Since I put up something original earlier today, I figured you could indulge me on this one. I stumbled upon it on YouTube. It's the famous episode where Phil Donahue's audience members began fainting en masse. It's worth a chuckle.
The fainting was a prank, of course.
Did you know that "Real People," which aired in the early 80s, starred Sarah Purcell, Bryon Allen, Skip Stephenson, Bill Rafferty, Mark Russell, Peter Billingsley and that wacky 14th Century Poet, John Barbour?
I didn't either.
I know this is going to sound really weird, but after my Nana's death I was really hoping I'd inherit a typewriter eraser. Sure enough, I got my grandfather's old desk and all the contents but there was no typewriter eraser. Now I'm left to troll for it on ebay.
I can't even find the red American flag plastic pencil boxes we used to have when we were kids.
My sister was a big fan of Lite Brite. A few days ago, I found that there's a Lite Brite you can play while at work.
As a kid, I loved Sea Monkeys. Too bad Jethro thinks that the ads are creepy. In his words, "When I was a little kid, I thought that's what they looked like. I thought when you ordered them, they'd look like little humans. I thought you'd have little humanoids looking out of your fish tank."
My father ruined Sea Monkeys for me. He told me the big secret: They're Brine Shrimp. Since he was an avid fisherman, he told me that he'd buy me brine shrimp. Somehow, Brine Shrimp wasn't as cool as Sea Monkeys.
I learned multiplication tables on Dataman. I think Merlin was too expensive. I think I wanted Q*Bert but didn't get it. I did have Pac Man, this version, and I wish I still had it.
Of course, who didn't have a cap gun? And loose caps that you could hit with rocks. My parents also gave me a dull pocket knife, which freaked out the neighborhood Moms. Dumb, in the end, because it was so dull and nothing bad could've ever happened.
Parents are so stupid sometimes.
One of my all-time favorite people... Even if she was also my competition for Jack Klugman.
LAURA: I was never into Merv Griffin.
JETHRO: He was never into you either.
Hey, it's Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman and that famous character actor whose name I don't know!
Remember, to get the power: Knock Knock Rock and 35A.
A fabulous Rolling Stone article on Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt's possible role on the JFK assassination. It'll take a few minutes to read, but it's worth it. Very well written, I'm willing to bet that the film rights will get snatched up shortly.
As mentioned in the article, Hunt was also a prolific novelist. I have two of his spy paperbacks in my collection. What a guy. Heh.
I don’t like being cynical, not for the shiny New Year. Yet, the coverage of Ford’s passing has me watching Cops instead. And I’m a history buff.
The thing is, I liked Ford. It bothers me that Robert Dallek neglects Ford on his Portable Professor series. I’m annoyed that Nixon’s history has been rewritten, but Ford gets short-shrift. The Republican media doesn’t want claim a man who had to clean up after one of their own.
Commentators will repeat the mantra that “Ford healed the country,” but he didn’t. Not in that way. Pardoning Richard Nixon taught a generation that a US President could lie and get away with it. All Nixon had to do is be patient and history would be redrafted in due time.
Forgotten history. The most challenging aspect of writing historical dramas is getting beyond the “I know it already” attitude of the audience. The history taught in high school has been politicized and spun. The news you see on television is the same. What makes you think you know anything?
Ford’s death is a reminder that history is constantly being reframed, then forgotten. So much coverage on Watergate, so little details about the “healing.” Ford did the best he could with what he was given, and squandered less than his predecessors. But all we hear about is the pardon, and how he lost the election to Carter. As if it was his problem that we couldn’t elect him.
