SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter launched on June 8, 1958. Until 1971 she was the largest ship on the Great Lakes.Although she had reported having some difficulties during a gale on Lake Superior, the Fitzgerald sank suddenly on November 10, 1975 in 530 feet (160 m) of water without sending any distress signals. All 29 hands in the crew perished, presumably by drowning...
Random (cool) Fact of the Day #219
Writing a Blog the West Elm Way…
Last night I took a loft tour. Everyone living in a lovely loft community opened their doors to show off what they’ve done with their space. It was a lot of brick, a bit of granite, and way too much West Elm. For those who haven’t been introduced, chapters 3-17 of the “How to Live in a Loft” handbook seem to require purchasing large amounts of hip, modern design from the...
RockGeek Fact of the Day #2743
Today would have been Ike Turner’s 78th birthday. Credited with writing the first rock ‘n’ roll song ever (Rocket 88), he also denied having ever been legally married to Tina Turner. Upon his death, and after years of obvious estrangement, Turner issued a brief statement through a spokesperson which said, “Tina hasn’t had any contact with Ike in more than 30 years...
Can You Survive on $311.9 million per Quarter?
Odds are you didn’t read a newspaper this morning. In fact, newspaper readership is down roughly 20% this year alone. Daily circulation of American newspapers peaked in 1984 and dropped 13% to 55.2 million copies by 2003, according to the Newspaper Association of America. At the same time, advertising revenue (with adjustments for inflation) hasn’t budged either. [i] In essence...
Happy Halloween from Mr. Paul Lynde (!!!)
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special was a Halloween-themed television special starring Paul Lynde whose first (and only) broadcast was October 29, 1976 on ABC. It featured guest stars Margaret Hamilton as The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, Billie Hayes as Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf, Tim Conway from The Carol Burnett Show, Roz Kelly from Happy Days, Florence Henderson from The...
Marketing Triage
A confession: I like random words. Somehow, as we take our daily conversation down to 140 character tweets and colorful abbreviations (wtf!) we lose track of the power and majesty of choosing the exact, right word. That word for today is triage. Most commonly associated with emergency rooms and battlefield hospitals, triage is a process for sorting the sick or injured based upon their need or...
RockGeek Fact of the Day #0704
Oh Bob ….
Like many music industry types, I read the Lefsetz Letter. And again, like many, I often think old Bob is just a cranky, washed-up, old-school record label type guy. Case in point: he recently shredded a performance by Mika. His complaint was that under all the lights and staging, the entire show was played off a hard drive: Bob writes: We’re fucked. I was standing in the back of the...
Picture of the Day: The Rat
Gone for nearly a decade, The Rat(hskellar) in Kenmore Square (Boston) was the dingy, local launchpad for all kinds of bands. A couple of note: The Police, The Talking Heads, and the Ramones. Take a little walk down memory lane, and remember the feeling of your lungs collapsing from the thick smoke while your feet stuck to the floor…