History of Christmas Toys...

The answer from last quiz...What famous toy was invented during World War II when navy engineer Richard James discovers that a torsion spring will "walk" end over end when knocked over. The toys are still made in Hollidaysburg, Pa. on the same eight machines that James began with over 60 years ago.
The answer is 'The Slinky!'

The new toy quiz...

In 1952, Edward Haas brought his product from Vienna, Austria to the U.S. It was originally unsuccessful but after he made a few design changes to his toy (including adding the characters of Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse), his sales really took off. Today, it sells over 3 billion/year and is sold in over 60 countries. A whole Seinfeld episode was based on this product.

Name this famous product...

History of Christmas Toys...

PREVIOUS CHRISTMAS TOY QUIZ...What toy did Donald Duncan popularize after he saw it demonstrated in Los Angeles and then bought the toy company?...
ANSWER...
THE DUNCAN YO-YO

NEW CHRISTMAS TOY QUIZ...
During World War II while searching for a suspension device to ease rough sailing on battleships, navy engineer Richard James discovers that a torsion spring will "walk" end over end when knocked over. James brought the discovery home to his wife, who named the new toy. If the toys sold since 1945 were stretched end to end would wrap around the world 128 times. The toys are still made in Hollidaysburg, Pa. on the same eight machines that James began with over 60 years ago.

NAME THIS VERY POPULAR TOY...

Mean bunny

History of Christmas toys...

In 1929 Donald Duncan sees a toy being demonstrated in Los Angeles. He was so impressed by this toy that he bought the rights to the toy company for $25,000, and 30 years later, sales of his toys reach $25 million. At its peak, his company produced 3,600 toys/hour. In 1968, Abbie Hoffman was cited for contempt of Congress for using this toy in an effort to entertain the 'House Subcommittee on Un-American Activities' that was investigating Hoffman. Richard Nixon made headlines when he used this toy on stage at the opening of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in 1974.

Duncan had to declared bankruptcy after losing a supreme court case over the patent on the name of his toy. He died in an automobile accident in 1971.

Can you name the famous toy?

Christmas card (P.C. version)...

After consultation with my attorney, I have decided that if I wanted to remain 'politically correct,' this would be the Christmas message I would have to send out this year...

THE MODERN DAY HOLIDAY GREETING CARD

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious low carbon footprint, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, low saturated fat, smoke free, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of all other faiths and minorities or those who choose not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms - This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual applications of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of any subsequent holiday greetings, whichever comes first, and the warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Merry Christmas from me and my attorney.

PS. I have decided against it. I'll just say...

MAY YOU HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR!

Toys of Christmas...

John Lloyd Wright, the son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright invented a very popular Christmas toy in 1916. He was inspired by the way that his father designed the earthquake-proof 'Imperial Hotel' in Tokyo, Japan.

These toys were long a favorite of proponents of educational toys and were among the first toys to be promoted on a television show, 1953’s 'Pioneer Playhouse'. The ads targeted affluent parents, who were most likely to own a television set and to buy educational toys.

Name the very popular toy.

History of Christmas Toys...

Alfred Carlton Gilbert was possibly the most talented man of the 20th Century. Born in Oregon in 1884, he won an Olympic Gold Medal in the pole vault and married in 1908, then graduated from Yale Medical School the following year. Rather than practice medicine, he co-founded Mysto Corporation in Connecticut to build and sell magic kits. With a $5,000 loan, he began selling a brand of kids toys. In 1918, he was known as "The man who saved Christmas!" His highly successful toy has sold over 35 million.
What toy did he invent?

Tuba Christmas...

Here are the locations/dates/times I pulled off the 'Tuba Christmas' website For Buffalo, NY, Rochester, NY and Erie, Pennsylvania...

BUFFALO-NIAGARA - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12 - TIME: 7:00 pm
LOCATION: Kleinhans Music Hall, Mary Seaton Room
REGISTRATION: 4:30 pm same as concert
REHEARSAL: 5:30 pm same as registration
PARKING: Music Hall parking or surrounding streets
NOTE: Please bring music stand, wear festive clothing
CONDUCTOR: Scott Bean
COORDINATOR: Craig Hodnett 716-553-0368

ROCHESTER, 27TH ANNIVERSARY - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19 - TIME: 3:00 pm
LOCATION: Hochstein Music School, 50 N. Plymouth Ave., near intersection of W. Main & N. Plymouth
REGISTRATION: 12:30 pm same as concert
REHEARSAL: 1:00 pm same as registration
PARKING: Various lots or garages nearby (some free on weekends). Enter nearest lot from Main St.
NOTE: Directions: From expressway I-490 take Plymouth exit 13 or 14. Unloading/temporary stopping on N. Plymouth, center door (with ramp). Bring instrument, mouthpiece, folding music stand or lyre, music, hats, scarves from last year if you have them. Dress colorfully. If convenient, bring a folding chair in case we run out, but leave in car until needed. Also use gig bag, leave cases in car. Sponsored by MCC Music Department and the City of Rochester.
CONDUCTOR: Glenn Call
COORDINATOR: Joe Baker 585-244-4015
WEB SITE: www.rochestertubachristmas.com

ERIE - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12 - TIME: 12:30 pm
LOCATION: McGarvey Commons, Reed Union Building at Penn State - Erie
REGISTRATION: 8:30 am Reed Union Building, Wintergarden
REHEARSAL: 9:30 am McGarvey Commons
PARKING: In adjacent visitor lot
NOTE: Registration $5.00, lunch $4.00
CONDUCTOR: Gary Viebranz
GUEST CONDUCTOR: Daniel Burdick, Ron Stitt, Lowell Hepler
COORDINATOR: Gary Viebranz 814-898-6289
WEB SITE: www.tubchristmaserie.com

History of Christmas Carols...

'Angels We Have Heard On High'
According to the beloved traditions of the first Christmas, it was the shepherds tending their flocks near Bethlehem to whom the angels first gave the news of the baby Jesus' birth. And so, in medieval times shepherds who found themseles minding their little herds in the wintry mountains of southern France on Christmas Eve remembered the story of that first birth and the angels who sang of it.

They called one to the other, each from his own peak, singing the good news as the angels had sung so long ago, until finally the mountaintops themselves rang with a glorious patchwork of echoing voices.

In this favorite carol, the music probably comes from a 17th or 18th century French noel, as does the text. But the back-and-forth 'Alleluia' refrain is probably based on a much older phrase of music, perhaps a bit of plainsong chant from the Church's earlier days.

The combination of tune and text was not published, so far as we know, until it appeared in a carol colelction in 1855.

~R.D.M./Bud

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving...

'Twas the night of Thanksgiving,
But I just couldn't sleep.
I tried counting backwards,
I tried counting sheep
The leftovers beckoned
The dark meat and white,
But I fought the temptation with all of my might.

Tossing and turning with anticipation,
The thought of a snack became infatuation!
So I raced to the kitchen,
Flung open the door,
And gazed at the fridge full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
Till all of a sudden, I rose off the ground!!

I crashed through the ceiling, floated into the sky
With a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie,
But I managed to yell
as I soared past the trees ...

HAPPY EATING TO ALL,
PASS THE CRANBERRIES PLEASE!!

Did you know?...

Turkeys can have heart attacks. Groups of turkeys, sometimes known as a "rafter" of turkeys would drop dead when the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier nearby.

We have noticed dead turkeys outside the house after I've finished practicing the tuba. [I say it's just a coincidence]

Broken down clarinetist...

The cute blonde clarinetist had a flat tire on the interstate, so she eased her car over to the shoulder of the road, carefully got out of the car and opened the trunk. She took out two cardboard men, unfolded them and stood them at the rear of her car facing on-coming traffic. They look so life like you wouldn't believe it! They are in trench coats exposing their nude bodies to the approaching drivers.

To her surprise, cars started slowing down to look at her life-like men, which made it safer for her to work at the side of the road.

And, of course, traffic started backing up. Everybody was tooting their horns and waving like crazy. It wasn't long before a state trooper pulled up behind her. He gets out of his car and starts walking towards our gifted clarinetist. Sher could tell he was not a happy camper!

“What's going on here lady?!!!!!”

“My car has a flat tire,” She said calmly.

“Well, what the h---- are those obscene cardboard men doing here by the road?”

She couldn't believe that he didn't know. So the clarinetist told him, “Helloooooo, those are my Emergency Flashers.”

And you thought your director was tough...

“Play the gayest tunes in your books, play them loud and keep on playing them, and never mind if a bullet goes through a trombone, or even a trombonist, now and then.”
~By General Phillip Sheridan during the Civil War upon ordering his band to go to the front of the battle line to play

My job History...

My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned - couldn't concentrate.

Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the ax.

After that I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn't suited for it, mainly because it was a so-so job.

Next I tried working in a muffler factory but that was too exhausting.

I attempted to be a deli worker, but any way I sliced it, I couldn't cut the mustard.

My best job was being a musician, but eventually I found I wasn't noteworthy.

I studied a long time to become a doctor, but I didn't have any patience.

I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn't live on my net income.

I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work way just too draining.

I got a job at a zoo feeding giraffes, but I was fired because I wasn't up to it.

After many years of trying to find steady work, I finally got a job as a historian until I realized there was no future in it.

My last job was working at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.

So, then I retired ... and found out I was perfect for the job!

Thought for the day...

Where am I going and why am I carrying this tuba?

Band Terminology

Cut Time: The sudden realization that everyone else is playing twice as fast as you are.

Accelerando: What happens when drummers have to keep a steady beat.

Accidentals: The wrong notes.

Fermata: A chance for the conductor to catch their breath while attempting to make the tuba player pass out.

Key Change: A change in the tonal center of a piece that takes place 3-5 measures after it is written in the music.

Tempo Change: Signal for musicians to ignore the conductor.

Trumpet Player: A person who thinks that every note has 8va written above it.

Trombone: A device that has the same pitch as the baritone, except that it is played with a slide, so it is easier to forget the positions.

Tuba: A compound word; "Hey woman, fetch me another tuba Preparation-H!"

Woodwinds: Proof that God has a sense of humor.

Tuba Suspense

The Wagner tuba is a comparatively rare brass instrument that combines elements of both the horn and the tuba. It was originally created for Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Since then, other composers have written for it, most notably Anton Bruckner, in whose Symphony No. 7 a quartet of them is first heard in the slow movement in memory of Wagner. The euphonium is sometimes used as a substitute when a Wagner tuba cannot be obtained.

The instrument is built with rotary valves which, like those on the horn, are played with the left hand.

The Wagner tuba nominally exists in two sizes, tenor in B-flat and bass in F, with ranges comparable to those of horns in the same pitches while being less adept at the highest notes. Several 20th-century and later manufacturers have, however, combined the two instruments into a double Wagner tuba in B-flat and F. Wagner tubas are normally written as transposing instruments, but the notation used varies considerably and is a common source of confusion—Wagner himself used three different and incompatible notations in the course of the Ring, and all three of these systems (plus some others) have been used by subsequent composers. An additional source of confusion is the fact that the instruments are invariably designated in orchestral scores simply as "tubas", leaving it sometimes unclear as to whether true tubas or Wagner tubas are intended (for example, the two tenor tubas in Janáček's Sinfonietta are sometimes wrongly assumed to be Wagner tubas).

The annoying neighbor...

Here's a Nissan commercial for all of you who have that annoying neighbor who always gets a better deal than you did!

A professional musician is facing a mugger with a gun. "Your money or your life!" says the mugger.

"I'm sorry," the poor guy answers, "I am a professional musician, so I have no money and no life."

SWINE FLU PRECAUTIONS...

Because of the SWINE FLU, we're taking special precautions at our house.

We encourage you do the same.