Monthly Archives: April 2011

Daily Trivia (Formerly Trivia Tuesday), News

Daily Trivia – 4/20/11

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Question: On Growing Pains, what was the name of the baby born into the “Seaver” clan?

Last Question: What was the name of the tanker that spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil off the coast of Alaska?

Answer: Exxon Valdez

I did not realize, until this morning, that it was one year ago today that the BP oil spill disaster began, with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
By comparison, the Exxon Valdez seems more like getting a little oil in your driveway. But, it was a disaster, nonetheless.

The Exxon Valdez was an oil tanker headed from Alaska to Long Beach, California. The ship’s captain, Joe Hazelwood left a couple of men at the helm even though they did not get their mandatory 6 hours off duty before their 12 hour watch. The ship was on autopilot when it struck the Bligh Reef at around 12:04 a.m. March 24, 1989.

About 11 million gallons of oil were spilled into the Prince William Sound. Then the cleanup began. Just as BP was criticized for their slow response last year, Exxon was also criticized for its slow response.
Wildlife was severely affected by the spill. Who could forget the images of the birds all covered in oil? Seals, sea otters, and whales were also affected.

Litigation was held, and Exxon was sued for $287 million for actual damages and $5 billion for punitive damages. Joe Hazelwood was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service.

Daily Trivia (Formerly Trivia Tuesday), Movies

Daily Trivia – 4/19/11

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Question: What was the name of the tanker that spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil off the coast of Alaska?

Last Question: In iThree Amigos!, who played the title characters?

Answer: Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short

The Three Amigos were Lucky Day (Steve Martin), Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase), and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short). They were silent film actors who were fired when they demanded a salary increase. They received a letter of distress from Santo Poco, a Mexican village that was being bullied by the notorius bandit El Guapo (Alfonso Arau). The message was sent by Carmen, the daughter of the village leader, who believed the Three Amigos were real heroes. And the Three Amigos misinterpreted the message, believing that it was an invitation to make a film with El Guapo.
Hilarity ensues.
The Amigos find out the hard way that this was real, and run off in disgrace. But, with nothing waiting for them back home, Ned persuades Lucky and Dusty to become real-life heroes and go after El Guapo.
They go back to Santo Poco, and help teach the people to stand up for themselves. The Three Amigos and the villagers defeat El Guapo and his men. The villagers offer to give the Amigos all the money they have, but the Amigos refuse it, saying (as in their movies) that seeing justice done is enough of a reward for them. They then ride off into the sunset, ready to continue being real heroes.

Here are some quotes from the movie:

Lucky: I’ll come back some day.
Carmen: Why?

Carmen: I like the one who is not so smart.
Other girl: Which one is that?

El Guapo: What? Are gringos falling from the sky?
[Ned falls to the ground]
Jefe: Yes, El Guapo.

Lucky: Not so fast, El Guapo! Or I’ll fill you so full of lead that you’ll be using your dick for a pencil!
El Guapo: What do you mean?
Lucky: I don’t know.
Jefe: I think he means that if you –
El Guapo: SHUT UP!

Jefe: We have many beautiful piñatas for your birthday celebration, each one filled with little surprises!
El Guapo: How many piñatas?
Jefe: Many piñatas, many!
El Guapo: Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of piñatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A plethora.
Jefe: Oh yes, El Guapo. You have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you just told me that I had a plethora, and I would just like to know if you know what it means to have a plethora. I would not like to think that someone would tell someone else he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: El Guapo, I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education, but could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

Dusty Bottoms: Time for plan B. Plan A was to break into El Guapo’s fortress.
Carmen: And that you have done, now what?
Dusty Bottoms: Well we really dont have a plan B. We didn’t expect for the first plan to work. Sometimes you can overplan these things.

Rosita: [El Guapo has kidnapped Carmen and taken her to his fortress] Carmen, tonight you are to be El Guapo’s woman. I am going to give you some hints about lovemaking with El Guapo.
Carmen: I would rather die first!
Rosita: Tell me, Carmen, do you know what foreplay is?
Carmen: [Carmen shakes her head, trembling slightly with fear] No…
Rosita: Good! Neither does El Guapo.

[Dusty Bottoms and Lucky Day thinks Ned Nederlander is saying “mail” plane]
Dusty Bottoms: What is it doing here?
Ned Nederlander: I think it’s a male plane.
Dusty Bottoms: How can you tell?
Ned Nederlander: Didn’t you notice its little balls?

Lucky Day: In a way, all of us has an El Guapo to face. For some, shyness might be their El Guapo. For others, a lack of education might be their El Guapo. For us, El Guapo is a big, dangerous man who wants to kill us. But as sure as my name is Lucky Day, the people of Santa Poco can conquer their own personal El Guapo, who also happens to be *the actual* El Guapo!

Lucky Day: Wherever there is injustice, you will find us.
Ned Nederlander: Wherever there is suffering, we’ll be there.
Dusty Bottoms: Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find…
Lucky Day, Ned Nederlander, Dusty Bottoms: The Three Amigos!

And here a couple of classic scenes:

Artists, Music, News

Debbie Gibson and Tiffany Going on Tour This Summer

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After “All This Time”, this announcement came “Out of the Blue”. Sorry. According to The New York Post, Tiffany announced that they are putting together tour dates, and plan to cover songs that inspired them as well as perform their own material.
We want to journey through the ’80s and all the artists who influenced us,” Tiffany said, adding that she and Gibson might do covers of hits by Stevie Nicks, Reba McIntyre and Guns N’ Roses, as well as Broadway tunes. They’d also perform their own material. Tiffany is on tour supporting her new release, “Rose Tattoo.”

Maybe they will perform this:

Baseball, Daily Trivia (Formerly Trivia Tuesday), Sports

Daily Trivia – 4/18/11/The Longest Game

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Question: In iThree Amigos!, who played the title characters?

Last Question: Who drove in the winning run the winning run in baseball’s “Longest Game” between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings? Also, who scored the winning run?

Bonus: Can you name 2 Hall of Famers that played in that game?

Answer: Dave Koza drove in the winning run, which was scored by Marty Barrett. The Hall of Famers that played in that game were Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr.

30 years ago today, April 18, 1981, The Rochester Red Wings (the Baltimore Orioles Triple-A team) came to McCoy Stadium to face the Pawtucket Red Sox (the Boston Red Sox Triple-A team).

[Let me take a moment to say that I know you’re not from Rhode Island if you pronounce Pawtucket as PAW-tucket. It’s pronounced Patucket. However, you can pronounce the ‘W’ when you call the team the Pawsox. Now that you’ve been initiated, let’s continue]

It was not uncommon back then for me to ask my dad to go to McCoy stadium to see a game, or for him to say “Let’s go to McCoy”. 30 years ago, I was throwing a tennis ball against the garage to practice my pitching and fielding. It got me in the mood for a game. So I asked Dad if we could go. Any other day, we would have gone. But today, I could see that he was struggling, thinking it over. And he said that we can’t tonight. Tomorrow is Easter, so we have to get ready for that. I was a little disappointed, but I knew that we would be back again in no time anyway. On one hand, we missed out on seeing baseball history being made in person. On the other hand, my dad may have gotten in trouble for having his 10 year old son out until 4:00 in the morning in these pre-cell phone days!!! And if anybody knows me and my dad, you know we would have been there until the very end!

I’m not upset for missing that game. If you have ever been to McCoy Stadium, you can’t help but feel like you were at that game. They have the 33 inning memorabilia all over the place. Every season since that game, you could get your 33 inning souvenir cup with your soda. It has the line score wrapped around the cup. And towards the end of each game, there would be some kids running around the stadium grabbing the empty cups that people left behind. I don’t know how much the 33 inning game would be hyped up in Pawtucket if Rochester won instead of the Red Sox. But the Red Sox won, and we have bragging rights for winning the longest professional baseball game in history.

The Game

I don’t mean to sound like Yogi Berra, but this was a long game before it even started. The game started 30 minutes late due to problems with the stadium lights. So, the game started at 8:25 p.m.

This almost ended up being a quick game with Rochester leading 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th inning.
But, Designated Hitter Russ Laribee hit a sacrifice fly to score one of my all-time favorite Pawsox players – Chico Walker.

There was not another run in the game until Rochester scored in the top of the 21st inning. But, at the bottom of the inning, Wade Boggs drove in the tying run. Later he said, “I didn’t know if the guys on the team wanted to hug me or slug me.”

Although most leagues have a curfew rule that would have suspended the game—the International League’s triggers at 12:50 a.m.—the rule book that the home plate umpire Dennis Cregg had that night did not contain one.

So the game continued.

By 4 a.m. the players were “delirious” from exhaustion; Rochester’s Dave Huppert had caught the first 31 innings before being replaced, and Jim Umbarger pitched 10 scoreless innings from the 23rd inning, striking out nine and giving up four hits. The president of the league, Harold Cooper, was finally reached on the phone sometime after 3 a.m.; the horrified Cooper ordered that play stop at the end of the current inning. Finally at 4:07, at the end of the 32nd inning and more than eight hours after it began, the game was stopped.

The game resumed when the Red Wings were back in town on June 23, 1981. At this time, the major leagues were on strike. This magnified the attention that this game was already getting.

The game ended after just 18 minutes when Dave Koza drove in Marty Barrett.

Here are the records that were set in the game (from the International League website):

Innings played – 33

Time – 8 hours 25 minutes

Putouts, One Team – 99

Putouts, Both Teams – 195

At Bats, One Team – Pawtucket 114

At Bats, Both Teams – 219

Strikeouts, One Team – Rochester Batters 34

Strikeouts, Both Teams – 60

Assists, Both Teams – 88

Most Times At Bat – Lee Graham, Dave Koza, Chico Walker; Pawtucket – 14 each

Most Plate Appearances – Tom Eaton, Dallas Williams, Cal Ripken; Rochester – 15 each.

Here are the references I used to refresh my memory:

The International League Web Site

The Providence Journal (aka Projo)

The Washington Post

Fox Sports

Artists, Daily Trivia (Formerly Trivia Tuesday), Music

Daily Trivia – 4/15/11

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Question: Who drove in the winning run the winning run in baseball’s “Longest Game” between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings? Also, who scored the winning run?

Bonus: Can you name 2 Hall of Famers that played in that game?

Last Question: What R&B singer, born Kenneth Gordy, reached the Top 10 with his first single “Somebody’s Watching Me”?

Answer: Rockwell

Rockwell is the son of the legendary Motown founder, Berry Gordy. Berry named his son Kennedy William Gordy after John F. Kennedy and William “Smokey” Robinson.

The creepy “Somebody’s Watching Me” featured Michael Jackson on the chorus and Jermaine Jackson on additional backing vocals.
The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, and reached the top of the Billboard R&B singles chart, as well as reaching number six on the UK Singles Chart.

And of course, the song made a comeback with this Geico commercial:

Daily Trivia (Formerly Trivia Tuesday), Growing Pains, Television

Daily Trivia – 4/14/11

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Question: What R&B singer, born Kenneth Gordy, reached the Top 10 with his first single “Somebody’s Watching Me”?

 

Last Question: On Growing Pains, what was “Jason Seaver’s” profession?
 

Answer: Psychiatrist

Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) worked at home as a psychiatrist because his wife, Maggie, went back to work as a reporter.

Alan Thicke was married to Days of our Lives actress Gloria Loring, from 1970 to 1983. They had 2 sons together – Brennan and platinum album-selling musician Robin.
From 1992 to 1999, Thicke was married to Miss World 1990 pageant winner, Gina Tolleson. They had a son, Carter William. He has been married to Tanya Callau since 2005. Thicke is also the godfather of comedian Daniel Tosh, fromthe show Tosh 2.0.

Thicke also had a successful career as a TV theme song composer. He and Gloria Loring composed the themes from Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life.

Artists, Music

New Def Leppard Tune – “Undefeated”

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Check out Def Leppard’s new single, “Undefeated”, from their upcoming live album “MIRRORBALL”. The new album is set to be released June 7 in the U.S. and Canada, June 6 in the U.K. and June 3 in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Go to http://www.defleppard.com/ for more details, album artwork, and tour dates. In the meantime, you can listen to the new song right here:

Music, Music Video of the Week

Music Video of the week

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This week’s selection is in honor of the 60th birthday of E Street Band drummer, Max Weinberg – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s “Dancing in the Dark”:

Of course, this video is best remembered for the appearance of Courteney Cox as a fan who is invited on stage by Springsteen, and dances with him. The video was filmed in June 1984 at the St. Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, before and during the initial show of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

The video got constant airplay on MTV when it was released. This was the introduction to Bruce Springsteen for most of us who grew up in the ’80s.

Daily Trivia (Formerly Trivia Tuesday), Punky Brewster, Television

Daily Trivia – 4/13/11

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Question: On Growing Pains, what was “Jason Seaver’s” profession?

 

Last Question: On Punky Brewster, what was “Punky’s” dog named?
 

Answer: Brandon

Here are some interesting facts from Fun Trivia:

– When NBC programming head Brandon Tartikoff was a boy, he had a crush on a tomboyish older girl named Punky Brewster. And the puppy who followed Punky around on the show… his name was Brandon.

– There is a real life Punky Brewster. She was a childhood friend of the ex-NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff. He tracked her down before production began on the series to get permission to use her name. She appeared in the episode ‘The Search,’ as a teacher, credited as Peyton B. Rutledge. She receives royalties every time the show airs. He also named his first child Punky!

Here is the episode:

Part1:

Part 2:

Part 3

Daily Trivia (Formerly Trivia Tuesday)

Daily Trivia – 4/12/11

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Question: On Punky Brewster, what was “Punky’s” dog named?

 

Last Question: In 1987, televangelist Jim Bakker admitted to having an affair with what former church secretary?
 

Answer: Jessica Hahn


Jim Bakker was the host of the evangelical Christian show The PTL Club alongside his wife Tammy Faye Bakker.

From 1984 to 1987, Bakker and his PTL associates sold $1,000 “lifetime memberships”, which entitled buyers to a three-night stay annually at a luxury hotel at Heritage USA. According to the prosecution at Bakker’s later fraud trial, tens of thousands of memberships had been sold, but only one 500-room hotel was ever completed. A lot of the money went to the operating expenses of Heritage USA, a park owned by Bakker. And Bakker kept $3.4 million in bonuses for himself.

Then attention turned to Jessica Hahn. According to Hahn, on the afternoon of December 6, 1980, when she was a 21-year-old church secretary, she was drugged and raped by Bakker and another preacher, John Wesley Fletcher, for “about 15 minutes.” Bakker still denies the allegation. Hahn was paid $279,000 for her silence.

On March 19, 1987, following the revelation of the payoff, Bakker resigned from PTL.

Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte, the jury found him guilty on all 24 counts, and Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine.

Jim and Tammy Bakker were divorced on March 13, 1992. On November 16, 1992, a sentence reduction hearing was held and Bakker’s sentence was reduced to eight years. In August 1993, Bakker was transferred to a minimum security federal prison, and was subsequently granted parole in July 1994, after serving almost five years of his sentence.

In January 2003, Bakker began broadcasting the daily Jim Bakker Show at Studio City Cafe in Branson, Missouri, with his second wife, Lori.

On October 3, 1993, Tammy married Roe Messner. In 1996, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. After an 11 year battle, she died on July 20, 2007.

After the scandal, Jessica Hahn posed for Playboy magazine pictorials and videos and appeared in several television shows, including Married… with Children.

She had a relationship with comedian Sam Kinison and appeared in his music video for “Wild Thing” in 1988.

From 1991, she had a relationship with the co-creator of Married…with Children, Ron Leavitt, which continued until Leavitt’s death in 2008.

Here are the Bakker’s (played by Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman) on “The Church Lady” skit from Saturday Night Live: