Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Correction

Okay, so Jay Leno's in reruns this week. But if he were doing a show tonight, he'd do that joke.

• Posted at 8:53 PM · LINK

Tuesday Afternoon

I'm not sure how the conviction of Lewis Libby will affect the world, other than that Jay Leno will have a joke tonight about how some convicts will have a nice, spanking new Scooter to ride around the yard. Of course, we doubt that Mr. Libby will spend one night behind bars. His lawyers can easily run out the clock on appeals until George W. Bush is a lame-enough duck to issue a pardon. I wonder if the conviction means anything beyond being another in a long list of slaps to the Bush/Cheney mob.

The saddest thing to me about all this is how cynical we've all gotten with regard to the judicial system in this country. Those who'd like to see Bush 'n' Cheney brought down were so sure that Libby was, as they say in Doonesbury, "Guilty, guilty, guilty!" Those who've cast their political/emotional lot with the G.O.P. are so sure there was no harm, no foul, no case. We have this unfortunate tendency to believe that the correct verdict in any case is the one that serves our political wish list. Obviously, someone is not innocent just because they're more or less on my side, just as they aren't guilty just because they're on the other team. But it sure doesn't play out that way in Internet debates, does it?

• Posted at 4:49 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Let's take a look at the CBS Saturday morning lineup for 1965. What strikes me about it is how unbelievably cheap the whole thing must have been for the network. CBS had purchased the Terrytoons library years earlier so they owned Heckle & Jeckle and Mighty Mouse and weren't paying anything for those two shows. Tom & Jerry and Quick Draw McGraw were old cartoons which probably didn't cost much. Tennessee Tuxedo was produced for CBS but it went on the air in '63 and I think by 1965 was all reruns.

The only show of the six that I think even produced new animation for 1965 — and they probably didn't do much — was Linus the Lionhearted. That was a fairly expensive program but Post cereals ate most of that expense. The series was done as a kind of loss leader to promote the characters who were associated with Post cereals and appeared on their packaging. I don't know how much CBS kicked in but I'll bet it wasn't much. This promo also probably didn't cost the network more than — what? — maybe fifty bucks for editing old footage and putting in a bad announcer track.

Anyway, here it is: A whole Saturday morning schedule that probably cost less for the season than one episode of any current series...

• Posted at 2:33 AM · LINK

Will You Float?

Want to fly like Superman? Want it badly enough to spend $3500 to do it? A company called Zero Gravity Corporation will take you up in a plane that goes through parabolic flight maneuvers. And when a plane does that, you can drift around its cabin for thirty seconds or so like the astronauts do when they're not driving to Florida with diapers on.

The company website will tell you all about it, including how it works and how you can sign up. I've never had the particular dream of flying but if you have...well, you probably still don't want to spend that kind of money to do it. But you might enjoy a little window shopping.

• Posted at 12:12 AM · LINK