The Five Australian Football League games I attended.

This is likely of importance to very few people but it is something I think about every day. I am a fan of Australian rules football. It is my favorite sport. My fellow Americans are largely unaware that Australian rules football exists. It is neither American "grid iron" football, soccer, or rugby. It is a unique "code" of football. It is hugely popular in Australia where the sport has been played since the 1850s. 

In 2013 my wife and I had a wonderful trip to Japan and Australia. Our youngest son and family were stationed in Japan in the U.S. Air Force for three years. We visited them for six days, then spent six days in Australia, then four more days in Japan before returning to the U.S. 

While in Australia, we attended all five Australian Football League games held in Melbourne, Victoria, during the first weekend of August. Of the ten teams playing in Melbourne that round, nine of them are teams I like or at least respect. Those were among the happiest days of my life. 

On Friday we took the guided tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the MCG), an outdoor stadium that seats one hundred thousand people. Aussie rules football is played during Winter and cricket during Summer, so stadiums like this nationwide are in use year round. Friday evening we saw the North Melbourne Kangaroos beat the Geelong Cats at the Docklands, a stadium with a retractable roof that seats 55,000 people. The coaches of both teams were twins! 

On Saturday afternoon we saw the Richmond Tigers beat the Hawthorn Hawks at the MCG. Saturday evening we saw the Fremantle Dockers beat the Carlton Blues, again at the Docklands. The Dockers would play their first Grand Final (the Super Bowl equivalent) later that year. 

See highlights of Carlton V Frementle:   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIyOLFEI-5I

On Sunday, back to the Docklands again, we saw the Sydney Swans (that year's champions, which Aussies call "Premieres") beat the Western (Melbourne) Bulldogs. Then a quick commuter train ride to the MCG again to see the Collingwood Magpies (my favorite team) beat the Essendon Bombers for the second time that year, mostly under the lights after sunset.

See highlights of Collingwood Magpies V Essendon Bombers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21zFG10ajDw

That week, the Hawthorn Hawks were number one on the ladder, and the Geelong Cats were number two. In spite of the fact that both teams lost, they retained their ladder positions. The Grand Final that year, played in late September, pitted the Hawthorn Hawks versus the Fremantle Dockers. It would be the first of three in a row Grand Final wins for Hawthorn (2013, 2014, & 2015). 

The graphs seen here are screenshots from <  www.australianfootball.com >, a superb website, perhaps the best online resource that documents the games of Australian rules football played in its home country. Here, one can see which team members played at each game and how well they performed. Click on individual charts to enlarge.

 

 

 

The Beatles 45 rpm picture sleeve on Tollie Records

Here's my story about the "Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You" picture sleeve on Tolie/VeeJay: I was eleven years old when the Beatles became a hit here in the U. S. I really wanted the "Love Me Do" 45 with the picture sleeve. So, one cold and rainy Saturday I had my mom drive me around to find the record. She sat in the car while I went into four stores and came out empty handed. Her patience had run out and wanted to know why I couldn't find the record. I confessed the stores had the record but in the plain sleeve, not the picture sleeve. (We didn't used standardized terms like "picture sleeve" back then.) She blew her top and told me to go back in the store and buy the record with the plain sleeve. That evening I made my own picture sleeve by cutting out the faces of each Beatle from a wrapper of Beatles bubble gum cards and glued them onto the sleeve. Not what I wanted but I had made a unique creation.

Tim Tams No Longer Exported to the United States, Well, that's over with now. Don't panic!

 

Update on September 8, 2021: All indications are that World Market stores in the U.S. are again well-stocked with original milk chocolate Tim Tams: https://www.worldmarket.com/search?store=store245&q=Tim%20Tam&lang=en_US

 

OLD NEWS but worth leaving here:

 

 This sucks so godawful bad. No more Tim Tams. G'day, mate my arse.

In late 2019 a private equity firm named Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) acquired Arnott's, the Australian company that has made Tim Tam chocolate cookies since 1964.

Prior to this Arnott's was owned by the Campbell Soup company here in the U. S. It is very common for successful Australian companies to be bought by bigger American companies giving them lines of credit, tech, manufacturing, marketing, and management resources.

Holden automobiles = General Motors

Smith chips = Frito-Lay

Network Ten = CBS

Woolworth's = Safeway

etc.

Campbells spun-off Arnott's to KKR.

Private equity firms are notorious for sucking their acquisitions dry of cash, then selling off the company and leaving the employees to fend for themselves.

So, what's new at Arnott's?

All exporting of products (including Tim Tams) has ended. Everywhere, including the U. S.

Arnott's, under direction of their corporate overlords, are now issuing complaints to the two biggest supermarket chains in Australia, Woolworth's and Coles, that they are being charged too much for shelf space in their stores. So, watch the big Tim Tam end caps in the cookie/biscuit isle like we saw at a Woolies in Melbourne to come to an end.

Tim Tams can be ordered from foreign third party sellers on Amazon. The prices are ridiculous and customer reviews report receiving damaged, melted goop. A risky option.

 

I have received email replies on this matter from Arnott's (who were reluctant to say much), World Market (probably the most reliable U. S. retailer for Tim Tams), and Keebler, who were the U. S. distributor (owned by Campbell's).

 

For me, this means no more Tim Tams, especially during the AFL Grand Final in September.

Even Boris Johnson loves Tim Tams

Chronology of Arnott's takeover

another change of ownership 

 Update on September 8, 2021: All indications are that World Market stores in the U.S. are again well-stocked with original milk chocolate Tim Tams: https://www.worldmarket.com/search?q=Tim+Tam&search-button=&lang=en_US

A Golden Era of Broadcasting Lost To Reusable Tape

I've been heartbroken by this for years. When videotape started being used in 1958 it quickly became a popular means of prerecording television programs that previously were usually broadcast live. Using videotape, it eliminated the process of developing film, if used. It allowed post-production editing which made stage programs end on time and eliminate missed cues by actors/personalities, cameras, microphones, & lights. It also allowed recording programs at decent times of the day instead of any time the program was scheduled for broadcast. What turned out to be a problem was that videotape was reusable. So a lot of videotaped programs, especially throughout the 1960s, were erased and the videotape reels were reused. It was rarely thought that most programs would be of any interest in the future. The sale & rental of old programs for use on home video equipment hadn't even been thought of. So, the wide belief was that the TAPE ITSELF was more valuable than what was recorded on it. Perhaps the worst offender was BBC in the United Kingdom. Its budget was mostly from a tax rather than the sale of advertising spots so this network saved money where it could. What is doubly bad about this is that so many wonderful programs were aired on BBC. It was during years like these that this television & radio network built upon its stellar worldwide reputation which remains to this day. By the 1970s television & radio networks realized the value of maintaining archives for several reasons, one of which was for copyright purposes, for protecting their intellectual property. The following article explains the process of worldwide searches for programs thought to be lost.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/wipe-out-when-the-bbc-kept-erasing-its-own-history?utm_source=pocket-newtab

"Wrestling Polka" Theme Song

"The Wrestling Polka" was used as the theme song on some professional wrestling television programs during the 1950s & 1960s. I heard it throughout the 1960s on "Wrestling With Bob", later "Big 2 Wrestling" on television station KFEQ, later, KQTV, in St. Joseph, Missouri. But here is the 78rpm of "Wrestling Polka" by the Satisfiers, a five-member vocal group who sang backup on a lot of Perry Como records. It appears the song was originally recorded for use by the wrestling promotion in Chicago run by Fred Kohler in 1954.  How many other wrestling programs over the years used it I have no idea.  But I heard it throughout the decade. This television station in St. Joseph, Missouri, was ninety miles away and reception was never great, using our rooftop antenna to pull it in.  Even at the time, I thought "Wrestling Polka" was really corny but this was many years before any kind of rock music was heard on professional wrestling television programs.  A generational shift would be necessary before that would happen.  Still, "Wrestling Polka" was burned into my memory forever.  Hearing it again on this 78 rpm record after all these decades is a thrill. UPDATE: I now also have the 45rpm record! Listen here: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/daddyodilly/49489944196/

 

UPDATE: I now have the 45 rpm, also.

Visit To the Everly Brothers Childhood Home in Shenandoah, Iowa

On Wednesday, October 23, 2019, Cindy & I drove 150 miles almost straight North to Shenandoah, Iowa, to see the childhood home of the Everly Brothers. We visited Shenandoah in 1987 at which time the one room house was still a private residence on the same lot as when the Everly family lived in it in the 1940s & 1950s. Our tour guide told us that the house was not originally on that lot but that it was one of a few one-room shacks on the side of town used as housing for railroad workers when repairing tracks in the area.  When the railroad no longer wanted the shacks a local person bought one and moved it to 6th Avenue where it stayed until 2006. Now, the restored house sits next door to the Greater Shenandoah Historical Society Museum. Inside the museum on display we saw lots of photographs, newspaper & magazine clippings related to the Everly Brothers (Don & Phil), their parents Ike & Margaret and the two radios stations where they sang and played guitars on live radio broadcasts on a daily basis.

Across the street is the Depot Deli, an old railroad passenger depot converted into a restaurant & bar.  The interior is a filled with lots of Everly Brothers memorabilia and other artifacts of the era.  The Depot Deli is owned and run by Bill Hillman, who has been the instigator of most/all of the local efforts made to acknowledge Shenandoah as the boyhood hometown of Don & Phil Everly. In 1986, Hillman and his crew brought the Everly Brothers back to Shenandoah to play an outdoor concert which attracted thousands of people including hundreds of people who lived there the same time as the Everly family.

The Everlys moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in the 1950s.  In a few years, Don & Phil were recording hits records that were heard on radio stations around the world like "Bye Bye Love", "Wake Up Little Suzie", "When Will I Be Loved", & "On the Wings of a Nightingale" (written for them by Paul McCartney).  They became among the biggest stars of first generation rock 'n' roll music.  Their hit records & concert tours continued into the 1970s at which point they had an acrimonious break up that lasted for ten years. Upon patching up their relationship they made fresh, contemporary music that retained the essence of their sound.  Today, Don Everly survives the passing of his younger brother Phil. (UPDATE: Both of the Everly Brothers have passed. Phil on January 3, 2014, Don on August 21, 2021.) The Everly Brothers still have millions of fans everywhere.

Cindy & I thank everyone in Shenandoah who made our day there pleasant.

Now here are the photographs I took, all with captions.  Feel free to share these photos--do with them whatever you like. https://www.flickr.com/photos/daddyodilly/albums/72157600861976127/page1

Frostie Root Beer

My Frostie root beer story: In the 1960s we never had Frostie in Kansas. Every year my parents and I would drive on the (newly built) interstate highways to Southern Indiana to visit the grandparents. Frostie was not available in Southern Indiana, either. On perhaps our first drive there I managed to buy a bottle at a gas station and discovered it was (back then) the best tasting root beer I'd ever had, every bit as good as A&W, which in those days was not available in bottles or cans. You could only get it at A&W drive-ins in frosted mugs. Frostie had a thick sweet taste and a foamy head which would just sit there on the top of my glass. I could eat it with a spoon. Hence, every time we traveled back to Indiana, I would plead with Dad to fill the car up at a station next to a grocery store so I could spend my allowance money on a couple of six packs (which I would space-out for about six months, usually drinking the final bottle on New Year's Eve). Anywhere in Illinois East of St. Louis grocery stores were likely to carry Frostie. Even the bottles were unique, slightly wider and thicker than other brands of soda with a a textured surface to mimic frost (just like those shown above). And what about the bearded character on the bottles, cartons, and promotional materials? No name that I am aware of. Santa Claus? Jack Frost? Old Man Winter? Or just Frostie?

Another thing, if you remember seeing Frostie in stores back then or look it up on eBay now, it becomes apparent that the Frostie company thought highly of back-lit clocks bearing the names and logo. Over the years Frostie made lots of different designs for clocks and thermometers for display at retailers. Like so many brands, Frostie has spent the last several decades caught in the corporate conglomerate vortex. It's availability remain elusive. In its current configuration, the Frostie name is put on several different flavors of soda. In spite of claims on the cartons that the original 1930s recipe is still used, I think Frostie root beer now tastes thin and watery. There is no foamy head anymore, just some momentary bubbles.

These days, I recommend Dang! as the best root beer, found at micro-brand soda boutiques that have proliferated in many parts of the country.