Up Front:
As a former cable guy, I promise you that the Disney+ low price point of entry won’t last long. Initial rates are low to get you hooked on the cocaine. They always go up. We’ve been cord cutters for two years and when we add up the charges for Netflix, Internet, etc, it’s close to the Comcast package rates. Heres “How the dream of cheap streaming television became a pricey, complicated mess.” Via Kip Bohne & the @WashingtonPost
How the cops are using Google data to catch bad guys. Via @TheNYTimes
Canceling PBS funding has long been a goal for the right. Here’s who it will impact the most if it happens. Via @Recode.
Every social media platform has a culture and a language. Learning it and speaking it can be a key to growing your following.
Something I definitely need! How to get a better night’s sleep.
Today in History:
1912 As crowds gathered outside its New York City offices, the White Star Line denied that it was withholding information on the sinking of RMS Titanic.
1963 The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote ‘Letter from Birmingham Jailwhile imprisoned in Alabama for protesting segregation.”
1966 Everybody must get stoned. Bob Dylan‘s Rainy Day Women #12 & 35″ is released.”
1969 MC5 are dropped by the label over an ad the group took out in an underground newspaper. The ad’s banner headline reads “F**k Dayton-Hudson” and goes on to slam the retail chain for not carrying MC5’s debut album.
1972 Electric Light Orchestra make their debut with a gig in Croydon, England.
1972 Apollo 16 blasted off on an 11-day moon mission with three astronauts aboard.
1974 Queen‘s live U.S. debut is at Regis College in Denver. They open for Mott The Hoople.
1977 Fleetwood Mac release ‘Dreams.’
1983 Styx epic, ‘Mr. Roboto,’ rises to #3 on the pop chart.
1990 Dr. Jack Kevorkian helped in his first assisted suicide. In December, he was charged with murder for the death of a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, who died using his so-called suicide machine in June.
1991 The first Jewish settlement under the Israeli government opened in the occupied territories, defying a U.S. request to stop settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1996 KISS announce a reunion tour. It’s been 15 years since the original line-up performed together. The trek begins a couple months later.
1997 Elton John is awarded an honorary membership in the Royal Academy of Music with the likes of Classical composers Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss. He is also re-appointed chairman of the Watford Football Club.
1999 Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the NHL after 21 years. He was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in November without having to go through the usual three-year waiting period.
1999 Original Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape drummer Skip Spence dies from lung cancer at the age of 52.
2002 Sheryl Crow delivers her album ‘C’mon, C’mon.’ Featuring the single, ‘Soak Up The Sun,’ the set debuts at #2 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 185,000 copies in the U.S.
Happy Birthday to:
1889 Charlie Chaplin (d. 1977)
1924 Henry Mancini (d. 1994)
1935 Bobby Vinton
1939 Dusty Springfield (d 1999)
1947 Gerry Rafferty (d. 2011)
1949 Melody Patterson – F-Troop (d. 2015)
1954 Ellen Barkin – Buckaroo Banzai
1963 Jimmy Osmond
1965 Jon Cryer
1965 Martin Lawrence
1984 Claire Foy – The Crown
Today’s Quote Worth Re-Quoting: “Do you realize what would happen if Moses were alive today? He’d go up to Mount Sinai, come back with the Ten Commandments, and spend the next eight years trying to get published. (on Social Media)” ~Robert Orben
Backstory:
For those who came of age in Detroit anytime before the 1970s, the phrase “TYler 8-7100” likely resonates in memory. That was the phone number for the “We do good work” folks at Belvedere Construction. The use of “Exchange Names” as a way to help remember telephone numbers had its genesis in England in the 20s. By the 50s we were using the 2 Letter – 5 number format to delineate phone numbers across the Detroit area.
We called TOwnsend 9-2800 for Marathon fuel oil. You could get a few extra dollars until payday by calling Friendly Bob Adams of General Finance Company at WOodward 5-0043. “You can have worry free, home delivery” when you called Twin Pines at TExas 4-1100. TIfanny 6-5666 was the number to call if you had a Keener Lucky License Number. And one of the most memorable of all phone numbers for fans of my favorite Detroit Radio Station, WKNR, was WOodward 3-8925, the WKNR hit line.
Here are the magic words associated with every Detroit telephone exchange. Even if you’re not a Detroiter, I bet you can remember a few from your hometown.
~ ARlington ~ AVenue ~ BRidge ~ BRoadway ~ BRown ~ CAdillac ~ CApitol ~ CEdar ~ CHerry ~ CLifford ~ COngress ~ CRestview ~ CRestwood ~ DIamond ~ DRexel ~ DUnkirk ~ EDgewater ~ ELgin ~ ELmhurst ~ EVergreen ~ FAirmont ~ FAirview ~ FEderal ~ FIeldbrook ~ FItzroy ~ FOrest ~ GArfield ~ GEneva ~ GLenview ~ GReenleaf ~ HOgarth ~ HOward ~ HUnter ~ IVanhoe ~ JEfferson ~ JOrdan ~ JUniper ~ KEnwood ~ LAfayette ~ LAkeview ~ LEnox ~ LIberty ~ LIncoln ~ LOgan ~ LOrain ~ LUzon ~ MAdison ~ MArket ~ MAyfair ~ MElrose ~ MIdwest ~ MUrray ~ MUlberry ~ MYrtle ~ NAtional ~ NIagara ~ NOrthlawn ~ NOrmandy ~ OAkland ~ OLive ~ ORegon ~ ORleans ~ OXbow ~ PArkway ~ PIngree ~ PIoneer ~ PLaza ~ PRescott ~ PRospect ~ RAndolph ~ REdford ~ REpublic ~ ROckwell ~ SLocum ~ TAshmoo ~ TEmple ~ TEnneyson ~ TErrace ~ TExas ~ TIffany ~ TOwnsend ~ TRiangle ~ TRinity ~ TRojan ~ TUxedo ~ TUlsa ~ TWinbrook ~ TYler ~ UNiversity ~ ULysses ~ VAlley ~ VEnice ~ VErmont ~ VInewood ~ WAlnut ~ WArwick ~ WEbster ~ WEstwood ~ WHitney ~ WOodward
Extra Credit: NOrmandy was the name associated with Ann Arbor’s 66 exchange. Do you remember the word associated with 76? The Telephone Name Exchange Project claims it was SOciety. The YP in front of the 97 exchange paralleled the city it served, YPsilanti. Old phone books from the era report that the University of Michigan’s 74 exchange was tied to the word PIoneer, which also happened to be the mascot name for Ann Arbor High School, before two more were built in the city.
For uber fans of Exchange history, there’s an on-line database with a searchable nationwide collection of words/numbers.
