Eructation (n.): a belch.

"Roger apologized for his eructation at the dinner table, because it was large and distracting."

Fucking Roger.

Thread rated: Excellent, 5 stars

Thread rated: Excellent, 5 stars

It is a great thread. You'll probably steal it.

It is a great thread. You'll probably steal it.

:jvb:

On this day in history! Here's an article about Jackie Robinson from the June 21, 1947 issue of the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the largest and most influential black newspapers of the early 20th century. The Courier is one of the better sources for researching Robinson, since they embedded a reporter with the Dodgers throughout his rookie season.

----------

The Sports Beat
By Wendell Smith
-----

Riding the Rails with the 'Bums'

EN ROUTE TO ST. LOUIS -- Traveling with the Brooklyn Dodgers is both a pleasure and an ordeal. If you yearn for the public eye or the plaudits of the maddening throng, you'll experience both when in the company of such illustrious personalities as the "Beloved Bums," who have as an added attraction this year, Jackie Robinson, the first of his kind in the major leagues. Wherever they congregate as a group there is always a mob of ardent admirers who disdain the laws of privacy and neglect the laws of logic. They hound their heroes as tenaciously as a trained canine and swoop down upon them like some vicious fowl of the jungle.

That's the way it was last Thursday afternoon at Grand Central Station when we fought our way through a fanatical crowd and climbed aboard the "Knickerbocker," the crack flyer that was to carry us from New York to St. Louis. They tugged and pulled and yanked each Dodger as he rushed through the gates and "fled for his life" down the runway to the train. They screamed and yelled. They begged for autographs and pleaded for a handshake. Their enthusiasm created bedlam and lamost[sic] upset the normal operations of the New York Central Railroad.

There are those who take such demonstrations calmly and smoothly. They are guys like Dixie Walker, Pee Wee Reese, Eddie Stanky and other veterans of the game. They've experienced it for years and know by now that the best way to avoid confusion at such times is to keep moving, ignore the "mad men" and display no reaction whatsoever. But there are rookies, like Robinson and Jorgenson and "Duke" Snider who are spell-bound and awed by such hysteria, and by nothing more than sheer inexperience, get "trapped" and "cornered" by the mob.

* * *

Robinson No Longer a 'Rookie'...

This is one of the times when you realize that Jackie and the other first-year men are mere rookies and still "wet behind the ears." And, if you are a rookie newspaperman, as we obviously are--traveling with a major league club for the first time--you find yourself also entangled in this net by virtue of inexperience and explaining to people that you are not a ball player, but a sportswriter going along with the team to St. Louis, or wherever it may be. There are those who believe you and automatically release their "death clutch" on your only suit, and there are others who refuse to believe and charge you with operating under an alias, or "gone high hat." They insist on an autograph and in order to gain your freedom, you scribble your name down on the scrap of paper they push dangerously in the vicinity of your nose. When they see your name, they hunch their shoulders and suddenly pursue someone else. Such experiences are an ordeal and you feel that someone is being cheated, because the autograph hound doesn't recognize your name and probably still feels that you're trying to put something over on him.

And so, on this particular afternoon, after we had finally scrambled aboard the "Knickerbocker," we were a bit exhausted when we recognized Ford Frick, president of the National League. He was sitting in his compartment reading a newspaper. It had been nine years since we had held a conversation with him, probably the most respected official in baseball, including the high commissioner, Happy Chandler. Although we still hadn't regained our composure from the experience in the station, we decided to have a word or two with the man who came within hair's breadth of sitting in Chandler's seat when the election for the top man of baseball was held. Usually when you meet such high dignitaries, you stall for time and develop a series of questions. But this was no time for stalling, so we walked in on him dead cold.

* * *

Greeted by Ford Frick...

Fortunately, he remembered us and his greeting was hospitable, if nothing else.

"Sit down," the president of the National League said. "I remember you. We met in Pittsburgh some time ago." Frick is a tall, gray-haired man and owns a pleasant personality. He was a top-ranking newspaperman before he took over the reins of the National League. Nine years ago we interviewed him in Pittsburgh relative to the possibility of Negroes crashing the major leagues. He said at that time he thought it would happen within a reasonable length of time. It so developed that a reasonable length of time turned out to be approximately nine years.

We asked Frick if his office had received many letters after he put a stop to the alleged St. Louis Cardinal strike plans recently.

"Yes, we did," he said. "I guess we must have received about 500. The letters were sent to us from all over the country, and we only received one protesting the stand we took on that particular issue."

* * *

Praises Stand on Jackie...

We told Frick that the firm and uncompromising stand his office took, when it was learned that the Cardinals planned to stage a strike rather than play against Robinson, was appreciated and hailed by fair-minded people throughout the Nation.

"Well," he said, "that was the only position we could take. We weren't going to let them tell us who could play in the major leagues and who couldn't. We weren't going to let anyone run a player out of baseball just because his skin happened to be of another color."

We asked him to give us his personal opinion of Robinson.

"I don't know him personally," the boss of the National League said, "but all the reports I've received on him have been favorable. He seems to be a young man with a good mind. His conduct has been excellent and you have to admire him for the way he's handled himself under such trying conditions."

We then asked him what he thought of Robinson as a ball player.

"I think he'll make the grade," Frick said. "I don't think he's a finished first baseman yet, but he's coming along. I've seen him play about three times this year and he seems to be improving all the time. You must remember that he's been switched around considerably. When he was with Kansas City in '45 he was a shortstop. When he went to Montreal they made him a second baseman, and then when he came to the Dodgers he had to start all over again at first base. He's been moved around almost too much inside of three years. The fact that he's been able to make such drastic changes in a short period of time indicates that he is apt and versatile."

* * *

Asked About Other Clubs...

We asked Frick if he knew whether any other big league clubs were interested in Negro players.

"Frankly, I don't know," he said. "I haven't heard anything along that line and I don't make a practice of going around asking owners who they are going to sign. If and when another Negro player is signed I'll know about it about the same time as the newspapers. It will come through my office as routine business.

After a brief discussion of the current pennant race we made our exit. We thanked the league president for his time and he in turn assured us that he was glad to have us drop in on him.

We then drifted back to the compartment were were[sic] sharing with Robinson. He was sitting there, looking out of the window. The 'tug of war" he experienced in the railroad station still had its effects on him. He was taking it easy.

"The president of the National League says you're a pretty good guy," we told him. "He says he thinks you're a big leaguer."

The Brooklyn first baseman gave us a faint smile and said softly: "Well, if I'm not a big leaguer, those people who were pulling and tugging on me at the station were wasting their time, weren't they?"

We were forced to agree with him.

Eddie Stanky

Hall of Fame thread

HATE Roger.

LOVE Thread.

Well, shucks. Thanks, guys!


Eddie Stanky
Yeah, I meant to highlight that name

Can't wait for the first royalty-free music track!

Undercroft (n.): a vault or chamber under the ground, especially in a church.

"Feeling adventurous one day, Roger asked for permission to explore his rector's musty undercroft."

Extirpate (v.): 1. to remove or destroy totally; do away with; exterminate. 2. to pull up by or as if by the roots; root up.

"With the death-storms threatening to extirpate western Michigan, Glan took his final Spicy Italian into his storm shelter to await the end of all things."

Want to extirpate local yokel TV weather dudes.

Extirpate (v.): 1. to remove or destroy totally; do away with; exterminate. 2. to pull up by or as if by the roots; root up.

"With the death-storms threatening to extirpate western Michigan, Glan took his final Spicy Italian into his storm shelter to await the end of all things."

Oh no! What happened to Roger?!

Wanna make "The Local Yokel" my forum title.

Oh no! What happened to Roger?!

As for Roger...



you will have to wait and see!!!!!

!!!!

Sex change?

Today's royalty-free music track: Lock Down

http://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/lock-down_48620
"Leo Ihenacho, also known as Leo The Lion, sung on this track. He has also sung with many British acts including The Streets and Kano."

Composers: Dan Skinner/Adam Skinner (http://www.skinnerbrosmusic.com)/Dave James

Search words used to discover this track: driving soul
Other notable tracks discovered with these key words include Give Me a Sign (http://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/give-me-a-sign_84215?keyword=driving%20soul), a mellow Doobie Brothers-esque song, and Mean Woman of Mine (http://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/mean-woman-of-mine_90919?keyword=driving%20soul), a modern blues number.

My comments: This is certainly a rousing track! Catchy, too; I found myself humming the chorus after listening to it. It has a quality that I like in many royalty-free tracks: its composers have a clear conceit in mind and keep the lyrics on message at all times. It becomes harder to sell a song if the message changes in the middle, since marketers might pull from anywhere in the song for their advertisements. Also, I like the Amen break in the middle; it really sells the authenticity of the song.

Other links/videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2FDPgvm2l0

iTunes link to album containing this song (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/new-soul-ep/id601352410)

On this day in history! The other Jackie Robinson article I transcribed. (Pittsburgh Courier, 6/27/1947)

--------

Diamond Sidelights
-----
Goings-on in the Recent Four-Game Dodger-Cardinal Series at Sportsman's Park
-----
By KERMIT K. WHEELER

ST. LOUIS--Over ninety thousand fans attended the four-game Dodger-Cardinal series at Sportsman's Park from Friday, June 13, through Sunday, June 15. The attendance was as follows: Friday night, 25,000; Saturday, 29,653. Approximately thirty thousand Negro fans were included in the 90,000. Perhaps more would have attended had not the transportation difficulty arisen.

Jackie Robinson and Joe Garagiola kidded each other about their respective hitting ability each time Jackie came to the plate ... However Joe got three out of four Saturday night, including a home run, while Jackie only got one hit.

Friday night Jackie was robbed of at least a double by Kurowski when he knocked down his terrific liner and threw Stanky out at second for the force out ... Robinson was cross the bag, but Stanky was a wee bit too slow ... However, Sunday, Jackie got even with Kurowski when he pulled the bat back for a terrific swing, but quicker than the eye could see he pulled it in and bunted, catching Kurowski flat-footed ...Whitey didn't even make a throw ... Terry Moore, the Cardinal centerfielder, went back Saturday night and pulled down Jackie's long fly ... Only Terry Moore could have made the catch. Again Jackie hit into tough luck in Friday night's game when Enos Slaughter backed up against the leftfield wall, jumped, and pulled Jackie's high fly down. Had not the wind done a freak trick the ball, perhaps, would have gone into the bleachers for a home run.

Sepia fans are to be congratulated for their splendid behavior during the series ... Such behavior will make it possible for more of our men to get chances in the majors.

Some few "poor whites" persisted for awhile in calling Jackie "black n- - - - " ... However, neither their own people, nor sepia fans paid them any mind, so they then shut up and acted like real Americans.

"Red" Munger, Cardinal pitcher, for Friday night has the greatest of praise and respect for Jackie both as a player and as a hitter ... "Gabby" Street, whe announces over a local radio network, with Harry Caray, says Jackie is one of the best bunters in the game and has a pair of eyes that are perfect ... He says that's the reason Jackie seldom strikes out ... If the ball is over Jackie gives it a ride ... Strikes are called on him evidently because the pitch is not to his liking, but never a third strike ... Jackie commited his fourth error of the season in Friday night's contest.

Jackie and the Brooklyn Dodgers will not be back to Sportsmans[sic] Park until July 29, 30, and 31 ...The games for Tuesday and Wednesday, July 29 and 30, will be night games, starting at 8:30 P.M. and the 31st, Thursday, a day games, starting at 2:30 P.M.

Cardinal pitchers seem to be very effective against Jackie. In the recent series he made only four hits ...Of course other Brooklyn Dodgers didn't fare that well.

For some reason in the fifth inning, Harry Breechen, after fielding Jackie's grounder, dediced to make the put out unassisted ... He took the ball and blocked Jackie's path ... Of course Jackie could have driven into him and maybe make him drop the ball but instead he merely stopped short and was tagged out.

Fans are wondering why Branch Rickey was here for the series ... They are just wondering if something is in the air ... Sam Breadon, owner of the Cardinals, and Rickey were together Friday night just to the right of the Cardinal dugout ... Wonder if Jackie's big boss was just seeing for himself the reaction for or against Jackie ... From the crowd it couldn't have been anything but favorable.

While on the subject of being favorable, the fans certainly must be favorable to Jackie ... Both races walked miles just to see Jackie and the Dodgers ... He is not only a baseball player, he is a magnet.

All tickets that were not used by ticket holders during the recent series, June 13-15, may be exchanged at the Cardinal ticket office in the arcade Building for other games, or your money refunded. This gesture of good sportsmanship is being shown by the management because many couldn't attend due to the transportation tie-up.

A queer play took place in the eighth inning of the Sunday game between Brooklyn and St. Louis ... With Stankey, Gionfriddo and Robinson on base, Furrillo hit a high fly to right that looked like a home run but hit the top of the rightfield pavillion and fell back into the playing field for a doublem but for some reason Stankey and Gionfriddo with none down, waited on the bases ... Robinson at the crack of the bat broke for second, so after rounding second, three Brooklyn base runners were between second and third with Furrillo tearing for second ... Finally Stankey woke up and scored, but again Gionfriddo started back to third, then Schoendist, Cardinal second sacker, threw wild to the plate. Gionfriddo then decided to try to score ... In the meantime Robinson was forced to return to second but when the throw got away he broke for third, and was safe, but Gionfriddo was out at the plate, Rice to Pollettwho covered the plate ... Robinson scored a few minutes later on a fly to centerfiled ... At one time it looked as if every Brooklyn base runner was between second and third ... The play was really one for Ripley ... In the sixth inning of Sunday's game Robinson got the Dodger's first hit, a clean single to center.

Horripilation (n.): a bristling of the hair on the skin from cold, fear, etc.; gooseflesh.

"Roger experienced horripilation while standing in a back alley on a cold winter night."

Today's royalty-free music track: Walkabout

http://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/walkabout_54917

Composer: Terry Devine-King (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2122852/)

Search words used to discover this track: quirky jazz vocals
Other notable tracks discovered with these key words include Crazy Like Me (http://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/crazy-like-me_56382?keyword=quirky%20jazz%20vocals), mid-tempo Louis Jordan swing by way of Looney Tunes, and Funk Factor (http://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/track/funk-factor_7897?keyword=quirky%20jazz%20vocals), an odd Muzak funk track that sounds like it would play in the background of a Duck Dynasty/Pawn Stars-type show.

My comments: When I think of royalty-free music, tracks like this are what come to mind. Its tone is set immediately and is maintained throughout, but it never demands your attention in the way of the previous RFMTofD, Lock Down. This is made to play in the background while someone is speaking, and that's fine. It's pleasingly melodramatic, which is sold well by the "whistling in the graveyard" hook.

Possible uses: background of a humorous podcast ad reading; a scene in a TV show in which a character is going over the litany of pranks they have set up for their Halloween party; montage of people in poorly-made costumes.

Other links/videos:
This track is not available on a compilation album, as far as I can tell.

These are always so entertaining. You've got a gift.

Just saw the new avatar. Oh my!

So ballin, that av.

Confession: I've never actually used Uber

ON THIS DAY IN- okay, this one doesn't have a date attached to it. This comes from volume 4 of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (https://archive.org/details/cu31924073899019) by William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki. Published between 1918 and 1920, this five-volume work is one of the cornerstone texts of sociology and immigration studies. It is notable for its use hundreds of newspaper articles and personal letters in showing how Polish society was constructed, destroyed, and rebuilt, such as these excerpts from a letter written by an anonymous Galician priest. (pages 103-111)

* * *

The Catholic confession, according to the intention of the Church, is not only a disclosure of sins for the sake of remittance, but also a means of directing the believers, regulating their everyday life according to the Christian principles as they are exposed by the Catholic Church. … The activity of the confessor concerns: sensual life, family [and community] life (relation of husband and wife, education of children), economic life (questions of expenses, wages paid to servants, conditions of work, etc.), … [etc.]

Sensual life. Sexual questions are indubitably those most frequently raised during confession. … The regulation of sexual relations between husband and wife is a field of enormous influence of the priest. … The problem of avoiding a new increase of the family steps more and more frequently over the peasants' thresholds. And the priest must more and more frequently answer the questions of women, more scrupulous than men, whether washing the vagina after coitus or using medicines is a sin or not. He must teach that conjugal onanism, use of pills, condoms, washing of the vagina are immoral, sinful, contrary to nature. In more serious cases, he must teach further what can be done with pure conscience (have relations only at a determined time).

Let us take some examples (I take them here merely from the standpoint of the church).

1. A woman complains that children emaciate her and that a physician told her that one more childbirth will kill her. But the husband does not even want to listen about stopping the sexual relation and orders her to take some pills into the vagina before the coitus. She had doubts for a long time and finally went to the priest for advice. … She does not want to die, but she neither can nor will refuse her husband. The priest stands before an alternative. If he says that it is a sin, the woman in spite of all will continue to act in this way and if he says that it is not a sin, he will act against the moral law and his duties.

First of all, the priest should question the decision of the physician and send her to another. … Then–whether her husband considers it sinless. If he does, then the priest must tell the woman not to touch this question with her husband from the moral viewpoint, but to try to influence him so as to make him perform their relation in a natural way. … Then he must tell the woman to reject all fears, to try to strengthen herself as much as possible, and to have the conjugal relation only at the time when the possibility of fecundation is the smallest (that is, during the period of 10-14 days between one menstruation and another, avoiding sexual relation a week before and a week after the menses), although even this is not an absolute security. … The result is a normal life of husband and wife and more children. The physicians exaggerate very frequently or follow the wish of the woman in their decisions. The influence of religion, the belief in Providence often plays a great rôle in dispelling the fear of childbirth. …

Sometime the man has scruples as to whether he can have relations during pregnancy. Particularly among the peasants there is a very strong sexual respect for a pregnant woman. The priest must teach him that it is better to abstain, particularly during the first two months, but if for the man there is periculum incontinentiæ he can, but carefully. …

[My notes: Wow, birth control really sucked in early-20th-century Poland. About what you would expect from a rural Catholic society at the time, though.]

* * *

System of treatment of sexual deviations. … As far as my personal experience in the confessional has taught me, masturbation is a very rare kind of sexual deviation among peasants, particularly in the country. In towns it happens more frequently. … There is a greater tendency to a normal satisfaction of the sexual instinct, particularly among boys, or to bestialism. The sexual intercourse of animals is usually a stimulus to analogous plays of boys in the period of puberty with girls below ten years of age. These offences are habitual in the poorer class of peasants, daily workers, servants, shepherds (mainly), youth as well as older people. Bestialism is relatively rather frequent among the country population. … Bestialism happens more frequently in the period of puberty (2%-3%) and then again toward the end of sexual life (1%) than in the period of maturity and happens almost exclusively among men, very seldom among women. … Pederasty is very rare among our peasants; it happens almost only among young people of small towns and only in the form of experiments. As least I have never observed it as a habitual vice. Relatively more frequent is Lesbian love among girls, but also only in towns and between servants living together. This manifestation is connected very frequently with a false devotion … and limits itself to very unelaborate means. …

Examples: Masturbation. A boy, son of a poor farmer, 14 years old, low mental and physical development, father a drunkard. The boy pastures the cattle of the priest. He masturbates when he is in the forest or the field, also in the stables, sometimes as much as three times a day. He thinks continually about it; it is his only amusement and distraction during the long hours of solitude. The priest wants to save him, for this state is even physically dangerous. He orders him to search for other work to learn a handicraft [Ed.: lol], and helps him to get an apprenticeship with a carpenter, in order … to take him from the sphere of dreams into that of activity. The boy scarcely knows how to read, so the priest teaches him, gives him books with description of the world. He recommends also frequent confession with the same priest, the rosary, and company of strong and merry boys. The boy had a weak will but was easily influenced. He was frightened by the physical consequences of his vice and reformed. In the beginning he relapsed, but more and more seldom. Gradually there began to awaken in him some interest in nature, astronomy, finally in girls, which was at first rater ideal. [Ed.: Why only at first?] Within two years the boy was reformed thanks to the continual ethical and intellectual leadership of the priest. He began to grow to be a healthy and strong boy. …

A woman, married, over 40 years old. Her husband travelled, trading in pigs, and she could not hold out and satisfied herself, sometimes more than once during the night. She knew that it was bad but could not control herself. The priest ordered her to take her grown-up daughter to bed with her these nights to make her control herself. This helped almost always.

Lesbian love. A girl about 35 years old lives with her younger sister, a widow who cannot cease mourning about her dead husband. Both are very religious, belong to church-fraternities and do much good, although they are poor themselves (they have a shop in the village and 2 morgs [Ed.: approximately 3-5 acres of land]); they sew dresses for poorer people and for children, etc. The sisters love each other very much and for nothing in the world would they part. They have lived so together for four years. There is only one “but”; they love each other so much that they kiss each other and touch each other everywhere, from time to time even very much, “as it ought not to be.” A severe reprimand by the confessor and an explanation provoke only spasmodic crying. … When one tries to keep far, the other approaches. Formerly they did not think that it was a sin. One of them scarcely knows how to write and count, the other 9the widows] has not even this learning. They are a farmer's [peasant's] daughters. Later the maid went to a convent, the widow married for the second time and their relation was interrupted. …

[My notes: TMI, anonymous priest.]

* * *

The most frequent cases which the confessor must decide are various familial affairs which are either too small or too intimate to carry to the court–“ordinary peasant sins,” as once a witty peasant defined them. …

A profound mistrust and searching for secret motives of behavior of another person, often ascribing this behavior to “hidden forces,” characterize our peasant. Moreover, the lack of wider horizons of interest directs his mind to occultism on the one hand, to an excessive interest in the affairs of neighbors on the other hand. Country gossip, which all the peasant women without exception confess and to which even children show a marked tendency, is precisely a mixture of occultisic beliefs and of criticism of the behavior of neighbors and relatives. Gossip gives birth to slandering, usually called “blackening,” that is, spreading of invidious news about neighbors. The background of blackening is either envy … or hate, frequently caused by trifling incidents–a petty vanity concerning claims on a church-bench, priority in a fraternity or in the community; quarrels of children; refusal to unite two families by wedlock–in a word, hate brought about by considerations of social position.

The use of occult forces is frequently given as a reason of success. There is not any lack either of associations with the devil, charms, etc. A peasant who has given offence to another family must be beforehand prepared for this kind of accusations. In the larger family they are particularly frequent. The motive is very frequently familial diplomacy whose end is material profit–a succession, etc. So again and always–material profit. … By what means profits can be reached seems to be an indifferent matter. It is always possible to confess, but it is not always possible to profit–this is the life-theory of the peasant, half-cynic (unconsciously), half Christian, … full of generous impulses but also of cold calcuation. …

[My notes: If you told me this was written about 16th-century Germany or Italy I'd believe you. These folk attitudes concerning religious magic were one factor among many that gave rise to the witch hunts in early modern Europe. It took a long time for learned and popular Christianity to start resembling one another, and even then old folk beliefs lived on in remote rural locales.]

Bump!