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We’re a tad late in publishing this week’s show, but we think it’s worth it: we’ve got Jon Gabriel sitting in for Rob Long, the great Thomas Sowell in the first segment to discuss the reissue of his classic book Discrimination and Disparities as well as the rise of socialism, reparations, and more. Next up, the also great Andrew C. McCarthy, who stops by to discuss his famous recipe for banana pancakes. No, of course he’s here to talk about the Mueller Report — what it means, when we’ll see it, how much of it we’ll see, and who’s going to look foolish when we do see it. Also, the media and Mueller, and no flipping — it’s another edition of What Are You Watching?
Music from this week’s episode: Sweet Soul Music by Arthur Conley
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Well that raises another issue too. I read a lot about how studies supposedly “control” for one thing or another, and mostly it sounds like BS. And even if you could somehow “control” for family school attendance, please explain how you then “control” for the QUALITY of the schools attended, and the teachers who happen to be there at the time, perhaps the school BUDGETS as well, and how the money is spent!…
continued…
In any event, if – for example – good parenting means spending say an hour with a child helping with homework etc, if you have 2 or 3 or 4 kids that’s attainable. If you have 8 or 10 or 12 kids, there’s smply not enough time in the day for that along with everything else.
If anyone has come up with a way to “control” for the number of hours in a day, I’d like to know about it. So I can call that BS too.
Yes, but the point is that it’s very unfair to compare shows like that in terms of quality/writing/whatever with US shows that might have 5 or 6 times that number of episodes per season/year.
And too, if there were nothing else to see/do/watch in the meantime, how happy would you be with only getting FOUR of those episodes PER YEAR? I mean, if you saw one per week, it would last you one month. And then what? You watch each one again, ELEVEN MORE TIMES, until the NEXT four come out?
If someone has “discovered” these shows more recently, being able to “binge” on 32 episodes that came out over a period of EIGHT YEARS (“Vera”) might seem wonderful. But what happens when you’re all caught up, and you have to wait a YEAR for the next FOUR EPISODES???
There’s the primary difference between US and U.K. television: We think in seasons, they think in series.
American television was modeled after radio where they did anywhere from 26 to 36 weeks per season. By the mid-60s the standard was 26 and orders of freshmen shows were done in increments of 13. In the latter part of that decade it was said that if the government really wanted to end the Vietnam War they should put it on ABC and it would be canceled in 13 weeks.
(And because no joke is really new, just reworked, during WWII some wag at Paramount scrawled on one of the walls “In case of air raid head to RKO – they haven’t had a hit in years!”)
Yes, but a “series” of episodes for them is basically the same as a “season” for us. But another REAL difference is that there are cases – especially in the past – where there might be a year or more with NO episodes of a show, and then they do another “series” (or season) of maybe 4 or 6 episodes, and then wait a few more YEARS with NONE… In terms of Sci-Fi, which I’m the most familiar with, both Dr Who and Red Dwarf have done that. I just don’t think the US audience would be willing to wait maybe FOUR YEARS or even longer, between “series”-es of maybe FOUR or SIX episodes. The biggest example might be Red Dwarf, for which the THREE EPISODES of “series” 9 came TEN YEARS after the EIGHT episodes of “series” 8.
In situations like that, there’s less concern for “can we think of a few more stories in FOUR or TEN YEARS?” The question becomes are “Are the cast members still alive?” and even “Are the people who used to watch us, still alive?”
Bruford!
Peter’s question about education at 13:00 was perfect. I don’t see how conservatives and libertarians can’t get any traction unless someone does something about that. I also think a lot of people that are conservative don’t even care if their kids take any classes in that stuff or in that manner.
Steve “Machine Gun” Smith, as Steve Perry once referred to him, on Journey’s live album, Captured.
Yes, that was off the top of my head. My shame is complete.
Hey, sorry, no shame intended! If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, Rush isn’t for everybody. Heard every “Mickey Mouse on helium” joke imaginable, and only thing worse: some Rush fans. :-/ You haven’t lived until one screams in your ear that Neil Peart was wrong about his own equipment in an article.
Steve Smith. Hey may be my Sowell, musician-wise. Not being hyperbolic, perhaps one of the greatest ambassadors of American music, alive. (History of US Beat is valuable document.) Lucky to do several interviews with him, even go to the old Novato, CA home. Had a room with kits stacked up: Evolution, Departure, Captured, Escape…was a lucky former life.
“Thursday!” Of course. I stand happily corrected. And Allam strikes me as a kind of genius. He underplays every scene, but he manages to make his character unforgettable even so.
At 19:00 they were talking about human and financial capital. This is a great article on how that all works.
It’s short.
I was never a fan of Rush, but I can get exhausted just watching Clement Burke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU3-lS_Gryk
Good Lord, how much Gatorade must he need after that?
Why do the British like murdering each other so much?
Well that is only 4 or 6 murders per year, right? Or per series/show, anyway.
Yes! And I’d say there’s actually reason to be hopeful there. I’m finishing up my history degree right now, and my take on the students is that they’re bored with professors who mistakenly believe that these kids are unaware of the sordid elements of their country’s history. Like Mr. Robinson said, they’re smart; and you don’t even have to be in order to recognize when you’re being condescended to. I think the trick for conservatives is to develop the patience to deal with my generation’s historical ignorance and then make the argument that the economic liberty that the previous generations enjoyed is what brought them The Beatles, and Super Mario, and edible vegan food, etc.
I had a fantastic economics professor when I was at Loyola in New Orleans (they taught Austrian School – but I suppose that’s just to say, they taught economics ;). But on the first day of class, he showed us the ending of the Spike Lee movie, Do the right thing, and we spent the remainder of the class trying, unsuccessfully, to answer the question he put to us: Why did Mookie throw the trash can?
The guy made thinkers out of 200 or so progressive kids by appealing to their sense that they are righteous consumers… or at least that’s what I think he was trying to do.
Good for you. As long as it’s taught pretty fairly, this is just wonderful.
Again, good for you.
I don’t know if you know who Tom Woods is, but that guy is the most helpful and interesting guy around. History PhD, all Ivy League, and then pretty much an expert in Austrian economics as well. Murry Rothbard really liked the combination.
I am very worked up about these types of issues but there’s a limited audience for it. Kids should learn something worthwhile and that improves them from liberal arts or they shouldn’t be forced to take it. It makes me crazy. The whole system is polluted. It needs to be completely overhauled. Either this stuff develops your human capital and helps you learn about the world or don’t do it.
It’s become irritating for me as well. When I first went back to school I wanted to major in English Literature (I must have some unconscious desire to be poor), but when I got there I found out that practically the only thing these people saw in Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain was racism and sexism.
Thanks for the Tom Woods recommendation. I’ll give him a look.
Listened to most of this on my way to the airport on Saturday but only just caught up on the last ten minutes.
But, if anyone wants a suggestion for arguably the best ever British police drama then I would advocate Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren, which should be available on Netflix.
Don’t be put off by the seven ‘series’, they are usually two or three feature length episodes.
Although Helen Mirren was already quite well known this was very much her signature role before she went off to Hollywood. It is from the 1990s and has a real grit and realism with early roles for British talent such as David Thewliss (he was a professor in some of the Harry Potter films). Mirren’s character is obviously one of only a handful of woman in what was still very much a man’s world, but the feminist stuff is not of the crazy third (or is now fourth?) wave variety.
My husband and I have been watching “What’s My Line” for several months. It is great. The conversations back and forth are so funny. And one of the things we find amazing and amusing are the sudden leaps when one of the panel gets the “line” just of out of the blue.
Fred Allen was wonderful, so sad that he died. Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis – both so bright. Hal Block – funny and (for the times) a bit racy. And Bennett Cerf in his understated was also so funny and endearing.
BTW – don’t watch the first season, before they really figured out what worked. It is deadly. They had a scientist and a college professor on, presumably because they were “smart”. Unfortunately, they were awful as panelists.
Because of watching the show, I read Cerf’s At Random. Great book about his career and founding of Random House.
Also, discovered that Arlene Francis was quite a pioneer for women in various areas of broadcasting. And apparently there is now some thought that Doroth Kilgallen’s death was not an overdose or suicide, but might have been related to the investigative digging and reporting she was doing about the Kennedy assasination.
Another really good British mystery/police drama is/was Scott & Bailey. It ran from 2011-2016.
I realize time is short, but could you try to get someone to explain the downside and difficulties of a “hard” Brexit. Seems like a country that produced Isaac Newton (reformer of the English monetary system), Adam Smith, ruled a quarter of the planet, and proudly and confidently mispronounced words in other peoples’ languages (e.g. Ypres = “Wipers”) wouldn’t have much of a problem with it. Although I suppose it may be connected with the joke in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy about the easily intimidated bulldozer operator trying to demolish Arthur Dent’s house being a direct descendant of Genghis Khan.
Kilgallen was the subject of a biography by Lee Israel, the alcoholic forger portrayed in the movie Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which I saw recently.
I always enjoyed “My Partner, The Ghost.” :-)
aka “Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)”
The shortest possible answer: The downside of a ‘Hard Brexit’ would be that the political class would be off the EU gravy train with no way of getting back on.
You really can’t go wrong with the What’s My Line? shows from the fifties and early sixties. Well, as @eb said above, when they had Louis Untermeyer and the psychologist, Cod help us all. They liked to talk, but knew little about real people doing real jobs. Still, that was less than one season before it was fixed. As mentioned, John (Charles Patrick Croghan) Daly was a wonderful moderator. The panel was generally great. After Block insulted too many people and got disinvited back, they had Fred Allen and Steve Allen and then went to a guest fourth panelist or fill-ins when one of the three regulars were traveling. Many of the guest panelists were surprisingly good. Exceptions were some clowns who could not turn off the clowning: Groucho Marx and Victor Borge spring to mind.
The stand out for me was Dorothy Kilgallen. That woman was smart and knowledgeable.
Also, it was fun to see how the special celebrity guest would try to disguise the voice, often very recognizable voices.
Another exception was Wally Cox. Every time it was his turn, he got this deer-in-the-headlights look and ummmed and ahhhed until he finally gave up and passed to the next person. I think he was on only once.