Tom McMahon

An excerpt: "Gilligan's Island, a 1960s comedy, ranks among the most influential television shows of all time. Despite the fact that the last original episode aired thirty years ago, the show is more popular now than when it first appeared. Each day, reruns bring the characters back to life, and it is claimed that the show has been presented more often than any other television comedy. Although the series has been the subject of numerous studies, its legal facets are almost never mentioned. As a result, even the show's most ardent fans are rarely mindful of just how much law appeared in the series. Accordingly, this essay seeks to shed some light on the jurisprudence of Gilligan's Island." 

WorldNetDaily: Why did the Clintons go to Long Island to comfort the families? They did not go to Florida to comfort the ValuJet families two months earlier. No president has done such a thing before or since to the best of my knowledge. And given the emotional difficulty of such a meeting, why does Hillary skip it in "Living History"?  

One of a series of Presidents Paper Dolls  

Jim Kalb's Palindrome Connection 

Also known as Sam Loyd's fifteen. 

Customized Classics: Custom paperback editions of classic novels starring YOU! Customized books where you and your friends and family enter the story. How does it work? Simply go to the book you wish to customize, click the "Customize and buy" button, and a list of the changes that can be made for that book will displayed. Type in your choices, go through the secure credit card payment page and you're done! In a few weeks a personalized, professionally produced paperback will arrive at your door! Current offerings include several Sherlock Holmes titles, Romeo and Juliet, Alice in Wonderland, and The Jungle Book, with more on the way. In the near future they will be adding Ann of Green Gables, Tarzan and Robin Hood. 

At NewsMaxStore.com
 

The Singing Nun: That she had any impact on the swingin' '60s at all is rather remarkable, because she wasn't trying to be a star. In fact, she released an album in '67 that was actually called I Am Not a Star. Instead, she was just trying to please her sisters in the convent with her music and maybe raise some funds for her Dominican order. Somehow her one hit song, "Dominique," captured worldwide attention in '63. Sung partly in French, the song was riding high at #1 on the American charts while the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" was held back at #2. The Singing Nun also has the distinction of being the only Belgian-born singer to hit #1 in America.  

Fuller Up, The Dead Musician Directory. Categorized by Cause of Death. It's the only site where you'll find which musicians died in farming accidents. Or golfing. 

Proctor & Bergman - TV or Not TV: It’s “Forward into the Past” with Proctor & Bergman’s hilarious 1973 Video Vaudeville starring Fred Flamm and Clark Cable -- which predicts among other things, cable television, pirate broadcasting, teenage hackers, the fall of Communism and smart cards. A better track record than any of the so-called futurists, and funny to boot. No Liberal Arts education is truly complete without an understanding of this work. 

John Walkenbach of the J-Walk Blog has a nice post on the Johnny Rabbitt-era St. Louis band Bob Kuban and the In-Men. It seems Bob Kuban was a teacher at the high school John attended in the 60's. The group's one hit was a song titled "The Cheater", about a guy who, well, cheats around. Typical one-hit-wonder-story of the 60's. But there's a lot more to this story, with Life Imitating Art. It has to do with the band's lead singer, Walter Scott. From the website Fuller Up:

As Bob Kuban and the In-Men were preparing for a 20th anniversary reunion scheduled for June 23, 1984 at the Fox, Walter Scott mysteriously disappeared. He was last seen walking out his two story home near St. Peters at 7:05PM, December 27, 1983. On April 10, 1987, his badly decomposed, bound body was found floating face down in a cistern. Scott had been shot in the back. Scott's second wife, JoAnn (Calceterra), pled guilty to hindering prosecution in his murder. She received a five year sentence. And JoAnn's boyfriend (whom she married in 1986), James H.Williams Sr., was found guilty of two counts of capital murder in the deaths of his previous wife, Sharon Williams, and Walter Scott. James Williams received two life terms without the possibility of parole (affirmed by the Missouri Court of Appeals, April 4, 1995). And Walter Scott still sings, "Tough luck for the Cheater, Too bad for the fool-hearted clown"

You can also get a book or a video on this strange, strange story. 

The Nazi Dr. Doolittle . An MP3 sound bite from the National Lampoon Radio Hour. 

1. Put up ALL the hotels and houses on the board.
2. Nobody gets any money to start.
3. When you land on a property, the bank GIVES you the amount of money on the deed for the number of houses or hotels on that property.
4. When the Bank runs out of money, the game is over.
5. The player with the most money wins

This works great, because young kids like to handle the play money and the tokens, but aren't mature enough to have their money taken away from them. And they like playing a grown-up game, not a special version for kids.  

Wisconsin's World-Class Kitsch Tourist Destination The House On The Rock has a lesser-known counterpart, The Rock in the House.  

The Hubble Heritage Gallery of Images. Select all the thumbnails, do a quick right-click, and BADDA-Bing! the big images all start loading, one right after the other. Then click click click you just page right through them. Ya really ought to try this iRider thing. PC magazine columnist John Dvorak now uses it for all his heavy research, if you're the type who needs a celebrity endorsement. 

 

Audible.com lets you download audio books from the internet. A nice change o' pace from all those MP3's, don't you think? If you DO sign up, give them my username -- tommcmahon -- so I can earn points toward a badly-needed lifesaving operation. Or something. 

Anagram lets you select text, hit your shortcut key, and BANG! it instantly converts it to an Outlook task, contact, note, or appointment based on the content of what you've selected. More useful than you might think. 

You'll surf the net 10x faster with this browser for the PC. Download the trial version, go through the demo (this is important -- don't skip this step!), then go through their Great Rides, and you'll be hooked. If you don't have the $29, you can try www.dailyroutine.com for a taste of what I'm talking about. 

These little yellow things are just as handy on your computer as they are on your desk. I tried them, not expecting much, but I found myself using them all the time. It has a handy alarm feature, great for reminding yourself to check back on something in an hour without diddling with your Outlook tasks. Comes in 3 flavors, but the free version may be all you need. 

The Green Acres Home Page is terrific, but here's a great excerpt from the Museum of Broadcast Communications:
Green Acres (1965-71, CBS), in the words of author David Marc, is "as utterly self-reflexive as any program ever aired on network TV." The gifted child of television mastermind Paul Henning, who made his name and fortune on The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres was a spinoff created in conjunction with Jay Sommers, based on his original radio series Granby's Green Acres. Yet despite its folksy origins, and in an age which routinely produced garrulous nags, crusty aliens, flying nuns, suburban witches, maternal jalopies, and coconut-powered shortwaves, Green Acres stands proudly as the furthest point on the envelope of television's psychedelic era. Amen. And it's coming back to TVLand in January 2004!

Also, it seems that Pat Buttram (Mr. Haney) claims he based his character loosely on Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's legendary shadowy manager, whom he had known as a carnival entrepreneur in the 1940s, where he ran a booth featuring dancing chickens.  

The What A Character!: Index of Character Actors. A great place to find ol' whatzisname. A fun site just to browse, too! 

From Wired Magazine: Go on the record for your prediction way out into the future at the Long Bets Foundation. This foundation was inspired in part by the work of the late University of Maryland economist Julian Simon. In 1980, Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford University biologist and author, made a bet with Simon that the price of mineral commodities would rise in 10 years. A decade later, Ehrlich paid Simon $576 after prices of commodities had plummeted and his predictions that the world was heading toward an era of scarcity never materialized. Thankfully, no sports bets are accepted. Chicago Cubs fans can go back to sleep now. 

Big Fun Toys Shopping: And as if that's not enough, how about a game of Pocket Air Hockey or my favorite, the James Brown Celebriduck (it floats!) 

Answers to many of your questions, including Who Was Krusty Modeled After? It may not have been WGN's Bozo, but it was sure hard to tell the difference in those last few years of Bozo. But even tho the show was truly awful, there was like a 20 year waiting list for tickets to be in the studio audience! For a kids show. You do the math . . .  

My good friend Mary told me this story from about 10 years ago when she was working two jobs at the Stouffer Hotel in Cleveland. During the day, she worked in the bookkeeping department. In the evenings and on weekends, she worked as a bartender. One Sunday evening two gentlemen walked into an almost empty bar. One of them was older, one was young. She struck up a conversation with them, and pretty soon they were all having a really good time, the sort of good time you can only have when it's totally unexpected. When the older man left briefly to go to the bathroom, the younger man asked Mary "Do you know who that is?" When Mary said that No, she didn't, she heard him say "That's the President of Ford". Must be down from Detroit on business, she thought.

After he got back, the older man asked her about her life, why she worked two jobs, and was very interested in learning some of the problems of the younger generation. They continued to have a good time, she showed them some bar tricks she had learned as a bartender to amuse the patrons, and they just had a wonderful evening. After they left, the younger man brought Mary some flowers, indicating the older man had had the best time he'd had in quite a while.

The next day, while working her day job in bookkeeping, a bill came through for the City of Cleveland. One of the supervisors said "That's for Ford's visit" at which point Mary announced "Yeah, the President of Ford Motor Company, I met him last night while bartending. Nice guy." Her supervisor then had to correct her "No, Mary, that wasn't the President of Ford Motor Company. That was President Ford. President Gerald R. Ford, the former President of the United States"

Mary had spent three hours the past evening shootin' the breeze with the former President of the United States, and hadn't even realized it at the time. And the funny thing to think about is, if she had known it, would she have been able to talk with him like that? Would President Ford have had such a good time?

And we mustn't forget to extend our Special Happy Birthday wishes to President Ford, who turns 90 today, and to our son Ryan, who turns 21. And by the way, Mr. President, Mary really liked the flowers. 

From Charlie Sykes. My favorites:

1. No one can ruin your day without YOUR permission.

2. Most people will be about as happy as they decide to be.

4. Whatever you are willing to put up with is exactly what you will have.

18. Life is what's coming....not what was.

20. Now is the most interesting time of all.
 

From Windward Model Ships. In high school I never really knew what they meant when they talked about tides in the science books, being from the Midwest and all. Anyway, for Atlantic Coast users you set the clock and let it predict the next regular tide. The Atlantic tide changes every 12 hours 25 minutes and 14 seconds, so that is how long it takes the hand to go around on these tide clocks. Pacific Coast, these tide clocks do not work without adjusting weekly, so they only sell these tide clocks for Atlantic Coast use only.  

• Hill -- A Rich Old NY Rat, Mon
• Only Old Thin Liar Charm
• NYC Hath Million or Lard
• A Damn Rich Loony Thrill

 

From the absolutely wonderful Dribbleglass.com Some examples:

• If a man prepares dinner for you and the salad contains three or more types of lettuce, he is serious.
• The way a man looks at himself in a mirror will tell you if he can ever care about anyone else.
• A good place to meet a man is at the dry cleaner. These men usually have jobs and bathe.
• Men who listen to classical music tend not to spit.
• Men forget everything. Women remember everything. That's why men need instant replays in sports. They've already forgotten what happened
• Men like to barbecue. Men will cook if danger is involved.

 

He's now a professional toy designer: Lyle Lambur Toy Design. I'm thinking of changing the format of this blog from "All Hillary, All the Time" to "All the Obscure KXOK Trivia that I Self-Indulgently Want to Post". 

Here are the complete instructions. The album has been out for 30 years, and I never knew you could do this. Geez, do I feel out of the loop . . . (via Solonor) 

The Wired Magazine Rundown of Tech Gadgets. I'll take one of each, please! 

A Joe Meek Online Archive. Joe Meek was the Way-Ahead-of-His-Time Genius behind the early Sixties techno-hit "Telstar", as well as other unique-sounding hits of that decade such as "Have I The Right?" by the Honeycombs (with a girl drummer, can you believe it?). An incredibly detailed site, including:

• The Joe Meek Drinking Game
• Joe Meek Desktop Themes
• The Joe Meek Virtual Museum
• Joe Speaks (recorded interviews)
• Discography
• Biography

And for you conspiracy buffs, a page-after-page analysis of the Death of Joe Meek. Did Joe really kill his landlady? Theories abound . . . .