute: Kilroy Was Here
“If the man in the drawing was a variation of Mr. Chad, then where did the name Kilroy come from? While the Oxford English Dictionary writes Kilroy off as a mythical person, dozen of real people claimed to be the doodle’s namesake in 1946, when the American Transit Association (ATA) held a radio contest to establish the origin of the phrase. One of them was James J. Kilroy, who worked as at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts during the war inspecting the work done by others on the tanks and hulls of warships. As Kilroy explained to the ATA:
I started my new job with enthusiasm, carefully surveying every inner bottom and tank before issuing a contract. I was thoroughly upset to find that practically every test leader [the head of a work crew] I met wanted me to go down and look over his job with him, and, when I explained to him that I had already checked the job and could not spare the time to crawl through one of those tanks again, he would accuse me of not having looked the job over. I was getting sick of of being accused of not looking the jobs over and one day as I came through the manhole of a tank i had just surveyed, I angrily marked with yellow crayon on the tank top, where the tester could see it, ‘Kilroy was here.’ The following day, a test gang leader approached me with a grin on his face and said, ‘I see you looked my job over.’ I nodded in agreement.
Kilroy provided the ATA with corroborating statements from men he worked with at the shipyard, and said that he assumed that shipyard workers who had seen his mark and then joined the military took the phrase with them and began writing it in Europe. He won the contest and the grand prize, a full-size trolley street car. Just a few days before Christmas, the 12-ton car was delivered to Kilroy’s home in Halifax, MA, where it was attached to the house and used as living space for six of his nine children.”
The “Kilroy Trolley Car” photo from the Boston American, December 23, 1946. Thanks to Brian Fitzgerald (James Kilroy’s grandson)
“Kilroy Was Here” is written in two locations on the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
“Clap my hands and jump for joy; I was here before Kilroy. Sorry to spoil your little joke; I was here, but my pencil broke.” ~Kilroy
(from A Diller, a Dollar: Rhymes and Sayings For the Ten O’clock Scholar 1955)
Kilroy can also be seen at the end of my favorite WWII film “Kelly’s Heroes”>
Spoiler Alert! Kilroy Was Here in “Kelly’s Heroes”
The 1983 Styx album titled “Kilroy Was Here” was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song, “Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto” ends with the line “I’m Kilroy.”
NOTE: sometimes we answer questions in the groups we are in on facebookand sometimes they become Blog Posts. We have insomnia and cannot sleep again. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018!
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Earth (AKA “the World” or “the Globe”) is the third planet from the Sun and is the birthplace of humanity and the cradle of human civilization.
‘s Earth Day Doodle!
Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old. The oldest known rocks are about 4 billion years old (rocks older than 3 billion years are rare) and the oldest fossils of living organisms are less than 3.9 billion years old. With a radius of 3,959 miles, Earth is the biggest of the known terrestrial planets, and the fifth largest in our solar system.
Planet Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe
71 Percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. Earth’s atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water (H20). Earth’s oceans have an average depth of about 2.5 miles and contains 97 percent of the planet’s water. Earth has a central (inner and outer) core, a rocky mantle and a solid crust.
The name “Earth” is at least 1,000 years old and it is the only planet whose name doesn’t come from from Greek or Roman mythology. The name is from Old English and Germanic origins and means “ground”.
Earth orbits the sun and completes one daily rotation every 23.9 hours. It takes 365.25 days to complete a one year trip around the sun. The Earth’s axis is tilted 23.4 degrees to the plane of the planet’s orbit around the sun and this causes the cycle of seasons.
Earth is the only known planet that has a single moon. The moon is (an average distance of) 238,855 miles away from Earth.
Planet Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe
A beautiful Waikoloa sunset on the Big Island of Hawaii
We Can Run
by John Barlow & Brent Mydland
We don’t own this place though we act as if we did It belongs to the children of our children’s kids The actual owners haven’t even been born yet
But we never tend the garden and we rarely pay the rent Most of it is broken and the rest of it is bent Put it all on plastic and I wonder where we’ll be when the bills hit
We can run but we can’t hide from it Of all possible worlds we only got one, we gotta ride on it Whatever we’ve done we’ll never get far from what we leave behind Baby we can run, run, run but we can’t hide
Well I’m dumping my trash in your back yard Making certain you don’t notice really isn’t so hard You’re so busy with your guns and all of your excuses to use them
Well it’s oil for the rich and babies for the poor We’ve got everyone believing that more is more If a reckoning comes maybe we’ll know what to do then
We can run but we can’t hide from it Of all possible worlds we only got one, we gotta ride on it Whatever we’ve done we’ll never get far from what we leave behind Baby we can run, run, run but we can’t hide
All these complications seem to leave no choice I heard the tongues of billions speak with just one voice Saying just leave all the rest to me, I need it worse than you, you see Then I heard the sound of one child crying
Today I went out walking in the amber wind There’s a hole in the sky where the light pours in I remember the days when I wasn’t afraid of the sunshine
But now it beats down on the ashphalt land Like a hammering blow from God’s left hand What little still grows Cringes in the shade till the night-time
We can run but we can’t hide from it Of all possible worlds we only got one, we gotta ride on it Whatever we’ve done we’ll never get far from what we leave behind Baby we can run, run, run but we can’t hide (….no, we can’t hide.)
WARNING! Vegans and Vegetarians may want to skip this Blog.
Clara Peller asks “Where’s The Beef?” in 1984
Beef is the name for meat from cattle.
Beef can be harvested from bulls, cows, heifers or steers.
Habit Burger Grill – Double BBQ Bacon Charburger with Cheese!
“Let’s Play Know Your Cuts of Meat!” – David Letterman
Beef muscle (MEAT) is cut into roasts, short ribs or steaks.
Cuts: filet mignon, sirloin steak, rump steak, rib steak, rib eye steak, hanger steak, etc.
Some cuts are processed (corned beef and beef jerky) and trimmings are ground, minced or used in sausages. Blood is used in some varieties of blood sausage.
Other parts: the oxtail, liver, tongue, tripe from the reticulum or rumen, glands (the pancreas and thymus are called sweetbreads), the heart, the brain, the kidneys and testicles (called calf fries, prairie oysters or Rocky Mountain oysters in the U.S.) are eaten too. Some intestines are cooked and eaten, but more often they are cleaned and used as natural sausage casings. The bones are used for making beef stock and gelatin.
Beef is the third most consumed meat in the world, accounting for about 25% of meat production worldwide (after pork 38% and poultry 30%).
CLICK ON ANY SMALL PIC TO SEE A LARGER PIC AND VIEW THE GALLERY AND THEN CLICK AGAIN TO VIEW THE PIC AT FULL SIZE!
CLICK ON ANY SMALL PIC TO SEE A LARGER PIC AND VIEW THE GALLERY AND THEN CLICK AGAIN TO VIEW THE PIC AT FULL SIZE!
CLICK ON ANY SMALL PIC TO SEE A LARGER PIC AND VIEW THE GALLERY AND THEN CLICK AGAIN TO VIEW THE PIC AT FULL SIZE!
“Where’s The Beef?”
Beef is first divided into primal cuts during butchering.
Primal cuts are large pieces of meat initially separated from the animal’s carcass.
Steaks and other subdivisions are cut from these basic sections.
Steak! (Before)
Steak! (After)
Steak-On-A-Stake at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire
“Beef….it’s what’s for dinner.”
Porcini-Rubbed Ribeye and Fingerling Potatoes at Mozza Osteria in Hollywood
$29 Room Service Bacon Cheeseburger and Fries at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas
Steak Diane at Yoshi’s in San Francisco
Steak Dinner at Carnevino at the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas
Bone-in Ribeye Steak w/fries at the Texas Roadhouse BBQ in Medford, Oregon
2 AM Pastrami Sandwich at Tommy’s Joynt in San Francisco!
Christmas Dinner! Prime Rib (perfectly done) at a Friend’s in North Hollywood
Bite-Size Short Rib & Cheese Slider at the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire
Spicy Beef Panang at Chan Dara in Larchmont Village, California
Cooking (All You Can Eat) Beef at AYCE GOGI in Van Nuys, California
In-N-Out Burger Double-Double With Cheese!
Wagyu Beef (on a hot stone) – Dinner Party at N/Naka in West Los Angeles
Bone-In Ribeye Steak at Patina at the Hollywood Bowl
Beef For Sale at The Butcher Shop in Eagle Point, Oregon
Cheeseburger and Fries for Lunch at the Four Seasons Westlake Village
Steak Dinner at Carnevino at the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas
Steak Sandwich and Fries at Cafe Bizou in Sherman Oaks
Choose Your Steak for Dinner at the Texas Roadhouse BBQ in Medford, Oregon
Chili Burger from Tommy’s at Universal City in Los Angeles
Steak Dinner at Beasy’s on the Creek in Ashland, Oregon
Best Pastrami Sandwich in San Francisco at Tommy’s Joynt
Home Cooked Bone-In Ribeye Steak with Sautéed Red Onion
Cooking Beef Behind the Glass at The Stand in Encino, California
Steak-On-A-Steak!
Filet Mignon at Le Sanglier in Tarzana, California
Bacon Cheeseburger & Fries at Karl Strauss Brewery in Downtown Los Angeles
Prime Rib at the Sunday Brunch at the LUXE Hotel on Sunset in West Los Angeles
Bistec Empanizado (Breaded Steak) at Versailles Cuban Food in Encino
Crusted Filet Steak at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills
BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Lunch at Jasper’s in Medford, Oregon
Sloppy Joe!
1/2 of the Cote de Boeuf at Melisse Restaurant in Santa Monica
How did “Where’s The Beef?” become a part of the American vocabulary and an all-purpose phrase questioning the substance of an idea, event or product?
Clara Peller (August 4, 1902 – August 11, 1987) was a manicurist and American character actress. Born on August 4, 1902 in Russia, she came to the United States at the age of 5 with an uncle and lived in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of 81, Clara starred in the 1984 “Where’s The Beef?” advertising campaign for Wendy’s restaurants, created by the Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency.
At age 80, Clara was hired as a manicurist for a television commercial set in a Chicago barbershop. Impressed by her no-nonsense manners and unique voice, the agency signed her. She was hard of hearing and had emphysema, which limited her ability to speak long lines of dialogue, and she appeared in many TV commercials. She first attracted attention as a comical cleaning lady in an ad for the new Massachusetts State Lottery game “Megabucks” in the late 1970s and later became a national cultural phenomenon in a series of commercials for the Wendy’s Restaurant chain.
First aired on January 10, 1984, the Wendy’s commercial “Fluffy Bun” portrayed a fictional competitor “Home of the Big Bun” where three elderly ladies are complaining about an enormous hamburger bun containing a tiny hamburger patty. Two of the women comment on the size of the bun and they are interrupted by Peller’s character, who looks around in vain while making the outraged demand: “Where’s The Beef?”
“Where’s The Beef?” became a catchphrase (before viral video) across the United States.
The actress made the three-word phrase a cultural phenomenon, achieved Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame” and became an instant star. Sequels to the spots featured her yelling her famous line in various scenes and her face and the slogan were merchandised on shirts, hats, buttons, mugs, glasses, bumper stickers, frisbees, games, a commemorative plate, and all sorts of other products. Nashville songwriter and DJ Coyote McCloud wrote and performed a hit song entitled “Where’s the Beef?” released as a promotional single for Wendy’s featuring Clara Peller.
“Where’s The Beef?” – The Game!
Wendy’s sales jumped 31% to $945 million in 1985 worldwide. Wendy’s Senior VP of Communications Denny Lynch said at the time that “with Clara we accomplished as much in five weeks as we did in 14½ years.” Former Vice-President Walter Mondale also used the line in his bid for the Democratic nomination in the 1984 presidential campaign.
The campaign ended in 1985 when Clara did a commercial for Campbell’s Prego pasta sauce, where she declares “I found it! I really found it!” After the Prego commercial aired, Wendy’s management decided to terminate her contract. Clara’s response: “I’ve made them millions and they don’t appreciate me.” Following her termination and the conclusion of the “Where’s The Beef?” campaign, Wendy’s suffered a 2 year sales slump and consumer awareness of the Wendy’s brand did not recover for another five years!
NOTE: According to an A&E biography, “Where’s The Beef?” was actually an error made by Clara who was supposed to say “Where’s all the beef?” And another story says the line was shortened because of her emphysema.
Clara was paid scale for the first commercial and claimed she only made about $30,000 from the commercials, but Wendy’s claimed she was paid about $500,000 for her work. Clara also appeared in other commercials, did interviews and guest spots (including a cameo on “Saturday Night Live” in April 1984), made other appearances, and she had a small role in the feature film “Moving Violations.”
Clara Peller died in on August 11, 1987, one week after her 85th birthday.
I’ve Been Everywhere Man! And now for a little traveling music…
Hank Snow“I’ve Been Everywhere!” (1962) produced by Chet Atkins
performed on the National Life“Grand Ole Opry” in 1965:
“I’ve been everywhere, man/I’ve been everywhere, man/ Crossed the deserts bare, man/I’ve breathed the mountain air, man/ Travel, I’ve had my share, man/I’ve been everywhere!”
“I’ve Been Everywhere“ is a song which was written by Australian country singer Geoff Mack in 1959 and made popular by Lucky Starr in 1962. The song as originally written listed Australian towns. Original singer Lucky Starr released an EP called “Lucky’s Been Everywhere” that contained four different versions: United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
The North American version (with cities in United States and Canada) was sung by Canadian Clarence Eugene “Hank” Snow RIP (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999 and he became an American citizen in 1958), “I’ve Been Everywhere” was a number-one country hit in 1962 for “The Singing Ranger”. It was also sung by Australian singer Rolf Harris with English and Scottish cities in 1963 and by John Hore (later known as John Grenell) with New Zealand cities in 1966.
Hank Snow & The Rainbow Ranch Boys: Chubby Wise, Kayton Roberts, Bobby Wright and Jimm Widener
Hank Snow was a gifted songwriter and was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978, and the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and the Nova Scotia Music Hall of Fame in 1979. In Canada, he was voted the top country music performer ten times and inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985. A victim of child abuse, he established the Hank Snow International Foundation For Prevention Of Child Abuse and Neglect in 1976.
NOTE: In 1954 Hank Snow persuaded the directors of the Grand Ole Opry to allow a young Elvis Presley to appear on stage. Snow used Elvis as his opening act and introduced him to Colonel Tom Parker. In August 1955, Snow and Parker formed the management team Hank Snow Attractions and signed a contract with Presley but soon Snow was out and Parker had control of Elvis.
Hank Snow backstage at the Grand Ole Opry – Nashville 1978
Geoff Mack rewrote the song using an atlas supplied to him by his music publisher. Most of the cities in the U.S. version are located in North America, but two are in Central America (Costa Rica and Panama) and three in South America (Barranquilla, Tocopilla, and Argentina):
First verse Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota, Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma, Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma, Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo, Tocopilla, Barranquilla and Padilla.
Second verse Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana, Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana, Monterey, Ferriday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa, Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa, Tennessee, Hennessey, Chicopee, Spirit Lake, Grand Lake, Devils Lake and Crater Lake.
Third verse Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika, Schefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica, Pittsfield, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport, Hackensack, Cadillac, Fond du Lac, Davenport, Idaho, Jellico, Argentina, Diamantina, Pasadena and Catalina.
Fourth verse Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravelbourg, Colorado, Ellensburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, Eldorado, Larimore, Atmore, Haverstraw, Chatanika, Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika, Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City, Sioux City, Cedar City and Dodge City.
The song was covered (and adapted for other countries) by many other artists over the years and most notably the U.S. version was recorded by Johnny Cash for his Grammy winning “Unchained” (Best Country Album) in 1996.
“Unchained” produced by Rick Rubin
Johnny Cash “I’ve Been Everywhere”
Read the Blog> “Music Makin’ Mama from Memphis” (also by Hank Snow)
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And be sure to do the “Rhumba Boogie” (also a #1 Country Hit) with Hank Snow too!
Extra-Credit:
Hank Snow sings “City of New Orleans”
“Good morning America how are ya Say, don’t you know me, I’m your native son I’m a train they call the City of New Orleans I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done…”
THANK YOU TO ALL MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS AND READERS!!!!!
It’s a MILESTONE! When we started this Blog in February 2013 we wondered how long it would take to reach the milestone numbers. We have finally reached 25000, without any paid promotion or heavy marketing. In fact, beyond our facebook and Twitter posts, we have let our Blog grow organically without hype and have attracted loyal readers from around the world!
25000 HITS!!!!!
Sunday 24 April 2016 is the day we hit 25000 Hits on our Blog!!!!!
25000 HITS!!!!! A Champagne Toast!!!!!
We will continue to post about things we find interesting, important and fun!
Thank you again for your time and attention! We look forward to the next milestone!
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Hard Rain! Thunder & Lightning
Thunder, Lightning & Rain!
Ride With Me To North Hollywood
Going to the Beach: Malibu Beach Walk With Me
Going to the Beach: Topanga Cyn to the Sea Ride With Me
Thursday Afternoon at Malibu Beach
Saturday Midnight on Mulholland
Sherman Oaks Galleria
Hey Monday!
Monday 4:20 Good Morning!
Sunrise at Stonehenge @thehistoryguy
Sunrise at Stonehenge @thehistoryguy #Dronehenge
Sunrise at Stonehenge LIVE: Dan Snow @thehistoryguy and an expert on site with one camera inside the stone circle and one drone camera up in the air!
FEBRUARY 2016
Rockin’ Blues
More Rockin’ Blues
Even More Rockin’ Blues
John Németh Blues Band at Big Mama’s Rib Shack in Pasadena
Cop Stop NOHO
Friday In The Park
Wednesday Walkin The Dog In The Park take 2
Walkin The Dog In The Park pt 1 and pt 2
Getting Burgers at the Habit Grill
Double CharBurger with Cheese from The Habit Grill
Midnight Thoughts At 1am
Los Encinos Park With The Dog
It’s Friday! BangTheDrum
Going to NOHO Ride With Me Down Ventura Blvd
Walkin Lake Balboa Park pt 1
Tuesday Afternoon in Lake Balboa Park pt 2
Full Moon Saturday Night Live In The SFV
Full Moon Over the San Fernando Valley
Friday! Bang The Drum!
Scrambled Eggs
Untitled (My First Scope!)
NOTE: The Who and Bruce Springsteen LIVE from Toronto, Canada; Sir Elton John LIVE from his Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California; Willie Nelson LIVE from SXSW in Austin, Texas; and Joe Satriani LIVE from the Fox Theatre in Oakland, California are just a few of the LIVE performances I’ve been able to watch LIVE on Periscope!