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 Have you ever seen embers man a fire hose?
There is a 1935 Mickey Mouse cartoon entitled “Mickey’s Fire Brigade” where flames get control of a fire hose… but embers?
H ave you ever seen a man who consists mostly of cement and a slate roof?
And would you think a man made of slate and cement would express his great debt of gratitude to firefighters by saying “They didn’t do nothing wrong?”
You haven’t been reading The Long Islander.
The Long Islander is a local newspaper based in Huntington, Long Island, New York. The newspaper was founded in the 19th century by poet Walt Whitman. Despite having been run out of town rather unceremoniously due to his romantic interest in people who shared his gender… Walt Whitman has triumphed. Forget those poems… this guy now has a shopping mall named in his honor.
We’ve forgiven Whitman – the town has a pride parade each year in which Whitman would most happily have marched. I doubt if we’ll ever forgive the writer of the article above left, though.
 Isn’t Life Terrible has developed The World’s Most Difficult Wizard of Oz QUIZ.
Once you realize how little you know, visit Jim’s Wizard of Oz site.
[ 2021 note: Don's Oz quiz is missing. Jim's site was on the now-defunct GeoCities; the link now points to an archived version.]
You may not recognize “Moonlight on the Ganges,” but you are sure to recognize the theme for NBC Radio Network’s “Roy Shield and Company.” (30m) Roy Shield (sometimes LeRoy Shield) wrote all the great music for the Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, and Our Gang comdies from the 30’s. You’ll most likely recognize Roy’s theme song as the “Oh, Miss Crabtree” music from Our Gang short “Love Business,” but it has appeared in countless Hal Roach Films. Its title is actually “You Are The One I Love,” (2m) and the only reason I know this is because of the fabulous Beau Hunks CD’s with inflection-perfect recreations of the (now lost) originals. On Roy’s show, you’ll hear Eve Young sing “I Should Care.” Roy and his orchestra also play “Violets for Your Furs,” a song I know only because Frank Sinatra recorded it. Nelson Olmstead narrates a version of Poe’s “The Raven” which proves that every era has its William Shatner. A selection of programs with orchestral backgrounds by Shield can be found here.
[2021 note: This isn't necessarily the recording of "You Are the One I Love" originally shared by Don.]
 My all-time favorite moment from The Tom Snyder Radio Show? Easy. The two calls he got from “Jerry, in Tipton Indiana.” (6m) HINT: It’s not Jerry, it’s a fellow talk show host pranking Tom in the grand tradition of the great Peter Cook, (5m) who used to call a radio talk show late at night claiming to be someone named “Sven.”
[2021 update: The Cook clip might or might not be the exact one Don chose.]
 More from the Tom Snyder Radio Show archives: Gary Shandling (36m) describes the ‘living hell’ of portraying Gary Shandling – and discusses his comeback. Not in his own voice, of course. We learn, among other things, the reason they stopped making new episodes of “It’s Gary Shandling’s Show,” and which flowers sell well in hot weather. Gary enjoys the experience, so he doesn’t implement the early-escape plan he set up with Tom’s staff.
 Stan Freberg spends an hour with Tom Snyder. (36m) This dates from November 1991 – the time of Stan’s one-shot NPR special. The feed for the interview came from WICC-AM, and they had the “D” team running the board this particular night, as you’ll hear during those moments when the program is drowned out by extraneous material. And speaking of extraneous material…
The interview includes clips from the special, including one that would have been much more funny had Freberg simply performed it without introduction. Instead, fearing that his audience had no familiarity with Stephen Foster song titles, he carefully and painfully sets up the sketch with background material the audience ‘needs’ to get the jokes. Not only is this condescending – it’s annoying. This is my gripe with later Freberg material – he started talking down to his audience, became more concerned with his ‘message’ (usually quite obvious) and lost track of what was funny. It’s almost as if he came to believe than anything he said was funny, so long as he said it with a sneer and dragged the pronunciation out.
The interview is far more fun than the NPR Special (59m) itself.
Imagine if Stan’s great record, “Wun’erful, Wun’erful!” [Side Uh-1 (4m), Side Uh-2 (3m)] had started with a detailed explanation of who Lawrence Welk was, what kinds of music he featured on his show, that he always thanked his audience for the cards and letters they sent, and the manner in which Welk created the sound of a champagne cork popping by using a finger in his cheek.
 How well do you know what happened on Episode One of Season One of “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends”? Isn’t Life Terrible presents a twenty question QUIZ to test your powers of memory and observation. Or, you could just guess – it’s mostly multiple choice.
[ 2021 note: Don's quiz is missing.]
 Wow. Here’s a deal way too good to pass up. Toy Collector is an absolutely free e-magazine with great articles, great photos, professional layout… and did I mention that it’s free? The current issue includes an article about those ‘toothy’ early Mickey Mouse toys and the company that produced them. Get the latest issue. (Requires flash or .pdf reader)
 The 1990 album The Best of the Worst by The Magnificent Seven was re-released on CD a few years ago by Basta Records. You could be forgiven for flipping by it, should you chance upon it in a store or on the web, for neither the title nor the cover nor the group’s confusing name gives any hint of just what kind of magnificence we’re talking about. This Magnificent Seven is a Dutch musical group, not a western movie. Basta simply says that they provide “a humorous interpretation of film-music.” But what music! What interpretations! Great takes on TV themes (Thunderbirds, Star Trek, The Avengers, Mission Impossible, Hawaii 5-0) and movie themes, including some Disney covers you wouldn‘t expect to encounter (Trust In Me, from The Jungle Book?) But don’t simply trust in me – listen to these splendid covers of Dumbo (3m) and Casey Junior (3m), then go get a copy at Amazon or Basta Records.
 John Stanley is best known as the author of the Little Lulu comics, but he also worked on other titles, among them Dell’s rather mild “horror” comics. Here’s an interesting bit of self-plagiarism: Stanley takes the premise of a Little Lulu fantasy from 1953 and turns it into a story fit for Tales From The Tomb in 1962. This is a 7.6 MB .pdf document – the first two pages are my commentary on the re-use, and the following 18 pages present both stories in full.
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Isn’t Life Terrible? "Isn't Life Terrible" is a Charley Chase short from 1925. The title was derived from a 1924 D.W. Griffith film, "Isn't Life Wonderful?" Other Charley Chase film titles that ask questions are "What Price Goofy?" (1925), "Are Brunettes Safe?" (1927), and "Is Everybody Happy?" (1928). Chase abandoned his titles with question marks for titles with exclamation points during the sound era.
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Have you ever seen embers man a fire hose?
ave you ever seen a man who consists mostly of cement and a slate roof?
