Spent an hour glued to a local TV program Saturday night
If it isn't news or sports, most local programming won't hold my attention for a full hour. However, given that today is the 10th anniversary of the passing of Wally George, host of "Hot Seat" program for 10 years of original episodes and then when he became ill, ten more years of the highlights from the first 10 years.
People can talk all they want about Jerry Springer, Morton Downey Jr., and the others but it was Wally who began the genre of "combat television" and he was the master. KDOC was a local UHF station in 1983 when they put him on the air and he was a hit almost immediately.
Then during that first season, well-known peace activist Blasé Bonpane was a guest. In the first of many such shows, Wally pushed Blase's "buttons" so hard that the peace activist got out of his chair and violently overturned Wally's desk. The national media picked up the story and the ratings for "Hot Seat" skyrocketed.
Tickets to be in his live studio audience were one of the hottest commodities in Orange County and beyond. Young people adored Wally and lined up for hours to sit in the 100 or so seats in the studio and yell "Wally, Wally" or "5,000" when it came time to give out the number to get tickets for next week's program. George would say "call 714-999" and then pause while the fans yelled the rest of the number.
The list of people who sat in the Hot Seat and got burnt to a crisp is long and includes so many well-known names. Rick Dees, Jay Thomas, the Poorman and Howard Stern were all guests at one time. Morton Downey Jr. actually stole George's show after appearing as a guest. What made that worse is that he and George were very close friends until Downey did his despicable act. Wally George never forgave Morton Downey Jr.
Dr. Timothy Leary, Tom Metzger and many others wound up in the Hot Seat and got skewered. Many shows involved a woman or two who worked in industries like "stripper-grams" or selling sex aids undressing down to bikinis and parading around the stage before Wally would utter just one of his trademark phrases. "You're outta here."
He was the father of noted actress Rebecca DeMornay, who has continued to refuse to comment on her relationship with him. Wally George went bankrupt a few years before he died. He was married and divorced at least four times. His favorite presidents were Nixon and Reagan, with Bush Sr., a distant third.
I was a major fan of his show because I knew it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek and found it extremely amusing.
RIP, Wally George
* * *
It's the biggest lie I've seen anyone try to carry off in politics. "We're compromising." "We're willing to negotiate." Yes, as long as you give us a concession by ending, eroding or delaying Obamacare.
Funding the VA or WIC or any other single program is just a tactic to divert attention from the real issue. To make people forget that the Republican suicide caucus will not stop until Obamacare is overturned.
* * *
There's been a war going on here at the Assisted Living Facility and I think I'm going to nominate myself for the Nobel Peace Prize if my efforts to bring about peace continue to be effective.
The battles are being fought over the community television that is located in the lounge. It is connected to a room with comfortable chairs and card tables by a set of double-doors. Until a new resident arrived about ten days ago, the situation was that there are a few residents who are regulars in the "TV room".
Then the new person showed up and it's been nothing but conflict since. One new policy for sharing the TV failed. The facility director was called at home a few times and even that couldn't solve the problem. Then the President stepped in and so far it's been peaceful. Let's hope that it stays that way. I wouldn't mind a trip to Stockholm.
* * *
Speaker Boehner wants there to be discussions on the national debt with President Obama as part of any debt ceiling deal. He wants to see reductions in government spending. Can we start with taking members of Congress and all other federal employees (except the military) off of the defined benefit pension plans they currently enjoy and putting them into what most of the public has through private industry, a 401(k) or 403(b)? Can we then move on to reducing the contributions made to such plans for members of Congress to the same level as other federal employees?
From there can we remove the privilege of free outpatient medical care for members of Congress at military healthcare facilities in the Washington, D.C. area?
Then let's talk about the idiocy of retroactive pay for federal workers who are furloughed? There's absolutely no point to sending such workers home if we're going to pay them for work they did not do during their furlough. Maybe if we weren't going to pay them retroactively there would suddenly be a sense of urgency about getting this shutdown ended??
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Saw "Runner, Runner" today. I suspect the portion of the audience completely unfamiliar with playing Texas Hold'em Poker would have liked to know what the term means.
I guess we'll know if the "separation" between Bruce and Kris Jenner has any real meaning when she's no longer being pimped for speaking gigs on HIS website.
If Amanda Knox is convicted in the retrial of the alleged murder of her roommate in Italy, she shouldn't be extradited until Italy extradites the former Chicago Board of Trade Chief who fled to Europe after he was ordered arrested for failing to pay monies to his ex-wife.
A bartender who got a $17,500 tip from a regular customer who handed her a lottery ticket that turned out to be a winner did the right thing. She tried to give it back to him. Then he did the right thing and didn't take it. Awesome!
Apparently the news media thinks that the Navy SEALs are the only special operations unit in the military. They were initially crediting SEALs with the successful op in Libya to snatch up a wanted terrorist. That was actually the Army's "Delta Force".
Have to admire the pedantry of whoever read a story about a park ranger being bitten by a "poisonous snake" and took a moment to point out that the snake isn't poisonous, it is venomous.
On the one hand, we shouldn't condemn the HOA that foreclosed on an elderly man's home because of less than $2,500 in unpaid HOA dues without hearing their side of the story. On the other hand, unless they were totally clueless, they should have been able to resolve this long before it got to that stage.
It felt good that not posted a blog yesterday prompted a good friend to check on my welfare.
* * *
This Date In History:
105 BC – Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus.
69 BC – Battle of Tigranocerta: Forces of the Roman Republic defeat the army of the Kingdom of Armenia led by King Tigranes the Great.
68 BC – Battle of Artaxata: Lucullus averts the bad omen of this day by defeating Tigranes the Great of Armenia.
23 – Rebels kill and decapitate the Xin Dynasty emperor Wang Mang two days after the capital Chang'an is sacked during a peasant rebellion.
404 – Byzantine Empress Eudoxia has her seventh and last pregnancy which ends in a miscarriage. She is left bleeding and dies of an infection shortly after.
1539 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his army enter the Apalachee capital of Anhaica (present-day Tallahassee, Florida) by force.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1600 – Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, receives its première performance in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque Period
1683 – German immigrant families found Germantown in the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.
1723 – Benjamin Franklin arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 17.
1762 – Seven Years' War: conclusion of the Battle of Manila between Britain and Spain, which resulted in the British occupation of Manila for the rest of the war.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: General Sir Henry Clinton leads British forces in the capture of Continental Army Hudson River defenses in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery.
1789 – French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October
1849 – The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence.
1854 – England: The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead starts shortly after midnight, leading to 53 deaths and hundreds injured.
1876 – The American Library Association was founded.
1884 – The Naval War College of the United States Navy is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.
1889 – American inventor Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.
1903 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
1908 – Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, sparking a crisis.
1910 – Eleftherios Venizelos is elected Prime Minister of Greece for the first time (7 times in total).
1923 – The great powers of World War I withdraw from Istanbul.
1927 – Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie.
1939 – World War II: Germany's invasion of Poland ends with the surrender of Polesia army after the Battle of Kock
1942 – World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
1945 – Baseball: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series (see Curse of the Billy Goat).
1973 – Egypt launches a coordinated attack with Syria against Israel leading to the Yom Kippur War.
1976 – Cubana Flight 455 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados after two bombs, placed on board by terrorists with connections to the CIA, exploded. All 73 people on board are killed.
1976 – New Premier Hua Guofeng orders the arrest of the Gang of Four and associates and ends the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China.
1976 – Massacre of students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom, by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
1977 – In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.
1977 – The first prototype of the MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.
1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.
1981 – Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated.
1985 – PC Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.
1987 – Fiji becomes a republic.
1995 – 51 Pegasi is discovered to be the second major star apart from the Sun to have a planet orbiting around it.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Jenny Lind
George Westinghouse
Frank G. Allen
Jackie Saunders
Helen Wills Moody
Janet Gaynor
Thor Heyerdahl
Fannie Lou Hamer
Carolyn Goodman
Joe Frazier (the baseball player/manager, not the boxer)
Hafez Al-Assad
Bruno Sammartino (the living legend, a well-deserved title)
Ellen Travolta
Gerry Adams
Kevin Cronin
David Hidalgo
Kathleen Webb
Elisabeth Shue
Ioan Gruffudd
Jeremy Sisto
Olivie Thrilby
Movie quotes today are from "Dredd", the remake starring Karl Urban and one of today's birthday women, the lovely and talented Olivia Thrilby
Judge Dredd: Inhabitants of Peach Trees, this is Judge Dredd.
Ma-Ma: Let him talk.
Judge Dredd: In case you people have forgotten, this block operates under the same rules as the rest of the city. Ma-Ma is not the law... I am the law. Ma-Ma is a common criminal; guilty of murder, guilty of the manufacture and distribution of the narcotic known as Slo-Mo, and as of now under sentence of death. Any who obstruct me in carrying out my duty will be treated as an accessory to her crimes... you have been warned. And as for you Ma-Ma... judgement time.
#2
Judge Dredd: I was wondering when you'd remember you forgot your helmet.
Anderson: Sir, a helmet can interfere with my psychic abilities.
Judge Dredd: Think a bullet in the head might interfere with them more.
#3
Judge Dredd: Wait.
Judge Lex: "Wait?" Are you kidding me? Did you just say, "Wait"? Judge Dredd - *the* Judge Dredd - finally gets on the wrong end of a gun and all he says is, "Wait." You know what? I expected more from you. I mean, wait for what? Wait for me to change my mind? Wait for another two or three seconds of life because you are so fucking weak you can't stand to see it end?
Judge Dredd: No.
[Anderson shoots Lex from behind]
Judge Dredd: Wait for her to shoot you.
People can talk all they want about Jerry Springer, Morton Downey Jr., and the others but it was Wally who began the genre of "combat television" and he was the master. KDOC was a local UHF station in 1983 when they put him on the air and he was a hit almost immediately.
Then during that first season, well-known peace activist Blasé Bonpane was a guest. In the first of many such shows, Wally pushed Blase's "buttons" so hard that the peace activist got out of his chair and violently overturned Wally's desk. The national media picked up the story and the ratings for "Hot Seat" skyrocketed.
Tickets to be in his live studio audience were one of the hottest commodities in Orange County and beyond. Young people adored Wally and lined up for hours to sit in the 100 or so seats in the studio and yell "Wally, Wally" or "5,000" when it came time to give out the number to get tickets for next week's program. George would say "call 714-999" and then pause while the fans yelled the rest of the number.
The list of people who sat in the Hot Seat and got burnt to a crisp is long and includes so many well-known names. Rick Dees, Jay Thomas, the Poorman and Howard Stern were all guests at one time. Morton Downey Jr. actually stole George's show after appearing as a guest. What made that worse is that he and George were very close friends until Downey did his despicable act. Wally George never forgave Morton Downey Jr.
Dr. Timothy Leary, Tom Metzger and many others wound up in the Hot Seat and got skewered. Many shows involved a woman or two who worked in industries like "stripper-grams" or selling sex aids undressing down to bikinis and parading around the stage before Wally would utter just one of his trademark phrases. "You're outta here."
He was the father of noted actress Rebecca DeMornay, who has continued to refuse to comment on her relationship with him. Wally George went bankrupt a few years before he died. He was married and divorced at least four times. His favorite presidents were Nixon and Reagan, with Bush Sr., a distant third.
I was a major fan of his show because I knew it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek and found it extremely amusing.
RIP, Wally George
* * *
It's the biggest lie I've seen anyone try to carry off in politics. "We're compromising." "We're willing to negotiate." Yes, as long as you give us a concession by ending, eroding or delaying Obamacare.
Funding the VA or WIC or any other single program is just a tactic to divert attention from the real issue. To make people forget that the Republican suicide caucus will not stop until Obamacare is overturned.
* * *
There's been a war going on here at the Assisted Living Facility and I think I'm going to nominate myself for the Nobel Peace Prize if my efforts to bring about peace continue to be effective.
The battles are being fought over the community television that is located in the lounge. It is connected to a room with comfortable chairs and card tables by a set of double-doors. Until a new resident arrived about ten days ago, the situation was that there are a few residents who are regulars in the "TV room".
Then the new person showed up and it's been nothing but conflict since. One new policy for sharing the TV failed. The facility director was called at home a few times and even that couldn't solve the problem. Then the President stepped in and so far it's been peaceful. Let's hope that it stays that way. I wouldn't mind a trip to Stockholm.
* * *
Speaker Boehner wants there to be discussions on the national debt with President Obama as part of any debt ceiling deal. He wants to see reductions in government spending. Can we start with taking members of Congress and all other federal employees (except the military) off of the defined benefit pension plans they currently enjoy and putting them into what most of the public has through private industry, a 401(k) or 403(b)? Can we then move on to reducing the contributions made to such plans for members of Congress to the same level as other federal employees?
From there can we remove the privilege of free outpatient medical care for members of Congress at military healthcare facilities in the Washington, D.C. area?
Then let's talk about the idiocy of retroactive pay for federal workers who are furloughed? There's absolutely no point to sending such workers home if we're going to pay them for work they did not do during their furlough. Maybe if we weren't going to pay them retroactively there would suddenly be a sense of urgency about getting this shutdown ended??
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Saw "Runner, Runner" today. I suspect the portion of the audience completely unfamiliar with playing Texas Hold'em Poker would have liked to know what the term means.
I guess we'll know if the "separation" between Bruce and Kris Jenner has any real meaning when she's no longer being pimped for speaking gigs on HIS website.
If Amanda Knox is convicted in the retrial of the alleged murder of her roommate in Italy, she shouldn't be extradited until Italy extradites the former Chicago Board of Trade Chief who fled to Europe after he was ordered arrested for failing to pay monies to his ex-wife.
A bartender who got a $17,500 tip from a regular customer who handed her a lottery ticket that turned out to be a winner did the right thing. She tried to give it back to him. Then he did the right thing and didn't take it. Awesome!
Apparently the news media thinks that the Navy SEALs are the only special operations unit in the military. They were initially crediting SEALs with the successful op in Libya to snatch up a wanted terrorist. That was actually the Army's "Delta Force".
Have to admire the pedantry of whoever read a story about a park ranger being bitten by a "poisonous snake" and took a moment to point out that the snake isn't poisonous, it is venomous.
On the one hand, we shouldn't condemn the HOA that foreclosed on an elderly man's home because of less than $2,500 in unpaid HOA dues without hearing their side of the story. On the other hand, unless they were totally clueless, they should have been able to resolve this long before it got to that stage.
It felt good that not posted a blog yesterday prompted a good friend to check on my welfare.
* * *
This Date In History:
105 BC – Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus.
69 BC – Battle of Tigranocerta: Forces of the Roman Republic defeat the army of the Kingdom of Armenia led by King Tigranes the Great.
68 BC – Battle of Artaxata: Lucullus averts the bad omen of this day by defeating Tigranes the Great of Armenia.
23 – Rebels kill and decapitate the Xin Dynasty emperor Wang Mang two days after the capital Chang'an is sacked during a peasant rebellion.
404 – Byzantine Empress Eudoxia has her seventh and last pregnancy which ends in a miscarriage. She is left bleeding and dies of an infection shortly after.
1539 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his army enter the Apalachee capital of Anhaica (present-day Tallahassee, Florida) by force.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1600 – Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, receives its première performance in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque Period
1683 – German immigrant families found Germantown in the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.
1723 – Benjamin Franklin arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 17.
1762 – Seven Years' War: conclusion of the Battle of Manila between Britain and Spain, which resulted in the British occupation of Manila for the rest of the war.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: General Sir Henry Clinton leads British forces in the capture of Continental Army Hudson River defenses in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery.
1789 – French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October
1849 – The execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad after the Hungarian war of independence.
1854 – England: The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead starts shortly after midnight, leading to 53 deaths and hundreds injured.
1876 – The American Library Association was founded.
1884 – The Naval War College of the United States Navy is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.
1889 – American inventor Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.
1903 – The High Court of Australia sits for the first time.
1908 – Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, sparking a crisis.
1910 – Eleftherios Venizelos is elected Prime Minister of Greece for the first time (7 times in total).
1923 – The great powers of World War I withdraw from Istanbul.
1927 – Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie.
1939 – World War II: Germany's invasion of Poland ends with the surrender of Polesia army after the Battle of Kock
1942 – World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
1945 – Baseball: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series (see Curse of the Billy Goat).
1973 – Egypt launches a coordinated attack with Syria against Israel leading to the Yom Kippur War.
1976 – Cubana Flight 455 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados after two bombs, placed on board by terrorists with connections to the CIA, exploded. All 73 people on board are killed.
1976 – New Premier Hua Guofeng orders the arrest of the Gang of Four and associates and ends the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China.
1976 – Massacre of students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom, by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
1977 – In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.
1977 – The first prototype of the MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.
1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.
1981 – Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated.
1985 – PC Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.
1987 – Fiji becomes a republic.
1995 – 51 Pegasi is discovered to be the second major star apart from the Sun to have a planet orbiting around it.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Jenny Lind
George Westinghouse
Frank G. Allen
Jackie Saunders
Helen Wills Moody
Janet Gaynor
Thor Heyerdahl
Fannie Lou Hamer
Carolyn Goodman
Joe Frazier (the baseball player/manager, not the boxer)
Hafez Al-Assad
Bruno Sammartino (the living legend, a well-deserved title)
Ellen Travolta
Gerry Adams
Kevin Cronin
David Hidalgo
Kathleen Webb
Elisabeth Shue
Ioan Gruffudd
Jeremy Sisto
Olivie Thrilby
Movie quotes today are from "Dredd", the remake starring Karl Urban and one of today's birthday women, the lovely and talented Olivia Thrilby
Judge Dredd: Inhabitants of Peach Trees, this is Judge Dredd.
Ma-Ma: Let him talk.
Judge Dredd: In case you people have forgotten, this block operates under the same rules as the rest of the city. Ma-Ma is not the law... I am the law. Ma-Ma is a common criminal; guilty of murder, guilty of the manufacture and distribution of the narcotic known as Slo-Mo, and as of now under sentence of death. Any who obstruct me in carrying out my duty will be treated as an accessory to her crimes... you have been warned. And as for you Ma-Ma... judgement time.
#2
Judge Dredd: I was wondering when you'd remember you forgot your helmet.
Anderson: Sir, a helmet can interfere with my psychic abilities.
Judge Dredd: Think a bullet in the head might interfere with them more.
#3
Judge Dredd: Wait.
Judge Lex: "Wait?" Are you kidding me? Did you just say, "Wait"? Judge Dredd - *the* Judge Dredd - finally gets on the wrong end of a gun and all he says is, "Wait." You know what? I expected more from you. I mean, wait for what? Wait for me to change my mind? Wait for another two or three seconds of life because you are so fucking weak you can't stand to see it end?
Judge Dredd: No.
[Anderson shoots Lex from behind]
Judge Dredd: Wait for her to shoot you.
posted by me at 4:44 PM
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