START ONE OF THESE PROGRAMS AND THEN READ THE HISTORY OF "MR, KEEN, TRACER OF LOST PERSONS" PRINTED BELOW -- OR GO ABOUT YOUR OTHER COMPUTER WORK OR ACTIVITY IN THE OFFICE OR HOME.
I remember back in fourth or fifth grade when we all listened to the Mr. Keen radio program we would have fun saying, "MR. TRACE, KEENER THAN MOST PERSONS!"
Did you brush with Kolynos toothpaste this morning? KOLYNOS? Good night, that went the way of IPANA toothpaste and all the tooth brushing "powders." NP
SOUNDS FROM THE PAST ~ Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons
Bennet Kilpatrick
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons -radio program aired from October 1937 – April 1955 on various networks (CBS, Blue Network, NBC)
Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons was one of Radio’s longest-lived crime dramas. For almost 20 years Mr. Keen, the kindly pedantic detective, and Mike Clancy, his dim-witted broguing Irish assistant, would stumble across case after outlandish case. For the program’s initial few years the elderly detective solved an assortment of missing-persons cases, but soon seemed to specialize only in murders.
Bennet Kilpatrick was the best known of the "Mr. Keen" actors. He was the initial reader for the character and set the lofty, educated tone, which Phil Clark and Arthur Hughes were to maintain later in the series run. Jim Kelly played the role of Clancy, Keen’s stereotypical strong-arm assistant.
The program was the product of Frank and Ann Hummert, mass-producers of daytime radio dramas, and the show’s contrived plotlines reflect this “soap-opera” heritage. Throughout the program’s entire run we never learn by what authority our good crime-team acts; they're simply “called in” to assist the police whenever a murder has occurred. Despite their ambiguous authority and “employ,” they do seem to have tremendous powers of arrest, thinking nothing of entering warrantless into homes or following any semblance of "rules of evidence." The crooks they come against are as transparent and self-incriminating as Mr. Keen's logic is opaque and mysterious.
None-the-less the fact that the show ran for seventeen years is a resounding testament to the program’s entertainment value and widespread appeal. They were murder mysteries served up “plain and simple.” And in defense of poor lambasted Mr. Keen, I suppose the next fifty years will not look too kindly upon the majority of today’s TV-shows either!
Fairbanks, Alaska is the site of the WORLD ICE ART CHAMPIONSHIPS every March.
Neighbor, Henrietta Hastie sent these beautiful photos of last years competition and that motivated me to do a little research about this amazing Fairbanks event. The snow sculptures that are shown are not from the Fairbanks Festival but we had to show you these massive snow masterpieces.
For the event, Fairbanks provides the largest natural ice blocks in the world, allowing the sculptors an opportunity to work on a pure and transient medium.
While there are other ice sculpting competitions in the northern hemisphere like the St. Paul Winter Festival, and even Waukesha, Wisconsin, none are like the World Ice Art Championships.
Watch the Sculptors
If you are visiting Fairbanks in March, you will get a chance to see these international sculptors carving ice at a special park just for displaying the results of the championships. Because the water is so pure and the Alaskan Interior's winter temperatures so cold, the ice forms quickly and densely, which gives it a slight glacial blue tint. It is so clear that a person can read a newspaper through a four-foot block of ice. Sculptors have pronounced Fairbanks’ ice as the best in the world for sculpting. Some of the sculptures from the 2006 competition are show on the right.
Olympic Competition
Only a few years ago Ice Sculpting was added to the Winter Olympics as a cultural competition. The World Ice Art Championships has served as the U.S. Olympic Trials in both 1993 and 1997, sending Kevin Roscoe of Kirkland, Washington and Steve Brice of Fairbanks, Alaska to Japan in January, 1998 to represent the United States of America.
While most other competitions use ice blocks commercially manufactured to about 2’ x 4’ x 2’, the World Ice Art Championships use gigantic blocks of naturally formed ice, harvested from local ponds. The blocks measure 3’ x 8’ x 5’ and weigh over five tons. The final creations in the Multi-Block Classic can weigh up to twenty tons and measure up to 25 feet in height.
Techniques Used In Ice Scupting
Sculptors in most competitions are chefs creating decorations of a few feet in height on banquet tables. They build by gluing ice pieces together using a slushy mortar of ice chips and water and their creations seldom last more than a few hours or days. During the competition, most of the ice is sawed, chipped and brushed away as if it were a block of wood or stone, but because it is done in ice, this process takes only a few days. The mortar of slush is still used to join pieces together but fewer joints are needed in comparison to the smaller ice sculpting competitions, which gives pieces greater clarity.
Alaska Single-Block Sculpture
Teams are composed of one to two members. Each team is given one block of ice. Block dimensions are approximately 5ft x 8ft x 3ft (1.5m x 2.4m x 0.9m). Each block weighs about 7,800 lbs. Once the ice block is positioned to the sculptor’s satisfaction, the sculptors are on their own. No additional mechanical or power devices can be used to move and/or lift the ice. It is legal to request the assistance of competing team members when more people power is required to move/lift the ice into position. Teams may use hand and/or power tools to cut and shape the ice. Teams may work around the clock. Most work long hours in order to complete their sculpture on time. The competition starts at 9 a.m on a Tuesday and ends 60 hours later at 9 p.m. on a Thursday. The finished pieces are then judged under white lights. After judging is completed, the finished sculpture will be illuminated with colored lights.
Alaska Multi-Block Classic Sculpture
Teams are composed of two to four sculptors. Each team is given 10 blocks of ice approximately 4ft x 6ft x 3.3ft. (1.2m x 1.8m x 1.0m) each. Teams use hand and/or power tools to cut and shape the ice. The sculptures created sometimes attain heights of more than 25 feet. Therefore Ice Alaska provides heavy equipment and operators to lift and position the ice. The equipment operators, all volunteers, work with the sculptors to delicately move the ice into their desired location. Without the help of the operators, the final product would be impossible. The artists fully realize this. The final ice sculpture is teamwork at its best. The Multi-Block Classic begins at 9 a.m.on a Sunday and ends at 9 p.m.on a Friday or 132 hours later. Artists may work around the clock if they choose. The finished pieces are judged under white lights. After judging is completed, the finished sculpture will be illuminated with colored lights.
Sam's Club Amateur Exihibition
Teams usually consist of one to two sculptors, but since it is an exhibition the only hard and fast rule is - safety first. Participants under 16 years of age must have parental permission and be accompanied by an adult while they are working. Each team is given one block of ice measuring approximately 5ft x 3ft x 3ft (1.5m x 0.9m x 0.9m) and weighs about 2,900 lbs. Teams use hand and/or power tools to cut and shape the ice. However, only human power, themselves, or competing team members, can be used to lift the ice into place. The Amateur Open starts on the first Monday after the Multi-Block Classic and ends 10 days later on a Thursday. Contestants can register and sculpt on a flexible schedule. The finished sculpture will be illuminated with colored lights for the public to view. This competition tends to be more relaxed, because you are working with smaller pieces of ice and are given extra time.
Cut that hole ... set that bale ... get ah little...
Ice art to greet you in a vast iceland.
A lovely warm .... er lovely and different hotel room
Look for this Registration Desk when you arrive.
In case you might not know, all you Shakesphere fans (especially you “well-heeled” ones) will be able to see Hamlet on ice! And we’re not talkin’ “Ice Capades!”
Near the arctic village of Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, discriminating theater goers can catch performances of Hamlet in the “open air” (as it was meant to be seen) inside a two story ice-replica of the Globe Theater. The theater is adjacent to Jukkasjärvi’s “Ice Hotel,” a sprawling 70+ room complex, built of snow and massive ice blocks hauled from the nearby Torneälven River. Each November the “Ice Hotel” is built anew, and in which adventurous globetrotting clientele may stay (weather permitting) through the following April.
Though the primary lure is its novelty; the hotel and rooms within are surprisingly well appointed for being made mostly of ice (and having an ambient temperature of 26 degrees Fahrenheit). Guests “tuck into” beds whose mattresses are made of snow, fresh-cut spruce boughs, and plush “reindeer furs”. In addition to the guest-suites (which range from around $225 to $650 per night) there are several spacious common rooms, including an “ice-bar.”
Adjacent to the Ice Hotel are an “ice gift-shop” and “ice chapel” -for any impetuous clients, who may wish to make an impromptu honeymoon of their stay. Also close by are the more permanent (and conventional) structures of the resort’s main lodge, in which guests can find a full range of warm accommodations and other “necessaries.”
The “Ice Globe” theater was a new project for the resort last year, which “blew” $800,000 in its construction and facility for the Norwegian “Beaivvás” theater group to perform a 74-day “Hamlet engagement” inside the massive 25-foot high open-roofed structure.
As an added exotic touch, all showings were performed in “Sami,” the traditional Finno-Ugric tongue native to this region, some 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle (and 1250 miles north of Castle Ellsinore, the staged setting for Shakespeare's tragedy). Owing to temperatures that can approach minus 40, the “Ice Globe’s” production of Hamlet was “abbreviated” to about an hour and 15 minutes -with frequent intermissions for hot drinks.
In addition to Hamlet performances, the Beaivvás theater group will also give dance demonstrations and “Yoik,” a traditional Sami singing technique. The “Ice Globe’s” structure is an open-air arrangement -similar in design to London’s Globe Theater, originally built in the 1590’s. Jukkasjärvi’s “Ice Globe” consists of a stage ringed in 40 two-story theater boxes, with seating for ten guests in each. In front of the stage there is enough standing room for an additional hundred guests.
Tickets to the show range from about $60 (for standing room only) to $110 for ice-slab seating in the boxes (reindeer hide “bleacher-seats” included). For those wanting a stay in an ice hotel, but lacking the time -or wherewithal- for a trip to outermost “Sami-land,” there’s another hotel located in Quebec, suspiciously similar in appearance and price.
But if your heart’s set on viewing Hamlet from a slab of ice at 20 below (and Bruno, Rocky, and “Knuckes” down at the meat locker refuse to recite in Sami) then the Jukkasjärvi “Ice Globe” is a ticket with no substitute! But call first to make sure it has not been cancelled because of the lack of cold weather. –Chris Plunkett
"Like the bear that captivated his audience of wild animals with incredible folkstories about humans -- while sitting on a block of ice.... when he was through the bear stood up and said to the others, "Now my tale is told."
A classmate of mine -- Class of '53 Wauwatosa High -- yea, we're old...send me this excellent presentation of Diamond Rio's song they introduced in 2005. Heres what she says about it.
"When Diamond Rio sang it for the first time, they received an immediate standing ovation, and continue to do so every time they perform it! Sadly, major radio stations wouldn't play it because it was considered politically incorrect. Consequently, the song was never released to the public. If this song speaks to your heart, share it with friends and loved ones. Then let us cease being the silent majority and join together -- not as a particular political party, but as Americans!"
Geri Scheaffer Barwick
I'm sure glad she sent it to me. And I'm glad to pass it on. np
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FLASH! A hilarous response form Louisa (alias writer Harvey Nowland) that stirs things up a bit. I'm able to post all his trash because he's the only reader of Norm's Ramblins whom writes the website. Shortly we will change the title and give it a Southern slant for this Ivy Leaguer to ponder:
IN WHO 'UM' DO YOU TRUST?
Dear Mr. Norm's Daily Ramblins,
Shocking, shocking, and shocking, I say little more. Do you and your friends have nothing better to do than play in the snow, build ice castles, and live in snow banks for months on end?
Nonetheless, I do not wish to deviate from my true purpose. I am writing, as a well-versed grammarian, to chastise you for the horrific language used on your socio-communal Web site.
In your feeble attempt to lure readers into believing that you are some sort of patriot by placing an American flag propitiously on your Web site, I must say that you have failed. Furthermore, you then fouled the image of our nations’ glorious symbol with the most inane sort of title – “IN WHO DO WE TRUST?”
Of course I, being a librarian (having graduated from the highly regarded Homerville Normal School of Library and Veterinarian Science), as well as being the official, non-salaried, highly regarded person responsible for grammatically correct signage in our fair community, immediately stopped reading your Web site. I simply could not force myself to read past that childish title, “In Who Do We Trust?” It hurts my fingers even as I type it.
I have been informed that you are a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (which may help to explain your grievous socio-communist tendencies), and so the improper grammar should not surprise one such as myself.
Mr. Plinkard, if you have not as yet surmised what has cause me to use my valuable time to write to you, let me simply say this—you should have said, “In Whom Do We Trust?” Please, it is “whom,” Mr. Plotchard, not “who.”
I assure you that I will write no more. Nor will I listen to the music you make available (although I will say that some of it has rather pleased me—but, never again).
Sincerely,
Louise Maye Armiecott
Clarional Free Library
644 Main Street, Clarional, GA 30300
Tel: 678-censored 'caz we don't want no datin' going on - Keep those in Ohio and Tennessee
Fax: 67 -censored even further
A wealth of information at your fingertips
My response to Louse MayeI Armiecott was as follows:
I guess the compiler and inserter of this article was referencing the old husband/wife television quiz game hosted by Bud Colyer, "Who Do You Trust." All you academic college attenders seem to be similar in outlook. I will pass you evaluation on to thosewhom care.
Trust you're enjoying New Year's Day with the Rose Parade and all five of the bowl games. Remember when all the bowl games were on New Year's Day? Then all hell broke loose as the Dollar became so important and marketing took over. Now the New Year's Day bowl games extend all week until the "so-called" BCS College Championship at what was used as the Fiesta Bowl -- which is today. ... and so will Guy Lombardo.
Years ago, as I looked ahead to my mature age with curiosity and trepidation, I never really thought I'd be here to see 2000. The Lord has been gracious. If it were not for the miracle treatment for prostate cancer in 1999, I wouldn't be here anticipating a prosperous and exciting 2007.
(By the way, men, if you're over 55 MAKE SURE that you annual blood test includes a PSA. It you ever have need, check out the implant of irradiated pellets and external beam radiation. My extremely erious case was cured seven years ago and I didnt' miss a day of work furing the eight weeks of treatment..)
Wow, "time" in our present dimension really does vaporize and is gone as quickly as a passing cloud. Isn't it great that events, experiences, thoughts and ideas stay in our mind so we can mull them over in our heart? God's gift of memory is something we must never take for granted. It's essential to coping with the rapid passing of time and such a gift it is.
But memory is not God's greatest gift -- his grace, love and forgiveness is the great triumverate that has its focus on and in the Cross. That's God's greatest gift. Have you taken that gift and opened it?
This is my third New Year as a "remarried man" after two years as a widower. at better way to observe (celebrate for many) the passing and arrival of years, than to be aware of the culture that we have lived through -- bringing us to this point in life. Guy Lombardo was part of that culture and we want to use his contribution to honor those "who were there when it happened" and to educate all those who missed it.
Norm's Ramblins and all of us connected with Peachtree Media pray for you a prosperous 2007, one that you will take advantage to know God better than
you know him today. That's called spiritual growth. May we all have our purpose for life clear in mind and follow that path faithfully. -- Norm Plunkett
Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians, "Big Band" long associated with New York’s Roosevelt and Waldorf Astoria Hotels, and the tune Auld Lang Syne; remote broadcasts frequently heard over various radio networks from 1927 – 1956.
There’s no more fitting time than New Year’s Eve to feature tunes from Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians. To this day Guy’s band and Auld Lang Syne, the Scottish tune they popularized, are now synonymous with the tolling in of each New Year. If you haven't done so already, click the Sounds of the Past button on the left and hear a seven minute sample of Lombardo's band as you read about him.
But the sum of the Royal Canadian's influence wasn’t merely restricted to New Year’s celebrations, for in their day They were one of the most popular bands at large. Between 1929 and 1952 a year did not pass without at least one Lombardo disc charting on the hit parade. The band produced an astounding number of hit tunes, 21 of which would peak at number one, and with an estimated sales somewhere between 100 and 300 million albums, they’re still the top-selling dance band of all time.
Guy was born Gaetano Albert Lombardo, the son of Italian immigrants in London, Ontario June 19, 1902. The eldest of five sons and two daughters, Guy and his siblings were encouraged from an early age to take music lessons, with five of the seven Lombardo children pursuing musical careers. Guy’s instrument of choice was the violin. An incident occurred in these early years involving his first violin; Guy’s father, a stickler for having music played just as it was written, flew into a rage when he caught his son “jazzing up” a classical melody. The elder Lombardo seized the violin and smashed it over his son’s head! Years later Papa Lombardo would comment, “Of course it was a small violin.”
The Lombardo parents, eager to have their children assimilate accent-free into Canadian culture, forbade the speaking of Italian in their home. Guy would later view his parents’ policy as a mixed blessing, and once wrote, “I often regret…as I travel around and meet so many people with the same ethnic background, who will greet me with an Italian phrase or expression, and find to their dismay that I don’t understand what they're talking about.”
The “Guy Lombardo Orchestra” had its humble beginnings in 1914, as a childhood duet with Guy on violin and his brother Carmen on flute. The group included a third brother, Lebert, and Freddie Kreitzer, the band’s long-serving pianist, by the time they played their first professional engagement in June of 1919. Performing before audiences so greatly appealed to the three brothers that within months they dropped out of school to pursue full-time careers in music. The Lombardo band grew to ten members by the time they left Ontario in 1923, to test their fortunes in the United States. The band moved to Cleveland and within a couple years had developed their patent sound, which was founded on simple arrangements of easily sung melodies and brother Carmen’s unique tones on the saxophone.
It was in Cleveland that the band, on the recommendation of their manager, reluctantly dressed in red uniforms and took the moniker of “the Royal Canadians.” In 1927 the band moved to Chicago to work out of the Granada Playhouse. It was this year that the band began attracting national attention with radio broadcasts and hit recordings. By 1930 the band moved to New York to begin a 33-year-long association with the Roosevelt Hotel.
The postal card at the top of this article is a valued part of my dad's large radio memoribilia collection. It's a card announcing the opening of Guy Lombardo's band at the Roosevelt Hotel. Quite an amazing piece of history and a valuable artefact.
Throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s “The Royal Canadians” toured extensively, by this time a fourth brother, Vincent, and sister Rose Marie had joined the band as well. From 1928 up into the 1950’s Guy and the band also held various weekly radio broadcasts. It was on the Robert Burns Cigar sponsored Guy Lombardo Hour in 1932 that comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen began their first regular radio appearances. Guy Lombardo and his band also expanded into Hollywood at this time, with appearances in such films as Many Happy Returns (1934), Stage Door Canteen(1943), and No Leave, No Love (1946).
Due to the simplicity of their arrangements and lack of improvisation, Lombardo’s band generally drew poor reviews with critics. Sousa and his band had bad reviews and the critics hated his work but the American populus loved him and make him what he became. In the same way, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians were immensely popular with the public at large, and known for playing “the sweetest music this side of heaven.”
Much to the chagrin of critics and those who didn't like the music, jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald were among Lombardo’s biggest fans. Guy and “the Royal Canadians” would produce over 250 hit tunes in their long career together, including such titles as: Boo-Hoo, Charmaine, By the River Saint-Marie, Red Sails In The Sunset, The Band Played On, and Young at Heart.
It was while making an appearance before a largely Scottish crowd in Glencoe, Ontario that the band first arranged and performed the tune Auld Lang Syne. Lombardo’s rendition gained appeal with wider audiences, and this Scottish tradition was adapted into their New Year’s Eve performances in New York.
In addition to his great love for music, Lombardo held a passion for boat racing. He actively competed in and won many tournaments, including a national championship in the late 1940’s.
In 1954 Guy took over the operation of the Marine Theater at Jones Beach in New York, and continued to host and produce seasonal musical performances there with “The Royal Canadians” until shortly before his death in 1977. Lombardo once joked with friends that he would take New Year’s Eve with him when he died -and in some respects he’s probably right! On the day of his death the CBS switchboard received more phone inquiries than during the recent passings of Bing Crosby and Elvis Presley.
To this day no New Year’s Eve could be complete without a round of Auld Lang Syne, Lombardo’s gift and legacy to the non-Scots world. –Chris Plunkett
Mary Osgood Plunkett gets a jump as Blizzard 2 started Thursday night
"A WONDER WINTERLAND IN THE DENVER SUBURBS"
Seems like a never-ending story.
It just started snowing again this Friday afternoon in Denver after a lull. Mary and NJ (Norm, Jr.) take turns shoveling the driveway and sidewalk -- about five more inches fell last night - and when she was finished just now, the sidewalk was covered again. The snow is now sticking to the shovel and that makes it hard to clear the drive and walk. Looks like we've had a foot and they predict 5-8 more before the Low moves off Sunday
TV-9 has some nice live cams that will give you an idea. I-25 and Colorado Blvd. is about two miles from our house. I've linked the site below.
The new snow is causing highway problems after they thought they had a handle on it. The photos they are showing on the continuous Storm Coverage are amazing. A helicopter showed a poor guy out on a country road NE of the city stuck on a rural road trying to dig out. They were going to call for a snowmobile to rescue the farmer.
They said it will be snowing at the Bronco game Sunday. Can you imagine the cost of shoveling out the Mile-High Stadium getting it ready for the sell-out crowd Sunday!? I don't even understand how they can do that.
The rabbits that live under the back porch are a joy to watch. For some reason, I saw a bag of Timothy at Kings/Kroger last week and impulsively bought it. The rabbits love it as it's the ONsY thing eatable right now. They are also working on Mary's jug of Hen and Chicks as a dessert. Have not seen a single bird
since the first storm. Usually they are all over the place including giant foot and a half crows.
Our friends, teased NJ about the two blizzards and that he is the reason. You know I think the Stricklands are right... we have a Snow Elf under our roof. Never in the history of Denver have there been two major storms follow each other let alone within a week. The Low system is working perfectly for a counter clockwise upslope storm. The Low has to come across at the So. border of CO, catch the warm moist Gulf air and carry it over N. Tx, Ks, Ne and over to WY and then South along the Front Range of the Rockies. That's the only way we get big snows. Anything from the West gets blocked by the Rockies. Thursday night and Friday we received 8-12 more inches. Our street still has maybe 1 and a half lanes on 12 inches of hard packed ice/snow and slush ruts and sides of 14-18 inches. The Snow Elf has definitely been at work. We have tied his ankles together.
Danger weather, danger weather, danger weather Mr. Smith!
We're always honored by visitors. We do our best to provide new information on this "Ramblin" page ... and leave some of the stuff we think is extra good a little longer than the others. Please visit again.
We'd enjoy hearing from you. Drop us a note. We'd enjoy knowing you're visitin.' To do so, click the "Drop Us A Note" link right below.
We extend to you an old Southern salutation you don't hear much any more down here.... "Ya'll come back now, ya'hear?"
Norman Plunkett
God is good -- ALWAYS!
And especially as He floods you with all the grace you need no matter what the situation. As you trust Him, God's grace is always just enough and always on time.
