Garrison Keillor: Memories of a citizen of Halloween
The door-to-door begging tradition is very sweet, especially for cranky old neighbors living in seclusion with Fox News, Facebook, and a freezerful of dinners. The parade of children gives them a glimpse of the future of our country. The young traipse through the dark, all glittery and happy, and hold out their sacks expecting good things, counting on the kindness of strangers.
The T-Bones' single "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)" first appeared in a commercial that featured only the midsections (no faces) of people of all shapes and sizes. What product was being sold in the commercial?
A variation on the Mashed Potato was danced to in this 1962 novelty song that is narrated by a mad scientist whose monster rises from his slab to perform a new dance. What is the title of this graveyard smash?
"Monster Mash" is a 1962 novelty song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. The song was released as a single on Gary S. Paxton's Garpax Records label in August 1962 along with a full-length LP called The Original Monster Mash, which contained several other monster-themed tunes. The "Monster Mash" single was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 20-27 of that year, just before Halloween. It has been a perennial holiday favorite ever since.
Pickett and Capizzi composed "Monster Mash" and recorded it with Gary S. Paxton, pianist Leon Russell, Johnny MacRae, Rickie Page, and Terry Berg, credited as "The Crypt-Kickers". (Mel Taylor, drummer for the Ventures, is sometimes credited with playing on the record as well, while Russell, who arrived late for the session, appears on the single's B-side, "Monster Mash Party".) The song was partially inspired by Paxton's earlier novelty hit "Alley Oop", as well as by the Mashed Potato dance craze of the era. A variation on the Mashed Potato was danced to "Monster Mash", in which the footwork was the same but Frankenstein-style monster gestures were made with the arms and hands.
The song is narrated by a mad scientist whose monster, late one evening, rises from his slab to perform a new dance, with a name implying it is inspired by the Mashed Potato, a popular dance of the early 1960s. The dance becomes "the hit of the land" when the scientist throws a party for other monsters, among them classic 1940s horror film icons such as the Wolfman, Igor, Count Dracula and his son. In addition to narrating the song in the Karloff voice, Pickett also impersonated fellow horror film actor Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula with the line, "Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?" and character actor Peter Lorre as Igor (a role Lorre never played in his lifetime, though he played numerous similar deformed eccentrics). The mad scientist says that the dance has been replaced by the Monster Mash, which Dracula embraces by joining the house band, the Crypt-Kicker Five. The story closes with the mad scientist inviting "you, the living" to the party, without specifying where.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
It was the Monster Mash.
Randall wrote:
the Monster Mash
Alan J answered:
The Monster Mash.
Dave said:
Monster Mash. Song written by Bobby Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (Pickett's bandmate on the Cordials). Pickett had started doing a Boris Karloff impression (as Frankenstein's monster) during the Cordials live performances and Capizzi suggested they write a monster themed song. On the single, Pickett sang and was backed by studio musicians, named the Crypt Keepers on the credits. After the success of the single (#1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart for 2 weeks), Pickett took to calling himself Bobby "Boris" Pickett and an album "The Original Monster Mash" was released. "Monster Mash" was re-released a couple of times, making the charts, the last time in 1973.
Photos: Autographed photo | Picket singing while channeling Boris Karloff | It is not thought that Bobby was related to confederate general George Pickett, infamous for bloody Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, and being absent without leave (attending a fish fry) at the beginning of the 1865 confederate defeat at the Battle of Five Forks, which caused Robert E Lee to retreat toward Appomattox Courthouse.
mj replied:
Although Drac
Opened the lid of his coffin and shook his fist demanding to know
"Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?" he was won over by The
Monster Mash.
Stephen F responded:
Monster Mash
Cal in Vermont wrote:
Bobby "Boris" Pickett and his Crypt Kicker Five.
Micki replied:
"Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. I like "Monster Hash" by
The Toyes.
Deborah responded:
This was too easy - you're referring to "The Monster Mash." I remember listening to Dr. Demento play that during the year that isn't Halloween. Cheesy holiday songs can be delightfully entertaining.
More wind yesterday and overnight; at least it's blown out the smoke. I can't wait for rain.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
Monster Mash
Dave in Tucson wrote:
The answer could only be The Monster Mash. Of course a slab of monster hash would also be a graveyard smash.
Michelle in AZ answered:
Monster Mash
David of Moon Valley replied:
...The Monster Mash...it was a graveyard smash...
Happy Halloween!
DJ Useo responded:
Y'know, I still enjoy that "Monster Mash" song by Mr. Pickett. You'd think I'd be tired of it after hearing it so long.
I hope y'all are having a good Halloween experience.
Also, all my prayers to the victims of the California fires. We all know it's not your fault.
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~~~~~
• Impressionist painter Edgar Degas was a perfectionist. Once he sold a painting, then took it back so he could improve it. The art collector who had bought the painting never got it back. Unfortunately, in attempting to improve the painting, Mr. Degas ruined it.
• Berenice Abbot gave up sculpture to become a photographer. While traveling from Berlin to Paris, she discovered that she was standing on the wrong train platform. Because she was in a hurry, she went to the right train platform - leaving behind her one of her huge sculptures.
Models
• While painting in Mexico, artist Edna Hibel needed models, and her mother brought in people off the street for her to paint. This worked well, but soon Ms. Hibel discovered that her models asked each day for money. While painting a woman who sold oranges, Ms. Hibel bought all her oranges, then paid for someone to watch the woman's children while the woman sat for her. Each day, another reason to ask for money came up. Ms. Hibel painted one beggar, then discovered that he was the richest man in the village because he had such a good begging spot. Ms. Hibel says, "I loved the people of Mexico in spite of the games some of them played in order to get money. Most of their needs were real, and they were as generous as they were needy. They have beautiful souls as well as beautiful faces."
• Edgar Degas had some interesting encounters with models, according to picture dealer Ambroise Vollard. He once poked gentle fun at a model, telling her, "You are a rare specimen. You have buttocks shaped like a pear, like the Mona Lisa." The model was pleased by the compliment, and Mr. Vollard writes that "the girl, beaming with pride, would walk about showing off her buttocks." On another occasion, a model looked at a painting that Mr. Degas was doing of her and criticized it: "Is that mynose, M. Degas? My nose never looked like that." Mr. Degas first threw the model out of the room, and then he threw her clothes after her. She dressed on the landing.
• Comedian Harpo Marx was interested in painting, at one point creating several nudes. He once telephoned a model agency, but he forgot to say that he wanted a nude model. When the model arrived, he asked her to take off her clothes, but she declined. Harpo stripped to his underwear and painted her as she wore his painter's smock.
• Sports artist Leroy Neiman once drew a portrait of Hank Aaron. Mr. Aaron was impressed with the drawing, and he wanted it, so he made a deal with Mr. Neiman. In return for the drawing, he agreed to be a model for one of Mr. Neiman's art classes - the kids got a thrill when they discovered that their model was the king of home runs.
• Not everyone enjoyed being painted by Impressionist artist Edgar Degas. His In a Cafe (The Absinthe Drinker) shows a melancholy Ellen Andrée, an actress, and a melancholy Marcellin Desboutin, a painter. After seeing the finished painting, Ms. Andrée told Mr. Desboutin, "We look like a couple of idiots."
• As a young art student, Claude Monet studied at the Académie Suisse, which was located across from a dentist office. Occasionally, a patient seeking dental help opened the wrong door and walked in on a group of art students sketching a nude model.
Wacky weather - humidity out in Palm Springs was 9%, which is about right for the desert.
And in Long Beach, 27 blocks from the ocean, the humidity was 3%.
Tonight, Thursday:
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'Young Sheldon', followed by a RERUN'The Unicorn', then a RERUN'Young Sheldon', followed by a RERUN'The Unicorn', then a RERUN'Evil'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Rob Corddry.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard, and Hollywood Vampires.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Superstore', followed by a FRESH'Perfect Harmony', then a FRESH'The Good Place', followed by a FRESH'Will & Grace', then a FRESH'L&O: SVU'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Kristen Stewart, Gaten Matarazzo, and Pete Lee.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Timothée Chalamet, Cynthia Erivo, and Miranda Lambert.
Scheduled on a FRESHLilly Singh are David Arquette and Justin Willman.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Grey's Anatomy', followed by a FRESH'A Million Little Things', then a FRESH'How To Get Away With Murder'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Antonio Banderas, Natalia Reyes, Big Boi, and Sleepy Brown & CeeLo Green.
The CW offers a FRESH'The 13 Scariest Movies Of All Time', followed by a FRESH'Mysteries Decoded'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'Thursday Night Football', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: CI', followed by another old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has 2 hours of old 'Live PD Presents: PC Cam', followed by a FRESH'Live PD Presents: PD Cam', then another FRESH'Live PD Presents: PD Cam', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Wanted'.
AMC offers the movie 'Halloween', followed by the movie 'Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 11-Utopia
[7:00AM] BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1982) -
[9:30AM] DRACULA II: ASCENSION (2003) -
[11:30AM] DRACULA III: LEGACY (2005)
[1:30PM] DRACULA 2000 (2000)
[3:30PM] INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES (1994)
[5:30PM] BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1982)
[8:00PM] GHOST SHIP (2002)
[10:00PM] THIRTEEN GHOSTS (2001)
[12:00AM] PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (2016)
[2:30AM] PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (2016)
[5:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 11-Utopia (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Million Dollar Listing NY', another 'Million Dollar Listing NY', followed by a FRESH'Million Dollar Listing NY', 'Below Deck', then a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
Comedy Central has all old 'The Office' all night.
Scheduled on a FRESHThe Daily Show are Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.
Scheduled on a FRESHLights Out with David Spade are Tony Hale, Fortune Feimster, and Josh Wolf.
FX has the movie 'Deadpool', followed by the movie 'Get Out', then a FRESH'Mr Inbetween', and another 'Mr Inbetween'.
History has 'American Pickers', another 'American Pickers', followed by a FRESH'American Pickers', and another 'American Pickers'.
IFC -
[6:15A] The Three Stooges - Slippery Silks
[6:30A] The 'Burbs
[8:45A] The Cabin in the Woods
[10:45A] Paranormal Activity 3
[12:45P] Paranormal Activity
[2:45P] Carrie
[5:00P] Trick 'r Treat
[7:00P] Friday the 13th
[9:15P] Trick 'r Treat
[11:15P] Friday the 13th
[1:30A] Sinister
[4:00A] Silent House (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6:15am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:45am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:15am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:45am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:15am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:45am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:15am] Double Jeopardy
[11:45am] Night of the Living Dead
[1:45pm] Carrie
[4:00pm] Law & Order
[5:00pm] Law & Order
[6:00pm] Law & Order
[7:00pm] Law & Order
[8:00pm] Law & Order
[9:00pm] Law & Order
[10:00pm] Law & Order
[11:00pm] Law & Order
[12:00am] Law & Order
[1:00am] Double Jeopardy
[3:30am] The Cry
[4:46am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:20am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:55am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie 'Jeepers Creepers 3', followed by the movie 'Boo! A Madea Halloweeen'.
Rough versions of 12 previously unreleased songs by Lou Reed recorded for Andy Warhol have been discovered on a cassette tape from 1975, stored in the archives of the Warhol Museum.
The songs, which are on one side of the cassette, are based on Warhol's book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)." The songs were discovered by Judith Peraino, professor of music at Cornell University, who was doing archival research at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
"It sounds like he recorded them in his apartment with an open-air microphone, just voice and acoustic guitar," Peraino says (see the video below for more about the discovery). Warhol, who essentially managed Reed and the Velvet Underground at the time of their 1967 debut album, was in many ways Reed's mentor, although the two had an often-contentious relationship.
Reed labeled side 2 of the tape "The Philosophy Songs (From A to B and Back)." Side 1 of the cassette consists of songs dubbed from soundboard recordings of Reed's 1975 concerts.
She said she wasn't fully aware of what she had found until a Warhol Museum staffer commented that she had essentially discovered an unreleased Lou Reed album.
Saving the world is an expensive business - especially when you're just 16 years old. But money doesn't always talk, as the young climate activist Greta Thunberg has proven this week.
Thunberg turned down an environmental award from the Nordic Council that would have netted her 500,000 kronor (Ł40,000), thanking the body for the honour but adding: "The climate movement does not need any more awards."
Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. Since the days when she started out as a solitary figure sitting huddled on the concrete with a homemade banner, to recent months where millions took to the streets to join Thunberg's urgent call for action on climate change, this has always been about a global issue and not one young woman's personal desires.
It may suit Thunberg's naysayers to tell her to go away, to be quiet, to know her place, but she has captured the mood of many; even if she were to follow so many of her contemporaries and confine herself to her schoolbooks and Fortnite for the foreseeable, the issues she has raised will still tower over us. And words will be echoed still by the scientists and conservationists who do not care a jot for the national mood, yet whose cold, hard facts support her case for change.
Indeed, the power of Thunberg's approach is that she doesn't go in for self-promotion. Her platform grew organically, like a cell dividing into a being. So globally famous though she has become, her core message still claims one of humanity's most fundamental fears - our planet dying - as its focus.
One day after singer Lizzo declared that she'd "made it" after being an answer on Jeopardy!, the show's longtime host Alex Trebek, 79, has launched a new public service announcement to help raise awareness for pancreatic cancer - a disease he was diagnosed with last March.
For the PSA, Trebek (who also made headlines this week when he called a fan with autism who wanted to wish him well) partnered with the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition to announce the upcoming World Pancreatic Cancer Day, which will be Nov. 21. In the PSA, Trebek points out that cancer still only has an abysmal single-digit, five-year survival rate (2-9%) in most countries. He's joined 80 organizations from 30 countries to raise awareness of the risks and symptoms.
"I wished I had known sooner that the persistent stomach pain I experienced before my diagnosis was a symptom of pancreatic cancer," Trebek says in the announcement, adding that other common symptoms include "mid-back pain, unexplained weight loss and the yellowing of the skin or eyes."
According to the organization's release, the reason it has the lowest survival rate among all major cancers is because so few people know the risks and symptoms, and are thus diagnosed at an advanced stage. Each day, more than 1,284 people worldwide die from the disease, and better progress starts with early detection - the problem is, many of the symptoms can be vague and incorrectly attributed to less serious conditions.
Dozens of moss species buried alongside Ötzi the Iceman bolster the theory that his last journey was through a gorge, possibly on the run from someone.
The 5300-year-old mummified body was first found by mountaineers in the Alps on the border of Italy and Austria in 1991. His demise was a gruesome one: it is thought he bled to death after being shot in the left shoulder with an arrow.
The iceman was so well-preserved that scientists have not only been able to study his clothes and gear, but also the contents of his stomach and intestines.
James Dickson at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and his colleagues analysed the thousands of fragments of mosses and liverworts buried alongside or inside Ötzi to understand his final days.
The plants were from at least 75 different species, only 23 of which live in that precise area today. One of the most intriguing discoveries was finding a species of bog moss, Sphagnum affine, in Ötzi's colon. This moss is typically found in wetlands and probably came from the bottom of the Vinschgau valley in South Tyrol, Italy. Some researchers believe this was Ötzi's home as an adult.
U.S. farm bankruptcies in September surged 24% to the highest since 2011 amid strains from Don-Old Trump (R-Inept)'s trade war with China and a year of wild weather.
Growers are also becoming increasingly dependent on trade aid and other federal programs for income, figures showed in a report by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation's largest general farm organization.
The squeeze on farmers underscores the toll China's retaliatory tariffs have taken on a critical Trump constituency as the president enters a re-election campaign and a fight to stave off impeachment. The figures also highlight the importance of a "phase one" deal the administration is currently negotiating with Beijing to increase agriculture imports in return for a pause in escalating U.S. levies.
Almost 40% of projected farm profit this year will come from trade aid, disaster assistance, federal subsidies and insurance payments, according to the report, based on Department of Agriculture forecasts. That's $33 billion of a projected $88 billion in income.
Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings in the 12 months ended September rose to 580 from a year earlier. That marked the highest since 676 cases in 2011 under the chapter of the bankruptcy code tailored for farms. The total "remains well below" historical highs in the 1980s, the federation said.
A Colorado court has ruled that police were acting within the bounds of their duties when they left a local man's home destroyed in pursuit of a shoplifter.
Robert Jonathan Seacat took shelter in the Denver area home owned by Leo Lech after shoplifting from a local Walmart in June 2015. Seacat was armed and fired at police after hiding in the home, starting a 19-hour standoff with Greenwood Village police that left the Lech home in ruins.
When negotiators failed to convince Seacat to surrender, a SWAT team used armored vehicles, tear gas, and explosives to try and flesh him out. The Denver Post reports that every window of Mr Lech's home was torn out by the police, and that the house was left completely uninhabitable.
The town of Greenwood Village refused to pay for the damage the police had done to the home in the process of making the arrest, offering only $5,000 to help Mr Lech's son and his family, who were living in the home at the time, rent a temporary residence.
Mr Lech says the damage has cost $400,000 to repair and that he had to dip into his 401k to pursue the lawsuit. He filed a lawsuit against the town, but the courts have unanimously ruled that destroying his house does not fall under the protections of eminent domain. While the government would have to pay him to seize his property, they do not have to pay for destruction caused pursuit of enforcing the law.
A "disgusting" 40-tonne fatberg the size of a double-decker bus has been cleared from a London sewer after engineers pulled part of it out by hand.
The huge mass of fat, grease, wet wipes and nappies was discovered lurking underground in Greenwich earlier this year.
Although its size was comparable to that of a double-decker bus, its density meant that its mass was equivalent to more than three of the huge vehicles.
Over time the blockage had grown to take up 80 per cent of the sewer's capacity at some points - and if left unchecked could have caused filth to back up into nearby homes and businesses.
Engineers from Thames Water spent three weeks using high-powered water jets to blast it into smaller pieces before removing the debris with their hands.
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