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July 2005 Archive 31 July - Heavy Artillery, Drums, and the Hilarity of Warning Systems The Homeland Security Advisory System's palette of colors - from green for low to red for severe - has inspired a certain amount of hilarity. Recently, I came across another threat warning system that also caused a few larfs in its time, which was World War I. In March 1918, Paris was being bombarded by the Paris Guns, a battery of several extremely long range cannon. The authorities tried out several warning systems; here's one of them, described by Henry W. Miller in The Paris Gun: ... The fifty-third projectile of the bombardment struck on the Rue Tandou, killing one person and wounding another… The short interval of ten minutes seemed to indicate that, as on Sunday, more than one gun was firing. The long roll is, indeed, impressive - here's a brief sample; a short long roll (streaming Real Audio) - crank up your speakers. And, as Miller says, it's harder to beat on a drum properly than one might think: the late military historian Ernest Peterkin once told me of a visit to the Royal Military School of Music. Ernie was speaking with a boy drummer, and asked him how long he had been at the school. "Please, sir," the urchin replied, "eighteen months, sir!". Ernie asked him what he could play - "Please, sir, I can play the long roll!" And if you like this sort of thing, there are other excellent examples of rudimentary drumming back in the archives from our appreciation of Frederick Fennell. 30 July - Decorating with Ordnance  I was detailed to clean out the fridge in the Museum's Fellows' Lounge today, and so came across this handsome and thought-provoking arrangement laid out on the lounge's woodstove. In the rear, from the left, an Mk-II pineapple grenade, a painted iron dove, and an M69 grenade - both grenades are inert practice types. In front, three wonderful Syroco objets, recent donations from a generous Friend of the Museum - a tank, a howitzer pen holder, and a Bantam Reconnaissance Car, also a pen holder. It's a very striking arrangement - I wonder if Martha Stewart has considered the possibilities of decorating with militaria? link home 30 July - A Janus Achieves Greatness  Tim Janus, Competitive Eater. Photograph by Vinny Tennis. Thanks to Friend of the Museum Bobbie Gallagher for the news that another member of Clan Janus has achieved deathless fame. Tim Janus, the gentleman pictured above, is a rising star in the competitive eating community, where he's known as Eater X. Mr. Janus, 28, resides in New York and is a stock day trader in the workaday world. Now seeded number seven by the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), Mr. Janus has been eating competively since March 2004, when he took part in a corned beef and cabbage competitive eating event. Since then, he has also distinguished himself at chicken wing and cannoli competitive eating competitions. Mr. Janus, who is single, is shown in the above photograph at a recent shoofly pie competitive eating event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Shoofly pie, a delicacy of the Pennsylvania Dutch region, is a sweet, sticky preparation of molasses - I can down, at most, half a slice. Mr. Janus consumed six pounds of the stuff in eight minutes in 95 degree heat. Mr. Janus will be competing for a $40000 purse in the Alka-Seltzer U.S. Open of Competitive Eating in Las Vegas, which ends today - watch it on ESPN (8-9 PM, eastern time). Congratulations to Tim Janus for his victory, and thanks also to Marty Crisp of the Lancaster Sunday News, who wrote the excellent article from which this précis was drawn. link home 29 July - A Song in the Dorian Mode Here's a song (streaming Real Audio format) I just can't get out of my head - Flérida para mi dulce y sabrosa, performed by Ex Umbris from their excellent album Chacona: Renaissance Spain in the Age of Empire. Two shepherds, Tirreno and Alcino, sing of the charms of their sweeties, Flérida and Filis: Flérida para mi dulce y sabrosaAnd in English - Flerida is sweeter and more delicious to me, It is very beautiful, no? It's sung by Paul Shipper, bass, who also plays the baroque guitar, and Grant Herreid, tenor and vihuela de mano. Tom Zajac played the bagpipes. Also heard: renaissance violin and harps. Myself, I could go for a version with voices, guitar, vihuelas harps and violin only, but I do understand that the pipes are required for a peasant love song. The album is on the Dorian label, my favorite classical label for lo these many years - it's known for immaculatly recorded performances of lesser-known repertory by imaginative musicians - no soapy crossovers or weary warhorses here. In addition to Ex Umbris, I have on my shelf Dorian CDS by the Baltimore Consort, La Rondinella, Hesperus, Chatham Baroque, and the Terra Nova Consort. Among the talented musicians is Friend of the Museum and neighbor Alice Kosloski of La Rondinella, and formerly of the Baltimore Consort. Sad news about Dorian, though: it's out of business, another victim, I guess, of the contraction of classical music and the recording industry. I dread the silence to come. One melancholy bit of good news, though - Daedalus Books has a bunch of Dorian CDs for sale at bargain prices. Let us feast while we may (sob...). link home 27 July - Memory Stick Repatriation Project Update Friend of the Museum Melissa Keiser, Chief Photo Archivist at our sister museum, The National Air and Space Museum, noticed that several of the young ladies pictured in the images on the lost Sony Memory Stick are wearing Goucher College lanyards. What an eye she has! It's most visible in this shot. We are attempting to contact Goucher College, which is in Baltimore. Gus has volunteered to roam the campus looking for the stick's owner; he really just wants to go eat crabcakes and deep-fried porkchops at the Lexington Market. link home 26 July - The FDR Museum, Sandy Spring, Maryland  I contacted Mr. Delmas P. Wood, Jr. after his appearance as Franklin Roosevelt at Washington Grove's Fourth of July celebration, and he was kind enough to invite us to visit his private FDR Museum in nearby Sandy Spring, Maryland. We were finally able to come by last Sunday - had a fine time.  Delmas P. Wood, Jr. and Friend Private museums used to be a regular feature of the American landscape; I remember visiting little mom and pop Civil War museums as a kid during visits to battlefields. They're mainly gone, now. Now there are just behemoths of higher learning like the Smithsonian and the Janus Museum. Oh - but when in Baltimore, make sure you visit the American Dime Museum - fabulous!  A replica of FDR's office - I think at Hyde Park. Mr. Wood has collected many FDR souvenirs; some artifacts, like the wheelchair in the picture, are replicas. My favorite artifact, genuine, is...  ... the dog bed of Fala, Roosevelt's Scottish terrier. Mr. Wood told us the exciting tale of acquiring it in a brisk bidding war on eBay.  An assortment of FDR-style hats, except for the cowboy hat. Gus should've come with us, since Gus likes hats. If you're interested in visiting the FDR Museum, contact Mr. Wood. link home 26 July - Cat-Related Anniversary  Max (left) and Maxine, the Janus Museum's Museum Cats Max and Maxine, the Janus Museum's Museum Cats, have been with us for two years now. To mark the occasion, the Curator has granted them tenure; I hadn't realized that until now they had been merely the Adjunct Museum Cats. Well, just so it doesn't go to their heads. Above, waiting by the door of the carriage house kitchen. link home 24 July - The Culinary Arts  I tried making beer can chicken last evening - one inserts an open can of beer up where the sun don't shine on a chicken, and then one grills the sucker standing up, looking strangely dignified. It was all right, but I couldn't tell that the beer had made much of a difference. I used Stroh's. link home 24 July - Kittens of Washington Grove  Meet Spunk, one of Cat Abby's kittens, up on 6th Avenue. Spunk's interests are eating, sleeping, mauling his littermates, and looking very cute. link home 23 July - Speak, Memory Stick  I found a Sony Memory Stick while walking across the Mall in DC a couple of weeks ago - it took a while to find a friend who had a card reader for it, but I've finally burned the images from the stick onto a CD; the picture above of the nice young ladies making curious gestures is one of the shots - here's a selection of other images from the card. The owner of the card seems to have been on a school trip to Baltimore and Washington from late June to early July; looks like she had fun, especially considering a number of snaps I decided not to reproduce here. Did you lose the card? Let me know and I'll get it back to you. Other blogs, please copy - we may be on to an exciting, far-reaching internet lost-and-found experience, here. link home 15 July - Cats of Washington Grove  This is Oscar, who lives over on Grove Avenue. Nice guy. link home 15 July - Recent Haberdashery Acquisition  Gus, the Museum's deferred maintenance man, models his latest hat purchase with the Historic Cottage in the background. As reported previously on these pages, Gus likes hats. Surprisingly, I think he looks fairly distinguished in this model; rather like a sack race runner-up at the Absinthe Addicts Annual Picnic. Usually, he just looks weird. And in further hat news, Boing Boing reports the rediscovery of the lost art of Chapeaugraphy. It looks delightful; must attempt to keep it from Gus. Check out the always interesting Ramage's new blog, Ramage's Marginalia - fascinating stuff. link home 14 July - Wonders of History  The Great Pyramid of Washington Grove, Maryland. At least 3500 years old, the Great Pyramid was built by the mysterious pre-Columbian Groveite civilization. Studied by Janus Museum scholars for many years, the Great Pyramid may soon yield up its secrets, if we can persuade the Discovery Channel to pony up for an expensive documentary. And a generous grant wouldn't hurt, neither.  An aerial view of the Great Pyramid. To the rear of the Great Pyramid is the magnificent grave barrow. Who knows what riches lie concealed under the tumulus, and all? Tell the Discovery Channel to get a move on, and we'll all find out. Something for Bastille Day, but not Ça Ira again. How about Boum, sung by Charles Trenet (Real Audio)? C'est catchy! link home 12 July - Continuing Belated July 4 Coverage  Washington Grove, Maryland features a costume contest as part of our Fourth of July festivities. Here are the Casey Meadow Muses in full Pre-Raphaelite mode; the Casey fields are a beautiful open tract, perfect for dog-running, now tragically slated for development.  Here is Gus, in the fullness of his pride, ready to fire his usual feu de joie after the traditional flag-raising. Remember, he had spent a good deal (for him) of effort in preparing his musket for firing. But hubris is inevitably followed by nemesis:  Picture 1 - Gus fires - click! Nothing happens! Not even a flash in the pan! Picture 2 - Gus cocks his piece again. Not shown; Gus attempting to fire again, failing, cocking again, adding a little more powder to the pan, cursing under his breath, and breathing hard. Repeat four times as the crowd looks away in embarrassment. Picture 3 - Gus retires in shame - how we larfed! It took a couple of beers and a couple of grilled Italian sausages to bring Gus back to his normal state of idiot cheerfulness. link home 11 July - Panda Chat Even though the Janus Museum is not affiliated with the National Zoo, for some reason there's still a great deal of interest in the Zoo's newborn panda among our visitors. Kind of lucrative, too - we hurriedly trucked in a vulgar assortment of gimcrack panda souvenirs to take advantage of the blessed event. Overheard this afternoon in one of the exhibit halls: "Dear, did you hear that the baby panda's the size of a stick of butter?"link home 9 July - Fashions of the Glorious Fourth  Continuing our delayed coverage of the Washington Grove Fourth of July celebration, we present this superb montage of some of the striking fashion statements on view at the community breakfast. link home 9 July - Belated Fourth of July Coverage  I'm late posting documentation from Washington Grove's Fourth of July festivities; I plead extenuating circumstances, mostly involving dealing with various crises concerning the Museum's forthcoming publication. The celebrations began with a community breakfast over on Grove Avenue. President Roosevelt came! He was looking remarkably well for his age, possibly because he was portrayed by a gent named Delmas P. Wood, Jr., founder of an FDR Museum in Sandy Spring, Maryland:  He gave an excellent speech to great applause. It combined the famous "Fala speech" with the exciting news that a squadron of P-38 Lightnings had shot down Admiral Yamamoto! How we cheered!   The gent on the right may be portraying FDR's friend Harry Hopkins, maybe.  After the speech and a bit of circulating among the voters, FDR drove off, presumably to glory. More thrilling coverage of the day's events, including The Humiliation of Gus, later. link home 9 July - Arboreal Tragedy on Chestnut Avenue  Heavy rains from tropical storm Cindy brought down this fine old tree, possibly a chestnut, over on Chestnut Avenue. When I arrived on the scene, a small naked child was playing in its branches, like a tree-dwelling Water Baby. link home 5 July - Squidless in DC Friend of the Museum Mario Rups sent us this troubling news story from Natural History News, the in-house publication of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum: The Museum's Giant Squids have departed to MSC [Museum Support Center, Suitland, Maryland] for safekeeping, while the remainder of exhibitry is sent on loan to the Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida. The exhibit was closed in preparation for the Oceans Hall renovation.As a courtesy to a sister institution, the Janus Museum has offered the loan of a pound bag of Trader Joe's delicious frozen calamari rings, so that the Smithsonian shouldn't be totally squidless. link home 4 July - The Great Race Here's a fine song commemorating the epic race between Ten Broeck and Miss Mollie, which took place on the Fourth of July, 1878, at Churchill Downs (streaming Real Audio). It's performed by the great Mike Seeger, from Fresh Old Time String Band Music, which appears, tragically, to be out of print. Will post some snaps from Washington Grove's festive Fourth celebration later, after I recover from the Museum staff picnic. 3 July - Spotted at the HSTRL  Friend of the Museum Anonymous Spotter penetrated security at the famed High Speed Triumph Research Laboratory Annex near Myersville, Maryland to get this shot of "Old Reliable" and to contribute this report: TR3 TS 56882 L was spotted in the High Speed Triumph Research Laboratory on Sunday. It was evidently undergoing routine maintenance by the laboratory staff. Note rare but original overall Powder Blue paint scheme and complete lack of identifying insignia.We have, as yet, no comment from Dr. John Herrara, chief of the lab. UPDATE - We now have this statement from Dr. John Herrera: I can neither confirm nor deny the existance or non existance of any vehicle in the HSTRL. link home 3 July - A Figure of Speech Illustrated  The above photograph is a rare example of an actual flash in the pan, contributed by Friend of the Museum Winthrop P. of the Washington Grove Pacer Farm. Gus is checking out his musket prior to tomorrow's festivities in Washington Grove - he traditionally fires a salute during the flag-raising ceremony prior to the town parade. Gus has loaded black powder in the musket's pan, where it's been ignited by sparks from the musket flint striking the steel, or frizzen. Had there been actual powder in the barrel, fire from the pan would have traveled through the touchhole, where it would have ignited the main charge - or not, since Gus is notorious for misfires on the actual celebratory occasion - mere flashes in the pan, as it were. This year, though, with a new flint and careful touchhole reamings, Gus is quietly confident. link home 1 July - War of the Worlds Review Our maintenance man, Gus Norbeck, took the afternoon off to see the new version of War of the Worlds. Here's his review - spoiler alert: If lightning strikes the same spot twenty-six times, don't go stare at the spot. link home 1 July - Justrevenge, Toothy Crocodiles, and the Brave Saileros We've received another thoughtful communication from Emerson Chu, our Hong Kong airship correspondent: Making double sure the Iraq question is solved water tight and away The unique spelling and Yoda-like syntax is Emerson's own. Not much about airships in this note - or in any of his recent messages, either. The Yamato is clearly on his mind, though - he included a copy of a long article on the doomed battleship - fascinating, I'm sure; but it was in Japanese, which I'm not familiar with. link home |
