Eric | Friday, 27th of January 2012 at 10:20:43 AM
This week’s guest commentator unfortunately became indisposed (to say the least) over the last couple days, so what he thought he’d be able to submit for this week’s “Hall of Fame, Corrected” selection put off to a later date. So, Loyal Goatherd, please exhale and start the regular breathing process again. More greatness from Milwaukee’s other finest in the interim and business as usual next week …
Floyd | Friday, 27th of January 2012 at 08:09:09 AM
Rocky (1976)
A dimwitted boxer fights to prove he can go the distance against a glamorous champ.
Dir: John G. Avildsen. Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith, Burt Young, Carl Weathers. TV-PG. 4:00 PM EST. TCM.
The quintessential sports movie and a quintessential American movie that still hits the right notes. To my mind even the parts that are or should be dated — are so iconic — that they still work. It’s both a product of its time and a universal story. Also on tomorrow are prior CPODs 2001: A Space Odyssey (1:30 PM), King Solomon’s Mines (6:15 PM), Soylent Green (12:00 AM), Rebel Without a Cause (2:00 AM), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? deep in the night (4:00 AM).
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? is also available on Netflix Streaming.
Floyd | Friday, 27th of January 2012 at 03:59:19 AM
Above is Lt. (USN) Minter Dial who died in a Japanese POW camp in the Phillipines in 1945. He gave his Naval Academy ring to a fellow POW to give to his wife Lisa after the War… well… Smithsonian Magazine has the story of this ring…. and it’s a helluva ride. Thank God for men like Minter Dial. Read the whole thing here.
In the spring of 1962, the United States Navy was excavating a site in Inchon, Korea, when the discovery of human remains led officers to believe they had come across the site of a prisoner-of-war camp. More than a decade earlier, during the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur commanded some 75,000 United Nations ground forces and more than 250 ships into the Battle of Inchon—a surprise assault that led, just two weeks later, to the recapture of Seoul from the North Korean People’s Army. But the 1962 Inchon excavation led to an unexpected find.
Yi So-young, a Korean laborer at the site, noticed that one of his fellow workers had discovered a gold ring buried in the mud. Yi took a good long look, then turned his back as the worker pocketed the ring, disobeying site rules. Under his breath, the worker said he was going to pawn it at the end of the day.
But Yi was also a driver for U.S. Navy officers, and that afternoon, he found himself chauffeuring Rear Admiral George Pressey, commander of the U.S. Naval forces in Korea. Yi was struck by the resemblance of the ring found at the site to the Annapolis class ring on Pressey’s finger. Yi mentioned the morning’s find to the admiral, and Pressey asked where the ring was.
Suddenly, the vehicle was speeding through the crowded streets of Inchon as the two men visited one pawnshop after another until they found the guilty laborer. The ring was in the process of being smelted. The admiral demanded that it be recovered. It had been partially melted down, but once it cooled and he was able to wipe away the grime, Pressey recognized that it was indeed an Annapolis class ring. Class of 1932. Pressey had been at the U.S. Naval Academy at the same time. His heart began to pound as he tilted the blue stone ring toward the light. Engraved on the inside was a name he knew: Dial.
Floyd | Thursday, 26th of January 2012 at 08:04:47 PM
Stories about John Tyler’s grandson still being alive are making the rounds at The Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, etc. That’s John Tyler — the 10th President of these United States.
Whatever… Friggin’ amateurs. Anyone who had been reading this little blog two years ago already knew that.
Floyd | Thursday, 26th of January 2012 at 04:34:44 PM
I like Starbucks coffee… or rather I like some of it. Christmas Blend is my favorite and I like the medium roasts though I stay away from their dark roasts because they always taste too smoky to me. Anyway… living in the People’s Republic of California I pretty much don’t think about the issue of guns and coffee so color me “unaware” that Starbucks has a corporate policy of allowing open and concealed carry in states where those laws exist. So if you’re in Texas bring that Glock in the store while you order a Venti black coffee with 3 shots of espresso (my early bird favorite). Of course, this policy does not sit well with the liberal fascists who want to limit our rights to bear arms and ultimately take them away outright. So on February 14 of this year The National Gun Victims Action Council is organizing a boycott of Starbucks.
In response the website The Truth About Guns is sponsoring a BUYcott for February 14 asking people to use $2 bills (Second Amendment — natch) at Starbucks on that day and thank the baristas for honoring America’s right to bear arms. More information about it plus a pretty cool letter to TTAG from Starbucks corporate at the link above. If you’re of a mind go to the bank and grab a couple of $2 bills and go get some coffee that day — and wear your gun.
Robert Hegyes, the Jersey-born actor who played Jewish Puerto Rican wheeler-dealer Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein on the 1970s classic “Welcome Back Kotter,” died from an apparent heart attack after suffering chest pains at his Metuchen home this morning. He was 60.
Hegyes, who also co-starred on “Cagney and Lacey” and taught occasional master classes at his alma mater, Rowan University, was best known for his work on “Kotter,” in which he performed alongside a young John Travolta as one of the tough remedial students known at the Sweathogs. Hegyes and nearly all of the original cast members reunited last year at the TV Land Awards to recognize the show’s 35th anniversary.
On his website, Hegyes wrote that he modeled the swaggering, skirt-chasing Epstein after Chico Marx, whom he played in a national touring production of “A Night With Groucho.” He was a big fan of the Marx Brothers: “They were immigrant Jews, and I was an immigrant Italian. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo were intellectuals … They all played the piano and took music lessons, and they were all juvenile delinquents; I could definitely relate.”
And I found this photo — from 1987 — in the image search…
Eric | Thursday, 26th of January 2012 at 03:07:25 PM
Relax, ladies, you don't have to squint too hard for the Nike logo.
The facts were always there, folks, and a huge show of appreciation to Phil Knight for distinctly remembering of them. While an adidas man, I am now doing my damnedest to find at least one pair of Nikes which will accommodate my EEE width feet.
“It turns out (Paterno) gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chains to the head of the campus police and the president of the school. The matter was in the hands of a world-class university, and by a president with an outstanding national reputation…..This much is clear to me. If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno….”Who is the real trustee at Penn State University?”
Floyd | Thursday, 26th of January 2012 at 10:09:07 AM
Each Dawn I Die (1939)
A crusading reporter becomes a hardened convict when he’s framed.
Dir: William Keighley Cast: James Cagney, George Raft, Jane Bryan. TV-PG. 8:45 AM EST. TCM.
Great movie with James Cagney as the wronged man who goes bad and Raft doing his best hardened criminal. TCM also honors James Whale tomorrow night so prior CPODs The Invisible Man (11:15 PM) and Frankenstein (12:30 AM).
The Invisible Man is also available on Netflix Streaming.
Outlaw13 | Thursday, 26th of January 2012 at 07:31:02 AM
Aside from Tracy being born, much earlier than that in 1945 THIS happened…
This Citation was awarded to Audie Murphy for “Conspicuous Gallantry and Intrepidity Involving Risk of Life Above and Beyond the Call of Duty In Action With the Enemy”, 26 January 1945. The citation reads:
2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machine gun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy’s objective.
trzupr | Wednesday, 25th of January 2012 at 12:07:16 PM
Before the late Kurt Vonnegut started writing the same novel year after year, he actually produced some pretty interesting science-fiction. Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of some of his best short stories, most of them sci-fi. Of those, Harrison Bergeron is one of the best. If you haven’t read the story, it describes a utopian America in which every citizen is absolutely equal in every way – by law.
In order to accomplish this, the Handicapper General – one Diana Moon Glampers (love that name) – is given enormous power. Her agents create equality by bringing everyone down to a universal mediocrity. If you’re attractive, you have to wear a mask. If you’re more athletic than average, you have to carry weights around. If you’re intelligent, you have to wear a radio-like device that emits loud, annoying noises at random intervals to disrupt your thoughts.
Floyd | Wednesday, 25th of January 2012 at 08:15:38 AM
Harper (1966)
A broken-down private eye sets out to find a rich woman’s missing husband.
Dir: Jack Smight. Cast: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Janet Leigh, Robert Wagner, Strother Martin. TV-PG. 5:45 PM EST. TCM.
“Lew Harper” doesn’t quite carry the same cache as “Philip Marlowe”, but this Bogeyesque film (with Bacall for extra cred!) does a pretty good job of evoking those films. Also on tomorrow is prior CPOD The Greatest Story Ever Told (7:45 AM).
Eric | Wednesday, 25th of January 2012 at 06:34:40 AM
For those who realistically can’t be there live (which from our non-lurking audience would just be Fr. Ron), tomorrow’s memorial service for Coach Joe Paterno still available for viewing.
Big Ten Network will be streaming the service live on both television and its website. Penn State’s official athletics site will also be live streaming the event.
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