Plenty of Nothing

KTLA, 1949

Some of the voice talent at television station KTLA in 1949. The puppets in the foreground are Beany and Cecil, the stars of Time For Beany, which won the Emmy for best children's show three years in a row. Bob Clampett, who pitched an animated John Carter of Mars movie in the Thirties and worked on those wartime Bugs Bunny cartoons, was producer. He revived the characters of Beany and Cecil for an animated cartoon in the 1960s. Daws Butler went on to voice Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound at Hanna-Barbera. Joan Gardner was Helen in The Jetsons. Stan Freberg had a career as a political satirist in the 1950s, making records for Capitol. Pianist Korla Pandit had his own exotic classical music show. Source.

Hockey Night in Canada Early Sixties Jazz Ending

Watch.

Unser Sandmännchen in Space

The East German children's program Unser Sandmännchen would begin with the little Sandman arriving in some kind of vehicle to watch television with the children. Above we see the arrival happening in orbit. See another orbital sequence here and listen to the theme song.

When East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn visited Salyut 6 in 1978 he took along a Sandmännchen figure.

Sources: 1), 2).

BBC Greenock

It's Morton versus Falkirk at Cappielow. This game has been moved to Friday night for television presentation on BBC Scotland. Can you feel the seethe? When St Mirren get back into the Championship next season they're going to find out that they're no longer Morton's most hated opponent.

Rumours persist that Michael Tidser has a pre-contract agreement with Falkirk. He was off to his best year ever when McKinnon was manager, but under Johansson not so much. A GMFC supporter at the Morton Forum makes the point that if Morton can send Falkirk to League One then Falkirk or Tidser or both will back out of the PCA.

Morton are sixth in the Championship with 33 points. Falkirk are ninth with 25. Morton won their first meeting 1 - 0. The second was a 0 - 0 draw.

This is the 201st competitive match between these two, counting Scottish League, Scottish Cup, League Cup, Challenge Cup, Anglo-Scottish Cup, Southern League, Southern League Cup, and Summer Cup. (Source: Fitbastats.)

Ross MacLean, who played the first half of 2018-19 for Morton, is now with Falkirk.

Current undefeated streaks:

6        Falkirk

5        Dundee United

3        Dunfermline

2        Ross County

1        Morton

1        Alloa

0        Ayr United

0        Inverness CT

0        Queen of the South

0        Partick Thistle

How many games have Falkirk played against the other 2018-19 Championship clubs?

217        Partick Thistle

200        Morton

141        Ayr United

132        Queen of the South

119        Dunfermline

106        Dundee United

  74        Alloa

  49        Inverness CT

  36        Ross County

Ross MacLean's goals for Morton:

date               venue             opponent               goalkeeper            competition

2018/7/21      Cappielow      Stenhousemuir      Graeme Smith      League Cup

2018/8/4        Cappielow      QoS                       Alan Martin           league

How have Morton fared in Match 27 this decade?

2018/3/10      Falkirk 3 - 1 Morton

2017/3/18      Falkirk 0 - 1 Morton

2016/3/1        Livingston 0 - 0 Morton

2015/3/3        Morton 4 - 0 Stirling Albion

2014/3/15      Raith Rovers 2 - 1 Morton

2013/3/9        Morton 2 - 0 Falkirk

2012/3/13      Ross County 2 - 2 Morton

2011/3/19      Morton 0 - 0 Raith Rovers

2010/3/23      Morton 1 - 1 Raith Rovers

3 wins, 4 draws, 2 losses.

[Today it's Morton 1 - 1 Falkirk. Morton goal by Greg Kiltie.]

Another Championship match (tomorrow):

Dunfermline [1 - 0] Queen of the South

Manageria: Brendan Rodgers has left Celtic for Leicester City. Neil Lennon is back with Celtic. David Hopkin has resigned from Bradford City.

It's the Scottish Cup quarter-finals:

Hibs [0 - 2] Celtic (Saturday)

These are the last two clubs to win the cup.

Aberdeen [1 - 1] Rangers (Sunday)

Dundee United [1 - 2] Inverness CT (Sunday)

The Championship is guaranteed to have a club in the semi-finals.

Partick [1 - 1] Hearts (Monday)

Apart from 1920-21, Hearts have always prevailed in this Scottish Cup pairing.

1928-29: Morton visited Stenhousemuir and won 1 - 2.

1951-52: On March 1st 1952 beat Heart of Midlothian 3 - 1 at Cappielow.

Kenny Miller's goals against Morton, for no good reason:

date               time       club           venue    goalie        competition

2015/12/12     2 min    Rangers    Ibrox     Adam         league

2016/1/25     26 min    Rangers    Cappielow    Gaston    league

2016/3/11     43 min    Rangers    Ibrox     Gaston        league

2016/3/11     46 min    Rangers    Ibrox     Gaston        league

2017/2/12     13 min    Rangers    Ibrox     Gaston        Scottish Cup

Cowlairs versus Arbroath. These two met in Round Five of the 1887-88 Scottish Cup. Arbroath won 5 - 1.

SWFL2 Cup: Westdyke Thistle Ladies [0 - 6] Morton Women (Sunday)

The 2019 Canadian Premier League schedule is out, and it's batshit crazy; or weird and wonderful if you are of a more charitable disposition.

Each team will play 28 games, which suggests the league really did expect to have the Ottawa Fury in its ranks, because 28 games is a quadruple round robin for an 8-team league. With only 7 teams, a 28-games schedule must be unbalanced. Halifax will play Pacific, Valour, Cavalry and York 5 times each, and Forge and Edmonton 4 times.

It's a split season. There's an apertura (called Spring Season) and a clausura (Fall Season). The winner of each will meet in the CPL Championship in October. If the same team wins both halves then the championship will be between the top two teams in the combined table.

So if Team A wins in the Spring and Team B finishes 7th, and Team B wins in the Fall and Team A finishes 7th, they will meet in the championship, even if Team C finishes 2nd in both halves and is higher than both A and B in the combined table.

On top of that, and this is where it gets really peculiar, the two halves are different lengths. Each team plays 10 games in the Spring and 18 in the Fall. The end of the Spring Season falls on Canada Day, and just in time for the CONCACAF League.

The results between the three 'oldest' clubs, Edmonton, Valour and Forge, will be extracted from Spring Season results and the best of those three will represent the CPL in the 2019 CONCACAF League.

I think the CPL should have just waited for the 2020 CONCACAF League.

There are a lot of midweek games. HFX will play 14 games on Saturday, 9 on Wednesday, 3 on Monday and 2 on Sunday. Wednesday games are not as common in say the SPFL, but the CPL has to cram a year's worth of soccer into six months. Two clubs, Valour and Forge, use CFL stadiums, and the CFL schedule includes no Wednesday games at all.

There's a potential bottleneck in August around the time of the Voyageurs Cup semi-finals. If HFX Wanderers or Valour FC make it that far they will have to play on August 5th, 7th and 10th, unless something gets moved. Also, if Valour, Forge or Edmonton do well in the CONCACAF League, there could be scheduling problems with all those Wednesday games already pencilled in.

If HFX make the third round of the Voyageurs Cup they will play nine games in July.

I think the league will expand to ten or twelve teams as quickly as possible, so these 2019 expedients are something to relish while they last.

I'm waiting for the Tohoku Soccer League schedule to come out, but I believe that league is literally run by bears who are still hibernating.

West of Scotland Premiership: Renfrew [5 - 2] Largs Thistle

The Danish 1st Division is back: Køge [3 - 3] Fredericia (Sunday)

Køge was the site of a battle between the Danish and the British in 1807.

Swiss Challenge League: Winterthur [1 - 1] Lausanne (Sunday)

Regionalliga Südwest: 1. FC Saarbrücken [4 - 0] TSV Steinbach

Panini Cheapskates are brilliant. Read about them here.

Frank's Bandstand, 1967

Watch.

Pahvo, Ontario

Now that Star Trek is being shot in Toronto, the Vasquez Rocks are out, and the Niagara Escarpment is in.

Japanese Morning TV Covers Ishiguro's Nobel

Watch. His kindergarten teacher is at 4:04.

The Train Job

Tomorrow marks the fifteenth anniversary of the "The Train Job", the first episode of Firefly to be broadcast. Like Star Trek's "The Man Trap" it was not intended to be the first episode shown. But TV execs know best. 2017 is also the minus 500th anniversary of Firefly, which is set in 2517. It's nice to think that as the human race abandoned Earth That Was, someone thought to bring alone Chinese checkers. Source.

Miharashidai

This beverage commercial pulls out the trope of the-only-passenger-left-at-the-out-of-the-way-train-station-is-a-high-school-girl, first seen here. Miharashidai station really is out of the way, on a branch line connecting Takamori to Kunamoto in central Kyushu where, I guess, they also have winter. The combination of high school girl and endangered branch line evokes a sense of the ephemeral quality of things, and can be used to sell bottled tea. Watch.

My complaint: if the Annapolis Valley were in Japan I'm pretty certain there would have been a morning train from Kingston Station to West Kings DHS when I was going to high school. The tracks ran right past my door and the school.

Orchestral Pitagora Suichi

Do you think you know Pitagora Suichi? How about Shadow Pitagora Suichi, or Underwater Pitagora Suichi. How about Single Drop of Water Pitagora Suichi. [Dead link! This link has Shadow Pitagora Suichi, but not Underwater Pitagora Suichi.]