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Right Angle: Backstage 03/28/23

Beards and TV shows, Emcee 101, Bill Shatner is a jerk, less dialog is great dialog, The Death of Stalin… all this and so much less.

Beards and TV shows, Emcee 101, Bill Shatner is a jerk, less dialog is great dialog, The Death of Stalin… all this and so much less on this edition of Right Angle: Backstage, made possible by you, dearest member.

31 replies on “Right Angle: Backstage 03/28/23”

Stephen Green, When I was younger, 17 or 18 years old, my family and I were outside of the fortress Castillo De San Marcos in St. Augustine Florida. We were eating Watermelon at a picnic table, Vincent Price walked up to us and said, ” What a lovely family”. We offered him a piece of watermelon and he accepted and sat down and visited for about 15 minutes. My parents recognized him and were astonished at how polite and engaging he was. Neither me nor my siblings knew who he was until after he left, and my parents explained to us who we had just met. He was such an unassuming and gracious soul. I had a different opinion of actors since that moment. If I had the opportunity to meet other actors, I would hesitate because I feel sure the encounter could destroy the aura that Vincent Price brought to that moment. (This was about 48 years ago).

Scott, I believe P. J. O’Rourke wrote a book putting “TheWealth of Nations “ in more modern language. It’s called, unsurprisingly enough “On The Wealth of Nations”.

I think it would be funny if Scott came out once after washing his beard and putting in enough product to keep it from curling, just so we could all see how long it really is. Those waves have to take 3 or 4 inches out.
I think Steve and Bill are just jealous of the manliness on display each week.

Bill had mentioned Harry and Paul and I remember one of the most biting skits is still on YT, called “I saw you coming”. Harry Enfield playing the role of a antique shop owner, and simply destroying a customer in every line…”Oh that lamp? It’s eco. It actually generates more electricity than it uses…”
https://youtu.be/8AGSMJojAM4

So … this is a four eyes week. I’m happy about that, in my old age my vision isn’t what it used to be either. I’m happy because the guys are comfortable enough with us to wear their glasses.

I’m a function over form guy, every time.

Beards are beards, they’re very personal and no man should ever tell another how to wear his facial whiskers. It’s not any business of another man how you wear your beard — Except in the military or where there is a material impact (pun intended) on production or work safety. Or if you’re gay. Because telling another man how to shave his face is gay.

I had to be clean shaven and neatly shorn for decades and decades. First in high school (yes, I had a full beard by the time I was 16 and it wasn’t one of those scruffy beatnik looking things either) to military service, to various phases of being employed to running my own business.

Because of social and work considerations I shaved my face bald for decades. When that stage of my life ended I said screw this crap, I’m going to grow hair while I still can.

Now I look like an ancestor of mine named Holger Danske. If you don’t know who that is, look that name up. Sans helm, most often rather a boonie hat or Stetson on my head. Modern clothes, generally jeans and either a pair of western boots or Dansko clogs.

If you see a guy that looks exactly like the picture below walking down the street it’s very likely to be me. I don’t post pictures of myself on the internet, for a very long time I didn’t even allow people to TAKE any pictures of me. That’s futile now with Smart Phones but that doesn’t mean you’re going to see a pic that can identify me on the internet.

If you don’t like my beard keep it to yourself, I don’t care. Telling me what to do with my beard can be particularly hazardous if I’m in proximity to my swords, daggers, knives and battle axe. I’m just not going to take that kind of thing well.

When it comes to facial hair — Mind your own business and I’ll reciprocate the courtesy. However you wear your beard, or not, is fine with me. I’m sorry to disappoint all the limp wrists out there but I’m not gay and I don’t give a flying rat’s distal alimentary exhaust vent what you think of my appearance.

Yes, I had not forgotten discussing our medieval weaponry, I absolutely remember.

What’s kind of funny is, my Sister wants my Danish bearded axe too. She said if there’s a zombie apocalypse she’s going to swipe it from me. I’ve since added a belt hanger for it to my collection. No sense in letting her lose it just because she’s got nowhere to put it when she’s done whacking zombies.

These things are all wickedly, frighteningly sharp. If I get it just right I can slice a piece of copier paper as it falls with my Tinker Pearce longsword. As I recall I already told you how I get blades that sharp.

I like Scott’s beard just fine too. I don’t really care about how a man wears his own whiskers or if he shaves them all off. That’s a personal thing. I find it kind of sad when someone who can’t grow a proper beard tries to grow one anyway. They sprout something that ends up looking like a raccoon with mange. In agony. With rabies. But …

I’ll never say a word to them about it. For all I know they think it makes them very handsome and far be it from me to pop that bubble.

I started out just letting my hair grow out and had a handlebar moustache. Something like the one on Kurt Russell’s face (or Powers Boothe) in “Tombstone”. After a few years of that I just said screw it and stopped shaving altogether. About twice a year I trim off any split ends and shape it up a little so it looks like that old Dane in the pic but that’s about it. I can’t say as I miss shaving one bit.

that was a great diversion and everything I hope for in a Backstage. Going off on tangent after tangent until somehow a circle is formed. Wonderful.

Thanks for the Backstage guys. Now that the slog of EOT is over for Bill, will you guys consider a 2nd shorter and more topical backstage to stay on the news cycle a little more? TSL’s get is Bill in this capacity, but it’s good value to get Scott and Steve’s take on the events of the day.

Me too, except I don’t care if they limit themselves to current events. I want to hear how they think and view the world. Especially Scott Ott.

Scott is a Christian with experience as a Preacher. Unlike Zo, I don’t need a sermon, I’ve already heard a LOT of sermons.

I get the theoretical, it’s the practical I need help with. I don’t need to hear the Biblical reasons, I’m very familiar with those. I need to hear and see how those reasons are applied in everyday, real life.

Scott’s great at that. I don’t always agree with him and that’s OK. I would love the opportunity to discuss things with Scott more than either of the other two guys. Scott is a man after my own heart if not of similar mind. I wish I could be more like Scott but I can’t. We do not share the same background. Even so, I admire Scott and always welcome more from him.

Off topic but….
Your comment on the shooting, in particular the movements and swiftness and tactical explanation was high value to me. I was not going to wTch that footage until I read your comment

Good to know. I’ve never been a cop but I’ve done a bit of building clearing in my day and that’s a major adrenalin trip. Massive rush, because you have to just step out and rely on your training. The PEOPLE who codified that training have drawn from centuries of experience across a wide range of fields from close combat to psychology to neurology. They’ve taken all the mistakes other people have made and eliminated them, giving you with the best possible odds of mission success and personal survival.

I knew exactly what I was looking for in that video and I knew how it was going to go because I had already seen the tamed down version of it. It still had my heart pounding every time I watched it because I knew exactly what was going through those officer’s minds and what the experience they were having feels like.

If you got something worthwhile from my, well what amounts to an after-action analysis then it was worth the effort for me to do that. I really want other people who have never had that kind of experience to understand on a both intellectual and visceral levels what goes into that kind of action.

Those are an example of the “Hard men who stand ready in the night” that Orwell wrote of.

Those men are serious heroes. It’s great to know that America still produces and supports such people.

That’s the thing, really, isn’t it? Different backgrounds I mean. That adds scope to the conversation. What has worked for Scott might not work for you, the way I see things may not be the way Scott sees them, etc.

There’s a lot to be considered when the same things are viewed from different angles. Seeing something from your, or my, particular angle doesn’t mean one of us has to be wrong. It really helps A LOT when I hear Scott explaining, kindly and respectfully, how things look from where he sits.

That’s a major reason I’m here and I’d engage in a lot more of that kind of thing if people weren’t so combative about everything. More’s the pity many don’t even realize they’re being insulting, arbitrary, contrary or blind to the abstruse. It’s my sad experience that you can talk to people like that, and they can talk to you, but you can’t really communicate on a materially significant level with such like.

I get what Scott’s saying. I understand the angle his viewpoint comes from. I like to hear the reasoning of that kind of person when I can because whether I agree with them or not, it’s a dang good reality check. I’d love it if Scott, you, me and a couple other people I could point to in here could have a conversation. We’d learn a lot from each other and the icing on the cake is it would be fascinating.

Alas. People complain about the net but none of us, including the Whittle General Staff, would ever have known the others existed without it.

I always look forward to these Backstage discussions and this is no exception Ted Lasso and the Death of Stalin are worthy of hours of analysis and even Bill Shatner not for his personality but his impact as an Actor he saved ABC along with James Spader on Boston Legal is really a good way to lead into this weeks topics.

Paul Newman bought a truck load of Budweiser for my brother and the other extras who were in The Color of Money. My brother was the clapping guy you see about 100th of a second after the last match…lol

…and oh man, you missed an opportunity to razz Bill. When he put his earpiece in, you could have said “but don’t tell Bill.”…lol.

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