August 6th, 2008 Weds August 6th, 2008 |
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Well, Boys & Girls, the warlords of PBS are crunching the numbers to see if we rate a second season of Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns. We struggled to find a big audience in this current oversaturated media market. Just like 30 Rock, MadMen, Arrested Development and Star Trek the Next Generation got great buzz and critical appeal but took time to find an audience. The good news is I heard that our audience never diminished, but has stayed loyal since we premiered. This despite the PBS local affiliates sticking us all over the dial at all kinds of weird times. And for that CarTalk loyalty I am heartily grateful. Now we'll see if PBS thinks we merit more episodes. Well, let's cross our fingers and rub our Roger Rabbit's feet and hope for the best. Remember to watch tonight, and write PBS via the website and tell them you want more Click and Clack!
my crew can't wait to get back to work on a new season!
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Quiz: Who is Bugs Bunny named for?
Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: What is a peripatetic?
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History for 8/6/2008
Birthdays: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Daniel O'Connell "the Liberator", Dutch Schultz, Louella Parsons, Lucille Ball, Robert Mitchum, Andy Warhol, Hoot Gibson, William B. Williams, Michelle Yeoh, Sir Freddy Laker, M. Night Shyamalan, Melissa George, Andy Messersmith, Soliel Moon-Frye aka Punky Brewster
1504 Birth of Matthew Parker, English cleric who became Archbishop of Canterbury under Elizabeth I and was responsible for formulating the 39 Articles - an apocryphal story is that his long nose and inquisitive nature gave rise to the term "Nosy Parker ".
1890- FIRST MAN ELECTROCUTED- Prison officials wanted a more humane way to execute badguys than hanging, after a 300 pound killer named Mad Jack Ketcham made everybody sick when the noose ripped his head off. So they turned to the miracle of the age, electricity. A spirited competition began between inventors Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse whether AC or DC current was more lethal. Lots of dogs and cats around their laboratories disappeared for test subjects. Edison wanted to call his device an "Automort" or "Electramort". When Edison knew he was going to lose the contract he suggested the inventor give his name to it." Joe will be Westinghoused at Midnight !"-etc. Finally it was simply the Chair or the Hot Seat. The first man in it, an axe murderer named William Kemmler, took several 17 second jolts to be sent off, his hair and jacket caught fire and his shoes melted and stuck to the floor.
1926- Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel.
1926- Warner Brothers Studio premiered it’s motion picture sound on disk system.The film was Don Juan with John Barrymore the Great Profile. It didn’t really have much impact until they made the "Jazz Singer"with Al Jolson two years later.
1930- Judge Crater disappeared. The New York Supreme Court Justice had given no indication of any trouble but he had accrued huge gambling debts. The good judge had dinner with some friends at the Stork Club and told them he would join them later at the theater. He got into a taxi at 43rd street and vanished forever. It was the media sensation of the year.
1932- Top Broadway singer Libby Hollman "Statue of Libby" had married quiet millionaire Smith Reynolds and moved to his North Carolina estate. But life on the farm was boring so Libby brought her Broadway friends down to party. After one party she was missing for several hours and had grass stains on her knees. The couple quarreled and Smith Reynolds died of a gunshot wound to the head. No one was ever charged .
1945- HIROSHIMA.- At around 11:00 A.M. Capt. Tibbetts and his B-29 "Enola Gay" dropped one bomb and sent us into the Atomic Age. The uranium device was called the "Cosmic Bomb" by the scientists and "Little Boy" by the crew. Navy Secretary Admiral Leahy had said:" It's the biggest damn fool thing we've ever done. It'll never go off!" When it did go off one crewmember shouted:"Wow! Lookit that sonofabitch go! This war is over!!" The navigator wrote in his journal" My God! What have we done ?" The target city of Hiroshima was selected because it was undamaged up until then and the surrounding hills would concentrate it’s effect. The A-bomb killed around 130,000 people and continued to kill survivors with radiation and cancer. 50,000 people were vaporized outright leaving only shadows burned into the pavement. Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, the bomb's main designer, had built it primarily to stop Hitler -both the Nazis and Japanese had their own unsuccessful atomic bomb programs. He was still horrified by the results. He became a lifelong pacifist and was later persecuted as a commie for refusing any more help in developing nuclear weapons.
1962- Jamaica gained independence from Britain.
1970- THE HIPPIES ATTACK DISNEYLAND- A nationwide call for civil disobedience at the famous American-establishment tourist spot was called for August 6th. Called "Yippie Day" Yippies were considered more militant than Hippies. 750 long haired, denim clad moppets filtered into park. Once in they quickly massed, then invaded the Wilderness Fort in Frontierland. There they raised the Vietcong flag, passed marijuana to tourists and chanted "Stop the War! Free Charlie Manson!" They were finally expelled with great difficulty by park security and the Anaheim police. In the 1980’s Disney was almost invaded by Nazi skinheads but this time they were ready.
1973- Stevie Wonder involved in car crash, goes into a 4 day coma but eventually recovered.
1984- Carl Lewis won four gold medals in track & field at the Olympic Games in LA.
1998- A chubby White House student intern from LA named Monica Lewinsky testified to a Federal Grand Jury that she had sex with President Bill Clinton in a small room down the hall from the Oval Office. Hey, watch where ya put that cigar!
2001- One month before the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks the CIA presented President George W. Bush with a study. The report was entitled OSAMA BEN LADEN LIKELY TO ATTACK IN CONTINENTAL US. That the terrorists attack on the US was likely and they may use hijacked civilian airliners. President Bush thanked them then resumed clearing brush on his ranch in Crawford Texas. CIA chief George Tenant didn’t think it important enough to even show up. Later in 2003 after the 9-11 attack National Security adviser Dr. Condoleeza Rice was quoted in the press that " No one could predict terrorists would hijack civilian airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon."
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Yesterdays Quiz: What is a peripatetic?
Answer: Someone who moves around a lot. Speaking on the move. Named for Aristotle, who liked to lecture while wandering around in a garden.
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