Did You Vote Today?

It’s Election Day in Iowa. But it’s a primary election. So, while it’s encouraging to see that Linn County has had an unusually high number of absentee ballots taken out, no doubt because of the new way it’s electing county supervisors from districts, there’s no guarantee that voters will turn out in record numbers. In fact, as with most elections these days, a minority of the electorate decides who will hold office.

You can look at it this way. If only one fourth of potential voters cast ballots, each of those people is effectively voting for four people. If only one fifth turn out, each is vote represents five people. Etc., Etc., Etc.

Yep, low turnout only means each vote has a higher influence. So, if you haven’t visited the poles yet, do it before 9 p.m. Your vote really does count.

 

Burma Shave Signs as Poetry

Mike Chasar, the subject of today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette, had a fun time collecting old scrapbooks for his award-winning dissertation about how poetry influenced Americans from 1880 to 1945. While I was able to cover a lot of what he wrote about in that column, there’s no way to everything from a 225-page scholarly paper. I was truly disappointed I couldn’t work the subject of his third chapter — Burma Shave signs — into the column because I truly love that icon of the American highway.

Here’s part of what Mike wrote about Burma Shave signs in the introduction to his dissertation:

“From the 1920s to the early 1960s, Burma-Shave’s jingles lined U.S. highways with the intention that the poems’ folksy puns and popular ballad forms combined with the material experience of reading at high-speed would properly direct consumer attention and participation toward the company’s product. As a history of the campaign shows, however, consumers increasingly responded to these appeals by focusing on the poetry—what Eagleton would call “language in all of its material density” (2)—of Burma-Shave’s advertising and not the product it was enlisted to sell: they wrote alternate rhymes, they played with the form, they found the gaps between the signs to be invitations to make their own meanings, they reveled in the pleasure of reading the sequences backwards, and they seized on these opportunities to read socially, collaboratively and out loud rather than simply capitulating to the commercial messages in solitude and silence.

“The Burma-Vita Company naturally tried to redirect this enthusiasm by hosting jingle-writing contests—which, like Between the Bookends and R Yuh Listenin’?  received tens of thousands of submissions every year from “amateur” writers—and by publishing small anthologies or “jingle books” which it used as promotional items. However, the company’s increasing double identity as a producer of shaving cream and a producer and publisher of poems ultimately caused something of a corporate crisis, and in the midst of decreasing sales in the 1950s, company personnel began blaming not the increasing U.S. presence of television nor the advent of electric shavers for its dwindling market share, but the poems that had been pitching the company’s signature product. Indeed, in calling for more “prose” advertising to serve as “simple direct selling copy,” one member of the company’s Board of Directors in effect admitted that the nature of the poems, however commercial they at one point appeared to be, didn’t provide the “hard sell” experience the company needed to survive (Burma-Vita [1952] “Minutes”).”

 Alas, I miss the old signs. And while you can find the Burma Shave Story on Wikipedia, you can also find it all over the Internet.

Does your husband/misbehave/grunt and grumble/rant and rave?/shoot the brute some/ Burma-Shave

Don’t take a curve/at 60 per/we hate to lose/ a customer/ Burma-Shave

 

Golf - Weather Permitting

MacDermott and MacDuff sat in the clubhouse on a raw, blustery day, thawing their beards in front of the fireplace while freezing rain beat against the windows.

The pair were silent for a long time over their whiskeys.

Finally, MacDermott spoke: “That was quite a round of golf.”

“Aye,” MacDuff replied. “Same time next Sunday?”

“Aye,” said MacDuff, “weather permitting.”

A Small World At USD

While chatting with Blair Frank of Bertram about his Peace Garden, featured in today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette, he said something about graduating from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

Ah, hah. That’s where I graduated, in 1975. Blair earned a degree in biology in 1973. Since each of us finished college in four straight years, that means we were both there from 1971 to 1973. We might have crossed paths, but probably not, being two years and worlds apart even on a small campus with about 5,000 students. When Blair was taking science classes on the west side of campus, I was taking core courses in central campus buildings and then journalism courses on the south side.

Still, it’s nice to make a connection with the past and reminisce a little.

Top 40, 40 Years Ago

Music always brings back memories for me. It was purely by accident I ran across a Web site that features those old fliers you used to pick up in stores beside the 45-rpm record racks listing the day’s Top 40 tunes.

So, for those of you who are fans of music from the late 60s, here’s a stroll down memory lane 40 years ago at WSCR in Scranton, Penn., home of “The Office,” one of the best sitcoms on TV today. Certainly some classics as well as some “Bubble Gum” clinkers, with the current record ranking to the left and the previous week’s ranking on the right:

WSCR SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA
ROUND SOUND SURVEY            
EFFECTIVE FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1968
1. I Love You - People   2
2. If I Were A Carpenter - The Four Tops   6
3. Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel    2
4. Like To Get To Know You - Spanky & Our Gang   11
5. Mony Mony - Tommy James & The Shondells    3
6. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Hugo Montenegro  7
7. Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - The Ohio Express   19
8. I Could Never Love Another - The Temptations   11
9. Love Is All Around - The Troggs   5
10. Jelly Jungle - The Lemon Pipers   12
11. Here’s To You - Hamilton Camp   18
12. My Girl-Hey Girl - Bobby Vee   9
13. Angel Of The Morning - Merrilee Rush   32
14. Pictures Of Matchstick Men - The Status Quo    4
15. Time For Livin - The Association    21
16. Along Comes Mary - Lexington Avenue Local   16
17. Think - Aretha Franklin    28
18. Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing - M. Gaye & T. Terrell   14
19. Master Jack - Four Jacks & A Jill   24
20. United - Peaches & Herb    27
21. A Man Without Love - Englebert Humperdinck   29
22. I Promise To Wait My Love - Martha & The Vandellas   23
23. Cowboys To Girls - The Intruders   17
24. Macarthur Park - Richard Harris      25
25. Here Comes The Judge - The Magistrates    35
26. Yester Love - The Miracles       –
27. The Horse - Cliff Nobles & Co.    37
28. How’d We Ever Get This Way - Andy Kim   30
29. I’m Sorry - The Delfonics    34
30. You Don’t Know - Sam & Dave    39
31. Ain’t Nothing But A House Party - The Showstoppers  31
32. Back In Love Again - The Buckinghams    –
33. Brooklyn Roads - Neil Diamond   34
34. Indian Lake - The Cowsills    –
35. A Lover’s Holiday - P. Scott & Jo Jo Benson   –
36. Stoned Soul Picnic - The Fifth Dimension     –
37. Sealed With A Kiss - Gary Lewis & Playboys  –
38. Choo Choo Train - The Box Tops    40
39. Tip Toe Thru The Tulips - Tiny Tim              –
40. Anyone Who Had A Heart - The Lettermen    –

SURE SHOT:       
My Baby Loves Me - The Chi-Lites   

Go, Danica, Go; Looking Forward to Iowa Race

I have to agree with Jason Whitlock, columnist for the Kansas City Star. In a story that ran in this morning’s Gazette sports page, he said officials should have allowed Danica Patrick to confront Ryan Briscoe after they crashed 29 laps from the end of Sunday’s Indianapolis 500. He apparently jumped lanes as the leaders exited from pit stops. Read about it and see it here.

I had the TV on but did chores around the house during the race because it was so boring with eight caution periods. Thus, I missed the crash. But I stopped in time to watch Danica, still wearing her helmet, march down pit road as if she was some sort of alien on a mission to give Briscoe a piece of her mind, if not a fist or two.

As Mr. Whitlock said, it would have been good for Indy car racing, similar to the confrontations you see in NASCAR. Fans would have been talking about it for weeks.

“Probably best I didn’t get down there anyway,” said a frustrated Danica after the race.

Danica has been good for Indy cars since she joined the Letterman-Rahal team a few years ago. She’s not afraid to show her feminine side, as evidenced by all the photos (included the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition) of her you’ll find in magazines and on the Internet. But, more importantly, she’s not afraid to mix it up with the guys on the track.

“I’m myself. I’m not like anybody else,” she says in this YouTube video before she even raced Indy cars. And, of course, since she’s so famous now you can check out The Official Website of Danica Patrick where information about this year’s race has been posted.

Of course, the countdown has begun for the IndyCar Series Iowa Corn Indy 250 on June 22 at the Iowa Speedway near Newton  where Danica is scheduled to race. Her fiery nature should definitely help sell tickets just as it did last year when she started in the 11th position and placed 13th after a late accident, while this year’s Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon had the pole position before finishing 10th.

 

It’s Memorial Day

Remember those you love and have a wonderful holiday.

In Golf, Priest Gets Last Word, Twice

A couple of golf jokes involving a priest. Maybe you’ve heard them. Maybe you haven’t:

Joe and his priest near the end of their match-play golf contest with Joe up 6 holes with only 7 to play.

The priest can only sigh as he fills in the scorecard from the last hole and moves on to the next tee.

“Cheer up Father,” Joe says, sensing the priest’s frustration. “Just think, one of these days you will be giving the services at my funeral. You’ll have the last word.”

The Priest tried to grin as he looked at Joe, but knew even that would be hopeless.

“Yes,” the priest said, “that may be true. But it will still be your hole.”

 And then there’s this one:

A fellow is ready to tee off on the first hole when a second fellow approaches and asks if he can join him.

“I usually play alone,” the first says, “but if you want to join me, that’s fine.”

They are even after the first couple of holes so the second guy says, “Hey, we’re about evenly matched. How about we play for five bucks a hole?

“I usually don’t bet,” the first golfer says, “but I suppose we can try it this once.”

The second guy wins the rest of the holes. As they walk off the eighteenth green and he accepts his $80 in winnings, he confesses that he’s the pro at a neighboring course and likes to pick on suckers.

“Glad to meet you,” the first golfer says. “I’m the priest at St. Mary’s.”

Flustered, the golf pro apologizes and offers to return the money to the priest.

“No, you won fair and square,” the priest says. “I was foolish to bet with you. You keep your winnings.”

“Well,” the golfer says, “is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

“You could come to Mass on Sunday and make a donation,” the priest says, “Then, if you bring your mother and father by after Mass, I’ll marry them for you.”

 

Indy 500 Iowa connections

Four West Branch buddies will be among the 400,000 spectators at the Indianapolis 500 automobile race Sunday. They’re reliving their youth, with three of them, David “Vid” Johnson, James “Boo” (now “Butch”) Pederson, and Jeff “Whitey” Lathrop having gone in 1968 and a fourth, Glenn “Hink” Hinkhouse, joining them in 1969. (See today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette.)

 I’m sure hundreds of other Eastern Iowans will be at the race this year. I know some have been going to the race for years, if not decades. I’d like to sit in the stands some time, but have never made it. Instead, I’ll join the millions of spectators worldwide who will either catch some of the race live on TV or the highlights later.

You can find tons of information about the race on the Internet, but here’s a site about the history of the Indianapolis 500 I really enjoyed viewing before writing my story. It has some great photos of past drivers and races.

One thing I didn’t know is that an Iowan, Louis LeCocq of Pella, was one of the first fatalities at the Indy 500. He and his riding mechanic, Robert Bandini of Los Angeles, died during the 1919 race when their Roamer (a renamed Duesenberg) race car crashed and burned on the 97th lap. In those days, most cars carried two people in the race. Read about Louis LeCocq.

Another driver with Iowa connections was Mel Kenyon of Davenport, known as the King of the Midgets, who lost the fingers on his left hand during a firey crash in 1965. He went on to race for the first time at the Indianapolis 500 the following year using a special glove that allowed him to steer with the palm of his left hand. Here’s a rundown of Mel’s crash and races at the Indy 500.

My Sump Pump Has Finally Stopped Running

After 3 1/2 weeks, my sump pump has finally stopped running. This is the first year in seven that it has run even once. I had to buy extended drainage tubing so it would drain in the street. I know it was a wet winter and it’s been a wet spring, so that doesn’t surprise me. Then I read Rick Smith’s story in Wednesday’s Gazette and it appears there could be another cause.

Rick’s story, in case you missed it, had to do with “Infill Development,” the idea that vacant properties within the city should be developed in lieu of extending the city limits. And he talked to folks who live just a couple of blocks from me — Brian and Christine Wagner, who have been inundated with flooding on their property on Greenfield Street NE as the result new development.

Ah, hah, I thought. That could be why my sump pump and many of those in my neighborhood have been running so long this year. You see, a few years ago a townhome development was allowed to be built between our house and Blairs Ferry Road NE. One of the concerns of neighbors at the time was proper drainage.

I’ve heard from a couple of neighbors, who have had more runoff water than usual, that owners of those townhomes are experiencing some flooding inside their homes.

Mmmmm. Developing property inside the city limits sounds like a good idea on the surface. But, if that surface causes water to run off on neighbors’ properties, it becomes a problem. We have to remember that as neighbors, what we do with our properties can affect those around us.

Sump pump or not, I could have water in my finished lower level. That wouldn’t just be a headache. It would be costly to repair like the basement of the Wagners who have spent thousands of dollars on repairs and now have flood insurance. And that would stink.