I was running late, just gotten out of the shower, and the missus had the TV on in the bedroom. She said a plane had crashed into the WTC. I figured a Cessna pilot had lost control. I got dressed, kissed the wife and left for work.
I didn’t understand what had happened until a coworker brought in a portable TV and we watched the towers collapse. When I got home I watched the news replays showing people jumping to their deaths.
My kids were young then. They couldn’t understand why their dad had tears in his eyes.
Wow. I’d never heard of “Action Park.” This amusement park was so dangerous the owners were forced to buy additional ambulances for the local hospital. Lemur King mentioned it here, with additional links here, here and here.
I took glassblowing in college in the middle of winter. Pure awesome. The instructors all had scars, and our own teacher accidentally sat on glow worm. Burned his ass in glass class.
The biggest danger was blowing the bubble. Inhale super-heated air by accident and you’re gonna die. [h/t Woosk]
Night of the Lepus Trailer. Big bunnies be eatin’ and killin’.
Pee Wee Herman Unmasked! Interview with Paul Reubens.
Mr. Grimes was a dick. I like him, at least in the first half of this instructional video from 1947.
11 years later, Mr. Grime’s protégés were curb dragging in 1958 L.A.
Have a great weekend and be back here tomorrow for more fun.
Okay, before some copyright dweeb tries to attack me for slander, that title is pure sarcasm. It’s a joke.
I hadn’t seen this entertaining summary, but apparently it’s been bouncing around the internest for a while.
[h/t whatever]
Here’s a Blast from the Past, and it’s exactly as I remember it.
[h/t John DiFool]
Here’s a video that I bet you’ve not seen. Jackson Browne with David Lindley, live on Buenafuente, singing a compilation of Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs’ “Stay” and “Love Is Strange,” a 1957 hit by Mickey & Sylvia. (Note that the original version of “Stay” was the shortest song – 99 seconds – ever to become a No. 1 Hit.)
“Stay” is perhaps the greatest doowop song of all time, given the amount of doo and the wopness, all compressed into a hit that runs a minute and a half plus 9 seconds. There is only one vid on the Utoobage of the original performance, and here it is:
That makes the requisite number of five videos complete. Have a great weekend folks, and be back here tomorrow for more stuff.
I might have posted these before. They are envelopes decorated by my great-grandfather and mailed to his son (my grand-uncle) who was stationed in France in the U.S. Signal Corps in WWI. Walter received them on 10 August 1918, and replied with this letter:
“…I saw a peach of an air battle last night. Believe me that is exciting stuff to see them diving and darting around like a couple of birds. That’s about all I can tell you. I can’t tell you who licked. Some of the best fliers are located near us. I guess there are a few “aces” among the bunch.
…Pap says the war will be over in a year making it July 4th 1919. I don’t want to shatter his hopes but I think about the fall of 1920 myself. That is simply my estimate. Maybe last longer or maybe not as long.”
Late last year I asked Walter’s daughter if she’d allow me to post her father’s letters, in sequence beginning in February 1918, as if in real time. For personal reasons she declined, and I’ll respect her wishes.
Meanwhile, I hope all of you still have the same number of fingers and toes as you did yesterday at this time.
Tacky Raccoons 