Cleaning out the inbox: Non-Sports Version

The inbox continues to be refined and trimmed as we move to the non-sports version.

I mentioned in a recent inbox cleaning that I was watching the Mary Tyler Moore show again after Cherie and Rachel bought it for me as part of my birthday presents on DVD.
Entertainment Weekly writes of the story behind the famous hat toss which ended the montage at the start of the show.
The montages would change from season to season, but the hat toss would always end each one throughout the end of the show.

Undark writes of the danger of feral hogs threatening biodiversity across the country.
Feral hogs will eat almost anything which takes away food from other animals, but they also will eat other animals and their foraging style of being a living roto-tiller destroys plants that the hogs aren't interested in, but other animals need to live.
The article also mentions the ecological disaster in the Channel Islands in California where 150 years ago, pigs were used as farm animals with some escaping.
Pigs don't take very long to become feral and there would eventually number over 5,000 hogs with the hogs indirectly endangering the island fox, a small cat-sized creature only found on these islands.
While the hogs didn't eat the foxes, the hogs would become easy prey for the golden eagle, which eats land animals, unlike the golden eagle's natural predator the bald eagle, which was almost wiped out by the chemical DDT.
As a result, bald eagles weren't eating the golden eagle, which became established on the island by being able to feed on hogs and the island fox.
When the hogs were all eliminated from the island, wildlife managers were able to return bald eagles to the island (since DDT is now banned) and they began to naturally control the golden eagle, which led to some captive-bred foxes to be returned to the island and begin the process of re-populating there.
I find it so interesting how one minor addition or subtraction to an environment can change it so completely.

Ryan sent me this link to a YouTube-hosted short documentary on the video game Burger Time.
Burger Time dates all the way back to the early 80s  and I'm willing to wager if you are in the 45-60-year-old range that you have at least heard of it, if not played it.
I owned the game on the first video game system that I owned in the 80s, Intellivision and I had bought it for one of the systems when Ryan was little (I think Nintendo, but could have been Sega Genesis).
Lots of good times playing that game with Ryan and even dating back to living at home.

CNN writes of a recent discovery of a baby sea turtle that died after being washed onto shore in Florida.
Beings die all the time, what's so special about this one?
Well, this one died with 104 pieces of plastic in its stomach that caused its death.
Imagine a turtle that small and that young to have that amount of plastic in its stomach that quickly?
This world has so many environmental problems and so few answers or so few interested in what it takes to solve those problems that I'm truly saddened in the inability to deal with doing Something.
Take a look at that crap and tell me that feels right to you.
We may disagree on what to do and how much it costs etc, but I can't imagine anyone saying that they are ok with that in general.

Hannah Buehler of Buffalo's WBKW brings us the word of a new product called the Barnacle is replacing the old-school "Boot" as a device to place on cars that are illegally parked in western New York.
The Barnacle looks like a large foldout case that is attached to a vehicle by two large suction cups that are held to the window by two industrial strength suction cups that applies with a thousand pounds of pressure and takes away the driver's vision away that the vehicle cannot be legally driven.
You then call or reach the company online to receive directions on how to remove it and where to return the Barnacle to a dropbox.
It seems like a good way to eliminate tow trucks and help the drivers that parked illegally get on the way faster.

We wrap with a sports story that isn't all sports as the Athletic writes about the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner of Nile Kinnick of Iowa, who was killed in World War II and was regarded almost universally from people that knew Kinnick to be headed for a future in politics as a governor, senator, and even president.
The Nile Kinnick story is more than just a sports story, it's one that shows that a great life doesn't have to be a long one.

Back tomorrow with more football, if I have time and what could be a forgotten superstars segment.

Turning the world on...

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Mary Tyler Moore at the age of 80 and surprised as well.
Normally,you hear about a celebrity not doing well and I hadn't heard any of that type of news,so it hit me as a shock.

I was a fan of Mary Tyler Moore,mainly because of the 1970's show that carried her name.
I liked the Dick Van Dyke Show where she was married to the namesake from the syndicated episodes,but it was her show that I remembered most from childhood.
CBS owned Saturday night television in the days when Saturday night was more important in the ratings,so with no school the next day,I could watch all the shows that comprised that powerhouse block which included All in the Family,Bob Newhart and the Carol Burnett show from beginning to end without the dreaded "time for bed" call for school the following day.

The show was trendsetting for the obvious reasons (Check my podcast with Jennifer Keishin Armstrong out,she wrote a terrific book on the MTM show),but I'll stay off the show,so I can talk about my memories on the career of Mary Tyler Moore.
For my money,Mary Tyler Moore in the first season of that show ranks with the most beautiful women not only of her age or era,but anytime and she was witty with the ability to play the straight person for the funny lines from the other performers as well.
The show was funny for many reasons,just not MTM,but she clearly was the glue that held the various pieces together.
Many people always go to the Chuckles the Clown episode as their go to memory,but I have two memories that make me smile.
The first is the neat set of the first apartment on the show.
It was such a nice little place that you could very easily see yourself living in and even though the inside was made for TV (the exterior shot was of a real home in Minneapolis),as a child,I could just imagine what it was like on your own.
The other was the classic theme song by Sonny Curtis,who had hits with the theme twice,with the the opening and then later with a slowed down country version.
I'm not sure if you are over 45,you couldn't sing at least some of that song....


Mary Tyler Moore also has some other memories for me.
Her Oscar winning role in Ordinary People was an outstanding performance and she was a very deserving winner in her role as a very cold mother in a family split apart by the death of their son.
That was an excellent film and one that I recommend if you haven't seen it.
Another memory is the awful "Mary" variety show from the late 70's.
Michael Keaton's skills would seem to be somewhat of a fit for that type of show,but it didn't turn out that way and this was my introduction to Keaton (other than his guest appearances on Mister Rogers Neighborhood,that is) and as bad as Keaton was in this show-Imagine this being your first time seeing David Letterman and it's in that format!
It wasn't my first time seeing Letterman (I had seen him plenty of him on the Tonight Show),but words cannot convey seeing his rampant squirming with being uncomfortable on about anything that he did on this show-So..I'll show you below,but I cannot imagine anyone thinking David Letterman would be a great selection for a variety show cast position!


However,of all these (except for the MTM show),my best memory always was a guaranteed laugh.
You see after the Dick Van Dyke show and before the MTM show,Mary Tyler Moore had struggled with some lackluster films and was looking for a hit to revive her career a bit.
Her selection was an Elvis Presley film of course,because what could be better in bringing your career back to the forefront than an Elvis Presley vehicle!
Well,this one got even better than the usual Elvis romp because they tried to play it straight in "Change of Habit" in which Elvis plays a doctor and Moore played an undercover nun (seriously)
attempting to see what the secular world was like.
Change of Habit is one of those films that is so bad,that I find hilarious in just how bad this film is...

Two memories of this film;One is this-Not long after we got married and Cherie and I like most new couples with very little money,saw me walking through the now defunct Ames department stores (Ames and its local predecessor Zayre's never did much for me) and there was Change of Habit on VHS for $4.99.
4.99 doesn't seem like much,but at that time,an excellent argument could be made for about 10,000 things that could have been a larger need than a VHS copy of Change of Habit,but we left Ames with this wonderful films and nearly 30 years later,I still hear about that day!
The other was this-back in the "olden days" of pre-cable television,if you stayed up late,there wasn't much on television other than old movies and I had scoped out the TV guide to see what was showing on a late Saturday night at 1 or 2 AM.
I knew about this film and being a good big brother (Snicker) I hyped it to Shane constantly about what a great movie this was,it had Elvis and Mary Tyler Moore in it,you have to stay up to watch etc.
So,I figure you see where this was headed and upon watching this,during every commercial break,Shane would climb down from his upper bunk and pummel me with a pillow as he told me what a jerk I was (I'm sure the words were worse than jerk) for talking him into this....

Those are a few of my memories of Mary Tyler Moore and her career.
I'm sure this is a cliche' used by many in writing of her passing-but she did turn the world on with her smile....

Podcast:Special Guest Jennifer Armstrong

We talk about the TV classic-The Mary Tyler Moore show with Jennifer Armstrong-author of Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted!