A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from June 26, 2008
“You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.” (George Carlin)

George Carlin (1937-2008) was a stand-up comedian from New York City. Carlin worked in radio in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1959, when he started his comedy career.
 
Perhaps Carlin didn’t like Texas. In his 2001 book, Napalm & Silly Putty, Carlin wrote: “You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.”
 
   
Wikipedia: George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937–June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author who won four Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.
 
Carlin was especially noted for his political and black humor and his observations on language, psychology, and religion along with many taboo subjects. Carlin and his “Seven Dirty Words” comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government’s right to regulate “indecent” material on the public airwaves.
 
In the 2000s, Carlin’s stand-up routines focused on the flaws in modern-day America. He often took on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture.
 
He placed second on the Comedy Central cable television network list of the 10 greatest stand-up comedians, ahead of Lenny Bruce and behind Richard Pryor. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and was also the first person to host Saturday Night Live.
(...)
During this time he began working as a disc jockey on KJOE, a radio station based in the nearby city of Shreveport. He did not complete his Air Force enlistment. Labeled an “unproductive airman” by his superiors, Carlin was discharged on July 29, 1957. In 1959, Carlin and Jack Burns began as a comedy team when both were working for radio station KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas. After successful performances at Fort Worth’s beat coffeehouse, The Cellar, Burns and Carlin headed for California in February 1960 and stayed together for two years as a team before moving on to individual pursuits.
 
Google Books
Napalm & Silly Putty
by George Carlin
New York, NY: Hyperion
2001
Pg. 46:
You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.
     
Texas Trifles
Monday, June 23, 2008
Goodbye, Mr. Carlin
George Carlin: May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008
As a teenager during the Vietnam conflict, my friends and I thought George Carlin was the ultimate comedian. He was obscene, totally without limits, and funny. Anti-establishment to the core in the Age of Aquarius - that was George. Listening to him meant we were renegades, too - at the ripe old age of eighteen.
 
Once after watching a Carlin hosted Saturday Night Live, it occured to me that Carlin and my mother were close in age (she was born in 1931). How could that be? Impossible!
 
His humor later in life changed as did the popular culture that made him famous. Always biting, Carlin’s stand-up routine became mean-spirited and less funny. He could still make you laugh, but something was different. The jokes were bitter, the irony turned to a sour sarcasm it seemed to me. Oh well, it is impossible to be all things to all people in all decades.
 
Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.
 
I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
 
You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.

 
Ahh, I’ll forgive you that last line, George. We can’t all be Texans, you know. *Smile*

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Thursday, June 26, 2008 • Permalink


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