Bruce's Smorsasborg

 By Bruce Shawkey As singer Nancy Griffith tells it, she learned there were Woolworth stores all over the United States, which inspired her song, Love at the Five and Dime. The so got me interested in Woolworths. We had one on the Square in Madison. I remember it well. It had a lunch counter in addition to the dry-good store. I used to shop there for Xmas presents. Found this book on the Internet which had a story authored by Dale Carnegie on the history of Woolworths. It is a true rags-to-riches story, reminiscent of the old Horatio Alger stories. Here it is, paraphrased below. By Dale Carnegie Every time you spend a nickel in one of Woolworth's five and ten cent stores, a part of your nickel finds its way eventually into the account of  Frank Winfield Woolworth (above). How did he make his millions? He started out poor. He lived on a farm up near Watertown, New York, and he was so hard up that he had to go barefooted six months out of the year. That poverty did big things fo...

By Bruce Shawkey I don't usually comment on politics, but this current climate calls for a post. What is happening today reminds me of the fear tactics of the McCarthy era in many ways: Scapegoating and fear-mongering: Both periods have seen public figures use groups as scapegoats to create fear and consolidate power, often based on unfounded claims. While McCarthy targeted communists, modern examples include focusing on groups like immigrants or minorities. Echoes of "Enemy Within" Rhetoric: McCarthy's accusations of internal government employees serving the Communist Party mirror contemporary concerns about a "deep state" or insidious forces working against the public good. Media Complicity: Some argue that, in both eras, portions of the media played a role in amplifying fear and misinformation. Attacks on Dissent: Historian Ellen Schrecker describes the suppression of dissent on university campuses during the Trump administration as "worse than McCar...

  The Dodo bird The dodo went extinct primarily because of human activity. Here’s a breakdown of the main reasons: 1. Habitat and Isolation The dodo was native to Mauritius, a remote island in the Indian Ocean. It evolved in isolation, with no natural predators, so it became flightless and lost its fear of humans. 2. Human Arrival (1598) When Dutch sailors arrived, they brought new animals and began settling the island. The dodo was easy to catch and kill for food, though it wasn’t considered especially tasty. 3. Invasive Species Humans brought rats, pigs, and monkeys, which ate dodo eggs from nests on the ground. These invasive animals reproduced quickly and devastated the dodo population. 4. Slow Reproduction The dodo likely laid only one egg per season, making it slow to recover from population losses. 5. Deforestation Settlers cleared forests for agriculture, destroying the dodo’s habitat. Extinction Timeline: First discovered: 1598 Last widely accepted sighting: 1662 Declared ...

 By Bruce Shawkey Found this catalog, circa 1919, from the Gibson Guitar Company, of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Gibson Guitar Corporation, founded by Orville Gibson, has a rich history rooted in innovation and craftsmanship, evolving from a mandolin-focused company to a dominant force in the guitar industry. From its early days in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to its current headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, Gibson has consistently shaped the sounds of music across genres. Most curious, at least to me, is their manufacture of mandolins. Here is a plate from that catalog: The catalog advertises a wide selection of mandolins, mandolas, msndo-cellos, mando-basses guitars, and harp-guitars, instruments virtually unknown today, with the exception of the mandolin. A mandolin orchestra, quite popular in the early 1900s, was an orchestra consisting primarily of instruments from the mandolin family of instruments, such as the mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass or mandolone. Some mand...

 By Bruce Shawkey When 45s and 33 rpms were king. These are from Cash Box magazine. Cashbox was published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Models by RCA Victor: Models by Decca:   By Guild:                                                                                                                                                  By Motorola: Misc. models: The golden age of 33 and 45 RPM records is generally considered to be the 1950s and 1960s. This era saw the 45 RPM format, introduced by RCA Victor in 1949, become the dominant mediu...

  DON’T MISTAKE YOUR VOCATION The safest plan, and the one most sure of success for the young man starting in life, is to select the vocation which is most congenial to his tastes. SELECT THE RIGHT LOCATION After securing the right vocation, you must be careful to select the proper location. You may have been cut out for a hotel keeper, yet, if you locate your hotel in a small village where there is no railroad communication or public travel, the location will be your ruin. AVOID DEBT Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt. There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is a slavish position to get in, yet we find many a young man, hardly out of his “teens,” running in debt. PERSEVERE  When a man is in the right path, he must persevere. I speak of this because there are some persons who are “born tired;” naturally lazy and possessing no self-reliance and no perseverance. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO IT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT Work at it, if necessary, ...