Originally Posted by Ace917

underlined because it's a book title

I hate to say this Ace, but you're showing (y)our age. Book titles should be italicized. The only reason oldtimers like you and me think they should be underlined, is because that's what we were taught to do on typewriters. (Remember those?)

[Ace917]

You're probably right, ol' Bob ol' buddy, and it sure makes more sense in this computer age. My bible for writing, Troyka's Handb... oops Handbook for Writers continues the distinction between underlines, italics, and quotation marks. The papyrus is getting crusty, tho, so maybe it's passé, as well.

[SinatraFan]

Originally Posted by Bob

The only reason oldtimers like you and me think they should be underlined, is because that's what we were taught to do on typewriters. (Remember those?)

I remember them, Bob.

I still have an old typewriter and like to use it once in awhile. I learned to type on it. Computers are nice but there's nothing like hearing the letters strike the paper.

Originally Posted by Ace917

The papyrus is getting crusty, tho, so maybe it's passé, as well.

It was a revelation to me when my daughter asked my help to use a typewriter to fill out some of her college application forms. She had no idea how to insert the paper!

(That was about ten years ago. By the time my youngest was ready for the same task a few years later, everything was able to be done online.)

[Ace917]

Same thing in reverse... we were well into the computer age, many years, when I pulled out an old slide rule and showed it to one of my daughters. She yelled to her sisters, "HEY, GUYS, LOOK WHAT DAD CAN DO WITH THESE STICKS!!"

They probably remember typewriters, tho. I remember that my oldest took my electric Smith-Corona portable to her first year at SMU.

[MMM]

I wish someone could duplicate the "feel" of an IBM Selectric II or III in a computer keyboard. There's something about the touch of their keys that hasn't ever been matched IMO, let alone bettered.

I'll stop there - this is starting to sound dirty...

[johnofphilly]

Yes, Martin, I loved my old Selectric. It had all kind of balls including olde english.
Too bad I couldn't get right margin justification with it.

Nancy's book is a veritable time machine. I was only born months after the Capitol contract was signed, and as my father hated Kennedy and Sinatra, I only came to know of Frank on neighbors' phonographs around the time he campaigned for Kennedy.

But thanks to Frank Sinatra, an American Legend, I can vicariously surmise through the posted pictures, facts, and dates, who was big in pre-TV radio and early television; and, more importantly, how long and arduous it was in the beginning, and like a chess game, involved making key moves at the right times.

I actually purchased this book at an established chain called Crowne Books in the early eighties in San Francisco. My "friend" "borrowed" it and never returned it to me.

Now I'm in the process of reading it all over again here. I'm up (at this point) to December 1960.

Nancy's extensive initial writing is thorough and presents with objectivity through multiple perspectives, including a personally passionate one.

Robert's (or whomever's) transcription was a ton of work, for which we should be grateful. I view it as required reading for any devoted Sinatraphile.

Two typos:

• December 1944 Axel is referred to as Alex, and
• February 1947 contributorsincluding (the two words are run together.)

[johnofphilly]

I've made it through the sixties up to Nancy wed to Huey, her dad's birthday in 1970.
Are dates numerologically significant? The marriage to Tommy was 09/11/60.

(Typo: location, 4th or so paragraph of December 1963, Frankie's kidnap account - "Snow had been falling oil day")

[johnofphilly]

What a decade the seventies was for Frank.
In and out of retirement, the advents of A.J. and Amanda, and Dolly's seemingly ominous premonition.

[johnofphilly]

Now, like my 40 mile distant neighbor, I completed reading the book.

Question:

JANUARY 26, 1980: The largest paying audience ever assembled for a solo performer-175,000 people-gathered at Macaraa Stadium in Rio de Janeiro to hear Frank Sinatra sing. (The feat is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.)

"Macaraa " - is this an actual spelling or a questioned item?

[voice1]

I'm pretty sure that's a binomial issue in translation. I suppose one of our computer jockeys have a better answer than I.

[johnofphilly]

Kind of like code, where hypertext markup language denotes a quotation mark by a combination of a semicolon with another symbol.

I see.

MARACAN~A is the correct spelling. (Sorry, I can't get the ~ over the "N"). Pronounced "MadacahNYA".

[johnofphilly]

Here, Paul: ñ Ñ (you can copy and paste)


other funny characters This to the left is a link to accented letters for copy. It therefore is automatically underscored (I didn't do it). Looks like technology has no regard for the established rules of typographical punctuation.


This Oakland mural poster of Lake Merritt has nothing to do with this thread. However, I'd hate to see this thread fade to obscurity, and an attachment's record number of views is an indicator.

Rick is going to call me Mr. Know-It-All, but I gotta tell you guys: YOU'RE ALL WRONG!

The correct name of the soccer stadium where Frank Sinatra performed before a record-setting 177,000 people on January 26, 1980 in Rio de Janeiro is... (drum roll, please):

Estádio do Maracanã (Maracanã Stadium)

The language is Portuguese, and the tilde goes over the last "a", not over the "n" as it does in Spanish.

(Nancy's book gets it wrong in both print and online versions: The book spells it as "Maracaña Stadium"; the online edition specifies "Macara?tadium", which reminds me of macaroni or Macarena , but makes me think perhaps a spell-checker was involved. The photo caption also needs correcting in both places.)
__________________

Incidentally, those with Windows machines can use the Character Map applet (under Accessories/System Tools in the Start/Programs menu) to grab any special typographical character in any font. I keep a shortcut to Character Map in my Quick Launch toolbar, so it's readily available whenever I need a character like "ã" or "ñ" which does not appear on the US-English keyboard. Alternately, the following numeric keypad equivalents will work:

ã = Alt+0227 ; ñ = Alt+0241 ; Ã = Alt+0195 ; Ñ = Alt+0209

Character Map shows these keystroke equivalents also.

[Ace917]

Originally Posted by Bob

Alternately, the following numeric keypad equivalents will work:
ã = Alt+0227 ; ñ = Alt+0241 ; Ã = Alt+0195 ; Ñ = Alt+0209

If you use a Mac, of course, the keystrokes are different. There is a partial list here.

BTW, there are a number of first-hand accounts of this concert by our very own sweet Lourdes. See, for example:

Frank Sinatra at Maracanã Stadium
When I saw Frank

[SinatraFan]

Nice post, Bob. Now we know the correct spelling of the stadium.

[johnofphilly]

This book is fantastic. Especially with updates since its original publication. Nancy presents FS's stages in a way we can all relate to. The parallels of life changing universal events that affect each and every one of us in our personal lives.

For instance, 30 for me was 1983; for FS 1945. The times were different; but vicariously I can better imagine what it would have been like to live in an earlier cycle. Because his life had been so well chronicled, and clarified with Nancy's reader-based writing (that's a tough skill to develop), she is able to share it with us in an enrichening way.

And in its referenced format, I can go back and re-read segments as reference points to a world I otherwise would have been born too late to imagine.

[johnofphilly]

Back in the days of Crowne Books, I remember being undecided about which book I wanted to bring home, Frank Sinatra, an American Legend or Frank Sinatra, My Father. FSMF was more personal, sentimental. It had great pictures that I didn't see in FSAAL, but in the end, FSAAL won out over FSMF. But FSMF would be nice to pick up, too.