Episode #144: Just Lip Service
First Attempted Broadcast: 4/6/98. Program not shown; Some other
program about fashion models was shown instead.
First Successful Broadcast: 4/13/98
So am I referring more to what
Paula
Jones alleged Governor Bill Clinton
wanted her to do to him? Or am I talking more about what Janet Reno
gave as an apology after
the
Waco massacre? Or does it have to do with
the sorry PR treatment corporations give when they want to put "a good spin"
on their sorry misdeeds
when the public discovers them? All of the
above, actually.
Episode #145: Suppressing Our Natural Rhythms
First Broadcast: 4/20/98. Program was not started on time,
(our "Tone Here" message was shown) and picture quality deteriorated
severely towards the end of the episode (I suspect dirty heads in the VTR
our show was played out of).
Attempted Repeat: 4/3/00. Program was not shown at all.
No explanation given by MNN.
Today, I turned the microphone (but not the camera . . . or, actually, I
didn't turn the camera around, since Kim still controlled the camera . . .
oh, you get the idea) over to Kim, who went into detail about her crusade
against the
changing of the clocks before and after Daylight Savings Time.
So, am I with her, or do I sit on the fence? Let me put it this way: that
fence is pretty comfy.
Episode #146: Web That Smut
First Broadcast: 4/27/98.
This is the one you've been waiting for, as far as web links go:
an episode where we mostly discuss
sex on the internet.
I'm not going to link to some of the more graphic sites out there, but
you should be able to do a good enough (or bad enough, as the case may be)
job on your own with the link supplied above. Don't say I didn't warn you
. . .
Episode #147: Deep In The Heart Of Brooklyn
First Broadcast: 5/11/98. Program not started on time (color bars and
countdown shown in the
beginning), cutting off the last few seconds of the program at the
end.
Which is where one of the few
wheelchair-accessible subway stops in this city is
located. Aside from that, I go on mostly about how the air inside the
34th Street & 6th Avenue station is no longer fit to breathe when the
diesel
work trains rumble through, spewing smoke and exhaust onto
the platforms
and making the possibility of suffering
carbon monoxide poisoning all
too real for any sucker who just happens to be waiting for a train--
i.e., ME--and gets caught in the middle of all this mess. (Of course,
this also violates the subway's own rules for
littering and
smoking, but
why should the MTA be held up to same standards as their riders, hm?)
Maybe the next time this happens I should
do
something more drastic, like getting the
Straphanger's
Campaign involved, for instance.
Episode #148: Drop The Bomb On Jersey
First Broadcast: 5/25/98.
Which would be about as stupid as
India dropping
The Bomb on
Pakistan,
since those two nations are as close to each other as New York is to
New Jersey--meaning they border each other. So--surprise, surprise--
I'm not in favor of
nuclear proliferation. But I also think it's very
hypocritical for the U.S. to condemn other nations for owning and testing
nuclear weapons when the U.S. still owns a good deal of them as well.
But we're all supposed to trust the U.S., right? After all, we'd
never drop The Bomb on anyone, right? Well . . . except for
that one
time.
Episode #149: You Remember Me From . . .
First Broadcast: 6/1/98.
This week the completely unexpected death of
Phil
Hartman dominates
our discussion, along with the way some TV stations highlight
bit parts that big stars had in old movies before they were big
when the movies get rerun (like
Michael J. Fox in
Midnight Madness,
for example).
The Kids In The Hall also gets a mention here and
there. And did
Saturday Night Live fulfill my prediction by beginning
the show with a sketch featuring Phil Hartman and
Chris Farley? In a
word, NO.
Episode #150: Don't Wear The Good Suit
First Broadcast: 6/8/98.
It's only our 150th Anniversary, so don't dress up. For the most part,
I concentrated on the different ways the US treats countries who own
nuclear weapons; specifically, the way the US treats
India and
Pakistan
versus the way the US treats
China.
All 4 countries own
nuclear weapons,
and of course the US isn't going to sanction itself. But the US isn't
suggesting that China receive any of the sanctions that are being imposed
on India and Pakistan, even though
China has a much
worse human rights
record than those other 2 countries (
Tienamen Square or
Tibet, anyone?). Fair?
Of course not. The solution? Damned if I know, but I'm sure we could do
better.
Episode #151: Marshall Dillon's Gun Rules For
Kids
First Broadcast: 6/15/98.
Referring of course to the famed Marshall of
Gunsmoke, a character whose
name later turned up on a real-life
actor,
whose first role was in
one of
my favorite films. I must admit that I don't know if the above
Marshall ever did give any
rules for guns on the
show (other than it
being a bad thing to shoot someone outside of a fair fight), but it doesn't
seem to matter. Every time I see a story on the news about someone
--or many people--being shot, I get the feeling no one is following
any rules regarding guns, or regarding shooting people.
Personally, I'd like to see a little less
guns around here on everybody
--including
the police.