WOAS news and history
In Part 1, we asked whether Alexander Graham Bell or Thomas Alva Edison should be given credit for having the most profound effect on our modern world. Having made the case for Bell, it is now time to examine the evidence for the fabled Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Alva Edison, to wear the […]
Speaking strictly from our point of view in the year 2021, given all of the amazing devices we have (literally) at our fingertips, which of the two men mentioned in the title above deserves the highest accolades for influencing our world? Alexander Graham Bell or Thomas Alva Edison? Perhaps I can help you make a […]
In the space of one week in early November 2021, two albums landed in my mailbox to remind me it was time to do a good old fashioned album review column. Regular readers of this column would no doubt agree the range of topics covered here is ‘eclectic’, but in the early days, the […]
We will begin this month’s tour of astronomical happenings with the planets visible in the south-southwest and southwestern sky at dusk. The brightest is Venus (magnitude – 4.7 on Dec 1 and -4.4 Dec 31) and located closest to the horizon to the lower right of Jupiter (mag. -4.7) and Saturn (mag. +1.5). All […]
The old saw, ‘there are no accidents,’ came from . . . whom? We all seem to use this phrase but have you ever wondered where it came from? Famous quotes tend to get corrupted, rearranged, and jumbled all the time (see Yogi Bera) with no apologies offered to whomever originated them. Oddly enough, the […]
Could it be that I am slipping? Scanning the FTV titles for the past ten months, I realized the entire year was about to pass without me writing about a drummer! How could this be? It isn’t for lack of drummers out there to write about. It is more a case of working through a […]
In one of the earlier segments of The Simpsons Tree House of Horrors, they do an extremely funny lampooning of The Shining (the Jack Nicholson version, only here called The Shinning). After Marge discovers Homer’s writing consists of nothing more sinister than, “Feeling fine,” she expresses cautious optimism about the situation. A sudden flash […]
We recently received a CD entitled Brewed In Buffalo by a guitar / organ / drum trio called Organ Fairchild. I am betting the title might give you a hint as to where they hail from. It only took a few emails (one with an attached teaser track) sent by guitarist Dave Ruch to […]
We begin our look at November with Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Venus continues to dominate the SW sky at dusk. With the period of twilight lengthening throughout the fall, Venus will appear 3 degrees higher by the end of the month with a setting time that will average about 2.6 hours after sunset. Viewed […]
The crew at the West Coast Bureau sent me a copy of one of William L. Sullivan’s numerous books about hiking the great Oregonian out-of-doors. To best describe Sullivan’s passion for the topic of hiking in the wilderness, let me offer the following summary from the back cover of his 1988 opus Listening for […]