WOULD YOU PLEASE… NO MORE ALL CAPS!!

I LOATHE ALL CAPS.

ALWAYS HAVE.

ALL CAPS emerged in the teletype era, when ONLY CAPITAL LETTERS WERE ON THE MACHINES, which emerged in the early-to-mid 1800s, i.e., c.1835-1850.

That is now approaching 200 years ago — 188, to be exact. They’re a close relative to Morse code. It’s a modern-day dinosaur.

I’ve seen a few teletype machines. They’re ogres of monstrosity. My now-late father used ‘em in the Navy during the Korean War. I recollect seeing one being used in a small hometown FM radio station that broadcast in monoaural using a block format.

Yeah… THAT OLD.

By the way, the term “teletype” used to describe a teleprinter, first came from the Teletype Corporation in 1928, which trademarked the term, and as with xerography, now called photocopying, early copiers were Xerox brand, and people “xeroxed” papers, instead of making printed copies. Both terms, teletype, and xerox, became ubiquitously associated with both firm’s products, and in turn, became widely used generic descriptors.

The first station where I worked had one collecting dust in an unused corner near the rear entrance by the tube transmitter. Fortunately, the station’s owner had wisely transitioned to a dot-matrix printer for the AP news copy, using tractor-fed, acordion-folded paper.

The 2nd station where I worked used satellite dishes, and computers.

Digitization through the computer and Internet has changed EVERYTHING. LITERALLY, EVERY THING — including broadcast. On the whole, in my considered opinion, it’s been a blessing, but every rose has its thorn, as the saying goes (unless you buy ‘em from a florist, but then they have no fragrance, either), and that thorn in many cases is human behavior, which historically has almost always been problematic, somebodies wanting to get over on (take unfair advantage of) others, resistance to change, etc.

Now, many shows, including radio, are

The Best

The Best – and Worst – of Everything

If you’ve done any Internet-based searches for practically any product, good, or service, you may have noticed at least one recurring theme:

Best.

In an email today, I found the following:

• The 100 Best Movies on Netflix (June 2021)
• The 30 Best Horror TV Shows on Netflix
• The Best Sitcoms on Netflix Right Now (June 2021)
• The 35 Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now
• The 20 Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix (June 2021)
• The Best Comedies on Netflix Right Now (June 2021)
• The 7 Best Fantasy Movies on Netflix
• The Trailer Park: The Best New Movie Trailers of the
• The 60 Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now (2021)
• The 10 Best Movies in Theaters Right Now
• The Best Sci-Fi Movies on Amazon Prime (2021)

I thought that I would vomit after reading that garbage, because it was so nauseating.

The best

Slap the word “best” into the headline, and POOF! “Suddenly,” it’s the ultimate, never-to-be challenged, or surpassed. And who, or what group established any “standards” by which the items were compared to establish what is “best,” or “worst”?

And what are the qualifications of the writers to establish what thing is “best,” or not?

It’s so just because they say so.

Again, an utter failure.

And then, when it comes to “news,” or what is often allegedly passed off as “news,” there are at least

In Praise of Natural Black Women

“Take It Off” – track 1 on his 1987 album “High Priest” – is a song sung by a White man (Alex Chilton) praising the beauty of a natural Black woman.

If you’ve given any attention to some of recent videos by Black female artists like Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Armani Caesar, Bbymutha, et al, you’ll notice that (obviously fake) long, pointy fingernails are all the rage, as are fake eyelashes, and all the stuff Alex Chilton sings about in his 1987 version of the song… including

Style versus Fashion? Men prefer Style.

Peacocks on parade

January 4, 2013, 7:36 pm

By Charlie Porter

A look into the strained relationship between male style and men’s fashion

Victor Deleon; Photo ©Sophie Elgort

In the world of menswear, it has become the norm to say one is interested not in fashion but in style. It can be seen in journalism both venerable (GQ’s monthly column of clothes tips and advice is by the Style Guy, not the Fashion Guy) and modern (the influential magazine Fantastic Man describes itself as “the gentleman’s style journal”). It happens in retail, too – while women’s online store Net-A-Porter is tagged as a “fashion destination”, its two-year-old brother site Mr Porter is flagged as a “destination for men’s style”. Ask most men if they favour “fashion” or “style”, and a sizeable majority would steer sharply to the latter. It’s almost as if men wished fashion would just go away.

And yet menswear carries on regardless. From Monday, the next round of men’s fashion shows takes place, first in London, then in Florence, Milan and Paris, accompanied by announcements that the men’s luxury market is booming, often outperforming women’s; according to the consultancy Bain & Co, menswear sales worldwide are expected to have increased 10 per cent in 2012 from the year before, to €26bn. Men’s fashion shows, however, still sit at something of a remove, with men outside the industry unaware or uncaring of what’s happening on a catwalk in some European city. If ever there is any discussion of men’s fashion shows, it usually comes as ridicule: “Would real guys really wear that?” (the answer is, usually, no). What interests men is style, and that’s it.

To understand this dichotomy between fashion and style, it helps to look far from