Stephen Colbert’s new show will be about 25% funnier once he stops stumbling over a word in every other joke.
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Archives
Buying Happy Birthday?
Oct 18, ’05
4:35 PM
Question: How much do you think buying the rights to the song Happy Birthday would cost? I wonder if it would be possible to hold a fund-raiser to purchase the rights, with the sole intention of releasing the rights into the wild.
30 seconds-worth of research reveals that the song brings in about $2,000,000 annually, so my idea is probably a long shot.
Who does own the publishing rights to “Happy Birthday to You”? They were acquired by a New York accountant named John F. Sengstack when he bought the Clayton F. Summy Company in the 1930s; Sengstack eventually relocated the company to New Jersey and renamed it Birch Tree Ltd. in the 1970s. Warner Chappell (a Warner Communications division), the largest music publisher in the world, purchased Birch Tree Ltd. in late 1998 for a reported sale price of $25 million; the company then became Summy-Birchard Music, now a part of the giant AOL Time Warner media conglomerate. According to David Sengstack, president of Summy-Birchard, “Happy Birthday to You” brings in about $2 million in royalties annually, with the proceeds split between Summy-Birchard and the Hill Foundation. (Both Hill sisters died unmarried and childless, so the Hill Foundation’s share of the royalties have presumably been going to charity or to nephew Archibald Hill ever since Patty Hill passed away in 1946.)
The Greatest Wikipedia Entry Ever
Oct 17, ’05
4:42 PM
The geniuses that are the Wikipedia contributors have compiled an amazing list of made-up words from The Simpsons.
My current faves:
- Unpossible (a classic Ralph Wiggum line)
- Craptacular (been in my vocabulary for years, along with Snacktacular)
- Double-Bacon Geniusburger
- Embiggen
(via the ever-cromulent boing boing)
Has Bravo Gone Mental?
Oct 12, ’05
11:12 PM
This is West Wing Week on Bravo. And they aren’t kidding.
The whole week is almost literally nothing but season 5 and 6 of The West Wing. If it’s not paid programming or Celebrity Poker Showdown, it’s The West Wing on Bravo.
Now, I love The West Wing more than most people, but, double you tee eff?
(Of course, it doesn’t hurt to be Bradley Whitford this week…)
Video iPod? Not the standout announcement, in my book.
Oct 12, ’05
2:22 PM
Ok sure, video iPod. Coolio.
But here’s my knee-jerk reaction to Steve-O’s announcements: Front Row. Apple Remote. (Front Row is the software. Mah bad.) The bluetooth remote. (Damn… Daring Fireball points out that the remote is IR.) This is what’s going to have the biggest impact. Sure, every Apple fan and maybe half their friends will want the new iPod, but the thing about the remote is that it has the potential to put the spurs to the sales of home theater PCs.
Apple’s remote will be moderately successful, which will make other manufacturers go, “Hmm,” and they will put out their own bluetooth remotes (Sony, I am looking in your direction). (I know remotes have been around for a while, but Apple has a knack for re-developing an existing gadget, and making people start paying attention.) While these new remotes will not be quite as graceful or well-implemented as Apple’s, they will have a bit more penetration into the mainstream consumer. Average Consumer Man is going to look at it and say, “Oh, a remote. Now I get it.” And he will go buy a new computer and rip all his DVDs to it, and store all his music on it, and it will make sense to him, because he can control it all from across the room. No one really interacts with their components directly anymore, you do it from the couch, with half your attention because you only need one had to operate a remote.
It’s all very interesting.