R.I.P. TV Producer/Creator Gerry Anderson

Jamie Anderson’s Blog: Gerry Anderson has Died

BBC News: Gerry Anderson, Thunderbirds creator, dies

Space: 1970: Obit: Gerry Anderson R.I.P.

The Independent: Farewell to puppet master who defined childhood for a generation: Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson dies

UK Telegraph: Obituary: Gerry Anderson

The Guardian: Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson dies aged 83

NPR: ‘Thunderbirds’ TV Show Creator Anderson Dies At 83

io9: R.I.P. Gerry Anderson, Creator of Space: 1999 and Thunderbirds

Washington Post (AP): Gerry Anderson, British creator of TV hit ‘Thunderbirds,’ dies at 83

I did not know this day would come so soon.

He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s two years ago. I thought he would live longer. It is probably a mercy that he did not.

I don’t know how to describe how much he meant to me.

1922: Follow This Rule — If You Want To Be Popular

Update: See this post for a free ePub eBook version of this long post.

From a 1922 issue of The American Magazine, something that is just as true today as back then. In fact, it probably has even more importance today, given how things — apps and services — are marketed and sold on the Internet without ever seeing the customers and users in person.

Follow This Rule — If You Want to be Popular

A great salesman, A. MacLachlan, says that the only way to “sell” yourself, or anything else, is to get other people’s interest by showing your interest in them. Read how he applies this to girls who want to be successful socially

by B. C. Forbes

Across the desk from the chief electrician of one of the largest manufacturing plants in America sat a young salesman. He had been talking steadily, marshaling all his forces of logic, reason, and argument. But the man across the desk was unmoved. They didn’t need safety switches. While the salesman leaned back, desperately racking his brain for additional facts, the telephone rang. Out in the works a man had been killed on an open knife switch. Followed by the salesman, the electrician hurried to the hospital, where the safety engineer had already arrived.

Cohen On The Telephone

Wikipedia:

Cohen on the Telephone, also known as Cohen at the Telephone is a comedy monologue which is believed to be the first to sell a million copies. It was released on both cylinder records and 78 rpm records.

It was first recorded in London on July 1913 by Joe Hayman for Regal Records and was issued in the U.S. by Columbia Records.

Note that a 1922 issue of The American Magazine states that it actually sold more than two million copies.

Hear it at the Internet Archive.

1922: Why I Quit Being So Accommodating

Update: See this post for a free ePub eBook version of this long post.

A very odd essay from a 1922 issue of The American Magazine that seems to go against the general grain of most of the articles published then. There is also no name attached to it.

Why I Quit Being So Accommodating

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of my retirement from the business of being a Good Fellow. I use the word “business” advisedly. Until five years ago, if the city directory had told the truth, it would have listed after my name, as my real occupation, something like, “General Attender to Things,” or “Pinch Hitter,” or “Fine Old Scout.” I hope I am entitled in some measure to these designations even to-day. But I have quit being an accommodator and nothing else.