Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Published from February 1937 to April 20, 1948, The Hobo News was one of the most unusual newspapers of the first half of the 20th century in America. It printed poems, jokes, cartoons, pin-ups, and articles and news items about politics, law enforcement, and employment that were useful to that unique class of men who rode the rails and frequented flop-houses - the American hobo. Front page & snippets from a 1946 edition...



The paper was run by hobos, for hobos. It was published by Patrick ("Pat") "The Roaming Dreamer" Mulkern (1903 - 1948), who served as editor and Benjamin ("Ben") "The Coast Kid" Benson, associate editor and business manager. Printed proudly across the awnings of their assorted offices were the paper's motto "A Little Cheer To Match The Sorrow."

Copies were also sometimes sold on street corners for 10 cents as a way for the homeless to make money without begging. Associate editor Benson made national headlines in 1937 when he was hauled into a Manhattan court for peddling copies of the paper in Times Square without a license. Benson (a diminutive man who only weighed 90 pounds and was known as "the smallest professional hobo in the business") indignantly argued to the judge that The Hobo News was a legitimate newspaper and that freedom of the press was being violated - but the judge ruled against him.

Mulkern recognized that no self-respecting litigator would ever stoop to sue a newspaper with such a pathetic name, and so the paper was voluntarily in constant violation of U.S. copyright law by habitually reprinting the articles they most admired that had earlier appeared in Collier's, The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post.

Unlike the paper's intended readership, The Hobo News made small achievements every day, which allowed them to hire additional staff and operate in bigger up-town offices; at the peak of their performance, Mulkern and his crew were able to boast of a circulation that numbered 123,000.

In light of the fact that The Hobo News had an entirely unorthodox hiring policy and refused to print advertisements in order to support itself, the paper had a surprisingly long life.

It received additional national attention when "An Informal History Of The Hobo News," a reminiscence of the paper's origins, was written for the October 6, 1945 issue of Collier's (who apparently bore no grudge for the pirating of their articles by The Hobo News) by Jack Harris, himself a former hobo (and, as he said, "apt to be one again any minute").

When The Hobo News went under in 1948, following Mulkern's death,  it was replaced by Bowery News (named after the Bowery area in Manhattan), but that paper was short-lived.

The Hobo News (Jan 22, 1946)



Tracy Reed (1941-2012) born Clare Tracy Compton Pelissier, known as "Miss Foreign Affairs" in "Dr Strangelove".. posing on the set in 1964.


She was in one episode (S1.E17) The Dalotek Affair of "UFO" tv series (1971)

Daughter of Penelope Dudley-Ward (1914-1982) and Anthony Pelissier (1912-1988). Sister of Joe Pelissier (born 1963). Stepdaughter of director Carol Reed (1906-1976). Granddaughter of Fay Compton. Step-cousin of actor Oliver Reed. Great-niece of Viola Compton, Compton MacKenzie and Francis Compton.


Who is your favorite face from this glamorous Hollywood grid?



Or perhaps birthday girl Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) shown here in a portrait (top photo) taken by one of her favorite photographers Eric Carpenter (1909-1976), in 1943.



August 1935: 13 year old Judy Garland's final appearance with her sisters, as "The Garland Sisters," and her first appearance in Technicolor.





Henry Bemis: And the best thing, the very best thing of all, is there's time now... there's all the time I need and all the time I want. Time, time, time. There's time enough at last.


"A swimming pool not unlike any other pool, a structure built of tile and cement and money, a backyard toy for the affluent, wet entertainment for the well-to-do. But to Jeb and Sport Sharewood, this pool holds mysteries not dreamed of by the building contractor, not guaranteed in any sales brochure. For this pool has a secret exit that leads to a never-neverland, a place designed for junior citizens who need a long voyage away from reality, into the bottomless regions of the Twilight Zone."


Jerry Falwell nuclear war sermon-on-cassette...1983




It wasn't me, Jerry cued it...



For me the song stuck in my head for decades after watching an episode of Miami Vice titled "Smuggler's Blues" back in 1985.


“We soared with the wandering albatross over turbulent southern oceans. Now we lie at anchor in slack waters.” - Gus Shinn

LCDR Conrad Selwyn “Gus” Shinn, USN Retired, 102, of Pensacola, made his last flight from Charlotte, NC. The “Ice Eagle” went wheels up with destination Heaven about 8:30 pm on May 15, 2025.

While at the controls of the Douglas R4D-5L Skytrain "Que Sera Sera" in 1956, Shinn became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole on Halloween 1956. He later flew the Blue Angels support plane "Fat Albert".


Gus was born on September 12, 1922, in the area known as Leaksville, Spray and Draper (Eden) in Rockingham County, NC. He was the son of Thomas and Mattie Krimminger Shinn. Gus grew up there, graduated from high school at 16, attended Lees McCrae and NC State until his country called on him to serve. From a young age, Gus knew he wanted to be a pilot so he joined the United States Navy via flight school, entering service on September 3, 1942, graduating from Naval Aviation School and receiving his commission on August 3, 1943.

In 1946 and 1947, Commander Shinn flew photographic mapping missions over Antarctica on an expedition called Operation Highjump. He returned between 1955 and 1958 for a series of expeditions called Operation Deep Freeze.

This time, he and six other Navy men aboard his plane became the first people to set foot at the South Pole in four-plus decades, and the first ever by air.

Gus served in World War II, was a member of Operation High Jump, participated in Deep Freeze I, II and III, provided support for The Blue Angels and was the personal pilot for various admirals during and after the war. He retired from the Navy in 1963.

The R4D, nicknamed Que Sera Sera — Whatever Will Be Will Be — after a popular song, had its landing gear outfitted with skis and was accompanied by a circling Air Force C-124 Globemaster cargo aircraft. Maurice Cutler, then an 18-year-old United Press correspondent from Australia who joined other reporters on the cargo plane, which had wheels but no skis, said in an interview that pallets of survival gear were to be airdropped if Commander Shinn’s plane could not lift off from the pole.

Conrad Shinn, First Pilot to Land at the South Pole, Dies at 102

Obituary for Conrad Selwyn Shinn


Antarctic Deep Freeze Oral History Project
Interview with Conrad "Gus" Shinn, LCDR, USN (Ret.)
conducted on May 11, 1999, by Dian O. Belanger

What was the purpose of Highjump? "Gee, I don't know. [Chuckles] I think a bunch of people just wanted to do something. I don't know what the official line would be on that."


If interested here's the 48 page Transcript.


More crypto shenanigans...defendant just happens to be a Russian citizen living in NY.


Founder of Cryptocurrency Payment Company Charged with Evading Sanctions and Export Controls, Defrauding Financial Institutions, and Violating the Bank Secrecy Act




Fire and ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
― Robert Frost