From Karl May to Lloyd Price: Six Degrees of Internet Separation (or Just Five)

After my recent successful zero hits Google search [which, of course, now yields three hits, all to my blog posting], I was stunned to find that another random thought process which led me from "Karl May" to "Lloyd Price" was hugely unsuccessful, with a resounding "About 1,060 results." But given the popularity of Karl May books and movies in Germany and of Lloyd Price songs, I guess it should not be a surprise, especially since almost all of these Google hits are to sellers or resellers of CDs, DVDs, etc. [The only "substantive" hit I came across was a pairing of February 25: Karl May's birthday in 1842, and Lloyd Price being Number 1 on the U.S. singles chart in 1959 with Stagger Lee.]

But, how did I come to connect these two contributors to popular culture? What were my six steps?

Step 1: The New Yorker issue of April 9, 2012 and the article--"Why Karl May captivates Germany" by Rivka Galchen. In writing about how cowboys and Indians so captivate Germany, she refers to Karl May "whom most Americans have never heard of but whose stories of the American West are to this day better known to Germans than the works of Thomas Mann." Well, I am one of those Americans who have both heard of him and read at least one of his books (in translation). I was introduced to Karl May (and to the proper "pronounced 'my'" as Galchen writes) by my father, who was born in Germany in 1914, had grown up in a Karl May culture, but I cannot remember when, or in what context, but clearly many years ago.

Step 2: I tell my wife about the article and she jokes about how urbane I am. Well, I object and say, in any case, since I heard it from my father, his association with it could not be considered urbane. And, while my Internet wandering did not start there yet, I do believe that the Free Dictionary definition would bear me out--familiarity with Karl May--particularly in Germany--could not be considered "Polite, refined, and often elegant in manner."

Step 3: I make a joke. So in bantering about the urbane, I start singing a song about how "I got urbanality" to the tune of a song I could not remember the real words to. So first Internet wondering was did I just invent "urbanality"? Well, quick answer (9,380 results) is an even more resounding NO! It appears in a lot of different guises, but I must admit my favorite are the urBANALity t-shirts.

Step 4: Margaret starts sings the real words "`cause you got personality/ Walk, personality/ Talk, Personality/ Smile, Personality/ Charm, personality/ Love, personality" which, of course, I have to check to see if she knows the real lyrics, which, of course, she does!

Step 5: Oops, I dissemble, it only took 5 degrees of separation to find out who wrote and sang "Personality" and we have Lloyd Price.

How Tall is Harvey the Invisible Rabbit?

Inquiring minds wanted to know, so the quickest route to an answer is, of course, Google, and the quickest answer, of course, is Wikipedia, which describes Harvey as "a six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall rabbit." Now the movie was based on a play by Mary Chase, and Wikipedia says Harvey was the same height as in the movie, but according to AnswersUniverse, Chase has the rabbit at "six feet, one and a half inches tall" and that the movie rabbit was taller, to match Jimmy Stewart's height.While I could not find the play on line, an online study guide backs this up and describes Harvey as "a six foot one-and-a-half inch tall white rabbit." Accordingly, I have now edited Wikipedia to correct that.

However unfortunately further inquiring minds in this household demanded to know whether that was with ears or without! Thus, further wandering began, and no answers appeared. However, those searching for Harvey will find:

• Steven Spielberg once pursued doing a new version of Harvey, but that projcect was abandoned in 2009, but in that story Harvey is said to be six and a half feet tall.
• Harvey has both a Facebook page and a Twitter account, but neither with much activity.
• Harvey placed only eighth on the list of the Top 10 Bunnies in the movies.
• Harvey has turned religious and there is a website devoted to his apocryphal writings
• Harvey ran a "'Rock Era' Songs Tournament" in which the winning song was "Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis Presley.
• Harvey has been adopted commercially in various places, including becoming visible and 26' tall in Aloha, Oregon, but was retired as a representative of Harvey Software, where his ears once represented " DOS shell that sat in the background as an invisible helper."

Oh well, as for whether to include the ears or not, I think the telling answer is that noone has answered the question What do you measure a rabbits height in?