Thursday Things: The Gang's All Here Edition

16 May 2024. Vol 6 No 20. By Dan McGirt. #249

May 16, 2024

It’s Thursday Things! This week we slip a disc, beat up some Nazis, and take a walk, man.

If you enjoy this edition, please click the heart icon in the header or at the end of the post to let me know.

Are these CDs stored properly? Sadly no! Read on to learn why. Image: Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Cassette roulette

We’ve discussed previously the low key resurgence of music on cassette tapes. Thursday Things was on this trend as far back as 2020, so CNET is a little late to the party with a headline like Are Cassettes Making a Comeback in 2024? Best Portable Players Compared.

What caught my eye, however, is that there are enough new portable cassette players on the market now to warrant an article comparing them.

I still have my ancient Sony Walkman in a drawer. I don’t know if it still works because I haven’t had occasion to try it out. But it has AM/FM radio! And a belt clip!

From the Drawer of Retro Treasures. Image: Thursday Things.

The latest offerings in portable cassette land offer retro styling and features like built-in speakers, USB charging, and Bluetooth. If you’re interested in going back to the future with a portable cassette player, you might consider these:

Gracioso CR-318: Speaker, Bluetooth, USB charging, AM/FM radio, compact
We Are Rewind: Boxy retro look in 1970s orange. If you were there in the 70s, you know what I mean!
FiiO CP13: Rechargeable battery, old school volume knob, thin and light.

Meanwhile, I’m going to see if I can get my Walkman going…

The hidden horror of disc rot

As long as we’re on the topic of media formats of yore, let’s take a glance at a menace to CDs and DVDs that I only just learned about: Disc Rot!

The Hidden Phenomenon That Could Ruin Your Old Discs

Often, it looks like a coffee stain—a noticeable discoloration that for whatever reason you can't get rid of. Sometimes, it looks like tiny pin pricks on the surface of a compact disc. And there are other times when the whole thing changes color. In any case, when you run into what's known as disc rot, you're out a great album or an interesting movie.

While I certainly expect that my cassette tapes left over from the 1980s will inevitably degrade over time, I thought CDs were more or less permanent, barring scratches or melting in a hot car.

Alas, no.

Read the article for the details, but it comes down to defects in the manufacturing process of the discs. Particularly for some of the earliest made discs, the protective coating that is meant lock in that data freshness sometimes breaks down, exposing the guts of the disc — where the songs or game or movie is digitally stored — to damage.

Recordable discs — the CD-R or DVD-R you might have used to “rip” music back in the 90s — are more subject to disc rot.

So what can you do to fight disc rot if you still have a cherished CD collection?

“[D]iscs are much more likely to survive over long periods if they're handled correctly and stored in good conditions. "These studies have shown that a well-made pressed compact disc can last many decades if stored and handled properly," she noted, adding that "discs that are stored in harsh environmental conditions with elevated temperature and/or humidity will have shorter expected lifetimes than discs stored in more controlled conditions."

Tips include:

Proper handling: Only touch the outer edges and center of discs.
Proper storage: Store discs in an upright position, not stacked flat, and in a cool, dry place.
Proper container: Keep discs in plastic jewel cases rather than paper sleeves or floating around loose in a shoebox, not that I would do that, why did you even bring that up?
Proper labels: If you write on your disc, use a water-based marker. Ballpoint pens and the like can damage the disk and the ink can bleed in to damage the data.
Proper quality: If you’re still buying recordable discs, look for the high quality types. Discs using gold as the reflective layer last longer. Go gold!

Good luck protecting your precious discs! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go scare up some jewel cases.1

Overlooked history

I enjoy coming across odd little incidents of overlooked or forgotten history. I first came across this story a few years ago when the book mentioned in the article was released. Recent events in the news reminded me of it.

The book is Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America (Hardcover | Paperback | Audio | Kindle) by Michael Benson. The title pretty well summarizes the story, as does the headline of this article:

Bam! Kapow! When 1930s Jewish mobsters beat up Nazis in the streets of America

Here’s the set up for the tale:

New York judge Nathan D. Perlman was apparently a big believer in the adage: If you need a job done right, you’ve got to turn to the right people. So in 1938, he called up notorious Jewish mobster Meyer Lansky with a favor to ask of him.
Perlman called Lansky to a face-to-face meeting and asked him to direct Jewish gangsters to violently break up meetings of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization for Americans of German origin.
Perlman asked if Lansky had some boys who would want to punch Nazis. Lansky said he most definitely did, and he suggested that they could do more than just beat the Bund members up.
“I want you to do anything but kill them,” Perlman warned the organized crime boss.
Prominent rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who was on hand to lend clerical gravitas, echoed the judge’s sentiment.
“I’m sorry, but we cannot condone killing,” he said.
This left Lansky to tell his associates they could “marinate” but not “ice” those who showed up at Bund meetings, rallies and marches, where speakers spewed Jew-hatred. Lansky gave his boys license to use more than their fists. Baseball bats, clubs and other street fighting paraphernalia were fair game. Guns were out of bounds, as were the ice picks, which were the preferred weapon of killer Abraham “Kid Twist” Reles.

And no disintegrations! Other than that, however … have at it, boys!

Read the article for a good overview of how Hitler’s goons got what was coming to them in the streets of New York and elsewhere.

This related article from the NY Post gives a nice telling of a particular incident in 1938 known as “The Battle of Yorkville”:

Jewish gangsters once took on Nazis in the streets of NYC

Many of New York’s Germans lived in Yorkville (East 86th Street was nicknamed “Sauerkraut Boulevard”), where the Bund frequently held rallies and parades. To honor Hitler’s 49th birthday on April 20, those fascists planned a celebratory march from Carl Schulz Park to the Yorkville Casino.
Waiting for them at the casino were Meyer Lansky and his Jewish gangster friends, including members of Murder, Inc.: “Mendy” Weiss, who worked as a kidnapper and “choker”; “Buggsy” Goldstein, rumored to crack jokes while killing; Harry “Pep” Strauss, reputedly one of the most prolific contract killers; and Jacob Drucker, known as an “ice pick man” for his favorite means of murder.
After the parade, the Bund planned on listening to a speech from Kuhn in a ballroom decorated with swastikas and likenesses of the Fuhrer.

Needless to say, the program did not go forward as planned. A great little feel good story.2 Read the articles and check out the book too.

Thank you for reading!

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Although my Jewel CD is safe and snug in its jewel case already. It is a Jewel jewel case for Jewel.

Who will save your soul? Image: Thursday Things

Another little forgotten incident I like is the “Battle for Castle Itter” on May 5, 1945, when a renegade German army unit teamed up with U.S. forces to fight the Waffen-SS:

Battle for Castle Itter, World War II military engagement in which U.S. soldiers joined forces with renegade German troops to turn back a Waffen-SS assault on a stronghold in Tirol, Austria, where elite French political figures were being held prisoner by the Nazis. The battle took place on May 5, 1945, only three days before the official end of the war in Europe. It is thought to be the only time that Americans and Germans fought as allies during World War II. (Britannica.com “Battle for Castle Itter”)

Thursday Things