Self Help Radio 082317: Betty's Show

(A plethora of Bettys.  I got these pictures all over the place, thanks to Google Image Search.)

Wow, looking at those pictures above - that is, in order from left to right, top to bottom, Betty Ford, Bettye LaVette, Betty Davis, Betty Page, Betty Grable, Bette Davis, Betty Hutton, Betty Shabazz, Betty White, Betty Friedan, Betty Carter, & a Betty Self Help Radio Bear - it occurs to me that the name Betty is pretty old fashioned.  The youngest Betty I could think of was perhaps Betty Gilpin, who's in her thirties.  I do not have any friends named Betty - though I do have friends named Elizabeth, of which Betty is a diminutive - but kinda wish I did, since I made an entire radio show about Bettys.

& what a show it was!  There were so many Betty songs I didn't get to, but I promise the ones I did are the bestest of the bestest.  In addition, I spoke with CJ Buchanan, the president & founder of the Betty Cooper Fan Club; to David Fruchter, the final husband of the legendary Betty Crocker; & I got a call from two Bettys from outer space, hoping to take all the Bettys to a Betty colony & away from Earth.  It seems to me that the Betty demographic will skew a little older than perhaps a young colony would like.

Listen to the show - & tell any friend of yours named Betty to listen, too! - at Self Help Radio dot net.  Remind Betty that there's a username (SHR) & a password (selfhelp) to listen.  The show is in two parts, what's contained in the parts is listed below.

& a Happy Betty to you & yours!

(part one)

"Black Betty" Lead Belly _Lead Belly's Last Sessions, Vol. 1_
"Betty Lou" Long John Hunter _Ooh Wee Pretty Baby_
"A Letter From Betty" Bobby Vee _The Singles Collection_
"Friend Named Betty" The Submissives _Do You Really Love Me?_

"Iron Ore Betty" John Prine _Bruised Orange_
"Bette Davis Eyes" Jackie DeShannon _New Arrangement_
"Pretty Betty" Bobby Darin _Bobby Darin_
"C'mon Betty Home" The Kingston Trio _The Stewart Years_
"Betty Blue" Thomas Tantrum _Mad By Moonlight_

interview with Betty Cooper Fan Club founder & president CJ Buchanan

"Steady With Betty" A-Bones _Crash The Party_
"Cutie Betty" Astrobabys _Sweet Hot Drive_
"Betty Lou's Got A New Tattoo" The Creep _Fort Worth Teen Scene, Vol. 1_
"Betty Betty Bye Bye" Rabbitt _Rabbitt 1_
"Betty & Dupree" Brownie McGhee _Classic Folk Music (From Smithsonian Folkways)_

"Betty Betty Bang Bang" Drug Boyfriend _Betty Betty Bang Bang_
"Betty Page" Public Image Ltd. _What The World Needs Now..._

(part two)

"Have A Heart Betty (I'm Not Fireproof)" The Soft Boys _Invisible Hits_
"Just Like Betty Page" The Jazz Butcher _A Scandal In Bohemia_
"Betty Cutts" Hefner _Catfight_

surprise phone call from Betty & Betty Hill

"My Girl Friend Betty" Mary Swan _Midnight Cryin' Time: Teen Angst Classics From The Rock & Roll Era_
"Locked In A Room With Betty" P. Paul Fenech _Daddys Hammer_
"Betty Sue" Teenage Bubblegums _Bubblegum Dreams_
"Betty Wang" Hospitality _Hospitality_

interview with former husband of Betty Crocker, David Fruchter

"Betty Jane" Max Bailey _Rhythm & Blues Goes Rock & Roll, Vol. 1_
"The Black Betty" Boss Hog _Girl+_
"B.B. Betty" Bill Haley & His Comets _The Decca Years & More_
"Betty In Bermudas" The Dovells _Discotheque_
"Turning Into Betty" Lisa Germano _Slide_

"Betty Co-Ed" Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees _Heigh-Ho Everybody, This Is Rudy Vallee_
"Miss Betty's Blues" Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers _The Shuffle Boogie King_
"Little Betty Falling Star" The Cascades _Rhythms Of Their Reign 1962-1966_

Whither Betty's Show?

(Yes, that's one Betty.  Image from here.)

Before you start wondering why there should be a radio show dedicated to people named Betty, maybe you should ask yourself, why shouldn't there be?  Why not radio shows for all people, all names?  I mean, for example, just to say, there's never been as far as I know a radio show dedicated to people named Gary, & despite that I'm not resentful that people named Betty get a radio show.  In fact, I have actively participated in making this show about & for people named Betty, as I did the same for people with names like Christine, Emily, Molly, Bill, George, & Sam.  & still I don't complain that there hasn't been a Gary show!

Your Betty envy makes me sad.  It would be in your best interest, it seems to me, to listen to a celebration of people named Betty on tonight's Self Help Radio.  It may be therapeutic.  It's on from 8-10pm central, 9-11pm eastern on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington, & online at Lexington Community Radio's website.  For bonus points, invite a person named Betty along!  Seeing a Betty or two happy that there's a radio show about them might be the best thing that happens to you today!

Preface To The Betty Show: Comics

Trying to remember where I found this - probably somewhere online many moons ago - the rar archive is dated 2012 - where someone digitized an old collection of comics - but here is an advertisement for a Sunday comic called "Betty":

It was a Sunday-only comic, & the Wikipedia entry for C.A. Voight tells us it was very influential.  I like the way it looks & I wish I had more to share.  The article above says the strip began in 1920, but these pages are from the previous year, so someone is wrong.  Here is another biography of him.

Here's a bonus "Betty" for you:

Eclipso

(from this Instagram page.)

You probably heard, there was an eclipse today.  It was a pretty big deal - the first total solar eclipse in the United States since 1979, which cut a swath like a scar across the country so that people from Oregon to South Carolina would be bathed in darkness for a period of time.  It was quite awe-inspiring.

& I almost ignored it.  I don't know why I wasn't very excited about it.  It might be that here in Texas, the sun would only be 76% occluded.  It might be because it was something I've experienced before, in Austin in the 2000s.  It might be because it was a Monday, I'm always working on my show on Monday, I just was focused on that.  Or it might be because my cat Beatrice had a vet appointment, which my wife scheduled around the time the eclipse was to start in Texas.

Whatever the reason, I was saved from my own disinterest by my next-door neighbors, Jim & Martha, who are star-watchers, & who were hosting a small eclipse-watching party & who kindly invited me over.  There, a handful of their friends drank some sweet bubbly alcohol (like champagne, but obviously not) & used the special glasses I hadn't bothered to get, & also had a telescope, with the appropriate filters, aimed at the sun.  It stayed very bright out even with over three-fourths of the sun covered, though the sky turned a kind of light purple that reminded me of dropping acid when I was young.  I could get no pictures - I don't have a fancy camera - but I did love staring with the glasses at the moon & sun dancing slowly above us.

We drank a toast to the sun & moon & one of the guests said, "We should have been pagans!"  I told her that she was allowed to, that that's something you can do in this country, & mentioned that day-drinking might deserve a nod to Dionysus.  I stayed a bit longer, staring as much as the sight that I had, just hours before, thought I had no interest in.

Then of course I had to go back to working on my show.

Meet My Pets (Again) # 2: Ringo

This is Ringo.  He's a beagle we adopted in 2004 who's going to turn sixteen next month.  I first wrote about him & introduced you to him here.

His best friend George died in 2012, at the end of year that I wrote the previous piece.  Unlike George, Ringo has stayed pretty healthy in his old age.  When George was twelve or so, we would push him in a baby-carriage-like dog walker, & we (when I say we I mean the wife & I) expected Ringo to be just as helpless as a very old man.  This hasn't happened - Ringo goes on walks with us daily & although he is a little slow - except at the parts of the walk where everyone gets a treat - he makes the three or so miles we walk every day with very little complaint.  We hope the exercise keeps him alive.

& oh does he love to eat.  My god.  He once almost killed us because of his love for food.  When we were away, he leaped onto a stove in which cooked & mashed sweet potatoes were sitting & ate them all.  In addition to getting sweet potato mush everywhere, he accidentally turned on one of the gas elements.  If we had been away for too long, he would've gassed everyone in the house.

He's not nearly as spry anymore.  He's a little deaf, & though he's been blind in one eye since we got him, he is probably not very well-sighted in the other.  But his nose still works, as does his stomach.  & he's very, very close to his mother.  He's stingy with the kisses but, as in the picture above, he's always near her.  & if I come home without her, he stands at the door & barks his complaint.

Such a precious soul.