California Pacificatory University

And dang it. I always mix up Columbia Pacific and California Pacific. WAY different schools - way different histories.

 

I didn't think it was a word. But, to my surprise Wiktionary thinks it is a word. Now it is possible that someone just opened up an edit account on Wiktionary and added the word there so they could use it to name a school. That would be a really strange thing to do but that definition was just added to Wiktionary just last year so I guess it's plausible? I just checked, the definition was added by someone without an account.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pacificatory

(It is in Merriam-Webster also.)

 

(Continued)

Columbia Pacific became controversial - and closed amid litigation. California Pacific was remarkable (in a good way) but not controversial.

California Pacific was never accredited, although the owner held an RA doctorate. It was remarkable, but not controversial. I think it was the first school in the State with permission to award degrees earned entirely by distance. They offered a known, good product. I was very sorry to see the school change ownership and subsequently close. It was founded in 1976 and the owner died in 2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Pacific_University

 

I doubt it. I was wrong (yet again). Some guy named Merriam-Webster says so. So I guess it is.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pacificatory#:

There. That should satisfy - or pacify - or pacificate - all those unsung heroes who work in our Nation's PACIFACTORIES!

 

I didn't realize that.

Does anyone "own" a dead school?

 

I don't think so. More than 20 years ago I posted on this board that he received a PhD from National University before its accreditation. If National did award doctorates, they dropped them in their pursuit of RA in the early-to-mid-1970s, and didn't resume them until their recent acquisition of Northcentral University. My source back then was an article in the San Diego Union.

As we've discussed recently on this board, degrees from pre-accredited schools tend to get treated as if they came from accredited schools, as long as the school does get accredited. It's a little murkier when we're talking about degrees awarded before accreditation from programs dropped before accreditation, but this all might be splitting hairs.

 

Own a dead school? Oh, sure. Usually they are cremated then the owner sticks the urn on the mantelpiece because he can't think what else to do with it.

 

In this case, I'd think it's the guy who let it die. Just like you still own a dead car, until you scrap it. Maybe the school is sitting on blocks in someone's driveway, in a run-down neighbourhood....

Can't think of the last owner's name. Asian, I think.

 

I'm sure you're right, Rich. I think I read something on now-defunct DD board way back. Can't remember by whom. I took it as Gospel because I liked the school. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

Someone must. Barrington was a dead school. Shuttered. Then it was sold, for a good chunk of cash and re-branded as U. of Atlanta.

 

Another "dead" school - Southern Eastern University, AR lost its RA and folded. A UK "law school" that did not have degree-granting authority, bought it and used it as a captive mill to award "US" LLB. degrees to its grads. The degrees of course, had no validity in Arkansas or UK. The law school stopped that practice years ago and does not award degrees of any kind these days.

They still teach law courses and suggest pathways to become a UK lawyer. I don't know what happened to Southern Eastern University. Maybe it's up on blocks in a driveway in Turkey Scratch AR. And yes, that's a real place - and unincorporated community in Phillips County AR.

Two musicians of note were born in Turkey Scratch - Levon Helm, (Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame) (1940-2012) and Robert Junior Lockwood - one of the finest guitar bluesmen on the planet, (1915-2006). He was the ONLY guitarist to have learned directly from the legendary Robert Johnson. Plenty of both Levon and Robert Jr. on YouTube.

 

I used to see Levon and his band - the Hawks here in town, back in the mid-60s. Great act. The Hawks had split off from Ronnie Hawkins a couple of years before. They later became Bob Dylan's backup band - and after that, The Band. Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins, at the time, owned a bar in Toronto. Always had good entertainment. I saw Bo Diddley there. Great show.

 

I've always had a lot of respect for Bo. He was a cerebral, creative guy and his music had great feeling. I especially liked a couple of recordings on which he played violin. Yes - violin. He learned to play it in high school, in Chicago. His playing did not seem classical - but I felt it. Great expression - thought and feeling had gone into it. And good tone. He knew what he was doing. Always.

Somehow, my father failed to appreciate Bo, as I did.

 

Violin and its lower pitched siblings are incredibly difficult to master for any number of reasons but the one thing players must do is develop an ear for pitch. My piano plays a given note when I strike a given key. A guitarist might bend a note as necessary to avoid serious dissonance but he starts at the correct fret. A violinist, no. She has to hear the note before she plays it and exactly where that note falls depends on what's going on around her.

Amazing.

 

A blues guitarist can bend them to create serious dissonance. Usually by a quarter, half or as much as a full tone. Albert King (born Albert Nelson) was an exception. If Albert wanted a note five frets up, he could make it by staying on the same fret and pushing a string all the way across the fingerboard of his Gibson "Flying V." Albert was a force of nature - and wrote excellent songs - good music and stories in them.

In the early days of PC's I had fun synthesizing blues effects on my first machine. So-called "Primitive" GW-Basic allowed you to manipulate the "beep" sound in microseconds if you wanted and vary the tone in hundredths of a Hertz. I did the "String bends" in little loops - raise the tone every few microseconds by a fraction of a Hertz until you were at the next note. An back down, as needed.

Slow process to code -- but simple - and it worked. GW Basic came free with the machine - and a frequency table for the music notes was in the manual.

 

Albert was one of a kind, he played left handed but upside down (strung for a righty) and used some funky tuning (Emin if I recall correctly).

I saw a video years ago (since deleted off YouTube) of Albert and B.B. playing together, and Albert just blew B.B. off the stage, it was kind of embarrassing to watch.

My favorite Kings (none of them related BTW) in order are Freddie, Albert, and B.B. Truth be told, I was never a huge fan of B.B.

BTW, Steven Seagal now owns Albert’s guitars.

https://www.vintageguitar.com/3813/albert-kings-flying-vs/amp/

 

"Man, that watch is so hot, it's smokin'."

 

So are mine - in that exact order. @Bruce probably knows this, but Albert claimed early on that he was B.B.'s brother. He wasn't related in any way. As I said in an earlier post, his birth name was Albert Nelson. B.B. charitably explained once "He isn't my brother, in family - but he IS my brother in the Blues."

And yes - I can understand about B.B. not being anyone's favourite of the Blues Kings. He had personal failings and flaws I never knew about until I read Daniel de Vise's "King of the Blues" last year. Among the sad facts was B.B.'s gambling addiction - he lost about $40 million that way. over just a part of his career. Many other unpleasant or pathetic things came to light, including losing his singing and playing abilities in his later years, long before he left the concert stage. Those appearances would have been too painful to watch.

I'm glad I saw B.B. in his prime, in the 70s and have those memories - and his recorded artistry, plus some videos etc. of his guitar technique. In his good years, that was formidable.

 

Yep. Trading Places, 1983. Bo Diddley as "The Pawnbroker." Whole thing here. Funny.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086465/characters/nm0225775