Thursday Reads

Because of the danger to pedestrians and cyclists, is it time to ban motorists from turning right on red?
_____

Why do we need to have more fucking apartments rather than making it easier so single people especially can OWN homes?
_____

Well, duh, what do you think "queer theory" is all about?
_____

Obituary:  Naturalist and television host Jim Fowler, 87, has died.  He is best remembered for his co-hosting duties with Marlin Perkins in the long running television program Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

He was also a frequent guest on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, with often hilarious results:



_____


Obituary:   Writer Chris Albertson, 87, known for his definitive 1972 work on Bessie Smith, titled simply Bessie, was found dead in his apartment by a friend.

I bought his book when I was a senior in high school.  It was one of the first three "adult" books I bought, and I still have the first edition, albeit in storage.  It is an outstanding book:

Christiern Gunnar Albertson was born on Oct. 18, 1931, in Reykjavik, Iceland. His father abandoned him and his mother, Yvonne, before his first birthday; she married three more times.

He was living in Copenhagen in 1947 when he first heard Bessie Smith on a tiny radio speaker. Impressed by the sincerity of her voice, he borrowed books on African-American music from the United States Information Service library.

The discoveries transformed him, as they transformed other young Danes who dreamed of going to New Orleans to hear its blues and jazz musicians.

“We found magic in such names as Kid Ory, King Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey,” he wrote on his blog, Stomp Off, in 2010.

By 1955 he had moved back to his homeland and was a disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio in Keflavik. Two years later he emigrated to the United States, where he found radio work in Philadelphia.