Forgot to blog this earlier: watching the news last night, it appears that the Serial Shootings Task Force tracking the mysterious “sniper” here in Columbus have received more than 3,100 tips to date. They have distilled those 3,100 leads into a list of approximately 750 separate and individual names, 750 people who (so the tipsters believe) either know something about the shootings worth reporting or are, in fact, the shooters themselves.

So, apparently, there are at least 750 people living in the southeastern Columbus area who are shifty or suspicious enough to warrant being turned in by the people around them.

Yeah. That makes me feel better, let me tell you.

The Smoking Gun does some interesting legwork regarding Elicia Battle, the woman who claims she purchased and lost the sole winning 12/30/03 Mega Millions lottery ticket (worth approximately $162 million) — despite the fact that another woman produced the ticket itself, along with the receipt for its purchase and a prior ticket in which she played the same exact numbers.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Federal spending was the topic and Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich came prepared with a pie chart to argue his point about a bloated Pentagon budget.

But although many listened to Tuesday’s presidential debate, few could see the Ohio congressman’s prop.

The debate was broadcast only on National Public Radio.

NPR has the debate archived here.

via phonecam

via phonecam

A story I’ve been following with some interest (and not a little black humor) since the beginning of the month:

At some time during the debate over the recent Medicare/prescription drug bill in Congress, it appears that someone tried to bribe Representative Nick Smith, a Republican from Michigan who’s retiring after this term in office. Rep. Smith’s son is running for his soon-to-be-vacated seat. As originally told by Smith, the story goes that “House leadership” pressed him for a “yes” vote on the bill by first promising financial help and leadership endorsements for Smith the younger and then threatening to make sure that his campaign failed if Smith refused to endorse the bill. When the press picked up on the story and pushed Smith to name names, pointing out that if true, the conduct pretty much equaled the textbook definition of bribery, Smith “recanted” and said it never happened. Problem is, Smith was all over the place talking about it before it became a legal issue…

In the latest “development”, if you want to call it that, the Justice Department is dragging its heels over opening an investigation into the matter. Personally, I don’t know how long it takes for the wheels of Justice to grind into motion, but it does seem as if the information is out there just waiting for them to decide to jump into it.

Here’s the deal: in the 1960s, RCA/Victor used to press sampler albums with tracks from their catalog and give them out with the purchase of an RCA/Victor record player. Most of these sampler albums would, in today’s parlance, be “Limited Editions”, never to be made again; back then, it was just one more way to get the consumer exposed to the label.

So the story goes that my grandparents gave my father a record player for Christmas his freshman year of college at Ohio University. When they bought it, they were also given an RCA/Victor sampler album, entitled THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS. Which my dad apparently loved, because it’s one of the few albums from their collection that I remember listening to every year when I was a kid. Dad loved it so much that he dubbed it to tape and gave the album itself back to my grandparents so they could enjoy it; that tape then became the Audio Tape What Gets Played the Most in the Dahlberg household. It got so I knew every one of those songs by heart, despite not even knowing, really, who the artists were.

And so it comes to pass that now, as an adult with a family of my own, I’d like to have some Christmas music in the house — all well and good, as it’s not hard to come by, but what I want is that album I grew up with. But here’s the catch: most of those samplers have never been pressed on CD. THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS, as a sampler album, exists only in its original form: a long-playing record.

Which leaves me to turn to the internet. Help me, Internet. You’re my only hope.

I’ve been searching high and low for mp3s of the tracks from the album. Some I have; most, I don’t. If you have any of these or can find them anywhere using this magical electronic box of knowledge, drop me a line at gus@dahlbergcentral.com and let me know.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

• Ralph Hunter Choir – Twelve Days of Christmas
  
• Mario Lanza – Adeste Fideles
  
• Robert Shaw Chorale w/ RCA Victor Orchestra – O Sanctissima
  
• Boston Pops w/ Arthur Fiedler – A Christmas Festival (medley)
  
• John Gary – The Christmas Song
  
• Melachrino Strings – Sleigh Ride
  
• Norman Luboff Choir – The Little Drummer Boy (1)
  
• Eddy Arnold – Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
  
• Ames Bros – Santa Claus is Coming to Town
  
• The Cartwrights – Merry Christmas Neighbor

(1) I actually have a version of this song by another choir which sounds remarkably similar, but I’d still like to have the Luboff version.

I highly recommend these for your own Christmas collections, however. There’s lots of fun to be had here; the Fiedler/Boston Pops “A Christmas Festival” has long been one of my favorite pieces (yeah, it’s a medley, but it’s a FUN medley), and The Cartwrights’ “Merry Christmas Neighbor” is a hoot (yes, it’s the cast of BONANZA doing a Christmas song…)

Thanks, Internet. Merry Christmas.

Your “comics in the mainstream media” link for the day: Slate takes a tour through the career highlights of writer Alan Moore, the Orson Welles of comics.

(Ignore the links to the SUPREME books — here’s what you need for a proper Moore library:

• LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN
• V FOR VENDETTA
• WATCHMEN
• FROM HELL
• PROMETHEA
• SUPERMAN: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW
• SNAKES AND LADDERS

(and, if you can find cheap copies, of course: all three MIRACLEMAN books written by Moore…)