So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Fading Fast]

Did you ever count how many shots are fired from a six-shooter in movies?.

This absolutely drives me nuts. It's like there are two types of guns in the world: those in the real world that run out of bullets and "movie guns" which keep firing based on the needs of the shooter.

 

[tonyb]

I had to get a new engine block under recall for my subaru due to it eating oil. Guy from the place is calling with all this over priced, optional work. Harassing me every hour with something new, despite me telling him to not call me unless it was critical to the recall.

I told him I didn't like upselling. He stopped calling.

I pity the people at the quickie oil change places where upselling is part of the job description. I suspect that the markup on cabin air filters is quite high. If I replaced them as often as the oil change guys wish me to, I'd be breathing the most filtered air this side of a Centers for Disease Control laboratory.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

This absolutely drives me nuts. It's like there are two types of guns in the world: those in the real world that run out of bullets and "movie guns" which keep firing based on the needs of the shooter.

It seems they only run out if the character needs to be out of bullets for dramatic/storytelling reasons.

 

[Harp]

Sterling Suffolk Racecourse has been sold to HYM Investment Group with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's blessing. Suffolk Downs is leased for a few dates next year but the East Boston oval is destined for the knife.

 

[sheeplady]

I love how they always die right after they make amends. Unless they got shot by an unknown assailant. Then they die saying "I was shot by... [gasp]"

 

[LizzieMaine]

What always amuses me is that the victim is always able to gasp out a final speech. Instead of doing what a normal person with a fatal gunshot wound would do, and that's either scream in agony or gurgle incomprehensibly.

On the other hand, Teddy Roosevelt did, without question, deliver a political speech after being shot (non-fatally) in the chest. But he was *Teddy Roosevelt.*

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

What always amuses me is that the victim is always able to gasp out a final speech. Instead of doing what a normal person with a fatal gunshot wound would do, and that's either scream in agony or gurgle incomprehensibly.

On the other hand, Teddy Roosevelt did, without question, deliver a political speech after being shot (non-fatally) in the chest. But he was *Teddy Roosevelt.*

How about one of your folk heroes (NOT!) Henry Clay Frick of the Homestead Steel Strike:

Alexander Berkman plotted to murder Frick. On July 23, 1892 Berkman, armed with a revolver and a sharpened steel file, entered Frick's office in downtown Pittsburgh.[4]

Frick, realizing what was happening, attempted to rise from his chair while Berkman pulled a revolver and fired at nearly point-blank range. The bullet hit Frick in the left earlobe, penetrated his neck near the base of the skull, and lodged in his back. The impact knocked Frick down, and Berkman fired again, striking Frick for a second time in the neck and causing him to bleed extensively. Carnegie Steel vice president (later, president) John George Alexander Leishman, who was with Frick, was then able to grab Berkman’s arm and prevented a third shot, probably saving Frick's life.[citation needed]

Frick was seriously wounded, but rose and (with the assistance of Leishman) tackled his assailant.[12] All three men crashed to the floor, where Berkman managed to stab Frick four times in the leg with the pointed steel file before finally being subdued by other employees, who had rushed into the office.​

See WikiPedia for more (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick)

 

[ChiTownScion]

In a similar vein on recent television shows: DNA test results are usually available in 30 seconds to two minutes. In real life it's weeks or even months before an overworked crime lab can tender those results to prosecutors and defense counsel.

I love the Law and Order franchise and similar cop shows, but there is always the reality of condensing time and space that takes place, especially in courtroom dynamics. The questions proposed by counsel on television and in the movies are often complex, call for speculation or unqualified opinion, etc. And the testimony of an expert witness is a lot more complex than just asking Dr. Altakacker what, in his expert opinion , what the cause of death was.

The plain fact is that 99% of the time a criminal trial is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Spicing things up so that John and Jane Q. Public stay tuned, while still maintaining at least a semblance of reality, is an art form in itself.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
As we've noted before, entertainment is television's reason for being.

The unreality of "reality" TV is as necessary as it is obvious. A program accurately depicting the day-in, day-out life of a typical antiques peddler or pawn shop operator would be a program without an audience.

News programming is show biz, too. It wasn't that Walter Cronkite and Huntley & Brinkley juggled and told jokes. And it wasn't that their sober, straight-ahead imparting of the day's events didn't garner an audience. But that was then. Now there's an entire cable news network, a quite successful one, that built its brand largely on leggy blondes and hyperventilating gasbags.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And lest we get too sure that The Era was any better, never forget that the highest-rated news program on radio during the 1940s did not feature Edward R. Murrow, William L. Shirer, Raymond Gram Swing, or even Lowell Thomas. The highest rated news broadcaster of the 1940s was the man who essentially created the modern idea of "infotainment."

Walter Winchell -- vaudeville hoofer turned gossip columnist turned the most influential news commentator in America. Confidant of FDR, shotgun-rider with J. Edgar Hoover, civil-rights crusader, arch-enemy of fascism, manipulated tool of Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy, and a man whose life and influence are totally forgotten today. There's a lesson there for every single person today who claims to be a journalist.

 

[tonyb]

It has always been that a story is far likelier to be heard (or read, or seen) if it is told well. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it.

 

[St. Louis]

Interesting about Walter Winchell. I have often wondered why he comes up as a figure of fear in movies from the 1940s.

On a completely different note, lately I've become massively irritated by some of the new catch phrases or verbal tics that I hear everywhere lately. The one that really burns my biscuits is the addition of "right?" at the end of sentences. I hate to say this, but I only hear it in academic settings or used by academics. I find it maddening and borderline arrogant.

Some of the other verbal tics (not as offensive in my view, but equally annoying) include the following: "d'you know what I mean?" at the end of almost every sentence; "what wuz I gonna say?" when the person hasn't thought through what she was gonna say; and he everlasting "y'know," "I mean," "he was like and then I was like" (as a synonym for he said, and then I said); whatevuh; or the long drawn out aaahhhhhhm when someone wants to keep talking, doesn't know what she wants to say next, but doesn't want to be interrupted by my dopey thoughts.

I hope I don't sound too cranky! Sorry if I do.

 

[tonyb]

...

Walter Winchell -- vaudeville hoofer turned gossip columnist turned the most influential news commentator in America. Confidant of FDR, shotgun-rider with J. Edgar Hoover, civil-rights crusader, arch-enemy of fascism, manipulated tool of Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy, and a man whose life and influence are totally forgotten today. There's a lesson there for every single person today who claims to be a journalist.

Even as a youngster I detected something creepily propagandistic in Paul Harvey's daily "News and Comment" on the ABC radio network.

My suspicions were borne out as I got older and information on most everybody and everything became more readily available. Yup, old Paul tacked hard in one direction.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Harvey had some rather bizarre skeletons in his closet. He was bounced out of the Air Corps in 1944 on a medical discharge three months after enlisting, due to an unexplained foot injury widely believed to have been self-inflcted. Then in 1951 he was arrested for trying to break into a secure military facility housing a nuclear research lab, claiming to be proving a point about security breaches, but narrowly escaping a federal espionage rap. Despite being a reilable champion of the postwar party line, Harvey had an FBI file thicker than Julius Rosenberg's.

Winchell also had a thick FBI dossier, stemming from his close personal friendship with J. Edgar -- but the Bureau used and manipulated Winchell thruout that relationship, dangling bits of privileged information in front of his nose in exchange for his cooperation on the propaganda front. It's hard to put into words just how influential Winchell was from the mid-1930s to the late 1940s. A mention in his column or on his broadcast could literally make or break a career -- there has simply never been anyone else in the history of American journalism quite like him. His power was such that he was the only journalist able to flat-out defy the will of William Randolph Hearst and get away with it -- Hearst considered FDR the Wheeled Satan, but Winchell absolutely worshipped Roosevelt and aggressively endorsed the New Deal in his column, and his personal power and influence was such that Hearst didn't dare to muzzle him. When Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi attacked him on the floor of the House as a "dirty slime-mongering little k*ke," Winchell gleefully counterattacked, exposing every possible aspect of Rep. Rankin's wide-ranging bigotry for all the world to see. When Fascist Gerald L. K. Smith went after him Winchell responded by dubbing him forever after "Gerald Lucifer K-K-Kodfish Smith," and turned him into a national laughing stock. He feared no one, answered to no one, and did and said exactly what he pleased without fear of retribution or consequence.

Trouble was, Winchell let that power go to his head, and Roy Cohn, snake that he was, understood how to use Winchell's ego to manipulate him. That, finally, led to his downfall.

 

[tonyb]

Harvey had some rather bizarre skeletons in his closet. He was bounced out of the Air Corps in 1944 on a medical discharge three months after enlisting, due to an unexplained foot injury widely believed to have been self-inflcted. Then in 1951 he was arrested for trying to break into a secure military facility housing a nuclear research lab, claiming to be proving a point about security breaches, but narrowly escaping a federal espionage rap. Despite being a reilable champion of the postwar party line, Harvey had an FBI file thicker than Julius Rosenberg's.

I figure you could get just about anybody to say just about anything if you put a gun to his head.

There's nothing quite like having dirt on people with something to lose.

To paraphrase some old limey whose name escapes me at the moment, the gentleman did indeed protest too much.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Harvey had some rather bizarre skeletons in his closet. He was bounced out of the Air Corps in 1944 on a medical discharge three months after enlisting, due to an unexplained foot injury widely believed to have been self-inflcted. Then in 1951 he was arrested for trying to break into a secure military facility housing a nuclear research lab, claiming to be proving a point about security breaches, but narrowly escaping a federal espionage rap. Despite being a reilable champion of the postwar party line, Harvey had an FBI file thicker than Julius Rosenberg's.

I've read that he "stole" a plane for a joyride and ended up getting pitched out on a Section 8. Wish the documentation on it would really see light: there are still a number of sheeple who hold this clown in high esteem.


I'm always suspect of those who get too sanctimonious about their flag waving. Dig a little, and you can usually find facts that establish that when the time was ripe for them to actually face an enemy that fired back with live ammo, they had managed to avoid putting their own rear ends in harm's way. The pious may pontificate that "hate" is an ugly word.. but damn it, I will always hate chickenhawks. Their brand of jingoism has been the death sentence of far too many good men and women who measure up as their superiors by numerous criteria.

 

[vitanola]

The plain fact is that 99% of the time a criminal trial is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Spicing things up so that John and Jane Q. Public stay tuned, while still maintaining at least a semblance of reality, is an art form in itself.

Yes. Just ask Jules White:

 

[Trenchfriend]

Still always good, to be "persistent" on the telephone! I called my next car-repair shop, just around the corner and let it ring nine or ten times until the office answered the call, yet again. Because, I couln't believe, that no one will answer the telephone, there.

I just don't want to do the "old-fashion way", as some years ago, when I did the same like the most people here in smalltown still do, avoiding to telephone and just drive to the repair-shop, getting in and hoping, that the shop "edge" them.

I think, it's unfair, so I prefer the regular way, first telephoning for an appointment. And I got my appointment for 14:00 in the afternoon, with the request, to bring along some time and I will not come up, immediately.

PS:
I'm not the biggest fan of average german free, independent car-repair shops, because I didn't forget some things from many years ago and I still know exactly , where their "disrepute" comes from!
But on my rearbrakes, the boys can't do much wrong, so it's ok for me.

A pro on this independent repair-shop is, that it's just around the corner and my way home is only five minutes by feet. Just over the hill.

But, it's still my opinion, that independent- and authorized repair-shops are really BOTH needed.

Independent: For "simple", daily things, where the boys can't do wrong.
Authorized: For the special and more "serious" things, including oil-change (!).

And now, we will see, how much it will cost. In my trustworthy authorized repair-shop, in the next bigger city, it would cost me at least 450 Euro for the Kia Rio2 (Rio5)-rearbrakes, because I still got my bill from 2012 and I had to pay only one breakshoe, back then! And the special brakediscs of the Rio5 are a money-grave by nature.

 

[vitanola]

Still always good, to be "persistent" on the telephone! I called my next car-repair shop, just around the corner and let it ring nine or ten times until the office answered the call, yet again. Because, I couln't believe, that no one will answer the telephone, there.

I just don't want to do the "old-fashion way", as some years ago, when I did the same like the most people here in smalltown still do, avoiding to telephone and just drive to the repair-shop, getting in and hoping, that the shop "edge" them.

I think, it's unfair, so I prefer the regular way, first telephoning for an appointment. And I got my appointment for 14:00 in the afternoon, with the request, to bring along some time and I will not come up, immediately.

PS:
I'm not the biggest fan of average german free, independent car-repair shops, because I didn't forget some things from many years ago and I still know exactly , where their "disrepute" comes from!
But on my rearbrakes, the boys can't do much wrong, so it's ok for me.

A pro on this independent repair-shop is, that it's just around the corner and my way home is only five minutes by feet. Just over the hill.

But, it's still my opinion, that independent- and authorized repair-shops are really BOTH needed.

Independent: For "simple", daily things, where the boys can't do wrong.
Authorized: For the special and more "serious" things, including oil-change (!).

And now, we will see, how much it will cost. In my trustworthy authorized repair-shop, in the next bigger city, it would cost me at least 450 Euro for the Kia Rio2 (Rio5)-rearbrakes, because I still got my bill from 2012 and I had to pay only one breakshoe, back then! And the special brakediscs of the Rio5 are a money-grave by nature.

Good heavens! Prices certainly do seem to be high in Europe.

I just replaced the front brakes; pads, rotors, calipers and hoses, on my Oldsmobile. Total cost $95.80 for materials, and less than an hour of my time in the garage (though I did find it a bit difficult to rise from the floor after the work was completed!)

 

[2jakes]

Good heavens! Prices certainly do seem to be high in Europe.

I just replaced the front brakes; pads, rotors, calipers and hoses, on my Oldsmobile. Total cost $95.80 for materials, and less than an hour of my time in the garage (though I did find it a bit difficult to rise from the floor after the work was completed!)

Changing the oil/filter right now.
Job done, no problemo.
Except I felt dizzy when I got up too fast.
I’m laying down and using my iPhone to text you and
was wondering if you could upload one of your neat tunes
while I lie down here?

You pick the melody...I can wait!
Thanks!