I'm curious

[knitwit45]

Just for YOU, Nancy . . .

shazam.

Ok, since when did you start making commercials, Klonnie???

[klondike]

(Actually, I haven't. I'm Welsh. We have an indecipherable enough language and culture without parading around in skirts, thank you! )

Ha, ha, hawwww!
That "skirt" bait won't work, Bryce, cause I know ya don't mean it!! {insert sly wink + loud razzberry}
And who says Welsh, or as natives call it Cymraeg, is indecipherable? I'm still somewhat conversant in shirtsleeve Welsh pidgin, and can ken the gist of most Medieval Welsh mottoes & slogans. You might be intrigued to read that my Scots forebearers who off-whalered in New Bedford were raised in Northwest Wales, where their father had resettled after moving from the Mull of Kintyre following the Culloden Massacre.
Then again, maybe you wouldn't.
But likely you would be intrigued to know that, just as with their Irish cousins, the modern-day Welsh folk, in both North America & the UK, have passionately embraced the Celtic identity of wearing kilts, and since right around the late 40's, tartans have been designed, submitted & accepted for over 30 Welsh family names, and for over 50 towns, cities, cantrefs & sporting teams from throughout the countryside of Wales.
You should hit a search engine for kilt and/or tartan sites (House of Tartan is a great one!), check out all the lovely Welsh tartans available, show off your sense of pride for your ancestors . . be proud to be a Son of the Great Red Dragon!
Maybe they'll be so impressed that they'll whisper some winning lottery numbers to ye in yer sleep!

[ChiO]

Alison,

Ahem...do you have any further questions regarding U.S. politics or has Klondike now answered them all?

[klondike]

Actually, I was under the impression that my posts on the last 2 pages were in response to remarks by a handful of folks that didn't include Alison, nor involve topics of US politics.
But you are likely right; I've been doing more holding forth than taking in, and that's never wise in the long run for me.
So consider me officially piped down.

[knitwit45]

Since this is the "I'm Curious" thread, here's one for our PIPED DOWN friend, the Klon. Does that phrase have anything to do with bagpipes, or is it a Naval Term??? Hollis, old salt, PIPE UP...

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm fine, I'm enjoying the thread. I'll have a goodthink about another questions, in the meantime Nancy has asked a good question

[jdb1]

I have a question for you, Alison, American to Brit: what is/are "beef olives?" I came across it in an English mystery I'm now reading -- the mother tells the heroine that that's what's for dinner.

[charliechaplinfan]

A beef olive is a piece of lean steak which is beaten and rolled around some stuffing. No olive involved. They are very nice though.

I want to ask about Broadway. Is it relatively untouched since last century or are the original buildings few and far between?

[jdb1]

A beef olive is a piece of lean steak which is beaten and rolled around some stuffing. No olive involved. They are very nice though.

I want to ask about Broadway. Is it relatively untouched since last century or are the original buildings few and far between?

Surely you've seen Times Square on Broadway in movies and on television lately. It now looks sort of Las Vegas-y, or maybe like the Ginza in Tokyo. It seems that the tourists like it, but most native New Yorkers are appalled at the overlit commercialism of it. There are quite a few new buildings, but most of it is still comprised of buildings built at the turn of the 20th Century, or even earlier. However, with all the billboards, lights and hoo-ha there now, you really can't see the nice older structures.

Here's a video from YouTube - a car traveling south on Broadway from Columbus Circle (59th Street) to Times Square (42nd Street). As bright as it looks here, it's 10 times moreso in person.
[youtube][/youtube]

[charliechaplinfan]

My goodness, it seems so overwhelming and very like Las Vegas. Thank you for posting, I found it interesting.

[Hollis]

Nancy,

It is in fact a naval term which refers to the sounding of a boatswain's whistle to announce the arrival or departure of high ranking officers. It's also traditional to sound the whistle after a change of command to announce the former skipper's leaving. During WWII there were many junior officers serving as the CO or XO (executive officer) of blue water Navy ships. They would have been accorded the same respect.

[charliechaplinfan]

OK, I have another thought and it involves me using my not brilliant knowledge of the population of the United States. It has struck me whilst watching movies over the last few days that many of the big male stars, especially from the thirties were from the central part of the US. My examples being Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Fred Astaire,Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, James Dean. Is there a reason for this? I'm thinking that the largest populations is located on the coasts, Florida and Texas.

Somebody blow my theory out of the water.

[MissGoddess]

I'm interested in what others have to say about your question, too, CCFan. I imagine economics might
possibly have been behind it (the Depression hit the rural communities pretty hard), as well as the fact that
then, as now, the work is to be found either in NYC or Hollywood so anyone interested in film or theater, no matter
where they are from, eventually lands there.

I always wondered about how this translated on the screen, myself. I know that there was definitely a bigger
rural section of the movie going audience back in the thirties, so Wayne and other cowboy stars, whether
westerners or midwesterners themselves, could count on building a sizeable fan base on westerns and such.
Such types would have been attracted by the comparatively high wages, like Coop who became a stunt rider.

I wonder if that appeal carried over to the sort of soild "Middle America" types that Fonda, Stewart, et al projected.
Hollywood certainly gravitated to types more back then, and anyone from the South, midwest or west would have a
chance of appealing to sizable audience, even as urban characters and types would attract the mid-Atlantic segment.

It puts me in mind of William Wellman's A Star is Born, depicting a middel western Janet Gaynor pining
to get away from her stifling rural existence. In harsh times especially, I bet lots of young people dreamed
of going to the big cities or to Hollywood's dream factory.

[ChiO]

Did you consider the possibility that Midwestern men are just more talented, appealing and generally just-all-round gooder?

Why, within a 15-20 minute drive from were I was raised, Steve McQueen and Marjorie Main grew up (James Dean was quite a bit further up the road apiece).

Your Honor, I rest my case.

[charliechaplinfan]

Did you consider the possibility that Midwestern men are just more talented, appealing and generally just-all-round gooder?

Why, within a 15-20 minute drive from were I was raised, Steve McQueen and Marjorie Main grew up (James Dean was quite a bit further up the road apiece).

Your Honor, I rest my case.

Well I can't possibly say

I remember particularly Clark Gable's biography, his childhood was crushingly poor, perhaps the poorest of all the male stars that spring to mind. I think too that never left him, he knew how lucky he was. John Wayne and Gary Cooper were of slightly better prospects, James Stewart was the son of a shopkeeper. Fred Astaire, I think he was even further up the social scale. So they drifted to Hollywood from different sections of society, possibly trying their hand at broadway first.

Others I can think of off the top of my head are Carole Lombard, Judy Garland, Buster Keaton, Jean Harlow, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks, Louise Brooks, Ginger Rogers, the list goes on.

I think your reckoning is good Miss Goddess, the poverty stokes the dreams and desires and the lucky ones then transfer well to the mid west audiences and that stokes the dreams all over again.