THoughtCatcher’S HaLLowEEn FoG MiX  – #2

traCK 1.  The Day The Earth Stood Still – Bernard Herman
tRACk 2.  Gort  [from The Day The Earth Stood Still] - Bernard Herman
TRacK 3.  It Came from Outer Space] – Dick Jacobs & His Orchestra
tRACk 4.  Thing From Another World, The – Main Theme City Of Prague Philharmonic
TracK 5.  Frozen Neptune – Russ Garcia And His Orchestra, The Russell Garcia Orchestra
TRAck 6.  Outer Limits [Control Voice Introduction] – Vic Perrin
TRACK 7.  Outer Limits (Main Title) – Dominic Frontiere & the ABC Television Orchestra
traCK 8. One Step Beyond – Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Harry Lubin
TraCK 9.  Forbidden Planet – Louis and Bebe Barron
TRacK 10. On The Dark Side Of The Moon – Frank Comstock
TrAcK 11.  Them! [theme from Them!]- Warner Bros. Orchestra
TracK 12. Psycho “the Murder”- 101 Strings Orchestra
TRACK 13.  Curse of the Werewolf: Prelude – Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir
TRAck 14. Tales From The Darkside Donald Rubenstein, Erica Lindsay
TrACK 15.  The Shining Theme - 101 Strings Orchestra
TRaCK 16.  A Nightmare on Elm Street Theme – 101 Strings Orchestra
traCK 17.  Sydney’s Lament (From Scream) – Marco Beltrami

 Last year in my Halloween ‘08 blog post called Halloween Music Mix  I shared my own personal music mix to create an appropriately spooky, scary atmosphere. There are 18 tracks – more than enough to fill a disk and set on replay.  (I also had another boom box going with sound effects!.  I got a lot of comments on the music and sound effects from trick or treaters last year (07). If you look up that post -  enjoy!  Since that time I have found others that are also pretty creepy and will put them into another post for this years. 

The mix below is a list I put together for a Halloween party or for any of you out there who love  Halloween as I do, this is a mix you can listen to year round. Some songs are genuinely spooky, some are Halloween-like, some are just twisted and I was amused. At the bottom of the list are some that didn’t make the cut in terms of creating a list that seems to work well together and flow but are great tracks none the less. There are some songs like Thriller that I deliberately left off the list. I wanted to try and find some that didn’t appear on most lists and Thriller shows up on most of them and I wanted to add my own pinch of spider dust to the mix and spice up the “feast”. So here we go! 

THoughtCatcher’S HaLLowEEn FoREver MiX

traCK 1.  (Don’t Fear) The Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
tRACk 2.  Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding – Elton John
TRacK 3. Sanctum Sanctorum – The Damned (a very atmospheric tune)
tRACk 4.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theme – Nerf Herder
TracK 5.  Hell’s Bells – AC/DC
TRAck 6.  Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
TRACK 7.  Cry Little Sister – Gerard McMann – Lost Boys Soundtrack
traCK 8. Pet Sematary – The Ramones (yes, that’s the way THEY spell cemetary on the CD)
TraCK 9.  Runnin’ with the Devil – Van Halen
TRacK 10. Transylvania Concubine - Rasputina
TrAcK 11.  Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus
TracK 12. People are Strange – Echo and the Bunnyman’s version
TRACK 13.  Planet Claire – B-52’s
TRAck 14.  Everyday is Halloween – Ministry
TrACK 15.  Devil Inside – INXS
TRaCK 16.  They’re Coming to Take Me Away – Napoleon’s Ghost
traCK 17.  Intruder – Peter Gabriel
TracK 18.  Excitable Boy – Warren Zevon

- BOne-uS TrACk S -

Sympathy for the Devil – Rolling Stones
Abracadabra- Steve Miller Band
People are Strange – The Doors
Spooky – Atlanta Rhythm Section
Black Magic Woman – Santana
Moondance – Van Morrison
Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon
Devil in My Car – B-52’s
Ghost Town – The Specials
Dead Man’s Party – Oingo Boingo
Hell – Squirrel Nut Zippers

I hope you liked the list and I also take suggestions if there are any that should be added to either the spooky lists or this party list.

Just a  thought I caught flying by – what do you think?

OCTOBER is:

ALL HALLOWEEN — ALL THE TIME!

Because….Halloween is my one of my favorite holidays! (see the THIS IS HALLOWEEN October 2009 post it should explain a lot.) If you get a chance, do check out my other  Halloween 2008 posts. There you will find some info on the history of  Halloween and also an entry for a great Halloween soundtrack to play for your “guests” listening pleasure. You can also see some other photos…maybe get some good ideas of your own!

Every year I decorate my yard with as many cool Halloween decorations as I can. I even go to the Halloween after sales so I can get the best deals and add to my collection for next year. And while we don’t seem to have as many kids coming around there are still some that expect a great show, so I do my best.

 I gather dried flowers and interesting weeds and branches big and small – just enough to create a graveyard scene. I also try to create a theme to work off of so it doesn’t get boring from year to year. Halloween 2008 was all about spiders complete with a giant web and a giant stuffed spider. On this page you can see some of the photos I took to get some idea of what the scene looked like. This year’s theme is all about bones and skeletons.

I try to only do the basic set up before Halloween night so that everyone in the neighborhood knows I am creating a spooky scene but still is surprised when the night comes. One thing I found as I have done this is that it’s key to have proper lighting. At the after Halloween sales I have bought those small electric tea lights and the pumpkin lights that flash different colors so that I can “light” my scenes properly. Like most people my yard is set up so that visitors have enough light to see as they come to my door on all other occasions which presents somewhat of a problem as it is TOO bright for the correct Halloween mood. For this problem I have taken to shutting down my spotlight and also covering my outdoor fixtures in orange cellophane which is inexpensive and does the trick nicely.

Last year I revamped some old tricks I learned growing up to add a tactile addition to me scenes …something trick or treaters could touch. I turned an old rubber glove in side out and filled it with sand, then put it in the fridge for an hour so that it would be cold and clammy. Next I made up some cold japanese spaghetti (it’s thicker than regular spaghetti). Next I added a few drops of vegetable oil to make it slick, plus some salsa for for that “blood and guts” effect. I also added some cold peeled grapes and some cold peeled plum tomatoes to simulate slimy eyeballs.

This year I have jello molds that look like a human heart and another that is in the shape of a brain, which I will fill with Jello (cherry and grape). Then I will and add plastic bugs and gummy worms so that they stick out and look really bug infested. I also found a nother neat trick online using heads of white cauliflower in them inside jars filled with water, they look just like brains…or if you get a cauliflower that is just beginning to mould, it will have black spot and that will add another realistic effect to the presentation. You can then lable the jar with things like Frankenstein’s brain or some other equally familiar and creepy name.

I have also found a great use for plastic shopping bags. I make ghosts out of them. You ca see an example of one in the picture above. Start out with a ball of newspaper and wrap it up in a white plastic shopping bag, if you have to do it a few more times so the print doesn’t show, that’s okay, you’ll just have a bigger ghost. Then you can get a white plastic garbage bag (one that’s used for a kitchen trash can, or if you have happened to go shopping at a store that uses large white shopping bags during the year, save them they come in handy!) and cut it down the sides. Slip that over the ball you created. Take out the drawstrings (if there are any) and cut the bottom edges so that they are no longer straight but more  befitting s ghost. Next take another shopping bag (for this part you can re use one that maybe is only half white, the other side may be imprinted with logos) and cut a few strips so that you can tie one around the “neck of the ghost. Next if you are a gardener you may a have a few bamboo garden stakes no longer in use, go ahead and slip it under the larger garbage bag (or body of the ghost) and poke it into the bottom of the ball. Then poke the other ned into the ground where you want to place you ghost. Next ties one of the strips around the neck of the ball to hold everything together and ta da one large ghost. The plastic is very eerie and catches the wind nicely. It make a great effect when lit properly.

These are just some of the things I have done over the years to create my Halloween scenes, and I’ll be adding more in the future.  If you have some other quick and easy ideas for homemade props, I’m always open to ideas, please share.

Just a thought I caught passing by….what do you think?

During the Clinton years that administration jumped right out of the gate with one of the toughest issues to tackle: universal health care. As it turns out, it was almost as if the Clinton’s knew if they didn’t go for it then while the country was behind them they wouldn’t get another chance. And they were right. It would take years before the country was willing to try and crack that tough nut again.

Back then, the Clinton Administration didn’t have as many physicians on their side and they certainly didn’t have the pharmaceuticals companies but that’s changing. More and more doctors have seen how our broken health care system has effected their patients, their practices, their livelihood and in some cases (I’m willing to bet) their personal lives. They now know something has to be done. Malpractice insurance is a big part of the problem.

According to this article, Is there a Doctor in the House? written by Marielena Zuniga, an award-winning writer, and long-time contributor to Best for Women magazine:
http://www.gfwc.org/images/gfwc/imageuploads/Zuniga_1_lack_of_obstetricians.pdf

In the United States, ob-gyns pay one of the highest liability insurance premiums of any medical specialty, second only to neurosurgeons, and are sued an average of three times during their careers.

In some states a pregnant woman can’t find an ob-gyn to deliver her baby or she has to travel miles to find one. And that’s not all, some hospitals have shut down their maternity units altogether. One of the biggest culprits in this broken health care system of ours  is the amount of non-economic damages that can be charged in malpractice suits. It’s huge. According to Zuniga’s article:

While the birthrate in the Philadelphia area remains steady, 14 hospitals in the area have closed their maternity units, three in one year alone. Each closure puts more pressure on remaining hospitals for service, increasing the chances that they, too, will stop providing care.

In addition, more experienced American ob-gyns are leaving their practices, retiring at an average age of 48.

Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, clinical professor of ob-gyn at Yale University
School of Medicine, gave up the obstetrics part of her work, and now provides only gynecological services as part of a group practice in New Haven, Connecticut. During a five-year period, she saw annual liability insurance rates jump from $32,000 to $90,000 per doctor

According to an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) survey, almost 70 percent of ob-gyns have made changes to their practice because of the lack of available or affordable medical liability insurance, including reducing the number of high-risk patients they care for. In addition, 7 to 8 percent have stopped practicing obstetrics altogether.

One solution is setting a cap (limit) on the amount of non-economic damages a for which a victim can sue. I’m not against suing especially if the doctor is clearly at fault. But what people fail to realize is that while they want restitution and justice if they ask for exorbitant amounts of money it hurts not only the doctor at fault, but other doctors as well because insurance rates go up for everyone in that area of medicine. This may not be the best or only answer but can’t we try it like these states did?

Since capping non-economic damages at $250,000, California has had one of the most stable medical liability systems in the country. Since then, some states have followed, like Texas, where landmark reforms have cut in half claims and lawsuits against doctors and hospitals in most counties. After a loss of 14 obstetricians from 2001 to 2003, Texas has since gained 163.

On June 20, 2009 CBS News published an article on their website:
Poll: Most Back Public Health Care Option
CBS News/New York Times Survey Shows Most Americans Approve Of Government Intervention In Health Care Coverage
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/19/opinion/polls/main5098517.shtml
The article states:

Americans have more defined views on whether insurers should cover anyone who applies for coverage, regardless of whether they have a pre-existing medical condition or a prior illness, with 75 percent approving of this proposal and just 17 percent disapproving. Even if the cost of their health insurance rose, 56 percent would still approve of this measure.

And I, for one, think this would level the playing field a lot. If insurers were made to cover a certain number pre-existing cases, then the cost would be shared by all. Yeh, I know insurance companies are in business to make money but so far they have had everything all their own way.

Just a thought I caught passing by what do you think?

I will never forget that Thanksgiving Day when after eating a yummy dinner with my family, I was watching TV with my brothers and the first Christmas special of the season came on, one I had never seen and it involved sci-fi, space travel, outer space, martians and Santa Claus…some of my favorite things! That movie was, of course,  Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. This movie has inspired much discussion (and out and out arguments) about it’s merits ( or lack thereof) as well as those, like me, who defend it’s cult classic status. (From Wikipedia, see below)

“….[This film] regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. It is regularly featured in the “bottom 100″ list on the Internet Movie Database, and was also featured in an episode of the 1986 syndicated series, the Canned Film Festival. The cast includes an 8-year-old Pia Zadora playing the role of one of the Martian children.”

It was even vaulted to a kind of popularity (notariety?) when it was spoofed on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. You can find clips of it on youtube. (The below quote comes from Wikipedia)

“The film took on newfound fame in the ’90s after being featured on an episode of the comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. It became a holiday staple on the Comedy Central cable channel in the years following its 1991 premiere, helping it become one of the series’ most popular episodes…”

If you have never seen the kitchy, cult classic Santa Claus Conquerors the Martians and curious because you are a sci-fi nut like me click here: SCCTM clip on youtube. You can decide for yourself. You are also invited to take the “Love it or Hate it!” poll at the bottom of the post.

As I’ve explained  [See prior post, Major Matt Mason, sci-fi influences] my love of sci-fi has been with me for a long time, so that film was tailor made for me. I was also a child of the 60’s and was attracted to anything that had to do with outer space. I remember that my brothers and I sat enthralled in front of the TV watching that film and couldn’t look away. At that time, most of us had a fear of, and fascination with, martians. This was  mysteriously but firmly instilled in us (Maybe this fear/fascination was added to the Flintstone’s vitamins we took or maybe it was absorbed into our heads along with our Breck shampoo.) 

In any case, my brothers and I loved the story for a lot of reasons. We thought the attack robot TORG was scary (now he’s just silly and we all agree has a really, really cheesie costume.) We loved the concept of the martian’s food pills. In fact, my brothers and I used to pretend that M&M’s were martian food pills. We thought that was sooo cool and got many a belly ache from eating too many “martian food pills” (M&M’s.) We thought the martian the sleep spray, which put the unhappy, restless martian kids to sleep was a neat invention.  And because the martian characters wore green, had “green skin” (read: really bad green make-up) and had antennas we thought the were real live martians. The martians obviously had some kind of beef with Santa else why else would Santa be forced to conquer them, So naturally we were hooked and had to see what would happen…would Santa win out against the bad ol’ martians? (I bet you can guess!) Suspense, Santa, martians, Christmas, space travel, flying saucers and seeing the real, live north pole on TV…what more could a child of the 60’s want in a TV program?

In much the same way The Wizard of Oz was always shown at Easter, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was always shown every Thanksgiving. It became a tradition to watch it. In a way, for us kids, it came to signify the start of the Christmas season. Rudolf, Christmas carols, Christmas vacation and the Sears and Service Merchandise catalogs were not far behind. Christmas day and new toys would be coming soon, too! 

I love this film and watch it every year. I know it might sound a bit far fetched, but in some small way, it makes me realize how great it is to be human and how privileged I am to be an “earthling”. There are lots of things on earth that you can’t find elsewhere. We’re lucky to have such lovely traditions and should cherish them.

For me, the film also brings back that innocent and childlike sense of wonder, that expectation of a happy day spent with family and the magic and mystery of Christmas.

Just a thought I caught flying by…what do you think?

PLOT BASICS: The story involves martian characters Momar (“Mom Martian”) and Kimar (“King Martian”) who are worried that their children are watching too much silly Earth television, like station KID-TV’s interview with Santa Claus in his workshop at the North Pole. Their children don’t eat or sleep well. So the martian leaders consult the ancient Martian sage Chochem, and are told that the children of Mars are distracted and restless because they aren’t allowed to ever have fun. Chochem says that the only way to help the martian children is to actually give them more freedom to play and have fun. To do this, they need a martian Santa Claus. The Martian leaders decide to zip down to earth to kidnap Santa Claus and bring him to Mars to make toys for the kids.  Earth children Betty and Billy Foster are also kidnapped along with Santa and brought to Mars and it’s up to Santa to figure out a way to help the martian children and still get home in time for Christmas.

Major Matt Mason figure in origonal packaging

“Major Matt Mason was an astronaut action figure created by Mattel, an who lived and worked on the moon. When introduced in 1966, the figures were initially based on design information found in Life Magazine, Air Force Magazine, and other aviation- and space-interest periodicals. Later, the line would attempt to transition into the realm of science fiction.”

The toy system included four astronaut action figures, sharing a common body molded of a rubber-like material over a wire armature, with a separately-attached head and a removable space helmet based on early NASA helmets. The wire frame suffered from metal fatigue and the toy had a limited life span as a result. Each figure was also painted differently and had a separate head for each character. Mason had a dark brown crew cut and a white suit; Sgt. Storm had blond hair and a red suit; civilian astronaut Doug Davis had a yellow suit and brown hair; Lt. Jeff Longwas African-American, with a blue suit (a decade before Guion Bluford became the first American black man to orbit the Earth). (collector’s note: First-year Mason figures produced in 1966 are identified by the blue straps on his space-suit. These straps were painted black in subsequent years.)”

 

“The primary alien of the sci-fi period, Captain Lazer, [Editors Note: **we had one of these and he was cool!] was a giant who towered over the astronauts. The character was originally depicted as a mysterious and possibly hostile entity, but later appeared to be the astronauts’ ally against other, more hostile extraterrestrials. The figure had glowing red eyes, a glowing breastplate, and a permanently attached laser pistol in his hand. Transparent purple plastic attachments came with the figure that could alter the size and appearance of the weapon.  The figure’s “costume” was dark blue metalflake with silver accessories and trim. Although the head, arms and legs could rotate, it was not as pose able as the astronaut figures, and was made out of hard plastic. It has been suggested that the figure was either intended for a different toy series, or may have been purchased from a Japanese toy line. The tooling for the Captain Laser body was later used to make large-size Battlestar Galactica action figures, including Colonial Warrior and the Cylon Centurion.”

“Callisto was a Jovian [alien] with a transparent green head, the same size as the astronauts, while Scorpio was a battery powered, purple and pink coloured, insect-like alien with a glowing head. There was also another insect-like alien called Or, who came with an “Orbitor” flying vehicle but did not make it beyond the prototype stage.”

“Also in the toy-line were a three-story “space station” (actually a moon base), various lunar surface and flying vehicles, mostly battery powered; and various accessories, variously powered by springs, pneumatics, strings, or batteries. What made the early run of the accessories appealing was that the designs were based directly on concepts promoted and demonstrated by NASA and the various contractors involved in America’s “Race to the Moon” in the 1960s. The “Moon Suit” and the “Space Station”, as well as the “Jet Pack” were actually seen as concept drawings in such magazines as Look and Life. [Editor's note: **Hey- John Robinson from Lost in Space had a Jet pack!] The laser weapons were copied from designs of science fiction shows of the time.”

To see how cool he really was absolutely you have to watch this commercial. You’ll get to see some of the accessories, like the space station (which my very lucky cousin had and the space crawler, which my big brother had.

“Mattel dropped the line in the early 1970s as interest in the space program declined; however the figure is still fondly remembered, and the collector’s market for this line of toys can demand top dollar for figures and accessories in as mint condition as possible. [Editor's Note: * Don't I wish I still had mine!!] One such mint figure of the Major has reportedly accompanied several US Space Shuttle flights as an “unofficial crewman”. It has been confirmed that the figure did fly on John Glenn’s Shuttle flight in 1998.”

“On Dark Shadows, the popular gothic soap opera of the late 60’s and early 70’s, David Collins had the space station in his room at Collinwood. Major Matt Mason action figures were also referenced in the pilot episode of Stargate SG-1, in which Samantha Carter defends her femininity saying, “I used to play with dolls as a kid”. This prompts Kowalski to reply, “G.I. Joe?”, and she responds, “No, Major Matt Mason.” [Editor's Note: * See I told you girls liked them too!] Ferretti chimes in with, “Did you have that cool backpack thing that made him fly?”

Alpha 7

If you are also an avid fan you will want to visit these sites, snowcrest.net a MMM fan site I found and another called bigredtoybox.com. Later the Outer Space Men series of toys came out and I had the leader, Alpha 7  the little martian type guy, who I loved. If you want to see what I mean watch this Outer Space Men commercial . The info below came from a fansite Outer Space Men fansite link. If you really gotta have one, here is a link to an Outer Space Men fan site store.

Cool Classic Toy Commercials or a walk down memory lane…

As I was researching Christmas TV commercials (see previous post) I stumbled upon all the toy commercials from that time period. Toys I had or my cousins had. It brought back alot of memories and again I can still chant some of the jingles and the taglines like “if it’s kenner it’s fun!”

This post is going to get rather listy…and though I have tried to keep the lists segregated in separate pages they will sneak out from time to time.

Toys we had and the commercials that went with them:

• One of the first Lego commercials (Who didn’t (doesn’t) have Legos?…can’t you just play with them for hours?
• Kenner Easy Curl  (Still have mine in the origional box)
• Kenner SSP Smash-Up Derby (Love these, and also the real smash up derby,
  my pop and I laught so hard whever we get to see one of these events. Don’t know why, just do.)
• Lucy Colorforms ( I had a Miss Piggy set too, come to think of it it might still be packed away somewhere.)
• Operation (I was good at this, I had a steady hand!)
• Light Bright ( I love the song that goes with the commercial, dunno why, just do.)
• Battleship (You sank my battleship….shhhhh!)
• Slinky (I loved these they were mesmerizing…>sigh< they had a neat sound and smell all thier own.
• The Game of Life Board Game
• Susie Homeaker Toys ( I had an oven and a fridge. They were turquiose.
  My favorite cousin Diane had a vanity and I always wanted it.)
• Perfection  (Always made me jump when it popped, but I was good at it.)
• 6 Million Dollar Man Bionic Grip 
• GI Joe Stolen Idol Helicopter (He came with a scary snake and a “real” jewel for treasure..played with these after out Major Matt Mason toys broke)
• 6 Million Dollar ManAction Figure (He had this cool bionic eye thingie)
• Kenner’s spirograph and Easy Bake Oven (I loved Spirograph, still do!
  Does anyone remember Spiro-tot?)

Toys we didn’t have but…
commercials that bring back memories:

• Hasbro’s Snow Man Cone Maker
• Kenner’s Ice Bird
• Slinky Pull Toys on Wheels (They were so goofy. It’s funny how something so simple can amuse a kid >sigh<
• Mystery Date Board Game (No comment, I ‘ll leave to fun to someone else.)
• Skittle pool starring the Get Smart Guy

Toys I wish I could have found commercials for:

• Rock em’ Sock em’ Robots (You knocked my block off!)
• Mousetrap (I loved watching the ball travel)
• Schaper- Cootie (We played this a lot at Grandma’s house along with Don’t Spill the Beans, Don’t Break the Ice)
• Twister
• Which, Witch? Board Game (One of my all time fav games, still wish I could find one somewhere, got any ideas?)

Please help me find a good copy of this game!

I had fun doing this…guess I am just a kid at heart…ya think?

Just a thought I caught flying by… what do you think?

[editor's note* you'll want to read through the whole post first ---before clicking the red and green links as you will have to keep hitting the return button and it will spoil the flow.]

Growing up there were sights and sounds which “told” me Christmas was near. And since I grew up having a TV around, much of this was precipitated by Christmas specials and yes, commercials. Part of me feels sheepish admitting it because it’s not that there weren’t family and religious traditions aplenty…there were…but that’s another post. It’s just that when I was growing up not everyone had a TV. We were lucky and we watched it whenever we were allowed.

Unlike now,  Christmas songs and store decorations didn’t start pushing Christmas on the public even before Halloween had happened. Maybe it’s me, but back then, Christmas just didn’t seem like the make-it-or-break-it cash cow that today’s retailers seem need to carry them through the next year.

Growing up, when the Christmas TV commercials came out, we knew the shiny, bright displays of interesting, must-have toys, warm and fuzzy type Christmas carols and catalogs from Sears, Service Merchandise, J.C. Penny, and Montgomery Ward would soon follow. As children, one of our traditions was to be the first to look through the Service Merchandise catalog when it came in the mail. We’d go straight to the toy section, marks-a-lot in hand, to circle the toys we most wanted. Back then there wasn’t a plethora of advertisements and catalogs to choose from. So when they arrived it was a big deal. I get so many now that I get overwhelmed as I try to wend my way through the stacks I’ve had to create–just to get to the kitchen. 

At the time, Christmas commercials also heralded the arrival of special programing, which still to this day brings back happy memories. I can still sing many of the jingles and, as in the case of The Andre Champagne Christmas Commercial , it introduced me to one of my favorite Christmas songs, The carol of the Bells. Whenever we saw it we’d each race to get a glass so we could toast each other and clink glasses –just like in the commercial.

And then there was the exciting CBS Special program promo that would announce the start of a  special Christmas program. Merry Christmas Charley Brown was always sponsored by Dolly Madison Zingers. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer became synonymous with the Norelco Santa commercial which always reminded me of the snowman who narrated the story and the way he moved through the snow. I can’t remember if  The Grinch who Stole Christmas had a sponsor but it might very well have been the Coke-a-Cola commercial  that featured the song I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing. To this day, it never fails to make me feel all warm a fuzzy. I can also remember learning about the concept of a gift certificate through the Classic 1970’s McDonald’s gift certificate commercial . It’s the one where the little boy toddles down stairs to the Christmas tree in his footie pajamas to put a McDonald’s 50 cent gift certificate on Santa’s cookie plate. As the boy heads up the stairs he hears Santa’s Ho Ho Ho and turns around to see him. The look on his face matched my own surprise and wonder. If I had any doubts about Santa being real (which I didn’t) that commercial cemented my faith.

But the commercial that was my absolute favorite (the Norelco Santa is my second) was the Toys-R-Us animated commercial . I can still sing it’s song and until I rediscovered it as an adult, something always seemed to be missing.
To this day it brings back the heightened expectation of a happy day spent with family, cozy fires, good will to all, yummy dinners, shiny, mysterious packages, snow on Christmas and the wonder and magic of it all.

Just a thought I caught flying by…what do you think?

During this past election we were bombarded by numbers from the latest polls. Every news channel was quoting some poll or another. CNN had it’s poll, FOX had it’s own too. Some of the news shows quoted polls like the Gallup or the Wall Street Journal Polls. I started to wonder “Where do polls come from?” This question was probably as mystifying to me as “Where did baby brother junior come from?” (and how can I send him back?) to little 3 year old (and up until then, only child) Pollyanna. I really had no idea.

This led to other questions like “How do I find a poll and get to vote, too?”, also “People must get payed to create polls?” (but how much…I bet you could get payed lots of money if you know how to tickle the poll results one way or another). People who create polls are apparently called Pollsters. A rather cute sounding name for someone who routinely has people on the edge of their seats, believing every word. Pretty powerful people these Pollsters.

“How are they created?” I wondered and  “Are polls honest and how can we tell?” “How accurate are they and should we believe them?” I didn’t get all these questions answered, but I tried to understand what I could.

What ended up happening I began to get deeper into the subject, I found more things I wanted explained like: Entrance Polls and Exit Polls. I also found out about something I had never even heard of called Push Polls (I’ll get to that in a minute).

I also found out about a strange title “Republican Pollster”. Neil Newhouse is purported to be one of the country’s leading Republican pollsters and he’s often quoted. Hmmmm…wonder how he introduces himself…
(Lower voice to as deep a baritone as you can manage…try channelling Denny Crain from Boston Legal)

(LOUDLY): “THE NAME’S NEIL NEWHOUSE, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER!, what do you do for a living?”

I supposed there must be Democratic Pollsters, too. And does this mean they only work for one party or the other or just that they are kindly giving us the heads up as to which way they tickle their numbers? Are there other kinds of people with this cute job title? Like a Born Again Christian Pollster or a Pro Choice Pollster?

When I first started digging, I lucked into this article about polls in the LA Times. Below are a few excerpts, I’ve included the link. If you want to know more, it’s worth the read.

How political polls work — and why they can differ so much

By Mark Barabak at the LA Times, Oct. 2008 <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/31/nation/na-pollqa31

“Opinion surveys [polls] are based on statistical probabilities. The idea is that by interviewing a representative sample of voters, pollsters will achieve the same result as if they had interviewed every voter in a given area.”

“Though some are skeptical of that fundamental premise, the pioneering George Gallup had a ready retort: “An accurate blood test requires only a few drops of blood.” In other words, a pollster can attain a reasonably accurate gauge of how 100 million or more Americans will behave on election day by conducting a scientific sampling of about 1,200 or so voters.”

“But there are any number of reasons that polls come up with varying results. Sometimes questions are worded differently, or posed in a different order. There are also different ways of choosing whom to sample. Some polls, such as the Los Angeles Times Poll, will talk to individuals at random. Others work off lists of registered voters.”

“The age, gender or ethnicity of the person asking the questions can affect the response. For that reason, some pollsters employ interactive technology, using a recorded voice or the Web. Others, however, frown at the practice because there is no way to know whether the respondent is a voter or their 6-year-old child. Any and all of those factors can cause results to differ…”

Many news sites run a continuos sample of political surveys, including one of the most popular polling sites:Pollster.com. There’s also RealClearPolitics.com, 538.com, The Wall Street Journal Polls and the website at gallup.com which also has this neat thing called the Daily Gallup which polls all kinds of things. The link I’ve included tells you all about Gallup which has been around since 1935. The About Gallup page has a strangely warm and fuzzy tone to it…I don’t know if I am comforted by it or if that’s what the Gallup company wants you to feel. The thought makes me feel strangely uneasy. I also found a FAQ page, which surprizingly had a lot of good info on it. I urge you to check it out. Gallup – FAQ page The page and it’s subsequent link to an explanation about how polls work was very interesting. Apparently most of us believe poll results, just not in the science of  how they are conducted and analyzed. [I am not even going to comment on that. I have a sneaking suspicion I am one of those people] On the FAQ’s pages I discovered  that because of increasing cell phone only use households (as apposed to the traditional land line all homes used to have) Gallup is now including polls conducted on cell phones. How do they get your number and how come they can have it? I thought there was a rule about accessing cell phone numbers. Hmmmm.

PUSH POLLS:

Now let’s get to this thing I mentioned earlier called Push Polls. I got this except from an article I found on politco.com

Think You’ve Been Push Polled’? Maybe not Politico.com: Push Polls

By: (The famed Republican Pollster) Neil Newhouse

“Push polls are generally very short — no longer than three or four questions, usually lasting less than one minute on the phone.”

“So if you think you’ve been push polled, ask yourself these three easy questions:

• Was I on the phone for more than three or four minutes?

• Did the caller ask me my age or party affiliation?

• Did the caller ask me more than five or six questions?”

“If the answer to these questions is yes, then in all likelihood you have not been push polled. Just polled.”

Exit Polls and Others:

I wanted to know a bit more about the other kinds of polls I’d learned about and I got this info from Wikipedia. Wikipedia – Exit Poll etc.

“An exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll (i.e. the Gallup or the Wall Street Journal Polls), which ask whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is called an entrance poll. Pollsters – usually private companies working for newspapers or broadcasters (TV and radio) – conduct exit polls to gain an early indication as to how an election has turned out, as in many elections the actual result may take hours or even days to count…”

“Exit polls have historically and throughout the world been used as a check against and rough indicator of the degree of election fraud…”

“Widespread criticism of exit polling has occurred in cases, especially in the U.S. where exit poll results have appeared and/or have provided a basis for projecting winners before all real polls have closed. It has been feared that announcing the results of exit polls too early has possibly influenced election results. Apparently, during the 1980 U.S. presidential election NBC predicted a victory for Ronald Reagan at 8:15 pm EST, based on exit polls of 20,000 voters. It was 5:15 pm on the West Coast, and the polls were still open. There was speculation that voters stayed away after hearing the results. Afterward television networks voluntarily decided not to project the presidential victor until after polls closed in the West, Hawaii and Alaska excluded. In the 2000 U.S. presidential election,  it has been alleged that media organizations released exit poll results for Florida before the polls actually closed in Florida.”

“In some countries, early release of Exit polls is a crime  and some countries these types of polls have been banned altogether.

I researched exit poll companies, Edison/Mitofsky is one of the biggest and has been around since 1996. I got the information about them from their website, so consider the source. According to the website, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and the Associated Press used Edison to conduct Exit Polls and collect vote returns in their broadcasts for the 2004, 2006 and 2008 U.S. presidential elections. I took this quote directly form the site becasue I found it curious and it led to another question:

“Edison is unique in its ability to conduct complex Exit Poll-based research projects in all 50 states, in a wide variety of settings.”

Does this claim mean that other exit poll companies only have the ability to cover say, 25 of the states during elections and if so who was driving the boat during prior elections? Maybe we didn’t have exit polling back then, or maybe it wasn’t as accurate. Hmmmm.

Apparently if you are in the exit polls business, elections are not the only places you canvas, after all you’d go broke if that’s all you covered. Polls are conducted outside retail stores, movie theaters, concert venues, airports, train stations, buses, cruise ship docks, golf courses, baseball stadiums and basketball arenas. They also do survey research for radio stations, television stations, Internet companies, newspapers, cable networks, record labels and other media organizations. Edison says it has conducted 14 major national studies in conjunction with the Arbitron Company on the role of the Internet in today’s media world and that the results are often quoted in Business Week, Advertising Age, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The company says it works with many of the largest radio ownership groups in the U. S. such as Bonneville, Entercom, CBS Radio, Westwood One, Radio One and ABC Radio as well as radio stations in Argentina, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland and the UK.

All that information. They say “knowledge is power” and if “they” are to be believed, “power is money”. Makes you wonder.

I still don’t understand how you get into the political Gallup Polls. This election was so important to me that I guess I just wanted to vote twice, once in the election and just once, I wanted to be apart of the excitement of the nightly news poll numbers before the election and I thought you might have too.

Just a thought I caught flying by….what do you think?

A friend sent this note and resource to me just before the 2008 Presidential election:

“If your brain operates anything like mine, many times you may have gotten into the voting booth and honestly had no idea which way to vote on obscurely written propositions. Many times they’re cleverly worded (in my opinion) to elicit the opposite vote which the individual intended. To clarify what ballot questions are all about go to Ballot O’ Pedia’s site. The following link is from Ballot O’ Pedia which can explain which way I want to vote in the future on ballot propositions. I thought it may be helpful to you as well…”

How do you get a proposition on the ballot nationally?

There is no way to have a ballot proposition for the entire United States. Some states, such as California, permit “initiative and referendum” which allow citizens to write their own ballot propositions, but not all states do.

The government of the Unites States is a “representative republic”, not a democracy. Citizens do not vote directly on the issues; citizens elect representatives to act in our names. The Federal government has no provision to allow citizens to vote directly on government policies.

Bummer. I wonder of there is a way to change this so that all states have a system in which residents/voters can suggest questions for voting ballots. I wonder of a suggestion box type system could be set up online.

HOWEVER. I did some more digging and this is how a question gets on the ballot in California. The below answer came from Yahoo Answers, so it may not be entirely correct. Still. It makes one think about how flawed the process is in California. Perhaps we can all learn from it and if we want to do something similar in our states, we know what mistakes to avoid.

“Well, first a federal judge has to approve it. Then they have to put together a commitee to study it. After that, they have to take a coffee break (union rules don’t ya know). Then, they submit their findings to the Governor, who takes the committee out to lunch (again, union rules). Then the fine people of the great state of California get to vote on whatever issue it may be. But, then comes the most important part of it all – no matter what the results are, the same federal judge gets to throw them ALL out if he/she doesn’t like them. Long live Prop 187….look it up.”

So that’s California. I then Googled a more general question: “How can you get a question on the ballot”, and found a response on Yahoo answers (see below). Who knows if it’s correct but at least it is a place to start and it’s more that I knew before.

It depends on what state you live in, since states, and not the federal government, run elections. Some states have an initiative petition process allowing measures to get on the ballot by petition. [Editor's note: The signatures must be registered voters] In other states, only the legislature can send something to a public vote.
Once it gets on the ballot, every voter in your state will be able to vote on it.”

That’s what I’ve found out so far, any input is appreciated because I still want to know more about the process ans what we as citizens can do within the system to make it work better for us all. I bet you feel the same way…thus this post.

Just a thought I caught flying by…what do you think?