Astral Facts, October 2008

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Come With Us, If You Will, to the Days of …

My wife and I recently experienced something that hadn’t happened in a long time – we were part of the live audience at the recording of a radio drama.

Some of us can remember way back in the olden olden days (before not only cable TV but also reliable TV reception) when families would spend an evening together at home, in the park, at the summer cabin, etc. playing cards, putting together jigsaw puzzles, washing dishes, and even eating dinner while listening to the Lone Ranger, Jack Benny, Sgt. Preston, Chester A. Riley, and others deal with common and extraordinary situations of life.

Many of these old programs are available at a reasonable cost in MP3 format. For about $5 per disk, several seasons of such programs can be acquired. We have used these for years with our family, and our children turn on their boombox with MP3 compatibility and drift off to sleep at night listening to these programs (with the extra “G” ratings, the parents can sleep more peacefully as well!) The children and their parents’ favorites are The Aldrich Family, which covers the adolescent challenges of Henry Aldrich in small town America, and Our Miss Brooks, the situation comedy of a high school English teacher attracted to a shy biology teacher in a school run by the tyrant Osgood Conklin. They can relate to the struggles of Walter Denton, the goodhearted dunce boyfriend of Harriet Conklin, the school valedictorian.

We frequently purchase programs and episodes at http://www.otrcat.com/ where we can get about 40 episodes per disk (about 20 hours of listening for only $5!)

You can listen to a sample episode of the show here or download the file for listening later:

http://www.otrcat.com/miss-brooks-p-1701.html

Most of us may think the radio drama may have gone the way of the thingamajig used with the whatchmacallit, but a local group headed by Jim French, long time radio “disk jockey” in this area, has kept alive the art of the radio drama.

Attending a recording session is quite an experience. The sound effects team is right there on the stage, making those noises of feet walking on gravel, doors opening and closing, telephones ringing, etc. by actually walking on gravel, opening and closing doors, ringing telephones, etc. The actors and actresses read their lines and often stumble over them and then "take it from the top of page ..."

Jim French is the creator of the “Harry Nile” detective series, the adventures of a hard luck Seattle detective who has a big heart and a thin wallet. All the radio episodes were recorded in front of live audiences here in the Seattle area. In the past they were free admission at the Museum of History and Industry near the UW, but more recently the sessions have moved to the Kirkland Performing Arts Center on the eastside.

Several years ago, French and his company received permission from the estate of Sir Conan Doyle to do a few episodes and adaptations of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. French said they envisioned possibly doing four or five such episodes before the permission ran out, but the recording session on October 6th was the 100th such episode! Usually two different half-hour programs (22 minutes of air time) are recorded at each session but for this session, they did a one-hour special Sherlock Holmes story recorded in two sessions.

Here is a link to that story, “The Two Watsons.”

http://jimfrenchproductions.com/itheater_shows/week657.m3u

As indicated by the label, such programs have been created and posted for 657 weeks (which equals to 20 years of such broadcasts!) According to the Imagination Theater webpage http://jimfrenchproductions.com/ http://harrynile.com/),

[T]hese shows began airing in Seattle, Washington in 1972, with performances by major Hollywood guest stars, including John Astin, Eddie Bracken, Hans Conreid, Bob Crane, Patty Duke, Russell Johnson (the Professor on Gilligan's Island), Kurt Kasznar, Ruta Lee, Roddy MacDowall, Richard Sanders (of WKRP in Cincinatti), Tom Smothers, and Keenan Wynn. National syndication began in 1996. This led to coveted media awards and honors by BBC Radio.

The next recording event will be on Monday, November 17th. Here’s more information:

http://www.kpcenter.org/cgi-bin/event.cgi?id=350

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Highway Ethics

Astral Facts, September 2008
Highway Ethics
Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Talking out of Hand from Both Sides of the Mouth.

One of the skills/activities in the Humanities Sciences is the definition, application and observation of ethics and moral standards. Literary and Humanties criticism comes through the discussion of how the “texts” of the culture endorse, challenge, or even protest such ethical and moral belief systems. In the olden days, these “texts” were primarily the religious writings and political documents, but these days, movies, music, cellular phones, television programs (especially the commercials), etc. that influence or reflect social behavior can be included as “texts” of the culture.

The Humanities Scientists then observe and comment on such texts, often using particular perspectives. Thus, the feminist critic would note how the text tends to affect women by imposing or challenging definition, stereotype, empowerment, oppression, etc. Other critics might use psychoanalytical constructs, Marxist thought, Islamic theology, political theory, literary techniques, etc. as the basis for critical analysis.

Here’s a case in point:

Here in the Puget Sound area, we’re trying something new to deal with the traffic congestion problems and the underutilized “Carpool” lanes. (Actually, they are “HOV” lanes, meaning “High Occupancy Vehicles.” Those who complain about the mother [or father] and baby using the lanes because having the baby in the car is not reducing traffic congestion [The baby wouldn’t be taking a solo trip in a vehicle anyhow] obviously have neglected to note the meaning of this nor apparently have they had to deal with rushing somewhere with a baby "that close" to filling the last clean diaper! Those parents have my blessings to unlimited use of the HOV lanes. Of course, others may prefer to have parent and baby sitting next to them in the bus.)

The solution now being used on Hwy 167 is to let those SOV’s (not a typo- this refers to Solely Occupied Vehicles or something like it) pay a fee to use the HOV lanes. These people get some kind of transmitter/transponder unit, charge it up with money, and then “the going rate” is deducted if the vehicle is in the HOV lanes. This “going rate” (pun intended here but not in the baby example) is adjusted up or down according to how heavy the traffic is in the other lanes.

Of course, this all seems nice because those who subscribe to the “time is money” view of life can then pay to save the time, and the money is hopefully used for the benefit of the rest of us who either conscientiously travel in high occupancies or value the relationship of time and money a bit differently.

In many ways, this seems to be a practical solution. Nonetheless, many Humanities Scientists would see a certain philosophical and ethical perspective getting privileged status in this way.

Obstensively, the main focus seems to be on environmental sensitivity. Thus, the clogged mainline highways should be an incentive for people to carpool and “HOV-it" to save time. However, the other [primary] message seems to be that the people with money don’t have to subscribe to this value system – like Donald, they can “trump” the situation because of economic status!

It seems to me that the commodity that is driving (pun intended) this situation is time. The value is being placed on the time that is being saved. Since this is the case, my modest proposal would be to let those people pay in time increments.

In other words, let community service have a value according to the time invested. So if someone spends an hour volunteering on some community project, give that person X number of credits to be added to the transponder total, say one credit for every twenty minutes spent. Then when the same person is driving as an SOV and in a hurry, that person can “cash in” whatever the “going rate” is, assuming that person has accrued that much credit.

And if some people’s time is too important to them to invest in their community, then just let them idle in traffic with those other “too important” people.


Walter Lowe
English Faculty
Green River Community College

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices in the HS (Humanities/Science) Building.

Astral Facts, April-May 2008 (Late Edition)

Astral Facts, April-May 2008 (Late Edition)

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Delay of Game: It Happens Every Spring

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In spring, young men’s fancies turn elsewhere, some say to what the young girls have been thinking about all winter, but of course the correct answer is another field in the humanities science division in the entertainment bracket. Obviously, this could only refer to America’s national pastime: baseball!

As usual, one would never know it from watching the Mariners play, but it’s the science of the game that makes the humanities aspect stand out. For example, someone has sent me this simple explanation of the game:

Baseball: This is a game played by two teams, one out the other in. The one that's in, sends players out one at a time, to see if they can get in before they get out. If they get out before they get in, they come in, but it doesn't count. If they get in before they get out, it does count.
When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in without being out, the team that's out comes in and the team in goes out to get those going in out before they get in without being out.
When both teams have been in and out nine times the game is over. The team with the most in without being out before coming in wins unless the ones in are equal. In which case, the last ones in go out to get the ones in out before they get in without being out.
The game will end when each team has the same number of ins out but one team has more in without being out before coming in.

If this seems overly “scientific” I would recommend the film version of this marriage of humanities and science, It Happens Every Spring, a 1949 classic in black and white starring Ray Milland as the college chemistry professor who gets distracted during baseball season every spring, complicated by a desire to marry the dean’s daughter (Jean Peters). When a baseball crashes into his laboratory, mixing the chemicals into a solution that repels wood, perhaps he can get enough money together to wed. Thus, he “moonlights” over the summer as a pitcher (for the local major league baseball team) who “doctors” the ball.

During these rainy days of a typical June in Puget Sound, find a copy and then get together some peanuts, popcorn, cracker jacks, a hot dog or two and maybe some garlic fries and enjoy!


Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices in the HS (Humanities/Science) Building.

Walter Lowe
English Faculty
Green River Community College