From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V8 #63 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, February 18 1999 Volume 08 : Number 063 Today's Subjects: ----------------- from the Washington Post, Sunday, 14 Feg 1999 [Christopher Gross ] Re: more wackiness [Terrence M Marks ] Re: more icky stuff: a small clarification [Ross Overbury ] Docteur Qui in "Swarm Over Gallifeg" (Episode I) [Jon Fetter ] The Angus Prune Show [Michael R Godwin ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 19:41:12 -0500 (EST) From: Christopher Gross Subject: from the Washington Post, Sunday, 14 Feg 1999 "Book World now appears inside the comics section and will be found in that position each Sunday." - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 16:58:59 -0800 From: Eb Subject: AllStar review Jeez, he didn't even MENTION "Greenman." (I'd give AV a weak 8, in this context.) Eb XTC- Apple Venus Vol. 1 (TVT Records) allstar rating: 6 No one can ever accuse XTC of lacking ambition, and Apple Venus Vol. 1 is further testament to the pop band's adventurousness. The album that marks the return of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding (guitarist Dave Gregory's 1997 departure has left them a duo) after a seven-year hiatus is an almost purely symphonic opus, backed by chamber strings, occasional flugel horns, and the odd triangles and timpani. Does it work? Sometimes. If anyone can write a pop song capable of transcendence in this medium, it's Partridge. Yet his artistic voice uncustomarily lacks the bite of his usual confidence here. "Your Dictionary" is the most gripping exception, full of vindictive spellouts ("F-u-c-k, is that how you spell friend in your dictionary?") sung in an ascending, haunting melody that recalls the Skylarking era; and "I'd Like That" is a hummable throwaway, but its schoolboy- crush naivete seems oddly out of place in the context of Partridge's angry post-divorce songs (see also: "I Can't Own Her"). Still, no matter how awkwardly they dress up their ideas, Partridge and Moulding just won't allow themselves to write uncatchy songs. And that may be enough for now. John Bitzer ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 20:38:07 -0500 (EST) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: more wackiness On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Capitalism Blows wrote: > "nancy"(?) From them wacky brits. Non-derogatory enouugh to get said on the BBC in the late 60s. (Or, um, how derogatory could youu get on the BBC then? I've seen their Green Book from the 50s, but I don't know how that was revised.) Terrence Marks normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 21:15:03 -0500 (EST) From: Ross Overbury Subject: Re: more icky stuff: a small clarification Now explain that "middle-aged" remark, sonny! > On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Christopher Gross wrote: > > > Okay, gotcha. > > By this I meant "I understand you," not "Ha! I caught you!". Please don't > take it the wrong way! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 21:10:03 EST From: DDerosa5@aol.com Subject: refascistization, with a RH request at the end... As an index reader/otherwise lurker, I've been waiting for Eddie to give a clear example of what he called "refascistization", with others understandably asking for examples. From what I've read (and I've worked in many bookstores, so don't challenge me yet for citations), Greece after WWII was a country likely to be given over to those dirty commies, so we attacked it/occupied it after the war and made sure friendly "neighborhood watch" regimes were in place. If I remember my enviro history, Greece was (during that campaign) also the first country ever to get to experience the ingenuity of Dow Chemical's new product, Napalm. (lucky them they turned into an ally!) Italy was also made sure it went to those we trusted to be sufficiently anti- Red, but in that case it was primarily organized crime types (we gave them back Lucky Luciano: here, I know the citation, McCoy's Politics of Heroin), but not actual fascists. Hell, they believe in capitalism more than me... I can't believe I weighed in on this, but there it is. Back to my GP grind, dave PS In terms of Robyn content, I am interested in being a tapetree-type--can one do this and not get all the mail everyday? Personally, the tapes I have heard aobut that interest me most are the unhatched crablings and, OH PLEASE OH PLEASE, the tape where Robyn covers Dylan's "Albert Hall" concert. Can anyone help me? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 16:12:20 +1300 From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V8 #62 >> remembering an argument she had with her father over whether or not Mr. >> Jones was a homosexual > >Dylan's Mr. J., not Brian J.? David Robert Jones, aka Bowie, no doubt. BTW, "Paint it black" is used as the rallying song/advertising jingle/what you will for New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks. Mick Jagger was apparently so impressed when he heard they wanted to use it that he demanded that royalties be half a dozen All Black Jerseys, signed by the team. James ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 22:36:25 -0500 (EST) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: more icky stuff: a small clarification On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Ross Overbury wrote: > > Now explain that "middle-aged" remark, sonny! Oh ... er ... by "middle-aged" I meant people over 75, of course. Yeah... - --Chris (who turned 29 v.2.0 last October) ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 16:34:46 +1300 From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: [none] Hello all... sorry for what appears to be a spam-like message sent to all y'all but... as of the end of February stonebow is closing down as a server/domain/box- that-rattles-when-you-shake-it. Therefore, my address, and those of a squillion other students here at Otago, is changing. I will have two new addresses: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (I'm glad my name isn't Terry Shirtliffe) and james@psy.otago.ac.nz I'm more likely to check the digja611@student address daily, so that will be the main address. Please change your address lists/websites/wills accordingly. Thank you, James James Dignan___________________________________ You talk to me Deptmt of Psychology, Otago University As if from a distance ya zhivu v' 50 Norfolk Street And I reply. . . . . . . . . . Dunedin, New Zealand with impressions chosen from another time steam megaphone (03) 455-7807 (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 23:54:52 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: You're a cow! Give me some milk and go home. . . . . >I have always thought this -- one of my absolutely favorite Dylan songs! >-- was just a prolonged dig against a "straight" who tries to >"understand" a scene, but threatens to wreck it with his repressed >morality. I read it even simpler (without the morality angle), but along the same lines more or less. That basically it's just a guy hanging around "cool scenes" to feel like he's in with the in crowd, but he acts for all the world as if he's in the company of circus freaks. They make fun of him and he's too dense to figure it out. He is a bit uncomfortable but mostly just thinks he's in the middle of the freaky cool scene, dude, and even though he has lots of "legit" education, he really isn't sharp enough to see what's going on. The thing is tho, that I don't think my dad's take is entirely off-the-wall. There's all that stuff about the sword swallower saying "here is your throat back, thanks for the loan" and the one-eyed midget shouting the word "now" which lends itself to that pretty easily. Although to be honest, if I'd never heard anyone say that, it wouldn't have occurred to me. With most songwriters, I might have, but Dylan is the sort of person who very well could have literally meant that there was a short person with one eye wandering about the place shouting. >work, and it is clear that the libertines are taking a bit of advantage >of the old bloke. Not that he doesn't deserve it, though. . . . I used to think so. I feel a little more sympathy for the guy now than I once'ta did. Which isn't excusing him, exactly just.....he -really- didn't know who he was dealing with, did he? >"I feel so suicidal, just like Dylan's Mr. Jones. . . ." > >"Mr Jones! Put a wiggle in your stride. . . ." "Tell us Bob, who really/Who really/Is Mr. Jones?" Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 00:03:24 PST From: "Capitalism Blows" Subject: the smell of millenial something or other chris and i probably should have taken this offlist long ago. but since it appears at least one or two others are interested, since we're keeping it pretty civil, and, as there's always our old friend the "delete" button: we installed the same *people* into power in germany, italy, and japan, to implement the same *policies* --economically, if not always politically. so if it was called "fascism" *before* the war, then... (additionally, we attempted, unsuccessfully, to install the vichyites into power in france. and i think we all know what happened in greece. the kmt probably wasn't fascist, although i think one could at least make an argument that it was. and it was without a doubt "loathesome." in korea, we not only worked very closely with the japanese, even forbidding them to surrender to the korean resistance, but the American Military Government itself was quite fascist. indeed, in 1946, 49% of koreans said they *preferred* the japanese occupation to the american!) at this point, it might be instructive to discuss what fascism does *not* mean. it does not mean concentration camps, and goosetepping stormtroopers, and all the rest of it. it means, state control/direction of the economy, *in the service* of big business/private property. if this hits a little close to home, well, perhaps it should. there's a reason orwell said (though i'd guess he wasn't the first one to say it) that fascism and capitalism are "tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum." and this is why i consider colonialism tantamount to fascism, as well. what is the *practical* difference? and this is presumably why you yourself once said, chris, that the soviet union was essentially fascist, even though it hasn't been "technically" considered as such. and again, it's got nothing to do with whether or not i "like" a certain government. it's got to do with *objective* conditions *on the ground*. <"In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are completely lacking in meaning. ... Many political words are similarly abused. The word *Fascism* has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies 'something not desirable'."> i'd like to see the context of the quote. but, yeah, we never used the *word* "fascism". wouldn't have been caught dead. we just put the same people that we had pejoratively labeled "fascists" when it had been politically expedient to do so, back into power when it became apparent (which was quite early-on in most cases) that democracy/self-determination weren't going to produce the desired results, viz. a completely integrated, u.s. run, dollar-based global economy. replace the word "fascism" above with "socialism" and it perfectly describes the american political milieu, i think. it started to change as we became more powerful. but the *driving force* of policy, the *basis* for intervention stretches back well before the monroe doctrine, to, really, the origins of the country itself: "to protect american interests,"/"to protect american lives and property when the natives became troublesome." then let me ask again how you explain our antipathy toward/willingness to obliterate non- and anti-communist countries which chose to purue economic policies contradictory to those of the "washington consensus," as it's called; and the incredible consistency of u.s. foreign policy from before 1917, through the soviet era, and after 1989? > "nancy"(?) From them wacky brits. Non-derogatory enouugh to get said on the BBC in the late 60s. (Or, um, how derogatory could youu get on the BBC then? I've seen their Green Book from the 50s, but I don't know how that wasrevised.)> wasn't my question mark. orwell used the term nancy-boy from time to time, so i'm familiar with it. but i don't think a word's derogatoriality has anything to do with whether it can get onto the radio. take, well, take "communist." that's about the most derogatory think you could ever call somebody in america, but you can hear that on radio/teevee any day of the week. is it different in the uk? do you have to be "nice" when you go on radio? i ask this in all seriousness. i've now done so, of course. but i wasn't aware that people had been clamoring for it. chris asked for *sources*, which were happily given. if others had been asking for examples, and i missed them, then apologies are in order. but as i say, it's a pretty complex issue, and even the examples i gave above don't really do it justice. that's why i included so much background material in the list of sources, which didn't nominally have anything to do with the time period we've largely been discussing, but are nonetheless pretty important for understanding the context of u.s. foreign policy during that time period. yeah, it's a lot of reading. yeah, they don't make it easy for you. yeah, a lot of those books are out of print and difficult to find. yeah, this is shit we should've learned in 11th grade. still *and* all, i think we're in a privileged enough position that we've a responsibility to try to understand the forces that make the world go 'round. whew. that sounds high-falutin'. but i do believe it. http://leb.net/iac/ "As we often see in US foreign policy, other nations' attempts to defend themselves from US attacks are defined as aggression." --Jake Sexton ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 16:23:53 +0800 From: Jon Fetter Subject: More Fegbooks Authors and books, authors and books... Although he's been mentioned many times, don't forget the many "children's" books of Edward Gorey (or Ogred Weary, etc.). Also mentioned has been George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" comic strip, available in numerous collections (in Bali I saw a great mispelling outside of a bar--"Heppy Hours"). Herriman also illustrated (and maybe wrote?) a great little book of poetry about Mehitabel the Cat, the stories of whom were told to the poet by a bookworm or a mouse, I can't remember which. Also lost in the great neuron storm of 1988 were the poet's name and the name of the book. Anybody know? One of my favorite poets, Russell Edson, could be Jeff Magnum's third uncle. His prose poems mention such things as toilets gliding into living rooms asking to be loved, non-existent dolls in non-existent boxes, and a mean farmer nuzzled to death by soft, pink bunny noses. I saw him give a reading in college, and he looked just like the cyborg designer in "Blade Runner." Even the same coke-bottle glasses. I left that reading feeling I'd watched "Eraserhead" with a bad flu. Richard Brautigan's "In Watermelon Sugar." A bit too 60's San Fran-scene for me sometimes, but still recommended fegfare. Just another reminder that what may look like symbolismor underlying meaning isn't always symbolism or underlying meaning. "My Cousin, My Gasteroentologist" I can't remember who wrote this. One non-sequitor after another. "Vurt" by Jeff Noon. Jose Donoso. In the three short stories of "Sacred Families" he writes about a man who has an affair with a woman whose arms can be removed and who erases his tallywhacker, a paranoid couple who rip each other to pieces, and a boy who replaces himself with a duplicate who he discovers by whistling Ravel's "Gaspard de la Nuit," no mean task, that. The mention of Neruda reminded me of another South American poet who is even more surreal and abstract...curse my memory and lack of library access, can't remember his name either. I'll post that when and if I remember. And for good books (but not necessarily fegbooks), everyone mentioned on The Quail's Libyrinth page. Particularly Borges, Eco, Robert Anton Wilson, and the guy who wrote "Dictionary of the Khazars." And don't forget great ol' H.P. Lovecraft and his literary descendants. How about feg travel, history, and science books? Do such books exist? For fegscience, I guess I'd recommend the two books of Richard Feynman's life stories. And maybe SJ Gould's "Wonderful Life," just because it has a lot of drawings of surreal invertebrates in it. And in the end we'll have feg cook books. Jon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 16:33:17 +0800 From: Jon Fetter Subject: Docteur Qui in "Swarm Over Gallifeg" (Episode I) As the linctus-shaped tardis spun through the infinite vortex of time, tunes, and space, the Doctor's quirky and whimsical companion longjonz the savage was splashing in the tardis pool with the Doctor's particular pet, Henrietta, a rare "visible" pygmy hippo. longjonz was feeding her swamp-kumquats and watching their progress through the hippo's digestive tract. The tardis' PA system gwizzed on with a slurpy gwiz. "[gwiz] longjonz, we're making an unscheduled stop. Come to the control room and don't forget to enclose Henrietta in her globe. [gwiz]" longjonz made her way through corridors lined with banks of stickleback and jellyfish aquaria, and averted her eyes from the aqua-blue glow of the tardis' alt-universe-synchronizer, a massive stack of 1909 indian-head pennies. The Doctor had told her that collectively the pennies formed a "zaheer." She had no idea what he meant, but lately they had been on her mind quite a bit. The ending credits of "Piers Antony and Terry Prachett Present" were scrolling down the main viewscreen as she entered the control room. "There's trouble on Gallifeg, Quite a brouhaha" the Doctor said, coughing and quickly changing the channel to the Pi-calculating channel. "Daleks? Mutant mooses?" she ventured. "No, even worse. Even worse than mootant muses. Bees. Evan Fooking-Eb, Chief Pundit, has been stung. Jelly baby?" longonzj frowned. Obviously this was no longer a kiddie show. **** The tardis materialized in a small park behind the towering Gallifeg Hall o' Records, crushing countless Gallifegian mites, isopods, ground beetles and other by-crawling invertebrates who had no relevance to this story. The Doctor gave longjonz a long tapering feather mounted on a headband. "It's a prostethic hmuh. It acts as an antenna and prevents halitosis if used as vurt. All residents of Gallifeg are required to be tapped into the list 27 hours a day." longjonz placed it on her head and stepped out into the fuggy air. She was immediately swamped by astrawberry wave of information. She reeled and started to fall forward as the Doctor quickly zipped the hmuh from her head. "I'll reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. You should be able to stand it now," he said. "Come on K-9" longjonz replaced the hmuh. In her mind she could "see" icons representing the many realms of fegdom. She selected "Hot Topics" and found that most of the posts dealt with Evan Fooking-Eb. Most showed concern, but quite a few seemed rather pleased with the turn of events. Someone had even posted the lyrics to "Young Ben of the Hill." Irish music filled her brain as she scanned "A curse upon you Evan Fooking-Eb, you dissed my favourite band, I hope you'll soon rot in hell for the comments that you sent..." ********************** The Doctor and Longjonz made their way to Gallifeg General Hospital through a garden of obscene flowers. The Doctor stretched his arms and inhaled deeply. "Ah, the scent of Mahogany Rushes..." "Doctor, what is that sound I hear all the time?" longjonz asked. "That, my gentle savage, is the music of RH. It fills the air of Gallifeg. You can even go to Thaiwong, the most remote island of Gallifeg, and still hear it there." "It seems a little nasal..." "Shh. Don't criticize. Someone could be posting this conversation even as we speak. You might make enemies that way. I almost dare to think that the Chief Pundit's current situation was due to his lukewarm reception of 'SH'." "Shh?" said longjonz. "No, S-H." "This Pundit-Eb was stung by a bee because he didn't like an album very much? What kind of place is this?" "We're standing on the home planet of the List-lords. Anything is possible." Another question occurred to longjonz. "Doctor, should we say 'at hospital' or 'at the hosptial?'" The Doctor looked at her strangely. "I prefer to stay 'mum' on that one." The Doctor strode on as longjonz confusedly contemplated a Horny Mugwort abusing the stamens of a reluctant Dutchman's-breeches. ***** The Doctor and longjonz were met by Dr. Oberverry, a List-lord survior of the horrific Canadian Recordable Media Tax War (which had nearly destroyed the Earth's music industry), now head of Gallifeg General. He was accompanied by fellow refugee, Nurse Randi. Oberverry flashed a trowel and extended his hmuh in the secret pretzel-shaped feg greeting reserved for 23rd-plane List Lords. "Doctor, what brings you to our fine hospital?" "Something is rotten in Gallifeg. Hello Nurse!" The Doctor cried. "The only thing rotten is the Chief Pundit, I'm afraid." Oberverry led them to a Geigeresque-revival tank filled with a thick coffee-colored fluid. "Here he is, what's left of him. I've never seen this kind of reaction to a bee sting. He's melting away into this brown mucous. There wasn't much we could do for him, since he couldn't tell us what kind of bee it was, and you know Gallifeg has over 6000 species ranging in size from the Western Nanobee to the Wooly Mammon Bee and its parasitoid the Shaggy Furbee. Leave it to the Cheif Pundit to have never taken a course in Entomology." "mmug....great....wump....fool..gumpwum...dead!.....ia, ia," Fooking-Eb shlurpled and died. longjonz sniffled. "Don't worry, young Miss Savage," Oberverry said. "List-lords have multiple incarnations. You're about to witness a wondrous transformation. Fooking-Eb will revert to newby-status for several days, until his brain waves return to normal and his ego returns. And (he said with a grin) until he's back to normal, he'll be like a babe in the woods on the list. It's quite humbling. The first thing he'll do is whip off a self-introduction...RH knows what bands he'll profess a liking for before his memory clears. I have 50 Megagelanic Mussells laid down that says he'll list Marillion as best band of 2799." Everyone stared at the tank. "It should be any minute now," Oberverry said. "It's really quite other-than-else." Everyone stared at the tank. A stale bubble broached the brown mucousy surface, giving off a stench of old topics. "I don't understand. He had five more lives," muttered Overberry as he picked up a sonic swizzle-stick and swirled it in the goop-that-was-Fooking-Eb. "He's not transforming. The mega-placenta has failed completely..." "Have you run an analysis on the brown mucus?" The Doctor asked. Nurse Randi handed a printout to the The Doctor. "Here are the results. At first we thought it was Kahlua that he's spilled on himself. The results are very unusual, but we're 99% sure that the fluid consists of lark's vomit." The Doctor drew out his own swizzle-stick, dipped it in the tank and smeared a streak on a largely smallish medium plate that K-9 had extruded. K-9 started to whir and click, then spat out a ticker-tape report. The Doctor tore it off. "K-9 can distinguish between the gastric emanations of half a million avian species, even more than the Fat Lady of Limburg. Now, let's see...your tests missed this ethyl-ketone group here..." The Doctor grew pale. "It's quailspew. Let's get out of here." The four of them barely had time to do so before air tight barrier doors slammed down and the tank was frozen in a cone of Cogent-Dizone. ********************** - ------------------------------------------------------------------- "To have a light, you gotta have a dark to put it in!" - --Arlo Guthrie ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 09:45:36 +0000 (GMT) From: Stewart Russell 3295 Analyst_Programmer Subject: Re: more wackiness >>>>> "Eddie" == Capitalism Blows writes: Eddie> thesauruses, unlike dictionaries, need not be comprehensive Eddie>(try that as an advertising slogan) It's probably better than our last one, which was (ahem): Get a life, Get a Collins Dictionary - -- Stewart C. Russell Analyst Programmer, Dictionary Division stewart@ref.collins.co.uk HarperCollins Publishers use Disclaimer; my $opinion; Glasgow, Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 09:50:20 +0000 (GMT) From: Stewart Russell 3295 Analyst_Programmer Subject: Re: London calling >>>>> "SmurferGhost" == Ghost Surfer writes: SmurferGhost> You can go to the Ezio gig at the Shepherd Bush SmurferGhost> Empire on the 5'th of March then. Despite having no SmurferGhost> label or manager, they're putting on a spectacular SmurferGhost> at the Empire and are recording the event. If anyone's swithering about going to see Ezio, they're a surprisingly good choice. Slightly noodly flamenco is the best description I can manage. They don't look too impressive, tho'; two portly scruffy blokes with guitars. Slightly too clever by half, but I'd see 'em without too much arm-twisting. - -- Stewart C. Russell Analyst Programmer, Dictionary Division stewart@ref.collins.co.uk HarperCollins Publishers use Disclaimer; my $opinion; Glasgow, Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 12:43:46 +0000 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: more wackiness On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Terrence M Marks wrote re "nancy"(?) > From them wacky brits. Non-derogatory enouugh to get said on the BBC in > the late 60s. (Or, um, how derogatory could you get on the BBC then? > I've seen their Green Book from the 50s, but I don't know how that was > revised.) Not 'nancy' but 'nancy-boy' in the UK (occasionally 'prancing nancy-boy'). In those wonderful Groucho interviews with Richard Anobile, he refers to an early Marx Brothers act (1912?) where Paul Yale played the 'nance'. There is a cartoon of this act with PY making a limp-wristed gesture - a clear example of the use of 'nancy' in the USA. I would have said that the common term in the UK is poof / poofter / poove, which I think is still used in 'Private Eye', who popularised it in the 60s. In the 50s it was probably 'queer' as in the Queer Boys (whatever happened to them? I know Willie went on to Honeycrack and the Sugar Plum Fairies). - - Mike Godwin PS IASIRTA post to follow... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 13:21:48 +0000 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: The Angus Prune Show No-one else has replied to Terry's question about 'I'm sorry I'll read that again', so I guess it's up to me: IASIRTA was the first of the BBC's radio comedy shows which was basically a Cambridge Footlights revue. For some reason, the BBC seemed to lose interest in the pro comedians who had come up the hard way (Hancock, Kenneth Williams, Jimmy Edwards, Ted Ray, Arthur Askey, the Goons etc) and took to signing up funny students instead. Possibly they thought they were going to find a new Beyond the Fringe or something. Anyway, they are still doing the same thing today. The cast was: John Otto Cleese Graham Garden Bill Oddie Tim Brooke-Taylor Jo Kendall David Hatch I believe that the show was written by GG and BO. It certainly featured a lot of Bill's songs, such as 'I've got a ferret sticking up my nose': I've got a ferret sticking up my nose I've got a ferret sticking up my nose How it got there I can't tell but now it's there it hurts like hell And what is more it radically affects my sense of smell etc etc TBT's 'Lady Constance de Coverlet' character owed something to Betty Marsden's 'Beatrice Clutterbuck' ('many times, many many times') from Round the Horne, but was a bit more surreal. Cleese's partents thought he had gone mad because he added 'Otto' to his name. GG, BO and TBT subsequently transferred to TV as 'The Goodies'. The funniest episode was where they started a pirate radio station, but only had one record - Horst Jankowski's 'A walk in the Black Forest'. I used to enjoy listening to IASIRTA, but it was never as surreal as the Goons or as outrageous as Round the Horne. Oddie's humour (pun-laden, musical, quite gentle) is very different from the manic anarchy of Cleese, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam, who set the tone of Monty Python. - - Mike Godwin PS I didn't care for Monty Python - too many explosions. ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V8 #63 ******************************