Jefferson City is still recovering from last May’s tornado. This weekend some of George Tergin’s friends are helping him demolish what was left of his business. A sad chore that marks a new beginning.
Pedal Car Graveyard
Ron Bandelier
In this five minute video Ron Bandelier gives me a peek at a few of his vintage vehicles: Berkeley B65; 1937 LaFayette Nash Twin 8; 1937 Nash Ambassador Cabriolet; 1927 Model T Ford. The video is pretty janky because I wasn’t expecting to meet Ron and wasn’t prepared for his treasures (only a few shown here). I just whipped out the phone and started recording and snapping photos.
Civil War era log cabin
While visiting Paul Bandelier this week, he showed me the original home his ancestors built when they came to the U.S. from Switzerland (circa 1867).
The top photo is the front of the structure, the bottom the rear. Paul explained it was built as two log cabins with the entryway between. I’ve asked Paul for more information and will update post.
“Can a Burger Help Solve Climate Change?”
The September 30 issue of New Yorker Magazine includes the best article I’ve read on this topic. Staff writer Tad Friend spent six months reporting the piece which runs 12,000+ words (about 35 pages). I don’t know many with the attention span to read something of that length so here are a few excerpts I found interesting.
The piece focuses on Pat Brown, “a sixty-five-year-old emeritus professor of biochemistry at Stanford University and the founder and C.E.O. of Impossible Foods. By developing plant-based beef, chicken, pork, lamb, dairy, and fish, he intends to wipe out all animal agriculture and deep-sea fishing by 2035.”
- Agriculture consumes more freshwater than any other human activity, and nearly a third of that water is devoted to raising livestock. One-third of the world’s arable land is used to grow feed for livestock, which are responsible for 14.5 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions.
- Because methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, some twenty-five times more heat-trapping than carbon dioxide, cattle are responsible for two-thirds of the livestock sector’s G.H.G. emissions. Every four pounds of beef you eat contributes to as much global warming as flying from New York to London—and the average American eats that much each month.
- the Impossible Burger requires eighty-seven per cent less water and ninety-six per cent less land than a cowburger, and its production generates eighty-nine per cent less G.H.G. emissions. They made it nutritionally equal to or superior to beef.
- Ninety-five per cent of those who buy the Impossible Burger are meat-eaters.
- The three largest meatpacking companies in America have combined annual revenues of more than two hundred billion dollars.
- Researchers at the University of Minnesota found fecal matter in sixty-nine per cent of pork and ninety-two per cent of poultry; Consumer Reports found it in a hundred per cent of ground beef.
- Cooked beef contains at least four thousand different molecules, of which about a hundred contribute to its aroma and flavor and two dozen contribute to its appearance and texture.
- at least ninety-five per cent of American beef cattle spend their last four to six months being fattened on grain at feedlots.
- American broilers, chickens raised for meat, are bred and confined in ways that make them more than four times larger than broilers were in the nineteen-sixties; as a result, they often collapse from their own weight.
Riley in the reading chair
Country vs. Pop
In one of the episodes of Ken Burns’ series on the history of country music, they trace the shift from country to pop music. I believe it was in the early 50’s. My father, John Mays, would have been at KBOA for several years by then and he had a better feel (and preference) for pop than country so he played that music while other announcers played different types. Rudy Pylant (Mr. Rudy) was known for Old Camp Meetin’ Time which was country gospel and “old time” music. Jimmy Haggett was — during this period — known as the country DJ.
The photo below was the result of a “popularity” contest in which listeners voted with 3-cent postcards.
This must have been an incredibly exciting time to be in radio, even at a small market station like KBOA. Nashville station WSM (home of the Grand Ole Opry) was featured prominently in the Burns documentary Haggett worked there at some point after leaving KBOA.
Country Music | A Film by Ken Burns
After watching the first two episodes (4 hours) of Ken Burns’ new documentary, I’m a little surprised at how much country music history there was before 1948. Many of the photos were reminiscent of the groups that performed at KBOA.
The Weight
I never tire of these. The face of each performer radiates joy.
Universal Driving Gestures
As soon as I started driving my old Land Rover around town I started getting the “thumbs up” gesture from other drivers. Almost always with a smile. This gesture is clearly meant to convey something positive. They like/admire the Rover. Wikipedia has a page on the history of the gesture. I love getting the thumbs up and started wondering why there are not more universally (at least in English speaking countries) recognized gestures between motorists. The only other one I can think of is The Finger. The other end of the approval spectrum, if you will.