I have only seen a few Springer shows. But I still know that if my significant other (whether of two weeks or two years) asks me to go on the Jerry Springer, I'm not going to be dumb enough to go. I figure that the guys/gals who end up being embarrassed on the show are lied to about why they're on the show, but how gullible does one have to be? I can't imagine what story would be so tempting that I'd risk it. But then again, how many of those people are putting on a act to get on TV.
It's one thing to pull a stunt to get on Jerry Springer, but it's another to get engaged. Take "Married by America" back in 2003. The basic plot is that short segments on several men and women are shown, and then the viewers can call in to vote for who they think should get engaged to whom (and pay a couple of bucks per call while they're at it), and then the most voted couple agree to get married. It's one thing to go on a blind date, but another to get engaged solely based on the judgement of people who sit at home and spend some $20 on a show (that's if they only vote once per couple). And that's not even considering how many jokers are sure to call in to set you up with some asshole.
And then there was "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?", where some women agree to marry some millionaire sight unseen. Now, while it's not something that I'd be a part of, I can actually see this as being a reasonable option for some people. How many good looking women are simply looking to marry a rich man? So for them, why not simply cut out all the dating, get hitched to some loser, get the money, and have a 'headache' from then on out? The guy was just some goofy looking putz, who's only real chance for marriage is that some girl will do so for money anyway. So, why not be a part of that show and get to pick the one you think looks best? It's about as close to an actual marriage that some of these people will get to.
I still watch a few reality shows, but not many. Shows like "Amazing Race" that are mostly based on competition instead of any "voting off" crap, or "dating" shows.
---jps
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
Anonymity is a Warm Blanket
I don't want to be famous.
If life leads me down a path where I happen to be famous (doubtful), then so be it, but I sure as snot will not go looking for fame. You lose your privacy, too many losers feel the need to know every detail of your life, too many idiots feel qualified to judge others, and so on, and so on. Even if you find yourself in a position where people have nothing but good intentions, it can be a crush, and you can't do anything anonymously in public. Who knows how much of an idiot I would turn out to be if I were surrounded by the same people as stars like Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. I once flew on a plane sitting next to a sitcom star from the '60s. She aged well, and you could still recognize her, and more than half the people in the small puddle jumper recognized her as someone familiar. The poor lady wouldn't have gotten a moment's rest if some fan had set next to her. No, no, that's not for me. I will happily go through life where most people don't know me from Adam.
I don't want to be super-rich.
Sure, I'd like to be a bit more financially secure than I am now. But there is a point where one is comfortable and secure, and the rest is just more of the same. When you have a lot of money and people know it, most want to get it from you. You don't know who is being your friend to be your friend, and who is in it for the money (most would be in it for the money, of course). People will come out of the woodwork to sue you at the drop of a hat just to get money, even if you haven't done anything to deserve it. And you and your loved ones will constantly be the target of all kinds of thieves and con men.
Take for example, the fellow in West Virginia who won 315 million in the Lotto around Christmas of 2002. He took the lump sum payment, which ended up being 113 million, after taxes. Since then, he has been arrested for drunk driving, gotten caught up in all sorts of crap with strippers and drugs (including some fellow being found dead in his house). He's been sued for all sorts of things, and now he doesn't have anything in the bank, because some people started writing checks on his account. This unknown fellow has been consistently in the news because of all these things that have been happening to him. Some of these things he has brought on himself by his own actions (power corrupts), and some of these things have happened to him because of the money.
No, if I win the lottery, a few million should be just fine to handle my needs for the rest of my life. Even that amount will bring me the attention of some unscrupulous types, but I hope that I'd be able to at least handle that kind of trouble. Well, then again, I'd probably need another million or two just to send a couple of kids through college...
---jps
If life leads me down a path where I happen to be famous (doubtful), then so be it, but I sure as snot will not go looking for fame. You lose your privacy, too many losers feel the need to know every detail of your life, too many idiots feel qualified to judge others, and so on, and so on. Even if you find yourself in a position where people have nothing but good intentions, it can be a crush, and you can't do anything anonymously in public. Who knows how much of an idiot I would turn out to be if I were surrounded by the same people as stars like Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. I once flew on a plane sitting next to a sitcom star from the '60s. She aged well, and you could still recognize her, and more than half the people in the small puddle jumper recognized her as someone familiar. The poor lady wouldn't have gotten a moment's rest if some fan had set next to her. No, no, that's not for me. I will happily go through life where most people don't know me from Adam.
I don't want to be super-rich.
Sure, I'd like to be a bit more financially secure than I am now. But there is a point where one is comfortable and secure, and the rest is just more of the same. When you have a lot of money and people know it, most want to get it from you. You don't know who is being your friend to be your friend, and who is in it for the money (most would be in it for the money, of course). People will come out of the woodwork to sue you at the drop of a hat just to get money, even if you haven't done anything to deserve it. And you and your loved ones will constantly be the target of all kinds of thieves and con men.
Take for example, the fellow in West Virginia who won 315 million in the Lotto around Christmas of 2002. He took the lump sum payment, which ended up being 113 million, after taxes. Since then, he has been arrested for drunk driving, gotten caught up in all sorts of crap with strippers and drugs (including some fellow being found dead in his house). He's been sued for all sorts of things, and now he doesn't have anything in the bank, because some people started writing checks on his account. This unknown fellow has been consistently in the news because of all these things that have been happening to him. Some of these things he has brought on himself by his own actions (power corrupts), and some of these things have happened to him because of the money.
No, if I win the lottery, a few million should be just fine to handle my needs for the rest of my life. Even that amount will bring me the attention of some unscrupulous types, but I hope that I'd be able to at least handle that kind of trouble. Well, then again, I'd probably need another million or two just to send a couple of kids through college...
---jps
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Things I love...
I love game shows.
I don't like them all, but I like most of them, and I watch alot of them, especially on GSN. I despise it when game shows draw out the "drama" too extreme lengths, and game shows where contestants are "talking things out" and/or where they cast the shows with over-hyped overly-excited contestants. Take Deal or No Deal for example. That show is all about dragging out the "tension", which makes it extremely boring to me. 1 vs. 100 is an interesting spin on a trivia show, but they do the too-talky thing and draw things out too much. It boils down to the fact that you get some ten to fifteen questions in an hour long show. I still watch shows like that and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, but I record them on a DVR, then fast forward through them.
I love Carly Simon.
While she is a talented and sexy songstress, and while I like several of her songs, that's not why I love her. For many years, people have rumored that her song "You're So Vain" was written about a famous man. And, she has admitted that there was a man who inspired the song, but she won't say who. Theories are rampant, and three of the main "possibilities" are James Taylor, Mick Jagger, and Warren Beatty. For all this time, Carly has refused to say who it is. A few years ago, she held an auction for charity, and the winning bidder was to learn who the song was inspired by. The winning bidder paid some $50k, and brought several friends to hear her play the song, and find out who it was. She swore them to secrecy, told them, and allowed them to release one letter of the name: "E". Then later on, she released the letter "A", and then "R". Of course, that matches all three rumored famous guys, and for all we know, the guy is some bartender or record exec with a name like Tony Carrera. But I love the fact that she is just dragging this out, taunting people who are obsessed with this too much, and need a life. I'm a little curious, admittedly, but I'm actually enjoying her toying with every one much more.
And, I love potatoes!
While I like the vegetable, that's a very obscure reference to a '90s standup bit by Jeff Garlin (the comic from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Daddy Day Care, and other things). I'd share the joke with you, but I don't want to steal his stuff. I'll just say "I love them mashed, I love them fried, I love potatoes!", and leave it at that.
---jps
I don't like them all, but I like most of them, and I watch alot of them, especially on GSN. I despise it when game shows draw out the "drama" too extreme lengths, and game shows where contestants are "talking things out" and/or where they cast the shows with over-hyped overly-excited contestants. Take Deal or No Deal for example. That show is all about dragging out the "tension", which makes it extremely boring to me. 1 vs. 100 is an interesting spin on a trivia show, but they do the too-talky thing and draw things out too much. It boils down to the fact that you get some ten to fifteen questions in an hour long show. I still watch shows like that and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, but I record them on a DVR, then fast forward through them.
I love Carly Simon.
While she is a talented and sexy songstress, and while I like several of her songs, that's not why I love her. For many years, people have rumored that her song "You're So Vain" was written about a famous man. And, she has admitted that there was a man who inspired the song, but she won't say who. Theories are rampant, and three of the main "possibilities" are James Taylor, Mick Jagger, and Warren Beatty. For all this time, Carly has refused to say who it is. A few years ago, she held an auction for charity, and the winning bidder was to learn who the song was inspired by. The winning bidder paid some $50k, and brought several friends to hear her play the song, and find out who it was. She swore them to secrecy, told them, and allowed them to release one letter of the name: "E". Then later on, she released the letter "A", and then "R". Of course, that matches all three rumored famous guys, and for all we know, the guy is some bartender or record exec with a name like Tony Carrera. But I love the fact that she is just dragging this out, taunting people who are obsessed with this too much, and need a life. I'm a little curious, admittedly, but I'm actually enjoying her toying with every one much more.
And, I love potatoes!
While I like the vegetable, that's a very obscure reference to a '90s standup bit by Jeff Garlin (the comic from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Daddy Day Care, and other things). I'd share the joke with you, but I don't want to steal his stuff. I'll just say "I love them mashed, I love them fried, I love potatoes!", and leave it at that.
---jps
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Been Fooled Before...
When the story about Michael Richards shouting racist remarks to audience members broke, something seemed strange about it. So, I surfed and watched a video of the outburst. When I saw the video, I immediately thought of Andy Kaufmann and some of the rants he did, and it was like Michael was "channeling" Andy. He was doing this at a time when Season Seven of Seinfeld was coming out (a year since the last volume came out, the longest time since they started releasing the show on DVD). He was doing this at a time when Celebrity rants and biases were a regular topic with tabloid shows. And afterwards, he appeared on David Letterman, the same guy who gave Kaufmann air time for some of his 'shenanigans'. I couldn't tell for sure, of course, but I certainly suspected that he could have been pulling a Kaufmann.
Since then, he's done nothing but made appropriate apologies. Some people might not call them enough, but I think that's over-reacting, like a lot of people have done about this. By appropriate, I mean that they are level headed and at least seemingly (if not outright) genuine. That's not very Kaufmannesque. Kaufmann would have started an apology, but done it in such a way to egg things on even further. Richards did not. For all I know, he may have started to pull a Kaufmann, didn't like the way it was going, and backed out.
While it may (or may not) make for an interesting theory, but odds are, he probably just lost it. If I had so many idiots and wags (people who are obsessed with celebrities, but don't have any talent to get even close to getting on TV themselves) calling me a 'washup' and a 'loser' simply because I haven't been on a hit show since something like Seinfeld, I may very well have lost it too. I just hope he can find his peace.
Speaking of being fooled, it seems like it's harder to tell nowadays. With the prevailing belief that 'there is no such thing as bad publicity', who knows how many celebrity 'goofs' are simply a way to keep their name in print (like paparazzi somehow getting 'compromising' pictures of a celebrity, when you know the celebrity KNOWS that the paparazzi are there)?
I've been fooled before. Back when we sent armed troops into Somalia to keep the peace, the media was already there. Ahead of the main body of our force, the Navy sent in some advance Seal teams. I watched on TV as news crews were on the beach, in the middle of the night, cameras and lights at the ready. When a seal team landed in their rubber boat, they were immediately surrounded by bright lights and jabbering reporters. Instead of taking out the lights and getting away from them, they just stood there, slowly looking around the area. I was confused. With those bright lights, there was no way they were able to see anything, so why just stand there? It bugged me for some time, until it dawned on me. They were decoys, DUH! They were the first on the beach, landed right where the reporters were waiting, and drew everyone's attention. They probably landed the real advance teams a mile up the beach. Heck, they could have landed a company of Marines on that beach behind the reporters, and they would never have noticed.
---jps
Since then, he's done nothing but made appropriate apologies. Some people might not call them enough, but I think that's over-reacting, like a lot of people have done about this. By appropriate, I mean that they are level headed and at least seemingly (if not outright) genuine. That's not very Kaufmannesque. Kaufmann would have started an apology, but done it in such a way to egg things on even further. Richards did not. For all I know, he may have started to pull a Kaufmann, didn't like the way it was going, and backed out.
While it may (or may not) make for an interesting theory, but odds are, he probably just lost it. If I had so many idiots and wags (people who are obsessed with celebrities, but don't have any talent to get even close to getting on TV themselves) calling me a 'washup' and a 'loser' simply because I haven't been on a hit show since something like Seinfeld, I may very well have lost it too. I just hope he can find his peace.
Speaking of being fooled, it seems like it's harder to tell nowadays. With the prevailing belief that 'there is no such thing as bad publicity', who knows how many celebrity 'goofs' are simply a way to keep their name in print (like paparazzi somehow getting 'compromising' pictures of a celebrity, when you know the celebrity KNOWS that the paparazzi are there)?
I've been fooled before. Back when we sent armed troops into Somalia to keep the peace, the media was already there. Ahead of the main body of our force, the Navy sent in some advance Seal teams. I watched on TV as news crews were on the beach, in the middle of the night, cameras and lights at the ready. When a seal team landed in their rubber boat, they were immediately surrounded by bright lights and jabbering reporters. Instead of taking out the lights and getting away from them, they just stood there, slowly looking around the area. I was confused. With those bright lights, there was no way they were able to see anything, so why just stand there? It bugged me for some time, until it dawned on me. They were decoys, DUH! They were the first on the beach, landed right where the reporters were waiting, and drew everyone's attention. They probably landed the real advance teams a mile up the beach. Heck, they could have landed a company of Marines on that beach behind the reporters, and they would never have noticed.
---jps
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Conspiracies
What is it with some of the conspiracies people come up with? Recently, the news has been talking about some reports on the accident that killed Princess Diana, and some of the consipiracies that surrounded her death. Someone actually felt the need to do DNA tests to prove that the blood which tested positive for alcohol was actually from the driver. They look at the brief, grainy, pixelated picture of their driver in security videos, and think that they can tell without a doubt that he's sober. The supposed conspiracy theory is that the driver was perfectly sober, and that someone intentionally caused them to crash. Some people think Dodi Al-Fayad was the target, while some think that Diana was the target. As to who are the secret organizations that killed them and why is too numerous to mention.
It's like some people see too many movies and TV shows, get too involved with them, and begin to see conspiracy in everything. Sure, there are some people in the world who would have no problem doing evil to someone else. Most are rather blunt (i.e. Gang drive-bys), and only a few have the ability to be subtle and discreet. And even those who are discreet have a hard time getting authorities to think a murder was an accident, especially in such a high-profile case, especially with forensics available to us nowadays. That doesn't meant that someone won't slip one passed us, but those are the exceptions to the rule. Things don't just easily fall into place like they do in the movies, this is real life. And that's why alot of criminals get caught.
Look at it this way. All Diana conspiracies that are even slightly based in reality say that some professional group intentionally crashed the car to kill one or more of the occupants. For this to work, it would have to have a very good chance of being successful in killing the target (nothing's ironclad, but you have to have very good odds). Causing a new Mercedes to crash in the city does NOT have a good chance of killing the occupants, needless to say a very very good chance. It happens from time to time, unfortunately, but it's quite rare. Even if you are sure that you can get the driver of this car to go 60-80 MPH in town by simply chasing him with motorcycles, you can't be sure that Diana won't be wearing her seatbelt. It's very difficult to force a big sedan to crash with motorcycles (especially doing it accurately enough so that they hit the pillar just right the first try), but even if you could, you can't be reasonably sure that you won't leave a witness behind who could point out that the car was forced off of the road. Which brings us to the fact that this will have to look like an ironclad accident, because there are numerous conspiracy theorists out there who will look very closely at something like this. Any single failure in this plan, and not only do you fail, but your conspiracy runs the very real risk of being. People who are accomplished in such black operations do not take gambles on iffy plans like that. That's like an accountant who invests your retirement funds in lottery tickets.
Diana's death was an unfortunate culmination of mistakes, errors, and policies that needed improving. The driver shouldn't have been drunk. She should have been wearing a seatbelt. And they should have gotten her to a hospital instead of trying to determine how to care for her in the field.
And to those who feel that others planned to kill Diana: Why wouldn't they have done that when she was in a third world countries with her charities, where there is an abundance of violence to mask you, a relative lack of medical assistance, and an easy escape? She was touring old minefields, what other opportunity would you need?
---jps
It's like some people see too many movies and TV shows, get too involved with them, and begin to see conspiracy in everything. Sure, there are some people in the world who would have no problem doing evil to someone else. Most are rather blunt (i.e. Gang drive-bys), and only a few have the ability to be subtle and discreet. And even those who are discreet have a hard time getting authorities to think a murder was an accident, especially in such a high-profile case, especially with forensics available to us nowadays. That doesn't meant that someone won't slip one passed us, but those are the exceptions to the rule. Things don't just easily fall into place like they do in the movies, this is real life. And that's why alot of criminals get caught.
Look at it this way. All Diana conspiracies that are even slightly based in reality say that some professional group intentionally crashed the car to kill one or more of the occupants. For this to work, it would have to have a very good chance of being successful in killing the target (nothing's ironclad, but you have to have very good odds). Causing a new Mercedes to crash in the city does NOT have a good chance of killing the occupants, needless to say a very very good chance. It happens from time to time, unfortunately, but it's quite rare. Even if you are sure that you can get the driver of this car to go 60-80 MPH in town by simply chasing him with motorcycles, you can't be sure that Diana won't be wearing her seatbelt. It's very difficult to force a big sedan to crash with motorcycles (especially doing it accurately enough so that they hit the pillar just right the first try), but even if you could, you can't be reasonably sure that you won't leave a witness behind who could point out that the car was forced off of the road. Which brings us to the fact that this will have to look like an ironclad accident, because there are numerous conspiracy theorists out there who will look very closely at something like this. Any single failure in this plan, and not only do you fail, but your conspiracy runs the very real risk of being. People who are accomplished in such black operations do not take gambles on iffy plans like that. That's like an accountant who invests your retirement funds in lottery tickets.
Diana's death was an unfortunate culmination of mistakes, errors, and policies that needed improving. The driver shouldn't have been drunk. She should have been wearing a seatbelt. And they should have gotten her to a hospital instead of trying to determine how to care for her in the field.
And to those who feel that others planned to kill Diana: Why wouldn't they have done that when she was in a third world countries with her charities, where there is an abundance of violence to mask you, a relative lack of medical assistance, and an easy escape? She was touring old minefields, what other opportunity would you need?
---jps
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Celebrities
When the Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson divorce thing came out, CNN reported that Kid Rock blew up at Pamela Anderson about her appearance in the Borat movie. He supposedly yelled at her for exposing her private life and causing herself embarassment, and something about whether or not she had any self-respect. Whether any of that is true or not, I don't know. But when I read that, I thought: This is a woman who among other things, posed nude numerous times for Playboy, made a sex tape with one man, and after that became VERY public, made another sex tape with a different man. What the heck did Kid Rock expect?
Speaking of Playboy bunnies, my life is such right now that I watch ALOT of TV, and I decided to check out a few episodes of "The Girls Next Door" on E!, which is a reality show about Hef's three current girlfriends. One episode had Hef and the girls doing a press tour in New York, publicizing an issue of Playboy that had a spread (insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here) of all three girlfriends in it. They went through a long, grueling set of interviews, and in the limo afterwards, the girls complained about the fact that everyone asked about the sexual relations between Hef and the girls. Now, even if you are running around the country publicizing your naked pictures and the fact that you are Hef's girlfriends, that doesn't mean that people have a right to know your personal business. But, not only should you not be surprised and upset that people are asking about your sex life, you should expect it. You're the ones who are "putting it out there".
In another episode, they were in London, and while being driven around to sight-seeing places (in a private bus with a private tour guide), the youngest girlfriend asked where the Queen was, and why the Queen wouldn't want to just drop her public commitments on a moments notice to meet a man as great as Hef. She kept pushing the point, and pushing the point, and the tour guide showed impressive restraint (or else the producers edited it out) in not telling her that the queen isn't going to simply bail on her countrymen to meet someone she may very well consider to be nothing more than a dirty old man. A little later, they were in the London Dungeons, wandered away from the tour, and got lost. They were literally walking around in circles, trying to find their way out, when the girls started saying "Hello Cleveland!". I had to back the Tivo up to make sure that I heard correctly. Here were three girls who really hadn't come off as the brightest or wittiest people, making an obscure yet funny reference to "Spinal Tap".
Peter Boyle passed away today (12/13/06). I have nothing to make fun of him, because as far as I know, he never went "commando" in front of paparazzi while clubbing with Paris Hilton, or made a sex tape, or had three girlfriends at once, or drove the wrong way down the freeway while on drugs. We are all human, and with the unrelenting coverage that some of these celebrities get nowadays, any little misstep is highly publicized and overblown. I mean, when someone films Paris Hilton going into a fast-food restaurant, and one of those dumb tabloid shows airs it, it has gotten ridiculous. I'd hate to think what mistakes I've done over the years that would have been publicized if I had such a following. But then again, I have yet to drive down the wrong way on a freeway. And while I don't think as many people would have googled pictures of Peter Boyle going commando, he seemed to make it through a much much longer career without doing anything that stupid.
---jps
Speaking of Playboy bunnies, my life is such right now that I watch ALOT of TV, and I decided to check out a few episodes of "The Girls Next Door" on E!, which is a reality show about Hef's three current girlfriends. One episode had Hef and the girls doing a press tour in New York, publicizing an issue of Playboy that had a spread (insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here) of all three girlfriends in it. They went through a long, grueling set of interviews, and in the limo afterwards, the girls complained about the fact that everyone asked about the sexual relations between Hef and the girls. Now, even if you are running around the country publicizing your naked pictures and the fact that you are Hef's girlfriends, that doesn't mean that people have a right to know your personal business. But, not only should you not be surprised and upset that people are asking about your sex life, you should expect it. You're the ones who are "putting it out there".
In another episode, they were in London, and while being driven around to sight-seeing places (in a private bus with a private tour guide), the youngest girlfriend asked where the Queen was, and why the Queen wouldn't want to just drop her public commitments on a moments notice to meet a man as great as Hef. She kept pushing the point, and pushing the point, and the tour guide showed impressive restraint (or else the producers edited it out) in not telling her that the queen isn't going to simply bail on her countrymen to meet someone she may very well consider to be nothing more than a dirty old man. A little later, they were in the London Dungeons, wandered away from the tour, and got lost. They were literally walking around in circles, trying to find their way out, when the girls started saying "Hello Cleveland!". I had to back the Tivo up to make sure that I heard correctly. Here were three girls who really hadn't come off as the brightest or wittiest people, making an obscure yet funny reference to "Spinal Tap".
Peter Boyle passed away today (12/13/06). I have nothing to make fun of him, because as far as I know, he never went "commando" in front of paparazzi while clubbing with Paris Hilton, or made a sex tape, or had three girlfriends at once, or drove the wrong way down the freeway while on drugs. We are all human, and with the unrelenting coverage that some of these celebrities get nowadays, any little misstep is highly publicized and overblown. I mean, when someone films Paris Hilton going into a fast-food restaurant, and one of those dumb tabloid shows airs it, it has gotten ridiculous. I'd hate to think what mistakes I've done over the years that would have been publicized if I had such a following. But then again, I have yet to drive down the wrong way on a freeway. And while I don't think as many people would have googled pictures of Peter Boyle going commando, he seemed to make it through a much much longer career without doing anything that stupid.
---jps
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Oldest Woman Passes
Elizabeth Bolden, recognized by Guiness (and others) as the oldest person alive, passed away on Monday, Dec. 12, 2006. She was born August 15, 1890, which made her 116 years old. According to her family members, she had:
Is there another term for great-great-great grandchildren? I mean, instead of saying "a thousand-thousand-thousand bytes", we say "gigabyte". So how come there isn't something like a "giga-grandchild"? "Kilo-grandchild" and "tera-grandchild" sounds like just a couple of more mindless homicidal video games, and "mega-grandchild" sounds like something that teamed up with Mothra to fight Godzilla, so we might have to work on the wording a little.
Since I read about this lady, I've been thinking about all that has happened during her lifetime. When she was born, Civil War vets were younger than Vietnam vets are now, "horseless carriages" were the focus of hobbyists and inventors, balloons were the only things that men flew in, the phonograph and electric light were novelties, and the last free Indian tribes were being moved into reservations. And I've been calculating her age when certain recent historic (trivial and non-trivial) events come up. For example, she was:
Speaking of improving nutrition and quality of life, I was watching an episode of "Battlefield Detectives" on Custer's last stand recently. One thing they pointed out was how the US Cavalry men were undernourished and in bad physical shape. Inspecting their skeletal remains, they were able to determine that these men in their early 20s had rotting teeth, arthritis, and their backs were in horrible condition from all of the horse riding. That was one harsh life. But that's how things were for a Cavalry soldier around the time Elizabeth Bolden was born.
---jps
- 40 grandchildren
- 75 great-grandchildren
- 150 great-great-grandchildren
- 220 great-great-great grandchildren
- 75 great-great-great-great grandchildren
Is there another term for great-great-great grandchildren? I mean, instead of saying "a thousand-thousand-thousand bytes", we say "gigabyte". So how come there isn't something like a "giga-grandchild"? "Kilo-grandchild" and "tera-grandchild" sounds like just a couple of more mindless homicidal video games, and "mega-grandchild" sounds like something that teamed up with Mothra to fight Godzilla, so we might have to work on the wording a little.
Since I read about this lady, I've been thinking about all that has happened during her lifetime. When she was born, Civil War vets were younger than Vietnam vets are now, "horseless carriages" were the focus of hobbyists and inventors, balloons were the only things that men flew in, the phonograph and electric light were novelties, and the last free Indian tribes were being moved into reservations. And I've been calculating her age when certain recent historic (trivial and non-trivial) events come up. For example, she was:
- 13 when the Wright brothers first flew,
- 23 when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated,
- 39 when the stock market crashed,
- 51 when Pearl Harbor was attacked,
- 67 when Sputnik first flew,
- 75 when Charlie Brown's Christmas special first aired,
- 79 when Armstrong and Aldrin ventured out of the Eagle,
- 85 when SNL premiered,
- 94 when Miami Vice premiered,
- 100 a few days after Iraq invaded Kuwait, and
- 111 a few days before a plane crashed short of the Pentagon.
Speaking of improving nutrition and quality of life, I was watching an episode of "Battlefield Detectives" on Custer's last stand recently. One thing they pointed out was how the US Cavalry men were undernourished and in bad physical shape. Inspecting their skeletal remains, they were able to determine that these men in their early 20s had rotting teeth, arthritis, and their backs were in horrible condition from all of the horse riding. That was one harsh life. But that's how things were for a Cavalry soldier around the time Elizabeth Bolden was born.
---jps
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