A Crummy Commercial

I saw the renderings: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/04/24/the-chicago-bears-release-images-of-a-proposed-new-lakefront-stadium/ I wonder if this thing will ever be built ?  But it is cool looking.  The thing that struck me was the giganto picture window to the north.  Aren't the Bears losing lots of seats in that endzone ?  And shouldn't the attention of the fans be on the field rather than looking out a picture window ?  Maybe they are hoping this will mean more night games so all the lights in the skyscrapers will dazzle the TV audience ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm                  

The internet forces Packer fans to consider the unwise choices of the past: Four of the first five picks in the 1989 draft became Hall of Famers.  The second choice went to the Packers who chose Tony Mandarich - he is NOT in Canton.  Maybe the myth of Paul Bunyan affected the Packers ?  Tony Mandarich was certainly larger than life, the man barely fit into his Corvette as I recall.  But those muscles were developed at least in part due to performance enhancing drugs.  My own non-scientific opinion is that muscles are easier to develop than bones and connective tissue - and of course an NFL athlete needs bones, muscles and a way to connect them to have superior performance.     To be fair, Tony Mandarich was considered a no-brainer choice by most of the league.  He just didn't mesh with the team and also had injuries.  Barry Sanders played well (with the Lions) against the Pack.  Derrick Henry and Deion Sanders didn't  play against us as much (thank goodness).  It would certainl

Tim Hunkin is back apparently with a new series of videos on his arcade machines.  The first one is a lot of fun: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX3RdD2qwdg Of course Tim has been blogged on previously in 2022 and 2023, new videos for each spring, nice ! https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/04/tim-hunkin-new-youtube-videos-for-2022.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/04/third-seaon-of-secret-life-of-components.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/04/potato-chip-bag-speaker.html   https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-quick-home-made-speaker.html I always meant to buy some better magnets to retry the potato chip bag speaker :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Harbor Freight, in the days of the 20th century, actually did sell stuff made in the USA !  Like these diagonal cutters from Channellock: I've used these for at least 30 years, still work fine (I never used them for cutting wire coat hangers :)  Channellock is known for arc-joint pliers but these are actually decent.  I did get careless with the soldering iron that one time though.  They aren't used on a daily basis but certainly on a weekly basis - a lot of component leads have been cut flush with these, also wires stripped. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm    

I was never afraid of the dark as a kid.   In fact I always resented night lights even though necessary.  I remember when we moved to the Fox Point house that one bedroom had a light switch with a neon bulb nightlight built into it.  So this became my room - I hated that neon bulb.  I'd get up, turn on the light at the switch and then turn it off at the lamp.  This would always irritate my parents, but it did turn off the neon bulb. Well that house and neon night light are in times long past.  But now as an official senior citizen I am always getting up in the middle of the night at least once.  Instead of an always on nightlight I bought a LED motion sensor light powered by 4 AA cells from Harbor Freight.  It works quite well, preserves the darkness until I get up and then goes on to lead me to the light switch. As can be seen in the varying color of the plastic it's getting old now, must be well over 20 years.  I had another one but it fell victim to the dreaded alkaline leak

I was watching the opening credits for Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery   source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0tGPxvBcdk But then I thought, wait a minute, wasn't a lot of the chase cribbed from A Hard Day's Night ? source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbg8T9r1DiQ And why is George running with one hand in his pocket ?  George, Ringo and later a couple of the pursuers all fall down  -  I blame those slippery leather soled shoes of the 1960s ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm                

At about 50 seconds into this Vic and Sade episode: https://archive.org/details/vicandsadeotr/Vic_and_Sade_40_0701_x_Ruthie_Has_Secrets.mp3 the famous sports announcer, Mel Allen, starts having trouble breathing or ?  Then another announcer (not sure who - with even more of an accent than Mel) steps in to finish the Crisco commercial.  Then about 2:20 into the episode (after the silent interval (non-recorded organ music) Mel has recovered and introduces the episode.  He is also on at the end. Mel Allen  I remember Mel's voice from the TV show, This Week in Baseball, which I used to watch on Saturday afternoons for some reason :)  I didn't know he had been a network announcer on Vic and Sade along with other famous announcers like Ralph Edwards (the Truth or Consequences / This is Your Life guy) or Ed Herlihy (nephew of Fred Allen, voice of Kraft). BTW I like this collection of Vic and Sade episodes because it does include many of the commercials. It is amazing that there was an