The Tonight Show.

I am taking no sides in the controversy going on with the Tonight Show. I haven't watched it since 1992. I saw the first few shows that Jay Leno did and I wasn't impressed. I have nothing against Jay, I am just indifferent when it comes to his humor. I liked Johnny Carson and when he retired simply lost interest. I am posting three videos today from the show, two with Johnny and one from a night when Don Rickles was the guest host.

The first is a classic. Ed Ames portrayed a Native American on the Daniel Boone series. He he demonstrates tomahawk throwing.




This one George Gobel had come out last, following Bob Hope and Dean Martin. Keep an eye on Dean.




The last one has Don Rickles as the guest host. Bob Hope walked out unannounced and brought two friends with him.

Washing Windows.

Washing windows isn't too tough of a job. I worked in housekeeping in hospitals and nursing homes for 16 years and in that time I cleaned more than a few windows. On Dirty Jobs last night Mike Rowe washed a few. You could not pay me enough to clean where he was. Below is a picture of the building.
45 stories. They were 408 feet in the air. The building is in Honolulu, Hawaii. They don't have platforms to stand on. They swing down using block and tackle. I don't like heights to start with. There is no way I would have done it. One of the cameramen on the crew refused to go down. Mike told him he didn't blame him. On average, 12 men die each year on this type of job. One of the cameramen had a problem coming down. His hair got caught in the winch he was using to lower himself down. He was 200 feet in the air. He was told to remain as still as possible or he would lose a piece of his scalp. One of the window washing crew scaled down, gave the cameraman a quick haircut, and they made it safely down. This is my favorite Dirty Jobs episode so far. While looking for a picture of the building I came across a photo of Mike as he was starting the job.

Time To Get Dirty Again.

I have mentioned before that Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel is my favorite television show. The new season starts tonight. Mike Rowe has had over 200 jobs since this series began. I am not sure what other jobs he can do, but it will be fun watching. I enjoy the way he respects the people who do those jobs. Some people look down on others because of their jobs. I experienced that during my marriage. I was working for K-Mart at that time. My mother-in-law kept asking my wife why I didn't go to a factory and get a real job. I always thought that working in retail was a real job. With the economy today my job at Wal-Mart is more secure than a lot of factory jobs. It doesn't matter what your occupation is. After all, if you weren't doing it someone would be.

I am very glad that I don't have some of the jobs that have been shown. If you think you have it rough imagine having some of those. One job that he had last year I was very interested in seeing. He worked at a rendering plant. In case you don't know, that is where they take dead animals, bones, fat, and grease and turn it into a usable substance. My Dad worked at one for several years. I knew a little about it from him, but it gave me a better understanding of what he had done.

There will be no Fifth grader question today. I have managed to misplace my calendar. Hopefully I will find it before tomorrow. I truly would lose my head if it wasn't attached.

The Deadliest Catch.

Tonight at 9:00 P.M. EST Season five of The Deadliest Catch premieres. For some reason I managed to miss the first three seasons, but I got hooked on this during season four. (The reason I missed the earlier ones was because of the one who disappeared during the middle of the night.)

In case you have never seen it, The Deadliest Catch follows the men who fish for crabs in the Bering Sea. It really is a very dangerous job. The men put in long hours in terrible conditions and a few die every season. So far none of the boats they have featured have lost anyone, but they did show one of the boats rescue a man who had fallen overboard.

The show is narrated by Mike Rowe, who I have mentioned before from his show Dirty Jobs. On his blog, Mike was asked why he doesn't do a Dirty Jobs episode about the crab boats. Basically he said the tone of the shows are opposite, so it wouldn't work. His full answer can be found here. I find shows like this much more entertaining than network television.


The Cubs game was delayed over an hour because of the weather, but it didn't seem to bother Ted Lilly. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Garrett Atkins then hit a single and that was the only hit for the Rockies. The Cubs won 4-0. There is no game scheduled for today. They play the Rockies again tomorrow.
Travis was right. The Greeks developed comedy and tragedy.
Today's question is Grade 1/Civics.

Which of the following is a U.S. federal holiday?

• A) Arbor Day
• B) Flag Day
• C) New Year's Day

I knew this one. 73-15.

Forgiveness.

Over a year ago I talked about the Food Network firing Robert Irvine for lying on his resume. He was host of the show Dinner:Impossible. The show continued with Iron Chef Michael Symon but it wasn't as good. Irvine is being given a second chance. The new season of Dinner:Impossible starts tonight. The new season will only be six episodes. I am not sure if more will follow. Irvine has a blog where he tells his side of the story. I feel he has paid the price for what he did and enough time has elapsed for him to start again. His biography has been updated and I am sure there will be no more exaggeration from Chef Irvine. I am looking forward to these new shows. I am sure that the Food Network is being cautious, which is why there are only six episodes in this season of Dinner:Impossible. If the ratings are there there will be more.


Well the Cubs will not go 162-0. They lost last night 3-2 in 10 innings. Kevin Gregg gave up a bases loaded single to Jeff Keppinger which ended the game. That is the life of a closer. Save one game, lose the next. One of my favorite Casey Stengel quotes is "I don't get paid to win every game. Just two out of every three." Tonight the Cubs try to get their 2.

Somebody new had some nice comments about this blog. Thank you for the kind words and welcome Sarah.
Winthrop J. Quiggy and John were both right. Kush and Axem were in Africa.
Before I get to today's question I have a comment on this calendar. Whoever came up with the subject for today misread the question. The alleged category is Grade 2/ U.S. Geography.

What is the common noun in the following sentence? "I saw it in the city of Buffalo."

If this is a geographic question, school has changed quite a bit since I last went. I did know the answer. 68-15.

The Addams Family.

Last month I bought Season One of The Addams Family. I remember watching this when I was young and it has held up very well. There were a couple of episodes I didn't care for but most were very funny. I think the show was a little head of its time. Some of the foods they ate are not quite as odd today. In one episode Gomez commented about not understanding how people wouldn't like octopus. Now you can order that in some restaurants. They were delightfully odd. Gomez loved to wreck his trains. Morticia would literally smoke. Uncle Fester was a human generator. There are commentary tracks with Ken Wetherwax (Puggsley), Lisa Loring (Wednesday), Felix Cilla (Cousin Itt), and Stephen Cox (author of The Addams Chronicles). One comment Lisa Loring made comparing The Addams and The Munsters, which was on during the same years as the Addams family, was the Munsters were more like the 3 Stooges and the Addams was like The Marx Brothers. It was pointed out one of the writers of the series had written for Groucho.

I had never seen the entire movies, so when I started watching this DVD I decided to watch them. I did not like them. The first movie, simply called The Addams Family, was not that good. They changed several things, Fester being Gomez's brother for one. That didn't bother me as much as the characterizations for the movie. Where the TV family was charmingly odd, the movie family was more mean spirited. IMDB rates the movie a 6.5, I gave it a 4. Then I tried to watch Addams Family Values. Note the word tried. I watched about half an hour and turned it off. I didn't find anything the least bit funny. Where I saw the first movie as mean spirited, here they were cruel. IMDB rating was 6.2, I gave it a 1.
My friend Travis answered yesterdays question and your spelling was right, Travis. The answer was the Tigris. Today's question is Grade 5 History.

Who led the first journey around the world?
A) Christopher Columbus
B) Ferdinand Magellan
C) Vasco da Gama

History is one of my strong suites. I got this one right and am now 14-5.

Disappointing But Still Enjoyable.

I am not a big sitcom fan. In fact I rarely watch network television anymore. My all time favorite sitcom is, in case you haven't guessed by now, WKRP In Cincinnati. A couple of days ago I picked up season one on DVD. I knew they had trouble getting the rights to the songs which is why it took so long to get this out. I was hoping that they at least had got the rights to some of the original songs but it appears that they didn't. My biggest disappointment was in the episode called A Date With Jennifer. The shows newsman, Les Nessman, played by Richard Saunders. Les is the shy type and Jennifer, the secretary played by Loni Anderson, agrees to go to a banquet with Les where he is to receive an award. Les gets dressed up and the original tune was the Foreigner song Hot Blooded. Considering Les' reputation and the way he had carried himself made that song extremely funny. It is still funny watching him get dressed but the song they use hjust doesn't have the same punch. I am glad this is available, and it is very good, but not as great as it was originally presented.

Time To Get Dirty.

Discovery Channel tonight at 9:00PM EST will be showing new episodes of one of my favorite shows, Dirty Jobs, hosted by Mike Rowe. This show in a way goes with my last post, only the people Mike shows have real pride in their jobs. Mike never makes of these people. He usually opens the show by saying:

"My name is Mike Rowe, and this is my job: I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty—hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Now... get ready, to get dirty."

Most of the jobs I would not want, but it is great to see people who do enjoy what they do, no matter what it is. I also find it fascinating on how certain things are done. Of course, I won't be watching it when it broadcasts, but that is what VCR's are for. This is movie night, but for a change we are going to go to a theater instead of watching DVD's. We are going to see Ghost Town. I will do a review of it tomorrow.

Ice Road Truckers

Tonight at 9:00PM, EST, History channel is premiering season 2 of Ice Road Truckers. Last year when Season 1 debuted I wondered why is the History channel doing this? Circumstances happened, I am not going into detail about them, and I ended up watching an episode. I think it was the second or third episode. I was hooked. Ice roads are the only way certain heavy machinery can reach some diamond mines in Northern Canada. They have to wait until lakes freeze solid so they can start hauling. Of course there is a limited time to haul and very strict rules on the drivers. I have read this season is being done on a different road. The owners of the diamond mines felt the drivers were shown being too reckless and only interested in the money. Since I work tonight I will be taping this and watching it tomorrow. I am looking forward to it and will talk about it in depth Tuesday.