The title of today’s episode references Cal Worthington and his “dog” spot.
A common mishearing of the phrase “Go see Cal” was “pussy cow.” Apparently, this is something I liked to sing as a small child.
Cal Worthington’s mighty reach extended all the way up to Anchorage, Alaska. I guess, we had a Worthington dealership there in the Eighties. (And, in fact, there is still one there.) Anyway, being up in the frozen north, I always figured Cal Worthington was a local thing since back in the mid-Eighties most things in Anchorage were local. So imagine my surprise when Cal Worthington turned out to be broadcasting his jingle up and down the entire West Coast to sell cars, leading this silly song to be a bigger touchstone than I had ever thought.
(I was trying to find an old “Mafia Mike’s Pizza” ad on the internet to demonstrate a true local Anchorage commercial, but I suppose that Mafia Mike has mostly escaped the internet. Here is an article about Chilkoot Charlie’s that mentions Mafia Mike (and his connection to the Spenard Windmill – a connection which I never knew about).
–Geoff
A big Happy Thanksgiving to the Frederick Followers in the U-nited States!
WAS Coolidge the cause of the Great Depression? Well, he certainly didn’t do anything to help. His mantra of, “The business of America is business” essentially boiled down to, “The only thing better than profit is more profit.” Just picture Coolidge singing Madonna’s song “More” from Dick Tracy and you have a pretty good idea of the economic policy he urged on his cabinet.
Still, it is unfair to blame Coolidge for not seeing what nobody else in his time saw either. Bismarck let the same thing happen in Germany to the same effect a half century before. As did Lord John Russell in England. And on back and on back… Cal was just the last adherent of Cyclical Doom Economics, not necessarily the worst.
– Count Dolby von Luckner
Really? 175 of these things? Man, we are just plugging along.
Of course, I’ll need to catch up on the coloring before I can celebrate.
–Geoff
Calvin Coolidge was known for two things: Not Talking and Letting Business Go Crazy. The first is captured in the timeless story of the woman who came up to him at a ball game and told him, “My friend bet me that I couldn’t get more than two words out of you today” to which Coolidge responded, “You Lose.”
The second was more of a policy thing. He cut taxes and regulation on business and investment, allowing for the rampant speculation and general flapperishness of the 1920s, all of which came crashing down of course when people realized that they had all in fact invested in hype. It’s a good thing to know that we have that example to guide us, so that we don’t foolishly stumble into the exact same predicament with the exact same results. ‘hem.
And, hey, Geoff, happy 175!!
– Count Dolby von Luckner