Daily Giz Wiz 715: Calypso

The Green Room temperature was 70.2° on Leo's SkyScan Clock (Episode 592), and it's unlikely they'll get a White Christmas.  Leo says that Irving Berlin wrote the song "White Christmas" in hot sunny L.A..  It is true that one of the verses in the song (which is now often left out) does refer to Beverly Hills, LA:

The sun is shining
The grass is green
The orange and palm trees sway
I`ve never seen such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it`s December the twenty-fourth
And I am longing to be up north

But according to Wikipedia (so it must be correct), Irving Berlin wrote the song by the pool at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona.  Wikipedia doubters may get reassurance from the Resort's own website about its history.

Leo tells us that Mel Tormé's "The Christmas Song" was also written in hot L.A.: Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose ...  Apparently he and co-writer Bob Wells wrote it on a sweltering summer day, and Bob Wells thought that if he imagined himself immersed in winter, he could cool off.

Dick does a reprise of the story about how Regis generously allowed Dick to use images from his show on Dick's local cable show.  For that story, the 10-second (or 8-second) rule in copyright, and coincidentally another story about Irving Berlin suing Mad for alleged copyright infringement, go back to Episode 71.

Leo is a wealth of information today.  Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French marine explorer and oceanographic researcher who co-developed the aqua-lung and converted a Royal Navy ship called the Calypso to an expedition vessel (not quite a bathysphere) for marine research.

The all new GizWizBiz Caps with extra fire power are available and will make a good Christmas present at GizWizBiz.com.  The Ice Cube is still available but the USB Smart Button may be harder to get by.  Check out GizWizGarbage.com.

It's been 30 days since Robert Alexander's last laptop bag purchase.  He seems to find every new purchase lacking and feels compelled to buy a new one.  He also has a pen fetish but that's under control.  He really likes the Uniball Jetstream, which Leo would love to try out.  Oh, it's been 1 day since Robert's last laptop bag purchase.

Leo is tipping his hand for his next TTTT.  It's going to be a new laptop bag from Tom Bihn.  It's going to be 4 days until Robert Alexander's next laptop bag purchase.

In Episode 677, Leo recommends, for a fountain pen, the Pilot Varsity.  For a roller ball, his favourite is the Pilot G2, a recommendation from people on Twitter.

If you can't get enough of Leo's tenor-turned-baritone singing on the audio podcast, you can hear him sing John Denver's Calypso (which is also about Jacques Cousteau's ship), on this extract of the TWiTLive video.