Santa brought me the Ernie Kovacs Collection, and I have spent a good deal of time enjoying it on the bigass TV, beginning with his earliest shows from 1951 and 1952. Kovacs, one of TV’s pioneers, was way, way ahead of his time. There was nothing like Kovacs’ show on television at the time. He created hilarious characters and very often flew by the seat of his pants. For example, during one show, he walked out of the studio and strolled down the hall to get a drink of water from the water cooler. He returned to doing the show as if the interruption never happened. I gather he was thirsty, and it was live TV, so why not go get a drink? It worked.

I only recently learned that Kovacs was from Trenton, New Jersey, and that he died in 1962 around the time of his 43rd birthday when the Chevy Corvair he was driving spun out of control and hit a telephone pole. You can see a photo of the car here. I can only imagine where he would have taken television had he not died so young.

I knew that he was married to Edie Adams, an extremely attractive woman who appeared regularly on the show (in the early days, he referred to her on the show as “Edith”). What I did not realize was that Edie Adams was a classically trained singer, as is evident from her performances in the 1951-1952 discs. She graduated from Juilliard and then the Columbia School of Drama. I’m sorry to say that I remember her best for singing cigar commercials. She passed away in 2008, but she was single handedly responsible for assembling the material that appears in the collection. She rescued (i.e. bought) the material from the networks before they discarded all of the old kinescopes and taped game shows over all the video tapes of Kovacs’ later shows).

If you are old enough to remember Ernie Kovacs, or if you have an interest in early television, I believe you would enjoy the collection.

Happy New Year from the House by the Parkway.

I am captivated by the haunting sounds of the glass harp, which are created by rubbing one’s fingers around the rims of glasses filled with the amount of water necessary to produce a particular pitch.

I was wondering what goes in to adding just the right amount of water to each of the glasses. Ya gotta love the internet, because my question was answered in the video below.

I gather that in 1761 Benjamin Franklin didn’t want to take the time to put water in all those glasses, so he invented the glass harmonica, which you can see being played here.

Let me just say this: If I read or hear one more breathless news story about the “energy efficient” Times Square new Year’s Eve ball, I may puke.

An “energy efficient” ball? Gimme a farookin’ break. Jesus H. Christ! We’re talking about Times Square here, a place that is known for its dazzling display of lights and which, for that reason, has historically attracted tourists from all over the world – not just on New Year’s Eve, but all year ‘round.

The dropping of the ball at midnight on Times Square has been the highlight of New Year’s Eve for as long as I can remember, so this year we need an “energy efficient” ball? Why? We are told, “The upgrade [i.e. the “energy efficient” ball] means an 88 percent reduction in energy use and 573 tons less of carbon dioxide from the ball’s previous lighting source.”

Excuuuuuuuse me, but I rather liked the bygone balls, which were powered by the “previous lighting source” – yeah, the balls that sported a gazillion lights, real lights, hot, bright New Year’s Eve lights. I don’t buy into the political correctness or the Al Gorean junk science that positively correlates carbon dioxide emissions with dead polar bears.

If this nonsense continues, perhaps we’ll be ringing in 2013 by candlelight in Times Square while we eat salt-free snacks, prepared, of course, without trans-fats.

Jersey Blogger, Chris Wysocki of WyBlog fame, reminds us that the Market Competition and Consumer Choice Act (SB 2664, aka telecom deregulation) has a chance for passage in the New Jersey State Senate before the end of the lame duck legislative session on January 9. As he notes, “It’s now or never.”

Chris writes:

The “Market Competition and Consumer Choice Act” (SB 2664) removes requirements for the Board of Public Utilities to micromanage every telecom business decision. Thanks to archaic rules established back when Marconi was an apprentice lineman the BPU has to approve even the smallest change to any phone or cable service offering. Link

If you believe that free-market competition is the way to go in the telecom industry, let your State Senator know.

Positively heartwarming.

To all who feel that the House by the Parkway is worth a moment or two of your valuable time, a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2012.

If The One gets another four years, game over, peeps.

h/t Fausta, via iOTW.

I was tempted to title this “Posts I Never Read,” but I have learned that one never says “never.” Now, if you are a frequent writer of any of the types of posts in the following list, please don’t take it personally, as I’m sure that lots of people like to read things that cause my eyes to glaze over. In addition, if you are one of the people who like to read the stuff that I ignore, please don’t take offense. No doubt I like to read stuff that would make you want to barf.

Anyway, here are the types of posts that will get a fast “move-along” click from me:

1. Posts that detail the writer’s latest dream. Snoozeville. Who cares?

2. Posts that discuss, in any way, football, baseball, hockey (oy!), or basketball. Especially basketball, which is decidedly a dumb game.

3. Posts that are very long, unless the first two paragraphs are real grabbers. I recall reading somewhere, a long time ago, that a person who reads lots of blogs has about sixty seconds to devote to reading any particular blog post. I tend to fall into that category, although there are lots of exceptions, depending on the blogger and the subject matter.

4. Song parodies. Once in a blue moon they’re clever, but even the very rare clever ones just don’t move me.

5. Any parody of “The Night Before Christmas.” Enough, already!

6. Any video of “The View.” The Stupid on that program is frightening.

7. Posts that delve deeply into the world of cyber-geekery. I don’t hate them; I just don’t understand them. Hence, “click.”

If you have gotten this far, you can add to your list of posts you almost never read, the posts by bloggers who think anyone really gives a shit what they almost never read. Of course, those who didn’t get this far probably already have posts by bloggers writing about what blogs they almost never read on their list of posts they almost never read.

Having re-read this post, I think I would add it to my list.

Check out Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo, with some help from Glenn Tosto, playing around with Beethoven’s 5th. It may be lighthearted, and they make it look easy, but don’t let that fool you. There is some serious guitar mastery going on there.

I think Beethoven would approve.