QUARANTINE BLOG # 249

December 4, 2020

Several days ago we entertained some hard questions.  Let’s consider a few more:

    1. Why does “fat chance” and “slim chance” mean the same thing?

    2. Why do “tug” boats push their barges?

    3. Why are they called “stands” when they are made for sitting?

    4. Why is it called “after dark” when it really is “after light”?    

    5. Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control when you know the batteries are dead?

👉  Argyle Sweater has a panel for the season:

👉  It’s not seasonal, but Pluggers speaks to me:

👉  I’m not sure why, but around 233 Woodland Drive we sing Phil Collins’ hit song “One More Night”  as “One More Pint.”  In a Rolling Stones poll of his top 10 hits, the original didn’t make the list.  I don’t understand that survey because it was his second U.S. number one single.  But we like it.  His way, and ours.

👉  The must have electronic gift for this Christmas seems the newest version of Sony’s PlayStation, PS5 (I have heard stories about Walmart’s website being overloaded when they offered it for sale).  These new games are absolutely amazing, far beyond anything I every played, but I still remember those old ones fondly.  

Does anyone remember Atari’s “Pong,” (released in 1972) one of the earliest arcade video games, or its home version sold by Sears for the 1975 Christmas season?

Going to a video arcade was a good family adventure.  Bonnie and I would take the JAMM Kids, and each of us, armed with a supply of quarters played from game to game, attacking our favorites.

Centipede, a 1980 fixed shooter arcade game published by Atari, Inc., was one of the most commercially successful games from the golden age of arcade video games.  The player fights off centipedes, spiders, scorpions and fleas, completing a round after eliminating the centipede that winds down the playing field.

Galaxian, is another 1979 fixed shooter arcade game – this one published by Namco.  The player assumes control of a starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens.  Game play involves destroying each formation of aliens, who dive down towards the player in an attempt to hit them.  High scores develop when the player can attach two starfighters together, giving double shooting power.

More video games next week.

👉  Back to the court room.  One of best things about Perry Mason is the cast: Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, William Hopper, William Talman, and Ray Collins (Perry Mason, Della Street, Paul Drake, Hamilton Burger, and Lt. Tragg).  

But researching for this piece I found the original screen tests where Burr and Hopper both read for the part of Mason, and Raymond Burr read for the roll of D.A. Hamilton Burger.  What a different show that would have been.

First up, Raymond Burr auditioning for Hamilton Burger.  Had he been chosen instead of William Talman, it’s obvious we would have had a very different District Attorney.

Next up, William Hopper, who would eventually play Paul Drake, performing as Perry Mason.  The script was the same for both men, and the lady on the witness stand, actress Roxanne Arlen, was the same in both reels.  But there the similarities end.  Hopper’s Mason seems uncomfortable stepping out of his nice guy persona and hammering the witness.  Not so with Raymond Burr.

Lastly, Raymond Burr's interpretation of the same Perry Mason script.  In the screen test, the witness makes a triumphant pronouncement, confident that she has stumped the attorney.  Burr gives a friendly smile that turns into an amused smirk, just before he opens with both barrels, pounding on the witness stand rail and proving the woman is a liar.  

Raymond Burr said the studio tested 100 actors for the part of Perry Mason and he was number 101 or 102.  Actually, Burr had someone in his corner that made all the difference.  Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of the great attorney was displeased with the characterization of Mason in earlier theatrical movies, and had decided that his character should be played by Raymond Burr. 

More next week with Della, Paul, Burger and Tragg.

👉  First Friday in Advent

The Poem: Subversion and Summons

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).

In poetry we can do things not permitted by logic or reason.  Poetry will open the world beyond reason.  Poetry will not only remember but also propose and conjure and wonder and imagine and foretell.

Miriam did poetry when they crossed out of Egyptian slavery.  Hannah did poetry when little Samuel was born.  Eventually Mary did poetry when she found out she was pregnant.  All these mothers in Israel celebrated the impossible that was right before their eyes, even though they could explain none of it. 

I propose that Advent is a time for a poem that opens the future which God will work. 

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fading together, and a little child shall lead them.  The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox (Isaiah 11:6-7).

The old enmities, the old appetites of the food chain, the old assumptions of the survival of the meanest, all of that is subverted.  The wild will not stay vicious, because the Coming One, marked by righteousness and justice, will overrule raw power in the interest of new possibility.  Finally, the young child will toy with the asp and the adder; nobody will get hurt, because the poison will be removed from the world. 

The poem is about Advent, about the Coming One.  The poem concerns the Christmas Baby who refuses Rome’s rule of force and religion’s rule of code, opening the world to healing, freedom, forgiveness, and joy.

Break open our imaginations this Advent, O God, so that we might see a world decisively shaped by your fidelity.  Aid us in relinquishing control in order to receive your newness.  Amen.

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