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Flashback Friday: Shows I Miss.

Not that long ago, or at least it doesn’t feel that long ago, I used to turn on “Nick at Nite” or TV Land late at night to put my mind to sleep with the classics. Shows I watched as a child, and a few shows that were on before I existed. It was comforting, and something I did every night, a routine.

Nowadays, I am a little disappointed in what they deem “classic” television. Don’t get me wrong, I do like some of the shows, but to me, they just aren’t classic, yet. It could quite possibly be me just getting older I guess, but I would love for one of those channels to cater to the older classics in the evenings. Nowadays, both of those channels are pretty much playing the same things over and over and over. The Nanny, Roseanne, Three’s Company, Fresh Prince, Family Matters… The closest to what I would deem “classic” in that bunch is Three’s Company, and really, there is only so much I can take of the same story, over and over and over.  Plus, I REALLY don’t need to hear the Nanny’s shrilly voice when trying to sleep. For that matter, Steve Urkel? No thank you!

If I could wave a magic wand (or take over programming at a network) and make my dream nighttime line-up, it would look kinda like this:

Mon – Fri:

10:00PM – The Bob Newhart Show – I really liked this one. The show ran from 1972 – 1978 on CBS, a total of 142 episodes. With his dead pan comedy and “straight man” ways, Bob Newhart became a comedic icon. The finale of his follow up show “Newhart” has become classic.

Since I was unable to locate a video for this show, I have included a “skit” of him playing his character from Mad TV.

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Flashback Friday – President Clinton Impeachment Trial Begins

On January 7th, 1999, a trial for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton began. He was originally accused of lying under oath and obstruction of justice, later charges of witness tampering and abuse of power were added on. This was all due to testimony regarding the Paula Jones case and his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Many considered the evidence against him to show his guilt, however others asked if he was guilty “enough”. The Constitution states that a president can be removed from office due to “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”. Since he obviously wasn’t guilty of treason or bribery, it all came down to “other high crimes and misdemeanors”, which is clearly a matter of judgement. When the Constitution was drafted, the framers put this power of impeachment in the hands of the legislative branch rather than the judicial branch which gives Congress the power to give it’s own judgement.
During the Watergate investigation, Gerald Ford stated that what defines high crimes and misdemeanors is “whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” On this point, Clinton was clearly guilty. With that being said, the investigator into the entire Clinton matter, Kenneth Starr, wasn’t exactly impugn himself and his motives couldn’t be considered infallible. Many considered his obsession with finding something, anything, on Clinton in this situation, that he used Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky as a tipping point in the impeachment investigation. To play devil’s advocate, others could argue that the Clintons so effectively covered their tracks during the Whitewater “scandal” that the Lewinsky affair was the only thing Starr could chase him on. There was a multitude of issues which lead to the impeachment investigation; the Whitewater real estate scandal, the firing of White House travel agents, alleged misuse of FBI files and Clinton’s conduct during a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones.
Another interesting point is that the vote to impeach was clearly a draw along party lines, both in the Senate and Congress. In the end, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Bill Clinton, but that was overturned by Senate two months after that.
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Random Thought Thursday: MCR, Tiger Woods, Birds, and Tears

(Editorial: TheKdd) Well, another week has gone by, and so much information is just dying to get out of my brain, so onto another Random Thought Thursday!

Let’s see, this past week, we celebrated New Year’s Eve. 2011. Other than writing a few wrong dated checks, everything seemed the same, until… The birds are dying! Get that? BIRDS ARE DYING! RUN! Ok, I’m guessing this isn’t the apocalypse, although I did read this week, unrelated to the birds, that there is a group running around the country to tell people the end of days begins this May. Aside from that, the bird thing is a bit strange. So far, we had the birds falling from the sky on New Years Day in Arkansas, with similar reports in Kentucky, Louisiana, and even Sweden! (So it’s not just the U.S. going down in the end times.) There are also reports of fish and crabs keeling over too. Well, today it was reported that 1000’s of birds are dying in Italy. Turtle Doves at that. (There goes that Christmas song.) Scientists believe it all to be unrelated. The birds in Italy have been found with blue stains on their beak, so scientists are pointing to some kind of poisoning. I guess time will tell, or it won’t… muahaha.

In another report, EA Games is reportedly removing the image of Tiger Woods from the cover of their new “Tiger Woods” Golf video game. Really? They expect sales may be better without the image, however the title of the game is ‘Tiger Woods PGA Tour’. I don’t have much to say about that, other than… really? Maybe it’s the re-writer of Huck Finn coming up with their marketing plan?

A quick little shout out and thank you to one of my favorite rock bands, My Chemical Romance. Apparently, MCR was offered a good sum of money to record a song for the soundtrack of ‘Twilight’ but turned it down. Way to not take that ‘Vampire Money’. It’s awesome to see a band not sell out these days. I’m still holding my grudge against Muse and their contribution to the Twilight series. I mean come on! They WERE the “Resistance!” Way to stand up MCR! I knew you were one of my faves for a reason! Very nice album by the way.

Last and maybe least, there was a new experiment done that may have proven that a “Chemical signal” in women’s tears are a turnoff to men, temporarily lowering a man’s testosterone level. The experiment, conducted by researchers from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, was unable to test the theory the other way around, since it was hard for them to get a man to cry in a lab setting.  Yeah ok. Scientists can call it a “turn off” all they want, but I figure, with the lowering of the testosterone, it hits a man’s more sensitive side, stripping a little bit of the “manly man” out of them. Maybe this is why women get away without the speeding ticket? Hmmmm…

Alright, I could go on all day, but I will stop now. What are your random thoughts today? Let us know below or in the FORUM!!

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and the Alabama Butcher

Have you heard the news? Apparently, Mark Twain’s novels ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ are in need of a re-write! You heard me right. According to “Twain Scholar” Alan Gribben, who is currently working with NewSouth Books of Alabama to publish a combined volume of his books, they are in need of some revisions; namely, to remove the N-word from the novels replacing it with the word “slave.” He believes the word is in danger of putting the classics into a list of books that “people praise and don’t read.”

Well, get over yourself Sir. I read them. My son has read them. My daughter will as well. I would recommend them to everyone. I will not, nor will my kids, read your “P.C.” new editions, nor would I ever recommend them. If the new crowd of today doesn’t like the word, well, put down the book.

Mark Twain once wrote that “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter.” This, however, is now being used by Mr. Gribben as a his reasoning instead of what it really means. I would be sure, that even if these classics were in danger of not being read because of the use of certain words, Twain himself wouldn’t change a thing.

‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ are essentially historical pieces. Just because society may not care for our historical past doesn’t mean it should be changed to make people more comfortable. History, well, had some pretty nasty moments. Are we going to go through all historical documents and censor anything some may not like? Just erase it like it didn’t happen? (Wish I could do that!)

In addition to replacing the N-word, Gribben changes the villain in “Tom Sawyer” from “Injun Joe” to “Indian Joe” and “half-breed” becomes “half-blood.” Why change the Injun to Indian? Shouldn’t that be “Native American Joe” Mr. Gribben?

What’s next? A re-write of Salinger? Steinbeck? Henry Miller? Oh I know, how about Harry Potter! I am not too fond of being referred to as a Muggle. Fix that would ya?

Thoughts? Will you read it if the language gets changed? Will you read it if it doesn’t? Have you read it at all? Let us know below or in the FORUM.

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Oscar Nominee Pete Postlethwaite, Dead At 64 From Cancer

Pete Postlethwaite, most recently seen in the movie Inception, passed away on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at the age of 64 after a long battle with cancer. His notable roles included the aforementioned Inception, In The Name Of The Father, Amistad, Romeo and Juliet and The Usual Suspects. His role in “In The Name Of The Father” earned him an Oscar nomination. He was in four films total this past year alone; Inception, The Town, Ironclad and Clash of the Titans.  He died peacefully at a hospital in Shropshire, England, surrounded by his family. Our condolences to his family.