Today I learned that Jayne Mansfield could play the violin, and once performed Concerto No. 6 in A Minor on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Today I learned more about the size of vehicles and their rate of deadliness. In the wake of the oil crisis of the 1970s, cars were downsized, with the average car shedding 1,000 lb. and the average truck 500 lb. That shift towards smaller cars boosted fatalities on the road by a lot. The came the rise of the SUVs. Between 1990 and 2005, the average weight of a new car went from 3,400 lb. to nearly 4,100 lb. Those in the larger cars are protected, but at a cost to those in smaller cars. Too Much of a Good Thing
Today I learned that a new sculpture of Queen Elizabeth, clad in headscarf, tartan skirt and quilted vest, recently unveiled in Antrim Castle Gardens in Northern Ireland, is receiving a lot of negative criticism online: Is the new statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II really that ... bad?
Today I learned that more than 70 countries are holding elections this year, representing more than half of the world's population.
Yes, but of those 70 countries, how many are genuinely democratic and how many are simply holding elections as a fig leaf to hide their leaders' naked grab for power? (Think of Putin and Russia's "democratic" elections).
Today, while helping out another department with their paperwork backlog, I learned that someone I've been keeping an eye on has been doing things they shouldn't, but nobody outside my department realised there was an issue because there has been delaying and fudging of paperwork. Sometimes it helps to have one's fingers in a few pies. Or to have other people's fingers in your pie, perhaps?
Today I learned that Batman and The Penguin ran against one another for mayor of Gotham City. In their debate, The Penguin showed his politician chops - "As crooked as a warped shillelagh."
Lol—70's style wood paneling, just one camera, and only the camera operator, no other crew on hand apparently. Looks like a shoestring budget local-access tv production. Plus, the projection the Penguin engages in! Everything he said about Batman applied to him except he doesn't somersault. Oh, and the fact that one of them is actually evil and one a good guy.
Or the really old elf from Santa Claus: The Movie. Thing I learned: there's (debatably) such a thing as Continuous Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's an anxiety disorder in the vein of PTSD and C-PTSD, but stemming from past, ongoing and likely future exposure to life threatening situations, rather than events that are concluded.
LOL! I think I saw one episode where The Batman and The Penguin engage in a surfing contest ... only Batman is pursued by an Incredibly Fake Shark. So he reaches into his BatBelt, and pulls out his (wait for it) shark repellent. Crazy Prepared, The Batman is. Then Batman comes back to land, and for no reason at all, everybody dances some kind of strange 60s dance. And, of course ... POW! ZOT! KAZOW! Old-style Batman was great. Kind of strange, and sometimes melodramatic, but much funnier than the dark, brooding Batman we've had since the early 2000s. "Woe is me. I am Darkness." Etc.
Yeaah, it was funny and kind of cool in a weird way, but it damaged the whole concept of Batman so badly that they had to make him much darker in the comics after that to try to get rid of the taste of the Adam West version. For a decade or two he was much better in the comic books, until Frank Miller did The Dark Knight Returns. That was an older, grizzled, done-with-it-all batman, who if I remember right no longer cared if he killed bad guys or not (which actually brings him back to his original roots, when he used to use a tommygun). But unfortunatly now every time DC tries to make a Batman movie they go all dark and brooding and nothing else and make him pretty unappealing. It's kind of how they do all their characters now, except in the first Wonder Woman movie. I think honestly my favorite movie Batman is still Michael Keaton. There was a sense of humar and a sweetness to the movie and the character that's been missing ever since. Leave it to Tim Burton to get that right (though the second movie was way better than the first).
Today I learned that Cinnamon the Capybara, who was on the loose after escaping from her Shropshire zoo, has been found after being spotted by a drone in a field about 200 m from her home. "Living her best life on the run"
I was wondering why was the Adam West version was so camp, but then I googled it and found this on Quora: Why was the Adam West Batman series made to be so camp? The short answer is: "That’s just what Batman comics were like during the Silver Age." But if you search the Quora page for that phrase, you'll find a fairly good explanation. Yes, of course you have to be in the mood for broad comedy. After all, this is the same era that brought us "My Favorite Martian", "Bewitched", "Hogan's Heroes", "Get Smart" etc. But there were still lots of fun elements to the show - for instance: 1. Everything Batman used was preceded by the word "Bat". Bat phone. Bat computer. Bat poles. Bat signal. 2. The fight scenes with the cartoon captions - POW! WHACK! SOCKO! 2. The spin with the Bat symbol between scenes. 3. “Holy _______ (fill in the blank), Batman!” 4. The theme song is still memorable even if it has only one word in it. "Na na na na na na na na, Batman!" 5. The villains. And the actors that played the villains were the big names of the day. Cesar Romero, Julie Newmar, Vincent Price, Otto Preminger. 6. And, of course, the cliffhanger teases. Is this the end of the Dynamic Duo? Tune in tomorrow! Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel! I have two questions about this: 1. If Batman doesn't care, why should the audience? 2. A "Done-with-it-all" Batman sounds very much like a noir anti-hero (like Philip Marlowe). Is that what you mean? Yeah, if your protagonist is nothing but "dark and brooding" ... then what's the difference between that and that subculture that used to be so popular, with wearing studs and spikes on your black clothes, lots of rings in various places, wearing black finger-polish and black lace, and being overly sensitive and full of angst? *shrug* I can't remember if it was goths, but obviously not all goths are like that. I'm only thinking of the ones who take it to extremes. "Oh, woe. The world is pain and suffering!" Etc. If your hero is brooding, but still has a sense of humour (and even snark), then he's closer to noir anti-heroes like Phil Marlowe or Sam Spade. If he's both brooding and tough-and-silent (i.e. a closed oyster), then he's more like The Continental Op or Ned Beaumont. Which one would you like him to be?
ACK-tually, the surfing episode was against the Joker. Another reason for a more light hearted Batman was the Comics Code Authority, which started in the 50s and was was against comics dealing with anything too serious or heavy, out of fear it was causing juvenile delinquency. It's why the sixties and seventies versions of Batman have stories that are way more out-there as opposed to the more penny-dreadful feel of his original depictions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority
