Friday, March 14, 2008

Oil Discovered in Saudi Arabia



On March 15, 1938 oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia, by the Aramco Company. Who is Aramco you ask? At the time, Aramco consisted of three big boys - Standard Oil, Texaco and Mobil. And they found the mother of all oil deposits in Saudi Arabia. Check out this newsreel from This Day in History and languish in the irony. The clip made in 1990 or 1991 - back when oil was around $20-$25 bucks a barrel.

Having encoded 50 plus episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies, and heard the theme song so many times i knew it backwards, it seemed impossible for my mind not to wonder how the reworked song would go?

Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Ahmed, a poor bedouin barely kept his family fed... and then on day he was shooting at some Kurd, when up from the sand shot a bubbling... ??? Well, there's a million variations to explore over the weekend, or the next time you are filling up the tank. If time is not at a premium, search for Saudi Arabia. Or some laughs, check out Jed Clampett in Jed Strikes Oil, the episode where Jed learns his land is worth a fortune.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Charles Van Doren Loses



On March 11, 1957 Charles Van Doren ends his amazing win streak and loses to Vivienne Nearing on the super popular game show Twenty One, hosted by Jack Berry. In the early days of TV, people were shocked and mortified that TV games shows were not entirely fair. In fact some were even rigged. The big shoe ready to drop? Twenty One. It was learned that the show producers gave Van Doren the correct answers in an effort to beat the unstoppable Herb Stempel. While Stempel was a great player, he was bad for demographics or something. Who knows?

Fifty-one years ago today, Van Doren's winning ways came to an end and one of TV's first cheaters lost to Vivienne Nearing.

Do we really need any more videos of New York political corruption? Well, today we suggest Corrupt NY Governor, v. 1.0. As we heard the sad news about Eliot Spitzer, we were reminded of a movie that features a corrupt NY Governor named Angel on My Shoulder. No, it doesn't involve a prostitution ring, though the title sounds like it might. But it does involve the criminal underworld. Claude Rains in terrific in the role of Satan, and Paul Muni stars as Eddy Kagel, the hardened criminal who is tempted by Satan to sell his soul. The film also stars Anne Baxter the fetching nice girl that Eddy learns to love.