Nov. 2nd, 2007
Last night, I saw a TV commercial for a new credit card Bank of America is offering...with an old, old name I hadn't heard in decades: BankAmeriCard. (Yahoo! News reports on the story here.)
Now, follow me on this: Back almost half a century ago, the original BankAmeriCard was conceived as a way for California businesses to outsource their monthly client billing. The concept proved so popular, they expanded it nationwide, and then copycat networks started appearing in other countries and were eventually merged into one worldwide network. This became independent of BoA and was renamed Visa. (Wikipedia has a detailed history outlined here.) It also inspired a competitor, Master Charge, which you may recall eventually became MasterCard.
Today, 49 years later, the bank that originated what most of us of a certain age remember as the first true universal charge card is launching a descendant of the original...with the brand name of the old one, right alongside the newer brand of the organization that grew out of the original.
Am I the only one who sees an amusing bit of historical recursion (not to mention redundancy) in this? Just wondering...
Now, follow me on this: Back almost half a century ago, the original BankAmeriCard was conceived as a way for California businesses to outsource their monthly client billing. The concept proved so popular, they expanded it nationwide, and then copycat networks started appearing in other countries and were eventually merged into one worldwide network. This became independent of BoA and was renamed Visa. (Wikipedia has a detailed history outlined here.) It also inspired a competitor, Master Charge, which you may recall eventually became MasterCard.
Today, 49 years later, the bank that originated what most of us of a certain age remember as the first true universal charge card is launching a descendant of the original...with the brand name of the old one, right alongside the newer brand of the organization that grew out of the original.
Am I the only one who sees an amusing bit of historical recursion (not to mention redundancy) in this? Just wondering...
Back in the mists of antiquity (1988, that is), I did a filk of "Don't Ask" by Frank Hayes (itself a filk of "Banks of Sicily" or "Green Hills of Harmony," depending on who you talk to) about the Writer's Guild of America-West strike of that year against TV networks and movie studios.
—————
Well, now it's almost two decades later and the WGA is back on the picket lines again, negotiations with the entertainment congloms and their stooges at the AMPTP over revenues for non-living-room-set uses of programming having broken down (see Reuters report here). So naturally, my warped brain started working on an update to that old chestnut of mine, "The Writer's Guild Strike of 1988"...and the results are back of the cut, still in progress.
You know the drill by now. What haven't I been writing about that you'd like me to? What have I previously written about that you'd like to see me follow up on? Or just post whatever the heck is on your mind at the moment.
A public service announcement
Nov. 2nd, 2007 06:36 pmOn the off-chance any of you might have seen this headline and become alarmed about our condiment supply...
Floodwaters Devastate Mexican State of Tabasco
For the record, this is NOT where the famous hot sauce of the same name comes from—and I should know, as I happen to have grown up in the state where it actually is made...here.
Just wanted to be sure there was no misunderstanding. And all jokes aside, being as my home state was also where the Hurricane Katrina floods of 2005 occurred, I would ask that you pray for all those who are affected by this new disaster.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Floodwaters Devastate Mexican State of Tabasco
For the record, this is NOT where the famous hot sauce of the same name comes from—and I should know, as I happen to have grown up in the state where it actually is made...here.
Just wanted to be sure there was no misunderstanding. And all jokes aside, being as my home state was also where the Hurricane Katrina floods of 2005 occurred, I would ask that you pray for all those who are affected by this new disaster.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Just a friendly reminder that PBS stations are still airing the "Good Ol' Charles Schulz" episode of American Masters this week (check your local listings for day/time). Since we here in Atlanta are actually blessed with not one, but two PBS TV stations (one, PBA 30, run by the city's public school system, and the other part of the statewide Georgia Public Broadcasting network), we get no less than five, count 'em, five shots at seeing this excellent cinéma-vérite documentary on the man and his world-famous comic strip, Peanuts. (And thanks, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
filkferengi, for tipping me to the times.)
The GPB station ran it late at night a couple evenings ago, paired with a New Jersey Network show featuring classical composer Ellen Zwilich and the suite of pieces for orchestra she wrote in collaboration with Schulz before his death, Peanuts Gallery. The show includes a live performance of the composition at NYC's famed Carnegie Hall. Each song in the suite—"Lullaby for Linus," "Charlie Brown's Lament," "Snoopy Does the Samba" and more—shows that she gets these characters, as truly and richly as anyone other than Schulz himself could. I can't find it online for download or streaming, alas, but I did get most of it on tape.
So once again, I got to thinking about why in the world this man I never even met and his silly little newspaper comic strip should make me so obsessive, and have made me so literally from when I was barely out of training pants. I guess it all came down to identifying with the characters, as I suspect it did for a lot of us, and learning from them as one could not learn from any other strip out there: the eternal loser Charlie Brown; the insecure, bookish, thoughtful Linus; and the dog Snoopy, always off in his own little Walter Mitty world of fantasy. I learned about perseverance and decency from Charlie Brown, insight from Linus, imagination and having fun from Snoopy, a little too much about self-love from Linus' big sister Lucy, the perils of vanity from Frieda (she of the naturally curly hair), the pursuit of excellence from Schroeder and his amazing toy piano, dignity despite externals from Pig-Pen...and on and on.
What struck me most, and still does, about the strip is poor old Charlie's determination even in the face of repeated failure, his ability to cling to the belief that he could one day succeed if he didn't quit trying. If he could get back up, again and again and again, and try one more time to win that baseball game, fly that kite, kick that bloody-be-damned football...then what excuse on God's green Earth do any of us have for not doing the same with the daily struggles each of us face?
What did, or does, Peanuts mean to you? I'd be interested to hear what others in my LJ circle have taken away from reading and watching the gang's adventures over the years.
filkferengi, for tipping me to the times.)The GPB station ran it late at night a couple evenings ago, paired with a New Jersey Network show featuring classical composer Ellen Zwilich and the suite of pieces for orchestra she wrote in collaboration with Schulz before his death, Peanuts Gallery. The show includes a live performance of the composition at NYC's famed Carnegie Hall. Each song in the suite—"Lullaby for Linus," "Charlie Brown's Lament," "Snoopy Does the Samba" and more—shows that she gets these characters, as truly and richly as anyone other than Schulz himself could. I can't find it online for download or streaming, alas, but I did get most of it on tape.
So once again, I got to thinking about why in the world this man I never even met and his silly little newspaper comic strip should make me so obsessive, and have made me so literally from when I was barely out of training pants. I guess it all came down to identifying with the characters, as I suspect it did for a lot of us, and learning from them as one could not learn from any other strip out there: the eternal loser Charlie Brown; the insecure, bookish, thoughtful Linus; and the dog Snoopy, always off in his own little Walter Mitty world of fantasy. I learned about perseverance and decency from Charlie Brown, insight from Linus, imagination and having fun from Snoopy, a little too much about self-love from Linus' big sister Lucy, the perils of vanity from Frieda (she of the naturally curly hair), the pursuit of excellence from Schroeder and his amazing toy piano, dignity despite externals from Pig-Pen...and on and on.
What struck me most, and still does, about the strip is poor old Charlie's determination even in the face of repeated failure, his ability to cling to the belief that he could one day succeed if he didn't quit trying. If he could get back up, again and again and again, and try one more time to win that baseball game, fly that kite, kick that bloody-be-damned football...then what excuse on God's green Earth do any of us have for not doing the same with the daily struggles each of us face?
What did, or does, Peanuts mean to you? I'd be interested to hear what others in my LJ circle have taken away from reading and watching the gang's adventures over the years.
