A curiosity of early musical recordings from the 1890s through the 1920s is that there are thousands of recordings featuring obscure musicians but there were no recordings by some of the musical masters of the time. Why? Because the microphones of the time were primitive. They were only designed to pick up extreme frequencies, so […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5k-OE0-fWs&hl=en&fs=1&] I recently discovered this precious clip of George, Paul, and Ringo (minus John) together for perhaps the last time in 1995 singing the old song “Ain’t She Sweet” on a sunny afternoon in a park. This must be what heaven is like. Speaking of the Beatles, Lucy Vodden, the inspiration behind The Beatles’ song […]

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. –Bible, Genesis 6: 1- Evidence suggests that a race of giant people […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNxRdYihOa0&fs=1&hl=en_US] The buck teeth. The white socks. The craziness. Dennis Miller once said that Jerry Lewis is only funny when he’s trying not to be. And despite being one of the world’s top humanitarians, Jerry’s embarrassments  are many. From the bitter  feud with Dean Martin to the legendary bomb“The Day the Clown Cried,” from his eerie […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIEHI0vfCBk&NR=1] Humiliation TV has been around for a long time. Take this rare clip from 1990 Manhattan Cable where host Ken Sander is a sitting duck to a litany of obscene callers, who gleefully abuse him while he shows remarkable calm on camera. (WARNING: Adult Language) Because of the huge success of Reality TV, the […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jocw-oD2pgo] I was recently at a doctor’s office when I read the amazing story of Sara Tucholsky. It happened back in May of 2008. Sara Tucholsky was a Senior at Western Oregon University and an NCAA softball player on the team. In a playoff game with Central Washington University, she stepped up for her final […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRCnaBN7FNM] Animals instinctively know how to steal a scene. Johnny Carson had a way of bringing comedy out of animals like no other. From “Stupid Pet Tricks” to “I Can has Cheezburger,” there’s nothing as disarmingly hilarious and utterly charming as animal comedy. A few of the most recent viral animal videos include Frostie Dancing […]

The highlights are many… The Jackson 5… “Thriller”… the Moonwalk… the 30th Anniversary reunion… the “King of Pop” style, and of course, Bubbles… Last week, Lisa Marie Presley wrote the insightful article He Knew. And then there was this outtake from The Larry King Show on CNN the other day that shows MJ’s ghost at […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfGXmxJ1vM&feature=popular] One of my favorite sites is Strange New Products which has the latest in offbeat product introductions. I’ve heard that creating a fad is like doing the 100 yard dash on a tightrope. You have to hit ’em fast and hit ’em hard. The strangest product introductions are in the gift and candy industries.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tNnulRuMGU] The story behind the classic song “Blue Moon” is a long and twisted one. In 1933, composers Rodgers and Hart were contracted by MGM to score “the screwball comedy to end all screwball comedies,” a film called “The Hollywood Party.” Bombshell sex symbol Jean Harlow was supposed to have played an innocent young girl […]

People often ask me, (being the donut specialist that I am) which is better, a Boston Cream Donut or a Vanilla Cream Donut? My answer … A fresh Vanilla Cream donut, any day of the week. On June 5, which was National Donut Day I went with anticipation to an unnamed large US donut chainstore […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PJ8KmDNs3o] If you you watch carefully, you can see me in this old Joe Sedelmaier commercial from the 80s. I’m the guy with the blue suit behind the old man who gets his clothes ripped off. Old friends the Schwartz triplets are in this spot too. One story I can relate was that as actors, […]

A few weeks back, I was at Tate’s Comics in Fort Lauderdale. I had some bad cabbage so I had to go to the bathroom badly. They let me in and on the inside bathroom door, there was the famous Tommy Toilet poster by cartoonist legend R. Crumb. Only I had never seen it before. […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRXN5iroco0&feature=related] Beautiful, funny and sad Giulietta Masina is known as “the female Chaplin” because of her natural way of portraying naive characters. She was the wife of fifty years of legendary Italian director Federico Fellini. Fellini and Masina collaborated on two cinema masterpieces, La Strada (1954), the film he called “the complete catalogue of my […]

In case you missed it, the last episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien recently aired and he showed his all-time favorite clip, the one which he wants to be remembered by. So sit back and enjoy an ice cold one and watch this good-looking fellow, six foot four, shock of red hair, play some […]