Monday, March 26, 2007

Larry Bud Melman R.I.P.


David Letterman On The Death of Calvert DeForest

“Everyone always wondered if Calvert was an actor playing a character, but in reality he was just himself — a genuine, modest and nice man,” said Letterman. “To our staff and to our viewers, he was a beloved and valued part of our show, and we will miss him.”

DeForest passed away on Monday, March 19 at age 85. His debut on “Late Night,” as Larry Bud Melman, came in 1982, and was followed by dozens of appearances as various characters on the NBC show and on the LATE SHOW, which Letterman has hosted on CBS since 1993.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Quit. looking. at. my. hair.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Three little words.

Listening to the radio the other day and had one of those snorting-milk-thru-nose-surprise-and-glee moments when i heard these three simple words spoken in the same sentence...

1) subpoena
2) Karl
3) Rove

Let the peasants rejoice.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

This won’t hurt a bit.

Patent No. 174,465—Etc.

[[Eventful day in history yesterday 7 March 07—from Writers Almanac]]

It was on this day in 1876 that Alexander Graham Bell received patent No. 174,465 for the telephone. He filed for his patent on the same day as a Chicago electrician named Elisha Gray filed for a patent on basically the same device. Bell only beat Gray by two hours.

It was on this day in 1933 that a man named Charles Darrow trademarked the board game Monopoly. Darrow based the game on an earlier game called "The Landlord's Game," which had been designed by a woman named Elizabeth Magie to teach people about the evils of capitalism.

It was on this day in 1917 that the Victor Talking Machine Company released the first jazz record in American history. There were various terms for this new music. It was called "ratty music," "gut-bucket music," and "hot music." Historians aren't sure how it came to be called jazz, but it's believed that the word may have come from a West African word for speeding things up. It was also a slang term for sex.