Category: True Stories

Saturday Matinee – FaceBook Etiquette, Carnival Cheats,Texting Scam, Bob Kuban & The In-Men and The Undisputed Truth

We had to watch that in junior high school. We all snickered to ourselves and laughed out loud afterwards. Once school let out, we went trolling anyway:

“Hello, Mrs. Jenkins? This is Bob from Hi-Times Liquor. Your husband left his wallet and motel key on the counter.”

“You Asked For It”  was an early television show that pulled in viewers by asking for requests. This one shows some old carnival gaffes, some of which are still employed.

Here’s a modern day fraud to be aware of. The Real Hustle was an interesting show. Here’s 90 minutes worth of bar bets that should keep you busy for a while.

Bob Kuban & The In-Men had their one hit in 1966 with “The Cheater” and the song fits. (Irony note: Kuban was killed by his wife’s boyfriend in 1983.) I couldn’t find a live version, but this works.

“Smiling Faces” was originally recorded by the Temptations, but was a hit with this cover by The Undisputed Truth in 1971.

That’s our collection for this episode of The  Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend folks and we’ll see you tomorrow whether you like it or not.

The .Gif Friday Post No.214 – Spit Spaz, Bowser Bidet, Lighthouse Wave, Beach Basket Cat





[Found here, here, here and here,]

A.M. Bacon’s Contribution To The World

There you have it. A.M. Bacon invented personal space. Awesome.

From A. M. Bacon, Manual of Gesture (1875).

[Found here.]

Kim Jong il – Ex-Space Explorer

Kim Jong Il takes a test drive of an amusement park combat plane ride in Taesong amusement park, in Pyongyang, North Korea on October 2, 1977. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP Images)

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Etta James, Johnny Otis, Contours, Ruth Brown & Illinois Jacquet

Etta James passed away on 20 January 2012, and there aren’t many live vids out there on the Utoobage (this one’s from 1962). She was tough on the eyes, but gorgeous on the ears.

We also lost the great Johnny Otis on 17 January. Although I never saw The Johnny Otis Show on television, his 1990s radio show was great, playing old R&B and early R&R. (I spoke with him on the phone once about some trivia about The Contours.)

So here are The Contours live in 1963. I love early R&B, so we might as well continue with that theme.

Ruth Brown recorded “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean” in 1953, and it’s a great example of “jump blues” that morphed, terminology-wise from “Race Records” into “Rhythm and Blues” and later into “Rock and Roll.”

According to the late Eubie Blake, the phrase “Rock and Roll” originated in the late 1800s. It described a ragtime piano style that kept the patrons of brothels moving along. (Even the name “ragtime” is bawdy, and you can connect the dots for yourselves.)

Jump Blues. From the Utoobage description:

Illinois Jacquet and his band in the “Jive Crazy” scene from the 1949 noir movie “D.O.A.” — at least, according to the movie publicity.

So that might not be Illinois Jacquet’s band, but it’s still a great scene. And that makes five jumpy and jivey vids for the Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend folks.

STOP SOPA / PIPA

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Just think.

If the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) were to pass, this post could cause Tacky Raccoons to be taken down with a single complaint.

The complaint could be made by one of the pet owners, the person who created any one of the images, the company that printed the calendars where the images were featured, any website that sold those calendars, and any individual claiming ownership of the pictures, whether the claims were legit or not.

Every website that posted any image could be accused and shut down, whether guilty of copyright infringement or not. Google itself could be in violation, because they linked to the images where we lifted them, which is aiding and abetting.

The U.S. Government has been trying to figure out ways to control the internest for a long time, especially for taxation purposes, but this latest power grab (by a bipartisan commission!) is beyond insidious. James Watt takes it a step further:

SOPA/PIPA is not the way of free speech, nor is it going to help the exchange of ideas. It will hurt science just as much as any other venue to protect a few media conglomerates. SOPA and PIPA is a real danger to all of us who frequent websites such as this one. Imagine if you will, we are discussing the new HadCRUT4 using station data – a complaint is lodged by UEA/CRU to the SOPA/PIPA entity over some portion of that dataset they consider “proprietary” or protected by one of the non disclosure agreements they claim to have with some countries. One complaint is all it would take to shut WUWT, Climate Audit, and other websites using this data for discussion down- without any hearing or trial. Basically, “fair use” gets tossed down the hole. Science loses.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/about-wuwt/wuwt-supports-the-sopapipa-blackout/

Freedom of Speech is one of the unalienable rights of citizens of this great country. Let’s make sure it’s never taken away, because we’ll never get it back.

________________________________________________________

Update: The founder of ICanHazCheezBurger recorded his own protest song: The Day The LOLcats Died.

Congrats to Bunkarina!

Not only was our daughter Bunkarina awarded a Black Belt, she’s been bestowed the title of Sensei. That means that she still has to clean up her room, but only when she wants to.

[Confidential to Bunkarina: Don’t cut out the moose part – you’ll never get it back. – Papa Strutts]

The .Gif Friday Post No.210 – Special Delivery Edition

[Via email from John M.]

12/1/12 1:12:1

dd/mm/yy hh:mm:ss

Happy Birthday to Kirstie Alley, Joe Frazier, John Hancock, Joe E. Lewis, Rush Limbaugh, Jack London, Ray Price, Tex Ritter, Howard Stern, Glenn Yarborough, Rob Zombie and me. We goats kick ass.

30 Gallons of Gas


[via]

MEN will be invited from the audience to protect those under the Influence of the Gas from injuring themselves or others. This course is adopted that no apprehension of danger may be entertained. Probably no one will attempt to fight.

That description is followed by:

THE EFFECT OF THE GAS is to make those who inhale it, either LAUGH, SING, DANCE, SPEAK OR FIGHT, &, &.

Everyone wants to suck it up.

Those who inhale the Gas once, are always anxious to inhale it a second time. There is not an exception to this rule.

Lot’s ‘o fun to be had in 1845 – N2O is a gas gas gas.