We here at PeterDavid.Net try to bring you as spam free a site as we can for your reading enjoyment.
Unfortuantly some of the recent comments have been caught in the filter while we were being “bombed” with exessive garbage. I have gone through the past two weeks and pulled out the legtimate comments from the spam pile. Sorry for the inconvience.
Kath
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Ðámņ those Ned Lamont hackers! First Joe, now PAD!
Uhm, since none of us are paying for or in any other way sacrificing anything for the privilege of posting here, I daresay there’s been no inconvenience.
Kath and Glenn, thanks for the efforts you put into maintaining this worthwhile blog. And Peter, thanks for providing it and for choosing an “open door” policy. That’s very generous of you.
Oh, and thanks for, like, writing the main entries, Peter. I guess I shouldn’t forget about that.
Ditto to everything the other, nicer Bill said.
Folks, I have had the pleasure of meeting Bill Mulligan in person and the privilege of calling him “friend.” He is a good man with a big heart and I’m glad to know him.
So, I have to object to being called the “other, nicer Bill.” Bill Mulligan is quite nice in his own right.
So, Bill Mulligan, quit talking šhìŧ about Bill Mulligan, okay? Otherwise I’ll have to kick both your áššëš.
It’s all good. By the by, if anyone gives a @#$%, wife heard the baby’s heart for the first time yesterday. My turn next time I’m home.
Manny-
That is great news. It is such a special thing to hear. Congrads on the impending arrival.
Kath
Seconded. Congrats to Manny! When is the baby due?
TWL
Yes, I give a “@#$%”
Congrats, Manny.
Manny, hearing the heartbeat is fabulous! But wait, just WAIT, until you see the first sonogram. I was standing next to the bed/table thing that Stacie was laying on, and seriously, when I saw that screen I needed to lean on it myself or there woulda been a very large me-shaped obstacle supine on the floor. Are you going to find out boy or girl? We didn’t, but then, I knew he was going to be a boy after the fifth pregnancy test. She took two more after that. She wanted to be REALLY sure.
Manny, one other piece of advice. If your wife ends up going through umpteen hours of back labor (which I’m hoping she doesn’t) make sure you tell the doctor not to tell YOU you do good work after the Short One finally arrives. If Stacie hadn’t been so drugged, she woulda killed the guy.
Peter, Glenn, Kath–I never realized how much work has to go into this site. Thanks for, well, doing it all. So you can put up with us. Sounds kinda like an electronic needle in a haystack routine. Heck, that in itself sounds like it could be a full time gig.
Manny, that’s great. Congratulations. Won’t be long now!
Congrats, Manny! At 4 1/2 months and counting, I can attest to the transformative power of fatherhood.
-Rex Hondo-
Manny, one more piece of advice: you’re not allowed to sell your kids into slavery to earn extra cash. It’s illegal.
Not that I’ve ever tried that. I don’t have any kids that I know about.
(What? WHAT??? Don’t look at me that way! I’m just trying to help!)
Well, as long as we’re getting into familial advice..
Don’t solicit for your sister; that’s not nice
Unless you get a good percentage on her price
— T. Lehrer, philosopher-sage
Um, what they all said. 🙂
Do you want a larger P#NI$ or lower mortgage rate. FREE FREE FREE. Just let me deposit money from Nigeria into your bank account…
Keep the blog clean. Filter away guys:-}
“Do you want a larger P#NI$ or lower mortgage rate?”
Shìŧ, I have to choose???
In the immortal words of Jack Benny, “I’m thinking! I’m thinking!!!”
No contest. I can always take a second job to help pay the mortgage.
Hey, I just got an e-mail about some disposed tibetan king needs to funnel money out of his war torn country. They just need my bank account number. I can’t quite see a downside to this one.
Actually, the immortal words of Jack Benny were, “I’m thinking it over!”
(in response to a hold-up man’s question: “Your money or your life?”)
Rick
If there was a way to automatically screen out anyone with “www.google.com” listed as their website, that would probably cut out a lot of the spam all by itself.
Actually, Benny’s “immortal words” differed from the radio and TV versions of the gag. On TV, he said, “I’m thinking it over!” on the radio, he said “I’m thinking! I’m thinking!”
Thanks for the advice everyone.
Tim,the little bundle of joy/terror (depends on who you ask) is due end of Feb. 07.
(Little souvenir of our second anniversary.)
Bill,I plan to lease the kids out on a limited mileage, low buyout option when they turn 18. Better resale value.
As for finding out boy or girl, last week I said no, Erin (my wifey) said yes. This week I said yes, she said no. “There is great confusion under heaven, the situation is a mess” to paraphrase Mao.
I’ll keep you all posted. If, by the way, anyone knows how to keep the faint from hurting, help please.
Tim,the little bundle of joy/terror (depends on who you ask) is due end of Feb. 07.
(Little souvenir of our second anniversary.)
Depending on how you meant the latter statement, that may be more information than we all really needed. 🙂
February babies are cool — and I am one, so I oughta know.
And the fainting gets easier with time. Just continually surround yourself with soft things.
TWL
“And the fainting gets easier with time. Just continually surround yourself with soft things.”
Thanks, Tim. I’m a February baby to.
“Depending on how you meant the latter statement, that may be more information than we all really needed. :-)”
I’ll leave how I meant that to your imagination. But it was not a cash transaction.
Over at Jim Starlin’s site, I noticed that the guest book section is closed off. Not sure if it’s a temporary shut down. I’m pretty sure it had to do with the constant spamming his site was getting. It got very annoying, so I wouldn’t blame Jim for closing it.
Den wrote: “Actually, Benny’s “immortal words” differed from the radio and TV versions of the gag. On TV, he said, “I’m thinking it over!” on the radio, he said “I’m thinking! I’m thinking!”
No, on radio he said, “I’m thinking it over.” I own that program, and also happen to be very familiar with both old time radio and Jack Benny. And that line is a classic. The episode in question was broadcast March 28, 1948, and is in wide circulation among dealers of old-time radio shows. Among those is the “Ultimate Jack Benny” collection from Radio Spirits, which can also be found in many bookstores, such as Borders or Barnes and Nobles.
For the record, the “I’m thinking it over” line came about as writers Milt Josefsberg and John Tackaberry were trying to come up with Jack’s response to the the hold-up man’s second “Your money or your life?” query (the first having elicited silence). According to Benny’s autobiography/biography, “Sunday Nights at Seven”, begun by Jack and finished by his daughter, Joan, after his death (and cited in other sources as well), Joesefsberg kept saying “your money or your life” over and over again, until Tackaberry burst out, “I’m thinking it over.” Both soon realized they’d found the perfect reply for Jack to give.
Again, the radio line was “I’m thinking it over.” There’s no mistake about that.
Rick
Wow. Comic-book fans are sure detail-oriented.
If you Google “Jack Benny” together with “I’m thinking! I’m thinking!” you’ll find a huge number of hits. So, if that is a misquote of that famous line, I’m not alone in my mistake.
Anyway, whether I misquoted the line or not, I think I got the point across.
When I was young, a radio station in my area used to run a program called “The Comedy Store,” where they’d run radio comedy bits. For me, it was a virtual crash-course in radio comedy. Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Stan Freeburg… plus what was then more modern stuff like Bill Cosby’s recorded stand-up routines.
Pure gold. I was so upset when they stopped airing that show. Radio is truly “theater of the mind.”
Someone in this blog (it was in another thread months ago — just take my word for it, ‘kay?) once opined that nothing beats actually seeing a story unfold before you on a movie screen. I disagree. I’ve seen Star Wars Episodes IV through VI on screen, and I also heard the NPR radio adaptation of Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back). I liked the radio adaptation better. I wasn’t limited by what was on the screen, but was instead drawn into a world where the images could be created in my own head.
Narrative radio is wonderful, wonderful stuff.
Bill,
I agree with you about audio dramas and the like.
You might want to check out the cds from Big Finish Productions. They do new audio dramas of various shows and properties such as DOCTOR WHO, THE TOMORROW PEOPLE and soon, DARK SHADOWS. The quality varies from decent to awesome.
Bill Myers:
As someone who’s been a fan of old-time radio since 1978, and as someone who has had two of his radio plays performed and broadcast, I agree that radio is an excellent medium to exercise the imagination. TV has its strengths, but radio, as you said, let you get drawn into a world where the images could be created in your own head. And the imagination can _always_ outdo ILM’s effects department.
As to the Jack Benny misquote, the fact that a Googe search results in so many hits offering the same erroneous quote could be seen as evidence of the unreliability of Internet-based information. Or that Jack originally said “I’m thinking. I’m thinking” about _something else_, and somehow that response became incorrectly attached to the “your money or your life quote.” I’ve made some inquiries to Jack Benny experts as to whether he said “I’m thinking. I’m thinking” in some other context. When I receive a response, I’ll post it here.
Rick
Rick, I think you misunderstood what I meant when I said “if that is a misquote of that famous line, I’m not alone in my mistake.” It wasn’t an attempt to assert that I must be right. Quite the opposite. I was merely pointing out that if I am wrong (and I acknowledge that I may well be, as I was relying on memory and not source material), it’s a common mistake.
Are your radio productions available on CD or some other format? I’d be interested in purchasing them if they’re available.
J. Alexander, thanks for the heads up about Big Finish Prods. I am going to check them out.
Bill,
I wasn’t suggesting that you were suggesting you were right about the misquote. I was simply pointing out that if so many hits turn up from a Google seach, it A) could be seen as evidence of the unreliability of Internet based information (since I’m sure many of the websites found on the search quote from many of the others), or B) could be that the erroneous quote actually belonged in another context. I suspect the answer is A, but in the event it’s B, I’ve made some inquiries.
Unfortunately, my radio shows are not available on CD. However, feel free to contact All ears theatre in Kalamazoo, MI (allearstheatre.com), which owns the rights to the broadcasts of the radio recreations they produce (while the various writers, myself included, own the rights to the scripts), and encourage them to consider making CDs available for sale.
With appropriate compensation to the writers, of course.
Or, if you know of someone willing to purchase the scripts for their own re-creations and/or broadcasts, let me know.
One plus associated with my radio scripts is that one of them was originally performed at the 2003 Cincinnati old time radio convention, with Bob Hastings voicing one of the parts. While OTR fans will probably remember him as the voice of Archie Andrews, he more recently voiced Commissioner Gordon on _Batman: the Animated Series_.
On a related note, a common catch phrase spoken by Jughead on _Archie Andews_ was “relax, Archie, relax.” At that same 2003 convention, Hastings was performing as the lead in a re-creation of a detective program (I forget which at the moment), and in response to a comment or concern his character expressed, another performer ad-libbed, “aw, relax, Archie. Relax.” The look Hastings gave him… well, you should’ve been there.
Rick