Just watched the trailer for “Radioland Murders.” That’s one of the best trailers I’ve ever seen! I will definitely check that movie out. However, written by George Lucas is a big warning flag for me, but maybe ol’ George will surprise me. For once.

I asked a PhD friend of mine, maybe a decade ago, for my kid, why should they consider getting a PhD. What did they learn doing it? He responded that a good PhD program will greatly improve their ability to both speak and write. And, for my kid, it seemed to work. Their spouse-to-be commented at their dissertation defense how much better they spoke then, as compared to their senior thesis defense five years earlier.

My point here is that this woman has, no doubt, spent years developing a good public speaking style, then apparently thrown much of that effort away through some sort of personal vanity or something. But then, I managed to make it to 70 without a single piercing or tattoo. Of our three kids, and their respective spouses, the three women have pierced ears, which my wife does too – except that hers keep healing shut. But there is one of our kids’ spouses who may have gone overboard, and I think that their career may have suffered. I don’t understand it. Never will at my age.

Why is it wherever you look that about 2/3 to 3/4 of the Republican politicians in any venue are useless?

…A bronze statue of Farnsworth represents Utah in the National Statuary Hall Collection, located in the U.S. Capitol building.[69] On January 28, 2018, amid extended debate and over sizable public objection,[70][71] the Utah Legislature voted to replace it with one of Martha Hughes Cannon.[72][73]

Footnote [73]
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/01/29/bill-to-replace-utah-statue-of-tv-inventor-philo-farnsworth-with-martha-hughes-cannon-passes-senate/

The Utah Senate voted 21-7 Monday to advance a bill that would replace a statue of TV inventor Philo T. Farnsworth in Washington, D.C., with that of Martha Hughes Cannon, the first woman state senator in Utah and the country.

Supporters of the switch portrayed it as a way to both honor the past and acknowledge the present.

Many senators wore yellow roses, which once signified support for the women’s suffrage movement, as they alluded to the current cultural reckoning around women’s role in politics and beyond. This was a nod to Cannon’s part in helping Utah women gain the right to vote more than 40 years before Congress passed the 19th Amendment.
…
Weiler’s bill would swap Farnsworth’s statue with Cannon’s, which now sits outside the Utah state Capitol.
But some senators spoke in favor of keeping Farnsworth, who was born in Beaver, Utah, and attended Brigham Young University, in his place in D.C. His statue has been on display there since 1990.

Farnsworth created a number of inventions, and his corporation at one time held more than 150 patents. However, he is best known for the technology that made television possible.
…
At the time the Legislature in 1987 selected Farnsworth to join the statue of Mormon leader Brigham Young, Utah was one of six states that had only one statute in D.C.

Ridgecrest Elementary School principal Bruce Barnson was the mastermind behind the lobbying effort that secured Farnsworth’s place there. His students conducted research to determine which historical figures would best represent Utah in the nation’s capital, studying 21 prominent Utahns and surveying 400 residents across the state before settling on Farnsworth.

Treva Barnson, Bruce’s wife said after the vote the couple was “very, very sad” that the measure had passed, but hopeful it would fail in the House.

“I think Utah is just going to be a laughingstock,” she said, reiterating Farnsworth’s importance to both Utah and the United States. “To think that our senators don’t have anything better to do is just — it’s appalling. It really is.”

The resolution now moves on to the House for consideration.

More human interest here.
https://www.cottonwoodheightsjournal.com/2018/05/08/172882/return-farnsworth-statue-to-capitol-urges-former-ridgecrest-principal

You and OBH might want to watch this delightful movie.
Would tell you more but that would spoil the mystery.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110939/
Radioland Murders (1994)

The Internet Knows Everything!
(Sure, you could read Wikipedia instead, but what fun is that?)

https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/philo-farnsworth

Philo Farnsworth conceived the world’s first all-electronic television at the age of 15. By the time he died, he had earned over 300 U.S. and foreign patents for electronic and mechanical devices.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was born in 1906 in southwestern Utah in a log cabin built by his grandfather, a follower of the Mormon leader, Brigham Young. As a young boy, Farnsworth loved to read Popular Science magazine and science books. By the time he entered high school in Rigby, Idaho, he had already converted most of the family’s household appliances to electrical power.

Farnsworth was particularly interested in molecular theory and motors, as well as then novel devices like the Bell telephone, the Edison gramophone, and later, the Nipkow-disc television. In 1922, Farnsworth sketched out for his chemistry teacher his idea for an “image dissector” vacuum tube that could revolutionize television.

Neither Farnsworth’s teacher nor anyone else around him had ever heard of the “television,” which in the 1920s meant a device that mechanically scanned an image through a spinning disc with holes cut in it, then projected a tiny, unstable reproduction of what was being scanned on a screen. Farnsworth imagined instead a vacuum tube that could reproduce images electronically by shooting a beam of electrons, line by line, against a light-sensitive screen.

In 1922, Farnsworth entered Brigham Young University, but when his father died two years later, Farnsworth had to take a public works job in Salt Lake City to support his family. But he never abandoned his dream, and in 1926, he convinced some friends to fund his invention efforts. The next year, while working in San Francisco, Farnsworth demonstrated the first all-electronic television (1927). This helped him to secure more funding and threw him and his associates into a complicated contest to set industry firsts.

In 1930, the same year that Farnsworth was granted a patent for his all-electronic TV, his labs were visited by Vladimir Zworykin of RCA, who had invented a television that used a cathode ray tube (1928) and an all-electric camera tube (1929). This led to a patent battle that lasted over ten years, resulting in RCA’s paying Farnsworth $1M for patent licenses for TV scanning, focusing, synchronizing, contrast, and controls devices.

Meanwhile, there were widespread advances in television imaging (in London in 1936, the BBC introduced the “high-definition” picture) and broadcasting (in the U.S. in 1941 with color transmissions). During World War II, despite the fact that he had invented the basics of radar, black light (for night vision), and an infrared telescope, Farnsworth’s company had trouble keeping pace, and it was sold to ITT in 1949.

Farnsworth’s other patented inventions include the first “cold” cathode ray tube, an air traffic control system, a baby incubator, the gastroscope, and the first (albeit primitive) electronic microscope. From the 1950s until his death, his major interest was nuclear fusion. In fact, in 1965 he patented an array of tubes, called “fusors,” that produced a 30-second fusion reaction.

Farnsworth, who never enjoyed good health, died of pneumonia in 1971 before he could complete his fusion work. However, the average TV set sold that year included about 100 items originally patented by him. Today, amidst cable, satellite, digital, and HD-TV, Philo Farnsworth’s reputation as one of the “fathers of television” remains strong.

There’s something about people named Vladimir …

https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/resources/q-a/did-anne-boleyn-really-have-six-fingers/

One sad result of the last 3 decades is that I don’t even believe most of my history books anymore.

Le Mot Juste:

Yes, indeed. A toast to Gary Brooker and Procol Harum!

Since Rufus is talking cats, wiki has settled the question of the band’s name via a quote from Keith Reid, the band’s lyricist:
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It’s the name of a cat, a Siamese cat. It’s the pedigree name, and it belonged to a friend of ours, just somebody that we used to hang out with when we were forming the band. One day, somebody pulled out the cat’s birth certificate and said ‘Have a look at this’, and the name of the cat was Procol Harum.
_______________________________

In the years since I’ve come to regard “Salty Dog” as Procol’s best album, but I’m still quite fond of “Shine On Brightly” — my first Procol album.
_______________________________

…let me remind you of the pilgrim
who asked for an audience with the Dalai Lama.

–Procol Harum, “In Held ‘Twas In I” (Part 1)” (from “Shine On Brightly”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDSFQzyfcHU
_______________________________

That says it all!

“The Young Ones” was quite good. Very topical. (and I agree, I found the woman’s choice of jewelry distracting)