The Rainbow Mullet and the Mighty Kruk

Gonzo: Wall-of-Famer Kruk understands Philly.

I'm glad somebody does....

There was John Kruk, rounding third base and lumbering slowly toward the plate in a too-snug uniform -- tufts of bourbon-colored mullet hair trailing behind and flapping out from under the back of his helmet.

Just the Facts, Ma'am...

What would we do without mullet spotters?

With her flaming red do, this court reporter has managed to combine her news-hounding skills with her love of mullet-spotting. Hailing from hair-raising (and hair style-challenged) Ipswich

Amelia Bentley, court reporter, taking it all so seriously.

Reviewing the Past

East German largesse has been concentrated on Nicaragua, where the revolution last year provided an obvious target of political opportunity. Barely a week after Dictator Anastasio Somoza had fled the country, East German medical and economic assistance teams were in Managua establishing an early foothold. As one East German doctor admitted at the time: "We do not leave political considerations aside." Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel d'Escoto has called the GDR a "natural ally" of the Sandinista revolution,

A 1980 Time Magazine article illustrated plainly to an international audience something we had suspected seeing around us: to the Soviets, the DDR was to Europe what the Cubans were to Latin America - only more effective.

Why the East Germans? Originally, Western analysts believe, their ambitious foreign role was motivated by a national inferiority complex, as a denigrated political offspring of the Soviet Union and a poor industrial also-ran compared with West Germany. The emerging countries and the liberation movements thus afforded the "other" Germany its first international acceptance and prestige. The East Germans eventually proved to be more diplomatic than the Soviets, who frequently antagonize their Third World hosts with chafing arrogance, and more efficient than the Cubans, who do not enjoy the same reputation for reliability and know-how. Concluded a U.S. intelligence analyst: "The Cubans provide bodies. The East Germans provide brains."

As well they did. What the article didn't touch on was the building or organizing of intelligence apparatus by the Stasi in Yemen, Libya, Nicaragua, Cambodia, and among revolutionary organizations such as the PLO, SWAPO in Namibia, and others.

What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?

Sport's worst haircuts: a tribute

From Ireland's The Score, we find the part of the economy that will not be taking a haircut:

It was a mullet for a while, but scrum half Boss's hair only really came into its own when it was evolved into a mullet/dreadlocks hybrid. His status as one of Eddie O'Sullivan's 'impact subs' probably rested on the nauseating effects of this epic 'do.

Speak! Speak to your People, Oh Mighty Mullet!

The Hair Is Shorter, but the Career Goes On and On. [God help us.]

Bon Jovi, 49, went on to make an important distinction: "[My hair] was very famous, but you know what? Bono had a mullet. I never had a mullet. Mel Gibson had a mullet. … I was Cousin It. I just had a big ball of hair. … Fortunately I still have it."

News Digest from the Fake-Crisis Management Center, no. 2011\08A

Crisis to become fake as soon as you can afford it.

However, broadband that one cannot afford, is as good as no broadband at all. When FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn addressed the National Rural Assembly in Minnesota last month, she wasn't panicking about a make-believe spectrum crisis.

Lone Listener, Secret Transmitter

While this is a highly entertaining mash-up, it conveys the sense many had about the secretive broadcaster transmitting to secretive, and likely pensive and lonely listeners.

Eins, Zwei, Drei

“Is everybody in this world corrupt?”

“I don’t know everybody.”

Our silver screen meltdown marches ever forward in something familiar to European political observers, that is to say in goose steps. We present Billy Wilder’s 1961 madcap tale of Commie Berlinalia called One, Two, Three, which also happened to star Jimmy Cagney who brilliantly shows his comic timing and skill, even as Wilder turned the pace of the film up to 11.

Oddly enough, one of the many things that points out the humorlessness of “progressive” activist to this day is the fact that some of them still campaign cheerlessly and sadly unaware of irony against “Coca-Cola Imperialism”, as if their own not drinking the stuff wasn’t enough. I wonder if they realize that the concept was just one of Wilder’s jokes.



I strongly recommend renting or downloading this film! Not only will you not know where the time went, and possibly regret it, but you’ll find strange hidden gems in it, like a Messerschmitt micro-car that keeps appearing in the background, and momentary references to Carney’s “Little Caesar” character by an untitled supporting actor playing to Cagney, and another play on it with him asking for “Rico”. Along the way, look for a Khruchevesque banging of the shoe on a table, and a chillingly accurate portrait of the shambolic ruin that was East Berlin long AFTER this film was shot.

Layering it even more is the appearance of wonderful players like Leon Askin, (born Leo Aschkenasky) who sent up the temperament of a Soviet apparachik in this film, much as he later sent up the comically greedy Nazi General Burkhalter in the television comedy series, Hogan’s Heroes. Those mere moments in his long and rich career which included politically provocative cabaret as only the Viennese could do. Immigrating to America in 1940, he enlisted in the US Army, was stationed in Britain, and upon return to New York having been unable to find his parents who were sent to a Concentration Camp, he started a theater group made up entirely of Army veterans. Like Mel Brooks who served as a combat engineer and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, he seems to have understood that the most humiliating defeat an enemy can face is mockery.

What they share with Wilder, a Berliner transplanted to America himself, wasn’t just comic ability, creativity, but a keen sense of observation, matched to a functioning moral compass.

When, Oh When

Will the DSM-IV recognize my puerile fetish for old British fillums ?

Raus mit the Mullet

Ex-Spur Schintzius thinks his mullet got him traded

Former Spurs center Dwayne Schnitzius claims his mullet hairstyle helped facilitate his trade from the Spurs to Sacramento.

An anti-joyousness discrimination claim should really be in the works...

Dwayne Schintzius got traded because of his awesome hair

Like... awesome.

... maybe a person should be able to wear his hair however he pleases, especially when it's as majestic as Schintzius' mullet. Would you have asked Oscar Gamble to cut his afro? Only if you were anti-fun.

Maybe?

The Near Distant Ago, Remembered

Those among us interested in radio will enjoy this one: one of those new fangled weblog thingies focusing on Radio Berlin International, the voice of the erstwhile German leftist dictatorship. For a collection of their QSL cards, as well as postcards from said erstwhile German leftist dictatorship, hier clicken, bitte.