Straight Line of the Day: Your Big Movie Moment Would Be…

Straight Line of the Day: Your big movie moment would be…

Wednesday Night Open Thread

Usually on Wednesday Nights, for a while at least, I’ve featured songs by artists that only had a single really big hit — defined as a Billboard Top 40 hit. That sometimes gives the impression these artists are “One Hit Wonders.” And many times they are, but sometimes, it’s an artist that is in no way whatsoever what one could seriously call a “one hit wonder.”

Part of the reason is my criteria is a Billboard Top 40 hit. Some artists are known for songs that either weren’t released as singles, or if they were, didn’t achieve singles chart success, despite their talents. Or, were successful on other charts, either in the U.S. or in other countries.

This is an odd one of sorts. The artist had exactly three songs chart. They also had exactly two singles chart. Told you it was odd.

This song was a huge hit (3 weeks at number 1) in the late Fall of 1958, but the next song to chart only hit the Hot 100 for a single week at number 98 in February 1959. The next month, the flip side of the second single charted for a one week, at number 91. So, two singles, three songs on the chart.

But the other thing odd about this is the artist, The Teddy Bears, didn’t have a long career. But the individual members? They did okay, for the most part.

The lead singer, Annette Kleinbard, changed her name to Carol Conners and had some songwriting success, co-writing “Theme To Rocky” (and got an Oscar nomination), “Hey Little Cobra,” “With You I’m Born Again,” and more. And she’s raised money for Wounded Warrior Project. She’s done okay.

Marshall Leib became a music producer and had some success with that, including being music coordinator on a few films in the 1970s and 80s. He did okay.

The other guy? That was Phil Spector, who has done alright by himself. Well, if you ignore the whole murder conviction thing. And his being a major asshole. But career-wise, he’s done alright.

[The YouTube]

Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.

Not The Onion?

Seriously? That’s their launch site?

Seriously — who are they, Doctor Evil escaping at the last minute?

“In this grab taken from video footage released by Roscosmos Space Agency, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-16 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, April 9, 2020. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy, Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.” (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)

Astronauts Leave Virus-Plagued Planet for Space Station
Marcia Dunn and Vladimir Isachenkov / April 9, 2020

Three astronauts flew to the International Space Station on Thursday, departing the virus-plagued planet with little fanfare and no family members at the launch site to bid them farewell.

NASA’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the orbiting lab in their Soyuz capsule six hours after blasting off from Kazakhstan. They joined two Americans and one Russian who will return to Earth in a week.

Not really long enough to self-quarantine from that hellhole they left.

Wednesday Night Special Hootenanny

Hello all! I was organizing Saturday night’s Hootenanny when I came across these ladies from Korea, South I believe. I doubt they could be from the best Korea. So I decided to feature them for a special Hootenanny for everyone. The have a mix of covers of popular songs which cover a wide range. I hope you enjoy them.

Song Parody: Telephoning Girls

Based on The Beach Boys’ “California Girls”

♫  ♫

Well, the East Coast girls are sick
(Don’t really dig those masks they wear)
And the Southern girls with coronavirus
Knock me out when I’m “down there”. . .

The Midwest farmer’s daughters really keep six feet away at sight
And the Northern girls, outside of the Walmart,
They keep their boyfriends warned at night

♫  ♫

I wish they all could be telephoning
I wish they all could be telephoning
I wish they all could be telephoning-girls

♫  ♫

The West Coast has Pelosi
And the girls all get so scammed;
I dig a French bikini on Hawaiian mafiosi:
And the stay-in-house on her command

It’s been all around this great big world
And they’ve screened all kinds of girls
Yeah, but I couldn’t wait to get back to the States
Back to the therapeutics of the world

♫  ♫

I wish they all could be teleporting
I wish they all could be teleporting
I wish they all could be teleporting girls

Yeah,
I wish they all could be telephoning
(Not like the flu)
I wish they all could be telephoning
(Or the bird flu, and)
I wish they all could be telephoning
(Or the swine flu)
I wish they all could be California
(Or like Ebola, yeah . . . )

♫  ♫

Go on Dancing: There’s a Behemoth Lurking at the Heart of Our Galaxy

Very Large Telescope Sees Star Dance Around Supermassive Black Hole, Proves Einstein Right
ESO [European Space Organization] via Phys.org / 4/16/20

Observations made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed for the first time that a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way moves just as predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Its orbit is shaped like a rosette and not like an ellipse as predicted by Newton’s theory of gravity. This effect, known as Schwarzschild precession, had never before been measured for a star around a supermassive black hole. This artist’s impression illustrates the precession of the star’s orbit, with the effect exaggerated for easier visualisation.


Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Observations made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed for the first time that a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way moves just as predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Its orbit is shaped like a rosette and not like an ellipse as predicted by Newton’s theory of gravity. This long-sought-after result was made possible by increasingly precise measurements over nearly 30 years, which have enabled scientists to unlock the mysteries of the behemoth lurking at the heart of our galaxy.

“Einstein’s General Relativity predicts that bound orbits of one object around another are not closed, as in Newtonian Gravity, but precess forwards in the plane of motion. This famous effect — first seen in the orbit of the planet Mercury around the Sun—was the first evidence in favour of General Relativity. One hundred years later we have now detected the same effect in the motion of a star orbiting the compact radio source Sagittarius A* at the centre of the Milky Way.

“This observational breakthrough strengthens the evidence that Sagittarius A* must be a supermassive black hole of 4 million times the mass of the Sun,” says Reinhard Genzel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany.

Silly Question of the Day: Good Lord, How Many Pipes Does One Man Need?

Song Parody: I Saw Her Stranded There

♫ ♫
(Month Two – Three – Four!)

Well, she was just quarantined
And you know what I mean
And the way we hooked up was way beyond pressing “Share”
A long-distance dance with another?
Well, I saw her stranded there.

Well, she’d looked up me
On Skype, I could see,
And before too long I fell in love with her

Now, she’s Wuhan-free, like her mother
(Whew!)
But I saw her stranded there.

♫ ♫

Well, Sweetheart used Zoom
From that sweet little room
I beheld her video box in mine…

Whoah,
We romanced through the night
Through the monitor’s lonely light . . .
And before too long I fell in love with her

Now I’ll never “Follow” any other
(Or few)
Since I saw her stranded there.

♫ ♫

Well, I saw her hits [PG]
And it gave me fits:
Then I beheld her friends online…

Whoah!
This chance of delight
Had turned into fright
And before too long I started getting spammed ~ ~ ~

Now I’ll never “Allow” any other
(Save a few)
Since I saw her scamming there.

♫ ♫

Submitted for Your Approval: Game On

Submitted by Slapout:

Straight Line of the Day: The Biggest Winner (or Loser) From the Virus Is…

Per Windbag:

Straight Line of the Day: The biggest winner (or loser) from the virus is…

Submitted for Your Approval: We All Know It’s True

Submitted by Gumbeaux:

Best of … Favorite Planet

Let’s get astrophysical, astrophysical. We won’t be counting our home planet, no home field advantage as it were, so choose your favorite planet from the rest.

Poll will close on Monday, April 28th at 10:00 pm.

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto

Which do you prefer?

  • Saturn (24%, 45 Votes)
  • Pluto, at least for the moment (20%, 38 Votes)
  • Mars (16%, 30 Votes)
  • Uranus (13%, 25 Votes)
  • Jupiter (10%, 19 Votes)
  • Venus (9%, 17 Votes)
  • Neptune (6%, 12 Votes)
  • Mercury (2%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 189

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Random Thoughts: Scientific Models and Crying

4yo holds up a magnet that is holding onto a metal bracket
4yo: “Look, Daddy! Magnet sticks to metal!”
ME: “Wow. How does it do that?”
4yo: “Um… The Force.”

Saying there are limits to freedom of speech is hate speech and you could go to jail for it.

With this ongoing pandemic and all the misinformation out there, it’s nice how journalists are constantly informing us how much they don’t like Trump.

Can’t wait until we get rid of that obnoxious, incompetent idiot Trump and replace him with an incompetent idiot who is marginally less obnoxious though most likely more pompous.

Graphics card benchmarks are always about FPS when playing Fortnite or Grand Theft Auto V with ultra settings, but I want to know what FPS it gets when you win at Solitaire.

Had to block a few people because they kept responding to everything I say with praise of how smart and right I am. I get enough of that in the real world; I don’t that online too.

Rights > “Science”

I don’t know how people will react when given the all-clear. In places where basically no one knows anyone who got sick and this is mainly theoretical, I can see people going “I got my mask and I wash my hands; I’ll be fine.”
New York, though, I could see people being more scared. Same for some other cities.

It’s people who don’t take the virus seriously versus people who don’t take the consequence of shutting everything down seriously.

I think one thing we learn from all the scientific models about coronavirus infections that also relate to climate change is that when scientists try to put specific numbers on predictions involving complex factors, they’re mainly talking out their posteriors.
I mean, seeing all the deaths with the shutdown, obviously, we’d have a much much larger numbers without these precautions, but all the models quoting specific numbers seem to have no basis in reality.

Can you believe Tommy Boy only has a 42% on RottenTomatoes?

There seems to be a group of people who were actively rooting for as many infections and deaths as possible so they could attack Trump and are now ridiculing the idea of reopening things any time in the next decade.

How did they get babies to eat before the invention of the airplane?

Some people seem to think this pandemic shows how we need a “bigger safety net,” but I don’t know of a safety net that can get people through nobody working unless that safety net is giant silos full of food.
You can’t eat money. And since most of it isn’t printed anymore, you can’t even heat your house with it.
You have to produce wealth first to be able to share it.

If only the whole world could be run by we Gen Xers, the only good generation alive.

So what’s the change of this radically changing cities? I’m thinking more people will be working remotely (no need to live near a city) and more fear of being tightly packed.

A big problem with the whole “go out as little as possible” is that supermarkets are now always out of half the stuff you need.
My wife was able to snag a package of eight rolls of single-ply toilet paper today. That was our first toilet paper purchase since before this all happened as we just happened to get our usual big package from Costco that usually lasts about 6 weeks.
The supply chain needs to make a lot of adjustments to this many people staying from home, but I don’t know if we plan to stay this way long enough for that and prices aren’t going up to motivate those changes.

I’m very curious to get some real numbers on Trolls World Tour. It’s the first big release to go straight to streaming, and how well it did could have a lot of implications for the future.

If you aren’t pushing back at least somewhat against all these new edicts from government telling people what they can and can’t do, you’re being a bad American.

Millennials will all be seniors by the time I master spelling “Millennials.”

Another Trump term sounds great, but so does a President Biden administration. I don’t know how I’m supposed to choose. I think I’ll just have to sit out the presidential election.

Some great evidence that I’m quite wise is that while I loved the pilot for The Walking Dead, I grew bored by the end of the six episode season one and never watched it again.

Am I a fun dad? Well, I say “yogurt” with the same inflection they say “Yo! Joe!” during the GI Joe cartoon title song, so you tell me.

Last time I cried, I was 5yo and had just been shot in the leg. My father immediately slapped me and said, “Be a man!”
I honestly can’t remember full out crying since I was a little kid. I have found myself more vulnerable to tearing up a bit since I had kids of my own. Last time was when the song “Running for So Long” played over the end credits to Peanut Butter Falcon.
Stoicism is a positive aspect of masculinity. Part of the job of a father is project a sense of stability for his family, and extreme emotions don’t do that.

I’m very in touch with my emotions. It’s easy because I have so few of them.

I think a problem with many on the left is they are used to being praised for their hatred and get surprised when something else happens.

I think I like Rise of the Skywalker better each time I watch it. It’s a big, dumb, earnest mess of Star Wars.
It also shows what a misstep it was to separate Finn and Rey for all of The Last Jedi, especially after they had that nice character arc (“You came back for me!”) in Force Awakens.

Partisans end up having to root for things being a big disaster because, if they aren’t, it’s good for Trump. The lesson is do all you can to avoid being a partisan.

Everyone really wants to hear from more millionaire celebrities how easy it is to wait this out.

My 6yo son saw me watching a video of Dan Crenshaw.
“Is that a pirate?”

“No. Politicians primarily steal on land.”

Started watching Devs — completely blind about it other than I knew Nick Offerman is in it — and near the beginning, two people started talking about a subject I knew (RSA vs. elliptic curve). I really braced myself, but they didn’t say anything too dumb.

The well-known FACT that it’s illegal to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater as never been applied more broadly. Perfectly legal: Yelling “Fire!” in a crowded stadium.
Also legal: Yelling “Poison gas!” in a crowded theater.
For it to be illegal, it must be a theater and “Fire!”

How many people care about climate change right now? We can barely go out and see the climate.

They’re taking our jobs and not letting us get haircuts.
The government is FORCING US TO BECOME LAZY HIPPIES!

Is everyone prepared if places reopen and it isn’t a catastrophe?

As a Christian, I don’t think I’m better than anyone else. We’re all sinners and we’re all beloved children of God.
Which also means, comedy-wise, I can’t punch down.

People like to have a religious faith in “experts” in times like this, but be wary giving anyone too much power or any predictions made on top of lots of complex factors.

Trump suspending immigration is pretty awful, but at the same time I’m kind of baffled at the thought of anyone immigrating right now.

Despite legislation, the minimum wage is and always will be $0 an hour.
It can be less than that, though, if you’re starting your own business.

The tradeoffs for reopening versus continuing to shutdown is one of those extremely complex things I don’t trust any expert on and think should be as localized as much as possible.

I see Beto is going on an angry rant. Did they fill in his skate park with sand?

Everyone agrees Little House on the Prairie jumped the shark when it added the wise-cracking robot.

I guess New York has been pretty successful. You don’t hear anyone talk about York Classic anymore.
I don’t know a thing about regular Jersey, but I’m just going to assume it’s leagues better than New Jersey.

Was always worried about how Jimmy was going to destroy Kim, and now I’m wondering if I was worried about the wrong thing. #BetterCallSaul

Could Be Worse

Soldiers of the 55th Armored Inf Bn, 22nd Tank Bn, 11th Armored Div, US Third Army, run through smoke filled street in Wernberg, Germany
Apr. 22, 1945

– Library of Congress