dimland radio 11-24-18 show notes

It Blowed Up Real Good!

Friday morning, as I was brushing my teeth, the house was shook (sort of) by what sounded like something hitting it. Something big. I investigated and found nothing unusual.

Later that day, my wife called me with the news about what it was we heard. Three and a half miles away a house had exploded.

The explosion was caught on video. When you watch it, you will be just as amazed as I was to learn that no one was killed. In fact, there was an 80 year-old man in the house when the accident happened. He's been hospitalized and is in critical condition.

Oh, And There's Still Some Sports To Talk About

Yes, baseball may be over and we're still months away from its return, but there's the lesser game taking its place (for now). It's football and it's an entertaining diversion, I suppose.

 

And last Monday night was quite diverting. I didn't watch the game as it was played, but I sure wish I had. It was crazy!

 

It may have been a preview of this season's Superbowl. It was the LA Rams hosting the Kansas City Chiefs and it was a doozy! The final score was 54-51 with the Rams prevailing.

 

Watch this highlights reel and I'm sure you'll agree it was a crazy game.

 

Wording Is Important

A friend told me he was confused by the written article on a local TV station's website. They included a video report, but my friend didn't watch the video, he just read the article.

The story was about a group of young African-American men being told by the manager of a St. Paul Chipotle restaurant that they needed to pay before their food would be prepared. The incident was caught on video, which then went viral and the manager was fired.

She was rehired when it was learned that one of those customers had done a fair amount of bragging online about dining and dashing. The manager had recognized the young men as having grabbed food and run without paying for it before, so she told to pay first.

The confusion my friend had was due to the written article stating "the manager tells the African-American men they need to pay for their food before getting it." My friend asked, "Doesn't everybody have to pay before they pick up their food at pretty much every fast food restaurant?" 

Yes. Actually at every fast food restaurant.

In the video report, the reporter stated that the men needed "to pay for their food before it was made."

Wording is important.

A Dimland Radio Pedantic Moment: Ford Truck Commercial

The longer version of this Ford Truck commercial featuring the Jerry Reed hit East Bound And Down has a curious disclaimer. The ad shows several trucks driving in the same direction along a desert highway. There's are no stunts being performed, no Rockfords, no driving on two wheels, there aren't even any lane changes.

 

 

And, yet, in the lower right corner (see photo above) at the beginning of the ad is the disclaimer: "Professional drivers on a closed course. Do not attempt."

 

Huh? Do not attempt to drive the trucks? Is that what Ford is saying?

Two Movie Recommendations: The Machinist (2004) & Good Time (2017)

I haven't done a movie recommendation in a while, so on this show I gave two.

 

We just watched these films this past week.

 

 

The first is The Machinist (2004). It stars Christian Bale as Trevor, who has a few problems. We are uncertain as the cause of his troubles, which manifest as insomnia, he hasn't slept in a year, and a disturbing amount of weight-loss taking place over the same amount of time.

 

There's a new employee at the machine shop, who seems a little sinister. Trevor is unsure what to think of the man. There is a tragic accident at the shop and Trevor wonders if the new employee was responsible.

 

There's a real Hitchcockian feel to this psychological thriller. Is there a conspiracy against Trevor or is he losing his mind?

Be warned. Bale really did lose an extreme amount of weight and his look is quite jarring.

 

 

The second recommendation is Good Time (2017). It stars Robert Pattinson, who also lost weight for the role, just not nearly as much as Bale. Pattinson plays a small time crook who, along with his mentally challenged brother (played by Benny Safdie, who co-directs the film with his brother Josh), rob a bank and get away with a sizable amount of money.

 

However, things go wrong from there and we follow Connie through the night as he makes one bad decision after another.

 

Both movies are worth a watch. They are on DVD through Netflix.

 

Three Cool Things

 

1) Last week I talked briefly about Marvel Comics' Stan Lee dying. I mentioned that there was a gathering of the G.O.O.C.H. Squad on Douglas Arthur's Assault of the 2-Headed Space Mules podcast to discuss The Man's legacy. The podcast has been posted and it's awfully cool.

 

 

2) Try as he might, my son Hayden just doesn't have much luck getting me to like the music he likes. I'm just a grump. But the other day he played Gerard Way's Baby, You're A Haunted House. (See video above.) I like it! It's catchy. Hayden was pleased. Maybe Dad can be cool.

 

3) And, of course, it was Thanksgiving, and that's always cool.

 

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Tape Your Wife To The Ceiling' by The Suburbs & 'Ace Of Spades' by Motorhead

Second ad break bumpers: 'This Wheel's On Fire' by Siouxsie & The Banshees & 'Wolves, Lower' by REM

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 7-18-15 show notes

They Can Hear! They Can Hear!

It's been a struggle going on for the last few years. My parents have been hard of hearing and their kids (myself included) have tried to get them to consider getting hearing aids. Mom has pretty much always been willing, but Dad wouldn't hear of it (pun!). So, Mom would suffer, because it didn't make sense for her to get them when she'd have to turn them off whenever Dad watched TV with the volume at 100. And Dad watches a lot of TV.

But, when I stopped by earlier in the week, I was in for a big surprise. They had both gotten hearing aids. I don't know what got Dad to change his mind, but Mom had finally had enough and told Dad she was getting hearing aids and he was taking her in to get them.

Now we'll have to be careful about our side comments in their presence.

Pedantic Moment: Selective Service PSA & Nissan Altima Ad

Despite repeated attempts, I was not able to find the audio of one particular radio Public Service Annoucement (PSA) for the Selective Service. If I had, it would have made this Pedantic Moment more impactful and satisfying. You'll just have to take my word for it.

This PSA spends virtually the entire time trying to appeal to young men's sense of patriotism, love of home and family, to get them to sign up, but at the very end it states it's the law, so the young fellows really have no choice.

The Nissan Altima TV ad has a father and son in the Altima racing a school bus to school. The Altima wins! No shit as the bus has to make frequent stops along a daily route. The Altima had better beat the bus.

And it barely beats the bus at that!

Amy Tan Believes In Ghosts

Chipotle restaurants try to be different in their image. Their employees wear t-shirts with interesting sayings printed on them and their bags and cups have interesting essays written by famous people. I noticed one the other day written by Amy Tan about ghosts. She says she's one of the 42% of Americans who believe in ghosts. She does not site her source for the statistic, but it's probably about right.

She does admit that even if 100% of Americans believed in the ethereal beings that still wouldn't mean they exist. She has that bit right. She says her husband didn't believe until he heard one whistle at him in the shower. Now he sort of believes.

Tan makes a few claims in the essay: Her mother comes to her as a ghost and offers gifts of coincidences. And one of her ghosts, apparently Amy is visited by more than one, named his murderer and that person was sentenced to life in prison. That's quite a claim for which she offers no evidence.

I'm sure she's committing some fallacies in logic, but I'm not very good at spotting them, so I sent this on to the folks at the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast. I'll let you know if they respond. 

WIVB News & MUFON

My Facebook friend Cassidy is part of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) and she and the group were featured in a three part series on a local news show in New York. Most of the time, local news shows are more interested in the mystery of such things than in plausible explanations, but MUFON was pretty good about keeping the stories grounded in reality.

MUFON may not be the most scientifically sound organization out there, but they do make a concerted effort to find prosaic explanations for UFO sightings. And they are not shy in calling out hoaxes.

The first part of the series dealt with two separate sighting events by locals. I give credit to MUFON as they were able to give plausible earthly explanations for the sightings. One explanation given after the report was sky lanterns. Cassidy gave me the explanation for the other sighting as being most likely a laser pointer.

The second part dealt with hoaxes. MUFON gets lots of them. The report tells us MUFON has identified over 3000 claimed sightings with evidence as hoaxes, with 2600 of them in the States. I speculated the the remaining 400 must have been from Billy Meier the notorious Swiss UFO sighter or hoaxer depending on how you look at it.

The third part dealt with the big question: Are we alone in the universe? To which the answer is a resounding - "We don't know!" And MUFON, to their credit, said as much in the report.

Overall, I thought the reports were pretty good and grounded. I would have liked more input from scientists, however. 

Movie Recommendations: None

 

I ran out of time this week, so you can watch whatever you like. 

 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'The Beat(en) Generation' by The The & 'Beating My Head' by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

Second ad break bumpers: 'Beating Of Hearts' By XTC & 'Beatle Boots' by Love Tractor

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here