Random Thought of the Day

July 14th, 2020 at 6:53:54 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
It's so easy to find information today as opposed to years ago. 

I'm watching a movie with Sammy Davis Sr. listed as one of the actors, so I was trying to figure out which one of the black actors he might be. Ha.* I picked up the information somewhere along the way in life that Sammy Davis Jr. had a black father and a white Jewish mother. Quite erroneous information as it turns out; back in the day you seldom had a chance to easily check out what people were telling you, instead you just sized up who you could trust for the most part. This kind of thing might not even be in an encyclopedia, and to go deeper than that was a big deal. 

In fact Sammy Davis Jr. spread some misinformation himself about his parentage, saying his mother was Puerto Rican

Turns out his father was white and* His mother, Elvera Sanchez, was Afro-Cuban, according to her Wikipedia page, which also relates the S.D. Jr. tall tale. He became Jewish by conversion as an adult [see his page]. She was a beauty in her day I'd say.

*see further posts downthread

I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
July 14th, 2020 at 7:14:15 AM permalink
kenarman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 14
Posts: 4470
Quote: odiousgambit
It's so easy to find information today as opposed to years ago. 

I'm watching a movie with Sammy Davis *Sr.* listed as one of the actors, so I was trying to figure out which one of the black actors he might be. Ha. I picked up the information somewhere along the way in life that Sammy Davis Jr. had a black father and a white Jewish mother. Quite erroneous information as it turns out; back in the day you seldom had a chance to easily check out what people were telling you, instead you just sized up who you could trust for the most part. This kind of thing might not even be in an encyclopedia, and to go deeper than that was a big deal. 

In fact Sammy Davis Jr. spread some misinformation himself about his parentage, saying his mother was Puerto Rican

Turns out his father was white and his mother, Elvera Sanchez, was Afro-Cuban, according to her Wikipedia page, which also relates the S.D. Jr. tall tale. He became Jewish by conversion as an adult [see his page]. She was a beauty in her day I'd say.




The little research I just did says his father was Sammy Davis Sr. a black man, and his mother was Elvera Sanchez.
"but if you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." Benjamin Franklin
July 14th, 2020 at 8:23:11 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
this is a very misleading photo [?] on Sr's page at IMDB.com . In case the photo ever gets fixed, I should say it got cropped so that Sammy Davis Sr. is mostly out of the photo and it shows a white man and two women.

still trying to get to the bottom of this, no photo at wikipedia page



https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0204119/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t8
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
July 14th, 2020 at 8:31:47 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
Turns out that it was very unfortunate photo-cropping

And I am showing that misinformation is still quite possible in the age of the internet. Thanks for pointing it out, I've crossed it out in the OP

This is the full photo, also from that site

I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
July 14th, 2020 at 8:50:42 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
And for a final tidbit that I can say I personally verified, Sammy Davis Senior plays Fletcher Henderson in the movie "The Benny Goodman Story". I might review that in the movie thread later

Henderson is well known to fans of Big Band Music of that age
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
July 14th, 2020 at 10:46:39 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: odiousgambit
It's so easy to find information today as opposed to years ago. 


Are you fricking KIDDING me? Talk
about the understatement of the
century. It's the polar opposite
of what it was just 25 years ago.

I'm an info junkie and I kept lists
of things I wanted to look up.
Every couple of weeks I would
trek my ass to the library and
Barnes and Noble and spend a
WHOLE AFTERNOON looking
stuff up.

Now I get it all instantaneously.
All day long I ask my phone
questions. 2 min age I wanted
to know which fish had the most
Omega 3, sardines of mackeral.
In 1993 I would have the answer
in a week, maybe. If I could find
the right source to look it up
in. Today I get it in 10 seconds.

I can only imagine how this has
boosted the productivity of
scientists and researchers. It has
to be mind boggling. I constantly
feel like I'm living in a 60's Star
Trek episode where Kirk just says
'computer' and gets an answer
to any question. It's glorious.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
July 15th, 2020 at 8:07:01 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
Apparently Biden speeches will be accompanied by a someone interpreting it in sign language

This makes me look at that person the whole time even though I don't know sign language.

It occurs to me it would be interesting to have someone there who knows sign language and have them interpret the interpretation! With the sound off and not having heard the speech already, in other words. And see just exactly what the signing person has been able to say in sign language. I have a feeling it's quite hard to do, and necessarily abridged. Could even be funny at times.
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
July 15th, 2020 at 9:22:04 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: odiousgambit
Apparently Biden speeches will be accompanied by a someone interpreting it in sign language
This makes me look at that person the whole time even though I don't know sign language.


Better than looking at Biden. He
uses 2 teleprompters know and he
looks like he's at a tennis match
as his head goes left and right
like a robot. That and the ton of
H-wood makeup they slap on
him to hide he age spots and
wrinkles. He's the epitome of
that 'old white guy' minorities
are always complaining about.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
July 15th, 2020 at 9:32:26 AM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18633
Quote: odiousgambit
Apparently Biden speeches will be accompanied by a someone interpreting it in sign language

This makes me look at that person the whole time even though I don't know sign language.

It occurs to me it would be interesting to have someone there who knows sign language and have them interpret the interpretation! With the sound off and not having heard the speech already, in other words. And see just exactly what the signing person has been able to say in sign language. I have a feeling it's quite hard to do, and necessarily abridged. Could even be funny at times.


There’s an old snl skit where the guy off to the side of the screen is yelling for the hard of hearing.
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
July 15th, 2020 at 10:48:50 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
Quote: rxwine
There’s an old snl skit where the guy off to the side of the screen is yelling for the hard of hearing.
I think most everybody knows this, but I didn't know it at one time: I'll make it into a trivia question but will put the answer in a spoiler. You can give the answer before you look if you want.


*Now that closed-caption is often done instantly and can be done automatically, a politician's speech has closed-caption going on at the same time. Let's say they improved it so it's nearly perfect, which is probably coming soon. They could just have that instead of a person doing sign language, but why would that generally not work for deaf people?


The deaf-from-birth do not grow up learning a spoken language at all. They learn sign language instead and if they want to learn written English they go to special schools to learn it, and this I believe means college level work usually, something I learned from contact with students at Gallaudet when I lived in the DC area. For the vast majority of the Deaf, closed-caption doesn't help
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]