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It’s the dance of the Three Blind Mice as performed by Gwen Verdon & friends. More info about all that and a link to the entire routine from the Danny Kaye show here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/gwen-verdon-as-a-blind-mouse

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

Choreography amazes me.

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

That's some awesome choreography, there!

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Without sound I thought they were dancing to a three part Bach invention…I am somewhat traumatized to even say those words as in order to graduate from Juilliard non-piano majors had to be able to play a two part Bach invention….and I practiced for MONTHS and still couldn’t do it totally up to speed. Every other class at the Yard were A or A+…piano was barely pass. (I basically wept that they were preventing me from graduating…and that nasty piece of work piano asst. Prof prevented me from winning a prize because she delayed giving me a pass until the after the deadline for official graduation). However, I had the last laugh…my career ended up being so much shinier than hers.

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Ummmm….I think they were being machine gunned…I don’t think it had so much with not being able to swim.

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Last laughs are ALWAYS sweeter.

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Every school has some shit. My brother went to Andover in the 70s. They had some physical stuff they had to pass which came about when so many men died at Normandy just wading in to shore - they had never learned to swim! So you had to like swim a lap or something. My brother said he watched a friend of his just sink to the bottom like a stone and they had to dive in to get him

He also had to 'repelle' down the famous clock tower - which I guess he did - he is still alive. At that point I would have just quit and become a famous NYC folk singer instead or something.

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founding

Maybe it wasn't so much they didn't know how to swim as they were loaded down with so much gear and couldn't chuck it fast enough.

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Wait, how many Andover grads died of drowning at Normandy?

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I don't know but I'm guessing at lot

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

Dancin', dancin'!!! Thanks Martini.

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

She certainly doesn't look like a recent mother. What a waist!

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Gwen was absolutely riveting to watch. I cannot take my eyes off of her anytime she's on stage.

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author

Right?! I was amazed that she'd only given birth a few months prior. That's a dancer's bod for ya.

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

The ability that she had to be both graceful and energetic in equal portions, simultaneously, was amazing.

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Apr 17·edited Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

Danny Kaye show was a great show that showcased a lot of great talent unfortunately largely forgotten in time. Thanks for sharing this Martini

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

I adore Gwen Verdon. I could watch that incredible woman dance ALL the live long day and never weary of watching a step.

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What Lola wants, Lola gets!

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As an olde dude who appreciates well toned legs, Gwen tops my list.

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Verdon possessed a perfect set of pins.

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Watching her dance with Bob Fosse explains a lot about his choreography. Creating for a talent like Verdon allowed a lot of very cool, but difficult, dancing.

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Yarp. My brain ping-pongs back and forth between "Wow is she good!" and "Wow, she's smokin' hot!"

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

I happened to have some mouse pictures. Those poor blind mice.

I wonder if they stared at the eclipse without any glasses!

https://substack.com/@brawlatthepoetscafe/note/c-54135237?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=insr

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author

Whiskers is adorbs.

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

I thought that was Gwen! Man, she was amazing, huh? Simply incredible. Shout out to F/X "Fosse/Verdon" if you're looking for a great show about their life together. Thanks for starting our day off right, Martini!

https://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1465235993/?ref_=ext_shr

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That was a great movie.

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

Damn, she could move! Nice one!

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

Nice!

I've decided to go back in time and marry Gwen Verdon.

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As long as you treated her nicer than Bob did, I'm okay with that. 😁 (Bless his heart, he did try. But he just couldn't help fucking up, sadly.)

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Such graceful, so lady.

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Apr 17·edited Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

I knew I'd seen that somewhere before ... Even involves a mouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw3bL3QAtaQ

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

Oh, damn, it's a round. That's hard enough in song, I don't know how they pull that off in dance.

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Apr 17Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf, Martini Glambassador

With jazz hands

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

I seem to recall that 'Three Blind Mice' was dreamed up as a commentary on Bloody Mary's execution of heretics.

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Bloody Mary? Great idea!

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Enjoy!

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You know, I am NOT a fan of mice, but it seems weird they would run AFTER the farmer's wife--all mice I've had to encounter (gags a little) ran AWAY from people, at least.

Also, Farmer's Wife--the tails are not the issue. I'm going to have PETA show up for this, but if you are going to cut off their tails, why aren't you just stabbing them and getting the whole thing done with?

I know--again, I'm sorry for the early morning (for some) animal murder imagery. I still think it's more humane than maiming already blind mice and sending them off.

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National Lampoon had a comic bit with rats being chased by someone/thing (cat, maybe? Oldz brain) with a cleaver into the hole in the wall. Last one only made it halfway in. Or only half of him made it in. "Oh, Wally."

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"They're sent as a warning to the other unsighted mice! The tapping of those little white canes makes me 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺"

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Well , rat tail soup sucks .

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Don't try the strawberry tart, then.

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I'll have a slice without so much rat in it,

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I've stopped worrying, and learned to love the suck.

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I’m @ the embrace the suck, looking forward to loving it, TY! 💯

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Mouse tail bounty? Terry Pratchett used it in a Discworld book, and a very quick google turned up at least one real world example.

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''if you are going to cut off their tails, why aren't you just stabbing them and getting the whole thing done with?''

Swing and miss three times?

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

Almost ALL those cute little kid songs we were taught as bairns are about something horrific and bloody

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Knights of COVID - masks of steel -

Vaccine scars that time won't heal -

Castles closed - no feasts to share -

COVID's shadow everywhere -

Plague and pestilence - ancient plight -

COVID's grip - a modern fight -

DJT in quarantine -

His stupid tragedies unseen -

Jousting with a virus bold -

Injecting bleach - stories told -

Eating horse paste like in school -

Pooping your pants - like it was cool -

Maidens masked in modern plight -

tRump’s Tower is empty in the night -

Responsiblity taken - none -

No toilet paper - that’s no fun -

Skip-a-rope

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

'Ring around the rosie' immediately springs to mind.

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Come and skip rope -

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London Bridges....Humpty Dumpty...the Old Testament...

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I saw a group of kids doing that one the other day, and got a bit of a shudder. They’ll find out eventually, I thought.

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Maybe.

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author

Orbital did a version of that one last year and I love it but I think of horrid death every time it pops into my playlist.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DNxGpMySziQ

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Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

But you can’t skip rope to it - see below

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Apr 17·edited Apr 17Liked by Martini Glambassador

Loopz UK!

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The Plague, wasn't it?

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The one and only Black Death, yeah.

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founding

Leave it to 'Murica to accumulate 1.5 million COVID-19 corpses and not get one decent bit of rhyme to help us skip rope with.

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Probably not, though.

When it comes to folk songs, language, and so on, the really cool story is hardly ever the true story.

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"Cat Pictures Please" was such a great read, thank you!

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Hey Fellow GOP candidates! Give me money!

"Trump campaign asks for cut of candidates’ fundraising when they use his name and likeness"

The grift never ends with this one.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/17/trump-campaign-fundraising-five-percent-00152830

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The Fairmont is literally steps from my place, so guess I'll be there!

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This Friday is the regular monthly meet up for San Francisco wonkers. 6PM, at the Eclipse restaurant and bar in the Embarcadero Hyatt Regency. We sit on the right side as you cross over from the elevators. Look for a woman in a wheelchair. I hope to see you there.

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Is Thomas still AWOL from SCOTUS today?

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You and I both know that the problem at NPR isn’t “woke,” it’s their both-sides “Nice Polite Republican” bullshits.

Yuuuuup. This is why I stopped listening to NPR in 2016, because that's when it became staring-into-the-sun glaringly obvious.

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same.

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I miss numerous users' cat pics; disqus had its upside. Maybe there's a way to post pics here and I just haven't kept up, but the lack of cats makes me think otherwise. Happy for any tips.

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Post it in your notes ( there's a tiny icon lower left in which you can grab a pic)

Theres a "copy link" in the /..../ That you then paste in your comment to us here.

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Jesus Christ. A friend of mine was almost murdered. Motherfucker best her half to death and left her with a fractured back in a house he set on fire. The cops ain't even arrested the son of a bitch after she told them who it was.

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What?!!!OMG that is horrible!

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Jebus. I hope she'll be OK.

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She's alive thank God and those teenagers passing by. Pretty sure the fucker called me on her phone a day later, missed a call from her and he had called another guy from the bar she was in contact with. Hope he gets caught and never sees the light of day.

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What a fuckhead.

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founding

Thanks for the "Cat Pictures, Please", Rebecca.

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I could see one of today’s media producers in 1942 saying “ Okay, every time we run a story about Hitler gassing a Jewish family we need to run one about a Jewish person convicted of a crime too”

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*warning all caps alert*

WHY THE FUCKING FUCK IS ANYONE FUCKING LISTENING TO CHRIS "HERE IS HOW I SHALL SMEAR THE LEFT PART ONE TRILLION" FUCKING RUFO IF HE TOLD ME MY FUCKING ASS WAS ON FIRE I'D WANT A SECOND AND THIRD OPINION SWEET SCREAMING JESUS THE MAN IS A WALKING INTENTIONAL DECEIT FACTORY AND YET THE FUCKING GULLIBLE "LEFT" MEDIA EATS HIS SHIT UP WITH KETCHUP

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NPR is just garbage now, which is really a shame, because I really liked listening to All Things Considered while driving Interstate 5 between LA and SF, and now that NPR is so Stepford Wives, and one can no longer pick up the Navajo Nation station in Windowrock, there's nothing left on Cental Valley radio but mediocre Norteña music and screeching evangelicals.

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Tribal radio is a Godsend when you're traveling through the sticks.

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It is so great. KTNN from Window Rock used to be my go-to soundtrack for driving the 5. At that time it had one of the strongest transmitters in the world, which is why you could easily pick it up all the way over in central California.

We drove through the Navajo reservation in October 2020 and found the coverage of the upcoming election on tribal radio to be completely fascinating.

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I used to live in a radio wasteland. All I could get was either six hours of Howard Stern in the morning, limbaugh clones, or the loudest and least melodic rock I've ever heard. Then XM came on the scene. Still a big fan of it.

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Ich bin kein Berliner.

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Very surprised to not see coverage of former NC GOP Rep Cawthorn rear ending a cop car, gives 'backing the blue' a whole new meaning!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/state/2024/04/16/reports-madison-cawthorn-rear-ended-florida-highway-patrol-vehicle/73339985007/

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I was reading the Twitter thread from a woman that Mad Maddie was tailgating just before the crash.

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When Bad Things Happen to Bad People

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One can only hope a substance test is required in cases of damage to government property and that there will be a key (bump) follow up story.

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I mean, he made a point of saying he was invited to all the coke orgies

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In Texas suppose we have free and fair elections that are not gerrymandered to shit in order to find out what is the actual 'will of the people'. Seems like all this let the states decide bullshit does not mean anything if what it comes down to is let Greg Abbott decide.

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