A mechanic friend of mine used to listen to them for much the same reason. According to him, they really knew their stuff. I got that impression too, even though I lacked his expertise -- I was always amazed at how, when a caller told them the type of car (s)he had; they would immediately know practically everything relevant about it.
And yes, for all the joking around, they were really excellent at quickly identifying the most-likely sources of the callers' problems.
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
Darn, I liked him. There was some odd little spy thing called Sleepers I watched a while back with him and Nigel Havers as planted Russian spies who were forgotten about. I really enjoyed him in that and everything else I'd seen.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Mike Nichols, famous as a great director of stage and screen and EGOT winner, has died at 83. He leaves behind a legacy that includes Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate and Spamalot,but I will remember him most fondly for his comedy routines with Elaine May. Back in the dawn of time, I listened to one of their bits (man calls operator to get a phone number; it does not go down smoothly) over and over on the comedy station of a translantic flight. I laughed like an idiot for hours. To this day I quote it. "K as in knife. A as in aardvark. P as in pneumonia. L as in luscious. A as in aardvark... again. N as in newel post." RIP.
Marion Barry, mayor of Washington, D.C, and frequent late night punchline. The reality was quite a bit more complicated, as these things usually are. The links at the blog are good reads. This Buzzfeed piece also does a good job summing up why he inspired such loyalty in so many D.C. residents.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Thorpe was the young and comparatively successful leader of Britain's third party (the Liberal Party, under Gladstone, Asquith, and Lloyd George and others, had been the only opposition to the Conservative Party up until the 1920s, when the Labour Party pushed it into a decidedly third place from which it has never recovered.) He led the party back from near obscurity and looked set for greater things when he was brought down by a particularly nasty scandal, involving an alleged homosexual relationship with a blackmailing lover and a plot to murder the blackmailer.
He was aquitted, but the electorate remained unconvinced of his innocence and he was never reelected.
A friend of mine dug out and facebooked this interesting postscript which deeply implicates Jack Straw in the Labour Party's dark machinations against Thorpe.
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... it's just an idea
Last edited by mickthinks; 12-04-2014 at 11:29 PM.
British rock/blues singer Joe Cocker has died of cancer age 70. He was probably best known for his inventive covers of other people's songs like "With a Little Help from My Friends" (which was used as the theme song for the TV series The Wonder Years) and "You Are So Beautiful". He also had a particularly gifted ability for recruiting superb backing bands, with musicians like Jimmy Page, Brian May, and Phil Collins backing up various shows/tours of his. Here's a write-up from Rolling Stone.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
You Merkins know him best from the Harry Potter movie, but for those of us steeped in British film and TV, Ryall was one of those faces one kept seeing and not putting a name to—as a regular supporting actor he was appreciated rather than admired.
However, as I stared at the familiar features in the photo, I was suddenly put in mind of a remarkable stage performance of his that I was lucky enough to see, back in 2001 (I think). The piece was the excentric but rather wonderful Tantalus, here described by Michael Billington in The Guardian.
Martin was my great uncle, although I never really met him, in part due to my grandpa and him not really getting along, because it's clear stubbornness is genetic. I had heard his health was going downhill in recent years, the family on that side finally had to mentally wrestle the airplane keys away from him.
Edward Hermann, most famous for playing FDR several times, died at age 71 the other day.
I'll always remember him for his role as Lorelai Gilmore's father in Gilmore Girls and as the secret leader of the vampire nest in The Lost Boys.
That's where I know him from! I haven't had time to look him up, but I knew I recognised him from something*. The news I read only mentioned the Gilmore Girls but I've never seen that.
I love Edward Herrmann. We went to the same high school, which is a tenuous link but something I was always proud of.
Louise Rainer also gave up her title as oldest living Oscar winner, which she'd held for at least a dozen years. I particularly liked her in her films with William Powell.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette