Good evening, 919 Gang. Jay Johnson says he’s found wording
that would have been easier than his methyolade reference. Maybe. But easier
isn’t better. Look at all the responses we’ve had to that reference. I love
lots of copy. It keeps the ads from bumping into each other.
JAY JOHNSON writes:
Instead
of methyolade, it would have been much easier had I written:
"That stingy
red stuff that your mom would put on your scrapes using that little glass wand
with a bulb at the tip that she'd get out while you were going ow-ow-ow and
when she put it on it became OWEEE-OWEEE-OWEEE and then she'd blow on it to
make it better and put on a gauze bandage or Band-Aid depending on the size of
the scrape, which would get stuck to the wound and have to be pulled off the
next day taking part of you with it and she'd repeat the process again for a
few days until a scab formed and when it was almost healed you'd fall down and
scrape it again and everything would start over."
That
would have been much easier.
DAVID FARMER writes:
I'm
afraid I have to disagree with Jim Okerblom's meticulously reasoned monograph
on liquids that can be legally used to torture children.
When I or one of my three brothers would sustain a scrape
or cut (which was daily), my mother had two choices for a disinfectant. (It was
a Hobson's Choice as far as we were concerned, because either one was going to
sting.)
Contrary
to what Jim and Jay Johnson contended, one of the two liquids was muh CURA crome.
It left a red-orange stain on the skin (or anything else it touched before it
was dry). It stung, but at least you ended up with a highly visible red-orange
badge of courage.
To
my greater disappointment, J&J completely ignored the other old standby:
iodine. Jim is probably going to tell us that iodine was yanked from store
shelves because it retarded brain growth. I vigorously reject that as a base
Cunard. In iodine's defense I'll point out that it, too, left evidence of a
(child's) war wound. I can't remember which preparation stung worst.
I
don't recall much about the following incident because of shock. But I'm
reasonably sure it involved disinfectant. One day my brother Don was whittling
a piece of wood in our yard. He said something so insulting to me that I felt I
had to strike him. It was at this point that he stabbed me!
Well, that's my version. His is that he raised
his hand to ward off my blow. Unfortunately, he was still holding his knife in
that hand. The blade sank into the heel of my hand and I still bear the scar.
It's
well known that the testimony of eyewitnesses can vary dramatically. Also
established is that the history of war is whatever the victor says it is. I
hereby declare myself the victor of the Battle of Whittling Field. And by
golly, he stabbed me!
(The
knife incident really happened.)
REBER: A good
story, but Jim Okerblom did list Mercurochrome
as one of the first-aid treatments.
RICK SMITH
writes:
Merthiolate
burned more than Mercurochrome, as I remember.
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PRESTON TUREGANO writes:
I found my eight Guild contract books going back to 1967-70
through April 1992. I signed on as an employee in late 1970. Employee’s
birthday was a holiday when I started at The Evening Tribune. Employee’s
anniversary was added in 1985. As far as I can determine, Copley News Service
was never in the Guild Bargaining Unit. (Each contract began by defining
“Bargaining Unit.”) The 1985-’88 pact was negotiated on behalf of the Guild by
Michele Davis, John Edgington, Rick McCarthy, Mark Monday, Bob Kemp and me.
Ollie Peter, G.A. “Woody” Wood and Robert J. Robinson were the U-T negotiators.
Unfortunately, the Guild was decertified in 1998 when members of Local 95 voted
406-378 to end 61 years of representation. (Yep, 28 votes decided the future.)
Despite that action, Employee’s birthday and anniversary continued as holidays
along with New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day (Dump the
Guild, but still take some bennies obtained for you by organized labor),
Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day at least through 2006, when I retired.
MICHEL DAVIS writes:
Regarding Diane Kiesel's remark regarding birthday holidays
while working for Copley in DC. The answer is simple. They were not covered by
a Guild contract. As far as how long the birthday holiday existed, I do not
know when it was first negotiated. I started working for Copley in 1972 and it
was a benefit in the Guild contract at that time.
REBER: The birthday was a
holiday at least as early as 1967. At that time the Guild contract said the
employee and supervisor could work out when to take the holiday, but it had to
be in the week of the birthday. As I recall, that rule lapsed or was ignored
and people sometimes stored that holiday for later use.
BARBARA MOSS
writes:
If an employee was at the top of their
pay grade, they couldn't receive a pay raise. However, they could be given a
lump sum amount all at once that equaled a nice raise. Another trick was to
change a non-management position to a management position. This would mean a
higher pay grade and more money for the lucky employee. The editor and HR could
always find a way around the rules. REBER: The only thing I knew about a pay ceiling was when I hit it. I can’t recall this ever being explained. I could be wrong. This was a post-Guild phenomena, as I recall. There were pay scales for each job, and they were raised, maybe every year but certainly every two years. As Barbara says, Newsroom management was often successful in ducking the limitation. I should have asked about the title of my job. I definitely was the only person in that classification.
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REBER: We’ve been talking
about movies which don’t move us as much today as they did when first released.
RICK SMITH
writes:
East Rider's ending was typical of some of those
'sixties-seventies "counterculture" movies. The Band and its version
of "The Weight" (part of the background music) are among my all-time
favorites, but what did these lyrics mean: "I pulled into Nazareth,
feeling about half past dead." Nazareth, Israel, or Nazareth, Pa., which
happens to be Mario Andretti's home town?
"Don't crack wise to me, flatfoot," said Agent
Polk (Dana Elcar) to Lt. Snyder (Charles Durning) in "The Sting."
Anyone who finds Blazing Saddles unfunny and unwatchable is un-American. SAD! What are we going to go after next? Young Frankenstein? Animal House? Have you no shame, Mr. Johnson? Have you no shame?!
REBER:
We bought our first VCR so we could play Blazing Saddles. It cost $600.
TOM GABLE
writes:
I
still enjoy "This is Spinal Tap", "Young Frankenstein" and
"Caddy Shack". If you haven't seen it, Spinal Tap is a great send up
by Rob Reiner of the rockumentaries of the 1970s, which followed bands around
recording their wisdom between gigs. It is known for the line about why their
music was louder than other bands: because their amplifier went up to 11,
instead of 10. Other fine one-liners from the movie wouldn't make it past the
editor. And there are many.
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DAVID FARMER writes:
Did
anyone else notice a typo in the illustration of tonsil maladies a couple of
days ago? Here's a hint: it appears between "uvula" and
"tongue," much as a nornal tonsil does. I'm surprise the mistake
hasn't gone viral.
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LESLIE WOLF
BRANSCOMB forwards:
Here's something for your April 1st (or 3/31) 919 report...
for all of us who still care about spelling. (Though I did need to have my
19-year-old explain to me that Rolaskatox is a reference from the RuPaul's Drag
Queens reality TV show...)
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065
U.S.A.
