The comedy that I really enjoyed in my formative years

I’m going to start this as a list and link it out to the people whose humor inspired me and soothed my teen-age years, when I wasn’t just playing music as loud as I could manage…

Bill Cosby. I loved his early records- Noah, the chicken heart that ate Philidelphia.. a funny, funny, man. I totally loved  “I Spy” too.

Cheech and Chong. All of “Big Bambu” was great but “Dave’s Not Here” remains a relevant cultural touchstone. Its the beginning of any honest talk about smoking dope, as my people say. Yes, I’ve told it, as best I remember, to my son. It sums up a reality that goes with the post-detox Robin Williams’ masterpiece deconstruction of alcohol- “The point of alcohol is to make English  your second g*&@#)(@+d language!”  Say it, brother Williams!

Bob Newhart. From the Button Down Mind album to that wacky show with Daryl and his other brother Daryl,  And to stay on theme, you can throw in his Sir Walter Raliegh phone call about drinking the hot bean juice with some of the burning leaves every morning…

The Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre.  Ah, so much to choose from here- the Mr. Science routines on NPR, their “Gonad The Barbarian, a man on the edge of thought”, which 30+ years later STILL provides me with chuckles and some great wise-ass lines (“You speak squeek bear?” “I was raised by squeek bears, in the wilderness”). The Drag Aggies spiel. The “Household Appliances” song. The “Ronald McDonald” song… A friend of mine was in the same apartments as at least some of DBMT at one point and they were apparently kinda obnoxious neighbors- loud, coming and going at all hours, about what you’d expect. How many MS and PhD students were delighted to say, “I have a <whatever degree>, <pause> In Science!” when their diplomas were awarded? There must have been a good 10 years where that would be THE thing to say to your friends…

The Flying Karamazov Brothers… another bunch with boundless talent. Maybe Penn and Teller invented their deconstruction schtick independantly, but the FKBs need to explain how everything worked was pretty amazing, even in the 1970s. The words, the music and the juggling all worked together, with a real delight in language, physical acumen and finding a place for the 2, then 3, then 4 and sometimes 5 truely diverse individuals.  And their musical accompanists, the Kamikaze Ground Crew, added another bunch of colorful people and interesting ideas.

George Carlin. Gawd. The philosopher prince. Not JUST for the 7 words, not JUST for any particular bit, but for the strength and clear eyes he brought to the whole business. Funny was only one part of  it, and he had some serious staying power. He remains a national treasure.

Chris Rock. No, I don’t approve of a lot of what he says about women, some of his opinions are reprehensiblle, but some of his bits are deadly accurate.. He’s not really about making nice comfort zones on “racial”, cultural and economic issues.  Rock gets laughs out of material that could be written for people far more conservative than his actual audience. If the Republicans weren’t an aging, mostly white-male outfit of hypocrites, they’d be a natural audience for some of Rock’s hard truths. Cosby, Chappel and plenty of others too.  There are plenty of people who delight in pushing the buttons of the stereotypical liberal unconscious…  just as there are people who delight in pushing the buttons on the stereotypical conservative unconscious. Both are endless opportunities for humor.  The brittle hypocrisy of the Hanity/Coulter/Limbaugh noise machine can’t be better demonstrated  than by their obvious lack of humor. Narrow, mean, vindictive, controlling people are seldom much good at comedy….

Roseanne Barr. Look, before its pathology came to echo that of my own family of origin, I thought the Cosby Show was great. Finally- the real world up on the little screen. Then I realized that part of my positive reaction was to the just-like-my-family father competing with son dynamic… ick! And then I saw Roseanne… dang, she and Mr. Goodman were the best romantic couple since Morticia and Gomez Adams.   I think the Roseanne episode where the older daughter writes a poem about her mom and the school orchestra plays the worst recorded version of Pachobel’s Canon may be the greatest 30 minutes of human actors doing comedy on TV……. Again- dang, what an ACCUTE observer! And how lovely the ensemble cast’s work. The time the boy child turned out to have a box of Barbie doll heads under his bed- NEVER explained, just like in real life :^)

And I DID see the “Night Court” episode where they went to the Markie Post characters home and saw all the character’s Prince Charles and Lady Diana stuff….  Night Court was pretty funny too!

I don’t expect anyone will read this, much less reply, but It feels good to give recognition where it belongs!

Bill

Ihttp://dbmt.blogspot.com/2009/06/fire-this-blog.html#links

Families of references for the model builder

I’ve started working on my index of Air International again, but on reflection it occurs to me that a simple list of all the potential reference sources and how to start reeling them in on the internet would be of value, so here’s a beginning,  and yes, I’ll list more of Volume 18 of Air Internatonal!

Which Dewey Decimal and/or Library of Congress filing sections this stuff goes in is a separate matter, and there’s also on-line stuff but here’s a start on books, maybe magazines after this: I’ll put in examples after I get the listings going.

ARCO- ARCO did several different series:

ArcoAircam small, paper-bound volumes of color and black-and-white profiles by artists like Richard Ward

- larger, soft and hard-bound books on a single subject, mostly pix and text – Boeing 707, Lockheed Constellation, P-51, B-58, etc.

Aero series A numbered series of soft-bound books on particular subjects

Colors and Markings – Squadron or Kinzey started this series, they’re a bit too exhaustive for me

Aerofax -A magazine that morphed into paperback books and now covers a wide range. Very scholarly, dry, text, lots of official technical manual drawings and photos.

Aero Detail – Japanese productions with photographs of museum examples, contemporary technical drawings, color profies. Some English text, some in Japanese, photo captions are in both. Scott Hards of Hobby Link Japan serves as translator for this range and does a good job.

Aircraft in Profile, Armor in Profile, AFV in Profile, Classic Cars in Profile, Cars in Profile, Warships in Profile, Locomotives in Profile, Handguns in Profile. – the melting pot of British amateur enthusiasts. Texts can be quite good to pretty poor- I don’t really believe that the P-51 (aka A-36) made no progress in the USA until a bribe was paid by North American to someone, but the photos and color art are always fun. The sun WAS setting on the British Empire while these were being written and the result is a lot more pre-1939 British content than any objective analysis would warrant, but what of that? So there are more between-wars RAF bi-planes than total USSR subjects… even with 260 titles published this was a work of love and devotion, not really a scholarly enterprise. Its all from the heart, and they DO have some airliners and the odd civil subject.

The automotive series are even more oddly focused, or un-focused, but there are some interesting topics, even if the mix is strange. The Ferrari 330 P3/P4 and Porsche 917 are well served, in the more modern series, and a lot of the “Classic” cars at Pebble Beach and so forth can be found.

The Armor series seems to have been aimed at classic WWII subjects, the AFV series was a re-take with something improved, but I’m not clear what. Photos tend to be the official record photo from the proving grounds, the text is too short for all of a general overview, operational history and placing the design and use in context. I never found the text particularly usable, or the range of markings in art and photo worth keeping for reference.

In Detail & Scale – Bert Kinzey’s very impressive if slightly stiff series of books on US subjects (Note ampersand in title). The model kit reviews are sometimes singularly humorless, but the quality of the photographs Mr. Kinzey and his authors turn up is VERY good.

Naval Fighters – Steve Ginter’s slightly less formal take on US Navy subjects, with more photos but messier layouts, plenty of manual pages reproduced, lots of informal photos.

Air Force Legends – Ginter Books stretched out to cover USAF subjects, particularly the unusual and underserverd B-51s and F 103s, etc.

Aeroguide

Aeroguide Classics

Aerofax Extra

Aerofax Minigraph

Air Age Publishing

Aircraft Monograph

Smithsonian

Airliner Tech

Warbird Tech

Air Racer Tech

A J Press

Apogee Books

Windsock International

Aircraft Archive

Ballentine History Of A Violent Century – WWI and WWII battles, armies, weapons, commanders. Very high contrast photo reproduction mixed in the text, generally good text, no color. Trade-paper size, inexpensive, mass-market books from specialist authors.

Berliner, Don

Gunston, Bill

Braybrook, Roy,

Chant, Chris

Ellis, Chris,

Zaloniga, Steve

Green, William, Swanborough, Gordon

Presidio Press

Blandford

Harleyford

Crowood Press

Squadron/Signal In Action

Camouflage and Markings – Dulcimus Press

Kookaburra

Famous Aircraft Of The World (FAOW)

Osprey

Salamander/Crescent/Chartwell

Concord Publications

Schiffer Books

Doubleday Books

Hanover House

Koku-Fan

Maru Mechanic

Macmillian Publishing

Monogram Books

Motorbooks

Munson, Kennith

Ward, Richard

Wanatabe, Ruyuku

Naval Institute Press

Cross and Cockade

SAM Publications

Prentice-Hall

Tanks In Detail

Tankograd

Ventura

Verlinden

• AirFoil – Book

More later!

Great nerdy films: The Way Things Go, Rivers and Tides, Rendezvous

The Way Things Go – Fichelli and Wiess’ finest moment, so far.

Probably the most demanded “Play It Again!” film of all time. It has its own Wikipedia page, and the Honda Cog ad was found to violate Fichelli and Wiess’ copyright of the image of tires bumping into each other and rolling uphill….See it too, but see the original first. Repeatedly. With a child, age 5-105…

Product Details The Way Things Go 100 feet of physical interactions, chemical reactions, and precisely crafted chaos worthy of Rube Goldberg or Alfred Hitchcock – a discussion starter for …

icarusfilms.com/cat97/t-z/the_way_.html – Cached – Similar -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_Things_Go Trailer: http://www.tcfilm.ch/pop_lauf1e.htm

http://www.amazon.co/Way-Things-Go/dp/B00005UW7W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1253212612&sr=8-1

Retail $18, used from $9.13… Amazing Chain Reaction – The Way Things Go 4 min 34 sec – Jan 15, 2007 – Rated 4.6 out of 5.0 TO BUY THE DVD of the complete 30 minutes of this chain reaction called The Way Things Go go here: firstrunfeatures.com IN THIS SCENE: Fire is … www.youtube.com/watch?v=U82eWptFxSs – Related videos – And Here’s Cog: Results include your SearchWiki notes for Honda Cog. Share these notes Copy and paste this link into an email or IM: See a preview of the shared page 1.

Honda Accord Cog Commercial 2 min 1 sec – Mar 3, 2006 – Rated 4.7 out of 5.0 High res Quicktime file (original commercial). video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6006084025483872237 – Related videos – 2. The Making Of “Honda – Cog” 4 min 4 sec – Oct 4, 2006 – Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 The Making of Honda’s “Cog” commercial (Honda Accord)

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-960793573142648647 – Related videos – 3. Cog (advert) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cog is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by Honda in 2003 to promote ….. Honda ‘cog’ ad at centre of rip-off debate over 1987 film, … Sequence – Production – Release and reception – Legacy

A n d W h i l e W e A r e O n e T h e S u b j e c t . . . . Product Details Rivers & Tides ~ Andy Goldsworthy working with time. (DVD – Sep 28, 2004) Buy new: $26.95 $14.49 42 Used & new from $11.52 Watch It Now:  4.5 out of 5 stars (103) DVD:

If you don’t know Andy Goldworthy’s art, I think you’re in for a treat. Also QUITE child-friendly. HIs basic brief is to go out into the world and make something from what he finds there. Then he photographs is, and then lets it return to what it was. Some of his installation pieces in galleries have been stacks of slate, some have been album covers for Tori Amos’ early records. Once he made a collection of snow balls with various contents, stored the, and the put them out in the gallery to melt and reveal their content. Its all about using what’s actually there, but also all about time and how impermanent the world is. Nothing we see, not the rocks, not the mountains, not even the sea, will last for ever. Ok, ok, and the point is???? Ok. The first piece in this film is filmed before dawn, in Newfoundland. Goldworthy is out with a little bowl of water, and he’s collected a bunch of carrot-sized icicles, and he’s breaking them into segments and using the water to stick them back together to make an arc that starts and ends on the side of a big rock down by the ocean- like a letter C stuck to the rock as if: / C| / then the camera pulls back and you can see he’s made a series of these, like the old arrow-though the head gag, a series of loops on both sides of the rock

…….L/ \

…..C/….. \D

…C/………. \D

so it looks like the icicle is threaded back and forth through the rock and the at the top it turns and goes up a couple of feet straight up. Nice. He’s got gloves but he’s working with bare fingers because he gets better control of the ice pieces that way. It looks COLD. Just as he’s about to take the picture, the sun comes up, its been twilight as he’s been working, and the sunlight falls on the icicle pieces and they turn on with the golden light as if they’re neon tubes or something like that… completely unexpected.

I find this charming, and it may not be the best piece in the film. Maybe the failures, the stack of rocks that keeps collapsing, the screen of sticks pinned together with thorns that a tiny breeze destroys, are the best. Good lesson for kids- some ideas don’t work out- give it your best, and if it isn’t going to happen, do something else. Its like going back 50,000 years to when art and engineering and science were more or less the same thing… What happens to the gallery wall he covers with mud is so cool I’m not going to reveal it. Suffice to say, its cool.

A n d N o w F o r S o m e t h i n g T h a t F i t s R i g h t I n . . . Product Details Rendezvous (DVD – Feb 20, 2003) Buy new: $29.95 $26.99 5 Used & new from $24.95  4.5 out of 5 stars (38) DVD: http://www.amazon.com/Rendezvous-Claude-Lelouch/dp/B000CFL6DS/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1253213838&sr=8-5 Another really good one in my personal collection is Rendezvous, an inexcusable but wonderful 9 minute drive across Paris, at about 5;30am, in a Ferrari with a camera fastened to the hood. The driver, never identified by director Claude Le Leouch, assuming it wasn’t him, doesn’t even lift has he blows the red lights down the approach to the Arc de Triumph. Then a quick jaunt to the Louvre, turn north and through the various districts (1st to 9th to 18th I believe) and ends up at the Sacre Coeur, where Le Louch steps into the headlights of the car and embraces his wife. A Rendezvous.

To quote one review on Amazon: “…nearly 30 years ago I saw the film on 35mm, and it was so intense, that the memory of it has never left me. It’s like watching Leo Kottke in full flight on his 12-string; you see it, you hear it, but nonetheless your mind refuses to accept that it’s possible. Buy it. Buy it now. And while you wait for it to arrive, practice holding your breath for 9 minutes, as you’ll need that ability….. “

Another reviewer notes: “…No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit…. …Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested…” Reckless driving of course… and he was convicted, although he has always maintained it was a professional driver… whom he has never named. The sound is simply the car, tires, street noises, pigeons, garbage trucks, etc. There’s nothing quite like it, and probably never will be.

And when all else fails: http://www.theexplodingwhale.com/

Monogram’s old Mosquito nose transparencies..

My straight-out-of-the-box Monogram Mosquito is getting closer to being done. I lightly brushed Future floor wax over the clear nose and the two windows into the bomb-aimer’s compartment, sanded the fuselage mating surfaces flat and straight, sanded the clear part edges (only edges) so the glue would have something to work on, and glued them together with Testor’s blue label Non Toxic liquid glue.

On the nose windows, I stretched a modest strip of tape across the width of the window (up and down, not fore and aft) on the OUTSIDE, leaving all 4 corners exposed. Then I pressed the little window in place against the tape, and when I felt it was all seated correctly, I wicked glue between the parts from the two front corners.

Naturally the first of the little windows fit perfectly, so I wasn’t as much on my guard and the other one didn’t and I didn’t catch it, at first. I used a paint brush handle, parts clipper cushoned handle, etc, to push the slightly sunken widow out into its frame. Each day I’d wick in a little of the liquid glue to melt it slightlty free, then push. I told you! After two days, it was acceptable and I stopped.

RIP Les Paul, age 94…

voice-over:
…
When an accident caused him to lose all movement in his elbow joint, he had the bones set so that he could still play guitar.

One of his record cutting turntables was built with a used Cadillac
flywheel because it was very heavy, very flat and relatively cheap.

Famous jazz saxiphone player Charlie Parker was so excited by the
chords in Les Paul and Mary Ford’s classic “How High The Moon” that he woke up a friend to play it for him, in the middle of the night.

He saw Jimi Hendrix when the (then) unknown young man was auditioning at a bar in New York. He left his grown son sitting out in the car for over an hour while he watched the young Hendrix playing a black Les Paul. Returning later, he was disappointed to learn that the bar owner hadn’t hired the spectacular young player (“… too loud…”) and didn’t know his name. Years later Paul and Hendrix became friends when Hendrix built his Electric Ladyland Studio and called Paul at all hour for advice and council.

For more than 55 years Gibson has been selling “Les Paul” guitars, a name that has graced a number of differently shaped and made
instruments. Along with Leo Fender’s Telecaster and Stratocaster, the Les Paul, single cutaway with thicker body or double cutaway and thinner. is the most iconic musical instruments in popular culture.

He is, the most interesting guitar playing man, in the world.

“I don’t always play a solid body electric guitar, but when I do, I
prefer a Gibson Les Paul”

“Stay in practice, my friends”

Dada (Dadatheband)’s “Surround” chords & lyrics:

≈ I’ve just figured out the chord for Dada (the band)’s “Surround”!

Intro- “C” pick just A, D and G strings, slide up 2 frets (more or less a “D”), slide back.

The rhythm is  1-2-3-1 2-3-1-2 for 2 bars (its in 4/4)

notes are | C E G C | E G C E | D F# G D | F# G D F# |(4x)

Basic song consists of four differet four-bar fragments in this pattern:
C | C | D* |D* (intro) 4X
G | G | E | E   (Verse 1) 2X – these are not conventionally voiced, or I’m picking them wrong!
A | A | C | D (Chorus) 2X
G | G | E | E   (Verse 2) 2X
A | A | C | D (Chorus) 2X
EE D|CC D|EE D|CC D (2x =middle 8 )
A | A | C | D (Chorus) repeat w vocal, then w/o under guitar solo.

Surround: – I need to get the writing credits off the CD/paper inserts.

C | C | D* |D* (intro)
C | C | D* |D* (intro)
C | C | D* |D* (intro)
C | C | D* |D* (intro)

( G | G | E | E :Verse)
( G | G | E | E :Verse)
[G]There’s a [G]picture on my [E]wall A crack in the [E]ceiling
[G]Cigarette [G]burns in the [E]hall I get the [E]feeling

That [A]yo[A]u sur[C]round m[D]e
That [A]yo[A]u sur[C]round m[D]e

( G | G | E | E :Verse)
( G | G | E | E :Verse)
[G]If I die[G]a thousand times[E]my soul walks be[E]side me
[G]I will never be a[G]lone [E]you’re always [E]inside me

And [A]yo[A]u sur[C]round m[D]e
And [A]yo[A]u sur[C]round m[D]e

EE D|CC D|EE D|CC D
EE D|CC D|EE D|CC D

And [A]yo[A]u sur[C]round m[D]e
And [A]yo[A]u sur[C]round m[D]e
And [A]yo[A]u sur[C]round m[D]e
And [A]yo[A]u sur[C]round m[D]e
A | A | C | D
A | A | C | D … (repeat under solo, fade)

| <== 1 bar:

|   |   |   | <==  4 bars**

Movies seen- w/ Ben, w/Jean

We just saw:

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. Nice, very, very, nice. Much as J. K. Rowling did herself proud in writing the books and bringing off the sprawling yarn and its many loose ends, so now yet another director picks up with mostly the same actors and makes a VERY compact and effective movie. Its a keeper, no doubt. The three principals are maturing as actors as they grow taller, Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman would have stolen any NORMAL movie, that they don’t says much about the focus of the script writers and directors of this epic industry. They’ll be sorry when its over, I can tell you that. The brief appearance of the now-married (in the movie, in the Movie!) Tonks and Professor Lupin is nice, and the scenery, the world outside the cloister of Hogwart’s, is just beautiful to look at. At one point The Hogwarts’ Express rolls along tracks through a autumn gold land dotted by a thousand ponds, lakes, streams. Another scene depends on raging seas against cliffs out of a nightmare. I can’t tell how  much of this is digital and homw much literal, but I’m not complaining…

Recently we’ve also seen:

The 2nd Transformers movie, Ben loved it. Really. A lot. Still talking about it a week, two weeks, later. Value for money, there.

Me, perhaps not so much. The human interactions don’t make any more sense than the robot interactions (Can’t tell a Decepticon from an Autobot? You’re not alone…) One of the bad robots disguises itself as a very attractive young woman and then throws herself (itself?) at Shia LeBouef’s character. I have nothing but respect and admiration for attractive young women but this bit and the key point between SLB’s character and Megan (?) Fox, that SLB, recent highschool graduate won’t tell Ms. Fox’s character that he loves her , don’t seem aligned with a special effects spectacle derived from a cartoon and licensed product gold mine aimed at 6-9 year olds.

Up in 3D. we all thought it was terrific fun. Sad at the beginning, less so than Finding Nemo, but its no accident that Pixar can have sadder and more touching things happen in their animated features than any other animated studio, with the possible exception of Studio Ghibli (H. Miyazaki) in Japan. Perhaps Pixar will made a bad movie, someday, this one isn’t it.

Lovely, unexpected depth in the characters and the story. The whole concept of taking the little house hemmed in by the big city and floating it away is wonderful. The trick of the the dog’s thoughts being rendered into speech is as funny here as in The Far Side- Benjamin and I are still breaking suddenly and looking to one side while saying “squirrel”…

Coraline in 3D. What a great movie! For sure wierd, very wonderful. and appealing. The apparently wish-fulfilling mother in The Other Side sets off all kinds of alarm bells from the word go. And the cat and neighborhood boy are terrific foils for Coraline. Not to mention her real mother and father, and all their messy difficulties.

Milk. Wow. “I’m Harvey Milk and I’m hear to recruit you!” boy oh boy can Sean Penn put across a character, and the supporting cast are superb. Directing tight, script crisp and emotionally satsfying. A truely great movie.

“Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day” – Frances McDormand in an overwhemling sweet and happy story. Many adventures, Amy Adams’  astonished, round, eyes and a happy ending that only gets telegraphed at the very end.  Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) has a meaty and unsympathetic character,  Ciarán Hinds  is a treasure.

Tropic Thunder. Wow again! A surprising comedy-drama. Laughs are deadly, well aimed, lighting up conventions found in far too many places. The panda bit is howlingly funny, in a very, very, dark way, and Tom Cruise shows why we bother paying attention to him- his performance is simply jaw-dropping and would have overwhelmed a lesser movie. (The strength and sure-touch of the this film are reminders of how good a movie can be. Even turned up to 11, Jack Black, well cast and with a real part that matches his talent, can’t steal more than a scene or two. The material and the rest of the cast are that strong.) Ben Stiller really has a lock on funny characters who aren’t actually likable, but remain sympathetic. Robert Downey Jr’s, “dude pretending to be another dude, who’s pretending to be another dude” (or however that goes) is even further over the top than Cruise. Its like fireworks- once the fuse it lit, everyone’s committed. Jean and I saw this by ourselves and really enjoyed it, and after talking it over, let Benjamin see it on-demand at home. The beginning is gorey-er than he was comfortable with and we’d forgotten sexual nature of one of Jack Black’s character’s drug-withdrawal-crazed rants. We were embarrassed, but it didn’t last long. This is a real “R” for violence and strong language, folks. So wait until your 12 year old turns 13, perhaps, but this one’s a keeper, for sure. Just as good, maybe better, the second time I saw it.

Night At The Museum II - Battle of the Smithsonian. A sequel which basicly wrote itself – the primary characters are known, complexity is turned down, slapstick turned up and everyitng is what you’d expect and more. The bad bad guy’s dismissal of Darth Vader (or someone wearing a Darth costume) is wonderfully realized and puts that particular icon in its place quite firmly. I must agree with the review in one national print media which noted that all the skill and attention devoted to special effects are good but what most fathers will remember of Movie Magic ™ is Amy Adams’ painted-on pants.

Ghost Town Another one Jean and I saw by ourselves and a delight, a terrific showcase for Ricky Gervais, a wonderfully wacky premise and a full measure of both romance and comedy. Gervais is less off-putting than his breakthrough role in the UK “The Office”but he’s still mining the awkward and not easy to like formula. Dr. Pinkus is not a bad person, a bit prickly, a bit odd, but not a bad person. But he’s complicated and dropping him into something MORE complicated plays to his strengths. – he has that Fred Astare thing going,, he makes it all look SO easy.

Now that’s odd… Java really IS different

My friend Harrison sent me a  Java file that was giving him trouble. He wanted to read in an Integer from in a command-line program. He found the method readInt() in the class Console. But it wouldn’t compile:

for ( i = 0; i < 5; i++)
System.out.println(“Array["+ i +"] = “+ array[i]);
String name = null;
int age = 0;
age = Console.readInt(“Enter Age:”);
}
}

PersonTest.java:74: cannot find symbol
symbol  : method readInt(java.lang.String)
location: class java.io.Console
age = console.readInt(“Int Enter Age:”);
^
1 errors

I did a little searching and found suggestions that he was going in the right direction:

   char letter = Console.readChar("Enter a letter: ");
   double d = Console.readDouble("Enter a real number: ");
   int i = Console.readInt("Enter an integer: ");
   String name = Console.readLine("Enter your full name: ");

http://faculty.cs.wwu.edu/martin/Software%20Packages/BreezyGUI/breezyguijavadoc/breezygui/console.html

hahaha! Turns out breezygui.console isn’t the same as console… the base language doesn’t actually have the readInt method, or readChar or readDouble. But apparently C# and or J++ and/or some dialect/library for C++ DO have a Console class with a readInt, readChar and readDouble members…

SO… you have to be VERY careful what the on-line document you’re counting on really says. It might have the method you want but only in a library you don’t have, or in another language completely. Ooof! is this fun or what???

Of course I showed Harrison how to get integer, double and char values he wanted. That’s what friends are for.

So be careful what you read and believe. Including this!

The best and worst plastic kits IMHO.

Which are the best and worst plastic model kits?

So many qualify, but the criteria I might use are worth discussing, even if nobody ought to care what my personal picks are.

What IS a plastic model  kit? A set of parts, injection molded, on runners or “trees”, vacuum formed on a sheet of plastic, cast in resin and attached to  “pour blocks”,  laid-up with resin  and fiberglass cloth backing, perhaps including some cast metal, photo-etched sheet copper,  brass or stainless steel, possibly vinyl or rubber, metal or plastic tubing, rod and sheet, lead or other soft metal foil, soft wire, music wire. Most kits contain waterslide decals, though dry transfers or preformed stencils are also seen.

A good kit can be assembled without having to be re-designed, re-engineered or re-built, by the builder.

So the shapes have to be correct, within the limits of the materials and techniques.

All the parts have to be supplied- what can be seen looking at the model from outside, but including what can be seen inside windows, doors, vents, hatches, etc.

The pieces supplied have to assemble correctly, without having to be modified or re-thought-out

It should suggest an accurate representation of a specific object- real, imaginary, even speculative, but always specific.

It should be consistant with itself- textures, features, thicknesses, transparent parts, blank holes or paint/decal for windows, etc., should all be similar across the whole of the model.

More as I get time to add it.

Completed Java 1, wrote a tidy bit of code:

If I’d turned in one last homework it would have been an “A”. Mia Culpa.  I nailed all the homework I did turn in- 12.5/12.5 for 1-6, but only got #7 ready to compile by the deadline.

Here’s I neat piece of code I wrote and used in a couple of places- give it a string containing a number and it will give you back the number- the base language doesn’t keep this in any obvious place, but perhaps I should check the utility library before claiming to have set them right. :^)
/* Here’s an object that packages the messy job of converting Strings that represent numbers into a double.  Int/float/double/long don’t appear to even offer a polymorphic solution. That I’ve found anyway.
Instantiate with a string,
get back a double

anything else I might want

Ok wise guy, how do you get the base classes text value??
Ah ha! String is final- no extending it! This class can HAVE one but can’t BE one
*/

public class NumericString{  // can’t “extends String” its final

String input;
Double value;
// Constructor

public void NumericString( String inputValue ) {

input = inputValue;

// later we can filter out all but the signed numeric nugget we care about…

if (-1 == input.indexOf(‘.’)) {   //only numerals, no decimal, its an integer.
value = (double) Integer.parseInt( input )
;
} else {   // there must have been a decimal, its a float/double
value = ((Double.valueOf(input).doubleValue()));
} // if -1 … else…
}

public Double num() {
return value;
}

} // class NumericString