Me: In the book Shoeless Joe there is a character based on J.D. Salinger. Why do you think that the new movie Field of Dreams changed the character of J.D. Salinger to a fictional character played by James Earl Jones? Do you think it is because the producers were afraid of getting sued by Salinger?
Stone Groove: No, I think it because nobody knows who Salinger is these days.
Me: Yeah, but no one knows who Shoeless Joe is either.
Strone Groove: That is true. But I still think that no one knows who Salinger is.
Me: You're crazy. Everyone reads it in high school. Most people would know who he is.
I'm not sure who came up with the idea but somehow I ended up dialing random phone numbers in the Montgomery County phonebook to ask them if they knew who J.D. Salinger was. I said that 7 out of 10 people that I called would know who he was.
I gave up after 9 calls when only 1 person could correctly identify any book that he had written. One other person guessed, "He's a writer?" The rest had no idea. Score one for Stone Groove.
So it is well established that my dad and I have stupid arguments like this one. The last time I was home we drove my grandmother crazy while arguing in a Chinese restaurant over the homerun call of former Orioles announcer Michael Reghi. I said that the call was something along the lines of "Albert Belle touched off a bomb." Stone Groove insisted that it was a simple call of "SEE ... YOU ... LATER!"
I even left the restaurant to call Jamie, Dave, Bill, and Mitch for some backup help. I got some conflicting testimony from them. By the time I got home, Jamie had sent me the Wikipedia link which states that Reghi's calls were "A high fly ball hit to deep left. Took it to the track...to the wall... See...you...later!"; "Oh, did he tag that one! It's a BOMB! Going track ...wall ... SEE ...YOU...LATER!" Looks like Stone Groove was mostly right on this one too. Shit!
It was a banner dinner for Listmaker - Stone Groove discourse. Also during the course of the meal, the Dave Clark Five came up. I don't remember how it came up but I think it had something to do with SHR knowing who they were and Stone Groove being impressed, "No one your age knows who the Dave Clark Five are!" I immediately disagreed and said that at least 75 percent of my friends would know who they were. The goal was set - I needed to ask a bunch of my friends. Stone Groove's only rule was that the person had to know that the band was a British band from the mid 60's meaning that they had to put them in the context of the British Invasion era.
So I started asking people when I saw them. And then those friends starting asking their friends and reporting back to me. And I'm proud to say that of the 30 or so people that were asked, the very unscientific percentage of my friends who knew who the Dave Clark Five were is right about 75%.
Some knew some of their hits, Glad All Over, being the most famous, some simply knew that it was a British band from the mid 60's. But less than 25% had no clue. I was very pleased with the showing.
So I guess the bottom line is that I know what my friends know better than I know what random people in Maryland know.
Did you know that the Dave Clark Five were on the Ed Sullivan Show 18 times? Or that Dave Clark was the drummer and not the lead singer? Or that according to one website I found, "In 1961, when members of the Tottenham Hotspurs soccer team needed to raise funds to travel to Holland to play a match, they formed The Dave Clark Five."
11 comments:
no, yes, no.
I do recall the TV ad in the UK when i was a kid. It was something about "Bitsa pizza, I want pizza, bitsa pizza" (help me out weasel?).
Also, I think we need to put you down as a Spurs fan. This thing has been smouldering long enough ever since you started asking me about cool soccer treams in the EPL. I have no problem with Spurs, if that is to be your path you have my blessing. See me for a history lesson later on.
Mondale, are you trying to ethnically pigeon hole Listmaker by suggesting he be a Spurs fan? Tottenham Hotspur have long been the team of choice for both Sephardi and Ashkenazi alike but in this day and age I don't think we should apply the soft bigotry of religious expectation to Listo.
I do remember the pizza ad, you are right on that (I believe it involved Dave Clark standing in a trout stream dressed like Prince Charles). But I like to think that I was familar with the group, if only because our bus driver Germany was obsessed with the DC5, Jerry and the Pacemakers, Unit 2 plus 4, and other second tier Brit Invasion bands.
But he asked about the jewish soccer team ages ago. I was just trying to be nice.
Besides which they have recently gentrified their own nickname from the previous "Y*DS!" or "Y*DDOES!" to the oh so tasteful "Lilywhites".
I figured Listo would appreciate a nice, gentrified team.
you are both mistaken.
weasel - the dave clark five were not a second tier british invasion band. they were second to the beatles during that stretch - at least in the u.s.
mondale, i did not ask about the hotspurs. you told me. i was interested, yes but how would i even know that there was a team that had a jewish background? i think i might have mentioned that i heard of a team called the tottenham hotspurs and then you filled me in on the history.
just one thing, it's most definitely pronounced 'Spurs'.
Quite right- first tier in US, slightly less regarded back home in the UK. Much like the Bush* of their day.
(*The band, not the president(s))
W & M, you guys should seriously consider converting to judaism. then you can make all the jokes you want and merely be self-hating.
Hey! I was trying to ride to the defence of Listo. Ah, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Jeez! The comments on here are defacing what was a great blog post and a great social experiment. I was happy to be on the research team and happy to prove Stone Groove wrong! Glad All Over indeed!
chris,
i agree completely. there was no need to sully this post with any mentions of bush.
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