Right Good Blog

An extraordinary life

2008-09-23T16:06:00.000-04:00

The Hartford Courant runs a column every month where they pick an extraordinary person who lived in the area. Of course, they picked Bobb.

R.G.B. R.I.P.

2008-05-15T12:22:00.003-04:00

Robert Gordon Brooks died of cancer May 14th, 2008 at 6:10 PM in West Haven, Connecticut. His son Gordon was at his side. He died following a week of care and music and story telling with his four siblings Meredith, Leah, Scott and John, his nephew Jesse and of course, his loving wife Martha. He was a good man and will be missed by all whose path he crossed. May he rest in peace.posted by

Cars

2008-02-15T18:06:00.003-05:00

I invite all to email me pictures or remembrances of our cars of youth. This I think is the model, or a year or two off, Grandma had in blue that I drove a few times as a teenager in LeRoy.It did have an early automatic "Hydramatic" transmission. Comments?

Edison National Historic Site

2008-02-15T05:57:00.003-05:00

I ran across some Edison Early Recordings made into Mp3s from old cylinders on the Edison National Historic Site, a real treat. Some early Sousa Marches played by Sousa's Band, and some minstrel stuff, and readings from as early as 1880s to the 1930s.Of course one of my folk favorites involve whistling and yodeling and banjos.For instance:Jere Sanford's yodeling and whistling specialty

Surprise! Good software: Copernic

2008-01-18T01:00:00.000-05:00

I usually don’t get on the bandwagon for software, or tout hardware, as some MAC addicted people do, but occasionally I find something that is a little different. I just discovered Copernic, so far proving to be a wonderful desktop search thing. I’ll explain below. The last program that got me that way was the graphics viewer ACDSee, which I actually bought, and still use it today. It

50 inch monitor-video glasses

2007-08-25T19:56:00.000-04:00

Finally, technology for sale now that has been hovering out there for years, virtual wide screen monitor or screen, optically out in front of you, but worn like glasses, for watching movies from any iPod, Mp4 player, DVD, or I guess even your Internet browser, though this article doesn't mention that. They call them video sunglasses, so I am assuming you could see through them for normal

VOIP Telephony

2007-08-18T00:44:00.000-04:00

I like the word; telephony. It might actually apply literally in this story, a combination of telephone and phony.Again, I have gone through an almost hilarious string of bungles on the part of a company in the "service" business" who really deserves to fail if they treat customers like they treated me. But because they are in the driver's seat, they get away with it. In times like these, I

Your car might use salt water as fuel?

2007-07-10T17:17:00.001-04:00

Tell ‘em you heard it first here! When I was in college at Allegheny, we called Erie, PA, 100 mi north, “Dreary Erie, the mistake by the lake.” but this news item from Erie is nothing but amazing!Watch this video about John Kanzius, inventor, who was inventing a radio wave gun to bombard cancer, hoping to make a breakthrough in fighting the disease. He discovered his device facilitated burning

Safari Browser from Apple

2007-06-13T03:54:00.000-04:00

I heard through the RSS world that Apple had released a windows version of Safari, so even though FireFox is so well established with me, I never have left a browser untried since Mosaic, so I downloaded the thing.I was dismayed that it wanted to force me to reinstall iTunes, the aggressive store they want to establish on my desktop. I had un-installed iTunes just recently after trying to

John Philip Sousa

2007-05-31T17:46:00.000-04:00

I played in one of the bands that took part in this year's Sousa festival. It was interesting on several levels, including that I met the great grandson, John Philip Sousa IV, and the governor proclaimed it to be John Philip Sousa Day in Connecticut.Here was my email to the community band mailing list:

I don't have vertigo, just out on the walkway.

2007-05-04T03:46:00.000-04:00

I have seen this in the news, both in the planning stages and since it was open, and it does bring out the shivers in me. The Grand canyon glass walkway, skywalk, or glass bridge or whatever you call it. I wonder if I would have the strength to overcome the vertigo and go out on it. On first thought, I love it when you see that view - once I saw it in one of those dome projected i-movies or

Just an interesting creature department:

2007-04-07T02:32:00.000-04:00

You know those little grey or brown rolly bugs that Mom used to call "Potato Bugs" but really were something else? They rolled up into a little ball when they were hassled?They apparently are in the "isopod" family biologically, (word origin: equal foot?) and low and behold some of their scary 2000 leagues (ft?) under the sea cousins have been found." Here is the giant isopod, known

Back on line with 3D rotating graphics!

2007-04-04T03:49:00.000-04:00

I originally posted this on my Catchall blog while Google was playing error games with my right good blog. It finally is fixed now, but I got a strange message from Google implying that it fixed itself, which is impossible. Anyway, I thought I would post this very very cool slide show gimmick I found on a blog and traced to "picture trail" a flicker-type photo web site. Here are some of our

Henry Filmore Arrangements

2007-02-19T18:21:00.000-05:00

I think we all are interested in people with a sense of humor - usually these people are obscure and ordinary, but in this case it's someone who was famous, at least in the field of band composers. Henry Fillmore wrote sometimes humorous, but always difficult rags, marches and jazzy things in the early 1900's. They often featured trombones. According to Herb Brock, staff writer for

Clip Art Flipping Show

2007-02-15T02:15:00.000-05:00

I have this collection of great clip art that used to come with Corel, that I actually own, and I think they even said I had the rights to use them. The clip art that comes with the newer versions is crap of lesser quality.But for instance there were 787 artistic images of people in various occupations and garb. What are the chances that I would use these things after maybe 10 years. I

Fred's Magic

2007-02-08T22:29:00.000-05:00

Another benefit of my volunteer work at the shelter is finding some nice people, and even some talented ones, like this guy Fred, a really clever and likable guy who plays the guitar and does magic as a hobby. He said he has been doing magic since high school. Personally, Fred got laid off five years ago from a good job at one of the biggest employers in CT, "Electric Boat" that builds subs and

Homeless Shelter

2007-01-05T00:17:00.000-05:00

I guess I have to admit it is partly because of my cancer thing that I was motivated to volunteer at the homeless shelter, but I'm glad I did. It has been interesting so far. Betty, the geriatric nurse who was a friend and a help to Martha's mother before we came up here, and has become our friend too, talked me into this, and we volunteer together on Wednesday evenings. I also signed up alone

God Bless America

2006-12-20T15:15:00.000-05:00

Feeling Patriotic? God Bless America! Just found this clip of the band I used to play in, The Farmington Valley Band. They recorded this track a couple of years back for a CD. I consider myself still a member, though I haven't been able to drive over there this past year to participate. It's on the other side of Hartford in Collinsville, about 45 minutes' drive from here. The pretty little

Chinese Translation - a Parable

2006-12-17T04:12:00.000-05:00

This song is so haunting and cozy, I can't help myselflistening to it many times. Ward's voice reminds meof other singers, maybe Hoagy Carmichael or something.These lyrics have extra meaning for me as well, somehowsearching for answers that might not exist.Sing along with me:I sailed the wild wild seaclimbed up a tall tall mountainI met an old old manbeneath the weeping willow treehe said now if

Christmas Lighting 1955

2006-12-04T02:53:00.000-05:00

As the Advent month progresses,I again wax nostalgic to a simpler time . . .December 22, 1955, LeRoy, NYTo see the entire page click here.

Strange Tree

2006-11-08T12:31:00.000-05:00

I thought I got a better picture of this, but this snap from the front seat of my old Ford Explorer will have to do. We again saw this solitary does-not-fool-anyone pine(?) on the Hutchison Parkway near the CT line on our trip down to NYC. There is another one up in the median of the highway just outside of Boston. Of course they are cell towers with fake branches. Blends right in with the

Floral Flickr Flick

2006-10-28T20:04:00.000-04:00

I found a neat slide show flash thing that shows pictures that you have uploaded to Flickr. Here is what it looks like: The Quiz is to tell which photos were not taken by us..dtop,.dbottom{display:block;background: white /* <- change the color of the corners here */ } .dtop b,.dbottom b{display:block; height:1px;overflow:hidden; background:#000} .d1{margin:0 5px} .d2{margin:0 3px} .d3{margin:0

L'Attitude Women's Barbershop

2006-10-17T22:12:00.000-04:00

My sister got to the national semifinals of the Sweet Adelines this year!Great quartet called L'Attitude.Watch and listen. Captured from the webcast.

NEWGATE PRISON

2006-09-23T01:31:00.000-04:00

(Sorry, this is a long post, but an interesting bit o' history- rgb)"Attend all ye villains that live in the state,Consider the walls that encircle Newgate."NEWGATE is the name of a famous prison in London. It is called "Newgate" because it was first built, centuries ago, over a new gate in the wall of the city. Later, when these rooms over the gate became too crowded, a larger prison was built

Is this a crime?

2006-09-17T00:42:00.000-04:00

There is just something so clever about this Grafitti artist - it is a way of getting around things that is somehow so great:Paul Curtis aka Moose is no regular graffiti artist. In fact, he’s the reverse-graffiti artist. He created his street art by *cleaning* the dirt and grime off of surfaces! Authorities are baffled: is selective cleaning a crime? The tools are simple: A shoe brush, water and