Author: Uncle John

But What’s On After the Super Bowl?

After spending six hours on the pregame, the game, and the postgame, what’s the best way to unwind after a long day of watching TV? Watching more TV!

After Superbowl• In the early years of the Super Bowl, the game was played and broadcast earlier in the day, not in primetime. Nor was it the TV event or near-holiday it is today. Now the game coverage ends around 10:30 p.m. eastern time, and subsequently earlier in the western time zones. This gives the network airing it (it rotates among the Big 4 broadcast channels each year) an ample opportunity to present a new show or expose an existing show to a potentially huge audience. The concept began in earnest in 1984, when NBC used its post-Super Bowl advantage to help launch The A-Team.

Trivia Quizzes

Fact-or-Fake Friday or Fight!

FactOrFake Logo 1Here are three weird news items from the past few weeks. Two of them are true, and one of them we just made up. Take a guess, and check the answers below to see if you’re right.

Evolution of the Super Bowl Halftime Show

More than 40 years after the first Super Bowl broadcast, the halftime show is no longer just something to fill TV airtime while the football players rest—it’s now a spectacle unto itself.

Super Bowl Halftime Show1967: Marching bands from the universities of Arizona and Michigan perform.

1970: The NFL experiments with big-name celebrity halftime entertainers. Their first big star: Carol Channing.

1972: “A Salute to Louis Armstrong,” with Ella Fitzgerald, Al Hirt, the U.S. Marine Corps Drill Team…and Carol Channing. Armstrong had died the previous summer. Songs included “High Society” and “Hello, Dolly.”

Quick Facts About Super Bowl Commercials

Admit it: You only watch the game for the ads. Here are some facts about Super Bowl commercials.

Super Bowl Commercial Facts• Since 1989, USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter has tracked which of the game’s commercials most resonated with viewers. Once done with focus groups during the game, voting is now conducted online in real time. Some past winners include Diet Pepsi’s 1991 commercial with Ray Charles singing “You Got the Right One Baby,” and a 1992 Nike ad in which Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny play a basketball game on Mars against Marvin the Martian (which directly inspired the 1996 movie Space Jam). From 1999 to 2008, a commercial for Budweiser of Bud Light took the Ad meter honors.

“This Next Song Is About…Me!”

Musicians often write songs about other musicians—the Commodores’ “Night Shift” is about Jackie Wilson, for example. And sometimes, the musicians who had songs written about them cover those very songs.

Songs about Me• The Barenaked Ladies’ hit “Brian Wilson” isn’t the most respectful song about the songwriter and major creative force behind the Beach Boys. The song references Wilson’s period in the ‘70s when agoraphobia, drug addiction, and obesity kept him housebound. The chorus of “Brian Wilson” is: “lying in bed / just like Brian Wilson did.” Still, Wilson thought “Brian Wilson” was a pretty good song. When he began recording music and touring again in the 1990s, he made the song part of his set list. A version appears on his 2000 live album Live at the Roxy Theatre.

The World’s Most Expensive Movie Props

Movies cost a lot of money—
it’s expensive to build sets, pay actors, and occasionally, a single prop.

The purse

expensive movie propsThe films of Woody Allen earn critical acclaim, but they are usually modest commercial hits, with subsequently small production budgets. Allen’s latest, Blue Jasmine, is about a wealthy woman forced to live modestly after her husband is imprisoned for financial crimes. The one vestige of Jasmine’s (Cate Blanchett) formerly glamorous life is a tan purse.

The Original Dungeon Masters

As Dungeon & Dragons turns 40 years old, here is a look back at
the history of how this game came to be.

History of Dungeons and DragonsROLLING THE DICE

Gary Gygax (pronounced GHEE-Gax) was an insurance underwriter living in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in the late 1960s. He made his living calculating the probabilities that an individual seeking to buy insurance would become sick or disabled or die, and he used these estimates to set the premiums and payouts on the policies he reviewed. Every policy was like a roll of the dice: If Gygax calculated correctly, the individual received sufficient coverage at a fair price, and the insurance company had a good shot at earning a fair profit. If he was incorrect, either the individual or the insurance company would lose.

2016 Summer Olympics Wrapup

4 Tales of Winter Olympics Almost-Glory

Olympic Duds

The 2014 Winter Olympics are just around the corner. They’re sure to offer plenty of triumphs, but for every Brian Boitano, there’s a Tonya Harding. Here are some other spectacular Olympic duds.

When Did “The Present” Begin?

It’s a harder question than it sounds. Does the present refer to right this second?
Today? This year? The past few years? Fortunately, science has the answer.

The PresentDifferent scientific disciplines, cultures, and religions base their calendars on different “zero” moments. In geology, as well as other scientific disciplines, the epoch of time referred to as “the present” began on January 1, 1950. It’s a somewhat arbitrary, compromise of a date, but a fixed moment in the study of things that takes a really, really long time to change or move.

Trivia Quizzes

The Return of the Bride of Fact-or-Fake Friday!

FactOrFake Logo 1If you’re new around here, here’s the deal: Below are three weird news items from the past few weeks. Two of them are true, and one of them…we made up. Take a guess, and check the answers to see if you’re right.

Alternate Uses For Cremated Remains

When you or a loved one dies, you can either opt for a burial, or cremation. Those ashes can then be kept in an urn, spread in a favorite spot…or made into something really cool.

3d render of urn for ashesRecords. A company called And Vinyly presses cremated ashes into a vinyl record. Along with an album sleeve and label listing the deceased’s name, birth date, and death date, And Vinyly puts the ashes right into the shellac. Customers can choose whether they want music (indie rock is available), soundscapes, a message they record themselves, or just the “pops and crackles” that come with a record. Prices start at about $4,900 for a box of 30 records.

impossible to answer questions

Impossible Questions: Tough TV Trivia Edition – The Answers

Impossible QuestionsGot your answers ready? Let’s see how you did.

 

What do “Golden Age of Television” series The Arthur Murray Party, The Ernie Kovacs Show, Pantomime Quiz, Space Cadet, and Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour have in common?

They’re all TV classics, but the weird distinction these five series share is that each were broadcast, at one time or another, on all four major TV networks of the era: ABC, CBS, NBC, and DuMont. The Arthur Murray Party had a run on each of the four networks twice.

Spit Takes

Some amazing things you probably didn’t know about
all that gross water that lives in your mouth.

Spit FactsThe phrase “licking your wounds” comes from the practice of animals nursing themselves back to health by literally licking their wounds. And it works. The saliva of many animals contains antibacterial enzymes, such as peroxidase, cystatins, and lysozyme, as well as the antiviral compound thrombospondin. Saliva also contains various nitrates that turn into nitric oxide upon skin contact, which stops bacteria from growing. Further, opiorphin is present in saliva—it’s an analgesic, or painkiller.

Dog Islands

These far-flung locales are going to the dogs…that is if they haven’t already.

Snoopy Island

Snoopy IslandNishinoshima lies off Japan’s Pacific coastline and is best known for its active volcano, which last erupted in November. The ensuing lava flow created an entirely new island called Niijima. But the volcano wasn’t quite done. In the weeks that followed, it spewed out enough lava to connect the two islands as one. This strange event caused many a volcanologist to cry “good grief!” when they first saw aerial photos of the new, improved Nishinoshima: because the island now strongly resembles Snoopy. However, Japanese scientists aren’t ready to rename it “Snoopy Island” just yet. They say that the volcano is still active and that Nishinoshima’s current shape may only be temporary.

Those Darn Demonyms

DemonymsA demonym is a word used to describe the residents or natives of a place: New Yorkers, Oregonians, or Japanese, for example. Most demonyms are logical and straightforward, as in those examples. Here are some “irregular demonyms,” that, due to grammar, language, or local preference, are a little bit strange.

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