Today I learned …

[JoseUnidos]

...that the actor who played Dr. Sydney Freedman on M*A*S*H was Allan Arbus, ex-husband of photographer Diane Arbus.

20th Century Photography Minutae

[Dr. Medulla]

...that the actor who played Dr. Sydney Freedman on M*A*S*H was Allan Arbus, ex-husband of photographer Diane Arbus.

20th Century Photography Minutae

Huh. I knew his name, but never connected it to Diane Arbus.

[Dr. Medulla]

… about an obscure punctuation mark called an interrobang. What a perfect name for it, too.

Source: The Oatmeal.

[Dr. Medulla]

… half-watching Blazing Saddles on a Canadian independent station (Toronto's SUNTV) and am a bit curious that shit and ass (non-zoological usage) is cool, but nigger is verboten. Given how much of the flick is about racism, the censorship is especially galling.

edit: Chink is still cool to the censors.

[Wolter]

… half-watching Blazing Saddles on a Canadian independent station (Toronto's SUNTV) and am a bit curious that shit and ass (non-zoological usage) is cool, but nigger is verboten. Given how much of the flick is about racism, the censorship is especially galling.

edit: Chink is still cool to the censors.

And looking back at the Oatmeal made me discover this picture, which fills we with the greatest of glee.

[matedog]

… half-watching Blazing Saddles on a Canadian independent station (Toronto's SUNTV) and am a bit curious that shit and ass (non-zoological usage) is cool, but nigger is verboten. Given how much of the flick is about racism, the censorship is especially galling.

edit: Chink is still cool to the censors.

Tangentially related, but I love how you can say "damn" on tv, but if you say "god damn", they censor "god."

[Still216]

… half-watching Blazing Saddles on a Canadian independent station (Toronto's SUNTV) and am a bit curious that shit and ass (non-zoological usage) is cool, but nigger is verboten. Given how much of the flick is about racism, the censorship is especially galling.

edit: Chink is still cool to the censors.

Tangentially related, but I love how you can say "damn" on tv, but if you say "god damn", they censor "god."

For cable networks (in the USA), a lot of that is a call by the networks to self-edit with sponsors in mind. CNN and USA could show softcore porn or Saw III at 3pm if they wanted because you have to pay to get those channels on your TV, but those networks don't want to deal with McDonalds or Chevy or whoever pulling their ads. This is why Comedy Central plays unedited movies after 1am (they could play them any time they wanted) - it draws less publicity and threats of boycotts at that hour.

The CW affiliate in Cleveland is owned by an evangelist who manually edits every occurrence of the word "hell" out of movies and syndicated shows. Thankfully that channel never carried Simpsons reruns.

[Dr. Medulla]

… there was an episode of Family Guy from last season, "Partial Terms of Endearment," that didn't air because its subject matter—Lois gets an abortion—terrified the network. Downloaded for later viewing …

[Dr. Medulla]

(Been awhile since I learned anything. I'm either plum full of knowledge or slack-jawed and drooling.)

… Hawaii Five-O ran from 1968 to 1980. Twelve years. I'd always assumed it was like five years or so in the mid-70s. (Discovered this while reading Jason Buhrmeister's Black Dogs, a heist novel about a bunch of guys robbing the gate from a Zep show. One of the characters mentions Hawaii Five-O—in 1973—and I had to check to see whether it was an anachronism. Nope. Fun novel so far, tho nothing amazing.)

[tepista]

… Hawaii Five-O ran from 1968 to 1980. Twelve years. I'd always assumed it was like five years or so in the mid-70s. (Discovered this while reading Jason Buhrmeister's Black Dogs, a heist novel about a bunch of guys robbing the gate from a Zep show. One of the characters mentions Hawaii Five-O—in 1973—and I had to check to see whether it was an anachronism. Nope. Fun novel so far, tho nothing amazing.)

Cool, make sure you tell us when they mention What's Happening.

[weller259]

.... that the creator of this thread is a whiny, biased asshole who thinks his excrement doesn't reek.

That is all.

[Inder]

.... that the creator of this thread is a whiny, biased asshole who thinks his excrement doesn't reek.

That is all.

Hey — remember when you didn't come here for something like two years because everyone got mad at you for being a bit of a dick?

Next time you think it's a clever idea to have a pop at someone, don't.

[Dr. Medulla]

Breaking out from my apparent learning-free existence …

Listening to the audio version of Dan Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition and came upon this amusing tidbit. After the outbreak of the Great War (not sure whether before or after the US joined the party), loyal Americans renamed sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and Cincinnati changed Berlin Avenue to Woodrow [Avenue] Avenue. Oh, dumbass patriotism, don't ever change.

[Spiff]

Breaking out from my apparent learning-free existence …

Listening to the audio version of Dan Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition and came upon this amusing tidbit. After the outbreak of the Great War (not sure whether before or after the US joined the party), loyal Americans renamed sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and Cincinnati changed Berlin Avenue to Woodrow [Avenue] Avenue. Oh, dumbass patriotism, don't ever change.

And the German immigrants living in the town of New Berlin in Wisconsin decided to change the pronunciation of their town's name.

They moved the stress from the second syllable to the first: New Ber-LIN became New BER-Lin.

It fooled no one.

[Dr. Medulla]

Breaking out from my apparent learning-free existence …

Listening to the audio version of Dan Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition and came upon this amusing tidbit. After the outbreak of the Great War (not sure whether before or after the US joined the party), loyal Americans renamed sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and Cincinnati changed Berlin Avenue to Woodrow [Avenue] Avenue. Oh, dumbass patriotism, don't ever change.

And the German immigrants living in the town of New Berlin in Wisconsin decided to change the pronunciation of their town's name.

They moved the stress from the second syllable to the first: New Ber-LIN became New BER-Lin.

It fooled no one.

Along the same lines, Kitchener, Ontario was named Berlin until 1916. I'd like to think that doing so saved countless lives.